A New World: Awakening Read Online Free Page A

From the number of trucks below us, I am guessing Frank and Bannerman decided to gather the livestock tomorrow.   There is a comfort seeing the trail of vehicles, knowing we are still alive to see another day, and that our plans are approaching some sort of fruition.   We survived the initial surprise and onslaught to find a relative peace and security in the evenings.   We’re not there by a long shot but we are a day closer.   That is if there is such a thing as a point of arrival and if the night runners behave.
    The nightly meeting is a recap of the day’s events.   Bannerman relates progress on the buildings which are nearly completed and plans to redirect the trucks and crews southbound to pick up the livestock Craig and I found.
    “That shouldn’t set us back long on the walls around the housing and vehicle areas.   The walls should be finished within the next few days if we have decent weather,” Bannerman relates.   “After we finish with the stables, barns, and greenhouses, I would like to use the crews to attempt moving one of the water towers in the area to our location.”
    “Will that take away from any of our other endeavors?”   I ask.
    Bannerman pauses before replying.   “No, I think we should be able to keep on with the walls and gathering of supplies.   I won’t really know until we take a look at what relocating one will entail,” he answers.   “Once it’s in place though, we won’t have to rely on the pump near as much, except to fill the tower that is, and we’ll be able to provide a decent watering system for any livestock we bring in.”
    “Okay.   I think we’ll be ready to head south to look for some of the families and pick up the AC-130 within the next couple of days.   Once we clear the area out, I think that will give us more breathing room to focus on our move to the bases.   Oh, I’m thinking of taking Red, Blue, and Echo teams down if that won’t interfere with anything here,” I say addressing both Lynn and Bannerman .
    “No, we should be good,” Lynn answers.
    “Yeah, I don’t see a problem with manpower although that will slow building the wall some,” Bannerman replies.
    “We shouldn’t be gone for more than five days,” I say.   “The overall plan is to fly down to Canon AFB, spend the next day looking for Gonzalez’ family, head over to Lubbock and look for McCafferty’s the day after, refuel at Canon AFB and pick up the other aircraft, then beat cheeks home.”
    Lynn then updates everyone on the training programs currently underway.   “The current class in phase one should be finishing on time in a couple of weeks along with the second class going through phase two,” she says finishing her report.
    “That’ll be nice to have others trained.   Are there any that look like they’ll be good permanent additions to the teams?”   I ask.
    “There are a couple that show promise but I won’t really know until they finish.   So far, no one has asked to be on a team but we’ve really only started.   We’ll just have to wait and see,” Lynn answers.
    “How many did we pick up today?”   I ask directing my question toward Drescoll.
    “No one showed up,” Drescoll replies.
    This comes both as a surprise and not one.   It’s surprising because we’ve always had people show up at the previous meets.   It’s not a surprise because we were close to the bases and, with the activity we’ve shown around there, anyone close would have already responded.   At least one would think.
    “Well, we’ll just keep at it.   I guess we’re not going to find people everywhere we try,” I say.
    The meeting breaks up without much further to add and we retire to our various cubicles.   The living cubicles Bannerman has arranged cover almost the entire second floor.   There are over a hundred people occupying our little sanctuary and we’ll have to come up with additional space soon, especially if we find a greater number of survivors.