Communities United

2073: Somerset KY, USA.

It was no surprise to anyone when Tamsin mastered flying the gliders and quickly surpassed even Jeff`s considerable experience and skill in the air. She seemed fearless and after only a few weeks of flying solo she had attempted and mastered a loop which Jeff said usually took years for a pilot to have enough confidence and skill to pull it off but she had no such problems. She turned into a bit of a dare devil by often swooping really close to the ground when landing from some considerable height and only levelling out to land at the last minute. She seemed to have inherited her fearless attitude from her mother, Tammy, who only a few years previously had shocked several members of the family by jumping from a high power pylon holding onto a severed cable and dropping the final few feet to the ground to save climbing back down the eighty foot high pylon, a trick she had apparently learnt from a power engineer with Texas Power before the world had changed and she and her two daughters, Tamsin and Taylor had been rescued from the clutches of the alien race that now controlled the Earth.

This had all happened over fifty years previously but she and the girls, like many other people in their new larger family group had been asleep for fifty years, waking up to a changed and very different world. Tamsin and Des, one of the original family survivors had been having an affair for the better part of two years now, despite the fact that she was only just sixteen.

Des had been with a woman called Anita, the daughter of the husband and wife who were the undisputed heads of the now considerable group. The man, Roger had had a massive win on the national lottery back in England and treated his extended family to the trip of a lifetime around the world, using trains wherever possible and it was whilst they were on a train running from Washington DC across the continent that disaster had struck wrecking the train and killing the vast majority of the passengers and crew. Once the family and their dedicated train operatives had woken they had wandered for a short while before coming across the deserted and fairly run down farm that they all now called home. The place was unrecognisable from those days and was now a thriving farm and community for the forty plus people that now made up the community.

Des and Tamsin had kept their relationship a secret for well over a year with only one other person aware of what was going on and that was Pierre who was now married to a woman called Sheryl. Des hadn`t told Pierre directly but he had worked it out after a few months and had promised to keep their secret. One day Des and Pierre were out fetching supplies in two of their large vehicles but had got back to the farm earlier than expected. Des, Anita and their two children had a converted portakabin as their own dwelling as did most everybody else who lived there apart from Roger and Helen, another couple of around the same age, Alec and Joan, another elderly lady, Audrey from the original group and an old lady who had survived the apocalypse unscathed and they had joined the group within the first few weeks of them being there. Mary-Ellen was now in her late eighties and her husband Billy-Bob was buried in the small cemetery plot they had built down by the river.

When Des had gone into his chalet unexpected he discovered Anita in bed with one of the young males who had come to live there some time previously. There had been an almighty showdown which resulted in Anita and her beau Gordon moving out of the farm and setting up on their own, in a small township a few miles away in Ferguson. She had been virtually disowned by Roger and Helen and Des and Tamsin had maintained their secret for a further six months before going public and announcing to everyone that they were now together. Roger and Helen had disapproved strongly, due to Tamsin`s young age, but as time went by they had mellowed and had come to accept the new way of things. It transpired that Anita had known about Des and Tamsin for a few months and had in fact had brief relationships with several of the young lads. Des and Tamsin were very happy now which even Roger and Helen were pleased about.

For Anita`s part she wasn`t particularly bothered about the breakup with Des and she and Gordon were also happy now. They farmed a small patch of ground and were able to grow most of what they needed. Roger had been all for cutting Anita off altogether but Alec had managed to talk him round so even though Anita never came to the farm, she and Gordon still received help from the rest of the farm inhabitants in the form of supplies, including fresh meat which they didn`t have any means of obtaining. It was down to Roger`s grandson Alfie and his long-time girlfriend Taylor, Tamsin`s sister to take a van load of supplies and fresh goods over to Ferguson, once a week.

Helen missed her only daughter so went with Alfie and Taylor in the van every other week to see her, but Roger remained steadfast and wouldn`t budge, but he didn`t try and stop Helen from going. Helen, along with Alec and Joan all hoped that in time Roger might relent and see his daughter again and heal the rift in the family. Even Mary-Ellen pointed out that life was too short to hold a long term grudge and urged him to make up with Anita. Her brothers, Roy and John also urged their father to stop being pig headed as they called it and heal the rift before it was too late. John in particular said that the situation with Anita and Gordon was little different to his own situation when his wife Marilyn had been killed and that he was now with Calilou and very happy for the first time in a number of years. Pierre also put pressure on Roger saying that again Des and Tamsin were happy, despite her young age and they hadn`t been banished from the extended group. Everyone hoped that in time Roger would relent.

Tamsin hadn`t been content with flying the gliders and had worked her way through all the tutorials for the simulators they had at the old airport and said that if they came across any powered aircraft she declared that she would be confident and competent enough to fly it. Even Jeff wasn`t confident enough to attempt powered flight and wished Tamsin every success if they found a working aircraft. All those that had been at the airport when they had found it were all beyond repair so they had been broken up and scrapped, to create more space. The space people who had colonised the Earth fifty eight years previously had said that they had no objections to the survivors having powered aircraft as long as they didn`t attempt to over-fly their settlements. The extended group respected the space aliens and they in turn had earned the respect of the aliens. The aliens didn`t try and interfere with how the group ran their lives and had on a couple of occasions assisted in a military capacity when things down south had threatened to get out of hand by erecting a new force field which effectively trapped them in a special area down south on the gulf coast. They had shields round their own settlements but a year previously these had been drastically reduced in size which had made travelling around easier as they could take more direct routes to wherever they were going rather than having to plot routes that gave the settlements a wide berth. The space people had conversed with them several times since they had taken over the farm, usually speaking through a young member of the group, namely Sophie who had proven to be the most susceptible to their telepathy. On the last occasion it had been rather more difficult as Sophie was less receptive now that she was getting a bit older. Everyone wondered if the space people would find someone else receptive or whether they would simply stop trying to communicate with them. All the younger children, Gemini, Alicia, Callum, Roseanne and Violet-May, said they had all had strange dreams in which they imagined they saw strange beings but the images were fluid and constantly changing so the children had been unable to make any sense of the strange dreams. They didn`t appear worried or scared by the dreams, just frustrated that they couldn`t understand them.

Over a year previously the aliens had re-activated a large number of redundant radio masts and transmitters across what remained of the country so the group now had nationwide radio coverage and they also had radio controlled watches so they were able to tell the time again after many years without knowing the time just estimating, thanks in no small part to the calendar that Billy-Bob had started not long after the world changed. This was taken over by Alfie and his brother Jason when Billy-Bob had died.

One day in the spring of 2073 Tamsin was out in a truck with Des fetching some metal fencing, needed at home to repair a couple of the original paddock fences, built by the original group members over eight years ago and also to build some new fences for their growing amount of livestock, several hundred miles away up in Bethel, not far from Cincinnati in Ohio, and as Tamsin was classed as a regular driver nowadays, she was driving, having proved her competence on all their vehicles along with her sister Taylor, Alfie, Jason and Becky, thanks to Pierre`s instruction. Tamsin had learnt well from her `apprenticeship` under Des and she was now capable of doing most things that he did on her own without supervision, which she was happy about. They had taken their first truck on this trip, which despite having newer vehicles which were easier to drive, Tamsin loved the ageing Volvo curtain-sider with its manual gears. The truck was fully loaded with metal fence sections, posts and all sorts of wire and fixings when they left Bethel behind and started on the homeward run. Now the roads were showing signs of wear and tear and many roads were only just about passable now after fifty eight years, so now they were unable to drive fast like they had a few years ago, apart from on the big multi-lane Interstates that were still in reasonable condition. Most trips these days were quite long distance as all the nearer outlets for whatever commodity they wanted had all been emptied and exhausted years ago. Since the aliens had reduced the size of their secure settlement shields, their route planning was considerably easier and Tamsin did most of the route planning for whoever was going out on the road. From the early days Des and Pierre had assumed equal responsibility for the vehicles and the garage workshops so anybody who needed to take a vehicle went through Des, Pierre or Tamsin. The only person who was exempt from this was Alfie as his regular trip to take supplies to Anita and Gordon was pencilled in each week on the calendar and he had been allocated his own vehicle, the Dodge step van that they had acquired a few years ago.

As part of her regular job, Tamsin also looked after the fuel, keeping a record of the amounts each vehicle used. They knew they had enough stored at the refinery to last a good many years but Pierre has said that despite that, they should keep a record of what they used. He had been quite prepared to do this job himself until Tamsin had badgered and pleaded with him so in the end he had given her the job. They had no need to make repeated visits to the refinery now thanks to the oil pipeline they had built about three years previously. It just needed a visit once every two or three months to check that everything was still working properly and make any adjustments that were required. Tamsin and Taylor usually did that task on their own, invariably just taking a small van or a Land Rover.

As Tamsin was driving when they left Bethel, Des was relaxing in the passenger seat ready to assist her if required but knew deep down that he wouldn`t be needed. Tamsin handled the big truck as well as he did and her confidence matched her skill level. As the big rig rolled south on the old Highway 68 towards the small town of Mayville, long deserted and falling into just a collection of ruins, Tamsin`s eye was suddenly caught by the sun reflecting of off something a mile or so away, which looked suspiciously like the tail of an aircraft.

“Des, what to do you think that is over there”?

Des followed her pointing finger and quickly spotted what she was looking at. Tamsin let the truck roll to a stop then fished in the dashboard glove box for the binoculars that every vehicle carried. Once the truck stopped, she scrambled up onto the cab roof for a higher vantage point, while Des also got out of the cab and perched up on top of the semi-trailer roof.

“Looks like an aircraft tail fin, not very big so I suppose there was once a small airfield over there”.

“Can we divert and have a look to see if there`s anything there we could use”?

“Yes, why not, I know you`re still hoping to find a plane that still flies to add to your gliders”.

Tamsin quickly clambered down from the cab roof and back into the driving seat and had the engine running while Des was still climbing down. As soon as he was back in the cab, Tamsin set the vehicle moving again and headed forward looking for a turning that might hopefully lead to what they assumed was a small airport.

“Take it slow, as I don`t expect the access will be easily visible after all these years. If we can`t find a vehicle access we can always get out and clamber through the hedge and walk. It didn`t look from the roof as if there is any sort of fence so if there was one it probably fell down years ago”.

After about three quarters of a mile, they thought that they were about level with where they`d seen the tail fin so Tamsin stopped again and she and Des climbed down from the cab. There was a straggly hedge along the roadside so they started looking for a gap that they might be able to get through. Tamsin found a likely spot after about a further ten minutes and pointed it out to Des.

“I think we can crawl through here, it`ll be a bit tight and there are some brambles and nettles but I can see open space on the other side. Do we give it a go”?

“We`ve come so far so yes, let`s do this. I`ll grab a jack handle or something out of the cab to at least beat the nettles down a bit. Make sure your face and arms are covered as much as possible as there will still be the brambles and they`ve got some rather wicked looking thorns on them”.

“I remember a few years ago when we used to carry weapons all the time that Calilou put a machete in each vehicle, do you suppose it`s still in there”?

“Good thinking, I haven`t seen one for ages so whether they`re still on the vehicles or if John and Cally took them back into the store I have no idea. I`ll have a look”.

“If it`s any help, I seem to remember Pierre made some holders for them and mounted them under the passenger seats”.

Des walked back the fifty or so yards to the truck and looked first of all under the passenger seat not really expecting to find anything so was pleasantly surprised when he located the holder that Tamsin had mentioned and that it still had a machete in it. He pulled it out and was relieved to find the blade razor sharp. He returned to where Tamsin was waiting, rather impatiently and her face lit up when she saw the machete.