Lockey vs. the Apocalypse by Meadows, Carl (7 ebook reader TXT) 📗

no problem with religion. You do you and the things that make you happy. I only have a problem with people who force their religious beliefs on to others and try to dictate their behaviour.

Yesterday, we went to visit Crenshaw school in our little convoy, the first time the whole lodge has gone out. I have to say, the place impressed me. It’s hidden from the country road by hedgerows and trees, and if you don’t know it’s there, you’ll go right past it without ever knowing. There’s a turn on to a road that runs for about a quarter mile which arrives at a huge double gate of iron bars, revealing the wall of metal fencing that runs round the whole campus.

The site is huge. I mean, I’m comparing it to the lodge, but even compared to my old high school, it’s massive. I think that’s largely to do with how much space there is. There’s so much greenery, and the site spreads out over a large area so no part of it feels constricted. The buildings on campus are modern and state of the art, apart from the original school which is now the admissions building and administrative centre of the institution.

The original school was built in the 1920’s, so it has that old-style Victorian look to it. It’s stylish, imposing, and full of character, but beyond that the rest of the site is extremely contemporary, with every building’s roof plastered in solar panels. There’s even a massive on-site tank for diesel, which feeds into heating and backup generators by an underground pipe system.

Honestly, it’s absolutely amazing. It’s secure, it has self-sufficient power in solar energy, plus the diesel backups, and it has artesian wells for fresh, clean water.

It’s actually damn hard to argue against moving there, considering the sheer amount of space there, and the eight of them are housed in a single dormitory building. That building alone has enough space for the rest of us to move in, but there are three more halls of that size just as dormitories, and even a small cluster of houses further back, where the onsite maintenance people would live. Not little rooms, but actual two-bedroom, two-floor houses.

I mean, holy shit, how much did it cost for one kid to come here for a year? Truthfully, if I had kids, and I had the money to send them to a place like this, you’re damn tootin’ I’d do it. The place is breathtaking.

After we’d had the full tour and all the introductions were made, we sat down in the communal area of Hall Fire where they make their home (as apparently the four dorms are named after the elements) and talked of the future.

Particles was clearly loving all the attention, as the younger kids were thrilled to have a dog on site, but the pooch himself gravitated to a girl named Jennifer, or JJ as she likes to be called. She was the only survivor from the girl’s dorm when one of them died and killed the other three, with only JJ managing to escape unscathed from that horror. She’s the only girl here other than Sarah, and she seems hardened by that experience. It must have been pretty bad shit that went down, but as usual with his spooky dog-therapist instincts, Particles seemed to chill her out as he sat on her lap and let her stroke him.

It reminded me of when we first got to the lodge, Freya. I remember you being a bit wild-eyed, and little old Particles seemed to bring you out of yourself. I swear that pug has superpowers.

“Your lodge is great,” Dean started, “but it’s small. It just seems like good sense to move everyone here. More safety in numbers, more space for expansion, plenty of power and backup power capability, clean water, a secure perimeter, maintenance area, tools, and other resources. The lodge is nice and out of the way, but it’s smaller. It doesn’t seem logical for us to remain split into two small groups that are so far apart. It’s what, about a ten-mile drive between the two sites because of roads we have to avoid? Not easy to respond quickly to if there’s a problem, and it will probably be the very edge of radio range, and maybe beyond it.”

Ah yes. I should mention that. When Dean cleared out the ‘locker’ as he keeps calling it, he took a case of ten secure channel radios that the specialist firearms unit used on operation when all geared up. Those ten radios are all on their own encrypted channel and can’t be listened into as they’re tuned to this encoded channel, but they have a range of between six and ten miles based on how built up the area is, so I’m informed. We’d be pushing it using those radios over two sites.

“I could set up the same camera system here as I did for the lodge,” offered Isaac.

“Have you got the extra kit?” asked Nate.

“Well, no, I’d have to re-purpose what we’ve used at the lodge.”

“Uh huh,” was all Nate responded with.

Nate isn’t a fan of moving, I can sense it. He’s not arguing against it, just that he seems to be gathering information and isn’t enthusing over a move.

“There are better facilities here for me to work with.” Mark seemed almost apologetic. “There’s a full workshop, maintenance garage, store for parts and tools, some lumber, more space to park the tanker and the loader truck.”

He said it all looking at Nate. I think everyone wants Nate to sign off on it from a tactical point of view.

“What about you, Erin?” asked Dean.

Talk about a rock and a hard place. Dean was all for it, Nate wasn’t convinced as yet, and now I was smack bang in the middle of the two most important male role models in my life. I owed everything to both of them. Dean, along with Maria, set my pre-apocalypse life on the right course. They straightened