Alice Munroe (ex_barebones985) wrote in the_colony, @ 2011-03-05 20:06:00 |
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Entry tags: | ^ week 34, alice munroe, thomas galloway, | alice and tom |
Week 34: Thursday
Characters: Tom Galloway and Alice Munroe.
Location: Tom’s room.
Summary: Alice and Tom go over the pros and cons of hitting the two solar distributors in the same day.
Rating: G
Alice finished washing her dish, drying it swiftly with the dish towel and sticking it in the wrack before drying off her own hands. By now Tom would be back from his run and ready for the sit-down to go over what they’d found out on the scouting trip. She couldn’t deny feeling a little excited with the news and twisted the ring on her left ring finger over and over, an old habit she’d picked up again now that a ring once again occupied the space.
Everything had happened so fast. She’d left that morning with Mike to do the quick scout, and then she’d come back to Leo and Walker waiting for her in her room, remembering her birthday and Leo... Just replaying the images in her head made her heart race.
Stop that. Time to concentrate, she told herself, taking a breath and heading down the hall.
Tom had just finished cleaning up after his daily workout and run, and had dunked Rollo in the cattle trough as well for good measure before coming in as nobody liked a smelly dog running about the house. He turned his head, still toweling his hair dry as Alice knocked on the door frame.
“Right on time, come on in.”
Alice came in and shut the door behind her, giving him a uncharacteristically bright smile before she settled in the nearby chair. “Ready to get down to business?”
The smile caused a tilt of the head, but the veteran nodded and dropped the towel around his shoulders as he moved to the chair opposite hers. “What’d you find?” He reached for his notepad and pen on the desk, ready to jot down information if necessary.
“Well, we went to five different places,” she said running her hand through her hair and leaning back on her chair. “Three places stuck out: two places in Grants Pass and one in Medford. I think we can skip out on the Medford location due to distance, but the other two are both almost completely untouched. If we divide and conquer, we could probably clean out both places in five hours.”
“‘Divide and conquer’?” Tom’s eyes narrowed. “How many people do you want to handle this?”
Alice did the mental math based on what Mike had told her. “Eight. Two teams of four.” Then she added, “Plus however many traders Evie feels like sparing.”
“That’s a lot of manpower.” One hand went up to rub his jaw thoughtfully as Tom thought it over. He visibly didn’t like the idea of sending so many of them out at once. They’d sent out six before, in teams of two, but that was also before they learned just how dangerous a neighborhood they lived in now. “It’d leave us pretty thin here Alice,” he said finally.
“It’s two more people than normal and it’ll only be for five hours, tops,” Alice argued, her hands coming to rest over the caps of her knees. “And the traders’ll also be here. Think of how helpful this’ll be. Lights on all the times we need ‘em instead of candles and lanterns, more than the bare essential heat, and we could get a few freezers runnin’ to store more food. And more stuff, count on it, I’m just hitting the highlights everyone complains most about.”
“Solar panels only work when there’s sunlight, which isn’t when we need the lights or the heaters.” Tom argued back, “And we haven’t sent more than four out at a time in months. There’s no reason not to hit one site one day and get the other the next.”
“Mike said they don’t need direct sunlight,” Alice said with a frown. “The power can be stored, and hitting two sites at once will maximize how many we can get. We don’t need to do two trips; one’ll be plenty if we get them all at once, then we won’t ever need to go again so long as they’re maintained.”
Tom sighed and leaned back in his chair. “I don’t like it, but the argument is sound and I’m not a dictator.” He turned his eyes back to Alice. “This will be a big show Alice, could draw attention.”
“If it is, then I’m not doing my job right,” she said with a deeper frown. “They’re in opposite directions, and it's been foggy as hell out the past two days. We’ll keep it on the D-L, you have my word.”
“All right then,” Tom nodded. “Let’s go over manpower...”