forbidden (illicitus) wrote in the_colony, @ 2010-06-13 23:03:00 |
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Entry tags: | ^ week 09, jed bailey, thomas galloway, | jed and tom |
Week Nine - Tuesday
Characters: Tom and Jed
Location: Siena Suites.
Summary: Tom presents his concerns and recommendations to improve the Suites' defenses to Jed.
Rating: PG for language and discussion of violence.
It taken him the better part of a day to develop, but Tom had finally put together his suggestions on upgrading the security at the suites. Quite honestly he wasn't sure the place was defensible if it came down to a sustained attack by any outfit in platoon strength or greater. He simply didn't have enough people to defend a perimeter this large, even if he put the younger kids and the pregnant woman in the mix. But if they were to put some precautions in place and build up some barriers, they could probably hold off anything under that, especially if their enemy was also a hodgepodge group of survivors. If they were lucky.
Once he had everything written and sketched to his satisfaction, he gathered the materials up and left the suite he'd claimed on the first floor. "Stay, Rollo," he told his dog, reluctantly, before stepping out, "I'll be back soon." From there it took no time at all to make his way up to Jed's quarters on the top floor of the building. The younger man had said he'd be around, and Tom had mentioned that he'd probably stop by once he'd looked over their security situation.
Jed straightened slightly when he opened the door, like a reflex. He knew it was stupid; Tom was the new guy, he should be the one that was worried. But having the man look over their security felt nothing less than like he was being measured, and he already knew things weren't up to snuff.
"Hey, Tom, come on in," he said, as though he felt perfectly normal.
"Thanks." If Tom saw the other man's apprehension as he stepped through the door he gave no sign of it, he certainly wasn't worried. He had the briefing folder tucked under one arm, and glanced around the suite in idle curiosity, the place was relatively neat for a single guy living on his own. It wouldn't have passed an inspection if this had been in a barracks, but nobody lived like that if they didn't have to.
"I took a look around and I wanted to go over things with you, if you've got time."
"Hey, yeah, I'm free now," Jed said, heading for the armchair. Without meet-ups going on any more, the only thing he ever had definitely in his schedule was his turn at guard duty. "Go ahead an' shoot."
Tom followed and took a seat on the couch, putting his materials on the coffee table. "Okay, first the good news: you've got someone guarding the food supply 24/7, this day and age that's definitely a good thing."
"Yeah, we figured that was the most important thing to get guarded," Jed said, half perking up and half dreading the bad news.
"Considering the manpower you had to work with, I have to agree." Tom told him. "I can understand why you didn't put up a perimeter fence up early on as well, with only a few people here you didn't want to draw attention to yourselves."
He pulled out the brochure containing a map of the compound that he'd taken from the lobby. "Now, the bad news. Your only security right now consists of the guard at the lobby and you've got a half dozen directions at least where people can just walk right up into the courtyard and be on top of you before you even know they're there. We're wide open and few experienced operators, be they gang bangers or looters or whomever, could take this place without breaking a sweat."
Jed could admit that security could be better, yeah, but that was just taking it too far. "We ain't totally helpless, y'know. Lots of folks here know how to handle a gun, and they're always on the lookout for trouble, too. We ain't on vacation here."
"One, maybe two of you at any one time is on the lookout," Tom said patiently, expecting the argument. "But none of you are experienced in fighting as a unit, you're a collection of individuals. Suppose they came at two in the morning? Through the other side of the compound? That time of night you only have a guard at the lobby. They could be on you before you knew what hit you, and if you were lucky you'd be wondering what the hell happened while you're sitting there in chains instead of waking up with your throat slit."
His jaw tightened but Jed didn't argue. While he could certainly say that no one would get the jump on him, he knew that wasn't the case with everybody. "I been meaning to build a fence," he said in his defense.
Tom nodded. "That's a good step, we need to establish an outer perimeter." He pointed to the map. "I figure you'll want to keep the parking lot in front of the lobby and the building we're using, right?" At the younger man's nod he continued. "Then you'd want to extend the fence from the outer edge of the parking lot out front all along the highway and along the access road in back up to here." He pointed to the end of the second building, just past the northern edge of the poolside courtyard. "What we're gonna want to do is use the buildings themselves as part of our defensive posture. After that fence we're going to want to cut off routes people could use to get at the courtyard, if people want to come get us we want to force them to do a frontal assault where they're out in the open and exposed. With me so far?" He looked up at Jed to see if the other man followed what he was saying.
"Yeah. That's even what I was thinking," Jed said, nodding harder, as though that would prove his words. He had been thinking about it, that was true enough. Just not much in the way of doing.
"Then you've got good instincts," Tom told him approvingly. "I'd suggest that we have more than one guard on at a time during the evening and maybe find a way to secure the storage room so they aren't stuck there guarding it and would be able to patrol the grounds." He frowned a bit as that led into his next point. "Our biggest problem is that of manpower. Excluding the doc, the pregnant lady and the younger kids we've got maybe a dozen people at most that we can put into a fight at any given time, and we have a large area to defend. That's the big reason I want to block off those entrances so we won't be forced to put bodies there to fight off attackers."
He paused and rubbed his chin. "Probably ought to raid the Guard Armory and Nellis Air Force Base up on the north side to see what we can find in terms of ordinance. If we're lucky we might even find some anti personnel mines we can put out in front of those barricades to make it even more unpleasant for people to try and take them, but that would be a little later on. Right now we should concentrate on just limiting access points."
"Jesus," Jed breathed. Mines. That never would have crossed his mind. "Uh, well, I got Holly workin' on a security camera system. So's you don't need to be walkin' the whole perimeter. And she's also gonna put in a phone thing so we can talk to ev'rybody real quick."
"If we're going to be here 'til spring like Miss Alice wants then we need to make this place as secure as we can." Tom wanted to drive that point home before addressing what Jed said about the cameras. "Mines or remote detenated IEDs are a way to make sure nobody gets through areas we don't want them to. But I figure ten foot high walls filling the gaps between those outer buildings and topping them with wire should deter most folks, it'd take more than a step lader to get over that."
He returned to Jed's comments about Holly. "Security cameras are good, but they still won't be a substitute for human eyeballs every so often at night. Working phones will be a big help as well, I'd make both of those her top priority if she's got anything else going on."
"Alright, will do," Jed said with a firm nod. He was pretty sure Holly wasn't up to much anyway, so that shouldn't be a problem. "You got ideas about goin' about the fence?" Jed had been planning to salvage lumber and piece something together, but Tom's was sounding much more professional.
"We got all the concrete blocks and cement we could ever need lying around at the various Lowes and Home Depot stores in town, along with smaller hardware stores and construction sites. They ought to have plenty of chain link for fencing for the outer perimeter too." Tom responded. "We're not looking for something to last the age of the pyramids, it just has to last long enough for us to be nice and secure until we leave for parts elsewhere. A cement block wall with some razor wire on top ought to do the trick, maybe with a layer of sheet metal on the outside to help with stopping power. The walls themselves won't take that long to put up considering they aren't going to be load bearing, maybe a day or two per wall with enough help."
He glanced up from his sketches and looked up at Jed. "Understand most of this is deterrence. If the group is large enough or they catch us at the wrong time, nothing we do is going to stop them if they're willing to pay the price in blood. What I want to do is make sure that we do everything we can to make the price high enough that people don't want to pay."
Looking back at Tom, Jed felt very small. He hadn't thought about any of those, or bothered trying. It wasn't like he didn't know the risks; they'd had deaths before. But it was easier to think that those were mistakes, that they hadn't been smart enough, that doing too much was just being paranoid. But Tom didn't sound paranoid. He just sounded right.
Tightening his jaw, Jed nodded. "Yeah. That's what we wanna do." Looking back at the sketches, he said, "I can round up some folks to go grabbin' the blocks and cement, try an' get this done soon as we can."
Tom saw the expression on the other man's face and moved to put a hand on his shoulder. "Don't beat yourself up son, you're not used to thinking like this and that's a good thing. Me on the other hand, I've been thinkin' about how to defend myself and my troops and kill the other guy since I was eighteen years old. With a little bit of luck we'll never have to find out how well these plans work in practice."
"Doesn't mean I didn't know better. Juss means I gotta fix it now," Jed said firmly. He didn't want Tom thinking that he was some sensitive kid or something. He could take responsibility, and he was going to.
"I think it would be a smart idea to set up a time to check everybody out on guns, see where folks are at on 'em." Tom suggested. "There's that big sports field off to the side there, it'd be easy enough to set up some targets at set distances and see how well people do. Sometime soon probably couldn't hurt to do some drills too, just to get folks familiar with what to do in an emergency."
Jed hesitated. "Alice wasn't real big on target practice. Didn't wanna waste ammo. And a fair amount of us already know how to use guns," he added quickly. "There's been a huntin' trip and everything."
"I'm a gunsmith, find me the powder and the lead and I can load ammo." Tom dismissed the comment with a wave. "Besides, this falls under security and that's your department isn't it?"
"Doesn't mean I don't listen to folks," Jed said defensively. "Alice is smart, and it ain't like you told me you could make ammo before."
"I've got the gear back up at the cabin and the subject didn't come up 'till now," the older man responded. "Look, even if you want to conserve ammo you still need to know who can shoot and there's only one way to prove that. Sure some of you have gone hunting, but I'm not talking about just the hunters. There's a lot we can do for technique and form without firing a shot, but you're still gonna have to expend some ammo in the end. We can make a run to Nellis to check out their armory, and there's the National Guard facility near there too. You take that and add on all the gun stores around this town and we'll find some ammo."
He paused and looked squarely at the younger man. "I'm not trying to undermine your authority or Miss Alice's, but if you want to 'fix' things you're gonna to need to do more than just put up fences and barriers."
"Yeah, but what's the use of gettin' folks scared? You tell some amateur that they need a gun around, they might always have it around and get to be a hair trigger. Next thing you know they've blown someone away who was juss headin' out for night swimmin'." Jed inwardly winced. The thought hadn't really come out right, but the idea was there. "Bein' prepared is good, but they ain't soldiers, and they ain't had soldier trainin'. Takin' 'em out shootin' won't do any good for those that know what they're doin' and it'll juss scare those who ain't got a clue."
Tom surrendered the issue, for now. Pick your battles Tommy-boy, pick your battles. "Fine. We let it go for now, but before we head out on the road on the move I'd strongly recommend checking everyone out on guns and making sure they know how to use them."
Jed shrugged. "Yeah, we'll get there. Juss don't want people thinkin' we're preparin' for war or somethin' here."
What the hell do you think it is out there? World Peace? Tom wanted to shout, but he kept his dismay off his face. One didn't get to the level he did as a noncomissioned officer without being able to keep a neutral expression even when fed a line of bullshit. Getting into an argument wouldn't do any good. He'd just have to do what he could to try and prepare them for the threats they faced with the constraints put on him. "All right," he said at last, "one thing at a time anyway. Who should I talk to about getting help transporting the building materials here?"
After a moment's thought Jed said, "Me and Leo'd be the best for that. Could see if Peter wants to help, too, and maybe Searle. Kid could use some heavy lifting."
"It'll be a good job for young backs." Tom said in amusement. To him, everyone mentioned but Peter was a youngster, and even Peter was a good decade younger.
"Yeah, shouldn't be a problem. I'll round 'em up today even. Get things going right away and all," Jed said, hoping it was what Tom wanted to hear.
What he really wanted to hear was they were abandoning the idea of waiting until spring to move, but building up defenses would have to do. "Sounds like a plan, but we also don't want to burn everybody out from overwork. Gather materials today if we can round up the bodies and start on a barrier tomorrow or Thursday." He advised. This project would take a few weeks even if everything went well. "You might want to split it up and have two or three working on the fence and the rest of us on the walls."
"Alright, yeah, that sounds like a good idea. Makes things go faster. Anythin' else about the place you noticed?" Jed asked, not sure what else to say.
"Aside from having an extra person on guard duty at night, I think that'll do for now. The fence and walls alone will take some time, let's worry about the smaller stuff later." Tom suggested, gathering his materials up.
"Works for me. Ain't like I'm goin' nowhere soon," Jed said with a grin. "You settlin' in good elsewhys?"
"You could say that," Tom felt more like he was sticking his foot in it wherever he went. First the strained conversation with Alice, then making poor Walker cry his heart out. "It's an adjustment, being around people again."
"Yeah. Been weird havin' so many folks around for me, too. Before things happened, I never had this many folks around. It's a lot to handle."
"Oh I was used to being around a lot more people than this until I moved out to the cabin around the end of last year." Tom shrugged. "But you stay out for six months with just you and your dog, it takes a while to get used to making conversation again with people who talk back in words."
Jed gave a laugh. "Yeah, I definitely been through that, too with Rocky. Still talk to him; kinda habit."
"It is at that," Tom agreed with the younger man. "I'll get out of your hair. Let me know if you can round up the bodies today for gathering supplies, or if it needs to wait 'till tomorrow. I'll help out with guard duty and get y'all started with the building before going back up to the cabin to pack up the rest of my gear."
"Thanks, will do," Jed said, getting up. "An' don't forget, group dinner tomorrow. You don't have to cook somethin' for it, but if you wanna, folks'll appreciate it."
"Can do." A firm nod at the suggestion and the veteran noncom was out the door.