Chapter 7:

[Kat Donovan]

April 26, 1998
43 days post change
13:00
Des Moines, Iowa

The massive fence had been hastily erected, but still stood an impressive ten feet above the surrounding land topped with coils if razor wire.

The road was crossed with open chain link gates, and a guard shack to the right. Above waved a single flag of broad vertical stripes of blue, white, and red, an eagle in the center white stripe.

There were a dozen guards all but two were holding five foot long poles topped with a poleaxe. A menacing looking weapon where one side had a hammer head, and the other an axe with a center spike and a riot shield in the other hand. The odd out guards held pre-change crossbows over their shoulders. They all wore black riot gear.

An officer wearing a brown uniform and a campaign hat, which was often called a Smoky the Bear hat. "I'm Lieutenant Denson of the Iowa State Police. We ain't taking on any more vaccies right now," he announced. "You need to return to your assigned evacuation farms."

Kat sat her horse casually with Angel and Jeremiah to either side of her. The rest of the party was hidden a mile back up the road. "Vaccie?"


"You know evacuees. Refugees," Denson replied.

Kat shrugged and glanced at Angel, before returning her attention to Denson, "I am Kat, and these are my associates Angelica and Jeremiah. We are simply travelers heading to friends and family in Colorado. We could use supplies, and we are willing to trade. We have a skilled blacksmith in our party, a doctor, and plenty of strong backs."

[Angel Ryder]

"Surely there must be something you need that we have." Angel said as she slipped her sunglasses off. "Or that we could do in exchange for supplies? We are not planning on staying here. I have a whole wagon full of clothes, shoes, boots... other nice things." she smirked slightly. "Condoms, cologne, perfume."

[Kat Donovan]

"We don't need clothes," Denson replied coldly. "Now move along or we'll arrest you and send you to the salt mines."

"Hang on Denson," another man said. He was riding a horse obviously on his way out of the gate with a quartet of riders with him. He wore a wide brimmed straw cowboy hat, and pair of bib overalls over a flannel shirt with the sleeves rolled up. He was in his 30's, maybe even younger than that, but his face was red from years in the sun.

"Colonel Heuisink," Denson said with an edge to his voice. "By my estimation these people a bandits, and they have no place in Iowa."

Sheriff Heuisink stared at Denson, "I agreed to close the bridges across the Mississippi because we'd be flooded by refugees from places like Chicago. But, the truth of the matter is we have so much food folk would have to work hard to starve to death. We can afford to help when we can. Besides who ever heard of a bandit gang being run by a woman let alone two?"

"It happens," Denson said.

"But it's rare, and these folk don't look like bandits."

"We aren't," Kat replied.

Heuisink rode closer and extended a hand, "Colonel Able Heuisink of the Iowa National Guard. Sheriff of Vitrix Farm."

[Angel Ryder]

"At least someone knows how to treat ladies." Angel said with a slight smile. "We aren't bandits, not unless you consider when I raised the prices of my leather skirts robbery. My friends and I really are basically just looking to restock and trade and be on our way to Colorado. Not that it hasn't been a while since I've been to Iowa, my mother used to go to some conventions here. Dragged me along a few times. Last time I was here, there was some WWF thing going on. Got to give Hulk Hogan a hug."

[Kat Donovan]

Heuisink gave her an odd grin, "That was never my thing. Each to their own I reckon." He nodded to his compatriots, "You guys go ahead and find yourselves a room. It'll be too late to head out to Vitrix tonight now."

The four men nodded enthusiastically and turned their horses and trotted off back inside the the city walls. "Come," Heuisink said. "There's a little tavern down the street and we can talk."

The tavern turned out to be newly constructed from the first floor of a 10 story office building. All the men were wearing bib overalls like Heuisink, and the women were wearing cotton dresses that reminded Kat of something out of the 1950's.

"Iowa always had a reputation of being behind the times, but this is ridiculous," Jeremiah said to Kat and Angel. Kat simply shrugged and let Heuisink lead them to a corner booth and they all sat down.

"Eddie get me a pitcher will you?" He shouted across the bar.

The man at the bar nodded, "Sure think Able. Anything else?"

"Nah, we're good for now." Their host returned his gaze upon his guests as if he was finally fully taking them in, but Kay knew he had already sized them up back at the gate. "Okay, first thing's first. How'd you get across the Mississippi? No one's came running into town claiming there was a massacre, and I know for a fact we had a full garrisons guarding all the bridges we weren't able to destroy. It's a damn shame dynamite doesn't work anymore. Would solve that problem real quick and we wouldn't have to tie of manpower guarding them. We ain't got enough hands to harvest the winter wheat let alone bring in hay for winter and all the other farm jobs that have suddenly become a hundred times more labor intensive."

[Angel Ryder]

"We're resourceful." Angel said with a slight smile. "And... opportunistic. Someone else had built a makeshift bridge out of old semi trailers not sturdy enough to bring heavier vehicles across, but enough for our little wagon train. You would be shocked at how light a Ford Econoline van is once you strip out the engine. Mostly sheet metal." she glanced around. "I mean let's face it, the Amish have done without most of what we have to deal with now for a very long time. Although the fact that we can't even rig up steam powered stuff or use explosives is making things challenging and without electricity even basic things that we could do have become nearly impossible. Still... there has to be some logical reason why everything happened and if the rules of nature changed, what else changed with it?"

[Kat Donovan]

"We were able to get a low pressure steam engine working. We were going to use it to power a gristmill, and we think it might work, but it consumed an inordinate amount of fuel, and we're not exactly flush with trees around here, not to mention it only prouced about a half horsepower. Suffice to say horses, water or wind turned out to be the better option. As to why this happened, I suppose alien space bats using some form of advanced technology is as good of a guess as anything."

Kat frowned over her mug of warm beer. It was Budweiser, and it reminded her even more than ever of urine. However, etiquette demanded that it should not go to waste, so she drank it. Pushing the mug aside, "That's an unpleasant thought, but I guess no worse thab God decided that this was his new flood."

[Angel Ryder]

"Whatever it is, we'll probably all need to explore literally everything again. And if it's the end of the world... well... not like we weren't warned repeatedly." Angel shrugged her shoulders.

[Kat Donovan]

Heuisink nodded and leaned back in his booth. "You three are considerably better equipped than any of the vackies we've come across. Those breast plates for example look like recent made, and well made. How many are in your group?"

Kat shrugged, "101 at last count. One of the camp women gave birth to a daughter last night."

The other man stroked his chin with thumb and forefinger, "And life goes on. The first generation to know nothing of the old world. What is it you need?"

"Food mostly," Kat said. "We're too big to be able to rely on hunting alone. We are able to occasionally forage food, but you Iowans have picked a lot of those sources clean."

"Then let me ask you this," Heuisink began. "Is the man or woman that made your gear still in your party?"

"Yeah, he is," Kat said surprise on her face.

"I will need to talk to Tom... uh Tom Heasleroad. He's the bossman around these parts, but we're having problems with some neo-Souix to the north and Nebraskans to the west, and we want to remain keeping refugees from Chicago and St. Louis out. Do you think your man could train our blacksmiths? Most of them were just ferriers before the change, and they rarely used their forges to shape the horseshoes, and even fewer made the shoes from scratch. And of course if you have anyone else with skills such as doctors and tailors we could use their insight as well."