*****
The following morning, the others started to arrive. By noon, there were ten trailers starting to form a circle. To begin with, they’d park in a huge circle with the common areas between them. As each family arrived, Hannah greeted each person with a smile. “Thank you for coming,” she said over and over.
It was three in the afternoon before the Ryders arrived. Hannah smiled when Justin climbed out of his family’s truck. “Hi there.”
Justin grinned, reaching out a hand for hers. “Show me everything.” He looked around him in awe. He couldn’t believe they were going to live in such a beautiful place.
Hannah led him around the campsite, and off into the woods. “We have more than enough room for growth. The greenhouses and livestock alone are enough to sustain us, and we have the ability to hunt and fish as well.” They walked as they talked.
“It’s beautiful here. Thank you for finding us, Hannah.”
Hannah flushed. “I had to.” She paused for a moment. “No one but my mother and I and your family know you’ll be our leader. There will be official elections down the road, but you’ll win. I haven’t told anyone else their place in the community, but I felt you would only be able to prepare to fill your place if you knew upfront.” And she wanted to keep as few secrets from her future husband as possible.
He nodded. “We figured as much. We talked about it on the way down, and none of us will say anything.” He smiled into her eyes. “I’m glad you’re here.”
“Me too.” She kicked at a rock. “We need to get back to the others. Today is kind of a ‘get to know you’ day, but tomorrow is going to start the work.”
“You mentioned in email there was a general who was planning on training an army of us?”
She nodded. “He’s going to train an army, but he expects every one of us to train. Not for the army but for health. He’ll pick those he thinks are best suited to be part of the army. We’ll start with an army of six, but he expects everyone to be able to shoot and stuff.”
“I have no problem with that. I think it will be best for the whole community.”
She smiled. “You’ll like him then. He’s bossy.” She could already feel how achy their muscles were going to be.
Justin laughed. “I can handle bossy.”
They walked back toward the others. “I’ll introduce you to everyone as we go.”
“I can’t wait to get started.”
He walked with her as she talked to everyone there. She explained to the civil engineer what she had seen, and he made notes about what they would need to do to make it happen. “I’ve never started a city from scratch before,” he commented. “This is going to be quite a challenge.”
Hannah was surprised by the optimism in the group. Campfires sprang up everywhere with large groups of people crowding around them. There were children ranging in age from newborn to seventeen. The older teens wouldn’t make it through, but they could help now. Hannah hadn’t given the age cut-off for who would live, afraid she would upset too many people. The atmosphere that night was festive, and she didn’t want to do anything to mess it up.
The make-shift party lasted well into the night. They all knew the work was about to start, and no one was willing to give up this one last fun night before they got serious.
Hannah set the groundwork for the following day by making sure the people who needed to meet hooked up. She introduced the civil engineer to the construction workers. The general met the soldier. The three teachers met, and were introduced to the general who would be training the children physically. For the first few weeks everyone would have to wear nametags that announced both name and occupation until everyone got to know everyone else.
The sheer enormity of the task ahead of them frightened Hannah a bit, but she said nothing. She couldn’t fail. If she did, the human race would die off. She smiled and laughed with everyone else, while inside she felt dread. This had to work.