Will to Survive by Eric Walters

Author:Eric Walters
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780374301835
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)

17

“Sorry I’m late,” Herb said as he entered our crowded living room and settled into a seat at the corner of the table, next to Howie and my mother. Everyone else on the committee had arrived. I was sitting on the couch with my dad, talking about a minor mechanical issue on the Cessna we both had noticed.

“We haven’t quite started,” Judge Roberts said.

“I was just making a last round of the wall. I wanted to make sure people were all right.”

“And?” Councilwoman Stevens asked.

“A little spooked, but they’ll do their jobs. They’re just worried about the people who were wounded. I haven’t had a chance to go to the clinic. How are they doing?”

“Two have already been released, and the other two will be fine … although it’s going to be a little while,” Dr. Morgan said. “I guess we got lucky—considering the seriousness of the attack.”

“Imagine how much worse it would have been if it had happened twenty-five minutes later, at shift change,” Howie added.

“But instead it happened when the shift change used to happen,” Herb pointed out.

A pregnant silence spread over the room.

“It’s hard not to think it was deliberately done by somebody who knew our schedule,” Mr. Peterson commented.

“I don’t believe much in coincidence,” Herb said. “It could only be one person.”

There was no need to even say his name. In fact, it seemed like people went out of their way not to say his name out loud, almost like saying it might make him appear.

Brett had become the bogeyman of more bad dreams than just mine.

“The real question involves looking forward,” my mother said. “What are we going to do to protect ourselves from another similar attack?”

“Could we strengthen the walls?” Councilwoman Stevens asked.

“If we made them into earthen berms they’d be better able to withstand an explosive impact,” Mr. Nicholas said.

“What exactly does that mean?” the judge asked.

“We take massive amounts of dirt and pile it up into an extremely steep hill to form a wall,” Mr. Nicholas explained.

“That would involve a tremendous amount of work,” my father piped in from the corner of the couch.

It was rare for him to talk in these meetings.

“But if that’s what has to be done, I’ll be part of it,” he added.

“It would be a lot of work,” Howie agreed. “And it still wouldn’t stop anybody from firing over the earthen walls at the houses.”

“So that isn’t a solution,” Judge Roberts said. “What if we put more patrols or guards out into the forest?”

“Then they’d be susceptible to attack,” my mother argued. “We need the walls to protect people, not have people protecting the walls.”

“I’m open to other ideas,” the judge said.

“Actually, I think you’re all correct,” Herb said. “We do need to make our defenses stronger, and the way to do that is to expand the walls. But instead of making them thicker, we have to make them farther out. What I suggest is a simple extension of Adam’s plan, the one on the western and southern walls of our neighborhood.

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