99 A Governors Journey (1/2)

Kirk Lander sat in his seat in the train to New York and looked at the dismal landscape flowing past his window. The train was in the process of leaving Cleveland, Ohio: from what he could see, it was an almost completely lifeless city covered in dirty snow. During the train's passage through the urban area, Kirk had counted a grand total of twelve moving vehicles, half of which he saw when the train stopped at the station in Cleveland.

He was in the fifth day of his train journey to New York. The aged Baldwin steam engine was surprisingly fast; however, there were plenty of short stops along the way. The train had just two passenger cars; the other twenty carried cargo - food and fuel. At each stop, some of the cargo was unloaded, or a car uncoupled from the train; occasionally, new cargo was loaded. Just past Omaha, several cars full of livestock had been added to the train. For some obscure reason, they were inserted right behind the passenger cars. A day later, whenever the train stopped or slowed down to a crawl, the stink of the manure that had accumulated in the livestock cars made Kirk gag.

He had wanted to travel by air or at least by road, in a military vehicle, but that was ruled out by his boss: Carlton Brock, the man who ruled all American territories in both worlds.

”Sorry, Kirk, but you'll have to tough it out,” Carlton Brock had said. ”Anything that can move and carry a load is delivering food and aid. And bringing back a lot of corpses, Kirk. People are dying all over the country. It's a real tragedy. Mostly the elderly, it could've been worse, but a life is still a life. The train you'll be on will be hauling food and stuff, too.”

”But it's going to take days!”

”Don't let it stop you from taking care of your responsibilities in the New World. Take frequent naps, Kirk. Make sure things are going well there. I want a strong California, a wealthy California, and you're the guy in charge of making that happen. Got it?

”Yes, sir,” said Kirk.

”Excellent. By the way, it will do you good to travel coast to coast and see with your own eyes what's happening along the way. It's going to be grim. I want you to think of possible solutions while you'll be traveling, Kirk. I want everyone to think of solutions. That is why I have called a conference of state governors here in New York. We have to think of a good plan, because heavy shit will be hitting the fan on March first.”

”Yes, sir,” Kirk said again.

He had to say it a few times more before Brock was finished. Carlton Brock loved delivering little lectures, making breaks now then expressly to hear the two words he loved to hear: yes, sir! When the required amount of yes, sirs had been spoken, Brock ended the conversation, sometimes abruptly. The amount of yes, sirs needed to stroke his ego varied with his mood: when Brock was in excellent spirits, just a couple did the trick. When his mood was foul, the number required often exceeded a dozen.

Kirk knew Brock was very pleased to have become the governor of all U.S. territories in both worlds. At the same time, he couldn't be happy to hear about people dying in droves from illness, hunger, and cold. That made six yes, sirs, give or take one either way.

The train clanked and rattled as it ran over switches, changing tracks: it was passing an abandoned construction site, littered with snow-capped mounds of soil and haphazardly parked vehicles. A man stood next to the wire fence surrounding the lot. As the train passed, he raised a clenched fist and held it high. It was hard to tell whether this was a salute or an act of defiance.

Kirk checked the time: he was due in the New World in half an hour. Adam would be expecting him. Kirk had appointed his elder son the deputy governor of California in both worlds. This move greatly angered Libby Placek, the other California senator before everything got turned upside down by the catastrophe. She'd kicked up such a fuss that Brock very nearly reneged on his earlier promise that gave Kirk freedom to appoint whomever he wanted to. Kirk resolved the problem by making Libby Placek governor of the Southern California region, with a boundary running just north of Fresno. Adam Lander became governor of Northern California while remaining Kirk's deputy. In Kirk's book, that was an acceptable trade.

The Lander colony was being run by Kirk's younger son Bernard, with assistance from Karen, Debbie, Hank Vorner, and nearly three hundred colonists they'd recruited so far. They'd stepped up recruitment the moment Kirk had accepted his post.

”Adam and I are the ones who are supposed to report any existing colonies, so you have nothing to fear,” he'd told them. ”But be discreet. It's just two more weeks and everything will be made legal.”