Chapter 15: Consolidation
The next morning started significantly noisier than the last time we were here, the increase in population and people milling about unsure of what to do created a lot of ambient noise. Making my way to the canteen to get some breakfast I had a look at our current stock of power up foods. It seemed that we had accumulated a large stock of the items and would probably have enough for an initial intake for mostly everyone, but we would quickly run out for further doses.
Thinking about that while I had some cereal, I thought it would be a good idea to stagger the intake as well as put into place a training program for people to undertake in order to get the most out of the food. This could be set up so that when the individuals end up going through the enhancement process, we would end up with people who operated at a super human level.
This can then facilitate us being the largest influence in the area and de-escalating any conflict due to our strength. Deciding to talk with the council, as well as needing to investigate our food reserves, and in turn figure out long term solutions for when the surrounding houses and shops have been depleted. So many things to plan and figure out, this will probably take some time and patience ensuring everything is in place.
Washing up I moved outside and made my way around the Sanctuary notifying the other council members of a meeting with the new arrivals. Advising the new arrivals of the planned meeting we all gathered out the front of the club house to go over all our options. Standing in front of the group and between the council members I looked out over the near 50 people in front of me,
"Thank you all for meeting us here, you have been through so much and I appreciate you being patient and letting us get everything sorted. As you have probably seen we have a good set up here, we are wanting to establish the Sanctuary as a place for everyone to be safe and to protect those who need it.
This community was created as we all had the desire to survive in this changing world, and there are some resources collected from the Sanctuary itself that have given us the ability to do so, we are in the process of setting up a system for distributing them that will make sure everyone here gets their turn.
We need to work out the finer details and when sorted we will let everyone know so we can put things into place to continue our growth as a community and individuals. With that being said we need to figure out what everyone's skills and talents are so we can facilitate a smooth transition into roles suited for them.
If you could come forward in an orderly fashion and we can record down what you would have to offer. If for some reason you are not trained in something or are unsure, we do have various areas already that you could get some work in. Thank you for your time."
It took about an hour or so for everyone to be sorted, we had out of the 48 new people, 15 children who we passed along to Sue and her helpers to sort out. They would need to look at structuring the curriculum a little more as we had such a large range of ages for the children. The youngest being Theo around 5 and the oldest 15, the rest of the new residents were between 18 and 61and covered a huge range of professions. We had a little bit of everything, from labourers to teachers, mechanics and warehouse clerks, some specialists and even office workers.
One of the older gentlemen was a geologist and this made me think; if the plants had mutated possibly there had been some change in the ground with new minerals and deposits that could be used in different areas for various uses. Granted I was very optimistic but you never know, I had one lady approach me who had worked at a garden centre and was interested in studying the surrounding area and investigating any changes to the local flora.
After compiling all the records, we asked everyone to have a break and give us a moment to organise all the documents. Talking between ourselves we took some time and after about an hour we had it organised the best we could. Making our way over to the rest of the people and informed them of the results, given that we had such a diverse range of skills we had to allocate people the best we could. There would be some that wouldn't be in the area that best suited them but until we were able to create a department or group that covered it, they would have to make do.
Tom had been the most fortunate, while we had some specialised individuals, most of the men who had not been able to move into a line of work that best suited them, had some skills that translated to building or construction, whether that was smaller detailed work such as furniture building or larger construction projects. We even had one metal worker that had worked in a steel fabrication plant who was experience in welding. He was more than happy to help Tom out and found general building fascinating.
Sue had managed to get a few individuals who had been either teachers or worked in some form of education, who were pleased to have something they were trained in to move into. Nat and Andrew took over the office workers and store people, we had another couple who had been in the defence force, both in the navy and had been on shore leave when everything went down. Michael would work with them and the police officers to institute an effective training program and work out some general security of the surrounding area.
Lucy had picked up a few cooks and even one lady that had worked at her son's school's canteen, who was happy to organise the food for the children during their classes and their general duties. The few home makers that had been overseeing the cleaning and maintenance of the populated area of the Sanctuary had a few additions that eased their workload especially seeing the increase in population.
Everyone seemed happy with the decisions so far and moved off to start getting everything sorted and given a rundown of the present situation. Sarah, Dan and I moved off with Michael, the other military staff and the police officers and some members of the council, we wanted to look at organising the power up foods and at what point to start introducing it. This was due to our limited stock of the items and with more people to cater to we would quickly run out.
The original members of the community had all had their run, and no longer got any effect out of it apart from the flowers, so working from a fresh start with no one to complete the process, could ensure we put a system in place to manage it effectively.
Looking around the circle I got the affirmative from Michael and my group and addressed the new people.
"So, we haven't told you guys everything that we have available to help us. This was due to the fact that if we told everyone at once we would be fighting people off from trying to get to it, seeing how tempting they would be.
On top of the Lake, which we have found boosts your recovery post exercise and heals injuries, we have found other items grown in the Sanctuary which enhance our bodies. We have all gone through the process, which is why we were able to move through the forest so easily as well as kill the Demon.
Firstly, are the berries, they are able to improve your physical abilities and the effects stack on top of each other having a permanent effect. Depending on the level of your fitness before you start you can have a differing number of doses, Dan was able to push it to about 11 I believe but I was around 6.
Like the berries the vegetable are able to relieve your mental load as well as enhance your intellect and memory. It isn't like gaining a photographic or eidetic memory, but more like allowing you to take in information much faster and put it into practice quicker than normal. This we found has been helpful in combat due to the speed that we take in changing situations and adapt to them on the fly.
Individually they are both very beneficial but together they work wonders for your capabilities. Finally, we have the various flowers, the colours depend on the sense impacted but we are finding that it is a short-term enhancement with no longer lasting effects."
Looking around at the new people we could see that they were struggling to take it all in, granted it was quite a bit of new information, especially regarding an area which no one had any experience in before.
"We are planning on our health professionals to monitor the changes everyone will undergo, but first we need to come up with a plan for the use of the enhancing foods."
Looking around I waited for someone to speak up, after a few minutes as I could see people thinking and still not getting anything I noticed Michael step forward. Everyone looked to him for his idea.
"So I've been thinking, the value that someone at Daniel's level gives the community as a whole is pretty high up there right?", getting nods all around. "Then what do you all think about instituting a requirement for individuals to reach a certain level before they can start? That way we can monitor the quantities we have available and also ensure that when people go through the process they are at their best or if not that, a high level to get as much benefit as possible without having to go on a strict diet and exercise plan."
Thinking about the idea it definitely had some merit, we would be able to accumulate enough stock of the various foods without facing a shortage, and ensure that what we got out of the people and enhancement items was the best result.
"I think that's a well thought out approach and probably the best suited for our situation, unless anyone has a better idea?", not seeing any disagreement, if anything people were nodding their heads, thinking it through. "We would just need to make sure that we don't push it too long and that we can give them a time frame that is reasonable and attainable to plan for."
"Well, what about a 6-month training period? That way we can set some good habits in place, make sure they don't get complacent and it gives them time to build a good physique before being enhanced." Daniel said.
Looking around to the other individuals after that I could see their agreement,
"So, it seems we have an agreement, we will put in place a 6-month training period with assessments for the individuals taking place. We will test their levels over the duration to ensure that by the end we have them in the best condition prior to their first intake."
We then planned the next few steps, with Michael and the other officers and personnel needing to come up with a training program to put people through, it would take some time to work out all the details, but by the end of it I believe that we will be well set up for the foreseeable future. I did stress to them to approach the health professionals and work in conjunction to monitor the individuals going through the process. The last thing we want to see is people injuring themselves or even worse being crippled cause they were pushed too far.
We were lucky in the fact that having the lake we could heal any injuries and if anything, it would speed up the development of the people. We found when we were going through the enhancement and further training, that it helped us heal and recover much faster and we improved significantly quicker than we normally would.
Leaving them to it we made our way over to the club house and storage area to find the lady who had worked at the garden centre, 'Andrea' I think her name was. We needed to see what she thought about setting up some basic form of agriculture. Nothing major at this current time, just putting systems in place would mean that when the time came that we needed to focus more on that aspect, having an established area and department would streamline the process even more.
Looking around the area and asking people if they had seen her, we finally found her by the lake studying some of the grass and plants. Lost in her own world we startled her making her jump as she did not hear our approach, catching her as she stumbled back nearly falling into the water and pulling her to dry land, we gave her a chance to catch her breath.
"Sorry about that, didn't know you weren't paying attention."
Ah don't worry about it; I get distracted easily and tune things out quite a lot." Andrea said reassuring us. "What can I do for you?"
Sarah spoke up, "well you see, before you mentioned wanting to study the flora around the area, and leading on from that we thought about asking if you wanted to head up an agriculture area, working with plants that could help us in the future?"
"OH! I would love that, it sounds like so much fun, I've never done something like that before, always wanted to go work on a farm and do stuff with plants but I never thought I would have the chance anymore."
"Well, we have a few particular plants that would be extremely crucial down the line and would need to be focused on first, but we promise that you'll find them extremely fascinating." Sarah said.
We then proceeded to tell Andrea some of the basic information about the berries, vegetables and flowers, without going into the same level of detail we had for the security personnel. Seeing her excitement build the more we spoke, we had to hold her back before she ran away without letting us finish.
Cutting in I continued on from Sarah, "what we are wanting is for you to look at seeing if they are able to be planted further than what is currently present, maybe intersperse them with regular seeds and study how they are growing and what effect the Sanctuary has on the normal seeds."
Nodding her head, she quickly spoke up.
"Oh yes, yes that's right. With the energy in this place being able to produce those particular products would the same energy speed up with maturing of normal seeds, would the normal seeds be affected by the enhancing plants, could we plant more of the enhancing plants and if so would they retain the same effects and would they need to absorb enough energy before we saw the same effects....argh so many questions."
We all watched her as she rattled off question after question without pause before she cried out in frustration.
"So does that mean you accept the job?" Daniel hesitantly asked.
"Of course, yes, I can't turn it down after seeing all the possibilities available, aren't plants just so fascinating."
Just trying to agree to placate her we proceeded to the west finding a wide-open area, close to the Lake and not too far from the current buildings that would make it inconvenient, and not too close to the forest and what could come out of it. Leaving her to inspecting the area and what to start with, we let Andrea know we would collect some seeds of the enhancing plants, as well as some regular seeds next time we went out for supplies.
With that sorted we moved back to the club house as it was getting close to lunch time and our day had really taken it out of us. So much to plan and even though we set up a council to help us manage things it felt like so many things had just been added on top of our existing piles.
After lunch we didn't have much planned for the rest of the day and wanted to have a bit of a relax and recover before the next day. Thinking of what we needed to do tomorrow. We had to get out and make our way over to Tom and Nat and check where they were and what they might need help with, plan some supply runs and finally check in with Sue and see how they are going with the children. We might be able to work on the older kids getting some exposure to the professionals around the place and some sort of work experience.
Checking in with Tom will give us a good indication of the current situation of the buildings, and maybe some of the new workers he had received were skilled in some other trade we could use. Using the same building for all its amenities we would need to talk to him about setting up some outhouses and shower facilities, especially due to our population boom. Using the one facility for over 80 people was getting a bit too much.
Thinking about what we had left to go over left me with a slightly smaller plate and the hope that tomorrow would be much more straight forward and significantly less complicated. Taking some time for ourselves we got some much needed R & R and headed to bed that night with a relaxed body and much lighter mind, ready for what the next day brought us.