4
"You look tired."
The Marine had fallen in step as Adrian came out of his tent. He nodded, but didn't offer details as he opened his book. He had dreamed Angie was here. After that, sleeping again had been impossible. "I am a little."
Adrian eyed the three-foot gray and brown piles of sand that were now their perimeter, the caution tape gone again during the night. "I need Seth and Mitch to come see me around 9:30 and make sure he doesn't leave the radio unattended again. I need ten minutes with the doctor around noon, and then we'll do a lesson with the rookies at 3. We'll have a little surprise waiting for Kyle and his team right after that."
Kenn nodded. Adrian had sent them out immediately following the storm to do a recon to the Southeast. The blond wanted to know if the Slavers were closer, and of course, to search for any survivors.
"We'll keep it simple. Use the laser tag vests."
Kenn wrote, and Adrian ignored the stomach wanting light toast with heavy butter. His people ate before he did, and they were low on bread. Flour was one of those things they just didn't find much of.
"We'll need crews to clean up after the contest and to help with the targets during. You'll have to look through the schedules that end today to see who's already got their hours in or has a shift tonight. Set the contest up just like last time, over in that softball field. People not shooting will stay behind the gate."
Adrian paused to sip his coffee, eyes on the line where Kenn's boy was. All of his people looked healthy, normal, and he knew they had been lucky to have so few medical problems despite spending so much time on sour ground. They'd had a couple of deaths in the last weeks, mostly heart failures, and an EKG machine was one of the things on his constantly growing list.
"That it?"
Adrian snorted, watching the lines grow as more people started to come to the Mess and the noise levels increased. Coughs, moans, groans and laughs - to Adrian it was beautiful, the sound of normal life continuing. "Until lunch. Here's some FND work - a faster Mess, one that has them in line for less than five minutes for both food and drinks."
Having finished writing, Kenn picked up Adrian's cup. "Refill?"
"You know it."
When Kenn moved toward the line, Charlie slid by and put a small plate in front of Adrian. He kept moving toward the table he usually shared with Timmy and Mike, one of the guards' teenage boys, but Adrian stopped him with a question. "You busy later?"