Read THE COLLAPSE: Seeking Refuge for Free Online

another one.  Stephen’s heart began to race in his chest.  He surmised that the blasts had come from the west beach area or somewhere thereabouts, but it’s very hard to tell which direction gunshots come from when a person is surrounded by trees.
    The tent’s zipper sounded behind him, and Tarra poked her head out. 
    “Did you hear that?” she asked.
    “Yeah, I did.  Sounded like they were coming from the beach, I think.”
    “Are you making coffee?” Tarra asked, excitedly.
    “Yupper,” Stephen replied proudly.
    “Hell yeah, give me a second, I’m coming out!” Tarra exclaimed quietly and disappeared back into the tent.
    Stephen and Tarra chatted the rest of the morning away until the sun had illuminated The Park.  There were hardly any clouds in the sky, which was probably why it had been so chilly the night before.
    Stephen had asked Tarra what she planned on doing with the Kays while she was working with Carrie McDonald.
    “I’ll just take them with me, I guess,” she responded.  She couldn’t leave them alone at the campsite.  Fish couldn’t watch them, since he was assigned a night shift and would likely be sleeping most of the day.
    As the fire dwindled down to nothing more than a few smoldering coals, Stephen got up and sighed.  He said, “I guess it’s time for me to go to work.  I’m going to steer clear of the beach for a while, at least until I find out what happened.”
    “Good idea,” Tarra agreed.
    “Once Fish wakes up, let him know what we heard so he has a heads-up.  He’s assigned to the beach,” Stephen said, worriedly.  “Let’s meet back here for lunch at noon?”
    “Sounds good, babe,” Tarra replied.  Stephen thought about taking his M-4 rifle with him before he departed, but decided against it.  He didn’t want to intimidate any of the folks that would be working for him.  He still had Eddie’s .38 special in his shoulder holster under his light jacket.  That should be enough, right?
     
    *****
     
    Stephen’s first order of business that morning was to do exactly what Tarra had suggested; take a walk through The Park to determine who’s-who-in-the-zoo.  He intended on introducing himself and speaking with as many people as he could.  He needed to get his teams working on new projects as soon as possible, but not until after he identified who was actually going to be working for him.  But, it was only his first day, how much could he actually accomplish?  Especially on foot.  It was a big park, after all.
    As he walked, Stephen noticed that there weren’t any of the familiar smells of breakfast cooking as there normally would have been any other time prior to The Collapse.  No bacon, no eggs, no sausage, no hash browns.  He thought he might have smelled some Spam frying at one site.  Possibly.  What he did notice, however, was the smell of fish on the grill.  “ Hmmm, let me guess….trout?” Stephen thought about Larry’s idiotic defense of fishing in the lake versus the Puget Sound.  What a dumbass!
    Stephen crossed from Lower Loop into Forest Loop, and came across the group of teenage boys with hand saws.  It was Stephen’s woodcutting team, hard at work.  They were in a different location from the day before.  One tree was already on the ground, and a boy was in the process of cutting down another as his buddies stripped the branches and sawed apart the fallen one.
    “Hey guys, hold up a second,” Stephen said with a friendly tone.  All of the boys stopped what they were doing and turned toward Stephen.
    “Yeah?  What’s up?” one of the older boys asked, as if Stephen was interrupting something extremely important.
    “My name is Stephen Alexander, and I’ve been assigned by Claudine and William as your new resource manager.”
    The boys looked at each other, some looked confused, and some looked either happy or relieved.  Stephen continued, “You guys have been doing a great job so far, but as of today, I’m going to