Oct 25, 2009 19:11
“Well, now what?”
“You mean now that we’ve told New Bern to go to hell?”
“Well, yes.” That was one way to put it. Fed up with the continued resistance, and the fearful non-helpfullness of the citizens of New Bern, Beck had pulled his troops out of New Bern completely. Anyone who wanted to leave with them could, but once he left, they were on their own. He had taken all munitions supplies, leaving only a fair share of food and medical supplies for those chose to stay. Some had come with him, but many just couldn’t bring themselves to leave their home.
“We need to have more defenders. The Rangers are a good start, but if the ASA comes after us, we’re going to need everybody we can get. Obviously, we can’t really expect the ‘refugees’ from New Bern to fight their neighbors, but they can still fight the ASA.”
“This is a list of able-bodied volunteers.”
Heather handed over a list of names. Beck read it, then re-read it. Something stuck out at him about it, then he put his finger on it.
“An awful lot of women on this list.” He said to himself. Heather picked up on it anyway.
“What, you don’t think women can fight?”
“What?” he said, coming back to the present.
“You don’t think that women can fight?”
Beck noticed the rest of the staff shift in their seats to watch the upcoming ‘discussion’. Heather pretty much the only one in the office who would take him on like this. Of course, he thought bleakly, she’s one of the few people I can’t make dig latrines for pissing me off.
“Of course not.” He said, voice weary, indicating that he wasn’t really up for an argument. “It’s just unusual, that’s all. The percentage of women that volunteer for armed service is usually much lower.”
“Well, this is the end of the world.”
“No, even that doesn’t account for it. After the bombs we did see an increase in general of women fighting, but not this much. This is almost 40% women.” He said, holding up the list.
“So Jericho is special, huh? I must admit I didn’t see Jericho as a feminist hotbed.”
The room chuckled at Heather’s deadpan comment.
Captain Dunne, done snickering, spoke up.
“Actually, I think it’s because more women are able.” This got her a sharp look from Heather, who wondered why a fellow female would defend the major on this issue. She elaborated. “I’ve noticed a distinct lack of pregnant women compared to most towns we’ve been in.” She turned to Heather. “Why is that, by the way? The men in this town aren’t that ugly.”
Heather was decidedly taken aback by the query. Beck smiled, burning the image in his mind. Served her right after all the times she’d cornered him.
“Uh…hadn’t really thought about it. It’s not like people aren’t, uh, well, you know. I guess they’re just being more careful?” Her cheeks were turning bright red, to the amusement of everyone. She buried her face in her hands.
“‘Careful’ doesn’t explain it. Is there something in the water?”
Heather’s head snapped up.
“What?” Beck asked. “Is there?”
“No. Well, there might be, but one of the factories in New Bern is a pharmaceutical plant. It had shut down for a while when I went off to college - the drug it had been making was discontinued.” The officers waiting for the point of this rambling explanation motioned for her to get on with it. “Well, I’d heard talk that they were going to bring it back online, manufacturing the pill. There was some comment on it - Kansas is a tad conservative - and the issue wasn’t resolved when I went back to school. I guess economics won out.”
Beck chuckled again. That certainly explained a lot. And while he might have preferred a surplus of, say, antibiotics, he wasn’t going to complain. It meant fewer mouths to feed in the long run. Besides, it helped morale.