Kenn was being slapped on the back and congratulated, but he didn't miss the gleam of satisfaction in Adrian's pale eyes as he watched his new man being accepted.
"We also have four new loads of clothes, shoes, blankets, and a lot of other gear we've been low on or out of. The trucks will be open right after this meeting, with M-Z going first and A-L, 20 minutes later." He paused, looking around.
"We have the photos back from the Essex bunker and NORAD. They're bad and it blows the idea of finding help there. With this odd weather holding in some warmth, I say we keep looking, but if we haven't found anything by the Fourth of July, then we should pick a place to try starting over on our own."
"You mean in the mountains?" someone called out from the very back. Kenn noticed the eyes of the camp never stopped moving, looking, even though there were guards everywhere right now. Tense sheep, he thought, waiting for the dog's bite.
Adrian was clearly reluctant and had to raise his voice a bit to be heard as the wind ran through camp, causing the tents to flap louder. "Yes. The bunker under the base in Montana won't hold us all, but this country is full of tunnels, caves, and equipment to make them livable. I hope for something above, but if we had to, we could go to ground or take a big set of caves and block them off, make it work temporarily."
He waved a dismissive hand, his eyes calmer than his stomach as they muttered among themselves. "It's just something to start thinking about. We'll have a final vote on that in July. For now, we'll stay here tomorrow and have our contest, then head out the next morning. Where? We pick that tonight, along with voting on some new rules."
Adrian met suddenly nervous eyes with calm, reasonable words. "We have a lot of people here now, and we pick up more nearly every day. That's great, exactly what we want, but it also means we need more volunteers. With no law that says they have to, people aren't pulling their weight. The current rules say everyone has to help, but I'd like to be more specific. We need each person here to pull three shifts on guard duty and one shift on any other chore of their choice. We all want things to be better, right?" He waited for a reaction, their half-hearted agreement, faces a mix of trust and suspicion, and then went on, voice without doubt.