Aberrant: Dead Rising - Cold Beer and a resolution [complete]

[Dan Hawkins]

Dan knew things might not go well. That said he knew he had to address the issue now, before the rumormill really got going.

He hunted James down, a cold six pack in hand. It took a little while but he found him at the wall and he nodded once.

"Hey James. you got a minute? I go beer if it helps.."

[Courier]

James put down the pallet he'd been carrying and said, "Sure." Other people would take it apart, James job was to play fork lift.

Dan seemed to want privacy so James took the proffered beer and walked away from the wall. The break up with Violet had been the day before yesterday, it still hurt, work didn't help much. He'd spent most of yesterday thinking about it, some of that while working on the wall. It'd been a minor miracle that he hadn't accidentally injured anyone. Back when he'd been blind someone had 'accidentally' put a board where it'd trip him while he'd been carrying a load. Instead the board had been pulverized. Those kinds of games with the forces involved were an industrial accident waiting to happen and that'd been the only time it'd happened.

It'd taken a while but with Jo's help he'd gotten his head around what had happened. It still 'hurt', but he didn't feel like crawling off and hiding somewhere. His attitude and behavior yesterday had been unusual enough that someone had asked what was going on and he'd answered truthfully. Today it was obvious that everyone knew but so far no one had asked again about it.

Or maybe that was, 'No one until now', but maybe Dan had something else on his mind. Somewhat out of earshot of the wall James asked, "So what's on your mind?"

[Dan Hawkins]

"You really want to talk about it in the Refuge? I figure it would be better to discuss certain thins out where nobody can actually hear us, but I'm fine with whatever."

His tone left no doubt what he was reffering to. "I know what happened, and my questions are relatively simple ones, starting with What do you plan to do now?"

[Courier]

Talk about 'it'? James focused his senses and smelled Violet on Dan, but not sex. Was this the guy? Or maybe just V talking through Dan? Or maybe even V using Dan to... James dismissed this level of double think as counter productive. Blunt speech worked better. James answered evenly,

"Plan? At the moment I don't really have plans as such. And what's your interest in this? Am I talking to Dan-the-concerned-friend or Dan-the-next-lover?"

[Dan Hawkins]

"Both if we're being honest." there it was.

"My interests are to resolve this without depriving the refuge of anything it needs, and if possible work something out that benefits everyone. He kept his posture neutral, though it was hard to do so. His insticnts were screaming that he be ready for an attack.

"Where are you planning to stay? Are you planning to stay?"

He looks at the other super. "It's something of a mess right now and with a community like this talk will abound quickly." I wanted to talk to you before yu heard it second or third hand."

[Courier]

James had known sooner or later he'd run into his replacement and he'd wondered what his reaction would be. Indifference had seemed unlikely. Hate? Anger? Something else?

James looked at Dan and after a moment started to grin, then gave a short chuckle. With equal parts envy and pity James realized the poor bastard had no idea what he was in for. Dan would have lots of fun finding out... of course, until he didn't. James wondered if he should give him a clue?

James parroted with amusement, "Stay? A mess? Talk? Third hand? Oh, you have no idea do you? Let me guess, you're wondering whether I'm going to try to kill you? Dan... what exactly did Violet tell you? Oh, and I'll definitely be staying."

[Dan Hawkins]

"Actually James, I figured you wouldn't. There's a bunch of reasons not to. Violet told me she broke it off with you and that it hurt you. So I admit there was some apprehension on my part. Beyond that I don't know what went on between the two of you. It isn't my place to ask into personal buisness like that."

"My questioning your plans of of place to stay is tricky by that reasoning. I just know that you helped build the club, but I don't know if you were going to stay there or look for something else."

"If you were going to look for something, then I offer my help, you can stay at my place, I don't mind sleeping in my Humvee, or we can talk to Fox about building a more permanent house or housing complex here."

[Courier]

James gave a snort of disagreement and said, "Dan... if you're with Violet now, then it is your business. Granted, I'm basically her ex-husband so you should take what I say with a grain of salt, but you're about to make all the same mistakes I did."

"As for moving into your place, no offense, but I've seen and heard about the other places. It's not a perfect solution, but I'm pretty good where I am. Are you going to be moving in?"

[Dan Hawkins]

"I don't know yet James. I might, I haven't decided."

He nods. "Since you seem to be in the mood to offer advice, I'll gladly take it. You know her better than I do at this point."

With that Dan offers James another beer and takes and opens one himself.

[Courier]

James nodded and said what had been on his mind for the last several hours,

"Dan, there is no such person as Violet, there's only Jennifer. Jennifer is a super. Violet is just a construct she created to deal with her personal issues. Violet let Jen have wild flings and enjoy life without taking responsibility. So Jenifer is repressed, and dissociative, and Violet was built to not have inhibitions."

"Basically Violet is Jen's Id walking around. Originally there were two distinct personalities, one for each body, and they abused each other. I managed to put an end to that so she wasn't hurting herself any more. My problem was I thought that was a good thing for us." James said that last with ironic humor.

James continued in a serious, matter of fact tone, "Jennifer has a negative self image, and she's still dissociative. With me and the girls she found herself in a non-standard, but healthy, relationship. And that right there is what killed us. Our relationship didn't fall apart. With no warning we just went from 'I love you, let's have children' to 'We're through'."

James' tone acquired a bitter edge, "Relationships aren't about 'fair'. There's no overt trade off. Saving someone's life or sanity doesn't mean they'll sleep with you, much less bare your children. I get that. I'm good with that. But when you do things like that for a woman who already loves you and who wants have your children, then it's supposed to be a good thing, not a relationship ender."

James' voice lost any trace of self pity and became very matter of fact again, "What killed us is Jen is engineering situations where she can receive the punishment she feels she deserves. She couldn't get that from me, so game over."

James refocused on Dan and added, "And now, surprise surprise, she's with someone else who is physically capable of abusing her. Dan, I don't resent you because you didn't have anything to do with this. If it hadn't been you, it would have been someone else. Primal perhaps. You have my envy and my pity..."

"Oh, yeah, advise. I think you're going to find that the better you treat her the worse she treats you and vise versa. You should watch out for that. Other than that, I'm not sure what to say. If you're serious about this you've got some work ahead of you."

[Dan Hawkins]

He nods, not knowing really what to say. He considers what she'd said to him in their conversations, and now he was hearing James' condensed his side.

"I never thought it would be easy. I never had any ideas she was really like that."

He nods. "In the time I've come to know her I see Jenfier and Violet as two aspects of the same personality, so your assessment makes sense."

"You've given me something think about that's for sure."

He looks at James. "What would you say to me moving in just out of curiosity?"

[Courier]

Having verbalized everything James felt oddly released. The entire mess hadn't been his fault, looking at it with the benefit of hindsight... he wouldn't have changed a thing. Violet had been a marvel when they were together, but there was no way he could continue with someone that self destructive.

And now Dan, who unlike James was now armed with foresight and knew exactly what was going on... was going to make exactly the same mistakes. James didn't want Violet back, but on the other hand if she offered he wasn't really sure he'd turn her down.

No, he'd lost Jill. He'd made a mistake somewhere in there because knowing he'd lose her he wouldn't have repeated everything. Mentally James shrugged and decided not to worry about inconsistency.

James shrugged at Dan's question and said indifferently, "Knock yourself out. This wasn't about you and she's not mine anymore. Make the choice without my input, she's your problem now, not mine."

A side thought occurred to him and he asked, "Fair is fair. What do you say to me staying in?"

[Dan Hawkins]

"You helped build the place. I won't ask you to leave. Though she might. If she does my offer stands."

He nods. "I'm not exactly keen on the idea James, but a man's home is his home. It won't be me that tells you tell leave."

[Courier]

James replied, "Thanks I guess. If it helps, Jo seems set on building another house and then moving out. Jill being her sister complicates an already complicated situation. I'm giving her a day or three to change her mind, that's why I said I wasn't really making plans right now."

"If we did build, I was toying with the idea of getting a bulldozer blade and digging a basement, and going off somewhere and getting metal I-beams and cinder block. I'm not sure how much of an entire wall I could just pick up and move. We should probably build 'something'... but if I were going to build, with tools like that I'd want to build large, and if I were going to build large, I'm not sure what we would be building."

[Dan Hawkins]

Dan smiles. "Why don't we go to Lawton or Dallas with a Flatbed or three and find a damn dozer? There's bound to he construction equippment, and materails we can use. I'm honestly suprised nobody's done it thus far."

He thinks. "Could build a Dorm, get the people in tents out of tents. Main reason the people live in them is there isn't enough space in the main complex."

[Courier]

James said, "The original reason I was thinking of a bulldozer blade without the machine was for those slime zombies. Their big resource is that pool, fill the pool with dirt and they have nowhere to hide. After that it gets easy."

"My building ideas are less well thought out. My vision is currently that of a fortress of Jame-itude looking something like a mid-evil castle. Say, four master bedrooms on the corners, one for each of my wives, and a dozen other bed rooms for the children. Heated of course, propane probably, and perhaps solar powered as well."

*You only had three wives, Violet and Jen counted as one, not two. Also at the moment you have one, and no children, and Jo doesn't want children, much less 12.*

"Like I said, not especially well thought out. But... let's get serious. Dorm. That hadn't occurred to me, but it sounds more realistic than a castle. I'm not sure..."

James thoughts played out on his face, *I'm not sure who goes in it, who owns it, or what my role is in it. James the slum lord? It's not like I can charge rent. Do we put all those prison chicks in there? James, head of a women's dorm? Building a dorm is a fine idea, but I'm not sure what it does for me personally. I don't even see how it gets me away from Violet and her new toy.*

James said quietly, "A dorm would take quite a long time to build. Worse, when we were done, I'm not sure it sounds like a home." *Although technically you're currently living in the corpse of your former family. Two thirds of them are gone, half if you count yourself.*

[Dan Hawkins]

"I can easily design and build a good solid structure on a smaller scale given the materials."

"We ought to discuss this with Fox, since we'd be using his supplies, and open it up for the other residents, If we're going to build something large scale."

[Courier]

James said, "We should talk it out with Fox, but other than land we're not using his supplies because he doesn't have any. The wall sucked up everything that was left and it's not done yet. I could play 'fetch' easy enough though."

*We have what, 3, maybe 4 dozen tent people? Two thirds of us are without running water and half are without power. I already have a fortress of solitude I'm not planning on using because I'd be alone. In the middle of darkness, even a flicker of light is a good thing.*

James said, "I'm not sure what kind of housing is within our abilities. There's several trade offs here. One house would be quick and fast but would still take, what, months? Large scale gets more people housed per unit of time, but if we go with a dorm, or condos, or multi-family housing, or whatever but we're also talking about at least a year to build this right?"

[Dan Hawkins]

"That all depends on what sort of equipment and building supplies we can find. If we could get the stuff we need then it wouldn't be much of a problem and we can probably get something big enough built in six months, Considering the available pool for work we have."

"It won't be fancy in the least, it will be functional though."

[Courier]

James said, "Building supplies is easy. Not only do we have the raw stuff but we have actual buildings. Define 'not fancy'?"

[Dan Hawkins]

"I can build the standard military structures with ease. Designing something like a regular home I don't have a prayer. That's not something I've got experience doing."

[Courier]

James said, "Thought so. As for the building, I guess we learn by doing." James gave a big grin. On some level it felt good to push Dan outside his comfort zone.

James continued, "As for the rest, someone else needs to design this. Priest's Brains maybe, or maybe we have someone on base with experience as an Architect or General Contractor. Fox or Jules might know, I think they were trying to make a list of this sort of thing."

"Want to head over there now?"

[Dan Hawkins]

Yeah, let's see what they've got going on."

With that he starts heading over to the main complex, offering the beer to James. The situation wasn't optimal, but it would have t work out for now.

[Courier]

James took the new beer and tossed the old one into a trash can they passed on the way to the office. James reflected on the impropriety of walking into the Base Commander's office, beer in hand, and decided he was glad he was a civilian.

Reaching the office James asked a near bye military type, "Hey, is Fox or Jules in?"

[Mr Fox]

Ger nodded, "Yeah, Fox is in, not sure about Jules, she might be there."

When they entered the quanset hut HQ Fox was sitting at his desk looking over a stack of papers and referring to a map on the wall next to him. He looked up at the two men and wondered what had them so tense. He'd heard rumors that James and Violet had split up but hadn't had that confirmed yet. By the look of it, it might just be true.

"What can I do for you gentlemen?"

[Dan Hawkins]

Dan nods to Fox. "We were both wondering what sort of housing projects you've got going on, and whether it was possible to add another."

[Mr Fox]

"Yeah, we're building housing as fast as we can. That's what the big metal buildings are for. They are the easiest and fastest things to put up. Just pour a slab, erect the steel girders and sheet it in metal siding then insulate. Then you can build out the interiors to whatever spec you need. We've got several in process right now. What are you needing one for? You have more survivors coming in?"

[Courier]

James shrugged uncomfortably, this was a sore topic, and it was his sore topic, and he didn't see a way to be vague on the issue. After an awkward pause James said,

"Violet and I broke up. She kept Jill, I got Jo."

[Mr Fox]

Fox wasn't sure how to react, on the one hand this would make his life in the refuge much easier by lessening the tension that had been created over the past couple weeks thanks to James having 4 women. On the other hand he sympathized with the man, it was always rough when a relationship ended and it had to be worse when you lost two women at the same time, to each other.

"Sorry to hear that."

[Courier]

James said, "Yeah well..."

James considered...

*It was all her fault.*

*I'm better off without her.*

*If you thought the refuge had problems with V with me, wait to you see her without me.*

*All of those statements are literally true, and they're also all standard bullshit that asshole men say when they're really to blame for everything.*

James said, "...life happens. The break was somewhat friendly..." *If that's the word you use when a self-destructive... this isn't helping* "...and everyone is making an effort to be all adult about it. But at some point Jo and I will need long term housing. A metal shack on a slab wasn't what I had in mind, so that implies that I should be building it myself."

"I was already thinking about getting a bulldozer blade, or maybe even an actual dozer itself, and filling in that slime pool with the acid zoms. But basically, if I'm going to seriously get into the construction business, there's the issue of how large to make this, and getting your ok for land and the like."

[Dan Hawkins]

"I can help design a dormlike structure easy enough, but do we have Electricians and plumbers who can handle making the sort of systems we'd need to handle a structure like that?"

[Mr Fox]

Fox thought a moment. "I've got no problem with you building yourself a personal house, but I have a request. I'd like you to put in at least equal time in assisting to build other housing. Reason being, people will look at your place and get pissy because you've got something better than them." He pitched his voice higher, 'How come we have to live in a dorm when one of the specials got to build his own house?' He resumed in a normal voice wit a little bitterness, "If I had a dollar for every time I heard someone bellyaching about crap like that I'd have one big worthless pile of money. Anyway, if you put in more time on the community projects and are 'seen' to do it then I think the grumping will be lessened and that should be ok."

"That way I can say to the people that you put in the same amount of time as any of them and three times the work."

[Dan Hawkins]

Dan nods. "Fair enough. Have you decided when we're going to the Prison, and what we're going to do regarding the people there?"

[Courier]

James considered, *He didn't solve the question of how big to build this thing and/or what to build.*

*Smart man. Knows better than to try to help me look for new antiques. This is my contradiction, thus it's my choice and my problem.*

*Mine and Jo's maybe. The whole contradiction comes down to, 'kids' or 'no kids' and neither or us show any signs of changing our mind.*

*This wasn't a problem before...*

*...because she was good with the idea of the other women having children. And for that matter, she was good with the idea of other women in general although V specifically presented problems.*

*Hmm...*

*I suppose it's better to have space and not need it than to need it and not have it.*

[Courier]

James brightened somewhat and said, "Thank you Morgan. If I'm going to be pushing a blade around, I might as well dig a small moat for our wall, it'd be good practice."

James continued, "On the subject of the prison, I have an idea on how to get a few people out without the guards knowing anything is wrong. We could then talk to them about the internal layout of the prison."

"It's real simple, I'll just go up to the prison and offer to buy one or two of the women."

[Mr Fox]

Fox nodded thoughtfully, "That's not a bad idea. What happens if they take you inside though? Seeing some of the things I've heard about I would have a hell of a hard time not ripping someone's head off right there on the spot. If we do that be sure and check for good locations to view the prison from. I can open gateways into places now so if we can spy the place out properly I might be able to free some of women without a fight. If we could get the victims out we could go in guns blazing and not worry about innocent people getting killed in the crossfire and they couldn't be used as hostages either."

[Dan Hawkins]

Dan nods. "I know it has no real purpose now, but I've got close to thirty grand in cash. That might help us depending on how the guys are wired. The idea of going in there under pretense to buy the women has merit, but who goes on such an expedition?"

He considers then puts forth. "Beyond that, the three of us are the most military looking, I'd suggest camo and we all go in as if we were from the same unit. We take some supplies we have more of than others, and a few things we really shouldn't spare but will likely need to seal the deal."

[Mr Fox]

"Yeah, that's a good idea, I don't think the cash is going to be good for anything but toilet paper though, unless you take it in the form of gold bars." That sparked a thought in Morgan, "Heh, for just a second there I thought about raiding Fort Knox but I'm betting the RUS already controls that base."

[Dan Hawkins]

"That's a long way to go too for a chance operation like that too."

"When would we like to make that excursion?"

[Mr Fox]

Fox chuckled, "Not so far away now. If I knew exactly where it was I could make a wormhole there in less than a minute. We'll need to do a little scouting though. Having not been there before I'll probably need to make several jumps to home in on the place and I don't want to get too close until we are ready to go in. No way to know if they might have someone that could detect our presence."