Bookworld Online: Marsh Man

We worked all day on the damn thing and only stopped long enough to grab a quick meal from the mess hall for supper. Even with Gary's help with the mechanical side, we could barely work out the logistics of having this plan work. The numbers just didn't make sense. The amount of food available also wasn't going to be enough. Not just for getting there, the amount of food available in the town at the moment.

There were going to be too many mouths to feed. Even if we still had the Addams farm fully operational and the garrison wasn't there, there still wouldn't be enough food.

“This really is an idiotic plan.” Alex said. “It's not feasible. At all.”

“Don't tell the Colonel that.” Gary said. “I caught part of her conversation about how angry she was at Private Drake for insulting her to her face.”

Alex and Donna stared at him and didn't speak.

“It's her plan.” Gillis said, correctly guessing why. “She came up with it all on her own.”

“That's the only way this makes sense.” I said and waved at the mess of papers. “Even if there were ten of me, I can't make enough potions for everyone in a month.”

“Why not?” Gillis asked.

“It takes proper ingredients, prepared a certain way, and usually quickly. It takes me weeks to gather what I need and I usually brew it constantly. This last winter, I preserved a lot of them instead and spread the work over the weeks that I couldn't go outside.”

“So, even if you somehow had all of the ingredients, you couldn't make the potions in time for them to keep their freshness unless you preserved them.”

I picked up a piece of paper. “This says that squads of people have been taking small incursions into the marsh a short ways, fighting off the things they see, and looking for ingredients that the potion master told them to gather.” I picked up another piece of paper. “This is a list of what they have and when it was harvested.” I put it aside and picked up the last piece. “This is the progress they've made into the marsh.”

“That's all proper procedure.” Alex said, not understanding the problem.

“First, he doesn't have a list of ingredients that I need. Second, they've been picking everything they come across and just leaving it in bags without prepping them or even cleaning them. Third, and the worst, they've stripped each area they went to and it's no longer of any use.”

“The Colonel said to strip it if you had to.” Gillis said.

“Yes, if I had to. The problem is, everything they've picked up until now is useless. You have a day, maybe two, before the ingredients start to wither from not being in the marsh. The potency drops by half after the first day, then again the next day.” I said and tapped the first paper. “The potion master didn't do anything with them, because he didn't know what to do with them. It was all just a waste of time.”

“How many spider potions did they use up?” Gillis asked.

“It would be easier to tell you how many are left.” I said with a glance at Alex and Donna, who looked guilty.

Gillis understood what I meant, because she knew that they hadn't used them properly and they were wasted. “So, what do we do?”

“We go to bed.” I said and stood up, picked up a piece of wood that was nearby, and laid it across the desk to hold the papers in place. “Gary and I have to start the new addition to the garrison tomorrow.”

Gillis sighed and looked at Alex and Donna. “Our team is going to be slanted if we can't have the two main members.”

“We can still work on the numbers problem.” Donna said and stood up as well. “Thanks to Gary's modified boat capacity and David's idea to add balancers to another flat bottomed boat the same size as his, we can have troops in one boat and supplies in the other.”

“We can't make the boats bigger, either.” Gary said. “I read your reports about the trip.”

“There were definitely some tight spots.” Donna said. “David's boat is the biggest we can have and still have it fit through some of the smaller channels and waterways.”

“So, is it agreed? David's the only one qualified to pilot the boat, I can guide it, and we have to ferry everyone to waypoints that we have to construct on the way.” Donna said.

“Yes.” Alex agreed. “If we don't give breaks to the both of you along the way, you'll be less than useless when the time comes.”

“Then the first few loads should be soldiers used to quick construction.” Gary said. “You can take the first load to the first stop, wait for your break, then come back. Take another break, pick up the next load of people and supplies, then go back to the first spot.”

“We can't keep coming back all the way each time.” Donna said.

Gary laughed. “No, you won't. Once you have two crews out there, they work in tandem. After your break at the first spot, take the second crew to the second spot. After a break, come back to the first and they should be done. Pick them up and go to the second, take another break, and then go the third spot.”

“You want us to leap frog them?” Alex asked.

Gary nodded. “They'll have lots of rest during the boat rides, and since they'll have supplies with them, we won't have to worry about getting food out to them.”

“How long do you think we can stay out there and do that with the same crews?” Alex asked Donna.

“We?” Donna asked. “You're not coming along, unless you're taking command of one of the relay stations, and I absolutely refuse to let you do that until they are manned.”

Alex looked surprised for a few seconds, then he smiled. “I love you, too.” He said and kissed her.

Donna mumbled something, so he wrapped his arms around her and kept kissing her.

Gillis turned away from them to look at Gary. “Who do I report to for lodging?”

“I'll walk you to the ladies barracks.” Gary said. “No mixing with men at night.”

“What? But, at training camp...”

“They weren't going to give you your own barracks for three months.” Gary said with a laugh. “The army's not made of money, you know.”

Gillis nodded and left with him and I stood there to wait for Alex and Donna to finish whatever they were doing. They broke the kiss a few minutes later and Donna's face was flushed red and she looked both happy and excited. They didn't even look at me and left at a fast walk while holding hands.

I closed the maintenance building and locked it, then went to my own. I checked my things and everything was there, so I secured the door and climbed onto my bed, fully clothed. I took a deep breath and let it out as I let the vigilance technique lapse. My whole body relaxed and I closed my eyes.

I had been on edge the whole day and I wasn't sure why I thought I needed to keep the vigilance technique going for so long. It was then that I realized I was still training it and the longer I used it, the better I got at it. I smiled and let myself fall asleep. I would wake if anything happened, since that was what I did my whole life.

The next day passed like a blur. The morning and afternoon were filled with woodwork as Gary and I built the new part of the garrison and the evenings were for working on the plans. This went on, and on, and on.

A week later, the outer wall of the garrison was finished, because it was the most time consuming part of the build. Gary and I started on the buildings next. It was all barracks and they were two floors each. It took us another week to finish them. It was just in time, too. The schooner arrived right on schedule and offloaded their cargo of men and a month's supplies of food as well as army beds.

We used the two horse carts and my hand cart to help offload the schooner. The crews asked us where we found such great carts that could hold so much. Gary laughed and told them that they were custom made by his maintenance department. During the second load, the captain of the boat himself came down to talk to us and wanted to order a pile of them.

“You want to buy how many?” Gary asked, completely shocked.

“A hundred. Those are the most well built carts I've ever seen.” The captain said. “The woodwork is impeccable and I can't see a seam anywhere.”

“They don't get wet, either!” One of the crew said and splashed a bit of water on the side. It slid right off and the captain laughed.

“Make that two hundred!” The captain exclaimed. “You don't know how difficult it is for our shipping line to make deliveries at some of the stops we make.”

“But...” Gary started to say.

“We're leaving as soon we finish offloading.” The captain said. “Leave us one of the horse carts and the hand cart. I'll be back in a month to pick up thirty more.”

“But...” Gary started to say.

The captain pulled out a bag of gold and silver coins and counted out what he thought was a fair price. “Is this enough for one?”

Gary stared down at the pile of gold and could only nod. The captain doubled it and waved to the crew. They worked twice as hard to load the three carts up and he pat Gary on the back.

“I'll be sending other boats with supplies and they will pick up the rest of the order over the next few months.” The captain said. “We'll pay you during each delivery.”

Gary nodded.

“Good man!” The captain said and started to walk away. “Carry on!”

Gary wasn't sure what to do with the gold in his hands.

“You have pockets.” I whispered.

“Right!” Gary said and quickly dispersed the coins into various pockets to even the load.

We left and made the delivery, returned for the last and then left a horse cart, without the horse of course, and left the hand cart. The schooner untied from the dock and cast off as quick as that, then we went back to the garrison to drop off the last of the beds.

“I need to talk to the CO.” Gary said and pat my shoulder. “Go on back to the maintenance building as quickly as you can, then meet me in front of the main building to let me know if they've finished the plans or not.”

“Sir.” I said and saluted with my real hand, then took off running. I went into the maintenance building and over to the pair of workbenches. The wall in front of the new one was much more streamlined with smaller and more detailed maps. The bench also had a lot less papers. They were written on both sides as well. “How are the last stages coming along?”

“Almost done.” Gillis said. “Donna, what are the final figures like?”

“If we can get every single other part of the plan to work, and I mean every single part with no mess ups, we can get 2,000 troops through the marsh in six weeks.” Donna said. “Alex?”

“I've already allotted the proper command structure to handle a little bit more than that, so we're good.” Alex said.

“I can safely say that everyone will be on their last nerve by the time they are all there.” Gillis said and finished writing out what they said on a piece of paper. “But, they will be there and they will be safe the entire way.” She smiled at me. “They'll also have enough supplies for a month and be fully equipped.”

I nodded. “Gather it up and let's go. Gary's waiting for us.”

We gathered everything up in the proper order and left the maintenance building. We walked over to the main building and saw Gary was there and looked a little nervous.

“I'm not sure we can do this.” Gary said. “Our margins of leeway are way too thin.”

“We're ready.” I said with confidence as I spoke for the others.

Gary looked at all of our faces and nodded. The five of us went inside the main building to meet the CO, the Colonel, and probably our fates. For good or for bad, the plan we had come up with was the best we could do. It was either going to work perfectly as planned or it was going to doom us all to a slow and probably painful death.