The boys were farther outside of town than Jim had ever traveled. The path had taken them through the northern most edge of town and out into open fields. It had been a few minutes since they had seen any buildings and no one had said a word. The awkward silence was finally cut by Rick. “Well Jim this is it. Over this hill is ‘The Fortress of Solitude.’”
The first thing that Jim noticed about the fort was that it was much more open than Fort Massac. There were no outer walls or large towers and it was noticeably missing the constant flurry of people. In fact if Jim didn’t know it was a fort he might have mistaken it for just a collection of buildings. The only odd thing that stood out was a long road that was better maintained than any Jim had seen before. Jim wondered about the purpose of this road to nowhere.
Four large metal building rectangular in shape were lined up in a row along the road. Each of them looked to be pre-bomb construction which he could tell by the curved roofs. Postwar buildings were far more focused on function than aesthetics and curves were much harder to build. The skeletal remains of a fifth building barely stood next to them. It still had the basic frame, but most of the outer walls had been pulled down over the years. Jim noticed patches on the remaining buildings and realized that this one had most likely been used as parts to keep the others standing.
“Well Jim, since this is your first patrol I think we will give you the honor of taking point..” Jim noticed a chipperness in Joe’s voice that had not previously been there. “Just ride around and approach the first building from that Road. We’ll hang back a bit and let you get to know Big Dan. Just tell him that you are from Fort Massac and you are here to get the report from the ‘Fortress of Solitude’.”
“Ok, I guess.” Jim knew that they could hear the trepidation in his voice.
As he rode around the front of the build Jim noticed that each of the four buildings had a very large door in the front. In fact the door covered most of that side of the buildings. The road had a well maintained path to the second building, but the paths to the other building had been allowed to atrophy. Jim also noticed a normal sized door on the side of each of the buildings.
As Jim headed for the first building a rather big man was walking out through one of the large doors to meet him. He had the kind of build that was difficult to tell whether he was muscular or pudgy. In all likelihood it was mixture of both. The man had a large bushy black beard and mustache that matched his curly unkempt hair. He wore jeans and a t-shirt with little rips and black stains all over it. “Well hello there boy. I don’t recognize you, but I see Joe and the boys back there so I’m guessing you must be a new recruit.” There was a certain kind of cheeriness to his voice that put Jim at ease.
“Yes sir. My name is Jim.” He remembered what Joe had said. “You must be Big Dan. I’m here from Fort Massac to get the report from the ‘Fortress of Solitude’.” As the words left Jim’s mouth he noticed the smile slightly fade from Big Dan’s face.
“Dang it boy this place is NOT named the “Fortress of Solitude”. That was just a nickname some guys from town thought was funny 40 years ago when this place was set up.” His hands were waving wildly in the air as he spoke. “This Fort doesn’t have a name. I guess if I gave it one maybe I wouldn’t have to deal with everyone reminding me how lonely it is up here.” He paused. “Wait a minute, Joe put you up to that didn’t he?”
“He told me what to say yeah.”
“Ah good old fashioned hazing. I remember my first day in the militia. James set me up on lookout duty outside Fort Massac while him and Jason climbed the wall so they could dump a bucket of leftover oatmeal over the wall onto my head.” He shook his head. “Oh I got them back, but that my boy is a story for another time. For now let’s see what we can do about Joe. My name is Daniel by the way, but most everyone just calls me Big Dan.”
Jim dismounted from his horse and offered Big Dan his hand. “Nice to meet you Dan.” Big Dan took Jim’s hand and gave it a firm yet friendly shake. Jim could tell that this man could seriously hurt someone with just a handshake.
“Nice to meet you Jim.” Big Dan walked towards the other boys with a purpose. “Joe, Joe, Joe…. Hazing the new boy at my expense. I thought you’d know better than that.”
“Awe Danny, it’s just harmless fun. Figured you’d give him a scare to rival the one Sergeant Reynolds gave him this morning.”
“You know you are one of the few people who know me well enough to call me ‘Danny’ and that means you know me well enough to come up on Sunday and help me with some cleanup in the garage.” The other boys laughed at this, and Big Dan turned back to Jim.
“So Big Dan are you all alone up here?”
“Almost. I have an assistant named Luke, but he is picking up a package from town for me at the moment. We are all alone up here and don’t hear from anyone else except these daily patrols. As for that…” Big Dan took up an official tone. “I don’t have any Ist news to report out this way today. It is quiet as usual. You can tell Sergeant Reynolds though that I should be done with “Project Piper” by Wednesday.”
Joe nodded his head at Dan. “Danny, you take care and try not to get too bored out here. I’ll make sure to stop by early on Sunday so we can chat for a while before getting to work. We need to get a move on if we want to make it back to Fort Massac for a late lunch.” Joe rode ahead a ways while Jim was getting on his horse.
Big Dan walked closer to Jim. “Jim you should watch out for Joe. He is a good kid don’t get me wrong, but he doesn’t seem to know how to deal with a conflict he can’t shoot at.”
“Thanks Dan. I’ll keep that in mind.” Jim rode off to the East to catch up with other boys.