I sat with the dogs, biting my tongue and thinking. The young guy was giving a motivational speech about unity, helping people and surviving, but the way he was wording things worried me. Words like my haven and a fortress for myself. I was always paranoid about that sort of thing and how quickly it could devolve into my rules and my decision. But he was right, we needed to work together as a community in order to survive. We needed medical books to learn how to treat injuries or make salves or medicines. If we could find a doctor, even better, but we needed to be mindful of taking in dangerous people, too.
As wary as I was of the situation devolving, we'd need to figure out punishment for crimes, places to hold anyone particularly bad. We'd also need irrigation if we were going to grow crops, maybe figure a way to desalinate the ocean water or collect dew. It was getting cold, so we'd need wood to burn and blankets to keep us warm. We'd need fires to boil water, too.
If we could find a hardware store with some shovels and digging tools, we could lay pipe. If we found any. Probably 1-inch black poly, since white PVC pipe could shatter if it got too cold and wasn't buried. We'd also need concrete to start building a water tank, ideally high up so it would be gravity-fed and we'd need to locate a water source to tap a well in order to be able to fill the tank. Solar panels and wind turbines could power the pumps.
As I was planning all of this in my head though, someone started raising their voice. They sounded like they were getting pretty passionate, too. I couldn't see who it was, but it sounded like he was voicing his own rallying cry and mentioning something about hiding on the roof.
"Look, that's all good n' well," I said, standing up as the dogs shifted, "But we need to actually make some other plans here. We need food and water, like young lad says, and we can't scavenge forever. That means farming, which means fertilizer and irrigation. We need animals, which means fencing. We need to actually know what we're doing. It's one thing to say what we need, but does anyone here know how to do it?"
I waved over to the main young guy who had called the assembly "Do we even have the tools to treat a severed artery? Let's face it, we're in a position where the flu could kill us, never mind an infected wound." I nodded to my dogs, "As it stands, our pets aren't going to live as long as they would've anymore. We don't have rabies or parvo vaccines any more, or heart worm treatment. There are some things we just can't do anymore. Now, we can learn splints and things, but we need materials. We need books, which means raiding bookstores and libraries. Unless we plan on going vegan and starving from the first failed harvest, we need to learn fishing, skinning, butchering and animal husbandry for food, clothes and fertilizer. We need to learn up on wiring solar panels, and what kind of manure is too high in nitrogen. And in case we run into the wrong people or the wrong people come to us, we need weapons and jails." I gestured around the Town Hall, "We need to learn how to maintain this shit on our own. We can't rely on any one person anymore, especially when a bad cold could rob us of their expertise. We have to become carpenters, electricians, farmers, butchers, plumbers and even doctors. I get that we need to work as a community, but we need to have a plan, too."
I looked at the young guy once more, "So if you want us to join you, then I for one am going to need more than promises and good intentions. I need to know your plan."