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(OOC: I used Carla as you directed me to do. I'm assuming you're going to correct it in your first post?)

Roger Hamilton was at the north gate entrance to Bentonville dealing with a situation when he looked up to see a woman on a three wheeled bike heading toward him down the cracked, weed-choked blacktop road. He knew it was Kimberly Wright immediately, from both the mode of transportation and her appearance, even at this distance. He smiled, both on his face and in his heart, at the thought of a visit from her.

"Deal with this, Sergeant," he told the man supervising the security team at the check point. More to himself than anyone else, he murmured as he began walking north, "I have more important things to deal with."

Although he was wrong, Roger thought he knew more about Kimberly Wright than anyone else in town. He'd been with the Bentonville Militia since its beginning, just weeks after the Blackout that had so dramatically changed the world and the lives of everyone living in it. As a senior officer in the force -- today he was a Major -- he'd had the opportunity to interview the woman who went by Kimmie when she first began trading in the town. He'd also put out the word that upon her arrival at Bentonville, he was to be informed immediately, regardless of whether he was occupied with other important work or not.

To put it simply, Major Roger Hamilton was infatuated with Kimberly Wright.

"It's nice to see you again, Miss Wright," he greeted her as she slowed her bike to a stop, not needing to put a foot down because of the number of wheels. He waited for her reply, then asked, "And how is the family...? The twins growing up, becoming young adults...?"

Roger had made it abundantly clear as early as 2 years ago that he was eager to see now-18-year-old Nicolas join the Militia soon. He promised Kimmie, "We'll make a man out of him. I'll take personal charge of his training and safety, I assure you. And, of course, you'll be compensated ... paid."

The members of the Bentonville Militia were some of the best paid men and women in town. Only such professional positions as Doctor, Scientific Researcher, Weapons Technicians, and such were compensated as well as those who put their lives on the line to keep Bentonville secure.

Roger had an interest in Nicolas's sister, Carla, as well. Of course, the position he envisioned for the incredibly beautiful, incredibly curvy, and now-adult-age redhead was not one of militiaman but one of bedmate. That wasn't likely to ever happen, of course, and Roger was enough of a realist to understand that. Kimmie had kept the young woman away from Bentonville after she'd once caught Roger ogling her with a hungry expression on his face. The last three or four times he'd laid eyes on her had been at the family's property, when he and his escort had been out and about collecting taxes for their security services.

"Your friend, Laura..." Roger began, hesitating a moment to see if Kimmie would correct his description of her. He was very much aware that the two were lovers. He'd once taken an inconspicuous ride out to their little homestead once for his own information gathering purposes and found them in an intimate situation that left no doubts as to their relationship status. He continued, "She's taking care of the little one I presume ... Lizzie, correct?"

Roger studied Kimmie's reaction to his name dropping and other displays of gathered and recalled information. He had a yearning for knowledge about the people around him, a yearning that was almost as important to him as was his revealing to those people that he had that knowledge. Knowledge is power, his father used to tell him. Knowledge ... and the knowledge of how to use it!

He'd expected Kimmie to have trade goods in the cart behind her trike and, thusly, he hadn't paid much to the cart until there was movement under the blanket tucked around its edges. It wasn't a chicken or kid or rabbit that moved, though, but was little Lizzie instead.

When he learned the reason for Kimmie's visit, Roger didn't hesitate to jump into action. He turned and whistled to the Sergeant who was still dealing with a man who wanted to enter Bentonville without any trade goods. He told him, "Get Miss Wright and her girl to the Doctor ... now!"

He looked back to the matriarch of the farm located to the north, smiled, and reached his hand out. In it was a blue, rectangular poker chip, the style of which -- as far as the non-gambling Roger was aware -- had normally only ever been used in casinos in Europe and the Orient. Bentonville had once been the home of the company that had made these chips and hundreds of other chips specific to individual casinos around the world.

These days, this particular chip was used by visitors to the town as a pass, allowing them access to most of the town's facilities and services. There was a second such chip, this one red, which was more restricted in nature, so much so that Roger wasn't even allowed to have one on his person without the expressed permission of his superior, the Colonel, who was, of course, the leader of Bentonville and its Militia.

"Do I have to remind you not to lose this, Miss Wright?" he asked kindly. He knew he didn't, but he would have been remiss to not ask. The last person who had lost such a pass was still in a cell at the Sheriff's Department. (Of course, that wasn't so much because he'd lost the pass and was more about the fact that he'd transferred it to someone else without authority.) He told her, "Go with the Sergeant, Miss Wright. He'll get you to the Clinic. I'll come check on you shortly."
Dear Hostess,

I'm copying the style of your reply headers -- date and time and such -- for two reasons: first, It means I can just used "copy and paste", which makes it easy for me; second, because I think it makes reading easier because of the similarity.

And I LOVE the way you highlight names in red so that they are easy to find later! I'm going to be a "copycat" about that, too.

I don't know if you like the way I highlight dialogue in yellow, but if you want to copy that, go for it. (I saw that you highlighted formerly posted dialogue in dark blue which, to be honest, is kind of hard to read on my phone. Totally your call.

And I just wanted to say again for all to hear, thanks for letting me write here. I've been away a while and some of my former writing partners were upset that I simply left. My bad. I did apologize to them, though.
OOC -- I, too, wish to thank ItsJustMe for letting me take over a character she created. (I will create a profile for "Hondo" soon but wish to wait until I see the format you use for your own characters. And I'm sorry if the image I chose doesn't look enough like The Duke to fit the comments made earlier about him by Naomi.)

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Monday, April 4 2022 -- A bit after 3am

"The Tram ... it's stuck, hanging over the river. There's people in it."

Frank O'Connor -- better known as Hondo -- and Naomi gave each other questioning looks, after which he chuckled. "That would never have occurred to me."

He told the woman who'd hurried up to them with the news, "I'll get to this personally, ma'am, but let me get these folks on their way first"

Hondo looked back to Naomi, then to the others gathered around him. "Officer Wilde, these are your Neighborhood Watch Block Captains."

He pointed to and named the 5 men and 4 women, each of whom greeted Naomi. He gave guidance specific to this night's situation to 7 of the Captains, each of whom confirmed their orders and headed off. He asked the 8th Captain to cover the 9th Captain's area, then told the 9th, "I have something special for you and your people."

After explaining what he wanted from the woman named Kimmie Dolan, Hondo led Naomi and the woman who'd come to them for help the three-quarters of a mile to the Roosevelt Island terminal of the tram. They lit their way as best them could with a pair of the souvenir lanterns that had been given to Naomi by the girl from the bodega.

(Hondo knew Maria, of course. In fact, he'd once tried to interest her in going out for coffee, lunch, dinner, or whatever, only to be very politely shot down. That had been quite a blow to the man who, by all measures, was tall, dark, and handsome and, as such, was chased by women as often as he himself chased them. It all made a little more sense to him -- and relieved his fear that he was losing it -- when he learned that the beautiful Latina had eyes for others of her own gender. Whew!)

They'd managed to increase the performance of the little lamps by wrapping aluminum foil over one side of cardboard sheets and then curling the cardboard around the backside of the lamps. It helped a bit, but Hondo couldn't help thinking just how much he missed his Police-Issue, 4 D-cell Maglite.

All along the way, the pair of them caught sight of people out and about with no apparent reason for being where they were. A dozen times or more, Hondo used his intimidating stature to intervene in potentially criminal situations: one pair of men had been loitering outside a jewelry store; another man had been trying to get into a building's side door and ran off at the sight of the three who'd happened upon him; and a trio of men were following and making lewd comments to a pair of teenage girls.

(After Hondo ran the men off, he turned on the girls and snapped at them, "Go home! What the fuck are you doing out here alone in the dark in the middle of a blackout? Jesus Christ, where are your parents?")

Eventually, they reached the Roosevelt Island terminal for the tram. A crowd was standing near the waterfront, some of its attendees standing around either of two fires blazing away in metal trash bin. The fires were providing heat for those around them, but that wasn't the primary reason for the blazes; most of the people there had been drawn by the situation 1,000 feet out and 250 feet above the East River: the stalled tram car.

"Anyone able to tell me anything about this?" Hondo asked with a loud booming voice. Several people began talking all at once, but the big man waved them all silent and clarified, "I mean, does anyone know who's up there, how many are up there ... stuff like that?"

"I think my daughter's up there," one man spoke up quickly. "She was on her way to see her mother in Midtown, and I'm sure that's the car she was on."

A woman in medical scrubs named Vicky Bloom -- who Hondo was familiar with in the biblical sense -- stepped his way, smiled, and said, "Yeah, I think I know someone up there, Frank. A girl who came to the clinic earlier."

She talked about Angela Henderson's bought with food poisoning, adding, "She should have spent a night in the hospital for monitoring, but her mother said no, that she'd be okay. I ... I think it was more about insurance costs than anything else. I don't like the idea that she'd stuck up there."

Hondo asked, "You know for certain she's up there?"

"Yeah, I was going to ride with them, but..." Vicky responded. She hesitated, then glanced toward a man standing by one of the can fires; Hondo didn't recognize him, but the man was most certainly his on again, off again lover's type. She finished with a very explanatory, "You know."

"Yeah, I think I do," he said, smirking devilishly. He glanced at the car, then asked Vicki, "If we wait until sunup...?"

"I would rather you didn't," she said, wanting very badly for a rescue to be started ASAP. She added a soft but meaning, "Please, Frank."

"Anything for you, Vicky," Hondo said. He didn't say it with a flirty or suggestive tone, but he knew that she knew his mind was filled with fantasies of being naked and sweaty with her in the very near future. He turned to Naomi, saying, "Okay, so ... this is gonna be an adventure."

He led her to the backside of the terminal's building, checked a set of double doors -- they were, of course, locked -- and then looked around himself. He found yet another metal garbage can, tipped it over to dump its contents, then righted it and began throwing some of the spilt garbage back inside. He explained, "We don't want to set anything on fire that's gonna poison us or go boom."

Once he was ready, he lit the contents of the can and -- like out near the river's edge -- they had heat and light. He looked to Naomi and said, "Now we wait for the cavalry."

It was obvious in her eyes that she had no idea what the man was talking about. Hondo pointed to the set of double doors and explained, "There is gear in here for ascending on the cables and lowering people down to the water from the car. The Captain I gave instructions to ... she's going to the fire station to get the keys to this door or -- if they don't have a set -- get the gear necessary to force it open."

He sat on a stack of boxes near the fire, held his hands out over the growing flames, and said, "All we can do right now is wait."

Hondo let his eyes take a walk up and down the police officer's form before smiling a bit wider. "In the mean time ... why don't you tell me something about yourself, Officer Wilde: married, single, engaged ... available for something ... wild during a blackout."

The humor in his voice was meant to imply that he was only joking. But honestly, Hondo wouldn't have said no to Naomi inviting him to find a bit of isolation if she wanted to pass some time during the power outage.
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