Chapter 5 The Beginning Part 4

Our Sanctuary

The Valley

Chapter 1: The Beginning Part 4

The two disagreed with me, saying, "there is no power to use."

I said, "you two were right about the power, but it did not say we had pipes to use either." I said, "I would go along with their plan, but I wanted to add my plan in just in case we were able to use our power."

They said, "go ahead," and we worked on their plan first. I did mine after we were apart and drew up my map and ideas, showing just the water wheel being used by the water's movement to send the water towards the village. I then added a second map showing my idea of solar or wind power running a pump from a dug well, stating that the groundwater should be high enough because of the river and the nearby lake.

We went back to the dorms and then to eat. Janet asked me to join her and Scott for dinner. Janet said, "they were impressed by my IQ score and also the answers that I had put down in the second test."

Scott asked me, "how it was going with Greg and Jeff and the water problem."

I told the two of them, "we were having issues about getting the water to the village. We did come up with a waterwheel type of plan, and we would pipe it from the river into the village."

When Scott asked me, "what do I want to do?"

I told him, "I was working on putting power in and pumping the water out of a well in the village, telling him that the groundwater should be high enough to do that all the time, because of the lake and the river that is nearby."

Scott asked me, "where I would put the well."

I laughed and said, "We could use a divining rod to find the water."

Scott looked at Janet and asked, "do I know how to use one."

I said, "I could ask my uncle to show me; he does it back home." We finished eating, and I was led back to the dorm. Greg and Jeff showed up, and we worked some more on the waterwheel plan, and when we finished, the two of them went for a coffee; I stayed behind and worked on my ideas until I had it finished.

The next morning, they asked us to hand in our assignments. We were then taken and shown around the campus some more, and they said that they would be conducting interviews starting after lunch. The campus was huge, and I liked the larger classrooms, and there were a lot of people still going to classes. After lunch, we had time to go and see certain people for the interviews. I had my interviews with the department heads in the computer programming section, and they said that my status for being a student here depended on my receiving the scholarship that I had a chance to get. It was the same with all the people; they liked my scores and hoped I could get the scholarship. With my interviews complete, I was to see Janet and some other people, and maybe these were the ones that had the information about the scholarship.

As I entered another room, Janet said, "please sit down in front of the table with six people at it." Janet was joining them to make it seven. Janet said, "You know Scott and Joseph; these others are William, Mary, Jessie, and Barb." Janet, who had introduced them to me, turned and then told them my IQ score, and I wanted to do computer programming at the University, but I needed the scholarship to get in. Janet now turned back towards me and said, "They want to ask me some more questions that were not related to the course and wanted to know what I thought about the questions." Janet said, "all of us had looked at my answers on the other tests and wanted to know for sure before they committed any funds."

I said, "okay." I now waited for the first question.

Scott asked me "what I thought about the threat of a virus that would wipe out most of the population."

I said, "that there could be a virus that could do that. I hope and think it will not affect everyone."

Janet asked me, "why would I say that."

I said, "there was that one outbreak of the bad flu a while ago, I was around it, but I never got it. There will be some people not affected by it."

Scott then asked me, "if there was a way to avoid it, would I try to get involved."

I looked at Scott and asked him, "how could we avoid it? The only way I can think of avoiding it would be on an isolated island."

Scott came back and told me, "that we didn't have to be on an island to be separated, but you would have to find a good spot that so we can make it isolated."

Mary now asked me, "if I had the chance to join some people in making an isolated area, would I do it, without letting anyone else know what I was doing."

I said, "that it might be a little hard to do, you would probably need so many people to be able to do what you would want to do, and it also depends on the size of the project."

Mary then asked, "would I be able to keep it a secret."

I said, "yes, if you involve me. But who was going to be wanting me to be in a project like that."

Joseph said, "people that might be looking for persons with a high IQ and can think through problems."

As I looked at him, I could now understand why we had these other tests. I saw Janet watching me, and I guess she figured out that I knew I had a good chance as a participant in such a project. William now whispered with Janet, and then he turned towards me and said, "that they are thinking of doing such a project, and they could use me and my skills."

William said, "I would have to be silent about the project, and I would have to keep out of the limelight; they did not want people watching them. They knew I needed more education, and the computer skills would immensely help me in the group. If I did not want to join the group, they would understand why, taking me back to the airport to go home, and no one would say anything else."

As I sat there thinking, I knew that if I did not join their group, they would find someone else and being low key; I would not even know it; they did continue with it. I said, "I would like to join their group, but I had a few questions that I would like to have answered."

They said, "I could ask all the questions that I wanted, but for now, they needed to get some things set up for my education, that was the most important thing that we need to do now."

As they stood up and said goodbye, Scott came with me and said, "I am glad that you accepted; he could see a lot of potential in me."

I stopped Scott and asked him, "what stage were they in as a group."

Scott turned and said, "it is just starting, the group needed to access funds for getting it going, some people were able to get the funds needed, but we were going to need a lot more. It was just starting up from what I could see."

I asked, "do they had an area in mind for starting."

Scott said, "no, they were looking at a few areas and were wondering how affordable and easy it would be to get them to the way that they wanted it to be."

I asked Scott, "what they were looking for in the area." Scott got me to sit down on a bench, and he started to tell me, "they want the area to be self-sustaining for a large number of people, it also had to be easy to close it down so no one else could enter it."

I laughed and said, "like a big fort."

Scott laughed and said, "I hit the nail on the head."

I asked, "could I see the areas that they were looking at?"

Scott said, "I shouldn't show you this yet, but I might as well start to help them out since I am now part of the group."

We got up and went back to the dorm and went for dinner. Scott told me, "don't tell the others that I had got the scholarship from them; it is supposed to be anonymous." I thought, yes, it had to be that way, or others will find out about them immediately.