As the medical problems slowed Jacob took control more and more of the other survivors. It was a time of emergency and anyone who could keep their head was more then welcomed by the others who followed his orders mindlessly. Shelters were built, more survivors were found, they began to pull themselves together.
Jacob started to explore their island, it was decent sized, large enough to hold all of them comfortably but not big enough to get lost on for any great amount of time. He could recognize the streets if nothing else, by the tipped over signs and the ruined land marks. There were people here as well, and he recognized some of them, they were people who he himself had ordered to go look for more survivors. It was somehow nice to see his influence was spreading so far.
That night there was a surprise for Jacob when he got back to the main camp, everyone was waiting for him. As he walked into the camp a large cheer went up, and then they shoved him and Alex into makeshift chairs and started setting food out in front of them. Finally a man stood up.
“You two have done so much for us in these last two days that we can’t even start to express what heroes you are. This is a start however. We don’t have a lot to party with but we thought that after these last few days we needed a chance to relax and forget our troubles. You two are the guests of honor tonight. It’s like you two are the children of the gods who were sent down to aid us during this disaster.” Jacob and Alex were both struck dumb, neither had expected to be called heroes, so they let people pill food on their plates and they enjoyed themselves. No one was in the mood to hear a speech of gratitude anyway.
It was the morning after, once Jacob realized what power they held that things really started moving. People would literally do anything that they were told if it was either from Alex or himself. A couple hundred people had put their lives in his hands and the feeling was a welcome one. Houses started to be built from the rubble. Of course things were dangerous, rubble could shift, water was contaminated, the air was filled with dust, but Jacob knew how to deal with all of these things and he told everyone else how to as well. They trusted him implicitly and the only person who got even close was Alex who it turned out was the only person in the whole island with any formal medical training. Something that was very important with all of the hazards around, as well as the people who were still injured from the original earthquake.
Jacob and Alex started to go off on long walks away from everyone else to talk about what still needed to be done for their community. No one would bother them, after all the leaders were entitled to their conferences. They would wander while they talked, going one way or another. The island had such steep cliffs that there were no lonely beaches to walk on but since the cliffs made people nervous because of their height they were pretty lonely just the same. Therefore it was the cliffs that became the favorite spot for the leaders when they wanted to speak without being overheard.
“I think we should make a currency,” Alex said to Jacob on one of these walks. He was standing with his hands behind his back, looking over the lonely water of the ocean. “We need to bring some civilization back to this place; it needs to stop being a contest of strength and survival of the fittest.”
To be continued...
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