Sorry I haven’t had time to really hammer down the history or edit it to make sense but in the interest of getting this going I thought “What the hell?”
Oh and if anyone would like to be CoGM or write a better history please feel free to volunteer ….How it all began few know and the rumors many but in the end that no longer mattered it was the end of the world that once was and the beginning of a New world, a world of struggle. No place was left untouched as far as anyone knew and society had fallen apart. Many chose to act like beasts blaming it all on the disaster in the end they were always animals.
But some men kept their humanity, tried to hang on to what was left knowing that the future was decided now and one such man was David Comber who was once a parachute instructor with the Screaming Eagles or should I say the Commander of their jump school Colonel D.Comber who retired after only twenty years to take care of his granddaughters who had lost their parents in a plane crash 2 years before the disaster. He was at the time working as the Chief Forest Ranger of Mount Hood when it went to hell and like most he was off balance but quickly recovered when he found his family in danger.
He and men who were from various services and who knew each other from the local VFW Came together Chief Comber Under his leadership in his little neck of the woods 40 men strong. They fought their way in organized teams that included their teenage relatives and local boys and girls willing to fight. Their goal had been the power station by the Bullrun dam and the structures themselves which lead them through the town where the local loggers had fought a battle of survival and lost having lost their leader. He was immediately pressed into service as the local emergency commander because the Sheriff had fallen to the dead and Comber began under the conditions that his word in this operation of survival was law which he would relinquish only if 65 adults said they wanted him out.
Organizing sweeper teams Comber took advantage of the ground he was forced to fight on and observed his enemy and soon knew their weakness and exploited them channeling them into killing pens constructed of the local produce Lumber in the form of logs. The battle had lasted 3 weeks and welded the people of Lasthope into a community of fighters and survivors.
Collecting all the data his patrols had brought him Chief Comber saw a chance to use the craggy terrain to his people’s advantage and seal off a safe zone to raise crops and herds to feed everyone through the northwest winters. He was in luck to have a Korean war Seabee engineer who taught the local loggers and heavy equipment operators the best way to build quickly. The first structures weren’t designed to be permanent and built like the Roman Legion forts which Caesar used to conquer Gaul and in this case hold back the horrors.
Next came the town of Lasthope which was built to last taking advantage of the fact it had a concrete factory, lumber industry, and a working hydroelectric plant. No one was allowed to shirk their duties in the construction of the town unless they were under the age of 8 years old the adolescents assigned to minor tasks under elder supervision.
The Founding population of Lasthope built the center of town in only three months and had provided so well for the Winter that they were even able to take on 400 rescues brought in by the mounted patrols. They quickly developed into a Socialist Society founded around Democracy based on the motto “We Dare to Live” fostered by the Chief.
It was because of his uncompromising leadership before and after those long gone days that Comber has been elected Chief of the Band of Mount Hood Year after Year. He is a planner, a logistics expert and leader who is backed up by like.
Earl White a man of no military training but a skill in understanding Cavalry tactics that comes naturally; it is Earl who drove off the first attack by the Portland Pirates at the “Battle of the Locks”
Then there is Comber’s wife Candice who runs the orphan’s home of Lasthope and the educational system. It was because of her that some of the first sweeper patrols brought back every book that could be found for 20 miles in every direction.
Next is Art Newbury son of William Newbury who had been the founder of the Construction corps and has taken over for his deceased father without missing a beat.
After him is Betty Craft a former High School Botany teacher whose work building the farming system the town uses has kept them fed and able to enjoy out of season crops by greenhouse growth and hydroponics.
Lasthope is Built along the Shore of Bullrun Lake using Shipping containers, Cinder-block, Concrete, and Brick using Mill Creek and Taylor Creek as barriers to the Dead and the Living. It’s fortification came complete with earthen revetments and only one gate with a military watch system on all walls and 12 reinforced watchtowers made of concrete and manned by at least 4 reserve troopers each (reserve troopers are the oldermen of Lasthope, 45-65)
The Gate is constructed of 16 40 foot steel containers and 10 20 foot containers serving as 4 Towers and manned by a 20 man watch 24/7, 365
The Bullrun Reservoir and Dam which has a working hydroelectric plant are critical to the Survival of Lasthope and why they have fought 3 wars against the Portland Pirates as well as the Clackamas Gang and the Wanders.
Portland is still an issue but Chief comber believes at the present growth rate for Lasthope with births and immigrants the Band will be twice the population of Portland in another 10 years and if they haven’t ceased slaving and pirating by then the Band will see that they move or are broken apart as a threat ever again.
While Lasthope is built near and around the lower Dam
The Mount Hood Band is made up of over 2,675 people and of those number they could field an effective cavalry force of 550 and have over 2,600 head of horse along with 8,000 cattle and most importantly a hydroelectric power station that is still functioning.
