“So, is there a plan?” the scarred man asked. “The kid in black know what’s going on?”
Everyone looked to him.
Xavier exhaled, then started.
…
Jenny sat at the desk in Danny’s room, alone, creaking back in his chair, trying to imagine him sitting there, not gone. Against her better judgment, she started through his framed photographs—his life. A wife. Kids. Friends. With each smiling face next to his, she couldn’t keep herself from letting a few tears go. She brought one of the lit candles closer to her, to the next picture she held within her hand—a bar scene filled with what she assumed were other cops.
“Is that…?” she grumbled. Of course it is. Griffin’s face was the last thing she wanted to see. Jenny couldn’t understand the respect Danny felt for the monster. So different, the two of them. Maybe more the same in the past. Perhaps, only the apocalypse started them on diverging paths. But all she knew of them was Danny, the man who gave everything for her, and Griffin, the man that only took.
Fearing someday her memories of Danny would fade, she carefully freed one of the photographs from its frame to keep for herself—the one with him and his wife, two daughters, a son, and an infant.
A baby… Her hand rested against her belly. No outward sign yet, but soon there would be no hiding it. She’d wait until then to tell. The time still wasn’t right she decided—the mission too important. It was better to hide her condition as long as she could rather than try to convince others she’d be able to fight, to be part of the movement she’d begun.
Finally… She smiled.
It took a while, but eventually the Depot voted in favor of avenging Danny and Griffin—the Second Alliance now their collective target. It wasn’t easy. At first, Xavier seemed too big of an obstacle to persuading them, but once the crowd opened their interrogation, Xavier met every question with the answer they needed. Jenny was impressed with how well he performed against the pressure, against the hostility some in the crowd projected toward him. But he held strong, speaking from the heart—they knew it with each passionate word he laid upon them.
River’s Edge will be ours again, and from there, we start taking them down, piece by piece.
“Sorry, took so long, but here it is,” Grant said, entering the room with an old typewriter cradled in his arms. “Took Lars awhile to find it and give me a crash course in settin’ it up. Prolly, the crash course that ate up most the time.” He chuckled, setting it down on the table. “Should be good to go. Now, if you’ll look right here, this here’s where—”
“I know how,” she said, her eyes still affixed to all the pictures in front of her.
“Guess I didn’t need the crash course, huh?” He waited for an answer, but it wasn’t coming. “You okay, girlie? Oh. I see…” He lifted one of the frames from the desk and tapped his finger against the glass. “Good man right here. Better than anyone in this place if we’re bein’ honest, but you already knew that.”
She nodded.
“You know he’d be proud of you with everythin’ you’ve done here. You don’t have nothin’ else to prove to him. Don’t let—”
“I’m not trying to prove anything.” She pulled the typewriter in front of her. “This isn’t about anything like that. The truth is I’m just tired of running, tired of being scared of them. Right now, I’m more excited than anything else. Those assholes put people through so much. It’s their turn to feel it. Their turn to get a taste of what’s deserved.
“You said people would follow me, that I’m a leader, but it wasn’t until after the vote that I believed it. Everyone kept coming up to me, thanking me, telling me how brave I was. The looks on their faces—I don’t… I don’t doubt it anymore. Danny trained me for a reason. He chose me to have these skills, and I’m choosing to use them to fight back.
“Grant, it’s not just us this time, we have backing. It’s not even close to what it was like with River’s Edge. We have the truth about the S.A. We have weapons, the people, a chance to surprise them. All of it gives us a real chance.”
“I think we’re being smart about this,” Grant said. “You and Xavier’s plan is good. Real good.” He gripped her shoulder and squeezed a couple times before changing the subject. “I still have these.” He took both the Second Alliance letters from his coat pocket and slapped them on the desk. “Figured if you’re pretendin’ to be Haverty, you might want these, right?”
“I’ve read the one plenty.” She took the new letter, the one intended for Griffin, and delicately removed the wax seal from it. “It’s set up similar to the other,” she said while reading through it. “Same format ... Same sort of language … Long-winded for sure. You mind checking this out? It’s a draft I put together for Xavier’s new orders. I think it’s pretty good.”
“Yep, I’ll take a look at it.” Leaning back onto Danny’s bed, Grant began to read.
Jenny waited.
When Grant finished, he stood and made his way back over to the desk. “Sounds good to me. Real official, but let Xavier take a look when they get back. He’s prolly seen S.A. orders before and can tell you what’s missin’.”
Jenny eyed Haverty’s newest letter and adjusted the margin on the typewriter to match it as closely as she could.
“Never knew you knew anythin’ about typewriters. Figured it was only computers and phones with your generation.”
“When I was younger, my grandmother let me mess with hers. She liked the clacking of the keys. Told me it relaxed her when she wrote letters to her friends.”
“Great! You guys got it,” Xavier said upon entering the room with Matt and Sherman.
“We were worried Lars wouldn’t be able to find it,” Matt said, as he took Sherman into his kennel.
“You think I’ll be able to make it look right?” Jenny asked. Xavier moved behind her to get a look at what she had started on the typewriter. “Well?”
“You shouldn’t have any trouble making it look right. I’m more worried with how it sounds.”
“She wrote this here.” Grant handed him the draft, and Xavier read over it.
“This is a little too much.” Xavier set the letter on the desk. “I’m not trying to be nit-picky, but the orders need to be a lot shorter. Haverty’s regular letters are long, but his orders aren’t. They’re supposed to be professional, and he writes them that way. You’ll definitely want to throw in some big words like you did in the draft, but there doesn’t have to be a lot to it. Let me see that pencil, and I’ll try and shorten it up.”
“How ‘bout me and Matt leave the both of you to it,” Grant said. “That is unless you need us doin’ somethin’ else.”
“You mind taking Sherman out for a bit? Let him use the bathroom and stretch his legs.”
“Isn’t that what me and Xavier just did?” Matt asked under his breath.
“I don’t think he’ll complain,” Jenny said.
“I got you, girlie. Matt, nab up that rifle and cover me.”
“Sure.” Matt passed Sherman’s lead over to Grant, then grabbed the rifle.
“You two play nice,” Grant said, as he and Matt left the room.
“Okay.” Jenny let the joke slide, focusing back to the letter. “How much do you think they’ll look this over?”
“Not sure,” Xavier said, still ticking through the draft with suggestions. “Sentries are used to taking orders and won’t question Haverty, but you never know. I think so far, this sounds pretty good. These changes will get it close to being perfect. Otherwise… Well, you know what will happen.”
“You sure you still want to do this?”
“Are you getting on me again? I told you I’m not S.A. I don’t wan—”
“That’s not what I meant. It’s just… Going back into River’s Edge is crazy. I’m just worried about you. Even with the uniform and everything, what if—what if someone recognizes you?”
“I’m not too worried about that. Most the S.A. there aren’t going to know who I a
m. The Guards aren’t going to give a shit. Haverty’s gone. The whole thing with the hanging, with you guys escaping, isn’t likely to be known by a lot of the S.A. that’s there. Things like that, you know, things that make the S.A. look bad don’t get out very often. They change people out pretty frequently to keep it that way. The only people who will care about me being back are our people.”
“You better not get caught sneaking around before you get the chance to set it up.”
“What’s the worst that can happen? They kill me again?”
“Don’t say that,” Jenny said through weak laughter.
“This plan will work. I know you’ll handle your part. Matt and Grant will take care of what they have to do. And trust me, I’ll have no trouble with mine.” He took a crisp piece of paper and slipped it into the typewriter. “Now, right here is how the orders are done.” He pointed to a section of Jenny’s draft he had corrected. “Format the top of the letter like this. If it doesn’t look like that, they’ll know right away.”
Jenny nodded.
“When we take the wax seal from the other envelope and super glue it to ours, then there’ll be no doubting it.”
“I hope so…”
Close:
Two faint lights ahead in the distance. One for each watchtower just as he remembered. Only a while longer and the lamps would disappear with the rising of the sun. It was then he’d approach the gate. Only then. For now, the young man would continue to wait inside the woodline, obsessively tapping the envelope in his front coat pocket. He counted each tap like the ticking of a clock, wishing away what darkness remained of the morning.
Waiting…
Tapping...
Finally, it came—the lanterns pulled from the watchtowers—the gate completely visible in the daybreak. The young man emerged, one hand on his rifle’s grip which hung from its sling, his other hand, swung freely, casually as not to raise suspicion to something more sinister.
One of the Sentries stood, a pair of binoculars to his eyes.
In the other watchtower, a rifle swung toward the approaching stranger.
“Relax!” the one with the binoculars called out. “One of ours!”
“You sure?”
“Yep!”
“What’s he want?”
“How the hell should I know?”
The young man strode toward the gate, each of his steps punching bootprints into the untouched snow. He took the envelope from his coat pocket as he worked his way through the gauntlet of vehicles that surrounded the wall of River’s Edge Academy.
“What’s your name, kid?”
“Xavier.”
“Why you come out here alone?”
“I have orders.” He held the envelope up for the Sentry to see. “They're from Haverty’s office.”
The Sentry nodded over to his partner and a bucket was pitched over the side of the tower. “Go ahead and put it in.”
Xavier’s hand shook toward the bucket, unsure if he could actually release the envelope from his grip. He knew once it slipped through his fingers there’d be no going back. That once the bucket had been lifted, the envelope and letter scrutinized, the fate of the plan would be determined right here and now.
Trembling inside, he could only stand there watching as the Sentry broke the wax seal and removed the letter.
…
“Took ya long enough to get here, Tommy. What? An extra day or two?”
“I’m not sure who you talked to, but we—we hit a bump in the road. Something came up. Definitely not how we planned things to happen.”
“That all ya gotta say to me, Tommy? A so-called bump in the road? That it?”
“I’m sorry, Bill, we had—”
“Maybe Bill’s a little too loose given what happened. Maybe we needin’ to tighten things up a bit. From now on let’s stick with sir or… Mr. Haverty if ya wantin’ my name in your mouth.”
“Uh, I don’t understand.”
“Tommy, ya fell into my good graces by success ‘n’ so let’s say failure’ll do the opposite. It’ll have ya removed. Truth is, ya failed, Tommy. Things ain’t so great no more.”
“It was one setback. We know where they are, we’ll go get them again. I just need more men.”
“So ya can go off ‘n’ get more of my men hurt or worse, killed? I don’t think so.”
“Give me a day to spend with Joseph, and then I’ll put a team of volunteers together. You wanted that place anyways. Let me take it for you.”
“Tommy, Tommy, Tommy, you’re gettin’ too far ahead of yourself now. All that Soldier stuff we agreed to before was contingent upon your efforts for the S.A. Well, all I can say now is that your efforts have fallen short, our agreement’s changed.”
“So… what? What’s all this mean?”
“I’ll give ya a day or two to cool down, then we’ll talk, figure this whole thing out.”
“Alright. Fair enough.”
“Oh, and Tommy, in full disclosure, we had to have Joseph moved, ya know with the whole changin’ of the agreement.”
“What?!”
“He’s back in LPH with the new trainin’ program.”
“You son of a—”
“Settle down, son. Ya need to step back. Let’s not do anythin’ brash now.”
“You took Joseph? You—you took him. Didn’t let me know.”
“I’m needin’ ya to step back there. Ya gettin’ too close over here this way.”
“I’m not listening to you anymore.”
“What ya plannin’ on doin’ with that lil’ thing there. Let’s put that knife away.”
“I’ll make sure it doesn’t hurt… unless you scream.”
“Now, let’s talk about this.”
“The agreement changed, right?”
“Well, maybe we can—”
Thank you for reading Days Since… Jenny: Day 986. I sincerely hope that you enjoyed the story and will invest future time in the series. Please be sure to keep an eye out for book four:
Days Since… Battle for River’s Edge: Day 995
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Table of Contents
Prologue: Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Close:
Almawt Virus Series (Book 3): Days Since...Jenny [Day 986] Page 17