by Lopez, Rob
Bonnie laughed mirthlessly. “Sure. A real southern gal.”
“You’re not alone. Jacob and me will always be here for you.”
Bonnie smiled and stroked the baby’s face.
“Phoebe’s pregnant,” she said.
“She told me.”
“Her folks are going to go nuts when they find out.”
Dee sighed. “We’ll support her the best we can.”
“I haven’t talked to her about it. I can’t.” Bonnie gazed out across the hills. “This is so screwed up. What kind of future have we got?”
Dee was quiet for a moment. “I’m not sure.”
“Who’s going to take care of us?”
Dee’s eyes flashed annoyance. “We take care of ourselves. And each other.”
Bonnie glanced at her and grimaced. “I’m sorry. I’m just on a pity trip.”
Dee softened. “It’s okay. I … I get like that too. But it doesn’t help.”
*
Rick and Packy waited with the Blazer on the interstate ramp.
“You didn’t have to give them the Plymouth Road Runner,” said Packy sulkily.
“You can’t keep them all,” said Rick. “We ain’t collecting.”
“Yeah, but not the Road Runner. Why didn’t you give them that sorry-ass pickup? It was only a Ford.”
“Doesn’t matter. There’ll come a point when we’ve salvaged all the fuel there is to find, and every vehicle we’ve got will be useless.”
“That depends how good you are at salvaging. Me, I’ve got my eye on supplies that will last us a while.”
“In a few months, all the fuel will have gone bad, and then what?”
“I got stabilizer I can add to it. It’ll work.”
“And when you run out of stabilizer?”
“What is this? A competition to see how much of a downer you can put on things? We adapt, man. We made it to the moon. I’m pretty sure we can keep a crappy Ford moving. Innovation: that’s what it’s all about.”
Rick gave him a doubtful glance. “That ain’t adaptation. That’s dreaming. Nobody’s making stuff anymore. All we’ve got is the technology left over from before the storm. Most of it is useless and the rest is finite. Nobody’s drilling or mining or cooking stuff up in a lab. Once we’ve used it up, it’s gone.”
“Wow, this is a military mind speaking. You’re a professional pessimist. Everything’s dark and depressing to you, and you’re always expecting trouble. It’s how you’re trained, you see? Now I grant you, it’s a useful skill when it comes to killing a ton of people. That ain’t a job for no optimist. But you gotta have some faith in us entrepreneurs. If you don’t dream, then all you’ve got is, well, what you’ve got. You can’t make nothing new if you don’t imagine it first.”
“I’ve got a useful fact for you: most entrepreneurs fail.”
“Yeah, but the ten percent, man. That’s where it’s at. Hell, maybe even less than ten percent. That small number of pioneers and entrepreneurs have brought humanity a long way. We have literally dragged your average Joe into modern times. We can do it again. You’ll see.”
“Well, this average Joe ain’t convinced.”
“Oh, you ain’t average.”
“No?”
“Nah. Some people have to work at being so miserable, but for you it just comes natural. You’ve got talent.”
“Thanks.”
“Not the kind of talent I’d want, but hey, to each their own.”
“We can’t all be happy flowers, Packy.”
“Jeez, at least make the effort.”
Dee appeared, walking down the ramp with her baby, a faraway look on her face.
“Now that is one unhappy flower right there,” said Packy. “Hides her beauty behind broken petals and is forever lost to the world.”
Rick glanced at him in surprise. “You getting all poetic now?”
“Everything I do is poetry,” said Packy carelessly as he moved around to the driver’s side of the car. “It’s a groove.”
As Dee got into the vehicle, however, Rick noticed something artificial about Packy’s studied indifference to her. Like maybe he preferred to look at her and talk to her but somehow couldn’t.
They drove back to Round Knob in silence. Life in the compound had taken on a more placid air, with children playing by the lake and volunteers helping Chuck plant a vegetable garden. Most of the Bergen Mountain community had opted to move into Camp Grier, led by Doug. Sally and Harvey also chose to stay there, running a new medical center and taking care of the last typhus patients. The people who opted to come to Round Knob quickly filled the cabins and houses secluded in the woods, much to Packy’s consternation, who had to share his palatial new digs. Rick reinforced the roadblocks and built two new OPs to overlook the valley, but after the victory over the raiders, people were starting to relax, focused more on securing food and fuel stocks than worrying about security. Rick had led a couple of patrols into the hills, looking for signs that fugitive raiders might be regrouping, but all he found were young deer and an angry black bear protecting her cubs. Apart from advisory notes for some of the less experienced hunters, no more intel was gained from the patrols.
Rick mounted the steps to the lodge where his and Scott’s family lived. It was a big, luxurious building and could have easily housed more people, but so far nobody complained about Rick and Scott taking it.
Not to their faces, anyway.
Rick preferred it for its vantage point, but Lauren had already fallen in love with its homely touches.
“You know, I can just see us sitting in front of the hearth this winter, swapping stories by the fire, roasting chestnuts, all that stuff. Can’t you?”
“Uh huh,” said Rick absently, laying his rifle on one of the many couches in the long room. The raiders had carved their names into the exposed roof rafters, and the polished wooden floor was heavily scratched, but apart from that, they hadn’t beaten the place up too much. At least not until Rick and Scott had come along to add a few bullet holes to the paneling. Surprisingly, not a single pane of glass had been broken.
Lauren, carrying a basket of washing, stopped to watch her husband sink into a chair.
“Are you ever going to relax?” she said.
“I am relaxing,” said Rick, staring at the wall.
“No, I mean really relax. Like, not planning stuff all the time.”
Rick turned to her and saw the washing basket. “You should leave that for April. I need you to organize the watch rotas.”
“It’s been done. And I’m giving April a hand. Have you given some thought to perhaps living a normal life?”
“A normal life?”
“Sure. You’ve got two children. And a wife. We’re entitled to your attention too. You’re still in campaign mode.”
“Until this is over, I have to be.”
“And when’s this going to be over?”
Rick paused. “I don’t know.”
“The raiders are gone, Rick. Everyone’s settling into routines, prospects are looking good and you’re still out fighting a war. Even Scott is spending more time with his family.”
“Don’t lay that on me.”
“It’s my job to lay it on you. Nobody else is going to tell you. You’re like a four-star general to them. Or worse, a machine. I’m not your master sergeant. Or your secretary. Open your eyes and start paying attention to what’s happening right here, not out there on some imaginary front line.”
“No need to get like that. I’m not blind.” Rick tried to think up some example of how in touch he was with community matters. “I’ve noticed that Packy’s got the hots for Dee.”
“Oh you have, have you? That’s old news, honey. All the single guys in the compound have been eyeballing Dee for days now. Did you know that Red’s teaching Josh how to tan and stitch raccoon hide, so he can make his first coon hat? Did you know that Lucy Jane, the girl that Lizzy is playing with right now by the lake, doesn’t have any parents
and is sleeping in a different house each night? And she hasn’t bathed in months? Do you know the Clement brothers are building their first whiskey still, and that while Chuck is planting vegetables, they’re fixing to grow marijuana instead?”
“That’s all …”
“Irrelevant to you. I know. Until you factor in the Yorkins.”
“Who?”
“Exactly. You have no idea who they are. John Yorkin is friendly with Chuck but hates the Clements, and he’s threatened to bust up their still. He has a fourteen year old daughter named Grace, and Josh might get interested in her, seeing as she’s the only girl near his age around here, but John’s pretty protective of her. Like, insanely protective. Potential conflict there. And Lucy Jane has lice, and a knitted sweater she refuses to take off because it was made by her mother and it’s all she’s got left of her. She’s a walking infestation, which is why she gets moved from one house to another. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg of all the stuff you don’t know.”
“You’re better at that crap than me.”
“I’m not asking you to take over. I’m just saying you need to quit zoning out. You’re becoming distant again.”
“I’ve got a lot on my mind.”
“That’s my point. How much of that is necessary, and how much of it is because you can’t switch off and stop being a soldier?”
Rick frowned in disappointment. “I told you I wasn’t blind, and I’m not stupid either. I have been giving this some thought, but I want to make sure we’re secure enough to be able to relax.”
“And you think that day will come?”
“Yes I do. But first I want to secure alliances with other groups so that I know we’re not alone. After that, I’ll happily punch John Yorkin in the mouth if he steps out of line.”
Lauren smiled in amusement. “I was kinda hoping you wouldn’t need to be that drastic.”
“Whatever. Just let me finish this, okay? If we do it right, it will be worth it.”
26
They came from Marion. They came from Lake James. They came from Sunnyview, Pittman Hill and the other communities where the raiders had kidnapped women. The only no-show was Black Mountain, which felt it was big enough to look after itself and wasn’t interested in allying on equal terms with small groups it was barely aware of. But the rest came.
Wary of tricks, they came armed to the teeth and crowded out the railroad museum at Old Fort. Sitting with Scott and Doug on the only chairs available, Rick tried to control the tempestuous meeting.
“I don’t care how many folks you’ve got to feed,” said a man from Lake James. “If I see you fishing down there, you’ll get a bullet in the ass.”
“The lake’s big enough to feed all of us,” said Farah, interpreting for Lou.
“The hell it is. Damned lake’s nearly been fished out.”
“Well, you seemed to find plenty for your raider friends.”
“You watch your mouth, bitch. They weren’t no friends of mine.”
“You call her a bitch one more time and I’ll plant my fist on your expletive chops.”
The man from Lake James looked from Farah to Lou. “How in hell am I supposed to know who I’m talking to? The ventriloquist or the dummy?”
“Okay, that’s enough,” barked Rick. “We’re not here to sort out your feuds.”
“Why don’t we take this outside and I’ll show you who’s the dummy,” signed Lou with a menacing glare.
“Enough! This is a meeting to work out how we can help each other.”
“If he’s fixing for a fight, he’ll get one,” said the Lake James guy.
“There’ll be no fighting on my watch,” said Rick. “If you’d have teamed up against the raiders, you wouldn’t have been in such a mess, and that’s the point of this summit.”
“These guys couldn’t fight their way out of a paper bag,” said Scott derisively.
Rick turned to him. “That ain’t helping.”
“I’m just saying. They’d rather pull each other’s hair and stick their tongues out until the next bunch of raiders comes along to screw them in the ass.”
Doug stood up as if to distance himself from the two soldiers. “Folks, you all know me. We’ve had our differences and we’ve had our traumas. I’m just saying it’ll be better if we can all get along, because we really need each other. We’re all vulnerable, but from here on in, there’s no need for any community to be alone. Who knows what threats there are out in the mountains or in the woods? Isn’t it better to know that, if something happens, we can count on friends to help us out? Just because we beat one group of raiders, doesn’t mean there might not be more.”
“We got raiders right here in this room,” called out a voice. “Like the Kavanaghs.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” replied another voice, presumably one of the Kavanaghs.
“You took our hog. That’s a federal offense.”
“That hog was running free. And if it’s a federal offense, which it ain’t, why don’t you call the FBI? There’s an old phone in the cabinet right there. Stick it up your ass so they can hear you good.”
“Ha! That’s right,” said a third voice. “Because he’s talking out of his butt.”
“That’s what he meant, numbnuts,” said a fourth.
“Well it wasn’t that clear, so I wanted to explain.”
“Don’t.”
Rick sighed and rolled his eyes. “Can we get back to the matter in hand?”
“Folks, please listen to him,” said Doug. “Without this gentleman, those raiders would still be at large, kidnapping your women and blackmailing you for supplies. You know how brutal they were. This is the first break we’ve managed to catch. Let’s not waste it.”
One man stepped forward from the group. Rail-thin, he had an eye patch and leaned on a walking stick. “You say these raiders are gone, now?” he asked, lifting his chin to speak.
“They are,” said Rick. “The ones from Round Knob, anyway.”
“And do you know of any others?”
“No, sir, I’m not aware of any others. Yet.”
“Then I don’t see the need for any alliance. I mean, if some of these folks are getting attacked, they’re welcome to come and ask for help. But I draw the line at being obligated to help. We’ve got our own interests to consider, and sending our boys out to die for someone else’s benefit doesn’t strike me as a smart move. And considering some of these people are at each other’s throats already, what are we supposed to do if they’re fighting each other? Help them both? No, this is just a fanciful idea.”
“Obviously, we’ve got to improve relations between you all. For that, we need dialogue.”
“I get all the dialogue I want back home.”
“The roads are clear. There’s no reason not to communicate with each other more. We establish trading connections and get to know everyone better. It might seem right now that we’ve all got our own corners to fight, but we’ll soon see we’ve got needs in common. And the common is best defended jointly.”
“By trade, I suppose you mean that rat-faced weasel you’ve been sending to barter junk. I don’t need any of that crap. But the thing about trade, you see, is you give something and you get something back. If I’m going to be in some kind of alliance, and I send my boys to risk their neck for somebody else, I want to know what I get in return. And I don’t just mean thanks.”
“What you get in return is security. You’ve got to look at the bigger picture here.”
“The way I see it, you just want to be the boss of us all,” called a voice.
“That’s not it,” said Rick.
“You’re asking for more than we can give,” signed Lou.
“You just want us to rescue your ass when them raiders you chased off come back to give you hurt,” said another.
“Come on, people,” implored Doug. “Isn’t it the Christian thing to help a brother in need?”
“You ain’t no Christian, voodoo
man. I remember you from when you ran that store selling wampum and shit. Hell, you ain’t even a real Indian.”
“I am, but what are you?”
“An American. I defend my home.”
“Sure, you’ve been doing a great job of that,” remarked Scott, bored of the proceedings.
“Sorry, you got something to say to me, old man?”
Rick stepped in before Scott could reply. “Easy now. Let’s remember what we’re here for.”
“I remember coming because I was curious,” said someone.
“Yeah, and I’m done being curious,” said another.
Gradually, people started to leave.
“How about we fix another meeting?” said Doug. “To give people enough time to think about Rick’s proposal.”
Nobody listened. Lou was among the last to leave, and he signed a final message for Rick:
“We appreciate what you’ve done, but you’re wasting your time with these people.”
They left and Rick stared at the empty room.
Scott tried to console him. “Probably wouldn’t have worked anyway,” he said.
“Might have worked if they were reasonable people,” said Doug. “I guess the winter weeded out the reasonable ones and left us with the hard cases.”
“They didn’t need to be reasonable,” said Rick, still staring. “They just needed to see the bigger picture.”
“That’s only in your head,” said Scott. “It’s plain to see people don’t think like you. Don’t take this the wrong way, but you don’t have the skill to convince people to do what they don’t want to do. Not peacefully anyway.”
“I know I’m no diplomat. It’s just … well, it’s obvious to me what needs to be done, and I don’t understand why others don’t see it.”
“We spent too long in the army, surrounded by guys who thought like us. It ain’t like that now.”
“There were plenty of goofballs in the army.”
“Okay. Too long running A-Teams then. Special Forces is a whole different world.”
“That isn’t it. I’m just …” Rick massaged his face. “I don’t know. I think I just want to quit.”
“Don’t be so hard on yourself,” said Doug. “You’ve achieved a lot, so look on the bright side. Things are better now than before.”