by Ely Page
With Hagenti dead and some wambei even ripping the giant apart, the battle quickly ended. The humans were once again victorious, but it came at a cost. Andy figured the number of casualties to be thirty-three—over ten percent of the town’s population gone within an hour.
Recovery and burials began quickly in the old town cemetery outside the wall. There was no time to mourn the lost fathers and husbands, the lost wives and mothers, as they had been called to Heaven and would continue to serve the Lord in the fight for everything that was.
Fall came within days of the battle. Ollie needed help with the harvest, and some of Hope’s newly widowed parents needed help with their children.
Margret, Frank’s old friend and Ollie’s constant companion, started using her skills as a school teacher. She took a school room that Dylan wasn’t using and made it her own little preschool. The room was full of four-year-olds, and she quickly realized that she needed help. Luckily, Mia, Xavier’s wife from Germany, had been a school teacher over there. She stepped up to help, taking half of the children into a room across the hall.
A few of the guys used their skills to put up a nice playground, complete with a swing set and jungle gym, outside the school so the kids could play during recess.
After the harvest and the school had settled down, Rich called Rodan, Jim, and Dylan to the town hall for a meeting.
“I called you guys here because of two things,” Rich said, leaning against his desk and facing the three men seated in front of him. “One thing is there is not a town council anymore, in case you hadn’t noticed. The other is I am making you guys a part of the new town council.”
The three men looked at each other, then back at Rich. Each had “what are you thinking” all over their faces.
“Now hear me out, guys. This is just temporary. I know none of you—well, sorry, Jim. I need you to stay on it.” Jim looked disappointed but knew where his place was. “I want Margret, Jenny, and Andy on the council on a more permanent basis, but they are all a little busy right now. They’ve all said that within a month, they would take over for you guys and we can get things running more smoothly.”
“OK,” Dylan said. “But what are we supposed to do for the next month?”
Rich smiled. “Just answer any questions that come your way the best you can.”
Dylan went home after a long day. He was looking forward to seeing Leah and the boys. John was going to preschool, and Frankie was spending his days either with Leah or at Greg and Laura’s house, where Emily, who was becoming a great young lady, would watch him as she did some of her own homeschooling.
“Hey, everybody,” Dylan said as he walked into the dimly lit house. He didn’t get a response, not even from Rexy. He looked in the living room and saw why. Leah, the boys, and the dog were all cuddled up, asleep on the couch. Dylan stood in the doorway and looked at his family.
After he went upstairs and showered, Dylan came back down the stairs. The dog had moved to the floor by the front door and fallen back asleep. Dylan moved to pick up John and take him up to his room. When he grabbed his three-year-old son, Leah woke up. She smiled at Dylan and held Frankie a little tighter. She wasn’t awake enough to talk, but when she moved, the book she had in her lap fell and almost hit the floor. Dylan grabbed it before it could make a noise.
Leah made it up the stairs and into her and Dylan’s bedroom as he put Frankie to bed. She was laying in their bed when Dylan came into the room and lay down next to her.
“How was your day?” she asked him as they made eye contact.
“Well, it was interesting,” he said with a smile.
“Interesting how?” she asked with a furrowed brow.
“Rich made me, Jim, and Rodan members of the town council.”
Leah sat up in bed, now feeling fully awake. “What does that mean?” she asked, confused.
“Um, well . . .” Dylan didn’t know how to answer that because he didn’t know the answer. “I don’t know. I do know, however, that he said it was only temporary, for like a month.”
Leah still didn’t get it. “OK, I don’t like it because it sounds like you will be gone from home even more than you already are. The boys miss their daddy, and I miss my husband.”
Leah was not happy and she didn’t even try to hide it from him. It made Dylan think about how he was never home and how he barely spent any time with the boys and Leah.
“Look, I know I am not home a lot. I know that sometimes it’s like I’m an absentee husband and father, but everything I do is for our future, not for the now.”
Leah’s eyes began to water, but she kept quiet as Dylan continued to talk.
“I am fighting to protect our town, our home. I was given the task of leading and training everyone here how to fight and protect our children and the children yet to be born. It is my job to do what I can to make sure there is a tomorrow for all of us. Now is not the time to think selfishly. I have three hundred people to protect, and I help Ollie because he has three hundred people to feed.”
Dylan put Leah’s hands in his own and looked deep into her eyes. “I will be here when all of this is over. I will be here when we are old and can’t take care of ourselves anymore. I know I can’t physically be with you all of the time, but I will always be with you, and that will never change.”
Leah broke down and cried in Dylan’s arms; she didn’t say anything for a long time. When she finally stopped crying, she broke the hug and looked him in the eyes again.
“I love you,” Dylan said to her.
“I love you,” she said back.
They both fell asleep soon thereafter, but Dylan didn’t stay asleep very long before he started to toss and turn on a restless night. Too many thoughts raced in his head.
In Hope, many couples already had three children while some had two, which was where Leah and Dylan were at. Leah was hesitant to have another baby; it was hard for them to even try. When Dylan was home, he was generally too tired to even have relations with his wife. The strain of doing everything to survive had already taken its toll, and even after they had their heart-to-heart talk, Leah and Dylan drifted further and further apart. It seemed that during the fall and into the winter, they became more like strangers than a married couple. Dylan fell asleep on the coach most nights, and Leah didn’t bother to wake him up so he could join her in bed.
Chapter 15
Dylan gave up his responsibilities as a member of the town council, like Rich had promised, and he wasn’t helping Ollie with anything. The academy basically ran itself, but that helped nothing at home. Finally, Dylan couldn’t take it anymore, and he went to Ben and Hanna’s house for help.
“Hey, what’s going on?” Ben said as he opened the door, letting Dylan in.
“Oh, you know, same stuff, different day,” Dylan replied, trying to act casually. As usual, he failed miserably, and Ben picked up on it easily.
“OK, now tell me what is really going on.”
There was a sound from one of the bedrooms that alarmed Dylan, but Ben all but ignored it.
“Don’t worry about that, the girls are crazy. Trust me, we would know if one of them got hurt.”
The men went into the kitchen. Dylan sat down at the table and Ben opened his fridge. He took out two beer bottles.
“What is that?” Dylan asked curiously.
“This, my friend, is beer.” Ben handed a bottle to Dylan. He opened his own with a bottle opener then handed the tool to Dylan. It was the first time Dylan had ever used a bottle opener. “Porter makes it at his house from some of the grains Ollie grows. It’s pretty good.”
Dylan took a drink; it was bitter but not bad. It tasted better than the only other alcohol he had tried, which was wine. “Where did he get the bottles and the caps from?” Dylan asked Ben taking another drink. “Porter rummaged through the recycling bin at the old gas station for the bottle
s and the caps he presses himself from some sheets of aluminum he found.”
“He said that he was going to start making whiskey in his basement this winter, but it needs to age, so it will be a few years before we can try that,” Ben said, taking a swig of his own beer.
“Now tell me why you are here. I know it’s not to listen to my kids tear the house apart or to eat Hanna’s cooking.”
“I heard that,” Hanna said from a different room. Both Ben and Dylan laughed a little.
“Well,” Dylan said in a low tone so Hanna can’t hear him. “There are some domestic issues.”
Ben looked confused. “What do you mean, are you having trouble at home?”
Dylan cringed as Ben spoke because he was not discreet about it, and Dylan knew with the footsteps coming toward the kitchen that Hanna had heard him.
“What’s this? Is something going on between you and Leah?” Hanna interjected, grabbing the beer bottle from Ben’s hand and taking a drink before she sat down at the table. “What is it? We want to help.”
Before Dylan could respond, Hanna interrupted again.
“Leah is my best friend. I knew she wasn’t happy, but she wouldn’t say anything.” Hanna had concern written all over her face.
“She wasn’t happy that I was spending all my time doing other things. You know, helping Ollie, spending my time at the academy, joining the town council.”
“But you don’t help Ollie anymore. Harvest is over,” Hanna said.
“And you’re not on the council anymore, so you should have plenty of time to spend at home now,” Ben added.
“That’s just it. I do spend more time at home. I am playing with the boys all the time, and I am helping around the house, but it seems like we just don’t talk anymore. When we do it, almost seems hostile,” Dylan said, letting frustration creep into his voice. He downed the beer. Without getting up, Ben opened the fridge and handed him another one.
“I don’t get why Leah hasn’t said anything to me.” Hanna seemed a little ticked off. “That’s it, I am taking the girls over to your house. They need to play with the boys anyway. I will put Ty down for his nap before I go.” She looked Ben straight in the eye. “You listen for him; he is coming down with a cold.”
Hanna got up and left the room. Ty was her and Ben’s four-month-old son.
“Hey, don’t say that I was here,” Dylan said after Hanna.
“Don’t worry about it,” Hanna said as she moved into a bedroom.
“I never have understood women, and I never will,” Ben said, opening up his second beer. “But you are home more, and that is what she wanted.” Dylan nodded his head while Ben talked. “And she is basically pushing you away?”
Dylan gave one nod and took a big swig of beer. Not being a drinker, Dylan started to feel tipsy.
Leah went to answer the knock at her door. Rexy was laying in front of the fireplace; he heard the knock and went back to sleep on his pillow.
“Some dog you are,” Leah said, walking by him.
John raced around his mom before she could even get to the hallway to the door.
“I got it, mommy,” the little boy said, fitting the big doorknob in his small hand and putting all of his strength into opening the old heavy door.
The girls came running in, and John screamed and ran away from them down the hall.
Hanna engaged Leah in the usual small talk before leading to the reason why she’d stopped by for a visit.
“So, you must be happy now that Dylan is home more.”
Leah’s even-keeled demeanor noticeably went away.
“I better go check to see how the kids are getting along,” Leah said, trying to get up off of the couch, but Hanna grabbed her arm and made her sit back down.
“Nobody is crying. You need to tell me something?” Hanna asked, not releasing Leah’s arm.
Leah knew her best friend well enough to know that Hanna was not going to let her go until she got the answers she was looking for.
“It just, I don’t know, it just feels . . .” Leah was finding it hard to express what she was feeling toward Dylan. “Different.”
Hanna was legitimately concerned and it showed. “Why, what happened?”
Leah struggled to give an answer. “I just don’t know. I love him and can’t be without him, but I just don’t want to be around him right now.”
The two women sat in silence for a moment, and then Hanna got an idea.
“Go pack up some clothes for the boys.” Hanna got up off the couch and started walking toward the room where the kids were playing in.
“What?” Leah got up to follow Hanna. “Why?”
Hanna walked back into her house with a bunch of kids hanging out with her.
“What are the boys doing here?” Dylan asked when he saw his sons were with her.
“They are staying the night here, and you are going home to be romantic with your wife,” Hanna said almost forcefully.
A perplexed Dylan had only a one-word response. “Alone!”
Dylan never been so nervous walking into his own house. It was dark; music was playing on the old record player in the den. He looked in the room, but Leah wasn’t in there.
“Leah, honey, where are you?” Dylan walked timidly into the kitchen, and there he saw the note sitting on top of the table.
“Take a shower, and then I will find you.”
Leah had drawn a heart and lips on the note. Dylan did what Leah said and showered. When he walked into their bedroom after his shower, he was done wondering where his wife was. There was a lit lantern in the room, the only light source in the darkened house. Dylan went for the lantern then, all of the sudden, something grabbed his towel and spun him around. It was Leah wearing some lingerie that Dylan had never seen before.
Before Dylan could tell Leah that she looked amazing, she took over the situation and turned off the lantern. It was the first time since their first night together that they shared passion like that. It was something that they both needed to save a relationship that seemed to be failing.
Feeling refreshed the next morning, Dylan and Leah walked hand-in-hand to the diner to enjoy a quiet breakfast before getting their boys from Ben and Hanna’s.
They ran into several people as they crossed town to the diner, and apparently their good mood was contagious, as smiles went all around on the brisk winter morning. There was no snow on the ground, but it felt like it could snow at any moment.
“Well, hi, you two,” Carmen greeted the couple as they walked to an empty corner booth. “I haven’t seen you two alone in a coon’s age.”
Leah smiled as Dylan helped her take off her coat.
“The boys spent the night with Hanna,” she said, sitting down. “We had a night, just the two of us.” Leah smiled sweetly at her husband.
“Oh, how lovely. What can I get you to drink?”
“Do you still have any hot cocoa?” Leah asked Carmen.
“We sure do. We should have enough to last us through next winter.” Carmen turned to Dylan. “And you?”
Dylan thought about it. He was feeling grown up at the moment.
“Coffee, black please,” he said confidently.
“Sure thing, be right back. Oh, and the usual for you both?”
Leah and Dylan nodded their heads at the same time.
There hadn’t been any coffee in Hope until the small group came from South America. Coffee was just about the only thing they’d brought to Hope thinking that it would be in demand, and they were right. Normally Dylan stuck to water or whatever fruit juice was available from the greenhouse, but once in a while he dared for coffee, especially when he needed a little caffeine boost.
“Well, I can tell by the glow you are putting off that last night was a success,” Hanna said to Leah when she and Dylan came over to get the boys. The two
women shared a hug.
“Yep,” Leah put a strand of hair behind her ear. “We, ah, reconnected on a few different levels.”
Dylan walked down to the basement of Ben’s house, where he found Ben with John and Frankie.
“Hey,” Ben said when he saw Dylan on the stairs.
“Hi, daddy,” the boys said in unison.
They were playing with a train set that had already been set up when Ben and Hanna claimed the house.
“I forgot about this,” Dylan said, looking over the controls.
“Yeah, the girls aren’t all that into it, but I am hoping that Ty will like it when he gets old enough.” Ben looked like he wished his son was the same age as John and Frankie.
A little past a month after their night of reconnecting, Leah broke the news to Dylan that she was pregnant with her third child. The news was a good thing, and their home life was the best it had ever been.
Hope became a busy place. The population had almost tripled since the last tribe arrival from South America almost five years prior. The increase was mostly due to all the children. That was great for the future of the human race, but the town needed more military-aged people. Since the first battle, nearly a hundred people aged seventeen and up had died, and not just in battle. There were other reasons for death—small attacks, possessions, and accidents, just to name a few.
Dylan thought he had a solution to the problem, at least he had hoped so. He started to press Rodan about everything he had learned over his years of time on Earth, and even about what he saw from Heaven, about military styles, and about how small groups fought against much larger and more dangerous enemies.
Dylan worked tirelessly on a new strategy for when the final battle came sometime within the next year.
It still seemed odd to Dylan that the attacks were mostly planned to occur at certain times. It seemed so predictable. Why would Satan be so easy to figure out? Rodan had his theories when Dylan asked him, but he didn’t know for sure.
“Part of it,” Rodan explained, “is that Satan is attacking all over the world as well as in Heaven. He has to plan out where to be and when. Not all humans turned to wambei, only those deemed to go to Hell in their life, or those few who were captured trying to get into Heaven’s gates.”