by David Lucin
Jenn heard a familiar hum, and she turned to see Maria behind her. This was the second time in as many weeks that she’d left the house. Granted, coming here, to Jenn’s place, was a lot easier than trekking to the farm for Val’s funeral. She even insisted on walking. The exertion challenged her, but Nicole had mentioned that moderate exercise was good for her lungs, despite the COPD, so Maria was trying, and Jenn admired her for that.
“This is nice,” Maria said and popped a beet into her mouth.
“Thanks. I hope Barbara’s happy.”
“She seems to be.” Maria wore a sharp blazer that hung off her bony frame, and Nicole had helped do up her hair in an elaborate bun. “I’m glad I get to finally meet all your friends.” She gestured with a red plastic cup to Bryce, who sat on Jenn’s new couch—well, Val’s old couch—and strummed on his guitar. “That Bryce, he’s very talented.”
“I don’t think this qualifies as talented, exactly.”
“It’s better than nothing,” Maria said and took a sip of her water.
Jenn wasn’t so sure about that. “Yeah, I guess I’ll take what I can get.”
“The place looks great,” Maria added, this time gesturing to the bookshelves, the coffee table, and the plant in the corner. Yesterday afternoon, Jenn, Sam, and Charlie took the Nissan to Val’s duplex. Being there again was harder than Jenn expected. It reminded her of all she and Val would have done together, but she was happy to have taken these pieces of her friend’s life home. Val would have wanted Jenn to have them.
“Not bad, hey?” she said, an unexpected sense of pride tickling her chest. “Gotta admit, it’s a little strange caring about furniture and decorations when all this is going on around us.”
“When life changes quickly, it’s good to hold onto what’s familiar, even if it feels silly. It’ll help you keep grounded and remind you that you’re still the same person you were before.”
“I’m not the same person, though,” Jenn protested. “Not at all.”
Maria put a hand on her arm. “Sweetie, you might think that, but you haven’t changed a bit. Grown, yes, and grown up, but in all the ways that matter most, you’re exactly the same as you were that morning when the lights went out.”
She laid her hand atop Maria’s. “Thanks. Sometimes I worry I’m a totally different person.”
“I won’t deny that you’ve changed, but for the better. You’re a fighter, like Camila and your brothers. Then again, I think you always had it in you. My daughter did. For you, it’s only now starting to come out.”
Being compared to her brothers—and Camila, too, even though she hadn’t met her—made her throat so thick that the next words barely fit through. “Yeah, maybe you’re right.”
Maria finished her water and handed her cup to Jenn. “Well, if you’ll wish me luck, I’m going to tell Barbara happy birthday.” In a whisper, she added, “If she corners me and I can’t sneak away, I’ll wave. That means you need to come save me, okay?”
“Sure. But if I get cornered, you have to do the same for me.”
She held out her hand, and Jenn shook it. “You have yourself a deal.”
Shoulder leaning against the wall, she watched Maria shuffle toward Barbara, who was presently speaking with Bryce while Nicole tugged on her shirt and pleaded with her to leave the poor man alone. Bryce didn’t seem to mind the attention. Jenn couldn’t imagine what Barbara was saying to him. Hopefully she wasn’t complaining about the quality of his guitar-playing.
Allison appeared from the crowd, arms out for a hug. “Thanks for inviting us!” she chirped into Jenn’s ear.
“You don’t have to thank me. We’re friends. You’re automatically invited.”
“Yeah, but I’m being polite, Jennifer.” She had a sip of water from her own red cup. “So how did your visit go today?”
When Jenn woke up this morning, her second of two consecutive days off, she was overwhelmed with a compulsion to see Philip. She didn’t understand why. Her brain was struggling to reconcile the murderer with the man who made rescuing the mayor and capturing Vincent possible. Thinking of him as a monster was easy, but there was more to him than that. Though she would never forgive him, she wanted to acknowledge what he did to help.
“It was fine,” she said. “Seeing him again was weird. I kind of just stood there until he started talking to me about baseball.”
“Baseball?”
Jenn pinched the front of her Diamondbacks shirt.
“Oh, right.” Allison thunked her forehead with a palm. “Duh. I keep forgetting that’s a baseball team. I wasn’t really into sports that much.”
“No? I wouldn’t have guessed.”
“Shut up!” Allison scolded playfully, then asked, “So did you guys just talk about baseball?”
“I wish,” she said with a huff. “No, I told him I respected that he stood up to Vincent, but I made clear I hated his guts and always would.”
“That’s very brave.” Allison pushed a lock of hair behind her ear. “I wouldn’t have been able to do that, especially not in a prison. No way. Those places are scary.”
“It wasn’t that bad. It’s pretty much empty, and honestly, the visiting room looked like a crappy cafeteria more than anything.”
Allison covered her mouth and giggled. Then she patted Jenn’s elbow to draw her attention to her new bookshelves, where Charlie, with her eight-year-old son Evan, his blond hair wild and disheveled, inspected the spines of Val’s paperbacks. “She’s a huge bookworm,” Allison said. “Like, huge. Both of them.”
Charlie pulled down one of the books, read the back cover, then turned her nose up at it and showed Evan, who only shook his head in disappointment.
“Picky, too, apparently,” Jenn said.
“She only reads nerdy stuff with dragons and magic.”
“Really?” Jenn couldn’t stop herself from laughing. “Like The Lord of the Rings?”
“Weird, right? That tattoo on the inside of her wrist, have you seen it?”
Jenn had, though only in passing, and she’d never asked about it. “It’s a building, isn’t it?”
“Yes! An evil tower. She told me the name once but I can’t remember. I still think it looks like an old church, but she gets mad when I tell her that.”
Charlie showed Evan another book. Yet again, he shook his head, and Charlie nodded in agreement. “She’s not going to appreciate Val’s trashy romance, then,” Jenn said.
“Probably not. She goes into that big green building on campus all the time to find books.”
“Emerald City? I’m surprised that place hasn’t been looted.”
“Most of the computers are gone, which is dumb, but the books are still there. Charlie wants to set it up so people can check them out and stuff. I think she’d make a good librarian.”
“Maybe she’ll stumble across a new copy of Rainwater,” Jenn joked.
For a second time, Allison swatted her forehead with her palm. “I’m so stupid! I almost forgot!” She thrust her cup at Jenn, then scrambled toward the front door, past Barbara and Maria, who thus far had not given Jenn the signal to save her. When Allison returned, backpack in hand, she said, “So I told Charlie what you were reading and that your book was in the cabin when it burned down.” She reached into the bag and pulled out a paperback. On the cover was a familiar raindrop formed into the shape of a clock. “It’s for you! Charlie found it at the library.”
Jenn’s breath caught in her chest. “Is that—”
“Rainwater!”
Jenn ran her fingers over the embossed title. When she turned to Charlie, the woman gave her a half-smile, her way of saying, You’re welcome or No problem. Then Evan took a book off the shelf, a bare-chested man on the cover. When Charlie saw it, she leaped into action and snagged it away from him.
“Allison,” Jenn croaked. She tried to make a joke, to play off the gesture for what it was: a simple act of gift-giving. But it meant infinitely more than that, and she couldn’t pinpoint wh
y. Maybe because Rainwater made her think of Val. Or maybe because Allison and Charlie were thoughtful enough to track down a new copy. Or maybe this world had become so hostile and screwed up that any sort of kindness was now worth cherishing.
“It’s not much,” Allison said, “but that’s our way of saying thanks for what you did with Grierson and CFF.”
“You don’t have to thank me,” Jenn assured her. “Obviously I was going to help you.”
“We know that. But you fought for us. You all did. Bryce, Dylan, Sophie. Everyone. This finally feels like home now. A lot of people aren’t happy we’re here, and lots of us still don’t totally feel safe, but it’s already getting better. We promise we’ll fight for Flagstaff. That’s got to count for something, right?”
“It does,” Jenn whispered, mostly because she was afraid of sobbing if she spoke any louder. She was missing Val more than usual and wished she could have been here today, yet she was reminded of how much her new friends mattered as well, Allison in particular.
Allison swirled her drink as Gary sauntered over, thumbs looped into the pockets of his jeans. “Hi, Mr. Ruiz!” Allison trilled. “Great party, hey?” She elbowed Jenn in the ribs. “Who would’ve thought Jennifer had it in her?”
One of Gary’s eyebrows shot up.
Jenn kicked away a yellow balloon and sent it floating toward Sam, who gave her a quick wink before returning to his conversation with Kevin. “I take credit for the decorations. The rest was all Nicole.”
“Nicole!” Allison almost shouted. “I haven’t said hi yet.” She touched Jenn’s arm. “I’ll be right back!”
As she hurried off, Gary pulled out two chairs at the dining room table, another hand-me-down from Val. “Want to sit with me for a bit? My old bones could use a break.”
“All the excitement of the past few days wearing you down, Gary?” Jenn tried not to sigh in relief herself as she sat and took the weight off her feet. Her blister still hadn’t healed, and the muscles in her legs and back had never been this sore.
“I guess you could say that.” He eased himself into the seat beside her. On the way down, one of his joints popped.
“Ew,” Jenn said and crinkled her nose. “Was that your knee?”
“Hip,” Gary clarified.
“Take it easy, would you? We need you strong and healthy.”
“For what?”
She pursed her lips. “Um, becoming mayor? I think we’re all ready for some proper leadership.”
“Ah,” Gary droned. “That. I have some good news, as a matter of fact.”
Jenn gaped at him. In the wake of the CFF incident, there had been rumors that Mayor Andrews was planning to announce her resignation. Jenn didn’t blame her. If she had been kidnapped, her spirit might have been broken as well. “Do you mean what I think you mean?”
He could barely contain his smile. “Tomorrow afternoon, she’s going to make it official. There’ll be a snap election.”
She slapped the table in excitement, drawing a confused glance from Yannick and Maggy, who wore a sling on her arm but was so far recovering well from her wound. “Right on, Gary. About time. What’s the competition like? You have a campaign manager yet? Do you need one? Maria would be good. And what about—”
“Whoa,” he said and waved her off with both hands. “I’m running for mayor of Flagstaff, not president of the United States. I think I can do without a campaign manager.”
“Don’t get cocky, Gary. Best not to take any chances.”
“I suppose. But to answer your other question, I haven’t heard who else is planning to throw their hat in the ring, though I should count myself lucky I won’t have to worry about competing against Vincent Grierson.”
“Not unless we decide to start letting criminals run for mayor.”
“No, I don’t think we need to worry about that.” Absently, he ran his finger through a pool of moisture on the table. “The city is taking over his ranch but putting Sophie and Ed in charge of managing it. I expect she’ll have to slaughter the cows and the goats soon, maybe even the horses, but I’ll insist she keep the chickens. Going forward, eggs will be an important source of renewable protein.”
Jenn’s mouth watered at the mention of eggs—real eggs. “I heard. Me and Bryce are on patrol there tomorrow.”
“Should be a nice change of pace.”
“It’s a lot closer than the farm, so I can’t complain much.” She also hoped that Sophie would pay her in eggs, though she wasn’t holding her breath.
Gary hummed his acknowledgment as Bryce changed songs. Jenn didn’t recognize this one, either. Similar to all the others he played, it sounded very twentieth-century.
“What would be your first order of business as mayor of Flagstaff?” she asked to break the silence. “Besides keeping Sophie from killing Grierson’s chickens.”
She meant the question mostly as a joke, expecting a silly answer in return, like he would repaint the office or cut everyone’s taxes to zero, but with a serious face, he said, “I want to expand our defense forces.”
“Defense forces? You mean the police?”
“No, in addition to the police. The fight with CFF has shown me the importance of taking our safety more seriously. The police have done a better job than anyone could have asked for, but Flagstaff is more akin to a city-state now. We’re isolated and have no firm outside support if we need help. We need an army to defend ourselves, be it from internal threats like Vincent Grierson or external threats like the Major in Phoenix. With you and the Beaumonts, I see the beginnings of what could grow into something greater. I’d say the last week or two has been a good enough proof of concept for a militia of sorts.” He smiled to himself. “We can call it the Flagstaff Fusiliers. That has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?”
“Fusiliers?” Jenn asked. “What does an army have to do with pasta?”
He stared at her blankly for a second. “Jenn, fusilli is pasta. Fusilier is a type of line infantry, and it’s often in the name of military units, especially those of Commonwealth armies.”
“Oh, that makes more sense. I was like, why are you naming it after food? But Flagstaff Fusiliers sounds cool. Did you learn that in your new book? I see you’ve branched out from World War Two. Everyone’s very proud of you, by the way.”
“Believe it or not, I did,” he said, sounding impressed with himself. “So what do you think?”
“About what? Your army thing?”
“I realize we’re getting ahead of ourselves, but I assume you’d be interested in joining.”
She would, and she agreed with what Gary had in mind regarding defense. In hindsight, Flagstaff should have built an army right away, but there was no how-to manual for what the town was facing. Everything was trial and error. “Sounds great, Gary. Of course I’ll join. If you need a general or commander or whatever, you know where to find me. After all, I’m the hero of the Battle of the Farm. If you don’t believe me, go ask Bryce.”
“Oh I heard,” Gary said. “We cannot tell Maria about that.”
She barked out a laugh and shook her head. “Nope. Not in a million years.”
* * *
Desolation 4: As Darkness Falls is available on Amazon.
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A mother fights to reunite with her son.
The only thing in her way is the end of the world.
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Afterword
This book went through a rocky development, and at the time of release, it was the most difficult thing I had written to date. I struggled mightily with the plot, thinking long and hard about how someone like Vincent Grierson would go about taking over a town like Flagstaff. If you can believe it, the character began as a history teacher, not a landowner, and Philip wasn’t added until the second draft.
> To make matters worse, the COVID-19 pandemic hit right while I was in the middle of my first draft, and with the world shutting down around me, I lost my usual workspaces (my local Starbucks and the public library). In the end, the book was about four months late, but I’m happy with the way it turned out, and I hope you enjoyed it.
As usual, thanks to Gaby Michaelis for her invaluable feedback on the story. After three read-throughs, I suspect she can now recite large swathes of the text by heart. I’d also like to acknowledge Covers by Christian for a great piece of artwork that captures a big moment in the Battle of the Farm. Deranged Doctor Design handled the typography and the design work, and they did a fantastic job.
Finally, if you can spare a few minutes, I invite you to leave a short review on Amazon and/or Goodreads. Reviews help me reach a wider audience and become a better author, and I read every single one of them.
About the Author
I was born and raised in the mountains of British Columbia, Canada. After earning a master’s degree in military history and spending a good chunk of my twenties studying the British Army in the First World War, I returned to BC and began writing fiction. Nowadays, I’m a husband, a pet owner, and the commissioner of my fantasy baseball league (though sadly not the champion).
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