by White, A. L.
After a few minutes, Jermaine placed his hand on Virginia’s back and said, “Thank you.” They turned back on their way to the RV, where they were ushered inside.
From what Jermaine could remember before they had stopped here, they were as close as maybe four or five more hours from the next stop on the map Lori had showed him back at the farmhouse. It would be good to reach a safe place where he could mend his body, and his heart, without being cooped up with all these people. Most of them had grown on him, a few had not. As for the new ones from the drive in, well, he would have see how that all played out. The one thing that Jermaine knew for certain was that he would stay with this group and help as much as he could. Deep down there was a part of him that wondered about Virginia and the dogs coming to his rescue. No one had ever put their life on the line to save his life before. Taquisha tried to save him spiritually, lord knew that she had tried. That was different. Virginia ran into that herd--and the dogs followed her—just to save him. This day would live in his memory for the rest of his days. The bravery of a young woman and her dogs had moved Jermaine in a way nothing in his old life ever had; a power larger and stronger than anything he had ever known.
Chapter 11
Boo led them up to the roof of the old school to a place he had taken to calling the ‘Eagle’s Nest’ due to the unobstructed view it offered of the surrounding countryside. He stopped close to the three-foot-high wall that ran the entire way around the roof and pointed out towards the farms to the east of Rivers Crossing.
“Take a good look out there, boys, and tell me what you see,” Boo ordered them. When no one answered, he prodded them on, “Go ahead now, don’t be shy.” After waiting for what felt like an eternity extending his finger out towards the nearest farm Boo stated, “That mass moving around out there could be confused with a prized herd of Holsteins!”
Charlie could finally see where Boo was going with this, so he replied, “They’re still a few miles off, Boo.”
“Moving closer every day. We need to start planning things around here a little better if we are going to survive, fellas. This isn’t a game, or a community center where survivors check in to be taken care of by the local Red Cross or FEMA. We are, for all purposes, a city state like in ancient times; we need to start acting like one,” Boo stated what he felt was an indisputable matter-of-fact.
Doc shook his head no a few times, “What if there is some part of the government left out there?”
“We can wait for the cavalry to arrive and save the day. Or we can plan on saving ourselves and still be around if, and when, the cavalry arrives. It would be a sad thing if we all perished holding on to the false hope that someone is coming to save us, Doc.”
“I think I agree with Boo on this one, Doc. We haven’t seen anything that has even looked like help for weeks,” Charlie added.
Doc went into his deep thought process, a process that Charlie had seen a million times during discussion at the Sunday Morning coffee meetings. Those seemed to be a lifetime away now. Charlie knew when Doc went to that place and got that blank stare on his face you could bet the farm that he was going to come back with something so irrefutable that you had just wasted your time making the argument.
“Ok, I can see your point on the whole thing, Beau, but I am not saying that I agree with you one hundred percent. I think we should elect a city council and a Mayor as I have stated before.”
“If you’re going to do that, we should probably do it before any more outsiders show up. I like to think that, for now anyways, we would be governed by locals,” Boo replied.
Doc smiled a little evil looking grin at the two men. “I can see your point completely. We will appoint the first council with people that we want on there so that we can point the city in the proper direction.”
“That’s fine by me. You go ahead and pick your council. Make yourself the Mayor while you’re at it; but the first thing you need to do is create some kind of guard unit so we can watch over and protect what it is that we have here. Someone to man this post twenty-four hours a day so that nothing can take us by surprise,” Boo added.
Charlie was shocked at what he was hearing. They were deciding the fate of every survivor in Rivers Crossing without even including them in the process. This may have been how Boo did things, but it wasn’t how the Doc he knew conducted business or his life.
“So we are setting up a dictatorship?” he asked.
“No, no! Not at all, Charlie! We will appoint the first council and Mayor so that we can create our own little Constitution and ensure that no one in the future can become a dictator. If Beau here is correct, and I sincerely hope he is not, then we need to plan for a future without the life we knew before. One where everyone will have a chance at life, liberty, and some kind of pursuit of happiness. I was talking this morning with the woman in the cafeteria--her name is Tressa--and I realized that there are only a few of us doing anything to keep the place going. We can’t function that way.”
“Everyone needs to pull their weight, or they need to try it on their own out there,” Boo added nodding his head in agreement.
“I understand that, and I am not saying that I don’t agree with both of you. Couldn’t we just ask them to do more as part of the team?”
“We will, Charlie. We will post jobs on the bulletin board at the entrance after the council selects and offers the lead positions to people,” Doc replied.
“I guess you didn’t really need Boo to bring this up to you, Doc?” Charlie asked.
Doc walked over to the edge on the other side of the roof and looked off to the east for a few seconds, then he turned back towards Boo and Charlie. “I have been watching the creatures coming closer to Rivers Crossing as well, and watching how things are going downstairs. Most of the survivors down there are about as dead as the creatures are out there. They don’t seem to have anything left to live for really. Like us, they have lost most of their loved ones. Like us, they don’t believe deep down that there is anything left out there to come and save them. I said earlier that I was talking to Tressa and her uncle when Charlie came to get me. They had taken it upon themselves to unpack and put up supplies. They weren’t just going through the motions because I asked them to do it. They were doing a job; feeling like they were part of the team even though they had only just come to Rivers Crossing this morning. We need that type of feeling to become contagious. We need people to wake up in the morning feeling like they are making a difference; like they are sharing in making this place a lasting home for all of us.”
Charlie smiled at both, “Ok, I am onboard with your plot; you have convinced me. How do we get started?”
“Doc, you see the people more than Charlie and I do, and you have been working with the survivors. Who would you suggest for the first council?” Boo asked.
Doc looked up at that the sky, as if he thought the answer would be written somewhere among the clouds, “I think we should limit the council to six people, and the mayor would be the deciding vote if anything came down to a tie. I know she is not a local, but I would like that Tressa be a council member, along with you, Charlie, myself, Elisabeth Windsor and the church secretary.”
“The church secretary? Really, Doc? She doesn’t even speak as far as we know!” Charlie questioned. “And as far as I am concerned… I don’t think that is something I would be very good at-or something that I want to do!”
“No, Charlie. Doc is right. For now, we need the three of us on that council to make sure things go in the right direction,” Boo replied.
“Then I hope it is a short term. I have told you both more than once that come spring…”
“We know, Charlie. As soon as the weather breaks, you’re finding a Harley and riding off into the sunset,” Boo interrupted him. “You know, you might just decide to stay if things go as planned.”
“You keep telling yourself that, Boo. Just remember that just because you keep saying it, doesn’t mean that that’s how it is going to happen!”
“I am just having fun with you, Charlie,” Boo said clapping Charlie on the back.
“We can decide the term length when the full council meets,” Doc stated. “I think we should try to do that today, then announce tonight, in the cafeteria.”
“I agree, the sooner we get this going, the better off we will be. In fact, if what is here of the new Rivers Crossing Council will agree, I am going to start picking people for the new guard unit,” Boo replied.
“I think that is a good idea, Beau. Furthermore, I think we should appoint you to be a head of it,” Doc replied.
“I would be honored,” Boo replied. “Now if you two can set up the first council meeting; I am going to rustle up a few people that look like they can shoot straight.”
“OK, let’s meet back here around four o’ clock then. Agreed?”
All agreed to return to the roof at four with the other three council members. No one knew if the church secretary would be able to join them, but Charlie suspected there was a reason that Doc had picked her. Maybe he was trying to make it look like the moral side of things would be selected. If you didn’t have a preacher, you could at the very least have his secretary. That was the most sense Charlie could make of it at the moment; for now he decided to go with the flow.
Chapter 12
Virginia studied Jermaine for the next three hours of the ride in an attempt to understand what he was going through. The world seemed to be a simple place in her own mind, so when someone else seemed to be confused it left her bewildered. Losing a wife in that way would have to leave a deep scar on a person. In the end did it really matter how they went? Virginia wondered. Everyone in this little caravan has lost people. Al and Zoe had just lost a son and great nephew, yet they were still functioning. Jermaine seemed to be lost in his own world. For the last few hours he had stared blankly out the window at the passing countryside. The rest of the group observed and commented as to how the herds seemed to be growing larger. Jermaine just stared out his window. Not even Zeus, laying his head down on Jermaine’s knee, got any sort of reaction. In Virginia’s mind it was all so easy to understand. The weak died, only the strongest and smartest were still alive. The pandemic cleaned out or changed the weak into those creatures who, in turn, ate the surviving weak. She killed them because they were weaker and dumber than she was. There was no doubt in Virginia’s mind that most of the people traveling with her and Lori would not make it. In fact, they were probably on borrowed time because they were with them. Maybe she herself was on borrowed time thanks to Zeus and Perseus. There were numerous times that the lads had saved her or led her away from things that would have caused her harm. It occurred to Virginia that it was possible she and the lads weren’t strong by themselves. Maybe it was the group that made them strong and failing to be a part of the group was what made people like Taquisha weak and vulnerable. It was safer with Lori and the rest of the group around.
Having been so deep in thought, Virginia failed to notice that Jermaine was smiling at her as he petted Zeus.
“This big guy hasn’t so much as given me the time of day other than to growl at me before today. He sure came through when I needed him though, didn’t he? So did you, little one, and I will never forget what you have done for me for as long as I live,” Jermaine added with tears slowly traveling down his face.
Virginia smiled back at Jermaine, glad to see that he was coming back from wherever it was that his mind had been. “I think the lads have grown used to you being in their way all of the time,” Virginia replied as she began to laugh.
“I don’t care what their reasons or yours, thank you,” Jermaine added.
“I was wondering about something, and I am not sure how to ask it,” Virginia said just low enough for Jermaine to hear.
“You can ask me anything you want after today.”
Virginia thought for a moment how she could put it into words, and then took a sly look around at the others in the RV to make sure that no one was paying attention to her or Jermaine. Satisfied that the others were more worried about the herd size outside the windows, she continued, “Do you think that people have a destiny?”
Jermaine leaned forward toward Virginia and whispered loud enough for her to hear, “We all make our own destiny. There is nothing for certain in life.”
“Then we decide if we live or die?”
“The Lord may have a large hand in that, but for the most part, whether you do or don’t do something stupid enough to get yourself killed is up to you and only you.” Jermain reached out and picked up Virginia’s hand, holding it gently in his massive hand. “So if your next question is if today was Taquisha’s destiny, the answer is no. Taquisha picked this end for herself, and, in a way, I can respect her for that. She wasn’t made for the world we live in now. I don’t know for sure if any of us are made for it. What I do know is that you have become too made for this. You are letting a lot of what makes us who we are go past you, and replacing it with hate. When you kill one of them creatures, do it well. But always remember once they are no more that at one time it was someone’s mom or dad, brother, sister or friend that had dreams and aspirations.”
“I don’t know that world anymore most of the time. I can barely remember what my mother and father looked like, Jermaine.”
Jermaine smiled warmly at her and said, “Looking at you and your sister, I think you could be safe to look in the mirror and see the face of your mother, and shades of your father mixed in.”
“Sometimes Lori used to talk about them, but I couldn’t remember the things she would talk about. I remember the creature that the men dragged out of our house as both of them.”
“Didn’t you have a brother too? What about him?”
“I mostly remember seeing the blood-soaked ground when I first started killing the creatures, and Bob rescuing us.”
“This Bob you describe, he sounds like a standup guy,” Jermaine replied.
Virginia seemed to lose herself in memories of Bob for a few minutes and was only brought out by the RV slowing.
“Looks like Lori wants to talk,” Al called out from the driver’s seat.
Virginia could see the headlights of the truck heading back toward them on the other side of the road, going past the RV, and then returning alongside it. Jermaine opened the window nearest the truck and stuck his head out into the cold breeze, squinting at Lori.
“We can see lights on in a building that I think is Rivers Crossing,” Lori stated with a smile.
“Lights? You really see lights on?” Al asked from his window.
Lori tried to contain her own joy at the prospect of being at a place that still had electricity and running water. “Not only that, but it looks like there is a set of head lights up ahead of us as well.”
“It would be good to get out and stretch our legs in safety. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I have been cooped up with you guys for a little longer than I am comfortable with,” Pam said from in the RV.
“What about all of this?” Jermaine asked, motioning at the herd that surrounded them.
“Not sure what we will find when we get there. For electricity, I think we could take the building if the creatures have it.”
Jermaine nodded in agreement with Lori. He was certain that they could take it if needed.
“Ok, I wanted to let everyone know that we are almost there. Looks like the herd is getting larger, so we will need to keep together and keep moving. I am not sure if we stop, that we could get moving again. There are a lot down there, and I mean a lot,” Lori said as she pressed down on the gas pedal, sending the truck lurching forward in the snow.
Chapter 13
The first official meeting of the new Rivers Crossing Council was held in the cafeteria with all of the survivors’ present. Doc gave a speech that explained why the first council had been selected, including why each person on the council had been chosen. He made it painstakingly clear to all present that there would be elections to replace ha
lf of the appointed council members in six months’ time, and then in twelve months, to replace the other half. That way, Doc explained, the business of running the town wouldn’t come to a standstill because all six members were running for reelection. Only half would be up per election that would be held every six months afterward. There were no complaints made known during or after the speech as far as Charlie could tell.
Their first meeting held votes on positions that Doc felt were needed to keep the survivors going. They voted on having maintenance, housekeeping, defense, resource acquisition and education; all things that Charlie believed were important. Judging by the reactions from the nearly one hundred survivors, they thought so too. Doc and Boo had hit this nail on the head. The survivors were more alive tonight than Charlie had seen them since before the world went to pieces. The most time was spent on defense, with Boo taking over the podium from Doc. By the time he was finished, there were twenty volunteers for the newly formed Rivers Crossing Guard Corps; twenty-two if you counted Boo and himself in the final tally. Deep down Charlie was okay with helping keep the place safe from the creatures, not putting up too much of an argument when Boo asked him to help out with it by being his second in command.
It would allow Charlie to keep to himself for a while, either on watch in the eagles’ nest, or on the proposed rounds through the town. That was okay with him; he was still having a lot of issues in his head that he was trying to sort out since that last day with Annie in the house. There were times when he woke up and started to speak to her, only to realize that she wasn’t lying on the right side of the bed. Doc told him that was all part of the grieving process and not to worry too much on it.