Burt took charge once again, and elected to cancel classes for the week, in anticipation of the schools reopening. However, Molly discouraged the idea of disassembling the wall in the days immediately following the Restoration. She was concerned that chaos would reign in the outside cities, and felt they needed to stay on guard. She expressed that they needed to stay in check, and remain self-sustaining for the time being, so as not to squander the resources they had worked so hard for. Jimmy agreed, opting to err on the side of caution for now.
Most people concurred, but there were a few who disagreed, and wanted to take the wall down so workers could come into the town and get things up and running fully. Burt considered their suggestion, and decided those who dissented with the way the town was handling the Restoration were free to set up camp outside the wall and wait for the “workers” who would come and offer them salvation, as it were.
Ten people elected to camp on the other side of the wall, waiting for their “salvation.” They took enough supplies to last a week, and set up shop within sight of the scouts protecting the wall. The campers were to serve as ambassadors of sorts for the town, and welcome those who would provide information and restore full power to their little corner of the world.
They were dead before the end of the night. Molly was sleeping when she heard it. Her home wasn’t even that close to the wall, but she could still hear the screams. They were quiet and distant, but they were there. Dug whined softly upon hearing them.
The next morning, she walked Jimmy’s to find out what happened. He told her that a group of Wanderers had come across the campers’ site. They were poorly armed, and not anticipating the continued existence of Wanderers once power was restored. So they were slaughtered, and their supplies were taken. There wasn’t much the Watchers could do.
“We took out two of them, but not before they killed most of the campers.” His voice was tired.
Molly puzzled over it, wondering why the restoration of power hadn’t, if not eliminated the Wanderers, then at least lessened their existence so a small group could be safe just outside the gates. Why wouldn’t they take shelter somewhere, and take advantage of a life on the verge of being restored? Unless they either didn’t know, or couldn’t get shelter somewhere. All Molly knew was, they wouldn’t be offering any Wanderers shelter anytime soon, that was for sure.
Then she thought of Gary, trying to make his way back home. He was a Wanderer to some people. She thought of his picture on the bulletin board in Burt’s basement. But no, he wouldn’t kill someone for their food or supplies. He wasn’t like that. Molly pictured him deep in the woods, the sun streaming through the treetops. She saw him scrambling around desperately for food, searching for berries, water, anything that would help him sustain his life. In her vision, he was gaunt at best, and appeared to be as desperately clinging to life as his clothing was to his body. She saw him come across a sleeping woman, propping herself up with a backpack, filled with unimaginable treasures. She saw the wild desperation in his eye as he picked up a rock and silently approached her. He quickly dispatched her by bashing her head with the rock and relieved her of everything that might be useful to him, including her clothing. Although she was much smaller than him, an extra layer was an extra layer as the weather became colder. He darted off into the woods with his spoils, not to be seen again.
Molly shuddered at the grim picture she’d created. What had Gary been through in the last 103 days? she wondered. She knew she’d done her fair share of things she didn’t know she was capable of even considering, in order to survive. What had he done in the name of survival? Will I still know him? Will he still be the man I loved? But, more importantly, Will he make it home?
As the days passed the town struggled with brownouts. The first blackout happened four days after the Restoration. Panic threatened to settle into the town. The thought that “salvation” had been so fleeting was too much for some folks. There was even a suicide that night.
The next day, Burt held a town meeting in the square and urged calm and patience as the government worked to restore some sense of normalcy. His encouragement was enough to keep most people satisfied at least until the power came back on in limited supply the following day.
However, he was curious about the state of things outside the town walls, and wanted answers for the campers’ deaths. So, he organized a reconnaissance group of sorts. Molly immediately volunteered to be part of the group, but was overruled unanimously. Burt explained that after what happened to the campers, they wanted strong, big men who knew how to wield a weapon for this expedition.
Four men were chosen, mostly ones without families or anyone depending too heavily on them. However, most still had important jobs within the community, and if they were killed, the loss would be deeply felt throughout the town. For example, Kevin Murphy had no children and was unmarried, but he lived with his sister’s family and helped to maintain the wall as a skilled craftsman. Shane McKenzie was the town’s best hunter and often they had him to thank for fresh meat on their tables. Although he was married, he didn’t have any children. Clint Black was responsible for making all of the town’s tools. He was a blacksmith of sorts. He helped maintain the farming equipment, everything used to build and keep the wall in good shape, everything for hunting and butchering animals. If something was broken, Clint could fix it. But he was single, with no ties to anyone. He lived alone in one of the homes closest to the wall.
And then there was Jimmy. He was selected to be their leader. Just like the others, he had no kids, no family to speak of. But he was pivotal to the town. Only Burt and Molly were totally aware of how much he truly contributed. Not only was he in charge of the Watchers, he was Burt’s go-to guy – his unofficial second-in-command. He was the guy Burt always went to for advice, the guy Burt leaned on, the guy who came up with solutions, not questions.
Molly approached him while he was packing a back for the trip. “Jimmy, I wish you wouldn’t do this.”
He kept packing. “I know you do.”
“What if something happens?”
“It won’t.”
“But where would this town be without you?”
“We’ll never know, because I’ll be back here later tonight.”
She touched his shoulder. “Jimmy.”
He turned to face her. “Molly.” His expression softened and he shrugged his shoulders. “Look, you only have to manage for a few hours! Burt will be here.” He embraced her, and she relished the feeling of safety she always had in his arms. “It’ll be OK.”
“Promise?”
“I promise.”
The expedition made their plans and left first thing the next morning. They planned to be back before dark, so when dark came and went, they all feared the worst. Molly even took a shift on the wall to help watch for them. The next morning, she helped to prepare for the arrival of people with injuries. They sterilized sheets for bandages, tried to gather what was left of their medications and hoped for the best.
They arrived midday. Kevin and Shane carried Clint roughly between the two of them. Kevin had his legs, and Shane had him behind the shoulders. He appeared to be totally unconscious. They were directed to the makeshift hospital and put Clint on the bed closest to the door. Those with more medical knowledge than Molly had descended on him.
Kevin and Shane collapsed in a heap on the other side of the room, well clear of all the action.
She went over and squatted down in front of Shane. He seemed a little dazed, as did Kevin. “What happened?”
“I’m not really sure, it’s all such a blur. We ended up going too far to make it home yesterday, so we camped out in the woods.” He paused, reliving the memory. “It was just before daybreak when they found us. Looking back on it, it was kind of stupid of them to attack us like that, there were only two of them and four of us. But, one of them managed to do some damage,” he gestured towards Clint, “obviously.”
“Where’s Jimmy?”
Shane
glanced around. “He isn’t here? He said he’d meet us here. He created a diversion, got the attention of the attackers so Kevin and I could get away with Clint. We expected him to be here, since he could move faster than us.”
Molly tried to process what it all meant. The only definitive thing she could come up with was, “No, he isn’t here.”
The days passed and Jimmy didn’t show up. So Burt decided to hold a town meeting.
They gathered in the square with Burt at center stage. “I’m sorry to say, what little information we were able to gather isn’t good.”
Murmuring passed like a wave through the crowd, and people shifted their weight uncomfortably.
“It seems,” he paused waiting for the murmuring to die down. “The situation is similar to ours in the next closest town – they have a limited power supply, however anarchy has overtaken the fragile balance established during the Blackout. Chaos seems to be running rampant outside our walls. Although there isn’t much left to loot, people are stealing from each other, killing for food, lodging and other goods, the list goes on. They are angry at this transitional phase. The general feeling was the power went out in a flash, so when things didn’t come back as suddenly, people revolted.” He paused, letting people chew on that. “We’ve paid a high price for this information, and I don’t intend to squander it.” He paused, collecting himself. “Jimmy, the head of the Watch, is still missing, and presumed dead.” His voice cracked a bit when he said “dead.”
Molly gasped. Sure, it had been three days he’d been outside the wall, two of them on his own, but he was hearty, and smart about stuff like this. If anyone had a chance out there, it was him. A thought occurred to her. If Jimmy couldn’t even make it out there, how is Gary supposed to?
Burt interrupted her grim thought. “Although we’ve had no new information from the radio broadcast, I think it’s safe to assume we’re still pretty much on our own. Therefore, I feel we should resume normal operations tomorrow. I also think we should redouble our efforts on the wall. Those of you willing to take an extra shift, please let me know and we will give you a slot. Your efforts will be much appreciated, and may even save lives. At best, it will be an unnecessary precaution. In all honesty, my instincts tell me this will pass rather quickly. Even if they take a while to improve the power grid, people will settle down. This slight change has upset the way of things, but people will adapt more rapidly I think, because the change wasn’t as dramatic, and it was a positive change, not a negative as the Blackout was. Please try to remember what we do have. Lights in our homes. Power for our refrigerators and hot water heaters. But more importantly, we have each other.” He paused and made eye contact with Molly. “Together, we will get through this uncertain time, the same way we got through the first days of the Blackout.” He paused, surveying the uncertain faces in the crowd. “Are there any questions?”
Molly had a million questions, but they were all jumbled up in this new information they thought would be more hopeful than it was. “OK, well, let’s get to work,” Burt said.
With that, their lives changed again, and yet somehow they stayed woefully the same.
39.
Fifteen days after the lights came back on, Gary was achingly close to home. He estimated only two or three more days left in the journey. While they were trotting along through the woods on that fifteenth day, it occurred to him that Molly and he could have settled down anywhere. They could have taken that job in Miami, and she could be living there now. That would’ve added another two weeks or more to the trip. Holy crap I’m glad we didn’t take that job, he thought. Or, I could’ve had a flight to the Bahamas that fateful day. Then what would I have done, with sixty miles of deep blue sea between the two of us? Considering all the ways this could have played out, what happened wasn’t the most ideal, but it wasn’t the worst-case scenario either, at least not yet.
The days after the Restoration were much like the ones that preceded it, at least for Gary. He heard whispers of total chaos in the beginning, and kept to the deep woods after that first night on the edge of Plymouth.
He noticed the Wanderers were getting more bold and violent. Just a few days after the Restoration, he was walking deep in the woods when he came upon a grisly scene that could only be blamed on Wanderers. The poor couple’s bodies had been stripped and there was blood everywhere. It looked like the woman’s head had been bashed in, and the man had been stabbed with something jagged. The blood was making Thunderbolt nervous, so they didn’t linger. Gary couldn’t decide if he was happy or sad that he’d come upon them after their demise. He wasn’t sure there was anything he could’ve done for them.
And who’s to say they wouldn’t have taken me for all I was worth once the danger to them was passed? It wasn’t the most idealistic way to think, but it was keeping him alive for the time being. That night, they walked further than normal, trying to put as much distance as possible between them and the unfortunate couple.
They did fairly well staying away from people when they didn’t want to be seen, and after about a week, he ventured a little closer to a town he was passing by to try and get an update on the situation. It seemed like things had quieted down, but normal operations were far from being restored. At best, the lights were on; at worst, transportation services, phone services and things of that nature were a long way from being useful. So, the lights were on, but people felt like it’d been false hope because no additional improvements followed.
The anger in the area was down to a simmer, but Gary felt like he was in a pressure cooker. Before long, he worried it would explode. The pair continued on their steady trot home, and Gary prayed they would make it before that happened.
40.
It had been eighteen days since The Restoration. Jimmy had not come back. Molly couldn’t ignore the fact that her dear friend was probably dead, although she would never know for sure.
About a week after Burt’s announcement, Molly held a memorial for him. Not many people came, which didn’t surprise her. He’d kept a pretty low profile in the town, and stayed standoffish with most people. Burt came and said a few words, and all the Watchers who weren’t working came, but they stayed quiet.
She’d spent some time sitting in his house, hoping he would come back. After about a week of doing that after school, she finally took his radio over to her house. She knew he’d want her to have it. He was always looking out for her.
At home, listening to the loop feed, she gave in to the despondency. Her rock was gone. Gary wasn’t there. How was she supposed to go on?
Beth did what she could to comfort her, but death is always difficult to understand for an outsider.
The town struggled to get back to “normal” without him. The Watch suffered from disorganization at a critical time. They’d had two near-breeches of the wall since Jimmy’s disappearance, but each time they’d learned from their mistakes.
Burt tried to stay busy, moving from task to task with little emotion spent on any one thing.
They had lights intermittently, they could take showers in their homes, and even had hot water some of the time – that was Molly’s favorite luxury. She’d gotten used to using candles, but the sheer extravagance of a hot, indoor shower was amazing. The first time, just after the Restoration, she stood there for a half hour just marveling at how good it felt, and trying to wash away some of the things that had happened in the last three months.
But, nearly a month after the power had returned, they finally settled back into a routine. The kids were back in school at Molly’s house, and the patrol was back to its normal operations. They even elected a new leader who seemed to be doing a fair job. Really, everything was back to the way it was during the Blackout, they just had lights and hot water.
A few days before, the broadcast had been updated, but it wasn’t great news.
My Fellow Americans,
It’s been fifteen days since the Restoration, and we’re saddened to say many have not heeded our reques
ts to stay calm and continue your normal operations. It would seem chaos has reigned in many areas around the country. The military has been able to organize a small force around the capital to protect what’s left of the government there and maintain a certain amount of order. However, at this point in time, there are not enough resources to help you all. Therefore, you must help yourselves. Return your towns to civilization promptly.
Reports of brownouts and blackouts continue to filter in. The grid is far from stable, but be encouraged by the fact that every day improvements are made.
Questions are circulating regarding the restoration of transportation and communication services. Unfortunately there is no word on when help in those areas may come.
For now, that is all. Good night.
It was really nothing they didn’t already know. It took fifteen days for them to regurgitate information that was already old news. Nothing had changed when it came to the government.
So, by the time day eighteen rolled around, Molly had worked hard to settle back into her routines and not think about Gary or Jimmy. Because transportation systems weren’t up and running, she told herself it was no surprise Gary hadn’t made it home yet. And just because the lights were back on, he still had no way of calling or getting in touch at all. Just because there was nothing but silence for 121 days, didn’t mean he was never coming home. Just because Jimmy didn’t, didn’t mean Gary wouldn’t.
It was cold comfort at night when the only warm body she shared the bed with was Dug, who slept by her feet.
That day, they were studying Pride and Prejudice, by one of the girls’ request. Molly promised the boys they could pick the next one, and it sounded like it would be Dracula. She was certain the girls would love that about as much as the boys loved Pride and Prejudice, but it gave them all something to look forward to, and she liked that they were staying involved.
The Blackout Page 18