Dark Road

by David C. Waldron

  Now it was a waiting game to see which radio Spencer would call on first.

  …

  “Sparky,” came Spencer’s voice at 2:30 in the morning. “You better hope this is working and just what the…what are you playing at?”

  Evan wasn’t sure whether to be proud or ashamed or possibly a little of both. “Well, Grounder,” he said as he keyed his mic, “I can understand you so it’s working, and if you can understand me then your side is too.”

  “You’ve got five nines, but what’s this really all about?” Spencer asked.

  “Well, this is secured about as far as I can get it on single sideband and still have it be usable,” Evan said. “Have you seen the new orders?”

  “Some, why,” Spencer said with some speculation in his voice.

  “Well, Major Jensen wanted a way for us—not just you and me, but everyone—to be able to communicate long distance should the Sat-Com no longer be available.” Evan said.

  There was silence on the radio for several seconds and Sparky was about to key his microphone when Spencer finally transmitted again.

  “Yeah, I heard about the lockout during the con-call.” Spencer said. “Ben was livid. If they can do that during a conference call they could do it at any time. They could do it right now if they wanted to just by changing the access codes.”

  Spencer paused for a few seconds without un-keying his microphone and then continued. “Why is your Major Jensen concerned?” He asked.

  Sparky shook his head. “G-man,” he said, “how much of the new orders have you seen?”

  “Actually seen,” Spencer said, “none. I’ve heard rumors about some of it, and they were vague. Basically all I know is that ARCLiTE wasn’t the resounding success everywhere that higher hoped it would be and we’re supposed to back off a little bit.”

  “Are you alone?” Sparky asked.

  “What?” Spencer said.

  “I asked if you were alone.” Sparky said. “If not are you on a headset?”

  “I’m alone enough, and I’m using a headset.” Spencer said. “What the hell is going on?” Spencer asked, shaken enough to swear for the first time ever on a HAM radio.

  “Well, the orders were a bit less diplomatic than what you are hearing, from what I’ve seen.” Sparky said. “And yes, I’ve seen parts of them. According to the orders, ARCLiTE was an abysmal failure and we’re to regroup as the military; the civilians can fend for themselves. Once we’re secure, though, there are a number of things we’re supposed to do—including confiscation of firearms and ammunition.”

  “That would actually make more sense and explain a lot of what’s going on.” Spencer said. “It would also explain why Ben, Major Franklin, took an interest in my call from you yesterday.”

  “Your Major’s name is Ben Franklin?” Sparky said in surprise.

  “Shut up, man, I do not have time for this right now.” Spencer said. “You just dropped a major bomb on me, I’m breaking the law by even talking to you like this, and my CO is most likely supporting me breaking the law to talk to you.”

  Spencer sighed into the microphone. “You and I both know we aren’t supposed to encrypt or obfuscate the meaning of any HAM communications unless we’re controlling a space-station. No matter how much you want to be, you are not a space-station Sparky!” Spencer sighed again. “Man, I have a headache.”

  “Well, on the plus side, we know it works,” Sparky said. “I have another radio next to me that isn’t hooked up to the laptop and all it’s getting on this frequency is garbled static.”

  “Yeah, I did the same thing.” Spencer said with a slight grin obvious in his voice. “Ok, we’ve probably got a little more power here to play with than you guys do down there. Knowing that this is probably going to be important, do you want me to talk to Major Franklin and see if we can get some people working on it up here?”

  “Now that you ask,” Evan said, trying not to let the relief come through in his voice. “I think we need to add some kind of spread spectrum frequency hopping, a dedicated data channel…”

  …

  “In short, it works,” Sergeant Lake said to Major Jensen and Captain Tripp after scheduling a brief meeting with both of them, and laying out, for once, just the basics.

  “Can we see it in action?” Eric asked.

  At a nod from Mallory, Sparky turned on both of the radios that were tied into the same antenna outside. One radio was running through the laptop, to be encrypted and decrypted, the other would be in the clear.

  “Sergeant Hale is standing by,” Sparky said.

  The test only took a couple of minutes to prove out what he and Grounder had done two nights before, and then it was back to business.

  “Where is Sergeant Hale?” Eric asked.

  Before Evan could answer, Mallory stepped in. “Spencer, Sergeant Hale, is an SFC up at Fort Campbell under Major Franklin,” she said. “After talking with Ben, I felt we could trust him.”

  Sparky nodded and continued. “And since you felt you could trust him, he and I are working together to expand this system even farther.” He said. “I won’t go into the details right now because we don’t know how far we can push it yet, but he has a couple of his engineers working on it right now as well. They have more power than we do and they’ve already gotten a mini-grid up and running. His two engineers are dedicated to this for the time being.”

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Breakfast was winding down in the mess hall as Joel and Rachael found themselves approaching what appeared to be a minor disagreement between Chuck and Sheri. They tried to ignore it, but it was difficult when you could hear their frustrated stage whispers three or four tables away.

  “…known him longer.” Chuck said.

  “You’re the man.” Sheri countered.

  “I’ve done my part of the asking.” Chuck said and then folded his arms and sat back.

  It was then that Joel realized Rachael had slowed down instead of speeding up like she usually did to avoid situations like this, and wondered what was up.

  “Hey guys,” Joel said into the awkward silence. “Everything ok?” Joel was cursing his wife for dragging her feet, and his own inability to start a conversation.

  Sheri looked up sheepishly, while Chuck did everything he could to keep from making eye contact.

  “Actually,” Sheri started, “Chuck has a question he’s been meaning to ask you.”

  The look on Chuck’s face, even though it was just for an instant, was priceless. He glared at Sheri and then cleared his throat. Joel was totally lost. “Well, Joel,” Chuck cleared his throat again. “You see, Sheri and I, we’d like to get married.”

  “That’s great!” Joel said and reached out to shake Chuck’s hand and then bent down to hug Sheri.

  Chuck wasn’t sure what he was expecting, but this wasn’t it. “Well, thank you, Joel, I mean we’re both really happy and all but that’s not what,” Chuck paused for a second and started over.

  “We need a marriage license,” Chuck said, “and, well…you’re still the only civilian authority in town. We’ve been, I don’t know, trying to get an appointment with you for a week but you’re too busy with other more important stuff. You don’t even have a secretary yet for crying out loud!”

  Joel was dumbstruck. These were his friends, and while he didn’t want to play favorites now that he was in a position of authority, was he already getting too big in his new position to be there for people he’d known for years? “I’m sorry,” he said. “You’re right, I’ve been busy, but not with more important things. And you have a right to be upset. Part of the reason I’ve been so busy is I’m trying to do it all myself.”

  “Then take some advice and get some help,” Chuck said. “I know you didn’t ask for it but it’s free, so take it anyway; the job is too big for just one person. I’m not criticizing you, but you’re going to burn yourself out.”

  Joel nodded. “Give me a day or two to see what I can do and I’ll get back t
o you,” he said without committing to anything else.

  …

  “So we don’t have a Chaplain.” Joel said.

  “No.” Mallory replied.

  “But you have an ordained minister.” Joel continued.

  “Correct.” Mallory said.

  “And she can or cannot perform marriages?” Joel asked.

  “Yes.” Mallory answered.

  “Don’t DO that!” Joel said.

  “Well then don’t be so easy to do it to,” Mallory said. “But it depends on the denomination.”

  “How can it depend, never mind.” Joel asked. “I don’t want to know. Sometimes you’re worse than a Djinn, a Genie, you know that?”

  Joel took a breath while Mallory just stood there with a smile on her face, waiting for Joel to ask the right questions. She was actually enjoying this a little. “Ok, in this state,” Joel said, “since the vote but assuming that the state Constitution is still in effect.” Joel stuck his tongue out at Mallory. “Could Sergeant Stanton perform a Religious Wedding?”

  Mallory was about to answer and then Joel held up his hand and her teeth actually clicked when she shut her mouth.

  “Before you ask, I don’t know what denomination.” Joel said.

  Mallory started to answer again and Joel held up his hand again and she stopped.

  “I haven’t asked and I don’t care if it’s going to be a white wedding.” Joel said. “As far as I know the bride will wear white and nobody will say boo about it.”

  Mallory started to answer a third time and Joel held up his hand once more and she glared at him.

  “I just wanted to see if I could stop you a third time.” Joel said with a cat that got the cream grin on his face.

  Mallory raised an eyebrow and that was enough to keep him from trying for a fourth time.

  “Yes,” she said. “Marci can perform either a non-denominational Protestant wedding or a Methodist wedding. Anything else specific and we’re going to have to find someone else.”

  “Thank you,” Joel said, “both for having someone who can perform the wedding and for not hitting me.”

  “Yet,” Mallory said.

  …

  Joel found himself spending more and more time traveling back and forth between Redemption and Promised Land for minor issues the longer he went without a secretary or some kind of representative in the town.

  “Joel,” Dan yelled as he came out of the clinic and saw Joel heading towards one of the few hybrid vehicles that had made the trip out. He was, at least, trying to conserve gas. “What brings you out here again today?”

  “What doesn’t bring me out here again today?” Joel snapped. “Now that there’s a Mayor nobody wants to think for themselves. We had another family show up today with usable skills, some supplies, and a willingness to work. There are four identical homes to put them in and they needed me to come down here and tell them which one to put them in!” Joel shook his head in disgust.

  “You need some help,” Dan said. “You can’t do this all on your own. You need to…hire someone. Not everyone needs to be voted into place. You don’t need to hire a bunch of people, but give someone some authority to be down here and make some decisions in your absence.”

  “Fine,” Joel said. “Any suggestions? Everyone is pretty busy or people would think I was giving it to them for some kind of payback.”

  Dan shook his head. “First of all, screw that kind of thinking,” he said. “You haven’t been in the job long enough to be that jaded, and if people really think that way then to hell with them. Secondly, give it to someone who can do the job regardless. The rest of the work will get picked up by other people.” Dan shrugged. “And third, yes, I do have a suggestion. Marissa. She’s great at organizing things and taking charge. We haven’t been here long enough for you to owe us anything, so it can’t be payback, and the likelihood of you trying to build an empire of cronies this soon is really slim.”

  Joel frowned in thought. “I’ll think about it. No promises about Marissa but you’re right. I’ve got too much to do and not enough time to do it, and I need someone down here.”

  …

  “So, guess who I got a call on the radio from today.” Marissa said after dinner once the girls were in bed.

  Dan looked over his shoulder as he was changing into a clean t-shirt. “No idea.”

  “The Mayor,” she said.

  Dan stopped in mid motion. “Really?” Oh crap. I forgot to mention that I talked to Joel yesterday.

  “Yes, really,” Marissa said. “It seems that someone suggested that I might make a good right-hand man for the Mayor here in town. Said I was good at organizing and taking charge.”

  Dan turned around, his t-shirt still only around his neck and on one arm. “Honey,” he said.

  “I’m not mad, you idiot, but a heads up would have been nice.” She said. “Getting a cold call from Joel with no warning was more than a little bit of a shock.”

  “I’m sorry,” Dan said. “It was totally out of the blue yesterday, and I totally forgot by the time I saw you last night.”

  “Well, you’re forgiven.” She said. “I accepted. I don’t have to spend quite as much time in the farms starting tomorrow, either, which will be nice, and I already have my first assignment.”

  “What’s that?” Dan asked.

  “It’s when one person asks you to do something for them,” she said with an impish grin. “Usually as part of your job.”

  Dan rolled his eyes. “Ok, wisenheimer. What’s your assignment?” He asked.

  “Well, you remember Ms. Hines?” She asked.

  Dan nodded.

  “It seems that she is soon to become Mrs. Turner!” She exclaimed.

  “No kidding? That’s great!” Dan said. “What are you working on for it?”

  “My first task is pretty dry,” Marissa said. “I’m supposed to see if the city offices here had any forms that we could use to record the marriage. I’m going to spend most of the day over there trolling for useful forms and paperwork since we don’t have any of that stuff.”

  Marissa shrugged. “It’s going to be tedious, and most people would call it boring, but you know what,” she said, “I’m actually looking forward to it. I don’t want to recreate the world first new old bureaucracy but some things have to be documented, you know, for posterity. That’s probably the best place to start looking for that type of thing.”

  “It sounds like Joel made the right choice.” Dan said.

  “Thank you for suggesting me,” she said. “Now finish putting on your t-shirt, you look silly.”

  …

  “How long have you known each other?” Sergeant Stanton asked the deliberately ambiguous question to Chuck and Sheri, who were sitting across the table from her in the mess hall—which had become the camp’s unofficial official meeting place. She wasn’t a sadist, not really, but this had been one of her favorite parts of interviewing new couples prior to a wedding…seeing how they responded to this question.

  Chuck and Sheri looked at each other, trying to figure out how to answer, but for different reasons. Chuck couldn’t remember how long they had worked together and wasn’t sure exactly how long he’d had a crush on Sheri. Sheri, on the other hand, had caught the double entendre in the question and was hoping Chuck didn’t blurt out some number of years.

  After a couple of seconds, Sheri decided to just ask to clarify the question. “How exactly do you mean that, Sergeant?” The look on Chuck’s face never changed, but the color change was quite dramatic as he closed his eyes. He wasn’t a prude, but he’d been the consummate gentleman since the moment their courtship began, including the night of her rescue. Now that he got the biblical reference, he was blushing like a school boy.

  “First,” Marci said, “call me Marci. Second, I mean how long have you two been friends?”

  Chuck had to save himself, so he answered. “Almost eight years,” he said. “I’ve been her supervisor for five of those at the hydr
o-electric plant, and before that we were both technicians, but didn’t always work the same shift. I’d say we’ve been friends most of that time.”

  Sheri squeezed Chuck’s hand and nodded.

  Marci smiled and continued what she knew Chuck and Sheri thought of as an interview, but was more just to get to know the couple. “I know that some people think that stressful situations bring people together,” she said, “and that a lot of times it’s only temporary.” Chuck and Sheri were nodding slightly while she was talking, but didn’t look like they were going to interrupt.

  “This whole experience has been one giant stressful situation.” Marci said. “Everything from the power going to just getting out of our neighborhoods. Not to mention,” Marci paused, “not to mention both the ordeal with Pete, and Chuck being your knight in shining armor.”

  Sheri closed her eyes and nodded and then looked at Marci, to make sure they had each other’s attention. “I don’t think you’re trying to talk me out of this, I really don’t.” Marci shook her head but didn’t say anything. “And I appreciate that, but sometimes it takes something dramatic, something earthshattering, for you to see something that’s right in front of you and has been for a long time.”

  Sheri looked at Chuck. “When the power went out that morning, I was stuck at the bottom of the dam going over the same litany about ‘What’s wrong with my life and why am I still alone?’; I was literally doing it for the millionth time when the spike happened.” Sheri said. “When we were done sending people home,” Sheri put her other hand on Chuck’s hand, “Chuck was concerned about one thing—what I was going to do, where I was going to go, how was I going to be?”

  Marci had a small smile. This was the type of thing she liked to hear about a couple—to know before they got married.

  “Why, Chuck?” Marci asked. “Why were you so worried?”

  Chuck’s color had gone back to normal but now he started to blush a little again. “Because at the time, I had a crush on Sheri.”

  Sheri broke out in a huge grin and leaned against his shoulder. Marci’s smile got wider as well. You hardly ever heard people in their thirties say the word crush.