by Geo Dell
“I don't think we can be choosy,” Molly said. “Another gun is another gun.”
Nellie and Tim nodded. Mike frowned. “I don't know how I feel... The others have got to go back... I agree with that... But I don't think we should have an uneven number either. We planned on six and I think we should stick with six,” Mike said.
“So, no,” Ronnie asked.
“No... Yes. I think he's in... But I think I would like to send Annie back.” He held his hand up when Annie began to protest. “Just hear me out. Look... It's not a straight shot back... You know your self that there are so many rows of trees... take the wrong line and you could end up somewhere else entirely... They get lost it could mean the end of them. It's no joke back in there if you're lost. You're pregnant too. I didn't know that when I said okay. It could be unsafe for you. I know Molly is also pregnant but Molly wont be showing when we come back... You will... Last argument. This looks like it's going to be a lot rougher than we thought. We need shooters... We could take real losses,” He looked around. “I'm not saying I would prefer to lose one of you, I wouldn't. I'm saying I'm concerned about what I have let you in for, because I didn't think about how this would be.”
No one spoke for a few moments.
Annie shook her head. “I'll go back. I don't want it to be a thing between us either. I'm not mad about it. I see this is not what we set out to do.” She said nothing else.
“So,” Molly asked after a few minutes.
“So he's in,” Nellie said, “right?”
Mike nodded.
“Annie and I will be along in a minute,” Tim said.
Mike nodded and then he, Ronnie, Molly and Nellie walked back down the road to where Bear's people were parked.
~
It was early afternoon before they were on the road heading for the small town Where Josh and his party were camped waiting. Annie had not been the only one who had shed tears.
Mike watched the trees passing by as they drove slowly along the old highway. The greens of summer were faded. Twice he had seen trees that had begun to turn. Just the slightest hint of yellow on a few leaves, but it meant that fall was coming...
“Not long,” Ronnie said from beside him.
“Fall?”
“Yeah... Seems fast, doesn't it?”
“I was just thinking how fast... I hope I didn't lie... I hope we are back before the snow flies,” Mike said. He hesitated. “What do you really think about Bear, Ronnie?”
“He's a big guy. How in hell are we going to feed him?”
Mike laughed. “Asshole.”
Ronnie laughed too. “I guess,” he said after a few moments. “He'll be okay... Annie's pretty smart. She's right... We get scared, just like anyone. I think he's just getting a handle on it.”
Mike nodded. “Alright... Well, let's hope the rest of the day isn't quite so crazy.”
“Jesus... It should be over already,” Ronnie said.
“Yeah,” Mike agreed. He laughed, a small laugh and then turned his attention back to the road.
~
She watched from the deep woods as they left. She was torn between the two paths. Follow the ones into the trees or the others out into the world... She scented the air with her eyes but it told her nothing beyond what she already knew. She was alone now and nothing pulled her in any one direction. She hesitated only a few more seconds and then started off into the woods. They had been gone for a while but it made no difference. She could follow them easily.
~
Mike stared across the fire at the young woman. She met his gaze levelly, but her eyes were still red and puffy and told a story about a long, searching night.
“I can't tell you that everyone feels the way I do,” Mike said. “I can't promise you that. I can say you'll have a place with us if that's what you want. I can also say no one will hurt you or use you,” Mike added quietly.
At his words Chloe's eyes began to leak once again.
“I just want to be accepted... I don't want to feel as though I'm nothing just... Just here... Just taking up space in the world,” Chloe told him.
Mike nodded. “I can understand that. It's what everyone wants.” She lifted her eyes to the others and then looked back at Mike. Her eyes asked the question.
“They feel the same. No. I haven't asked them, but I can tell you they do... Is that the same thing as acceptance? Maybe not... Maybe that will take time... Ask them... Do you want to ask them yourself? Talk to them?” He asked her.
She shook her head.
“That's okay, Chloe, when, if you want to talk to anyone you can.”
“Who did I talk to that one time,” she asked.
“First Tom, then me... He handed the radio to me,” Mike said.
“I thought it was your voice... Sometimes things stick in my head... That did... Things were so bad then.”
“We saw... We didn't know what had happened but we saw the end... The next morning,” Mike said.
She looked at him. A puzzled look on her face.
“Just coincidence,” Mike told her. “We went looking for Jeeps... We found the phone... Blood on the phone...We found... we found the shack and whoever was in it,” Mike finished quietly. He had lowered his voice until he was nearly whispering to her.
A sharp sob caught in Chloe's throat. She turned her head away, moaned low in her throat, and began to cry harder.
Nellie rushed over, her own face clouding over as she came.
“I... I...” Chloe tried, sobbing harder.
“Honey... Honey, come here,” Nellie said. She knelt down in the soft grass and pulled her to her. “It's going to be okay.
Chloe pulled away. “I just wanted to be left alone,” she sobbed. “He wouldn't...” She broke down and allowed Nellie to pull her back into her arms.
Mike stood and looked around uncomfortably. Ronnie met his eyes. Bear stood stoically by the fender of one Jeep, Josh between them. Mike walked over to where the three men stood silently, watching as Nellie rocked Chloe in her arms, speaking softly. Molly stood a short distance away. Her eyes shiny. Looking alternately at the ground and then back up at Nellie and Chloe.
“Is there a place,” Molly asked. “She shouldn't have to go through this right here in front of everyone.” She looked off towards the dealership.
“The van,” Josh said. He pointed.
Molly walked over to Nellie and Chloe. She bent to the ground. “Hey,” she said, “Hey, Girl.” She smoothed Chloe's hair away from her brow. “Let's go to the van so you can talk or just rest... Okay,” Molly asked her.
Chloe nodded.
Molly helped them both to their feet and they walked off to the van. The door chuffed quietly closed behind Nellie and Chloe. Molly walked back over. Her own eyes still misty. Mike looked at her.
“I wanted to go too, but I want her to be okay. She has Nellie. She doesn't need a crowd right now.” She looked up at Mike. “She's one of the girls that was with them? Like Cindy?”
Mike nodded.
“I wouldn't know it to look at her. She looks like no one I remember. But I've talked to Cindy... I can imagine what kind of hell she went through... Same thing I would have gone through... Nellie, if they had had their way.” She stopped and cleared her throat.
“Yeah.” It was all Mike could think to say.
Ronnie shook his head, cleared his own throat but said nothing.
“Bad,” Josh asked.
“You have no idea,” Mike answered.
“And hopefully you never will,” Tim added. His eyes were red. He stood alone next to one of the other Jeeps.
Josh nodded grimly.
CHAPTER FOUR
The Nation
“Shush,” Sandy said. She had a stethoscope and was moving it around Candace's stomach. She slid the stethoscope one inch left and then back. She smiled. “You're grounded,” She said through the smile.
“But why? I feel fine! I've done everything you told me to do,” Candace pouted. “I'm just g
etting heavy is all.”
“Lilly's not having twins it's just a big baby... That happens sometimes. She's taking care of herself, that makes the baby grow. Genetics... Supplements... Diet, just a big baby,” Sandy said as though she were talking to herself.
“What's Lilly's baby got to do with my baby?” Candace asked confused.
Sandy smiled. “You're big, Honey. You're going to be bigger than Lilly when the time comes,” Sandy told her.
“Big baby's,” Candace said. “I guess Pats will have a big baby too.”
“As a matter of fact,” Sandy said smugly, “Patty is going to have a big baby too. Probably not as big as Lilly's, but big. We are taking care of you. All the right things, but you are not going to have a big baby, Candace.” Sandy grinned from ear to ear.
Candace raised her eyebrows questioningly.
“You are going to have two big baby's,” Sandy told her. She held up two fingers as she finished and laughed.
Candace screamed. “No way,” she said.
“Yes way,” Sandy told her still smiling.
“Holy cow... Wait until Mike finds out... Wait until Pats finds out! Wait until Lilly finds out!” She said excitedly. She turned serious. “Who else knows,” she asked.
“Nobody,” Sandy assured her. “You and me.”
Candace screamed again.
~
Susan, Patty and Cindy were talking quietly outside the little clinic. They all stopped talking and raised their eyebrows at one another. They all shrugged.
Susan smiled. “It's your turn next though.”
“Ha, ha,” Patty said. “I hope it's ha, ha.”
“Sounded like a happy scream to me,” Cindy said.
The door opened and Candace walked out with Sandy. They were both smiling.
Patty raised her eyebrows.
“Oh, Pats,” Candace said. “I'm the one who's having twins. Me. It's me, Pats. It's me.” She burst into tears.
Patty's eyes flew open. She jumped up and wrapped her arms around Candace.
“Hormones,” Sandy said.
“Oh yeah,” Susan agreed.
~
Down in the valley, Bob and Tom were nearly done stripping out the two big trucks. They were using two teams of oxen with a large A-frame and pulley system. They had built the A-frame to help set the large aluminum girders and beams for the steel buildings.
One set of oxen lifted the first truck bed skyward using the frame for leverage. The second team was hitched to the flatbed wagon they slipped beneath the suspended truck bed.
The oxen then pulled the cart to the stream where a second temporary A-frame, and another chain fall had been set up. With the same careful maneuvering the deck rose into the air and then dropped down neatly onto the concrete pylons that had been built for it.
The bolts had to be lined up, but once that was accomplished, Tom slowly backed the oxen up and the bed settled onto the bolts that were set into the concrete. Nuts, washers and a set of big wrenches and the first footbridge was in place across the stream.
This bridge was at the first place where the stream curved over into the valley. After they added a set of rails the bridge would be able to accommodate animals, people, even small vehicles.
The second bridge was going further down the valley where the stream narrowed, after widening out, and then curved to follow the valley floor off to the right and eventually out of the valley all together. The concrete was ready. That bridge would make it easier for everyone to pass into the far end of the valley. The stream was deeper there where a second stream came down from the ridge and joined it. It was too deep to cross safely. In order to cross it everyone had to double back nearly two miles where the stream was still very shallow.
They walked the two teams back down to the stack of parts that had once been two large trucks. Set up the A-frame over the bed of the second truck, hooked up the team and attached the ropes to the truck bed.
Once again Tom backed up the oxen until the ropes took up the slack and then the bed began to raise into the air. A few minutes later and the bed was resting on the large flat topped wagon and they were rolling slowly down the valley toward the first bridge.
At the first bridge they took apart the poles that made the A-frame, added them to the truck bed, and then headed toward the other end of the valley to set up the second bridge.
The oxen had come about as a by-product of too many bulls. Too many young bulls. They had selected the two largest ones and left them with separate herds of cows. With so many young males there was too much fighting.
They had taken the seven remaining bulls and converted them to oxen. Bob had explained that an Ox was simply a castrated bull, not a different breed of animal. Although people sometimes thought that because the castrated bulls tended to grow larger, more muscular, as well as more docile. The temperament sometimes presented as an entirely different animal when compared to other bulls of the same breed. It was a larger, less aggressive animal that was not distracted by the cows. They had been fairly easy to train once the idea that they would have to work for a living was implanted in them.
They had chosen the best six, slaughtered the one remaining male, and between Bob and Tom they had trained them. Putting them to work as soon as they were healed.
The process with the horses had been the same. They had four large draft horses that had been castrated specifically for the job. Between the five teams they had plenty of muscle for any project that came their way. They did tend to save the horse teams for the harvest work. They were steadier around other people, whereas the oxen did not like crowds. They did well with just Tom or Bob. Sharon had been down to work with them several times. More than that and they got skittish.
The horses were used to being ridden. Used to people. But as fast as the oxen were learning Bob and Tom were both sure there would come a day when the oxen would be every bit as useful as the horses were.
The second bridge was up and they were heading back to the opposite end of the valley before noon.
Bob nudged Tom. “Look,” he said, pointing back to the new bridge. A pair of young cows were walking slowly back and forth across the surface of the bridge. After a few times they began to make a game of it, chasing each other back and forth across the bridge. Tom and Bob both chuckled as they watched.
They stopped to look over a small apple orchard they had planted. Six trees, all different varieties. They had hoped at least one variety would take, as it turned out six out of the initial nine trees had taken. It would be a few years before there was any fruit yield, but once they did Bob had plans to clone them using cuttings.
Slightly farther on were pear trees, oranges and banana. The pear trees were doing fine. The orange and Banana they had little hope for. Janet had talked about trying to grow them in green houses, but they lacked the materials to do that and with winter coming Bob was sure that they would probably die before they could get them into an environment where they could survive. For now they seemed to be fine. The severity of the fall and winter would tell.
Blackberries, Blueberries growing wild, and grapes and raspberries they had planted with the hopes that they would take and mature within a few years.
The day was pleasant. The sun was hot with no hint of what the winter to come would be like.
They made their way to the barn. Put away the teams and harnesses. By then it was late afternoon and they made their way up to the main cave.
On The Road
Josh and James pitched in to help set up the tents. They had decided they would probably be better off staying put. It was late in the day and they probably wouldn't make a lot of headway anyway. And, in any event, Mike told himself, they were not in any really big hurry. Things were obviously much different from they had suspected.
One day would not hurt them. After they set up the tents they could drive to the old farm store and check out the rear storage warehouse where Bob was positive he had seen a fairly large disassembled saw mill.
/> Molly seemed very quiet and Nell was still in the van with Chloe. Mike caught Molly's eyes.
“Go ahead,” Molly told him. “I'll wait here,” she turned to Josh. “If you want to leave Rich and Alicia that's okay,” she assured him.
Josh nodded thank you. “You sure,” Mike asked her.
She put one hand on his sleeve and patted his arm. “It's just thinking about it. It'll pass. The kids will cheer me up and I'll feel much better when Nell comes out of there, hopefully with Chloe feeling better... Go,” she pushed his arm away. “Go and see about that sawmill.” She patted her belly. “Nellie and I are going to need to put an addition on. We'll need that sawmill.” She smiled and most of her real self came back from the dark place she had gone to. The tension bled away from her face.
Mike felt relief. Molly turned away and he jumped back in to helping Ronnie set up tents. They left shortly after as the day was moving toward afternoon. Mike, Ronnie, Tim, Bear, Josh and James.
Un-dead
She stopped and scented the air. The vehicles were miles ahead, but it didn't matter. She would be able to follow their trail days from now as easily as she followed it now. She had stopped because she had scented more of her own. The question now was whether to follow or gather.
She had no doubt she would eventually follow them back to where ever it was they ended up... The living, she knew, gathered together. Not like the dead did. The dead gathered, but only for purpose, not social safety. The dead were afraid of nothing at all. The living seemed to be afraid of everything. They seemed to live in fear of everything, so where ever they ended up there would be others living there, where ever that turned out to be. But she was only one and a days travel away there were more who would follow her, and if she scented them, then they knew about her too.
Even now they were following her scent, her thoughts on the air. Questioning... Wondering if she would come to them. They were newly dead. They had no leader, but they were willing. Just waiting to be collected. They would follow her where ever she intended to go.
It meant that her position had changed. With the death of Marcus she was no longer a soldier, just a follower... She was now a leader. It wasn't something that just fell to her, it was a duty that called to her. An urge that pulsed in the strange blood that flowed through her veins. She had been considering it like she had a choice to make, but very little of it was her own choice or free will. Nearly all of it was for the whole. The collective. The hive. All apt. descriptions, although none of those descriptors really did it justice.