“Where did you go?” Becky asked. She turned from the window and looked directly into Jessie's eyes, holding them.
“It would take days just to explain that to you... I have been to the east coast, to the mountains of Tennessee, Kentucky... What's left of the southern states... All gone now, or changed forever, and I bought the Fold to a small valley in the desert... Texas, I think, maybe Arizona... Borders don't matter so much anymore and the ways to mark them are disappearing fast.” She stopped speaking and shrugged. “I have been through so much that I am surprised it is still the same old me when I look in a mirror.”
“Jessie, we have all have been through it... Why can't you be here?” Becky asked.
“Is it Frank? Do you think that is that still between you two?” Annie Asked. “Because I can tell you it's not, as far as Frank is concerned. He'd tell you himself except he's a man... Still doesn't know how to talk to a woman very well. He'd be afraid you would cry, but I can tell you. It isn't there any longer.”
Jessie straightened her back. She had been afraid she would cry, and she didn't want to do that. She didn't want to appear weak now. Not when she was stating her case for her reasons for not staying. She wanted to be seen as sure: Solid. Determined. “It's... It's not so simple as that... What was between Frank and I was a small thing in the scheme of things... Relationships that are formed in crisis don't last... That's all there was to that, and I could not see pretending it would last... I have this drive,” she shrugged. “Since day one? Maybe... Since sometime in those first days in Rochester, trying to figure it all out. I need my own place. I need a place that I can control... Shape... Build... And I have it.” She waited for someone to speak, when no one did she began again.
“Far to the east, Kentucky or Tennessee, there is a place you might have heard about called the Nation... If you haven't heard about them, you will. They have drawn thousands to them and will continue to draw thousands to them, and they are probably the most corrupted society that I have seen come from the destruction. They think better of themselves, but they are no better than what we had... I say it to warn you, not from my own experience alone, although that is probably reason enough.” She paused and gathered her thoughts. “They are the next thing we will need to fight... Maybe even to destroy.”
“I am going back to the Fold. It has been started in the desert and even now should be growing stronger as they wait for my return. I had hoped to return here and bring what I started at Lake Union back to the desert, but that has fallen apart too. Sarah is dying... Probably soon, so there is little left to do except pick up whatever pieces remain there and leave for the last time.” She fell silent.
“So you are leaving to prepare for a fight? Hasn't there been enough of that? Haven't millions died already because someone else had what they thought was a better idea, or because of lies, disease, corrupt societies,” Becky asked.
Jessie frowned. “It was not disease. It was a purposely released virus... They know that to the east. The rising of the dead came to be directly as a result of that, and there are those in the Nation that are looking for that virus... What more can it do? I don't know, but I for one am not willing to wait and see what the next wave of disease that is released upon us is all about. I am going to fight it.... This Nation, they have their own military... They have men and women dedicated to that... They search out weapons, biological, conventional, I don't know what else, but if you give it some thought, all of it is still out there somewhere. Just waiting for someone like the Nation to come along and pick it up... Start all over again... And that is what they have done, are doing, continue to do. Do you have a military? I don't, but when I get back it is one of the first things I intend to do... I would like to know where we stand. Are you with me, because this will come to you eventually. You may be so far west that the battle has not come here yet, but it will... Just as soon as they find a weapon that can reach you it will, whether they use that weapon or not, because the truth is, the threat alone will bring it to you. What could you do against that? That is why the Fold will be ready. I know who the enemy is. I am sure they are not the only one. And we will be ready.” She nodded fiercely as she finished and pushed herself back from the table they sat at. Once again her eyes went to the lake as the silence continued. Her face softened as she watched the waves, a few ducks on the surface closer in to shore. She turned to look at the others.
“I can't say we will,” Becky said. “We'll need to talk as a community... Things have changed... we left it in your hands, in Sarah's hands, but in the absence of both of you we began to decide our own fate... We had no choice, and it may be unofficial, but it works. It keeps us together. Keeps the community alive and prospering.”
Jessie nodded. “I understand... As for me I have to get back. I have been interrupted too long, kept from my true purpose.”
“You sound... I don't know, so bent on this course,” Annie said. “Violence is how we all got here.”
“No,” Jessie said quietly. “Lies is how we all got here. Being unprepared is how we all got here. Listening to politicians that lied to us for years... And we knew it! That is how we got here... I don't intend to let that happen to my people again.”
~
It was several hours before Jessie came back, accompanied by the other women, and they prepared to leave. There was a tense set to Jessie's shoulders, enough to let the others know that whatever they had discussed had not gone Jessie's way. She would talk about it or she wouldn't. That was Jessie's way.
As they stepped outside the sun was just beginning to set on the far side of the trees. Janna looked around her. Squirrels chattered as they played in the trees, and a virtual symphony of bird whistles greeted them as they stepped down the wide front steps of the cabin.
"I don't think I've seen any place this nice in a long time," Janna said.
"Well," Frank said, as he shook Janna's hand again, "you're welcome to stay, if you want to."
"Same goes for me," Joe said. "Becky tried to convince Jessie to stay. Failed again, I would say."
"We'll see you again," Gary said kindly as he stepped forward. Dell shook Janna's hand as well. It was beginning to feel too good to leave, almost ... well, almost like home, Janna thought.
“Can't convince you,” Joe asked.
“I... I like it, I would like to, but I want to follow Jessie... Help to build the Fold... I owe her so much,” Janna said. She was near tears. Too much had happened in the last few months that she had not yet had time to deal with.
Becky stepped forward and hugged her quickly. “We'll come and visit... If the mountain won't come to Mohammad...”
Frank stepped forward and pulled Jesse to him before she could protest.
“You should stay here,” Frank said. “You belong.”
“Maybe,” Jessie agreed. “Maybe once I did... I hope that all of you end up with us, Frank.” Her voice cracked and she pulled away suddenly, causing a few people to look at them as they stood awkwardly, still close to one another. Annie stepped forward and hugged Jessie, breaking the moment. She pulled back from the hug with no words. Jessie pulled away, and a few moments later the three trucks started, backed around and then drove slowly down the dirt road toward the main highway.
They drove through the late afternoon light, making their way slowly, the road cracked and uneven before them. In places the forest had crept forward and reclaimed parts of it. Huge pines towered over them, and an occasional rusty sign pointed the way to some now nonexistent point of interest, as they wound slowly through the mountainous country. When they reached and passed the former roadblock, expecting trouble once more, they found it empty.
Seattle
April 29th
Lake Union Settlement
Rodney stood slowly from Mamma's grave where he had been kneeling, and turned to the people behind him. Jessie stepped out and the small crowd fell silent.
“It's time,” she said simply, “it's time to leave.” She turned back to the
others and they climbed inside her SUV. A few moments later she backed around, came back up onto the rutted dirt road and started slowly out of the settlement.
Most of the inhabitants had left soon after Mamma had died. They had given no reasons, and Rodney had asked for none. Of the more than one thousand people that had been there, there were less than forty now, gathered around them in a circle. The small crowd moved away and quickly gathered what they wished to take with them, which was not a great deal.
Less than twenty minutes later a worn caravan of patched and rusty vehicles pulled out of the park at Lake Union, and trekked slowly out of Seattle following Jessie Stone. As they drove east, other encampments joined them, and when they were just beyond the city limits, the small caravan that had started with no more than fifteen vehicles had grown to more than thirty.
About The Author
Dell Sweet was born in New York. He wrote his first fiction at age seventeen. He drove taxi and worked as a carpenter for most of his life. He began working on the internet in 1989 primarily in HTML, graphics and website optimization.
He spent time living on the streets in Rochester New York as a young teen: As an addict: As well as time in prison. He was Honorably discharged from the U.S. Navy in 1974.
He is a Musician who writes his own music as well as lyrics. He is an Artist accomplished in Graphite, Pen, and digital media. He has written more than twenty books and several dozen short stories. He believes in Christ. He has been sober and drug free for the past twelve years.
Table of Contents
Book One Table Of Contents
Book Two Table Of Contents
Book Three Table Of Contents
Book Four Table Of Contents
Book Five Table Of Contents
Book Six Table Of Contents
Book Seven Table Of Contents
Table of Contents
Book One Table Of Contents
Book Two Table Of Contents
Book Three Table Of Contents
Book Four Table Of Contents
Book Five Table Of Contents
Book Six Table Of Contents
Book Seven Table Of Contents
Earth's Survivors Box Set [Books 1-7] Page 218