Rescue: Book 3 in the After the Fall series

by David Nees

  “We got plenty to eat,” the man replied. “Lots of rats, squirrels.”

  “That all?”

  “Sometimes we eat the wood sorrel growing in the yards and fields. Got water from a well.”

  “And you sleep here?” Jason asked.

  “My friends stay here. I go over to the house down the street, especially when it’s cold. Got a good stove to keep warm. My friends don’t like to go out, so I meet with them over here most days.”

  “And that’s all you do?”

  “We talk about things. How to avoid the aliens, when the others might be coming back. We ain’t seen many other people in a long time, so we don’t get much news. You say you never saw them, though.”

  He now looked almost confused. “You think they gone?”

  Rodney started to speak but Jason caught his arm.

  “We don’t know if they’re gone or not. We’ve been in the woods for some time,” Jason said. “Do you mind if I talk to my partners outside for a minute? We’ll be right back.”

  The man watched as Jason led the group out of the store.

  “Why’d you stop me?” Rodney asked.

  “The man’s crazy. We can see that. You saying the aliens are gone or there are no aliens might shatter this world he’s created.”

  “You want to let him go on with this fantasy?”

  Jason looked back into the store. The man was talking to the cardboard figures, gesturing wildly with his arms. “It’s how he survives. He’s lost his sense of reality. Look at his friends.”

  Clayton shook his head. “Be a lot of other crazy people around if they was as good at surviving as this one. What he heard was probably refugees or gangs passing through.”

  “Should we bring him with us?” Billy asked.

  “What good would that do?” Clayton asked.

  “It just seems wrong to leave him here.”

  “He seems to be doing all right,” Clayton said.

  “I don’t think he’d want to go,” Jason said. “He’d probably think we want to take him to the aliens. We should just leave him alone.”

  Rodney nodded in assent as did Clayton.

  “Guess you’re right. He’s made it this far,” Billy said.

  The men went back inside.

  “We have to go now. Got a long way to travel. We’ll keep an eye out for the others from here. We’ll let them know you’re asking about them.

  “Tell them they can come back. I’ve kept everything like they left it.”

  “What is your name?” Jason asked. “We should tell them your name.”

  “It’s Noah Frank Lynn.”

  “Noah Franklin,” Jason repeated.

  “No. Noah Frank Lynn. My middle name is Frank.”

  The men said goodbye and turned to go. Noah stood in the doorway watching them as they walked down the street, heading east.

  “Watch out for them. You hide when you see ‘em. Don’t let them catch you,” he called out.

  After an hour of walking, Rodney suddenly spoke up. “Noah Frank…Lynn. NFL”

  The others looked at him.

  “NFL, National Football League,” he repeated.

  Jason smiled as they continued their journey.

  Chapter 33

  ___________________________________

  B y the end of the second day since leaving Noah behind, the men reached Hillsboro and passed through the south-western gate, near where the water channel had been cut to power the mill.

  Clayton cut through the town to depart from the other side and join his family on their farm. Rodney and Billy went with Jason to his home. When Anne saw Jason coming through the door, she jumped up and nearly tackled him, throwing her arms around him in a huge hug. After nearly smothering her husband, she gave each of the other men joyful hugs while Sarah hugged her step-father. Jason then went in a bedroom to peek at his son who was sound asleep.

  “Let him sleep. He can see you in the morning,” Anne said softly. She held on to Jason, as if afraid he would disappear if she let him go.

  “Come sit down. I’ll pour each of you a drink and get you some food.”

  “We should clean up,” Rodney said.

  “You do smell a bit ripe, but for now just sit. As the song goes, ‘rest your weary feet a while’.”

  Anne brought out some whiskey she and Jason had brought from the valley farm. She poured everyone a half glass, neat.

  “Here’s to a successful rescue,” she said raising her own glass of water. Rodney looked at her.

  “Still nursing,” she said, then turned to start a fire in the stove. She and Jason had brought the wood-burning kitchen stove from their farm house to their house in Hillsboro.

  “How does ham and eggs with some tomatoes and onions sound?”

  “That sounds great,” Jason said. He started to take off his boots but Rodney stopped him.

  “Don’t. You’ll stink up the kitchen and spoil those great cooking aromas Anne is going to produce.”

  Billy just smiled as he sipped his drink. He was still not a great fan of whiskey, but now understood its role in social settings. And the fact that it relaxed him didn’t hurt.

  After a large meal, during which Anne and Sarah coaxed some tidbits of the adventure from Jason and Rodney, Anne set the men off to wash. She heated a large tub of water from the tank outside which they carried to the bathroom. There was still no running water, but everyone had a tank that collected water from their roofs. In addition, there were numerous wells that had been dug around the city and people could go to those locations and pump water to carry back to their homes.

  Grey water from sinks and bathtubs was allowed to flow into the waste system. The town had no way to process it and just passed it along, back into the river downstream. Work was in progress to create a large complex of drain fields to pipe the water into. There were severe penalties for dumping black water into the system. It happened and could be handled, but with great difficulty. If the perpetrators were found, their drains were either sealed up with concrete or disconnected from the sewer lines.

  The hot tub of water was blended into the cold and each man was able to get at least a luke-warm standing bath. The soap felt like a luxury after weeks of camping.

  Now washed and fed, Anne showed Billy and Rodney where to sleep—pads on the living room floor—and she and Jason retired to their bedroom.

  “Tomorrow you need to report to Kevin. The town council is going to want to meet to debrief you and ask you lots of questions,” Anne said when they retired to the privacy of their room.

  “Yeah. There’s a lot to talk about.”

  “You’re probably not going to like all you hear from the council.”

  “I’ll deal with that tomorrow. Right now, I’m home and have you in my arms. I can’t think of anything beyond that glorious fact.”

  “And you shouldn’t either,” Anne said as she wrapped herself around her man.

  The next day Jason, Rodney, and Billy went to the police headquarters to see Kevin. After much joy and hugging one another, the men sat down.

  Kevin shook his head. “I can hardly believe you were successful. I know what Anne said at the council meeting. It was a brave statement, but I still thought it wasn’t going to end well. No one but Anne, and maybe Catherine, thought you’d make it back.”

  He got up and poured some tea for the men. “Tell me about it.”

  Jason, along with Rodney recalled the events as Kevin listened with rapt attention.

  “Damn, I never would have thought of that, a mutually assured destruction setup. If they killed you, they would be killing the Chairman. He must not have liked that.”

  “We had some time to talk as we drove out of town with him. He’s a dictator with a dictator’s mentality. For him control is the key to the future and control needs to be in his hands, not the citizens,” Jason said.

  “In dangerous times, that can be a good thing. Decisions made faster. One is able to react more quickly to threats.
That’s why, during war, our president becomes the Commander in Chief. After war is declared, he can operate with his generals without everything having to go through congress.”

  “I get that, but is that how we should live while we’re trying to rebuild civil society? Seems to me we have to find a way to normalize life while we remain flexible and quick to act on threats.”

  “If you can figure out that balance, someone should elect you to run the country,” Kevin said.

  “I don’t think there’s much of a country right now. That’s something we’ll be dealing with at some point, but for now, we’re in that city-state stage of society.”

  “Can you find a place for Rodney and Billy to stay? Sleeping on our couch and floor is going to get old quickly.”

  Kevin turned to his sergeant. “I never thought I’d see you again so soon.”

  “Me either.”

  “You still going to go west?”

  “Yes. But I think now we should wait a few weeks to see what the fallout is going to be from our rescue.”

  “You think there’ll be repercussions?” Kevin turned back to Jason.

  “I do. It may involve an all-out attack on Hillsboro. They were planning on taking over Johnson City, but they may turn their attention to us.”

  “We’re a much more formidable opponent than Johnson City.”

  “That’s why I’m not sure. But I think the Chairman can’t let this go unanswered. Too many people know what happened. The word will get out and he can’t afford to look bad, especially to his own citizens.”

  Rodney nodded in agreement. “That’s why I want to stay around for a while. Billy too, I think.” He turned to Billy who nodded in agreement.

  “I’m still going with Rodney, when he’s ready to leave. This is still a sad place for me.”

  Kevin got up. “I guess I better go see Steve. Get him to call a council meeting.”

  “The sooner the better,” Jason replied.

  “I’ll arrange some place for you and Billy to stay,” Kevin said to Rodney.

  “I think I’ll go out to see Clayton. He should be at the meeting,” Jason said. “By the way, where is Catherine?”

  “She’s in Taylorsville, being a diplomat,” Kevin replied.

  “How’s that going?”

  “Only okay at best. All the surrounding towns are suspicious. Not much has changed since you left, but they’re slowly coming around. If what you say is true, we’ll need them on board to help us out.”

  “Could be a tough sell,” Jason said.

  “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. Tell Clayton we’ll have the meeting the day after tomorrow. It takes more time to get things arranged nowadays.”

  The men got up to go.

  “I’ll go out to Clayton’s farm with you,” Billy said. “Maybe he can put me up somewhere. Be less sad than staying here in town.”

  “I’m going to go see my troops,” Rodney said. “Kind of miss them, even Tommy.”

  Chapter 34

  ___________________________________

  T wo days later the town council gathered in their usual chambers in the city hall building, the modest but appropriate venue where the town’s business had been run for generations. Steve Warner, the acting mayor, an electrician who had led the internal resistance to free the town, was presiding. A number of citizens who had been alerted were at the meeting. Along with Rodney and Billy, Kevin and Charlie Cook, the previous police chief, there was Anne and Sarah.

  “I want to thank you all for coming on short notice. As you can see, Jason and Clayton have returned after successfully rescuing Sergeant Gibbs and Billy Turner. I’ve called this meeting so we can hear their report of what went on.”

  There were other opening comments by members of the council. Jason could never understand the need for such. It seemed like when someone got elected to a public office, they felt obligated to always have something to say. Finally, Steve motioned for Jason to stand and speak.

  He began by re-introducing Clayton, who had been key to getting Rodney and Billy freed. Jason also wanted to be sure the council understood the contribution Clayton’s people were making. He didn’t want them to feel estranged from the town’s people. The two groups needed each other too much to become distant and disconnected.

  After the compelling story of the tense time in the Chairman’s office, the flight south and the gun battles, Jason sat down. There was a hushed silence. Then Steve spoke up.

  “I guess we all should congratulate Jason and Clayton for what they did. We took care of our own and showed Knoxville that we are not to be messed with.”

  The room burst into applause. Clayton looked embarrassed.

  “Mr. Mayor,” Raymond Culver spoke up from the dais as the applause died down. “May I make a comment?”

  Steve looked over at Raymond. He had come to learn in his short two weeks on the job that Raymond Culver could be a pain in the ass. He often took a contrary position, but he was not easily dismissed as his formidable intelligence had to be dealt with and his arguments answered.

  “Go ahead Mr. Culver,” Steve said.

  “We do appreciate Mr. Richard’s success. Many of us didn’t hold out much hope for his mission. We worried that it might end in loss of life, to him and his partner and to the prisoners. We’re happy he and the others returned safely.” He paused before continuing.

  “But I do wonder the effect this will have on Knoxville. It seems as though Jason put their leader in a very dangerous and embarrassing position. They might react badly to that. That may not be helpful to us. Our future may be best served by establishing peaceful relations with Knoxville and this act might have set that back if not made it impossible.”

  “I hear your point Ray,” Steve said.

  “I just think that we should discuss some sort of peace gesture. We should be ready to show Knoxville the olive branch of peace, not the hard stick of war and conflict.”

  “From what we can tell, the men made it back and the pursuing militia gave up and probably returned to Knoxville. We can discuss how we might make overtures to Knoxville, but for now I don’t think we need to do anything but celebrate everyone’s safe return.”

  There was much more discussion with all the council members wanting to tease out the details of the rescue. The encounter with Noah Frank Lynn caused a mixture of mirth and sadness in the chamber. Everyone was touched as well as amused by the story of the survivor, but it also reminded them of their loss.

  After the meeting, Anne insisted that Clayton, Kevin, Rodney, and Billy come over to their house. She was making a pork loin that someone had given her to celebrate Jason’s return. With the hotter days, the gift needed to be eaten, so Anne had invited friends, including Charlie Cook and his wife, over. Clayton’s wife, Becca, had come to town with him, so she would join them as well.

  The meal was sumptuous for the times. Cooked in the oven of a wood stove, the aroma of the wood fire could not help but permeate the meat. With the loin, Anne had cooked some of the root vegetables she had kept over the winter, carrots, beets and potatoes.

  The meal was eaten with great enthusiasm and little conversation. Everyone appreciated a full meal in these days. With little power and no refrigeration, one had to learn old ways to enjoy good meals. The positive was that most food was generally fresh to the benefit of everyone’s health.

  “I know you have much to talk about and I want to talk with Becca and Mary,” Anne announced when the meal had ended. “So, you men go into the living room. Me and the ladies will clean up.”

  “Let us help,” Jason said. “He got up and grabbed a couple of plates. The others followed his example and the dishes were soon stacked in the kitchen.

  “Thank you,” Anne said. “Now go. It’s too crowded in here.”

  The men retired to the living room.

  “What do you think the fallout will be from your actions?” Charlie asked after they sat down. “Do you think they’ll attack us?”

>   “I don’t really know the answer to that,” Jason said. “We learned that they have around five hundred men in their militia. And, as I told Kevin, I don’t think they can let this go unanswered. They have to respond in some fashion.”

  Charlie shook his head. There was a worried look on his face. “I’m not being critical, but there’ll be people who will criticize you, if they think your rescue will bring danger to the town. No one needs that so soon after we fought Stansky.”

  “That’s not fair,” Kevin said in a strong voice.

  “I’m just voicing what some people may think. You, we, need to be prepared for that reaction.”

  Jason sighed and relaxed in his chair. A full meal, lovely wife, good friends; life was, at this moment, pretty nice, he thought. Except for the subject of discussion. That brought home the level of instability and stress that still haunted their lives.

  “Look,” he said. “I don’t need to answer for what I did. When I stepped down from being mayor, I became a private citizen. As such, I could do what I want. I haven’t broken any laws. If I wanted to go off and rescue some friends, that’s my business…and Clayton’s as well. There’s no law to stop us.”

  “You’re taking the position that you acted as a private citizen? The problem is, as you already said, Knoxville may not see it like that,” Charlie replied.

  Jason lifted his hands in a gesture of surrender. “It’s done. I wasn’t going to leave Rodney and Billy held captive.”

  “Please understand,” Charlie said. “I’ve been a police officer for thirty years. I can see the reaction that is coming. I can also see the relevant laws, such as they exist, that might apply. You refused to pay the ransom, abused the courier. Those were official actions, before you stepped down and acted as a private citizen—”

  “Taken with council approval,” Jason said.

  “Okay, Charlie,” Kevin said. “I think we get your point. Some may bring it up, but Knoxville might not respond in such a way as to start a war. No one wins if there’s a war between the cities.”