by Eric Vall
“I wanted to talk to you about last night,” he said.
“Of course,” I told him, though my adrenaline kicked in as I waited for him to continue.
“I know why you didn’t talk to me about it before you spoke to the group,” the old man said.
“I was hoping you’d understand,” I said with a small nod. If I had talked to Rolly there was no way he would have kept it from Betty, and I would no longer have been able to plead my case in front of everyone. We weren’t an extremely large group, and something like that could spread quickly.
“I do,” he assured me. “And I spoke to Betty about the situation last night.”
“Okay,” I said, and I looked at the old woman who stared down at her coffee cup. “Was anything decided?”
“Betty has agreed to come,” Rolly said.
“That’s great!” I exclaimed with a smile.
“But there are a couple of conditions,” he added.
“Okay,” I said slowly, and I could feel my face fall. “What are the conditions?”
“I want to be able to bring my things from there,” Betty said. “I haven’t brought much here, but if we’re going so far away, then I want to bring my things, including my grandmother’s stove. She had it for years, and I don’t want to leave it behind.”
“Of course,” I agreed. “Anything else?”
“I’d also like to be able to come visit from time to time,” the old woman said, but she still refused to look at me.
“That’s doable,” I told her with a smile.
“As long as we can do that she’s agreed to come,” Rolly said.
I had been expecting more demands, and I had been ready to meet them all, but I could tell it was more about the principle than anything.
Betty was clearly just upset about having to leave the home that her family had lived in for so long, and I couldn’t blame her for that one bit.
“Betty,” I said, and I reached across the coffee table and put my hand on hers. The old woman looked up at me for the first time since we’d started talking, and her green eyes were cloudy with tears. “I know this is hard for you, and I appreciate you doing this. I just want you to be safe. I’m sorry that it’s come to this.”
“Thank you,” she said, but her voice was choked with emotion.
She put her other hand on top of mine, gave it a squeeze before she wiped away a couple of tears, and then took a deep breath.
“What’s going on?” Bailey asked as she and the girls came down the stairs.
“We were just talking,” I said softly.
“Betty, are you alright?” Bailey asked as she came up behind the old woman.
“I’m okay, dear,” Betty answered, and she looked up and smiled at Bailey.
“Do you need a hug?” the blonde asked.
“You know,” Betty chuckled. “I think I will take a hug.”
She stood up and went around the couch to hug Bailey, but all the other girls quickly joined in.
While they hugged it out, I looked at Rolly.
“Thank you,” I mouthed quietly.
The old man just nodded at me. I knew he only wanted the same thing I did, for everyone to be safe. He didn’t have as much attachment to this place as Betty did to her farm, but he tried to be understanding about it nonetheless, and I had to respect him for that. Ultimately, though, Rolly knew his age, and he’d seen what happened to older people when they were left to their own devices in this new world. He knew that he and Betty would both be safer at the fort with us, and I was happy that he’d been able to convince her to come along.
Now that that was settled, I figured that most of the civilians that were against the plan would come around as well.
The girls all sat down and they were happy to hear that Betty had decided to come along. More than that, though, now that the fire was out of the way, they got right back into wedding chatter.
I smiled and nodded as I drank my coffee, but I didn’t dare try to make any sort of suggestions. I’d allow the girls and Betty to have the ceremony any way they’d like.
When the girls asked me to bag a couple of deer for the ceremony, I quickly agreed, and Kimmy offered to accompany me as well. I wasn’t sure if the dark skinned woman had ever been hunting, but she appeared just as out of her element as I was when it came to wedding chatter. I presumed that was one reason that she had offered to come with me. This way she did something for the ceremony without feeling like she was in the throes of it.
I continued to drink my coffee and play with baby Anthony until Tara’s voice called me back to reality.
“Tav,” she said sternly, and I turned around.
“Yes?” I asked.
“Were you listening?” the platinum blonde inquired with a raised eyebrow.
“Not exactly,” I admitted.
“Of course not,” she laughed and rolled her eyes. “Well, we need you to get those deer soon.”
“Okay,” I agreed. “When is the wedding taking place exactly?”
“Three days,” the platinum blonde said.
“Three days,” I repeated with astonishment.
“Yes,” she answered with a clap of her hands. “So, chop, chop.”
“Damn, Tara,” Paige laughed.
“We have a lot to do,” Tara said. “This needs to be perfect.”
“Why so soon?” Kimmy asked, and it was clear she hadn’t been paying attention, either.
“After everything that’s happened lately, I don’t want to wait,” Betty said, and she turned to smile at Rolly. “I want to be your wife as soon as possible.”
“That’s what I want, too,” the old man said, and he leaned in and kissed her cheek.
Three days wasn’t a lot of time to put a wedding together, but if anybody could do it, it was the girls. They were capable of pretty much anything they set their minds to, and I had no doubt that the ceremony would be absolutely beautiful.
I also couldn’t blame the couple for wanting to move things along quickly. After everything that had happened lately, it made sense that they wouldn’t want to wait around for another natural disaster to hit.
“I can be in charge of cooking the meat, too,” I offered.
“You already are,” Tara told me dryly.
“Oops,” I said, and I looked away quickly.
“I’ll make barbecue sauce!” Kimmy said.
“What do you think?” Tara asked Betty.
“That sounds lovely,” the old woman agreed.
“Alright,” the platinum blonde approved. “You can make the barbecue sauce.”
“She is taking this really seriously,” Kimmy whispered to me.
“Just go along with it,” I whispered back. “I saw her stab two different guys in the dick.”
“I heard that,” Tara said, and she shot me a playful glare as everyone else burst out into laughter.
“When should we go get these deer?” Kimmy asked.
“We can go tomorrow,” I suggested.
“Alright,” she agreed. “We can do that.”
“That will give us plenty of time to get everything cleaned and ready for the ceremony, too,” I said.
After we finished our coffee and did the morning’s chores, we headed out to make another water run. We’d watered the crops and animals the day before, but I wanted to stockpile some just in case. We found a couple of extra troughs in Betty’s barn and filled those up with the first run, then we headed out again to fill up the water barrels for a second time. That would put us about a day ahead as far as watering went, which was nice in case we needed extra on campus or something. I didn’t anticipate that we would, but the stream was drying up fast, and I was sure it’d be empty soon.
It was about noon when we arrived back on campus. I noticed that the civilians were separated into little groups in the grass talking quietly among one another. I hoped that all of them decided to come with us to the fort, but I wouldn’t force anybody to go. With Betty changing her mind, though, I figu
red that would sway quite a few of them.
Briar hadn’t put up nearly as much of a fight as I had suspected. I think the old man realized that he was better off with the group. Besides, he’d been away from his home for quite a while, so I thought he had probably grown accustomed to having people around. In fact, I think he quite liked being part of a group.
Donna, Jeff, and a few other civilians seemed to be the only ones who were overly skeptical, but I had a feeling that they would come around. They had originally been prisoners at the first outpost the girls and I had taken out together, the same one where we’d gotten Winchester. It couldn’t have been easy for them to trust us to begin with, and now we were asking them to trust a whole new group of people. Still, they were strong individuals, and I had faith that they’d make the right decision.
They had brought up some valid questions, though, and I did wonder about how the new dynamic would work at the fort. Renee would still be in charge of her people, and I’d been in charge of ours, but how would we work together? We had a few months left to figure that out, though, and I made a note to speak with her about it after everything with the wedding and the meetup with the strangers was done.
“Tav,” Paige whispered behind me, and I turned around to see the brunette following me toward the dorm building.
“Uh, yeah?” I asked, curious as to why she seemed to be acting secretive.
“We need you,” the brunette said, and she grabbed my arm.
“Alright,” I chuckled and allowed her to pull me into the library.
Inside I saw that all the girls were gathered together, along with Jenny. They all stood around one of the tables with a map spread out across it.
“What’s going on?” I asked as I took in the strange scene.
“We need to go on a run,” Anna explained.
“Yeah,” Bailey said. “And we knew you wouldn’t let us go alone.”
“Of course, I wouldn’t,” I agreed. “What kind of run are you talking about?”
“We need to go wedding dress shopping,” Tara said with a grin.
“Alright,” I said with a small chuckle, but I looked around and didn’t see Betty anywhere. “Where’s the bride?”
“She doesn’t know about it,” Paige said.
“Shouldn’t she get to pick out her own dress?” I asked.
“She’s going to,” Tara said. “But we wanted to clear it with you before we got her hopes up.”
“Alright,” I said. “We can go on the run. But how are we all going to fit into a jeep?”
“Easy,” Paige said. “We’ll let Betty ride up front. Four of us girls can sit in the backseat, and two of us can sit in the hatchback area.”
“That’s quite a squeeze,” I laughed.
“Yeah, but we can’t exactly leave anyone behind,” Bailey said with a frown. “Is that okay?”
“Whatever you girls want to do,” I said with a smile. “Is that going to leave room for the dress you find, though?”
“We’ll make do,” Tara assured me. “So, will that work?”
“Sure,” I agreed with a nod. “Just let me know when you want to go.”
“Okay,” the platinum blonde said. “So we’ll meet you at the car in ten.”
“Ten?” I asked with wide eyes of surprise. “We’re leaving in ten minutes?”
“You said let you know,” Tara said with a shrug.
“Alright,” I said with a laugh and a shake of my head.
The girls only had three days to put this together, so I wasn’t surprised that they were in a hurry. I couldn’t argue about it with them, though. The chores were virtually done for the day, so there was no reason we couldn’t go. And if it made them happy, then all the better.
I went upstairs and grabbed a couple more magazines for my pistol, along with two extras for my rifle. The girls knew I wouldn’t allow them to go alone, but since they were shopping, I figured that would put me on guard duty. I didn’t mind, though, after everything we had done the past few days, guard duty sounded almost relaxing. My sore muscles would thank me for being able to stand around and keep a lookout rather than chop more trees down.
After I got my spare magazines, I made my way to the jeep, but found the girls already piled in.
“You all were serious,” I said as I climbed into the driver's seat.
“Don’t look at me,” Betty chuckled in the passenger’s seat. “I just got whisked away the same as you.”
“It’ll be worth it,” Tara promised.
“Alright,” I said, and I started the jeep and headed down the driveway. “Are you going to tell me where we’re going exactly?”
“Head east on the main highway,” Paige instructed.
I presumed that the girls had already found the shop they wanted to go to, so I did as the brunette said, and we all rode along in silence for a while. I could tell that Betty was still somewhat upset about the whole scenario with the farm. She sat in her seat and stared out the window with a small frown on her face.
I wanted to say something to help cheer her up, but nothing I could think of felt right. I thought that once we arrived at the shop she might feel better, though, so I just kept my mouth shut and followed Paige’s directions.
It was a warm day, but overcast out. I put on the aviators that Bailey had given me and made sure to check out our surroundings as we drove. We had no idea where the people who had sent out that signal were located, and until we did we needed to be extra careful.
I had yet to see any signs of life, though, so I just enjoyed the breeze that came through my window and carried on down the road. Finally, we came to a small abandoned looking town about forty minutes from home, and Paige told me that we’d arrived. There were cars parked on the street that were covered with dust. Some of the homes had broken out windows and graffiti on them, but really it looked like nobody had been there in a long time. I didn’t see any signs of people living in the area, or even signs that people had been through recently. If someone was smart enough they could easily cover their tracks, though, so I still had to be vigilant on watch.
Paige directed us down a couple of streets until we arrived out in front of a bridal shop. The glass on the door was busted out, but the other windows were intact. My guess was that somebody had used this place to take shelter, not necessarily as somewhere to loot.
The mannequins still had their wedding dresses on, though I saw that a couple were toppled over onto the ground. It looked promising, though, so I surveyed the area quickly and hopped out.
“You girls didn’t have to do this,” Betty said quietly as she looked at the shop with green eyes filled with emotion.
“You deserve it,” Tara told her with a smile. “Come on, let’s go pick you out a dress.”
“Clear it first,” I ordered, and the girls all instinctively reached for their pistols.
“I’ll stay with Betty and Jenny while you clear,” Bailey said, and I nodded at the blonde. If anybody was going to stay with them, I trusted Bailey. She was the best shot we had.
The shop was fairly large, with one side targeted toward brides and the other side toward grooms. It took about five minutes or so to clear the whole area, but we made sure to go through every dressing room as well as the back storage areas. There was nobody there, though I did see some wrappers on the floor in the back to indicate that someone had taken shelter in the shop. I figured that had probably been during winter, though, since the wrappers were obviously old and somewhat faded.
“Alright,” I said after the shop was cleared. “I’ll stand out front and keep watch.”
“Thank you, Tav,” Tara told me with a smile.
“Of course.” I smiled back at the platinum blonde.
Bailey led Jenny and Betty in as I headed to the front door, and the look on Betty’s face was definitely worth the trip. The older woman was in awe as she took in the shop and everything inside of it. It looked like she was nearly about to cry, and I just smiled and patted her shoulder light
ly as I walked by.
Once I was in position, I focused my eyes out to the surrounding area, but I could still hear the girls inside. Their excited voices fluttered out to me, and every now and then there was a huge uproar of laughter or a squeal of enthusiasm.
I wasn’t sure how long it was going to take, so I got comfortable and leaned my shoulder against the door jamb. At one point, I heard all the girls let out a loud ‘aww’, but when I turned around, Tara yelled at me that I couldn’t see the bride.
After a while, Bailey came over and nudged me with her elbow.
“You’re up,” she said sweetly.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“They need you over in the menswear,” the blonde told me.
“Alright,” I agreed. “Are you okay to stand guard?”
Bailey lifted an eyebrow at me as if she were insulted that I would even ask.
“Right,” I chuckled, and I headed inside.
I found the rest of the girls over by the tuxes.
“How can I help?” I asked, assuming that I was going to be a stand in for the groom or something. I didn’t think we were quite the same size, but Tara seemed to be good at figuring out ring sizes so I figured clothing couldn’t be too different.
“We got tuxes for Rolly, Dan, and Henry already,” Tara informed me. “Now we just need yours.”
“Oh, that’s not necessary,” I said with a shake of my head.
“It is,” Betty said, and she looked at me with a soft expression on her face. “You mean a lot to Rolly, and to me. I’m proud to have you in my wedding.”
“Thank you, Betty,” I replied, and I reached out and squeezed her arm.
“All of this today,” the old woman said, and tears came to her eyes. “It only reminded me of just what’s important. And that’s my family. All of you. I don’t need my farmhouse. Things change, and I’ve got to let go.”
“I love you, grandma,” Jenny said, and she reached out and took her grandmother’s hand.
I was happy to see that Betty had not only come around, but that she now didn’t seem upset about it at all. If anything, she seemed like she felt silly for not coming to this conclusion sooner. It seemed the girls’ plan had done quite a bit of good.
I still didn’t think that it was necessary for me to get a tux, but I went along with it regardless and allowed the girls to dress me. The clothes were a bit dingy since everything had a layer of dust on it, but it was nothing that couldn’t be taken care of before the big day. It was probably good that they’d decided to go today, that way they had plenty of time to get whatever else done that they wanted.