by Jeff DeMarco
“Amen,” Taylor said, then echoed by the other boys.
Bob smiled a wide grin. “Let’s eat.”
Ellen passed a box of crackers around the table. “How was your day, Bob?”
Bob shook his head, his mouth already full of food. “Fights,” he garbled. “Stealing, drugs… complaining like you’un believe. You’d think I was people’s gol-damn momma, runnin’ round here dealin’ with people’s problems.”
Ben broke a cracker into his soup. “Better than planting carrots.”
“Carrots?” Ellen’s mouth hung open. “Who’s got you planting carrots.”
“Faye… got us digging around, making gardens everywhere. Wanted to play flag football today, too.”
“Shush… Little hard work won’t kill you.” She looked at Bob, shaking her head. “But carrots? I swear, between Taylor and this, that girl must be-“
“What?” Bob slopped another spoonful of soup in his mouth. “Carrots are fine.” He looked over at Ben. “Hey, what’s orange and sounds like a parrot?”
Ben rolled his eyes
“You can’t plant carrots in September, expect ‘em to come up before the freeze, Bob!”
“Oh…” He looked over at Ben, Joe and Taylor. “Boys, don’t marry a farm girl… or a nurse.” He shot her an evil grin, as she threw a cracker at him. “They’re always right, and you’ll never hear the end of it.”
“Taylor and I…” She smiled down at him. “Diagnosed and treated, what was it? Five cases of flu, a broken arm, two infected wounds…”
“Three,” Taylor said. “Two drug overdoses, acute depression and bipolar disorder and surgery on an inflamed appendix. That is before… well, you know… we were interrupted.”
“Those overdoses came from Delta Battery, Bob.” She stared at him accusingly. “You seem to know what’s what around here. Think you might know something about that? Maybe where they’re getting it?”
Bob stared down at his soup, obtusely avoiding eye contact.
“Bob?” She leaned down to catch his eyes.
Taylor tapped her on the arm. “It’s ok,” he whispered.
Her eyes narrowed on him, the look of death. “We’re gonna discuss this later, Bob.”
“Yes’m.” He nodded, knowing that he was in deep.
CHAPTER 31
Military Police were there waiting, when Ellen reported for work. She went about her business at the hospital, setting up her shift in the emergency room for incoming patients.
An MP pressed in on her. “Ellen Wainright?”
“Mhm,” she mumbled, her eyes fixed on restocking bandages and supplies, stuffing emergency dressings and hemostats into her scubs. Absent additional help, she served as a primary care nurse practitioner, registered nurse and nurses aid.
“You have the right to remain silent…” The MP read off a card.
She looked back, a mild annoyance at the interruption.
“Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law...” Another MP pressed in on her, cuffs in hand.
“What the hell?” She spun to face them.
“You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford one, one will be provided to you by the court, do you understand your rights?”
“One of you motherfu…” She looked at them dumbfounded. “…you fine gentlemen want to tell me what’s going on here?”
He handed her a tri-folded slip of paper, the Army seal and letterhead at the top. “You’re charged with assault and battery, Ma’am.”
She looked down at the complainant. “That bitch,” she muttered. The legal authority, signed ‘Major Gary Eckert.’ “You’ve got to be kidding me!”
Taylor ran through the door, having sensed the commotion.
“Get out of here, kid!” One of the MP’s moved to block him.
His eyes dark, his mind had shifted.
“Taylor.” She put her hands on his shoulders. “It’s ok… I pushed her.” Her words facetious and cynical. “If there’s some price to pay for that, it’ll be fine.” She knelt down to him. “Now you just settle down,” she whispered. “I’ll be fine.”
He shook off the rage, a sadness at his helplessness.
“Alright…” She let out a long exhale. “Let’s go.”
“Feeling better Sleeping Beauty?” Pavel laughed at his own joke as he rose from the table.
Jacob rubbed the sleep out his eyes. “Head feels like I got about 10 concussions, but otherwise ok.”
Pavel reared back and clocked Jacob in the face, dropping him to the floor. “Make that 11.”
“Been thinking of that line all morning, I bet.” Jacob rose, his hand pressed to the side of his head. “Suppose I deserve that.” He extended his hand to Pavel. “We good?”
Pavel approached carefully, ready for a strike. He took Jacob’s hand and shook it.
Jacob grinned at him. “See? Wasn’t so hard, now, was it?”
Pavel unconsciously rubbed the goose egg that had formed on his head, the night prior. “We’ve done what you asked… Are you ready to travel?”
Jacob smiled. “I’ll drive.”
CHAPTER 32
His secrets dug at him. For purely aesthetic pleasure, they had followed the path closest to the coast and made camp at Big Sur, just south of Monterey. Sitting with his legs dangling over the cliff, overlooking the water, watching the waves ebb and flow, crashing violently against rock, Jacob felt small, though he knew he was not.
His scar upon the world had been significant, irreparable. What’s more, his new… friends, if he could call them that, would end him, as surely as they would Colonel Petersen and Vice President Kreuson, if they were to find out.
The darkness had reared its head again, as webs spun in his mind; a list of people who knew: Michael, Kristen, Julie. They were liabilities. Maybe Kristen was already dead… The thought left a sour taste in his mouth. Julie he could crush like a bug, and Michael… perhaps he could instigate a fight, justify his actions.
‘No,’ he thought. ‘It’d be better if I just jumped, wouldn’t it?’
“Jacob,” Sacha shouted.
He turned, she had her helmet off and hair down. He smiled at her, taken with the connection he found in her eyes.
“Be careful you don’t fall.” She shook his shoulder, jokingly nudging him at the cliff’s edge.
He half hoped she would.
She sat there, staring at the endless ocean with him. She broke the silence finally, asking, “What’s wrong?”
He looked over at her, curious.
“It doesn’t take a psychic to see you’re troubled.” She shot him a kind glance. “And there’s others like you, close. I’ve sensed it. Why haven’t you called out to them?”
He let out a sigh, then rocked back on his hands.
“And what were you doing in Russia, anyhow? Don’t your people need you here?”
“What if…” He closed his eyes, searching for the words. “You had done something so terrible, so unforgivable… How would you live with yourself, live with everyone else you had hurt? I mean, how would you make peace with it?”
She laughed. “It’s not like you did all this, right?”
He smiled, afraid that his guilt would betray him.
“My older brother was taken when I was just a baby.” She looked down into the water. “Men came in, stormed the facility where we lived. They had released, something. A creature. Killed everyone outside of the lab. I was just a baby then, but I knew what was happening. I could have done something, but instead, I hid. Crawled into a cabinet, laid there silently and they took him. It never really leaves you. Your mistakes, though… They make you grow strong, they make you learn.” She put her hand in his. “You asking, tells me that your heart is in the right place. Make amends with the people you’ve hurt. Most of all, forgive yourself.”
He closed his eyes, a tear cascaded down his cheek, the full weight of his actions resting squarely on his shoulders, knowing what she would have to do if
they ever found out.
CHAPTER 33
“Where the hell have you been?” Julie screamed at him, almost in tears.
Wind sailed through the forest canopy, a manifestation of the void they had once shared. “A lot of places.” He hopped up, onto a low-lying branch, his legs dangling from the side. “California now, questionable company.”
She glared at him, confused, enraged.
“I know…” He rolled his eyes. “I couldn’t so much as tell you where I was.”
Her eyes narrowed. “And the bimbo?”
He shook his head. “Don’t talk about Kristen like that.”
She folded her arms across her chest. “We’ve reactivated the satellite network.”
“You were never very good at taking orders… Heard you wouldn’t kill an Order operative.”
“He was an asset at the time.” She glared at him. “I’ve since taken care of it.”
He shrugged. “It’s fine. The plan is over. I’m putting a stop to it”
“All that work!” She looked at him, dumbfounded. “What happened to divide and conquer? You’d end it just like that?”
He hopped from the tree. “Take my hand.” His mind drifted through the months - his trek, Europe, the middle-east, the prophets, Russia.
“No.” She shook her head, backing away from him. “We’re more than that, more than just servants, more than slaves.”
“It doesn’t have to be so bad, Julie.”
“It’s not what I am.” She ripped her head back and forth, trying to force the image from her mind. “I will finish what you started, Jacob. Don’t try to stop me.”
He let out a painful sigh. “I will if I have to… in time.”
“Heard from Jacob yet?” Cole asked
“Yes.” Julie’s eyes felt cold against him.
His brow furrowed into a question mark.
“He said goodbye.”
“And?” Cole crossed his arms.
She shrugged, her gesture aloof.
“Seriously?” Cole stared out into the infinite white, wondering how far it went on for; wondering if he ran fast enough, whether he could turn back time. He shrugged off the thought.
“What?” Julie glared at him.
“Quit playing dumb.” Cole turned towards her. “I just…. I don’t know why you’d shut me out.”
Her eyes narrowed on him. “You’re ignorant, then.” The words spit like poison from her mouth.
He took a step back, confused at her irate demeanor.
“We could have been something special, you and I.” She paced back and forth, aimless and irritated. “Call Brie, I’m taking charge over the three of us.”
“Excuse me?” His posture shifted to the defense. “I don’t recall agreeing to that.”
“Present!” Brie’s voice echoed into the void, followed shortly by her presence.
“Don’t like what I’ve got to say?” She walked up into Cole’s face and pointed over his shoulder. “Then get the hell out!”
“Whoa there, Tiger!” He backed away quickly. “Settle down.”
“Our mission…” She stared daggers into Cole. “If you should choose to accept it. Gather all remaining humans along the western half of the country, as a start. Consolidate them on your facility and I’ll take it from there.”
“Take it from…” Cole rubbed at his eyes. “Julie, what are you talking about?” He threw his hands into the air. “We’re already doing that.”
“Perfect,” she whispered. “… continue.” She disappeared from the void.
“What’d I miss?” Brie whispered.
“Don’t know,” he said. “But watch your back.”
CHAPTER 34
“We’re making progress, Colby.” Major Eckert leaned up against his Humvee. “Need to keep pushing.”
“We’re packed in here like sardine’s, Sir.” Colby popped his helmet off and set it on the hood of the Humvee. “Jail’s full, so much that we’ve made a work camp. Drugs are making their way in here, constant fighting, damn near rioting daily, no food… Something’s about to blow, Sir.”
“You see that Soldier, Colby.” He pointed to the fence line, a Soldier laying in the prone within a machine gun nest. “Doesn’t know whether he’ll eat tonight, whether he’ll live. I’ve watched; he’s been out there for hours. Damn finest Soldiers in the world.”
Colby popped a compartment on his body armor, pulled out binoculars. “You mean that one?” He pointed. “Right of the tree line?”
“Mhmm.” Gary nodded.
“Yea… he’s asleep.”
“Give me those!” He ripped the binoculars from Colby’s hands. “Goddamn little pecker-head.” He picked up a rock, measured the wind, cocked his arm back and threw it in a high arc, landing only inches from the Soldier. “Wake up, shit bird!”
The Soldier shook his head, startled, then looked back; the imprint of his buttstock clear as day.
“Confinement,” Gary opened the door to his Humvee and strapped on his helmet. “See to it.”
Colby rolled his eye. “That’s what I’m talking about, Sir.”
Gary held his hand out, telling his driver, ‘stop.’
“We’ve got too many people, not enough space, Soldiers or food.”
“Don’t come to me with a problem, Colby. Unless you’ve got a-“
“Expand the border… forget the idea of ‘building a tank ditch.’ Don’t think hunters will attack us in those. Double the gatherer population, have them push out further, more food, more survivors…”
“And how’re you planning to cover it? All that extra fence line.” Gary cocked his head, waiting for a flaw in Colby’s plan. “We’re already running guard posts at 24 hours.”
“Minimal manning from 1000 hours to an hour before sundown.”
“And when the hunters realize we’ve left the door open?” Gary stared inquisitively, knowing the one good answer to his question he had in mind, hoping Colby hadn’t thought of it.
“Leverage intelligence.” Colbys face straight. “Have them keep accountability of all significant action, time, enemy strength, location. Put a Platoon leader in charge at each Battery, push the intel up to Battalion. Shift manning times and adjust daily.”
‘Damnit,’ Gary thought. “Tell you what… Dig my damn tank ditch and my burm. I’ll… allow you to put your plan in action.”
“You’re killin’ me, Sir.” Colby restrained rolling his eyes. “We’re not fighting a regular army on the open plains. It’s asymmetrical at best, fuckin’ crazy at worst.”
Gary shook his head. “You’re starting to sound like Captain Freeman.”
“I’m flattered… He’s a good commander, smart, selfless, fair…”
“Insubordinate.” Gary sat back down in his Humvee. “Build my damn ditch, and execute your plan.” He slammed the door shut.
CHAPTER 35
Filth and rot, Colby walked the concrete prison halls with a Military Police Officer, Staff Sergeant Garcia. “That one.” He walked down to the next cell, staring objectively through the iron bars, sizing up its emaciated occupants, then to the next. “That one… That one… that one.”
He eyed one woman carefully. “Ellen?” He motioned to Garcia to open the cell door. “What the hell?”
She shook her head. “Long story… I pushed someone.”
“Major Eckert’s orders, I bet.” Colby shook he head. “I’m getting you out.”
They assembled in the prison yard, 300 strong, flanked on all sides by military police.
“Volunteers only. I don’t know what you’ve done and frankly I don’t care.” He stood in the middle of them, his hands at his hips. “You’ve been given the opportunity to do some good. To go outside the wire, gather-“
“That’s suicide,” A Hispanic man yelled; dark hair and skin, a tattered tan workman’s jacket, by the name ‘Cortez.’
“You’ll have support, specifically attack aviation and a quick reaction ground force at your disposal…” C
olby glared at the man over his ballistic sunglasses. “So shut up and hear me out, ok?”
Cortez glared, silently.
“Gather canned and non-perishable food, medical supplies, fuel, ammunition and survivors. You’ll be given weapons outside the wire, a vehicle and operate in teams of 3, push out as far as Oklahoma city. Keep rations from your haul, keep your bedspace in the prison. And so help me God, if one of you brings drugs back… straight back to prison. Let’s see hands… Who’s in?”
Grumbling from the crowd, a few hands shot up at once, then more, half.
“He doesn’t care if we die,” Cortez shouted. He turned to Colby. “Why don’t you go outside the wire?”
“I do.” Colby’s tone commanding. “Daily.”
Once more, Cortez stood there silent. More hands raised. He looked to his left and right, not a lowered hand in sight. He grumbled slightly, then raised his hand, half-cocked.
Colby motioned to Garcia. “Everyone who’s in, follow me.” They walked towards Sheridan gate, a freshly cleared path out into Lawton. Outside, they took pictures of each face – 256 in total, handed each a weapon and spare magazine, knife, map, flashlight, backpack, two cans of food and water. Colby counted off, “1, 2, 3.” Then pointed them to a M989 ammo hauler, with spare fuel. “The radios are set to the correct channels!” he yelled. “Don’t screw with them, and come back to this gate only!”
Reluctant, Cortez climbed up into the driver’s seat.
“Garcia, keep a MP stationed at the main gate, disarm and escort back to prison, copy?”
“Roger, Sir.” Garcia handed him the digital camera and rendered a salute.
The haulers rolled out, uncertain if they would see Fort Sill again.
Colby rolled up alongside the wire, a convoy of backhoes, dump trucks and loaders at his rear; driven by builders. Thousands worked at the tank ditch; shovels in hand, sweat dripping, their backs aching with each shovel-full.