Rise From the Ashes: Lena's Story (10 page)

“Nice to meet you.” Mick held out his hand. Things just might turn out ok.

“Listen Sheriff Jay, I’ve been in touch with some military people, can I sit down with you and tell you our plan?”

“Love that. Bring everyone on in and head up about a mile, we have a town hall, can’t miss it – big, white, looks kinda like a church. It’ll be on your left. We’ll have a lunch together and I’ll bring some others from town. We can share what we know.”

Mick grinned to himself. This guy was just about as talkative as Ed. No extra words, that’s for sure.

More than ‘some others’ from town showed up. There was a long table filled with food and the rest of the open meeting hall was packed with people. Mick couldn’t believe that this town had this many people. He was feeling a little stage fright as the noise was dying down and people were looking at his group.

Lena spoke up, “Hi everyone!” That chipper voice and big smile was backed up by her green eyes and deep blonde hair. She looked lovely and that did have an effect. Lena got mostly smiles in return.

“I’m glad your town’s ok. As you know, many places are not doing so well. I don’t know if you know this, but after the first dirty bombs, there was a focused attack on all military bases. The Taliban was trying to really destroy us and cause pretty much what is happening now.”

Lena had their rapt attention now.

Leaning forward she continued, “You know we are just passing through Ferrisburg and we’ve shared some basic information already. We don’t want anything from you, exactly. But I think we all want a safe place to live. A safe
world
to live in. We are headed to Burlington to meet up with some military guys. We have to check them out, we have to make sure they are not just well-armed criminals.”

She saw Mick look startled and then frown.

“I think they are fine, but we have to make sure.” This was mostly for Mick. It worked, he settled back to listen to the rest.

“What I think we all need is to be able to trust each other as we rebuild. I propose that we all follow the constitution for now. That we call our towns Republic Towns to show we are all in agreement. The agreement is to be lawful and safe. To allow other people from Republic Towns to pass through unharmed. Then, if the military guys are for real, we can take back one state at a time, well, really one town at a time. We have to be strong if we are going to fight crazies like the Taliban or people who are just losing it and acting wild.

“Note I said the constitution … not all those laws that have been built up. Just freedom with some law and order. I think each town should decide on the other laws that they want for their own citizens, and if anyone does not agree, then they can seek out another Republic Town and move there. I’ve got more thoughts on it, but for now we have to have each other’s backs. We will have to be a solid front if the Taliban makes it to us. We have to set aside any differences and be strong.”

Lena took a look at the packed room. She felt her whole body relax as she saw open faces and some nods of agreement. Lena hadn’t realized how tense she had been, how afraid she had been that there would be strong disagreement.

“Thanks. I have some great ideas on how we can rebuild our country. Maybe we can have a meeting in the spring and work on it. We had a great country, but it was backsliding. I think we all know of things we can do better – so we should!”

Lena turned toward Mick. He took his cue.

“Right. So I’m the best person to get a good idea about these military men in Burlington. I was stationed in Mass. when the bombs hit. I’ve had all the training and I’ll be able to tell if the guys in charge are sincere or just making a grab for power. I promise we will get word to you one way or the other.”

To his surprise he was being applauded as he sat back down. He turned with raised eyebrows toward Lena. She was smirking at him, leaning in and whispering, “Super PR powers.”

They all decided to stay the rest of the day and spend the night in Ferrisburg. Under the influence of Sheriff Jay, it seemed these people had an Old West feel and attitude. They were not panicking, they were wary, but also helpful.

“I just had a good feeling about this group. I don’t know why. That speech just kind of bubbled up in me. Thoughts I had been kicking around for days seemed to come together right there. It was awesome looking out that big back window and seeing the mountains in the distance. I just felt like it was our kingdom.” Lena shrugged with a little self-conscious squint.

“No, I know exactly what you mean. I was off balance when I first saw Jay. He looked like a bear! But he knew right away how bad Doug was feeling, and he knew what that meant about our whole group. A guy like Doug would only make it in a group of decent people.”

“Right. I think this is a good solid town, I think towns like this are going to be a key, like the core, to us being successful in rebuilding a good world. Sounds sappy?”

“Sounds hopeful,” Mick hip bumped her to ease the tension.

“You know what you said earlier, about not having to do it the way people did before?”

Mick cocked his head, “About us not having to break up bad if we fell out of love?”

He said it!
Lena’s heart thundered. She must have had a look of surprise and happiness on her face since Mick was laughing at her. His deep brown eyes were absolutely sparking at her. She was trying to get ahold of herself, but all she could do was mumble, “um…”

Mick pulled her into a hug.

“We can say it. It may be soon, but you are like a perfect fit for me. You are strong and smart in the areas I’m not. I’m good in areas you are not. But the most important thing is that we value the same things. We think the same way, so that makes everything else fall into place. It is fast, but these times are fast. I love you Lena.”

Lena sighed into his shoulders.

“I suppose that I just gave away how I feel,” her muffled voice barely carried to his ears.

“True. But I knew anyway. I don’t know what is going to happen, but we are a good fit, I love you and I will do my best to be the best I can for you.”

“Me too.”

“So what were you saying?”

“What?”

“Falling out of love?”

“What?”

Mick roared with laughter. Lena gave a sigh and pulled out of her hug. She kissed Mick, a nice slow kiss full of warmth.

“Ok, let me think a minute. You distracted me and now I’m all jittery.”

Lena’s face was pulled in a frown of concentration.

“Oh yeah! We don’t have to do things like before. I didn’t think the group was completely ready to hear this, but this is our opportunity to do it right. Start over – we know what went wrong, let’s try to do it right again, like Washington and Jefferson, but we know how things went wrong, so we set things up so the same people or families don’t stay in power year after year. So that people can’t make a living off being in congress. So loopholes don’t exist. So if people have really different ways they want to live, they can move to towns with others like them, live that way but still be part of the whole. All without the nastiness and meanness we had.”

“Ah, my little dreamer.”

They laughed so hard Lena ended up snorting.

“Geez, Mick. I’m serious.”

“I know, and I think it just could work. We have to take it one step at a time though.”

“Yeah. A lot is going to depend on what we find in Burlington.”

“Yeah.”

“Hey – let’s sleep on that! Let’s go to sleep concentrating on army guys in Burlington!” Lena’s voice had gone up an octave in her excitement.

“That’s my little Super PR Girl. Get the inside scoop so we know what to do when we get there.”

“You got that right.”

“Lena, I wonder if everyone alive has this ability? You know how when we said something, Ed and Sue also told us they had some dreams or visions. I wonder if everyone does. Like how the enhanced ability seems to be everywhere once we started to look for it – I bet most survivors can have the dreams too.”

“Yeah. I wonder if that’s good or bad.”

Chapter Ten

It was Glenn that slowed them down the next day. He stumbled and twisted his ankle. What a stark difference from Kim, thought Steve.

“Go on guys, I do have to rest and keep the swelling down. I’ll be along on your trail as soon as I can.” He started hopping over toward a little stream. In just a minute he had his shoe and sock off and was dipping his ankle in the cold water. Then he had fashioned a big branch over the stream and propped his leg up. Next he had his soaked sock on his elevated ankle to keep it cool and keep down any swelling. All in a matter of minutes, no whining and no blabbering on like a fool.

“We can rest here for tonight. It
is
late in the afternoon.” There seemed to be a general consensus about this decision.

They all started gathering wood and checking around for good places to sleep, any food, any supplies or places to run to hide. That was the routine each night.

Steve bent over and gagged. Nausea had rolled up his stomach. He felt like a hypocrite. He dropped to his knees and started to pray. Father Steve Polus had just had the realization that he and his whole group was willing to take a greater risk for Glenn than they had been for Kim. That now the worth of a human life seemed to be different for each human. All people were not created equal. Or at least, not valued equally. What did this say about him? What could this mean for humanity?

He wondered if he should turn back for Kim. If he should push on without Glenn. His hand felt numb for a moment. Then normal. He glanced down at his ring. He frowned in puzzlement. The ring had caught his attention for some reason when he was trying to convince Ellie to go with him.
What had it done?
He couldn’t remember.

The break in his desperate musing seemed to give him time for his brain and emotions to settle down a little bit. He felt that moving on tomorrow was the right thing to do. Somehow it had been right to leave Kim behind. Not so much because she was weak or in pain, but because she had not had the
spirit
to try. He started to pray again, asking the Holy Spirit to guide him and help him and his people through this. There was no immediate answer. Just more of a feeling that this was right. Yet it seemed so cruel.

~ ~ ~

The morning seemed so cold. Kim listened for anything, any slight sound, to indicate that Billy or Moe were near. She heard nothing. She scooted out of her hay nest and brushed strands from her hair and clothes. Was she so cold because she was alone? She thought this really must be the case. She limped slowly out of the barn.

The morning was lovely, with a ground fog and a pale morning sun trying to burn through it. Trees in various colors, getting ready for their last show of the year, surrounded her. It was so perfect.
I wish I could sit here on the porch of this farm house and drink some hot chocolate and just rock away as the fog burns off.
She was touched at the delicate balance and how every color of the leaves and every swirl of the fog seemed to be connected. She shook her head and decided she better get going.

Kim wasn’t good at figuring out directions, so she had to concentrate on figuring out where the sun was and how to get oriented so she could head north again. Just as she picked her direction and lifted her head, a ray of sunlight broke through the fog and bounced off something shiny. She looked closer. A bike! She could sit and rest her foot while pedaling north to catch up with Father Polus. It felt like the world had just given her a gift.