Broken Justice

by Ralph Gibbs

  Major Barrette truly loved each of his wives, but that love didn’t keep him from straying. Within a year of each marriage, he was usually breaking his vows. His first wife found out about his indiscretions fairly early. She forgave him the first time, but not the third. It was years before Linda, his second wife, found out about his wandering. Coupled with depression after finding out she couldn’t have children; the revelation was enough to drive her to kill herself.

  That was a nasty time in his life. Linda’s friends, knowing she hated guns, accused him of killing her so he could be with the woman he was having an affair with and who eventually turned out to be his third wife. They swore there was no way she’d use a gun to kill herself and told that to the police. For over two years the police investigated him, nearly driving him to financial ruin, but as they uncovered the sorted details of his life, and Linda’s, they determined there wasn’t enough evidence to charge him with a crime. That didn’t mean his life choices didn’t disgust the detectives but being immoral and a womanizer wasn’t a crime in North Dakota.

  While he didn’t kill his wife, he blamed himself for her death. However, believing he was responsible didn’t change him; it just made him more careful. It took his third wife almost five years to discover he was cheating on her with her best friend. At the time of the plague, he’d already moved in with Tonya after his wife had kicked him out of the house. In Atlanta, he was seeing two women in a settlement that decidedly lacked members of the opposite sex. Since homosexuality was outlawed and punishable by death, there was a lot of incentive for patrols to find women for the Atlanta settlement. There were some rumblings that they should take women by force, justified by the idea women would be safer in Atlanta. It was, after all, a man’s responsibility to keep women safe. Father Winthrop nixed that idea hard, and Major Barrette had to agree with him.

  “The world is miserable enough without us adding to it,” Father Winthrop said when approached with the suggestion. “We are the beacon on the hill in a world of darkness. If we but keep the faith, they will flock here when they learn of our bounty. You have but to spread the word.” And that was what they were doing.

  However, Gunilla was a special case. He was under orders to secure her at all costs with violence authorized. He decided to take a less drastic measure. He used his men as an excuse to get her alone, and just as he’d hoped, Gunilla offered to look him over after he complained of a slight case of nausea. The checkup gave him a reason to take off his shirt in front of her. He could tell he impressed her, but the exam was nothing but professional, despite his subtle and overt flirtations.

  “You seem in perfect health,” she said. “You can put your shirt back on.”

  “Maybe it was a touch of indigestion. I’ve been eating trail food so long that good food must have been a shock to my system. No harm no foul. At least I have the pleasure of your company. How are my men?”

  “They seem to be in good health as well. Only a few minor issues.”

  “Such as?”

  She turned to face him. “Such as nothing I will discuss with you. Since I’m acting as their doctor, whatever they discuss with me or whatever I discover is confidential.”

  “Fine doc, whatever you say,” he said, grabbing his shirt. “As long as it won’t compromise the mission, I’m okay with that.”

  “The only thing I’ll say is that they all seem underweight.”

  “Southern heat and army rations will have that effect,” he said, as he threw his shirt around his shoulders. “As soon as we get back to Atlanta that will change.” As he buttoned his shirt, he walked to the window and looked outside, and then up at the sky. There had been a brief spout of rain earlier, but it stopped, and the sun was shining. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky. “Looks like your agent friend is wrong.” He sighed sadly, never taking his eyes off the sky. “I was hoping she was right. It would’ve given me an excuse to stay longer.”

  “Why can’t you stay?”

  “We need to get out and keep spreading the word about Atlanta,” he replied as he turned to face her. “Get civilization back up and running. The more people we have, the more skills we can draw upon. We could use a doctor. Atlanta would treat you like a queen.” She started to protest, but he continued. “More importantly, you can have your baby in a real hospital. A hospital you would be running.”

  “It sounds tempting. That was the second time I’ve examined real patients and, I have to admit, I enjoyed it.” It was the opening he was looking for. However, he couldn’t go straight at it; he needed to come at the problem sideways. If he were direct, it wouldn’t be enough.

  “Would you be willing to examine the other men in the outfit?”

  She looked at him considering his request. “How many are there?”

  Major Barrette inwardly smiled. Like a small fish, she was nibbling at the bait. “Thirty-three. With Danica’s permission, we could bring them into the community two or three at a time.” Gunilla considered the request for a few moments before deciding. He could see her answer just by looking at her face, which only made her more beautiful.

  “All right.”

  “I’ll ask Danica tonight at dinner,” Major Barrette said. “If she says yes, I’ll have a runner head out and inform the colonel. In the meantime, would you care to join me for a walk? I want to look around and meet people. If I’m by myself, they may be too scared to talk to me. I’ve been told I’m an imposing figure.”

  “I would like that. I haven’t looked around myself.”

  He stopped and looked at her. “I’m sorry. I forgot you just got here. You haven’t even had a chance to have a proper rest, have you? That was thoughtless of me. You should rest.”

  “I’m fine. More than fine. After all the walking I did getting here, I’m in the best shape of my life.”

  Major Barrette looked at his watch. “We’ll walk around for a little bit. Then I’ll walk you back to Danica’s.”

  They were out for only a few minutes when they spotted a crowd gathered around a garage. “That must be where they are holding the deer demonstration,” the major said. “Would you mind if I checked on my men?”

  “Not at all.”

  When Major Barrette and Gunilla arrived, one deer had already been cleaned and dressed. Some community members were preparing to clean the next deer under the careful supervision of his men.

  “Major,” Private Tisden said saluting. The major returned the salute.

  “How goes the lesson?” Major Barrette asked.

  “As well as can be expected,” Private Tisden said. He threw a casual glance at the people behind him. “A few of them lost their breakfast when we made the first cut, and several more when the guts fell out of the stomach, but to their credit, no one left.”

  “That’s because everyone realizes the importance of this lesson,” Danica said, coming over to join them.

  “Hello, Miss Justice,” Major Barrette said.

  Danica inclined her head in greeting.

  “Thank you again, for this,” Danica said as she absently gestured at the deer hanging inside the garage. “We’ve seen deer for days but didn’t have a clue what to do after we killed one. If this were a few months back, I could have looked it up on the Internet. We were about to go with trial and error.”

  “Happy to help. Miss Justice, I was going to ask tonight at dinner, but since we’re together, I’d like to ask if I can bring in men from the main camp and let the doctor give them a check-up.” He saw the look that crossed Danica’s face. “Not all at once,” he quickly added. “Just two or three at a time. Starting tomorrow morning. Once they’re checked out, they’ll leave, and another small group will come in.”

  “That will be fine,” she said after thinking about it. “Unarmed.”

  “Of course.”

  “I’ll have an extra sentry posted in the morning, and they can come in, leave their weapons with the guard and pick them up on their way out.”

  “I’m sure there will be no obje
ction,” he said.

  “You should let the men take a hot shower while they’re here,” Danica said. “The house also has a washer and dryer they can use to do their laundry.”

  “That is very generous of you,” Major Barrette said. “With your permission, I’ll send Private Tisden out once he’s finished with his lesson to make the arrangements.”

  “That’ll be fine. Maybe I should give you back your radios before you kill Tisden.”

  A child screamed, which caught everyone’s attention, but it turned out that one young boy found a frog and was using it to tease the girls. No one but the girls seemed to mind.

  “Kids are pretty resilient,” Major Barrette said. “That’s not to say there won’t be problems and some of them will undoubtedly be traumatized for life—God knows I am—but most of them will grow up as normal as can be expected given the right atmosphere.”

  “And that atmosphere is Atlanta?” Danica said.

  He gave a small shoulder shrug and a half-faced smirk. “I wasn’t going there, but since you mention it, yes. We can give these boys as normal a life as possible despite the state of the union. We already have a school up and running, a functioning society, a functioning government, structure, laws, and more importantly, a purpose.”

  “Come on, Nate, toss it,” someone yelled before Danica could respond.

  Looking down the street, they watched as Nate chucked a basketball from one side of the road through the hoop set up on the other. The kids started hooting and slapping Nate on the back.

  “Hell of a shot,” the major said. He let the words hang for a moment before adding, “I hear he’s a hunter.”

  “He’s not the only one,” Danica said, pointing out a group of women watching the kids play basketball. “See those women watching him. They are trying to adopt him. He spent the first couple hours this morning fending them off.”

  “Are they ever going to leave him alone,” Gunilla asked.

  Danica huffed. “Not likely. It’s more like the bell sounded ending the first round. They may have backed off for now, but they’ll keep an eye on him, and as soon as they see an opening, they’ll pounce.” She looked around. “I don’t see Irene.”

  “Irene?” the major said.

  “Oh, there she is,” Danica said. The major and Gunilla looked to see the middle-aged woman walk down porch steps carrying a plate.

  “I’m betting that’s a plate of chocolate chip cookies,” Danica said. “My guess is round two is about to start.”

  “I doubt cookies will do it,” Gunilla said.

  “You haven’t had one of her cookies,” Danica said. “I have no idea what she puts in them, but they’re the best damn cookies I’ve ever eaten. Still, you’re probably right. It will take more than cookies.”

  “He’s tough,” Gunilla said. “Franklin said he is street smart.”

  “He’d make a great addition to my squad,” the major said.

  “How ‘bout you let him grow up first,” Danica said.

  Major Barrette shrugged. “You guys already make it sound like he’s forty,’ he countered.

  “Stay away from him, major,” Danica said, meeting his eyes so that there was no doubt she was serious. “I don’t care if you want to pitch your utopian fantasy to any of the grownups that want to listen, but the kids are off-limits.”

  “Fine, fine, I can wait until he’s fifty,” Major Barrette said, holding up his arms in surrender.

  “I mean it, major,” Danica said and then softened her voice “Besides, I’m just thinking about your safety. If those sweet ol’ ladies think you are trying to take any of the kids, they’ll rip your manhood off then shove a batch of chocolate chip cookies up your ass.”

  “No recruiting, Scout’s honor,” he said, holding up three fingers.

  “Were you ever a scout?” Danica asked.

  “Make your first cut here,” Private Tisden said behind them, cutting off their conversation.

  “I better get back to the demonstration,” Danica said. “Major, I’ll see you at dinner. I asked David to run to a bookstore and find a cookbook on preparing venison, but Private Tisden informs me we should let the deer hang inside a refrigerator for a few days to let all the blood drain before we cook it. So, it looks like spaghetti.”

  “I wouldn’t miss it,” the major said.

  Major Barrette and Gunilla spent the rest of the morning walking and exploring not only the neighborhood but also some of the surrounding area. While they walked, the major talked about growing up in the Dakotas and Gunilla spoke about life in Sweden. Eventually, their conversation turned to the state of the world, which lead to medicine.

  “If you find a pharmacy, take everything,” she said. “Get it back to Atlanta and keep it refrigerated. It’ll keep longer that way.”

  “That’s what we’ve been doing,” he said. “Problem is, we don’t know what medication to use for what ailments.” Until now, he hadn’t talked talk about Atlanta, because he didn’t want to seem pushy. He was going to wait until later this evening to broach the subject again, but as she brought it up, he pounced on the opportunity. “That should change soon enough, though. When I left, I heard someone was researching each type of medicine and what it’s used for. Without the Internet, it’ll take time. Until we get it all down, our basic approach to medicine is to push a weeks’ worth of penicillin if it’s anything other than the flu.”

  “And if they don’t get better?”

  He shrugged. “So far, that’s only been an issue once, but it’ll be to give them another week’s worth of penicillin.”

  “Knowing what the meds are for is only half the battle,” Gunilla said. “You have to know what the person has before you can prescribe the correct treatment. Give them the wrong meds, and you could make the situation worse. How big is your community in Atlanta?”

  “Around six hundred when I left,” the major said.

  “And no doctors?” Gunilla asked.

  “The closest we have to a doctor is a physician’s assistant,” the major said. “Problem is, he’s barely out of med school. Apparently, he just landed a job with one of the local urgent care facilities when the plague hit.”

  “And his answer to everything is penicillin,” she said, stopping to look at him.

  The major shrugged. “I don’t know him personally, but the colonel told me the boy lacks confidence.”

  “Poor boy, I bet he’s scared. He was expecting years of training before being on his own. Now he’s the head of your medical team responsible for the care of six hundred people.”

  “That’s part of it. However, losing the boy is a big part of his problem.” The major was now in uncharted territory. Everything he’d said to her until now was the truth. He could tell she was on the edge and just needed a nudge. If a small lie about someone with low confidence being responsible for the death of a child helped her decide to come to Atlanta, it would be worth it, even if she eventually found out the truth. And she would find out; someone would slip up. Once she found out, she might never talk to him again, but by then she would already be in Atlanta, and it wouldn’t matter.

  “Oh my God,” she said, reaching out and touching his arm lightly with her fingers. “What happened?”

  “The boy came down with something, and he wasn’t able to figure out what,” he said, trying to keep the lie as simple as possible. “He started prescribing penicillin, and when that didn’t help, he didn’t know what to do. The boy just withered away and died.”

  “Did they ever find out what it was the boy had?”

  “I’m afraid not,” he said, shaking his head. “But, thankfully, it wasn’t contagious.” He laughed, but there was no humor in it and then frowned as if in thought. “People were panicked. If it hadn’t been for Father Winthrop, Atlanta would be a ghost town right now.”

  “A mysterious death so soon after the plague. I can imagine. What did this Father Winthrop do?”

  “What he always does,” Major Barrette said. “I was
n’t there, so I don’t know exactly what he said. I think he just pointed out to them that no one else was showing signs, including the boy’s guardians. That was pretty much it. I don’t think he needed to say much else.”

  “Why not?”

  “People were scared, but they were just as scared of leaving Atlanta. It’s not a safe place outside of Atlanta, and they know that. People that have come in have told horror stories, some much worse than what you and your friend Paris went through. Father Winthrop makes sure that everyone knows what’s happening outside Atlanta.”

  “Why?”

  “Two reasons. He wants them to know how much of a miracle Atlanta is and that it’s an oasis in a desert of sin. He also wants them to know that he’s not sitting idly by while this happens. If it’s close, we send out a group to deal with the problem. Occasionally, we’ve brought back prisoners. If they’re positively identified as the culprits, they’re tried and executed.”

  “That’s horrible.”

  “Agreed. But there isn’t an alternative. If this were a normal America, we would put them in jail. But it’s not. No one can spare the resources to watch these people for the next fifty, sixty years. That’s just not how the world works anymore. These aren’t just people robbing on the highway. These are people raping and killing and, in many cases, brutally. It’s as if some are finally getting to act out their sadistic sexual fantasies they could only read about on porn and slash fiction sites.” He stopped and looked at her. “We arrested one man for raping his thirteen-year-old daughter over several months. His only defense was that he felt it was his duty to help repopulate the world.”

  “That’s horrible.”

  “Since he confessed, the commander didn’t bother with a trial. He just pulled out his pistol and shot the man in the head.”

  Gunilla look horrified. “In front of his daughter?”

  Major Barrette nodded. “That was unfortunate, but I can’t say I wouldn’t have done the same thing.”