by Crist, J. D.
"That's a perfect idea. It's something we could do every time we have newcomers."
"Exactly." Howard was grinning as he spoke.
"With the work schedule, I think it would be easiest to do this on Friday nights."
"That with give us a few days to get ready," Howard grinned. "I was thinking a town barbeque style of get-together. With the walls, we could even have music if we didn't try to play it loud enough to wake the uninfected dead."
"We do have this large section of road here in front of your house that we could set up, and we could ask everyone to bring something to contribute."
"I'll let Jessica know that everything for the party does not require credits." Emily resituated Hope as she spoke. "There will be a lot of things to get together to make it happen," Emily began.
"I will gladly handle all the plans if that's okay with you," June offered. "The kids go home by three. Even with the extra students, I have plenty of time to do it. I could even have them make some decorations." Emily could tell that June was excited about the idea of planning this.
"That would be a great help," Emily replied.
"Let me know if you need help with anything."
"I will,” June smiled.
"I'll make some cookies for my contribution," Emily continued.
"I'll tell everyone the cookies are taken care of," June responded.
June and Howard turned to head to work. Emily could tell they were both excited by their new project.
"We are going to have a party," Emily said to Hope as she began to walk towards the store.
She wanted to let Jessica know her decision and gather the supplies for the cookies while she was there. Jessica was thrilled about the party, and she excitedly helped Emily gather the supplies for the cookies. Emily headed straight home, and after feeding Hope lunch, she set to work setting up the credit cards. She quickly took them to Jessica to distribute and walked around town to ensure everything was going smoothly.
Emily returned home and, after having dinner, tucked Hope into bed. Emily returned downstairs and pulled out her journal. She sat at the desk for a long time, writing down everything that had happened over the past few days. When she finished, she returned the journal to the shelf and headed up to the shower. After a quick check on Hope, Emily crawled into bed with Marley. It didn't take long for her to find sleep, and soon the day melted away to darkness.
The next day flew by, and Emily was pleased to see the newcomers fitting in so well. Jacob was excited to have the extra help on the farm and felt confident that production would be much higher than he expected. Shawn's new wall schedule put three people on the wall during each four-hour shift. Shawn seemed to understand that Emily needed space and kept their conversations light and friendly. Emily spent most of the afternoon baking cookies for the party the next day and went to bed early.
Friday morning, the entire town was buzzing with excitement. Emily couldn't believe the sight on the street. Tables were set up, and lights were strung above the area. Emily did her regular morning routine with Hope secured to her back. By the time she returned to the house, the scene had grown. Pictures were hung with the lights, table cloths were added to the tables along with centerpieces, and some of the kids were setting up chairs. Emily headed into the house and grabbed all the cookies she had made the night before. When she got back outside, Bobby came to help her carry them all to the table.
Soon everyone was gathered, except for those on wall duty, and the music started. Emily sat back and watched the scene unfold in front of her. Everyone laughing, eating and some were even dancing. At this moment, it felt like nothing had changed. It felt like a flash never happened, there weren't dead outside the walls, and they didn't have a worry in the world.
As the sun began to set, it came time for the wall shift to change. Emily saw Ben and June join the party minutes after Julia, Jacob, and Father Nathan. Emily couldn't help but scan the scene for Shawn, who should have been joining them as well. After a few moments, Julia returned. Emily made her way towards Julia.
"Where's Shawn?" she asked.
"He sent me back," Julia responded. "He said that I should come back to be with my family, and he would take my shift since he didn't have one."
"Oh," Emily couldn't help but feel both hurt and guilty.
"I plan to go after Bobby goes to bed and forcing him down," Sam spoke. "I just hope there's some food left for him."
Emily looked at the food tables and could see that the children were going crazy.
"I'll make him a plate and take it up to him. Would you mind keeping Hope for a few minutes?"
"Of course not," Julia said as she took Hope from Emily.
Emily headed over to the food tables and made a plate for Shawn. Once she finished, she headed up the wall with Marley and found Jacob in the control room.
"Have you seen Shawn?" Emily asked.
"He told me to stay here while he patrolled the west side of the wall, and Father Thomas took the east."
"Thanks," Emily smiled. "Alright, boy, go find him."
Emily couldn't help but laugh as Marley took off running on the wall. She followed behind him and, after several minutes, could hear Marley barking and Shawn laughing.
"Did you send your dog to hunt me down?" Shawn laughed as Emily approached.
"Well, if you would have come down when you were supposed to, I wouldn't have to."
"It seemed like the thing to do. Julia has a family down there and I," Shawn spoke to his boots instead of her.
"What am I?" Emily asked, "Chopped liver?"
"I figured," Shawn started. "Since we got back, you have seemed like you don't want me around. I thought it best if I stayed away so you could enjoy tonight."
Emily felt her chest tighten as he spoke. She wasn't ready for a relationship, but she didn't want to lose him either.
"I'm sorry," Emily said barely louder than a whisper. "I know I've been weird, but I'm just working through my shit. It doesn't mean that I want you to stay away."
"Is that for me?" Shawn asked, motioning to the plate.
"Yeah," Emily said as she handed him the plate. She then wiped the tears she felt welling up in her eyes.
"Thanks for this," Shawn said.
"You're lucky you got any cookies. The kids are going nuts."
"I bet they are," Shawn laughed.
"Sam is going to come up to do the last half of Julia's shift." Shawn opened his mouth to speak. "No arguing," Emily interrupted. "I will come up here and drag you down if I have to."
Shawn laughed and nodded in agreement. Emily patted her leg to call for Marley to follow and headed back down to the party. After about an hour, she ran inside and put Hope to bed. She carried the baby monitor back out with her. Sam and Julia headed home to put Bobby to bed a short time later, much to Bobby's objections to the plan.
Emily waited and couldn't help but smile when Shawn walked under the lights.
"You've been quiet tonight," Ben spoke behind her.
"Just enjoying the view," Emily smiled at him.
"As well you should," Ben smiled back at her. "It's because of you that this is possible."
"I don't know about all of that." Emily looked back to see Shawn dancing with Margaret. She could see that he wasn't thrilled but couldn't tell the older woman no.
"We all know it," Ben said confidently. "It looks like a younger man has stolen my dancing partner."
"Looks like," Emily laughed.
"Well, two can play at that game. Would you do me the honor?"
Emily turned to see Ben was holding out his hand to her. Emily didn't even realize she had taken it until he led her out to the makeshift dance floor.
"You have given everyone so much. I can't help but notice that you keep yourself from getting what you want." Ben spoke as they began to dance.
"I don't know what you're talking about?" Emily was genuinely confused by his statement.
"Everyone knows, my dear," Ben smiled. "But from what
I gathered, you haven't allowed it to go beyond friendship." Emily suddenly understood that he was talking about her and Shawn.
"It's complicated." Emily felt the hollowness of the words as she spoke them.
"My dear, a lot is complicated, but this is not one of those things."
"I was married before all of this. My husband was cruel, and the only good thing he ever did was give me Hope." Emily felt sick to her stomach as she spoke of Chad. "My husband doesn't even know she exists."
"You speak of him as if he's still alive?"
"To the best of my knowledge, he is."
"And yet you still call him your husband. Do you hold on to the chance that you may be able to find him and reunite?"
"God no," Emily laughed. "I pray for a way out of my vows," Emily explained. "My vows were until death do us part, and I can't know if we have parted or not."
"Oh, that makes sense," Ben nodded.
"I just don't know how to teach Hope that vows are important if I break them. My luck Chad would show up one day, and I would lose Hope's trust."
"You think far ahead," Ben smiled.
"Hazard of the job," Emily smiled back.
"I do have a suggestion if you would like to hear it."
"Gladly," Emily responded.
"Your vows were between you and God. Based on what you described, your former husband violated those a long time ago. In my opinion, God would gladly release you from those vows. All you need to do is ask and release yourself from them in your heart."
Emily nodded but knew that it would not be as easy to do as he said.
"I think he'll wait while you work on it."
"How can you know that?" Emily allowed her gaze to move to Shawn.
"He looks at you the same way I looked at Margaret in the beginning, and I waited for her to realize she was marrying the wrong man." Emily looked at Ben, and the smile on his face brought comfort to her.
Chapter 6
The days and weeks flew by over the next couple of months. Soon August was upon them, and Sanctuary was filling slowly every week. Emily had welcomed six more groups inside the walls, and their skill sets were proving to be invaluable, especially those of Cole. Cole reminded Emily of someone in a movie trying to represent country folk but just making fun of them. She found it difficult sometimes to understand what he was saying, but he had no problems repeating himself until she did.
Cole was a mechanic before the flash and had plans to fix up their vehicles to run on a new fuel source, moonshine. He claimed he had an old family recipe that would work great, and he knew how to convert the vehicles to run on it. It just involved emptying and cleaning the gas tanks and an overhaul of the carburetor system. Emily had decided to let him start with the truck she used when she first came to Sanctuary.
It wasn't the conversion of vehicles that made her nervous but the brewing of moonshine. Not only was the process dangerous if something went wrong, but it also provided the challenge of keeping Derick out of it. They had decided to give Cole a house for him and his family closer to the farm but away from the wall, just in case. Cole and his sixteen-year-old daughter seemed to have no problems being asked to live away from everyone.
Altogether, Sanctuary had gained twenty new people. There were fourteen adults and six children. Emily had stuck to the most important jobs first before trying to fill those that were not essential at the time. Jaycob had more farmhands than he could have dreamed, and the crops were being harvested right on time.
Shawn had been keeping his distance since Emily had locked herself in the bathroom. While he was still friendly when he saw Emily, he seemed to understand that she needed space. While she missed having him around all of the time, she didn't want to risk hurting him any more than she already had. Shawn had taken Sam with him on his trips to return the walkies every time someone new came in and had continued to sleep in the hall each night that a new group stayed in her house.
It had been over a week since the last group joined, and Emily was preparing for another day. She had dressed and managed to make the bed while Marley waited for her at the door. Emily opened the door and followed Marley to Hope's room.
"What are you doing?" Emily gasped as she opened the door.
Hope was standing in her crib and began to laugh at Emily's reaction. This was the first time that Hope had stood on her own, and the sight of it brought tears to Emily's eyes.
"You can stop growing up so fast, you know?" Emily smiled as she walked towards the crib.
Emily reached in and picked up Hope, hugging her softly. It didn't take her long to get Hope dressed, and soon they were all downstairs enjoying their breakfast.
"Emily, can you come to the clinic?" Doc's voice rang out over the walkie. Emily reached down and unclipped it from her waist.
"Is everything all right?" she asked.
"Yes," Emily could hear the hesitation in his voice. "I have the test results in and would like to go over them with you."
"I'll be there in a few minutes."
Emily returned the walkie to her waist and quickly ate the rest of her meal. Doc had been working on the blood work to see if anyone, including Hope, was immune to the infection. Doc had been working on this for months, and Emily was finally anxious to know Hope's results. Emily quickly secured Hope in the carrier and headed out into Sanctuary with Marley. Doc's office wasn't far, and Emily had arrived in just a few minutes.
"Good morning, Ms. Emily," Isabelle smiled.
"Doc's waiting for you in the exam room."
"Thanks, Isabelle," Emily replied as she headed back to the room.
Doc was sitting in a chair as she entered, looking at some papers in a folder. Emily walked to the exam table and took Hope out of the backpack while Doc closed the door.
"I'm sorry that the results took so long," Doc began. "To be honest, I ran the tests several times just to be sure."
"It's fine, Doc," Emily replied anxiously.
"I just wanted to be sure," Doc spoke again as if he had not heard Emily.
"Well?" Emily asked, "What did you find out?"
"We are all immune to the airborne. The corpse you brought me was not, obviously." Doc began to stare at his papers once more.
"I'm sure you know something that is not obvious," Emily teased.
"Oh, I do," Doc defended himself. As he looked up at the smile on her face, he noticed that she was trying to lighten the tension and visibly relaxed. "We only have one resident with the marker that makes them immune to the blood infection."
"Who?" Emily could not hide the excitement in her voice.
"Unfortunately, just you." Doc looked ashamed as he spoke.
"Hope didn't inherit the marker?" Emily asked, praying that he had just forgotten to say it.
"I'm sorry," Doc spoke again.
"It's not your fault, Doc." Emily tried to sound firm. "At least we know now and can move forward. I do want you to keep testing anyone else who may join us."
"I will," Doc nodded. "I've been taking the blood samples during the initial exams."
"Sounds efficient," Emily nodded. However, she could tell that there was more than Doc wanted to say. "Is there something else?"
"Yes, I wanted your permission to bring Isabelle in on my research. She is quite knowledgeable and might be able to help me find a cure if someone is bitten."
"I trust your judgment, Doc," Emily began.
"Just be sure to explain to her that we are not publicizing your research."
"Thank you." Doc breathed a sigh of relief.
"While you're here, we should probably give Hope a quick exam just to check on her progress."
"If you could find a way of slowing her down, it would be greatly appreciated. I found her standing in her crib this morning," Emily laughed.
"Was she standing on her own, or was she holding the crib?"
"She was holding the crib. Is she old enough to be standing on her own?"
"Not quite yet. I only asked because she seems to be reach
ing her milestones early. Her muscular and mental development is more advanced than any baby I've seen before."
"Is there something wrong with her?" Emily couldn't help but sound concerned.
"No, not necessarily," Doc smiled for the first time since Emily arrived. "It could be because her body knows the world is more dangerous, so she is growing up faster."
"Faster?! I'm sorry, Doc, but I can't have that. Slow it down now." Doc laughed as he continued with the exam, making notes as he went along.
