“We set down in a small landing strip in a one stoplight town in West Tennessee. There we got a truck and drove here.” Noticing the skeptical look on their faces, John elaborated. “We parked the truck outside some kind of long fence between Charleston and here. Are you building that around the entire city?”
“Yes, we had a run in, awhile back, with some very disturbed people. We’re now looking into ways to protect the city and ourselves from them,” Wes said. “Apparently, we aren’t doing a good job.”
The two strangers looked at each other worriedly and whispered something between them.
“What are you two whispering about?” Loui demanded.
Wes stepped off the porch and started walking toward them.
“Well, that is kind of what we came down here to talk to Eve about. As we were making our way across Tennessee, we saw a small group of people. We watched them for about a day, you know, to get a feel of what kind of people they might be before we introduced ourselves,” Faraday informed them.
Wes opened the gate and invited them in to the yard. The two men accepted and followed him up to the porch.
Eve came out the front door after this.
“Eve, you shouldn’t be out here.” Wes moved to stand next to her protectively.
“It’s all right, I have protection.” She held up her shotgun for everyone to see. “Plus, I think it is obvious they aren’t here to hurt us.”
“How do you know?”
“I’ve been listening from upstairs.”
“What about the uh…don’t you think all of this will upset…”
“Sweetie, the baby is the size of a pea; none of this will be upsetting it. Now, what were you saying about these rebels?” she asked, turning to the newcomers.
“The things we saw them do were beyond demented. At first we thought they were doing a bit of cleaning by burning bodies, but the things they were doing to those bodies before they threw them onto their fires was wrong,” Parker continued.
“What do you mean?” Eve asked.
Parker looked at her as if deciding whether what he had to tell her was something she needed to hear.
“I can take it. I promise,” she reassured him.
“All right. They were eating the cooked meat.”
Vera gagged and walked into the house.
“Plus, they were destructive, burning down buildings, blowing up cars, raping anything they could…and I mean anything, animals not excluded.”
“That isn’t what we came by to say,” Faraday interrupted, feeling as if they’d shared enough. “While we were watching them, we overheard some of their drunken rants. Rants that we think were about you. Is that a possibility?”
“Well, if they were the same ones we ran into awhile back, then yes, because we put a few bullets in a couple of them.”
“What were they saying about us? And how do you know it was about us?” Eve asked.
“Most of it was garbled, but they swore vengeance against your man here. They didn’t know your names, so at first we weren’t sure whom they were talking about. Then we overheard the two women talking about a man whom we assumed was Wes. They were describing the way he looked. We weren’t positive it was your camp they were discussing until we got here and saw the three of them,” Faraday said, pointing at Wes, Loui, and Antonio.
“Did they say they knew where we were?” Wes asked.
“No, but we thought we should warn you first. We are pretty sure they are traveling northeast of here, so there shouldn’t be a problem, but just in case they change directions we thought you should be forewarned.”
“Thank you for the heads up. Will you be in town for a while? We have plenty of room to put you up,” Eve said.
“If you don’t mind. We thought it might be a good idea to stick around for a couple of days, just in case they do come this way. We cannot stay long, though. Raven will be expecting us back soon,” Faraday said.
“We would love to have you for as long as you would like. The house three doors down is free and clean.” Eve pointed to a large brick house to her left. “You two are more than welcome to stay for as long as you want. Are you hungry? I could make you something to eat.”
“No, thank you. We ate earlier. I think we should settle in. We will stop by this afternoon to talk with you about helping out around here.”
“That will be fine. Let me get you the key.” Eve disappeared into the house for only a second, then reappeared with a small key ring with three keys on it.
“Here you go. Make yourselves at home.”
“What do you make of them?” Loui asked the group once the two men disappeared into the empty house.
“I’m not sure,” Eve replied. “Keep a close eye on them. If they do anything out of the ordinary let me know. Otherwise let them be.”
They retreated into the house, the hidden individuals coming down to see what was going on. Later that evening the two men returned. They discussed strategies about keeping the town safe and what they could do around town for the week they would stay.
About a week and a half after Faraday and Adams arrived, they left. The rebels hadn’t made their way down to them, and after much scouting by all abled-bodied villagers, they assumed that the rebels had continued northeast and away from the group.
VII – The Accident
Life in the village had finally begun to settle after Parker and Faraday left and was developing a bit of normalcy. Unfortunately, this didn’t mean that the hardships were over for Eve and her little community. Eve’s pregnancy progressed normally. She guessed her due date to be around the end of July, the beginning of August. She was gaining more weight than she wanted; craving foods that were no longer available to her, like mushroom quesadillas from the local Mexican restaurant, cheese sticks from Arby’s, and Whoppers. Her movements gradually slowed and became more laboring with every day that passed. Wes had to move their bedroom down to the living room so that she wouldn’t have to trundle up all the stairs day in and day out.
Lydia had her baby February first. They had another girl, and named her Jasmine. This time Vera delivered the baby with a little help and guidance from Eve. Delia and Caleb paid the baby no attention. Lydia thought that Delia would be jealous of her, but it soon became apparent that having Caleb around had helped her learn to share her parents.
Despite all of the normality that was settling in around them, tragedy was looming in the air. Eve felt it every time Wes got on the plane. The night before every take off, she would start having the worst nightmares; nightmares that would last the entire time he was gone. Lydia said she was just overly hormonal because of the pregnancy. Vera said the dreams were because of an internal fear of losing Wes as she lost Doyle and Kyle. Eve didn’t really care why she was having them. She just wanted them to stop, and the only time they ceased was when he was home and not about to go out with the flight crew.
Everyone was on guard, even when they tried not to be. During their travels, Wes, Loui, Antonio, and whoever else that went with them watched for the rebels, looked for signs they had been in whatever area they happened to have landed in, and checked in with the other groups from time to time to see if they had heard anything, but they never spotted the group. Eve hoped they had killed each other or at the very least died from eating rotted flesh.
The rebel’s lack of appearance didn’t stop them from preparing for an attack though. They continued to fortify the town. They set up guards and everyone learned to defend themselves. Eve had to battle with Wes when her guard shifts came around or when she trained with a weapon, but she stood her ground until she couldn’t walk for more than five minutes until her back ached and her feet swelled and she lost her balance trying to hold a fighting stance.
The closer Eve got to her due date, the more Wes stayed home. The little village had grown and there were more than enough people to take those shifts as well. On the few times he went out, he insisted that he not be any more than about a hundred miles from Richardson.
O
n his last trip, they had flown to Memphis, Tennessee. Memphis was one of the few bigger cities that they hadn’t been through yet. The city seemed as good of a place as any to go through, and still be close to home to keep in contact through the CB radio. Eve radioed him about once every hour just to say hello, tell him she loved him, or to tell him what the baby was doing at that particular moment. Because of her constant contact, as far as anyone knew the trip to Memphis had been uneventful.
Technically, it had been. Wes, Antonio, and one of their new arrivals, Charles, had seen possible signs of the rebels that Faraday and Parker had seen, but they hadn’t seen the rebels themselves. They had seen large bonfires with everything from cars to animals smoking in the ash and fresh corpses with missing body parts. A few blocks from one of the bonfires, they had found a large antebellum home with a spiked, iron fence circling it. On a number of those spikes were both fresh and decaying heads, but there had been no sign of life in the house or the town, so the men had assumed the rebels had moved on.
Antonio had radioed all of this to Loui and Will behind Eve’s back.
They loaded the plane for the return trip with no problems. Even their take off was normal. Wes radioed in to Will their departure time and their ETA. Will pulled up in front of Eve’s house just as the plane was approaching Richardson to drive her to meet them. A second later she and Will were on the main highway headed toward the airport with Vera, Loui, and a few others following behind them with horse trailers because Wes had said they had found a number of different animals to add to their collection.
Before they crossed the city limits, they heard a loud explosion and saw a large cloud of smoke and fire coming from the direction of the sound. The explosion had occurred just north of where the airport was located. Eve had been looking out the windshield, watching the day, when she saw the ball of fire and smoke. Her breath caught. Her mind shut off. She prayed they had managed to get out of the plane before anything happened.
The car she was in skidded to a stop, as Will stared in disbelief. She heard the cars behind her do the same.
“What are you doing?” Eve demanded. “Go. We have to get to them.”
Will looked at her in confusion. He hadn’t realized he had stopped in the middle of the road.
“Go, damn it,” she bellowed.
He nodded and let off the brake. He drove too slowly for her liking, and she screamed at him the entire time, but he couldn’t make himself drive any faster. Loui sped around them, driving like a bat out of hell, and Eve wished she was with him.
When they neared the scene, which was in the field right behind the airport where in the old world there would have been lines and lines of small planes waiting for use, Eve screamed again and the vehicle skidded to another stop, barely missing crashing into one of the other cars. Eve jumped out of the truck, heading for the pillar of flames, not caring about the baby inside her or her own life, but Loui was at her side before she could make it very far.
There was wreckage everywhere, and Eve searched frantically for signs of human life.
Will was yelling into the CB, trying to get Wes or someone to answer. There weren’t any visible markings on the plane, and he was hoping, desperately, that this wasn’t their plane. That this one belonged to someone else who just happened to be by at the same time Wes and the others were supposed to be coming home.
“Will, is it them? Will?” Vera screamed, rushing to his side.
“I don’t know. I…I can’t…” He was at a loss for words.
“Vera. Vera,” Loui bellowed, jerking the girl to look at him and passing Eve to her. “Put her in the truck. Will and I will go and see.”
“I want to go with you,” Eve demanded, as she watched the others spread out, surround, and inch their way toward the crash site.
“No. Stay here,” Will ordered. He rushed around to the other side of the airport and within a few minutes was returning with a fire truck. He was pulling the hose when someone screamed.
Eve broke from Vera and ran the best she could in the direction. She pulled up short when she saw the body on the ground. Vera caught her as she collapsed, screaming and crying uncontrollably.
Her cries were so loud she almost missed it when someone said who the victim was. “What?” she stammered.
“It’s Charles,” Loui said, turning the body face up.
“He’s still breathing,” someone else said. Eve was too caught up in her own relief to recognize the voice.
Vera pulled her back. A group of people lifted the man onto a stretcher someone must have found in the airport and carried him away. A minute later, another cry echoed through all of the commotion. Eve didn’t run this time; she just let Vera walk her over to the next body.
Two people were pulling someone out from under the wing of the plane. Eve nearly vomited at the sight of the bloodied man. Blood and smoke covered the person so much that she couldn’t make out who it was, but whoever the man was, he was missing one leg from just below the knee. The two people carrying him, lay him on another stretcher and began examining his body.
“Wes,” she heard Vera whisper.
Eve jerked her head up and stared at the woman.
Vera nodded and said, “Eve, it’s him.”
Eve moved to go to him, but they were already carrying his body away. She was in too much shock to hear the conversations going on around her and had no idea if he was still alive or not. Pulling herself away from Vera, she took off after him.
“Is he alive,” she shouted, but no one answered her. They carried him over to where two other bodies lay on the ground and sat him down. Orders were being given. People were rushing about. Medical equipment from the small infirmary inside the airport was hauled out. Eve watched, begging to know if he was alive, but no one was talking to her.
Vera pulled her away and led her back to one of the vehicles.
“Tell me. Please,” Eve begged.
“I don’t know. I think so,” Vera said, looking over her shoulder.
Eve followed her gaze, but she couldn’t make out what was going on. Forcing back her tears, she sat back in the vehicle and rubbed her large stomach. The baby was kicking and rolling, obviously annoyed with all of the commotion.
Seeing this, Vera asked, “How do you feel?”
“Scared. I can’t lose him. Not after all that has happened. I can’t”
“I meant the baby.”
“She’s fine. Active, but fine.”
Not knowing what more to say, Vera hugged her friend then turned back to the scene. Wes hadn’t looked alive, but she took it as a good sign that they were working on him, assessing the damage and preparing to move him. They wouldn’t bother if he was dead.
Twenty minutes later, Will walked over to them. They had loaded all of the bodies and were moving them to a small clinic in Richardson. One of the newcomers had been a nurse. She had been teaching them the basics and setting up an office near Eve’s house.
“Is he dead?” Eve asked, looking blurrily up at the man.
“He is alive. Not sure if he will make it through the night, but for now he is stable. His left leg is all but gone. His body is badly burned. But he isn’t any worse than Charles and Antonio. Charles may never see again, Antonio is missing a few fingers of his left hand, and it looks as if his right arm and leg are broken in multiple areas. We will know more in a bit.”
“When can I see him?”
“Not for a while. We are doing all we can, but with our little expertise and supplies, there are no guarantees for any of them. You should get home and get some rest.”
“No, I want to go to the clinic. I’ll rest in one of the rooms, but I want to be with him.” She turned, buckled herself into the seat, and waited patiently for one of them to get into the driver’s seat.
“I’ll take her and watch over her,” Vera said.
Will nodded, hugged her, and walked away.
A week later, Eve lay in an uncomfortable bed in Wes’ room, watching him sleep.
He had survived so far. Charles had died that first night, and Antonio had tried once or twice over the last few days, but they had managed to bring him back. Wes was still in a chemically-induced coma that Eve didn’t trust, but Will had assured her it was the best thing for him to help him heal in peace. Bandages wrapped most of his body and what wasn’t covered was red and scary looking.
She cried most nights for him and prayed he would recover, would live long enough to be a father. She begged God not to take him. This wasn’t fair, she knew. Everyone had lost someone. Everyone had lost everyone they loved. God had left her Caleb, who she had refused to let come to the clinic. There was no way she was letting him see Wes this way. The missing leg she could handle, but not the bandages. She knew she was lucky to have him, so she shouldn’t feel cheated if God took Wes.
And she had the baby. The little girl was doing fine, (Eve went once a week for an ultrasound to make sure) so she knew she shouldn’t be selfish, but she was. She wanted her nephew, she wanted her baby, and she wanted her husband. She wanted her family. She wanted her town. And she wanted to go the rest of her life without seeing another person die. She wanted to do more than just survive.
Epilogue 1 - Evey
Two weeks ago the entire group from Nebraska showed up on our doorsteps, carrying everything they owned, accompanied by a small band of people from Maine. The rebels had attacked Nebraska, destroying one of their power stations, two of their largest greenhouses, and killing nearly half of their people. A small portion of the group from Maine made it to Nebraska three days after the rebels had arrived, and eliminated their entire group, but by then it was too late. Afterwards, Mounty, the current leader from Maine, brought the group here, believing that we were all targets.
The Maine clan has a few “warriors,” as Mounty likes to call them, who have studied intensely on the art of war, and they believe here, surrounded by Eve’s Great Wall, we can hold them back, and possibly even destroy them. I was hesitant when they arrived. A part of me wanted to send them away, knowing that I would be opening my doors to trouble if I allowed them entrance. On the other hand, trouble will come either way, and I cannot refuse them sanctuary. Eve would have never allowed it.
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