Jo walked abreast of them, and Mitch walked with Amber, holding her hand. Gary and Elizabeth, already at the gravesite, waved as they approached. Once in the side yard, Cami turned and glanced toward the street. She gasped.
"He wasn't kidding, look, it's most of the neighborhood." A sea of faces greeted her as families and individuals made their way across Bee’s Landing toward the burial site. Many had dressed in their Sunday best, but all looked weary, and dozens appeared injured.
Sprinkled among the locals were the escapees from Cisco's camp. Bedraggled, many sporting bandages of their own, in blankets and donated clothing, they’d spent the night in Harriet Spalding's yard. Now they watched the somber procession as the neighborhood mourned one of its own. Outsiders, yet inside the subdivision’s sphere of influence and protection.
"What’re y’all gonna do with them?” Jo asked.
“You mean we—unless you’re planning on leaving…?” Reese asked.
“Well,” Jo said, flustered, “I wasn’t going to impose—”
“Nonsense, you’re staying, and that’s that,” Cami replied with a sad smile. “You brought my husband back to me. Your home is here, if you want it.”
Jo tipped her park ranger hat. “Much obliged.”
Cami sighed and looked at the crowd again. “Well, a number of them have already come to me and volunteered," Cami said.
"Volunteered for what?" Reese asked as the little group paused to watch the procession.
“Trading work for an honest allotment of food, shelter, and protection."
"Well, we do have a lot of empty houses in the neighborhood,” Reese mused. “Between people who left, or…” he looked at the ground and cleared his throat again. "But I don't think—even if you add in the houses of the people who used to run the HOA—I don't know if we have enough, do we?"
"Maybe. I heard another of the HOA committee left this morning. Packed up all their stuff and drove out—the lawyer. Gave us all the bird as he left, too.”
Jo snorted. "Sounds like a case of ‘good riddance’ if you ask me."
"Amen to that," Amber said.
"Well, I guess our first order of the day would be to figure out how we’re going to divvy up the vacant houses, then,” Reese said.
"Well, I guess you should figure out how you're going to decide that," Mitch interjected. The others looked at him, and he blushed. "I mean—so far, Cami's been running things—” he raised his hands to block her protest. "And you've been doing a great job of it! Everybody says so. But you're also telling everybody that you don't want the job. So, we gotta find somebody else, or a group of somebodies—”
"Here we go again,” Amber sighed.
“Another HOA?" asked Cami.
"No—I mean, why should it be like that?” Mitch countered. “Why can't we just…I don't know, have an election or something?"
"You’re talking about starting our own government?" Reese asked.
"Well…why not?" Jo asked as she stepped up next to the gangly youth. "It ain't like the feds, or them boys up in…wherever the capital is for this little state—”
“She doesn’t know where Columbia is?” muttered Mitch.
“Little?” asked Reese.
“Hold your horses, cowboy—every state ‘cept Alaska is little to a Texan.” She turned to the group. “I just meant there ain’t no one stepping up to take over—even in your own town ain’t nobody really knows who’s in charge."
Cami nodded. "Mitch gave me the update about the radio—he said no one's heard from the new president out in Denver for about a week.”
“Yep, hot off the presses,” he told everyone. “There’s rumors of a coup, but others say the president’s just running from street gangs. It's real sketchy out there in the rest of the country. Everything’s just falling apart.”
“Cascading failure,” Cami said.
"So…we’re really on our own…” Reese said sadly. "I'd hoped we'd fare better down here than what we saw in New England."
"And sister, if that's an indication of what we're facing, y'all need to get religion ….” Jo told Cami. “Right now—ain’t no time to mess around."
“I don’t know…” Cami demurred. “I think the neighborhood needs to figure this out…just us for now…”
"Well,” Mitch said with a sigh, “if you guys won't mention anything to the group, then I will.”
“Mitch…” Amber began.
“I'd be happy to float the proposition that we have a general election for…maybe a leadership committee?" Mitch continued.
"Why don't we ask everybody what they think, and then we can go from there?” suggested Amber.
“Why do I get the feeling,” Reese mumbled, “that today's going to be a long day filled with lots of talking?”
“Come on,” Cami said with a laugh as she started the group walking again. “You’re not the one on the hotseat here.”
Reese looked around at their battle-scarred neighborhood as they walked. “It’s amazing how much has changed. It’s like we’re living in a different world.”
Cami tilted her head. “We are—nothing is the same as it was, except this,” she said as she squeezed her family.
“Who do you think the new leader will be?” asked Mitch after a moment.
Reese shook his head. “Not it.”
“Not it!” Cami added.
“Very mature, guys,” Amber said.
“Not it!” Jo called.
“Not it!” Mitch and Amber blurted at the same time.
“Jinx!” they said in unison, to another round of laughter.
“Maybe we can do it the way the Romans did,” Reese muttered as their levity died. “Like you know, with two leaders. What did they call them?” He looked at the gathering. Almost the entire neighborhood had turned out for Marty’s last muster.
“Consuls?” suggested Mitch. “Been a couple years since my last Latin class…”
“I think Gary should be one,” Amber said as she wrapped an arm around Mitch.
“That’s not a bad pick,” Reese said. “But he’s an outsider…no offense,” he added for Mitch.
“None taken,” the bearded radio operator replied with a nod.
Cami frowned. “I don’t know…”
“He’s one of us now,” Amber pointed out. “And he’s already fought for this place a couple times…”
“By that reasoning, Darien and his men count as residents, too…” Cami rebutted.
They stared at each other for a long moment. “Oh,” Amber breathed.
Reese groaned. “It is going to be a long day of talking, isn’t it?”
Jo laughed. “Boy, I’ll take a long day of porch sittin’ any day over what we’ve been through since them waves turned everything upside down.”
“Preach on!” Amber said in a terrible southern accent as she and Mitch moved on ahead to join the rest of Bee’s Landing.
“Someone’s got to get that girl to work on her accent…,” Jo muttered with a scowl.
“Come on,” Reese said to Cami, losing his smile. “We better get over there. Everyone’s going to wonder what we’re doing over here talking to ourselves.”
Jo removed her campaign hat and trundled across the yard to join the others. “I’ll save y’all a spot up front.”
Cami hesitated. “I don’t want to do this, Reese.” She squeezed his hand. “I don’t want to say goodbye.”
Reese pulled her into a hug. “I’ll be right by your side the whole time. Forever. We’ll do this together, okay?”
Cami nodded, and her hair tickled his nose.
“Come on,” Reese urged.
She let him lead her by the hand toward the fresh grave surrounded by almost a hundred people. She smiled. “Marty would so hate this.” She wiped at her face. “This is going to be the hardest speech yet. Talking about him and telling everyone we need to form a government…and oh, by the way, I quit…” She shook her head.
“Hey,” Reese said with a grin, “we su
rvived the worst tsunami in recorded history. We can survive this.”
“Together,” Cami said as she slipped her arm around Reese’s waist.
He smiled as he pulled his wife close to his side and watched his daughter rest her head on Mitch’s shoulder. Gary and Elizabeth waved them over to a spot they’d saved. Jo stood next to Mia Stevens and tousled her youngest boy’s hair. Not far away, Flynt held an inconsolable, bandaged Jon Boy, who sobbed like a child. There wasn’t a covered head in the entire crowd, and only a few dry eyes. They all knew the contribution the old warrior had provided to the survival of the entire neighborhood. Even the refugees remained respectfully silent on the outer fringe of the gathering.
“We’ll survive whatever comes next...together,” Reese confirmed as he looked at the people of Bee’s Landing.
“All of us.”
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Broken Tide | Book 6 | Breakwater Page 24
