“She organized us into teams and has proved to us over and over again that she has the ability to lead us through this. And, because this is her land, she alone has that right because she invited us here and she saved our lives. We didn’t have to come here. Some of us could have lasted the winter. Would have been hard, sure, but we came here because it wasn’t as lonely and shared work is lighter work.”
Zachary jumped in, finally finding his voice. “When those raiders came it was her preparations from wherever she dug that armour out of that saved us. We live by her rules—and there’s the operative word.”
Derek watched Sheridan’s expression as this sank in, her eyes widening in dawning realisation as she saw what they were about to suggest. Inwardly he sighed, knowing it was needed and the convincing he would need to do to get her to figure it out. Suddenly, he remembered something. A rock he had picked up at the Fire Hall, a rock he had forgotten about until now and at the time he had rolled it around in his fingers with no idea why he had kept it.
Now he knew its purpose.
“Some of you already know this, and have already agreed to it,” said Marissa. “But we have got to have your support in this.”
“Sheridan is our Queen,” stated Shiloh plainly. “The teams are her Ministries. The team leaders are her Ministers. We have a chance to start new. Start fresh. The old world is dead—gone—and now buried. Time we stopped living in the past and welcomed the future.”
“Long live the Queen,” said Nathan.
“Long live the Queen,” echoed a few others.
The chant rang throughout the main room of the house as Derek looked sideways over at Sheridan.
He definitely had some convincing to do.
As the cheers died down and the room quieted, he noticed Sheridan disappear, like everyone else disappeared and went back to their chores, into her room.
Derek touched Marissa’s arm and his wife glanced at him. “I think I have to talk a bit of sense into someone…”
“Let me guess, Sheridan?” she asked, and when he nodded she inclined her head. “Go on. She’ll listen to you.”
* * * * *
Leaning back against the wall, Daniel sighed as he pulled off his sopping wet boots and tossed them to the side, quickly followed by his equally soaked socks and trousers.
The air was chilly and while he shivered, he felt a little bit warmer. Covering his exposed legs with a rough blanket fashioned out of an old curtain from an abandoned hotel, he stared up at the ceiling and sighed heavily.
I was supposed to be out at Sheri’s by now—enjoying a warm brandy with ‘Rett and whoever else she and Terry invited, he mused, frowning as he did. They’ll be damn worried now and not able to do a damn thing either. Hopefully Mom didn’t come into town for shopping, or to visit her sister… If everything went as planned they’ll be out at the Manor by now… at least it’s safer out there. Not so close to the chaos we’ve got here.
That was something, at least. He could live with knowing they were all safe. And, perhaps, once they managed to get out of here he could somehow get them out of there. He could imagine what Victoria and Sheridan would be like in the same room.
Just have to get them all out there, he thought. I’ll keep that close to keep me going.
He closed his eyes and sighed again. The wall and hard bench was almost comfortable with the time he had spent outside and on the streets. With a growl, he stood up, dried himself off and then pulled on dry clothing and socks before finding a set of shoes that fit him best.
People would be looking for him by now and he was far too involved with them all now to let himself go missing for too long. While he did not hurry he walked briskly through the halls to the council chambers. Here he paused as he gazed down at the rotunda before going to find Victoria.
I can only imagine what everyone’s feeling now, he mused. Our one link to legal government is now gone unless one of the councillors show up. Harnet could roll back in here and it would be completely legal.
With a breath, he pushed the door open and walked into the glassed in room, making his way down the steps of the theatre to the central rotunda. “Henri,” he said, and Lescelle jumped slightly as he looked up. “We didn’t find much out there, although by now a few stragglers should have managed to make it back here.”
“And they have,” he confirmed. “How are you holding up?”
“Me? What about you?”
“I am a very resilient, and resourceful, person,” he answered. “However, we no longer have a police service to hold us. I imagine you are nowhere close to anyone in your family. You’re as alone as I am, but I at least have City Hall, and a few of my immediate colleagues, to keep me company.”
“I think I could quickly find something to keep me busy too,” he pointed out. “How’s Victoria?”
“Sleeping,” answered Lescelle, as he ran hand over the smooth skin of his head before running the same hand through the short beard that he never could keep off his face, no matter how many times he shaved it. “What kind of mess is this?”
“Did you know she had cancer?” asked Daniel.
Lescelle shook his head. “No one had a single clue, but seeing as she had a resignation letter drawn up I’m guessing she only just found out about it.”
“That’s why she was here,” realized Daniel as he whirled to face Lescelle. “She said that Harnet didn’t expect her or anyone else to be here, right?”
“No one expected any of the councillors, or… no, especially not the mayor… to be here that close to Christmas,” answered Lescelle and he took a breath. “You’re right. She came to draft that letter so that it would be ready for the next session after the holidays.”
Daniel swore eloquently and loudly. If not for that, Harnet would have been able to march in here and just take over without anyone questioning it, he realized. While it sucks she’s sick—maybe even dying now—her being here threw a monkey wrench into his plan…
… And every minute she continues to draw breath she still is.
“Keep a guard on Vick for me,” said Daniel. “If she’s an unexpected wrinkle in the Colonel’s plan, then she’ll still be a target.”
* * * * *
Shiloh followed Sheridan up into their room and she turned to Suni. “Could you give my cousin and I some privacy, please?” she asked.
The younger woman nodded and left the room, closing the double doors as she did. Sheridan faced her cousin with a dour look and she sighed. Sheridan was sure Shiloh knew she was not pleased with how things were shaping up. But they had to deal with the cards as they fell.
She knew this.
“What else would you suggest?” Shiloh asked plainly and Sheridan snorted in rejection of that very thought. “I didn’t think so.”
“But Queen?” Sheridan asked. “It’s pompous, over the top and utterly ridiculous. I’m no Queen. Only one woman has legal claim to that status and I’m not the Queen of England. I seriously can’t believe this is still on the table.”
“Sheridan, there is one thing we all need to face up to—that world is dead and gone. There is no government anymore. What we have as the closest thing to resembling law, order and even modern civilization is right under this roof. Its leader and rightful ‘rule’ belongs to one person,” Shiloh retorted. “You. And even by the old world’s definition that makes you a queen, so whether you like it or not—you’re the damn Queen of Walden.”
There was a knock on the door and Shiloh answered it.
Derek walked into Sheridan’s bedroom, nervous to intrude on them and nodded. “Shiloh, could I talk to Sheridan for a moment?” he asked.
Shiloh looked at Derek strangely, but acquiesced. Derek waited until the door closed and then brought out the rock he had found at the Fire Hall.
Sheridan held it in both hands, looking confused at what he had given her. “What is this?”
“It’s a rock,” he answered, simply.
She quirked an eyebrow. “I can see tha
t. Why are you giving it to me?”
“That rock… I found it at the Fire Hall while doing some thinking,” he started as he walked over to the window. The view was far better being higher than the other rooms. “All of this and I find one, smooth, rock while having some really dark thoughts about the state of our lives.”
She waited him out, knowing that he would have a point eventually. He always did. Derek was an accomplished salesman and sometimes what he sold was not just something money could buy. Sometimes what he ‘sold’ was never for sale. In those cases, he simply had a point—a lesson—that he felt he could impart.
He was also far better travelled than any of them and had the most life experience and his advice, and observations, were often correct and this was the main reason she typically listened to him.
Derek turned back to Sheridan and pointed at the rock. “Do you know what that rock is?”
“No,” she answered. “But I get the feeling you’re about to tell me.”
He chuckled, and then grew serious. “That rock is from the landscaping at the Fire Hall—a part of the building—and part of the old world. That rock is what holds this new world to the old. Our reminder of what can go drastically wrong if we screw this up.” He licked his lips and finished. “It’s also a symbol of hope. There are probably more rocks there—more reminders and more people out there. We’re just one rock that makes up a whole.”
Sheridan waited him out as this was actually a bit more complex than she was used to. “You brought up Rome, Sheridan. Rome was also a many headed beast of an empire when it was at full power. And then so was Britain… and then the US as well. All these, like Rome, fell. Out of them, like it was out of Rome, others rose. England, France—others—from Rome and even some of the Middle East. Britain founded Canada, Australia… held the USA for a time until the US also broke away. Nations came and went, but we always, always survived and the strongest always led us out of the darkest of times into better ones.” He closed his hands over the rock. “This rock represents what was Canada. It now represents what will be—I don’t know—whatever you end up calling your kingdom.”
“If I take a kingdom,” she pointed out.
He shook his head. “You will. And I honestly can’t think of anyone better. Terrence would have been a tyrant, were he still here today. But he would have made a great military commander—your military commander. Now I have to be the leader of your scouts or rangers, whatever you feel we should call ourselves now. All the various teams formed are now beginning to think of themselves as Ministries. Whether you want to admit it or not, a kingdom has already been born and you’re its Queen.” He stared right into her eyes, closing her hands over the rock. “Now lead it as a Queen should.”
* * * * *
“I have no idea where he’d be, Niala,” said Kaine as he struggled to keep up with Niala and her sister. “Nor why you’d believe him to be here.”
The two sisters stopped just outside their father’s office. Kaine and the sisters looked from one to another.
“He said he was going to take a look into something but he didn’t say what,” answered Niala’s younger sister, Zara. “He never came back.”
Kaine crinkled his brow. Now what are they on about? He then sighed heavily and looked up at the ceiling before pointing at the door. “Well, which one of you has a spare key to the office?”
“I do,” said Niala as she pulled it out of her pocket and turned it in the lock.
The door opened and Kaine waited, but then gently pushed the two young women aside. If something untoward was in the room, he did not want the daughters to see it. He had no idea what he was expecting but when he stepped into the room and saw Neil lying on the floor, he swallowed. “Zara, go get one of the other board members for the campus.”
“Why?” she asked. “Why should I have to go?”
“Zara, just go,” ordered Niala. As soon as she was gone, Niala cried out, “She’s gone. What did you find?”
“I think I should—”
“I think you should tell me now,” she answered as she pushed the door open and walked in. She stopped mid step and stared at her father’s body on the floor of his office, the back of her hand over her mouth. “Oh my God, Dad…”
Kaine grasped her arm and although part of it was in reassurance, part of it was to stop her from disturbing the body. I wasn’t expecting this, he thought. Not the way I thought—or wanted—this to go either. What a waste of perfectly good resources…
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
The light had not even begun to climb up above the tree line when Derek found himself in the massive main room of Sheridan’s house. Even before the old world had passed into the new and dangerous one, he never found himself having that much time to simply sit and think.
While he poked at the fire in the massive fireplace to stoke it to a full flame, he found he had that time now—time that was becoming as rare as gold.
Just over a week had passed since Christmas and it was now officially New Year’s day.
It felt far longer.
So much had happened in such a short time and the enormity of the fall of civilization made it feel as if it had been ages since he had left Garson. Will we still count the year as what it will be, or start all over again because of the change? he wondered as he shook his head at himself.
The list of the dead kept growing. He knew there were those he could never know the names of, and now no one ever would. But it was those he had known the names of.
Friends.
Family.
Those who became either in the short time they had been here.
Marissa came down from the upstairs room they shared. For a long moment, they stared at each other from across the room. While they had been together for the trip to the Fire Hall since then they had not had the time to actually talk.
“The fire needed someone to poke at it. It was dying down. Can’t afford to let it go out now that it’s what keeps us alive,” he said.
“You’re not talking about that fire,” she stated.
“No, I’m not,” he answered and turned back to her. “Am I too distant?”
She shook her head. “I’ll admit it’d be nice to have you around a bit more often but, considering the circumstances, I’ll live.”
“You shouldn’t have to just ‘live’ with it, Reese,” he sighed and walked over to the couch, flopping down into it beside her. “If we could go back, would you?”
“Go back where?” She looked at him in surprise. “Back to Garson?”
“Back to the way things were before.”
For a long moment she was silent and then she sighed heavily before looking into the fire. “I honestly don’t know. It’s a more dangerous life now but at the same time it’s all simpler.” She grinned. “At least there are no more bills to pay.”
He laughed then, a full and hearty laugh of real amusement. “That’s true. Sheridan hasn’t thought of what happens when a country requires currency. I don’t think she’s dealt with it all that far yet. Survival came first, and then Terrence passed away. She hasn’t had the chance to just deal with anything.”
“No, she hasn’t done so,” answered Marissa. “What will we do now?”
Derek honestly had no idea. Neither he nor Sheridan had given thought to long term plans whether currency or any other type of plans. So far they took everything as it came at them with no real chance to plan—only react. It was not the best way to respond to any situation. “I don’t know what the future holds anymore. I’ve been living each day as it came. No time to do anything different, really.”
“But we are going to?” she asked, surprised.
“I’d imagine so… at some point.” He took a breath and sighed once more, watching as the sun rose. “We just have to survive the winter first.”
“What do you think of Sheridan being Queen?” asked Marissa.
“I support it,” answered Derek. “I thought you did as well?”
Maris
sa nodded, noticing as the French doors upstairs opened and Sheridan appeared on the breezeway above. Derek looked up as well, and sighed.
“She has too much on her plate now,” said Marissa, shaking her head. “Especially now. She’s not even forty and already a widow, and now she is a queen.”
“She’s tough,” said Derek, walking into the kitchen, pouring a second cup of coffee after refilling his own.
With a wink as he walked by Marissa, he continued around the large central column, made from the heartwood of a single tree, to the main stairway. Climbing the stairs, he walked up to Sheridan and handed her the second cup.
“Here, you looked like you needed this,” he said.
She smiled slightly and stared down into the great room, and over the large tree decorated for the season. “I’m finding it difficult to find much to smile about right now,” she said. “Was my faith in humanity misplaced?”
Derek shook his head. “No. A bit naïve, maybe, but not misplaced.”
Sheridan sighed, leaning against the wall, watching as people began to gather in the great room below. “What do I do now?” wondered Sheridan.
“Talk to them,” suggested Derek. “Be our Queen.”
Sheridan stepped up to the railing, leaning on it as she looked over the edge.
“Now that we’ve all had a chance to sleep and think this over,” she began. “We have a lot more work to do. Even as your Queen I won’t micro manage the hell out of you.” There were a few chuckles at this. “We all have jobs to do and let’s get to the core of the matter.”
Court is in session, mused Derek.
“This is a new chance to direct our lives in a new direction. We didn’t have this chance before,” she continued. “I may lead you, I may legally own this land you all now live on. The territory may grow to include what is further south of us and perhaps in other directions.”
After Oil Page 19
