by Kip Nelson
He shook his head quickly and slapped himself across the face. He forced himself to wake up as he strode across the park to talk with some other people, and all the while Hank's words remained on his mind. Love was eternal, that was the entire point of their wedding vows, was it not? They had promised to love each other no matter what, and although neither of them could have foreseen this future for themselves, it didn't negate their marriage. He still was wearing his wedding ring, and she still was wearing hers. It just would take time, like Hank said, although in Mack's sleep-deprived state, worry still was present. He had to make a sincere effort to ignore it. And he didn't even want to try thinking about Peter. That boy was a thorn in his side and still was causing problems, even after he had been captured.
He walked across the square and went to the gardens, where he found Tash. He intended to speak to the council as well, but he wanted to start with Tash. He felt more of a connection with her, and was more certain she would be willing to stay. She was standing with a group of people, examining the plants. There was dirt caught in her fingernails; she evidently had been helping to plant more seeds and pick some vegetables. The gardens were looking in good shape, which was a miracle considering everything the settlement had been through, and from the expression on Tash's face, it seemed as though this was her natural habitat.
“Mack,” she said in her lilting accent, smiling warmly as she noticed his presence, “congratulations on your most wonderful news. How is your wife?”
It shouldn't have surprised him that word traveled this fast around the settlement. “She's doing well, thank you, just resting at the moment. So, I'm going to go back there soon when she's stronger.”
“That will be exciting. We must make sure to seize these moments of joy because they are too few and far between,” she said, her smile filling up her round face.
Her black hair was pulled back into a ponytail and Mack wished he had her sense of contentment. Nothing seemed to faze her, and despite the state of the world, she didn't allow herself to fall into depression or anything like that. Her obsidian eyes were filled with wonder at the world, and everything was a new adventure.
“I see you've found something to do,” he said, gesturing to her fingers. Her smile widened with excitement.
“Yes! I've been making friends with these good people, and they have been kind enough to allow me to help. This takes me back to when I was younger, helping my grandmother in India tend to the gardens. I always missed that when I came over here. Funny how the world can change so much but put you right back exactly where you started.”
“Well, we're sure grateful to have any help we can get. That's what I wanted to talk to you about, actually. I know you said you'd like to stay, but I just wanted to make sure it's what you really want now that you've had a chance to see what the place and the people are like. Don't worry, we won't be offended if you'd rather move on and find somewhere else.”
Tash inclined her head and raised an eyebrow, indicating to Mack that the question he had asked was a stupid one.
“We were barely struggling to survive as it was. This place is something we dreamed of finding and we would be fools to turn away from it now. I am humbled by your kind offer in letting us stay, and I want us to be a part of this settlement. In fact, I already consider myself a part of it, if that is not too forward.”
“Of course not,” Mack said, chuckling, “I'm glad to hear it. I just wanted to make sure. I'm glad we found you and your people. It's nice to have some fresh faces. I'm going to address everyone later because I have some plans for this place, but I just wanted to touch base before that. I know after what happened some people may not be so sure they want to stay.”
“You're thinking of the council, aren't you?” the older woman said, her eyes twinkling.
“Is it that obvious?”
“What's obvious is that you need some hot tea and a good night's sleep, but yes, it is.”
“I've noticed them while I've been walking around, and I must admit that I don't like the way they've been looking at me. I know they're probably just adjusting to things like everyone else, but I'm worried it's more than that. They have their own way of doing things and I'm not sure they'll be willing to change that and accept new leadership. What do you think?”
Tash tilted her head to the side and fell to her knees, massaging the soil with her fingers.
“I don't know them all that well. We only had brief dealings with them to trade goods, but you're right. They do have a system in place. However, they're also intelligent people and they can see this place is going to benefit us all. Just be patient with them, and be honest. Even if it takes them a while they will come around.”
It seemed like everyone was telling Mack to be patient, but that didn't stop the doubts from creeping in. Still, he was glad Tash and her people were adjusting to life in the settlement, and it was good to see that she at least had rediscovered a part of herself. It occurred to him the apocalypse had enabled those who survived to find the core of their beings and pursue what they really wanted to do. In some ways, it was the absolute ideal of the American dream. It was just saddening that civilization had to fall and millions, perhaps billions, of people all over the world had to die because of it.
He spent some time lingering at the gardens, catching up with those there. They were in good spirits and declared they had a good yield for the time being, and long may it continue. Mack was pleased at this, and he tried to focus on the joy in the world rather than worry about things to come. After this he walked away and meandered through the settlement, speaking with various people on his way to finding the council. Everyone offered their best wishes to him and this made him feel better, as it showed the community was working and people were looking out for each other. He remembered when he first had entered this settlement, and how people had looked at him with suspicion, but now they looked at him with complete trust. He had earned it, and now he had to do right by them for the future.
On the way across the settlement Mack spotted the building where Peter was being held. It was away from the main accommodation and a single guard stood outside. Part of Mack was tempted to go talk to the young man, but he had neither the mental strength nor energy to face the deposed king. However, the time soon would come when he would have to talk with Peter, and Mack was not looking forward to it with great anticipation.
He yawned again, and made his way outside where, across the park where the remains of the great pyre rested, he saw the members of the council standing in a closed circle, with their feet pointing inward. He knew this meant that, as a group, they were not willing to let a new person join in the conversation, but Mack needed to speak with them. Indeed, their bodies stiffened as Mack approached.
All of them were present aside from Deborah, whom Mack assumed was with her daughter. Daisy smiled at him, evidently feeling a connection with him due to their shared experience of going through the city together. Hugo was hard to read. He was a boisterous man whose mood could swing either way. Alison had seemed nice, but now she was quiet. Gary, although the most obvious with his dislike of Mack, was actually Mack's favorite as he knew exactly what the young man was thinking. He didn't know the others yet to be sure, and that made him feel uneasy. He tried not to feel trepidation at the inclusion of these people but it was natural considering everything they had been through with threats from other groups. That was another reason why he wanted to assimilate them into the community, so that fear was no longer a factor.
“How's your wife doing?” Daisy asked, the first one to speak up.
Mack wasn't sure what he had interrupted, but they definitely had been talking about something, although he tried to show no signs that anything was amiss. He repeated what he had told everyone else, that she was resting and he was feeling tired, too, but that he wanted to talk to people to see how they were doing. Then he repeated the same question he had asked to Tash, but these people were not as responsive. They glanced at each other surrepti
tiously.
“Mack! The one and only Mack,” Hugo began in his booming voice, stepping forward.
“You have a good set-up here, and it's quite admirable what you have done with the place, but we must admit that we have our reservations,” he said, and then looked to the rest of the group, hoping one of them would take up the baton that he was offering.
However, it was at this point that Hank joined them. The preacher had been wandering around, doing much the same thing as Mack, although in his own quiet way of offering solace and spiritual advice to those who needed it. He flashed a glance at Mack, and Mack was glad to have an ally beside him.
Gary was about to speak, but a glare from Alison prevented him from doing so, and he hung his head in anger, drilling the point of his boot into the ground as he muttered to himself. And it was Alison who continued to speak.
“Like Hugo said, we do admire everything you've built here and it seems like people really are buying into it, but we have our reservations. We've seen what things can be like when they're ruled by one man. In our opinion, that's one of the things that was wrong with the country before this ever happened. We all came together as a community and we decided we wanted another model of leadership. It's going to be difficult for us to return to that.”
Mack did admire the way they went about things, and perhaps in the future he would wish to try their way of a rotating council. In his opinion, it was a good idea for a small group of people, but not the big settlement he wanted to build. It showed a great maturity on their part, though, as he had seen with many of his superiors that sometimes power was intoxicating and it led good men down dark paths. To agree to share the responsibility and the power was true democracy. Perhaps it did have a place in this world at a later date, but in his heart Mack knew people needed a decisive leader to make the hard decisions for them.
Mack was seeing the effects of power now, because for all their proclamations he suspected they secretly were afraid of giving up the power they held. In a small community such as theirs it wouldn't be long before the council rotated all the way around, and they would soon have their seat again. In one the size of the settlement that Mack led it could be a year or more before the same person sat on the council. But, in his opinion, not everyone was suitable to be in charge, especially not in times as dangerous as these.
But, of course, he did not say these things to the people standing before him as he didn't want to insult them, nor did he want to get involved in a great ideological debate.
“I understand the way you feel, but I would hope that what we can offer would offset the qualms you have, and that you'd see that I am in no way a dictator. My door always is open to listen to ideas, and I want to encourage people to come forward with anything they have that they think will benefit this settlement. I want people to truly feel like they belong and have a say in how they live. We all are in this together and my main goal is to see us all working together and cooperating to ensure a future for ourselves and the children who are under our care.”
“And don't forget that Mack has a small council of his own,” Hank said, smiling, “and we're not going to let him get away with anything that we don't agree with.”
The words of Mack and Hank didn't cause any great reaction, either positive or negative, and the council still seemed undecided.
“I hope you'll think about it since winter is approaching and we're going to need all the help we can get,” Mack said in a soft voice, although the warning was implied in what was left unsaid.
Leaving the settlement now would be hard, and a potentially bad decision given the safety and security Mack offered, but still it wasn't enough for the council to agree there and then to stay. They thanked Mack for coming to talk to them and said they would be thinking about it long and hard, but Mack was left to wonder how many of them already had made up their minds.
As he turned to walk away from them, finally ready to accept that he needed some rest, someone from the infirmary ran up to him and told him that Anna was alive. Suddenly, the tiredness vanished from Mack's body. He raced to his wife's bedside.
CHAPTER SIX
WITHOUT TAKING a second look toward Hank or the others, or anyone else for that matter, Mack rushed toward the infirmary with the same vigor he had experienced when he first heard she was out in the city. The surrounding area was a blur and nobody he passed had any doubt about what had happened. Since many of them had lost people they loved, they were thrilled that somebody had the chance to reunite with their wife.
Grace and Luis watched with smiles, glad their friend could find some happiness, as did Freddie and Saul. The members of the settlement all spoke about Mack and how they were glad that, after he had given so much to them, he finally was able to get something for himself. Even the members of the council, still undecided whether they were going to stay, spared a moment to think about Mack reuniting with his wife. Although they had mixed feelings about the man and the way he ran the settlement, they all were happy for him, and only could hope everyone got to experience something like it sooner or later.
When Mack entered the infirmary, there was much on his mind. Anna was awake, but he still was worried there had been some kind of complication. There had been so many bad things happening to people in the world since this all began that it was difficult to imagine something good could happen without there being a price to pay. But Mindy smiled at him and pointed him toward the bed where his wife was sitting up with her eyes open. She still looked tired and pale. Her skin was missing that glow it used to have, although he was sure it would reappear sooner rather than later. Mindy had been at work cleaning Anna up, so she looked more like the wife he remembered rather than the wild hunter who had been found in the bushes, covered in dirt and bracken. When she saw him her eyes lit up, and a weak smile appeared on her face.
Just as Mindy had promised, the cast had dried and the lumpy thing was wrapped around her leg. Her wounds had been covered up as best they could be, but she would be left with scars. The mighty beast had left its mark, but Anna was alive. She had won, defeated the king of the jungle and lived to tell the tale.
“I know it's going to be hard, but try not to get too emotional. She's still weak. There was only so much I could do with the supplies I had, but she's stable and she just needs a lot of rest. She was asking about you, but don't be surprised if she starts lapsing into unconsciousness. I've already told her not to put any weight on her bad leg, but make sure she doesn't, when the time comes for her to leave. She's going to need some form of crutches as well while the leg heals, and I'll see to those. This is going to be a strain on both of you, so if you need any help, just call me. I'll be right over there,” Mindy said with a kind look in her eyes.
Mack gave her an appreciative smile as he walked over to the bed, taking Anna's hand in his own. He sat down and brought her hand to his lips, pressing them against her skin, closing his eyes as he remembered her taste. He opened them again, and with his other hand he stroked her forehead, then leaned into kiss it, then moved down, gently placing his lips against hers. Her lips broadened into a smile.
It was strange to see her in a hospital bed like this. The two of them never had suffered any medical trauma and had avoided these scenes. Mack always had been afraid she wouldn't look the same, but even in this weakened state she still was his wife and his heart swelled just by being near her. Suddenly the world seemed a little brighter, and among all the chaos things were starting to make sense.
Tears began stinging his eyes as he was overwhelmed with emotion again, and the lack of sleep didn't help. He bowed his head and buried it in her chest, his powerful body shaking as everything poured out of him. Her hand rested against the back of his head, playing with his dark hair, fingers reaching across the bottom of his neck, the two of them finding each other again. Mack's head rose and he sniffed, wiping the tears from his eyes.
“I'm sorry,” he said, and his blurred vision cleared as he blinked frantically.
N
ow he was looking at his wife clearly. He was so near her he could see the haunted look in her eyes, but he shouldn't have expected to see anything different. He was sure that she saw something similar in his own eyes. So much had happened to the both of them it was hard to know where to start. This was the woman he had pledged himself to, and he had stayed true to her even when there was no evidence she was alive. There were times when he had to face the possibility that even if she was alive he never would see her again.
Now all those fears and worries were excised from his mind, replaced with new ones, like how their dynamic would be changed after spending so many moons apart, and if they had changed so much that the parts they had loved about each other would change, too. Mack wasn't a fool. He knew people changed through life and to commit to someone was a big decision that required a lot from both parties. It would take time for them to get used to being with each other again, but now that he was holding her hand, and actually could touch her, he knew nothing was going to stop them from trying.
The world had taken so much from him, but it couldn't take her.
The hospital was quiet around them. There were still some people who were recovering from the various attacks on the settlement, but they mostly were resting or reading, minding their own business and allowing Mack and Anna to talk in private. Mindy stood off in the distance, keeping one eye on her patients while also taking an inventory of the supplies, and a few assistants wandered about, tending to the beds and to the patients. Mack wasn't focused on any of this. His gaze was solely for his wife, and he was unable to look anywhere else.
“I missed you,” she said, reaching out to stroke his arm, her fingers running through the hair that sprouted from his forearm, then up to his shoulders and chest, then all over his body.
