The Last Full Measure

by Trent Reedy

  “This school isn’t really near any towns,” said Mrs. Pierce.

  “Assuming you could get out of Freedom Lake, how would you get to the school?” I said.

  “To move a hundred people, along with all their clothes and food and other supplies, we plan to take two buses, a good-sized RV, and a pickup hauling a horse trailer.”

  “And my souped-up Humvee ambulance,” I said.

  “I moved all those machine guns and the ammo we captured out of the dungeon under the shop,” TJ said. I gave him a sharp look, and he hurried on, all defensive. “The Brotherhood knows about that place. I worried they’d go down there to check it out and ‘claim’ the stuff for themselves. Relax. Everything’s well hidden in the basement of your old house.”

  “What? You just go breaking in?”

  “Danny,” JoBell warned me.

  TJ folded his arms. “The point is, with you and Pale Horse and the stuff from the basement, we have the guns. We have the ammo. We can protect ourselves for the ten-hour drive or whatever it is that we’ll need to reach the school.”

  JoBell and I looked at each other. “Have you been out on those roads since the war started?” she asked them. They shook their heads. “It’s like a different world.”

  “I’m sorry, but with every gun turret on Pale Horse fully loaded, it still might not be enough,” I said.

  “We’ve been working hard to get ready,” said Mrs. Pierce. “Our goal is to stay in hiding at the school for the rest of the war.”

  “Which could mean years,” said JoBell.

  Mrs. Pierce nodded. “The school is designed to be pretty self-sufficient in the first place. Wood-burning stoves for heat. Electrical generators that will be handy, since the power must be shut off. There’s a good heavy-duty kitchen, a well-stocked toolshed, and even recreational stuff like canoes, horseshoe sets, and sports equipment. And we’ll be bringing plenty of supplies with us. Mr. Cretis is on our side.” I was surprised to hear they had my old shop teacher involved in this. Mrs. Pierce continued, “He’s arranged to take welding equipment and about every other tool we might need both from the school’s shop and from his house. We’ve collected blankets and cold-weather clothing for winter. We have canned food and powdered milk. We have seeds, gardening tools, and some experienced farmers and gardeners so we can try to grow our own food. There’s more work to do before we’re ready, but I’m proud of how hard our people have worked, and of what we’ve accomplished so far.”

  Mrs. Macer spoke up. “Our big concern is fuel — gas for the vehicles making the trip. We’ve saved up some, but not enough. We need to find where the Brotherhood is storing its supply.”

  “It will be guarded,” I said.

  “We’re still working out some parts of the plan,” said Mrs. Pierce.

  “Let’s just not rush this,” I said. “We have to take the time to do this right, or a lot of people are going to get hurt.”

  “You’re right,” said Mrs. Pierce. “But we don’t have unlimited time. The United States military is moving across Washington, getting closer and closer. It’ll be a bloodbath when they arrive. And when the Brotherhood finishes building that damned wall, nobody’s getting out of here.”

  * * *

  “Why do you have to be this way? What is your problem?” Becca shouted after TJ, JoBell, and me made it back to Cal’s living room and talked about the plan to leave town.

  I was sitting on the couch, and I pressed my hands to the side of my aching head. “Please don’t yell.”

  “Oh.” Becca stood in the middle of the room. She stage-whispered, “I’m so sorry. What’s your damned problem?”

  “The problem is that this is never going to work,” I said. “A hundred people aren’t going to be able to sneak out of here without being noticed, and the Brotherhood isn’t going to let us go. We’ll probably all wind up being branded as traitors, and who knows what they’d do to us if they caught us. And even if we could escape, we don’t have diesel.”

  “The Brotherhood has plenty,” Becca said. “Cal always has enough for that big truck of his. We’ll have him get us some.”

  “I don’t think he’s going to fuel up a whole convoy of vehicles for a group of people sneaking away from his precious Brotherhood,” I said.

  “You’re just pissed because for once it isn’t the Danny Wright show,” Becca said to me. “You can’t stand the fact that while you were prancing around with Montaine and Buzz Asshole Ellison, the rest of us were back here making plans without you.”

  “Hey,” Sweeney said. “Come on. Let’s all chill a second.”

  This was about as mean a thing as I’d ever heard from Becca. Worse, she was at least partly right. I felt left out. I took a sip of ice water. “I didn’t see you bitching about us being gone when it meant getting your new boyfriend to a good hospital.”

  I knew it was the wrong thing to say as soon as I’d said it. Becca’s glare went cold. Sweeney kind of grimaced. JoBell’s mouth dropped open. TJ looked like he wished he could be anywhere else but there.

  Everyone started up at the same time.

  Becca: “You really want to get into relationships right now?”

  Sweeney: “Kind of a low blow there, buddy.”

  JoBell: “You two are together?”

  I put my water down and stood up. “That’s not what I meant. Just that maybe you could have included us in the plan from the beginning.”

  Everyone spoke at once again.

  TJ: “We wanted to.”

  Becca: “Kind of hard when you weren’t even here!”

  Sweeney: “I wanted to tell you as soon as I heard about it when we came back here, but then you and Jo were defending the Brotherhood, and I didn’t know —”

  Me: “You should have trusted us!”

  JoBell: “Back up! You two are a thing? Becca, why didn’t you tell me?”

  “Listen to me!” Becca yanked the knife from the sheath on her lower leg and held it up in front of her. She wasn’t threatening us. It was more like she was showing it off. “You weren’t here dealing with things, okay? You were off on the publicity tour. It was TJ and me, with Cal sinking deeper into the Brotherhood every day. A lot of people around town were getting frustrated with what was happening and wanted to leave. I didn’t know when you all would be back. But I’d seen way too many people die. I’d seen Eric almost killed. Too much shit had happened for me to wait around to see what you guys would want to do.” She pointed the knife at the front window. “You act like the war is over. Like we won and everything is fine. But it’s not. We’re worse off than before, and we’re running out of time. So yeah, it pisses me off when you’re all ‘this will never work,’ but aren’t even trying to help us figure out how to get the hell out of here!”

  Silence fell over the room, and she put her knife away.

  “So,” JoBell finally said. “You and Eric?”

  Becca blew out a frustrated huff until she saw the smile on JoBell’s face. Then she busted out laughing, and JoBell ran and threw her arms around Becca. “Come on, warrior girl. You know we’re on your side.” She kept her arm over Becca’s shoulders as she turned to face us. “It’s great you two are together.”

  Sweeney put his hand on his chest, a look of confusion on his face. “Kitten,” he said to JoBell, “you know she’s dating me, right?”

  “Shut up, Eric,” JoBell said. “Before I change my mind about you being a good guy.”

  We all laughed. “Now that we have all that straightened out. And we’re all sharing —” TJ stopped for a moment when a smiling Becca wrapped her arm around his shoulders. “Um, everything, I guess. What are we going to tell Cal?”

  “How about you tell me something awesome?” Cal said from back in the kitchen. He was taking off his boots near the door to the garage.

  “Oh shit,” Sweeney breathed.

  Cal came into the living room, stretching his arms with his hands up behind his head, his giant biceps popping. We all exchanged a look. He
picked up on the heavy weirdness in the room and dropped his arms to his sides. “You guys okay?”

  “Cal, honey, we need to talk,” Becca said.

  “Oh shit,” he said. “Those words ain’t never good. Maybe I need to sit down for this.” He flopped down on the couch, sitting like he always did, the way that took up at least two normal people’s spaces.

  She was really going to go for this now? Did she think we could talk Cal out of the Brotherhood? Or maybe she only wanted to know the location of their fuel depot. Whatever she had in mind, Cal was already on the defensive, and we hadn’t even begun. “Cal —” I started.

  “You know we love you,” Becca said. “You’re my brother. We’d all be dead without you. You’ve saved us a bunch of times.”

  “You saved my life when I was shot,” JoBell said.

  “I’d do it again,” Cal said loudly. “Ain’t nobody gonna hurt my friends.”

  “You helped get Danny out of that Fed prison cell,” Becca said. “And any one of us would throw in our lives for you.”

  That was smart. Remind him of his loyalty to us, of our loyalty to each other. That would make it easier when we had to ask him to question his loyalty to the Brotherhood.

  “Something’s up.” Cal frowned. “Just say what you gotta say.”

  “We know you like the Brotherhood,” I said.

  Cal tensed up in his seat, spreading his fingers and then tightening them into fists. “Oh no.”

  “Just listen a second,” Becca said. “Cal, I know you think they’re great, but there are some real problems going on around town. Some problems with the Brotherhood that —”

  “Of course there are problems,” Cal said. “Even Nathan Crow admits there are problems. The Brotherhood is the only group trying to fix things.”

  “Cal, they are starving out the people they don’t like,” I said. “Jaclyn Martinez’s family can barely get enough to eat.”

  “That’s because her dad works laying carpet, and nobody is buying —”

  “Mr. Shiratori has been accused of —” TJ started.

  “Other people accused him of being a traitor! The Brotherhood didn’t have nothing to do with that! And Crow is trying to get him cleared.” The beginning of that dangerous animal look was creeping into Cal’s eyes.

  Sweeney leaned forward in his chair, placing his chin on top of his cane. “I didn’t quit my pain medication just to be tough. They’re out of meds for everybody but the Brotherhood. And don’t you think it’s convenient that only people who aren’t white are being accused of selling us out to the US? That people like me can’t even get a job building the wall? That their ration cards never arrive on time?”

  “Come on, Sweeney,” Cal said. “Don’t go making this a race thing. This ain’t like one of your old Asian jokes.”

  JoBell sat down beside Cal. “They won’t even let people leave town.”

  “Because it’s dangerous out there!” He flew off his seat, moving to the middle of the room like a bull in the rodeo ring. “Damn it! You were out there! Those bastards in Lewiston would have killed you, Jo! You weren’t bitching about the Brotherhood then!”

  JoBell held up her hand. “Hey,” she said calmly. “Relax. We’re all on your side here.”

  “Like hell you are!” Cal’s hand was on the hilt of the sword on his belt.

  “You going to cut us, Cal?” TJ asked.

  “I should! You’re damned right I should!” He breathed heavy, marched across the room toward the door to the kitchen, and turned around to face us. “I …”

  “Listen to us for a second. Hear us out,” Becca said.

  “I let you live in my house. Eat my food.” He pointed at me. “Give you a kick-ass birthday party, and then you ambush me when I get home? I didn’t see you bitching about the Brotherhood when you were drinking their beer.”

  JoBell tried again. “If you’ll calm down for a little bit, we can explain this so —”

  “Yeah, Miss Valedictorian? Explain it so the big dummy can understand it?” He shook his head. “This ain’t about the Brotherhood. Not really. It’s about how you guys can’t handle me having some success.” He whirled on Sweeney. “You always gotta be the guy with all the cool stuff, the best house and car and snowmobiles and shit! And Danny, you can’t deal with me being the guy people look to for help in the fight. Well, you should have thought of that before you decided to turn into some kind of anti-war hippie. You all liked me best when I was simpleminded trailer-trash Cal. Well, I ain’t the guy I was before.”

  “Cal, it’s not about that. There’s more we have to tell you,” I said. “It’s important.”

  Becca grabbed my wrist and shook her head. “We can’t.”

  “We have to,” I said. We couldn’t just pack up and leave Cal. Not after everything that had happened.

  Cal went through the kitchen and started putting his boots back on. “You all are lucky I’m a good guy, not a shitty friend like you. Because I should kick you all out of my house. Dump your shit on the curb.” He stood up. “But see, I’m a good guy. A good friend. I’m a member of the Brotherhood of the White Eagle. We help people. I said this was your house, and I meant it. But I ain’t hanging around here listening to this anymore.”

  A cold fear shot through me. Where was he going? Who would he talk to? We could be in serious trouble. “Cal!” I yelled. “Cal, I know you’re mad at us, but do us a favor and don’t tell the Brotherhood about what we’ve said.”

  “Oh, so that’s how it is,” Cal said. “Brave enough to talk about them behind their backs, but you know you don’t have jack for proof. And maybe you’re feeling a little guilty bitching about the Brotherhood while you live off their food, while Crow has offered to let you join? Don’t worry. I won’t tell the guys. I’d be too embarrassed.” He slammed the door on his way out.

  “Now you see why we were afraid to tell you about the evac plan?” Becca asked me.

  I felt sick, and it had nothing to do with my hangover. I met Becca’s hard eyes. “I know it’s a risk, but we can’t ditch Cal. We can’t leave him behind.”

  “You heard him, though, Danny,” JoBell said. “He’s a fanatic. We’d be putting everybody at risk if we told him about the plan.”

  “We don’t even have a plan.” I rubbed the heels of my hands in my eyes. “And now our group is falling apart. Everything’s a mess.”

  —• special report. Live from the NBC newsroom in Los Angeles, here’s Adrienne Welch.”

  “Good evening. My colleagues in the news media are calling today Separation Sunday, for although the timeline of a number of historic and perhaps tragic events is unclear, we do know that there are now thirteen countries where once there were eight, where once there was one, in the territory that used to be the United States of America. Resentment has been on the rise for weeks, as US forces pound cities in rebel states in an effort to force them back into the union. In response to those attacks and to aggression from Atlantica, the states of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama have formed the Southern Alliance of America, moving quickly to seize control of the Florida Panhandle south of Alabama. New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, the eastern part of Maryland, and Delaware have broken away as the Keystone Empire. Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and southern Michigan have formed the nation of Liberum, the Latin word for ‘free.’ North and South Dakota have joined together as one nation known as Dakota. And finally, some kind of political military coup has turned California and western Oregon into a country that is being called Cascadia. We here at NBC will continue to bring you information as we have it, assuming the leaders of Cascadia will allow us to continue to report fairly and freely.

  “So this is what the map of Pan America looks like as of this broadcast. Keep in mind that borders are arbitrary and fluid, and that rebels … Excuse me. I am being told by my producer that the leadership of Cascadia has asked me to refer to the former rebels as ‘residents of newly independent countries.’ So keep in mind that … residents of newly
independent countries might not stop at some invisible state line drawn long ago on a map. They might control areas outside of their official territory and vice versa. The map on your screen is meant to show the current situation according to the most reliable and up-to-date information we have.

  “As you can see, the territory that is not in dispute, that unquestionably belongs to the United States, is increasingly surrounded by newly independent countries. These hotly contested borders create a situation ripe for war. •—

  —• If anyone can hear me on this channel — guys, does this CB even have power? If anyone is listening, this is Sergeant Rine of the Idaho Army. My fire team is alone, without any other commo, and separated from the rest of our forces. We may be the only survivors. Ellensburg, Washington, is gone. US drones came down out of the mountains to paint the target, then bombers flew in and all hell broke loose. After the bombing, infantry and armored units rolled in to pick off survivors. To any Idaho Army or Brotherhood positions, you’ve got to get out of the cities or get some serious anti-aircraft batteries up. The US had no mercy. They hit military positions, businesses, streets, bridges, houses — even the school, I think. My team is heading back toward Idaho, but it’s over two hundred miles and our Humvee is done for. If anyone is getting this message, please spread the word. The US is coming for us. Sergeant Rine, out. •—

  —• Citing a violation of the Chinese directive against foreign military intervention in the war between North and South Korea, Chinese warships attacked Japanese vessels in the East China Sea and the Sea of Japan. Japan, claiming to act in self-defense against the threat posed by an increasingly desperate North Korea, only recently joined South Korea’s effort to topple the Kim Jong Un regime. Even with rapid Japanese armament in the wake of the Diet’s abolition of Article IX of the Japanese Constitution, the strength, capacity, and manpower of the Chinese Navy greatly exceeds that of the combined forces of South Korea and Japan. •—