by Ted Hill
“Molly, what’s wrong?” Hunter cradled her.
Margaret looked at his face again. “You’re Michael, the archangel.”
Hunter nodded. “That’s what they tell me.”
“Hunter, we need a town council meeting, now,” Billy said.
Margaret thought it sounded funny hearing Billy speak with such authority. She turned her head and remembered the strange thing about Billy when he came into Luis’s last night and told her that Mark needed her help.
“Jimmy?” she said.
“Jimmy?” Ginger repeated, from where she helped hand out food to Cozad kids. The new mom dropped the basketful of green apples and they spilled across the cobbles, rolling to a stop at Billy’s feet.
Jimmy pushed back his hat. Even if they couldn’t see inside his soul, there was no mistaking Jimmy’s mannerism in the small boy. His sad smile turned Billy’s lips. “Hey, Ginger.”
Thirty-Eight
Scout
Scout ran over when he heard the scream, ready to fight for Independents. What he found was Billy on top of Ginger, and that was pretty much all the justification he needed. Scout ripped the little troublemaker off and punched him in the face.
He didn’t understand why someone clobbered him in the side of the head. Scout rolled to the ground and lay there panting from adrenaline rushing inside his body and madness burning through his mind. And he was even more surprised when that someone turned out to be a very pissed off Hunter.
“What the fuck is wrong with you, Scout?”
“Hunter!” Billy stood, wiping the blood from his busted lip with the hem of his already red-stained shirt. “Don’t ever use that language around all these kids!”
“I’ve been telling him that for two days now,” Barbie said, where she knelt tending to Ginger.
Ginger’s eyes fluttered in unconsciousness. Apples littered the street, bright green on the brick cobbles. Billy walked back over to her side.
“Get away from her, Billy,” Scout said.
Billy straightened his hat. There was something weird about the kid wearing a hat. Scout never saw him in one before.
“Scout, you don’t know what’s going on, so settle down until you do.” Hunter reached down and offered Scout a hand up.
Scout slapped it away and regained his feet on his own. “No, Hunter. You don’t know what’s been going on. Billy’s been spreading lies all over town about how I got your brother killed. He was telling people that Raven was a spy, and now she’s left me and gone who knows where.” Scout balled his fist and stepped up in Hunter’s face. “And now he’s just attacked Ginger and you’re standing up for him?”
Hunter’s smile was so grim Scout couldn’t tell if he was happy or was about to take a swing at him. Hunter leaned slowly into Scout and whispered in his ear, “Jimmy is Billy.”
“Have you lost your fucking mind?”
Billy stomped over and got in the middle of both of them. His face twisted with rage. “The next person to use the F word in my street is going to spend a month cleaning outhouses.”
Samuel walked over and bent down to Billy’s eye level. “Jimmy?”
Billy patted Samuel’s shoulder. “Hello, Samuel. Will you please get everyone on the council together?” He looked around. “We’ll meet in Luis’s for now. Have everyone else wait in Brittany’s while we sort things out. Make sure everyone is accounted for. I want eyes on the street, but I don’t want anyone wandering off on their own.”
Samuel blinked. “Jimmy?”
Billy, Jimmy or whoever he was looked around again. Scout couldn’t believe it. He shook his head as if that would be enough to clear away the confusion.
Hunter smirked at him. “Don’t worry. It’s going to get a lot more complicated in a minute. Jimmy coming back from the dead is the easy part to swallow.”
“Hunter, please invite someone from Cozad to attend our council.”
Hunter nodded and grabbed Scout’s arm, dragging him over to where the Cozad kids waited for further instructions. Most of them stood around with apple cores in their hands. Hunter walked up to the scrawny boy and girl that had kept Chef Brittany at bay against the windshield.
“Hey, where can we put these?” the boy asked, dangling the well gnawed core by the stem.
“We’ll find a compost bin in a minute. Henry, this is Scout. Scout, this is Henry and his sister Sophie. Henry here is kind of the unofficial leader of Cozad.”
“I really didn’t have a choice,” Henry said.
Scout shook his free hand. “What happened to the other leader?”
Henry dropped his head and lowered his voice when he answered. Scout didn’t think he heard him right. Sophie covered her face and turned away.
“I’m sorry. Did you say she was eaten?”
“I told you it would get a lot more complicated,” Hunter said. “Henry, will you come to the council meeting with me? Sophie can come too.”
“All right,” Henry said.
“Carissa,” Hunter called to another scrawny girl. She walked over with another boy in tow. “Can you and Wesley get everyone from your town inside that building there? It’s our cafeteria and we might be able to get you guys a little more to eat.”
Hunter searched the crowd of Independents kids. “Brady. Emma.”
The two parted from their respective huddles. Brady limped over and Emma sashayed.
“This is Carissa and her brother, Wesley,” Hunter said.
“Brother?” Emma said, smiling like a lioness locking on her prey. Wesley looked like a deer in the headlights.
“Not now, Emma,” Hunter said. “I want you guys to help the group from Cozad over at Brittany’s. We need everyone not on the council to wait inside while we meet.”
Hunter gave everyone their routes like a seasoned quarterback, leaving Scout wondering when his friend had become so responsible. Hunter never involved himself in council business or meetings of any sort. Scout tucked his hands in his pockets and reconsidered his friend’s new attitude as something good. Now if Hunter could just lose his irritating, know it all smirk.
The crowds moved off in two directions towards Brittany’s and Luis’s, depending on their calling. Scout stopped Hunter on the way to council.
“Why was Billy, uh Jimmy, on top of Ginger?”
“She started fainting and he tripped on an apple trying to reach her. It was a miracle he was able to keep her from smashing her head on the ground.”
“Why did she scream?”
There was that smirk again. “Wouldn’t you if you just discovered your dead boyfriend had returned in the body of someone eight years younger?”
Scout nodded and followed Hunter up the street to Luis’s.
* * *
“Is it okay to use the F word now, Jimmy?”
“No, Samuel, it’s not. You of all people should know how I feel about that.”
Scout’s head spun from everything he had heard. Starting with Hunter and his fight with the demon sniper on top of the grain elevator in Cozad, through the explanation of how Jimmy had followed Samuel back from the dead, where he watched his son being born as a ghost, to there being not one but two other saints like Catherine. Saint Barbara, who preferred Barbie, was locked inside the previously mentioned grain elevator, and the other, Saint Margaret, locked inside the mind of Molly, who now preferred to be called Margaret. Then there was the fact that Billy had been possessed by a demon to serve the main bad dude, named Famine, who just so happened to be one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Somehow Jimmy wound up possessing Billy and the demon was exorcised.
And the capper, the absolute unbelievable part, the last bit of information that probably had everyone in the room wanting to say the F word, besides the shorter version of Jimmy, was that inside Hunter rests the archangel, Michael—God’s mightiest angel.
Yeah, the F word was the least of their concerns at the moment. Somebody should’ve brought out the straightjackets. Scout wanted his fitted with extra straps and
buckles.
“So how do we take this dude down?” Samuel asked. “Does Hunter just grow wings and blow a horn or what?”
“I don’t think it works that way.” Hunter glanced over to Barbie, who shook her head. “It just sort of happened when the need came up.”
Samuel sat forward. “What kind of need?”
“I have no idea. I’d say life or death, but I was pretty much fighting for my life all day yesterday and he only came out once.”
“That’s not really true,” Barbie said. Everyone stared at her and she returned it like the confident new girl in school who’s destined to break a lot of hearts. “Michael has regenerative capabilities now.”
“What?” Samuel asked.
“It means his body heals from injuries, rather quickly.”
“Cool,” Samuel said. “You’re like Wolverine, without the claws and metal skeleton.”
“Who?” Hunter asked.
“Come over someday and I’ll show you my comic book collection.”
“All right, so now all we have to do is get rid of this new threat and then we can start preparing our winter food supply,” Jimmy said. “Anybody have a plan to do this?”
“What’s to plan?” Scout said. “We just wait for him to make his move and then Hunter can take care of everything. That sounds good to me.”
Hunter leaned back in his chair and folded his arms across his chest. “I’ve already fought him once and the angel didn’t come to my rescue then.”
“What happened?” Scout asked.
“I had a broomstick shoved through my stomach.” Hunter pointed at Henry. “They came out and chased him away.”
Henry shrugged. “I guess we just needed to be inspired. We didn’t have much hope until you arrived. We couldn’t just let him kill you.”
“Thanks.”
“Maybe it’s time to break out something better than baseball bats,” Mark said.
“No,” Jimmy said, before anyone else could jump in.
Samuel nodded along. Scout met Hunter’s eyes and they both frowned.
“We stockpiled all those guns for when there was a need. I think this qualifies. We’ve seen what this guy can do.” Mark placed his hand over his throat. “I’ve seen what this guy can do up close.”
“I don’t think we need to make this worse than it already is,” Jimmy said. “It’s just one bad guy. As long as they’re not shooting at us, we’ll do the same.”
“They shot at me in Cozad,” Hunter said. “You should see my jacket.”
“That was Cozad. I’m sorry, but I still say no. We can vote, but I don’t think the numbers have changed since the last time.”
Scout scanned the faces of the council, and only one person looked like she had changed her mind about the gun control they enacted back when Greg was alive. Scout couldn’t believe it was his sister.
“I’ve never liked guns,” Vanessa said. “I saw my share of gang violence before the plague, and I still remember when all the adults died and all these stupid kids found guns and started shooting and robbing each other. It was a miracle Scout and I got out of St. Louis alive. But I’m not willing to let the father of my child face a horseman of the apocalypse with only a baseball bat for protection.”
“I agree that we’re up against some scary stuff,” Samuel said. “But we got help now with the three saints. Dylan and I took it to that dude last night. When he comes back, we’ll finish the job without shooting up the whole town.”
Jimmy scooted out of his chair and paced, rubbing the back of his neck. Ginger stared at him with haunted eyes. Her silence was overwhelming since coming into Luis’s to conduct this meeting. Molly, or Margaret, held little James, rocking the sleeping baby. Ginger wrung her hands like they were soaked with dishwater. Nothing about this was going to be easy, from the fight to the aftermath.
“Catherine,” Jimmy said. “What can we expect after we beat this horseman?”
Catherine had remained quiet through the discussions. She was like that. Scout had even forgotten that she was sitting beside him. He regarded her now with her back to the chair, her hands folded in her lap, her legs straight out in the air, and the permanent grass stains on her toes. She scooted forward and her feet found the floor. “There’s no point in thinking ahead right now, Jimmy. You have to take care of this and, like you said, create your winter food supply. What comes next is just another link in the chain. This is what’s happening now.”
“Okay, so how do we take care of the here and now?”
Catherine stood and walked through the middle of the circle to Jimmy. They were exactly the same height. She laid her hands on his shoulders and looked into his eyes. “We’ll just have to wait and see, silly.”
“You know more than that.” He turned his head. “Doesn’t she, Margaret?”
Molly stared at the baby and everyone in the circle guessed that Margaret knew just as much as Catherine about everything. The difference was that Margaret used to be Molly. She grew up with all the kids of Independents. Her friends should come before her secrets.
Scout broke the silence for everyone. “Molly, are we going to be able to beat this guy?”
Molly lifted her gaze. “My name is Margaret now.”
Mark rocked forward in his chair. “You’re still my sister, no matter what or who you were in a former life. If you know something, you have to tell us.”
“No, Mark, I don’t. All you need to know is that God is with us. He’s seen to it that all the pieces are here at the right time to defeat this threat. I don’t know how this will happen anymore than you do. I just know that you will defeat your enemies if you have faith.”
Scout burst out of his chair. “This is total crap. Why are we the ones having to deal with all of this? Why not the kids in Denver?”
“Scout,” Hunter said. “We’re not the only ones who have to deal with this.”
Scout followed Hunter’s gaze to where Henry and his sister Sophie sat as the representatives of Cozad, their community decimated by this horseman called Famine.
“All right, you have a point, but what about all of us? I don’t suppose we can call upon the power that the three saints are able to, nor do we have the power to heal ourselves and grow wings like angel boy, nor are we all going to be able to come back from the dead.”
Jimmy squared up to Scout. “What’s your point?”
Scout spread his hands. “My point is that most of us are just normal kids. How do we fight against this?”
“The same way you’ve fought since the start of the plague,” Catherine said. “With everything you’ve got. We’ll help you with the rest. You don’t have to be a saint or an angel or—”
Dylan crashed through the door, his chest heaving and his eyes wide with fear. “They’re here!”
“Who’re they?” Jimmy asked.
“All the guys that were out looking for that dude are here with him. They’re setting fire to the food storage building at the end of the block! Hurry!”
“I hope you grow some wings fast,” Scout said to Hunter as they ran for the door.
Thirty-Nine
Jimmy
Jimmy ran behind Scout and Hunter. He skidded to a stop at the door and Mark slammed into him. Jimmy moved aside and looked back at Ginger still sitting in her seat. Margaret held their son. Jimmy went back to Ginger. “Let’s get you and the baby someplace safe. Margaret, can you help?”
She shook her head. “I need to be out there with them.”
Jimmy frowned, but understood. He searched the remaining crowd. Luis busied himself gathering some of his medical gear. “Luis, will you help me with Ginger and the baby?”
“Yes, of course.” Luis rushed over with his bag packed.
“We’ll all go together,” Vanessa said, holding her baby. The older mother generated calm like a force of nature.
Henry and his sister stepped forward. “Can we follow you guys?”
Jimmy nodded. “Let’s go, but stay close.”
&
nbsp; “Are you feeling better now?” Margaret asked Ginger. “Somebody else can carry James.”
Ginger darted a glance at Jimmy and he felt a stab of regret for allowing his identity to be revealed so carelessly. Now he didn’t know how to talk to her about it.
“I’m okay,” Ginger said.
Margaret handed the baby to her and took off after the first wave already out in the street. Ginger’s smile returned with little James back in her arms.
They left through the back door to the dirt alleyway where sunshine had been replaced by clouds rolling overhead, promising rain. The smell of smoke reminded Jimmy of the time when he thought Hunter had been caught in a house fire. The black column rose at the end of Main Street like a puffy chain. Jimmy hated the thought that the town he’d worked so hard to build might burn to the ground. He hoped the dark clouds above would unload and douse the fire.
Jimmy led the small party through a gate in a chain-link fence and into a backyard. They crossed quickly and skirted around the side of the house to the front. “We’ll go to Ginger’s house in case the fire gets out of control. Plus, you probably have stuff to take care of the babies, right?”
Ginger nodded. “Hunter and Scout have been bringing baby stuff over for months.”
Jimmy made a mental note to thank Hunter and Scout when all of this was over. Would he still be trapped in Billy’s body? He wished he was a foot taller so he could at least look Ginger eye to eye. She’d never take him seriously in this body. The cruel fate that brought him back must have been laughing at him.
Jimmy held up a hand when they reached the edge at the front of the house. He scanned up and down the block before waving the others to follow. Ginger’s yellow house, her once colorful flowerbeds around the lone, leafless tree, had not survived the infestation this close to Main Street.
