The Land of the Shadow

by Lissa Bryan

  “We can discuss this more tonight,” Mindy said, “when the rest of us are around so we can make our decisions and vote on it, or whatever you want to do. Right now, I think we need to eat our dinner and celebrate the fact that we’re all still here.” She glanced over at Stan and took his hand. “We were going to tell you this later, but I think you may need to hear it now. You need some happy news, I think.”

  “What is it?”

  Mindy’s face bloomed in a smile until it seemed like she was glowing with joy. “We’re having a baby.”

  Carly let out a raw cry and her hand fluttered up to cover her mouth. It was a feral sound of astonishment, of an almost desperate need to believe. “Mindy,” she choked. “You’re … you’re sure?”

  Mindy nodded. “I’m about four months along, if I’ve calculated right.”

  Carly blinked hard for a moment and then dropped her head down into her hands and wept.

  Justin pulled her into his arms and laid his cheek on top of her head as she sobbed. He knew what she was thinking as clearly as though he could read her mind. There was hope. Whatever had prevented the survivors from having babies was temporary, and Dagny would not be the only one after all. This wasn’t the end of all things. It was a beginning, as she’d hoped. The community they were building would be continued by the next generation after all.

  She left Justin’s arms to go over to Mindy and deliver a fierce hug. Mindy was crying, too. She and Carly drew back and looked at each other silently for a moment.

  “We’re going to make it,” Carly said. “We’re going to make it.”

  It was hot and stuffy in the courthouse, and Carly had a headache. There were some fans in the window, rigged to Bryce and David’s solar panel, but they weren’t very powerful and the air they moved was still warm and humid. The people crowded into the pew-style seats fanned themselves with everything from magazines to old-fashioned feather fans scavenged from an antiques store. Still, it was a little cooler in here than outside, which was why they were all in the courtroom.

  They kept the shutters closed to keep out the heat of the afternoon sunlight, so it was dim despite the lamps scattered around the room. Carly sat on the edge of the prosecution’s table, facing the audience, and Sam lay at her feet, panting.

  Pearl stood over against the wall beside the jury box, not exactly with Carly and Justin, but not in the audience with the townspeople, either. Veronica sat on the bench nearest to her and chattered to her about the fish she’d caught today. Pearl nodded and smiled, though she looked a little overwhelmed by the continuous stream of words.

  Dagny had stayed with Mindy and Stan. Mindy still wasn’t comfortable with large gatherings, even after all this time in Colby. Carly wasn’t willing to insist, even though Stan’s input would have been valuable on occasion.

  After everyone was settled in their seats, or as settled as a meeting like this could get, Justin began to speak. He didn’t raise his voice—he didn’t have to. The murmurs of the audience ceased as soon as the first words left his mouth.

  “Pearl, Kaden, and I encountered another group in Clayton. A large group.” He glanced around and rubbed the back of his neck. “I’ll just lay it out on the table. I think one of them was the intruder cut the fence, and I believe that same person, or persons, set the fire at my place last night.”

  Jason’s voice rose above the others. “Arson? Justin, really? Are you sure?”

  Carly understood why he questioned it. They all knew the risks of having wood-burning stoves in their homes and how a small, careless action like leaving something flammable too close to the stove could cause a house fire. Everyone had assumed it was an accident. Until Justin returned, Carly had assumed it, too.

  “Yes, really.” Justin crossed his arms and waited until the murmurs quieted. “The smoke alarms were disabled, which means someone broke into the house before it caught on fire. I think the chicken theft was a test run to see if he could get to the house.”

  The room went still. Even their makeshift fans stopped moving.

  Kross broke the silence. “What are we going to do, Justin? All the guns burned up in your house.”

  Justin looked at him for a moment with an incredulous expression, and then at the townspeople. “Show of hands … how many of you think I’m stupid enough to keep all our guns in one cache?”

  “Seriously? Where are the rest of them?” Kross asked.

  “Places no one would think to look. Next question.”

  Carly smothered a smile. She’d teased Justin about his squirrel-like habit of stashing guns, food, and a small collection of trade goods in various locations, but he was always thinking about having to make a fast escape and had contingency plans in case various routes were blocked. He’d insisted Carly memorize all those locations in case something happened to him, and he’d given Stan a map, in case of emergency.

  “How many?” It was Grady, and his voice was grim. He wasn’t talking about the guns.

  Justin hesitated, but just for a moment. He glanced over at Carly, and she could see the reluctance in his eyes. These were words he didn’t want to have to say.

  “At least thirty.” At their gasps and exclamations, he looked back at them and held up his hands. “But twenty of them aren’t combatants. They’re Infected.”

  “The crazy people?”

  “The retards?” Bryce blurted.

  “Do not call them that,” Carly said, her tone sharp enough to make him drop his gaze and murmur an apology.

  Jason sounded horrified. “They have twenty of them? Why?”

  “They called them ‘burn-outs.’ They—” Justin raked a hand through his hair. “Well, they’re keeping them as slaves.”

  The silence fell again and a few jaws dropped.

  “Chained together, unkempt, and scrawny as hell.” Justin rubbed the back of his neck again. “They seem to be treating them rough, especially the women.”

  Winces and gasps from the crowd echoed what Carly felt. Nausea churned in her gut, and her head pounded dully. “We have to decide what we’re going to do about this.”

  Pete released one hand from the bench and lifted it, then dropped it back down to the back of the pew as though he’d changed his mind in mid-gesture. “Mrs. Daniels, I’m not sure what you mean, ‘do about this.’ Protecting our community is one thing, but are you thinkin’ we need to … intercede for these people?”

  Carly fought against the tickle in her throat and lost. She coughed against her fist. “I—I don’t know.”

  Kross spoke up. “But what are you going to do with them? Carly, you can’t bring them here. We can’t take care of them. We don’t have the resources to feed twenty more people. Especially people who aren’t—”

  “Aren’t what?”

  He looked away. “Aren’t productive.”

  “Some of them can be dangerous,” Jason said.

  “I know.” Carly’s nightmare about what she’d experienced in the train station was still fresh in her mind. She knew as well as anyone how dangerous the Infected could be. Her voice cracked a little despite her effort to keep it steady, and she coughed into her hand again before she spoke. “And I know I can’t take them in like stray puppies, because that would put all of our survival in jeopardy. I know the truth of these things, but I can’t help but feel like I’m staring evil in the face and choosing to do nothing.”

  From the guilt on some faces, Carly knew she wasn’t the only one, but it was helpless guilt. Bystander’s guilt. The kind of guilt that said, It’s terrible, but what can I do? She turned her head away and bit the inside of her cheek.

  She looked over at the Reverend, who sat beside his wife in one of the benches at the back of the room, listening without comment. She felt about asking his opinion, but she knew he didn’t have practical advice to give.

  “We have a more immediate problem, Mrs. Daniels,” Pete said, his tone gentle. “If we’ve got someone—a group—meaning us harm, we’ve got to prepare to defend ourselves
. We can discuss the … slaves … after we’ve made ourselves safe again.”

  Pearl scoffed, and every head turned to watch her. “And isn’t that the kicker? We never will be ‘safe.’ There will always be an external threat or an internal challenge. If we wait for perfect circumstances before we feel we have luxury of doing what’s right, we’ll never have it again.”

  Grady shook his head. “We need to focus on the more immediate threat. We need to figure out what these people want and how they plan to go about getting it.”

  “I agree,” Justin said. He looked over at Carly and lowered his voice. “My job—my primary mission in life—is to keep you and Dagny safe. I gotta do that before anything else, understand?”

  “I do,” Carly replied. “But, Justin, I just can’t look away.”

  “Me neither,” Pearl said.

  Pete cleared his throat. “Miss Pearl, do you think that maybe you’re taking this … especially to heart?”

  Pearl narrowed her eyes at Pete. “What do you mean?”

  He took off his cap and raked a hand through his hair before he continued, and Carly saw a hint of pink stain his cheekbones. “I mean you may take a special … umbrage with what they’re doing because of your ancestors’ experiences.”

  Pearl shook her head. “I don’t think you have to be black to know that slavery and the exploitation of helpless people is wrong.”

  Mark spoke, and Carly jerked in surprise to hear his voice. He hadn’t spoken to her since the day Veronica had disappeared, and she supposed he was upset with her for the sharp way she’d shut down his argument with Stacy. Stacy wasn’t with him, either.

  “Look, Pearl, Carly … all due respect, ladies, but I don’t think you’re looking at this clearly. The question remains—what are you going to do with them? Let’s say we go in there and rescue them or whatever. Are you just going to unchain them and say, ‘Okay, you’re free. Take care now.’ ”

  “Think before you answer that,” Grady said, “and give it some good, hard thought. Because with no one to take care of them, these people are going to die. Either they’ll starve when they can’t find food, or they’ll get hurt or sick with no one to tend them. We can’t just pretend they’ll trot off and fend for themselves, like we’re ditching a dog beside the road and telling ourselves he’ll be happy bounding through the countryside, hunting rabbits. It’s easy enough to say death is preferable to slavery, but acknowledge you’re making that choice for them.”

  “And they could be dangerous,” Jason said, repeating his earlier statement. “These people are crazy. Not of sound mind. You can’t tell what someone like that will do next. So, you’d have close to two dozen crazy people roaming around nearby. The Wall would probably keep them out of town, but what about when we go outside to work in the fields?”

  Carly took a deep breath. “You can’t assume they’re all dangerous. That’s like convicting someone before the crime.”

  “Noble, liberal sentiments, but are you willing to risk your child’s safety on that? Are you willing to wait until they hurt someone before you take action?”

  Carly glared at him. “What would you have us do? Just shoot them all?”

  “They’re dead already. They’re the walking dead. The person they were … that’s all gone. With no one to take care of them …” Jason scratched his head and looked around, as if hoping someone would jump in to lend support. “Well, Grady gave a damn good comparison when he said it was like dumping a dog alongside the road. They’re going to get in an accident or get sick or starve because they can’t feed themselves now the stores are empty and even the houses have been picked clean. At least with Marcus they have food and shelter.”

  “You gotta be shitting me.” Carly gaped at him.

  “In the grand scheme of things?” Jason jerked his head toward the window. “Have you been out there, Carly? I know you were right after the Crisis, but maybe you don’t understand what it’s like now. Anyone who comes upon these people is going to take whatever they have. We’re down to the wire now. Anyone who hasn’t settled in and set about the business of growing their own food is in trouble. And those who are growing food have to be prepared to defend it.”

  “Do you see now why this group concerns me?” Justin asked the room at large. “Yes, I’m paranoid. It’s what kept me alive for all these years. And what my instincts are telling me is we need to batten down the fucking hatches and be prepared to defend what is ours, what we’ve worked for, what we’ve built here. Anyone who isn’t prepared to do that can leave, no hard feelings.”

  “Justin, we have children here.” Reverend Davis put an arm around his wife’s shoulders, as though it would help protect her from the threat outside their walls.

  “I have a plan for that,” Justin said. “Trust me when I say I’d be the first to go if I didn’t think my daughter was safe here, but I think—no, I know—this is the safest place for her. Out there, you’re sheep amidst the wolves. Here, we’re strong together. Here, we can defend each other.”

  “Do you think it will come to that?” The Reverend’s voice was low, but it could be easily heard in the silence of the courtroom.

  Justin thought for a moment. “I can’t say for sure, but it’s what my gut is telling me. These guys are predators. While we were traveling, I found two bridges that were out, and I don’t think it was just natural weathering that caused it. The only intact bridge leads unsuspecting travelers straight into Clayton, where this group is waiting for them. I think they’re funneling people into a trap, robbing them … and who knows what else.”

  Pearl shoved away from the jury box and came over to stand by Justin and Carly. “I think what they do is travel from place to place, setting up a temporary base while they ravage the surrounding area. People are scattered for the most part, not in a fortified community like we are. Most people can’t fend off a group of this size. After they’ve raked up every resource they can, they move on.”

  Pete took off his cap again to wipe his forehead. “Can we pay ’em off?”

  Justin considered. “Possibly. I can’t say what will happen when they come. I don’t even know when they’ll come. But I do know they’re coming, sure as the sun will rise. And I know I want to be ready for anything. For that, I need you to be with me. If you don’t think you can stand beside us on that Wall, you can go now, with no hard feelings. But if you stay, you’re making a promise. A promise to defend what we’ve built here, to spill your blood if necessary.” He looked over at Carly and took her hand in his. “I think we’ve built something special here, something worth defending. Not just the means of survival, though these days, that’s a precious thing in and of itself. It’s all of us and the way we’re working together, like the pioneers of old.”

  Justin stood. “I’m not going to ask you to raise your hands or sign a pledge. I’m simply going to ask you to stay. And if you do, know that’s your pledge, your word of honor. We can do this. We can hold this place, I know it. We have to stand together and work as a team.”

  “As a unit,” Carly said. She touched the ring he wore, her father’s ring, which bore the symbol of their military unit, a symbol no one else would recognize because it had been secret, but a symbol which stood for everything he believed in.

  “So, let’s get started on those Watch assignments …”

  Chapter Ten

  After the meeting, Carly, Justin and Kaden stopped on the courthouse lawn. Carly winced at the glare of sunlight, which intensified her headache. She used a hand to shade her eyes.

  Justin stretched to release the tension in his neck muscles. “I was thinking we could move into the Sutton place. There’s already a chicken coop over there, and it’s not much farther from the barn than our house.”

  Carly nodded. Justin knew of her reluctance to use any of the property of the people she’d known in Colby before they were stricken down by the Infection. Mrs. Sutton had been kind enough to come over and welcome Carly and Justin’s group to Colby when the
y first arrived, and brought along a basket of eggs and vegetables. Carly had been so touched at this anachronistic gesture of neighborliness, she nearly cried. But that was all in the past, and practicality had to overcome sentimentality.

  “Let’s check it out before we go pick up Dagny,” Carly said, and Justin put an arm around her waist. Mrs. Sutton’s place was a small, one-story house. Carly had never been inside, although she knew Justin had searched it for useful things. Barring any major maintenance issues, she was sure she’d be able to adapt to the house, but they needed to know what sort of things the house might be missing.

  “I’m going to go back to the barn and take care of the animals, and get all our new stuff loaded up in the wagon,” Kaden said. “I’ll meet you over there later.” He didn’t look at them while he said it, and he walked off without his usual quick hug or kiss on Carly’s cheek.

  Carly opened her mouth to call after him, but Justin laid a hand on her arm.

  “Let him process it,” he murmured. “We’ll talk to him tonight, okay?”

  “He was … I haven’t seen him like that since he first came to live with us.” Carly chewed her lip as she watched Kaden’s retreating figure. “He has to be feeling unsettled, and I haven’t spent much time with him yet, because we had the meeting and—”

  “Carly.” Justin’s voice was soft but firm. “Give him a bit to think it out on his own. He’ll come to us when he needs it, okay?”

  She nodded, though she still wasn’t assured. Thinking of the fire brought back thoughts of all they’d lost. “I’m glad you moved all of the drugs to Stacy’s clinic so we didn’t lose them in the fire. Six rifles, twelve handguns, and I don’t know how much ammo—”

  “Stop,” Justin said. “Carly, I don’t give a shit about the guns. We have all we need, and we can always get more.”