by Lynn Lamb
I could hear faint voices arguing in hushed tones from behind the wall.
“We almost froze, and then all of the rain water flooded us. We are sick and tired,” said the defeated voice.
“We will have doctors check you. We have a quarantine area at the hotel across the street where our doctors will treat you,” I told her. I could hear Mark paging the medics, but when I turned around I saw Malcom and Ammie running, caring their medical bags.
“Now, all you need to do is put your weapons down, back away from them and be ready to be frisked,” I explained.
I heard the voice yell to someone in her group to get the kids.
Several of the security team lifted their heads between the strange turrets that Jill built into the wall for protection. Bri nodded at Jackson from above him, and he began to climb off of his perch. When Jackson got to the bottom, he waved the team on and they vanished, along with Mark, through the gate that closed quickly behind them.
“Give me a mask and gloves,” I told Malcom. He reluctantly dug in his bag for them.
“You know that Jackson is going to have a cow,” he said as he handed them to me. I was surprised at the doctor using the term “have a cow.” It made me smile.
“Yep,” I said. I walked over to the gate, Malcom and Amanda not far behind. “Open it,” I told the gate keeper firmly.
I was still wearing my silly vest, and I was soaking wet now, but I walked through the gate with confidence. I saw fury in Jackson’s eyes. But when I caught Mark’s glance, I burned red. I have never seen that look.
And then I saw the people we were so vehemently trying to protect ourselves from. There were only five adults, two teenagers, and three small children. All of them resembled the photos of victims at Auschwitz. Their filthy and wet clothes hung loosely from their bodies, and they shivered severely from the cold.
This was Jackson’s threat to the Village? Now I was the one who was furious.
I went over to the gaunt woman standing in front of the group. I had correctly identified her as the leader I had been speaking with. She looked scared, yet protective of the people behind her.
I walked toward her after she was frisked for more weapons. I held out my hand and introduced myself. “I am Laura, and it is nice to meet you.”
She just stared at my hand as if she had forgotten the gesture. Slowly and cautiously she held out her own hand, took mine in it and shook. “I am Lily Ann. This is my family, what’s left of them,” she said as she waved at the people behind her. “Nice to meet you,” she conceded to politeness.
“You don’t need to be afraid of us. We really do want to help. There are so few survivors, we can’t afford to kill each other,” I said. “I will have them bring you some food and dry clothes. Does anyone have any food allergies?”
Her face showed only shock. “No, Laura. Thank you for asking.”
I watched as Ammie and the Doc lead them toward the Hotel, with several of Jackson’s team following at their flanks, cautiously.
As I walked back in through the now open gate, Mark rushed to my side. “We need to talk, at home, now,” he said.
~~~
The two of us walked up the street, through the slosh of cold, wet snow, without a word.
When we got there, we went straight to our room because Mrs. Ingram was conducting her sewing classes again, this time in our living room.
“We have no damn privacy in our own home,” said Mark.
“Um, our ‘own home,’ that’s funny. This isn’t our own home. It belonged to a pilot and his wife who are probably dead. You remember when we took their personal photos of their family and friends off the walls?” I was ready to fight if that was what he wanted. I just confronted armed people, and my adrenaline was pumping.
“Fine, whoever’s house. This isn’t going how I thought it would,” he said.
I laughed, I couldn’t help it. “So, you had a plan how the apocalypse was supposed to go down?” I snapped at him. I didn’t feel completely in control of my mouth at that moment.
“Yeah, and it had to do with my wife not being a total idiot and walking blindly and unarmed into the middle of life or death situations,” he barked at me. He huffed and hit the wall with his fists, and I jumped.
A knock came to the door. Damn it.
“Is everything alright in there?” Mrs. Ingram said sharply from the other side of the door.
I opened it just enough to poke my head out. “Yes, Mrs. Ingram. Mark just dropped something. Something really heavy dropped.”
She turned and rolled away with an odd expression. I would have to deal with that later. It seems like there is always something to deal with later.
I turned around, and before I could take a breath Mark said, “Give it to Jackson. Give it to him-this whole godforsaken Village. He can handle it. He understands leadership.”
Stunned, I sat on the bottom of the bed, feet dangling. “And I don’t? By the way, I don’t know that he would even take it. I don’t know if the Villagers would accept the change in leadership, either. And I don’t know that I want to give it to him.”
Mark just looked at me for a long moment. He turned, and without a word walked out the door, bloody hand and all.
After I walked through the room of people and humming sewing machines, I let the hot, fat tears roll down my face. I walked over to Annie’s house and straight to Jake’s room.
He was sitting in his bed, and when I entered the room he put down the book he was reading.
“To what do I owe this visit from my favorite sister?” he asked before he had a chance to see my tear-stained face.
All I could say was, “Ha.”
He took a look at me and changed his tone. “Come here. What’s the matter?” he asked.
“I just had a fight with Mark. He wants me to give up my leadership of the Village,” I said. “But I don’t think I want to.”
“Oh, that,” said Jake.
“You knew, you talked to him already?” I asked accusingly.
“No,” he said. “I didn’t have to. I could see it coming. I was surprised that you couldn’t see it. Laura, he’s your husband. He has never had to deal with you putting anyone or anything ahead of him. But you live for this Village and every person in it now. It’s a big adjustment, one that changes the dynamics of your relationship.”
“Do you remember when we used to play that game on the couch when we were kids? We used to lie on the couch on our backs, your feet to mine, and then we would push as hard as we could until one of us had straight legs and the others would buckle at the knees. That’s the way it is with Mark; in the end, his legs are straight, and mine are always buckled.”
“I get it,” he said. “Of course, there’s also the Jackson thing.”
“What Jackson thing?” I asked defensively.
“The way you get along, the tension between you two, the girls have noticed it. Especially Bri,” said Jake. “He has fallen for you. Like, head over heels in love with you.”
“No, he hasn’t. People are always trying to find something to gossip about, that’s all,” I told him.
“Okay, Laura,” he replied. “But you need to find a way to let Mark know that.”
I nodded, having no idea how to accomplish it.
I sloshed back to our house. The snow and rain mix were making it harder and harder to get around.
Mrs. Ingram sat alone at a sewing machine when I returned home. I sat at the table with her, absent mindedly playing with the bobbin at the top of one of the machines.
“What are you making?” I asked her.
“Bailey’s Halloween costume. Of course, she wants to be Laura Ingles Wilder. I am also making one for you, at Bailey’s request,” she said.
“Oh, what’s that?” I asked, wondering why Bailey hadn’t mentioned it to me.
“She wants you to be ‘Ma.’ I can still teach you to sew, if you like,” she said without lifting her head from her creation.
“I think there is a reason I nev
er got past the sock mending,” I said.
She turned the material to face another direction. “That could be because you never made it past one class you actually participated in. Dear, it was a noble try, but you were just too busy. And you might not be cut out for needles and thread.”
“I think you are right.”
“You know what you need, don’t you? A vacation,” she said looking up at me, seriously this time.
I laughed, but her facial expression never changed. Mark came through the door, interrupting before I could ask her what she meant.
“Could we try that talk again?” he asked me.
I sat for a few seconds considering what Mrs. Ingram had said.
“Sure,” I said following him to the bedroom for round two.
“I’m sorry about earlier, but we need to compromise here,” he said. “I feel like I hardly see you anymore.”
I looked at him for a long moment and considered.
“Do you think that Jackson has a thing for me?” It slipped out before I had a chance to stop it.
“Yes,” he said.
“I guess I was the only one who couldn’t see it. Mark, I am not giving up the Village. I will figure out how to work it out with Jackson,” I told him. That was my compromise.
“Just stop being with him alone,” Mark told me.
“I am going with the Out-bound Team tomorrow,” I said.
Mark just stared at me like he didn’t even know who I was. Maybe he didn’t.
October 20
The early morning, while most of the Villagers slept, was freezing, and the clouds were threatening to burst again. It was only four o’clock when we left the house. I guess something would get me out of bed at that time, after all. Mark walked me to the Square, and I was surprised when he put his arm over my shoulder and pulled me close to him. I guess it was a peace offering of sorts.
Adam and Bri walked behind us. I had given instructions not to tell Annie about my departure until after I had left.
“Follow everything Adam says, exactly. He understands survival,” Mark instructed, as if I knew nothing of survival.
“I will,” I said, not wanting another confrontation before I left.
The three trucks were waiting for us in front of the Town Hall. I was surprised to see big snow chains on the tires, but I shouldn’t have been. Adam had grown into his role and knew exactly what was needed.
Couples and families said their good-byes inside, by the fire.
“I love you,” said Mark as he pulled me close and kissed me tenderly.
“I love you, too,” I said. As I turned my head, I saw snowflakes begin to fall outside the window. I wanted to get into the truck before Mark could protest due to the weather.
As we drove past the wall and the guard opened the big gates, I noticed a new graffiti quote on the wall, and this time I was not the culprit.
“To cherish what remains of the Earth and to foster its renewal is our only legitimate hope of survival.” -Wendell Berry
And as we drove by, I wondered how many more people knew of that writer and activist. My Villagers are extraordinary, I thought.
I waved a good-bye to the guard on duty, whom I could not recognize through all of her protective outerwear.
I sat next to Adam, watching the windshield wipers as the heat blasted inside the cabin of the truck. Mother Nature fought to cover up our ruined land once more.
My stomach was full of angry bees as the truck headed past the old highway toward the hillside. We would be taking the road less traveled, that much was certain.
The trucks drove slowly though the wet snow flakes. Not even a quarter mile out of town I knew the pavement was ending. We were starting up and over the hillside on the opposite side of the highway from the Village. There was no actual road there, and never had been, but vehicles made a trail of sorts, and the truck’s wheels lowered onto it with a slight drop. The road jostled us from side to side, making for an uncomfortable ride.
Since the attacks, I had been no further into town than the pool where we cremated our dead. That had only been about three blocks. It felt so strange to even be traveling to Carmel, a city not ten minutes from Monterey. But that was before the war.
“How long will it take us to get there?” I asked Adam.
“I wouldn’t expect to be there any sooner than around two-thirty this afternoon,” he said cheerfully. “You see the forest to our left. That’s east, and we have to travel several miles east, then head south and then finally we can go west.”
I had expected that from the reports from Out-bound teams, but I had sort of wished that they had been exaggerating.
The headlights shone ahead of us, and I could see the lights from the other two trucks in the side mirror. Sampson and Marla drove in the truck directly behind us, and Levi was driving the one in the rear.
I saw a small, dark, moving mass several yards ahead. “What’s that?”
“People,” Adam said.
“Why are they up here?”
He thought for a moment, “I guess they think it’s safer back here.”
“Well, let’s pick them up before they freeze to death out here,” I told him.
Adam squirmed uncomfortably in his seat. “Laura, Jackson ordered me not to let you do that. I am sorry, but he is right. Everyone is armed, nowadays. He told me not to let you get us or yourself killed. And that reminds me, he gave me this to give you.”
He handed me a hand gun that he pulled from his waistband.
“You have got to be kidding me,” I told him.
“And he told me to tell you they didn’t have any in pink, but he will put one on order for you,” he said, looking more and more uncomfortable.
“That misogynistic jackass.”
“That’s what he said you would say,” Adam said trying not to smile.
“I don’t even know how to use one,” I said wanting to desperately hand it back to him. It felt so foreign and wrong in my hands.
“Don’t worry,” said Adam. “I am going to teach you at Carmel Beach, over the water. It will be safe there. But for me, would you please put it in your pocket. The safety is on, so you won’t shoot yourself.”
I felt sorry for him, so I did as he asked. He shouldn’t have been put in the middle of our bickering.
I watched as we passed what appeared to be a man and a woman huddling together under woolen blankets. Their eyes met mine, and I cast my gaze down in shame.
~~~
The bumpy ride continued on for hours. It felt like we had been headed in the opposite direction of our intended target forever. Finally, we began heading west towards Carmel.
“Laura, can I talk to you about something?” Adam asked politely. I really do like this boy.
“Of course,” I said.
“I have been thinking about the Village. I think that the Villagers might be some of the luckiest people left on earth,” he began.
“You are probably right.”
“I’m just not sure how long that will last, though. We don’t know what the weather has in store for us. It could go from many degrees below zero into the hundreds, all in a matter of days. Our water supplies will not last if that happens. And if it just gets colder and colder, we will freeze to death. I think we need to move the Villagers to a safer place; to Carmel Valley, near the river.”
“That’s pretty extreme,” I said, trying to buy myself time to think before I responded. “I am not sure that the Villagers would be willing to leave their homes.”
“Extreme is our new life, Laura. And if we wait to see if the weather will return to normal, we will miss our window of opportunity to get out. And it’s not just weather and water. The Wanderers are beginning to band together now, like that lady at the gate told you. We know they are heavily armed and desperate. And while you are able to work miracles when you talk to people now, I am afraid that our luck is about to run out there, too. People exposed to the elements are about to die, and they will fight for t
heir lives, even if we are trying to help them.”
I sat without talking for a long time. This is what Jackson and even Mark have been trying to tell me for some time now. I would never have accepted what was being said if it had come from Jackson’s mouth. But Adam’s calm and sweet voice was breaking its way through to me.
“How would it work?” I asked. “Making our way to Carmel takes most of the day now instead of just ten minutes. Carmel Valley used to be a forty minute drive from us; on a paved road. How long would it take us to get there with over 139 people?” I asked.
“I have been running the math and all I have come up with is weeks, if not months, because you cannot account for everything that might happen on the way,” he explained. “Only the Out-bounders know this, but we are hiding ten more trucks, just like this one, in a garage near the old airport. Nobody’s found them yet. The Villagers can take their own cars. Our fuel supplies might just make it. And we can get more with the generators that we have hidden at the different gas stations.”
I looked at him, curiously. “How long have you been thinking about doing this?” I asked.
“Since we first got here. Bri, Ammie, Jake and I have all seen what it is out there. And, I mean no offense by this, but you haven’t,” he said as looked straight ahead through the snow that was now coming down hard. “We have been coming up with this plan together, and they asked me to talk to you when they found out you were coming on this trip with me.”
“Sounds like my family. I will give it some thought.”
We continued the rest of the way without talking.
~~~
We drove onto Carmel’s main street at half past three.
The sight took my breath away. Most of the stores and businesses were gone. The horror of what was left from the attacks stood in a strange juxtaposition to the blanket of white, fluffy snow.
“Wait, I see shoe tracks. There are people here,” I said.
“Yes, there are people still living here,” Adam told me. “And a few of them are friendly with us and others, not so much.”
I thought for a minute about it and I told Adam, “I need to try something. Please follow some directions.” Then, I got on the walkie. “You guys, just stay on Ocean Avenue for a little while until Adam and I get back to you.”
