Silent Interruption (Book 4): Of Tragedy and Triumph

by Russell, Trent

  Speaking of changes, Tara gazed past one of Alicia’s food tables at Ricardo. The boy also had grown tall and slim, and judging from the big smile he was giving the girl in front of him, he had found a love interest. Good for him, Tara thought.

  She then turned her head and spotted a young boy looking at Shyanne with a smile. Tara’s warm feeling turned to dread. Uh, no way, she thought to herself. She’s not dating until she’s thirty-five.

  Her thoughts were interrupted as Lorenzo called out to the crowd. “Everybody!” He held up a glass. “We all got our wine ready?”

  “Yeah!” cheered many of the men and a good deal of the women, too.

  “Well, I just wanted to make a toast to mark the six years we’ve been here.” Lorenzo raised his glass. “Six wonderful years. We’ve had our challenges, our ups and downs, but we’ve made it work. I have the best family I could ask for, and I know many of you have been able to start over too.”

  “Here! Here!” the crowd cried.

  But Lorenzo wasn’t ready to drink just yet. “And, of course, we should take the time to remember absent friends. To Harold, a brave and wonderful man. He’s part of the reason we’re here.” He glanced at Matt and Thomas. “His light continues to shine in the eyes of his two sons.”

  “Here! Here!” the crowd called out, with some of the loudest noise coming from Tara, Michael and Preston.

  Lorenzo cleared his throat. “And finally, we have to say a word for The Traveler.” He chuckled. “I don’t know what else to call him. He’s out there walking the Earth. God knows what trouble he’s gotten into.” He raised his glass one more time. “To Carl Mathers, our warrior, our leader, our friend. May he’ll come home, soon.”

  “Amen!” the group shouted.

  Shyanne bowed her head. Tara cupped her hand against Shyanne’s right cheek. “Hey.” Tara smiled. “I know it’s a little hard to hear his name again.”

  “No, it’s fine. I’m sure Mister Carl’s all right, wherever he is,” Shyanne said.

  All of a sudden, there was a knocking at the front door, and it sounded fast and ferocious. Lorenzo looked through the peephole. “Hey, it’s Cliff!” He opened the door. “Cliff! What’s going on?”

  The man was panting as if he had ridden over here quickly on his bicycle. “There’s…there’s people camped outside East Creek. New arrivals, about a hundred of them!”

  “Really?” Tara asked as she approached Cliff with Michael in tow. “Who are they? More refugees?”

  “Yeah, but we don’t have the details yet. I was just told to find you quickly. The leader of the new arrivals sent us a message. I don’t know what it means. The message just says, “The Marine is landing.” Cliff shook his head. “What the hell?”

  Tara frowned. “The Marine is landing?”

  Michael scratched his right cheek. “Sounds like a weird code.”

  “A Marine?” Alicia chuckled. “The only Marine I ever knew was…” Her voice suddenly dropped off as she caught Tara’s expression. The two of them realized at the same time what it could mean.

  “My God,” Tara whispered. It sounded too good to be true. “Carl?”

  The anniversary party quickly departed the Farrell house to head to the dirt road that left East Creek and jetted out into the wilderness. Noah had given the go ahead to the refugees to come out and reveal themselves to the East Creek community.

  Tara held onto Shyanne as the new arrivals fanned out from the trees. All of the men had facial hair of some length, and either wore sidearms on their belts or carried rifles. However, as they walked into view, they set their weapons down on the grass in front of them. They wanted to show that they were peaceful.

  Tara’s heart raced. What shape would Carl be in after all this time? Would she even spot him at first sight? She had not seen Carl in six years, and sadly she possessed no photographs of him. She imagined him in her mind, strong, well-muscled shoulders, with short hair. Would that man show up in this growing crowd?

  Then, two men pushed a wooden wagon out into the open. A man sat inside the wagon, bare-chested and clad in long shorts that slipped past his knees. He was barefoot. A puffy dark beard hung to his chest. He appeared quite thin. Scars lined the center of his chest as if he had been operated on.

  Tara turned to Michael. “Who’s that?”

  “Beats the heck out of me,” Michael said.

  However, Shyanne had no doubt in her mind who that was. “Mister Carl,” she whispered.

  Tara’s eyes widened. “Carl?” She studied the man in the approaching wagon as hard as she could. There was no way that could be him. He looked so different. His body was thinner, his build smaller. But if that was Carl, what had happened to him?

  “Mister Carl!” Shyanne broke from Tara’s side and ran toward him.

  “Shyanne!” Tara cried out. “Oh God, is that really you, Carl?”

  She couldn’t resist the urge to run to the approaching wagon, but Shyanne reached the wagon first. The men pushing the wagon quickly stopped. Shyanne dove onto the wagon. “Mister Carl! You’re…you’re back!”

  The bearded man smiled. “Well, hello there. I hoped you’d be the first one I’d meet.”

  Shyanne reached out to hug him, but Carl held up a finger. “Wait!” He then wiggled his finger. The bearded man next to the wagon reached into his bag and pulled out a stuffed blue bear. “Now, I told you I might be a little late so I could find a good birthday present.”

  The other bearded man handed it to Shyanne with a smile. Shyanne took it, squeezed it, and then quickly hugged Carl. “I told you you’re the best present I could want.”

  Carl held Shyanne. “I know. I’m sorry this took so long. You would not believe what I’ve been through.”

  By now Tara, Michael, Preston, Alicia and Lorenzo encircled the wagon. “Carl!” Tara would have leaped onto the wagon if Shyanne hadn’t been on it. “My God, I can’t believe it!” She shook her head. “You…you look like a hippie!”

  “You’ve finally joined the dark side, haven’t you?” Preston asked.

  Carl laughed along with Tara and Preston. “Well, let’s just say my journey didn’t come without some sacrifice.” He reached down and pushed his left leg to the side. “Fortunately, I was always a lousy dancer, so it’s no big loss.”

  Alicia cupped her mouth. “Oh no. Carl…”

  “Like I said, it’s no big loss. I made it through hell and back to the people I care about. If I have to be wheeled around for the rest of my life, then that’s no big price to pay. Oh.” Carl turned to the other bearded man standing beside him. “This is my brother, Andrew Mathers, but we all call him Andy.”

  Michael, Preston and Lorenzo each shook hands with him as Carl pointed to the brunette standing off to the side of the wagon with a young boy in her arms. “And that is the lovely Sarah Mathers and young Ronald, my sister-in-law and nephew respectfully.” Sarah smiled and said hello while Ronald playfully waved to them.

  “You found your brother, that’s great,” Tara said. “What about your parents?”

  “I’ll tell you all about it,” Carl said. “I didn’t come back with everyone I wanted.” He smiled. “But, in spite of the sad parts, our story has a lot of good parts, too.”

  “I’m sorry,” Alicia said.

  “Like I said, my story has a lot of good parts, too.” Carl looked behind him at the crowd. “I hope you don’t mind that I brought home a few extra mouths to feed.”

  Preston braced his head as he shook it. “I don’t know how he does it.”

  “Me neither.” Tara burst out laughing.

  The reunion was the happiest time the group had experienced in East Creek. Carl was so occupied hearing everyone else’s stories that he spilled little of his own tale. As Carl had said, it was a long story, and it took days afterward to tell it. Carl’s story was a mix of triumphs and tragedies, but in the end, he had come out of it a man completely at peace.

  Carl had succeeded in finding his parents. However, his mother wa
s in poor health and Carl did not wish to leave her. So, he stayed with her all the way until the end. However, Carl’s presence had sustained both her and his father for much longer than if they had stayed by themselves. Their adventure even led them to find Carl’s brother, Andy. For a brief time, the whole family was reunited. Although Carl mourned his mother’s passing, the moment of unity was more than Carl had hoped to attain in this darkened world, and it was one of many moments that he would treasure from his journey.

  The past six years had brought Carl all the way across the country, from the Atlantic Coast to the Pacific Coast and back. He met many more survivors, and in the process finally discovered answers to longstanding questions. The U.S. government was indeed gone, dissolved in the aftermath of the EMP, with many in Washington D.C. perishing due to riots or lack of food and water. The remnants of the U.S. military did their best to keep order in whatever pockets of the country they occupied. Carl ran across several of these factions, in the process making some new friends…and some new enemies as well.

  Among these military survivors was a general who confirmed that no one in the U.S. government had fired off a nuclear weapon before the EMP hit and no incoming missiles were being tracked. It was likely a natural phenomenon caused by the Sun, which ruled out nuclear war as a culprit. Basically, nature itself had wiped clean much of man’s technological infrastructure. That meant that the world’s nations were not on military footing and were caught unprepared. The few foreign survivors that had washed up on the Pacific Coast confirmed as such.

  Carl had gathered the nearly hundred survivors with him from all across the country. Many of these people had no homes and could not find a new residence elsewhere or were fleeing the various tyrannies Carl had encountered. Carl had allowed them to come with him with the hope of finding a new home in East Creek.

  There was a lot more to the story, and in the coming weeks Carl would fill out the details. He became famous in East Creek, and many of the community’s children were eager to hear from him. He almost shaved off the beard, but Lorenzo and Alicia’s young boy was upset when Carl mentioned it. So, he decided to keep it.

  As the months progressed, Tara noted how happy Carl was. He finally had come to peace with himself and was content to settle down in East Creek without any reason to fight. She just wished he had not had to endure so much suffering. In addition to the loss of the use of his legs, Carl had endured a harsh sickness as well as risky surgeries that could have killed him. The years of adventure clearly had worn him down, with the first wisps of white creeping into his hair. Still, Carl never complained about his infirmities, and he did his best to remain self-sufficient, although his friends continued to help him in whatever way they could.

  Carl pushed his wheelchair down the dirt road. Shyanne waited for him up ahead near the tree where Harold was buried, waving to him. Carl quickly wheeled himself the rest of the way.

  “Like it?” she asked with a grin.

  Carl rubbed the armrests. “It’s a little too comfortable. I guess when you ride in a wooden wagon for so long, your rear end forgets what ‘soft’ feels like.”

  Shyanne grabbed Carl’s wheelchair handles, but Carl quickly said, “No, no. I want to do this myself.” He began pushing his wheels forward. “Best way to keep what’s left of me in shape.”

  As Carl wheeled himself, he noticed Shyanne was skipping as she walked. “Well, you seem especially happy this evening.”

  “I got a note from a boy at school. He’s really tall.” Shyanne giggled. “And he has cute cheeks.”

  “Hey now. Sounds like I came back at the right time. Gotta protect you from all the boys out here. Say, did I teach you how to break someone’s arm?”

  “Mister Carl!” Shyanne laughed.

  “Hey, it’s one of those things girls need to know,” Carl replied.

  The pair approached Tara and Michael’s home. Lorenzo and Alicia were there with their family, as well as Preston, and Michael and Tara were waving to them through the screen door.

  “The house looks great. Last time I saw it, it was just a wooden frame.” Carl gazed up at Lorenzo. “Do we owe this place to you?”

  “What can I say? I’m a master with a hammer.” Lorenzo patted one of the porch’s wooden support posts. “Ninja hammer master.”

  Alicia slipped her arm around Lorenzo’s waist and giggled. “The ninja who has whacked each of his fingers in the course of building our dream home.”

  Lorenzo flexed his fingers. “They do still work, though.” He then playfully grabbed his wife on her rear end. She yelped as he added, “Yep, they still do.”

  Carl turned to Preston. “I’m surprised you haven’t turned the community into your own utopia by now.”

  Preston ran a hand through his shallow hair as Tara opened the screen door to join them. “I’ve focused less on politics in my new life. Actually, I think it’s good for my blood pressure.”

  Carl turned to Tara. “I bet you miss the arguments.”

  Tara wiggled her fingers. “A little.”

  Michael then opened the door behind Tara. “Dinner’s ready! And please, let’s all hurry in because I don’t know how I’m going to keep all the kids settled down before they start tearing into the food.”

  Tara rolled her eyes. “My kids, Alicia’s kids…” She shook her head. “We ought to just turn them loose into the crops. They’ll eat everything right out of the ground. That would cut most of our workload down!”

  “Oh, Carl!” Michael said, “We invited Matt and Thomas over to join us. They’re bringing some homemade cake with them.”

  “Great.” Carl chuckled. “This is going to be one hell of a dinner. I really missed those two.” He looked up at Tara. “I missed all of you.”

  Tara nodded. “We did too. We all did.”

  She turned around and followed Michael, Alicia and Lorenzo inside. Carl pushed his chair’s wheels up the ramp, but found it hard going. His chair slipped back down a few times. Finally, he looked to Shyanne. “Actually, I could use a little help getting inside.”

  Shyanne laughed. “Okay.” She grabbed both handles and pushed Carl up the ramp.

  As Shyanne opened the door, she turned and said softly, “Mister Carl?”

  “Yeah?” he asked.

  Shyanne hurried back to Carl’s chair. “We’re glad you’re back.”

  Carl nodded as Shyanne pushed his wheelchair into the house. “Me too.”

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