The exchange was not lost on Frank. He remembered the name that Black had given him, and made the connection on his own. Whatever had happened to Joe in that house, he was glad that he had survived it. Saddened only that he had gone through it in the first place. A comfortable, although somewhat thoughtful silence descended on the small group.
"So, what are you two going to do now?" Jessie asked to break the silence, as they pulled into the train station.
Joe and Becky both looked at one another, and Becky spoke.
"We're going back to Washington," she said simply. "We found this place... it's beautiful, and we're going back there."
"In fact," Joe said, "I think we'll probably leave from here... Take our time. Dell and Ali want to go with us, and I guess our reason for being here is over, so..."
Frank nodded his head silently, and said, "I have to go to Oklahoma, my children are there, and... I don't know where I'll go from there... Why now?" Frank asked, "Why not take the train as far as Oklahoma, and then go?"
Joe shrugged his shoulders. "I guess it's sort of like we had to rush to get here... well, rush our entire lives, and we just want to take our time, I guess. See whatever there is to see and enjoy it."
Frank nodded his head.
"It's really more than that," Becky said.
"How's that Arle-Becky?" Frank asked.
"Well, take you for instance, Frank. Even though we didn't know each other really well I sometimes got the feeling that I was your only real friend, and I never even know you had kids. You were always so... so busy, I guess. I mean you took time out, you helped, but still you were kind of rushing through life. Not really living it. I don't want to get somewhere too fast, and to be honest, I hope all the trains, buses, cars and trucks rot. Life was too fast, way too fast," she looked deeply into his eyes as she finished.
At first Frank seemed as though he was not going to answer. In reality, he was only thinking about what she had said. He had been rushing through life. So much so that he really hadn't spent any time with the kids since Jane's death, he realized. It was, he thought... well, it was as if he were rushing through life to reach the end faster, quicker, to be with Janey again.
"If you're worried that I think you're wrong, or off base, I don't," he replied. "You're right, and if it weren't for the kids, and my chest being busted up... I'd go too." He nodded his head decisively. "Damned if I wouldn't enjoy it too. I guess I envy you two, to a certain extent. But I'll tell you what... I'll see you again. It isn't good-bye forever; in fact, well, where exactly are you going to be?"
"Snoqualmie National Forest Preserve," Becky answered. "You should see it... both of you. It's... well, it's just perfect, just beautiful; I guess is the only way to describe it. Just beautiful."
"Calm lake, trees, quiet, she's right," Joe agreed, "you should see it, you'd probably fall in love with it too."
Frank looked at Jessie. "We'll see," he said.
"Is it on the map?"
"Yeah," Joe said quickly.
"Well, with a name like that I don't think I'll miss it then," Frank said, as two men picked up the stretcher.
They followed the stretcher off the bus and onto the train, where Frank was carefully placed on a bed in one of the sleeping cars.
"Obviously," Frank said, continuing the conversation, "I can't leave now, or probably even soon, but I will come, even if only to see you two again. If it's what you say it is," he shrugged his shoulders, "who knows, maybe you'll have neighbors."
Jeremiah walked up, accompanied by Delbert, Ali and Gary, as Frank finished speaking.
"Neighbors where?" Jeremiah asked.
"Washington," Frank said, "Joe and Becky are going back now. I mean from here."
"You know, I was hoping you could meet my wife, Maggie, I think you'd like her, and I know she'd like you," Jeremiah said with a smile.
"Well," Becky said, "we never said we wouldn't stop off in Oklahoma to see all of you... where will you be, or where is she, your wife, Maggie, I mean?"
"Near Woodward, little town called Fargo. Course, Woodward ain't big, and Fargo's even smaller, but they're on the map. You get to Woodward, just follow Route 15 out toward Fargo; you'll see the Wolf River just before Fargo. We'll be there about somewhere."
Jacob walked up as they were talking.
"Ready to roll, Jake?" Jeremiah asked.
"When you're ready, Jeremiah."
"Hooked up a couple of empties did you?"
"Just like you said, Jeremiah," Jacob replied.
"Jake," Joe said, offering his hand, "It's been good, a pleasure, I mean that."
"Cuttin' out, Joe?"
"Yeah, just wanted to say good-bye."
"Well, Dave and I already talked it over, and we'll be up to see you. Can't say when, but we'll get there sooner or later that's for sure." He shook the offered hand.
"Well, if you're still in Oklahoma when we get there, we'll look you up there," Joe said.
"I doubt it, Joe. That water, well, she calls me kind of. Dave too, and we're both itching to get back to it," he finished with a grin.
"Jeremiah?" Joe offered his hand.
"See you in Fargo, and Maggie will have a good dinner working when you get there," he said as he shook his hand. "Dell? Ali? It was a pleasure, just wish I'd had more time to get to know all of you."
Jessie hugged Becky.
Joe and Becky stood with Delbert and Ali, and watched as the train pulled away. Jacob waved from the lead engine. The four friends stood and watched as the cars clacked over the tracks, on their way out of the station.
Faces, so many faces, stared out the small windows, or waved as they passed, and then they were gone. They stood and watched until the train was nothing but a small speck in the distance, and that too soon disappeared.
"How's that leg, Dell?" Joe asked, staring down the tracks.
"Stiff, but the Doc. said she'll be just fine, long as I don't over-do it."
"And he's not going to," Ali said, as she gave Delbert a stern look.
"Wouldn't try to," Delbert said smiling.
Joe slipped his arm around Becky's waist, and turned away from the empty tracks.
"Well... Let’s do it folks," Joe said, as he walked toward the road. He kept his arm firmly around Becky's waist as he walked, Delbert and Ali slightly behind them.
Soon they too were nothing but a small speck in the distance, and then they were gone.
Jessie Stone
Somewhere in Illinois
Jessie bent forward and pushed the hair out of Frank's eyes. The train was stopped, the tracks were gone, Jeremiah thought they were somewhere inside Illinois. Frank had slept through all of it, helped along by some morphine Jessie had given him to make sure he slept soundly.
She listened to the surrounding sounds, the train engine throbbing slowly, almost like a strange heartbeat, something alive. The murmuring of dozens of voices. The slow steady inhale and exhale of breath from Frank.
“Hey,” Jeremiah said as he bent beside her. “How's our man doing?”
“I think he's going to be fine, Jeremiah. I really do...” She reached into her pocket and pulled a few vials of morphine free. Annie moved up beside Jeremiah.
“This will keep him pain free,” Jessie said.
“I think you will do more for him than that can do,” Jeremiah said.
Jessie nodded. “I...” She shrugged and her eyes threatened to overflow. “I can't explain it... I can't be someone I am not... I care about him. This... This brought us together, made us close, but it is not a substitute for time... That is the closest I can come to the truth... What do you plan to do,” she asked, shifting the conversation to something safe.
“Find transportation... There is a small city nearby, maybe other survivors. Buses, trucks, something that can get us to Oklahoma.” His eyes stayed on her.
“I'll take care of him,” Annie said. Her hand closed around Jessie's own, and she shifted the vials into her hand.
Jessie
smiled through her tears, reached into her other pocket and pulled a few syringes free, handing them to her as well. She began to speak and the tears came in a flood, she choked back the tears, fell silent and let the tears come. Annie leaned forward and hugged her as she cried. Jeremiah walked away and watched the black column of smoke lift into the sky from the engine. Annie shifted sideways and sat beside Jessie, pulling her head to her shoulder.
The wind picked up, blowing across the waiting cars, tossing long dead leaves into the air, and then it moved on as well: Sweeping across the land, searching out its old friend the sea.
July 15th
Year one
Jessie Stone
The coast was deserted as far as she could see in any one direction. The cold Atlantic rolling in to rocky cliffs. The water looked cold even in the bright sunshine of July.
She had gathered people as she had come east, and she was till unsure where she was headed. She supposed, eventually, she would have to head back west. Maybe Snoqualmie, maybe someplace like it. It was a thing that steadied at her, an anchor in the depths of her mind holding her in the current. Someday... She belonged there, but she did not belong there now. She could not make herself belong there. She had come close to striking out on her own even before they had gone west. She had very nearly left when the train had stopped and they had ended up on foot on their trek across the country. But she hadn't gone then. She had stuck it out, why she didn't know. It had become apparent that there could not be anything between herself and Frank, and there was no one else there.
She had continued on to Snoqualmie, herself and a dozen others. The trip had been uneventful. The running of Snoqualmie had fallen to her and Sarah, and Sarah had already been old when the end of the world had come, how much longer would she be there to hold things together, Jessie didn't know: She supposed she would find her still there, still plugging away at the world and life when she did return... This year, the next year. She didn't know when, but she knew she would return, and she knew Sarah would still be there when she did return. Even as she stood thinking about the west and her eventual return it became clearer to her that maybe that time of return was getting closer. Maybe she had done her wandering in the wilderness... Cleansed her soul. Whatever it was she had set out to do.
They were on the Carolina coast. At least Jessie believed it was the Carolina coast. They had not seen a sign or a town in quite some time, but the last had been in North Carolina.
They were five. Peter and Melanie Kant had joined her back in what was left of Alabama when she had crossed over into Georgia and begun to work her way up the coast. Pam Glass and Violet Hodecki just inside Georgia, camped out in the remains of an overgrown state park there: Living in fear of discovery by the gangs that seemed to be everywhere.
Jessie had lived in fear. She knew exactly what that was all about. Not what it might be like, but exactly what it was like. Fear could control you. As a group it seemed far less able to do that: As a group they seemed far better suited to controlling it. Keeping it in its place, instead of allowing it to keep them frozen in indecision.
“Nothing at all,” Pam said. She and Violet had just returned from as slow cruise through the town ahead of them.
They did that now: Reconnoitered the town with just a few of their party before all of them entered it. A few times they had simply driven into the next town. Now they took a single vehicle and cruised slowly through the town. Making sure it was as it seemed, or at least as close to what it seemed to be as they could be assured of.
“It doesn't look as though anyone has been around. There is a pretty thick layer of vegetation on the road, well, what's left of the road,” Violet said.
“All untouched, or it was until we rode over it. Two hardware stores, both smashed in, overgrown, but there might be something there. One gun shop: Looks intact, but it's hard to tell without a close up look,” Pam finished.
The Kant's had wandered over and were listening in.
“Okay,” Jessie said, thinking aloud. “So, here's what we will do. We'll go in, see if we can get ammunition. All three vehicles, the other two watching as the first goes in... In that case it will be me that goes in, so,” she shrugged and smiled as she did. “Don't let me get shot. I really hate that when it happens.” She laughed as she finished and the others laughed with her.
“Stay here for a while?” Peter Kant asked.
“No... I don't think so. We found what we were looking for... The coast... No. I say it's time to head back... Snoqualmie... You'll love it. I think it's time. The summer is moving on and I want to be sure to be back there before snow flies. So, back over through the middle of the country. By the time we arrive back at Snoqualmie we should be able to tell them all they would ever need to know about what is left from the west coast to the east coast,” Jessie said.
“Tonight?” Pam asked.
Jessie frowned. “I think not... I think we should get our ammunition and get away from the coast... No protection, I don't like being this exposed, or close to a city... I would rather be back in the traveling mode, camping in the state forests as we go... Safer.” Nods met her words. A few moments later they were driving slowly into the small, abandoned town. Three hours later, just as the sun was beginning to sink, they were setting up camp in a small state park thirty miles farther along a deserted stretch of highway.
FOURTEEN
Year Two
January 15th
The Nation
The coffee was brewing over the fire and boots and jackets had been removed. The men were sitting on hand made chairs and a scattering of couches in the large, open room.
“I'm over, about sixty miles. That's a four day trip in the summer, but only three now with the snow packed down. I got a nice straight road, nearly, right down through all the reforestation: Those lanes are like roads, nice straight lines, the horses make good time.”
“The dead give you no trouble,” Conner asked.
Rollie laughed. “I give them more trouble than they do me... No... It's the living I worry more about... Maybe you haven't heard, the news hasn't traveled this far, but there is a sickness that has fallen on the dead... Something like a sickness. They are dying by the thousands... Not all of them... Not nearly fast enough either, but they are dying and they seem to have lost their taste for the fight. Those that are still alive are in hiding. I can't remember the last time I saw a group of them, or any out in the open.”
Josh and Dustin slipped into the room along with Sharon, Sandy and Susan. Steve came along just a minute later.
“So, I ain't too far. I think you're over here in what used to be Tennessee, and I'm over in what is left of Kentucky. There about anyhow.”
Sandy slipped back in. checked the coffee pot and began to pour cups of coffee out for them and pass them out. “But,” she asked. “How did you know we were here?”
“Saw you folks when you moved in last spring. Didn't know exactly where it was that you got to, but I knew it was close to here. You know, I can see the lights at night, and that was when I started to think about maybe working out some trades. I was sure it was electric I saw.” He paused.
“I'm over there in Kentucky, but I got a couple of cities close by me. All the crazies are packed into whatever holes it is that the crazies crawl themselves into in the winter, so I got free run right now.” He sipped at his coffee.
“I been doing this for near twenty years, long before all of this started, whatever the hell this is. Grow my own coffee. There're other folks I trade with too. Been there as long. Most of us just walked away from the world and came here. Some of us old-timers been up in here a long time, some new-timers like you just comin' home to the land now,” he told them.
“Others,” Conner asked. “Around here?”
“Nope... Not real close, anyhow. Most ain't looking to be this far out, but if you get over by me there's about a dozen or so close by to me. Head over toward the Carolina's and there's a bunch more over there. Can't say about
down south or out west, ain't been there.”
“As big as us?” Conner asked.
“How big are you?” Rollie asked.
“Close to fifteen hundred,” Conner told him.
“Hell no. I thought you were maybe close to a hundred... I don't know of anyplace that big... I have heard Alabama Island is growing, but not that big.”
“About four hundred last time we spoke,” Dustin said. “Alabama Island, I mean. We keep in touch.”
“Maybe eighty or so is about the biggest... Those are long time settlements, I mean before the dead rose, the earthquakes: Old-timers like me. I didn't think as many as a thousand or more could be sustained.”
“Can't be too readily,” Conner agreed. “We have people out there looking for supplies all the time...”
Josh turned to Sharon. “Shar, why don't you put the word out that Rollie is here. It's not like we get visitors every day.” He turned to Rollie. “Rollie, why don't you plan on spending today with us, at least today... Meeting all of us, most of us... Eat a couple of good meals before you head out again,” Josh said.
“That sounds good to me,” Rollie agreed.
~
The Nation called the day off shortly after Rollie arrived. A huge community dinner had been planned for the upcoming community meeting that night anyway so they had just thrown in a celebration too.
The sledge was loaded with electrical appliances. Furs, skins, bolts of cloth, coffee, sugar, salt and hundreds of other items that were either in short supply or had been long gone in the Nation. There were several flat screen television-monitors and it looked like he had bought along the entire inventory of some video store.
The televisions appealed to only a few people, but once Bonny and Lilly mentioned they would be very useful for teaching in school they had decided to take all of them.
“Plus,” Chloe had added to seal the deal, “It would be nice to have large community get-togethers to watch a few movies too.” That had appealed to nearly everyone. Several people began to name off movies they wished to see again.
Earth's Survivors Box Set [Books 1-7] Page 210
