“Far too long. You should come back to the city. We could use a young woman of your caliber here.”
“Well, I’m here now,” Abby said, pointedly ignoring the suggestion.
“Indeed, and I couldn’t be more grateful. Come, let’s go have dinner and we can discuss your mission in detail.”
Heammawihio led Abby to the other side of the White House to a luxurious dining room, the only room in the building that appeared to have been decorated with largesse. The pair sat across from each other at a long table clearly meant for hosting large parties. There was no waiting for the President and his guest, for plates had already been set down in front of them before they even settled into their seats: grilled salmon and asparagus, with a heaping of mashed potatoes on the side.
“Dig in,” Heammawihio insisted as he unfolded a thick napkin and placed it on his lap.
Abby followed suit and began to eat as quickly as politeness and good table manners would allow her. The bus ride had been an arduous one, and she was famished, especially after smelling that steakhouse.
“You know, I could have arranged transportation for you, if you’d have let me,” Heammawihio said, seeming to read Abby’s mind.
“No need,” Abby replied. “I don’t mind the bus. Not too much, at least.”
“What took you to Nevada, anyway?”
Abby shrugged. “Figured it was as good a place as any to start over.”
“Better even than here?”
“Especially better than here.”
“I trust you’ve done alright for yourself then?”
“Working hard at the steel mill, doing what I can for the community.”
“Good, that’s good. I apologize for not keeping in contact with you, I had no idea just how consuming this job would be.”
“I’ve read the news, and I think you’re doing a great job of piecing things back together.”
“Thank you. It’s nice to hear a spot of praise amidst the sea of criticism. I think I understand now why Thomas Jefferson had such venomous things to say about the press during his time in office.”
“Heavy is the head that wears the crown.”
“Indeed.”
A pause crept into the middle of their small talk, making Abby suddenly uncomfortable.
“How’s Hiamovi?” she asked. What she really wanted to know was if he was in the city or still in Alaska, but she couldn’t bring herself to come right out and ask that. She felt compelled to play it cool instead.
“He’s doing well, he should be home soon.”
“Good. I’m glad to hear that.”
“Has he at least stayed in touch with you?”
Abby chewed on her lower lip. “We’ve exchanged a few letters since I left.”
Heammawihio gave a faint smile. “He misses you.”
“I miss him too,” Abby admitted after a moment’s pause.
“You know he doesn’t hold anything against you.”
“I know.”
“But you’ll remain distant?”
Another pause. “I don’t know,” Abby whispered, pushing the sole remaining asparagus around the plate with her fork. “It’s… hard. Everything. Even if we’re both willing to try to start over again, I think I burned every bridge there was between us.”
“Well, if there are no bridges then take a leap of faith. You just might find that you can fly.”
Abby looked up at Heammawihio. That small grin still creased his face, and she noted the twinkle in his dark eyes. Then take a leap of faith, he’d said. It rang with a simple but undeniable wisdom.
“Something to think about, anyway,” Heammawihio said after giving Abby a chance to argue further, and he returned his attention to his plate.
After they’d eaten dinner, the plates were cleared and the pair was served a choice after-dinner drink: Heammawihio took a dry martini, and Abby requested bourbon whiskey, neat. She’d gotten her drinking well under control about a year and a half ago, and since then she’d been able to have a drink or two once in a while without going on a full binge like she used to.
“So,” Heammawihio said after taking a sip of his drink, “about your mission.”
“Which I still haven’t said whether I would accept or not,” Abby pointed out.
Heammawihio nodded. “Yes, of course. Even if you had, I wouldn’t yet hold you to your word. This will be extremely dangerous, but I’m sure I don’t need to tell you that.”
“Do you really need me for this? I haven’t done anything like this in quite a long time.”
“No, I don’t need you, but I’d feel better if you were a part of the mission. You have knowledge of certain areas out there, especially regarding settlements. The reconnaissance team to which you’d be assigned would certainly be at an advantage with you embedded with them, and from what I’ve heard of your travels out in the Wild, we’re going to need every advantage we can get, no matter how small it seems.”
“Sorry I’m late, Granddad. I—”
Hiamovi stopped both midstride and midsentence as he entered the room and laid eyes on Abby, the shock on his face as plain as it was on hers.
Chapter Three
“A-Abby,” Hiamovi stammered.
“Hiamovi,” Abby replied as she rose from her seat.
“Hi.”
“Hi.”
A silence hung over the room, stretching unbroken for several seconds until Hiamovi blurted out, “I have bags.”
“I-I mean,” he continued, holding aloft the camouflage duffelbag in his hand, “I’ve gotta put my bags away… so I’ll be right back.”
And with that he was gone, retreating from the room and closing the door behind him. Abby shot a glance at Heammawihio, who didn’t seem nearly as surprised as she was to have seen Hiamovi.
“You know,” she said, “when you said he’d be home soon, I took that to mean a few days or weeks, like he was still in Alaska.”
“I said it’d be soon, and it was indeed.”
“Uh-huh. I have to use the bathroom.”
“Leave the room, it’s the first door on your right.”
Abby grabbed her backpack and carried it with her as she followed Heammawihio’s directions. Once she was alone with a closed door between herself and the world, Abby opened her backpack and retrieved two small items. The first was a soft, flesh-toned lipstick, and the other was a dark eyeliner, both of which she promptly applied to her face. She was still not very good at it, having only recently found the strength to move past the trauma from the Marshall farm and the way her mind linked that incident with makeup. But after a minute she inspected her work and found her features sufficiently enhanced.
She grimaced at her hair, a greasy mess from the long bus ride. She could do little but re-do her ponytail, which she did after returning her makeup to her backpack. With one last look in the mirror, Abby flipped the light off and left the bathroom.
When she rejoined Heammawihio in the dining room, he gave her an inquisitive look. “What?” Abby asked, reclaiming her seat.
“Did you change something?”
“What? No. Shut up,” Abby replied, annoyed and also embarrassed that he’d noticed the difference right away. She hoped Hiamovi hadn’t got a good enough look at her before to realize that she’d put makeup on as soon as she knew he was present.
He returned a minute later, wearing a different, and nicer, shirt than before, Abby noted. “Sorry about that,” he said. He sat down next to Heammawihio, across from Abby, as a plate of food was brought in for him.
The ensuing silence did not seem to bother Heammawihio nearly as much as it did Abby and Hiamovi, both of whom kept exchanging quick, darting glances. Hiamovi pushed the food on his plate around with his fork but seemed disinterested in actually eating. He looked up at Abby and caught her looking at him again.
“Are you wearing makeup?” he asked.
“Did you change your shirt?” Abby asked in reply.
“The other one was dirty. Were you weari
ng makeup when I got here?”
“No, Hiamovi. I just happened to have makeup in my pockets and rushed to the bathroom to put it on after you showed up. That’s totally what happened."
“Sorry, I must not have noticed. You never used to wear makeup.”
“Well, I moved past that.”
“Good, I’m glad. You look incredible, by the way. I mean, your eyes are just… wow.”
“Thanks. You look good, too. Healthy, I mean. You look well.”
“Thanks.”
Heammawihio cleared his throat, hoping to snap the awkward exchange between Abby and Hiamovi. “Now that you’re both here, perhaps we can discuss the mission a bit together.”
“Together?” Abby asked.
“Yes. If you accept the mission, you’ll be embedded in Hiamovi’s squad. And before either of you say a word, I’m not the one who selected which group would go where. I wouldn’t micromanage the military like that. This was pure chance. And Abby, I would have asked you to come regardless of who was following the route you took across the country.”
“Wait,” said Hiamovi. “Abby’s going with us? She’s not in the military… is she?”
“No,” Abby replied.
“She did, however,” Heammawihio continued, “walk across half of the United States and could prove invaluable to your squad, as you will more or less be following the road she took from Chicago.”
“And you actually agreed to this?”
“Maybe,” Abby said. “I haven’t decided yet. Why? You don’t want me going with you?”
“No!” Hiamovi said, a bit more forcefully than he intended. “No, that’s not it. But this is an extremely dangerous mission. My squad and I will be out there basically on our own, walking into God knows what kind of horrors."
“I know what kind of horrors, you mean,” Abby said. “I made that trip alone when I was fifteen. I think a dozen or so heavily armed Marine Raiders can handle it.”
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to insinuate anything.”
“It’s fine, I know what you meant. And I’m sorry for the sarcasm. You’re right, it will be dangerous.”
“Indeed, it will be,” said Heammawihio. “And with no satellites we’re having to do this with reconnaissance teams going ahead of the main force, just like in the old days. Now Abby, you said you ran into gangs and even hordes of zombies out there, did you not?”
“Yeah.”
“Then surely everyone can see how Abby can benefit the mission. Now we shall have at least one team that will not be completely blind to the dangers in front of it. Abby, you can inform the team as they move through areas you remember to be dangerous, whether filled with infected or roamed by dangerous people.”
“But that was years ago,” Abby said. “The landscape could be completely different now.”
“Perhaps,” Heammawihio conceded. “Still, I think there’s at least a marginal benefit to having you join this mission, and I’ll take any benefit I can get at this point. However, this is also why I’m not holding you to anything. If you don’t want to accept the dangers, or if you feel like whatever aid you can provide will make no difference, then you’re free to decline my request and go home if that is what you want.”
Abby pursed her lips in thought, then took a sip of her drink as she weighed her options. The room was silent as the other two occupants awaited her response. She rose from her chair and strode over to a near window, facing the street. She ought to turn down the offer, Abby thought. Whatever help she could offer probably wouldn’t make much of a difference in the long run.
Out in the lawn, in front of the window, Marines in their dress blues practiced a drill routine with old rifles. Even through the wall and closed window, Abby could faintly hear the commands shouted by the officer as he walked beside the marching detail: left, right, left, by the right flank… march!
This brought Zach to her mind. He was still out there, buried in the same Illinois soil where Abby had killed him after he was bit, and that thought shoved a thorn of sorrow into Abby’s heart. Much of the sting of these memories had been taken away over time, but the knives were not yet wholly blunted. And Abby knew why: she never got the closure she needed.
Part of her wanted to see Zach’s grave again, to stand in the place where that younger version of herself once stood, upon the ground where she ended the suffering of her father. Perhaps that was what she needed to move on from that part of her life once and for all. Perhaps she needed to take a literal stroll down memory lane, and confront on their own turf the demons that still hung about in the shadows of her mind.
Abby swallowed the remainder of her drink and set the empty glass upside down on a cabinet next to her. She turned, looked directly into Hiamovi’s eyes, and then into Heammawihio’s, and said, “I’m in.”
Chapter Four
Being acquainted with the President of the United States sure had its perks. Two phone calls from Heammawihio sufficed to release Abby from the rental contract for her home and get all of her belongings loaded onto a truck and shipped to her. She would not be leaving for a few more weeks, and so she’d been set up with a temporary home in the capital. Here she slept, though she spent most of her time at the gym. By no means had she fallen completely out of shape, but she was certainly not on the same level of fitness and strength as she’d been while undercover in the DAS.
A typical day for Abby began with her alarm chirping at precisely six o’clock in the morning. She would go to the gym and work out there for at least an hour, then return home to shower and eat breakfast. She might read a book then or watch some TV before eating lunch. In the afternoon, she would practice her fighting at a local mixed martial arts gym, where she embarrassed more than a couple of the young men the first time they stepped into the ring with her. This was followed by a quick shower, mostly just a rinse, then a little bit of housework before dinner. After dinner, she would relax and prepare herself for another day.
It was at this point in her daily routine about a week after returning to the city that Abby’s cell phone buzzed on top of the kitchen counter. She guessed who it was before she even looked at the number, having expected this call for a few days now. She set her dinner plate in the sink and grabbed her phone.
“Hi, Hiamovi.”
“Hey, Abby.”
“So what’s up?” she asked after a short pause as she leaned against the door of the refrigerator.
“Well, I just realized that I never asked if you got the package I sent you last month.”
“I did. Thank you,” Abby replied. She strode down the hall and into her bedroom, where she kept the tomahawk in a dresser with her clothes. She retrieved it and held it up to the light, looking it over. “It’s really nice.”
“Did you get it before Christmas?”
“No, a couple weeks after.”
“Ah, sorry. Damn mail.”
“It’s okay. It was very thoughtful.”
“Yeah, I don’t know. I just felt…I’d been thinking about you a lot and I wanted to make something meaningful for you.”
A pause ensued as Abby tried to figure out her next move. How was she supposed to respond to that? Return the sentiment? Shoot him down? Ignore the gesture altogether?
“Thinking about me how?” she asked. She sat down on the edge of her bed and crossed her legs as she realized this phone call may not be so short.
Hiamovi chuckled. “Gonna make me say it?”
“’Fraid so. We’re adults now, no more games.”
“Okay,” Hiamovi replied. Abby heard him take a deep breath before continuing. “I’ve been missing you. I don’t like that we’ve become pen pals and nothing more. You know, I’ve tried to get over you, to move on. I’ve dated here and there when I found the time, but I never truly cared about those girls. Their stories bored me, their interests didn’t interest me. I didn’t want anything to do with them because they weren’t you. I still love you, Abby.”
“I love you, too,” Abby admitted.
“True.”
“And you, you agreed to go with us even after realizing it’d be with me. I mean, that’s gotta mean you’re at least a little interested in starting over.”
Abby shook her head. “This is about much more than just how I feel about you, Hiamovi.”
“But it’s part of it, isn’t it? Be honest, now. You’re the one who said no more games.”
“You got me,” Abby said with a smile. “It’s part of it, yes. Part of me wanted the chance to spend time with you again, just to see what will happen. Another part of me saw this as a duty, something I had to do. But this is mostly for me.”
“What do you mean by that? How could this possibly be for you?”
Abby hesitated for just a second before answering, the weight of the words to come bearing down on her. “I need to see Zach again.”
A long pause followed before Hiamovi responded, “I see.”
“It’s just something I have to do,” Abby said, fidgeting with some loose strands of her hair.
“I get it, I do. And for the record, I really respect how far you’ve come. I could tell just by looking at you last week that you’re not the same girl you were four or five years ago. And that’s a good thing.”
“Thank you,” Abby said, allowing herself a smile. “That means a lot coming from you.”
“So what do you say? Think we can start over? Actually, scratch that. You don’t have to answer right now if you don’t want to.”
“Okay,” Abby said.
“We’ll be seeing a lot more of each other soon, anyway. You’ll meet the rest of the squad in a couple days once they get back from leave, and they’re gonna want to get to know you.”
“I’d like to get to know them, too. Anyone I should watch out for?”
“Nah, they’re good guys. Some of them might be a little cold, but that’s just because they’re slow to trust any outsider. Besides, they’ve heard all the stories about what you did for the ReFounding Fathers back in the day, so it shouldn’t take them long to like you.”
His Name Was Zach | Book 3 | Their Names Were Many Page 2
