Shadows Have Gone (9 page)

“Have you seen Old Miz Marson?” Carly asked.

“No, that’s why I came over here, actually. I thought if she wasn’t here, she must have spoken to you beforehand.”

“No.” Carly chewed her lip and glanced over at Justin, but he was in conversation with Grady.

“I haven’t seen her since last night,” Mindy said. “I’ll go over to her house after the meeting. Maybe no one told her about it.”

“But she should have heard the commotion when we got back.” Someone should have spoken to her. Miz Marson was a cornerstone of their community. People were constantly tapping on her door to ask her advice about canning or sewing or any of the hundreds of other tasks the modern world had forgotten.

“I know. It’s weird.” Mindy glanced toward the door. “Should I go now?”

“No, wait until after the meeting. Justin’s ready to start.”

Justin cleared his throat as Grady stepped back to take his seat, and the murmurs of conversation died down. The only sounds came from the flutters of the paper fans.

“Well, we won,” Justin said. “I guess that’s the important part, but you already knew that. I think most of you also already know we lost Kross. Our victory came at a heavy price in that respect. He was a damn good kid, and we’ll miss him. Kaden has set up a memorial for him where he fell. Fitting for him.”

“I move that today hereafter be known as Kross Day,” Pete said, standing up and raising his hand. “We can have some sort of get-together as a memorial to him every year. Make it sort of a holiday.”

“Move?” Justin stared at him. “What?”

“We’re supposed to have motions and vote on them,” Carly murmured.

“Says who? Motions?” He crumpled his brow.

“That’s the rules of order. Motions, and then a second, and then a vote.”

“Can we just skip that shit? Anyone object?” Justin glanced around. “Okay. Passed.”

“
So say we all
,” Pearl said.

“What?”

“Nothing. TV show.”

Justin had the confused expression of a man who had just been dropped into a middle of a conversation in Farsi. Carly smothered a grin and wished she could kiss the adorable, confused crumple between his eyebrows. Justin just gave a dazed nod and continued with his summary of the battle.

“We’ve eliminated the threat and added a small store of weapons and food to our stock. Not much. Those guys lived pretty close to the bone. Didn’t really save anything up or manage their resources wisely.”

“The slaves?” This came from the Reverend, and his sad expression said that he was pretty sure what had happened but needed to hear it from them.

Carly’s throat felt tight. “They weren’t . . . none of them were able to survive.” She thought of those poor, pathetic wrecks of human beings. Their minds burned away permanently by the Infection, used for brute labor and abused by the men of Clayton, and finally, locked in a building to starve when they were no longer useful. It made Carly physically ill to think of it—and what mercy had compelled her to do. “The condition they were in when we got there . . . I . . . ended their suffering.”

She saw sorrow and pity on most of the faces, but perhaps a hint of relief, as well. She knew some of them had feared Carly’s soft heart would make her unable to resist bringing some of them to live here in Colby, straining their already meager resources. But Carly knew more than anyone the brutally hard choices leaders sometimes had to make. Choices they made and took on their own shoulders so their people would not have to bear them.

She looked down at Dagny and wished she’d held the baby on her lap during the meeting so she could hug her now. Hold her close and pretend that her arms could shield Dagny from the knowledge of just how horrible the world could be.

“We do have a new addition to our community,” Justin said. “Austin, stand up, please.”

Austin was sitting on a chair in the corner, in Pearl’s line of sight but slightly apart from the main group. They had cast curious looks in his direction, but it seemed most weren’t sure if he was a prisoner or a resident. Austin obediently stood. His head hung low, and his shaggy brown hair fell over his face, concealing his reddened cheeks.

“Austin had been taken in by Marcus’s group, but I think he might fit in with our people better,” Justin said. “He’s staying with Pearl for a while until we figure out other arrangements.”

Carly saw some wariness in her people’s eyes, but perhaps wariness was wise until they knew Austin a little better. Justin was right that Pearl could keep a close eye on him for a while.

“There’s other news,” Justin said. “We made contact with a man driving an army truck.”

“The army?”

“Someone with the army?”

“There’s an army?”

“Whose army?” Pete’s voice rang above the excited babble.

“That’s the right question,” Justin said. “
Whose
army? He might have been wearing a uniform and claiming affiliation, but I have my doubts.”

“He claimed to be from the US Army?”

“
Claimed
,” Justin said, stressing the word hard. “And his claim had a few inconsistencies. I was in
the
Army, and I know. Whatever this guy is a part of, it’s not the army as we knew it.”

“What did he want?”

“Said he was out scouting and saw the smoke. He agreed to leave a message outside of Clayton if his people want to get in contact with us again. And I would imagine they will.”

“Last thing we need is another fight,” Grady said. He took off his hat and wiped the sweat from his forehead. “You think they know where we are?”

“General area. We wouldn’t be that hard to find if someone was really searching for us. If they’re really army, then yes, they know exactly where we are as we speak. But as I said, I have my doubts.”

“Think it will come to a fight?” Pete asked.

Justin scratched his chin. “I really can’t say. What I can say is that we always need to be prepared for it, prepared to defend what is ours.”

“What if they really are the army? Would we be America again?”

“Wait. When did we
stop
being America?”

“America is dead.” This came from David, his voice as blunt as a dropped stone. “We all saw it die two years ago. I don’t know what we are now, but the Constitution sure ain’t in effect anymore. There’s no government. There’s no social contract holding us together. That’s what America was, you know—a collective agreement of the people. Now we’re just—” He sliced a hand through the air.

“If the army is still active, that would mean there is a government, which would make this still America,” Grady said. “They’d be the government’s representatives, establishing order.”

Justin shook his head. “You’re thinking way too far ahead. Even if they are US Army—and that’s a very big
if
—they don’t have control of the whole country. There is no centralized government, no law enforcement. They’re not coming to rescue us.”

Carly heard someone gasp softly, as if a growing hope had been shattered. She knew how it felt. She had felt it as she staggered toward that truck, her arms poised to wave. Her first thought had been,
it’s over!
In that one shining moment, the Crisis had ended and the cavalry was here to reestablish the America she had known. An America with power, telephones, cable, and internet. An America with food on the shelves and a policeman cruising the street to make sure her family was safe. And when Justin had dragged her into that ditch, her heart had broken all over again.

Now, in retrospect, she could see how silly that little moment had been, and her cheeks pinkened a little at the memory of struggling against Justin’s grip. Even the appearance of an authentic US soldier wouldn’t have meant the world would go back to “normal” any time soon. The practical aspect of reestablishing order and the trappings of civilization would be the work of years, if not decades, for the most organized of systems.

“We’re still in the same situation, no matter who they are.”

There were nods, but there was also lingering disappointment. They would think on it, though, just as she had, and realize Justin was right. Even the real army couldn’t change things back to the way they once were.

“Could we join with them if they are the army?”

Justin shook his head. “That wouldn’t be an option. Not for all of us anyway. They might take some of our young men if they wanted to go, but they won’t have the resources to feed a bunch of people who want to follow them around. The US government would want us right where we are, doing what we’re doing. Farming and rebuilding a community. Following them around would do them do good and do us no good, either. They’re not settling, whoever they are. They’re traveling for a purpose—be that to bring safety or turmoil, I don’t know.”

“How was the truck running?” someone asked. “All the gasoline went bad.”

“Propane gas,” Pearl answered. “They had a tank rigged up in the back.”

“So they must have a propane station and electricity to pump the propane.”

That idea got people jabbering excitedly again.

“They could be running a generator from small propane tanks like we do,” Justin said. “They don’t necessarily have the electricity on.”

Disappointment again.

“Does anyone know where the nearest large propane storage facility is? Or a National Guard base? Anything like that?”

No one knew. Miz Marson might have, but she wasn’t present. Justin nodded. “Okay. I’ll check the phone book and local maps for likely locations, then scout out—”

“No,” Carly said.

“What do you mean? I need to find out—”

“No, you don’t.” Carly shook her head. “Maybe they’ll leave us alone and move on if we don’t bother them.”

“Carly, we need to know what we’re dealing with.” Justin’s voice was gentle but firm. “If we don’t—”

“Please, just . . . not now. Not when we just got home.”

“Surely there’s no harm in just checking the map,” Grady said.

Carly glared at him. “Can’t we just leave it alone? Please, let’s just . . . rest.”

“I understand.” But she could see from Justin’s expression that he didn’t agree. He was still going to investigate this. He couldn’t help it—it wasn’t in his nature to let something like this go.

“Let’s just wait and see if they initiate any contact. If not, we can just go on with our lives.” Carly’s mind was scrambling for ways of convincing him. “Maybe that’s the last we’ll ever see of them.”

“Let’s talk about this later, Carly.”

“No, I think it involves the community.” She turned to the group at large. “What do you think?”

Grady rubbed beneath his nose before he spoke. “Carly, I think Justin’s right. I think it’s best to check out these people and find out what we’re dealing with so we can be prepared for whatever comes.”

Carly blinked. She looked over at Pearl for help, but Pearl shook her head. “I don’t think checking them out is going to initiate any problems, if that’s what you’re worried about,” she said. “Justin and I can get in there and out without them ever knowing.”

Sam let out a high-pitched whine. His eyes darted, looking for an enemy. Carly leaned down and stroked his neck to soothe him.
 

I won’t leave you behind again,
she thought. Just as she did not want to be left behind. Sam deserved the respect of being able to fight at her side.

“Basic reconnaissance is just the smart thing to do,” Justin said.

“Should we attack?” This came from Jason. He edged closer to his wife, Laura, but his expression was steady.

“It’s always an option,” Justin said. “But I’m not sure it’s the wisest course at this point, especially since we don’t really know what we’re dealing with.”

“But they’re on our territory.”

“We have territory?” Carly said. “I mean, of course we have Colby, and the fields around it, I suppose, but can we claim anything else?”

“Could we claim Clayton by right of conquest?” Pearl said, and her lips quirked slightly at the wording.

“It brings up an interesting point,” Grady said. “Maybe we should define some sort of border and warn people not to cross it or we’ll assume they have hostile intent.”

“No more travelers passing through, then? No more trade?”

“Well, maybe we could set up some kind of trading post and—”

Carly couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “Jesus. Trading posts? Border guards? We’re a town, not a sovereign nation fending off incursions.”

“Well, maybe we should start thinking of it like that. Pearl was being sarcastic . . . um, I think. Pardon me, Miss Pearl. You can be hard to read sometimes.” Grady gave a little shrug. “But I think she’s right. Clayton is ours, too. We won it, paid for it with our people’s blood. So maybe between here and Clayton, we should—”

“That’s something for another time,” Carly said and held up her hands. “We can start thinking about territory later.”

“Well, ma’am, it’s sort of like what Pearl said with the slaves. If we wait for the luxury of calm circumstances to think of these things, we’ll never have the opportunity.”

“The whole idea makes me uncomfortable.” Carly shook her head. “Colby is supposed to be America, not a city–state, like some medieval castle and peasants farming around it until they hear the bell and rush inside for protection from raiders.”