Zomblog 04: Snoe (5 page)

They have always considered themselves figureheads more or less. Well, it appears that the individual holding the office of vice-president has larger aspirations. When the president would not agree to some plan laid out by his vice-president…she slit his throat on stage during a huge assembly. She already had key elements of the NAA in place around the auditorium or whatever they meet in. Since the assembly was indoors, nobody was carrying weapons. The coup was over in seconds and the vice-president declared herself the new president.

Her first order: Bring all the independent communities to heel under the banner of the NAA. It took me a moment to recognize it, but my mother would be pissed.

All hail New America’s president…Dominique DuBois.

Thursday, June 28
^th

I can’t believe how much the news of Dominique’s “un” death is affecting people. It is like finding out that the boogeyman is real. I never realized just how much people hate that name.

It was around lunch when it struck me. I’ve met a lot of “Sams” and Merediths” and a host of familiar names from those books. Proof of their impact, I guess. However, I have never met one single Dominique. She is the biblical Cain…which makes Jenifer…Abel?

Friday, June 29
^th

Arrived home. I didn’t feel like being the one to drop the bad news on everybody, so I just submitted to my check-up, passed my blood test, and came back to find the place still empty. I expected Mama Lindsay to beat me back.

It is strange, but now that I know what is out there, I worry so much more about her than I ever have before. Add this new element of the NAA…and Dominique takes everything up a notch.

I stopped by Phaedra’s, but she wasn’t home. I know she isn’t on a run, because I checked the board before I left.

Sunday, July 1st

Mama Lindsay is home. I guess she got word of everything from an outbound convoy. Well…almost everything.

I told her about New America’s new president.

Jenifer is coming over tonight to meet with Mama Lindsay and a bunch of the folks in charge of security. We will be prepared for the worst of possibilities. One of the benefits of who I am—Mama Lindsay’s daughter, not the offspring of Sam and Meredith—is that it will happen under my roof. I will be in the know.

Monday, July 2
^nd

I leave in seven days.

The EEF now has a new mission statement. An offshoot branch will be tasked to embark on “recon and becoming a general pain in the ass” is how our eloquent president put it. We will be undertaking our first mission. There is a railroad bridge about three days out that we are tasked with taking down, sabotaging, or impeding by any means necessary.

The task is very open to ingenuity. I guess it would have been easier in the Old World era. However, the tools and/or explosives to make a job like this happen are not readily available. We will have to improvise in the field.

THAT is exciting!

Two of the people coming with us are old friends of my birth mother: Jeff and Rodney. It is ironic that they are now considered explosives experts. When Meredith met them, she believed that they were Army Rangers. They were…sorta.

Jeff and Rodney were supply clerks. They were also the ones responsible for blowing up the house of The Genesis Brotherhood. They were informed of the situation with Dominique and both men stepped forward to volunteer.

The real humor in this situation is that both men had to officially enlist in the EEF. They are in the training now. I wonder if they are having flashbacks.

The normal enlistee for the EEF is between seventeen and twenty-five. In their mid-forties, Jeff and Rodney are going to be the oldest and most junior members of the force. I can’t wait to actually meet them.

This brought up some new feelings. I have always tried to live my life as the daughter of Mama Janie and Mama Lindsay. I have made it a life choice to put being Sam and Meredith’s daughter in the back…to the point of almost pretending they don’t exist. I am not sure that is the right way to go anymore. I have avoided meeting a bunch of people from their past, people in the books just because I wanted to avoid mixing with their past too intimately.

I tried so hard to be something else. Yet, here it has come back…full circle. I never understood that phrase until now. All that has gone before is coming back like that bad taste in your mouth you can’t get rid of no matter how much you rinse. The whole time you were rinsing your mouth you were forgetting that the source of that taste is deep in your belly.

I maintain that I will NOT be taking off to see the world. There was an aspect of selfishness in my birth mother that does not course through my veins. I think my heart is more like my birth father’s. I want to help my home…serve in the EEF…and maybe even settle down someday.

Wednesday, July 4
^th

Today was one of those Fourth of July celebrations that made everybody feel connected. Not just to each other, but to the past. For those of us who have no recollection of the way things were…this day has always been about the food and the games and seeing so many people come together.

I’ve seen pictures of fireworks. I guess they are much prettier in person, but to me, they don’t seem that special. Today, President Jenifer Emory gave her first speech since accepting office. I waited until she was busy and snatched all of the pages because I wanted to write it down. It just seemed really important. I realize that she is only the president here at Corridor 26. I realize that there is a person declaring herself the
actual
president of all the colonies. I could say I am the President of the Moon…that doesn’t mean a thing.

So, here is the president’s speech:

“Ladies and gentleman of Corridor 26, I want to welcome you to our Fourth of July celebration. Every year for the past fifteen years, we have come together on this day to remember the spirit that made this nation great.

We come together to celebrate the accomplishments of a people who had no business winning the war that they undertook in the name of Life…Liberty…and the Pursuit of Happiness. Yet, for many of us, those words have held little or no meaning for too long.

We live behind walls made from cars and trucks and cement. We leave the protection of those walls at great risk to our lives. None of us could have foreseen this all those years ago. The events that transpired were out of a movie that few of us would have probably watched, and none of us would have believed possible.

By hard work and the determination inherited from our forefathers, we have carved out a life for ourselves and our children. Yet, to some, it seems that it has come at a cost of the very freedom we celebrate today.

I say that is a load of crap!
(There was a good round of applause here along with the laughter. I guess presidents didn’t use words like that in their speeches in the Old World.)

As I stand up here and look out at all the faces, I can say that I recognize most of you. I have spoken with most of you. I have yelled at half of you.
(More laughs.)
I have cried with all of you.

Since this crazy world got tipped over and all Hell broke loose, we have all had to start our lives over. We have done well for ourselves here. We have shown that pioneer spirit that the men and women displayed when they came out on covered wagons. We have endured hardships beyond imagining. We persisted during those two winters when there was barely enough food to survive after the terrible storms destroyed most of our crops.

Now there is a new threat.

Some of you have heard rumors, and I am here to clear the rumors out and give you truth. I know that today is a day of celebration, and I don’t want that to change. However, I need you all to know what we have ahead of us.

It seems that the American government is alive and well. They have a stronghold in the old NORAD complex. From there, they have been building their strength and resources. We have all seen the trains that have come, and the fine men and women of the New American Army who helped us build stronger walls and dig channels to provide our community with fresh water.

This government has decided to try and reclaim sovereignty over all the organized communities like ours that it helped. An individual has taken the office of president through assassinating the president in office when he refused to submit to her ideas of this New American rule. She has assumed control of a large part of the organized military and intends to wield it as a club to knock down any who would stand up to her regime.

I say she better be prepared to wield that club personally because the citizens of Corridor 26 will not acknowledge any leader that we did not elect. We will not serve anybody who has not toiled in the fields or stood watch on the wall. We will not follow somebody who is unfit to lead.

We will fight anybody who tells us that we are here to serve their pleasure. There will be no negotiations and I will make no concessions. As long as I am your president, I will not permit our community to be occupied by any force that has designs on assuming control.

So, on this Fourth of July, I want to quote a famous sea captain of the Revolution. I want to borrow from a man who was facing the most powerful naval might in the world at the time and had no business doing so. I will share with you the response that I sent when I was informed by messenger that refusal to accept an occupational force will mean that we stand against the New American government and that such actions will be dealt with swiftly. I will share the words I gave in answer to the question, “Are you ready for a fight?”

“I have not yet begun to fight!”

That got everybody yelling and cheering. After that, President Emory (she wasn’t Jenifer today) waded out into the crowd. I watched as she vanished in a sea of people. For just a flash, the scene turned to one of her being pulled down by a thousand undead hands. I shook it off as a mixture of the sun and the venison pepperoni I’d been snacking on all morning.

I hope that wasn’t some silly foreshadowing dream. I have heard of people who have those. In fact, there is an old lady here that has a small business telling people their future. I can’t say that I buy into that sort of thing, but stranger things have happened.

The rest of the day was all about celebrating. Maybe it was me, but folks seemed a bit more vocal and just plain noisy today. It was like everybody wanted to prove how resilient we are through excessive volume.

Friday, July 6
^th

I met with Mama Lindsay, Jenifer, and the captain who would be in charge of our mission. His name is Jackie Vaughn. Also on hand was his second-in-command. Phaedra! So the team is set. There will be six of us. I was curious as to why I was called in for a meeting, but it didn’t take long for the answers to come.

The concern is that my going out in the field could lead to other problems. If I am ever captured by these NAA forces and it was discovered who I am, then it might go badly for me. All three of the journals have been copied and are strangely widespread. I say strangely because it is not like there are any companies shipping books around the country (or however books used to get distributed in the Old World).

I tried to explain that it wasn’t that big of a deal, but apparently people feel that Dominique is so focused in this region because of her feud with my birth mother and Jenifer. They seem to think that she will make some effort to get me.

What a bunch of hooey!

So, after the meeting where I made it very clear that I would not give up my position, and that I am not afraid of any crazy lady with a grudge against Meredith, I left with Phaedra. We sat down by one of the streams where the children play and just talked about food and boys and how many ways we were going to send the NAA running back home with their tails between their legs.

Saturday July 7
^th

Met with Jeff and Rodney today after graduation. They were both very nice. We studied the map of the route we will be taking. I won’t pretend for a second that the idea of venturing into Old Portland is not equal parts thrilling, scary, and creepy.

You hear all sorts of stories, but I am quickly discovering that you can’t believe everything that you hear. People tend to take things and twist them into something that they understand. The problem is, as soon as it gets passed on, the next person in line does the same thing. Pretty soon, what we have is nothing even close to the actual thing it started out as.

I was also surprised to hear that they feel we will be out in the wild for possibly two months or more. That gave me just a little pause of concern. It isn’t that I’m afraid to be out there…EVERYBODY is afraid to be out there. For Pete’s sake, that is where all the zombies are! It’s just that this will be a big step for me. I have a sense that, if I am feeling this conflicted now about my life and my past and my history, this might change things in such a way that I can’t ever be the same person again.

I get the idea that they expected something different from me when we met. It was like they were studying me and watching every single thing they said. It was weird.

So, the six of us will leave on Monday morning. It is me, Jeff, Rodney, Phaedra, Captain Vaughn, and a guy named John Collie.

John has been in the EEF for almost four years. He seems like a real quiet guy. At first I thought it was the whole thing about me (somebody needs to get over herself) until Phaedra told me that he has been like that as long as she’s known him.