Dark Road (32 page)

Chuck was back to the kid-in-a-candy-store grin he’d been wearing for the last couple of weeks. “Thanks.”

“Tell you what,” Dan paused for a second and made a little bit of a face, and then smiled and decided to just say whatever he’d been thinking. “I’ve got a few 90% silver half dollars, enough that you could melt down and make a couple of wedding rings for sure. Consider it a wedding present.”

Chuck shook his head. “I couldn’t do that.” He said. “I couldn’t just take them.”

“And I’m going to do what with them?” Dan asked. “On the way here they had a little bit of value so I used a couple for barter, but they weren’t worth nearly what I’d hoped they’d be. Now that I’m here this is the first time they’ve had any real value at all. Just do me a favor; don’t tell anyone where they came from? The last thing I need is someone who
thinks
they have value deciding I’m rich.”

Chuck’s eyes were a little moist when he held out his hand. “Deal,” he said. “And, Dan, I owe you one. I don’t just consider this a wedding present, I owe you.”

…

“Sparky,” Sergeant Ramirez had finally cornered Evan. “What do you know about laser printers?”

Sparky shook his head at what seemed to be a truly random question coming from his boss’ boss. “Um,” Sparky said stalling for time as he got out of radio mode. “I’m good with the fundamentals. Basically you have a…”

“I don’t need a lesson, Sergeant,” Ramirez said, interrupting Sparky before he could get going, “I need one fixed down in Redemption—assuming that’s possible.”

“Any idea what’s wrong with it?” Sparky asked.

Ramirez just looked at Sparky for a few seconds and then said, “I would assume it was plugged in and in power down mode when the spike hit, son.”

Sparky blushed, realizing he’d asked a
really
stupid question. “Yes, Sergeant. Stupid question, Sergeant,” he said. “Do we already have a truck headed down there any time soon?”

Ramirez chuckled and slapped Sparky on the back to let him know it wasn’t
that
big of a deal. “The Mayor is heading down in about a half hour, you can hitch a ride with him,” he said. “He already knows he may have company but don’t keep him waiting.”

“Will do. Sorry about that, I’ve had radios on the brain for a couple of weeks.” Sparky said. “Where is the printer at?”

“It’s over at the Post Office.” Ramirez said. “It’s the only building with power right now and I assumed you would need electricity to test and or repair it.”

“I’m on it,” Sparky said as he started collecting the tools and scavenged parts that might come in handy on his repair assignment.

…

“You don’t talk about your job much anymore,” Joel said as they were enjoying a few minutes of quiet time before one or the other collapsed into unconsciousness for the evening.

“We don’t get much time to talk about anything, recently,” Rachael said.

“True,” he said. “So, what’s going on at the school? I ask as your husband and an involved parent, not as the mayor.”

“Mm hmm,” Rachael said. “Well, your daughter has decided her Math class isn’t challenging enough for her and is pushing us for more advanced stuff. Unfortunately, unless we put her in one of the Junior High classes, we don’t have anything for her.”

“We can’t just start shuffling her, or any of the kids for that matter, from one class to another whenever we want though.” Joel said.

“No, we can’t.” She said. “We have too many kids to start doing that, and even though the majority of kids are just about at grade level it would set a bad precedent. It would be a logistical nightmare.”

Joel paused for a minute and then asked, “Please don’t take this wrong, but is this why she was frustrated at school before?”

“Maybe,” Rachael said and shook her head, “probably. We’re falling into the same rut and doing the exact same thing that the school system was doing before. You bring up a good point. We don’t need to do it the same way just because that’s how it’s always been done. I’ll see what we can do, and not just for Maya.”

Joel nodded. “Any other issues with Maya in school,” Joel asked.

“Let’s see,” she said. “She almost set the ‘Chemistry tent’ on fire because she wanted to actually
see
the reaction that was described, and she is taking after her brother in Biology.”

Joel had his head in his hands. “Did the dissection at least go ok?” He asked.

“Oh, that went fine,” Rachael said. “She was the only girl who didn’t get all grossed out and actually helped the butcher when he asked for volunteers. Even some of the boys weren’t interested, but since she was the only girl who raised her hand, he chose her.”

“Nice,” Joel said shaking his head. “I have to ask because she talks to you about things she doesn’t, can’t, or won’t talk to me about. How is she doing maturity-wise? We can’t skip her a grade, can we?”

“No, I really don’t think it would be fair to do that to her,” Rachael said. “Especially with the school year already started.”

“Ok,” Joel said. “Asking as either husband or Mayor, anything else going on?”

“Well,” she said, “the kids are all pretty excited about the wedding. It’s going to be the first real celebration since the power went out. For the most part, we completely missed Independence Day—which a lot of people feel really bad about—and even though the elections and voting were exciting, the wedding is basically going to be a big party.”

“True,” Joel said. He’d realized a couple of days after July 4
^th
that they had missed it and been really depressed for a couple of days.

“The kids all want to do something for the wedding,” Rachael said. “We’ve taken a couple of field trips out and around, letting the Major know so that the patrols would know we were out there, looking for wildflowers. We’ve only found a couple of different kinds, and the kids have come back with more ticks than flowers we can use, but they are still enjoying it.”

Joel became concerned at the mention of ticks. “What about ticks?”

“Not deer ticks,” she said. “I had the medics take a look to be sure, and we removed them as soon as we found them. We kept the ticks and the medics and Dan assured us that the worst thing we have to worry about is Rocky Mountain Spotted-Fever.”

Joel relaxed and nodded his head.

“Once we realized they were going to be a problem,” Rachael said, “we made sure that everyone wore hats and long sleeves and pants when we went on the field trips. They complained until they realized they weren’t coming back with ticks anymore. Or at least the ticks were on their clothes and not stuck to them.”

“Since we haven’t found enough flowers,” Rachael continued, “we’re having everyone save any and all paper and the kids are making folded and cut-out flowers for the wedding. Some of the bouquets are really pretty.”

“I know Sheri has been really stressing out about the wedding,” Joel said. “Having all of this come together for her is really going to mean a lot.”

Rachael nodded. “Did you hear about the wedding rings?” She asked.

“No,” Joel said. “I was kind of wondering what they were going to do for rings, actually.”

“Well, you might want to have a chat with Dan, then, because I’m not going to say anything.” Rachael said. “I got it from Marissa, but Dan specifically asked that it not get around.”

Joel rolled his eyes.

…

“This is becoming a logistical nightmare,” Mallory said to her assembled command staff. “I’m not throwing stones here but we’re getting too big for what we initially planned for this location.”

If Ramirez bit his tongue any harder, he would be spitting blood, and Stewart was curious to see what the Major and the Captain were going to propose that didn’t include abandoning everything they had already built.

“When we first moved out here,” Captain Tripp picked up, “the initial idea was to avoid anyone else who might have either already staked a claim or still been here from before the power went out. Over the first couple of weeks we kept an eye on the half dozen cabins and sites that had people in them, and eventually everyone took off.”

Eric looked at the assembled group. “Let me be clear,” he said; his voice hard. “We did
not
run anyone off. They all left on their own and we didn’t have any contact with anyone. Since then, we have checked on all of the facilities that the park has to offer and secured them all. At this time we feel that it would be in our best interest to make full use of all of those facilities while still maintaining everything we’ve built here.”

Lieutenant Halstead chimed in at this point. “The infrastructure that is already in place would allow for us as a group to do a number of things,” he said. “First and foremost it would allow as many as four hundred people to more easily weather the winter indoors.  There is a dining hall that could be brought online immediately. with facilities to establish land-line telephone communications almost immediately between all of the buildings in the park with the PBX they have in place. It doesn’t require that there be any live Telco connection in place.”

“What about Redemption and Promised Land?” Ramirez asked out of genuine curiosity.

“A very valid point,” Eric said, “and one we are working on. Our biggest problem right now is one of actual connectivity, either laying wire or using some kind of existing wire from here to there. We have a couple of groups out to try and…requisition…enough to get from here to Redemption but that’s a pretty long haul. It’s not as far from the nearest building to Promised Land but it’s still a bit of a distance.”

“I assume there’s a reason we aren’t using wireless or radios to bridge the gap,” Sergeant Bowersock said. It wasn’t a question.

“Yes, there is,” Mallory said. That was all the answer she was willing to give at this point.

Everyone knew that new orders had been given and there were rumors, but they hadn’t made their way all the way down yet. The fact that they were deliberately going to avoid the radio for certain types of communication, and that Sparky had been spending so much time working on HAM radio gear was interesting indeed.

Speaking of radios, just then Eric’s radio squawked and he excused himself.

“Captain Tripp,” he said.

“It better be you,” Karen said.

“Honey, you can’t be using this radio,” he tried to scold her. “This is for military use only.”

She laughed lightly over the air. “Ok, turn me in to Mallory,” she said. “After I tell you what I found here at the gift shop.”

Eric paused. “I didn’t know there
was
a gift shop.”

“Neither did I,” she said. “It isn’t very large, but it’s here and they have some dresses.”

 “
Seriously
Karen, you’re shopping?” Eric asked.

She sighed loudly enough for people a few feet away from him to hear. “No, you nimrod. The dresses aren’t white but they
are
new, and some of them are really pretty. I think a couple of them would make really pretty
wedding
dresses.” So yes, she was shopping a
little
, but mostly for Sheri.

Chapter Thirty-Three

“What am I doing?”
Chuck asked himself yet again as he started to leave the tent that he and Sheri had been sharing for the last two plus months. He patted his pockets again to make sure he had the rings only to remember, again, that he had given them to his best man.

“They’ll come and get me when it’s time,”
he muttered.

Chuck checked his watch and took the opportunity to wind it. It only took a fraction of a turn because he’d wound it about three minutes ago. They should be coming to get him any minute now. It would be the first time Chuck saw Sheri in her wedding dress.

Not that he doubted Karen’s taste, but he hoped she liked what they had picked out for her. So much had been done without her knowing about it that he really hoped that this went off without a hitch, so to speak.

…

“What are you talking about?” Sheri asked.

“I said it’s time to go get ready for your wedding,” Karen said.

Sheri put her hands on her hips and glared at Karen, “I’m getting ready.”

“Not in here you’re not,” Karen said. “Don’t be difficult Sheri, relax and trust me ok?”

Sheri looked skeptical, but glanced over her shoulder at Chuck—who just shrugged his shoulders with an “I have no idea” look that was apparently convincing enough to send her on her way—and followed Karen out of their tent. Sheri missed his look of relief as the tent flaps slid closed.

When they arrived at Karen and Eric’s tent she realized that she had been set up. It seems that her man would bear some watching.

Her first task was to pick out a wedding dress, which was no mean feat due to the fact that she couldn’t see clearly. It took a second to figure out why, until she realized she was crying.

She had thought things in their tent hadn’t been where she had left them, and had noticed that Chuck had been helping with the laundry more over the last couple of weeks, but didn’t realize why until just now. He hadn’t known her size, and wasn’t going to ask and spoil the surprise.

She chose a short-sleeved, pale sky-blue, ankle-length dress with an Indian beadwork belt. The square neck had matching beadwork and there were matching clips for her hair. She also decided to go with a pair of white beaded moccasins to compliment the rest of the outfit. There wouldn’t be a veil but they hadn’t been planning on one anyway, so that wasn’t a big deal.

“I’m not a girly girl,” she said. “I don’t do makeup.”

Karen smiled. “That’s ok,” she said. “I am, I’ll do it,” and stuck her tongue out at Sheri.

Sheri sighed and resigned herself to being done-up.

When it was all said and done, Sheri did have to admit that Karen had done a good job. It was subtle, not overwhelming, and tasteful. The eye-shadow brought out the green in her hazel eyes instead of the blue. The eyeliner was minimal and made her eyes stand out. The base evened out her skin and just made it…even. She wasn’t wearing lipstick, she was wearing lip-gloss and some lip liner—and that was just enough.