Dark Road (33 page)

Sheri realized her auburn hair had grown probably three inches, possibly a little more, since the power had gone out and her bangs were gone. She’d been trying to grow out her bangs for a decade and hadn’t had the patience to do it, and now they were finally gone!

“Don’t you
dare
start crying again,” Karen said in mock scolding. “That is not waterproof mascara and you will look like a raccoon in two seconds!”

Sheri got herself under control with a small laugh and a slight hiccup. “Yes ma’am,” she said just as Rachael walked in.

Sheri looked around. “I don’t suppose you have a bouquet up your sleeves, do you?”

Rachael smiled. “As a matter of fact,” Rachael said, and produced a bouquet from behind her back of Sky Blue Aster, White Aster, Showy Goldenrod, and Branched Coneflower.

“No crying,” Karen said again.

“Then I’m going to need a paper bag to keep from hyperventilating!” Sheri said as she was trying to fan herself and breathe in through her nose and out through her mouth, and roll her eyes up, and all those other stupid tricks you try to keep yourself from crying.

…

Everyone who could make it was at the square, because the mess hall would be gauche and too small. Besides, it was a beautiful day. There wasn’t an organ, and nobody had a piano, and although there were a number of people who’d owned any number of smartphones and mp3 players, almost all of the batteries had long since died; eventually they might get plugged back in, but right now it just wasn’t a priority.

A number of people owned guitars, and there were a handful of harmonicas and other instruments in camp. Those who had been willing had made a half dozen trips out of earshot to practice ‘Here Comes the Bride’ until they could do it without embarrassing either themselves or the couple in question.

Joel was going to give her away, as she had no family here in camp…no, in town. Chuck was already at front of the aisle, just off to the side of the altar, and waiting and—would you look at that—he was in a suit, of all things, with a light sky-blue tie.

As she rounded the corner to the aisle the…band… began to play. For the third time that day Sheri just about lost it. One more surprise and, waterproof mascara or not, all bets were off and it was going to be waterworks city.

Sheri looked around at the decorations and realized there were flowers everywhere. She wondered where they had come from until she noticed that there was writing on the back of one of them. It was a math problem. The school kids had made flowers for her wedding.

The walk complete, she stood by her, companion? mate? man? and waited for their wedding to begin.

“You look beautiful,” Chuck whispered out of the corner of his mouth.

“And you look handsome,” Sheri whispered back. “And you are a stinker.”

Chuck’s grin got bigger and there was a twinkle in his eye.

“What?” She whispered but Chuck didn’t say anything more. Marci was about to start.

…

After each of them had given their vows, that they had written themselves, Marci turned to Eric. “Do you have the rings?”

Sheri’s eyes grew wide in shock and Chuck, try as he might, could
not
keep the smirk off his face.

Chuck took the first ring from Eric and Sheri’s left hand in his right hand and Sheri began to cry. Not much, and they were tears of joy, but this was the final surprise of the day.

“Charles Alexander Turner,” Marci began, “repeat after me. With this ring, I thee wed.”

“With this ring, I thee wed,” Chuck said, his voice getting stronger with every word as he placed the ring on her finger.

Eric placed the second ring in Sheri’s right hand for her.

“Sheri Lynnette Hines,” Marci said. “Repeat after me. With this ring, I thee wed.”

“With this ring, I thee wed,” Sheri said, noticing that Chuck’s eyes were getting a little wet too, as she put the ring on his finger.

“What God has joined together,” Marci said, “Let no man put asunder. I now pronounce you Man and Wife; you may now kiss the bride!”

As Chuck leaned in to kiss Sheri he whispered, “Karen lied about the mascara.”

…

Karen leaned into Eric’s side as he put his arm around her. “They look so happy.” She said, as they watched the new couple in their truncated receiving line.

“They are happy,” he said. “I remember a couple hours after we found out the Meet and Greet had gone bad and Pete had grabbed Sheri. Chuck was a wreck and I knew he was going to do something crazy and reckless and brave.” Eric chuckled at the memory.

Karen squeezed him and he looked slightly down at her, since he was just a few inches taller than she was. “I promise I won’t get in a situation where you’re in that position and you promise not do something rash. Ok?” Karen said.

“Fair enough,” he said. “Do you think she liked the wedding?”

Karen smiled. “I think she loved it,” she said. “I could only hope for one as nice.”

“Yes, I’m taking the hints sweetheart.”
Eric thought to himself.
“I can’t top this, though, no matter what I do it will never be as nice because this was the first. This was
the
big bash.”
Eric sighed.

“What’s the matter?” Karen asked.

“Hmmm? Oh nothing, just thinking. I’m fine,” he lied. He really couldn’t put his proposal off much longer.

…

Joel cleared his throat as he stood up and held his cup out in front of him. He didn’t bother tapping it with a utensil because metal on the hard plastic cup wouldn’t have made a noise worth listening to. Once he was standing, one by one everyone around the three tables they were using fell silent.

“To Chuck and Sheri,” he said. “May you have health and prosperity, long life with your true love, and may the love you share today be just the beginning.”

“Here-here” and “Absolutely” followed the toast—but Joel wasn’t quite done.

The group around the tables was essentially the same group of people who had left the neighborhood back in June, with the addition of the bride and groom’s closest friends made over the last several months. Joel had initially been surprised to see Dan and Marissa invited, until Chuck told him where the silver had come from for the wedding rings. It wasn’t any real surprise that most of those around the tables were also considered the inner circle when it came to positions of authority, but at least up until now that hadn’t been a problem.

“I just wanted to mention one other thing,” Joel said. “Today is a perfect example of why we’ve all pulled together and worked so hard to keep things intact. There are things worth working together for, things worth fighting for, and today was a beautiful reminder of that.”

Joel looked at Chuck and Sheri and nodded. “Thank you, we needed that reminder.” He said and then sat down.

Chuck took a breath and then stood up. “I’m not one for speeches, in fact, I hate doing stuff like this, but I can’t let this opportunity pass without saying something.” Chuck said. “There are so many people for me to thank that I almost don’t know where to start. This could not have happened—today wouldn’t have been anything like it was—without everyone here right now, and so many more.”

“Karen, you found the dress, dresses actually. Rachael, without you there would have been no flowers of any kind, or a tie for me.” He looked at Sheri, “I found someone in Redemption who had the suit, though, I did do that on my own.” Everyone around the tables laughed at that, including Sheri.

“Josh and Maya, you organized the band on your own.” Chuck continued and then pointed out Dan. “And Dan, without whom there would be no wedding rings.” Dan had already let everyone know he’d had a few pre-’64 coins, but asked them to keep it under wraps and they all understood.

“I cannot thank you enough,” Chuck said.

There was a smattering of applause and a chorus of “don’t mention it” and “you’re welcome” as Chuck sat down and then Sheri stood up, still in her wedding dress.

“I am in awe of everything you guys did.” Sheri said. “I’ll admit that I was totally surprised at every step. From the dress, to the bouquet, to the wedding rings.”

“This was better than a huge chapel wedding,” she said. “It was outside with all of my friends, people I’ve really come to know and love. It meant more to me than I thought a wedding ever could, and I’d almost given up on the thought of even
getting
married in the first place. Thank you, for everything.”

After the “you’re welcomes” and applause was finished, Eric stood up and announced an end to the party. “Well, as much as I love a good party, I’m going to be the bearer of bad news as I hear the wedding carriage arriving,” he said. The carriage, in this case, was Chuck’s pickup. The reason they were using it was because it was a diesel and they had access to a more ready supply of biodiesel than they did of regular unleaded gasoline.

“Ladies and gentlemen, and I use the latter term loosely,” Eric said. “May I present to you not only Mr. and Mrs. Turner, but the first official residents of the Promised Land Lodge!”

Chapter Thirty-Four

 “I’m afraid we’re short on time,” Mallory said to the gathered group, which now included a half a dozen civilians.

“How short,” Joel asked.

“I get the feeling that we know about it now so we’re late.” Chuck said.

“No,” Mallory said. “It’s not quite that bad but it’s getting there. At the very least I need to let the rest of the military know that we’re firmly in the rebel camp now. Joel, I can only suggest that you do the same.”

Joel nodded. “We’ll need some good news to temper the bad.” Joel said. “How’s our grid coming?” he asked Chuck.

“The infrastructure took about the same hit here as everywhere else,” Chuck said. “We’re still trying to fix, find, or make transformers. Without those there is no grid, we can’t run everything straight off of generators.”

Joel nodded. “Do what you can,” he said. “Regardless, I think with everything we’ve let out up to this point, people are ready for the rest of the truth. It shouldn’t be a real problem.”

…

“Major Jensen,” Mallory’s radio squawked. “Your presence is requested in the communications tent.”

Mallory’s stomach fell. She had been having calls from Ben sent to her radio as there was no reason not to, and anything they needed to discuss that couldn’t be done over the satellite was done over one of Sparky’s rigs. A call to the communications tent meant that she had a call from a unit outside of their HAM net, or from the Colonel—neither of which she was particularly looking forward to.

“On my way,” Mallory said and headed over.

Mallory retrieved the headphones from Specialist Cox’s outstretched hands as he said, “Colonel Olsen.”

“Dismissed, thank you,” she said.

“Good afternoon, Colonel,” she said. “How can I help you?”

“Major,” Colonel Olsen said. “How is the reconsolidation coming along? We haven’t had any reports from you or a few other units yet.”

“It’s…complicated.” Mallory said. “It’s coming along.”

There was a pause of a few seconds and then the Colonel spoke. “That’s all? It’s coming along?” He said. “That’s not a Situation Report, Major, that’s smoke.”

“Sir,” Mallory began, but the Colonel kept talking.

“Major Jensen, the orders were clear and they were given for a reason.” Olsen said. “ARCLiTE isn’t working and the events of last week are a grim reminder of just
why
our mission has changed. The unit in South Carolina was outnumbered and overwhelmed almost four to one and they were taking their time to consolidate.”

Mallory was hearing but she wasn’t really listening. She was cataloging what the Colonel was saying for future reference but she knew everything was a lie. It was a script and by this point it was polished and refined and all of the imperfections had been buffed out.

“The orders were apparently leaked and an insurrection against the legitimate authority was almost successful, and if we hadn’t arrived in time who knows what would have happened.” Olsen went on. “I need to know that you are doing everything possible to ensure that the same thing doesn’t happen on your watch, Major. We can’t lose another unit like that!”

“Sir, I can assure you that
whatever
happened in South Carolina won’t happen here.” Mallory said with a small smile, hoping it wasn’t obvious in her voice. “I do have some concerns though.”

“With?” Olsen asked. “Remember, discretion is the better part of valor, Major. We aren’t asking you to decimate the civilian population.”

Discretion is the better part of valor. That was the phrase Ben had used in one of their most recent conversations. It was also a very common phrase in the military. What wasn’t common was “decimating the civilian population”, which was another phrase Ben had used in the same conversation. Apparently they weren’t just listening randomly here and there and gleaning what they could, they were listening to every single transmission that used the satellite.

“Point made, sir,” Mallory said, but still unable to keep everything completely to herself. “I’ll keep them brief.”

“Very well,” Olsen said.

“With all due respect, sir, I have to question the need, not in all instances but in some, to implement everything outlined.” Mallory began. “ARCLiTE was initially designed to allow for autonomy, and to allow for the boots on the ground commander to determine how far they could take the integration. Sir, if the integration is working is there truly a need to disarm the population, lock up the food, put concertina wire around the firewood, and ration every type of supply imaginable?”

Mallory paused for a second and then made one final statement. “You mention not decimating the civilian population, sir, but isn’t that ultimately what we may be doing?”

“Are you finished, Major.” Olsen said and it wasn’t a question.

“Yes sir,” Mallory said.
And in more ways than one, I think.

“We need consistency, Major,” Olsen started. “If ARCLiTE really had been working as we’d hoped, then we could do it your way, but it’s not, and we’ve had to take back some centralized control. It’s a hard fact and one you’re going to have to live with. We can’t have every individual commander doing it their way or there’d be chaos, and last week is a perfect example of that. Do I make myself clear, Major?”