Dark Road (24 page)

…

“Thank you for helping out with this; I could
not
have done it on my own.” Sheri said.

“You’re welcome,” Mallory said. “It’s the least we could do. It’s these guys who are going to help though; I want to avoid even the image of impropriety.”

“Of course,” Sheri said. “Although I’m sure none of them would cheat if you told them to.” Sheri stage whispered.

Mallory raised an eyebrow and Sheri cleared her throat. “I’m kidding, I kid, I’m a kidder.”

“Ok,” Sheri continued, “this is how we’re going to tally…”

…

At 7:30 the Block Moms started spreading the news that they would be announcing the new Mayor at 7:45. They didn’t have the announcement yet, but would shortly, and would be letting everyone know soon. At 7:45 the word went out that the first Mayor, elected by a majority, was Joel Taylor. The remaining items voted on would be posted the following day.

As there was no existing Mayor and no office to vacate, Joel would be assuming the role of Mayor the following day.

“I wonder how much you won by, Dad,” Josh said.

“I don’t—and I don’t want to know.” Joel said.

“We decided that the numbers wouldn’t matter unless it was a statistical tie, or too close to call and a recount was required,” Rachael said. “In all other cases the number wouldn’t be announced and the winner would simply be announced as having won by a majority.”

“What exactly is a majority?” Maya asked.

“In this case it’s fifty-one percent,” Rachael said, “and if one candidate doesn’t get that much then the top two have a run-off election.”

“Hopefully by the time that happens I’ll be out of politics.” Joel chuckled.

…

“Sheri!” Joel called and jogged to catch up to her as she was walking to the command tent.

“Hey, Mr. Mayor,” she said. “Congratulations.”

“Yeah, yay me,” he said. “Considering I don’t know the first thing about politics, or running anything bigger than an HOA, and I’m getting ready to try to exert undue influence half a day before I actually take office…”

“See,” she said with a smile, “you’re doing fine already.”

“Can you tell me how some of the laws did?” Joel asked.

“Actually, that’s what I’m going to talk to the Major about.” Sheri said. “Honestly, I don’t see any reason you shouldn’t sit in on it.”

They were almost there and walked into the command tent together.

“Congratulations, Joel.” Mallory said.

“Thank you,” he said. “Mind if I sit in on the results briefing?”

Mallory shook her head and indicated a seat. Apparently he’d been half expected.

Once everyone was sitting Sheri started going over results. “A few things are no real surprise. Basic laws, civil common sense stuff that we took almost verbatim from the UCMJ passed by 76-87%. Once we have some sort of monetary system, sales tax is set at 3%...”

Statistics continued for about five minutes until Sheri paused to get everyone’s attention. “Now here are a few things that are interesting. Capital punishment passed by about 85% to be carried out by firing squad, 72%.” She looked around that table.

“Depending on the crime, it’s not too harsh.” Mallory said.

“True, but when it first got brought up there were a lot of people that seemed to be against it. Certainly more than 15%,” Joel said.

“Good point,” Mallory said.

“I’m not making a judgment call,” Sheri said. “I’m just pointing out what I noticed and Joel noticed it too. It’s interesting.  It looks like we’ve also completely done away with Daylight Saving Time after it ends this year.”

“Nice,” Joel said.  “About time.”

“We’re trying to put things back the way we think they were meant to be, too,” Sheri said.

“I noticed that on the ballot,” Joel said.  “This wasn’t just a typical local election was it?”

…

The mess hall was full of conversation after the voting from the previous day.  Joel had noticed that yesterday people had kept to themselves, either in an attempt to keep from swaying their neighbor or out of deference to those who hadn’t voted yet or hadn’t made up their minds.  There really had been a lot to think about.

“Considering all the buzz today, you’re awfully quiet.” Rachael said.

“I’m still coming to grips with being Mayor,” Joel said.  “I’ve shaken more hands just today than the rest of my life up until now.”

“And…” Rachael prompted.

“And, I had no idea the chore Mallory dumped on you with,” Joel made motions with his hands to indicate he had no words, “well, The Framework.”

“It’s not all her fault, Joel.”  Rachael said.  “We did kind of run with it.  The decision to take back State’s rights and severely limit the Federal government was ours.  Everything we did, all of the laws that were voted on, and the decisions we made to reword the Amendments were ours and ours alone.  Nobody
made
us do anything.”

“And a bang-up job you did, too!” Paul Miller said as he sat down at the table next to them.

“Congratulations, Joel,” Paul said as he reached out to shake Joel’s hand.  “It’s about time we started taking back what we’ve been giving away bit by bit, it’s just too bad it took something like this,” Paul looked around to indicate the end result of the CME, “to make it happen.”

“True,” Joel said, “and we’re only one community.”

“Well,” Rachael said with a smile.  “So
far
we’re the only community.  We sent what we’ve put together to a couple of the other units that Major Jensen has been in contact with, and they are actually looking at voting on it without modification.  It looks like we may have started a trend.”

Paul chuckled, “Hey, our own little revolution without firing a shot!”

…

“So how did it go yesterday,” Ben asked.

“We have a Mayor and a bunch of new laws,” Mallory replied and sent Ben a text file so he would know what the results were from the elections.  “And I don’t mind saying, I’m pleased with how things turned out.”

“Not that you had anything to do with it,” Ben said, the smirk obvious in his voice.

Mallory smiled to herself.  “Actually, this time I didn’t,” she said, “other than setting the women to the task in the first place.  I would have been happy with any of the nominees for Mayor, honest.”

She wasn’t going to mention the unused seeds in the audience unless Ben brought it up.

“And you didn’t seed the audience?” Ben asked.

Mallory shook her head. 
Burn that man.
  “Completely unnecessary,” she said. 
Neither confirm nor deny.

Ben laughed out loud at that.  “You were First Sergeant for
way
too long,” he said.  “You really don’t like leaving things to chance.”

“That’s because Murphy was an optimist,” Mallory said.  “But I really would have been happy with any of the three nominees.  I’m also encouraged by the direction we’re taking, government in general.”

“It does warm the heart,” he said.  “I’ll pass on the results to the few groups in-the-know on my side.  Stay safe.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Dan was staring into the fire now that the girls were asleep.

“Penny for your thoughts,” Marissa said. “I don’t have change, and you’re getting taken for a full penny.” Dan said.

“Talk to me, Dan. You’ve hardly said anything since we stopped.” Marissa prodded.

“What’s to talk about,” Dan said flatly not asking a question. “We made two miles today, our shortest day so far. We’re falling apart, all of us. We’re dragging by the end of whatever we call a day. I’m pretty sure both of us have plantar fasciitis and I’d be shocked if I don’t have a fallen arch in my right foot. We’re down to a couple of cups of rice and then we’re eating vitamins and chewing on grass.”

Marissa looked into the fire with nothing to add. She’d appreciated the gesture when he’d offered the chocolate he’d been saving for whenever PMS had hit again, but that hadn’t been what set her off this time, so she’d shared the gooey mess with everyone two days ago. He was right, but she couldn’t admit failure.

“I’m not going to lie down and die, Dan,” she said. “I didn’t leave our home to just hang it up out here in the woods on the side of Interstate 40. We have a destination and we’re going to make it at least that far if that means walking a couple hundred yards at night and then eating ants during the day.”

It was Dan’s turn to look into the fire with nothing to add, but this time because he was embarrassed. He was the one who had convinced her to leave. Being out here was his fault. He’d dragged his family out of the neighborhood and into the unknown because he didn’t want to starve to death in their own home. At least there they would have had their own beds to do it in!

Dan made a decision and set his jaw. The sun was just setting and it hadn’t really started to cool off. The girls had fallen asleep but only a few minutes ago. Dan hated to wake them up, but nothing could really be done about it.

“Rissa, pack up the packs. We’re not done for the day,” he said.

“Dan,” Marissa said. “The girls are beat.”

“I know.” Dan said. “That’s why I’m carrying Bekah and you’re carrying Jessie. Packs on the back and the girls on the hip—just like Disney World in 2009.”

Marissa was going to protest again but Dan put his hands on her arms. “You’re right,
we’re
not going to lie down and die, so let’s keep going. It’ll be cooler at night and while I doubt we’ll make it the whole seven or eight miles to the turnoff into the park, we can at least get another mile or so in, maybe.”

…

“If we’re going to have to guard the town, shouldn’t we at least be
stationed
in the town?” Sergeant Aaron Hamilton said to his patrol partner Specialist Trevor Blackwood.

“No,” Blackwood said for what felt like the hundredth time. “If we were stationed there it might be seen as a conflict of interest. We might patrol the borders of the town better than we patrol the borders of the base.”

Hamilton wasn’t going to let it go that easily. He loved a good argument…that is “heated debate”… and Blackwood was so easy to get riled up. “Oh come on, TB, you know that doesn’t make any sense. The opposite argument could be made just as easily—that we could slack off because we don’t care about the town—because we aren’t invested in it.”

As they approached the road, Hamilton knew Blackwood would have to stew on his reply for a few minutes because they were going to have to be
quiet
. It was dark and they hadn’t had lights on for almost two hours. Their night vision, even without any type of enhancement, was excellent at this point.

It became obvious that Blackwood was holding a grudge as he pointed to Hamilton, pointed to his night vision monocular, made the motion to flip it down, and mimed scanning both ways down the road. Aaron didn’t even bother sighing, he knew the drill: anger the slightly higher in grade, and deal with the consequences.

With the night vision monocular down, the world took on its familiar eerie, green, iridescent glow and he low crawled to the edge of the woods and out of cover to check the road…and froze.

…

“We need to start looking for a place to stop.” Dan said. “I’m pretty sure we’ve made a couple more miles but I don’t know how much further I can go.”

“The entrance to the park is what,” Marissa said, “another five miles?”

“I’m guessing about that,” Dan said. “If Joel and his family and the rest aren’t there I don’t know what we’re going to do. We’re out of food, but either way, I can’t carry Bekah any further tonight.”

…

Hamilton slowly stood up and signaled for Blackwood to make ready to join him. He didn’t know if Blackwood had heard any of the conversation, but he would just have to follow Hamilton’s lead.

The people on the road were walking with their heads down, watching their feet, and were obviously exhausted. One of them appeared to have a rifle over their shoulder but they were carrying backpacks and children on their hips. The woman did have a pistol on her opposite hip, but it was a chance they would have to take.

Blackwood was out of the woods with his monocular down, and took a look at the situation; they conferred with hand signals that Hamilton would take the lead. Blackwood would stay on the side of the road in the dark, but cover the couple on the road.

…

“We just passed a crossroads, start looking for a place to stop until morning.” Dan said.

As they both were looking towards the median for a flat space, Marissa, who was on Dan’s left and nearest the side of the road, since they were going “against traffic” today, thought she heard something on the road in front of them and turned, just as a light shined on them.

“Tennessee National Guard,” came a commanding voice from behind the light. “Please stop where you are and…”

He didn’t get any further before both Marissa and Dan had their guns out and aimed at the light.

A second light came on from the side of the road, and another voice, equally commanding, picked up where the first had stopped when weapons were drawn. “Sir, ma’am, please don’t shoot and neither will we. We
are
with the Tennessee Army National Guard. We are on a patrol and for a reason my partner has not yet had an opportunity to explain to me, he determined that you should be stopped.”

“Sergeant,” Hamilton said. “They mentioned Joel and the park.”

Blackwood decided he was in charge again. “I understand you owe us no explanation, but at this point one might be a good idea.”

“Can one of you prove you are with the National Guard?” Dan asked.

Blackwood turned on an additional flashlight and shined it on his uniform and insignia. “That’s the best I can do at this time, Sir.” It also showed that he was pointing what looked like a serious weapon at the Clarks, and it didn’t waiver while he tried to prove his identity.

“Would you please lower your weapons?” Blackwood said and although it was said with please, it wasn’t a request.

“We don’t have anything worth taking.” Marissa said.

“And we don’t want to take anything you have, ma’am, you have my word.” Blackwood said.