Ground Zero (25 page)

It was about two weeks after her dad’s burial that they finally found a suitable stone. Blake went to get the wheelbarrow, and pushed it back to the yard for her. He helped her wash the dirt off, but then disappeared into the workshop for a few minutes. He came back with one of the pencils and a sketch pad her mother used to plan things she wanted to build. Still showing was the last thing her mother had built. Her dad’s casket and the pedestal it had been placed on. Cam could see the marks from her mother’s tears on the page, as Blake handed it to her.

“Write what you want to say,” he said to her, and it took her a moment to understand what he meant.

“I have to think about it. I don’t know yet,” Cam said, and finally she started to cry. She sat on the ground, her legs folded beneath her, and just cried. Blake sat next to her and put his arm around her, not speaking until her tears had stopped.

“I’m sorry,” he said. She knew he was worried that he had upset her, so she shook her head.

“You have nothing to be sorry for. It wasn’t anything you did. I haven’t been letting myself think about him, because it hurts too much, but I know I have to. I can’t keep distracting myself and avoiding it. I did that before when I killed that woman’s son. I felt bad for killing him, and I didn’t deal with it right away. It changed me.” Blake nodded beside her.

“Yes,” he agreed, and she knew he meant killing in general, not her specifically. It made her realize what he had done for her that day.

“I’m sorry you had to kill her, but I’m not sorry she’s dead,” Cameron said to him.

“It wasn’t the first time I had to hurt someone. I didn’t want to, but sometimes there is no choice,” he replied. It was the most she had ever heard him say at once.

“You can talk to me about it if you ever want to, but you don’t have to either. I never really did. People around here knew what I did, so I never had to explain, and I don’t like talking about how I feel anyway.”

“Okay,” he said quietly. She looked up at him, really noticing him for the first time since she’d locked eyes with him the day they had met. He was filling out a bit now, some of the gauntness leaving his face, though the lines were still there. He was cleaner, of course, and dressed in decent clothes, so he looked almost like anyone else on the farm now. Healthy and whole. But she could see something different in him. Not just that she looked at him differently than she looked at anyone else, but that he
was
different. His experiences had been different.

It was only now that Cam remembered the look on his face when he had come up behind Geraldine. It had happened so fast, and Cameron had been in so much pain that she barely understood what was happening at the time. She’d also been on the verge of passing out, though she hadn’t been aware of it then.

Blake’s face had been curiously blank, though his eyes had flashed with some unidentified emotion. It wasn’t pleasure. That much she was sure of. He hadn’t enjoyed killing, which would have scared her. It might have been determination. As if a job had needed doing, however unpleasant it might be, and he would do it.


   
 
   
 


In the days that followed, Cam spent a lot of time with Blake. Usually they didn’t speak, but the silence was comfortable for her. There was no need to fill it with words that would be meaningless for her right then anyway. Eventually she decided on something simple to put on her dad’s marker, and when she wrote it down for Blake he took the paper into the workshop where the stone was now sitting.

She could hear a hammer striking a chisel, so she knew what he was doing, but she didn’t look over his shoulder. He would show it to her when it was ready. He took his time with it, and when he took her by the hand and pulled her into the workshop to show her, she could see the care he had put into his work. Every letter was precise. Every number exact.

Allan Bouchard

August 18, 1978 – April 18, 2020

Father and Friend, who lived, loved, and laughed.

“It’s perfect,” she whispered. “Thank you. I think I should get my mom. She should see this. Maybe everyone else, too. We’re all together in this now.”

In the end everyone showed up to watch Blake help Cameron as she awkwardly tried to maneuver the stone into place. People were smiling through their tears, which somehow seemed appropriate. Not just because of the finalization of the ritual, but because of who her dad had been. Cameron could feel him beside her, almost, and hear his laugh as he made fun of himself lying in the ground. She began to smile herself, as she kissed her fingers and touched them to the stone.

“I hear you dad,” she whispered. And somehow she knew then that he had never left her. She just hadn’t known that he was there.

Epilogue ~ Flock Together

“Chuck, we need to talk,” Mac said quietly, hating what she had to tell him. Four weeks they had held Mike in their brand new jail cell, and in that length of time they had come no closer to proving or disproving his innocence. Katherine was not pregnant, and without forcing a pelvic exam on her, they couldn’t even determine whether or not her hymen was intact, which meant nothing anyway.

“I’m not gonna like this, am I?”

“I don’t think so, no. We’re going to have to let him go, though we have no intention of letting him stick around here. Basically I think we’ll have to have the trial, state that there’s a shadow of a doubt or whatever, and then he’ll be free. It boils down to doing what Cam intended to do with him in the first place, except that you won’t be on the expedition to take him to his new home.

“He can hole up with his good buddy, Mitch, since they seem to be birds of a feather. They’ll have each other for company, and to help one another with whatever work they need to do, but they won’t be around any women or young girls that I’m aware of. I know it’s not much, but it’s what we’ve got, and without proper forensics it’s actually slightly better than what would have happened in our former criminal justice system. Back then he would have walked away without any sort of punishment at all.”

Chuck sighed and spent some time thinking before he said anything.

“I won’t go after him, if that’s what you’re worried about. I had already decided I wasn’t going to take any kind of revenge on him, no matter what happened with our little trial. You were right. It’s not the kind of thing I want to live with. I became a cop to do the right thing. I was never the kind of guy who was in it so he could wave a gun around and frighten people.”

“I already know that, Chuck. You’re a decent human being, and you care about people. It doesn’t make you weak. In my view it actually makes you stronger. It’s easy to let fly with your anger and your fists. It’s easy to ignore consequences. It’s never easy to take the better road.”

Without a surprise confession, the trial would be nothing more than an exercise. So when no confession was uttered during the short trial, it was unanimously decided that Cam’s original idea be implemented as soon as possible. Nobody wanted the chore of looking after a prisoner, and they wanted even less to have someone they mistrusted around the farm. Everyone was tired of having to be constantly on guard. It had been one thing after another, and they all looked forward to taking it a bit easier. They couldn’t relax their guard completely, but things would still be much improved with one less creep about the place.

Mike was given the same treatment as Mitch. Blindfolded to prevent his return he was sent away under guard, with Gilles’ handcuffs being utilized once again. No pocket knife would be there to assist in his escape either. Katherine was kept under careful watch, and the truck was searched prior to transport. Not that Katherine was interested in helping him anymore, after hearing him call her a lying little tramp during his trial.

Neither Mac nor Cam bothered to go on the journey, though they knew the location of the old hunting camp from the maps Gilles had shown them. They just had no desire to visit the place, or see how Mitch was making out. His survival was now his own business.

Still, when Gilles, Jim, and Neil came back, they had some news to report. Mitch had been alive, and upon seeing the truck had automatically assumed Mac had changed her mind and come to save him from his exile. Mac just rolled her eyes at the sense of entitlement he still seemed to have. No matter how badly he behaved, he just assumed he would be forgiven and then he could continue doing whatever he wanted to do. He hadn’t been happy to learn that all he’d gained was a new companion, though Mac figured he would eventually feel a little better about his situation once he really understood he was no longer alone. Solitude had never been something he enjoyed.

Cam’s difficulties while she and Neil had been gone for those two or three weeks had outlined a problem for Mac, though. Cam no longer had those responsibilities now that they were home, but the responsibilities themselves hadn’t changed. They were still going to run into those kinds of situations in the future. People who wanted to take what they had, or even those who just wanted to destroy it because they could. Without the legal and authoritative support system they had enjoyed while civilization still existed, they were all easy prey for those who had no moral code. They were back in the dark ages, unless they could find a way to band together and strike fear into the hearts of those that would harm them.

Mac was only one person, and in order to protect everyone they all had to work together. For someone who had an intense need for solitude, she was really getting the short end of the stick on this deal. Cam had started calling her the mayor of crazy town for some reason, but it wasn’t far off the mark. And she had no idea how she had allowed it to happen. Suddenly she was leading people, instead of being left alone to spend her time in happy solitude. Cam was only too happy to point that out, and Mac couldn’t bring herself to put a stop to the teasing.

She would do the best she could, of course, but she was really feeling inadequate to the task. Suddenly she heard Neil strumming his guitar out in the middle of the yard. Billy joined in on his, and then they were singing,
With a Little Help from My Friends
. She thought about it for a moment. And so she
would
get by, but in the meantime she had to see a man about a tattoo.

Coming Soon!

Salvage Rights

Tipping Point Book Three

Author

For someone who wants to live a quiet and solitary life, Mackenzie is doing a terrible job of it. Somehow she and her daughter have managed to start rebuilding civilization on a small scale. But not everyone wants a return to law and order. There are those who look on the end of society as an opportunity, and they will stop at nothing to ensure Mac and Cameron do not succeed.

Imperfections

Anthology

Editor and Contributing Author

A bit of horror, some fantasy, and a dash of science fiction, all with a dystopian twist,
Imperfections
brings together some of the best up-and-coming authors. Don’t miss it!

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In case you missed it …

Tipping Point

Book One of the Tipping Point Trilogy

Mackenzie knew the power grid was going down. She was warned. So she spent years coming up with a way to survive and protect her daughter at the same time. When major cities start going dark, and supply lines to millions of people are cut, Mackenzie is suddenly faced with an entire litany of situations she wasn't expecting, and isn't prepared for.

About the Author

Rain Stickland has been writing since the age of twelve, when the fever took hold and never truly dissipated. Despite two decades of interest in off-grid living, she was only recently introduced to the vast world of preppers. Her interest kicked up a few notches, however, during the Northeast Blackout in 2003, when the world went dark for millions of people, some for weeks.

Called the Canadian Tornado by friends, she’s written and published nearly 400 articles on a wide variety of topics, including everything from stem cell transplants to the care and feeding of cats, dogs, and ferrets. She lives with her daughter in Ontario, Canada. You can find out more at
www.rainstickland.com