Chapter Seventeen: Safe Passage — Part 1

Aside — Corporeal Interruptions, Part One
What happened in the Glenn after the Departure . . .

The night of the departure proves bitter for The People of Quick Fox Glenn. They’ve lost the orphans of the Storm barely a week after they’d even started to place a value on their existence. Now, on the night of the betrayal, the entire town is pinned down by a feral squall of rain and lightning that blows out their evening generators and leaves them without air conditioning in an otherwise open but stuffy building. They are in a massive public meeting hall, standing around in dim lights that are running on battery power. All they can hope to do is wait out the storm, and then follow Major Dominic’s directives.

To add insult to injury, one of their most respected advocates falls to the ground without so much as a warning, and is declared dead in a matter of minutes. Franklin’s last gasps are blood filled and desperate, but whatever the cause of demise, it’s over before anybody can wonder how he’s gone from living and breathing to drooling blood from between cold, blue lips. It happens so quickly, in fact that even if the medics had stayed with the Glenn, there is probably nothing they could have done for him. In that moment Franklin’s worries of the world are gone, but the worries of his wife, Shelley, are just starting. Shelley has never really much liked Major Dominic, and if not for her faith in Franklin to balance the man out, she might well have jumped on the back of the truck and left with the Orphans. She has no desire for her son Zac to be raised with such rigid people, but so long as she’s got her home, Shelley figures she can balance things out, keep her son safe while keeping them close to the food. And one thing she knows about Franklin, if he had been alive, he’d always put their needs first. In his absence, nothing is left to shield her from the rest.

The man she hates, of course, is the first man to try to provide her with comfort. Major Dominic sidles up to her, trying to look and sound sympathetic. Shelley puts on her best stoic face. Her husband’s body as been moved and covered, and isn’t even cold yet, and the Major is standing next to her, trying to look saddened, distressed, and a number of emotions she really doesn’t think he’s capable of feeling, all so she will listen to him. Shelley humors him more because nobody else has come up to comfort her than because she takes anything the Major says as either sincere or considerate.

“I’m sorry Frank has died.” Dominic says quietly.

Not half as sorry as me, ya dumb fuck. Shelley thinks. Instead, she says. “He was a good man, with strong values. If Jude were here, he would be heartbroken.”

Though nothing but a pause betrays The Major’s bristling at Shelley’s jab, the pause gives Shelley some considerable satisfaction. Jude’s history with the Glenn and his ability to gain access to government grants that allowed the hippie revolutionaries to prosper in spite of the majority rule had always been a sore point for Dominic. Jude’s ability to break and check any of his ambitions, to support George’s otherwise feeble efforts to bring together the community despite its differences, had been proven when Jude, sick of the constant legal oppression, had left. Though the list of people Dominic would have wished to see dead because of the Storm is a long one, Jude is closer to the top. Hearing his name makes Dominic want to get to the crux of the conversation even faster.

“I know it’s going to be hard, raising that kid alone.” Dominic says.

“The kid is going to be in school with the other children you didn’t push out. We’ve got neighbors. It will be fine.” Shelley says. Zac is asleep in her arms, oblivious to the fact that he will never see his father again.

Dominic nods, cuts to the chase. “Why don’t you move in with Jack and his kids? Their place has been pretty empty since the Storm. The two of you can work together; keep each other company. I’ve already talked to him about it, and he says he has more than enough space for the two of you.”

You really are a stupid fuck. Shelley almost says it this time, but bites down on her tongue until the urge to be rude passes from her mind. Jack has been trying to get into her pants since she first got to the Glenn with her husband. Of course he would want her to move in. It would seal the deal in his mind. “That was a little forward of you.” Shelley says as politely as possible.

“I wasn’t trying to be.” Dominic says sympathetically. “It’s just that you and Zac live so far away from the rest of the homes, I couldn’t imagine the two of you having to walk all that way for work, school, training.”

Shelley doesn’t say anything, immediately, especially about the concept of training. She knows exactly what Dominic means. She’s quite privy to his plans for a restructured education system within the Glenn. She’s far smarter than most, and she’s certainly not stupid enough to cross Major Dominic directly, with no way out from under the roof she’s now sheltered by. Jack is a man who lost his wife and two of his children to the Storm. His eldest is now laid up with facial fractures from Arpie’s pounding. Shelley doesn’t know what Benji did, but she’s fairly certain he deserved every bit of it. Jack, like his son, is also one of the most fervent adherents to the New Constitutional Order. She’s still crying when she finally does draw in a breath to talk. Her voice is small, and helpless, cracked, and totally out of character.

“It’s two floors, so you would still have your own household.” Dominic adds quickly, as if he’s trying to assure her autonomy.

“I’ll move in with Jack in the morning.” Shelley says.

“The morning is a little early.” Major Dominic smiles. “I’ll send somebody by to help you pack tomorrow, say, around noon?”

“Noon is fine then.” Shelley replies.

The Major smiles and turns from her, having heard what he needs to hear to feel that he’s still in control of things. He’s scanning the room, looking for somebody. The Major responds to a tap on his shoulder, and he turns to notice the man put to task on an issue he considers important, at least at the moment. Three men, the shortest of which is in charge of seeking supplies out of the cities around the Glenn, have motioned for him as he is talking with Shelley, and he concludes his conversation by turning his back on her to talk to the trio. Shelley is now invisible.

“We’ll be ready to leave at first light.” One of the men says, sounding a little too anxious and uncertain for Major Dominic to trust.

“You’re sure you know which way they’ll be headed?”

Timothy John, known by most as TJ, sounds more than certain. “We tracked the two that left every day out two hundred miles. We know what route they’ll take, if not where they’re going. They can’t make two hundred miles tonight, not with the storm, not with children walking behind them. They’ll be headed up the twenty North by Northeast, once they make a stop at Whitford Academy.”

“Then I guess we’ll have to head out at first light.” Major Dominic says to TJ.

“Are you sure you should be going with?” TJ begins to ask, sounding sort of nervous and sort of worried all at once.

Major Dominic smiles savagely. He doesn’t necessarily trust TJ to handle the problem without his presence, and he knows he has to make a strong point of leadership, especially since his adversaries have shown such an integral knowledge of the Codes of Conduct during times of war. He doesn’t want to seem weak against a group of people who are so obviously strong. Besides, the opportunity to break the orphans and return them to the Glenn will only strengthen his new community. He answers the question as sincerely and humbly as possible.

“I wouldn’t put the burden of this on your shoulders alone.”

Advertise Here