A/N: Afterburn is planned as a long fan fiction series based on the television show Jericho. It will focus mainly on the characters of Heather, Jake and Emily and their interactions & reactions to situations. Consider it AU because I'm sure it'll take a few tangents the show doesn't but the main themes should remain in tact (at least until we get to the point that canon has stopped). All original characters will make appearances (even if only in flashback). Some liberties have been taken with the canon timeline for the sake of continuity & pace. The story begins after the episode entitled Black Jack.

Additionally, I would encourage you to leave feedback when you've read. I'm interested in what you like, just as much as what you don't like so do feel free to share any concrit you have. It can only help me and make for a more entertaining experience all around.

Disclaimer (casual): I totally don't own Jericho or any characters from the show. This is just my toybox & the only things I own are my own original characters. ;)

Disclaimer (formal): Jericho, all characters & canon fictional locations therein and associated trademarks are the sole intellectual property of CBS Paramount Television, CBS Studios, Inc., Junction Entertainment & Fixed Mark Prod. This work is not intended to infringe on the copyrights or trademarks held, but is solely a work of fan fiction and for diversion and amusement, not for profit.

Title: Afterburn (Chapter 1/?)

Chapter 1: The Best Laid Plans

NEW BERN

When Heather and Eric were discovered trying to sabotage the munitions factory, she had no idea how much worse things could get. Her hometown was no longer recognizable and neither were those in charge of it. Phil Constantino had been Sheriff when she'd lived there and had always been known as a reasonable and even amiable sort. There wasn't any trace of that in him any longer. Even his features seemed to have hardened over time. And given all that everyone had been through she could understand that... to a point. She'd only had an inkling of just how much everyone and everything had changed and it was going to get far worse than she imagined before there'd be a hint of getting better.

When they'd been discovered, Eric told her to run. They took off in separate directions. She ran as fast as she could and just as she was about to round the corner of the corridor she was struck. That wasn't the hit that rendered her unconscious though, it was the one that her head took when she hit the floor. She thought she tasted blood just before everything went black.

When she awoke she was sitting in a chair, her hands cuffed behind her at a table with a light overhead she was sure was ten times brighter than it should be given the state of power in general. She squinted and closed her eyes in an attempt to focus and adjust her eyes to the light. It was only making her head hurt more. So much so that she hadn't noticed the person on the other side of the table. He was sitting just beyond the cast of the light in the shadows.

Constantino.

"Wake up!" his voice reverberated off the walls of the interrogation room.

She winced in pain. She still tasted blood in her mouth. She looked up and across the table in the direction of his voice.

"Well, Miss Lisinski... it seems that you have a problem."

She opened her mouth to answer and ran her tongue across the inside of her cheek where her teeth had cut a deep gash.

"A problem?" she heard her voice waver with fear and she shifted in her seat as much as she could with her hands cuffed behind her.

"Yes. You, have become my problem and that, isn't a good place to be."

Heather's breath hitched in her throat and she couldn't speak. She realized that she was in a good bit of danger and was fairly alarmed. She hoped Eric had gotten away.

"You're manufacturing weapons. I... saw your map of Jericho" she said as she felt her stomach tie itself into knots of fear.

"What you saw was the only alternative New Bern has to survive. You've betrayed your own town. We welcomed you back, gave you use of our facilities, shared our limited resources and you went out of your way to destroy us."

"I... wasn't trying to destroy anyone. You can't do this. You can't really plan on attacking innocent people" she said, more trying to convince herself that what she knew to be so couldn't be.

"Innocent... doesn't matter," he began and paused momentarily staving off rage, "Survival does."

"If you really plan to do this... you're insane."

Constantino stood up and walked around the table toward her "What I am, Heather" he said and bent over to meet her face to face "is the law."

Heather looked away quickly. In his eyes she saw all of the distressing things she'd witnessed since her return to New Bern mixed with wrath. There was no ground to be gained in reason with Constantino and she realized that left her at a profound loss and in a considerable amount of peril.

"Take her to lockup!" he barked to the guards in the room.

The door opened and before Heather could say anything, she was pulled up out of her seat and roughly escorted out of the room.

In a last dash of panic, she called out, "Constantino! You can't do this! Why are any of you listening to him?! This isn't right!"

Fighting every step of the way, the guards dragged her down the corridor & pushed her into a cell after removing her handcuffs. She turned to look at the guards as they walked away and noticed Eric in the adjacent cell. Her heart sank a little to know he hadn't been able to get away but part of her was glad to see a familiar face.

"Heather! Are you okay?!" he whispered as he leaned forward to see the guards down the hall. He looked a little roughed up too.

"I'm fine, Eric. Are you alright?" she whispered back and attempted a smile in reassurance.

He nodded in the affirmative and told her that everything would be okay. After her short time in the interrogation room she wasn't inclined to believe that any longer but she appreciated his sentiment just the same.

"We're an unlikely pair. The Deputy Mayor and the elementary school teacher taking down a factory" he chuckled at the irony.

She chuckled in kind, "Well, I'll have you know that part of my college coursework was Munitions Destruction & Government Subversion. They didn't teach you that at Princeton, huh?" she chided.

She and Eric had gotten to know one another a bit over the last few weeks and though he was often quiet and seemingly far off in thought, when he did chat she caught glimpses of a quick wit and a truly caring person. She, like everyone else, knew of what had happened with his marriage to April but she'd found it difficult to dislike Eric. It struck her then, that the Greens all seemed to have a streak in them that no matter how bad a situation, their first response was to make sure others were okay. They exchanged a few more jokes before a guard came walking by and called for silence.

Heather leaned back on the wall and it dawned on her that her shoulders hurt from having been handcuffed and pulled about. She shrugged that off and her brow knit. She was worried. Worried about Jericho and what was happening in New Bern. And how she and Eric were going to fare now that they'd wound up on the wrong side of Constantino. Over the weeks she'd been there she'd seen the situation deteriorating and escalating at the same time. The whole experience had broken her heart and it sickened her to see.

New Bern wasn't the same place she'd grown up and it wasn't just the aftermath of the bombs or what Ravenwood had done. The people had changed. They'd turned to preying on one another in a way that was cannibalistic and barbaric. Instead of pulling together they'd pulled each other a part and devolved somehow. She'd been witness to Constantino and his men meting out their brand of justice. And while that was horrifying the worst of it was the lack of outrage and revolt by the citizens. The worse things became the more virulent the propaganda against and scapegoating of Jericho became. It was to the point that many people she'd known were no longer recognizable and when they looked at her they no longer saw a friend, they saw an interloper. The days of the Fillmore County Fair, fishing competitions at Bass Lake and the annual Page Township Crafts Expose seemed almost like a distant memory for the sister towns. She was glad that neither her grandparents or parents were alive to see what had come to pass.

Her mind spun with thoughts and before long the guards returned. This time they took Eric off to be interrogated. Heather scrambled to her feet as they escorted him down the corridor. There wasn't anything left to do but pace.

"Just for a few days" he'd said.

"What? You worried about me?" she'd asked Jake in the cold night air on the road back from Black Jack.

"Come back in one piece" he'd told her with that slanted smile of his and then they'd hugged.

Heather's thoughts turned fondly to her last conversation with Jake. It was only supposed to be a few days, but Heather knew it'd likely be more realistically a few weeks. Maybe a month tops. Her time in New Bern had now stretched into almost three months. Between concept, design, drafting, models, raw materials & production it had taken roughly six weeks to get the first wind turbine perfected and ready to go back to Jericho.

She and Ted had worked day and night and had to scout out the materials to make it but they'd succeeded. It reminded her of when they were in high school and worked together in Physics club, trading tools and laughs long into the night. When she was a sophomore and Ted a junior they'd collaborated and won first place in the State Science Fair. He'd never condescended to her and always knew she was quite the problem solver and knew more about applied mechanics than their instructor. When she was applying to college, Ted was the one who had encouraged her to go all out for her dream school, CalTech. And when she got in, Ted was her biggest supporter next to her grandparents. He was her best and pretty much only friend during highschool and she loved him for that.

Prior to running into Ted at Black Jack, she'd seen him last a few months before the bombs went off, when she'd gone to visit her family's grave site. Just like always, seeing him made her instantly feel less lonely. He was more than just a friend, he was family too. Since her return to New Bern, she'd been so glad to have him around but now she worried for him. She didn't want the things she'd done to affect him adversely and she didn't put such things past Constantino.

Heather sighed and looked through the bars of the cell at Eric. The guards had brought him back about an hour before a little worse for wear, but now he appeared to be sleeping. She hoped he was okay. She'd dozed off a few times but couldn't really get to sleep even though she was exhausted. Her mind turned over and over with past memories and pieces of conversations that all seemed somehow unfinished.

"Just for a few days" she repeated Jake's words and promised herself she would make it back in one piece... one way or another.