Author's notes: Thank you to all who reviewed the first chapter. I hope everyone liked the second. Something I meant to note in the first chapter. I have changed Jake's birth year for this story since according to Jake's passport and Eric's driver's license they were born the same year. While I went to school with a pair of brothers born the same year, one was the 3rd of January and younger the 28th of December, I find it unlikely that the same mother can give birth Jan and Sept 21st of the same year to surviving children. If the producers didn't make a mistake with those birth dates (or Jake didn't lie about his DoB) then either Eric was dangerously premature (in 1977 neonatal care has improved enough that it would be a different story today) (and the elder Greens decidedly too frisky) or Jake and Eric are really half-brothers. While the idea would be a lot of fun to play with (and Gail's 'I've been where you are' might imply it) I've gone with the idea that Jake's passport year of birth is incorrect and he's a couple of years instead of nine months older than Eric.
The Lincoln quote is from The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler, Volume I, "Address Before the Young Men's Lyceum,of Springfield, Illinois (January 27, 1838),
X-Factor: Chapter 3: Games
April
I had been shocked to see Eric and Jake playing checkers when I arrived home. In the end losing Eric hadn't hurt nearly as much as I thought it would. I think my pride was more wounded than my heart. I felt betrayed, not that he wanted to leave me, but that he had been lying and cheating for so long. He scrambled to his feet as soon as he saw me clearly wanting to flee but he just sighed.
"How are you?"
It would be so easy to say something cruel and biting but no matter how angry I was he was the father of my unborn child. I would never be free of Eric so I might as well be civil.
"The morning sickness isn't as bad as it was."
"Good, I'm glad. Have you…felt the baby yet?"
I shook my head "It's too soon." Turning away from Eric I focused on Jake "How are you feeling?"
"Tired, achy, alive"
"How are your hands?"
"Much better" he spread them and I frowned.
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing, you had a touch of frostbite but the look perfect now" I touched his face gently "and your head wounds look better than I would have expected."
"Who would have imagined wolf spit is a heal all" Eric said dryly before frowning as Jake jumped one of his men.
"What?"
"Hey Pal" A pale golden head popped up from behind Jake on the couch, ears pricked forward. "I'd like you to meet April."
I licked my lips, my Mother had never allowed us to keep pets so I wasn't really comfortable with them and I had had to try to keep little Andy Smith alive after his father's wolf-dog had attacked him. Gray had tried to insist that all 'dangerous' breeds be registered which had led to a war of words about it being a matter of individuals not breeds but looking at the wolf peeking at me over Jake's shoulder all could think of was the little boy I'd failed to save and I wrapped my fingers protectively around my baby.
"He may be one heck of a hunter" Eric said as he made his next move "but he's no guard dog."
"He let me know someone was coming, and that he didn't consider them a threat" Jake retorted "And most wolf-dogs aren't good guard dogs. It's not in their nature."
"Hunter?" I asked with more of a quiver than I intended.
The look Jake shot me was half concern half absolute confusion. Eric sighed.
"I'm sorry, I forgot, or I would have said something sooner."
"Something about what?" Jake demanded sounding pretty good for a guy that had been half dead this morning.
"Remember how you and Tom Smith were always talking about getting wolf-dogs but neither of your moms would allow it?"
"Yes."
"Tom got his wolf-dog right after you left. A little less than two years ago it mauled his son."
Jake looked at me and knew.
"Oh, honey" Gail breathed from the doorway "I completely forgot."
The yellow ears vanished behind Jake and a moment later the wolf-dog slipped gracefully and silently to the floor. Eric wasn't much of an animal lover either but the town had no shortage of dogs. Pal didn't move like a dog, more like a cat. Nimble despite paws that could nearly cover a dinner plate. He gave Jake a single lick. Jake dropped his head and the wolf bowed his to me before turning to go.
"What's he doing?"
"Leaving" Eric said "he's smart enough to hear that you don't want him here in the tone of your voice."
Gail leaned against the wall. Eyes first on the downcast Jake and then on me. She'd told me so many stories about Jake's knack with animals and how she'd always hoped he'd become a veterinarian but Jake loved the thrill of flying too much. I remember the resentment in Eric's voice. Everything had come easy to Jake, he aced tests that he never studied for while Eric spent hours earning his straight A's. I had heard it from every member of the Green family more than once. Jake could have been anything he wanted with just a little discipline but instead he had chosen to throw it all away. I felt like such a baby but I didn't want that thing anywhere near me. He loped to the door gliding like ghost only to freeze in front of taking a hesitant step back, glancing at Eric, and returning to take a defensive stance in front of Jake, Gail, and I just before someone pounded on the door.
Bruce Blevins, the new high school biology teacher and tree hugger extraordinaire who had just started this fall practically bounded in when Eric opened the door. The wolf's posture relaxed just a little but he remained alert.
"Bruce?"
"Can I see him?" His eyes lit up when he spotted Pal who looked at Jake and whined.
"I spent all four summers in college on a team that was working on wolf reintroduction out in Montana. I really don't advocate wolf-dog mixes. I think it's just asking for trouble since people have a bad habit of expecting them to look like wolves and act like dogs." The words were for us but he had eyes only for Pal who looked like he was ready to go back to hiding behind Jake. "Hey there little fellow. While Mr. Green was getting the deer weighed and hung he was spreading the word to make certain he isn't shot on sight. That big mule buck is close to double the state record. John's estimating that once all of it is butchered that he'll be able to get almost 430 lbs of meat to add to the pot."
At a quarter pound per person that would give almost half of Jericho's remaining population a serving of high quality protein and if that was just the meat then that didn't include cooking down the bones for soup stock.
I glanced at Eric "Pal did the hunting?"
He shrugged "He drug a buck bigger than I knew a deer could be in here this morning to give to Jake. There were four more smaller bucks out back, along with a couple turkeys and seven rabbits. Teeth seem to match."
Bruce pulled a mold out of his pocket "I can confirm that one wolf did all the killing. I brought his puppy shots with me."
"Puppy shoots?" He looked awfully big for puppy anything.
"He might have been old enough for his first shots a week or two before the bombs and he's still a just a touch young for a rabies shot but with things the way they are I figured better safe than sorry."
"Rabies shots are what six months?" I asked, the entire room answered four.
"You are a gorgeous baby" Bruce all but cooed to Pal who as huddled up against the couch so hard it started to slide a little. "If it wasn't for the blue eyes I'd say he was pure wolf. I would love to see him in action. Would you mind if came with you when you take him out? In four summers of watching wolves I have never seen that kind of precision killing. It's almost surgical the way he took down those deer." Zeus had been anything but surgical.
"I'm probably not going to be keeping him."
Bruce's mouth just hung open.
"Since the town desperately needs meat and he clearly knows something the rest of us don't about how to find game maybe you"
"You know, I heard you had a real gift with animals" Bruce interrupted "I must have heard wrong."
Jake sighed.
"He's pretty clearly picked you."
Eric cleared his throat "Mary loves dogs. I was thinking he could stay with us" the LOOK the wolf gave him at that had me wanting to laugh before my anger flared. Damned if Mary Bailey was taking anything else away and I snapped my fingers "Hey Pal."
The wolf pup glanced at me in clear surprise and then came slowly. He sat at my feet raising his eyes to meet mine. After Andy's death I had needed to see the monster before they shot it. I'm not sure what I expected but Zeus hadn't been some frothing at the mouth Cujoe. Andy had snuck into the enclosure unseen and no one had ever or would ever know for certain why Zeus had turned on him. Those golden eyes hadn't been like a dog's and neither were Pal's but Pal's were nothing like Zeus' either. As blue as the vault of the sky on a sunny day and just as deep. Infinite. They say the eyes are the windows of the soul and those strange blue eyes held limitless sorrow and bottomless joy. I had to blink several times to free myself of them. My roommate as an undergrad had been Hindu. She had sworn that she could always spot the old souls even if they dwelt in an animal or a tree. I wondered what Ragi would have made of Pal. I wondered if Ragi was even alive.
"Welcome home, Pal."
"April" Eric began but fell silent at my glare.
"Honey, are you certain?" Gail asked, Jake, despite his reputation as a hothead remained silent.
I nodded.
"Thank you" from Jake. I tried to smile I wasn't certain how well in turned out.
"Alright Pal. Time for your shots." Pal sighed, went to Bruce, and stoically took his medicine. He pricked his ears forward looking at the door. Eric rose, tense, before glancing out and relaxing then opening the door for his father. Pal slipped out as he came in. I glanced at Jake.
"He probably just needs to use the facilities."
"He's housebroken?" Bruce sounded surprised.
"He hasn't gone in the house" Gail said "Is that a problem with wolf mixes?"
Bruce frowned "He would have barely had his eyes open when the bombs went off, that isn't much time for him to learn if he's been on the road."
Johnston frowned as he handed Gail a heavy wrapped parcel "I kept a third of the big buck's tenderloin as our cut. Jake I need to talk to you about Pal." He grimaced "Do you remember when you and Stanley went off hunting on your own when you were twelve and drug that deer all the way back here?"
"Oh, yeh" he tried to smile and winced "We took all the hide and half of the meat off of one side."
"Those deer Pal killed, they didn't even have grit in their coats."
Jake half sat up before his body sagged "So how did they get here?"
"That would be the question."
"Is the meat safe?"
"Mrs. Novak had just brought those yappy little ankle biters of hers down to John hoping he'd process them for her. We gave them a taste of all of it and because of that thing with poisoned deer a few years back there are some basic tests. Tests were negative and one of the little brats bit me right before I came home. All indications are that it's fine. We'll keep the meat over night, have venison for breakfast when John gives the all clear."
The door opened and Pal slipped in kicking it shut with a hind leg. I glanced at Jake.
"Apparently he's figured out how to open them." He glided in and neatly jumping over the arm of the couch disappeared behind Jake. To my surprise Pal stayed hidden behind Jake all through dinner. Not only did he not beg, he didn't even look up.
I started to rise to help Gail but she waved me back and my feet were killing me "Why don't you play checkers with Jake?" She started to smile at him fondly and then noticed at the same moment she did that he had kicked off most of his covers.
"Johnston Jacob Green" she started hands on hips.
"I'm toasty Mom. Pal is like having my own personal space heater." She huffed and wrapped the blankets back around him. "Why don't you and April play some checkers?"
Jake nodded setting up the board.
"I was never very good at checkers."
Pal emerged from the couch panting and looked at me tentatively. "I think he wants to help."
"Are you any good?" I asked jokingly, he winked at me then sat beside me focusing on the board.
I started to move a piece but he whined "Not that one?" I asked "how about this one?" another whine I touched a third piece and he made a chuffing sound. I made the moves he chuffed for. It was a slaughter.
"Maybe we should start over" Jake offered.
I glanced over at my partner those blue eyes seemed to shout 'trust me'.
"We'll play it out. King me."
"Sure" he dropped one of my many lost pieces on top of one of my three remaining checkers and froze. Johnston looked up taking in Jake's disbelief he rose to stand behind him and then turned hard eyes on Pal.
"What is it?"
"You just won" Jake breathed.
"How?"
He took my kinged piece and in a sweep of jumps cleared every one of his pieces from the board. Pal cocked his head, wagged his tail, yawned, curled up beside Jake, and went to sleep.
"All those stories about radiation and super powers, those are purely bunk, right?"
I rolled my eyes at Jake who was only half joking "Personally I was thinking of reincarnation."
"Just a fluke" Johnston grumbled.
"Must be" Jake muttered as he settled down and dozed off himself.
Johnston
I forced myself not to rush down the down the stairs at first light. Jake had taken to sleeping with a gun and he could probably handle himself better than I could. As spooked as I was about the mystery surrounding 'Pal' and what it might mean to the town and my family but I had to stop on the stairs and smile at the two of them. I could almost pretend Jake was still a little boy and the world was right again watching him sleeping innocent as an angel with the yellow wolf pup. It stirred as I approached and slipped off the couch agilely enough to leave Jake undisturbed. He shot a glance at the door and I was able to open it before John's knock could wake Jake.
I laid a finger to my lips and he whispered "The dogs are fine so I'm thinking the meat is too" he paused looking at Pal "Damn he's going to be a horse if he ever grows into those feet. You going to go out with him today?"
"That's the plan."
"Good hunting."
I turned to Gail as she came down "We got any eggs left?"
"Venison and eggs it is."
Seeing no need to hover in the kitchen I started cleaning my gun, making utterly certain I was ready to go after breakfast. Of course who knew what the wolf pup would and would not do. Jake woke up just long enough to eat and as soon as he had finished dozed back off. Good, the boy needed his rest and we had fought enough for several lifetimes. Just as well I didn't have to make it an order that might end up as a war of wills. I was a little surprised that Pal not only never seemed inclined to beg he didn't even acknowledge that we were eating. I got the door for him and received a nod in response. I felt slightly ridiculous trailing behind the wolf. He walked slowly enough that I didn't have any trouble keeping up at least for the first quarter mile or so and then he sprinted like a quarter horse out of the gate. I grinned as he turned up a blind alley.
I stopped stunned. The alley was empty. There was no way for him to gotten back out without me seeing him. I spun and checked the street, no wolf, no wolf in the alley either. As I turned again I caught a flicker of movement on the roof. No way in hell.
"Young lady" I barked to the girl on the roof "what do you think you're doing up there?" I had an ugly flashback to one of Jake's more spectacular screw-ups that had ended with him having enough metal in his arm to set off a detector at ten paces. I didn't want to think about what might happen if this tyke took a similar spill.
"Multi-tasking."
"Multi-task your" I paused significantly "rear down here."
She held a hand up for a second. Not since Jake had anyone this young brushed me off so easily.
"Do your parents know where you are?"
"Highly unlikely" she, no he, (what the hell kind of father lets his son run around with shoulder length golden curls?) retorted before clambering off the roof.
"Well, I think I'd like to let them know."
"If you happen to find them, tell them that I'd like to meet them." I could NOT place the kid's accent.
"Orphan?"
"Foundling."
"So what were you doing up there and where is your coat?"
"Playing games and ruminating."
"What games?"
"Hide and seek which is the story of my life and let's pretend."
"What about your foster parents?"
"My guardian is dead."
"So you're on your own?"
"Not precisely."
"Do you know how to give straight answer?"
"Possibly."
"Did you happen to see a yellow wolf when you were up there?"
"No, I did not."
"There was that so difficult? Now are you here with an adult?"
A flicker of a grin "Yes."
I suspected that I was the adult in question.
"So what were you ruminating on?" what kind of eight year old knew the word ruminate?
"Adrianople, Abraham Lincoln, and the factory in New Bern."
I had to stop in the street and blink at the kid "What?"
"Historians go round and round on it but Rome fell at Adrianople everything else was just death throes. I wonder a few centuries from now what they will say about your United States." So not an American "Was this like your first Civil War merely a great test or will this be your end? I find it intriguing that he made so accurate a prediction."
"How old are you?"
A shrug "My guardian insisted on a full Classical education from an extremely young age with an emphasis on history and language. My Latin is superb and my ancient Greek flawless."
"Well, that should come in handy" I couldn't resist commenting.
The boy laughed not even shivering in the cold in nothing but jeans and a sweater.
"So what prediction?"
"At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it? Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant, to step the Ocean, and crush us at a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest; with a Buonaparte for a commander, could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years. At what point, then, is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide' he quoted "Spoken January 27, 1838."
"How is that accurate? A bunch of terrorists did this to us."
Eyes the same exact shade as Pal's met mine "Make no mistake, this was an inside job by someone eager to forge a new world to their own liking. Rome killed herself too you know. The barbarians would never have had a chance if she hadn't gutted herself from within."
The kid was nuts but what the hell it was the most interesting conversation I'd had all week "And how does any of this relate to the factory in New Bern?"
"I'm afraid I just arrived in town and am not nearly as familiar with local events as I am ancient history but New Bern has a factory and it is operational. This is not an area one thinks of as industrial ergo there must be a reason why New Bern is not a farming town like most of the others in this region." He arched a brow at me.
"Soil's got too much clay in it."
A thoughtful nod "From that fact that the factory is still operational I would assume that its machines are old. What did it produce during World War II?"
I froze "Mortar rounds."
"Fluency in Latin might not be a marketable skill in this brave new world but an intimate knowledge of history is more useful than one might think. When society shatters and food becomes scarce" the boy shrugged "but then you know the men of New Bern better than I. And you are right it is a bit nippy out here I think I should get my coat. I didn't see the wolf from the roof today but he was working a small herd of white tails in the thicket down off of Washington Street. He didn't get them all."
"That's practically in town."
The boy shrugged and turned to go "Wait, what's your name?"
"Paullus."
Gray Anderson the eternal thorn in my side and pain in my ass chose that moment to distract me and Paullus was gone. As annoying as he was even Gray Anderson (probably) wouldn't approve of a child wandering around in this cold alone. He would, of course demand that someone be found to take him in. I sighed I had been really hoping that the next kid I would have to deal with would be a girl. And it was awfully coincidental that the boy and the wolf-pup had made a nearly symultanious appearance. Damn it all to hell and gone what had the kid really been doing on that roof? Had he been hiding or seeking and for or from whom? I had the distinct impression as I shouldered my gun that I had been played almost as neatly as Pal had played Jake last night.
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