Full Circle, Chapter Four

"Wait here." Jake requested as he and Heather neared the center of town. If they came around the corner of the church, they would be on Main Street and visible from City Hall. Jake peaked around the corner. "There's a bunch of people waiting around City Hall, probably for me to come back and find out what happened."

"Never a dull moment in Jericho that people aren't interested in," Heather mumbled. She was used to the gossip and nosiness that a small town like Jericho was known for, which had only gotten worse since the bombs and loss of power and communications. Word of mouth and regular town meetings kept the interest high in whatever was happening.

The walk into town hadn't taken them long. It wasn't nearly as cold now that she had on warmer clothes. She had grabbed an old winter coat since she had lost her new one in New Bern. The morning was slowly warming up and even Jake didn't seem as cold as they walked into town. He wore his suit jacket again, though he had loosened his tie.

Heather waited patiently as Jake continued on. She wondered what people would think. Would people really be glad to see her? Even after living here for over three years, some of townsfolk still regarded her cautiously. She tried to chalk it up to being new in town, though her secret fear was because she had never really been that popular, even in her hometown or in school. Jericho had been better in that regards, and since the bombs, she had made herself useful by trying to fix the older model cars, trucks and the occasional tractor working again after the EMP pulse. Her days here after the bombs had been filled with teaching whatever students showed up, helping others and fixing things where she could. She had helped at the workshops that the women held at the school trying to help brainstorm ideas on how to get by without power and outside supplies. Most nights, she had gone to bed too exhausted to even notice the lack of power and heat. When the discussion of wind turbines had come up in the town meeting, she had known that she could make that happen for Jericho and had taken it on as her personal mission. She only wished it had not taken so long and nearly cost her her life and freedom.

She wondered how people were holding up. Had one of the teachers taken over her class from school? If the kids were still going to school. Attendance had been slowly dropping off as the months had gone by, despite their attempts to maintain normalcy. She had heard little news from Jericho except when the Jericho men had come to New Bern and what Roger had said when he passed through. How was Emily doing? And Stanley, Mimi and his sister since Stanley had returned? She had gotten to be good friends with Stanley and Eric while they were in New Bern. And how was Eric since he had gotten back? His father's death would be hitting him hard as well, especially since he had just lost April.

"Jake!" she heard a few voices call out in the distance, breaking into her reverie. There was a murmur of conversation in the distance.

"Is everything okay?" she heard a voice ask, but wasn't sure who it belonged to.

"Yeah," she heard Jake answer, though she could barely make out his voice. Likely his back was toward her.

"What did the military want?" Gray Anderson asked. She could hear the suspicion in his voice.

"They wanted to give us back our local hero," Jake said mysteriously.

Heather could hear the humor in his voice and it made her smile. Hero? She didn't feel like a hero. He was making her out to be more than she deserved. Heather sighed. She wanted to get this over with and get back to a normal life here in Jericho. She never liked crowds much. She always felt like she stuck out like a sore thumb. Teaching a class of elementary school children was about her limit. Her hands were damp with nervousness.

"Jake, stop being so damn mysterious and tell us what the hell happened." That sounded like Stanley.

"I'll let her tell you herself. We have someone to thank for getting the military to come out here and save us."

Oh God, he's making it appear to be a bigger story than it was. But then she remembered something Johnston Green had said on the drive to Black Jack about the importance of hope and keeping up spirits. Jake was just following what his father would have done by taking advantage of the moment.

"You can come out now," Jake called out loudly and she knew that was her cue.

Trying hard not blush and die from embarrassment, Heather Lisinski walked slowly around the corner of the church onto Main Street.

Murmurs and exclamations of surprise came from the small crowd of people standing outside of City Hall. To her surprise, she saw that some of the buildings were damaged. A few had tarps on the roofs and windows boarded up. There was debris and cracks in the concrete in the street and sidewalks as well. Had downtown been bombed? With regret, she realized that she and Eric hadn't been able to do enough damage to New Bern's mortars.

As she got closer, she noticed most of the people were dressed up but wore warm coats. Most of them had been up at the funeral. She felt a little out of place in her old coat and jeans. She heard her name being said and a few comments like 'I thought she was dead, she's alive, she got the turbines here' and she felt like she was going to die from all the attention of many pairs of eyes watching her.

But then she saw the expression on Jake's face. He was smiling and positively beaming with pride. Her heart did a somersault. If she could at least bring him a bit of happiness, then this was all worth it. Heather noticed the look on other faces… gratitude, smiles, a few 'thank gods' and then she was in the crowd. People surrounded her. She received many affectionate pats on the back and hugs including from several from her students calling her Ms. Lisinski, a few parents she recognized and a few of the teachers she had worked with. Stanley picked her up and gave her a big bear hug. Even a few of the local guys, some she had worked with on their cars, gave her a hug or pat on the shoulder. She definitely was not used to this much attention.

Gray Anderson held out a hand to her. "Welcome home, Heather. You're a sight for sore eyes." She shook his hand briefly, her small hand dwarfed in his big one.

"Thank you, it's good to be back." It was the first thing she had said and she tried to use her best teacher voice. That usually worked best.

"And thank you for the turbines, as you can see, they are really working." She followed Gray's gaze to one of the turbines that stood tall over Main Street, turning briskly in the breeze.

"Heather," She felt a soft touch on her shoulder and turned to see Emily, who quickly enfolded her in a hug. "Jake and Eric said you were dead." She saw tears in the eyes of her friend and a touch of sadness. "I'm glad you made it back." There was tinge of something in Emily's voice but she couldn't figure out what it was.

"Well, the rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated." Heather quoted Mark Twain and got a good laugh from several people and a smile from Emily. Heather hadn't seen Eric or Gail Green in the crowd but they had probably gone home after the funeral. And she had hijacked Jake from spending time with his family.

She looked over the crowd and saw that Jake hadn't moved far from the curb where he had been standing when she walked in. He was watching her. The expression on his face was unreadable and she wondered what he was thinking. Then he gave her a slight smile and she smiled back.

"Look Heather, do you have some time to fill us in on what happened?" Gray asked. "Eric told us some, but he said they were shooting at you and chasing you with dogs and Constantino had told him that you had drowned."

The memory of what had happened flashed through her mind---images of being captured, handcuffed and examined, escaping, her adrenaline pumping, bullets spraying around her as she had bolted free of her captors, dogs barking and nearly catching her, then falling… falling into water and everything going dark.

"Yeah, sounds like a scene from the Fugitive." Mimi teased. She had heard a lot about Mimi from Stanley while they were in New Bern.

"All right, but trust me, it was nothing that glamorous." The weeks in New Bern had been difficult, and she still wasn't sure where she had found the strength and good fortune to have made it out alive. She was unsure about having to tell the story, but felt that the people needed to know what had happened and that the town of New Bern wasn't totally to blame. She owed both towns that much.

"Let's go inside where it's a little warmer." Gray pointed back toward City Hall.


The group of people from outside settled in the meeting hall chairs upstairs in City Hall. All of the chairs quickly filled up with people until there was standing room only around the outside of the room. The heat was off in the building, but there was a fire in the fireplace at the front of the room. It reminded Heather of the meeting a few months ago that had resulted in their near disastrous trip to Black Jack and her leaving for New Bern. It seemed so long ago.

Heather walked to the front of the room and turned around to face everyone. Gray Anderson handed her a glass of water then stood off to the side, on the other side of the overused chalkboard that still tallied Jericho's dwindling supplies. She saw the Carmichael's, Harry and his wife and son, take seats in the front row. The rest of the seats were taken by some familiar faces, others she didn't know as well but had seen about town. Stanley, Mimi and Bonnie took seats near the back. She saw Jake stop in the spot where he stood at the meeting when they decided to go to Black Jack, standing with his back against the door frame near the door. Emily stood next to him, close enough that their shoulders were touching. People were talking quietly, though many of them were looking at her.

Heather was nervous, but decided to treat this like it was a class full of her elementary school students. She wanted to tell this story. People needed to realize that not all of New Bern was bad. It was mainly Constantino and the thugs that took over. People without food and guns couldn't offer much resistance. She took a deep breath before speaking.

"If you thought we had things bad here, it was worse in New Bern," Heather began and people quieted down to listen. "New Bern is larger than Jericho and it was already in worse shape than us when I got there. They had some food from the grocery storis and from Costco after the bombs, but like us, they didn't ration it at first, thinking that it was only a short time before the power would be back on and we'd get supplies."

That had been their biggest problem after the bombs. People were used to living on a few weeks or month's supply of groceries and no one rationed food in the beginning.

"By the time I got to New Bern, Mr. Constantino had placed the town under martial law. Anyone caught stealing food was left outside of town and told not to return. People were already starving and most people were suffering from malnutrition. Like us, they received food drops, but it didn't help much. They did have a good supply of fuel and coal, however, and were using that and other resources to trade for some food with other towns, but they still didn't have enough food to feed everyone."

Heather knew that Jericho had had it's own cases of malnutrition. Before she left, she had sent several of her students from school to the med center for treatment and they had tried to make sure the children got a hot meal at the school. Thanks to the farms and tight controls on rations, they had been able to make sure most everyone had some food, even though it wasn't a lot. They had eggs, milk, corn, potatoes, soybeans and wheat thanks to the many farms. Many people were growing vegetables in their houses. The bigger problem that Jericho had faced was the lack of power. Natural gas was unreliable and not every one had a fireplace in their house for heat. And then the temperature had dropped dramatically right at the beginning of December. They needed power badly. Thus, Heather had jumped at the possibility of making wind turbines.

"After I arrived, my friend Ted and I were able to convince Mr. Constantino to let us use the brake assembly plant to try and make the wind turbines with the promise that we would make one for New Bern for every one we made for Jericho. They hadn't had any power in New Bern either for months. It took a while to convince the engineers down there that it could be done, but we were able to get a prototype out and tested in a few days, then the one we sent back here to Jericho. Mr. Constantino wouldn't let me come back with the first turbine. He said they needed me at the plant still, even though Ted and the engineers knew how to make the turbines. I think he was using me as collateral for whatever deal he was planning to make here."

"Yeah, some deal." Gray said.

Heather nodded at Gray. Most of the Jericho men that had come to New Bern didn't know all the details of the deal, but Stanley had told her. "When the rest of the guys from Jericho showed up, they cracked down on security around them. They put all the men in one house under constant guard. They started escorting us to and from the plant. They said it was for our safety, but we never saw anyone hostile except for their own security forces. People were starving and weak, even those that worked in the factory with us. Most people only got a meal a day to eat and that was usually potatoes and bread or soybean or corn meal. Like here, people were trying to grow vegetables at home but no one was sharing food with others, especially us out of towners."

She was uncomfortable as she got to the next part. She knew there were children present, plus some of the story, she never wanted to tell. "One night, I had forgotten a design I had been working on at the plant and went back for it. No one saw me coming or going, but walking through the plant at night, I heard voices. Inside a small room deep inside the plant, there was a meeting with Mr. Constantino and a bunch of men, some of his security people. They were talking about dividing up Jericho and taking over the farms and mine and about how close they were to being ready with the mortars they were making to attack Jericho when it reneged on the deal that was made. They didn't see me, so I hid until they left and went back in and saw that they had mapped out Jericho and were dividing it up amongst themselves. When I went back the next day, I found where they were making the mortars." She had been tempted to tell Ted about what she had found, but she needed Ted to keep acting like nothing wrong was going on and to keep working on the turbines. Constantino was already suspicious enough of Heather and the Jericho men. Ted had never been good at acting innocent and she didn't want him to get in trouble.

"I went and found Eric and told him what I had found and we made a plan to put a stop to their mortar production." She left out the part of how Eric had disappeared. Eric had told the guys one night that he needed some alone time to think and had left one night. Constantino had gone ballistic when he heard the news and had sent search parties out looking for him with orders to arrest him if seen. Heather had thought Eric had left town when someone had told Ted that someone matching Eric's description had been seen and Heather followed the trail until she found him. She told him about what she had found and suggested they try and stop what New Bern was up to. She hoped that by giving him something to do to protect Jericho, it would wake him out of the funk he had been in. They made plans to destroy the mortar production. She had tried to act normal for the next two days while they worked out their plan and waited for the right time, then left early one morning to head to the plant with Eric.

Heather took a big swallow of water before continuing. "They caught us trying to destroy the mortar supplies and machines. They took us to the plant first aid center where they locked us up and a doctor examined us for injuries." She swallowed hard and trying to keep her voice steady. "They kept us guarded until Mr. Constantino came and told them to take us to the jail but before they could move us, the nurse there helped us escape again. We didn't get very far before they discovered that we were missing and began chasing us on truck and on foot."

Smiling, she noticed that the children, who hadn't been paying close attention so far now were listening closely. The fire blazing behind her had made the room quite warm and she took off her jacket. Gray pushed a table behind her and she set it down, then sat on the edge of the table, glad to rest her feet.

"We ran about a half mile before they caught up with us. They had dogs and guns and were shooting at us. Eric fell behind and told me to keep running. When I looked back, I saw they had caught him and they sent the dogs after me." She couldn't remember having ever run so hard. Fortunately, she and Ted had spent long summers running around in the back woods around New Bern and she knew the area around the plant a little bit. "I came to the old limestone quarry about a mile from the plant. Ted and I used to play there when were kids. The dogs and men were nearly on me, shooting as I ran. I came to the lake in the middle from where the quarry used to be. It was about a twenty foot drop to the water. They were still firing at me, I felt a couple bullets whiz past me and I jumped."

"See? I told you it would be just like the Fugitive," Mimi said to Stanley, loud enough that Heather was able to hear her and she smiled.

"Wasn't the water cold?" The Carmichael's son asked from the front row.

"It was freezing!" Heather replied. She had left her coat behind in the plant and had only been wearing an old shirt and sweater and jeans. Her clothes had weighed her down as soon as she hit the water.

"But didn't they catch you when you came up?" A boy asked. He looked like the brother of one of her students from school.

Heather laughed. "I'll let you in on a secret, as long as you promise not to tell anyone else." She smiled mysteriously.

"There's a big overhang underneath where I jumped. Ted and I use to go swimming there in the summer time. Many abandoned quarries get filled in with water. The water is deep and we found out that if you swim down under the water by the overhang, it leads to a cave from where they used to mine the limestone." She remembered hot days in summer when she and Ted used to jump off that very ledge into the water, competing on how long they could stay underwater or how far they could dive. "So when I hit the water, it was so cold I could barely breathe and it hurt. But, I stayed underwater until I was under the overhang and swam under water to the cave to hide."

Thus, the men above probably figured that she was dead and had been shot or had sunk to the bottom. She looked to the back of the room and saw an amused expression on Jake's face.

"Was there air down there? How did you breath?" the Carmichael boy asked.

"There's air down there. And the tunnel comes up a bit out of the water." She remembered coming out of the water, shaking so hard from the shivering that her teeth had chattered. It had been pitch black in the cave without any lights, but no one had followed her. "We used to pretend we were looking for lost gold down there. Or hidden pirate treasure." She and Ted had brought flashlights in waterproof bags, but they had never found anything more exciting than old rusted tools. "I waited for a long time. I was cold and wet and hurt from the run and drop into the water, but I waited for a very long time. When I came out later, the men were gone. When I went back to Ted's place, where I was staying to get a change of clothes, I saw that one of Constantino's deputies was staking out his place so I went elsewhere." She noticed that Jake gave her an curious look and looked like he might ask her a question and she paused. When he said nothing, she continued.

She glossed over the boring details, of how she had gone to the house of an old school friend and her husband. She remembered showing up wet and cold on Susie's doorstep pleading for her old friend to help her. She tried to stress the importance of her getting to Jericho for help and to warn them that New Bern was going to attack. It wasn't until she told them about what had happened at the plant that they had finally been convinced to help her. But she didn't tell the crowd about that part. They didn't have a working vehicle though Heather had tried to get theirs working for the better part of the next day. She had been able to hot wire their neighbor's truck the next morning, however. They had only been on the road for an hour when they were attacked and the truck overturned, killing both her friend and her husband and leaving Heather for dead. Susie and her husband had died, the military had told her. They had taken her to Camp Liberty to be treated for her concussion, bruised ribs and a mild case of hypothermia.

"The military on patrol found me and took me to Camp Liberty in Nebraska. I woke up in a medical tent and I told them about that New Bern was planning on attacking Jericho and asked them to come help. I watched them leave for here, hoping they would be able to stop things in time." She looked at Jake during this part and he nodded his approval to her changing the story. "They came back and told me they had stopped the battle and were setting up a base camp here. I kept asking them to let me go home. And eventually they let me come on their trip this morning." She also left out the fact that she had stowed away on a chopper to get here.

The next few minutes, Heather sipped on her water and answered questions, especially about Camp Liberty and any news from outside she had heard. She had almost forgotten how little Jericho knew about the outside world. Ted had had friends with ham radios who heard news on a regular basis. Several of his friends also went to Black Jack periodically and came back with updates. She said knew that that Mexico and Canada had closed their borders to refugees. And the Eastern states had been working on uniting again under the federal government led by the former Secretary of State who had been the one in seclusion when the bomb hit Washington D.C. and was the rightful president in the line of succession. She remembered the former secretary of state, who had also been a military general like Colin Powell once was. She thought he would make a good president. Unfortunately, he represented the Eastern government. Texas was still standing alone, stating they had the right to still be an independent Republic. The western government was organizing in Cheyenne, though several states, including New Mexico and California, had yet to sign on under the newly elected President Tomarchio.

She felt her own weariness as she sat on the table, and her body still ached from everything she had been through. She used to spend hours on her feet teaching. Telling her story and her adventures of the past few months had taken a lot out of her. She also recalled she had yet to have anything eat today, but she had gotten used to skipping meals.

At last, people began getting up to leave, some stopping in front to say a little something to her, give her a hug and their thanks for the power from the turbines, telling her little stories about how they were able to cook and have hot water and lights again. Their gratitude made her blush and made what she had gone through worth it. She wondered if this was how Jake felt after he had just saved the day.

Her gaze wondered to the back of the room where she saw Jake talking with Emily. Emily had stood beside him the entire time, not speaking, though she had asked a question about Texas. Roger had headed there, Heather knew.

Stanley, Mimi and Bonnie stopped near the back to talk to Jake.

"Ugh, I hate talking in front of people," Heather made a face as she walked toward their group.

"You did great." Stanley told her. They had become good friends while in New Bern, spending nights with the group playing cards and talking.

"Hey, Heather," Gray Anderson called from the front of the room. He had been talking to Harry Carmichael. "Do you think you could stop by the mine tomorrow? We'd like to look into making more turbines."

"Sure, be glad too." During her long hours at the Camp, she had been thinking about what it would take to make more turbines here in Jericho. The brake assembly plant in New Bern had been easy to set up, as it already had machines capable of shaping metal. They would need something similar here in Jericho. She knew that the few turbines that they had completed would not be enough to power the entire town yet, not to mention some of the homes and farms outside of town.

Most of the people had left the room, leaving Gray and Harry at the front still talking. The deputies Bill and Jimmy were standing in the hall talking with several people about looting and other town issues.

"You know, you just missed me and Hawkins at Ted's trailer," Jake said. "When we got there, Perkins was staking out the place." She heard regret in Jake's voice.

"Really?" Heather was surprised. She had seen Deputy Perkins there and hadn't waited around long to see if he would leave. "Well, I was cold and wet and didn't think I had much of a chance of getting inside with him there. Speaking of cold... Stanley, I need a place to stay and was wondering if I could stay at your place in exchange for work?"

"No problem, I could always use an extra hand. Plus, old Bessy is starting to act up again and could use your expert mechanical touch." Stanley gave her his goofy grin. Bessy was one of Stanley's old tractors. Some people named their cars. Stanley named his tractors.

"Hey, how do you get all the women?" Jake teased his friend.

"Maybe I'm starting a harem." Stanley quipped, raising his eyebrows. Mimi punched him in the shoulder.

"It's a bit of a hike out to the farm, Heather. We'll find someplace in town for you." Jake stated with a seriousness in his voice that surprised her. She noticed that Emily gave Jake an unhappy glance.

Stanley gave her shoulder an affection pat. "Well, the offer is always open if you need someplace. Can't have Mimi do all the spring planting alone."

"All right, farm boy. Let's go home." Mimi started pushing Stanley out the door. Stanley had spent many nights telling her all about Mimi and how mismatched they were yet they had fallen in love. She could see why and was happy for the couple. "Glad to see you alive and well, Heather." She said as she left. Bonnie waved at her as the trio left.

"Let me know if your family needs anything, Jake." Stanley called over his shoulder on the way out.

"Come on, let's go see my Mom. I know Eric will be glad to see you, too." Jake held his arm open to escort Heather out.

Emily walked with them on the way to the Green's house. Jake and Emily filled her in on a bit of what had happened in the past several days when New Bern attacked Jericho. Heather found it hard to believe that people she had known from New Bern had come to attack Jericho. She saw the pain on Emily's face when Jake told her how Jonah Prowse had reneged on a deal to help Jericho and stolen the mortars and launchers they had captured. She didn't know a lot about Emily's father, but knew that it troubled Emily a lot whenever he got involved in Jericho. She had also heard the whispers of gossip about Emily being from the wrong side of the tracks and knew that it bothered her friend.

A silence fell among them as they walked and Heather suddenly felt like the odd man out. She was never big on making small talk. And after all the talking she just did, she was glad to have a break.

When they arrived at the Green house, they found the living room packed with people.

(To be continued...)