Chapter 36
The following three weeks followed much of the same pattern. Bella would wake early in the morning and Edward would escort her around the bunker a few times. She would rest on the sofa after making a few rounds and then eat something light. She would then go back to sleep for a few hours on her cot in the back room. When she woke again in the afternoon they did the same thing. As the three weeks progressed the naps became shorter and less frequent and the walks around the bunker got longer. Bella was even able to climb to the top of the staircase by the end of the three weeks. Her reward was to go outside and get some fresh air. After checking the surroundings for ill intended humans, Carlisle and Edward opened the door and helped Bella out of the bunker. With her nose in the air, she breathed in the fresh, clean air. She listened to the soft sound of the trees as they swayed in the breeze. She heard birds chirping in the distance and saw a squirrel run up a tree not far from where she was standing. It was a beautiful day, she thought. A day she was blessed to enjoy with her odd but loving family.
The trio spent the majority of time in the bunker where it was safe, while Bella healed. Edward and Carlisle made a shield around the property, just like Edward had done in the forest weeks earlier, but it was not a guarantee against humans and elves. They discussed where they were going to go from here, what they could do to help build Forks back to what it once was, or at least as close to it as they could get. The virus had run unchecked through the town. Carlisle had no idea how many were dead at this point, not to mention what the rest of the country was like. The first thing he wanted to do was to get the hospital back up and running.
"It's not safe though. What if you're attacked." Bella reminded him.
"I can fend off the humans if I need to." Carlisle insisted.
"Not if there is a large group of them. They'll be able to get to you." Edward told him.
Carlisle hefted a heavy sigh. "What do you suggest then? If we want to get the town back to what it once was we need the hospital up and running. I need to be able to treat the sick and injured."
"We need to clear the air." Bella suggested. "Bring everyone together and discuss the state of everything. I'll go into town and spread the word."
"Not alone." Edward insisted. "I'll come too. We'll cover more ground that way as well."
Bella nodded, a knowing smile crept over her face. He was protective of her but he wasn't overbearing. He just wanted her to be safe.
"And then what?" Carlisle asked.
"We tell everyone who isn't infected to meet in the school gym in a few days, around noon. When the sun is right over head. Hopefully people will come and we can talk to them. Try and get everyone coordinated and come up with some sort of plan to get things back to normal. We can call out the group who burned down my house too. And that are threatening your life."
"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Edward replied hesitantly.
"We need to clear the air. See what their problem is. Maybe we can reason with them. They're upset at the loss they've gone through. But maybe when they see they aren't the only ones, that Carlisle and the other hospital staff did all they could, they'll settle down."
Edward and his father exchanged a look of uncertainty.
"I know I sound naive. But we have to try." Bella pleaded with them.
"Okay. We'll try." Edward responded with conviction.
The following day, Bella and Edward set out for town. It was slow going for Bella but she managed well enough. As they passed houses they knocked on doors and told people about the meeting they wanted to have. Most doors went unanswered. But some opened, albeit hesitantly. The pair told people to pass the message along to others, pleading with the towns folk to join them. For the most part they were met with nods and heartfelt thanks. A few were unsure, not wanting to risk their family's health. But it seemed the virus had settled some, not having as many people to infect that it started out with. As they walked the streets, Edward and Bella saw children toys abandoned on the roads, trash everywhere, rotting food on front lawns, road kill, and even a dead body or two in the streets.
"We'll need to clean this place up or people are going to start getting sick again." Edward observed.
After a few hours of going door to door, Bella began to fade. The pair headed back to the bunker where she rested for a few hours. The following day, Edward and Bella when back out and continued on their quest. Knocking on doors and telling people about the meeting they wanted to have in a few days, pleading with each person to come out and listen to what they had to say. They continued for two more days until they'd hit as many houses as they could. It seemed a lot of people had left the area though, abandoning the town when it ran out of resources.
Finally, it was the day of the meeting. Carlisle, Bella and Edward made their way to the school gym and opened the doors. Just before noon people from around town started to trickle inside. There was steady stream of people for about 15 minutes, surprising the trio. More came than any of them expected. Everyone was spread out in the large room, keeping their distance from each other. It was a sad sight to see really seeing everyone standing well away from each other. When the flow of people slowed and stopped, Carlisle walked up the stage steps and stood in front of the small gathering.
"Thank you for coming. Can you hear me?" He asked the crowd.
The towns folks nodded and mumbled a yes to him.
"Bella and my son Edward asked you all to come here today so we could start putting the town back together."
"How?" Came a voice from the crowd.
Carlisle continued as if he hadn't been interrupted. "I know you're scared but I also now you have hope. Otherwise you wouldn't be here."
A soft agreeance came over the crowd and could be heard around the room. Edward and Bella shared a smile. They seem to have started off on the right foot.
"I want to get the hospital running so that people can come in that are sick or hurt. I'm sure many of you need a doctor and I think if we opened the hospital up again I'd be able to care for you and your children better. I can't do it alone though. If you have medical training or even if you don't and you just want to help, I'll need you."
"Dr. Cullen." A woman called from the group. "I'll help."
"As will I." Another woman spoke up.
"Thank you." Carlisle replied.
"You couldn't save people before everything went to shit." A man spoke up. "What makes it any different now?"
Sadly there were a few nods around the room to accompany the man's outburst.
Carlisle sighed. "We tried our best. I promise you we did. But so many got sick so quickly and we knew hardly anything about the virus. We weren't able to save everyone. And I'm sorry for that."
"Dr. Cullen worked night and day when the hospital was open." The first woman called out, countering the man. "I was a nurse before all this happened. He hardly slept. The same for all of us. But were stretched thin. There was only so much we could do."
The man had no response to the woman or Carlisle.
"Can you raise your hand fi you're be willing to help me?" Carlisle asked the crowd.
Bella wrung her hands, anxiously waiting to see how many would provide help. Surprisingly, more than half the crowd raised their hands.
"We need to police too." A man called form the crowd. "People need to be held accountable again."
A round of 'I agree' went around the room.
"I'll need a few volunteers as well." The deputy from the house fire all those months ago said to the group.
"We need to have some task forces." Carlisle suggested. "Different groups for different jobs. A hospital task force, a police task force, a task force to clean up the town. A group to collect food and supplies from abandoned houses. What do you think?"
A resounding agreeance came over the group making Edward, Bella and Carlisle catch each other's eyes and share a smile. It looked like they were going to be able to start fixing the town.
"I have some seeds for vegetables and fruits." A woman called out. "We should start a garden, get some food growing." She suggested.
"A great idea." Carlisle responded joyfully. "Before we start, however, there is something I want to address."
The crowd's talking dies down as their attention was drawn back to the stage.
"The Sheriff's house was burned down a while back. The remaining officer told me there was a group of people who were very unhappy with how unfortunate, past events unrolled. We don't have time for people to be working against us any more though. We need to come together. Help each other. Be a team. Forks will never succeed if we have people acting against us. I ask now that you speak up if you are not willing to help. I will understand, but I ask, on behalf of everyone that you don't act out against us."
For a moment there was silence but a small group began to come forward after some time.
"We burned down the Sheriff's house and the station." A man from the group spoke up. From the sidelines, Bella's fists clenched, wanting so badly to strike the man for what he'd done. "And we burned yours down too." He said smugly. "You think you can make everything better but you'll fail. Just like you did before."
The other men in the group nodded their heads along with their leader.
"You did that?" Came an outraged yell from the crowd.
"It wasn't the Sheriff or the doctor's fault." Another added.
"Edward and Bella were in that house." Carlisle spoke over the crowd. "You nearly killed two children. Children who are just as afraid and confused as everyone else. Who haven't done a thing to hurt you or your families." Carlisle admonished.
Gasps could be heard around the room at Carlisle's explanation of events.
"The Sheriff had just died after contracting the virus which he caught while trying to hold the town together. We don't have time or the patience for men like you. You need to decide to stay and help or stand aside so that we can fix out town."
"They shouldn't be given a choice." Someone called out from the crowd. "They should be made to leave."
"I'm not going to force anyone out." Carlisle responded gently. "I will however ask that stand aside if they stay to let us rebuild." He said, addressing the group in front of him.
"I'm not staying if he's in charge." The leader spoke forcefully.
"Then leave." Someone called from the crowd.
"I don't have to be in charge. If someone else wants to step forward I will gladly step aside. But only if they have good intensions."
"I think it should be you, Dr. Cullen." A woman insisted from behind the group.
The crowd nodded and a resounding agreement could be heard after her suggestion.
"The people have spoken, gentleman. Make your choice." Carlisle said calmly.
The leader turned and stormed out of the gym but none of his followers left with him. Carlisle looked at each of them, waiting for them to make their choice.
"We're sorry we burned your house down." One said to Carlisle.
"And yours too, Bella. We didn't know you were home. Jim, the guy who left, said he'd checked. That it was empty."
"Yeah, it's true." Another said.
"We're sorry."
Bella paused before nodding her head in thanks for their apology. It wouldn't bring her home back but they were admitting their deed was wrong. That they'd made a mistake. She could live with that.
"You'll stay and help?" Carlisle asked.
Each man nodded his head at Carlisle.
"Let's get started then." He announced with a smile. "Hospital helpers go to the far-right corner." He began, dividing the group gym into the task forces that were suggested earlier. After few minutes the towns folks were all standing where they wanted to help and began discussing what they thought they should do.
"I'm going to get something for us to write on." Bella said to Carlisle. "There are free-standing whiteboards in the math rooms."
"I'll come with you and help." Edward replied.
The pair set off through the school. They had to break a few classroom windows to get markers, erasers and the whiteboards but they figured it didn't really matter since the school was trashed anyway. When they made it back, Carlisle split the whiteboards into sections using one of the markers. When a group had suggestions, he wrote them down under the corresponding task force. After a few hours, the groups came back together and saw what everyone else had come up with. More suggestions were made until to towns people were happy with all that had been planned.
"Shall we start tomorrow morning?" Carlisle asked the group.
All across the gym people nodded and called out that they agreed. Everyone dispersed after that, returning to their homes, preparing to get a good night's rest for their busy day tomorrow.
The next day, the town was buzzing with people. It was decided that everyone would help clean up the streets and the hospital together since it was such a big job. The roads and yards were cleared of trash and debris and piled on the out skirts of town. A lot of cars where still filled with gas still and one of the men knew how to hot wire them so the people used them to help with the cleanup. The hospital was in bad shape. Medication had been picked over, beds were either missing, trashed, or burned, and there was trash everywhere. Carlisle and a few others cleaned up the emergency room and placed as many beds as they could in the large room. They'd been able to set up 20 beds with some medical equipment that didn't require electricity. Thankfully the water was still running so Carlisle began wiping down surfaces with antibacterial soap. Scrubbing in some places until after a few days it looked ordered and clean again. Bodies and trash were burned in abandons lots, and houses were swept by another task force looking for food and supplies. Everything was piled up in the center of town with the intention of distributing everything once it had been sorted through.
More and more people came out as at the days worse on. They were afraid when Bella and Edward knocked on their doors the previous week, but seeing everyone outside, cleaning up and fixing up the town, made them brave. They joined in on the efforts until they had more than 300 people helping out. Mrs. Jones, the librarian, was an avid gardener and was put in charge of creating a community garden. People brought gardening tools and seeds to the center of town and began helping her create a large patch of land for planting. Within a couple days the first seeds were laid and watered. They all hoped their work would be fruitful. Each night, Edward, Bella and Carlisle returned to the bunker. It was home now for all of them. They had checked out the remains of the Cullen's house one afternoon. But both men agreed they'd taken anything of value to the bunker when they'd first been threatened. Carlisle thanked Bella again for her suggestion. Edward hugged her from behind while they watched Carlisle check to see if anything had survived. Nothing much was left though and the trio returned home when their search didn't turn up anything of importance.
As the weeks passed the town began to take on an air of hope. People were outside, although still keeping their distance and wearing masks over their mouths. The town had come together and made the best of a bad situation. Edward was incredibly proud of the leader his father was to everyone. He was diplomatic and fair, hearing out both sides of a disagreement when a problem or dispute arose. But for the most part, Forks was peaceful and the people were cooperative. The community garden came together nicely and within a few weeks the first signs of growth could be seen. Soon the towns people would have a steady supply of fruit and vegetables. The group of people in charge of security decided to erect walls around the center most part of town, providing some protection for the supplies that were gathered there, as well as the hospital. They ran patrols day and night around the perimeter of town and were always armed incase an outside threat came to their doors.
Unbeknownst to the town's folk, Edward and Carlisle placed markings around the area to create a shield. It was large, covering as much space as they could in order to keep everyone safe. They made the markings on houses, trees and rocks that littered the outskirts of town and they also cast spells on the individuals houses people were living in to protect them from outside forces. The next step was to try and get the electricity and gas running again. A few of the workers from the power plant were in town and managed to get things running after a few weeks. They could only run the power for a few hours at a time though because there were so few of them to monitor the system. But it was better than nothing.
As the months went on, more and more people were coming from outside of town. They heard talk of Forks's prosperity and hard work and came to see it for themselves. Everyone was welcome, so long as they agreed to help the town function. Everyone had a job. No one got to sit back and do nothing.
"Just like it used to be." Carlisle would explain to people when he told them the rules. "We work together every day. There's always something to do which means everyone has a job. You can choose what you want to do, unless we desperately need you in a specific area. We have houses cleared out for you to choose from too. We just ask you respect the dwelling and take care of it. It was someone else's home not long ago. We need to remember that."
People who came in happily agreed to the rules and became a part of the town. The virus was still affecting some in Forks but they were few and far between. Which meant Carlisle was able to quarantine them at the hospital for a few weeks to keep everyone safe. It wasn't nearly as bad as it once was. Carlisle provided Forks with something previously thought to be unattainable. He provided them with hope and a purpose. They didn't know how long they would have to live this way for, but people were just thankful that they had some semblance of normalcy again. They had their problems but on the whole, the town thrived on everyone's hard work and determination. Bella, Edward and Carlisle, along with everyone else, were proud to say once again where the lived. To be able to welcome people who needed refuge and give them a safe place to settle. It would take work to maintain the peace they'd made but to everyone in Forks, it was worth it.
The End.