Chapter 8 An argument continued, and an unexpected visitor

Note: I don't know if the nanite thing makes a lot of sense, I just needed to get rid of them.

Morning.

As soon as Charlie senses Connor is awake, she nudges Monroe to wake up as well. He sits up as Connor comes to the door. "Well, this is romantic." He steps over Monroe. "I'm gonna take a leak."

Charlie and Monroe are packing up inside the barn.

"You're right," she says to him.

"About which part?"

He really doesn't make this easy. "About the power vacuum."

He nods his head, looking around for something in the barn that he can use to make a fire.

"But you hated being president of the Republic."

"Why do you think that?" He finds some large pieces of wood.

This man is so frustrating. "Let me see if I have this right: You were a terrible president because you hated being one. And you hated being one because you were all alone at the top."

He presses his lips into a hard line, but they twitch, fighting emotions. He tosses some big sticks out the door where he'll make a fire.

"What I can't figure out is why and when Miles left, but I expect one of you will tell me some day. Couldn't have been that bad, since you're clearly still friends, whether you admit that or not."

She pauses to see if he'll tell her now, but he's clearly not going to. He continues to gather kindling. "You wanna help me here?" gesturing towards the barn.

She ignores him. "When you feel abandoned or betrayed you make reckless decisions. And you've felt abandoned or betrayed a lot."

He says nothing so she continues. "And you hate talking about it and you won't admit when you're wrong."

"Thanks for the Psych 101, Charlie, but let's get a move on here."

She ignores him. "I don't think you want to take the Republic back. I think this is all some misguided guilt about your son."

"Yeah?" He stops gathering kindling. "Okay your turn. What about you, Charlie? Huh? What do you want?"

They stare at one another in challenge, and that's how Miles finds them when he stalks in the barn door.

"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE?"

They stare at him, stunned.

"What?"

"Miles?"

He looks at Monroe. "Ran into your kid outside. He said you two" - he waves a finger between them – "were shacking up in here. That I should 'be sure to knock first.'"

No one says anything. How to even to answer that? Miles lifts his eyebrows, waiting for an answer. 'What are you kidding me?" says Charlie. "No!" "Okay," says Bass, putting up a hand like a stop sign. "Miles there's nothing going on here." "Nothing! Never!" Charlie says.

Bass turns to her. "You don't have to protest quite that much." Turning back to Miles, Bass points to himself. "All my clothes on." He points to Charlie. "She's got all her clothes on. Connor's just stirring up trouble."

Miles looks from one to the other, clearly not totally convinced. "Okay. Well, get on out here and I'll fill you in."

They look at each other as they follow him out. To finish their fight, Charlie says under her breath, "Tell me you liked being President."

Under his breath, he replies, "I hated it. Tell me you want marry the neighbor boy and grow vegetables."

"No way."

The four of them sit outside the barn eating breakfast while Miles fills them in on Bradbury.

"This place was crazytown. A nanite Disneyland. They were everywhere."

"Told you!" says Connor. Miles looks at him for clarification. "Neville was nuts. Babbling about his ex-wife, saying he needed to go to Bradbury and see the big smiling man."

"Yeah, the smiling man was fucking creepy." He turns back to the group at large. "They were all like that. Worshipping at the altar of Nanite. Babbling about loved ones who had sent them there. And they just kept coming."

"That's terrifying," says Connor. "One was enough."

"Actually, it turns out that one isn't enough. Not when you could have all of them."

"What do you mean? They're all there?" asks Monroe.

"Sure looks like it. Which brings me to this: Rachel and Aaron created an electrical grid that should tap into all their energy."

"What's that going to do?" asks Monroe.

"If we're lucky, it's going to start a massive electrical fire and burn them alive. Well, I use the term 'alive' very loosely here."

"And then what do they think will happen?" asks Charlie.

"We don't know. With no nanites sucking up the power we could get the power back immediately, or maybe we have to start building the power structure from scratch."

"And what happens if this doesn't kill them?" asks Connor.

"We're back where we started I guess."

"Where's everyone now?"

"Rachel and Aaron are a few miles that way. Found a place near a town. Your Grandpa stayed in Willoughby."

"How did you know where we were?" asked Monroe.

"Heard a rumor about a bank robber fitting this guy's description." Miles points his thumb towards Connor. "and then heard a terrifying rumor that Sebastian Monroe was seen in one of the towns."

"Shit," says Monroe. "With his wife." Miles turns to Charlie. "Don't look at me!" "So pack up your shit because we've gotta get going." "I don't think so," says Connor. "What?" Connor turns to Monroe. "Are you going to tell him or am I?" "Connor, now is not the time." Connor turns to Miles. 'We're headed to DC." Miles looks at Monroe. "Bass?"

Monroe puts out a soothing hand. "Miles, there's going to be a power vacuum, you know there is. It's probably already happening. They're scrambling to figure out who's going to replace the president."

"I don't know. Maybe the vice president?"

"Who the hell is that, Miles?"

Silence.

"Exactly. Even if there is one, no one know who it is. Which means we've got to get to DC. And now that we know the electricity can be back on at any second, we've got to get there now."

Miles turns to Charlie. "You know about this?"

She is so frustrated with Monroe right now. "He says he's not doing it without us." She uncommitted.

"Us?" He looks to Monroe. "Yes. Us." He swings his finger to indicate the three of them. "I don't wanna run a government, Monroe. And I certainly don't want to restart the Republic." "Yeah? You want people like the Patriots doing it instead?"

He sighs in frustration. "I can't think about this right now. Let's head back to Rachel and Aaron and we can argue about this later. And you," -he points to Connor- "Are welcome to go to DC by yourself, but he" - points to Monroe-"Is coming with us."

Connor looks to Monroe. You going to let him push you around? But Monroe doesn't feel pushed around, he feels accepted. "I told you how it was going to be," he tells Connor. "We do it with them or we don't do it all."

Miles looks to Charlie in surprise. She shrugs.