Chapter 7

"Every man has his own destiny: the only imperative is to follow it, to accept it, no matter where it leads him." -Henry Miller, The Wisdom of the Heart

Hobbes came out and gawked at the large crowd that was coming down the street. He turned to Darien, "There's got to be at least 200 people in that group."

"At this rate this place is going to swell with people in no time." Darien remarked.

One by one, each person came up to meet the old woman. Three in particular were called out of the group, just like Darien, Hobbes and Claire had been. This time it was a man from East Texas named Stuart Redman, a young girl from Ogunquit, Maine named Frannie Goldsmith. The other was an older man by the name of Glen Bateman and his dog Kojak. There was another member of their party, a young man, Harold Lauder, which Darien didn't like from the very beginning. As it turned out, he had come from the same town as Frannie.

Later on that evening, Mother Abigail had cooked dinner for her guests using a grill. Stu and Darien shared their story of their experiences with the CDC and everyone was surprised at how similar the two stories were. Other stories were told of journeys made from different places and of course; the dreams.

"There's one thing we haven't considered here." Glen said. Before the flu, he was a college professor and now he was an amateur painter.

"What's that?" Stu asked taking a sip of coffee.

"Well, East Texas, as you can see there are a lot of people in town and I suspect more will be coming. I hate to bring this up, but we have to consider leadership." Glen said.

Darien looked around at all the candles lit, "And let's not forget about power. Cold showers and bar-b-ques are getting old."

There was laughter around the table. "Leave it to my esteemed partner here to remind us of the important things in life," Hobbes nodded towards Darien.

"Why, thank you Hobbes." Darien said with a sly grin.

"We are creatures of habit, Mr. Hobbes." Glen retorted. "I believe that Brad Kitchner has been working on the power."

"Okay, so…what do we do about leadership?" Stu asked leaning on the table.

"Whoa…wait, who says that has to fall on any of us?" Darien asked looking at the others around the table with a troubled expression on his face.

They all looked in the general direction of Mother Abigail. She sat down, "There are more coming who will be involved, so for right now, just enjoy the fellowship."

The following morning Darien had gone with Brad Kitchner to help with getting the power back on. Hobbes was meeting with Stu about being the Marshall for the Free Zone. Stu was asked to do the job but he thought that Hobbes was better qualified given his background. Hobbes agreed to the job and would ask Darien to help out. Claire took Frannie to the hospital so Dr. Richardson could have a look at her and see how the pregnancy was progressing. Mother Abigail had said she was pregnant when Fran arrived with Stu.

Darien looked at all the switches and dials at the power plant, "Uhmmm…maybe I'm guessing here, but shouldn't we at least turn stuff off. I'm thinking that people may have left stuff on like the AC or TV's, you know what I'm saying? You'll have one hell of a power surge."

Brad thought for a moment, "That is something to consider," Brad looked at the crew that was with him, "Or I can just turn on the power to the area where most of us are living and leave the rest without power."

"Yeah, like a roaming blackout." Darien added.

"That's right. Until then go out to all the clean up crews and have them turn things off in the homes where no one is living yet, tell them to throw the breakers if they have to." Brad informed them. Everyone nodded and left the power plant.

Darien went to Hobbes and told him what the plan was. Hobbes took his opportunity to ask Darien to help with policing the town.

Darien laughed, "You can't be serious, me, a police officer…with my past record? Oh Hobbes, you're killing me."

"I am serious Darien, look so far we're it pal. More an' more people are comin' in everyday, they need someone. I'm puttin' together a team now and I need your help"

Darien put his hands on his hips and stared down at Hobbes, "Okay, okay…but I'm not wearing the uniform."

"Chicks dig the uniform." Hobbes winked at Darien.

Darien smiled, "Yeah, they do don't they, but I'm not wearing the hat, messes up the do." He illustrated his point by fixing his hair.

"Okay, hot shot, don't worry about the uniform. I know how to get your message out to the clean up crews."

"Oh yeah, how?"

"Follow me, partner and I will show you."

They each commandeered a police cruiser and went to separate areas using the car's bullhorn to relay the message. Darien felt strange sitting in the front seat of the cruiser and not handcuffed in the back seat. "I never thought I'd be on this side of the cage," Darien commented as he sent out the message.

Soon after, another group came in and this one just as large as the one from the day before. Darien and Hobbes had returned to Mother Abigail's when they heard about the new group. There they met Lucy Swan and little boy who traveled with her by the name of Joe. An older man who simply went by the name of Judge Farris, and a woman who had a strange meeting with Mother Abigail, her name was Nadine Cross.

Darien spotted a man who looked familiar, he went up to the man, "Don't I know you…what High School did you go to?"

The man looked oddly at Darien, "Did you go to High School in New York?"

"No, I lived in Cold Springs, California…but I know you from some where." Darien stuck his hand out, "I'm Darien Fawkes."

"I'm Larry Underwood."

Darien shook his hand and a shock looked came across his face, "No way…you're the dude, oh man!" Darien's words stuttered out of his mouth.

Larry smiled, "I guess I'm missing something."

"I'll tell you later, but who is that woman that acted strangely with Mother Abigail?" Darien asked.

"She's just someone that came in with me, I met her in New York and then one day she just took off. Somehow we ended up in the same group. There's something odd with her." Larry watched as the other people went up the steps to Mother Abigail.

"There's another guy that came in yesterday who's odd. Guess there's one in every group," Darien said. "We're all heading over to the power plant for the great 'turning on power' ceremony. Come on, I'll show you the way."

The power was restored but just to a small portion of the town. There had been a small fire at the power plant, but that was put under control immediately. It could have been a lot worse and the importance of turning off breakers in uninhabited homes became apparent.

Later on in the evening a meeting was set up for the entire town. There were things that needed to be discussed and voted on. Tables were set up for people to volunteer for various committees. Hobbes and Darien sat at the table for law enforcement and security. Claire sat at the next table for hospital volunteers. After a few moments, Stu stood up and walked to the podium. There was feedback from the microphone.

"Guess we're all gonna have to get used to this again," Stu said in his East Texas accent. Everyone laughed and loud applause erupted from the large group. At Stu's request, the national anthem was sung and for some reason it had a lot of meaning behind it. They were the new America and it felt strange.

Stu announced the names that were proposed for the Ad Hoc Committee. There were seven names given by Mother Abigail and they were, Stu Redman, Fran Goldsmith, Glen Bateman, Larry Underwood, Nick Andros, Ralph Brentner and Susan Stern.

There was a unanimous voice vote to accept the committee in total and what surprised Darien was that Harold made the first motion. Brad Kitchner stood up and announced that they needed a 'Turning Off' crew so that all the power could be restored. Stu then announced the new Sheriff, Robert Hobbes and gave his credentials. Another vote was taken and Hobbes was accepted as the new Sheriff.

Hobbes walked up to the podium, "My first order of business to name a second in command and that will be Darien Fawkes."

Darien stood up and waved, "I can't believe I'm a cop," he said under his breath.

Claire smirked, "Life does have a way of biting you in the rear doesn't it?"

Other business was taken of and the meeting was about to be adjourned when Lucy came in crying holding Joe in her arms and note in one hand. Mother Abigail had left. Hobbes looked intently at Darien, "Looks like we have our first case."

The search for Mother Abigail was now on its third day and there was still no sign of her. Darien and Hobbes were frustrated, "How come we can't find an old woman who's 106 years old?" Hobbes said looking at a map of the search areas.

"Maybe it's because she doesn't want to be found, come on, Hobbes…you read the note. She's gone off on some religious soul searching desert cleansing." Darien said.

"Fawkes! She's 106! How is she going to survive out there?" Hobbes looked at Darien in surprise.

"Look, the committee is willing to trust her fate to her God, maybe we should too."

"Her God!! Fawkes, are you listening to yourself? I'm not about to let her wonder around in the desert looking for a Moses experience."

Darien stood up, "She left on her own, Hobbes. Her own free will, if she's meant to come back then so be it!" he snapped at Hobbes.

Hobbes looked at Darien with raised brows, "You okay there, partner? Are you still having those dreams?"

"What if I am!?!" Darien volleyed back angrily. His tone showed that he had not been getting any rest.

"Claire and I stopped having dreams when we first arrived. Maybe you should see Claire." Hobbes put his hand on Darien's shoulder.

Darien looked down at his feet, "I'm sorry, Hobbes. Yeah, I'm still having dreams." Darien sat down, "I can't shake him Hobbes. It's getting to the point where I don't even want to sleep. Why am I still dreaming about the walking dude and no one else is?"

"I don't know, partner. But maybe if you talk to Claire, she can give you something so at least you can sleep." Hobbes was worried about Darien. Even before all this happened he had dreams, but not to this extreme.

"Yeah, okay, I'll go over to the hospital and talk with her."

"Take the rest of the afternoon off, pal, and see if you can get some sleep. I'll take care of things here." Hobbes watched Darien get up and leave.

Claire had given Darien some pills to help him sleep and he knew they wouldn't work, but he was willing to try. He pulled up to his driveway and hopped off his bike. He looked in the direction of Tom's house and wondered where he had run off to. It had been a couple of days since he had seen Tom and that wasn't like him not to come over for a game of hide and seek.

But the really strange house belonged to Harold just a block away; he always had the shades pulled down, like he didn't want anybody to see him. Harold only did his job during the day and that was the last anybody would see of him the rest of the day.

Darien had planned on doing a little recon in the morning when Harold left for work. He walked in his house and his door slammed shut behind him. Darien tried the door but it would open. Blood started to drip down the door and Darien backed away from it. Frantically Darien looked around and on the walls written in blood was his name.

"Darien." The voice whispered in his ear.

Darien shivered, he felt the cold breath in his ear. The gland in his head tingled and quicksilver started to seep through his pours. Streams of the silvery substance started down Darien's face like as if someone was pouring water on his head.

"Darien." The cold voice said again.

Darien clutched his ears and fell to his knees, "Leave me alone!" Darien yelled just as he disappeared. He looked around the room and in the corner he saw him, standing with red glowing eyes. "I can't see color, why do I see color?" Darien watched as the dark man walked towards him.

"Get away from me!!!"

Darien sat upright in his bed, panting hard and sweating. He had been dreaming again. Darien ran down the stairs to look at his walls, nothing was there. He went back upstairs and splashed his face with cold water. He looked at the sorry sight in the mirror. "I've got to do something about this."

Darien checked the road map he took from the drug store. He packed light, just a sleeping bag and some essentials like water and non-perishable food. He was going to try and travel for half the time, rest for a while and then continue straight to Las Vegas. Darien wrote a note for Hobbes and Claire, leaving it at the front door and like Mother Abigail set out in darkness. He walked his bike down the street so he wouldn't wake anybody up. Hobbes would certainly be mad at him, but this was something he felt he had to do on his own. Darien took a long glance back at the house, "Bye Hobbes, thanks man for everything. Bye Claire, I know you tried and I appreciate it." He started the bike and headed for I-70 West.