9:00 PM
Mr. Harrison's House
Daryl leaned back against Carol's knees as she toyed with the short strands of his hair. She was sitting in an armchair, while he sat on the floor. The fireplace flickered—for light, and not for heat. All the windows of Mr. Harrison's house were open to let in some air. Gavin was lying on the couch, against a stack of pillows leaned on Dianne's side, and she had her arm resting lightly across his, on the side where his wound didn't lie.
"How's that oxy doing?" Dianne asked. "Is it still working?"
"I don't know why people want to get high on this," Gavin replied. "It just makes me groggy." As if to prove the point, he dozed off.
"Great," Dianne said. "Now I can't move. Someone drag that hassock over so I can at least put my feet up."
Jerry, who was sitting on a stool by the kitchen counter, did so, and then returned to his cup of piping hot chocolate.
Carol tried to think about the pleasant quiet, the gentle company of friends, and not those poor abused women she'd discovered in the educational building. But she couldn't help but think—there but for the grace of God go I. She'd been helpless once, without a firearm, with no knowledge of how to stab, trap, or shoot. If she hadn't fallen in with good men from the start, she might have ended up in a situation like that. Sophia might have, she thought with horror. She slid her hand over Daryl's head, gently down his neck, and then rested it on his shoulder. "I'm glad we stayed to fight them," she said.
"Yeah, me too," Daryl murmured quietly.
"They had a lot more men than we expected," Dianne said. "They only hesitated to invade one of our communities because David knew we'd overthrown forces that size before. But sometime down the road, after they'd made more recruits? They would have come for one of us."
"They just didn't expect to find us in Shirewilt," Jerry said. He got off his stool to answer a knock on the front door and returned to the living room with Alden.
Alden looked with surprise at Gavin practically lying in Dianne's lap. "Is he out?"
"He's been sleeping a lot," Dianne said. "Half the day, from what I've been told. It's for the best."
"DJ told me about the gunshot. He's going to be all right?"
"He'll be fine."
"I brought Fun Kingdom's military truck down from the Sanctuary. Also, I just saw Daniel pull up with the Shellman's loot that was being stored in the Kingdom. I guess we'll divvy it all up in the morning?"
Dianne nodded. She looked down at the slumbering man on her lap. "I'm never getting off this couch, am I?"
June 22
9:30 AM
Shirewilt
In the morning, representatives of all the communities haggled over the division of supplies from Shellman's Sporting Goods and the Audubon Botanical Gardens. The tanker, they judged, had 8,000 gallons of stabilized gas, which should be good for another year before spoiling. Each community in the Coalition—which now included Ozzy's Mount Vernon, Oceanside, Alexandria, The Sanctuary, the Kingdom, the Hilltop, Shirewilt, and Fun Kingdom—would get a share of that. Despite its distance from Virginia, Fun Kingdom (at least those currently present) had agreed to join the Coalition because its rules were fairly simple:
1. Don't attack or extort any other community in the Coalition.
2. Allow free travel to and from your community to other Coalition communities.
3. If another community asks for help, seriously consider lending it.
4. If a mutual threat arises, work in conjunction with other communities to overcome it.
In the end, each community was assigned an allotment of 750 gallons of gasoline, with up to 200 gallons to be taken today (if each community could find a way to store it) and the rest to be claimed in the future. The tanker would be driven by Aaron to Alexandria and stored there, because it was the most centrally located community in the north. The remaining 1,200 or so gallons of gas would be designate "Coalition Reserves" to be used for joint missions or other agreed upon uses.
"Are we going to need to form a Coalition Council?" Aaron asked. "I mean we're just making all the decisions informally, because we happen to be here."
"A Coalition Council wouldn't be a bad idea," Dianne said.
"Jesus Christ," Gavin muttered. "More meetings?"
"Every six weeks, maybe," Dianne told him. "Until the gas spoils and we can't travel so easily. We could make them trade meetings, too."
"We ain't makin' that trip in winter," Daryl told her.
"So let's say the 30th of July, the 30th of September, the 30th of November, then a break, and start again with the 30th of March?"
"That sounds reasonable," Carol agreed. "Where would meet?"
"Alexandria, the first time," Aaron said. "Since that's where the communal gas stores will be, and people can claim more of their share then. We can decide at that meeting where the next one will be."
That work having been done, Gavin tossed Alden the keys to the sedan they would be driving home. He winced after he tossed them.
"Take it easy," Dianne insisted.
"I didn't think throwing keys was much exertion."
"It is when you just got shot."
Alden got into the driver's side of the sedan, while Gavin kissed Dianne goodbye outside the passenger's side.
"Heal up," she said when she stepped back.
"And you be safe checking out that monastery," he replied. "Do you really need to take Ozzy?"
"He's the one who knows where it is," Dianne reminded him.
"You know he's just going to try to get in your pants the whole trip."
"Well good thing my pants are only big enough for one."
Gavin smiled. "Does that mean we're exclusive?"
"I only do exclusive. I'm a serial monogamist."
"Yeah, well, don't move onto the next episode too soon?"
"I don't intend to." Dianne kissed Gavin again. She opened the door for him and shut it again when he got in so he wouldn't have to yank it closed and strain his wound.
12:00 PM
Fun Kingdom
Sophia took the saddle off of Shadow and hung it on the wall of the stable. Next she began to unbridle Magnus. Maggie had left her to deal with the horses alone after their ride, which Sophia took as a sign of trust. She'd also jumped her first fence today, a low wooden one Maggie had set up in the pony ring she'd widened into a more "grown-up" riding ring. Sophia had been terrified to do it at first, certain she'd knock out a plank at best or bring poor Shadow down at worse, but she hadn't. She'd cleared it.
She'd just finished brushing down Magnus when Patrick wandered into the stable. "Hey," he said. "Ready to take a break and have lunch?"
"Are you?" Patrick had worked through lunch for the past four days, on some grand project he was doing as part of his apprenticeship with Tom the Electrician.
"Yeah," he said with a grin. "We finished!"
"I could eat," Sophia agreed, "but I have three more hours of apprenticing this afternoon, under Rosita, to work on the vehicles."
"You signed up for way too many apprenticeships," Patrick told her.
"I'm not like you. I don't know what I want to do already."
As they walked back to the House of the Future, past the Royal Banquet where the kids were getting out of morning classes for a long recess and lunch at the picnic tables outside, Patrick told her about his completed project, using terms about circuits and wires and all sorts of things she didn't understand. Sophia was glad he was excited, but her eyes glazed over a bit, and eventually she said, "So…what all this mean, exactly? Practically?"
"The café in the Kingdom of the West has enough electricity now to plug in some appliances, a fan, a space heater later, some lamps…And we got the water pump pumping and redirecting some water from the wells to the sinks in the kitchen and bathroom of the café. The people living in that section will still have to use the showers in Splash Kingdom."
"So you brought power to the West?"
"I wouldn't say that." Patrick pushed his glasses up on his nose. "That makes me sound like someone important who will go down in the history books or something."
"Well, you probably will. Not for that, I mean, but for something you do when you're thirty. Or really old, like forty."
Patrick smiled sheepishly. "Tom did a lot of the work. I'm still learning."
They passed a garden where Rick and Michonne and Carl were working and asked if Carl wanted to join them for lunch. "No, I said I'd meet Duane for lunch by the firing range and then show him a few things."
Sophia and Patrick strolled on.
"Are they like…a couple?" Patrick asked.
"Duane and Carl?"
"No." Patrick laughed. "Michonne and Rick."
"Oh. Yeah. Why do you think they sleep in the same room?"
Patrick shrugged. "The House of the Future is really crowded and she's helping with Judith."
Sophia snorted and shook her head. "You are so naïve."
"That's what Carl says. I don't know anything. Like, for instance…" Patrick tilted his head to peer at her slightly. "How does a guy know if a girl likes him?"
"Well, I suppose he could ask."
"Yeah." Patrick looked forward again. "I suppose he could." He looked up at the sky. "Looks like rain."
"Hershel said by the ache in his knee, it feels like three days of rain. Maybe even a big thunderstorm at some point."
"We better close up the windows in the house before we eat."
They did close up the windows in the house, starting with the upstairs and then the downstairs, all of which had been left open for air. They were closing up the kitchen windows when the radio crackled: "Egypt, come in. Come in, Egypt. This is your friend from the north."
Sophia hastened to the radio, seized the microphone, and pressed the button. "This is Egypt," she said as she yanked out a chair and sat down.
Patrick came to stand behind her.
"This is Gavin. I'm trying to reach Sophia, or someone who can convey a message to Sophia."
"This is Sophia." Her voice rose in anxiety. "Are my parents okay?" The okay came out as a high squeak, and Patrick put a hand on her shoulder, which did make her feel a little less anxious.
"Your parents are fine!" Gavin hastened. "And your brother. Cousin I mean, whatever he is. Your friends. Everyone in your group is fine. No harm to any of them, and it's all over. But your parents need to stay on for an extra day or two to…uh…tie up some loose ends. They wanted you to know so you wouldn't worry."
"Why couldn't they radio themselves?"
"I have the only radio that reaches as far as you, and they're going straight to tie up those loose ends from where we all were this morning."
Sophia pressed down her button. "Are these loose ends dangerous?"
"No. No, they just involve…uh…let's say, making new friends."
"Okay, well, thank you for letting me know. Tell them I love them if you see them."
"They said to say they love you, too."
"Oh, are your people all right?" Sophia asked. She felt bad that it was a complete afterthought.
"I've been in better shape myself, but we all pulled through. Well, all but one of my men."
"I'm sorry for your loss," Sophia told him. That was something she heard adults say to each other when someone died. She wasn't sure what good it did.
"Thank you."
By the time Sophia had hung up the microphone, Patrick was already fixing them lunch.
12:20 PM
Shirewilt
Carol and Daryl had spent the morning helping to fill up gas cans and drums from the tanker for Shirewilt. They had to gather empty five-gallon fuel cans from every garage in the neighborhood. The deceased prepper Mr. Harrison had also owned two 55-gallon drums, but he'd drained both of those a few months into the apocalypse running his generator, and they were now full again.
"It'll be so nice not to have to ride bicycles everywhere for scavenging," Mrs. Johnson said.
The inhabitants of Shirewilt were home again. After news reached Oceanside of the victory, a woman named Beatrice drove them all back in a van that had once belonged to the Hallowbrant Outreach Recovery Center. It was a cramped ride, with some people sitting on the floor.
Daryl also put thirty gallons in the tank of their own military truck, and then topped off his motorcycle with two gallons. That work—and a quick lunch complete—he and Carol joined Dianne and Ozzy, who were waiting for them by the flat-bed truck the Redeemers had taken from the monastery.
The bed of the truck was loaded with the monastery's four shotguns, two canisters of shotgun shells, and other things taken from their camp—half of their stolen canned food (the other half, and all the fresh food, according to the inventory notebook, had already been consumed by the Redeemers), a cardboard box full of crossbow bolts, and three crossbows.
"If they're crossbow men," Daryl said. "Can't be too bad."
"Well, Genghis Khan was a crossbow man," Dianne replied.
"Don't think these folks are conquerors, seeing as how they got their asses handed to 'em."
Also on the flatbed were other odds and ends, including a cardboard box containing a number of golden things: a three-bar crucifix with an icon of Jesus, a chalice, a plate, some kind of teapot-looking thing, and a spoon with a handlebar that resembled a cross. There was also one botle of sacramental wine. The notebook had shown the Redeemers had taken twelve, but one was all that was left in the pantry.
"Hell's with the spoon?" asked Daryl, looking into the box.
"It's for communion," Ozzy told him.
"I know I ain't much of churchgoer, but I ain't never seen a spoon used in communion before."
"Well that's because your people drink grape juice from plastic shot glasses," Ozzy told him.
"My people?" Daryl asked. "'N who are those?"
"Southern Baptists. Tell me I'm wrong."
Daryl shrugged. "My mama might of hauled me down to a Southern Baptist revival one time to get saved. Also, sometimes I'd walk a couple miles to the Baptist church for the free donuts. Didn't go to no damn service. Just snagged the donuts."
Carol, envisioning a child Daryl sneaking donuts from a neatly organized fellowship table while the well-dressed parishioners looked on him askance, smiled. "Well, I grew up Roman Catholic, and I've still never seen a spoon for communion."
"That's because your people aren't a part of the original church," Ozzy told her. "You split off and went your own spoonless way." He winked at her.
Carol chuckled and shook her head. "Daryl and I will ride in the bed."
Ozzy took the driver's seat, and Dianne climbed in shotgun beside him. Carol and Daryl sat in the bed, between cardboard boxes, backs to the cab, weapons at their sides, legs stretched out. As Noah opened the brand-new Shirewilt gate so the truck could roll out, Carol lay her head on Daryl's shoulder.