World of Ashes (56 page)

             
Turning the selector lever from semi to full auto Ethan crept up on the edge of the creek surrounded by three foot concrete walls. After stepping on top of a stump to get a better look his fears were confirmed. The female Federal Agent he’d spoken to before was attempting to sneak away through the creek bed. She was completely unaware of his presence and didn’t seem to be in a great rush. Raising his weapon Ethan saw her turn around, deep brown eyes looking right into the ACOG’s orange arrow…

              Kenly and Ethan won the election by a landslide when, on the day of the elections, just hours before most people would be off work to go vote, Sheriff Cally shot and killed both “
fuel thieves”
that had killed Lieutenant Rowe and put Lieutenant Reynolds in the hospital near death. Unfortunately, the new void in leadership had caused a second round of elections to be called, which would take place in one month. The city council, in which Jenny Kopland was now president, was gaining power. Like any bureaucracy they were doing little but raising taxes and getting in people’s way.

Ethan
sighed, wishing some other poor sap had won the election. The opposition parties were extremely angry and protesting at the high school, but in a town of just over four thousand it was just a handful of malcontents. Mostly people Ethan had arrested for one thing or another. At the same time the two “Feds” had been trying to kill him, six more had slit the throats of a dozen soldiers at FOB Alamo as they snuck in and tried to steal the fuel trucks. The trucks didn’t start because security S.O.P. stated the trucks had to have their spark plugs installed if they were to be moved for this very reason. The newly installed alarms on the trucks went off and the trucks locked themselves down. Guards responded and captured all six. Since they wore Cavalry Greens stolen from the Quartermaster’s locker weeks earlier Lee unceremoniously lined them up against a wall and shot them, all before breakfast chow was served. That explains why he wasn’t one of the first on the scene. One was interrogated prior, but didn’t want to answer. Lee didn’t have any qualms about waterboarding someone for information, but this time he simply wasn’t in the mood. Something about having someone try to kill his brother and murder the boys he was responsible for put him in a foul mood. This spy’s fate was no different than his comrades, their bodies burned with the zombies like so much trash.

             
“I think the real idea was to find our leadership and create an excuse and kill us. Taking the fuel, in their mind, might be more like reclaiming it, or securing a good local source, or even a distraction while they attempted to assassinate the rest of us.” Lee offered. He had been trying to get Bogey’s attention, but the beagle wouldn’t have anything to do with anyone but Ethan. Both were covered in bandages, blood brothers in war, and Ethan couldn’t be more proud of his warrior puppy.

             
“Hold on.” Kenly interrupted Lee before he could start another conversation with Ethan. “Ethan, have you heard the election results?”

             
“I quit.” Ethan said, standing and walking towards the door with his dog.

             
“You just got elected Sheriff again, dumbass. Which, by the way, means I need an AAR on this incident and an honor guard put together-”

             
Ethan slammed the door and left. He was going to go home and try very hard to make another baby with his wife. Surely Paula could watch the kids for a few minutes. Opening the door to his unreasonably warm house Ethan wished he’d spent some of his off time building a deck on the roof. That would be next summer’s project. To his surprise there were people chatting in the living room, some of them he didn’t even know. He turned and saw all the furniture pushed to the far end near the master bedroom. The remaining space devoted to political signs reading MARY CALLY FOR LIEUTENANT MAYOR. This couldn’t be a nightmare. Nightmares weren’t that bad.

             
“I’m so glad you’re home!” Mary kissed her husband and went about returning to stenciling the signs. “There’s food in the kitchen. I got a couple bottles of wine, I thought we’d celebrate.”

             
“A woman is dead and you want to celebrate?” Ethan narrowed his eyes.

             
“No.” Mary’s face was honest. “Rowe and I were friends, and I miss her already, but I’m not going to allow one of those assholes, like Kopland, who want to bleed our supplies and men dry just to be the prom queen again. This was Rowe’s idea in the first place. She wanted to quit…” Mary trailed off. She had gotten caught up in the moment and forgotten to mourn. So much death surrounded them all, who could blame her for focusing on something positive(ish)? “She wanted to open a shop and make toys… I don’t know. I guess I couldn’t just stand by anymore. Playing cop was fun, but I think I’ve got a chance to make a bigger difference.”

             
“Whatever. I’m going to bed.” Ethan walked through the kitchen. He was hungry, but too disgusted with himself to eat. Bogey had no such compulsions and was happy to find his food being fed to him one handful at a time by Serenity. Samuel blocked Ethan’s path upstairs, forcing him to pick the boy up on his way. “Hey, you want to have naptime?”

             
The tiny boy hugged his daddy and was asleep before they reached the top of the stairs. Ethan was exhausted, emotionally and physically. His sleep was fitful, visions of Iraq and every other horrible thing he’d ever seen played like a demented movie, over and over with no plot, rhyme or reason. He slept the whole night though, his body too exhausted to wake up.

Ethan’s depression over the loss of Keith intensified to th
e point Mary could no longer take it and forced her husband to see a psychiatrist, but only after he and Lee got into another fist fight over something as trivial as a parking space. Lee was confused by the whole thing, though Ethan was probably even more confused. It was like he wasn’t even in control of himself anymore. He and Lee had been knocking each other around since day one, but there had always been a reason. The last incident was pure stupidity.

             
Ethan sat in the soft chair where he was supposed to wait for the shrink. Mary was outside with Samuel and there was nothing to do for the longest time before the head-shrink, a man in a stereotypical argyle sweater with the diamond shaped designs on it came in and sat across from Ethan. “Hello, I’m doctor Hector Ness. What can I do for you?”

             
“My wife thinks I need to see a psychobabblist.” Ethan said flatly. This guy was only the billionth mental health professional Ethan had seen over the years. It was like dealing with the DMV to him. Pretend to smile, say what they want to hear, go home, pop open a bottle or light a dooby and pretend it never happened.

             
“Do you?”

             
“Doesn’t everyone?” Ethan felt it was likely he’d end up fucking with this guy on purpose. “I thought even shrinks saw other shrinks.”

             
Dr. Ness smiled. “We try, but pickings are a pretty slim these days.”

             
Ethan nodded, “Do you know what the attrition rate for your job field was?”

             
“I’m the only qualified psychotherapist I’ve met since the government fell.” Dr. Ness replied. “So no, I don’t get to talk to other shrinks, just my wife. Do you speak to other sheriffs? Sit around a poker table and shoot the shit?”

             
“There don’t seem to be any other sheriffs.” Ethan admitted. 

             
“I see. So tell me, Ethan, in your own words, what has been the major issue lately?”

             
Ethan didn’t even know where to start. Who hadn’t heard of Keith’s death? How did this guy not know? “My best friend is dead. Do you even live on planet Earth?”

             
“Keith Brewer. I knew him.”

             
“He’s dead.” Ethan repeated, his tone softer now. His eyes started twitching a little as he grew perturbed. “What else is there to say?”

             
“Do you miss him?”

             
“Like I miss everyone I’ve lost… only more. Keith was different. My wife and brother called it a ‘bromance.’ He deserved better… Why would they shoot the medic?” Ethan leaned back and shook his head, tears welling in his eyes. “…you’re not supposed to shoot the medics… It’s… evil…”

             
“You’ve lived a blessed life behind these walls, Sheriff.” Dr. Ness said. “You don’t know what it’s like out there for people.”

             
“Fuck you! That doesn’t justify murder!” Ethan countered, ready to stand up and put Dr. Ness through a window. “I was there! I was right fucking there!” Ethan looked down at his hands as they trembled, in his mind they were still dripping with Keith’s blood, his uniform stained and ruined. “They were trying to kill me. I know it.”

             
“Can you tell me about it? You don’t have to.”

             
“No.”

             
Dr. Ness considered for a moment. “Would it help to know I’ve seen the same thing? I was a Marine once…”

             
Ethan looked up from bloody hands. They were clean again. “You don’t look like a Marine to me, and I’ve known a lot of Marines. I’m married to one.”

             
“Your records here show you were a Soldier a while back. You don’t look like one now. Your facial hair is too long… Though I digress, you are kind of fat like an Army Dog.”

             
“Omission isn’t lying.” Ethan answered.

             
“You’re right. I’m just used to talking with people who don’t know any better.” Dr. Ness folded one leg over the other. “We have the time, Sheriff. Why don’t we start from the beginning? I’m a combat veteran as well, Ethan. I was in Fallujah. I was a radio operator. I heard the screams over the radios, called in medevacs for men who would never make it as far as an aid station. You never forget those sorts of things. So please, I want you to feel comfortable speaking to me.”

             
There was another long silence before Ethan could bring himself to speak. “I was ordered to clean her blood off the rocks with bottled water…” The story of Iraq unfolded over the next two hours. Doctor Ness had cleared his schedule for Ethan at Kenly’s request. The town needed him back to being the same Ethan Cally that had walked into town during the chaos and restored order with a gun and a badge.

             
When it was all over Doctor Ness handed a prescription for an antidepressant and a powerful sleep aid to Ethan. He would have to be force fed both, but it was a step in the right direction. Someone finally had the right words for what was wrong with him, and he would just have to accept the diagnosis. Depression induced by Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, combat fatigue from two years of fighting the undead and Insomnia to boot. If nothing else Ethan would have to try the meds for Mary and Samuel’s sake.  

             
Mary could hear outside the room, the walls weren’t that thick. It might have been wrong to eavesdrop, but little things in conversations had made her insatiably curious about a time Ethan refused to speak of. After maybe half the story she wished it were all still a mystery. A lot more made sense about her husband, if she had never worn a uniform she might not have really connected with all the things Ethan spoke of. The people you shared a uniform with weren’t supposed to become your enemy, and when you were a cop your fellow cops weren’t supposed to be the criminals.

             
After the session Ethan composed himself and didn’t look any different than he did when he went in. He’d explained a great many things, including his guilt over losing Keith. He felt better, but it wouldn’t change the fact that when he got home his best friend’s wife would still be walking around the house with a blank stare, waiting for him to return as she always did. Keith’s second child, Keith JR, had come into this brave new world just before the elections. He was healthy and in no time would be causing trouble with his older sister and Samuel. Lee was becoming more of a father figure for the kids than Ethan was, but then that couldn’t be helped. Lee wasn’t falling apart from the inside out. He was the lucky one, seemingly immune to it all.

Ma
ry won the bid for Rowe’s position and now technically outranked Ethan. Not that it mattered, the position was more of an assistant civilian mayor than anything. Rowe and Reynolds hadn’t done their jobs according to the description, but then who was going to tell them otherwise? Reynolds was in the hospital still. He’d been shot three times, but was still alive and as ornery as ever. Good thing too, he had five kids. This unfortunately left a leadership void that at least one person with common sense, Mary, was able to fill, even if the other two positions went to complete morons. Reynolds’ position went to Jenny Kopland, one of the biggest proponents of settling outside the wire. She was also rumored to have had ties with just about anyone Kenly had pissed off over the last two years. Paperwork and obstacles were already undermining the Mayor’s authority at every turn and she only promised to get worse.               Just before Halloween the Provost Martial’s Officer got a call from FOB Alamo. Ethan was at the desk eating lunch while Wigg, being punished for misbehaving yet again, was hanging rubber bats for decoration. Ethan and got to the phone first and shoed Wigg away to get back to work. “PMO, go ahead.”