E j deen, p.26
E. J. Deen, page 26
Most were behind him, eager to have guidance and leadership. They adored him, embraced him,
accepted him. They cheered his victories, mourned his defeats, and pledged their allegiance to him.
They were a small group, but they were his. Together they would eventually change the state of the country.
It was a bloody battle. The Pirates waged an unfair war against Zach. They had no standards. They took hostages and killed innocent people to try and manipulate Zach into giving up. But Zach was just as ruthless, and he refused to bow to their demands.
Zach was a hands-on leader. He fought beside his men in some of the most brutal skirmishes in history.
But he was not to stay in the midst of battle for long. They had decided, Doc and Jordan, that he was becoming too important to fight with them anymore. They couldn’t risk him getting killed in action.
The people loved him, and without Zach, their entire operation would fall to pieces. He already had a price on his head, put there by the Pirates. They didn’t need to add risk to risk.
Zach was not happy with the decision. He wanted to be in the middle of it all. He was a warrior, and he had difficulty laying down his weapons.
“You’re too important now. If something happens to you, the morale we’ve tried so hard to build will crumble, and the people will collapse in defeat. Think about the people, Zach. They need you,” Doc said. “Don’t disappoint them to please yourself. Don’t let them down just because you love this war.
Go to Washington. Choose your men and form a governing body. It’s time. The people are counting on you.”
Reluctantly, he agreed.
“Tell Pete and Sara I’ll send for them as soon as it’s safe,” he told Grady.
More than a year after he had agreed to lead the people, Zach returned to where his nightmare had begun, Coon-ass and the New Secret Service at his side. It was a small organization, but a loyal one.
He had every confidence it would grow. They would help him gather the people together and rebuild a Congress, rebuild the White House, rebuild the country, while their compatriots continued to win the civil wars and skirmishes that were everywhere.
Burgess, Serena, Tad, and even Hangdog completed the group. For a time Tadpole had been afraid of Serena, afraid of the deadly virus she carried. But he’d eventually grown accustomed to it, and now he treated her with all the fierce protectiveness a loyal brother would give a beloved sister. He was part of her new support system. He and Burgess.
Burgess. She had become Zach’s lifeline to reality. She kept him grounded, kept him calm and rational when he wanted to explode and be anything but. She was with him always now. They all were. These people were his family. Burgess, Serena, Tad, and the damn dog that was always hanging around
underfoot.
Stepping back into the desecrated city, he had to wonder if they had a prayer of winning their battle.
The city was in ruins. Burned and gutted, only a few hulking remains left against a bright backdrop of blue sky. The Lincoln Memorial had been completely demolished. The Washington Monument lay in a crumpled heap of white stone. The White House had long since been bombed. Parts of the city were still standing. Most of the Supreme Court building was still intact. It was a start. A small one, but, dammit, it was a start all the same.
Zach stood alone on the crumbling steps of Capitol Hill, peering out over the city, snatches of memory filtering back to him across time, bits and pieces of the new history. It had all happened so fast. Almost like a dream. But it wasn’t a dream. It was real. It was happening.
Here, on the steps of a Capitol that was half gone, he knew a part of his life was ending. A part of his life was beginning. He had his name back. He had his life back. He had an entire country counting on him. It felt unbelievably good.
“Four score and seven years ago our forefathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal,” he murmured the historical phrase. “In the year 18 A.R., our forefathers brought a divided nation together again, under God, to live in victory, freedom, and equality, governed with strength, temperance, and democracy.
United we stand…divided we fall.”
He lifted his hands and touched the sky, feeling the breeze sifting through his fingers. His eyes were stinging, but it wasn’t from sorrow. It was triumph, catching in his throat, forcing emotion from him that he’d buried for nearly a decade.
“Zachary Tobias Salenger,” he whispered. “You will live. And this country will live with you.”
He was through killing. It was time to rebuild.
Epilogue
Three years later they buried Serena. The virus in her body had won the battle for supremacy, and Doc had been helpless to do anything about it. She’d been so brave. During the final months, she’d taken Doc’s sometimes painful experiments with her chin held high and a glint of determination in her eyes, as much a warrior as the men who had protected her. Despite his intensive research, Doc’s cure was still in development, promising but not quite there yet. His new lab was dedicated to Serena, the young girl who had never fully blossomed into a woman.
Zach didn’t consider that a bad thing. Throughout all of it, she’d managed to hang on to those childlike qualities that made her so endearing. It was the only thing she had left to cling to, that small bit of happiness that had been given her by some merciful act of God.
Beside her grave, Zach stood rigid and straight in a dark suit, his black hair cropped close to his head, combed and clean, his arm clasped tightly around Burgess’s slender waist. His wife. Serena had been right. Burgess made a damn fine First Lady.
Tadpole, clean at last, tugged forlornly at a tie that was too tight for his liking as he stood beside Zach, the man he now called father. Pete and Sara were there, having joined Zach years before. And, of course, Doc. Behind them stood fifty Secret Service men, headed by Raymond “Coon-ass” Pierce. He was always there, never far away. Eager to be of service, keenly alert and vigilant.
Zach glanced out over the crowd who had come to mourn Serena. They all loved her, and they all mourned her passing. She would be greatly missed, most of all by Tad.
Long after the others had gone, Zach remained in the cemetery, alone with his thoughts as he gazed down at the aging dog that lay atop the mound of earth separating him from his longtime companion.
He could almost hear Serena’s laughter flitting along the slight breeze, and the memory of her face made his chest hurt. She was gone, but the miracle she’d left behind still lived on, in Zach. She’d given him back his soul, and he would always love her for that.
He sighed and lifted his head to stare out over the horizon. It was a cold day in Washington. Bitterly cold. Fitting weather for such a bleak occasion.
“Mr. President,” Raymond spoke from his respectful distance.
It took a moment for the moniker to register. Zach had lapsed back in time, and the title seemed odd to him, foreign. But that’s what he was now. The President of the New United States, the first president ever to be voted into a life term, president of a country struggling for stability, gaining power inch by precious inch, a country on the rise.
He had a Vice President now, a man worthy. Half Sioux, he’d been leader of a small remainder of Oglala before Zach found him and convinced him to join the government. He brought the wisdom of the ancient ones to the New World, the fierce determination of a warrior in battle, the patience of a man accustomed to leadership, the knowledge of the environment. The perfect balance. He was a good man, a good Vice President.
“Mr. President.” Raymond’s voice broke into his thoughts again. “There’s been an incident. Word has it that China has in their possession a stash of W-88s.”
He didn’t hear the rest. He just turned away from the mound he’d been staring at and accompanied Raymond back to where his congress was waiting in the new Capitol building.
To embrace the future. Whatever it might bring.
Document Outline
Cover
Title
Copyright
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Epilogue
Table of Contents
Epilogue
Cover
Copyright
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2
3
4
5
6
7
8
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10
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Primal, E. J. Deen
