Joshua Gayou - Commune - The Complete Series - A Post-Apocalyptic Survival Box Set (Books 1-4)

We all sat around the table wondering what he would do next when he reached out, took his queen, and moved it all the way across the board into Billy’s back rank and said, “Check.”

Billy froze in place, staring at what had just happened. He reached out toward the board, stopped, and pulled his hand back. Finally, he moved his king over a space to get it out of danger. Jake’s bishop came forward, flattening a pawn at its final destination.

“Check.”

Billy shook his head and moved the King again.

Jake moved his queen, to which Billy responded by growling, “Son of a…”

“Check.”

Billy sat now for a long time staring at the board. He leaned in several directions looking at things from all angles, agonizing over what he would do next. I couldn’t see what the big deal was; it seemed clear to me that he had to move his king again. It took me perhaps two minutes or more while Billy deliberated before I realized the problem: both Billy’s king and queen were now threatened by Jake’s queen. Billy couldn’t capture the queen with his king because Jake’s queen was guarded by a pawn deep in Billy’s territory as well as a rook all the way across the board in Jake’s area—Billy would have been moving his king into check, which is illegal. If Billy captured the queen with his own queen, his piece would be lost. He finally muttered, “Damn it…” and captured Jake’s queen with his own, which Jake promptly captured with the rook.

“Check.”

Billy sighed and shook his head, clearly disgusted with the entire situation. He moved his king out of check. Jake pushed the rook to the final rank, trapping the enemy king behind a wall of its own pawns.

“Mate,” said Jake.

Billy sat back in his chair. “What happened to you liking your knights more than your queen?”

“Nothing. I still do,” said Jake. “But you were also in the room when I said that.”

“What‽”

“You heard me say that I would take two knights over one queen so I figured you would go after them. You did, but you developed a case of tunnel vision while you pursued them, sacrificing good formation of your pieces to capture them both. Your desire to get my knights caused you to rush the opening, resulting in many of your pieces remaining underdeveloped. I helped this along by bringing both knights out to attack the center early instead of pushing more pawns to support d5, leaving the knights vulnerable. You were so focused on getting those knights that you didn’t see the check and subsequent king/queen fork coming.”

“Jesus,” said Billy. “You’re one of those guys, aren’t you? All Bobby Fischer and calculating fifteen moves ahead and everything?”

“Thinking that many moves ahead is a pointless exercise,” said Jake. “All it takes to wreck a sequence of that length is a single move. I never think ahead more than four.”

“But you literally went into the game knowing he would go after your knights,” I said. “You set that up, it happened, and you used it to win. That whole game was a lot longer than four moves.”

“I had a general plan,” replied Jake. “I knew what situation I wanted to create and waited for opportunities to do so. Not the same.”

“So next time, don’t go straight for his knights, Billy,” said Elizabeth.

“Except next time I’ll know that we had this experience and adjust my plans accordingly,” Jake told her.

Billy was waving a finger at Jake and laughing. “You’re a dirty player, Whitey.”

Jake raised his eyebrows. “Have you ever heard the expression ‘play the board’?”

Billy nodded, “Sure. It means you make your best poker hand without using any of the hole cards.”

Jake nodded. “It means something different in Chess. It refers to planning your strategy based only on the position of the pieces rather than what the opponent is likely to do. It’s how you want to learn to play when you’re a beginner. Later on, as you better understand the game, you play the player. The pieces on the board are only an expression of your opponent’s personality; therefore the opponent is your problem. The pieces on the board are only incidental.”

The time we spent together at the cabin includes some of my happiest memories since the world toppled over. As I mentioned, there were times during this period in which I experienced discontent with bouts of depression, however Lizzy, Jake, and Billy were always there for me when I needed them or ready to back away when I needed my own space. Even my daughter, who was so young at the time, could tell that I needed the leeway to work through the dark things inside of me, displaying the poise and the wisdom beyond her years to grant it. My family circle, which had collapsed under the weight of the Plague, had expanded again to include Jake and Billy, who transcended the position of simple friendship. They became necessary.

“I want to thank you both,” I told them one night. We were all sitting on the front porch enjoying the last light of the day before the sun went down completely. “I don’t know what inspires a person to invite a total stranger to come live with him, but you’ve saved my life in more ways than I can express.”

“Well, we weren’t just going to leave you,” Billy said and cleared his throat.

“Yeah, I know,” I said. “But you extended that same invitation to Jake at some point and then to Otis later. What is it that makes that seem normal to you? I’m not complaining, but that wouldn’t have been anything you did before, right? People don’t just invite strangers they meet to come live with them.”

“Well, they actually did,” Jake said from his spot on my left. “People used to put ads for roommates in the paper or online all the time, which was essentially inviting strangers to move in, just as you say.”

“Aside from that,” Billy said. “It’s something I think I picked up from Jake.”

“Me?” Jake asked.

“Yap. I can’t say why I really invited you to come along for the ride outside of the fact that you made a good drinking buddy and generally weren’t a horse’s ass. I think I was also lonely too. But I didn’t set out to start collecting strays. The original plan when I left California was to avoid strangers at all costs. Just figured it was safer that way.”

“So what changed?” I asked him.

“Jake’s refusal to live in an evil world. He made it clear to me early on that he wasn’t willing to avoid people just on the chance that they could be dangerous. He simply wasn’t interested in living that way. When I explained that this was an excellent way to get killed, he said that was fine. I realized that he meant what he said. The point he was making was that he would choose how to live in the world on his own terms and, if the world had truly become a collection of evil people, he really had no interest in living in it, therefore choosing to die on his own terms.”

I looked at Jake, not knowing what to say. I could think of nothing appropriate. He only looked out across the glen, at peace.

“His attitude helped me to realize that there isn’t so very much worth holding onto anymore if we don’t hold onto that core aspect of ourselves. We’ve all lost nearly everyone; our friends, loved ones, and families. What we’re left with—what we have to look forward to is a life harder than anything we’ve ever known. What the hell would be the point of gutting it out if the only people left in the world are those you either won’t trust or must actively try to kill?”

Billy took a pull from his coffee mug (which was absent any coffee). “I learned this from Jake, and I agree. I’m not doing it.”