Jacqueline Druga - Healing

After the battle and Jonah Briggs returned without Mick, I thought he was dead. Even though I was certain there was no way, no how Mick would die in battle. Not him. Jonah pulled us aside, because he didn’t want others to know. He told us that Mick had that super virus and Lars was going to try to beat it.

Lars didn’t know if he could or would, but he’d try. After all, it was Lars Rayburn. After about fifteen days, he declared Mick out of the woods and took him from quarantine right before we had our first Thanksgiving. Mick was pretty scarred up from the sores, all over his neck and arms, but those battle scars were worth him living. I don’t know what I would have done without him. I was very proud. It was a long month. We stayed a couple weeks longer in Damon, then Pap came and got us. He said we had to get home.

Unfortunately, Rose didn’t live to see the first Thanksgiving. She had a ton of complications from her accident. She got to see Mick one more time. That was good.

Despite how much I was attached to Emmie, I couldn’t handle a toddler, not at fourteen. Doc and Mary asked if they could raise her and it broke my heart to tell them yes. But I did. I got to see Emmie often because they moved to Erie, which is pretty close.

Jake moved in with them as well. He’s doing well. All grown and married. Has two kids last we talked.

Pap took care of Baby Doe. We called him John and he turned out pretty good. A teenager now. Ethan is prepping him to be a teacher. Pap is still kicking, man, we have good genes.

Erie took a while to clean, but it was thought to be the best location for headquarters. First summer after, Jonah Briggs moved there and was running things. Been bitching about it since. Both he and Mick bitched a lot. Despite what he always said, Mick ran Lodi, but joined forces with Jonah. They had to work together.

Before the first winter, a huge pilgrimage with close to a thousand people showed up. They were led by some guy named Matt and a former CDC doctor that Henry knew. They waited until it was safe and then they went back to conquer the west. Lexi stayed behind a couple years because her and Bill had a daughter and they didn’t want to leave while she was a baby.

They’re out there now. We keep in touch.

Power was able to stay up but only in pockets of the country. Close vicinity communities. A lot of small ones are in the dark and have learned to live like that. Prefer to live like that.

The internet never came back. I thought it would. One day. Tigger will probably bring it back.

Tigger. Wouldn’t believe it, but man, when he turned thirteen he became a handful. Nothing that Mick did. He just got bad. Running into abandoned towns. Bringing back souvenirs. I think he was twelve the first time he got drunk. Mick kicked his ass couple times, but really how much would Mick kick Tigger’s ass? He was still little. So the summer before his fourteenth birthday, Jonah Briggs offered to take Tigger in and ‘work’ him as he put it.

It backfired and Tigger loved it. He was the youngest soldier in Briggs’ army. Started serving small stuff at fifteen and went up against the “Dins,” as Tigger named them, at sixteen. He’s good at taking them out. He calls them that because they are survivors who try to act like the old school Indians. They never see Tigger coming. He’s the best man for the job. Tigger is fearless and I fear Tigger one day taking over for Jonah Briggs. I think Jonah has the good sense not to allow that. God help us all if he does.

Me, well, I made the grave mistake of praising Lars Rayburn for saving Mick. I told him he was my new hero and I wanted to save people like that. At the time I did, all in his glory for saving the man who was a father to me. But I was like thirteen, come on. Lars knew that had to change. Unfortunately, Lars immediately took me under his wing. I went to the Lars Rayburn School of Hard Knocks. We started with basics, stuff you learn in school, and recess was anatomy and medical stuff. Kurt and Henry started dividing their living time around all the communities. When they were in Lodi, Lars made me learn from them. I can remember Kurt telling him, “Lars come on let the kid go play.” And Lars would say I can play when I’m older.

Really?

I still have yet to go out and play like I did. But I am grateful for Lars because I am reluctantly the next generation of doctors. People call me the next Lars Rayburn. I don’t see it. Growing up, everyone wanted to be like Lars, not because he was this brilliant guy, but because he shook the president’s hand. In our small town, that was a big thing.

Perhaps I’ll be a legend as well for something other than medicine. That would be cool. Actually, I just may be. Six years ago, I achieved a big dream of mine and it wasn’t being a doctor.

Like with Lars, maybe one day parents will say to their kids, “You wanna grow up to be like Chris Roberts, don’t you?”

And instead of saying, ‘he shook the president’s hand, you know’. They’ll say, ‘He’s the one who brought back professional wrestling.’

A PERMUTED PRESS book

Published at Smashwords

ISBN ( eBook ): 978-1-61868-1-614