One Second After

“Buy time for what? We have the passes secured.”

“You know about the fight there, don’t you?” Dan asked. “Yes.”

“Well, that was a disorganized mob. Word is starting to filter in that groups are starting to come together. Most are just scared people banding together for survival and mutual protection, exactly what we are doing here. But some, John, there’s rumors about cults. A family that was allowed to pass through here yesterday, actually heading east, coming out of Tennessee, said that over by Knoxville there’s a guy claiming this is the start of a holy war.”

“And let me guess, it’s his vision of holiness you subscribe to or you die.”

Dan nodded his head.

“Says that Jesus appeared to him just before the power went off and gave him his mission, that he is the new John the Baptist preparing the way for the final return. And good God, supposedly there are hundreds now following him and killing those who disagree.”

“Several weeks, that’s all it’s taken,” John sighed.

Dan rested a hand on his shoulder.

“Just remember Ecclesiastes, John: ‘A time for war, a time for peace.’”

“So now it’s back to this. And back to kids drilling on the town green. I want to think that across America, today, there’s a thousand such groups drilling in order to keep civilization intact so that we don’t become a mob where one eats only because he is stronger than others or we kill each other in an insane frenzy of crazed beliefs.”

“That’s why those kids out there are drilling and that’s why I want you to be in command of them.”

“Me?” he asked, incredulous at the suggestion. “Hell, you’re the one with the vision.”

“I’m a college president,” Dan said with a smile. “A one-legged college president.”

“A wounded war veteran,” John replied sharply.

“Yeah, a dumb eighteen-year-old kid from Mocksville, North Carolina, so damn stupid I couldn’t see I was in a mine field. But I got the GI Bill, disability checks, and, since I could no longer run or play ball, a realization that I had to be something else. So here I now sit.

“John, while we work here, I want you to lead in the town. Charlie is a good man, a damn good man, but his focus, it’s on the moment, on survival for the community, and God bless him for it. But we need something more. We need someone with vision who can see beyond, like the song said, ‘to patriots’ dreams…’ You have the respect of everyone in this town now. The kids, the community, the police, Charlie, everyone.”

“Why?” John said coldly. “Because I fumbled the job of blowing some junkie’s brains out?”

“No, because of what you said before you blew his brains out, as you now so crudely put it. Maybe that poor devil-consumed kid really did have a purpose in life after all. Maybe it was to give you that moment.

“For some, the fact that you did shoot him, well, for some that created fear and awe. But for the rest, they heard your words and will not forget them. John, that gives you a power. And you did hold the rank of colonel and were offered a star, which you turned down for Mary’s sake. Mary’s family is an old family here and you tossing over being a general to bring her home was the talk of the town back then, and I think you saw on day one the respect everyone held for you.”

Frankly, he did not; he was far too focused on Mary and, yes, somewhat bitter as well that the powers that be in the Pentagon had not found a way around his problem, but that was in the past and for so many reasons now especially he thanked God he was here in this place.

“Dan, my entire combat experience was a hundred hours in Desert Storm, nearly all of it locked up in a command Bradley, one minor jolt when a shell landed a hundred yards away, and that was it. Heck, give it to Washington. He’s the DI; he’s the guy who was at Kha Sanh.”

“He doesn’t want it and he fully agrees with what I’m saying here now.

“He explained it to me the other day when we began to plan this unit and the question came up of command. I left it open, at first thinking he’d take it, but he immediately said you should be the one.”

“What did he say?”

“He laughed. Said he knew he was the best DI in the United States Marine Corps, but it takes more than that to lead an army. He wants someone with an advanced education, someone who will remain cool under stress, someone who’s studied war and knows the history of it and can thus apply it in a crisis. Of course that means you, John. I think if it ever comes to a major fight it should be Washington on the firing line, but he wants someone like you behind him.”

“I still think he should lead.”

“He’s von Steuben out there, John, even though his name is Washington, and he knows that. It’s your job and Charlie agreed that if a crisis comes where a militia is needed, you lead it.”

“Thanks, as if I wanted it.”

“John, if you really did want it, I don’t think your name would have been in the hat. We wanted someone who would see it as a service and, above all else, even while defending this community would be thinking ahead to afterwards.