Part 4: Jericho - Part 1.

Jericho - Part 1.

24th of October 2077 - Jericho, Town Hall:

Kaidan and Anna May were in the mayor’s office sleeping. It was around eight o’clock in the morning and they had fallen asleep four hours back, as they were helping out the other Spectres in sorting out the Town Hall as their temporary headquarters until they cleared out the underground facility.

This was when there was on a knock on the door and a Spectre entered the room, and said, “Commander, sorry to bother you, but we have a problem.”

“What is it?” Kaidan asked groggily, as he woke up.

“The storekeeper of this town, Gracie Leigh, isn’t opening the store.” the Spectre informed the new Commander.

“Can’t the mayor or even you or one of the other Spectre deal with this?” Kaidan asked irritatedly, not liking to be woke up for something as simple as this.

“Mayor Green is at the hospital dealing with a few problems there,” explained the Spectre, “and Gracie Leigh won’t listen to either of us, and we thought it better if you deal with it than us forcing the issue. She’s someone that whilst can be a pain, people look up to her and have people’s ears.”

Kaidan sighed at this, the world had ended and this Spectre and the others still seemed to worry about public relations. He couldn’t believe it, right now public relations, whilst useful, was a secondary problem. Right now they needed to gather all the resources that they have right now, to see what they have and haven’t had, so they could ration it out between the people of the town. Seeing that right now, until things are sorted, he didn’t know when they were getting fresh food and drink, if at all. It was bad enough before the bombing, but now, who knows what is going to happen.

“Fine I’ll be at the store in a few minutes, just need to get dressed.” Kaidan informed the Spectre who left to let the Commander and Anna May to get dressed.

o0OoO0o

24th of October 2077 - Jericho, Gracie’s Market:

It was fifteen minutes later and Kaidan and Anna May were in front of Gracie’s Market, one of the main stores in the town. And there were a few Spectre in front of the store, waiting for the new Commander to arrive and there were a few of the townspeople there to see what was happening. There were two metal barrels with fire, in front of the store so people could see in the dark.

Now there was an elder lady standing in between the metal barrels, she was stern looking with her arms crossed, she had brunette hair which was in a ponytail. She had a pink and white striped pattern collared shirt, which was partially unbuttoned at the top. She was wearing a dark blue knee high skirt, and greyish shoes.

Seeing that she was not letting anyone in, Kaidan suspected that this was Gracie Leigh, so with a deep annoyed sigh, he asked, “By any chance are you, Gracie Leigh?”

“Yes I am and you are?” Gracie asked the man.

“I’m the Spectre Commander, Kaidan Alenko,” the new Commander informed the elderly women, “and I’m here to see why aren’t you giving everything that you have here to my men, so it can be sorted out. Just like the other stores have done in this town?”

“Why should I?” the old woman asked stern, “What do I get out of this? The world might have ended, but I’m still a businesswoman. Why should I give away my stock for nothing? I’ll have nothing to trade later on if I just give it away now.”

“I can understand that and if times were different I would more than happy to let things be. But they aren’t.” Kaidan told the shopkeeper, “One way or another I’m going to have my men go into your shop and take it to the Town Hall to be sorted out. You have only two options today, the first is that we force ourselves into the store, if that happens when the rain comes, you’ll be left out here to defend yourself. Know this though, the rain will be radioactive and meant to last a few days, so you could be dead before the rain stops. Or your other option is that you willing to give us the stock that you have, and you’ll have a safe place to say out of the rain and everything that comes afterwards. So you chose, force us to take what we need from you, or give it willingly, either way, we’ll be taking what’s in your store.”

“What about the rest of the town?” Gracie asked darkly, not liking how this man was treating her like she was nothing. “Are you saying that they won’t do anything to get this safe settler of yours? They’ll be getting in for free?”

“No they won’t,” the Spectre informed the woman, “other than the children, once the settler is ready, every able body will be doing something to help to set it up. Even now there are some who are helping out where they can. So decided you have five seconds to decide. Five...” Here he put up his four fingers and his thumb up, and on the count of five, he put his thumb down.

Four ... Kaidan put his index finger down, as he gave Gracie a look of not backing down, and he would do what he threatened to do.

Three ... here the Spectre put his middle finger down, walked towards the store, only stopping a few feet from Gracie.

Two ... here the Technomage put his fourth finger down and looked down at Gracie, giving her a look that said, “I dare you to go against me. I’ll show you what will happen if you do.”

Seeing this look, any courage that Gracie had left her, knowing that this person wasn’t someone to piss off. So standing aside she said with fear and loathing, “Fine, I’ll give you the stock, but you better keep your end of the deal.”

“As long as you don’t get in the way and help out, I’ll keep my end of things.” Kaidan informed the shopkeeper, as the Spectres went into the shop to gather what was inside to take it to the town hall to be sorted out. As Kaidan was watching this, Gracie was standing there watching unhappily as her livelihood was being taken away from her. “Is this everything that you have?” inquired Kaidan, making sure that he had everything.

“Yeah, that’s everything,” Gracie admitted grumpily, “I would have had more, but the train with my latest stock never arrived yesterday.”

“Was it running late?”

“Not as far as I know of no.” Gracie informed the Spectre.

Hearing this Kaidan called over five other Spectres and ordered, “I have a mission for you five, I want you to follow the train tracks to Denver to see if you can find a delivery train. If it’s still in one piece, I want you to bring it back here and we’ll deal with it. If other people found it first, try and make some sort of deal so we can have some of it.”

“Yes, Commander.” The five said at once as they left to find the train.

Seeing that things were going will at the store, Kaidan decided to head back to the Town Hall, leaving Anna May behind just in case something happens.

o0OoO0o

As Kaidan was walking towards the Town Hall, he heard a familiar feminine voice say, “Was that wise to treat that lady like that? It could cause us some problems later on.”

Kaidan saw it was Faye Lau and her sister Heather, with a smile he said, “Maybe not, but I’m not a politician, I’m a warrior who does what I believe is right. I think that’s why the former Commander wanted me to become the new Commander, because I’m willing to do what is needed, even if others do not like it. I’m not here to make people happy, I’m here to make sure we all survive.”

“Far enough Commander, but be warned you’ll not going to make many friends this way.” Faye warned her Commander.

“As long as I can help as many people survive this, I don’t care.” Kaidan waved Faye’s worries, “It’s not like that all Commanders are meant to be liked, not when we have to do things that others won’t like.”

“He’s right sis,” Heather told her sister, defending her rescuer, she had a small crush on him from him saving her, “for the world that we’re in now, we need someone who isn’t afraid of upsetting people to do the right thing.”

Faye give a knowing smile at her sister, she knew why she was standing up for the Commander, and it’s not only because she believed in the new Commander, but she also had a crush on him. Not that she disagree with them, but she knew that some times that public relations were just as important as action. “Although I agree that actions are better than words, public relations are just as important Commander.” Faye informed Kaidan, “When things settled down, and things get back to normal you’ll need to know to know how to deal with people, so that we can rebuild, rebuild the government and the country as it used to be.”

“Like that’s going to happen.” Kaidan told her darkly.

“What do you mean?” asked Heather.

“First off why should we rebuild it as it was?” asked Kaidan, “It was corrupted as hell, look at how they treat both of you because of who your mother was. Why would you want it to be like that.”

“Well the government might not been good, but it’s better than the alternative,” Faye informed Kaidan, “there would chaos, criminals would go unchecked, there would more people looting, killing and doing whatever they wanted and no one would be able to stop them. At least with the government there’s some sort of order, and with the new government, it could become better.”

“You might be right,” Kaidan admitted darkly, “but as far as I’m concerned, the world could do better without this government. Now say that we do try and rebuild the world like before, how many people would want this? First we don’t know how many people have survived this Great War, by the time this is all over, there might not be enough people living worth rebuilding the government. Second if there are enough people, do you think they want it if they remember it in the first place. After everything that they done to you and us, I for one would be willing to live without the fools.”

As much as Faye hated to admit it, but she could see Kaidan side of things. But even though she and her sister had it rough, she believed that although the government treated them badly, it could have been much worse. She and her sisters could be slaves, someones play thing for someone, but the rules that the government came up with allowed it so that wouldn’t happen. Sure it wasn’t perfect, she believed it was better to have a corrupt government than no government at all.

But at the same time Kaidan had a point, what is the point if there aren’t many people around. They had no idea how many had survived the bombing, and there’s the fallout of the bombing, no know would know how many if any would survive, if any. And then there was the years to come, it would take years before things would clear up before they could rebuild safely. Who know how many would still be around. By than as Kaidan, who would want a new government, even remember what one was by that time.

“Less talk about this more now, we have other things to deal with than rebuilding the government.” the Commander told her. By now they were in front of the Town Hall. “So how are you two? Are you doing okay after everything that has happened so far.”

“Yeah, a little bit disoriented, but other than that, we are fine. Well as fine as one can be with everything that has happened.” Faye informed Kaidan.

“Yeah, with surviving the apocalypse, you have to suspect to be disoriented.” Heather admitted to her survivor, “We all dealing with this in our own way, I think me and my sister are doing better than others. Although I have to say thank you again for saving me yesterday, I fear what would have happened if you didn’t come when you did. There’s no way I could thank you enough for that, so if there’s anything you need, just ask and I’ll help you.”

Kaidan got the feeling what she meant by if there’s anything she could do she would do it, and whilst there’s no penalty in fucking the fifteen year old now, he still had morals and felt that if he asked what she wanted, he would be taking advantage of her. Something he didn’t agree with. “I was just doing my job, you don’t need to repay me.”

“We know that,” this came from Faye, “but I have to agree, if there’s anyway we can thank you please let us know. If you didn’t find my sister when you did, I fear what would happen to her. So whilst I don’t have to reward you for doing your job, I do feel like that I have to reward you for saving my sister. So if there’s anything you need, as long as it’s in our power to do so, please let us know.”

Kaidan was going to repeat what he said, that they didn’t need to repay them, but then he remembered what he just been through and how he didn’t want to go through it again. That’s when he got an idea that these two sisters could help him. “Well there is something you could help me with, something that just came to me.” the Commander told them, “I would like it if you two could become my personal assistant of sorts, so that something like what happened with Gracie doesn’t happen again. As I really don’t want to deal with something so simple when there’s so much to do.”