Chapter 24

Minutes later...

“We choose you, then. Be our Sheriff. We need one who can set this county straight. It’s been on the wrong path since before Doomsday, even more so since. We need law and order here, and not of the kind that Sheriff Aston Milam gave us. I followed his orders before, thinking that you were a menace, but you actually make sense. Stay ... and be our Sheriff, at least for now,” one of the deputies urged me.

“I agree. So does God. You will resume your trek westward in time, but for the moment, you should stay here for a bit. This is an opportunity that we shouldn’t miss. It will help prepare this area for its eventual annexation by Haven. Stay on as Sheriff long enough to get Lancaster County back on its feet. Then handpick your own successor and go West, young man,” Marcy teased me partly by quoting Horace Greeley at me.

“Ladies and gents, what do you think?” I asked my tribe now.

“Just do it, baby,” Xia Delan smiled at me while Hannah ran her fingers through my hair and Autumn squeezed my hand.

“What she said,” Leah agreed with them.

“Indeed,” Bonnie spoke up.

“Very much so,” Ryan concurred.

“Okay, first step, then. You guys ... you civilians ... go home ... I won’t even ask you to disarm. Just go home. Live your lives. Obey the law. Pay your taxes. And don’t even think that you’ll become deputies again. That ain’t gonna fly. You’re all banned from serving as deputies for life. Just be good, law-abiding, tax-paying citizens.

“As for the rest of you guys, let’s move on to Lancaster and set up shop in the Sheriff’s Office. We need Supervisors. That’s gonna be ... Ryan, Wilbur, Leah, Raquel, and Becca. We need a County Attorney, formerly known as the Commonwealth Attorney. That’s Sardha. We now need a Treasurer. That’s gonna be Till. The Commissioner of Revenue will be Bonnie. The Clerk of the Circuit Court is now Willa. This is temporary. You, Hoss, what’s your name?” I asked the man who recruited me.

“Chief Deputy Stuart Lopez, sir,” the fellow told me, “for the record, I was really nervous with the racist talk coming out of the guy. I’m Puerto Rican on my father’s side. It didn’t exactly make me thrilled to work for that asshole. But I did what I could as my civic duty, you know. And I worried that you were a troublemaker ... I’ve heard that you killed some folks in Maryland, you know.”

“Yes, I did, but only when necessary. Stay on as Chief Deputy and when I leave, take over as Sheriff, okay? There will also be a Law Council, to consist of Hannah, Autumn, Xia Delan, Stacy, Eve, Yitzhak, Sarai, Eileen, Kylie Anne, Kelly Rae, and anyone else who I name to it. This will be tasked with drafting laws, ordinances, and such for Lancaster County, with the idea of them lasting beyond our departure.

“I want to create continuity of governance, permanent institutions, including, yes, the code of laws in Lancaster County for the foreseeable future. Who knows how long this county will have to stand on its own, and while it does, for all of the drawbacks, at least it can establish its own laws for now. And its civil offices. I don’t want this to fall apart the moment that we set out from here to Haven. Are we clear?” I stipulated.