Chapter Three

Reagan

“Why didn’t you want Cory to come?” Reagan asks her husband who sits beside her in the back seat of SUV.

“He’s not ready to be around the people in town yet, honey,” he explains gently.

John takes her hand in his and rubs his thumb gently over her knuckles. Kelly is driving while Derek rides shotgun, and they are discussing the local political situation. Grandpa sits on her other side in the back seat smoking his pipe, of which he thankfully blows the gray plumes out the open window.

“What do you mean? He got a shower,” she quips.

John chuckles and replies, “Yes, that would’ve helped immeasurably. But he just needs to settle down a little first.”

“Get some rest and settle in?”

Grandpa says, “No, honey. John means settle down that demon inside of him. He’s not there yet. It may have helped him to be alone for a while, but he’s still restless. Didn’t you see it in his eyes?”

“I don’t know,” she admits with a shrug. “I guess so.”

“We need to give him some time, babe,” John tells her. “If things get heated in town, he’s not likely to have much patience with pettiness and local politics. He has a short fuse right now.”

Reagan doesn’t comment further. They are probably right. She’s sure as hell not good at reading people, not like John.

“With the problems in town, the missing thugs still out there, and everyone going into fall harvest panic mode, it’s better to just keep him at home for a few days at least. Maybe a few weeks,” John says and kisses the top of her head. “He’s a little too intense. He needs some decompression time.”

Derek must’ve picked up on some of their conversation and comments, “Yeah, it’s a big enough pain in the ass in town right now. We don’t need to unleash Cory on them, especially not on Mr. Hernandez.”

“It would make the meetings shorter,” Reagan suggests and gets a lot of male laughter in return.

Everyone nods or agrees out loud with Derek. Jay Hernandez has supposedly taken a vote within his small district, and they are announcing their decision tonight at the town meeting. This situation with the people in town is becoming frustrating for Reagan. She’d like to tell them to just go to Hell and fend for themselves. The McClane family doesn’t really need to be involved with the town people. They’d lived for over a year on the farm in total seclusion with the exception of their two neighbors and Condo Paul’s small community. Unfortunately, she also knows that none of the people there, and more importantly, none of the children would have medical care if her family went back into seclusion. That part would not sit well on her conscience. Without her little Jacob in her life, she’s not sure how she’d go on. Even though she hadn’t wanted to be a mother, he’d been tossed into her lap. He’s the best thing that’s ever happened to her. But she doesn’t have a single relative that lives in town. She just doesn’t want to see any of them die from sickness or injury. She blames John for that. Before he’d stumbled into her life, she was content to stay a hermit for the rest of her days. Now she feels an obligation, just like her grandfather does, to the people in their community.

When they arrive near the town hall, Kelly cuts the engine and they disembark. John helps her down. He really just wants to pull her up against him, Reagan knows. She obliges by kissing his bare neck.

“Hm, you’re behaving awfully naughty beings we’re going into a meeting,” he teases.

“We could sneak off for a little bit before we go in,” she suggests as she hooks her finger into the waistband of his jeans.

For a moment, John looks like he’s going to agree with her plan, but then he just grins, as usual.

“The good thing is that when we get back, your sisters should already have Jacob put to bed,” he hints.

Reagan stretches up onto her tiptoes and presses another kiss to his mouth. “Let’s hope,” she says haughtily.

He shuts the car door, takes her hand in his and pulls her along.

“You’re a bad influence, Mrs. Harrison,” he jokes as they climb the stairs of the town hall.

“That’s your fault,” she gives it right back.

He laughs, “Nothing new there.”

Her sexy as hell husband holds open the door for her. Then he swats her derriere when she passes through.

“Think this is gonna go well?” she asks quietly.

John frowns hard, “No, I don’t think so, babe.”

Reagan shoots him a cocky grin and says, “Try to not shoot anybody, Dr. Death.”

He gives her a harder frown before tugging her close and wrapping an arm around her waist. This is where she feels safest, when John is embracing her this way.

Arguing in the meeting room at the end of the second-floor hallway draws her attention. Apparently this isn’t going to go well at all. They take their seats in the room as men and women continue to complain at one another. Reagan wishes she had a cup of coffee. This would all go down so much easier with some caffeine. That well dried up long ago, though, and she’s just left with a slow, oncoming headache.

Roy, a good man from town of whom she’d had the honor of sewing up this summer after the Target raid, announces the official beginning of the meeting. People are slightly subdued. She keeps her hand on John’s thigh. She can never be too sure of how he’ll react. And she likes his muscular thigh. That helps, too.

It doesn’t take long to figure out why the people are upset. Jay Hernandez and his small sector of families in the new development part of town are seceding from the rest of the town. They are starting their own town and don’t want anything more to do with Pleasant View.

“Mr. Hernandez…” Grandpa starts but is interrupted by Jay.

“Sheriff Hernandez now, Mr. McClane,” Jay corrects her grandfather.

What the hell? This guy has already made himself the sheriff of his small quadrant? This is progressing decidedly fast. Interesting.

Grandpa doesn’t miss a beat and says, “Jay, look, I think you need to take some time and think about it. That could be a dangerous decision. You won’t have the protection of the security force we’re building.”

“Right, man,” Roy says. “How you gonna protect yourselves against an attack? You don’t have enough people over there.”

“We’ll get by,” Jay answers. “Don’t worry about us, not that any of you did before.”

“That’s not fair, Jay!” one of the women in the crowd calls out.

Another man says, “Yeah, we have to get the wall around town built before we start out your way. You know that. It wasn’t like we had a choice. We had to protect the assets here in town like the medical clinic and the food pantry and the older folks that can’t protect themselves.”

“Well, now you can,” he answers dramatically. “We’ve made a decision, took a vote and that’s the way it’s gonna be.”

“You didn’t include any of us in this vote that you took, Mr. Hernandez,” Grandpa observes. “How can that be a vote of the town?”

“It wasn’t. It was a vote within our community. They want me to be the sheriff, too. We don’t need your help anymore,” he answers.

Reagan watches her grandfather’s expression turn from cool to irritated. He’s hiding it well, but she can recognize it. This guy is a fool if he thinks that his small community, some of which are women and children, will make it through the winter without their aid. She’s also not sure if the voting system in their community was fair. Jay Hernandez is a very loud and boisterous man. He could’ve intimidated people into this. None of the people from his area who are present say anything. They don’t appear to be cowed, but she’s not sure since she doesn’t know most of them all that well.

“We will get to expanding the wall in the spring, Jay,” Grandpa adds. “You are over a mile outside of the city limits. It’s just going to take some time.”

“No thanks, McClane,” he answers rudely.

Reagan doesn’t think his disrespect for her grandfather, which is clearly increasing, is going to go over well with the men. John’s thigh muscle tenses under her palm. Grandpa is certainly not the leader of their town. The sheriff is the acting authority. And in the spring they’ve talked about adding a new city council staff and a mayor, which will likely be whoever wants to volunteer. But most everyone in town looks up to her grandfather. He’d been their town doctor for over thirty years. He was considered a pillar of their small community. Jay Hernandez does not share this esteem of him obviously.

“We’re on our own. We don’t want anything to do with the town,” Jay repeats.

Condo Paul says, “Why not? We didn’t have a wall, either. We had to build our own. We’re too far out to be a part of the town’s wall, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t want to do business with the town or be a part of it anymore.”

Jay keeps going, pissing off Reagan and the rest of the people, “We’re busy working on building our own wall. It’ll go up faster if we don’t have to come over here and work on town stuff and harvest with the farmers.”

Paul shakes his head and looks at John who mirrors his action. This makes no sense. Helping each other is the only way to survive.

“Wait a minute,” Mr. Henderson breaks in.

Reagan knows that he owns one of the last chicken and hog farms in the county. Many of the big business grocery store chain farms had squeezed out people like Mr. Henderson. She thanks God that he never gave up. Those big farms are gone, abandoned by the employees who’d been poorly paid to work them. Mr. Henderson’s meat chickens and pork feed nearly half of the community. She also knows that Jay’s group is supposed to be helping him harvest his grain later this month. Without the grain, his livestock won’t survive the winter. And if the coming winter proves to be like the last one, they are in for a long, hard season of cold and snow.

Mr. Henderson continues, “You mean to tell me that your group isn’t going to help me bring in my crop?”

“No, we’re not,” Jay answers with a confident attitude.

“But I’ve been giving your people, Jay, food for the last two years. What do you think you’re going to do for food all winter?”

Jay says, “We’ll be fine. We have some new people living in our community now, and they’ve assured us that we won’t starve.”

John jumps in on this one, “Hold on! Who are these new people?”

“They’re some men I trust, who our community trusts to help us make it through the winter and get our wall built.”

“Who are they?” John presses. “We don’t just allow people into the community, Jay. You know that. They have to be agreed upon.”

“I’m one of ‘em,” a man says and stands.

He’d been sitting a few rows back from Jay, quietly taking in the discussion until now. The man is of average size and build and wears his hair in a short buzz cut.

“And you are?” Condo Paul asks.

“Greg, my name’s Greg,” he answers.

Some of the people who live in their town are not actually from their town, but transplants from other areas or extended family of people who used to be from their town. Usually, the men or Condo Paul or Roy will vet the newcomers to make sure they seem peaceful and able to contribute to their community. They don’t need people like the visitor’s group settling in their town.

Reagan looks to Grandpa, who seems to be trying to place this man’s face. He gives her a nearly imperceptible shake of his head. She doesn’t recognize Greg, either.

“Where you from, Greg?” Derek asks.

He’s a master interrogator. Many times, Reagan just hangs back and watches him do his magic. All three of the Rangers are good at getting information from people. Derek had sniffed out a small group of people who’d come last year that he hadn’t trusted. And it was a good thing. They’d robbed one of the local farmers before coming to their town. Kelly had found out about it from the farmer when he’d delivered a load of potato starts to them a week later. They’d gone on a mission looking for the thieves, but they were long gone by then. Fortunate for them.

“From Kentucky, up above Louisville,” Greg answers.

“Where specifically above Louisville? What town?” Derek asks.

“What’s it matter?” Greg asks.

“It actually matters quite a lot. We have a lot of people who have family up near Louisville,” Derek says. “Perhaps you know some of them.”

“Who are you? The new police around here?” Greg asks as if he’s affronted by the questioning.

“Something like that,” John says and stands. “Why don’t you want to answer any of his questions?”

“I don’t think I actually need to answer a bunch of questions. This is kind of bullshit. I’m not asking to live in your town. I’m going with Jay,” Greg says with a touch of antagonism.

“We just try to ensure that we’re keeping out the kind of people who would mean the town harm,” Derek explains. “We’ve had problems with that. It doesn’t usually end well for the people who come here looking for trouble.”

Kelly laughs once and says, “No, it doesn’t.”

Greg’s eyes dart to Kelly. He calms down considerably.

“So maybe some of the folks in this town know some of your people from Louisville,” Derek returns to that line of questioning.

“I doubt it. I wasn’t a real social kinda’ guy back then.”

“Ok, that’s fine. How did you end up down here in Pleasant View?” Derek asks.

“Just movin’ around, man. That’s all,” he answers.

“Why are you with Mr. Hernandez now?” Derek asks.

“Just thought I’d help him out. Stick around. Be a part of his new town. Like I said, this is new for me, too. I didn’t use to be real social.”
“Mm-hm, and you are now? You want to help Mr. Hernandez’s community?” Derek presses.

“Sure. Sounds like a good place to set down some roots,” Greg says.

“Do you have family or is it just you?” Derek asks.

Reagan watches her brother-in-law’s face take on a tenseness. She doesn’t think Derek is buying this guy’s story.

“Nope, just me and a few of my friends,” Greg says.

“A few?” John asks.

“Sure. I’ve got a few friends who are staying,” Greg adds. “We’ll get our wall done fast.”

His accent sounds farther south than just Kentucky. He almost drawls out some of his vowels like Talia, and she’s from New Orleans.

John jumps right back on the friend question, “How many men are staying with you?”

“Five. If you have to know,” Jay answers for his new friend of whom none of them are familiar.

“And you mentioned food supplies. How are you going to keep the group in enough food for the winter?” Derek inquires.

“Look, we came to deliver our decision and we have done just that. This meeting is over, McClane,” Jay says to Grandpa. “We don’t answer to the town anymore. We don’t interact with you all anymore. We’re on our own and so are you.”

“I wish it didn’t have to be that way, Mr. Hernandez,” Grandpa says.

Jay and Greg and the handful of people from their sector don’t reply but simply leave without another word. Then a hundred questions get tossed around the room all at once.

Reagan has an uneasy feeling about the new situation with Jay’s group. It doesn’t make sense. They should want to stick with the town. This will be like starting over again. Why would they want to? She also doesn’t understand why he is being disrespectful of her grandfather. He seems angry, which is ridiculous since everyone has been helpful with this man and his group.

“That could’ve gone better,” Derek says to their small circle that includes Roy and Paul once they have sequestered on the front steps of the town hall after the meeting adjourned.

“Seems fishy,” Paul remarks.

John chuckles uneasily and says, “Yeah, man, no kidding. I don’t think we’ve got the full picture of what’s going on over there.”

Kelly nods in agreement and says, “It feels like they are hiding something. None of that even made any sense. And who was that dick? He’s a little cocky for just rolling into town, isn’t he?”

Roy interjects, “He acts like he’s callin’ the shots over there.”

John and Derek both nod. Grandpa does, as well.

“Something about it stinks. I hope we don’t have problems with Jay’s group,” Reagan admits what she’s been pondering.

“You mean Sheriff Jay?” John jokes.

As usual everyone chuckles at her nutty husband. Leave it to him to lighten the situation slightly. She wraps an arm around his waist as Roy leaves.

“Want to walk me down to the clinic? I want to check out our antibiotic supplies and add the ones that Cory brought home,” she asks her handsome husband.

One of the teenagers in their town, Mark, jogs over to them. He came here with his family last year from Buffalo. His parents are Caucasian, but he and his younger brother are African American. They were orphaned when the first tsunami hit New York and were taken in by new people who assumed responsibility for them. The wife had led the family to find her grandmother here in Pleasant View, but the grandmother passed away shortly after they arrived.

Mark asks John, “Hey, Mr. Harrison, my dad wants to know if you could help him with his rifle. It jammed twice on him hunting turkeys the other day, and he just isn’t able to get it unjammed and fixed, sir.”

John looks at her and she smiles, “Go. I’ll just run over to the clinic real quick and meet you back here.”

“That wall isn’t built yet, babe,” John tells her. “You aren’t going over there alone.”

He calls over to Kelly, who is still shooting the crap with Condo Paul. Her brother-in-law agrees to babysit her. Reagan rolls her eyes at both of them.

“Glad to have your brother back?” she asks him as they start the half mile trek to the clinic.

Kelly actually smiles widely and says, “Hell yeah. He needs to keep his little ass home for good.”

Reagan laughs at his crass language. “Little? He’s damn near as big as you, Hulk. Do you think he’ll leave again?”
“I sure as hell hope not, little Doc. He needs to get re-connected to the farm and to us. That’ll hold him here. Wish he had a woman here. That would help.”

“Maybe we should get Hannie on finding him one. She sure hooked you,” Reagan jokes.

“No kidding,” he says. “I had one damn foot out the door, but she reeled me in.”

Reagan changes the tenor of their conversation because she is curious to get Kelly’s opinion, “Think he’ll be ok?”

Kelly pauses a long while as they continue their walk before answering, “I think so. It’s hard to tell.”

“Did you guys ever know anyone who was messed up like Cory?” she asks.

“Oh yeah, little Doc,” he says sadly and lays a hand on her shoulder. “Yeah, we knew people like Cory. Sometimes they work it out. Others don’t, not really. A lot of vets committed suicide for the very same reason, Reagan. They lose someone close to them, lost their buddies or friends in combat, and they can’t get over it. I just pray that Cory has the strength to come out of it.”

“Do you think he’s been gone killing people, Kelly?” she asks as the clinic comes into view.

He sighs on a hard frown and nods.

“Yeah, I think so, too,” she agrees.

Kelly unlocks the chain on the clinic door, and they enter the empty building.

“It might help him to be around the other young people on the farm that are close to his age,” Reagan adds as she scans her inventory list. Some of the supplies that they normally keep at the farm have been moved to the clinic since the town is now doing twenty-four hour a day patrols. She and Grandpa still keep quite a lot out at the farm since they don’t want to take any chances of a raid. “I’m just gonna leave a few bottles of this antibiotic he found and take the rest back home.”

“Sounds good. Paul’s been on patrol with the newbs training people this week in town. But I still think it’s probably a pretty good idea not to leave everything here. Ya’ never know,” he foretells.

“Back to the subject of Cory, do you think it will be helpful to be around the other kids at the farm like Paige and Simon?” she asks.

Kelly purses his lips and thinks a moment before replying, “Maybe. He’s always been close with Simon and Sam, but it doesn’t sound like him and Paige got off to a good start. So, maybe.”

Reagan laughs as they close up the clinic again. “No shit. She didn’t look too fond of him. Of course, I wouldn’t be either if he tackled me and scared the shit out of me in the woods like that.”

Kelly laughs, too. “Yes, I can see how that might cause some tension.”

“He’s not exactly tiny, Kelly,” Reagan says with a chuckle. “That would’ve been like a bulldozer hitting poor Paige, she’s so frail.”

“I don’t think I’d call her frail,” he corrects. “She’s a tough cookie. I mean, hell Reagan, that kid lived over three years mostly on the road trying to get to Simon. She’s one tenacious badass chic if you ask me.”

“Yeah, no shit,” Reagan agrees. “Lot tougher than me.”

“I don’t know about that, little Doc,” he says and playfully bumps his shoulder against hers.

They head back toward the town hall to meet up with the rest of their group. The sun has set completely, which gives the town a spooky feeling. She’s always on edge when they are in town after dark. There aren’t street lamps anymore lighting the sidewalks and roads. No phosphorescent glow comes from the windows of the stores on the main drag. No traffic lights work. The only light in town is from the sparse illumination from inside homes. Most of the families in town are hooked up to solar power, thanks to the instructions of the men in her family and Paul, who’d helped them. But solar is not as strong or consistent as electricity, so most homes use it sparingly at night. Thus the limited lighting in the streets.

“Think Jay’s gonna be a problem?” she asks as they draw near their destination.

He doesn’t answer her, so Reagan looks up at him. When he stares directly down at her, she wishes he would stop. The honesty in his eyes is hard to bear.

Kelly foretells, “Yeah. Yeah, little Doc, they’re gonna be a problem.”