Renewal 7 - When the Student Is Ready by Jf Perkins

 
     
    Renewal 7 – When the Student is Ready
    JF Perkins
     
    Chapter 7 – 1
    Terry Shelton drove into the square in Manchester and found a circus. The normally empty courthouse lawn was covered with people, ordinary citizens in typical work clothing, and not a sad face among the crowd. Apparently Dusty’s propaganda was working. Terry honked Big Bertha’s air horn to make a path through the swarm. People in the street moved out of his way, barely, and stopped to stare at the big armored truck. Terry pulled in beside Dusty’s regular pickup truck and climbed out. Seth piled out the other side and walked around the front of the truck. If the ordinary citizens were excited by the imposing truck, it was nothing compared to Terry‘s amazement at the happy throng.
    Dusty was heading their way, trailing a ragged line of people who were shouting questions over each other. If Terry had been born fifty years earlier, it would have reminded him of a ravenous gang of reporters. In this day and age, it was probably just the nosiest neighbors. Manchester had once been the source of a local newspaper, but it had never restarted after the Breakdown. Folks got their information by word of mouth, supplemented by an occasional public notice pinned to the board on the far side of the courthouse.
    Dusty was tired, clearly. He had been at it since before eight in the morning and it was nearly noon when Seth and Terry arrived. He deftly took a break by announcing, “Hey folks! Here are two of the men who put the Judge and the Dragon in jail.”
    Terry and Seth were immediately surrounded by the same pack of question-shouting people. Seth just smiled and let Terry handle the questions. His first comment was a sarcastic, “Thanks, Dusty.”
    Dusty shrugged and grinned at his young friend, and ducked out of the mob to grab some lunch at one of the food counters on the north side of the square. Terry had no time to see where Dusty went, other than the strange fact that there were actual lines at the food counters, rather than the usual bored and lonely girls waiting for a customer. He was too busy trying to pull a single question from the babble. Finally, he turned to Seth and whispered in the big man’s ear.
    Seth went from amiable wallflower to avenging god of wrath in a heartbeat. To the crowd, he simply expanded until he filled their view. He held out his arms for quiet, which he didn’t get. He bellowed, “People, PEOPLE!” The sound was so loud that the crowd was stunned into silence, and Terry literally felt the wind of its passage. “Terry will happily answer your questions, but you gotta be polite about it. Let the man hear his own thoughts.”
    “Thanks, Seth,” Terry said over his shoulder.
    “No problem, Buddy.” Seth looked quite pleased with himself.
    “Ok, folks. I’m Terry Shelton, and this here is Seth Aker,” Terry said, throwing a thumb in the big man’s direction. “I’m happy to tell you anything I can. Help me out, and let’s take turns. You there... Stan, you first.”
    “First off, where’d you get that truck?”
    “We got it as a reward for rescuing state police officers from Nashville. We call her Big Bertha.” Terry made a sweeping gesture, introducing the truck like a friend.
    “Was it bad in Nashville?”
    “Not until we found the bad guys,” Terry replied, provoking a sprinkle of laughter in the crowd. “Seriously though, it’s pretty messed up, lots of wreckage and scorched ground, but it’s not very radioactive anymore. We didn’t see any zombies.” Another, louder round of laughter.
    The questions went on and on. Terry took Bill’s advice and told them everything he knew, except for the inner details of the community, and most importantly, its location. Bill was hoping to hold that information until the last minute. It depended on how much the Jenkins family knew as to whether he could pull it off.
    After almost an hour of constant talking, Terry understood why Dusty was worn out.