Chapter 45
By morning, the message had reached every ear in Rosewood.
The faint Morse code reply that Rick and Mary Anne had heard the night before passed from mouth to mouth, growing with each telling.
Someone out there had answered. Someone still lived beyond the valley.
It should have been good news, but by noon, the town was split clean down the middle.
Half saw salvation, while the other half saw a threat. Mary Anne watched the argument unfold from the clinic steps. The townspeople gathered in clusters, voices rising, hands cutting through the air. The windmill turned behind her, its slow creak a rhythm beneath the noise.
“They’ll come for what we have,” one man shouted. “You think they’ll bring help? They’ll bring hunger.”
“Or maybe they’ll bring medicine. Maybe there’s still government somewhere. You don’t know.”
Rick stood nearby, his expression unreadable. Freddie leaned against the well, watching the crowd.
Emily moved beside Mary Anne. “You knew this would happen,” she said quietly.
Mary Anne nodded.
“So what now?”
“Now we talk before we tear each other apart.”
By sundown, she called a council in the sheriff’s office.
The space still smelled faintly of oil and wood smoke.
The lantern on the table flickered weakly, its light stretching long across the walls.
Chairs scraped against the floor as people settled into the small room.
There were twelve of them. The heads of families, the few remaining workers from the wells, and those who had fought during the siege.
Their faces were hollowed by months of strain, but their eyes were bright, alert.
Rick sat at one end of the table, arms folded. Freddie took the seat beside him. Emily sat near the middle, her arm still stiff but strong again.
Mary Anne stood near the lantern, its glow turning her shadow long and thin against the far wall.
She waited until the murmurs quieted. “You all know why we’re here,” she said.
“Five nights ago, we sent a signal. Three days later, someone answered. We don’t know who.
We don’t know where, but we know we’re not alone. ”
An old rancher named Calder shifted in his chair. “Being alone has kept us alive. If you start reaching out, you might invite worse than silence.”
Mary Anne met his gaze. “What happens when silence kills us instead?”
“We’ve lasted this long. We’ve got water, food, and walls. If strangers come, they’ll want that, too. You think they’ll trade when they can take?”
“Not everyone out there’s a raider,” Emily said.
Calder’s jaw tightened. “You don’t know that.”
Rick leaned forward. “Neither do you. If there’s someone out there, it means there’s still structure somewhere. Maybe even a network.”
“Or an army.”
“Enough,” Mary Anne said. “We don’t have proof of either. What we have is a chance. If others survived, they’ll need us as much as we need them.”
A woman named Clara shook her head. “Need us? For what? We barely have enough for ourselves.”
“Knowledge. We’ve learned how to live without power and medicine. If others are out there, they’ll be facing the same things.”
Freddie tapped the table. “Then we should send someone to find them.”
Calder turned to him. “You offering your neck for that?”
He shrugged. “Better than waiting for ghosts.”
Clara frowned. “What if it’s people who want what we have?”
“Then we’ll face it together,” Mary Anne said.
“If we do nothing, we’ll rot here. We’ll keep rebuilding the same things until we can’t anymore. We have to try,” Emily said.
Rick nodded slightly. “She’s right. The signal means the world isn’t gone. It’s smaller, maybe broken, but not gone.”
Mary Anne looked around the table. “We can’t sit in the dark anymore. We need to send scouts east at sunrise. Small groups only, two at most. No guns, no flags, just tools. If they find danger, they turn back. If they find hope, they bring it home.”
“Who leads?”
“I will.”
Emily turned sharply. “No.”
“Someone has to go.”
“You’re needed here. If anything happens out there…”
“Then it happens,” Mary Anne said. “I can’t send others into it without going myself.”
“You’re not going,” Rick snapped.
“I decide that.”
“Not this time.”
The room went still. Even the wind outside seemed to pause.
Rick stood, his shadow falling across the table. “You built this place. Every system, rule, and breath of order we have comes from you. You can’t leave it now.”
“I won’t leave it behind,” she said. “I’ll bring back what we need.”
“You don’t know what’s waiting,” he said.
“That’s the point.”
“No. You taught us to survive, but someone has to stay and keep that alive. That’s you.”
Emily’s voice softened. “He’s right, Mary Anne.”
“You think I can just sit here while others risk themselves?” Mary Anne asked.
Rick stepped closer. “You can lead from here. That’s what leaders do.”
“Who decides that?”
“We all just did.”
The old rancher nodded. “He’s right. If this goes wrong, the town needs someone who knows how to keep it standing.”
Mary Anne looked around the table. Every face was watching her, waiting for her to break or bend.
She closed her eyes for a long moment, then opened them again.
The meeting continued, the arguments turning to logistics.
They chose two teams of three, one to move east toward the old highway, the other to sweep the foothills north of the ridge.
Each would carry enough food for three days, but no one would carry a gun.
Rick listed the names on a scrap of paper. Freddie was in the first team. Emily volunteered for the second, and Mary Anne didn’t try to stop her. The lantern burned low as they finished. The air in the room felt thick, heavy with exhaustion. The decision had been made, but no one looked relieved.
When the others left, Mary Anne stayed behind, staring at the faint light flickering across the tabletop. “You shouldn’t have spoken for me.”
“I didn’t,” Rick said. “I spoke for Rosewood.”
“What about me?”
“You’re the one holding this place together. If you leave, it falls apart.”
She leaned back in her chair. “You think I don’t know that? You think I don’t feel that every second?”
Rick moved closer. “Then you know why I can’t let you go.”
She wanted to argue, to shout, to tell him he had no right, but she saw the truth in his face, the same fear she carried, the same understanding of what it would mean if she didn’t come back. Her voice broke when she spoke. “I hate that you’re right.”
He smiled faintly. “So do I.”
They stood in silence for a long time. The lantern flickered again, casting brief shadows across the walls. Outside, the windmill turned in slow rhythm. The sound carried through the thin walls like breath.
Emily returned briefly to gather her things. She looked between them. “We’ll leave at dawn.”
Mary Anne nodded. “I’ll see you off.”
When Emily was gone again, Rick leaned against the window. “They’ll find someone. They have to.”
“What if they don’t?”
“Then we’ll know we’re still on our own.”
“We’ve been on our own for a long time.”
“Not like this,” he said.
The air between them felt heavy, filled with things neither could say.
Finally, Mary Anne stood. Outside, the wind had quieted.
The lanterns in the square burned low, their light pale against the dark.
The windmill creaked slowly and steadily, marking the hours.
She crossed the square to the clinic. Emily was already asleep inside, her pack resting by the cot. The air smelled of linen and herbs.