Jeremiah strolled past the guards at the bottom of the stairs. He dug his hands into his pockets and jingled a pair of coins. One at a time, the coins came out for an inspection before dropping back into the pockets. Rationing and price restrictions meant they could purchase a day’s worth of food. They were all that remained. He had eaten two days ago and figured he could wait one more.
The tattered coat he wore almost everywhere dripped off his body, swishing with each step he took. More dusty than gray, it had long ago given up its odor and settled into a stale nothingness. Frayed sleeves, a frayed hem, and holes the size of walnuts dotting the sides and the back made it unworthy of theft. Nor did it protect him from either the blaring sun or the cold of the night.
His eyes darted to the left and right. A scattering of people stumbled towards their personal oblivions. He cleared his throat to catch the attention of any one of them. No one bothered to look. Despite this, Jeremiah searched for a quiet nook in the shadow of the corner of a building. His hand reached inside the coat and pulled out a canteen no larger than a fist. Water flowed over his lips and irrigated his withered tongue.
As he stepped out of the shadows, a bump into his side sent him spinning to the ground. The canteen fell out of the hidden inner pocket and landed in the soft dirt. Jeremiah hunched over to block the container from sight and pushed it back inside.
“Sorry, friend. I didn’t see you there. You really should be careful jumping out of the shadows like that.” A tall man with a hint of an accent reached out towards him.
Jeremiah didn’t take the outstretched arm but climbed to his feet on his own. “My apologies,” he said and started to head off.
“Hey,” the man called out. “Hold on a second. You’re that Jeremiah guy, aren’t you?”
Jeremiah paused and did a half turn.
“What a coincidence,” the man said. “I was just thinking about you on my way over. If you happen to have a minute, I’d love to talk with you.”
“About what?” Jeremiah tried to minimize the suspicion in his voice but with only the minimum of success.
“I heard you this morning on the plaza. Something you said struck me … well … hard. Truth is, that wasn’t the first time I heard you. I’ve actually been following you for a couple months now. I guess it’s finally starting to sink in.” The man sort of shrugged. “Would you mind?”
A round face stuck out of a laundered collar. The outstretched arm dangled a silver watch.
“The name’s Williams. It’s Tom, but everybody calls me Williams.”
Jeremiah shook the hand this time. “What exactly do you do?” he asked, letting go after the second shake.
“I work for the government,” Williams said. “What exactly … I can’t say.”
“Rather important work, I suppose,” Jeremiah said.
Williams glanced over his outfit. “If you mean this getup, they do take care of me.”
“That watch alone could provide food for a family for an entire month,” Jeremiah noticed. “But it does look good on your wrist.”
“Yeah.” Williams fell silent for a few seconds. “That’s kind of why I wanted to speak with you.” A heavy weight seemed to pull his brows down his forehead. “This morning in the plaza … I heard you. I mean, I really heard you. Especially the part about being greedy.” He paused again and pulled an envelope out of his jacket. “I was going to give this away. I didn’t know who to give it to, though. It’s not a coincidence we met, is it?”
Jeremiah looked inside the envelope. Fresh, crisp bills sat in nice rows. He pulled out a few to examine them before pushing them back in.
“There’s an orphanage in southeast by Kentucky and C Street,” Jeremiah said. “Take it to them. They could use it more than I could.”
“Sure. Of course. I can do that. I shouldn’t have expected anything else from you.” His head bobbed a few times. “I’m glad I bumped into you. Maybe we could get together some day when I have a little more time. Discuss some other things with you.”
“Maybe,” Jeremiah said.
“I’d like that.” Williams looked at his watch. “Well, I’m already a bit late. I’ll catch you soon.”
Jeremiah followed Williams’ progress as he made a beeline towards the Capitol. The pain in his stomach made Jeremiah regret his decision for a moment, but only for a moment.
Ben looked up as the door swung open.
“Excuse me, sir. Do you have a second?”
Zedekiah removed his face from a stack of papers with a frustrated sigh. “No. You’ll have to come back at a better time.”
“It’s very important.”
Zedekiah raised his head as well. “Take it up later with my chief of staff.”
Maraina glanced at Ben and back at President Zedekiah. “With all due respect, sir, this can’t wait.”
Zedekiah pushed himself away from the desk. “Seeing as how I’m the president, if I say it can wait, then it can. Whatever it is, leave it here,” he said, indicating the corner of the desk, “and I’ll get to it when I get the chance.”
“Would it be possible to wait for you?” Maraina asked.
“Sure. I suppose,” Zedekiah answered.
Maraina took a seat on the sofa next to the far wall.
“Outside,” Zedekiah ordered. He waited for her to leave. “I don’t know why I keep her around.”
Ben’s heart and mind agreed, but he said nothing.
“How much longer can we hold out?” Zedekiah said.
“At the current level of rationing, we won’t last a month,” Ben said. “It could be a bit longer seeing as how we’re losing more people.”
“To what?”
“Disease mainly,” Ben said, “although desertion is starting to increase.”
“I thought we had the outbreak under control. Didn’t we get the antibiotics out to the people?”
Ben shook his head. “For the dysentery? No. We never got the antibiotics in the first place. The Russians intercepted the shipment somewhere outside of Baltimore.”
Zedekiah’s face turned deep red. “Why wasn’t I informed of this?”
“You were, sir. At the same time you were informed of the granary fire.”
“Didn’t we get another shipment?”
“Yes,” Ben said, “but not before the next waves hit. Cholera. Some new strain of virus our doctors can’t wrap their mind around. Not like they have the time to decipher it. They’re too busy treating the sick to work on a cure.”
President Zedekiah grunted a reply and fell silent. Ben waited for the right amount of time before speaking up.
“If I may offer a suggestion.”
“I don’t want to hear it,” Zedekiah said. “And before you protest, I already know what you’re going to say.”
The silent brooding began again. Ben shuffled his papers to keep himself occupied, knowing that bringing up surrender would most likely get him fired. From outside, the sound of a conversation with unknown words drifted through the closed door. He recognized Maraina’s voice. The other one, deeper, masculine, didn’t register with him.
“We’ll have to decrease the rations,” Zedekiah finally said. “There’s no other choice.”
Ben bit his lip.
“Not to the military, though,” Zedekiah continued. “In fact, find a way to add an extra portion to theirs. We’ve got to keep their strength up.”
“Yes, sir,” Ben said. “I’ll do my best.”
“Do better than that.”
“Anything else, sir?” Ben asked.
“Yeah. Send Maraina in. And stay with me until I find out what she wants.”
The door popped open. Maraina entered. Ben’s heart froze when he saw the man with her.
“Thank you, sir,” Mariana said. She coughed twice as she stood in front of the desk. “You know Zephaniah, don’t you?”
“We’ve met,” Zedekiah said. He scratched his eyebrow and let out a puff. “This isn’t some weird religious thing, is it? Another witches’ prayer meeting you want to invite me to? As you might imagine, I’m rather busy.”
Zephaniah’s eyes darted over to Maraina.
“No, it’s not,” Maraina said. “It’s something a bit more complicated.” She paused to look at Ben. “And I’m not sure he should be here.”
Zedekiah didn’t try to conceal his annoyance. “Get on with it or get out.”
“Yes. Um … well, it’s probably better if you just see for yourself.”
Maraina handed him a computer. Zedekiah started a video on the screen and watched until the end. When he finished, he shrugged his shoulders.
“What am I supposed to be looking at?”
“We believe the guy in the suit is a Russian agent.”
“OK.”
“And that’s Jeremiah,” Maraina said.
“I’m well aware of who he is.”
“Then, you know he’s been inciting people against the government, telling them to surrender. We think that Russian agent has been paying him off.”
“All I see is him returning the money to your Russian agent.”
“He took the envelope later on,” Maraina said.
“I see.”
“The main issue is that he’s inciting people, committing acts of treason out in the open.”
“Is anyone listening to him?” Zedekiah said.
“There are indications that … um … some might have deserted to the Russians because of what he said.”
“How many?”
“We don’t have exact numbers yet,” Maraina said.
“Well, when it hits two, let me know.”
“I don’t think you understand.”
“I do,” Zedekiah said. “An army has set siege to the city, and you’re worried about a madman who thinks the Lord speaks to him.”
“Sir ….”
President Zedekiah clenched his jaw. “The discussion is over.”
“I must insist.”
“Get out.”
“You don’t understand.”
Zedekiah waved his hand at her. “Go. Take care of this nonsense on your own time.” He turned his attention to Ben as soon as Maraina and Zephaniah scurried out the door. “And don’t you start either. Just get the rations for the soldiers taken care of.”
“Yes, sir,” Ben said and left Zedekiah to brood by himself. Three-quarters of the way down the hall, he caught up to Maraina and Zephaniah, who became strangely quiet as he passed by. Ben rounded the corner so he could listen to the conversation. It was Maraina’s voice he heard.
“He didn’t go for it.” “That’s exactly what I mean. Zedekiah didn’t go for it.” “I don’t know why.” “Yes, I showed him the video, but he didn’t believe his own eyes.” “I think we can make it work. He told me to take care of it on my own time. Those were his words.” “I’ll handle it on my end.” “OK. I’ll leave that up to you.” “No, your name won’t come up.” The phone clicked off.
Ben hurried towards the exit. His work would have to wait.
The sun came up as Jeremiah finished off the last crumbs and attempted to shut out his thoughts. It didn’t matter how hard the anchor tried to spin it, the news was terrible. The rations wouldn’t be available until noon and would have to last the week. Nearly impossible, given the update he heard last night. A quick trip to his usual morning meditation place before standing in the ration line would help him get his mind right.
He closed the Bible and tidied up the table. A few minutes later, he was out the door.
The stairs leading to the top of the wall seemed extra long today, both going up and coming down. He actually looked forward to standing in line, because, at least, it would be on a flat surface. A yawn came out as he rolled his neck. He never saw the car pull up next to him.
His feet dragged against the pavement, leaving crooked lines in the dirt. He didn’t remember how he got there, only that something hit him from behind a second before he blacked out. When Jeremiah came to, a pair of guys, either one strong enough to lift him by themselves, had an arm hooked beneath his armpit. He couldn’t tell if the air was gray from the blow or because the sun had disappeared. His head lifted a bit. Jumbled words came from his mouth.
“Where you taking me?” His head pounded as he spoke. The mountains under his arms didn’t answer. “Where?” he tried again.
An abandoned crane passed him by. Rusted, yellow machines stood like displays in a mechanical museum. Mounds of dirt and brick and stone lay scattered on all sides. Not until they reached the crest of a small hill on top of which rested a circular wall did Jeremiah realize what the men intended to do.
“No,” he said, quietly at first. Then, louder. Over and over again. His voice crescendoing, echoing against a deaf valley.
His arms and legs flailed as the men lifted him up. They continued to flail as he fell deep into the cold earth.