True Believer: The Seth Winston Story Part II

By John Greenwood

Seth Winston is back! As time goes by and survival becomes more difficult, Seth and his group of lonely survivors face far more difficult and dangerous threats that call on them to use every available resource they can find. But when they face their biggest threat of all, themselves, will they follow the path of every other previous life form to extinction or somehow find a way to survive.

• Language: English
• Publisher: John Greenwood
• Release date: Dec 27, 2013
• ISBN: 9781311167958

John Greenwood

John Greenwood is the pseudonym of John Buxton Hilton was born in 1921 in Buxton, Derbyshire. After his war service in the army he became an Inspector of schools, before retiring in 1970 to take up full-time writing. Hilton wrote two books on language teaching as well as being a prolific crime writer - his works include the Superintendent Simon Kenworthy series and the Inspector Thomas Brunt series, as well as the Inspector Mosley series as John Greenwood.

Book preview

Chapter 1

I feel the sweat running down my forehead, and it's only seventy-two degrees. I hope Karen doesn't notice and tell me I'll ruin my tux. I am so nervous, but I guess that’s normal when you’re eighteen year old daughter is about to walk down the aisle in the Rose Garden in front of the whole world, well at least all sixty-seven of us. She's marrying a nineteen year old guy named Jason Mason. I know what you’re thinking a guy whose first name rhymes with his last name, but he's actually a decent guy, at least that’s what Karen tells me and he did save my life a while back. I'm standing near the back by the door to the White House where Marissa will walk out. I can see Jason standing by the altar next an old guy named Lawrence. He used to be a lawyer. He’s officiating the wedding because we don’t have a priest. I tried to get him to wear a collar but he refused, so we compromised that he would at least button the top button of his shirt. I want everything to be perfect. Karen is seated in the front row. She’s the one with the big smile on her face. I’m pretty sure it’s for Marissa and not me since she is the one getting married today. For me she usually has another expression. I'm waiting for Marissa, she’s in the restroom checking her hair or doing whatever it is women do. I brushed my hair this morning, so I'm hoping it looks okay, though I’m sure I'll hear about it later from Karen if it doesn't. I look back at Jason waiting again. He looks like he's looking at me, so I stick my tongue out at him. I sure hope Karen didn’t see me do that. A minute later, Marissa steps out of the door. She looks so beautiful. She's wearing a long white gown that she found at a nearby dress shop. I think Karen even fit it herself, since we are kind of lacking tailors. For those of you that don’t know, the sixty-seven people attending this wedding are the only sixty-seven people left in the world, at least as far as we know, so when I say the whole world is watching I really mean it. I can’t believe she is all grown up and getting married. I’m sure every dad says that right before his daughter walks down the aisle, but I really can’t believe it. I mean she was just in diapers. Okay maybe I’m just a little nervous. I’ve thought about walking the other way with her when it’s time to walk down the aisle, but I know Karen would kill me and plus then I would miss out on all that great food Tim made, including two wedding cakes. Yes two, one is for me and one is for everyone else. Tim is our in-house chef and Karen will tell you she thinks I like him more than her, and in some case she may be right, but don’t let her know that. I hear someone cueing up the music for us to walk down, it’s the wedding march song. I quickly think about closing the door so Marissa doesn’t hear it, but I see it’s too late because she’s already smiling. She is so much like Karen. I wonder if I should remind her she's marrying a guy named Jason Mason. I even had her watch The Runaway Bride the other night. Well I guess it’s too late now, so I hold out my arm and Marissa latches hers through it. We look at each other for a moment. It’s our last moment alone together before she will belong to someone else. I lean over and gently kiss her on her cheek. I feel a tear in my eye but I quickly start blinking so she won’t notice. I’m still the leader of all sixty-seven of us and I need to maintain a certain reputation. Yes I was voted Director. I feel my feet start walking towards the aisle, it’s like Karen is sitting over there with a remote control. I think about asking Marissa if she has cold feet, but instead we start stepping into the sunlight. I see all the heads turn. I wonder if they’re looking at me, maybe I should have brushed my hair again. Karen must be so proud. I put the biggest smile on my face till I feel Marissa nudging me with her elbow so I quickly tone it down a little. We're walking nice and slow just like we practiced. Funny thing is I don’t mind the slow walking in fact I wish we could walk slower. I wish this moment would last forever. I really am excited about her getting married despite my protests because the thing I didn't mention before is she is pregnant and I’m going to be a grandfather or as I decided a while back Grandpa Seth. I can't wait for the little guy to come out. I even came up with a bunch of names, but Marissa and Karen told me it wasn't my job to name their child. So I asked what about Seth, my name, as a choice and they both just looked at me and shook their heads like they always do, at least I can say I tried. Well we're about halfway down now and I see Jason still standing up there smiling. I immediately grab a hold of Marissa's arm a little tighter till I see Karen giving me the look again, so I let up a little. I look around it really is beautiful out here in the Rose Garden. Everyone pitched in the last few weeks and helped manicure the flowers and lawn. Too bad CNN isn’t covering this. It would really make nice TV. I look up at the sky and there's not a cloud up there, and trust me that's a rarity in DC. It's usually either hot and muggy or cold and icy. There is really no in between. I thank God for giving us this one nice day. I look at all the faces around us, it's sad to think there are only twenty-six originals left. I hope my Mom and Dad are watching too. They would be so proud of us, especially me for actually walking Marissa down the aisle instead of the other direction. I hope they like my tux. We're near the altar now, this is the hardest part, this is where I have to let Marisa go and hand her off to Jason. I feel my hands clutching her even tighter than before. Somehow she manages to pull away and gives me a kiss. I feel tears in my eyes forming again, but I ignore them and quickly sit down next to Karen. She reaches out and holds my hand. I still can't believe this is really happening, but then I have felt that way almost every day for the past two years ever since we found out about the virus while we were vacationing on the Jupiter 6, that was our new boat. It wasn't really new but it was new to us, you know what they say if you haven’t seen it, it’s new to you at least that's what Karen always says. It’s amazing that we have actually survived all sixty-seven of us. When we first found out about the virus we were in the middle of the Atlantic and all alone. After a while, we finally got the courage to come back ashore and we ended up living at the White House. Eventually we found there were several others who made it as well and now they are all here watching Jason Mason take my daughter from me. Have I told you I’m a little nervous about this? I feel Karen squeeze my hand a little harder. I wonder how she always knows. I look behind me and everyone has a happy expression on their face. I wonder if they notice the tension in mine. I quickly turn back around and watch Jason lead Marissa up onto the altar and stand in front of Lawrence. Karen has already coached me on the part when they ask if anyone objects. She threatened to shove her hand in my mouth if needed, so I reluctantly promised I would be good. Marissa’s dress is gleaming from the sun and the train is dragging behind her making her appear almost angelic. She really looks stunning. One of our younger members is standing next to her watching her dress. Her name is Jasmine, like the flower and she is kind of the Maid of Honor too. Thomas is standing beside Jason. He is Jason’s best friend. They are all looking towards Lawrence who is reading from a book. I hope it’s not How to do a wedding for Dummies. I watch as he has Marissa and Jason face each other. I can’t believe Jason still isn’t sweating. I wonder if there’s something I can do. I look at Karen and she’s already shaking her head at me, so I sit back and watch Marissa state her vows. A few minutes later, I hear Lawrence proclaim they are now husband and wife; yes I was able to hold back when he asked if anyone objected. Karen promised me more cake, but we’ll keep that quiet for now. I watch as they walk down from the altar and back into the door to the White House that I was standing at just a little while ago. My daughter is now married. I look at Karen. She is smiling and gives me a big hug, though it feels as though she’s restraining me. We eventually make our way back inside to the beautifully decorated East Room. I’m amazed at how elegant it has been set up. There are tables of food, yes even the two cakes, I make sure. I look at Tim and he winks at me, so I know the smaller one is still for me. I love that guy. I begin to edge over towards the cake tables, but I immediately feel myself being dragged the other way by Karen towards the center of the room where everyone is lined up. A moment later I hear Thomas’s voice boom out from above and introduce Mr. and Mrs. Mason. He is acting as our DJ too. They quickly enter through a far door and pass between all of us. Marissa looks so happy. On cue the music begins to play and we form a circle and they begin to dance in front of us. Someone has definitely planned all this out, I wonder who. After the song ends Thomas directs us back to our tables. We’re right up front, I can’t even see the infants from where we are, but I hear them in the back. We have six of them now and soon seven, though Marissa isn’t showing yet. I guess I’ll be spending a lot more time with them once my grandson is born. I hope they don’t still cry every time they see me. I wonder if I should try to push the Seth name again. I look over at Karen, but she’s busy watching Marissa and Jason slow dancing to Rock with You by Michael Jackson. I slowly turn my head around. I can still see the cakes from where we’re seated. I’m keeping my eye on the small one just in case. It’s Black Forest of course. The music softly dies down and Marissa and Jason take their seats at a table directly in the center of all of us. I notice how quiet it is all of a sudden. I feel Karen tapping me on my side.

Seth…Seth. They’re waiting for you.

What do you mean? I look back over at her. I notice everyone is looking at me even our newest members Connick and Maura. They recently joined us from California. We actually rigged up a Suburban, well Jim did. He’s our smart guy, when we heard there were possibly still survivors living out there and we convinced them all to come back with us. They have become our best friends and they actually live in the Presidential private quarters with us.

Go say something. I slowly stand up and begin walking towards Thomas. He’s holding a wireless mic. Maybe I should have been more involved in the planning. I remember telling Marissa and Karen I would go to the rehearsals. I grab the microphone and look around at all the faces staring at me. I’m still the Director. I have been officially elected twice, though the second time no one ran against me. I hope none of these new California people get any crazy ideas of running. I look at Connick. He smiles back at me. I hope he’s not contemplating a run for my job. The only other person that has expressed an interest is Evan, he’s still the Assistant Director, but ever since his partner Craig died from the second go round of the virus he has been pretty much keeping to himself. I look through all around the room till I see him seated in the back. He’s seated close to the cakes, so I may have to keep a close watch on him. I look down at the microphone and slide the switch to the on position. I see Jason and Marissa. Jason is sitting a little too close to Marissa, but I can see Karen out of the corner of my eye nudging me to start talking, so I ignore that for now. I start talking about how great Marissa is and how lovely the ceremony was. I go on and on like this for a while till I see everyone, that means Karen and Marissa eyeing me and trying to get me to stop, so I eventually close my mouth and sit down. Hopefully that means it’s time for the cake cutting. I wonder if Tim has a special knife for my cake too. A minute later Lawrence stands up and gives a blessing, now we can eat. It’s not quite cake time yet, but at least we’re finally eating. I didn’t realize how big of an appetite being the father of the bride can give you. Karen is just looking at me and shaking her head. We both quickly turn our heads as Jason leans over and gives Marissa a kiss. It still makes me cringe, but like I said I am starting to like the guy a little more, maybe I can work on him with the Seth name for the baby. We spend the next several hours celebrating their marriage and yes they finally cut the cake. I even got to cut my own, though no one gathered around to watch. Karen continued to shake her head. A few hours later after several more forced dances from Karen we sent them off on their honeymoon. They didn’t really go anywhere except to the Blair Mansion that we set up for them. I think they are staying there for a couple of days by themselves and then they will come back and join us again in the White House. We even have a special set of rooms setup for them in the private quarters near us. We now have everyone living in the White House, the electricity or lack of electricity has forced us all to live under one roof, all sixty-seven of us. I think Evan was the last one to come over from Blair. Jim, our scientist, I know it rhymes with Tim our chef have rigged up the electricity for a few days to cover the Blair Mansion for them. I think he directed a few of the windmills to power up the Blair Mansion specifically. Yes, the south lawn of the White House is completely covered with wind mills and solar panels, quite an interesting look. I’m still not used to the constant whirring and buzzing sound but at least I can still spend time in the bowling alley late at night and keep my reading light on. I still blow air every time I walk by them. A few hours later, I look over next to me at Karen. She is sound asleep with a big smile on her lips. I wonder if she’s thinking about me. I’ll have to ask her in the morning, though I may not want to know the answer. I pull the comforter with the Presidential seal up around my neck. I still don’t have a mirror on the ceiling so I can look at it, but I may have Jason install that when they come back. I think for the first time since we survived this awful virus I feel happy and relaxed, maybe it’s from the cake Tim made and the extra wine Karen let me drink but I think we are going to be okay. I’m not sure how long we will survive or even if we will. Jim still thinks we won’t make it past five years, maybe he needs to start eating cake and drinking wine in that lab of his or at least come out every once in a while, but whatever happens today was a good day. Marissa got married and I got my own cake, I’ll leave the priority part to you.

Chapter 2

I can’t believe it! I’m up and out of bed before Karen today. I’m hoping there might be some extra cake left over. I quietly tiptoe into the East Room and see everything is all cleaned up and put away. Tim must have been up all night working. I hope he’s not too tired to cook today. I make my way towards the kitchen. I still haven’t found any secret staircases so I have to keep walking quietly. I walk past all the closed doors on the way. I think they are all filled with people sleeping in them. I don’t know any of the sleeping arrangements. I don’t think we have enough rooms for everyone despite there being a hundred and sixty-two total rooms, but Karen told me not to worry about it so I keep walking without looking. I make it to the kitchen and I hear someone in there. I hope someone didn’t beat me to the left over cake. I’m surprised when I see Tim standing in there. He doesn’t look happy.

Good morning Tim. I sit down at one of the new butcher block tables we recently moved in here. I think we can seat about twenty now, but we never all eat at the same time. We only eat in the dining room for formal meals.

How would you like some of the leftovers from last night? I immediately smile as I watch him reach deep into one of the refrigerators. I think I can see some cake in there too. I nod my head. A few minutes later, I have a heaping plate in front of me. Maybe this getting up early thing isn’t so bad I after all. Enjoy it, because I don’t know how many more meals like this we have left?

What do you mean?

We’re running out of food Seth? I immediately think about my cans of spaghetti and sausages.

How about the garden?

It’s not cutting it. We’ve almost depleted the canned goods. The garden just doesn’t produce enough.

I take a big bite of some kind of vegetable patty. My mouth immediately remembers it from last night. It was my second favorite thing to eat after the cake of course. I know you’re probably thinking that food is all I think about, but I also think about bowling and being the Director too, at least in between bites. I’m thinking about going on anther bike ride this morning after breakfast. Karen got me a bike for my birthday before everything went bad. That’s before Charles and his group came through and shot us up and caused another round of the virus that almost ended us, especially Marissa and me, but we both somehow made it through. Can we get you some help in the garden? Make it bigger? I can get some people to work out there. As Karen will tell you I’ve gotten very good at assigning people to do various things ever since I was elected Director. I think what she means it is going to my head. I just hope that isn’t causing the increasing gray hairs I’m seeing every time I look in the mirror now. I wonder if Tim notices.

I don’t know Seth. I just don’t know. We have a lot of mouths to feed.

I hope he’s not referring to me. I’ll head out there today with Jim and see what he thinks. I see Tim nod and reach back into the refrigerator. He’s carrying over a piece of the wedding cake. It’s not the Black Forest. I finished that one last night. This is the actual wedding cake. Delicious I say. Tim nods. You may have noticed he’s not a man of many words but whenever I’m around him I’m usually there for eating and not talking, so it works out pretty good for us. I finish up my cake and thank Tim. I head back out into the hallways. It’s still early so I walk quietly to my office. We decided the Oval Office is off-limits for sleeping since the Director, me, needs a place to work. I don’t really do any work in here except place my feet up on the desk, don’t tell anyone though, but it’s still kind of a sacred place. I’m still waiting for someone to paint a picture of me to hang up on the wall next to George Washington. Maybe I’ll call the official White House painter later today. I spend about an hour or so in the Oval Office pretending to be the President and then I decide to take a walk downstairs. We have six floors so it’s a lot of stairs. I get to the door for the Presidential bunker though I think the official term for it is the Situation Room. It is the only room we haven’t been able to access, but now we have a couple of ex-criminals amongst us that Charles brought and survived so maybe we can get in now. I guess I should explain how that happened. Charles was the biggest and meanest of all of us. We picked him up in L.A. actually Evan and Craig did before they came to us here. Little did they know he was actually an ex-con who had just been released from this new underground prison in California called The Max. It was a special prison that was built entirely underground to both limit any chance of escape and to please the environmentalist out there. They also built a small neighborhood of homes nearby. Anyway, Charles got a little upset when he didn’t get everything he wanted, like being the Director and living in the private residence part of the White House and he left. Everything I have. He eventually came back with some of his other ex-con friends, about forty of them, they arrived guns a-blazing. They ended up shooting and killing a bunch of us and even forced us all out of the White House for a brief period, and this all took place during my birthday party I should add. I had to leave my Presidential Sealed comforter and move into the Blair House. Eventually most of them came down with the virus as well as many of us and Charles as well as most of his guys passed away. We suspect they were messing around in Jim’s lab and somehow got exposed to it. Long story short, we got everything cleaned up and moved back in and have been happy ever after. I’m looking at the coded lock. It’s one of those ones that require about ten numbers to crack it, not the usual three like we had on our high school lockers. I couldn’t do those either. I was going to try the President and his family’s birthdays but Jim told me it may lock out after a few bad tries so I stop. I hope we can figure it out now. I guess this is a good time to fill you in on Jim too if you don’t know about him. He is basically our live in scientist and doctor. The guy is just too smart. I can’t understand half of what he says so I usually just end up nodding whenever I’m around him, but I think he likes me. He kind of reminds me of the Professor on Gilligan’s Island but he looks like the scientist on the Back to the Future movies. I know strange combination, but he has been very helpful around here. He actually came up with a vaccine that saved Marissa and me when we came down with the virus. Anyway, back to more important things, I can’t imagine a world without Spaghetti and sausages. I hope Tim still has a few cans saved just for me. I think I hear some footsteps up above me. Maybe everyone is starting to rise. I’m glad I already ate. I slowly climb back up the stairs. There are not too many rooms for us to use on most of the lower floors. We mostly live on the top three. I tiptoe even more quietly as I near the nursery. I try and picture baby Seth down there in a few months. Finally I get back to the main level and I step outside. The sun is just starting to rise. This used to be my favorite time of the day when I was in the stock business. I used to love getting up early and reading the Wall Street Journal. I can almost still feel the texture of the paper in my hands. Sometimes, I wonder what it would be like if none of this had happened and we were back in our old life. Marissa probably wouldn’t be married and I wouldn’t be becoming a grandfather at forty-eight and I certainly wouldn’t be living