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It wasn’t supposed to be this way He’d had plans, hopes Sure, a lot of people had accepted the offer to evacuate to Texas in those first years; Eustace had expected that Fine, he’d thought, let theo The ones who remained would be the hearty souls, the true believers who viewed the end of the redeyes not, start over, build a new life from the bottom up

But as he’d watched the population drain away, he’d begun to worry The people who stayed behind weren’t the builders, the dreamers Many were simply too weak to travel; so decided for the at all Eustace had htest idea how to ineers, no plumbers, no electricians, no doctors They could operate the machines the redeyes left behind, but nobody kne to fix them when they broke The power plant had failed within three years, water and sanitation within five; a decade later, al the children proved impossible Few of the adults could read, and most didn’t see the sense of it The winters were brutal--people froze to death in their own houses--and the su rains the next The river was foul, but people filled their buckets anyway; the disease that everyone called "river fever" killed scores Half the cattle had died, s

The redeyes had left behind all the tools to build a functioning society but one: the will to actually do it

The road through the Flatland joined the river and took him east to the stadium Just beyond it was the ceh the rows of headstones A nuuttered candles, children’s toys, the long-desiccated sprigs of wildflowers exposed by the retreating snow The arrangeing graves He ca for and crouched beside it

NINA VORHEES EUSTACE

SIMON TIFTY EUSTACE

BELOVED WIFE, BELOVED SON

They had perished within a few hours of each other Eustace was not told of this until two days later; he was roiling with fever, his lad to have no h the city like a scythe Who lived and who died seemed random; a healthy adult was as likely to succumb as an infant or someone in their seventies The illness cas Often it would see the victim within minutes Sient eyes and a joyful laugh Never had Eustace felt a love so deep for anyone, not even for Nina The two of them joked about it--how, by coh of course that wasn’t quite true Loving their boy was just another way of loving each other

He spent a few s Meals they’d shared, snippets of conversation, quick touches traded for no reason, just to do it He hardly ever thought about the insurgency; it seehter made up but one s she had shown only to hio So, another year He touched the stone, letting his hand linger there as he said goodbye, and h the maze of headstones

"Hey, mister!"

Eustace spun around as a chunk of ice the size of a fist sailed past his head Three boys, teenagers, stood fifty feet away aot a look at hihter abruptly ceased

"Shit! It’s the sheriff!"

They dashed away before Eustace could say a word It was too bad, really; there was so he wanted to tell them It’s okay, he would have said I don’t e

--

When he returned to the jail, Fry Robinson, his deputy, was sitting at the desk with his boots up, snoring into his collar He was just a kid, really, not even twenty-five, with a wide, optimistic face and a soft round jaw he barely had to shave Not the smartest but not the duer thanEustace let the door bang behind hiht

"Jesus, Gordo What the hell did you do that for?"

Eustace strapped on his gun It was mostly for show; he kept it loaded, but the aone, and what remained was unreliable On more than one occasion, the hammer had fallen on a dud