It seemed to me that as a guard, he had a higher station than Juniper, but I was still getting the lay of the land around here. He eyed my cigarette, so I offered him a fresh one from my baggie. I even lit it for him, being the gentleman that I am.
“Thanks, man. Name’s Donovan. Folks call me Donnie. Brother Donnie if you want to be all proper like.” He offered me his hand, and I shook it.
“Cipher. What did it take for you to be assigned as a guard?” Maybe I could gain an edge with the Placement Committee.
“Loyalty, man.”
“Is that right?”
“Yup. Bringing home that midwife was a good start, but Brother Larry expects his guards to be loyal.”
“To the Fellowship?” I asked.
“To him. The Council runs the town, but Brother Larry runs the Health and Safety Committee, and that’s who enforces the rules around here.”
“And how does one prove their loyalty?”
“By following his orders, no questions asked.”
Unflinching loyalty to Brother Larry? Not fucking likely. I was loyal to Kitten and our family and no one else.
“You ever follow an order you didn’t agree with?” I asked.
“Of course I have. That’s the definition of hierarchy.”
He wasn’t wrong, which seemed like it might be a problem for me. I rebelled against authority, always had. Whether it was intrinsic within me or the result of my life experiences didn’t seem to matter because the result was the same. I could take orders from someone I trusted and respected, but whether Brother Larry deserved my loyalty remained to be seen.
We stood there under the eave of a building and smoked our cigarettes as dusk settled all around us. A pair of women wrinkled their noses at us, presumably due to our smoking, but neither of them said anything. Donnie nodded and touched his temple as they passed. He asked where I’d come from originally and I told him about it, as well as our months-long trek southward and our three-week stint in Atlanta. He asked if I had any updates on the plague, since the only news they got around here was from a single radio station out of Birmingham.
“They’re working on a vaccine,” I said.
“For real, though?”
“My boyfriend’s brother is part of the trials. It’s legit.”
“Fuck yeah,” he said and pointed toward the sky, perhaps giving credit to God.
I wondered how Kitten’s brother, Santiago, was faring. Unfortunately there was no way to send or receive messages, short of walking our happy asses back to Atlanta to check on him. “Hopefully a cure will be next,” I said and wondered what it might take to bring all those Rabids back to a state of humanity, if it could even be done.
“You think things will ever be normal again?” Donnie asked.
“No,” I said, having given up on that dream a long time ago. “People ever get sick around here?”
“Not a one. Not since I’ve been here at least.”
That was encouraging, unless he was lying and there was some town-wide conspiracy to make their sick disappear. Possible.
By the time we’d finished smoking, it was completely dark. There were no working streetlights, but the moon was out, big and bright, and it offered some ambient light to help with visibility.
“So, you’re queer?” Donnie asked, and I wondered if he’d been waiting for the right moment to bring it up.
“Yeah, is that a problem?”
“Not for me. I’m a love-who-you-love kind of guy. Brother Larry won’t like it though.”
“Oh yeah? Is he a homophobe?” That wouldn’t surprise me.
“Not especially, but he’s all about going forth and multiplying. He’d probably let you keep your boyfriend as a side piece, so long as you provide for your family.”
