Happily Ever After the Apocalypse

Chapter 10: The Swelling Tides of Change

Max is consumed with many emotions, although he mostly feels an overwhelming sense of sheer panic, as he lies on his bunk in his tent. He nervously fidgets, unable to calm himself, and waits for time to tick by in excruciatingly slow increments. Eventually, the hours pass, and it's the middle of the night. 

Max is still wide awake but feels incredibly tired. He creeps out of his tent and slowly makes his way to the stables, stopping intermittently to listen for anyone following him. He makes brushing movements with his feet as he walks, to hide his footsteps in the few inches of new snow that had fallen earlier. Once he finds Jupiter, he quietly saddles him and leads him to the edge of the camp. He slows his breath, which makes a cloud of foggy crystals every time he exhales, and gives a silence signal to Jupiter as they near the guard post. He patiently waits for the shift change between Tweedle-dee and Tweedle-dum. 

He intentionally assigned the two of them for these two specific shifts just to make his exit easier. Expectedly, as soon as the two guards meet, they begin conversing about how great they are and how it's bullshit that they're having to pull guard duty like this. They should be the General's private guards, since the General's stupid son and his advisers are just a bunch of pussies. While the two men are busy slapping each other on the back, Max makes his exit out of the camp and into the deep darkness of the woods.

He rides west through the woods until he comes upon a small, slow river, mostly iced over. Max, then, follows the river south for about a mile until he finally finds the small mountain he's looking for. At last, at the top of the mountain, he comes upon the ruins of an old mansion. 

As he walks up the broken stairs, he takes a moment to notice the large, cracked dome structure jutting out from the top of the building and the large square clock above the door. He enters the building into a large round room with dusty old knives and animal horns lying around the floor. The room is very tall and dark and reminds him somewhat of the library at the Biltmore fort. He turns to look at the dark clock face hanging above the door he had just walked through. Max finds it curious that the face of the clock on the outside of the house only has an hour hand, yet the inside face has both hour and minute hands, which, as most old clocks he comes upon, are frozen at exactly 7:15. 

He reminisces of his mother telling him when he was a child that the great meteor struck the earth exactly at 7:15 on a summer morning nearly two hundred years ago. All life on earth was forever changed after 7:15 on that day. Max shakes the thought out of his head as he notices soft candlelight shining from the room beyond. He walks up to two panel doors dividing the rooms, which amazingly still have a few rectangular-shaped glass panes intact. He gently pushes on one of the panels. Max thinks it's especially clever that when you push on one door, the other door also simultaneously opens. When he walks into the room, George Washington, who's sitting at a small table with one small tallow candle burning in the center of the large room, booms in his low voice, "Welcome to your house, Mr. Jefferson."

Max smiles, glad to be among true friends, holds out his arms and replies, "Thank you, sir. I'm happy to be home." 

John Adams walks from the back of the room to the table, "Hello Mr. Jefferson, do you know whether we can expect Mr. Franklin tonight?" Max nods, "Yes, he's planning on attending tonight's meeting but may be delayed, as he's currently on march with the General. They're headed back from Fort Biltmore after negotiating the terms of my, um, ...my marriage." 

Max squirms uncomfortably as John Adams continues, "Yes, Mr. Hancock told me about this development. While I can see that you are not too keen on marrying the Texarkanian woman, you realize, I'm sure, what a boon this would be to our cause." Max's face turns red as he responds, "Yes, I do understand. However, I believe whole-heartedly that our mission will prosper even without my entering into the bonds of an unwanted marriage." Mr. Adams protests, "But, your marriage to this woman, will not only help our mission to lead the people of Nework in revolution but will also help to ensure peace for Carolina. Surely, you can appreciate..."