299 Days: The Restoration

Chapter 328 New What?

“Vehicle approaching,” the CB radio said in the Forks City Hall, where Steve Briggs was sitting around talking to some other guys about how to fix a broken water heater.

“Lots of them approaching,” the scared voice on the CB said. Steve and the others grabbed their rifles and headed to the city gate.

Steve was terrified. Two pickup trucks with armed men and a small military fuel truck were parked right outside the city gate. It was probably a gang fuel run to supply Port Angeles that got lost. They’d fight to death to protect that treasure in their fuel truck. Then a larger bunch of that gang would come looking for what happened to their treasure and kill everyone in Forks. This was the exact nightmare scenario the Forks guards had been talking about for months and now it was coming true.

A military looking man got out of the first pick-up. Maybe this was a gang of AWOL soldiers, Steve thought. The military man put his arms out like he was hugging everyone. Great, they were high.

The man was smiling. Another man got out with a yellow Gadsen flag, but it had an evergreen tree on it. What?

“Welcome to New Washington,” the man exclaimed.

New what?

Steve went up to the man, wanting to get these stoned AWOL gangbangers back on the road and the hell away from Forks.

“Can I help you find where you’re going?” Steve yelled.

“I’m where I’m going,” the man said with another huge smile. “I’m in Forks. And you’re in New Washington.”

What was this “New Washington” thing? Oh wait, Steve thought. Don Watson, the Forks ham radio guy, had said that the state, except for Seattle, was calling itself that. Steve hadn’t really paid attention to that. Politics from the outside world didn’t matter in Forks, which had been forgotten by the outside world.

Pretty soon, more men got out of the trucks and came walking up to the gate with their arms out. They seemed really happy about something.

The flag. Doc Watson’s ham radio reports about the Patriots taking over most of the state. Now it was starting to make sense.

The Patriots won? It took Steve a few seconds to process that.

“What the hell is ‘New Washington’?” Steve yelled back. He thought he knew, but wanted to make sure.

“The new state you live in,” the military man replied. “The Patriots won. We have the whole state, except Seattle. You’re free and we have gasoline and a medic.”

A warm wave went over Steve. Gas and a medic. Freedom. A new state. Patriots won. Gas and a medic.

The Forks guards started to jump up and down and whoop and holler. The realization was hitting people at different speeds and they reacted at different intervals.

Pretty soon, it was a full-on party at the gate. People were hugging the soldiers, asking about news from New Washington—which sounded so weird to say. “New Washington.” It would take some getting used to, but thank God the Patriots won.

Steve spent the next two days distributing the gas and arranging for medical treatments. He made sure the soldiers radioed their base with a list of additional needed supplies. Pretty soon, another convoy arrived with blankets, some antibiotics (but not enough), biscuit mix, and a precious, precious item: a newspaper. The Olympia Patriot, it was called. A new newspaper. Independent. It actually seemed believable, what all the stories were saying. The internet was still spotty and the Limas hacked Patriot sites to put in Lima propaganda so, amazingly, actual hard copy newspapers were getting the real news out.

Steve devoured the paper. He read every single word in it. He almost fell over when he saw a long story about Grant Matson. Grant was a war hero and heading some Reconciliation Commission. Thank God he was okay, Steve thought. As Steve read the story, he got goose bumps. All those things about Grant’s past that Steve knew about seemed to have been planned long ago. The miracle of getting the cabin and of knowing that Special Forces guy who trained them. All those weird things in Grant’s life, Steve could now see, had been planned and allowed Grant to do what he’d done.

“Here for a reason,” Steve said out loud. That’s what Steve always told Grant when Grant was down. “You’re here for a reason, dude,” Steve would say, and as it turned out, Steve was right.

Steve went on to become the mayor of Forks. He refused to take a salary. He was living just fine on fish and deer, although he was glad to see that first semi of food come to Forks about two weeks after the first soldiers arrived. A few weeks after that, someone from Steve’s old company showed up and started to take orders for car parts. Many vehicles were not running and now, with a little gas being available, people wanted to drive again. Boy, did they want to drive again. And now Forks could sell timber again because that was a “critical industry” under the new laws, which meant that they cut the red tape to get it moving. People had jobs again in Forks. It was a miracle.

The Collapse had changed Forks. It had brought them together as a town. They had fed each other and saved each other’s’ lives. The churches stayed strong. So many people had experienced tragedies and miracles and there was only one explanation to many people. Thanksgiving would never again be about overeating and watching football. Thanksgiving was real in Forks now. It was about giving thanks. Everyone who lived through the Collapse in Forks knew why they should be thankful.

Later, when Steve got to Olympia to visit Grant, he couldn’t believe how much that place had really changed. For the better. He and Grant had a grand old time, telling stories about their upbringing and the Collapse and all the “coincidences” in their lives. “Here for a reason,” they would both say time after time.