Chapter Text
August 2035 – Jackson, Wyoming
“...and now, here’s some Conway Twitty to end our broadcast tonight.”
Lucy flipped the switch on the Jackson radio station’s control console, and the beginning strains of Hello, Darlin’ filled the room. After nearly a year of taking the radio station’s control consoles apart and putting them back together, she’d finally managed to get the place up and running.
The radio station hadn’t been manned in at least fifteen years, not since the original citizens of Jackson had fled (or died), so it was pretty derelict by the time Lucy decided to fix it up. But fix it up she did, and now Jackson, Wyoming, had a fully functioning radio station. It didn’t have a huge music selection, but it had enough to keep the town satisfied.
She flipped the switch on the old microphone she’d managed to hook up to the control console so she could broadcast. “Don’t forget, curfew is at 11PM. That means you, Ellie.”
Night had long since fallen, and it was nearing 10PM. Lucy had been at the radio station for about five hours, ever since she left her patrol shift. She tried to keep her sets around four hours long, but tonight was special, so the broadcast was longer. Tonight, a couple of the older teenagers were getting married.
Weddings were rare nowadays, so anytime someone in Jackson got married, the whole town turned out (whether they were invited or not). Everyone chipped in, regardless of whether they were friendly with the couple. Weddings were an excuse to socialize and party, and you can’t have a party without music. And, as the radio station’s occasional operator, Lucy had been asked to provide the music.
It was really getting late, though, and Lucy figured she’d done her due diligence. The partiers would just have to break out the instruments from the music room if they wanted to keep the party going, which, by the time Lucy finished packing her bag so she could lock up, it sounded like they’d already formed a rudimentary band down at the community center. Her two interns - two of the older teens who’d found a love for music – were likely the ringleaders there. They’d long since gone down to the community center to enjoy the night. She figured it was high time she joined the party and made an appearance.
She didn’t often go down to the community center, but neither did the other adults. It was meant to be a safe place for the older kids to socialize and a good place to drop off the younger kids for the night so all the parents could finally get some peace and quiet. But again, tonight was special – even the adults would be there tonight.
The community center was two blocks down from the radio station. It functioned as the church, the town hall, and the venue for pretty much everything. Tonight, it was decorated in white tablecloths (well, white-ish) and garland. Hell, the whole street was lined in gleaming golden streamers and signs announcing the time of the wedding. Lucy could smell the food all the way from the radio station.
Even after two years in Jackson, Lucy was still amazed by the community. Jackson was a wholly different place than anywhere else Lucy had lived over the past two decades. It was a real, cohesive town full of people who genuinely wanted to help each other and make the place work, not a conglomerate of hunters or two or three nearly cannibalistic families fighting to trick people into staying. It was nothing like the militia camps she'd lived in off and on for so many years, nor the quarantine zone where she’d been stuck the first ten years after Outbreak Day. This was a good place.
Most importantly, it was filled with good people.
Lucy slipped in through the side door of the community center where the kitchens were located. She’d missed the ceremony and the dinner, but there were more than enough leftovers for her to grab a plate for dinner and one to take home later. As she loaded up her plate with food, she could hear the strains of a guitar and someone singing, all intermingled with people laughing and dancing.
Once she was satisfied that her plate was sufficiently mountainous, she tiptoed into the community center, hoping to circumvent anyone who might snag her to dance. She picked Maria out of the crowd and pushed her way through the thickets of people, hunching over her plate like it was her last lifeline to the world (she forgot to eat lunch).
“How was the wedding?” Lucy asked, bumping Maria’s elbow with her own. Bad idea – the sandwich on her plate slid to the edge and the mountain of chips she’d managed to pile on teetered precariously.
“Oh, it was lovely. Beautiful ceremony, beautiful bride, went off without a hitch,” Maria picked one of the chips off of Lucy’s plate before it could fall. Lucy swatted her hand halfheartedly. “And no fights.”
“Huh,” Lucy hummed. Now, that was a surprise. She’d already put money down on at least one good cold-clock during the course of the night. “Figured ol’ Mark Johnson would’ve taken a swing at the groom, being that his daughter is walking down the aisle without his permission.”
Maria snorted. “And pregnant.”
“Shit, really?” Lucy asked around a mouthful of her sandwich. She swallowed and brushed away the crumbs when Maria gave her a withering look. “Sorry, darlin’. When did she find out?”
“Last week. Said she got dizzy and threw up in one of the garden patches, so she went to see Doc.” Maria motioned over to the table she and Tommy staked out to watch the ceremony. “She spent the whole morning in the bathroom.”
“Yikes,” Lucy said. She followed Maria through the crowd over to the table. “Been there.”
Maria looked back over her shoulder. “I had to help the bride’s mother hold her hair back while she puked.”
“Lucky her – I had to hold my own hair back.”
Maria gave her another withering look, but Lucy just shrugged. She reached over to squeeze Tommy’s shoulder and sat down in the chair directly next to him. “Mark doesn’t know yet. Allegedly.”
“Nah, he knows.” Lucy sat down next to her, right in front of Tommy, and faced the room so she could be nosy. Man, it was good to know those small-town mannerisms never truly faded. She spotted the bride and groom in question - a pair of eighteen-year-olds, one of whom looking decidedly green. Dad wasn’t too far off; he was sulking in the corner and looking mightily disgruntled. “Dads always know.”
“I think you might be right,” Maria replied, spotting Mark in the crowd, too. “He’s gonna be grumpy as hell on his shift tomorrow morning.”
“Thank goodness I’m not going to be down at the power plant tomorrow,” Lucy said. Oh, yeah, Mark was looking surly over there in the corner. His wife, Tina, stood next to him, obviously trying to play the middleman and talk him down, but he seemed nearly inconsolable. “I would not want to be a fly on the wall in that house tonight.”
Tommy, who up until that moment had been mentally elsewhere, entranced by the makeshift band playing, broke his gaze away from whoever was picking away on the guitar. “Speaking of the power plant, how’s the dam looking?”
Lucy sighed. She’d been hoping to get around talking about this tonight, but no dice. “It’s functional.”
“How functional is functional?”
Unfortunately, functional was really the only way to put it. It wasn’t spectacular, but it wasn’t breaking down with as much regularity as of late since Lucy and the other two engineers had figured out how to fix some of the mechanisms themselves. The power stayed on fairly consistently, but it flickered too often for Lucy’s comfort. It wasn’t a popular opinion, but she was of the belief that they’d end up with a serious problem come winter.
“It’ll hold for a while – maybe through the winter, if we’re lucky,” Lucy said. “But we’re gonna have to make the trip to Cheyenne soon. Once winter rolls around, I’m not too sure the power plant will hold up under all the snow.”
Maria sighed. “I was really hopin’ you weren’t going to say that.”
“No point in sugarcoating it,” Lucy replied. Maria hated making the yearly trip to Cheyenne, since it was just her and Lucy. Lucy hated it even more than she did, but it was just something that had to be done. “You know, there’s a hospital near there, too. I think it be worth it to stop in and look around. We could use more supplies for the med stop.”
Tommy cocked his head, “You don’t mean Northside Medical, do you?”
“That’s the one.”
“Isn’t that the hospital…?”
Lucy huffed, cutting him off. “Yeah, it is.”
“You sure you’d be okay going back there?” Tommy asked. Lucy hated when he got that look on his face – concerned in a way that always made her feel like she was being reckless. Tommy always meant well, and Lucy knew it, but the big brother routine drove her nuts sometimes.
“It’s deserted now,” Lucy replied with finality. “Probably nothin’ but runners and clickers left.”
"If you're sure…"
"I'm sure, Tommy."
“Well, we’ll work on planning for it this week,” Tommy replied, though he obviously didn’t want to. Planning for the Cheyenne trip was a losing battle on all sides, every time.
Maria certainly hated planning for it. She didn’t like anyone leaving Jackson for too long without good reason – or even with good reason - but she’d be the one going with Lucy. She would have to resign herself to being the middleman here, if only to avoid the three-way fight among a bunch of pigheaded mules. “We’ll talk logistics later.”
“Joel’s gonna have a fit,” Tommy sighed. “You know how he gets with the patrol planning.”
“Well, Joel can just have a fit, then,” Lucy sniffed. “Maria and I will be fine. We’ve made this trip before. I certainly know where we’re going. Hell, I see the road in my dreams sometimes.”
“Let’s not talk about this at the wedding. We’re supposed to be having fun,” Maria said gently. She didn’t often back down, but they’d talk themselves in circles if she didn’t break the cycle now. She scanned the room. “Speaking of Joel, where’d he run off to? Did he bail out already?”
Tommy nodded. "Yeah, I think so. Said he was done for the night last time I saw him."
Lucy had been picking at the food still left on her plate, suddenly not hungry enough to finish it. “He’s got patrol with me in the morning, so that’s likely.”
Tommy tried to broach the subject delicately – he really did. “How’s that going?”
“It’s patrol duty. With Joel,” Lucy said, crossing her arms across her chest. She fixed Tommy with an even stare. “Don’t think I don’t know what you’re doing, scheduling us together for almost every patrol.”
“Ain’t trying to hide it.”
“Every patrol, though, Tommy?”
“Well, if you’d both act like adults and get on with it, maybe I’d stop scheduling you like this.”
Lucy rolled her eyes. “I hope you give him the same pep talks you give me.”
“I do. Don’t neither one of y’all listen.”
“I listen just fine. Tell that to him.”
Lucy pointedly ignored Tommy’s disapproving hum, until she just couldn’t anymore. Maria didn’t even bother to stop whatever Lucy was about to say. Sometimes you have to pick your battles, and Maria was running from this one. Let them argue it out like they always did. They’d kiss and make up and be best buddies again come morning.
Lucy huffed. “Look, he comes to the radio station all the time, we’re on almost every patrol together, he sits on my porch all hours of the night. Don’t you think if he was interested in me like that, he would’ve said something by now?”
“Knowing him?” Tommy asked, incredulous. His brother, Joel? Being honest and forthcoming about his feelings? Perish the thought. “No, I don’t.”
“Because he’s told you differently?”
Tommy nodded. Joel didn’t have to say it necessarily - and he wouldn’t - but Joel was his brother, and nine times out of ten, Tommy knew what was going on in his brother’s head. “In his usual Joel way, yes.”
“And what way is that, Tommy?”
“By God, Lou, do you not see the way he looks at you? I haven’t seen the man pay that much attention to a woman since he was sixteen.”
Lucy shook her head and rose to her feet. “Right, well, it’s late, and I do have patrol in the morning with your brother, so I suppose I should be on my merry way to bed as well.”
Tommy turned around, “Lou, don’t go running off-”
Lucy kissed Maria's cheek and Tommy’s too before squeezing Tommy's shoulder on the way out of the community center.
Maria gave Tommy the special look she reserved for times when he should have kept his mouth shut. “The more you push her, the more she’ll shut down.”
Tommy sighed. “I’m not - I’m not trying to be pushy.”
“She thinks you are.”
“Maria, honey, it’s been almost a year since Joel got here,” Tommy replied. He rubbed his temples because, as much as he loved Lucy and Joel both, he’d never met two people more stubborn (as if he had room to talk). “If I have to watch them stare all moony-eyed at each other one more time -”
Maria took his hand, holding it delicately between both of hers. “You gotta let them get around to it.”
“I just want them to be happy.”
“We all do, Tommy.”
He crossed his arms, hunkering down. “Well, they’re awful damn stubborn about it.”
“I hate to tell you, darlin’, but it’s not as easy as all that. And if I remember correctly, you didn’t exactly come running after me.”
“It’s a family trait,” Tommy conceded, suddenly more interested in picking at his fingernails than looking his wife in the eye. “And you’re a little scary.”
“Well, you and Joel are branches on the same tree,” Maria replied. “They’ll figure it out.”
August 2035 – Jackson, Wyoming
Sunday morning, bright and early, is the best time to take the river routes on patrol around Jackson. The view is beautiful, and there's rarely ever an infected on the river trails. There are a few cliffs that overlook a network of mine shafts, and if you find the right vantage point, you can pick off the infected down in the gully like flies.
Tommy scheduled them together every Sunday morning. Joel knew why he did it. Hell, it's not like Tommy was subtle about it. Tommy thought it was a nice start to the day, and what better way to start the day than a long, paired patrol on a beautiful Sunday morning? Joel couldn't really disagree. He was kind of appreciative, really.
Lucy met Joel by the front gate as she did every Sunday morning, holding a breakfast biscuit and hefting a small leather pack and a rifle. Her hair was still tied up in the same bun from last night; it looked too nice to take it down when she got home, and she had gotten out of bed too early to try to recreate it from scratch. If the deep circles under her eyes were any indication, she was clearly exhausted, but she greeted him with the same bright smile as always.
Like every Sunday morning, Lucy handed Joel a second breakfast biscuit that she'd brought along. She gestured towards the front gate. "Shall we?"
Joel nodded. He had to stop himself from tearing into the biscuit and instead unwrap it neatly. It was one of the small things he looked forward to every week - breakfast on patrol. Doesn't matter if it's just a regular biscuit - the woman could make dirt taste like magic.
Sunday patrol didn't require horses, so there was no need to stop by the stables. They stopped at the waystation by the gate to let the guard on duty know they were leaving on patrol, and he waived them through without comment. It was too early for a full-blown conversation, or really anything more eloquent than a curt good morning.
"Did you make it to the wedding last night?" Joel asked. He'd left before she'd arrived. Not purposefully; he'd had a long day on patrol yesterday and yawned through the entire ceremony, much to Maria's annoyance. Besides, weddings weren't really his thing.
"Yeah, close to the end of the reception," Lucy replied, crunching on her biscuit. "I stopped by after I left the radio station. Anything exciting happen?"
"No, I figured it'd be more exciting, actually. I heard Mark wasn’t too happy his daughter was getting married.”
Lucy snorted. “Well, she’s pregnant, so it’s not really his choice anymore.”
Joel shook his head. “Does he know?”
“Allegedly, no,” Lucy said. She crumpled up the paper from her biscuit and stuffed it into her pocket. “I think he does. Dads always know. Besides, Mark can’t stand that boy. Why else would he let it go like that?”
“You got a point.”
Lucy nudged his shoulder. “At least you don’t have to worry about Ellie, right?”
Joel hummed. “Right.”
“Has she told you yet?”
“No,” Joel chewed the inside of his cheek, thinking, before he grinned. “I keep messing with her about Jesse.”
“I’m sure she loves that.”
“She takes it well.”
"It's a tough thing to talk about, even now," Lucy said. "She'll tell you when she's ready."
There's a spot at the top of the hill just about a mile outside of Jackson where they always stop to take a break. It's got a perfect view of the valley below, every evergreen tree and stony hill. It was a mile downhill from the front gate, and two miles back uphill to Jackson. The trees gave enough shade that, even at the end of summer, the temperature came crashing down as they patrolled the downhill path.
As they rounded the bottom of the hill to begin the upward trek, Joel noticed, way off in the distance, a dark spot ambling through the clearing at the bottom of the next hill over. He nudged Lucy’s arm and pointed wordlessly.
Lucy grinned, stepping up to the fence that blocked the path from the steep dive down the hill. “How about a little friendly competition?”
Joel raised his eyebrow. “What have you got in mind?”
Lucy hefted her rifle up to her shoulder and peered down the scope. “One shot each. I win, you bring the good whiskey to Tommy’s this time.”
“Fair enough,” Joel said, raising his own rifle. “I win, you let me take over the radio station on Friday.”
“Oh, someone wants to be DJ for the night, huh?” she teased. “You have yourself a wager, Mr. Miller.”
The horde of runners and clickers down the hill doesn’t even notice as, one by one, they dropped like flies. Joel made every shot, clean as day. Lucy missed two, but the ones that hit were clean headshots. Nevertheless, Joel was the clear winner.
He grinned his smug grin, but he didn’t rub it in any more so than, “I’ll make sure it’s a good set.”
“You’re lucky I trust your music taste. I wouldn’t make that bet with just anybody.” Lucy affixed the rifle back over her shoulder by the strap. “Although, you could play something yourself, if you want. I think the mics would pick it up well enough.”
“I don’t think so.”
“Spoilsport. Like half the damn town hasn’t heard you and Tommy play after y’all get into the whiskey.”
“It’s a little different being put on the spot.”
“I can’t disagree with you there.”
It took an hour to get back to Jackson after they stopped for a break. The long, uphill walk left them both with rumbling stomachs, but one of the many benefits of Sunday patrol was a lunch cantina being set up at the watchposts. Once they passed the front gate of Jackson, they stopped at the watchpost to grab whatever was left of lunch since they were running late to switch shifts. Lucky Joel - the rest of his day was pretty much clear to go home, put his feet up, and relax. Lucy had hospital duty for the rest of the day.
Joel's house wasn't far past the hospital, so it was standard practice to walk Lucy down to the hospital when she had duty. He meandered along next to her, not quite brushing shoulders. “They still got you working down in the morgue?”
Lucy shook her head and took a bite of the sandwich from the cantina, humming when she discovered it was chicken. Not that it really mattered what was in the sandwich - she wasn't going to complain about anything that she didn't have to make herself. “I'm up in obstetrics, now. There’s a heart monitor and an ultrasound machine on the fritz, so I’m working on that. Doc’s getting antsy for me to fix them since Margo’s due soon.”
"Making any headway?"
God, that sandwich was so good. She peeled the wrapped off and stuff it in her pocket so she could finish. "I should have both finished by tonight. Hopefully, I'll be back down at the morgue or the power plant by tomorrow."
"I think I'd rather be down at the power plant."
Lucy shrugged. “I’d rather be anywhere than obstetrics. Last time I got caught there at the wrong time, I had to help.”
Joel did not envy her. "I can see why you're trying to finish up."
They stopped in front of the hospital. Lucy looked up at the building and sighed. "Which I'd better go do."
Joel took a couple of steps forward and turned back. “See you at Tommy’s tonight?”
“Wouldn’t miss it," she replied with a grin. "Oh, and I suggest you start figuring out your set, since you have the rest of the day off.”
September 2034 – Jackson, Wyoming
The power in Jackson is out. Again. Kind of comes with the territory of living in fucking Wyoming in the aftermath of the apocalypse.
Herein lies the problem. Mike is the mechanical engineer. He's the one who's supposed to fix this shit. Mark is the electrical engineer. If Mike can't fix it, Mark has to be the one to step in. The problems begin to arise when Mike and Mark are screaming at each other, and when neither will back down, and when neither one can agree as to exactly how to get the power back on.
Lucy's not that kind of engineer. It's not her job to bring the power back on. But she's the only engineer who's not screaming at another engineer, which means she's the engineer figuring out how to get the power back on.
Tommy's trying to help (and failing). He's not an engineer at all, but he's handy and smart and thus far more helpful than the two grown men currently screaming at each other. Tommy's found the blueprints for the dam, the simple act of which is far more helpful than anything Mike and Mark have done today. Lucy's scanning the blueprints with Tommy peering over her shoulder, looking for something, anything, to fix the problem and get the power back on.
The cavalry arrives in the form of Maria, who is decidedly pissed to find the scene transpiring in the power plant. If anyone can get Mike and Mark to shut up and get the job done, it’s Maria. Bless her.
It's the moment that Maria lays into them that Lucy sees the problem. There's an intake feed underneath a side panel in the basement that's never been checked - or, at least, there's nothing notated on the blueprints to say otherwise. The side panel runs underneath the floor of the basement down where infected might be lurking, so Lucy grabs Tommy and a shotgun and leaves Maria to chew Mike and Mark to pieces.
The basement is dank and dark and appears to have become home to a family of really fuckin' big rats. But as bad as the rats are, it’s nothing compared to what’s been trapped down in the part of the basement where no-one’s ever been. There’s also a nest of clickers neighboring the rats - big, nasty fuckers that look like they might be on their way to collectively forming into a bloater. Thankfully, two shotguns and a well-placed homemade pipe bomb make quick work of everything gross and scary.
It takes some time to clear the intake feed, but it gets done without either Lucy or Tommy getting injured. They’re drenched in sweat and vaguely sinister green water, but they’ve fixed it without getting bitten by anything.
By the time Lucy and Tommy get back to the workroom, Mike and Mark have been put in time-out, which means their ears are burning and they’re back to scouring the controls. Lucy loves it when Maria lays down the law like this – it’s unbelievably impressive just how effective Maria can be.
Speaking of Maria, she meets them in the workroom as soon as they’re back, and she returns dragging a tall, dark-haired man who looks suspiciously like Tommy if Tommy had black hair along with her.
His name is Joel, Maria says. Joel Miller, Tommy’s brother. He’s is Tommy's senior by a few years. The thick hair at his temples is graying, and he’s wind-burned and weathered, but time has been otherwise kind to his appearance. He looks like he’s worked with his hands his entire life, and his voice sounds like Southern Comfort grew legs and learned to walk.
It’s a curious thing, this feeling that Lucy gets upon meeting Joel. She’s painfully aware that she's covered head to toe in grime from the intake feed and soaked to the bone, and there’s a good amount of gelatinous clicker blood splattering her clothes. Queue the immediate discomfort, the slight embarrassment, and the desire to finish her job and get home to a hot shower. It's been a long time since she's been concerned about the way she looks, and it’s immediately off-putting that this man accomplished that without doing much more than introducing himself.
Maria looks concerned, even a little apprehensive, and it's a look that Lucy knows that look well. Rightfully so, since both Lucy and Tommy are covered in grit, grime, and blood.
"When did you get here?" Tommy asks and moves to grab Joel in a hug before remembering he's covered in sludge. He settles for a fistbump. "Did you find...?"
Joel nods and looks around at Maria. "Yeah. We did."
"And Ellie?"
Maria cuts in. "Sleeping peacefully at our house."
Tommy sighs, relieved. "Good, good. You can tell me all about it later."
Joel nods and glances between Tommy and Lucy. "Y’all, uh, having a problem?"
"We had to clear out an intake pipe to get the power back on," Tommy replies. He claps Lucy on the shoulder, making her jump and drawing Joel's attention to her. "Lucy's a genius, I swear."
Joel looks like he's waiting for an introduction, which Maria picks up on. "Joel, this is Lucy. She's one of our engineers - and a friend. Lucy, Joel - Tommy's brother."
Lucy nods. "I'd shake your hand, but I'm..." She gestured downwards.
Joel smiles his tiny smile. "Introductions later, then. Anything I can do to help?"
Tommy shakes his head. "No, I think we've pretty well got it. Everything's back on in town, right?"
"The power came on while we were walking through," Maria replies, and tips her head towards Mike and Mark, "No thanks to these two."
"Doesn't matter who did it as long as it gets done," Lucy says gently.
Maria agrees. "The power's back on, and that's what matters. You two go wash up. Joel and I can take it from here."
Tommy sets off in his own direction with a promise to Joel to head back as soon as he's cleaned up. Maria stops Lucy before she can run off to her own home.
Maria leans in as close as she dares, which isn’t nearly as close as she normally would being that Lucy smells pretty bad from the intake feed goo. "Dinner tonight - our place."
Lucy nods. "Of course. I'll bring something."
"Oh, no, you don't," Maria replies, southern twang coming out full force. "The only thing you need to bring is yourself."
"When do I ever listen?" Lucy says with a wink. “I’ll bring beer or something.”
“Well, that’ll work, actually,” Maria pauses, chewing on her bottom lip, “since we're celebrating.”
“What are we celebrating?”
Maria glances over at Joel (who’s definitely not paying attention to anything they’re saying), but she’s wary nonetheless. “I’ll fill you in later after you get cleaned up.”
Lucy nods in his direction. “Got something to do with him?”
“Yeah.”
“Duly noted.”
Lucy has to pass Joel on the way out. He, up to that point, has been looking around the workroom for something to do. She waves as she passes, "Nice to meet you, Joel."
He waves back with a tired smile. "You too, Lucy."
That tiny, tired smile, almost hidden beneath the beard, makes Lucy's stomach flip-flop, and, oh, that’s bad.