Days of Love and Blood

behind the home later on to show me the beginning stages of a communications tower they were building. Something to send out signals. One of the men on the farm by the name of Grisham was an engineer who specialized in communications. He was the one working on it when we got there. He didn’t know if he would be able to get it working but was doing his best.
    The sun was beginning to set when we got back to the house. Jayde and Cassie had a fire burning in the stone pit behind Ivy’s house and a number of people carried folding chairs over.
    “How about a little relaxation time for you?” Ivy suggested. “You’ve had a rough few days.”
    “Please - I’m fine, Ivy. You’re the one who should be taking it easy.”
    “The boys are upstairs in the house,” Marianna said with a smile as we approached. “Want a drink?”
    “Just water for now. I can’t get enough.”
    “Are you hungry?” asked Ivy.
    “Not, really. No appetite.”
    As night fell the temperature began to cool. Most everyone sat around the fire pit and casual conversations popped up. They were in good spirits even with last night’s events. I sat next to Ivy and together we reminisced about our childhood and days long gone.
    I took a few minutes away from the gathering to put Ronan to bed in the camper. When I returned, Ben and his friend had joined the circle as well as Cooper. I marched straight up to Cooper and gently grabbed his arm.
    “Everything alright?” I asked. I said it softly and leaned in close to his ear. I wanted to show him tenderness, in case that was all he needed to show the same. He turned his head slightly and looked at me through the corner of his eyes. He inched closer and then pulled away.
    “It’s fine,” he grumbled. He walked away and took a distant seat on an old stump, isolating himself from most of the people. I sat back down in the floppy chair next to Ivy and sighed.
    “Carson? I wanted to thank you, for last night.” Ben had snuck up beside me and unfolded a chair.
    “No problem. Someone said you disappeared today.”
    “Got a little excited. Went to scope out some houses in the area.”
    “Bring someone next time.”
    “Oh. Okay. Sure. So where did you learn to use swords?” He pointed to the sheathed swords which lay by the side of my feet. I brought them everywhere - usually.
    “ My neighbor trained me on them, but only for a little while. I never learned how to use a gun. Swords work for me and they’re quiet. They don’t attract attention like guns.”
    “That was pretty intense. ”
    “I suppose. So tell me a little bit about being a lawyer. Did you have any big cases?”
    “Nothing high-profile. It was mostly small things, DUIs - theft - drug possession. But I liked doing it. Someone has to protect people who can’t afford expensive attorneys and a lot of the time people are setup or wrongly accused. I mean, don’t get me wrong - most of them aren’t. Most of them are guilty. But some aren’t and they just don’t have anyone to turn to. And the guilty ones face punishments which are way too severe in most cases, especially for the younger ones. Jail time can completely ruin the life for a young man. It can destroy it. I’ve seen it happen. Our incarcerated population is a crime in itself.”
    “It doesn’t exist anymore.”
    “Yeah,” he said and blinked a few times, tilting his head back with a look of sudden epiphany. “I keep forgetting. I guess I was pretty passionate about it.”
    “I think you still are!” I laughed.
    “ Everyone has a right to a fair trial but so many of them never get that right because they don’t have someone to guide them through the process. Instead they just get screwed by a system where the odds are always stacked against them.”
    “You’re still talking in present-tense.”
    “I wonder what happened to all of those people in jail when the virus hit,” Ben continued while sitting back in his chair. He casually leaned over, picked a stick up from the ground and tossed it in the fire after a brief examination. “I wonder if they were given a chance to survive, if the gates were opened for them. But probably not. It happened so fast. I can’t help but think of the ones who died from starvation, locked away in their cells.”
    “It’s probably best not to think about it.” The thought had me cringing alongside him. “Maybe you can be the one to start a new judicial system based on your ideals. Think about the future. You have the