TWD - Chapter 567: Let Me Teach You, Okay? (Patreon)

“An image?” Calista murmured.

“Exactly,” Deanna said firmly. “More precisely, a title. Something distinctive that makes them think of you the instant they hear it, and feel safe when they think of you.”

Calista hesitated. “Deanna, are you serious?”

Deanna nodded firmly. “I am.”

Calista stood by the window with her back to Deanna, her mind racing.

She thought back over everything that had happened since the founding of Rock Fortress, turning Deanna’s words over in her mind.

Her original goal had never changed. She wanted to keep everyone alive and solve the problems in front of them.

Even Rock Fortress’s current expansion stemmed from her concerns about the Civic Republic Military, the Commonwealth, and possibly foreign powers. She refused to leave her people helpless before those forces.

But perhaps there was still more she needed to do.

Watching her from behind, Deanna found herself remembering the world before the apocalypse.

In the Ohio State Legislature, her days had been filled with meetings, debates, votes, and compromises.

She had believed she was working for the people. Only after the apocalypse did she realize how far she had been from the people she meant to serve, and how little her ideals had prepared her for the rules of the new world.

Deanna also had two sons, Spencer and Aiden.

She loved them deeply, but her work had kept her so busy that she had never really taught them anything.

The apocalypse had laid all their shortcomings bare.

Spencer was selfish, arrogant, and cowardly. Aiden was proud and naive. Neither had been prepared to withstand a real crisis.

Watching them make mistake after mistake in Alexandria had filled her with pain and guilt.

Now, however, Deanna had met Calista.

At first, all she had seen was an exceptionally beautiful, exceptionally young woman.

Over time, she had come to recognize something in those gray-blue eyes that she had never seen in any politician.

Courage, decisiveness, ruthlessness, and a charisma that made people want to follow her.

Deanna could not quite explain it, but she felt a powerful urge to help this young woman grow, almost as if she could make up for the guidance she had failed to give her sons.

“Calista,” she called softly.

Calista turned around.

Deanna rose and joined her by the window. “I have a suggestion.”

Calista regarded her steadily. “Go on.”

Deanna drew a breath. “Hold a general assembly for all the residents and formally adopt a title.”

Calista frowned. “Isn’t ‘Commander’ good enough?”

“Not a purely military title,” Deanna explained. “Something more formal, with the authority of a government behind it. ‘Supreme Commander,’ for example, or ‘Leader.’”

Calista shook her head with a rueful smile. “Isn’t that a bit much? All I’m doing is keeping everyone alive. I’m not some...”

“You’re wrong,” Deanna interrupted. Her voice was quiet but firm.

Calista looked at her in confusion.

Deanna stepped closer. “Do you know how many people live at Rock Fortress now?”

“Thirty-five hundred.”

“More than three thousand five hundred,” Deanna said. “What’s the first thing they think about when they open their eyes each morning?”

Calista said nothing, considering the question.

“Whether they’ll survive the day,” Deanna answered. “But now they’re thinking further ahead. Will they survive tomorrow? Is there a future in following you?”

She pointed out the window. “Those people, Benson, Josephine, Mika, Dubin, and Samuel, what were they before?

“They were Reapers. They killed people. They were used by others.

“And now?

“Now they’re here, defending your base, fighting for you, and helping build this place.”

Deanna turned back to Calista, hopeful. “Why do you think that is?”

After a few seconds, Calista answered, “Because they want to survive.”

“Yes, they want a better life. But there’s another reason. They trust you.”

Calista was stunned. She had never realized just how deeply her people trusted her.

Deanna continued, “They trust you to keep them alive, never to betray them, and to give them a future.”

Her voice grew softer, but her words carried even greater force. “Trust like that is worth more than anything.”

Calista thought carefully about what Deanna was saying. She had spent so much time dealing with immediate problems that she had overlooked her people’s yearning for hope and a future, and how much faith they had placed in her.

Deanna went on, “What you need now isn’t another battle. It’s to strengthen that trust.

“Let people see you. Let them know what you’ve done, what you’re doing, and what you intend to do.

“Make them feel that their efforts matter and that they belong here.”

She took a breath, leaned closer, and lowered her voice. “Calista, if you’d be embarrassed doing this yourself, I could persuade Gabriel to help. He could present it as God’s will.”

Calista stared at her. “Deanna, are you telling me to put on some kind of religious act?”

Calista wanted to build up her power, but she had never planned to involve religion in it. That magical clash with The Pope had been the lone exception.

Deanna shook her head quickly. “Not an act. Let them see what you’ve already accomplished, and explain it in a way they understand.”

She gestured toward the lights outside. “Those lights are there because you had Elena and Anna fix them, and because you brought those scientists together.

“Do the people know that?

“Of course they do.

“But unless someone tells the story, it won’t leave the same impression.

“Look at Rock Fortress now, then compare it to the other survivor camps.

“I believe Alexandria was better run than many of them, but how does it compare with Rock Fortress?

“I might be exaggerating, but what you’ve accomplished in this apocalypse is practically the work of a god!”

Calista weighed the suggestion, suppressing her embarrassment. There might be something to it. “Deanna... what do you think about ‘Supreme Commander’?”

Deanna nodded at once. “That works. It isn’t too extravagant, but it carries weight. Any title with that kind of presence would do.”

Calista studied her sincere, excited face in bewilderment. “Deanna, why... why are you helping me like this?”

Deanna had always struck her as a clearheaded, rational woman.

Her ideals might not suit the apocalypse itself, but they were ideally suited to rebuilding a peaceful society afterward. Deanna was the kind of leader made for peacetime.

Even after losing her husband and son, Deanna was the sort of woman who would never take her grief out on others. When her own time was running out, she would even hand leadership peacefully over to Rick. Calista could hardly imagine someone like that willingly supporting her absolute rule, much less suggesting that Gabriel give it religious legitimacy.

Why was Deanna doing this?

Deanna hesitated, then offered a complicated smile. “Because I think of you as my daughter.”

Looking Calista in the eyes, she said slowly, “I have two sons, Spencer and Aiden. I love them. I thought that giving them a comfortable life was enough, but I never really taught them anything.

“I was always busy with meetings, social occasions, and climbing the ladder. It took the apocalypse for me to realize how little they knew.”

Deanna paused, pain passing through her eyes. “You’re different, Calista. You already know how to do what needs doing. It comes naturally to you.

“But sometimes I see you hesitate. It’s as though you don’t know how to earn people’s trust or show them why following you matters.”

She rested a gentle hand on Calista’s shoulder. “Those things, I do know. I spent almost thirty years in the legislature. I know how to speak, how to act, and how to make people believe in you.”

Her eyes reddened, and her voice trembled. “So let me teach you, all right?”

Calista swallowed hard, her eyes shining. “All right.”

That night, Deanna did not return to her room.

She and Calista talked for hours in the office.

They discussed how to speak, act, and win people’s confidence, along with the title ‘Supreme Commander,’ when to announce it, how to announce it, and whom to involve.

They discussed Gabriel, what he should say and do, and how he might help.

They discussed the first general assembly, when and where to hold it, and who should attend.

Calista listened carefully to every suggestion. Little by little, she began to see the way forward.

By the time they finished, dawn was near, and sunlight fell through the window onto the two women, one young and one old.

Deanna rose and walked toward the door. Looking back, she saw Calista seated at the desk, pen in hand, writing something on a sheet of paper.

Sunlight edged her figure in gold, almost as though a sacred glow surrounded her.

The sight stirred a memory in Deanna of the day, many years earlier, when she had first won a seat in the legislature.

She too had sat in an office, gazing out the window and imagining the future.

Back then, she thought she could change the world. Later, she had learned she could not even change her own son.

Calista reminded her of her younger self, full of ambition, but with even greater determination.

For the first time, Deanna felt that perhaps she really could change something through this young woman.

She closed the door softly and left, comforted and hopeful.