TWD - Chapter 585: The First Light of Dawn (Patreon)

Deanna stood below UTK's main building and looked up at the roof, more than twenty floors above. A small figure stood against the sky. It was Calista.

She headed inside and began climbing.

The elevators had been out of service since the apocalypse, leaving her to take the stairs floor by floor. By the twelfth, her legs were trembling and she was struggling to catch her breath.

She smiled wryly to herself. She'd have to start exercising regularly, or she wouldn't be able to keep up much longer.

When she finally reached the top, Calista was exactly where she'd expected, standing beside the rooftop railing.

Deanna joined her. Together they gazed silently at the campus below, where campfires and flashlight beams were gradually appearing in the darkness.

After some time, Deanna broke the silence. "I walked around the grounds earlier."

Calista said nothing.

"I saw so many people." Deanna paused, her voice growing quieter. "I saw Aiden, too."

That made Calista turn toward her.

Deanna wore a complicated expression. It wasn't simple relief, nor was it exhaustion. It was the calm acceptance of someone who had finally come to terms with something.

"He was hauling corpses. Wearing a Defense Force uniform, with blood on his face. Dragging walkers away with his own hands."

"Was that hard for you to see?" Calista asked.

Deanna shook her head. "Not really. It just made me think."

She tipped her chin toward the lights below. "Everyone's working. Everyone's helping rebuild the city. Why should my son get special treatment?"

A little warmth entered Calista's gray-blue eyes. "You seem very happy today, Deanna."

Deanna laughed and nodded emphatically. "I haven't felt this satisfied in years! Oh, there's something I want to discuss with you."

"I'm listening."

Pointing to the campus beneath them, Deanna said, "We should move the administrative center here."

Calista raised her eyebrows and faced her fully.

"Rock Fortress is an excellent defensive position in the Great Smoky Mountains. It's hard for an enemy to attack, but it's remote and far from Knoxville. Traveling back and forth takes too much time.

"If we're going to develop, bring people together and rebuild a city, you can't stay hidden away in the mountains."

Deanna looked out at the fires below. "Put the administrative center right here at UTK. You, Leah, Rickson, the rest of your inner circle, all of you should be based here.

"Turn Rock Fortress into a military installation. Keep the training grounds, ammunition stores and defensive command facilities there. The terrain gives us cover, protects our troops and makes the place ideal for a garrison."

She met Calista's eyes and stressed each word. "But the center of leadership needs to be here, among the people, in the heart of the city."

Calista's face brightened. "How did you know I've been thinking the same thing?"

"Because we're thinking alike," Deanna replied with a laugh.

She indicated the flickering lights. "Look at everyone down there. They're sleeping here tonight, and they'll still be here tomorrow and the day after. Before long, this will be their home. But if you're never here, how will they know where that home is meant to be?"

Calista studied the people moving below and the campus slowly stirring back to life. Deanna had a point.

"Then we'll move," she said without hesitation.

"Good. I'll begin making plans tomorrow."

But Deanna didn't leave. Calista glanced at her and noticed her lips press together. She plainly had more on her mind.

Rather than urging her on, Calista waited. Deanna drew a deep breath.

"Calista, there's something you should know. I saw a lot today, and it gave me plenty to think about.

"Back when I served on the council, every day was about balancing competing interests, winning votes and holding onto my position. There were meetings and social engagements, endless things that seemed so important at the time."

Her voice remained steady. "Then the world fell apart. Reg and I brought Spencer and Aiden to Alexandria. It took everything we had to establish ourselves there and keep the community safe.

"I thought that surviving and building one small, hopeful community was the most anyone could accomplish."

She turned to Calista in earnest. "And then I met you.

"You built a base, welcomed us in, brought the Reapers into the fold and retook Knoxville. You gave more than three thousand people a chance to live."

Her eyes reddened slightly. "Sometimes, when I look at you, I see another version of myself. One who became... someone better than I ever managed to be."

Calista was caught off guard.

"I once wanted the same things. A fair community. A place where everyone could live in peace. Civilization rising again from the ruins. But I couldn't make it happen."

Deanna smiled, a little wistfully. "Sometimes I wonder whether, if I were twenty or thirty years younger, if I'd had your courage, or if I'd grown up in a world like this, I might have become someone like you."

She answered her own question. "Maybe. Maybe not. It doesn't matter now."

Deanna rested a hand gently on Calista's shoulder, her expression full of certainty and trust.

"What you're doing is what I always wanted to do. You're walking the road I wanted to take. And wherever it leads you, that's the future I always hoped I'd see."

Her smile held the tenderness and quiet resolve of an elder who had learned to let go. "So I'll help you, Calista. Even if it costs this old woman everything, I'll help you."

Calista swallowed. Looking at Deanna, she remembered their first meeting.

Deanna hadn't been young then, either. Fine lines had formed around her eyes, but she'd worn tailored trousers and pearl earrings, spoken with careful tact and approached every decision with a politician's measured caution.

Now dust clung to her clothes. Exhaustion darkened the skin beneath her eyes, and there was barely a moment in her day that wasn't occupied.

Running a settlement of a few dozen and administering one of several thousand were entirely different tasks.

Yet the light in her eyes was brighter than before. It was the look of someone who had finally found a purpose she believed in.

Without warning, Calista reached for Deanna's hand. She held it gently, but the gesture was unmistakably sincere.

Deanna looked down in surprise at their joined hands, then raised her eyes.

"Deanna."

"Yes?"

"Thank you."

Deanna's lips quivered and her eyes grew moist. She shook her head at once. "No, Calista. I'm the one who owes you thanks."

She tightened her grip. "Thank you for showing me that the things I couldn't achieve really are possible. That someone can do them."

A moment later she released Calista's hand and wiped her eyes. "Enough of that. Keep talking like this and I'll sound like some overly emotional old lady."

Calista's mouth curved in a rare teasing smile. "You already are an old lady."

Deanna gave her a mock glare. "Show some respect for your elders."

They both laughed. Even the evening breeze seemed softer for it.

"I ought to go downstairs and get some rest. Tomorrow's going to be another busy day. Ah, I'm getting old. I can't keep up with you young women," Deanna said, starting toward the door.

After a few steps she stopped and looked back, her eyes filled with hope and an absolute faith in the woman before her.

"Calista, you'll go farther than I ever did. You'll reach heights I never could."

Then she turned and descended the stairs. The sound of her footsteps faded into the stairwell.

Alone on the rooftop, Calista watched the people below and let Deanna's words settle in her mind.

She had no way of knowing how far her own road would take her. But one thing was certain. She was not walking it alone.

At her back stood her own sister, comrades she could trust with her life, friends who shared her ideals and countless people willing to move forward beside her.