In this episode, we learn Joshua's secret past.
It had happened so fast, and so quietly, that Joshua just couldn’t wrap his mind around it.
His son was alive, somewhere, but there was nothing he could do to get him back. There was so much that needed to be done. The tribe was waiting on supplies that had been destroyed before they arrived and the supply depot was useless now that they were watching, and there might be a mole….
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But all he could do was sit on the dock and stare at the last place he’d seen his son, being loaded into a Consensus bio-transport and driven away.
“I’m sorry, Joshua. I just didn’t see them,” Darian said again, for at least the 100th time.
“It wasn’t your fault, Darian. They were ready for us. None of us saw it coming,” Joshua said, finally finding the strength to stand and look around at Jenre, who’d combed through what was left of the supplies and loaded it into the truck.
“There’s enough for a couple of days, but they destroyed most of it,” he said, closing the tailgate of the truck. “What now?”
“Well, we’ve got a date and a time,” Joshua said. “I’ve just got to surrender myself, like they asked. I can’t risk what they may do to my son.”
No one argued. How could they? They all felt it, the sense of hopelessness that had descended the moment they’d seen the reaper, holding the boy.
“How did I let this happen?” Joshua was pacing now. “Why didn’t I listen to Adam? He’s been right every time. Okay, I can’t go back to the settling. They knew my name. It’s not safe for anyone with me around. So, here’s what’s got to happen.”
He began to list off action items that needed to be completed. They’d make the rounds and mark this depot as aware and off limits. Then, they’d have to stop at an emergency supply store and get water and enough food to last through the rest of their shift in the current settling.
“I’ll drop you at the farm house, then take this truck and bury it somewhere. I think it’s safe to assume it’s burned. They tracked us. But, how did they know where we were going and when?”
“Man, it could be anything. The drop-off crew might have been followed, perhaps even tortured…”
“Darian, they never knew my name, or when we were coming, at least not exactly. That’s how it works,” Joshua replied, almost angrily.
Jenre stepped in, “Joshua; he's just trying to help. None of us knows what to do. I still can’t believe this happened, and we just stood there, with our weapons in the truck and…”
“Don’t be stupid, we couldn’t have stopped them with a couple of rusty old rifles, besides; that thing could have killed Dax,” Joshua said, climbing into the truck.
“Get in, we need to get moving. There’s still enough daylight to get back to the farmhouse, we’ll talk on the way,” Joshua told Jenre.
They set off, stopping at each message board to leave a coded message regarding the depot. The emergency stores were intact, and they loaded up enough food and water to get through the next days and their travel cycle, to the next settling, which was usually a day.
“Okay, Adam and John know all the communications protocol, Jenre. I’m counting on you to make sure everyone sticks to the rules. They’ve mostly kept us safe. Don’t take any chances,” Joshua said.
He was driving faster than they typically would and their observation stops had been shorter, in short, not following his own advice.
“Where exactly do you think you’re going?” Jenre asked.
“Walton. We’re going to need to call a war council, decide how to handle this.” Joshua’s gaze stayed straight ahead, although he wasn’t really seeing the road. A vision of Dax’s face would not leave his mind.
“All right, then what? You’ll do much better on a full stomach and a night’s sleep. Plus, our tribe, we have a strong team of strategists. I think you should meet with them before you take off. We’re all in this. I know he’s your son, but we’ve got Vernon, maybe he could help?”
“Vernon is probably the key to all of this. That damn suit and him have brought nothing but trouble…still, what could we do, just leave him to die? You’re right. I could use a fresh perspective, but they knew my name, and who knows what else?”
Jenre picked up the documents they had retrieved from the depot.
“It reads like a summons. You’re to surrender yourself to a Magistrate at Mapleton courthouse. That’s about thirty miles north of our current settling,” Jenre said.
“Maybe they send this thing alone. That's how they've done trials in the past. If so, maybe we capture it?”
Joshua said nothing for several miles, then, “I can’t ask anyone else to risk their lives for me. It’s obvious we have a mole somewhere in the Dweller’s network. Until I know who that is, no offense, I think I’m better off not discussing any plans.”
Joshua thought back to the early days of the Abdication. Entire cities shut down entrance to the Consensus and refused to pay taxes or cooperate with their demands. As more people stopped recognizing Consensus authority, the government was forced to take a step back.
He’d asked his father one day how people thought that would help.
“Well, Josh, one man on his own only has about as much power as any other. But, if that one man can get one other to follow him, why, his power is more than doubled. With each new follower, it grows. The only real power a government has is control. If we refuse to give it to them, they’re forced to resort to violence. That’s when you know your opponent’s ideas are weak, when they resort to force.”
It almost worked too. Consensus Seeker troops had all but disappeared in most places. The idea of taking power away from government became mainstream and entire states, and small countries reasserted their own sovereignty, but they had failed to realize that their children weren’t really theirs.
As Joshua remembered, he had to fight tears from clouding his vision as he drove.
It turned out that while they were ignoring government, they were still allowing their schools to teach their children, and that was a mistake. One day, they simply didn’t send the students home. In cities all across the world, schools went into lock down, with the dwindling Seeker troops guarding the doors.
Men and women who’d been only too glad to offer their lives in resistance to Consensus only a day before were suddenly at the mercy of the ones they wanted so desperately to destroy. But, they couldn’t risk the lives of their children and so, they abdicated their rebellion.
The plan was turned on its head.
Joshua, along with thousands of others was herded into a reeducation camp and trained to serve the Consensus as a caucus facilitator. With their children held captive, the parents became easy prey.
That’s when the Consensus started issuing Consumption Stamps and anything without their seal of approval became illegal to consume, or trade. Not only that, but it was legally fair game for them to poison it.
Those that assimilated were allowed to have their children back and moved into caucus cities. Those that didn’t were marginalized, or poisoned through their food and water supply, until the resistance was stamped out.
Joshua had spent two years in the camps.
It was something he’d never shared with the Dwellers, or anyone else for that matter. There weren’t many of his generation left. Most had only lasted a few months before their parents complied, and they were sent home.
He couldn’t leave his son in the hands of these monsters, but he didn’t know if he was strong enough to subject himself t it again, even to save Dax.
Dax, and his brother had been a miracle, since almost 90% of Joshua’s generation had been secretly sterilized through their food. Somehow, the universe had seen fit to give him two sons anyway, and now he was losing the second one.
He knew what they wanted.
They wanted him to sign an official Abdication Consent, giving up his own rights to the authority of the Consensus Council. He'd rather die, but they had his son.