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Only a Southern could so casually dismiss the events, slightly more then fifteen years past, as an Unpleasantness. Perhaps it'd been that harden collective shell, tempered by years of bloody conflict between the States in the mid 1800's, which almost took crisis for granted. A lingering suspicion remained that prosperity was only a period of waiting. Waiting til the next big blow, either Nature or Acts of Man, would once again test their resolve.

But for Yowie, the conflict which that prim young girl so blandly alluded to was anything but natural. Though barely out of pampers at the time, the student had since talked of the crisis with her father, of the year long war between the Living and the Resurrected Dead!

"Hey, hey. " giggled Terry, breaking into the other's thoughts with a cheerful intrusion. "There's Jessie, over by the boards. "

Jessie Jones, a fine lean figure of a man, would-be musician and social activist, spotted the two girls waving to him. Yowie was his girlfriend of the moment, tho she readily admitted it was largely for the sex. While the woman carried a certain arrogance of education, she did enjoy the basic pragmatism of the more street-wise young black man.

"Hey, girls. " his broad natural smile always made Yowie tingle. Jesse offered a hug which she readily accepted.

While she embraced him Yowie eyed the cedar and cork bulletin boards across Jesse's shoulder, already packed with notices for potential room-mates, special events and some really odd items of interest. One note, large darkly inked letters on hot pink construction paper, caught her attention.

"Jesus! Comin up on Easter and the crazies are out in force! ' she exclaimed in great annoyance.

"Sure as hell, Wiley'll bring it up in class this semester. " Jessie responded with more than a hint of antagonism toward the somewhat prissy sociology professor.

"And you're going to bait him with it if he doesn't. " Yowie scolded, remembering the countless arguments between student and teacher.

"Just trying ta keep him honest. " answered her boyfriend with neutral voice as together the threesome walked toward the lecture halls. "I wonder what's up with this? ' he asked as they saw the gathered class milling about in excitement.

"Y'all don't know? " responded a thin girl, whose name Yowie couldn't rightly recall. "Wiley's got Colonel Jody Dillon to speak to us today! "

Only Terry looked confused at the name, the military man all too familiar to her room-mate, for a very good reason. "Colonel... ? "

" ... Dillon, former military advisor to then Governor Joshua Davis, coordinator of the final defense of Charleston, December of 79. " this pithy introduction from the rather stiff, thin faced elder Professor did not impress as much as did the deceptively ageless and confident man who eyed his young audience with a cool speculative gaze. Colonel was an Honorific from the old days, Dillon being semi-retired to private life for the past eight years. His manner was quiet, attentive and studious, drawing the kids to him as the fifty-five year old soldier nodded with obvious polite disdain toward the insufferable arm chair intellectual who introduced him.

In appearance he looked more the accountant than the military genius who'd finally forced the Dead out of the city with a decisive counter, coming too late to keep the poorer sections of the city from igniting in a fiery conflagration. His blockade of flesh and firepower did eventually allow the smoker-eaters to contain the inferno, while Dillon's forces drove the enemy into the sea.

"Ah, Thank you... Professor Wiley. " he murmured with a calculated humor which let the man know how little he thought of pompous asses who hid behind walls of faux superiority, the same people who'd almost lost the war so long ago. "I'm happy to come here and butt heads with you young folks. I'll keep the lecture brief, confined to facts, as we know them, and then open the floor to questions. "

He had no papers before him, Jody relying upon memory to carry him through the talk. As Yowie listened, her own casual gaze about the hall noted that in addition to the seventy odd students who regularly attended Professor Wiley's class, there were an additional twenty or more new bodies crammed into the back.

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