Part 4 (2/2)

Eli was right behind Jake. He dropped down in the mud and checked the man's pulse. ”He's still alive,” he croaked.

”Good.” Jake struck the man's ribs with his boot with all of the strength he could muster. The man groaned and coughed as he curled up to protect himself from a second blow.

”Jake! You can't do that!”

”Why not? Isn't this the least that he deserves?” Jake struck the man as hard as he could again.

”Jake! Enough!” Levi wrapped his thick bicep around Jake's throat and dragged him away from the man, ”That's not how we do it, Jake. You know that. We're not like him.”

Eli rolled the man over on his back and exclaimed, ”d.a.m.n, look at his face what did that?”

Geram walked up behind the three men and offered, ”Probably Sasha. She was in the house when we got there. Lord, she got him good.”

The man's face was barely recognizable, but Eli leaned in close with his flashlight nonetheless. He studied the features for a moment before whispering, ”It can't be.”

”What? Who is it?” his brother replied.

”This is Sam Coleman, from across the creek. He has the orchard over on Smithtown Road. He must have known that church was tonight and thought we would all be away. He he looks pretty bad. He's lost a lot of blood. I'm not sure he'll make it.”

”Good,” Jake replied, ”Let him die.”

Sam Coleman died not long after they found him. The Richardson twins carried Sam out of the field and laid his body across the back of Eli's horse. They carried him to the Thames' front porch and left him with the other bodies. Mr. Richardson had already sent notice to the sheriff, and he had promised to be by in the next day or so. He was on the other side of the county investigating yet another home invasion that had gone awry.

Jake and Geram shook hands and exchanged farewells with the twins before leaving for Jake's house. As they walked back home Jake finally broke the silence.

”I'm sorry about how I reacted back there. It was out of my character.”

”You don't owe me an apology. I probably would've done much worse.”

”Maybe I don't, but I still feel the need.”

”Look brother, I know this is new for you. You're doing a lot better than I did my first time. I know the full weight of it hasn't come to bear yet, but it will, and you'll find some way to cope. The important thing is you've realized your mistakes. That man, Sam, he lost his direction. A year ago, if you would've told him he'd be dead in a field because he attacked one his neighbors, he probably would've swung at you.”

”I thought it'd be different here. I thought people would stand by each other.”

”I don't know if anywhere is safe anymore.”

”We can't stay, not anymore. This is going to hit everyone hard. Trust'll be lost. We might as well be on our own.”

”You're right.”

”Three days. For three days we'll try and get some rest and gather as many supplies as we can. We'll pay our respects, have a service. After that, we leave.”

”Where you want to go, Jake?”

”The only place I can think of that might be safe.”

Geram smiled weakly and nodded in agreement as he draped his arm around Jake's neck.

Chapter 9.

Senator Ames Decatur, Mississippi The tiny cafe nestled in the middle of the quaint downtown district bustled with activity. Patrons crowded into the cramped booths and shoulder up to the counter. Others leaned against the walls and sipped their coffee while they made idle conversation with their friends and neighbors. This was no social gathering, however. The cafe was full for one reason. The restaurant's generator was the most reliable in town. No one wanted to miss the broadcast.

The cafe's menu had been reduced to only the most spartan of offerings. Stale coffee, fresh milk, yard eggs, smoked ham and biscuits were all that was available. Most of the patrons did not seem to care, though. The meal came with a sense of normalcy that they all dearly missed.

The quaint cafe was one of the few remaining businesses in town, as if Decatur had much to offer before. Its population had been less than fifteen hundred before the world imploded. There were probably less than a thousand residents remaining, though. The ones who chose to stay certainly did not fault those that left. Life had gotten much harder in Decatur, but the people who remained were strong willed, and looked out for each other. Fortunately, folks had managed to pull together. The town was probably more close-knit than ever before.

Decatur, Mississippi was named after Stephen Decatur, Jr., the youngest man to ever reach the rank of captain in the history of the U.S. Navy. Stephen Decatur fought in the Quasi-War, the Barbary Wars and the War of 1812. He received numerous awards and accolades. He was dubbed the Terror of the Foe. One of his feats during a battle near Tripoli was described as, ”the most bold and daring act of the Age,” by Lord Horatio Nelson. Decatur the city had quickly learned that, if they were to survive, they would need to develop the attributes of their namesake.

The people of Decatur waited anxiously this morning, like many across the nation, to hear the words of another man that they hoped would be a terror to some very different foes. The nation had been beset by the foes of sovereign default, of disastrous foreign policies and endless wars, and the foes of incremental fascism.

The administration had utterly failed to guide the nation through gentle, economic landing. Instead, the country had experienced a violent crash. Although extremely popular before, the president's approval ratings were now horribly and permanently dismal. People were suffering. They longed for a champion.

Senator Ames had been a relatively unknown politician from southern Ohio. He had served one term in the House prior to running for Senate. He had been largely ignored by the political and media establishment prior to his presidential bid because his strong, libertarian ideologies were not popular in the Was.h.i.+ngton circles. One might even argue that he was an anathema of sorts. But those same ideologies that had made him a Was.h.i.+ngton outsider now caused him to resonate with a public tired of government largesse and hungry for another way. He was young, handsome, articulate and dazzlingly charismatic. His powerful, rousing oratories seemed to energize crowds everywhere he spoke.

Senator Ames stepped onto the scene under the radar and completely blindsided the establishment. Voters flocked to his simple honesty, and he absolutely annihilated his compet.i.tion. By mid-February, he had won all but one of the primaries. By the month's end, all of the other hopefuls had withdrawn from the race and begrudgingly endorsed him. The political machine and its allies in the media scrambled to find any skeletons in his closet, but there seemed to be none. He was hailed as the last, honest man in politics. His path to the presidency was not inevitable, but it appeared that limited government advocates and freedom lovers finally had a fighting chance. That was of course, before the world changed.

First, Europe collapsed into the old hatreds and nationalists tendencies that had gripped it for centuries. It was hardly noticeable at first, but then it began to accelerate exponentially. Next, j.a.pan defaulted on several major obligations and spiraled into hyperinflation.

With the world quickly disintegrating around it, Turkey left NATO and reclaimed the entirety of Cyprus as its own. It then invaded Bulgaria, Armenia, Syria and half of Iran. Iran's remaining half had fallen into a b.l.o.o.d.y revolution that led to the slaughter of tens of thousands, and the rise of an even more ruthless regime than before. Israel was surrounded by complete and total chaos. They had nuclear weapons aimed in all directions, but particularly at Ankara. Russia began to engulf Georgia and the other eastern bloc states. The world had fallen into complete chaos.

Then the inevitable happened, the tentacles that had been strangling the rest of the world finally spread across the Atlantic. The troubled banking system in the states was already in total disarray, artificially subsisting on fiat created at will. When the sovereign defaults of Europe began, it was all too much and too fast for the Federal Reserve to counter. New bank failures were announced daily. The FDIC's insurance fund was emptied overnight. People were unable to withdraw any amount of money. Bank holidays became more common than days that they were actually open for business.

Then, in the third week of March, Black Thursday happened. The markets lost over half of their value on Wednesday and Thursday of that week. Some even believed it was part of a larger, coordinated, financial attack by a foreign government. Malicious or not, ma.s.sive amounts of wealth vanished in a matter of hours. And so began the Greatest Depression's American Spring.

Now, people were not even sure there would be an election. They were afraid the current administration would declare a state of emergency and simply forego a vote. If so, it was doubtful congress would intervene. Still, the senator campaigned relentlessly. The crowds were smaller, but they still showed up for a glimmer of light in an increasingly dark world.

Recently, he had begun an impromptu radio campaign. Much of the internet was under the strictest of governmental controls, and the remaining media outlets were openly hostile to Ames' policies on limited government.

His radio broadcasts were recorded by HAM operators and independent stations and rebroadcast across the nation. Some state-run programs, such as Radio Lonestar, carried them as well.

Today, however, was a rare live broadcast. The cafe became increasingly crowded as the clock ticked ever closer to the scheduled nine o'clock start. The waitresses squeezed through the crowd again and again with plates comprising the same order, as if they were stuck in some strange, breakfast time loop.

Suddenly, the cafe was filled with the sound of applause coming through the speakers. The room's bedlam of conversations was reduced to hushed whispers. The patrons waited anxiously for the junior senator to calm the crowd and begin his speech.

”Greetings Rapid City, South Dakota, and to everyone else within the sound of my voice. I'm humbled and honored that you would sacrifice your time to hear me speak. I hope that I don't disappoint you today. We're living in unprecedented times. As deplorable as the world's condition is, I believe we're merely standing at the precipice of an extended, dark period for humanity.

I won't lie to you; you've been lied to by so many others for so very long. I don't even know if it's possible for us to turn back from this nightmare now. We may've already embarked on a journey that is one-way in nature, at least for our generation. I pray it's not too late for our children to see freedom again, and I hope it is not too late for their children. I know that I don't have all of the answers, but I do believe the current administration certainly has none of the answers.

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