Desperate Times (21 page)

“We want it all,” growled the voice.

“Then I’ll start shooting. I’ve got an Uzi
with a banana clip and it’s fully automatic. I’ll bet I can kill
half of you in five seconds. Do you want to risk that? No, you’re
not getting it all.”

Jon turned to Jimmy and winked.

“Hold on,” answered the voice. “Let me talk
to my people.”

Jimmy held his breath. He could hear shouts
of protest outside the gate, but they suddenly went quiet. One of
their own was probably telling them about Jon. For all they knew,
Jon just might have that gun and he would certainly know how to use
it. The voices were low and Jimmy thought they were planning a
similar event for the next time they ran out of food. He knew Jon
was right. They would have to strike first.

“Okay,” the voice shouted. “We’ll send in the
women. They’ll take everything from the shed. Don’t any of you even
talk to them, just give them room to do their business. When
they’re finished, you can have the fat one back. You can have them
all back.”

“That’s just great,” answered Jon without
much enthusiasm. “Alright, I’m going to be watching. If anyone
tries anything, I’m going to start shooting. My first bullet will
be for you, I promise you that.”

“Oh shut up, will ya?” answered the voice.
“Save that shit for someone who cares.”

Jon’s face reddened as he turned to face
Jimmy. One of Ken’s hunting rifles was leaning at the gate and Jon
hefted it. He then climbed up onto the walkway and poked his head
over the top. “Back off!” he shouted down to the crowd.

There were two of them; they rode an ATV
pulling a trailer up to the gate. Brenda was driving. Riding on the
back was someone who could’ve been her twin sister. Brenda held a
beer and smiled wide as she pulled the ATV to within ten feet of
the gate.

Jon nodded down to the men below and they
pulled out the timber lock and heaved the doors open. Brenda roared
through the gate, driving one-handed, holding a can of beer high as
she entered. The crowd outside the gate cheered. Jimmy looked at
her with disgust. Julie turned away, unable to hide her shame. The
gate was closed and the timber replaced.

Brian and Jill Sandberg followed the ATV up
to the shed. The rest of the group waited for what seemed like an
eternity. The crowd outside was starting to get restless until the
ATV roared back to life. Brenda and her new friend hooted and
hollered their way back to the gate. They had cleaned out the shed
and the trailer was filled with their ill-gotten gains. Jimmy
couldn’t watch.

Julie walked up to Brenda as the gate was
opened. “Why?” she asked. “How could you do this to us?”

Brenda laughed. “I’m just goin’ with the
flow. That’s all, just goin’ with the flow.”

Bill was first through the gate. He looked
frightened, Jimmy thought, as if he’d aged a decade since this
morning. The entire group, minus Brenda, followed him inside the
gate. They carried tents and sleeping bags and wore shamed
expressions. The others had returned to Sally’s to revel in their
catch. The gate was closed and there was an uncomfortable
silence.

Finally, it was Bill who broke the spell.
“So, what’s for lunch?” he asked, rubbing his belly. “I’m
starving.”

Jon’s face said it all and he began to
chuckle. Julie snorted and the group erupted into an uneasy
laughter.

The laughter died away and there was more
silence. The group began to move slowly toward the back yard. Jon,
Jimmy, and Julie stayed behind at the gate. When the group was
safely out of earshot, Jon climbed down the walkway and joined
them.

“Well,” Jimmy said. “What do we do now?”

“There’s nothing we can do,” said Jon,
standing the rifle next to the gate. “We couldn’t turn them
away.”

“No we couldn’t,” agreed Julie.

“We’re going to have to start hunting,” said
Jon. “We’re going to have to supplement our food supply with fresh
game.”

“What about them?” Jimmy asked, hooking a
thumb in Sally’s direction.

“We’ll settle up with them,” said Jon, his
face cold as stone. “If we don’t make a stand, they’ll be back in a
few days for the rest of our food and whatever else they want. You
can take that to the bank.”

Julie stood behind Jimmy and wrapped her arms
around his waist. She began to chortle.

“What’s so funny?” asked Jimmy.

“Take it to the bank,” she giggled. “Isn’t
that what got us into this mess?”

“Listen!” Jon said, holding up his hands and
cocking his head.

Julie stifled her laughter and the sound
became clearer. A vehicle was heading up their road. It was moving
slowly and came to a halt just outside the gate. Jimmy followed Jon
up the walkway and they looked over the top. A van was out there
and men were getting out. Jimmy swallowed hard; they looked like
hard men and they were all armed to the teeth.

“Hand me up that rifle,” Jon whispered to
Julie.

She handed up the rifle as Jimmy watched the
men below. There were four of them and they took defensive
positions around the van. Jimmy could see that the van was
pock-marked with bullet holes.

“Open up!” shouted one of the men.

“Who the hell are you?” asked Jon.

“We’ve got Ken and Patty Dahlgren,” the man
shouted back. “Open your damn gate!”

Jimmy slapped Jon on the back and the two of
them scrambled down and heaved up on the timber.

The simple truth about hyperinflation is that
much of it is caused by mass hysteria. This makes us our own worst
enemy and is perhaps the truest of Catch-22 situations.

“Nice work,” Ken said from his wheelchair as
he admired the completed wall. He looked weak and as if he’d lost
ten pounds, but his eyes were bright and he looked to be well on
the road to recovery.

“Thanks,” said Jimmy. “It was nothing.”

Jon shot him a look that said otherwise.

Patty looked absolutely thrilled to be back
at the lake home. Her clothes were rumpled and she looked as if she
hadn’t seen a mirror in a few days. The men from the van belonged
to a security team from the hospital. They looked bleary-eyed and
battle weary, their faces gaunt with fatigue. The van drove inside
the gate and after saying a quick goodbye they hopped back inside
and quickly drove away. The entire operation lasted less than two
minutes. The group gathered around Ken and Patty, milling together
as if nothing had happened. Jimmy was glad for that. Maybe they
could put things behind them. What choice did they have?

“So, what’s new?” Ken asked. “How’s
everything goin’?”

“Everything is good,” said Jimmy, feeling
Jon’s eyes bore into his head. “I’ll bet you’re both tired. Why
don’t you head up to the house and get some rest. I think the girls
were just going to start fixing lunch.”

“I’ve been resting all damn week,” said Ken.
“Let me tell you, it gets old fast. Somebody push me up to the
porch. I want to see the lake.”

“Lunch sounds wonderful,” said Patty with a
wide smile. “I can’t wait to get back into my kitchen. Let’s fix
something nice.”

“Listen,” said Jon, “some things have
happened that you both need to know about.”

“Well?” asked Ken. “Go ahead and say it.
After what we’ve just gone through, nothing would surprise me.”

Jimmy wasn’t sure if that was true. He
dreaded what was about to be said. How would they react? Jon began
to speak, but Glen Putnam cut him off.

“Hold it, Jon. I made this mess, I’ll tell
the story.” Putnam said; his face had grown a pale shade of
white.

Pete Donnelly stepped up next to Putnam. “No,
we both did and I’ll help tell it.”

Ken and Patty listened without saying a word.
Putnam and Donnelly took turns telling the story, taking full
responsibility for what had transpired. They didn’t sugarcoat a
thing. Jimmy listened—angry as he’d ever been and indeed still was
at the pair—he found that he could respect their honesty and their
genuine sense of contrition. They were broken men and they were
begging for forgiveness.

“Well,” said Ken after they’d finished. “Live
and learn, right?”

The two men nodded. Pete Donnelly wiped tears
from his eyes.

“You did say that they didn’t take anything
from the basement?” Patty asked.

“Yes ma’am,” said Putnam.

“Good,” she said. “We’ve still got plenty of
food. Maybe it won’t be the tastiest, but it’ll fill our stomachs.
Thank the good Lord for that. We can also thank Him that no one got
hurt. Things are bad on the outside, much worse than you can
imagine. I swear—people have gone absolutely crazy!”

“That’s the truth,” agreed Ken. “Jimmy, I’m
not going to ask again. Wheel me up to the porch. I want to see my
lake!”

Jimmy smiled and took the handles of the
wheelchair and began to push. Jon took one of the handles from
Jimmy and together they pushed Ken up the hill to the bottom of the
short flight of stairs. Julie followed. The rest of the group
returned to the back yard. Patty led the way, discussing what she
wanted to prepare for lunch.

Ken surprised them all by getting up from the
chair and hobbling up the stairs. He was weak and his legs didn’t
quite want to cooperate, but he made it up each step and into his
favorite chair. “Doc Benson said it might take a while to get my
legs under me again.” he said with a grimace. “I’ve got some nerve
damage. Still, he’d have shit himself if he saw me take those
stairs. Doctors… What do they know?”

The four of them sat and looked down over the
gated wall to the lake below. A fresh breeze off the lake made the
deck cooler than it had been in the yard and the four of them sat
with their backs against the front of the house, each deep in their
own thoughts.

“I don’t know,” said Ken. “Things outside of
here are so different. I didn’t know the world could change so
quickly. That people could change so quickly. Some people are
trying to hold out and do the right thing. There are people holed
up everywhere, too afraid to leave their homes. And believe me;
they’ve got good reason to be afraid. From what I heard in Ely, a
lot of people are shooting first and asking questions later. The
bad ones have teamed up like wolves, taking what they please,
running around the countryside and pulling all sorts of crap.”

“What do you mean?” asked Jon. “Doesn’t
anyone try to stop them?”

“At first some tried, but that didn’t last
long after the shooting started. The militia in Ely is fairly
organized, but they can only do so much. They’re trying to protect
the town from looters. I don’t know how long they can hold out.
Most have families of their own to take care of.”

“What about the National Guard?” asked Julie.
“They’ll be up here soon. They’ll take care of the town.”

“I only wish you were right,” said Ken
dejectedly. “There’s just too much happening in the bigger cities.
From what I hear, we’re going to be on our own for a long
time.”

“I wonder how long it’ll be before we’re
attacked,” said Jon.

“We’ve got the wall,” said Jimmy. “That’ll
hold them off.”

“I wasn’t talking about the local bandits,”
said Jon. “I mean by an invading army. I’ll bet it won’t be long
once the rest of the world realizes what’s going on here.”

“There was some talk about that in town,”
said Ken. “The general consensus was that the rest of the planet is
up shit creek, too. This isn’t just happening here, it’s happening
everywhere.”

Jimmy absorbed this dully. He’d never thought
about the rest of the planet and what was happening beyond the
United States. If things were this bad here, how were other
countries faring? They’d be looking here for support and
leadership. They definitely wouldn’t find it here. He thought of
Paula; it seemed like he hadn’t seen her in months. Could she even
be alive? Maybe it really was a bad idea to go to the campground
and look for her. After what had happened earlier at the gate,
Jimmy knew he should stay where he was and help defend what they
had. He looked at Julie and her eyes were locked on his own. She
trusted him to do the right thing. Heading out on some wild goose
chase was a bad plan. For all he knew, Paula could be on a plane
heading for Hawaii. He couldn’t risk their lives on a far-fetched
gamble that Paula had somehow made it to the campground.

He returned his attention to Ken, whose chin
was resting on his chest. He had fallen asleep. Jimmy smiled and
motioned for the others to follow him. They walked quietly down the
steps and around the side of the house under the canopy of
pines.

“We can’t go,” said Jimmy. “That was a
foolish idea and I’m sorry.”

Julie immediately threw her arms around Jimmy
and kissed him on the lips. “I’m so glad you said that,” she said.
“We couldn’t leave Ken and Patty, not now. Not after everything
that has happened.”

Jimmy backed away and knew she was right. He
also knew she had another motive for not wanting them to leave.