Dystopia: The Beginning of the End (2 page)

“The CDC is sending workers to the affected cities to fight Ebola’s spread, and while the number of CDC experts may change slightly from day to day.  More than fifty CDC personnel are being sent to remain in these six cities continuously.  Again, the CDC’s public health experts in West Africa and here in the United States are working closely with our U.S. Government and international partners as part of this worldwide emergency response to the Ebola outbreak.  Our primary goal is to contain this disease and keep Americans safe, thank you for your vigilance and stay safe America.”

He nodded to the announcer, turned and unceremoniously exited the stage.

Everyone was quiet a moment, they sat staring at the television as if waiting for something more.  After a few moments, Tawny stood up exclaiming,

“That’s it?  That’s all they have to say?  How did it get here? Where did it come from?” 

Matt thoughtfully spoke, almost with an eerie calm.

“Did you see how the guy looked?  He wasn’t allowed to say more, I think something is going on.”

Continuing, he noted how the little man had not really given them any information.  The hospitals were undisclosed, not the numbers of infected nor anything about how it arrived, the real details were all omitted from his statement.

Matt got up to get some more coffee and then looked to Tawny asking,

“Are you going to be able to come to our group meeting tonight?  I think it is important we make use of all the available time to get ourselves ready for anything at this point.” 

She agreed she would attend.  Dez and Tawny got up and joined him in the kitchen to prepare for their Saturday brunch.  It was something that had become a weekly ritual.

Tawny began to slice the potatoes, her brow furrowed obviously something was troubling her. Dez, noticing this asked,

“Hey Tay, penny for your thoughts?” 

Tawny looked up from her slicing, the look on her face was worried.  It was a look Dez knew all too well in her best friend.  Tawny looked at her briefly and said,

“Nothing, just thinking is all.”  

Dez figured she would just leave it at that for now.  Tawny would say so if she had any real concerns, and besides Dez had far too much on her own mind.

Dez and Tawny had come to shortening each other’s name a few years back when they were joking around with Dylan.  Dez had remembered how Dylan always called her “Deziny”.  While Destiny did not mind the name Dez, and it had stuck, Tawny would scowl if anyone other than Dez called her Tay.   

Saturday brunch was usually a festive meal, sharing the week’s adventures and mishaps. It was canning day and the girls were excited to finally finish canning up the summer crops.  They had been talking about it all week, but today they ate with minimal conversation the announcement had spoiled their excitement. 

The only exception being Dylan, who regaled them with his plans for the new trap design he had invented.  He had planned to finally capture the squirrel he’d been tracking for the past two weeks.  The adults had hardly noticed he was speaking, as they each had their own thoughts to ponder.

Dylan being a precocious six year old, was agitated that no one was listening to him and he yelled out defiantly,

“No one is listening to me!”

His outburst brought Matt back into the moment and he looked up at him, who at this point was almost in tears.  Matt apologized to Dylan and offered to help him build his trap and asked him to tell him how he was going to build it.

As he and Matt headed for the door to start on his trap.  Dylan continued to regale him with all his plans. He was happily bouncing alongside Matt, explaining all of the details of his design.  Dez tousled Dylan’s curly hair and commented how lucky they all were to have such an inventive young man around.  Tawny smiled at them as they left, they both knew it had been hard on her, the way Dylan’s father had been killed.

Tawny was a pretty woman with curly blonde hair and blue eyes that always made Dez jealous.  She hated having brown eyes.  But Tawny always managed to find the wrong man, though, consistently finding a guy who lied about anything from his marital status to his income.  Dez believed it was because she could never accept the death of Dylan’s father. 

She was heavier than Dez, but more in a shapely way than a heavy way, she did well for herself and did not really want anything more than companionship.  Today she looked small the way she hunched over the counter cleaning up the dishes. 

This attitude from her had always bothered Dez, she hated it when Tawny would lose confidence and she often wished for her a kind man one who would be good to Dylan and her. She often told Matt how glad she was that he helped her with Dylan and treated her like family.

Chapter 2

“The meeting”

"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."

— Abraham Lincoln

The day progressed as any normal Saturday, Dez and Tawny worked in the garden and managed to can up fifteen quarts of tomato sauce, while Matt and Dylan worked on the squirrel trap.  During the week they each had their own things going on, and they all very much enjoyed the Saturday home time each week. 

As the late day sun began to set, Matt and Dylan came walking back up to the house.  Dylan burst through the door exclaiming,

“It’s ready!”

Jumping up and down with such excitement it made everyone laugh.  Dez winked at Tawny and said,

“Children have a way of making even a darkest day bright.” 

Matt came in right behind feeling rather satisfied with himself, which also was a sign to the girls, that there was at least a chance his trap design was workable. 

When Matt came in he was scuffing his dirty boots across the floor and Dez frowned at him giving that look she often gave when he was messing up the house with dirty boots.  He looked at her with that ‘what?’ look he always got when she scowled at him and knew he had better return to the mat to remove his boots.  Dez laughed and said,

“Clean up for dinner, gentlemen.”

Tawny often protective of Des described things to anyone who might have observed something like the interaction in the kitchen; that it might have seemed like Dez was some kind of tyrant about the messes in the house. 

She was quite the opposite though, Dez was easy going with a gentle demeanor.  Some even said it was her biggest downfall, she was too trusting and accepting of what people said as truth.  Her children often scolded her for not standing up for herself, when often she would stand without wavering in defense of her children or others but rarely for herself. 

A beautiful woman she often found herself fending off suiters with hopes of more than friendship and could never understand why she would be taken advantage of.  For this reason, Tawny kept a keen eye on Matt, and he knew it.

Dinner was not as quiet as brunch had been; they sat around and discussed what they each wanted to talk about at the group meeting scheduled for later that evening.  Although Tawny had never gone, she wanted to share some of what she and Dez had been discussing earlier. They were worried about communications and getting some ideas about creating a system that could be worked out to rotate channels for security reasons.  Dez wanted to make sure all the facts about the Ebola virus were available as well.  She thought that they should work toward precautionary measures. 

Matt was, as usual, interested in security.  They were discussing different options, when Dylan whined,

“I wanna go to the meetin!  I’m big now and I made a trap, I wanna say about my trap.”

Tawny said, “Honey, I know you’re big and I am very proud of your trap, but this meeting is for bigger people.” 

He pouted and crossing his arms defiantly said, “I am big.” 

With that little fit, Matt, who was always good at getting him to agree to things, got up and drew a line on the door jamb at right about 4 feet high.  He looked at Dylan and said,

“Buddy you gotta be this tall.” 

While pointing to the line, he continued, “Just like the rides at Kings Island.” 

Dylan scrambled over to the doorway and placed his back right up against it to allow Matt to draw the line that would show where his height was.  Turning to look at the line he frowned and said,

“I’m never gonna be that big.” 

Everyone laughed as Tawny replied, “You will get that big if you eat all your food.” 

“Even the peas?” he asked.

“Yes… even the peas.” 

For Dylan this was a double whammy, now not only was he not big enough to go, but he had to eat peas too.

He mumbled under his breath, “This sucks!”

A comment Matt had been the only one to hear.  He raised an eyebrow, looking at him saying,

“That is quite enough young man.” 

Dylan’s look to what Uncle Matt had said, said all it needed to.  They all shared a look, not daring to comment on it, but secretly laughing inside.

When they arrived at George’s house they noticed the meeting was already well attended.  Dez laughingly said,

“Gee, all it takes is a good disaster to get people to actually show up.”

The comment made Matt and Tawny both laugh.  Once inside, they noted a few new faces along with some that rarely attended. 

Matt whispered to Dez, “Listen, I don’t know about some of these people so don’t say anything about our location, supplies or anything else, ok?” 

Dez winked whispering the same to Tawny.  Tawny agreed with them that they should feel out the room and wait until most had retired from the meeting. They wanted to stay and discuss some things with George and Loel afterwards anyway.  This group was a sort of Militia group, mostly like-minded Preppers but some were just looking for a fight and precisely why Matt insisted on keeping some information private. 

While George was good at organizing things he insisted no one could have an opinion that differed from his or he would kick them out.  Dez didn’t really like George, she’d told Matt a number of times that she thought George was pig headed and on a power trip even calling him a keyboard commando. 

George was an older guy, ‘overweight and sloppy’ as she once described him.  Dez told Tawny she thought he couldn’t fight his way out of a paper bag.  He did not like women in his group and had on more than one occasion made that clear. He had very definite ideas as to where women belonged.  She only agreed to continue attending because Matt had explained that there were others in the group with good ideas, which he’d hoped to ask to join their little prepping group. 

Most of the conversation that evening centered on Ebola and the risk of Martial Law being implemented.  There was a lot of discussion about the actions this group would take. 

While most agreed that should that happen, they would fight to defend their families and Constitutional rights. Many disagreed with some of the preemptive actions that George and a few others were advocating, they felt it was too extreme. 

Dez spoke up saying, “We are to DEFEND the constitution NOT an outright attack on the premise of a threat, we are not a preemptive line here.” 

To which George replied, “I don’t like how you are always disagreeing with me Missy. This is MY group and I say what we do!” 

Dez’s posture relayed she was not at all happy with the way this was going, and Matt knew she hated being called Missy. She leaned over to Matt saying she wanted to go.

“There was no preparations for anything, no communications, not even emergency procedures should Ebola surface in our area.” 

She told him that she felt nothing of value had been discussed tonight and as far as she was concerned, it was wasted time, Matt agreed with her but not wanting to appear adversarial said they should just wait for the meeting to end.

They didn’t bother to hang around and speak with George, as soon as things were concluded; they all said their goodbyes and excused themselves as they headed out the door.  

Once they had gotten out the door, Loel came out and approached them,

“Hey you guys, wait up.”

Dez and Matt turned to see what Loel wanted as Tawny continued to the car, almost stomping, she had not said a single word that night and had come to the same conclusions as Dez.

It was clear none of them were happy with the way the meeting had gone.  With exasperation in his voice Loel asked,

“Are you guys going to be up for a while?”

Matt said, “Yea, we are generally up later in the evening, why?” 

Loel gave a quick glance over his shoulder and said in a hushed voice,

“Myself and a couple of other guys would like to stop by and chat with you about something.” 

Dez eyed him and said, “After how George acted I don’t really want to deal with his stupid ass any more this evening.” 

Loel waving his hands for her to lower her tone said, “No, not George…. Would you mind? We just want to talk to you guys about something.” 

Matt interjected reaching out for his friend’s hand saying,

“Sure man, no problem… we will get some coffee going, how much longer do you figure you will be?” 

Loel thought for a moment and said,

“Would 30 to 45 minutes be ok?” 

Matt shook his hand and said, “See you then.”

Upon arriving home Tawny said she was tired and just wanted to go to bed, saying she’d had all she could take of the ‘Wanna be a commando group’ for one evening.   Dez and Matt said Goodnight to her, apologized for dragging her along and went inside. 

Both were curious about what Loel and the guys wanted to chat about.  Matt said,

“Dez, you need to just back off of George, I know he is a paranoid power freak and so does everyone else.” 

She shot him a dirty look and said, “What? Do I just sit there and listen to his commands like some kind of robot?” 

Making a “Pssshhht” sound she stomped off.   Matt was getting flustered, as Dez continued,

“What I see is he is gonna get people killed if the shit hits the fan.  I for one don’t want us to be the ones doing the dying under his power mad dictatorship.” 

She moved closer to Matt in a much calmer almost worried tone she said,

“How is what he is doing any different than the rights grabbing, power hungry politicians we swear to fight against, to defend the constitution?”

Matt looked at her quizzically and said, “I never really thought about it that way.  I haven’t been happy with the direction this group is going really, but I really think Loel and a few of the other guys would be an asset to us.   This is why I put up with him.” 

Dez nodded, “I know, let’s discuss this tomorrow.  I wonder what the guys wanted.” 

Looking out the window Matt noticed a car pull in the driveway and nodded to Dez “Well, we’re about to find out, they’re here.” 

Dez headed for the kitchen to start the coffee, as the friends knocked at the door.

Matt opened the door for the visitors and standing with Loel was Sam and two others he did not recognize.  Loel introduced everyone, to the two guys who came with him,

“Matt, Dez this is Aaron Mills and Frank Little and you know Samuel Boyd.”  As they all shook hands Loel continued;

“Aaron, Frank, this is Matt Burns and Destiny Walters.” Dez indicated for them to go into the living room.  Asking if they would like coffee as she went into the kitchen for the cups.

Everyone sat down as Loel began, “I suppose you want to know what we wanted to chat about.” 

Matt said, “yeah, it did kinda cross my mind.” 

They all laughed, as Loel continued, “Well, I guess what I was wondering was, ummmm….” 

After about a minute pause, Dez spoke up,

“Well out with it already” and began laughing. 

Matt turned to Loel and said, “Hey now, no worries here guy you can always speak your mind, what’s up?” 

Loel hesitated a moment and blurted out, “I hope you don’t think I’m just being a whiny ass, but I don’t think I’m going to continue with the group anymore.  George is just out of hand.”

Matt and Dez just looked at each other, while Loel continued, “That’s why I wanted you to meet Aaron and Frank.  They have a good group going and I like the way they think.  Most in their group live in small houses or the townhouses just out of town without much of a yard to speak of. They all agree things are not going well, but don’t really know what to do. “

He paused a moment for it to sink in and gage what Matt and Destiny thought. 

“We all need someplace to train and prepare, and well ummmm.” 

Matt looked at Dez and both of them burst out laughing; they knew what he was thinking.  Their laughter made Loel feel a little uneasy.  Sam looked around, he knew Dez and Matt better than Loel and he knew why they were laughing.

Dez had been saying for months the very same thing.  Matt pretended to be all serious and said,

“So you mean to do a bit of survival training and stuff, without George?” He paused looking at Loel.

“Gee Loel, I think George would just about have a meltdown if he found out.  He doesn’t even like to see HIS group members barbequing without his presence.” 

Loel looked up at Matt, who simply couldn’t hold in the laughter anymore.  Matt began laughing as did Dez and Sam.  Loel looked about the room as if they’d all gone mad.

Matt stuck out his hand and said,

“I’m in… Dez is gonna end up shooting George herself if we don’t get away from that guy!”

Looking at Dez he smiled a nice toothy grin saying, “I know the perfect place, right Dez?”

She said, “Yep, will a hundred or so acres do?”

Aaron and Frank, eyes wide; almost simultaneously said, “Wow…. Yeah, it would.” 

“Ok then,” Dez said.