Dystopia: The Beginning of the End (7 page)

They arrived at Frank’s house to find a few new faces and immediately Frank introduced everyone.

“Everyone this is Destiny Walters and Matt Burns.”

He then noticed Sam coming in and smiled, “And this is Sam Stevens.”

He turned to Sam extended a hand to him and said, “Glad to see you here too, I know a few of these people will feel better about things knowing you are there.” Sam nodded to him in acknowledgement. 

Frank continued with his introductions, “Guys, this is Janice and Herb Campbell.”  Pointing to an older couple, “They live next door.  You already know Manny Martinez and his wife Gina.”

Pointing to another couple he continued, “Jim and Rose Fredricks and over here is Amanda Rollings.”

Turning to the left and looking past them, he said, “Behind you there is Joe Bittle with his son Cameron.” 

They all nodded each time acknowledging everyone as he introduced them.

Pointing to the sofa he said, “You know my wife Sarah, and Aaron over there.  Randy Cramer you met at the cars blocking the entrance, he and his wife Sue should be here shortly.” 

The discussion started out, as one would expect.  Talks of the banking holiday and Ebola fears. 

Sam quieted everyone and said, “I know you all have concerns and that is why we are here.  We have been sending a couple of people each day to check on things here and feel you are just not set up or equipped well enough to remain here if things get worse.” 

Silence engulfed the room for a few moments. Awkward looks were passed about the room until Manny spoke saying,

“Gina and I have been discussing this as well, and I think we have decided to go to my family’s ranch outside of Tulsa.  It would be good for the kids to be with family if things get really bad.  We are planning to leave in the morning.” 

Matt asked if they needed anything and said, “Come by and see us before you leave, we can top off your fuel and give you some supplies if you need any.” 

Manny thanked him and said they would come by. 

Janice spoke up saying, “What did you have in mind, Herb and I are not so young anymore and we can’t really travel far.” 

Dez whispered to Sam, “We can’t have this couple sleeping in a tent.”

Sam also agreed with her and said, “I think we need to think this through a little better.”

Just then Matt started to speak, quickly Dez nudged him, halting his thoughts and speaking quietly said,

“We need to set them up in the house, we can’t have that older couple sleeping on the ground.  Besides if it does get bad we may not be able to come later for things to set the house up.” 

Matt nodded to her as he continued to speak to the group. “I know it is tough to think of leaving your home for a time, but we think it would be best… at least for a time.  We are outside town with not many neighbors and lots of woods in the back of our house.  Now we don’t have room to hold everyone, but did have a thought about what to do.”

A few mumbles and discussions were beginning to surface before Matt continued, “There is a foreclosed house behind us, it is not locked and not in the best shape, but we feel like with some work it could be quite comfortable.  I understand it does not belong to us, but we also feel like if we make some repairs and clean it up, the mortgage company would not complain as they would normally have to pay to have this done.” 

There were a few murmurs and complaints again as people considered this. 

Herb spoke, saying, “I think this is a good idea, you know Janice and I are not spring chickens, I worry we would be a burden to you all.” 

Dez replied, “Don’t you worry about that, I know lots of ways you two would be of help and we would feel better knowing you were close enough to keep an eye on, wouldn’t want you not so spring chickens; getting into any mischief out here.” 

Herb laughed and said, “Count us in, but I think we would need some help getting over there with our stuff.”

Matt told him not to worry about that they would get everyone from both groups to pitch in and help everyone.  Frank said he and his family would go, as did Jim and Rose, Joe and his son Cameron as well. 

Amanda, who was in her mid-twenties, just looked at them like she thought they were kidding saying, “I just bought this house, there is no way I am leaving it.  You are all crazy do you know that?  The government isn’t going to let things get out of hand, they will have this all fixed by next week and when they do, you will all be in trouble for using that house.”

She got up and stomped out the door, slamming it loudly as she left.

Randy and Sue arrived shortly before the outburst and struggled to get up to speed, but Sue knew she was not leaving her home for anything and dug in on the subject.  

Sam suggested they should all get ready to go, and that they could come for the first things tomorrow.  Randy came up to Sam asking if they could have a few days to discuss it, wondering if they would still be welcome not coming at the same time as the rest. 

Sam said, “Sure man, you know how to contact us if you need to.” 

The trio excused themselves and told Frank they would see him tomorrow.  Frank followed them out, he had something else to discuss with them. 

Frank said, “I know it may be nothing but I have to tell you about George.” 

Matt looked at him quizzically and asked, “What about George?”

Frank looked uneasy as he was speaking about it.  He was obviously very concerned.

“George has been coming around with his guys saying he is in charge of security of the town, although who appointed him I’ll never know.  But he said he will have patrols out checking on people, which sounded good until he got to the part about the payment for his services.” 

Dez steaming with anger said, “Payment?  What kind of payment?” 

Frank replied, “Various things… food, money, favors, but the thing that concerned me was, he said we had to give our guns to his militia people so they could better protect us.  I think the sooner we get moved the better.  I will get everyone together by tomorrow, but Georges patrol is supposed to come back in two days, I’m afraid it will get ugly if they see us moving.” 

Looking more troubled with each sentence he continued, “George is on some kind of power trip and I fear getting a little
off
, if you know what I mean?” 

They agreed it would be best to get everyone moved tomorrow, no matter how many trips it would take.

Chapter 9

“Power is Out”

The law in an adroit mixture of customs that are beneficial to society, and could be followed even if no law existed, and others that are of advantage to a ruling minority, but harmful to the masses of men, and can be enforced on them only by terror.

-Peter Kropotkin

September 25

              They moved all the residents that wished to go over to the foreclosed house. They were organizing the home to accommodate its guests when Matt heard shouting from their house. 

Motioning for Sam and Aaron that they should follow him. He shot a quick look and nod to Frank to keep an eye on the ladies there; they then headed across the yard in a trot to see what was going on.

When they entered the house they saw George and a couple of new guys they had never met before in the kitchen. Walking in they overheard Dez saying,

“Well, I hope you’re not expecting any payment from us, we can take care of ourselves just fine thank you.” 

Matt walked up to George asking, “What’s going on here?”

George said, “You people need to understand that in order to be able to do patrols we need supplies.” 

Matt was now angry as well and almost yelling, “So you mean to extort them from your friends and neighbors?  What are you?  The next mafia?” 

George was getting red in the face and snapped back at him, “We know you guys have ammunition and food all we want is our fair share to pay for the protection.” 

Matt was shaking his head in disbelief and looking at George like he had gone crazy and said, “George, we have a sheriff for that.  I understand you may perform your little patrols in town, you and your crew have never been out this way on your patrols… not one time.   You, don’t have a share of anything here.”

George was getting ready to yell, but Matt cut him off saying, “Now, I am only giving you this one time courtesy, because I once considered you a friend.  

George scowled at them shaking his fist as Matt continued, “Never come back here to take anything from my family again or I shall not ask you nicely to leave my home. I need you to understand this tho, one way or another you will leave.” 

George was beside himself and spitting as he yelled, “We will just take it then, I knew you two would be a problem.”

Looking toward the men he had brought with him, he said, “Go find what we need”

Turning back to Matt with a sneer he said, “Once we get what we came for we will leave.” 

When one of the two turned to head for the bedrooms, he was stopped by Jeremy holding his shotgun who said, “I think you will leave now.”

Connor from the other side also holding his gun startled them when he said, “Yes, right now.”

Sam and Aaron stepped out from behind the counter revealing that the whole time both of them had pistols in hand poised for action if he failed to comply. 

George‘s speech stammered as he said to the guys he was with, “We will come collect from them later.  We have others to visit today, let’s go.”

Turning to leave, he looked back saying, “This ain’t over Burns.”

To which Matt replied, “Yes, it is, take my advice and don’t come back George.” 

After George left and Jeremy watched to make sure he had left, they stood talking about it. 

All of them congregated in the kitchen, Connor asked, “What the hell was that all about?” 

Matt explained what Frank had told him after they went to see them at the cul-de-sac. Shaking his head side to side, he said, “I’m shocked that he came here.” 

Dez interrupted his thoughts saying, “I don’t know what’s going on, I know that there are riots and stuff happening because of the banking situation, but honestly the shit has not even begun to hit the fan. 

Sam shaking his head and waving his arm in the direction George had just gone said, “This can’t be real; I thought we were the ones jumping the gun moving these folks over here as it was.  I honestly just felt like we just didn’t want to wait for it to actually hit and here it is up close and personal.” 

Aaron just nodded and headed out the door to go over to the other house. He knew George and worried about the threats he’d made.  He wanted to tell the others what had happened and have everyone prepare for it in case George made good on his word.

              That evening while they barbequed between the two houses; and the kids played, the adults sat and talked about things moving forward. They installed one of those bright lights that automatically came on in the evening a few years back.  It would light up the whole yard, and made it nice to gather outside.  The kids were playing tag under it when it suddenly went dark, they all started screaming that it was dark outside yelling, “We’re scared.”

The parents just started collecting their children to go to bed when Janice asked, “Does this light go out often?” 

Dez shook her head no, “It never has; it’s connected directly to the power lines.” 

Jeremy came out and said, “Power’s out.” 

   At first they thought it was the bulb, but when they realized it was all the electric in the area they started to talk about why. There had been no storms or anything to cause an outage. 

Matt checked his phone, then looking up at everyone one he said, “Phone turns on, it wasn’t an EMP.” 

Janice looked over saying, “An EM what?”

Matt explained, “An EMP, it’s an Electro Magnetic Pulse it can instantly fry all electronics.  It is generally produced by either a solar flare or a nuclear device.” 

Janice looked all nervous and said, “Did we get nuked?”

Matt assured her everything was fine, Just a power outage. 

He looked at Dez saying, “I’m going to go on up and check with Ole Arthur to see if he knows what was going on.” 

He then planted a big kiss on Dez and said, “Watch out for all our little ducklings here dear.” 

Dez laughed and said, “You’re so weird, git, go see what Arthur knows.” 

Jeremy and Connor promptly copied what Matt had done and headed down the road with him. 

Charleigh said, “Mom, that man is a bad influence” and laughed, as she went in to put Ariel to bed. 

After some time passed, most were already in bed. A few still lingered in the house chatting, waiting for the news from Arthur.   Matt and the others came back and looking around saw Lynn and Tawny were still there chatting about the garden with Dez.  Charleigh and Toni were playing cards with Sam; who was also talking to Aaron and Frank about security while he played. 

Everyone looked at Matt, who looked like he’d seen a ghost.  They were instantly quiet waiting for the news from Arthur’s place. 

Matt put his hand up to motion everyone to the kitchen as he walked to the counter and made himself a cup of coffee. Jeremy and Connor grabbed a beer and asked everyone to sit down, telling them that they had learned a lot from ole Arthur.

Arthur lived about half a mile up the road from them, he was retired army and had gotten bored with his retirement.  He’d started toying with ham radios a few years ago.  Matt went up to see what could be so interesting on a few occasions and knew from what Arthur told him that ham radios could reach many people in different parts of the world. 

Matt sat down coffee in hand, gathering his thoughts of what this all meant, he said, “I don’t know if the power is going to come back on any time soon.” 

They all started talking at once “What?  Why?  What’s going on? Was it an EMP?” 

Matt put his hands up for them to settle down and continued, “Apparently it is the power grid.  There were transfer stations hit by Isis all over the country, they think hundreds of them, big ones.  No one is really sure how many were hit and how many just fried from the overload.” 

Momentarily pausing and thinking while he took a sip of coffee, he continued, “There is chatter on the ham stations that it was all planned, that there was no computer virus.  It was all some kind of a smoke screen.  That the bankers and government knew a financial collapse would happen after the end of the petro-dollar. It caused the bankers to panic and suspend banking.” 

He paused to sip his coffee again, but before he could continue Charleigh said, “I don’t know who this Isis guy is but from what I hear he is very bad.”

Everyone laughed, Charleigh was quite smart, but sometimes she would say the funniest things, there were things that just eluded her and it was at these moments she made the funniest comments.  It was a good laugh because the situation was indeed bad and things would not be the same again for some time. 

Matt explained, “Isis is everywhere, they are terrorists and some are here in the US.  Many think that they came across the Mexican border down in Texas and have been filtering into different parts of the country for the past few months, maybe even years.  With the president letting so many illegals in, none of them were checked out, they slipped in with the illegals and have set up cells, and they planned this simultaneous attack.” 

The murmuring began again and Jeremy spoke up, “Cell coverage is mostly gone, no one is sure about land lines yet.  Most cable and Internet is not working, but Arthur said some of the news stations are still broadcasting as most have generators, but all they are reporting are widespread outages.”

“Now for the bad part”, Conner interjected. 

“And this isn’t bad?”  Lynn said.

Connor shook his head as Matt spoke, “The reports of Ebola?  Grossly understated, it appears to be airborne or else something is spreading it.  There are infected people in almost every major city, and the numbers seem to grow by the day. 

There is also speculation that all of it is a multi-pronged attack by Isis.  Orchestrated and helped by persons inside our own government.” 

The silence was deafening at this point as Matt continued, “LA, Vegas, Houston, as well as other border areas all taken over by gangs and cartels, MS13 they think.  While cities like New York, Boston, Chicago, Detroit and many other areas along the east coast, mostly, are practically burning out of control from the riots.”

In spite of the fact that most in the group were what might be called “Preppers” of some sort, the looks remained concerned.  As Matt continued to speak of what was going on and could come to pass the reality of what this all meant was shown on their faces. 

Matt continued, “Many people from these cities have been relocated to what FEMA is calling aide stations, but most reports state they are more like internment camps, once a person goes in they don’t come out.” 

Sam stood up, seeing the others were visibly shaken and said, “OK then, we all knew this could happen. I think we should all get some rest and we will fill the others in tomorrow. We need to have a meeting and get some organization.  We don’t have time to sit in shock we have to act fast at getting this place fortified and set up.”

Everyone knew there would be no sleep tonight, but they agreed it was best to try and sleep on it and get the others involved with sorting out how to move forward. 

While they were still saying their goodnights’ there was a knock at the door.  Hesitantly Dez opened the door to find standing there, Loel, his wife, and their kids. 

Matt leapt off the stool and went over to them, he shook his friend’s hand and said, “Loel, I wondered about you, where have you been?” 

Dez ushered them in as he spoke, “Rebecca was really sick, a lot of the symptoms they said were the signs of Ebola.  We knew she went to Atlanta a few weeks ago, so I worried about what that might mean and quarantined myself and my family.” 

Everyone gasped and he continued, “She’s better now, as you can see it is not Ebola, but a respiratory infection that began to clear almost immediately when she started to take the antibiotics, but I had to be sure.  I could not take any chances of infecting others.” 

Dez and Lynn were fussing over Rebecca making her comfortable when Loel again began to speak.  “George came by with a couple of thugs today, demanding some kind of payment.  He was yelling at me that I had not shown up for patrols and when I explained Rebecca was very ill, he cursed at me and called her Typhoid Mary.” 

Loel hung his head and continued, “They took everything Matt, all the food in the house, our gear, the two guns I kept there, and anything else they wanted, Rebecca’s jewelry, and even my damn TV.” 

After a few moments pause, he continued again, “He said I wouldn’t be needing it because we were all going to die from the plague.” 

Matt was furious, and said to Loel, “He tried that here, but was turned away empty-handed.” 

Loel said, “Most of what he got was every day stuff, all of my preps and supplies are down at my storage unit.  Our house is small with very little storage and I didn’t want people to know what I had.  We need to get there before they get a brain between them and think to start checking those.” 

Matt told them to rest that they would go and get it tomorrow. Dez and Lynn got out some sheets and blankets.  The sofa was a fold out bed and they set it up for the family to share and said they would settle them in tomorrow more permanently.