THE DAY: A Novel of America in the Last Days (The End of America Series) (20 page)

Colonel
Jim Irwin Elementary School

              
Beau
led the ‘cow hunting party’, as it was so labeled by Audrey, his
wife. He picked as his fellow hunting party members Mark, an ex-veteran, and
Quinn, a nineteen year old, reputed to be a skilled marksman. Beau had a small
bag of silver coins in his back pack, along with extra ammo for the rifle which
was slung over his shoulder. His strategy was to wake up and leave the school
before dawn, at about 5 AM. His plan complied with his rule that no one be seen
leaving the back door of the school during daylight hours. They planned to
return from their mission after dark. The very last thing they wanted, Beau
insisted on frequent occasion, was to be seen going out from or going into the
school, as it would alert others to the possible presence of the most valuable
item in America – something to eat.

              
The
plan was to hike briskly from the school west across the no longer traveled
state road to the Pleasant View Dairy Farm, estimated to be a two mile trek.
Walking in the dark, with only a half moon to illuminate their path, the three
man cow hunting party arrived at the farm just after 5:15, before sunrise.
Though they didn’t come to the farm to use their firearms, they were
armed because there was a high likelihood that the farm would be well defended.

              
Beau
assigned his two companions to spread out and carefully approach what appeared
to be the farm house, as it was the only residential looking building on the
sprawling farm. Having driven past the farm frequently, Beau knew the general
layout. The two large dairy barns stood to the left of the house. Another
low-standing aluminum farm building was behind the house, with three milk
transport trucks parked nearby. Though no cows were seen in the pasture
adjoining the first barn, Beau concluded that either the farmer had moved his
herd further away from the road, to a distant pasture, or that the cows had
already been slaughtered and taken by hungry neighbors. They would soon know.

              
Once
the three men came within a hundred feet of the farmhouse, they began to crawl
on their stomachs towards the residence. Beau used low bird-like sounds as his
method to communicate. Now within twenty-five feet of the house, Beau gave a
low two-
twirp
signal. As soon as he softly whistled,
Beau heard a round being chambered and felt cold metal behind his left ear.

              
The
holder of the firearm pointing at Beau’s brain growled in a low voice,
"Son, you better not move too fast, or you’ll
never move again
. Get my
meanin
? Your two
fellow crawlers
better not either
."

              
Beau
slowly turned his head towards Mark and Quinn. He saw that they also were under
the barrels of rifles. Beau swallowed hard, then said, "Sir, we’re
not here to
cause any harm
….we
have guns because we weren’t sure what we would run into."

              
"
No harm,
hunh
?
So you’re in my front yard, with two other men with guns? And
you’re not here to cause harm? What in the world kind of
stupid pills
do you think I take? You
got
just seconds
to tell me anything
you want to say before you meet your maker,
get
it?"

              
"Sir,
we came here to buy a cow?
That’s
all
.
Just to buy a cow."

              
"
What
?....
Come
on, sonny, we’ve had
lotsa
people come by here
to steal a cow, some of whom have done it, a few of whom are
lyin
’ out back. But,
buy a cow?
That’s a new one. Anything else before
you’re
no longer a burden to society?"

              
"Wait,"
Beau pleaded,
"Wait….Look in my back pack, we’ve brought the money. Silver
coins. You know,
real
money….just look….I’m
not
lying to you. Don’t shoot us."

              
"Just
because you’ve got coins on you doesn’t mean that you brought the
money to buy one of my animals. Maybe you
stole
the coins
from the last farmer whose house you
snuck up on
?"

              
"Mister,
we’re
Christians
. There are
over eighty of us. We’re almost
out
of food
, just like probably everybody else. But, we knew about your dairy
farm and we talked about taking a cow. Instead, since we don’t believe in
stealing
, we voted to bring these
coins here and buy a cow, so our wives and kids can live.
Please
believe me
."

              
The
farmer didn’t know what to say. Of all of the people he had accosted
coming onto his property no one had said they were Christians. The farmer was
himself a believer, so these words slowed him down in what he was about to do
to protect his property and the lives of his family.

              
Finally,
the farmer said, "I’ll tell you what. Anybody can say
anything
they want, but how do I
know
what you’re telling me is
true?"

              
"Sir,
you can open my pack back and…."

              
"No,
I mean about being a Christian. Give me your personal testimony. Either that or
give me at least
seven
of the
ten commandments
.
Your choice.
Make
it quick."

              
Beau
quickly counted up to four commandments.
Stealing, adultery,
idols, murder.
Humh
.
Beau decided
he’d better explain how he came to know Jesus. Otherwise, he would be
with Jesus
very soon. He started
speaking with his voice shaking, "Mister, ten years ago I was like any
other person, any other American, any other graduate of UAB."

              
With
a half-smile, the farmer said, "Myself, I’m an Auburn fan, but I
won’t shoot you for being
a roll
tide boy
."

              
Beau
also smiled, thinking for the first time since he felt the barrel of the rifle
behind his ear that he might actually live. He went on, "But I was asked
by my wife to attend a neighborhood Bible study. I didn’t want to go. I
didn’t believe there was a God, or if there was one, that He
couldn’t be approached by somebody with
my
background of rampant sin….
big time sin
."

              
"OK,
so you were a sinner.
Big
deal
.
Got anything else to say?
Hurry
it up now
."

              
"
Yes, sir
.
Well, I went with my wife to that Bible study. The guy who was teaching that
night answered my many questions, some of the questions being world class
stupid
. We stayed and talked till almost
midnight. Hannah, that’s whose house where the study was held, actually
went on to bed. But by the end of the night
I
was ready.
I understood what Jesus did for me and how foolish I would be
not
to accept His free gift of
salvation."

              
"So,
Jesus is
your
what?
Your
buddy
?
Your
co-pilot?"

              
"No.
Jesus is my Lord and Savior
.
That’s it.
Simple.
If you put that bullet in my
brain right now….well….then I’ll be in
heaven
….you would be doing me
a favor
. My favorite verse is from Philippians. It says, ‘for
me to live
is
Christ, to die is
gain
."

              
The
farmer motioned to his two sons. They took their guns off of Mark and Quinn.
Withdrawing his own weapon he reached down to help Beau to his feet.
"Sonny, either you are
really dumb
to crawl up my front yard with weapons, or you’re incredibly hungry and
desperate for food
for your family
.
Either way, I
believe
your testimony
of faith. As your brother,
I can’t
kill you. Just so you’ll know
,
we have killed
some folks who came here to steal our cows and
kill us.
If you
ever
try
anything like this again, anywhere else, don’t
even think
about doing it like this.

              
"Now, about the cow.
Before The Day I
saw
what was coming. As soon as I
realized what America was going to do to Israel, I shipped our herd, all but
one beef steer, to market.
Converted the proceeds to gold,
silver and ammo.
The one steer is salted and dried and hidden. Sorry,
but I
can’t
share that.
Wouldn’t be enough for a crew as large as yours, anyway.
Now, sonny, you take your buddies and get going. The sun’s coming up and
you don’t want to be seen out in the open, especially with your weapons
being so visible. We may not be able to give you any food, but
I promise
I’ll pray for you. All
of you."

The
Woods Behind the

Colonel
Jim Irwin Elementary School

              
Chris
and his little brother Bobby, aged 12 and 10, were bored. They were also
hungry. They had been cooped up inside the Colonel Jim Irwin Elementary School
near Birmingham, Alabama for over two months. They knew that the rules inside
the school were strict. No one could leave the school, otherwise, they had been
warned repeatedly, someone might see them and figure out that there were
people, with food, hidden inside the school. But, they didn’t think that
it was fair that the boys who were teenagers, 14 and up, were allowed to leave
the school and go on hunting parties with the men, looking for animals for
food. They reasoned that they were almost 14, so how much harm could it cause
if they snuck out to play in the woods behind the school. They hoped to be able
to catch a rabbit or maybe a squirrel for food to help feed the residents of
the hideaway. The group was now down to just one meal a day, with a small, very
small snack for the kids before bedtime.

              
Chris
and Bobby knew that there was only one outside entrance/exit door that
wasn’t blocked with stacks of desks and chairs preventing access, a
single metal door which accessed the utility room in the back of the school.
The boys carefully watched the men who took turns guarding the door, to decide
the best time to slip out of the school. They soon learned that two men watched
the door during the night, which was assumed to be the time of greatest
vulnerability to marauders. During the day only one man guarded the door. He
had control of the air horn which would instantly alert everyone in the school
of intruders. Chris and Bobby decided to play a board game down the hall from
the door into the school from the utility room. That way they could watch and
see when the assigned guard for the day took his rest room break, as the
nearest facilities to the utility room were down the other hall.

              
At
just past 11 AM the boys saw their opportunity to escape to go play in the
woods. They watched as the guard sauntered down the hall towards the rest room,
his rifle slung on his shoulder. The minute the door to the rest room closed,
the boys ran as quietly as possible to the interior utility room door, through
the room and out the back of the school into the trees.

              
The
longer Chis and Bobby were in the woods, the more fun they had. Throwing rocks
into the creek flowing through the several wooded acres, chasing small animals,
unsuccessfully and having the best time they had enjoyed in months. They ran
further away from the school.

              
Snake
Head was dozing. His duty as the back guard was to sit on the rear patio of a
three story house on a cul-de-sac which backed up to a large wooded area. The
twenty-seven men who lived in the house moved into the abandoned residence soon
after The Day. They were all inmates at Donaldson Correctional Facility, a
maximum security prison northwest of Birmingham. It hadn’t taken long for
the guards of the 2,000 inmates to conclude after The Day that their services
would no longer be required nor paid. The guards needed to get home to protect
their families from what was coming. The prison emptied soon after. None of the
men in the house were still married. All bore extensive tattoos. Each had a
firearm and ammo. Each was in prison for committing a homicide.

              
Chris
chased Bobby across a ravine, up the far side and up to the edge of the woods.
While running the boys kicked up layers of dry leaves in the ravine, causing a
noisy ruckus, loud enough to wake up Snake Head. Snake Head snapped up his
head, looking for the source of the noise. He hadn’t heard kids playing
since The Day. What was this, he asked himself? He soon found what he was
looking for, as two pre-teen boys ran to and then out of the edge of the woods
behind the house he was guarding.

              
Snake
Head jumped up out of his plastic deck chair, jumped off the deck and quickly
grabbed the two playful invaders of his space. Chris continued to chase his
giggling little brother, unmindful of the large man now just feet away from
him, closing in fast. Too late the two boys looked up at the same time just as
Snake Head grabbed their arms. They saw a tall man with a snake tattooed on his
forehead. The snake’s mouth was open, with dripping fangs and forked
tongue, the snake’s body tattooed down the side of his head and then
coiled onto his chest.

              
Bobby
immediately started crying, screaming to be let go, pleading for his older
brother to help. Chris was so scared that he couldn’t scream or cry.
Snake Head yanked both boys up by their arms into the air, their feet suspended
from the ground. He growled, "
Who
are you kids? What are you doing here? Where are your parents?"

              
Neither Chris or
Bobby could say a word, not only from the
pain of being held in the air, but also their increasing fear of their captor.
Snake Head moved Bobby’s arm over to his hand holding Chris, grabbing
their two arms in one beefy hand. With his free hand he keyed the walkie-talkie
clipped to his belt. Beep….Beep. "Hey….Snake here….We
got some
visitors
back
here…."

              
"Beep….
Repeat
,
Snake
….Didn’t get that…."

              
"I
got
two kids
here….small….probably ten or eleven years old. Better come back
here….
now
…."

              
Snake
Head dumped the boys on the deck, saying not to even think about moving. Chris
wrapped his arms around Bobby, their chests heaving in paroxysms of tears.

              
As
frightening as was Snake Head’s tattooed face, the boys weren’t
prepared for what they saw next. The slider on the deck flew open and out
walked an even larger man than Snake Head. On his face was tattooed a human
death skull, with darkened eye sockets, a gaping tattooed toothless mouth
around his blackened lips and blackened teeth and tattooed jaw bone hinges. On
the top of his bald head were tattooed the words YOU’RE DEAD.

              
Death
leaned over and stared into the eyes of the distraught boys on his back deck.
He said nothing, just staring his blackened eyes into the wet eyes of Chris and
Bobby. He continued to say nothing, knowing that the mere sight of his death
skull face was enough to scare out of the young intruders what he desperately
wanted to learn. Where had these boys been hiding since The Day?