The Independents (13 page)

They all turned around to see
the Colonel
was
awake and had been eavesdropping on
their conversation.

Terri handed
him a cup of water while Bishop pulled over the old chair
. When
Terri declined his offer for the perch, he
took a seat. “How are you feeling
,
sir?”

After gulping down half of the water, the injured man looked up
,
nodded
,
and than
ked Terri. He turned his gaze to
Bishop and said, “I’ve been better, but that codeine
is helping
. God bless you for that.”

The Colonel
seemed to gather himself and
gave Bishop a questioning look.
“Bishop, are you the type of man who values gold over life?”

“No
,
sir.”

“I didn’t think so, but I
’m
still relieved to hear you say
it
. You know those men have my granddaughter
,
and they want that gold. You know they
’re
going to want
to make
an exchange.”

“I believe you
’re
correct
,
sir. I’ve been thinking about that.
The gold isn’t even mine, and
I really don’t want that shit here anymore anyway.
The people who own that treasure
are good folks
,
and
will not value metal
over
the life of
your granddaughter
, sir.
You can be assured that I
’ll
gladly trade it for your granddaughter. I don’t know how or when, but I
’m
sure they
’ll
be back
,
and I intend to give them exactly what they
want
.”

Both men remained silent for a few minutes. Terri, sitting on the floor cl
ose by, gave Bishop a look of
“
G
o on, keep him talking
,” so
Bishop di
d his best to engage the Colonel on another topic
.

“Co
lonel, we are planning to take
you to a nearby town in the morning.
A few months back, a doctor moved into town.
We
’ll
get you patched up right away
,
sir
.”

The Colonel
looked at Bishop and then over to David, who seemed to be
fascinated with
the
weapons stored in
Bishop’s rifl
e rack. Seeing that
brought a
fleeting
smile
to the old m
an’s
face. When his focus return
ed
to Bishop, his expression was all business. He whispered, “Bishop, you know that’s not going to be how this one plays out. I have three purple hearts. I
’ve
had my ass shot up before. This isn’t going to end
that way
,
and we both know it.”

Bishop started to protest, but stopped. The man was right, he
’d
be lucky to make it a few more
days at best
. While they had stopped the external bleeding, it was clear his internal organs were badly damaged. Anyone could see
it was taking a toll for him to speak
. B
ishop looked the dying man straight in the eye and simply nodded.

“Well good. N
ow that we have all
of
th
e
emotional bullshit out of the way, I’m sure you have a hundred questions for me, and I have a few for you as well. Since you are more likely to be around to use the information, please go first.”

Bishop thou
ght for a moment and then began.
“Thank you
, sir
.
So, what brings you to our
neighborhood
?”

“We were all in Houston when everything fell apart. The grandkids were staying with me while their father, my son, was on assignment with the Air Force. I tried to stay put. I know enough people in the
military that I thought I could work with the Army when they took over. Actually, I was kind of pissed at the time
. I couldn’t believe they waited
so long to regain control.
Anyway,
the Army bulldozed
several blocks of homes in order to create a
firebreak
, and
the fires in Hous
ton burned out then.
Electricity was even restored for a few days to parts of the city. Things were looking up.”

The Colonel
paused to cough a few times and take another drink of water. He rested for a fe
w moments and then continued.
“When the fires abated, f
ood
and fuel
became the primary issue
. About two weeks
after martial l
aw was declared, a convoy of rations
on its way to Houston
was ambushed
n
ear
Huntsville
.
The Army was stretched so thin they hadn’t provided proper escort security for all
those trucks.
I was in
the
occupation
h
eadquarters
when a report came in
that the transport
had been found
in a field outside of town. The trucks
had been emptied of all supplies and fuel.
The
g
uardsmen
driving them were either dead or missing. Some people speculated it was an inside job.
Others
blamed the robbery on the
convicts that had to be released
from the big prison there
when that
facility depleted its provisions
. I don’t think anyone really knew what happened or who was to blame.
No way to tell.
Those trucks were just a
stopgap
measure anyway. The real supplies were supposed to be delivered by the Navy via the Port of Houston.”

Bishop interrupted him, “
Supposed
to be delivered?”

“I think the Navy had their
own
share of issues
, but I can’t be sure about that
.
For some reason, the ships didn’t show up as scheduled.
The Army estimated there were 1.7 million people under their control in the city limits. Almost 800,000 were homeless after the
fires, or had just shown up to be fed.
In round numbers,
that mean
t
the government needed to provide 3.4 million pounds of food per day. That
is one hell of a lot of food. Logistically speaking, y
ou don’t truck in that much weight when fue
l is in short supply;
you have to use ships. The military commandeered hundreds of civilian semi-trucks, but those w
ere allocated to support the in
land cities like Dallas.”

Bishop quickly did the math in his head. That much food equaled out to 150 full semi-trucks…
per day
. That didn’t count medical supplies and other necessities of life. Without thinking, Bishop whistled out loud.

“I see you grasp the
scale of the
problem. E
verything seemed like it was dependent on something else. Command, or what was
left of it, couldn’t deal with the interlocking priorities or critical path. The
g
eneral in charge of
stabilizing
Houston received orders to get the refineries in Pasadena running
as soon as possible. The famous strategic petroleum reserve was stored as crude oil and had to be refined into gasoline and diesel fuel. After a house-to-house search, the Army gathered up
a bunch
of
refinery managers a
nd engineers and hauled them
to one of the facilities. Of course, they needed electrical power to start
the processing
.
But t
he power grid was badly damaged by the fires, and the mobile generators used by the military were not powerful enough to do the job.
That
led
to another search for H
ouston Power and Light employee
s to get electrical power ree
stablished to the refinery. Seemed simple enough at the time,
but due to the fire damage, the plan
required some s
pare parts to
fix
the grid
in order to restore power
. In normal times, a few keystrokes on a computer would have generated an order that would have been trucked in for receipt in a few days. But these are no longer
normal times.
T
he
local power plant
had been shut down for safety anyway. It burned coal, which was normally hauled
in by rail car. There was no diesel fuel left for the trains.”

Terri
chimed in
.
“Oh god
, and a
ll the while, people are getting hungry and frustrated.”

The Colonel
nodded at her, “You
’re
absolutely right.
Tensions were
high,
and a few
weeks after the
Army took over, the first riot occurred.
Some kids had broken into a warehouse where the military stored its ow
n rations. The teens were
caught
red-handed,
and a frustrated
m
ajor
ordered their execution
after a quick tribunal.
He lined them up against a wall right in front of about a thousand people standing in line for their daily rations
. Without any public explanation, a firi
ng squad shot what turned out to be the captain of the local football team and about half of the defensive line
.”

Bishop and Terri both just sat silently, shaking their heads.

“At first, the public reaction was just
shock. A local preacher began
stirring up trouble soon after word of the incident spread around. Th
e next day, about 5,000 people began to march
toward the
closest
military command post.
At first the soldiers tried to defuse the situation, after all, the rioters were other Americans. But one thing led to another,
and before it was all over, another 1,800 citizens were lying dead
in
the streets. The situation
only went downhill after that. Command was already stretched so thin trying to get
infrastructure
function
ing
, it couldn’t deal with civil unrest.
I
’ve
seen this kind of thing before.
Officers did
what they always do
when overtaxed
– they got heavy-handed and tried
to force the issue. When the water supply became tainted, I knew that was it. I heard the medical officer brief the general that he could expect 200,000 cases of dysentery because sewage had contaminated the city water system
.
I started making plans to get my family out of there
.
I had some personal
problems as well, but you get the picture.
”

Terri was trying to digest it all and asked, “What about the rest of the country? Couldn’t someone send help? Not every city was burning like Houston.”

“I listened to the
situation reports from all over the country
. The military took control of the
4
0 largest cities. They simply didn’t have the manpower to handle any more than that. In reality, that number was probably too many
, given
current resources.
Anyway, some commands reported initial success. Others were destined to fail from the start.
The
president
disappeared for a while af
ter a protest on the National Mall
turned violent and overran the White House. According to one r
eport I heard, the
Commander-in-
Chief barely
got out alive. The corridor along the east coast was simply out of control. Police forces rebelled against military authority. Every remaining government organization thought they should be in charge and then soon enough,
no one wanted to be in charge
. In New Jersey, the g
overnor took control of the National Guard after the commanding
g
eneral committed suicide. The New Jersey 2
nd
fired
on a group of New York City police
officers who were crossing the river to raid
a warehouse. During the confusion, the 30
7
th
, trying to control New York City, came
to
the
rescue
and a full-fledged battle broke out before anyone
realized what was happening
.
Some of the A
rmy units simply stopped reporting in. No one knows what is going on there.
”