The Geek Shall Inherit the Earth
- Thread starter Kathy in FL
- Start date
I have scissors and WILL run with them if you don't hurry!!!
LOL!
ok, maybe not....
maybe I will take up a bad habit!
ok, maybe not....
I guess I could go out and check the mail
ok, maybe not....
eat some lunch/ dinner
(is she here yet???? NO???
That's it! I'm gonna go run nekkid through the neighborhood!
juco
Veteran Member
That's it! I'm gonna go run nekkid through the neighborhood!
Your real name isn't Gwyn is it?
I have not forgotten about this story I'm just so stinking busy writing a new addition is beyond me at the moment.
However, I have another story that is complete that no one has ever read before that I was gonna save but looks like I might as well drag it out and start posting it. At least it is complete and I'm can just copy and paste a couple of pieces at a time which may give me some breathing room to get "Geeks" finished.
Kathy
However, I have another story that is complete that no one has ever read before that I was gonna save but looks like I might as well drag it out and start posting it. At least it is complete and I'm can just copy and paste a couple of pieces at a time which may give me some breathing room to get "Geeks" finished.
Kathy
sssarawolf
Has No Life - Lives on TB
Thank you for telling us and good wishes for getting all that work done. Is that time of yr for lots of work. Good Luck.
stjwelding
Veteran Member
Me to.
still waiting for MOAR!!!!!
Wayne
I will try and get them copied over in the next few days. I can’t find Forsake Harvest on here either.
There is quite a chunk missing from this story. I'll start posting it and hopefully get it finished tonight.
_____________________
The Empire Strikes Back
Part 7
I stopped to take a drink from the canteen that Jax had given me that morning before I started putting the corn in the ground. He had planned drill the seeds himself but was frankly so exhausted I wasn’t sure he could drive a straight row. It had been a long, hard winter for everyone and when I say everyone, I mean everyone. Our group, the Houchins farm, the town, the country, the world. Everyone was a mess but not necessarily all for the same reasons.
I had planned to get the corn in the ground the first week of April; however, because it took longer for the snow to melt, and there being more of it than norm, once it did melt it left a muddy mess behind. Creeks, streams, and all other bodies of water were well over their normal high-water mark for the time of year. By rights the field was still damper than I would have normally put the seed into but frankly there wasn’t a lot of choice. Just as the wheat had started to look like a bumper crop the wet weather had wreaked havoc and we were looking at a loss of at least 30% of the crop before we could even start to harvest. It was a devastating blow to our overall plans and a disaster I had no way of mitigating. The wet ground had also delayed planting the early crops of greens in the garden as well.
The weather and having to be out in it had also weakened everyone’s immune system. What started out as a cold had put Kelly to bed for almost two weeks freaking Jax out completely. Everyone was down off and on with something. Johnson had to have an infected molar pulled and that was neither fun nor easy. Aiden got a black eye during that scene and it is just now fading away completely. Any number of other things made more work than they otherwise would have from sickness to chores.
Ginger and I spent a lot of time gathering what early greens we could find in the surrounding woods but the cold, wet weather had delayed much of the wild forage too. We had to balance the time spent gathering with how much we brought in. A couple of hours to bring in one pot of greens that would feed everyone was not a doable, daily activity. We combed my mother’s recipe files and decided that we would use what greens we could for two primary purposes; to make a green broth to help keep everyone healthy – or at least healthier – and to piece out meals like omelets, quiches, and adding greens to the few grains that we decided we could eat in bulk. It was a good thing that I hadn’t culled any of the birds because we needed every one of the fewer and fewer eggs we collected to try and keep protein in our diet. We hunted when we could but that took away from other things that needed to be done. It wasn’t a perfect solution but it was better than doing nothing at all.
On the other hand, even if the weather and ground hadn’t felt like it was conspiring against us life would have been challenging. Ashley went into labor almost a month early and had a difficult labor and delivery. It was a month before any of us felt we could breathe easy. At planting time Ashley was still recuperating. I don’t even want to think what would have happened if one of the nanny goats hadn’t birthed out of season from the others because at first Ashley was simply too weak to nurse and even once she began to heal her milk barely came in. What milk there was didn’t satisfy the baby and as a result he wasn’t thriving at all. Even once we figured out how to provide him a type of “formula” using the goat’s milk – thanks mostly to Mrs. Houchins – the baby remained small. When I took my turn watching him to make sure he didn’t start to have trouble breathing which he had done for about a week after his birth he reminded me more of a spud in the potato drawer than a newborn.
I don’t mean that the way it will likely be taken by many in this day and age of high-tech interference with mother nature but back then that is exactly the way that little baby looked … at least until he put on a few pounds and developed a personality. Before that I wasn’t the only one that wondered if the boy did survive if he was going to have serious issues but none of us said it aloud. There were many nights when I took my turn monitoring him – as a form of respite for Aston who was torn between Ashely and his son to the point of putting his own health at risk – that I wondered how we were going to meet the baby’s needs and it brought back nightmares of Will’s illness. I kept my opinions and thoughts to myself and to this day I am glad that I did, very glad. Because I was wrong. At about a month old the baby not only developed a personality, but he developed a set of lungs on him. And his crying triggered Ashley’s milk supply to increase, which increased her need to nurse more frequently which in turn also seemed to help her to heal internally and stop the bleeding she experienced if she did much more than get up and try to tend to her personal needs and those of the baby. It was a blessing none of us took for granted.
But all of that just added to our problems of too little manpower for the projects we had planned. All of that criticism the others had heaped on me over the early winter fell by the wayside as they came to understand and to see that time was a resource just like any other and that you had to spend it wisely to get the most return for your input. Ideas of beehives and worm farms and all of the other bits of window dressing that would have been nice were left in folders labeled “nice to have” while all of the plans for what we needed were addressed the best we could; and even for what we needed there wasn’t enough time.
In addition to planting there was recon, hunting, moving the boobies around the home place in danger of being flooded out, replacing the ones that had been destroyed or made useless by the floods, building multiple outhouses when the house’s septic field became saturated by the flood, and target practice.
And when I say target practice I don’t mean that everyone was outside plinking cans to make their aim better. No, this target practice started up about the time that the flooding finally began to subside. Drones. Reggie and I had discussed and then presented our conclusions to our group and then a group led by Vern and Lon from the Houchins compound.
Starting the tractor back up I drove and went over the meeting concerning our latest problem. Reggie opened the discussion by asking, “Have you noticed an increase in air traffic around your place?”
Lon answered, “You could say that.”
Vern nodded, “They’re getting bolder.”
Reggie looked at me and I sighed. “Why am I the one that has to explain?”
“Because you know him best.”
Out of patience with the topic I snapped, “Will people stop saying that?! Maybe I used to, but I certainly don’t anymore.”
Vern snapped right back, “Stop whining. Start explaining.”
I rolled my eyes and said, “I’m not whining. I just get tired of it all. We’re all tired of it all.”
Reggie interrupted and said, “Cut her some slack. Gennie is really riding her. Thinks if we just take out Matt that life will return to what it used to be. She won’t shut up about it no matter how many times it gets explained to her. And she winds up blaming Lydie every time.”
“Gennie is the young one?”
Rolling my neck to get rid of some of the tension I said, “Yeah. Kid is damaged. I’m trying to … to … to do whatever you are supposed to do for people when they’ve had it bad and just aren’t in a place to understand but my patience is wearing thin. If it isn’t her opinion it is her attitude and if it isn’t those two it is her … “
“Intentionally disobeying,” Reggie finished for me. “Just table it for now Lydie and stay on track. We need to get back.”
I nodded and tried. “I don’t think this is just about me anymore. You’ve heard how everyone everywhere is running into shortages.”
“They were doing that before.”
Nodding I said, “Yeah, but fatalities and attrition from the war, infrastructure failure, and acts of terrorism knocked the population back and made room for salvaging operations to, if not make up the difference at least give people the illusion that there was more cushion in the pipeline than there was. But the bones have pretty well been picked clean. I’m guessing they are bleached dry and white they are so picked over.”
Lon nodded in agreement. “Yeah. We figured as much was going to happen. That’s why we’ve been getting crops in the ground and everything else Dad has scheduled. We don’t plan on suffering the same consequences for them rose-colored glasses.”
I responded, “Goody. So are we. But there are huge populations of people that believe it or not are still waiting for other people to go get what they need and bring it to them. Most of them expect the government to get it for them. More and more don’t seem to care who gets it for them, they just want someone to do it for them. Only there are very few places for people to get anything from. And those that have something are guarding it against those that would desire to take it from them.”
Proving how much of a grouch he could be … or maybe how tired he was … Vern grumbled, “We know all of this, get to the point.”
I observed that we weren’t the only ones running short of sleep and getting cranky. I grabbed my temper in both hands and tried to explain. “I’ve been saying all along that Matt might not be completely in charge. Even if he is, this whole battling the orcs to rescue the fair maiden is probably not his primary objective.”
“Not this again.”
“Yes. This again. Now let me finish. I’m not saying that Matt isn’t deep into some fantasy where I am concerned though I have my doubts. However, these drones serve a more serious purpose … or they likely do I mean. Geez,” I said trying not to grind my teeth in frustration. “If you didn’t know me or about me and if you didn’t know about Matt but all the other facts remained the same, what would these drones signify to you?”
Lon nodded. “They’re scouting for supplies as close to home as they can get. They know we have something they want … food and other supplies.”
“Women too,” Reggie said.
Vern growled but agreed. “Sure. Given their reputation I can agree with that.”
Continuing I said, “Our recons have seen burial pits. They are suffering the same kind of attrition as everyone else. It has softened the blow but hasn’t stopped it from happening. The people in town don’t look good, not even the top dogs that were left behind by Delorey. And speaking of … we haven’t heard anything from him in almost three weeks. Something is up. I don’t have any facts beyond this to support it but something is definitely up.”
“Delorey could be explained as he has a project going someplace else.”
“Yeah sure,” Reggie agreed. “And we aren’t saying it is definitely a dot on the map but after regular weekly contacts – sometimes even more often than that – with those in town to go three weeks with nothing just seems more than strange. The fact that it coincides with the uptick in drone activity makes it more suspicious.”
“They could have found a different way to communicate.”
“Could have,” I agreed. “Definitely a possibility. But what about the riot in that town that we were all positive belonged to Delorey? What about Chattanooga blowing up, another one we were sure was under the control of Delorey? And Nashville? That was definitely Delorey’s territory and there’s been noise of some new guy running most of the city.”
Lon and Vern looked at each other and nodded. “Yeah. Yeah we’ve considered there’s a problem with Delorey’s people but that would mean the lack of communication could just be a result of him needing to spend time retaking territory, maybe dealing with a dust up.”
Reggie and I nodded. “Sure. Possible. Maybe even likely. But then who has the keys to town to start changing how things are being run?”
I added, “Like Reggie said, sure, the drones were there before the weather got too bad to run them but who is giving the orders to start back up and where are those orders coming from? In town? Out of town? Even if you don’t consider it a change it is still an escalation and Delorey isn’t the type to turn that kind of control over to anyone else.”
“He’s never had a territory this big to control.”
I scratched my head with both hands in frustration. “You’re right but there are too many questions that need answering. I don’t want to get surprised by another attack. The last one was bad enough.”
“Recon hasn’t shown them to have the manpower to try that again.”
“Maybe, assuming they don’t get outside help,” I reminded them. “But modern warfare isn’t just about frontal assaults. Shock and awe is only good for so much. If they can use the drones for their own recon they could also use them in modified attack plans that might weaken us just enough or … or there are lots of things they can do but will they? Or will they try something totally different? For all we know they might even be prepared to trade. A fight would mean that they could actually destroy what they need. We have to figure out which way they are most likely to jump.”
The meeting hadn’t concluded with any concrete decisions except to step up recon and start looking for specific things that would prove that there was a new Big Bad in town. I was heading back to the barn after a long day when I saw Jax running towards me. In alarm I downshifted but he jumped onto the steps and told me to keep going to the barn.
“Is … is it Ash? Or …?”
Jax shook his head grimly. “You and Reggie had it right. A report coming out of Chattanooga let slip that Delorey annoyed the wrong someone and the military excised him.”
I let that sink in as I pulled into the barn and shut the tractor down. Then I asked, “What do they mean by excised?”
“Sounds like it was a targeted attack. He, the group with him, and a corrupt militia group was captured, tried, and executed less than a month ago. They didn’t give an exact date but it is close enough to the change in tactics from town that we can figure there is a new big dog running the show.”
“Do the Houchins know?”
“They do now.”
“I suppose the question everyone expects me to answer now is whether Matt is going to play King Maker again … or if he is going to usurp the crown outright.”
_____________________
The Empire Strikes Back
Part 7
I stopped to take a drink from the canteen that Jax had given me that morning before I started putting the corn in the ground. He had planned drill the seeds himself but was frankly so exhausted I wasn’t sure he could drive a straight row. It had been a long, hard winter for everyone and when I say everyone, I mean everyone. Our group, the Houchins farm, the town, the country, the world. Everyone was a mess but not necessarily all for the same reasons.
I had planned to get the corn in the ground the first week of April; however, because it took longer for the snow to melt, and there being more of it than norm, once it did melt it left a muddy mess behind. Creeks, streams, and all other bodies of water were well over their normal high-water mark for the time of year. By rights the field was still damper than I would have normally put the seed into but frankly there wasn’t a lot of choice. Just as the wheat had started to look like a bumper crop the wet weather had wreaked havoc and we were looking at a loss of at least 30% of the crop before we could even start to harvest. It was a devastating blow to our overall plans and a disaster I had no way of mitigating. The wet ground had also delayed planting the early crops of greens in the garden as well.
The weather and having to be out in it had also weakened everyone’s immune system. What started out as a cold had put Kelly to bed for almost two weeks freaking Jax out completely. Everyone was down off and on with something. Johnson had to have an infected molar pulled and that was neither fun nor easy. Aiden got a black eye during that scene and it is just now fading away completely. Any number of other things made more work than they otherwise would have from sickness to chores.
Ginger and I spent a lot of time gathering what early greens we could find in the surrounding woods but the cold, wet weather had delayed much of the wild forage too. We had to balance the time spent gathering with how much we brought in. A couple of hours to bring in one pot of greens that would feed everyone was not a doable, daily activity. We combed my mother’s recipe files and decided that we would use what greens we could for two primary purposes; to make a green broth to help keep everyone healthy – or at least healthier – and to piece out meals like omelets, quiches, and adding greens to the few grains that we decided we could eat in bulk. It was a good thing that I hadn’t culled any of the birds because we needed every one of the fewer and fewer eggs we collected to try and keep protein in our diet. We hunted when we could but that took away from other things that needed to be done. It wasn’t a perfect solution but it was better than doing nothing at all.
On the other hand, even if the weather and ground hadn’t felt like it was conspiring against us life would have been challenging. Ashley went into labor almost a month early and had a difficult labor and delivery. It was a month before any of us felt we could breathe easy. At planting time Ashley was still recuperating. I don’t even want to think what would have happened if one of the nanny goats hadn’t birthed out of season from the others because at first Ashley was simply too weak to nurse and even once she began to heal her milk barely came in. What milk there was didn’t satisfy the baby and as a result he wasn’t thriving at all. Even once we figured out how to provide him a type of “formula” using the goat’s milk – thanks mostly to Mrs. Houchins – the baby remained small. When I took my turn watching him to make sure he didn’t start to have trouble breathing which he had done for about a week after his birth he reminded me more of a spud in the potato drawer than a newborn.
I don’t mean that the way it will likely be taken by many in this day and age of high-tech interference with mother nature but back then that is exactly the way that little baby looked … at least until he put on a few pounds and developed a personality. Before that I wasn’t the only one that wondered if the boy did survive if he was going to have serious issues but none of us said it aloud. There were many nights when I took my turn monitoring him – as a form of respite for Aston who was torn between Ashely and his son to the point of putting his own health at risk – that I wondered how we were going to meet the baby’s needs and it brought back nightmares of Will’s illness. I kept my opinions and thoughts to myself and to this day I am glad that I did, very glad. Because I was wrong. At about a month old the baby not only developed a personality, but he developed a set of lungs on him. And his crying triggered Ashley’s milk supply to increase, which increased her need to nurse more frequently which in turn also seemed to help her to heal internally and stop the bleeding she experienced if she did much more than get up and try to tend to her personal needs and those of the baby. It was a blessing none of us took for granted.
But all of that just added to our problems of too little manpower for the projects we had planned. All of that criticism the others had heaped on me over the early winter fell by the wayside as they came to understand and to see that time was a resource just like any other and that you had to spend it wisely to get the most return for your input. Ideas of beehives and worm farms and all of the other bits of window dressing that would have been nice were left in folders labeled “nice to have” while all of the plans for what we needed were addressed the best we could; and even for what we needed there wasn’t enough time.
In addition to planting there was recon, hunting, moving the boobies around the home place in danger of being flooded out, replacing the ones that had been destroyed or made useless by the floods, building multiple outhouses when the house’s septic field became saturated by the flood, and target practice.
And when I say target practice I don’t mean that everyone was outside plinking cans to make their aim better. No, this target practice started up about the time that the flooding finally began to subside. Drones. Reggie and I had discussed and then presented our conclusions to our group and then a group led by Vern and Lon from the Houchins compound.
Starting the tractor back up I drove and went over the meeting concerning our latest problem. Reggie opened the discussion by asking, “Have you noticed an increase in air traffic around your place?”
Lon answered, “You could say that.”
Vern nodded, “They’re getting bolder.”
Reggie looked at me and I sighed. “Why am I the one that has to explain?”
“Because you know him best.”
Out of patience with the topic I snapped, “Will people stop saying that?! Maybe I used to, but I certainly don’t anymore.”
Vern snapped right back, “Stop whining. Start explaining.”
I rolled my eyes and said, “I’m not whining. I just get tired of it all. We’re all tired of it all.”
Reggie interrupted and said, “Cut her some slack. Gennie is really riding her. Thinks if we just take out Matt that life will return to what it used to be. She won’t shut up about it no matter how many times it gets explained to her. And she winds up blaming Lydie every time.”
“Gennie is the young one?”
Rolling my neck to get rid of some of the tension I said, “Yeah. Kid is damaged. I’m trying to … to … to do whatever you are supposed to do for people when they’ve had it bad and just aren’t in a place to understand but my patience is wearing thin. If it isn’t her opinion it is her attitude and if it isn’t those two it is her … “
“Intentionally disobeying,” Reggie finished for me. “Just table it for now Lydie and stay on track. We need to get back.”
I nodded and tried. “I don’t think this is just about me anymore. You’ve heard how everyone everywhere is running into shortages.”
“They were doing that before.”
Nodding I said, “Yeah, but fatalities and attrition from the war, infrastructure failure, and acts of terrorism knocked the population back and made room for salvaging operations to, if not make up the difference at least give people the illusion that there was more cushion in the pipeline than there was. But the bones have pretty well been picked clean. I’m guessing they are bleached dry and white they are so picked over.”
Lon nodded in agreement. “Yeah. We figured as much was going to happen. That’s why we’ve been getting crops in the ground and everything else Dad has scheduled. We don’t plan on suffering the same consequences for them rose-colored glasses.”
I responded, “Goody. So are we. But there are huge populations of people that believe it or not are still waiting for other people to go get what they need and bring it to them. Most of them expect the government to get it for them. More and more don’t seem to care who gets it for them, they just want someone to do it for them. Only there are very few places for people to get anything from. And those that have something are guarding it against those that would desire to take it from them.”
Proving how much of a grouch he could be … or maybe how tired he was … Vern grumbled, “We know all of this, get to the point.”
I observed that we weren’t the only ones running short of sleep and getting cranky. I grabbed my temper in both hands and tried to explain. “I’ve been saying all along that Matt might not be completely in charge. Even if he is, this whole battling the orcs to rescue the fair maiden is probably not his primary objective.”
“Not this again.”
“Yes. This again. Now let me finish. I’m not saying that Matt isn’t deep into some fantasy where I am concerned though I have my doubts. However, these drones serve a more serious purpose … or they likely do I mean. Geez,” I said trying not to grind my teeth in frustration. “If you didn’t know me or about me and if you didn’t know about Matt but all the other facts remained the same, what would these drones signify to you?”
Lon nodded. “They’re scouting for supplies as close to home as they can get. They know we have something they want … food and other supplies.”
“Women too,” Reggie said.
Vern growled but agreed. “Sure. Given their reputation I can agree with that.”
Continuing I said, “Our recons have seen burial pits. They are suffering the same kind of attrition as everyone else. It has softened the blow but hasn’t stopped it from happening. The people in town don’t look good, not even the top dogs that were left behind by Delorey. And speaking of … we haven’t heard anything from him in almost three weeks. Something is up. I don’t have any facts beyond this to support it but something is definitely up.”
“Delorey could be explained as he has a project going someplace else.”
“Yeah sure,” Reggie agreed. “And we aren’t saying it is definitely a dot on the map but after regular weekly contacts – sometimes even more often than that – with those in town to go three weeks with nothing just seems more than strange. The fact that it coincides with the uptick in drone activity makes it more suspicious.”
“They could have found a different way to communicate.”
“Could have,” I agreed. “Definitely a possibility. But what about the riot in that town that we were all positive belonged to Delorey? What about Chattanooga blowing up, another one we were sure was under the control of Delorey? And Nashville? That was definitely Delorey’s territory and there’s been noise of some new guy running most of the city.”
Lon and Vern looked at each other and nodded. “Yeah. Yeah we’ve considered there’s a problem with Delorey’s people but that would mean the lack of communication could just be a result of him needing to spend time retaking territory, maybe dealing with a dust up.”
Reggie and I nodded. “Sure. Possible. Maybe even likely. But then who has the keys to town to start changing how things are being run?”
I added, “Like Reggie said, sure, the drones were there before the weather got too bad to run them but who is giving the orders to start back up and where are those orders coming from? In town? Out of town? Even if you don’t consider it a change it is still an escalation and Delorey isn’t the type to turn that kind of control over to anyone else.”
“He’s never had a territory this big to control.”
I scratched my head with both hands in frustration. “You’re right but there are too many questions that need answering. I don’t want to get surprised by another attack. The last one was bad enough.”
“Recon hasn’t shown them to have the manpower to try that again.”
“Maybe, assuming they don’t get outside help,” I reminded them. “But modern warfare isn’t just about frontal assaults. Shock and awe is only good for so much. If they can use the drones for their own recon they could also use them in modified attack plans that might weaken us just enough or … or there are lots of things they can do but will they? Or will they try something totally different? For all we know they might even be prepared to trade. A fight would mean that they could actually destroy what they need. We have to figure out which way they are most likely to jump.”
The meeting hadn’t concluded with any concrete decisions except to step up recon and start looking for specific things that would prove that there was a new Big Bad in town. I was heading back to the barn after a long day when I saw Jax running towards me. In alarm I downshifted but he jumped onto the steps and told me to keep going to the barn.
“Is … is it Ash? Or …?”
Jax shook his head grimly. “You and Reggie had it right. A report coming out of Chattanooga let slip that Delorey annoyed the wrong someone and the military excised him.”
I let that sink in as I pulled into the barn and shut the tractor down. Then I asked, “What do they mean by excised?”
“Sounds like it was a targeted attack. He, the group with him, and a corrupt militia group was captured, tried, and executed less than a month ago. They didn’t give an exact date but it is close enough to the change in tactics from town that we can figure there is a new big dog running the show.”
“Do the Houchins know?”
“They do now.”
“I suppose the question everyone expects me to answer now is whether Matt is going to play King Maker again … or if he is going to usurp the crown outright.”
The Empire Strikes Back
Part 8
Even looking back, I can say without doubt that there is no way that I ever gave anyone, including my parents, as hard a time as Gennie gave me back then. All things considered I’d like to say she wasn’t as bad as she was but frankly … she was. I’ve never been able to decide if it was her real personality, her age, the trauma she went through, or just plain meanness, or possibly some combination of those things. Back then I tried to cut her as much slack as I could because I thought it was mostly damage but the intervening years has made me wonder.
“Gennie, I don’t care if you don’t like asparagus, that’s what there is on the table tonight. Janice and I spent most of the afternoon hunting this stuff up so we could all have something fresh for a change. And it’s good for you. Lots of antioxidants and B vitamins and all the healthy stuff we need right now to get us through until we can start harvesting from the garden.”
“You said the strawberries would be ready in May. Well it’s May and I don’t see no strawberries. I want strawberries.”
“The strawberries are late like everything else. But they should be in by the end of May.”
“Well I want them now.”
“Well you can’t have them now. They aren’t ready. The asparagus is what is ready now. If you don’t want to eat it then I’m not going to force you. But you also aren’t going to get anything else either.”
“You are such a ****,” the vulgar mouthed girl yelled at me at the top of her lungs.
Since we’d all just sat down to eat – those of us not on duty that is – there were plenty to finally hear and be shocked by the way she’d been talking to me.
Johnson stood up and said, “That’s enough Gennie. Waaaay out of line.”
“Oh so you’re going to take her side too?!”
Upstairs we could hear Ashley moan as the baby started crying right after she’d gotten him to sleep. Those of us with better ears also heard her grumble something to the effect that someone was going to get pull baldheaded if they did it again.
Johnson either didn’t hear or ignored Ashley in favor of ringing a peal over Gennie. Something that surprised the rest of us. “I’m not taking anyone’s side kid, I’m just calling it like I’m seeing it. Now knock it off. I thought people were exaggerating when they said you were acting kinda crazy. Now I know they weren’t. You don’t want to eat it then fine but like was said, you ain’t getting anything else.”
“You’re just like the rest. You don’t understand!”
“I understand better than you think I do. I was a foster kid for a long time. Janice and I ran through more foster homes than I want to remember. Not all of them were nice people. Of the ones that were nice only a few of them really gave a crap. But you lived with what you had to to make it through to another day when things might were gonna get better. You got the same chance here, a better chance because you can know that all of us do give a crap about what happens to you.”
“She don’t,” Gennie snarled pointing at me. “It’s her fault. All her fault.”
“No. It isn’t. You’re starting to get stupid on that.”
“You do too believe that. Why are you lying?! I’ve heard everyone here say it. Lotsa times.”
“You’re hearing what you want to hear, not what everyone is saying. Some mistakes were made because we all have a hate on for Matt but if it comes down to it we all made the mistake in believing the stink he was selling there for a while. But we’re over it. All of us. Now sit down and eat or go sit in the corner.”
“I ain’t no baby!”
“Then stop acting like one!”
Alexis who was just coming in from taking a turn on watch said, “The bottom line is you get what you get and you don’t throw a fit. We are all too close to going hungry to waste food.”
“I ain’t wasting it. I just ain’t gonna eat something that looks like slimy sticks.”
Ginger added insult to injury by telling her, “Since you screw things up every time you are supposed to help cook I’d shut up if I were you. Those of us that are working hard to put the food on the table that you are complaining about are starting to really not appreciate it.”
“You don’t let me cook what I want!”
“Because you aren’t the only one in this house …”
Jax had just come in behind Alexis. “Shut up Gennie. You’ve used up your last get out of jail free card. From here on out, you don’t work, you don’t eat. You act like a baby, you’re gonna get treated like one. You don’t share the load then I’ll haul you out to that militia point Reggie and I saw the other day and leave you there and they can take you to the nearest military camp. I … am … done.”
Gennie looked at Johnson smugly like she was waiting for him to tell Jax where he could shove his threat but got a real shock when he only reinforced it. “Might be the best thing for her. Supposedly they’ve got professionals in those places that work with the troubled kids that get brought in.”
We all started eating and Gennie just looked at everyone with wide eyes. Then she made a grab to throw her plate and Alexis popped her in the mouth. Not hard, but it caught us all off guard. “I don’t know what your problem is chica but the problem stops right here, right now. You ain’t gonna screw this up for me or anyone else. Sit down. Shut up. You want to eat, then eat. You don’t want to eat, then don’t. But you ain’t gonna ruin it for the rest of us. You ain’t the center of the universe.”
Thirty seconds in it was Janice that shocked us the most by saying, “And if you are thinking of running away or turning on us you can forget it. You and me are now joined at the hip until you can prove you aren’t going to turn traitor. I will NOT go back to the way things were.” Very quietly and very savagely she looked at Gennie and repeated, “I won’t. No matter what it takes.”
Johnson and Aiden both patted Janice to comfort her and she backed off the crazy that was peeking through her eyes. Between the drama and everyone’s fatigue the remainder of supper was a silent affair. Not the good kind of quiet you find in peaceful places but the kind of quiet you find in a sick room or in a house where you are alone and lonely. I was too familiar with that quiet and hated it. Hated more than it was once more to be found in my home.
After dinner wasn’t much better. And Janice hadn’t been kidding; she didn’t even let Gennie go to the outhouse by herself. She and Alexis talked over the top of Gennie’s complaints, making plans to take turns looking after the girl. The last I saw of her that night she was looking shell-shocked as both Janice and Alexis followed her to their shared bedroom and from what I heard did what they had to to make sure no one (meaning Gennie) could creep out during the night.
Later, after I’d finally been able to put my notes away and go to our bedroom, Jax moaned as I massaged his shoulders to try and help with his stress. He’d finally gone through everything he’d brought here from his stashes and pulled out his textbooks and was trying to refresh himself as well as learn more. The thing with Ashley and the baby had him spending every spare moment he could to get ahead of the next emergency. “God I am so glad Kelly wasn’t there to hear that crap falling out of Gennie’s mouth.”
I whispered back, “I am too even though I hate it is because she is still getting over her cold.” After a moment I asked, “How serious are you about … you know … dumping Gennie off?”
“Serious as a heart attack. This can’t keep happening. You shouldn’t have to take it and none of us has the patience left to … to …” Jax shook his head. “Would it be my preference? No but she’s making everything way too hard. The food thing is bad but if she wants to go hungry no one can force her to eat. It is the intentionally screwing up on her share of the chores that is getting impossible to put up with.”
“Let’s see if Janice and Alexis can change her attitude.”
“She better hope they do. I’m not going to put up with it much longer. We can’t Lydie.” I heard him and knew that he’d do what he had to do to protect Kelly … and the rest of us. I also knew however that he wasn’t going to jump for joy if he had to send Gennie away.
He changed the subject by telling me, “Saw Vern today. He and Lon got a lot closer to town than they’ve managed in a while. Used some kind of camouflage suits they made up.”
“They still need to be careful.”
With a little caution in his voice he said, “They were. That stuff was what they trained for and did in the military.”
I rolled my eyes. “I didn’t say I was going to say anything to them about it. I’m not looking for a fight you know.”
Jax turned and pulled me into his arms. “Just be careful. Reggie said the last time you went over there they were … er …”
“Firing on nothing much more than testosterone and coffee to keep themselves going?” When Jax snorted a quiet chuckle I said, “Yeah, they were cranky but it isn’t much better around here. Which is why I said they need to be careful. We’re all tired. We’re all stressed out. We all need to be careful.”
“Message received loud and clear,” he said giving me a kiss that landed somewhere around my ear because it was so dark.
“Good,” I said giving him a kiss back … with better aim. “Did they learn anything beyond what we already know?”
“Possibly. You know those big trucks that used to sit down by the river? Near the damn?”
“Sure. Big diesels with all the trimmings.”
“Those are them. Well, they’re gone.”
“Not moved?”
“Nope. Gone. Vern got … er … real close and said that production has stopped too.”
“Production … you mean the drug manufacturing has stopped? How can he tell?”
“No smell and no run off going into the river. Those big ventilation fans aren’t turning either.”
“Oh I am just so terribly sad about the demise of their economy.”
I thought it was funny, until Jax shook his head. “I think they’ve found a new way to make ends meet.”
“Do I want to know?”
“You know the Houchins have a pretty good idea of the groups still in the area?”
“Yeah. They haven’t even really shared them with us.”
“That’s right. Lon says it is some kind of courtesy or whatever.”
I nodded and said, “Which is why we haven’t shared that we’ve figured out how to triangulate the locations of most of them for ourselves.”
“Yep, and we’re going to keep on not telling them. But I had to be careful not to let it slip when they started sharing that some of those that they knew about aren’t transmitting anymore.”
“We figured that out too.”
“But what all of us made the mistake was in assuming it was because of a lack of fuel or because of some kind of mechanical failure.”
I tensed as I started to wait for another shoe to drop. “Just spit it out Jax. Give me some data to input.”
“It looks like what you and Reggie hypothesized would happen has already started. They’ve started with the smallest operations first from what Lon and Vern could see … apparently they recognized some equipment and other stuff in one of the warehouses and …”
Upset I nearly yelped loud enough to wake Kelly. “Are you telling me …?! That wasn’t just a little closer they were on the outskirts of town! They could have been seen! Someone could have followed them back with a drone!”
“I know Babe. Calm down please. If it had been anyone else but Lon and Vern … but it was them. And what they saw needed checking out. It was a calculated risk. No drones … I think we might be running through their inventory finally. And the few cameras and stuff that they did see were inoperable.”
“What do you mean they were inoperable?”
“Busted up. Compromised by the weather. Hanging by their wires. Just inoperable.”
I don’t like to say I didn’t trust Vern and Lon’s observations. As Jax pointed out they were trained for that sort of thing. It was more I didn’t trust Matt … or Delorey or whatever minions of his were left. It would be very easy … too easy … to camouflage a camera and throw someone off by decorating with what looked like equipment that wasn’t being taken care of. I didn’t like it, didn’t like it at all. Wanted to put my own eyes on it for some reason.
But I liked even less what Jax said next. “Aston, Reggie, and I are going to recee the areas where Vern said the farms were from.”
“Clear on the other side of the county?!”
“Not that far.”
“But farther than any of us have gone, even you and I back in the beginning.”
“Babe …”
“Don’t. I know as well as you do that it has to be done. We can’t get all of our info through the Houchins farm. I just … Jax, be careful. Desperate people do desperate things. If … and this is a big IF … Matt has taken control it is going to be Maestro all over again only on a grand scale.”
“Reggie said the same thing.”
“So you discussed with them already.”
“I didn’t do it to …”
Suddenly I felt bad … guilty. “Hush and … and don’t listen to me. I know what has to be done and I trust you. But if we have … have somehow gotten to a new level of the game … Jax I need to know who is in charge. If it is Matt I’ve got to get ahead of him before … before …”
“Matt has never spooked you before. What’s wrong?”
It was hard to quantify and put into words that didn’t sound like I was tripping on a game. “If … and right now we don’t have any facts only assumptions … if Matt has finally decided to come back into the open all bets are going to be off. There is no longer anything holding him back. No former reputation to be tied down by. No moral compass to guide him. No reality checks of any kind. He isn’t just going to be playing a part he is going to be the part … be Maestro. And if that is the case I need to know what he has to use … resources, assets, weapons, people, all of it. I need to know if he took over any or all of Delorey’s territory. I need …”
“Easy Babe. Even if I didn’t get it … and for the record I do … Reggie gets it. He’s worried. He says there are too many unknowns that need knowing.”
I forced myself to relax. This was the part of the game I had never liked, when you first hit a new level and have to figure out if it is just a continuation of the old one or if your opponents have suddenly amped up and gotten new things to use against you. Or if you opponents were even the same ones from the old level or if there were all sorts of new Big Bads that were going to be coming at you.
Part 8
Even looking back, I can say without doubt that there is no way that I ever gave anyone, including my parents, as hard a time as Gennie gave me back then. All things considered I’d like to say she wasn’t as bad as she was but frankly … she was. I’ve never been able to decide if it was her real personality, her age, the trauma she went through, or just plain meanness, or possibly some combination of those things. Back then I tried to cut her as much slack as I could because I thought it was mostly damage but the intervening years has made me wonder.
“Gennie, I don’t care if you don’t like asparagus, that’s what there is on the table tonight. Janice and I spent most of the afternoon hunting this stuff up so we could all have something fresh for a change. And it’s good for you. Lots of antioxidants and B vitamins and all the healthy stuff we need right now to get us through until we can start harvesting from the garden.”
“You said the strawberries would be ready in May. Well it’s May and I don’t see no strawberries. I want strawberries.”
“The strawberries are late like everything else. But they should be in by the end of May.”
“Well I want them now.”
“Well you can’t have them now. They aren’t ready. The asparagus is what is ready now. If you don’t want to eat it then I’m not going to force you. But you also aren’t going to get anything else either.”
“You are such a ****,” the vulgar mouthed girl yelled at me at the top of her lungs.
Since we’d all just sat down to eat – those of us not on duty that is – there were plenty to finally hear and be shocked by the way she’d been talking to me.
Johnson stood up and said, “That’s enough Gennie. Waaaay out of line.”
“Oh so you’re going to take her side too?!”
Upstairs we could hear Ashley moan as the baby started crying right after she’d gotten him to sleep. Those of us with better ears also heard her grumble something to the effect that someone was going to get pull baldheaded if they did it again.
Johnson either didn’t hear or ignored Ashley in favor of ringing a peal over Gennie. Something that surprised the rest of us. “I’m not taking anyone’s side kid, I’m just calling it like I’m seeing it. Now knock it off. I thought people were exaggerating when they said you were acting kinda crazy. Now I know they weren’t. You don’t want to eat it then fine but like was said, you ain’t getting anything else.”
“You’re just like the rest. You don’t understand!”
“I understand better than you think I do. I was a foster kid for a long time. Janice and I ran through more foster homes than I want to remember. Not all of them were nice people. Of the ones that were nice only a few of them really gave a crap. But you lived with what you had to to make it through to another day when things might were gonna get better. You got the same chance here, a better chance because you can know that all of us do give a crap about what happens to you.”
“She don’t,” Gennie snarled pointing at me. “It’s her fault. All her fault.”
“No. It isn’t. You’re starting to get stupid on that.”
“You do too believe that. Why are you lying?! I’ve heard everyone here say it. Lotsa times.”
“You’re hearing what you want to hear, not what everyone is saying. Some mistakes were made because we all have a hate on for Matt but if it comes down to it we all made the mistake in believing the stink he was selling there for a while. But we’re over it. All of us. Now sit down and eat or go sit in the corner.”
“I ain’t no baby!”
“Then stop acting like one!”
Alexis who was just coming in from taking a turn on watch said, “The bottom line is you get what you get and you don’t throw a fit. We are all too close to going hungry to waste food.”
“I ain’t wasting it. I just ain’t gonna eat something that looks like slimy sticks.”
Ginger added insult to injury by telling her, “Since you screw things up every time you are supposed to help cook I’d shut up if I were you. Those of us that are working hard to put the food on the table that you are complaining about are starting to really not appreciate it.”
“You don’t let me cook what I want!”
“Because you aren’t the only one in this house …”
Jax had just come in behind Alexis. “Shut up Gennie. You’ve used up your last get out of jail free card. From here on out, you don’t work, you don’t eat. You act like a baby, you’re gonna get treated like one. You don’t share the load then I’ll haul you out to that militia point Reggie and I saw the other day and leave you there and they can take you to the nearest military camp. I … am … done.”
Gennie looked at Johnson smugly like she was waiting for him to tell Jax where he could shove his threat but got a real shock when he only reinforced it. “Might be the best thing for her. Supposedly they’ve got professionals in those places that work with the troubled kids that get brought in.”
We all started eating and Gennie just looked at everyone with wide eyes. Then she made a grab to throw her plate and Alexis popped her in the mouth. Not hard, but it caught us all off guard. “I don’t know what your problem is chica but the problem stops right here, right now. You ain’t gonna screw this up for me or anyone else. Sit down. Shut up. You want to eat, then eat. You don’t want to eat, then don’t. But you ain’t gonna ruin it for the rest of us. You ain’t the center of the universe.”
Thirty seconds in it was Janice that shocked us the most by saying, “And if you are thinking of running away or turning on us you can forget it. You and me are now joined at the hip until you can prove you aren’t going to turn traitor. I will NOT go back to the way things were.” Very quietly and very savagely she looked at Gennie and repeated, “I won’t. No matter what it takes.”
Johnson and Aiden both patted Janice to comfort her and she backed off the crazy that was peeking through her eyes. Between the drama and everyone’s fatigue the remainder of supper was a silent affair. Not the good kind of quiet you find in peaceful places but the kind of quiet you find in a sick room or in a house where you are alone and lonely. I was too familiar with that quiet and hated it. Hated more than it was once more to be found in my home.
After dinner wasn’t much better. And Janice hadn’t been kidding; she didn’t even let Gennie go to the outhouse by herself. She and Alexis talked over the top of Gennie’s complaints, making plans to take turns looking after the girl. The last I saw of her that night she was looking shell-shocked as both Janice and Alexis followed her to their shared bedroom and from what I heard did what they had to to make sure no one (meaning Gennie) could creep out during the night.
Later, after I’d finally been able to put my notes away and go to our bedroom, Jax moaned as I massaged his shoulders to try and help with his stress. He’d finally gone through everything he’d brought here from his stashes and pulled out his textbooks and was trying to refresh himself as well as learn more. The thing with Ashley and the baby had him spending every spare moment he could to get ahead of the next emergency. “God I am so glad Kelly wasn’t there to hear that crap falling out of Gennie’s mouth.”
I whispered back, “I am too even though I hate it is because she is still getting over her cold.” After a moment I asked, “How serious are you about … you know … dumping Gennie off?”
“Serious as a heart attack. This can’t keep happening. You shouldn’t have to take it and none of us has the patience left to … to …” Jax shook his head. “Would it be my preference? No but she’s making everything way too hard. The food thing is bad but if she wants to go hungry no one can force her to eat. It is the intentionally screwing up on her share of the chores that is getting impossible to put up with.”
“Let’s see if Janice and Alexis can change her attitude.”
“She better hope they do. I’m not going to put up with it much longer. We can’t Lydie.” I heard him and knew that he’d do what he had to do to protect Kelly … and the rest of us. I also knew however that he wasn’t going to jump for joy if he had to send Gennie away.
He changed the subject by telling me, “Saw Vern today. He and Lon got a lot closer to town than they’ve managed in a while. Used some kind of camouflage suits they made up.”
“They still need to be careful.”
With a little caution in his voice he said, “They were. That stuff was what they trained for and did in the military.”
I rolled my eyes. “I didn’t say I was going to say anything to them about it. I’m not looking for a fight you know.”
Jax turned and pulled me into his arms. “Just be careful. Reggie said the last time you went over there they were … er …”
“Firing on nothing much more than testosterone and coffee to keep themselves going?” When Jax snorted a quiet chuckle I said, “Yeah, they were cranky but it isn’t much better around here. Which is why I said they need to be careful. We’re all tired. We’re all stressed out. We all need to be careful.”
“Message received loud and clear,” he said giving me a kiss that landed somewhere around my ear because it was so dark.
“Good,” I said giving him a kiss back … with better aim. “Did they learn anything beyond what we already know?”
“Possibly. You know those big trucks that used to sit down by the river? Near the damn?”
“Sure. Big diesels with all the trimmings.”
“Those are them. Well, they’re gone.”
“Not moved?”
“Nope. Gone. Vern got … er … real close and said that production has stopped too.”
“Production … you mean the drug manufacturing has stopped? How can he tell?”
“No smell and no run off going into the river. Those big ventilation fans aren’t turning either.”
“Oh I am just so terribly sad about the demise of their economy.”
I thought it was funny, until Jax shook his head. “I think they’ve found a new way to make ends meet.”
“Do I want to know?”
“You know the Houchins have a pretty good idea of the groups still in the area?”
“Yeah. They haven’t even really shared them with us.”
“That’s right. Lon says it is some kind of courtesy or whatever.”
I nodded and said, “Which is why we haven’t shared that we’ve figured out how to triangulate the locations of most of them for ourselves.”
“Yep, and we’re going to keep on not telling them. But I had to be careful not to let it slip when they started sharing that some of those that they knew about aren’t transmitting anymore.”
“We figured that out too.”
“But what all of us made the mistake was in assuming it was because of a lack of fuel or because of some kind of mechanical failure.”
I tensed as I started to wait for another shoe to drop. “Just spit it out Jax. Give me some data to input.”
“It looks like what you and Reggie hypothesized would happen has already started. They’ve started with the smallest operations first from what Lon and Vern could see … apparently they recognized some equipment and other stuff in one of the warehouses and …”
Upset I nearly yelped loud enough to wake Kelly. “Are you telling me …?! That wasn’t just a little closer they were on the outskirts of town! They could have been seen! Someone could have followed them back with a drone!”
“I know Babe. Calm down please. If it had been anyone else but Lon and Vern … but it was them. And what they saw needed checking out. It was a calculated risk. No drones … I think we might be running through their inventory finally. And the few cameras and stuff that they did see were inoperable.”
“What do you mean they were inoperable?”
“Busted up. Compromised by the weather. Hanging by their wires. Just inoperable.”
I don’t like to say I didn’t trust Vern and Lon’s observations. As Jax pointed out they were trained for that sort of thing. It was more I didn’t trust Matt … or Delorey or whatever minions of his were left. It would be very easy … too easy … to camouflage a camera and throw someone off by decorating with what looked like equipment that wasn’t being taken care of. I didn’t like it, didn’t like it at all. Wanted to put my own eyes on it for some reason.
But I liked even less what Jax said next. “Aston, Reggie, and I are going to recee the areas where Vern said the farms were from.”
“Clear on the other side of the county?!”
“Not that far.”
“But farther than any of us have gone, even you and I back in the beginning.”
“Babe …”
“Don’t. I know as well as you do that it has to be done. We can’t get all of our info through the Houchins farm. I just … Jax, be careful. Desperate people do desperate things. If … and this is a big IF … Matt has taken control it is going to be Maestro all over again only on a grand scale.”
“Reggie said the same thing.”
“So you discussed with them already.”
“I didn’t do it to …”
Suddenly I felt bad … guilty. “Hush and … and don’t listen to me. I know what has to be done and I trust you. But if we have … have somehow gotten to a new level of the game … Jax I need to know who is in charge. If it is Matt I’ve got to get ahead of him before … before …”
“Matt has never spooked you before. What’s wrong?”
It was hard to quantify and put into words that didn’t sound like I was tripping on a game. “If … and right now we don’t have any facts only assumptions … if Matt has finally decided to come back into the open all bets are going to be off. There is no longer anything holding him back. No former reputation to be tied down by. No moral compass to guide him. No reality checks of any kind. He isn’t just going to be playing a part he is going to be the part … be Maestro. And if that is the case I need to know what he has to use … resources, assets, weapons, people, all of it. I need to know if he took over any or all of Delorey’s territory. I need …”
“Easy Babe. Even if I didn’t get it … and for the record I do … Reggie gets it. He’s worried. He says there are too many unknowns that need knowing.”
I forced myself to relax. This was the part of the game I had never liked, when you first hit a new level and have to figure out if it is just a continuation of the old one or if your opponents have suddenly amped up and gotten new things to use against you. Or if you opponents were even the same ones from the old level or if there were all sorts of new Big Bads that were going to be coming at you.
The Empire Strikes Back
Part 9
I shouldn’t have relaxed. I should have shouted my feelings into their faces until they listened. I knew something wasn’t right but I had no idea how not right things were about to go. I’m not sure how much good it would have done but I should have tried. I didn’t. I’ll go to my grave wondering if things would have happened the way they did if I had followed my instincts.
It was so foggy it was impossible to see much beyond the end of your own nose. They got on the road well before first light only making it worse. I was pinging off the walls the moment they left. Jax, Aston, and Reggie. Everyone put it down to female hormones, the kind that start flying around the minute someone’s man is not right under foot where you can see them. I tried to put it down to the same thing despite knowing it wasn’t.
But then the guys missed their first check in time. Then they missed their second one. Then we found out the Houchins farm had a group go missing as well. I knew. I knew even before then but at that moment I knew with certainty.
“Johnson I need to talk to you.”
As big as Johnson was he suddenly looked like he was shrinking away from me, from what I was going to say. “Don’t Lydie.”
“And who else am I supposed to go to? Aiden? Jules? Neither one of them is up for it.”
“They’re all fine. They’ll …”
In a dead voice I said, “Shut up Johnson. And for the record … this is my home and it is going to stay my home but I’m on overload right now and I need to know that you have my back.”
He squinted at me. “What are you thinking then? You have a plan?”
“Right now I don’t have enough data to input to make a plan. Nothing is confirmed. Likely? Yes. But I need facts, not hysteria.”
“Ok. Then what …”
Johnson and I never got to finish what we were talking about because Ginger screamed … yeah screamed … for me to come upstairs, for all of us to come right away. I sprinted up to the cupola and all she could do was point to the radio.
A voice that sounded happy to read the script in front of them recited, “Today at 10:28 AM seven enemy combatants were arrested, summarily tried by a militia court, and convicted of murder, kidnapping, interfering with fair trade and commerce, price gouging, and withholding information vital to town safety. Two of the seven have also been convicted of being AWOL. All seven are scheduled to be executed at dawn tomorrow. Names of the convicts and tickets to attend this function can be obtained at the Mayor’s Office.”
There were several other announcements – the weather, work groups that people were supposed to report to and other bogus sounding things like that – and then the radio went silent. Everyone in the house that had followed me up started talking at once. This went on for five minutes and then the radio repeated the recorded messages.
I compare the noise everyone was making to cackling. Then Ginger said, “Something coming in from Bonanza.”
They wanted to know if we’d hear the transmission from town and what we thought of it. I had a difficult time not sending some superlatives in their direction. What did I think of it? What exactly did they think I thought of it? Instead of coming uncorked I asked calmly who was missing on their end and then cringed to hear that two of them were Vern and Lon. They must have been the two listed as AWOL … or maybe not but it was a likely possibility.
I sent back the following message: “Kangaroo court. Neither retired nor active duty military personnel can be convicted in a militia court, whatever that is. They haven’t even had due process. Some yahoo is trying to sound official and making a hash of it. Do not, repeat DO NOT act until we can formulate a plan. I need to think.”
Their answer was they didn’t like it but they agreed … at least temporarily. My take at the time was that they were just as worried and confused as we were and didn’t know what to do either. We were about to go downstairs to formulate said plan when a new announcement came on the radio.
“Special Announcement … please stay tuned to a special announcement.” Then after an emergency signal came on a couple of times the following was read off by a ditzy sounding woman. “It has come to the attention of the Mayor’s Office that there may be a way to commute the sentence of at least some of the convicted. There is one way and one way only to accomplish this. The convicts were accused of kidnapping and murdering one Lydia Remington. If verifiable evidence can be provided as to the health and well-being of this woman – preferably she must present herself to this office – then the Mayor himself is willing to intervene and secure a lessor sentence. However, time is of the essence and …”
All eyes were on me. The radiofax started making noise. I couldn’t say anything. I was too busy thinking.
I turned and went downstairs leaving them all jabbering once again. When some of them tried to follow me I shut my bedroom door in their faces and walked over to Kelly’s crib and looked down. Jax and I had been discussing the fact that she needed a big girl bed. We’d been putting if off thinking that it could wait until things were more settled but we had both begun to wonder if we didn’t need to go ahead and bite the bullet … make the closet a little bedroom for her and give her a real bed. We’d even started to make a list of supplies we would need to do it.
The door opened slowly and Ashley came into the room. Since there was dead silence on the other side I figured she was the one that had been elected or elected herself. I wasn’t surprised. There was Aston after all.
“You’re going aren’t you?” she asked quietly.
Instead of answering her I said, “Ash I need a promise from you. I need you to promise that you’ll look after Kelly. Jax is going to be upset but this is the only way and I’m the only one.”
“Lydie …”
“Don’t. I don’t have a lot of time left. I need you to promise and then I need to talk to Johnson.”
“I … I …”
“Ash I need the promise.”
“Okay. Okay already. I promise. But … but we’ll figure this out. Don’t make it sound like …”
“I don’t have time for this part Ash. The emotions. I can’t afford it. Just promise me one way or the other you’ll make sure that Kelly is taken care of and that this will always be her home so long as she wants it to be.”
‘God Lydie, don’t sound …”
I walked passed her and into Johnson who had been standing right outside. “You know what I need from you,” I told him.
“This is insane. We …”
“Not we … me. Look after everyone. If the guys come back then you can turn the responsibility back over to Jax … or Aston if … Just do this for me until then. Okay?”
Johnson swallowed. “Just until Jax gets back. And you. Like when we trade off when he’s out in the field.”
“Fine. Look at it however you have to just do it. I’m going to write a couple of letters. I’m going to leave them on my bed. Make sure no one reads them until … until it is obvious when they need to be read. I need to be left alone. People need to stay out of my way. I’ve got something to take care of.”
That’s when Gennie laughed. She laughed. I can still hear the sound. “See?! If you’d taken care of things ...” She never got a chance to finish. I backhanded her in the mouth hard enough she bounced off the wall.
Alexis stepped between me and Gennie and I started to see red. One of the last things I concretely remember her telling me in a calm voice was, “You do what you have to. We’ll hold the fort. Janice and I will deal with Gennie.” Then she looked me straight in the eye and said, “I promise on my mother’s memory.”
And I believed her. Just like that. And just like that I turned and went down the stairs and out to the barn and no one followed me.
**********
My next clear memory was placing the letters that I had written on the bed and turning to find Ginger carrying Kelly who had woken from her nap.
Ginger told me quietly, “I’ll help Ashley. But you better plan on coming back. Don’t get stupid or anything like that.”
All I could do was hug her, kiss Kelly, and back away. Down the stairs. Onto the porch where I put on my vest – feeling the things I had packed in the many pockets – and grabbed the heavy pack. I don’t know how I did it but I blinked and was handing a letter to the guard at the Houchins farm.
“Give this to your grandfather.”
“Wait! He’ll want to …”
I peddled away without even listening. Yes, I said peddled. The last time I saw Matt I had been riding my bike. If I did what I was planning on doing the last time I would ever see Matt I’d be on my bike.
Part 9
I shouldn’t have relaxed. I should have shouted my feelings into their faces until they listened. I knew something wasn’t right but I had no idea how not right things were about to go. I’m not sure how much good it would have done but I should have tried. I didn’t. I’ll go to my grave wondering if things would have happened the way they did if I had followed my instincts.
It was so foggy it was impossible to see much beyond the end of your own nose. They got on the road well before first light only making it worse. I was pinging off the walls the moment they left. Jax, Aston, and Reggie. Everyone put it down to female hormones, the kind that start flying around the minute someone’s man is not right under foot where you can see them. I tried to put it down to the same thing despite knowing it wasn’t.
But then the guys missed their first check in time. Then they missed their second one. Then we found out the Houchins farm had a group go missing as well. I knew. I knew even before then but at that moment I knew with certainty.
“Johnson I need to talk to you.”
As big as Johnson was he suddenly looked like he was shrinking away from me, from what I was going to say. “Don’t Lydie.”
“And who else am I supposed to go to? Aiden? Jules? Neither one of them is up for it.”
“They’re all fine. They’ll …”
In a dead voice I said, “Shut up Johnson. And for the record … this is my home and it is going to stay my home but I’m on overload right now and I need to know that you have my back.”
He squinted at me. “What are you thinking then? You have a plan?”
“Right now I don’t have enough data to input to make a plan. Nothing is confirmed. Likely? Yes. But I need facts, not hysteria.”
“Ok. Then what …”
Johnson and I never got to finish what we were talking about because Ginger screamed … yeah screamed … for me to come upstairs, for all of us to come right away. I sprinted up to the cupola and all she could do was point to the radio.
A voice that sounded happy to read the script in front of them recited, “Today at 10:28 AM seven enemy combatants were arrested, summarily tried by a militia court, and convicted of murder, kidnapping, interfering with fair trade and commerce, price gouging, and withholding information vital to town safety. Two of the seven have also been convicted of being AWOL. All seven are scheduled to be executed at dawn tomorrow. Names of the convicts and tickets to attend this function can be obtained at the Mayor’s Office.”
There were several other announcements – the weather, work groups that people were supposed to report to and other bogus sounding things like that – and then the radio went silent. Everyone in the house that had followed me up started talking at once. This went on for five minutes and then the radio repeated the recorded messages.
I compare the noise everyone was making to cackling. Then Ginger said, “Something coming in from Bonanza.”
They wanted to know if we’d hear the transmission from town and what we thought of it. I had a difficult time not sending some superlatives in their direction. What did I think of it? What exactly did they think I thought of it? Instead of coming uncorked I asked calmly who was missing on their end and then cringed to hear that two of them were Vern and Lon. They must have been the two listed as AWOL … or maybe not but it was a likely possibility.
I sent back the following message: “Kangaroo court. Neither retired nor active duty military personnel can be convicted in a militia court, whatever that is. They haven’t even had due process. Some yahoo is trying to sound official and making a hash of it. Do not, repeat DO NOT act until we can formulate a plan. I need to think.”
Their answer was they didn’t like it but they agreed … at least temporarily. My take at the time was that they were just as worried and confused as we were and didn’t know what to do either. We were about to go downstairs to formulate said plan when a new announcement came on the radio.
“Special Announcement … please stay tuned to a special announcement.” Then after an emergency signal came on a couple of times the following was read off by a ditzy sounding woman. “It has come to the attention of the Mayor’s Office that there may be a way to commute the sentence of at least some of the convicted. There is one way and one way only to accomplish this. The convicts were accused of kidnapping and murdering one Lydia Remington. If verifiable evidence can be provided as to the health and well-being of this woman – preferably she must present herself to this office – then the Mayor himself is willing to intervene and secure a lessor sentence. However, time is of the essence and …”
All eyes were on me. The radiofax started making noise. I couldn’t say anything. I was too busy thinking.
I turned and went downstairs leaving them all jabbering once again. When some of them tried to follow me I shut my bedroom door in their faces and walked over to Kelly’s crib and looked down. Jax and I had been discussing the fact that she needed a big girl bed. We’d been putting if off thinking that it could wait until things were more settled but we had both begun to wonder if we didn’t need to go ahead and bite the bullet … make the closet a little bedroom for her and give her a real bed. We’d even started to make a list of supplies we would need to do it.
The door opened slowly and Ashley came into the room. Since there was dead silence on the other side I figured she was the one that had been elected or elected herself. I wasn’t surprised. There was Aston after all.
“You’re going aren’t you?” she asked quietly.
Instead of answering her I said, “Ash I need a promise from you. I need you to promise that you’ll look after Kelly. Jax is going to be upset but this is the only way and I’m the only one.”
“Lydie …”
“Don’t. I don’t have a lot of time left. I need you to promise and then I need to talk to Johnson.”
“I … I …”
“Ash I need the promise.”
“Okay. Okay already. I promise. But … but we’ll figure this out. Don’t make it sound like …”
“I don’t have time for this part Ash. The emotions. I can’t afford it. Just promise me one way or the other you’ll make sure that Kelly is taken care of and that this will always be her home so long as she wants it to be.”
‘God Lydie, don’t sound …”
I walked passed her and into Johnson who had been standing right outside. “You know what I need from you,” I told him.
“This is insane. We …”
“Not we … me. Look after everyone. If the guys come back then you can turn the responsibility back over to Jax … or Aston if … Just do this for me until then. Okay?”
Johnson swallowed. “Just until Jax gets back. And you. Like when we trade off when he’s out in the field.”
“Fine. Look at it however you have to just do it. I’m going to write a couple of letters. I’m going to leave them on my bed. Make sure no one reads them until … until it is obvious when they need to be read. I need to be left alone. People need to stay out of my way. I’ve got something to take care of.”
That’s when Gennie laughed. She laughed. I can still hear the sound. “See?! If you’d taken care of things ...” She never got a chance to finish. I backhanded her in the mouth hard enough she bounced off the wall.
Alexis stepped between me and Gennie and I started to see red. One of the last things I concretely remember her telling me in a calm voice was, “You do what you have to. We’ll hold the fort. Janice and I will deal with Gennie.” Then she looked me straight in the eye and said, “I promise on my mother’s memory.”
And I believed her. Just like that. And just like that I turned and went down the stairs and out to the barn and no one followed me.
**********
My next clear memory was placing the letters that I had written on the bed and turning to find Ginger carrying Kelly who had woken from her nap.
Ginger told me quietly, “I’ll help Ashley. But you better plan on coming back. Don’t get stupid or anything like that.”
All I could do was hug her, kiss Kelly, and back away. Down the stairs. Onto the porch where I put on my vest – feeling the things I had packed in the many pockets – and grabbed the heavy pack. I don’t know how I did it but I blinked and was handing a letter to the guard at the Houchins farm.
“Give this to your grandfather.”
“Wait! He’ll want to …”
I peddled away without even listening. Yes, I said peddled. The last time I saw Matt I had been riding my bike. If I did what I was planning on doing the last time I would ever see Matt I’d be on my bike.
The Empire Strikes Back
Part 10
I don't want anyone reading this to think that I was out to be a hero. I wasn't. None of us were back then. Let me rephrase that, no one in my sphere was out to be a hero. You hear stories but they are mostly after the fact. You might even suspect things after the fact. But I can say for sure that our sole objective most of the time was survival. We just wanted to get through the bad times we were living in and try and have confidence that there were better times coming down the road. For me that night was no exception, my chosen actions had nothing to do with being a hero. I had simply run out of ways to deal with what kept coming at us from town in general ... and Matt specifically. It was time for me to attack directly … or semi-directly. Just keep reading, you’ll grasp the concept.
**********
As I peddled along in the dark I wasn't ruminating on how things used to be. I wasn't wishing for things to be the way they used to be, nor wishing for things to be better now. I wasn't pining for the young man that I had once had feelings for because frankly I was wondering if he had really existed or had he just been another avatar for Matt to use to get what he wanted.
In hindsight and with everything that came afterwards I can say with some confidence that Matt and I had been real for each other, at least for a while. When it stopped being real however I am less certain of. Part of me thinks it was me that pulled away first; that it happened after my family was murdered, during the period that I had to grow up and be stronger than I had been. Maybe that is what initially broke whatever ties that we'd had. On the other hand, it could have happened before that or it could have been Matt that changed during his own period of growth and change when the terrorists attacked the town's water supply and he lost his father, the one source of authority in his life that he consistently listened to. A romantic historian might even suggest that it was both of us that changed and it was a culmination of our fate to face off. But I was not a romantic then, neither am I one today and I find the idea of fate less than appealing because it makes it seem that no one has a choice. If I’ve come to understand nothing else over these long years it is that we all make choices every day, and with them come consequences.
I made a choice that night. Matt was going to be taken out one way or the other. The reasons are numerous and anyone that has followed the story over the years knows what those reasons were. I won't paint myself innocent. I was well aware that what I planned to do included the possibility of murder. It also included the real possibility that because of the actions I was choosing that I wouldn't be going home any time soon, if ever. And if that was the case, if I was going to have to pay for my chosen actions, I wanted to make sure that I accomplished my goal.
My ride into town was a silent one. The fog was back, caused by another temperature inversion. As bad as visibility was I managed to get to my first stop undetected not too long after the sun set. I spent the rest of the night preparing the execution of my hastily cobbled together plan, only occasionally running into guards and problems.
When those of us living on our side of the county had agreed to bring down the highway bridges to try and stop Delorey’s attacks … or at least slow the down … Jax had taught Reggie the finer points of bringing down large structures. What he likely hadn't expected was for Reggie to turn around and teach me. Bringing down the highway bridges on our side of the county had been our learning ground. Now I was on the other side of the county setting up the same kind of destruction. I had a timetable and couldn't wait around. I was using up all of the toys that Reggie and I had been using our spare time to fabricate. They were both the large ones and the small ones and could serve multiple purposes; booby traps, timed destruction, and as direct attack weapons. The speed at which I was having to move was nearly my downfall on more than one occasion.
I climbed up the embankment from wiring one of the last bridge expanses out of town and only the heavy fog saved me. I was barely three yards from two town guards.
"What was that?"
"One of them rocks tumbling in the water. We hear them all the time on this shift."
"You sure?" the man asked still unsure.
"Look, you're new around here and I'm telling you it's just rocks being pushed around by the high water."
There was a few moments of silence as they seemed to be covering a circuitous route and then the first guy asked, "That kid really expect them people to hand over the girl he's been looking for?"
"Yeah. No doubt. I mean listen how he set it up. Even if she is a cold-hearted b**** and refuses to come herself them people out there are gonna capture her and use her to get their own back."
Like the guy was thinking over the answer he followed it with another question. "That Mayor dude ain't really plannin' on letting them guys go is he? That won't go over too well with Hickson and Tyrell. They lost a lot of their soldiers trying to capture them and what little justice they were allowed to piece out ain't gonna be enough."
I heard the other one snort and then chuckle. "Like I said you are new around here. Give it time, you'll catch on. One way or the other we are gonna have us a show."
All that conversation did was harden my resolve and as the men walked to the other end of the bridge to take up their position I headed further in town towards my next target. The dam.
**********
Over the winter Reggie and I had perfected a way for those on recon to bring back more intel in physical form. It was unbelievably simply. I felt pretty stupid not having thought of it before. Reggie found them when I was moving some of my dad's personal stuff out of his study to make room for some books and office supplies that needed to come in out of the barn before the weather destroyed them.
"Hey Shrimp, I don't think Lydie will want you to play with these. How about a trade?"
I turned sharply to find Reggie trading a wax pencil and a piece of paper for the binoculars Kelly pulled out of a crate of miscellaneous items I had hauled up to the bedroom.
Envisioning having to wash walls and wood of artwork I said, "I'm not sure I want her to have those either Reggie."
He ignored me as he was too busy looking at what he'd traded for. While I tried to interest Kelly in a trade for something that was less a recipe for disaster Reggie asked, "Lydie are these what I think they are?"
"If you think those are binoculars then you are correct."
"These aren't just binoculars."
"Sure they are. Just one of Dad's toys."
"Lydie these are digital and have a built in camera."
And so it went. The guys started using them to bring back pictures of the areas they were reconning. In particular Reggie and I used the pictures that were brought back to plan for booby placements and places to put caches since I still was pretty much stuck on the home place between one thing and another.
One of the developments we discovered had been the realization that the flooding wasn't just affecting us out in the country but was creating real problems in other areas as well. One was the reservoir. It was already very full because the town had not been pumping it out, the additional water from the melting snow had softened the retaining walls. I had thought to use that but realized there wasn't enough time. My next choice would have greater consequences but was also more dangerous to set up.
As I made my way through town putting boobies here and there in various locations to maximize the chaos I intended to create, I visualized what I'd seen on the pictures brought back. The flood waters were at almost historical highs; higher than the dam had really been built to withstand. The spillways had been opened to try and relieve some pressure but despite that water still lapped at the crest of the dam. What Reggie and I had noticed was the water pouring through the spillway wasn't being monitored and was eroding the abutment seriously enough that even a layman could see had they been paying attention. Reggie suggested that either no one was monitoring the dam except casually, the water all along the river was too high and they had no choice but to leave the spillways open so much, or the spillway gates were stuck for some reason. Based on other pictures the greatest likelihood was that no one was monitoring what was turning into a very dangerous situation.
I doubted Matt even took it into consideration. The dam had been there as a landmark our entire lives as well as the entire lives of our parents. It had been built back in the early days of the TVA. It was an earthen dam whose only real purpose was flood control and we hadn't had one since before I was born ... because of the dam. But the floods we experienced that spring were hundred year floods, well beyond anything that had been experienced in decades. They weren't something you could simply flip a switch on the dam and walk away from.
I realized just how big a mistake Matt was making in ignoring the dam when I walked onto it, never even encountering a single guard. I learned later that they relied very heavily on their own system of security cameras to monitor their territory; however, the fog had completely handicapped that tool.
I didn't have enough explosives left to destroy the whole structure outright; there was too much concrete capping it. My plan was to compromise one side of the dam which would then allow the flood waters to pour through at a rate that the earthen shell and core couldn't withstand. I wasn't sure how much damage would occur but I was certain that it would be enough to put an end to their power generation and take a while to repair at best.
One of the things that I found at the dam I wish I could have taken back to the farm. A truck that was fully loaded with supplies and fuel. It screamed get-a-way vehicle. Instead I wired a nasty little surprise to the ignition and finished the rest of the job on the dam.
It was only an hour off dawn when I finished setting the last timer. I needed to find out where they were holding the men and I was pretty sure I knew where that would be.
Our town wasn't large enough to fund and maintain our own prison. The Town Council always complained about how much it cost to fund the holding cells that the cops used when they couldn't transport someone to the county or state correctional facility. My dad used to have a lot to say about the Town Council and their complaints and not much of it good and then he would say that the uppity Council members just didn't like the fact that the holding cells were right next to the Town Hall. Knowing Matt he was using those holding cells, he wouldn't be able to avoid the temptation of thinking of them as some kind of status symbol.
I was partially right.
The closer I got to the Town Hall the more guards and security measures I ran into. I avoided the guards and boobied what and where I could. Then I saw it. Too much activity not to see it even with the fog still hanging around. All of the trees that grew on what was once called the town green were gone, chopped down for firewood or some other purpose. In their place was a platform with a dais that looked like it had been built using the old playground equipment that had been at the next door skate park. The large, commercial sized swing set was next to the platform and I saw that it was set up for multiple hangings. I was barely hanging on to my emotions by then and the view of that nearly sent me over the edge into another berserk rage.
The platform with dais itself was hung with red, white, and blue streamers and banners, the kind that looked like they came out of the town's Independence Day decorations. There was also a podium and God help me, equipment for recording what was going to happen. I could see microphones, electrical cables, and a news camera on a rolling pedestal. They were even expending energy on flood lights which I considered foolish from a tactical standpoint as it blinded those putting them on display.
I worked my way closer and found that I blended into the crowd of people forming better than I could have ever hoped. We were all dirty and grungy, all dressed like we'd dug our clothes out of the thrift store clearance bin. Almost everyone had some kind of hat on so mine that I pulled low didn't draw any attention at all. All eyes were focused on the spectacle unfolding before us so no one noticed me staring and strategizing the best points of attack.
Then I saw them being brought out. Jax, Aston, Reggie, Lon, Vern and two men I didn’t recognize. Part of me wanted them to see me and realize they hadn’t been abandoned. The better part of me prayed they wouldn’t because of what they might do as a result. Getting a better look at them I drew a small sigh of relief. They'd been beaten at some point but not obviously tortured. I drew another small sigh of relief when I saw that they weren't all bound together. Then I saw Matt. I nearly spit. I also had to stop myself from being too concerned about him seeing me ... he was just as blind up on the platform as everyone else.
I looked at Matt long and hard, trying to see what I had been attracted to. Whatever it had been was gone. So were my feelings one way or the other. He was just a target. I refused to let that bother me then and I refuse to let it bother me even now. I know it is callous but it was war, a war I was determined to win. Then I smiled as I realized Matt was angry and kept calling someone forward like he was getting reports. Something wasn’t going his way and I was more than happy to cheer whatever it was on. I was hoping that it was the fact that I hadn’t shown up.
As dawn rose the crowd started getting restless I heard one guy mutter, "If they are waiting on the weather so the little p**** can get a better picture we're going to be standing around here a long time."
Looking at my watch I started counting down. Matt was just putting on what I thought of as his public face and approaching the podium when I heard the first "whump" ... and then the second … then the third. People were looking around and I edged my way even closer to where the men were.
I was pushed roughly out of the way as men dressed up as uniformed guards rushed passed me heading in the direction of the noise. Correction, the noises as some of my other timed surprises went off. Soon people began to smell smoke and then there was a loud scream as someone must have found one of the trip wires in the building behind the square where I had been observing from before joining the milling crowds. Then several windows in the building exploded and panic set it.
I was nearly knocked to the ground several times before I could roll the homemade grenade right beneath the platform. Unfortunately for whatever reason Matt chose that moment to look right at me with instantaneous recognition. His eyes widened as he realized Valkyrie had finally come out to play. I was smiling as he turned away and started running. The exploding platform was satisfyingly chaotic. I turned to help the men but found they were already helping themselves. Then Reggie saw me and started coming towards me but I shook my head and pointed him away from town in the direction I wanted him to take the others in. He understood. He knew where every booby was placed on the hill overlooking River Road.
I knew they'd all think that the Houchins farm and the Home Place had put together a rescue. I didn't stop to explain. I still had a target to reach and took off running in the same direction Matt had gone before I could lose him. I was finally thankful for how thick the crowd was because it slowed him down as much as it slowed me down. This was the part that required me to know Maestro so well. He used the retreat to fight another day a lot to maintain his avatar’s life while allowing other players to die in his place as a distraction. But I needed him to retreat the direction I wanted him to go. I counted on Matt thinking that since the other buildings around the green were rigged that the Town Hall was also compromised. I gave him a little encouragement to think that when I lobbed a grenade through a window of the ground floor. More chaos and carnage occurred.
I saw him running towards the dam. I was right in thinking that the loaded truck I'd found there was one of his escape plans. I kept him running in that direction by triggering some of the nasty surprises I’d left along that path.
Matt had never been into sports. He kept in just good enough shape to keep his mother off his back and to maintain his reputation as Maestro. He liked to look good and that was his primary motivation, but he only did just enough for looks, not enough to build stamina. My whole life had been one of physical labor to offset all the sitting I did studying and gaming. After my family's murder that had been even truer. I could have run with a heavily laden pack and still caught up with Matt but I used the cat and mouse game until he was exactly where I wanted him. In the meantime I picked off the few of his personal guards - who honestly weren't in much better shape than he was – that he’d allowed to follow him. Bad food and bad living had torn a hole in whatever tough-guy they'd had.
When I was ready I tackled Matt from behind and brought him down. He kicked out at me and nearly escaped but stopped when I said, "Forget the truck Maestro. It's toast as soon as you turn the ignition."
I was ready and waiting for his first maneuver. "Lydie? Lydie?! Oh my god I've been searching for you forever! You have no idea what I've ..."
Bluntly I told him, "Forget the stupid act. I'm not buying it. What I didn't figure out for myself a long time ago I heard from Marty and the others."
The mention of Marty gave him a start. "Don't listen to them. They're ..."
Continuing on I said, "And what I didn't figure out for myself and didn't learn from them I learned from observing you directly. You screwed up Matt. You screwed up bad."
And just like that Matt tried his next maneuver. "I have troops heading ..."
Confidently I told him, "You haven't got squat heading anyplace. The only control you have is within the town limits. If you'd left it like that, not tried to branch out and be more important than you are, I wouldn't have come for you. But you didn't. And now it's time for Maestro to pay the piper."
He laughed derisively. "Oh please. Even with all the hicks at your disposal you can't destroy me."
I had calculated my time and chose my words with purpose. "It isn't going to take an army to destroy you. It is going to be your own stupidity and carelessness that does it."
"Don't you dare say that!!" he screamed letting me see just how close to crazy he really was.
Instead of reacting to it I looked at my watch and counted, "Five, four, three, two, one ..."
I was a couple of seconds off, a couple of seconds of riding the edge of my own worry that my plan wouldn't work. But just as Matt started to smile the spillway behind Matt blew, throwing us both to the ground.
Part 10
I don't want anyone reading this to think that I was out to be a hero. I wasn't. None of us were back then. Let me rephrase that, no one in my sphere was out to be a hero. You hear stories but they are mostly after the fact. You might even suspect things after the fact. But I can say for sure that our sole objective most of the time was survival. We just wanted to get through the bad times we were living in and try and have confidence that there were better times coming down the road. For me that night was no exception, my chosen actions had nothing to do with being a hero. I had simply run out of ways to deal with what kept coming at us from town in general ... and Matt specifically. It was time for me to attack directly … or semi-directly. Just keep reading, you’ll grasp the concept.
**********
As I peddled along in the dark I wasn't ruminating on how things used to be. I wasn't wishing for things to be the way they used to be, nor wishing for things to be better now. I wasn't pining for the young man that I had once had feelings for because frankly I was wondering if he had really existed or had he just been another avatar for Matt to use to get what he wanted.
In hindsight and with everything that came afterwards I can say with some confidence that Matt and I had been real for each other, at least for a while. When it stopped being real however I am less certain of. Part of me thinks it was me that pulled away first; that it happened after my family was murdered, during the period that I had to grow up and be stronger than I had been. Maybe that is what initially broke whatever ties that we'd had. On the other hand, it could have happened before that or it could have been Matt that changed during his own period of growth and change when the terrorists attacked the town's water supply and he lost his father, the one source of authority in his life that he consistently listened to. A romantic historian might even suggest that it was both of us that changed and it was a culmination of our fate to face off. But I was not a romantic then, neither am I one today and I find the idea of fate less than appealing because it makes it seem that no one has a choice. If I’ve come to understand nothing else over these long years it is that we all make choices every day, and with them come consequences.
I made a choice that night. Matt was going to be taken out one way or the other. The reasons are numerous and anyone that has followed the story over the years knows what those reasons were. I won't paint myself innocent. I was well aware that what I planned to do included the possibility of murder. It also included the real possibility that because of the actions I was choosing that I wouldn't be going home any time soon, if ever. And if that was the case, if I was going to have to pay for my chosen actions, I wanted to make sure that I accomplished my goal.
My ride into town was a silent one. The fog was back, caused by another temperature inversion. As bad as visibility was I managed to get to my first stop undetected not too long after the sun set. I spent the rest of the night preparing the execution of my hastily cobbled together plan, only occasionally running into guards and problems.
When those of us living on our side of the county had agreed to bring down the highway bridges to try and stop Delorey’s attacks … or at least slow the down … Jax had taught Reggie the finer points of bringing down large structures. What he likely hadn't expected was for Reggie to turn around and teach me. Bringing down the highway bridges on our side of the county had been our learning ground. Now I was on the other side of the county setting up the same kind of destruction. I had a timetable and couldn't wait around. I was using up all of the toys that Reggie and I had been using our spare time to fabricate. They were both the large ones and the small ones and could serve multiple purposes; booby traps, timed destruction, and as direct attack weapons. The speed at which I was having to move was nearly my downfall on more than one occasion.
I climbed up the embankment from wiring one of the last bridge expanses out of town and only the heavy fog saved me. I was barely three yards from two town guards.
"What was that?"
"One of them rocks tumbling in the water. We hear them all the time on this shift."
"You sure?" the man asked still unsure.
"Look, you're new around here and I'm telling you it's just rocks being pushed around by the high water."
There was a few moments of silence as they seemed to be covering a circuitous route and then the first guy asked, "That kid really expect them people to hand over the girl he's been looking for?"
"Yeah. No doubt. I mean listen how he set it up. Even if she is a cold-hearted b**** and refuses to come herself them people out there are gonna capture her and use her to get their own back."
Like the guy was thinking over the answer he followed it with another question. "That Mayor dude ain't really plannin' on letting them guys go is he? That won't go over too well with Hickson and Tyrell. They lost a lot of their soldiers trying to capture them and what little justice they were allowed to piece out ain't gonna be enough."
I heard the other one snort and then chuckle. "Like I said you are new around here. Give it time, you'll catch on. One way or the other we are gonna have us a show."
All that conversation did was harden my resolve and as the men walked to the other end of the bridge to take up their position I headed further in town towards my next target. The dam.
**********
Over the winter Reggie and I had perfected a way for those on recon to bring back more intel in physical form. It was unbelievably simply. I felt pretty stupid not having thought of it before. Reggie found them when I was moving some of my dad's personal stuff out of his study to make room for some books and office supplies that needed to come in out of the barn before the weather destroyed them.
"Hey Shrimp, I don't think Lydie will want you to play with these. How about a trade?"
I turned sharply to find Reggie trading a wax pencil and a piece of paper for the binoculars Kelly pulled out of a crate of miscellaneous items I had hauled up to the bedroom.
Envisioning having to wash walls and wood of artwork I said, "I'm not sure I want her to have those either Reggie."
He ignored me as he was too busy looking at what he'd traded for. While I tried to interest Kelly in a trade for something that was less a recipe for disaster Reggie asked, "Lydie are these what I think they are?"
"If you think those are binoculars then you are correct."
"These aren't just binoculars."
"Sure they are. Just one of Dad's toys."
"Lydie these are digital and have a built in camera."
And so it went. The guys started using them to bring back pictures of the areas they were reconning. In particular Reggie and I used the pictures that were brought back to plan for booby placements and places to put caches since I still was pretty much stuck on the home place between one thing and another.
One of the developments we discovered had been the realization that the flooding wasn't just affecting us out in the country but was creating real problems in other areas as well. One was the reservoir. It was already very full because the town had not been pumping it out, the additional water from the melting snow had softened the retaining walls. I had thought to use that but realized there wasn't enough time. My next choice would have greater consequences but was also more dangerous to set up.
As I made my way through town putting boobies here and there in various locations to maximize the chaos I intended to create, I visualized what I'd seen on the pictures brought back. The flood waters were at almost historical highs; higher than the dam had really been built to withstand. The spillways had been opened to try and relieve some pressure but despite that water still lapped at the crest of the dam. What Reggie and I had noticed was the water pouring through the spillway wasn't being monitored and was eroding the abutment seriously enough that even a layman could see had they been paying attention. Reggie suggested that either no one was monitoring the dam except casually, the water all along the river was too high and they had no choice but to leave the spillways open so much, or the spillway gates were stuck for some reason. Based on other pictures the greatest likelihood was that no one was monitoring what was turning into a very dangerous situation.
I doubted Matt even took it into consideration. The dam had been there as a landmark our entire lives as well as the entire lives of our parents. It had been built back in the early days of the TVA. It was an earthen dam whose only real purpose was flood control and we hadn't had one since before I was born ... because of the dam. But the floods we experienced that spring were hundred year floods, well beyond anything that had been experienced in decades. They weren't something you could simply flip a switch on the dam and walk away from.
I realized just how big a mistake Matt was making in ignoring the dam when I walked onto it, never even encountering a single guard. I learned later that they relied very heavily on their own system of security cameras to monitor their territory; however, the fog had completely handicapped that tool.
I didn't have enough explosives left to destroy the whole structure outright; there was too much concrete capping it. My plan was to compromise one side of the dam which would then allow the flood waters to pour through at a rate that the earthen shell and core couldn't withstand. I wasn't sure how much damage would occur but I was certain that it would be enough to put an end to their power generation and take a while to repair at best.
One of the things that I found at the dam I wish I could have taken back to the farm. A truck that was fully loaded with supplies and fuel. It screamed get-a-way vehicle. Instead I wired a nasty little surprise to the ignition and finished the rest of the job on the dam.
It was only an hour off dawn when I finished setting the last timer. I needed to find out where they were holding the men and I was pretty sure I knew where that would be.
Our town wasn't large enough to fund and maintain our own prison. The Town Council always complained about how much it cost to fund the holding cells that the cops used when they couldn't transport someone to the county or state correctional facility. My dad used to have a lot to say about the Town Council and their complaints and not much of it good and then he would say that the uppity Council members just didn't like the fact that the holding cells were right next to the Town Hall. Knowing Matt he was using those holding cells, he wouldn't be able to avoid the temptation of thinking of them as some kind of status symbol.
I was partially right.
The closer I got to the Town Hall the more guards and security measures I ran into. I avoided the guards and boobied what and where I could. Then I saw it. Too much activity not to see it even with the fog still hanging around. All of the trees that grew on what was once called the town green were gone, chopped down for firewood or some other purpose. In their place was a platform with a dais that looked like it had been built using the old playground equipment that had been at the next door skate park. The large, commercial sized swing set was next to the platform and I saw that it was set up for multiple hangings. I was barely hanging on to my emotions by then and the view of that nearly sent me over the edge into another berserk rage.
The platform with dais itself was hung with red, white, and blue streamers and banners, the kind that looked like they came out of the town's Independence Day decorations. There was also a podium and God help me, equipment for recording what was going to happen. I could see microphones, electrical cables, and a news camera on a rolling pedestal. They were even expending energy on flood lights which I considered foolish from a tactical standpoint as it blinded those putting them on display.
I worked my way closer and found that I blended into the crowd of people forming better than I could have ever hoped. We were all dirty and grungy, all dressed like we'd dug our clothes out of the thrift store clearance bin. Almost everyone had some kind of hat on so mine that I pulled low didn't draw any attention at all. All eyes were focused on the spectacle unfolding before us so no one noticed me staring and strategizing the best points of attack.
Then I saw them being brought out. Jax, Aston, Reggie, Lon, Vern and two men I didn’t recognize. Part of me wanted them to see me and realize they hadn’t been abandoned. The better part of me prayed they wouldn’t because of what they might do as a result. Getting a better look at them I drew a small sigh of relief. They'd been beaten at some point but not obviously tortured. I drew another small sigh of relief when I saw that they weren't all bound together. Then I saw Matt. I nearly spit. I also had to stop myself from being too concerned about him seeing me ... he was just as blind up on the platform as everyone else.
I looked at Matt long and hard, trying to see what I had been attracted to. Whatever it had been was gone. So were my feelings one way or the other. He was just a target. I refused to let that bother me then and I refuse to let it bother me even now. I know it is callous but it was war, a war I was determined to win. Then I smiled as I realized Matt was angry and kept calling someone forward like he was getting reports. Something wasn’t going his way and I was more than happy to cheer whatever it was on. I was hoping that it was the fact that I hadn’t shown up.
As dawn rose the crowd started getting restless I heard one guy mutter, "If they are waiting on the weather so the little p**** can get a better picture we're going to be standing around here a long time."
Looking at my watch I started counting down. Matt was just putting on what I thought of as his public face and approaching the podium when I heard the first "whump" ... and then the second … then the third. People were looking around and I edged my way even closer to where the men were.
I was pushed roughly out of the way as men dressed up as uniformed guards rushed passed me heading in the direction of the noise. Correction, the noises as some of my other timed surprises went off. Soon people began to smell smoke and then there was a loud scream as someone must have found one of the trip wires in the building behind the square where I had been observing from before joining the milling crowds. Then several windows in the building exploded and panic set it.
I was nearly knocked to the ground several times before I could roll the homemade grenade right beneath the platform. Unfortunately for whatever reason Matt chose that moment to look right at me with instantaneous recognition. His eyes widened as he realized Valkyrie had finally come out to play. I was smiling as he turned away and started running. The exploding platform was satisfyingly chaotic. I turned to help the men but found they were already helping themselves. Then Reggie saw me and started coming towards me but I shook my head and pointed him away from town in the direction I wanted him to take the others in. He understood. He knew where every booby was placed on the hill overlooking River Road.
I knew they'd all think that the Houchins farm and the Home Place had put together a rescue. I didn't stop to explain. I still had a target to reach and took off running in the same direction Matt had gone before I could lose him. I was finally thankful for how thick the crowd was because it slowed him down as much as it slowed me down. This was the part that required me to know Maestro so well. He used the retreat to fight another day a lot to maintain his avatar’s life while allowing other players to die in his place as a distraction. But I needed him to retreat the direction I wanted him to go. I counted on Matt thinking that since the other buildings around the green were rigged that the Town Hall was also compromised. I gave him a little encouragement to think that when I lobbed a grenade through a window of the ground floor. More chaos and carnage occurred.
I saw him running towards the dam. I was right in thinking that the loaded truck I'd found there was one of his escape plans. I kept him running in that direction by triggering some of the nasty surprises I’d left along that path.
Matt had never been into sports. He kept in just good enough shape to keep his mother off his back and to maintain his reputation as Maestro. He liked to look good and that was his primary motivation, but he only did just enough for looks, not enough to build stamina. My whole life had been one of physical labor to offset all the sitting I did studying and gaming. After my family's murder that had been even truer. I could have run with a heavily laden pack and still caught up with Matt but I used the cat and mouse game until he was exactly where I wanted him. In the meantime I picked off the few of his personal guards - who honestly weren't in much better shape than he was – that he’d allowed to follow him. Bad food and bad living had torn a hole in whatever tough-guy they'd had.
When I was ready I tackled Matt from behind and brought him down. He kicked out at me and nearly escaped but stopped when I said, "Forget the truck Maestro. It's toast as soon as you turn the ignition."
I was ready and waiting for his first maneuver. "Lydie? Lydie?! Oh my god I've been searching for you forever! You have no idea what I've ..."
Bluntly I told him, "Forget the stupid act. I'm not buying it. What I didn't figure out for myself a long time ago I heard from Marty and the others."
The mention of Marty gave him a start. "Don't listen to them. They're ..."
Continuing on I said, "And what I didn't figure out for myself and didn't learn from them I learned from observing you directly. You screwed up Matt. You screwed up bad."
And just like that Matt tried his next maneuver. "I have troops heading ..."
Confidently I told him, "You haven't got squat heading anyplace. The only control you have is within the town limits. If you'd left it like that, not tried to branch out and be more important than you are, I wouldn't have come for you. But you didn't. And now it's time for Maestro to pay the piper."
He laughed derisively. "Oh please. Even with all the hicks at your disposal you can't destroy me."
I had calculated my time and chose my words with purpose. "It isn't going to take an army to destroy you. It is going to be your own stupidity and carelessness that does it."
"Don't you dare say that!!" he screamed letting me see just how close to crazy he really was.
Instead of reacting to it I looked at my watch and counted, "Five, four, three, two, one ..."
I was a couple of seconds off, a couple of seconds of riding the edge of my own worry that my plan wouldn't work. But just as Matt started to smile the spillway behind Matt blew, throwing us both to the ground.
The Empire Strikes Back
Part 11
Today if you go walking in the town square, in addition to an obnoxious amount of greenery you have to battle along the main path that the blasted eco-teams fawn over, there are pieces of outdoor artwork you have to avoid tripping over. One of those pieces is on the regional register for historical art. Great, big, nasty-looking thing that can’t decide what it is supposed to be. Today the plaque beneath it says it is called “Venustas.” which is Latin for beauty. Yeah. Right. Back when I was a kid the thing sat in a park built overlooking the dam and it had been called “Chimera” which was a mythological creature that breathed fire and was a hybrid made up of several animals and frightening just because of how ugly it was. The statue had never been that great to look at, but it was solid as solid then as it is today and is what I rolled under after the explosives I set went off.
I suppose if I am honest it is my fault the ugly thing looks even worse than it used to. No amount of sanding and wielding ever fully repaired all of the dents and other damage it took as the concrete and debris rained down. The sound of the explosion was enormous but even after things stopped falling from the sky the sound didn’t abate and it took me a moment to figure out it was because of the increased flow of water through the gap the explosion had created.
I looked around for Matt to finish what I had started but didn’t see him. Frustrated I edged my way closer to the overhang to see if he’d fallen over the side. Honestly, what I expected to see I didn’t know then and still don’t know. I suspect adrenaline had made me a little stupid. It was a good thing for me that I had remained cautious because I had just enough time to set myself for attack when I saw something coming at me from the corner of my eye.
I initially went down as I slid in the mud trying to avoid a piece of rebar being used like a bat to take off my head. I won’t bother recording for posterity the spittle-laden words that flew from Matt’s lips while he was swinging. The words don’t really matter, it was the sentiment behind them; he was death and I was his next victim and rubbish like that. Needless to say I had no intention of cooperating and after getting up I parried every swing he threw at me. I was strong but I’d been up over twenty-four hours and biked many miles and had been climbing around like a monkey wiring bridges and other things to go boom during that time. However, while Matt might have been well-versed in hand to hand combat techniques, as far as I’ve ever been able to discover he had never practiced them in the realm of reality, only in gamer land. Adrenaline kept us both going but I had the greater endurance.
We were both spent and then hit our corners like old-time boxers did between rounds. Matt turned his hand next to a verbal brawl. “You had such potential.”
“So did you Matt. Why did you have to choose to be a craptastic jerk? Why did you have to do that to Marty?!”
“So this is about a broken heart? I knew it. Girls are so predictable.” He smiled like he’d suspected it all along.
“Oh my God Matt,” I laughed, unable to stop myself. “Is your ego seriously that big?!” Then in anger I snarled, “You had a hand in torturing and killing my best friend. Our best friend! How could you do that?!”
Strangely calm Matt explained, “She was useful. Not as useful as you would have been but definitely more malleable. Besides she meant nothing. If you hadn’t acted like a spoiled child and run off I would have gotten rid of her and we could have been together. You never were very good at strategic planning Lydie.”
“Geez. I can’t believe I never realized what a freaking narcissist you are.”
Almost ignoring what I’d said, or taking it as a compliment it was hard to say which, he said, “We could still do it you know.”
“Do what?”
“Be together. I’ve set it all up. These people … they need us. They have no idea how much they need us.”
“Yeah right. King and Queen of the prom, that’s us.” I nearly spit. “Who do you think you are? Machiavelli?”
“It’s … apropos to a certain extent I must admit. If these idiots were just slightly more intelligent I could have had this wound up even sooner.”
A few pieces falling into place I asked, “So it was you who did for Delorey? How did you set him up?”
Like he was discussing the weather Matt answered, “Fairly easily if you must know. I had hoped to keep him around longer. Delorey was actually one of the more useful idiots I’ve had at my disposal. But then he started making plans and deals without consulting me, putting my whole operation at risk. I knew then it was time for him to go.”
“Your operation.”
“Yes Lydie. My operation. Mine. I’m developing a technopolis based on green energy, something that will allow us to rise above the retched state this country is in. With us leading the way, showing how it should be done, there is no telling how far we can go. Certainly well beyond anything currently available. This dam is a cornerstone of the first phase.” Then he screamed at me, “AND LOOK WHAT YOU’VE DONE!!”
“Oh. So sorry. Did I break your toy?” I asked snidely.
Regaining control he said, “All you’ve done is make me have to change my timetable. I was already discussing upgrades to the dam with a local representative of the corps of engineers. They are practically salivating at the chance to modify the dam to my specifications but were worried about how they would justify on paper deconstructing something that had no damage.”
I looked in his eyes and could hardly accept how wholeheartedly he believed the nonsense coming out of his mouth. Matt was brilliant, I never have been afraid to give him that point, but a trained engineer he was not. My guess after reading some of the depositions presented into court was that his father – who was a trained engineer for the TVA – had filled his head full of unrealistic dreams and agenda points. I still remember some of the stuff his father used to spew and I knew even before things got as out of control as they did just how unrealistic what he believed in was.
Hoping to reach him in some way I begged, “Matt, be serious.”
“I am serious.”
“Matt, your plan isn’t feasible. You forget, I’ve heard all this before. For one thing this is the wrong kind of river for what you would need to …”
“Lydie, do not tell me my business. Or are you forgetting just how often I beat you in these sorts of academic debates.”
“This isn’t academics Matt. It’s not theory or hypothesis. This isn’t a design drawn up on the lunchroom napkins. This is reality. If your plans were as easy to implement as you claim why didn’t you and your dad turn your house into a mock up of them?”
“Because my mother and sisters were always in the way. They had absolutely no vision, no foresight. How my father and I used to rail against their small mindedness, their lack of real intelligence. My god they were such an embarrassment. You had no idea, out on your tiny, subsistence level farm, the kind of work entailed in pulling this together with everyone forever saying can’t, impossible, or so jealous that they intentionally sabotaged every step forward.”
“You really believe that?”
“Believe it? I lived it!”
It troubled me to think that Matt was as incompetent as he was acting. If he was as crazy as he was acting did I have any right to judge him? Even Jax had called him a rabid animal but I looked at Matt and saw not a rabid animal, not even a man, but a boy that had something seriously wrong with him. Then I stopped myself. Mentally ill, mentally incompetent or not, he was still morally accountable. I also wasn’t convinced he wasn’t trying to play me … like a Maestro.
I shook my head and then made a mistake, “Matt, you are acting like an idiot.”
I was unprepared for his response. He came around with the piece of rebar again and this time I didn’t duck in time and he caught me a hard and painful blow on my bicep. I fell, slipping in the mud then had to keep rolling as he tried to bring the metal rod down on my head again and again.
I kicked out at his legs and he skipped backwards, going down as he too lost his footing in the mud; but as he did he kicked out at me and I caught a glancing on my chin from the tip of his shoe. It rattled me but I didn’t have much time to react because he was on me again and we rolled around on the ground and then from somewhere he pulled a knife and I felt a sharp, burning pain in my side and Lydie went bye-bye.
The next thing I remember clearly is a terrified Matt looking rather more than a little worse for wear backing away holding his hand muttering, “Valkyrie … Valkyrie …” Then he turned and ran.
I roared and started to run after him but real pain took me to my knees. I’m not sure how long I kneeled there. Someone could have come along and killed me and I wouldn’t have even noticed but no one did. The ground rumbling beneath my hands finally brought me back from la-la land and I looked up to see the abutment eroding in my direction.
Seeing your imminent demise is a great motivator and I got my last shot of adrenaline for the day. I scrambled to my feet and away from the dam. I’d hidden my bike with the remainder of my supplies just the side of town before River Road. It took me an hour to get through the hysterical crowds unseen and I was ready to cry with thankfulness that it hadn’t been discovered and absconded with. I knew I would have to move quickly to keep someone from pulling me off and taking it away but since I wasn’t up to moving quick I had to wait until it was dark enough that no one would see me.
While I waited for dark or some other miracle to happen I decided it was time to look at whatever damage Matt had done. When I pulled my shirt up and away from the wound I nearly puked and did the only thing I could which was tie a binding over it and pray that I could get back to the Home Place and that Jax was there.
I must have passed out at some point because I had meant to watch the action from my hiding place to keep my mind off my hurts but the next thing I knew was I was trying to blink my eyes open and realizing I was all in a crumpled heap against the door I had leaned against. And that it was dark … well into the dark of the night. Everything was silent but smelled strongly of smoke which might have been what had awakened me.
In all the years since there are times that I have been in pain but I always measure them against how much it hurt to get on my bike and ride home that night. I had to stop a couple of times to puke only there really wasn’t anything in my stomach to puke because I hadn’t eaten in who knows how many hours and my canteen had long been empty.
I barely registered passing the gate to the Houchins farm, it was just another landmark. I honestly wasn’t sure if they would recognize me and didn’t want to get shot on top of the pains I already suffered from. But they must have seen me and used the radiofax to contact whoever was minding things up in the cupola.
I was growing weaker and hit a pot hole and fell off the bike. I tried to get back on but it wasn’t going to happen. After a hundred feet I realized I wasn’t even going to be able to push the bike so I let it fall and just tried to keep putting one foot in front of the other. Plan A was to get home but if I wasn’t able to make it Plan B was to at least get close enough that I was within the normal patrol area and that someone would find me in the morning. Another hundred yards and I had to admit even that wasn’t going to happen as I fell for the third time and was struggling to remain conscious.
He found me trying to crawl towards a fence post that I knew was within visual range of one of our monitoring cameras because we used it as a focus point. I knew he was talking to me, yelling my name, but all I could do was say, “Tell Gennie I tried. Tell her I tried but he got away.”
That’s all I remembered for a long time.
Part 11
Today if you go walking in the town square, in addition to an obnoxious amount of greenery you have to battle along the main path that the blasted eco-teams fawn over, there are pieces of outdoor artwork you have to avoid tripping over. One of those pieces is on the regional register for historical art. Great, big, nasty-looking thing that can’t decide what it is supposed to be. Today the plaque beneath it says it is called “Venustas.” which is Latin for beauty. Yeah. Right. Back when I was a kid the thing sat in a park built overlooking the dam and it had been called “Chimera” which was a mythological creature that breathed fire and was a hybrid made up of several animals and frightening just because of how ugly it was. The statue had never been that great to look at, but it was solid as solid then as it is today and is what I rolled under after the explosives I set went off.
I suppose if I am honest it is my fault the ugly thing looks even worse than it used to. No amount of sanding and wielding ever fully repaired all of the dents and other damage it took as the concrete and debris rained down. The sound of the explosion was enormous but even after things stopped falling from the sky the sound didn’t abate and it took me a moment to figure out it was because of the increased flow of water through the gap the explosion had created.
I looked around for Matt to finish what I had started but didn’t see him. Frustrated I edged my way closer to the overhang to see if he’d fallen over the side. Honestly, what I expected to see I didn’t know then and still don’t know. I suspect adrenaline had made me a little stupid. It was a good thing for me that I had remained cautious because I had just enough time to set myself for attack when I saw something coming at me from the corner of my eye.
I initially went down as I slid in the mud trying to avoid a piece of rebar being used like a bat to take off my head. I won’t bother recording for posterity the spittle-laden words that flew from Matt’s lips while he was swinging. The words don’t really matter, it was the sentiment behind them; he was death and I was his next victim and rubbish like that. Needless to say I had no intention of cooperating and after getting up I parried every swing he threw at me. I was strong but I’d been up over twenty-four hours and biked many miles and had been climbing around like a monkey wiring bridges and other things to go boom during that time. However, while Matt might have been well-versed in hand to hand combat techniques, as far as I’ve ever been able to discover he had never practiced them in the realm of reality, only in gamer land. Adrenaline kept us both going but I had the greater endurance.
We were both spent and then hit our corners like old-time boxers did between rounds. Matt turned his hand next to a verbal brawl. “You had such potential.”
“So did you Matt. Why did you have to choose to be a craptastic jerk? Why did you have to do that to Marty?!”
“So this is about a broken heart? I knew it. Girls are so predictable.” He smiled like he’d suspected it all along.
“Oh my God Matt,” I laughed, unable to stop myself. “Is your ego seriously that big?!” Then in anger I snarled, “You had a hand in torturing and killing my best friend. Our best friend! How could you do that?!”
Strangely calm Matt explained, “She was useful. Not as useful as you would have been but definitely more malleable. Besides she meant nothing. If you hadn’t acted like a spoiled child and run off I would have gotten rid of her and we could have been together. You never were very good at strategic planning Lydie.”
“Geez. I can’t believe I never realized what a freaking narcissist you are.”
Almost ignoring what I’d said, or taking it as a compliment it was hard to say which, he said, “We could still do it you know.”
“Do what?”
“Be together. I’ve set it all up. These people … they need us. They have no idea how much they need us.”
“Yeah right. King and Queen of the prom, that’s us.” I nearly spit. “Who do you think you are? Machiavelli?”
“It’s … apropos to a certain extent I must admit. If these idiots were just slightly more intelligent I could have had this wound up even sooner.”
A few pieces falling into place I asked, “So it was you who did for Delorey? How did you set him up?”
Like he was discussing the weather Matt answered, “Fairly easily if you must know. I had hoped to keep him around longer. Delorey was actually one of the more useful idiots I’ve had at my disposal. But then he started making plans and deals without consulting me, putting my whole operation at risk. I knew then it was time for him to go.”
“Your operation.”
“Yes Lydie. My operation. Mine. I’m developing a technopolis based on green energy, something that will allow us to rise above the retched state this country is in. With us leading the way, showing how it should be done, there is no telling how far we can go. Certainly well beyond anything currently available. This dam is a cornerstone of the first phase.” Then he screamed at me, “AND LOOK WHAT YOU’VE DONE!!”
“Oh. So sorry. Did I break your toy?” I asked snidely.
Regaining control he said, “All you’ve done is make me have to change my timetable. I was already discussing upgrades to the dam with a local representative of the corps of engineers. They are practically salivating at the chance to modify the dam to my specifications but were worried about how they would justify on paper deconstructing something that had no damage.”
I looked in his eyes and could hardly accept how wholeheartedly he believed the nonsense coming out of his mouth. Matt was brilliant, I never have been afraid to give him that point, but a trained engineer he was not. My guess after reading some of the depositions presented into court was that his father – who was a trained engineer for the TVA – had filled his head full of unrealistic dreams and agenda points. I still remember some of the stuff his father used to spew and I knew even before things got as out of control as they did just how unrealistic what he believed in was.
Hoping to reach him in some way I begged, “Matt, be serious.”
“I am serious.”
“Matt, your plan isn’t feasible. You forget, I’ve heard all this before. For one thing this is the wrong kind of river for what you would need to …”
“Lydie, do not tell me my business. Or are you forgetting just how often I beat you in these sorts of academic debates.”
“This isn’t academics Matt. It’s not theory or hypothesis. This isn’t a design drawn up on the lunchroom napkins. This is reality. If your plans were as easy to implement as you claim why didn’t you and your dad turn your house into a mock up of them?”
“Because my mother and sisters were always in the way. They had absolutely no vision, no foresight. How my father and I used to rail against their small mindedness, their lack of real intelligence. My god they were such an embarrassment. You had no idea, out on your tiny, subsistence level farm, the kind of work entailed in pulling this together with everyone forever saying can’t, impossible, or so jealous that they intentionally sabotaged every step forward.”
“You really believe that?”
“Believe it? I lived it!”
It troubled me to think that Matt was as incompetent as he was acting. If he was as crazy as he was acting did I have any right to judge him? Even Jax had called him a rabid animal but I looked at Matt and saw not a rabid animal, not even a man, but a boy that had something seriously wrong with him. Then I stopped myself. Mentally ill, mentally incompetent or not, he was still morally accountable. I also wasn’t convinced he wasn’t trying to play me … like a Maestro.
I shook my head and then made a mistake, “Matt, you are acting like an idiot.”
I was unprepared for his response. He came around with the piece of rebar again and this time I didn’t duck in time and he caught me a hard and painful blow on my bicep. I fell, slipping in the mud then had to keep rolling as he tried to bring the metal rod down on my head again and again.
I kicked out at his legs and he skipped backwards, going down as he too lost his footing in the mud; but as he did he kicked out at me and I caught a glancing on my chin from the tip of his shoe. It rattled me but I didn’t have much time to react because he was on me again and we rolled around on the ground and then from somewhere he pulled a knife and I felt a sharp, burning pain in my side and Lydie went bye-bye.
The next thing I remember clearly is a terrified Matt looking rather more than a little worse for wear backing away holding his hand muttering, “Valkyrie … Valkyrie …” Then he turned and ran.
I roared and started to run after him but real pain took me to my knees. I’m not sure how long I kneeled there. Someone could have come along and killed me and I wouldn’t have even noticed but no one did. The ground rumbling beneath my hands finally brought me back from la-la land and I looked up to see the abutment eroding in my direction.
Seeing your imminent demise is a great motivator and I got my last shot of adrenaline for the day. I scrambled to my feet and away from the dam. I’d hidden my bike with the remainder of my supplies just the side of town before River Road. It took me an hour to get through the hysterical crowds unseen and I was ready to cry with thankfulness that it hadn’t been discovered and absconded with. I knew I would have to move quickly to keep someone from pulling me off and taking it away but since I wasn’t up to moving quick I had to wait until it was dark enough that no one would see me.
While I waited for dark or some other miracle to happen I decided it was time to look at whatever damage Matt had done. When I pulled my shirt up and away from the wound I nearly puked and did the only thing I could which was tie a binding over it and pray that I could get back to the Home Place and that Jax was there.
I must have passed out at some point because I had meant to watch the action from my hiding place to keep my mind off my hurts but the next thing I knew was I was trying to blink my eyes open and realizing I was all in a crumpled heap against the door I had leaned against. And that it was dark … well into the dark of the night. Everything was silent but smelled strongly of smoke which might have been what had awakened me.
In all the years since there are times that I have been in pain but I always measure them against how much it hurt to get on my bike and ride home that night. I had to stop a couple of times to puke only there really wasn’t anything in my stomach to puke because I hadn’t eaten in who knows how many hours and my canteen had long been empty.
I barely registered passing the gate to the Houchins farm, it was just another landmark. I honestly wasn’t sure if they would recognize me and didn’t want to get shot on top of the pains I already suffered from. But they must have seen me and used the radiofax to contact whoever was minding things up in the cupola.
I was growing weaker and hit a pot hole and fell off the bike. I tried to get back on but it wasn’t going to happen. After a hundred feet I realized I wasn’t even going to be able to push the bike so I let it fall and just tried to keep putting one foot in front of the other. Plan A was to get home but if I wasn’t able to make it Plan B was to at least get close enough that I was within the normal patrol area and that someone would find me in the morning. Another hundred yards and I had to admit even that wasn’t going to happen as I fell for the third time and was struggling to remain conscious.
He found me trying to crawl towards a fence post that I knew was within visual range of one of our monitoring cameras because we used it as a focus point. I knew he was talking to me, yelling my name, but all I could do was say, “Tell Gennie I tried. Tell her I tried but he got away.”
That’s all I remembered for a long time.
Ottoman Empire or That Thing You Put Your Feet On?
Part 1
Recovery was a long time coming. It was a while before they were even sure I would survive. And a little while beyond that before I could stay conscious enough to tell them what had happened. There was so much to do and I couldn’t participate beyond answering questions that they couldn’t find the answers for any other way. It wasn’t just the knife wound and subsequent infection. I was literally unable to get around because I’d lost so much weight and grown so week. Time and again I would have a setback but slowly I got to be awake more hours than I slept in a day. They planted the garden, searched the woods for wild forage, tended the biofuel set up, took care of all the day to day responsibilities of running the farm, keeping us fed, and keeping us safe.
And when I realized that is when the frustration set in. I also realized that there were data I was missing but they would only give it to me in bits in pieces. I don’t blame them now, or then, but that didn’t lower the frustration. I didn’t start to feel a part of things again until I talked them into letting me have books from the library and a tablet of paper to write on. I felt guilty for being unable to end Matt’s reign. I felt guilty for everything they were having to do without me. I was angry at myself for not being able to finish what I started.
Then there came a day when a plan started to form. I demanded more and more books and someone must have tattled to my doctor.
Jax startled me when he came in behind me and gently pulled the book from my hand that I was trying read. "Babe you need to put the books away and get some rest."
It wasn't the first time he'd said it and not the first time I responded, "I've got to find some way to turn this."
Jax, having figured out during my weeks-long convalescence, that stubborn didn't even begin to describe me once I had a goal, sighed and sat down on the edge of the bed. "Ok, I'll bite. What are you going to find in all of these all history texts to help us out with the mess coming out of town?"
"I'm not sure yet but ..."
"But?"
"Don't you dare laugh."
He kissed my forehead. "Have I ever laughed at you Lydie?"
"No. Not really. And I'm sorry I said it like that. It makes me sound like Matt."
Briefly angry Jax snapped, "Don't compare yourself to him again. I swear I am going to drop Gennie down a well someplace and cap it off."
I laughed though it used up some of the last of my energy to do it. "Whoa Big Boy. Down. This isn't about the crap Gennie says."
"Then what? You've done the exact opposite of what Matt did, is doing. And you got closer than any of us did at taking him out."
"I told you it wasn't necessarily about killing him though I went in knowing it was a possibility. It was about destroying his power base. Matt would be nothing without ..." I started coughing and felt pulling in my side.
"OK, that's enough. I don't want to ... to ..."
I knew what he was trying not to say, that he was trying not to act like he had congenital testosterone poisoning by ordering me to put the books away and rest. He knew me too well to know that wouldn't work unless I cooperated. And if I didn’t cooperate we’d wind up in an argument and I’d wind up weaker than I started. Instead he tried reason which was almost my undoing but I wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity to try and explain my thinking.
"Lydie, let it go for a little while. There's nothing we can do."
"Maybe. Maybe not."
Jax eyed me with reluctant interested. "Ok, spit it out."
I picked the book I'd been holding back up. "You see this? It is full of the stories of empires throughout history, but every single one of those empires fell."
"Yeah? And?"
"One of the greatest empires of recent history was the Ottoman Empire. Not too many people think about it these days though."
"I thought the Ottomans were from like way back, the Middle Ages or close."
"They were. What a lot of people aren't taught is that the Ottoman Empire didn't come to an end until 1922."
"Wait. No way. Are you serious?"
"Yep. And that's a long time for an empire to exist so that’s what I’m using as my example."
"No freaking kidding." Then with some suspicion he asked, “Example for what?”
"I think just sitting back and trying to outwait Matt isn't the best choice. Letting him continue to build his power base is a bad idea."
Jax snorted. "Babe, you blew up every bridge you could get your hands on and the dam too, and more than a few other structures. If that wasn't destroying his power base I don't know what would be."
I nodded. "That definitely helps but won't work in and of itself. We have to do this carefully or like with ants, you might be able to destroy one mound but if you don't kill the queen they'll just rebuild the mound someplace else."
Reggie must have been hanging out in the hallway because I heard him laugh and ask, "You telling me that Matt is a queen?"
Jax chuckled as well but said, "Knock it off. If you're going to lurk come in here and help me understand what Lydie is trying to say."
Reggie walked in with a grin but real interest and said, "I will when she explains it so I can understand it."
It once again struck me what good friends I had and how badly I had scared them. I hadn't meant to and for that I was very sorry. They'd all been incredibly kind, to both me and Jax, doing chores and taking on other responsibilities so that he could focus his energy on me while I hovered between life and death and then took longer than expected to recover. It sounds so melodramatic to say it like that but it is the truth. Matt hurt me a lot worse than I had understood. But he’d also help me realize what a treasure some people can be.
My thoughts must have shown on my face because Reggie said, "Hey, if you're tired ..."
I shook my head and tried to put order to my thoughts. "No, I'm fine. Really. And I need to bounce this off people that won't think I'm crazy."
"Gennie been talking again?"
Jax snarled, "Does that girl ever stop talking?"
I put my hand on his arm. "It is too dangerous to pass her off to someone else right now. The way she is she could say something and bring attention we don't need. With the militia swarming all over town ..."
"Yeah, yeah. And there really isn't any telling what she would say if given the chance."
Reggie agreed but added, "So get to 'splaining Lucy. I'm all ears if you've got a plan. You mentioned the Ottoman Empire."
"The rise and fall of the Ottoman Empire. Just about any empire for that matter but like I told Jax, the Ottomans were so strong and long lived I figured I had my best chance of learning something from their fall. OK you guys, you know your history. So tell me what destroys an empire?"
They listed out all of the usual suspects ... war, famine, drought, yada, yada ... but then Reggie looked at me closely and muttered, "You sneaky, sneaky woman."
Jax looked between the two of us and asked, "Wait. What did I miss … and please don’t tell me you intend on blowing anything else up."
Reggie grinned. "Everything we mentioned could be a factor in bringing down an empire but it isn't a given. Strong leadership however can overcome all of that, even natural disasters can be used by an empire to solidify their position and control."
"Well Matt seems to be a strong leader so I'm still missing the point. We've already tried to take him out without success. And frankly we don't have enough resources to start a war, especially one that includes fighting the militia."
"Ah so Grasshopper but there is more than one way to skin a cat … or fight a war."
I rolled my eyes. "Knock it off Reg. What I'm suggesting ... well it isn't really war per se." I could see Jax getting irritated and explained further. "Outside factors can cause an empire to decline but what destroys an empire comes from within."
"Within," Jax repeated.
"Yeah. From within. Moral decline, civil war, corrupt politicians, loss of the freedoms that originally built the empire, an entitlement population who are more interested in taking resources than they are generating them. This weakens the infrastructure that holds the empire together. Fractures form. If these fractures aren't repaired collapse becomes inevitable and the result is destruction of the empire."
Reggie added, "At least until someone new comes along to pick up the pieces to use for their own purposes and starts a new empire building scheme."
Leaning back against the pillows propping me up I nodded. "Yeah. Which means we need to be very careful that when we do this we make sure that whatever is left over isn't going to be dangerous to us until we are strong enough to deal with it."
Johnson stuck his head around the door. "Still ain't seeing it Lydie."
Jax sighed, "Who all is out there?"
Johnson walked in followed by Aston, Aiden, and Jules. Jax stood up and asked, "Who's guarding ..."
It was Aston who said, "Relax Jax, everything is covered. Ginger is on comm, Ash has the kids, Alexis is on guard duty and Janice is sitting on the holy terror while she mucks out the goat pen."
Jax nodded but still glanced out the bedroom window like he was afraid Gennie was murdering the goats rather than mucking the pen.
Jules hadn’t lost his hate for Matt but he'd learned to control it ... most of the time. "So tell us this plan to kill Matt."
I felt Jax stiffen and then watched the others when I said, "Matt isn't our only problem. If we take Matt out all we are accomplishing is creating a hole that someone can come in and fill and continue doing the exact same thing he is doing now."
Surprisingly Jules gave what I said serious thought. "Okay, say I buy that theory though I'm not convinced anyone could do what Matt has done."
I said, "Sure they could. All it would take is someone willing to use people the way Matt has. In fact it might even be likely that someone could have done it better than Matt has. All they would have needed was more attainable goals."
"You've said that before," Aiden said. "You said Matt was pretty crazy last time you saw him."
"No, not crazy, I said the plans he believed in were crazy ... and unattainable no matter how much he believed in them. If Matt is a certifiable anything it is that he has some kind of personality disorder; probably Narcissistic Personality Disorder. I've been reading up on it."
Johnson crossed his arms and complained, "Your father built the weirdest library."
I smiled nostalgically. "Mom used to say the same thing when Dad would bring home more books. He got them from all over ... yard sales, library sales, dumpsters, just all over the place. Now don't get me off track. Like I said I've been reading up on Matt's issues to try and figure them out."
"We already know he has issues Lydie," Jules growled.
"Yeah, of course. It's pretty obvious these days. At least for those of us that have broken free of the charisma he used to exert. And frankly a lot of people in town, at least from what I heard when I was there, aren’t really under his power in the traditional sense. They don't respect him very much either. They're only willing to follow him because he's given them stuff; that’s how he has them hooked. Which leads me back to what we were originally talking about."
Reggie started bouncing around in excitement. "Aw girl, I'm seeing it. I am sooooo seeing it."
Johnson put his big hand on Reggie's shoulder to keep him still. "Good for you man, how about you lend us your glasses so the rest of us can see it."
Reggie shook his head. "Lydie is right. If you take out the boss dude someone else will only take their place and keep on keeping on doing the same thing. If you can't crush something to destroy it, you have to collapse it to bring it down. Think of it the same way Jax brought down the bridges. He collapsed them by taking out the supports."
"Huh?"
"Collapse of Matt's little empire man. Lydie started it by attacking the dam. First order of business is to find a way to keep it out of commission."
For the first time I saw Jules grin. "Wellllll, one of reasons I came down here was to tell you that from the sound of things I overheard while on comm is that the militia reported the bridge is too washed out to be worth repairing, they've declared it a total loss and said it wasn't worth sending them corps of engineer guys here from Chattanooga after all. They are going downstream to try and shore up the other dams that were damaged by the surge when our dam gave way."
Aston pantomimed spiking a football and Reggie did a spastic happy dance. Even Jax bumped fists with the rest of the guys. After they'd settled down some I said, "This is going to make our job easier."
Aiden asked, "Didn't you hear? The dam is damned. It went bye-bye."
"I heard, and that's good but it isn't enough. Matt is too invested in control and making his fantasies a reality. All he'll do is switch to a new tactic. Probably bio-fuel. Or some other recycling plan that would give him some kind of return to spend on his overall picture."
It was Reggie who said, "As long as he has a labor force and the resources to support them he'll just keep chugging along."
Nodding I said, "Exactly. And thers's no telling what he squirreled away from Delorey's business or even going back to when you guys were salvaging town after the initial attack. You've admitted that only Matt knew where all the caches were and what was in them."
That gave them something to think about.
Jax did his own nodding and said, "We've discussed all of this before. How do you plan on us using it against Matt?"
"Without a labor force, without a population to manipulate, Matt isn't anything. Remember this isn't high school where the projects were paper-bound theories that he could pull together with minimal physical effort on his part. Matt's talent these days lies in getting other people to do things for him. He plays foreman really well, worker bee not so much. He believes his job, his calling, is to get those theories off the paper but he sees himself as too good to do the manual labor involved. He’s one of the elite. Everyone else is just slave labor."
Jax started to get it. "Take away his sphere of influence … his slaves. If he doesn't have enough people around to get his projects off the ground ..."
The other guys finally saw it. Johnson asked, "Are you talking about killing off the people in town? As much as I hate some of them I ... I don't know if I can ..."
Reggie answered for me, "Not killing off the people in town, killing off the town as a viable place to live for the people. If enough of them are only on Matt's side of the playing board because of what he can give to them, and what he could give them was tied to the dam ..."
Jax said, "Question is how do we take advantage of that and bring Matt down?"
"We don't necessarily. At least not yet. What we focus on right now is exacerbating the problem. Make them lose confidence in Matt faster than they inevitably will if he can't get the lights back on. Make sure they are hungry and that they stay that way. Give them reason to think the grass is greener someplace else. This isn't a sprint, this is a marathon and we need to pace ourselves. Moving too fast could be just as dangerous as doing nothing at all. We don't want to tip our hand."
Part 1
Recovery was a long time coming. It was a while before they were even sure I would survive. And a little while beyond that before I could stay conscious enough to tell them what had happened. There was so much to do and I couldn’t participate beyond answering questions that they couldn’t find the answers for any other way. It wasn’t just the knife wound and subsequent infection. I was literally unable to get around because I’d lost so much weight and grown so week. Time and again I would have a setback but slowly I got to be awake more hours than I slept in a day. They planted the garden, searched the woods for wild forage, tended the biofuel set up, took care of all the day to day responsibilities of running the farm, keeping us fed, and keeping us safe.
And when I realized that is when the frustration set in. I also realized that there were data I was missing but they would only give it to me in bits in pieces. I don’t blame them now, or then, but that didn’t lower the frustration. I didn’t start to feel a part of things again until I talked them into letting me have books from the library and a tablet of paper to write on. I felt guilty for being unable to end Matt’s reign. I felt guilty for everything they were having to do without me. I was angry at myself for not being able to finish what I started.
Then there came a day when a plan started to form. I demanded more and more books and someone must have tattled to my doctor.
Jax startled me when he came in behind me and gently pulled the book from my hand that I was trying read. "Babe you need to put the books away and get some rest."
It wasn't the first time he'd said it and not the first time I responded, "I've got to find some way to turn this."
Jax, having figured out during my weeks-long convalescence, that stubborn didn't even begin to describe me once I had a goal, sighed and sat down on the edge of the bed. "Ok, I'll bite. What are you going to find in all of these all history texts to help us out with the mess coming out of town?"
"I'm not sure yet but ..."
"But?"
"Don't you dare laugh."
He kissed my forehead. "Have I ever laughed at you Lydie?"
"No. Not really. And I'm sorry I said it like that. It makes me sound like Matt."
Briefly angry Jax snapped, "Don't compare yourself to him again. I swear I am going to drop Gennie down a well someplace and cap it off."
I laughed though it used up some of the last of my energy to do it. "Whoa Big Boy. Down. This isn't about the crap Gennie says."
"Then what? You've done the exact opposite of what Matt did, is doing. And you got closer than any of us did at taking him out."
"I told you it wasn't necessarily about killing him though I went in knowing it was a possibility. It was about destroying his power base. Matt would be nothing without ..." I started coughing and felt pulling in my side.
"OK, that's enough. I don't want to ... to ..."
I knew what he was trying not to say, that he was trying not to act like he had congenital testosterone poisoning by ordering me to put the books away and rest. He knew me too well to know that wouldn't work unless I cooperated. And if I didn’t cooperate we’d wind up in an argument and I’d wind up weaker than I started. Instead he tried reason which was almost my undoing but I wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity to try and explain my thinking.
"Lydie, let it go for a little while. There's nothing we can do."
"Maybe. Maybe not."
Jax eyed me with reluctant interested. "Ok, spit it out."
I picked the book I'd been holding back up. "You see this? It is full of the stories of empires throughout history, but every single one of those empires fell."
"Yeah? And?"
"One of the greatest empires of recent history was the Ottoman Empire. Not too many people think about it these days though."
"I thought the Ottomans were from like way back, the Middle Ages or close."
"They were. What a lot of people aren't taught is that the Ottoman Empire didn't come to an end until 1922."
"Wait. No way. Are you serious?"
"Yep. And that's a long time for an empire to exist so that’s what I’m using as my example."
"No freaking kidding." Then with some suspicion he asked, “Example for what?”
"I think just sitting back and trying to outwait Matt isn't the best choice. Letting him continue to build his power base is a bad idea."
Jax snorted. "Babe, you blew up every bridge you could get your hands on and the dam too, and more than a few other structures. If that wasn't destroying his power base I don't know what would be."
I nodded. "That definitely helps but won't work in and of itself. We have to do this carefully or like with ants, you might be able to destroy one mound but if you don't kill the queen they'll just rebuild the mound someplace else."
Reggie must have been hanging out in the hallway because I heard him laugh and ask, "You telling me that Matt is a queen?"
Jax chuckled as well but said, "Knock it off. If you're going to lurk come in here and help me understand what Lydie is trying to say."
Reggie walked in with a grin but real interest and said, "I will when she explains it so I can understand it."
It once again struck me what good friends I had and how badly I had scared them. I hadn't meant to and for that I was very sorry. They'd all been incredibly kind, to both me and Jax, doing chores and taking on other responsibilities so that he could focus his energy on me while I hovered between life and death and then took longer than expected to recover. It sounds so melodramatic to say it like that but it is the truth. Matt hurt me a lot worse than I had understood. But he’d also help me realize what a treasure some people can be.
My thoughts must have shown on my face because Reggie said, "Hey, if you're tired ..."
I shook my head and tried to put order to my thoughts. "No, I'm fine. Really. And I need to bounce this off people that won't think I'm crazy."
"Gennie been talking again?"
Jax snarled, "Does that girl ever stop talking?"
I put my hand on his arm. "It is too dangerous to pass her off to someone else right now. The way she is she could say something and bring attention we don't need. With the militia swarming all over town ..."
"Yeah, yeah. And there really isn't any telling what she would say if given the chance."
Reggie agreed but added, "So get to 'splaining Lucy. I'm all ears if you've got a plan. You mentioned the Ottoman Empire."
"The rise and fall of the Ottoman Empire. Just about any empire for that matter but like I told Jax, the Ottomans were so strong and long lived I figured I had my best chance of learning something from their fall. OK you guys, you know your history. So tell me what destroys an empire?"
They listed out all of the usual suspects ... war, famine, drought, yada, yada ... but then Reggie looked at me closely and muttered, "You sneaky, sneaky woman."
Jax looked between the two of us and asked, "Wait. What did I miss … and please don’t tell me you intend on blowing anything else up."
Reggie grinned. "Everything we mentioned could be a factor in bringing down an empire but it isn't a given. Strong leadership however can overcome all of that, even natural disasters can be used by an empire to solidify their position and control."
"Well Matt seems to be a strong leader so I'm still missing the point. We've already tried to take him out without success. And frankly we don't have enough resources to start a war, especially one that includes fighting the militia."
"Ah so Grasshopper but there is more than one way to skin a cat … or fight a war."
I rolled my eyes. "Knock it off Reg. What I'm suggesting ... well it isn't really war per se." I could see Jax getting irritated and explained further. "Outside factors can cause an empire to decline but what destroys an empire comes from within."
"Within," Jax repeated.
"Yeah. From within. Moral decline, civil war, corrupt politicians, loss of the freedoms that originally built the empire, an entitlement population who are more interested in taking resources than they are generating them. This weakens the infrastructure that holds the empire together. Fractures form. If these fractures aren't repaired collapse becomes inevitable and the result is destruction of the empire."
Reggie added, "At least until someone new comes along to pick up the pieces to use for their own purposes and starts a new empire building scheme."
Leaning back against the pillows propping me up I nodded. "Yeah. Which means we need to be very careful that when we do this we make sure that whatever is left over isn't going to be dangerous to us until we are strong enough to deal with it."
Johnson stuck his head around the door. "Still ain't seeing it Lydie."
Jax sighed, "Who all is out there?"
Johnson walked in followed by Aston, Aiden, and Jules. Jax stood up and asked, "Who's guarding ..."
It was Aston who said, "Relax Jax, everything is covered. Ginger is on comm, Ash has the kids, Alexis is on guard duty and Janice is sitting on the holy terror while she mucks out the goat pen."
Jax nodded but still glanced out the bedroom window like he was afraid Gennie was murdering the goats rather than mucking the pen.
Jules hadn’t lost his hate for Matt but he'd learned to control it ... most of the time. "So tell us this plan to kill Matt."
I felt Jax stiffen and then watched the others when I said, "Matt isn't our only problem. If we take Matt out all we are accomplishing is creating a hole that someone can come in and fill and continue doing the exact same thing he is doing now."
Surprisingly Jules gave what I said serious thought. "Okay, say I buy that theory though I'm not convinced anyone could do what Matt has done."
I said, "Sure they could. All it would take is someone willing to use people the way Matt has. In fact it might even be likely that someone could have done it better than Matt has. All they would have needed was more attainable goals."
"You've said that before," Aiden said. "You said Matt was pretty crazy last time you saw him."
"No, not crazy, I said the plans he believed in were crazy ... and unattainable no matter how much he believed in them. If Matt is a certifiable anything it is that he has some kind of personality disorder; probably Narcissistic Personality Disorder. I've been reading up on it."
Johnson crossed his arms and complained, "Your father built the weirdest library."
I smiled nostalgically. "Mom used to say the same thing when Dad would bring home more books. He got them from all over ... yard sales, library sales, dumpsters, just all over the place. Now don't get me off track. Like I said I've been reading up on Matt's issues to try and figure them out."
"We already know he has issues Lydie," Jules growled.
"Yeah, of course. It's pretty obvious these days. At least for those of us that have broken free of the charisma he used to exert. And frankly a lot of people in town, at least from what I heard when I was there, aren’t really under his power in the traditional sense. They don't respect him very much either. They're only willing to follow him because he's given them stuff; that’s how he has them hooked. Which leads me back to what we were originally talking about."
Reggie started bouncing around in excitement. "Aw girl, I'm seeing it. I am sooooo seeing it."
Johnson put his big hand on Reggie's shoulder to keep him still. "Good for you man, how about you lend us your glasses so the rest of us can see it."
Reggie shook his head. "Lydie is right. If you take out the boss dude someone else will only take their place and keep on keeping on doing the same thing. If you can't crush something to destroy it, you have to collapse it to bring it down. Think of it the same way Jax brought down the bridges. He collapsed them by taking out the supports."
"Huh?"
"Collapse of Matt's little empire man. Lydie started it by attacking the dam. First order of business is to find a way to keep it out of commission."
For the first time I saw Jules grin. "Wellllll, one of reasons I came down here was to tell you that from the sound of things I overheard while on comm is that the militia reported the bridge is too washed out to be worth repairing, they've declared it a total loss and said it wasn't worth sending them corps of engineer guys here from Chattanooga after all. They are going downstream to try and shore up the other dams that were damaged by the surge when our dam gave way."
Aston pantomimed spiking a football and Reggie did a spastic happy dance. Even Jax bumped fists with the rest of the guys. After they'd settled down some I said, "This is going to make our job easier."
Aiden asked, "Didn't you hear? The dam is damned. It went bye-bye."
"I heard, and that's good but it isn't enough. Matt is too invested in control and making his fantasies a reality. All he'll do is switch to a new tactic. Probably bio-fuel. Or some other recycling plan that would give him some kind of return to spend on his overall picture."
It was Reggie who said, "As long as he has a labor force and the resources to support them he'll just keep chugging along."
Nodding I said, "Exactly. And thers's no telling what he squirreled away from Delorey's business or even going back to when you guys were salvaging town after the initial attack. You've admitted that only Matt knew where all the caches were and what was in them."
That gave them something to think about.
Jax did his own nodding and said, "We've discussed all of this before. How do you plan on us using it against Matt?"
"Without a labor force, without a population to manipulate, Matt isn't anything. Remember this isn't high school where the projects were paper-bound theories that he could pull together with minimal physical effort on his part. Matt's talent these days lies in getting other people to do things for him. He plays foreman really well, worker bee not so much. He believes his job, his calling, is to get those theories off the paper but he sees himself as too good to do the manual labor involved. He’s one of the elite. Everyone else is just slave labor."
Jax started to get it. "Take away his sphere of influence … his slaves. If he doesn't have enough people around to get his projects off the ground ..."
The other guys finally saw it. Johnson asked, "Are you talking about killing off the people in town? As much as I hate some of them I ... I don't know if I can ..."
Reggie answered for me, "Not killing off the people in town, killing off the town as a viable place to live for the people. If enough of them are only on Matt's side of the playing board because of what he can give to them, and what he could give them was tied to the dam ..."
Jax said, "Question is how do we take advantage of that and bring Matt down?"
"We don't necessarily. At least not yet. What we focus on right now is exacerbating the problem. Make them lose confidence in Matt faster than they inevitably will if he can't get the lights back on. Make sure they are hungry and that they stay that way. Give them reason to think the grass is greener someplace else. This isn't a sprint, this is a marathon and we need to pace ourselves. Moving too fast could be just as dangerous as doing nothing at all. We don't want to tip our hand."
Ottoman Empire or That Thing You Put Your Feet On?
Part 2
Gennie walked into the room, stopped and grinned. "Hey, look who has returned from the dead. Oh wait, you were never dead. And neither is Matt. Thought you were going to take him out. Instead all you do is lay around while the rest of us work. Thought you were going to ..."
Alexis grabbed Gennie by the nape of her neck and jerked her out of the study and into the hallway. "Sorry Lydie. Uh ..." She looked around and I gave a tired smile.
"Stop looking to see if I have a keeper. Yes, Jax knows I'm out of bed and downstairs. I actually made it down the stairs myself thank you very much."
Alexis grinned. "Good to see you up Girl."
"Good to be up." Nodding my head towards Gennie who was leaning against the wall and pouting I asked, "How is she?"
"Still living in la-la land but at least she is starting to cooperate with chores. Doesn't mean she is going to suddenly get any alone time. No play time either which means we are heading out to the garden. See you in a bit for the meeting."
"Yeah."
I wanted to be outside so bad it wasn't even funny. I'd never resented all of the work that I'd had to do on the home place but this was the first time in my life that I resented not being able to do any of the work. It was an irritating conundrum to live. Everyone kept telling me not to worry about it, that they had it covered. That only made me more resentful, made me feel more useless. On the other hand it gave me plenty of time to develop devious plans to thwart Matt's plans for this area.
First things first was a long confab with the Houchins farm. It started with Lon and Vern but soon included Mr. Houchins himself.
Getting his first look at me he was shocked and unable to hide it. "Dear Lord child, I ..."
"Don't sweat it Mr. Houchins. What is done is done and I'm on the mend."
Already having seen me Lon shook his head and muttered darkly, "If this is on the mend ..."
"Like I said, what is done is done. But I have to admit for right now I run out of energy faster than I'd like to so maybe we could just get back to it."
It was Vern who nodded his understanding and said, "We relayed what you wanted to do. As you can see Bonanza here decided he wanted to hear it for himself before we take part."
Mr. Houchins gave Vern a stern look. "Lydie I understand what you are wanting but these people have put their faith in my word to keep their locations secret."
"I understand that. And appreciate that you've been doing the same for our location. We aren't asking for you to divulge their whereabouts or who they are. We are merely asking you to relay some of our ... hmmm ... suggestions to those you consider trustworthy. I'm not going to ask outright since we don't need to know right now, but I'm sure there are some of the homesteads in the area that you know of that would take the information and use it to their personal advantage. Possibly even thinking they could sell it to Matt as a way to keep him off their back."
Lon, now beyond the need to constantly test me, said, "And you would have that right. So before we relay anything to anyone I want to know what this plan is and see if I can work it out for myself. And don't bother with the history lesson. Reggie has already been over it, given us all a headache, and I've even done some 'light' reading on the subject myself just to prove this dog isn't too old to learn a new trick. Just tell me how you mean for it to work against Matt."
"Matt is our primary target but he isn't our only target. We need to completely dismantle what the town represents in this area. As a base of operations it needs to cease to exist."
Mr. Houchins shook his head. "That's a tall order child and in all honesty one I'm not sure I can completely get behind. We need a center of trade in these parts." Which proved to me Mr. Houchins was a lot smarter than people gave him credit for being. He wasn't just some old farmer getting lucky in the apocalypse; he was a businessman who had an eye to the future. "If we destroy the town, the cost of doing business is going to skyrocket."
I grinned. "I remember a story that you and Dad used to tell about some drunk pigs."
Mr. Houchins tried not to smile, as the story was a particularly memorable one, but shook his head and asked, "And what the tarnation does drunk pigs have to do with what you're talking about? I'm almost afraid to know."
"Welllll, it isn't the pigs but the location of the story and the history behind it that might be an answer to what we need. At least on this side of the county. Aston and Johnson did a recon of the area in question and said that the river water was going back to its historical level and geographic norm."
Mr. Houchins' smile dimmed, his eyebrows went up, and then he surprised us all when he barked a loud laugh. "Ray's Landing?! Well my Lord, I ..." He nodded his head. "You know, that might well work. Assuming the water level cooperates. The buildings and all are still there too, or at least those that the historical society maintained are."
Vern asked, "What's she talking about?"
It was explained to everyone that while industry had created the town along the area called River Road, way back in the day, before the dams had changed the water level so dramatically, there had been a ferry crossing known as Ray's Landing. Even further back Ray's Landing had been a portage site for goods coming and going on keel boats and flat bottomed wooden barges.
"It wouldn't be like moving stuff by semi and dump truck loads but it would beat being completely dependent on bridges and paying the militia protection money for fuel and safe passage along the highways," I added.
Mr. Houchins nodded. "Well let’s worry about moving goods when we have some goods to move. Looks like we've still got options one way or the other. Now what about the other pieces of this plan of yours?"
"It isn't my plan."
Jax insisted on reminding me, "You thought of it."
Not averse to taking some credit I agreed. "I may have come up with the initial idea but everyone has been adding to it. And I expect at the very least Lon and Vern have some ideas of their own or at least a few things they can tweak." Trying to get back on track I continued. "We know the destruction of the dam hurt Matt's plans. However, the pictures and reports coming in prove that he already had a Plan B on the drawing board. From the look of the set up Reggie and I both agree that it looks like there are two parts. First is a straight up liquid bio-fuel set up. It is bigger than what either of us have ..."
"Now just wait a minute," Lon interrupted but I was running out of steam and didn't let it go any further.
"Don't sweat it. No one said anything they weren't supposed to. It is just logical. Even salvaging all the farms in the area you wouldn't have had enough fuel to keep your outfit going this long. Especially not since there are others that were probably doing the same thing on a smaller scale at the same time. All, or at least most, of the fuel in town was taken after the initial terrorist act against the water supply. That leaves buying it from outside the area or creating your own. The federal government controls the fuel supply and it is primarily reserved for military use or the megafarms and major industry to keep the military complex up and running. So, you make your own. We don't need to know what you do with it, including selling it to other farmers."
Mr. Houchins looked momentarily uncomfortable then just brushed it off. "Now you're saying those people in town have a set up as well."
"Yes Sir, but it looks like they also are making charcoal. If I had to guess, based on the noise and the smoke, he is using it in those old steam engines from the Visitor's Museum. He's had them moved to the waterfront and from there I'm betting he is going to try and get some kind of water mill set up. I'm not sure yet whether the fuel is the goal or if he is going to manufacture something, either way the river will be a good way to carry away any undesirable contaminants."
"But you said that boy was a tree hugger type that was going for some kind of all-natural utopia."
"Sorta kinda. It is a technologically-based utopia but even as strung out as Matt is, he realizes reaching that goal is a long way off and requires intermittent steps he needs to attain first. He's got ideals certainly, but that doesn't mean he isn't willing to compromise temporarily if it means attaining his goals in the long run. What the preacher would have called situational ethics. He hates the very idea of pollution but he's realistic enough to know that right now he doesn't have the technology at his disposal to attain a negative carbon footprint."
"A negative what?"
Vern said, "Just tree-hugger mumbo jumbo. But I'm beginning to get what Lydie means. The dam is toast. But Matt was smart enough to have secondary plans ready to either run concurrently or instead of the dam in case it broke down."
I nodded. "Exactly. It is a means to an end and potentially a pretty profitable one. I think he is starting with ethanol ... probably salvaging all those silos on the other side of the county. And before I forget if you see an uptick in rats instead of shooting them or poisoning them, live trap them if you can."
Mr. Houchins nodded. "We've got reports from some of our contacts that disturbing them silos has led to a lot of vermin problems. You planning on turning that back on the town I take it? If we don't do something quick they'll breed and mow down whatever we have in the fields."
Jax smiled, "Believe it or not it was Ginger that added that part."
Lon had a red-headed daughter and smiled before saying, "Oh I believe it. I heard about that time she ran into a rat in the barn."
Reggie smiled, "We were cleaning rat bits up for a while and the rabbits still sit up and salute when she comes in."
We all chuckled but then got back to it. "Still not seeing all of it Lydie."
"Excuse the mixing of metaphors but Matt is going to try the honey route for a while before he brings the stick out. He'll blame all the bad things that were occurring on the dead that are no longer around to defend themselves. He may even try and make it seem, without actually saying it, that the militia is the real enemy. That's been his style thus far and is the same thing he used to do when we were in school. Always have a mutual enemy to fight to keep anyone from realizing he was the real enemy until it was too late. He'll go to the farms he knows of and try and make friends; and make no mistake if he and Delorey didn't find them with the drones then the militia knows their coordinates and have likely shared the information with him. At first the trade will be advantageous to both parties if not a little more so to the farmers, then slowly the advantage will slide more to Matt though he ultimately may use the militia to get what he wants from the farms without paying for it. And as soon as Matt gets enough of the smaller farms in his pocket, he'll either come after us or send the militia after us depending on how far his influence has spread at that point. And the smaller farmers will back him up, either because they've been turned against you or they've been taken over completely."
Mr. Houchins looked at Lon and Vern and they both nodded. He turned back to me and said, "Agreed. And that might already be happening to a few of them. Let's just say they ain't as welcoming as they used to be. Couple of 'em have even said outright that they don't need us anymore and not to bother coming around."
Jax asked, "Would you be averse to those that have turned hostile to you reaping some consequences for it?"
While Mr. Houchins looked uncomfortable Lon said, "Absolutely not. The enemy of my enemy might be my friend, but the converse of that is also true. The friend of my enemy is my enemy ... even if they used to be a friend. I wouldn't necessarily be in favor of complete destruction but compromising their ability to do business wouldn't be hard to swallow."
Reggie nodded. "Good. Aston and I are going out tonight and we're going to mess with their fuel delivery."
"Not more explosions?" Vern said like he had a headache coming on.
"Nope. That would tip our hand and make Matt too suspicious too soon. What we plan might make him wonder but there will be no proof that anyone did anything beyond having a bad batch come off the production line. I'm going to doctor the tanks with a couple of handy dandy ideas I picked up listening to our resident chemist ..."
"Knock it off Reggie," I told him, incidentally revealing how tired I was getting.
Vern said, "Reckon it might be time for us to be heading home."
Trying to save face I said, "A couple of more things if you have a moment. If you have the ability ... we suggest you start caching supplies if you haven't already started. I'll be blunt and honest and admit that we are doing that. If it isn't the forces from town it could be the militia coming out and knocking on our doors if not just kicking them in to take what they want."
"Not all of the militias have gone bad Lydie," Lon told me.
"I know. We can tell from the various radio transmissions we are picking up that the rogue militia around here are actually not how most are running; but hungry and desperate men are going to do things they might not under normal circumstances, especially if they believe the ends justifies the means at the time they are doing it. Plus, they could get bad intel about us, make us out to be an enemy force, who knows, just anything. And, don't take this the wrong way but if I've thought about bringing down Matt's operation from inside, certainly someone else could think of doing the same to us."
"You think Matt knows?"
I shook my head at the question having already gone over it in my head numerous times. "Even if he has thought about it he won't consider it a real possibility. His ego simply won't allow him to believe it. It is what he does to other people, not what happens to him. That doesn't mean that he won't try and do it to us. Our group is small enough that we know each other's movements, would notice, that kind of attitude change, and we know what our weak link is."
"That little kid."
"Yeah. But with a group your size ... I mean no offense but ..."
Lon nodded as did the other two men. "None taken. You ain't the only ones with some that need more watching than they should. We're on it but the additional warning is warranted. We'll pass the word to be careful to others as well. Anything else?"
I nodded, nearly completely spent and having a hard time not showing it. "To work this plan is going to have to stay flexible. We'll work with you as much as possible, but we may have to take advantage of moments quicker than we can have a committee confab over. I expect it is going to be the same for you with your contacts. All I ask is we keep each other in the loop. Move too fast and put too much pressure and Matt is going to figure the game and change tactics and that will just waste everyone's time. I also don't want to set Matt up for assassination."
"Why not?"
It was Reggie who snickered and answered, "Taking out one queen might just be making room for the next one."
Jax rolled his eyes and explained to the men who had learned to be suspicious when Reggie started snickering. "Has something to do with ant mounds or termites. Basically we don't want to leave a vacuum for the next big bad to fill. Or panic those in town into moving their operation to somewhere less accessible to eradicating. We've got an inside track on Matt's way of thinking. The next guy we might not be so lucky with. The next town might be better protected"
"Understood," Lon said with a nod. "But it really is time for us to go. Clouds are looking a little heavy and I don't like all three of us being away at the same time these days."
Reggie followed them out and down the road as it was his turn to be on guard duty and Jules was already overdue for relief. Jax looked at me and I sighed. "Yeah, I know. Nap time."
"Don't get so frustrated Babe. You did really well today and you're starting to get your energy back faster. But overdoing it could set you back. Maybe not square one but backwards is not the direction you want to go no matter how far."
Despite trying to not show how irritated I was I still sounded petulant. "I get it Jax. It isn't a race it is a marathon."
He gave me his arm to lean on as I maneuvered up the stairs. "I knew you were smart. Just think of it the same way you are thinking of this campaign to bring down Matt's empire. Doing things too fast ... you'll undo every advantage you have."
"Don't start using reason and logic. I'll just get cranky."
Suddenly he lifted me up in his arms and started carrying me up the stairs like Rhett Butler. "Hey! I can walk."
"I know. But soon enough you'll be so strong that you won’t need me to do this anymore. Besides, the doctor has ordered a special remedy for you today."
Running my fingers through his hair I said, "I might not need you to carry me, but it doesn't mean I won't want you to on occasion. As for the 'special remedy' how long until you have to take your shift on comm?"
Taking the remainder of the stairs two at a time Jax grinned and said, "I've got some time, especially since Ginger and Ash have the kids outside for some fresh air."
I gave him grin for grin and my best Scarlett I said, "Why Jax Remington, you sneaky ol' thang you."
The rest of the remedy my doctor ordered is no one else's business.
Part 2
Gennie walked into the room, stopped and grinned. "Hey, look who has returned from the dead. Oh wait, you were never dead. And neither is Matt. Thought you were going to take him out. Instead all you do is lay around while the rest of us work. Thought you were going to ..."
Alexis grabbed Gennie by the nape of her neck and jerked her out of the study and into the hallway. "Sorry Lydie. Uh ..." She looked around and I gave a tired smile.
"Stop looking to see if I have a keeper. Yes, Jax knows I'm out of bed and downstairs. I actually made it down the stairs myself thank you very much."
Alexis grinned. "Good to see you up Girl."
"Good to be up." Nodding my head towards Gennie who was leaning against the wall and pouting I asked, "How is she?"
"Still living in la-la land but at least she is starting to cooperate with chores. Doesn't mean she is going to suddenly get any alone time. No play time either which means we are heading out to the garden. See you in a bit for the meeting."
"Yeah."
I wanted to be outside so bad it wasn't even funny. I'd never resented all of the work that I'd had to do on the home place but this was the first time in my life that I resented not being able to do any of the work. It was an irritating conundrum to live. Everyone kept telling me not to worry about it, that they had it covered. That only made me more resentful, made me feel more useless. On the other hand it gave me plenty of time to develop devious plans to thwart Matt's plans for this area.
First things first was a long confab with the Houchins farm. It started with Lon and Vern but soon included Mr. Houchins himself.
Getting his first look at me he was shocked and unable to hide it. "Dear Lord child, I ..."
"Don't sweat it Mr. Houchins. What is done is done and I'm on the mend."
Already having seen me Lon shook his head and muttered darkly, "If this is on the mend ..."
"Like I said, what is done is done. But I have to admit for right now I run out of energy faster than I'd like to so maybe we could just get back to it."
It was Vern who nodded his understanding and said, "We relayed what you wanted to do. As you can see Bonanza here decided he wanted to hear it for himself before we take part."
Mr. Houchins gave Vern a stern look. "Lydie I understand what you are wanting but these people have put their faith in my word to keep their locations secret."
"I understand that. And appreciate that you've been doing the same for our location. We aren't asking for you to divulge their whereabouts or who they are. We are merely asking you to relay some of our ... hmmm ... suggestions to those you consider trustworthy. I'm not going to ask outright since we don't need to know right now, but I'm sure there are some of the homesteads in the area that you know of that would take the information and use it to their personal advantage. Possibly even thinking they could sell it to Matt as a way to keep him off their back."
Lon, now beyond the need to constantly test me, said, "And you would have that right. So before we relay anything to anyone I want to know what this plan is and see if I can work it out for myself. And don't bother with the history lesson. Reggie has already been over it, given us all a headache, and I've even done some 'light' reading on the subject myself just to prove this dog isn't too old to learn a new trick. Just tell me how you mean for it to work against Matt."
"Matt is our primary target but he isn't our only target. We need to completely dismantle what the town represents in this area. As a base of operations it needs to cease to exist."
Mr. Houchins shook his head. "That's a tall order child and in all honesty one I'm not sure I can completely get behind. We need a center of trade in these parts." Which proved to me Mr. Houchins was a lot smarter than people gave him credit for being. He wasn't just some old farmer getting lucky in the apocalypse; he was a businessman who had an eye to the future. "If we destroy the town, the cost of doing business is going to skyrocket."
I grinned. "I remember a story that you and Dad used to tell about some drunk pigs."
Mr. Houchins tried not to smile, as the story was a particularly memorable one, but shook his head and asked, "And what the tarnation does drunk pigs have to do with what you're talking about? I'm almost afraid to know."
"Welllll, it isn't the pigs but the location of the story and the history behind it that might be an answer to what we need. At least on this side of the county. Aston and Johnson did a recon of the area in question and said that the river water was going back to its historical level and geographic norm."
Mr. Houchins' smile dimmed, his eyebrows went up, and then he surprised us all when he barked a loud laugh. "Ray's Landing?! Well my Lord, I ..." He nodded his head. "You know, that might well work. Assuming the water level cooperates. The buildings and all are still there too, or at least those that the historical society maintained are."
Vern asked, "What's she talking about?"
It was explained to everyone that while industry had created the town along the area called River Road, way back in the day, before the dams had changed the water level so dramatically, there had been a ferry crossing known as Ray's Landing. Even further back Ray's Landing had been a portage site for goods coming and going on keel boats and flat bottomed wooden barges.
"It wouldn't be like moving stuff by semi and dump truck loads but it would beat being completely dependent on bridges and paying the militia protection money for fuel and safe passage along the highways," I added.
Mr. Houchins nodded. "Well let’s worry about moving goods when we have some goods to move. Looks like we've still got options one way or the other. Now what about the other pieces of this plan of yours?"
"It isn't my plan."
Jax insisted on reminding me, "You thought of it."
Not averse to taking some credit I agreed. "I may have come up with the initial idea but everyone has been adding to it. And I expect at the very least Lon and Vern have some ideas of their own or at least a few things they can tweak." Trying to get back on track I continued. "We know the destruction of the dam hurt Matt's plans. However, the pictures and reports coming in prove that he already had a Plan B on the drawing board. From the look of the set up Reggie and I both agree that it looks like there are two parts. First is a straight up liquid bio-fuel set up. It is bigger than what either of us have ..."
"Now just wait a minute," Lon interrupted but I was running out of steam and didn't let it go any further.
"Don't sweat it. No one said anything they weren't supposed to. It is just logical. Even salvaging all the farms in the area you wouldn't have had enough fuel to keep your outfit going this long. Especially not since there are others that were probably doing the same thing on a smaller scale at the same time. All, or at least most, of the fuel in town was taken after the initial terrorist act against the water supply. That leaves buying it from outside the area or creating your own. The federal government controls the fuel supply and it is primarily reserved for military use or the megafarms and major industry to keep the military complex up and running. So, you make your own. We don't need to know what you do with it, including selling it to other farmers."
Mr. Houchins looked momentarily uncomfortable then just brushed it off. "Now you're saying those people in town have a set up as well."
"Yes Sir, but it looks like they also are making charcoal. If I had to guess, based on the noise and the smoke, he is using it in those old steam engines from the Visitor's Museum. He's had them moved to the waterfront and from there I'm betting he is going to try and get some kind of water mill set up. I'm not sure yet whether the fuel is the goal or if he is going to manufacture something, either way the river will be a good way to carry away any undesirable contaminants."
"But you said that boy was a tree hugger type that was going for some kind of all-natural utopia."
"Sorta kinda. It is a technologically-based utopia but even as strung out as Matt is, he realizes reaching that goal is a long way off and requires intermittent steps he needs to attain first. He's got ideals certainly, but that doesn't mean he isn't willing to compromise temporarily if it means attaining his goals in the long run. What the preacher would have called situational ethics. He hates the very idea of pollution but he's realistic enough to know that right now he doesn't have the technology at his disposal to attain a negative carbon footprint."
"A negative what?"
Vern said, "Just tree-hugger mumbo jumbo. But I'm beginning to get what Lydie means. The dam is toast. But Matt was smart enough to have secondary plans ready to either run concurrently or instead of the dam in case it broke down."
I nodded. "Exactly. It is a means to an end and potentially a pretty profitable one. I think he is starting with ethanol ... probably salvaging all those silos on the other side of the county. And before I forget if you see an uptick in rats instead of shooting them or poisoning them, live trap them if you can."
Mr. Houchins nodded. "We've got reports from some of our contacts that disturbing them silos has led to a lot of vermin problems. You planning on turning that back on the town I take it? If we don't do something quick they'll breed and mow down whatever we have in the fields."
Jax smiled, "Believe it or not it was Ginger that added that part."
Lon had a red-headed daughter and smiled before saying, "Oh I believe it. I heard about that time she ran into a rat in the barn."
Reggie smiled, "We were cleaning rat bits up for a while and the rabbits still sit up and salute when she comes in."
We all chuckled but then got back to it. "Still not seeing all of it Lydie."
"Excuse the mixing of metaphors but Matt is going to try the honey route for a while before he brings the stick out. He'll blame all the bad things that were occurring on the dead that are no longer around to defend themselves. He may even try and make it seem, without actually saying it, that the militia is the real enemy. That's been his style thus far and is the same thing he used to do when we were in school. Always have a mutual enemy to fight to keep anyone from realizing he was the real enemy until it was too late. He'll go to the farms he knows of and try and make friends; and make no mistake if he and Delorey didn't find them with the drones then the militia knows their coordinates and have likely shared the information with him. At first the trade will be advantageous to both parties if not a little more so to the farmers, then slowly the advantage will slide more to Matt though he ultimately may use the militia to get what he wants from the farms without paying for it. And as soon as Matt gets enough of the smaller farms in his pocket, he'll either come after us or send the militia after us depending on how far his influence has spread at that point. And the smaller farmers will back him up, either because they've been turned against you or they've been taken over completely."
Mr. Houchins looked at Lon and Vern and they both nodded. He turned back to me and said, "Agreed. And that might already be happening to a few of them. Let's just say they ain't as welcoming as they used to be. Couple of 'em have even said outright that they don't need us anymore and not to bother coming around."
Jax asked, "Would you be averse to those that have turned hostile to you reaping some consequences for it?"
While Mr. Houchins looked uncomfortable Lon said, "Absolutely not. The enemy of my enemy might be my friend, but the converse of that is also true. The friend of my enemy is my enemy ... even if they used to be a friend. I wouldn't necessarily be in favor of complete destruction but compromising their ability to do business wouldn't be hard to swallow."
Reggie nodded. "Good. Aston and I are going out tonight and we're going to mess with their fuel delivery."
"Not more explosions?" Vern said like he had a headache coming on.
"Nope. That would tip our hand and make Matt too suspicious too soon. What we plan might make him wonder but there will be no proof that anyone did anything beyond having a bad batch come off the production line. I'm going to doctor the tanks with a couple of handy dandy ideas I picked up listening to our resident chemist ..."
"Knock it off Reggie," I told him, incidentally revealing how tired I was getting.
Vern said, "Reckon it might be time for us to be heading home."
Trying to save face I said, "A couple of more things if you have a moment. If you have the ability ... we suggest you start caching supplies if you haven't already started. I'll be blunt and honest and admit that we are doing that. If it isn't the forces from town it could be the militia coming out and knocking on our doors if not just kicking them in to take what they want."
"Not all of the militias have gone bad Lydie," Lon told me.
"I know. We can tell from the various radio transmissions we are picking up that the rogue militia around here are actually not how most are running; but hungry and desperate men are going to do things they might not under normal circumstances, especially if they believe the ends justifies the means at the time they are doing it. Plus, they could get bad intel about us, make us out to be an enemy force, who knows, just anything. And, don't take this the wrong way but if I've thought about bringing down Matt's operation from inside, certainly someone else could think of doing the same to us."
"You think Matt knows?"
I shook my head at the question having already gone over it in my head numerous times. "Even if he has thought about it he won't consider it a real possibility. His ego simply won't allow him to believe it. It is what he does to other people, not what happens to him. That doesn't mean that he won't try and do it to us. Our group is small enough that we know each other's movements, would notice, that kind of attitude change, and we know what our weak link is."
"That little kid."
"Yeah. But with a group your size ... I mean no offense but ..."
Lon nodded as did the other two men. "None taken. You ain't the only ones with some that need more watching than they should. We're on it but the additional warning is warranted. We'll pass the word to be careful to others as well. Anything else?"
I nodded, nearly completely spent and having a hard time not showing it. "To work this plan is going to have to stay flexible. We'll work with you as much as possible, but we may have to take advantage of moments quicker than we can have a committee confab over. I expect it is going to be the same for you with your contacts. All I ask is we keep each other in the loop. Move too fast and put too much pressure and Matt is going to figure the game and change tactics and that will just waste everyone's time. I also don't want to set Matt up for assassination."
"Why not?"
It was Reggie who snickered and answered, "Taking out one queen might just be making room for the next one."
Jax rolled his eyes and explained to the men who had learned to be suspicious when Reggie started snickering. "Has something to do with ant mounds or termites. Basically we don't want to leave a vacuum for the next big bad to fill. Or panic those in town into moving their operation to somewhere less accessible to eradicating. We've got an inside track on Matt's way of thinking. The next guy we might not be so lucky with. The next town might be better protected"
"Understood," Lon said with a nod. "But it really is time for us to go. Clouds are looking a little heavy and I don't like all three of us being away at the same time these days."
Reggie followed them out and down the road as it was his turn to be on guard duty and Jules was already overdue for relief. Jax looked at me and I sighed. "Yeah, I know. Nap time."
"Don't get so frustrated Babe. You did really well today and you're starting to get your energy back faster. But overdoing it could set you back. Maybe not square one but backwards is not the direction you want to go no matter how far."
Despite trying to not show how irritated I was I still sounded petulant. "I get it Jax. It isn't a race it is a marathon."
He gave me his arm to lean on as I maneuvered up the stairs. "I knew you were smart. Just think of it the same way you are thinking of this campaign to bring down Matt's empire. Doing things too fast ... you'll undo every advantage you have."
"Don't start using reason and logic. I'll just get cranky."
Suddenly he lifted me up in his arms and started carrying me up the stairs like Rhett Butler. "Hey! I can walk."
"I know. But soon enough you'll be so strong that you won’t need me to do this anymore. Besides, the doctor has ordered a special remedy for you today."
Running my fingers through his hair I said, "I might not need you to carry me, but it doesn't mean I won't want you to on occasion. As for the 'special remedy' how long until you have to take your shift on comm?"
Taking the remainder of the stairs two at a time Jax grinned and said, "I've got some time, especially since Ginger and Ash have the kids outside for some fresh air."
I gave him grin for grin and my best Scarlett I said, "Why Jax Remington, you sneaky ol' thang you."
The rest of the remedy my doctor ordered is no one else's business.
Ottoman Empire or That Thing You Put Your Feet On?
Part 3
I’d like to claim some Machiavellian superpower for what came next but the most honest answer – whether at the time or viewed through historical perspective – is that human nature is very predictable on the macroscopic view.
Life on the home place continued to run pretty much as it had been running. June was boysenberries, broccoli, cherries, peaches, potatoes, rhubarb, and all the greens and herbs that we could harvest. I missed most of that work, but it turned out not to be a disaster though more was dried than was canned. Some of that was the result of a lack of white sugar or honey as a sweetener but some of that was in the process of being rectified by the surprising turn of Reggie actually pulling things together enough to capture a couple of wild bee colonies and installing them in Dad’s empty hives. Who would have thought it? Certainly not I and I had to add a new facet to the puzzle that was Reg.
While the home place may have run the same town life was evolving. After the destruction of the dam Matt instituted Plan B. The fruit of this plan was basically a cheap grade of ethanol made from the grains of the vermin infested and abandoned silos on the other side of the county. Jax and I spent many a moment bemoaning the fact that we hadn’t secured at least some of that grain ourselves before the rats had gotten into it. It would have gone a long way towards easing some of the problems we faced as our own grain supply dwindled before we could plant and harvest more.
“I’ve seen that stuff … smelled it,” Reggie said with a grin during one of our family meetings. “It’s basically just moonshine … rot gut moonshine at that. Even without us spiking it that stuff is going to foul up machinery with too much use.”
Jax nodded. “Most engines aren’t meant to run pure ethanol to begin with. I wonder if they are thinning regular fuel with ethanol.”
I shrugged. “Either or, it doesn’t matter. What matters is results.”
And what results they were. We didn’t even have to sabotage very many batches to get the desired effect. Of course that’s when we found out that Matt had some serious shade tree mechanics at his disposal. But that too backfired on Matt because his trademark slyness actually made the farmers suspicious.
First he’d send the mechanics out to repair machinery but not without a “guard” because of how valuable they were. Only “guard” turns out to be a serious number of “guards” that wind up never leaving because they’ve been ordered to not just protect the mechanic but to protect the farm. This disenfranchises the farmer and makes him a subsidiary – or slave depending on how you look at it – to the farm which is considered more important. This happened twice before the small landowners wised up. Eventually they didn’t just stop asking for help from town for mechanical issues but stopped trading in the fouled fuel completely … or at least those that were strong enough were allowed to stop.
The second part of Matt’s Plan B was actually quite ingenious and Reggie and I were a little jealous. Of the others, only Jax understood but he said it simply wasn’t practical for an operation our size. I didn’t disagree but that didn’t mean that I was any less impressed. And yes, I can recognize and be impressed with Matt’s intelligence while still despising most of his methods and ultimate goals.
Basically what Matt was doing was taking recycled materials and making briquettes that could be burned in open fires and in set ups that would operate steam engines. Had he used cleaner materials there is no telling where he could have taken his manufacturing where it would have ultimate led him. Matt’s problem was that he despised the success of the industry he created so did not put his intellect to use enough to make the briquette endeavor even more successful.
Other people saw where the briquette work could go however and they wanted a piece of it. His underlings were the ones that really forced the people in town to work on scavenging materials that could be converted. They started by dismantling damaged structures around town and taking the materials to the old town dump where it was separated for recycling. Wood was the primary material they used to make the briquettes with but reports also came back that they were selling scrap metal to some out of town operation.
The success of the briquette industry had us feeling like our plans were slipping away but we stuck with patience and didn’t attempt any overt action against the town. Eventually our subversive attacks began to pay off.
July was when I began to get my strength back and just in time too as this was the first month of plenty that we’d had since the last of the fall harvest. The ground was finally dry from all of the flooding and the corn started coming in, at least the sweet corn had. The field corn would still be another month off at least. The orchards had also started to produce with the first fruit being apricots, nectarines, peaches, plums, and more cherries that we could almost handle. The grape arbor was full to bursting though we did wind up losing a couple of vines to weaknesses caused by too much rain earlier in the season. The berry hedges produced hand over fist and it was here that we usually put Gennie to work because with the abundance she could eat as many as she picked without harming our food stores; blackberries, blueberries, boysenberries, gooseberries, and raspberries fields the brambles to overflowing. The garden came back after a very late start and we harvested beans, beets, broccoli, cabbage, cantaloupe, celery, carrots, peas, peppers, early potatoes, summer squash and enough cucumbers and tomatoes to make even the Houchins farm sit up and take notice.
In contrast, July is when the stress and poor nutrition really began to show in those living in town and in those that had become dependent on what the town claimed to be able to offer. Of course, we at least partially helped that along. We live trapped as many rats as we could and re-homed them into warehouses and buildings that we knew were being used as storage for the supplies that Matt rationed out. The rats themselves did plenty of damage to the supplies, and even the buildings, but there was also an unplanned consequence of this tactic.
One day in early August Vern hot footed it over to our place and said, “From here on out don’t none of you mess with any rats.”
Jax noted his palor and asked, “What’s up that you didn’t feel you could put it on the radiofax?”
“Because I wanted to make sure that you understood that Dad wasn’t just back tracking on his stance.”
“You mean about the small farms?”
“Yeah. Now look Jax, you make sure everyone understands.”
“I will when you finally spit it out.” Jax is a forgiving sort but he still held a quiet grudge over how I’d been treated and there simply was no back up in him when it came to some issues.
“We got word through a third party that they’ve got some kind of plague in town.”
“Plague?!”
Vern described the symptoms and Jax said, “That sounds like an intestinal disease, not the plague.”
“Ok, if it isn’t the plague Mr. I’ve-Never-Been-To-Medical-School, what is it then?”
I’d heard the noise and quietly entered the room trying not to draw too much attention. On the other side of the room Reggie gave me a quick look before stepping up to Jax and saying, “Rats carry lots of crap that humans can catch but it is mostly bacterial.”
Jax and Vern both turned to him. “Relax. Geez. Before I got involved I wanted to know the possible outcomes and whether it was worth spending the time doing it.”
The two men relaxed and said, “Ok then, you tell us what this is.”
“I can’t tell you what it is, but I can’t tell you what it might be. Salmonellosis. Puking and the runs, cramps, fever … like Jax said that ain’t the plague but if enough people are coming down with it. Heck, it might not even be the rats transferring it but could be a bad batch of food.”
I held up the wall and said, “It could be an accidental poisoning … or even a deliberate one. Why did you automatically assume it was the rats?”
Vern’s panic began to subside. “Don’t mind me. I just saw too much of this crap when I was active duty. I’ve had it you know.”
“Had what?”
“Plague. Got bit by a rat over in a Somali village. They caught it in time obviously but it scared the … the crap out of our whole unit. Several of us were quarantined for over a month. Hate that ****.”
“So maybe it isn’t the rats.”
“No, it’s the rats. A mechanic came to one of the farms and was cussing about being bitten by a rat earlier in the day. Twenty-four hours later the guy is on his death bed and dies later that night.”
Jax asked, “No one else caught it?”
“No.”
Jax grabbed a couple of the books out of the library that he’d been studying and gave them a quick scan. “Could be Salmonellosis like Reggie said although that doesn’t normally cause death except in infants and frail elderly or those with some other health problem. Could be Rat-Bite Fever which is more serious though that has a rash and you didn’t mention one.”
“Nope, no rash. I asked specifically.”
“Then I’ll stick with the forensics we do have and say that if it isn’t Salmonellosis that it is something very close.”
“So, not plague?”
“I don’t think so. Not a hanta, lassa or hemorrhagic fever either as the symptoms aren’t similar enough. Either way, from here on out we deal with rodents wearing heavy gloves and some kind of mask and goggles. We also need to secure the feed and food storage.”
Vern nodded. “Mom is already hanging hot peppers every place you can imagine, this is only going to make her even crazier about it.”
Reggie laughed, “What? She thinks all the mice and rats are related to Speedy Gonzalez?”
I threw a dish towel at Reggie and said, “Hot peppers can kill mice and mess up rats. Or did you think I put cayenne pepper flakes in the chicken feed just to BBQ them on the hoof so to speak?”
Reggie shook his head. “I don’t believe you.”
“Well believe this Einstein, there is a pepper over in India that is so strong that it is used to keep elephants away.”
Reggie continued to think I was pranking him until he found it doing some research the next day on natural rodent repellents. We all had a good laugh, even Reggie, who had begun to relax enough that he and Ginger were really starting to explore whatever it was between them.
Just to be on the safe side though Jax asked that we restrict all of our recons to far-viewing. And just to be safe he also had a decontamination routine he put anyone that went off the property through once they returned. Even though it caused some grumbling on occasion everyone suffered through because of Ashley’s baby, Kellie, and while I hated to admit it, me. It wasn’t just the infants and little kids that could get killed by that kind of illness. I was on the mend and even looked and acted normal most of the time but it would not have taken much to set me back to square one as I was still slightly anemic and kept catching every little cold that went through the house. It was frustrating.
But a couple of weeks later, for one of our weekly meetings, Ashton brought back pictures of huge “burial pits” that they were just dumping bodies into before throwing eco-fuel in and lighting ablaze all grumbling stopped. Whatever was going through town was definitely in the moderately deadly range.
“Could it be another terrorist attack?” Ashley asked as she held her son protectively.
Ashton who’d already asked the question out of her hearing told her, “Don’t think so Hon. Just some of Matt’s tactics are coming back to haunt him.”
“How so?”
Ashton looked at Jax to explain it the way he had earlier. “Matt, just like Delory and Suicide before him, is keeping all but his top people on short rations. It still looks like they are trying to eat the way they always have … canned and boxed foods, liquor and drugs, cigarettes even if they are home-rolled. We’ve all seen that they are getting some stuff from the militia but what is coming in looks like more of the same just with generic labels rather than name brand stuff. About the only thing that I’ve seen come in that isn’t like that is those big bags of white rice and rice is nothing but carbs with very little nutrition.”
Alexis added, “We’ve all heard the radio. Lots of problems occurring that could be prevented with better nutrition. Most everyone isn’t getting the good stuff we’ve been getting.”
Gennie snorted. “The good stuff? This crap is all just poor food. Beans and vegetables. I’d kill for a pizza … a slice of bread … or even them nasty corn bread things.”
Janice gave Gennie the look and she shut up. She still pouted but at least she shut up. All of us were missing bread. August had been a duplication of July only with the addition of several varieties of pears, but the field crops were still barely producing and that meant that bread wasn’t exactly super available on the menu.
Jax got the meeting back on track by asking, “Lon and Vern brought some news and we compared it to some things that we’ve been hearing and it looks like Matt might be on the move.”
Part 3
I’d like to claim some Machiavellian superpower for what came next but the most honest answer – whether at the time or viewed through historical perspective – is that human nature is very predictable on the macroscopic view.
Life on the home place continued to run pretty much as it had been running. June was boysenberries, broccoli, cherries, peaches, potatoes, rhubarb, and all the greens and herbs that we could harvest. I missed most of that work, but it turned out not to be a disaster though more was dried than was canned. Some of that was the result of a lack of white sugar or honey as a sweetener but some of that was in the process of being rectified by the surprising turn of Reggie actually pulling things together enough to capture a couple of wild bee colonies and installing them in Dad’s empty hives. Who would have thought it? Certainly not I and I had to add a new facet to the puzzle that was Reg.
While the home place may have run the same town life was evolving. After the destruction of the dam Matt instituted Plan B. The fruit of this plan was basically a cheap grade of ethanol made from the grains of the vermin infested and abandoned silos on the other side of the county. Jax and I spent many a moment bemoaning the fact that we hadn’t secured at least some of that grain ourselves before the rats had gotten into it. It would have gone a long way towards easing some of the problems we faced as our own grain supply dwindled before we could plant and harvest more.
“I’ve seen that stuff … smelled it,” Reggie said with a grin during one of our family meetings. “It’s basically just moonshine … rot gut moonshine at that. Even without us spiking it that stuff is going to foul up machinery with too much use.”
Jax nodded. “Most engines aren’t meant to run pure ethanol to begin with. I wonder if they are thinning regular fuel with ethanol.”
I shrugged. “Either or, it doesn’t matter. What matters is results.”
And what results they were. We didn’t even have to sabotage very many batches to get the desired effect. Of course that’s when we found out that Matt had some serious shade tree mechanics at his disposal. But that too backfired on Matt because his trademark slyness actually made the farmers suspicious.
First he’d send the mechanics out to repair machinery but not without a “guard” because of how valuable they were. Only “guard” turns out to be a serious number of “guards” that wind up never leaving because they’ve been ordered to not just protect the mechanic but to protect the farm. This disenfranchises the farmer and makes him a subsidiary – or slave depending on how you look at it – to the farm which is considered more important. This happened twice before the small landowners wised up. Eventually they didn’t just stop asking for help from town for mechanical issues but stopped trading in the fouled fuel completely … or at least those that were strong enough were allowed to stop.
The second part of Matt’s Plan B was actually quite ingenious and Reggie and I were a little jealous. Of the others, only Jax understood but he said it simply wasn’t practical for an operation our size. I didn’t disagree but that didn’t mean that I was any less impressed. And yes, I can recognize and be impressed with Matt’s intelligence while still despising most of his methods and ultimate goals.
Basically what Matt was doing was taking recycled materials and making briquettes that could be burned in open fires and in set ups that would operate steam engines. Had he used cleaner materials there is no telling where he could have taken his manufacturing where it would have ultimate led him. Matt’s problem was that he despised the success of the industry he created so did not put his intellect to use enough to make the briquette endeavor even more successful.
Other people saw where the briquette work could go however and they wanted a piece of it. His underlings were the ones that really forced the people in town to work on scavenging materials that could be converted. They started by dismantling damaged structures around town and taking the materials to the old town dump where it was separated for recycling. Wood was the primary material they used to make the briquettes with but reports also came back that they were selling scrap metal to some out of town operation.
The success of the briquette industry had us feeling like our plans were slipping away but we stuck with patience and didn’t attempt any overt action against the town. Eventually our subversive attacks began to pay off.
July was when I began to get my strength back and just in time too as this was the first month of plenty that we’d had since the last of the fall harvest. The ground was finally dry from all of the flooding and the corn started coming in, at least the sweet corn had. The field corn would still be another month off at least. The orchards had also started to produce with the first fruit being apricots, nectarines, peaches, plums, and more cherries that we could almost handle. The grape arbor was full to bursting though we did wind up losing a couple of vines to weaknesses caused by too much rain earlier in the season. The berry hedges produced hand over fist and it was here that we usually put Gennie to work because with the abundance she could eat as many as she picked without harming our food stores; blackberries, blueberries, boysenberries, gooseberries, and raspberries fields the brambles to overflowing. The garden came back after a very late start and we harvested beans, beets, broccoli, cabbage, cantaloupe, celery, carrots, peas, peppers, early potatoes, summer squash and enough cucumbers and tomatoes to make even the Houchins farm sit up and take notice.
In contrast, July is when the stress and poor nutrition really began to show in those living in town and in those that had become dependent on what the town claimed to be able to offer. Of course, we at least partially helped that along. We live trapped as many rats as we could and re-homed them into warehouses and buildings that we knew were being used as storage for the supplies that Matt rationed out. The rats themselves did plenty of damage to the supplies, and even the buildings, but there was also an unplanned consequence of this tactic.
One day in early August Vern hot footed it over to our place and said, “From here on out don’t none of you mess with any rats.”
Jax noted his palor and asked, “What’s up that you didn’t feel you could put it on the radiofax?”
“Because I wanted to make sure that you understood that Dad wasn’t just back tracking on his stance.”
“You mean about the small farms?”
“Yeah. Now look Jax, you make sure everyone understands.”
“I will when you finally spit it out.” Jax is a forgiving sort but he still held a quiet grudge over how I’d been treated and there simply was no back up in him when it came to some issues.
“We got word through a third party that they’ve got some kind of plague in town.”
“Plague?!”
Vern described the symptoms and Jax said, “That sounds like an intestinal disease, not the plague.”
“Ok, if it isn’t the plague Mr. I’ve-Never-Been-To-Medical-School, what is it then?”
I’d heard the noise and quietly entered the room trying not to draw too much attention. On the other side of the room Reggie gave me a quick look before stepping up to Jax and saying, “Rats carry lots of crap that humans can catch but it is mostly bacterial.”
Jax and Vern both turned to him. “Relax. Geez. Before I got involved I wanted to know the possible outcomes and whether it was worth spending the time doing it.”
The two men relaxed and said, “Ok then, you tell us what this is.”
“I can’t tell you what it is, but I can’t tell you what it might be. Salmonellosis. Puking and the runs, cramps, fever … like Jax said that ain’t the plague but if enough people are coming down with it. Heck, it might not even be the rats transferring it but could be a bad batch of food.”
I held up the wall and said, “It could be an accidental poisoning … or even a deliberate one. Why did you automatically assume it was the rats?”
Vern’s panic began to subside. “Don’t mind me. I just saw too much of this crap when I was active duty. I’ve had it you know.”
“Had what?”
“Plague. Got bit by a rat over in a Somali village. They caught it in time obviously but it scared the … the crap out of our whole unit. Several of us were quarantined for over a month. Hate that ****.”
“So maybe it isn’t the rats.”
“No, it’s the rats. A mechanic came to one of the farms and was cussing about being bitten by a rat earlier in the day. Twenty-four hours later the guy is on his death bed and dies later that night.”
Jax asked, “No one else caught it?”
“No.”
Jax grabbed a couple of the books out of the library that he’d been studying and gave them a quick scan. “Could be Salmonellosis like Reggie said although that doesn’t normally cause death except in infants and frail elderly or those with some other health problem. Could be Rat-Bite Fever which is more serious though that has a rash and you didn’t mention one.”
“Nope, no rash. I asked specifically.”
“Then I’ll stick with the forensics we do have and say that if it isn’t Salmonellosis that it is something very close.”
“So, not plague?”
“I don’t think so. Not a hanta, lassa or hemorrhagic fever either as the symptoms aren’t similar enough. Either way, from here on out we deal with rodents wearing heavy gloves and some kind of mask and goggles. We also need to secure the feed and food storage.”
Vern nodded. “Mom is already hanging hot peppers every place you can imagine, this is only going to make her even crazier about it.”
Reggie laughed, “What? She thinks all the mice and rats are related to Speedy Gonzalez?”
I threw a dish towel at Reggie and said, “Hot peppers can kill mice and mess up rats. Or did you think I put cayenne pepper flakes in the chicken feed just to BBQ them on the hoof so to speak?”
Reggie shook his head. “I don’t believe you.”
“Well believe this Einstein, there is a pepper over in India that is so strong that it is used to keep elephants away.”
Reggie continued to think I was pranking him until he found it doing some research the next day on natural rodent repellents. We all had a good laugh, even Reggie, who had begun to relax enough that he and Ginger were really starting to explore whatever it was between them.
Just to be on the safe side though Jax asked that we restrict all of our recons to far-viewing. And just to be safe he also had a decontamination routine he put anyone that went off the property through once they returned. Even though it caused some grumbling on occasion everyone suffered through because of Ashley’s baby, Kellie, and while I hated to admit it, me. It wasn’t just the infants and little kids that could get killed by that kind of illness. I was on the mend and even looked and acted normal most of the time but it would not have taken much to set me back to square one as I was still slightly anemic and kept catching every little cold that went through the house. It was frustrating.
But a couple of weeks later, for one of our weekly meetings, Ashton brought back pictures of huge “burial pits” that they were just dumping bodies into before throwing eco-fuel in and lighting ablaze all grumbling stopped. Whatever was going through town was definitely in the moderately deadly range.
“Could it be another terrorist attack?” Ashley asked as she held her son protectively.
Ashton who’d already asked the question out of her hearing told her, “Don’t think so Hon. Just some of Matt’s tactics are coming back to haunt him.”
“How so?”
Ashton looked at Jax to explain it the way he had earlier. “Matt, just like Delory and Suicide before him, is keeping all but his top people on short rations. It still looks like they are trying to eat the way they always have … canned and boxed foods, liquor and drugs, cigarettes even if they are home-rolled. We’ve all seen that they are getting some stuff from the militia but what is coming in looks like more of the same just with generic labels rather than name brand stuff. About the only thing that I’ve seen come in that isn’t like that is those big bags of white rice and rice is nothing but carbs with very little nutrition.”
Alexis added, “We’ve all heard the radio. Lots of problems occurring that could be prevented with better nutrition. Most everyone isn’t getting the good stuff we’ve been getting.”
Gennie snorted. “The good stuff? This crap is all just poor food. Beans and vegetables. I’d kill for a pizza … a slice of bread … or even them nasty corn bread things.”
Janice gave Gennie the look and she shut up. She still pouted but at least she shut up. All of us were missing bread. August had been a duplication of July only with the addition of several varieties of pears, but the field crops were still barely producing and that meant that bread wasn’t exactly super available on the menu.
Jax got the meeting back on track by asking, “Lon and Vern brought some news and we compared it to some things that we’ve been hearing and it looks like Matt might be on the move.”
Ottoman: Empire or That Thing You Put Your Feet On?
Part 4
Looking back I wonder how other people didn't see what Matt was doing, what he was planning. Everyone claimed to see it in hindsight. But why did it have to be me that was so intimately familiar with the way his mind worked in foresight?
“Babe? You need to sleep.”
I looked at Jax and nodded. “I know it.”
“But you're still thinking about Matt. You're still going to give him head space when you need to turn it off.”
I could hear something in his voice that I hadn't heard in a long time. “It isn't because I'm enjoying it.”
“Then let it go. Stop thinking about him all the time. Isn't it bad enough he almost killed you once? My God, you’re barely healed up, still aren’t back to where you used to be completely! I … I should have been the one … not you. I don’t think I could handle losing you. Not again.”
I slid over to his side of the bed where he was sitting taking off his shirt. I rubbed his back and asked, “You didn’t lose me. And you aren't going to lose me. You certainly aren't going to lose me to him. Ever.”
“Don't make promises like that. I've already been through ... ”
I got closer and did what he liked and it distracted him for the duration but right as we were both going to sleep I heard him mumble, “You're thinking about him again.”
“I wasn't until you brought it up.”
“Then I didn't say anything.”
“Good. Because ...” then he snored.
And I hadn't been thinking about Matt ... until Jax brought him back up and suddenly sleep was eluding me once again.
See I had figured out — or was nearly positive I had figured out — Matt's next move. I didn't know whether to feel triumphant or cry at the sadness because all it did was prove that Matt, for all his genius, couldn't grow beyond what he already knew. It was just another variation on the same themes that Matt had used over and over in gaming. Now that I had his number — Reggie saw it too though he wasn't as angst ridden about it – I couldn’t believe no one else could predict where Matt would jump next on the game board. Reggie enjoyed what to him was simply a triumph, he refused to feel bad for Matt.
I wasn't exchanging my fear of Matt for fear for Matt. I didn't feel bad for Matt in the way that Reggie and Jax imagined. Strangely I was starting to pity him. Perhaps that was just as dangerous but at the same time I had to be honest. I could see it if none of the others could quite believe me when I explained things to them. I forgave Matt for my sake, not his; not even for Jax’s. I did it so I could dump the baggage and keep my brain from being scrambled any more than it felt like it already was. I just wasn’t up for losing control of my temper, feeling those kinds of emotions. I’d stopped letting my reaction to Matt control me. It wasn’t compassion I felt; it was pity.
It was all getting away from Matt. The kite was stuck in a tree. The string was unraveling. The orchestra no longer followed the conductor if they ever had. Maestro was turning out to be just some little man hiding in fear behind a curtain … not a wizard, just a snake oil salesman. Or maybe the bigger truth was we were all outgrowing Matt and for all of his genius he just couldn't keep up.
It was a precarious time. I knew that once Matt realized he was no longer — had never been — whatever it was that he imagined himself to be, that he was going to have a meltdown. And that meltdown was going to be big and nasty in scale and scope. I wasn't sure what he planned as a swan song but I knew he had one planned.
He'd more than once expressed an admiration for the scorched earth military strategy used by the Cossacks. They were being forced back by Napoleon's army but in the end, though they retreated it was actually the French that suffered greater fatalities and the ultimate loss because the Cossacks burned everything in their wake so that the enemy couldn't use it. I'd seen him incorporate it into RPGs when, in a rare turn of events, he started to lose. He'd kill everyone and everything the game allowed him so that the enemy had nothing to work with, nothing to hide behind, no life points to gain. Then the effort was to stay alive just long enough for the other player/enemy to run out of energy and die first. All he needed to win was to be the last man standing.
I'd mentioned this as a warning in the last family meeting we'd had and it was Ginger — in her own strange way — who actually got the others to understand what I was talking about. “You mean like the last episode of Little House on the Prairie?”
"Uh ...“
“You know, they tried to keep the railroad from buying Walnut Grove but they lost. Only they decided to lose on their own terms. They used dynamite to blow up every building in town. I just cry buckets every time I see it. All the places that were so familiar ... the store, the mill, the church ... they blew it to smithereens rather than let the railroad have it. The railroad was hacked but see they'd only bought the land ... not what was on the land. So even though Laura and the others technically lost, they morally won.”
Ashton started snickering until I said, “Actually that is exactly what I think Matt would do and how he would see it. He'd blow the town or sabotage it ... something devastating ... so that no one else could get any use out of it. He’d view it as a moral win.”
Johnson said, “We don't need the town. We haven't salvaged anything from there in months.”
That's when it clicked for Jax. “Actually we do need the town. Remember what Mr. Houchins said about trade and stuff like that. Or maybe not the town as it is, but the idea of the town. We need to either be able to control who goes in next or at least have some control or vetting so that they don't become the next enemy we have to defend against. If he does something to contaminate the river or … I don’t know, create his own plague situation … we could be cut off by the militia or military, they could come here and forcibly evacuate everyone … I really don’t know what Matt could create exactly, but I do know he is capable of creating something that could hurt those of us left behind.”
Later Reggie and Ashton cornered me and wanted to know how worried I was. “Guys, can't you feel it?” That's when I told them I sensed it was getting away from Matt's control. “That dovetails into what Vern and Lon have overheard.”
Ashton said, “Just because there is noise that DHS is coming in to draft people and Matt is trying to move his favorite scum to safety ...”
“I'm not sure that he is.”
Both guys were confused. “Wait ... what?”
“I think it is some kind of trick. The same sort of trick he pulled on Suicide and ...”
“And those of us that were there in the beginning,” Ashton said with a growl when I was wary of finishing my sentence.
Carefully I said, “Yeah. Like that. He's taking out the nearest competition, knocking back those that might be getting too strong or too confident in their own abilities, those that might have gotten too popular or have too many friends.”
Reggie nodded. “Sounds like something the little tyrant would do. But if he does it, it isn't going to leave him much to work with.”
The house isn't that big and it didn't take much to draw other people's attention. Alex who'd joined the casual discussion said, “So what's the plan?”
“Ours or his?”
“Ours, his ... just explain it,” she said as exhausted as the rest of us after a long day of trying to get by and survive without anyone else’s help.
Sitting in the chair Jax gently pushed me into I explained it as I saw it happening. “Those buses aren't to 'save' people ... they're for an escape. Matt wouldn't pour that much effort into something that is just going to be used by others and then discarded. That one bus in particular we have pictures of is being gutted and refitted with too much luxury.”
“Yeah, it looks like it is fit for a king.”
“Exactly. That one is for Matt's use. The game is usually played thus ... Matt gets in a bind of some type. He gathers a small subgroup and claims he is sending them to safety but they can’t let the group at large know that they are the elites and his most important troops. Because they are so important to him – and because he is such a great guy – he himself will fool the enemy and lead them away to protect this gullible sub-group. Usually in this sub-group are people that Matt distrusts or hates for some reason that only he knows … keep your friends close and your enemies closer. But the reality is rather than protecting this sub-group what Matt actually does is use them as bait to draw the heat off of himself … he sacrifices them like pawns. I suspect Matt is going to get rid of those he considers his most immediate problems. Then he is going to act as savior, pack up the few survivors, and move to a new hive location. As he leaves he'll salt the ground behind him so no one has the resources or assets to come after him.”
“Salt the earth ... what that's supposed to mean?”
“It means make whatever they have to leave behind unusable.”
“Not exactly Geneva Convention approved.”
I shrugged, “It's been going on for centuries. Heck, Vlad the Impaler used it against the Ottoman Empire.”
“Vlad the Impaler? You mean that dude that Dracula is supposed to be?!”
I snorted at Julian's response. “Yep. Same one. It was a favorite tactic of his and he isn't the only one. Darius of Persia, the Greek general Memnon, the Gauls against the Romans, the Carthaginians. It was used by various people to try and prevent the Vikings from moving inland from the coastal regions. William the Conqueror used it punitively to punish those he vanquished. The English used it again against the Irish. In the modern era another example is how Sherman used it to subdue and subjugate the South as he plowed through places like Atlanta. Do you want more examples? Because I can keep going.”
“God no,” Johnson mumbled. “You make my head hurt when you start up with that crap.”
“Fine. Just so long as you understand. Matt may be on the ropes, but he is still dangerous. We're going to have to be very careful how this gets addressed. And ... I might have an idea but we could be opening up another can of worms.”
That's when I said if we could come up with some way to open a dialogue with DHS, or someone like DHS, and tell them about Matt and his plans. “But what we all need to remember is that to us Matt is a big deal. To other people in other areas he is no one. To the large groups like the government Matt isn’t even on the radar as they are dealing with a world war, invasions, and trying to contain the civil war that keeps trying to break out in this country.”
“Matt will just wind up doing what he did here someplace else.”
“Maybe. He’ll try that’s for sure. But he could hook up with powerful people that won’t take him for granted and they’ll use him and make him worse. He’ll be their puppet.”
“Or they’ll kill him for getting in their way.”
I nodded. “Or that. I think that is the one thing that has kept Matt from moving on before now. Here he is a big fish. Out there he's going to have to start at square one or even zero or lower. He's going to be competing against people that have already established themselves and their reputations for success, who already have a power base.”
Jax crouched beside me and asked, “Lydie, how sure are you that this is his next move?”
I looked at Reggie and he gave a slow nod. I turned to the others. “I can't give you 100%. I wish I could but this ... this feels like Matt. And while he's changed ... it's been a limited change. He continues to do things the way he always has, just on a bigger scale. Pull the curtain back and he’s just the same high school kid pulling the same levers attached to the same sticks and carrots he’s always used.”
They aren't convinced. That is what is keeping me up. I'm second guessing myself while at the same time I'm getting frustrated. They want answers from me but when I give it to them they don't necessarily believe it. I can't blame them for that. It is actually a healthy system of checks and balances. At the same time ...
At least they've agreed to talk it out with Vern and Lon, see what they think. For my part I'm almost positive of Matt's next moves. I'm less positive that I've come up with the right response.
Part 4
Looking back I wonder how other people didn't see what Matt was doing, what he was planning. Everyone claimed to see it in hindsight. But why did it have to be me that was so intimately familiar with the way his mind worked in foresight?
“Babe? You need to sleep.”
I looked at Jax and nodded. “I know it.”
“But you're still thinking about Matt. You're still going to give him head space when you need to turn it off.”
I could hear something in his voice that I hadn't heard in a long time. “It isn't because I'm enjoying it.”
“Then let it go. Stop thinking about him all the time. Isn't it bad enough he almost killed you once? My God, you’re barely healed up, still aren’t back to where you used to be completely! I … I should have been the one … not you. I don’t think I could handle losing you. Not again.”
I slid over to his side of the bed where he was sitting taking off his shirt. I rubbed his back and asked, “You didn’t lose me. And you aren't going to lose me. You certainly aren't going to lose me to him. Ever.”
“Don't make promises like that. I've already been through ... ”
I got closer and did what he liked and it distracted him for the duration but right as we were both going to sleep I heard him mumble, “You're thinking about him again.”
“I wasn't until you brought it up.”
“Then I didn't say anything.”
“Good. Because ...” then he snored.
And I hadn't been thinking about Matt ... until Jax brought him back up and suddenly sleep was eluding me once again.
See I had figured out — or was nearly positive I had figured out — Matt's next move. I didn't know whether to feel triumphant or cry at the sadness because all it did was prove that Matt, for all his genius, couldn't grow beyond what he already knew. It was just another variation on the same themes that Matt had used over and over in gaming. Now that I had his number — Reggie saw it too though he wasn't as angst ridden about it – I couldn’t believe no one else could predict where Matt would jump next on the game board. Reggie enjoyed what to him was simply a triumph, he refused to feel bad for Matt.
I wasn't exchanging my fear of Matt for fear for Matt. I didn't feel bad for Matt in the way that Reggie and Jax imagined. Strangely I was starting to pity him. Perhaps that was just as dangerous but at the same time I had to be honest. I could see it if none of the others could quite believe me when I explained things to them. I forgave Matt for my sake, not his; not even for Jax’s. I did it so I could dump the baggage and keep my brain from being scrambled any more than it felt like it already was. I just wasn’t up for losing control of my temper, feeling those kinds of emotions. I’d stopped letting my reaction to Matt control me. It wasn’t compassion I felt; it was pity.
It was all getting away from Matt. The kite was stuck in a tree. The string was unraveling. The orchestra no longer followed the conductor if they ever had. Maestro was turning out to be just some little man hiding in fear behind a curtain … not a wizard, just a snake oil salesman. Or maybe the bigger truth was we were all outgrowing Matt and for all of his genius he just couldn't keep up.
It was a precarious time. I knew that once Matt realized he was no longer — had never been — whatever it was that he imagined himself to be, that he was going to have a meltdown. And that meltdown was going to be big and nasty in scale and scope. I wasn't sure what he planned as a swan song but I knew he had one planned.
He'd more than once expressed an admiration for the scorched earth military strategy used by the Cossacks. They were being forced back by Napoleon's army but in the end, though they retreated it was actually the French that suffered greater fatalities and the ultimate loss because the Cossacks burned everything in their wake so that the enemy couldn't use it. I'd seen him incorporate it into RPGs when, in a rare turn of events, he started to lose. He'd kill everyone and everything the game allowed him so that the enemy had nothing to work with, nothing to hide behind, no life points to gain. Then the effort was to stay alive just long enough for the other player/enemy to run out of energy and die first. All he needed to win was to be the last man standing.
I'd mentioned this as a warning in the last family meeting we'd had and it was Ginger — in her own strange way — who actually got the others to understand what I was talking about. “You mean like the last episode of Little House on the Prairie?”
"Uh ...“
“You know, they tried to keep the railroad from buying Walnut Grove but they lost. Only they decided to lose on their own terms. They used dynamite to blow up every building in town. I just cry buckets every time I see it. All the places that were so familiar ... the store, the mill, the church ... they blew it to smithereens rather than let the railroad have it. The railroad was hacked but see they'd only bought the land ... not what was on the land. So even though Laura and the others technically lost, they morally won.”
Ashton started snickering until I said, “Actually that is exactly what I think Matt would do and how he would see it. He'd blow the town or sabotage it ... something devastating ... so that no one else could get any use out of it. He’d view it as a moral win.”
Johnson said, “We don't need the town. We haven't salvaged anything from there in months.”
That's when it clicked for Jax. “Actually we do need the town. Remember what Mr. Houchins said about trade and stuff like that. Or maybe not the town as it is, but the idea of the town. We need to either be able to control who goes in next or at least have some control or vetting so that they don't become the next enemy we have to defend against. If he does something to contaminate the river or … I don’t know, create his own plague situation … we could be cut off by the militia or military, they could come here and forcibly evacuate everyone … I really don’t know what Matt could create exactly, but I do know he is capable of creating something that could hurt those of us left behind.”
Later Reggie and Ashton cornered me and wanted to know how worried I was. “Guys, can't you feel it?” That's when I told them I sensed it was getting away from Matt's control. “That dovetails into what Vern and Lon have overheard.”
Ashton said, “Just because there is noise that DHS is coming in to draft people and Matt is trying to move his favorite scum to safety ...”
“I'm not sure that he is.”
Both guys were confused. “Wait ... what?”
“I think it is some kind of trick. The same sort of trick he pulled on Suicide and ...”
“And those of us that were there in the beginning,” Ashton said with a growl when I was wary of finishing my sentence.
Carefully I said, “Yeah. Like that. He's taking out the nearest competition, knocking back those that might be getting too strong or too confident in their own abilities, those that might have gotten too popular or have too many friends.”
Reggie nodded. “Sounds like something the little tyrant would do. But if he does it, it isn't going to leave him much to work with.”
The house isn't that big and it didn't take much to draw other people's attention. Alex who'd joined the casual discussion said, “So what's the plan?”
“Ours or his?”
“Ours, his ... just explain it,” she said as exhausted as the rest of us after a long day of trying to get by and survive without anyone else’s help.
Sitting in the chair Jax gently pushed me into I explained it as I saw it happening. “Those buses aren't to 'save' people ... they're for an escape. Matt wouldn't pour that much effort into something that is just going to be used by others and then discarded. That one bus in particular we have pictures of is being gutted and refitted with too much luxury.”
“Yeah, it looks like it is fit for a king.”
“Exactly. That one is for Matt's use. The game is usually played thus ... Matt gets in a bind of some type. He gathers a small subgroup and claims he is sending them to safety but they can’t let the group at large know that they are the elites and his most important troops. Because they are so important to him – and because he is such a great guy – he himself will fool the enemy and lead them away to protect this gullible sub-group. Usually in this sub-group are people that Matt distrusts or hates for some reason that only he knows … keep your friends close and your enemies closer. But the reality is rather than protecting this sub-group what Matt actually does is use them as bait to draw the heat off of himself … he sacrifices them like pawns. I suspect Matt is going to get rid of those he considers his most immediate problems. Then he is going to act as savior, pack up the few survivors, and move to a new hive location. As he leaves he'll salt the ground behind him so no one has the resources or assets to come after him.”
“Salt the earth ... what that's supposed to mean?”
“It means make whatever they have to leave behind unusable.”
“Not exactly Geneva Convention approved.”
I shrugged, “It's been going on for centuries. Heck, Vlad the Impaler used it against the Ottoman Empire.”
“Vlad the Impaler? You mean that dude that Dracula is supposed to be?!”
I snorted at Julian's response. “Yep. Same one. It was a favorite tactic of his and he isn't the only one. Darius of Persia, the Greek general Memnon, the Gauls against the Romans, the Carthaginians. It was used by various people to try and prevent the Vikings from moving inland from the coastal regions. William the Conqueror used it punitively to punish those he vanquished. The English used it again against the Irish. In the modern era another example is how Sherman used it to subdue and subjugate the South as he plowed through places like Atlanta. Do you want more examples? Because I can keep going.”
“God no,” Johnson mumbled. “You make my head hurt when you start up with that crap.”
“Fine. Just so long as you understand. Matt may be on the ropes, but he is still dangerous. We're going to have to be very careful how this gets addressed. And ... I might have an idea but we could be opening up another can of worms.”
That's when I said if we could come up with some way to open a dialogue with DHS, or someone like DHS, and tell them about Matt and his plans. “But what we all need to remember is that to us Matt is a big deal. To other people in other areas he is no one. To the large groups like the government Matt isn’t even on the radar as they are dealing with a world war, invasions, and trying to contain the civil war that keeps trying to break out in this country.”
“Matt will just wind up doing what he did here someplace else.”
“Maybe. He’ll try that’s for sure. But he could hook up with powerful people that won’t take him for granted and they’ll use him and make him worse. He’ll be their puppet.”
“Or they’ll kill him for getting in their way.”
I nodded. “Or that. I think that is the one thing that has kept Matt from moving on before now. Here he is a big fish. Out there he's going to have to start at square one or even zero or lower. He's going to be competing against people that have already established themselves and their reputations for success, who already have a power base.”
Jax crouched beside me and asked, “Lydie, how sure are you that this is his next move?”
I looked at Reggie and he gave a slow nod. I turned to the others. “I can't give you 100%. I wish I could but this ... this feels like Matt. And while he's changed ... it's been a limited change. He continues to do things the way he always has, just on a bigger scale. Pull the curtain back and he’s just the same high school kid pulling the same levers attached to the same sticks and carrots he’s always used.”
They aren't convinced. That is what is keeping me up. I'm second guessing myself while at the same time I'm getting frustrated. They want answers from me but when I give it to them they don't necessarily believe it. I can't blame them for that. It is actually a healthy system of checks and balances. At the same time ...
At least they've agreed to talk it out with Vern and Lon, see what they think. For my part I'm almost positive of Matt's next moves. I'm less positive that I've come up with the right response.
Ottoman: Empire or That Thing You Put Your Feet On?
Part 5
September is the time of year when the temperature begins to cool. By the end of the month it can be more than cool. September is also when you start thinking of winter, but only in a far off fuzzy way. But not that year. That year winter was upper most in our minds around the farm.
With the late start to the year and then having to replant what little we could after the floods receded, we were on a race to play catch up. September was the last month of big harvests. The apples and pears would hopefully continue to produce into October but after the damage to blooms early on, what was being harvested seemed much less than last year’s plenty. The fruit wasn’t as large or pretty either which told me that they needed something … more compost, more spray, more pruning, I wasn’t sure … and didn’t have it to give. We’d have to watch freeze damage once it got good and cold or we’d harvest even less the next year, and have nothing to replace it with.
Beans would likely be our salvation though we were running out of rice to go with them to make a complete protein. We were coming to the end of the fresh greens as well as we harvested beets, broccoli, cabbage, wild greens, domestic greens, and herbs.
The cantaloupes and watermelons added to the grapes and peaches to keep us in sweet fruit though raccoons got into the garden and stole or damaged more than we could afford to lose before Jax put an end to the robber’s existence. I put the robber on the menu and once he was baked up with carrots and sweet potatoes not even Gennie turned her nose up at first … or second … helpings.
We traded squash – both summer and winter – as well as peppers with the Houchins farm in exchange for some heirloom tomato varieties that I’d never grown. They were as happy to have the squash as we were the tomatoes as some kind of beetle had gotten into their garden and done a lot of damage before the kids could pick them all off the plants.
In addition to the beans, white potatoes would probably be a staple at least at one meal a day during the winter. I’d still been fairly weak when they were planning that part of the garden but I had been awake long enough that I cut the seed potatoes for planting. They were half the size that I could ever remember planting and I was worried that they wouldn’t make. And when something started digging up the tubers not long after planting I worried so much it almost made me ill all over again. Ashton and Johnson took turns patrolling the fields and whatever had been doing the digging stopped … whether animal or human we never found out.
The sweet corn made plenty, so did the popcorn. The problem was that the ears were smaller and some didn’t make kernels all the way to the tip. The same was true of the heirloom dent corn that was earmarked for turning into cornmeal and animal feed. Not having commercial fertilizers or enough manure was really beginning to show in everything’s growth and production. Next year we knew it was likely to be even worse.
The one thing that didn’t seem to be phased were the cucumber and zucchini plants. The difference between that year and earlier ones was that no one was groaning when it was put on the table for the umpteenth time for the week. Everyone was hungry. Everyone was hungry all the time. We all worried that if we were this hungry now, when so much food was being preserved, what was winter going to be like. We weren’t just worried, some of us were scared. And I numbered myself among them.
The other girls and I had just brought the first ripe pumpkin in from the field to clean and slice for baking when Jules came bounding down the stairs looking for Jax.
“You too Lydie. Something is going on. Vern has his ears on too. Looks like DHS showed up in town a little early and it sounds crazy.”
Alexis stepped outside and whistled the guys in from the barn and we all filed up to the attic to listen. Vern and Lon would occasionally send us a comment over the radiofax but for the most part all we could do was sit there and decode what was going on based on the chaos of people begging for Matt to come save them like he had promised and the comments from the DHS patrol that we picked up.
When the radio quieted down it was Ginger who summed it up by saying, “That was sick and I don’t mean that in a good way.”
I was thinking, trying to look into a future that was foggy. The others talked around me for a bit having recognized the symptoms. I wasn’t zoned out, I was hyper focused. It was Gennie who lost patience first and nudged my ankle. “So … what’s it mean? Give already.”
I looked at the girl who only a few months earlier I had considered selling to the gypsies and shook my head. Gennie still rubbed me the wrong way but at least she had backed off her hate enough that it didn’t steal all the air out of the room.
“I think he’s playing ‘possum.”
“What’s that mean?”
“You heard them calling for a medic and then for their psych eval team as they lined people up and separating them off. They were splitting them off and pulling out the able bodied men first, then the able bodied unattached females. Those got bussed off to some kind of training facility. Able bodied females with children and anyone under thirteen who claimed to be an orphan were put into another group and bussed off to a work farm. Anyone that was medically or mentally unfit were being sent to the other side of town. We’ll need to find out what is going on there, and soon. The last group looked to be the thirteen to seventeen year olds who were sent to some kind of industrial facility, presumably where they are going to be trained to build the tools of war.”
“Huh?”
Reggie snorted. “Munitions plant … somebody has to make the bombs and bullets you know.”
She got quiet, then wonder of wonders she sat down at my feet and said quietly, “Don’t let them send me to one of them places. I … I don’t wanna make those things. I wanna stay here.”
I could see Reggie tuning up to say something that wouldn’t be helpful so I forestalled him by telling her, “When I invited you to live here Gennie I meant it. You just have to help out and not create problems. If you can do that then we’ll all do what we can to protect you.”
She looked at me like she was seeing me for the first time but all she answered was, “Ok.”
When she went back to looking at her shoes I glanced around and saw that most people were looking at her like she’d suddenly sprouted a third head with green hair and purple boogers. Catching Jax’s eye he gave a small nod. Detente had been temporarily agreed upon.
Ashton interrupted the quiet to ask, “Do you believe that Matt was really given a mentally unfit whatchamacallit?”
“A mentally unfit designation? I believe he was given one, someone using his names definitely did. I believe he deserves that designation.” I put my hand up to forestall any comments until I could finish. “I believe he was given one and deserves it; however, I also believe he manipulated the situation so he would be left behind. I think he is still going to try and implement with his getaway plan.”
Jules copied my comment onto the radiofax and Vern replied, “I concur. Boy got himself what amounts to a military section 8 on purpose. Question is why.”
“Because,” I said reminding them. “Matt doesn’t like to play the game by other people’s rules. If he can’t control the board then he leaves the board. If he isn’t sure he is going to win the game he chooses not to play.”
Reggie said, “You sure Lydie? Because in his shoes I would have let DHS take me and then I would have attached myself to someone powerful. He could have started his games all over … trading up with each move.”
“You forget one thing.”
“What’s that?”
Before I could answer Jax grimaced and shook his head as he saw it. “He’s a snob. And he still believes in all that utopian crap. Those DHS patrols didn’t sound like much more than crowd control keystone cops. Until Matt can be sure that whoever he is attaching himself to is at least temporarily worthy of his support he won’t jump into the next frying pan.”
I nodded. “This presents a problem. For him and for us.”
Johnson shook his head and said, “Just explain it already Lydie. I need to get back out to the barn and unload that corn before it gets dark.”
Ashton agreed and added, “Yeah and I need to get going on getting those logs split. I’m not going to live splinter-by-splinter again this winter.”
It just hit me all of a sudden. I started chuckling, then laughing, then I was practically hee-hawing and there were more than a few in the room that thought maybe I was in need of a mentally unfit designation.
Jax picked me back up where I’d slid to the floor I was laughing so hard. “Lydie? Babe? Uh …”
“Oh God. Don’t you see? Didn’t you just listen to yourselves?”
Reggie gave a disgruntled, “Not seeing the humor here Lydie.”
“Geez you guys. For months now Matt has been the boogie man. He was the greatest enemy, the most dangerous foe. You spent endless hours trying to figure out what he was going to do to us next; what Big Bad he was going to invite to stomp on us. You used to question me ad nauseum trying to figure out why Matt is like he is. You had nightmares about him. You questioned whether he would ever lose.”
“And?”
“Listen to what you just said. Getting in the corn and chopping the wood is much more important than anything Matt is going to do. You almost don’t even have the patience to make the time to think about him. Don’t you get it? You don’t have to worry whether Matt will ever lose because we’ve already won. He’s running out of lives, running out of energy points. He’s flickering out of existence.”
Vern radiofax’d over that he wanted a confab and would Jax mind bringing me to the midway point. I signaled in the affirmative and then turned to find everyone looking stunned.
I was about to head downstairs and get ready when Gennie stopped me with a pull on my pants leg. “But … but he’s still alive.”
“Yeah. And we still need to be careful which is why Jax is going to drive me over for a meet up. But we aren’t just living in this little bubble that Matt controls. The bubble is gone and it is not coming back.”
“So’s everything is going to be ok now?”
I sighed. “No … not yet. But it will be better for our heads from now on. Matt can’t hide in the closet or under the bed anymore. He’s not the boogie monster. We see him for what he is … not how he sees himself or how he wants us to see him. He’s just a shadow. And how do you get rid of a shadow?”
After thinking a moment she answered, “Put light on it.”
“Exactly.”
Part 5
September is the time of year when the temperature begins to cool. By the end of the month it can be more than cool. September is also when you start thinking of winter, but only in a far off fuzzy way. But not that year. That year winter was upper most in our minds around the farm.
With the late start to the year and then having to replant what little we could after the floods receded, we were on a race to play catch up. September was the last month of big harvests. The apples and pears would hopefully continue to produce into October but after the damage to blooms early on, what was being harvested seemed much less than last year’s plenty. The fruit wasn’t as large or pretty either which told me that they needed something … more compost, more spray, more pruning, I wasn’t sure … and didn’t have it to give. We’d have to watch freeze damage once it got good and cold or we’d harvest even less the next year, and have nothing to replace it with.
Beans would likely be our salvation though we were running out of rice to go with them to make a complete protein. We were coming to the end of the fresh greens as well as we harvested beets, broccoli, cabbage, wild greens, domestic greens, and herbs.
The cantaloupes and watermelons added to the grapes and peaches to keep us in sweet fruit though raccoons got into the garden and stole or damaged more than we could afford to lose before Jax put an end to the robber’s existence. I put the robber on the menu and once he was baked up with carrots and sweet potatoes not even Gennie turned her nose up at first … or second … helpings.
We traded squash – both summer and winter – as well as peppers with the Houchins farm in exchange for some heirloom tomato varieties that I’d never grown. They were as happy to have the squash as we were the tomatoes as some kind of beetle had gotten into their garden and done a lot of damage before the kids could pick them all off the plants.
In addition to the beans, white potatoes would probably be a staple at least at one meal a day during the winter. I’d still been fairly weak when they were planning that part of the garden but I had been awake long enough that I cut the seed potatoes for planting. They were half the size that I could ever remember planting and I was worried that they wouldn’t make. And when something started digging up the tubers not long after planting I worried so much it almost made me ill all over again. Ashton and Johnson took turns patrolling the fields and whatever had been doing the digging stopped … whether animal or human we never found out.
The sweet corn made plenty, so did the popcorn. The problem was that the ears were smaller and some didn’t make kernels all the way to the tip. The same was true of the heirloom dent corn that was earmarked for turning into cornmeal and animal feed. Not having commercial fertilizers or enough manure was really beginning to show in everything’s growth and production. Next year we knew it was likely to be even worse.
The one thing that didn’t seem to be phased were the cucumber and zucchini plants. The difference between that year and earlier ones was that no one was groaning when it was put on the table for the umpteenth time for the week. Everyone was hungry. Everyone was hungry all the time. We all worried that if we were this hungry now, when so much food was being preserved, what was winter going to be like. We weren’t just worried, some of us were scared. And I numbered myself among them.
The other girls and I had just brought the first ripe pumpkin in from the field to clean and slice for baking when Jules came bounding down the stairs looking for Jax.
“You too Lydie. Something is going on. Vern has his ears on too. Looks like DHS showed up in town a little early and it sounds crazy.”
Alexis stepped outside and whistled the guys in from the barn and we all filed up to the attic to listen. Vern and Lon would occasionally send us a comment over the radiofax but for the most part all we could do was sit there and decode what was going on based on the chaos of people begging for Matt to come save them like he had promised and the comments from the DHS patrol that we picked up.
When the radio quieted down it was Ginger who summed it up by saying, “That was sick and I don’t mean that in a good way.”
I was thinking, trying to look into a future that was foggy. The others talked around me for a bit having recognized the symptoms. I wasn’t zoned out, I was hyper focused. It was Gennie who lost patience first and nudged my ankle. “So … what’s it mean? Give already.”
I looked at the girl who only a few months earlier I had considered selling to the gypsies and shook my head. Gennie still rubbed me the wrong way but at least she had backed off her hate enough that it didn’t steal all the air out of the room.
“I think he’s playing ‘possum.”
“What’s that mean?”
“You heard them calling for a medic and then for their psych eval team as they lined people up and separating them off. They were splitting them off and pulling out the able bodied men first, then the able bodied unattached females. Those got bussed off to some kind of training facility. Able bodied females with children and anyone under thirteen who claimed to be an orphan were put into another group and bussed off to a work farm. Anyone that was medically or mentally unfit were being sent to the other side of town. We’ll need to find out what is going on there, and soon. The last group looked to be the thirteen to seventeen year olds who were sent to some kind of industrial facility, presumably where they are going to be trained to build the tools of war.”
“Huh?”
Reggie snorted. “Munitions plant … somebody has to make the bombs and bullets you know.”
She got quiet, then wonder of wonders she sat down at my feet and said quietly, “Don’t let them send me to one of them places. I … I don’t wanna make those things. I wanna stay here.”
I could see Reggie tuning up to say something that wouldn’t be helpful so I forestalled him by telling her, “When I invited you to live here Gennie I meant it. You just have to help out and not create problems. If you can do that then we’ll all do what we can to protect you.”
She looked at me like she was seeing me for the first time but all she answered was, “Ok.”
When she went back to looking at her shoes I glanced around and saw that most people were looking at her like she’d suddenly sprouted a third head with green hair and purple boogers. Catching Jax’s eye he gave a small nod. Detente had been temporarily agreed upon.
Ashton interrupted the quiet to ask, “Do you believe that Matt was really given a mentally unfit whatchamacallit?”
“A mentally unfit designation? I believe he was given one, someone using his names definitely did. I believe he deserves that designation.” I put my hand up to forestall any comments until I could finish. “I believe he was given one and deserves it; however, I also believe he manipulated the situation so he would be left behind. I think he is still going to try and implement with his getaway plan.”
Jules copied my comment onto the radiofax and Vern replied, “I concur. Boy got himself what amounts to a military section 8 on purpose. Question is why.”
“Because,” I said reminding them. “Matt doesn’t like to play the game by other people’s rules. If he can’t control the board then he leaves the board. If he isn’t sure he is going to win the game he chooses not to play.”
Reggie said, “You sure Lydie? Because in his shoes I would have let DHS take me and then I would have attached myself to someone powerful. He could have started his games all over … trading up with each move.”
“You forget one thing.”
“What’s that?”
Before I could answer Jax grimaced and shook his head as he saw it. “He’s a snob. And he still believes in all that utopian crap. Those DHS patrols didn’t sound like much more than crowd control keystone cops. Until Matt can be sure that whoever he is attaching himself to is at least temporarily worthy of his support he won’t jump into the next frying pan.”
I nodded. “This presents a problem. For him and for us.”
Johnson shook his head and said, “Just explain it already Lydie. I need to get back out to the barn and unload that corn before it gets dark.”
Ashton agreed and added, “Yeah and I need to get going on getting those logs split. I’m not going to live splinter-by-splinter again this winter.”
It just hit me all of a sudden. I started chuckling, then laughing, then I was practically hee-hawing and there were more than a few in the room that thought maybe I was in need of a mentally unfit designation.
Jax picked me back up where I’d slid to the floor I was laughing so hard. “Lydie? Babe? Uh …”
“Oh God. Don’t you see? Didn’t you just listen to yourselves?”
Reggie gave a disgruntled, “Not seeing the humor here Lydie.”
“Geez you guys. For months now Matt has been the boogie man. He was the greatest enemy, the most dangerous foe. You spent endless hours trying to figure out what he was going to do to us next; what Big Bad he was going to invite to stomp on us. You used to question me ad nauseum trying to figure out why Matt is like he is. You had nightmares about him. You questioned whether he would ever lose.”
“And?”
“Listen to what you just said. Getting in the corn and chopping the wood is much more important than anything Matt is going to do. You almost don’t even have the patience to make the time to think about him. Don’t you get it? You don’t have to worry whether Matt will ever lose because we’ve already won. He’s running out of lives, running out of energy points. He’s flickering out of existence.”
Vern radiofax’d over that he wanted a confab and would Jax mind bringing me to the midway point. I signaled in the affirmative and then turned to find everyone looking stunned.
I was about to head downstairs and get ready when Gennie stopped me with a pull on my pants leg. “But … but he’s still alive.”
“Yeah. And we still need to be careful which is why Jax is going to drive me over for a meet up. But we aren’t just living in this little bubble that Matt controls. The bubble is gone and it is not coming back.”
“So’s everything is going to be ok now?”
I sighed. “No … not yet. But it will be better for our heads from now on. Matt can’t hide in the closet or under the bed anymore. He’s not the boogie monster. We see him for what he is … not how he sees himself or how he wants us to see him. He’s just a shadow. And how do you get rid of a shadow?”
After thinking a moment she answered, “Put light on it.”
“Exactly.”
Ottoman: Empire or That Thing You Put Your Feet On?
Part 6
Three days later another confab was held. “You sure about this girl? It would be a relief for all of us if you are and if it works.”
“Lon, it isn’t about me being sure. I’ve been sure all along that Matt was beatable. Even after I almost ran out of life force …” I stopped when Jax started growling. “When I got sick, even at my lowest point, I was always sure that Matt was beatable … even if I wasn’t the one that wound up beating him I knew someone would.”
"Ok fine, I'll even give you that point," Vern agreed. "But I'm talking THIS plan. Are you sure about it?"
“As sure as I can be.”
Vern scratched the back of his head and I noticed his hair was thinning back there. It made him look older. For that matter I was beginning to notice everyone looked older. Hard work and a lot of worries will do that to you. “This isn’t the time to go soft on Matt,” he finally said.
“If you are worried about hurting my feelings then you can put it to rest. I get it. I’m sure in all fuss and bother of the last couple of days someone has reported that I’ve said I pity Matt. And I’m sure that has you concerned; you are wondering if I’m going soft. Don’t let it. I can pity him. I might even be able to generate a little compassion for him just to practice my own humanity. That doesn’t mean that I think consequences should be withheld.”
“There’s consequences and then there are consequences,” Lon reminded me.
Jax said, “I’m willing to do the deed.”
I looked at all three men and sighed. “You aren’t going to like me saying this but here it is. I don’t think we should be the ones to execute him. I’m not even sure executing him is the best solution.”
Jax hunched his shoulders and said, “Kinda late to be discussing this.”
“Yeah. The Chattanooga Militia already picked him up,” Lon said.
“And he’ll be tried in a court of law … a real one run by real lawyers with a real judge and a real jury and his Constitutional rights will be assured and yada, yada, blah, blah, blah. Bottom line is Matt will have his day in court. I have no doubt that he’ll be convicted as an accessory to Baumgarten’s criminal activities. My best guess is that those in the local militia that were arrested have already, or will soon, turn on him to save their own skin … they’ve got more to lose as several of them are facing either a firing squad or immediate transportation to the front lines.”
Jax sighed. “He’ll try and blame you for the dam.”
“Won’t work.”
“You keep saying that.”
“And I mean it. The dam was already marked down as an act of God due to the flooding. We weren’t the only ones worrying that the wash outs around the spill ways were going to cause a collapse. As far as the rest of it? Even if a few think he might be telling the truth who is really going to think some poor, sick girl created all the mayhem in town? That isn’t even the focus of the investigation which is more about Baumgarten. What’s he going to do? Blame me for that too when they’ll likely have all of these other depositions that point everything right back to him?”
Lon shook his head and said, “God forgive me but if this plan of yours works, it isn’t all that satisfying Lydie, not after all we’ve gone through and all we’ve suffered.” He looked at Jax then and said, “I know he’s your family but …”
Jax shook his head. “By blood. The rest of what could have been died a long time ago. And if there had been any left, what he did to Lydie killed what was little there was.”
“Jax …” I said, putting my hand on his arm. The muscles were bunch stiffly and I could tell he was trying to control the anger he still felt.
Eventually he put his hand over mine to let me know that he knew I was more concerned for him than anything else. Directing his comments to Lon and Vern he said, “I’m … well, maybe ok isn’t the word for it but I’ve accepted the way things have turned out. Matt wrote his own story. Nothing I tried to do changed the direction he chose. Now he has to pay the piper.”
I said, “He’ll do that.”
Vern asked, “Will he? Boy might just talk his way out of this one too.”
I admitted that, “He will undoubtedly try. He may even be able to keep himself from winding up in front of a firing squad. But he won’t escape. He isn’t Delorey Baumgarten. He’s not scary enough. If he tries to use what secrets he may have picked up about people from those quarters more than likely he’ll just wind up beat up or found dead in his cell or something equally as nasty.”
Lon nodded and said, “That’s harsh but I can see it happening. With the backlog gone from the justice system trials are coming faster and with the war on, sentences are being carried out without appeals and fanfare. We’ve heard through the grapevine that they are already pulling together a jury and the trial is going to start as soon as they can get him to the court house. The only reason they expect the trial to last more than a few hours is the length of time the prosecutor is asking so they can read out all of the charges and present evidence against Matt. Apparently he wasn’t as hidden behind the scenes as he thought.”
Jax nodded. “If Matt is expecting to be able to put on a show he’s in for a shock.”
I agreed and added, “This isn’t high school. This isn’t small town. He wanted to play with the big dogs … this is what it means.”
Everything else said before Jax took me back was just a repetition of what had already been said. After everyone was tired of repeating themselves the meeting broke up; we had chores to finish before it got dark. We were almost home when Jax took a left turn and we bumped down a road full of pot holes to a small cul-de-sac where three empty slabs sat. Even the bolts that the trailers had been strapped to were gone. Tall grass grew in every direction.
Looking around I said, “Things have definitely changed. But if you expect me to get out and see if anymore spiders are around you can think again.”
Jax relaxed but only a little. “Yeah. Have the girls mentioned anything yet?”
I gave a small grin realizing Jax was still careful to include me in everything even if the others still occasionally treated me like spun glass. “You mean about Ashton and Reggie trying to figure out a way to build their own homes?”
“Yeah. I told them to leave it until after the whole Matt situation was brought under control but …”
“But Ginger thinks she might be pregnant and Alex and Johnson are finally getting serious as well.”
“Throw in Janice and Aiden …”
I nodded. “The house is going to resemble a bunny hutch pretty soon if we don’t create some space.”
“Pretty much,” he agreed nervously. Then he asked, “Are you ok with that?”
“The bunny hutch or the spreading out?”
“Spreading out.”
“So long as you and Kelly don’t ‘spread out’ then I figure it is just what was always going to happen anyway.”
“What if we get stuck with Gennie?”
Uncomfortably I admitted, “I haven’t thought that far ahead. I’d rather not think too far ahead yet if you don’t mind. The logistics of trying to make sure everyone has what they need to start up is starting to make my chest tight and my stomach churn. It is going to be hard enough to get through winter with all of us under one roof. Trying to do it for … Jax I just can’t think about it right now.”
He reached over and took my hand. “Then let it go. I probably shouldn’t have brought it up. I just didn’t want you to think stuff was being hidden from you. I actually think, even with all of us working and helping, it is going to be months before everyone has a place of their own and I don’t think it is even feasible to start any serious plans until after it has dried up next Spring.”
I nodded and tried to work the tension out of my neck. “You know, I think everyone moving out on their own worries me more than Matt ever did … or … or at least as much anyway.”
“I thought you said you needed to let it go.”
“I do. It is just hard. Nature abhors a vacuum. Since our big worry is going away my brain is looking for the next one.”
“How about your brain takes a small vacation so you can rest.”
“I feel like I’ve done nothing but rest since I blew the dam.”
“Wrong. If you had rested your recovery wouldn’t have taken so long.” Debating something he finally asked, “When are you going to tell the others?”
“Not until we’re sure. You said you can’t tell yet so it is possible that I’m not. I’m not feeling any different … to the good or to the bad. I’ve only missed once. And if I am I want to keep it between just the two of us for as long as we can.”
“You’re … you’re sure?”
“Yeah. We need to have something for ourselves alone before it becomes group property.”
“Oh,” he said like he’d been thinking something totally different.
I asked, “Have you already said something?”
“No. I … I guess I just worried that you were … I don’t know … uh … unhappy about the timing.”
We still ran into each other’s insecurities back then. Finally understanding his hesitancy I told him, “If I am … if we are … I’ll be happy. I just don’t want to be disappointed if I’m not.”
“Oh. Disappointed. Yeah. Ok … we keep it between us.” Then he winced and shook his head. “I don’t even want to think about what Reggie is going to come up with for commentary.”
I smiled with grim humor and said, “I wouldn’t worry about Reggie. He’s going to be too busy trying not to walk into walls and doors every time he thinks about Ginger being pregnant. Or did you think the dayglow green he has been sporting around his mouth was his natural color?”
Jax got a laugh out of that but then became serious once again. “Sorry you got caught up in Jules’ hissy fit this morning when he found out I’d accepted some stuff from the people out of Chattanooga.”
“Not a prob. Jules is just feeling …”
“Like a fifth wheel. Everyone else is pairing off only there’s no one for him but some little girl that he can barely stand.”
I nodded. “Aiden thinks … well Janice says Aiden thinks that Jules may not even make it through the winter. That he may take off to go look for … for whatever happened to the adults and other kids, to see if any of their family has survived and if so why they never came to look for them.”
“If he does I wish him luck. He needs something we can’t give him … a direction of his own. He and Johnson almost got into it the other day.”
“Still no reason for him to go off on you because you accepted the vitamins and those Kid Kare packages. They weren’t paying us for being informants, it was just good will kind of thing since they aren’t going to be able to set up a med center in this area like people expected them to.”
“I know it. Aiden and Janice got him calmed down just in time to keep Alex from clocking him about being late for relieving her at the overlook. Jules is going to have to be watched. I was hoping with Gennie calming down …”
“Yeah ,,, the drama. Sometimes I wonder if we’re going to outlive it or what.”
Part 6
Three days later another confab was held. “You sure about this girl? It would be a relief for all of us if you are and if it works.”
“Lon, it isn’t about me being sure. I’ve been sure all along that Matt was beatable. Even after I almost ran out of life force …” I stopped when Jax started growling. “When I got sick, even at my lowest point, I was always sure that Matt was beatable … even if I wasn’t the one that wound up beating him I knew someone would.”
"Ok fine, I'll even give you that point," Vern agreed. "But I'm talking THIS plan. Are you sure about it?"
“As sure as I can be.”
Vern scratched the back of his head and I noticed his hair was thinning back there. It made him look older. For that matter I was beginning to notice everyone looked older. Hard work and a lot of worries will do that to you. “This isn’t the time to go soft on Matt,” he finally said.
“If you are worried about hurting my feelings then you can put it to rest. I get it. I’m sure in all fuss and bother of the last couple of days someone has reported that I’ve said I pity Matt. And I’m sure that has you concerned; you are wondering if I’m going soft. Don’t let it. I can pity him. I might even be able to generate a little compassion for him just to practice my own humanity. That doesn’t mean that I think consequences should be withheld.”
“There’s consequences and then there are consequences,” Lon reminded me.
Jax said, “I’m willing to do the deed.”
I looked at all three men and sighed. “You aren’t going to like me saying this but here it is. I don’t think we should be the ones to execute him. I’m not even sure executing him is the best solution.”
Jax hunched his shoulders and said, “Kinda late to be discussing this.”
“Yeah. The Chattanooga Militia already picked him up,” Lon said.
“And he’ll be tried in a court of law … a real one run by real lawyers with a real judge and a real jury and his Constitutional rights will be assured and yada, yada, blah, blah, blah. Bottom line is Matt will have his day in court. I have no doubt that he’ll be convicted as an accessory to Baumgarten’s criminal activities. My best guess is that those in the local militia that were arrested have already, or will soon, turn on him to save their own skin … they’ve got more to lose as several of them are facing either a firing squad or immediate transportation to the front lines.”
Jax sighed. “He’ll try and blame you for the dam.”
“Won’t work.”
“You keep saying that.”
“And I mean it. The dam was already marked down as an act of God due to the flooding. We weren’t the only ones worrying that the wash outs around the spill ways were going to cause a collapse. As far as the rest of it? Even if a few think he might be telling the truth who is really going to think some poor, sick girl created all the mayhem in town? That isn’t even the focus of the investigation which is more about Baumgarten. What’s he going to do? Blame me for that too when they’ll likely have all of these other depositions that point everything right back to him?”
Lon shook his head and said, “God forgive me but if this plan of yours works, it isn’t all that satisfying Lydie, not after all we’ve gone through and all we’ve suffered.” He looked at Jax then and said, “I know he’s your family but …”
Jax shook his head. “By blood. The rest of what could have been died a long time ago. And if there had been any left, what he did to Lydie killed what was little there was.”
“Jax …” I said, putting my hand on his arm. The muscles were bunch stiffly and I could tell he was trying to control the anger he still felt.
Eventually he put his hand over mine to let me know that he knew I was more concerned for him than anything else. Directing his comments to Lon and Vern he said, “I’m … well, maybe ok isn’t the word for it but I’ve accepted the way things have turned out. Matt wrote his own story. Nothing I tried to do changed the direction he chose. Now he has to pay the piper.”
I said, “He’ll do that.”
Vern asked, “Will he? Boy might just talk his way out of this one too.”
I admitted that, “He will undoubtedly try. He may even be able to keep himself from winding up in front of a firing squad. But he won’t escape. He isn’t Delorey Baumgarten. He’s not scary enough. If he tries to use what secrets he may have picked up about people from those quarters more than likely he’ll just wind up beat up or found dead in his cell or something equally as nasty.”
Lon nodded and said, “That’s harsh but I can see it happening. With the backlog gone from the justice system trials are coming faster and with the war on, sentences are being carried out without appeals and fanfare. We’ve heard through the grapevine that they are already pulling together a jury and the trial is going to start as soon as they can get him to the court house. The only reason they expect the trial to last more than a few hours is the length of time the prosecutor is asking so they can read out all of the charges and present evidence against Matt. Apparently he wasn’t as hidden behind the scenes as he thought.”
Jax nodded. “If Matt is expecting to be able to put on a show he’s in for a shock.”
I agreed and added, “This isn’t high school. This isn’t small town. He wanted to play with the big dogs … this is what it means.”
Everything else said before Jax took me back was just a repetition of what had already been said. After everyone was tired of repeating themselves the meeting broke up; we had chores to finish before it got dark. We were almost home when Jax took a left turn and we bumped down a road full of pot holes to a small cul-de-sac where three empty slabs sat. Even the bolts that the trailers had been strapped to were gone. Tall grass grew in every direction.
Looking around I said, “Things have definitely changed. But if you expect me to get out and see if anymore spiders are around you can think again.”
Jax relaxed but only a little. “Yeah. Have the girls mentioned anything yet?”
I gave a small grin realizing Jax was still careful to include me in everything even if the others still occasionally treated me like spun glass. “You mean about Ashton and Reggie trying to figure out a way to build their own homes?”
“Yeah. I told them to leave it until after the whole Matt situation was brought under control but …”
“But Ginger thinks she might be pregnant and Alex and Johnson are finally getting serious as well.”
“Throw in Janice and Aiden …”
I nodded. “The house is going to resemble a bunny hutch pretty soon if we don’t create some space.”
“Pretty much,” he agreed nervously. Then he asked, “Are you ok with that?”
“The bunny hutch or the spreading out?”
“Spreading out.”
“So long as you and Kelly don’t ‘spread out’ then I figure it is just what was always going to happen anyway.”
“What if we get stuck with Gennie?”
Uncomfortably I admitted, “I haven’t thought that far ahead. I’d rather not think too far ahead yet if you don’t mind. The logistics of trying to make sure everyone has what they need to start up is starting to make my chest tight and my stomach churn. It is going to be hard enough to get through winter with all of us under one roof. Trying to do it for … Jax I just can’t think about it right now.”
He reached over and took my hand. “Then let it go. I probably shouldn’t have brought it up. I just didn’t want you to think stuff was being hidden from you. I actually think, even with all of us working and helping, it is going to be months before everyone has a place of their own and I don’t think it is even feasible to start any serious plans until after it has dried up next Spring.”
I nodded and tried to work the tension out of my neck. “You know, I think everyone moving out on their own worries me more than Matt ever did … or … or at least as much anyway.”
“I thought you said you needed to let it go.”
“I do. It is just hard. Nature abhors a vacuum. Since our big worry is going away my brain is looking for the next one.”
“How about your brain takes a small vacation so you can rest.”
“I feel like I’ve done nothing but rest since I blew the dam.”
“Wrong. If you had rested your recovery wouldn’t have taken so long.” Debating something he finally asked, “When are you going to tell the others?”
“Not until we’re sure. You said you can’t tell yet so it is possible that I’m not. I’m not feeling any different … to the good or to the bad. I’ve only missed once. And if I am I want to keep it between just the two of us for as long as we can.”
“You’re … you’re sure?”
“Yeah. We need to have something for ourselves alone before it becomes group property.”
“Oh,” he said like he’d been thinking something totally different.
I asked, “Have you already said something?”
“No. I … I guess I just worried that you were … I don’t know … uh … unhappy about the timing.”
We still ran into each other’s insecurities back then. Finally understanding his hesitancy I told him, “If I am … if we are … I’ll be happy. I just don’t want to be disappointed if I’m not.”
“Oh. Disappointed. Yeah. Ok … we keep it between us.” Then he winced and shook his head. “I don’t even want to think about what Reggie is going to come up with for commentary.”
I smiled with grim humor and said, “I wouldn’t worry about Reggie. He’s going to be too busy trying not to walk into walls and doors every time he thinks about Ginger being pregnant. Or did you think the dayglow green he has been sporting around his mouth was his natural color?”
Jax got a laugh out of that but then became serious once again. “Sorry you got caught up in Jules’ hissy fit this morning when he found out I’d accepted some stuff from the people out of Chattanooga.”
“Not a prob. Jules is just feeling …”
“Like a fifth wheel. Everyone else is pairing off only there’s no one for him but some little girl that he can barely stand.”
I nodded. “Aiden thinks … well Janice says Aiden thinks that Jules may not even make it through the winter. That he may take off to go look for … for whatever happened to the adults and other kids, to see if any of their family has survived and if so why they never came to look for them.”
“If he does I wish him luck. He needs something we can’t give him … a direction of his own. He and Johnson almost got into it the other day.”
“Still no reason for him to go off on you because you accepted the vitamins and those Kid Kare packages. They weren’t paying us for being informants, it was just good will kind of thing since they aren’t going to be able to set up a med center in this area like people expected them to.”
“I know it. Aiden and Janice got him calmed down just in time to keep Alex from clocking him about being late for relieving her at the overlook. Jules is going to have to be watched. I was hoping with Gennie calming down …”
“Yeah ,,, the drama. Sometimes I wonder if we’re going to outlive it or what.”
Hindsight is 20/20 Except for those that Wear Blinders
Part 1
I’d give a lot to say that my prediction came true but as with all things in life there are always those surprises. It isn’t that Matt wasn’t prosecuted for his crimes. And it isn’t that Matt didn’t go to jail for those crimes. It isn’t even that Matt wasn’t scheduled to be executed for his crimes. All three of those took place. Except the execution never took place. Somehow, some way Matt managed to find a way to pull himself out of the ashes at the last second.
"What?!!"
“Easy Son, I’m only relaying what came down the information pipeline.”
“No. No way. My uncle … He’s alive?!”
We were all in shock. Well angry too as we were still recovering from hearing that Matt had been transferred to federal custody and moved to a facility out west.
Mr. Houchins had thought it important enough – and potentially upsetting enough – that he had Lon bring him to the Home Place. Honestly, when I first saw his face I thought there had been a death in the family; instead we find out that it was the opposite and it was for Jax. Of course, Jax reacted to it almost like it was a death.
It took a while to get the whole story – weeks and months of time as bits and pieces would reach us so that a clear picture and timeline could be constructed. Rather than dying Matt’s father had been bodily co-opted by certain powers that be to save what infrastructure assets could be saved in certain locations out in Colorado. Why Colorado? Possibly because of his experience with dams. However, what those assets were in the beginning have never been clear as it seemed that no matter what they tried the cascading effect of failures kept them on the move hopping from one bad spot to another. All we knew is that Matt was gone and not coming back. Ultimately we had no choice but to accept that what energies we had needed to be focused on our own survival. There was a bitterness that would have probably overtaken us if we hadn’t had so many other things that needed our full attention.
I was pregnant. Boy was I pregnant. To the hilarity of all, except for Jax and I, we eventually presented Kelly with a set of twin brothers. And this in the midst of Ginger’s pregnancy where Jax and I got our turn when poor Reggie collapsed upon hearing he had a daughter. Ginger and I went into labor within twelve hours of each other and Jax swore that if any of us did that to him again he’d cork half of us and tie a knot in the other half and that was all he was saying on the subject.
It took a month before Johnson and Alex could even get up the nerve to tell him that they’d miscounted as well and were due one of their own six or seven months down the road. I thought poor Jax was going to hyperventilate. Lon and Vern had a lot of fun at our expense, calling the Home Place the “Rabbit Hutch” on the radio. Or at least they did until their daughters informed them they’d be grandfathers sooner rather than later.
Time and energy. They were suddenly in very short supply for everyone; and what there was seemed to get away from us and move too fast. It took not one year but two for everyone to move to their own places year-round. They tried to work it out that first year but what sufficed in the Spring, Summer, and Fall was simply too inadequate for the winter.
On top of the micro-environment we lived in, there were a great many changes that came during those two years out in the rest of the world. The war we faced was unlike any the world had seen before. World War One was supposed to have been the war to end all wars. It wasn’t. World War Two was supposed to take care of the problems left over from WW1. It didn’t. World War Three was … well it was terrible. There are still places on earth not fit for human habitation, some of them even here in this country. Not even the technology we have today is speeding up the process of the earth healing from the wounds inflicted upon it.
In hindsight had the war just been one of nuclear attrition it would have been over in a short period of time. Instead what we had to deal with was the occasional limited nuclear exchange, as well as some dirty bombs deployed by terrorists that never claimed responsibility out of fear of retaliation. There was also bioterrorism and the use of so many conventional weapons that we wondered where all of it was coming from.
During those two years something happened in our own government and there was a … I guess basically the Pentagon took control of the Executive Branch of the government because the Executive Branch either had their head in the sand or in their own backsides and nothing was getting accomplished. Many of them simply hid in the “continuity of government” bunkers waiting for the end of the world to get over with. Those that weren’t running around like lunatics or frozen like ice dummies were throwing the men and women of our armed forces around in such a way as it was plain that they had no understanding of war and no care that their ill-thought out chess moves were resulting in hundreds and thousands of our forces dying or being so injured they could not go back to fight another day. It was at that point that the Pentagon finally put a boot to the backsides of some that hadn’t expected it and changed the game from chaos and insanity back to one that, while not bloodless, relied on real strategy that had as its endgame a true win and not just a “last man standing” type of mentality.
While the Pentagon took care of the war outside our borders they were more than happy to allow Congress and the state governments to take care of what was going on inside the country. Surprisingly, many that were blatant screw ups on the international playing field were actually fierce warriors with some sense on our home turf. The first that accomplished was that Canada and the US formed a mutual aid treaty and combined forces to secure our borders against enemies both foreign and domestic. And by domestic I mean that you could practice your Constitutional right and protest but if you were found to be participating in terrorism of some type, you were likely to find yourself on a transport and dropped off in a war zone and you could choose to fight … or you could die … but you didn’t have time for sitting around making a nuisance of yourself. And the federal law already in place regarding crossing state lines to participate in violent protests and/or riots was strictly enforced. Immigrants, legal or otherwise, also found themselves caught up and shipped out to war zones. That type of deportation order could happen whether the person was male or female and aged fifteen or older. The rationale was that if you were old enough to learn to drive, you were old enough to learn to shoot.
With the worst of the “agitators and terrorists” under control – real or imagined – the federal government instituted a public works program. With most forms of fiat currency in the tank those in the know considered it too economically dangerous to just hand out dollars to a small cross section of the population they were putting to work so they did the next best thing … barter credits. And they actually did something quite brilliant; rather than paying people in credits by the hour they paid in work credits by the job. This gave people that were motivated the opportunity to complete as many jobs and/or projects as they could handle. It also gave people the opportunity to build a team and then share the resulting credits between them. It was like thousands of independent contractors were created overnight.
How we got involved in our area is that it started in salvaging. The town really was almost too big of a mess to be worth saving but there were some structures and a boatload of materials that would be a crime to waste. We’d already gotten quite a bit of salvaged building materials the year before; none of us seemed to want to play pioneer and live in what amounted to a log-style lean to. Our experience put us head and shoulders above the outside crews that were brought in and fairly soon Ashton became sought after anytime a particularly tricky problem arose. Obviously enough Reggie became the go to for demolition work when a little “boom” was required.
Jax was a good shade tree mechanic that helped keep the tools and machinery up and running until they found out he had some medical training. He was then reassigned to the small clinic that was erected in the old Town Green. The clinic served the work crews and anyone else that happened to be able to make their way there. Jax was finally getting the training he’d always wanted. I was proud of him. More importantly Jax began to be proud of himself and most of the baggage that he’d been carrying around finally disappeared.
Mr. Houchins grew his farm even more by taking over some of the other farms in the area. No one objected and the food was desperately needed. He traded food for the building supplies the reclamation crews salvaged. He would use those building supplies to build homes for his growing clan, taking the pressure off of the farmhouse and getting them out of the travel trailers and tents that were beginning to break down and need replacing.
The other thing Mr. Houchins traded his crops for were supplies for rebuilding Ray’s Landing. There was a small tussle when the militia wanted to confiscate all of their work but peace reigned when that particular militia was discovered to not have registered with the state and were therefore not officially recognized or sanctioned. It also turned out that they were a militia in name only and were more akin to a roving band of thieves, living off of whomever was too weak to defend themselves. There were many such groups in those days and it took the end of the war to take away their excuse for existence.
During that second and then third year I went through a time where I wondered what I was supposed to do with my life, I was even maybe jealous. It came to a head when we found that Gennie’s family – what remained of it – had been looking for her. Strangely it was Jules that had returned with the news.
He had indeed left during that second winter and we hadn’t heard from him in two years. No one said it aloud but everyone, including Aiden, suspected he was dead. He hadn’t died, he’d gotten drafted after being in a brawl at a refugee camp where he’d been trying to trace his family. While he was serving out his term he got friendly with the techs that ran the huge databases where they were trying to count the dead and the living. After his tour was over and he was released he simply continued working with them, doing what he could to reconnect families who’d been separated by the war, finding relatives willing to take guardianship of children orphaned by it, and reconnected families with their elders that were desperately in need of help themselves. It was a job that seemed to bring him a peace he hadn’t had for a long, long time.
He put in everyone’s information – except for Jax and I since he knew we knew about our own families – and eventually Gennie’s information popped up that she was being sought. Knowing us he brought the news himself and he also told what he’d found out about the families. Reggie’s father and brother had died not long after the initial attack when it was discovered they’d secretly taken items from the town that wound up being contaminated. In fact that happened to several of the adults on those buses that left and never came back. Ginger’s family died in quarantine as did Ashley’s. Ashton’s parents were alive but refused, for a long time, to believe that Ashton was. Guilt is a powerful emotion and apparently they’d been baring quite a bit of it for some time. It was several years before they finally reunited and both sides could come to terms with what had happened. Everyone else’s story lay somewhere between those two extremes and are theirs to tell if they want it published.
After Gennie left it was like a hole had opened up in my carefully constructed world. She and I had made truce and I’d done what I can to help her even if it was without any appreciation. She had a lot of issues and I had to accept that I just wasn’t equipped to help her any further down her life road. It was then that I took a long look at myself and face my personal reality. I tried to deal with my regrets but only part way succeeded. I was never going to college. I was never going to be known as that smart girl that everyone thought was a little weird but had potential. Everyone was off finding their own path. I struggled to find my identity. Kelly and the twins were my life, as was the Home Place, but I was gazing off at that road not taken and wondering where it might have led.
I buried my frustrations the best that I could and put all of my energy into the kids and the farm. After all, most of the time it was back to just being me again. The others were building their own lives and didn’t need me. Jax was spending a lot of time at the clinic in town and was too tired by the time he got home to really see what I was going through. I existed like this for months. And then the past reared its ugly head … only at the time I didn’t recognize it for what it was.
Part 1
I’d give a lot to say that my prediction came true but as with all things in life there are always those surprises. It isn’t that Matt wasn’t prosecuted for his crimes. And it isn’t that Matt didn’t go to jail for those crimes. It isn’t even that Matt wasn’t scheduled to be executed for his crimes. All three of those took place. Except the execution never took place. Somehow, some way Matt managed to find a way to pull himself out of the ashes at the last second.
"What?!!"
“Easy Son, I’m only relaying what came down the information pipeline.”
“No. No way. My uncle … He’s alive?!”
We were all in shock. Well angry too as we were still recovering from hearing that Matt had been transferred to federal custody and moved to a facility out west.
Mr. Houchins had thought it important enough – and potentially upsetting enough – that he had Lon bring him to the Home Place. Honestly, when I first saw his face I thought there had been a death in the family; instead we find out that it was the opposite and it was for Jax. Of course, Jax reacted to it almost like it was a death.
It took a while to get the whole story – weeks and months of time as bits and pieces would reach us so that a clear picture and timeline could be constructed. Rather than dying Matt’s father had been bodily co-opted by certain powers that be to save what infrastructure assets could be saved in certain locations out in Colorado. Why Colorado? Possibly because of his experience with dams. However, what those assets were in the beginning have never been clear as it seemed that no matter what they tried the cascading effect of failures kept them on the move hopping from one bad spot to another. All we knew is that Matt was gone and not coming back. Ultimately we had no choice but to accept that what energies we had needed to be focused on our own survival. There was a bitterness that would have probably overtaken us if we hadn’t had so many other things that needed our full attention.
I was pregnant. Boy was I pregnant. To the hilarity of all, except for Jax and I, we eventually presented Kelly with a set of twin brothers. And this in the midst of Ginger’s pregnancy where Jax and I got our turn when poor Reggie collapsed upon hearing he had a daughter. Ginger and I went into labor within twelve hours of each other and Jax swore that if any of us did that to him again he’d cork half of us and tie a knot in the other half and that was all he was saying on the subject.
It took a month before Johnson and Alex could even get up the nerve to tell him that they’d miscounted as well and were due one of their own six or seven months down the road. I thought poor Jax was going to hyperventilate. Lon and Vern had a lot of fun at our expense, calling the Home Place the “Rabbit Hutch” on the radio. Or at least they did until their daughters informed them they’d be grandfathers sooner rather than later.
Time and energy. They were suddenly in very short supply for everyone; and what there was seemed to get away from us and move too fast. It took not one year but two for everyone to move to their own places year-round. They tried to work it out that first year but what sufficed in the Spring, Summer, and Fall was simply too inadequate for the winter.
On top of the micro-environment we lived in, there were a great many changes that came during those two years out in the rest of the world. The war we faced was unlike any the world had seen before. World War One was supposed to have been the war to end all wars. It wasn’t. World War Two was supposed to take care of the problems left over from WW1. It didn’t. World War Three was … well it was terrible. There are still places on earth not fit for human habitation, some of them even here in this country. Not even the technology we have today is speeding up the process of the earth healing from the wounds inflicted upon it.
In hindsight had the war just been one of nuclear attrition it would have been over in a short period of time. Instead what we had to deal with was the occasional limited nuclear exchange, as well as some dirty bombs deployed by terrorists that never claimed responsibility out of fear of retaliation. There was also bioterrorism and the use of so many conventional weapons that we wondered where all of it was coming from.
During those two years something happened in our own government and there was a … I guess basically the Pentagon took control of the Executive Branch of the government because the Executive Branch either had their head in the sand or in their own backsides and nothing was getting accomplished. Many of them simply hid in the “continuity of government” bunkers waiting for the end of the world to get over with. Those that weren’t running around like lunatics or frozen like ice dummies were throwing the men and women of our armed forces around in such a way as it was plain that they had no understanding of war and no care that their ill-thought out chess moves were resulting in hundreds and thousands of our forces dying or being so injured they could not go back to fight another day. It was at that point that the Pentagon finally put a boot to the backsides of some that hadn’t expected it and changed the game from chaos and insanity back to one that, while not bloodless, relied on real strategy that had as its endgame a true win and not just a “last man standing” type of mentality.
While the Pentagon took care of the war outside our borders they were more than happy to allow Congress and the state governments to take care of what was going on inside the country. Surprisingly, many that were blatant screw ups on the international playing field were actually fierce warriors with some sense on our home turf. The first that accomplished was that Canada and the US formed a mutual aid treaty and combined forces to secure our borders against enemies both foreign and domestic. And by domestic I mean that you could practice your Constitutional right and protest but if you were found to be participating in terrorism of some type, you were likely to find yourself on a transport and dropped off in a war zone and you could choose to fight … or you could die … but you didn’t have time for sitting around making a nuisance of yourself. And the federal law already in place regarding crossing state lines to participate in violent protests and/or riots was strictly enforced. Immigrants, legal or otherwise, also found themselves caught up and shipped out to war zones. That type of deportation order could happen whether the person was male or female and aged fifteen or older. The rationale was that if you were old enough to learn to drive, you were old enough to learn to shoot.
With the worst of the “agitators and terrorists” under control – real or imagined – the federal government instituted a public works program. With most forms of fiat currency in the tank those in the know considered it too economically dangerous to just hand out dollars to a small cross section of the population they were putting to work so they did the next best thing … barter credits. And they actually did something quite brilliant; rather than paying people in credits by the hour they paid in work credits by the job. This gave people that were motivated the opportunity to complete as many jobs and/or projects as they could handle. It also gave people the opportunity to build a team and then share the resulting credits between them. It was like thousands of independent contractors were created overnight.
How we got involved in our area is that it started in salvaging. The town really was almost too big of a mess to be worth saving but there were some structures and a boatload of materials that would be a crime to waste. We’d already gotten quite a bit of salvaged building materials the year before; none of us seemed to want to play pioneer and live in what amounted to a log-style lean to. Our experience put us head and shoulders above the outside crews that were brought in and fairly soon Ashton became sought after anytime a particularly tricky problem arose. Obviously enough Reggie became the go to for demolition work when a little “boom” was required.
Jax was a good shade tree mechanic that helped keep the tools and machinery up and running until they found out he had some medical training. He was then reassigned to the small clinic that was erected in the old Town Green. The clinic served the work crews and anyone else that happened to be able to make their way there. Jax was finally getting the training he’d always wanted. I was proud of him. More importantly Jax began to be proud of himself and most of the baggage that he’d been carrying around finally disappeared.
Mr. Houchins grew his farm even more by taking over some of the other farms in the area. No one objected and the food was desperately needed. He traded food for the building supplies the reclamation crews salvaged. He would use those building supplies to build homes for his growing clan, taking the pressure off of the farmhouse and getting them out of the travel trailers and tents that were beginning to break down and need replacing.
The other thing Mr. Houchins traded his crops for were supplies for rebuilding Ray’s Landing. There was a small tussle when the militia wanted to confiscate all of their work but peace reigned when that particular militia was discovered to not have registered with the state and were therefore not officially recognized or sanctioned. It also turned out that they were a militia in name only and were more akin to a roving band of thieves, living off of whomever was too weak to defend themselves. There were many such groups in those days and it took the end of the war to take away their excuse for existence.
During that second and then third year I went through a time where I wondered what I was supposed to do with my life, I was even maybe jealous. It came to a head when we found that Gennie’s family – what remained of it – had been looking for her. Strangely it was Jules that had returned with the news.
He had indeed left during that second winter and we hadn’t heard from him in two years. No one said it aloud but everyone, including Aiden, suspected he was dead. He hadn’t died, he’d gotten drafted after being in a brawl at a refugee camp where he’d been trying to trace his family. While he was serving out his term he got friendly with the techs that ran the huge databases where they were trying to count the dead and the living. After his tour was over and he was released he simply continued working with them, doing what he could to reconnect families who’d been separated by the war, finding relatives willing to take guardianship of children orphaned by it, and reconnected families with their elders that were desperately in need of help themselves. It was a job that seemed to bring him a peace he hadn’t had for a long, long time.
He put in everyone’s information – except for Jax and I since he knew we knew about our own families – and eventually Gennie’s information popped up that she was being sought. Knowing us he brought the news himself and he also told what he’d found out about the families. Reggie’s father and brother had died not long after the initial attack when it was discovered they’d secretly taken items from the town that wound up being contaminated. In fact that happened to several of the adults on those buses that left and never came back. Ginger’s family died in quarantine as did Ashley’s. Ashton’s parents were alive but refused, for a long time, to believe that Ashton was. Guilt is a powerful emotion and apparently they’d been baring quite a bit of it for some time. It was several years before they finally reunited and both sides could come to terms with what had happened. Everyone else’s story lay somewhere between those two extremes and are theirs to tell if they want it published.
After Gennie left it was like a hole had opened up in my carefully constructed world. She and I had made truce and I’d done what I can to help her even if it was without any appreciation. She had a lot of issues and I had to accept that I just wasn’t equipped to help her any further down her life road. It was then that I took a long look at myself and face my personal reality. I tried to deal with my regrets but only part way succeeded. I was never going to college. I was never going to be known as that smart girl that everyone thought was a little weird but had potential. Everyone was off finding their own path. I struggled to find my identity. Kelly and the twins were my life, as was the Home Place, but I was gazing off at that road not taken and wondering where it might have led.
I buried my frustrations the best that I could and put all of my energy into the kids and the farm. After all, most of the time it was back to just being me again. The others were building their own lives and didn’t need me. Jax was spending a lot of time at the clinic in town and was too tired by the time he got home to really see what I was going through. I existed like this for months. And then the past reared its ugly head … only at the time I didn’t recognize it for what it was.
Part 2
The past. The road not taken. The temptations of regret. I loved Kelly and the boys though even Kelly was slipping away from me, so it seemed at the time, as she started going with Jax to town during the week to attend the new school they had built. The boys weren’t even babies anymore and Jax asked if they too could come to town to play with kids their own ages in the medical center’s daycare.
I was alone. Very alone. I was in danger of slipping into the funk I had been after the terrorist attack … back to when my family was killed. I tried to fill my time with constructive things like I always had but somehow or other there just didn’t seem a lot of point to it. No one needed me. Oh, they needed the things I provided for them but even that was less and less as the town started to provide more and more.
Then a letter came. It was innocuous, or so it seemed at the time. It had gone to the medical center and Jax had brought it home. Several such letters arrived in our town from some recovery effort group. The letter said that they were surveying farmers to find realistic and sustainable methods that fit with the limited resources we were experiencing back then. Jax encouraged me to respond with ideas otherwise I might have just thrown the letter in the trash. I let it sit on my desk out in the barn for almost a month before I decided to sketch out the pond that we were still dependent on though we managed it slightly different these days than we had when the pellet food was so easy to come by.
I didn’t think another thing about it until another letter arrived for “Lydie Remington.” This letter asked questions about the set up and whether it was a theoretical design or under current construction. Again I delayed responding as I was in the midst of three kids have colds and then doing battle with one myself. When I did respond I perhaps wasn’t as careful as I should have been though I did say that I knew of one such in current production.
Then another letter, this one more personable and admiring. And more letters continued. In the old days I suppose I would have been ripe for some stupid online “romance” due to all of the things I was going through but in truth “romance” didn’t have a thing to do with it. In all honestly it was simply vanity I suppose. I missed someone acting like I had answers, acting like I was … well … acting like I was smart. I’d been relegated to play a “hausfrau” and while I didn’t resent it, and in fact enjoyed that position in my family … part of me was resentful when others acted like their ”real jobs” were so much more necessary and integral to the continuation of our community. So it wasn’t romance I was after even when Jax didn’t seem to have the energy or time for it any longer. We were growing apart and he seemed to be taking the children with him.
No, what I wanted and needed was … companionship and conversation and the letter writer gave me that. I thought it was safe. I never wrote anything inappropriate and in turn made sure that I never encouraged anything inappropriate. All we ever talked about were projects and plans and theories. My brain seemed to come alive again. I felt like I was alive again. But most of all, while might have been alone most of the time, I no longer felt lonely.
And when I started building things again it wasn’t to Jax that I went but to Ashton and Reggie. In hindsight that was a mistake but by that point I honestly didn’t think Jax would care in the least. He’d gotten into the habit of falling asleep as soon as he’d eaten, there was never any talk between us. All he needed me for was to make sure that he and the children were fed and clothed.
I came to accept that as the reality. And without realizing it I had walled off the pain that feeling created. But rather than let a vacuum exist I replaced it with work and with … my letters … and then the projects. The projects I didn’t discuss with Jax because I didn’t think he cared.
I was out at the biofuel shed measuring to install a new vat system when I had a surprise visitor.
“Whoa, should you be out and about Ginger? You look about ready to pop,” I told her as I led her back to the house to offer her some cool water.
“I’m fine. Just came from the clinic as a matter of fact. Um …”
“I know that look. What is it?”
“I’m probably sticking my nose in where it doesn’t belong.”
“Has that ever stopped you?” I told her grinning. She wasn’t smiling in return. “Okay, what’s up and what I have I done wrong?”
“Huh? You?”
“Yeah. That’s usually at the bottom of it. None of you ever come by for any other reason.”
“Hey that’s … uh … that’s not …” She stopped and said, “Can we sit down?”
“Ginger what’s wrong? Are you and Reggie …?”
“No! Absolutely not. As a matter of fact … everything is great and …”
“The baby?”
“Yeah. He’s finally done with the overcompensating. Look, just let me get this out. Are you and Jax … okay?”
I just blinked before sighing. “Something made you ask so what is it?”
“Uh …”
“C’mon Ginger, spit it out.”
Then she did and where she expected to have to deal with an angry Lydie she got … nothing. “Well I suppose that explains why all he does is come home, eat dinner, and then goes to sleep. Why should he need to save a little of himself for me when there isn’t anything left to share?”
“God Lydie … I … I …”
“Don’t. It is what it is. He took the kids, now he’s … never mind. Look, just forget you saw me. Go home. Have a good life. You and Reggie … you don’t have to make the same mistakes your folks did so just … just have a good life. I’ll figure this out.”
I finally convinced her to leave. And when Jax came home I didn’t say a word. Just watched him eat, play with the kids, and then fall asleep. But I was pretty sure that I was done.
The next day I cleaned up, made a list of things that I needed from town, and then I got on my bike and I pedaled to town. I looked around and noticed all the changes, some of them the beginnings of what the town is today. I rode to the clinic and they wouldn’t even allow me to see Kelly or the boys. Seems most of them didn’t even know a mother was in the picture. God that hurt. I said I would take care of it and went to where I knew Jax had his office. I walked in and … I didn’t catch them in the act, but it cleared up the doubts I’d been having about my suspicions. I stood there are full five minutes before either of them even noticed me.
The woman noticed me first and blushed and said, “Um Dr. Remington a patient must have …”
“I don’t have any patients scheduled Vicky. Who?”
Jax was slower but the look on his face when he saw who was standing there was more than I could take. It dawned across his face like the sunrises we used to watch together. It was a mixture of both guilt and sorrow. I slowly backed up and out of the office and left the building. He caught up with me before I could get on my bike.
“Lydie! It’s not like it looks! I swear …”
“They wouldn’t even let me see the kids.”
“Uh … what?”
“Apparently no one realized there even was a mother in the picture much less that you were married. But … but you aren’t are you? It just got away from you and … I just thought the words were enough.”
“Lydie …”
“No. No I am not going to let myself believe some fairytale. Not this time. Not ever again. I believed you that you needed to be in town so much. I was so proud of you.”
“Lydie …”
“Don’t. Just don’t Jax. I even believed you that the kids needed to come to town. To socialize with their children own age. So that you’d get a chance to see them here more because you worked such long hours. I even accepted that your work was so important that it was okay that you only came home to eat … and sleep. That’s it. That’s all you needed from me. A roof over your head, food, and a bed.”
“Dammit Lydie, I said …”
“Uh uh. No. No more. See I know this feeling Jax. I just don’t have any energy left to try and go out and find another family that might need me. Apparently you’re needed here. And the kids want to be here with you. So … so fine.”
“Lydie wait …!”
I finally got loose from him and got on my bike and rode off fast and hard. I didn’t even stop when I heard him yell my name. I’d traveled the road I was on too many times … both physically and metaphorically; only this time I was careless. I still to this day don’t know what hit me. All I know is that I was riding along … and then I wasn’t.
I woke up in the back of a van. I could tell from the smell that it was one of the new, hybrid eco-fuel conversions. I knew the smell because I’d just finished building one for Jax to drive into town with the kids last month. It was one of the plans that I’d drawn out with my letter friend. I would have thought it was the one I had built except there were no car seats.
I sat up and took in my surroundings. I was sore all over and there was a horrible taste in my mouth, my knees were skinned, so was one elbow and an ear. I looked around and then suddenly I thought I must be hallucinating.
“Poor Lydie. Poor, poor Lydie. What’s wrong? Did your Prince Charming finally show his true colors? Show how weak he was?”
The past. The road not taken. The temptations of regret. I loved Kelly and the boys though even Kelly was slipping away from me, so it seemed at the time, as she started going with Jax to town during the week to attend the new school they had built. The boys weren’t even babies anymore and Jax asked if they too could come to town to play with kids their own ages in the medical center’s daycare.
I was alone. Very alone. I was in danger of slipping into the funk I had been after the terrorist attack … back to when my family was killed. I tried to fill my time with constructive things like I always had but somehow or other there just didn’t seem a lot of point to it. No one needed me. Oh, they needed the things I provided for them but even that was less and less as the town started to provide more and more.
Then a letter came. It was innocuous, or so it seemed at the time. It had gone to the medical center and Jax had brought it home. Several such letters arrived in our town from some recovery effort group. The letter said that they were surveying farmers to find realistic and sustainable methods that fit with the limited resources we were experiencing back then. Jax encouraged me to respond with ideas otherwise I might have just thrown the letter in the trash. I let it sit on my desk out in the barn for almost a month before I decided to sketch out the pond that we were still dependent on though we managed it slightly different these days than we had when the pellet food was so easy to come by.
I didn’t think another thing about it until another letter arrived for “Lydie Remington.” This letter asked questions about the set up and whether it was a theoretical design or under current construction. Again I delayed responding as I was in the midst of three kids have colds and then doing battle with one myself. When I did respond I perhaps wasn’t as careful as I should have been though I did say that I knew of one such in current production.
Then another letter, this one more personable and admiring. And more letters continued. In the old days I suppose I would have been ripe for some stupid online “romance” due to all of the things I was going through but in truth “romance” didn’t have a thing to do with it. In all honestly it was simply vanity I suppose. I missed someone acting like I had answers, acting like I was … well … acting like I was smart. I’d been relegated to play a “hausfrau” and while I didn’t resent it, and in fact enjoyed that position in my family … part of me was resentful when others acted like their ”real jobs” were so much more necessary and integral to the continuation of our community. So it wasn’t romance I was after even when Jax didn’t seem to have the energy or time for it any longer. We were growing apart and he seemed to be taking the children with him.
No, what I wanted and needed was … companionship and conversation and the letter writer gave me that. I thought it was safe. I never wrote anything inappropriate and in turn made sure that I never encouraged anything inappropriate. All we ever talked about were projects and plans and theories. My brain seemed to come alive again. I felt like I was alive again. But most of all, while might have been alone most of the time, I no longer felt lonely.
And when I started building things again it wasn’t to Jax that I went but to Ashton and Reggie. In hindsight that was a mistake but by that point I honestly didn’t think Jax would care in the least. He’d gotten into the habit of falling asleep as soon as he’d eaten, there was never any talk between us. All he needed me for was to make sure that he and the children were fed and clothed.
I came to accept that as the reality. And without realizing it I had walled off the pain that feeling created. But rather than let a vacuum exist I replaced it with work and with … my letters … and then the projects. The projects I didn’t discuss with Jax because I didn’t think he cared.
I was out at the biofuel shed measuring to install a new vat system when I had a surprise visitor.
“Whoa, should you be out and about Ginger? You look about ready to pop,” I told her as I led her back to the house to offer her some cool water.
“I’m fine. Just came from the clinic as a matter of fact. Um …”
“I know that look. What is it?”
“I’m probably sticking my nose in where it doesn’t belong.”
“Has that ever stopped you?” I told her grinning. She wasn’t smiling in return. “Okay, what’s up and what I have I done wrong?”
“Huh? You?”
“Yeah. That’s usually at the bottom of it. None of you ever come by for any other reason.”
“Hey that’s … uh … that’s not …” She stopped and said, “Can we sit down?”
“Ginger what’s wrong? Are you and Reggie …?”
“No! Absolutely not. As a matter of fact … everything is great and …”
“The baby?”
“Yeah. He’s finally done with the overcompensating. Look, just let me get this out. Are you and Jax … okay?”
I just blinked before sighing. “Something made you ask so what is it?”
“Uh …”
“C’mon Ginger, spit it out.”
Then she did and where she expected to have to deal with an angry Lydie she got … nothing. “Well I suppose that explains why all he does is come home, eat dinner, and then goes to sleep. Why should he need to save a little of himself for me when there isn’t anything left to share?”
“God Lydie … I … I …”
“Don’t. It is what it is. He took the kids, now he’s … never mind. Look, just forget you saw me. Go home. Have a good life. You and Reggie … you don’t have to make the same mistakes your folks did so just … just have a good life. I’ll figure this out.”
I finally convinced her to leave. And when Jax came home I didn’t say a word. Just watched him eat, play with the kids, and then fall asleep. But I was pretty sure that I was done.
The next day I cleaned up, made a list of things that I needed from town, and then I got on my bike and I pedaled to town. I looked around and noticed all the changes, some of them the beginnings of what the town is today. I rode to the clinic and they wouldn’t even allow me to see Kelly or the boys. Seems most of them didn’t even know a mother was in the picture. God that hurt. I said I would take care of it and went to where I knew Jax had his office. I walked in and … I didn’t catch them in the act, but it cleared up the doubts I’d been having about my suspicions. I stood there are full five minutes before either of them even noticed me.
The woman noticed me first and blushed and said, “Um Dr. Remington a patient must have …”
“I don’t have any patients scheduled Vicky. Who?”
Jax was slower but the look on his face when he saw who was standing there was more than I could take. It dawned across his face like the sunrises we used to watch together. It was a mixture of both guilt and sorrow. I slowly backed up and out of the office and left the building. He caught up with me before I could get on my bike.
“Lydie! It’s not like it looks! I swear …”
“They wouldn’t even let me see the kids.”
“Uh … what?”
“Apparently no one realized there even was a mother in the picture much less that you were married. But … but you aren’t are you? It just got away from you and … I just thought the words were enough.”
“Lydie …”
“No. No I am not going to let myself believe some fairytale. Not this time. Not ever again. I believed you that you needed to be in town so much. I was so proud of you.”
“Lydie …”
“Don’t. Just don’t Jax. I even believed you that the kids needed to come to town. To socialize with their children own age. So that you’d get a chance to see them here more because you worked such long hours. I even accepted that your work was so important that it was okay that you only came home to eat … and sleep. That’s it. That’s all you needed from me. A roof over your head, food, and a bed.”
“Dammit Lydie, I said …”
“Uh uh. No. No more. See I know this feeling Jax. I just don’t have any energy left to try and go out and find another family that might need me. Apparently you’re needed here. And the kids want to be here with you. So … so fine.”
“Lydie wait …!”
I finally got loose from him and got on my bike and rode off fast and hard. I didn’t even stop when I heard him yell my name. I’d traveled the road I was on too many times … both physically and metaphorically; only this time I was careless. I still to this day don’t know what hit me. All I know is that I was riding along … and then I wasn’t.
I woke up in the back of a van. I could tell from the smell that it was one of the new, hybrid eco-fuel conversions. I knew the smell because I’d just finished building one for Jax to drive into town with the kids last month. It was one of the plans that I’d drawn out with my letter friend. I would have thought it was the one I had built except there were no car seats.
I sat up and took in my surroundings. I was sore all over and there was a horrible taste in my mouth, my knees were skinned, so was one elbow and an ear. I looked around and then suddenly I thought I must be hallucinating.
“Poor Lydie. Poor, poor Lydie. What’s wrong? Did your Prince Charming finally show his true colors? Show how weak he was?”
Part 3
“Matt?” I looked again and then said, “God you look awful.” And he did. He looked like he’d been in gaming purgatory for too long.
Briefly surprised then thorough affronted Matt snarled, “Of course. Your plebian tastes always were the first thing to give you away.”
I was in no mood and told him so. “Get real Matt. What hole in hell did you crawl out of and what are you doing here?”
“I’ve come to see the fruition of my plans.”
The world was slipping sideways. “You’ve what?”
“Wake up and keep up Lydie. Or did you really think that the little interlude you arranged would actually stop me.”
I don’t know why I said it. I was in shock … had been in some sort of shock since Ginger had come by the farm. Shock from seeing Jax smiling and laughing like I hadn’t seen since the twins were babies it seemed. And now shock at seeing Matt. So I fell back on the old Lydie and her grade A snark. “Okay Maestro, enlighten me.”
And he did … or that’s what he thought he was doing but all he was really doing was blathering complete, nearly incomprehensible nonsense. Until he got to my letters.
“You were so easy to reel in. But you were so damn slow. Just like you always were. Slow. I needed those plans and you just were too damn slow.”
After a few more rounds of blathering I realized he’d been my penpal and it hadn’t been friendship being offered on the other end. He’d been pumping me, using me, to get plans that he then foisted off as his own. But it hadn’t been the priority for me that it had been for him. I’d been doing it for companionship, he’d been doing it because he needed the designs we came up with. Then someone had figured it out and whatever stay-out-of-jail card he’d been using was vacated by the powers that be that held him. And he blamed me for that on top of everything else he’d already blamed me for.
Apropos of nothing I asked, “Where’s your father?”
“Dead.”
“Oh. Sorry.”
“No you’re not. You hated him.”
“I disliked him, I didn’t hate him.”
“Yes you did!” he screamed. And then he said, “As you should have. He betrayed me like all the rest.”
“Uh …”
“Never mind. You aren’t capable of understanding. But it was at his betrayal that I knew what I had to do.”
“Oh … uh … really?”
“You had to pay.”
It was at that moment that my sense of survival started knocking on my consciousness. Matt was feeling the need to meet out some vengeance. I knew him too well to think that there wasn’t going to be a lot of pain involved. ‘Me? I thought you just said it was your dad who betrayed you.”
“Don’t try it Lydie. Don’t try and play. This game – my game – is too deep, too intricate and ingenious. You’ll lose. You’ve already lost,” he said sounding so sane that he sounded crazy. “Get out.”
Then he pointed some type of stunning device only I didn’t know what the stupid looking little stick was until he triggered it. It basically hit me with a concentrated sound wave and the resulting force caused me to be pushed out of the back of the van’s doors and onto the ground.
It was that stupid statue, the one I still hate - Chimera … or Venustas like they call it these days – that told me where we were. The old dam. The water was far below the embankment where it tumbled over the new boulders and other debris left from where I’d blown things up a few years earlier. I was feeling some serious déjà vu.
“Cute,” I told him. “Come to finish the job?”
“In a nutshell? Yes. You’ve wasted too much of my time. Now I have it all in place once again. I’ll …”
“You’ve got to be kidding me?” I said, despite everything feeling pity for him. “There is no way you are going to walk back in and …”
“I already have. It took me time but I’ve rebuilt my fledgling empire and now is the time to make sure that no one interferes again. With you gone they’ll all fall apart.”
“Seriously? Seriously?!” And then something snapped. I didn’t go berserk, I’ve only done that a few more times in my life but of all the times that wasn’t one of them. But something did snap. “You know my day has sucked quite enough as it is. Did you really have to bring your crazy train of stupidity and ignorance back around?!”
“Don’t call me that!”
“Which? Stupid, ignorant, or crazy?!”
The expression on his face reminded me too much of wax head that had been left out in the sun too long. There was no one single emotion, but too many fighting for space and they kept morphing over and over. It was sick. And then he said, “I was going to draw this out but it is simply not worth it. You’re dead Lydie. And good riddance.”
Oh how quickly some people forget.
See when I said that Matt looked bad I hadn’t been exaggerating. He didn’t look like he got out in the sun very often and the handsome guy he had once been was gone. Wherever he’d been he hadn’t been getting much exercise. He was soft and pudgy to go with pasty. I on the other hand I may have given up my books and such but I’d continued to work … and work hard.
But Matt had crazy on his side. That and his little stick of pain. He stunned me again and was rolling me to the edge before I could recover. But when I did I ripped the stick out of his hand and tossed it over the edge. All of the pain I was feeling just came pouring out of me.
Every statement was punctuated with a punch. “You are NOT going to waltz in here and take over. You are NOT going to just play us all for fools again. I am DONE with the pain you cause. I totally PITY you. You are CRAZY. I don’t know who you THINK you are but MAESTRO you are no longer IF YOU EVER FREAKING WERE!!!!”
“You can’t do this to me!!” he mewed, pawing at the ground where I’d left him. My mistake.
“Newsflash. I just did,” I growled.
And then he gave one more effort and flew at me. Strong I was but he had the leverage of height and weight. We wrestled around on the ground and then he got a rock and tried to hit me with it. Did hit me a couple of times but nothing fatal no matter what he tried. But he did hurt me, that he did just like that other night. But unlike that other night I didn’t think I had anything left to live for so when he got me up and was pushing me over, I didn’t fight.
But before I couId go over someone was pulling me back and there was screaming. “No!! No!!”
A man yelled, “Arrest him!”
Matt sounded several bricks shy of a full load as he sing-songed, “Too late! Too late!! Hahahahahahaha Too late!! She knows. She knows all about you and how weak you are! She’ll remember I never betrayed her like that! She knows who the better man is!! You won’t fix this! Too late!! Too late!!”
A different voice shouted the order, “Someone tranquilize that bastard already!”
Matt screamed, “No! I won’t be thwarted! It’s mine!! It’s … No!!!!!!!!!!” And then I heard yelling and then I didn’t hear anything else for a while.
“Matt?” I looked again and then said, “God you look awful.” And he did. He looked like he’d been in gaming purgatory for too long.
Briefly surprised then thorough affronted Matt snarled, “Of course. Your plebian tastes always were the first thing to give you away.”
I was in no mood and told him so. “Get real Matt. What hole in hell did you crawl out of and what are you doing here?”
“I’ve come to see the fruition of my plans.”
The world was slipping sideways. “You’ve what?”
“Wake up and keep up Lydie. Or did you really think that the little interlude you arranged would actually stop me.”
I don’t know why I said it. I was in shock … had been in some sort of shock since Ginger had come by the farm. Shock from seeing Jax smiling and laughing like I hadn’t seen since the twins were babies it seemed. And now shock at seeing Matt. So I fell back on the old Lydie and her grade A snark. “Okay Maestro, enlighten me.”
And he did … or that’s what he thought he was doing but all he was really doing was blathering complete, nearly incomprehensible nonsense. Until he got to my letters.
“You were so easy to reel in. But you were so damn slow. Just like you always were. Slow. I needed those plans and you just were too damn slow.”
After a few more rounds of blathering I realized he’d been my penpal and it hadn’t been friendship being offered on the other end. He’d been pumping me, using me, to get plans that he then foisted off as his own. But it hadn’t been the priority for me that it had been for him. I’d been doing it for companionship, he’d been doing it because he needed the designs we came up with. Then someone had figured it out and whatever stay-out-of-jail card he’d been using was vacated by the powers that be that held him. And he blamed me for that on top of everything else he’d already blamed me for.
Apropos of nothing I asked, “Where’s your father?”
“Dead.”
“Oh. Sorry.”
“No you’re not. You hated him.”
“I disliked him, I didn’t hate him.”
“Yes you did!” he screamed. And then he said, “As you should have. He betrayed me like all the rest.”
“Uh …”
“Never mind. You aren’t capable of understanding. But it was at his betrayal that I knew what I had to do.”
“Oh … uh … really?”
“You had to pay.”
It was at that moment that my sense of survival started knocking on my consciousness. Matt was feeling the need to meet out some vengeance. I knew him too well to think that there wasn’t going to be a lot of pain involved. ‘Me? I thought you just said it was your dad who betrayed you.”
“Don’t try it Lydie. Don’t try and play. This game – my game – is too deep, too intricate and ingenious. You’ll lose. You’ve already lost,” he said sounding so sane that he sounded crazy. “Get out.”
Then he pointed some type of stunning device only I didn’t know what the stupid looking little stick was until he triggered it. It basically hit me with a concentrated sound wave and the resulting force caused me to be pushed out of the back of the van’s doors and onto the ground.
It was that stupid statue, the one I still hate - Chimera … or Venustas like they call it these days – that told me where we were. The old dam. The water was far below the embankment where it tumbled over the new boulders and other debris left from where I’d blown things up a few years earlier. I was feeling some serious déjà vu.
“Cute,” I told him. “Come to finish the job?”
“In a nutshell? Yes. You’ve wasted too much of my time. Now I have it all in place once again. I’ll …”
“You’ve got to be kidding me?” I said, despite everything feeling pity for him. “There is no way you are going to walk back in and …”
“I already have. It took me time but I’ve rebuilt my fledgling empire and now is the time to make sure that no one interferes again. With you gone they’ll all fall apart.”
“Seriously? Seriously?!” And then something snapped. I didn’t go berserk, I’ve only done that a few more times in my life but of all the times that wasn’t one of them. But something did snap. “You know my day has sucked quite enough as it is. Did you really have to bring your crazy train of stupidity and ignorance back around?!”
“Don’t call me that!”
“Which? Stupid, ignorant, or crazy?!”
The expression on his face reminded me too much of wax head that had been left out in the sun too long. There was no one single emotion, but too many fighting for space and they kept morphing over and over. It was sick. And then he said, “I was going to draw this out but it is simply not worth it. You’re dead Lydie. And good riddance.”
Oh how quickly some people forget.
See when I said that Matt looked bad I hadn’t been exaggerating. He didn’t look like he got out in the sun very often and the handsome guy he had once been was gone. Wherever he’d been he hadn’t been getting much exercise. He was soft and pudgy to go with pasty. I on the other hand I may have given up my books and such but I’d continued to work … and work hard.
But Matt had crazy on his side. That and his little stick of pain. He stunned me again and was rolling me to the edge before I could recover. But when I did I ripped the stick out of his hand and tossed it over the edge. All of the pain I was feeling just came pouring out of me.
Every statement was punctuated with a punch. “You are NOT going to waltz in here and take over. You are NOT going to just play us all for fools again. I am DONE with the pain you cause. I totally PITY you. You are CRAZY. I don’t know who you THINK you are but MAESTRO you are no longer IF YOU EVER FREAKING WERE!!!!”
“You can’t do this to me!!” he mewed, pawing at the ground where I’d left him. My mistake.
“Newsflash. I just did,” I growled.
And then he gave one more effort and flew at me. Strong I was but he had the leverage of height and weight. We wrestled around on the ground and then he got a rock and tried to hit me with it. Did hit me a couple of times but nothing fatal no matter what he tried. But he did hurt me, that he did just like that other night. But unlike that other night I didn’t think I had anything left to live for so when he got me up and was pushing me over, I didn’t fight.
But before I couId go over someone was pulling me back and there was screaming. “No!! No!!”
A man yelled, “Arrest him!”
Matt sounded several bricks shy of a full load as he sing-songed, “Too late! Too late!! Hahahahahahaha Too late!! She knows. She knows all about you and how weak you are! She’ll remember I never betrayed her like that! She knows who the better man is!! You won’t fix this! Too late!! Too late!!”
A different voice shouted the order, “Someone tranquilize that bastard already!”
Matt screamed, “No! I won’t be thwarted! It’s mine!! It’s … No!!!!!!!!!!” And then I heard yelling and then I didn’t hear anything else for a while.
Part 4
I couldn’t open my eyes or move my arms and my nose itched. All of that was my first impression when I woke up. Only woke up probably isn’t the medical term for it. I could hear but that’s about it. I couldn’t interact with my surroundings … or the people in them. I existed in twilight and could hear but not necessarily really comprehend.
“Jax you gotta stop this. It was a mistake.”
“I’m telling you I didn’t … okay, it was nice for … for someone to … to see … me … but … but I never … god I never did. Yeah, she offered but I never took her up on it. I didn’t know about … about all that she was doing … my God … Lydie will never believe me. I’ve …”
Another voice sighed in fatigue and said, “Jax, man … give it a rest already. We all got played. Those government contracts were just too sweet to turn down. We all got caught up. We all got pulled away. None of us ever suspected that Matt was behind things.”
“Reggie it isn’t the same thing. And Lydie didn’t get played.”
“Oh yeah? And what were those letters we found?”
In a voice that sounded like someone had finally understood something, only too late, “A lonely woman thinking she had found a friend. That’s all they were. No matter what Vicky tried to make them out to be. There wasn’t anything like she said there was in them. I can at least tell her that I know … that I know she didn’t fall for …”
Then it was like a switch flipped and a connection got made; like more than one piston had started to fire inside my brain. I was finally able to say, “My nose itches.”
“Lydie?!”
“Where are the kidlets?”
“In their classes. I … I …”
“We’re at the clinic? I can’t … can’t see.”
“There are compresses on your eyes.”
“How bad?”
“Lydie …”
“Just spit it out. I gotta make plans. The farm … need to get back. Just …”
It was Reggie that said, “Don’t worry about it. Johnson said he will keep an eye on things.”
“Fine. Take that away too. Whatever. Just leave me alone. I can deal. Like always. I’ll figure things out.”
I didn’t know it at the time but there was a shocked silence in the room with everyone looking at each other, not knowing what to say. Before anyone could say anything I was unconscious again.
Next time I woke up it was to hear crying. “Kelly ...”
“I do have a mommy. I do! Don’t let her leave!”
“Kelly, look at me. Lydie isn’t going to leave. She’s just … she’s just … healing. That’s all. She’s healing and it has her tired out.”
I heard more crying realized it must be the boys and then there was some shuffling sounds and then the room grew quiet. I was almost asleep again when the door opened. There were too many footsteps at one time for it to be one person and that proved to be true. Two female voices started talking.
“I had no idea the doctor had a wife. Did you?”
“I’d heard rumors but … Vicky … she seemed so sure and reasonable.”
“Reasonable? Geez, she is one sick chick. And that man? The one that jumped over the side at the old dam? Have you heard who he was?”
“He fell is what I heard. And yeah, but better stay quiet about that. That Major Something-or-Other that has been prowling around … just better stay quiet about that.”
“I suppose.” She squawked and then said, “Okay, I get it. Stop pinching. But seriously, how could a good-looking guy like Doc R have a wife and no one know?”
“Look, it was a … um … a ploy. Vicky just … look, I don’t know the details, I don’t want to know the details. But the doc is really broke up about this and look at his kids. Whatever it is or was or whatever … it was real so … let’s just leave it at that.”
“Yeah. Yeah I suppose. It’s just so strange.”
Eventually they left after changing the sheets. I was sore from being moved around but I also felt better too. Then I heard the door again and wondered who was doing what next. A chair scraped across the floor and then I jumped when I felt something cool against my lips.
“Shhhh, I know you don’t really hear me but it’s alright Lydie. It’s just ice chips. You were right, it was worth building the machine. It’s been dead useful now that we’ve been able to secure the water source for it. Your mouth is a little … a little cut up. The ice will help with the swelling. Thank goodness he didn’t crack any teeth but … but the inside of your mouth is cut up. I … I had to put stitches …” Then he just laid his head next to mind and I could hear him crying.
No, that couldn’t be right. Crying? Jax? No. Uh uh.
“I’ve messed up so bad Lydie. But I swear … on my life … on Kelly and the boys … I was tempted but I never … never … gave in. I swear it Lydie. Please believe me. Please don’t leave. Don’t leave me. Don’t leave the children. They’re terrified you will. They … Vicky has been … talking to them … saying things. I didn’t know. You have to help me Lydie. Kelly is … she’s so confused. I don’t know how this all happened. I mean I do … Matt … again … but … oh god Lydie, just come back to me. You’ve been asleep for so long … too long … please you have to wake up. I can’t lose you. I deserve to but I can’t. Please …”
I wanted to wake up at that point but something wouldn’t let me. I tried and tried but then grew tired and all was black again.
I couldn’t open my eyes or move my arms and my nose itched. All of that was my first impression when I woke up. Only woke up probably isn’t the medical term for it. I could hear but that’s about it. I couldn’t interact with my surroundings … or the people in them. I existed in twilight and could hear but not necessarily really comprehend.
“Jax you gotta stop this. It was a mistake.”
“I’m telling you I didn’t … okay, it was nice for … for someone to … to see … me … but … but I never … god I never did. Yeah, she offered but I never took her up on it. I didn’t know about … about all that she was doing … my God … Lydie will never believe me. I’ve …”
Another voice sighed in fatigue and said, “Jax, man … give it a rest already. We all got played. Those government contracts were just too sweet to turn down. We all got caught up. We all got pulled away. None of us ever suspected that Matt was behind things.”
“Reggie it isn’t the same thing. And Lydie didn’t get played.”
“Oh yeah? And what were those letters we found?”
In a voice that sounded like someone had finally understood something, only too late, “A lonely woman thinking she had found a friend. That’s all they were. No matter what Vicky tried to make them out to be. There wasn’t anything like she said there was in them. I can at least tell her that I know … that I know she didn’t fall for …”
Then it was like a switch flipped and a connection got made; like more than one piston had started to fire inside my brain. I was finally able to say, “My nose itches.”
“Lydie?!”
“Where are the kidlets?”
“In their classes. I … I …”
“We’re at the clinic? I can’t … can’t see.”
“There are compresses on your eyes.”
“How bad?”
“Lydie …”
“Just spit it out. I gotta make plans. The farm … need to get back. Just …”
It was Reggie that said, “Don’t worry about it. Johnson said he will keep an eye on things.”
“Fine. Take that away too. Whatever. Just leave me alone. I can deal. Like always. I’ll figure things out.”
I didn’t know it at the time but there was a shocked silence in the room with everyone looking at each other, not knowing what to say. Before anyone could say anything I was unconscious again.
Next time I woke up it was to hear crying. “Kelly ...”
“I do have a mommy. I do! Don’t let her leave!”
“Kelly, look at me. Lydie isn’t going to leave. She’s just … she’s just … healing. That’s all. She’s healing and it has her tired out.”
I heard more crying realized it must be the boys and then there was some shuffling sounds and then the room grew quiet. I was almost asleep again when the door opened. There were too many footsteps at one time for it to be one person and that proved to be true. Two female voices started talking.
“I had no idea the doctor had a wife. Did you?”
“I’d heard rumors but … Vicky … she seemed so sure and reasonable.”
“Reasonable? Geez, she is one sick chick. And that man? The one that jumped over the side at the old dam? Have you heard who he was?”
“He fell is what I heard. And yeah, but better stay quiet about that. That Major Something-or-Other that has been prowling around … just better stay quiet about that.”
“I suppose.” She squawked and then said, “Okay, I get it. Stop pinching. But seriously, how could a good-looking guy like Doc R have a wife and no one know?”
“Look, it was a … um … a ploy. Vicky just … look, I don’t know the details, I don’t want to know the details. But the doc is really broke up about this and look at his kids. Whatever it is or was or whatever … it was real so … let’s just leave it at that.”
“Yeah. Yeah I suppose. It’s just so strange.”
Eventually they left after changing the sheets. I was sore from being moved around but I also felt better too. Then I heard the door again and wondered who was doing what next. A chair scraped across the floor and then I jumped when I felt something cool against my lips.
“Shhhh, I know you don’t really hear me but it’s alright Lydie. It’s just ice chips. You were right, it was worth building the machine. It’s been dead useful now that we’ve been able to secure the water source for it. Your mouth is a little … a little cut up. The ice will help with the swelling. Thank goodness he didn’t crack any teeth but … but the inside of your mouth is cut up. I … I had to put stitches …” Then he just laid his head next to mind and I could hear him crying.
No, that couldn’t be right. Crying? Jax? No. Uh uh.
“I’ve messed up so bad Lydie. But I swear … on my life … on Kelly and the boys … I was tempted but I never … never … gave in. I swear it Lydie. Please believe me. Please don’t leave. Don’t leave me. Don’t leave the children. They’re terrified you will. They … Vicky has been … talking to them … saying things. I didn’t know. You have to help me Lydie. Kelly is … she’s so confused. I don’t know how this all happened. I mean I do … Matt … again … but … oh god Lydie, just come back to me. You’ve been asleep for so long … too long … please you have to wake up. I can’t lose you. I deserve to but I can’t. Please …”
I wanted to wake up at that point but something wouldn’t let me. I tried and tried but then grew tired and all was black again.
Part 5
“How many times do I have to ask before someone let’s me scratch my nose?”
That’s what they said I said when I finally woke up. I don’t remember so maybe I wasn’t as awake as they thought but it was a beginning. I did remember the second time. It sounded like there were angry squirrels in the room. I turned my head and spotted Kelly and the boys pitching a fit as some woman tried to lead them from the room. I wasn’t having it and rolled off the cot that I had been laying on trying to stand and get to them.
The children screamed and suddenly the room was too full of people. Jax picked me up and laid me back on the pallet despite the fact that I was fighting him. “Don’t let her … take them …”
It took a few more minutes before things were sorted. The children had snuck away during lunch to come see me and the woman, one of the classroom aides, had been trying take them back to their class. From that point on I improved though my mouth was so sore that talking was difficult. And that made it even more difficult that people wouldn’t stop talking to me. I was questioned by federal investigators. The old gang stopped by, ostensibly to cheer me up and cheer me on. The kids were non-stop magpies though that didn’t really bother me except that it was hard to answer their many questions. And then there was Jax.
Jax looked awful. I hadn’t seen him like this since … well the first dam incident.
“I’m not that hurt,” I said slowly. “I don’t see why I can’t just go back to the farm.”
“Because … because I … I …”
“Enough Jax, just let it go.”
“You don’t believe me.”
“I suppose I do. I’ve had enough people tell me I should.”
“But that’s not you. You don’t believe me.”
“I believe you … that you didn’t do anything.”
“But.”
“Jax, just let it go.”
“I can’t.”
“Jax, I’m asking you to just … let … this … go.”
He would have said more but he was called away to an emergency. And by that time I had gotten enough of my energy back that I refused to discuss it anymore and finally Jax didn’t have any choice but to accept that.
Two days later I had had enough. I explained to the children that just like their father needed to be a doctor and take care of people I needed to go back to the farm and take care of it. I just wasn’t made for town life … or for people sticking their noses into my business.
“Will you go away forever?”
“Of course not Kelly. Besides …”
Jax came into the room and said, “Besides, we’ll be there with her.”
The children were speechless. I was simply suspicious.
“You have your work,” I told him. “Important work.”
“I also have a family. The town has agreed to hire two more trained medical personnel … one of them is even going to be a trained surgeon. I … I still need to come in but it won’t be for seven days a week for such long shifts.”
“You need …”
“I need my family.” He was looking at me so intensely I could only nod in resignation.
We rode back to the farm in the hybrid-conversion van and were met by Johnson who seemed relieved to see Jax. I got out and made my way inside to the kitchen and stood wondering what to fix for their supper.
Jax came in to find me and said, “I’ll fix …”
All three kids yelped, “No!”
For some reason that struck me funny and then I remembered when he’d first come to the farm and insisted on eating the toast he had burnt and all I could do was hurry back out of the house and to the barn only there was no King Kong to cry to, he’d passed away the year before, already much older than most rabbits of his species, the last of my brother’s “pets” to pass.
“Lydie?”
“I just needed some air Jax. I’ll be right there.”
Instead of letting me by he tentatively pulled me into his arms. “I’m sorry. I know it doesn’t make things better but … I’m sorry. I guess I … I guess I just didn’t want to see what was happening.”
“Jax I told you I didn’t …”
“I know what you said Lydie but I just … I just can’t let it go.”
“Well you’re going to have to if you want us to move forward.”
“Can we? Can we move forward?”
“Do you want to?”
“God yes. Of course.”
“Then let it go. Matt was always really good at finding the chinks in people’s armor. I don’t know why. Most of the time it was too stupid easy for him to get away with it. It was just his talent. But he’s gone. This time for good. We managed to survive him before. Let’s just … let’s just survive him this time too.”
Was it easy? No. We were a long time dealing with how easy … how too easy … it had been to separate us. Jax had needs. I thought I was supporting those needs … maybe too much support if that makes sense. He thought I didn’t need him anymore or that he could prove himself or something … never have been completely clear what it was. Jax never seemed to be completely clear about how he’d gone so far down a road that he’d almost gotten lost.
But eventually we grew up a little more. Found out we both had faults and weaknesses that we hadn’t realized were there. They weren’t big faults, big weaknesses, not individually but put together and acted on they nearly destroyed us. We found out it is usually the little stuff that will trip you up the most. We had thought dealing with the big stuff, triumphing over Matt the first time, that we’d won our own personal war. And we had … but just like the world had failed to completely heal, so had we. But from that point we did start healing … a healthy healing though there were set backs.
At one point I was in danger of sliding back into the loneliness and self-isolation that had been my go-to protection protocol, but then Jax up and convinced me to join some committee or other in town that was looking for sustainable living plans. And it grew from there. The farm was and still is my primary pursuit but I finally opened up to other experiences. The children were growing like weeds and then Jax and I added a few more to our team roster. We’ve been lucky that they all turned out more human than enviro-geek but a couple of the grandkids … well, you can’t have everything I suppose. Kelly laughs when I say that. She followed her father into the medical field as did the boys. Some of the younger kids have taken a swipe or two at farming but it didn’t stick. It makes me a bit sad but then again, I’m an elder and older … but I don’t feel so old I have to worry about what these days they call estate planning just yet.
Jax still works in town but only on special cases and for friends. He teaches more than anything these days. Some of his students are horrified by the stories he tells of the “old days.” But then he’ll get a call from one where they’re blessing him for teaching them survival medicine because they were able to use it and save a life. I hope those skills aren’t lost. Just like I hope small scale farming isn’t lost. Machines can’t do it all regardless of the techno-snobs’ opinions.
Perhaps it is going to seem anticlimactic to some, but I guess the bottom line for this memoir is that … life happens. You might try and whitewash it but eventually the stains will come through. Like with Matt. We tried to do it not once, but twice. He really was certifiable when he fell over the edge of the old dam trying to run away. At least I think he fell. There’s some that says he jumped … some that said he was pushed. I’m not sure I want to know. Regardless it was tragic. And yes, despite all the evil that Matt did I can still say his death was tragic.
What was his father’s betrayal? At some point his father realized how unstable Matt was. It was likely when he found out about how he was continuing to manipulate people to try and get back to the town to reboot his “empire.” No one will ever know exactly what happened. They didn’t find Matt’s father’s body for almost a week. But the notes that his father had left, found after Matt’s own death, indicated he’d meant to take his son to a mental health facility and quietly have him committed, that he’d hoped that it was simply a form of PTSD or something similar, and eventually he and Matt would continue working together for the betterment of mankind. Matt’s father was a bit of a narcissist but how different things might have been had he succeeded in getting Matt sufficient help.
But none of that came out for years. Out west Matt had a following. I wouldn’t say it quite qualified as a cult but it wasn’t far from it … and he was held up as some kind of martyr for many years. Then like always, the stains started showing through the whitewash and the truth came out. For those of us left from that time, rehashing it was sometimes painful but so’s life on occasion. Either way it didn’t destroy us anymore than Matt had been able to destroy us while he was alive. It reinforced that it isn’t the outside that matters, it isn’t always how smart or dumb you are either, it is what is on the inside in your heart. Your motivations are what truly dictate who you are.
And the years have continued to roll by. Some of the old gang didn’t last that long in this new world. Some of them thrived in it … and still do. Their stories are their stories. I’ll let them tell it if they want to.
“How many times do I have to ask before someone let’s me scratch my nose?”
That’s what they said I said when I finally woke up. I don’t remember so maybe I wasn’t as awake as they thought but it was a beginning. I did remember the second time. It sounded like there were angry squirrels in the room. I turned my head and spotted Kelly and the boys pitching a fit as some woman tried to lead them from the room. I wasn’t having it and rolled off the cot that I had been laying on trying to stand and get to them.
The children screamed and suddenly the room was too full of people. Jax picked me up and laid me back on the pallet despite the fact that I was fighting him. “Don’t let her … take them …”
It took a few more minutes before things were sorted. The children had snuck away during lunch to come see me and the woman, one of the classroom aides, had been trying take them back to their class. From that point on I improved though my mouth was so sore that talking was difficult. And that made it even more difficult that people wouldn’t stop talking to me. I was questioned by federal investigators. The old gang stopped by, ostensibly to cheer me up and cheer me on. The kids were non-stop magpies though that didn’t really bother me except that it was hard to answer their many questions. And then there was Jax.
Jax looked awful. I hadn’t seen him like this since … well the first dam incident.
“I’m not that hurt,” I said slowly. “I don’t see why I can’t just go back to the farm.”
“Because … because I … I …”
“Enough Jax, just let it go.”
“You don’t believe me.”
“I suppose I do. I’ve had enough people tell me I should.”
“But that’s not you. You don’t believe me.”
“I believe you … that you didn’t do anything.”
“But.”
“Jax, just let it go.”
“I can’t.”
“Jax, I’m asking you to just … let … this … go.”
He would have said more but he was called away to an emergency. And by that time I had gotten enough of my energy back that I refused to discuss it anymore and finally Jax didn’t have any choice but to accept that.
Two days later I had had enough. I explained to the children that just like their father needed to be a doctor and take care of people I needed to go back to the farm and take care of it. I just wasn’t made for town life … or for people sticking their noses into my business.
“Will you go away forever?”
“Of course not Kelly. Besides …”
Jax came into the room and said, “Besides, we’ll be there with her.”
The children were speechless. I was simply suspicious.
“You have your work,” I told him. “Important work.”
“I also have a family. The town has agreed to hire two more trained medical personnel … one of them is even going to be a trained surgeon. I … I still need to come in but it won’t be for seven days a week for such long shifts.”
“You need …”
“I need my family.” He was looking at me so intensely I could only nod in resignation.
We rode back to the farm in the hybrid-conversion van and were met by Johnson who seemed relieved to see Jax. I got out and made my way inside to the kitchen and stood wondering what to fix for their supper.
Jax came in to find me and said, “I’ll fix …”
All three kids yelped, “No!”
For some reason that struck me funny and then I remembered when he’d first come to the farm and insisted on eating the toast he had burnt and all I could do was hurry back out of the house and to the barn only there was no King Kong to cry to, he’d passed away the year before, already much older than most rabbits of his species, the last of my brother’s “pets” to pass.
“Lydie?”
“I just needed some air Jax. I’ll be right there.”
Instead of letting me by he tentatively pulled me into his arms. “I’m sorry. I know it doesn’t make things better but … I’m sorry. I guess I … I guess I just didn’t want to see what was happening.”
“Jax I told you I didn’t …”
“I know what you said Lydie but I just … I just can’t let it go.”
“Well you’re going to have to if you want us to move forward.”
“Can we? Can we move forward?”
“Do you want to?”
“God yes. Of course.”
“Then let it go. Matt was always really good at finding the chinks in people’s armor. I don’t know why. Most of the time it was too stupid easy for him to get away with it. It was just his talent. But he’s gone. This time for good. We managed to survive him before. Let’s just … let’s just survive him this time too.”
Was it easy? No. We were a long time dealing with how easy … how too easy … it had been to separate us. Jax had needs. I thought I was supporting those needs … maybe too much support if that makes sense. He thought I didn’t need him anymore or that he could prove himself or something … never have been completely clear what it was. Jax never seemed to be completely clear about how he’d gone so far down a road that he’d almost gotten lost.
But eventually we grew up a little more. Found out we both had faults and weaknesses that we hadn’t realized were there. They weren’t big faults, big weaknesses, not individually but put together and acted on they nearly destroyed us. We found out it is usually the little stuff that will trip you up the most. We had thought dealing with the big stuff, triumphing over Matt the first time, that we’d won our own personal war. And we had … but just like the world had failed to completely heal, so had we. But from that point we did start healing … a healthy healing though there were set backs.
At one point I was in danger of sliding back into the loneliness and self-isolation that had been my go-to protection protocol, but then Jax up and convinced me to join some committee or other in town that was looking for sustainable living plans. And it grew from there. The farm was and still is my primary pursuit but I finally opened up to other experiences. The children were growing like weeds and then Jax and I added a few more to our team roster. We’ve been lucky that they all turned out more human than enviro-geek but a couple of the grandkids … well, you can’t have everything I suppose. Kelly laughs when I say that. She followed her father into the medical field as did the boys. Some of the younger kids have taken a swipe or two at farming but it didn’t stick. It makes me a bit sad but then again, I’m an elder and older … but I don’t feel so old I have to worry about what these days they call estate planning just yet.
Jax still works in town but only on special cases and for friends. He teaches more than anything these days. Some of his students are horrified by the stories he tells of the “old days.” But then he’ll get a call from one where they’re blessing him for teaching them survival medicine because they were able to use it and save a life. I hope those skills aren’t lost. Just like I hope small scale farming isn’t lost. Machines can’t do it all regardless of the techno-snobs’ opinions.
Perhaps it is going to seem anticlimactic to some, but I guess the bottom line for this memoir is that … life happens. You might try and whitewash it but eventually the stains will come through. Like with Matt. We tried to do it not once, but twice. He really was certifiable when he fell over the edge of the old dam trying to run away. At least I think he fell. There’s some that says he jumped … some that said he was pushed. I’m not sure I want to know. Regardless it was tragic. And yes, despite all the evil that Matt did I can still say his death was tragic.
What was his father’s betrayal? At some point his father realized how unstable Matt was. It was likely when he found out about how he was continuing to manipulate people to try and get back to the town to reboot his “empire.” No one will ever know exactly what happened. They didn’t find Matt’s father’s body for almost a week. But the notes that his father had left, found after Matt’s own death, indicated he’d meant to take his son to a mental health facility and quietly have him committed, that he’d hoped that it was simply a form of PTSD or something similar, and eventually he and Matt would continue working together for the betterment of mankind. Matt’s father was a bit of a narcissist but how different things might have been had he succeeded in getting Matt sufficient help.
But none of that came out for years. Out west Matt had a following. I wouldn’t say it quite qualified as a cult but it wasn’t far from it … and he was held up as some kind of martyr for many years. Then like always, the stains started showing through the whitewash and the truth came out. For those of us left from that time, rehashing it was sometimes painful but so’s life on occasion. Either way it didn’t destroy us anymore than Matt had been able to destroy us while he was alive. It reinforced that it isn’t the outside that matters, it isn’t always how smart or dumb you are either, it is what is on the inside in your heart. Your motivations are what truly dictate who you are.
And the years have continued to roll by. Some of the old gang didn’t last that long in this new world. Some of them thrived in it … and still do. Their stories are their stories. I’ll let them tell it if they want to.
There, now it is finished. I need to get Forsaken Harvest here as well. That's going to take more time than I have this weekend however. It is on the to-do list. I'll eventually get Veta Books 1 and 2 here and we'll just go from there. I wonder if I have Best Laid Plans here. I'll have to look.
Griz3752
Retired, practising Curmudgeon
So there I was; there was an old Kathy in FL story from 2014, BTT so it could be finished up.
Great.
Then there's a Part 2; better yet. Then, its a gosh darn Anthology of about 7 or 8 parts & hundreds of pages.
You started this in 2014 yet 8 yrs later, (like 2920 days later) you finish and, it's all cohesive.
The rate at which you release this torrent makes me so tired, I can't figure out how you do it.
Not a complaint; just trying to grasp how you manage this and it all makes sense, plus you have a business and a family.
Impressive Ma'am, very impressive.
Good thing this is the weekend. If you take a few days off, I might catch up by next week end.
Sammy55
Veteran Member
I'm just finishing up a re-reading of "Carry On" so I'll hop on this one next! Glad to see the unfinished books getting finished! I, too, don't know how you do it with your schedule, but am most appreciative of your doing it, that's for sure!
By the way.... Are any of your books in print? There are some (quite a few) that I would like in print because of the recipes, directions, information (and just plain fun) they contain. You know - for JIC the power or internet goes down.
By the way.... Are any of your books in print? There are some (quite a few) that I would like in print because of the recipes, directions, information (and just plain fun) they contain. You know - for JIC the power or internet goes down.
I THINK ALL YOUR STORIES ARE ON THE FIRST 2 PAGES. I HAVE NOT SEEN Best Laid Plans here.
DIMDAL
Contributing Member
Hope this helps you find the story you are looking for. Attached is a list I keep of where Kathy's stories (the ones I am aware of) can be found and if the story is not finished or complete. Please let me know if I missed something.
DIMDAL
Contributing Member
Ack! The link didn't work
Put it on my google drive try this link
drive.google.com
Put it on my google drive try this link
Mother Hen's Story Time.pdf
drive.google.com
Ack! The link didn't work
Put it on my google drive try this link
Mother Hen's Story Time.pdf
Oh my Lord. ROFL!! Thanks DIMDAL. I've got my work cut out for me. And those are just the ones on the web. I've got twice that many in pieces on my hard drive. LOL My brain is such mush. I really have to get these finished.
Sammy55
Veteran Member
Well, I just finished Geek again. Was a spell-binder, just like the last time I read it!! Countless hours this afternoon and evening spent reading as I just could NOT drag my attention away from the book!
Kathy, don't let your brain go to mush...please!!!
Wow, DIMDAL!! What dedication!! I just bookmark the latest page or chapter so that when I pick up the current story, I go automatically there, like a bookmarker. But your list is impressive!!
Kathy, don't let your brain go to mush...please!!!
Wow, DIMDAL!! What dedication!! I just bookmark the latest page or chapter so that when I pick up the current story, I go automatically there, like a bookmarker. But your list is impressive!!