Wipeout | Book 2 | Foul Play

by Richards, E. S.

  The second group was made up of children who were still too young to be given any proper responsibility, but were old enough that they needed to have structure in their day. As a result, they were shown how to do basic tasks like milking cows or hunting for chicken eggs, as well as maintaining their regular school lessons and daily activities.

  Those old enough to be given responsibilities split their time between watching over the youngest ones and learning trades from adults around the island, preparing them to help and utilizing their individual strengths. By dividing up the children like this, it allowed for a greater division of labor while also keeping some form of schooling and regulation in check.

  Zayn and Axel both fell into the middle group.

  It was a structure that worked well under Martha’s supervision, her place on the leadership council and her ideas a hit with almost everyone left on Kauai. It was one of the first things that the council had put in place, alongside organizing a team of engineers that Arthur was a part of to try and keep the electrical grid up and running as long as possible.

  New rules had been put in place involving the restriction of power at certain times of the day. That included only running hot water between six and seven in the morning and between seven and eight at night. Art and the others were working extremely hard, but without the complete set up, it was hard to keep the island fully supported, even with its considerably reduced population.

  Looking up at the clock on the wall, Jessie smiled. She would be sitting down to eat soon. With all the food that had been gathered from people’s homes, one thing the leadership council was trying to put in place was group meals. It hadn’t been part of their initial plan, but was becoming necessary after a select number of people tried to ruin the rationing for everyone else.

  Some people just couldn’t get on board with their belongings being taken from them and had sparked a string of home invasions the first night after rationing was announced, breaking in and stealing from neighbors’ homes. While the perpetrators had not yet been identified, group meals were introduced as a way to further restrict what goods people had in their homes and to also try and encourage a sense of unity across the island. The shift for Jessie’s neighborhood was only ten minutes away and not only did it mean she could eat, but she could also see her husband as well.

  When they went out to the eating area, he was already there waiting for them.

  “Hello boys!” Art grinned when he saw his family. Zayn and Axel rushed toward him and allowed themselves to be scooped up in his arms. “Are you both okay?”

  “Hi darling,” Jessie greeted her husband as she caught up to her children, planting a soft kiss on his cheek. “How was work?”

  “Oh, you know,” Art sighed. “Busy. I’m not sure how much longer we can keep the grid up and running. Even with the limited usage it’s starting to short in places. It’s not my area of expertise exactly, but I think by the end of the week we’ll have to rethink everything we’ve got in place so far. I don’t know how these group meals are going to continue if we can’t keep the industrial ovens running.”

  “There’s already a delay on our sitting it seems,” Jessie replied with a shake of her head. “I think one of them broke down earlier.”

  “It did,” Art confirmed. “A couple of my guys went off to fix it. Hopefully we’ll all be sitting down soon.”

  “I’m sure,” Jessie smiled, not meaning to bring her husband’s mood down. “I know you’re doing everything you can, Art. You’re all doing an incredible job.”

  “Thank you, babe,” Art returned his wife’s smile, leaning forward and kissing her properly on the lips as their two children tussled at their ankles. “It’d be a darn sight easier if I could get Dennis out of the way though. That man thinks he knows everything.”

  Jessie made a face. Dennis was Jamie’s older brother and while pretty much the entirety of Kauai liked and respected the surf shack owner, opinions about his brother were very mixed. The older man was an electrical engineer and therefore in demand at the moment, a place that he loved being. He craved the limelight and soaked it up, always trying to make himself the center of attention.

  A couple of years ago he had run for a position on the Kauai City Council and his stance on several issues had ruffled quite a few feathers. For a relatively small island, the drama surrounding his campaign had been pretty big news, a few of the local news crews in Honolulu even picking up the story.

  Thankfully – in Jessie’s opinion – he hadn’t won. Had his brother Jamie ran, Jessie was sure the result would’ve been very different. But while Dennis sought power and control, Jamie simply took what was awarded to him through good grace and decency. It was ironic really that the brother who had simply opened up a surf shack and served people beverages for many years had ended up in higher regard than the one who graduated first in his class at college and wore a pressed shirt even on the hottest island days.

  “Just try not to let him get to you,” Jessie advised her husband as their line for food started moving again. “The minute he knows he bothers you, he’ll only start gunning for you more.”

  “I know, I know,” Art nodded. “I just wish we’d been able to choose who was evacuated.”

  Jessie laughed, imagining a Pacific island paradise where the only people left behind on Kauai were her friends and family, everyone else floating away on a boat to somewhere new. The island could truly be a dream when the timing was right. On hot summer days when she could lie on the beach with her husband, their two boys playing in the surf just ahead of them, life felt like heaven. There were times when she couldn’t imagine the life she’d had before moving to Hawaii, the thought of high-rise city buildings and congested roads making her grimace. When it wanted to be, their island life could be truly idyllic. The only problem was that following Trident’s collapse, no matter where in the world you were based, people were suffering.

  “Okay boys, what do you want tonight? Fish curry or vegetable rice and falafel?”

  Both Zayn and Axel looked at their mother with bemused expressions, the sarcasm in her tone entirely lost on them. Kitch, the farmer who was serving up the food when Jessie and her family finally reached the front of the line laughed, throwing his head back as Jessie posed the question to her boys.

  “Don’t worry guys,” Kitch smiled, “we’ve got fish sticks and peas further down the line.”

  “Why do you have to be like that, Kitch,” Art grinned, reaching over the food and shaking the farmer’s hand in greeting. “Let them suffer for a little bit.”

  Kitch laughed, “I’m not as cruel as you are, Art. Now, what’ll it be?”

  At just nineteen, Kitch was the youngest member of the newly formed leadership council. He was a dedicated farmer who was born and raised on Kauai, working tireless hours no matter what time of year to provide fresh produce for the islanders and tourists alike. While he was young, he was a very popular face across the island.

  The council was predominantly made up of older people; mothers and fathers with more life experience and a lot more to give on the surface. But Kitch had nominated himself and after a heartfelt speech about wanting to do his bit to help keep the island afloat, he had received one of the biggest roars of approval of the entire group. What he lacked in age he certainly made up for in other means, his profession as a farmer also ranking him as an essential worker and allowing Gal, the other farmer on the council, someone else to share the workload with.

  After exchanging a few more friendly words with the teenager turned leader, Jessie and Art stepped away to allow the line to continue moving and guided the kids to a free area of bench in the sand. They ate overlooking the ocean and watched the waves lap up on the sand, the tide coming and going like it always had, perhaps one of the few things unaffected by everything else in the world.

  “How long do you think it’ll be like this?” Jessie found herself wondering out loud.

  “Things will get easier,” Art replied, seeing the forlorn e
xpression on his wife’s face and longing to make it go away. “How was your day? Did you have any more trouble with anyone?”

  “I don’t really want to talk about it,” Jessie sighed, unwilling to drag up the difficult elements of her day. She knew everyone was struggling and sitting outside of their comfort zone at the moment, why should she have any right to complain about it.

  “You don’t have to be a martyr all the time, Jessie,” Art replied. “Yeah this is different and weird for all of us, but that doesn’t mean we have to pretend to enjoy every second of it. You can still have a rubbish day. You can still talk to me about it. Not everything has changed.”

  Jessie looked up at her husband and nodded, aware of how right he was. No one knew how much longer it would be like that.

  “Why don’t you have the night off tonight?” Art suggested. “I’ll take care of the boys and get them to bed. You just put your feet up and relax for a bit, leave everything else to me.”

  “I can’t do that,” Jessie argued. “You work just as hard as I do and for longer hours, too. You’re the one who deserves the time off, not me.”

  “I won’t take no for an answer. Boys,” he turned and called out to Zayn and Axel as they kicked a ball around in the sand further down the beach. Their fish sticks had been devoured seconds after they sat down. “We’ve got to leave mommy alone tonight, okay? We’re going to have some quality man time.”

  “Yeah!” Zayn shouted, punching the air and then falling on his knees clenching his muscles and putting his arms up like a strongman. “Man time,” he echoed, “no girls allowed.”

  “What are we going to do, dad?”

  “Whatever you feel like,” Art replied with a smile. “We never finished our fishing lesson from last week. Do you want to try that if there’s enough light? Or we could take that ball back home and your old man could show you his moves?”

  “You don’t have any moves, dad,” Zayn grinned, flicking his ball up in the air with his foot and then bringing it down skillfully with the other.

  “That sounds like a challenge to me,” Art declared. “I’ll even take both of you on at once. See if you can beat me then.”

  “Easy!”

  “You’re going down, dad!”

  Despite how she felt, it was hard for Jessie not to smile when she spent time with her family. It didn’t take much to realize that being away from them for longer was the biggest strain put on her since Trident’s collapse. Not only was she seeing her boys less, but she was worrying about her brother and her mom and dad in New York as well. There was zero contact with anyone not on the island now and it didn’t look like there would be for some time. Kauai was cut off from the rest of the world and so it would remain until all of this washed over and some form of currency returned. Until then they would be trading with coconuts and eating al fresco on the beach. Life seemed simpler, but soon the excitement of it all would fade and they would be left with a stark reality that things were only going to get tougher.

  Chapter 14

  Giving up and slowing to a halt, Lieutenant Walter Davies leaned forward and put his hands on his knees to catch his breath. He’d chased the two men from the sporting goods store for a couple of blocks, but after the blow he had been dealt to the head from his own gun, Walter felt slow and fuzzy. His head was pounding and he needed to catch his breath, black spots dancing around in his vision and threatening to make him lose consciousness. Reluctantly he gave up the chase and leaned against a brick wall for a few moments, trying to pull himself together.

  Being a cop in New York City was growing harder and harder by the hour. The number of them who were still willing to put their lives on the line to uphold the law was dwindling. From his precinct, Walter knew at most six or seven guys who were still fighting against the ever-changing plethora of criminals now occupying the city. They understood that times had changed, but there was still right and wrong and Walter was among those who wanted to ensure it stayed that way.

  The two men he had just interrupted stealing supplies from the sporting goods store were a perfect example. Walter didn’t doubt that they had been law-abiding citizens before the crash, both likely had never had a run in with the law before today. They had told him exactly what countless others had since Trident went down: they were only doing what they needed to do in order to survive and that he should step aside and let them go.

  Almost everyone reacted the same way. They tried to convince Walter that he couldn’t make a difference and that it was easier to just let them go. It was, but that didn’t mean that was what he was going to do. Walter just didn’t have it in him. He’d wanted to be a cop for as long as he could remember. It just wasn’t in his nature to see someone doing something wrong and let it slide.

  What he hadn’t expected from the two men though was how they had fought back. Everyone tried to reason with him, but very few actually escalated to violence. Walter was disappointed with himself that he hadn’t fared better, but the attack had taken him by surprise and if it hadn’t been for his Glock coming lose and the second man striking him down with it, he was sure he could have overpowered them both. The fact that he had lost his gun through it all only made matters worse. Walter had ended up arming the very people he was trying to bring down.

  With his heart rate finally slowing down and his vision less blurred, Walter looked up and got his bearings. He knew the city like the back of his hand so it didn’t take any time at all to figure out where he was. He turned and headed back to the precinct.

  So many of the rank and file had failed to report for duty, the remaining dedicated cops from the various precincts across the city had banded together to set up a few key control centers. In reality, they had little control over anything, but they were still trying to do what was right.

  They stepped up patrols around hospitals and large department stores, the two hot beds in the city right now for a lot of the looting. The more serious problem were the gangs. Their ranks had swelled and they acted with purpose and organization. If being a cop had taught Walter one thing, it was that those criminals with time to plan and prepare were far more dangerous than those that simply acted.

  “Lieutenant Davies, what happened to you?”

  “Jimmy,” Walter greeted the cop standing at the entrance to the 108th precinct. “Got jumped by a couple of looters. The inmates are running the asylum, man.”

  “Tell me about it,” Jimmy shook his head as he replied, and opened the door for him. “They’re definitely getting bolder. Knowles was shot earlier this morning. Last I heard, he’d just come out of surgery. Touch and go there for a while. Bullet got him square in the chest.”

  “We need to put a stop to this,” Walter declared as he walked inside.

  “I agree,” Jimmy answered. “But there’s fewer and fewer of us every day. There’s going to come a point soon where we’re so outnumbered there won’t even be any point in trying.”

  Walter stopped and put a hand on Jimmy’s shoulder. “There’s always a point. As long as we carry the badge and have breath in our bodies, there’s a point. Don’t you go forgetting that, Jimmy.”

  “I won’t, sir,” he replied. “You have my word.”

  “Good,” Walter smiled. “At ease now, I’ll leave you to keep an eye on the doors.”

  Leaving the rookie at the entrance and making his way inside, Walter was pleased that such a young and relatively new member of the force had decided to stick around. It was unsurprising that most of the cops who were still loyal to the badge were in their latter years of service like he was. After devoting so much of their lives to the force, even a disaster like this one couldn’t tear them away. That meant that as Walter walked into the briefing room, he recognized several faces, despite not working closely with more than two of them for the last few years.

  “Lieutenant,” Captain Banes greeted him with a nod. “How is it out there?”

  “Not good,” Walter replied with a sigh, taking a plastic cup from the stack and hol
ding it underneath the coffee machine as the lights flickered above his head. “We still struggling with the rolling blackouts?”

  The captain nodded. “They’re not lasting as long now,” he explained, “but they’re becoming more and more frequent. I’m not sure which is worse: a few long stretches without power or a whole bunch of short bursts. Suppose we’ve just got to make do with what we’ve got while it’s still.” The captain took a sip of his coffee. “Measures are already in place for how we can keep this place safe once we’re shut down for good.”

  “Won’t be long now I don’t think,” Walter thought out loud. “I reckon we might need to pool all our resources in one place, even if it does mean we’re spread thinly across the city.”

  “Perhaps. Where have you been this morning?”

  “Manhattan,” Walter answered, rubbing the back of his head where he’d been hit earlier as he spoke, the lump that his gun had left raised and tender. “Had to deal with a couple of looters, it’s like every man and his dog is wanting for something now. Can’t walk two blocks without seeing someone committing a crime.”

  Captain Banes shook his head, well aware of the issue that was plaguing his city. He didn’t like what he was about to say to Walter, but the two of them knew each other and he knew that the Lieutenant would be a good sounding board for his idea before he took it to everyone else. The police captain was starting to think they may have to run a slightly different course to the letter of the law in order to keep the city functional and safe for the civilians. He wasn’t keen on letting things go, but there came a point when he knew he needed to put the protection of the people first. That was, after all, what the badge he wore so proudly displayed.

  “Listen,” Captain Banes started speaking, glancing around the briefing room and keeping his voice low, not ready to speak to anyone else just yet. “I think we might have to start scaling back on the prevention tactic and switch to a more protection-based system. We can’t stop all the bad from taking place, but we can protect those in danger or those who are hurt.”