by A J Newman
“Hey, wouldn’t older tractors still run?”
“Damn, no one has thought about that yet. I’ll start passing that on.”
“Chuck, you might have people check to see if anyone has shortwave or walkie-talkie radios that work. Ones that were stored in metal cabinets or metal buildings should work. I think we were attacked with nuclear EMP bombs. The metal shields the radio’s electronics from damage.”
“Thanks for the ideas and info. We plan to meet at the Post Office in Philpot the day after tomorrow to see how we can help each other.”
“Be careful who you invite. People will be starving in a week and will kill for food.”
“I’m not worried about that. We are just good Christian people who will help anyone who shows up for help.”
Mike waved goodbye and drove on into Owensville without stopping even when people tried to wave him down. He couldn’t drive very fast since cars were parked where they stopped in the middle of the road. He wove his way around them while cursing the damn drivers for not steering their vehicles to the side of the road. He saw three more old cars on the road and waved at them. He was just about to the exit for the Baker Parkway when he saw a group of people walking on the side of the road. He slowed down and drove across the median to avoid them. Just as he got going, he saw several of them waving rifles and trying to cross over to block his way. Mike floored the old truck, and the 460 Ford roared to life and went past the men before they could get in front of him.
He heard them yell, “Stop you bastard, we need your truck,” then he heard a blast, and something hit the back of the truck.
He looked back in the mirror and saw that the rear window had several small broken spots and fracture lines. The bastards had shot at him with a shotgun! He thought, “What makes them think they can just steal someone’s truck because they need it?” He pulled his Glock from his holster and placed it on the seat beside him. The next asshole that shoots at me will get a bullet in his ass.
••••
“Mom, I’m back.”
“Young lady, don’t you ever leave again without checking with me. I was scared you ran off.”
“Well, I might if you and Todd don’t start taking this seriously. I ran to the store and got some food. Mr. Parker’s store was about empty, and he was closing it today before looters come to rob him. The Best Buy store was being looted when I rode past it.”
“Darling, you have been listening to your dad too much. This is not the end of the world. Todd will be home soon, and he will know what to do. Surely they shut his office down and sent them home.”
“Mom, Todd is an office manager at the welfare office. His office should be closed every day according to Dad.”
“Don’t be a smart-ass.”
••••
Todd’s office was experiencing a total breakdown of order and chaos. EBT cards were not working due to the electronics failure and stores were only taking cash. There were no police to control the crowd of people who demanded food, medicine, and transportation. When they found out the office couldn’t help them, they rioted
Todd yelled to the crowd, “We’re sorry the EBT cards aren’t working. We only do the paperwork and follow up on your welfare. We can’t make the cards work.”
“You had better get us some food, or there’s going to be hell to pay. Get your boss out here. We need somebody who can give us cash until the EBT cards work.”
“My boss is in Washington today, and with power out, I don’t know when he'll be back. We are closing the office down until the federal government gives us the ability to help you.”
This angered the crowd, and they went berserk. They knocked Todd out of the way and stormed the office. The office workers fled out the back door when they saw the horde of angry people breaking down the front doors. They broke all of the windows, overturned desks and stole laptops and PCs before they set the building on fire. Todd got up out of the flowerbeds, brushed the dirt off his suit and watched as these people tore his office to pieces. He felt sorry for these unfortunate people and would have given them his own money if the banks weren’t closed. He had been knocked down and trampled on as the mass of people stormed his office, but he had no serious injuries, so he calmly dusted himself off and started walking home.
Todd’s office was on Main Street just down from the courthouse, so he had to walk three miles to Joan’s home on Bittersweet Road off of Highway 351 on the east side of town. It was a nice large house in a nice subdivision, and Todd was tired of living in a small apartment over a store in downtown Anderson. A junior office manager for the state of Kentucky was not very highly paid, and Todd liked the nicer things in life.
He walked down Main Street to 2nd Street and headed east. Joan’s house was three miles straight ahead. Todd saw a large fire with black smoke rising from the shopping center where the Walgreens was located. He stopped and looked around to see that there were several large columns of smoke rising into the sky above Anderson. Cars, pickups, and semi-trucks were scattered about the streets as though a child had been playing with them. Many had been wrecked when the engines lost power. He walked several blocks and saw a large crowd gathered behind St. John’s Church with what looked like several men fighting. He picked up the pace to get away from the conflict when he saw an older house on the left explode into flames. He stopped for a minute, and three more houses erupted in flames. Todd ran across the street and ran for several blocks until he felt safe again. He walked up the 4th Street overpass, saw that the Best Buy and Tractor Supply were in flames with people still carrying TVs away from the parking lot. He thought, “Wait until these criminals find out that their EBT cards don’t work.”
He avoided making eye contact with everyone he passed and was soon walking down the street Joan lived on. He ran up to the door, opened it, tripped and stumbled into the house.
“The damn world is falling apart. Those ungrateful bastards would have killed us.”
He looked up to see Joan and Callie staring at him. He was drenched in sweat, his shirt was filthy, and he only had one shoe. He was visibly shaking
“Todd, what happened?”
“My office has been ransacked. They assaulted me, and the city is in chaos. Walgreens, Best Buy, and Tractor Supply are on fire, and every store is being looted. These people have become animals. I hate them.”
“Darling, calm down. Everything will be okay. The government will send help, won’t they?”
“Joan, I have never been so scared in my life, but that’s right. FEMA and DHS will come in get the power back on and get law and order re-established. Everything will be okay.”
“Go upstairs and get cleaned up.”
Todd went upstairs, and Callie said, “I can’t believe you left Dad for that spineless worm. He was almost crying.”
“Don’t be too hard on him. It sounds like he had a rough day. We will be all right out here away from town. The riff raff will steal and loot around town, but we will stay away from town.”
“Mom, what happens when we run out of food?”
“The government will come in, give us food and put those criminals behind bars.”
✪✪✪
Chapter 7 - Tractoring Home
Illinois
Geena woke me up with a sharp kick to the side about 4:00 a.m. and gave me a cup of steaming hot coffee. I put my shoes on, buckled my 1911 to my hip and slid my hoodie over my head as I braced myself for the eventual conversation with Geena.
“Thanks for the coffee. You need to catch a nap before we get ready to head out. I’ll wake you two at six.”
“Thanks, but I’m wide awake and will keep you company if that’s alright with you. I know I’m not Sally, but at least we can talk.”
I ignored the comment and went on as usual. I noticed she was out of the wagon and walking around. I saw she favored her side and limped trying to protect it from a strain.
“I see you are better this morning.”
“I don’t know about
better, but I decided that I want to be in that ten percent that live. What you told Sally last night scared the crap out of me. Did you mean that or were you just trying to scare Sally?”
“It’s true, and yes I wanted to give Sally a dose of reality. You both appear to be a little too carefree and unconcerned about your future. If you aren’t careful, you will end up as a gang member’s bitch or a sex slave for some thug.”
"Zack, we do get it and don’t judge us by the fact that you found us in a bus with a bunch of hippies. Our car quit, as did yours, and a million others. We were walking down 80 when these hippies stopped and gave us a ride. Yes, we traded on our good looks to get a ride on the bus and were scared to death that we would have to pay for our ride. Those men were too stoned to worry about sex; thank God.”
“I thought ya’ll were one big happy family.”
“No, Sally and I were on vacation and heading to her dad’s place outside of Cincinnati when the power went off.”
“Where do you work?”
“We both teach at the high school in Castle Rock, Colorado. It’s just a few miles south of Denver. We met there and have been best friends for several years. We ski, backpack and travel together. I know we may appear a bit desperate, but we both recognize you are a good man who knows how to handle himself. Maybe we are coming on a bit strong, but I believe the dating scene is gone forever. We are heading back to the wild west of the 1850s.”
“Look, I kind of like the attention, but I have a daughter and a family to get back to and must think about their safety before I think about myself.”
“I heard you and Sally talking last night. I thought you were interested in her.”
“You are two beautiful and great people to boot and yes I am tempted, but I keep remembering my daughter and what is happening to her.”
“You're a strong man and will get back to your family.”
“My wife left me for my neighbor. I fell to pieces and began screwing his wife to get even. She was a bitch from hell, and I moved on to a dozen other women over the last couple of years. I haven’t been a good man, and I have not been the kind of man that you or I am proud of.”
“So you've changed? What about last night with Sally?”
“I didn’t sleep with Sally last night and won’t with you for that matter. You both are gorgeous, sexy and all I can think about is my Callie trying to find food and fighting off some gang banger. At any other time, I’d be trying to get you both into bed.”
She blushed and said, “Isn’t she with her mom?”
“Yes, but her mom and her mom’s boyfriend don’t possess the skills needed to survive this mess. My best friend, Mike, is her brother and he is going to get them and take them to my farm. They should be safe there.”
“So you find me attractive, but are thinking about your daughter first.”
“Yes.”
“I think you may have turned the corner. I don’t think you are a whore mongering bastard anymore,” she said as she kissed me on the cheek and added, “It is yet to be seen if you are only a regular bastard.”
“I hope I can exceed your low expectations.”
She turned away from me and said, “Sally you can stop straining to hear our conversation and get your butt out of bed."
I heard Sally say in a muffled voice, “Screw you and the horse you rode in on.”
Sally jumped out of her bed in the wagon and stood up to dress for the day. I glanced over to see her sliding her shirt over her bare chest before I quickly glanced away. I backslid and had a few whore mongering thoughts before I busied myself preparing for our day ahead. It was still dark, and nature was calling so I headed to the “Men’s Room.”
“I’ll be back in a few minutes after I finish my job at the library.”
“Gross.”
I was actually reading a map as I did my business. Suddenly I heard a strange voice on the other side of the tractor. I finished and slowly crawled over to the tractor and peered around the front end to see a man with a pistol aimed at the girls.
“Ladies, I’m not really a bad guy. The only reason I have this gun pointed at you is that you might try to hurt me.”
Geena replied, “That’s a load of crap. Get the fuck out of here before my boyfriend kills your sorry ass.”
“Look, bitch, I don’t see any men around here. I think I have you two all to myself.”
“Now, you, the one with the big mouth, drop to your knees.”
“Screw you.”
I had watched long enough to see that the man was by himself so I snuck up behind him as I drew my knife. Geena saw me and dropped to her knees a few inches from him to keep his attention. He lowered the gun as he watched Geena unzip his fly and I grabbed his head as I dragged the knife across his throat. He dropped the gun and tried to talk, but couldn’t. I dropped him to the ground and saw him pointing at me, his throat bubbling as he tried to talk. I stepped over him on my way to check on the girls.
“Are you alright?”
They both swarmed me with hugs and kisses but were unusually silent.
“That turd was the nice husband and father that I saw in the farmhouse. Let’s cover him with some brush and get the hell out of here.”
Neither wanted to talk about the attack until later that night; both were stunned and talked very little the rest of the day.
I topped off the tractor from one of the fuel cans, checked the oil and made sure the radiator was full before starting the tractor. I examined it from front to back in hopes of preventing any breakdowns. I saw a hole in the left engine cover where a bullet had pierced the cover and glanced off the engine block. The tractor took a bullet meant for one of us. I patted it and hoped our luck would hold out for a few more weeks.
We were on the road by 6:30 that morning and everyone was quiet. The reality was beginning to set in for the girls. They had been attacked and would have been raped had I not killed the bastard.
I prepared the girls for driving all day to make up for the delays on the previous day. I figured that we could travel over a hundred miles if we kept going until 6:30 p.m. before making camp for the night. That would put us on the other side of Peoria, Illinois. We continued to see people walking along the interstate heading in both directions. Most only waved, but quite a few tried to stop us to get a ride. Several wanted us to change directions and take them west. It was a long day, but as we saw the skyline of Peoria, I saw a large group of people heading west up in front of us. They were different from the other groups, and I was trying to put my finger on it. Geena said, “That large group of people doesn’t have any children with them. The women are dressed for a ball, and the men are in suits. They just don’t fit the picture.”
“Good call out. I was trying to figure out what looked odd about them myself. Oh shit. Some are crossing over towards us.”
Several men left the group, veered off from their friends and started across the median to head towards us. One of them had a briefcase. They would be in the middle of our road before we could get past them.
I pulled my 1911 out and said, “Ladies, keep your guns down, but ready. I don’t like what I’m seeing. These guys want our tractor and food."
I sped the tractor up, but they started waving and blocked our path. I stopped 50 feet from them and yelled, “Get out of our way. We don’t want to run you down, but we will if we have to.”
One man stepped forward and said, "Hey buddy, we are stranded here and have to get to Omaha for official government business. It’s vital to our country’s security.”
These men did not look like government employees and certainly didn’t dress like government employees.
I replied, “Sorry sir our tractor is the only way that we can get home, and you can’t have it.”
“Look, buddy, I’ll just take it in the name of the government.”
“Sorry, but get out of our way so we can get closer to home.”
The man reached into his briefcase pulled out a wad of cash and said, �
�I’ll buy your tractor and wagon. Here’s $50,000. That should get your attention.”
“Sorry, but get out of our way.”
“Damn, here’s $200,000.”
“Your money is worthless. Now get out of the road, so you don’t get hurt.”
“What do you mean worthless? These are US dollars, and I want that tractor.
The five men started walking towards us, and the one offering the money reached under his jacket and came out with a pistol. I raised my pistol at the same time the girls raised their shotguns.
I yelled, “Drop your guns and go back across the highway and live. Try to rob us and die.”
The man laughed, raised his pistol and shot at us striking the tractor beside me. I aimed, squeezed the trigger and he was knocked off his feet. Blood flew through the air as he fell. This wasn’t slow motion like in the movies, but it wasn’t real to me as it unfolded. Shots rang out from both sides with the shotguns blasting away from behind me. I shot another of the men, and his head exploded as the .45 caliber hollow point tore through his skull. I heard a shotgun blast and saw one of the men knocked backward when the 00 buck ripped into his stomach. Several more shotgun blasts followed quickly behind the first. The girls killed the other two, and the battle for the tractor was over as suddenly as it started. I fired the tractor up and took off before their friends could attack us.
I turned around and yelled, “Are ya’ll okay?”
“Yes, we’re okay. Those idiots would have killed us for our tractor. What has this world come to? Who the hell were those guys?”
“We’ll probably never know, but I am sure that they didn’t work for the US government. They dressed and acted like mafia hoods.”
We heard gunfire, and several bullets pinged off the concrete behind us. One hit the tractor just to the left of the steering wheel. I put the pedal to the metal, and we surged ahead going at least 15 miles per hour. The shots continued for a few minutes and didn’t hit us or the tractor and wagon.
