The Ranch

by Sean Liscom

  “JESUS! GET ME A DOCTOR!” he screamed; a small amount of spittle flew from his mouth.

  “Medic!” I yelled.

  “HURRY UP!” he screamed. Blood was soaking the front of his dirty brown t-shirt.

  “The medic isn’t for you. It’s for her.”

  “You SHOT me! I need a doctor!”

  “No, you don’t,” the icy, even tone of my voice must have forced his brain to realize where this was headed. “Jill, you okay?” I called over the hood of the Jeep.

  “I’m fine,” she replied.

  “Take Dana and her son into the compound, please. The boy doesn’t need to see what’s about to happen.”

  “Jason?”

  “NOW!” I barked. I heard her sigh. Knowing this was an argument we weren’t going to have, she waved Dana and her son forward. I could see the look in my wife’s eyes just before she did an about face and escorted the two toward the front of the convoy and the gate of The Ranch.

  “What are you doing?” the man asked between agonized breaths.

  “Did you really think I’d hand this ranch over to the likes of you? Did you really think you had a chance against MY people?”

  “I....”

  “SHUT UP! It was a rhetorical question you idiot! I’ve had enough of you and your kind. Today, right here, right now, I’m going to send a very, very clear message. A message that even you assholes can understand,” I closed the distance between us with another step forward. I took a quick look around and could see that all of his men were in a position to see us.

  “As of now, let it be known far and wide, this ranch will no longer take ANY of your shit! As of now, anyone who shows up here with ill intentions will be dealt with accordingly. ANYONE who even looks at those walls sideways is gonna get a bullet in the brain, ANYONE!” I yelled and he flinched a little. “We will NOT be fucked with ANYMORE! We will hunt you down and we will kill you where you stand!” I slowly scanned the faces of all of his men. As I passed over my people, I could see some nods of approval and a whole lot of determination.

  “You don’t scare me. You ain’t got it in you to shoot an unarmed man!” he growled when my eyes settled on him again. His voice may have been firm but I could see the fear in his eyes.

  “I should scare you. I should terrify you....” I lowered the barrel just slightly and squeezed the trigger. His eyes went wide in shock and blood began to pour from the neat hole directly over his heart. His legs began to tremble and he collapsed in a heap. I stepped forward and stared into the man’s dead, empty eyes. I knew, without a doubt, I had just crossed a line from which there was no returning. If it meant the safety and security of the ranch, I could live with that.

  I turned toward the men and women I commanded. I met their hard eyes and tight lips. I had to wonder, how many of them actually approved of what I had just done? I was also calculating what I was about to say to them. What were they expecting to hear?

  “Line the prisoners up!” I ordered loudly. Only one or two of the team members hesitated before they obeyed the command. I pointed to the four men and one woman who had been coalition prisoners. Move to the side, please. Someone remove their restraints.” Jeff and Jake were the ones to cut them loose.

  “Did any of these men harm you in any way?” I asked them.

  “Other than taking our clothes? No, these guys were decent about the whole thing,” a man who I recognized from the battle of Vegas answered.

  “Was he their leader?” I pointed the pistol at the body on the ground.

  “Yeah,” the same man answered. I nodded and turned to the lined-up prisoners.

  “How many of you were felons, locked up in prison when the EMP hit?” of the 12 former Coalition fighters, ten reluctantly raised their hands, Cowboy included. “Keep your hands up. The rest of you, did you join the Coalition of your own free will? Raise your hands if you did,” the other two hands went up. I began to walk up and down the line of frightened men.

  “If you were an enforcer for Ray Judge, lower your hand,” all 12 stayed up.

  “Angel was the only enforcer,” Cowboy offered from the end of the lineup. He pointed to the dead man.

  “I see. If you would say that you’ve made some bad life choices, lower your hands,” all 12 men dropped their hands to their sides. I smirked and stopped my pacing to stand in front of the small group. “At my ranch, on the other side of that wall, I have former Coalition men working for me. The city of Elko has pretty close to a hundred men and women who used to work for Judge but they are now loyal to the Governor. If I have all of them brought out here, will any of them identify you as Enforcers?”

  “Nah, man. We was all just grunts,” Cowboy spoke again.

  “What’s your real name?” I locked eyes with him. He suddenly looked real uncomfortable. I repeated the question.

  “Francis Drake,” he answered.

  “Well, Francis, if I had to guess, you were Angels “go to” guy. Am I right?” he nodded. “I guess it would also be safe to say, you’re now the top dog, correct?”

  “Yeah.”

  “So, what do you think I should do with the lot of you?”

  “You could cut us loose. We’d be so far gone from here....”

  “Part of me wants to line you up against the wall over there and shoot you. All of you,” I interrupted. I could see all of them begin to squirm a little. “Jeff, Jake,” I motioned the two men over and whispered into their ears. When I was done giving them instructions, both looked at me like I’d lost my mind. That only lasted a second before Jeff called first and second squads forward. He in turn whispered in the squad leaders’ ears and they moved out immediately. Within 30 seconds all of the vehicles parked on the road were being moved into the compound.

  I began to pace in front of the prisoners again. I wanted to give them time to dream up the worst possible outcome to their current predicament. In this case, silence really was golden. About a minute later, the alarm klaxon from the ranch was silenced and the two squad leaders were returning with several bundles of heavy rope. Bill was following closely behind them. I stopped my pacing in front of Cowboy/Francis. When I reached up to remove the hat from his head, he cowered a little. I smirked again, took his ten-gallon hat and set it on my head.

  “Strip,” I growled only inches from his face.

  “What?”

  “Strip down to your shorts, NOW!” I barked. “ALL OF YOU!” I stepped back a few paces. They very hesitantly began to remove clothes and pile them on the ground. Once they were all standing there in their underwear, I spoke again.

  “I should kill each and everyone one of you. I should line you up against the wall and fill you with holes! All of you are criminals. All of you are enemy combatants. All of you are enemies of the ranch!” I watched one man piss his already dirty underwear. “But I won’t. Instead, I’ve got a little something planned for you. Call it a test, if you will,” I turned my attention to the squad leaders who were holding the ropes. “I want them face down, on the road. Hogtie them and put about six feet between them. If they protest or resist, shoot them.”

  Tuesday, September 6th, 2017

  The ARK.

  “What are you doing? Destroy the missiles, Jack!”

  “Give me one reason, Mel. Just one,” he reached down and picked up her gun from under his foot. “Tell me why I shouldn’t cull the weak from the herd.”

  “This is genocide! You have to destroy them!”

  “Have you ever thought to yourself that this is what the world needs? A good cleansing does wonders,” he chided. “Like a hot shower after a day of working the fields,” she clenched her fists and took a timid step toward him.

  “Either you enter the code to destroy the missiles or I’ll kill you with my bare hands!” another small step.

  “You might try, my dear. Or, I could just shoot you where you stand and call it a day.”

  “You didn’t bring me here to kill me, Jack. You could have done that at any point, and honestly
, you still might,” she took a half step and settled her weight on her rear foot. Like a sprinter setting his weight on his launching foot. Like a lioness readying for a pounce.

  “Jesus, Melissa. Have you listened to nothing I’ve told you? Have you seen nothing I’ve shown you?” he blew out a long sigh and dropped the gun on the tabletop. “You’re right. I’m not going to kill the one person who CAN destroy the missiles. You’re the key to the whole thing.”

  “What?” his comment caught her off guard.

  “I said, you’re the key. You are the only person in this room that can stop what’s going to happen. You’ve got the keys to the kingdom and you don’t realize the power you hold. Such a shame honestly. So young, so naïve. So easily played.”

  “I don’t have the code! You do!”

  “Ah, but I don’t. There is no code and if it were left to me, I’d let those birds fly and deliver their payload,” he glanced at the countdown timer on the main screen. “Ya better hurry, Mel. First missile is eight minutes away from London and you should know; at the two-minute mark, the missiles go terminal. At that point, nothing can stop them. Not even you.”

  Melissa’s mind began to race. What was the game? How could she be to key to stopping the missiles? Was the information on the laptop she’d been given? No, it couldn’t be. That’s one of the things she’d searched for. What was it, what was she missing? How could this evil bastard just sit there with that smug look on his face? Her eyes were darting from Jack to his laptop. From there to the main screens and all around the room. When her eyes came back to his, he averted his gaze and looked at his laptop. She followed his stare and her eyes settled on the shiny, silver pendant plugged into the side of it.

  Her hand slipped into her pants pocket and retrieved the four pendants Jack had given her. She held them up by their chains, her eyes focused intently on them. She could still see Jack grinning from his chair. For once, it was actually a genuine grin that had spread across his face, it held no malice.

  “One of these?” she asked.

  “Yes. The question is; which one. You’ve got a one in four chance of picking the right one. Should you choose the wrong pendant, you won’t have enough time to try again. So, might I urge you to choose quickly and wisely.”

  “How do I know which one it is? They’re all the same!”

  “Ask yourself; who would be the one person who would have the final say? Who would be the one to pull the plug or let them fly? Who would act as the “Deadman” with his finger on the button?” he rose from his chair, stepped aside and motioned for Melissa to sit.

  “Ashton?” she questioned as she took the offered seat.

  “Correct, but you still have to pick one from the four. Since you’ve mixed them all up....” she laid the pendants out on the table and began to examine each one. The second one she picked up, she quickly set to the side. She set the fourth one aside too.

  “It’s not those,” she said and picked up the first one again.

  “How do you know?”

  “There’s blood on the chains. Those had to belong to Jerrod and Blair.”

  “Very good. You’ve got a fifty-fifty shot now. Better hurry up.”

  “Shut up, I know!” she snapped and looked at both of the pendants side by side. Examining every millimeter of the chain and the pendant itself, she could find nothing to set one apart from the other. Jack watched in dismay as she picked one of them up and put the whole thing in her mouth. After a moment, she spit it out and repeated the move with the other one. When she spit it back into her hand, she held it up like a trophy. “It’s this one!”

  “How do you know?”

  “It’s not salty, like sweat. Nigel was hot and sweaty, Ashton died here, in the cool air,” she said triumphantly.

  “I’ll take your word for it. Get to work. You got two minutes until you can’t do anything,” he pointed to the timer on the main screen. She nodded, slid the other pendants aside and scooted her chair closer to the laptop.

  “What do I do?”

  “You’re on your own for this part. Right or wrong, the fate of billions is in your hands.”

  “Shit,” she muttered. She took a deep breath, blowing it out slowly, evenly. Then she reached up and removed Jacks pendant from the side of the computer. Nothing happened so she replaced it with Ashtons. Without warning, every screen in the room went black. It was as if they had suddenly lost power. What was more disturbing was the fact that the air vent she was sitting under stopped blowing cool air down on her.

  “What did you do?” Jack asked as he put his hands on the back of her chair.

  “Nothing! I didn’t do anyth....” she was interrupted when Ashton Blakes face filled all of the screens. He was wearing the same suit he had died in and he was sitting in the same office where they found his laptop and corpse.

  “I knew you would be back to finish the job, Jack,” the image spoke loudly. “However, this time, there will be no escape for you, my old friend. If you are seeing this message, it means you are trying to destroy the weapons. It means you are sitting in the control room, sure that you’ve won, that you’ve had the last word,” there was a long pause. The sneer on the man’s face seemed to be taunting them.

  “I’m about to tell you something you’ve probably never heard, my friend. You’ve not won the day. In fact, you have failed, you have lost. By now, I’m sure you’ve noticed the air circulation system has shut off. You should also know; the elevators won’t work either. What’s more, you should know that I’ve disabled the kill switch for the warheads. You launched them, undoubtedly planning on destroying them in flight, but it would seem I’ve thrown my own little wrench into your plans.”

  “No, those warheads will deliver their payloads just as they were intended. You’ve lost Jack. You can’t stop what’s happening now any more than you could stop the death of your beloved Olivia. As crude as the saying is; it would appear you’ve stepped on your own dick this time,” a sinister chuckle filled the control room. Jack shoved the chair Melissa was sitting in aside and he jerked the pendant from the side of the laptop. Doing so had no effect. The image of Ashton Blake continued to fill the screen.

  “As you sit there, surely stunned, things are beginning to happen to the ARK. All of the interior blast doors are being locked open. One by one. Level by level. The elevators and the air handling systems were the first to be shut down. The fire suppression systems are now offline, and all of the fuel valves have been opened. Thousands of gallons of diesel fuel and propane are beginning to flood the shop floor. It won’t be long until an ignition source is found. Oh, you should also know; the main doors will begin to close in about a minute.”

  “You cannot accuse me of not making it at least a little sporting, Jack. It takes someone in excellent physical condition about 90 seconds to make it to the tunnel entrance. Even if you did manage to make it that far, you’d be just a few seconds too late....”

  “YOU SON OF A BITCH!!!!!” Jack screamed. He jerked the laptop from the table and hurled it at across the room. It hit the wall and exploded into hundreds of pieces. Melissa jumped from her chair and grabbed the satchel of vaccine and the laptop that had belonged to Ashton. She started for the door to the control room, pausing to look at Jack.

  “Let’s go!” she yelled at him. He sat in the chair she had vacated.

  “No. You go. There’s no way I can make it,” he pulled the small red notebook from his thigh pocket and tossed it to her. “Make sure my sons get that!”

  “Jack....” she was cut short when he grabbed the pistol from the table and pointed it at her.

  “Go, NOW!” when she hesitated, he shifted his aim and fired a round into the ceiling. “GO!” he shouted again. She spun and slammed through the door and ran as fast and hard as she could. Without looking back, she threw open the door to the stairwell and sprinted up the stairs, taking them three at a time. She ignored the burning in her thighs and lungs and raced to the second level landing. An instant after s
he twisted the door handle and threw the door open, she heard the metallic clunk of the lock engaging.

  Without stopping, she sprinted down the hallway. As she passed each blast door, she could hear it lock into the open position. When she sprinted around the corner that would lead her to the exit, she could see the huge door closing at the far end. Pouring every ounce of energy into her legs, she hurtled toward the gap. The doors were closing much faster than when they opened.

  About three strides before reaching the door, she launched herself through the diminishing space. The satchel containing the vaccine snagged on the lip of the door and was torn from her shoulder. It stayed on the inside of the ARK while the laptop she’d had a death grip on clattered to the railway on the outside. Her feet had no sooner cleared the doors when they sealed with a heavy thud. She continued with the momentum of her flight and landed halfway on the front seats and hood of the trolley car that had brought them here. On impact, there was as searing pain on her left side, her head smacked something hard and immovable. The pain was short lived as she blacked out.

  CHAPTER 29

  Tuesday, September 6th, 2017

  The Ranch.

  I’d seen Bill and he looked none too happy. Jill and Doc were coming up behind him and they shared the same look of discontent. One problem at a time, I told myself. Since Bill had been first in line, I motioned him to follow me as I walked past.

  “What the hell was all the commotion about?” I asked.

  “The missiles have been launched. It’s been verified by the geeks in Austin!” he blurted out. His usual cool demeanor had gone out the window.

  “Do we know if any are headed this way?”

  “Not sure right now. I’m still waiting on final telemetry from Austin. In the initial stages, it looked like the big cities along the west coast are about as close as they are going to get. Los Angeles, Sacramento, Portland, Spokane, just to name a few.”

  “Alright, keep on it and let me know what I’m dealing with,” I ordered.