“I can remember Grandfather Wyse – he was a mean old guy. Damn hard man. Had an accent so heavy it was hard to understand him sometimes. Now he had come over here, bought up these acres and built a home in Alaska because he knew things weren’t right in Ireland. Europe. The EU and the financial mess, he came here like so many did before him. He just wanted a chance at a better life and to be left alone to live it. The last few years of his life he started to warn us that what he saw back in Ireland was happening in the states. My dad brushed him off. They would argue about it all the time. Then my grandfather was gone, grandmother a couple years after him, and life went on.
“Dad got thrown from a horse he was breaking - thrown bad. His right hip was never the same. He couldn’t ride for more than an hour before the pain would get to be too much. His moods got ugly around here and I spent more and more time at the horse shows…met my wife at one of those shows in Spokane. Washington State. She was a Pullman student, studying to be a veterinarian. I was twenty four, she was a few years younger. Her folks raised horses, had a big ranch in Grant County about ninety minutes from Pullman. We dated a few times, I came back here. We called each other, emailed…I counted the days until I would be back in her neck of the woods so I could see her again.
“One of those trips to Pullman I got a call from my mom. Dad had…the pain was so bad. He had had two surgeries on that hip already and they had him on all kinds of pain medications, and some kind of anti-depressant, but…well it was the fact he couldn’t ride a horse. That was killing him. Literally killing him. His head wasn’t right, losing control of his emotions. Mom admitted a few months later, he had hit her a couple times. Hard. He had never come close to doing something like that before. Never. She blamed the pills. Doctors were giving him one thing and then another thing. It was tough to keep track of what he was on after a while.
“So I got that call, Mom was…she was actually quite calm. Said she had found my dad in the barn. Found him dead. He had written a short note and left it pinned on the inside of the door.
“I’m sorry. Just no good anymore. Used up. Please forgive me.
“He had taken a whole bottle of those pills and lay down to die, his head resting on his favorite saddle. And that was that – he never woke up. I came back home, back to help my mom and to bury Dad. Laid him in the ground here with my grandparents. Mom, like I said, she was calm the day she told me, but within a few weeks after we buried Dad, she was falling apart herself. I didn’t know how to fix that kind of broken. It was inside her. She blamed herself. Said she should have tried to get Dad to some better doctors, should have not let him be so stubborn about it. She thought she should have been more aware of just how much pain he was really in. How much the pills were getting him all mixed up in his head.”
Cooper paused in his story, looking toward the kitchen at Dublin.
“My wife, Arlene…she was a hell of a woman. Smart. Beautiful. Didn’t mind getting her hands dirty working outside, but could clean herself up and put on a dress and look like she belonged on one of those magazine covers. She came back with me to the ranch here and took to helping my mom. Just like that. No questions. Mom fell in love with her, would joke with me that Arlene was too good for me. Out of my league. Like I didn’t know that already. We were married in the Catholic Church in Juneau. I’m not particularly religious but my mom insisted. She was very old school that way…attending Mass, Confession, all of that. I think a lot of it was to help remind her of my dad in a way. His family was very Irish Catholic.
“We had some real good years here, Arlene and me and my mom. Then came the two kids and, well…life got even better. At least for a while. Stories about weird stuff going on in the Lower 48 were being told more and more though. The new agreements with the United Nations, all the chaos in Canada and Mexico, people getting thrown into those re-education centers if they said the wrong thing, or thought the wrong thing, ate the wrong foods, all the crap that kind of crept up on the country.
“Arlene was talking regularly with her folks back in Washington State, trying to get them to come up here where she thought it would be better for them. We had the room and I liked her folks well enough. That was part of the reason for her trip. She went and I stayed back home here to watch my mom. She had a bad cold at the time, needed a little help taking care of herself. Arlene said she’d just be gone a week or so. Drove down, met with her folks. She called me every night to say how things were going, let me say goodnight to the kids. By then the news was blacked out…nothing was being told about what was going on in Grant County, or that encampment where a bunch of people were trying to live away from all the new government mandates. The police state of the United States some were calling it. It was her third night at her parents’ house when Arlene mentioned it. Told me she saw a convoy of hundreds of military vehicles that had on a blue and white emblem that said New United Nations on it. Drove right down the road next to her parents’ place. Then she mentioned all the drones that were flying overhead every hour of the day, one after the other. They didn’t make any noise but you could see them creeping across the sky. People in the area were getting nervous and so was she.
“Well, I told her to head back home. She insisted she was going to stay just a day or two longer to convince her folks to come back with her. Before she left she had no idea how bad things had gotten down there – and now she was really worried about her mom and dad staying behind by themselves with all those drones and military vehicles in the area. She knew something wasn’t right.
“Her fourth night there, she called me again. I could tell her voice, she was really worried. Told me two men had come to her parents’ house that day. Came in and asked a bunch of questions. Asked if they knew any of the people who were at the encampment that was about five miles away from their house. Then they found Arlene’s dad’s gun. It was an old family hunting rifle handed down from his grandfather. They found that gun and a half empty box of ammo that went with it. Arlene said her dad told those soldiers, she called them soldiers, but they were compliance officers. Her dad told those compliance officers he hadn’t even moved that gun from the closet in about ten years and it hadn’t been fired for longer than that - just an old hunting rifle. The officers took down all their names, took the gun and the ammo, and then they left. Arlene promised she was leaving the next day and her parents were coming with her. Just like before, I was able to say goodnight to the kids.
“That was the last time I ever spoke to my wife or my kids. Two, three days go by and no word. Then I start to hear rumors about some kind of military action in Grant County, Washington - a couple Internet reports. Then those reports are taken down and there’s no information at all about what happened. I go into Juneau and ask around - nothing. Another day goes by and a county sheriff pays a visit to the house here. I know him. He was a friend of my dad’s. Name was Tillman. He tells me there’s word of some kind of rebellion in Grant County, and some locals in the area got caught in the middle. He says he’s got no information on Arlene or my kids’ whereabouts, but promises to let me know if he hears anything. He never comes back. Two more days and I try to look him up in Juneau. He’s been reassigned they tell me – and that’s all they tell me. Sheriff Tillman just disappeared. Gone. By then I’m figuring somebody didn’t like him going out of his way to talk to me.
“So by then, I’m a hell of a mess. I’m calling out to anyone and everyone I know in Washington State about where my wife and kids are. Nobody has any information. Or, they don’t want to talk to me. Then my phone service is cut off. My Internet access is shut down. It’s nearly two weeks since I last heard from Arlene. Two damn weeks. Then I get something in the mail. Plain white envelope with no return address. Inside are two aerial photos of a house. One shows the house with the address printed below it, and the other shows that house blown to bits. Almost nothing left of it. There’s a truck in the driveway though. Damaged, but still enough of it there in the picture for me to recognize it. My truck. The
one Arlene drove to see her parents. The house was their house.”
“Ah shit...”
Mac’s two words spoke for the other three who were listening intently to Cooper Wyse’s story.
“I show my mother the photos, tell her something bad might have happened. She just…she broke apart. Screaming. Sobbing. For days. I’m holding out hope though. Maybe Arlene got out of that house. Maybe her and the kids and her folks are holed up somewhere trying to make their way back to me. Then the other envelope arrives. Five copies of five little cards. Has their names on it. It’s some kind of death report. A very brief one. Simply says, Grant County, WA : Subjects terminated.
“I figured it was Tillman, the sheriff that disappeared. He was trying to let me know what happened. I still don’t know for sure though. I want to drive on down there myself to check it out. Ask questions. Kill the evil sons-a-bitches who did it.
“Then we get word here, all around Juneau, that the border was already shut down. I go into town and see a dozen of those New United Nations vehicles Arlene had told me about a few weeks earlier. I can’t get into the Lower 48 – at least not legally. Alaska was getting taken over. The law enforcement uniforms were changed to the New United Nations. The signs were changed over. A bunch of checkpoints were put in place, they were watching you everywhere you went. The news stations, the local papers, all shut down. They did it in a matter of just a few weeks. The whole thing was changed over. You all were already living up in Dominatus by then, right? The Old Man, Dublin’s grandfather, he had seen it all coming years earlier. Not me. Not most of us. And then, it just sort of happened. We went from living in the United States of America to…something else. Something a whole lot worse.
“So I took care of my mom, but she just kind of faded off into nothing until she died a few years after what happened in Grant County. She said less and less about it until she stopped talking about anything toward the end. Just sat and stared into nothing. I took to talking a lot less myself. Everything just kind of turned inward I suppose. I made sure to make this place as self-sufficient as possible. Hunkered down here and kept to myself. The compliance officers would check in every month or so, but they didn’t seem to pay me much attention. They’d poke around a little and then be on their way.”
Reese interrupted to ask a question of Cooper.
“Did you ever make it down to Grant County? Find out for sure what happened to your wife and kids?”
Cooper Wyse took a long slow drink from his beer as Brando raised his head to look at him, seemingly also awaiting the answer to the question Reese had just asked.
“Yeah, about eight years ago. Came in through Canada - wasn’t easy but I did it. Found a relative of Arlene’s parents. Her dad’s brother who lived about ten miles from their house. It was funny, I just showed up in the evening and knocked on the back door. He opened it up, took a look at me and just said, ‘It’s about time you got here.’
“They had been expecting me to show up eventually. We talked for a little less than an hour, and then he told me I had to go. They were worried they were being watched. Everyone down there was worried about that. It was just like those movies I would see as a kid about the Cold War – the Soviet Union.
“He said a bunch of the homes around the area had been bombed at the same time the encampment was eliminated. A crew went around and collected any remains that were found and they were all just thrown into a mass grave and covered up. Arlene’s uncle knew someone who had been a part of that work and he confirmed that Arlene, her parents, and my son and daughter, what was left of them…were thrown into that grave.
“Made my way back here to my home and I waited. I waited for a chance to do something. To fight back. To destroy the thing that had taken from me everything that meant anything. So now here you all are. I have my chance to help you out, to get you to that priest in Churchill, Manitoba. To get you to the weapon that’s supposed to help destroy the New United Nations.
“I aim to do just that.”
Dublin called from the kitchen that the meal was ready. After the telling of his story, each of them had come to realize that Cooper Wyse had suffered just as much if not more than even the former residents of Dominatus had at the hands of the New United Nations. Cooper was welcomed into their group. He had become one of them.
Mac leaned forward in his seat, his eyes narrowing as he looked back at Cooper.
“We’re glad to have your help, Coop. I sincerely mean that.”
Seated at the Wyse dinner table, the four men ate the meal of steak and potatoes with considerable enthusiasm, pausing only briefly to thank Dublin for preparing it. Within twenty minutes, all of the meal was gone, as was the beer Cooper had brought in. Bear was the first to make his way to a bedroom for sleep, followed soon after by Reese and Dublin, and then Cooper Wyse.
Mac stayed back in the main room, seated next to a window looking out into the clear night sky. His cough returned momentarily, breaking the silence within the near complete darkness of the home’s interior. Mac heard Brando approaching in that darkness, the Doberman’s long snout finally coming to rest on his thigh. Looking down, Mac could see the dog peering back up at him as if to ask if he was going to be ok.
“You think I’m a used up old man too, don’t you? Maybe you’re right. Hell…probably are. I think I got another round left in me yet though, Brando. Just one more mission to see if I still got a little bite left in this old bark.”
VI.
Mac, who had slept on the largest of the leather couches in Cooper’s living room area, woke early, as was his long standing habit. To his surprise, he spotted Cooper already outside saddling the horses as Brando sat watching near the barn’s entrance.
Taking a moment to stretch his muscles, Mac walked out of the home and made his way toward the barn and Cooper Wyse, who gave Mac a greeting with the tip of his cowboy hat.
“Morning, Coop – surprised you were able to get out here without waking me up. I’m normally a very light sleeper.”
Cooper gave a slight shrug and continued to check the saddle straps, the supply bags, and the overall condition of the horses.
Mac had not been so close to a horse in many years, and found their size to be somewhat intimidating, though he had no intention of letting Cooper know that.
“Which one will I be riding?”
Cooper stepped over to one a horse that was a mixture of white and black colors , with a long slender neck and head.
“I broke every one of these, all a mix of this and that. Yours is a good old girl named Chess. She’s got quite a bit of Thoroughbred in her. Used to be very spirited, but she’s a real easy going lady now, but can get you somewhere in a hurry if you need to.”
Mac moved slowly alongside Chess and ran his hand along her neck.
“Well hello there, Chess. I’m Mac. Just don’t throw me off and you and me will get along just fine.”
Brando had moved over to Mac’s left, and was nuzzling his other hand.
“Well hello there, Brando! I see you’re up and ready to go as well!”
Cooper Wyse tilted his head slightly as he noted Brando’s attention to Mac.
“Never seen that dog go out of his way to be nice like he’s done for you, Mac.”
Mac leaned down and placed both of his hands around Brando’s head and scratched behind the Doberman’s ears, to which the dog responded by nuzzling Mac’s neck. Cooper shook his head and smiled.
“Hope you ain’t turning my dog soft, Mac. He’s supposed to be a touch more intimidating than that.”
Mac stood up, coughing slightly as he attempted to clear his throat.
“Oh hell, I’m pretty sure old Brando there would prove himself as mean as he needed to be. Those are some serious chompers he’s got inside that mouth of his.”
Seemingly understanding what Mac just said, Brando pulled back his lips to reveal his teeth in a both frightening and amusing snarling smile.
Mac pointed to the dog and then looked o
ver at Cooper, his eyes widening in shock.
“Did your dog just smile at me?”
Cooper Wyse waived a dismissive hand toward Brando as he continued to check over the horses.
“He’s done that for years. It’s a common thing Dobermans do. Means he’s happy.”
Mac looked back down at Brando’s grinning snarl.
“Well I’ll be damned…”
Bear’s heavy footed approach could be heard making its way down from the front porch. He came to within ten feet of the horses and remained there, his arms folded across his chest and his eyes conveying more than a fair amount of suspicion at the idea of riding atop the back of an animal.
“So you really don’t think we could just use an ATV or something? Seems like it would be a hell of a lot faster.”
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