The Shelter, Book 4: The New World

by Ira Tabankin

  “Which home? The farm or the home you came from? We could cut you loose and send you on your way back to Illinois.”

  “The farm, please, I promise to be good. You can’t just release me as I am. I have no pants, socks or sneakers. I’ll never make it a mile.”

  “Cut him loose, wash him up and get him dressed. I don’t want to hang around here any longer than we have to. We have no idea how many ISIS assholes are around here.”

  Mike yells to John,

  “John, we found their camera.”

  John picks up the camera, he looks into the camera grinning an evil lear,

  “Hey assholes, you picked the wrong country to mess with. Most of us are armed and not afraid to use our weapons. I killed your two ISIS terrorists, let me show you their bodies. To make sure they get what they deserve, we jammed ham in their mouths so they’ll never reach paradise. We’re coming for all of you. We’ll kill each and every one of you, we’ll make sure none of you ever reaches your paradise. You’ll never get to enjoy your 72 virgins. You’ll spend eternity serving me in hell.”

  John shoots the camera saying,

  “Grab the asshole, it’s time to go home. I’ve had enough fun for one day.”

  Wendy checks Ricky’s swollen foot she tells him,

  “You're going to be okay. Stay off your foot. I gave you some meds to help reduce the swelling and reduce the effects of their bites and stings. You should be fine in a couple of days.”

  “I’m not going to lose my foot?”

  “No, you’ll be fine.”

  “Look at it, it’s four times its normal size, parts of my foot are black.”

  “Ricky, calm down, try to relax, you’re going to be fine.”

  “Did John kill the assholes who did this to me?”

  “Yes, he did.”

  “Good!”

  “I thought you were the one who was against using violence and guns. I see things are different when you’re the victim.”

  “Kill them all, we should hunt them down and kill all of them.”

  Wendy laughs patting Ricky’s shoulder.

  “Maybe there’s some hope for you yet.”

  John rounds everyone up, he tells them to get onboard the SUVs. They drive a roundabout route so no one will easily follow their tire tracks to find the farm. They leave the two dead ISIS terrorists where they fell hoping the forest animals feast on them.

  Ricky looks at his rescuers,

  “How did you know where to find me?”

  John smiles,

  “It’s a good thing for you, your captors put your torture on the web, we saw it. We could figure out where they were holding you from the scene. It was easy to locate you. The hard part was deciding if we should come get you. You still have to answer for trying to kill Jay. I don’t know what he has planned, I hope it’s something nasty. I came to get you because I was asked to, I normally would have let you get what you deserve.”

  “What happens to me when we return to the farm?”

  “I don’t know the details yet. I’m not sure Jay has decided what to do with you. I can tell you, you better stay away from Jay and Lacy. You’re being moved into the shelter; no one wants you in their home. Jay forbid you from stepping foot in the castle.”

  “What about my wife and daughter? Are they allowed in the castle?”

  “They are, you’re not. I wouldn’t break that rule. If you do, you’ll wish you were back on the ant hill. Jay is pissed, no, pissed is an understatement. Don’t go near him.”

  “I thought I’d apologize and bury the hatchet.”

  John laughs,

  “Ricky, the only place Jay will bury the hatchet is in your head. He got forced into rescuing you. He was fine with leaving you to die. Most in the community don’t want you back either. You’re going to be given the most shit jobs there are, one word of bullshit from you and you’ll spend the rest of your time with us digging holes in the back forty, if I had my way, your home would be a tent. Got it?”

  “I understand. I thought you guys coming to rescue me meant all was forgiven.”

  “Not a snowballs chance in hell. Their damn video of you was seen by people Jay and the militia wanted to meet with, Jay was forced to send us, in order to hold the meeting together. Your wife was also making his life miserable. Tony was going to come, I talked him out of it. Had Tony led the rescue mission, you would have suffered a fatal accident on the way home. Problem solved.”

  Ricky is silent and brooding until he sees the fence of the farm, his eyes are filled with tears of joy. He painfully limps up the driveway. His wife runs out to meet him midway up the driveway. Jay shakes his head watching from the tower on top of the castle. He thinks to himself, I know I’m going to regret saving his sorry ass. Now I have to deal with that group of crazy representatives who have been waiting for me.

  Tony interrupts Jay’s thoughts,

  “Jay, are you ready? The Major got them to return, they hadn’t gotten far. I gave them lunch and something to drink, they’re waiting for you in the conference room.”

  “I guess I don’t have any choice. I’m coming. Major Walker better be there too. Tony, spread the word to keep Ricky away from me. I take someone trying to kill me very personally. If he gets in my face, I’ll take him out.”

  “Jay, you don’t want to do that. It will cause more problems than taking him out will solve. By the way, the Major is here waiting for you. I’ll be there too.”

  “You better be. If you leave me with them, we’ll never reach an agreement.”

  Every eye in the conference looks up when Jay and Tony enter. The Major nods and smiles, Tony returns the nod. Jay mentally counts the people in the room, he notices there are four extra people. He leans over to whisper to Tony.

  “Who’s the extra people?”

  Whispering back, Tony says.

  “One of the towns demanded to send their entire ‘ruling council.’”

  “Ruling Council?”

  “Their words, not mine.”

  “Great, are they wearing red armbands too?”

  Tony covers his mouth so he doesn’t laugh.

  “Let’s get this meeting under way, there’s a lot riding on it, for them and us. Remember, don’t blow your top, count to one hundred before you behead one of them.”

  “You always stop me from having any fun. I promise to be good. I just hope they don’t start the meeting by demanding everything for free. I have zero patience for people who want everything for nothing. If I start to lose it, kick me under the table.”

  “I’ll kick you so hard you'll jump.”

  Jay takes his seat at the head of the table, he welcomes everyone to his castle. Before Jay can say anything the ‘ruling council.' stands saying,

  “Jay, thank you for meeting with us. Your farm and castle are more than impressive. How were you able to build a castle in our current economic situation? Did you use slave labor to build this monstrosity? It’s so outside of logical, we don’t know what to say. If you used slaves, we want them freed before we begin any discussions.”

  Jay feels Tony kicking him under the table, he smiles looking around the table.

  “How or what I build is my business. When I grew up, it was considered very rude to insult one’s host. I guess they don’t teach manners in your town. That’s your choice, under my roof, I expect people to be courteous to each other. For your information, no slaves were used to build the castle. Do you have any other questions before we begin?”

  “We do, we want to know why your people are all well fed and we’re starving. Why haven’t you shared with us who are your neighbors?”

  “First of all as my neighbors, did you ever once come by to say hello? Why do you think you’re entitled to what’s mine? Did you earn it? Did you purchase the supplies? Did you work to grow crops? What makes you think I owe you anything? You could have grown crops on your land. No one stopped you.”

  Tony kicks Jay under the desk again. Jay shakes his head at Tony.r />
  Major Walker stands up,

  “Everyone, we’re here to discuss how we can help each other, not point fingers or fight with each other. I assure you Jay didn’t break any laws or use any slaves building the castle or farm.”

  One of the town’s representatives looks around the table, he stands to say.

  “What’s the offer on the table?”

  Jay smiles responding,

  “In exchange for work to expand the fields, I’ll provide your communities with food.”

  The room breaks into chaos with everyone yelling at each other. Major Walker stands holding his hands up when everyone continues to talk. He pulls out his sidearm which he pounds on the table to quiet everyone. During the outbreak, Jay and Tony sat in their chairs without saying a word smiling, they were expecting the type of outbreak they received.

  The Major continues,

  “Let’s look at the current situation, you want and need food, Jay has a 900-acre farm, in order to grow additional crops, he needs to expand the farm which means clearing additional acreage. He’s offering to exchange food for labor, I think it’s a fair exchange.”

  One of the representatives stands yelling,

  “He has food, he’s blackmailing us for it. Food is a right we all have. Food is a natural right, a right he and everyone else has to obey. You should be forcing him to give us the food we need. We’re not slaves, we’re not going to work the land like slaves used to.”

  Jay smiles saying,

  “Then, I see no reason for us to continue the meeting. Thank you for coming. I know the Major can show you out. Remember when leaving, stay on the driveway.”

  People yell curses at Jay and Tony, who whispers to Jay,

  “That went well. I thought it would fall apart about ten minutes ago. Congratulations on making it this long without killing anyone.”

  “The day’s early and Ricky’s back.”

  “Jay, you promised.”

  “Some promises are made to be broken.”

  “Lacy will have your hide if you break this promise.”

  “We'll see.”

  Chapter 14.

  Some of the surviving southern based banks meet, they agree to issue their own currency so their communities have something to use to purchase goods and services. They decide to use mint made gold and silver coins as their local currency. They also agree to use other nation’s gold and silver. The banks also agree to provide security for the melting of jewelry into coins, they weigh the new coins to ensure they're the same weight and percent of precious metal as the government issued coins. Their people are happy to accept gold and silver coins. They know the coins have real value. The bank posts accepted exchange rates for gold and silver. In Huntsville, Alabama, the local banks merged to form the Huntsville Area Bank and Savings. They invited community leaders from the surrounding communities, and the Redstone Arsenal to a meeting to discuss how to handle the situation of purchasing goods and services with full gold coins. There have been three cases of people gold plating coins and passing them off as gold which is a crime in this area. They have a problem in figuring out what people do when what they want to purchase or sell doesn’t require a full coin. There are fractional gold coins, but not silver. They’re here to figure out a solution. One other problem is people melting their jewelry and making their own coins. The commanding General at Redstone Arsenal suggests;

  “Ladies and gentlemen, I think the only solution is to set up a centralized testing facility at the Arsenal to test the gold and silver. We have the chemicals, we have a secure facility and sufficient forces to protect the coins. I propose the Bank and the Military Police set up a facility to test the quality of gold and silver coins. The facility will be guarded twenty-four hours a day by armed MPs. The bank will post the exchange rates for gold and silver. I have staff which can cut the coins, under the watchful eyes of the MPs and the bank, we’ll cut coins into fifths. People will have assurance the fractional coins have been cut and are valued per the banks posting.”

  The Mayor of Madison, Alabama, Glen Duncan, asks,

  “General, on the surface it sounds like a workable plan, my question is, how will anyone know who performed the cut and the coins are real?”

  The new banking President rose saying.

  “Mr. Mayor, good question, we propose we will mark the coins in a way everyone will know they have officially been cut. We’ll post images of the codes so everyone will know that the coins are official.”

  The General looks around the table, the people nod in agreement. All agree it’s a good plan. The General stands.

  “I suggest we issue a joint announcement, post a map where the location of the coin facility is and its hours, which I propose to be from 6:00 AM to 9:00 PM, we'll be open seven days a week.”

  The Mayor of Madison looks at the general,

  “Sir, won’t printing the map be a Godsend to criminals?”

  Smiling the General laughs.

  “I sure hope so. The more we can attract to attack us, the less we’ll have to hunt down. I’m hoping the criminals see the posts and posters. I hope they band together to try to steal the gold and silver. We’ll be waiting for them. We'll stop and kill them miles before they reach the base. If this works, we should reach out to other communities so we can expand our trading area.”

  Everyone at the meeting smiles at the General’s plan.

  @@@@@

  The Chinese Ambassador is shown into the Oval Office. The President stands, walking around his desk to welcome the Ambassador.

  “Mr. Ambassador, welcome. I hope your recent trip from Beijing was good.”

  “Mr. President, thank you for agreeing to receive me on such short notice. I have an urgent message for you from my government. The Chairman is very unhappy.”

  The Ambassador hands the President a sealed envelope, its flap is sealed with a drop of wax showing the seal of China.

  “Should I open and read it now?”

  “Sir, if you would. I’ve been instructed to wait for your reply.”

  “Mr. Ambassador, if you don’t mind, I’d like to ask you to wait in the Situation Room so my staff and I can review your message.”

  The Ambassador smiles while standing. He nods saying.

  “Mr. President, I have no problem waiting for your response in the Situation Room.”

  He’s led out of the Oval Office by two secret service agents.

  The President breaks the seal of the envelope; his face turns red as he reads the diplomatic letter. He reads it twice before he hands it to his Secretaries of State and Defense.

  “Didn’t I order the son of a bitch Admiral not to take any offensive actions? What the fuck is he doing? I want him removed from command and fired! According to this letter he sank three Chinese destroyers and shot down another six planes. What’s wrong with him?”

  The Secretary of Defense says.

  “Mr. President, there are always two sides to every story. How do we know the Chinese aren’t lying? I’d like to give Admiral Jefferson the benefit of the doubt before you fire him. He’s the most experienced Battleship officer we have.”

  “You have one hour to get his side of the story. Damn it, I’m trying to stop World War Three, are you people crazy? Why are you trying to drag me into a war with China? You military people can never be trusted, I don’t know why you always fight my orders. I’m the Commander in Chief, I issue orders, you obey them. Is that clear?”

  “Sir, you gave me one hour, let me check with the CNO.”

  “The CNO? He’s a friend of the bastard Admiral! I told you to fire the SOB when he fired on the Chinese ships and planes around Hawaii. How can we reach an agreement with China if he’s out there shooting their planes down? He’s trying to start a war!”

  “Mr. President, he’s trying to stop the Chinese from taking the State of Hawaii.”

  “Bullshit. He and the rest of you uniformed monkeys only want to start a war.”

  “SIR! We have sworn an oat
h to protect the country. He isn’t trying to start a war.”

  “I want him on the phone right now. I want to hear from his own lips what he was thinking.”

  “Yes, sir. I’ll get him on the horn.”

  “I said phone, not a horn. You people are all crazy!”

  @@@@@

  Admiral Jefferson is interrupted in his day cabin doing paperwork.

  “Admiral, we have a message from the CNO, he wants you on the phone ASAP.”