Shadows of Before

by Ryan King

  Nathan turned to Conrad and nodded.

  Conrad hesitated and stared hard at Lacert before turning to Nathan. “I’ll be right back there if you need anything. And don’t forget what I said.” He then strode away.

  “It seems odd that the two of us have never met,” said Lacert, looking down on the smaller man.

  “That was probably to your benefit,” said Nathan, “considering you tortured my son.”

  Lacert spread his hands out to his side. “Yet here I am now, just the two of us. What is it you imagined you would do to me if we ever met?”

  “I’ve imagined plenty,” said Nathan softly.

  Lacert smiled. “I like a man with imagination, probably the reason Conrad and I never were closer. I see you two are buddies now, but you should know he played a not insignificant part in what happened to your son... Well, one of your sons. The other I understand went out in a blaze of glory, you might say. That’s got to make you proud.”

  “Don’t talk about my sons,” said Nathan evenly.

  “I’m not blaming here. That boy did me a favor. Saved me the trouble of killing Ethan Schweitzer myself. But setting off a nuke? That’s some cold-blooded shit right there. Most inventive method of suicide I’ve heard of in awhile.”

  Nathan felt his heart racing and forced himself to remain calm. He unclenched his fists at his side and took a deep breath.

  The tall man chuckled and nodded. “I see that we are much alike. You’d prefer to settle this here now, maybe like the ancient warriors of old. We could be the champions of respective armies fighting to the death on a field of glory. That would save everyone a great deal of bloodshed, wouldn’t you agree?”

  “What are your intentions with that rocket you’re building in Huntsville?”

  “Ah,” said Lacert, “you know about that? That saves me the trouble of having to explain to you my position.”

  “What position is that?”

  “Why, peaceful, of course, yet we are concerned about very aggressive neighbors to our north. It is only prudent we take certain measures to defend ourselves.”

  “I would say you were the aggressors,” said Nathan. “You attacked the Milan Depot, killing our soldiers and stealing our property.”

  “Well, after Fulton, ”Lacert smiled, “who could blame us? Once you start setting off nukes, it seemed only prudent to secure them before they are used on us. Now those nuclear weapons are safely in our hands.”

  “They won’t work.”‘

  Lacert pointed a finger at Nathan. “It was you, wasn’t it? You are the one who sabotaged them.”

  “We both know if your threat was to put a nuclear warhead on the tip of that missile and send it at us, that’s now impossible.”

  “I have a lot of very smart, geeky people here,” said Lacert. “They used to be responsible for putting things in space. Who’s to say they couldn’t fix a warhead?”

  Nathan stared hard at the man. This was the crux of the problem. Could Lacert launch a nuke at them or not?

  Unless we’re willing to surrender, Nathan thought, our response is the same. Resistance.

  “I see you’re thinking about it.” Lacert rubbed his face. “Boom!” he yelled out theatrically and laughed maniacally.

  “What is it you want?” asked Nathan. “I presume you have some purpose in what you are doing?”

  “See, I knew you were the right man to deal with. Of course I want something. Can’t you guess?”

  “Electricity,” sighed Nathan.

  Lacert waved his hand at Nathan. “Oh no, we have dams of our own. Not as big as yours, but enough to meet my needs.”

  “Then what?”

  Lacert looked away as if thinking. “We’re all on the cusp of something...new. Everyone keeps trying to get things back the way they were before, but that’s a dangerous route to take and an illusion. We can never go back.”

  The wind picked up and blew leaves around their feet.

  Lacert looked back at him. “Three hundred years ago this land was nothing but wilderness, yet they built a nation from it. It’s more than that now. The potential is there.”

  “For what?”

  “An empire.” Lacert smiled, sweeping his hand around him. “It’s out there, just waiting for us to claim it. The things we could build will be the new world.”

  “With you in charge, I suppose,” said Nathan.

  Lacert shrugged. “Why not? Someone has to be. That is the way most leaders came to be throughout all human history. Power is the ultimate qualification for more power.” He smiled at Nathan. “But I will need some good people to help me along the way. Men with imagination, like you perhaps. The rewards for loyalty would be impressive, I promise you.”

  “So you want us to join you?” asked Nathan. “Just abandon everything we’ve built and follow you as our beloved dictator?”

  “President is fine,” said Lacert. “People are used to certain titles; the label is not terribly important. And if you look at it objectively, you have no choice.”

  Nathan shook his head and chuckled. “What makes you think you could force us to do anything? I think you’ve overplayed your hand, my friend. We’re stronger than you, we’re in a better position than you, and we will not be bullied by a power-hungry maniac.”

  Lacert’s smiled slipped away. “I assure you, there will be consequences.”

  “What consequences?” asked Nathan. “Bullshit on your fixing the nukes. And you only have one rocket.”

  “How do you know we don’t have more rockets? Or can’t build more?”

  “Make reparations for Milan and stop building rockets and maybe we can find a way to co-exist peacefully.”

  “I don’t want to co-exist peacefully. There is too much at stake.” Lacert brought his fists up in front of his face. “There is just too damn much potential, don’t you see that?”

  “You can’t force us to submit. Keep this up and you’ll force us to destroy you.”

  “Not everything hinges on nukes. Even without nukes, those rockets can still pack a tremendous punch, enough to level a city block. I can put one anywhere I want; those GPS satellites are still up there in space working overtime.”

  Nathan felt his heart rate speeding up again. “You’re threatening us? Are you sure you want to do that?”

  “Imagine a missile obliterating your hometown. Mayfield, I believe it is? Or maybe Paducah or Murray? All that suffering would be your fault. Death and destruction and misery for no purpose.”

  “You’re never going to stop, are you?” said Nathan. “N-Day only gave you an ideal opportunity. First, it’s the Missouri Alliance. Sadistic criminals with you as their warlord. Then it’s Ethan Schweitzer’s master of atrocities, and now you’re somehow here again. Doing everything you can to burn the world down.”

  “No,” said Lacert patiently. “Not burn the world down. Build it up again, better than before.”

  Nathan waved his hand at Lacert’s troops behind the man. “How did you get to this place? By making the world better? You didn’t have to kill or torture anyone.”

  Lacert shrugged. “Sometimes you have to break a few eggs, as the saying goes. No job is without its complications.”

  “I think we’re done here,” said Nathan. “You have our terms.”

  “‘Terms, is it?”

  Nathan thought of the JP and its upcoming elections. The fragile peace with the Creek Nation and enemies on all sides. A people straining to survive. What would Lacert do to them if he got the chance? Could they even resist him? Would they have the will to resist?

  “Yes, make reparations for Milan and destroy all rockets,” said Nathan before turning to walk away.

  “You’re making a mistake,” said Lacert, actually sounding amused.

  I’ve made a lot of mistakes, thought Nathan, but this certainly isn’t one of them.

  The bolt of lightning streaked across the heavens in the distance followed by a deafening crack of thunder. Before Nathan could get to cover
, the dark sky opened up, and he was drenched in cold, icy rain.

  Chapter 16 – Deal With the Devil

  It was beautiful country, peaceful most of the time. Sunlight played off the rippling river and a gentle wind blew through the tall grass.

  Susan closed her eyes and willed the image she had seen at Chicoca’s funeral to come to mind. The image came to her often unbidden, late at night in the stillest of hours, but during the day she had to force herself to remember.

  She saw the bend of the river where the dead bloated bodies were stacking up, carrion for ravens and wild dogs. Shadowy figures in rags walked among the dead lying about in the fields, squatting occasionally to do who knew what around one of the corpses.

  And there was the camper on the edge of the river. Susan opened her eyes and looked at Chicoca’s old residence. It had already been sitting there, sealed up nicely, when the Creek had arrived. The elderly couple lying in the camper’s bed held hands. They were remarkably preserved in the sealed-dry environment.

  “Poison,” someone had said, and Susan couldn’t place the voice, but the horror of it had stayed with her. She had stared at the dried faces of the man and woman as they brought them outside. The most horrible thing of all was that they looked somehow at peace.

  Closing her eyes again, the memory of the vision returned. The image itself wasn’t much worse than the things they had seen along the way. One lonely scene of death and loss among thousands. No, it was the utter sense of finality and despair that had pervaded the vision. As if she were getting a glimpse into the last moments of a gasping, dying world with no hope of recovery.

  And there sat that dirty gray camper with blue curtains drifting out of the shattered windows.

  Susan opened her eyes and stared at Chicoca’s old home. It was certainly similar to the one in the dream, but not exactly. This camper had cheap plastic blinds instead of curtains, and the surface was more white than gray.

  Of course she could be remembering everything wrong or changing the memory to ensure it wasn’t her new home. To ensure she wasn’t imagining this beautiful land being turned into a wasteland. Maybe someone got rid of the cheap blinds and put in blue curtains. Maybe the camper got moved. Maybe it was a hundred years from now or more.

  “And maybe you’re going bat-shit crazy,” she said to herself.

  The door to the camper opened, and Billy Fox walked down the stairs towards her.

  “What do you do in there anyway?” Susan asked.

  Billy shrugged. “It helps me think sometimes. To be close to where he was. I’ve started to think of it as my office.”

  “Some big, badass Creek Indian you are with your office.”

  “Anyway, it’s hard to think with you out here staring a hole into the trailer. I didn’t realize you were in such a hurry to have this meeting.”

  Susan looked away. “It’s not that.”

  “You’re thinking of the vision again, aren’t you?”

  “Hallucination caused by heatstroke, you mean? Yeah, I was thinking of that.”

  “Visions are difficult to interpret sometimes...or so they tell me. Never had one myself.”

  “It wasn’t a vision,” Susan insisted. “It means nothing.”

  “Then why do you keep thinking about it?”

  Susan was silent, and both of them looked towards the sounds of approaching voices.

  “You know what this is about, don’t you?” asked Billy.

  Susan nodded. “And you know how I feel. We need a time when there is no fighting. I mean, how much land is enough?”

  “Just what is ours.”

  “Yours? You mean because it was Creek land three hundred years ago it’s always supposed to be yours? What about the people before you who had the land? It’s all just a matter of who has the power to take and hold it.”

  “I couldn’t agree more.” Billy Fox smiled. “For the first time in those three hundred years, the Creek have the strength and opportunity to reclaim what has been lost. I will not let that opportunity pass.”

  “What about the cost?”

  “That is not our way,” Billy explained. “We do what we must and the cost will be the cost.”

  Susan opened her mouth to argue, but nothing seemed to come out. She realized that she was exhausted in body as well as spirit. “Let’s just get this over with.”

  Billy nodded and clasped his hands behind his back.

  They turned to see a tall serious man approaching them flanked by several Creek braves. Susan recognized him as the man who had come down with Nathan Taylor to propose peace only months before.

  “Luke Carter,” said Billy, warmly holding his hand out.

  The man shook it and then turned to Susan and did the same.

  Billy indicated a group of camp chairs outside of Chicoca’s camper that were in the shade of a small awning attached to the vehicle’s side.

  Susan, who preferred to be just about anywhere other than near that trailer, forced herself to follow the two men and sit with them.

  “I suppose you know why I am here,” Luke said.

  “Possibly something to do with Huntsville and that raid in Milan we told you about?” asked Billy.

  Luke nodded. “We’ve learned that a very dangerous man named Vincent Lacert has seized power down there. He intends to move towards conflict with the JP.”

  “Is this the same Vincent Lacert who was the former JP Chief of Defense?” asked Susan.

  “It is. Prior to Fulton’s...well...destruction, he was arrested and imprisoned. He subsequently escaped and fled. No one knew where until recently. Seems like he has established himself well as the leader of this group that includes a great deal of resources and people. We know he is building rockets with the intent of launching them at us.”

  “And you want to strike him before he strikes you?” asked Billy.

  “Of course,” said Luke. “We tried to talk to the man, but it was fruitless. He is intent on causing as much pain and destruction in the world as he can. We will need to move to prevent him from harming our people.”

  Billy leaned back in his chair. “A prudent course, I guess. How does this involve us?”

  “We are allies,” said Luke. “We sat right here not long ago and smoked that peace pipe thing.”

  “That signified we would not fight each other,” Billy explained. “Not that your fights would become our fights or vice versa.”

  “Let me explain something to you,” said Luke, leaning forward. “This man is very dangerous, and he is right on your doorstep. He will not stop until he has everything under his sway. That is just the way he is.”

  “Maybe so, maybe not,” said Susan, “but we’ve had enough of war. What do you want from us?”

  Susan’s declaration seemed to take some of the wind out of Luke’s sails.

  “Tell us what your plan is,” said Billy. “Let’s start from there.”

  Luke hesitated for a moment and looked from one to the other. “We plan to attack Huntsville and destroy their ability to threaten us. We mean to get rid of Vincent Lacert any way we have to.”

  “Any way?” asked Susan pointedly.

  Luke’s jaw tightened at her implication. “We do not intend to use nuclear weapons if that is what you were implying.”

  “That is a comfort,” said Susan, “given that Huntsville is right on our doorstep, as you mentioned earlier.”

  “So a long siege is what you have in mind?” asked Billy.

  “If need be. We’d prefer to be able to find a weakness in their defenses that can be exploited, but we are assuming the worst.”

  “That will take a lot of people. To surround an entire city, that’s got to be, what? Twenty, thirty miles?”

  “Thirty-eight,” said Luke.

  Billy whistled. “Wow. That’s a lot of perimeter and a ton of people you’re going to need to bring down there.”

  “And we don’t have the fuel to drive them like before. We’re going to have to use barges to float them
down the Tennessee River.”

  “Up the river, you mean,” said Susan. “The current runs north.”

  “Yes,” said Luke. “We’ll have draught teams pull the barges south from shore.”

  “That means through our territory,” noted Billy.

  “One of the things we had hoped you would be able to help us with,” said Luke.

  Billy rubbed his face. “This is not our fight, yet you want us to take actions that might draw us into this conflict?”

  “Allowing us passage down the river and through Creek lands is not the same as drawing you into the conflict.”

  “You said ‘one of the things we could help with,’” said Susan. “What else?”

  “We’re going to need to be provisioned. That’s a lot of troops that will need food and some supplies. Our logistics can’t support that distance, and we prefer not to pillage and live off the land like armies did in days of old. We’ll pay you for everything, of course.”

  “We’ll talk about that in a minute,” said Billy. “What else do you want from us?”

  “Just one more thing.” Luke paused and looked back at the masses of Creek braves of horseback returning from hunting. He then turned back to them. “We need cavalry.”

  “Horses?” asked Susan.

  Luke shook his head. “No. It takes a lifetime to train a horseman. We need the Creek. We’ll bring what troops we can, and it will be a great deal, but there is no way we can bottle up thirty-six miles. We need cavalry to screen and harass most of the perimeter. To keep them bottled up and afraid to come out from behind their defenses.”

  “No,” said Susan.

  Luke looked first at Susan and then at Billy. “Our people will be doing most of the fighting and taking the majority of the casualties. The Creek will simply be—”

  “No,” Susan repeated. “There is no reason we should be drawn into this conflict.”

  Luke turned to her angrily. “You say ‘we’ like you’re an Indian, but you were an Air Force officer once. You can’t stand on the principle of ‘my people’ and ‘how we have suffered.’ You’re not even a Creek.”