An Undeclared War (Countdown to Armageddon Book 4)

by Darrell Maloney

  “Well, I’ve got a very sore foot. So not that good.”

  “I can see your foot, silly. You should have come in immediately. Now it’s infected. But that’s not what I was talking about. I’m talking about you. Emotionally. You know, it’s one of those things that’s very important but that big tough guys don’t like to talk about.”

  “I’m okay. I have good days when I can just relive the great times Joyce and I had together. Then I have the bad days when I’m sullen and moody and just want to punch my fist through a wall. On those days I blame myself a lot. I tell myself I should have been there. That I could have saved her.”

  “Unless you’re Superman and have the capability of catching bullets in mid-air, that’s not the case. From what I heard your family was brutally attacked. Your being there wouldn’t have changed that.”

  “I know. But if I had been there maybe she wouldn’t have been in that particular window at that particular time.”

  “Scott, if she hadn’t been in that window, somebody else would have been. Which other one of your loved ones would you rather have lost instead of Joyce?”

  “I guess I never thought of it like that. I just feel sometimes that if I hadn’t brought medicine for John, I wouldn’t have gotten shot, and I’d have been there. Maybe I couldn’t have prevented Joyce from dying, but at least I’d have been there with her.”

  “Or… you could look at it another way. If you hadn’t brought John his meds he would have died. You likely would still lost Joyce in the gunfight because she still would have been in that window shooting. Only then you wouldn’t only have her death to deal with. You’d also be blaming yourself for John’s death. You’d be beating yourself up for that, saying if only you’d brought him some medicine he’d still be alive.”

  Scott sat silently and looked at her.

  Becky took his hand and said, “Besides, Scott. If you hadn’t brought John his meds, you’d never have gotten shot yourself. And that means you never would have met me. And you may not know it yet, but I’m a great and loyal friend. I’m the kind of friend who will always watch out for you, even when you do stupid things like step on nails.”

  “Hey, I didn’t see it, okay? It could have happened to anybody.”

  She sighed.

  “You’re right. It could have. So let me rephrase that. Stepping on a nail was an accident. Waiting for four days to get it checked out, that’s what was stupid. Really stupid. Now, can we agree on that?”

  “Yes, I suppose we can agree on… OW!”

  She was poking and prodding on the swollen hole in the bottom of his foot.

  “Sorry. Just need to make sure there aren’t any bits of rust or other debris in the wound.”

  “So, tell me, Doc. How do we treat an infected hole in the foot?”

  “Well, the infection is pretty far advanced. I’m afraid that amputation is really the only option we have left.”

  “What?”

  She smiled, and he couldn’t help but notice how pretty she was when she did.

  “I’m kidding, silly. I’m going to give you two shots. One is for tetanus, the other is an antibiotic for the infection. We’ll dress it and get you a padded boot to wear for the next few days. We’re out of the black ones. The only ones we have left are light blue. But it’ll feel a lot better than trying to stuff that swollen foot inside your shoe.”

  She left to get the needles, and brought back the wrap-around therapeutic boot with her.

  “Hey, that thing is way too ugly. I don’t want to wear that.”

  “Listen, hard head. I know you’re afraid you have this big macho image to maintain, and that John and Robbie and Randy will all make fun of you for stomping around with a Frankenstein foot. You just tell them that I’m not afraid of any of them. And that if they don’t back off I will personally come and kick their butts. That should shut them up.”

  Scott laughed.

  “You probably would, too, wouldn’t you?”

  “Yep. In a heartbeat.”

  She scrubbed the wound on his foot and he winced.

  “Come on, don’t be a baby. You didn’t even make those kinds of faces after you were shot.”

  “It didn’t hurt this much when I got shot.”

  “Yeah, right. Are you going to cry like a little girl when I give you your injections?”

  She was smiling. Scott knew she didn’t mean it as a mean remark.

  “No. Well, maybe.”

  She dressed the wound.

  “I’ll be right back. Don’t go away.”

  She came back a minute later with a latex glove she’d blown up like a balloon and then tied off.

  On each side of the thumb, she drew a large eye with a sharpie. On the bottom of the thumb she drew two nostrils, and a smiling mouth beneath it.

  “It looks like a bizarre little man with a Mohawk haircut,” he said.

  “This is Homer. We give one of these to all the little kids when we give them shots. It helps take away their tears.”

  “How’d you know I don’t like shots?”

  “Hey, I cared for you for seven weeks while you were recovering from that gunshot wound. I know more about you than you realize.”

  “And I thought my fear of injections was my last great secret, the one nobody knew about.”

  She laughed.

  “Honey, you should never try to keep a secret from a woman who’s seen you naked. I used to bathe you, remember? You have no secrets I don’t know about.”

  -38-

  By the time Scott picked Rhett up and carted him away, Rhett had picked up a lot of hints to take back with him to Baker Street.

  Lisa and Jason liked the man. They’d hit it off instantly. They invited him back anytime, to learn more about gardening and such. Or, just to visit and pass the time on a slow shift.

  “And I’ve decided to be a cop full time,” he told Scarlett that evening. We’d always dreamed of buying our own home, but never could afford one. Now’s our chance. The house next door and the one next to it are owned by the city too. After we each work two years, we can own all three outright. We can tear two of them down for firewood, and have a heck of a back yard to raise our kids.”

  “Kids? I thought we were waiting on the kids.”

  “Oh, honey, we can’t wait forever. If we have the back yards of three houses combined, we can’t let all that space go to waste.”

  Scarlett laughed at his logic.

  “Well, that’s the best reason to have children I’ve ever heard.”

  He grinned sheepishly and said, “Yeah, I guess that does sound pretty silly, huh?”

  “Don’t get me wrong. I want to have kids. But I want to wait a couple of more years, when the world is more normal again. And John says his wife Hannah is the best midwife in Bexar County. I’d like to wait until she comes home so she can help me get through my first pregnancy. In the meantime, let’s just focus on our new jobs, okay?”

  “Okay.”

  There was a knock on the door. It was their friends Mike and Anne. Andy and Gloria were just behind them, walking up the sidewalk.

  “Hey, you guys. Come on in.”

  Andy asked, “So, what’s this about you having all these great ideas for turning this block into a farm?”

  “Yeah. I spent the day with some great people out west of us a few miles. They don’t scavenge for food anymore. They grow everything they eat.”

  “Seriously?”

  “Yes. They don’t have to worry about what they’re going to do when all the trucks and supermarkets are emptied out of food.”

  “The supermarkets are already empty.”

  “Yes. And the abandoned trucks aren’t far behind. Most of them have been pretty well picked through by now. We’ve wondered for a long time what in the world we’d do when there was no more food in the trucks. This is our solution.”

  “Okay. But if we’re going to stay here and listen to your evil scheme, you’re going to have to cook us dinner.”

&
nbsp; Scarlett walked into the room just in time to hear Andy’s comment.

  “Sure, that’s no problem. In fact, I was planning on serving a wonderful meal. The appetizer is chicken flavored Ramen noodle soup. Our exquisite main course will be pork flavored Ramen noodle soup, drained and on a plate. And for dessert, we’ll have Ramen noodle pie. Topped with more Ramen noodles.”

  “Sounds delish. I can’t wait.”

  The four sat around the dining room table and tossed around ideas. Long after their bowls of oriental soup were gone, and into the night they sat there, illuminated by a single candle in the center of the table.

  They decided their first course of action was to block the end of the street with abandoned cars. It had become the unofficial warning set up by block leaders across the city. The message it sent to outsiders was clear:

  This block is no longer open to looters. Go somewhere else.

  Mike and Andy volunteered to work the project first thing in the morning. It so happened there were several older cars at the end of the block. They’d give them running starts and roll them over the curbs, so they could build a wall of cars that stretched from one corner house to the other.

  “Then we’ll start clearing trees.”

  “Okay. But how, exactly?”

  “I already talked to Scott. He said at the end of our shift tomorrow we’ll hit a couple of the abandoned Home Depots. He said the last time he was there, they had chainsaws and tillers with pull starts. The old fashioned kind. And also wheelbarrows and shovels. We’ll load up what we need and bring them here when he drops me off.”

  “Well, now it all makes sense.”

  The other eyes turned to Anne.

  “I’ve seen the police cars driving around several times with big boxes and wheelbarrows strapped to the back of them. I always wondered what that was all about.”

  “But what do we do with the trees once we cut them down?”

  “We lay them in the street and cut them up as we need them for firewood. I was out looking at them today, and there’s at least enough trees in the front yards to burn wood in all the fireplaces for a couple or three years. If we want to grow crops in the back yards as well, that’s two or three more years’ worth of firewood.

  “Just think of it. No more freezing our cans off in that cold apartment building. On the cold nights, we can just bring a mattress downstairs and sleep in front of the fire.”

  Gloria added, “Yeah, that’s fine, if you have a fireplace. What about those of us who don’t?”

  “I thought all the houses on the block had fireplaces.”

  “Ours doesn’t.”

  “Really? You might want to think about moving. I’ve heard it’ll be years before they repair enough equipment to get the city’s power restored. Fireplace heating is going to be with us for awhile. Think about moving into another of the vacant houses, one with a fireplace. When we run out of trees to burn in a few years, we can start dismantling the houses without fireplaces and burn them.”

  “You know it’s going to be a hell of a lot of work, cutting all those trees down and planting all those crops.”

  “Hey, you no longer have a television or the internet. What else do you have to do to occupy all your time?”

  -39-

  “What happened to the rest of the city council?”

  Tom was sitting at a chair in front of a group of five men, in the Kerrville City Hall chamber.

  There were sixteen empty chairs.

  “We’re all that’s left. The rest are dead or have disappeared in search of greener pastures.”

  The man speaking was David Reichig, the interim mayor.

  “Mayor Gilley was one of the first casualties. Shot by outlaws for the case of water he was lugging home from the Handy Hut. Such a terrible waste of life.

  “I only took the job as interim mayor because none of these other sissies would do it. And to be honest, I consider it a temporary gig. As soon as we can get the city government running again, the first thing I plan to do is hold an election. And I won’t be running.

  “I’m curious, Tom. We’ve known each other for thirty years. I never took you for the lawman type. Why did you decide to take the job?”

  “The world has changed a lot over the last year, David. We’ve changed a lot with it. Just like a year ago you never saw yourself as mayor, I never thought I’d be the county sheriff someday. But three weeks ago I saw a good friend killed by outlaws. A few days ago I got word that another good friend was gunned down as well. And one of the sweetest girls in the county, who I considered a daughter, was brutalized.

  “A man can only take so much.”

  “That’s a true statement if I ever heard one, my friend. You’ve seen what you’re up against. A lesser man might have been scared away. The fact that you’re still here tells me we have the right man for the job.”

  “I’ll do my best. I have no lawman experience, but I know right from wrong. I know the good guys from the bad. And I don’t take any guff off of anybody.”

  “I understand you have friends down San Antonio way who are policemen. Perhaps they can give you some pointers.”

  “I’ve already talked to them. After they finished with the Barney Fife jokes, they offered to help me any way they could.”

  “Good. Now all you need is a staff. The city has authorized you ten deputies. Do you know any good men who might be interested?”

  “The men who rode with me on the posse did a good job. They followed instructions and weren’t afraid. I’d be honored to work with any of them again, if they’re interested in applying.”

  “We’ll talk to them about it. Anybody else?”

  “Not really. I don’t know who’s still alive or dead. I would like for Jim Colson to vouch for any applicants. He knows every good man in the county. If he says they’re capable then that’s good enough for me. I will insist on having the authority to fire my deputies if they aren’t willing to follow my rules.”

  “Fair enough.”

  “How do you plan to pay these guys?”

  “We’re going to offer them the same salary our deputies used to make, only in city bonds instead of money. They’ll be worthless until the new monetary system is established, of course. But once the dollar is worth something again, they can cash the bonds in for current value plus five percent interest per year. We’re also taking a cue from some of the other cities in the area and offering a ten acre plot of land for completion of a full year’s service, up to forty acres per man.”

  “Sounds like a decent option, for men who have no job and no income. Not a lot of choices for them out there I suppose. But how will they eat?”

  “They’ll eat just as they have since the crisis began. They’ll scavenge or barter their goods or services to the local farmers for produce and meat. Many of them have been providing private security, and I suspect they’ll continue to do so in their off-duty time.”

  “I reckon. Now, what do we do with the bad men we take into custody?”

  “We hired Jim Colson as the jailer yesterday. We wanted him to be your undersheriff. He said he’s too old for that. Said the ride into the foothills with the posse hurt his back so bad he can barely move. But he’ll be a good jailer.”

  “We’re also negotiating with Judge John Hardy to come out of retirement. Once we come to terms with him, he’ll hear the cases and render judgment. Are you amenable to hanging men who are condemned to death?”

  “I don’t think I’d like that. How about I deliver them to the gallows and you can hire someone to do that?”

  “Fair enough. I’m sure it’s not the most popular job around. How about your salary, Tom? You already have your own spread. The county owns a hundred acres to the west of you. Would you accept that as partial payment for say, a five year contract? In addition to what the former sheriff was making in city bonds?”

  “I reckon that would be fair. I haven’t really thought much about it, to be honest. I know you’re fair men who will pay me
what I’m worth.”

  “We’ve heard rumors that you have the only automobile in the county that runs. Would you be willing to use it on the job, if we were to reimburse you for the mileage used?”

  “I’d be amenable to that too. But you don’t have to pay me for the mileage. It’s an old car and ain’t worth much. And it’s held together on a wing and a prayer. We’ll just use it for transporting prisoners until we can get some of the other sheriff’s vehicles working.”

  “Do you think you can do that?”

  “Sure, but the city will have to give me the authority to take the parts I need from the auto parts stores and tractor dealers.”

  “We’ll back you up if you need it. But I’m pretty sure all of those places went out of business and were abandoned right after the blackout. Didn’t seem to be much use for them anymore.

  “When can you start?”

  “Do you have the keys to the Sheriff’s Office?”

  “Right here.”

  “Then I’ll start tomorrow. I’ll be there at nine a.m., if you can get word to my new deputies to meet me there.”

  “We’ll take care of that. And welcome aboard, Tom.”

  “Thank you, David. I hope I don’t live to regret this.”

  -40-

  Tom rode Bonnie back to the compound, calling in on the radio when he was about half a mile out.

  “Hey Jordan, this is Tom.”

  “Go ahead, Tom.”

  “I’m about fifteen minutes away. Can you drag that old tree out of the way for me?”

  “Um… sure. But could you take a little longer? Come back in, maybe thirty minutes or so?”

  “Why?”

  There was something in Jordan’s voice that seemed out of character for him. Jordan was by nature a serious young man. But he sounded almost… mischievous.

  Jordan keyed the mike again and was distracted. Tom heard Sara in the background, telling Jordan, “Tell him we can’t find the tractor key.”

  “Tom, we can’t find the tractor key. If you take your time and come back in thirty minutes, we should be able to find it by then.”