by Ira Tabankin
Ricky’s face turns crimson, “They all have PHDs which is far more education than you have. Their theories are correct, the problem is people like you and Tony don’t try to live the right way. You’re just like the other 1%, you don’t give their theories the time they need to work.”
“Ricky, that’s true, I have a BA from College and a Ph.D. in street and logic. You’re missing the street and logic. Without them, you’re left with nothing but theories that have been proven failures. Where are your new ideas? Increasing taxes is something the left says every day, it’s been tried, it hasn’t worked. Even JFK cut taxes to stimulate the economy. How much time do your theories need to produce results? How many years or generations does it take for you to accept they don’t work? Would you have had us welcome the invaders with flowers and kisses?”
“I think if we’d offered to share with the mob and motorcycle club we wouldn’t be down here in this hole. All of us could be sitting around the same table, we would be sharing each other’s experiences. Each group has a lot they can teach the others. By fighting them, we’re nothing but a group of murderers. We gunned them down in cold blood.”
“Ricky, we were the ones attacked. No one asked us for anything, they came to take what was ours. Shouldn’t they have sent a messenger and asked for a sit-down? According to your idea, we should have sat around a big campfire and sung kumbaya. You forget utopia doesn’t exist, you forgot to factor in the variable which is human nature. By the way, you preach equality, yet it was the Democrat Party that helped found the KKK, who voted against the 13th and 14th amendments. Democrats have been the party of elites for the past one hundred years. Progressives want the people to be unarmed, uneducated idiots who bow to the bosses. The Progressive party isn’t honest with the people. You pander for votes, you tell each audience what you think they want to hear. You hide behind masks whenever you talk to the poor, the reality is, the progressive party only wants to consolidate power in the ruling class’ hands. They’ll do anything to hold and expand their power. If we’d shared what we have with the mob, there would be less for you. We’d be the same as the hungry mob sooner versus later. Do you want to be cold and hungry this winter? Do you want your family to be cold and hungry? Us giving away what we have isn’t going to do anyone any good. The mob will have tasted our supplies and then human nature would set in. They would have decided that if we weren’t there, they wouldn't have to share with us, there would be more for them. They would attack us to have more for themselves, just as they’re fighting with themselves over the supplies they found in our homes.”
“Jay, that’s pure bullshit. If we’d shared with them, they wouldn’t have attacked us. Those ghosts who haunted you wouldn’t haunt you. You brought all of this on yourself and on us. You’re the cause of our problems because you refused to share. You’re a typical right wing wacko. You’re one hundred percent selfish. You on the right are against women and children which is why you refused to share.”
I’m getting really hot under the collar, “Just wait a minute, it was the left who voted against giving women the vote, it was your messiah, President 0bama who preached the war against women when his own White House paid women less than men. You’re all nothing but hypocrites. Ricky, the Progressives have tried to change the definition of normal, gender and truth, there are times I think you all belong to ‘Big Brothers’ political party out of George Orwell’s novel 1984. You talk out of both sides of your mouth at the same time, you decide that anything that offends you has to be banned, who made you the ones to decide? If I didn’t know you’d cave in an instant, I’d kick your sorry ass out of here and see how many seconds you survive with ‘your’ poor oppressed people above us.”
“Jay, I’d ask you to step outside and settle this like a man, but since you’ve locked us inside this little empire of yours where you are the king we can’t settle it like men.”
I take a step towards Ricky with my fists set, he jumps back three paces striking the wall, he falls down, rolling over trying to cover his face with his hands. I look down at him, “Settle like a man? When you grow a pair and become a man, come back and see me. Now get away from my room.” Ricky gets up, he brushes off his pants, he turns around walking quickly away from my room, our laughing echoes in his ears.
Tony is laughing so hard he has tears coming down his cheeks. Nancy comes by asking, “What’s so funny? If one of you told a joke that funny you should have waited for me to get off duty in the playroom. I haven’t seen Tony laugh so hard in a long time.”
Lacy smiles saying, “Nancy, I’ll tell you later, it concerns Ricky and Jay.”
“Damn it, I always miss the best ones. I bet that’s going to be an interesting story.”
Tony smiles replying, “You have no idea how right you are, come on, let’s get a cup of coffee and leave these two alone. I have a feeling they have a lot to catch up on.
We make plans to join John for dinner and later in the security module to listen to our fearless leader at 9:00.
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After Tony and Nancy leave, I close our door, I turn to face Lacy, taking her into my arms. I look into her eyes, “Honey, thank you. Thank you for saving me. I was falling into hell, every minute I fell deeper. I didn’t know if I would ever return or if I was going to pass over and have my soul tortured for all time. The guilt I felt drove me into a bad place. Thank God you thought of sending the kids after me. When Bianca found me, she hugged my legs and kissed me, she pulled my soul back into the light.”
“Honey, it wasn’t me. I kept the kids away from you out of fear they would see your torment and be traumatized. I worried about their feelings. Every day for the month we’ve been here they came asking for you. I told them you weren’t feeling well. All four of them were worried about you. I couldn’t hide the fact you spent every day and night walking around the shelter.”
“Honey, if you didn’t send them to me, who did?”
“It was Fred’s idea. He suggested I send the two little ones after you. He said they were most likely the only ones who could pull you back into the light.”
“I owe you and Fred my soul.”
Lacy’s arms tighten their hold on me, she says, “Honey, it’s so good having you back. I missed you.”
“Lacy, did you say it’s been a month?”
“Yes, we’ve been living in the shelter for 33 days. Don’t you remember?”
“All I remember after we came in here and locked the door is entering our room, we sat on the bed and stared at each other. We hugged, shortly afterward, all I saw were the dead. I saw their shadowy images floating in front me, they pointed their fingers at me. They blamed me for their death, they asked me why I killed them, they kept asking me why. I had no answer for them and my guilt for their deaths burned my soul. They floated in front of me, daring me to catch them. They told me if I caught them I could bring them back. I tried to catch them, I chased them all through the shelter. They were always just in front of me, they taunted me, they pulled me forward, they laughed at me, they told me I was going to join them in hell. I wasn’t sure I believed in hell until they taunted me. I had no choice, I had to reach them, if I could catch up with them, I could have brought them back. I offered to trade places with them. They laughed saying I would be joining them soon enough. They bled boiling blood. They threw and spit it at me. Look.” I take off my shirt, there are burn marks on my chest and arms. Lacy looks shocked, “What the hell is that?”
“Burn marks from their blood.”
“That’s impossible.”
“So how do you explain it?”
Lacy starts shaking, she whispers with tears in her eyes, “I can’t, I don’t know what to say. I’ve never seen anything like this.” Lacy is silent, she’s silently praying to God, when she’s done, she looks into Jay’s eyes, asking, “Jay, what’s next?”
“We need to get rid of the assholes who took our homes. Let’s go see what they’re up to. John’s wired all of our homes and the fields.
We should be able to see and hear what they’re doing. Hopefully, this will give us the intel we need to sweep them into the trash can.”
“I’m not sure if I can stomach seeing those animals in our home. John’s asked me before if I wanted to watch them, I always turned him down. I don’t have the stomach to see them tearing up our home.”
“OK, I’ll go.”
“Jay, please, don’t go alone. For the next few days, don’t go anywhere alone. The word of your return has already spread through the shelter. If they see you walking alone, even if it’s with purpose, the rumor will spread that you mentally slipped away again. Everyone’s morale was falling every day, they thought you had deserted us. If they see you walking alone, they’ll assume you are lost again.”
“OK, I’ll ask Todd to go with me.”
Lacy and I hug and kiss each other, “Jay, it feels so good to have you back.”
“Lacy, I can’t tell you how good it feels to be with you. I hope you believe me, I didn’t have a choice, I had to try to free those I helped kill. My decisions caused so much pain and suffering.”
“Jay, you didn’t kill them. You saved all of us. If you hadn’t built this shelter, we would all be dead. You saved so many. Those who died did so because it was their time. When it’s your time, you don’t have a choice. When the angel of death comes for you, your time is up.”
“I don’t believe that. Honey, can we talk about this later? Right now I need to get us all back in our homes.”
“Jay, please wait here, I’ll get Todd. Then go and make the plans to bring us home. We all know you’ll find a way to bring us home safe and sound.”
“Like how I protected everyone we started with?”
Todd knocks on our door frame, “Dad, let’s go see what the shitheads have done to your home.”
“Have you been watching them while I spent a month wandering the halls?”
“Yes, John and I have been watching them since you became the wandering Jew.”
“Anything you want to tell me?”
“Dad, don’t throw up or break the displays. It’s not a pretty picture. You’re going to be pissed off when you see your house.”
“Shit, I was afraid you were going to say that.”
As Todd and I are walking to the security module, Sammi runs over to hug me. “Daddy, I heard you worked your inner demons out. Welcome back. I’m so happy my daddy is back and normal.”
“Sammi, thanks for coming to see me. Would you do me a favor?”
“Sure, what can I do for you?”
“Keep your husband away from me. Keep him on a very short leash. Keep him far away from my room and Lacy and me. Let me know ASAP if he mentions leaving the shelter.”
“Dad, is something wrong?”
“Yes, just keep him away from Lacy and me. It’ll be much better for you and Linda.”
“Dad please promise me you won’t hurt my husband.”
“I’ll make that promise, under the condition you keep him away from me.”
“I promise. I really do. Please don’t hurt him. I love him.”
“Sammi, I think somewhere along the line you fell and hit your head. I’ll keep my promise if you keep him away.”
“I promise I will.”
Todd and I entered the security room, John jumped up to hug me. “Damn, you’re a sight for sore eyes. I’m very happy you’re back. We missed you, we can use you around here.”
“John, it’s good to see you too. Show me what’s going on outside.”
“OK, but don’t get pissed. Don’t break anything, you of all people know spares are hard to come by.”
John turned on the monitors, I was amazed at the number of cameras and the quality of the images. I sat down with my mouth hanging open. The longer I watched, the angrier I got. I made a mental list of those I was going to slowly kill. The fat fuck, Dutch is number one on my list.
Chapter 5
Big Dutch and his people cut holes in all of our inside walls. They paid special attention to the spaces behind all of our hanging pictures, it's obvious they were looking for a wall safe. If Lacy saw the Swiss cheese they left of our walls, she’d cry and then demand I cut their balls off. We’re going to have to replace almost all of the sheetrock. Damn it, it’s not like we can just hop over to Home Depot to get a truckload of sheetrock.
My mind is reviewing what I’m seeing, I’ll give Dutch credit for smarts. Looking for a hidden wall safe was a good idea, maybe I should have hidden a false one or two to throw them off track. I don’t think he’ll ever locate our real safes which are hidden under the basement. There’s also three hidden here in the shelter. It’s going to take someone a lot smarter than him to find the sub-basement and if he somehow did stumble across the hidden trap door, he’s still not going to be able to get into the safes. They are secured via biometric and combination locks, unlocking one alone won’t open the safe. The biometrics require four live fingers, if my fingers were cut off, they wouldn’t unlock the safe. The numeric combination uses thirty digits, the possibility of the gang figuring out the right digits and order is almost impossible. The safes are fire and water proof. It’s going to take a large amount of special explosives to blow the safes. That’s if Dutch’s people survive the booby traps that we left behind for anyone who is unlucky enough to find them.
John looks at me, “Jay, I’m sorry about your house, look on the bright side, you said you wanted to change the color of the paint on the inside of the house. When we move back in, we’ll all pitch in to repair the damage and paint the house. Do you think they’re going to be able to find your safes?”
Smiling and shaking my head, “John, it’s very unlikely, and if they did, I’ll bet you a million dollars they’ll never break into them. That’s assuming they live long enough to get past all of the booby traps we built around the safes. We had a sub-basement dug, we placed the safes in the sub-basement. Unless someone knows where the trap door is, and how to open it, they’re not going to find it. I’ve asked a few of our neighbors to go into the basement and find the safes, no one ever found the trap door. I think they’ll be safe.”
John asks, “Jay, I should have asked this before, but, I think we all need to know, what happens to your house if they trip the booby traps near your safes?”
“John, that’s a very good question. I didn’t consider that. I only thought about stopping someone from getting to the safes. Since they’re in an enclosed concrete sub-basement, I hope the reinforced cement will contain the explosions. Most of them are small, antipersonnel rounds. They fire iron cubes and BBs that spread out in a circle. There are enough projectiles to fill the sub-basement many times over. Anyone in the sub-basement, when they go off, will be shredded.”
“Jay, what about a second attack after the first?”
Smiling, “I thought of that, some of the claymore like explosives are armed on a secondary trigger. I only set the traps for two attacks. If there’s a third attempt, they will be able to enter the sub-basement, but they are still going to have issues getting into the safes.”
“Jay, how sure are you that they can’t easily open them?”
Laughing, I respond, “John, very damn sure. I watched a demonstration before I bought them, they tried drilling through a safe, they set off TNT next to the safe trying to blow them open, they brought in five convicted safe crackers, none of them could open the safe. I feel good that they won’t be able to get into them.”
John looks at me with a solemn look on his face, “Jay, is there anything else in your sub-basement that we should be concerned about?”
“John, if you’re asking if I have buried weapons of mass destruction hidden down there, the answer is no. There’s nothing down there that can give us heartburn or hurt us.”
“At least that’s one bit of good news. I was worried that when you went on a buying spree, you shopped internationally, I was worried you bought some toys in Russia.”
“John, I did, but WMD’s are priced out of my r
ange.”
“Great, that’s good news.”
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We’re watching and listening to Dutch holding a council meeting in my dining room where he’s trying to figure out where we disappeared to. If it weren't so serious, it would be funny. We’re almost directly under his nose and he doesn’t know it. We covered the shelter with our fields, there are no air ducts or pipes leading up into the fields to give our position away. All of them exit in the heavy woods on the edges of my property. We insulated the shelter to help keep a constant temperature and to act as sound proofing so no one above us could hear us. The thin internal walls forced us to lower our voices to almost a whisper if we didn’t want everyone to hear our business. We’re watching Dutch on hidden cameras while we’re sitting no more than 200 yards from him.
