by A J Newman
The Sergeant kicked down a door and yelled, “Follow me boys and girls!”
It was the last command he gave in his short life. There were a dozen well-armed thugs in the room and all of them fired at once killing the Sergeant instantly. They swarmed out of the room and a furious hand-to-hand fight broke out in the hallway. Both sides dropped their rifles and drew knives and pistols.
“They killed Sarge! Kill the bastards!”
The ISA troops attacked with a vengeance, but were outnumbered three to one. They cut and stabbed their way through the scum dying one by one until every gang member was dead and only one of the team was left standing.
Ensign Teller came around the wall into the hallway just as the soldier dropped to the floor and calmly said, “Sir, we killed the SOBs that killed Sarge.” His head slumped in Teller’s arms and his eyes closed.
Teller’s team quickly killed the rest of the thugs and found the leaders and his family hiding in a safe room.
“Get your asses out here right now!
“Screw you, you piece of shit soldier boy.”
“Okay, have it your way. Private, fetch the C4 and blow their sorry asses out of that room.”
The Private came back with the C4 and placed it in front of the spy hole in the door so the gang leader could see it.
“Punk, we are setting the fuse for 30 seconds and running like hell. This will blow the door out and may kill a couple of you. I’d hide behind something. Light the fuse! Run men.”
About ten seconds later the gang leader opened the door and ran out of the safe room leaving his wife, kids and trusted lieutenants to fend for themselves. He ran right into Teller and his men who had guns trained on him.
“Corporal, secure this scumbag and take him and his family to headquarters."
***
The Navy started buzzing the city with five F-18s and ten Apaches. Several cruisers patrolled Trinity Bay and shelled vacant areas of the city just to add to the noise and confusion. After an hour of explosions and jets buzzing them, the gang members had frazzled nerves and were scared shitless.
At the same time, Sonny’s team made a lot of noise, drove Humvees up and down the roads stirring up dust, and shot at broken down cars, and burned out houses.
The outlaws panicked and headed away from the explosions and advancing army only to run right into Gus and his force who were just waiting to kill every one of the SOBs. While the gang members did put up a furious fight, they were scared and disorganized. Gus’ team slaughtered them as fast as they drove or ran out of Houston. It took days to round up the bodies and bury them in mass graves.
“Jack, Charlie; Houston is yours. You need to mop up the remaining gangs and get the people ready to defend themselves. I will leave a company of Marines and John will leave Scott and his company of volunteers to assist with getting Houston back in operation and able to protect its self. George and the Navy are also sending some engineers to help with the utilities.”
“Bob and John, thank you, your teams and especially the Admiral for all of the help. With your assistance we will take back all of Texas.”
***
“Pablo, my old friend, how are the wife and kids doing?"
“Mr. President, they are all doing well. I was sorry to hear about your son. Are you and your wife doing okay? This must be the worst thing that can happen to a family.”
“Pablo, I’m going to cut to the chase. Did you or your people have anything to do with the murder of my son and the attack on my motorcade? Every bit of evidence points to you and your people.”
“Neither me nor my men were involved. Yes, I am upset with your government cutting off the sales of my goods in the relocation camps and North East USA, but I will work that out with you. We are friends and allies. It has to be the Iranians or the ISA.”
“The Navy wiped out Iran and its military.”
“The country and most of its military were blown to smithereens by your Navy’s nukes; however, Iran had a major base in Mexico that was established long before TSHTF.”
“How come my intelligence people don’t know about this base?”
“Your Hope and Change predecessor ordered all knowledge of the base to be TOP SECRET like Area 51. He knew that the American people would have his head on a platter if it was known that he allowed Iran to build a base with first strike nuclear capability on North American soil.”
“This sounds very far-fetched.”
“Ask Mr. Berry in your State Department and watch him squirm.”
“I will do that. Thanks for the information. I’m not letting you off the hook until your story checks out, but I do feel better after our conversation. Assuming everything checks out, I want to discuss a joint attack on the ISA and get rid of the Iranians.”
“Get the Wolf on the phone now! Miguel, work with the Wolf on a back-up plan to eliminate Mr. Big if needed.”
“Yes, sir!”
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Chapter 17
Stacked Deck
Tallahassee, Florida
April, 2021
The Mayor called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. sharp. The clerk read the minutes from the last meeting by the paltry light given off by a kerosene lamp.
She looked up at the Mayor and said, “We either need to have this meeting during daylight hours or God needs to give me some light.”
The words were barely out of her mouth when most of the lights in the town hall came on and filled the room with the much-needed light.
A woman yelled, “Look the street lights are on! Thank you God!”
Just then a man and woman stepped into the room surrounded by four armed men in full battle armor and the man said, “You probably should thank God that you are still alive, but the ISA and the Navy brought you the lights. I am John Harris and the ISA has asked me to take responsibility for Florida. This is Sally Green, she is the interim governor of Florida until we can have elections. We have plenty of food, lights, running water and toilets that flush in the ISA. Your Chief of Police has told us that most of you want to join the ISA. Let’s have a show of hands for joining the ISA.”
“An old woman stood up and said, “What about the Mayor and his thugs?”
Sally replied, “I promise you that the Mayor is going to jail and won’t be a factor in this town again.”
The Mayor stood up along with a dozen of his thugs and fifty soldiers with full battle armor walked into the hall with rifles pointing at the Mayor.
All but a dozen of the several hundred people raised their hand to join the ISA.
Sally addressed the town folk, “I am asking the Chief of Police to take charge until four months from today when we will conduct fair elections to see who you want to lead your fair city. I have brought a team of engineers to assist your town in getting all of your utilities back in operation. Now I’d like to….”
Sally was interrupted by a brief, but scattered sound of gunfire. There were 20–30 shots and then silence.
“I think that was the last of the Mayor’s thugs being arrested or buried. I thank you for joining our great new country. You will find that there is no tolerance for criminals, drug pushers or wife beaters. We believe in the Constitution and the Bible. You don’t have to believe in either as long as you don’t harm anyone else.”
***
Gus knocked on Washington’s door early Sunday morning just as the sun peaked above the horizon. The noise woke George up and he tripped walking to the door and fell on the floor with a throbbing big toe on his left foot. Shirley heard the commotion from the kitchen, went to the front door and greeted Gus while George was cussing the chair that bit his foot.
Shirley saw Gus and said, “What are you up to this morning with that big dumb grin on your face? Come on in, but don’t step on George. He stubbed his toe and can’t stop cussing long enough to stand up on the Lord’s Day; when you aren’t supposed to be cussing anyway. Coffee?”
“Yes, I don’t mind if I do. Your coffee is t
he best.”
They all sat down at the table and started discussing life after TSHTF when Gus started shifting in his seat and losing interest in the conversation.
“Gus, my woman’s intuition tells me that you aren’t here to discuss the current events at 5:30 in the morning. What’s on your mind? As if I didn’t know. You have the hots for our daughter, Ginny and she is in love with you.”
“Yes. I want to ask you for her hand in marriage."
George said, “You are twice her age and normally I’d be pissed off and ready to fight, but these are different times than before. There are two to three women for every single man and she needs to find a husband before all of the good ones are taken. Though for the life of me, I can’t understand why she would fall for a gimpy, elderly old white man who can barely provide for her.”
“I love you too, dad. Err…… sorry daddy-in-law.”
George was about to reply when there was a commotion behind him.
“Y’all have me married with six kids before I even get a chance to say I do,” Ginny said as she ran up and sat down in Gus’ lap.
She gave him a hug and a big kiss. She waited a minute, put her hands on her hips and said, “Well?”
Gus looked into her eyes and said, “Ginny, will you marry me?"
“Gus, I love you so much and want to spend the rest of my life with you.”
“Well since y’all really don’t care what we think, so I guess we will give Ginny’s hand in marriage to you.”
“George, Shirley, I will promise to take care of her."
Gus asked her to get ready to go on a picnic at the beach. Ginny quickly got dressed and was back ready to go in 15 minutes. She had her hair in a ponytail with a baseball cap. She was beautiful.
“Where are the kids?"
“Gus, I am very happy that you thought about the kids, but we need some alone time.”
They drove down to Dauphin Island, put a blanket down on the sand and made love until the sand got in a few awkward places.
Ginny looked over at Gus and asked, “Gus, are you sure that you are okay with marrying a black woman and raising her kids as your own? I know that I chased you down, but now I wonder if you are on the rebound and will have second thoughts later.”
“Ginny, I love you with all of my heart. God knows that I tried to back away from you, but everything told me to take you in my arms and hold on to you. Ginny, I like all races and dislike some people in all races. A bad guy or woman is bad regardless of color and a good woman is a good woman regardless of color. I can’t stand racism and won’t tolerate it being around me. If someone doesn’t like my new wife and kids, they can kiss my ass."
“Gus, please tell me about your family. All I know is that you have three daughters and five grandkids.”
Gus told her about his family and that he was pushing John and Bob to speed up the process of taking Louisiana and Texas so he could search for them. Two daughters were in a suburb of Corpus Christie and the other lived close to Fort Bliss. He hadn’t heard from any of them since TSHTF. The boys ranged from 13 down to 7 years old and the girls were 9 and 8 years old.
When Gus finished talking about his family, he had tears in his eyes. Ginny ran into the water and dared him to catch her. They swam for a while, came back to the blanket and made love again.
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Chapter 18
Mopping Up and Taking Out the Trash
Houston, Texas
May, 2021
Houston is a large city by any standards under normal conditions. Before TSHTF, Houston was the third largest city in the USA with 4.1 million people within an area of 700 square miles. The city was in ruins, the streets blocked with stalled cars and dead bodies being eaten by rats and other scavengers. Scott surveyed the situation and again noticed that there were no crows or buzzards flocking around for a free meal. To his left, Sam Houston’s statue stood above the mess, but had been shot to pieces by the thugs and gang members.
He called his Dad and said, “I’m sitting on a stalled car in downtown Houston watching rats and other vermin eating these dead scumbags.”
John interrupted and replied, “No birds?”
“Dad, we see plenty of the little yellow finches and other birds like them, but none of the carrion eaters. Have you heard back from the Navy on the samples that we sent them?”
“No, I haven’t, and I’ve been a bit busy. I’ll get someone after those guys. This could turn out real bad if chickens and turkeys start dying off.”
“Dad, could something like this jump to humans like the bird flu after the turn of the century?”
“I hadn’t thought about that possibility. I had better take this more seriously. George probably needs a Director of Safety and Health for Alabama. I don’t want to set up a large government, but I will use the State Government to help shore up national needs until we get this party going.”
"Well, son how is the mopping up and cleaning process going?”
“Too damn slow and boring. We spend most of our day handling petty police work. Even though Houston lost eighty percent of its population due to the riots and starvation there are still 300 to 400 thousand people spread out over the 700 square miles. Jack is breaking Houston into four sub-cities with each Mayor reporting into him until they can have fair and honest elections. We ran the gang members out, but now the crooked politicians, drug lords and old union bosses are rearing their ugly heads.”
“How are Jack and Charlie holding up? This has to be a major toll on them. Are they getting enough rest?”
“Dad, they are like kids in a candy store. While Houston looks like shit, it has many resources and raw material. They are organizing clean up squads for trash and human trash. Over half the city looks back to normal and the rest will be by the end of the month. Dad, Charlie has gotten rid of over a thousand rapists, drug pushers and assorted criminals. Most of the smart ones saw their friends disappearing and headed west to California where they think the picking will be easy.”
“Son, is he still taking them for a boat trip with no return ticket?”
“Yes, he is. Dad, this concerns me a lot. I know Charlie is doing what he thinks is best, but doesn’t this fly in the face of our Constitution and all of our religious beliefs.”
"Son, I have the same concerns and am watching this closely. Charlie has put together a sound network of ex-cops, military and civic leaders to be the ongoing jury. This scum is getting a fair and very speedy trial before the boat trip. I will admit that the defense lawyers don’t put up much of a fight on the known criminals, but they are excellent at stopping mistaken identity or grudges from becoming a factor in the prosecution.”
“Dad, when do we get back to normal?”
“I hope some things don’t get back to normal. We can’t go back to having the Police afraid to arrest a criminal or even defend themselves when attacked. Remember son, the last twenty years have been terrible for God-fearing, hardworking people in all countries. From riots in the street when a thug gets shot during a robbery to illegal aliens raping and pushing drugs, the whole country was going to hell quickly. I don’t want that back. We also can’t have over half the country on welfare or disability. People could golf, play basketball and push drugs, but were "too sick” to work. That always was bullshit. I won’t let us go back to that way of life and if some of those people fall by the wayside during this recovery then tough shit. We will give everyone a hand up, a chance to work and be treated fair, but no welfare.”
***
Jack and Charlie met every day with their most trusted lieutenants for an hour at breakfast to get their priorities in order and to make sure the cleanup of the criminals was under control.
“Charlie, what do we do about prostitution? There must be several thousand whores in Houston and I don’t think they need a boat trip.”
“Wally, you know the boat is reserved for hardened murderers and such. You do bring up a good point. We have to make sure they are disea
se free and get them assimilated back into the general population.”
“The reason I brought the topic up is that my wife wants them ran out of town or she won’t stay here. She said that she would go back to Port Arthur before she would let me live around this many loose women.”
Jack spoke up, “This does point out that there are three women for every man in Houston and two for every man in the rest of the ISA. At least Port Arthur was more normal. Our women are nervous about the situation. I’ll check with John and see if he has any thoughts on the situation. This could get ugly for married men, but it must be nice to be a single guy.”
The seven men laughed, but the women frowned.
“Jack, you can make fun of this but speaking as a married lady, this could blow up on us. Our men and women are being asked to leave home for weeks on end helping other towns. All of these women without men will seek out our men. I will shoot any hussy that chases Billy.”
“I’ll just bet that you will. I want y’all to think about this while I ask for guidance from John. Now, back to business.”
Only a few minutes later an aide broke into the room and said, “We need to take cover; the USA is hitting Port Arthur and here in a few minutes. I just got a warning from the USS Ford about an impending attack. They have jets scrambled. Take cover!”
They divided and went to the surrounding buildings that had basements. They were barely hunkered down when explosions shook them and the buildings fell down around them. The cruise missiles had done their job of evading radar and hit their targets. Most of the Port Arthur leadership in Houston was killed during the first two blasts. The situation back in Port Arthur wasn’t much better. Missiles took out the town hall, police station and military command without a single miss. Charlie and Jack’s homes were also leveled, killing everyone.
