Arks of America

by D A Carey

  Brian Mitchel wanted to stand with others in support of an opposing point of view to the social justice group. He wanted hiring, promotions, and pay to be driven by the most qualified person and not by an affirmative action approach based on the color of one’s skin or origin. He was experiencing a wave of reverse discrimination in this country and through the mainstream media silencing campaign. He was frustrated that he couldn’t speak out without being branded a bigot or some kind of “-ist” or “-phobe.”

  The two groups clashed. Shouts turned to threats and threats to rocks and fists. Police were monitoring the protest and saw the violence begin to erupt. They were aware of the news cameras so were slow to react for fear of lawsuits and public outcry no matter what they did. When the clash became bloody, the police finally waded in with tear gas and riot gear.

  It took too much time. The press of the crowd brought Jerome and Brian together. Bloodied and bruised, they rolled at the feet of the crowd. Other combatants stepped on them and kicked. Jerome was surrounded by people who didn’t look like him. He was on his back and Brian was on top. In desperation, he pulled a small nickel-plated .38 revolver and shot three rounds into Brian’s chest. Before he could escape from under Brian’s body, a tattooed white man plunged a knife into Jerome’s side.

  The crowd cleared, and the smoke swirled. The last thing Jerome saw were the booted feet of the riot police moving across the plaza. The picture of two dead men locked in a mortal embrace, one white and one black, would be plastered across all the papers by the next morning.

  << Vince >>

  Vince was back at the Carrollton location. It was shaping up well. Several people had already moved in which, strictly speaking, would be against the rules in the future because this site hadn’t yet ratified a charter. Still, Cavanaugh Construction was eager to get this site up and running.

  The view from the bluff down to the Ohio River was gorgeous. The orchards and fruit fields were vast. The quaint country restaurant was getting great reviews. Right in the middle of that sat a new small town of homes that resembled townhomes of the past as well as southern-style shotgun homes and multi-unit condo dwellings. Along the main streets were small businesses, including a drugstore, a bakery, and a doctor’s office, that created a quaint old-fashioned small town atmosphere where people would walk down the street and greet each other personally. The first group of residents was eating it up, and it was easy to tell why. First of all, they were the early adopters and most likely to enjoy this lifestyle. Secondly, it actually turned out even better than planned.

  The only downside was the drive into the city where many people worked was close to an hour commute. Most of the new residents worked in Louisville either directly or remotely. Cincinnati was about the same distance, and Vince suspected later they would get more people from there as well. The only problem with attracting more people from Cincinnati was that many of the businesses were on the opposite side of the city, making the commute longer. If they got more people from Cincinnati, they expected it would be the people who telecommuted several days a week.

  With the state of things, the corporate leadership expected that telecommuting jobs would take a sharp upswing in the future of business. The proliferation of work-at-home jobs and a real desire for a safe place to live and raise families made the community a real find for many people. With the atmosphere and community culture, it was more attractive, even if the investment opportunity wasn’t bundled into the deal.

  << Dave >>

  Dave received more current updates from a source in government. He would have liked to have someone in Homeland Security he could reach out to; then again, those people scared even him. What was scary was that everyone he met in that department was like a zealot. He wasn’t sure how the training went, but the outcome was obvious. Dave didn’t put it past them to use the IRS, DOJ, or any other three-letter government agency to find a way to wreck not only this venture, but everything he owned and built over the years. It was better to stay off their radar. As a whole, there were fewer and fewer people Dave trusted to view their role in government as a service to the people. If there were strongly ethical people in government, he doubted very few existed after a few years in the job. He was desperate for information yet needed to keep a low profile. It was best to get small bits of information passively, then he could piece things together on his own.

  The most common approach in Dave’s favor was exploiting these people’s greed. The lower government officials were usually planning for their bailout job in the private sector as soon as things didn’t go their way. Those people would offer free information to curry favor with Dave. The higher people and those in elected offices were usually trying to get financial contributions or hoping for Dave to use his influence on their behalf. They would give bits and pieces of information as a teaser for the same reason. He evaluated each of these requests against his own strict ethical code. He would help one of these people when it was something he would have done anyway. He didn’t mind letting those people think he did it on their behalf to keep the information flowing for a little longer. Dave just didn’t trust lifelong government people, didn’t regard any of them as long-term resources, and didn’t want them to know he cared that much about government doings.

  The official word from the government was rosy and portrayed the golden days as being right around the corner if people would only stay the course. The opposing party always predicted the dire consequences of staying on the current course and the need for a change. Like clockwork, every four to eight years American voters did change course, only to be back in the same situation with the party in power entreating the public to trust the plan and the opposing party asking for change. Meanwhile, the nation continued to circle the drain in smaller and shorter cycles of prosperity and chaos.

  One source Dave spoke to who knew quite a bit sounded scared. He told more than he should because he wanted out and into a cushy job with Cavanaugh Corp. He told of government austerity measures currently in place, which was no surprise to Dave. What interested Dave most was that government officials, even at mid-level positions, were being advised to move their families out of high risk locales like Chicago, New York City, Los Angeles, and other major metropolitan areas. There were too many bad things looming on the horizon and too few resources to deal with it.

  There was a poorly kept government secret that would be career suicide to mention. Over the last twenty years or so, politicians had fostered a mob mentality in each camp. This legitimized their actions in pilfering the public coffers before the next party could gain power and do the same. By radicalizing their parties, corrupting morality, and belittling patriotism, they helped rot the very foundation of what made the country great. They couldn’t put the genie back in the bottle. There was very little morality or patriotism left in either camp and no restraint to stop them from taking even more extreme steps. The few ethical people left in government were beginning to be aware that things would get a lot worse before they got better.

  What concerned Dave most was how the left in particular dealt in lies both to themselves and their constituents to further their agenda. If they were finally acknowledging truth, even if in a private oblique way, things must be worse than people knew. He would need to accelerate his plan.

  To that end, Dave stepped up his provisioning efforts. He wanted to have critical supplies cached in secret bunkers near the various charter town locations. He issued instructions for the certain factories owned by the corporation to ramp up production beyond their order list with the idea that they could warehouse and sell the overage later when or if things improved. The things he wanted produced in higher quantities were solar panels, wind turbines, camping gear, and ammunition. He made a note to follow up with his people to determine what other items should be stockpiled and prepositioned. This planning brought to mind something General Douglas Macarthur once said: “I am concerned for the security of our great nation; not so much because of any threat from without, b
ut because of the insidious forces working from within.”

  ***

  Dave worried about Vince’s daughter and ex-wife, who were in Chicago, as well as one of his own most high-profile investors. The riots and chaos were particularly bad there, and he couldn’t get an airplane into one of the private airports in Chicago.

  When he spoke with Vince on the SAT phone, Vince shared how extremely worried he was for Ellie and Kate. He told Dave he wanted to go up there personally to get them out of the city but didn’t want them to think he was crazy if things weren’t as bad as the scenes on TV appeared. They decided if the situation didn’t get better by the end of the week, Vince would go to Chicago regardless.

  The plan was to go in by vehicle, avoiding population clusters, with a couple of special operators as backup. If they decided the mission was a go, Dave insisted they take a low-flying helicopter to French Lick, Indiana, where they would meet up with his old friend Gus. It would shorten the trip, and the vehicles Gus would supply would have more tactical advantages than what Vince had at Carrollton. Additionally, Gus’s French Lick location would serve as a forward operating base from Carrollton to support the mission and give them a fallback position. Gus specialized in customizing vehicles for all kinds of pseudo military and recreational uses. With two up-armored 4x4 vehicles, they could make their way into Chicago and hopefully get back out without much action.

  << Liz >>

  The landlines in the penthouse and hotel were down, and cell connections were sketchy at best. The outage periods for cell service kept getting longer. Liz was in Chicago to film at the Navy Pier location, and things weren’t going well. The food riots that kept her in the hotel for three days were taking a more aggressive stance. Even with the added security the studio provided at the filming site, they couldn’t go to work. Liz and her crew had been holed up in the prestigious downtown hotel for several days. Power, internet, and cable television access had been sporadic. Thankfully, there were backup generators for the lights and mini fridges.

  Liz wanted to schedule a private plane out of Chicago, but both Frank and the studio advised against it. Just getting to the small airport would be difficult. If they made it to the airport, there was still a risk; mechanics were suspected of improper repairs or sabotage as a part of their protest. Most of the studio executives were from large cities and didn’t think getting out to the country would be much safer. They advised her to sit still and let things blow over. That was the pattern they had grown to expect from the riots, shootings, and civil unrest. Her security team was doing their best to make sure she had all the comforts of home while they hunkered down. Frank and Junior took turns heading down to the hotel proper for food and supplies.

  << Ellie >>

  Ellie had been working from home for an entire week, and it was a godsend. She could earn her paycheck and didn’t have to go out among the chaos in the streets. With the food shortages and riots against police in Chicago, it was for the best. Trying to get to work would have been like running a gauntlet. She was surprised the city hadn’t yet instituted martial law. City officials were apparently more afraid of the message it would send to the world than the impact of the murders, rapes, and bedlam. While those officials were experienced at putting a good spin on violent crimes, there was no way to sugarcoat or spin martial law.

  Although telecommuting allowed her and others the ability to hunker down and weather another storm of riots, work was still degraded by the frequent interruptions of internet and power. When they lost power or internet access, she lost what she was working on. Sometimes she waited hours for the internet to come back up and then hope her coworkers were on standby to log in and get back on task. Each day, fewer of them logged back in for work.

  What was a bit unnerving to Ellie was that usually the periods of anarchy ran their course in a day or two. This current episode was going into day six. It was a partial comfort that Malcolm made it to a bodega early on to stock up on all the eggs, bacon, canned food, and bottled water he could load in the van. The shop owner wasn’t sure how much longer he could stay open and reasoned it was better to get paid with the cash Malcolm offered for the goods than to have it stolen by gangs later or go to waste when the power went out again. After that, Malcolm stopped by his dad’s old shop to pick up a generator. He planned to alternate it between the kitchen refrigerator and freezer in the basement for long enough to keep what he bought from spoiling.

  Recently, Malcolm ran off some sketchy-looking scavengers that banged on the door. It was unclear what they wanted. He thought they were scoping out residences for easy pickings while the police were preoccupied.

  To get her mind out of the melancholy mood, Ellie turned on the TV. It was already on the news program, and she let it drone in the background as she worked around the house.

  “Chicago police killed a nineteen-year-old man outside a popular nightclub Friday. The man was identified as having an improvised bomb. When confronted by police, the man began chanting pro-Islamic rhetoric, produced a hidden weapon, and shot at police. One officer was injured with non-life-threatening wounds. The suspect was killed at the scene. The man, whose identity has not yet been released by police, was legally working in the U.S. He came to America on a work visa from the Middle East. Experts who investigated the bomb and materials say it’s consistent with bombs that the terrorists are taught to make in Middle Eastern training camps. Those same experts postulate that had this bomb exploded when the nightclub was full, we could have expected a death toll of close to a hundred people.”

  Ellie turned off the TV. The news was always depressing these days.

  Adversity

  “Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”

  - Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Chicago, IL

  Olivia and Mia were totally hyped. They made it closer to downtown than anyone else. A lot of kids were posting videos on social media of the riots and chaos. Tyler had even live streamed a man getting his head crushed with a brick that got millions of internet hits. That was nothing compared to what the girls planned. He’d shot it from inside his second-floor apartment. Olivia and Mia snuck downtown and stayed in the shadows, making it almost to the Miracle Mile shopping area.

  “Liv! I’m freaking out,” Mia whispered, her chest shaking with excitement.

  “Yeah, we’re gonna be famous. We might even get our own YouTube channel. We can travel the world making videos.”

  “OMG, Gucci!” Mia whispered in teen slang, barely able to hide her excitement at actually finding real crime to film. “Focus on those guys. What are they doing?”

  “They’re beating up another man and taking things from that store.”

  “Hey, ladies. What’s up?” said an older Hispanic voice behind them in a jovial tone. He was flanked by two other men wearing similar colors to the men they’d been filming.

  “N-nothing,” the girls stammered as they tried to back away.

  The two other men flanked them to trap them against the alley wall. The first man, Mateo, grabbed Olivia’s cell phone and went through a few of the pictures and messages. “Hmm, live streaming are we? Hola, everyone!” he said, aware he was being broadcast across the net.

  “Pleeeease!” the girls pleaded through sobs. “Let us go!”

  “I think for now I will insist you stay,” Mateo said with a sickening smile that revealed some gold teeth and barely hid a sadistic streak. “You promised these people a show. I think we will give them a good one. You have a power cord? I think this will go on a long time.” He didn’t wait for them to answer. “No matter, my boys will find one.”

  Olivia and Mia did break the internet. Their screams and torment lasted for days. If law enforcement was watching, the live-streamed video they couldn’t find Mateo’s gang and the girls. Weeks later, the girls’ bodies would be found where the canals flowed out of the city.

  << Vince >>

  Vince sat on his large deck wat
ching vehicles travel the road in front of his house. For several weeks, that wasn’t possible. The roadblocks were gone now, and traffic was moving. Although no one came to thank him, no one came with policemen to arrest him either. He was okay with that.

  He heard the microwave beep through the open door. Power was back on and the TV worked. Vince didn’t think it would last long, so he took advantage of the trucks rolling in to Kroger to buy a cartload of junk food and staples. He wasn’t the only one with that idea. The Kroger management hastily created signs limiting the amount a person could spend to fifty dollars per transaction to allow more people to make purchases. Although people didn’t riot, it appeared likely a few times. News coverage of similar events in other stores around the city would be entertaining to watch on the evening news.

  With things settled down for the moment, the mayor declared the city open for business. Vince ate microwaved Taquitos, relishing real sour cream, a luxury he would miss if things got bad again. He barely listened to the mayor’s long, flowery speech about how the different cultures and people of the city had learned so much about each other during the time of strife, had learned to value safety and security as well as each other’s differences, and that while the events were tragic, the city would be stronger and more united for having gone through what they had.