by David Nees
“We pay them, we get the guys back. What else is there? What did you learn?”
“This guy, the Chairman they call him, he’s taken over Knoxville. They know about us. They’ve heard stories about how much wealth, resources we’ve collected as a town—Joe Stansky’s loot. They think we’re rolling in resources, gold, fuel, guns, ammunition. I’m afraid we’re going to be a target.”
“It’s all rumors, you know how they get exaggerated.”
“But that’s what they’ll believe, the exaggerations. You think they’ll stop with a hundred pounds? They’re just testing us. They’ll come back, with lots of men. According to Bud, this Chairman’s got plans to rule the south and that probably includes us. He’s got a militia like Joe had and probably a couple of hundred elite men.”
“But why come all the way here?”
“Resources. Apparently, he’s in a battle of dominance with Nashville. That’s what’s standing in his way to expanding his rule.”
Kevin just gave him a questioning look. “So, Knoxville will take the time to come all the way here if it will help them get stronger. It’s cities against cities?”
“Cities becoming city-states, becoming regional powers. You had that in Italy nearly to the twentieth century.”
Kevin put his elbows on the desk and held his head in his hands. “So why the mutilation? Why cut the man’s finger off? That’s pretty brutal and, frankly that doesn’t seem like you at all.”
“Yeah. It’s not like me…or like what I am now. But there was a time, before you came upon us in the valley—”
“I know. You led the massacre of Big Jacks’ gang. We saw the results of that battle.”
“And there was more, before Big Jacks. I was a violent person then. I had to be. I saw people I loved killed, brutally and I wasn’t going to let that happen to my new family.”
“But why torture this guy? What good did that do?”
“We don’t have much time. I needed to get the full story with no chance of deception. Believe me, I didn’t like it, but I got the full picture. Now he’s going to draw me a map of the town—show me where everything is.”
Kevin looked at the older man, nearing forty; his father-in-law. It seemed odd, since they were only about ten years apart in age. It seemed out of place to be criticizing him since he was also the acting mayor.
“Jason, I have to report this to the town council. Too many people have seen this guy and know that you took him into the woods. This won’t go over well.”
“That’s okay. I expected you would have to do that. Don’t worry about it.”
“You’ll probably lose your job.”
Jason smiled at him. “That’s not a problem. I’ve got another imperative now. It’s time to turn this mayor work over to someone else.”
Jason had been chosen to be the temporary mayor of Hillsboro after the defeat of Joe Stansky and his gang. Everyone thought the heroes of the battle, Jason, Catherine and Kevin, should play a large, public role as the city restructured itself around new leadership. Jason became the Mayor, Kevin was made Chief of Security and Catherine was made the diplomatic representative to the nearby towns that had been brutalized by Stansky’s gang.
“So, your quitting?”
“I’m quitting. I’m going to go get our two men back.”
Kevin stared at Jason, weighing what he just said. “You mean, not pay the ransom. That means going to fight and try to free them. Am I right?”
Jason nodded.
“That doesn’t sound like such a good idea. You’ll need a lot of help and that could get them killed. It’s like declaring war on Knoxville.”
Jason shook his head, his face was dark, unreadable to Kevin. “Not war; I’m going alone.”
“That’s really not a good idea. I should at least put a squad together and go with you.”
“No, you can’t. You have to stay here and prepare Hillsboro.”
“But going alone?”
“I’m a trained sniper, the best shot in the city. I’m experienced in the woods and fought in Iraq. I know combat, sniping, both in an urban environment and in the forest. If necessary, I’ll take out the key people and while they’re in disarray, free Rodney and Billy. We’ll fight our way out if we need to, but we’ll get out. I’m going to bring them back.”
“Jason, none of this makes sense. It’s like you’ve lost your perspective. Billy and Rodney set out on their own journey. Are we really responsible for them? If anything, I’m more responsible since Rodney was my sergeant.”
“They’re part of our tribe. It’s all tribal now.” Jason stood up. “I’m going now. I have to break this to Anne. Get that map out of Bud. Make sure he understands that if he doesn’t, or it isn’t accurate, he gets another session with me in the woods. We need to get a good drawing. My life may depend on it.” He started for the door, then turned back to Kevin. “And get the town council together tomorrow at noon. I’m going to address them. It’s important.”
“They’re going to want to have a say in this,” Kevin said as Jason left his office.
Chapter 3
___________________________________
T hat night Jason played with his two-year-old son, Adam, for a long time after dinner. They wrestled, played hide and seek and Adam had a number of romps around their living room on his dad’s back squealing with delight. Playtime culminated in a quick ride up the stairs hanging on for dear life while Anne shouted for Jason to be careful.
After putting the boy to sleep, Jason and Anne went downstairs and sat on the couch. They lived in an older neighborhood, near Charlie Cook, the prior police chief, and Mary, his wife. The houses were built in the forties and fifties, bungalow style with sloped roofs covering the front porches. Sarah, Anne’s younger daughter, was now seventeen and was spending the night at a friend’s house nearby. Catherine, her older daughter, was married to Kevin and lived a block away, much to Anne’s delight. She looked forward to becoming a grandmother someday.
After telling Anne what he planned to do, Jason was met with fierce opposition.
“You cannot do this,” Anne said. Her face was set hard with anger. “You have a duty to your family, especially Adam. You risked your life to free Hillsboro and after that we agreed, I agreed, to go along with you being mayor to help the town get back on its feet. But this,” she slammed her fist onto her thigh, “is too much.”
Jason sat quietly. She could see he was waiting for her to get all her objections out. She felt desperate to find the words that would change his mind. She knew how hard he could be once he made a decision. “We all love Billy and Rodney. I know you feel a sense of responsibility for Billy especially, but he’s a grown man and he made his decision to go off with Rodney and try to get to Missouri. You don’t owe them your life. Your duty is here to your family, not to them.”
“Anne, I don’t expect you to understand, but let me explain.”
“How can I understand? You have a life here, with me, with us. You said we’d spend some time, a couple of years in town, and then we’d go back to the valley. You told me you wanted to be a boring farmer and make babies.” She stood up and stepped back from him. Then she turned and leaned over, grabbing his head in her hands, “How can we do that if you go off to Tennessee?” She began to cry. Angry tears ran down her face.
Jason reached up to her. “No, no, no,” she said backing away. “Don’t do this to me…to us, your family.”
“Anne, I first left Hillsboro because I didn’t want to be involved in the violence, the corruption I saw coming. But I had to kill two men just to get out of town. Later, as you know, Sam and Judy befriended me and they were brutally murdered, and worse, by a gang. I sought vengeance on them. From that time on I was alone. I lived for myself. Then I found you and the girls. You let me into your life and gave me something to live for.”
“I know. You needed someone to take care of.” Her voice was filled with grief.
“My first wife called me a sheep dog.
Always trying to save or help people. She said I hired too many needy people in the gym I ran. It’s just how I’m wired.”
Anne sat down next to him. “Well save us. Take care of us. Don’t run off and leave us.”
Jason exhaled. “We’re fine here. All our family. The whole town actually, even though I’m worried what might happen. But Rodney and Billy are part of us. I went from being alone, to taking care of our family, then to taking care of our valley and then to rescuing the town. Our circle has grown. We’re a tribe now and that includes the family, the valley, Hillsboro and the Jessup and Early clans outside the city walls.”
Anne kept staring at Jason, this man she loved, who had saved her and the girls and brought them joy and security out of the chaos of the post-EMP world they now lived in. “It’s too much. It’s too hard. You don’t have to do this. It’s not your fight.”
Jason shook his head and slowly stood. “It is my fight. It’s all our fight. The clan has to stick together or it fails. The town is in danger, not just Billy and Rodney. Knoxville will come for more if we bow to their demands.”
“No!” she shouted and got up, running out of the room.
Later Jason went outside and sat on the porch steps, listening to the soft sounds of the evening, smelling the slight breeze that drifted in gentle swirls around the house, sniffing out the odors of cooking, fresh tilled dirt, the faint perfume of some unknown blossom hidden by the night. It was spring and the air had never seemed cleaner. The heaviness of what he was about to undertake slowly crept over him. The hardness inside began to soften as the husband and father reasserted itself. Quiet sobs came flowing out from deep inside of him. Sobs for the injury he caused today, sobs for the hurt he was causing this night and sobs for what he was going to have to become to rescue Rodney and Billy. Within all that though, there was no waiver of purpose, only sadness.
A half hour later, Anne quietly came out and sat down beside him. She put her arm through his and pulled herself close to his side. No words were spoken. She just held her man as he sobbed in the night. Finally she spoke.
“I know how you are. I don’t understand this drive to rescue, to be the knight in shining armor, but I know that’s a part of who you are. And I know that is part of why you came to us and how you prevailed over those gangs. It scares me though. I don’t want you to go. With all my heart I don’t want you to go—for myself and for our family.”
She shifted around to look at him in the dim evening light. “I know you have to do this. What drives you to it is what makes you who you are. I love you. I’ll pray for you while you’re gone. But you must promise me you’ll come back.” Her voice was now soft but fierce. “You promise. You come back, Jason Richards. You have a son to raise and more children to bring into this crazy world.”
Jason put his arms around her and the embraced. “I promise. I will come back.”
Chapter 4
___________________________________
T he next day the town council assembled in the city’s town hall. They had moved back to the pre-EMP government building. The bank where Joe Stansky had his offices was a distasteful reminder of the corrupt past that everyone wanted to put behind them. By now most everyone had heard the story of Jason’s abusive interrogation of the prisoner. The room buzzed with conversation.
Jason watched the growing assembly, now inflated by curious onlookers to the day’s meeting. Smelling blood in the water? Jason could not hold back a grim smile. There was Steve Warner, an electrician and head of the underground resistance that helped overthrow Stansky’s gang; Bob Jackson, who headed the water mill project, Dr. Janet Morgan who ran the hospital. Kevin was there. He had a position on the council as head of security along with Catherine as the town’s diplomat. Among the members of the council was Raymond Culver, a past school administrator. Jason frowned. He knew he would be at this meeting, but it didn’t make Jason feel any better. Raymond, Dr. Culver as he liked to be called, was a pain in the ass. He was a constant critic to all the real-world security mechanisms Jason had worked to instill. It seemed to Jason that Raymond Culver wanted to go back to a state of pretend bliss and forget that they lived in a shattered world with danger everywhere.
Oh well, I’ll deal with him. I’ve been doing it for a year now.
Catherine came up to him while people were taking their seats. Her face was full of questions as she looked at him. “Can you explain what you did?”
“I’ll explain it to the whole group. You may not accept it, but it will be the truth.”
She touched his arm and turned to go to her seat. Jason caught Anne’s eye as she entered and sat in the visitor’s section. They smiled at each other.
When the room had filled up, Jason smacked the gavel on the sound block. It took three strikes to bring the room to order.
“First of all,” he announced, “since we have many visitors, I need to remind you to remain quiet. This is a town council meeting, not an open forum. We are happy to have you listen in, but there will be no time to open the session up to visitor questions.”
“Why can’t we make this an open forum?” Raymond Culver asked.
Jason paused. Can’t let him get under my skin. Keep to my agenda. “Because I have a lot of ground to cover and we don’t have all day. In fact we only have half a day.” There were a few snickers from the council. Many members had similar feelings about Dr. Culver.
“I just think that because of what has taken place the public may want to weigh in.”
Jason smiled at the man. “We’ll see if that is possible. Your request is duly noted.” He made it sound like he was putting the request in the round file.
Turning his attention to the rest of the council, Jason started his speech.
“I’m sure you have all heard of my interrogation of a prisoner we have in our jail.” Heads nodded.
“I did this because I needed to get correct information without any obfuscation or deception. And I needed to get it in a hurry. You’re aware that a person called the Chairman has taken over Knoxville, Tennessee…think of Joe Stansky and you will get the picture. He’s turned the city into a criminal enterprise and you know he’s captured Rodney Gibbs and Billy Turner. You also know about the ransom demand.
“What you don’t know is that this Chairman is expanding. He’s threatening Johnson City to our north and, according to our prisoner he’s going to start a campaign against Chattanooga to the southwest of us. That hasn’t happened yet, but if you think about it, he’s working to encircle Hillsboro.
“The word out there is that we are rich in resources, not just gold and jewels, but fuel, weapons and ammunition. There’s truth in that. You know how much Joe acquired and how much we acquired in emptying that abandoned FEMA warehouse in Lenoir.”
“That was theft,” Raymond Culver called out. “I opposed that action.”
“You are out of order. Please refrain from shouting out while I have the floor or I’ll have to remove you from the meeting. But you are right, you opposed that action. We are all aware of your position.
“Now my point is we are a target, fat and rich with resources. The Chairman won’t be satisfied with the hundred pounds of gold and jewels he’s asking for. There’s not that much use for them at this point in a barter economy. He’s testing us. Seeing if we’ll bow to his demands.
“I’ve given a lot of thought about what to do, what is the best course of action, for Rodney and Billy, and for Hillsboro. These, by the way, are not mutually exclusive issues. I’ve got a list of proposals to present to the council for a vote along with an announcement.”
Jason took a piece of paper that he had labored over all morning. He took a deep breath.
“Please hold your comments until I’m finished. First, I’m resigning as mayor of Hillsboro effective the end of this meeting.” There was a muttering among the council members and the visitors.
“Quiet please.” Jason said, before continuing. “First I recommend that the council approve Steve War
ner as temporary mayor until elections can be arranged. As you all know Steve lead the resistance group here in town. This effort meant not only giving up many privileges accorded other technicians but also endangering him and his family. He will make a fine leader and I hope he’ll be elected to a full term.
“Next I want the council to separate the police from the militia. It’s time for a civil police force. I’m proposing Les Hammond as the new Chief of Police. He can be advised by Charlie Cook who handled himself with honor in defeating Stansky.
“I propose the council continue to develop the citizen’s addition to the militia. Kevin Cameron should be put in charge of this group. As I have spoken before on this subject, we should look to Switzerland as our model. Every healthy male between the ages of eighteen and thirty-four is required to serve in the militia. All are issued a rifle which they keep at home. I would expand that to every able-bodied adult in our town. They should know how to fire a rifle and should be assigned one. They should be ready to defend the town when called upon.”
He took a breath and then continued before anyone could interrupt. “You could also look to Israel as a model. We live in perilous times. What you see going on in Knoxville is happening in Nashville. In fact those two cities might come to blows. So far, according to our prisoner, they are both expanding without directly challenging each other. That threat to Knoxville only gives them more incentive to raid us.
“I also want a ranger organization set up. We must model it on the scouts that the Jessup and Early clans have set up to protect their farms outside of town. They have young men and women assigned to camp out in the forest at high vantage points, keeping a lookout. They have fires they can light to signal if any groups are approaching. We benefit from this early warning system and we should join them and help to expand it.
“We know that there are threats also from Charlotte. FEMA has joined the local mafia to help them control the city. The mafia suppresses rival gangs and keeps the killing and looting down. In return FEMA leaves them alone. It seems FEMA is more focused on the port cities, Wilmington, Charleston and others for now.
