Randy Dyess's Blog, page 6

Steve’s Escape: Chapter 3

The first draft of the last chapter is done. I should be able to get the last chapter through a second draft and editing and have the book out by the 15th. I hoping I can do a free preview on Amazon March 15-16-17.

Chapter 3

Maria had been on her feet for over fourteen hours, but sleep would not come. Steve had called her and told her had to rebuild an engine for an important client and would not be home until after midnight. Maria was upset because she needed to talk to Steve, but she understood. Her own job often had her away for long hours during the night.

“Hey, Sweetie,” Maria said as Steve walked into the bedroom.

“Hey, Yourself. What are you still doing up?”

“Couldn’t sleep. I have something we need to talk about.”

Maria told Steve about her day treating victims of the gang warfare. She went on to tell him what Isobel had said about her neighborhood and how they were leaving to go back to Mexico where it was safer.

“She’s just overreacting,” Steve said. “There’s always been gang fights in her neighborhood. How is this different from the other times? Don’t you remember the big fight that happened a few years ago and how she reacted? You spent all day at the hospital helping out during that ‘war’. How’s this one any different?”

“There were over thirty people killed last night. Two years ago, only five people were shot and only two of those died. I watched every news report I found today and not one of them mentioned the gang war and the deaths at the hospital. We had thirty people die on our tables and nothing about it in the news. All the news talked about today were reports of how well the stimulus package is doing and some cheerleaders taking a trip to China. Thirty people die in gang warfare and another hundred injured, including a two month old baby, and nothing. Nothing on the local news except stories about cheerleaders. Nothing on the national news except for some fluff piece on the stimulus package helping a single mother. How can you sit there and tell me everything is normal?”

“Did you call any station and let them know what was going on at the hospital? Maybe, they just don’t hear what happened. They’ve had their budgets cut along with everyone else and probably didn’t hear about the emergency last night.”

“You know we’re not allowed to do that. I may only have two weeks left, but if they found out I called the news, I would get fired today. There were too many people involved for the local news not to hear something.”

“Did Isobel call? Didn’t you say last night was her last night at work? Why didn’t she call them?”

“I don’t know. Maybe, she just left as soon as she got home and got the hell out of Corpus. She was pretty scared about the fights in their neighborhood.”

“What did the police say at the hospital about the gang problem?”

“What police? It took every guard we had to keep the gang members away from each other. I didn’t see a police officer all night.”

“Really? Maybe with all the cut-backs they were too busy trying to stop the fight and didn’t have anyone left to help you guys”

“We could have used their help. The ER was turning into a zoo there for a while. We started treating the gang members before anyone else just so we could get rid of them. I hated seeing small kids waiting all night so we could treat some idiot gang member. Most of us were just scared and wanted everything to end as soon as possible. I think a lot of people were glad the ER is closing down this Friday if this is the way it’s going to be from now on. No one wants to go through something like last night again without cops around to help.”

“At least you’re all right. You have the next three days off to unwind. If they call you, tell them you can’t go in because you’ve drank some wine at dinner or something. Stay away from the hospital until they close down the ER.”

“What about what Isobel said about the news? You don’t think someone is censoring our news do you? How come nothing has been said about all those poor people?”

“Watch the news, someone will break the story. It’ll be all over the news in a few days. If not, someone will cover the hospital closing down and mention the need for it with the rising gang violence. That would get someone from one of the stations to investigate.”

“Ok. Maybe, I’m overreacting. I guess all those things Mark and Kelly told us about has gotten me all worked up. It’s easy to listen to those two and put stuff together to sound like something bad is happening. This was probably a one-time thing.”

“Yeah. You’ll see in a few days, it’s nothing.”

“I still want to talk about leaving if it happens again. If there’s a gang war going on and it’s coming this way, we need to consider leaving. Those monsters do not care who they shoot. Isobel said it had gotten so bad in her neighborhood they put up sandbags to keep bullets from coming into her house.”

“Nothing’s going to happen here. Isobel lives in a bad neighborhood and has always had problems with gangs. Didn’t you say she should just stay home and open up shop there to save gas on ambulance services since most of your patients came from her neighborhood anyway?”

“Yeah, I guess. I’m going to keep my eyes open though. I’m not too sure there is not something else behind this. Isobel is not usually the one to overreact to things. She’s pretty level-headed.”

“We just signed this big contract today,” Steve said to change the subject, “and I’m going to have lots of overtime the next few months. My overtime may even be enough to make up for you losing your job and tide us over until you can find another one.”

“That’s great! That takes a big load of pressure off,” Maria said. Before turning off the light, she turned to Steve, “I don’t want you to ignore me though. I swear, the first gunshot I hear, I’m taking the kids and leaving.”

“Ok. Ok.”

The next two weeks did not see a repeat of the large gang fight which worried Maria. She knew the gangs were still at war since gunshot victims would show up at the hospital trying to get help. It broke everyone’s hearts they were not allowed to help anyone because of the closure. The ER had closed and only a few people stayed on staff at the hospital to help ship the remaining patients to hospitals out of the city. No new patients were allowed to be admitted, no matter what condition they were in. Maria closed her eyes and ears and tried not to go near the front door so she wouldn’t see those poor people asking for help.

Maria spent her last two weeks cataloging supplies and sending cases of unused supplies to other hospitals. She wished she could have shipped them to the various free clinics being set up by doctors and nurses that used to work at the hospital. The people of Corpus Christi needed someone to take care of the sick and injured and until the city could come up with medical facilities. The unemployed doctors and nurses would do what they could, but without supplies it would not be much.

“How was your last day?” Steve asked Maria.

“Very frustrating. The gang war is getting worse and I hate turning away all those injured people because the city closed us down. A lot of the doctors have set up small clinics to help those in need and prevent as many deaths as possible. It’s like we live in a third-world country. Volunteer doctors and nurses are working in tents along the road trying to save as many people as possible. I may want to spend some time working at one of them until I can find another job.”

“You sure you want to do that? It’s not going to bother you too much seeing all those people you can’t help?”

“It will, but something has to be done. You may not want to admit it, but this city is being torn apart by a large gang war. Hundreds are being injured and hundreds are dying. I don’t understand why no one’s doing anything about it. I still don’t see anything about the violence on TV. It’s like we don’t exist. I need to help as much as I can.”

“I don’t understand it either. I would have thought the state or even the army would have done something by now. It’s like they either don’t know about us or are ignoring us.”

“I know. At least it’s still staying on the other side of town.”

“Thank God. Well, at least I still have a job. With my overtime and what you’ll get from unemployment, we should be okay. Things might be a little tight, but we can hold out for a few months.”

“I guess. I still think sometimes we need to consider moving away. At least see if you can get a transfer to the Biloxi location.”

“Right now they wouldn’t let me go because of all the work piled up needing to be done. When we catch up and finish this new contract, I’ll see what I can do.”

“Ok. That’s all I can ask you to do.”

“So, what are you going to do with your days now that you are a bum?”

“I’m going to take the next month off and clean this house from top to bottom. If we do move, I don’t need a bunch of crap slowing us down.”

“You still worried about moving. I thought we laid that to rest a few weeks ago?”

“No. You laid it to rest a few weeks ago. I said I would keep my options open and if we heard gunshots, we would leave. I not staying around and putting the kids in danger.”

“We’ll, we haven’t heard any gunshots yet, have we?”

“No. But now that I have the time off, I’m not sticking my head in the sand and lie around doing nothing. I’m going to prepare in case we have to get out of here. You sometimes forget I see more of what happens in this city than you do. You go to work each morning the same way and stay all day in your garage and don’t even leave the boat yard some days for lunch. You come home after work on the same roads you used to get to work and don’t ever just look around. I get to see all those people trying to find a doctor to take care of their gunshot wounds. I told you before don’t treat me like I don’t know what’s going on around here.”

Maria walked out on Steve and buried her head in a book. Steve left her alone and went to get some sleep. He was exhausted after spending twelve hours a day at the shop and he wanted to get some sleep before he said something he would regret later.

No more was said about the gang war and leaving Corpus Christi over the next month as Maria cleaned the house. She went through every closet, drawer, and cabinet and threw out everything they didn’t use. She made piles of stuff she wanted to keep and even packed a few boxes with items they hardly ever used.

“Finished,” Maria said to Steve one night.

“Finished what?”

“I’ve cleaned this place from top to bottom and have gotten rid of twenty-year’s worth of junk. Even if we don’t move, I feel a lot better. This place is as clean as it has been since we moved in.”

After spending four weeks cleaning the house and resting, Maria knew it was time to go back to work. She started her job search like most people, reading the newspapers, researching online, and contacting her past coworkers to see if they knew of any openings. It surprised her when she couldn’t reach the majority of her ex-coworkers. Phones had been disconnected. Houses had been vacated and put up for sale. Personal email accounts closed or ignored. Maria only found a handful of her ex-coworkers sill available. Most of them told her there were no jobs left in Corpus Christi and they were surviving on their spouse’s incomes or savings.

“There’s nothing out there,” she said to Steve one night after dinner.

“What do you mean?”

“I’ve contacted everyone I know, gone through all the job postings I could find, and blasted my resume to anything medical within fifty miles and nothing. Not a single response to my requests. There are no jobs in this area for nurses.”

“There has to be something. Did you try that temp agency you talked about?”

“Yes, I tried them and three others. If you don’t think I’m telling the truth and doing all I can, you can go to hell. You’ve had your head up your ass the last few months. I’ve been trying to tell you the city is dying and hundreds of people are being affected by a gang war going on in our very city. All you do is keep saying, ‘if it was so bad, the government would be doing something about it’. Why don’t you pull your head out of it and drive down to the navy base. Guess what? Their all gone. Pulled out a few months ago. Did you even know that?”

“Calm down. What do you mean ‘pulled out’? That’s a decent size navy air base. They are probably just on maneuvers or something?”

“I love how you think I’m so stupid. Go there yourself, jackass, and see the empty buildings. Just be careful, one of the gangs you claim don’t exist has taken over most of the base. And by-the-way, stop by Cabaniss field and say hi to the other gang. They took that place over last month before I left the hospital. And if you could, find us some groceries. Marty at the store said the last two trucks have gone missing. Gangs are hijacking trucks at the city’s edge and we are running out of food. This stupid person is going to bed. You sleep on the couch or in your truck. I don’t care.”

Maria stomped off and slammed the door to their room. Steve knew he had been working a lot of hours lately, but how could he have missed everything Maria was telling him about the city. How could gangs take over a city and nothing has been done about it?

“Hell. There’s still a few hours left before sundown. I’ll just go and see what has gotten her so worked up lately. Probably one of those egghead doctors filling her head with a bunch of crap. He probably lost a dog or something and think’s the whole world has fallen apart.”

Steve walked around the kitchen and made a quick list of groceries. He was surprised at the lack of food and wondered why Maria just didn’t go to another store if the first one couldn’t get their supply truck. He made sure the kids were fine and walked out to his truck.

Steve’s Escape: Chapter 2

Steve and Maria soon forgot about everything they discussed at the farm during Thanksgiving. Mark’s and Kelly’s warnings did not bother them as they went back to work and settled back into their old lives and continued on as usual.

“Hey, Girl,” Sally said.

“Hey yourself,” Maria replied. “Do you believe it’s only been two weeks since Thanksgiving? I can’t even remember it.”

“Same here. So much for time off restoring you, I’m as stressed now as I was before my vacation.”

“Time flies doesn’t it? Before you know it, another year will start and you’ll be another year older.”

“Ha. Ha. Very funny. Aren’t you a few years older than I am?”

“What’s got everyone in a fuss?” Maria said nodding over to a group of nurses gathered around the front desk.

“Let’s find out.”

“Hey, everyone. What’s going on?” Maria asked the other nurses as she and Sally approached the front desk.

“You haven’t heard?”

“Heard what?”

“There’s a rumor going around that the mayor and city council are going to close us down. It seems the hospital board couldn’t get a grant from the state or feds this year and we’re out of money.”

“That can’t be right. We serve 80% of the people in this city and the surrounding counties. They can’t close us down. What about all those people? Where would everyone go?”

“Don’t know. They’re supposed to announce something tomorrow. The CEO has scheduled a big meeting first thing in the morning for all shifts to tell us something.”

“It’s probably just a ploy by the city to scare the state to hand over the money. I doubt if the state is willing to leave a few hundred thousand people without medical care. That little private hospital on the north side can’t replace us. It’s not big enough and they don’t take anyone without insurance.”

“It sounds scary. I hate the way politicians play with people’s lives to prove a point,” Sally said.

“We’ll see in the morning,” Maria replied. “Right now, I need to suit up for my shift.”

Maria worked her entire shift worrying about the rumor. In the past, she would have dismissed it as a political ploy. Today, she wasn’t too sure. Conditions in the city had been going downhill since they came back from the farm. She couldn’t tell if more businesses had closed in the last two weeks or she had just started noticing things she didn’t pay attention to before now. Around the hospital, a large number of closed signs on the businesses in the strip centers had started appearing. She and a group of nurses tried to go out for lunch one day and their favorite restaurant had closed down. They tried to find another one in the area, but the closest place to eat was now more than ten miles away.

“Hi, Sweetie,” Maria said to Steve when she walked into her house that evening. “I’ve got some news.”

“Hi, yourself. What’s up?”

“A big rumor at the hospital today. Everyone thinks they are shutting us down.”

“What? How can they shut you down? How sure are you about this rumor?”

“Not very. There’s a big meeting in the morning to talk about something. Rumor has it, they will announce the closing tomorrow.”

“Probably just a scare tactic to get the state to cough up the money. They’ll announce the closure and start blaming the state for all the medical gaps in the area. The state will come up with emergency funding to keep you in business for another year.”

“You’re probably right. I told the girls the same thing this morning. I think it’s just a ploy by the city. I hate them using us like that. Why doesn’t the state or the feds just cough up the money like they do every year? It’s not like we don’t need it. We didn’t have any huge donations this year to keep us going.”

“See, there you go. You believe the same thing I do. Didn’t they try the same thing two years ago? Announced a possible shutdown and forced the state to hand over money before anyone lost their jobs or the place shut down. I bet tomorrow’s meeting is to tell you not to worry and the rumor is just to scare the state.”

“Let’s hope so. I can’t imagine what we’ll do if I lose my job. It’s not like there’s another hospital I can go to and find another job. The only other one in this area is that small private one up north. They won’t be hiring anyone.”

“Don’t you think they will be busy with all the extra patients if you close down and hire new people?”

“No. They only take people with insurance and who pay a yearly subscription fee. They won’t let anyone else in their doors. You have to be a member. Very few of our patients would be able to go there. Most of them don’t have insurance and can’t afford to pay anything. Without us, they are in trouble.”

“Membership to a hospital? Who would have ever thought it would come to that?”

The next morning, Maria and her shift reported to the large meeting hall to find out what was going on. “Ok,” the CEO of the hospital said to start the meeting. “The rumor you all heard yesterday about us closing down is true. The city informed me two days ago that they couldn’t afford to keep us open. The city is broke and will be shutting down most of the services it provides over the next month. For those who think this is the same political ploy the city did a few years ago, it’s not. Even if the city got their annual grants, they still couldn’t keep us open. They would have to get three or four times what they usually do. As it is, they can’t even get a fourth of the normal grant let alone four times the amount.”

Pandemonium broke out. “When are we shutting down? What do you mean shutting down city services? What about the patients?” Question after question was shouted at the CEO. He stood there for a few minutes trying to restore order before continuing on with his announcement.

“If you’ll let me finish many of your questions will be answered. The remaining questions will be answered during a press conference given by the mayor at noon today. We will stream the conference to all stations so everyone can hear what he says. Work it out with your leads on how you will watch the press conference.”

The CEO went on to describe the plan he created to shut down the hospital. The hospital will stop taking in any new patients as of today. No more non-emergency surgeries will be scheduled and most of the surgical rooms will close this week. Next week, they will start consolidating patients to a limited number of floors and releasing those who can go home or to another hospital on their own. In two weeks, the emergency room will close and ambulance service will stop. Any remaining surgical rooms would also be closed as well as any departments still open to serve the ER. Three weeks from now, we will transfer all remaining patients to Houston and close down the floors. We will be completely shut down by the middle of next month.”

“Why so fast? Don’t we have money to stay open any longer? Isn’t there donation money we can use?” someone shouted.

“It does seem fast. I can tell you I learned yesterday the city has been broke for over four months. The mayor managed to get a small emergency grant to make payroll, but nothing else. He didn’t want to tell anyone because he thought a miracle would happen and he could get another grant to keep the city going. He’s saying now that it never happened. We are broke and the city only has enough money to make one more payroll. As of noon, 95% of the city workers will be furloughed and given one last paycheck and the city will declare insolvency. All of our donations have been spent on equipment and improvements. We do not have enough money in our accounts to keep us running for very long without money from the city.”

A loud murmur rose. The CEO ignored it and continued, “As for city services, more will be said at noon. I heard the fire departments and police departments will remain at reduced staffing as long as possible. We are the only other department that will not be closed down today. They are allowing us to close down over the next four weeks instead of today because of patient care. A few of our departments will be closed down today along with the rest of the city. Some of you will be furloughed by the end of the day if your department is not deemed critical or doesn’t have patients. Other staff members will be let go as your department closes down. I’ve only been given two days to prepare for this closing with upper management and we’ve done what we could at this point. Some mistakes will be made, but hopefully no lives will be lost in this hospital during the shutdown process. I will give you a warning before I leave. We only have enough money left in our bank accounts for the next month. Cash your paychecks as soon as you get them. Don’t hold onto them or you’ll find yourself with a check drawn on a closed account.”

The CEO had to step back from the microphone and took a moment to wipe his eyes. He took a big breath and stepped back up to the microphone. “I’m sorry there is nothing more I can do. This caught me by surprise just like the rest of you. I believed the mayor when he assured the city departments he would work something out. There doesn’t seem to be anything left out there to keep this city on its feet and no one is coming to our rescue this time. We’ve never been able to keep the city and this hospital afloat without grants from the federal government and the state. The grants have dried up due to the recession. I doubt if I can come up with anymore donations to keep this place running. The recession has hit our sponsors hard and they’ve stopped giving us money. I hate this as much as most of you do. I don’t have a clue what all the poor people in this area are going to do for medical care and it bothers me. Our country has taken a step back and is no longer able to take care of its citizens. We are not living in the same America we are used to living in. Pray for all those poor people and the suffering they are about to go through because those idiots in Washington can’t get their shit together and solve anything.”

The CEO stopped and looked around at the group of people before him. “Your department heads will be given a phase-out timeline after the meeting. They will get with each of you and give you a date you will be furloughed. Jobs and seniority will count for something, but not much. Some of you will be asked to move around until the last patient is gone because of your skills. Once again, I’m very sorry and wish all of you the best of luck.”

Most of the hospital staff stood there in shock as the CEO left the room. He didn’t stop and talk to anyone as he usually did after holding a group meeting. Small groups of staff started leaving the room and going back to their jobs. Those in departments with no patients or who didn’t provide long-term or emergency care knew they would lose their jobs today. Others crowded together and sought out their department heads. Maria didn’t talk to anyone. She just left the room and called her husband.

“It’s true,” she said as Steve answered the phone.

“What’s true?”

“They’re shutting us down. Some departments will close today others will close down over the next month. The mayor is making a big announcement today about the city being insolvent. Mr. Johnson said they are furloughing 95% of the city workers at noon. A few fire departments and police will be left, but nothing else. We have a month because of private donations and the fact we need to do something with our patients.”

“What? Are you serious? Why haven’t they said anything about being broke? Are you sure this isn’t a ploy? Cities don’t shut down. They just start collecting more taxes or fees or something, but they always stay in business. How can you shut down a city?”

“Mr. Johnson said the city ran out of money four months ago. They mayor got a small grant to make payroll, but nothing else. All other grants have disappeared.”

“I don’t believe this. I still think it’s a ploy.”

“It’s a damn stupid ploy then. People are packing their things and telling each other goodbye. I have to go and figure out how long I have a job. Make sure you watch the news at lunch.”

“Ok, Sweetie. You okay?”

“For now. I guess I’m still in a bit of shock. I’ll probably break down later.”

Like the hospital CEO said during the announcement, the city did declare insolvency at noon. Almost all of the city employees were furloughed and all city services shut down except for three fire houses and two police stations. The city kept on thirty officers and forty fire fighters for the time being. The mayor announced a deal with the sheriff’s department to take over law enforcement coverage for the city and the remaining police officers would leave once the county took over. The four hundred thousand citizens of Corpus Christi soon found out their once great city was no longer sustainable and would only exist in name as of noon. Thousands left the city over the next few weeks. Some left for other Texas cities to find jobs and start new lives. Some went back to Mexico to live with relatives.

Due to her skills and seniority, Maria found out she would be one of the last ones to leave the hospital. Like the rest of the staff left at the hospital, she was no longer assigned to a particular department and didn’t have a regular schedule. She worked when and where she was needed and often filled in at the last minute when a department needed help.

“Maria,” Sally said over the phone. “You have to come in and help cover the emergency room.”

“What’s going on?”

“We only have a skeleton crew here and there seems to be a gang fight going on. We’ve gotten twenty critical gunshot wounds in the past hour. We need your help. There are people everywhere waiting for someone to treat them.”

“I’ll be there as soon as possible.”

When Maria arrived at the hospital, she found a war zone. The emergency room was filled with gang members with gunshot wounds and knife wounds. It took every security guard in the hospital to keep the two different gangs from continuing the fight in the ER. There were dozens of innocent people, who were caught in the cross-fire, covering every square inch of the first floor. Maria estimated there were at least two hundred people lining the hallways. She scrubbed up and started helping where she could. The ER remained crowded for twenty straight hours before the last patient was treated and released. Thirty people died during those twenty hours. She knew more would die since they couldn’t admit anyone except the most serious cases. The hospital was closing and if you weren’t critical, you had to recover at home.

“Damn. That was like working in a war zone. Where did all these people come from?”

“You live up north?” one of her coworkers asked.

“Yes.”

“There’s been a small gang war going on the southeast side ever since the city shut down. From what I hear, drug gangs from Mexico are trying to take over as much of the city as they can before someone steps in and tries to stop them. I think they want to use us as a shipping point to the rest of the U.S. and two gangs have started fighting each other for control.”

“Why isn’t there anything in the news about it?”

“What news. Haven’t you seen the news lately?”

“No,” Maria admitted. “I’ve been here more than at home the last few weeks.”

“The news is acting like nothing is wrong. It’s like they are replaying news stories from years ago so no one will know the truth. Two days ago, they spent ten minutes on a cheer group from the north side while I hid in my bathroom during a gun fight up the street from me. Most of my neighbors have started putting sandbags around their homes to keep stray bullets from killing them while they sleep. We’ve started sleeping on the floor hoping any bullet will pass over us.”

“I had no idea. We don’t have anything like that in the north.”

“Just wait, you will. The fights seem to be moving further into the city. We didn’t have anything last week and now, it’s a war zone two miles away. Our streets have dead bodies covering them each night.”

“Do you need to stay with us?”

“No. Thank you for the offer. Today is my last day here. I’m cashing my paycheck as soon as I can and we’re leaving the city tomorrow morning.”

“Where are you going?”

“My parent’s house in a small town outside of Monterrey. It seems like all the Mexican cartels are here and Mexico is safe. My parents told me they don’t have any problems down there.”

“I’m glad you have somewhere to go. I hope you’ll be safe.”

“You should leave this place as soon as you can.”

“I have two more weeks left. I’ll be fine until then.”

“Still, you should talk to your husband and leave. It’s no longer safe here. Corpus Christi has been abandoned by the state and the federal government. It’s like we don’t exist.”

“I’m starting to think the same. I’ve never thought a city in America would come to this. Do we even have a government anymore?”

“Watch the news tonight. Thirty people died in gang warfare in an American city and I bet you won’t see a thing about it on any of the news channels. It will be like last night never happened. Someone is censoring the news and no one outside of this city will know about what’s going on here.”

Maria stared at Isobel and wondered if she was right. Was there something going on? Was someone censoring the news and trying to hide the actual state of the economy? Everything Mark and Kelly talked to them about during Thanksgiving came rushing back to her. “Oh my god, they were right. The world’s melting down. I’ve got to talk to Steve when I get home. We have to leave here and go to Madill. “

Thank You Thomas

I wanted to thank Thomas for the PDF he sent me with typos he found in The Farm. All but one of them were new to me and I appreciate him taking the time to mark them with with his kindle and send me the highlights he made.

Thanks Thomas.

Steve’s Escape: Chapter 1

I thought I would start giving everyone a sneak peak at my newest work. This is a short story based on the Out of Gas series. In chapter 9 of The Farm, Mark’s brother Steve arrives at the farm and tells a quick blurb on how his family escape Corpus Christi. This is my attempt at filling in his story. Chapter 1 of 7.

Chapter 1

Steve said his final goodbyes and climbed into his car. “I’ll miss everyone,” he said to his wife as they started their long drive home. Steve’s kids plugged into headphones and tuned out their parents after getting into the car for the ride home. Like kids everywhere, all three of them would be asleep before they even left the Madill area after waking up at six for the all-day drive back home.

“We can probably arrange it so we come up here at least once a year if you want. We always do Christmas with my family, but we can make an exception this year and come back for Christmas. I can’t take the week off like I did for Thanksgiving, but with both of us driving we make the drive in one day. Leave on Wednesday and come home on Saturday.”

“We’ll see,” Steve said. “I’m not too sure I can handle Mark so soon.

What was up with his end-of-the-world crap? He drove me crazy.”

“I don’t know. Kelly was the same way. They weren’t like this the last time we came up here, were they? I don’t remember either of them talking about anything other than their jobs.”

“No. I’ve never known Mark to be like that. Usually all you have to put up with is his bragging on his new Beamer or talking about some fancy vacation they just took.”

“From Beamers to chickens.” Steve and Maria broke out laughing with her reference to Mark and Kelly talking about the economic meltdown. Mark and Kelly had invited everyone up to the farm in Madill for a family Thanksgiving. Mark and Kelly took the opportunity to show off the farm and the work they had done to get ready for an economic collapse.

“Your parents are brainwashed as well. They talked about the collapse and everything everyone was doing on the farm to prepare just like Mark and Kelly. It was like going to a doomsday cult meeting.”

“I’ll worry more when they start wearing robes and shave their heads,” Steve said.

After another round of laughing at the people living on the farm, Maria turned to Steve. “You don’t think there will be anything to worry about do you? Your brother and his wife are smart and successful. If they say something is going to happen—“

“No. Mark’s just going through some phase. I’m sure he’s just overreacting to the thing at his job. He’ll settle down in a few months and they will get tired of living like hippies and move back to town. Those two were always prima donnas and want make it as someone who has to get their hands dirty for very long.”

“You’re probably right. My job at the hospital is safe for the recession and as long as you guys work on those oil rig service boats, nothing will go wrong.”

Maria had spent the last ten years as a floor nurse at a large hospital. The All Saints hospital was a joint venture by the city of Corpus Christi and the Nueces, Aransas, Kleberg, and San Patricio counties. During all earlier recessions, the hospital’s business increased as more people lost insurance coverage and had to seek lower cost health care. The U.S. Government and the State of Texas had always provided large grants to keep the hospital running to serve the large population of South Texas.

Steve had always been a mechanical tinker. While Mark spent his time in front of computers, Steve spent his youth working on one engine after another. It did not surprise anyone when Steve decided to become a mechanic after high school. A short time going to a school for marine mechanics, Steve found himself moving to Corpus Christi to work with a large marine mechanical repair company. The company’s main business revenue came from servicing the hundreds of boats working the thousands of oil rigs in the gulf.

“Right, we’ve had a small drop off in business, but not much,” Steve responded. “I’ve spent more time decommissioning boats lately I used too.”

“That should change after the recession ends. Things will pick up again and you’ll need to refurbish all those boats setting idle. I can see the overtime now.”

“Thanks a lot,” he chuckled.

“What else would you have to do? Raise a flock of chickens for eggs that only cost $1 at the store?”

“Ok. Ok. Enough about my weird brother.”

“Ok. I’ll stop. I’m a little tired and going to take a nap. Wake me up before you get to the stop in Waco.”

“Fine. Leave me all alone. What if I’m tired?”

“Shut up you big baby. When’s the last time you slept past six?”

Maria closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep. Steve spent the next few hours driving through Fort Worth to a little store they always stopped at after visiting his parents. About ten minutes from the store, Steve reached over and shook Maria to wake her.

“We’re almost to Waco. Do you want to get the kids up and get their shoes on before we get there?”

Maria spent the next few minutes waking sleepy kids and arguing with them to put their shoes back on so they could go to the restroom.

“Looks like the place is closed,” Steve said.

“What? It’s never closed.”

“I’ll drive up closer to make sure.”

They both could tell all the lights were off. A big sign on the front door stated the place closed down and would not reopen.

“Damn. Are they just closed for the holiday?” Maria asked.

“I don’t think so. It’s empty. I guess another family business has bitten the dust. I was looking forward to their home-made jerky. Always makes my day.”

“Wonder why they closed. You’d think being on the freeway and with a large college in town would keep them in business. Look for another place up the road. Even if they don’t sell jerky.”

They drove a few miles up the interstate and found another place to stop. It wasn’t the same as they had been stopping at the earlier place each time they made the trip to his parents for over a decade.

After getting back in the car, Steve looked at Maria. “You know, my brother would have said it was just another sign of the collapse.”

“You mean meltdown. That’s what they called it. Meltdown.”

“Right. Meltdown.”

The family continued on with their trip back home but Steve and Maria both became more aware of the situations in the small towns they drove through during the day. Neither one commented out loud but to both of them it seemed there were a lot of small businesses closed in those towns. Things they hadn’t noticed before jumped out at them. Not one business was open in some of the towns on the freeway. Usually, there were a scattering of small stores, gas stations, truck stops, and restaurants. Today, there seemed to be a fraction of the services available to those driving through town.

Steve was jolted from his observations when Maria said, “I thought today was supposed to be a busy travel day?”

“What?”

“The news said more people were traveling today than any other day of the year. Everyone was supposed to be going home after Thanksgiving.”

“I remember that. Why do you ask?”

“There are no cars on the road. I bet we haven’t seen thirty cars in the last hour.”

She was right. He hadn’t had to worry about traffic since leaving early this morning.

“Another thing,” Maria continued, “I haven’t seen a cop all day. Last year, the road was just crawling with them.”

“Come to think of it, neither have I. These small towns just live to pull over freeway speeders and give them a big ticket. I swear some of them base their town budget on it.”

“Yeah,” she smiled. “We’ve supported a few of them over the years, lead foot.”

“Huh.”

“Do you want to stop at the restaurant we always go to? That is, if it’s not closed.”

“Sure. We’ll be there in about thirty minutes. Want to get the kids stirring again?”

This time they had better luck and the restaurant was open for business. Steve pulled up and parked right by the front door.

“Not too many people in here today. I guess we are just lucky it was opened.”

After ordering their meals, Maria struck up a conversation with the waitress, “Not many people in here today. Slow day?”

“Slow month. If all the other places haven’t close down and left us the only place in town, we would be closed.”

“ Really, that bad? This place used to be packed.”

“This year has been horrible. The manager’s fired almost everyone but me and two others. I keep trying to find another job, but no one’s hiring. This whole town’s drying up and I’m stuck here.”

“Why? What happened?”

“Nothing I guess. Most of the locals can’t afford to eat out much and the traffic on the freeway has died off to nothing because of the price of gas. Prices in these small towns are a lot higher than in the city and many people don’t make enough to pay for it. We’ve even had days when the gas stations are closed because they don’t gas. Deliveries aren’t coming as often as they used to. The town’s even let a few cops go because they can’t afford the gas for their cars. A few other places laid off cops over the summer. Probably didn’t see too many on the road, did you?” she said as she walked away to get their order.

Everyone ate and said thanks to the waitress and left her a big tip. The rest of the trip home went smoothly and Steve and Maria kept looking the signs of the recession that seemed to be everywhere. “Why don’t we see the same problems at home we saw on the freeway?” Maria asked as they pulled into Corpus Christi.

“I don’t know. Maybe it just hasn’t affected us here yet. I don’t see a near as many business closed down here. We might get more business than those small towns.”

“The mayor said spring break was horrible this year. Numbers were way down from last year and the year before. He’s worried the economy and price of gas has kept too many kids away and it will happen again next year. A couple of bad years in a row and some of those places on Padre will go out of business.”

“The recession will end before that happens. The president was pretty adamant the stimulus package would work. We just need to give it time. People will fill the beaches this summer.”

“Home,” Maria said as they pulled into their driveway. After the long trip home, everybody wanted to relax. The kids jumped into the pool, a benefit of living in South Texas was the ability to swim most of the winter. Maria sorted through their laundry and Steve cleaned up the yard and house the best he could. It always amazed him after only a few days, the place would look like no one lived in it for a year.

“Do you want to order pizza from Papa Joe’s?” Maria asked.

“Yeah. Sounds good.”

A few minutes later, she came back out. “It’s closed and the phone number is no longer working. I called China Town instead.”

“What? Didn’t we just order pizza a few days ago?”

“That’s what I remembered. I looked and it’s been over a two month’s since our last order. Last month we ate at home to save money for the trip.”

“I wonder how long it’s been closed.”

“And what else has been closed we haven’t realized until now,” Maria said as she went back into the kitchen.

The doorbell rang and the kids rushed to the grab their dinner. Steve asked the delivery boy if he knew how long ago the pizza place had been closed.

“About a month ago. We’ve been busy since it’s been closed, but still not as busy as we used to be. You’re only my third delivery tonight.”

“Really? Anything closed down lately?” Steve asked.

“The Burger Bar and a couple of hotels we used to deliver too shut down their doors as well. A few other things as well. You’ve been gone long?”

“What? No. Just seems we don’t pay as much attention to things as close as we should. I always hated watching the news with all the bad news it always covers.”

“Same here. I don’t like watching the news either. Usually Chen fills me in on anything I need to know. All he has been bitching about the last few days has been the mayor talking about some budget shortfall. Chen’s been gripping about the amount of taxes he pays and the lack of service he gets. Blames the mayor for not knowing how to run a city and wasting our money.”

“I haven’t seen anything about the budget shortfall. I guess I’ll need to watch the news and catch up,” Steve said. He gave the boy a large tip.

“Thanks. See you again.”

Steve and Maria went to bed with the events of the day on their minds. “Do you think Mark was right?” Maria asked Steve.

“I don’t know. It could all be just the recession and Mark is overreacting. They probably had a few places close on them and his research led him to believe something else was going on besides the recession. It’s not hard to research stuff on the internet and come up with an answer you want. There are all types of crazy sites out there that look legitimate. I wouldn’t worry about it.”

“Kelly said things would probably go downhill fast. Didn’t you hear they both lost their jobs?”

“He told me. It made sense to me Kelly would lose her job. It seems most of the restaurants are having a hard time making it through the recession. Companies off-shore even in good times and Mark might have lost his job anytime. Like I said before, he’s probably overreacting because he lost the only job he’s ever had as an adult. On top of it, his wife loses hers the same time. He’ll bounce back and find something new when he’s ready. He’s too skilled not to be able to get a job somewhere. Kelly too. She’s probably only looking at restaurants chains. Once she figures out she has to start looking at other types of companies, she’ll find something.”

“What about the thing you heard from the delivery boy?”

“The mayor’s always threating something or the other. I think he gripes so much to stay in the news and look like he’s doing something. Without him bitching about something, we wouldn’t ever hear anything about him. Lord knows he doesn’t do anything good on his own.”

“I guess. I’ll ask the girls at work Monday. They usually have all the gossip. Today was just strange.”

“I know. A long day full of weird coincidences. Good night baby.”

“Good night.”

Please send comments and any corrections you may find.

Thanks for helping,

Randy

Buster and the Boys #4

Buster and the boys rode for three hours to reach the farm house described in the note. When he thought they were about three miles from the house, he had the boys pull over. Everyone hid in the only group of trees around and Buster and five of his boys started making their way to the house on foot. They stopped every few minutes and scan the area. One of Buster’s fears was he would be set up one day with a fake letter and his boys would pay the price.

“Circle around and see if you can see anything usual,” Buster said. The boys circled the house a few times before convincing themselves the house was not the site of an ambush.

“Looks clear to me. I didn’t see any signs of bikes. No trampled grass like a large group of people has been here recently.”

“Nothing in the barns or behind the horse stalls. I didn’t see more than one of two different sets of footprints. I’ll know better in the morning when we can see again.”

“Ok. Fan out and keep an eye open. We’ll check once more in the morning and then make ourselves known.”

“Make sure you check for fire ants this time Freddie. Rebecca’s not here to put that salve on your butt like last time and I’m not going near that thing.”

Everyone quietly laughed at Freddie. A few years ago, Freddie had lain down to keep watch over a biker hangout and found himself covered with fire ants. He bit his tongue and crawled out to cover so he could strip out of his clothes to get rid of the fire ants. His whole body was covered in bites and he spent five painful hours riding back to Pilot Point with fire ant bites covering his butt. Rebecca made up a salve for him and laughed the whole time she spread it around his back and butt. Freddie had been the “butt” of their jokes every since.

Soon the sun rose and the roosters started crowing. “Ok. I’ll go in. You guys cover me,” Buster said.

Buster walked over and knocked on the door. A small gun slot opened in the door at waist height and he could make out the tip of a small handgun pointing at his groin.

“What do you want?” A soft voice came through the door of the house.

“I came about a letter. Someone from this house sent me a letter.”

“You’re Buster?”

“I’m Buster and you are?”

“I’m Cheyenne. I sent you the letter.”

“Can I come in?”

The door opened and Buster saw a beautiful teenage girl looking back at him.

“Are you the only one here?”

“Maybe. Why?”

“Tell me the truth or we’re leaving.”

“I’m the only one here. I’ve been hiding here since the bikers came and took over the town.”

Buster went into the house and two of his boys followed on his heels and started searching each of the rooms.

“All clear,” Freddie said.

“Thanks,” Buster said. “I’ll talk to Cheyenne here and you guys get the others.”

Freddie and Jimmie left the house and collected the rest of the boys. Three of them would remain on guard and the other two would go collect everyone else. Cheyenne and Buster spent the next few hours discussing the problems in Clear Creek. Cheyenne told Buster the all too familiar story of a motorcycle gang riding into town, looting everything of value, and enslaving the citizens. She knew of at least fifty deaths and guessed it would be higher once they had a chance to look inside each of the town’s houses.

“Where do they sleep?”

“Most of them sleep in two hotels at the north edge of town. Some force their way into houses, but a few were killed by the women they had raped. That stopped most of them from sleeping anywhere but the hotels. Some get drunk enough they just sleep in the street.”

“What else can you tell me about their habits?”

“I think there are at least twenty riding around the town keeping an eye on things.”

“Are you alone in this or are their others with you?” Buster asked.

“There are a few people with me. Most of the town’s people that haven’t been taken as slaves are too afraid to help.”

“Understand. We are going to bed down here today and tonight we will start looking the town over.”

“You’re going to help us then?” Cheyenne said.

“We are going to see. I hope for your sake, you are not setting us up.”

“I’m not setting you up. You have to believe me. That gang has taken everything I know. My dad’s dead. My mom and little sister have been made into slaves and who knows if they are still alive or dead. I ran and have been hiding here since the gang came into town.”

“We’ll get them back for you and take care of the shitbirds at the same time.”

Buster and the boys drew up a watch schedule and settled down to try to get as much sleep as they could. Tonight would be a busy night for them as they went into town to gather as much information on the gang as possible. The first few nights of scouting were often the hardest nights since they had to quietly watch the violent acts committed by the bikers against the town’s people. Buster had almost blown one stake out when a group of bikers had started using a small boy as a punching bag. They tied the boy up and were starting to use him in place of a punching bag when Buster step up behind them and killed every one of them. They boys had to quickly hide the body and get into place to kill the remaining bikers before Buster lost control and started shooting. Luckily, there were a small number of gang members and the job went off without further problems.

That night, Buster and most of the boys crept into town to set up scout locations. They needed to know the patterns of the gang members before determining a plan of action.

“There must be 175 bikes in the parking lot. We know of at least 20 others riding around town and I think RJ and Jimmie saw ten more parked in front of houses. There are two big rigs in back as well. We could be looking at more than 200 gangbangers,” Freddie said.

“I guess we’ll just have to weed some of them out then,” Buster replied. “How about we come back tonight and pull an Omaha?”

Freddie smiled. “I like the sound of that. I think we can put in a few more surprises as well. Doc’s given us a few new toys this time.”

“Ok. Spread back out and let’s get look around some more. I’m curious what they do and when they settle down. Most of these bastards should be fast asleep by 4 in the morning. Let’s ride the night out and see. One of these days, we might actually come across someone with some brains at one of these gigs.”

“Maybe, but it doesn’t look that way tonight. This is just another group of scum who make it on pure numbers and evil. Probably not a brain cell left in the entire group.”

“Maybe, but let’s not take chances and assume anything. Make sure the boys keep an eye out of the leaders of this pile of shit. I want to take him out in the first attack.”

“Will do. Do you have any idea how we are going to clear those buildings?”

“No. I hope we can nab one of the town’s people whose in their so we can get a better picture. Have RJ, Jimmie, and Teddy take up spots around the buildings. We need as much information as we can get.”

“Ok. Did you want to take anyone tonight?”

“Not yet. I don’t know if the tangos report in or if the hostages will be missed. We’ll see about it tomorrow after we let them know we are here.”

“Gotcha,” Freddie smiled.

Buster and the boys #3

Most of the residents in Pilot Point knew when the boys went on one of their jobs. They also knew Rebecca was always down when they were gone. Many of the residents would make it a point to stop by Rebecca’s Dream to cheer her up when they could.

“Evening, Everyone,” Warren said as he entered the door. Warren Bigelow was an ex-marine who worked for the government before retiring and settling in Pilot Point with his wife. Since the meltdown, Warren had turned his electrical skills on creating and maintaining a series of wind generators for the residents of the town. It was not uncommon for Warren to step by to talk shop with Doc over one of their latest inventions.

“Hey, Warren. Take a seat and sit awhile,” Doc said.

“You know, you’ve said that every night for the past five years.”

“Never gets old does it?”

“Ha. Ha. Maybe not as old as you are, but getting there.”

“Hi, Warren,” Rebecca said as she walked into the front room with tea.

“Hi, Sweetheart. How’s this old cuss doing? Keeping him out of your hair?”

“He’s fine, if we can keep him from killing himself with his latest invention.”

“What did you come up with now?”

Doc went into his spiel about the new gas grenades he had finished working on this evening. He wanted Warren to look over things to see if he could improve them. Doc always worried one of his inventions would fail in the field and hurt one of the boys. He made it a habit to have Warren look over everything before considering it a success.

“So if you think if I increase the pressure here, the trigger will be less likely to misfire—“

Rebecca watched the two old men talk about how to improve the grenades. She often looked at Doc and Warren and thought about her grandfather. Rebecca’s parents and grandparents didn’t make it out of Dallas to Pilot Point in time. Although, the distance between the large city and where her grandparents lived was less than fifty miles, after the army shut down the roads it might have been a thousand. Rebecca and Buster did their best to rescue their parents and grandparents from the FEMA camp, but the government resisted them. Even when all four of them became ill, FEMA officials refused to let them leave the “safety” of the camp. It took Buster shooting his way out of the last encounter with the officials. Buster and the boys went back a few years later to see what had become of his family. All they found was a mass grave where the camp used to be. Buster had never forgiven himself for not blasting his family out of the hell-hole the government called a refugee camp.

“Hey young lady, stop that,” Warren said.

“What?”

“You have that thousand-yard stare on your face you get when you think about your family. You’re too young and pretty for that.”

“Ok. Ok. Like my being pretty will help anything. There’s only Buster and his boys and you old coots around here. No one to turn my charms on.”

“Get your charms and your butt over here and let me beat you in a game of cards. I believe you still owe me a loaf of honey bread after I beat the dickens out of you the last time.“

“You cheated and I’m not making you honey bread.”

“It’s only cheating if you catch me and you didn’t catch me. I expect my bread tomorrow.”

“We’ll see,” Rebecca said with a smile on her face.

The three started a game of cards as more members of the town started coming into the café. No one in Pilot Point had much, but they were willing to share what little they did have. Cheyenne and her sister Dakota brought in a large piece of honey comb from their bee hives. Everyone cut off little squares of the comb and chewed on it most of the night.

“Damn, that’s good,” Doc said with a wink at Cheyenne. “I always love when you two bring honey comb for my old sweet tooth.”

“You’d say the same thing if they brought in a burnt biscuit, you old goat. When have you ever been turned down any food,” Warren said as he won their most recent game.

“Leave those two girls alone and concentrate on your game.”

Cheyenne and Dakota giggled and went over to a small group of teenagers to do whatever teenagers did. Warren caught Doc staring at the two as they walked off.

“She’s fine. They made it to the camp in the Rockies. You had a letter from here just last year.”

Warren was referring to Doc’s granddaughter. Doc’s son and daughter-in-law lived in Denver when the meltdown happened and Doc had lost all contact with them for years. Three years ago a group of travelers came through Pilot Point on their way to Colorado. Doc took a chance and gave them a letter to deliver to the Denver Rocky Mountain Safety Camp. The camp was one of fifteen set up around the country for survivors of the meltdown and Doc took a chance his family made it there. His gamble worked and last year he received a long letter from his son. Doc reread the letter at least twice a week and wondered if he should leave Pilot Point and make his way to Denver. He would convince himself to leave, but the boys would come back from another job complaining how the lack of supplies was affecting their ability to win their battles. He vowed to stay with the group that saved his life until he had no other inventions to create for their fights.

A slap sounded when Warren put his cards on the table and shouted, “Gin! I told you to pay attention to your game.”

Doc just grunted and started counting his points.

The Farm

My new release: The Farm, is doing well on the Men’s Adventure Top 100 list today. It has moved up to #14

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The Farm has also made it on the Hot New Releases list for both the Political Fiction and Men’s Adventure.

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My thanks to everyone who purchased a copy and made this happen.

Buster and the Boys #2

“Morning, Rebecca.”

“Morning, Doc.”

Dr. Henry “Doc” Martin had been coming into Rebecca’s Dream since the meltdown and the boys rescued him from a life of slavery. Henry held four PhDs in engineering, math, chemistry, and computers from Caltech and MIT.

“Want your usual today?”

“You know we so well. It’s quiet, where are the boys?”

“Got a message late last night about a job about two hundred miles north and took off. They should be scoping the place out today so they can do their thing and get back here.”

“They’ll be safe,” Doc replied knowing Rebecca would be worried.

“I know. I still worry. Buster is the only family I have left since our parents were killed.”

Doc turned to Rebecca and said. “Did you ever think your little lounge here would be a hang-out for a group of ex-cop bikers who ride around the country fighting bad guys?”

“Not in a million years,” Rebecca laughed. “I thought once I got out of the navy, I would settle down somewhere and find someone. Never thought the world’s economy would meltdown and I would become a ‘mother’ to twenty-one bikers.”

“You’re probably glad you picked a place attached to a hotel or you would have twenty-one bikers sleeping on your couch.”

“Yeah., Right. Those guys are slobs enough in this big place. I can’t imagine what they would do my trailer.”

Rebecca handed Doc his eggs and ham. “Wha’ca have planned for today?”

“Going to work on the tear gas I’m creating for Buster and the boys. I think I almost have it. At least the gas worked on those damn rats who took up residence in my workshop. How about you? What do you have planned?”

“You know I always scrape out the boy’s rooms when their gone. For a bunch of ex-cops, they sure are a bunch of pigs.”

“Very funny, did you write comedy in the navy?”

Doc and Rebecca laughed a little at his joke. Rebecca always had a soft spot for Doc after the first time he saw him. She couldn’t place why she felt that way until one day Buster commented Doc reminded him of their grandfather when they were young. Ever since then, Rebecca didn’t let Doc out of her sight.

Doc went out to his workshop, which was actually the storage room of the hotel, and started to tinker with the gas grenade he was working on. In his old life he would have finished this little project in a few hours, but today he had taken two weeks to figure out the problem. The problem he had been figuring out how to make a gas grenade with supplies you could still find after ten years of a collapse civilization.

“That should do it,” Doc said to himself. “Now, the test.”

Doc went down the block to a house he had dumped rotting food in. The smell of the food attracted dozens of rats from around the neighborhood. Doc pulled the pin, let the handle fly, and threw the grenade through the door. He counted to six and was rewarded with a constant stream of gas dispensing out of the grenade.

“Got it. That last tweak to the spring made all the difference.”

Doc stood there and watched the gas fill the room and he could hear rats scurrying in the walls trying to escape the tear gas. He started whistling as he made his way back to the hotel.

“You’re in a good mood,” Rebecca commented as she heard Doc whistling in his workshop.

“I figured my problem out. My grenade worked and I can make as many of them as we need. You should have heard those rats scurrying out of the house.”

“Great going Doc. How does it work?”

“Just like those smoke grenades you used to use. You pull the pin, let the handle fly, and throw the grenade where you want it to go. You have a six second delay before enough gas comes out to fill the room.”

“I bet Buster and the boys are going to love um. Ever since Owen took a bullet three months ago, Buster has been working on how to clear rooms. This will go a long way with him and the boys.”

“It’ll go a long way once I figure out gas masks,” Doc grinned. “Until then they will have to wait until it clears.”

“Do you think gas masks will be hard to come up with?”

“No. I already have a design going since I popped that one grenade in my face.”

“Buster liked to have had a heart attack when you pulled that little stunt. You should be more careful.”

What Rebecca didn’t say was she was more afraid of Doc hurting himself than Buster would ever be. She cried all night over the thought of losing Doc, but she understood Doc had to use his talents to help the boys as best he could. Just like she felt a need to provide a clean place to live and good cooking when they were home.

“Wash up Doc and I’ll cook us some lunch.”

“Sounds great, I’m starving. Finishing up a project always gives me an appetite.”

Rebecca washed up and prepared a light lunch of salad and BBQ pork sandwiches. After eating, Rebecca went back to her cleaning and Doc went back to his workshop.

“Damn, these boys are really pigs.” Rebecca grunted as she pulled an old ham sandwich out from underneath a bed. “It’s like cleaning a frat house sometimes.”

She needed a break so she went out to the balcony and looked at over the landscape. Pilot Point, Texas wasn’t much before the meltdown and it sure wasn’t much ten years later. Close enough to the Dallas area, Pilot Point used to be home to large, expensive horse farms and a population of several thousand. Now only about one hundred people called it home. The horses still roamed the ranches, but they were semi-wild and not the pampered things they used to be. Buster and the boys would take care of them when they could since they might be needed if the boys couldn’t find parts for their bikes.

The rest of the inhabitants were a mixture of original citizens, a few refugees from Dallas or Fort Worth, and a collection of people the boys had rescued over the years. It still shocked Rebecca how soon after the economic meltdown America reverted back to slavery. Only this time, it wasn’t one color enslaving another. It was the strong enslaving the weak. If you couldn’t take care of yourself, you were killed or became a slave.

Rebecca looked down and saw Doc walk out of his workshop and put an arrow with a very fat end on his bow. He drew the bow back and let the arrow fly. The arrow wobbled a bit but did go about twenty yards before falling back to earth thirty yards from his target. The arrow started smoking as soon as the arrow hit the ground and Rebecca knew Doc had figured out how to put tear gas on the end of an arrow.

“Nice shot, Hawkeye,” Rebecca yelled out. “You missed the whole building.”

Doc looked up with a big grin on his face. “It wasn’t a test of my marksmanship. It was a test of the gas canister. That worked.”

“Maybe, you can figure out how to reinvent the missiles next time. That way you can hit your target if it’s more than twenty feet away.”

“Very funny coming from a woman who has a piece of sandwich stuck to her back. What were you doing in there, rolling around on the floor?”

Rebecca did that little circle thing people do when they have something on their back and out of view. She finally was able to locate and remove the bread from her pants and cussed at the slob who threw a sandwich on the floor. Doc just stood there and laughed at her little show.

“Nice. Can you balance a ball on your nose and clamp your hands together for the next performance?”

“Ha. Ha. I’ll tell you what I’ll do next. I wash up and meet you in the lounge so I can beat your butt in a game of cards. Get us out of this heat. So put away your toys before you hurt yourself and go wash up.”

“Deal. I’ll meet you there in ten and help you make some tea.”

Buster and the Boys

One of the readers of my Facebook page mentioned to me that he thought I should include a group of good bikers in one of my stories. Most of the time when you read the type of books I write, bikers are all evil and mutant zombie biker armies raid and kill all the good guys. I thought I would try to put something together for Warren and see where I could take it. Here is the rough draft of an opening paragraph for a series I might do about a good biker gang.

Let me know what you think and if I should pursue the idea further.

Buster Williams was a biker. He was not the kind of biker that you would picture when you heard the word. Buster Williams was an ex-cop who rode around on a Harley with twenty other ex-cops who also rode around on Harleys. They did not wear leathers, except when it was cold. They wore whatever happened to be on the floor next to their bed when they woke up each morning.

“Buster,” Rebecca said. “You’ve got a message.” Rebecca worked the bar where Buster and his group spent their time in between jobs. She acted as bar tender, office manager, nurse maid, and sometimes as mother when she got fed up with the slobs living in the bar and she couldn’t walk around because of all their junk.

“Who’s it from?”

“Get your lazy ass out of that recliner and come over here to open it up and find out for yourself. I may do a lot of things around here but I’m not going to open your damn mail.”

Buster just smiled. It was a running joke with them to see how far they could push Rebecca. Teddy once asked her to change the TV channel when the remote broke. She changed the channel by throwing a boot at the TV knocking it on the floor. Buster and his group may be some of the toughest bikers left in the world, but they learned not to mess with Rebecca.

“Ok. Ok. Damn, you must be in one of your ‘moods’ today,” Buster said with a smile on his face. He was able to duck the bottle that flew out of Rebecca’s hand. Freddie was not as lucky and caught the bottle on the side of his head.

“Shit, Rebecca. Why’d do that for? I didn’t say nothin.”

“Sorry, Freddie. I meant it for the lug nut next to you. Guess I’m losing my touch. I’ll have to start throwing more boots and get my aim back.”

A collective groan rose from the group lying around the bar watching a DVD of an old movie at the thought of boots flying around all the time.

“Wait a minute, we don’t have to go that far,” Teddy said. The whole gang chuckled as Rebecca walked back into the kitchen cussing up a blue streak. They were used to her moods and didn’t think anything about it. She was one of the family; she meant nothing by her actions other than to give them a hard time.

“If you can’t control that sister of yours,” Freddie said. “I’m going to move out and sleep in the barn.”

“I don’t think the pigs would let you. Even they have their standards.”

Freddie just grunted and nodded his head at the envelope. “What do we have?”

Buster finished scanning the message and yelled, “Everyone shut up and listen. We have a letter from a small town about two hundred miles north of here. It seems they need a little help taking out some trash.”

Buster and his gang of twenty ex-cops made their living after the meltdown by helping towns get rid of gangs of outlaws who roamed the countryside. Mayors and leaders of these small towns would send requests for help to Rebecca and she would pass them on to Buster. The fee for Buster’s service was whatever they could strip from the gang bangers and enough gas to cover their trip. They would also expect the town to provide whatever help they needed, but it was rare they ever needed anything other than food and a place to sleep.

Buster read the letter out to his buddies. It mentioned the standard things that a gang would do after taking over a town. Killings, rapes, slavery, and other evil acts which seemed to bubble up from the thin veneer of civilization the moment the world collapsed.

“Ok. Anyone object to this new job?”

“Can we make them cook us some pies to bring back? That last one Rebecca made chipped my tooth.”

“Shut up, you moron. If you don’t like my cooking then you can get off your fat ass and go into the kitchen to cook for yourself. I swear, if you say another word about my cooking I’m going to feed you the stuff I save for the pigs.”

The group laughed at the latest outburst from Rebecca. Rebecca and Jimmie argued everyday over her cooking, but he usually would help her out when she needed help. Jimmie wanted to be a cook when he grew up but ended up joining the Texas Highway Patrol instead. His cooking skills would have allowed him to get a job at any restaurant before the meltdown, but once he became a state trooper he never wanted to be a cook again.

“No objections. Good, let’s mount up. We should be there in a few hours and that will give us enough time to look things over a bit.”

The group got up, packed a few things, checked their gear, and rode out to their next adventure. Rebecca stood in the door of the bar and wiped tears away from her face. So far, her little band of brothers had not suffered any casualties. There had been a few gunshot wounds, a broken leg, and RJ needed a few stitches in his butt after falling down a hill, but nothing really major. She knew one day, their streak would come to an end. As much as those knuckleheads pissed her off most days, they were the only family she had left.

Makes your day

Every now and then a little thing happens that makes your day as a writer.

I’m not saying that I’m anywhere near these two guys in talent. I also not saying that my book comes even close to their books or it will stay on the list as long as these two books.

But it still nice to see your book on the same list as those of authors you read and admire.



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