Dark Days of the After (Book 1): Dark Days of the After

by Schow, Ryan

  “Who are you?” he asked.

  “A woman whose day is being interrupted,” Harper said with a smile.

  Shaking his head, he knew he couldn’t win that battle. Finally, to Orbey, he asked, “What happened to that boy?”

  “What boy?”

  “The one you shot,” he replied. “Jackson Moore.”

  “I didn’t shoot anyone, Sheriff. I merely fired a warning shot after my woodpile and my home was peppered with lead from him and his douchebag friend.”

  “That’s not what I hear,” he said.

  “When was the last time there was a complaint levied against Orbey here for trespassing?” Harper asked.

  “I’m not talking to you,” he said, refusing her his eye.

  “It’s a valid question, Sheriff,” she challenged, crossing her arms. “You’re still the Sheriff, aren’t you?”

  “Of course I am.”

  “Then you work for the people and the people want to know how many times Orbey’s been caught trespassing, or doing things like poaching, or causing a disturbance on private land.”

  His nostrils flared and he looked down his nose at her.

  She stood her ground.

  “There’s been no such incident reported.”

  “Good, then get your skinny ass and that shit box out of the way and let us through,” Harper said with a fair amount of conviction.

  “There’s a man missing,” he said, red in the cheek.

  “Then go find him.”

  “He was last seen at your place,” Sheriff said turning to Orbey.

  “So you’re admitting to me that you knew he and his buddy Craig were trespassing?” Orbey said.

  “Craig told me as much,” the man said.

  “And where is he?”

  “At the bar, in his bed, working on his car,” he said. “You know those guys.”

  “I want to press charges,” Orbey said.

  Holding up his hands, he said, “Now, now, now let’s not be hasty.”

  “You heard the girl, move that shit box out of my way or I’m going to move it for you,” Orbey said.

  “Who’s Jeep is that?” he asked, studying the stolen vehicle.

  “Your mother’s,” Orbey said.

  Standing there, his shoulders now slouching forward just the slightest little bit in defeat, he said, “We used to be on good ground, you and I.”

  “You’re the Sheriff,” Orbey said, her trademark sweetness on hiatus. “Yet you look to the townspeople for assurance in the decisions you make. We elected you to be your own man, to follow the law and to have a spine. If we can’t count on you to do your job, then really, what good are you as the law, or better yet, as a man?”

  Harper drew a breath. That was cold.

  “I like you, Sheriff,” Orbey continued, trying to dial it back. “I just want justice and so far you’ve only given me excuses.”

  “I will find out what happened,” he said.

  “I hope you do,” she said. “And when you find that little pipsqueak, you let him know next time he trespasses on my land I’ll send a round right through his heart.”

  Before he could say anything, Harper stepped up and said, “I decided I like your aftershave, Sheriff. Are you married?”

  “Are you hitting on me?” he asked, to the point, almost like it was a jab.

  “What if I was?” she teased.

  “I’d say that’s inappropriate,” he replied.

  “And that’s why you’re not married, Sheriff. Perhaps you should take what you can get while you can still get it.”

  “Care to explain yourself, young lady?” he asked, looking between Harper and Orbey, as if checking for Orbey’s take on Harper’s shenanigans.

  “The Chicoms are coming, and you can pretend to be the law, and be nice, and be diplomatic, or you can cower to the idiots who trespassed and hope that by the time all hell breaks loose with China you’ve grown a substantial pair of balls. You do have balls, don’t you Sheriff?”

  “Yes, I do,” he said, his cheeks going flush again.

  “Both of them?” Harper pressed.

  He nodded, swallowing past the lump in his throat.

  “And yet, as the most powerful man in town, you’re still single. And good looking too, if I look past that dumb mustache. What a shame.”

  “You’re something else,” he said, at a loss for words.

  “Orbey may not like you,” Harper continued, her charm so candy sweet, “but I have a thing for men in uniform.”

  “Yeah, seems like you enjoy toying with them.”

  Smiling, looking at him a different way, she said, “I like toying…”

  “That’s our cue, Sheriff,” Orbey said, clearing her throat as she walked back to the Jeep. Harper followed, then turned and blew the Sheriff a kiss one last time.

  He seemed confused.

  “What the hell was that?” Orbey asked, red in the face herself.

  “The conversation’s done, we told him nothing and now he’ll think twice before he confronts us next.”

  “It was embarrassing, but effective,” Orbey said, backing out fast, the rear bumper nearly clipping the Sheriff’s front bumper as he kicked up a storm of gravel getting out of the way. He laid on the horn and Orbey ignored him.

  “Connor said he was a pushover, in so many words,” Harper said. “I used to be fun back in the day. Back before I saw the end of the world approaching. It was nice to feel a bit of my old self again.”

  “I think I’m going to like you,” Orbey finally said.

  “I think you will, too.”

  Chapter Ten

  Harper’s day went well. They shot at strangers, ran over someone’s home, met a child rapist they planned to kill and went toe to toe with a Sheriff. That and the Five Falls Drug Store had a sale on batteries and tampons, as well as a big box of matches, a five pack of women’s underwear that weren’t ugly and an army green t-shirt that said, “I survived Five Falls.”

  When they got back home, Harper helped in the garden while listening to all the things that would be important for her to keep and maintain her own garden up at the barn.

  “When should I seed it?” Harper asked.

  “Depends on how you like having your butt looked at by carpenters,” Orbey said.

  “I’m not sure it’s going to be the distraction you think it would be,” she replied with a laugh.

  “Not in those pants, but maybe we can get you something tighter.” Smiling, her eyes bright, Orbey said, “You handled yourself with the Sheriff well back there.”

  “I used to be pretty and thin, and there was a day when I felt comfortable enough with myself and my body to run a little game on the players and the haters. Not for real, but just to do it, you know?”

  “Yeah? How long ago was that?”

  “A few years back. Times are tough in the city, though. The routine of it takes the life out of you, but so does the emotional struggle. You watch people you know, people you like and people you love fall to those…sons of bitches. Those freaking Commie turds.”

  She stopped talking and stood up straight. A powerful surge of emotions flowed through her, hitting her high in her chest. What was this? She hadn’t had this kind of welling of emotion in forever.

  “Do you have any family left, Harper?” Orbey asked, reaching out to take her hand.

  Her eyes began to glisten and she shook her head, the divulgence a soul crushing weight in and of itself.

  Orbey brushed a little dirt from herself then came in and hugged Harper. She apologized, embarrassed that someone as tough as her had been reduced to this kind of weakness. When you were out of the fight though, when you were safe—as she was for the time being—the emotions you tried so hard to bury had a way of charging to the surface to be dealt with. This was an inescapable fact, one she was apparently dealing with.

  “It’s okay, sweetie,” Orbey said, rubbing her back. “Family is going to be a different kind of thing in the future. Sometimes it’s
the ones you love, the ones you’re closest to, the ones who can see you for who you are that become your family.”

  Nodding her head, standing back, she wiped her eyes and said, “I appreciate you, Orbey. Thank you. And I think I need to have my butt stared at a bit, just to feel like life is still going on, even if it’s at a Neanderthal level.”

  “Well then I’ll have Connor or Stephani help you and seed the garden tomorrow. Let’s make a light lunch then prep for supper. Then, if you want, we can head to Connor’s firing range just down the hill for some practice, unless you want to lay down for a nap. Did you sleep well last night?”

  “Not really,” she said.

  “Then perhaps a nap will suit you,” she said.

  “Where’s Stephani?”

  “At the hives. She’s making the move to double brood chambers. Plus she’s checking for mites. She said she’s only doing one hive today, but she’ll probably try to go through them all. I swear, that girl loves those bees to the point of obsession.”

  “Seems funny to love something so small,” Harper said.

  “Yeah, it does, but it’s more than that,” Orbey replied. “It helps me and Connor. I’m not sure if you know this, but the sugar in honey is better for diabetes than regular sugar. It’s high in antioxidants, which keeps our blood pressure low and helps stave off heart attacks and possible strokes. Plus it does wonders for our cholesterol levels.”

  “Is that it?” Harper asked with raised eyebrows.

  “It’s also good for topical wound healing,” she added. “And Stephani uses it as a cough suppressant. It doesn’t work for us so well, but for her, it’s nectar from the gods.”

  “Wow,” Harper said. “I didn’t know all that.”

  “Now that I’ve done the whole pitch,” she said with a smile, “would you like a peanut butter and honey sandwich?”

  “Heck yeah, I would!”

  When they were in the kitchen making the sandwiches, Connor tromped into the house with a stack of mail and said, “Got a letter from Skylar. It’s post dated a few days back though, so don’t get your hopes up.”

  Orbey washed her hands, dried them then said, “Don’t tell me how to feel, Connor. Here, let me take a look.”

  She opened the letter, pulled it out and read it first to herself, then aloud.

  “Dear Orbey, Connor, Stephani and Cooper. It’s coming. I heard there was a countdown to an EMP. I don’t know what it is, hopefully Logan will find out, but I think I might be in trouble here. I have a sick feeling. No matter what happens to me, get ready for it. I’m thinking days, or weeks, not years. Maybe sooner. Be safe. Love all of you.”

  “What is she doing?” Orbey asked.

  “Her job,” Harper said.

  “Which is?” Connor asked. “Specific is better than not.”

  “She infiltrated the Ministry of Propaganda.”

  “How?” Orbey said.

  “Through the Minister himself.”

  “She’s…?” Connor started to say, the reality of it dawning on him.

  Harper nodded her head. Yes, Skylar was sleeping with the Minister of Propaganda to get intel on the Chicom infiltration of America.

  “What exactly is happening?” Orbey asked.

  “It’s not good,” Harper said, cryptic.

  “We can handle it,” Connor said. Outside there was whining. It was Cooper at the back door wanting in. “Hang on a second. The big baby wants in.”

  He went and opened the door and Cooper trotted in, smelling everyone, then sitting on the floor at their feet.

  “The big cities have been taken over all along the west coast,” Harper said. “Mexico is moving on the southern states, with the exception of California. There the Chicoms held them off. It helps that the border wall is still standing, but it’s taken its fair share of abuse.”

  “What states are they coming through?” Orbey asked.

  “Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. Texas is the stronghold for now. Arizona and New Mexico are weak links. Before all this began, most of the states had already been infiltrated from the inside. China was the most dangerous. Its spies had already infiltrated the colleges and turned them into re-education camps in disguise. After that they penetrated businesses, government organizations, NGO’s and even the US Military.”

  “How is that even possible?” Orbey asked.

  “To a large degree, they used the media, hate speech and racial division. When you control the media, the Hollywood studios, the youth through colleges and professional sports through proxies like Nike, you pretty much own the country’s official narrative. Now imagine you’re backed by European wealth, and sold out by your own government…is it really that hard to imagine?”

  “I thought that was just some conspiracy,” Orbey said.

  “Yeah, I never heard of any of that,” Connor said, kneeling down to pet Cooper.

  “Just because you never heard of it doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. All these people turning us against each other, then telling us everything would be alright, they were the foxes in the hen houses.”

  “Yes, but still,” Orbey said. “Nobody believes anything anyone says anymore.”

  “If you knew half the things that have been done, you’d lose your mind. But we don’t. We didn’t. Before all this started, our minds were weak, we became puppets, stopped thinking for ourselves. That’s why these things are so hard to hear. Yet, if you set foot in the cities and see the control measures there, you’d wonder how you never saw it coming in the first place.”

  “You were talking about Mexico…” Orbey prompted.

  “Oh, yes,” Harper replied. “They already had networks set up to take back these states. La Raza, which means the community¸ was by and large a way for many of the immigrants fleeing the violence of South America and the cartels to resettle into America. But like anything, there were small parts of any movement that were not as pure as others. Factions of La Raza began to turn against America years ago. They waved their flags while burning the American flag, stoked racial violence, basically protested the US immigration laws many of them were violating.”

  “I saw this break out in L.A. quite a few years back,” Orbey said.

  “The legal migrants from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador hated this more than most Americans. We couldn’t understand why people we took under our protective arm would despise us this much, but to many of the legal migrants, they knew what this was. It was an uprising in America by the very same oppressive and violent forces that metastasized and overtook Mexico.”

  “But these are rag tag groups,” Connor said. “How could they rise up the way they have?”

  “Strength in numbers. Plus, you take even the tamest of animals and dangle something in front of them and they can’t help but take a swipe at it. These people aren’t animals as much as they’re opportunists, and this is an opportunity.”

  “So they paved the way for South America to surge up through the border?” Orbey asked. “Is that it?”

  “They’ve got bulldozers ramming the wall on both sides,” Harper said. “There are massive riots and half a war waging between Texas natives and those saying it was never Texas’s land to begin with.”

  “So we’re dealing with the Chicoms here on the west coast, the Southern Armies are coming up through the border and what…?” Connor asked, forgetting about the dog as the bad news appeared to almost age him by the minute.

  “Are you sure you want to hear the rest?” Harper asked.

  “How do you know all this?” Orbey asked.

  “That’s why I was inside SocioSphere, to gather intel from the largest server bank in the nation. Maybe even the world.”

  “It’s worse than this?” Orbey asked.

  “I’m afraid it is,” Harper said. “We can eat lunch though. Let’s not talk about these things and spoil an otherwise lovely day.”

  “I want to know,” Orbey said, more direct. Harper looked at Connor but Orbey said, “He’s fine. He pla
ys like he’s the domesticated husband but he’s got a mean streak in him a mile wide. You just haven’t seen it.”

  “Okay,” she said. “The European Union officially lost control of the last of the European states. Now they’re using their army to overtake America’s east coast. The African Union’s army, however, now has control of Miami and Jacksonville, and they’re reportedly headed north, on a collision course with the EU army.”

  “I didn’t even know there was an African Union,” Connor said. “Let alone an army large enough to seize those cities.”

  “Slave traders in Africa joined forces with drug lords two years ago and now you have a continent that traffics in sex and violence. When you have that kind of culture, you need an army to quell the uprising.”

  Shaking her head, her hand to her mouth, Orbey fought not to appear disturbed, but it was clear she was having a problem with the information. No one wanted human suffering. No one wanted to see any nation fall, let alone lose their life, their sovereignty or their future to the worst of humanity.

  “What is the aim of the African Union?” Connor asked.

  “It started with white women,” Harper said. “At least, that’s the intel I received. They first touched ground in Miami. They swarmed the coast in boats, snatching up every pretty girl they could see. White, brown, black, Asian…it didn’t matter. They’d grab them on the beaches and from the shopping malls, they’d take them from grocery stores and parking lots. After that they stuffed them on boats and sent them back to Africa. When the AU arrived and saw the picking was easy, they wanted more. As of my last transmission, they’re moving up the eastern seaboard as we speak.”

  This is when Orbey turned away. She couldn’t take anymore.

  “I’m sorry, Orbey,” she said. “This is a big pill to swallow, I know.”

  “What about our President?” she asked. “How can he not do anything at all about this? And why isn’t the military responding?”

  “People within the State Department were compromised as far as I can tell. They sold our missile codes to China, used malware to weaken our weaponry, and they leaked critical missions in both China and the Middle East. This was why America began losing the ground war in the first place. At least that’s the case under this President.”