“He and his old…I mean he and his lady friend live just a few blocks down the road.” “Good save,” I laughed, as Lonnie’s wife Joan stared through him.
No old lady jokes around here, I thought.
“Daddy! Daddy, come quick!” Jax yelled. “Jake and a man are fighting!” Lonnie and I ran out the front door. There was a small crowd surrounding Jake and Jeff’s friend from last night.
The man had a knife and was swinging it wildly towards Jake, while yelling and swearing. Jake was oddly calm and hadn’t even drawn his pistol yet. He kept it in a side holster all day and it was clearly visible to all.
I had my pistol leveled at the man’s head and was within ten yards of them. “Jake,” I instructed in a low but audible voice. “I want you to duck down on the count of three.” With that, the surrounding audience began to scatter.
Lonnie, weapon drawn, was coming up behind the man on his right. “McKinney Police,” he said. “Drop the knife and get on the ground.” There was no response from the crazed man. Lonnie repeated the order.
“Hold on,” said Jake, trying to talk to the man in a low steady voice. It was actually quite calming, considering the situation. “Whatever is going on with you right now, it’s not worth dying for. Just put down the knife and we can all go back home.”
“No! No! No!” shouted the man. “I know what you’re all doing. You’re going to lock me up and fill my head with lies!”
He drew his right hand back and threw his large Jim Bowie-style knife towards Jake. Jake, on instinct, stepped to the side and heard a scream. He turned to see a young woman behind him grab at the knife sticking out of her abdomen, just as Lonnie and I fired at the man who threw the knife.
I caught him in the left side of his chest and Lonnie in his neck. He dropped immediately with a gasp and fell silent…
The woman was screaming, “Help me! Help me!”
Jake yelled to Nancy to get the medical kit. The crowd was shocked at this violence, which they had never before seen. Nancy returned quickly with her medical bag as the girl took her last breath.
“Oh my God!” came a shriek from the back of the crowd. “What have you done to my little girl?!” she screamed at Jake.
“I tried to save her,” he called out. “I’m so sorry.”
“You let that man kill her! I saw you! You just let him kill her!”
“Jake,” I said, grabbing him by the shoulders. “Go in the house now. You too, Nancy.”
“Lonnie, let’s get this under control. OK?” I asked.
“All right,” Lonnie announced in his cop voice, as he took over. “Everyone calm down and listen to me. Things are different now. This man,” he said, pointing to Jeff’s friend in a heap on the ground, “was out of control. He alone was responsible for the harm that came to that young woman over there,” pointing to the girl now surrounded by her family. “I am truly sorry for your loss. It’s time for everyone to go home now.”
We walked backwards into my house, in case things got bad. Everyone inside gathered in the living room to talk.
Jake and Nancy were in the office, talking quietly. I interrupted, wanting to see if Jake was OK. He was not. “I should have stopped him first. I didn’t know he would throw the knife,” he said. “I should have seen there were people behind me when I moved. Now a young girl is dead. It’s my fault. I should have looked...”
“It’s not your fault,” I replied. “It’s squarely on him. Next time anything like that happens, we will respond more quickly.” I left to rejoin the group in the living room.
I pulled Lonnie aside and told him we should get a game plan together. “Things have changed for our group, and we need to get everyone together and on the same page.”
I started the speech with the events of the day. For the first time, I had everyone’s undivided attention.
“What happened outside,” I started, “would be called horrific and all over the news if it happened last week. Most of us have never seen something like that before. Unfortunately, this is only a start of what’s to come—not only here but in our entire country, as far as we know.
“Our job now…all of our jobs now…is to take care of our families,” I continued, borrowing a line from my work speech only a day ago. “If we stick together and pool our resources and knowledge, we have a better chance of surviving this than most people.
“Lock your doors tight tonight. And if you decide you are all in with us, then come back at noon tomorrow and we will get started.”
I stepped out the front door as people started to leave. The body of the man with the knife was being taken away, and the body of the girl was gone. There was a lot of blood on the ground but everyone else had left.
After the house cleared out, we locked up tight. Joy, Lucy and Tina got a chicken-and-rice stew going on the stove. We tried to eat whatever we could from the freezers first. After dinner Jake, Lonnie and I sat on the back porch and had a few beers.
Jake relayed the story of how the fight started over just a few words between him and a man he had only met a day ago. “I don’t feel bad about the guy, but I’ll never get that girl out of my head… I need to know her name,” he added.
“Are you sure about that?” asked Lonnie.
“Yes, I am. I will include her in my prayers every night from this day forward.”
“OK,” I told him. “Lonnie and I will ask around tomorrow.”
Lonnie decided to keep his family here for the night and we were happy to have them.
“You think there will be trouble tonight?” Lonnie asked me. “Not here, I don’t think, but soon enough—I am sure of that.”
We could see small plumes of smoke in all directions. “Everyone is barbecuing their freezer meats,” said Jake. “And it will all be gone in a matter of days,” he added solemnly.
A gunshot rang out far in the distance, and then another. “I’ll head out at first light and get Mike and his old lady,” Lonnie said in a near whisper. “I’ll go with you,” I added, “unless you want to go, Jake.” “Nah,” he replied. “I had enough craziness already today. Think I’ll take just one day off.”
As the last of the sunset dropped over the smoky horizon, I felt a sadness wash over me in a wave as I realized that my children and all of our children will never sleep the same again.
Dreams of Santa Clause, cartoons, princesses and superheroes would now be replaced with fire, gunshots and violence.
A couple hours later we were all in bed in this brand new world.
* * * * * * *
Chapter Nine ~ McKinney, Texas
Lonnie and I were up at dawn. I kissed Joy good-bye, telling her we would be back before the noon meeting.
We headed out the door to a perfectly quiet morning, with only the sounds of “Tweetie Birds,” as the kids call them, and an occasional robin.
There were no people outside at all. A week ago there would have been ten joggers and another ten walking their dogs. Now there was nothing…
We stopped at Lonnie’s. He wanted to get his department-issued riot shotgun and gear. To my surprise, he had two identical rifles. “They gave you two of those?” I asked.
“No, they only paid for one. The other was a gift from a buddy of mine who owns a gun shop in Plano.”
“How far from here?” I asked, not caring if I was digging.
“Oh, about ten or so miles, right off the tollway and Parker Road. They call him the Gun Commie. He’s Russian and sounds tough, but he has a soft spot for kids and friends… Wonder what he’s doing now?” he added.
“Probably guarding his store with his life, I suspect. Maybe we can pay him a visit soon and see if he wants to trade for anything. We could always use more guns,” I added.
We walked in silence for a few blocks, seemingly carefree but on high alert in actuality. “Just a few more blocks,” announced Lonnie, and added, “so what happened?”
“What do you mean?” I asked. “Don’t bullshit me,” he stated in a serious but
friendly tone. “I know you and Jake got into some trouble on your way home, and so did your wife.”
I told him our story first, about the four thugs who killed Lawrence and tried to take our food. He just nodded and said, “Y’all did the right thing, far as I can tell.
“Now what about Joy?” he asked. I told him everything as it was told to me, leaving nothing out. When I was finished, he didn’t say anything for a couple minutes. Just kept walking.
“Well?” I asked, not knowing what to think. He finally spoke and said, “I’m truly sorry for what she and your boys had to go through. I’ll do everything I can to make sure none of our women or children get hurt or worse.” “Me too,” I added. “Me too!”
“That’s Mike’s house at the end of the far street,” Lonnie pointed out. It was about 8:30 or so in the morning. “Let’s be careful. I don’t want to get shot by friendly fire,” he added.
We approached the front door and Lonnie knocked. “Rap Rap Rap”…then a pause… “Rap Rap”…with another pause…and one final “Rap.”
We stood back from the door, so Mike could see us through the peephole. The door opened a minute later and a jovial Mike said, “Hey Lonnie. I see you brought our grocery store shopper for breakfast.
“I’m just kiddin’, man,” he added, and patted me on the shoulder. I didn’t know if I liked him yet or not. Either way, it didn’t matter. We needed him for the group.
“Come on in, guys,” he offered. “You remember my girlfriend, Kelly,” he said to Lonnie.
“Sure. How are you, Ma’am?” he said, tipping his hat like a cowboy from the movie Blazing Saddles. I introduced myself and Kelly said, “Tell him, Mike.” “Tell him what?” asked Lonnie.
“All right. All right. Lance, I’m sorry. I was wrong about you. After hearing everything on the radio, I know now you were right.”
“Wait,” I replied. “What radio? What did you hear?” Now I couldn’t believe Jake and I hadn’t tried to use the shortwave to see if there was any news about the city or the government.
“Well,” Mike advised. “I found a station out of Oklahoma City and another out of Lafayette, Louisiana. They were both talking about EMPs and said the government had declared martial law yesterday afternoon!”
“What did they say, exactly?” I asked. “Was it the radio announcer or a prerecorded announcement?”
“Well, it was both,” he said. “They played a recorded message from Vice President Biden. He started by saying President Obama was in a safe place and would address the nation by radio in the coming days. He added that we had been attacked by an EMP shot off a tanker ship in the Gulf of Mexico, detonated approximately 300 miles high over central Kansas. It knocked out power to 49 states, only sparing Hawaii and few remote parts of Alaska. It also knocked out the lower third of Canada and the upper half of Mexico. They are working to find out who was responsible. He said they were working to restore power as quickly as possible but to be patient. He added they would be setting up FEMA refugee camps for major population areas in the coming days. After that, the DJs came back on and did some back and forth with ham radio operators in a few different states to see how things were going there. I think there are going to be a lot more people now who know this is not just a temporary thing.”
Lonnie proceeded to tell Mike and Kelly about what had happened at my house and how we had made it home from work. He told the details about our group and asked if they would join us.
“Give us a minute to talk,” Mike said, as they headed for the backyard. Ten minutes later they returned, and Kelly was smiling. “Can y’all help us pack up?” she asked. “Sure,” we agreed. “No problem.”
I was interested to see what Mike was going to bring. I guessed he would have some cool supplies that could help our group. Thirty minutes later they were packed up and we all carried large backpacks. I wished we had brought a couple carts with us, but he did have a wheelbarrow that worked pretty well. They had food and guns that would really help the group, and I liked him a little more than before.
“We have to make a stop on the way back,” said Lonnie, “and find out that girl’s name from last night.”
On the way back there were a few people out in the street, but they didn’t pay much attention to us. We approached our neighborhood and started asking if anyone knew the girl from last night. On the third inquiry we found a classmate of hers out walking with her dad. We expressed our condolences over what happened and she told us the girl’s name was Samantha Jones. “Do you want to know anything else about her, like what she was like?” the girl asked. “Yes,” I replied. “I would like to know.”
She went on to tell us a brief life story of the 15-year-old who was a star soccer player in high school, as well as an honor student. She was a popular girl and was always looking to help people. “That’s why she was there last night,” she continued. “She was going to try and talk the two men out of fighting when it happened.” Now I felt even worse than yesterday about it, but I thanked her for her story.
We got back to my house about 11 a.m., just an hour before our group meeting. We introduced Mike and Kelly to everyone in the house and put their things in the garage.
Jake pulled me aside and asked, “Did you get her name?” “Yes,” I replied. “It’s Samantha Jones… Do you want to know more than that or not?” “Yes,” he replied. “Please tell me everything you know.”
Joy, Nancy, Lucy and Tina began preparing lunch for all those who would be here at noon. It was a hodgepodge of mostly food from the freezers, not wanting to waste anything. We hooked up the large propane tank from the grill with an adapter to the Coleman stove. It would take a little longer to cook the burgers this way but we would save precious propane by not using the grill.
I made a mental note to try and get more propane tanks from one of the stores nearby. Most of the other looters—now having to include myself in that category—would still be trying to get food, water and drugs in the next few days. I was hoping they would overlook things like propane tanks, heirloom vegetable seeds and gardening supplies, camping and fishing equipment, vitamins, and basic hygiene items such as toothpaste, soap, dental floss, antibacterial gels and toilet paper. Last, but certainly not least, was what I was absolutely sure to be God’s favorite drink—coffee. I would joke with the boys, telling them God made some things extra special, including coffee, pickles and crab legs. All my very favorites.
Everyone from yesterday returned by about 12.30. I was by nature a stickler on time but, considering we were all using the sun now, I had no choice but to relax on that point.
We had a great lunch and for a little while it felt like a typical weekend barbecue. I introduced Mike and Kelly to everyone and most seemed happy to have another police officer in our group. We gathered after lunch in the formal living room with adults and kids alike.
I started the meeting with the agreement that Jake, Lonnie and Mike would jump in as needed.
“Thank you all for coming back today.
“This is now our core group. Anyone added to this group from here on out will have to have a majority adult vote to join us.
“We are very fortunate to have two military members in Jake and Nancy, and two McKinney police officers with Lonnie and Mike. We will review each of your backgrounds over the next few hours to see what skills we have as a group.
“You should all have your lists of the weapons and supplies you have to contribute.
“We will have no choice but to secure more supplies over the coming week or two to sustain all of us on our journey west.
“Working vehicles will be a top priority. We are looking for pre-1978 cars and trucks without the modern electronics that were destroyed by the EMP.
“We will need to balance ethics and survival. For example, we will have to take supplies from abandoned stores before they are completely looted, if they are not already. On the other hand, we will not take anything from an individual or family unless we have made a fair trade for it
and both parties are in agreement. This alone will separate us from many people, especially in the coming days and weeks.
“Lastly, we will defend what’s ours with any level of force necessary to protect every member of our group.
“All agreed, raise your hands.” All hands in the room were raised, including the children.
“As you know from yesterday, we are heading to Colorado. There are several reasons for this.
“To start, Jake and I both come from there.
“I know we all have family scattered across this country and we can’t reach them all.
Next World Series (Vol. 1): Families First Page 10