The World Cowers

by Boyd Craven III

  “Tank, you look like somebody pinched you, what is it?” Sandra asked after they’d walked a few more minutes, pausing at the door.

  “Somebody’s waiting inside, I just caught a glimpse through the door,” he said, using the keycard with his free hand, his other holding his pistol at the ready.

  Blake opened the door and was the first one in, “Lucy, I’m home,” he said, trying to be goofy.

  “That sounds funny coming out of a hillbilly’s mouth,” Franklin Hines said, turning and standing.

  “Sir, I didn’t know you were going to be down here.” Sherman told him, pointing to their cells.

  Blake and Sandra went in, never offering Sherman any problems, and put their hands through the bars to get their cuffs removed. Sherman did that and then remained inside the room, something he usually didn’t do.

  “You got somewhere else to be?” Hines asked, looking at the soldier.

  “No Sir, I’m here to guard the prisoners, Sir,” Sherman said.

  “Tank, go on man,” Silverman said, getting up from the cot where he’d been laying down.

  “Sgt. Silverman?” he asked.

  “You weren’t taking the hint. I think Mr. Hines here wants to talk to us. Without little ears,” Silverman finished.

  Blake and Sandra smiled at the reference, using that very same wording when wanting to discuss things without Chris overhearing them.

  “I uh… Yes, no problem. I’ll be on the other side of the door, Mr. Hines. Just knock and I’ll let you out.”

  “Thank you,” Hines said, watching him leave and then waiting for the electronic lock to click shut.

  “So…” Sandra started.

  Hines grabbed a folding chair and brought it closer to the bars of their cell and sat down, the metal of the seat making popping sounds.

  “So I’m guessing you heard about Davis?” Hines asked.

  “Yeah,” Blake said, “I heard he threw a fit.”

  “More like a conniption,” Sandra added.

  “Wait, I haven’t heard… Fill an old soldier in,” Silverman said in protest.

  “John Davis was relieved of his position by POTUS a little while ago. We’d heard rumors from outsiders, but figured it was all a part of the whole “it’s the government’s fault,”” he said making air quotes, “We’d been listening to your broadcasts before Davis involved himself in your affairs. You guys seemed like pretty level-headed, honest Christians. Working for the governor directly, I couldn’t believe it when he came back ranting and raving.”

  “Yeah, that was funny,” Silverman said, “but I want to know, did he cry? Did he have a heart attack?”

  “Not quite, he was livid and trying to order everybody around until Lt. Commander Sola reminded him that he was above his pay grade and he only commanded the National Guard. That was it. He’d lost that. I don’t think he took the rejection well.”

  “So is he still here?” Blake and Sandra asked.

  “Yeah, they’re confining him to quarters until the trial is over with. They’re afraid if they stuck him in that empty cell there between Blake and Sgt. Silverman…”

  They all grinned at that.

  “So is he now going to stand trial? I mean, what he did—“

  “Most of what was needed to be said or found out has been already done now. I won’t mind a new boss, let me tell you. Until I do, I report to the President directly, and that guy scared me when they first selected him. Anyways, I wanted to make sure you guys know that. That’s not the reason I’m here though,” Hines said, shifting his weight back and crossing his legs.

  “What are you here for?” Sandra asked him.

  “I’d like to pick your brain on something I heard in the meeting, and go into more depth and detail. It’s actually to help me do my job better, it’s got nothing to do with the trial. You don’t have to answer me, and I’d understand if you told me to bug off,” he finished and lapsed into silence.

  Blake thought about it and nodded, “I don’t mind helping,” he told Hines.

  “Good, I was hoping so. Your community, the Homestead, is further ahead than any other group. The sheer size and self-sustainability is amazing. The only groups of any size like that or larger are the groups we’ve been trying to feed at the camps or the centers in the city. What struck me during the trial was how you said everyone works, everyone helps and everyone eats. How can you do that? I’m assuming you don’t have two hundred beds in the farm, do you?”

  Sandra giggled and Blake smiled, “No, other than those of us who live in the house, the barn’s loft has been converted into living quarters. Hammocks and rope beds with whatever we can use for padding and blankets. I believe the term is hot cot?” Blake asked, looking to his wife who nodded, “because with that many people there is enough work to keep people going 24/7/365. We’ve got some great organizers in our group.” Blake said, thinking of Bobby and how Melissa and he had been figuring out the rotation schedules before they’d been taken.

  “Ok, that makes sense. Would you say your group acts like a military group or militia?” Hines asked.

  “No, not really. We encourage everyone to participate in learning survival skills, to shoot… I’m even learning a ton of new tricks and I grew up in the woods practically. Then there is the school sessions we set up for the kids.”

  Hines eyebrows rose, “Oh? School? It’s almost fall, how did you manage that? You have teachers?”

  “Yes,” Sandra answered, “quite a few now. Without recess or excessive walking to and from classes, school has been working out quite well. Besides, if you kept all those kids locked up with no structure, they’d drive everyone around them insane.”

  “How can you do that with that many people… er… kids?” Hines asked.

  “It isn’t that bad,” Blake answered, “My father in law and I take the kids out for an hour or two nature walk where we teach them about foraging. While we’re out there, we’re putting their energy and hands to use in picking nuts and berries and teaching them the basics of trapping and hunting. It’s really a win win. Instead of recess, they help out and they learn a ton. That’s just one type of learning besides math, history and reading.”

  “What about their reading levels?” Hines asked.

  “You’d be surprised about this,” Sandra told him, “we have a ton of kids that said they felt lost without their Ipods and electronics. Now that none of it is working, the older kids have taken up reading. I got lucky, when I met Blake we went to a storage auction. We got a few boxes of books in addition to what Blake already had or we found in our scavenging missions. Now the older kids are helping the few teachers we have to teach the younger kids to read. Can you imagine what the world would have been like if the TV was never invented?” Sandra said, her voice excited.

  “I’ve had the same issues with my daughter,” Hines admitted, “but I never thought the lights going out would increase literacy.”

  “It’s not a perfect place, don’t get me wrong,” Blake told him, “With close quarters, there’s no privacy, there’s arguments and hurt feelings. We kind of run things with big town hall type meetings.”

  “So there’s no set leader?”

  “No,” Blake said.

  “Yes,” Silverman and Sandra said in the same moment.

  Blake looked at first one and then the other then back to Hines.

  “I guess there is, but I never wanted it,” Blake admitted.

  “So is it run democratically?” Hines asked.

  “Where are you going with this, Sir?” Silverman asked.

  “The thing is, we’ve got more people than we can care for—“

  “We can’t just take in a ton of people at once,” Blake told him, putting his hands up in a stopping motion, “Besides, we’re locked up and I doubt the Homestead will do much cooperation with anybody at this point. We’re still waiting to find out if we’re getting fitted for nooses.”

  “No, don’t worry about a hanging. Firing squad either. I can’t
talk about things related to that, but what I was going to ask, is if let’s say you had five thousand people to take care of—“

  “No,” Blake said.

  “Hear me out. I have five thousand people in this one camp. We send food in, and we’re getting very little out as in terms of the components we’re building for the electrical stations or the power line equipment. I don’t know what half of it is, but a lot of the parts, or tools to build the parts, need to be handmade. That’s what they’re doing. It’s an enormous drain of resources for very little output. Now the cities… The gang violence in the cities is horrendous. People are forming their own gangs for protection. It’s bad, and the last big food distribution in Greenville, there were riots and more fires.”

  “What do the people do in the cities?” Blake asked.

  “Do what they can to survive, wait for the next food shipments. Stuff like that. But you brought up a very good point in the meetings. Cities don’t make sense right now. There’s no food, no way to get it or produce it there, and the water is less than potable. It’s a cesspool, basically.”

  “That’s gross,” Sandra told him and he nodded.

  “What’s worse, is the people don’t want to be relocated to the camps.”

  “Well, can you blame them?” Blake asked, “We’ve all heard the horror stories about what happened in Alabama and the breakout in Louisiana. Heck, I talked to a boy over the radio that was in one of those camps. He was held prisoner and the families were separated. Men in one building, women in another, the kids separated, and they very rarely got to visit with each other. That’s jail. That isn’t helping them out.”

  “Yes, I know. You must understand, those facilities were run by some NATO officers from countries where conditions are much harsher than we Americans are used to. Some speak our language, some don’t. You strip away the humanity of people and you get people at their best or worst. Are you guys familiar with the Stanford Prison Experiment?” Hines asked.

  “Yeah.” Sandra replied, surprising Blake, who was looking at him with a blank expression.

  “Yeah, I have,” Silverman said, “It’s the ones where volunteers were asked to play the roles of prisoners and guards. They really got into the roles and they had to break the experiment off early before permanent damage was done.”

  “Yes, exactly,” Hines said, “That’s what we have here, on a much larger scale. Other than the Governor, I’m the second Warden, so to speak. I’d like to hear your thoughts on this.”

  “Why hold them there? Inside the camps?” Blake asked.

  “Excuse me?”

  “Aren’t most of these camps in out of the way places, away from the bigger cities mostly?” Blake asked.

  “Sometimes outside of a major area yes, but yeah, they are out of the way usually. Why?”

  “Well, here’s a novel thought. How hard would it be to start asking for volunteers from the cities to settle around the camp areas, and open the camps up. No more prisoners, no more forced labor. If they want to eat, they work. If they don’t, well, they go hungry or find their own food.” Blake told him.

  “That’s along the lines of what I was thinking as well. It’s not something the President has agreed to at this point.”

  “But why not let them go free if they choose? Maybe they have a family farm or ranch they can return to. I think the biggest mistake was rounding people up until the camps were full with no end goal in mind.” Blake said, the idea of the camps making him furious.

  “And those who want to stay, stay?”

  “Yes,” Sandra answered.

  “That’s what I’d run past the Governor and President as well. That whole fiasco in Alabama was horrible, and the civil unrest it generated when the stories got out,” he pointed to Blake, “no thanks to a hillbilly with a radio…”

  “Hey now, we just had a big reach with that antenna, we just relayed messages,” Blake said.

  “Sometimes inflammatory messages.” Hines said, not backing down.

  “What’s your point?” Sandra asked, annoyance in her voice.

  “The point is, there are people around the country that are looking to model your group as the way to go forward for the rebuilding. I just wanted to pick your brain a bit…”

  There was a knock on the door, and then it clicked open. Hines stood and PFC Sherman walked in, followed by Mr. and Mrs. Cates, Justice Stevens and the rest of the panel of five.

  “We were told we’d find you here, Mr. Hines.” Commander Cates said, her voice frosty.

  “Yes. What can I do for you?” he asked, puzzled at her frown and the looks he was getting from the others.

  Blake started to sweat. The entire panel was there, and four out of five looked pissed off.

  “What were you discussing?” Justice Stevens asked, “We weren’t supposed to be discussing anything with the prisoners.”

  “Oh, I wasn’t. I was finding out how the Homestead worked. The basics. The cities are going to shit… Ooops, pardon my language, and something Blake said in the meeting made me think that perhaps we should be rebuilding in the suburbs or even small towns. It’ll put people further apart, but I don’t think keeping people in a concrete jungle is going to be the solution.”

  “Oh, so you weren’t talking to him about the decision?” Commander Cates asked.

  “Wait, you already made a decision? When?” Martin asked his wife, the shock evident on his face...

  “This morning at breakfast. We just got word from the President, and he has accepted our findings and told us to proceed. The thing with Davis delayed proceedings. We just got out of communications.” Miranda Cates answered.

  Sandra put her hands through the bars, taking Blake’s.

  “Director Hines, you want to tell them?” Cates asked.

  Martin shot his wife a look that conveyed how betrayed he felt.

  Franklin Hines nodded, “Sure. You two were convicted of all charges,” he said looking at Blake and Sandra.

  8

  “Duncan, you sit down!” Lisa berated her husband.

  It had been two days of thunderous silence since Blake’s last transmission, and everyone had feared the worst. The volunteers and military personal, former and present, were packed and were going to leave in a convoy the following morning. Duncan had insisted on getting out of the house to help, but he was still weak and both Lisa and Martha had feared the stress and anxiety was going to be the literal death of him.

  “I’m going, just help me get my shoes on,” he said, his face bathed in sweat.

  His chest was hurting again, but he hadn’t wanted to say anything. If it was to be his last day on earth, he wanted a moment to say goodbye to the group of volunteers and families that had thrown in with them through thick and thin.

  “We can get him to the porch swing,” Martha said, trying to placate him.

  “That’ll be fine for me,” Duncan said, chafing at the rest.

  “Uhhh… Guys?” David said, pulling the headphones off, “tell everybody to turn on Rebel Radio, five minutes.”

  “Who was it?” Lisa asked, one shoulder under Duncan’s, as she’d been trying to guide him back to a chair.

  “Pamela Wisemer, assistant to the Governor. She said all units at the Homestead, and from Silverman’s camp especially, to tune in.”

  “I don’t know if I can listen to this,” Duncan said, his legs going rubbery.

  They barely got him into the recliner and Lisa saw the gray pallor and ran for the nitro pills they’d found in numerous scavenging trips. It wasn’t far, just high up on a shelf in the kitchen where Chris couldn’t get it.

  “They also said,” Patty told them, “That you’ll be hearing from Blake and Sandra.”

  Lisa gave Duncan the nitro and almost immediately it started working as he left it under his tongue. It did nothing to quell the anxiety.

  “Did you hear…” Sgt. Smith burst in, the front door almost rebounding back into his face, he’d come in so hard and so fast.

&
nbsp; Lisa spun on him and if looks could kill, the Sargent would be worm food, perhaps even roadkill fed as worm food.

  “Sit still, and breathe,” Lisa told him, watching the color coming back into his face.

  “Get Chris,” Duncan said, “one way or another…”

  “I’ll go get him,” Bobby said, running out the door, leaving it hanging open.

  “Are you ok?” Lisa asked, kneeling by Duncan’s side.

  “Yeah, it was close. I think the stress has been getting to me,” Duncan admitted.

  “One way or another…” Lisa said, but she couldn’t continue, she was choking up.

  “Hey, here it comes,” David said, taking the headphones off and unplugging them, letting the speakers fill the room.

  Bobby burst back I the door, carrying a giggling Chris upside down and performed a wrestling move on the couch, bouncing the now laughing boy. They were in time, and once again R.E.M.’s iconic song started to play.

  “Do you think…?” Duncan asked the room.

  “I’m worried,” Lisa said, sitting on the floor in front of her husband.

  Chris climbed up into Bobby’s lap, while Bobby whispered that they’d be hearing about his parents. Patty took her headphones off, got up and walked towards the kitchen, stretching. She could hear everything well, but she wanted to stand in the doorway and let Sgt. Smith have a place to sit. He walked in and took a seat just as the song was ending.

  “Good afternoon everybody, this is Back Country J, Blake Jackson for another addition of Rebel Radio!”

  Everybody looked at each other, eyes wide.

  “If you won’t tell them, I will. Quit playing,” Sandra’s voice said, her tone playful.

  “Ok, ok. Sorry! Anyways,” Blake said before going on, his voice crystal clear over the radio, “This isn’t your usual Rebel Radio broadcast, obviously. I needed to fill people in, and do so in a quick manner so once things were worked out. This seemed the quickest way, so please bear with me. A trial, or hearing of sorts, took place. I took responsibility for my actions and Sandra and myself were found Guilty. Wait! Don’t have heart attack Duncan, it’s good news!”