Desperate Times

by Nicholas Antinozzi

  Jimmy turned and walked back in the direction he’d come, his head feeling as if it would split with the pressure he’d put on his brain. This is going to be a long day, Jimmy thought to himself.

  Had Jimmy known that Paula and her family were actually at Bear Lake Campground, he would’ve left immediately. They had made it that far, only to be turned back by the militia. Stanley had foolishly tried to buy his way past the guards. They took his money and turned them away. Their family home had been looted and set afire along with the other graceful old estates in the area. Paula had pleaded with her father to take them up to Jimmy. She reasoned that they would be safe there. Stanley Peterson was a broken man by that point, and he readily gave in to Paula’s suggestion. He knew that they had to get out of the city.

  Stanley had bought them safe passage to Duluth in the back of a National Guard supply truck. He’d paid fifty thousand dollars cash to the driver who smuggled them north with a load of ammunition. Riding in the back of the truck was a completely foreign experience for all of them. The road was rough, and the ride was terribly uncomfortable. From there, they’d gotten a lift to Virginia from an old couple in a station wagon. That had cost Stanley another ten thousand. The highway was strewn with abandoned vehicles, many of them were burned. There was no sign of law and order. The highway leading from Virginia to Ely approximately fifty miles to the north was blocked by two smoldering tractor trailers. The old couple dropped them off there and bid them farewell.

  Stanley, his wife, Mary, Paula, and Carl walked the highway in the afternoon sun. They were ill prepared for this type of travel and ate what little food they carried in their pockets. From time to time a gunshot or two echoed in the distance. Others passed them, some on bicycles, all heading in the same direction. They took that as a good sign. They walked for two days.

  And now they were huddled together under a pine tree on the far end of the campground. They were tired, starving and had no idea what to do. The campground had boiled over on many occasions, and they’d witnessed dozens of fights among the desperate travelers. Many of the fights were over food. They overheard rumors of an assault on the militia. They heard other rumors that the militia was readying itself for an attack on the campground. Children cried. Paula cried. They had nothing but the clothes on their backs, and there was no one there to help them. Stanley followed a group to the dumpster where they tossed it on its side and scavenged its contents. He came away with half a loaf of bread, the edges green with mold. He stuffed it under his ragged white shirt and nearly ran back to join the others. They hungrily ate the bread, tearing off the mold and discarding it in the bushes.

  This was a landmark moment for the Peterson family—the end of Camelot.

  Thirteen

  Executive Order 10998: All food resources, farms and farm equipment, shall be immediately seized to prevent hoarding.

  Julie was furious. She sat red faced on Cindy’s bed upstairs, the two of them alone, Jimmy standing at the window and looking out over the wall. He sat next to her and tried to put his arm around her shoulder. She shrugged it off.

  “That’s the stupidest idea I’ve ever heard,” she said, tears running down her cheeks. “You don’t even know if she’s there!”

  “I have to find out,” Jimmy said, knowing how foolish that sounded.

  “What about me?” Julie asked. “Am I supposed to just wait here for you? I can’t, Jimmy. I have to go with you. It’s too dangerous for you to go alone. I won’t. I love you, and I’m not staying behind!”

  Jimmy wasn’t ready for that. He had never even considered that she’d ask to go along.

  “I’m sorry, Julie. I have to do this alone.”

  “The hell you do! What, do you think I’ll hold you back? That I’ll be a burden? Listen up, buster. I’m in good shape, damn good shape, and I’m going with you. End of story!”

  “You can’t. Not in your condition.”

  Julie’s eyes bugged out of her head. What the hell is that supposed to mean? Don’t you think I’m stable? Am I acting crazy? No, Jimmy, you’re the one who is acting unstable!”

  “I don’t mean it that way,” Jimmy said uneasily. He closed his eyes and finished. “I mean… you’re pregnant.”

  Julie looked as if she’d just been slapped. She stood up, walked halfway out the door and turned on Jimmy. “What?” she asked, her face wild with disbelief.

  “Brenda told Patty. She found the pregnancy test in the bathroom, Julie. It was positive. Patty told me. I’ve known for a week.”

  “And you believed it?” Julie asked him, the scorn thick in her voice. “You couldn’t ask me yourself?”

  “What was I going to say? How could I ask that? I was waiting for you to tell me.”

  “That’s great, Jimmy, just great. Well, chew on this. Brenda doesn’t know what she’s talking about. The test belonged to Amy Whitehouse. She’s pregnant, Jimmy, not me. She didn’t want to be alone when she took the test. I’ll bet that’s a huge relief, huh?”

  Jimmy winced with the sarcastic tone of her voice. “I’m sorry,” he said.

  “You’d damn well better be. And the next time anyone gossips about me, could you at least have the decency to ask me about it yourself?”

  Jimmy nodded.

  “And I am going with you. Make no mistake about that. I’m going to stick to you like glue, Jimmy. Just like glue.”

  Again Jimmy nodded. Now he was sure his brain would explode. And his day had barely begun.

  “Take a deep breath… hold it… now squeeze.”

  The Colt jumped in his hands and the gunshot echoed through the woods. Jimmy was disappointed to see that the coffee can still hadn’t moved.

  “Okay, you’re getting better,” Jon said, taking the gun from Jimmy and sighting down the short barrel.

  “Right,” said Jimmy. “I couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn.”

  “Sure you could, as long as it wasn’t moving,” Jon said with a grin. You’re flinching when you pull the trigger. A lot of people do that when they’re learning to shoot.”

  Jon raised the gun and fired it three times quickly. The can tumbled into the brush, accelerating as each shot hit home. Jimmy wished he could shoot like that. He knew there was no chance of that happening. Still, he’d learned quite a bit over the past hour. Jon had been patient, teaching him the basics about the .38 and some safety rules. He taught Jimmy how to put in a fresh magazine and even how to reload one with new rounds. That had been easy enough.

  Now if he could only shoot the darn thing.

  The sun was high in a day that was slightly overcast. A breeze rattled the green leaves of the birch trees. Chipmunks, oblivious to the gunfire, raced along the lawn looking for mischief. The women were in the kitchen preparing lunch. Jimmy planned on eating and taking a long nap. He had his things ready and would leave at dusk. True to her word, Julie was watching his every move. There would be no leaving her behind. Jimmy tried to shake how awkward that made him feel. The group had been split in their opinion of Jimmy’s decision to go to Ely. Jon had flat-out vetoed Jimmy when he’d brought it up; so had Rita. In the end they could see from the look in his eyes that there was no stopping him.

  Jon replaced the target, this time using a square of plywood the size of a trash can. He leaned it up against a tree where the coffee can had been.

  This is embarrassing, thought Jimmy.

  Cindy hollered from the house, and at first Jimmy thought that she was calling them in for lunch. He turned and could see that this wasn’t the case.

  “They’re at the front gate! All of them!” she cried.

  Jon picked up his shotgun and raced Jimmy to the front of the house. Most of their group was standing there, unarmed, unsure of what to do. Brian Sandberg stood next to the gate heatedly conversing with someone from the other side.

  “What’s going on?” Jimmy asked Julie who stood next to Sandberg.

  “They want our food—all of it. They say we’d better give it to them. Can yo
u believe it?”

  “Hold it!” shouted Sandberg through the fence. “Jimmy, Jon. This is the situation,” Sandberg said. He was a young, professional looking man in his early thirties. His blond hair cut Harvard style, his face pink from the day’s meager sunshine. “They want to trade us for our food.”

  “What do they have to trade?” asked Jon.

  “I don’t know,” Sandberg said. “They won’t say. This guy on the other side keeps telling me that we’d better open up, that things will be bad if we don’t.”

  “Bad?” asked Jimmy. “What the hell does he mean?”

  Outside the wall he could hear many voices. They sounded anxious, quietly talking among themselves. A few of the men were laughing as if they knew something was about to happen. Jimmy didn’t like the sound of the laughter.

  Jon was already scrambling up the walkway on the side of the wall. He poked his head over the top and surveyed the scene below.

  Jimmy squinted in the bright sunshine. “Well?” he asked. “What do you see?”

  “Oh, shit.” said Jon, taking another look before descending the walkway.

  Jimmy didn’t like the sound of that. What he heard next made his skin crawl.

  “Jimmy!” screamed Bill from the other side of the fence. “Help me, Jimmy! Oh, God, help me!”

  Jimmy turned to Jon. His face was ashen, and he was breathing hard as if he’d been winded by what he’d witnessed. “What the hell is going on out there?” he asked. “Tell me!”

  Jon looked down at the ground and kicked at a clod of dirt. “They’ve got Bill. He’s tied to a tree out there. I can smell gasoline. They’ve got him standing up to his waist in dead branches. My God, it looks like they’re going to burn him alive!”

  “Dad!” screamed Cindy. “Daddy!”

  Rita ran to Cindy and held her close. They fell to the ground. Cindy was racked with sobs.

  Jimmy wanted to scream. He didn’t believe they’d do such a thing. This had to be an empty threat.

  Didn’t it? Jimmy wasn’t sure. He knew how he felt after spending a lot of time with Bill. He thought about that. They just might do it. They knew his daughter was on their side of the wall. That would give them leverage. They had nothing to lose.

  “What do you want?” asked Jon between the gates.

  “Food!” replied a gruff, man’s voice. “All of it! Give it to us, and you can have that one back. If you don’t, we’ll roast him like a pig!”

  “Give us a minute,” said Jon.

  “Jimmy!” screamed Bill again. “Please! Give them what they want!”

  “We’ll burn him!” shouted the voice behind the gate.

  “You’ll be dead before he is,” Jon shouted back. “Now give us a minute!”

  “One minute, that’s what you have. We’re hungry out here.”

  “What can we do?” asked Julie, her eyes wild with fear. “We can’t let them burn him alive.”

  “No, we can’t,” agreed Jon, looking at Cindy who was still on her knees crying inconsolably.

  “We can’t give them all of our food,” Sandberg said. “What the hell will we eat?”

  “No, we’re not going to give it all to them,” agreed Jon. “But we do have to give them something. If we give them what’s in the shed that should satisfy them. There’s enough out there to feed them for a while. We’d still have what’s in the freezer and in the basement. Ken has cases of canned foods down there. We could survive.”

  “They’ll be back,” said Jimmy.

  “No,” whispered Jon. “This is an act of war. We’ll let them settle in for a few days, and then we’ll take the offensive. It’s the only way.”

  “What?”

  “Just play along with me. Let’s get that blubbering fool out of there before they put a match to him. After that we’ll come up with a plan to deal with them.”

  Jimmy nodded, Julie clinging to his shoulder. Sandberg shrugged. The others stood a safe distance from the gate as if they feared it would fall over. They looked frightened and angry at the same time. Jimmy could see that Jon wasn’t going to have trouble selling his plan of retaliation. They’d follow him no matter where he took them.

  “Okay,” said Jon to the gate. “We’ll give you the food. I’m going to cover Bill. If anyone comes close to him, they’re dead. Do you understand me?”

  “Whatever,” answered the voice with a touch of amusement. “Open the gate!”

  “Not so fast,” said Jon. “Here’s how we’re going to do this. You guys back off. Send in your women, and they can load up. That’s the deal. You can have everything in the shed. That’s all you’re taking. There’s a lot of food out there.”

  “We want it all,” growled the voice.

  “Then I’ll start shooting. I’ve got an M-16 with a banana clip and it’s fully automatic. I’ll bet I can kill half of you in five seconds. Do you want to risk that? No, you’re not getting it all.”

  Jon turned to Jimmy and winked.

  “Hold on,” answered the voice. “Let me talk to my people.”

  Jimmy held his breath. He could hear shouts of protest outside the gate, and they suddenly went quiet. One of their own was probably telling them about Jon. He just might have that gun, and he would certainly know how to use it. The voices were low, plotting no doubt, planning a similar event for when they began to run out of food again. Jimmy knew Jon was right. They would have to strike first.

  “Okay,” the voice shouted. “We’ll send in the women. They’ll take everything from the shed. Don’t any of you even talk to them; do you got that? Just give them room to do their business. When they’re finished, you can have the fat one back. You can have them all back.”

  “That’s just great,” answered Jon without much enthusiasm. “All right. I’m going to be watching. If anyone tries anything, I’m going to start shooting. My first bullet will be for you, I promise that.”

  “Oh, shut up, will ya?” answered the voice. “Save that shit for someone who cares.”

  Jon’s face reddened as he turned to face Jimmy. One of Ken’s hunting rifles was leaning at the gate, and Jon hefted it. He then climbed up onto the walkway, poking his head over the top. “Back off!” he shouted down to the crowd.

  There were two of them; they rode an ATV pulling a trailer up to the gate. Brenda was driving. Riding on the back was someone who could’ve been her twin sister. Brenda held a beer and smiled wide as she pulled the ATV to within ten feet of the gate.

  Jon nodded down to the men below, and they pulled out the timber lock and heaved the doors open. Brenda roared through the gate, driving one-handed, holding her beer high as she entered. The crowd outside the gate cheered. Jimmy looked at her with disgust. Julie turned away, unable to hide her shame. The gate was closed and the timber replaced.

  Brian and Jill Sandberg followed the ATV up to the shed. The rest of the group waited for what seemed like an eternity. The crowd outside was starting to get restless as the ATV roared back to life. Brenda and her new friend hooted and hollered their way back to the gate. They had cleaned out the shed, the trailer brimming with their ill-gotten gains. Jimmy couldn’t watch.

  Julie walked up to Brenda as the gate was opened. “Why?” she asked. “How could you do this to us?”

  Brenda laughed. “I’m just goin’ with the flow. That’s all, Julie, just goin’ with the flow.”

  Bill was first through the gate. He looked frightened, Jimmy thought, as if he’d aged a decade since this morning. He was followed by the Donnellys and the Putnams who definitely looked humbled. The entire group, minus Brenda, followed them inside the gate. They carried tents and sleeping bags, their loads considerably lighter, but their hearts obviously heavier. The crowd had gone, returning to Sally’s to revel in their catch. The gate was closed, and there was an uncomfortable silence.

  Finally, it was Bill who broke the spell. “So, what’s for lunch?” he asked, rubbing his belly. “I’m starving.”

  Jon’s face said it all, and the ch
uckling began. Julie snorted, and the group erupted into laughter. Bill began to laugh too, but it was clear that he had no clue why.

  The laughter died away, and there was more silence. The group began to move slowly toward the back yard. Jon, Jimmy, and Julie stayed behind at the gate. When the group was safely out of earshot, Jon climbed down the walkway and joined them.

  “Well,” Jimmy said. “What do we do now?”

  “There’s nothing we can do,” said Jon, standing the rifle next to the gate. “We couldn’t turn them away.”

  “No, we couldn’t,” agreed Julie.

  “We’re going to have to start hunting,” said Jon. “We’re going to have to supplement our food supply with fresh game.”

  “What about them?” Jimmy asked, hooking a thumb in Sally’s direction.

  “We’ll settle up with them,” said Jon, his face cold as stone. “If we don’t make a stand, they’ll be back in a few days for the rest of our food and whatever else they want. You can take that to the bank.”

  Julie stood behind Jimmy, her arms wrapped around his waist. She began to chortle.

  “What?” asked Jimmy, over his shoulder.

  “Take it to the bank,” she said laughing. “Isn’t that what got us into this mess?”

  “Listen!” Jon said, holding up his hands and cocking his head.

  Julie stifled her laughter, and the sound became clearer. A vehicle was heading up their road. It was moving slowly and came to a halt just outside the gate. Jimmy followed Jon up the walkway, and they looked over the top. A van was out there and men were getting out. Jimmy swallowed hard; they looked like hard men, and they were all armed to the teeth.