The Ranch

by Sean Liscom

  “It’s eight o’clock, there’s no way in hell I’m flying home tonight. Can I use your radio?” he finally said.

  “Yeah,” I rolled my chair out of the way to make room for him. He stood and moved to the radio. Picking up the mic, he dialed in the frequency and spoke.

  “Shadow, Luna, copy?”

  “Luna, we copy. Sierra, Delta, one, one, niner.”

  “Shadow. X-ray, Whiskey, two, seven, six,” he said.

  “Confirm, Luna. What’s the word?” the man on the other end asked.

  “Situation is; Broadsword. I say again, Broadsword.”

  “Copy that, Luna. Broadsword, effective immediately.”

  “Luna, out,” he signed off and replaced the mic on the desk. Turning to face me and Jill, our eyes locked.

  “What was all that?” I asked.

  “Code. You should try it sometime. Don’t assume that your encrypted comm’s are secure.”

  “If you don’t mind my asking, who was that and what did you tell them?”

  “That was Ambrose and I told them to lock it down. Bring in the patrols, the farmers, the ranchers.... Everyone. I imagine that the town of Ambrose is a frenzy of orchestrated chaos right now.”

  “Does that mean you believe what I told you?”

  “It means; I ain’t takin no chances. It also means that I think your pop is one twisted dude, no offense.”

  “None taken.”

  “Good. Now, let’s get to the meat of the matter,” he took his seat across from the desk again. “You said it yourself; you got too many people here. I need a few hands, not many, but a few. We can house two of your team’s, but I also need a ranch leader. You got anyone that can fit that bill?”

  “I thought you were the leader. What am I missing?” I asked, confused.

  “I’m the guy in charge of the ranch military, and I was the guy in charge of building the place. I need a civilian leader. I need someone who can oversee the day to day operations and keep the place running. I need a bean counter,” he replied.

  “I, uh…. I’m not sure who we have.... Let me ask around and see if I can get someone to volunteer,” I stammered.

  “If you want to send some of your people up to my place, make it happen. It’s got to be someone from here. What about your current operations guy? What was his name, Dan?” both of us looked to the door when it opened. Bill walked in and I could tell by the look on his face, he wasn’t bringing good news.

  “Two things, Jason, the only regional leader willing to meet is Governor Calvert. Everyone else is telling me they are too busy battening down the hatches,” he announced.

  “Damn!” I muttered, shaking my head. “Don’t they realize the only way we’re going to get through this is together?”

  “I told ‘em that but nobody wants to listen. They’re all worried about their own little kingdoms. That’s not the worst of it though. A lot of the military units that were ordered back to the Texas line, they’ve gone dark.”

  “What?” I asked.

  “They’ve shut their comm’s down and they’re operating on their own. At least, that’s what I’d do,” Tyler commented.

  “Why would they do that? What are they hoping to accomplish?” Jill asked from across the room. He turned to look at her.

  “Texas and the vice-president are only trying to cover their own asses and they want to use the military to do that. My guess; those guys are gathering up family and friends, regrouping, and heading for the hills. They’ve told the VP to pound sand and they are planning on taking care of their own.”

  “They’ve gone AWOL?”

  “Jill, I’m surprised the government was able to rally as many troops as they did after the EMP. If I had to guess, they were probably the guys and gals that knew their families were safe or they didn’t have any family. It's different this time, this threat will be the deathblow to any form of government, Texas or east coast, doesn’t matter. The troops know that, and they are trying to stack odds in their favor.”

  “And what happens if this doesn’t play out?” she asked.

  “In that case, they will filter back in, just like they did last time. That’s why it took so long for the governments to get their shit together. If this blows over, the troops will begin to return claiming bad communications or some such thing. Even then, you won’t see them in the numbers you’ve seen recently. A lot of ‘em will decide that there are more important things, like their families and friends.”

  “More than likely, they ain’t takin too kindly to the VP telling them he and the state are more important. These people have sacrificed a lot, in some cases, everything to wear the uniform. Some of ‘em are gonna draw the line here, now. It’s what I’d do in their shoes,” Tyler said. I looked to Bill.

  “Any word on Major Jackson?”

  “Nothing. I haven’t heard from him. My radio calls have gone unanswered,” he informed me.

  “You said you had two things for me?”

  “Yeah, I talked to President Dixon a couple of hours ago. I briefed her on the situation going on in Austin.”

  “I didn’t even know she was awake. How’d she handle the news?”

  “She’s been awake for several hours now but didn’t want to be bothered. You know me though,” he grinned slightly. “She’s not taking it well, at all.”

  “When’s Doc going to clear her? I’d like to speak to her.”

  “He’s already cleared her. Said she’s got a concussion but none of the damage should be permanent. There was a quiet knock at the door that caused all of us to exchange glances.

  “Enter,” I said loudly. The door slowly opened and Jane Dixon, the President of the United States stepped into the room and closed the door behind her. Her head was wrapped in a white bandage and both of her eyes were black and blue. She was dressed in combat fatigues that had been loaned to her. The clothes she’d been wearing the night before were probably having the blood cleaned out of them. She looked a little confused by the presence of Tyler.

  “Madame President,” Tyler and I said in unison and stood from our chairs. She waved at both of us dismissively and sat in a chair next to Jill.

  “Bill told me what happened, what you did, Jason. I owe you my life. Thank you,” she began.

  “Ma’am, I….” she waved me silent and continued.

  “He’s also told me what’s happening in Austin. I should say that I’m not surprised, not really anyway. It won’t matter now if those missiles deliver their payload or not. The chaos and fear the VP has caused will do irreparable damage to our fledgling government. Our military forces are going to ground, the people in the safe areas will panic and all trust will be lost in everything I built.”

  “I can only imagine the east coast government is running into the same issues. If they haven’t lost all control by now, it won’t be long. This won’t be something that plays out here alone, as panic spreads, governments around the globe will be totally powerless to stop it. Hell, most of them are inept at keeping their shit together on a daily basis anyway.”

  “We’ve pulled it together before, Jane. We can do it again,” I said.

  “This ranch? Ambrose? Sure, I have no doubt you can make the hard decisions and keep it together. The rest of the world? Your optimism is mis-placed. Your faith in people is mis-placed, Jason. As was mine,” the resignation in her voice was heartbreaking.

  “Have a little faith, Jane. Some days that’s all we have to go on and other days it feels like it’s not enough. It always works out though,” I slipped from behind the desk to fetch her a cup of coffee. I returned with the full mug, handed it to her and took my seat again. “Remember what I said about the coffee?”

  “Yeah,” she admitted.

  “We’ve got plenty,” I smiled. “Governments rise and fall, always have. Civilizations are the same way. None of them can escape the ebb and flow of time. We’ll come out of this too. Pandemic or not, we’ll rise to the occasion. I can promise you that much.”

&
nbsp; “Look at you! Getting all philosophical on me. Face it, it’s over. The dream is dead....” the way she said it triggered me like pulling the trigger on a gun. It felt like she was conceding defeat for all of us. I wasn’t ready to give up! I went from calm and ready to have a conversation to pissed-off in about a half second.

  “Not to be rude, Jane. As of now, you’re acting like a schoolgirl who’s just been dumped by her prom date, at the prom. I don’t mean to offend you, ma’am, but you’re the President of the United States. Get your shit together and start doing something other than feeling sorry for yourself,” I paused when she looked up at me.

  “I didn’t save you so that you could just give up! None of us get that luxury. So, do us all a favor, pull your big girl panties up, suck it up and do something, anything! You’re still breathing so I know there’s some fight left in there, USE IT!” I barked. Everyone else in the room was staring at me like I’d lost my mind.

  “How dare you! How dare you speak....” she started. I was becoming angrier with every word that exited her mouth.

  “NO! How dare you, madame President! You got betrayed last night. Greg was an instant from blowing your brains all over the wall! If I’d have known you were going to simply give up, I might have let him. It would have saved me from getting shot! You don’t get to check out! You don’t get to say the hell with it!” by now I was standing. I’m pretty sure that little vein was sticking out on my forehead.

  “You talked a big game the other day at my kitchen table! You talked a big game when things were going your way! Well, guess what; this is what it’s like out here! Every damn day we have to fight for what we have, EVERYTHING! Some of us have already given everything and those of us still standing, we’ll give every last breath in our lungs and every beat of our hearts to make sure someone survives! Don’t you dare sit in MY security office feeling sorry for yourself!” she had broken eye contact and seemed to shrink before my eyes.

  “That’s enough, Jason,” Tyler said calmly from his chair.

  “You shut the hell up, I’m not even close to being finished! I’ll get to you in a minute!” I returned my verbal assault to the President. “We’re facing the possibility of an existential threat and here you are, in my office crying me a sob story about how this is the end! Let me tell you something; I’m not going out like that! I’m going out with my boots firmly planted on the ground doing everything I can so that others may live!”

  “And you,” I pointed my finger at Tyler. “I’m so sick and tired of all this cloak and dagger bullshit! For shit’s sake, we’re on the same team, Tyler! I just got done telling you everything I knew about Jack’s plan, but I know NOTHING about you OR Ambrose! You come in here, into my ranch, like you own the place. Well, I ain’t havin it! You make remarks about my wife and my sister, probably because you thought it might rattle my cage, right?”

  “I’m pretty damn sure that either of those women could beat the holy shit out of you! Even if one is pregnant and the others got a broken arm! It DIDN’T rattle my cage because I knew what you were doing! You suck at the swagger game! Now, if you want to come to an agreement on the parts that our ranches can play to get us through this, I’m ready to listen. If you just want to talk more shit, I’ll personally show you to your plane!” by now, Jill was on her feet and so was Tyler.

  “You need to ease up before you say something you’ll regret,” he said, taking a step closer to me.

  “Are you for real?” Are you seriously threatening me? Here?” I squared up to face him directly.

  “It’s not a threat if I can back it….” when he poked me in the chest, I snapped. He used his left hand to poke me and I grabbed his wrist with my right hand, giving it a sharp outward twist. At the same time, I stepped forward, my left-hand shooting to his neck. I drove him backwards into his chair and followed him to the floor when the chair flipped onto its back.

  When he slammed into the floor, I heard the air leave his lungs. I went to my knees and trapped his left hand under them. With my right hand now free, I reached for my sidearm. When my hand closed on the grip of the .45, another hand closed over the top of mine keeping me from drawing. Tyler’s eyes shifted from mine to something behind me. That’s when I heard Jill’s soft voice. It was she who had kept my gun in its holster.

  “Jason,” her voice was like a sirens call bringing me back to reality. “Let him go, Jason. Please. C’mon, babe. Please,” when my hand began to relax on the grip of my gun, I felt her grip relax a little. I opened my hand all the way and I felt her hand leave mine. “Let him go, please.”

  I stared into Tyler’s eyes for a moment before I released my grip on his throat. He made no move to retaliate or move. I felt Jill’s hand slip under my arm. She gently pulled me backwards. I stood, never breaking eye contact with the man I’d just thrown to the floor. Even after taking a couple of steps away, our eyes were still locked.

  His eyes were replaced with Jill’s when she stepped in front of me. She placed both of her hands on my chest. With gentle pressure she pushed me back toward the door. She didn’t stop until we were on the deck and she’d pulled the door closed.

  “Hey....” she put her hands on either side of my face. “What’s going on babe? Talk to me, please.”

  “I….” my voice faltered. As the adrenalin fled my body, I suddenly began to feel my knees go weak. My hands were trembling as was my whole body.

  “C’mon, babe. Stand down. Let it go,” she whispered. Standing on her toes, she pulled my face to hers. “You haven’t slept in days. Two that I know of. You’re like Atlas right now, you’ve got the weight of the world on your shoulders. And like Atlas, you need to shrug it off. You can’t save any of us if you don’t save yourself first.”

  “I’m so tired, Jill. I don’t know what came over me in there. I don’t lose my cool like that.”

  “It’s okay. Let it go. Take a deep breath and let it go.”

  “It’s not okay. I think I just screwed the pooch….” I stopped when the door opened behind her. Tyler stepped onto the deck and stopped behind Jill. She stayed right where she was, her full attention on me.

  “Ma’am. May I have a word with your husband?” he asked politely. She stared into my soul for a moment before she stepped to the side. “Thank you, ma’am.”

  “Tyler, I,” he held his hand up.

  “I don’t require an apology, Colonel.”

  “But....”

  “You don’t owe me an apology because you were right. I came here wanting to see what kind of man you were. I deliberately made an ass out of myself, I wanted to get under your skin. To rattle your cage, as you said. I wanted to learn about what kind of man wanted to share my foxhole.”

  “And?”

  “You play it cool. There’s no doubt about who’s in charge around here. Your people are very well disciplined, and you’ll only take so much crap before you shove back. When you’ve had enough, you shove hard enough to end it, on the spot. I also gotta tell ya; you’re pretty damn fast for a big guy,” he smiled when he said it.

  “Besides, you reamed the President a new asshole. That, in and of itself, earned you a lot of brownie points. Anybody that can and will challenge authority is aces in my book.”

  “So, now what?” I asked.

  “I heard what your wife said about not sleeping in the last few days. If it’s alright with you, I’d like to crash on your couch tonight. You can get some much-needed rest and then we can have a conversation in the morning as to what our plans are. Sound good?” not knowing what to say, I simply nodded. Movement behind him caught my eye. It was Jane. She also stepped into the deck, standing next to Tyler.

  “Looks like I owe you a pair of thanks, Jason. As Tyler said, you were right about a number of things. I was ready to go find that farm and cow, maybe even a horse. I can’t walk away though. I have to see this through to its end, whatever that end may be,” she said. “You’ve got a hell of a way of delivering your point, maybe work on the pitch a littl
e, but I got what you were saying.”

  “Ma’am, I didn’t mean to yell at you....” I began sheepishly.

  “You were right to do it, Jason. I needed it. Now, go get some rest and we’ll all sit down in the morning and see what we can do about our predicament. I’m sure all of us could use a decent night’s sleep and some of Megan’s fine cooking in the morning.”

  “Alright,” I muttered and turned away. Jill slipped in beside me and took my hand in hers. Instead of heading toward the house, she directed me toward medical. I looked at her with questions in my eyes.

  “We’re gonna stop by and see Sam. I’m gonna have her give you something so you can sleep. I know you all too well,” she smiled and kept walking.

  CHAPTER 25

  Tuesday, September 6th, 2017

  The ARK.

  T-Minus 8 hours until launch.

  Melissa slowly began to remember where she was. There was no surprise that it wasn’t a dream, rather, a nightmare. Her head was laying on her arms on the desk next to the laptop she’d been working on. A half dollar size puddle of drool had formed between her arms. Her eyes focused on the flashing red light on the side of the laptop. She knew the battery was low, but she had dozed off before she could plug it in.

  She slowly raised her head and instantly regretted it. Every muscle from the base of her skull to her tailbone protested with sharp pains. Letting out a soft groan, she forced herself into the sitting position. She wiped the puddle from the desk with her shirt sleeve and looked around, as if to see who in the empty room had noticed. Slowly standing, she began to try and work the kinks out from the awkward sleeping position.

  A quick check of her watch told her it was just after six in the morning. The last time she remembered looking at the time, it was a quarter till 2. Four hours was better than nothing she thought, continuing to stretch. Once satisfied her spine wasn’t going to snap, she picked up the laptop and set out to find a power cord for it.

  After rifling through several of the desks, she found what she was looking for. She plugged the laptop in and stretched a couple more times. The main monitors at the front of the room were still showing live video from each of the twenty doomsday ships. Fourteen of them were already on station. Of the other six, the longest wait would be eight hours until it too was in position.