Cry Havoc

by A. American

  “Daniel, let’s me and you go in and see if we can get some fuel,” Bob said. “Gene, you guys watch the van.” Before getting out, Bob pulled four hundred dollar bills from the envelope Gene had given him and tucked them into his pocket. Then he put the envelope into the glove box.

  “I’m coming too,” Christy said as she pulled the side door open.

  She came around the driver’s side and gripped Daniel’s hand. He leaned over and kissed her on the head and smiled. Bob walked stiffly towards the store, the people there parting as they approached, offering a nod as a greeting. Bob smiled and nodded back as they went into the store.

  Behind the counter was a middle-aged man of Indian or Pakistani descent. He sat on a stool talking to a man across the counter. He looked up as they came in.

  “Morning,” Bob said. The man nodded in reply as the other half of his conversation stepped aside. “You have any diesel fuel?”

  With a hint of an accent, he replied. “Cash money only. Ten dollars a gallon.”

  Christy pointed towards the sign out in front of the store. “But the sign says….” Daniel pushed her arm down. She looked at him and could see in his eyes he was telling her to hush.

  Bob pulled just enough cash out of his back pocket to pay for the gas, being careful not to expose just how much money he actually had on him. “Can he go out and fill up while I wait here to pay you?”

  The man behind the counter leaned forward and looked at the bills. Holding out a hand, he said. “Let me see one of those?” Bob slipped a crisp one-hundred-dollar bill out and handed it over. The man held it up to the light and inspected it. Satisfied, he looked at it and nodded. “Go fill up.”

  Christy said she was going to look around the store as Daniel headed out the door. Daniel quickly went to the van and stuck the nozzle in and got the fuel flowing. As the pump filled the van, an older man in overalls and a plaid shirt walked up. Pushing his Redman hat high up on his head, he said, “That’s a heck of a rig.”

  Daniel smiled at him. “Thanks.” He looked at the van. It certainly looked a lot different. “We were stuck in Atlanta and had to make some modifications.”

  The old man laughed, wiping at his nose as he did. “I’d say so. Looks like something out of a movie.” After looking the van over, he asked, “Where you folks headed?”

  “West,” Daniel replied, trying not to offer too much.

  The old man nodded. “I hear west is good. Hear there’s places out there where the power is still on.”

  Daniel kicked the pump. “How do you guys have power here?”

  The man spat at the ground. “This is the only place in town with any power. Ole’ Hajji there, that’s what we calls him, has a big generator. It’s nice to have a place with some power. Someplace you can go that seems normal.”

  Daniel smiled. “Yeah. Someplace normal would be nice.”

  The old man shook his head. “I just wish these damn politicians would get their heads out of their asses!”

  “Ain’t that the truth.” Daniel then had an idea. “Have you seen any military trucks?”

  “Military trucks? No, ain’t seen no military trucks. Why, have you?”

  “We saw some last night. Big line of them. Was just curious if they came through here.”

  The old man laughed. “Why in the world would the military come to Newton? Nobody comes to Newton. Lots of people leave Newton though. I was born and raised here. Lived my whole life here.”

  The nozzle clicked and Daniel looked at the pump. The van took thirty-two gallons. As he was reaching to turn the pump off, his hand was slapped away. He looked up at Gene.

  “Let’s refill this drum too while we can,” Gene said. He had the empty blue drum waiting with the lid off.

  “How long have you been there?” Daniel asked.

  The corners of Gene’s mustache rose up. “The whole time.”

  “What are you, some kind of chubby ninja?”

  Gene shrugged. “Call me what you want. You didn’t know I was here.” Gene grabbed the nozzle out of his hand and filled the drum before hanging it up.

  The old man watched and finally asked, “Hard to find fuel?”

  Tipping the drum over slightly, Gene started to roll it to the back of the van. “There’s none. No one has power, so we take it where we find it.”

  The old man nodded and stepped aside as Gene and Daniel hefted the drum and shoved it onto the rack. Gene had to climb up onto the ladder to help; once it was in the air and Daniel was stretching, Gene could no longer touch it. He continued up onto the rack and strapped the drum in place.

  Daniel waited at the van. It wasn’t long before Bob and Christy came out of the store. She was carrying a plastic bag in each hand. Once everyone was onboard, Daniel started the van and headed out. Christy began passing snacks and cold drinks out.

  “Sorry, the selection was pretty slim,” she said as she handed Daniel a diet coke.

  He shrugged. “Hey, it’s cold.”

  Gene looked at the one she handed him. “What, no beer?”

  “No, Gene. The beer cooler was empty. Sorry, buddy,” Bob said.

  Gene looked at the coke and wrinkled his nose before dropping it back into the bag.

  By late afternoon, they were crossing the Pearl River at Byram. It took a while to get there trying to avoid primary roads. It was decided this was the best alternative south of Jackson, Mississippi, and they certainly didn’t want to go through there. Running alongside the bridge on the Florence-Byram Road was the old swinging bridge just downstream. It was one of the oldest crossings of the river still in place, built in 1905.

  Byram itself wasn’t much to speak of. If it weren’t for the fact that I-55 ran through it, it probably wouldn’t even still exist. But I-55 was there and, as they crossed over it, they were surprised to see it virtually empty. There were very few cars moving either direction.

  “That just looks weird,” Daniel said as he looked down at the nearly lifeless road running beneath him.

  “Maybe. But we haven’t passed many cars lately either,” Bob replied.

  Looking at the windshield, Daniel nodded. “You’re right.” Looking over at Bob, he added, “We haven’t, have we?”

  “Think about it. It’s been days since this all started. People are running out of cash. They probably used what they had on hand to buy food, maybe some fuel. But they’re out of it now. Not to mention that with the power going off, you can’t really buy it anyway. That place in Newton was one of only a few that was even selling it.”

  “Why haven’t we seen any response from the government?” Christy asked.

  Bob chuckled. “Response to what? What are they supposed to respond to?”

  Christy thought for a minute. “I guess I see your point. There’s nothing going on.”

  Bob lit a smoke and blew it at the roof. “Exactly.” He looked back at Christy. “We sure saw it in Atlanta, didn’t we?”

  “No shit.” Daniel chuckled.

  They continued to drive out of Byram, finding themselves on Owens Road. It was a rural road with few houses on it. Bob suggested they find a place to camp for the night while there was still light. Seeing several promising spots, they were thwarted each time by a fence. Here, the gas and power line right-of-ways were fenced off at the road. It forced them to keep going, looking for a place to pull off. But they needed a place out of view of any homes as well, which only added to the difficulty. You’d think it would be easy enough. During normal times, you wouldn’t think twice about some of the places they had passed. But these weren’t normal times. And after last night’s events, they wanted to make sure no one would find them. At least as sure as they could be.

  They finally came to a stretch of road that had no houses on it. Bob told Daniel to stop when he saw a gat
e on what appeared to be a rarely used dirt road going into a stand of planted pine. Gene hopped out with a large pair of bolt cutters and quickly opened the gate. Daniel drove through it and Gene closed the gate behind them. He took a minute to hang the chain so it looked as though it were still locked.

  Daniel drove down the narrow road as limbs scraped and scratched down the side of the van. Just a week or so before, he would have cringed at the thought of driving the van through a place like this. Much had happened in a couple of weeks. The road opened up a little and they saw a small pond off to the left. Daniel stopped the van on the road and looked around.

  “What do you guys think about this? Looks pretty good to me.”

  “Let me hop out and look around. I want to make sure there isn’t a house or something at the end of this road. We don’t need any surprises tonight,” Teague said as he climbed out of the van, carbine in hand.

  Christy opened her door. “I’m getting out.”

  Opening his door, Bob said, “I think we could all stretch our legs.”

  They all got out as Teague disappeared down the small trail. Gene was leaning against the van, cradling the shotgun under one arm. He looked down the small road and said, “I don’t think there are any houses down there.” He looked down at the trail and kicked away some of the thick carpet of pine needles covering it. “It doesn’t look like there’s been anything down here in a long time.”

  Bob lit a cigarette. “You’re probably right, but better safe than sorry. Let Cousin take a look.”

  Daniel walked out towards the small pond. This was more his speed. Being out in the woods. He looked around and noticed a few things that brought a smile to his face. A small trail ran through the tall grass surrounding the pond. A dragonfly was dipping the water’s surface, and a lone cicada was somewhere on the other side grating out its call. He always felt more at home in the woods. If it weren’t for the carbine hanging over his shoulder, this could be like any other trip to wilder places for him.

  Christy walked up beside him and took his hand. He looked at her and smiled. “Hey, sexy.”

  She smiled and laid her head on his shoulder. Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath. “Smells good out here.”

  “Yeah. I was just thinking how nice it was.”

  She looked out over the pond with him for a moment. “What do you think is going to happen?”

  Daniel let out a long breath. “I don’t know. We don’t even know what’s really going on out there.”

  Christy reached into her back pocket and took her phone out. She clicked the internet icon and waited. It wasn’t long before a page failed to load message came up. Shaking her head, she said, “Why did they turn off our cell phones?”

  He snorted. “Why in the hell did they turn off the power? Or kill the internet? They want us in the dark, both figuratively and literally.”

  Christy sighed. “You know, I used to hear those people talk about how the government was going to do this or that, how they were bad and not actually looking out for us. I never believed any of it.” She pulled his hand up and closed both of hers around his. “But I guess they were right. Do you think they were right?”

  Daniel shrugged. He was torn over the idea. Maybe they were just trying to solve the current issue. Maybe they were actually working on it. That wouldn’t explain why they killed everything though. You might be able to explain away the shutdown of the internet that way. Maybe justify killing the cellphones, though that would really be a stretch. But the power? None of this could explain that.

  After thinking about it, he said, “I don’t really know, babe. All I know is we’ve got to look out for one another. No one else is going to do that.”

  She nodded. “At least we have the guys, too. It’s nice that we’re not alone in all this.” She pulled away and looked at him. “Teague is still an asshole though.”

  Daniel smiled. “Yeah, he is. But he’s got our back. That I know for certain. He’s on our side. Come on, let’s go back.”

  They walked back to the van holding hands. The grass was knee high and he smiled as he thought of the first trip into the woods with Christy. She wouldn’t leave the trail. If she couldn’t see the ground, she wouldn’t’ walk on it. Now she was in knee-deep grass and not saying a word about it.

  When they got back to the van, they could see Teague walking casually down the trail towards them. Getting back to the van, Bob asked, “What’s the word?”

  “This trail ties into a paved road a couple hundred meters up there. I don’t think it’s the same one we were on. I didn’t see any houses or people.”

  Bob looked around. “So we’re good for the night here then, but to be on the safe side, I say no fire.”

  “I was going to say the same thing,” Teague replied.

  “Let’s all try and get some sleep and leave early in the morning,” Bob said.

  “I’ll make sandwiches,” Christy offered.

  As they sat around eating their sandwiches, their cell phones began to emit the emergency alert tone. Daniel went to the van and pulled his phone off the charger.

  Due to the ongoing crisis, relief centers are being activated in the following cities.

  A list of nearly every city of any size in all states was listed. It was long and detailed.

  Additionally, price controls are being put in place to prevent price gouging. All prices of commodities shall remain at the price as of the first day of the crisis. If you find prices that have been artificially inflated, text the item, its price and business name and location to 99999.

  In an effort to relieve the financial burden on people, the relief centers will begin distributing cash. While credit and debit cards are not working, cash will be distributed in the amount of $200 per adult and $100 per child. Bring your ID to the relief center and all applicable documents for children to collect your disbursement.

  The curfew remains in effect. Anyone caught out after four PM daily will be arrested and held until the resolution of the current situation. Also, the possession of firearms is still illegal. Anyone caught with a firearm will be arrested immediately. To this end, if you know of someone in possession of a firearm, regardless of type, text their name and address to 77777. Upon a successful arrest, you will be eligible for a cash reward.

  The government continues to work diligently to resolve the crisis and asks for your continued cooperation.

  Daniel finished reading the message and dropped the phone in his lap. “Well, isn’t that lovely.”

  Teague held out his hand, “Let me see it.” Daniel tossed the phone to him.

  Bob was thinking. He lit a smoke and watched the glow of the cherry. Gene read the message and dropped his phone into his lap with little or no care. Teague, however, had a lot to say.

  “What a bunch of horse shit! Of course they’ll give you a reward to rat on people with guns. And now that they’ve taken out everyone’s debit cards, they’ll start giving out a little bit of cash. Now everyone is totally dependent on the Feds! This is getting more and more ridiculous.”

  “Well, it doesn’t mean anything to us. None of this changes our plans,” Bob finally said.

  “It’s really weird that they’re giving away cash,” Christy said.

  “Yeah. That kind of worries me. They want you to come into some relief center where they will just give you cash,” Daniel said.

  “The real point to consider here is the fact there are roughly 350 million people in this country. Without getting into ratios of adults to kids, we can say they are willing to give an average of one hundred fifty dollars per person. If only half of the people in the country show up to collect, that’s twenty-six and a quarter billion dollars. And it only goes up from there, the more people that show up.” Gene paused for a moment as everyone stared at him. He continued, “Now think abou
t the complexities of distributing that much cash around the country. How long have they had this plan in place?”

  Bob twirled a finger by his ear. “You uh, just did all that math in your head there, Gene?”

  “How do you know all that?” Christy asked.

  “I read a lot. Think about this. One billion in cash is ten pallets stacked three feet tall of hundred dollar bills So we’re talking like two hundred sixty-three pallets of cash.”

  Teague shook his head. “Who the hell knows this kind of shit?”

  With a straight face, Gene asked, “Who doesn’t?”

  “I don’t!” Daniel said. “That’s a shit ton of cash.”

  Gene pointed at him. “Exactly. Think about the logistics of getting that much cash and staging it. I mean, this isn’t something you can do in a couple of days.”

  Teague snorted. “They just used some of those pallets of the trillion they lost in Iraq.”

  Gene smiled and pointed at him. “Now you’re thinking. I mean, how do you lose a trillion dollars? You don’t, that’s how.”

  Christy shook her head. “This is more than I can think about right now. I’m going to bed.” She sat down in the tent and kicked her shoes off.

  Daniel told Teague to get some sleep, he’d take the first watch. Teague jumped up. “Thanks. I’m pretty tired.” He moved towards the tent and stuck his head in. Christy pushed his head out with her foot.

  “Don’t even think about it!” She shouted. She suddenly squealed, jerking her foot back. “Eww, did you lick my foot? You sicko!” Her foot shot back out and connected with Teague’s nose.

  He fell back, holding his face. “Shit, Christy! I think you broke my nose!”

  “Serves you right, you weirdo! That was nasty!”

  Teague sat up. “I was only playing. I wasn’t trying to go in with you. Jeez, calm down.” He took his hands away and saw all the blood. “Dammit, my nose is bleeding.”