Children of Wrath

by Ryan King

  Captain Reuben stared at David for several seconds. Then, he turned and started screaming orders. "Get those trucks up! Block the entrance; no one gets through. Everyone secure your weapons and make them ready."

  The JP soldiers quickly jumped in the five-ton they had just come south in along with two smaller vehicles and pulled them up to the gated barrier just as the WTR convoy was moving forward. The WTR convoy stopped and started honking their horns.

  "I'm warning you!" screamed the colonel and looked to be talking to David.

  Captain Reuben moved up to the barrier. "Sir, we cannot let you pass."

  "That's it," said the colonel. "Everyone out on foot. Follow me. I want those vehicles moved in one minute."

  "Sir," said Reuben as the colonel marched across the border past him, "I must insist you return to your vehicle."

  "I will," said the colonel, who now had about two dozen of his armed soldiers across the border with him. "Just as soon as we move your damn trucks. You"—he indicated one of his soldiers—"get up in there and move that one."

  The indicated soldier climbed up into the cab of the five-ton, forcing the JP soldier to move and got ready to start the vehicle.

  David walked over to the foot of the cab, and drawing his pistol, pointed it at the man. "If you start that truck, I'll shoot you."

  The colonel walked up and sneered at David before addressing the soldier, "He won't shoot; go ahead."

  Turning away from David, the man cranked the ignition of the truck.

  David pivoted away from the driver and shot the colonel in the head.

  After a shocked moment of silence, everyone at the border crossing was shooting.

  When it was all over, five JP soldiers and sixteen WTR soldiers lay dead. Dozens more on each side were wounded. Captain Reuben's men took another thirty-three men prisoner.

  Knowing what they had done and what was coming, the men then set to work feverishly preparing for war.

  *******

  "I understand," said Harold. "Thank you." He slowly hung up the field phone and sat down just as slowly.

  "Did they get through?" asked Luke Carter. "Do we need to stop them? I can round up what men we have here and go intercept them south of—"

  "They stopped them," said Harold.

  "Oh," said Luke understanding. "How bad?"

  "There won't be any turning back now," Harold said almost in a whisper.

  Luke sighed. "Sir, we thought it would come to this."

  "Yes, but I had hoped there would be another way, any other way."

  "There was," said Major Carter. "Let them take the dam and all the power. Let them complete the process of subjugating everything we've built and everyone we love."

  Harold nodded. "You're right. I'll prepare a message for the people here. Please let all the commanders know the situation and to prepare. We are now in rebellion. Anyone who wants to leave New Harvest has until tomorrow morning to do so."

  Luke nodded and left.

  Alone now in his office, Harold looked at the picture on his desk. It showed a young Jim Meeks and a younger Harold Buchannan with their arms around each other's shoulders. Each had a beer in their free hands, their faces relaxed and almost bursting with laughter.

  "How in the hell did I ever end up here?" he asked Jim.

  He had no answer.

  Harold picked up a piece of paper to explain to all the people depending on him what was going on and why. He decided not to tell them what was coming.

  Chapter 12 - The Painful Night

  Brazen sat in front of a fire alone. The flames cast large shadows in the night onto the surrounding walls. His men clustered nearby. They had been afraid to approach him since Pastor Lancourt's burial. Their normally outspoken leader had been unusually taciturn and withdrawn.

  He unfolded the piece of paper again in his hands. Always an advocate of inspirational quotes, Brazen had found this one in Lancourt's pocket.

  Which one of us is the fool? Brazen asked himself, genuinely wanting to know. Him, for believing everyone is good, or me, for believing no one is.

  Brazen could almost hear Lancourt's response. Maybe we both are, Timothy. The heart of man is simultaneously capable of breathtaking feats of pure goodness and horrifying acts of depravity.

  Even when the old man is dead, thought Brazen, I can't get a clear answer from him.

  He realized several of his men were standing close to him now fidgeting. Brazen looked away from the paper and up at them. "What is it?"

  "They're starting to pull out," said Jinks. "Towards Mayfield. Small groups strung out along the highway."

  "How many?" asked Brazen.

  "Several hundred," answered Clover with a smile. "It's mostly just their wounded and malnourished right now, while the rest are still in front of us. Looks like the beginning of a full retreat. We've won."

  Jinks wasn't smiling, "They could all be gone by tomorrow night...if we let them go."

  Brazen nodded, understanding. He looked down at the paper once again and read

  People are often unreasonable, illogical and self centered;

  Forgive them anyway.

  If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;

  Be kind anyway.

  If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies;

  Succeed anyway.

  If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;

  Be honest and frank anyway.

  What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;

  Build anyway.

  If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;

  Be happy anyway.

  The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;

  Do good anyway;

  Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough;

  Give the world the best you've got anyway.

  You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and your God;

  It was never between you and them anyway.

  —Mother Teresa

  Wadding the paper into his fist, Brazen threw it into the fire. Turning to his men, he said, "Circle around behind their forces and take them. Let no one get away."

  Clover frowned. "Take them?"

  Brazen looked up and smiled menacingly. "Yes. Take them and kill them. Do not accept any surrender. Do not take any prisoners. Do not show mercy. Kill every living thing out on that highway. Then take their heads and collect them."

  "Their heads?" asked Jinks.

  "As a warning," said Brazen. "We'll send a few as a message and post the rest on stakes and signposts around Paducah."

  Even his hardened gang members looked at each other with wide eyes.

  "When we're done there, we'll move to do the same for what remains in Paducah."

  Jinks cleared his throat. "You know we'll do whatever you want, boss, but...are you sure you want to go down this road?"

  Brazen stood, and they stepped back from the look in his eyes. "No. I'm sure I don't want to go down that road, but we're already on it. The only choice we have now is to see the road to its end.

  Not understanding, the men nodded and wandered away one at a time.

  Brazen sat back down and looked deep into the fire.

  Chapter 13 - Early Winter

  Dr. Valerie Cutchfield looked up from the paper on her desk. It had been written by one of the engineering school's graduate students. "Is this right?" she asked.

  "Best as I can tell, it's a little out of my area of expertise," answered Professor O'Reilly, the Head of the Systems Engineering Department. "We don't have the redundant readings and breadth of reporting we would like, but the central premise of the paper is sound."

  "Did you run it by Dr. Chau over at the Metrological Department?" she asked.

  O'Reilly nodded. "And by Dr. Trowski in Agricultural. Really caused a stir, I can tell you."

  "I have no doubt," she said, flipping through the paper to the projection
s again. We thought the first winter after N-Day was bad, she thought. That was just the beginning.

  "Kevin freely admits that many of his hypotheses and conclusions might be off, but he stands by the data," O'Reilly said. "At least as far as it pertains to western Kentucky."

  Valerie ran her fingers through her hair. "We looked into this after N-Day. Millions of tons of soot and smoke from immense worldwide fires would block the sun's light and lower overall temperatures and possibly even precipitation."

  "Yes," answered O'Reilly, "but Kevin is the only one who has been keeping careful record of the temperature and sunlight since then. It took months for the sun's rays to heat those particles enough for them to rise into the stratosphere. Now it's starting to have a global impact."

  She looked back at the report again. "It's hard to believe only a few degrees difference can have such an impact."

  "Potential impact," stressed O'Reilly. "No one knows what the result will be or how long it will last."

  "Except that it will be bad, right? This winter at least. Whenever it comes."

  O'Reilly grimaced. "According to Kevin, winter is already here. You'll have noticed how cold it's getting at night."

  "Winter in September?"

  He nodded. "This is going to be a bad one and could last until March or April, which will interfere with planting."

  "And we aren't doing enough of that to begin with," Valerie said. "On top of the lackluster harvest and people eating like it's the old days—"

  "It could be as bad as Kevin predicts," O'Reilly finished, "or even worse."

  Valerie didn't want to accept the conclusions, but she couldn't ignore the data. Even with high margins of error for stored food and consumption rates, it was going to be terrible.

  O'Reilly answered as if reading her mind, "Widespread malnutrition is the best case scenario Dr. Trowski predicts. He was a boy in Soviet Russia in the fifties and says this could be as bad, if not worse."

  "What's the worst case scenario?" Valerie asked.

  O'Reilly shrugged. "Eating our seed crop for next year to begin with. Then people eating their pets and having to make tough decisions about how to divide up not enough food. Possibly starvation. Malnourished people will also be more susceptible to sickness like flu and pneumonia. Those strong enough might band together and riot. Could even have people killing each other for food. Chaos. Bottom line is that we're not going to make it to spring unscathed. It's going to be bad."

  Valerie's mind whirled, looking for a solution, but she couldn't find one. It was too late to grow more food, and they didn't have enough. The numbers and data were merciless. The JP had about one hundred twenty thousand people and the WTR nearly double that. Adults needed about eight hundred calories a day to avoid starvation. Even with crude estimates of the harvest yields, they weren't even close.

  Looking up at O'Reilly, she tried to smile. "Okay, it's like any other problem. We need to figure this out and come up with some solutions. Where do we start?"

  "You start by making sure you have good locks on your doors and a loaded gun ready," O'Reilly answered.

  "Other than that," Valerie said.

  "Other than that?" said O'Reilly, standing and pointing at the paper. "You pray that's wrong."

  "It isn't though, is it?" she asked.

  "No," answered O'Reilly, leaving.

  Chapter 14 - Finding Another Way

  The skies had been overcast and gray for days now, and Jack swore it was going to start snowing any minute now.

  "I can feel it in my bones," he kept saying over and over again no matter how many times Nathan politely asked him to shut up about it.

  Joshua stayed with Nathan at Jack's cabin for a week before they decided he should return to the JP. Nathan was conflicted about Joshua leaving, but recognized that people were worried about his son...not the least of them his mother. He wrote a quick letter that Joshua promised to give to her.

  "What if I need to find you?" asked Joshua.

  "Come find Jack," Nathan answered. "I'm going to go look for the JP soldiers that are still missing, but I'll keep coming back here until Jack gets tired of me."

  Instead of bantering, Jack said solemnly, "You're welcome here any time, son. I'll try to keep an eye on your dad for ya."

  "Thank you," said Joshua. "It looks like it's getting ready to snow soon."

  "Don't say it," said Nathan, looking at Jack.

  But it was too late. "My bones, I tell ya. I'm feelin’ it."

  Nathan gave Joshua a ride on the motorcycle to Cairo. With the JP's defeat of the MA, there were already more people around and Cairo was no longer the abandoned shell it had been. Some of the more enterprising residents had begun to trade what they could with the JP soldiers stationed at the west end of the bridge. Even if they had nothing to trade, they were willing to wash clothes or run errands or clean tents in exchange for food.

  The soldiers eyed Nathan warily as he pulled up in front of their barrier. None of the men looked familiar. Walking up to the nearest NCO, Nathan asked, "Is Major Beau Myers here?"

  "Nope, had to go help put down the riots in Paducah," answered a large man with a storm of red unruly hair on his head. He eyed Joshua and Nathan and the mark on his hand. "You're him, ain't ya?"

  Nathan sighed. "If you mean General Nathan Taylor, who was exiled for treason against the Jackson Purchase, then yes, that's me."

  The NCO spat, "Don't nobody believe it, you know."

  "I'm glad to hear that," said Nathan and meant it.

  "I still can't let you in, sir," the man said apologetically, "even if I think it’s all bull."

  Nathan nodded. "I understand. Lieutenant Joshua Taylor here, though, does need to return to duty."

  The NCO started to salute Joshua, then stopped, then started again, and finished strong.

  Joshua returned the salute. "What riots in Paducah?"

  "The place has been burnin’ something fierce," he said. "At night, you can sometimes see the glow of the fires even from here. That's where Major Myers and the tanks went, although I've heard a rumor he's been called on the carpet for something."

  "Why are there riots?" asked Nathan.

  "Lots of people say lots of things, but I think it's because of the shooting of the protesters. And the hanging of General Anderson."

  Nathan felt suddenly dizzy.

  "It's all right there," said the man, pointing at a piece of yellow paper. Several more were posted in prominent locations so the soldiers could look at them.

  Joshua and Nathan walked over and had to smooth out one corner that was flapping in the persistent cold wind.

  New Harvest County in Rebellion

  On the Fourteenth of October, armed forces operating under the direction of Harold Buchannan, the County Executive of New Harvest County, formerly known as Land Between the Lakes, did refuse to obey a lawful order by President Paul Campbell. Those armed forces brutally attacked and killed several soldiers acting under the president's direction. These same forces, and New Harvest as a whole, has refused to surrender or obey subsequent presidential directives, placing them in a state of rebellion against the combined peoples and governments of the Jackson Purchase and the West Tennessee Republic.

  Any and all persons from New Harvest are considered rebels and to assist them in any way would be considered aiding and abetting the enemy in time of war. Any rebel who wishes to surrender should be handed over to a JP or WTR official at the earliest opportunity.

  Additionally, warrant for the arrest of Timothy Brazen Walker and former Jackson Purchase Reginald "Reggie" Philips has been issued. Any individual who assists these men will also be held accountable.

  Considering these trying times, it is necessary to implement certain measures for the safety and security of all. Martial Law is now in effect throughout the JP and WTR and certain elements of the government will be temporarily suspended. Curfews are now in effect between the hours of sunset and sunrise. These measures will require sacrifices of us a
ll, but rest assured, they are necessary and will result in our ultimate victory.

  Sincerely, President Paul Campbell

  "Hell," said Joshua after each had grown tired of staring at the paper with their mouths open. "I go away for a few weeks and everything goes to pot."

  "I hope your mother did what I asked of her," said Nathan distracted. "Then again, maybe it would have been better for her to stay where she was."

  "What are you talking about?"

  "Never mind," said Nathan. "We need to get to LBL."

  "We?" asked Joshua. "I thought you couldn't go back."

  "I can't go back into the JP," said Nathan, "but they're in rebellion. I can go there."

  "Just not that way," said Joshua, pointing at the soldiers guarding the bridge.

  Nathan nodded. "Might not be safe for you either. I'm afraid you could be guilty by association."

  "I wouldn't want to fight against my friends anyway, even..." He paused. "David is in LBL."

  "And that girl of yours, right?" asked Nathan.

  David looked at him sharply. "How did you know about that?"

  Nathan smiled. "I didn't until now. Your mother suspected. What's her name?"

  "Alexandra," answered Joshua, and he nearly got chills at the sound of her name. He touched his horror of a scalp and wondered again if she would be happy to see him.

  Nathan looked at him oddly. "Alexandra? From the slave camp we found in eastern Kentucky on the way here?"

  "Yes," answered Joshua smiling. "It just sort of happened."

  Nathan nodded. "Most of the people we care about are at LBL, and that's where we need to go. I have family in Mayfield, but hopefully, they're out of harm's way."

  "They hanged Clarence?" asked Joshua after a moment.

  Nathan glared east. "Sounds like things are going to shit in a hurry."

  Joshua looked east also. "We're going to have to go out of the way to get to LBL without going through the JP or WTR."