“There’s someone on the porch.”
Bruce squinted and moved his head closer to the windshield. “Where? I don’t see anybody.”
Maxon hoped it was just a trick of light and shadow, but he saw movement again. This time the form was clearer. “Right there,” he pointed out to Bruce.
“Oh yeah, I see him. Maybe this won’t be so routine after all. What’s that he’s holding?”
Maxon saw it too and knew almost immediately from the shape of it what it was. The knot in his stomach rose to his throat. “It’s a shotgun.”
“Oh shit. Got ourselves a last stand here,” Bruce said gleefully. Maxon could almost hear him salivating. Bruce turned and yelled to the crew in back. “We’re gonna have some fun tonight after all, boys.”
He hit the horn button and the truck screamed into the night, its siren blazing as it pushed towards its final destination.
Chapter 15
The police car stopped in front of Ancil’s driveway along with two other cars. One of them was Daniel’s. The siren was killed and Sheriff Bailey stepped out, hiking up his rather large seated pants. He had Officer Anderson with him, the one Ancil remembered from his time in the county jail. Right behind him was Daniel. He was red faced and looked ready to explode. The third car carried two people Ancil didn’t recognize, but he did recognize the insignia on the side of the car door - CyberTronix.
So he came with a posse, Ancil thought to himself. He always knew Daniel was a vindictive bastard but he didn’t think he would go to this length.
He watched by the window as the five of them walked up to his door, trespassing as far as he saw it. He told Harley to stay in the bedroom and not come out till he said so. He saw the fear in his grandson’s eyes, but to Harley’s credit he didn’t cry. He sucked up his fear and listened.
A knock came at the door. It was firm but not aggressive. Sheriff Bailey’s voice spoke from the other side of it. “Ancil, it’s the Sheriff’s department. We’d like to talk to you. Open up.”
Ancil stood by the door, unmoving. He could feel the bodies on the other side. He took his shotgun in his hand and double checked that both barrels were loaded.
Another series of knocks, louder this time. “Come on, Ancil. We know you’re home. Your truck’s in the driveway. Open the door. Don’t make us have to go through the effort of knocking it in, it’s too damn hot for that.”
He put his hand on the deadbolt and unlocked it. He slowly opened the door and looked at Sheriff Bailey through the glass of the storm door. He made sure his shotgun was visible in his hand.
“There’s no need for that Ancil. We all just want to talk,” Sheriff Bailey said as he eyed the shotgun.
“The way I see it Sheriff, you all are trespassing on private property and I’m within my constitutional rights to hold this gun.” Ancil didn’t let his eyes leave the Sheriff’s.
Sheriff Bailey pulled up his pants and rested both hands on his belt, close to his weapon. “Now Ancil, you know if we have reasonable cause we can come in and search your home. All I’m trying to do is bypass any ugliness that can arise outta this.”
“What reasonable cause do you have, Sheriff?” Ancil asked.
“Mr. Trager believes that you’re holding his young son at the moment.”
“He kidnapped my boy. I know it. The old bastard was always crazy and dangerous. Arrest him now and get my son,” Daniel blurted out. He had his finger raised at Ancil and was being held back by the two men from CyberTronix.
“Keep him calm, will ya,” Sheriff Bailey said to the two men. They wore matching white jumpers that had their names sewn in it; Conway and Balor. Underneath their names were the words Elysia Project. To Ancil they looked like cult members in an insane asylum.
Ancil pointed to the two men in white jumpers. “Why are they here?”
“They’re here to take my family and me to our new home,” Daniel said.
“That’s no home they’re taking you to. It’s a prison and Harley will not be raised in it.”
The two men looked at each other and nodded, as if giving one another a secret signal.
“I want my son, old man. I know you took him and that you have him in there.”
“The boy came to me. He was crying and scared. Scared about you, about them.” He pointed to the two men standing behind Daniel. They had their arms crossed and were glaring back at Ancil.
“You’re lying. He never mentioned anything to me about not wanting to go.”
“Maybe if you stopped to actually listen to him you would have heard. Instead you’re too busy letting these people decide your future for you.”
“I’ll decide my family’s future, not you. This is what I chose. This is the right future for them. It’s the only future.”
“It won’t be Harley’s.”
Daniel became furious. He moved to charge the door and all four men had to hold him back as he screamed. “Harley! Harley, it’s your father! Get out here!”
“He doesn’t want to go with you anywhere,” Ancil said. He was able to stay calm despite the commotion.
Daniel turned to the Sheriff, “Bailey, what are you waiting for, knock the damn door down.”
Sheriff Bailey wiped sweat from his round red face. This wasn’t how he envisioned his afternoon going. “Ancil, if you are holding Harley in there then we are within our rights to come in, with or without your consent.”
Ancil brought his shotgun up to his waist. Sheriff Bailey and Officer Anderson both went for their side arms, bringing them up to meet Ancil. Daniel retreated behind the men in white.
“No one will be stepping foot inside my home without my say so.”
“I told you he’s crazy,” Daniel said, “just blast him.”
“If you don’t want this to end in bloodshed I suggest you turn around and get back in your cars and drive off. The boy is with me. He’s safe. There’s no reason for you to be here.”
“I’m giving you to the count of three,” Sheriff Bailey said. “If you don’t move aside and let us in, we’re gonna bust on in, you understand that.” Ancil didn’t move from the door. “One, two-”
Before the Sheriff got to three Ancil dodged out of the way and slammed the door shut. He just got away in time when the door exploded. The shock from the blast threw Ancil to the floor. The world turned white after that.
Chapter 16
The truck slowed to a stop in front of Harley’s house, its siren still blaring. He shielded his eyes from the high beams and stood on the end of the porch, shotgun in hand.
Now that the hour was upon him he felt a certain sense of calmness. He felt as if he was outside his body and he was just moving on instinct. Harley realized he had been preparing for this moment his entire life. Everything his grandfather taught him, everything he drilled into him was for this.
Five men dressed in white gear from head to toe climbed down out of the truck. They looked like space travelers who had just landed their ship on an alien terrain. They moved cautiously forward, like they were approaching an unknown entity whose power was completely unknown to them.
The man in the middle of the crew led them. He pulled what looked to be a walkie talkie from his shoulder and spoke into it. It seemed to magnify his voice from unseen speakers. “Mr. Jacobs, you have been informed of this house’s schedule to be upgraded. You have had several weeks to vacate the premises. It is now midnight of the last day as noted from your final notice. We will have to commence wrecking. You are to move away from the house and into the truck where you will be taken to City Centre for relocation procedure. Is this clear?”
Harley didn’t answer or move. He stood still with the shotgun poised in both hands. The metal was hot against his skin. He could feel the oil and smell the gun powder. The scent reminded him of the first time his grandfather took him shooting with it. They were out in the sand flats shooting at targets. When Harley pulled the trigger for the first time the recoil was so strong it threw him to the ground. He lay there cryi
ng until Ancil told him to get up and do it again. He showed him the proper way to hold the weapon, into the hollow of his shoulder. Harley hit his first target that day.
“Do you understand what I am telling you?” the man in the middle called out. Harley still didn’t move. “If you do not comply we will be forced to-“
“What’s your name?” Harley called out, cutting the man off. The question seemed to catch the man off guard as he turned to his crew. Another wrecker whispered something in his ear that Harley couldn’t catch.
“Mr. Jacob’s I will ask you one more time to comply with our orders. If you do not comply we will be forced to engage you as a violent aggressor and take you out of the dwelling.”
Dwelling? Harley sneered at the word. Dwelling. These people could and would never understand. They were incapable. It didn’t matter what anyone told or showed them. The world had moved too far away from what Harley had ever known. He was the alien. The only one left of his kind. The last hold out on a distant planet that had just been discovered and now they were going to bring him in for observation.
“Don’t you people have names?” Harley asked.
The man stood looking at Harley, pondering whether to answer or not. Harley could barely make out the man’s features from where he stood, but he was shorter than the person standing next to him and didn’t appear a leader at all.
“My name’s Max,” he said after some time, “and this is Bruce, my second in command and right now you are in official obstruction of a scheduled wreck.”
“Let me propose something to you, Max,” Harley said as he stepped down off the porch and moved towards them. The crew instinctively went for their side arms, but Maxon put his hand out to stop them. “You and your crew go back into that truck and drive on outta here and maybe, perhaps, you all can go home safe tonight to your families, if you have any that is. Otherwise, if you decide to stay here and continue this fight, I assure you there will be bloodshed.”
“What are we waiting for? Let’s just grab him and throw him in the truck,” Bruce said.
“Stay out of this Bruce,” Maxon shot back. He turned back to Harley. “What you just said can be deemed a direct threat. We’d be within our rights to proceed with force. That doesn’t need to happen, but that rests entirely on you, Mr. Jacobs. For the sake of your well-being, your family’s well-being, we urge you to stand down and step aside. This isn’t a battle you can win.”
Harley scanned the rest of the crew and saw nothing but young boys unprepared for this turn of events. He saw the fear on their faces, the shaking in their hands. A couple looked like kids right out of schooling. When they signed up to become members of this crew, probably suggested to them by the same computer that decided the futures of everyone in this place, they never imagined that this would actually be part of the job.
Harley cocked his gun. “The only way you’re getting me off my property is by killing me. Less than that, I’m not leaving this spot for you or anyone else you bring in.”
“What are you going to do?” Bruce asked. “Shoot us all one by one with your shotgun. Do you know what kind of fire power we have with us? Our suits alone will eat up those shotgun blasts of yours. Face it old man, you don’t stand a chance against us.”
“That’s enough,” Maxon interjected. “Mr. Jacobs, we will give you one more chance to lay down your weapon and stand down. It would be the best outcome for you. It’s true, your shotgun will have no effect on us and we will proceed with the wreck as originally scheduled. Your efforts will serve no purpose other than your own harm. There doesn’t need to be any bloodshed tonight, I assure you of that. Just lay down your weapon and step aside.”
Harley wasn’t one to take assurances easily, especially from the man standing in front of him. To Harley he was as trustworthy as a rattlesnake promising not to bite you.
Everyone stood nervously waiting for his response. From this distance, Harley could make out the look in Maxon’s eyes. It was one of fear. Harley could almost feel the pleading in them. Maxon didn’t want this to go down. Here was a man with probably a decade worth of experience doing this and he wasn’t prepared at all for it either.
“The way I see it Max,” Harley said, “if you want to avoid bloodshed, you and your men have only one option. Turn around and leave. That’s the best I can do.”
“Enough of this bullshit,” Bruce fired back, “let’s just grab him.”
“You don’t want to do that.” Harley said.
“Why?”
“Because if you take one more step closer this whole street will turn into a flaming bon fire.”
“And how do you expect to do that, with two shots from that toy pistol of yours?”
Harley put his hand on his shirt and ripped it open. Taped to his chest was the detonator.
Bruce took a step back, along with the rest of the crew. Maxon tried to hold his ground, signaling to the crew to stay calm, but the danger had already been planted.
Harley ran his hand down the trip wire, revealing it to them. Maxon followed the wire around the yard, his eyes growing wide.
“We don’t need to go down this road, Mr. Jacobs,” Maxon tried to negotiate. “We are not throwing you out of your residence. We are providing you with a more advanced and better suited model for your needs.”
“My needs? You have no idea what anybody needs.”
“People need fully automated housing. The statistics prove it. They want the freedom to be able to do what they desire and not what they have to do. We’re giving you freedom from menial tasks that don’t contribute to a greater fulfillment of life.”
“You’re doing nothing but providing shackles, creating generation after generation of lazy and ineffectual people until all they’d know how to do is breathe on their own and maybe even that you’d take away some day. What use is the body if you can’t work it? What good is the mind if you can’t challenge it?”
“Do we have to stand here and listen to a sermon now?” Bruce piped in. “Your body won’t be doing much of anything when it’s lying on the ground. One shot and I’ll have him out.”
“No,” Maxon ordered, “I won’t allow this to degrade into violence.” Bruce sneered at him as he said it. Maxon turned back to Harley and regarded him with an expression that exhibited both understanding and vulnerability.
Here comes the negotiation phase, Harley thought. He’ll try and persuade me with the pre-packaged rhetoric.
“We understand your position, Mr. Jacobs,” he began, “we know it must be frightening to have the feeling of being forced out of a place you’ve been in for most of your life, but change is what pushes all of us to become better. We evolve for a reason. Don’t think of this as a loss, but a gain for you and your family. Wouldn’t you want your young son to have every opportunity to grow into a complete human being?”
“My son already has every opportunity to succeed in whatever he wants to do, and do you know why?” Harley’s hand was on the detonator, shaking with emotion that rushed out of his body. His jaw was set firm and the muscles on his face jutted out. “It’s because I will teach him. Not some computer or screen or talking robot, me. I will pass everything I know on to him and he will do the same for his child, and he will do the same for his and so on, generation after generation. That’s how you raise a society, by putting in the hard work. Not by taking shortcuts and spoon feeding information into them like a bunch of soulless machines that you can program, leaving nothing but empty shells giving birth to empty shells. That’s no world I want to live in.”
Maxon didn’t respond. He only continued to regard Harley cautiously, like a man who watches a rabid dog from a distance. No words were passed between them for what seemed minutes. The only sound was the singing of crickets as they went about their nocturnal forays, oblivious to the battle of wills that played out directly above them. Harley envied them.
Once again Bruce broke the tension. “Then you should have left a long time ago cause this is the way things w
ork now.”
“This is my land. I was born here and I’ll die here and no paper council is going to tell me otherwise. That’s what my grandfather fought for years ago when he faced people just like you. They could have been your fathers.” Harley was addressing each crew member know, speaking to them as individuals. Everything rushed out of him now. “We eliminate money so there’s no crime, we eliminate weapons so there’s no war, we eliminate classes so there’s no inequality, but all that means is that there’s nothing left to fight for anymore. Nothing worth dying for.” He scanned across them until he was looking at Maxon. “What is it that you have worth fighting for? You must have something, we all do. We’re human. It’s in our nature. What if someone tried to take it away from you? What would you do then? Would you let them come in and take it from you, or would you make a stand?”
“All right, I’ve had enough. I’m taking him out.” Bruce said as he raised his weapon at Harley. There was a collective panic amongst the crew as they thought for sure they were going to be blown to bits. Maxon quickly grabbed the muzzle of Bruce’s weapon and brought it down.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m stopping you from turning this into another disaster.”
“A disaster? I’m trying to salvage this operation. The only disaster is you’re ineptitude. Step aside and let the men take over.”
“Lennox, I’m ordering you to stand down. That’s a direct order.”
“Your orders mean nothing. I should have been lead on this thing. He would have never made it off the porch. That’s the problem with you, always too scared to get your hands dirty. Well my hands are already in the mud.”
The Midnight Stand (The Elysia Saga Book 1) Page 9