Anthony was crawling all over the place, and Mike had finally gotten over his fears of hurting the active baby boy. They were on the porch, Mike talking funny and making silly faces, in a stark contrast with the man the ladies had first met seven years ago.
Jessica couldn't help but to sit and watch, laughing the whole time. “Just think, another six months or so from now, there will be another one screaming and crying while this one is learning to walk and get in to everything we don't want him to,” she joked.
“Yep,” Mike said with a smirk.
“So, any thoughts about making the house bigger this summer?”
“Nah, we'll make it work,” he replied. Mike actually had already started things in motion to expand the house quite significantly.
In three days, Mike was moving them all out into the barn. Jessica wasn't going to like it, but Phillip and James were bringing up two vans full of workers to expand his six-hundred square-foot little home to a thirty-six-hundred square-foot, two-story house. Phillip had the dimensions of the house and yard and took them to an architect who had worked with rammed earth construction down in Arizona.
The entire crew volunteered to work for only their daily food when they found out who they were building the house for. They even agreed to ride in vans with blacked out windows, understanding why secrecy of the location mattered so much to the man who led the start of overthrowing the Guard.
The morning of June 1st, Amy and Jason were waiting for Mike on the porch well before the sun came up. They were in on the surprise, and ready to help with packing things up. Jason had spent most of the night before cleaning up the barn and building partitions to help keep the goats and chickens secured out of the area the family was going to live in for the next few months.
The rest of the family woke up to the sounds of horns honking. Taylor and Brad ran outside, guns in hand, without so much as bothering to get dressed. Jessica was half awake at the time and knew Mike was outside, so she took her time joining the others.
Mike had been right that Jessica would be very unhappy about living in the barn. But her excitement watching the progress of the house each day quickly overcame her displeasure. The men worked day and night, with Phillip and James making daily trips to the city for supplies.
Much to Mike's surprise, the crew finished the house in just three weeks. Mike, Jessica, Taylor, and Brad absolutely loved it. As they walked through the finished house, Jason led the construction crew through moving all their stuff back into the new home from the barn.
They walked through their new home, checking out everything the builders had done for them. Jessica and Taylor loved their new bedrooms. Jessica's was in the same place as her old room, and still had the same south and east walls. But it was larger, and a large bathroom had been added, including an indoor shower, which Mike had never put in to the original house. Opposite that bathroom was Taylor's bedroom, set up as a mirror image of Jessica's. Both had new king sized beds and ample room for anything they could want. They also both had doors that opened out onto a porch with chairs, a table, a swing, and a shower that drained into a flower garden.
The middle of the house was a single large open room for the kitchen, dining, and living area. That had been the one feature all three women had agreed upon back in the winter. Opposite the main living area were two more rooms and a bathroom set up almost identical to the other bedrooms. One was wired up for Mike to use for his radio station, which had two new amplifiers, three computers, and a satellite internet connection courtesy of the Joint Chief's of Staff. The other room was set up as a library for their book collection, with a gun rack built into the closet space.
Upstairs, Brad had his pick of four more bedrooms. He chose the one above his mom's room that gave him the best view down the canyon. Jason handed Brad a small wooden plaque he had made with one of the worker's help that read “Thomas Paine, Jr.” Brad's smile couldn't have been any bigger. Sitting between the four upstairs bedrooms was a game room and bathroom.
What had originally been Mike's reclusive, tiny, hide-away in the mountains was now a large family home. A wrap around porch had been added, even though Jessica and Taylor didn't want one, because Mike remembered that being the one feature Stacy had wanted more than anything. And outside, the south side of both the porch and house roofs were completely covered in new solar panels, with a power shed built off the back of the house.
The men had tried to replace Mike's old hand pump on his water well with an electric pump, but he adamantly refused. Instead, the electrician figured out a way to rig an electric motor to run the pump's handle, finding a compromise he would accept.
Mike woke up the next morning to Jessica and Taylor happily using their remodeled outdoor kitchen. It had a larger sink, more counter space, a larger grill, and a nice large pavilion built over it. Both of them had gotten up early to do their hair and put on makeup. Mike just figured they were enjoying themselves for their first day in the new house.
“Go back to bed,” Jessica yelled to him as he started to walk outside.
Mike wondered to himself “What the hell do these two have up their sleeves this time?”
A little bit later they walked into the room to serve him breakfast in bed.
“Wow! I should have the house worked on more often,” he joked.
Brad walked in with Anthony trying to run along behind him.
“1... 2... 3..,” and they started singing to him “Happy Birthday to you....”
Mike had completely forgotten it was his birthday again. “Oh, damn, I'm thirty-four now I guess. I think I would have preferred to forget that, but I can't think of a better way to get reminded either!”
“Yep, and we're going to remind you all day long that it's your birthday. Anything you want to do today, we're doing it with you,” Taylor said, acting all giddy
Jessica's mood wasn't as chipper as Taylor's. She couldn't help but remembering Stacy, and the two of them deciding last year they wanted to make what they did for his birthday an annual tradition. But she managed to put that out of her mind and carry on with a smile, as she knew Stacy would want her to. “So, what are we doing today?” she asked.
Mike had Taylor bring Amy and the kids up to join them for the day. They all went swimming and shooting for most of the day. Then they sat on their new porch enjoying the canyon views while the kids played and Mike grilled out dinner.
That night after dinner, Brad and Anthony went home with Amy. Mike, Jessica and Taylor were drying off from a late nigh swim, sitting on a bench under their new pavilion, enjoying some wine Phillip had given them with the new house.
“What's that sound?” Taylor asked.
“Ah, dammit. Not today. I don't even have time to get inside and get dressed either,” Mike said, sounding disappointed.
Around the side of the house came a motorcycle. It's light shined on them, and it continued to pull up right to the pavilion.
“Why? Why today!?” Mike gasped just before the engine shut off.
“Man, you guys have it made up here. I can't sit outside my house like that,” said Amanda as she took off her helmet.
“Why are you here?” Mike asked, making no secret that he wished she was anywhere else.
“I'm here because you won't answer your messenger, and you haven't set up your new SatLinc yet.”
“No, I haven't set it up. Hell, I might not set the damn thing up. I didn't ask for this.”
“No, but you agreed to it. And you're going to set it up tonight.”
“I don't even know how to set the damn thing up. Last time I got online, AOL still had CD's sitting beside every cash register in America.”
“Wait, what?” she asked, not knowing what he was talking about, or why Jessica found it to be so funny.
“Well then get off your ass... off your bare ass, and go figure it out. It's not that hard,” Amanda snapped back with a bit of sass. “Yeah, and just why are you out here on your bare ass anyways. I've come up here before unanno
unced and never seen this.”
“Amanda, if I tell you will you go away?” Taylor said, showing her annoyance with Amanda's presence too.
“I'll go away when he's on SatLinc. But I won't help myself to sticking around if you tell me.”
Mike hung his head, and whispered to Jessica, “Can I shoot her? Please?”
“No,” Jessica giggled as she whispered back. “That's my job!”
“So, what's up with enjoying the cool breeze tonight?” Amanda said, pulling up a chair across from them.
“Nothing exciting, Amanda. We're just drying off from a late swim, and enjoying the peace and quiet,” Taylor paused. “Or at least we were enjoying the peace and quiet.”
Amanda folded her arms, glaring at Taylor. She looked over at Mike. “Thomas, we need to go get your SatLinc hooked up. You've got two votes that you have to cast, and one that I can't do for you.”
“They'll be fine without my vote,” he replied, hoping she would go away.
“Nope. You have to vote, and you're going to want to kick yourself right where I'm staring if you don't.”
Mike sighed and sat up, resting his elbows on his knees. “What the hell is so damn important up for vote that my evening has to be ruined by your presence?”
“There's two votes actually. You're right, one of them doesn't matter. It's to vote for the use of force to try to stop the Pacific and Soviet invasion of South America. That's going to pass no matter what.”
“Yeah, okay, more war. No surprise there.” Mike was being facetious and his patience with Amanda was growing thinner by the second. “What's the other one?”
“They've moved up the date for a vote on the Sovereignty Act,” she said with a sense of urgency.
Mike sat up quickly.
“Right now it looks like a split, eight to eight, vote,” Amanda continued.
Mike stood up, groaned and sighed all at the same time.
“What's the Sovereignty Act?” Jessica asked.
“Okay, Amanda, I'm slightly glad you're here,” Mike rolled his eyes at her smiling, and turned to answer Jessica. “It's a bill Amanda and I wrote with a guy from Texas. If it fails, they're going to start working to arrange elections for a new congress and new president. If it passes, then the United States will officially be divided up into several smaller countries with a shared military only.”
It was really quiet for a moment as the reality of what might be about to happen sunk in.
“Um, hang on. So you two wrote a bill to literally end the United States?” Taylor asked.
“Yep!” Amanda answered excitedly, attempting to put her arm around Mike before he blocked her.
“Come on, Amanda. Come set this thing up and make sure I'm able to cast my vote.”
They went inside the house and Mike showed Amanda where all the boxes were. She had already set up the same system at her own house, and went right to work. Mike walked off into Jessica's room and shut the door.
The next morning Mike was still laying at the foot of the bed, with his legs down and feet on the floor. Jessica and Taylor had fallen asleep in the living room playing cards. Amanda stayed up all night, and went to wake Mike up to let him know it was working and he needed to come see how to use it.
Mike had once been pretty technically savvy, but other than what he used to record his messages, he hadn't done much with a computer since Windows '98.
“Okay, Amanda. When is the vote?”
“In about two hours.”
Mike sighed again, wondering if he would regret what he was about to say. “Amanda, will you stay and help me not screw this up?”
“Yes!” She said, acting all giddy and plopping down in his lap to hug him.
Mike shoved her off and she jumped up and went outside, embarrassed over being rejected by him again.
Mike walked into the living room. “She's staying for a few more hours.”
Jessica just closed her eyes and dropped her head to the couch.
“I need her. As bad as I hate it, I need her to get this right,” he told them.
Two hours later, Amanda was seated at Mike's side, with Jessica and Taylor standing behind them. The roll call always had Thomas Paine last, and as Amanda predicted, it was a split vote. He was to cast the deciding vote.
It was now official. The United States was to be dissolved on November 1st. The military would continue to exist in it's current state, and a single Commander-in-Chief of the military would still run for election in all the soon to be new nations. As Amanda shut down the connection, they all had tears in their eyes.
“Why? Why, Mike?” Taylor said, forgetting that Amanda still didn't know his real name.
“So that we won't again face such a large and powerful central government that's so easily able to take away our liberty,” he answered as he got up and walked out. None of them followed him. Even Jessica knew he needed his space for longer than normal.
Mike walked down to the reservoir and cried for almost two hours. He had just taken on the burden of the decision to end the country who's flag he'd once worn on a uniform, and casting his vote as he did weighed heavily on his heart. Taylor came down to check on him and sat to cry with him. After a little while longer, they both started feeling like they had no tears left to shed and returned home.
The process to form new national boundaries started the next week. Mike told Amanda his suggestions, and let her work with a locally-elected council to try to reach agreements by October 31st. He wanted nothing more to do with any of it. The Joint Chiefs asked him to remain with four others as advisers who could vote to overrule their military decisions. It was a shallow attempt at a balance of power until elections were being held. He wanted to decline, but Jessica's voice was still there whispering “you always do the right thing.”
Chapter 17
Escalation
Ten months had passed since Mike cast his fateful vote. It still weighed heavy on him almost every day, but he never doubted that it was the right thing to do. There were now eight nations where a single nation had once been.
Mike's ranch now sat in a nation named for a landmark that sat in the middle of it. Grand Canyon. He hated the name, but had no other ideas when he was asked. Southern Utah and Nevada, south of I-70, straight west to the border with California, and all of Arizona were it's territory.
California had remained mostly as it had been, except the northern part of the state joining with Oregon, Washington, Idaho, northern Utah and Nevada, Wyoming, and Montana. California retained its name. The new north western nation kept ongoing political fighting and still could not reach a decision between using Washington or Montana.
New Mexico and Oklahoma had joined the Republic of Texas. Colorado, east to Missouri and north through Minnesota, as well as Iowa, Nebraska, and the Dakotas became the Ogallala Nation.
Arkansas, Tennessee, North Carolina, and the states to their south again became the Confederate States of America, with their Constitution beginning with a noted ban on slavery. The northern states, from the Mississippi River east to the Appalachian Mountains chose to be the Lincoln Nation. The remaining north eastern states became Franklin.
Most nations kept many of the same laws that were in place when the crash first happened. Texas and Ogallala didn't impose many restrictions on firearms, but Mike was pleased that Grand Canyon chose wording in their Constitution that stated “all citizens may freely own and carry any such weapon as they see fit, without limitation from any agency of government.” And he was ecstatic when he was given, as a gift from the new government, one fully automatic M4 for each member of his family, along with a truck load of 5.56mm ammunition for them, as thanks for his participation in the resistance and activism for freedom.
The war with the Pacifics and Soviets had escalated into a full scale war, though most of the fighting was taking place on the South American and African continents. Each occasionally launched missiles into the rural areas of each others homelands. Alaska was successfully defended ag
ainst the Soviets and was petitioning to become the ninth nation in the NAU Mutual Military Agreement. Hawaii had little left to it after exchanging hands between the NAU and Pacifics ten times in as many months.
Mike had become very involved with the war in a sense. The entire Rocky Mountain region was hammed all winter long with massive snow storms. Amy and her kids all spent the winter in the new house, at Taylor's insistence. The snow got so deep that the entire first floor of the new home was buried in what they guessed was nearly twelve feet of snow.
Shortly before Thanksgiving, Amanda had been up at the Ranch trying to convince Mike to put 'Thomas Paine' on the ballot to be Grand Canyon's first president, with her as his vice president. He refused to consider the idea and angrily ran her off, slipping on some ice and taking a hard fall, once again injuring his left hip.
About thirty minutes after Amanda left, she was sending Mike satellite messages and radio calls begging for help. She had become stuck in a snow storm and couldn't get her truck out of a ditch the road crossed. Jason, who had become quite infatuated with her, didn't hesitate to take the snowmobile out to rescue her.
Crashed: The Death Of The Dollar Page 19