ASCENSION: THE SYSTEMIC SERIES

by Callahan, K. W.

  After a couple days of this, Ava felt she’d made it look good enough to proceed with the rest of their – her – plan.

  The time her recon work had bought them had also given them a chance to recruit more members for their growing organization, providing them with the manpower necessary to make their first few critical strikes.

  Ava recognized that this would be the time at which they were most vulnerable. Even though the controlling gangs around the Miami area were disorganized and unprepared for what was coming, they still far outnumbered Jake and Ava’s crew; plus, they were fighting on their home turf. But Ava hoped that taking her plan and dividing it into two distinct stages would allow her enough time to continue to grow their numbers, yet not take so much time that they showed their hand, and in the process gave the rival gangs time to get organized against them.

  The first stage of her plan involved adding even more risk to their already risky venture by splitting their forces. Jake didn’t like it. Jake liked having the upper hand when it came to numbers and firepower in a fight, but Ava told him that this was the only way that they could ensure they’d be able to secure that advantage in future operations.

  Therefore, they divided their crew into two teams, Jake’s team and Ava’s team. Each of them took around 20 guys, one Stryker armored personnel carrier, four armor-plated SUVs, and several support vehicles. Their numbers seemed paltry when Ava considered their objective – taking entire Miami neighborhoods – but it was all they had; and the longer they waited to recruit more men, the more likely it was that someone would let it slip about what they were up to.

  Ava went over the plan time and again with Jake before they made their first move. She was concerned that he’d botch part of the operation without her around to stay on top of things; therefore, she pulled Mad Dog and Rambo aside in private and away from Jake so that he wouldn’t feel embarrassed or belittled by her lack of faith in him, and reviewed everything with them as well. She felt better knowing that they understood what was going on, and better yet, that she could trust them to see the plan through to fruition with or without Jake’s involvement.

  Ava developed a two-pronged attack for this first stage of their Miami takeover. She chose what she knew to be two of the more lightly-controlled sections of town out of the ten total areas she’d outlined and that included Carol City, North Miami, Hialeah, Little Havana, Miami Springs, Westwood Lake, West Miami, South Miami, Coral Gables, and Palmetto Bay. Jake and his crew would take the northern target – Carol City – and Ava and her men would attack from the west, hitting Westwood Lake.

  During these two offensives, both Jake and Ava split their 20-man units into small squads of four or five. In this way, they could spread out, becoming acquainted with the areas more intimately, finding out exactly who was controlling what and how. Then they could rough some people up, break a few heads, slit a few throats when and where necessary, and assassinate the leadership of any potential resistance that wasn’t willing to cooperate. This sort of activity quickly and brutally informed any remaining area residents in these two locations who was now in charge. Then Jake and Ava made a final show of force at the area’s local market. They rolled in with fangs bared, the Strykers leading the way. And there, in crystal-clear terms, they explained to the local businessmen – as well as any shoppers – how things were going to work.

  “Either your with us or your dead,” as Jake concisely put it.

  The people of these areas were still free to conduct their business, but they would supply Jake, Ava, and their crew with whatever supplies they needed, up to 15 percent of their weekly transactions.

  After this was done, Jake and Ava left a skeleton crew of six or seven loyal and heavily-armed guys behind to keep the peace, get things organized, and recruit more manpower. One group was managed by the Fallback Man, a middle-aged, former career criminal who was great at organizing and planning. The other group was handled by Johnny Switchblade, their man who was deadly accurate with a knife when throwing at targets or in close quarters.

  Then Jake and Ava picked up some new recruits to replace those left behind as their occupying force, plus a few more if possible, and moved on to the next stop on their list.

  They took a little time after taking their first few locations – just 24 hours or so – to consolidate their new holdings, load up on guns and ammo, and regroup. But Ava didn’t want to pause so long that word about their move on these neighborhoods spread to other areas around Miami or that their men began to relax and start partying.

  As they continued their march forward, moving from neighborhood to neighborhood, it quickly became apparent that Miami was in dire need of leadership. As Jake and Ava’s conquest for complete domination progressed, they rapidly gained momentum, picking up more weapons and recruits with each area they overran.

  Each neighborhood appeared to be set up pretty much the same. There was a sort of central marketplace – most of which were open-air bazaars – where area vendors would set up to sell their wares or peddle their services and residents would come from the surrounding area to shop.

  In Ava’s overarching plan, they moved from the north and west, Jake pushing south, and Ava driving east. They would eliminate any resistance, eventually meeting up and making a final push towards the sea, enveloping, trapping, and eventually destroying any retreating defenders in their path.

  Jake wondered if Ava had been an army general in a previous life. He himself hadn’t made it past the 10th grade, but he remembered learning about World War II and Dunkirk. The war portion of history class in particular had interested him. And Ava’s plan reminded him of Hitler’s generals trapping the British army on the coastline during their invasion of France. The only difference was that, unlike Hitler, Jake didn’t plan on giving his enemies the opportunity to escape. Jake’s war was a total one, and the only option in his mind was complete victory.

  By the time word of their movements and territorial takeovers got out to any remaining neighborhoods, it was too late. Jake and Ava’s organization had become too large. They’d become a steamroller that was big enough and powerful enough to crush just about any and all opposition no matter how well prepared or organized. And this steamroller got bigger and carried more momentum with each area of Ava’s map it consumed.

  Soon, Jake and Ava began promoting their generals, providing them with their own troops and areas to overrun and control simply because the operation was of a scale far too great for just the two of them to manage. Mad Dog, Rambo, Kill King, Switchblade, and Fallback all got a group of their own to command, each consisting of a platoon about 25 men that they could split into smaller squads that were typically led by longer term and more trustworthy individuals of the organization. Then they would conduct the same sort of operation as Jake and Ava had in the initial forays into the Miami area. These small squads of four or five men each would spread out, casing the area, getting a feel for things, killing people who needed to be killed, and generally letting people know who was in charge. Then they’d make their final show of force at the local market or similar symbolic neighborhood center where they could threaten or cajole the remaining populace into subservience and crush any remaining resistance.

  Ava was in charge of her own platoon of men, as well as overseeing Kill King and Johnny Switchblade who led similar platoons. Jake of course had his own men as well in addition to overseeing Mad Dog and Rambo’s units. Ava wanted it this way since she could trust Mad Dog and Rambo and they needed very little supervision to conduct their operations the way she wanted them to. Meanwhile, she could keep an eye on Kill King and Johnny Switchblade who were more loyal to Jake and had a few of his more irresponsible tendencies. This left Ava – in actuality – controlling all their forces except for those directly under Jake as well as those under the Fallback Man who was assigned to oversee the neighborhood occupying forces. The Fallback Man harnessed his organizational capabilities to ensure that these occupying forces kept things running the way Jake and
Ava wanted among the area businessmen and residents after the “big dogs” had moved on.

  Things were coming together just the way Ava wanted, but Jake had no idea that this was the case.

  Not everything was smooth sailing though. Several Miami neighborhoods proved tougher nuts to crack than Ava had expected. But again, in moves that were straight out of a war strategy textbook, Ava decided to skip these areas of greatest resistance, cutting them off from any supply lines or reinforcements simply by moving past them and surrounding them. This “island hopping” campaign through the city allowed her to control everything moving into or out of these cut off sections by overrunning the outlying areas. She understood that while this might leave these strongholds in place temporarily, after a week or so of being cut off from food, water, ammunition, and other supplies, some of the resistance would just give up, some of it would be killed while scavenging for supplies, and those who remained would likely be so demoralized, exhausted, and hungry after holding out against the elements without any relief that they’d eventually just surrender.

  Her plan worked perfectly. And a month after their arrival, all of the outlined areas on Ava’s map except one – a particularly strong enclave in Little Havana – were under their control.

  CHAPTER 6

  Ray and I waited until we met the rest of Gordon’s crew before going back to get the pickup truck and the rest of our group. I wanted to make sure that what he’d told us was true regarding how many men he had with him and whether they were indeed injured before putting our family members at risk.

  Once they were on the scene though, we worked quickly. I was concerned that whoever had reaped such destruction upon Gordon and his men could return and do the same thing to us. Whoever they were, they certainly had some serious firepower if they were able to take out a convoy the size of Gordon’s and leave it so completely devastated.

  In addition to Gordon and Jeff, we were hurriedly introduced to Gordon’s youngest son, Barry, who’d been shot in the arm, as well as his nephews Andrew and Ian. Ian had been grazed by a bullet fragment or piece of shrapnel across his right temple, as well as being shot through the right leg. The bullet had passed clean through his thigh. The wound was pretty nasty looking and I wasn’t sure how it would heal, but Claire and Pam got the two men’s wounds cleaned and patched up as best they could before we loaded everyone back into our pickup truck and trailer.

  While they worked on the wounded, I took the kids to sit up front in the pickup’s cab so that we could load the bodies of Gordon’s dead sons Billy and Jerry, as well as of his nephew Edwin, onto the trailer. We covered them with one of our extra blankets in an effort to provide some dignity to the deceased, respect to Gordon, and keep the gruesome sight of the dead men from the curious gazes of the children. I figured that Paul and Sarah could probably handle it after what they’d been through over the past year, but I really didn’t want my little three-year-old son Jason waking up at night screaming with nightmares of bullet-ridden, burned, and bloodied corpses.

  Then we got the rest of the family and the remaining wounded loaded up and started east towards the coast at a pretty good clip. I hoped that Gordon was being truthful with us about having fuel, because we were literally running on empty. If it was a lie, we would find ourselves stranded and having to spend some additional time scavenging the area for more. But Gordon seemed like a decent individual. He’d been forthright with us so far. Of course right now he was desperate, and desperate men said and did desperate things.

  Thankfully though, it wasn’t a lie. It turned out that Gordon was actually very well situated at his little spot on the coast and we ended up spending around three weeks with him and his family. We almost felt like prisoners – although extremely happy ones – as Gordon refused to let us leave until he felt he’d thoroughly repaid us for what we’d done to help him and his boys. He lavished us with food, drink, new clothing, and anything else we needed. And over the weeks we spent with him, our families grew to become quite close. We told them the story of how we’d ended up in Florida all the way from Chicago, and they explained how they themselves had survived the flu and built their post-flu business.

  And so, over the ensuing weeks, we lived with them, we laughed with them, and we cried and mourned with them, attending the family funeral they held for the three men – their three boys – killed on the fuel salvage run. It was a tough time for their family, but I think it helped having us there. They seemed to appreciate the new faces, and Gordon’s wife Samantha, his daughter Danielle, as well as his brother’s wife Cindy, all made a big fuss over Jason and Pam. Pam was now working on month number four – although without a doctor’s expertise, we relied upon our best estimate of conception – of her pregnancy and had a nice round baby bump to show for it.

  We found that Gordon had a pretty nice little situation going for himself and his family on north Florida’s Atlantic coast. He was involved in much of the trade along the stretch of coast that reached from south Jacksonville to north Daytona. He said he preferred to stay away from the more urbanized areas as they tended to present characters like those he’d encountered the day we’d met him on his fuel run. The results of that run-in were exactly why he liked his quieter, lesser-developed, and lesser-populated stretch of A1A. He was a businessman, not a mercenary. And while he recognized that guns –having replaced the cell phone as the “must have” device of those involved in regular commerce – often accompanied post-flu business transactions, it didn’t mean that he enjoyed using them.

  The core of Gordon’s business was trade and transportation, but he dabbled occasionally in services since customers without tradable wares often had to pay with their time and physical labor.

  Several of Gordon’s buddies who had survived the flu worked for him in his quite successful taxi service. Even after Armageddon had struck, people still needed to get around, and Gordon had realized that without gas stations or reliable transportation for many flu survivors, being able to get from point A to point B was not as simple as it sounded. He painted several of his vehicles bright yellow and would send them up and down A1A and US1 three times a week to make the run from south Jacksonville to north Daytona. He told us that he’d tried running all the way to Miami in the beginning, but two of his cabs never returned from their trips. Therefore, he labeled that portion of coastline too dangerous. Now he kept his cabs close to home. With phone service no longer available, creating a regular schedule allowed riders to be out and on the side of the road for pickup at pre-set times each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

  One of the major stops on the line was Gordon’s own trading post, which was attached to his garage shop. In this way, people could fulfill their weekly shopping needs at his store while at the same time using his cab service. It was a win/win for him and his establishment. He had actually been thinking of expanding his operation to open two more stores, one at the north end of his route and one to the south so that he could begin and end his cab service entirely from businesses that he owned. The loss of his two sons and nephew had been a severe setback though in this area as he had planned on having them help get the two new locations up and operating as well as to eventually assist in running the stores and taxi service.

  At the end of our multi-week stint with Gordon and his family, I let him know about our plans to continue our trek south. He brought Will, Ray, dad, and me over to his garage for beers while the women shopped in the attached store and picked out some new clothing and other accessories for the trip.

  Gordon had a private tiki bar out back, complete with bar stools and thatched palm frond roof under which we could sit comfortably in the shade. Gordon played the role of bartender, pulling cold beers from a cooler full of ice, popping them, and lining them up before us on the bar. Then he popped one for himself and took a long swig.

  “Ahh,” he exhaled. “That’s good. Amazin’ how much you appreciate a cold beer these days,” he nodded.

  We all took drinks ourselves, relis
hing the carbonated coolness as it trickled down our parched throats.

  “So you’re leavin’ us?” Gordon said after another drink of his beer.

  “Looks that way,” I nodded. “We need to move on. We have a plan we’re trying to stick to and we’ve been enough of a burden to you and your family.”

  “No burden at all,” Gordon countered quickly. “Fact, it’s been a pleasure. But if you’re set on goin’, y’all best be careful out there. The Fort Lauderdale and Miami areas ain’t like they are up here.” Then he snorted, “Heck, even up here don’t seem all that safe anymore. I used to think I had it made here, that I’d be able to retire soon and let the boys handle everything.” His eyes became red and watery at their mention. “Now that’s all changed.” He wiped them dry with the back of his hand. “Hate to see fine folks like y’all get yourselves into trouble.”

  “Thanks Gordon,” I smiled at him. “But we’re pretty good at taking care of ourselves.”

  He nodded, “Yeah, I suppose y’all are if you’ve made it this far, but still…it ain’t no joke down there.” He paused and took another drink. “When y’all thinkin’ ‘bout leavin’?”

  “Probably a couple days from now…if you’ll have us that much longer,” I added.

  “Our pleasure,” he smiled.

  He paused for a moment, considering, and then said, “I’m gonna throw somethin’ out there for you to ponder on. Don’t wanna put a kink in your works or anything, but it’s another option…maybe a safer option. And options ain’t all that plentiful these days.”

  We sat sipping our beers, waiting curiously to hear what Gordon had to say as we sweated in the shade of the tiki bar’s awning.

  “With the loss of my boys, I’m a little short handed ‘round here now. I could use some help, but I can’t bring just anybody onboard. First off, the labor pool ain’t what I’d exactly call full these days, and findin’ trustworthy individuals that I can depend on is near impossible. So many people these days will rip you off the second they get the chance or they’re drunks or drug addicts or just damn unreliable.” He took another long drink of his beer. “What y’all think of our families mergin’? I think it could be a good move for both sides. It’ll give me the extra bodies…trustworthy bodies I might add…I need to expand my little empire. Same time, it’d give you all fine folks the opportunity to settle down. Heck, I’d even consider givin’ you part ownership in the business with the opportunity to eventually buy out one of the stores from me once y’all understand the operation.”