An Undeclared War (Countdown to Armageddon Book 4)

by Darrell Maloney

  “But that’s not why you came here. What can I do for you?”

  “One of my friends came to me a few days ago and said he saw the Pike gang out there on the roadway, getting picked apart by buzzards and coyotes.”

  “They attacked us, Jim. We had no choice but to defend ourselves.”

  “I know that, Tom. They were a bad lot. They won’t be missed, and nobody is faulting you. In fact, once word got out around town that the Pike gang was dead everybody breathed a big sigh of relief. They’d been terrorizing the town for awhile now. You’ve earned yourself the reputation around Kerrville as some kind of a hero. Like Superman.”

  “I’m not alone. I’ve got my own group of folks now. They’re good people and peaceful. All they want is to be left alone.”

  “I respect that, Tom. No one will do them any harm while I’m alive. But the townsfolk wanted to make you a proposition. And since you and I go way back, they asked me to come out here to talk to you about it.”

  “A proposition?”

  “Tony Pike’s gang weren’t the only ones who’ve caused us problems during the blackout. They were by far the worst. But there have been others also.

  “The city leaders have gotten together and decided we need a sheriff.

  “Not just a man who will put on a uniform and then start his own brand of bullying. No, they want a good man, who will do a good job, run an honest department. Actually help people instead of just pushing them around and taking from them.

  “The city leaders have been struggling on how to find such a man, since money don’t mean much any more. Also, they’ve been arguing on who to ask.

  “But then, at the last town council meeting, word went around that the Tony Pike gang was killed and put on display on Highway 83 as a warning to others. And the counsel started talking and decided that any man tough enough to stand up to Tony Pike and win is the kind of man they want.

  “Pike was feared. People scattered at the sight of him. He took what he wanted from our women and from our stores. His gang was brutal. Between them all, they shot and killed at least twenty people that I know of. One man was shot just for getting in their way on the sidewalk.

  “If word got around that our sheriff was the man who killed Pike and his whole gang, I suspect the rest of the bad guys would move on to easier pickings elsewhere. And I reckon that any who stayed behind would be no match for you.

  “The mayor told me to tell you that Kerrville will authorize you to hire ten deputies. You and them will be sworn officers of the law, and authorized to enforce the laws of the city, county and state for all of Kerr County. The county has mostly died off, people wise. We figure only about twenty percent of the population has survived since the blackout started. But those who are left need some kind of lawmen if we’re ever gonna get back to normal.”

  Tom wasn’t sure what he felt.

  “I’ll be honest with you, Jim. I didn’t shoot Pike and his gang. At least not all of them. I’m not alone. The people I’m with are good people, just trying to protect what’s theirs. And I lost a good friend and a good woman in the fight with the Pike gang”

  “I suspected that might be the case, Tom. I even told the council that. It didn’t seem to matter much. They said that whether you shot them all yourself or led a group of others to help, it wouldn’t matter. You’d still have a group of good men once you hired your deputies. What the city needs isn’t just a man with a gun. We’ve got plenty of those already. What the city needs is a man with a gun who knows right from wrong. And a man capable of getting other good men to follow him.”

  “I’ve got a good thing here, Jim. I’ve got me a missus now, and a lot of good people I care about and who care about me. I’m not sure I want to give that up to go and get shot at for a bunch of people I mostly don’t know. And to be honest with you, I’m not so sure my missus would care for it much either.

  “And there’s something else, too. We’ve got a baby with us. If I went out to Kerrville and brought the plague back in with me, the baby would be in danger. That’s something I cannot bring myself to do.”

  Colson looked puzzled.

  “What plague, Tom? What are you talking about?”

  “The respiratory plague. It’s swept through San Antonio and a lot of other places around the country too. It’s killed a lot of people.”

  “Well, I don’t know what’s going on in San Antonio, Tom, but there’s no plague in Kerrville. We’ve got a lot of dead out there. We’ve been burying them as we find them. But they haven’t been killed by no plague.

  Most have killed themselves because they just couldn’t take the struggle any more. Others have been killed by marauders or bandits. And like I said, the Pike gang killed more than their fair share.

  “And most of the medical emergencies we’ve had since the blackouts, the heart attacks and other stuff…

  “They’ve caused a lot of deaths because there were no vehicles to get people to the hospital. And those that made it there found a hospital that was barely functioning.

  “Hell, there’s a lot of ways people in Kerrville have died, Tom. But none of them by this plague you speak of.”

  “Well, that’s good to know, Jim. It’ll definitely make my decision a lot easier. But I still have to think about it, and talk it over with Linda.”

  “I understand that, Tom, and I respect it too. I didn’t know you had a missus now. Congratulations on that. I reckon that changes things a might. But the offer’s still good if it’s something you want to do. There ain’t a lot of good ways to compensate you, what with money not being any good any more. But the council says to tell you they’ll consider any demands you make.”

  He smiled.

  “That is, if you can talk the missus into letting you do it.”

  Tom held out his hand and said, “How about if I let you know? Are you still at the same spread?”

  “Yep. Second turnoff after you turn west on I-10.”

  “Let me talk it over with Linda and the others. I’ll let you know.”

  “Fair enough.”

  There was no more to be said. The men shook hands and went their separate ways.

  On the Gator, on the way back to the compound, Tom smiled to himself and said, “Well I’ll be damned…”

  -28-

  “Tom Haskins! You’ve got people here who love you dearly. Why would you even consider such a darn fool thing?”

  Tom looked at Linda and chuckled.

  “Did you just say ‘darn fool thing’?”

  “Yes. Why?”

  “Nothing. It’s just that you’re starting to sound like me now. You’ve gone country.”

  “Oh, shut up and answer my question. Why would you want to run off and play sheriff?”

  “Well, honey, first of all if I shut up like you ask, I can’t answer your question. So I’m stuck between a rock and a hard place. I guess I’ll just sit here and watch the smoke come out of your ears.”

  She looked at him hard, until his smile broke her down and she laughed.

  “Tom Haskins, you’re a crazy old coot. What am I ever going to do with you?”

  “Well, first you can love me forever. Then you can hear me out.”

  “The first one’s a given. The second one I’m not so sure about. Why would you want to go off and fight for people you don’t even know?”

  “First of all, you’re wrong about that. I do know them. At least some of them. I’ve been doing business in Kerrville my whole life. Until you folks came up here, all of my friends lived in or around Kerrville. I don’t know how many are still alive, but I reckon some of them are.”

  “But Tom, we’re your people now. We’re the ones who love you. I’m the one who loves you.”

  “Let me finish, honey. I haven’t even said I want to do it. I just said that they asked me to. I want to think on it a few days.”

  “So that means I have a few days to talk you out of it?”

  “I don’t reckon you can try any harder than you a
re now.”

  “Watch me.”

  But they didn’t argue about it any more, and Linda didn’t cajole him about how important he was to the security of the camp.

  Tom himself wasn’t even sure it was something he was willing to do. So any arguments for the idea would have been half-hearted at best.

  And even if his heart was set on it, he likely wouldn’t have argued.

  He knew Linda was a woman who tended to fly off the handle and see only the negative when faced with a new idea. But she usually thought things through in her own time and was much more receptive a few days or weeks later.

  Over dinner a few days after Jim Colson came to call, she brought it up again out of the blue.

  “Honey, if you helped out the people of Kerrville, could you still be here at nighttime?”

  Tom was caught off guard. He’d expected her to bring it up when the two of them were alone.

  “Well, I hadn’t thought of it, to be honest. But if I took the job, that would be one of the stipulations, yes.”

  Hannah asked, “What would the other stipulations be?”

  “There would be two others. I wouldn’t consider the job unless my two way radio’s range extended over the entire county. If I can’t stay in constant touch with you guys here, and can’t be called back immediately in time of trouble, then I’ll pass.

  “And lastly, I’d insist on driving my old Ford, even if we can get some of the old sheriff’s vehicles working. My Ford has character. It’s the same model Andy Griffith was sheriff in, on his old TV show. I reckon if it’s good enough for Andy it’s good enough for me.”

  Linda asked, “Does that mean you’ve decided to do it?”

  “Nope. I didn’t say that. I just said those were the things that I’d insist on if I did. I’m still kicking it around. Does your bringing it up mean I have your permission?”

  Linda laughed.

  “Oh, you old hard head. You’re a full grown man. You don’t need my permission to do anything. But I appreciate you not going off half-cocked and accepting this job without giving me a chance to chew on it for a couple of days.”

  Jordan’s jaw dropped and he said, “Oh, my God.”

  All eyes turned to him.

  Linda said, “What?”

  “Mom, listen to yourself. You sound just like Tom. You’ve turned redneck.”

  “Yeah, well, I can think of a lot worse people to be like.”

  She looked at Tom.

  “If you do this thing, would you wear a uniform? I’ve always loved a man in uniform.”

  Zachary rolled his eyes and said, “Oh Geez.”

  Little Misty added her two cents.

  “Would you get to wear one of those funny hats, like Smokey the Bear?”

  “No, honey. I reckon my regular cowboy hat would be perfectly fine.”

  But Tom still struggled mightily with the notion. On one hand, he felt a certain kinship with the people of Kerrville and Kerr County. He’d grown up with a lot of them, and considered many of them his friends.

  And part of the cowboy way was neighbor helping neighbor, friend helping friend.

  On the other hand, he’d grown much closer to this group of people than he ever thought he would. He wasn’t related to any of them by blood. And he was by far the oldest one of the bunch. But they felt like family to him now. He loved each and every one of them.

  In Scott’s absence, he felt everything a grandfather would feel when Sara gave birth to little Chris. He considered Scott a little brother, and Zachary and Jordan almost like the sons he never had.

  In the heat of the battle against the Pike gang, he’d have given his life for any one of them without hesitation.

  And then there was Linda. He loved her without question. She’d seen a good friend die before her eyes. Was horribly scarred now. She’d gone through enough lately, without having to worry about watching her man go off each morning and having to worry whether this was the day he’d get shot in the back by some bandit.

  The truth was, he had another stipulation that went unsaid at the dinner table. In addition to the radio’s range and use of his old car, there was one other thing he’d require before taking the job.

  He’d never even consider it without Linda’s full support.

  After all she’d been through, he owed her that much.

  -29-

  Jordan knocked on the door of the dining room later that evening. Everyone had gone to bed except for him and Hannah, who was at the security console, and Tom and Linda, who were at the table drinking coffee.

  “Am I interrupting anything?”

  Linda looked up.

  “No, honey. Come on in.”

  “I just wanted to give you my two cents, if you want it.”

  “Your two cents about what?”

  “About Tom being the town sheriff.”

  Linda looked at Tom.

  Tom said, “I’d love to hear whatever you have to say.”

  “Well, it’s like this. A few months ago, faced with the prospect of you being gone during the days, I’d have been uneasy with the idea. But a lot has changed since then.

  “We’ve been at war with some very bad people. And yes, we lost Joyce. But it could have been a lot worse. We could have lost a lot more people and we didn’t. We fought them off and we won. And in the process, we hardened a bit. We found out what we’re capable of. We found out how tough we are.

  “I know it was mostly because of you and Dad and the preparations you made, and your leadership during the battle itself. But I’m confident that even if you’re not here if another battle starts, we’ll be able to defend ourselves.

  “And besides, I’ll bet I’ve thought of something no one else has thought of.”

  Linda looked at him and asked, “And what’s that, son?”

  “If we’re ever attacked again, during the daytime, Tom’s being in Kerrville would help us. Not hurt us.”

  This caught Tom and Linda totally off guard.

  Jordan elaborated.

  “Last time Dad heard the battle starting on the ham radio. He said they jumped in the car immediately. But it still took them over an hour to get here.

  “Tom, you’ll have one of our radios on your belt wherever you go. You’ll know immediately if we’re ever attacked again. And you’ll come running. But the difference is, it won’t take you ninety minutes to get here. Even if you’re on the far side of the county, it’ll only take you twenty minutes or so.

  “And here’s the kicker. We couldn’t ask the law in Kerrville for help last time because they didn’t have any law. And even if they did, we had no way to contact them.

  “But if you do this, if you take this job, you’ll build a sheriff’s department and hire some deputies. And as soon as the shooting starts, you can put out a call to them. Not only will you come running to our defense, they will too.

  “And when they get here, they can outflank the bad guys and we can get them in a crossfire. We’ll actually be better off than we would be if we had to rely on Dad and John coming to reinforce us like last time.”

  Tom scratched his head. It was, in fact, something he hadn’t considered. That the compound might actually be safer by his taking the job. Not less safe.

  Linda was impressed. She couldn’t see any flaws in her son’s logic, and she was supremely proud that he was able to see an angle no one else thought of.

  Tom said, “You make a good point, Jordan. I only have one question. Where did you learn about flanking maneuvers and crossfire?”

  Jordan put a hand on the old man’s shoulder and said, “I had a great teacher.”

  Tom said, “You know I almost consider you my own son, don’t you?”

  “Yes, sir. I know that.”

  “You might not also know that if I do decide to do this sheriff thing, I’ll have to pass the torch to you. You’ll become the alpha male around here, at least until your dad comes back. Your mother and Hannah are great people, but they’re not the kind to do so
me of the man chores. It’ll be up to you to carry that load until your dad comes back. Are you ready to do that?”

  Linda feigned offense.

  “Hey, you old codger. Hannah and I can drive a tractor and shoot a gun as well as anybody.”

  “You know what I’m talking about, honey. Slaughtering a bull, and wallowing around in the mud chasing hogs, and lifting anything over a hundred pounds. Killing rattlesnakes and cleaning fish and that sort of thing.”

  “I know what you mean.”

  She looked at her son and asked him the same question.

  “Well, are you ready?”

  The younger man replied, “I’ve been ready for while now. I’ve just been waiting for the chance to prove myself.”

  -30-

  A couple of days later Tom still hadn’t made up his mind.

  That was unusual for him. He was a man who usually made his decisions quickly, and then dealt with whatever consequences resulted. His instincts were sound, and in nearly all the key decisions he’d made in his life, he could look back and know they’d been the right ones.

  But this one… this one was different. He somehow blamed himself for Joyce’s death and the scarring on Linda’s face. He knew in his heart that Jordan was right. It would probably be more beneficial for him to head up a law enforcement agency and be just minutes away with help should it ever be needed.

  The other side of the coin, though, was what if he were needed before then? What if an attack came so suddenly that they needed every good man they could get, from the first minutes of the battle? What if being a few minutes away with reinforcements wasn’t good enough?

  Everyone in the compound, even Linda, was giving him plenty of slack on this one. No one would give him any grief, regardless of which way he went. He knew that.

  But that didn’t make the decision any easier.

  Sometimes when someone is riding the fence about something, circumstances take over and make the decision for them.

  This time when Jim Colson and his group of men came calling, they bypassed the large white boulders at the end of Tom’s driveway. And they didn’t tie their horses to the shrubs along Highway 83.