The Hasten the Day Trilogy

by Billy Roper

  The tigers which had escaped from the adjoining zoo ruled the Overton Park golf course, living off the packs of feral dogs which they hunted in turn after the big dogs ate the little dogs. “That’s how the world works,” Squire Haynes said to Jim, as the two hunted the big cats from the roof of the Brooks Museum of Art. He stretched his long legs out behind him. The collection below had been left unvandalized because of the feline predators patrolling the area, but they had to be killed before the park could be added to the cleared zone list. The younger, dark-haired Page acted as Wilson’s spotter as he tracked a female in the tall grass. His BAR 30.06 dispatched her quickly and mercifully through the scope. Both of them agreed that they regretted shooting the big cats a lot more than their usual targets. Haynes didn’t even like having to shoot the dogs, but most of them were second generation, and had never been anybody’s pet.

  On the sixth day of the E.C.O., the Tennessee Volunteers militia entered the city from the east, occupying Bartlett, Germantown, and Cordova with a force of over 1,300 mechanized infantry under the Unified Command. The mass of this body of troops, led by Colonel Brian Owens, encountered only fleeting resistance as they drove the few hundred remaining blacks from both north and south into the massive Shelby Farms park, and established pickets around its perimeter. Hardly a dozen Volunteers, Crusaders, and Razorbacks had been killed in the fighting, all in hand to hand combat, for the whole city. The Razorback Regiment and Crusaders concentrated on continuing to clear the area inside the I-40 loop, as previously planned. The day after the Crusaders linked up with the Volunteers at the Fogleman Expressway, the Forward Recon Team redeployed back to the Nebraska, which returned to its home port in St. Louis.

  After the interior loop had been declared clear and the airport was secured, the remaining surviving natives were herded into Shelby Farms with the rest. Overall, just over 2,000 were concentrated there, with standing orders to shoot any who tried to leave. The rest had vacated the city or starved or been killed in intertribal warfare over the years. In time, they would be liquidated, or moved south past the Mississippi line by the Tennessee troops. It wasn’t Squire Haynes’ problem, either way. Standing in front of the graffiti-covered white columns, Wilson reflected on how much had been lost. The tall, thin hillbilly wished he’d made it here sooner. He and Jim led a team through the surprisingly small rooms, to the cramped basement bar, then back upstairs and past the fallen velvet ropes to the second story. They would salvage what they could. Then they would hand over the final cleanup and reoccupation of their city to the Volunteers. By the end of the summer the Crusaders and Razorbacks would be back home, the TVA hydroelectric dams they had back online now would bring power back to the city, and it would probably grow as big as St. Louis or even Chicago, after a while. The Squire took a final walk around to the grave out by the empty swimming pool, before loading up the duffel bag full of souvenirs he had gathered and climbing back into the truck. ‘Operation Graceland’ was a success.

  Chapter Ten

  “My feeling as a Christian points me to my Lord and Savior as a fighter. It points me to the man who once in loneliness, surrounded by a few followers, recognized these Jews for what they were and summoned men to fight against them and who, God's truth! was greatest not as a sufferer but as a fighter. In boundless love as a Christian and as a man I read through the passage which tells us how the Lord at last rose in His might and seized the scourge to drive out of the Temple the brood of vipers and adders. How terrific was his fight against the Jewish poison. Today, after two thousand years, with deepest emotion I recognize more profoundly than ever before the fact that it was for this that He had to shed his blood upon the Cross.” -Adolf Hitler

  There were days when the sun was so cruel

  That all the tears turned to dust and I just knew my eyes were drying up forever…

  In St. Louis, the roll call of the Executive and his cabinet came first: “Speaker of the House Lt. Gen. John Wayne McNabb, present. Secretary of State Lt. Gen. Mark Smith, present. Secretary of Defense Major General Fred Grace, absent. Attorney General Jason McAllister Roberts, present. Commander in Chief Brigadier General Nathaniel Harrison, present…” the Sergeant -At-Arms boomed out over the public address system of the Old Courthouse’s largest courtroom, now converted to legislative purposes. The opening of the new session was being broadcast live around the country on Post Dispatch TV, and around the world on BBC North America and RTV from Moscow.

  Each of the representatives from the 32 New American states stood in turn as the name of their constituency was announced. “Alaska, …Whitehorse, …British Columbia, …Washington, …Oregon, …North California, …Alberta, …Montana, …North Idaho, …Saskatchewan, …Manitoba, …Wyoming, …Dakota, …Nebraska, …Kansas, …Minnesota, …Iowa, …Missouri, …North Arkansas, …Wisconsin, …North Michigan, …Illinois, …South Michigan, …Indiana, …Ohio, …Kentucky, …West Virginia, …Tennessee, …West Pennsylvania, …Oahu, …Emerald Coast…and nonrepresentative observers from the territories of East Colorado, Virginia, and Northeast Oklahoma were present, as well. One of the first scheduled topics for discussion on the itinerary was whether the liberated areas of Virginia would remain an independent territory under expansion, or be annexed to West Virginia.

  Speaker McNabb opened the session with his beginning comments. .. “Welcome to you all, my fellow New Americans. The work of our Provisional Government is now half done, but the work of each of us, and of our nation, is just beginning. Over the last five years since the redefinition of the nature of our mutual association, we have created a new nation on the firm foundations of the old, its founding people. That nation continues to grow, not only in population numbers and in geographic boundaries, but in terms of our sharpening and lengthening teeth and claws. One of the most important figures in building the defense of our nation, the last surviving member of the former Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Fred Grace, is gravely ill, as many of you know. Our prayers are with Fred tonight, as they have been for some time. But the greatness of our nation is that none of us are larger than the nation, and none of us can be irreplaceable. We are all expendable. That being said, it’s hard to imagine anyone ever being able to fill Fred’s boots. Over the last week, I have been discussing his health and our needs as a nation with Gen. Grace. I have also discussed the potential need with my chosen nominee for the position. We have agreed that, pending the approval of this body by a majority vote, upon the successful cessation of his current mission in California, I will ask Major General Gerald “Ferocious” Ferguson to join our team, and my cabinet, as the next Secretary of Defense. Commensurate with that position, and in

  acknowledgement of his heroic leadership of the American Foreign Legions under the most difficult circumstances since the end of the former government, Gen. Harrison has granted Gen. Ferguson a promotion to Lieutenant General. So, we’re going to be top heavy with those.” Polite chuckles answered him. “But, for those of you counting stars, in order to do that, technically, we have to combine the civilian and military authority of the Executive. If that additional measure is approved by a majority vote of this body, then I would like to announce the promotion of Brigadier General Nathaniel Harrison to General of the Army. That’s all five stars, Nathaniel.”

  Gen. Harrison and Gen. Smith looked at each other. They had known it was coming, but there was a moment of indecision about how the Congress would react to John’s bold move. Attorney General Roberts’ legal opinion was that, with the entrenchment of a unicameral legislative body selecting from among their own a Speaker with all of the powers of a Chief Executive, the only way to ward off an eventual conflict between the civilian and military authorities was to combine them. As the 35 men and women unanimously stood and applauded, chanting his name, McNabb knew that he had won them over.

  When they finally set back down and allowed him to continue, John adjusted his glasses on his face and waxed philosophical. “You all know, too, that we face unknown challenges in the future.
As we sit here tonight, what appears to be a strain of the Turkish Flu is ravaging across Mexico and into southern California. Thus far, we are not certain that our population will remain safe from this disease, so health care provisions are being made, just in case. Now, I don’t want non-Whites in my country in any form or fashion, or any status. None of us do, we’ve made that clear, and enacted legislation to ensure that remains the codified law of the land, just as our Founding Fathers did in 1790 with the Naturalization Act, their own original definition of the qualifications for citizenship. Let’s hope we stick to it better than they did, this time around, right?”

  Three dozen heads nodded in agreement. “But, we still need to be prepared, just in case the virus mutates and jumps across genetic lines again. I know that all of you will join with me in praying that does not happen. In the meantime, we can rely on the Turkish Flu to remove these minor-league amateur races out of the game, and refine the playoff brackets a bit, if you get my meaning, just like the Cardinals are doing this year!” the Speaker continued. Several of the other representatives, loyal to their own home teams in the reinvigorated national pastime, booed his last comment good-naturedly. John may not have won their hearts and minds, but with the promise of the power of Commander-in-Chief whenever he got tired of talking and called for a vote, he had them by the throats, and their hearts and minds would follow.

  McNabb closed his speech with a prayer for the continued blessings of God over His covenant people, then asked for a voice vote on both resolutions. Ferguson’s nomination for Secretary of Defense, and the combination of the civilian and military powers within the Executive, were both passed without dissent or abstention. As the new Executive proviso was being codified by a gaggle of lawyers-turned Congressmen supervised by the Attorney General, a courier came running into the room, right into the black clad arms of John’s ubiquitous S.S. bodyguards. He was waving excitedly at the Speaker. John paused looking over the lawyers’ shoulders and walked over to see what all the excitement was about. A few words were exchanged, then the Speaker ran back to the microphone at the podium, the same podium that had saved his life during the assassination attempt five years before and still bore the scars of that bomb, as he did. McNabb tapped on the microphone rapidly, to get everyone’s attention. As they looked up in consternation, he yelled out quickly, “Hey, sorry, guys, I gotta get to the hospital, my wife just went into labor, we’re having another baby!” Louder applause than before filled the room as the most powerful man on the continent ran for his car, while his security team tried to keep up.

  As I walked out on the streets of Laredo. As I walked out on Laredo one day,

  I spied a poor cowboy wrapped in white linen, Wrapped in white linen as cold as the clay…

  Most folks didn’t realize it, but Juarez was five times the size of El Paso. Cpl. Brown and his squad looked like desperadoes with their bandanas over their mouths and noses, but they weren’t here to rob a train. The stench of thousands of rotting corpses was still overwhelming, even after two or three weeks of drying out in the west Texas summer sun. Nancy and their other horses were skittish from the reek, as they trotted across the International Bridge, past the empty customs posts. The lanes were blocked in both directions by a mass of cars left when the sick and dying had begun driving in any direction at all. There had been no escape to the north or the south for those of even distant Asian heritage. That included Hispanics with Native American ancestors. Mike figured that the White casts of those Mexican soap operas might still be kicking, but they wouldn’t have much of an audience left, these days.

  A fter news of the spreading contagion in Mexico had reached President Bellefont’s desk in Austin, he had first called a meeting with the best doctors the Republic of Texas had to offer. They had confirmed that as far as the reports they were getting indicated, the virus did not attack the immune systems or respiratory systems of people of wholly European ancestry, but there were some indications that all humans could be carriers of the disease. Perry then ordered Gen. Hampton, who was managing the recolonization of Houston, to mobilize all of their armed forces in the southern and western quadrants. If there was one thing the old politician could recognize, it was an opportunity.

  Company B had been harassing the Republica del Norte supply lines into Santa Fe when the order came over, travelling faster west than the virus could surge north. The 23rd’s Captain figured they had passed it heading up, as they went south. It was kind of a shame, he’d said, but taking back all of Texas if God’s hand reached out offering it to them through the provenance of the Turkish Flu was their first priority. Of course, they hadn’t been the only unit involved. Three other Republic of Texas Mounted Infantry companies had joined them outside of Las Cruces, as they watched the funeral pyres for the dead there smoke up the sky. By the time they all got to El Paso, there was no more smoke, because there weren’t enough Mexes left alive to dispose of the dead. Some squads peeled off the main body to investigate and secure specific points, as they spread out to cover as much ground as possible. Mike’s platoon was going all the way to the end of the Republic’s claim.

  The border had been moot for five years, anyway, since it had been that long since it was a part of America, or seen by a White man. He had visited here when he was a kid, with his folks, but the 23rd Mounted Infantry soldier didn’t remember it looking this run- down. Brown wished that he was with the Lieutenant checking out what military hardware might still be at Fort Bliss or Biggs Army Airfield back behind them, but he had his orders. Judging by the fact that all of the serviceable planes the reconquistadores had at Biggs and at the civilian airport next door they’d tried to take off to who-knows where in when the Turkish Flu burned its way across Sonora and Chihuahua, he doubted there was much left there, though. The Republic of Texas Air Force F-16s from Dyess that had shot them all out of the skies had done a good deed, Mike thought. They couldn’t have those things falling out of the clouds onto innocent God-fearing White folks when the pilots started bleeding out their eyes, could they?

  So far, there were only a handful of survivors in the city. They had all run from them, since that last idiot Norteno soldier who’d been standing guard all by himself at the New Mexico/Texas border. He had survived the Turkish Flu, just to die of lead poisoning. None of the immunes stuck around to ask for help, or to tell them to go to hell, or anything. The streets were pretty empty, just a few cats and a bunch of hungry dogs and a lot of dead bodies making the dogs less hungry. Cpl. Brown wondered if the disease or the rotted meat would make the animals sick. Juarez had always smelled like sewage in the summertime, the way most neighborhoods just swept their waste out into the streets to let it flow down the gutters. He did remember that smell. The ammonia of it would almost be better than the too-sweet odor filling the streets, now. Once they got past the main highways, it looked like most people had shut up their houses and tried to avoid the virus. It had been airborne, but they probably hadn’t known or understood that. Windows and doors were boarded up, and there were some signs of rioting. Spent shell casings, overturned barricades, a smashed up policia truck. All the tourist shops were trashed and looted, up and down the strip. Randy and Jared dismounted and checked a couple of closed doors at the front of the police station, and found them unlocked. The inside looked like a tornado had come through. Mike bet there were plenty of good medical supplies in all of the pharmacies, though. The ones that hadn’t been looted. Those would be useful. He made a mental note to mention that to the Lieutenant.

  As a Corporal, he had no way of knowing, but young soldiers similar to Mike were busy that week, and in the weeks and months to come, seizing control of places like Victoria, Corpus Christi, and McAllen. General Scott Hampton himself led the column repatriating all of the immune Hispanics from Texas who had survived the Turkish Flu to Monterrey. After they were all rounded up, the Latino survivors in the Republic about half filled the Mexican city, which had boasted a population of over a million before Cinco Day. By the end o
f the next year, it was discovered that only about ten percent of the children born to immunes inherited the resistance to the disease which their parents still carried. That meant that with each new generation, the Hispanic population would decrease by 90%. ¿Le gusta a usted aquí?

  O when the Saints go marching in When the Saints go marching in O Lord I want to be in that number When the Saints go marching in…

  The Aztlan defenders in San Diego had gone first, being closer to the primary continental disease vector. Nortenos there hadn’t had much time to react, they’d just gotten sick and died. Gull and Beehive Brigades in Los Angeles had been able to ethnically cleanse the survivors days later, extending LDS territory to Imperial Beach and claiming the port of San Diego in anticipation that Ferguson’s legions would grab it up, if they didn’t, first. Deseret’s primary concern was making sure that the Church didn’t get outmaneuvered by the New Americans on the west coast. That kept them from overextending themselves too thinly on the ground, or taking more territory than they could hold. It would take a lot of big families to fill the area, so their polygamy would be an asset, there. Eventually they worked their way down to Ensenada, where Saints found a half-crazed Japanese man living on the beach. He told them a bizarre story of being lost at sea and starving until he was so thin that he could slip between the bars of a jail cell, but they put him down as hopelessly insane and relocated him to Puerto Penasco with the rest.