by Ira Tabankin
“Captain, aren’t they entitled to a trial and have the proof of their crimes presented to them?”
“Glenda, as you know, we aren’t living in normal times. You were ready and willing to kill us when we first met. What changed in you?”
“I saw you’re good to your word. You mean what you say, you’re honest and I believe you’re trying to help the average person.”
“Glenda, our economy has imploded, money is worthless, almost all international trade has stopped, banks are closed, ATMs don’t work, stores are closed. The niceties of yesterday are gone. If things weren’t totally screwed up, I and my people wouldn't be here. We’re not supposed to be an internal police force. We’re supposed to fight and defeat our nation’s enemies. Today criminals are enemies of our nation, they are stopping our rebuilding efforts. They are harming our citizens, we don’t have the time or the resource to spend months on expensive trials that come down to small details of the law. I don’t like the task we’ve been assigned, but as they say, someone has to do it. I’ll answer a question, you have asked yet, why not just round them up and drop them in a prison? If we rounded them up and dropped them in prison, we’d tie up resources guarding them. I for one would rather spend our limited resources helping our good people pull themselves back to where we used to be.”
“Captain, why not try them under military justice?”
“We need at least three officers for a court-marital, we rarely have two in an area. I’ll tell you what I will do, I’ll try to save some criminals we come across, we’ll hand them over to the people who’ve they’ve stolen from. I’ll let the people decide their fate. I think I can assure you, the people will hang them, maybe with a very short trial, but most won't bother after the sins these gangs have imposed upon them.”
“I’d feel better if the people had the final say. Captain, no one should be judge and jury, it’s not the American way.”
“Alright, I accept. I’ll instruct my people to allow the people to have the final say. In fact, one of my squads captured five criminals. Men who slipped away from the motorcycle club when we were approaching the mall. We captured them about half a mile from the mall.”
“What are you going to do with them?”
“I’m going to turn them over to the mayor of this town.”
“One of the conditions we’ve told the mayor is, their trial and punishment has to be held in front of the people they’ve harmed.”
“I think that’s a good condition. When is their trial going to take place?”
“This afternoon, at the town square. By the way, while we’re enjoying this excellent coffee, I thought of a way to punish criminals without killing them, don’t you think these eggs are very good, we were worried they were going to serve us powdered eggs.”
Laughing, Glenda says, “I’ve never had them.”
“That I can easily arrange although I don’t think that’s a very good idea. You see, my other idea to punish criminals is to feed them our breakfast MREs, which are made of powdered eggs. Sarge, do me a favor, please bring me one of the breakfast MRE packages.”
“Cap, you mean the ones we were going to save to feed the prisoners?”
Laughing, “Yes, those, I think Glenda ought to taste what some asshole thinks we should be living on while we defend them.”
The men laugh, they turn their chairs so they can watch Glenda eat the MRE. Captain Black smiles saying, “Now Glenda, the army has one rule about food, anything you take, you have to finish, no wasting food. Food is scarce in the field, hence if you take this MRE package from me, you have to finish it. Before you touch it, remember we were going to feed this to criminals.”
“You haven’t done anything to it have you? You’re busting my chops aren’t you? This is some sort of army joke isn’t it?”
“I swear on my honor as an officer and a gentleman, I haven’t done anything to it. You can open it yourself to see, no one has touched it, and yes it is a sort of army joke, most of the food they serve us in the field is a joke. A bad one on us.”
The men laugh, “Officer, yes, gentlemen, never.”
Glenda rips open the package, “Am I supposed to heat the meal?”
“There’s a heater and instructions inside. Enjoy, remember, you have to finish it.”
“It can’t be that bad. After all it was approved for our military use. No one would want to feed you something that made you sick if they expected you to have to go into a battle.”
The men laugh again, one responds, “Yes, by the same administration that hates us.”
Glenda dumps the contents of the package on the small picnic table, she asks, “What does Halal mean?”
The men again laugh, “It means it’s OK for Muslims to eat, no ham, no bacon, no sausage. It means it’s approved for their use, not for ours mind you.”
“That’s the best part of breakfast, after coffee.”
The captain laughs and nods, “You’re right, we didn’t get a vote. Hope you enjoy your breakfast.”
She follows the instructions to heat the ‘scrambled eggs’ she rips the warmed up package open, she dips her spoon in and puts the eggs in her mouth. Her face turns green, her eyes water. She looks around, looking for someplace to spit them out. The men around her all laugh, most spit up their coffee. She goes to spit the eggs out. Captain Black holds up his hand, “No, remember, whatever you take, you eat. Enjoy, just like something else in life, you’ll get used to it, just swallow.”
The men fall over laughing, most have tears running down their cheeks.
With her mouth full and her face green, she says, “I can’t.”
“Now don’t you think this may be the perfect punishment for prisoners? I plan to save all of our breakfast meals for them, only the best for our poor criminals who grew up in a broken home with only two color TVs.”
“How can anyone eat that? That’s the worst thing I’ve ever tasted.”
“No, it’s not, we have others you can try.” The men laugh while they slap each other on their backs.
“Oh my God. They really expect you to eat that? I think you have a good idea, keep the criminals alive and force feed them that crap, it’s worse than death. Death would be a mercy over having to eat that three times a day.”
The men are falling off their chairs laughing.
Captain Black says, “I’m sure you’ll enjoy the trial this afternoon. Right now, I’m going to get some rest. One of the first things you learn as a soldier is to eat, piss and sleep whenever you can, right now I can sleep so I’m going to my tent.”
As the captain leaves the picnic area, Glenda watches him go, she gets up to follow him, the troops whistle after her. She turns around and gives them the international salute of her middle finger and a smile.
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We’re having a standoff just inside the doors to the shelter, I don’t want to kill the three who ended up with us, after all, they’re just kids. They ran to escape the tornado, they saw us, they didn’t know who we were, they thought we knew where it was safe. They merged with us, hoping we’d lead them to a safe location. They never dreamed in their worst nightmare that the people they ran to were the people who were shooting them seven weeks ago. They ran to us for help and security from the storm, they found the very people they didn’t want to find. They may have found death when running any other direction may have meant they lived.
The rest of my team want to either kill them or dump them outside into the storm. Before I can say anything we feel a vibration in the floor, the twister is here, the outside door vibrates. I look at Tony, “We can’t open the door, the storm could toss crap in here which could hurt us, the high winds could damage the hinge mechanism. Who knows what a tornado could do to the door?”
“Jay, once we open the next door, we’re stuck with them. What the hell are we going to do with them? We only have a small holding room and in case you forgot, your beloved Son-in-law, Ricky, is in there. We could release him and stuff these three in a ro
om designed for one.”
“No, I don’t trust Ricky running around lose, he would try to escape again.”
Franco’s youngest son, who’s been eyeing the half-naked woman says, “Why not ask them what they want?”
I shake my head, “Why?”
John adds, “They never gave us or I bet anyone else a choice. I still think a bullet to the back of their heads is the best for everyone. Why should we show them an ounce of mercy?”
The girl wearing the man’s shirt wets herself out of fear.
I slowly shake my head, “If we’re going to rebuild and have a real country again, not a land mass ruled by a few warlords, then we need to learn how to get along with each other again. We have to stop fighting among ourselves if we’re going to ever trust each other.”
Tony says, “I trust you and you’re not even a made man.”
“Tony, not all of us are Sicilian or work in your line of work.”
“Thank God for that.”
Franco says, “My son asked why don’t we ask them, why don’t we remove their gag and ask them?”
John looks at Franco, “Do you think we can trust anything they say?”
“Let’s find out.”
Tony removes their gags, “This is your one and only one chance to say something to us which will change our minds from tossing you outside or just shooting you now.”
The two girls are shaking, the one wearing a man’s shirt says, “I’ll do anything you want, at any time, but please don’t kill me. I’m serious, anything.”
I look sad and shake my head, “Try again, we don’t use women that way, we don’t have slaves, anyone with us stays with us because they want to and they bring value to the group. We’re an extended family. I’m sure you don’t understand that.”
“I do. I lost my family when a group of prisoners was set free because the guards didn’t come to work. They killed my family and raped me. I slipped out of my house in the middle of the night. I found the group that was walking south, I joined them looking for security.”
“Lady, everyone today has their own sad story. What value do you bring us? What makes you special? What should we share our supplies with you?”
“I’m a good cook?”
Tony says, “But can we trust you not to poison us?”
“Yes, I wouldn’t do that.”
“Yes, you would. Next?”
“The woman wearing the bra and panties says, “I’m a good painter.”
John asks, “Like painting houses or pictures?”
She laughs, “Pictures.”
“So we have an artist in our midst, what do we need with a painter?”
“You might when you rebuild after the storm. I’m very good with my hands.”
Tony looks at the guy, “And you?”
“I’m a good soldier and a good shot.”
“Were you in the military?”
“No man, I didn’t say that. I said I was a good soldier, you know like working for one of you.”
I laugh. “Where did you learn your field craft?”
“Man, what are you talking about? I didn’t say nothing about a field.”
“What guns can you handle?”
“Anything, want me to show you?”
Tony removes the magazine and in chamber bullet from his sidearm, he hands it to the guy, show me your shooting stance.”
“What?”
“Show me how you hold the gun to shoot it.”
“Oh, why didn’t you say so? He takes the gun, he feels its weight, then flips it around in his hand. He holds his arm out while holding the empty gun sideways.”
I shake my head, “You lose. We have no need for a thug. You’re going outside.”
“No man, I can kill for you.”
“If I want someone dead, I’m capable of doing it myself.”
Just as we’re going to open the outer door, the tornado hits us hard. Something big lands against the outside door. Just as we’re about to recycle the switch, the lights and power die in the shelter.
Chapter 18
The mob in the other homes are woken by the storms, many who look outside are frightened by the storm. They pack the little they have and try to escape before the storm bears down on them. Men, women and children are quickly grabbing whatever they can reach. They’re running down steps and out of houses they’ve lived in for weeks. They exit the houses and scatter, people run in every direction. Some run into the storm front, others run away from it. Lightening flashes, it strikes poles, killing small groups of people gathered under them. The wind is driving the heavy cold rain almost horizontally, the running people aren’t prepared for such a powerful storm which was caused by a Canadian cold front that was brought into the south from the dipping jet stream. The cold front smacked into a warm, humid front moving north from the Gulf of Mexico. The two fronts merged in mid-Tennessee. The resulting storm is causing enormous damage, small towns are disappearing under funnel clouds, much-needed crops are destroyed by extremely heavy rainfall which floods farm fields. Golf ball sized hail is falling like snow. The winds are strong enough to knock people off their feet. The limited electrical power is off due to downed power lines. With almost no repair people available it will be a very long time before electrical power is restored. The nation's depleted fuel supply means generators only operate a very limited time. Solar cells are ripped off roofs, windmills are spun so fast that their bearings overheat, some of the large wind blades are ripped off of their hubs. Central Tennessee is getting pounded. The very heavy rain is causing the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers to rise above flood stage which will soon cause additional damage. Thousands of people in Nashville are rushing to fill sandbags to try to hold the rising river back. Many remember the flood of May 2010 when the Cumberland River rose to a height of 51 feet, the latest projection is for the river to crest at 53 feet which will flood most of Nashville again. In 2010, twenty-six people died from the flooding, due to the limited resources, the Governor of Tennessee reviews reports projecting over two thousand will perish in the new flooding. This doesn’t count the deaths from tornados and from the lack of electrical power, clean water or diseases. The Governor asks for volunteers to help the middle section of his state. He places calls to the Army commands operating in Illinois to speed up their journey to Tennessee so they can provide much-needed aid. The Governor tells his staff to report to the streets to help in any way they can, he changes into a pair of work boots before he joins the people filling sandbags. The lines of dirty people working to save part of Nashville includes average people, politicians, country western music stars and even criminals, everyone left in the city is working together. Mother Nature looks at the lines of people filling sandbags and laughs, she knows there are way too few people to make a difference. At the end of the day, Nashville and Knoxville are both under five feet of water. Fifty years of music history is destroyed when the Grand Ole Opry is flooded, then catches fire. In 2010, it took two years to recover from the flood damage, this time the Governor knows there won’t be a recovery, the resources aren't available to pay for the recovery. Most of the countries insurance companies are already in bankruptcy court, the too large to fail banks have failed, the Federal Government is broke and fighting a war against China so they don’t have to give up territory as payment. The Governor stands on the Cumberland River bank with tears in his eyes, he fought to protect his state from the problems that swept across the country, he tried to provide a backstop for families who were quickly caught up in the economic meltdown, he’s watching the flood waters destroy any chance he had of saving his state, he knows he’s lost the battle. As he fills sand bags, he watches a large swell in the river heading towards where he’s working, he yells to everyone, “Get out of here, that swell is going to crash on us. RUN!”
He manages to save a few, but not himself, from the large breaking swell that crests over his position along the river.
Unlike the flood of 2010, this time large areas of Knoxville ar
e also flooded, the destruction of the two cities creates additional homeless with no place to go.
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Our backup generators cut in when we lost external power. However, they will provide electrical power for only a short amount of time. The outside door is jammed shut. If we can’t figure out how to get the door open we’re going to be forced to use the emergency exit tunnel which will put everyone on the other side of the hill and far away from where our houses were.