“Is he overplaying his hand?” Cooper queried.
“Damn straight.”
“He ain’t so bad. Just trying to keep things safe,” Bethany offered in a soothing tone.
Miles spun around and glared at her, “And, getting rich in the process!” He stormed past her and the door banged as he went outside. Cooper and Dranko exchanged a look and Cooper followed him out.
He found him twenty yards away from the front door, near the garden. A cigarette puffed from his lips, angry smoke blowing outward.
“You alright?” Cooper asked.
“I’m tired of her defending the Hodges.”
Cooper grunted in agreement, allowing him the space to continue.
“I know she’s sweet on Junior.”
Cooper dropped his eyes to the ground and waited.
“But, I can’t help but wonder if it’s more than that.” Miles’ voice was filled with pain and embarrassment. Cooper was surprised at his admission to someone he’d just met. But, I guess Brushfire Plague has shattered all sorts of social conventions. Rampant death has a way of slashing and burning them to the ground.
Cooper placed a hand on his shoulder, “You got enough worries. I wouldn’t take one on, unless you’re sure of it.”
Miles caught his eye, “You’re probably right.” He shook his head slowly from side to side, as if to banish the thought. “Nonetheless, Hodges is a problem.” Cooper nodded in agreement.
The sound of rubber tires tearing through gravel as a pickup truck came roaring up the driveway made them jerk their heads around as one.
**********
The pickup, a bright red Ford, lurched to a stop just a few yards away from them. It hadn’t even fully stopped when the passenger leapt out. Miles’ calm kept Cooper’s hand from reaching for his pistol. The man was a shade under six feet and he wore sturdy work pants and a green flannel overshirt. A revolver was holstered at his side. His face was contorted and flushed.
“He’s gone and done it now,” the man roared at Miles. It was like he didn’t even see Cooper.
Miles raised his hands, “Slow down, Keith. What are you talking about?”
The driver stepped forward to join them. He had moved slowly, more deliberately. He was dressed in a similar fashion to Keith, except his flannel was gunmetal gray. As far as Cooper could tell, he was unarmed.
“He’s crossed the line,” he said in tones as measured as his walk.
“Robert, why don’t you tell me just what the hell you are talking about?” Miles answered, as Dranko, Angela, Buck, and Bethany approached from the house.
“He’s trying to get my wife into bed!” Keith gasped, spittle flying from his mouth.
“What?” Miles responded, flummoxed.
“As a way to settle his levy debt,” Robert said calmly.
Miles started laughing, “This is a joke, right?” Bethany’s face grew dark, angry lines etching across her forehead and drawing her mouth up tightly.
“No! It’s not a joke. Bastard said I could either give up my only rifle as my tax or let him have one night with Valerie. Dirty runt has had his eye on her since high school!” Keith was out of breath when he’d finished spitting the words out.
Miles looked at Robert, who nodded in confirmation. Miles staggered back. His hands came to his head and he grasped it in disbelief.
“Wow. This is a whole new ballgame.”
“He’s crossed the line, right?” Keith pleaded for agreement.
“You sure he wasn’t just joking around? You know how he can get sometimes,” Bethany proffered.
Both men turned on her in disbelief. “If you’d seen how he was looking at her, you’d know he wasn’t joking. He was nearly licking his lips right in front of me,” Keith responded, biting the words out between his clenched jaw. His words startled Bethany and she turned quickly and walked away. Cooper had seen the hurt that flashed across her eyes. No doubt that something is going on between her and Junior.
“What the hell are we gonna do?” Keith’s voice was choked in desperation.
Miles and Robert looked at each other blankly. The voice of Cooper’s father came back to him, “Strength in numbers. It’s all the little guy has against the big man. Follow those who unite the little against the strong. Be wary of any who divides.” He didn’t imagine his father had ever thought his son would be confronting a local strongman as part of a tax revolt. Nonetheless, his words came back, wise and strong.
“How many can we rally?” Cooper’s voice was resolute, commanding. He deliberately said ‘we’ and not ‘you’.
“Whatcha mean?” Keith asked.
“How many of your friends and family will stand against Hodges once they hear this news?”
Fear came and usurped Keith’s rage in heartbeat, “How can we stand against him?”
Cooper’s own face flushed and he drew his face up against Keith’s, “How can you not? Didn’t you just tell me he wants to take your wife into bed? To pay your taxes, man? You gonna stand for that?”
Keith’s back stiffened, “Hell no.”
“Good. Now you three tell me who else will stand with Keith. If it’s his wife today, it’s gonna be someone else’s tomorrow. Or their daughter. Or, who knows what else he will begin to demand.”
“Bullies push you ‘round until you don’t push no more,” Lily Stott added. Cooper hadn’t noticed that she had walked up.
Miles, Robert, and Keith started discussing names of others they knew in town. Cooper ignored the names. Instead, he kept a mental count of anyone that they all agreed would stand against Hodges. When his mental count reached twenty, he stopped them.
“That’s enough. You have twenty. More than enough. He can’t just kill twenty men.”
“Why shouldn’t we get more?”
“Two reasons. First, your first twenty are your best twenty. The ones you think of first are always the strongest ones. Second, twenty is big enough for protection, but not so big that it will feel like a mob.”
The others nodded in agreement.
“Let’s gather them all here, tomorrow at five. We’ll make a plan. Sound good?”
Keith nodded his head vigorously, “Yeah. Sounds good. Junior said he’d give me three days to make my decision.”
Robert nodded slowly and turned to get back into his pickup. Keith took Cooper’s hand and shook it rapidly.
“Thank you, Mister. Thank you!” He turned and scrambled back into the truck. His hand stopped at the handle and he turned as if to ask something else, but then got into the vehicle.
“Something else, isn’t it?”
Cooper turned toward Dranko, “What?”
“You can lead people who you just met and don’t even know your name!”
He contemplated the comment for a moment, “Hmmm. I guess you’re right.” A self-satisfied smile crept onto his face.
“Oh no. I knew I shouldn’t have said anything to make you even more arrogant!”
“It isn’t arrogance if it’s true,” Cooper shot back.
“Dear Lord! Help me!” Dranko responded, drawing his hands into prayer and gazing longingly skyward.
“You guys are a regular Laurel and Hardy,” Miles said, chuckling.
“Yeah, just remember, he’s the skinny bird,” Dranko said, jerking a thumb in Cooper’s direction.
“And…he’s the lardy one!”
“Ouch! I guess I walked into that one,” Dranko lamented.
He shrugged his shoulders in response.
“Miles, we should get back to Dranko’s place. Let’s meet at four tomorrow to get ready for this meeting.”
Miles nodded, “Right. See you then.”
Cooper, Dranko, Angela, and Buck clambered into the Jeep and began driving back to Dranko’s place.
“You just can’t help getting caught up in the middle of what’s happening, can you?”
Cooper looked at Angela, “Guess not. I see a need, I try and fill it. Been like that since I was a kid.”
> “It’s admirable,” her eyes shined with respect as she said it.
Cooper looked at her for a moment longer than he probably should have before looking away, “If you say so. I never could stand a bully, anyway.”
“Yeah, neither could I,” her words were laced with contempt. “It’s going to be fun taking that bad boy on.”
“Fun wasn’t the word I was thinking of. It’s going to be dangerous,” Dranko disagreed.
Cooper turned to look at him, surprised, “You in?”
He nodded with drawn eyebrows, “’Course, I’m in. Hodges is a problem. His boy is worse. I’m just saying, we are playing with fire here.”
Cooper nodded, “Yeah, I know that. But, there’s no choice.”
“We always have a choice, brother. Except for breathing and dying, everything else is a choice,” he said, his mouth drawing up tight.
Cooper grimaced at his friend using his own words against him, “Well, I don’t see much of a choice. If we’re going to try and make a go of things here, Hodges will have to be confronted sooner or later.”
“And, I don’t disagree. I was just making the point that there is a choice.”
Cooper shook his head, annoyed, “Whatever. You sound like a philosophy professor. And, that’s no compliment.”
He looked back at him, nonplussed, “Whatever, yourself.” He kept his eyes fixed on the road.
**********
They arrived back at Dranko’s place by late afternoon. The sun hung low on the horizon, casting long rays across the land. Cooper loved this time of day; the light made everything appear peaceful, content. He remembered many evenings spent with Elena watching the sun fall behind the horizon. He’d never grown tired of watching her face, alight in the soft, warm light of the fading sun. She had looked beautiful in a thousand different ways. The sweet memory turned bitter in his mouth as he recalled the way the sun had faded that day when she lay dying; leaving her ashen. He spat deliberately, trying to clear the foul taste.
They gathered on the porch, all seeking the easy grace of the peaceful sunset. Julianne was off to his right, leaning against a post, gazing at the faltering sun. The lighting highlighted what was already there; her stunning face and glistening hair. She turned just then and their eyes met. Despite his resistance, Cooper felt his heart stir. She looks angelic in this light. The juxtaposition of his thoughts to her deeds made him chuckle to himself and turn away.
Angela was off to his left, looking out in the opposite direction. The soft light made her face seem even more kind, caring. Cooper felt comforted by having her so close by. While his feelings lacked the intensity of those with Julianne, they also lacked the deep conflict and tension that Julianne stirred in him. Angela was calming and exuded warmth he needed. He knew she’d make a good mother for Jake. That thought startled him. Why am I thinking like this, with Elena so soon gone? Guilt washed over him and his face drew into a self-reproachful scowl. He pushed those thoughts away.
“The end of the world has a way of shortening timelines.”
He turned toward Dranko, who had crept up behind him and put his hand on his shoulder.
“Am I that obvious?” Cooper mused.
“Just to me. I know you, brother.”
“That you do,” he said, letting loose an easy laugh. When it ended, he turned serious. “Should we gather folks and make the plan for tomorrow and then have dinner?”
Dranko nodded. Thirty minutes later, they had a plan. They would all work to prepare the garden for planting. Dranko knew they needed to get seeds in the ground as soon as possible. Given the colder climate on the mountain, he was going to work on getting plants going in starters, indoors. The rest would work on the garden itself. They needed to weed, prep, and fertilize the ground.
After a bland dinner of white rice and lentils, they gathered in the living area of the cabin and listened to the radio. The news was dark. Widespread rioting continued across the country. The riots had turned decidedly anti-government. A dozen or so mayors and a handful of governors had declared themselves in open defiance of the national government for their lack of action in releasing more information about the Brushfire Plague and the allegations swirling about it. Cooper had the thought that such actions may have been a deliberate attempt to take their cities off the nuclear target lists that Russia was continuingly rattling its saber over. Nonetheless, haphazard efforts were being made to occupy key sites in the defiant locales and states. The slowness of the federal government’s response made him suspect that desertion was a problem that existed but had mostly gone unreported.
“…and in sobering news, there are reports of house-to-house raiding in search of food in many, many cities. There have been numerous reports of violent and deadly clashes between gangs and neighborhoods that are defending themselves.”
“I was afraid of that,” Dranko intoned.
“The food is running out now,” Calvin added.
Cooper nodded gravely, “It’s going to get ugly. Very ugly.”
“We have one interesting report out of Portland, Oregon. The city is the site of much controversy because it is home to Admonitus, the bio-tech company that allegedly engineered and released Brushfire Plague onto the world. We will talk about that in just a moment, but the city leadership has commandeered two grain barges that were docked there when the outbreak began. They are using the grain to feed the city with organized distribution points throughout the city. So, far, Portland has avoided the food-related violence that is becoming common in far too many places. However, mayors from surrounding towns and cities, including nearby Vancouver, Washington, are demanding that Portland share those foodstuffs. Already, one armed vigilante group from Vancouver seeking to get the grain has been repulsed with dozens of dead. Vancouver’s Mayor, John Stillwell, denies any official sanction of the incursion.”
“I guess, ‘Keep Portland Weird’ won’t be our slogan anymore. It will be, ‘Keep Portland Fed!’” Freddie joked from the corner of the room.
“It’s really funny,” Dranko mused.
“What?”
“I had read many times over in the survivalist forums on the Web that Portland always had at least one grain barge in port. And, that such a barge could feed the city for a year!”
“Really?” Angela asked for the entire group. “I’d never heard that.”
“Well, I’d heard it, but I never quite believed it,” Dranko responded.
“And, they have two. I guess my friends aren’t going hungry then,” Jake commented, his voice the most optimistic it had been in a week or more.
“True. But people from other places are going to be coming for that food. The city government should have controlled that information better. As surrounding communities start to go hungry, that grain could become a curse,” Dranko said.
“Or a great source of power,” Cooper intoned flatly.
“What do you mean dad?” Jake queried.
“Well, if I were the Mayor of Portland, I would immediately use that food to make alliances with the immediately surrounding cities and towns. If they provide border defense for Portland, they get food. Dranko’s right, they are going to have wolves at their door very soon, and hungry ones at that. Better to push those wolves further out by making those kinds of alliances.”
“Good point,” Dranko interjected. “And, he better be training and arming a defense force worthy of the name. Otherwise those surrounding towns might just ally themselves and take the food.”
Jake blew out a loud exhale, “It all sounds confusing to me!”
The radio caught their attention once more.
“…for Cooper Adams continues. The President has declared him Public Enemy Number One for the ‘grave harm his vicious lies are causing’. The Administration has also released a set of documents that they claim refutes the outlandish claims made by Mr. Adams. Those documents are being examined and reviewed by an International Team of journalists and experts.”
“I wonder what that is all
about?” Calvin inquired.
“People don’t want to believe in the truth that I revealed. This will give them something to latch onto,” Cooper observed, dryly.
“I’d like to know just who’s on that team of journalists and experts. Were they handpicked by the Administration?”
They all nodded in agreement.
“…This shocking news just came in.” The announcer’s voice sounded genuinely shocked, rather than the faux emotion that they often evidenced. The room fell silent.
“The Governors of Iowa, Montana, and Wyoming have just announced their secession from the United States of America!” Radio silence claimed the air for several long seconds. Cooper imagined that the man on the other end was actually speechless after reading the newsflash.
“I repeat, it is confirmed that the States of Iowa, Montana, and Wyoming have announced that they are seceding from the United States. They are calling their new nation the Patriotic American States. The declaration of secession issued jointly by the three Governors cites, and I quote, ‘the long-standing infringement of our inalienable liberties and freedoms by the overbearing and intrusive Federal Government….after an extensive review of all the proven information related to the Brushfire Plague, we have decided the government of the United States was complicit either intentionally or through wanton negligence in the commission of this horrendous crime upon our beloved land. We see no other course of action and honor our revolutionary forefathers in announcing our total revocation of our ties with the United States…”
“Is this really happening!” Julianne exclaimed, hands grabbing her head.
Cooper just shook his head.
Dranko was notably calm, “There had to be contingency plans in place before the Plague even struck. No way they move all this so quickly otherwise.”
“What are you talking about? You see a damned conspiracy under every rock!” Cooper scowled at Dranko.
Dranko raised his hands, palms up, “What me? I’m just stating the obvious. There had to have been some discussions and plans about this already on the books. In fact, there was a famous survivalist, James Wesley Rawles, who said those states should secede.”
Brushfire Plague: Reckoning Page 20