Such was the case with the new 1920’s style gangsters that began making their presence known. A cross section of American society had survived the war. That included gang members. Many died, just as members of other segments of society did, with the coming of the new ice age. There was much free for the taking, and many people survived on what they found in the homes and businesses near them.
But such easy supplies don’t last forever. As more and more people began to recover and become productive again, those who’s past had included preying on the weak and unprepared began to do so again. It was small at first, and then they learned, from people with more experience, some of the more violent ways to make a living.
Where the Holden’s had suffered attempted robberies before, they had been transients or the bad element of the locals. Very small groups. The rumors came up from the south, where life was a bit easier. There were gangsters going into towns, shooting them up, and taking whatever they wanted. That included women, girls, men and boys. There was a new international trade in slaves. It wasn’t black slavery, or white slavery, or Hispanic slavery. It was non-racial slavery. Mostly the women and girls for sex, and the men and boys as laborers, but that was by no means always the case.
Many of the less developed nations had always been dependent on their large populations for a labor force. As warlords came to power in those areas, they wanted and needed more labor to maintain their lifestyles. Many just liked it. Others used their own people as soldiers, and the slaves for work.
MS-13 was said to be behind much of the slave trade in the US, but there was obviously more than one gang doing it. There were too many reports from too many areas for there not to be. And there had to be a market.
While Jimmy and Lucy were known to take calculated risks, they didn’t take chances. Most of their staff was furnished with weapons, and a few security people were hired. Everyone in the area was cautioned to be on their guard and to report to the local authorities any unknown groups of people, or individuals acting suspiciously.
As was usual with new dangers, people watched out for them religiously for a while, and when nothing happened, became lax about security. Such was the case in Cairo. Only a handful, including the Holden’s, maintained their higher state of alert. It was well they did, for an unknown tugboat with four barges docked at the Cairo docks one late fall day.
No one at Cairo ever knew just how many men there were, but there were enough to leave a heavily armed force on the tugboat and barges to protect them while two other groups stormed the town. One group headed directly for the Holden’s place.
Jimmy and Lucy had about ten minutes notice that an attack was underway before the MS-13 gangsters showed up. They were met with withering fire from the buildings in the complex. Jimmy had told his employees no mercy since there would be none in return.
When the rumors had first started, Jimmy had pulled out of storage some of the weapons they had scavenged; particularly those from the two class three licensed places. He didn’t much care for full auto fire, except for static defense and ambushes. But it was as effective as he knew it would be when he and the employees poured round after round into the approaching group.
They quickly dispersed, but the first bursts of fire had severely reduced their number. Jimmy had ammunition to burn, and burn it they did. With the full auto suppressive fire coming from several of the employees, Jimmy and a Deputy Sheriff that happened to be there advanced and began rooting out individual attackers.
The firing around the compound died down and those defending it heard the firing coming from other areas of the town. With the few live gangsters under armed guard, the men at the compound headed out to help in the other battles.
When it was all said and done, thirty-seven gangsters were killed, wounded, or captured. Six townspeople had died, with another eleven wounded, three seriously. No one was taken by the few gangsters that escaped.
Jimmy and the Deputy were both on the wounded list. Deputy Roberts had a round shatter the bone in his upper left arm. He would probably lose the arm.
Jimmy had another leg wound, this one much more serious than the crease he’d received before. The bullet went into his left leg from slightly to his right, nicking the bone before it stopped.
He was in surgery for two hours while the bullet was removed, and the damage sewn up. The Deputy was still in surgery when Lucy went back to the compound to take care of things there. Jimmy would be in the hospital for several days.
The Deputy was lucky that several of the doctors in St. Louis, when the war broke out, came to Cairo and had brought equipment and supplies with them. They couldn’t save the Deputy’s arm, but they did save his life.
Captain Johanson reported six days later that he and six other tugboats had cornered and blocked the gangster’s tugboat and barges. The gangsters slaughtered the slaves they’d already collected. None of the gangsters survived, either.
The defeat of the gangsters at Cairo broke the back of the organization in the area. It was a long time before other areas were able to free themselves from the tyranny that the gangsters represented. The gangsters were one reason that more people were moving into the area around Cairo, or stopped there permanently on their migration south.
When Jimmy got out of the hospital he was more than a little annoyed that the city and county officials had claimed everything from the gangsters’ side of the fight, including the tugboat and barges. He was used to claiming the spoils of war when he was victorious in battle. He pestered the officials into giving him a share of what was taken, and traded for a few choice items that he wanted. It soothed some of the pain in his leg.
Gold coins, specifically the one-ounce gold ones, had become the new monetary standard for most of the existing civilizations around the world. Even nay-sayers and critics of gold had to begin using it. The standard was the one ounce coins, but fractional gold coins and pre-1965 US silver coins were used for most transactions.
Much trading and bartering continued, but travelers needed portable currency, and very small transactions were difficult to make without using silver dimes and quarters. Large transactions weren’t as big of a problem, but many people just preferred the gold and silver.
With there being an accepted standard, trade was much easier, especially international trade. There wasn’t much of it, but what was being shipped back and forth was all very highly valued, with much of it critical items like basic foods.
But it meant transportation had to be available. And that meant major expenses. Other things began to have standard values, based on gold. That included investment grade diamonds.
As has been the case throughout history, some people became wealthy, like the Holden’s, through hard work, good planning, and some luck. It was true around the world. And the wealthy wanted extraordinary or special things. And could afford them.
The average person wanted water, food, shelter, and protection. With much of the European and Russian breadbaskets under growing sheets of ice, and the population dropping in it, the central portion of the US again became the breadbasket to much of the remainder of the western world. But it needed to be shipped to ports in Europe.
Between the fact that many of the ports on the east coast were radioactive hot spots, and the fact that a large portion of the grain was grown west of the Mississippi, and only a few good crossing points still existed, the Gulf ports supplied by the Mississippi barge traffic became the shipping and receiving points of choice for European, Mediterranean, North African and Russian markets.
A ship that could carry tons of grain could easily turn an unused cabin or other ship’s space into a small hold to carry the relatively small sized, highly profitable specialty items.
And European entrepreneurs seemed to like diamonds much more than even gold for their large transactions. Diamond jewelry was second choice to investment diamonds, but Jimmy was able to use the bulk of their scavenged jewelry to get set up in European based international trade of cattle; grain
; coal; oil; and spices and other low volume, high value, specialty items. He would hold onto the good diamonds for less risky deals.
Jimmy and Lucy held interest in six small dry cargo vessels and two small tankers. With the Gulf oil production starting to come back, it was more profitable to sell a tanker load to Europe than distribute it around the US. The interior of the US would need to rely on biodiesel for the foreseeable future.
The Holden’s took their profits half in gold and half in goods. What goods they didn’t use, and they used very little, were resold. But there was a limited market in Cairo, even including the surrounding area. They needed to expand their market for specialty items.
Jimmy began to make more contacts on the Amateur Radio network that was the primary form of communication around the world. He was able to set up deals with several like-minded entrepreneurs to handle distribution. The main drawback was transportation from Cairo to the other centers of civilization.
But where there is a need, someone usually comes up with a solution. Sure enough, during Jimmy’s search for markets of his goods, he made contact with a compound with a large biodiesel operation, which could provide fuel for its small fleet of diesel cars and trucks. They were already in the transport business. Jimmy made the deal to use them for his transport company.
Cairo became the major center of trade for the central United States. The Holden’s efforts had much to do with it, but the country as a whole was beginning to make a comeback, the small centers of civilization that had been the initial survivors began to expand into the abandoned areas.
With small and large farms springing up everywhere the weather allowed, and an electrical power plant here and there being put back into service, even small towns that had only a few individuals surviving in them began to get more residents as new job opportunities opened up and retail food became available from the local farms.
With the growing population, it was inevitable that central government would once again come into existence. It was true around the world. For most, it seemed like the world might return to some semblance of normal. Jimmy and Lucy began looking for new cache places.
The End
THANK YOU FOR READING
“SCAVENGER”
By
Jerry D. Young
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MEET THE AUTHOR
Jerry D Young was born at home, in Senath, Missouri July 3, 1953. At age 5 the family rented a small farm house on an active farm 40 miles southwest of St. Louis. While the family weren't farmers, they lived something of a homestead type life, raising a milk cow, sometimes two, and calves, a pig or two, chickens, and the occasional goat. Along with the stock, a large garden helped to feed Jerry's three brothers and two sisters for several years. Fishing and hunting contributed to the pantry, as did foraging the wild edibles on the property.
At the age of 14, the family, minus a brother and two sisters that were now adults and on their own, moved back to Senath. Having been encouraged from an early age to read, Jerry was a regular patron of the Senath Branch Library.
A love of a good story was born within him, and shortly before graduating high school, for a lack of stories that he liked at the library, he began to write short vignettes, and started taking notes for stories that he wanted to tell. Jerry eventually began to write in earnest and now has more than 100 titles to his credit including Prep/PAW stories, Action/Adventure, and a few of the romance type stories that first got him started.
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