Collapse (New America)

by Richard Stephenson

  “Billy! Sit up, c’mon! We need to get moving.”

  Tank managed to sit up and look at Richard. “Cut my eye out! I can’t take it!”

  “I don’t think that would solve anything. Probably make things worse. Here, tie this around your head as tight as we can get it.”

  Richard put the center of the t-shirt over Tank’s eye. He lifted Tank’s hand to the compress so he could hold it in place. Richard then wrapped the shirt around his head as tight as he could get it. Hopefully the cold pressure would allow Tank to persevere.

  “Better?”

  “Yeah, I’ll be damned. Still hurts like a mother fucker, but I think I can manage.”

  “Good, come over here. Let’s start getting over these fences.”

  Tank and Richard locked their hands together and knelt down. Head put his foot in their hands and the two men hoisted Head to the top of the fence. Head sat on the mattress while the three men below him passed up the mattresses they had brought along. Head dropped them down the other side and jumped safely to the nice, cushy landing pad he’d made. The same process was repeated for Spider, and then Tank hoisted Richard to the top. Richard sat on the mattress and lowered his arm down to help Tank make it over.

  Head collapsed on his hands and knees, coughing and gasping for air. Spider dug in the bag for another bottle of water. He managed to get Head to sit up and poured water on his face wrap. Spider then did the same for himself, as well as Richard and Tank.

  “How the fuck are we getting over that?” Tank pointed to the second of three fences in their way. The middle fence was electric. The electric fence operated in two stages. The first stage delivered a non-lethal charge, enough to throw you off the fence like you’d been kicked in the chest by a bull. The second shock was lethal. You touched it a second time and you died instantly.

  “We’re not getting over it, we’re getting under it,” answered Richard.

  “Huh? You mean like dig a tunnel? This ground’s as hard as concrete. No fuckin’ way we’re doing that! You don't know what the fuck you're doin', do you? We should have taken our chances inside!” Head was about ready to punch Richard in the mouth.

  “Shut your mouth right now or I’ll throw you into that fence and bounce you right back into it. Smoke’s not getting any thinner, and we don’t have time to argue. Head, I told you to trust me.”

  Head was glaring at Richard but kept his mouth shut.

  “Start stripping the covers from the mattresses! Hurry up.” The four men pulled the homemade knives out of their shoes and cut the mattress covers off.

  “Okay, Tank and I will head left, you two head to the right. Don’t go more than fifty yards. We need to find the section that has the most clearance under the bottom wire. Hurry! We’re not gonna make it much longer before we pass out.”

  In less than a minute, Spider found a four-foot section that had a decent amount of clearance. The four men gathered in front of it and reapplied water to their face wraps.

  “Okay, listen to me. You need to do exactly as I say or you might die.”

  “Fuckin smoke is going to kill us if this bitch doesn’t,” Spider uttered, looking at the fence, “what’s the plan?”

  “First, make sure every inch of your body is covered by clothing. Second, take that extra cover and lay it under the wire. Throw me the boots. Head, throw some mattresses over the kill fence.”

  The extra cover was laid on the ground under the wire. Richard put on the work boots for the extra few inches of rubber insulation on the bottom. He laid down on the ground and got inside the mattress cover like it was a sleeping bag.

  “Listen and watch me. As long as you stay grounded, the current can’t pass through you and complete a circuit. It’s best that you don’t touch the wire, but if you stay grounded you should be okay if you bump it. Just don’t bump the bottom wire into the wire above it. Okay, watch closely.”

  Richard slowly inched his way under the wire. He remained grounded the entire time and never once touched the bottom wire. Richard took off the boots and tossed them under to Head.

  “Wish my fat ass would have lost about thirty pounds before we decided to leave.”

  “Hurry up, fucker!” Spider was kicking the bottom of Head’s boots.

  “Stop it, you little shit!” Head slowly inched his way under the wire. At one point he did bump the bottom wire and it raised just a hair. Once he was on the other side, he tossed the boots under to Spider. “Your little ass could probably crawl on all fours, you stupid bitch!”

  “Fuck you! Here I come! Stop fuckin’ with me! This is serious!” Spider made it under the wire with little effort.

  Head leaned over to Richard and spoke in his ear, “You know Billy ain’t makin’ it under the wire, his chest will bump the wires together.”

  “Billy! Make sure you keep your arms at your sides and flatten yourself out the best you can. And go feet first”

  “Yeah, I got it! Here I come.”

  “Be ready to catch him,” Richard said to Head.

  “Catch him? What the... oh, shit, yeah I got you. Fuck, this ain’t gonna be pretty.”

  “Lookin’ good, Billy, just be careful. Nice and slow. That’s it.”

  Tank’s legs and stomach were under the wire. Head grabbed his feet and angled his legs to the left. Richard grabbed his right arm and pulled as hard as he could.

  “What are you...” Tank’s chest pushed the bottom wire up and it touched the wire above it. The stun charge was delivered across Tank’s chest and propelled him the rest of the way under the fence. Head and Richard held on tight, stopping Tank from being propelled into the stack of razor wire a few feet away. Lucky for Tank, the two men had shared the jolt of electricity, making it equally painful for all three of them.

  Spider was laughing hysterically. “Man, that shit was cool! Holy shit! I can’t believe that just happened! You guys all right?”

  “Shut up, you little fucker,” Head said, looking like he’d had the shit beaten out of him.

  “OK, the last part is easy, let’s go.”

  The four men helped each other over the final fence. The mattresses bore the punishment of the razor wire for them as they clambered up to the top of the fence and jumped down.

  Once they were over, they ran a few yards at a time and stopped to lay on the ground to get away from the smoke. Once they got about ten yards on the other side of the perimeter road they stopped again, as Head began to choke and vomit. He sounded like he was being strangled. Spider tried to calm him down as he kicked and flailed around.

  “Richard, we’re all gonna die out here! This is crazy! What the fuck are we supposed to do?” Spider sounded like a frightened child.

  Richard had absolutely no idea what to do. He figured that most of the inmates locked in their cells were dead. Had he managed the nearly impossible feat of escape only to die a hundred yards from the fence? His only hope was that Mother Nature would show him some kindness and blow the smoke away.

  “Is Head okay?” Richard asked Spider.

  “I don’t think so, man, I think he passed out. He’s still breathing."

  “We just need to relax and wait a few minutes. The smoke has to let up eventually. Just try to stay calm and save your breath. Stop talking, close your mouth and breathe through your nose."

  The four men rested on the ground for the better part of an hour. The smoke didn’t clear up at all; if anything, it got worse. Richard was more worried about the heat than the smoke. They were losing bodily fluid in the form of sweat at an alarming rate. If they stayed in that spot for too long, dehydration would set in, and they would begin to suffer from heat stroke. Richard continued to scan what little he could see of his surroundings. It was the middle of the afternoon but it was dark as night. All he needed was for the sun to peek through just a little so he could see what was around them. They needed some type of shelter from the heat and smoke.

  Spider was nearly in tears. "I
don't think Head is going to make it! I can't tell if he's breathing or not!" Spider continued to nudge Head. "C'mon John! You still with me, man? C'mon, just hang in there! Richard, we gotta do something! I don't think he's breathing!"

  Richard crawled over to Head and turned him over on his back. He detected a faint pulse and very shallow breathing. Richard began mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to put some much needed oxygen in his lungs. One thing was certain - Head was going to die very soon if something wasn't done.

  "Stay here and keep putting air in his lungs. Make sure you tilt his chin back and watch his chest rise and fall. I'm going up the perimeter road a bit to see if we can find a way out of this." Tank and Spider looked at Richard in fear as he crouched down and headed towards the road. Once there, he dropped a shirt in the road to mark the spot. The rear gate was on the opposite side of the prison grounds; no way he could make it that far. He just needed a drainage ditch or maintenance shed anything at all. He had only moved a few yards when he saw a glimmer of light reflect off something.

  It was one of the perimeter vehicles.

  Was someone still in it? Did the guard die in there? Is he laying down on the floorboards with his pistol ready to defend himself? Richard slowly approached the rear bumper of the vehicle and peered in the back window. He couldn't see anyone inside. He slowly crept to the driver's side and peered around. The driver's side door was wide open. He laid down and looked under the vehicle. The driver’s side tires were flat. It was clear to Richard that the guard had abandoned the vehicle and shot out the tires. He probably joined the other perimeter patrol and they left together when the smoke got too thick and no one was answering the radio.

  "Thank you, gentlemen, this will do nicely," Richard said to himself.

  Richard quickly looked over the vehicle to see what he was dealing with. The keys were gone, so was the radio. Richard noticed that the front passenger seat had been replaced with a gun rack. One slot was empty and the other had a rifle resting in it. Richard grabbed the rifle and saw that it was a variation of an M-16. He searched for ammunition but came up empty handed.

  Richard exited the vehicle and made his way back to the three. He could tell something was wrong.

  "What?"

  "It's Head, I don't know, but he...” said Spider.

  Richard dropped down next to Head, put his fingers on his neck to check for a pulse and dropped his ear over his mouth. After twenty seconds, he knew the answer.

  "John's dead. We can’t do anything for him; it’s time to go."

  "What do you mean he's dead? There's gotta be something we can do! We can't just leave him here!" Spider was not taking the death of his best friend very well.

  "There's nothing we can do for him, unless you want to carry him. The rest of us are going to die if we don't get moving. Tank, you still have those tools?" asked Richard.

  "Yeah, I got ‘em. What are we doing?"

  "Follow me. Spider, I know how close the two of you were, but there's nothing we can do for him." With the two men in tow, Richard headed down the road to the vehicle.

  "Fuck me, Killer. You kill the guard?” asked Tank.

  "No, I figure he abandoned the vehicle and left with the other patrol."

  "Two of the tires are flat. What good is this thing?

  "Billy, I wasn't planning on driving it anywhere. Help me push it down into the ditch."

  Richard put the car in neutral and they pushed the vehicle off the road into the drainage ditch. Richard couldn't really understand why a drainage ditch was even needed. The desert floor was so dry that whenever it rained, the ground soaked up every drop like a sponge. Nevertheless, the low-lying ground would help protect them from the smoke.

  "You got a hammer and a screwdriver? Spider, help me rip up the paneling from the floorboards. Tank, start nailing holes in the floor so we can breath."

  "Spider, can you hot-wire this thing?"

  Spider had a long history of stealing cars. When he started to target elderly black people and not only car-jack them, but kill them for their cars, he landed himself in prison. Spider had the engine running in under a minute.

  Richard hit the controls and rolled up the windows on the driver’s side. He then cracked the passenger side windows an inch and turned the heat up full blast. Next he switched the thermostat from fresh air to recycle.

  "Why are you turning on the heat?" asked Tank.

  "Hot air rises. The smoke is coming in on the driver side, so those windows are rolled up. The hot air will push the smoke out of the cabin in a few minutes. Once that’s done we can roll the windows up and turn on the A/C. Take the wraps off your heads and put them over the holes. Wrap your mouth around the hole and try to breath in some good air."

  The plan worked perfectly. In a matter of minutes, the smoke had cleared out of the cabin and the windows were rolled up. The air filter in the engine did a decent job of keeping the smoke out. Once the temperature was somewhat comfortable, Richard turned off the vents and returned to his air hole. The three men stayed in the car for two hours until the smoke finally began to clear. Once the sun broke through the clouds, it was time to move.

  "Let's go! We need to be as far away from here as possible in the least amount of time. Tank, will this car do us any good? How far do you think it’ll make it on two flat tires?"

  "In this terrain? Not far, the rims will shred the tires and once the rims flatten out and have nothing to grab onto, we’re stuck."

  "Let's get moving then. I think it will be a long time before they realize we're gone. They got a prison full of dead inmates to keep them busy."

  The three men loaded up in the wounded SUV and headed west. For the second time in his incarceration, Richard was a free man.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  Chief Maxwell Harris was filled with rage. He fought to control the fury with every fiber of his being. The last time he had allowed rage to take over, he had crashed into a stolen car going sixty miles an hour, killing four people in the process. For his efforts, he had shattered his hip and leg and still lived with the agonizing pain to this day. Since then, Max had made a promise to himself to remain in control at all times. His current predicament was challenging that vow. Two of his officers were dead, as was an innocent civilian. A band of thugs had stolen his uniform, leaving him in his underwear. They then proceeded to empty out his armory and load their take into his police vehicles. Now they were out looking for his command post so they could rob it as well.

  "Chief! We don't need to crash before we get there! Slow down!" Deputy Collins was sitting in the passenger seat of the dead civilian's pickup truck next to Max.

  Max remained silent but did slow down. Collins was right; driving like a maniac on flooded roads wasn’t smart. With no way of communicating with the command post, Max could only try to get there as fast as possible, praying that the band of thugs didn't find the place before he got there.

  They arrived at the high school, parking in back so Rudy’s truck couldn’t be seen from the road. They made it into the school. Racing down the hall to the locker rooms, Max burst in so quickly that Elizabeth and Dr. Stone screamed.

  "Max! What in the hell are you doing? You scared us to death!" screamed Elizabeth.

  "We're in trouble!"

  "No kidding, genius. Why aren't you wearing pants?" Elizabeth laughed.

  "Elizabeth! I'm not joking, we're in danger! Get everyone in here and keep them quiet! Do it now!"

  Elizabeth could immediately tell that Max wasn’t joking. Max crouched down in the doorway with his weapon drawn. Collins was doing the same thing but had one arm wrapped around his mid-section, clearly in pain. Something very bad had happened to them. Elizabeth quietly herded the wide-eyed group into the room.

  "Elizabeth, listen to me, I will explain the details later. That group of redneck idiots that shot up the gas station is out there. They robbed the armory at the police station - taking bullet proof vests and police uniforms.
They’re armed and looking for this command post. They stole my SUV and two patrol trucks. Might take them a while to find us or they could be here any minute."

  "Oh my! Where's my husband? Where's Rudy?" asked Trudy.

  "Your husband is fine; he's back at the police station with another officer.” Max felt horrible lying to the woman, but the last thing he needed was to deal with a hysterical widow during a fire fight. "Elizabeth, you and Kathy stay in this room and keep these people safe. They can't get into the gym since the roof fell in. The only way they can get in is through this door."

  "What's the plan? Where are you going to be?" Elizabeth drew her sidearm.