Collapse (New America)

by Richard Stephenson

  Max replied, "Me, too. Pretty safe bet that most of Texas doesn't have electricity so I can understand not being able to make any calls. But all the way out here? It's really strange."

  "Maybe your little game show town will have cell service," said Elizabeth, "how much farther?"

  "I saw a sign a little ways back that said fifteen miles. Should be there soon."

  A few minutes later they could see Truth or Consequences in the distance. The first exit into the city was Broadway Street. Max was about to take the exit when he noticed something wasn’t right and pulled over to the shoulder. Two cars were parked sideways across both lanes blocking traffic. A large plywood sign was propped up in front of them with the words STAY OUT spray-painted in black.

  "What the hell?" wondered Max.

  Elizabeth leaned forward and looked. "They can't do that!"

  Max sighed, "Well, they did."

  "What are you going to do?" asked Dr. Stone.

  "Well, this is a police vehicle with two uniformed police officers inside. I think we're going to find out what's going on. Elizabeth, check the back and make sure the gas cans are still covered up with the tarp. Throw some blankets over the supplies in the seat next to you." Elizabeth covered up the supplies that were worth their weight in gold. Max drove into the ditch, around the barricade, and back onto the feeder road. A few seconds later they took a sharp corner and came to Broadway Street.

  "Please turn around," said Dr. Stone.

  The citizens of Truth or Consequences had erected an effective roadblock, cutting off their town from Interstate 25. A dozen cars were parked side by side, blocking off the road. Orange construction barrels were scattered at random intervals in front of the barricade. Six men with shotguns stood on the roofs of their cars. Parked in the road with traffic was a police cruiser, its red and blue lights flashing. Max returned the gesture and turned on his red and blues. Two police officers exited the cruiser, drew their weapons, and walked towards the SUV.

  "Oh God," said Dr. Stone in a trembling voice.

  "It's okay, just put your hands on the dashboard. Elizabeth, place your palms on the roof above you and don't move. Let me handle this."

  The two police officers stopped ten yards from the SUV. One of them motioned for Max to roll down his window. Max kept one hand on the steering wheel and with the other, did as he was instructed.

  "Sir, I'm gonna have to see your badge,” the officer demanded. “If you truly are a cop, you know the drill, and everything will be fine. Now, slowly exit your vehicle. The passengers need to stay where they are."

  "I understand," replied Max. Max put both hands out the window and slowly opened the door with his left hand. He stepped out onto the pavement and took two steps away from the vehicle. Since his weapon was holstered on his right hip, he took his left hand and brought it behind his back to retrieve his wallet from his back right pocket. He took out his badge and held it up in the air.

  “Toss it to me,” said the officer. Max tossed it at the officer’s feet. He slowly bent down and picked it up. He studied the badge and the credentials.

  “Name?”

  “Maxwell Thomas Harris.”

  “You’re a long way from Arkansas.”

  “You mean Texas.”

  "Okay, look right at me. Don't turn around and look at your vehicle, what town are you from?"

  "Santa Fe."

  “Good. Badge number?”

  “Badge number is RAS91172"

  “OK, Chief Harris. My apologies to you and your passengers for that ordeal. I’m sure you understand that seeing a police vehicle from Texas raised some suspicions. Didn’t know if it was a stolen vehicle or not.”

  “It’s not a problem. Would’ve done the same thing myself. Can my friends step out now?”

  “Yes, yes, I’m sorry. Please.”

  Max leaned down and looked into the window, motioning for them to come out.

  “Ladies, I’m Eduardo Sanchez, I was telling your friend here...”

  Elizabeth interrupted, “We heard everything. Don’t worry about us, we understand. I’m Elizabeth and this is Dr. Stone.”

  “Hello.” Dr. Stone was still shaking.

  “Doctor, I’m pleased to meet you. I’m sure that wasn’t the sort of welcome you expected. I hope it won’t ruin your opinion of our little town. We’re just trying to protect our families and homes from harm.”

  “Things are so bad you have to close off the town?”

  “Yes, ma’am, I’m afraid they are. I know this might seem a little forward of me given what just happened, but we’ve got a lot of hurt people who could use some help. Our doctors got their hands full.”

  “Of course, but I’d be more comfortable if Elizabeth could come with me.”

  “Not a problem. Gary! Take these ladies down to Dr. Henslee at the hospital.” An older gentleman nodded and escorted Elizabeth and Dr. Stone to his car.

  “What happened?”

  “Simply put, the Unified National Guard is what happened.”

  Max’s eyes got big. “Really?”

  “Chief, are you a veteran?”

  “No, sir. Been a cop for twenty-one years.”

  “Well, I’m a veteran, served three tours in Afghanistan and Iraq. I was Infantry, stationed in Fort Hood on 9/11. I can tell you that the men who came into our town should be ashamed to call themselves soldiers. No sense of honor or decency. The way they were acting, you’d have thought we were fighting The Empire of Iran right here in America.”

  “What do you mean?” asked Max.

  “Well, I served my country and swore an oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. Doesn’t seem like they swore the same oath I did.”

  Max shook his head. “I thought we were getting out of Texas, away from disaster and headed towards civilized society.”

  “Well, I can assure you we’re civilized people, Chief.”

  “I’m sorry, that’s not what I meant. Poor choice of words.”

  “I know what you meant. Didn’t mean to snap at you. My nerves are on edge.”

  “Mine, too. We ever get the time, I can tell you some stories. What were you saying?”

  “Yeah, anyway, they came rolling into town yesterday morning. We were glad to help; everyone wants to do their patriotic duty,” Officer Sanchez began to walk back to the barricade and Max followed. “They said they needed supplies, and we didn’t object. The manager at Wal-Mart welcomed them in and was prepared to give them whatever they needed. He asked the company commander to come up with a list so he could keep track of his inventory and submit it for reimbursement. Well, the good captain said that wouldn’t be necessary since the government wasn’t going to reimburse them for anything. He got nervous and called me over to the store. Captain told me the same thing. Said it was an emergency and he was going to take what he needed, didn’t have time for paperwork.”

  “How polite,” said Max.

  “It gets worse. They had probably six empty five-ton trucks. They filled up three of ‘em with food and water. Manager came unglued, said he was gonna get fired for sure. Captain didn’t give a damn. I was hoping they would hurry up and leave. No such luck. They had an empty fuel tanker and parked it in front of our biggest gas station. Tapped right into the underground tank and filled the damn thing up. Stealing from Wal-Mart is one thing, but the gas station they raided is privately owned. Don’t get me wrong – it’s still a crime either way, but Wal-Mart is an international chain with plenty of backing. The gas station owner is local. Stood right there and watched his business being taken right out from under him. No way he’ll ever be able to make up the loss.”

  “He didn’t give up without a fight, did he?” asked Max.

  Officer Sanchez nodded with a distraught look on his face. “I get there and the owner is demanding some sort of signed paperwork that he can submit to the military to get his money back.”

  “Same story?” />
  “Exactly the same. ‘State of emergency’ and all that bullshit.”

  Max looked confused. “What am I missing? I know things are going to shit, but what’s the emergency?”

  “Well, I suppose coming from Texas you don’t know.”

  “Know what?”

  “Iranians detonated a nuke over the east coast. The Pulse wiped out all the electronics. Rumor is the power is out all over the eastern United States”

  Max stopped dead in his tracks. His home state of Texas was truly going to be a wasteland. Recovery would never come. “Son of a bitch! Pulse? You mean an electromagnetic pulse? I didn’t know detonating a nuke high up in the sky would cause something like that.”

  “That’s exactly what it did. Before they got uncivilized, the military folks told us all about it. They call it ‘The Pulse.’

  “I thought Texas was in bad shape. We’re going to lose this country very quickly. Well, at least the National Guard was taking the supplies to people who need them.”

  “That’s what I thought, too.”

  “Oh come on! You can’t be serious!”

  “Wish I was joking, I promise you.”

  “What the hell were they doing with them?”

  “They didn’t even try to lie about it. Smart thing would have been to feed us a bunch of bullshit about taking the supplies to help victims of The Pulse. Nope. They’re taking supplies to Howard Beck’s house in Colorado.”

  Max was confused. “Howard Beck, the billionaire computer guy? Thought he was some sort of hermit.”

  “Thought the same thing myself.”

  “Okay, we keep getting off topic. Still don’t know why you have your town barricaded.”

  “Yeah, right. So they practically emptied the tanks at the gas station. Owner kept demanding documentation so he doesn’t lose his business trying to pay for the gas they took. He tried to pull the driver out of the tanker to stop him from leaving. Some soldiers got out of their Humvee and beat the living shit out of him. I couldn’t do anything but watch. I tried to stop it, but one of the soldiers drew down on me. Said if I touched my sidearm he’d kill me.”

  “Holy shit,” Max declared.

  “I drove him to the hospital only to find more bullshit. They had one of their empty five-ton trucks backed up to the lobby door loading it with medical supplies. Just about cleaned out the pharmacy. The hospital administrator was pleading with me to stop them. Said they weren’t leaving enough medicine behind to treat the patients in the hospital.”

  “That’s insane! They were putting the lives of sick people at risk? What’d you do?”

  “I put my foot down. I called for every officer on duty to report to the hospital. Once they got there, I demanded to speak to the captain. They kept loading up our medicine and recited the ‘we have orders’ line. We outnumbered them two to one, so we drew down on them and put ‘em in handcuffs. Held up a radio so they could call their captain over. Didn’t take him long to get there.”

  “Wow!”

  “I didn’t care, throw me in jail. I wasn’t gonna let those grunts give a bunch of sick people a slow death. Captain got there, and we have their three soldiers in cuffs right in front of us. Nice little hostage situation. Finally got their full attention so I could do some talking.”

  “I bet they were all ears.”

  “Damn right they were. Captain said we were all gonna be tried as traitors and executed. I told ‘em they were gonna unload the medicine and leave town. Well, that didn’t sit well with the captain. He started screaming. I started screaming. Standoff lasted about five minutes until about a hundred of our good citizens showed up armed and turned the tables on the National Guard.”

  “How many men did the Guard have?”

  “Maybe fifty. We put ‘em back on I-25 headed north and told them not to come back.”

  “That explains the roadblock.”

  “We’re lucky our town only has two exits on I-25, one at the southern edge of town the other at the northern edge. Wish we woulda searched their convoy before they left town. About ten minutes after they’d left, we found out they had kidnapped three doctors and a nurse right out of the hospital. No one in the hospital really noticed. They told the doctors they had wounded soldiers outside, and they were going to check on them. They never came back inside.”

  “Kidnapped? Are you positive?”

  “Yes. An x-ray tech was in the parking lot and saw them get in a Humvee. She said they didn’t seem to be in distress or going against their will. Grunts probably still had them convinced everything was on the up and up.”

  “Any possibility they went willingly? A chance to see the inside of Beck Estates? Sounds like something anyone would want to do.”

  “I thought of that. The nurse and two of the doctors have spouses and children here in town. None of them contacted their families to tell them they were leaving.”

  “Outrageous.”

  “We’ve turned away anyone that exits from the interstate. Most see the barricade and turn around on their own. You were the first one to stop. I saw your vehicle was from Texas and didn’t want to risk it.”

  “What are you going to do?”

  “Nothing we can do, really. We don’t have a large police force and we need everyone here to keep the town safe. They took damn near all of our gas. Three other gas stations in town and they’re damn near empty. They were expecting tankers before The Pulse that definitely aren’t showing up now.”

  Max didn’t reply but had an idea. “How do I get to the hospital? I need to talk to my friends.”

  “It’s down this road a few miles on the right.”

  “Thanks. Will you be here?’

  “Yes, sir, I’m not going anywhere.”

  “I’ll be back soon.” Max got back in his SUV. One of the men got down off the roof of his car and pulled forward, opening up a hole in the barricade. Max gave him a polite wave and drove down the road a few miles to the hospital. It wasn’t really much of a hospital; it was a one-story building that looked pretty old. Once he was in the parking lot, he understood why they needed Dr. Stone so badly. Three doctors and a nurse was probably half of their staff. He walked in the front lobby and found Elizabeth sitting in the waiting area.

  “Hey there, handsome man,” she said warmly.

  “Hey yourself,” Max winked at her, “where’s Diana?”

  “Hard at work. You hear about what happened here?”

  “Yeah, I thought the National Guard was supposed to be protecting us, not robbing and kidnapping people.”

  The little toddler walked over to Elizabeth and handed her a magazine. Elizabeth beamed. “Thank you so much, little man!” He giggled and handed Max a magazine.

  “Maxwell, what do you say?”

  “To a little boy who doesn’t talk?”

  “Don’t make me smack you!”

  “Great example you are, showing him that hitting is okay.”

  “Say thank you!”

  “Thank you, little boy. Go and play.” The little one giggled and started piling magazines from the table into the chair next to Elizabeth.

  Elizabeth waited until the little boy wasn’t paying attention and kicked Max’s foot. “You’re terrible!” She loved flirting with him and gave him her cutest grin. “What’s the plan, boss?”

  “I can’t just sit on my hands and do nothing while these people need our help.”

  “You want to stay here and run for chief of police?”

  “Cute. I think the position is filled. If you think this little man will stay with Diana, I’d like to take you with me to Colorado.”

  “Mountain climbing or skiing? I’d be happy with either one.”

  “Not what I had in mind. I’d like to visit Beck Estates and ask the Guard why they think it’s okay to steal anything they want and kidnap innocent people.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  At an altitude of ten thousand feet, Howard Beck's e
scape pod lost all power and began its decent back to the earth below. The electromagnetic pulse caused by the nuclear detonation high in the atmosphere had destroyed every electronic circuit from the eastern coast of the United States to the foothills of the Rocky Mountains down to the northern half of the Gulf States. In an instant, every aircraft in the sky fell back to earth; Howard's escape pod was no exception.