Arks of America

by D A Carey

  He dreaded the thought of going through Gary, Indiana, resolving to stick to his plan and go around the large population centers even if it cost more time. As bad as he thought Indianapolis could be, he imagined Gary would be like a war zone, because it hadn’t been much better before. It bothered Vince that they were driving so much slower than he wanted. Even though his head told him they were doing this right, his heart hated that they stopped so often to make sure the way was safe. He reconciled himself to the fact that if he didn’t do this right, he might leave his girls stranded in Chicago. It was only the strength of his training that kept him to the plan.

  One of their checkpoints along the route was a Wal-Mart Supercenter on Highway 231, where they wanted to turn north onto Highway 54. There was a large police presence and a lot of people with trucks and tables set up there. It appeared to be a farmer’s market and flea market rolled into one, complete with police protection. If Wal-Mart was helping and the police were making sure things were kept orderly, it could be a good thing. In either event, Vince and the team kept moving.

  Soon, they turned on to a narrow county road heading north to take them to Highway 48. Although it was a very circuitous route, Vince was convinced it was the safest way. They stayed on 48 as it turned into Highway 59 to avoid Terre Haute. Terre Haute wasn’t a huge city, but it was approaching the size Vince thought could be a risk. On Highway 59, they passed through the towns of Clay City, Ashboro, and Brazil with the same tactics and level of care they used earlier in the day. As they headed north then turned west on Highway 231 and north again on Highway 41, Vince noticed more destruction and therefore danger. He didn’t know if the damage was worse and there truly were more predators this far north or if it was only his growing apprehension putting him on edge. While Vince was frustrated this was taking all day, he had to admit that they were making good time, all things considered.

  Highway 41 took them through Turkey Run State Park. It was getting late and darker. Vince wanted to consult his map and get some food in his stomach. All three of them were hungry and needed a break. It was important that they be rested and nourished when they hit the most dangerous spots. Vince found an old barn off the side of the road near the state park that was on its last legs yet could still fit both vehicles inside. While the men were new to each other, they were experienced campaigners and easily fell into the routine of camp the same way they had when driving the trucks in convoy formation. While one of the men put together a meal of both MREs and ramen noodles to fill them up and add some carbs, another took first watch, observing the perimeter through loose boards in the barn. Walking outside would have provided a better range of vision but would have made them easier to spot by others. They decided a view from inside would be good enough.

  Vince studied the map. He verified the route he’d planned back at Gus’s place. He assumed they would be fairly safe up to Peotone, Illinois. After Peotone when they were on Highway 50 or the Governor’s Highway, things would get dicier.

  That was tomorrow. Tonight, they needed rest. Vince tried the SAT phone again and couldn’t get through. That was frustrating and was sure to make his sleep more restless until it was his time to stand guard. Vince ate and then found a dark corner of the barn to sack out because he had the middle watch.

  << Dave >>

  Dave was receiving reports from the different locations. The most urgent calls were from people who had been on the fence about joining the communities before. Many of them formerly balked at the personal service commitment. Some disliked the insistence that people with critical skill sets would be given a subsidy, making them equals. Those people were now eager to agree that the plan was fantastic. Dave snorted when contemplating the wealthy business leaders, corporate lawyers, and surgeons who had previously detested sharing equality and living space with mechanics and farmers who now thought it was a great idea.

  Many new investors were rushing to join the charter towns in various stages of development in their area. The longer the civil unrest lasted and the more cities it encompassed, the more panicked people became. While some were contacting Dave’s company through proper channels, more were just walking up to the construction sites or gates, checkbook in hand, trying to join. Most were being turned away. While Dave welcomed an increased understanding of the value of this project, he didn’t want to relax the admission standards. The standard investor would have to wait and follow the regular path to membership. For now, if someone had a needed skill and passed an interview and background check, they would be welcomed as long as there was space.

  In the long run, having a higher mix of people with critical skill sets was not as profitable as the cross-section of people he originally planned for. Yet if this crisis didn’t end, traditional monetary profits wouldn’t matter. If it did end, there would be time to invite those who had the means but not all of the skills. Others with less essential skills or who only had money would have to wait until the nation recovered.

  The other groups of people who were calling Dave’s office were construction supervisors and project managers. They wanted to know if they should keep working and what to do about workers who didn’t show up for work. They wanted to make sure they would be paid and how. Dave pushed them all to keep going full steam ahead. He promised payment, and if the dollar was devalued they could be paid in goods or gold. Dave was prepared. Not surprisingly, many of the workers wanted to trade their services for a safe place to live with their families. Dave made sure that Louis issued instructions that those workers would get priority in the screening and background check process. While there wasn’t room for everyone, they could take on some of the best and most qualified. This was the time to get the communities done and offer bonuses to those workers who did show up. For the people who had already moved in, it was time to take up arms and protect their homes and communities.

  Dave received an update from Vince and Ellie. Vince was still south of Chicago, and Ellie spoke with Liz. They were all trying to connect up, and the fact that they hadn’t yet concerned him more than he wanted to admit. He would be on pins and needles until he got word Liz and her people made it safely to Ellie’s place.

  << Liz >>

  The group was exhausted from the trek through Chicago. They rested in the old auto repair building while waiting for Malcolm. They could still hear occasional screams or the explosion of gunfire outside. What was even more chilling was the occasional hysterical or drunken cackle of a pillager somewhere near. It was as if the worst elements of society were running loose and now ruled. Dusk was coming, and the plunderers would be on the hunt even more ravenously than they were during the day.

  Soon they heard an engine revving down the alley behind the building and the sounds of garbage cans and debris being struck. Junior was closest to the door and peeked through a crack. A red minivan screeched to a stop, and the sliding side door opened. Malcolm jumped out as they were coming out of the back door of the building and told them to load up in a hurry. They piled into the van in a rush. As they were racing away, they could see a crowd coming down the alleyway behind them. Some in the crowd appeared desperate, others curious and hungry. Still more were angry and aggressive. Liz only knew they needed to be away from here.

  Malcolm came to a main street. “It’s only another block to where we need to go.” As he was speaking, a group of men wearing red bandanas noticed the van and moved toward them. Many of them were armed. Malcolm yelled, “Plan B!” cut the wheel, and drove in another direction as fast as the van would go.

  They paused momentarily in an alley, where Malcolm picked up a walkie talkie. “You there? It’s me.”

  “Go ahead,” replied a female voice.

  “I need to come in hot on the south side. Let our people know the gang is a block away from the north blockade. They may follow me to the south end of the block or come at the north end. Just be ready.”

  “Gotcha. You’re coming in hot from the south. The bad guys are stirred up.”

  Ma
lcolm floored the accelerator, still holding the press-to-talk button with his right hand on the walkie talkie. “I saw Raheem and Malik with the gang, so they know where I’m going. What they don’t know is which end of the block I’m coming in through, so this all has to happen fast.”

  “Those guys don’t give up,” the female voice responded in weary exasperation. “This is getting old, but we’ll be ready.”

  Malcolm dropped the walkie talkie into the center console and gunned the engine, making hard and fast turns. He scraped paint alongside of a wall to avoid running down a few sketchy-looking vagrants. Although Malcolm had a kind heart and didn’t want to hurt anyone, he was running full blast and wanted to get everyone home safe. Scraping the wall endangered them because they could have disabled the van. He drove straight at two cars parked sideways blocking the entrance to the block on North Kilpatrick Avenue, where he and Ellie lived. Scarcely fifty yards before hitting the blockade, a car was rolled out of the way, and he rushed through.

  There were only a couple of dozen people still living on the block. A few had been injured or killed. Some had never come home from work or wherever they’d been when things went from bad to worse. Even more chose to leave and try to make it to safety elsewhere.

  They stopped in the narrow driveway beside Ellie and Vince’s home, the relief among the group palpable. When they got out of the van, the remaining neighbors rushed to meet Liz and hear what she’d seen outside the block. Her heart was beating faster than if she’d just stepped off a huge rollercoaster. While she was a star in her own right as an actress, they were all stars right now because they’d been out there amid all the chaos, on foot, and survived.

  After the talking and well-wishing was done, Ellie invited Liz and her group inside. She lived in a tastefully decorated two-story home. Ellie offered Liz, Carol, and Junior something to drink as well as a place to clean up. “The utilities and water work sometimes, and other times not. The water pressure is too low for a shower. However, enough trickles out for a bath if you can live with six or eight inches of water. To make it warm, Malcolm can heat some water on the barbecue grill to add to it.”

  Liz gratefully accepted for all of them since Carol was too shell-shocked to respond and Junior was too proud to ask for warm water to clean up.

  Strategy and Tactics

  “Is there any instinct more deeply implanted in the heart of man than the pride of protection, a protection which is constantly exerted for a fragile and defenseless creature?”

  - Honoré de Balzac

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  Vince was the last to roll out of the sack in the morning. It was about two a.m. He didn’t want to admit that these schedules were getting harder on him as he got older. He never slept well during a mission anyway.

  Mid-day to midnight was the time when the criminal element was most active. They hunted, partied, fornicated, fought, and killed most during those hours. If you wanted to avoid them, you hunkered down if you could when they were most active and made time when they were sleeping. That schedule wasn’t foolproof and couldn’t always be adhered to, but it was the best plan for now.

  Vince spoke to Dwight to try and lighten the mood when discussing his plan for their schedule. “You know the old saying, ‘If you try to invent a foolproof plan, someone will just build a better fool’?” Right now, the world was full of fools. The breakdown of society was weeding out the bad fools from the better fools by the thousands. Anything that tipped the scales in their favor before the better fools got their game together helped.

  They planned to be on the road by 2:30 a.m. and get about twelve hours of movement under their belt before settling in for the night again. If all went perfectly, they would be at Ellie’s tonight. If not, the hope was it went well enough that they would find a warehouse or abandoned building to hunker down in by that time outside of the densest part of Chicago proper. If that happened, he wanted to make sure they were left with the quickest route through the city for the final run to Ellie’s.

  Vince cursed himself for not driving the route months before everything erupted. As a soldier, and more importantly as a dad, he needed to be prepared. He should have had a good lay of the land. The fact that he hadn’t wanted to intrude on Ellie, Kate, and Malcolm’s new life and home was a lame excuse that rang hollow now that they were in need and his efforts were hampered by his lack of knowledge. As someone who believed in being prepared, he should have planned that “something” might happen. This was his ex-wife and daughter’s new home, and he should know it well enough to have a good mental picture of the ins and outs of where they lived and how to get there. Ellie had only been there for a few months, and the wounds were still raw. He always thought there would be more time.

  They were on Highway 41 headed through Veedersburg. Everything was going well so far. Much of the good luck was probably due to it being so early in the morning. The next town, Attica, concerned Vince because the bridge over the Wabash presented another natural chokepoint and a good place for an ambush. Even though they were making good time, Vince and the others couldn’t relax. They were already experiencing more delays than yesterday. There were too many stalled vehicles for his comfort. Either things had been much worse here or the bad guys were much faster at organizing to make narrow traffic channels along the route for an attack. So far, either Vince’s team appeared too formidable to take on or the bandits were sleeping off a drunk and would attack other travelers later in the day.

  Highway 41 was technically a back road and a better choice than the expressway. It still was a main thoroughfare locally and a good option for predators. The plan was to get through fast. It was morning and the sun was up as they approached the town of Attica. They slowed when Vince recognized the roadblock out front comprised of old cars and sawhorses in front and police cruisers behind the blockade.

  Vince keyed the walkie talkie. “Andy, you and Dwight fall back about seventy-five yards behind me and take an overwatch position.” The plan wasn’t to hide but to not present an easy target either. The thought was that Vince could find out what was going on with the roadblock while Andy and Dwight covered him from behind far enough away that they could provide fire support yet not so close they made an easy target for those at the roadblock if they had bad intentions. “One of you should dismount and work around a perimeter in the woods near the trucks, keep an eye out for traps or ambush sites.”

  While Vince still didn’t know Andy and Dwight well, giving instructions came naturally to him. They didn’t hesitate to follow his lead. When he got within twenty yards of the roadblock, Vince stopped the truck, slung his AR single-point harness over his neck, and pushed the gun behind him. Many times, a single point was for amateurs and show. Yet it did have its uses in a quick reaction, urban warfare situation with a shorter barreled weapon and optics that could take the banging around. The current configuration he was using had EOtech optics and a laser underneath. He would be in and out of the truck and moving fast, not sniping from a distance. Vince kept his hands clear of his sidearm and held them palm out as he walked to the barricade.

  “That’s far enough,” a man said in a gravelly voice.

  Vince stopped. “We only want to pass through.”

  “I’m the sheriff here,” the man called back. “The town is closed.”

  The yelling across the distance was getting to Vince, and he asked, “Mind if I approach?”

  “Only if you’re unarmed,” said the sheriff. “If I see so much as an ankle gun or pocket knife, I shoot to kill.”

  Vince held up a finger and walked back to the truck. He picked up the walkie and keyed the mike. “Andy, I’m going closer I’m going in unarmed at their request.”

  “I’d advise against that,” Andy warned.

  Vince had a good feeling about this sheriff, and he needed info. More than that, he needed to get through the town and across that bridge. “I understand,” he said to Andy. “I’m going in, though. Don’t let Dwight get close to town and mess
this up.”

  Vince disarmed and left everything in the truck, including the walkie talkie. He walked back up to the barricade and stuck out his hand. “I’m Vince Cavanaugh.”

  The sheriff hesitated, gazed off in the distance, and spat chewing tobacco on the ground. “I’m Sheriff Tom Cooper.” Finally, he shook Vince’s hand. “We closed the town after some looters raped, killed, and stole from a few in town. We’d been allowing people through the city with only a couple of checkpoints at the few roads that come into and out of the city. We told people as they entered that they couldn’t stay but were guaranteed safe passage through the city. One car didn’t come out the other side, and no one noticed till later that night. When one of my deputies got home from working the roadblock, he found his wife and two daughters raped and murdered in his own home.”

  “Damn!” Vince exhaled from deep in his lungs.

  “The hell of it was that the two scumbags were still there. Drunk as hell, listening to music from a radio plugged into the deputy’s generator. He killed them on the spot and fed them to the hogs on a neighbor’s farm. He then took his wife and girls to the cemetery and dug the graves himself. He was filling them back in when we found him and helped. He told us the story and kept working until he tamped down the last spade of dirt. Then he took out his service revolver and shot himself before I could stop him. I dug the last grave myself, and now no one goes through my city. No one.”

  It was clear the other deputies knew the story and were angry and wary of outsiders. Vince’s heart ached for that deputy in the way only another dad could feel. He was speechless.

  After a pause, Sheriff Cooper said, “We did get notice from the governor that the military and National Guard are working to restore order. That help could take months to reach a small town like this. When that day comes, I will hang up this gun and retire to a cabin I have in the forest and be done. Until that burden is taken from my shoulders, I’ll do whatever I can to keep this town safe, and that means no one coming through.”