"Calm down!" he shouted and brought his open hand crashing down on Debbie's face.
She screeched then dropped to her knees in tears.
"Jesus, Tolbert what the hell was that for?" Jackson asked as he straightened up.
"These crazy chicks need to get a grip. I told you we don’t have time for this."
He grabbed Debbie by the hair and pulled her up. Sue was still trying to regain her senses and he didn't seem to pay her much attention.
"You're gonna get your shit and come with us. Do you understand that?"
"Hey!" I yelled as my feet took me forward. "What the fuck are you assholes doing? You can't treat people like this."
I had spouted a mouthful before I even knew what I was saying. My legs shook with anger as I walked toward them and I wasn't even sure why I was so mad.
"Excuse me," Tolbert said.
I could see the unnamed soldier place his hand on the rifle that hung around his neck. This reminded me why I always minded my own damn business.
"You can't beat people...this ain't Iraq!" I shouted hoping my loud voice would at least gain the interest of a few witnesses.
"You better go back inside before I show you just how we treat people in Iraq."
"That's enough Tolbert, we'll come back later," Jackson said and stepped in between us.
"No! These ladies are gonna pack up and we're gonna finish our job. And this dickless asshole," he nodded at me. "He's gonna go back inside before I shove a boot up his ass."
"What size do you wear?" the question left my mouth before I could swallow it back.
The soldier gripping his rifle cracked a smile and Jackson laughed. That only made Tolbert all the more angry.
He let go of Debbie and steamed toward me. Biting his lower lip, he grabbed me by the shirt collar and pulled me forward. I could smell the stench of onions and cigarettes on his breath.
"Look you little fuck," he growled.
"Sergeant!" Swonski shouted from behind me.
Tolbert dropped me and snapped to attention. As I caught my breath, I turned around and found the captain gazing at me with a beet red face.
"What the hell is going on here?"
"Sir, nothing sir."
Debbie clambered to her feet and then dove at Tolbert. "You piece of shit!" she screamed.
Jackson wrapped his arms around her shoulders and held her back. Sue was still trying to gather herself and I was trying to make sense of the whole situation.
"Randall, please forgive my men. They tend to get a bit overzealous," Swonski said. "This...this business makes us all a bit restless."
"And what business is that?" I asked accusingly.
Swonski squinted his eyebrows and shot me daggers. "You can return home now. This won't happen again."
He stepped toward me and brought himself to his full height. I wanted to punch him, but I knew that would end bad for me. Grinding my teeth, I cast one more dirty look at Tolbert then headed back to my house.
CHAPTER 11
DE OPPRESSO LIBER
Days passed with Captain Swonski and his men monitoring us like we were in prison. No one was allowed to leave the neighborhood and we hadn't heard anything else about what was happening outside. It was disturbing how quickly people learned to tolerate, even accept oppression. It's little battles that are lost daily and you never even notice how far you've fallen, until you've lost everything.
More families had been taken without a word, including Jake and Trent. It seemed completely random, but I knew there had to be more going on. Every morning I wondered who would be the next person to vanish.
Greg and I had begun to have secret meetings late at night to discuss what news if any we'd learned that day. Normally it was nothing, but sometimes we'd manage to piece together enough to paint a pretty grim picture of what the world had become.
"Eddie heard one of the troops talking...says he thinks they'll be leaving soon," Greg said as we sat at my dining room table under dim light.
"What does that mean?"
"Can't mean anything good. He just said he heard them say they'd be moving out."
"And what about the people that were at the gate?"
"Gone, they didn't let them in and I don't think they were too nice about getting rid of them, at least that's what I heard."
Rumors and "he said she said" is what we'd been reduced to. But at least it was something. The military wasn't all bad though. They'd provided food and water and even had a few gas burners that allowed us to cook actual food. But things weren't getting any better and I was still pushing the agenda to leave.
We wrapped up our secret meeting and Greg snuck back home. After that I checked on the kids then locked up and went to bed.
The next morning I awoke to the sound of drums beating at the door. Melinda was already wide awake, staring around with crazed eyes and rambling on about something I couldn't immediately understand.
"Go check the door!" she said again and her words finally made sense.
I crawled out of the bed and stumbled toward the door. The knocking hadn't let up and I was starting to feel a chill creep down my spine. It was a frantic sound, like someone was trying to get in.
"I'm coming!" I yelled.
A little annoyed, I yanked the door open. Greg was standing there with a crazy look in his eyes.
"They left!" he said.
"What?"
"The military, they left. Every last one of them."
I scratched my head and stepped onto the porch. I didn't see any soldiers so I ventured further out and walked down the steps. I stopped in the street and looked from side to side.
"When did they leave?"
"I don't know, but they're gone. They packed up everything. I checked outside of the gate, there's not a sign of them anywhere."
Greg was right, there wasn't a troop in sight and all of their equipment and vehicles were gone. I should've been happy they'd left us, but it made me wonder just what could've occurred that caused them to pack up and leave town.
"I don't think it's a good thing," I said to Greg.
"Who knows? I didn't like them around here, that's for sure. A bunch of guys with guns is never a good thing."
For the next few days things did seem to get better. People were outside more often, there was less talk of doom and gloom, and the best part was the military had left all of the supplies they'd brought.
But after a while the portable toilets became full, the gas grills ran out of propane and the pallets of water ran dry. Suddenly, we were back to scavenging, to struggling to survive and the optimistic attitude evaporated like a puddle of water.
"It's been three weeks," Melinda said in desperation. "We have to do something."
"I said we should leave, but you don't want to. What else do you want me to do?" I asked.
"Why can't you just fix the car? They had those jeeps and they worked."
I sighed. "Whatever messed up our stuff didn't mess up everything. And I don't know how to fix a car anyway. We just need to get out of here Melinda. The longer we stay the harder its gonna be to find some place safe. We still don't have a clue what's really going on out there, but the military left and they must've had good reason."
"Dad's right," Alistair added. He'd just walked out of his room and was standing in the hall watching us. "I think we should leave...I think we all just need to pack up and go."
His eyes were wide, and his brow wrinkled with stress. I'd never seen him like that, never seen him so consumed. He was normally a serious kid, but optimistic and full of bright ideas. Now, he was the portrait of defeat and pain.
"I don't know," Melinda replied. "I just don't know."
She covered her face with her hands and mumbled under her breath, then got up and headed into our bedroom. Alistair came and took a seat next to me and we just stared out of the open window into the backyard.
A cool breeze blew in and I considered grabbing a light jacket, but the weather was so scarcely chilly that I de
cided to soak it in. Brown, dead leaves fell from the lone tree out back and the wide, brick wall that separated the back of our neighborhood from the highway could be seen clearly.
I thought about what was going on in the world outside. Three weeks was a long time to be cut off from everything. It was a long time to not hear the news or the ring of a phone. It was a long time to be alone.
"Where would we go?" Alistair asked in a light voice.
"I don't know...away from here. I guess it depends on what it's really like out there."
"You think it's gotten worse?""
"Yeah, I think so."
"You think it'll ever be the same again?"
I looked at Alistair then lowered my gaze. I never lied to him, but at the same time I knew how horrible the answer would sound. The same fear he felt, I'd been hiding for a long time. Something had happened and I didn't think our world would ever be the same again. Beyond that, I feared leaving our house and neighborhood, but I'd rather know what's waiting around the corner. Staying there was just avoiding reality and dying slowly.
"Alistair, I don't know. I hope it will, but the more I see the more I feel like we may have reached a point where there's no going back."
Alistair frowned. He nodded his head slightly and took a deep breath. "Me too."
"Dad!" Charlie suddenly shouted.
I jumped up and sprinted toward their room. I almost tore my ACL whipping around the corner, but I came to a stop in their doorway with Melinda right behind me.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"My iPad...it's working," he said in excitement.
"What?" I reached out and grabbed the little silver tablet.
The light in the corner flashed and then something blinked across the screen and it went off. I glanced at Melinda with excitement in my eyes.
"Is it working?" Melinda asked.
"I think it was," I said as I depressed the power button over and over with no success.
"You broke it!" David shot.
"Shut up David. Charlie, what did you do to get it to work?"
"Nothing, it...it just started working."
Shaking my head, I handed the tablet back to him. "Let me know if it happens again."
"Randall!" Greg's voice shouted from the front door as he hammered it loudly.
"What now?"
I left Melinda with the kids and ran to get the door. As soon as I opened it Greg bolted inside, nearly knocking me over.
"What the hell is wrong with you?"
"People..." he heaved a heavy sigh as he tried to catch his breath. "Guns, they...got... guns."
Confused, I bent the blind on the front window and glanced outside. Several men armed with hunting rifles and pistols were trotting down the middle of the road. They looked like they were trying to imitate a military patrol, but it was obvious they didn't have the training.
"Holy shit!" I mumbled and shuffled backward.
"What's going on?" Melinda asked from behind me.
I put my finger to my mouth then locked the door. Melinda gave me a confused look and tilted her head. I grabbed her by the arm and moved further into the house as I looked at her with an intensity that I hope she comprehended.
"There are people with guns outside. Not soldiers, just people," I whispered.
"Yeah, some kind of militia," Greg added as he found his voice.
"We need to go...we need to go now!" I said.
Melinda shook her head from side to side and started to say something. The crackle of a gunshot sent her diving to the floor with a high-pitched yelp.
I took off running toward the kid’s room. They were sitting on the bed trying to get their iPad to work again. As I stormed through the door I dove and tackled them both to the ground.
Charlie let out an odd sounding chirp and David laughed and started punching at me like we were playing a game.
"Guys, be very quiet okay."
"Hide and go seek?" David asked with an excited grin.
"No this is serious. Bad people are outside. Be very quiet and follow me."
Their faces changed, mirroring my concern. I dropped to all fours and they did the same. We crawled across the floor as quickly as we could until we were back in the living room with Melinda and Greg.
"Did you hear that?" Alistair asked as he came sliding around the corner.
"Get down!" I shouted.
Another gunshot shattered the air then screams followed. They were close, no more than a few houses away. I didn't know what was going on, but I knew we needed to get out of the neighborhood and fast.
"Melinda, we are leaving! Grab their bags and load up as much from the pantry as you can. Alistair help her," I said in an urgent voice.
Greg was still cowering on the floor, looking terrified. Reluctantly, he pushed himself to all fours and looked over at me.
"Where are you going?" he asked.
"Away from here."
"I'm coming," he replied.
I nodded then rushed to the closet to grab my bug out bag and anything else I could cram into it. My hands trembled with panic as I tried to yank down the zipper, then I reached inside and pulled out the small, metal gun safe at the bottom. Moving quickly, I opened it and grabbed the black pistol inside.
I stared at it, wishing I'd gone to the gun range or at least watched a YouTube video on how to use it. I'd always assumed the internet would be around, who knows how the world got along before it. But that was a question for another day, I grunted and crammed the gun into my waistline.
"Hurry up!" Greg called.
Rushing, I stuffed more water and meal rations into the orange and gray nylon. Then I tied up the tent I'd purchased at Wal-Mart and slung the entire thing onto my back.
I stood there for a moment. It was funny that the few supplies I'd bought after watching some doomsday movie were now going to decide if I lived or died. The idea of a world where the simple things like running water or electricity didn't exist, previously stood at the far reaches of my unconscious mind. Now, this was my reality and accepting that became the most sobering moment that I could remember.
I'd told myself a lie my whole life, we all had. We'd built our cities and highways, giant, cascading statues of steel. We'd connected the far reaches of the world with technology, able to send messages across the globe in the blink of an eye. We'd created a central nervous system for all humans, a knowledge repository so vast that it could only exist in space.
And through all of that we'd forgotten how to live. That was my fear. That I would take my family into the unknown and let them die. That after years of fast food and comfy chairs and computers, I wouldn't be able to provide the basics. That we'd die of thirst or starve to death because of my ineptitude, because of my inability to be a man.
Loud shouts and screams from outside brought me back to the moment. I shut the closet door and hurried back to the living room. Melinda was already there, trying to comfort David and Charlie. They were terrified and while they couldn't completely understand the danger, they were perceptive enough to know that they should be afraid.
"It's gonna be okay," Melinda said over and over.
"We are going on a mission," I started. "I need you guys to stay close and be very quiet. When we run, you run. When we stop, you stop. You guys understand?"
They both nodded. I looked at Alistair and he stared back at me with an intense resolve on his face. I was impressed, he didn't break easily.
"Ready?" Melinda asked.
Suddenly, there was a knock on the door and everyone froze. Melinda looked at me with a fear in her eyes that coiled around my neck and squeezed. She wrapped her arms around the kids and lowered to the floor.
"If you're in there, come out now or we are coming in!" a deep barreled voice shouted.
The door shook as they beat on it again and then the knob began to rattle loudly. My hand drifted to the pistol stuck in my pants and I swallowed the fear at the back of my throat.
"Go through the back," Greg suddenl
y said.
"What?"
"Take them through the back and over the wall. The drop is only five feet or so on that side. I'll get rid of the guys on the porch."
I looked out of the back window and stared at the tan, brick wall that spanned the length of the neighborhood. Because of the incline at the back of the house it was only two feet to stand on top of the wall, but it dropped off to ground level on the other side.
"Are you sure? What are you gonna do?" I asked.
"Yeah, I'll ditch them. Give them what they want then I'll meet you on the other side."
The door rattled again then started to buckle as the men outside began to kick it. I grabbed Melinda by the hand and smiled.
"Go now!" Greg grunted through gritted teeth.
"Be safe," I told him and patted him on the shoulder.
Then I turned back to Melinda and the kids. I could see the fear and trepidation written in tears on their faces. I could also see the trust they'd put in me to get them through whatever was going to happen.
They had their bags strapped tightly on their backs. Their running shoes laced up and their jackets pulled snug.
I looked back around the house and deep inside I knew it would be the last time I was there. A lifetime of memories lingered in the halls and I felt like I was leaving a piece of me behind.
I took a deep breath and summoned all of the resolve I could find. I was at the edge of a great decision, a journey that would test our will to live. I could only hope that we were ready. With more fear than bravery, I turned toward the back door. I reached out for the handle and nodded at Greg. Staring back at my family, I managed a half smirk then willed myself forward and growled, "Let's go."
CHAPTER 12
THE GET AWAY
I ushered David and Charlie up the slight hill and we stopped next to Alistair and Melinda. I leaned over and stared down the side of the wall. Greg hadn't been that off, but the seven foot drop to the ground could mean a sprained ankle, which was something I didn't need.
Deconstruction- The Complete series Box Set Page 6