Alea Jacta Est: A Novel of the Fall of America (Future History of America Book 1) (28 page)

“He’s still
got food while some of us are starving!” someone remembered and pointed at
Stan.

“Yeah!”

“Where’d he
get the food?”

“How much—“

“I haven’t
eaten since yesterday—“

“—bet he’s
got a whole stockpile…”

“We should—“ 

“—been
almost a week now without fresh groceries…”

The crowd
was getting anxious and started to look harder and harder on Stan again.  He
took a step back instinctively, his eyes darting to the left and right, judging
threats.  Voices grew angrier. 

“How dare
he hoard food while we’re starving!”

“Yeah!” more
than one voice shouted in reply.

One of the
men from the opposition took a step forward towards Stan.  The crowd was
progressing towards a mob.  In a single, simple movement, Erik stifled that
progress.  He took a step forward towards the man emerging from the group and
placed himself squarely in front of Stan.  The man paused, as if seeing Erik
for the first time and noting the lethal sword on his hip.  Erik did not have a
chiseled movie star body, but he was solid from his daily
iaito
practice.  His 6'4" frame combined with his Japanese
katana
and the
dark look on his face presented a rather imposing figure. 

A few
months without power and he's really going to look like a damn Viking if he
doesn't get his hair cut and trim that goatee…
Ted thought with a
smile.  The group hushed, like something out of an old Western—the showdown was
set.

“Why are
you mad at Stan?” asked Erik calmly.

“Because he
was greedy and brought those men here!  They know where we live now…” the man
said, pointing over Erik’s shoulder.

“What
consequence did that have for you?  Was your wife attacked?”

“I’m not
married…”

“Were you
attacked?”

“No, but…”

“But?” Erik
asked, one eyebrow arched. 

“But, he’s
got food and I don’t!”

Erik let
the angry murmuring die down a bit.  “Why is that
his
problem?”

“Well,
because it’s not fair!” the man said angrily.  His fists balled at the
encouragement of a few others behind him.

“Where’s
your written guarantee that says life is fair?” Erik asked.  The man looked
confused. 

“No
guarantee?” asked Erik, pressing again.  “Okay, where’s the contract you signed
that said you were entitled to a fair life?  Show me the paper,”  The man
frowned.  “No?  Hmmm…” Erik scratched his week’s worth of beard.  “Okay, then
who told you that life is supposed to be fair?”

“No one! 
But—“

“Then why
do you think it
should
be?  What gives you the idea that life ought to
be fair?”

The man was
clearly confused…he shook his head.  “God dammit, I’m hungry and he’s got food,
that’s all I care about!”

“I’ve got
food too.  So does Ted.  So do a lot of us.  Are you mad at us too?”

“Hell yes!”

Erik
switched tracks to see if his opponent’s mental train would crash into the
station.  “Why don’t you have any food?”

“I ate it,
of course!” replied the middle-aged man with a slight beer gut, glaring now at
Erik.  He had the sinking suspicion this kid was making a fool of him in front
of the others.  There were fewer rumbles of support for him now.  Most people
were just watching.  It was like a real life TV show and everyone missed TV
greatly in the past three days…

“Why?”

“Because I
was hungry, you jackass.”

Erik
ignored the insult.  “You know you’ll get hungry, don’t you.  We all do.”  Erik
said, turning to look at the others.  Heads nodded in agreement.

“Well…” the
man considered, looking for a trick.  “Yeah, sure.”

“Then you
know you’ll eventually need food to eat, right?”

“Of course,
that’s why I’m so mad he’s got food and I don’t!”

“Then why
didn’t you keep more food around, if you
knew
you’d need it eventually?”

Silence. 
Erik relished the gotcha moment.

“Why didn’t
you have more than…what, two or three days worth of food?  You knew you would
need it…?” prompted Erik.

The man,
clearly embarrassed, tried a different approach, attempting to throw the wily
kid off his case.  “Oh yeah?  Why do you still have that sword on?  Why’d you
have it in the first place?”  He grinned and looked around for support.

Erik paused
before answering.  He looked down at the sword on his hip then up at the man in
front of him.  “So I can protect myself and my wife from people who think like
you
.” 
It was no louder than a whisper.

The man
took a breath in shock.  More than one person gasped with him.  “So now you’re
saying that
I’m
no better than that criminal that broke in here and
attacked Ted’s wife?” 

Brin gave
him a dirty look.

“He tried
to attack my wife too, thanks for noticing.  But more to the point, when you
behave like you are now, yes.  You’re no different.  That man saw that someone
else had what he wanted and didn’t have because of his own poor planning and
decided to
take
it without thinking about the consequences.”  Erik said,
his hand still resting on the pommel of the sword. 

“But why
are you offended that I compared you to that animal I killed this morning? 
Just a minute ago you were talking like he was innocent and
I
was the
criminal…” Erik asked with feigned interest.

Before the
man could respond, Ted took over.  Susan had joined his side now, a bandage
still covering her forehead.  “People, hey, let’s settle down for a second.” 
When he had everyone’s reluctant attention, he spoke again.

“Now look,
this here is
exactly
what we can’t have going on right now.  We can’t be
fighting with each other.  You all know what happened a few days ago.  That was
only the tip of the iceberg.  People, the jailbreak here in town wasn’t and
won’t
be the only one, I guarantee you.  This is a fairly big county, folks.  Our
city ain’t got the only jail and if they can break out here, they sure as hell
will break out other places, like Bradenton or Venice.  That’s not even
including the
city
jails here in Sarasota.  Remember, I worked for the
county!”   Seeing he had both groups undivided attention, he continued.

“And they
know each other, the convicts.  If those two this morning had talked to any
others, then more will know where we are.  They’ll come here, because of what
Erik said—they’ll want to take what we have and damn the consequences.”  Ted
put a protective arm around his wife and looked more at the women in the crowd
than the men. 

Erik could
see that whether they liked it or not, the women would imagine the worst of
what the criminals would do to them…all those convicts locked up without
girlfriends or wives…imaginations started to churn.

“But that’s
not our only problem!  We got gangs of thugs out there—street gangs…” Ted
continued.

“Come on,
this is
Sarasota
, not L.A…” someone called.

“That’s
right, and our so-called gangs can’t hold water compared to South Central.  But
they’re out there,” Ted retorted, pointing to the ten foot privacy wall
surrounding the complex.  “And what do you think they’re going to do when they
realize the cops have all gone home for good?  Who’s going to slap ‘em on the
wrist and send ‘em to Juvenile Hall—which is closed anyway!”  Ted was on a roll
and started to get fired up.

“What about
kids that are just bored?  No cops around, no people, why not break that
window.  Why not go inside.  Why
not
take what you want?  Who’s there to
care except maybe an old man or woman who’s retired?  Who’s there to stop you—not
the cops.   It’ll grow from there.  I saw it in Iraq, I saw it in other
countries; people are the same all over the world when you get right down to
it.  The only difference is in the mind.”

“How’s
that?” asked the man in front of Erik.

“Civilized
people choose not to do the things that the others do for fun or boredom.  We
choose to respect each other, not hurt each other and steal and loot.”

“Yeah,
well, words and ideas don’t fill an empty stomach.”

“That’s
right, they don’t.  But words and ideas bring people together, and when people
work together, that’s how you feed the empty stomach,” replied Ted.

Taking his
cue, Erik reached into his pocket and pulled out a protein bar, then handed it
to the man that so recently appeared to threaten him.

The man
stared in wonder at the gesture and looked ashamed as he took it.  “Thanks…”

“No
problem.”  Erik turned to face the crowd.  “I agree with Ted.  We’ve got to
work together, to organize…”

“But it’s
not like the Federal Government has been
destroyed
or anything.  Sure,
the power’s out, there’s riots in the big cities…but they’re —“ someone argued.

“Helpless
at this point,” finished Erik.  “
We are on our own
.  At least for the
time being.   The quicker everyone gets used to that idea, the better for us
all.”  He paused.  ”Why do you think the President suggested today that
everyone start  their own gardens?  Not for the pastoral beauty of it, I assure
you.  It’s because he’s sending us a message—the country is broke and it’s
going to take a while to fix it.  You know how long it takes to get a garden
going and harvest the crops?  We’re talking months here people.  Ted’s right,
we’re on our own.”

“How do you
know that?” someone asked, still refusing to come to grips with reality.

“I listened
to my shortwave radio today.  News reaches us from Europe and Canada.  All they
talked about was how things were slipping out of control, how the big cities
are called “Occupied Zones” with the rioters in control.  In fact, the
Government is calling them rebels now.  We’re sliding towards a civil war!  Yet
the Europeans report how the power won’t be back on for months, how the fires
out west are destroying whole towns, how every state’s Governor has declared a
state of emergency.  They’re even recalling our troops and ships overseas to
help get things secure here—it’s chaos and it’s not going to get better any
time soon…”

“But
they’ll send the military to protect us…that’s what they’re there for, isn’t
it?” someone asked.  The voices of opposition were growing weaker.

Erik shook
his head.  “I heard this morning…” he cleared his throat.  “I heard that there
was a nuclear bomb set off in the Middle East yesterday.”

Everyone
gasped and started mumbling and talking at once.  The horror of nuclear war
hadn’t been thought seriously about since the Cold War.  And someone dropped a
bomb in the Middle East?  That place was a powder keg on any given day to begin
with!  Perhaps just as shocking was the fact that it took two days to get that
information to the American people, when just a week ago, it would have taken
minutes.

Erik raised
his arms to get their attention, talking over the gasps and worried
speculation.  “I think there’s going to be a big war over there soon.  The
military is going to be tied up trying to protect the cities and…I just don’t
see how they’re going to come to little old Sarasota to save us when they got
such big problems in Tampa-St. Pete.”  More gasps and cries of disbelief.  The
sheep were getting nervous.

“I agree,
in any event, we’ve got to take care of ourselves until someone
does
come
along.  If they never get here, then we’re set.  If they do get here, we at
least survive till help arrives,” Ted added.

More heads
nodded agreement than there were scowls and frowns of disagreement.  The tide
was slowly turning.  “Ted’s right,” Erik continued, pressing home his
advantage.  “If we spend time and energy fighting amongst ourselves, when
something really bad happens, like ten or twenty convicts,
armed
, come
over our walls—we’ll all be as good as dead.”

“But Ted
has a gun and you’ve got that sword—“

“And how
many armed men do you think Ted and I can take out while the rest of you hide? 
Are you
kidding
me?  No way!” barked Ted incredulously.

What the
hell is wrong with these people?
thought Erik.

“If that
happens, then they’ll have everything and we’ll have nothing.  People, there’s
an unlimited number of threats out there…fighting with each other only makes
them that much more dangerous.  Think of your families, at least!”

“But…he
still knew about food and didn’t tell anyone…”

“And why
should
he?  Look at the reaction you people gave him—his neighbors and friends!  You
were ready to lynch him!  And for what—for trying to save his family?  Can you
blame him?  Any of you?” Erik asked, daring someone to ‘cast the first stone’. 
No one bit the bait so he continued.  “Benjamin Franklin once said back during
the Revolution, ‘We must all hang together, or most assuredly we will all hang
separately,’.  I think that statement sums up our situation perfectly.”