Alea Jacta Est: A Novel of the Fall of America (Future History of America Book 1) (37 page)

The F-35s
scattered, each struggling to change direction and get the hell out of the way
of the expanding ball of water vapor.  The damaged Lightning followed the lead
of Hawk One, pulling to port and pushing the engine to the limit to out run
the…whatever…that might be coming towards them from the nuclear explosion. 

In seconds,
all the pilots had realized that the EMP must have been negated by the salinity
of the seawater or that the nuke must have detonated deep enough beneath the
surface not to drop their planes out of the skies.  They still had voice
transmissions between each plane, but they had lost contact with their carrier.

“Hawk Wing,
form up on me, we’re going to go around this thing to the south,” called out
Riggs, plotting a new course to steer clear of the now collapsing ball of fury
hovering over the ocean.  He couldn’t help but look at the morbid beauty of the
thing.  It was so symmetrical, so smooth…simply stunning.  It was a moving,
almost living, breathing thing.  Riggs idly wondered how many fish and sharks
had just been vaporized.

“
Somebody
just took a swipe at us!
” called out Jones breathlessly. 

If
Stackhouse hadn’t been hit and we slowed down, we could have been right over
that thing when it went off…Jesus Christ!  A nuclear missile! 
Riggs’
hands began to tremble.

“
Yeah…my
guess is someone’s gonna pay for it too
. 
The Old Man won’t take kindly
to that shit
,” replied another pilot’s voice.  Their Admiral was old
school.  Vengeance would be top priority.

“
Egypt
?”
asked Jones. 

Riggs
didn’t answer—he was still gazing with rapture on the steam cloud that had
reached its expansion limits and was beginning to evaporate.  The shockwave
traveling along the surface of the roiling ocean beneath them was quickly
racing away in all directions, dissipating on its own.

Finally
Riggs spoke in a tired voice that sounded older than he was:  “Don’t know…I
don’t think it was very big though…look, it’s already starting to disappear. 
If it had been a big one, like one of the ICBMs the Air Force guys got…I think
we’d be toast, Jonesy.”

“
This
just got real, man
.”

FOR ALL INTENTS and
purposes, it appears to this newsman that the United States is entering a
period of Civil War.  The United Nations have reiterated their request to send
advisors to Washington, D.C. in an effort to help smooth relations between
those living in the besieged cities of the American continent.  An emergency
session of the U.N. Security Council, now holding court at The Hague,
authorized yesterday the use of International Peacekeepers in America, should
the situation devolve any further
.”

Erik closed
his eyes, imagining what the reporter was talking about, leaning against the
warm side of the apartment building as the sun faded in the west.  He was
listening to the shortwave emergency radio with Ted and Alfonse, waiting for
the nightly meeting to get started.  Tonight they would have many things to
discuss. 

First on
the list was to inform the community of the votes of the Council, as they
called themselves, and to decide on a form of self-government.  Then they’d
give the report on the food and water gathering from earlier in the morning. 
They’d have to discuss defensive measures.  Erik concentrated on the British
accent coming out of the radio again.  The warmth coming from the building
soothed the aching muscles in his back.  He had pushed himself hard that
morning in his sword practice. 

“
With
rumors abounding about a nuclear missile launched from Iran towards an American
aircraft carrier in the eastern Mediterranean and the start of a pan-Arab war
against the Israelis, the situation in America has been pushed to the top of
the list for the U.N. Security Council.  Should the war in the Middle East
spread, America’s role will be pivotal, as the last superpower.  Should America
dissolve into civil war, anything could happen.  The Secretary General of the
United Nations today issued a press release in which he claimed, and I quote,
‘America is our top priority at the moment.  An unstable United States is the
worst thing for the world at this delicate point in history.  We are hoping for
peace in the Middle East, and throwing every effort towards that singular goal,
however, as long as America’s future is unknown, peace is threatened the world
over.
’”

Ted hissed
and shook his head.  “That’s bullshit man!  We’re not threatening anyone, and
if what this guy says is true about that nuke in the Med, we’re the ones being
shot at!”   Alfonse waved his arm to silence Ted—the news reporter from London
was speaking again.  Static crackled in the background a little more intense
now as atmospheric conditions changed.

“
For the
moment, reports are coming in from our Tel Aviv bureau chief that the fighting
in the Middle East has been limited to air battles for control over the skies
of the beleaguered Jewish State.  There was a missile attack, evidently
launched from Iran or Iraq, leaving a trail of death across Israel as the
missiles were tipped with chemical weapons of some kind.  The pan-Arab army has
met stiff resistance in the form of Israeli air attacks and ground assaults. 
The Pentagon has informed us that Allied air strikes in the form of F-18
Hornets from the U.S.S. Theodore Roosevelt…
” static interrupted the
broadcast.  “…
deep into Egypt in an attempt to draw off pressure. 
Casualties are estimated in the thousands at this point, but I must
—“ a
sharp burst of background noise completely drowned out the reporter for a few
agonizing seconds.

“—
stage
in the undeclared war, reliable statistics are just not available.  It is
unclear if American ground forces will make an appearance in this war—conflicting
reports are coming in from all over the world about a massive American military
redeployment.  However, Sky News is not yet confident enough to say whether the
American soldiers are heading towards Israel or back home to the United States
to try to stop a rumored civil war from
…” the reporters voice faded into
the static and finally disappeared.  Erik shut the radio off reluctantly after
a few moments.

“This is
gonna be bad news for us, either way,” said Ted.

“What’s
this about a civil war?  I thought it was just
rioting
…” asked Alfonse.

“Looks like
someone has decided to up the stakes.  It could be the reporters just blowing
things out of proportion…” offered Erik.  The three men sat in silence for a
few minutes, pondering the uncertain future.  “But the more people hear this,
the more they’ll
believe
a civil war is starting.  Then things will go
downhill fast.”

“It’s gonna
be bad news for us, either way,” Ted repeated after a bit.  “If they send our
boys off to war, that’s going to give the rioters, or rebels, or whoever the
hell is causing all the problems in the cities a big advantage.  If they can
get some outside help in the suburbs…”

“And if the
military comes home to help put down the riots…or rebellion,” Erik shuddered at
the thought.  In High School, he had read just about every book on the Civil
War he could get his knowledge-greedy hands on—he knew how bad things could get
if Americans fought each other again.  “If they come home, they’re going to
have to use an iron fist all across the country to stop this…”

“Gonna be a
lot of people trampled in the meantime,” said Alfonse sagely.

Erik saw
Brin wave from the pool deck across the pond where most of the apartment
dwellers had gathered.  A light flashed.  “I see Brin’s signal.  Looks like
they’re ready.  Let’s get goin’.”

AND THAT’S HOW things
went this morning when we got the food and water,” finished Ted, standing on
the hot tub ‘stage’ by the pool.  The crowd was silent, thinking things over. 
The small team of volunteers had indeed provided enough food and water with
their raid in the morning that the people of Colonial Gardens could live
comfortably for at least two weeks or so.  No one need go without food or water
for at the very least the next ten days.  It was a vast improvement.  The crowd
erupted into clapping and cheering.

“Looks like
you’re a success, Erik,” Ted grinned.  He turned to point at Erik, the
motivating factor behind the raid.  The clapping and cheering grew in intensity
as the grateful residents began to realize that Erik’s ideas were pretty good—after
all, many of them had gone a day or two without food and now they had plenty.

Erik
stepped up to the Stage and quieted down the crowd.   “Ted’s encounter with the
man who stole the cop car raises an important issue though—defense.  There’s
only a handful of us who have ever fired a weapon before and I’ve heard rumors
that there’s a bunch of people downtown shooting up the place.  Robert informed
me this morning,” Erik said, nodding to a man in the crowd who beamed at the
mention of his name.  Someone patted him on the back.  “Word has it in the
surrounding neighborhoods that the folks up on the northeast side of town are
getting real antsy.”   Everyone knew that the Northeast, as it was called by
long time Sarasota residents, was the proverbial wrong side of the tracks. 
Fears ratcheted up a notch.

“Someone
came to the front gate today from the subdivision to our south.  He said he
heard on his radio that the National Guard is coming around to all the local
communities to get people to go to the safety zones.  There’s a lot of folks
without food and water now,” someone in the back of the crowd said.

“I didn’t
hear anything about shootings though…” said another voice in the crowd. 
Murmurs started as everyone chewed that new information.

Erik cursed
inwardly.  He hadn’t heard anything about that at all.  “That’s another thing
we have to take care of—The Council and I need to
know
about things like
that!  Whenever someone comes to our gates or talks with anyone in the
community, we have to know about it, so that we can make use of whatever news
they have.”

A few
people questioned why the Council should be informed before the rest of the
community. 

“Because
you have asked
us
to lead
you
—you asked
me
to lead you. 
And I am, and I hope I’m doing a good enough job to warrant your trust.  But, I
can’t do that without the best information possible.  If I don’t know what’s
going on or what the others around here are doing, how can I plan—and if I
can’t plan out what we need to do, what gets done?

“Now I’m
not saying you drop everything and tell me what’s going on, or what your friend
in another neighborhood said when they rode past on their bicycle.  But if you
hear something new, or you find someone trying to get in, you’ve got to
tell
someone!  Tell your building rep—that’s probably the easiest.  If you can’t
find your building rep, tell one of the others, or tell me.  I’m appointing
Alfonse as our Information Chief.  Any news—get it to him.”  Alfonse couldn’t
help but smile.  People nodded—it was sensible, because Alfonse probably knew
more about electronics and they still associated technology with information. 
It was an easy adjustment.

“Which
leads me back to the main subject we’ve got to handle tonight.  Defense.  We’ve
got food and water taken care of for the next week or two.  That gives us some
time.  I’m still working on finding a way to keep us in food and water
permanently.  For the time being, we’ll institute Alfonse’s plan of collecting
rainwater.  Find whatever you can and put it outside for the afternoon
thunderstorms.  Collect what you can and as much as you can then get it
inside.  Everyone is responsible for themselves in this.  I don’t want someone
complaining they don’t have enough water if they’re not setting out pots and
pans to collect it and store it.”

“What do we
do when those get full?” someone cried out.

“We’re
going to be sending out another team of volunteers tomorrow to find stuff to
hold the water and keep it safe.  Don’t worry about where to store it, just
worry about putting something out there to collect it,” said Alfonse.

“Now. 
Defense,” said Erik again.  More murmurs and rumblings.  “I know some of you
don’t like to think about things like this, but whether we like it or not,
we’re going to have to do something about it.”  More than one set of female
eyes turned to Brin and Susan, standing nearby Erik and Ted.  They, if no one
else, would remember the incident with the two escaped convicts.  “So, I’ve
asked Ted to start training a guard force.”  More grumbles. 

Erik raised
his hands.  “Look, folks we can’t
all
stay awake every night, nor can we
all go to sleep at the same time.  Someone’s got to watch out for us,
twenty-four hours a day. 
Period
.  If we turn our backs or go to sleep
for an instant, people who don’t give a damn about us or our survival might
crawl over these walls…” he left the obvious threat unsaid.  Some in the crowd
shuffled uneasily.  More than a few eyes were trained on his
katana
,
lashed prominently to his hip.  He still held their attention however, so Erik
continued. 

“We’re not
drafting anyone, so don’t worry.”  He paused for the chuckles and when he was
met with silence, Erik cleared his throat and continued:  “We’re asking for
volunteers.  And before anyone says it, I’m not going to ask anyone to do
anything I wouldn’t do myself.  So I’m volunteering first.”

Ted,
Alfonse and Stan shared looks of concern.  Erik had mentioned nothing about
this to them.  They looked at the other Council members and got similar blank
looks.

A hand shot
up in the back.  Erik pointed.  “Yes…go ahead…”

“I’ll
volunteer.  I was in ROTC in college…never did much, but I’ll do my part.”

“Thank
you.”  Some more mumbling by the crowd.  A few more hands went up.  The number
increased as more men saw what the brave ones were doing and either didn’t want
to look bad in the eyes of others, or had their wives or girlfriends prod them
into joining for
their
sake.

Erik
smiled.  “We don’t need to do this just right now.  After the meeting, I want
everyone interested to see Ted.  He’s going to be our Defense Chief.  I’m also
going to ask anyone who has a gun or has ever fired a gun to see Ted.  No,
we’re not going to take your guns or draft you—“ Erik said to stem the wary
looks he was getting.  “We want your
advice
, and if you’re willing to
volunteer, your service.  But only if you’re willing to
volunteer
. 

“This
nation was founded on the spirit of volunteering for the cause of
Independence.  The Minute Men, the Militias.  We’re going to protect and defend
our own independence from any who threaten it by that same spirit of
volunteering to take up arms.”  Someone whooped in support. 

“We’ll
begin training tomorrow morning,” announced Ted, who stepped forward to join
Erik.  “After I get a list of who’s going to step up to the task.  It’s not
going to be easy, but it needs to be that way so we can make sure it’s not
going to be easy for anyone to get in here and do us harm.”

Erik went
through a list of things he wanted to lay before the residents.  They formed a
Procurement Team, lead by Old Bernie, to find things the complex needed—top
priority was rainwater storage containers and a means of sterilizing them. 
Between the need for raiders and guards, a few of the men who volunteered after
the meeting wound up being on more than one team, pulling double duty.  Bernie
and Ted got together to work up a schedule in order to make sure there were no
conflicts.  Alfonse got some volunteers together, mostly women, to man Erik’s
emergency radio twenty-four hours a day to listen to news.  He also found a
woman who was a free-lance writer to become the ‘historian’ of the group, to
write down meeting minutes and record the day to day activities of Colony
Gardens for posterity.  If nothing else, it was a way to keep one more person
busy and keep them from feeling sorry for themselves.