An Undeclared War (Countdown to Armageddon Book 4) (24 page)

-46-

     John Castro parked his police cruiser at the end of Baker Street and hopped over the line of abandoned cars that blocked him from entering. The fact he had a prosthetic leg didn’t slow him down a bit.

     Every single resident of the street w
as gathered at the picnic tables under the old oak tree. The adjacent house had its garage door up, the kids excited in anticipation of the movies they were about to watch.

     John was kind to the group, as he was for many other similar groups in this and surrounding neighborhoods.

     It was John who’d provided the big screen television, the DVD player and the generator to run them both. And a microwave oven to boot.

     He’d taken them from the home of a dead prepper he’d come across a few weeks before. He and his new rookie, Jake, had been doing body collections, and walked into a suburban house in the northwest part of the city.

     They could tell by the smell emanating from the house that there were decomposing bodies inside, so they weren’t surprised when no one answered the door.

   
They also weren’t surprised to find the door was slightly ajar, and that there were bullet holes in it.

     Neither was particularly unusual in the city they now lived in.

     The scene inside the living room told a story, as they often did.

     A man, dressed in camouflage, sat dead in a leaned back recliner, a half eaten MRE in his lap. He was shot once in the back of the head
. Possibly an intruder who snuck up on the man after he’s fallen asleep in his chair.

     But more likely shot by someone who lived there. A partner, perhaps, who he thought he could trust.

     A fatal mistake, to be sure.

     John would never know the reason why. Perhaps they had a falling out. Or his partner went mad. In any event, it wasn’t a murder-suicide scenario. There were no other bodies in the house.

     John knew immediately the man had been a prepper. The camouflaged clothing, the AR-15 rifle on the floor at the side of the recliner, and the MRE told him that much.

     And the fact he appeared to be watching TV when he was shot told him something else. This was a prepper who’d been able to save some electronics. He probably had a Faraday cage in the garage.

     After they took the body out to the street and added it to the pile, they went back for some further investigation.

     The television, a DVD player and a microwave were all plugged into a power cord leading to the back porch.

     On the back porch they found a three thousand watt generator. John opened the gas tank and stuck his finger inside.

     As he suspected, the
tank was dry. The man had been watching television when he died, and the generator kept running until it ran out of fuel.

     John had the rookie look around for a gas can to refill the tank and fire the generator back up. Then they checked the television, the DVD player, and the microwave. Just to make sure John’s theory was correct and they still worked.

     They didn’t want to load everything up and take it all to a new home, just to find out it was worthless.

     The microwave and DVD player fit nicely in their squad car’s trunk. They placed the generator on top of the truck’s lid and tied it down with rope.

     The huge television was a bit trickier. They had to be careful not to break it. So they found two single mattresses from what had once been a kids’ room. One mattress was laid on top of the car, across the light bar and resting on the generator. They laid the television on top of the mattress, and placed the second mattress on top of the television.

     Then they tied it all down.

     In essence, they made a television sandwich.

     In the back room of the house they found a closet full of boxes of MREs. John wondered why the killer left them behind. Perhaps it was an intruder after all, who didn’t know about them.

     In the end, it didn’t really matter. They wouldn’t do the dead man any good.

     “Let’s see if we can stuff them all into the back seat,” John told his rookie. “We can distribute them to some of the infirm or elderly people around the neighborhood who are having trouble scavenging enough food.”

     As they were loading up the MREs, a fire truck pulled up to burn the piles of bodies.

     A strapping young fireman stepped out, observed the monstrosity that John had made of his police car, and laughed.

     “Playing Santa Claus again today, John?”

     John
smiled and said, “Hey. It’s a dirty job, but somebody has to do it.”

     When they’d left the dead man’s house that day, their patrol car looked more like a moving van.

     John had laughed when his rookie grumbled, “I feel like one of the
Beverly Hillbillies
.”

     That had been three weeks before. He’d delivered the items to
Baker Street, to add a little bit of normalcy to the group’s lives.

     And in the three
weeks since, the residents of the street had started a new tradition.

     After a long day’s work, they gathered each evening around sundown to crank up the generator and watch a couple of movies together.

     They’d taken several couches and recliners from the surrounding houses and placed them into the two car garage. They packed them tightly during the daytime, in case it rained. And just before movie time they moved some of them into the driveway so everyone could watch the movies in comfort.

     Rhett said to John, “Why don’t you stay and watch movies with us? We’ve got
Forrest Gump
and
Rio Bravo
on the schedule for tonight.”

     “As much as I’d like to, I can’t. I just wanted to stop in to see if you’ve elected your block leader yet. The city’s trying to compile a list of all the leaders so they can disseminate information about the plague and municipal repairs and stuff better.”

     Rhett and Mike looked at each other.

     “Gee, John, w
e haven’t given it much thought. Want us to take a vote real quick?”

     “No, that’s okay. Just bring it up at your morning get together. I’ll stop back by tomorrow. My shift’s over and I want to get home. I will take some popcorn for the road, though.”

     “I’m sorry, my friend. We don’t have any popcorn. We’ve got some potato chips that are only slightly stale, if you’d like some.”

     “That’s okay. Enjoy your movie
s. I’ll stop back by tomorrow.

     The following night, John came back to
Baker Street, just as he promised.

     This time he opened his trunk and took out a case of microwave popcorn.

     The kind with extra butter.

     And this time he was greeted by Rhett and
Scarlett.

     “Last night you told me you had no popcorn. I could have said something, but I let it fly because I was tired and wanted to get home. But
darn it, I had a craving for popcorn all night long after that, and we didn’t have any at the house either.

     “That’s the main reason I brought the microwave along with the television. You can’t build a movie theater without the capability to make popcorn. It just ain’t civilized.

     “There are a hundred and forty four packages in this case. That should last you awhile. Let me know when you need more and I’ll deliver.”

     “Thanks, John. We’ve been craving popcorn too. But where in the world did you get it?”

     “From the Sam’s Club on Kendall Street.”

     “But isn’t that looting? And aren’t you a cop?”

     John made a face.

     “No, it isn’t
looting
. The city council passed a referendum three months ago, stating it was no longer a crime to take edibles and comfort items from retail establishments, trucks or freight trains. They basically applied the eminent domain laws to seize everything and keep people from starving to death. You guys didn’t know about that?”

     “No. It’s the first we heard of it.”

     “That doesn’t surprise me. Communication is one of the biggest problems we’ve always had. Until now, there just wasn’t a good way to spread the word about things like that.”

     “Until now?”

     “That’s why the city is asking for the name of a block leader for every street in the city. The police will have a list of them, and when we need to spread important news, we’ll be tasked to go street to street and tell the leaders. It’ll be up to the leaders to make sure everybody on their block gets the word.

     “Which is the second reason I came by here. Have you guys elected your block leader yet?’

     Rhett said, “Yes. We did this morning. By unanimous vote, it is Scarlett.”

     Scarlett beamed.

     “Yep. It’s me. There’s a new sheriff in town, and I’m gonna whip this city into shape. Or at least this block. I’m gonna crack the whip. Chop chop, suey suey and all that stuff.”

     John raised an eyebrow and looked at Rhett.

     “Looks to me like you may have created a monster.”

     “Well, what can I say? She’s way meaner than anyone else. Everyone was afraid if they didn’t vote for he
r she’d beat them senseless.”

     Scarlett acted offended.

     “Na-uh!”

    
A voice behind them said, “Uh huh!”

     Scarlett turned around to see
Andy walking up and adding his two cents.

     She said, “Help a girl out here, John. They’re ganging up on me.”

     John smiled and said, “Hey, keep me out of this. I’m afraid of you too.”

     She stuck out her lower lip and pretended to pout.

     “Fine! I’m gonna go make some popcorn and eat it all myself. You stinky old boys can’t have any of it!”

     Rhett called behind her, “And how old are you again?”

     She lifted her hand in the air and showed him one of her fingers.

-47
-

     The city council of Kerrville hired two deputies from the posse Tom had joined to rescue Amanda Nowak. They were sent directly to the Sheriff’s Office to meet with Tom and receive their marching orders.

     Tom
was confident that their heads were in the right place and that they wanted the job to keep the peace, and not to administer vigilante justice. Tom believed that authority and might should be meted out when appropriate, but never overused. He hated rogue cops, or lawmen who used their badges to bully others.

     “The council tells me they’ll hire a new assistant within the next couple of days. They’ve got a couple of girls who are competing for the job, and Jim Colson tells me that both of them are capable.

     “Once she’s on board, she’ll sit here in the Sheriff’s Office during the days. Officially she’ll be a dispatcher, even though we have no working radios. We’ll call her a dispatcher because it sounds better than secretary. She’ll field complaints and information from the public.

     “I’d like for you two to start contacting the citizens. Systematically, a house at a time. Be sure you wear your uniform and announce yourself as you ride up to each
ranch house. I expect some residents will still be skittish and suspicious, so if there’s any indication someone may think you’re a threat to them, just turn and leave them in peace. We’ll try again later, after word gets around that we’re back in business.”

     “What do we tell them, sheriff?”

     “Tell them we’ve got the department up and running again. If they’re having trouble with outlaws or looters, they should tell you, or visit our office during normal business hours and file a report.

     “Tell them the city is still hiring, and that if they want to apply for an office or a deputy position to go see the personnel office at city hall.

     “And tell them we’re here to help them in any way we can.”

     “Yes, sir.”

     “Paul, you take the west side. Dave, you take the east. It’s a lot of ground to cover, I know. Take good care of your ponies and don’t overwork them. We’ve got several good ones in the stable, so you can switch them off from day to day. We’ll meet here each morning, an hour after daybreak. We’ll compare notes on where everybody will be, so if anyone needs backup we’ll have a rough idea where to gather. Two quick shots means you need help.”