Pedestals of Ash (23 page)

The
Wal-Mart
Distribution Center had been a welcome addition to th
e area when it had been erect
ed four years ago. A
t leas
t i
t had been welcomed by everyone but
Sheriff
Watts. Since its grand opening, the huge complex had been
nothing but trouble for
his force
and him
. The additional truck traffic had led to a host of issues. In addition, the center had been the site of several burglary attempts and random vandalism. While the issues caused by the facility would hardly be noticed in many areas,
Sheriff
Watts presided over a very quiet county. Still, the jobs that were created were welcomed in the mostly ranching communi
ty
,
and most viewed the new warehouse as a positive.
When the economy had
taken a dive,
the incident
s at the distribution center
increased
markedly
, and it seemed like dispatch was always sending a car to check on one thing or another. A few d
ays after most of the county
lost power,
Sheriff
Watts
received a call that the alarm system at the big warehouse had been tripped - yet again. The closest deputy had been his son, who had respon
ded to the call immediately
. When nothing
had be
en heard from Deputy Watts for over an hour
,
the dispatcher became
concerned. 

Sheriff
Watts arrived to find his son’s patrol car sitting in the parking lot with the engine still running and the sound of the dispatcher’s repeated calls coming over the radio. Using his flashlight, he found what ha
d evidently pique
d his son’s interest. A side emergency exit showed signs of being pried open.

He picked up the microphone and asked for more help as his instinct told him something was very wrong.
Sheriff
Watts drew his weapon and entered the dark warehouse. He found his son
,
lying on the cold concrete floor
,
with a bullet wound in his side and another in one leg. The lightweight body armor issued by the department had taken the blunt of the chest wound, but the bullet had still penetrated his boy’s body.

The sheriff
ran outside to escape the radio interference of the huge structure and called desperately for an ambulance. He grabbed the first aid kit from the trunk of his patrol car and rushed back to render aid to his only child. He still wasn’t sure how long he waited, but at some point in
time,
it dawned on him that he should be hearing the sirens of approaching help. Eventually, two other patrol cars from his department arrived
,
and a Texas Highway Patrol car responded as well. Still, no EMTs arrived.

When
Sheriff
Watts radioed his dispatcher to find out what the hell was going on, he was infor
med that the first ambulance
ran out of gas
,
and that the other two h
ad left the county hours before
, responding to riots that had broken out in El Paso.

Throwing
down the radio
receiver, the sheriff rushed back inside. He hoisted
his son
on his shoulder and carried him
to
the
cruiser. After arranging the injured man in the back seat, he drove to the local hospital. His son was pronounced dead a few hours later
.

Everything had been a blur after that. Losing his child in such a way tore at the very soul of the lawman.
After griev
ing with his wife for hours in the hospital chapel, he couldn’t help himself and returned to the scene of his son’s murder. On the way there, the
peace officer
hardly noticed the number of cars pulled to the side along I-10. He hadn’t listened to a news broadcast for days and
initially
had no concept of what was going on. His wife found out where he was and drove to meet her husband at the distribution center, where the couple sat and mourned for hours. It became clear the next day that everything had fallen apart
.

The sheriff’s wife
,
expect
ing
relatives
to arrive
for the funeral, stopped to pick up a few things on the way home from making arrangements.
When
she
return
ed
fro
m the local grocery store empty-
handed and frazzled, her report of
bare
shelves and panicked people was the final straw
.
What little news that did drift in, mostly television reports when the electricity was still working, made it clear to him what was happening.

Normally, in times of dire circumstances, the good
s
heriff
’s first thoughts would be of protecting the public and serving society. Not anymore. Now his
priority was
protecting his
men and their families. A plan formed in his head while driving to the office the next morning. He quickly picked up the radio and made a call on several different frequencies –
Sheriff
Watts was seizing the
Wal-Mart
Distribution Center and any officer who wanted to take shelter there was welcome. Immediate
famil
y
would be accommodated
as well. He turned back, gathered up his wife
,
and set off to the warehouse
. They had never returned to their home.

At first,
Sheriff
Watts wasn’t sure anyone had heard his call. It took a few hours, but one after one, both his men and officers from other agencies showed up at the gate with their famil
ies. When a neighboring county’s
SWAT team had arrived in their fully equipped truck, the total n
umber of lawmen was over 40. Counting
all of their family members, the community of Wallyworld numbered well over
110.

For the first few days, the policemen, deputies and other lawmen had organized themselves and learned as much as possible about the facility, its contents
,
and especially how to operate the building’s extensive generator system. There were over 30 huge walk-in freezers stuffed to the gills with food. The designers of the building realized that one significant power outage could ruin hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of stock and had equipped the center with a state of the art uninterruptable power supply. Buried in the ground at the rear of the building were two,
5,000-gallon
diesel storage tanks. These tanks were not only used to fuel the massive fleet of trucks that served t
he warehouse
, but also as a source for the two
,
huge diesel generators wired into the b
uilding. In addition, there had been
dozens of trucks loaded with additional supplies
,
docked at the variou
s stations waiting to be emptie
d. Many of these tractors had tanks full of additional diesel fuel.

On the third day of occupation, one of the officers ran up to
Sheriff
Watts and informed him a group of people were at the front gates
,
asking for food and water. The people claimed to be stranded motorist
s
from the nearby interstate. A quick meeting of the senior lawmen resulted in the people being given some water and sent on their way. The next day, the exact same group returned, this time with several additional people. Again, they were given water and sent away. On the third day, over 50 desp
erate people were at the gate. Sheriff
Watts realized where their charity was headed, and told the men guarding the gate to send everyone away. This resulted in a heated argument
,
and things came close to getting out of control. Eventually, the beggars shuffled off, mumbling about the greedy cops. That night, several men with rifles attempted to storm the property
,
resulting in two officers and five attackers being killed.

It wa
s that incident that
transformed
Wallyworld from being a refuge to a defended camp. Over the next few weeks, several attempts had been made to dislodge the cops. On
e very creative group of men
even approached under a white flag and offered to barter for goods. It had been a trap
,
and gunfire had broken out resulting in more death.
The residents of Wallyworld brought
women and children with them
,
and like most fami
lies, they needed to get fresh air
. Playground equipment and even a blow-up swimming pool had been s
c
av
enged from the shelves and assembled at the back of the building. A few days later, a sniper from a nearby
ridgeline
fired several shots at family members enjoying the makeshift playground. That incident had really upped the ante on security
,
and the men
set about stringing trip wires and enhancing the general security. These preparations had included posting clearly printed signs along the building’s drive that said
, “No barter. No food. N
o w
ater. Trespassers will be shot. White flags will be ignored.”

Some of the officers eventually realized that civilization wasn’t going to return anytime soon and set about preparing for the
long-term
occupation of the site. A flat patch of land on the west side of the parking lot had been converted to a vegetable garden using the seeds from the lawn and garden department. Rabbits were trapped from the surrounding area and placed in pens for breeding. One group of officers mounted an excursion into a nearby state park and looted every solar panel they could find. The panels had been instal
led to provide more security in the remote areas of the
grounds
. They were combined with batt
eries from the automotive department,
and reusable power now took a small, but growing burden
off
the diesel generators. Everyone knew the diesel fuel
would
eventually
run out
,
and the solar cells would
then
be
the
sole source of
electrical power for Wallyworld.

Even the process of rationing food resulted in some creative planning. Originally, the freezers had been stocked by category of goods, with one freezer being full of beef while another contained chicken. The new residents of the center had rearranged the contents so as to consume the perishable items
,
freezer by freezer. As soon as one was empty, it was taken off-line to conserve fuel. The empty units were converted into special rooms to be used by the community. One empty freezer was now a break room used by the sentries as they changed shifts. Another became the movie theatre and a third was now a makeshift
schoolroom
for the younger children. Even the
textbooks
for the school had come from the storage shelves.

Using the
floodlights
at night had been the subject of hot debate. Some of the officers believed the lights made the property a big targe
t for anyone in the area. Other
s believed an assertive posture was best. Over time, the number of “visitors” challenging the center dwindled
,
and for the last two
weeks,
the only disturbances had been the local deer and other wildlife.

Bishop decided he needed a different angle to observe the complex below and set about trying to find a better perch. Twenty minutes
later,
he leaned back against a large rock, disgusted by the entire situation. The buil
ding and surrounding grounds were
right in the middle of where he needed to go. To the south was I-10, complete with
thousands
of abandoned cars and trucks. While he couldn’t be 100% sure, there was little doubt in his mind that the guys occupying the distribution center would have that entire area wired and perhaps patrolled. Given his recent experience on the interstate, the thought of trying to weave his way along that stretch of road made him shiver.