Retribution (Soldier Up - Book Five 5) (28 page)

The city council in Atlanta had been a wonderful experience; it had been a great jumping off point to his congressional run last year.  Like his city council run, he had won the congressional seat by a landslide, his work within the community and reach out programs helped establish him as a politician that looked out for the little guy and was a staunch supporter of the constitution, meaning in this case he wasn’t going to let the new Islamic communities located throughout Georgia establish Sharia Law.  Many in the black communities were deeply Christian and felt threatened, for reasons imagined and real, by the new comers.  Many, if not most, competed with the black community for jobs, which was difficult enough to find, now this.

              They saw Jerimiah as their champion, and he was totally dedicated to them, so much so that he was in his mid-thirties and still unmarried and no children, because his job was his life.  The people of the state rewarded Jerimiah years later with re-election, and then another and another. He had become a fixture on Capitol Hill and was now in the most prestigious committees, where he could affect the outcome of many lives.  He loved his job; he spent as much time as he could back in his district so he could meet with his constituents.  He wanted to talk to the people, he wanted to hear what was happening in their lives, and he wanted to be able to do something positive for them. 

              Jerimiah had worked in his twenties for the Senator, his thirties as a city councilman and now at forty he was a United States Congressman. He was now considering a run at the Senate, because he had been approached by a group that wanted him to run, but they were as far left wing as anyone could be which of course didn’t quite mesh with his own beliefs.  He was approached by two more groups, both very left wing. He didn’t understand how they didn’t understand him, because he wasn’t a socialist. 

              He had gone back to visit family in Atlanta the night of the event. He had gone to be early, woke up the next morning none the wiser to what had happened that night.  His folks lived out in the hills and were a bit isolated, and he had helped his parents with a farm which was about twenty-five miles out of Atlanta.  When the world went dark, they really weren’t affected so much. They routinely lost power and had a generator in a heavy metal shed, along with three full fifty-five gallons of fuel only for the generator.  They were smart enough to have invested some time ago in solar panels.  They had a well, which supplied them with water, and had a basement where they stored a lot of their food, at least for a few months, in the event of a disaster.

              Their cars were old. Jerimiah’s parents loved their old cars—a nineteen-sixty-eight Buick Regal and a nineteen seventy-nine Cadillac were their pride and joy.  Jerimiah had driven out in his car, which was a two-thousand fifteen Toyota Highlander. He tried to start it, but it was dead.  He grabbed the keys to one of his parents’ car and it started right up, so he believed the issue to be with his battery.  His mom called him in for breakfast so he never left the farm that day.  They all thought it was odd that all of the television stations were off the air.  They had satellite TV, they checked all of the connections to the receiver and they were ok.  They checked the radio and like that TV there were no radio stations that were active.  They didn’t think much of it, because they still had a massive collection of DVDs and they turned to them.

It had been eight months since the lights had gone out in Georgia.  The first two months there was massive chaos throughout the state, especially in the large cities such as Atlanta.  The next two months after that the massive die offs started to happen for various reasons. There was no medicine for the sick; there was disease, murder, gang wars, starvation, and no water.  Communities were setting up their own security, and most communities were set up by race.  Of course, there were the exceptions and they tended to be the more successful ones.  Eventually, those communities were small and left the area feeling they were unwelcome and under threat of violence.

              However, there was some semblance of sanity as many of the cities and towns started to set up their own militias for protection.  The largest militia in the region was the Atlanta Militia, made up of former law enforcement and some prior military.  They had raided the police stations, what were left anyway, for weapons, as well as National Guard Armories.  The Atlanta Militia was organized in typical military fashion with a brigade, battalion, and company.  They trained and trained hard. They were overseen by civilian leadership that took the form of a council.  There was no mayor, only the council, who made decisions in a very democratic way, with whatever had the most votes.

              The Atlanta Militia had a military personnel structure. At the lead was Colonel Melford Grayston, a former Army Officer and West Point Graduate.   He spent thirty years in the Army; he was sixty-six years old, nappy black hair, easily six feet two inches tall and very dark skinned.  He came off as very easy going, but he was a stickler when it came to Army regulations.  He loved the Army and modeled every aspect of the militia after it, which rankled a few people, mostly activists that kept saying they should never model anything after the white man.  The Colonel kindly pointed out that the white man’s Army they were referring to was the most powerful military in the world, and they would be lucky to do the same. He wasn’t going to change his mind.

              The Atlanta Militia was very successful at cleaning up the city. They rid the city of the larger gangs, but they weren’t sure they would ever get rid of them all.  There were some roving militias that came through town and they were able to fight them off, either destroying them altogether or getting them to leave.  With all of their successes Colonel Grayston knew they were a light infantry force and that was all.  He was always concerned about the US Army and US Air Force bases that were in Georgia and there were several; he knew there was no way they could stand against them.  He brought up the issue several times to the council, but he knew they didn’t really understand. Besides those bases were far from Atlanta and they had dealt with the National Guard and Reserve Components around the city.

              As the Atlanta Militia’s success grew, they started to push out into the suburbs of the city and into the next towns, who normally welcomed them, but of course, there were some that didn’t and they put up a fight, but couldn’t stand against a well-armed, trained and lead force.  Within several months the militia had grown almost tenfold and now controlled over two-thirds of the state.  The Atlanta council and Colonel Grayston were now being courted by other militias from Alabama and Mississippi.  There was talk of an alliance, perhaps creating a new country altogether. The Federal and State Government had disappeared altogether so there was a political vacuum that they all felt needed feeling.

              Over the next several week’s councils from Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi held meetings centered on common goals for defense, law enforcement, food, water, and fuel.  Within two months they felt they had a solid framework for a new government that would lead a new country.  However, they all agreed they were missing something and that was a leader. They all knew they weren’t ready for democratic elections, they needed someone that all of the councils could agree on, someone they felt had the morals, high ethical standards, had government experience, was going to support their movement, would not back down when things got tough.  They all agreed that man was Jerimiah St. Michaels, the former congressman from Georgia.

              He has been very instrumental in guiding the recovery for Georgia already. Most looked at him as the sole individual for saving all of them; he was the man that had forged a new coherent society almost by sheer will.  He drove not only the technical recovery, but his ideas brought them trains, radio communications, and flight. He was also responsible for getting the farms re-established and moving forward.  The Atlanta Militia was all his idea and he was responsible for bringing in Colonel Grayston, who was now considered the father of the new Army.  Jerimiah had been approached for the position and he was flattered of course, but his only demand was that the new government now be set up in the fashion of the United States, but more like Great Britain. 

              The councils really didn’t think much about it, and went along with his ideas. They saw no harm in a parliamentary form of government, and in fact, it helped bring in the activist that strongly believed the former type of government led by the white man was the entire reason for their previous issues, not really realizing that Great Britain was long into slavery well before its previous colonies.  What Jerimiah wanted he got, the only last remaining issue was what to name the new country. It was a toss-up for now, but it was either the ‘Southern States of America’ or ‘New Africa.’ This debate would carry on for another two weeks before they made their final decision.