The Forgiven The Fallen The Forsaken (23 page)

While driving
they would play recordings of college classes.  It was about as alternative an
education as they could get, but both knew that it would be crucial later.  Today’s
lecture was on the US political system.   The lecturer was good and Luke
couldn’t deny the relevance.

At some point on
their travels, Jamie had tracked down a couple of years’ supply of birth
control pills and surprised Luke one night with a little more than a good
night’s sleep. It felt right and, strangely enough, hadn’t changed things on
most levels.    

She had waited
until everyone, Rob and Denise included, had gotten used to the idea of them as
a couple.  Denise had even given her a wink, and Uncle Jim was thrilled with
the idea of her joining the family.  Still, it didn’t hurt to take their time. 

The lecture was
forgotten as Luke started slowing.  “Roadblock!”  There were two cars in the
road in the road ahead and several men with rifles using the cars as cover. 
Jim activated the video monitor on the dash, slid below the window, downshifted
and hit the accelerator.   From here, he would be driving by the monitor. 
Jamie was already on the floor in the passenger side chambering a round in her
weapon.

Bullets
shattered the glass in the cab and dinged off the armor hidden around the cab. 
Luke accelerated more, just like in training, and hit the cars as close to the
tires as possible.  A couple of the men weren’t able to get out of the way fast
enough and were crushed by the cars. 

The second semi
team was right behind him, except they opened fire on the men who were now
trying to find cover.  The third did the same.  The crew of the armored Humvee
in the back of the convoy slowed and waited for the trucks to clear, then
killed everything in sight.  They called it in for the road clearing crew and
double tapped all of the bodies. 

As in training,
they drove for five miles after the ambush then stopped briefly to examine the
vehicle.  
The worst of it is the destruction of the cab,
thought Luke. 
I can’t believe those jerks.  It’s not even like we’re hauling anything useful. 
What a flipping waste!

Luke had
decided he was tired of killing.  It just didn’t make sense yet he was stuck
making that decision every few weeks now over some idiots who hadn’t figured
out that the world had changed.  The disgusting part to him was that he had
already lost count of how many people he had killed.

Luke knew the
forensics team would fly in and check fingerprints on the corpses against state
and national databases and the men’s homes would be targeted for visits by
agents.  If the families were there they could be subject to execution as
accomplices, guilt to be determined by judgment of the agents on scene.  

Luke felt
uncomfortable thinking about it, but couldn’t argue with the effectiveness of
the policy, and besides, he and Jamie could very easily be dead right now if
the criminals had been even slightly competent.

They finished
the trip without any more incidents, but upon arriving at the farm picked as
the meeting point, they ran into another problem.  The farmers were now demanding
payment for their crops in gold.  Dave was talking to them and things were
getting heated.

Dave spoke with
the group of farmers.  “Right now we are trying to save as many American lives
as possible and you are essential to that task.  We need your expertise and
your cooperation.  You will be paid in chits to be redeemed at a fair value
later and you will be given as much diesel fuel as we can manage now.”

One of the
farmers chambered a round in his pump action 12 gauge and screamed at Dave,
“Over my dead body!”

Dave stepped up
to the man, grabbed the shotgun, and used it as a staff to twist the farmer to
one side then the other.  With a large step to the side to take advantage of
the man’s broken balance, Dave sent him flying.  None of the other farmers
pointed their weapons at Dave. 

Dave said to
the farmer, “I suggest you stay down, so there aren’t any more
misunderstandings.  We’ve already had to kill a dozen men today who were
determined to talk with their guns and, frankly, I’m tired of it.” 

To the rest of
the farmers he said, “You’re no good to the country as slave labor.  You’ll
also be useless as farmers if we have to redirect the resources we have slated
for you in order for us to start farms elsewhere.  That includes electricity,
fuel, medical care, and communications.

“President
Ambrose is doing the impossible to save our citizens and get this country
running again.  He needs your help.”

One of the
farmers said, “He doesn’t give a shit about us.  He’ll rob us blind and take
our land.”                

Dave waved for
Luke to walk over.  Luke slung his AR 15 over his shoulder and walked up to the
farmers.  Dave said, “This is Luke Mullins.  He was almost killed today in an
ambush by a bunch of assholes trying to steal the supplies we were bringing to
you.  Luke is the President’s nephew.”

There were
several gasps from the group of farmers.  Dave said, “He should be in high
school somewhere and instead he’s driving a truck through firefights so that
you can have power, communications, and medications.  Look at that fucking
truck!  Anyone want to talk to me about getting the short end of the stick
today?” 

The farmers all
stared at the truck and Jamie standing next to it.  It looked like it really
had been through a war zone.  From the windows up, it was nothing but Swiss
cheese.  The only reason it was still functional was because of the makeshift
armor from the windows down. 

Dave continued,
"Most of the drivers are from the Hopi and Navajo tribes.  They were doing
fine.  The flu passed them right by.  But they are out here risking their butts
to bring you folks supplies Because President Ambrose personally asked them
to."

To the farmer
still on the ground Dave said, “You can get up now.”  Dave handed him back his
shotgun without bothering to unload it.  The farmer took it and wouldn’t make
eye contact with him.

The farmers
gathered in closer and Luke spoke to them, “It’s bad out there right now.  We
lost most of the US population.  My uncle will play straight with you.  His
goal is to save as many Americans as possible, keep the country intact, and
have elections for congress as soon as it’s humanly possible to do so.  He
needs your help with that, too.

“I want to have
a couple of you come back and meet him.  I’d like for you to pick out two or
three people you trust to come back with us so I can introduce you to him.  Tonight
I’d like for you to come up with a wish list of supplies that you need and
want.  I can’t promise everything, but you’ll have trucks heading this way tomorrow.”

A couple of the
other drivers brought large ice chests and sat them down.  Dave said, “Now that
that’s out of the way, we’ve had a long trip.  Anybody up for a cold beer or
soda?”  He grabbed the first two and handed one to the farmer he’d dropped. “No
hard feelings, man.”  The farmer opened the beer and thanked him.

With the ice
broken, the farmers invited them to unload the supplies in a nearby barn and
said they would distribute them from there.  They fueled the trucks from the
fuel tanker and unloaded most of the rest of the diesel load into the farmers’
fuel storage tanks at several nearby farms.    

Within a few
hours, families came from miles around to hear the news about the rest of the
country and about the government.  Luke’s rig became the attraction that
everyone had to see, so much so that Dave asked him, “How would you feel about
leaving it here?  You know they’ll keep it as is and put it into a museum.”   

Luke wasn’t
comfortable that people would feel that way, but knew it was probably true.  He
agreed and He and Jamie pulled most of their things out of it.    

Dave put a call
into Rob and filled him in on the day’s events.  Rob said, “Sounds like the
kid’s doing good work.  Get me that list and find a landing strip and I’ll get
you a C130 up there tomorrow.  Keep it a surprise.”

“Sound’s good.”

Luke and Jamie
met with all of the families and listened to all of their stories.  They had
been through hell like everyone else, though hunger wasn’t quite as much of an
issue for them.   Luke shared his stories with them as well.

By the time it
was time for bed, he had emailed a list of things the farmers needed or could
use, and added a few things that he thought they would like.

Early the next
morning, the drivers were taken around to different farms and helped to load
produce onto the trailers.  In turn, the drivers assisted in setting up the
satellite TV dishes and, for the first time in months, the locals were able to
get their news off the television. 

While adjusting
the satellite, Luke heard Manny’s voice coming through the television.  He
called out to Dave, “Who the hell decided to let Manny do the news?!”

Dave answered,
“I hear he has some dirt on the first family.  Something about underage driving
and stuff like that.”  Luke just laughed and went back to work on aligning the
dish.

Just after they
finished, there was the sound of a C130 overhead.  It flew in a low circle
wagging its wings every so often.  They wrapped up and followed it to where it
landed on a large section of road near the previous nights gathering.  When
everyone arrived at the plane, Luke was surprised to see a camera crew running
around getting shots of everything.  Soon there was a large group gathered to
see what would be unloaded. 

Luke was
shocked to see Uncle Jim step out the back of the plane in jeans and a jacket. 
The soldiers from the Humvee stood at attention and saluted until Jim saluted
back.  Samantha was there along with a film crew catching all of it.   As the farmers
and their families began to figure out who Jim was there was a murmur through
the crowd.  When Luke and Jamie ran up and hugged him, the group went wild. 

Soon Jim was
surrounded by a crowd of over a hundred people.  Jim’s security team didn’t
look thrilled with the idea, but there wasn’t much they could do about it as
Jim pushed his way out into the crowd.  Eventually Luke brought out a megaphone
for him and he addressed the entire crowd.

“Hello,
everyone.  My name is Jim Ambrose and by now you’ve figured out that I am the
current President of the United States.  You didn’t vote for me.  No one did. 
I accepted an appointment as a Senator from Arizona, not realizing that I was
being set up to take a position that would normally be third in line for the
presidency.  Unfortunately, everyone ahead of me in that chain of succession
was deceased.

“My goal is to
save as many American lives as possible, to keep America intact, and to rebuild
as much as possible so that once we are able to have elections, I can turn over
the presidency to someone who has in fact been elected by the people. 

“So many of us
have died in the last several months that we have to do whatever we can to
prevent any  more needless and senseless deaths.  We are moving rapidly
throughout the United States to restore rule of law.  I am doing everything I
can to prevent any more deaths of Americans through starvation. 

“I want to
thank all of you and all the farmers across the nation, for doing all that you
can to help with this.  The monetary system is still in flux and I’m not sure
yet what changes will be made.  Wasting precious fuel driving gold around won’t
work, even if we had enough gold ready to go. We are issuing chits for produce
which will be converted to currency once the monetary system is repaired or
replaced.  I would ask that you give me a congress as quickly as possible so
decisions such as this will be made correctly and legally. 

“We are working
to make sure that you have the resources you need to produce the food we need. 
Volunteers are on the way here for you to train and use to help increase
production.  Please be good to them.  More than ever, we’re truly dependent on
each other.

“I’m looking
forward to meeting all of you, but I’m only going to be able to stay for a few
hours.  After today, you now will have internet access again, though it’s not
as good as it once was, and soon you’ll have a mobile phone system for you as
well. 

“Finally, I
brought the vaccine for the bird flu so that you will never have to worry about
it again!”   The crowd exploded into cheers.  “And thank you for being so good
to my nephew.  He speaks very well of all of you.”  They cheered more. 

The cargo
master started unloading items from Luke’s list and Jim, Luke, and Jamie went out
to talk more with the crowd.  It was a day that would be remembered for
generations, and not just in the farming community. 

News coverage
of the event didn't miss the fact that most of the drivers in Luke's convoy had
been Navajo and Hopi.  Jim and George made a special point of spending time
with the drivers and thanking them for their work. 

Samantha made
sure that her photos of Jim with all of the drivers were well represented in
online newspaper stories.  She knew well that her photos would fill future
history books and she was determined to make them as accurate as possible.

JUNE 27
^th

Fifteen of the
farmers flew with Jim on the C130 loaded with food they had grown.   They
landed at Mountain Home Air Force Base and, instead of the expected VIP tour,
each of them was sent out on aid missions via helicopters to deliver food to
starving citizens.  Everyone who received the food was told that the fresh
produce came from the selfless efforts of these farmers.  By the time the
missions ended at the end of the day, all of the farmers were forever changed
from the experience. 

The cameramen
who recorded their experiences were equally touched by them and devoted
themselves to getting the word out.  Soon, the free press that Jim insisted
upon was turning him into the biggest hero since Lincoln. 
Great, Lincoln
was repaid with a bullet through the brain,
thought Jim.  Still, it was
better than he would fare in the future, he was sure.