Alea Jacta Est: A Novel of the Fall of America (Future History of America Book 1) (33 page)

LOOKS LIKE YOU were
right about the war, Erik,” said Alfonse, the newly elected Building Rep from
Building 1.        

“Unfortunately…”
said Erik.  He tuned the hand powered radio from the BBC broadcast.  The other
Building Reps, as they called themselves, were gathered in front of Erik’s
apartment in the shade.

“—
eaking
news out of The Hague in the Netherlands, new home of the United Nations
General Assembly.  Late last night, a highly placed anonymous source tells Sky
News, in an emergency session of the U.N. General Assembly that lasted until
early this morning, a Resolution was passed authorizing the United Nations
Security Council to send U.N. Peacekeepers to America…for more on this
developing story we go to
—“

Static
interrupted the broadcast and no amount of fidgeting with the controls could
bring the remote station back into focus.  Such was the way of shortwave radio
listening sometimes.

“It’s gotta
be a joke…” mumbled Stan Gibbons, the Building Rep from Building 7.  His
selection was no surprise, the Gibbons’ were the only family in Building 7.

“The U.N.
itself is a joke, but they don’t joke around,” said Ted, the Rep from Building
6.  Besides Erik and Brin, there was only one other apartment in the building
occupied, and they chose Ted.  “This is baaaaaad news man.”

“All right,
nobody panic…this is just a bunch of resolutions from the U.N.  They don’t act
all that fast—remember when we tried to go into Iraq the second time around? 
Or Syria?  They take forever—“

“Except
when it’s in their own interest to act fast,” warned Ted. 

“Well,
regardless, that’s for the President to worry about.  We’ve got to worry about
our
own
hides first,” said Erik, waving away the discussion.  “Now,
let’s get down to business.”

“My
Building wants Stan to turn over his food to the rest of us who don’t have
food,” said Henry Grimes, elected from Building 4 in the northwest corner of
the complex.

“That’s
fine, but
my
Building wants us to cooperate,” said the Rep from Building
5, just north of Erik’s building.  He was an elderly man, a Korean War Vet who
had moved down with his wife to retire in Florida only a few months back. 
Bernie McDonnel was his name.

Buildings
4, 5, 6, and 7 were all one-story apartment buildings, while 1, 2, 3, 8 and 9
were three-story structures.  Buildings 8 and 9 were still half complete though
with open windows and half-painted walls.  The pile of construction equipment
and supplies behind Building 9 attested to the fact that the workers had left
the day after the power went out and never returned.

“Building 2
wants to see what Erik has to say first,” said Noreen Wilson, the
thirty-something professional woman who the previous night at the meeting had
realized her husband for a coward.  Since coming to her senses, she had sworn
to do what it takes to protect her family, even if it meant doing things she normally
would have expected her husband to do.  The building had unanimously voted her
as Rep because of her loud and vociferous support of Erik the previous night
after meeting when she went door to door meeting everyone and campaigning for
the nomination.

“Yeah, so
do the people from Building 3,” chimed in the younger woman, Janine St.
Michael.  She was the most popular—because she spent more time sunning herself
by the pool than working—person from Building 3.  There was a number of
fresh-out-of-college age men and women in that Building.  Most of the people
who had lived there had left to stay with relatives or friends or moved to the
Zone of Safety in Bradenton.  The ones left were more interested in partying
than anything else.  Building 3 was quickly being known simply as “The Dorm”.

“Let’s
decide what options we have first, then we’ll vote, how’s that?” asked Ted. 
Henry folded his arms and looked darkly at Erik. 

The other
Reps assented and Erik smiled, happy to be moving forward.  “Okay, the way I
see it, food and water are our top priorities, followed closely by defense. 
So, I propose we send out a party to collect what food we can from Stan’s
restaurant, then bring it back here to provide something for the people who
have nothing.  If that’s not enough for a few days, we’ll have to send out
search parties to the local stores, convenience marts, anything that might have
carried food, and we’ll pick it clean.”

Bernie
cleared his throat and spoke.  “Well, my recommendation is, if we’re going to
go get supplies from some restaurant, don’t wait.  Send people out everywhere
right now.  If we wait a few days, we may have slim pickin’s.  That’s the way
it was in the Army in my day.  Never knew when we were getting another meal. 
It’s catch as catch can, I believe.”

“Uh, that’s
still
stealing
, Erik, no matter
how
we do it,” said Alfonse. 
“That ain’t right man, I don’t care if the cops
are
gone…” he said with
a glance at Ted.

 “Okay,
then here’s what we’ll do—the search parties will keep meticulous logs of whatever
they take and write everything down.  They’ll have to leave a note to the
store’s owner of what we took and why and that we’ll be back to pay for it. 
Then, when this is all over, we pay it back,”  Erik purposely left out that
‘this’ might never be over and money might be useless.  He waited, raised
eyebrows.  The other Reps thought it over and then agreed.  “Anyone have any
objection to trying to get as much as we can, as fast as we can?”

“What about
water?” asked Henry, arms still folded and looking for a fight. 

“Can we use
the water from the ponds?” asked Alfonse, jerking his thumb over his shoulder
at the little freshwater pond between where they sat and the apartment office
building.  A few people were at the pool splashing in the water with some
kids.  One or two were standing next to the railing in the shade of palm trees,
watching the new apartment government at work from a distance.

Ted shook
his head.  “Not unless you want to get dysentery or any number of infections
from bacteria living in the water.  No, I wouldn’t drink that shit unless we
had stuff to purify it.  Bleach and lots of it, or Iodine.  I suppose we
could
boil it though…that would take a lot of wood for fires.”

“I have
some iodine tablets and a little bleach, but not more than enough for a about
ten or twenty gallons of water,” said Erik, lying—he easily had enough for a
hundred gallons, but something about Henry didn’t sit well with him.  He’d
trust the others, but not Henry, nor anyone who would elect him as Building
Rep.  His presence there at the meeting raised an interesting question—either
Henry was outright elected by like-minded people in his building, or he
pressured them or threatened them in to electing him. 
Probably to cause
trouble
, Erik thought.

“Me too,”
said Ted.  “We’ll need a helluva lot more to handle that pond, small as it is.”

“I have
another idea,” said Stan.  “We have bottled water at the restaurant—maybe a few
hundred gallons or so for cooking and serving to customers.  We could take
that, too?”

“It won’t last
us very long, but it’s a start,” replied Ted.

“Rain,”
said Alfonse.  “We can collect the rain.”  

Erik
snapped his fingers.  “Of course!  It rains every afternoon.  If we all put out
collection…I don’t know, buckets?  Tubs?  Whatever, if we put out stuff to
collect the rain, we’ll have more than we know what to do with in no time. 
Great idea, Alfonse.” 

Ted rubbed
the stubble on his chin.  “As long as we can keep the containers sterile, we
would only have to deal with contamination—that we can handle with the bleach
we have…probably be able to stockpile that shit from the grocery stores and
hardware stores.”  He looked up and saw the two women present in the
‘council’.  “Oops, sorry ladies…pardon my French.”

“No
problem, Ted…I’m an adult,” said Noreen, making an obvious reference to her
other female council member, the sun bunny sitting next to her.

Janine
giggled like a schoolgirl, which, Noreen suspected, wasn’t far from the truth. 

“So, let’s
take a vote—all in favor of taking food and water from Stan’s restaurant to
bring back for the good of the community, then spreading our search operation
to other restaurants and store, and collecting rainwater?” asked Erik.  “Being
President Pro Tem, I won’t vote.”

“Good,”
said Henry. 

Erik
ignored him.  “All in favor?”  Five hands went up.  “Opposed?”  Henry’s arm
shot up with vigor.  “Okay.  Good.  Now, here’s how we’re going to do it—“

“Oh, so
you’re just going to tell us what to do now?”  Asked Henry.  “What about
voting?  I thought you weren’t going to be a dictator.”

“Henry
Grimes, you need to grow up!” chided Noreen Wilson.

“Remember
what I said last night, Henry?  I’ll do the leading but only because you folks
elected me to do it for you.”

“I didn’t—“

“Well the
rest of us did, so shut the hell up and deal with it, fer Christ’s sake,” said
Ted.  “You got any better ideas?” 

Henry’s
face darkened at the redress but he held his tongue.

“Alright
then.  Here’s what we’re going to do.  We need to set up a ranging team to go
with Stan to the restaurant.  Ted, I’m putting you in charge of that, since
you’re the only one besides Bernie here who’s a vet in the whole complex.  Come
up with a plan to get over there and get the food and what water you can find
back here.”

“You got
it.  What about troops?”

“Buildings One
and Two have the most people…” mused Erik.

“We can go
back and ask for volunteers.  I’m sure we’ll have enough.  Hell, I’ll
volunteer!” said Alfonse cheerfully.  Noreen nodded her head in agreement.

“Weapons?”
asked Ted.  “I think we should be armed.”

“Agreed,”
said Erik.  “Just check around and see if anyone has any, or at least any
experience.  Those that volunteer, go, of course, but we need people with gun
handling to be in the group if there are any.”

“Roger
that.”

“Alfonse,”
Erik said, changing subjects.  “Since it was your idea about the water
collection, I’m putting you in charge of figuring out the way to go about it. 
Don’t forget to keep in mind we can go and get stuff from the local hardware
stores if we need to.”

“I don’t
like the idea of taking stuff from stores, but I suppose we don’t have much
choice anymore.”

“That’s
right, better we take it and put it good use before some punks get in there and
smash it all up or burn it just for the hell of it,” agreed Ted.

Bernie
cleared his throat.  The others fell quiet, waiting for the old man to speak
his piece.  “I ain’t good for much no more…too old, y’see.  But back in Korea,
I was the go-to man for my company.”

“Huh?”
asked Erik.

“Then we
need you to organize the search parties…” said Ted with a smile.  “Glad to have
you, Bernie.”

The old
man’s face lit up with pride.  The others were still confused.  “He’s the guy
you go to when you need something.  Always finds a way to get things, even in
the middle of war.  You never ask how he got what you wanted, but given time,
he’ll get it, one way or another.  Bernie here is going to be very handy to
have around,” Ted explained.

“Great!”
said Erik.  “Bernie, you can be the Procurement Chairman.”

“What about
when the food runs out again?” squeaked Janine innocently.

“Yeah…you
know, whatever’s left at the restaurant isn’t going to feed us all for more
than a few days, Erik,” said Stan.  “If there’s anything left.”

“I know,”
Erik replied.  “I’m still working on what to do, long term.  Only thing I can
think of is start growing our own food.  I don’t know how though…I never had
any land to grow stuff.  Dad was raised on a farm, but…”

“I was born
on a farm.  Whole family’s farmers.  Have been for generations,” said Bernie
simply.  “Hell, my granpappy lived through the Great Depression.  I learned all
kinds of things about livin’ on the skinny.”

“Bernie,
you’re amazing!” beamed Erik.  “Can you fill me in on what we need to do after
the meeting?”

“My
pleasure, sir!” said Bernie, giving a feeble salute with his weakened arm.

“Bernie,
don’t salute me.  I’ve never done anything to deserve a salute.  You’re a
veteran, Bernie, I should be thanking you—“

“You took
command when no one else would, son.  I can’t tell you how many times in the
war where we lost our CO.  If’n no one stepped up to the plate, we all would’a
died.  No, what you’re doing is a lot harder than what any of us will do.  For
that, I salute you.”

Erik took a
deep breath.  “Well, coming from a veteran like you, I’ll take that as the
honor it is.”  The old soldier smiled from ear to ear at the compliment.

“Well, if
y’all are done with your little kissy-fest, I’m getting the hell out of here. 
I have things to do more important than sitting around telling each other how
much I love you” said Henry, getting up in disgust.