Alea Jacta Est: A Novel of the Fall of America (Future History of America Book 1) (42 page)

Lentz got
the crowd to settle down then spoke, his gravelly voice in clear contrast with
Erik’s youthful deep sound.  The man was an orator and utterly comfortable
doing what bureaucrats did best—getting power, keeping power, and keeping
people happy so he could remain in power.  “I want to thank you all for this
tremendous vote of confidence.  I wish to first say that I think Erik did a
great job running things…“

Some cheers
and claps, but mostly silence or a few jeers.  Erik ignored it.  He was
watching Lentz to see what kind of a man had been chosen as his replacement. 
When they were looking for a leader a few days ago, Lentz decided not to do
anything.  Suspicious by nature, Erik had an itch between his shoulder blades
he couldn’t scratch and that made him pay very careful attention to how things
changed in the next few days.

Lentz made
the wise move of accepting the Council as Erik had left it, keeping them in
power for the time being to make everyone comfortable.  When he decided he was
fully informed and up to the task of running things, then and only then would
he consider changing the organizational setup Erik had struggled to put in
place—if necessary.  Lentz doubted he would change things though.  Erik
marveled at the graciousness his successor was spreading.  It was like he was a
politician.  Erik mentally snapped his fingers. 

That’s why
this guy’s making me edgy…he reminds me of a sleazy politician.  After this
meeting,
he told himself,
Brin and I should go over maybe leaving for Dundee, just in
case…hell, it’s only a three hour drive from here.  Maybe we could  bug out and
head for New York even.  My parents have plenty of space up by Lake
Ticonderoga.

The meeting
settled down and Lentz decided to conclude things early, because they had all
had a chaotic night.  He resolved to deal with the bikers as soon as the
meeting was over.

Erik was
circled by his supporters as the meeting broke up, all offering thanks for his
services and apologies for not keeping him in power.  Roughly a third of the
residents were firmly behind Erik, he quickly found out.  Mostly the younger
people, the ones who volunteered for guard duty, and the Council. 

He tried to
thank them, but couldn’t—he was reeling inside over the sudden changes that had
occurred in the last hour.  From top dog to just another Joe, Erik was riding a
roller coaster of emotions.  He had just finished shaking hands with another
supporter when he saw the flash of light from the guard position in the three
story building near the gate.  Quickly he snatched his radio from its place on
his belt—something he forgot to turn over to Lentz.

“What is
it, Sue?” he asked.  Ted’s wife had decided to pull guard duty rather than sit
through another boring meeting.  Erik was impressed with her abilities with a
gun and her resolve to keep her children safe.  Ted pushed closer, noticing the
light himself.  Those around them fell silent, all trying to hear the small
speaker on the radio.

“
I see
some lights up at the corner—from the main drag.  Can’t tell what’s going on,
but it kind looks like fire.  Maybe torches?  Someone better get up and have a
look
.”

“I’m on
it,” Ted said.  He grabbed a handful of the supporters and went to the
building.  Erik let Sue know Ted was coming up, then radioed the other three
guards, patrolling the walls of the complex.  He had them find hiding places
and go on alert.  They were the only other people besides Ted, Sue and himself
at the moment who had been in training on the meager firearm supply they had in
the complex.  Not surprisingly, the remaining men and women around Erik had all
been in the guards as well.  They liked the way Erik handled things and decided
to stick with him no matter what.  Erik realized he had just created his own
faction in the new government.

Erik went
to inform Lentz of the situation, who brushed him off politely but with
indifference, saying lights didn’t concern him, bikers inside the ‘city-walls’
did.  Lentz and some supporters moved away to decide what to do, though to Erik
it was clear the Bikers were going to be kicked out.  He decided to talk to
Hoss first.

Erik found
Hoss in the ground floor apartment where he had been set up in the abandoned
building.  He was tinkering by candlelight with some component from his
motorcycle.  There were a few others chatting and tending to wounds.

“Hey man,
they’re gonna come here and kick you out,” Erik said.  “I’m not the one in
charge anymore.”

“They put
someone else in charge because you let us stay here?” asked one of the female
bikers, a tough woman named Donna.

“Pretty
much.  That’s how it went…the new guy, he’s a superintendent of some school
system out in Illinois.”           

“Jesus,
that’s fucked
up
...I’m sorry man…” muttered Hoss.  One of the others
growled something about Lentz’s mother.

“Look
they’re not going to do anything other than ask you to leave, but there’s a
problem—“

“I’ll say
there is, we’re still bleeding from this morning…can’t we stay the night?  At
least let us dry our gear…”

“I don’t
think so...”  Erik keyed the radio in his hand.  “Ted, you read me?”

A moment,
then Ted’s scratchy voice was heard.  “
Yeah, we’re in position in the guard
room.  I’m looking at the…whatever it is now
.”

“Any idea?”

THE STREET TOUGHS
and ex-cons were
congregated at the corner, looking for a place to crash for the night.  They
had chased a biker gang out of town that morning and were feeling full of
themselves.  Fifteen burned homes, a handful of rapes and a broken into liquor
store later and the group of about thirty thugs was looking for more trouble. 
They had left a trail of carnage along the main drag, heading east up from the
downtown district.  That’s where the really bad guys were, shooting up the
place and relishing the fact that cops were on permanent leave. 

One of the
younger thugs, through his alcohol and drug induced stupor, thought it’d be
funny to make a Molotov cocktail and throw it at the gas station across the
street.  Hell, no one needed gas anymore—if you wanted a car, you just took it
and got another when the gas ran out.  Most of the people in Sarasota—the
affluent side, at least—had fled town or gone to the ‘safe zones’ after the
power went out.  The ones who stayed were too old, afraid, or hungry to care if
a bunch of hoodlums went joyriding in the caddie.

He lit the
fuse, to the laughter of his cronies and ran across the street.  Stumbled
actually.  Someone shouted something from across the street.  The fool with the
bomb figured they said pour some gas on it to put it out.  Laughing, his mind
lost to reality, he pulled the nozzle on the nearest pump and tried to squeeze
some gas onto his flaming bottle of vodka.

The
resulting finger of flame that leapt from the bottle to the residue gasoline in
the pump, then shot up the hose and down into the tank created a huge explosion
in the underground tanks which in turn, enveloped the gas station in less than
a heartbeat.  The fireball split the night with a heat and intensity that threw
most of the witnesses on their backs.  In less than a heartbeat the gas station
was gone, replaced by a gigantic billowing pillar of fire and smoke.  Many of
the doomed youth’s comrades were still laughing as they lay on the ground holding
their bleeding ears.

THE EXPLOSION WAS
heard through the
soundproof walls of the apartment building like a dull thud.  Everyone on the
pool deck was screaming in confusion.  They were only a block away so when the
night sky lit up like day, fear boiled over and people panicked.  More than one
person stood slack jawed, staring at the growing plume of smoke and fire.

“Jesus
Christ!” one of the bikers exclaimed, standing on the porch to the apartment,
watching the people on the pool deck.  “What the hell was
that
?  Looked
like a bomb went off to the north!”

“Ted, what
happened?” Erik said into the radio.

Some crazy
fool just blew up the damn gas station on the corner
!” Ted’s
shocked voice came back.  “
We watched him run across the street and then,
BOOM!”

“Can you
see anything else?”

There was a
slight pause as Ted scoped in on the surrounding area near the glowing and
burning gas station.  “
I got movement…lots of it…people…there’s about—I
can’t say for sure.  Looks like a sizeable group of people jumping and moving
near the gas station.  Pretty cohesive.  I’d say they’re a group…gang maybe
.” 
Ted saw a flash, then another and another.  “
Shit, they’ve got
guns…definitely a gang.”

“Probably
the ones who ambushed us yesterday morning…come to finish us off,” said one of
the bikers.  He had a bloody bandana tied around his forehead.

“They’re
the cocksuckers who killed Sally…” muttered Hoss, his hands gripping the wrench
he held like a knife.

“
I can
see torches…flashlights
,” called out Ted’s voice.  “
They’re heading this
way, I think…yes, definitely moving down the street.  They must have heard all
that screaming going on by the pool deck.
”

“Dammit!  I
swear the people in this apartment complex
want
to be killed!” hissed
Erik in frustration. 
First they fight tooth and nail against what I wanted
to do, then they throw me out of office and put some teacher in my place, then
they want to kick out Hoss and the bikers, who might…the bikers…of course!

“
Whatcha
wanna do, boss?”
asked Ted.  “
They’re definitely coming this way.  ETA
fifteen minutes at this pace.  They’re checking things out as they go
…”

Erik stared
at the walkie-talkie in his hand, his mind racing.  “I’ve got an idea.  Hoss,
we’re going to guarantee you and your gang will be allowed to stay here.”

“How’s that?”
asked Hoss, disbelieving.  “Your people want to kick us out, and if that’s the
group that hit us this morning,
they
want to
kill
us!”

Erik
ignored him.  “How many of you got guns?” asked Erik.

Hoss
laughed.  “Hell, by now, we
all
do.  Mostly sawed off shotguns, but a
few pistols.  Not a lot of ammo though.  Just the shit we picked up on the way
north from the Keys.  Why?”

“Get you
and your bikes out the main gate, no noise or lights—just walk ‘em out, head
south to the first main street…”  Erik began laying out his plan.

In the time
it took the street thugs to cautiously work their way down the street past the
shopping center and all the broken pre-looted stores and discover an apartment
complex that looked none the worse for wear, Erik set his plan in motion.            

THE RAG-TAG GANG halted
at the north corner of the Colonial Gardens complex wall and discussed how to
sack the place.  With as nice as it looked, they figured there’d be some good
pickin’s inside.  Two scouts raced up to the gate, checked it out and ran back,
while another one circled the complex looking for easy ways in.

Their
leader, a drug dealer who busted out of the Sheriff’s office when it all hit
the fan days ago used his street selling skills to convince the others to take
the place from the front.  He had organized them the day before when the biker
gang roared through town and they had chased them away under his leadership. 
They trusted him now. 

There was
no other way in without ladders.  The group milled about a bit before working
up the group-courage to head to the main gate and try and pull it down.  After
all, a gate has to have a few weak points where it’s attached to a wall.  They
would put all their strength into it and tear the fucker down.

ERIK RUSHED FROM
his building, carrying
the supplies he needed and a few extra shotguns from Ted’s stash.  Ted followed
him, carrying the last of the spare guns.  They picked up Erik’s supporters on
the way back to the leasing office, where they found Lentz still in discussion
over what to do about the bikers and the new threat outside the front gate.

“Ah Erik,
just the person I want to see.  I want you to talk to your…biker friends…let
them know—“

“They’re
already gone, Josh.  I already took care of it.”  Ted smiled as a look of
someone who’s had the wind taken out of their sails passed over Lentz’s face. 
One of Lentz’s people got an angry scowl, no doubt for seeing Erik act like he
was still the leader.

“Ah, well,
good!”  Lentz said, trying to recover.  He had to establish dominance.  “Well
then, we’ve talked to the people at the gate—“

“You
talked
to them?” asked Ted, incredulous.

“Yes,
that’s what people do…we talked to them and they’re just a group of refugees
from a neighborhood to the east that were burned out of their homes.  They only
request some food and water and they’ll be on their way.”

“You’re
crazy!” said Ted, to the glares of some of Lentz’s men.  The smug grins showed
Ted they believed
he
was crazy.