Alea Jacta Est: A Novel of the Fall of America (Future History of America Book 1) (65 page)

THE NEXT MORNING, Erik,
Ted, Susan and Brin gathered for breakfast in the breezeway.  Even though the
sun had barely broken the treeline, the early heat and humidity made the shady
hallway an ideal spot to relax while the children played in the grass by the
pond.  Erik filled Susan’s plate with re-hydrated eggs and spoke around a
mouthful of cold oatmeal.  He was purposely spoiling the girls with some of his
‘good stuff’ out of the reserves that even Brin didn’t know about.  “So whaddya
think, ladies?”

Ted
swallowed some lukewarm rainwater from the night before and said, “Yeah, feel
up for some seared tuna-steaks?”

“Ted, my
mouth is already watering,” said Brin with a smile.

“Well, I’m
all for fresh fish…” worried Susan as she doled out rehydrated scrambled eggs
to the kids. “But I’m just not excited at having both of you gone at the same
time—“

“Sweetie,
if I didn’t think the Guards could hold the fort for a few days, you know I wouldn’t
even suggest going,” replied Ted.

“I know,”
she said. “I trust the guys, I just don’t trust
Lentz
.  He’s behaving
openly hostile.  To both of you.”

“And the
way he talks to me…like I’m, a
child
!” Brin shriveled up her nose in
anger.  “It just pisses me off.”

Erik
pointed with his fork towards the pool.  “Look, there’s Caesar now…I guess
Pompey would be a better fit, actually.”

“Pompous
ass
,
that’s for sure,” muttered Ted.  He slapped his thighs and stood up: “Well,
I’ll go talk to him — hey, maybe it’ll cool things down if we’re gone a few
days?”  He got up amid protest from the women and walked over towards Lentz,
humming a Marine Corps march cadence.

Susan
frowned, watching her children eat noisily.  She suddenly got the feeling it
would be very hard to feed her babies if they couldn’t get fish.  She knew
their food supplies, all of them, were getting dangerously low.  Her heart was
torn between her man and her children.  In the end, she sided with her mother’s
instinct.  Sighing, she looked down at her half eaten breakfast, her appetite
gone. “Well, I suppose we’ll be okay.”

Erik and
Brin shared a look. “I don’t want you to go either,” she said in a soft voice. 
“But we need the food.”  Brin looked towards the pool deck where Lentz was
shaking hands with Ted. 

“It’ll only
be a few days.  We’ll head to the marina soon, probably spend today scavenging
and getting ready, then head out tomorrow, maybe the next day too.  I can teach
Ted how to sail, then see what we catch.”  He ruffled the hair of Susan’s eldest
son.  “Would you like to eat some grilled fish?”

The little
boy, spitting image of Ted, squinted up at the red haired giant that was his
daddy’s friend.  “Can we bar-b-que it, mister Duke?” Susan stifled a laugh,
Brin didn’t.  Erik flushed.  He was saved from a response when the boy’s
half-sister found something “gross” by the pond.  The boy jumped up, bar-b-que
fish already forgotten and scampered off to investigate the new find.

When Ted
returned he found all three adults laughing as they cleaned up from breakfast. 
They stored the leftover water in bottles, packed up the food that could be
saved and Susan had one of the children take the leftovers to Bernie.  Waste
was a cardinal sin anymore.

“Well,
Lentz actually thinks it’s a good idea.”

Erik
stopped in his tracks, hands full of dirty dishes.  “He what?  He just reminded
me the fishing plan was
cancelled
, just yesterday.”  Erik could feel the
heat rush into his face.

Ted raised
an eyebrow.  “Yeah, before I could say that, he said maybe he and the new
council were too hasty.  That we should just test it first and implement it on
a larger scale if it’s a success.”

“I don’t
know whether to be relieved, happy, or suspicious,” commented Erik as Brin took
the plates from him.

“I’m all
three,” mumbled Susan.

“Well, I’ll
be glad to help with the munchkins, Susan!”

“Thank you,
Brin,” Susan said with sincerity.  “I was thinking, maybe we could get a
homeschooling program set up.  What do you think?”

“You know,
that would give a lot of parents a break if we could get all the kids together
and have classes…” agreed Brin.

“Well,”
said Erik, looking at his wife.

“Yes, yes,
we have a project to keep us busy till you ape-men come back.  C’mere,” she
said playfully.  After a long embrace, she whispered in his ear, “You come back
to me.”  Louder, she said,  “Now git, boys! Bring us some tuna!”

Once Ted
and Erik had disentangled themselves from their wives, they loaded up Brin’s
dusty SUV and headed for the main gate.  Ted’s children chased behind them on
foot and scooters and bikes.

“Quite the
send off, gentlemen,” called out Lentz from near the gate as they waited for
the Guard to open the Freehold’s main line of defense.

“This is
going to work…” said Erik, already on the defensive.

Lentz
raised his hands in a sign of truce. “I hope it will, for all our sakes.
Especially the children.  They have seen too much in these past few weeks.”
Lentz, lost in thought, watched Ted’s offspring peel out and chase each other
through the parking lot.  Suddenly he jerked around and in the most sincere
voice said, “Look. Erik, Ted,” he nodded, putting a hand on the driver’s open
window.  “We haven’t always seen eye to eye on every issue, but I do hope you
understand I don’t harbor any ill will towards you.  Either of you.  You both
are valued members of this community and we all owe a tremendous debt to you
both.”

Erik and
Ted looked at each other in abject confusion. “I—“ Erik began.

Lentz
raised his other hand to forestall Erik’s reply. “I didn’t mean to get all
sentimental. Just….just be careful.  Godspeed, gentlemen.”

ON THE WAY
to the Marina, they
decided to take the long route and do a little reconnaissance of Sarasota. 
They had been cut off from local news since the power went out, except for half
crazed reports from people begging entrance into the Freehold as they moved
through the area.  They expected to see deserted houses and cars, but not at
the level they witnessed.

“Where
is
everyone?” asked Erik as they drove deeper into the heart of town.  Trash
littered sidewalks, shops were ransacked and left empty and open to the
elements.  A handful of dogs scurried out of one house but there were no people
visible anywhere.

“Lock ‘n’
load, man,” grunted Ted, scanning for any threats.  “I feel like we’re being
watched.  Speed it up—let’s get outta this area.”

Ted feeling
uneasy was enough for Erik’s own tingling anxiety.  He gunned the engine and
they picked up speed, swerving around abandoned cars and debris in the road. 
“You see that?” Erik asked.  “Damn
fridge
in the middle of the road!”

There was a
small metallic clink-tink at the rear of the SUV.  “Floor it!  We’re taking
fire!” roared Ted, crouched over and shotgun up.  “Still no targets,” he said
as the scenery began to blur. 

Erik pulled
off the main street and tore through a few trash littered yards to avoid some
wrecked cars.  “Holy shit!” screamed Erik as he swerved the vehicle to avoid
incoming rounds.

Erik didn’t
slow down until they exited the neighborhood and rumbled on the nearest main
road.  “There were bodies by those cars,” he observed in a detached voice,
swerving back onto the road.

“Did you
notice anything weird about that neighborhood?” asked Ted.

“Other than
there were people shooting at us!?” said Erik, his voice cracking under the
strain.  He took a deep breath and tried to calm himself.  Then, “Should we
stop to check the damage?” asked Erik, indicating the shots someone had taken
at the SUV.  He took his foot off the accelerator and the they began to slow.

Ted glanced
at the fuel gauge.  “We losing fuel?”

“Nope.”

“Then we
stop at the Marina.  That was an ambush like one we almost fell into back in
Fallujah.”  They began to speed up again.

Erik
thought about Ted’s first question as they headed for the Marina on the main
north-south parkway.  “The White Hand People…”

“Yeah, they
left their calling cards on most of the houses and buildings. On all the ones
that were looted.  I don’t like this, man—it’s like they’re systematically
going house to house —- a bunch of locusts.”

“They’re
organized,” Erik agreed. “Not the mob that hit us a while back. Those guys were
just thugs.”

“We need to
check out the boat thing, then get out of town, I think,” said Ted.  “This
stuff is getting too close to
Mad Max
for my taste. We need to hightail
it to the boonies, man.  Maybe we can use sailboats to bug out?”

“That’s
what I kinda was thinking. The marina’s up around this next bend,” said Erik.
“When we get back, we’ll talk to the girls and get out.  Meantime, I just want
my heart to stop pounding.  That was pretty intense!”

Ted
chuckled the laugh of a man who’d been there, done that.  “Get used to people
shooting at you, Erik.  I think it’s gonna be a way of life, at least until
this U.N. thing is resolved.”

Erik pulled
up next to the marina gate past the copse of palm trees he and  Brin had hidden
inside the previous night.  “This place has seen better days,” he muttered as
they got out.  In daylight, it was a different world.  A few cars had been
burned where they had been parked in the lot.  Beer cans, trash and items
hauled from the cars and possibly bits of sailboats were strewn across the
parking lot.  A warzone compared to the night before.

Erik was
examining the bullet holes just above the right taillight while Ted did a
perimeter sweep, looking for threats.  The Marine suddenly dropped to one knee
and had the shotgun up and cocked.

“Movement!”
he hissed as a warning to Erik.  Then in the voice of a drill sergeant, “You!
In the bushes!  Come out with your hands up or I
will
open fire!”

Erik dove
behind the rear wheel and drew his pistol with shaking hands.

“You have
three seconds to comply!  One! 
Two!
”

“Alright,
laddie!  Hold ye’r fire!”

“Archie!”
sighed Erik with relief.  “It’s okay, Ted, that’s Archie.”

“Ye’re
late, lad,” said Archie Sinclair as he rose from the bushes, hands up.

“This is
our new friend,” said Erik, holstering his pistol and rushing to greet the
grinning Scotsman.  Erik and Archie shook hands and Ted was introduced.

“Ye’re an
operator, lad?” asked Archie.  “Been a while since anyone got the drop on ol’
Archie Sinclair.”

“U.S.
Marines, six years,” replied Ted with a grin of his own as the warriors shook
hands.

“A Devil
Dog!  I should ha’e known…”

"You?”
asked Ted as they walked towards the docks.

“Och, aye,
the Queen’s Own 42nd Highlanders,” he said with pride.

“The Black
Watch.  Top shelf, sir,” said Ted with a respectful nod.

“Weel, it
was a long time ago.  Now, if ye’ll follow me, I’ve the best o’ wha’s left to
show ye,” said Archie.  He led them around and over and through most of the
sea-worthy vessels.  Nearly half were damaged or half-sunk, charred hulks of
the bright, slick looking pleasure boats they were, only weeks earlier.

Archie
explained the events of the night the defeated remnants of the Battle arrived. 
They were frustrated at the defeat the Freeholders handed them and torched the
marina to salve their wounded pride.  “Maddie and I simply weighed anchor and
moved out yonder a wee way.  They yelled and carried on like so many wee bairns
but coudlna reach the
Piper
,” he said, grinning again.

Erik
pointed to Archie and Maddie’s boat for Ted’s sake.

“Big ‘un
for two,” commented Ted with a whistle.

“We
manage,” shrugged the Scotsman, picking at some planks of charred wood that
used to be the deckhouse of a two-masted sloop, half-sunk in the murky water of
the marina.  “What a waste.”

The three
men spent the next few hours scavenging and piling what supplies the could
find, including radios, batteries, jerry cans of diesel, rations and so on,
alongside a couple of the better looking 20 foot day sailor boats.

At length,
Archie declared he simply must be off and took his leave.  “Ye watch out for
ye’re lassie,” he said to Erik in parting.

“Aye, and
you for Maddie,” replied Erik with a handshake.

Archie
shook Ted’s hand again and wished them luck.  One last look at Erik produced, 
“Aye, William Wallace indeed…Remember to call for the
Piper
on marine
sideband radio.  We’ll listen every night at sunset for 30 minutes.”

Erik looked
in his hand and saw Archie had slipped him a scrap of paper with a HAM call
sign and frequency the Scots monitored along with the marine sideband
information.  He jogged over to the
Flying Piper
and helped Archie cast
off.