Prepper's Crucible - Volume Six: The End (3 page)

EMP PLUS 39 YEARS

PRESCOTT, ARIZONA,
TERRITORIAL CAPITAL

Cory was still sleeping as Eric and Horace continued
talking about life in the cave and the conduct of the ambushes. Finally, Horace
said, “I’m hungry. You want to get some lunch?”

“I guess.
He’s
probably
going to be out the rest of the day. He’s been going downhill pretty fast
lately.” The two men tiptoed out of the room and softly shut the door. A large
man, who carried a shotgun at quarter arms, guarded the door and stepped aside
to let them pass.

“Why the armed guard?”
Horace asked.

“A lot of people try to see him, and he doesn’t want
to be seen right now.” They left the facility and made their way downtown,
passing Whiskey Row and the Superior Courthouse on the way. Downtown had grown
busy, with people bustling along carrying bags, and shops filled with people
making purchases. When Cory moved the capital back to Prescott, the railroad
opened operations again, and the town was a stop on the Los Angeles route. The
hotels were usually full, and with a few exceptions, life was much like it had
been before the EMP and war.

“It’s amazing how these buildings get destroyed and
then rebuilt just the way they were,” Horace said. They entered the Palace
Saloon and Restaurant and took seats at a table in the back of the cavernous
dining room. The décor was Western themed, and it still had the original
swinging doors in front. The massive bar was more than two hundred years old.

“This place was totally destroyed during the final
assault on the Mexican Army.”

“I know,” Eric replied. “I was here when it
happened. I was one of Cory’s unit leaders.”

“What was a unit?”

“We operated with basic groups of four fighters. Ten
groups were a unit when we formed the militia. The unit I had was responsible
for assaulting the rear of this building and then the courthouse.”

“That must have been bloody.”

“It was.” The two men fell silent for a moment;
Horace shifted nervously in his seat.

“He could have been president, you know,” Horace
said. “Why didn’t he run?”

“You don’t understand Cory very well,” Eric replied
after a moment. “He never wanted to be governor. Hell, he
didn’t
want to be anything.
He’s
a quiet man who enjoys his
privacy, doesn’t need or want social things. If it were up to him, he would
have gone back to the
forest and hunted
and fished the
rest of his life.
Which is what he did when he left office.
”

“Then why did he run for governor?”

Eric sighed, thought for a moment,
then
said, “the only other person who was willing to take
the job was a former congressman from Flagstaff. Cory
didn’t
want us to be led by the very people who allowed the country to get weak in the
first place. He felt like he had to run to make sure we never went back to the
kind of politics and leadership that got us into that mess. His attitude was
that if you break it, you own it. He felt like his generation bore
responsibility for the corrosion of the political system that preceded the EMP,
so they had to fix it.”

“Why didn’t he run for a second term?”

“He tried to put term limits in when he was
governor. He
didn’t
think anybody should be reelected.
It was his way of making a point.
And
I think he hated
becoming something that he despised. He once told me that sometimes you have to
become what you hate in order to succeed.”

After they finished lunch, both men ordered coffee
and sat sipping from their cups. They both ordered refills and finished those
as well. Horace was replaying both the conversation with Cory and the one with
Eric. “Can I ask you your last name?” he said.

“Anderson.”

“Are you Ben Anderson’s son?”

“I am.”

“Why didn’t you say anything?”

“You didn’t ask.”

“You were there from the beginning.” His voice
filled with wonder, as though he discovered a rare gem in a pile of rocks.

“No, I arrived after the invasion. The beginning was
the EMP.”

“I thought there was only one survivor from the
group that started the attacks on the Mexican Army.”

“No, two of us are left. But I am happy to let the
world believe that it’s only one.” The men ordered yet another refill and sat
silently sipping coffee again.

“Only good thing you can say about that EMP was that
those coffee chain stores never came back.”

“I hated that coffee,” Horace replied.

“People paid more for a cup of coffee than they did
for a meal. Stupid.”

“Well, I have enough to write the first article, so
I’ll bring it by in the morning and hopefully Cory will be awake.”

“He’ll be fine until later in the morning.
That’s
how it usually goes. We’re doing a road trip to the
ranch tomorrow morning, and Cory wants you to go.”

“I’d be honored,”
Horace
answered. “See you in the morning.”

Horace showed up at the stroke of 08:00 the
following morning, carrying a cup holder with three cups of coffee. He was
surprised to see Cory dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt, sitting in a wheel
chair. Eric was wearing the same outfit but carrying a Glock in a holster on
his hip, rather than the revolver he wore when they met. After handing out the
cups, he sat in a corner on a hospital chair, drank his coffee, and watched the
other two do the same.

“We’re going to the ranch today to give you a look
at the place and to let me say hello to my wife and kids,” Cory finally said,
draining his cup and placing it on an end table. “Eric’s going to take you to
the cave to see where we lived during the invasion. It should be a good day for
your future writing.”

“I brought a paper with the first article in it, and
I think it is pretty good,” Horace replied, holding the paper out in one hand.

“Already read it, and it’s a good start; but you’ll
need to do more to get the movement for statehood going around the territory.”

“I know. And I can.”

“Good,” Cory replied. “It’s time to go.” As if on
cue, two burley orderlies showed up, both dressed in white smocks, hooked his
IV bag to the vertical bar on the wheel chair, and rolled him out of the room.
Eric and Horace followed them to the elevator and they exited the building
through the ER entrance. A waiting ambulance sat in the parking lot and Eric
got into the front seat next to the driver as Horace watched Cory get loaded
into the back of the vehicle. He sat in the back seat and twisted around to
look at Cory, who sat backward in the ambulance.

“Go north on Williamson Valley Road,” Eric said from
the front. “I’ll tell you when to turn.” They wound through several turns on
the trip and finally turned left onto the farm road that led to the ranch.

“Take the next right,” Eric ordered. The driver
complied, and they soon found themselves in a meadow that
was
surrounded
by trees. The ranch was invisible from the main road, as it
always had been. The house and barn were both in a state of bad repair, and the
yard
was overgrown
with weeds.

“Get me out of this thing,” Cory complained from the
back of the ambulance. The driver and Eric walked to the back of the vehicle
and lowered the wheelchair to the ground with Cory still in it. Eric pushed it
toward a small cemetery on the west side of the house that was dotted with
crosses. They stopped in front of the nearest grave and Eric placed a hand on
the headstone.

“This is where my brother lies. Justin died at the
battle of Sedona,” he whispered.
“God speed, brother.”
Eric pushed Cory’s wheelchair to the next grave.

“This is where Bud and Mary were buried,” Cory said.
“They died in one of the first ambushes we did. They were killed trying to get
away after the ambush.” Cory’s eyed welled up, but he fought it back with a
visible effort, and Eric rolled the chair to the next grave. “The irony of our
taking casualties from military weapons made in the United States, and sold to
our then friend, Mexico, was not lost on any of us,” Cory continued. “The good
news was we were pretty good at getting them back into American hands during
the war.”

“This is my father’s grave. He died of natural
causes.” The headstone
was worn and faded
. Eric pushed
the wheelchair again down the line of grave markers and stopped at the next
one.

“This is Ed and Ann,” Cory said. “They died in the
assault on Prescott. Both of them fought until the end, but they both died at
what turned out to be the end of the war.
Senseless, really.”
He again rolled the wheelchair over to the next grave that was Cory’s family
plot.

“I have to get up for this one,” Cory said. He
struggled to get out of the wheelchair and stood on wobbly legs. He lurched
over to the gravesite, supported by Eric, and placed a hand on the tallest
gravestone for support. “Julie, I’m coming to be with you soon. Tell the kids I
said hello.” Tears leaked from his eyes and then he added, “I don’t know why
God took you all from me and left me to rot on this planet, but I know we’ll be
together again and we’ll pick up where we left off – man and wife, joined
forever.” Cory stepped to Kate’s grave, caressed the headstone briefly, and
sighed. He staggered back to the wheel chair, sat down wearily, and seemed to
go into a coma.

“Is he going to be all right?” Horace asked.

“No,” Eric replied, “but
take
this.” He pulled an envelope from his back pocket and handed it to Horace.

“What is it?”

“It’s a notarized letter of instruction that Cory be
buried here, next to his wife. He wrote it himself, in his own hand.”

“Why me?
I don’t even
know the man that well.”

“Because some fool politician will try to make hay
of his death and have him buried at Arlington, or one of the state’s
cemeteries, and he doesn’t want that. You have the power of the pen, and now
you have a legal document. Do what you have to, but make sure his wishes are
carried out.”

“Why don’t you do it?”

“I will try. But if it comes to it, you can stop
anyone, including the existing governor, with an article and copy of that
document.”

Horace thought for a minute. “I’ll do it. It’s the
least I can do.” The two men stood in silence, watching Cory sleep, and then
Eric spoke.

“I have to show you Don and Kate’s grave before we
leave.
That’s
what Cory wanted. The two men walked to
the end of the grave markers and Eric said, “
that’s
Don’s grave, and Kate is buried next to him in the closer one.”

“So, the empty space between Cory’s wife and Kate
must be for Cory.”

“Seems so.”

“What happened to Tim and Cory’s sister?”

“They moved back to Phoenix after the war and Tim
practiced medicine there for years. They both died about eight years ago.”

Horace walked back to Don’s headstone, thought for a
minute, and then said, “
this
man remains a mystery to
me. He seemed to be the glue that held the group together at the beginning, yet
we know so little about him.”

“I knew him from when I was growing up. Our ranch
was over there.” Eric pointed to a set of buildings around a mile away. “He and
my dad use to hunt together.
But
he was just another
guy to me. There didn’t seem to be anything special about him.”

“Are we going to the cave now?”

“I suppose we should. We’ve come this far.” Eric
walked over to where the driver stood next to the ambulance and said, “
keep
an eye on Cory. We’ll be back soon.” The driver nodded.

“All right.
We can walk to
it from here,” Cory said to Horace, and then he turned and began walking
briskly toward the mountains that loomed over the ranch. Horace marveled at the
man’s pace. He had to be approaching seventy years of age, but moved as though
he were a young man. After a fifteen-minute walk, Cory stopped to let Horace
catch his breath, and they both turned to examine the valley floor that lay
below. It was a crisp day, and the sky was a brilliant shade of blue.

“I can’t help thinking that I’ve seen this view a
thousand times and it still fills me with wonder. I was born to live in the
forest, but didn’t know it until Cory showed it to me from his perspective.”

“Was that during the war?”

“No, it was after. When he disappeared, we used to
hunt and fish here. He usually lived in the cave
we’re
going to visit, but we also got together at Kate’s place when he came out of
the forest for supplies.
We’d
share a dinner and spend
the night once a month or so. I lived at our ranch, so Kate would call me on
the radio and I would go over and spend the night in the bunkhouse. Cory moved
to the home right after she died four years ago.”