The McClane Apocalypse Book Five (6 page)

“Mr. Hernandez…” Grandpa starts but is
interrupted by Jay.

“Sheriff Hernandez now, Mr. McClane,” Jay
corrects her grandfather.

What the hell? This guy has already made
himself the sheriff of his small quadrant? This is progressing
decidedly fast. Interesting.

Grandpa doesn’t miss a beat and says,
“Jay, look, I think you need to take some time and think about it.
That could be a
dangerous
decision. You won’t have the protection of the security force
we’re building.”

“Right, man,” Roy says. “How you gonna
protect yourselves against an attack? You don’t have enough people
over there.”

“We’ll get by,” Jay answers. “Don’t worry
about us, not that any of you did before.”

“That’s not fair, Jay!” one of the women in
the crowd calls out.

Another man says, “Yeah, we have to get the
wall around town built before we start out your way. You know that.
It wasn’t like we had a choice. We had to protect the assets here
in town like the medical clinic and the food pantry and the older
folks that can’t protect themselves.”

“Well, now you can,” he answers dramatically.
“We’ve made a decision, took a vote and that’s the way it’s gonna
be.”

“You didn’t include any of us in this vote
that you took, Mr. Hernandez,” Grandpa observes. “How can that be a
vote of the town?”

“It wasn’t. It was a vote within our
community. They want me to be the sheriff, too. We don’t need your
help anymore,” he answers.

Reagan watches her grandfather’s expression
turn from cool to irritated. He’s hiding it well, but she can
recognize it. This guy is a fool if he thinks that his small
community, some of which are women and children, will make it
through the winter without their aid. She’s also not sure if the
voting system in their community was fair. Jay Hernandez is a very
loud and boisterous man. He could’ve intimidated people into this.
None of the people from his area who are present say anything. They
don’t appear to be cowed, but she’s not sure since she doesn’t know
most of them all that well.

“We will get to expanding the wall in the
spring, Jay,” Grandpa adds. “You are over a mile outside of the
city limits. It’s just going to take some time.”

“No thanks, McClane,” he answers rudely.

Reagan doesn’t think his disrespect for
her grandfather, which is
clearly
increasing, is going to go over well with the men. John’s
thigh muscle tenses under her palm. Grandpa is certainly not the
leader of their town. The sheriff is the acting authority. And in
the spring they’ve talked about adding a new city council staff and
a mayor, which will likely be whoever wants to volunteer. But most
everyone in town looks up to her grandfather. He’d been their town
doctor for over thirty years. He was considered a pillar of their
small community. Jay Hernandez does not share this esteem of
him
obviously
.

“We’re on our own. We don’t want anything to
do with the town,” Jay repeats.

Condo Paul says, “Why not? We didn’t
have a wall, either. We had to build our own. We’re too far out to
be a part of the town’s wall, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t
want to do business with the
town
or be a part of it anymore.”

Jay keeps going, pissing off Reagan and the
rest of the people, “We’re busy working on building our own wall.
It’ll go up faster if we don’t have to come over here and work on
town stuff and harvest with the farmers.”

Paul shakes his head and looks at John who
mirrors his action. This makes no sense. Helping each other is the
only way to survive.

“Wait a minute,” Mr. Henderson breaks in.

Reagan knows that he owns one of the
last chicken and hog farms in the county. Many of the
big business
grocery store chain farms
had squeezed out people like Mr. Henderson. She
thanks
God that he never gave up. Those big farms
are gone, abandoned by the employees who’d been poorly paid to work
them. Mr. Henderson’s meat chickens and pork feed nearly half of
the community. She also knows that Jay’s group is supposed to be
helping him harvest his grain later this month. Without the grain,
his livestock won’t survive the winter. And if the coming winter
proves to be like the last one, they are in for a long, hard season
of cold and snow.

Mr. Henderson continues, “You mean to tell me
that your group isn’t going to help me bring in my crop?”

“No, we’re not,” Jay answers with a confident
attitude.

“But I’ve been giving your people, Jay, food
for the last two years. What do you think you’re going to do for
food all winter?”

Jay says, “We’ll be
fine
. We have some new people living in our
community now, and they’ve assured us that we won’t
starve.”

John jumps in on this one, “Hold on! Who are
these new people?”

“They’re some men I trust, who our community
trusts to help us make it through the winter and get our wall
built.”

“Who are they?” John presses. “We don’t just
allow people into the community, Jay. You know that. They have to
be agreed upon.”

“I’m one of ‘em,” a man says and stands.

He’d been sitting a few rows back from Jay,
quietly taking in the discussion until now. The man is of average
size and build and wears his hair in a short buzz cut.

“And you are?” Condo Paul asks.

“Greg, my name’s Greg,” he answers.

Some of the people who live in their
town are not actually from their
town
, but transplants from other areas or extended
family of
people
who used to be
from their
town
.
Usually,
the men or Condo Paul or Roy
will vet the newcomers to make sure they seem peaceful and able to
contribute to their community. They don’t need people like the
visitor’s group settling in their town.

Reagan looks to Grandpa, who seems to be
trying to place this man’s face. He gives her a nearly
imperceptible shake of his head. She doesn’t recognize Greg,
either.

“Where you from, Greg?” Derek asks.

He’s a
master
interrogator. Many times, Reagan just hangs
back and watches him do his magic. All three of the Rangers are
good at getting information from people. Derek had sniffed out a
small group of
people
who’d come
last year that he hadn’t trusted. And it was
a
good
thing. They’d robbed one of the local farmers
before coming to their town. Kelly had found out about it from the
farmer when he’d delivered a load of potato starts to them a week
later. They’d gone on a mission looking for the thieves, but they
were long gone by then. Fortunate for them.

“From Kentucky, up above Louisville,” Greg
answers.

“Where specifically above Louisville? What
town?” Derek asks.

“What’s it matter?” Greg asks.

“It actually matters quite a lot. We have a
lot of people who have family up near Louisville,” Derek says.
“Perhaps you know some of them.”

“Who are you? The new police around here?”
Greg asks as if he’s affronted by the questioning.

“Something like that,” John says and stands.
“Why don’t you want to answer any of his questions?”

“I don’t think I actually need to
answer a bunch of
questions
. This
is kind of bullshit. I’m not asking to live in your town. I’m going
with Jay,” Greg says with a touch of antagonism.

“We just try to ensure that we’re keeping out
the kind of people who would mean the town harm,” Derek explains.
“We’ve had problems with that. It doesn’t usually end well for the
people who come here looking for trouble.”

Kelly laughs once and says, “No, it
doesn’t.”

Greg’s eyes dart to Kelly. He calms down
considerably.

“So maybe some of the folks in this town know
some of your people from Louisville,” Derek returns to that line of
questioning.

“I doubt it. I wasn’t a real social kinda’
guy back then.”

“Ok, that’s fine. How did you end up down
here in Pleasant View?” Derek asks.

“Just movin’ around, man. That’s all,” he
answers.

“Why are you with Mr. Hernandez now?” Derek
asks.

“Just thought I’d help him out. Stick
around. Be a part of his new town. Like I said, this is new for me,
too. I didn’t
use
to be real
social.”
“
Mm-hm
, and you are now? You want
to help Mr. Hernandez’s community?” Derek presses.

“Sure. Sounds like a good place to set down
some roots,” Greg says.

“Do you have family or is it just you?” Derek
asks.

Reagan watches her brother-in-law’s face take
on a tenseness. She doesn’t think Derek is buying this guy’s
story.

“Nope, just me and a few of my friends,” Greg
says.

“A few?” John asks.

“Sure. I’ve got a few friends who are
staying,” Greg adds. “We’ll get our wall done fast.”

His accent sounds farther south than
just Kentucky. He almost
drawls
out some of his vowels like Talia, and she’s from New
Orleans.

John jumps right back on the friend question,
“How many men are staying with you?”

“Five. If you have to know,” Jay answers for
his new friend of whom none of them are familiar.

“And you mentioned food supplies. How are you
going to keep the group in enough food for the winter?” Derek
inquires.

“Look, we came to deliver our decision and we
have done just that. This meeting is over, McClane,” Jay says to
Grandpa. “We don’t answer to the town anymore. We don’t interact
with you all anymore. We’re on our own and so are you.”

“I wish it didn’t have to be that way, Mr.
Hernandez,” Grandpa says.

Jay and Greg and the handful of people from
their sector don’t reply but simply leave without another word.
Then a hundred questions get tossed around the room all at
once.

Reagan has an uneasy feeling about the
new situation with Jay’s group. It doesn’t make sense. They should
want to stick
with
the town. This
will be like starting over again. Why would they want to? She also
doesn’t understand why he
is being
disrespectful of her grandfather. He seems angry, which is
ridiculous since everyone has been helpful with this man and his
group.

“That could’ve gone better,” Derek says to
their small circle that includes Roy and Paul once they have
sequestered on the front steps of the town hall after the meeting
adjourned.

“Seems fishy,” Paul remarks.

John chuckles uneasily and says, “Yeah, man,
no kidding. I don’t think we’ve got the full picture of what’s
going on over there.”

Kelly nods in agreement and says, “It feels
like they are hiding something. None of that even made any sense.
And who was that dick? He’s a little cocky for just rolling into
town, isn’t he?”

Roy interjects, “He acts like he’s callin’
the shots over there.”

John and Derek both nod. Grandpa does, as
well.

“Something about it stinks. I hope we don’t
have problems with Jay’s group,” Reagan admits what she’s been
pondering.

“You mean Sheriff Jay?” John jokes.

As usual everyone chuckles at her nutty
husband. Leave it to him to lighten the situation slightly. She
wraps an arm around his waist as Roy leaves.

“Want to walk me down to the clinic? I want
to check out our antibiotic supplies and add the ones that Cory
brought home,” she asks her handsome husband.

One of the teenagers in their town, Mark,
jogs over to them. He came here with his family last year from
Buffalo. His parents are Caucasian, but he and his younger brother
are African American. They were orphaned when the first tsunami hit
New York and were taken in by new people who assumed responsibility
for them. The wife had led the family to find her grandmother here
in Pleasant View, but the grandmother passed away shortly after
they arrived.

Mark asks John, “Hey, Mr. Harrison, my dad
wants to know if you could help him with his rifle. It jammed twice
on him hunting turkeys the other day, and he just isn’t able to get
it unjammed and fixed, sir.”

John looks
at
her and she smiles, “Go. I’ll just run over to
the clinic real quick and meet you back here.”

“That wall isn’t built yet, babe,” John tells
her. “You aren’t going over there alone.”

He calls over to Kelly, who is still shooting
the crap with Condo Paul. Her brother-in-law agrees to babysit her.
Reagan rolls her eyes at both of them.

“Glad to have your brother back?” she asks
him as they start the half mile trek to the clinic.

Kelly actually smiles widely and says, “Hell
yeah. He needs to keep his little ass home for good.”

Reagan laughs at his crass language. “Little?
He’s damn near as big as you, Hulk. Do you think he’ll leave
again?”
“I sure as hell hope not, little Doc. He needs to get re-connected
to the farm and to us. That’ll hold him here. Wish he had a woman
here. That would help.”

“Maybe we should get Hannie on finding him
one. She sure hooked you,” Reagan jokes.

“No kidding,” he says. “I had one damn foot
out the door, but she reeled me in.”

Reagan changes the tenor of their
conversation because she is curious to get Kelly’s opinion, “Think
he’ll be ok?”

Kelly pauses a long while as they continue
their walk before answering, “I think so. It’s hard to tell.”