A Change of Major (Chapter Thirteen)

"Big" Bill Hough was not an impatient man. On the contrary, he had all the patience of Job. When he wanted to be mayor of Hobbs, he took his time and spent several years on the town council, in the Rotary Club, the Chamber and other organizations building his network. After he became mayor, he wanted to be county commissioner, but again, took his time building up the tax base of Hobbs so he would have more leverage in the county.

When the war was looming, Hough already had a plan he had carefully formented over the years. He knew that the time to seize power would be in the first confusing hours and that is exactly what he did. He ran off the man who replaced him as mayor and strong armed the current police chief to fall in line behind him or find himself permanently replaced.

Once done, Hough ordered the inventory of both the grocery stores in Hobbs commandeered as well as the fuel in the service stations, the supplies at the feed and grain store and everything else on the local businesses shelves.

He had a handful of men take the only running tractor trailer over to the Walmart distribution center outside of Bremen and take a full load of food and ammo. He also helped himself to all the cargo on board 18 wheelers stranded on the highway and at the local truckstops. Then he setup the road blocks on all four roads into town with orders to take whatever still ran on the road, such as he did to Mike, Chuck and Curtis.

Hobbs was fortunate in it was far enough from Austin and the other surrounding big cities and the fallout, thanks to the fickle wind and dumb luck, was nominal. Surrounded by hundreds of thousands of square acres of good farmland, Hough could expand his empire to possibly one of the richest producing crop areas around. All of the millions of hungry mouths across the state would come to him and offer whatever they had for their next meal. It meant wealth. It meant power.

Hough was physically imposing. He stood six foot three and had a large head of prematurely gray hair going white in some places the which gave him the appearance of an aging lion. He sported a big mustache and favored well worn blue jeans, denim shirts and cowboy boots. He was as fit and strong as a man half his age but his imposing gaze was enough to push around most men especially the weak type who made useful followers.

"Big Bill" had one problem though. A problem he could not solve or send one his lackeys to take care of. Providence intervened when those three young men fell into his lap though, so he had to speak to them himself and soon. One of them, the long hair (as one of Big Bill's deputies called him), said they had run into a group of kids from UT just yesterday. Bill wanted to question these young men and find out what they knew. It was a long shot, but better than any other information he had up until then.

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I was reunited in the hallway with Chuck and Curtis and were then escorted down a long hallway, up two flights of stairs and down another hallway to an office. The office was three times the size of the room I had been held in and inside, sitting casually on the edge of the desk, was a big man with wild gray hair and a mustache.

We were directed to three chairs set up a few feet in front of his desk with our hands still zip tied behind our backs. For a few moments, the old man just stared at us from his perch on the desk, then he picked up a legal pad sitting next to him on the desk.

"Who's Curtis?" he asked while staring at the pad.

"That's me." said Curtis slumping back in his chair.

"I understand you and your two traveling companions ran into a group of young people yesterday, that true?"

"Yep, what's it to you?" replied Curtis more defiantly than I had ever seen him before.

The big guy shifted on his desk and it appeared he was unused to a response like Curtis gave. For a moment, an angry look flashed in his eyes before he relaxed again and he showed a restrained smile.

"It's no big deal, son. I just happened to be looking for a certain person and thought he might be in the group you met. Here, I have a picture which might help. Did you see this young man?"

The picture was a portrait of the kid Billy we met yesterday but looking a lot better than he did currently. Between the three of us, I am sure at least one of our faces showed recognition as Hough pulled the picture away and set it aside.

"So you did see this person, didn't you? OK, I need you to tell me exactly where you last saw him."

"No," said Curtis without skipping a beat. "After getting robbed, handcuffed and slapped around, I don't think I can remember where that kid was. It sort of slipped my mind, dude."

"Shut up, Curtis" Chuck hissed. "You're going to make it worse for us."

"You shut up you chicken sh*t. Hey old man, we don't know where that kid is. Looks like you need to go hijack some other people out on the public roads and ask them. Let's talk about something else like who does your hair?" Curtis said with a smirk.

"You should listen to your friends smart mouth. You, where did you see him last?" Hough said looking directly at me.

"I don't remember either, sir. Curtis is right, things are a little hazy from yesterday and we're not from the area." I answered.

Hough turned to Chuck, but Chuck just looked at the ground and mumbled "I don't know".

Hough paused for a moment and then looked at Curtis.

"Curtis, you know my deputies can be very persuasive. How about I have a couple of them take you downstairs to the basement and take over this questioning for me? You like the sound of that?"

"Yeah, and I can tell lies all day long, bud. I don't know if anyone told you, but the world's gone to heck and I really don't care anymore. By the time they get done with me you'll be looking in that fat deputies butt for your guy." Curtis said looking Hough right in the eye.

"What if I questioned Chuck here? What if we did that in front of you? I am sure you don't want anything bad to happen to your friends do you?" Hough said slowly and in a low voice.

"HIm? I hate this guy. I've been stuck with him and camper boy here for the past two weeks and they both need a bath and good slap in the head. I'll even help you. Just get these zip things off me and give me a stick or something to hit them with." Curtis responded.

Hough took a deep breath, stood up, went around his desk and sat down in his chair. He put his chin on tented fingers and stared at us for few minutes. He finally broke the silence and said,

"OK boys. Here's the deal. I need to find that young man and soon. Normally, the three of you would find yourselves in a shallow grave outside of town in about two minutes for talking that way to me. But seeing this is more important, I am going to let that slide for the time. So I will give you another deal. You tell me where you last saw him and I will let you walk out of here free men. I won't even hold you until my men pick up that young man, I will just let you go. How's that sound?"

I spoke up first, "Sounds good. When do I get my truck and all of our stuff back?"

"You can have your personal possessions back of course. The truck, however, is not part of the deal. We are short on rolling vehicles and will need to keep it. I am afraid this is the best deal you are going to get and my patience has just about run out." Hough replied before sitting back in his chair.

"So that's it? The clothes on our back? What about all the food you took, my shotgun, the camping supplies? You short on those things too? If that's the case, I'll take the shallow grave because if you send us out without food or protection, we're dead anyway.

Look, you want that kid so bad, then you either you go find him yourself or give us a fighting chance. That kid, Billy, he didn't get that chance and he is walking dead right now. That's the best deal we have today. take it or leave it." I practically shouted.

Hough honestly looked shocked in response to my outburst and when I said the name Billy he looked like he was about to cry. He stood up slowly from behind his desk and walked directly over and stared down at me.

"Mike, I appreciate your candor. Alright, I'll take your terms. You tell me where you last saw Billy and I will see your personal possessions including your camping gear, shotgun and adequate provisions are returned to you and your friends. I give you my word on it. Do we have a deal?" he said slowly and carefully.

"If my hands weren't tied we could shake on it," I replied.

"Alright then." said Hough. He reached over to a large wooden box on his desk with a row of buttons on the base and pushed one where upon a voice came over a speaker,

"Yeah, Bill?"

"Carl, see that the possessions belonging to these three young men are rounded up and brought back here. Then I want you, Holtz and a couple of the others to get two vehicles and take them out of town. I want everything ready in twenty minutes."

"Got it."

"Oh and Carl, send someone up here to cut these ties off these young men."

"Right away, Bill".

While Hough was on the intercom, I noticed a picture on his desk that I had not seen before because of the way it was turned. It featured Hough and Billy and said at the bottom, "Big Bill and Little Bill Hough. Winner 2009 Bass Tournament".

Billy was Hough's son and he wanted him back bad.

A Change of Major (Chapter Twelve)

The next morning, we decided to do one more thing for these poor guys before hitting the road. Well, two things actually. First, Chuck put together breakfast consisting of oatmeal, Tang and two cans of fruit.

Then we offered to take Todd with us, (if his place was nearby) and drop him off at his folks place since he was hurt and walking would be out of the question.

Finally, Chuck reached under the seat of the truck and pulled out the go bag he had put together which had some protein and candy bars and some single serve meals and gave them to the guys with the instructions that they ration it and make it last.

I pulled Billy aside and asked him, "What else do you guys have for supplies? Do you have a way to make fire, a knife, a tarp or anything like that?"

"None of us had matches or a lighter before then because we weren't smokers but we found a lighter near the house. We have a couple of kitchen knives we found at that house, our clothes, a couple of blankets and not much else".

I went into my bag and pulled out a spare Bic lighter and two emergency heat reflecting blankets and gave them to Billy.

"Here, it's not much but it might help. I need you to collect all the empty water bottles from yesterday and today and let's refill them from our water bucket. Also, get the empty cans from dinner and breakfast and hang on to them. From now on, I want you to boil water in a can for a few minutes and then transfer it to your empty bottles. That way you can at least keep a supply of clean water on hand.

"OK, we are going to take Todd to his folk's house near Caldwell and then we have to move on. I wish we could come back and carry each of you home, but we don't have the gas and still may not have enough to get home as it is."

Billy and the others thanked us for the food and help, wished their friend Todd well and watched as we drove off. Caldwell was not far from where we were and we made it in about an hour due to road conditions, wrecks and my own paranoid caution.

Todd's family had a modest home outside of Caldwell in a neighborhood of about twenty other houses each on one acre. When we pulled up, several people came outside to see who we were. More than a few were armed I noticed.

Todd's parents came out of the house and lost it when they saw Todd. They had assumed he had died during the attacks and were relieved to see him back home again. We were invited in and they offered to share what little food they had for repayment, but we knew we couldn't take anything from them. I did however ask if they could spare some gasoline and Todd's dad gave us five gallons siphoned from their dead GM pickup. They also let us refill our water containers as they had a hand pump agricultural well with clean drinking water.

After a short visit, we wished Todd well and headed out. We decided to go north avoiding Caldwell proper and stick to farm to market roads for the meantime. The map said the next town was called Hobbs and since there was not a clear path around it, we decided to take a chance and roll through and hopefully be quickly in and out of town.

We drove along for about fifteen minutes talking about Billy, Todd, Randy and the others and were feeling pretty good about what we had done. In spite of all the bad stuff that was happening, it was nice to be part of a good thing and helping out others. Even if they were Longhorns!

We came to a slight turn in the road and as we came around the bend I knew what was happening five seconds before it happened. A car was parked diagonal on the shoulder with the nose blocking the lane I was in. As I slowed and steered around it, there was another car, also parked in the same manner, immediately on my left forcing me to go slower. As I banked the curve, two cars blocked the entire road in front of me which caused me to slam on the brakes.

"Get out of here!" the voice in my head screamed.

But to go back in reverse would have been a task with the two disabled cars behind me, but it did not matter. More than a dozen men with long guns came from all sides of my trapped truck.

"Hands up! Keep your hands where we can see them!" they shouted.

I could tell Chuck was about to freak and without looking at him I murmured, "If they wanted us dead we would already be dead. Be cool..."

My door was ripped open and a strong hand pulled me from the vehicle and to the ground. A huge bald guy with wearing a Carhardt jacket pointed a the business end of a Glock in my face and told me to be still. Then he flipped me over like a pancake, yanked my arms behind me and ziptied my hands together.

I heard Curtis squawking about his rights and arrest warrants and then the sound of a *slap* which most likely was received by Curtis' face. I was yanked to my feet and the big guy half dragged me away from my truck to a parked pickup truck with the tailgate down.

I was patted down and all of my pocket contents were dumped on the bed. I was then pushed on the side of the road into a sitting position behind the pickup truck. Chuck joined me a few moments later followed by a very red faced Curtis. Everything happened in less than a minute. I then watched helplessly as several men opened all the doors on my beloved truck and started ransacking it of its contents.

The three of us were jerked to a standing position again and laid face down in the bed of an old pickup which took off with a start. I could hear my truck starting up behind me, but could not see what was happening because of the way I was laying. The truck lurched down the road for about ten minutes before making a right hand turn, then another and then abruptly stopping. My mind was racing but eventually I decided that whoever these people were, they were probably going to kill us. With my family gone, stripped of all my belongings and considering the shape of the world these days, it did not seem like such a bad ending but I was scared all the same.

We were hauled out of the truck, stood up and found ourselves not in some empty field but standing in a parking lot behind an older building. We were obviously in some small town and there was activity all around us. There were several other older vehicles in the parking lot and many people moving back and forth carrying boxes from the vehicles into the building.

A big guy with a police uniform of some sort took my arm and led me into the building while Curtis and Chuck were led away in different directions by others. I was taken inside which so I figured they weren't going to kill me yet. I mean, who would want to go to the trouble of killing me, then have to clean up the mess and then drag my body back outside for disposal?

I was taken into the building which appeared to be a government office, like a courthouse or police station, and then taken upstairs where I was led into a small room with a table and two chairs. It was an interrogation room right out of TV or it sure looked like it.

I was told to sit in one of the chairs and then the police officer left me in the room alone, my hands firmly zip tied behind me. There was no need in trying to escape or wander around as the room had no windows and featured noting else other than the table and chairs. I noticed then that the single light bulb hanging from the ceiling was lit so they must be getting power from somewhere.

While I waited, I tried to go over my situation and if there was anything I might of noticed which might give me a clue as to what was going on. Some of the guys who grabbed us were wearing police uniforms while others were in civilian clothing. The truck we rode in and the other vehicle I saw were older model pickups like my International which means they did not have EMP-proof vehicles either. They obviously have power generation which we had not seen since the war and an organized structure as well. It might mean that there is a functioning government in place and they are just playing it safe with strangers. I guess I would just have to wait and find out.

After about twenty minutes alone with my thoughts another man, also in a police uniform, entered the room. He was about fifty, overweight, with small beady eyes and long, greasy dark hair going gray and which hung over his forehead. He set several of my personal articles on the desk including my wallet which he carefully examined (including the cash inside) before setting it aside and holding up my drivers licence.

"Michael Brewer or Dallas, Texas it says here. Mr. Brewer you mind telling me what you are doing so far from home?" he said

"I attend Texas A&M university. Or at least I think I do. I don't know if they are going to have classes there any time soon."

"I see. I am curious Mr. Brewer, you and your traveling companions have a running vehicle and a large quantity of supplies including food and water. Where did you get it all from? Did you steal it?"

"No, sir. The truck is mine and the registration in the vehicle has my father's name and the our home address. The food came from my dorm room or was stuff that Chuck purchased before the attack."

"You realize you also had a loaded firearm in the front seat of the vehicle which is clearly against state law and in violation of emergency laws invoked since the crisis began?"

"My shotgun? Yes I know it was in the truck and I probably did not have it in the approved condition for transport, but I also have not seen any police around keeping the bad guys under control either. I think someone needs to address that glaring problem as well."

"Don't get smart with me, Mr. Brewer. You are not in any sort of position to pop off, you hear me boy?"

"Sure."

"Mr Brewer, do you have a criminal record?"

"No sir"

"Have you ever been convicted of a crime or spent time in jail or prison?"

"No, but you can run a check on my licence can't you? I mean I don't have a record but you don't have to ask me to find that out, you just have to look in your computer or whatever you guys use for that sort of stuff, right?"

Ignoring me, the fat cop went on, "Mr. Brewer, there have been a large number of crimes committed by persons like yourself as of late. Small groups and gangs rolling around in stolen vehicles robbing, raping, looting and what not"

"We are not a gang. Chuck, Curtis and I go to A&M and we just trying to get home.."

"Like I said, Mr. Brewer, your vehicle contained food, water, a firearm, and other critical supplies. It's been more than two weeks since The Day and here you are with food and a running vehicle. Sure looks suspicious, especially for a group of... college boys." he said this time with distaste.

"Like I said, the truck is mine and.."

He cut me off, "Was yours. The town of Hobbs and the county are under special law due to the extreme conditions. All food, running vehicles, firearms, medical supplies and other materials deemed necessary for the the greater good of the population are to be commandeered by the appropriate authorities."

"That's not fair. That's my truck. My dad and I rebuilt it. You can't just take it!"

"I can't? Watch me, college boy. Be lucky I don't lock up you and your little friends. We got a nice jail in the basement, Who knows? Maybe we can find you a room mate to keep you company and make you forget about the little truck daddy bought you."

The door opened then and another officer entered the room.

"Uh, Holtz? Bill wants to see you upstairs. And he says to bring this kid with you." he said.

Holtz, I guess that was his name, stood up and glared at me. "Get up college boy. You got a world of trouble now if Mr Hough wants to see you.