A Change of Major (Chapter Fourteen)

Hough brought out a map of the county and we outlined our route for the past two days including Todd's house and the farm to market road where the barn was located. I figured even if they set off on foot after we left, they wouldn't be more than a few miles from the barn. Hough genuinely looked appreciative as he used his intercom and sent four of his men to the area immediately.

The deputy named Carl was going to take us downstairs to get our stuff when Hough stopped me on the way out.

"Mike. I want to thank you for leading me to where my son is. Don't be surprised, I saw you looking at the picture on my desk. I appreciate you giving him and his friends food and aid when they needed it most. Most guys like me would consider that sort of action the work of a sucker, but since it's my son, I see things different.

When you are taken out of town, I told Carl to give you something extra for your trouble, but don't take it the wrong way. Don't come back to Hobbs. We are taking care of our own and will treat returning drifters and vagrants as target practice. Got it?"

"Sure. Let me ask you something, though. You are taking stuff from people who never did anything to you other than cross your path. Tell me, what are you going to do when someone bigger shows up and does it to you?" I said as I stood in his office doorway.

Hough paused and then said, "Ask me when it happens. See you around, Mike."

He then shut the door.

Carl took us downstairs to a room where our gear was waiting. I gave my backpack and the other bag I was carrying a cursory look before asking for my shotgun. Carl told me that would be returned when we reached our destination outside of town. We gathered our things and went outside where my truck and an older model pickup waited in the parking lot.

Without a word, the four deputies watching us were joined by four others and together, they grabbed us and zip tied our hands behind our backs again. Then a black hood of some sort was placed over each of our heads so we couldn't see a thing. I was lifted up and dumped into the bed of the pickup and felt Curtis and Chuck being dropped next to me. Then our gear was tossed into the truck bed on top of us.

I then heard Holtz's voice, "Looks like the convict wagon is loaded up and ready to move out! Let's go!"

The trucks started and with a lurch we started moving. I must have banged my head on the truck cab four or five times before I was able to readjust myself.

"So what do you think they are going to do to us?" Chuck shouted over the noise of the engine.

"I don't know, maybe Holtz is just trying to scare us." I replied.

"Hey guys, if something does happen, I hope you know I was just messing with you back there. I don't hate you guys, not even you, Chuck." said Curtis his voice muffled by the hood.

"We know, Curtis," I replied. "You played that really well and if we get out of here alive, we can thank you for it."

"And if we die, I will find a way to thank you as well." said Chuck.

We all laughed in spite of our predicament. Life is short and you got to find the bright spots when you can.

The truck rolled on for about fifteen minutes before coming to an abrupt stop. Once again, we were rolled out of the truck and tossed on the ground before our hoods were ripped off. We found ourselves on a country road with the four deputies looking down at us. Only Holtz was smiling.

Two of the deputies went to the pick up and tossed our stuff on the ground. Then Carl went to my truck and started unloading cardboard boxes and grocery bags and setting them down more carefully on the side of the road. Finally, he took out my shotgun and set it on top of the boxes and bags.

"OK, guys, here's the deal. We are going to cut you loose but you have to stay seated for five minutes after we leave. If you try and get up before we go, you won't like what happens. Got it?" said Carl.

"Um, when do I get my truck back?" I asked.

Holtz found that funny and he started cackling like a drunk chicken.

"Your truck? Heck, boy, that truck is mine now, you gave it to me. Don't you remember?" he said his grin marked by irregular brown teeth.

"Hey Holtz, Hough said I was going to get my personal gear back. You don't want to cross him do you?" I replied

Holtz laughed again, "Don't you worry about that old buzzard, I ain't ascared of him. You just be lucky you're walking out of this town alive. Now all of ya get up on your feet. I got a going away present for ya."

We stood up and Holtz told one of the deputies "OK Deuce, cover 'em"

Deuce pulled his service revolver and stood watching impassively as Holtz threw a punch straight into Curtis's stomach knocking the wind out of him and sending him to the ground. Then Holtz reared back to kick Curtis on the ground but I threw myself into him before he could and knocked him to the ground. I heard Deuce' pistol cocking back when Carl yelled,

"That's enough! Holtz, get up and get in the truck! Deuce, put away that sidearm now! Do it!"

Carl watched as the two reluctantly followed his orders, Holtz glaring the whole time at us. Carl pulled a folding knife from his pants pocket and ordered us to turn around. He cut the ties and told us to sit on the ground afterwards.

"You guys head that way," he gestured down the road, "And don't come back to Hobbs. We have orders to shoot you on site if you do."

Carl then turned and got into my International,started the engine and slowly drove down the road, the pickup following. About five hundred feet down the road, a hand came out of the car and dropped a white plastic grocery bag on the ground where it split and several red and green shotgun shells spilled out. The last thing we saw was Holtz' giving us the bird out his window.

I wordlessly walked over to the pile of boxes and bags and picked up my shotgun. I checked and as expected, found it was empty. I walked down the road and started picking up shells from the ground loading as I did. There was a mixture of buckshot and slugs both of which I did not have before for my gun. I guess this was a gift from Hough and surprising considering I wanted to give some of these shells back in the direction of Holtz and Deuce.

After gathering the shells as best I could in the damaged grocery bag, I went back to Chuck and Curtis.

"Mike, we are sorry about your truck. We know it meant a lot to you." said Chuck quietly.

I ignored him, "So what did they leave us here?"

"More than we had before. There's bottled water, canned food, jerky, trail mix, potatoes, all kinds of stuff." said Curtis.

"OK, let's get this stuff picked up and off the road. We will need to redistribute everything in our packs because we will be walking now. Getting things packed right will determine how far and how long we can go"

We started moving things off to the side of the road behind a stand of stunted mesquite trees. We grabbed our bags and I spent the next hour organizing the food and storing it in backpacks and the two duffle bags which remained. It kept my mind off the sinking feeling of my truck being gone and driven around by some stranger and I that I would most likely never see it again. It was just another thing from my life being ripped away piece by piece. Soon there would be nothing left.

As we packed, Curtis was tossing the empty grocery sacks and cardboard boxes away to the ground. I stopped and him and told him to keep at least the plastic bags as they were useful for a number of tasks. The cardboard could be unfolded for a sleeping pad but I did not want to commit to that option until I saw how much more we had to carry.

It was getting late and by the time we got going, we would only be able to go for a few hours before being force to make camp. On top of that, the perpetual cloud cover looked darker than normal and the smell of rain was in the air. I instructed Chuck and Curtis to start collecting dry wood and placing it in the empty grocery bags for our fire tonight.

As we headed out in the direction Carl told us to go, I kept my eyes open for any sort of shelter we could use in the event the rain was heavy. We walked for about three miles when I spied a remains of a agriculture shed off to the side of the road. It was half tumbled down but had its back to the road which might keep us from prying eyes.

I cut across the field with the others following me and checked it out. It wasn't in the best shape, but it offered a partial covering from the sky and as long as a stiff wind didn't blow up and knock it over on top of us, we should be alright. A dropped my gear and setup a fire while Chuck and Curtis put together the tent.

The tent was a two man so we would either be sleeping like the Three Stooges or one of us would have to stay out and keep watch. Considering how violated I felt, the first watch would be mine, no questions about it.

The food was more than we had before and unlike the quickie stuff from the vending machine, was more substantial. There were several bags of store bought jerky, trail mix, dried fruit, chocolate and nuts. There was powdered milk, instant potatoes, oatmeal, boullion cubes, and dried beans. There was salt, pepper and spices in lightweight containers. There were several cans of vegetables and fruit. There was foil packs of tuna, salmon and slices of Spam. There was instant coffee, tea bags, Tang and sugar.There were a few small plastic bottles of cooking oil, honey and syrup. And there was two bottles of multivitamins along with our original first aid supplies which had been augmented heavily.

Whether this was Hough's way of saying thank you or overloading us so we made a good target for the next bandit we came upon, who knows? I only knew we had enough to keep us going until we reached where ever we were ultimately headed. After supper, Curtis and Chuck bedded down and left me to my thoughts.

Mentally, I was exhausted. Too much had happened in such a short time. Two days ago I was on campus in a homemade fallout shelter. Two weeks earlier, I was posting on Facebook and eating fast food. Three months ago I was saying good bye to my parents as I headed back to college.

I noticed that I was becoming different than Chuck or Curtis. Chuck's parents were going to leave town and hide out in a rural area. His brother was on a ship at sea away from the cities that were hit. His mom and dad might be hungry and scared, but most likely alive.

And Curtis on the other hand was not particularly close to his family but as far as we know, they should still be alive. After all, they did go out of town somewhere for the Thanksgiving holiday which means they could have been in the Bahamas or Hawaii that day drinking margaritas which has to be a consolation to Curtis.

For me, it's different. My parents and sister were five miles from ground zero and they are probably dead. My home in Dallas is probably gone as well. Everything from my life before which I had at home or in my dorm is gone. Even my dog is probably dead. My truck is gone and whatever II have left is what I am wearing or in my backpack. My whole life has been reduced to what I can carry and yet I have no where to carry it to. I have no destination and my past has been destroyed.

Now I just keep it bottled up and pushed down but I know I won't be able to forever.

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.