American Apocalypse IV - Heartland Chapter 8e

We walked back the way we came. Nothing had changed that I could see. Why should it have?  I hadn't killed anyone. I had picked the kid up and played it by their rules. Lowell would get over his nut whacking and Mrs. Greene still had her virginity of mind and spirit.  Yet something was off.  I got distracted from trying to figure out if and where a threat could be coming from by the kid.

"Excuse me sir."

I told him "The name is Gardener. The guy in front is Thursday. Sir is on vacation from reality somewhere on a mountain top. What?"

"I'm hungry...Gardener."

He couldn't have timed it better. We were approaching the diner and I could smell the food cooking. I was hungry too and my nose was telling me that someone was baking apple pie and grilling meat.  "You hungry Thursday?"  He just grunted for a reply. I took it as a "Yes."  I told the kid "Okay. We'll eat." We crossed the street. I noticed the kid didn't even check for traffic so I smacked him lightly upside the back of his head and told him "Look both ways when you cross a street." He in turn looked at me like I was an idiot.  I let it slide. My mouth was watering.

We walked into the diner an everyone stopped to stare. Nothing unusual there. We had caught them between lunch and dinner so everyone wasn't much more than a couple of tables occupied.  I ignored the waitress who came up to seat us and took a table by the wall.  I nodded at the people we passed, checked their plates, and was greeted with nods in return.  The place was like Shelli's diner. A limited selection. We had our choice of stew or the special which was steak.

She greeted us and I asked her "That smells like beefsteak. Is it?"  She laughed.  "Yeah. Once it's gone it will be awhile. We got a side of beef in. Some farmer got his cow through all the stuff that happened by hiding it. Then just lately he decided it was safe for her to graze and he let her out. She stepped in a hole or something and she broke her leg." She laughed "God works in mysterious ways."

"That apple pie I smell too?"

"Yep.  We might be the only place in 30 miles that has it."

I told her "I'm surprised you don't have people lined up down the street."

She grinned, and told me "Ask me how much this is going to cost you."

She was right. Plus I had to pay a "conversion" fee to cover the changing of my silver into "Freedom" dollars. I had to dig embarrassingly deep to cover it as it was cash up front. Thursday of course looked off into the distance while this all happened.  When she left he looked at me and said "So who is doing the plundering here?" I just glared at him instead of replying.  Of course he ordered his steak rare or as he said "Carve a piece and put it on a plate." That didn't go over well with the waitress. She wasn't to pleased with my "medium rare" either. The boy ordered "well done" which got him the waitress smile of approval.  I asked Zane, after she left "What's up with the meat?" He knew what I was talking about. He told me, and he didn't look to happy to be saying it. In fact he whispered it "If it bleeds sometimes people think bad things of you or remember bad things."

"Oh." I told him. That made sense. 

Thursday was not the kind of guy you wanted to sit across from at a table.  His table manners were on the same level as Woofs.  He took a look at his steak. Picked it up in his gloved hand and began ripping pieces off and stuffing them in his mouth.  It didn't bother me or the kid enough for us not to eat. Damn, I had forgotten how good beef was.  The pie was even better. Not as sugary as I liked but still good.  While we were eating the remaining tables emptied out.  I was getting increasingly uneasy. Uneasy enough that I was stuffing my face in the same style Thursday was.  I told the kid "Hurry up. We got to roll." Thursday was already done. He leaned back in his chair, belched, and said "They come."

He was right. I looked out the window to see a Humvee rolling up in front of the diner right about then.  "Time to go guys" I told the other two. We had stood up when they came in through the back. It wasn't a bull rush. They just casually sauntered out into the dining area. All of them dressed for the occasion. The officer in charge smiled at me and said "Hello Gardener. We've been expecting you. Nice of you to drop by."

I smiled back and said "I'm not going to leave a tip now."

He replied "That's understandable. We knew you or Max would be coming for the boy. Some would have preferred Max. Personally I don't give a shit. That 'Medal' shit may have meant something back in the day but it don't mean nothing now."

He opened his mouth to say something more when Thursday casually dropped the head of his hammer on our table. They hadn't reacted to him having it in his hand. Who is scared of a short handled sledge when you are armed with state of the art black plastic? Our table collapsed. I heard a roll of thunder overhead which was weird as the day had been only moderately overcast. At first I thought it was a flyover or something hovering overhead.  I heard Thursday mutter "We'll see who gets to babysit the dogs..." Then all hell broke loose.

American Apocalypse IV - Heartland Chapter 8d

I dug into my left cargo pants pocket and pulled out the Transformer t-shirt and tossed it to the kid. "This yours?" He caught in the air, unfolded it, sniffed it, and said "Yes sir."

I asked him "Your Mom named Carol Morton?"

"YES SIR!" The kid was literally quivering in place.

"You want to go see her?"

"YES SIR!"

I grinned and told him "Okay. We can do that."  I looked at Lowell and told him, not asked him "So we're good." He croaked out a "Yes."  I looked at Mrs. Greene "You okay with this?"  Tight lipped she replied "Yes." I stared at her, waiting for the tirade I knew she so wanted to bust loose with. Nothing. Good. Let the toxic hate inside stay inside. Maybe she would have a stroke.  I looked around the room, and then said "Well, I guess we are out of here."

The kid stopped us. He asked me politely "Can I say goodbye to Mr. Lowell?"

I wanted to say "Are you freaking crazy? The man is an asshole." Then I thought about it, "Maybe he was good with kids? Maybe he let him be head of the hall patrol. Shit. Who knew?"  So I told him "Sure. Make it fast." Mr Lowell didn't seem to enthusiastic about coming out from behind the counter so I told him "Get your ass out here Lowell. I don't have all fucking day."

He pushed through the little swinging door at the end and came out and stood about as far away as he could get from me. I told the kid "Do your thing little man. We got to roll."  Zane looked up at me smiled, and said softly "Thank you sir."  Then he marched up to him. I couldn't see his face but I was interested in the flicker of fear I saw cross Lowells face. I heard Zanes little kid voice say "Thanks for everything Mr. Lowell" and then he punched him in the nuts.

He did a nice about face, marched back to me, and said "I'm ready now sir."

I laughed, and said "Yeah. I guess so.

I looked at Thursday. He understood what I wanted. He strode out of the room and stopped a couple feet out the door and looked around. If anyone was out their waiting for us with a weapon Thursday was dead meat which was okay with me. Better him than the kid or me. I didn't hear anything so I told the kid "Follow the hammer."  Once I saw him moving I started backing towards the door behind him. My body in their line of fire. I thought about shooting them both but I wanted a quiet exit from this town.

"Well. It's been real" I told them and we walked out of there.

We hit the street and nothing was waiting for us. "All right." I told them. "Lets move." I let Thursday walk in front while us while the kid and I walked side by side." The kid was looking around, about breaking his neck in the process while trying to look like he wasn't at the same time.

I knew what he was looking for. I had looked for her enough myself. I told him "She isn't here but she  isn't that far away."

He looked up at me, smiled, and said "I know. I can feel her."

American Apocalypse IV - Heartland Chapter 8c

I told Thursday "Go get one of them midget honor guards and tell them to find Zane and bring him here." I smiled at Mr. Lowell and said "You don't have a problem with that do you?"  He was looking a little ill and just nodded his head in agreement. "Good" I told him.  I added "We just had a misunderstanding...didn't we?" He nodded again. I let him go and stepped away from him. He looked like he was going to bark any second.

I smiled at Mrs. Greene. She didn't return it. Instead she snarled and said "You wait. You heathen, foreigner loving, terrorist piece of crap. You wait..." She shut up. Not because of me. Mr. Greene was giving her the death glare though I didn't find it all that scary. I told her, speaking quietly, "Talk to me like that again and Mr. Lowell  will be cleaning your head off the wall with a sponge." She looked like the type that keeping her mouth shut was something she wasn't accustomed too. I gave her ten minutes before I painted the wall with her poor excuse of a brain.

Thursday strode into the office. He was perking up. I guess the old guy enjoyed this. It had to be better than sitting around in a village outpost watching a lot of nothing go by. I also noticed the gloves he had tucked into his WWF belt were now on his hands and the hammer was out and being carried.  The hammer looked different too. It was lighter in color but it was inside illumination rather than a metallic shine.  Mr Lowell was gripping the counter edge tightly but his color was better.

"What's up Thursday?"

"One of the little men went to find him. He will bring him here."

"Thanks Thursday."

I looked at Mrs. Greene and asked her "Got anything to say?"

She opened her mouth, thought better of it, and shut it.  I laughed.

Two minutes later I heard the sound of approaching footsteps. Light ones. Kid sounding ones. Honor Guard kid came in and saluted the room, he said "Corporal Zane Morton is here." He then did a snappy about face and left. Probably back to his post.  That's when Zane stepped in the room, saluted, and said "Reporting as ordered sir." 

I stared at him. He wasn't much to look at. Just a scrawny kid in a green t-shirt and khaki shorts. His corporal stripes had been drawn his t-shirt sleeve with a black magic marker. There was just a couple problems that I was trying to process and I was having difficulty doing it.  The flow in the room changed when he entered. Not just a little. A lot.  He didn't have any African American ancestry. At least not in the last 40,000 years or so. No, that I was certain of. What was also I was certain of was I knew who his daddy was. It just didn't seem possible. I tried doing the math in my head but it wouldn't compute. I was looking at Max's son.

American Apocalypse IV - Heartland Chapter 8b

She said "I see. Please wait here." She disappeared down a hallway and I listened to her footsteps until she went inside an office at the end of it. She whispered "They're here." I heard a male voice reply "Thank you Mrs. Greene." She came back to us smiling and said Mr. Lowell will be with you in a minute." She went about doing what had to be busywork. He made us wait of course. I was being remarkably patient I thought. Too bad Night wasn't here to see it. She would have approved. Thursday was not good at patience. After a couple minutes he said "Where is this Mr Lowell? Perhaps we should go find him."

Mrs Greene heard this and sent a disapproving stare our way. We both ignored it.  After about seven minutes I was done with being patient and was going to go find him when I heard a chair squeak and the heavy footsteps of a large and graceless man coming towards us down the hallway. I almost laughed out loud. Mr Lowell was wearing a Scoutmasters uniform that looked two sizes too big for him. There were a few additions. Like the black plastic handgun in the brown leather holster. He was beaming, balding and needed to start wearing sunblock from the looks of his florid face. I hated him on sight. The hand he extended was as soft as I expected.  He smelled like old cum and sweat.

He extended his hand to Thursday. He ignored it. Instead he told him "Make us wait again and they will be able to mail your head to your Mother in an envelope."  I laughed. I liked that. I was surprised by the dropping of the medieval thing but I guess he didn't like to wait anymore than I did. I told him "We're here for Zane Morton on behalf of his Mother."

"I see." He looked down at his boots which were nicely polished. Took his index finger and rubbed his nose, then said "Certainly. We do have procedures." He looked over his shoulder at the woman and said "Please explain to these gentlemen the procedures." Then he started to walk away. That was a mistake. I went over the countertop and landed in front of him. I grabbed him by the shirt, twisted, and slammed him against the counter hard. He winced and groaned. Then I hit him in the sweet spot right below the rib cage. Mrs Greene started moving and without looking at her I said "Don't." She froze.

American Apocalypse IV - Heartland Chapter 8a

Me and Thursday started walking the direction of the school. Thursday was ogling the local women. Apparently they didn't have any where he was from. I had to admit the locals had a few good looking, big breasted young ladies.  Thursday noticed that I was looking at one particularly fine young woman walking down the opposite side of the street. He grinned and said "Yep. They need a wall."

I just grunted. I was trying to figure out how to do this. I didn't like the feeling I got from those two officers. Plus, this was going way to smoothly. I was trying to remember the last time I had a plan that had worked out as nicely as this one had so far. I couldn't think of any. I was trying to figure out if that was a good or bad sign when Thursday asked me "They got any rivers or maybe an ocean near here?"

I wanted to tell him how incredibly stupid of a question that was when I saw the school.  Instead I told him "That's the school. Let me do the talking. Okay?"

Of course he said "Sure" and of course I didn't believe him. I was trying to figure out if I was going to kill him or let him join the Horde.  It was going to be close at this rate.

We went in the front doors. It still smelled like an elementary school. That was where the resemblance ended.  Two little midget soldiers stood in the lobby flanking a large portrait of the Colonel. Their rifles, they looked like Enfields, were damn near as tall as they were.  Painted in block letters above what used to be the administrators glass cage was "MY LOYALTY IS TO GOD AND THE PEOPLE"  I thought they might want to work on that. It did nothing for me.

We went into the administrator area and were greeted at the counter by an old woman who probably never stopped working there. She looked exactly like the librarian who banned me from the computers at school for watching youtube videos back in the day. She asked us "Can I help you?" Very polite and even colder.

"Yes. We're here to pick up Zane Morton." I wanted to add "And a pizza with everything on it for carryout" but I didn't. I was working on being smooth and diplomatic. Of course Thursday added "We're on a mission for a fair maiden."  I was beginning to think he had been dropped on his head one too many times at the Renaissance Festival.

Once again I noticed the shadow pass over her eyes. What the hell had Carol given birth to? A mutant?

American Apocalypse IV - Heartland Chapter 8

We stopped outside town, went down someones gravel driveway, and pulled up in front of a ruined farmhouse.  It had caught on fire or had been set on fire. I noticed one wall was pock marked with bullet holes. I was at the point where I saw stuff like this but didn't. It told a story but one I had read before.

What would have been interesting would have been an intact and functioning farm. I was pretty sure they were still out there. The melon guys were proof of that. More than likely the marginal ones were being let go if the owners were dead and no one stepped forward and put a claim in. Resources and labor were to much in demand to work played out soil. Especially when you didn't have access to all the chemical steroids that were used to pump up marginal land.

I climbed out of the cab and dropped the tailgate. Woof looked at me puzzled. I told him "Don't worry. I'll come back for you." He hopped down and headed into the woods without looking back. The rest of the pack followed him. A couple of them looked back at me but not Woof. I had been tempted to let the other dogs loose and keep him with me. I knew better. If you want to run a pack you had to run with them. Then again if any of those Rottweilers got serious about challenging him I figured I put them all down. He could get a new pack but I wasn't sure if I could find another Woof.

I climbed back in the truck and we took off. The town was not what I expected. Yeah, there were an abundance of American flags. There was also an equal amount of Freedom Party ones too. There were no large portraits of the Colonel as Supreme Leader anywhere I could see. People were out an about an moving with purpose. A handful of stores were open. We passed a clothing store, a gun store, and a small grocery and hardware store. Down the street I saw a sign for "Leather Goods" and a used book store. Nothing in them for sale looked new but I saw a van unloading boxes into the hardware store. One guy unloaded while a woman stood guard over the boxes.

I told Thursday "Not bad. Looks like they are getting it together."

He spit into the street, looked around and said "They're going to need walls."

I was expecting to get stopped. If we hadn't I would have been surprised. People were friendly when they passed us but I also noticed they gave us space. Everyone was armed, and most of them looked like they knew which end to point at us. They were just wary.  We had been walking for about fifteen minutes. Enough time to see almost everything. I was looking for a diner or restaurant when they rolled up on us on their bikes.

They came from behind. I knew it because I felt the change in the air. So did Thursday. We both looked at each other out of the corner of our eyes at the same time. We also kept going. I heard the sound of them getting off and the kickstands coming down. About two beats later I heard "Hey. You two." We stopped and turned to face them.  They looked like soldiers except they had black nylon duty belts with the usual assortment of crap hanging off of them. The major difference was the blue and white armband each wore that said "Police."  Both were in their early twenties, clean cut. One of them had a walkie talkie stuffed into his dutybelt. One was White. The other one was Black. "Ah" I thought "Racial diversity is a beautiful thing."

I grinned and said "Yes officers?" 

They split as they moved towards us with the White guy moving into the street a few feet so he had a better angle. They didn't smile back at me. I didn't expect them too. I thought I had a winning smile so it was a bit of a disappointment. 

"We just want to welcome you to town" was what the Black officer told us "And inquire to what brings you here." I thought "Above average vocabulary and delivery. Not a grunt, and if he was, it wasn't going to be for long.

"We are here to find a kid for a friend." I got corrected by Thursday who said "A maiden."

"Yeah. A maiden." I looked at Thursday and said "I'll tell the story. Okay?"

He shrugged and said "Sure." Then he looked back at the officer and said "She is a maiden."

"Right." Then he told me "Continue."

So I told him the kids name, and that we knew there was a home or school for kids here, and we was in it. I didn't like how his eyes changed as I talked. I also felt the flow change. His partner, the White guy, was wearing sunglasses. I did not like that either. I felt Thursday, rather than saw, shift his weight a little. Then I described him. When I mentioned the scar Black guy didn't react much. Just enough that I knew the kid was here.

The officer pretended to think for a few beats. Then he told us. "I don't know. If he is here he will have to recognize you or you need something he will know. The Party does not keep children from their rightful parents. The Junior Warfighter School is two blocks from here. Make a left at the next light. It used to be an elementary school."

I didn't see a functioning light but I knew what he meant. He continued "The town rules are; No weapons drawn; No bad language or spitting." He stared at Thursday. So that hadn't gone unnoticed. "No drinking, drugging, or bothering the women. If your here tomorrow the rules change."

I didn't ask him how they changed. I didn't care. I said "Thank you officer. Is there a place to eat in town?"

"Yeah. Halfway to the school. Look for the Liberty Cafe."

I wasn't done. "They serve pie?"

For the first time he grinned "Yep. It's good too."

American Apocalypse IV - Heartland Chapter 7f

We got cleared to cross about thirty minutes later. Every single dog had taken a dump, much to the kids amusement.  Me and Thursday were getting into the truck when one of the officers yelled at us to "Clean up that dog shit!" I waved, smiled, and we kept going.

Thursday was grumpy. I wanted to kid him about it but I didn't know him well enough too. He hadn't eaten his melon so I asked him for it.

"No." Was his reply.

"No? Just like that?" I was disappointed.

"Yes. Just like that." Yep. He was grumpy.

We rode in silence for about five minutes and I figured we were getting close to the town.So I told him "Look Thursday. I appreciate the ride an all. Drop us off outside of town and I will walk in from there." I didn't think it would all that much of a walk. Hell, I would be surprised if the town center took up more than five blocks. I just wanted to leave the dogs somewhere an outside of town was the best bet. With a little luck they could scare up a deer on their own while I was gone. I doubted it.

He surprised me when he answered me with "No. I will stay with you. You and the boy will need a ride out of town.  Plus...I am a warrior. You might need me."

I guess I didn't look impressed by his claim. I told him "Sure." I was thinking he was right. We would need a ride back. Maybe even further. With or without him.