Parchman
had nothing but loyalty left to give. However, with eachencounter someone always died.The General took pleasure in pulling the trigger himself which meant thatactually fear was the biggest selling point. Join or die. Comply or die. Hewas no longer a leader but a tyrant and as the army grew so did the powerhe had over it.
‘
It was almost time
,’ he thought to himself. ‘Lieutenant, how far toMississippi? We reach the city, recruit one last time, then prepare for war.’
‘Another four hundred clicks East on the I-20,’ said the Lieutenant.‘Good. Any issues within the ranks?’ said the Commander General.
‘Only one Sir. It’s being taken care of as we speak,’ he replied.
‘Show me,’ the Commander General said sadistically.
The Lieutenant nodded and both men walked through a baying crowd ofsoldiers who were jumping up and down clapping and shouting.
‘A civvie, from Sunnyvale,’ the Lieutenant pointed to a young man. ‘Someguy who got lucky with five brothers who took pity on him. He’s not cutout for what we have planned,’ said the Lieutenant.
‘Mmm, interesting,’ the General said and he waved his hands silencing thecrowd. ‘So,’ he addressed the soldiers looking towards him. ‘We have ausurper,’ he chuckled. ‘Tell me son,’ he said looking at the boy who wasno older than twenty. ‘How did you get this far in life?’
The boy had lived in this world of hunger for ten long years battling Savages and surviving on whatever he could to stay alive. Then he finallygot a break and met a group of soldiers who took him in and watched himgrow into the battle-scarred man who now stood before the General. ‘I canfight,’ he said.
‘I’m sure you can,’ said the General. ‘And today you will get that verychance,’ he said motioning to the men holding him. They pulled himkicking and screaming up some stairs before a large shipping containerwith the roof removed. The general nodded and the men pushed him intothe container.
From the outside of the container it had a large Perspex window and thesoldiers had now gathered quietly around the container to watch theyoungster’s next move. Through the window around twenty Savagesslowly circled the boy. Each one twitched like a starving lion about todevour a deer carcass. A ready-made meal. Then they pounced all at once.The boy could no longer be seen underneath the clambering bodies andwhen the monsters moved back towards the walls of the container, nowawash with blood and their bodies stained red, there was no other evidencethat the boy had ever existed.
The soldiers backed away unsure whether they should cheer or behorrified. Despite the fact the soldiers had captured these beasts and keptthem imprisoned and unfed, to the point that the creatures would turn oneach other they were so hungry, they still looked towards the CommanderGeneral for approval of what they should do next.
‘This man was not one of us. He only had his own selfish needs at heart.You may think that throwing him to these cannibalistic subhuman beingswas immoral and cruel but would you rather this man was standing byyour side when it really mattered. We do not fight for ourselves; we fightfor something much bigger. We fight for our country and the people in it,’said the General, contradicting his action to execute the boy.
‘This man was weak and in time he would become one of these things. Ananimal. We saved him the humiliation of losing all humanity. He didhimself a disservice by even coming to us for help in the first place. Byrelying on us for something he couldn’t provide for himself. Tomorrowwe move to Mississippi and from there we take back what is rightfullyours. But tonight you celebrate. Celebrate the rebirth of the United States,because tomorrow we are reborn, and we will make America greatagain.’
The soldiers were in awe and almost screaming with adulation to theCommander General by throwing themselves to the ground and shoutinghis name.
Each one of them would die for their beloved leader who had already savedthem from impending death. The General had achieved his goal.
The General looked to his Lieutenant, as they turned the corner of thecontainer of Savages. ‘How many?’ he said.
Looking across the forecourt of their camp, row upon row of more of thecontainers lined the road full of Savages. ‘Seventy-eight containers’ replied the Lieutenant.
The General smiled to himself.
CHAPTER FOUR
Three days after the collapse of the base.
Hod awoke to the sun burning down on his face with sand on his lips andopened his one good eye and squinted into the sun. A small scorpionscurried across his chest and Hod flung a hand towards it, brushing it offand jumping to his feet with a little scream of terror.
He looked around and saw there was nothing but desert wasteland in everydirection. ‘Where was the plane?’ he pondered. ‘How did he even gethere?’
His last recollection of what had happened was receiving the call fromLogan warning him that the Commander General was heading in hisdirection. He had manned the machine gun on the plane and when theCommander General was within range unloaded the full ammunition thathe had on board.
Whether heactually made contact with anything he didn’t remember, butas soon as the last bullet was fired he had run and run and run.Remembering what happened next he rubbed his head where a large bumpnow started to throb and the flash backs of tripping, falling and blackingout now came flooding back to him.
He looked around again. No plane, but no Commander