“It’s crazy how quiet it is out here,” said Blaise. “I thought there would be more people on the road.”
No one said anything. Larry was ready for water and their journey had only just begun.
“I guess none of you people ever imagined how something like this could happen?” said Blaise.
When no one answered, he plowed on. Larry had heard it all before.
“A lot of us knew it was coming,” crowed Blaise. “All the economic upheaval, all the racial problems and terrorism, we knew the center wouldn’t hold. Those fat cats have been planning this for a long time.”
“There’s no way to plan something of this magnitude,” said Skylar. “Too much could go wrong.”
Larry wondered why Skylar didn’t volunteer her own hypothesis, why she didn’t turn around and blame Thomas for everything. Probably because she didn’t really believe it.
Soon Larry saw movement on the horizon, what appeared to be three or four people walking toward them. But something wasn’t right, because the individuals in the group looked enormously tall, like giants.
“It sure seemed like everything was on a downward spiral,” said Natalie. “Every day there was a mass shooting, or an immigrant invasion, or a virus, voter fraud—”
“Spreading misinformation to own the libs,” said Skylar.
“Sure,” said Natalie. “Socialist nonsense from an actress worth fifty million dollars.”
“This is what I’m talking about,” said Blaise. “You’re doing their work for them.”
“Look,” Skylar said. “I don’t need—”
“They manipulate you with the media!” cried Blaise. “For a while it was terror. Blow up an airplane or a strip mall and you get three hundred million people frightened for their way of life. The sheep in the suburbs are so put off by the randomness of it that they’ll gladly give away their right to privacy and due process.”
“Sheep?” said Natalie. “What are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about the fat cats who pit you against each other so they can steal your money in broad daylight. The only time the middle class ever got a fair shake was after the Second World War. But They just couldn’t stand it, all these happy people enjoying their lives. Take Walmart as an example. They put all these small shops out of business, all these nice places where you could buy interesting things from interesting people, and now everyone is making peanuts so some fat cat family in Arkansas can hoard a hundred billion dollars. They put up these big boring stores and sell us cheap crap that we have to buy because no one has money anymore. The fat cats are so smart they got us thinking it’s a privilege to shop at Walmart, like it’s as American as apple pie, and meanwhile all the flags and patriotic crap they sell comes from China. People don’t recognize that all those low prices are going one place and that’s to fat cats who laugh all the way to the bank. And yes, I can see someone is coming.”
Larry had been pointedly looking at the approaching group, hoping to distract Blaise from his rant. By now he could see the four of them were on horses: three men and one woman. The men were carrying rifles across their laps and the woman held a handgun at her side. When they were maybe fifty yards away, the man in front raised a hand.
“It looks like they want to talk,” Thomas said.
“I don’t care,” said Blaise. “Let’s keep going.”
“If we ignore everyone,” Thomas said, “we’ll look suspicious. And we’re carrying weapons. What are they going to do?”
“I don’t trust other people,” said Blaise.
“If that’s the case, what are you doing with us?”
“Good point,” Blaise said, and raised his hand to the group.
The man in front, stocky and heavily bearded, nodded in recognition. The group eased their horses across the road until they were only a few yards away. In order from left to right stood the three others: a leaner and younger fellow, a bearded man who was maybe ninety pounds overweight, and a petite woman whose blonde hair was tied into a ball behind her head.
“I’m Kirk,” said the lead man. “Where are you people from?”
“Are we required to identify ourselves?” asked Blaise. “Are you operating in an official capacity?”
“Brother,” said Kirk. “There ain’t no official capacity anymore. We are protecting the peninsula from refugees. And two of our men, back at Little Elm bridge, are Frisco PD if that makes any difference.”
Despite his aversion to government, Blaise seemed impressed by this announcement.
“I’m glad to know the peninsula is being looked after,” he said. “I live just west of the entrance to Lakewood Village on the south side of Eldorado. I own several acres of land there.”
“Thank you for that,” said Kirk. “And the rest of you?”
“I’m Thomas Phillips. I live on Stowe Lane. The others are my guests, except for—”
“Larry Adams,” Larry blurted. “Live next door to Thomas.”
“May I ask where you folks are headed?” asked Kirk.
“Off the peninsula,” said Blaise. “Is that a problem?”
“I reckon that depends on where you’re going. Refugees have set up along the east side of the lake. The park over at Hidden Cove is swarming with them. With this heat I think things are about to get bad real quick.”
“What about the smoke?” Seth asked, sounding delirious. “It seems thicker this morning.”
“It is,” said the second man, a lean, muscled fellow wearing a tight T-shirt and expensive-looking jeans. He looked completely out of place on a horse, like he would rather be on a patio bar wearing shorts and flip flops and leering at every woman who walked by. In fact, he appeared to be leering at Skylar now.
“The fire line stalled out for a few days,” the man continued, “but now it’s moving again and has reached The Colony. When it starts creeping up the lakeshore we’ll be facing a big problem.”
As if we aren’t already facing a big problem, Larry imagined himself saying.
“We have men stationed at both bridges,” Kirk said, “but if the refugees come hard enough we won’t be able to hold them off.”
“There’s not enough food here for the existing people,” Skylar said, “let alone thousands more.”
“No one’s gonna care when their babies are burning,” said Kirk. “They’ll run to safety, wherever that takes them.”
This was a perfect example of how Thomas had let ego get the better of him. What if Lakewood Village had been overrun by thousands of starving people? How would he have protected Skylar? He couldn’t have. He was in over his head. All of them were.
“Speaking of food,” Kirk said, “we’ve been asking people to donate their remaining supplies so we can create a ration plan. Several groups are fishing around the clock to provide a supply of new food. You’re welcome to join if you have anything to contribute.”
“All our supplies were stolen last night,” Thomas said. “Several men broke into my house and carried everything away.”
Kirk flashed a knowing look at the second man.
“That was probably Matt Bernhardt,” he said. “He’s set up in the Clark place at the southeast corner of the peninsula. His men are well-armed and patrol the property around the clock, but they’ll run out of food just like everyone else. That’s when they’ll come after us, I reckon.”
“We have weapons same as them,” said the heavyset man. His smile was broad and littered with flecks of chewing tobacco.