A few years into the war and this town looked like a genuine western town. Everybody was getting around by horse. It was a sight to see, I tell you… By that time, they were getting oil production back, but just a little. They didn’t have the workforce cause of the war going on just to the south of us.
The gas mainly went to those good boys fightin’, and the rest of us made do with these fine beasts. That lasted until three or four years after the war when oil finally started flowing again, but that didn’t last too long either, cause them new alien planes started being built and they didn’t need no oil. Course, it took a while for enough of them to get out, but that was the end of the horse HEYday. (Laughs.) You get it, boy? HAYday? Kids don’t know what’s funny anymore.
Do you own all the horses or just rent them?
I own ’bout sixty of ’em, but all mine are back at the ranch. My stock was mostly for breeding anyway, so I raised the horses, broke them for the city folk, and sold them in town. We had some problems with some idiot trying to breed ’em wrong, ended up with some lame and crippled horses. Damn fool! I’m not sure what happened to that boy… (Turns and winks.)
The horse breedin’ started slow ’cause there weren’t many people who knew how to keep or feed them. That’s where most of my business came from. I couldn’t take them horses not being cared for. At one time, I had four hundred horses in here. Now, I’m down to about twenty, and soon I’ll close up shop and take these tired old bones back to the ranch.
Nowadays, nobody’s breeding ’em anymore, which is just fine. We’ve got too many, but we’ve been placing them in parks and reserves and lettin’ em go free. Nature will take care of everything else, not some government flunky who don’t know nothin’ ’bout nothin’.
Tyler Lopez
San Antonio, Texas
For fifteen years, Tyler Lopez was the lead anchor for CNT nightly news. Based out of Atlanta, CNT was destroyed by the Veech. Tyler Lopez survived by covering national debates at the time of the attack. After the attack, Tyler took a job at a medium-sized news program out of Orlando, Florida. Deciding to forgo an anchor job, he became a journalist reporting the news from the road. During and after the war, he produced several controversial segments that left a reeling country angered.
Two years after the war, Tyler wrote an op-ed column entitled, “The time for Peace is now.”
The article pushed Americans too far, and he was promptly fired from his job as thousands of complaints poured in. Tyler refused to apologize for his article and even went on the offensive, criticizing the war effort and the creation of the TSC.
Tyler now lives on an orange farm, outside Tampa, in relative seclusion due to the many threats on his life.
Americans are irrational. Not just Americans but all of Western society. The Asians are a far more pragmatic people, and I think that article would have gone better over there. Whatever—it was the truth. We can’t stand up to the Veech, and it’s just a matter of time before they come back with so much firepower that we won’t be able to stop them. Who knows why they haven’t already?
I wrote the article to get people thinking, to get those morons in Washington to put the people first instead of their damned pride. Irrational. We won the war, for the moment at least. Congratulations! But do they always want to be fighting? Do they still want war? Haven’t we bled enough? All I was saying is that we should open a dialogue with them. We don’t have to make a deal if it’s not right, but what can it hurt to talk about peace? Nothing! That’s what. Honor! Justice! Revenge. They’re idiots.
Am I angry at the Veech? Sure, but what am I? A child? It’s better to accept the truth than throw a fit. They were just doing what they’ve always done. Can we blame them for that? We need to understand they’re fighting for survival, too, and see if we can fit into their plans.
You mentioned in your article that you would be willing to live under Veech control.
I posed the question of whether we could survive under the Veech? Isn’t it better to live under their control than die? And I mean die as in the death of our species. Everything and everyone. Do you want to be responsible for the human race dying?
Things change. We might have to bow down for a few years, but empires rise and fall all the time. We might get stronger under the Veech. We might one day have the Veech kneel to us, who knows? But at least there’s a chance. A chance of surviving. I want to live, and I want our species to live. There are only two reasons why we’re alive today. The first is because the Veech wanted slaves and our planet intact. They could have dropped rocks and erased all human life. The second is because the Jhi showed up. Well, they’re fleet is gone now, so what happens when the Veech show up in numbers? We’re dead. They’re not going to show restraint next time.
You don’t think the TSC can protect the Earth?
Hell no, I mean, come on, we’re just starting in space. We’re minnows swimming in an ocean. Not to mention that the new program they’ve got going will never work. Everyone sings kumbaya together and forgets thousands of years of fighting each other? (laughs) No, I don’t think it will work. Too many idiots in the military, too many egos, especially in the United States.
Weren’t you embedded with some of the troops during the war?
I was with that savage Jackson Thompson for six months. What a barbarian! You know he assaulted me? Put me in a hospital—not even a hospital, a freaking tent in the freezing mountains. That idiot should be locked away for his attack on me, but more importantly, his war crimes. He left millions to die on the East Coast, and when I wrote an article about it, he attacked me.
(Tyler is referring to an article titled “Another Jackson who refuses to fight.”)
The people have a right to know who their so-called heroes are. How many people died when he refused to attack the Veech in those early months? A million? Two million? All because he didn’t want to leave the safety of his mountains. He was a coward, and people have the right to know.
What will you do now?
I’ll stay here on my farm until the Veech come again. I wish I could tell the morons and war hawks I told you so, but I’ll be dead like every other human in the galaxy. Until then, I am currently writing my autobiography. Real journalism is dead, but I’ll let them know what it was really like before the Neo-Cons took over and refused to bend the knee. People need to know.
Thomas Kincade and Jeremy Kincade
Cape May, New Jersey
Cape May, New Jersey is still the charming town it has ever been. Life is slow here. Small signs of construction exist in a few places, mostly carpenters restoring the historic town to its former, quiet glory.
In the center of town stands a monument of remembrance to the people who lived through the invasion and the war that followed. The memorial is bronze and stands fifteen feet high. The monument is of two older people, holding the hands of two small children between them. It’s a somber sight and the atmosphere around the memorial is quiet. A small plaque at the bottom reads, “To our grandparents, you are not forgotten.”
Thomas and Jeremy Kincade are brothers. They are very similar in appearance, astoundingly so, but are not twins. Thomas, the oldest, is twenty-one. He is shorter than average and seems shorter still due to his squat, powerful build. He has light brown hair with a pair of matching brown eyes. He is reserved and thoughtful, the polar opposite of his younger brother of a year, who radiates energy and enjoys talking. Jeremy is twenty and has the same height and body type as his brother.