Desolation

They will come at you with everything

This is how the battles in the end will take place.

Desperation will take even the innocent and turn them into something ugly; the weak into the dangerous; and the already evil into the scariest thing imaginable. No matter what dish nature serves, no matter how awful it is, nothing will be worse than the poison served to you by your fellow man.

When the Romans invaded and took over a country, they used overwhelming numbers and technology to humble their enemy, but they immediately ceased violence upon the surrender of the conquered, finding it better to have people be self-governed in their own lands, albeit with a heavy hand.

Your enemy will not be like this. Keep all I have told you in mind when they come after you. Your enemy will not think like a Roman battlefield general would, attempting to protect the spoils of war and its people; they will come at you with everything they have. And after you have surrendered, they will kill and plunder, laying waste to everything they don’t take.

31. Cocktails, Anyone?

Rocky Point, Mexico

“Hey Miguel, come here and hold my weapon on that asshole on the beach, okay?”

“Si, Señor Bill.” Miguel kissed his wife and child, sitting on the living room sofa, and hurried over to him.

“What’s up, hon?” Lisa’s arms were getting tired training her weapon on Clyde and Judas’s location, the adrenalin-high having long since worn off. She hoped her husband had an answer to break this stalemate, before Clyde’s obvious ploy worked. He was waiting for them to drop their guard, hiding behind their sea wall. She feared that Clyde had much more in mind. They couldn’t stay on alert forever. She knew that they had a big weakness. Neither she nor Bill would just shoot someone, but she suspected that Clyde would have no problem pulling the trigger when given the chance. It didn’t matter. He may be an asshole, as Max often said, but he had also been a guest at their home many times. She would not take the first shot.

“I have an idea,” Bill said as Miguel took over his position on the north end of the patio door. “I want to try something that might get us out of this stand-off.” Pausing only briefly to peck Lisa on the cheek as he passed, then trotting past the kitchen, he went into their pantry and after a bit of bumping around came out with an A-frame ladder. He set it in the middle of the kitchen, and climbed to a precarious stance near the very top. Taking a screwdriver from his pants pocket, he proceeded to remove the screws from the frame of the domed milky-white skylight.

~~~

“Where the hell is that kid?” Clyde asked Judas, who stood behind him sheepishly, not sure what to do next. “Ah, fuck it. It’s time to move to Plan B.” He held out his hands, a request for Judas to hand him what he wanted.

“No, we can’t. Let’s give them more time.” His voice was whiney and crackling. Judas wanted the food, but didn’t really want to kill to get it. He always figured they would just fold, like he would. Just give up and do what Clyde demanded.

“They aren’t going to give up. If we start a shootout with the Mexican weapons we found, it’ll take too long and one of us might get shot. Besides, I’m tired of waiting. We cut our losses, get rid of the Kings, and see what we can find at Thompson’s house. As you said, smugglers killed Thompson.”

“It was the cartel, and he wasn’t killed, he was kidnapped.” Judas corrected him, half expecting to get slapped for it. “Besides, we don’t want to destroy all of the Kings’ supplies.” The thought of murder was starting to nauseate him.