Operation SERF
Part 8
By Chris Sullins (January 25, 2009)
Mike Shroud had worked
at Steve’s ranch helping round up the cattle before returning to his trailer
yesterday evening and sitting down to watch TV. He had noticed most of the usual TV stations were
still missing. One that was back on the
air had been replaced by a familiar 24 hours news format from a different channel. The news shows had the same talking heads he
remembered from the other station’s original line-up. Another channel up and running again used the
same station logo, format, and programs of another well known 24 hours news
service, but had completely new people across the entire line-up.
Mike couldn’t
tell how “live” each news channel really was, but there seemed to be more miss-reading
of the Teleprompters by the on-air speakers than in the past, both among the
seasoned professionals he recognized and the brand new talking heads. Although there were still breaks for
commercials, it seemed some previously rotated ads for products were now gone
from the week before. However, there
were new public service announcements which called for “vigilance” against “spies
and enemies” that were never named nor described in any way.
Mike quickly noticed
everything on the news had taken on a more political tone than he had become
accustomed to over the last decade. It
was now far worse than he could remember even from the political talk radio
days which had existed until little more than a decade after the turn of the
century. One of the news channels had
guest experts who called for the immediate arrest and trial of various agency
heads and elected officials from back East.
These TV guests who often had agency titles or elected offices below
their own names stated these other federal stewards had betrayed their oaths,
their fellow citizens, and their country and were directly responsible for the
terrorist attacks in DC and NYC.
He recalled one program
in which the reporter asked the expert panel directly “Is assassination an
option if these fugitives refuse to hand themselves over?” Mike made a mental note of the question and
became surprised when the group came to a quick coalescence of agreement in
favor of it without any debate regarding the morals of such an action. The group went on talking about “rogue
agencies”, “private armies”, and “paid mercenaries” who were protecting these “former
public officials turned terrorists and criminals”. They ended by discussing what level of force
might be necessary to “get the job done” and it could take something close to
“open war between the states to see that things are
set right again for the sake of justice”.
Mike had fallen
into a half sleep in front of the TV.
After another hour of men in suits spewing political vitriol had ended,
he had tired of seeing the same scenes of people beginning to die from
radiation sickness in DC and NYC.
However, his attention had perked up when the national news shifted its
coverage to other events from around the nation and he heard the phrase “this
just in from
Mike’s eyes went
from fatigued slits to shocked opened orbs when he caught glimpses between
crowd bystanders of his brother and nephew coming out of a tavern. Mike had last visited his wife, his pregnant
daughter, and her boyfriend at the same tavern prior to a family argument and
him moving out west. He vaguely remembered
the dispute had been between him and his wife over their daughter’s boyfriend,
but the details had been lost since then.
It had seemed to be the last straw on top of a hay bale of problems
throughout their entire marriage.
He heard the
voice of the newscaster continue speaking in English over someone else who
sounded French in the background. It did
not appear to be a translation, but rather an explanation that the footage had
come from “somewhere in the state of
The scene of the
group leading the man down the street cut back to the interior of the tavern
showing scattered “smuggled weapons” and bloody “bodies of three foreign
mercenaries who were known collaborators with the fifth column traitors and terrorists
within the federal government”. The
video on the screen went back to the earlier scene of the man being led out of
the tavern, walking down the street with the group, and back to the interior of
the tavern again. These same three
segments repeated in the same order twice more back to back with the news
commentator in the background tying the three dead men in with “an illegal
shadow government operating from its isolated strongholds in
Mike slouched
back in his chair but with his eyes still wide open as the newsman began to
introduce two men and one woman. The
newsman went round to each one who admonished the viewing audience about the
dangers of both the “foreign terrorists” and “domestic traitors” on the one hand
while criticizing the local people in the video on the other for “failing to
capture all the foreign operatives alive” and “missing a valuable opportunity
to extract all possible intelligence from them”. Mike became slightly confused when one of the
guests sitting closest to the newsman referred to the foreign operatives once
as “four dead terrorists” and then a second time as “four dead mercenaries”
when he had only remembered seeing three bodies in the tavern. The show immediately cut to a commercial break
while this guest was mid-sentence and Mike stood up to stretch his arms.
Mike wasn’t sure
exactly what was going on back home, but he felt something was very wrong back
in his home state. He instinctively knew
there was more to the story than what was on the video or had been said on the
news. For a moment Mike wished he had
taken French back in high school. In any
event, he figured there was no time like the present in packing his backpack
and starting the journey at first light.
Mike hoped Steve was over the whole toothpick thing and would give him a
ride eastward. If Steve still had all
his bio-diesel ration points on his agricultural co-op card for this month,
then maybe he could get to the state line and still allow Steve a return trip
back. Mike regretted not having anything
of portable value other than one silver eagle coin to trade for more fuel or
rides along the way, but he was willing to walk if he had to.
As Mike looked
around his trailer for matching pairs of socks, he heard a news report which
mentioned “motorist safety checks along I-30” which were “meant to protect
citizens from across the United Southwestern States from highway bandits, armed
drug runners and rogue military units from Mexico”. Mike looked at the screen as an overhead view
of the highway showed a bridge over a river “just East of Texarkana, Texas” from
a helicopter. The westbound cars and
trucks were backed up for miles as far as the camera lens could magnify in the
distance. By contrast the line of cars
going east was only a few hundred yards long.
He made a mental note that no tractor-trailers were going eastbound.
Another scene
showed a checkpoint from the highway itself.
Motorists who approached a bridge over a river came to an opposing
saw-tooth pattern of concrete blocks and were waved forward one at a time. They were met by armed
The news report
moved to “another safety check along I-40 and Historic Route 66 at Shamrock,
Texas” and showed westbound traffic which was again deeply congested, but the
eastbound lanes were virtually empty. As
the helicopter turned and flew back over the northern half of Shamrock, Mike
noticed two U-shaped buildings facing a spur from the main highway all had
their open ends with the parking areas fully enclosed by tall concrete t-blocks. Mike had seen this physical security feature
frequently during his past deployments to the
There was
additional street-level video of the I-40 westbound checkpoint showing black
SUVs with flashing lights parked behind a few staggered 4-foot thick barrier
cubes on the highway made of heavy wire mesh and filled to their open tops with
large chunks of gravel. Two dozen armed men
in tan uniforms but wearing no patches had people getting out of the private
vehicles and opening their trunks. Also
reminiscent to Mike of the
Mike picked up
his small ceramic water filter and an empty hydration bladder. He could stuff his backpack and pockets with
as much beef jerky as he could carry, but questioned how long this food would really
last on the road after he was walking many miles daily. Mike packed a folding knife, a small envelope
with a few hooks and a spool of fishing line, but wondered how many locals he
would be competing against along the way for fishing spots. They, too, had probably been joined by a
large number of new refugees from the East Coast now massing along the major highways
and spreading out for miles from them in every direction.
He owned a rifle,
a shotgun, and a handgun, but knew the long arms even when carried by a
shoulder strap in a soft case would garner immediate attention during every
step of his trip. Their weight was
another major factor and it just didn’t make sense to carry them nearly 2,000
miles on foot through numerous towns when his brothers probably still had firearms
back home waiting for him if needed. He
seriously considered carrying his handgun, but knew once he left his home state
his registration permit was useless.
Possessing the weapon unloaded in his backpack would still be a serious
problem if he was caught up in a hasty military checkpoint or otherwise hassled
by a paranoid police officer while passing through a town.
Mike visibly smirked
that despite his years of military service defending his country that currently
being out of uniform his country wouldn’t trust him with little more than a
toothpick for self-defense. For the
first time in many years, Mike prayed for an answer. A few seconds later after being answered with
silence, he flipped his silver coin to decide the issue and stepped out the
door into the early morning darkness unarmed.
* * *
“Phillipe,” said Josiah from his usual spot on the couch
while motioning to the chair,”you wanted to talk. Please have a seat.”
“So much has
happened in such a short time,” began Phillipe as he
sat down.
“Yes, more than I
ever expected,” confirmed Josiah.
“Jacques and I
have talked this over and we would like to stay here longer,” said Phillipe.
“Would that be
overstaying your visa?” asked Josiah.
“Yes.”
“Given the state
of my country and the trouble we’re having right now, are you really sure you
want to stay here and get mixed up in all of this?” asked Josiah. “I don’t know who might be coming for us
next. Probably more of those men in
gray.”
“I really believe
this is where the real news is at right now,” answered Phillipe. “I think the story here will be a microcosm
for what could happen to all of us anywhere.
We were hoping to stay on for at least a few weeks and possibly much
longer if we can.”
“If you wish, but
I do have to warn you that things are getting tight around here,” said
Josiah. “I’m not just talking about the
gray men roaming around the countryside; we’re coming into a time when there
will be a serious lack of food here until early summer. Quite frankly, I’m not sure how we’re going
to take care of both of you even a month from now. At the same time my own people will be heading
further and further out around the area trying
to monitor what’s going on and giving the families back here some warning. That’s going to take food and fuel.”
“I understand
that you consider us guests,” said Phillipe, “but I
would insist on paying for us to remain here.
I know you like gold, but I don’t carry it with me. But, I could pay you in Euro notes.”
“Phillipe, I really appreciate the offer,” said Josiah with
a smile, “but your paper is completely worthless here. Tell you what. You and Jacques could help out around here by
cutting firewood, skinning some animals, and ice fishing. That would free up my family members from
having to do these things for you.”
“I’ve never done
those things before,” said Phillipe.
“Are you willing
to try?”
“Yes, of course,”
answered Phillipe with confidence. “I would like to learn.”
“Do you have any
other skills besides being a reporter?”
“I was an
electrical engineer prior to becoming a reporter,” Phillipe
stated.
“My brother in
law who lives on the next property over was one, too, many years ago,”
commented Josiah. “We have some radios
and a few laptops we run off of small windmills and solar panels. Not much work for you to do with those. That’s all low maintenance. How about you and Jacques help Kevin out for
now?”
“Yes, I’m sure we
can do that,” said Phillipe.
“That would be
great,” said Josiah. “On a different subject
I was told you had asked earlier this morning about the funerals.”
“Yes,” said Phillipe. “I
wondered if we could take video of the funeral.
Also, we had overheard someone mention a preparation ritual for the
bodies and wondered about being present for that as well.”
“Funeral, yes,
preparation of the bodies, no,” said Josiah without emotion and very
business-like. “There really isn’t a
formal ritual per se, but it’s a private matter for the family members who have
chosen to do the washing and dressing of the bodies. Taking video would be extremely insensitive
and disruptive. There’s some talking and
often a lot of thinking which must be done before the bodies are put into the
ground. We really believe in burying
them quickly –within three days of death.”
“I have travelled
around the
“Christians did
this, too,” said Josiah, “prior to the embalming industry and funerals managed
by strangers. There really isn’t
anything unique about how we take care of our own here; rather I think you
would find it very universal among many peoples. I think it harkens back to the old ways of
doing such things when people were more tribal.”
“If I may ask,
what religion are you?” asked Phillipe.
“Good question,”
said Josiah, “I still wonder at times myself.
I believe in God. I think there
are a lot of unseen forces which I can’t explain. There were things that happened which don’t
seem like a coincidence. The extended
family members here have a variety of religious backgrounds. We have every major religion represented here
from both the Shrouds who have traveled around this country and the world and
come back here as well as the other families we have joined with.”
“Will the funeral
take place in a Church before going to a cemetery?” questioned Phillipe.
“There are still
a couple of places of worship left here and some home fellowships –with both
open and closed groups, but we will take the bodies directly from Judy’s
private home to the grave sites here on the family land,” answered Josiah. “I’m sure that’s probably breaking some state
law still on the books, but again, that’s how things were done in the past and
that’s how we do them here once again.”
“Everyone will be
buried here –including the friend of Judy’s husband?” asked Phillipe.
“Frank’s father
was a bit despondent when my sister went over to ask him about his wishes,”
said Josiah. “He’s probably 80 years
old. Frank stayed here after the jobs
began leaving twelve years ago because his father wanted to die here. Frank’s blood is with Shroud blood and he
will be buried here. That is how we will
honor his friendship to the family. But,
I have a feeling I’ll be putting his father in the ground before the month is
out. I think he has a plot reserved next
to his deceased wife at the cemetery outside of town. We’ll have someone stopping by to see him every
few days and drop off some food and bring in some firewood, but I doubt he’s going
to move from his chair until his time comes, too.”
“You say this all
so matter of fact,” commented Phillipe. “So emotionless.”
“I’ve already
lost my own wife –we had a wonderful marriage by the way— and I’ve personally
dug the holes for both neighbors and family members over the last few years,”
said Josiah. “I buried a niece who died
during childbirth last year. We lost her
and the baby. We had one grave for them
both. Phillipe,
are things really much better in
“I suppose it
depends on exactly where you live,” answered Phillipe
as he looked down at the floor and his face slightly reddened due to
embarrassment rather than sadness or anger.
“Don’t trouble
yourself with it,” said Josiah empathetically.
“This is more a measure of how far things have fallen here. No, how much they’ve changed here. The word fallen implies that all has been
negative here during this time.”
Phillipe instantly looked at Josiah and asked “What
is the silver lining in the dark cloud that you’ve found here?”
“Freedom,”
answered Josiah immediately.
“Freedom?” said Phillipe as he became just as quickly confused by the
answer. “You have absolutely no security
in your life here.”
“When did I ever
really have security, Phillipe?” began Josiah. “I’ve been alive for 50 years. Did I have security when the nuclear sword of
Damocles was constantly suspended over my head during the Cold War? Did I have security when my country became
entangled in one foreign matter after another?
Did I have security when my economy was globalized, inflated, out-sourced,
devalued, suspended, and then the so-called domestic safety net yanked out from
under me? Where did all my insurance, healthcare,
and retirement plans go? What kind of
security did I really have when some anonymous thugs from an unnamed government
agency showed up and killed my relatives?”
“But even you
have said that things will get worse now,” countered Phillipe
gently.
“Yes,” agreed
Josiah before adding “but things were going to get worse even before this
happened. The only thing different may
be the speed we will take on the timeline.
In many ways the course has already been locked in and set for us –for
all of us. It was an unconscious thing
from the start and now that some of us have awakened to the current situation,
we realize we might be too late. It’s
akin to flying in an airplane with the pilots already bailed out, the landing
gear broken, the fuel tank a hair above empty, and not enough parachutes left
to go around for the passengers.”
“I played a group
cohesion game at a conference years ago called Lifeboat…” began Phillipe.
“I don’t want you
to miss the analogy that uses a petroleum-based fuel, Phillipe,”
interrupted Josiah, “especially since you’re still a member of the jet-set.”
“My company pays
for all my air travel,” stated Phillipe. “I couldn’t afford any of it on my own.”
“Very few
individuals can anymore,” said Josiah. “But
that brings up energy security doesn’t it?
That’s really the most important one when it comes to running a global
empire. There’s not a single country or
group and certainly not an individual which really has energy security anymore.
Why do you think we’ve had over 80 years
of resource wars? The people who ran
those wars usually weren’t honest about why we had them, but we know better now
that it was to maintain the lifestyle and the world order which we had become
accustomed to for the last few generations.
Do you know how often I use to read about energy security on the
internet? We use to hear about it in the
news all the time. It came up quite
frequently over the supply of oil, then natural gas, then nuclear fuel.
“Some Americans
adjusted early to the shortages by doing more for themselves and attempting to
add in alternative energies. But, all
the talk about going green and using less energy just didn’t work for a lot of
people and they had difficulties readjusting their lifestyles based on what
they had always known and done before.
While a lot of people complained and looked around for another
government tit to suckle, my family and I spent our summers cutting firewood,
planting gardens and orchards by hand, and listening to solar-powered radios. Then there was the big jump in gas and food
prices during the early teens followed by shortages of everything. So with Great Depression Two
underway people also get Great Disappointment Two followed by the first wave of
big riots. None of that violence even
touched us here by the way.
“I still remember
when the President was on the radio talking about the key points of his new
government program and used the exact phrase ‘Sustainable Energy, Recycling, and
Farming’. I thought what an amazing
acronym even if he didn’t spell it out directly for everyone at home. He said his –and I quote— “mandatory work program”
would require everyone nationwide to participate at some level. He said it would give our country all the
economic and energy security it would ever need. I immediately did not buy into that load of
BS because historically such forced servitude has never meant security for
anyone but the oligarchy at the top. It
was the moment when the old saying ‘those who would trade freedom for security deserve neither’ became crystal clear for me.”
“So you didn’t
participate in the program?” asked Phillipe.
“Ah, but here’s
that big picture thing again, Phillipe,” said
Josiah. “Quite the contrary I did
attempt to participate in it under the farming part at first. There were consequences on the books if
people didn’t. However, no farming
programs were approved by the federal government in our part of the state. I personally had more than the minimum
qualifying acres, lots of standing lumber available with a pending contract to
a company in a pre-designated urban work zone, and productive organic orchards
with my surplus going free to urban school lunch programs. With some other large farms around us raising
corn and livestock, we applied together as a ‘non-governmental citizens union’
as defined under the new regulations. Our
application was rejected literally a day after the program officially commenced. Apparently we wouldn’t be able get our
Citizen Energy Security points under the farming provision here.
“Six months after
our application was rejected and some other local farmers began leaving the
area to work as laborers for approved unions down south, those of us who
remained got letters from the same agency we had applied to earlier. They advised we voluntarily sign over
management of our lands to either a wildlife habitat control zone or to an agricultural
work collective. They promised in return
to credit us energy security points and we could still reside in our homes on one
acre lots. The fine print that went
along with it only allowed continued residence for currently living persons and
without generational inheritance. I must
note with some irony that the people who took that option have all since found out
their points became virtually worthless around here after the electricity and
natural gas lines were pulled anyway.”
“It makes sense
to me why you didn’t participate,” said Phillipe.
“I’m not done,”
said Josiah. “I did participate under
the original federal program. I went
back and found the loophole put into it to make it more palatable for the
people who thought they still had real money.
There wasn’t a lot of time for our so-called representatives to read the
president’s plan before they passed it as law, of course, but there was a small
provision in the two feet of stacked paper which allowed for comparatively fractional
points if you purchased your own sustainable energy products for home power. Of course, this had to be through approved
dealers, and although we didn’t have much of an official credit card line
available for the increasingly inflated retail prices, we found some ways
around that on the gray market in return for our own goods. Food and firewood always find trading
partners in the urban jungle which has neither.
It was certainly better than moving away to work on someone else’s farm. It was far better than moving to a fenced in
camp outside of an urban renewal zone and living out of a tent and a porta-john.
“Can you imagine
living like that for a year after tearing down empty, but still habitable
suburban homes for your first few weeks before spending months on end digging
up 20 year old garbage pits? I had
friends in town who were auto factory workers that left for the program who later
wrote me about it. They thought there
were going to get the sustainable energy manufacturing jobs. They were surprised when all those went to
the people already residing in the cities.
The zip code on an ID mattered more than experience or education at the
processing centers. If a person’s
permanent residence was near a designated urban work zone, that’s where they
went to work. They didn’t have to move
and they earned their energy credits.
“At first people
played well together. The ones with the
jobs in the muck started with a positive view of things, pitched in to work at
whatever they were assigned, and bought the ‘we’re all pulling ourselves up by the
boot straps together’ propaganda they heard.
They even handled how they were looked down upon by the people who
didn’t have to move and had the cleaner nicer jobs indoors. But, when they found out that they were
getting fewer credits put into their accounts and that the goods and services
near their shanty towns actually cost more in cash, then they became
angry. Given that everyone could see the
differences in treatment and living conditions, it wasn’t like the people who
were better off at the start of the new game were going to trade down on both
their residences and jobs. So, of course,
as can be expected in a situation of such disparity, there was another wave of big
riots.”
“I had no idea
this was going on,” said Phillipe. “Up until I came here we were still seeing
the occasional news story on TV or the internet in the EU about how well the
program worked for everyone in
“That was the
image we saw here during the early days while it was still covered,” said Josiah. “It was all Potemkin Village cardboard crap
to get more people to move. The mandatory
part of the program officially lasted a year, made millions of people
re-locate, and then stranded many in those new locations hundreds of miles from
their original homes. It broke up
extended families and communities. And,
even if they could redeem their accumulated energy credits for home utilities
and mass transportation back in their original communities, it wasn’t like
their old jobs were still waiting there anyway.
“It left a lot of
people the choices of either staying in the official government work program,
the increasingly privatized parts of it, or moving again. Both the public and private parts of the
program had started paying in the new currency but no longer provided the energy
credits. Driving somewhere else to try
their luck in the small market system –white, gray, or black— wasn’t much of a
plan either for most people. After a
year of using up any of the old money they had left before the program, a lot
of people didn’t exactly have a way to fill up the family car and roam around
looking for new opportunities on distant horizons. Why drive down the road just to empty the gas
tank one last time and pitch a tent again somewhere else probably just as bad? They stayed where the government program had
placed them for the most part. They
needed the new money for food in the present and wanted to save up for a better
place in the future closer to their work sites anyway. A lot of hold-outs from the countryside later
moved for the new money, too. My own
brother did. Well, that and family
problems. I’m sure he has no idea what’s
happened here now.”
After Josiah was
quiet for a few seconds Phillipe asked “What do you
think happens next in the big picture?”
“I can’t see the
big picture right now. Not all of it yet,
at least,” said Josiah. “I don’t have
access to information like I use to. I
had watched it become so open source over my lifetime in the past. There were no more real secrets left at one
time. Don’t get me wrong, there were
still massive amounts of propaganda and manipulation; but it had become
possible for some of us to sift through it all and casually see truths emerge. Things have gone back now the other way where
real information is scant and its perception is tightly controlled. I’m not sure if the gray men we have seen here
were modern oprichniki directed by one Tsar now ruling
a large empire, or if these were hoplites in the style of a much smaller Greek
city-state which has arisen post-fracturing of our once great
End of Part 8
Previous Parts:
http://www.oftwominds.com/opSERF/OP-serf.html
Special notes from Chris Sullins: Thanks
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