Lucus was President of the United States and had been in that office for years, I didn’t remember how many, I’m sure I was told. Lucus had only one name, and that was strange to me, but the teacher said, “Now it’s rather common.” Well no one in Biosphere California had only one name. At least no one who wasn’t a slave.
My name is Jake Eddy Malone, and it’s surprising how few facts we talked about in school to spend all day there. I could name all 50 states and there were a hundred territories and I couldn’t name all those. Well I knew the biggest territories that the United States owned like India, China, and Australia, but I couldn’t remember which were free and which were slave states. I remember Argentina and Brazil are both free and slave states.
Biosphere California was both rural and urban one teacher said. Some people in town lived in company apartments and were supervisors in local slave factories, my parents and my brothers and sisters lived on our farm in South East Biosphere County. My father said it was our farm, “and JC Coutiz”. JC it seemed owned our mortgage. Father said, “A mortgage is something the crops have to pay every year.” He explained his business to me, because he wanted me to be a farmer of that land when I grew up. Three of my brothers had grown up there and then went in the military. One was in the Mexican Wars one in the Chinese War, and one was living n New York and didn’t write.
I was eleven when everything changed. I rode the school bus home from Biosphere Seventh Center School at 4:30 PM, right on time and walked to my house up the dirt road. I could see lots of different wheel tracks on our road, not our tractor or regular cars. They were truck tracks. From the number of tracks I would guess at least 4 trucks, my guess was that 4 trucks made it past our potholes and ditches. It was a mile and a half from the main road back to where we lived.
I was the last of the children to get home every day and had been home-schooled until the 5th grade, because only in 6th do they teach the math my mother didn’t know well. I liked reading and had been into spy novels lately. I thought being a spy would be a fine profession to strive for, so I had to become rather suspicious of different things I saw around me, so to be careful and spy like I took a path to the lake, and the back of our house to scoop out what was going on at our house. Maybe terrorists had taken over our place!
My eyesight was excellent and sure enough it was three trucks and on the outside of them was printed, ‘SLAVE COLLECTION AND SALES -107 MURRY AVENUE SEARS CALIFORNIA.’ Our porch overlooked the lake and was at the back of our house. Father said, “The lake front porch is the house front.”
I planned to wait until I found out what was going on before I went to my house. I usually had a snack and a pee when I got home after the bus ride, and the long walk. Well no snack was available, but I found a tree and peed.
My watch said 5PM when all my family lined up on our porch. We had no close neighbors, but my mother, sisters and little brothers were lined up on our porch naked. My father was also naked but he had his arms and legs chained. Also all of my family had their heads bowed, like they were ashamed that they were on the porch naked. There were men in red shirts around them with straps, and I saw one of the red shirts hit my sister Lorine across the back with the strap. It must have been something she said or didn’t say that caused that.
Because of the trucks I figured that my parents were being made slaves.
The only other development before nightfall was one guy in a suit that went down the line of my family feeling them. I sat in the underbrush on a ridge right above the house on the left and watched. One man in red with an iron collar around his neck wrote in a book as Suit talked about each of those he looked at. When they were evaluating my mother, who I love more than anyone in the world, Suit was slapping her face. Suit was brutal, he was hitting her, and she didn’t even raise her hand to protect her face. I could see her mouth screaming, and I could barely hear her. Once Suit knocked her down and she got up and then he hit her with a strap, and she fell again. Of course I wanted to kill Suit, but I got a good look at his face. He would knock mother down, and then kick and hit her with the strap till she got up.
I planned my revenge that night. Sears California was not far from where we lived, I had been there with my father, and Murray Street was the towns Main Street.
My sisters had to drag mother to the truck after she was beaten. She couldn’t stand by herself without help. My sisters got licks with the strap for carrying her to the truck. I wished I had a gun! My older brothers and I planned for war and insurrection and we had survival stuff hid, but weapons were 2 hours of climbing around to get anything other than a knife. We had a fishing stash near the beach, but no guns there. If I had just had a 22 I could have hit Suit, even angry I would have calmed down and hit at least 3 of them before fleeing. They wouldn’t catch me, even my brothers were out foxed in our games.
There were three trucks of the slave company and two of them left with my family. One carried my mother and father and the other my brothers and sisters. Of course I had no idea where hey were being taken or why different trucks.
It was dark night so no one could see me on the beach. I went to my house without night vision glasses, I had a pair, but they were in the cave. I was afraid to wait till another night to attack my enemies. They might leave with their blood still in them.
They had the lights on in our house till almost 12 midnight. There were 3 of them, one leader slave and two collared ones. We didn’t have adequate shades on our windows, I could see where they set their weapons before bed. They locked all the doors, and I had my fish scaling knives in either hand. My hands sweated with hate for Suit. Suit wasn’t in the house, but maybe I could do damage to his valuable slave property.
The two helper slaves had clubs and a strap but no gun. The only gun was possessed by the leader, it was a Zin. My brother Allen had lots of guns. Some he left behind in our survival stash. One of those was a Zin. My plan was to kill the man with the weapon first, then use the 12 shot Zin to finish off the other two. If everything went smooth I might not have to fire a shot, maybe the knives would silence them all quickly just using the knife.
After the lights went out I went to various windows and listened. No one was talking and I could hear what may have been the leader snoring.
For survival one has to look for weakness in the enemy. One weakness is going to sleep in a house where you just enslaved a family. Another was putting your gun on the other side of your room from the bed you turned back.
Allen would think, if he were here, ’What are the reasons one truck stayed behind.’ Maybe they knew there were sons? Maybe they think they can capture my brothers and me? Maybe they have night vision glasses and maybe there were four trucks. They may be watching me now.
I had been poking around the outside of the house, but I snuck away back to my lookout, and then I was going to where my stash of food and weapons were. I went in circles around the area before I departed for my stash, and I found the 4th truck hidden down the road. I found a hideout a distance from the truck and watched that truck.
After watching for maybe an hour I saw one man stand up and pee on a tree. Two men I finally realized were sleeping near the truck.
Then two hours after I was in my hiding place near the truck was established, a man came noisily thru the underbrush and said in what he thought was a whisper, “One of them went up to the house. It was a kid, but he didn’t try to get in. It’s now your watch Harry you take the goggles and go stay awake at the house.”
Harry was very noisy as he left their camp. I never got on my feet as I trailed him until he was at his post and putting on the night goggles. It really was not fair sneaking up on him Indian like, and he never got out a word. The knife was so sharp I almost cut his whole head off. I had never killed a person before, and my brother Billy was right in saying, ‘We’re all just big sacks of blood. He was too fat for me to pull somewhere and hide so I stripped everything of use off him, especially his night goggles and gun. He also had lots of ammo.
There were neat things in his pockets like hard candy and money. He must have been free like Suit, this Harry because he had a wallet with money in it.
All his valuable stuff went in my pockets. I had hidden my school books, but after the first good rain they would be ruined. I didn’t need the books anyway. They had little of value in them about cutting throats. Since books that explained nature and what was alive in water — that was good stuff; much of textbook exercises and readings were just garbage and had nothing to do with nothing.
I figured there were only 3 men at the truck taking turns watching the house. Inside the house were 3 more planning to trap anyone who tried to get in.
Of course one had lost his head already. I had done real well I was just eleven years old and in the 6th grade, or had been in grade 6.
So with my new night goggles cleaned and on I went back and watched the truck. One of the men was inside a sleeping bag and one was laying dressed on his bag. I watched for 2 more hours and when went to work with my two knives. They were really sharp. The gun I didn’t need for 2 sleeping men, and they were close to each other, their weapons were not reachable. Of course the sleeping bag guy could have had a knife, but a sleeping bag was like being tied up.
I crawled to them slowly without making a sound and cut one throat and went quickly to the next throat. I was gathering up their wallets and their guns when I heard noses from the truck. I didn’t imagine anyone was in the truck. I looked quickly in the drivers compartment with a gun ready. I now had 3 guns and ammo. There was no one hiding there, and the back of the vehicle was latched. I waited and listened, and ate a Hershey bar that was a little bloody, but blood is nutritious. Blood didn’t spoil the taste of the good old chocolate bar.
I got close to the truck and heard sounds.
Finally I opened the truck back with a gun ready to shoot. It could be a trick, I guess. Anything could be possible I surely didn’t know everything.
I looked in with my night goggles and saw ten chained men and three boys. All were naked and bowing on the floorboard.
I recognized none of them, they were strangers, but unfortunate humans like my family, so I said, “Look I’m Jake Malone and I want to free yo so you can help me kill the rest of the people who enslaved you. I found keys in the pockets of the people I’ve already killed.”
“We can’t see you.” one man said, “and you sound like a young boy.”
“I am a young boy do you want me to free you or not? I can see you with night vision goggles.”
None of them said anything until one man younger than the rest said, “We owed a debt and I had my whole family surrender as slaves. I am resigned to be someones slave, I don’t want to escape.”
“Don’t you know son,” an older man said, “that these people are a bank. They will hunt you down and kill you, and if we help you we will also be killed. I’m of a mind to just stay in chains until I’m sold.”
“Look at it my way,” I said “I’ve killed 3 of these people who enslaved you If they catch you they will think you helped me. I have 3 more people to kill in the house, my old house.”
“I would rather stay on the truck chained and be a slave, ” the old man said.
“I’m going to burn up this truck,” I said, “if any of you want to be slaves, you can go with the rest of us, and be our slaves. You three boys want to be free don’t you?”
“I’ll do whatever my father does,” the smallest boy said.
The largest boy said, “They killed my father but I will go as your slave, and then when they catch us you can say, ‘This boy was just my slave. I don’t want to burn up in a truck.”
“I’ll go as your slave to,” the younger man said. I threw the keys to the younger man and said, “Unlock yourself then give the keys to the boy who also wants to be my slave. You two get outside the truck as soon as possible. I can’t stand the shit stink of being in here.”
“But master only you can see the chains and locks,” the young man said..
“Feel in the shit you’re sitting in for the lock. I see you have the keys I threw in your hand. When you have unlocked yourself then give the key to the boy who wants to also be my slave. What is your name slave boy?”
“Matthew master,” the boy said.
“OK give the keys to Matthew he will also find the key to unlock himself. Then Mathew you have the keys to any of the others who would rather not sit in their shit, and you come out of th truck with what is your name slave man?”
“Johnny Albertson master.”
“Look the rest of you are not locked in the truck and you can slide out in your chains if you wish and sit on the ground until someone comes and sells you at some slave auction. One of my brothers told me that women always castrate male slaves. So you can sit and wait till some one decides to snip off your family jewels.”
“You’ve got a smart mouth for a little boy the same older man said.”
It was 20 minutes before Matthew and Johnny were standing outside the truck.
I had gone thru the cab of the truck and took out everything useful, and I had the pants off one of the dead guys for Johnny to wear. Mathew I let wear a pair of undershorts tied with a piece of rope.
“What about the others?” I said, “are they coming out?” I asked.
“No master,” Mathew said, “they all decided to let be what will be.”
One thing about having slaves was that they carried all the stuff not me. All I carried was a pistol and water bottle. I loaded them both down with a rifle, all the ammo and food. Much of it I tied on them like pack animals.
It was not far back to my house on the lake.
At sunrise the head slave came out of the house and looked all around, maybe for tracks. I’m sure I left tracks in the night. That man was carrying my father’s rifle. I had not thought about him getting my father’s weapons. It was hidden; actually my father must have been forced to reveal the hiding place, there was no other way to find it.
With the rifle Johnny had carried for me I shot him right in his head. The report of the rifle was heard inside the house, but maybe his slaves were still sleeping. Just coming out the door or looking out a window you wouldn’t see him. He was laying right at the corner of the house. One hour later both slaves came running out of the house one with the pistol in his hand. I did the easy stomach shot with him. the other one got to the dead slave with my father’s rifle and had it in his hand when I did an upper torso hit.
I didn’t think slaves got bulletproof vests. Then I walked to my house letting the slaves go way out in front to take a hit if anyone else was lurking around. They were real slaves and did what they were told.
After they were dressed Johnny bowed at my feet and said, “Master could you take the neck collars off the dead slaves, and put them on us?
And so in the early hours of the morning I saw how freedom and Constitution were something written in the 6th grade civics text, but nothing that most men or boys would lift a sharpened knife over. Those I found who wanted slavery over freedom had their chance and deserved their fates.
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Ray Cates is a teacher and writer in Ocala Florida. Some of his other stories with links are: http://unsightlyteeth.wordpress.com http://maybekillyou.wordpress.com http://goconstitution.wordpress.com
