Survival Rules Series (Book 2): Rules of Conflict Read online

  “Listen, I’m gonna get a little closer. Stay here. Don’t move. If you see anyone coming, get under the brush over there,” Tyler said.

  Erika reached out. “Tyler. No.”

  He waved her off. “I’ll be fine. I just need to get closer.”

  She shook her head looking around nervously.

  “Forget the animal,” Nate said.

  He shook his head. “It’s ours, I’m not losing it.”

  Before they could protest any further, he clambered to his feet and moved forward at a crouch slipping between the trees, his outfit blending in with the land around him.

  Seconds moved into minutes as he sat there listening to them talk about Whitefish and its residents. They spoke about the community like a naïve bunch of idiots. He didn’t care what they said, he was trying to figure out how to get that elk. Of course he would have walked away, called it a day but what could be gained from that? He figured if there were only two of them and he timed it right, he may be able to get the jump on them, unarm them and… Suddenly, out of a thicket of trees, Nate and Erika were shoved forward by the two men who had left only minutes earlier. Tyler’s stomach sank as he watched helplessly.

  “Found them spying on us,” the younger one of the two said, nudging them forward with the barrel of his AR-15. One of two men crouched beside the elk, rose to his feet. He was wearing tactical pants, and a backpack over a filthy jacket. He had a thick beard, and weathered skin like a homeless man who’d baked in the sun too long. His eyes were a dark brown.

  “Any more of you out there?” He asked.

  They shook their heads then Nate piped up, “You in the habit of stealing?”

  The bearded man cocked his head and glanced at the elk. “You think this is yours?”

  “We shot it.”

  “As did we.”

  “Liar,” Nate said.

  The second man, a tall, lanky individual with stringy hair down to his shoulders, stepped forward and slammed the butt of his rifle into his face. Nate buckled, and his nose burst. Erika lunged forward and wrapped an arm around him. “What the hell?”

  Tyler was tempted to take them out. He eyed the lanky one through his scope and was just itching to squeeze off a round when a hand wrapped around his mouth and pulled him back. It was fast, purposeful and deliberate. As he rolled with his attacker, he looked up to see his father holding up a finger to his lips. Nearby was Corey. His father slowly released his grip and crouched in front of him, a scowl forming on his face. “Two days back home and you’re already screwing things up.”

  “How did you find us?” Tyler asked.

  “Smoke from your fire. No doubt it was the same thing which led these gentlemen to find you. Obviously you don’t remember the lesson I gave about creating a smokeless fire pit, do you?”

  Tyler could have come back with a snappy reply but it wasn’t worth it. He expected this from him. Changed? Corey said he had changed. There was nothing different about him. A leopard couldn’t change his spots and neither could this man.

  “Get off me,” he said to his father as he tugged away his arms. His father nodded, and let him go. As soon as he was up, he turned back towards his friends. His father brushed past him making his disdain for him clearly evident. He traipsed down the incline that led to the clearing.

  “Hold your fire,” Andy said walking out of the trees with his rifle over his back and his hands raised. “I’m a friend of Jude Lawson.”

  “You are?”

  “Andy Ford.”

  One of them got on a radio while the other three fanned out, raking their rifles as if expecting more. “There has been a big misunderstanding. Those two are friends of ours. I believe this is your elk,” Andy said.

  “That it is.” The bearded guy looked at Nate.

  “It’s not his,” Tyler said before Nate did. His father gave him a stern look.

  “Now it is,” his father said.

  “He’ll be here very shortly,” the man replied.

  They waited there for several awkward minutes until they heard the sound of horses, in a matter of minutes they were surrounded on all sides by at least twenty if not more riders. A man with long flowing hair and a thick beard dismounted and made his way down. His eyes washed over them before falling on Andy.

  “Hello Andrew.”

  “Jude.”

  “Been a long time.”

  His father nodded.

  “Warren here says you think this elk is yours?”

  “A misunderstanding on the part of my son.”

  Jude looked at Tyler and Corey. “They’ve grown.”

  “As have yours,” their father replied. “Look, we were about to leave. This has all been a big misunderstanding. Again, my apologies.”

  Tyler had never seen this side of his father. He was sure he sensed real fear. Growing up, he’d never seen his father back down from an argument. It just wasn’t in his DNA. That was what struck him as odd. Who was this man?

  “Lower your weapons,” Jude said with a wave of his hand to those who had them in the crosshairs. One by one barrels dipped. Jude made his way over. “I hear the lights are out.”

  His fatter stared at him. “As if you didn’t know.”

  Another awkward pause.

  “You should have joined us, Andy.”

  “We all know that wouldn’t have worked.”

  Jude turned and looked at the men straddling horses. All of them looked dirtied with dust and grime. Although they were only a few feet away, he picked up on the aroma of body odor. When was the last time they had bathed? And how did his father know them?

  “Well we should go. We have a long way back.”

  Andy gave a nod and began backing up, motioning to Nate and Erika to head out. Tyler locked eyes with Jude. He had a sense that they would be seeing one another again. As soon as they were out of earshot, Tyler caught up with his father who had charged ahead, a look of anger on his face. “You want to tell me what that was about?”

  “It was about a kid who didn’t learn the rules.”

  “I’m not a kid anymore.”

  “No? But you’re still an amateur.”

  Tyler felt a familiar feeling of hatred boiling in his stomach. Corey glanced at him and shook his head but didn’t say anything. He was accustomed to him telling him to back down but he’d never been one to do it.

  “If I’m an amateur, then what was that back there? Seemed like a bitch move to me.”

  His father whirled around and grabbed him by the collar, a look of fury in his eyes. “You have no idea how close you came to losing your lives back there. If it wasn’t for me you wouldn’t be standing. Now show me an ounce of respect.”

  “Get off me,” he said slapping his hands away. “That shit might have flown when I was sixteen but you don’t get to do that now.”

  They stared each other down before Corey got between them. “All right. I think we’ve had our fill of conflict for one day.”

  His father turned and marched off grumbling under his breath.

  2

  Self-righteous asshole. Tyler made his way over to Corey’s alcohol cabinet and poured a stiff drink. He needed something strong to take the edge off. He couldn’t believe the nerve of his father, showing up there, humiliating him in front of Nate and Erika. Corey muttered something to his fiancé before entering the room.

  “Tyler.”

  “Who the hell was that?” Tyler asked.

  “An old friend. Someone from the past.”

  “Yeah, they didn’t seem too friendly out there.”

  “You don’t understand.”

  “No, maybe not but the rest, oh for sure. I understand well enough to know he’s still an asshole. There was no hello. No, hey son. He jumped straight down my throat.”

  “C’mon Tyler. You know he had good reason to. If he didn’t step in, you would have all been dead.”

  “Ah, our great savior. To whom all blessings and praise are due,” he said in a mocking fashion.
“We didn’t need saving.”

  “No? You were handling it, were you?”

  “Don’t speak down to me. We traveled over a thousand miles and survived worse shit than that. Trust me, a few armed men wasn’t anything to break a sweat about.”

  Corey laughed taking a step back and scanning him like a bar code. “Well look at you. All full of piss and vinegar. I like it. Vegas has done you good, brother. Or should I say, Lou has?”

  He knew what he was getting at. It was a jab at the fact that he hadn’t got a place of his own in all the time he’d been away, whereas Corey had returned from the military, got a mortgage and a fiancé, worked for search and rescue and had a baby on the way. Tyler could have called him out on it but opted to bite his tongue. There was a reason why he hadn’t bought his own place and it had little to do with inability and everything to do with his mental health.

  “All I’m saying is I’m not going to the cabin tonight. So whatever idea he had of me returning, he can forget about it.”

  “Well you can’t stay here.”

  “Why not? You and Ella are packed to leave today. This place will be empty.”

  Corey sighed and sidled up to him. “Exactly. All the supplies we need are at the cabin. There isn’t anything here except a few boxes of opened food. All the cans are now at dad’s place. What’s your plan? To scavenge and loot?”

  “We’ll do whatever we need to survive.”

  “Oh I don’t doubt you can survive, Tyler, but it worries me that you will drag those two into a situation they can’t walk out of. What then?”

  Tyler didn’t say anything.

  Corey sighed and ran a hand over his head. “Look, I know…”

  “No, no, no. Wait. You don’t know shit, Corey,” Tyler said turning around fast. “You don’t know because in his eyes you can do no wrong. But me? I have always fallen short. I always will. I don’t want to be around that. Why the hell do you think I traveled all the way to Vegas? For the past nine years it has been like night and day. And in that time I’ve come to understand what are healthy relationships and what are abusive.”

  “Then why the hell would you return to Whitefish?”

  Tyler downed his drink and dipped his chin. “Because of Lou.”

  “Really?” He paused. “What did Lou say?”

  Tyler exhaled hard. “It doesn’t matter. Okay.” He put his glass down and walked over to the window to look out at the deserted street. “It’s been five days, what’s happening?”

  “I’ve been invited to a meeting today, I’ll find out. The mayor and a representative from Flathead County Emergency Management will be updating the town, discussing planning, coordinating and implementing emergency management. The team is meant to be setting up an operation center here in the town to coordinate resources for the community.”

  Tyler nodded. “Is he going?”

  “No. He won’t be there.”

  “Typical. As long as he’s taken care of, that’s all that matters.”

  “You don’t know what he’s done for this town, Tyler.”

  “Oh please. When I left, his reputation was in rags. But go ahead, wow me with his recent glowing exploits.”

  He waited expecting Corey to say nothing but then he said, “Do you remember Mitch Sampson and that time we went without that generator?”

  “And?”

  “Sampson wasn’t the only person dad helped. I got speaking to a number of people down at the local police station. In the past five years, he often provided them with supplies and resources, free of charge. He also made a number of considerable donations after the apartments over on the west side burned down. He helped a lot of families, Tyler.”

  “Well, isn’t he the philanthropist.”

  Corey frowned. “Tyler.”

  “Let me guess, he found God? Is that right?”

  “Don’t be sarcastic.”

  “Well what other reason would there be for change? Free beer? Or is it just the weight of guilt from having been such an asshole for so long, that he’s making up for lost time?”

  Corey grabbed him by the bicep. “Hey. He might have overstepped the line when we were growing up, but he’s still our father.”

  “Yeah, dang.” He sucked air in between his teeth. “I forgot to send him a Father’s Day card this year. I must remember to put that at the top of my to-do list,” he said sarcastically, heading for the doorway.

  “He won’t be happy with you being here.”

  “Oh, please, when has he ever been happy? Really. When? The only time I remember him smiling and laughing was when mom was alive. That was the last time I remember having a father. Look, if you want to play happy family, great. You do that. In the meantime I’ll stay here.”

  “And your friends?” Corey asked.

  “You saw the way he looked at them. Like they were a burden, an extension of me. It’s better they stay here. Of course, if that’s okay with you? I mean, we can find our own accommodation if need be. I would hate to put you out.”

  Corey chuckled. “Still the wise ass. It’s fine. Though I want you to reconsider.” He breathed in deeply and pushed back the drapes to get a better look outside. “I’ll swing by later this evening to drop off a care package.”

  Tyler nodded, drummed the doorway with his fingers and then walked out.

  It was a disorganized mess. City hall was packed with locals ready to voice their concerns. Frustrated murmurs spread throughout the room. A mixed bag of blue-collar workers, baby boomers and young families were offered free hot coffee on the way in as if that would somehow win them over. Corey knew the meeting was a joke from the start. He’d already had a conversation with Chief Bruce about the current situation and in no uncertain terms he had explained they were scrambling and unprepared.

  They lacked answers.

  They lacked resources.

  And they weren’t sure how long they could maintain order.

  No, it was more about appearances, and putting out fires, than it was delivering satisfying answers. They had no clue what had caused the blackout, and that was why he agreed to show. His father disagreed. “The longer they remain in the dark the better off we are,” he’d said. “Get ahead of the curve. Hunt, fish, set up traps, prepare just like Jude’s men already had.” Jude Lawson headed up a camp of preppers north of Whitefish. The group had been created and led by Jude and his father until the two of them had a falling out. Over what? His father wouldn’t say.

  Getting ahead of the curve had been the reason why his father had so many damn rules. And so far he hadn’t been wrong. However, Corey couldn’t in good faith turn his back on the people of Whitefish. It was home and that meant something even if his father couldn’t see it. It wasn’t just about the past or the present, but about building a future for his child. Soon, Ella would give birth and he didn’t want to bring his daughter into a world of uncertainty, violence and mayhem. The community was only as strong as its individuals, and if they neglected one another it would collapse and he wasn’t ready to see the town fall.

  Mayor Ted Hudgens, a smartly dressed, barrel-chested man with thinning gray hair, was joined by six city council members, the chief of police, the fire marshal and around ten volunteers from the city board and committee. They were trying to show a united front, a sense of control, but he knew the moment they opened up the floor for questions the rug would slip out from underneath them. Although he was invited, he was told by Chief Bruce not to say anything unless requested. They didn’t want to scare the people any more than they were. A foolish decision, he thought. They were in blackout conditions, had no vehicles, the gasoline pumps were shut down, communication no longer worked, if that hadn’t scared them, he couldn’t imagine what else would.

  “Settle down. Settle down,” Mayor Hudgens said stepping up to the front and speaking through a handheld megaphone. His voice boomed and he adjusted the volume. Corey scanned the cramped room. It didn’t hold many, but at a rough head count there had to have been at least
two hundred that had crammed into there. Many others were in the overflow outside. Officers were posted throughout to ensure order. He didn’t envy their job. “I’m sure you have a lot of questions and I would ask that you save them until the end of the meeting.”

  “Why have you waited this long?” someone in the crowd yelled.

  “That would be a question. However, I will answer it. With any outage there is a process that the city has to go through to determine the cause. As our only means of communicating was by way of landline for the first few days and surrounding towns were in the same situation, most of our time was taken up with emergency calls. We have been in the dark just like you as to what has caused this.”

  “What has caused it?” a gruff male yelled, cutting him off.

  “Sir. Please. We will get to that.”

  “Why are the landlines not working now?”

  The questions just kept coming. No matter how he attempted to keep it on track, he was being derailed at every turn. No one was patient, no one was willing to wait. All they wanted was answers. Corey was biting at the bit to tell them. He looked at Chief Bruce for the go-ahead but he simply shook his head. The general consensus was that knowing what had caused it would have little if any benefit unless it was a direct threat to people’s health, like a biohazard, and from what they’d experienced over the past five days, if it was nuclear, they had yet to see the effects of poisoning as far north as they were. There was a strong possibility that the slipstream had carried it south. Though, that was going on the basis that it had been caused by a high-altitude nuclear explosion. There were other ways that the power grid could come down and they had received little information from FEMA, the military or anyone even though his father had searched the airwaves and had been in contact with Lou using a ham radio.

  That fact was it didn’t change the situation. They were still in the dark, without power and unable to communicate.

  “Again I would ask you to please hold your question until the end, thank you. Now I would like to hand over the meeting to Heather from Flathead County Emergency Management.” He motioned to her and she stepped up to the front and took the megaphone from him. Heather was a middle-aged, flat chested brunette with a face like vinegar.