The day after: An apocalyptic morning (172 page)

              "In the office," Alice told her without hesitation. "She's alone."

              "I see," Madeline said. "And whose side are you on, Alice? You've been her assistant since the revolution."

              "You know whose side I'm on," she told her.

              Madeline nodded, smiling a little. Yes, she did know whose side Alice was on. It had been Alice who had been providing her with information about Jessica's drinking and partying habits the entire time. It had been Alice who had described, in horrified disgust, the events involving Greg Rollins the other night. "I do," she said to her now. "I just wanted everyone else to hear it. Is the office locked?"

              "It's open," Alice said. "She's pretty drunk. She drank bloody Marys all morning. She just switched to screwdrivers about a half hour ago."

              "Thanks, Alice," Madeline said. She walked forward, heading for the office door. Her group tagged behind her, staying about five feet back. Keeping the gun down alongside her right hip, she put her left hand on the door and slowly opened it.

              The office was neat but smelled strongly of stale sweat and alcohol fumes. Jessica sat behind her desk, a pile of paperwork scattered before her. A bottle of Popov vodka sat on the corner of the desk next to a bucket of ice and a half-gallon pitcher of orange juice. On the opposite corner sat a clear cocktail glass. The mixture inside of it was very pale, almost transparent. Jessica looked up at the intrusion, her bloodshot eyes taking in her visitor. Alarm showed on her face and she began to reach for the walkie-talkie.

              "It won't do you any good," Madeline told her, stepping into the room. She kept the gun pointed downward, alongside her leg, in a non-threatening though clearly visible position. "The guards outside are mostly in favor of my presence here. Those that aren't have been removed or will be shortly."

              "Alice!" Jessica yelled, the alarm in her face growing deeper.

              "Alice is with us as well," Madeline said, stepping closer. Behind her, the other women entered the room, filing in one by one and forming up near the back wall.

              "What do you think you're doing?" Jessica said, the alarm changing to fury. Her words however, were quite slurred as she spoke.

              "We are removing you from power," Madeline said. "You will be taken into custody pending a community-wide assembly in which your fate will be discussed."

              "You can't do that," she said. "How dare you come in here and..."

              "I am doing this," Madeline said. "In the interests of town safety, I am removing you from office and resuming my duties as security chief. I will assume command of the town until such time as we can elect a more suitable leader than yourself."

              "Guards!" Jessica screamed. "Get in here! Get these bitches out of my office!"

              "You can scream all you want, Jess," Madeline said. "But you will stand up right now and accompany me downstairs. We will meet tonight and discuss your fate and your future place in this town."

              "Get out of my office," she hissed, venom in her eyes. "I am the leader of this town and you can not just come in here and tell me you're taking over. I was elected to lead these people and I will lead them as I see fit!"

              "Consider this a recall vote then," Madeline said, taking a step closer. "Now stand up."

              "You can't do this!" she screamed. "You'll hang for this! Even worse, you'll burn for this! I'll do to you what we did to that asshole Barnes, do you understand me? Guards! Get in here!"

              Madeline said nothing, she just continued to stare. The women behind her did the same. No guards entered the room.

              "Guards!" Jessica screamed again.

              "Stand up, Jess," Madeline said. "It's time to go."

              "I won't go!" she yelled. "Do you hear me, you little bitch? This is my town! Mine! Nobody is going to take me away from it! NO ONE!"

              Madeline raised her gun up and pointed it at her. "Stand up," she repeated.

              Jessica actually trembled in place for a moment as she stared at the weapon being pointed at her. "This isn't over," she said. "I'll talk to them tonight. I'll convince them. I'll see you burn for this, you little cunt!"

              "You'll be given a chance to speak," Madeline assured her. "Now stand up. Don't make this go any harder than it has to."

              At last, Jessica stood up. Holstered to her right hip was a .40 caliber pistol. She made no move towards it.

              Madeline stood aside, continuing to point the gun at her. "Disarm her, search her, and take her downstairs," she said to the other women. "Keep her under guard until tonight."

              Jessica offered no physical resistance as she was disarmed and searched (a .25 caliber pistol was found in a small holster on her ankle). What she did do was threaten every single woman in the room by name, telling each of them that they would burn or hang or be exiled or be cast into a room alone and naked with the remaining men. The women exhibited remarkable restraint in the face of these threats. Not a single one struck her or handled her roughly or even spoke back to her. Finally, still ranting and raving (and stumbling - the vodka had made her unsteady on her feet), she was led away, down the staircase, past the other workers in the building, and into a locked storage room. Two armed guards from outside took up position outside the door.

              "What now?" asked Kathy, who had found her way inside at some point.

              "Now," said Madeline, who was still holding the Glock in her right hand, "I have to get control of the guard force."

              "The guard force?" she asked.

              "The guard force," she confirmed. "Remember that most of them are Jessica loyalists now. They may not be competent, but they have control of a good number of our automatic weapons. If they decide to fight for her, we could have problems."

              "Oh..." Kathy said slowly. She hadn't thought about that. "How are you going to do it?"

              "Quickly," she said. "Very quickly. Before the rumors have a chance to work their way out there."

              Madeline rapidly found all of the former guard members that had been removed from their positions by Jessica. Since most of them were part of the crowd that had gathered, it was not too daunting of a task. She led them to the armory and distributed weapons to them, giving each a pistol and an automatic rifle. She divided them into teams and gave each team leader a radio. As they loaded and checked their weapons she explained to them how they were going to do it. There were no questions.

              "Let's get it done then," she said, shouldering her own M-16.

              They fanned out in groups of two and three, each group heading for one of the guard posts. Madeline went to the nearest post - that of the bridge approach - driving there with her two teammates in a panel truck that was normally used for wood gathering. Jessica's replacement leader - who was in custody at the moment - was not in the habit of keeping accurate rosters of who was on duty at any given moment. As a result, Madeline had no idea who she was going to find out there or even how many. When she was in charge she had staffed the bridge approach with three women but it was entirely possible that someone had a hangover or was planning on attending a party tonight and had therefore no-showed.

              Madeline hung back until she was sure that all of her other teams were in position. She then told Annie Groton, the driver, to move across the bridge. It took them less than two minutes before they were parked below the hill that guarded this part of town.

              "Remember the plan," Maddie told her people as they exited the panel truck and began climbing up the hill towards the overlook.

              They were challenged before they could make it more than a hundred feet. A group of people packing automatic weapons tended to alarm those on guard duty, competent or not. Madeline, listening in on the guard frequency with a portable radio, heard Lorene Morgan - one of Jessica's appointees - trying to call in for assistance.

              "Base, are you there?" she cried, her voice scared. "There are a group of women led by Maddie coming up the hill right now. They have guns! Did you send them out here? What's going on?"

              "Base, position three here," said another voice on the frequency. "I have a group of four women with guns approaching my position. What's going on?"

              Two other positions quickly radioed in as well, in both cases the voices belonging to Jessica loyalists.

              "This is Maddie," Madeline said into the radio as she and her team continued to walk upward. "I'm addressing all guard positions, all guards, so listen up. Jessica Blakely has been forcibly removed as leader of this community. The charges are gross incompetence, dereliction of duty, and abuse of power. There will be a community meeting tonight in the high school football stadium, at which point her fate will be decided by a popular vote of all town women. She will be given the opportunity to defend herself before you all.

              "In the meantime, I'm assuming command of the guard force. Now you can debate my actions tonight at the community meeting and I will follow whatever the popular opinion is. For the time being however, I'm in charge of you all and I expect you to follow my orders. And here they are: All guards currently on duty who have not - I repeat not been through the training course that I gave after the revolution - put down your firearms right now and go back to town. You will be replaced by other guards that were removed from the detail by Jessica for reasons other than incompetence of duty. If you do as I say without resistance, you will not be persecuted or punished in any way for your actions. If you do not do as I say, then I will order your removal by force if necessary.

              "As for the rest of you, those that have gone through my training course - I will ask you to make a choice at this time. If you are willing to follow my orders until such time as I am officially removed from the position of guard leader, than you may stay at your posts. If you feel that you are unwilling to work under my rules - and all of you have experienced my rules before - then I ask you to do as the untrained guards and surrender your weapons right now. As with them, if you do this, you will not be punished or persecuted.

              "Now, I imagine many of you out there that are friends of Jessica are asking yourselves why you should do as I command. Jessica removed me from my position a few days ago and I have no authority under her rule to command any of you. What I will say in response to this is that while I am not acting with Jessica's consent, I am acting with the consent of the majority of the town. I'm talking about the common women, those that never had a chance to talk to Jessica, that sat in the background while she reigned, that were not within her circle of friends as many of you are. I will say that this group I represent makes up the majority of this town and that they applaud my actions. Resistance to them would not be a good way of remaining in their graces. Coming up to your positions right now are armed women that are loyal to me. They will take over the duties and take possession of the weapons of those of you that no longer wish to remain on the detail. They will assume these positions by force if necessary. Let's try not to make it necessary."

              Madeline took a deep breath, keeping the radio keyed up. "Ladies, whether you were close to Jessica or not, you have to know that she is not fit to lead this town. You also have to know that the guard force, in it's current condition, does not have a hope in hell of defeating the men when they return. And those men will be here any time now - they could be marching towards the last hill right now. Let's not fight among ourselves and lose this town to them. Those of you who do not belong on the detail, do us a favor and drop your weapons peacefully. Those of you who were Jessica's patrons, either do the same or remain at your posts. Let the town decide what to do with me and what to do with Jessica.

              "That's all I have to say. My people are heading to your posts. If you shoot at them or try to stop them, they will shoot back."

              With that, Madeline put the radio back on her belt. No transmission came over it, either in support of her or against her. She and her team continued walking up the hill to the guard bunker. They could have been picked off at any time, but they weren't. When they got up there they found Lorene Morgan standing next to Hope Chadwick. Their hands were empty and their rifles were resting at the bottom of the trench.

              "I'm glad you chose the right path," Madeline told them, holding out her hand for their sidearms.

              They both handed them over while the two real guards picked up their rifles. "I don't like this, Maddie," Lorene said. "I don't like this at all. I'm going to vote for the harshest penalty for you tonight."

              "Me too," Hope said. "I only dropped my gun because I didn't want to get in a gunfight."

              "Vote any way you like," Madeline told them. "That's what democracy is all about, isn't it? But why don't you ask yourselves a question before you cast that vote? Why don't you ask yourself if you're mad about me removing Jessica because you think she's a great leader or because you know that you're going to lose your special privileges and be treated just like everyone else?"