About 11 o'clock we retreated to Martha's kitchen for lunch. I decided to reveal my plan I had for dealing with the gangs I knew would be coming again.

"Der, you come from Watts by way of your dad and grandfather. Did they ever tell you how bad it was when the Brown Lions and other gangs came to the neighborhood?"

"Dad never told me anything, but I heard a little bit from grandpa. The crack cocaine problem in the 1980s was when it really got bad and the Blods and Grips formed and fought over all that money. No one was safe."

"It's worse today with all of those immigrant gangs that formed for protection and then, while gaining power with numbers, have begun warring and terrorizing. The way I see it, they have no skills to fend for themselves when the power goes out, there is no running water, and food is no longer easy to find in stores or rotten. I see them surviving by doing what those guys did last night. We have to help the good and eliminate the bad, I'm afraid to say. Law enforcement won't do it for us anymore.

"Der, did you get a line on those guys last night?"

"I gave it to Wondah before we went to get the bodies."

Wondah was glad to help out… "From the pictures that Derek gave me, I easily found out from the tattoos. It's a gang from Belize that calls itself the Blips, affiliated with the Grips in Belize City and here. They're one of the most vicious in all of LA. They are located off Washington just north of the 10, not far from here."

Derek interjected… "I remember a job we were working on in that neighborhood two years ago. Had to drive by that place every day on our way to and from the job. Really bad neighborhood." He shook his head.

I said, "I think we have a way to teach them a lesson. Dad's decommissioned Abrams tank he got in an auction after the Iraqi war from Fort Ord is in the yard."

"Isn't that a bit extreme?" Derek was doubtful.

"We don't know what we're up against. I think for now we'll have to hold them off. But in time, when they can't find water, food or gasoline, they will begin to die again and get even more desperate. I hate to say it, but we must meet force with force.

"Dad bought the tank for military parades since he was a Marine veteran of that war. He had it made fully capable by a company that did that sort of thing. We went out on a Nevada firing range one time when I was 16. I got to drive the tank and dad fired off a few rounds from the big gun. It was deafening. We still have that ammunition as well as some rockets and ammunition for the two machine guns.

"What I'm proposing is that we go get the tank that has rubber treads on it, go to where they are, and make sure that they don't come back here, ever again. As unfortunate as it may seem, we will be at war between good and evil. What do you all think?"

Derek spoke first. "I know that dad would disapprove, hoping there was a better way. But I know you're right. I'm in. You will have to tell me how to operate the firepower while you are driving." He still sounded scared of the whole prospect and looked it.

"Normally, operating that tank requires intensive training, but I'll show you how to do it and I know you can because these kinds of things are easy for you to do and you do them better than me. It's just like driving the heavy equipment you do well already " I reassured him.

"Can I come along?" Melody excitedly asked.

"Yes, you can drive us there and then follow us on the way back. If something goes wrong, we will have to count on you to get us back here. Okay?"

"Okay."

Wondah spoke up again. "Can I come along too? I'd love to learn how to fire one of those guns. I'm pretty good at those online war games. The thought of handling all that firepower? Wow!"

She had ambushed me. "I was thinking I'd have you stay here and begin installing that wi-fi network of cameras and monitors, as well as remote booby-traps we can set with dynamite we can bring from the yard. But, now that you have suggested it, the tank needs three people to run it well anyway. I will put you on the machine guns."

"Cool! I won't disappoint you." She smiled a broad smile.

With a plan set in place and lunch finished, we gathered up water and other essentials after I said, "Let's roll…" Leaving me wondering, Why did I use that overused expression from the movies? Thinking about it more, I realized the phrase was appropriate.

I let Melody drive dad's truck so she could get used to it in case she had to drive it hard in an emergency I hoped wouldn't happen. This time, Wondah joined Derek in the backseat where they chatted about what kind of a defense system she would engineer. I sensed that they were flirting with each other when they talked, and I was glad for that.

Melody turned out to be a great driver, dodging growing trash in the streets along with abandoned vehicles that ran out of gas or their batteries died, left where they stalled. There was more water in the streets from broken pipes the summer heat and ground heaving had caused with no one to repair them. They would provide water for the unfortunate and gangs for a while until the water system, itself, dried up and no more water could be found in the pipes all over town.

Losing city water was a big concern of mine that I didn't tell everyone about but had a plan ready to address it in my mind. By August, LA was a desert. It wouldn't be until November before the annual rain would fall again.

Going was easier on the 10 and we arrived at the yard just past noon. We took the tarp off the tank and removed the plug keeping birds and squirrels out of the big gun barrel. We found some batteries that were well charged and replaced the four that were in the tank, still remarkably well charged when we hooked them back up to solar powered battery chargers. 

While Derek and the girls brought some ammunition to both the tank in the truck, I cranked up the engine and the diesel started with a lot of black smoke at first, but then, settled down to a steady knocking sound from the high compression cylinders. It was much louder than an 18- wheeler with little or no noise suppression from its exhaust pipes. Part of the tank's intimidation factor.

I rolled the tank out from the overhead shed it was parked under and did a spin to see how the controls operated. A cloud of dust rose and everything was good. We really were ready to roll. I took a while to show Derek how to load the big gun and fire it upon my command. And then, I showed Wondah how to operate the machine guns and fire the rockets we installed on the rocket launchers in the front of the tank. That took about an hour. And then, we were really ready to roll.

Melody not only helped us carry ammunition, she listened closely when I instructed the others on what to do inside the tank. When we were ready to go I told her…

"Melody, I want you to follow us closely and stay on the phone with us continuously so that I can give you instructions, if needed. Never get yourself boxed in where you can't turn around. Some of these streets are so full of cars that you can't turn around. Make sure that you have a place to turn around always in sight. In case you have to quickly turn around and pick us up running to you."

"I hope that doesn't happen. I wouldn't want them to get a hold of your tank." Melody replied.

"If that happens, I will try to drop a grenade in it as we leave. But, keep the truck away because there might be a terrific explosion after." We all laughed to cut the tension.

Very soon, we were on the 10 with the tank running its top speed smoothly and as silently as a rubber tread can make a tank run. As I took the Washington exit after about 5 miles, the butterflies in my stomach started to crawl up my throat and I steeled myself to carry out this mission as best I could. I tried not to let the others know my trepidation. I had to be stronger than them.

Those thoughts receded from the front of my mind by constant bantering back and forth with Melody in the truck behind. It wasn't long before we came down the street that Derek knew well. The houses along the right side of the street with their graffiti and appearance let me know that it was the real thing. Even in the tank, that unmistakable stench of rotting human flesh nearly gagged us all.

When we came up to what Derek remembered was the headquarters, an old three-story theater building, the truck from the night before, showing many bullet holes was parked in front. No one was stirring on the street and I was very  grateful for that.

"Guys," I said. "Let's focus all we've got on the building. Wondah, fire your rocket right after I have Der fire the big gun. I'll then drive up the street, turn around at the next intersection and come roaring back down this way with you firing the machine guns as we go.

"Melody, turn around at that last intersection and wait on a side street for us to come running or the tank to come by and follow.

"The big gun is aimed at the truck. Commence firing!"

I saw the truck ripped in half as the shell slammed through it into the theater behind with a force that shook the building as though it would fall down. But the rocket did the trick and the building blew up in a way that we would've been hurt or killed had we not been in the tank. Scared me!

I drove up the street to the next intersection, spun the tank around and with Wondah on one gun, and Derek on the other, we strafed the entire gang side of the street as relief flowed off my shoulders and we roared past Melody waiting for us at the next intersection. Seven miles and a half hour later, we opened the gate to the end of the street and I drove the tank up to the cul-de-sac on the end. I then backed up close to the gate leading to the Wilkes-Hodges estate with the big gun pointed down the street as an additional deterrent to future marauders.

I didn't tell anyone as they cheered in victory, that I feared we may have killed innocent women and children. But without any law anymore, we had to kill or be killed. Sad to say. I sincerely hoped that all of the bad element that was still alive would die from lack of knowledge about how to stay alive in the new world we were in. Die off peacefully, too weak to try to take anything from us again.

But I knew from what I read about history, people in the past have survived horrendous hardship and even the bad could do that. I just hoped not, so we could save the good. We were already running out of some staples. We had to continue to improvise, grow and build. Not waste any time with war anymore.

We spent what was left of the day helping Wondah install wi-fi cameras along the wall and on the walls facing the street below ours. Each camera had a solar panel hidden behind the wall to charge it and she had already started to set up a series of monitors in her office at the Rosenberg house where piercing alarms would golf when no one was watching the monitors indicating someone was moving or coming on the street down there.

From the truck, we unloaded ammunition for the tank, dynamite and electronic caps that could be set off remotely from the monitors when necessary by wi-fi. The bombs we made were encased in waterproof enclosures so they wouldn't be spotted easily by anyone looking at them and kept dry. We placed four of them down by the end of the street. We hoped we would never have to set them off because of the destruction they would cause.

After an early evening meal, something we hadn't had in days, we all retired to my place and took a swim in the buff. Derek swam up to me on one side of the pool where the girls couldn't hear.

"Drae, I'm going to leave the house tonight to sleep in my house. Wondah wants to go with me. I find her exciting, do you?"

He had a way of asking me questions like that and I wasn't sure what to say. "Now that you mention it and I've seen her over there without her glasses, jeans and male buttoned-down shirt, she is, to say the least, sexier than I thought."

"That's what I was thinking--brainy, too!” And he punched me in the shoulder, hard. I smiled.

Melody found my bed before I did and after making frantic love like the violence we had experienced that day, we both settled for sleep with some nightmares along the way.

Derek was surprised at the knowledge this little geek had about sex. She taught him a thing or two and he sure liked it. His affection growing by both her touch and his touch of her taut little body that was barely out of puberty. But even after three or four sessions where they both were satisfied, they too, drifted off to sleep.

When his phone read 4:15 am. Derek was jolted awake from a deep sleep. Wondah reached for it first, but, when she saw "Daphne" was calling, handed it to Derek with a puzzled look on her face. Thinking, Does she know we're sleeping together?

Derek sleepily looked at the phone and answered, "Hello Daphne, what…"

She interrupted him, whispering… "They're here! I'm in the woods behind the house. Uncle Louie is shooting at them and they are shooting back, lots of them." Derek could hear the guns in the background firing." He immediately put me on a three way call.

I was in a deep sleep, my mind was running through options of what was to come. The reason our phones continued to work was a result of USpan, completed in 2026, bringing in G6 software and eliminating the need for land-based relay stations and hotspots from competing companies, literally wiping them out unless they agreed to merge and share the immense profit. The solar powered satellites were in self-correcting geosynchronous orbit and would last a long time. AI ran the whole operation without the need for human intervention. But that, too, would fail in time. Everything that we relied on daily would fail.

So far, electricity had not failed in our neighborhood, but I feared that failure would come before we could make sure that all of the buildings on the street had adequate solar power to even heat the houses during the brief cold winter. Natural gas was still okay, too. But that, too, would fail in time and could become a real hazard, causing fires.

Water, of course, was our most pressing concern. Even our cisterns were inadequate for the rest of the long summer and city water would soon disappear with all of the water breaks we had been seeing in our travels. Those breaks would provide temporary water for those that didn't have any, but would present real problems for those drinking from them if the water wasn't boiled.

There was a ringing in my mind and before I realized what it was, Melody was shaking me. She handed me the phone… Derek was calling at 4:16 am! When I started to answer, I heard Daphne's voice and stopped; switched the phone to speaker so Melody could hear.

She was whispering. "We were sleeping when we heard one of uncle Louie's alarms go off and it jarred us out of bed. And then, I heard an explosion down by the road. They had set off one of his booby-traps. As I pulled on my jeans, uncle Louie yelled, 'Daphne! Go out the back door and down into the woods as far as you can go. I will be shooting at them. Hide and wait until morning before you come back or if I call you back. Hurry! Get out of here!'

"I heard a lot of shooting and yelling as I ran. I'm a long way from the house now. The shooting continued for a long time, but it isn't as loud now, maybe stopping. But I don't hear uncle Louie calling me back. Derek, what should I do?"

"Stay right where you are and wait until dawn like your uncle told you. Go to sleep if you can. Based on what you told me, I don't think your uncle will survive all the shooting. After they take what they want, they'll leave. Wait until dawn, or if he calls you. You don't want them seeing you. So sneak back very carefully. Then call me back. Okay?"

"Okay. I'll try to sleep. And call you back when it's light out. Thanks love, Bye.“

"Bye." Derek hung up.

We heard Wondah in the background. "Geez! And I was calling her for help! We need to go get her."

Derek sighed. "Yes… It looks like we'll have to go get her, again." He thought, Here comes trouble. But didn't tell her.

Melody had a puzzled look on her face checking my expression. I sighed, hung up and told her.

"Our high school prima donna. We went to save her earlier, but her uncle intervened. Let's try to get some sleep until morning. It looks like we're going to have to rescue her again putting off some things we need to do around here, pronto."

Melody put her arms around me again to comfort my thoughts. But they kept me awake anyway while she slept until the sun reflected off the light poles above the pool as the sky turned from black to blue and I knew it was dawn.

Copyright 2023 © Ronald W. Hull

4/30/23