The Liddy Scenario by Jerry D. Young Page A

super’s keys once and had a key made for me.”
    “Oh, Brody!” Julie Anne said. “How do you two manage to stay out of jail?”
    “Practice,” Ranger said, grinning.
    “A lot of it, I bet,” Julie Anne replied, a small smile curving her lips.
    “Okay,” Brody said when he had the door open. “Over this way.”
    Brody knew his way around the basement, and all three of them had brought flashlights, so it didn’t take long to fill the containers. Julie Anne couldn’t quite handle one of them full, so she held the flashlight as Brody and Ranger carried theirs upstairs and then for Ranger when he went down for the other two. Brody was pouring water from one of the containers into the top of the Crown Berkey when they returned.
    With clean drinking water, and plenty of water to bathe with, Julie Anne didn’t object when Brody offered her a hot shower instead of a sponge bath. He heated water on the camp stove and filled a sun shower bag with the water and showed her how to use it in the tub in the bathroom.
    All three took advantage of the sun shower and then Brody and Ranger went back to the basement to refill the containers while Julie Anne pre-pared a simple meal for them all.
    They listened to Brody’s battery radio that evening before they went to bed. The news wasn’t good. Even in the Midwest, where there had been few attacks, things were getting very bad. Julie Anne, Brody, and Ranger could attest to that.
    There was tremendous loss of life, again for the same reasons the three were seeing in their city. The heat and resulting dehydration due to lack of water, lack of medical care and sanitation, even starvation as the situation continued. Violence was rampant as those most desperate made every effort they could to provide for their families, on top of the ordi-nary crime that was a part of life in modern society.
    Julie Anne went to bed, a very thoughtful look on her face.
    The next five days went much as that first one. The heat wave still had not broken and even young, normally healthy individuals were succumbing to it, lacking adequate water. When they stopped at the City Hall on that sixth day, Julie was about to enter the building when shots rang out inside.
    Startled, Julie Anne just stood there until Brody ran up the stairs and grabbed her. “Come on! Let’s get out of here!”
    “But…” Julie Anne tried to protest, but one of the front windows was smashed from a bullet coming from inside the building. It had been aimed at her. She joined Brody and Ranger in the truck and Brody sped away.
    “What is going on?” Julie Anne asked.
    “I don’t know, but I think the city government is no more,” Ranger said. “Anarchy reigns for the moment. Brody! Look out!”
    Two men, armed with rifles or shotguns, stepped out into the street from behind vehicles. Brody, with nowhere to go, floored the accelerator. One of the men got off a wild shot before the right front fender knocked him flying. The other man had jumped back in time and began firing at them as Brody made the first turn he could.
    All three of them on alert, Brody took a roundabout route back to the apartment building. When they were all in the apartment, Brody turned to look at Julie Anne and said, “Okay. Things are out of hand. I’m not risking my life or Ranger’s out in that anarchy. It’s time to bug-out. We have a place to go. You’re welcome to go with us.”
    Julie Anne’s habit of biting her lip when in difficult thought showed it-self again. “I… I… I so want to help in the city…” She took a deep breath, released it, and then continued. “But I think you are right. Until authority is reestablished in the city, it’s not going to be safe on the streets. Is there any way we can stay and try to help in the recovery, when it happens?”
    Ranger was shaking his head. “Not during this phase of the collapse. A lot of people are going to have to kill each other off before a recovery can take place. Until then it’s