check it out. Ask questions. Kill the evil sons-a-bitches who did it.
“Then we get word here, all around Juneau, that the border was already shut down. I go into town and see a dozen of those New United Nations vehicles Arlene had told me about a few weeks earlier. I can’t get into the Lower 48 – at least not legally. Alaska was getting taken over. The law enforcement uniforms were changed to the New United Nations. The signs were changed over. A bunch of checkpoints were put in place, they were watching you everywhere you went. The news stations, the local papers, all shut down. They did it in a matter of just a few weeks. The whole thing was changed over. You all were already living up in Dominatus by then, right? The Old Man, Dublin’s grandfather, he had seen it all coming years earlier. Not me. Not most of us. And then, it just sort of happened. We went from living in the United States of America to…something else. Something a whole lot worse.
“So I took care of my mom, but she just kind of faded off into nothing until she died a few years after what happened in Grant County. She said less and less about it until she stopped talking about anything toward the end. Just sat and stared into nothing. I took to talking a lot less myself. Everything just kind of turned inward I suppose. I made sure to make this place as self-sufficient as possible. Hunkered down here and kept to myself. The compliance officers would check in every month or so, but they didn’t seem to pay me much attention. They’d poke around a little and then be on their way.”
Reese interrupted to ask a question of Cooper.
“Did you ever make it down to Grant County? Find out for sure what happened to your wife and kids?”
Cooper Wyse took a long slow drink from his beer as Brando raised his head to look at him, seemingly also awaiting the answer to the question Reese had just asked.
“Yeah, about eight years ago. Came in through Canada - wasn’t easy but I did it. Found a relative of Arlene’s parents. Her dad’s brother who lived about ten miles from their house. It was funny, I just showed up in the evening and knocked on the back door. He opened it up, took a look at me and just said, ‘It’s about time you got here.’
“They had been expecting me to show up eventually. We talked for a little less than an hour, and then he told me I had to go. They were worried they were being watched. Everyone down there was worried about that. It was just like those movies I would see as a kid about the Cold War – the Soviet Union.
“He said a bunch of the homes around the area had been bombed at the same time the encampment was eliminated. A crew went around and collected any remains that were found and they were all just thrown into a mass grave and covered up. Arlene’s uncle knew someone who had been a part of that work and he confirmed that Arlene, her parents, and my son and daughter, what was left of them…were thrown into that grave.
“Made my way back here to my home and I waited. I waited for a chance to do something. To fight back. To destroy the thing that had taken from me everything that meant anything. So now here you all are. I have my chance to help you out, to get you to that priest in Churchill, Manitoba. To get you to the weapon that’s supposed to help destroy the New United Nations.
“I aim to do just that.”
Dublin called from the kitchen that the meal was ready. After the telling of his story, each of them had come to realize that Cooper Wyse had suffered just as much if not more than even the former residents of Dominatus had at the hands of the New United Nations. Cooper was welcomed into their group. He had become one of them.
Mac leaned forward in his seat, his eyes narrowing as he looked back at Cooper.
“We’re glad to have your help, Coop. I
“Then we get word here, all around Juneau, that the border was already shut down. I go into town and see a dozen of those New United Nations vehicles Arlene had told me about a few weeks earlier. I can’t get into the Lower 48 – at least not legally. Alaska was getting taken over. The law enforcement uniforms were changed to the New United Nations. The signs were changed over. A bunch of checkpoints were put in place, they were watching you everywhere you went. The news stations, the local papers, all shut down. They did it in a matter of just a few weeks. The whole thing was changed over. You all were already living up in Dominatus by then, right? The Old Man, Dublin’s grandfather, he had seen it all coming years earlier. Not me. Not most of us. And then, it just sort of happened. We went from living in the United States of America to…something else. Something a whole lot worse.
“So I took care of my mom, but she just kind of faded off into nothing until she died a few years after what happened in Grant County. She said less and less about it until she stopped talking about anything toward the end. Just sat and stared into nothing. I took to talking a lot less myself. Everything just kind of turned inward I suppose. I made sure to make this place as self-sufficient as possible. Hunkered down here and kept to myself. The compliance officers would check in every month or so, but they didn’t seem to pay me much attention. They’d poke around a little and then be on their way.”
Reese interrupted to ask a question of Cooper.
“Did you ever make it down to Grant County? Find out for sure what happened to your wife and kids?”
Cooper Wyse took a long slow drink from his beer as Brando raised his head to look at him, seemingly also awaiting the answer to the question Reese had just asked.
“Yeah, about eight years ago. Came in through Canada - wasn’t easy but I did it. Found a relative of Arlene’s parents. Her dad’s brother who lived about ten miles from their house. It was funny, I just showed up in the evening and knocked on the back door. He opened it up, took a look at me and just said, ‘It’s about time you got here.’
“They had been expecting me to show up eventually. We talked for a little less than an hour, and then he told me I had to go. They were worried they were being watched. Everyone down there was worried about that. It was just like those movies I would see as a kid about the Cold War – the Soviet Union.
“He said a bunch of the homes around the area had been bombed at the same time the encampment was eliminated. A crew went around and collected any remains that were found and they were all just thrown into a mass grave and covered up. Arlene’s uncle knew someone who had been a part of that work and he confirmed that Arlene, her parents, and my son and daughter, what was left of them…were thrown into that grave.
“Made my way back here to my home and I waited. I waited for a chance to do something. To fight back. To destroy the thing that had taken from me everything that meant anything. So now here you all are. I have my chance to help you out, to get you to that priest in Churchill, Manitoba. To get you to the weapon that’s supposed to help destroy the New United Nations.
“I aim to do just that.”
Dublin called from the kitchen that the meal was ready. After the telling of his story, each of them had come to realize that Cooper Wyse had suffered just as much if not more than even the former residents of Dominatus had at the hands of the New United Nations. Cooper was welcomed into their group. He had become one of them.
Mac leaned forward in his seat, his eyes narrowing as he looked back at Cooper.
“We’re glad to have your help, Coop. I
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