Read Online The Quest: Countdown to Armageddon: Book 6 by Darrell Maloney - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Darrell Maloney
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Texas.
Other plots were laid out in a more traditional backyard garden form, with rows of beans, peppers and watermelons.
By working together, the twenty two surviving residents of Baker Street were able to grow plenty of food to sustain everyone, and to trade for clothing and medication and other essentials from bands of traveling merchants.
“Why trade with merchants?” Tom asked. “Why not just scavenge for goods yourself?”
“Well, sometimes we do. I mean, it all comes from the same place. Sometimes Tony and a couple of the guys put backpacks on and ride their bicycles up and down the highways and root through the abandoned trucks for goods, just like the merchants do.
“And sometimes they bring back some good stuff. But as time goes by, more and more of the trucks they find have been picked clean. The only things that are left are the things nobody has any use for. Cases of paper clips and pallets of kitty litter and that kind of stuff.
“The traveling merchants, on the other hand, have developed a network of sorts. They hire teenagers and young men with lots of stamina, who travel farther to the trucks that haven’t been picked clean yet. Some of them have pack horses now, and they’ll go on a two or three day ride, and then come back with eight or ten pack horses loaded down with anything and everything.”
Sara asked, “What they’re doing is technically stealing. Does anybody have any heartburn with that?”
“Not since the proclamation.”
“What proclamation?”
“I guess you guys were so isolated up there in Kerrville you never heard about it. About a year or so ago the United States Congress passed a law that declared anything abandoned since the blackout was now community property and free for the taking. The same applied for businesses like supermarkets and department stores that had closed when the blackout occurred and still had stuff on their shelves.”
Tom scoffed.
“Well, it was darn nice of Congress to legalize what the people were already doing anyway.”
“Right. And people would have kept on doing it even if Congress hadn’t passed the law. They essentially made it legal to loot, as long as you didn’t hurt anybody doing it.”
Sara was confused.
“And that made things better how, exactly?”
“Well, in several ways, actually. For the police, it freed them up from having to arrest everyone they saw leaving a deserted supermarket with a can of soup. That allowed them more time to work real crimes, like murders and assaults and rapes and such.
“And crimes against people actually went down tremendously. People stopped stealing from each other to a large degree.”
“Really? How so?”
“Well, put yourself in the marauder’s shoes. He could break into somebody’s house and hold them at gunpoint while his buddies ransacked the place. And he’d run the risk of the homeowner pulling out a hidden gun and blowing them away. Or, he ran the risk of getting the stuff they were after and going outside just to get arrested by the police.
“Or… he and his gang could just go up the street to the abandoned supermarket, or to the abandoned tractor trailer three blocks away, and take the same stuff without the danger. And if the cops showed up, they were likely just looking for their own meal.”
“Interesting.”
“Oh, it gets better. Congress put stipulations on things, like for example nobody was allowed to lay claim to mass quantities of stuff, unless you were permitted to do so.”
“Permitted why ?”
“Well, say for example, you came across a truck full of flour that was once destined for a bakery. Pallets and pallets of fifty pound bags. That would be way too much for any single person, or any single family, to use.
“But if the
Other plots were laid out in a more traditional backyard garden form, with rows of beans, peppers and watermelons.
By working together, the twenty two surviving residents of Baker Street were able to grow plenty of food to sustain everyone, and to trade for clothing and medication and other essentials from bands of traveling merchants.
“Why trade with merchants?” Tom asked. “Why not just scavenge for goods yourself?”
“Well, sometimes we do. I mean, it all comes from the same place. Sometimes Tony and a couple of the guys put backpacks on and ride their bicycles up and down the highways and root through the abandoned trucks for goods, just like the merchants do.
“And sometimes they bring back some good stuff. But as time goes by, more and more of the trucks they find have been picked clean. The only things that are left are the things nobody has any use for. Cases of paper clips and pallets of kitty litter and that kind of stuff.
“The traveling merchants, on the other hand, have developed a network of sorts. They hire teenagers and young men with lots of stamina, who travel farther to the trucks that haven’t been picked clean yet. Some of them have pack horses now, and they’ll go on a two or three day ride, and then come back with eight or ten pack horses loaded down with anything and everything.”
Sara asked, “What they’re doing is technically stealing. Does anybody have any heartburn with that?”
“Not since the proclamation.”
“What proclamation?”
“I guess you guys were so isolated up there in Kerrville you never heard about it. About a year or so ago the United States Congress passed a law that declared anything abandoned since the blackout was now community property and free for the taking. The same applied for businesses like supermarkets and department stores that had closed when the blackout occurred and still had stuff on their shelves.”
Tom scoffed.
“Well, it was darn nice of Congress to legalize what the people were already doing anyway.”
“Right. And people would have kept on doing it even if Congress hadn’t passed the law. They essentially made it legal to loot, as long as you didn’t hurt anybody doing it.”
Sara was confused.
“And that made things better how, exactly?”
“Well, in several ways, actually. For the police, it freed them up from having to arrest everyone they saw leaving a deserted supermarket with a can of soup. That allowed them more time to work real crimes, like murders and assaults and rapes and such.
“And crimes against people actually went down tremendously. People stopped stealing from each other to a large degree.”
“Really? How so?”
“Well, put yourself in the marauder’s shoes. He could break into somebody’s house and hold them at gunpoint while his buddies ransacked the place. And he’d run the risk of the homeowner pulling out a hidden gun and blowing them away. Or, he ran the risk of getting the stuff they were after and going outside just to get arrested by the police.
“Or… he and his gang could just go up the street to the abandoned supermarket, or to the abandoned tractor trailer three blocks away, and take the same stuff without the danger. And if the cops showed up, they were likely just looking for their own meal.”
“Interesting.”
“Oh, it gets better. Congress put stipulations on things, like for example nobody was allowed to lay claim to mass quantities of stuff, unless you were permitted to do so.”
“Permitted why ?”
“Well, say for example, you came across a truck full of flour that was once destined for a bakery. Pallets and pallets of fifty pound bags. That would be way too much for any single person, or any single family, to use.
“But if the
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