More on what was happening at home as I was taking a cake walk in the desert without a care in the world…

Back in Cruces by the end of the first week society had gone from “day off” to block party to martial law and headed towards tribalism. Stands to reason, the most basic element of societal organization is tribe, after the family unit. Within the tribe there are both individuals and families. But, the most basic tribe is a family. Here at home tribes were being formed rather quickly to deal with the growing crisis.

Ray’s little kingdom was strengthening and Ray’s power was growing because he appeared to be a strong leader. Little did people know that he was a master manipulator not a leader. In his pre-event life he was nothing more than an insurance salesman that was also an alcoholic…an ugly drunk.

After ten days of the world going down the toilette Matt ask Lisa if they could move in. The cops had showed up on his doorstep to collect the “tax” on day eight. The first mistake he made was asking them for a warrant. Then they shoved their way in the door…Ooopppssss. The second mistake was his son-in-law came running to the door when he heard the commotion and he was promptly knocked to the floor. Third mistake were the guns sitting around out in the open. Matt lost all his guns that day. It was the “sentence” for his resisting martial law. And the final mistake…most of Matt’s food was out in the open where it could be seen. He had wanted to be organized and warehouse his food. Not smart. Matt was left with a single can of pork and beans. When his daughter started screaming at them she was backhanded to the floor. And that caused Matt and his son-in-law to jump up and try to intervene. They both got the crap kicked out of them and all the guns and food ended-up in a couple of police “tax carts” heading to who knows where.

Lisa said of course they could move in. It added six mouths to feed but we had the food to handle that. The upside was Matt and Daniel to help with security. They did make the decision that the new arrivals would keep a low profile, not attend any of King Ray’s meetings, and stay out of sight when the tax police showed up. Hansen’s also liked the idea of having some more trustworthy people around. They would all eat the evening meal together. And yes, Lisa got back in the gun safe and dug out a few more weapons to re-arm everyone.

Everything worked out for a week or so until King Ray figured out what was going on, and of course he busted them in a face-to-face confrontation. Thankfully there were no police left to do anything about it.

On another note, the deputies that tried to stop the city cops from declaring martial law didn’t do so well, there just wasn’t enough numbers. Most of them were killed or seriously injured by the PD guys. Lisa has no idea what happened to Doug, the deputy down the street…or his wife and kids. But, they are gone and squatters are now living in their house.

Let me explain about the tax police not being a problem…

Lisa says it had been almost three weeks since the event and I guess the local gangs saw what the police were doing on a city-wide scale. The local gangs had been doing it on a local neighborhood basis in a few areas and the cops had left them alone. But then this coalition of gangs led by MS-13 decided they wanted the cop’s action. One night the gangs hit the local police compounds. Evidently there was pretty fierce fighting but the gangs simply had the numbers and the element of surprise. The cops and families were killed almost to the last person in the fighting. Some of the women survived…if you want to call it that. The kids…none of them survived. Some of the cops lived another couple of days till they bled to death while chained to street light poles. No one stepped up to help the cops when the shooting started. I guess they should have been a little more “protect & serve” vs. “tax and loot.”

So then the gangs started to collect the “tax” and no one resisted them for a while because they were utterly ruthless. Their favorite tactic of terror was to place whoever resisted them in a 55gal barrel, dump in gasoline, place a tire or two over the person’s head pining their arms, and then lighting them on fire…while the neighborhood was forced to watch.

And guns or ammo that was found in anyone’s home was taken as a tax payment. Young teenage girls started to disappear. The occasional house that caused any problems ended up burned to the ground at night…with the people inside.

A few neighborhoods resisted and held out for a while. But nothing worked long-term. The best results came from a large neighborhood that had a bunch of Vietnam and Iraq veterans in it. They had a couple of battles with the gangs and took a pretty tough toll on the gangs for a few days. But once again, the gangs had the numbers and the firepower and the ammo.

What is weird is the gangs have pretty much left our neighborhood alone. I have my suspicions and Jim has voiced the same thing but I don’t know for sure. Time will tell. But, that is one thing that we don’t have much of…time. I talked to Lisa and we have to leave for the cabin in Arizona. We just haven’t figured out what to do about everyone else. I have my best case scenario in my head, I just have to present it to Lisa in the right context and hope she goes for it.

But, tonight I will deal with King Ray.

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