The Final Battle IV

“Greed!” Luke screamed as loud as he could. A deafening sound in the cold silence of the night. Both boys jumped as is fire-ants had crawled up their butts. Luke turned around and laughed. He knew he had scared the crap out of them. Sitting back down on the log, Luke continued in a calm and deliberate tone: “Greed boys.” “It was nothing but greed that killed your father.”

“From 2009 thru 2012, there was a series of Economy Rescue Programs. None worked. Inflation was running wild, forty two percent unemployment. The ship was sinking.” “Milk was twenty six dollars a gallon, ten dollars for bread, hell, a McDonalds “happy meal” was seventeen dollars. Not many people were “happy” anymore.” Tom picked up the bottle of Jim Beam and held it out for his Uncle. Luke said thanks, but waved it off. He was already feeling the effects of the bourbon and had a long night ahead. He tossed the bottle cap to Tom and continued: “Anyway, in early 2013, the Wall Street wizards devised a “brilliant” plan to control the economy. They reasoned that the root cause of the collapse was “cash”.

“The plan was to do away with cash. People were hoarding it and not spending. There was no way to track and tax cash. Each tax payer would be issued a government credit card. All wage earnings would be credited to their account, and all purchases would be deducted from their account.” “Since the government already had control over all electronic commutations, it would be a easy transition.” “Well, Congress bought it, and the “Puppet” in the Whitehouse signed the plan into law.” “The one part of the plan that was not made public was that The Bank of China had been contracted to handle all transactions.” “But their “plan” worked. As far as Wall Street was concerned. Wall Street “did” control the economy. They made trillions of dollars. And the people suffered even more.”

Luke looked at his watch, noting it was almost eleven o’clock, relit his pipe and turned his attention back to Tom and Ben. “It may sound harsh, but their “plan” turned out to be a good thing, - for the ACF.” “Before that, most people thought we were a few thousand lunatics running around destroying buildings and stealing weapons. The majority of our forces at that time were from HOG Chapters or Military personnel who could read the writing on the wall.” “Most thought we were some gang of anarchist or something”. “After the credit card scam, folks began to look at us differently. They started to understand that we were trying to protect them from the rogue politicians, power whores and the endless stream of corrupt bankers, which had infiltrated our government and way of life.”

Luke motioned to Tom for the bottle: “Think I’ll take that drink now.” Tom tossed the bottle, nearly making his Uncle fall off the log to catch it. “You out of your mind boy!” said Luke. “You break that bottle, I’ll have your brother whoop your butt.” Tom playfully elbowed Ben in the ribs and asked him: “Wan’a try it?” Although Tom was three years younger, he was a full head taller and fifty pounds heavier than Ben. Ben just punched him back in the shoulder and laughed. The three of them sat there in the coolness of the full moon. Looking out over the Potomac River. The last hour would be the longest wait of their lives.