After the Fall

By Jonathan Newman

Jack Montgomery is a police officer who was always willing to help protect the citizens in his beat. But when the President dies and the rest of the federal government implodes under the weight of national debt, chaos ensues. Jack faces a new job: keeping those close to him alive. With several friends in tow, the choices they make will ultimately set the stage for a showdown against the self appointed mayor of a small town who will stop at nothing to recreate the welfare state.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jonathan Newman
• Release date: Dec 11, 2012
• ISBN: 9781301498550

Jonathan Newman

Jonathan Newman is a fourteen year police veteran of a metropolitan police department in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. He is an avid sportsman and a lover of performance bred dogs. He and his wife Meghann recently celebrated the birth of their first child in 2012.

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After The Fall

By Jonathan Newman

Copyright 2012 Jonathan Newman

License Notes

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the above copyright owner of this book.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized. In order to maximize your enjoyment of the books, do not take my descriptions of anything as literal, remember that this is all fiction for your entertainment.

Cover Design by Laura Shinn

Prologue

Hannah sat on the end of the bed. How had everything gotten this bad?

Hannah had gone to the best schools, made the best grades, made friends with the right people and kept her mind focused on what she wanted to be in life. She had never done anything that would bring embarrassment to herself or her family.

And yet there she sat.

She had made it exactly where she wanted to be in life, and then everything came down around her.

Had it been her fault? No. She may have not made all the right decisions, but she had a good heart and had done the best that she could.

Or had she?

She had ignored several warning signs. And when she took the job she had continued following the same plan to turn things around that the guy before her had, knowing he had not fixed anything.

She looked down at the open Bible that was sitting on her lap. She could hardly read the words on the pages.

The blood, which looked as if it was slowly running from her wrists, had somehow quickly covered the book, ran down her knees and then legs, and had completely soaked the floor around her feet.

She thought to herself They’re going to have to replace the carpet!

Chapter 1

It was winter and cold, but I was already breaking a sweat.

As I placed my duty bag inside my truck, I couldn’t help but get angry at how old and heavy it had become. The sewn-on name Jack Montgomery on the top was faded and frayed. I really needed a new bag.

Inside the bag there were two extra pairs of handcuffs, a copy of the Texas Penal code, a digital ticket writer, a folder that carried all the different forms that I needed for a shift, a bottle of aspirin and various other items that had accumulated over time at the bottom. It was true that I needed to clean the bag out. Several things in the bag could go. For instance, there was the Penal code book. All of its information could now be found on the internet and every patrol vehicle had internet access. But I still liked to look the laws up by hand. Sometimes the old way of doing things was easier for me. Furthermore, it seemed right to me that a police officer should have a law book with him while at work.

My truck, a dark gray 2009 Ford F-150 extended cab with a huge iron front bumper that I had installed by myself, was dirty. I had meant to wash it over the weekend but had forgotten to. All the weeds in the bumper made it look older than it really was.

I looked to the West. I could see the sun going down. That meant I was right on time for work. The shift started at 7:30 PM, and as long as I was on the road by 6:00 PM I would be on time.

As I pulled out from behind my house, I drove down my long driveway which was surrounded by trees on either side. Within seconds, the house was gone from the rear view mirror.

I started the drive to work. My Iphone was playing the band Tool through the auxiliary cable and into the truck’s stereo system. Rock music always got me mentally prepared for the day. The fast paced, hard music always cleared any cobwebs I might have, and this is something that all police officers have to do before going on shift.

A beautiful morning to me, but most would call it dusk.

Living outside Springtown and driving to the metroplex everyday usually took about one hour. The drive was pretty and usually went by quick until you got into the metroplex, where things slowed down. Traffic was usually a mess at any hour once you were in the big city. In addition, there was almost always construction to navigate around. It seemed like the highways were always being worked on, but they were never finished. They would fix them, and then tear them down in a perpetual circle. Normally, I would get to work at 7:00 P.M., leaving me half an hour to put on my uniform, inspect my equipment, and walk into briefing.

The light amount of traffic in the city today made the drive go by quicker than normal, and I got to work slightly earlier than I normally would. There would be plenty of time to put on my duty gear and be briefed on the events of the day. Maybe even time for some coffee.

I pulled into the parking lot of the Deer Park Police Department, and noticed more cars in the parking lot than normal. This was a big inconvenience, since I would have to park in overflow parking. Now the walk to the building was going to be a long and cold one.

As I walked towards the building, my cell phone rang. It showed my mother was calling.

Hey Mom, how are you doing?

Oh, fine. Just wanted you to know we are taking your brother and the girls to the farm for a while.

Why? It’s too cold for you guys to have any fun down there.

Well, your father was watching the news. With all the fire and stuff...

Her voice was gone. I looked at my phone. Call failed. They must have gotten out of cell phone range.

Our family had a small farm halfway between Dallas and Houston. It had belonged to my great grandfather until his death. Once it was left to the family, everyone would occasionally go down to it to ride the tractors, hunt and fish, or just work on things. There was always something that needed to be fixed at the farm.

But it was too cold for anyone to get much work done. My father and brother rarely hunted, and the girls were not going to want to play in this weather.

What had I missed? She did say fires, didn’t she?

As I placed my electric key card up to the door of the building, I wondered what happens if the power went out? Surely the computer geeks had taken that into consideration when they wired the doors. They probably had batteries inside the lock, allowing access to the building even in the event of a natural disaster.

I carried my duty bag into the locker room, opened my locker and started to lay my equipment out on the bench. There were several officers already in the locker room, some of which were putting uniforms on that were not patrolmen. That was odd, as investigators had to wear a suit and tie. They usually only dressed for patrol during major events. During major events, every police officer on the force had to be at work to ensure we had enough officers to handle anything that might come up.

There was a buzz in the locker room. I didn’t pay attention to the topic at first. I was trying to get my uniform on. However, I noticed something was wrong when Big Chester Strait didn’t immediately ask me how the last weekend of deer season went. It had only been over for two days. Chester and I always talked about our weekend hunts the day we returned to work.

Taking a big wad of tobacco and leaning against the wall, Chester said I am glad she is dead. I never thought a woman was right for our country to no one in particular. Chester was usually not one to be up on current affairs. I could tell that this meant I missed something in the news on our days off, and it must have been big if he was talking about it. He was a big, strong guy, about six foot five, and he weighed around 350 lbs. He was the type of guy to watch hunting shows, not the news.

What are you idiots talking about today? I asked sarcastically.

Chester said, Dude, where have you been? Did you not hear?

What? I asked.

They killed the president. Chester said.

I lived out in the country, and had enough land to take care of that I didn’t have a ton of extra time on my hands. When I did have time, I did not like spending it watching the news. I had worked several cases over the years that had been covered by the news. In each case the news either got the facts wrong, or sensationalized the story to the point that it was no longer true. I had seen the reports of the deadly Swine flu, acid rain and killer bees over the years, but I had never met one person that had been affected by them. So I had made up my mind that the news was for entertainment purposes only. It simply did not entertain me.

The president of what? I asked. Everyone stopped what they were doing and all eyes fell on me. Immediately I knew what had happened. President Hannah Clifton was the first female president of the United States of America and public opinion of her was varied at the beginning of her term, but in Texas she had never been popular at all. This was not Democrat country.

President Clifton had expanded welfare programs throughout her short time in office to the point that almost half of everyone in the United States was receiving some type of government check every month, including those that were not citizens. The value of the dollar had greatly decreased.

It had become clear that the United States would never be able to repay its debt to China. When China persuaded the United Nations to ask America to surrender Alaska to China to repay its debt, the country started to crumble. At that point, all Americans realized how bad everything had become. But I had never considered that she would be assassinated.

In addition, President Clifton had placed U.S. troops all over the world, trying to secure order in many countries. The vast majority of American troops were stationed overseas, fighting in countries that had never had peace. And many others were stationed in countries that had collapsed after the financial meltdown, trying to restore order.

The President of the United States of America. Maybe you’ve heard of her. Chester snapped.

Don’t be an asshole, Chester. I happen to sleep during the day. Sorry I don’t live and die by the news.

The rest of us sleep during the day, too. But when the president gets killed, most people find out pretty quick.

What are you talking about? Who killed her?" I asked.

How the hell should I know? Chester stated.

I had figured since he had originally said They, someone had been caught.

That wasn’t the crazy part Chester added. Vice President Clooney immediately resigned following the assassination. No one knows what the hell is going on. I am not even sure we have an acting president right now.

Chester started speculating on who he thought had shot the president. I listened as the information began to sink in. Within a few minutes, I realized I had been listening to him and not getting ready for briefing. I quickly put on my uniform as Chester left the locker room.

Having lost track of time, I was going to be late for briefing. After putting on my uniform, I ran into the briefing room. I had not had time to place the nameplate marked Montgomery onto my shirt. I would have to put it on during briefing.

Not since 09-11-01 had I been in a police briefing room where everyone was watching the television. No one noticed that I walked in. The room was packed which usually only happened during festivals and retirement parties. There was not an open seat in the room, so I had to stand in the back. For as many people that there were in the room, it was eerily quiet.

During the terrorist attacks on 09-11-01, everyone in the police department was watching the television. Normally in a police roll call, television is not watched. But today, everyone was watching.

The television showed a Hispanic female news reporter speaking in front a huge fire in what appeared to be New York City. Due to the room being full of people talking, I could not hear what she was saying. Across the bottom of the screen a ticker ran something about a bombing, but I had missed the first couple of words and had missed which building it was.

I leaned over to ask Clint Tyson what the news was reporting on. Not taking his eyes from the screen he said, The New York Federal Reserve building was bombed and has been completely destroyed. My jaw dropped open.

Sergeant Read opened briefing by stating, Just in case any of you did not hear, the president was killed today. The chief has put us on high alert. Because we have called in everyone that would come, we don’t have enough patrol cars for everyone. So you are all going to have to ride two men to a car. No less than two patrolmen to a car. I would say the chances of a disaster starting in Texas are somewhere between slim and none, but the rules are the rules. Get your cars ready and hit the streets. Keep radio traffic to a minimum, in case the chief is listening and wants to call us to the base for some bull shit meeting. Just to repeat, do not tie up radio time with a bunch of nonsense. No traffic stops, or anything else like that. Emergency radio traffic only, any questions?

Kyle Struthers asked him what happened at the Federal Reserve building, but Sergeant Read became angry. He told everyone in the room we could listen to the news in our cars, but we needed to hit the streets, ASAFP.

Sergeant Read was the on-duty supervisor. He was a former Marine, with the tattoos on his forearms to prove it. He was very gruff, but I always liked working for him even if he could be moody from time to time. He was a hunter, and we always had that to talk about. Whenever I had done something that made Read mad, I could always change the subject to hunting and he would quickly forget that he had been mad at me.

Recently, Read had been in a good mood. He had just purchased a small house on a bunch of property in East Texas, and was planning on moving there when he retired the next year. But knowing that he was going to have to supervise so many people today, I knew a good mood was not in the cards.

Sergeant Read had been a cop for a long time, and was not fond of the current administration. He had been passed up for promotions, in his own opinion anyway. He was from New York, and though his fondness for Texas had grown considerably over the years, he was still a Giants fan. The rest of the shift were Cowboy fans and hated the Giants. They also hated Sergeant Read. He told me once that he thought most people didn’t like him because of his New York accent, but that wasn’t the case. People didn’t like him because when he was in a bad mood, he tended to get mad about everything. Woe be to anyone that Read felt was challenging his authority.

However, his dislike for the police administration was perfectly in touch with the patrol officers he supervised. No one was fond of Chief Walker. He was a political machine, ruled by the city council. He had no intent on improving the police department as a law enforcement agency unless it would benefit him personally. He was simply doing his best to appease the current city council, mayor and all the other important people in the city. He had recently put a new program in place to help illegal aliens in the city blend in. The problem, as the patrol officers saw it, was illegal aliens were committing a crime simply by being here. The Deer Park Police Department was now catering to a group of people that the rest of the surrounding cities were trying to arrest. This made the Deer Park Police Department a bunch of chumps in the eyes of the patrol officers of Deer Park and the surrounding cities’ police officers.

The program was an English class at the newly built Citizen’s Outreach Center, a brand new building built solely for the purpose of teaching illegal aliens the English language. At no cost to the students. The building was full of computers with internet access, and it was stocked with free drinks and snacks. This was amazing to most of us, considering the police officers did not have access to free drinks and snacks and the department was always stating they did not have enough money. The icing on the cake was the police department building was forty years old. It had once been the city’s largest sewage plant,