Industrial Revolution ………………………
33
Zombies …………………………………………………………
38
The Castle …………………………………………………
44
Love at Last ………………………………………………
50
No Call Home
…………………………………………… 55
Shark in the Water ……………………………
60
The Orphanage
…………………………………………… 64
Continuity of Government …………………
69
Lost and Found …………………………………………
77
Yahoos Afloat ……………………………………………
81
Eating Rats
…………………………………………… 88
The Pawn Shop …………………………………………
94
Slave Labor
…………………………………………… 99
Bear Market ………………………………………………
104
Rust Belt ………………………………………………………
108
New Leaders ………………………………………………
114
Canibals ………………………………………………………
121
Kudzu Canyons …………………………………………
127
Homecoming …………………………………………………
135
3
Chapter 1: Houseboat Living
The humidity and Spanish moss hanging from the trees on the Georgia
coastline is not unusual, but the fact that the coastline is flooded is
unusual. Rooftops and treetops are sticking out of the placid water,
which is lapping gently on suburban lawns.
A houseboat is floating nearby, tied to a sturdy treetrunk sticking out
of the floodwaters. The houseboat is solidly built, a modified
commercial houseboat with metal floatation tubes underneath and a
single story home in the center, and with patios all around. But this
houseboat is not new, is well weathered with paint worm off and a roof
tile here and there missing.
And the houseboat is immensely cluttered.
Bins of vegetables are stacked one on top of the other and side by
side. Engine and mechanical parts are heaped in piles on the corners of
the houseboat, placed for balance. There are pegs everywhere a peg can
be placed, where loops of fishing line, wire, and rope are hung.
Boxes are stacked, smaller boxes on top of larger ones. Some of the
wooden boxes have pull-out drawers. Large plastic containers are
stacked here and there, but only a few are labeled. Folded tarps are on
top of one pile, topped by fishing netting flung there to dry after a
night’s catch.
Poles have been placed on the four corners of the houseboat and lines
are strung from these poles to the single story house in the center. On
one, some fresh fish, gutted and headless, are hung by the tail. On
another, a confederate flag is hung alongside a US flag. On yet
another, some attractive items of clothing, hung out to advertise that
they are for sale or barter.
A party of gulls approachs, greeting the dawn with their screams. They
fly overhead, swooping down toward the fish hung out to drain and dry
on the line. The raucous calls of the gulls have woken Finegan, who
comes stumbling out of the house, bleary eyed, shirt half pulled out of
his pants, barefoot and annoyed. He is waving his arms at the gulls and
walking toward his catch, pulling a wooden box along behind him.
4
Finegan’s dog Barney, a mutt with one rear leg missing, is hobbling out
behind him, throwing a bark or two in the direction of the gulls. Gulls
are nothing new to Barney, and not a threat.
The fish on the line are hooked by a hangman’s noose made of wire with
a hook on the other end of the wire. The cleaned fish are hung by their
tails to drain and dry. Finegan unhooks the fish quickly, dropping them
into the wooden box, which he covers with a wooden cover near at hand.
Finegan grabs a dented bucket and dips it into the water, sloshing the
