Chapter 1

Desmond Hunter and his younger brother Deshawn were hard at work removing the tires and wheels from a bad BMW that had wandered into their sphere of street operations that stopped short of actually stealing the entire vehicle. They had not adhered to such niceties prior to the time that Deshawn had reached the magic age of 16. Back then, anything went because he could always cop a plea for juvenile court which was a total joke. Desmond had followed the same rules of the game up to the time he had passed 16 and neither one of them had a valid rap sheet for a felony conviction.

Now Desmond was the ripe old age of 20 and his younger brother was sweet 18. If either of them ever felt the urge to steal a car, they would outsource it to an under 16 confederate who was in need of earning a "finder's fee".

Neither one of them ever remembered ever having seen their elusive father who was most likely a figment of their mother's imagination and not a real person at all. Theirs was a family that had milked the system for several generations ever since the innovation of the "Great Society" under the Democratic President from the great State of Texas, L.B. Johnson. The cycle of dependency seemed to snowball out of control in the major urban areas until it reached epidemic proportions just before Day Zero at the beginning of World War III.

Desmond was not a handsome fellow and any thought of steady employment as an independent contractor Pimp was out of the question. He had a hard enough time finding females his own age that would be willing to go out on a date with him. Deshawn, on the other hand, was a handsome lad who caused many a pussy to flutter just as soon as he opened his hypnotic mouth. He was able to get girls to bend over right out in public without any thought about their reputation or possible pregnancy. His biggest problem was his dangerous attraction to white women which hurt his street rep. and turned some more mature people of color into enemies. He had a whole stable of runaway white girls from faraway places that spent a lot of their time on their backs earning big bucks for the good-looking young man.

Deshawn also like the best of everything and he needed the cash to keep himself in the style that he knew he deserved. His older brother was upset with his younger brother's attitude but he had to admit it was Deshawn's thing and he didn't hide it from anyone.

The radio on their car was blasting out some prime rap when the Emergency Broadcast System broke in to announce the dire circumstances of the joint North Korean and Venezuelan actions.

Deshawn was really pissed that they had interrupted his music and was ready to find a tape and turn the radio off but his older brother stopped him and listened intently to the news of the attack. Deshawn was one who considered news and the like as "not his concern" and was only interested in new styles, new pussy, and new opportunities to make money.

Desmond was the quiet one but he was always interested in what was going on around him and actually listened to the teachers in school and read all the textbooks from front to back memorizing everything. Of course, he did his best to disguise that fact and pretended it all "Don't mean a thing!"

He recognized immediately that this was a "reset button" on everything. Desmond didn't want to get his brother too upset but he firmly insisted that they cease their work on the BMW and that they return to their fenced warehouse to regroup and make some plans for the new world getting ready to burst their happy little bubble.

The scene at the warehouse made it all seem like nothing was going on in the rest of the world. Lazy Jimbo was screwing a white bitch from the other side of the freeway behind the Dempsey dumpster. She was chewing her gum real fast so he knew the girl was getting it real good from Jimbo's super-sized cock. Her name was Doris-something and she was fairly intelligent, but had fallen on hard times when her mother got sent to a correctional institution somewhere down in Arizona. Ever since that time, she had taken up residence in a corner of the warehouse and was quick to service any of Desmond's "boys" whenever they had an urge. She didn't seem interested in making any money and in fact, was a little too plain of face for successful street-walking.

The Brown brothers were re-painting a nice little Volkswagen that had been spirited away from a car-rental lot when a stupid clerk left the keys inside. It was just begging for a new home and they were more than willing to find one for it. It would have to be outside their neighborhood because no self-respecting black man would be seen dead in a Volkswagen.

Tawny was doing her nails in the office with the little TV turned on to a soap opera. The stupid soap opera was still being broadcast but the entire bottom half of the screen was blocked out by the announcement about the attacks taking place. He could tell she was pissed off by the way she kept throwing sideways glances at the screen like it was something personal. She was kind of paranoid like that looking to fight if any white person looked too long at her for no reason. Tawny was kind of down on white people because her first boyfriend dumped her for a blonde cheerleader up in Anaheim. Besides, she was little on the hefty side and her bubble butt was hanging off the edge of the office chair.

Desmond thought her butt looked awful good no matter what size it was and he often carried out the most ridiculous orders from Tawny just to insure she put out for him when the lights went out. The more he worked to do her bidding, the more she abused his devotion. He almost lost it when he found her bending over for a Mexican cab driver just to get out of paying for an expensive ride from downtown L.A.

When the cab driver saw Desmond's gun, he hightailed it out of the area so fast the dust didn't settle for at least 15 minutes. Tawny told him that the driver had taken advantage of her because she was a poor black girl and made her take it despite her reluctance. Desmond knew it was all a big lie but was too smart to call Tawny out on it for fear of getting cut off for being too hard on her.