Chapter 2

With the addition of the two white girls from the accident, their group now numbered nine. Desmond remembered reading somewhere that the Chinese thought that to be a lucky number but he wasn't Chinese and he doubted if it made any difference at all.

There were five guys and four split-tails and he had enough hardware to arm five times that number. His only problem was that the territory he was heading into had precious few brothers and was overrun with red-neck whites and Spanish-speaking immigrants. Then, he recalled an almost all black bike gang that ran a nice meth operation in the less-traveled part of the fertile farmland. He remembered they were called "The Raiders" or something like that because he associated it with the Oakland NFL team.

He had supplied them with a couple of law enforcement pursuit cars that his boys had snatched from in front of a busy donut shop right at rush hour. He had stripped them of the excess add-ons and repainted them black. They looked so bad he wanted to keep them for personal transportation for his boys but Desmond knew they were far too "Hot" for local trips to the pussy bar. In return, he got a shit-pile of pills from the bike gang that he converted to easy cash with some white-collar types from Hollywood.

Now, he was headed into their territory and he hoped he might be able to recruit a half-dozen or so for outrider duties with his escape-motivated expedition.

There was no sign to proclaim the name of the town that they approached, but Desmond knew it was the right one because the first thing he saw was a row of bad-looking bikes outside a depressingly unimpressive bar called "Lizard Piss". It was a school day but no children were seen heading to school and the streets were unusually empty. It could be that most of the town folks had headed to even more rural parts of the county or were just keeping inside their homes until the situation had become more stable.

Desmond was certain the situation was going to get a lot worse before it got better but he kept his opinion to himself. They stopped at the bar and Jimbo went inside to get some info while they all waited at the ready in case there was trouble. He came back outside with two other black brothers dressed in unmistakable bike gear and jackets with the logo of the "Raiders". They waved to Desmond and Jimbo reported that the clubhouse was straight ahead and on the right. They couldn't miss it because "The bikes are all outside".

The meet with the bike gang leaders was successful and he traded the younger sister of the Candy-Juicy act for loan of six of the gang to join up with them for the purpose of finding a safer location further away from the bombing centers and the contamination from the "dirty" bombs. Mustafa the head biker told him to head closer to the Nevada State line because the terrain was less flat and there was almost no law enforcement at all.

Poor Candy, Doris and Tawny had to work hard to service the 11 males of the group that night but they all seemed to enjoy their work and everyone was satisfied with the result. He was sorry to lose Juicy (Julie) to the bike gang but it was for the good of the group and a necessary sacrifice. He was certain her almost untouched fresh pussy would get plenty of training with the new owners. If everything worked out they might join together once again.

There was a small sign at the side of the road almost obscured by a billboard proclaiming "Scotty's Diner" to have the best tasting cheeseburgers on this side of the California/Nevada Stateline. It was a sloppy billboard looking like it was put up by the owner's themselves as a cheap way of advertising their business.

The simple Town sign said,

"Gold Rush"

"Pop: 211"

It was dotted with several holes that looked suspiciously like bullet holes accumulated over the years by drunken marksmen with time on their hands.

The gas station was empty and there was no clerk behind the desk. Desmond went behind the counter and turned on pump #1 which was really kind of funny because there was only one pump in evidence. He punched in $100 paid the maximum allowed on the control board. The others started to refuel without comment.

The fact that the shelves were not stripped of goodies told Desmond that the entire town was probably still in shock from the recent developments of total devastation in the urban areas. He turned the dials of the TV set but no station was broadcasting. The radio was filled with static but he did hear some recorded messages telling people to "stay calm and stay tuned for more information about the catastrophic events of the last 48 hours. Jimbo lugged out some six-packs of beer for the others waiting outside and they waited for Desmond to give them the word on what was coming next.

Desmond was in a quandary, he wanted to just get things back to the way they were with everything in its proper place and no heavy thinking required. It was so much easier when everything was normal and you could make your way by playing the system for whatever you could get. His grandma had told him tales of the uncertainty of life way back when the government didn't get into anyone's business and it was left up to each person to make their own way in life. He knew there were no rules anymore and that each day was a test of the desire to survive. This town was a good example. He was certain that if there was any law enforcement, it was probably just one solitary "cracker" playing the role to make a living. No "SWAT" teams or "CSI" back here in Gold Rush to make life difficult.

At that moment he was not aware that most of the male population under 40 had been called up to the Armory down in Stockton to establish road blocks on the North/South Freeway between Los Angeles and Sacramento. They had been caught in a "dirty" bomb contamination zone and had to be cleansed because they would "infect" the still unaffected civilian populace. Suddenly, the population of little Gold Rush had been reduced to 145 and they were mostly children, women and old men. He would find this out just as soon as they started to search the town for stockpiles of valuables and food supplies.