text: [Themes: sci-fi, dystopia]
  
  When Jimmy gets back to his ranch, he packs up some supplies and prepares for a few days in the outdoors. It is nothing that he hasn't done before, so most of the supplies are ready and easy to pack. He double-checks his tent and blankets -- it is late summer, so the cold should not be an issue, be he doesn't want to be stuck outside overnight with the bugs if he can help it.
  
  He checks out one of his rifles and places that on the horse. He also has a pistol on his hip, but that's not really out of the ordinary in this part of the country. Things haven't gotten too confusing yet, but he figures it is only a matter of time before the robbers will start showing up. He places a couple boxes of extra bullets in one of the saddlebags.
  
  After Tarkus, his large black horse, is loaded, Jimmy climbs on and rides over to his parent's house. When he gets there, he sees his father sitting on the front porch in a rocking chair, talking to his mother. They stop talking as Jimmy rides up to them.
  
  His father looks over at Jimmy and says, "So, you're headed out, are you?"
  
  Jimmy replied, "Yup."
  
  There was a moment of silence before his father continued, "Where to?"
  
  "I thought I'd head down to Helena. Some folks there might need my help."
  
  "Well, some people here might need your help, too, you know."
  
  Jimmy nodded then said, "Yup. I dunno, but maybe I can help find out what is going on down there and get things set to right soon."
  
  "A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do."
  
  "Yup."
  
  There was another pause before Jimmy's mother spoke up, "Jim, you be careful now. No one's been out of the town in days, so no one really knows what you'll find out there. I don't want this to be the last time I see you."
  
  Jim smiled and spoke to his mother, "Ma, I'll do all I can do. If I made it through the Marines, I think I can make a quick trip down to Helena."
  
  There was another pause and the only sound was the creaking of the rocking chairs on the porch. Finally Jimmy said, "I'll be on my way now. See you soon." He turned his horse and started down the dirt path away from his parents house.
  
  When going by car, the trip to Helena was just a couple hours. But by horse, Jim figured it would take him a few days. He didn't push Tarkus, but let Tarkus set the pace. They headed down the side paths, but eventually Jim wanted to take a look at the Interstate Highway. He guided Tarkus along the paths and headed around through the mountains and towards Interstate 90.
  
  When he reached the top of the last rise, he reigned Tarkus in. He could see miles in each direction along the Interstate. There was absolutely nothing moving that he could see. There were a number of different cars and trucks stopped at various places along the road. The road looked clear, with most of the vehicles pulled to the side, but there were a shocking number of abandoned vehicles there. Clearly their town was not the only one with problems related to power and gasoline. He turned his horse back into the mountains and towards the city.
  
  Jim spent two nights camping in the woods and hills as he worked his way towards the city. On the morning of the third day he crested the last hill blocking his vision of Helena. When he climbed over that rise, he was shocked by what he saw. The city looked like it had been in a war. Not many buildings were destroyed, but there were fires and car wrecks all around. He could see some groups of people moving about, even from a distance. Some looked to be just destroying windows and anything else they could break.
  
  He turned once again and headed for the FBI buildings that he knew were on the northern outskirts of the city. He could see the sun glinting off the various barbed-wire fences surrounding the compound, even from a distance. As he got closer, he could see a number of armed guards in uniform all around behind the fences, watching him closely.
  
  He rode right up to the front gate. There were a number of guards there, and the gate was closed. There were large concrete barriers in place as well. Jim called out, "Hey! I'm here to help!"
  
  A guard called back, "Who are you, and what do you want to help?"
  
  Jim thought that was a little odd, but he called back, "My name is Jimmy Thompson, USMC. I thought Uncle Sam might need me."
  
  The guard looked around, ensuring that Jim was alone, then he carefully opened the gate while a number of others stayed at attention with their rifles pointed out the gate. The called gestured and called out, "Alright then, come on in Thompson. We can always use a few more Marines in here."
  
  Jim went in and was quickly ushered to the leadership building. An older man stood up and introduced himself as Major Alexander. The Major explained that the group was still trying to get organized, and they absolutely could use some more experienced soldiers. He said that the group was trying to get organized to support the U.S. government, or what was left of it. There were not a lot of orders coming out of any central command, but there was a command trying to get organized now, and they would work together to restore order over the country.
  
  The major explained that right now they needed help on two different teams: the leadership team and the firearms team. The leadership team was setting up to do some planning and logistics to ensure the safety of the military. The firearms team was, obviously, working on securing firearms for the defense of the military and Helena base.
  
  "Well, Thompson, you can pick either one of the teams, both need help right now. Either way I'm giving you the rank of sergeant right now."
  
  > Jim should take their offer to work with the firearms team.
  "I think I'll head myself over to the rifle range," says Jim.
  
  Major Alexander replied, "That will be fine. The range is out around the back side of this building, still in the fenced-in area. You can't miss it."
  
  Jim headed back outside and walked around the building. Indeed, a short distance away he could see the large berm that was at the back of the rifle range. He didn't see anyone on the range at the moment, but he headed in that direction anyway.
  
  The rifle range was small, as military rifle ranges go. There were about a dozen stations where a person could set up to shoot, though there were no targets currently live on the range. Jim looked over and there was a standard range flagpole nearby, and there was a small green banner flying there, indicating that the range was cold and no one was shooting. Down the left side of the range was a well-worn path, clearly used by those who headed down range to man the targets from behind the front berm.
  
  On the far right side of the firing line there was a small building, about 20 feet square. The building was a little run down, but made of concrete blocks. The door was open, so Jim headed over to the building and looked inside. Along two of the walls were thin benches where a couple of soldiers in full uniform slouched. One looked like he was struggling to stay awake. The other looked up lazily as Jim approached, but he didn't move otherwise.
  
  In the other part of the room, there was a desk and a couple file cabinets. There was a small door behind the desk that looked like it led to a small closet. There was a large padlock on that door. Behind the desk sat an older man with very short cropped grey hair. He looked up from his desk and barked out, "Who are you? What are you doing here?"
  
  Jim answered, "I'm Sgt. Jimmy Thompson. The major told me that you fellows needed some help, so I'm reporting in. What do you need?"
  
  The fellow behind the desk smiled and nodded, "Ah, that is good. We need more like you right now, willing to help. This country is in a mess right now and if we don't get things straightened out real quick, it's just going to get worse. I'm Captain Adams, head of the range and now head the armory and any logistics around the rifles. These two here are Corporals Yang and Revis. There's not much happening right now, but we are in trouble."
  
  Adams paused a moment, then continued, "We know they're going to call us soon because there's some gang activity and looting going on. We can't possibly stop it all, but we need to set up some safe zones. And to do that, we're going to have to defend ourselves. We know how to do that, but we're short on ammo. We've already issued out almost all the ammo we had on the base -- at least what wasn't stolen from us already. We are in dire need of ammo, and I think we're going to have to go afield and find more ammo real soon. I think we're going to have to start looking in the armories in some of the outlying areas, but I don't know who might have ammo and who has already been stripped dry. I'm sitting here now, looking at some maps, trying to decide where to direct the troops when the come to ask for more ammo."
  
  > Jim should lead the team to his town to get the bullets the new US government needs.
  Arriving at the south edge of town, the army group, led by Jim, can see that the town has pushed a few cars into the road to create a roadblock to stop anyone from entering the town. As they push forward towards the cars, two armed men step out from behind the cars. Jim recognizes them as Yim and Yar, two brothers that have lived in the town for their entire lives. They stand in front of the cars, blocking the way into town.
  
  One of them (Jim never could tell them apart) called out, "Sorry, this town is closed. No one is allowed in, and we're to stop anyone who tries. You need to turn around and go back where you came from, or we'll drop you where you stand. We're not messing around, and we really don't care who you are."
  
  Jim stepped down out of the army truck and called out to them, "Hey, fellas, it's me, Jim! No need to get all crazy on us!"
  
  The brother who spoke first held his hand up and said, "Sorry Jim, while you might be welcome here along, you're not with all those others. We have our orders and we're going to defend this town with our lives. We don't want to shoot you, but if you don't up and turn that truck around right now, we won't have any choice."
  
  Jim paused, taken aback by the bolt statements, as he tried to decide what to do.
  
  > Jim should consider the needs of everyone and take the armory by force for the greater good.
  Jim walked around the rear of the truck and opened the canvas flaps. Inside were two dozen armed soldiers. He looked down as he said, "We've got resistance ahead. They are armed, but not experienced. Get a couple guys in place here by the tires and when you're ready, take them out so we can get into town.
  
  A number of the men scrambled around as Jim stepped aside, keeping the truck between he and the town. Yim and Yar had no idea what was going on until two rifle shots broke the silence and the two men crumpled to the ground. The soldiers piled back into the truck and Jim jumped in the cab. The truck rumbled ahead, easily crashing through the cars that were set to block the road.
  
  Jim gave the driver directions through town towards the armory. A few startled people came outside to watch the fast-moving heavy truck rumble through town. Jim looked out and saw a flash of a yellow dress as the rolled past the general store where people were lined up awaiting food. Two blocks later they turned left and started to approach the armory.
  
  The armory was in a dip in the valley, a large concrete building surrounded by a high chain-link fence topped with barbed wire. The gate was jammed with two pickup trucks, one slammed into the other, completely blocking the gate -- the only way in was to climb over them. Jim knew that the trucks wouldn't even slow down the large army transport, but he told the drive to stop when he saw past the trucks.
  
  Behind the trucks there were piles of sandbags and a number of men. They had built a machine gun nest and it looked like there was a working 50-caliber machine gun tucked in behind the sandbags. It looked like there were about a half-dozen men guarding the armory, but what really stopped Jim was that he could see both the sheriff and his father dug in there.
  
  Jim leaned out the window and called out, "Come on now, we just need the ammo. No one needs to get hurt here!"
  
  The sheriff called back, "Jim? I can't believe that's you. But that's good, right? You can help us. Hey, we don't need to fight here, let's work together and everyone can help everyone, right?"
  
  Jim stared through the windshield at his father as he pondered what to do next.
  
  > Jim should not back down and should push the requests from the new US government to get the town to help out everyone else.
  Jim stuck his head out the window and replied, "Come on Sheriff! We're here representing the New United States. We only want to help, so yes, we want to help everyone. The way we can do that is if you give us the ammo!"
  
  The sheriff stood up and carefully raised his hands. He walked towards the entrance gate saying, "Jim, you know we can't just surrender, it's not in our nature. Let's talk about this some more." He climbed to the top of one of the crashed pickups and sat down.
  
  Jim climbed out of the truck and joined him on the pile of twisted metal. He said, "Okay, here's an idea: you let us have some of the ammo to take back to the city, and in return, I'll leave a contingent of troops here to help guard the town. I'll head back to the city and let them know what I've done. Worst case the leaders there decide they don't like it, but then they'll have to send more trucks up here to bring the soldiers back. I think I can convince them that this will be a northern base of sorts for them, and they'll count it as a victory. Then they won't think of this place as a target any more and they'll have some extra ammo."
  
  The sheriff thought for a moment, then stuck his hand out to shake Jim's, "That sounds like a good deal. Let's get this action started."
  
  Jim headed to the back of the truck to assign a fire team to the town and explain their responsibilities. He put the sheriff in charge of them but also let them know that they were the northern base and answered to the Captain in the city. While he was doing that the sheriff and his men were bringing up crates of ammo to load into the truck.
  
  Jim shook the sheriff's hand again and that of his father before he climbed back into the truck to head back to the city and explain how East Ridge was now part of the New United States...