text: Jim wakes the next morning to the sound of a light rain on his roof. He heads out on his porch and sees an overcast sky. It looks like it will rain all day, but it is only raining a little so far. He heads over to the barn and saddles up his black horse, Tarkus. He double-checks his sidearm -- while many people have always carried guns here, there hasn't been any need for them yet. Jim suspects it will not be long before the criminals really start showing up, and he wants to be ready. After putting on a long raincoat and hat, he heads towards the Sheriff's office.
  
  When Jim arrives at the Sheriff's Office, he sees that just a few people have gathered, maybe ten total. Perhaps the constant drizzle has kept more people away -- with electricity, the rain seems quite a bit more depressing than normal. Jim rides up, dismounts his horse, and ties it to a pole in front of the office.
  
  The Sheriff walks out of his office and stands on the porch. The porch is raised up a few steps from the crowd so everyone can see him clearly. He looks around the crowd and says, "This is all? This is everyone who wants to help this town? Lord help us, we are going to be in big trouble." He looks around again and then points at a tall fellow with a black knit hat saying, "Tom, hey, I'm glad you're here. Where are your two sons? We could really use their strong backs about now."
  
  Tom looked down at the ground for a moment before replying, "They went on down to Helena. They said they wanted to help out the FBI people. I told 'em not to go, but they haven't listened to me in a long time."
  
  The Sheriff's face grew red as he clenched his teeth. "To Helena? Don't they understand? Those people aren't interested in helping us, they are interested in helping themselves. If they find out we have any food up here, they're going to come after us and take it. I'm sure we will hear some crap about 'the common good' before they shoot us and starve us. Damn, why did they have to go?"
  
  The Sheriff paced back and forth for a minute before he addressed the assembled crowd again: "Look, I know everyone might not agree with me, but you've got to listen -- I know what those people in Helena will do. I'm begging you all to stay here and help the town. We've got to stick together here, or we're all going to be lost." He looked around at each person, looking each one in the eye before continuing:
  
  "We need help here, and I'm glad each one of you has come out today. Right now there's two places we need help the most: the armory and the food stores. We need people to help out at the armory and help prepare for the defense of the town. I know you don't think it will come to that, but I'm quite sure it will, especially if anyone outside the town finds we have food. We need to be prepared."
  
  "And that's the other place we need help: with the food. We need some people to take charge of the food supplies and start working on a rationing system so that we can all share what we have without having someone hoard it all themselves. Right now that's all we need, but I'm sure as time goes on we'll need more help in other areas. So each one of you can head out to one of those two areas, and we'll see where we are."
  
  The Sheriff stops talking and a few of the people start talking to one another. Jim overhears someone mention "going to Helena," but he can't tell who it is. As the others start breaking up the crowd and heading to places to help, Jim has to decide where he wants to help now.
  
  > Jim should head to the food stores to help gather supplies...
  Jim decides that his talents will be best spent helping out with the food supplies. He understands that without food, no one is going to last very long. This is going to be a long-term problem and a Wal-Mart truck isn't going to show up any time soon to save the day. He heads over to the local general store to see what he can do.
  
  When he arrives, he sees two armed guards just outside the door. He recognizes them as locals, but doesn't know their name. They watch him enter the store and nod to him as he enters. Inside he find Phil Torbern, the owner of the store. Phil has pushed the cash register lanes sideways to create a barrier between the entrance to the store and the shelves. Phil is frantically sliding things around and looks up when Jim enters. He calls out, "Sorry, Jim, we've got nothing for you today. We're still working with the sheriff and trying to decide how to keep the supplies going in a fair way. Come back in a few days and maybe we'll know what's happening by that time. Until then, no food leaves this building. That's why the fellows are out front."
  
  Jim tries to interrupt and finally just blurts out, "Phil, no, I'm here to help!" Phil stops talking and looks up. Jim continues, "It's okay. The sheriff sent me here. I'm here to see if I can help you organize the food and whatnot so we can keep the supplies moving along."
  
  Phil stood up and replied, "Oh, Jim, that's such a relief! Here, come on around this end and let me show you what I'm doing here with the supplies..."
  
  Phil showed Jim where he was dividing up the supplies into groups of shelves. Once Jim understood what was happening, Phil said that he was going out to talk with a few farmers about getting some more supplies while Jim continued working. A short time later Jim spotted a bit of yellow out of the corner of his eyes and he looked up to see Jenny standing in the doorway. One of the guards called out, "Hey, she says she knows you. Okay to let her in?"
  
  Jim stood up quickly and replied, "Yeah, sure, let her in."
  
  Jenny walked in the doorway, the sun shining from behind her, giving her an unearthly aura around her whole body and golden hair. Jim stared and was startled out of his focus when Jenny said, apparently again, "Jimmy? Are you okay?"
  
  Jim shook his head and said, "Oh yes, I'm fine Jenny. Just trying to get things in order here so we can ensure people can eat."
  
  Jenny looked over at a pile of apples and licked her lips. She looked around and back out the door to ensure the guards weren't watching and said, "One apple?"
  
  Jimmy smiled and picked an apple up, handing it to her. He said, "For you? Anything."
  
  She blushed and lowered her chin as she took the apple. "Thanks," she said as she started to turn towards the door. Before she left she called out, "Will I see you later tonight maybe?"
  
  "You can count on it."
  
  She was gone in an instant and Jim went back to work stacking boxes and sorting food. A short time later he heard a light tapping on the back door. He ignored it and continued sorting the food. The tapping continued and finally Jim headed for the back door. The door was locked, bolted, and had a large bar across the door, ensuring that no one would be able to break in. In today's world, food was more valuable than anything else. Jim called through the door, "Hey, who's there? Come on around front."
  
  He heard a small voice reply, but he couldn't make out what was said. He looked around then opened the bolt and lifted the bar out of the way. He opened the door a crack and saw an older woman standing at the door, apparently alone. Jim said, "Sorry ma'am, but there's no food available right now at the store. Come back in a few days and we should have some supplies for you and everyone else."
  
  In a tiny voice she replied, "But please, sir, my family is so hungry. Just a little is all I ask, we haven't had any food in days."
  
  Jim opened the door a little wider and said, "Really ma'am, I understand, but it's only fair to everyone if we share with everyone evenly in a few days."
  
  "I don't think my family is going to survive a few days, we really haven't eaten, please, we need food today or my children are going to die."
  
  > Jim should follow the rules and refuse to give the woman any extra food.
  Jim only pauses for a moment before telling the old woman, "Look, I really am sorry, but it wouldn't be right to give you food before everyone else. I promise I'll work as hard as I can to get the supplies ready and you can even get supplies first. But I just can't give you any supplies right now, that just wouldn't be fair."
  
  The woman started to protest again, but Jim shut the door, slid the bolt, and dropped the bar into place. There was a light tapping one more time at the door, but Jim ignored it and went back to work sorting the supplies. He really didn't want to leave the woman without food, but these days it looked like there were going to be people who were going to die from starvation -- a concept that was not even imaginable just a short time ago in this country. Jim hated to be a part of it, but he had to make a choice, even if whatever choice he made, people might die.
  
  At the end of a hard day, Jim headed home. As he rode through town, he looked for Jenny, but at times like these, he wasn't really sure where to find her. It's not like there was a club that everyone went to on Friday night in town any more. He slept well, rose early, and headed back to the store to hopefully wrap up the sorting of supplies so they could food to the people.
  
  As soon as he reached the store, he knew there was trouble. The door was lying on the ground in the street and Phil and the guards were standing in the doorway. Phil spotted Jim and said, "Someone broke in last night. I didn't have guards here all night, they had to sleep, too, but someone decided they wanted food. It doesn't look like they took much, but they sure took some. That's really going to make our supplies even shorter than they were before." He sighed and continued, "Might was well come in and we'll see what we can salvage from this mess.
  
  > Continue...
  Jim continues to work in the general store and Phil brings in a few more fresh supplies from a couple farms. They divide the food up into items that will perish soon and those that will keep. They set all the canned goods and long shelf-life items into a pile behind some shelves, completley out of sight. They decide that those will be used later. All the items that will expire or rot soon are placed in the front and carefully divided into bags with equal portions in each bag.
  
  When they finish preparing the bags, they stand back and look at the bags. Phil says, "I just don't know how long that's going to last. We can give out one bag per family, but there's no telling how many families are going to show up. Hopefully things won't get out of control, but I bet once word gets out that we're giving away food, people are going to come from miles away. It's not like we can turn people away, right? There just is nowhere near enough, I'm sure."
  
  Phil headed to the front door as Jim set up the registers and tables to attempt to ensure an easy flow for the large number of people they expected. Phil opened the door and found there were already a number of people in line. The first woman through the door cried out, "Oh, thank you so much Phil. You are our savior."
  
  Phil stepped back towards the area behind the counters saying, "No ma'am, that I am not. I'm just trying to do my part to help this town survive these times somehow."
  
  Jim handed her a bag and she gripped it closely and slipped out the door as other started piling in through the door. The guards stood by, trying to ensure that only one person at a time entered. They were not always successful, but people were generally working through the line without pushing -- they just wanted to get some food quickly.
  
  After just a couple people had gotten their food, there was the sound of a large diesel truck vibrating down the street. Before Phil or Jim could check it out, there was the sound of footsteps and a man in an army uniform barged in the door, shoving the guard aside. He yelled out, "We are seizing this food in the name of the New United States. The army and people need this food. You people can get in line at the nearest government facility and get your share there."
  
  There was silence as everyone stopped what they were doing. Jim made eye contact with the two guards and looked at their weapons. He felt the weight of his own firearm on his side as he looked at the army officer and made a decision.
  
  > Jim should fight the new federal government and defend the food supplies for the town.
  Jim makes a decision and pulls out his gun. He points it at the fellow in the army dress and says, "No, I don't think that's going to happen today. Instead, I think you're going to get back in your truck, you're going to leave this town, and you're going to tell your superiors that there's nothing up here. You're not going to ever come back to this town, and you're going to make sure no one else from the army of this so-called 'New American States' doesn't come back here, either. If you, or anyone else, come here again, you may not be leaving under your own power, if you get what I mean."
  
  As he spoke, Jim worked his way around the counter, continuing to point his weapon at the man. He gestured with the gun for the man to head back out the door. The man shook his head and slowly raised his hands. He backed out the door. Jim followed him. When they got outside, the man lowered his hands and Jim looked around at the dozen or so rifles that were pointed at him. The man reached out for Jim's pistol and took it from his hand.
  
  He said, "That will be enough of that. Move aside."
  
  With no choice, Jim stepped aside and four of the men with rifles kept him covered while others ran up behind him, tackled him, then zip-tied his hands behind him. They kicked him and stepped on him, rubbing his face into the dirt on the ground. Meanwhile the rest of the troops ran inside and started emptying out the store. Phil tried to resist, but they quickly beat him and knocked him aside as well. When one of the people in line tried to speak up, a rifle was fired and no one else spoke again. The men cleaned out the general store, even finding the hidden supplies of canned food and other goods. They piled back into the truck and the man called out as they drove away, "Head for the nearest city and speak to the government officials there. That's where we distribute all the food." The truck drove away in a swirl of dust.
  
  After it was gone, the guards cut the cuffs of Jim and helped him to his feet. He was sore all over and one of his eyes was already swelling shut. Phil limped out of the store and sat on the ground next to him. He said, "Well Jim, I guess that's about it. I've got no more supplies and the farms are empty right now."
  
  Jim nodded and watched as the people started to walk away, many just wandering aimlessly in the street. There was no food. There were no supplies. There was no electricity. Most of these people could not even make it to the big city if they wanted to. An old man sat down in the middle of the street, then lay down. They had nothing. Starvation was a horrible way to die.