Finest Hour Read Online Free PDF Page B

close to a functioning society as any they had come across since the pandemic. A good part of that, thought Tanner, was due their having achieved a sense of security for the remaining residents—a feat achieved in no small part thanks to Mason’s efforts.
    They cruised down King Street, passing a police cruiser. A uniformed man with a prosthetic leg stood next to it. As they passed, the officer offered a friendly wave, obviously inviting them to stop to chat. Tanner replied in kind but didn’t slow down. Experience had taught him that encounters with law enforcement rarely ended well, and even with Mason’s connections to the town, he thought it better not to push his luck.
    When they were a few miles east of Boone, he turned the Hummer north on Highway 221. For the next two hours, they stayed on the two-lane highway, passing through a host of small communities, including Jefferson, Independence, and Galax. Each looked very much like the others, historic brick buildings now dark and empty, roads jammed with cadaver-filled cars, and disheveled survivors out scavenging from homes and businesses. What had at one time been vibrant bastions of Appalachian culture were now one step away from being decrepit ghost towns.
    “It’s sad, isn’t it?” Samantha said, watching as a mother nearly dragged her small child behind her as they searched for supplies.
    “What’s sad?”
    “People having to live like that.”
    “Ah, it’s not so bad.”
    She looked over at him.
    “They don’t have any food.”
    “No, but they have their freedom.”
    “They’ve always had their freedom,” she scoffed. “We live in America.”
    Tanner smiled but said nothing more.
    “You don’t think people were free?”
    “I guess that depends on what you call free.”
    “Free means you can do whatever you want.”
    “Darlin’,” he said with a soft chuckle, “we could never do what we wanted. Not really.”
    Samantha sat forward. “What do you mean?”
    “The government forced us to do lots of things.”
    “Like what? Give me an example.”
    “How about giving them a piece of every penny we earned?”
    “We had to do that?”
    He nodded. “Oh, yes. And if you didn’t, you’d end up in the cell right next to mine.”
    “What else?”
    Tanner thought for a moment.
    “They made young men register to fight in wars halfway around the world.”
    “They forced people to fight even if they didn’t want to?”
    “Sometimes.”
    “Anything else?”
    “My personal pet peeve has always been against certain local governments not allowing people to own guns.”
    “But we had police back then. Why would you need a gun?”
    “Same reason I need one now. To keep people from taking advantage of my good nature.”
    She grinned. “Yeah, right.”
    “I’m not saying we didn’t live in a great nation. We did. But that doesn’t mean we were completely free. If the government wanted the land you lived on, they took it. If you spoke too loudly against their policies, they found a reason to lock you up. Our government used an undercurrent of fear to keep people in line, and it was only getting worse when all this happened.”
    “If that’s true, why didn’t people rise up and change things? You know, like in the Revolutionary War.”
    “Simple. Because people were lazy.”
    “Lazy?”
    “Sure. As long as there was beer in the fridge, an exciting game on the TV, and a soft bed to lie in, most folks were willing to overlook a few infringements on their liberties.”
    “Was my mom part of the… the infringement?”
    “Of course.”
    She crossed her arms. “I don’t think she knew it was happening. Not really. She wasn’t like that.”
    He shrugged. “Maybe, maybe not. Either way, I suspect the same problem plagued the Egyptians, the Romans, and every other society since the dawn of time.”
    “What problem is that?”
    “Those in power convincing themselves that the rights of the many should take precedence over those of the