Tom laid back against the side of the bed as he was sitting on the floor. Tears were slowly dropping down his face as he recalled the days before he escaped the town and arrived here.

He had been asleep when the Great Reset took place. He had no idea that anything had happened until he woke up to the daylight streaming in his window and tried to check the time on his phone. He knew that he had overslept, as he was usually in the bookstore around dawn.

The phone wouldn’t come on, so he took it off the wireless charger beside his bed and tried to plug it in directly. Still nothing, so he snagged the charger out of the wall and went to a different room thinking his breaker must have tripped or the power went out. He tried to turn the light on in the living room, scoffing as it didn’t illuminate his out-of-date 80s furniture.

“Hmm, power must be out, and I can’t check if I received a notification about it since my phone is off. It’s weird that it died completely because I was sure I had over 80% when I plugged it in last night.”

He walked over to the window and peeked through the blinds to see if any of his neighbors had power. It seemed everyone else’s lights were out too. Even though it was daylight outside, he should still be able to see the constant light or hear the snaps and bangs of his neighbor Scout’s war movies being played on repeat.

He figured there wasn’t anything he could do about it, so he got dressed to head in and open the bookstore for the day. Hopefully, there weren’t any customers upset that he hadn’t been there to unlock the doors for them. He grabbed the keys to his car and strolled through the house out to the garage.

Since the power was out, he pulled the emergency release cord and yanked the door up into position. He plopped down in the driver’s seat of his old car, placing the keys in the ignition before trying to turn it over. Strangely, there was no sound at all. He noticed the lights didn’t come on and his radio wasn’t playing the rock station that played constantly since the day he bought the car.

“That’s weird, I just got a new battery last month and I know I didn’t leave anything on in here.” He reached over and grabbed the portable jump pack out of the glove box, popping the hood with his other hand at the same time. “Ugh” he moaned as he slid back out of the car and propped the hood up. He tried to turn on the battery pack to boost his car, but the little machine didn’t respond whatsoever.

“Well, I guess it’s just not my day at all. Something must’ve caused problems for the whole area or something. Maybe it’s one of those solar flares that cause emp-like power outages.” He tried to rationalize as he figured out nothing was going his way today. “I guess I’m walking to work, maybe I can catch a ride with someone else on the way.”

Tom stepped out of his garage and pulled the door back down in position. He started walking towards the bookstore as he surveyed the houses around him, noticing that no one else seemed to have power and he couldn’t hear any cars at all. The only thing he could hear was what seemed to be a low murmur of voices from far off. “There must be a gathering of everyone in town because of the power problems.”

He headed towards the town center, noticing the occasional group of people moving away as the sounds got louder. He approached the crowd, trying to find someone he was familiar with to ask what was going on. He noticed several people with guns in the middle of the circle, perched on top of a box truck with the Sheriff in handcuffs on his knees in front of them. One man he recognized as the guy who special ordered survival and military books from his shop from time to time. He seemed to oversee the others and was speaking over everyone about what was going on and how he prepared for times like these. He went on and on about how we couldn’t trust the establishment and the protection he was going to offer us if we followed him. He was preaching about how we were under attack from a foreign force and the government couldn’t be trusted.

“Like I said good people, these sheep aren’t to be trusted. They’re the reason all of this is happening, and they left us in the dark about it when they knew the whole time.” The man kicked the Sheriff down onto his face and planted a foot on his back. “There will be fighting my good men and women, the loss of our facilities proves there are already enemy troops in our land. We need to prepare to defend ourselves before we’re taken by surprise and lose everything we hold dear. This movement starts with the removal of the sheep that betrayed us in our own community!”

The Sheriff tried to yell over the crowd that he had no idea what was going on, but the crowd was already riled up and enraptured by the charisma on display from the man speaking. The group had devolved into a mob and was yelling and screaming to take the Sheriff down. There were small pockets of individuals who were attempting to leave or calm the crowd down, but there was nothing they could do now. The man had control over the majority in the area who were afraid and latched onto the closest source of stability and power.

It happened suddenly as Tom was trying to leave the gathering of people. He could feel that things weren’t going well and didn’t want to stick around to find out what happened next. As he turned his back and attempted to push his way through the grouping, a loud bang erupted making his ears ring as everyone stopped moving around him. He turned around and saw the man pointing his gun at the Sheriff who now lay on the box truck motionless, like a puppet with its strings cut, dark red liquid dripping down the side of the truck.

No one was moving, speaking, or even breathing. The man kicked the Sheriff’s body down from the truck in front of the crowd. The body folded over itself as it made a thud on the ground, people started to scatter as the realization of what just happened sunk in. Tom attempted to take off as fast as he could, but that swift retreat was quickly cut off. It seemed that people came from every direction to surround the group armed with a variety of weapons to prevent their escape. Some attempted to fight back or pulled weapons of their own to defend themselves and their families. This didn’t end well for any of them as numbers overwhelmed the individuals who stood out, leaving their families weeping and wailing hysterically when their loved ones were taken from them in front of their eyes.

The man from on top of the truck yelled out, trying to get everyone’s attention. “Alright, alright! Everyone listen up! I’m sorry things are going like this, but I need to ensure that we maintain control of this town and I can’t do that with any of you getting wily on me. If you want to keep your family safe, listen to everything I have to say and obey the orders of my men. I will protect everyone to the best of my ability!”

“Now, we’re going to sort all of you into groups, and don’t think about trying to slink off anywhere. I have men posted all throughout the town on patrols as we speak. I should have the rest of you rounded up within the hour. First, women on the left, men on the right.”

No one moved as the man finished his speech.

“Alright, seems I wasn’t clear enough!” He fired a shot into the air, and everyone got to moving where they needed to be. The low whimper and cries of children and babies unable to understand the situation started to die down as everyone moved accordingly. The man leaned back and spoke quietly with two of the men beside him on the truck. Once he was finished, they separated and then jumped down from the truck. “Now, my men here are going to come around and collect anything that might interfere with our plans going forward. Don’t be coy and think you can hide anything from us to escape later.”

The two men grabbed a couple of their subordinates and started going through the crowds searching everyone present and confiscating anything that could be used as a weapon. Once they were finished, they moved back to the front of the group and waited for their boss to finish his instructions.

“Well, lookie here! That wasn’t so bad now, was it? Now, we’re going to move all the women to a secure location and divvy up jobs for everyone. If we want to repel the enemy and keep this town safe, we’re going to need a defensible position. Since none of the vehicles work anymore, we’re going to use them to form a barrier around the center of town here first. Once we set up our base of operations, we can expand to see what still works in this town that is of use.”

The men got to work pushing vehicles into a circle around the supermarket in the center of town as the women and children were escorted into the supermarket. The boss hopped down from his truck and followed the women being escorted inside.

Tom had a terrible feeling about everything going on here, but he didn’t have the power to resist. He went with the men and tried to help move the vehicles, but the people guarding them noticed how often he would fall while trying to push a car or hurt himself in some other way. Eventually, the guards got tired of having to slow down because of him and they yanked him out of the group. They pulled him towards the supermarket and up to the room he assumed the boss was in. He saw on the way through that the women were inside the store sorting through all the products to find anything that still worked.

When he was escorted into the boss’ room, he was surprised to see several of the women in the room with him wearing next to nothing. The boss yelled out crankily. “Why are you interrupting me right now, I gave all of you clear orders to follow! If the whole town isn’t under attack, leave me alone!”

One of the guards quietly answered back to their boss. “This guy isn’t working out; he can barely push or pull anything. He gets tired and slows down from lifting small loads for longer than a couple of minutes. What should we do with him?”

The boss looked over and noticed who they brought in. “Oh, hey, it’s the guy from the bookstore. Listen, man, I need everyone to pull their weight around here. We can’t have a bunch of freeloaders in this town and still survive what is to come. So, you’ve got a couple of options here; you can either pick up the slack you’ve been dropping outside, or I can let my boys take care of you. I hope you have the sense within that big head of yours to understand what that means.”

Tom looked around, the fear in his eyes betraying the strong front he tried to put up. “I’m trying my hardest, but I run a bookstore. Does it look like I get out and do manual labor whatsoever? This is the hardest I’ve worked since I was a kid and I’m already exhausted.”

The man behind the desk eyed him up and down. “Well, I think I might have a job fit just for you. You see, I’m a ladies man. I enjoy the company of a fair woman as you can see.” He said while running his hands up and down the bodies of the women present in the room.

“However, some of my men have certain proclivities that are quite different from my own. I think you’ll make a great addition to their options. You know, gotta keep the men satisfied and such for morale.” The man oozed with derision as he explained Tom’s fate.

“Take him to the building with the rest of the women.” The men yanked him up and started dragging him back out of the room. Tom seemed to have lost all will in his body as his mind tried to process what was happening. Halfway down the stairs, he started screaming in protest and tried to escape. The two escorting him gave him a quick punch to attempt to shut him up. One leaned over and whispered in his ear that he was going to be seeing him later that night.

Tom was drug to a room filled with several of the prettiest women from town ranging in age. The two men threw him inside and slammed the door shut as the guard gave him a quick wink. Tom felt disgusted and looked around him to take stock of the situation. He didn’t recognize anyone in the room with him currently, but he knew what they were there for.

“Have any of you tried to escape from here?” he asked the women around him as he was checking the boarded-up windows and sealed doors. A couple of them approached him wondering why he was in there, obviously suspicious of the only male in their enclosure.

A younger woman, probably in her early twenties approached him. “Yes, of course we’ve tried to get out of here. Do you think we don’t know why they separated us? The real question is why you’re in here.” Every woman in the room seemed to be eyeing him with suspicion.

Tom looked at them exasperated “You’ve got to be kidding me, right? Do you think I’m some spy or something sent in here by them to help control you? Do you believe they’re thinking this through that far? I wasn’t doing well in the workforce, and I guess one of the tyrants liked the look of me and decided this was going to be my new fate.”

Tom tried convincing them that he was now in the same position as them, but they remained wary of him and avoided him in the room. Eventually, the guard who was harassing him earlier came back and escorted him to a building close by.

It was over an hour before he was taken back and tossed in the room with the women again. His face no longer showed any signs of resistance, he looked just like a dead fish while he lay on the ground where they threw him. He didn’t move for the rest of the day, even when the woman from before tried to come over and speak with him or apologize for how they acted before.

Throughout the day and night, several of the women were taken and brought back, but eventually one of them didn’t return. Everyone felt scared when she didn’t return and tried to ask the guards where she was. They never answered, but the next few girls were brought back like normal, so they assumed she made nice with one of their captors and cursed her as an opportunistic slut. That is until one more girl didn’t come back, and then another.

Tom was still reeling from his experiences and by the time he got some hold of himself, it was already the next night. He had noticed that the women occasionally weren’t coming back but couldn’t be bothered with it.

That night, the guard came back and tore Tom out of the room again. However, Tom had made up his mind that he wasn’t going to go through that again. He tried to find any solution that would get him out of this torture and felt truly lost until he saw his friend Greg. They were on the outskirts of the perimeter around the supermarket and Greg was carrying boxes of metal to reinforce the barricades.

Tom perked up and broke away from his abuser, running to Greg as fast as he could yelling for him to help. Greg turned around just as Tom hit him like a brick wall. He picked him up and sat him back on his feet as he noticed the guard chasing after Tom.

“Please Greg, please help me. I can’t go with him and go through that again.” Tom was pleading with all his being as tears ran down his face. Greg just nodded and said “Un”.

When the guard got close Greg stood in between the two of them. The guard pointed his gun at them and ordered “Get out of the way, no one is going to interfere in the playtime with my new toy.”

Greg stepped sideways and allowed the guard to grab hold of Tom as he was wailing about not going back with him. As the guard pulled Tom towards him Greg snapped the guard’s arm in the air before knocking the gun out of his hands. Greg yelled for Tom to run as fast as he could as he tried to hold the guard off.

Tom took this opportunity to run through the nearby alleyway and crash through some piles of trash. He ducked through alleys and behind buildings as the sound of the guards got closer and closer to him. His chest felt like exploding but he wasn’t going to let this chance escape him. He hid and moved as quietly as he could all night before getting out of town and heading towards his best friend Robert’s house. He lived outside of town and likely had been spared from all this commotion. Hopefully, he could find safe haven there temporarily.