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Donovan’s mouth turned upward as he just nodded in silence.
    Nate continued. “The women and children with them wouldn’t be part of the terrorist group we’ve been dealing with lately, would they?”
    “Ha! I was wondering when you would get to that.” Donovan crossed his thick arms. “But I bet you haven’t figured it all out, though you may think you have.”
    Nate coughed and shook his head. “No, I do not presume to think I’ve figured it all out. The fact is Chesty’s murder has kept my mind busy lately. Besides, we’re dealing with people who aren’t thinking straight. It’s not easy to understand people like that.”
    Tyrone couldn’t contain himself any longer. “Figured what out?”
    “Yeah,” Atticus broke in, “How about letting us in on the mystery.”
    Brian and Kendell were all ears and eyes, as they looked around the room at the adults.
    Deni finally spoke up. “I’ll wager that no one here knows as much as he thinks he does.” She folded her arms. “But I would like to learn what has you two looking so smug.”
    “I had no idea that I was looking smug,” Nate protested. “Certainly, I have no life-changing revelation that I’m keeping to myself. I just connected the semis the terrorists have been using with interstate truck stops. They could’ve gotten stranded trucks at rest stops anywhere along the interstate, where they were abandoned when the traffic jams and massive pileups took place during the early panics. I also believe the terrorists and the youth gang we ran out of town are connected in some way.”
    Donovan sat on the front edge of his desk. “It’s no big mystery, when you think about it. Some of you have already touched on the problem, days, weeks back.” He looked around the room at the others. “People have been forced to adjust to living without government, with no rule of law whatsoever and no government services, no so-called safety nets. They had to adjust or die, and by adjust I mean they had to toughen up and kill or be killed. The free-for-all that’s lasted over a year now has culled most of the weak, leaving behind the most vicious predators and the toughest survivors. The remaining predators will have to be dealt with, the survivors who kill only when they have no choice and do not take from others but work to survive and come by their food and other needs honestly are an asset, exactly what the human race needs to rebuild.”
    Donovan waited for a helicopter to lift off and fly away, so the noise would fade enough he could be heard without yelling. “There is another group of survivors who are almost as dangerous as the predators. They have grown accustomed to living without any rule of law and do not want any government to tell them what they can and can’t do. For over a year, they’ve been living in the wilderness, or the Wild West, so to speak, and they’ve grown to like their newfound freedom, despite its danger and hardship. They’ve managed to learn how to provide for themselves and they don’t think they need a government anymore, so they want their Wild West to remain untamed.”
    “That’s crazy,” Brian blurted out. “If we don’t rebuild the economy and government, we will run out of things that are already hard to come by, like medicine and fuel. Do they want to continue to see people die of sickness and injuries that could’ve been easily taken care of in a modern hospital? Do they want to live in a war zone the rest of their lives, forced to carry a rifle while plowing their fields behind a mule? Don’t they want life to be better for their children and the next generation? Why purposely go backwards?”
    “They’re not thinking like that,” Donovan answered. “The horrors of the plague and its aftermath have twisted their minds.”
    Deni said, “It’s only natural that some would blame the government for the plague and the lack of help for the people after. And it’s a given that some would blame technology, since