8042

Abigail and John go to Black Hawk after the fall of the Electric Grid to see Julian's community amid the chaos.

As Abigail entered the casino she was struck by the silence. She'd visited the casino once a child and found the the place overwhelming between the loud music and the sounds of the machines. Lights flashed and sirens went off and it was just too much for her. Since the electric grid had gone down just over a year ago, many such places were silenced.

The casino was still dimly lit at night and she could see that the large skylights lit the floor well during the day time. Julian had managed had managed to keep the generators running while he built a long term alternative energy source. She'd heard that he'd planned to deforest the nearby mountains. Others had suggested that he'd planned to build a nuclear reactor. Either way, Abigail knew that her Uncle was up to no good. Everyone had been preoccupied with the chaos in the major cities, that no one paid attention the smaller, seemingly inconsequential cities. Her uncle had cunningly taken over the former mining town turned casino resort destination with relative ease.

Yes, Julian Andrews had created a veritable fort at 8042 feet. Strategically he bombed out the road between tunnels one and two along the canyon road. This meant that it was damn near impossible to attack him, or even reach him for that matter. Abigail and her father had to find an alternative path around the tunnels. What would have taken just under an hour by car a year ago had turned into a two day hike. What a difference there was between life in 2019 and life in 2020.

Abigail and her father John descended the steps between the two unmoving escalators. A bottle being knocked over caused them to look up above the 8042 bar. Standing on top of where the 2^nd floor bar had been, were four men dressed in military uniforms and carrying M16s. Two of the men had their guns trained on Abigail and her father while the other two on the ends simply watched the scene passively.

“What ya doing here? State your business?” said Alex. He was a big black guy who had a scarf tied around his head like Rambo.

John held up his hands and called back, “We are here to see my brother Julian.”

“Drop your weapons,” the other man, Joe, called down to them. He had short red hair.

John and Abigail set down their guns on the landing between levels. “I just want to speak to Julian.”

Joe called over another guard and he took off to get Julian. Then Joe turned back to Abigail and John. “Stay there where we can see you and Julian will come out to see you.”

Abigail shot John a look and John just shrugged. They stood still and silent for about five minutes before Julian came out from the back, around the dark slot machines and out to the front of 8042. He had a mop of white hair on his head, was clean shaven and dressed neatly in business attire. “Brother. How nice of you to pay us a visit up here. What brings you up the hill?”

“Can we talk in private?” John said slowly stepping down to meet him at the bottom of the stairs. Abigail followed as Julian led him into the bar to have a seat. Several armed guards hung back around the edges of the circular center of the casino, which happened to be the bar.

“The population of Denver is dwindling. More people die every day from starvation or from stupidity. It is chaos down there. Then I hear rumors that my brother took over the old Ameristar building and made himself a nice little home up in the mountains. I had to come see if the rumors were true,” John said as Julian reached for a bottle of whiskey and poured them both a glass.

Julian settle the bottle down, tipped his glass to his lips and let the warm liquid slide down his throat before he answered. “Yes, as you can see we are doing well here. Probably about the only place with any order. It pays to have a plan you know.”

John gulped down his shot of whiskey and set the glass down headily. “May be. But as I hear it, you staged a sort of coup and took this place by force. Not sure I agree with your methods brother.”

Abigail was just 18 years old, but she swiped the bottle from the counter and took a swig directly from it while she listened to her father and uncle exchanged strained pleasantries.

“True, I did use a gun to declare myself the president of this place, but there was really no blood shed. Most of the employees had fled down the hill to their families when the power went out. There was a mere skeleton crew hanging around here when I arrived back in July.”

“What about the Black Hawk police? Didn't they have something to say about your little hostile take over?” John asked.

“Not really. In fact, most of the guns, ammo and guards were supplied by them. Once they saw I had was ready to be a leader and do what needed to be done, they joined force with me rather than fight me.”

“And casino security didn't object either?”

Julian took the bottle out of his niece's hands and poured himself another shot. He slammed it back and replied, “Nah. A couple of the men confronted me at the beginning and then left the casino when it was clear they couldn't win that fight. Several of the security guards joined my forces though. I have what?” Julian looked up and to the left trying to remember, “Forty men at my command now.”

“Forty is impressive for a man with no prior military experience.”

“I studied military history and politics in college. That was enough,” Julian smiled.

“You never saw combat and the only time you fired a gun was during some hunting trips you took before the grid went down.”

Julian slapped his brother on the back. “You are the one with military experience. I know. You will never let me forget that will you?”

“I was the one who got shipped off to the sandbox over there and I'm the one who knows just how bloody and terrible war can be. Yet you're the one starting wars?” John said.

“I was smart enough to not get tangled in the lies of the government. I was smart enough not to risk life and limb for a cause I did not believe in. Living here on the mountain is something I knew I could really get behind,” Julian replied. “This war is in our own backyard now�"not in some god forsaken wasteland far away from home.”

“You don't believe that the American government will regain control and that America will continue onward into the future then?” John said as Julian poured him another drink.

“No, I do believe the world as we know it has ended. The Constitution and Bill of Rights aren't worth the paper they were written on in this brave new world.”

John drank his second drink and then said, “Some might call you a traitor.”

“Are you calling me a traitor?” Julian asked pouring himself yet another drink.

John sighed, “Honestly, I don't know. What is end game here bro?”

“My end game,” Julian said slamming his third drink back, “is to create a sustainable place to live for years to come. Ameristar is like a fort up here and it has back up generators and its own water treatment facility. It's perfect.”

“What about food? And energy once the generators quit? How do you propose to create your own little grid up here?”

“I have a group of growers who are planning on creating gardens and farms both inside and out. We have wood for the fire places and a plan to build our own power plant.”

“Sounds like you've thought of everything,” Abigail piped up.

“Yes, I've tried to make this dream a reality and I've spent hours researching and thinking. It is a feasible plan. But I couldn't pull it off without everyone working together.”

“You make it sound like a sixties commune or something,” John joked.

“Never heard of a commune with guns,” Abigail muttered.

“It isn't a commune. I am the leader and they follow me and my plan because they believe in it. Most feel it is much better to be together up here than alone in that dark world down there.”

“Maybe,” John conceded. He slid off his stool and stood up. “You gonna show me around this place or not?”

Julian smiled and stood up. He gestured for Abigail and John to follow him. Julian led them out of the rotunda bar. They followed Julian around the slot machines and passed the craps tables. They arrived at a set of doors that opened automatically to the back. As they strolled down the winding hallway, Julian explained that they still had a good deal of food and alcohol stocked up and that they were living quite comfortably. He kept a strict log of the rations he allowed his people to eat and drink. Due to the 40 armed guards posted at various places, there had been no looting or stealing since the power first went out a year before. He opened the door the surveillance room and showed them that the cameras were still operational and that there were still people watching them. However, out of the original 2,400 cameras on the floor, he was only operating about 40. Most of the surveillance was to catch gamblers cheating and was redundant. He only needed eyes in a few strategic places.

Next, Julian led them out a door and up a set of stairs. They exited into the parking garage and then entered another door into the back of the hotel. As they walked through the back hall and out to the empty front desk, Julian explained that he, his 40 soldiers and about 20 additional staff members lived in the hotel portion of the casino. He kept power running only to two floors. The rest were dark, cold and empty for now. Julian had realized that he could keep the full casino running on generators for several days or shut down 80% of the power and keep it running for several years.

Solar panels and wind mills were also being installed to provide power to replace the quickly depleting power of the generators. The river also provided a minimal amount of power for the city. Julian had done his research and hired an expert in energy before he'd marched up to Ameristar and taken over. Dr. Bentham was overseeing the energy construction projects while Julian made sure everything in his community ran smoothly. The solar and wind powered communities that had popped up since the grid had gone out had been mostly successful, but they were small. The emerging technologies weren't able to sustain large urban centers like electricity had. Europe had seen success with their nuclear power plants, but there weren't many nuclear power plants left in the United States. Though Julian had considered building a small nuclear reactor, he wasn't sure it was worth the risk.

They took the stairs instead of the powerless elevators up to the 10^th and 11^th floors, which left was quite an work out. Julian showed them the rooms using his master key. When Abigail marveled that the keys still worked, he explained that the doors all had batteries in their locks. The keys would work for years before the batteries would die and they had to change the out or recharge them. After showing them a basic room, he took them down to the end of the dark hallway and showed them his own personal room. It was a mountain pine suite, which had a fire going in the fire place and lights that still worked. Julian, as it turned out, was living in luxury compared to most of the people down in Denver.

John sat on a couch and caught his brother Julian up on what it was like for him and many others down in Denver. Denver's electric grid wasn't the first to go, so it didn't take the people by surprise. The chaos had started on the East Coast and slowly spread through the Midwest over a period of about six months during the summer of 2019. By the time it had reached Denver, many of the richer and more mobile citizens had fled the city. What was left were the poor and disabled for the most part. The sick and the elderly didn't last long after the electric went out. Shipments of medicine and medical supplies stopped after a month or two and then hundreds died within weeks. At first they were given proper burials, but eventually the body count got so high there was nothing they could do but either burn them or leave them to rot.

Stores were looted and soon it the police couldn't keep up with all the crime. Citizens with guns overran the streets and took all the supplies they could find. Many more died in fights over things like bottled water and toilet paper. Cash registers were down and there was no real way to keep track of sales anyway. The few legit owners with guns were able to do business in cash. But many people didn't even have cash�"they had credit and debit cards which were then useless. Some people were able to barter and trade supplies, but most people were far too greedy and do anything but stock pile and hoard what they could. And for what? The hoarder was often shot in pursuit of more stuff. Then no one knew were their stockpiles were and it didn't do anyone any good.

Julian suggested that they stay awhile and see if they wanted to join the group. John agreed, so John and Abigail were given basic rooms and allowed to freshen up before the group dinner down in the dinning hall. Although there were three restaurants and a Starbucks in the casino, the only place that Julian allowed food to be served was in the former team dinning room. Power to the other food places had been shut down and diverted to other places because it just made the most sense.

Abigail sat in the dimly lit dinning room staring at the blank TVs that were mounted on the back wall. Sometimes she missed watching TV, but most of the time she'd occupied herself by reading. For awhile before her mother died, John had taken them to a library for refuge. It was an old church that had been converted to a library branch. Then when the electricity when out, the libraries closed all their branches. Only the main library downtown remained open in a limited capacity. Instead of self-checkout stations, they'd reverted back to librarians stamping books and noting the patron number and book title on paper.

“I was sorry to hear about Elizabeth,” Julian said to John.

“Yeah, it was tough to lose her,” he replied as they sat down to begin eating.

“She was killed during one of the raids wasn't she?”

“Yeah, a cop killed her for stealing some food from a gas station back in November.”

“I am sure it feels like yesterday even though it was what? Six months ago now.”

“Yep six months now. The whole thing just pisses me off. Elizabeth never hurt anybody.

She wasn't one of the looters who stabbed and shot others to get the last loaf of bread on the shelf. She was quietly taking food from a place that had been abandoned for months. No one was there fighting with her over it either. She was by herself in the middle of the night.”