The Geostorm Series (Book 3): Geostorm [The Collapse] by Akart Bobby

Author:Akart, Bobby [Akart, Bobby]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Post-Apocalyptic | EMP | Survival | Thriller
Publisher: Crown Publishers Inc.
Published: 2019-12-04T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 26

Cedar Glade

Corydon, Indiana

If one has never lived in or traveled to small-town America, oftentimes referred to as Main Street, U.S.A., you’ve not experienced the nation’s true heritage. As Walt Disney put it when he described the grand entrance to Disneyland, “Main Street, U.S.A., is America at the turn of the twentieth century, the crossroads of an era, the gas lamps and the electric lamp, the horse-drawn carriage and the auto car. Main Street is everyone’s hometown … the heart line of America.”

Small-town America was Norman Rockwell paintings. Towns that were built by community churches, and local businesses owned by your neighbors. Towns with history, where everyone knew everyone else’s business. A forgotten landscape thanks to the growth of the urban metropolis and a media complex that marginalizes the importance of so-called flyover country.

The residents of small towns in America like Corydon, Indiana, appreciated their relative anonymity on the national stage. Once an important part of the state’s history, time and politics left Corydon stuck in the early 1900s while Indianapolis, Evansville, and Fort Wayne grew by leaps and bounds.

Like many small towns, Corydon had its share of good people and some not so good. Oftentimes, it was hard to differentiate, as they all shook your hand with the same sincerity, and one person’s smile seemed just as genuine as another’s. It wasn’t until you took a peek behind the curtain that you learned the dark side of humanity existed in Main Street, U.S.A., just like it did in the megalopolises.

William Tecumseh Clark, more widely known in public as Billy, or behind his back as Bully Billy, lived his life just as his namesake. Billy was named after the famed Union Army General William Tecumseh Sherman from the days of the first American Civil War, who led his Union forces on a two-hundred-eighty-five-mile march through Georgia from Atlanta to Savannah.

His brutal assault upon the heart of the South, known as Sherman’s March to the Sea, was intended to frighten the people of Georgia, as well as break their will and pride. General Sherman succeeded in his goals of instilling fear and breaking the Southerner will to fight. However, he could never break their pride.

Billy Clark admired William Tecumseh Sherman and sought to emulate him as he grew up. Like his namesake, Bully Billy believed in a scorched earth policy when it came to achieving his goals—deliberate, widespread destruction of his adversaries to win at any cost.

You see, small-town America was simply a miniature version of a New York City or Chicago or Washington. There was local politics and division. There was competition among small businesses and real estate developers. And there was a bank.

Many small rural towns didn’t have a sufficiently large population to warrant a national bank’s presence. Within the town square, you would typically find a city hall in the center, surrounded by a landscaped lawn dotted with planting beds. Small stores and law offices were nearby, as were a variety of churches.

Then you’d find the local bank. Generally, it was the largest building in town.

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