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Rod Raglin
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Finding Meaning, Making Sense - An Anthology of Short Stories & Poetry - 2022-2025
Literature & Fiction
Author Insight
When family is a liability
Lori wants to have a fully realized life, become part of the Mainstream may even an Elite. It’s tough, there are challenges, but none more so than her family. Politics, protest, lifestyles, social and personal issues; stories and poems that address contemporary issues with a new perspective. THE FLATS is one of the short stories in Finding Meaning, Making Sense, An Anthology of Short Stories and Poems, 2022 – 2025, that includes the section, The Zeitgeist of Our Times, stories and poems about contemporary issues – with depth and balance. JUST RELEASED AT https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B003DS6LEU
Book Excerpt
Finding Meaning, Making Sense - An Anthology of Short Stories & Poetry - 2022-2025
“Raid! Raid!”Lori lurched awake.“Take cover!”“Get off the streets!”Outside there was chaos –shouting, running, doors slamming as people living on the streets in makeshift shelters scrambled to find safety for themselves and their meagre belongings.“Help!” Someone banged on the door of their container home. “Hide me!” The voice was desperate.“Shh.” Lori’s mother was kneeling beside her bunk.In the distance, Lori could hear the roar of hover-copters and the whine of sirens. That didn’t mean the raid was in the quadrant where they lived. The Flats was three sq. kilometres teeming with at least fifteen thousand residents.“It’s this quadrant,” her mother said. “We’d better go below.” She shone a flashlight in her daughter’s face.“How do you know, Pam?” Lori asked. “They’re still a way off.”“The copters aren’t, they’re overhead.” Her mother held open the hatch in the floor.The renovated shipping container that was their home sat on a foundation of concrete blocks that created a crawlspace used for storage and accessed by the hatch. It was cramped and smelled funky, but it was bullet proof.During police raids, it wasn’t uncommon for innocent neighbours to end up as collateral damage. Fifty calibre rounds had no problem puncturing corrugated metal and machine guns weren’t too specific.“Now get down there before you get your ass shot off.”“Shit.” Lori rolled out of her bunk and clambered down into the small enclosure. “Where’s Brant?”“Damned if I know. I just hope it’s not your brother they’re after.”Lori squeezed over so she could see outside through a small space between the cinderblocks that provided the foundation for their home. The intense beams of Nightsuns, the 1600-watt LED searchlights mounted on the helicopters, illuminated a narrow street now empty of humans but crowded with lean-tos consisting of tarps draped between shopping carts or strung over loading pallets.“This is an intervention by Safety and Security. Stay inside. Do not leave your dwelling!” The warning came out of the sky, loud and threatening like the summons of a vengeful angel.As the sirens drew closer, one helicopter began to descend. Hovering at a hundred feet, two ropes unfurled from either side of the craft and within seconds eight SS officers in full combat gear had fast-roped down to the street. They regrouped, then moved to surround a two-storey container on the opposite side of the street.“It’s Leon’s,” Lori said.“Bastards! Fucking fascist bastards!” Pam tried to see the action, but Lori pushed her aside. “Did they get him?”A small explosive charge blew the door off, and four officers went in while the other four scanned the locked doors and adjacent alleys, automatic weapons at the ready. At the same time, three BearCats, armoured SWAT vehicles, turned onto the street and approached the dwelling. They were wide, the streets narrow and dark, one clipped a shopping cart strewing its contents on the ground and pinning the occupant of the makeshift home beneath the cart and the wall of a container.Lori could hear him screaming above the mayhem.“What the hell is going on?” Pam said.“The BearCats, they’re too big.” Lori watched as people began scrambling from beneath the makeshift dwellings where they’d been hiding; their choice to be crushed or take a chance on being shot.The emergence of a bunch of unknowns suddenly appearing spooked the SS members standing guard who immediately opened fire. Fire rained down from the sky as well.“Oh my God!” Lori watched as six people were torn apart, their bodies flung like so much garbage into the gutter. But it didn’t stop, the large calibre bullets from the gunships shredded the dwellings into a blizzard of debris that included body parts.The firing ceased and the cops came out with Leon and two other men in handcuffs. They marched them to the waiting armoured vehicles and everyone, including the officers, got in, secured the doors and reversed back down the street.Cautiously, residents began to emerge and through the haze of gun smoke and attempted to give aid to the dying.
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