The flood had drained, and the rain had stopped; now there would be a seven-hour window where people could move about freely, just with a cloudy sky, before we got a few minutes' warning, then the hail would begin. The flood had devastated the support systems America had; it ripped up the phone poles, power lines, and polluted rivers and lakes with salt, cutting off water, electricity, and communication for most of America. It also displaced millions of people as they had to move further inland or higher in buildings.

The hail that came would come a few hours before the end of the day, perhaps while people were still relocating themselves to a better area. It was as bad for casualties, if not more than the flood. The hail was also the death nail for most of the surviving infrastructure. Only the mountainous regions were fine, but they had their own problems to deal with. Many mountains were struck by earthquakes, or unlucky enough to be on faultlines, as part of the west coast sank into the ocean.

If a place did survive mostly intact, it could still function normally… Until someone who became a powered found that area, then the fighting over the area would quickly ruin it. It might have been even worse to survive with little deaths, as they wouldn’t gain the zombie cores to power up people to defend themselves. Entire states could end up enslaved to a few dozen powered people.

That’s why I was on the roof right now, undoing the solar panels and storing them, until the watermelon-sized hail and record-breaking two-week cold snap/blizzard was over. We would get a few weeks of good weather, that’s when I’d go rescue Sophie and bring her animals over. I would expect that during that time, many people would find our base and start begging for food. Unlike what most people would think, I was going to do my best to keep them fed.

I had just removed another panel when a truck came up to the gate. I thought it was odd, as most of the police vehicles that came in still had their lights on top, and that was a normal truck. But as the gate opened and I saw another four vehicles pile in behind, I knew something was up. They moved with precision, like this was a well-planned thing, as they went toward the security guard shack. I recognized the one who was moving as the security guard for the area before they stopped working the first day of the flood.

I quickly knew what was going on as he got on the intercom and sent an area-wide message to all the mansions. This was a takeover; they were going to try and kick out all of the mansion owners and take these mansions for themselves. I laugh as this was most likely what happened the first time around, the biggest problem with their plan this time… Would be the fifty to one hundred police and volunteers that have moved in since the flood started.

I didn’t need to get involved at all before they’d be forced out, but to streamline everything and make sure my future father-in-law wasn’t accidentally killed. I’d still help them get rid of these thieves. In terms of how bad the security guards could be, I’d put them at a two or three out of ten on the scale. They weren’t prisoners who would kill all the men and keep the women, but I’d bet money on them killing one or two people to make an example and to get into that mindset.

Most people couldn’t just start gunning down babies; they had to ease into murdering their fellow man. There were twenty people; out of those people, maybe one or two could kill without remorse, and everyone else would have to learn. They spared Jake and Vicky in the first timeline, which meant they were still human at the end of the day, at least for the first month. I casually walked down as I heard Vicky messing with the intercom. “What do you mean leave? Why would I leave my mansion?” She didn’t get a response; they might have had to start pulling people out of their mansions the first time around, because only an idiot would leave when they were told to.

I walked out just as several of the police officers did. The confident looks on the men who were still piling out of the vehicles started to shift when they saw the uniformed police in the area. Then more came out… And more… And more. Until they were outnumbered. The police offered to protect the mansion owners at the cost of housing them, and many had spread themselves out in every nearby mansion.

Some were just confused by the statement to leave their mansions, and some assumed it was the police doing an announcement, which had been done before. Very few of them actually realized what was happening, that a group had shown up to remove the mansion owners from their homes and take over. Those few had their hands close to their guns.

Finally, the police chief came out as he moved to talk to the group. Most of whom were warily looking at him, regretting their decision to come with this mob for the sake of houses. The truth was… In the first timeline, they might have had a working generator for the mansions, but without a tank of diesel to run it, it would be useless. Without uninstalling the solar panels before the blizzard, they’d be useless. The houses would be powerless as well if we didn’t prepare beforehand.

“May I ask what you meant when you said to leave our mansions, otherwise we’ll suffer?” I was waiting to see signs of escalation coming from their leader, but it didn’t; it came from the smaller, wiry guy just behind him. “He said, leave these mansions. They belong to us now, otherwise we’ll kill you!” The guy pointed a shotgun at Mr Lopez.

I noticed his finger wasn’t on the trigger, or he wouldn’t have even gotten the gun up in his direction before he fell over dead. Instead of everyone backing him, several people backed away as the police and volunteers all pointed their weapons at the group now. The smaller man was so amped up and focused on his goal that he didn’t realize they were outnumbered and talking to people wearing police uniforms until he saw them all act.

The cocktail of drugs the man was on let him be just homicidal enough to push him over the edge, even with an immediate repercussion of his death if he fired, as he screamed and brought the gun up, this time with his hand on the trigger of the shotgun. I couldn’t rely on pain to stop him from not shooting, I wasn’t sure a bone spike would destroy the gun before it fired either. So I aimed for his trigger finger first, with the next spike headed toward his heart.

Life still moved at a normal pace for me, but with my increased perception, I tended to have more time to think about what was actually happening and respond to it. My future father-in-law might have died here if it were anyone but me here to save him. I’m glad I moved closer instead of sitting on my balcony to watch this, as everyone else was about to let the man go. People still weren’t ready for things to escalate immediately to violence like this, even though it would become extremely common soon.

The man fell over dead, his screaming cut off immediately as his life was snuffed out in a moment. A silence spread through the crowd as everyone didn’t know what to do, until almost in sync, the police started shouting with their guns up for them to disarm themselves.