Post-Apocalypse Dead Letter Office by Nathan Poell Page B

the general ill-will towards the syndicates – can you blame them, for the price we charge just to get letters from A to B?) – it’s no fucking surprise these sad sacks finally started saying enough is enough.

    Anyway, it sounded like they’re pretty serious about changing things. First off, they’re talking about making deals with the new-forming governments. Shit like normalizing the ranges and running them under some kind of semi-official, semi-commercial arrangement. Taking almost all the”profit motive” – yeah, what little there is, right? – out of this gig. They fucking just don’t realize the kind of risks that we take day in and day out. I think it’s really a cover story the bosses are pushing. They might actually put some structure into this operation to get on the good side of the law, but they’ll keep the margins on their services as high as they can get away with. If the bosses are good at one thing, it’s obscuring their profits. Even I don’t know how much our syndicate clears per parcel delivered. I know roughly the average of how much it costs, but the profit remains a mystery, and I’ll bet that’s just how they want it.

    There has also been talk of the more profitable side of things also falling under the government banner. Couldn’t begin to tell you how that might play out. I think it’s just talk to leak to the farmers, to try and get them against the side of law and order. Legitimizing the products farmed by syndicate operations would have a big negative effect on a lot of these farms, and I mean a lot. Hell, you should see half the countryside here in late spring. Looks like blankets of red draped over everything. I expect they grow opium not just in Nebraska but Kansas too, yeah? Ever get sleepy making a run on the yellow brick road? “Poppies!” Ha ha sorry – it was too obvious a shot to not take. You still remember that movie? Seems like it’s been forever since movies and all that other stuff. Well, anyway, I might be reading too much into how and why word of this is getting around so much.

    This is all relevant to but not really what I’m writing to you about. What these wanks really don’t understand – and that, oddly enough, these redneck cornshuckers, hog callers, the settlers of old and other assorted rubes DO get – is that there really is no “legit” any more except for the promise and occasional deliverance of fatal violence that doesn’t gain anyone anything. Wait, scratch that last part about not gaining anyone anything. But listen: no gold standard, no ISO-based organizations, no fucking metric system (except for our bikes), no nothing but fists. Impossible to tell who we have to thank (or curse) for that, but the fact is that it’s the way things are. Maybe it still was the way when we had internet and the UN and all the other bullshit, just obscured enough that no one really thought about it much.

    Sorry, I’m ranting. Been smoking a bit much this evening. Anyway, here’s the deal. It’s me and three other guys: Monty, Hal and Sean. You know Monty and Hal. They were a couple years ahead of us at Haskell. Crazy knobs, not that bright but... yeah, just crazy, pretty much. Sean’s of Irish descent but he’s still a good guy, originally from northern California. He’s the idea guy.

    Here’s his idea: we ride west out of St. Louis, pick you up in Lawrence and keep on towards the coast, working odd jobs, pilfering if necessary. Once we get to Colorado we turn north to avoid Denver and Colorado Springs, and go through Fort Collins. Keep on north to Cheyenne, maybe score a few horses – beats pushing yourself, yeah? – then turn west again and ride all the way to Salt Lake City. Pick up supplies on the way and turn northwest. Head up through Idaho to Pocatello and then Boise. Sean says there’s hot springs somewhere in Idaho that we could rest our sore asses in. What the hell ever, I say, just give me some dope. After a few days or however