Richard Stephenson - Collapse

His naked son was standing in front of him, tears drenching his face, snot running down his chin. “Daddy, I’m so sorry! I’m so sorry you and Mommy are going to hell. Please don’t be mad at me, please Daddy, please!”

Richard let out a scream that petrified the children and could be heard by the congregation on the other side of the campus. He then leapt across the room, knocking down chairs along the way. He grabbed the table with both hands and flung it into the wall, smashing it into tinder. The terrified children ran from the room; however, Richard’s son and the two other boys were trapped behind the broken table.

With one hand, Richard seized the frail sixty-one year old’s throat and lifted him up onto the wall, his heels kicking three inches off the floor. With his other hand, he grabbed the man’s erection and scrotum into a vice grip, simultaneously pushing up on the man’s wind pipe and pulling down with his other arm. The muscles and ligaments in the man’s groin snapped as his scrotum ruptured, causing him to cry out in anguish. Richard threw him into the adjacent wall and watched as Oswald Jefferson crumpled to the floor, his neck broken. Unaware that the pedophile was dead, Richard attacked his prone body, savagely pounding his face with both fists.

Members of the Winchester Street Baptist Church began to pour into the room. A deacon would later testify in court that he could hear the bones in Richard’s hands break as he repeatedly pummeled the corpse’s face. It took six men to tear Richard away from the mangled corpse on the floor. Richard broke the first man’s wrist, the second’s arm. The remaining four were able to trap Richard under a dog pile, covering themselves in Oswald’s blood in the process. Completely unaware of what had sparked the chaos, Sheriff Robert Jefferies ran from the sanctuary and drew his weapon on Richard while tossing a set of cuffs to one of the men atop the pile.

Master Chief Petty Officer Richard Dupree, United States Navy, could no longer call himself a Navy SEAL. His military career ended that day in disgrace.

Chief Maxwell Harris sat at his desk, worried about the task at hand. In twenty-four hours Hurricane Maxine would make landfall near the eastern end of Galveston Island. Maxine was a beast. She was a powerful category five and was only gaining strength and speed. The destruction to Max’s little town was going to be complete. Over three-quarters of the structures in the town would take in at least ten feet of water. The remainder of the town would be subject to very high winds and torrential rain. Max could hardly imagine the damage that would be done to the city of Houston, but that was not his concern. He needed to focus on what was important — saving the lives of the people in Santa Fe, Texas.

Max was hoping against hope that the report Elizabeth gave on her drive through the neighborhoods wasn’t true. She went from subdivision to subdivision and no one seemed to care one way or the other that a massive hurricane was headed right for them. They were content to keep their heads in the sand and hope the problem would just fix itself. Now that a mandatory evacuation order was in effect, they were required to leave under the letter of the law. If they remained behind, they would be fined if they required any emergency services. If such emergency services resulted in loss of life or damage to government property, they would face prosecution.

Max called a meeting of the Police Department, the Volunteer Fire Department, and every city employee on the payroll. The “Captain” of the Volunteer Fire Department was sulking; he thought he should be running the show. Max couldn’t care less about the man’s insecurity as long as he kept his mouth shut and did what he was told.

“OK, people, listen up; time is critical here.” The noise level dropped to a dull roar, but many people kept sipping coffee and chatting. Max was growing impatient. “Excuse me; may I have your attention?” A few people turned and looked at him, but many continued to ignore him.

“HEY! If it’s not too much trouble, can you people shut up and listen?” You could hear a pin drop. “Maybe some of you don’t know what is going on here, but we have less than twenty-four hours to get the people in this town out of harm’s way. I do not have the time or the patience to tolerate anyone who isn’t focused and determined to do their job! If you have better things to do and don’t care about keeping your job, then get the hell out, NOW!”

“Dude, calm down, man. In case you forgot, you’re not my boss. Just say what you have to say, and let’s do what we have to do. Sheesh!” The man rolling his eyes was Deputy Mayor Tom Williams. Tom was not a fan of the chief of police. When Max’s predecessor retired and Max took over as chief, Tom was very vocal in his objection to Max getting the job. The deputy mayor thought the chief of police was a lazy smartass who lacked any sign of motivation. Most of the people in the room, with the exception of Elizabeth, agreed.

“Tom, I’m only going to say this once because we don’t have the time for me to repeat it. Check your attitude before I lock you up in a holding cell. I am your boss. I’m the boss of every single person inside the city limits, and don’t you forget it. In a state of emergency, sole authority in all matters rests with the highest ranking law enforcement official. You don’t like it, take it up with the governor of the state of Texas! You have anything else to say?”

The deputy mayor was shocked. He didn’t know that Max had that kind of passion in him. The chief was staring at Tom.

“I said, do you have anything else to say?” Max had his eyes locked on Tom Williams.

Tom looked around at everyone in the room. They were deliberately avoiding his gaze. He looked back at the chief, who was still staring at him. He was clearly waiting for an answer.

“No, I don’t, please continue,” Tom whispered and looked down.

“Good, now let’s get started. We’ve printed up flyers to pass out to the citizens. It clearly states the mandatory evacuation order and the consequences for violating it. I want to make one thing very clear to everyone in this room. If we receive any 9-1-1 calls while the storm is on top of us, we will not be responding. I will not put anyone’s life in danger by ordering my own officers to drive around in a category five hurricane. I encourage each and every one of you to pass along this information to the local citizens. Hopefully that will light a fire under their asses and get them moving. Also on the flyer are the evacuation routes. Once they make their way to I-45, all lanes of traffic will be heading north. For those of you who don’t know, that’s called contraflow. Once they hit Houston, they can go either direction on Loop 610 and head north. Inform them that once they get to Interstate 10, they might be diverted east or west to an alternate route leading north.”

“Excuse me, Chief?” Deputy Collins had his hand raised. He didn’t want to be dressed down like the deputy mayor.

“Yes, Brad?”

“We are going to have a hard time convincing people to leave when they don’t have any gas.”

“Yes, Brad, you’re exactly right. We’ve planned for that. Each of you will be given gas vouchers to pass out. Each household will get one, and I mean only one voucher. The voucher is good for ten gallons of gas at the city garage or one of the three largest gas stations in the city. I’m deputizing everyone in this room. Every one of you will be given credentials and a police windbreaker. If you don’t have a firearm, one will be issued to you. We will maintain order at all four of these locations. Each site will have a member of the police force in command; any citizen without a voucher will be turned away. Any citizen trying to obtain more than ten gallons will be stopped. It is crucial that we maintain order and not let things get out of control. Does anyone have any questions?”