Chapter 2, part 3

Basic training during a near unbreakable Missouri summer heat wave had worked well to prepare him for Iraq. Since combat operations had been declared over, three times over at that point, his stint there was short, and he lucked into catching the tail end of winter at Shok Valley. Assigned to 3rd BCT, 10th Mountain Division, he served 2 full tours in the 'Stan' before returning home to Ready Reserve status. Defense cutbacks were inevitable from the Bush era buildup, and he had come home in what was only the beginning of the "Great Recession". Various opportunities still existed for those with combat experience, and Aaron tried his luck with various defense contractors, stuck with low level security work.


It didn't last. Congress had tied up his employer in an investigation, as the IRS went after the employees. Aaron escaped the prosecutions, and the suicides, but was left penniless. Stuck in the lowlands of North Carolina, no job, no home, and no real friends, he chased after a seasonal reserve officer position out on the barrier islands.The pay was less than half of what it had been in the early 2000's, sans benefits or training pay, but it was better than nothing. It turned out that his clean service record and quiet demeanor landed him a year-round probationary spot with the Nags Head PD, and all he had to do was keep his mouth shut and do what he was told.

He couldn't...

In the time he'd spent deployed, life in America had changed. Or maybe he had? No...Not to the extent it had to this point in his life, as he double bagged edible organs from a poached doe deer into thrice reused ziploc bags. But it was more than subtle, even in the carefree Outer Banks. The tourists had still come, just without the money they had in years past. The kids had still cruised Route 12, but they were off the streets by midnight. They couldn't afford to waste the gas....or get the citation. If they were old enough to drive, then they were old enough to pay rent. Many of them probably had to, if only to ensure they had a dry place to sleep since Mom and Dad were getting notices from the mortgage company.

Private and public employers across the country had pushed pay cuts, severed pensions, and slashed hours. At the same time, everything had become more expensive. The beach stores, once filled with cheap Chinese junk, had bare shelves; everything left was still 50% off. Only it was 50% off triple the price it had been. Even the tourists had trudged around like the locals. He would have figured that they would be ecstatic about getting away from whatever inland hellhole they came from to spend a couple days at the coast. Then he began to realize it - a few years before that, those same people were taking 2 weeks in Cancun or Acapulco.
Aaron couldn't fathom the mathematics of the economy at any point during its fall, but he felt the difference that it had made.