Prologue:

At the age of sixteen, John Malcolm Mackenzie had been a typical teenage boy, well at typical teenage rich boy. Though it was the Depression, Malcolm(as he was know to friends and family) never experienced any hardship or shortage – just the perks of being the son of the son of the man whose great –grandfather had founded the little town of Palmer, Georgia. Newly immigrated from Scotland, the first John Malcolm Mackenzie landed in the former debtor’s colony with his inheritance and an uncommon intelligence. Investing in cotton, tobacco, and lumber – and not just in the United States – no one found it surprising that he build an empire so large that nearly two full centuries later the Mackenzie named still commanded a powerful force. The dynasty survived in the same way all other dynasties do, with two main tactics: complete self-interest and the production of another John Malcolm Mackenzie with each passing generation.

For two hundred years, the Mackenzie men came in the same mold – fiercely cutthroat, calculating, and methodical. Then on a cold December night, the Mackenzie who would insist on being called Malcolm came into the world to shake the stones holding up the empire. By the time he reached high school everyone could see that he was different. After all, the boy read Wordsworth and Byron rather than Adam Smith and David Ricardo. He could recite a poem or spout Shakespeare without effort and with great passion. In short, Malcolm was a dreamer, a romantic. This fact caused him to do something no other Mackenzie had ever done – let people into the empire.

Malcolm had long harbored a desire for a group of devoted friends, friends so close they would be like brothers. Envisioning King Arthur’s knights or the Templars, Malcolm gathered the boys he considered his best friends and told them the idea. Of course, he pitched it with an undeniably masculine undertone – blood brothers, or something of the like – rather than the romantic knights he pictured.

They called themselves the Outlaws, the title taken from a Kipling poem only Malcolm had read. Yet that name commanded a sense of power, importance, and most of all, secrecy; instantly, the bonds between the boys fused together. Slowly, the Outlaws recruited more members. And when the war came, most of them valiantly jumped to defend their country, though none more eagerly than Malcolm. Some did not return, but those that did got married and had children. Their sons became the second generation Outlaws, eager to continue the secret society into the future.

Of course, the new Outlaws came of age in the most turbulent society the nation had ever faced. The Sixties took American by storm, a slow storm that builds and builds until it explodes and changes everything in its wake. The emerging counterculture, which destroyed so many institutions and challenged the pillars of society, only served as encouragement for the Outlaws to cement their bonds and their ideals even more securely. So by the time the tempests of the Sixties had calmed, the Outlaws could not have been stronger or more of an institution in Palmer. The main activities of the group hardly reached above mild intimidation of non – members, wild parties, and some occasional marijuana smoking(the only bit of counterculture to stick). In short, the Outlaws were little more than a social club, a group of men who looked after each other’s business affairs by day and partied together by night.

But years after the parties and the pot, the second generation Outlaws got married and had children of their own. Most had sons as well as daughters to carry on the family named. Everyone expected things to continue quite like before. Malcolm’s son Johnny married a beautiful woman from Charleston, South Carolina. They had a daughter. And everything changed.

Author’s Note:

Read the Rudyard Kipling poem “The Outlaws” to get a better feel for the story. I didn’t want to post it here but the poem can be found at: this story is something that I have been planning for quite some time. The plot is pretty much permanently etched in my head, so I know where it’s going even if I don’t quite know how to get there. I’m not sure about the rating of the story so it might change later if things get too heavy. Review if you please so I know what you think and what needs improvement. Thanks!