by JD Dutra
There was glass and wood and other debris on the floor and he skidded and almost tripped, but he made it down the hall and unlocked the deadbolt to a door that lead him to the backyard. He stepped outside, coughing profusely, his eyes were too watery to see, the ringing was still in his ear and his tongue tasted like gunpowder. A stream of dark smoke followed him out the door and, still with a racking cough, he forcing himself to find cover and some cleaner air to breathe.
With the backpack still on his back and his gun still in his hand, his vision slowly came back and the ringing in his ear began to fade. He crept back around towards the front of the house and saw an unmarked black SUV parked next to his Audi, he couldn’t see Nazeer inside. He noticed a body of a SWAT team member near his car, he aimed his gun at it and walked close enough to make sure the man was dead, his neck and head were twisted almost a full turn. He spat on the ground and made his way to the front door. There was a fire starting in the house, the smoke coming out of it was darker than the one he saw from the explosion.
Nathan went back into Tom’s house, stepping over the SWAT team member he’d killed first, blood still poured in a pool at his head and foot onto the elegant Spanish tile floor. He went down the hallway that was blackened from the explosion and saw the fire already burning hot in the kitchen, the smoke alarm was beeping loudly. There were pieces of bodies everywhere, legs, arms, hands still on parts of rifles. The air smelled of a mix of smoke, burnt flesh and iron.
Among the SWAT team’s armor and the pieces of human flesh that filled them, there was a pair of torn khaki shorts on the ground with the legs still inside, but the upper body was completely gone. The flesh was blackened and burnt and everywhere else it was bloody. One of the feet was bare, but the other had a white tennis shoe that was now caked in a mix of dust, burnt rubber and blood.
Chapter 41
Scottsdale, Arizona
Sunday, October 25th, 2020
9:42 P.M.
The fire had begun to consume more of Tom’s house when Nathan ran back out the front door. He stopped by the SWAT team officer that was dead on the ground between the SWAT car and his own vehicle, the watchman probably must have been taken out by Nazeer. He removed the guy’s bullet proof vest, and helmet and put them on. Nathan couldn’t see the gun or rifle, Nazeer probably took it and it was now blown to pieces inside the house. Nathan checked for the man’s wallet, he got it out and searched through his documents.
Jeremiah Harris. A real police officer in the local SWAT team. Why would they come to kill me?
He tossed it aside, got the man’s utility belt and put it on. Nathan now had a pepper spray, an extra tactical knife, handcuffs, and a place for his gun’s magazines. He found a set of car keys, a quick click of the remote brought the tactical SUV’s engine to life. He looked at his own car, the front passenger tire had been shot and it was useless. It made the choice easier as he couldn’t drive it anyway.
Before he drove away in the SUV, he had to see how Nazeer set himself free. He ran across to the Audi and opened the door. The handcuff was gone and there wasn’t any visible damage to the armrest. He had probably picked the lock on the handcuff somehow. Nathan took one last look at his car, shut the door and jumped back into the SWAT team’s SUV, tossing Tom’s laptop bag and its contents on the front passenger seat. The car smelled slightly of Nazeer and when Nathan looked in the back, there was a box of grenades half open and several were missing. The lid of the box was smudged with pus and blood.
Tom›s house was a engulfed in flames, but above the roar of the fire he heard the sound of helicopters approaching which terrorized him. He looked up and saw two military helicopters flying low, but they didn’t stop and kept on going, his heart almost popped inside his chest. The night was dark and in the distance Nathan could see several houses burning and now he could hear gunfire coming from somewhere in the distance. A lot of people were dead but the ones who were alive were busy killing each other.
He went through some documents on the dashboard of the SUV, Tom’s address was there along with a few others that seemed to be in a route heading towards Scottsdale Municipal Airport.
“Your private flight has been canceled Tom,” he said aloud to himself.
He popped the cap that covered the GPS sensor on the left side, right under the steering wheel, ripped out the computers and cables and tossed them out the window. He then turned on the police radio and began to drive while a stream of useful information began to pour from the car’s speakers.
Martial Law had been declared and the National Guard was on the streets under FEMA, which was in now control. There were robberies, murders, gangs settling scores, some fighting the National Guard itself in certain areas. The official order was for the government agencies to shoot to kill if necessary. Refugees were crowded into the University of Phoenix Stadium, trying to escape the violence and expecting to be taken care of by the local government, which was nowhere to be found.
He needed to go home one last time. Nazeer’s visit had rushed him he so couldn’t say his goodbyes to his daughters, and the thought of another SWAT team unit being there wrecking his house with his dead children and their mother in bed filled him with rage. While he drove back, thoughts of how his life had been turned upside down in just a few days came to him in waves. How his marriage was in shambles, his career an illusion and a lie. The Greene family legacy of men serving the country had been burnt to a crisp by him.
I did what I was told, but that helped destroy the country from within. Was some kind of rogue cell controlling parts of the American government? Or was the American government itself rogue?
The two men he knew could’ve answered these questions were now dead, but he would try to find out the truth as long as he lived. He didn’t have anything else to live for.
The National Guard had blocked off part of the freeway in the distance, so he got off at the first exit, heading into a notoriously bad neighborhood called Maryvale Village. He felt fear in the pit of his stomach, something very bad was about to happen, he just knew it. There was fire and smoke throughout the neighborhood and he could see people in groups breaking into houses, busting car windows and diving into them, looking for loot.
He was on a main street and minutes into his drive through shambling homes and broken down streets, he saw a group of men and women in the distance, eight or nine of them with t-shirts wrapped around their heads. They had set up a barricade of tires and, as Nathan stopped in the middle of the street, the men pointed guns and rifles in his direction from behind it. One of them was pouring the contents of a bottle onto the tires and when he threw a match on them, they immediately burst into flames.
He put his car in reverse and the shots started to ring out in the distance, the bullets ricocheting off the bullet proof SWAT car. After going back a few yards, he stopped and looked at the men, they acted like they were the kings of Phoenix. Over the noise of the flames they were yelling to one another.
“Yo Jose!” Said one of the men staring at the black SUV. “I told you we gotta put something in the back so people can’t reverse and leave man!”
“But he stop reversing man, there, he ain’t leaving!”
“Stop shooting homies!” Yelled the first guy, no doubt the leader of the gang. “That SUV looks sick man, it’s gonna be my new ride. Everyone, close in, Miguel, Eddie, Ronnie, get close to the passenger door. Guillermo, Mario, come with me and keep your guns aimed at the driver.”
As the black SUV just sat there, Jose and the leader, a guy called Alex, nodded towards each other.
“It’s a good day to be a gangster!” Jose said aloud and his compadres laughed.
As they got a few yards away from the car, suddenly the SUV’s engine roared to life and the front wheels turned, the headlights flashed onto high brights and the sound of screeching tires on the road cut through the air. Before they had a chance to react, Jose and Alex were rammed by the vehicle and they flew back onto the burning tires, Mario went under t
he car, he screamed but just for a brief moment.
The SUV turned its wheels to one side violently and started to head towards the other group of men, they had broken out into a run but one of them was hit and went under the car.
“Help me! I’m stuck! It’s dragging me!” There was terror and agony in the man’s voice as the SUV accelerated towards the barricade of burning tires. The black car rammed straight through it, sending burning tires in all different directions, leaving a mangled and twisted corpse in its wake.
Nathan’s heart was like a jackhammer inside his chest, but he drove several more miles without further incident. When he turned into his neighborhood and cruised towards his house, several streets including his own were being ransacked. A short way down from his home a large mob was apparently going from house to house, taking what they could and loading it into trucks.. They were three houses away from his and there were about 30 people on the street, he had no idea how many were inside the houses.
He parked his SUV a few houses down from his own, away from the looting mob and set the alarm. He ran home with his gun at the ready. Some of the looters saw him from a few houses away, but they didn’t care, they just kept on going like a swarm of scavenging vultures.
He opened his front door, stepped in, the smell of decomposition was stronger than it was when he was first there. He locked the door behind him and ran to his bedroom and his wife and daughters.
“I love you princesses, you two were the lights of my life,” he said before running his hands on each of their cold faces. “I love too, Isabella, and I’m sorry for how we ended. I should’ve just dropped everything and taken care of our marriage years ago, our family was worth more than my pride.”
He cupped the side of his wife’s face and tears welled in his eyes. She used to be so gorgeous, so warm and seductive. He pushed the thoughts from his mind and covered their faces with the down comforter.
He heard the mob breaking things outside his home and when he went to the bedroom window and parted the curtains he saw they were already kicking in his next door neighbor’s front door, he didn’t have much time. He opened his safe, dug around for the second reason he came back to his house, a notebook where he had addresses and phone numbers of some of his most trusted contacts in the clandestine service, something he was forbidden to share or possess. There was also his estranged uncle’s exact address.
His father and Uncle Joe’s arguments regarding government had made him almost a stranger to Nathan after his father passed away years ago. His uncle had given up a profitable career at the International Monetary Fund and went off the grid in Colorado somewhere. It was the perfect place to get out of the chaos and maybe get some answers.
Nathan got his AR-15 tactical rifle and his ammo bag, it had 1000 rounds of 5.56 for his rifle and 5000 rounds of .45 for his pistol. The bag was heavy but he managed to also get in some extra magazines for both weapons and his conceal carry .45, slipping it into his pocket. He closed the safe, messed up the combination. The thought of leaving all his important documents and other guns behind bothered him, but he had no choice. He took one last look at his family, left his bedroom and locked the door.
He went to the kitchen and dropped the ammo bag on the counter before he went to the stove and turned on all the burners, including the oven. It was gas powered and immediately the peculiar smell of natural gas began to mix with the smell of decomposing bodies in the air, they were almost the same. He went to the table and got a page of his oldest daughter’s homework, he folded it together with a small lump of dried play dough, it still his little daughter’s prints on it. He slipped both in his pocket as the only things he would remember them by.
His eyes went to the Greene family wall, where generations of his ancestors and their accomplishments were displayed. After gazing at it for a moment, he decided to take nothing from it and leave it the way it was.
The country you all served may no longer exist gentlemen and partially because of one of your sons. I will no longer think of myself as one of you, until I make this right or die trying.
Nathan felt a wave of emotion wash over him, the weight of his deceased father’s disapproval. He had to find a way to make things right again one way or another, but he had to get out of there alive first. He got two ammo cans of 1000 rounds of 5.56 and began pouring the rounds on the stove and counter in two long lines, the tips pointing in random directions. He then spread around another 2000 rounds of rifle ammunition on his dining room table as he thought he heard voices outside his front door. The smell of natural gas was strong and was permeating the house and when he paused for a moment to wonder what to do next, his door was kicked loudly.
He ran to his office and grabbed the bug-out bag he always left ready there and hoisted it onto his back, then he slung the ammo bag over a shoulder and let it hang across his chest. The weight would cut his mobility down, but he needed to have both hands free. Yet another kick rattled the door and Nathan knew it was just a matter of time before they broke in. As heavy duty as they were, his lock and deadbolt wouldn’t hold on much longer.
He went through the internal door to his garage and got two 20 liter Jerry cans of gasoline and went back inside the house. Nathan opened the first can, and tipped it on its side over his kitchen; the other he left pouring out gasoline in the hall and towards the entrance of his home. As he went through the garage then out to the backyard, there was a loud crashing sound and he heard dozens of voices fill his house with noise, some talking others shouting with excitement. He ran around the backyard towards the fence that separated his house from the next door neighbor’s that hadn’t been looted yet. He gazed back, and now he could see people inside his home through the window. Some of them were bringing their hands to their faces, as if they knew something was wrong.
He threw his bags over the fence and then leapt over himself, sweat now pouring down his face. As usual, his neighbor’s barbecue grill was just a few feet away, he was the only guy in the street that Nathan really knew. He grabbed a spatula, a charcoal briquette and a lump of pink fire starter jelly and matches before he picked up his bags again and went out the side gate on John’s house. Some looters were ransacking his house. Some of those outside were already moving towards his neighbor’s house, but a few others caught sight of him and stopped and stared.
“Hey that guy ain’t with us!” Yelled someone in the crowd. “What’s in the bag mister? What you got in there huh?”
Nathan just ignored them, too focused on his task to care who was saying what. He covered the charcoal briquette with the pink fire starting gel and placed it in the grilling spatula before running across the street and moving behind an abandoned car, about 15 yards away from his own front door.
As some of the looters outside began walking in his direction, he lit the briquette and it immediately caught on fire. He brought the spatula around with one hand and with a quick and precise motion, he flung the small ball of fire towards the front door of his own home. Some of the looters on the street paused to watch the burning arch it made through the air, wondering what was happening. The burning coal hit Nathan’s front door and went inside. Then he dropped to the ground behind the car with his eyes closed and his hands over his ears. The loud explosion that followed shattered the windows of the car Nathan was crouched behind of and glass rained down on him as he said a short prayer for his family. Even though his eyes were shut, he could feel the bright light and the burning heat of the ball of fire that went up in the air above his home.
Chapter 42
Rus’ Pick and Pull, Phoenix, Arizona
Monday, October 26th, 2020
6:01 A.M.
When Mei Lin woke up, the sun had barely started coming up. For a moment she wondered where she was and realized she was still in the front passenger seat of Daniel’s car. She looked around and realized that he was gone and, judging by the lack of smell, so had his kids. The car was parked in one of the rows of vehicles of all makes and models that were
nothing but picked apart metal carcasses. It must have stood out, a bright and shiny beacon amongst a mass of rust and discolored paint, but it was a very strategic location. She could see the long gravel road that went from the street to the new looking mobile home Ivan and his crew used as an office. If anyone came or went, she and Daniel would know.
Mei Lin couldn’t see Daniel from inside the car, so she reached for her compact pistol tucked on the waistband of her jeans - it was still there. She cracked open the door, being amongst the long rows of compacted cars almost made her feel claustrophobic. As she stepped down, the air around her felt cold, it smelled of rust and metal with the faint perfume of decaying flesh. The parts yard still looked as abandoned as it did the night before.
She began to walk briskly while staying low, her shoes crunching the dry gravel beneath her feet, the loaded pistol held by her delicate, but skillful hands. Her eyes watched every car around her, trying to notice anything out of the ordinary. Once she was away from the rows of old cars, moving towards the office, she saw Daniel a few yards away. He laid motionless on the dirt, right in the middle of the landscaped roundabout on the property, which was a circle full plants and stones, meant to add beauty and softness to the entrance of the parts yard as well as help guide incoming and outgoing traffic.
As her heartbeat quickened, she began to walk briskly towards him and scanned the area, aiming her gun in all different directions, looking for any sign of an attacker. There was still no movement of any kind around the property, or near the long gravel road that led to the entrance. She got to the circular plant bed, which was pleasantly landscaped with cactuses, exotic desert bushes and long wild grass blades that danced on the faint breeze of the morning.
