Surviving in America: Under Siege 2nd Edition

by Paul Andrulis

  There was no longer a deer or cow within ten miles of the city. The local resources were drained. Pointing out that the grocery store on tenth still had a huge supply was welcome news, but with the number of people needing fed it only bought Joe two more weeks.

  In three weeks they would run out of supplies and face starvation. If Joe had anything to say about it, they would be trained in two. He intended that Great Bend would be cleared of carnivores by the third week and the city’s bounty would be back in the hands of its former residents.

  Once Great Bend was back online, it would require cooperation. Between the selfless efforts of the two cities combined, they could both survive. Joe knew that without cooperation neither would.

  Even the citizens of Hoisington were signing up for both training courses once the idea had been presented to the Guard Captain. Pretense among the civilians was gone leaving the nasty underbelly of what was happening to the nation both exposed and evident. For many it required watching their friends, family, and neighbors being treated like cattle. For others, it had taken more. Whatever the reasons and events necessary for the eyes of the people to open, they were officially and unequivocally open now.

  The giant known as “We The People” had just stomped a large military force flat as a pancake and had no intention of stopping there. We The People were preparing to stomp a big mud hole in those who had turned traitor everywhere in the nation.

  Kansas had set an example, and word was rapidly spreading.

  With these people receiving training after what they had witnessed and endured their opposition had a legitimate right to be afraid. In fact, those in power were afraid. Very afraid.

  The survivors were now minutemen, a real state militia and not merely some hotheaded cowboys playacting as soldiers. They would fight like cornered rats and disappear like smoke when beaten, only to reform and attack again with the same ferocity. They were fighting for their own families, farms, and homes.

  Churchill had been one of the few to notice that when the slumbering giant of America awakes even outright war machines get flattened, such as Germany and Japan had been in world war two. Only an idiot wants to face a bear with only a knife and a nine millimeter pistol. It does not matter that the bear is relatively unarmed in comparison. Now in your mind arm the bear, even if it is only a twenty two caliber, then threaten its cubs.

  …..................................

  In the third week, one hundred people lost their lives in Great Bend selectively clearing out the animals. Only the carnivores and dangerous omnivores had been decimated, Joe pointing out that they actually wanted the rest to live and thrive.

  “People. Use your brains! All these other animals are future food. We want them to live, and thrive, and have babies,” Joe had railed, after a few wildebeest and buffalo had been needlessly slaughtered.

  Many of the former residents had not even thought of them as potential food.

  “The food left in the two big grocery stores will only last so long. We will need everything we can get!” a man yelled from the front of the crowd.

  The people of Great Bend then butchered the dead animals and preserved the meat, and agreed to only drive the dangerous meat animals out of town instead of killing them. They also enacted a voluntarily rule that the meat animals be allowed to breed and have offspring before they could be hunted. Thankfully, a majority of the animals had already left the city for greener pastures.

  Cheyenne Bottoms was only a few miles from town. Before the massacre started it was merely a wetland refuge, but in the near future would resemble an African plain in all respects. Try as they might to get rid of the mean critters, some of the carnivores had already left Great Bend. Not just a small few were breeding pairs.

  With practically unanimous agreement a mutual protection and support pact was agreed too and signed by various local towns in the area.

  Holyrood, Great Bend, Susank, Beaver, Odin, Ellinwood, Lyons, Chase, Claflin, Redwing and Hoisington all banded together. The various towns had the support of every surviving farmer in the region. Sadly, there were not many farmers left. Generally on their own and isolated from any help, they had been relatively easy targets.

  Those who had excess food or materials willingly shared with others who needed it. Lumber, materials, and food flooded from Great Bend. Lumber and new furniture flooded from Claflin. Grain from a multitude of silos kept everyone in both wheat and bread. Flour poured from an improvised mill in Odin.

  Every town now had all too many empty farms or houses within the city limits. They welcomed those whose houses had been destroyed or those who were simply homeless. Where they were from originally did not matter. Community spirit demonstrated that poverty does not have to exist. No-one that is willing to work and be productive should ever have to starve.

  This pact would eventually extend to the ruins of Russell all the way to the blasted but still functioning Hays, and everything in-between. It would eventually serve as a model upon which many people would copy. Scouts sent to Salina came back with reports that the city was still functioning, but had sealed itself off.

  Some airborne version of Ebola had infected the population, and the local government was trying to prevent the deadly organism from spreading beyond the city. With news of that, Salina was officially declared by the Captain of Alpha Base as off-limits for any reason. His decision was seconded by the National Guard Captain in charge of the area wide free forces.

  “I hate to think of what will happen if any more men are sent here to pacify this place,” Zeb commented wryly with a chuckle.

  “They will be invited to a party, I think,” Joe replied sarcastically.

  “A lynching party,”

  30. (Recipe For Disaster)

  The U.N. Invasion wasn't quite going as planned. Russia and China had found more than willing partners from the middle east, with the radical Muslim nations loving the thought of striking back directly at the 'Great Satan'. The first troops on U.S. soil had quickly stumbled across an internment camp outside of pittburg. These particular troops were middle eastern.

  When the enormity of what they saw hit them, a full half of them saw a new and worse 'Great Satan' in the powers behind such an atrocity. They destroyed the camp and left. The commanding officers of the Muslim troops ditched their previous orders and selected a new target of their own choosing. They chose Washington D.C. and marched away leaving various foreign officers strung up on trees by the roadside beside a pile of blue helmets.

  The other half of the middle eastern troops were thrilled at first. These men gleefully ransacked the destroyed camp looking for the personal remains of the dead Americans, which they eventually found. They laughed when they found jewelry, money, fine coats, and clothing. It was like a treasure hunt.

  Their spirits dampened somewhat when they found clothing of the poor mixed with the rich, but rebounded thirty-fold when they found the bibles. Jewish, Catholic, Protestant, Messianic, Morman, Jehovah's Witness, all piled in a jumble. Then they discovered copy after copy of the Koran mixed in with the others. The previous glee turned instantly to unbridled rage.

  In their mind, they realized that the heathens giving them orders were killing their own believers. What happened when they finished in America? If they were killing them here…

  Every non-Muslim wearing a uniform within fifty miles was dead before morning. Not just American mind you. The list included both the supporting Russian and Chinese troops. A similar enactment was happening next to the Mexican border, with similar results. Michigan would pay the price ultimately as the chosen breaching spot from Canada. Southern Texas soon followed as the logical invasion point from Mexico.

  Word of the discoveries were soon leaked back to their native countries, and from there to the entire remaining Muslim world. Both radical and peaceable alike declared holy war on the U.N. Even the new hastily chosen headquarters in Switzerland was not safe.

  Having been in some cases forgotten and in others ignore
d, the United Nation’s back was now essentially broken concerning world affairs. The new 'Great Satan' had reared its ugly head and this time was a governing body, not any particular country.

  In America, ten thousand of the twenty five thousand original Middle Eastern troops had just declared an open season holy war against non-Muslims, and found the American people were no longer passive. The terrible giant was awake and severely ticked off.

  Ten thousand had declared jihad against Washington itself, but never made it to the nation’s capital. The remaining five thousand had lost the stomach for this entire business and had simply left the country.

  .

  The rest of the U.N. Troops had found themselves fighting the Muslims as well as the remaining patriotic U.S. troops. Now this vicious breed of American was appearing from nowhere and destroying seemingly every plan they made. The Russians and Chinese were holding their own against everyone except the Americans. The giant was slowly grinding these troops under it's boots.

  What was unexpected by everyone was the change of allegiance of the German troops. They were faced by the evil specter which they had been told from birth was impossible. What they believed to be an American deception foisted upon them to criminalize Hitler was a reality before their eyes which could not be ignored. They saw and reacted in the same manner as the U.S. troops during WWII when they had marched into Auschwitz. The Germans decided to free the Americans locked away in the death camps.

  After acquiring a top secret list of the facilities, ten thousand German troops rolled across camp after camp, showing absolutely no mercy to the captors. Their hearts broke for the captives and they provided as much help as possible to these starved, sick, and pitiful people. They proved that some things are atrocious and will not be tolerated, no matter who you are or where you come from.

  Word went back up the German chain of command of the concentration camps, the American Gulags, and exacting reports were delivered to the commanders in Germany. Germany pulled out of the U.N. and declared open war against those other countries refusing to pull out of the U.S.

  An awesome political display, but rather ineffective. It also had a price.

  Shortly after fielding ten thousand more troops into America to assist their new allies several missiles arced across the face of the earth from Russia to Germany. From space, one researcher in the international space station taking photographs of the earth was blinded by the unspeakably brilliant domes of light which burst from German soil. The troops which had been sent to U.S. soil no longer had a home to return to.

  For them, this became even more than a rescue mission or even a war per-say. Like us, for the German soldiers the war just became personal. America opened her arms to thirty thousand highly armed, well trained, and thoroughly ticked off immigrants.

  Concerning the little state of Kansas, the U.N. had just come into Joe's sphere of operation and it was about time. He intended to teach them that they played the game without even knowing the rules.

  …..................................

  The final numbers had come in, and Zeb had never been so angry in all his life. He felt betrayed. He felt as if his own brothers had somehow sprouted horns in his presence.

  He could not believe so many had turned traitor.

  “I don’t give a rat’s patootie Joe. Thirty four percent! Over one-third!” Zeb shouted, getting progressively louder as he stared at the papers delivered to him by a courier from the base.

  “I'll personally string them up by their nards if I catch any!”

  “Zeb, calm down!” Joe shouted back.

  “Fifty five percent remained loyal Zeb. Give them their due.”

  “I thought the results were fudged on that stupid questionnaire we were asked to fill out. How many would fire on US citizens?” Zeb said, working himself into a proper lather.

  “No way I thought. No way in anyone’s universe. It violates the constitution, I said. It’s against the Unified Code of Military Justice and is illegal. I thought!”

  “Yet here it is in black and white. Fifty five percent with us. Thirty four percent outright traitors. To top it all off eleven percent were cowards and ran from their duty and deserted?” Zeb shouted and spit in the dirt in disgust.

  “Fifty percent of the police? Homeland Security did their work well!” he noted, still reading the document.

  Zeb read a little further and his mouth shut, his face congealing into pure granite. He read, and re-read the final pages of the report, and closed his eyes.

  “Zeb, what’s wrong?” Dave asked in concern, noticing the abrupt change in Zeb's countenance.

  “Sev... Seve... Seventy?” Zeb asked himself out loud, stuttering.

  “Seven what Zeb?” Sue asked worried, never having ever seen Zeb act this way nor able to imagine her rock solid friend becoming truly unsettled.

  Zeb seemed like a mountain to her, not fazed by anything.

  She imagined that if lightning were to strike next to him, he wouldn't even flinch. Seeing Zeb like this scared her more than anything.

  “Come on Zeb, don’t leave us in the dark.”

  “Not what Sue, who. Not seven either. Seventy million,” Zeb whispered, a tear forming unbidden in his eye though he was trying hard not to show any emotion.

  He handed the paper to Joe who browsed through it, and then just stared at nothing for a minute. Joe started readin out loud for the others present.

  “The official estimate at this date of January seventeenth is seventy to seventy-five million civilian casualties.”

  “This number is including but not limited to the entire populations of the cities of Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, New York City, Atlanta, Boston, and Chicago,” Joe repeated.

  “These cities were completely lost due to renegade military action employing weapons of mass destruction.”

  The paper slid from his hand after reading a little more, and fluttered to the dirt.

  “What Joe just read is the worldwide estimate. Two point six billion so far,” Zeb said in a complete monotone.

  “You're kidding.” Dave exclaimed rhetorically, his face a stunned mask of horror.

  “Russia has just nuked Germany and also most of the Muslim world. India thought it was under attack when missiles meant for Pakistan appeared over its territory. India retaliated against Russia lobbing four nukes, and has been erased from the face of the earth. Iran managed to paste several major Russian cities before it too was hit,” Zeb stated, dazed.

  “We are talking world war three here. No-one knows for sure what happened, but one of our carriers noted Beijing going up in radioactive dust. They don't know who hit China,” Joe said.

  “Only one good thing in that entire report. We have recovered the football from the opposition,” Zeb finished.

  “Football? What are you talking about?” Joe asked as he was very confused.

  “Launch codes for our nukes with the portable authorization unit. The nukes can't be used against us now,” Dave replied.

  “Yeah, that’s right,” Zeb said.

  “We had the bases, but little control over the nukes before. We acquired the keys, but without the football it was all worthless.”

  “Now we have game, match, and set,”

  “There is some really bad news in there for us,” Joe stated thoughtfully.

  “And what is that, pray tell,” Zeb said sarcastically, seeing the whole document as 'bad for us'.

  “Those crazy middle eastern terrorists now have nowhere to go and nothing to lose,” Joe replied seriously.

  “Oh well, we will deal with them eventually when they get froggy. Right now I still have a bunch of Russian surplus ammo I need to give back to the owners. Preferably one at a time.”

  31. (The Final Hunting Ground)

  Joe sighted in, carefully aligning the cross-hairs of his scope with the target. He took a deep breath and released slowly then eased pressure onto the trigger as he gently squeezed. The buck of the old Mosin came as a sur
prise, as it did every time he focused on a shot that intently.

  One hundred and eighty-two grains of boat tailed, full metal jacketed lead winged from the muzzle with a mighty roar and slammed into the intended target. The round hit merely an inch from where he had aimed. Not a bad shot for two hundred and fifty yards.

  The 'CraaaackBoooom' of the exhaust gasses from the bolt action rifle echoed off of the nearby hills.

  The Chinese gunner on the tracked troop carrier was flung from the vehicle by the force of impact.

  “Hmm. Kevlar. That's gotta suck.. Didn't help much did it?” Joe asked quietly as he faded back into the brush.

  Shots rang out from around the vehicle and the general area where Joe had been hiding erupted in puffs of dirt and chopped brush. He relocated a hundred feet to the right and then waited.