by Ira Tabankin
Lacy is surprised to see an honor guard waiting for them when they pull up to the hospital, she also sees an ambulance waiting by the emergency room doors with its lights flashing,
“Why is that ambulance waiting by the ER doors?”
The hospital’s security officer replies,
“Madam First Lady, they can’t drop their patient off until your safely inside.”
“I’ll wait here, please care for their patient before me. I’ll stay in the vehicle while you admit their patient.”
“Madam?”
“Your heard me, do you need to hear it from the President?”
“No, I’m sorry, we’ll take care of them right away.”
The ambulance is waved over to the doors, the patient is carried into the ER, security knocks on the Lacy’s window,
“Madam First Lady, we’re ready for you.”
Colonel Black and his protection detail surround the vehicles,
Lacy looks at Jay and Doctor Basco.
“Is it really safe?”
The doctor smiles, saying,
“Colonel Black has sent people to check out the X-ray room. His people are lined up between here and the X-ray lab and examination room. You’re safe. He won’t let anything happen to you. I’ll go ahead to check everything out.”
After five minutes he returns smiling, he opens the rear door, saying,
“Lacy, Jay, the Colonel said everything is fine, as far as I can tell, there’s a soldier every few feet. Please join me.”
They’re met by the hospital’s Chief of Staff as they enter the front door,
“Mr. President, Madam First Lady, it’s an honor to have you here, if there’s anything you need, just let me know.”
Jay smiles his best political shark smile, shaking the doctor’s hand,
“Thank you. I’m sure everything will be fine.”
The Chief of Staff follows them to the X-ray room where two techs and four of Colonel Black’s security team are waiting,
The senior tech bows to Lacy, “Madam First Lady, it’s an honor, if you could please stand on the white line, we’re going to take four X-rays, it will be very quick, your doctor and our Chief of Radiology will review the images right here in case they want images from a different angle.”
A couple of minutes later Doctor Basco smiles at Lacy,
“Are you ready to have the cast off?”
“Oh yes, please.”
“We’ll do it in the outpatient area, they’re setting it up for us.”
Someone in the hospital calls their family to tell them the President and First Lady are in the hospital, the calls multiply to other family members and friends. Many are upset by the President’s speech. Quickly a mob forms around the hospital screaming and yelling for justice and the return of their benefits. Local police and SWAT are quickly called out to add to the Colonel’s teams trying to control the growing mob. The protestors begin throwing rocks and eggs at the police and protection detail. Many of the protestors decide to rush the hospital’s front doors, the police fire tear gas into the crowd, who returns with towels wrapped around their faces, again tear gas is fired into the mob. Jay hears the noise, seeing the gray cloud rise to the second story windows he asks Stu what’s going on.
“Sir, there’s a mob outside, they’re protesting your benefit cuts, they’re saying if you don’t reinstate the cuts they will rush the hospital.”
“Tell Colonel Black he’s free to use any force he deems necessary, if those people get inside the hospital they could kill the patients and steal the drugs.”
“Mr. President? Shooting into the mob will cause additional problems.”
“Tell them to bring in the Fire Department to hose them down. Maybe they need cooling off.”
Smiling, Stu nods,
“Yes, sir, with pleasure.”
Four minutes later the Fire trucks arrive, spraying the mob with high pressure water, a few in the mob fire hand guns at the firefighters, they draw return fire from the security snipers, every shooter is killed. Many in the mob record the shooting of their friends without showing they shot first. Social media is alive with posts showing Jay’s security team shooting the protesters down in cold blood.
Stu checks his pinging phone showing Jay the posts.
“They’re all lies and BS, issue an official statement telling the truth. See if you can find actual video of what occurred.”
“Yes, sir. However, it will make us look like we’re trying to cover up the shooting.”
“Huh? They shot first, how can telling the truth make us look like we’re covering it up?”
“Because perception is the mob’s truth, reality and real truth don’t mean anything.”
“Just handle it the best way you see fit.”
“Will do.”
Stu begins a social media battle with the mob.
Thirty minutes later Lacy greets Jay with a two armed hug.
“I can’t tell you how good this feels. I can scratch my arm and hug you.”
“Shall we return to the hotel?”
“Is it safe?”
“It will be, There’s an underground garage that security has closed, they moved our armored vehicles downstairs, we’ll meet them there. I want to thank the staff and administration for their help. They all came in tonight to be of service to us.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to order dinner for everyone who works in the hospital.”
“That’s good of you. Thanks for arranging to bring me.”
Jay places his arm around the hospital’s administrator and CoS, he tells them to order the best meal for all of the workers in the hospital. The two men are surprised and very happy at Jay’s offer.
“Lacy, doc, let’s go. Once the mob sees us leave, they’ll leave these good people alone.”
The caravan returns to the Peabody Hotel.
While Lacy’s cast is removed the inner city erupts in riots and a mass demonstration against Jay and his polices. Fires are started, stores looted and burned, cars overturned and burned. The rioters are confused when the media doesn’t show up to record their riot and the police and fire departments stay out of the inner city. When all of the local stores are looted and torched the mob begins to move towards the financial sector, they’re surprised to find a wall of police and military blocking their access. The mob stops, looking down the barrels of over one hundred M4 automatic carbines and M3 heavy machine guns mounted on armored fighting vehicles. The police tell the mob to go home and disperse or they’ll fire tear gas and if necessary open fire with live rounds.
The mob thinks they’re bluffing; they rush the line of police thinking they’d never open fire on civilians, when the mob reaches a line fifty yards in front of the police, the police fire tear gas, when they break the twenty-yard line, they open fire into the mob, killing hundreds before the survivors run in all directions trying to get away from the bullets.
Many have nowhere to go, their homes are smoking piles of rubble, they sleep in the debris of what used to be their homes. The media is allowed to video the result of the riots from their helicopters. A few of the mob open fire at the news helicopters, armed police helicopters return deadly fire.
The rising sun the next dawn shows city blocks that look like German cities in World War Two. Smoking rubble is everywhere. People mill around the streets waiting for the media and their handouts. After waiting hours, they begin to worry, after half a day they know something is different, so different it scares them.
Chapter 23
Upon returning to the hotel, Jay reads and smiles at Fred’s latest status report, the tunnel between our shelters is almost finished, they’ve cut the tunnel to the General’s shelter and expanded the area under the street. They’re on the way to the caves. I like Fred’s note about how Glenn took Fred’s comments that the penalty clause isn’t open to discussion, I knew Fred would light a fire under his ass. Today went about as well as I expected, I know I ki
cked over a hornet’s nest, but it had to be done.
Admiral Jefferson’s beaten off the North’s attacks, there shouldn’t be anything standing between him and Norfolk and meeting the Chinese fleet. Once he’s secured the area, I’ll fly there to sign the treaty with the Chinese. I don’t want them anywhere near the shelters, I’ll sign a treaty with them, however, I’ll never trust them. I know they’re only using me to get what they want from the North. They think they’re playing me while I’m playing them. Their gift of the tunneling machines is enabling us to cut our build schedule by months. Their last note said they are prepared to share and sell us their new train technology. Trains which can travel over 300 mph are what we need to connect our cities and the new capital.
@@@@@
Admiral Jefferson is sitting in his cabin wondering what the North will do as a last ditch effort to stop them from reaching Norfolk. The only option they have left is mining the water in front of us. I wish we had a few mine sweepers. Picking up the 1MC,
“Captain, please instruct the leading destroyers to go active with their sonars, tell the lead ships to drop their speed to five knots, they’re looking for mines.”
“Yes, sir. What do we do if we find them? We don’t have any mine sweepers.”
“I know; I’m working on it, as soon as I figure it out, I’ll let you know.”
“Aye, sir.”
The President asked me to draw up a list of material I need, mine hunters has to be near the top of the list. The next item is to increase the offensive weapons our ships carry; we can’t waste limited platforms as only defensive systems. Every ship needs to be able to attack the enemy. We need a new high speed anti-ship/anti-surface missile; the damn Harpoon is forty years old. Maybe the Chinese will sell us their version of the Russian Mach 3 missile.
@@@@@
Stu greats Jay and Lacy at breakfast,
“Have you seen the news blogs or social media about your speech and the events of last night?”
“Nope, that’s your job. I’m not going to waste my time reading when I pay you to do it for me. What’s the summary? Good or bad?”
“That’s why I’m surprised, most of them are very supportive of your actions. Don’t get me wrong, there are many who are against you and many who have threatened your life, those I’ve turned over to Colonel Black. Can I say, that man scares me at times. He’s promised me he’ll locate and take care of the trouble makers. I’m not sure I want to know what he meant by that remark. I have a couple of pages of posts for your review.”
“Oh great, they should make good entrainment over my breakfast coffee.”
“How’s Lacy’s arm?”
“Almost good as new, she’s very happy.”
“What about her face and eye?”
“She’s coming to grips with the loss of her eye, she’s not handling the scars on her face very well, she refuses to let me see them, she keeps the bandages on even though the doc said she could remove them. I don’t know how to convince her it’s okay with me. No matter what she looks like, I’ll always love her. I’ve asked the Doc to look for the best plastic surgeon he can find.”
“Have you considered taking some time off after the town hall meetings?”
“I don’t think that’s going to be possible, I’ve got to oversee the new shelters and the construction of the new capital. I’ve got agencies to fill so their department heads can take a lot of the everyday BS off my back.”
“Fred can handle that and he loves it. It keeps him busy. I suggest you take a little time off before you kick off your formal campaign.”
“I’m not sure where we’d go.”
“I’m sure the two of you have a special place.”
“Yeah, we did, it’s in the North now.”
“Oh, I think it’s time you find a new one, maybe we should add a new Camp David to the construction plans.”
“I think that’s a good idea. I’ll talk to Lacy to find out where she’d like to place it.”
“What time are we leaving for Huntsville?”
“In about an hour.”
“Then I better get my breakfast.”
“Good idea.” Jay smiled beginning to read the summary posts Stu printed for him. “Stu, most of these are supportive, where are the bad ones?”
“Eh, are you sure you want to see them? They’re not nice, many threaten your life, they call you names I didn’t know existed and suggest acts I don’t think are anatomically possible.”
“Give them to me, I have a right to see both the good and bad.”
“It’s your stomach. Here they are.”
Jay’s face turns bright red reading the printed posts.
“You’re right, many of these positions aren’t possible, and I learned some new curse words I’m going to try out on Tony.”
“I’m sure he’ll like that. Be careful he doesn’t pay you back with cement overshoes.”
“Nah, he wouldn’t touch me, let’s wrap this up and head to Huntsville. I’m hoping for a better reception there.”
Stu sits across from Jay,
“Do you think you should temper your benefit cuts? Maybe phase them in versus dropping them like bombs?”
“Nope, going cold turkey is the best way to cut something. We have hundreds of thousands of unfilled jobs, I offered free education to train the unemployed to fill these jobs, too many just don’t want to work. If they’re able to work and the jobs are waiting for workers, why should working families or the government have to support people who are just lazy? Do you want to pay taxes? Do you want the sales tax rate increased?”
“Of course not.”
“Settled, let’s head to the airport.”
“Jay, you’re a hard man.”
“Yup.”
“What are you going to do about the burnt out area of Memphis?”
“We’ll supply them building materials at a discount, those who torched their own homes can supply the labor and muscle to rebuild their homes. We’ll supply them with building experts to help them, they’ll supply the labor. I believe once they work their asses off rebuilding their homes, they’ll have more respect for them. I’ve found that people don’t respect things they didn’t work or pay for.”
“I don’t think they’re going to like that.”
“Tuff, if they don’t rebuild them, they won’t have a roof over their heads.”
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The Jericho flight of modified F4s fly their second, and third flights around D.C. The citizens and visitors complain to the local police they can’t stand the noise and broken windows. Almost no one realizes what the goal of the flights is. One who does is a Rabbi from a Temple in Maryland. He watches the news reports of the planes flying around the cities, the special equipment produces loud noise, according to the press, not all of the sounds can be heard by people, dogs cry, many people complain of headaches, he’s noticed cracks forming in building foundations. Sitting in his office the Rabbi says out loud, “My God, did they figure out how to reproduce the sounds generated from Joshua’s horns which brought Jericho’s walls down, what are they trying to do?”
His son looks at his father,
“Dad, I think they’re flying around the city weakening the city’s buildings, I bet the government office buildings will collapse on their seventh pass around the city.”
“I believe you’re right. I better call the DHS.”
“Dad, do you think they are really going to believe you? The government doesn’t allow Bibles in people’s offices. I bet none of the senior managers read the Bible. You’ll sound like a crazy person to them, they’ll most likely arrest you and throw away the key. Please don’t call them.”
“You may be right. I’ll think about what to do.”
“Can you imagine if I’m right. I think they were behind the rivers turning red and the fish dying. Can you imagine if they bring the city’s buildings down? They’re recreating the Bible’s battles. I wonder what they’ll do next. I hope they’re not planning
on killing the first born, which would be me.”
“I think it may be time for us to move south,”
“Will they let us in?”
“I heard they welcome religious families. Let’s load the car tonight and slip way before our neighbors figure out we’re gone.”
“What about Mom?”
“I’ll handle her. Go pack a bag for two weeks.”
