TRIAL: A Post Apocalyptic/Dystopian Thriller

by Murray Mcdonald

  Kate shook her head, the thought of taking anything seemed wrong. The sergeant’s body was a symbol of a line crossed.

  “You’d be doing it for your kids,” argued Roger. “Trust me, this isn’t ending anytime soon, if ever.”

  “What do you guys know?”

  “Not much, but the power went out long before the plant exploded and it was no accident.”

  Kate nodded. “I know, I saw it get hit by something.”

  “So you know you need to get in there and grab whatever you can!”

  Danny pulled at his mom to do as Roger said. She stood firm, the thought of seeing Trey in there sent a shiver through her.

  “Come on, I’ll go with you and watch out for Trey. He’s a bit of a loose cannon, new to the area, Bob’s cousin, just came in from somewhere., wouldn’t be surprised if that ‘somewhere’ was prison, to be honest.”

  Ten minutes later, they cycled out of the shopping center’s parking lot with the radio flyer trailer, backpacks, pockets, and handlebars, buckling under the weight of their haul.

  Trey watched them go and turned to Roger once they had disappeared from sight. “You’re going to tell me everything you know about that particularly fine piece of ass!”

  Chapter 5

  Kate breathed a sigh of relief as they cycled out of the center and rejoined the safety of tree-lined Parkcenter Boulevard. Danny was ahead of her, his little legs pushing hard to pull their haul along the road. They had a mile and a half to go and although not a big hill to climb, it was a long, slow rise. She knew it was going to be seriously hard work. The men had loaded them up with canned foods, all extremely heavy, but exactly what her family needed.

  She hated herself for taking the food, but under the circumstances, she’d had little choice. She tried desperately to erase the image of the sergeant being shot, but she knew it was an image that would live with her forevermore. Tears began to flow, releasing the tension she had felt, the sadness for the sergeant’s death, the worry she had for her family’s future. She didn’t know which had triggered the tears, but they flowed freely and copiously. She watched Danny fight with every push of his pedals, the weight in the trailer easily twice his own. She thanked God he hadn’t seen the sergeant being shot. Being there was bad enough, and seeing the body was traumatic, but nowhere near as bad as witnessing the moment of impact - seeing a man transition from life to death in the blink of an eye, the bullet extracting life as it passed through him.

  “Mom, you ok?”

  Tears were streaming down her face, she wiped her eyes with her sleeve. “This cold wind is making my eyes run!” she said, forcing a smile.

  A movement to her right flashed in her blurry vision.

  “Freeze, don’t move!” A police officer had jumped out of the tree line. It was the officer she had called over to in the parking lot to tell him about the group. She noted his name tag. Miller.

  “You did ok,” he quipped, surveying her haul from the supermarket.

  A number of his colleagues joined him, all looking disdainfully at Kate’s proceeds, following their colleague’s death.

  “After you abandoned us…” began Kate.

  “Tactically withdrew,” corrected a more senior officer, joining the conversation and dismissing his subordinates. “I believe you alerted my officers to the threat?”

  Kate caught sight of more police officers in the park next to the road. They were dressed in tactical gear and carried rifles, similar to those the hooded group had. The police were not, as first suspected, rolling over and giving up.

  “Oh thank God, you are doing something!” She could have hugged them all. “Yes,” she reverted to answering the question. “Well actually, it was Danny who spotted them first.”

  “Well, thank you, son,” the officer smiled at Danny. “I’m Lieutenant Faulkes.”

  Danny sniggered.

  The lieutenant looked at Kate, not seeing the joke.

  “Your name is Faulkes, he thought you said Fox. Our name is Wolfe.”

  “Uh, oh, okay.” After losing a fellow officer and facing a heated gun battle, it was clear he wasn’t in a joking frame of mind.

  “So, there are nine men, all armed with AR-15 assault rifles?”

  Kate shook her head. “No, fourteen men. Well, at least fourteen. Nine armed with rifles and the other five with hunting rifles. All have pistols and knives as well.”

  “At least fourteen?” the lieutenant looked at officer Miller, who Kate had initially warned. He shrugged. He had been unaware of the five ‘snipers’.

  “Would they have brought all their lookouts down to help?” asked Kate.

  “Highly unlikely, which means we have a far bigger problem than we thought we had. Without vehicles, we have little or no cover, certainly not against high-powered sniper rifles.”

  “Any idea who they were?” he asked, almost as an aside.

  “Sorry, yes, the leader and shooter is Bob Jackson, he’s…”

  “Coach of the Little League, Bob Jackson?” asked the lieutenant, genuinely shocked.

  “His cousin, Trey…and I recognized a few others,” added Kate, listing off the men she’d recognized. Both officers stood in silence as she named a number of known local citizens.

  “But they were all hooded?” said the officer.

  “They were, but they took them off when I suggested they were hiding, unconvinced of what was happening.”

  “What do they think is happening?” asked the lieutenant.

  “They think this is it. Civilization is over. The Russians or whoever have nuked us into the dark ages.”

  “Yeah, he told us to look for the planes overhead. You know, the ones going cross-country, flying high over us and leaving vapor trails?” added the officer.

  The lieutenant looked up. The sky was clear, no vapor trails were visible.

  “And they’re so confident they’re right, they exposed themselves after killing the sergeant?”

  Kate nodded.

  “What do you think?” he asked her pointedly.

  “The plant was struck by something before it exploded.”

  “I’ve heard a couple of people suggest…”

  “I saw it myself. Something came down from the sky just before the plant exploded. This wasn’t an accident.”

  The lieutenant nodded but merely listened, not divulging his thoughts.

  “Well, thank you, and I’m pleased you managed to get something for your efforts. It can’t have been easy for you. My guys were pretty shook up at what they saw.” The lieutenant ruffled Danny’s hair. “See you later, Wolfe!”

  “Best you both get as far from here as you can. This may get quite nasty, and high-powered rifle rounds can travel quite a long way.”

  Kate didn’t need to be asked twice. She hurried Danny forward, wishing the police well in their efforts.

  “Lieutenant?” Officer Miller prompted his commanding officer.

  The lieutenant watched Kate and Danny cycle away, replaying what she had said in his mind. He looked to the forty officers that were preparing themselves in the small park. What if the group of men were right, what if this was an attack? What if the power didn’t come back on, the water stayed off, and there were no more deliveries of food? Not one truck or car had made it into the city since early that morning, and hours had passed. Where was the traffic that was driving to Boise from two hundred miles away, far out of the reach of any effects of the plant’s explosions, or shielded by the mountains? He looked up, where were the planes?

  He had a wife and two sons, both of whom were on Bob Jackson’s Little League team. He knew Bob well. He was a popular guy, and the leader of a militia group that the police had looked into a couple of times. He couldn’t remember what they were called, but recalled they stood for minimal authority and were strong advocates of the second amendment. He also remembered, most importantly, they were all well-trained. A number of the members were ex-military and the group trained regularly. He looked back at his men an
d up into the sky. If the world had gone to shit, he was sending his men into a firefight where many could and probably would be killed or injured. They had families like his waiting at home and who would need them more than ever, if that were the case? He thought of his wife and child.

  “Lieutenant?” prompted Miller again.

  The lieutenant snapped out of his thoughts. He looked around at the community, a community he had sworn to protect and defend.

  “Okay, men, here’s what we’re going to do!” he said proudly for all to hear.

  Chapter 6

  Kate recoiled as the sound reverberated across the surrounding hills, the slopes of the rising hills working like an amphitheater for the plains below. She looked back as the sound repeated, before increasing in regularity to the point she couldn’t make out the individual shots. A full-on firefight had broken out. She and Danny were almost home and well out of the danger area, but that didn’t make it any less frightening. Both pedaled faster, increasing the distance between themselves and the gunfight.

  ***

  The lieutenant had split his men into four groups of ten. They were going to attack from all four points at once. His biggest problem was going to be communication. They didn’t have any. With timing their only way to coordinate their attack, it was imperative all four teams were in place at the allotted time.

  Teams North and West would lay down cover fire across the open parking lot from whatever cover they could find, distracting the militia group while Team South, led by the lieutenant, would attack from the rear and Team East, led by Miller, would infiltrate from the East. With a fifteen-minute countdown underway, the four groups moved stealthily towards their allotted positions. With twenty seconds to go, all were nearing their final positions when the first shot rang out.

  A sniper atop Gordman’s department store had followed the progress of two of the teams. He was one of many spotters watching the police position themselves for their assault. Another atop Albertson’s, tracked the progress of the Southern team. Bob Jackson tapped his sniper as he joined him.

  “How many?”

  “Ten per team, and looks like four teams,” replied the sniper.

  Bob scanned around the rooftops. His snipers were positioned across the Southshore Shopping Center’s buildings. A loose collection of commercial properties and banks spread across three parking lots. At its heart, sat Albertson’s grocery store. His snipers had eyes on every potential route towards the supermarket, positioned on the roofs of buildings at the periphery of the small shopping complex, each with a clear line of sight to one another. They knew exactly what was coming and when.

  Ideally, they’d have been at the supermarket before the police and would have avoided the interaction, having taken what they’d needed and bugged out as their plan dictated. However, the shit hitting the fan during the night had taken them by surprise and the majority of his men hadn’t appeared until eight that morning, when they’d realized the TEOTWAWKI event that Bob had been predicting had occurred. Bob had had to contain his excitement when he had first awoken to the realization his predictions had come true. The world as they knew it was over. It was time for a new dawn, a new world, where those who were prepared and ready to do whatever was needed would survive. Those who were strongest, both physically and mentally, would prevail. The time for ‘live and let live’ and liberal nonsense was finally over.

  He had made his way to the storage bunker, arriving at 6.30 a.m. as he had ordained. By seven, ten of his men had arrived and he had been tempted to make the run to the supermarket then, but every time he thought he’d set off, another couple of stragglers had arrived. By eight, he had thirty-six of his sixty-two members and they watched the power station take a hit before exploding, eliminating any doubts that they were living through an end of the world scenario. The world, as they knew it was over, and new rules applied. Life was now about survival and only those prepared to do whatever was necessary would prevail. With all doubt removed, supplies needed to be secured. Leaving six men behind to plan and prepare, and to bring the stragglers up to speed, he’d moved out.

  Obtaining supplies and securing their base were crucial. The base could wait. It wasn’t going anywhere. Supplies, however, were vital. As soon as people realized what was happening, stores would be emptied in the ensuing rush. Over the next few hours, the major stock sources would be emptied, leaving him with piecemeal supplies, available from house to house sorties, a protracted and inefficient use of his resources. Winter was coming and he needed to secure foods for the new community that his men would form.

  The delay had cost them. The police were in situ and were controlling access to the supermarket and rationing goods, something he could not allow. He needed to show resolve. He needed to show he was a leader who would do whatever was required. He took no pleasure in killing the sergeant, but he was sure that the message it portrayed to all those who’d witnessed it would save many lives in the future.

  Bob indicated to his sniper where to shoot first. The sniper nodded. Bob tapped his shoulder as he took aim, delaying the shot.

  “No suppressor,” he said, having noticed the man’s HK417’s adornment.

  “Gotcha,” acknowledged the sniper, removing it and reacquiring the target. Bob signaled to his surrounding snipers, counting down from three. He had instructed the sniper next to him to fire on one and not wait for the final signal.

  As he reached one, the single shot echoed across the empty and silent lot. The amphitheater effect amplified the crack for all of Boise to hear.

  ***

  The lieutenant checked his watch as he directed his men into their final positions.

  “I’ve got movement on the Albertson’s roof,” advised one of his marksmen. “Two men, one is signaling to others by the looks of it.”

  “Have you got the shot?”

  “Yes!”

  The lieutenant checked his watch, it was too early. His men weren’t going to be ready.

  “Sir…” prompted the marksman urgently. The signaler had just lowered one of three raised fingers.

  “Take it!” instructed the lieutenant.

  The impact of the sound knocked him to the ground. A second distinct shot rang out before the noise became one. The lieutenant tried to get himself back on his feet. His mind was willing, but his body resisted. His head rose, but his body remained down. He looked down at a wetness swelling on his shirt. His breathing became labored as his mind suddenly caught up with his physical state. He had been hit, the first shot, center mass. His head slumped back, the strain of holding it up was too much.

  “Put pressure on it!” he heard, but felt nothing. He could sense motion, but felt nothing. His view changed, he was being pulled into cover. He couldn’t feel anything below his neck, his spine most likely severed, he thought. He stared at the only place he could - straight up. He looked for the vapor trails, anything. Nothing. What had he done? His wife and kids would be lost without him. If the world was over, he had left them defenseless. He searched the sky, desperate to see something, praying that he could see something to prove Bob Jackson wrong. Desperate to see that his wife and kids would be okay without him. Life as they knew it would be restored.

  “Why’s he smiling?” asked one of his men as the lieutenant gasped his final breath.

  Nobody answered, only the lieutenant knew. The tiniest flash of light was all it had taken, the slightest of glints in the clear blue sky.

  ***

  As Bob’s third finger fell, the head of the sniper to his left, snapped back. The police had returned fire instantly. Bob ducked down, content in the knowledge that the senior officer he had directed his sniper at was also down. He grabbed the sniper’s rifle and rolled across the roof. His snipers on the outer edges of the shopping center were having an easier time. The police had missed them, in their focus to surround the supermarket.

  With the police pinned down, Bob signaled to his men from below, up and into the fray. They spread out across the ro
ofline. The police were about to experience another unpleasant reality. Bob signaled to open fire. The AR-15s joined in the action and opened fire, each having been modified to fire on full auto. The high-capacity drum magazines out maneuvered the police who were now outgunned and out of options. They retreated en masse, taking more casualties as they fled.

  Bob watched as his men marveled at their new toys. With the rule of law over as far as he was concerned, he had cracked open the special arms case that morning. In peace time, handing out the modified AR-15s would have ensured that he spent the majority of the rest of his life in prison and penniless. The gunsmith who had prepared them was, he’d been assured, one of the very best and as he watched the performance he couldn’t disagree. Not one rifle jammed or kicked inadvertently.

  With the last of the police officers disappearing out of sight, Bob signaled for his men to cease fire. It had been a salutatory and difficult lesson for the police to learn. They lived in new times and there was a new law in town. Bob’s law.

  Chapter 7

  The final few hundred yards were a killer, the steepest part of the climb and a part that neither of them could have cycled. Even on foot and pushing the bikes was a struggle with all the additional weight. As much as the shooting rattled her and upset Danny, she couldn’t help but wonder if without it, there would have been more people on the streets and their trip home more eventful, given the attention that their supermarket haul would have drawn.

  While Danny rushed through the house to open the garage door, Kate kept watch over their supplies.

  “We were worried,” said Harry, coming out on hearing Danny enter the house.

  Kate looked down towards the supermarket. “It was awful,” she said, her voice wavering. Safely home, the full extent of what they had witnessed began to sink in. Harry let her talk, not wanting to interrupt her. She explained what had happened and how the fighting they’d heard would have been the police fighting back.