Fractured Nation

by Kurt Winans

  The group successfully made their way south from Michie Stadium along Mills Road with more ease than was expected, while Jason Tillman did his part to ensure that they wouldn’t encounter a surprise flanking from their left side. As the senior cadet stationed at the cannon on the east side of Lusk Reservoir, he had ordered the men under his brief command to follow him away from the potential flanking position by taking the walking path along the north shore of the reservoir toward the stadium. His directive toward the handful of cadets was obeyed without question, as there were surely people within the stadium that needed assistance, be it medical or otherwise.

  During the escape along Mills Road, only a few rounds of fire, one into the leg of a pursuing West Point football player and two others into the legs of stadium security guards had been required. That action effectively halted the advance of civilians, as most had then hit the deck out of fear. Now moving away from the stadium complex with more ease, the assailants neared a downhill section of road leading toward a large parking and tailgating area used by the fans. While descending into the mass of several hundred vehicles, the men located three large vans with identifying flags flown overhead and quickly moved toward them. There was one each painted red, white, and blue in separate quadrants within the field of vehicles, as they had been parked several hours earlier by three of the group of female drivers. The intent of the vans was simple. They were to provide a brief sanctuary for the attackers, as they changed into the civilian attire that had been stashed within them. Using the keys placed under the rear bumper of each, the men climbed into their pre-assigned vans via the rear doors. A few moments later, each man reemerged after having removed the jumpsuit, face shielded helmet, and surgical gloves that they had worn for the drop and assault upon the stadium. Then before moving on, the last man out of each van set a Fugas thermite bomb with a delay of five minutes. The explosions created by them would be small with minimal damage to the surrounding area, but the intense white heat from the thermite element would completely melt the van from within in short order. Any potentially damming evidence that each vehicle contained would therefore be made unrecognizable and irretrievable in just minutes.

  Now dressed in clothing more befitting a patron of the game, each of the three smaller groups regained their brisk pace to the south within the panicked mass of spectators that had caught up to their position. Just minutes later, and not long after the vans had become engulfed in the intense heat of the Fugas bombs, each of the fourteen men moved through the Thayer gate with hundreds of other civilians to exit the academy grounds. Their move had been accomplished before any level of order was restored to initiate security lockdown measures, so the task of apprehending the assailants suddenly became more difficult.

  Roughly two hours earlier seven getaway cars of various 2022 through 2024 makes and models rolled into the town of Highland Falls not long after the three vans had entered the academy grounds. Parked near restaurants and local businesses, each of the vehicles and their female drivers appeared to be just another aspect of everyday life within the community as they waited for their human cargo to arrive. As the fourteen attackers dispersed into pairs and moved toward their respective transport vehicles, one of the waiting drivers finished cleaning and then safely stowing away her silenced weapon within a fitted pocket under the passenger seat. She, like Courtney in Colorado, had been given a numbered designation after being selected by Samuel for a specific mission beyond that of driving an escape vehicle. Having recently returned with great pride in the completion of that special assignment, number forty-one took a moment to fix her hair and ponder the magnitude of what she had just done.

  Per the intelligence report that was initiated more than ten months earlier by her son Jason, and based on the instructions from on high, Ashley Tillman had located her target exactly where it was believed he would be. Then by use of flirtation, and her well-toned body that had resulted from four months of intense high altitude preparation in west Texas, she was able to seduce and lull the man into a false sense of security at his place of business. During the moments that followed, Ashley called upon her hand to hand combat training of previous years and immobilized her lethargic opponent by breaking one of his arms and destroying both of his knees in short order. With the man crying out in pain and sweat beginning to pour from his forehead as he writhed on the floor, she removed a silenced weapon from her purse and pointed it toward his groin. The man instantly froze to the best of his ability, and with cat like quickness she was on him.

  While pinning his good arm under her knee as she straddled him, Ashley pushed the barrel of the gun into the man’s mouth. Then she glared into his eyes with a cold blackness of her own and whispered, “I’m sure this is quite different than the way you envisioned me straddling you, but life can be funny that way. Now that I have your full attention, there is something that I must say to you. We have learned that the first cadet you harassed twenty years ago was my husband’s youngest brother Chance, and you need to know that he was killed in the action of an unnecessary war on Father’s Day just a year after graduating from West Point. Another of the cadets that you picked on less than a year ago, and threatened with physical violence on that same day, is my oldest son Jason. He remembers his uncle Chance with fondness from the days of pre-school, and chose to follow in his educational footsteps. Jason, like his uncle before him, will graduate from West Point this coming spring. It is for both of them, and the many other victimized cadets who came between, that I do this now.”

  As the man’s eyes grew larger with fear, she removed the barrel of the weapon from his mouth. Before he could cry for help, Ashley Tillman quietly killed the obnoxious overweight man with two bullets into the chest and then one more into his temple for good measure. In so doing, she had made sure that Mr. Nick Spano would never bully another West Point Cadet.

  With each of the seven vehicles having received their pre-designated cargo of two attackers, and in some cases one of the van drivers, they were driven southward out of town at a leisurely pace so as not to attract attention. When clear of the immediate area, the vehicles then scattered further by using a variety of routes leading them into northern New Jersey or directly into eastern Pennsylvania. From there, they would individually access interstate-80 when possible and head west through Pennsylvania toward Ohio.

  Having utilized the same infiltration method of three black suburban’s with counterfeit government license plates, and federal agency identification for those within, gaining entry onto the appropriate military base had been easy. Subsequently, the removal of the assigned parachute jumpers and the substitution of them by that different group of fourteen attackers had also proved to be no problem. In so doing, the early phase of the Annapolis segment within the three pronged attack had gone according to plan. Even the jump had gone well with significant damage being inflicted upon Navy Marine Corps Memorial Stadium and the military personnel present for the game. Where the plan had run into snags, was during the attempted escape from the target area in the moments following the attack.

  Unlike the Air Force Academy in Colorado, or the United States Military Academy in New York, the Naval Academy in Annapolis Maryland plays their home football games at a facility that is not actually on the academy grounds. Although certainly in close proximity, the stadiums location is adjacent to route-70 part of the way north from campus toward the nearby east/west directional traffic artery of highway-50. A portion of the surrounding area is residential, with many of the streets and roadways providing alternate access to the same highway. With understanding that the fourteen attackers needn’t be concerned with a potential security lockdown of the academy following the attack, one could theorize that their escape would be made easier. Unfortunately for those fourteen men, there was a known factor that would balance, if not tip the scales, in the opposite direction.

  Navy Marine Corps Memorial Stadium, through a series of upgrades after the dawn of the twenty first century, had become nearly completely enc
losed around the playing surface. The south end of the stadium would provide no avenues for ease of escape, while the north end offered only two possibilities that could both prove to be difficult at best.

  It was therefore decided during the planning stages of the attack back in late March that a few of the point detonated PAW-20 Neopup grenades would be kept in reserve to aid in establishing an escape route. As a consequence of that decision less would be launched toward certain areas of the crowd, but it was a necessary sacrifice. Unfortunately that issue became slightly magnified when the attack plan also called for an assault on three regions of the stadium as opposed to the two main zones at West Point. Unlike the three and four man formation within each of the two waves of jumpers that would strike West Point, the plan for Annapolis was to have each wave in a two, three, two formation.

  Floating down with flags trailing into their prearranged choreography, the first two with the larger and more potent grenades from the Hawk MM-1 MGL launcher focused on the east side and the modern media center housed within. The other five split their attention onto two separate areas of the west side, with the three man group striking first at the older multi-level press box with grenades. Then they used their automatic weapons on the lower level seating area where many of the high ranking naval officers were located, while the final two of the seven simultaneously concentrated all of their collective firepower where the current Midshipmen were standing in the sections just north of their superiors. The second wave, scarcely more than an instant behind, had used the same attack pattern, but they were the ones who held back some of the ammunition for the escape.

  With those in attendance rendered either dead, injured, or in a state of disbelief and shock, the attacking force shed their parachutes, flags, and all of their empty weapons just as their brethren in both New York and Colorado were simultaneously doing. Then the men turned away from the stadiums closed in southern portion where both teams of the Navy Midshipmen and the visiting Wake Forest University Demon Deacons were located, and made for the large grassy hill beyond the north end zone. Unfortunately, even though the Midshipmen in attendance had been thinned out considerably, some were still available to potentially block the intended escape path.

  Scampering up the hill of the northwest corner between the Middies and those civilians with end zone seats above the grass embankment, the tight formation of fourteen began to encounter more resistance than had been anticipated. Waving their silenced side arms as a deterrent, the outer ring protected those few who still had their grenade launchers from many of the advancing hoard. Then when two of the grenades were used to blast a gaping hole in the perimeter fence, the group attempted to spill through unscathed while heading for the adjacent parking area. In so doing, one attacker was tackled by a trio of civilians who were braver than their appearance would imply. Before he could rise, two of them began punching him repeatedly in the kidneys and the backs of his legs while the third kicked him forcefully in the ribs several times. Fortunately there were two of his fellow attackers nearby, and as one held the crowd at bay, the other knocked two of the civilians into unconsciousness with the butt of his grenade launcher before shooting the third with his silenced sidearm. Then joined by yet another of the attacking force, they helped their battered friend stager to his feet and pressed on.

  Another of the force, while moving into the mass of parked cars for cover, was shot in the arm by a Maryland State Trooper from a distance of about twenty-five yards. To hit a moving target at that range with a 45-caliber Smith & Wesson would have been difficult for a civilian, but the Trooper was a different matter. The wound created by the jacketed hollow point round was not severe enough to keep the man from continued forward movement, but it did knock him off his feet momentarily which created the additional misfortune of having his silenced sidearm slip from his grasp to slide far beneath a car. As he attempted to rise, he heard another shot from the direction of the trooper, and the safety glass window next to his head exploded into hundreds of pieces. Fortunately for him, it was the last shot that the trooper could squeeze off in his direction, as the law man was then eliminated by two silenced close range shots from behind.

  Waiting beyond the parking areas were three escape vehicles, two vans and one car, which sat at pre-designated locations for what had been intended to be a quiet recovery of human cargo. The driver of the blue van which had been positioned in the large parking area east of the stadium a few hours earlier, and then remotely detonated after the attack as a diversionary tactic, now waited in the white van with her counterpart. While perched in the window frame with head and shoulders above the roof line, she looked through a set of binoculars and noticed that the attacking force had run into some difficulties. Sensing the need, she climbed from her perch to stand upon the roof in order to signal members of the attacking force. Having then spotted her position on Farragut Road from a distance, six of the fourteen attackers, which included the two slightly wounded men, made their way toward her. The other eight moved further to the west where another vehicle and the red van were waiting along Cedar Park Road near the corner of Farragut. As that group closed to within fifty yards of their rides, they saw the white van pass by and then turn right onto Glen Avenue. Within seconds they climbed into their own getaway vehicles, and each of the drivers informed them that their counterpart had held up a closed fist followed by a single index finger when she drove past. She had repeated the gesture as verification of her signal that she had picked up six members of the attacking force. Although it was now confirmed that all fourteen jumpers had been accounted for, their successful escape from the area was far from secure.

  Samuel and Savanah sat in quiet dejection, and felt helpless as the precious time on the game clock ticked away. There was less than one minute remaining, and the outcome was no longer in doubt. The L.S.U. Tigers from Baton Rouge had gained possession of the ball, and they would not need to surrender it before time ran out. They would win this game by the score of 24-14, and in honesty, had outplayed Texas A&M in the process. The visiting team deserved to win, but that didn’t make it any easier for Samuel or Savanah.

  They shared a wonderful grandfather to granddaughter relationship that was filled with past fun times and fond memories, but Texas A&M football bonded them together more than anything else. As a bright eight year old during the 2026 season Savanah was really beginning to understand how the game worked, and would ask questions to learn more. Samuel had become a willing and eager mentor in her learning process with good intent, but Savanah had unfortunately picked up on one of his traits that could at times become difficult for those around him. Whenever their beloved Aggies were defeated as was the case on this particular Saturday, their collective inner pouting child would rise to the surface. Of course the pouting of Savanah could be understood for a girl of her age, but Samuel was painfully aware that his behavior was a less acceptable shortcoming.

  Glancing at his watch, Samuel knew that the time had come and gone. There had been no information relayed on the stadiums public address system as of yet, nor had there been any type of interruption seen on the televisions within their stadium suite. That could only mean one of two things. Either all three of the attacks had somehow been foiled, or they had all been successful in causing serious damage to the media centers at each location. Of course word of the attacks would eventually get out via one form of communication or another, and Samuel knew that as each of the carefully planned assaults had begun roughly twenty minutes earlier, that information could come at any time. The intriguing aspect of the moment for him to ponder was how would said information be conveyed and subsequently received.

  The reaction to the attacks, if they had been carried out, by the local, state, and federal authorities, as well as individual hosting universities across the nation and the governing body of the NCAA was unclear. Samuel believed that there were three distinct options, and felt that each had the possibility of existing during the coming hours. There could be nothing done at al
l in order to avoid a large scale panic, and for games that were nearly complete that may be the best option. Other games could be halted in mid-action for fear of additional attacks, but that would probably be the least favorable option. Unfortunately for those institutions choosing that path, the panic that could ensue would probably cause more harm than good. Of course a third option would be along the lines of what had been employed after the terrorist attacks of September eleventh 2001. That Tuesday morning attack created the postponement of all sporting events in the United States for several days, and college football games slated for the upcoming Saturday were rescheduled for available dates in late November or early December. If such a decision were to be made in the current situation, it would most certainly impact the majority of the west coast universities who had not yet begun their respective contests. With each of these potential scenarios in mind, Samuel had effectively taken Kyle Field and Texas A&M out of the equation back in March when he convinced the athletic director and other members of the university administration to have an early kickoff for this particular game.

  His first indication of how the event would be handled then came, as with the game clock at zero and the teams shaking hands at midfield, the public address announcer made a statement. He said, “Ladies and gentlemen. On behalf of Texas A&M University and our guests from Louisiana State University, we would like to offer thanks for your patronage of today’s game. Please understand that there is no cause for alarm and that you are not in any danger, but we have an announcement of grave concern that we feel you should all be made aware of. A moment ago our media representatives received word that the three military academies located in Annapolis, Colorado Springs, and West Point were each attacked by an unknown military force. Those attacks apparently transpired simultaneously roughly twenty minutes ago, but unfortunately we have no other details to offer you at this time.”