by Jack Hunt
“And people allowed that?”
“Well no, some didn’t. Some escaped. The rest of us weren’t so lucky. They went door-to-door confiscating weapons, ammo, even food supplies. Some people handed it over, others tried to fight back and well, they were taken in or shot on the spot.”
I ran a hand over my head and exhaled hard. “So how did your wife and daughter end up dead?”
“They showed up at our house and my wife killed one of their men. The other one shot her and my daughter. I managed to overpower him and flee in his truck but as you can see I didn’t get far.”
“How the hell can they do that? Aren’t they meant to help?”
“There’s no one to watch what they do,” he replied.
I could barely wrap my head around it.
Keith continued. “When I asked why they were doing it, they told me that they were executing a plan that has been in place since the ’50s. According to them back in the 1950s the government created a plan during the Cold War. If the U.S. suffered from a nuclear attack, the entire country would come under martial law and an emergency detention program would come into effect. He said it was initially there as a means to provide order in chaos but I don’t call taking a man’s right to bear arms — order. What’s the point of the Constitution if it doesn’t protect our rights and allow us to protect ourselves if and when shit happens?”
He pulled hard on his cigarette and then tossed it on the ground, crushing it below his boot.
“You are telling us they are in control of Hayden?” Corey asked.
“How many are there?”
“Enough.”
Corey lost his temper and smashed the butt of his gun against the corrugated wall that was being used to house the truck. “This is just like our government. We are screwed when there is order and royally fucked when the shit hits the fan.”
Keith placed his hand on his brow and took a seat against the wall. Luke came out holding a few knives, can openers and a propane tank. “These might come in handy,” he said moving past us without even looking. He slipped under the tarp and placed them in the back of the truck.
“So, what did I miss?”
I shook my head and walked back inside. “We should check if we can siphon some of the gas from the station itself. There has to be an underground tank here. Find a hose, and see what you can do.”
Billy looked around. “Me?”
“Are you busy?”
“No. But…”
Corey patted him on the back. “That’s a sport. Go on now.”
Billy scowled at him before shuffling away. I began rooting around inside the kitchen for anything to eat. I was hungry. Even though we had had breakfast the rabbit wasn’t enough for all of us. All the shelves were empty as if someone had already been through here and took the supplies. The large freezer that would have contained frozen meat was bare. I turned the faucet and it gurgled and spewed out some brown fluid. I figured it was the remainder of rusty water stuck in the pipes as fresh water had stopped running months ago.
“Let’s get out of here.”
CHAPTER 12
Frustrated, annoyed and hungry, I joined the others outside. When I came out the others had taken cover under the tarp. “Get over here now,” Luke said in a hushed tone. I frowned and looked off to my left. We were in the rear of the diner but the way the windows were positioned, if you were standing in the right spot you could see right through to the far side. Pulling up in front of the gas station was a military truck. Six soldiers jumped out and one of them had a hose. They went over to a metal cap on the ground and unscrewed it. The one with the hose slipped the tube in and gave one of his buddies the thumbs-up.
Ally was just coming out. She was in the process of saying something when I grabbed her and placed a hand over her mouth. I dragged her under the tarp.
“They weren’t coming after us. They were on a gas run.”
I moved nearer the front of the tarp.
We could hear their conversation. One of them told some lame joke and the others broke into laughter. A few minutes passed and I watched as one of them headed in the direction of the diner.
“Shit. They are going to spot us.”
“Not if you keep your mouth shut,” Luke reminded Billy. I slung my AR around my back and pushed the barrel end into a holder. I took out my Glock and slipped out from underneath the tarp.
“Frost, what are you doing?”
“They are doing our job for us. We need gas. You want them to just drive off?”
Hugging the outside wall of the diner with my back, I crept up close to the door and listened. Inside I could hear a man’s boots pounding the ground. A door creaked opened.
“Hey, Barry.” He let out a laugh. “Oh you should see this. Come here.”
“Fuck’s sake, man. Can’t you see we’re busy?”
“No, I’m serious. This is messed up.”
I peeked around the corner and I saw a second man enter. “This better be good.”
When he took in the sight of the chef, he lurched. “What sick asshole would do that?”
I had assumed it was them but if it wasn’t, who had done this? Had it happened when the blackout occurred? It was very possible that people took matters into their own hands. Righted a few wrongs knowing that there would be no surveillance, and no cops to stop them.
“See if you can find any food, I’m going to take a leak.”
His friend made some joke about the plunger and he wandered off into the kitchen. I motioned for Luke to come with me but he wouldn’t. I glared at him. It wasn’t because he was afraid. He just didn’t like taking orders from me. Corey came over instead which only seemed to piss Luke off that much more.
Slowly, we crept into the diner, trying not to step on any of the broken glass on the floor. The one guy was whistling to himself in the kitchen. He was banging around pots, and slamming cupboard doors. They had wedged a chunk of wood under the door to the bathroom. I could hear the other starting to piss. I motioned for Corey to take the guy in the kitchen, while I went into the bathroom. I moved ever so quietly, placing the soles of my feet down in areas where there was no broken tile, garbage or glass. The soldier was in the next stall. He let out a fart while he was pissing and then breathed out as though he was enjoying the relief. I walked right up behind him and placed the tip of the barrel against the back of his head.
“Barry?” he said.
“Don’t even breathe.”
“Oh shit.”
“Oh shit, alright.”
The soldier let go of his dick to raise his hands while he continued to pee.
“Tuck that shit back in,” I said. He did as he was told. “Now back out carefully.”
He made a few steps backwards. “Okay. Now let’s not—”
With lightning speed he spun around and knocked my arm. The gun went off and a round went through the mirror on the wall. The soldier plowed into me grabbing my throat and throwing me up above the urinal. I felt metal grind into my back. Outside, another gun went off.
“Barry,” he yelled while squeezing my throat hard.
I fought for control as he continued choking me. He had to have been at least twenty-eight years of age. A section of his face was cut up as though he’d been in an explosion. Pressed against the tiled wall I could see darkness creeping in at the side of my eyes.
“Press a gun against me, will you?”
I knew if I didn’t act fast, I was going to pass out. He had shifted from his hand to using his forearm against my throat. I used my leg to try to kick him in the groin but he shifted his position slightly so I did the next best thing and drove my heel down into the top of his knee. I felt it give way beneath my boot. The guy let out a scream and collapsed on the ground. I dropped to the floor and began coughing hard. Billy came in and lifted his gun at the soldier. I raised my hand.
“No.”
Billy frowned. “Why not?”
I coughed hard. “Because, he can’t do anythin
g, and we need to know a few things.”
By the way his pant leg was sticking to one side, I was pretty sure I had just broken his knee.
Outside the bathroom there was a burst of gunfire, followed by more. I got up off the floor and picked up my gun. I staggered out and saw that Corey had killed the guy in the kitchen. I rushed through the dining room to the front window in time to see Luke and Ally kill the other two men. I squeezed my eyes shut and dropped my chin. I was kind of hoping that we didn’t have to. Rubbing a red neck, I returned to the washroom. Billy still had the gun on the soldier.
“Who are you?” I asked coming down to the ground.
Through tears of agony he seethed. “Fuck you.”
I looked at Billy. I was in no mood for this guy to be pissing me off. “Listen, your buddies. They’re dead. Now unless you want to join them, tell me. Who are you?”
In between writhing around, he let out a chuckle. “You are screwed.”
I was about to ask him another question when a gun went off. Inside that tiny bathroom it was deafening. My ears were ringing. I spun around to see Luke standing in the doorway with a smirk on his face. I jumped up and grabbed hold of him and tossed him outside the room.
“You idiot.”
“What? He wasn’t going to tell you anything.”
“You don’t know that.”
I pushed him back again.
“Even if he did, he would lie and then shoot you the first chance he had.”
“I swear, Luke, I will put a bullet in your fucking head the next time you act without getting the go-ahead.”
“The go-ahead? You think I need anyone’s permission to kill?”
I shoved him hard up against the wall, he sneered at me.
“Who put you in charge?”
“I’m telling you.”
Luke laughed in my face. “You’re telling me?” He pried my hands away and pushed back. “Go to hell, Frost.”
With that said he stormed out of the diner. I stood there for a second staring at the wall, my gun beside me. I gritted my teeth and balled my hand.
“Sam. SAM!”
I ignored Billy and went out the front to continue collecting some of the fuel that the soldiers had siphoned out.
“Maybe we should use their truck. I mean, if they have the roads blocked off we could get in as one of them.”
I scoffed at Billy’s idea. “This is not Mission Impossible, Billy. Now help me lug these two gas canisters over to the truck.”
“I’m just saying.”
“Well don’t,” I said spinning around. “This isn’t a game we are playing. We can’t just sneak into the town in their truck. They aren’t stupid.”
“It was just an idea.”
Billy turned and walked back to the diner. I felt a wave of guilt wash over me. I was taking out my anger on him. Luke was pissing me off. The guy didn’t have an off switch. He was looking for any reason to kill. It wasn’t that I was against killing but it at least had to be justified in my mind.
Hayden was a town that was slightly larger than Mount Pleasant. Keith filled us in on what the community was like and how the military had blocked off the road that led in and out.
“You can get in by trails using a motorbike or ATV. Though the brush is pretty dense in some areas. You aren’t thinking of heading in there, are you?”
“No, we just enjoy learning the history of towns,” Billy said sarcastically.
He stepped forward. “You don’t stand a chance.”
“We’re not looking to start a fight with them and not all of us would go in.”
“What?” Ally said. “Um, when were you going to tell us?”
“Since he nominated himself the leader of our group. Isn’t that right, Frost?” Luke muttered before lighting a cigarette.
“It’s just common sense. It’s easier if one or two of us go in than all of us. We all get caught, how would we get out of that? There’s no point in all of us dying.”
“Oh but let me guess, you’re going and I’m not?” Luke asked.
I leaned against the truck and glanced inside before looking at him. “You’re reckless, Luke. I have no idea what you are going to do next. The last thing I need is for you to go shooting up the place and alerting them to our presence. If you want to shoot something, go into the woods and catch us dinner.”
Luke pushed away from the van and walked over to me. He took a deep pull on his cigarette and blew it in my face on purpose. “Fuck you.”
“If you two are done, maybe we can get to the part where we talk about getting my father back? Let’s not forget why we are considering this,” Ally said trying to be the voice of reason.
“I say we all go,” Corey said. “They are as much our family as they are Kiera’s and Ally’s. Besides, who’s going to watch your back?”
“Keith here,” I said.
“Oh no, I can’t go back there.”
“You are the only one who knows the town. You know where they are keeping people. You know where they patrol.”
He threw his hands up and walked away. “I can’t. I’m sorry.”
“Keith. I get it. You lost your wife and daughter. All of us have lost someone close to us but we need your help. I’m asking you. Please.”
He fixed his gaze on me and gnawed on the side of his cheek. “I’m not going in but I will take you to the edge of town. It’s up to you from there.”
He walked over to a small branch on the ground and snapped off a small twig. He motioned for us to come over. There in the dirt he outlined the town, and some of the major buildings which they had turned into enclosures for anyone refusing to give up their guns.
“I don’t get it. Are they planning on staying?”
“I don’t think they actually work for the government. Perhaps they were military that went AWOL when this thing kicked off. Maybe they knew about the plan for martial law and decided they would use it to their advantage.”
“What advantage would that be?”
“Human slavery.”
Luke snorted. “Are you serious?”
“Why not? There is no one to stop them around here and without weapons they are a law unto themselves.”
We continued listening as he told us that the best way to get in would be by foot, at night from the north by cutting through Kaniksu National Forest, which surround the north end of the town.
“There is an outcropping that overlooks the town. If you wanted to observe what they were doing for a day or two, that would be the best place to begin but you are going to need some binoculars, night vision ideally.”
“Billy, in the truck, go check and see if those binoculars are still there.”
He raced off to find out.
“Now, they have a checkpoint at the east and west. They are using vehicles to block it off. They have begun erecting a makeshift fence on the north and south sides.”
“Great. We’ll have to dig our way in.”
“I didn’t say it was going to be easy.”
“Are we even sure they were brought there?” Ally asked.
“It’s the closest town. It’s just a guess right now. But…” I turned to Keith. “You must have seen them bring in people from the outside?”
“Yeah, they returned with people that were zip tied.”
“You don’t have a photograph of your father, do you, Ally?”
Keith breathed in deep. “Even if she did, I didn’t pay attention every time a truck rolled in.”
Over the following six hours we discussed the different ways that we could get in without being detected. We didn’t stay at the gas station long. Mainly because we assumed that they would eventually send another truck out to find their buddies, if they hadn’t already. Before leaving we dragged the dead into the woods and covered them in loose leaves in the hopes that no one would find them. At least it would buy us some time. The last thing we needed was to have them on high alert.
Once it was dark, it took us a little over forty m
inutes to reach the overlook that Keith had mentioned. He had turned back and decided to stay with the truck until we returned. He said he would park just inside the forest area, off the main road. That way even if people drove by they wouldn’t see the pickup truck.
“I don’t like the idea of leaving him back there with the truck,” Luke muttered.
“That’s a risk we have to take.”
We settled and lay prone on the granite rock overlooking the town. Fire torches had been inserted in the ground at various places, illuminating the streets. Billy handed me a pair of night vision binoculars and I peered through them. Everything was lit up in a hazy green. I could see soldiers moving back and forth. All of them were armed. It was hard to tell how many there were as they kept disappearing out of view but it seemed like a lot.
“Do you see him?” Ally asked. I handed her the binoculars and she spent several minutes scanning the town. She sighed and handed them back.
“We’ll find him, Ally. I promise.”
She nodded and got up and walked away. I wished I hadn’t made that promise. For all I knew they could be dead.
CHAPTER 13
Maybe our success in Mount Pleasant had given us a false sense of bravado, or perhaps we felt as though we owed our lives to Murphy but everything inside me was telling me this was a bad idea.
“I don’t think Murphy would want us to do this.”
“You afraid of pissing your pants again?” Luke mocked Billy.
“I’m just saying that we don’t even know how many are in there. Are these actual soldiers or weekend warriors?”
“Does it matter?”
“Well, I like to know who I’m going up against, don’t you?”
“If you have a problem with it, you hang back here.”
“What, by myself?”
“No, you can keep Kiera company,” Luke replied.
I never said anything. I was too busy watching the activity in the town. Men in fatigues walked back and forth, a couple huddled in a group around a fire. We could only see a part of the town; buildings obscured the rest.
