by Bobby Akart
TOM and DONNA SHELTON had survived the chaos of New Year’s Eve with the only injury coming to Donna’s ankle. As they rested in their hotel room, they are startled by loud knocking at their door. The police were evacuating the area around Time Square due to a dirty bomb scare.
With the assistance of a wheelchair, Tom and Donna made their way through Midtown Manhattan to a staging area where buses were provided for refugees to flee the city. One of the destinations to choose from was East Haven, Connecticut, a place that Tom knew well.
While Donna slept by his side, Tom decided to call upon a resident of East Haven whom he’d met in the past — George Trowbridge. During this meeting in which Tom asked for assistance to get closer to home, it was revealed that the two had been connected for many years.
Trowbridge was rich and powerful, and he’d purchased the loyalty of Tom Shelton with a handsome stipend in exchange for seemingly mundane tasks related to his command at Joint Base Charleston. The relationship had been hidden from Donna but she accepted her husband’s explanation as their benefactor assisted them to Norfolk.
During the meeting at the Trowbridge residence, the sickly man provided Tom a letter to deliver to Meredith Cortland. Tom did not know anything about her, but Trowbridge assured him that their paths might cross.
MICHAEL “CORT” CORTLAND, wife MEREDITH, and daughter, HANNAH
The Cortland family had to make a decision. Cort had recovered and was released to go home. After seeing the news reports and speaking with his boss, a powerful Washington Senator, Cort knew that he had to take his family to the Haven.
There was just one problem. They knew nothing about it. Following an emotional scene in which Cort revealed some, but not all, of what he knew about the state of affairs and his reason for becoming involved in the Haven to begin with, Meredith acquiesced to their leaving Mobile.
Her bigger concern was now for her husband who wanted to fly. Gasoline shortages had struck the nation and societal unrest was rampant on the first day following the terrorist attacks.
DR. ANGELA RANKIN, TYLER RANKIN, and their children, KAYCEE and J.C.
The Rankins were caught in the midst of a region decimated by an EMP attack. Electronics were destroyed, the rural parts of New Jersey where they were located had no power. But the Rankins were fortunate that Tyler had an old Ford Bronco that was not susceptible to the electromagnetic pulse.
This would become both a blessing and a curse for the family. Having the only operating vehicle for miles, they immediately became a target for their desperate fellow man. Their first challenge was to get away from the Six Flags parking lot that was packed with dazed and confused New Year’s revellers.
Then, they had to traverse the back roads through New Jersey toward their home in Richmond, Virginia. Except for a few skirmishes along the way, the family was almost in Virginia when they came upon the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. They enter the dark tunnel not realizing that trouble lay ahead.
Tyler gets ambushed by thugs who were robbing travelers in the darkness of the tunnel, but Angela came to the rescue. The family persevered and eventually made it home to Richmond where they came to the realization that they needed to wind up their affairs and head for the Haven.
THE HAVEN
Delta blended in with the team and he tried to reassure his kids, Skylar and Ethan that they would be safe. Skylar took to the community immediately, but Ethan had his doubts. He was more focused on reaching out to his mother and possible bringing her to the Haven than assimilating with the other residents.
Around the Haven, preparations were being made. Security was established, duties were assigned, and the Smarts tried to implement the detailed plans they’d created over the prior two years. They hoped for the best but prepared for the worst.
It turns out, as the conspiracy surrounding George Trowbridge, his associates and the Schwartz family deepened. Trowbridge began to have his doubts about what happened to Cort on the ill-fated Delta 322 flight. Meanwhile, György Schwartz and his son, Jonathan, plot the further demise of the United States by inserting themselves into the chaos.
Jonathan was the henchman of the family while his father played global financier. One of the Schwartz family’s favorite tool to manipulate financial markets was to fabricate societal unrest. To further their goals of collapsing the U.S. dollar, and destabilize American society, Jonathan calls upon the anarchist group known as the Black Rose, or Rosa Negra.
Well-financed by the Schwartz family organizations, the grassroots movement around the country was known for wreaking havoc on cities during political events. Now, they’d be called upon to take the fight to Main Street USA, America’s heartland, where we all live in our neighborhoods, with two-car garages, and parks for our children to play in.
Book Three: Doomsday: Anarchy
THE SCHWARTZ FAMILY
On New Year’s Eve, the fuse had been lit and now others were interested in joining the fray. One politician infamously said that you never let a good crisis go to waste. For the Schwartz family, this was their opportunity to bring down the house of cards known as the United States monetary system.
Markets like stability and financial profiteers like György Schwartz had the ability to disrupt that stability when a financial opportunity arises. However, the events of New Year’s Eve were different. Making money was one thing. Collapsing a might nation like the United States was another.
It had been a dream of Schwartz for many years to know America to its knees, and now somebody had started the process for him. While the terrorist attacks were disruptive, they didn’t accomplish his goal of collapsing the economy and the U.S. dominance over world financial markets. He didn’t care of Russia, China or the hapless Europeans stepped into America’s shoes, as long as the U.S was cut off at the knees.
Jonathan calls upon his minions in the Black Rose, also known as Rosa Negra. He believes that one man’s anarchist is another man’s patriot. As a result, it was easy for Jonathan to justify the violent methods employed by the Black Rose federation of anarchists.
He frequently likened their actions to those of the Sons of Liberty who opposed British rule in the pre-Revolutionary War days. Others saw them as a band of rabble-rousing thugs, loosely made up of groups from Occupy Wall Street, Antifa, and Black Lives Matter who were willing to use the disruption of society as a means to a political end.
Regardless, the Schwartz’s devised a plan that would not only disrupt the psyche of Americans who chose not to engage in the fight brewing on the streets, but also enable them to profit from the societal collapse as well.
Using their vast financial resources, and the passions of the Black Rose movement, in the midst of the chaos that was initiated on New Year’s Eve, the father and son threw gasoline on the fire. And, like the North Viet Cong soldier who would throw a grenade inside a village hut, only to run away and not observe the aftermath, the Schwartz’s rushed to their jet and a planned escape to their safe place in New Zealand.
Their nemesis, George Trowbridge, had other plans for the father and son team. Using his contacts within the Federal Government, Trowbridge orchestrated a hastily obtained warrant for the arrest of the Schwartz’s with the intent to have them detained indefinitely following the martial law declaration. In Trowbridge’s mind, this would put an end to the feud between the power political opposites.
As the FBI closed in on the Schwartz jet sitting on an obscure tarmac, ready for departure, Jonathan saw the handwriting on the wall and narrowly escaped arrest. As he lay in the cold, wet grass, he vowed revenge.
Meanwhile, Trowbridge had another score to settle. He had become sceptical of his long-time associate, Hanson Briscoe, who was spearheading the events of New Year’s Eve. The fact that Trowbridge’s son-in-law, Michael Cortland, was nearly killed troubled the old man. He’d been around too long to get one-upped by Briscoe.
After a meeting in the Trowbridge home, Briscoe was allowed to leave but Trowbridge had made his assessment—the
man who orchestrated the New Year’s Eve attacks had to die. Trowbridge had big plans for Cort, and the attempt on his life could not be tolerated.
THE HAVEN
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, as they say, the Haven was busy implementing its survival game plan that had been a couple of years in the making. Ryan and Blair Smart had spent many months picking the right property for their prepper community and then planning to provide its residents with safety, sustenance, and medical treatment, all while trying to maintain some sense of normalcy.
WILL HIGHTOWER had been the first to arrive and was immediately rotated into a security shift. This left his children, Ethan and Skylar, alone during the day. Alpha, the head of the Haven’s security team, had incorporated drone technology into their perimeter monitoring. His plan included using older kids to operate the drone’s that continuously fed surveillance footage back to a series of monitors in the Smart residence, known as Haven House.
During Alpha’s orientation of Ethan, the teen learned that his father had made no effort to locate a battery charger for his son’s cell phone. This angered Ethan and he immediately devised a plan to leave the Haven and return to his mother and boyfriend in Philadelphia.
Using one of the drones as an aid, Ethan discovered a nearby home that was occupied by an elderly couple. He put the drone away, snuck over the wall, and stole the couple’s car without saying goodbye or arrivederci.
The fifteen-year-old was sailing along, singing and allowing the wind to blow through his hair without a care in the world, until he reached Richmond. Then the old Oldsmobile ran low on fuel, and patience with the high-speed it had endured for hours, and the engine seized.
Ethan was naïve to the ways of the world. He thought he would be welcomed anywhere, anytime. He was wrong. At the end of his journey to Philly, he was badly beaten, stripped of his shoes, jacket, and cell phone, and left for dead next to a dumpster at a gas station.
Ethan’s sudden, unannounced departure from the Haven caused more drama than Ryan and Blair wanted to put up with. The other important members of their team, the Cortlands, the Sheltons, and toward the end, the Rankins and Hayden Blount, arrived safely at the Haven by the end of the day.
Michael Cortland was tapped to be Ryan’s right-hand man from an administrative standpoint.
As America descended into societal collapse, Ryan needed to focus on the safety and operations of the Haven. Cort, who was well organized and had fought trench warfare in DC, was the perfect man for the job.
In addition, Ryan called upon Tom Shelton to act as his advisor from a security standpoint. While Alpha was the warrior that the Haven needed under the circumstances, Tom was a seasoned commander whom Ryan could trust.
And, as it turns out, so could George Trowbridge. The Sheltons and Cortlands were astonished to find one another and when Tom presented Trowbridge’s letter to his estranged daughter, Meredith, some tears were shed. The letter also contained a suggestion to his daughter—you can trust Tom Shelton, and no one else. Time will tell if the advice from her father was sound.
The Sheltons had something in common with another important member of the Haven, although they didn’t know it yet. As they traveled through Richmond, the Black Rose anarchists were up to their dastardly deeds and blocked the southbound lanes of the interstate. While the thugs were attacking motorists, a young woman fought back and cleared the path for the Sheltons to escape too. During the melee, they even noticed how some creature mauled the face of one of the attackers.
Unbeknownst to them, the young woman was Hayden Blount who arrived later that evening and the creature that mauled the face of the anarchist was her Maine Coon cat, Prowler.
The mauled marauder crossed the path of another of our characters—Dr. Angela Rankin. She and her husband, Tyler, made the decision to leave their jobs and home in Richmond to go to the Haven. While Tyler was purchasing a truck and trailer, Angela went to the VCU hospital where she worked to negotiate a leave of absence. While she was there, she worked on the patient whose face had been mauled by Prowler.
Also, while she and Tyler were making their arrangements to leave, their kids, Kaycee and J.C. were left home alone to do some chores and gather the family’s things for a road trip. However, the Black Rose federation had different plans for the neighborhood. After gathering at a Schwartz owned-property to the west of the Rankin home, the thugs began to march toward downtown Richmond and the State Capitol with the intent to destroy everything in its path.
They broke into homes, terrorized residents, and generally wreaked havoc along the Rankin’s street. When they approached the house to break in, Kaycee and J.C. devised a plan. J.C. found a space in the old house to hide and Kaycee locked herself down the hall in her parent’s bedroom.
Armed with a shotgun, she waited. Two of the marauders found her locked away and threatened her. They started pounding on the bedroom door in an attempt to break it down. Kaycee didn’t hesitate. She racked a round into the shotgun and sent a blast of buckshot through the door and into the bodies of her assailants. The two bad guys scrambled to leave the house, begging for their lives as they went.
Tyler and Angela eventually arrived to comfort their kids and the family made their way to the Haven where they were late to arrive. Now, everyone who had purchased property or had been invited into the community was within the safe confines of the Haven.
But there was one among them who had a dark secret. He’d been unknowingly recruited into a conspiracy that might lead to the demise of everyone at the Haven, including himself. He too had been the recipient of mysterious texts.
X-Ray was an introverted, techno-geek who could have been a valuable asset to Ryan and Blair Smart. As it turns out, he was someone else’s asset as well. He’d done as instructed by the anonymous benefactor who paid him well enough to buy the electronics gear he so desperately craved.
When the shock wore off from meeting the man he was instructed to watch out for, Michael Cortland, he found the burner cell phone that he’d procured before arriving at the Haven. He issued the required text message, careful to get the words just right.
The eagle’s mark is in sight.
Then X-Ray waited, unsure of what this meant and how he was supposed to proceed. Then he received a response.
Tell no one.
Will advise.
Godspeed, Patriot.
MM
X-Ray was beginning to lose his nerve. He considered running away from the Haven as fast as he could. He wished he had a drink. He stared at the cheap flip phone, wishing it would malfunction. But then, it buzzed to life with another text message.
From Doomsday Anarchy …
X-Ray quickly pulled the phone out of his pocket and flipped it open. He pushed the select key to change the display to the text function. He read the message and then collapsed back into his swivel office chair.
Beware of those around you.
All is not as it might seem.
Godspeed, Patriot.
MM
“What?” he shouted again. “Beware of who? You? Jesus!”
In a rare show of anger and raw emotion, X-Ray flung the phone across the room, where it careened off a lampshade and landed safely on the leather couch in front of the fireplace, its light-blue screen continuing to illuminate despite the attempt to kill it.
Book Four: Doomsday: Minutemen
THE SKULL AND BONES
Legends were not born, they were created. So was the case of the The Order of the Scull and Bones, later modernized to simply, Skull and Bones. Arising as a secret society at Yale University in 1832, the mystery surrounding its members, coupled with the clandestine meetings which they held, gave rise to a legend that has continued to this day.
Doomsday Minutemen begins with the backstory of the Bonesmen, as the members were known, and how they relate to the principal characters in the story. As the story goes, one summer day at Yale in 1984, the Bonesmen gathered at their private retreat on the St. Lawrence River, Deer I
sland.
Divisiveness grew within the ranks and in a rare of showing of political animus, the arguments became so heated that the Bonesmen were forced to separate to opposite side of the island until emotions died down.
Although, on the surface, a truce had been reached, some members of the Skull and Bones, led by George Trowbridge and Hanson Briscoe, used the rift as an opportunity to plan for the future. That foresaw the collapse of America, following the path of all great empires before it. They vowed that, when the time came, they would take whatever steps were necessary to preserve America and the principles upon which the nation was founded.
THE FUSE HAD BEEN LIT
Trowbridge provided the means, and Briscoe the muscle, to push America into an internal struggle reminiscent of the Civil War. The political and cultural war that had been brewing in America for decades was now turning into one in which property destruction had become expected and killing commonplace.
As was true in any story of historical significance, there was the big picture, the coming of a Second American Civil War, and then there was how these events impacted the lives of everyday people.
Jonathan Schwartz was on the run. His father had been unceremoniously arrested on the tarmac of the Danbury, Connecticut airport. Out of self-preservation, Schwartz ran, stole a pickup truck, and made his way to a remote hunting lodge that had been in the family’s real estate holdings for decades. Off the grid, but without friends, Schwartz hid and regrouped.
Meanwhile, Hanson Briscoe, the polar opposite of Schwartz from a political perspective, had troubles of his own. You see, he’d tried to assassinate Michael Cortland, the heir-apparent to the George Trowbridge legacy. He’d shot and missed, and now, he was fully aware that Trowbridge had discovered his betrayal.
Just as Briscoe was implementing another phase in the Minutemen’s plan to instigate a Second Civil War, Trowbridge’s operatives arrived at Monocacy Farm to kill him. Using the secret tunnels built beneath the home and grounds of the antebellum mansion, Briscoe narrowly escaped the assassination attempt and sought refuge.
