The City Burns: A Prepper's Struggle for The Truth (2 page)

Tigs lied curled up next to Annie as she slept. Samantha sat on her cot as she stared at her daughter. She watched her little chest slowly rise and fall. The inside of the tent was gray with light as the sun outside struggled to break through the dawn. She rubbed her eyes as she rested her face in her palms. Two weeks. It’d been two weeks since they arrived at this refugee camp. They were plucked from their home in Phoenix and sent here. She had no idea where her husband was and no idea when she would ever see him again.

Jim Farr, her brother, poked his head through the tent door silently. His morning stubble peppered his face as he spoke, “Hey.” She whipped her head around and threw her hand over her mouth. “Jim, you scared me,” she said.

“Sorry,” he replied. He stepped inside as Tigs tilted her head up and ran over to him. He reached down to scoop her up and scratched her ears. Jim placed her back down and glanced over to his sister who was still watching her daughter. Her eyes filled up as he walked over and sat next to her on the cot. He wrapped his arms around her. “We’ll find him, Sammy,” he said. She leaned her head into his chest as he rested his chin on her head. “Once they get their communications back up here they’ll be able to give us some more information,” Jim reassured her. Samantha believed that lie about as much as Jim did. “Yeah, because they were so willing to share before everything went to shit,” she said.

“I thought we weren’t supposed to say that word,” Annie said as her eyes slowly opened. “You told Uncle Coyle he couldn’t say it,” she said accusingly. Jim looked over at his niece. “That’s because Uncle Coyle’s met his life quota for bad words,” he said. “Your mom hasn’t.”

Annie tilted her head up and rubbed her eyes as she yawned, “Have I met my quota?”

Samantha smiled and walked over to her. Annie held her arms out and Samantha lifted her onto her lap as she sat back down on the cot. “No, but that’s because you haven’t been given a quota yet,” Samantha said.

She looked up at her mother and gave a front tooth missing grin. “When do I get mine?” she asked. “When you’re thirty,” Jim said, “And that’s also when you’re allowed to get married.” Annie gave a frown as her mother laughed. “Uncle Jim’s just kidding.” Samantha set Annie back on the ground. “It’ll be when you’re forty,” she said smiling.

Coyle tore open the tent flaps and stepped inside. He had his eyebrows raised and his wild hair stood out in all directions. He looked like a mad scientist. “Breakfast line’s getting long,” he said. “I don’t want to have to wait thirty minutes like we did yesterday because somebody couldn’t get out of bed,” he looked accusingly at Annie who giggled.

“What’s over there today?” Jim asked.

Coyle cocked his head to the side, rested his hand under his chin, and thought really hard. “Well, Monday was gray mush. Tuesday was white mush,” he rubbed his chin and then looked at Jim with over exaggerated excitement on his face. “You think we’ll get the charcoal mush today?” The line was starting to get long, but Coyle was satisfied with their spot once a group of thirty people appeared out of nowhere and stood behind them.

People were slowly crawling out of their army issued relief tents and stretched their bodies in the morning sun. More people were arriving every day. Los Angeles, San Diego, Phoenix, Las Vegas, there wasn’t a major city in the southwest United States that didn’t get hit by some sort of attack.

Jim herd rumors of camps similar to their own on the outskirts of cities all around the country. Anytime he asked what was going on, however, he was met with the calculated response of, “we’re working on a solution.” When Jim got to the front and held out his tray, the man in the hairnet slopped a pile of bland mush onto his plate. Coyle leaned over with a frown on his face. “Damn. And I was really hoping it’d be the charcoal.”

Two MPs knocked him and Coyle in the shoulders as they made a beeline for Samantha and Annie. “Samantha Kearny,” the taller MP asked. Samantha pulled Annie behind her and she wrapped her arms around her mother’s leg. “Yes?” she responded.

“We need you and your daughter to come with us,” the shorter MP said.

Jim pushed the tray back onto the serving counter and made his way over to the MPs. “What’s going on here?” he asked. The shorter MP held his hand up to keep Jim back. “Sir, please stay back.” 

Jim knocked the MPs hand out of the way and before he could reach for his pistol Jim had his arm locked up behind the MP with his knees on the ground. He pulled the gun out of the subdued MP’s holster and pointed it at the other MP’s head that had his hand hovering above the pistol at his hip. “Don’t,” Jim said. The MP pulled the pistol out of his holster, dropped the clip out and cleared the chamber. The crowd around them had spread out and Jim kept the gun aimed at the MP with his hand in the air, and the other MP winced in pain as Jim kept his arm pinned back.

“Out of the way! Move!” shouted a voice.

A group of soldiers forced their way through the crowd and five men circled Jim  A brash sergeant walked right up beside Jim and pressed the barrel of his Smith and Wesson 9mm into Jim’s temple.“ Drop it, fucker,” the sergeant said. Jim kept his gun pointed at the other MP. The sergeant pressed the barrel harder into Jim’s skull.

“Drop it now!” the sergeant repeated.

Jim let go of the MP’s arm and dropped the pistol to the ground. The sergeant grabbed Jim’s arms and threw them around his back, cuffed him, and slammed his face into the grass. The group of soldiers that were with the sergeant grabbed Samantha and Annie as they strode off through the crowd that had gathered. The sergeant pointed at Coyle and told another soldier to grab him as well. “But I didn’t get to finish my mush!” Coyle shouted as his tray dropped to the ground. Upon seizing Coyle, they escorted him out of the cafeteria with the others.

Jim was taken into a separate tent and shackled to a chair. The MP he disarmed made sure to give him a nice pop in the stomach before he left to return the favor. Once the MP left an officer in fatigues entered the tent. Jim could only make out the silhouette and the circling smoke that rose from the tip of his cigar. He lingered for a moment before getting close enough for Jim to make out the features on his face and the four stars on his hat.

He read from a file in his hand. “Jim Farr,” he said aloud, “Former officer and specialist in Navy Intelligence. Honorably discharged after twelve years of service and three combat tours during which he earned twenty commendations, two purple hearts, and the Navy Cross.”

The general paced around Jim in his chair examining the contents of the file. He took a long drag of his cigar and puffed out a billow of smoke. “Now why the hell would someone who was awarded the Navy Cross attack two MPs at a military refugee camp?” he asked as finally looked up from reading.

“The military and I haven’t really seen eye-to-eye over the past few year, General,” Jim answered. The General let out a hearty laugh as he chewed on the end of the cigar. “I can see that,” he said smiling. The General’s assistant came in and handed him another file along with a chair. He leaned back in his chair and his belly stretched as he attempted to get comfortable. Goddamn I’ve gotten fat,” the General moaned.  Jim finally noticed the name on the general’s jacket. His eyes went wide as the words left him.

“General Locke?” Jim asked.

“We can talk about your father later, Farr. We have other pressing issues to worry about.” Locke motioned to Jim’s cuffs. “You can take those off,” the general said. “General, I highly suggest—” the assistant began. “Damnit, Chris, he’s not going to kill me. Take the cuffs off,” Locke barked.

Chris hesitated for a moment, but walked over and set Jim’s hands free. Jim rubbed his wrists and Locke handed him a photograph. “That’s your brother in-law, Matt Kearny. He was picked up during the evacuation of Phoenix two weeks ago. Do you know what he does?” asked Locke.

Jim looked over the photo of Matt in his hands. It was taken somewhere in a downtown area. “He’s an engineer for some software company,” he replied. “PamTech. They’re one of the military’s largest contractors. They handle a lot of our digital security platforms. You’re brother-in-law was one of their lead engineers who handled a majority of our accounts,” explained Locke.

Jim shook his head and rested the paper down on his lap. “You think he has something to do with all of these attacks?” he asked. Locke paused for a moment before speaking. “I don’t know, but we do know that he was in charge of all of PamTech’s digital security functions. He has a security clearance higher than anyone in the company and we need him to grant us access to those files to see if they’ve been tampered with,” Locke continued.

Jim rose out of his chair and turned his back to Locke as he continued to examine the picture. “Why don’t you just break through their fire wall? You have enough resources to do it,” he said. “We tried, but the files aren’t on their network. We think they’re on a stand-alone hard drive,” Locke said. “We need Matt to tell us where it is.”

“How long have you had him?” Jim asked.

“Jim, we’re running out of time. If we don’t get that data, then we could be open for more attacks. Hell, we still have riots happening all over the country. We need—”

“How long?” Jim repeated. Locke let out a sigh. “Two weeks,” he answered.

Jim’s jaw clenched. His hands tightened into fists. He turned and focused his eyes on Locke, but not before he noticed Chris’s hand at the firearm on his hip. “My sister has been asking about him since she got here and each time you told us you didn’t know,” Jim said.

“Well, depending on who you asked, that was true. Besides us there are only a handful of people who know where he is and what this is about,” Locke replied.

Jim closed his eyes and shook his head to calm himself. “You want me to convince him to give you the hard drive,” Jim sighed. Locke paused for a moment before he answered, “Yes.” Jim opened his eyes, walked back over to the chair, and sat down. He looked back down at the photo in his hands as he spoke. “My sister and niece get to see him before I help you,” he said.

Locke glanced over at Chris who was shaking his head. “Done,” he answered. “You leave today.” He rose and grabbed the grabbed the picture in Jim’s hand. “Jim, we need that drive,” Locke said. Jim’s hand tightened on the file as Locke tried to pull it away. “And my niece needs her father,” he replied. Locke tapped his cigar with his finger and ash fell onto the dirt floor. He gave a weary smile. “Let’s hope we both get what we want,” he said.

Upon his release, Jim was met outside by Annie, Samantha, and Coyle They each had a million questions, but mostly Coyle.  Jim pulled Samantha to the side out of earshot from the others. “They have Matt,” said Jim. Samantha let out a shocked, harsh whisper, “What?” She looked around as if he was there in one of the tents. “Where is he?” she asked.

Jim kept his voice down as he spoke, “They want something he was working on for his company. I think they were going to use you and Annie as leverage to get what they want.” She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “They can’t do that!” She wasn’t whispering anymore. Jim wrangled her back in. “Hey, we need to be smart.” He glanced around at the soldiers before looking back at her. “They think I can convince him to give up what they want.”

Samantha’s voice was harder now. “And what happens if you can’t convince him?” she asked. Jim looked over at Annie who was huddled next to Coyle. She had her arms wrapped around his leg and was glancing up at the soldiers around her. Jim looked back over to Samantha who had followed his line of sight. “Oh, God,” she gasped.

“It won’t come to that,” he reassured her. “It might,” a stern, cold voice said from behind him. When Jim turned around he saw the same sergeant who had his gun against his temple less than twenty minutes ago.

“You give me any trouble on this trip and I’ll put a bullet in your head right after making you watch me put one in each of your family’s.” he said. The corners of his mouth turned up slightly as he finished his sentence.  Locke appeared from the distance and yelled for the sergeant. “Sergeant Hult,” he said, “will you join me for a moment, please?” Hult snapped to attention. “Yes, Sir!” he yelled. He marched off and Jim and Samantha walked back over to Annie and Coyle. Samantha scooped Annie up as she wrapped her arms around her mother’s neck. She held her daughter close.

Coyle walked over to Jim who had his eyes on Locke’s tent. “What’d captain stars and stripes want?” he asked. Jim kept his focus on the tent as he spoke. “We’re going on a trip.” He turned back around and saw that Coyle was glancing at the tent as well. “I need you to come with me,” he said.

“Why do I get the feeling that we’re going to do something dangerous?” Coyle sighed. Hult exited the tent with a grimace on his face. Whatever Locke had said to him he wasn’t happy about it. He slammed his shoulder into Jim as he walked by. “We leave in an hour,” he said while not making eye contact. The trucks pulled up as Jim, Samantha, Coyle, and Annie stood with their packs alongside Hult and his soldiers. Two soldiers jumped out of the back of the truck and Jim’s jaw dropped when he saw who it was.

The soldier smacked on some gum and had a smile from ear to ear. “When they told me who I was picking up I literally told my CO to shut the fuck up,” the man said.  “He wasn’t very happy about it.” Jim laughed and stretched out his arms as the two men hugged and slapped each other on the back. Jim turned around and introduced everyone. “Sam, this is an old friend of mine, Brett Fox.” He motioned to him and then back to his sister. “Brett, this is my sister Sam, her daughter Annie, and my friend Coyle.” Brett went down and shook Samantha’s hand, gave Annie a high five, and gripped Coyle’s hand so hard that he heard it pop. Coyle made sure he didn’t show the grimace on his face until Brett turned back to Jim.

“What are you doing here?” Brett asked.

“It’s a long story, but it’s damn good to see you,” replied Jim.

Brett introduced his partner to the group who simply called himself Twink. Annie grabbed Tigs’s cage and it rocked back and forth awkwardly as she meowed uncomfortably from inside. Jim tried to convince Annie that Tigs would be safer here, but she was insistent on bringing the cat. Coyle agreed with her. “Yeah,” he said, “if we run out of food at least we’ll have something to eat.” It took them twenty minutes to get Annie to stop crying.

The truck rumbled off with Coyle in the rear truck with Hult and his soldiers while Jim, Annie, Samantha, Tigs, Brett, and Twink sat in the lead truck. Brett passed the time with old war stories of him and Jim. He kept it clean due to some of the company, but he wasn’t always successful. “So this dumbass comes running out of the bunker with a handful of grenade pins screaming his head off and just before they go off he jumps behind the barricade where I’m sitting there with the bomb switch in my hand,” Brett jeered.

Brett then started to laugh. “I asked him what he was doing and he says, some redecorating.” He pulled up the sleeve on his arm and a six inch scar ran along the top of his forearm. “Twenty stitches,” he said, “Some redecorating job.”

Jim smiled, “I got a black eye for that one.”

“That was almost twenty years ago right after I joined. I was a little brash during my first tour,” Brett replied. Jim shook his head. “We got lucky a lot that year,” Jim said.