The City Burns: A Prepper's Struggle for The Truth (3 page)

Brett raised his eyebrows. “Lucky? Hell, it’s like we were protected by a legion of angels. Some of the shi—,” he stopped as his eyes flew over to Annie looking at him, “—stuff that we got ourselves into was unbelievable.” Jim leaned in with a puzzled look on his face. “I thought you got out years ago?” he asked. Brett waved him off with a scoff. “Ah, I tried,” he said. He looked down at his rifle and dusty uniform and shrugged. “I’m just not good at anything else, Jim. This is what I know. This is what I love.”

Coyle looked at Brett with concern. “So you’re crazy then,” Coyle said. Twink let out a laugh and Brett stared down the two of them. Jim tried to change the subject. “How long ‘till we get there?” he asked. Brett kept his eyes on Coyle as he spoke. “A few hours,” he answered.  Samantha spoke up, “A few hours? I thought Matt was in Phoenix?”

Brett shook his head. “He’s in a facility just east of the city. It’d be faster if we cut through, but the city still isn’t secure yet.” “Secure from what?” Jim asked. Brett leaned in and motioned for them to do the same. His voice was low as he spoke. “Half the city is in havoc. With all the other shit that’s been happening around the country we don’t have the personnel to secure the city. They’re actually bringing home U.S. soldiers stationed in other countries to help with relief.”

Jim couldn’t believe it. “It’s that bad out there?” he asked.

“It’s turning into the wild-fucking-west out here, man.” Brett leaned back and slammed his body against the seat, making a loud thump. He flashed another wide smile. “Good job security for me though.” The sun was still high when they arrived at the makeshift base. It wasn’t much to look at, but what it lacked in building structure they made up for in fire power. There were constant patrols around the camp along with guard stations that housed machine gun nests. Jim wasn’t sure if this was to keep people out, or in.

Coyle jumped out of the truck first and quickly rushed over to Jim. He clutched his bag and kept glancing back behind him. “Those guys really don’t have a sense of humor.” He leaned into Jim as he spoke through the corner of his mouth. “If you find me dead tell the police it was that guy,” Coyle said as he motioned over to Hult who looked even more pissed than when he came out of Locke’s tent.

Samantha pulled on Jim’s shoulder and spun him around. “When do we get to see Matt?” she asked. Hult came up behind them. “Once you get him to give us what we need the rest of you can see him,” barked Hult. Samantha began to shout, “If you think you can keep my daughter from seeing her father…” Her fist was raised as she got closer to Hult.

Jim held her back. “I’ll help you after they get to see him,” he said calmly.

Hult kept the grip around his rifle tight. He motioned over to his men and they grabbed Samantha and Annie. “They get five minutes,” ordered Hult.

There was one stand-alone building in the center of the camp. It looked as the camp had been constructed around it. There was one door guarded by four armed men. It was a secure building that required a badge and key code to enter. Inside was one solid room with cubicle barriers separating different desks and personnel. Jim, Samantha, and Annie were escorted by Hult and his men past the desks to another door that led to a dimly lit hallway with multiple doors on each side.

The group walked down to the fifth door on the left. Hult unlocked the door and swung it open. Samantha and Annie leaned their heads around the corner and then rushed inside. Jim heard sobs as he looked inside and saw Matt clutched with his arms around the two girls holding them tight.  He kissed the two of them. The wounds on his face were covered with bandages and his eyes weren’t swollen anymore. Samantha held his face in her hands and the three of them just sat huddled on the floor whispering “I love you” to each other.

Matt’s bandaged fingers ran through his daughter’s hair, and as she smiled at him his eyes welled up with tears.   “Matt,” Samantha asked, “what happened? Why are you here?” Hult cut in. “Okay, times up.” “No!” Annie screamed. She glued herself to her father’s side as the soldier’s came in and peeled her off of him.

She was screaming and crying now. Matt tried to calm her. “It’s okay, baby. It’s okay,” he kept repeating, “Daddy will see you soon.” Samantha kissed him as Matt kept telling her that he loved them. She went over to the solider that had Annie and grabbed the wailing child in her arms. As Annie took her out of the room, tears were running down her face.  Her outstretched arms desperately reached for her father. Samantha eyed Jim and Hult grabbed his arm. “You get us what we need, or they never see him again,” Hult threatened. “Understand?”

He shoved Jim into the cell as Matt sat sobbing on the ground. The door slammed shut and the two of them were locked in. Matt stood up and sat on the small cot trying to get himself together. “I knew you’d go and find them when all of this shit started to happen,” Matt said as he wiped his eyes and cleared his throat from the snot that had built up. “Thank you, Jim.” Jim took in his brother-in-law. It didn’t seem like the same man. He was always so put together, but the heaping pile of meat and bones in front of him had been beaten down.

“Matt, what happened?” Jim asked. Matt glanced at the door and then back at Jim. “Did they tell you what they want?” Jim nodded. “Some kind of security data. They think it’s on a hard drive and they think you know where it is,” he replied. Matt gave out a small laugh, “They’re not as dumb as they look then.” Jim snapped back. “Matt, if you know where it is then just tell them. If you don’t tell them they’re going to hurt Sam and Annie.”

Matt shook his head. “You don’t understand, Jim.” Jim walked over to Matt and knelt in front of his cot to get eye level with him. Matt continued, “The project I was working on handled all of the security codes, clearances, and firewalls for all classified military documents. Those documents had intelligence information on terrorist groups, covert agents, missions, and nukes. It had fucking everything.”

“I was meeting with a group of military personnel every week for status updates on the project, any updates they needed to add, and whatever they wanted. The week before the attacks in San Diego, I found a hole in the firewall where documents of classified information were being sent from secure servers to ghost files with no known source. When I approached my superiors about it they said that it would be handled internally by the military. The morning before the attacks I was at the office and saw that the hole was still open, so I checked to see what had been sent and there was an encrypted order with a list of times and locations all around the country.”

Matt paused as Jim took everything in and then continued. “I think there’s a high level security threat in the military that caused these attacks.” “Did you tell them that?” asked Jim. Matt shook his head. “No, I don’t know who’s involved, but I figured if they tried to go after Sam and Annie they’d eventually run into you.” Matt smiled. “And I was right.”

Jim leaned in and whispered. “If you get that drive can you track down the sources of the orders that were sent?”

“Yes, but I’ll need enough processing power to do it,” Matt answered.

“Where is it?” Jim asked.

“There’s a safe in the basement of my office building. You can only get to it through the vault behind the guard station. The code to get in is 4-2-8-5 and you’ll need to use a guard key. They keep spare ones in a lock box in the bottom left drawer of the desk. That’ll be locked too, but should be easy enough to get inside.

“Now, once you’re inside the vault there will be a red filing cabinet. Pull the cabinet out and open the panel in the wall. The combination for the safe is 12-1-22-58. The hard drive is inside.” Jim’s voice stayed at a whisper, “Once you have it you’ll be able to figure out who’s been behind all of this?” Matt nodded his head. Jim paused for a moment and weighed his options. Could he pull this off? Could he get into the city and back without them knowing? Would it be safe to leave the girls here while he was gone? He wasn’t sure who he could trust.

“I’m going to take the girls with me,” Jim said.

Matt’s jaw dropped. “What? Half of Phoenix could still be rigged to blow,” Matt said as his voice rose with panic. “They might just be waiting for more people to come back in and kill!” “If I don’t make it back with this drive, then you’re still locked in here and the girls are at the mercy of whatever asshole gave you those bruises,” Jim replied.

Jim shook his head. “No, I’d rather keep them close. If this drive has everything you say, then it could go very, very deep.” Matt’s eyes started to water. “Jim, I can’t—” his voice choked off before he could finish, but Jim knew. Those girls were his lifeline right now. He couldn’t lose them, and neither could Jim. Jim placed his hand around the back of Matt’s head and held tight. He looked him dead in the eyes. “I’m not going to let anything happen to them,” he said, “You hear me?”

Matt nodded slightly and then wrapped his arms around him. A pounding at the door told them that time was up. Matt stood in the center of his cell as Jim glanced back once last time before the metal door clanged shut and locked. As Jim walked back down the hallway, everything that had just happened started to sink in. Someone or a group affiliated to that person was helping cause all of this. All of his theories started to connect. It was well organized. They knew how the military would react. Whoever was behind this had been one step ahead, because they always seem to know the next step.

All of the emotions since the bombings in San Diego started to reappear. He thought back on the chaos of getting out of the city; fighting off muggers and roadside bombers who were trying to kill him. He thought of all those things he went through to find his family.

Coyle and Brett were outside the building when he exited. Sergeant Hult was hovering back keeping an eye on them. Jim waited until they were out of ear shot before speaking.

“Brett, do you have extra ammo and weapons in your trucks?” Jim asked.

Brett nodded. “Yeah, I’ve got some.”

“And anyone else you know you can trust?” Jim asked as Brett and Coyle struggled to keep up with him as they walked.

“Twink. He’s quiet, but I’d trust him with all our lives,” Brett put his hand up to Jim’s chest to slow his pace. “Jim, what the hell is going on?” Coyle leaned in. “I think Jim wants to do something stupid,” he said. Brett’s toothy grin appeared across his face one more time. “Hell yeah.” Jim pulled the two of them close as he continued his walk back towards the truck.

“Coyle, I need you to go and get the girls and have them meet us back over at the truck,” Jim said. “No gear. Just bring them. Got it?” he asked. Coyle started to protest, but Jim’s tone became sterner. “Coyle, now,” he barked. Coyle nodded and broke off towards the tent where he’d seen the girls taken.

Brett nudged him with his elbow to grab his attention. “I love stupid things as much as the next guy, but you want to tell me what’s going on?” “We’re going into the city. There’s something in there we need to get, and we’ll need to get it fast. As soon as we leave, Hult will be hot on our tail.” Jim motioned back to Hult who was in step with them about one hundred feet back. Jim continued. “We’ll do it during supper tonight. That’ll give us a few hours to get everything together.”

Brett looked at him shocked. “You want to break out of here when the sun’s still up?” he asked. Jim nodded. “Those guard towers have men stationed in them around the clock. I want to take the truck with us and we’re never going to be able to get that thing out during the middle of the night without them noticing. There’s still traffic from personnel coming and going during the day.”

Jim motioned over to the front gates where there was still a decent flow of jeeps, trucks, and other military vehicles entering and leaving. “We’ll slip out right under their noses,” he said.

Jim found Coyle, Samantha, and Annie at the truck and filled them in on the plan. Annie asked if she could bring Tigs, and much to her dislike, it looked like Tigs was staying put. Samantha pulled her close. “We need somebody to stay here with daddy, right?” She nodded her head, but wasn’t very convincing in her agreement.

Once the camp started dinner rotation they had planned to go in with the first group and eat while Twink stayed with the truck. Before the next group entered they would leave and head for the truck.  Jim and Coyle would suit up in Brett and Twink’s spare fatigues and Samantha and Annie would hide under the cargo gear. If they were stopped, Brett would just show them their return orders, since they were supposed to leave that day anyway.

When the first dinner call went out Jim thought Coyle was going to puke. There was a green tinge to his face. Jim walked over to him and asked him if he was nervous. “Yeah,” he replied.

“It can’t be worse than when we were getting out of San Diego,” Jim said reassuringly.

Coyle shook his head. “No, it’s not that.” He put his hand over his stomach as they got closer to the food tent. “I’m just so tired of this military food.”

The five of them entered the mess hall together. The plan was to have Annie and Samantha finish their meals first and leave. Then Coyle would finish next followed by Brett and Jim. Jim wanted to hang back last so he could see if Hult was in the first, second, or third dinner rotation.

When they sat down Jim did a quick scan, but didn’t see him. Coyle reluctantly ate through half of his “mush” while Brett shoveled his down a little too eagerly. Annie and Samantha finished and set off for the truck where Twink was waiting for them. Jim gave Annie a hug and a kiss on the cheek and told her to remember what he said.

She nodded and whispered to him. “I have to stay invisible until you tell me it’s safe.”

“Right,” he said. Jim kissed the top of her head one more time and squeezed Samantha’s hand before the two of them disappeared out of the tent. Jim leaned in over to Coyle who was still staring at his tray of gray and white. “If they’re not there when you get to the truck you find me right away, got it?” Jim said.

Coyle sat staring into his mush plate. “If I die from malnutrition on the way to the truck will you bury me in a coffin of cheeseburgers?” Brett chimed in. “Make sure I’m invited to that.” Jim tried to get them back on track. “Hey, did you hear—”

“Make sure I find you if they’re not at the truck when I get there,” Coyle responded. “Yes, I heard you, Jim.” Coyle’s voice was raised a little too high and a few of the soldiers behind him turned their heads. When Coyle went to get up, Brett grabbed his tray before he could throw it away. “For Twink,” he said. Brett folded up the meat blobs in some aluminum and tucked it in his jacket.