…but deliver us from evil,

In periods of high stress, it seems like time stands still. Combat soldiers call this being ‘In the Zone’. Adrenalin is released into the blood stream, preparing the body for ‘flight or fight’. Breathing speeds up, increasing the amount of oxygen in the blood and muscles. Vision narrows down. All focus is placed on survival.

In the background, I could hear the tech reporting that 18 Patriot missiles had been launched. I could hear the alert sirens sounding all over the camp, probably for the first time ever outside of a severe weather test or warning. Another set of whooshes indicated a third launch from another set of Patriot batteries.

Green, Yellow and Red

My nose itched. I brushed at it, thinking it was a fly, but it continued to itch. I swatted and connected with a hand. I opened my eyes to see the hand attached to an arm attached to an attractive red-head. I grabbed the hand and pulled Lauren in for a kiss.

“What a way to wake up,” I murmured into her hair as she snuggled close. She sighed and hugged me.

“It’s time to wake up, sleepy. The sun is up and it is going to be a wonderful day.” Her eyes darkened. “I just wish that …”

The Point of the Sword

We were lucky. Wal-Mart had plenty of tarps and bungee cords. Lauren and I spent about 10 minutes or so covering up the generator and put another tarp over the two small generators in the cargo area of the truck. We did a drive-through for dinner at KFC then checked in at the motel. When we got up to the room, Lauren excused herself and went into the bathroom to freshen up and I called back to the house.

“Peters Residence” came the chirpy answer from Betty.

“Hey, it’s James,” I said. “We’re in Buffalo – there’s no way we would have made St. Cloud in time, so we pulled off and came here to get out of the traffic.”

“That’s good. We were starting to worry. Fred wants to talk to you.” I heard her call him, then hand the phone over.

“Jim?”

“Yeah, what’s going on Fred?” I said.

“A squadron of Warthogs landed at Ripley about 4 hours ago, followed in short order by a squadron of Apaches. From the sounds we are hearing overhead, it sounds like they are making airdrops as well, but I can’t get a good feed from any of the cameras to know for sure. Almost every two minutes a Herc is passing overhead.”

“To Friends and Heroes alike…”

I grinned as, in rapid succession, Charlie, Bob and Thumper drove up to the house. At the back of  Charlie’s and Bob’s trucks were trailers loaded with snowmobiles and ATV’s. Thumper, in his usual style, had opted for his racing trailer, and I could only imagine what he’d packed inside.

Shaking my head, I called out as the doors opened on the trucks, “You guys are cutting it pretty close. The sun is almost down.” Thumper grinned at me. “What’s in the trailer?” Thumper’s grin grew broader.

“My Baja race truck. I spent all afternoon stripping the body off and welding in a couple of additional bucket seats with 5-point harnesses.”

My jaw dropped. “What the hell? What are you thinking of using it for?” Thumper scared me from time to time. He tended to go a bit overboard with his various hobbies.

I’ve got a bad feeling about this…

As the President’s face faded from the screen to be replaced by a stunned news team, my thoughts began to race. I mentally ran down an inventory in my head of food, fuel for heating the house, drinking water, ammunition, medicine. My hearing drifted in and out as the news team began to try to regurgitate what the President said in “everyman” terms, but to me, it was clear as a bell: the Government did not trust its citizens and was afraid that the attacks of the early morning hours were merely the opening salvo of a war to bring down the Government of the United States.

I suppose that in his place I might have done the same, but I can’t help but think that he was going about it the wrong way. All that his proclamations would do is cause further confusion and mistrust of the government. I tuned in again as a supposed “constitutional scholar” weighed in with his opinion of the Martial Law edict. He had one of those lugubrious faces, pinched with age and a poorly done make-up job. He spoke in a droning monotone, as if lecturing in a large auditorium to half asleep students.

Prologue

The agent reached for the doorknob and carefully opened the door. Moving quietly, he stepped into the dimly lit bedroom and carefully closed the door behind him. Reaching into his suit coat, he drew his weapon and carefully threaded the suppressor onto the barrel, all the time scanning the room for any possible threats. He moved further into the room, stepping carefully, listening to the sounds of sleep coming from the bed.

The massive bed stood before him, wreathed in shadows, and buried under the covers, two mounds as expected. The agent stepped carefully around the scattered clothing, avoiding the casually strewn clothing and shoes. In the dim light of the room, he could see two dark-haired heads, eyes closed in deep sleep. From a distance of three feet, he raised his arm, sighted down the barrel, and pulled the trigger twice, then moved his arm slightly to the left and pulled twice more. The only sound was the phut-phut of the silenced weapon. The bodies only twitched slightly with the impact of the soft-nosed bullets on their skulls. The agent removed the suppressor, bent to pick up the shell casings, then turned and left the room as quietly as he had entered. Once outside the door, he holstered his weapon, then raised his right wrist to his mouth and spoke “Raven is down. Repeat, Raven is down.” He walked at a slow and even pace down the hallway and disappeared into the maze of hallways in the Residence section of the White House.

Introduction

What follows is the story of what some called the Second Revolutionary War, others Civil War II, but for most of us ordinary people living in the United States, it was simply ‘The War’. No one alive at the time could remember a time when the United States was not involved in a war somewhere in the world. We had all seen Presidents come and go, the changing of the guard in Washington D.C. wasn’t really changed, they were the same players as before, playing the same game as before. Whether they called themselves Republican or Democrat, it wasn’t so much about the name or if they were Left, Right or Centrist. It was always about being against they other side.

Bi-partisanship? Bah! Lip service only. And all the while the country slid further and further into decay. Because nothing was done in Congress, our country’s infrastructure, the roads and bridges that everybody needed to drive on every day crumbled. Of course, when there was a disaster, like the 35W bridge collapse in Minneapolis in 2007, everyone scrambled to put up a good front and get the bridge replaced, but the underpinnings of the government that was supposed to keep things like that from happening in the first place did not change, in point of fact, they got progressively worse.

The $700 Billion dollar bailout of Wall Street in October of 2008 set the stage for what was to come. Of course, the $700 Billion was not enough.  Pretty soon, it was $1 Trillion dollars. Then $ 1.5 Trillion. By that time, winter had set in with a vengance. The election had come and gone. The new President was in office and the Republicans were howling mad, stating for the record that the Democrats had stolen the election, despite the fact that the old man who claimed to be a ‘Maverick’ wasn’t and his running mate scared the be-jeebers out of most of the ordinary citizens in the country. It was going to be a long winter…