Apocalypse Coming

by William Dunaway

  I did add a combination laser/Tac-light and a red dot scope to it. With the extended magazine and two other spare magazines mounted on the side of the carbine, we had turned it into quite a nice defensive weapon.

  But just recently I traded an upgraded Smith and Wesson M&P Shield, several boxes of ammunition, extra mags, and two holsters to Mike for his Smith and Wesson M&P M4. I mounted it with an AR Optics AR223 scope that he had bought me as a Christmas present. Now they both belong to Kim. It doesn’t have her pretty paint job, but she now has an M-4.

  To this day, I still chuckle when I think back to when I bought my first high capacity rifle. While Kim was at work, I stopped at a local gun shop, and I couldn’t resist buying a semi-automatic AK-47 that they had displayed. Usually, I wouldn’t make a major purchase without consulting her, but I couldn’t resist.

  While waiting for her to get home, I got a little nervous trying to figure out how to tell her that I spent all that money on another gun. When she got home, she could tell I’d done something that I was worried about.

  “Alright, what did you do?

  I said sheepishly, “Well, I bought something, and I want you to check it out.”

  When she saw it, she gasped as the AK-47 has a very intimidating look.

  “What is it?”

  I told her and said, “Come on, I want you to shoot it.”

  You could tell she was scared of it, so I explained how it had very little recoil. Being very nervous, she shot one round.

  “That isn’t bad at all.”

  “Now, keep pulling the trigger several times as fast as you can.”

  She shot seven shots in just a couple of seconds. What she said next, blew my mind.

  She turned with a huge grin, “If I were a guy, I’d have a hard-on right now.”

  I burst out laughing as that was completely out of character for her, and I knew at that point that I wasn’t in trouble.

  While I was repacking my bag, Blake Maddox pulled into the driveway.

  Blake and I had become friends through a business deal. We rented part of the farm out to him to plant soybeans and corn, under what is called a “Cash Rent” program. Besides getting an annual check from Blake, I wanted it as another source of food for the deer we had on our property.

  When we first met, I laughed to myself, thinking Blake’s full name sounded like a porn star’s name from the 1980‘s. We became friends though. Not the kind that goes out together but when we saw each other, we’d talk for hours. We were both disgusted with what the president was doing to the country. Also, we were amazed how the people didn’t even understand the devastation that he was going to cause for many years to come. We would even kid around sometimes about what we would do if things did start to go to hell.

  Blake was into firearms, and he had some knowledge on how to survive during an emergency and we both know we can depend on each other.

  I’m old school, and a man’s word means everything to me. If Blake says he’s going to do something, he always does. I trust and respect him for that.

  We agreed on most everything. We basically thought alike, except when it came to union talk. Blake was a union man. He bled union. Besides that though, you could tell he had the beliefs of most moderates and conservatives. He seemed to be against everything the liberals stood for, but he’d still take his marching orders from the union, which usually told him to vote Democrat.

  I understood he did this for job security, but I could never understand that way of thinking. To vote for a party that you don’t agree with makes no sense to me.

  But the important thing was if things ever went sour, I knew I could depend on him.

  I, on the other hand, felt the modern unions were hurting the economy, and they’re the reasons a lot of the jobs were sent overseas. To me, the unions ignored the fact that we compete in a world market.

  Why pay workers $30.00 an hour when you can have it manufactured overseas for $15.00 an hour? It may not be very patriotic, but most corporations don’t care about patriotism and only look at the bottom line.

  We would never seriously get upset with each other about that difference, but over social media, I used to love giving Blake fits.

  I opened the door, and Blake immediately said, “Have you been watching the bullshit going on in Kansas City?”

  “Yeah, I’ve been watching it since this morning. Come on in; I have the news on now.”

  “I just got back from Topeka, and when I approached the city, you could see the smoke for miles. I had to detour south of the city as I-70 was backed up all the way into Kansas.”

  We both stared at the television watching a shot of the downtown area burning.

  “Kim went to work,” I growled in an aggravated tone.

  “Are you kidding me? She works pretty close to the city, doesn’t she?”

  “Well, no she works in Mission, Kansas but she drives on 435 to get there.”

  “Well if I were you, I’d tell her to get home. Things are going nuts. On the radio, I heard that there are now demonstrations in Independence and they’re planning one in Grandview. She drives right through there doesn’t she?”

  “Are you kidding? I haven’t been watching too much of the local news as they only covered it off and on. All the news channels have had it on for most of the day, but I didn’t hear anything about that. I have to call her.”

  Blake said he had to get home anyway and said his goodbyes.

  I immediately called Kim. “Hey, you need to get out of there!”

  “I’m about to go. They’re closing early today because of the riot.”

  “No, you need to leave now. Blake came by saying that on the radio they’re saying there is a planned demonstration in Grandview. I haven’t checked the local news yet, but you need to get out of there now. Your bosses don’t have to drive through Grandview to get home, you do,” I was saying in a way that she knew I meant it.

  “I’m leaving now. I’ll call you when I get on the interstate,” she said in a rushed tone.

  “Alright, Love you!”

  “Love you too.”

  While Kim was grabbing her stuff, she told everybody what I had said, and her boss immediately said, “Go!”

  I started scanning the local news. One station was talking to a network news anchor and describing the layout of the Kansas City metropolitan area. They were showing a map of the area, and you could hear the reporter saying “Independence is part of the Kansas City Metropolitan area and borders Kansas City on its east side. Grandview is a suburb of Kansas City and borders it on its south side and Interstate 435 circles the Kansas City area.”

  I switched the station and heard “We’re getting reports of shots being fired on the west side of Independence close to 435 North. There’s also a report of a large group of demonstrators walking straight down Independence Avenue heading toward the Kansas City, city limits. The Missouri Highway Patrol has made a statement saying that they’ll be shutting down 435 North, from I-70 to Front Street.”

  “Thank you, John. We now go to Carol Solistee in the Grandview area.”

  “Are we on?” Carol was asking.

  Carol was standing in front of the camera with her right hand holding the Microphone and the left hand over her ear as though she couldn’t hear. In the background was a large group chanting “We’ll overcome! We’ll overcome!”

  Then Carol started reporting “Tim, as you can see, we’re in the Landmark Shopping Center parking lot at 49 and Blue Ridge Cutoff. A large rally is going on, and as you can probably hear, they’ve borrowed the same chant that was used at the President’s rallies when he was running for election. There are several hundred protestors, and earlier I was told that this rally is in support of the demonstration that’s going on in downtown Kansas City.”

  As Kim approached the on-ramp to 435 East towards Grandview, she could see the traffic was bumper to bumper and maybe moving ten mph. She looked at her alternate route and the road she would take looked like it wasn’
t moving at all. “Oh man, it’s going to be hours before I get home. Thank God, Vince kept insisting that when my gas tank gets down to half-a-tank, it’s time to fill it up. It took him some time, but he finally instilled in me the fact that even the smallest things can be a matter of survival.”

  She made it onto 435, taking 5 minutes just to get off the on-ramp. The phone rang. The caller I.D. showed it was Kim.

  “I was wondering when you were going to call.”

  “Well, it’s going to take me a while. We’re driving at about ten mph. We’re moving halfway steadily, but it looks like it’s going to be this way for a while.”

  “Damn it, Kim, I told you not to go to work today. Do you know why it’s so slow? The demonstration in Grandview is at the Landmark shopping center.”

  “You were right. We aren’t even going to be open tomorrow. Fed Ex and UPS didn’t run today. We did all that work for nothing. The bosses said we might be closed for a few days. They’re going to call us if they do plan on opening.”

  “Just be careful coming home and keep in touch. If you run into any problems, call.”

  Hubert Law Building

  “Hey, get in here!” Jerome yelled. Two of his bodyguards came rushing in. “Is the call with MSNBC set up yet?” The two guards were both staring at Julie’s body. “Hey!” The guards broke out of their trance and one said “Yes, sorry! We start in 5 minutes.”

  “Good. Good! Let’s go. Oh, one of you get that out of here,” while pointing towards Julie.

  ****

  “Mr. Jackson, we’ll be live in five, four, three, two.”

  “As promised, we have an exclusive today. We have Jerome Jackson on the phone, one of the organizers of the Socialists United protest in Kansas City, Missouri. Mr. Jackson, can you please tell us what happened?” the news anchor asked.

  “Thank you for having me. We were part of a peaceful demonstration. All we wanted to do was bring attention to America of the atrocities that are being done by the police towards the young men and women of our communities. It was a peaceful rally just to exercise our first amendment granted to us by the Bill of Rights. Through many sources, we’ve found out that during the rally the police sent in an undercover agent who threw a bottle at a reporter, that we were doing an interview with. Then some of the protesters ran in to help the reporter and the police came charging in and started beating these same people that were trying to help this poor reporter,”

  Jerome then looked at his lieutenant with a smile on his face and winked.

  “Why would the police do that?” The host asked.

  “I’ll tell you why. The police knew that this protest was going to get national attention. To my understanding, all the major networks were sending news crews down, and we had many scheduled interviews. I believe the police wanted to put a stop to it before we could give those interviews. I understand there is some news footage from the local NBC station. Take a look at that, and you can see exactly what happened. Also, we downloaded some footage of killings by the hands of the police department, of not only our youth but everyone else that’s here supporting our cause. Did you get the footage?”

  “Yes, we did. We’re playing it now. We’re going to need your help describing what we’re looking at. We’re now seeing, what appears to be police snipers shooting at three different buildings surrounding the police station. Can you please tell us what is going on?”

  “Yes, as I saw this myself. After watching the police slaughtering people in the streets, we sent three young men to observe the police so that we could be alerted ahead of time when they were sending in their stormtroopers to slaughter us, as we were in fear for our lives. The three young men had no weapons of any kind. They were there just to observe. The police spotted them, and I guess they didn’t want anyone to know the barbaric things they were doing and they shot them.”

  “And you witnessed this yourself?”

  “Yes, I did. I threw up and then cried.”

  “To give both sides, I do have to say that a representative of the multi-department task force gave an earlier statement saying that they were being fired upon by snipers from those buildings. They also stated that those alleged snipers were trying to prevent the police from removing vehicles that were blocking their exits.”

  “That’s a damn lie. The police are just trying to cover up their continued attacks on our culture,” Jerome yelled. He then continued, “I admit that we did place the trucks in front of their exits to try and prevent them from using their assault vehicles in this slaughter. We found the trucks abandoned. Obviously, the drivers were trying to escape the chaos that was going on. Several volunteered to drive the trucks to block the exits. We haven’t seen these heroes since. Obviously, the police murdered them, and that’s exactly what these volunteers were; heroes. They gave their lives to protect the rest of those just trying to use the freedom of speech in a peaceful rally.”

  “Oh my God! …..” The anchor then cleared his voice, “Mr. Jackson, we’re now watching the video of what appears to be dead bodies and others that are seriously wounded. Can you please explain how these people were shot?”

  “The police shot them as they were trying to escape the area. Probably shop owners and people that were just trying to get home. The police wouldn’t even allow ambulances to come in and help these poor people. Let me ask you this. If what I’m saying isn’t true, why aren’t the police allowing news crews to come into the area? Think about it.”

  “Wow! Well, Mr. Jackson, I want to thank you for your eyewitness report. Please be careful out there. God bless you. Are there any final words you’d like to express to our public?”

  Jerome finally got to the point that he wanted to. This was his chance. This was the beginning of him becoming the general of a new army and the real leader of the urban American communities everywhere.

  “Thank you! Yes, I would. Long ago, the police culture declared war on our communities. They have been systematically eliminating all our brave young men. They’ve now taken it to a new level. All-out war, killing men, women, and children. Even though I abhor violence, sometimes when someone declares war on you, it gets to a point that you have to resist by any means possible. It’s time to fight for your right to exist. I ask every fair-minded American and especially our communities to rise and fight,” he said as though he was one of America’s forefathers.

  As soon as he hung up the phone, all his lieutenants cheered and clapped.

  Jerome stood up and yelled “Yes!” while holding his arms over his head like he had just scored a touchdown. “It’s time to celebrate. Do you have our special party set up?”

  “Yes, boss. We have them in the office next door.”

  They all walked into the office next door and when they opened the door, there were five girls that appeared to be about 16 years old, all cowering and crying in the corner of the office.

  A couple of them started pleading, “Please don’t. Let us go.”

  These girls came out to support the Socialists United protest. When all hell broke out, they were caught inside the perimeter of the violence. One of Jerome’s lieutenants found them hiding in a local café and told them he would protect them. He thought they’d make a nice present for Jerome.

  Jerome looked at them like a starving man would look at a Thanksgiving dinner.

  “Now, this is a party.”

  Chapter Five

  For I will be like a lion to Ephraim…. I will tear them to pieces and go away; I will carry them off, with no one to rescue them.

  Even though MSNBC had a very small audience, mainly the extreme left, NBC and CNN picked it up and played the interview repeatedly. Soon after, demonstrations and riots started breaking out in many of the major cities. The worse was in New York, Atlanta, Detroit, and Los Angeles. Police officers became an open target in many of the cities. Police stations were overrun.

  Jerome’s vision was to declare war on America, and that’s what was happening.

  In New York, ri
oters not only attacked police officers but also channeled their anger towards the rich, using the rationale that the police always protected the rich while simultaneously assassinating the poorer minority cultures.

  Broadway was burning. Historic theaters were being destroyed. Riots were widespread throughout the city. Even with the strength of 35,000 police officers, the chaos was so sudden and so widespread, the police were being overwhelmed.

  In Los Angeles, the riots were worse than the Watts riots back in the 1960’s, except these riots were citywide. Mobs were looting the famous Rodeo Drive and some of the Hollywood studios.

  In many of the large cities across America, because the police were being occupied by riots, gangs took advantage and started robbing and looting stores in their own communities. Some gangs were organized and moved into the wealthier neighborhoods and were involved in home invasions. People would try to resist, which led to the murder and rape of many of the homeowners.

  In some cities, gang wars were breaking out, because they felt their territory was being infringed upon.

  Locally, the demonstrations in Independence and Grandview turned into full-blown riots. Businesses were being burned for no reason. In Grandview, shots were being fired at passing police vehicles. Several police officers had been killed.

  At the Landmark Shopping Center, storefronts were being broken out. Stores were being looted. As the local news spread about the rampage, mobs of people came rushing in to get their part of whatever they could steal. Several police cars came rushing in with lights and sirens. Just as soon as they jumped out of their cars, gunfire broke out.

  The mob scattered, still carrying televisions, computers, and anything they could get their hands on. Two officers had been hit. The police were unable to return fire as there were so many people running, they couldn’t tell where the shots were coming from. Then a large crowd came running from the north side of the police cars. They overwhelmed the officers and started beating on them with clubs and sticks. The attackers outnumbered the police 10-1. Shots were fired by the police, but there was just too many of them.