The Reckoning Series Box Set [Books 1-3]

by West, Lee

  “None at all during the several weeks we’ve been here. We all assumed it was because of the location or because most civilians have been rounded up by the feds. We had no idea Larry was killing anyone who entered the campus.”

  “No one would’ve guessed someone on their team would have such a murderous intention,” said Heather.

  “I guess you’re right. I’m so glad you guys are here. Who knows what else he was capable of.”

  Suddenly the distant sky lit up with several explosions. Then green and red tracers darted across the sky, hitting unseen targets. The distance caused the sound from the explosions and tracers to become mere low thumping noises.

  “Holy shit! What the hell is that?” yelled George.

  “I don’t know! We need to take cover. They could be coming in this direction next!” yelled Heather.

  Brett ran toward them with the radio in hand. He spoke loudly to the person on the other end. “We saw it too! We have guests. Five people arrived. We’re taking them into the tunnels. Larry is dead!”

  Nancy could tell the person on the other end of the radio sounded frantic. They had no answers to offer.

  — 28 —

  Ed slept in the tunnels with everyone else. They borrowed mattresses, sheets and other supplies from the dorms as the need arose. In order to be comfortable, he piled two mattresses on top of one another. He found the extra height off the floor made it seem less like he dozed on a makeshift bed and more like the real thing.

  He stretched and yawned, willing himself to get up for the day. He liked to be awake before the others. It helped him to feel more in control of the situation. Unfortunately that ensured he rose very early on most days. Suddenly, his radio came to life.

  “Ed! You there? It’s Seth!” yelled one of the watch standers.

  The man sounded frantic. Ed hated that no sound came into the tunnels. Their subterranean hideaway offered them no situational awareness. The tunnels always remained dark and silent despite what happened above. It prevented him from being part of events as they occurred topside.

  “This is Ed! What’s happened?”

  “I don’t know! I heard multiple gunshots! Now the sky is lighting up with explosions and some weird tracers!”

  “Can you tell where the gunshots came from?” shouted Ed as he quickly got out of bed. He felt frustrated for allowing himself to doze a few extra minutes.

  “No! I can’t see shit up here. I think it’s coming from the entrance where Brett and Nancy are, but I’m not sure!”

  “What about the explosions and tracers? Are those near?”

  “No, those are in the mountains north of here. They shouldn’t pose a threat to us right now. I’m more concerned about the gunfire. It was right on top of us! Maybe they’re shooting at us!”

  The man sounded completely unhinged. Ed needed to calm him so that he would not do anything that could place all of them in danger.

  “Listen, Seth! Calm down. It sounds like you’re safe where you are. Have you heard from the other watchers?” asked Ed.

  In order to save radio power, they’d decided to have each watcher report their status to the person in the bell tower. Then the bell tower individual would relay information to Ed.

  “Yes. Everyone is fine except Brett and Nancy. They never responded.”

  “I thought Larry replaced them? Did you hear from him?” asked Ed.

  “No. I’ve called over there numerous times after the gunshots. I didn’t get a response. What if we’re under attack? What should I do?” shouted Seth.

  “You need to calm down. We don’t have enough information to make the assumption that we’re under attack. Stay put. We’re sealing the tunnels. I’ll get back to you in a few minutes. Hang tight,” said Ed.

  Ed ran through the tunnels, yelling to everyone to get up. They needed to barricade the doors immediately.

  People quickly scrambled out of their beds to their assigned tunnel entrance. Within seconds, each door had been barricaded.

  “Ed! This is Nancy! Over!”

  Ed grabbed his radio to respond to her. His hands shook unsteadily as he tried to depress the talk button. “Nancy! What’s happening out there? Are you guys okay?”

  “Brett and I are fine, but Larry is dead! Also there’s something happening to the north. We can see explosions and red and green tracers! The whole sky is lighting up! We’re coming to the south tunnel entrance with five people who just came onto campus,” she said.

  “Alright! We’ll open the doors.”

  Ed ran through the tunnel to the south entrance under the humanities building.

  A group of people huddled near the barricaded door. A palpable level of fear showed on their faces as they prepared to be attacked.

  “We need to open the door! Brett and Nancy are coming in with a few new people who just arrived!” he said to them.

  “What’s happening up there?” asked one of the men.

  “I don’t know. Hopefully we’ll get some answers.”

  They removed the boards and heavy furniture from the door. Ed admired how quickly and efficiently the team had been able to close off the door.

  Once everything had been removed, he opened the door and waited for their arrival.

  — 29 —

  Nancy led the group through the darkness of the humanities building’s basement. She and the others shined their flashlights as they moved. Glancing over her shoulder at the newcomers, she realized they had the appearance of a small heavily armed army. She appreciated why they chose to introduce themselves with just one person initially. They looked like a serious militarized group who would not hesitate to act with swift, deadly force, as demonstrated by their attack on Larry.

  “Nancy?” shouted Ed through the gloom.

  “Yes. It’s us! Brett and I are coming with five heavily armed people!” she said.

  She wanted to give Ed as much warning as possible in order to assuage his trepidation at the sight of the group.

  “This is it. Welcome to the south entrance to the tunnels. Everyone, meet Ed. He’s in charge of the university,” she said as they entered the tunnels.

  Once they made it inside, Ed softly closed the door behind him. One of the university residents asked, “Should we barricade it again?”

  Ed looked to Nancy for the answer. She said, “Yes. I have no idea what’s happening out there.”

  They moved through the tunnels to the center, where the various side tunnels merged. It formed a large circular area, which served as their community meeting room.

  “My god, Nancy! You’re covered in blood! Are you alright?” said Ed.

  “I’m fine. This is Larry’s blood. I’m not injured.”

  “What happened out there?” he asked.

  Other people who slept in the tunnels gathered around them, listening to her report.

  “Larry relieved us from watch a little early. Brett and I were returning to the tunnels when we saw George entering the campus,” she said.

  “We think Larry couldn’t see us. He ran out of the building toward George. We couldn’t tell what they were talking about, but we decided to help out,” said Brett.

  “We initially thought that Larry would need help getting George into the tunnels. We walked over to them and offered to walk George back with us. Boy, were we wrong! He had no intention of connecting George with the rest of us. I’m not even sure how he did it, but he disarmed George and then turned on us. He would have shot all three of us if it weren’t for Heather and the rest of their team,” she said shakily.

  Nancy tried to get a grip on her emotions, with little success. Knowing how close they’d come to being murdered by someone they trusted freaked her out.

  “Larry tried to kill you guys? I don’t believe it! Why would he do that?” said one of the students.

  “Where is he? Where’s Larry?” demanded the young woman.

  “I’m afraid he’s dead. He tried to kill us. Luckily George’s people were there and able to defend
us,” said Brett gently.

  “You murdered him!” shouted the woman.

  “We defended our friend and yours,” said Heather with no-nonsense coolness.

  Someone provided Nancy with a packet of baby wipes, which she used to clean Larry’s blood off her face, neck and arms.

  “None of this makes any sense. Are you sure he would have killed you?” said Ed.

  “Positive. It makes plenty of sense. We think Larry parked himself at that watch location in order to prevent newcomers from making it onto campus,” said Nancy.

  “Why would he want to do that?” asked Ed suspiciously.

  “Maybe to hoard supplies?” offered Heather.

  “No way. We have plenty of food and water. He knew that. He would have had no reason at all to be worried about supplies,” said Ed.

  The group became silent while everyone seemed lost in thought about Larry.

  “Has he been with you all along? As in from the start of all this?” asked Heather.

  “No. A group of us were here at the university when the EMP hit. Apparently Larry was in the city. The troops grabbed him and forced him into one of the camps. He managed to escape the work party he had been assigned to. Somehow he made his way to the university, where he remained until today,” said Ed.

  “That’s a real shame. I would have loved to talk to him. We haven’t met anyone who escaped from one of the camps. We have very little intel about what’s actually happening out there. Judging from the explosions and tracers, looks like they might be moving operations into this area,” said Heather.

  “Which direction were the explosions and tracers in?” asked one of the students.

  “All of that happened in the north sky quite a distance from here,” said George.

  “My god. I wonder if that happened near the camp. I wish they had never left. They could be in the middle of the fighting right now!” said Nancy.

  “What camp?” asked George.

  “We sent a small group of our people to an area of the forest where we think there might be a survivalist camp. We wanted to have a plan B in case the troops end up coming here for good or intensifying their operations in the area,” said Ed.

  “Has there been a lot of troop activity on campus?” asked Heather.

  “No. Not so much. Every once in a while they’ll come to search,” said Ed.

  “But last time they did more than search. They killed one of the foreign exchange students,” said Nancy.

  “That’s not good. Maybe this isn’t such a good idea,” said George to Heather.

  “Might be our only choice,” she responded with a sigh.

  “What’s happening out there? We fled from the city to our home. Then the troops came to our house. We got away without them knowing we were there. Looked like they were setting up to use our property to quarter soldiers,” said Brett.

  “Where’s your home?” asked George.

  “Not too far from here. We were able to make it here fairly quickly,” said Nancy.

  “That’s not good. They must be planning some sort of push into this area,” said George.

  “Push into the area? Do you guys have any ideas of the bigger picture out there? Like what caused the EMP, or why the troops seemed super prepared when everything went dark?” asked Ed.

  “We think this entire emergency is a false-flag operation. Like you said, the government seemed to be all too ready when the lights went out. They’re using this manufactured emergency to establish and maintain martial law,” said Heather.

  “That’s the conclusion we came to as well. Nothing else makes sense,” said Ed.

  “So what are you guys doing about it? Why are you so heavily armed?” asked a student.

  “We’re resisting in whatever way we can,” said George.

  Nancy squeezed Brett’s hand and looked at him. He nodded to her almost imperceptibly. They wanted to join the resistance but could not figure out how to do so. These people would be their way into the rebel forces.

  “How are you able to move around? We thought the city had been cut off,” said Brett.

  “We’ve been using the sewer system to travel undetected. Much like you guys are doing in these tunnels, just way more gross,” said Heather.

  “I think we ran into some of your people in the city. We were trying to get out of downtown and almost got caught,” said Brett.

  “Thanks to me,” said Marvin.

  Nancy had forgotten about the older man. He must have joined them without her seeing him.

  “They saved us, that’s for sure,” said Nancy.

  “I’m not surprised. We have a large cell working in the city. They’re pretty amazing,” said George.

  “The problem for us now is that the city is squeezed so tight. There are troops everywhere, making it increasingly difficult for them to fight back without detection. We came to the mountains trying to find a spot to relocate. What the resistance needs right now is to regroup and decide where to attack next. We’re way too fragmented for our own good. The conditions in the city are making it increasingly difficult for us to meet in groups larger than just a few people,” said Heather.

  “So much for our constitutional right to assemble,” grumbled Nancy.

  “Exactly. The troops seem to break up any efforts by civilians to assemble in large groups. We’ve watched on the sidelines as inked civilians trying to engage in worship are broken up because their group is too large,” said Heather.

  “And just like that, our freedom of religion’s gone too,” said Brett.

  “Yes. People are forced into hiding if they intend to meet as a group for worship. It’s gotten really bad out there,” said George.

  “Would you mind if we moved a few people up here? I know you said that supplies are not a problem, but we could offer you what we have,” said Heather.

  “You’re more than welcome to use the university as your headquarters if that would be helpful. I can set your team up in one of the tunnels. Like I said, we have plenty of everything and don’t mind sharing,” said Ed.

  “Thanks. That’ll work,” said Heather.

  “I’m not so sure about this. Soldiers are being quartered a short distance from here, and now there’s clearly another fighting arena opening just north of here. I say we keep going and skip this place, as nice as it is. No offense, you guys,” said George.

  “I hear you, but we have no perfect options. This one is good enough for now,” said Heather.

  George nodded his head, agreeing to her decision.

  “How are you attacking them?” asked Brett. “You guys are heavily armed, but we’re talking about fighting against the federal government.”

  “We hit them in any way possible in order to slow them down. It’s not the same as two armies fighting, but if we can frustrate their progress, it’s something,” said Heather.

  “It’s just like the Poles did to the Germans during World War II,” said one of the students. “They even hid in the sewers of Warsaw, like you guys are doing. They formed the largest resistance army in history. At just the right moment, they emerged from the tunnels to attack the Nazis. It was heroic to say the least. With handmade weapons they fought off the Germans for sixty-three days. It was the single largest military effort put forth by any European resistance movement.”

  “Were they successful?” asked another student.

  “No. Mostly because the Russians stood by and watched them get slaughtered. They had counted on the Russians for backup. It never came despite the Russian troops being within proximity to help. They basically sat back and watched as the Germans razed the city.”

  “I don’t think anyone is coming to help us. We need to figure out our next move forward. We also need to come together as a group. Right now we have cells all over the city. They’re fighting back, but we can be more effective after we regroup and come up with a solid plan,” said Heather.

  “I agree. Nancy and I have wanted to join the resistance. We’d love to join you if we
can,” said Brett.

  “Great! We’d love to have you. We’d also like it if you joined,” said Heather to the history student. “We could use someone with knowledge of resistance tactics for ideas.”

  “Sure. I could do that. I’ve studied the resistance tactics employed during World War II by people in all the German-occupied countries. I could share what they did. Who knows, it might be helpful,” he said with a shrug.

  “That’d be amazing. We can use all the ideas we can get. None of us are soldiers. We’re just regular people intent on fighting back. Our government has gone bonkers, and it’s up to us to save our country!” said George.

  “All resistance fighters were just regular people fighting back against the forces of evil,” said the history student.

  For the first time since she arrived at the campus, Nancy felt a sense of purpose. Joining the resistance would allow her to do more than hide in the tunnels, journaling their experiences for the history books. She would actually be part of the solution.

  — 30 —

  The truck rumbled through the mountains, carrying Joe, Meg and Mike to an unknown destination. Joe watched the sky light up with explosions and tracers as they steadily drove away from the retreating carnage. Jeff could not have survived the explosions. He knew that, but facing the reality that his only brother had likely died tonight would not be easy.

  Holding Meg’s hand, he nuzzled his head against hers. She dozed while leaning up against his shoulder as they traveled. The bouncy ride caused her head to lurch forward at times, waking her from slumber.

  Mike sat upright on the bench across from Joe, looking outside through the narrow slit in the canvas. Mike looked as exhausted as Joe felt. Mike had been a good friend to them throughout the entire ordeal. Joe wanted more than anything to help him to find his family. Perhaps being brought to a civilian-processing center would help them achieve that goal. If they could discover the whereabouts of Mike’s family, the entire ordeal at the camp would have been worth it.