The Days of Noah, Book Two: Persecution

by Mark Goodwin

  “Thanks. Next time we go out, maybe our backup gun should be the shotgun. If we would’ve had it today, we could have taken some of that small game.”

  “Won’t that scare off the deer?”

  Courtney chuckled. “What deer?”

  Once back at the cabin, they had a snack from the pantry. Then they sat by the fireplace with Ken and Lisa.

  Everett patted Courtney on the knee. “I’m exhausted. I’m going to take a nap. Wake me when you get ready to go to sleep, and I’ll stand guard tonight.”

  Lisa shook her head. “I slept like a rock last night. I’ll be up for a while. I can take first watch. All you need is someone to wake you guys up if I see anyone, right?”

  Everett stood up. “Yeah, that’s about it. Walk out on the porch every so often and listen. Make sure you have that pistol with you at all times. I don’t think we have anything to worry about; I just want to be extra cautious.”

  Courtney stood too. “Wake us up if you start getting sleepy. If we’re not up by five, wake us up anyway. We’re going out again to look for game early tomorrow morning.”

  Ken said, “Get me up before you guys leave. I’ll take morning watch, and Lisa can sleep.”

  Everyone said good night. Tomorrow would bring a new opportunity to hunt meat for the group.

  CHAPTER 12

  Articles 114, 115, 117, 118, 123, 124, and 153 of the Constitution of the German Reich are suspended until further notice. It is therefore permissible to restrict the rights of personal freedom, freedom of expression, including the freedom of the press, the freedom to organize and assemble, the privacy of postal, telegraphic and telephonic communications. Warrants for house searches, orders for confiscations as well as restrictions on property, are also permissible beyond the legal limits otherwise prescribed.

  The Reichstag Fire Decree

  Early Tuesday afternoon Noah finished pulling meat from the bones of the first two turkeys; he then helped Cassie stuff the meat into Mason jars.

  “Should we fill these jars with water?” Cassie asked.

  “No, I’m going to cook down the bones and skin in a pot of water to make a nice rich stock.”

  Cassie tilted her head from side to side. “I’m sure that would taste better, but it will take up a lot of time and slow us down. We still have a lot of turkeys to cook, and we only have one pressure canner. What if we use the pan drippings and cut them with water, so we can start canning this first batch? Then we can have the stock ready by the time the next set of jars are ready to go in the canner.”

  Noah reluctantly agreed. “The stock is like its own food item. We bought tons of rice for our long-term-storage food. Using the canned turkey stock when we cook rice will taste ten times better than if we use water alone.”

  Cassie portioned out the pan drippings from the roasted turkey into the jars. “Look, that’s almost half full. Top them off with a little bit of water, and I bet you’ll never know which ones have the stock and which don’t.”

  Cassie’s phone rang. “Rats! My hands are greasy.” She grabbed the dish soap, washed her hands, dried them, and hurried to the living room to grab her phone, just as the caller hung up.

  “Who was it?” Noah asked.

  “I don’t recognize the number. I’ll call them back.”

  “An awful lot of sketchy stuff has been going on. Maybe you should just leave it alone.”

  Cassie pursed her lips. “I’m a journalist. You know I can’t do that. It would drive me crazy!”

  “Curiosity killed the cat.”

  “But satisfaction brought it back.”

  Noah looked at Cassie out of the corner of his eye. “What?”

  “But satisfaction brought it back. That’s the second half of the saying. Everyone always leaves that part out. It means the satisfaction of finding the answer to your curiosity will revive you—or something like that.”

  Noah put the turkey bones in the stock pot and began filling it with water. “I think you’re making that up.”

  “I’m not making it up!”

  Cassie redialed the number. “Hello?”

  “Hey! How are you?” Cassie walked into the living room, but Noah could still hear from the kitchen.

  “Why? What’s happening?” Cassie was quiet for a few seconds.

  “I think so. Is this number safe?”

  Seconds later, she said, “Okay, I will.”

  Cassie came back into the kitchen. “That was Martha from Channel 10. She said it’s really bad in Knoxville, but she’s afraid to get into detail. She wants to know if I can get a secure line. Do you think we could go buy a pre-paid phone from the gas station?”

  Noah thought for a second. “I suppose. That’s probably one of the few things still on the shelf. But how will you exchange numbers? The phone she used to call you just now is already burnt.”

  Cassie replied, “She told me to check my email. Maybe she’s sending me a coded message. I’ll run down to the store.”

  Noah shook his head. “Nope. Let me get this stock going and I’ll go. Find out if she can get you a number first.”

  “Alright. I’ll check my email now.” Cassie disappeared into the living room to turn on her laptop.

  Sox came into the kitchen as soon as Cassie left. Noah pulled a few pieces of turkey from one of the bones and stuck it in the cat’s bowl. “You’ve figured out when the coast is clear for snacks, haven’t you?”

  Sox ignored Noah’s comments and made quick work of the turkey scraps.

  Cassie called out from the other room. “Don’t feed Sox any turkey; he’s too fat.”

  Noah winked at the cat. “I won’t.”

  Minutes later, Cassie came back. “She sent me two different emails. One simply asked if I remember the first story we worked on together. It was the Derrick Harper case. The second one is a bunch of numbers with plus one, minus six, plus three, that sort of thing.”

  “Maybe you’re supposed to assign numeric values to the letters in the name, Derrick Harper, then add or subtract as directed.”

  “I think that’s it!” Cassie took out a writing pad and a pen.

  Noah got the jars in the canner and turned the heat on medium. “Can you keep an eye on the canner? When you see the pressure gauge at ten pounds, cut the heat to low. If it falls below ten pounds, turn it back up. Start timing it when it reaches the ten-pound mark on the gauge. The jars need to cook for seventy-five minutes. I’ll be back before that.”

  Cassie cocked one eye. “That’s what you said yesterday, and you were gone all day.”

  Noah finished washing his hands and dried them. “I’ll hurry.”

  Cassie kissed him as he went out the door. “You better.”

  Noah took Cassie’s vehicle once again to conserve fuel. He drove the short distance to the BP station. “Closed.”

  Noah took out his phone and called Cassie. “BP is closed. They’re out of gas, and it looks like the shelves are pretty well cleaned off. I’m going to see if Benny can help us out.”

  Cassie said, “Don’t let it turn into an all-day event.”

  “I’ll be quick. See you soon.” Noah ended the call with Cassie and dialed Benny’s number. “Hey, would you mind if I stopped by?”

  “Come on over,” Benny said.

  “Be right there.” Noah headed straight to Benny’s.

  When he arrived, Benny met him at the door. “Come on in. What can I do for you?”

  Noah closed the door behind him. “Cassie’s friend, the reporter at Channel 10, is trying to reach out to us, but she’s scared to talk on the phone. She has a secure line and provided us with the number through a simple encryption. I went to buy a pre-paid phone but haven’t found any place open that sells them.”

  Benny winked. “I’ll be right back. I might have an extra one.”

  Seconds later, Benny returned with a very simple phone. “Here’s an extra SIM card with the number for it. My number is programmed in the memory of the extra SIM card. Use the SIM card al
ready in the phone to call Cassie’s friend only. I’m sure she thinks her phone is secure, but she may have a different definition of secure than we have. I’d recommend driving at least a mile or two away from your house before putting the battery in the phone. Once it’s powered up, the location can be triangulated. If you ever have to call me using the other SIM card, you’ll probably have to text me a callback time, because I won’t be checking my phone unless I have reason to believe you might be trying to contact me. If so, text the opposite military time from when you’ll be calling back. So, if your call-back time will be six in the morning, text me 1800. If it’s six in the evening, text 0600. Flip-flopping the time adds an extra layer of encryption, but it’s easy to remember.”

  Noah stuck the phone and the extra SIM card in his pocket. “Thanks. Have you heard anything else out of Knoxville?”

  “Yeah. Sounds like it’s getting worse. The whole university campus is being fenced in, and concertina wire is being deployed to fortify the perimeter. To get in or out, you have to pass through a military checkpoint. Razor wire is being run on top of the existing fence around the soccer fields, football practice fields, tennis courts, and baseball fields. Tents with feeding facilities, cots, medical stations, and port-a-potties are going on the sports fields. The University of Tennessee is being turned into a military base. You probably remember that the train yard runs right along the river on the back side of the campus. That makes it very convenient to bring in military vehicles, equipment, and supplies by rail.

  “All the students have twenty-four hours to vacate the campus. Student housing is going to be converted into military housing. All the classrooms will be repurposed as well.”

  “Where will they go? Knoxville is on lockdown. Are the students getting a pass to leave if their families don’t live within the city limits?”

  Benny shook his head. “No. If they can’t find accommodations in the city, they’ll be held in a relief center.”

  “Held? As in not allowed to leave?”

  “That’s how it is being termed over the radio.”

  “I don’t think they’ll be able to hold every student from UT in the coliseum. Twenty-five thousand students attended when Cassie and I went there. If even half of them can’t go home because they don’t live in the city limits, it’ll be impossible to fit that amount of students into the coliseum. At most, you might get five hundred cots on the floor. That won’t even put a dent in the total number.”

  “The coliseum is just one relief center. My guess is that some of the sports fields at UT will be used as relief centers and others as detainment centers. And you probably won’t be able to tell one from the other at first glance. The Army is bringing in a lot of supplies.”

  Noah rubbed his chin. “It’s amazing how well organized the movement of troops, vehicles, and equipment has been. Remember how long it took FEMA to get water to New Orleans after Katrina?”

  Benny chuckled. “I’d say they’ve had a lot more time to plan for this than for Katrina. The freight cars and MRAPs have probably been loaded for weeks.”

  “And you don’t think the troops think the timing is suspicious?”

  Benny scrunched his lips. “Leadership is telling them it’s a coincidence. They have training exercises all the time, so to most, it seems plausible. Another convenient coincidence was having lots of young Army men and women trained as Internment/Resettlement Specialists.”

  “Why would that even be a position in the Army?”

  Benny smiled. “For such a time as this.”

  “Have you heard anything to make you think people are being rounded up?”

  “If that’s happening, the government will try to keep it under the radar, at least in the beginning. The only information I’m getting is what’s being passed out to the grunts over the encrypted military channels. I hope Cassie’s friend can get some better intel.”

  “We should know something as soon as I get back with this phone. You’re welcome to stop by if you like.” Noah zipped his jacket back up and turned toward the door.

  “Alright. If I won’t be interrupting anything.”

  Noah laughed. “We’ll be surviving the Apocalypse for the next several months. Interruptions are a welcomed distraction.”

  ***

  Noah soon arrived home with Benny close behind him. He walked in the door and handed the phone to Cassie. “Here’s your secret-squirrel phone.”

  “Thanks.” She started to turn it on and dial Martha’s number.

  “Slow down there, Tex. Benny said you should take it up the road before you make calls or even turn it on.”

  “Okay, be right back. Your jars have another thirty minutes before it’s time to cut the heat off.” Cassie grabbed her coat.

  “Let me fill you in on what we already know, so you can jump past all of that when you get a hold of Martha.”

  Cassie nodded and listened to Noah tell her the information Benny had intercepted over the radio.

  She shook her head. “Justice Scalia warned people back in 2014 that people were kidding themselves if they didn’t think we would have internment camps in America again.”

  “Again?”

  “Yes. Don’t you remember? During World War II, 120,000 Japanese were locked up in camps for the duration of the war. People think these things can’t happen and are shocked when they do because folks don’t pay attention to history. This stuff always happens. It’s the nature of our species. And if a government can’t find the political will among the people to accept it, they’ll fake an attack to scare people into submission. That happens all the time too. Anyway, I’ll be right back.”

  “Do you have a gun?”

  Cassie raised the waist of her coat to reveal the handle of her Glock.

  Benny met Cassie at the door.

  “Hey, Benny. I’ll be right back.” Cassie held the door for Benny to go in as she walked out.

  “I’ll be here,” Benny said.

  “Want a turkey sandwich?” Noah was pulling the meat off the next two birds to start filling the second batch of Mason jars.

  “If you don’t mind.”

  Noah chuckled. “Take a look around. I’ve got plenty to spare.”

  Noah dropped some of the bones from the two turkeys he was processing into the stock pot, rinsed his hands and found some bread to make a sandwich. “Would you like mayo or cheese on your sandwich?”

  “Both, please. You’ve got quite a canning operation going on here.” Benny surveyed the stock pot, pressure canner, empty jars, lids, rings, two roasting pans with half-picked turkeys, fresh turkeys that were next to go in the oven, and the large bowl that was being used to transfer the pulled turkey meat into the empty jars. The canning enterprise took up the entirety of the stove, counter space, and kitchen table.

  Noah made Benny’s sandwich, put it on a plate with some chips, and handed it to him. “I’ll give you a few jars when I see you on Thursday. Once I take them out of the canner, it’s best to let them cool, undisturbed, overnight. Sloshing them around in a car might break the seal if they’re still hot.”

  Benny finished chewing his first bite. “Very tasty. Thank you. Have you talked to Tim? Do you know if he is abiding by the moratorium on gun and ammo sales?”

  “I haven’t talked to him, but he’s smart. I suppose he’ll close the store and do business with friends and family out of his house. My big worry is that the county will get cut off from fuel distribution because of that standoff yesterday. The news said, according to Executive Order 13603, emergency services would be prioritized on the list of who gets gasoline. But if the Sevier County Sheriff’s Office is viewed as hostile, all county services might get scratched from the delivery schedule.”

  Benny sat down to eat. “I hope that’s the worst that comes from the standoff. My guess is that federal resources are stretched too thin right now, but as soon as DHS can get the cities under control, small towns will be next. Towns who have shown themselves to be a problem will be at the top
of the file. We have a little time before the full force of the state rolls into Sevierville, but I’m sure that day is coming. We need to use our time wisely to prepare for the inevitable.”

  Twenty minutes later, Cassie came back through the door looking distraught. “It’s bad.”

  Noah took a deep breath. “What did Martha say?”

  “She was able to speak with a girl she knows who is a freelance reporter at the White House. The girl has a source deep inside. Several of the Joint Chiefs filed a request with the DOJ to bring criminal charges against President Clay. Everyone who signed is missing, and no charges were ever formalized. Quite a few members of the House and Senate are missing, too. She said not to expect the press to cover it either because National Security Letters have been issued to all media outlets. No one is allowed to even say they received a National Security Letter, much less discuss the content. But most everyone working for a major paper or news outlet understands that nothing can go out unless it’s vetted by the DHS liaison assigned to their office.”

  Noah’s mouth and eyes were wide open. “People are being abducted, and the press has government employees telling them what they can and can’t report?”

  Cassie nodded. “It gets worse. People in Knoxville who are trying to buy groceries or gas are being sent to massive relief stations where they’re being told they can get food, water, and gas-ration cards for when the pumps are refilled. DHS is requiring them to fill out a questionnaire that asks about political affiliations, religious beliefs, gun ownership, and a bunch of other stuff. If the questionnaire deems them to be a risk, they’re immediately asked to proceed to another line where they are taken by bus to an interrogation center set up inside UT at Thompson-Bowling Arena. Everyone taken there is told it’s just a few questions to clear them from any responsibility in yesterday’s attacks, and they’ll be brought right back to the relief station where they were detained. So far, all the buses are leaving the relief stations full and coming back empty. No one has been able to call anyone taken to the interrogation center either. The military must be confiscating phones when the detainees get on the bus. Otherwise, some type of signal-jamming device is being deployed to block cell service. Because of the media blackout, we only have information from Knoxville, but we can assume the same thing is going on all over the country.”