Bug Out! Texas Part 1: Texas Lockdown

by Robert Boren

  Brenda looked around for Chris. He was on the far side of the bar chatting with several other men, so she poured herself one and drank it down quickly, then smiled demurely at the three men as they watched her.

  “Put your eyes away, boys.” She grinned and walked to the other end of the bar.

  “Damn, I’d like a piece of that,” Kelly said.

  “Yeah, me too,” Junior said, grinning. Then his face turned serious. “Let’s not get too blasted. I don’t think we’ve heard the last of those guys.”

  “We were just talking about that,” Kelly said. “Where do you think all these guys came from? And how the hell did they know where we lived?”

  “I’m wondering the same thing,” Junior said. “Doesn’t add up. Not one damn bit.”

  “You guys packing?” Nate asked.

  “I am, but I always am,” Kelly said. “Even before they legalized it.”

  “Same here,” Junior said. “Anybody who doesn’t pack these days is a dumb ass. And even when you do, you got to watch it. Look at that housewife, God rest her soul. The authorities should have been looking out for her after she killed the Imam. Can’t count on those milk-toast diversity-crazed idiots. They probably call that justice.”

  “Yeah, that really pissed me off,” Kelly said. “I hope one of the guys we killed was the one who did her.”

  “You and me both, brother,” Nate said.

  A man barged in the door. “Hey, guys, they’re talking about us on TV. Turn it on.”

  Brenda heard him and switched on the TV over the bar, using the remote to find the local news. When she found it she turned the sound up. Men gathered, and she went back to drawing beers and handing them out.

  “There were a number of attacks last night in the Dripping Springs area,” the pretty blonde reporter said, standing in front of City Hall. There was a table with microphones behind her, and men were setting up chairs.

  “Looks like they’re getting ready for a news conference,” Kelly said. “Somebody from Austin, I’ll bet. Jerk weeds.”

  “Here’s what we know at this hour,” the reporter said . “The young woman who killed the Imam during the Superstore terror attack was murdered last night, along with her family. The sheriff warned others involved in that attack, but it was too late for Rufus Lee, the senior citizen who killed several terrorists inside the store. He was murdered, along with his wife of sixty years.”

  “Dammit,” Kelly said. “Talked to that old bird afterwards. Great guy. Korean War vet.”

  “The sheriff got word out to the two Austin police officers involved. Officers Finley and Wilson. The terrorists showed up at Officer Finley’s house, but were killed by the officer and his wife in a short firefight on the street in front of his home. Officer Wilson escaped unharmed, and both officers are currently in hiding.”

  “What? There are good cops on Austin PD?” Nate asked.

  “How come nobody warned us?” Junior asked.

  “The sheriff warned me,” Kelly said quietly. “And right after I got hit, I called all of you guys.”

  “Oh, now I get it,” Brenda said, grin on her face.

  “Don’t make fun,” Kelly said, embarrassed smile. Brenda came over to him, reached across the bar and kissed him as the other men whooped and hollered.

  “Wow,” Junior said.

  “What was that for?” Kelly asked, dumbfounded.

  “You took on four of them and won, and then you called your friends to warn them. All kidding on the side, I’m impressed.” She backed away and drew another beer, then turned back to him. “Don’t take too much from that.”

  Junior elbowed him, chuckling.

  “There were eight attacks against the local men who showed up and killed most of the terrorists in the Superstore parking lot,” the reporter said. “At last count, twenty-eight terrorists were killed by these men last night.”

  There was cheering in the room, and people lifting their glasses to toast each other.

  “Hooray for us,” Nate said, lifting his glass. Kelly was silent, thinking. Junior noticed.

  “What?” he asked.

  Kelly motioned for his friends to get closer. “Here’s what I’m thinking. Those cretins are gonna continue to try for us. Maybe it’s time we found out where they are.”

  “You mean go attack them?” Junior said. “We’ve gotten a pass so far because they attacked first. If we go root them out and kill them, we’ll get locked up.”

  “I’m not saying that we hit them as soon as we find them,” Kelly said. “I’m saying that we find out where they are, and if they attack again, we hit them where they live. It’s got to look like part of a battle they started.”

  Nate rubbed his beard. “Okay, I get it. I’m with you.”

  “Hey!” a man shouted by the front of the bar, looking out the window. “We’ve got company. You guys armed?”

  “Son of a bitch,” Chris said, running behind the bar and grabbing his shotgun. The other men rushed to the front, most of them with pistols in their hands.

  “Get your ass in back,” Chris shouted to Brenda. “Grab the other shotgun, and point it at the back door. If anybody tries to come through, splatter them.”

  “You got it, hon,” she said, rushing through the kitchen door.

  Suddenly several bullets hit the front door of the bar.

  “Open fire, men,” Kelly shouted.

  There was the sound of glass breaking, then rednecks opened fire, returned by machine gun fire by Islamists outside. Chris got by a window and opened up with the shotgun as the terrorists tried to find cover. All of the men inside were blazing away. Then semi-automatic fire was coming from the street, as two four-wheel drive trucks roared up, rednecks firing from the back.

  “Earl and Jasper,” Kelly shouted. “Glad they were late.”

  Several of the Islamists dropped their weapons and put up their hands. The men in back of the trucks killed them all, and then there was silence.

  Chris opened the door and peered out carefully. Then there was a shot, and he fell, gripping his thigh. Kelly saw the shooter and hit him square in the chest with his .45 auto, sending the man to the ground. Two shotgun blasts came from the kitchen.

  “Go help Brenda!” Chris shouted. Kelly and Junior raced back there just in time to see another terrorist trying to get through the door. Brenda parted his hair with buckshot.

  “Come on in, you sons of bitches!” she shouted, pumping another round into the shotgun. Kelly and Junior raced to the back door, watching a man in a heavy shirt trying to rush to the door. Kelly fired, and the man blew sky high, pieces of him raining down around the back of the bar.

  “What the hell was that?” Nate shouted, running into the kitchen.

  “That last guy had a bomb vest on,” Junior said.

  Kelly slipped out the back door in a combat pistol stance. Brenda came to the door to cover him as he checked all the bodies and looked for more. “Get down!” she shouted. Kelly dove to the ground as Brenda blasted a man coming at Kelly from the right.

  “Thanks, Brenda!” Kelly shouted. Then he got back up and continued searching the back. There was nobody else. He came back in as Brenda was on the phone, calling an ambulance for Chris. When she hung up the phone, Kelly grabbed her, pulling her into his arms, planting a kiss on her. She stiffened and started to push away, but then relaxed into him, returning the kiss. They broke it after almost a minute, and looked in each other’s eyes.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” she asked, half smile on her face.

  “Just thanking you for saving my life,” he said. “Don’t make too much of it.”

  Chapter 11 – News Conference

  President Pro Tempore Kip Hendrix and Austin Police Commissioner Holly approached the desk in front of the small Dripping Springs city hall, a sea of reporters sitting in the chairs before them.

  The sheriff looked on, disgusted expression on his face. “Why’d you let these carpet baggers take over our town?”

>   Mayor Jenson glanced at him. “Professional courtesy.” He laughed, his beer belly bouncing under his suit and tie. “I know they’ll say stupid stuff, but everybody here knows they’re idiots. Meanwhile, we get a nice bit of publicity for the town. That draws business.”

  The sheriff chuckled. “Okay, okay. Just hate to listen to their garbage, that’s all.”

  A slightly pudgy man wearing Dockers walked up to the sheriff. “I take it by the uniform that you’re the sheriff of this burg?” His voice was thin, a look of smug superiority on his face.

  “Yeah, Sheriff Clancy Barrow. And who might you be?”

  “Assistant Chief of Staff to Kip Hendrix,” he said with pride. “Jerry Sutton.”

  “What can I do for you, Mr. Sutton?”

  “We hear protesters are on the way to this press conference. We demand that you keep them at least two blocks away.”

  “I’ve got all of my men busy watching from the roofs with rifles, waiting for more of those Islamists to show up. I’m not taking them off of that detail to push local citizens around. Sorry.”

  “We don’t refer to the criminals as Islamists,” Jerry said, face turning read.

  “I know you don’t,” the sheriff replied. Mayor Jenson snickered as Sutton turned and stomped away.

  “There you go, making friends with the Austin elite again,” Mayor Jenson said. “Old Kip better hope the rednecks don’t crash this party.”

  “I wouldn’t worry about that,” the sheriff said. “They’re all over at Texas Mary’s, throwing back a few beers. I’d be over there with them if it wasn’t for this garbage.”

  “Look, I think that asshole is about to start talking,” Mayor Jenson said, pointing to the desk.

  “Thanks for coming, everybody,” Hendrix said into the microphone on the desk in front of him. “First of all, let’s have a moment of silence for the victims of this senseless violence.”

  “Which victims are you talking about, Kip?” shouted a citizen from the sidelines. There was a murmur from the reporters, and Hendrix shot the man an angry glare.

  “I’m talking about all the victims of the violence,” he said. “All of them were human. All of them had mothers and fathers and children.”

  “Thought so,” the man shouted. “You want us to bow our heads for the Islamists. I’d rather spit on the ground.”

  There was laughter from the town’s people surrounding him.

  “That was very disrespectful,” Commissioner Holly said into his microphone. “Please sit down and listen to what this fine public servant has to say.”

  There was more laughter from the crowd, drawing the focus of the reporters away from the front desk.

  The sheriff saw Sutton stomping over to him again. “You’d better get a lid on these troublemakers,” he said.

  “You idiots showed up here to poke the hornet’s nest. That was your choice. Unlike the people you want to protect, they won’t shoot at you just because you don’t agree with them. If your boss is really a public servant, he should care about what his constituents think.”

  Hendrix was tapping the microphone, trying to use it like a gavel to bring the press conference back to order. It worked.

  “Look, I know that the criminals who attacked the Superstore were the aggressors,” he said. “But let’s be rational. We want these kinds of attacks to stop. We need to understand why this group felt that violence was their only option to make progress in the society.”

  “This guy for real?” asked the sheriff, looking at Jerry.

  “He sees beyond the pettiness that has kept us at war for too long,” Sutton spat.

  “Nah, he’s Neville Chamberlain, appeasing a bunch of Nazis,” Mayor Jenson said.

  “I’m going to tell him you said that,” Jerry said.

  “What? You think that bothers me? I’ll tell him myself, in public. It’ll help me in the next election.”

  The sheriff’s phone rang. He answered it.

  “Yeah.”

  A woman’s voice shouted into the phone. “The Islamists just attacked Texas Mary’s!”

  “Calm down, Brenda,” he said, eyes narrowing at Jerry. “Anybody shot?”

  “Yeah, your ex brother-in-law,” she said. “In the leg. I already called 911.”

  “Oh, shit,” he said. “Nobody else shot?”

  “No other good guys,” she said. “Lots of dead wannabe terrorists. They were better equipped than we were, but we still beat them like a drum. They aren’t very good fighters when their victims can shoot back.”

  “You want me to send men down there?”

  “No, we got this, as long as the ambulance gets here quick. Maybe you could grease the skids a little bit.”

  “Will do,” the sheriff said. “Take care of yourself, sis.”

  “I’m fine,” she said. “Got lots of men here protecting me.”

  The sheriff chuckled. “Yeah, I bet they’re lining up for that. Talk to you later.”

  “Sheriff!” Sutton said. “Don’t you make another call. I’m talking to you.”

  The sheriff took his phone away from his ear and glared at Jerry. “Shut the hell up, spokes hole. My ex brother-in-law just got wounded by your poor unfortunate terrorists, and my sister is still in harm’s way. You think I have a problem with the citizens of this town practicing their first amendment rights? Stuff it. Go back to Austin.” He got back on his phone, calling the ambulance company.

  “I think that’s your cue to skedaddle, piss-ant,” Mayor Jenson said.

  Hendrix was ignoring the taunts of the townspeople now, trying to answer questions from the reporters.

  “President Pro Tempore Hendrix, what was the reason you came to this town? You had to know you wouldn’t be welcome.”

  “I came to support our Muslim citizens here,” he said. “Nobody is saying that what the criminals did at the Superstore and afterwards was justified, but we need to take great care in how we react. The attacks didn’t come from Islam. This kind of violence is not part of the teachings of that great religion. Islam is the religion of peace. To paint the entire Muslim community as terrorist is wrong. We’re better than that.”

  “Weren’t you also here to honor the two Austin police officers who were at the terror attack?” asked a woman reporter.

  “Well, yes,” Hendrix said. “Unfortunately they were attacked last night and had to leave the area, but they will get their commendations.”

  “The rednecks that showed up did more good than those two officers,” yelled a man from the crowd.

  “There is no place for vigilantes in our society,” Kip said.

  “Yeah, you don’t think there’s a place for an armed public, either,” the man yelled back. “You jackass.”

  Hendrix glanced over at Sutton, who rushed over.

  “I thought you were going to get rid of these knuckle-draggers,” he whispered. “Do your job.”

  “The sheriff won’t help,” Sutton said. “And by the way, a bar full of rednecks just got attacked a few minutes ago, and one of his relations got wounded. He’s not going to help us here. If I were you I’d ignore the public, answer a few questions, and get the hell out of here.”

  “If I keep doing that, we’ll never have progress in this backwards state,” Hendrix whispered, a little too loud. There were boos from the crowd as the mic picked it up.

  “Look,” Sutton said. “The Mayor is making his way up here.”

  “Wonderful,” Hendrix said sarcastically.

  “Move over,” Mayor Jenson said to Hendrix, grabbing the microphone.

  “Everybody, I need your attention.”

  The crowd quieted down.

  “Texas Mary’s just got attacked, not five minutes ago, by over thirty Islamists. This gathering is not safe. We need you to go home. All of you.” He looked Hendrix and Commissioner Holly in the eye.

  “We’re packing,” shouted a man in the crowd. “Love to have them show up here. Let’s have a turkey shoot!”

  There was
laughter from the crowd, a lot of people nodding in approval. The reporters looked nervous, and began packing their equipment.

  “I’m not going anywhere,” Hendrix said. “And as President Pro Tempore of the Texas Senate, I demand that there be some crowd control right now. Where are the sheriff’s deputies?”

  “They’re surrounding this area, on rooftops and on the streets leading in here,” Mayor Jenson said. “Protecting your sorry ass from a potential terror attack. You really want me to re-assign them to crowd control?”

  “Arguing with these small-minded local officials is pointless,” Commissioner Holly said, close enough to his mic to get picked up.

  “Oh, really?” asked a man from the crowd. He reached down into a bag and pulled out a white object, which he then hurled at Holly, hitting him in the chest. The smell of rotten egg spread around the front desk.

  “Arrest that man this instant,” Holly said, trying to wipe the egg from his suit.

  “I’ll do no such thing,” the sheriff shouted as he walked up. “Jay, no more eggs. I mean it.”

  “Aw, sheriff, I was just getting started.”

  The sheriff walked in front of the desk and grabbed the microphone out of Holly’s hands. “Listen to me, everybody. This town is under siege by representatives of the Religion of Peace. I know all of our Muslim neighbors are not bad. I have several personal friends from their ranks. I’ll arrest anybody who attacks any innocent civilians from that community, and you can take that to the bank. That being said, I suggest all of you use your Second Amendment rights and protect yourselves. I don’t know where all of these terrorists are coming from, but we’ve had nearly a hundred involved. That’s a lot of enemy fighters. Be vigilant, and protect your families until we can fix this situation.”

  “I think you’re stirring them up more than calming them down,” Hendrix said, shaking his head.

  “As for you, President Pro Tempore, this news conference is over right now. Leave. You aren’t going to create a dangerous political circus in our town. That may be welcomed in Austin, but not out here. It’s in my power to shut down dangerous gatherings, and I’m doing that right now. Have a nice day.” He reached down to the power supply for the PA system and pulled out the power cord, then walked away.