by Knights, BJ
“He said there was a panel,” Jim blurted out.
Coyle glanced down and pointed. “There’s a panel.”
The other three looked down along floor at the baseboard that wrapped around the bottom of the small office. Jim dropped down to get a better look and ran his hands along the baseboard and found a small groove. He couldn’t see it, but he could feel it.
He dug his nail into it and pried a section of the paneling off the wall. The piece of wood concealed a small safe no larger than a book. Jim typed in the code and it sprang open. He was met with the sight of a small hard drive the size of his pinkie. Jim examined it between his fingers and Coyle rushed up beside him.
“Well, that was quite anti-climactic,” said Coyle.
Machine gun fire sounded outside as the group turned to look at the lobby’s entrance. Jim looked at Samantha and Annie. “Stay here,” he ordered.
Jim rushed out to meet Brett and Twink at the door where they were watching the scene take place outside. Brett motioned over for Jim to come see. “Looks like we’ve got company,” he said.
The looters from the street were scattering and firing shots further down the street where two armored trucks were ramming cars out of the way as they plowed towards the building. The trucks came to a stop just outside the building steps where six soldiers from each truck poured out and began firing back into the looters. Two looters with assault rifles ducked behind the engines of a flipped car and began spraying bullets towards the soldiers. Other looters took position and shelter in shops along the street.
One of the soldiers heaved a grenade at the car where the two looters with assault rifles were huddled behind. The younger looter heard the thud of the grenade hitting the other side of the car as he was putting another magazine into his rifle. He looked up at his friend and before he could get up to run the grenade blasted through the side of the car as pieces of them flew in the air.
Five of the looters that had retreated to the shops had run upstairs and smashed through the windows above. They opened fire on the soldiers below who were caught off guard. One of them took bullet in the shoulder and while another soldier took one right through the eye and dropped to the ground lifeless.
Jim stood inside the lobby watching the fight take place. Gunshots, grenade blasts, and blood. This wasn’t Phoenix anymore.
“What do you wanna do, Jim?” Brett was getting anxious.
Twink looked back at the two of them. “We gotta go help them,” he said.
Jim shook him off. “We don’t know who started firing first.”
Brett cut in. “Yeah, we do. It was our guys. They started shooting at the truck the moment they were in eyeshot of it.”
Then Jim saw Hult run around the front end of the truck to reload his magazine. Sweat dripped off his chin as bullets rained down on him and his men. He only looked up for a split second, but he saw them.
Jim immediately ducked down. “We’ve got to get out of here, now!”
Outside Hult screamed for his men. “They’re inside! They’re inside! Move back to the building!”
The group took off around the hallway and right before they turned the corner they heard the crash of glass and concrete behind them. The armored truck rammed into the lobby and Hult rushed out with the rest of his men.
Jim and Brett kept back while Coyle and Twink took the front. Annie stayed clutched to Samantha as she held her tight. They kept running through doors towards the back of the building. They ran past offices. Jim looked back and saw Hult a few hundred feet back.
“Stop!” Hult screamed. Jim fired a spray of bullets at their pursuers who ducked behind a group of walls as they ran through two main doors and into an atrium. Twink saw an exit sign atop a door leading to a stairwell. Samantha told them to head that way. “If we take it to the bottom level it’ll lead us out towards the parking garage on the side of the building.”
“If there are as many cars in there as there were in the street I’ll be able to hotwire one of them,” Twink said. Jim nodded. “Let’s go find our ride.”
Hult burst through the atrium doors, but they were gone. His breath was short as he ran around trying to find them. His men finally caught up with him. He ordered them to break up and hunt them down. They were sent off in pairs in the four corners of the room while a group stayed with Hult who turned around and eyed the exit door that Jim had just gone down.
The parking garage door flew open as Twink came barreling through. He was right. There were cars everywhere. Coyle, Samantha, Annie, Brett, and Jim came through right after. They trotted down the slope of the garage towards the exit where they saw the fading light hit the street outside. The distant sound of screams and gunfire grew louder as they got to the opening of the garage.
Twink found a truck and smashed the window and popped the lock. He dropped under the dash and ripped out the panel underneath, exposing a cluster of wires. Jim walked closer towards the opening. He started to smell something. It was faint and distant.
“Smoke,” he whispered to himself. When he stepped out onto the street he saw plumes of smoke rising into the sky. The black pillars polluted the orange and reds of the fading sunset colored backdrop.
Looters were tossing lit torches and Molotov cocktails into stores along Main Street. Men with bandanas around their faces were tearing down stop signs and anything else they could with sheer muscle. The fires were spreading. There was a spark underneath the dash as the engine turned over and came to life. “Got it!” Twink shouted.
They started to pile into the car when Hult and three of his men came barreling into the garage from the stairway door. “Jim!” Brett screamed.
Jim whipped around and dropped behind a yellow parking pillar. He opened fire on Hult and his men as Twink peeled out of the parking spot towards him. Hult’s men ducked behind cars for cover and started to shoot back. Twink slowed down enough for Jim to hop in the truck bed and they drove off. Twink took a right out of the garage away from the looters and headed for the highway. Samantha opened the small, sliding window of the truck.
“Are you alright?” she asked.
Jim nodded as he rubbed his knee. “I’m alright.”
Brett searched the glove compartment for a map, but didn’t find one. “Anyone know where we’re going now?” he asked, “cuz we sure as hell can’t go back to the camp. Hult will have radioed what have happened by now.”
“No, I don’t think so,” said Jim. Brett turned around and Twink slowed down.
“What are you talking about, Jim? You just shot at a Sergeant in the United States Military. That’s a federal offense.” Brett looked around the truck cabin. “We’re all fugitives now.”
Jim shook his head. “I think Hult is in on what’s been happening. I think he want this,” Jim said as he pulled the drive out of his pocket. “He wants this so they can finish whatever it was they were planning.” Brett’s mouth hung open. Coyle was the first to speak. “What did Matt tell you?” Jim told them about the hole in the firewall and the messages that were being sent encrypted from unknown sources leading up to the attacks in San Diego and across the country.
“Holy shit,” Twink murmured to himself. Annie smacked him on the shoulder. “Sorry,” he blurted out. “So how do we know?” Brett asked.
“We check in on the base and we wait. If there isn’t a commotion then we know he didn’t report it. If there is, then we turn ourselves in and get the drive to Matt, so he can do whatever it is that needs to be done to find out who did this.”
“Fugitives on the run. My mom would be so proud,” said Coyle.
Twink put the truck in drive and drove off towards the falling sun as a different orange glow began to spread across downtown Phoenix behind them.
Chapter 4
Jim used a pair of binoculars and didn’t see any movement on the ground. The most activity he saw were some troops sent to escort a group of firefighters into the city, which was a full blaze of fury in the distance.
The smo
ke from the fires blanketed the night sky and the glow from the flames washed over the desert in an unearthly orange tinge. Jim climbed back down the dune to where they were camped. Brett and Twink did an inventory of what ammo and supplies they had left while Annie sat curled in a ball in Samantha’s lap. Annie looked up at her mom and asked when they could go home.
“I don’t know, sweetheart,” she responded. But she knew. She knew the fires would reach their home on the outskirts of the city. It was too big now. It was becoming its own entity. Annie buried her head further into her mother’s leg. “I hope daddy and Tigs are okay,” Annie whispered. “Shhh. They’re fine, baby. They’re fine,” she answered.
Jim walked over to Coyle who was leaned up against the wheel of the truck with his eyes half closed. Jim slid down next to him. “How are you doing?” Jim asked. “I could use some of that mush right about now,” Coyle half mumbled. Jim smiled and put his arm around him. Then Coyle thought for a moment. “Actually, I think I’d still hate it.”
Jim rested his head back on the metal siding of the truck. The glow from the fires rose up above the dunes. The shadows from the city danced across his face. He wondered how many died for some mad man’s search for power.
“I can see why you got out,” Coyle said. “It’s a very high risk.”
Jim kept his eyes on the glow in the distance like he was transfixed. “That’s not why I got out.” Coyle tilted his head towards him. “Why then?”
“I joined the Navy because my father was branded a coward. I thought it was my duty to join and restore what pride I had to my family’s name,” Jim responded.
Coyle looked confused. “That’s why you got in, but why’d you leave?”
Jim paused a moment before he answered. “The same reason,” he answered.
Jim and Brett found a spot in between two dunes and dug out three trenches about six feet in length and three feet wide. They piled the sand on three sides of each of the trenches a foot and a half high. Brett and Twink had some ponchos in their packs and Jim used them to cover each of the trenches for protection from the sun. Brett, Twink, and Jim would sleep there while Coyle, Annie, and Samantha slept in the truck.
It was early morning when Jim finally awoke. One glance at the smoke blackened sky told him that the firemen weren’t able to stop the blaze. Twilight from the morning daybreak sparkled on the desert sand as bits of light struggled to shine through the thick smoke in the sky. Jim brushed the sand out of his hair and it fell to his lap and onto his shoulders. Brett and Twink were still snoring in their sand beds. Samantha and Annie were still and asleep in the backseat of the truck. Coyle was propped up in the passenger seat with his mouth hanging open and drooling.
Suddenly, he felt the hard iron of a pistol to the back of his skull. “You’re getting easier to sneak up on, Farr.” Hult had his 9mm pistol with his finger on the trigger. Four more of his men tore the ponchos off Brett and Twink’s shelter before they could wake and disarmed them with rifles pointed at their heads.
Jim’s head tilted forward as Hult pressed the barrel harder into his skull. “For your sake I hope you found what you were looking for.” Hult grabbed the firearm at Jim’s side and backed off slightly.
“Do you have it?” Hult asked.
“Have what?” Jim replied. Hult kept his pistol pointed at him while Jim’s hung in his other hand. “Turn around,” Hult ordered.
Jim kept his hands in the air and slowly turned his body to face him. Hult’s men pulled Twink and Brett out of the truck bed and dislodged Coyle, Annie, and Samantha from inside the cab. Hult had his men line them up to where Jim could see them. All the while keeping the pistol steadily aimed at him.
“You really are a fucking pain in my ass you know that?” Hult said.
Twink and Brett’s eyes went from Jim to Hult as the two stared each other down. Annie started to cry and Samantha held her close. Coyle sat dry mouthed as Hult’s men hovered behind them. Then, without any explanation or warning Hult clicked the safety on. He lowered his pistol and holstered it. He took Jim’s gun dropped the magazine out, cleared the chamber, and tossed it back to him, though he kept the magazine.
“We need to talk,” Hult said. “Boys?” He motioned over to his men who lowered their weapons. Coyle kept his hands over his head even after the men walked in front of him.
“Is this a trap?” Coyle asked. “Cuz it feels like a trap.”
Jim looked as confused as Coyle did. “What is this?” he asked.
“This?” Hult looked around at the group in front of him. “This is my mission,” he said.
“Locke told me to keep an eye on you and make sure you and the girls where safe. He thought there was a high level leak,” said Hult, “How do you think you got to speak to Matt by yourself without any guards listening in?” he continued, “Who do you think the guard called when you were leaving the camp?”
Coyle’s hands dropped from his head to his sides. “You were helping us all this time? Jesus,” Coyle looked over at Jim, “You tried to kill him.” Which reminds me.” Hult threw a huge right cross into Jim’s face that knocked him on the ground. Jim wiped the blood from his lip and Hult extended his hand to help him up. Jim grabbed it and he stood up. “Now, we’re even,” Hult said. He looked at him as if nothing happened. “So, what’s next?” he asked.
Jim told him what Matt had said about the drive and how he could trace it. They all agreed that trying to get Matt out of the camp wasn’t going to happen, especially now that Hult had told him about Locke’s fear of a mole. And with Phoenix burning behind them they wouldn’t be able to get him back to his office to run the program anyway. Matt would have to do it from the camp.
“One of the guards is Locke’s man. We can sneak Matt out when it’s his shift and get him over to a station to do what he needs to do and find the bastards that did all of this,” Hult said. Jim looked to Twink and Brett who both agreed. Jim looked back over to Hult whose ash smeared face squinted in the sunlight that was fighting through the smoky sky above them.
“How do we get back in?” Jim asked.
“They think I’m out looking for you. Give me the drive and I’ll keep two of my men here with you. I’ll tell them that I couldn’t find you and get the drive to Matt tonight,” Hult replied.
Jim shook his head. “No, we don’t know who’s involved with this and if you get caught you’ll need all of the support you can get,” Jim said.
“You lost three men when the looters attacked,” Jim’s voice became a little softer once the words left his mouth. “Brett, Twink, and I will come in with you.”
It was settled. Coyle would stay back with Samantha and Annie while the rest of them went back to the camp to get Matt the drive and find the source of the orders. Jim himself would come back to get the girls and Coyle once it was safe. If he didn’t return before tomorrow, or he was killed, then one of Hult’s men or Twink or Brett would come back with a safe word that only the group knew. They would then take the truck and head back to the refugee camp immediately to let Locke know what happened.
Hult and his men had hotwired two sedans from the garage after they had lost the armored trucks they had when they were in the city. Jim opened the doors of the sedan and brushed empty coffee cups off the back seat and onto the sand. Brett sat in the passenger seat, while Twink joined Jim in the back. Hult drove while the rest of his men piled in the other car. “Jesus,” Brett said as he picked up a fistful of paper wrappers. “How many Starbucks breakfast sandwiches can one man eat?”
As the cars got back onto the main road they headed for the expressway that would take them around the outskirts of the city. It was here Jim saw just how huge the fire had become. When he was in school, Jim remembered hearing about the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 and how it wreaked havoc on the districts of the city, killing hundreds and causing hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of damage.
He wondered if this is what people saw on the outskirts of Chicago that day. Fires rising into th
e sky as flames engulfed buildings, cars, and people. How could an entire city just burn like that? Then again, just a few weeks ago Jim thought a Naval base could never be leveled on American soil. He was experiencing a lot of things he thought could never happen.
It only took them about twenty minutes to get back to the base from where they were at in the dunes. Jim was right about them not checking who they were, although the guards at the gate did a thorough inspection of the vehicles. Hult brought Jim, Twink, and Brett back to his tent along with his men. Hult left to check on Locke’s man to see when his shift would start.
Jim’s leg bounced up and down nervously as he waited for him to come back. Twink and Brett scarfed down some MREs Hult’s men had tossed them, but Jim wasn’t hungry.
Coyle leaned on the front driver side of the truck while Samantha and Annie sat inside.
“When will I get to see daddy again?” Annie asked.