THE BEGINNING Book Two (THE EVENT)

by Marshall Huffman

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  USA

  There were forty-six people sitting in a large circle at the Eleven Mile State Park just a few miles west of Colorado Springs. Some were in pairs, but for the most part they were singles. They had a small fire burning in the center and Kyle Whitter was pacing around as he talked.

  “What we have here is a form of totalitarianism. That select few controls every aspect of our lives. They say live here, work here, do this, do that. And if we don’t we get no food. I don’t think they have the right to tell us what to do. Now they are telling you that you can’t leave Colorado Springs without dire consequences. You can’t take any possessions or food. Hell, totalitarianism is too kind a word, it’s more like a dictatorship. Is that the way you want to live the rest of your lives? Never having a say in what happens? I don’t know how you feel but I for one have no desire to live in a place where the government controls everything I do. What you have to do is decide if you are going to put up with it,” he told them.

  “But what can we really do about it?” a man asked.

  “We can refuse to listen to them and do as we damn well please. You can load up the trunk of your car with food and bedding and just take off. No one questioned us when we came here. For that matter, we could start stockpiling food and other items we may need in one of the cabins here at the park,” Kyle told them.

  “What about gas?”

  “Just keep your travel as low as you can. Keep getting your allotment and try to get a full tank. We can get more once we are far enough away from this place.”

  “Do you think they will come after us?”

  “Not if we are smart. We can’t just all pack up and leave at the same time. We will leave a few at a time during the day and evening. We can all meet in Denver and then head out to wherever you want to go,” Kyle said.

  “I don’t know,” one of the women said quietly.

  “This is a personal choice. No one is making you go. All I ask is that you don’t say anything to anyone else until those of us going are out of the area.”

  “What about others that may want to go?” someone asked.

  “You just have to be very careful. Don’t jeopardize it for the rest of us but if you do find someone that wants to go, they are more than welcome. Why don’t we meet back here in one week and see how we are all doing. If you have found someone that may want to go, bring them along. Just be careful,” Kyle reminded them.

  Within a few minutes the campsite was empty and Kyle was dousing the fire with water from the lake.

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  USA

  Colonel Webber knew something was wrong as soon as he stood up, or at least tried to stand. He knew his equilibrium was out of whack. He tried to right himself but fell against the wall and when he reached out to steady himself, he fell forward onto the hard floor. He wanted to get up but his body wasn’t responding. He could barely lift his head. What the hell is wrong with me? He tried to roll over but nothing was functioning the way it should. How long he lay there he wasn’t sure. He couldn’t see the clock and he couldn’t raise his arm to look at his watch. He knew that eventually someone would come looking for him.

  ~~

  “So?”

  “Hell I don’t know. You know him, he is never late.”

  “We should send someone to check on him,” Randy suggested.

  “I looked in his office and his car isn’t in the lot.”

  “Sargent Newman,” Randy hollered.

  “Sir?”

  “Would you go by the General’s place and see if he is there? If his car is still in the driveway, knock but if you don’t get an answer, go in and see if anything is wrong.”

  “Yes sir,” the Sargent said.

  “I have a very bad feeling about this,” Margaret Olson said.

  “Me too. This is just so out of character for the Colonel. Christ, I hope he is just having car trouble or something.”

  “Yes, that would be bad,” Captain Richardson said with a sarcastic ring to his voice.

  Randy looked over at him but Richardson was looking down at the table. Randy knew that no matter what the Colonel had told him it was still going to be a showdown at some point. He wasn’t too worried. Captain Miller was already on board and the Colonel had his word that he would back Randy when the time came. It was like having an insurance policy that no one knew about.

  The first thing the Sargent noticed was that the Colonel’s car was still in the drive way. He knew that was probably a bad sign. He rushed up to the door and rang the bell several times and waited impatiently. He leaned over and looked in the window but could see no movement inside. He knocked loudly and called out for the Colonel but got no response. Christ, he thought, If I go in he just might shoot me. Finally he opened the door and stuck his head inside.

  “Colonel Webber? It’s Sargent Newman. Are you here sir?”

  He still got no response. Opening the door he stepped inside and yelled “Colonel Webber, it’s Sergeant Newman, are you here sir?”

  He stepped further in the room and saw the Colonel sprawled out on the floor. His eyes were open but he wasn’t moving.

  “Oh God. What’s wrong Colonel?”

  Newman rushed to the Colonel and felt for a pulse. He found one but it was very weak. He started to pick up the phone and call the hospital but decided it would be faster to just put him in the car and take him there.

  “Sorry sir,” he said, rolling the Colonel over and wrapping his arms under the Colonel’s.

  He hoisted him up and placed him over his shoulder, carried him to the car and laid him in the back seat. When he got to the hospital he jumped out and ran inside.

  “I need help. Colonel Webber is hurt. I have him in the back seat of my car.”

  Immediately, attendants raced to the car and within minutes he was being wheeled down the hall. The Colonel was watching all of this take place in slow motion and in a fog. Nothing quite made sense to him except for the fact that he knew he was a spectator to what was going on and not a participant. He could hear faint voices snapping out commands but none of it really registered. Then everything started to fade to a gray and then total darkness.

  The Sargent raced back over to HQ and burst in the conference room.

  “Colonel Webber is in the hospital. I just took him there. I don’t know what is wrong but it doesn’t look good.”

  “Dear God,” Margaret Olson whispered.

  “But he is alive, right?” Captain Richardson said.

  “He has a pulse if that’s what you mean but he couldn’t talk and his eyes were glazed over,” Newman told him.

  “Man oh man. This puts us in a pickle now doesn’t it?” Captain Sims replied.

  “So what do we do now?” Margaret asked.

  “We continue with the agenda and then we can see how the Colonel is doing,” Randy said.

  “You mean just not worry about him? He’s gone so forget about him?” Rosen said.

  “No. We take care of the business at hand first. I’m not a doctor and there is nothing I can do to help him right this instant. What he would want us to do is proceed and then check up on him,” Randy said, measuring his words carefully.

  Rosen just glared at him.

  “Where do we start?” Captain Sims asked.

  “With the Intel report,” Bolin said.

  “The SLF group is edging closer to the Colorado boarder. They appear to number around 7,000. The weapons are a little more sophisticated now and they have set up a camp for training just outside of Ogden. They have both women and men serving. They have acquired a working tank and have been practicing with it for the past several days. Obviously munitions are not a problem because they are using a lot of it up.”

  “Should we be concerned that they may attack anytime soon?”

  “Not just yet. They know we are here and I think it is safe to say they probably have a few people inside Colorado Springs that report what we are doing and mapping our defenses
in case they do decide to attack.”

  “What makes you think that?” Richardson asked.

  “Because it’s what I would do. Get someone inside to check out our defenses and map our weak points so I would know exactly where to attack with the fewest losses.”

  “But you don’t really know that for a fact do you?” Richardson said.

  “I think he is right. It makes perfect sense. We have to assume they are inside and doing that very thing,” Randy said.

  “Well, there you go then. Spoken like a true expert,” he said sarcastically.

  “If they cross over the border notify us immediately. Don’t wait for the next meeting. Just come and get me and I’ll notify the others,” Randy told him, ignoring Richardson’s snide remark.

  “Yes sir.”

  “World events.”

  “Sir. The system is getting better all the time. The width is still kind of narrow but the clarity is a great deal better. What we know so far is that a large battle took place in Beijing. Two opposing forces fought for control of the city. A large group came in from the west and attacked the forces inside the city. From the images it looks like around 9,000 were killed or wounded all total. No real heavy artillery was used and most of the buildings remain intact.”

  “Could you tell who the groups were?”

  “One was definitely military. The other appears to be some kind of rebel force, for lack of a better term.”

  “What about Russia?”

  “Something is going on near Moscow. Kind of a similar situation. The military seems to be advancing toward Moscow while some other forces appear to be in control of the city. Just backwards from China.”

  “Have they started shooting yet?” Randy asked.

  “Not from what we can tell. They seem to be waiting on something.”

  “Anything else?”

  “Paris is getting more and more people. We estimate around 4,000 so far.

  “And China?”

  “China looks to be at 29,000 to 30,000 and Russia slightly less.”

  “And the US?” Randy asked.

  “Maybe 21,000 counting the group in Utah.”

  “Could you give me a full report on the numbers in all countries the system can cover?”

  “Sure. It will take a day or so but we can come up with a fairly accurate number.”

  “Close is good enough for now. I just want to compare how we stand as opposed to other nations. Can you cover Africa as well?”

  “Not much of it. Part of the northern area but that’s about it.”

  “Then that will have to do. Thank you,” Randy said.

  “Infrastructure?”

  “It’s fine,” Richardson said.

  “Fine? Meaning?”

  “Good. Okay. Just great.”

  “Captain Richardson, when I ask for a report, fine and just great are not what I want. If you don’t know, then just say so. If you do, then you need to give me the full report.”

  “Have you already taken over?” he challenged.

  “Do you see the Colonel here? Yeah, I have,” Randy said evenly.

  “Just like that?”

  “Yes. Just like that.”

  “Well, I for one am not so sure the Colonel isn’t coming back.”

  “Fine. You can return when he does. Until that time, you are dismissed from this committee.”

  “What?

  You can’t do that. Only the Colonel can remove me. I’m not going to just drop out because you say so,” he said, slamming his fist on the table.

  Everyone in the room was watching to see how Randy would react. Randy stood up and walked to the door and said something to the person standing outside. Two armed MPs and Captain Miller came into the room.

  “Captain Richardson. You are to be escorted from this room and confined to house arrest until further notice.”

  “Like hell I am. Who the hell do you think you are? You can’t have me arrested,” he stood up and yelled at Randy.

  “Captain,” Miller said, taking hold of Richardson’s arm.

  He yanked it free.

  “Keep your hands off of me?” he shouted at Miller.

  Miller slammed his fist into the solar plexus of the Captain and he immediately doubled over. Miller grabbed him by the back of the neck and yanked him up right. Richardson was gasping for air.

  “You want to keep your teeth? Just say one more word and you will be eating soup for a long, long time,” he said.

  He placed handcuffs on him and led him out of the room.

  Randy waited until everything had settled before he sat back down.

  “Okay, infrastructure is fine,” he said and the others laughed. The rest of the meeting went smoothly and everyone gave their reports just like they would have if Colonel Webber had been present.

  As Margaret Olson was leaving she said, “I think you handled that well. I suspect you will have no more trouble from anyone on the committee. Well done.”

  “Thank you. I figured Captain Richardson was going to be my biggest challenge.”

  “Oh yes. Even the Colonel had to take him down a notch occasionally. He just doesn’t seem to learn. He somehow thinks he is much smarter than the rest of us. Delusions of grandeur I guess,” she said and patted him on the arm.

  “Thank you for your support,” Randy replied.

  “Not a problem. You’ll do just fine,” she said and laughed.

  “What?”

  “I can’t say ‘fine’ without chuckling now,” she said.

  ~~

  This time there were over ninety people in the clearing by the lake. Kyle was surprised at the number but he was worried as well. When you had this many people, someone was bound to shoot off their mouth. Someone could even be a spy for the Army. It was part of the risk.

  “Can I have your attention please?” he said after a few minutes.

  “I see we have a lot of new members. That tells me something about how people feel about our current situation. I have been giving this a great deal of thought on how to proceed. Would those of you who were at the previous meetings come across to this side?” he said, “And those of you that are here for the first time, over here.”

  He waited while they separated and settled.

  “Good. Now, I have specific jobs for each group. This group,” he said, pointing to the ones that were at the first meeting, “Will need to start mapping out the city. Not in the usual terms but where the Army has set up check points, have men located and where they are most heavily concentrated. If we are going to get out of here we need to know where they are located so we can spread out and leave with the minimum of hassle. I will assign each one of you a sector and it will be your job to find out where and how many soldiers are located.”

  It sounded lame to him but hopefully all they were thinking about was getting out of the city.

  “You need to be very discrete and not let anyone know what you are doing or why. We want to be able to leave as quickly and quietly as we possibly can. Write down anything that you think will help us when we exit.”

  “When do you need this?” someone asked.

  “As quickly as possible, but don’t take unnecessary risks. I repeat, no unnecessary risk. The last thing we need is someone poking around in our business. I would rather it take a few days longer than have someone get caught,” Kyle assured them.

  He looked at the second group.

  “I want you to start getting any extra supplies together that you can scavenge. There are a lot of empty houses. Any canned goods or packaged foods. Also any guns and ammunition you come across would be good.”

  “What do we need guns for?”

  “Once we leave we are going to be on our own. Who knows what we will run up against? I’ve heard stories about bands of survivors that rob and kill small groups. While we aren’t exactly small it never hurts to be prepared.”

  “Maybe we would be safer here.”

  “No one is forcing you to go. If you don’t want to, then
stay but keep your mouth shut. Don’t spoil it for those that don’t want to be held captive by our own forces even if they think it is for our own good. We have a right to choose what we want to do and no one should have the power to limit those choices,” Kyle said.

  No one said anything else for some time, finally someone spoke up.

  “Where do we put this stuff?”

  “Ah, good question. There is a U-Rent facility just off of Stanley Road. I have a large storage space there for us to put goods. I am also working on a truck big enough to carry the stuff. Remember, ration gas and save as much as you can. We will need all we can get at first. Once we are clear of the area we will be able to siphon all we need,” Lyle told them.

  There was only one tense moment when one of the group asked about stuff they might find.

  “I guess what I am asking is if we find anything we want to keep, can we?”

  “I guess so. I mean, I don’t know why not. Who would stop you?”

  “No matter what it is?”

  “I would think as long as it isn’t dangerous to others, you could keep it.”

  “Okay, I just wanted to know,” he said.

  It was not what Kyle wanted the others to start thinking about.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  USA

  Randy studied the long list in front of him. It seemed ludicrous to even attempt to tackle some of the issues and yet he knew in his heart it was going to have to be done. How was the real question? When he had finished reading the list for the second time he looked up at the other members.

  “Wow.”

  “Wow and then some,” Margaret Olson said.

  “So where do we even start?” Captain Sims asked.

  “Prioritize them. Figure out which ones we can do first and then work on the others as time allows,” Margaret suggested.

  “They all seem pretty important to me,” Captain Miller said.

  Randy knew he needed to let them carry the discussion. They knew much more than he did about setting priorities when it came to handling large problems such as these. He just sat back and listened. Only occasionally would he even comment or ask for a clarification.