200 Miles to Liberty

by P. A. Glaspy

  Elliott pulled his pistol out of his pocket and held it up for her to see. “I’ve been carrying one since the day it happened. Everybody should be armed, especially if they go outside. We’ll take care of teaching you how to shoot tomorrow.”

  “It’s a lot of fun, Mom! You’ll like it!” Cameron added with enthusiasm.

  Carly declined the offer of the pistol from Amanda and stuck her hands in her pockets. “I doubt that.”

  With a grin, Amanda leaned over and whispered, “I’ve heard shooting a gun releases the same endorphins as having sex.”

  Eyebrows raised, Carly replied in a hushed tone. “Okay, I might have to give it a try.”

  Chapter 3

  President Olstein opened the door to the conference room. His eyes grew wide when he found it empty.

  “Where is everyone? I didn’t tell anyone they could leave!” His exclamations were directed at no one in particular but it didn’t matter. There was no one there to hear them. He stormed back out into the hall. “David!”

  His newly appointed chief of staff, David Strain, stepped out of his office. “Yes, Mister President?”

  Olstein gestured to the empty room. “Where are the Joint Chiefs? I didn’t give them permission to leave!”

  David walked over and looked into the empty room. “I’m not sure, Sir. I wasn’t here when they left.”

  “Well, find them! Get them back here now! They need to hear my orders and start abiding by them ASAP!”

  “Yes, Sir, I’ll try.”

  “Don’t try — do it! You tell them their Commander-in-Chief ordered them to get back here immediately!”

  “Yes, Sir. Oh, here are the copies you asked for.” David handed him the pages, then turned and hurried down the hall.

  The president went into the conference room and took a seat at the head of the empty table. The wait staff had cleared the breakfast food and dishes from the room, leaving a large coffee urn and several pitchers of ice water. Olstein sat grumbling about insubordination and dereliction of duty as he read through the updated edicts he had written. Smiling to himself, he laid the paper down and went to get a cup of coffee. Adding cream and sugar to the cup, he turned back to the vacant room as he stirred the mixture.

  “There’s going to be quite a few changes around here. I can’t wait to see their faces when they hear what I have in store.”

  David had made his way to Speaker Phil Roman’s office. The walk wouldn’t have been long under normal circumstances; but with no equipment or workers clearing sidewalks and streets, it took well over an hour to walk the approximately two and a half miles. He could have gotten someone to drive him there in one of the Humvees, or even driven himself, but he needed the time to think. Since he had typed up the executive orders for the president, he knew what was in them. He knew the chaos that was about to ensue. He knew they were wrong and completely unconstitutional. He knew the man had to be stopped. He just didn’t know how. He hoped the other men did.

  After kicking snow from his boots and knocking larger clumps from his pants legs, he entered the Longworth House Office Building. He was struck by how quiet the building was. Even though Congress had adjourned for the year, there were usually people scurrying around the building — interns, clerks, maintenance, housekeeping — year-round. The lack of people gave the building an ominous feeling, like that of a crypt. He thought how poignant that analogy was. If the president got his way, the Republic was in a death spiral.

  He made his way to the Speaker’s office and knocked on the door. “Come in!” he heard from the other side. He opened the door to find Phil Roman packing clothes and personal items into a sports bag on the sofa. He looked up and smiled at David.

  “David! Good to see you. Although the look on your face says this isn’t a social call, not that we have time for those kinds of things now. Is something wrong?”

  David walked over and sat on the sofa beside the bag. “Sir, we have a problem.”

  Phil stopped his packing and gave David his full attention. “Sounds serious. What’s up?”

  David waited for Phil to pull up a chair. When he was settled, David began.

  “President Olstein has written a number of executive orders; and, honestly, I think every single one is unconstitutional.”

  David’s eyebrows raised. “How many?”

  “Half a dozen.”

  “What?”

  David looked down at his hands. “The number isn’t the worst of it. It’s the contents.”

  “Which are?”

  David pulled a folded piece of paper out of his pocket. “He instructed me to find everyone who was in the meeting this morning and tell them to get back immediately. He said to tell you all that he ordered you to get back ASAP.” He handed the paper to the Speaker.

  Phil read the content of the page, and a myriad of emotions crossed his face. Shock became amazement, which then morphed into anger. He looked at David and, without saying a word, stood up and walked to his desk. He picked up the satphone and punched in a number.

  “Charles. You need to get over here. Now.”

  General Everley must have been succinct, because Phil set the phone back on his desk after just a moment. “David, we’re working on something that will change the future for all of us in a good way. I can’t tell you what it is yet. That’s for the best. Plausible deniability for you is a good thing. You should go back to the president. Tell him you found me, and I told you I would be there in about an hour. Tell him I spoke to General Everley while you were here, and he’ll take care of contacting the rest of the Joint Chiefs. We’ll see you later. Thank you for sharing this with me, David.”

  David stood and put his coat back on. “You won’t let him know I shared that with you, right, Sir? I’m sorry to say that I have nothing at my apartment to eat. I never cook and always eat out. If I’m going to live — that is, not starve to death — I need to be able to stay at the White House. I’m ashamed but not crazy enough to think I can make it anywhere else.”

  Phil shook his head. “It will be our secret. And don’t be ashamed. That bag sitting there is my clothes and toiletries that I’ll be taking with me when I go back. General Everley and I are both moving into the barracks section. There’s food, running water, electricity … at least for a while. There’s no shame in doing what you have to do to survive, David.”

  David let a small smile come over his face. “Thank you, Sir. I’ll see you in a bit then.”

  Phil walked him to the door, shook David’s hand and closed the door behind him. To the now empty room he said, “It’ll be a little longer than that.”

  Ten minutes later, General Charles Everley burst through the door of Phil Roman’s office. He found Phil sitting on the sofa beside a duffel bag staring at a piece of paper. “What’s going on?” he exclaimed.

  Phil indicated the chair across from him. “You’d better sit down.”

  Charles sat and addressed Phil. “Okay, I’m sitting. What’s wrong?”

  Phil handed him the paper. As the general read, his eyes grew bigger and his face started turning red. When he reached the end, he looked up at the Speaker of the House, the man who quite possibly was next in line to be president if something happened before Tanner arrived.

  “This is insane! I told Arthur Stephens on day one Olstein had lost it. This proves it! He doesn’t have the power or the authority to do most of the things listed here and shouldn’t do the rest. He has to be stopped. Immediately!”

  Phil nodded slowly. “Yes. I was really hoping we could hold him at bay until Tanner is sworn in, but I don’t think we have that luxury now. He’s bound and determined to seize control of everything he can with no remorse for what the consequences may be, especially to the American people. We do need to come up with a plan and it needs to happen fast. We’ll need the rest of the Joint Chiefs to be on board. Do you think that will be a problem?”

  “Are you kidding? This one is enough to get them on board!” He pointed to a section on the
page.

  Executive Order 148921: Effective immediately, in the absence of the Secretary of Defense, the Joint Chiefs of Staff will no longer command the troops of the United States. That responsibility will rest solely with the President of the United States. As well, the Joint Chiefs will no longer be asked to advise the President on any matters, military or otherwise. They are excused from their duties.

  “Excused? Is that supposed to be like an honorable discharge? He does not have the right to do that! Hell yes, they’ll be on board!” He pulled the satphone out of his coat pocket and punched in a number.

  “This is Everley. Collect the rest of the Chiefs and meet me in Speaker Roman’s office right now!” He didn’t wait for an answer, clicking the phone off at his last word. Turning his attention back to the damning missive, he shook his head. “Well, we have no choice now. We’re going to have to remove him from office.”

  “Well, we can’t impeach him. Congress isn’t here. There’s no way to bring articles of impeachment to a vote. You know what that means, right?” Roman was looking pointedly at Everley.

  “Yes. The one thing I was trying to avoid. It will have to be a coup.”

  Phil shook his head and said, “I hate that he’s making us go there, but we cannot let him trash every aspect of our Republic in his attempts to help. If we let him start down that path, there will be no way to stop him. That saying ‘Absolute power corrupts absolutely’ describes the situation we’d be in rather quickly if he isn’t stopped. We need to make a solid plan, and there can’t be any room for error. We’ll only get one shot at this. Once we show our hand, if we don’t follow through, we won’t have another chance.”

  Charles had pulled out a pen and was making notes on the back of the paper. “Way ahead of you, Phil. Don’t worry. We’ll get it in one.”

  David walked back to the White House filled with trepidation, yet hopeful that he had done the right thing. He knew the president’s plan was wrong — wrong for the country and its possible future, bleak as it seemed at the moment. He knew it was unlawful; but with most of the government home for the holiday, the legal routes to stop him were pretty much unavailable. Yet, he had to be stopped. The fate of the nation depended on it.

  He entered the bunker and found many more soldiers and Secret Service agents there than when he had left. He stopped a Marine walking down the corridor in battle gear and carrying his rifle.

  “Sergeant, what’s going on? Has something happened?”

  The Marine paused long enough to reply, “I’m not sure, sir. All I know is the president called for all available military personnel to gear up and assemble at once in the barracks.”

  “No one knows what for?” David asked, nervous curiosity apparent in his voice.

  “Well, we heard there’s going to be a major change in the leadership of the military. No idea what that means. Excuse me, sir, but I need to get down there.” The sergeant hurried away.

  David’s hand went to his mouth as he said aloud, “Dear God, it’s starting already!”

  Chapter 4

  The area they entered had hundreds, if not thousands, of apartments and condominiums. With an average of two people per unit, that put the possible population in that one confined location in the tens of thousands. There were apartment buildings on both sides of South Middlebush, and just past the first facilities, was a housing community with hundreds of houses in it. The travelers weren’t prepared for what they found.

  To their right, an entire set of apartment buildings had burned to the ground. They could only assume that the wind pushing the winter storm through the day before had fueled the fires that burned unfettered. There was a smoky haze over the area; the acrid smells of burned wood, plastic, and possibly human flesh hung heavily in the air. Melanie placed a gloved hand over her nose and mouth.

  “Wow. Can you even imagine the heat that came off that blaze?” Hutch commented, peering through the side window as they passed the skeletal remains of the complex. “There’s no snow on the ground over there. It melted it — and we had a lot of snow!”

  “Heads up!” Darrell shouted from above. “Civilians at the next cross street.”

  Everyone inside the Humvee looked out the front. There was a large open area between the road and the apartments to their left. There were people outside, despite the bitter cold, with fires burning in large steel drums set closer to the road than the complex, probably to keep what happened on the other side of the street from happening on their side. At the sound of a running vehicle, all heads snapped around to stare at what the previous week would have barely garnered their attention yet had now become a bizarre sight. Some of them started slowly toward the Humvee, while others were backing away. When they didn’t slow down, one of the women in the group started shouting in their direction.

  “Hey! We need help! You could haul a lot of people in that camper! Take us somewhere so we can get some food!”

  Her words were followed by a chorus of, “Help us!” and “Don’t just leave us here!” along with increasing expletives hurled at them as they continued down the road without stopping. Suddenly, a barrage of bottles and rocks were being thrown at the vehicle and the camper. The occupants inside flinched, even though the projectiles couldn’t get to them. One hit the driver side window and made Hutch jump.

  “Son of a bitch!” he exclaimed as he involuntarily jerked the wheel. The movement was enough to cause the camper to fishtail slightly. Tipping the side view mirror up so he could see the top of the camper, he saw Marco sliding toward the edge. “Light! Get eyes on Perez!”

  Darrell peered around the hatch door to see Marco sliding toward the edge, trying to brace his left foot against a tiny ledge along the top of the camper, while maintaining control of his weapon with one hand, and scrabbling for purchase on the smooth top with the other. Just when he thought Marco was going over the side, he halted his progress with his other foot and the butt of his gun, which he was holding with both hands.

  “Perez! Sitrep!” Darrell yelled.

  Marco was cautiously repositioning himself, moving back to the center of the camper top. When he was situated and stable, he replied, “All good! Man, that was close!”

  Darrell gave him a thumbs up and turned back to the front. “He’s good, Cap,” he said down into the Humvee. He turned his attention back to the people outside. They were still moving toward the street, getting closer and louder. They had come to within fifty feet of the vehicle.

  “Light, I think you need to get their attention. Chamber a new round.”

  “You’ve got it,” Darrell replied. The sound of the action on the rifle expelling a bullet and seating a new one in its place created the desired effect. The growing mob stopped in their tracks, eyes shooting daggers at the man and his gun but, obviously, not taking the chance to find out for sure whether or not he was willing to carry out the implied threat.

  “Relay this message to them: We know you need help. The entire country does. This is not a search and rescue mission. We are on our way to Washington to see what we can do to help. The best thing you can do for yourselves is pool your resources and try to hold on until someone gets here with supplies. Now please step back. We don’t want to hurt anyone.” Damon recited the words from notes he had scribbled hastily in a notebook. Darrell repeated them to the agitated group outside.

  “We’re already hurting, man!” came a male voice from the crowd. “We weren’t ready for this! My family is almost out of food, so what resources do I have to pool with anyone else? I’ve got four kids who are going to be hungry tomorrow!”

  From inside the Humvee, Melanie said softly, “Oh my. Those poor children. How can they be out of food already? It’s only been a few days.”

  David Tanner looked at his wife. “Many families live paycheck to paycheck, sweetheart. Depending on when he gets paid, it’s a very real possibility. Plus, Christmas is almost here, and I’m sure folks like him have cut corners on some things to get gifts for their kids. There ar
e probably millions of families just like his out there in the same situation.”

  “This couldn’t have come at a worse time,” Melanie replied.

  “I’m pretty sure that was the plan,” Damon interjected from the front seat. “The middle of a nationwide winter storm, the week before the biggest holiday of the year, most of Congress out of town already … it’s not a coincidence.”

  “It’s a cowardly, heinous act, and I hope the president is putting a plan together to retaliate,” Tanner said.

  “I don’t think that’s in the works, Sir,” Damon replied. “Not right now anyway.”

  “Well, it will be in about thirty days, Major. Count on it.”

  Hutch cut in. “I’m going to try to get a little more speed here so we can get out of this area as fast as possible. Light, tell Perez to get ready.”

  Darrell leaned back so he could see Marco again. “Perez, hang on!” Marco gave him a quick nod and braced himself as best he could.

  At the sound of the engine’s increase in RPMs, the crowd started toward them again, voices raised in anger and desperation.

  “Please don’t leave us here to die!” one woman shouted.

  “You can’t just abandon us like this!” yelled another. “You’re supposed to help people!”

  Darrell raised his rifle and pointed it in the general direction of the crowd. “Stay back! Do not approach the vehicle!”

  While most of the crowd complied, one man rushed out to stand in front of the Humvee. “You’re not just going to drive away! You’ll have to run me over. I’ll probably die soon anyway, so this is as good a time as any!”

  Darrell turned to point his weapon toward the man blocking the road. The man’s face changed from a look of determination to one of concern. Darrell called down toward the interior, loud enough for the crowd to hear. “Orders, Cap?”