The City Burns: A Prepper's Struggle for The Truth Read online

  Jim leaned in and whispered. “If you get that drive can you track down the sources of the orders that were sent?”

  “Yes, but I’ll need enough processing power to do it,” Matt answered.

  “Where is it?” Jim asked.

  “There’s a safe in the basement of my office building. You can only get to it through the vault behind the guard station. The code to get in is 4-2-8-5 and you’ll need to use a guard key. They keep spare ones in a lock box in the bottom left drawer of the desk. That’ll be locked too, but should be easy enough to get inside.

  “Now, once you’re inside the vault there will be a red filing cabinet. Pull the cabinet out and open the panel in the wall. The combination for the safe is 12-1-22-58. The hard drive is inside.” Jim’s voice stayed at a whisper, “Once you have it you’ll be able to figure out who’s been behind all of this?” Matt nodded his head. Jim paused for a moment and weighed his options. Could he pull this off? Could he get into the city and back without them knowing? Would it be safe to leave the girls here while he was gone? He wasn’t sure who he could trust.

  “I’m going to take the girls with me,” Jim said.

  Matt’s jaw dropped. “What? Half of Phoenix could still be rigged to blow,” Matt said as his voice rose with panic. “They might just be waiting for more people to come back in and kill!” “If I don’t make it back with this drive, then you’re still locked in here and the girls are at the mercy of whatever asshole gave you those bruises,” Jim replied.

  Jim shook his head. “No, I’d rather keep them close. If this drive has everything you say, then it could go very, very deep.” Matt’s eyes started to water. “Jim, I can’t—” his voice choked off before he could finish, but Jim knew. Those girls were his lifeline right now. He couldn’t lose them, and neither could Jim. Jim placed his hand around the back of Matt’s head and held tight. He looked him dead in the eyes. “I’m not going to let anything happen to them,” he said, “You hear me?”

  Matt nodded slightly and then wrapped his arms around him. A pounding at the door told them that time was up. Matt stood in the center of his cell as Jim glanced back once last time before the metal door clanged shut and locked. As Jim walked back down the hallway, everything that had just happened started to sink in. Someone or a group affiliated to that person was helping cause all of this. All of his theories started to connect. It was well organized. They knew how the military would react. Whoever was behind this had been one step ahead, because they always seem to know the next step.

  All of the emotions since the bombings in San Diego started to reappear. He thought back on the chaos of getting out of the city; fighting off muggers and roadside bombers who were trying to kill him. He thought of all those things he went through to find his family.

  Coyle and Brett were outside the building when he exited. Sergeant Hult was hovering back keeping an eye on them. Jim waited until they were out of ear shot before speaking.

  “Brett, do you have extra ammo and weapons in your trucks?” Jim asked.

  Brett nodded. “Yeah, I’ve got some.”

  “And anyone else you know you can trust?” Jim asked as Brett and Coyle struggled to keep up with him as they walked.

  “Twink. He’s quiet, but I’d trust him with all our lives,” Brett put his hand up to Jim’s chest to slow his pace. “Jim, what the hell is going on?” Coyle leaned in. “I think Jim wants to do something stupid,” he said. Brett’s toothy grin appeared across his face one more time. “Hell yeah.” Jim pulled the two of them close as he continued his walk back towards the truck.

  “Coyle, I need you to go and get the girls and have them meet us back over at the truck,” Jim said. “No gear. Just bring them. Got it?” he asked. Coyle started to protest, but Jim’s tone became sterner. “Coyle, now,” he barked. Coyle nodded and broke off towards the tent where he’d seen the girls taken.

  Brett nudged him with his elbow to grab his attention. “I love stupid things as much as the next guy, but you want to tell me what’s going on?” “We’re going into the city. There’s something in there we need to get, and we’ll need to get it fast. As soon as we leave, Hult will be hot on our tail.” Jim motioned back to Hult who was in step with them about one hundred feet back. Jim continued. “We’ll do it during supper tonight. That’ll give us a few hours to get everything together.”

  Brett looked at him shocked. “You want to break out of here when the sun’s still up?” he asked. Jim nodded. “Those guard towers have men stationed in them around the clock. I want to take the truck with us and we’re never going to be able to get that thing out during the middle of the night without them noticing. There’s still traffic from personnel coming and going during the day.”

  Jim motioned over to the front gates where there was still a decent flow of jeeps, trucks, and other military vehicles entering and leaving. “We’ll slip out right under their noses,” he said.

  Jim found Coyle, Samantha, and Annie at the truck and filled them in on the plan. Annie asked if she could bring Tigs, and much to her dislike, it looked like Tigs was staying put. Samantha pulled her close. “We need somebody to stay here with daddy, right?” She nodded her head, but wasn’t very convincing in her agreement.

  Once the camp started dinner rotation they had planned to go in with the first group and eat while Twink stayed with the truck. Before the next group entered they would leave and head for the truck. Jim and Coyle would suit up in Brett and Twink’s spare fatigues and Samantha and Annie would hide under the cargo gear. If they were stopped, Brett would just show them their return orders, since they were supposed to leave that day anyway.

  When the first dinner call went out Jim thought Coyle was going to puke. There was a green tinge to his face. Jim walked over to him and asked him if he was nervous. “Yeah,” he replied.

  “It can’t be worse than when we were getting out of San Diego,” Jim said reassuringly.

  Coyle shook his head. “No, it’s not that.” He put his hand over his stomach as they got closer to the food tent. “I’m just so tired of this military food.”

  The five of them entered the mess hall together. The plan was to have Annie and Samantha finish their meals first and leave. Then Coyle would finish next followed by Brett and Jim. Jim wanted to hang back last so he could see if Hult was in the first, second, or third dinner rotation.

  When they sat down Jim did a quick scan, but didn’t see him. Coyle reluctantly ate through half of his “mush” while Brett shoveled his down a little too eagerly. Annie and Samantha finished and set off for the truck where Twink was waiting for them. Jim gave Annie a hug and a kiss on the cheek and told her to remember what he said.

  She nodded and whispered to him. “I have to stay invisible until you tell me it’s safe.”

  “Right,” he said. Jim kissed the top of her head one more time and squeezed Samantha’s hand before the two of them disappeared out of the tent. Jim leaned in over to Coyle who was still staring at his tray of gray and white. “If they’re not there when you get to the truck you find me right away, got it?” Jim said.

  Coyle sat staring into his mush plate. “If I die from malnutrition on the way to the truck will you bury me in a coffin of cheeseburgers?” Brett chimed in. “Make sure I’m invited to that.” Jim tried to get them back on track. “Hey, did you hear—”

  “Make sure I find you if they’re not at the truck when I get there,” Coyle responded. “Yes, I heard you, Jim.” Coyle’s voice was raised a little too high and a few of the soldiers behind him turned their heads. When Coyle went to get up, Brett grabbed his tray before he could throw it away. “For Twink,” he said. Brett folded up the meat blobs in some aluminum and tucked it in his jacket.

  Jim and Brett waited another ten minutes before heading out. They tossed their trays in the wash line. As Jim turned the corner, he was met by Hult staring him in the face with his rifle over his shoulder. “Locke told me about you, Farr,” Hult said. “He said that with your record in
the service that you could have been a general yourself, but instead you threw it all away when you were discharged.” Hult didn’t flinch, or move as he spoke. He was a rock. A robot. The perfect order-taking, no-nonsense, shoot-first-ask-questions-later reactionary.

  “A file doesn’t tell you everything,” Jim said as he walked past Hult with Brett at his side. “Your father’s file seemed to say everything that needed to be said,” Hult shouted.

  Jim stopped dead in his tracks. Brett started to go back after Hult, but Jim stopped him.

  Jim approached Hulk slowly and with calculation. He looked Hult dead in the eye until they were nose to nose. Hult gave the first smile Jim had ever seen him have.

  “Brian Farr was a deserter, coward, and all around piece of shit marine who didn’t have the balls to save the men in his unit.” Hult glanced down and thought for a second. “How many men died that day? Twenty?”

  Jim’s whole body tensed up. His teeth grinded as he drew in a deep breath, trying to keep the rage from breaking and rushing over him. He’d heard the stories of his father since he was a boy. When he first joined the Navy, his superior officers always looked down on him with a sense of pity and disgust. Everyone thought that Jim would be like his father. He looked like him. He spoke like him. But Jim wasn’t him. Jim told himself he would never be him. “Come on, pussy.” Hult was egging him on now. “Let’s go.”

  Jim stopped. The girls. If he did something stupid now he wouldn’t be able to keep them safe. He had to stay the course. He had to finish this mission. Jim stepped back slightly. The distance between him and Hult grew. Each step back the smile from Hult’s face fell downward until Jim couldn’t see it anymore. Brett kept his eyes on Jim. He didn’t know what to say, so he didn’t say anything. Like Jim he knew that you have to push aside what you felt and wanted. The mission took priority.

  When the two of them got back to the truck he saw Coyle in his fatigues looking incredibly awkward. Coyle kept fumbling with sleeves that were too long. “I look like a camouflaged bed comforter.”

  The only thing that didn’t look awkward on Coyle was the rifle. As much as he went to the range, he was probably a better shot than Jim. Jim peaked in the bed of the truck and flipped the cargo lid up. Samantha and Annie were crammed in. Annie looked up at Jim with big pouty eyes. “Can I get out yet?”

  Jim leaned in and whispered, “Not yet.” Samantha looked pissed as he closed the lid. Coyle walked up behind him. “Just so you know, I don’t want to be the one that lets mamma bear out of that box.” Brett threw Jim a pair of fatigues. He dressed, checked the weapon for ammo, and jumped in the back. Twink finished the dinner that Brett brought him and started up the truck. They bobbled along the dirt road to the front of the gate. Coyle’s grip on the rifle tightened as they got closer.

  Jim noticed how Coyle’s knuckles were turning white. “Hey,” Coyle said, “start telling one of your dirty jokes when we go through.”

  “What?” Coyle asked.

  “Do it. It’ll make you less conspicuous,” Jim replied.

  Twink slowed the truck as it crawled up to the front gate. An MP came to the driver side and Brett handed him the orders.

  Jim nodded to Coyle who reluctantly started to tell a joke about a guy who walks into a bar and sees this little man playing a piano. Jim’s eyes wandered over to the MP who was looking over the orders. He looked up and glanced into the back of the truck at Jim and Coyle.

  “Stay right there.” Another MP said approaching them. He kept his rifle in the crook of his arm, while the first MP looked over the orders and spoke into a phone in the guard booth. Jim tried to make out what he was saying, but couldn’t. The MP put the phone back down, walked out and handed the papers back to Twink. “Okay, looks like you guys are good,” replied the MP.

  The gate lifted and they rolled out onto the highway. The base behind them got smaller and smaller until Jim couldn’t see it anymore. He lifted up the lid to the cargo trunk and Annie climbed out, followed by Samantha. “Next time you can ride in the box,” she said with an air of bitter resentment. Annie hopped on the bench next to Coyle as the truck rumbled along towards downtown Phoenix.

  Back at the camp Hult sat in a tent re-watching the footage of them leaving the front gate. He turned to one of his men at a small control panel. “Is the honing beacon on?” he asked. “Yes, Sergeant,” the soldier replied. Hult cracked a smile as the sound of magazines clicking into rifles filled the tent around him.

  Chapter 3

  Jim had only visited Phoenix once before last Christmas. Up until then Matt, Samantha, and Annie had lived in San Diego. Last year Matt had got a job offer that he couldn’t refuse and relocated the family, although Jim assumed he now regretted the decision.

  Jim didn’t remember too much of the city, but he did remember that it wasn’t as rundown when he visited, and from the look on Samantha’s face she wasn’t thrilled about what the current residents had done with the place either. Trash littered the streets as trash can fires burned down alleyways and street corners. Windows were smashed and stores were looted. Cars were flipped onto their sides or roofs. The people they came across just scattered at the sight of the military truck. Jim wasn’t sure if this was because of something they’d encountered with military, or because they were the ones looting.

  Brett slid the rear window open so Samantha could help with directions. She pointed further downtown where the skyscrapers were. “It’s about three more miles on the left. You’ll see the PamTech sign,” she said. Coyle jumped in the conversation. “How do we even know that the drive is still there? I mean what if it got looted with the rest of the city?”

  Jim shook his head. “From what Matt told me you wouldn’t be able to find it unless you knew where to look.” Although Jim started to doubt that as they rode further into downtown. The conditions just kept getting worse, and the number of people they saw started to increase. These people, however, didn’t scatter when they saw the military truck.

  “Get down.” Jim motioned for Annie and Samantha to stay low below the truck bed’s walls. He scanned the people on the sides of the street as the truck wove in and out of random parked cars that were abandoned during the evacuation. Then he started to see them. Hidden at their sides or around their backs. Guns. His eyes scanned up towards the buildings above them. He flipped the safety off the AR-15 and slowly brought the butt of the gun up to his shoulder.

  Jim shouted over to Brett and Coyle, “Keep an eye out for the top floors.”

  Annie started to whimper down below. “I thought it was safe,” she said. “I thought we could come out now.” Samantha stroked her hair and whispered to her, “We’ll be fine, sweetheart. We’ll be fine.”

  Twink pointed ahead. “There it is.” Brett turned around and shouted, “Thirty seconds, Jim.” The people alongside the street were growing in numbers. Bats, crowbars, rifles, guns, knives; most everyone that was outside was armed with something. Jim kept his finger just over the trigger and looked into the scope. He must have counted at least sixty people on his side alone.

  “Coyle!” Jim shouted. “How many you have on your side?” Coyle held the rifle’s sites up to his eyes as he surveyed the make shift militia. “At least forty,” he shouted.

  The truck was moving slower now that the thickened cars were piling up. The truck finally came to a stop. Brett turned around and saw Jim and Coyle with their rifles at the ready. “We’ll have to hoof it from here, boys,” Brett said. Jim jumped out of the truck and helped Annie down. He told her to stay behind him. Samantha piled out next and grabbed one of the ARs.

  Jim looked at her with his brows raised. “You remember how to use that?” Samantha racked the chamber and checked the scope. “I was always a better marksman than you growing up,” she said.

  Twink jumped out of the driver side and kept his rifle on the circling crowds and they all met up at the front of the truck. Brett motioned up ahead. “There it is,” he said. Jim felt it all coming back. The adrenalin
e coursing through his veins as his heart pumped faster. The heightened sense of awareness that allowed him to see and feel everything around him; it was like riding a bicycle.

  “Samantha. Coyle. You two keep Annie between you. Annie,” Jim glanced down from his weapon and saw the fear in the girls’ eyes. “You don’t leave their sides got it?” She nodded her head as tears started to roll down her cheeks. Jim nodded over to Coyle and Samantha. They shot him a nod back.

  “Let’s move,” Jim ordered. The group moved as a unit with Jim covering the back left, Annie sandwiched between Coyle and Samantha on the back right, and Twink and Brett plowing ahead up the concrete steps to PamTech’s entrance.

  The crowd started to move towards the truck and once they were safely inside PamTech’s lobby the crowd started tearing the truck apart. They took whatever they could find and swarmed it like ants piling on crumbs left on the ground. Coyle looked through the glass doors as the truck rocked back and forth in the street. “Well, there goes our ride,” he said.

  Jim jumped over the security and dug into the bottom left drawer of the desk and pulled out a guard key. He walked over to the door and entered the code: 4-2-8-5 and slid the card key through the reader. Jim yanked the door open and Samantha, Annie, and Coyle followed him. Twink and Brett stood watch at the door. Jim pulled back the red filing cabinet to a solid, concrete wall. Jim ran his hands along the cold grey, but couldn’t find any creases.