Firebase Freedom (7 page)

Read Firebase Freedom Online

Authors: William W. Johnstone

Sam began working for Sarah's father, Nat Goren, at Mid-American Trucking. He worked first as a driver, then as a manager, then he bought half the business, and when Nat Goren retired, Sam bought the entire business from him. It had been an extremely profitable operation until the total collapse of the nation, which closed banks and rendered money useless. The collapse had cost Sam over four million dollars.
When Sam went back inside he could smell the aroma of roast chicken with carrots and zucchini.
“Mmm, it smells delicious. What are we celebrating?”
Sarah chuckled. “We are celebrating that we have chicken,” she said.
“Reason enough for celebration,” Sam agreed.
“Does it look like rain?” Sarah asked.
“No.”
“Too bad, the garden could use a little rain. Dinner's about ready.”
“Good, I'm starved.”
“Tell me when you aren't starved,” Sarah teased.
Sarah filled two plates, then sat down to the table with her husband. He reached across the table and took her hand. “I love you,” he said.
“I love you too.”
“I can't imagine my life without you.”
“Why would you have to imagine it? I haven't found any new boyfriends,” Sarah teased.
“You just try, I'll tell them how much you snore,” Sam said, smiling back at her.
“I do not snore.”
“And lemons aren't sour.”
They ate their dinner before Sam gathered enough nerve to tell her what had happened today.
“Sarah, I've something I want to talk to you about,” he said.
“What?”
Sam showed Sarah the decree.
“What? What does this mean?” she asked, her voice weak.
“It means we no longer own the company,” he said.
“They can't just make you sell out to them, can they?”
Again, Sam reached across the table to take Sarah's hand. “My love, I wish they were buying us out. They aren't. They're just taking the company, lock, stock, and barrel.”
“No!” Sarah said, as her eyes welled with tears.
“There is an alternative,” Sam suggested. “Another path we could take if you are willing to do it.”
“What is that?”
Sam showed Sarah the relocation document. “I want you to read this, and tell me what you think of it.”
She looked at it for a moment, then glanced up at him, her eyes showing some hope. “Sam, do you think this is for real? I mean is there really a place where we can go and start all over, away from . . . from all this?” She made a motion with her hand to encompass “all this.”
“Yes, I do think it is for real.”
“Well, what's the catch? There must be some catch to it.”
“The only catch I've been able to learn about, is that we will be signing over not only our business, but all our property—house, furniture, and cars. Also, when we report for transport, we can each carry only one suitcase.”
“Well, if we're leaving Dallas, what good is our property to us? We may as well sell it.”
“Uh-uh,” Sam said, shaking his head. “The truth is, Sarah, whether we take this offer or not, we are going to have to give up our house, and we won't be paid for it.”
“You mean it's not just our business? They're going to take our home as well?”
Sam shook his head. “No, they are taking our house, not our home. We are our home.”
Sarah paused for a moment, then nodded. “All right,” she said. “Yes, let's do it.”
“I'll go down and make the application tomorrow,” Sam replied, relieved that it had gone easier than he thought it would.
“What do we have here, anyway?” Sarah asked. “A little bit of this, and a little bit of that?”
“A pot, a hat,” Sam replied, smiling as he remembered the lines. Together, they began to sing.
“Anatevka.”
C
HAPTER
E
IGHT
Mobile, Alabama
 
The first casualties of all public schools were the extra-curricular activities such as band, orchestra, chorus, and drama. History books were changed as well, and the students were taught that there had never been the holocaust, and that the continued perpetuation of that lie would be a sin.
The country once known as the United States, was the most hated country in the world because of its sins against the Muslim people. It was by an act of Allah that the United States was destroyed.
They were also taught that
life for non-Muslims, and for all women, even Muslim women, is worth but a fraction of that of a Muslim male. The greeting, “Peace be upon you,” is specifically for Muslims, and cannot be spoken to infidels. Jihad in the path of Islam is the noblest of acts.
Eddie Manning was a student at LeFlores High School in Mobile, Alabama. Eddie's father, Paul, had played football at the University of Alabama for Paul “Bear” Bryant, graduating in 1983, the year Bryant coached his last game. For his entire life, Eddie, who was sixteen years old, had dreamed of playing football for the Crimson Tide. He had been the backup quarterback for LeFlores High School during his sophomore year, and would have been the starting quarterback his junior year, but there would be no football at LeFlores High School this year. There would be no basketball, baseball, or track either. Eddie's girlfriend, Jane Poindexter, would have been a cheerleader this year, but of course, that program was also dropped.
The natural competitive spirit was such, however, that Eddie and many of his friends continued to play football in pickup games. But even these non-sanctioned games were banned, and one day twelve boys from the ages of fourteen to sixteen were gathered in an empty lot for a football game as two cars arrived. The cars were unmarked, and for a moment they just sat at the curb.
“Eddie, what do you think that is?” one of the boys asked.
“I don't know, but I don't like the looks of it,” Eddie said. Eddie was sixteen, and a born leader, so it was natural that the others should defer to him.
“What do you think we should do?”
“I think we should get out of here.”
“There's no markings on the cars,” one of the other boys said. “Maybe they're just football fans, and they've come to watch us play.”
“I don't think so,” Eddie said. “I don't have a good feeling about this. I think we should . . .”
That was as far as Eddie got before eight bearded men, all wearing
dishdasha
and
taqiyah,
spilled out of the two cars and started toward them. All eight men were carrying automatic weapons.
“Run!” Eddie shouted when he saw what was happening.
All twelve boys were athletes, so they were able to outrun the men, but not the bullets from their weapons. The eight men opened fire, and three of the running boys were shot down. Eddie and the other eight got away.
Later that same day, the nine boys who had been playing in the open field gathered in the garage of one of the boys. Shortly after they gathered, they heard the
Adhan
, or Call to Prayer.
Allahu Akbar
Allahu Akbar
 
Ash hadu alla ilaha illallah
Ash hadu alla ilaha illallah
The boys had left the door open to the garage and all of them got down on their knees, bowing toward Mecca. But this was just for show, because they knew that there were patrols through the neighborhoods, checking to see if the people were obeying the call to prayer.
In fact, though from some distance it looked as if they were being reverential, they were anything but, because they carried on a conversation throughout the ten minutes of “prayer.”
“Eddie, Keith's mama asked me if I knew where he was,” a boy named Timmy said.
Keith Leslie was one of the three boys who had been killed that morning. All three bodies had been picked up and taken away. As a result, none of the families of those who had been killed knew what had happened to them.
“What did you tell them?”
“I said I didn't know.
“That's good. Don't tell them anything.”
“Don't you think their own parents should know what happened to them?” Carl, one of the other boys asked.
“You think they aren't going to find out? They just don't need to find out from us,” Eddie said.
All the time the boys were talking, they were bowing repeatedly.
“That don't seem right,” Carl said.
“Listen guys, you can't tell anyone that we know about this, not your brother, sister, parents, or best friend.”
“You think they'll tell on us? My mom or dad would never tell on me,” another said.
“That's not the point, Burt,” Eddie said. “Anyone we tell is going to be involved, and then they'll be in danger. Do you want the police to come looking for your mother and father?”
“No.”
“Then do like I say, and don't say a word about this to anyone.”
The “prayers” were just finishing when a car stopped out front.
“Eddie, what do you think this means?” Burt asked.
“Nothing,” Eddie said. “Everyone, sit down and be holding a Koran. I'll talk to them.”
Two bearded men, each of them wearing
dishdasha
, walked up to the garage where, by now, the boys were all sitting on the floor, each of them holding a copy of the Koran.
“Salaam
,” Eddie greeted the two men. He saluted them. “Obey Ohmshidi.”
“Alaykum,”
one of the two answered. “Obey Ohmshidi.”
“We have just finished with the prayers,” Eddie said. “Now we are reading the Koran. Would you like to join us?”
“You are Eddie Manning, aren't you?”
Eddie felt his blood run cold. “Yes, sir.”
“You played something called ‘quarterback' last year. I am told this is an important position in the infidel game of football.”
“I was backup quarterback.”
“I am also told you would have been starting quarterback this year. This, too, is said to be important.”
“It was important before I learned better. Now I have learned that football is evil and a sin against Allah, so I have no wish to play the game. I don't want to sin against Allah.”
“Suppose a group of young men gathered to play the game, not for a school and before large crowds, but on an empty lot somewhere? Would that be a sin?”
“I don't know, I've never thought about it like that.”
“There were some boys playing football on an empty lot this morning. When some of Allah's warriors went to arrest them, they ran. They all got away.”
When the man said “they all got away,” he stared closely at Eddie to gauge his reaction. Eddie knew that three of the boys had not gotten away, but he gave no indication of that knowledge.
The two men stood there for a moment longer, then they started back to their car.
“Peace be upon you,” Eddie called, but neither of the two men looked back.
“And may a pig shit on your next meal,” Eddie added under his breath. The other boys snickered, but didn't laugh out loud for fear of being heard.
“They know it was us,” Carl said. “They know we were the ones playing football.”
“They don't know anything,” Eddie said. “They were just fishing. Did you see the way he looked at me when he said that everyone got away? He was waiting for me to say something about the three who didn't.”
“I'm scared,” Tim said. Tim O'Leary was the youngest one of the group.
“Everyone, just keep your wits about you,” Eddie said. “If you do that, I think we'll all be all right.”
“You
think
.”
“Yeah, I think.”
“Where did all these people come from? I mean, how did the whole country turn Muslim all of a sudden?” Burt asked.
“I doubt that most of them are really Muslims,” Eddie said. “I expect most of 'em are like my mom and dad. They turned Muslim to get the ID cards.”
“That's what my mom and dad did,” Carl Edwards said. “My dad said he had to do that to keep his job, and be able to buy food and gas.”
“I'm not ever goin' to turn Muslim,” Burt said.
“We may not have any choice. I mean, I don't want to be Muslim either, but if it's ‘turn Muslim or don't eat,' I'll turn Muslim,” Eddie said.
“Turn Muslim and have some barbequed ribs,” Burt Rowe said, and all laughed.
The next morning the residents of Mobile woke up to loudspeaker-equipped trucks driving through all the residential areas of the city. On both sides of the truck, so that it could be seen from either side of the street, was a single command, written in large letters:
OBEY OHMSHIDI
The letter “O” in the word Obey, duplicated the national symbol.
“Attention, parents of children from six to seventeen. All children from six to seventeen must be brought to Ladd Stadium by four o'clock today. They must be registered in order for your identity card to be valid.”
The residents of the city asked each other what that meant, and if they had heard anything about it. A few went into the street to try and stop the trucks to inquire as to what that meant, but the trucks refused to stop. They continued cruising throughout the city for the entire morning, repeating the same message.
“Attention, parents of children from six to seventeen. All children from six to seventeen must be brought to Ladd Stadium by four o'clock today. They must be registered in order for your identity card to be valid.”
In addition to the loudspeaker-equipped truck, flyers were posted about town.
ATTENTION PARENTS
ALL CHILDREN FROM SIX TO SEVENTEEN
MUST BE BROUGHT TO LADD STADIUM BY
FOUR O'CLOCK TODAY
FOR IDENTITY REGISTRATION
THOSE WHO REFUSE
WILL BE SEVERELY PUNISHED
“Are you going to take Eddie to Ladd Stadium?” Clara Poindexter asked Edna Manning.
“It looks like we don't have any choice, so, yes, I will be taking him. Aren't you going to take Jane?”
“I suppose so. But what is it about, do you know?”
“It says for identity registration. I fear if we don't, we may lose our ID cards, then what would we do for food, electricity, water, and gasoline? You can't even work without identity cards.”
“That's probably true. But I don't mind telling you, this bothers me,” Clara said.
“What bothers me more is the warning that anyone who refuses will be severely punished. We've seen some of the severe punishment, and I've no wish to have anything to do with it, thank you very much.”
“You're right, we don't have any choice. Would it be all right if Jane and I ride with you, when you take Eddie down today?”
“Of course,” Edna said.
“Oh, we'd better not go without this,” Clara said, and she held her hand over the bottom half of her face, indicating that they should wear a veil over their faces.
“Don't worry,” Edna replied. “I've already received one warning for not wearing a veil. I don't want to risk a second.”
When Paul and Edna Manning, along with their son, Eddie, and Clara Poindexter, with her daughter, Jane, arrived at Ladd Stadium, they saw posted on every lamppost in the parking lot:
OBEY OHMSHIDI

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