TYRANT: The Rise (11 page)

Jess was becoming frustrated the longer she searched. Eventually she found a door that led outside to a fire escape. She took the fire escape to the outside ground level and took cover in the alleyway, being careful not to alert the men to her south, who still had their backs to her. From cover to cover she moved northward, away from the action, with her M4 at the ready.

Jess knew she was in a very precarious situation. She spared no caution as she carefully moved through what she could now tell was a large town. She did not hear the sounds of children playing, nor the sounds of bustling traffic. She saw no people on the street, save those she’d seen running earlier. However, there were signs of life. She observed clotheslines hanging from building to building and potted vegetable plants that looked maintained but had no bloom.

Jess knew her luck would eventually run out if she didn’t find a place to hide until she could move under cover of darkness. She saw several vehicles sitting stationary along every roadway. She opened one door, unfolded the rear seat, and climbed into the trunk. She had determined to wait for night before doing anything else.

The Posse had followed the bus’s last known direction along the train track headed northeast, through potentially hazardous woodland and past small settlements. The Posse knew the horses would be a good meal for anybody trying to live free of the governments control. Nathan and Denny, in particular, knew this area well. Nathan used to play on these tracks as a child and he knew where they led, and that put an uneasy feeling in his gullet. Denny knew the route because he took it regularly with a small band, by night, to fetch beef. They had passed that juncture now and Denny was in unfamiliar territory.

“Hold up here a second, guys,” Nathan said, and the Posse came to a stop.

“I need every one of you to be especially watchful in these parts. These tracks head straight toward the old town of Murphysboro. It used to be a thriving subdivision for college kids that attended Carbondale’s college university. But now, there’s no telling what it’s become. I’ve heard tales of cannibalism and raiding bands.”

“Perhaps we should hitch the horses and proceed on foot,” Denny opted to advise.

“I agree,” said Warren, a twenty-nine-year-old Posse member.

Warren had served in the Navy as an electrical engineer, but now, he served with the Posse as a veteran experienced with rifles and pistols.

As the group neared Murphysboro, they approached from the southwest side of town. They moved through the woods, towards town, until they located an old farmhouse. It was apparent that it had been ransacked previously. The group searched the house and didn’t find anything of much use. Denny did take notice of some spray-painted walls with graffiti that read “Southside Raiders.”

“That’s what I was afraid of,” Denny said.

“What’s that?” Warren said from the other room, as everybody rallied up on Denny.

They looked at the graffiti and wondered if they were going to have a problem with the band of raiders.

“We need to keep moving,” Nathan said.

They continued on alongside the railroad tracks. Warren saw the bus first. It was parked up ahead on the tracks. “Guys, look ahead.”

Nathan immediately gave the hand/arm signals to disperse left and right. The group scattered to the tree line on either side of the tracks and advanced forward until they reached the bus. Nathan gave the hand signal to remain still. He moved toward the bus, looking over the sights of his rifle. Once he had reached the bus, he carefully approached its side, where he entered the doorway and climbed the steps. There was no sign of Jessica or the weapons. Nathan exited the bus and gave the hand sign for rally on me.

The group joined Nathan inside the tree line and formed a circle, as if huddled to listen for instructions.

“Guys, whoever took this bus has our weapons and possibly Jessica. That means they’re armed and probably a large group.”

“What’s the plan, boss?” Denny asked, willing to follow Nathan anywhere he would lead.

“I’m going to move ahead, by myself, and scope out the area.”

“I don’t like that,” Warren said.

“It’s not your call,” Denny barked back. “I’ve been through the wringer with Nathan before, and he knows what he’s doing.”

“Whatever. I meant no disrespect, just concerned for his safety.”

“I’ll be fine, Warren, more fine than if we go as a group. It’s easier to move quietly and unseen when you’re alone. I’ll move ahead while you guys remain right here. I’ll be back within a time span of two hours. If I’m not back by then, head back.”

Denny knew what Nathan meant by “head back.” Denny had no intention of leaving Nathan alone. But he agreed with Nathan, as did the rest of the Posse.

Nathan made sure his weapons were locked and loaded, then stepped off towards the town.

After a few minutes of travel, Nathan stepped out of the woods and found himself in a park. He moved from tree to tree until he came within eyesight of State Route 149. From there, he used the cover of buildings and abandoned homes. He could hear somebody speaking by use of loudspeakers. He followed the sounds of the voice, up Route 149, to a horrific display of barbarism. Nathan saw UN and US soldiers hanging from streetlights and power lines at the entrance of the city limits. The UN soldiers were hanging by their necks and the US soldiers were hanging by their feet. This enraged Nathan, but he felt powerless against an unknown foe. He took a knee and listened to what was being said from the loudspeakers.

“NO LONGER ARE WE SLAVES TO A TYRANNICAL GOVERNMENT. NO LONGER ARE WE VICTIMS OF A NEW WORLD ORDER. WE LIVE LIFE AS WE WANT AND WE TAKE THE LIFE THAT TRIES TO HIJACK OUR LIBERTY. THESE SOLDIERS THOUGHT THEY COULD WALTZ INTO OUR TOWN AND TAKE IT FOR THEMSELVES. THIS IS THE PUNISHMENT FOR THEIR OFFENSE AND THIS WILL BE THE ANSWER EVERY TIME THEY ASK FOR OUR GUNS.”

Nathan had heard enough. He knew he was outnumbered and outgunned, even without seeing the size of his foe. He was unsure about leaving Jess behind, but he knew he had to get back to the Posse before they did something stupid. With that, Nathan backtracked to the Posse and spent the remaining hours of daylight explaining what he had seen and heard.

There was no doubt, they wouldn’t be able to waltz in, as he had heard the speaker say, but maybe under cover of dark, they could sneak in. The group discussed the possibility of sneaking in by night, but eventually decided that even if they did sneak in, they wouldn’t know where to go from there. Nathan agreed, but his heart was heavy. The group wanted to cut their losses and forget about the whole endeavor. It wasn’t that easy for Nathan. He was vested by having feelings for Jess, but wasn’t willing to risk the welfare of the group.

“There’s a flip side to this,” Denny said.

“What do you mean?” Nathan asked.

“We still don’t know if Jess stole from us or if she was taken, but that’s a moot point when you take into consideration the fact our camp has now been compromised.”

“He’s right,” Warren said. “If they know where we live, they can come back and take more.”

A whole new world of problems had just been opened up to Nathan. Now he felt that he had to head back and relocate the camp. He knew that would be no easy undertaking, but couldn’t ignore the possibility of an assault on the camp was extremely likely, especially given the numbers he expected the Southside Raiders to possess.

“I know he’s right. He usually is. Okay, we go back, reorganize, and relocate.”

Darkness was falling, and the Posse used that advantage to follow the train tracks back home.

Somewhere in Murphysboro, Illinois

Jess woke up in pitch blackness. She carefully lowered the rear seat that concealed her position and crawled into the cab of the car, from the trunk. She was unsure what town she was in until she saw a Highway 5 sign and knew she was in Murphysboro. She made her way, building corner to building corner, hiding wherever she could. The streets were alive with activity. Gunshots could be heard at random times along with screams of despair or pain. Jess tried to push the horrors of what was really happening out of her mind.

I need to focus on finding food
, Jess thought to herself. She wanted to avoid going into living units, whether they be houses or apartments, for fear of not having the advantage. Eventually, she made her way to a small convenience store. The shelves were empty. There were no bags of food, no canned goods, no medicine, not even crumbs. Jess realized how bad things had become in the cities and small rural communities.

There was no order, only anarchy where no American could live free from tyranny. Even with an absence of government in this town, there was still tyranny. Jess had a realization that night. She used to think that their fight was against the government, because it had become tyrannical. Suddenly she realized her fight had broadened and become much more complex. Her fight was against tyranny, in all its forms. She now saw the same evil in the citizenry as she did in the government. It was suddenly real to her that the great war of her lifetime had just become a whole lot more complicated. Suddenly she felt smaller and her workload had increased a hundredfold. If America was going to be free, it would take more than replacing a bad government, it would take the changing of the hearts of man. Tyranny isn’t a political party, and a tyrant isn’t a bureaucrat. Rather, tyranny is the use of power to subjugate, and a tyrant is the man with a heart evil enough to do it.

Jessica was now seeing that tyranny had more than one form. She saw it in her capture, and she was now hearing the screams of the victims of tyranny. Suddenly, she could put a face on her enemy. It could be anybody and was made evident by their actions.

“Please, no! Please don’t. It’s all we have,” a woman screamed from around the corner. Jess readied her M4 and ran toward the screaming. She heard a man swearing in an aggressive, deepened voice. “Give me the bag.” A shot rang out and then there was silence.

Jess came to the corner of the building where she had heard the gunshot, and peeked around the corner. She saw a woman bleeding out at the feet of a burly man in a flannel shirt. He was going through a backpack, which Jess figured belonged to the woman now dying on the ground. Jess laid her rifle against the building and removed the pistol from her holster. She tucked it in the small of her back, then stepped out from around the corner.

“Can I have some of that?” Jess asked the man, who quickly turned around, as if startled.

He was surprised to see a female as attractive as Jess walking alone at night. The man took one look at Jess, then walked toward her. As he walked, he was donning the backpack, and walked about two steps past Jess, looking around the corner to confirm that she was alone. He saw the rifle and looked back at Jess. He then grabbed her and thrust her against the building in a way only a sexual sadist would enjoy. He had one hand on her face and neck and the other controlling her shoulder. Two shots rang out, and with them, bright flashes from Jess’s .45 S&W. The man let go of Jess and stepped back. She watched as he fell to the ground and she quickly went to the aid of the other woman, checking her carotid artery. Jess knew she was now deceased.

Jess returned to the man, who was not yet dead, and removed her Leatherman from the sheath. He was groaning as she cut one shoulder strap of the backpack so she could more easily remove it from the dying man. She patted him down and found a Walther P22 pistol. She put it in the pack and stood back up and ran back to retrieve her M4. She shouldered it and stepped over the dying man in the dark alley. Jess headed southwest toward camp, unsure what awaited her in the night.

East Saint Louis, Illinois, October 27

Buchanan and his men found themselves in the notorious East Saint Louis area. They had tried to avoid the route altogether, but were funneled onto State Route 3 due to road blocks and street violence. They lost a heavy gunner plowing through the area. They did not waste their ammo to return fire, but instead continued southbound, with the sound of plinking bullets hitting their convoy until they were out of the area.

Looking overhead, Buchanan and the rest of the men could see Reynolds in his Black Hawk. He was now using the same frequency to communicate.

Choosing to move off of a popular state route, Buchanan gave the order to move down along the Mississippi to a small county road that followed the river south. He knew for certain that the UN was utilizing the Mississippi to enter the Midwest United States. That would mean their avenue of transport would be the Mississippi River coming from the Gulf of Mexico. What Buchanan didn’t know was where the UN shipments were being unloaded. Were there specific points? Were they random? He realized he needed some UN POWs to get any answers.

Buchanan, looking at his map, saw that the next probable location to secure a shipment would be from the bridge over the river in Chester. That would be another fifty plus miles down the road. To get there meant they would have to traverse back to a popular highway. His map revealed that Route 3 would take them directly to the bridge.

Buchanan thought hard about it as they traveled. He didn’t daydream like most do as they travel, but thought strategically about where they were, what they were going to do next, logistics, etc. He thought it would be both prudent and wise to secure that bridge and control it. The only problem was, he didn’t know the size of his enemy or how long his supplies would last. Would he and his men be like the brigands and raiding parties before the end?

“Seven Romeo, Seven Romeo, Bravo One,” Buchanan said on his PRC-77 radio.

“Bravo One, this is Seven Romeo. Ready to copy,” Reynolds replied.

“Find a safe place to nest on runway. Over.”

“10-4,” Reynolds returned.

Buchanan thought to himself that it was time to organize a static base and the bridge was a key logistical point. Trade routes between Illinois and Missouri could be guaranteed, and UN movement over and under the bridge could be restricted. It all made sense to Buchanan, but he wanted to include his senior staff because he knew that down the road, he may need to appoint them field commissions and give them their own control points.