From Within (6 page)

Will and Alejandro finished packing Will’s Jeep with as much as they could fit. Alejandro and Juana took a little more convincing from Lea and Will to make the decision to go. What brought them to the decision was food. Will told them he had quite the store of survival food. He let them know he was into survival and prepping and had at least a year or so supply of food stored up. He had been buying it over the last several years and had also won a few months supply worth in an online contest on a survival blog he read. The long stretch of the poor economy caused him to increase his planning and prepping. The news had continued to discuss that morning the possibility of rationing under martial law and Alejandro wanted to make sure his family could eat. The economy was already in bad shape and he couldn’t imagine it improving at any quickened pace with everything that was happening.

They moved on to loading one of the other vehicles in the driveway. Will and Alejandro kept having to remind Juana and Lea that a lot of the basics would be at the other house already. It wasn’t like they were taking some tents out to the middle of nowhere and everything needed to live for a long period of time would need to be brought. Will said they should definitely take heirlooms and valuables too. If need be, they could always make a trip back to their house. Lea made sure that all their food, including the jerky they had just made the day before, was packed in the car.

Juana was in tears as she got into the car. Will and Alejandro had been discussing a lot of different scenarios as they packed up the vehicles. They hoped for the best but planned for the worst. All the talk of worst case scenarios made Juana quite upset. Discussion on strategies for a stop at the grocery store is what had finally brought the tears. She couldn’t believe that they wanted to bring guns to the grocery store. They had also talked about scoping out the parking lot before entering it and once there having two people guard the vehicles while the other two went in armed. Alejandro had to remind her what they had seen on the news that morning and had said that the evening before no one could have imagined what would happen through the night and this morning. They had watched suburban America turn into what looked like a war-torn middle-Eastern country in only a few hours.

*****

Wanting to get a look at the situation before entering the parking lot, their two-vehicle convoy slowly passed the first entrance into the grocery store parking lot and turned onto the side street to enter from the next parking lot access. Will had only seen a couple of people rushing into the store as he drove into town that morning, but now it looked as if half the town had arrived. It didn’t look quite like the chaos the big city stores were seeing. There was a little more order to things.

Will thought to himself it must be the slower small town life and the fact that most of these people know each other.

Will pulled into the parking lot and turned around and pulled his Jeep into a spot that was facing out towards the entrance they just drove in. He motioned for Alejandro to pull next to him facing the same direction. Will wanted a quick route out of the parking lot if the people began rioting. He was anticipating with the amount of people rushing to the store due to the news that some of the basics people like to keep on hand might already be out of stock. If that was the case, Will figured people might turn to violence like crowds would do on Black Friday, regardless of whether or not they knew the people around them. They all got out of the vehicles and grouped together in between the two.

“Alejandro, I think you and Juana should stay out here while Lea and I go in and get whatever we can off of our list,” Will said as he held up a piece of paper.

Alejandro glanced over to the store entrance and then back to Will and Lea, “Are you sure it’s going to be safe in there for her?”

“It looks a little crazy in there but it doesn’t look like people are being violent. I think it gets worse on Black Friday. We’ll stay together and move quickly. Plus, I have my pistol.” Will pointed to the weapon holstered at his side, “I don’t think anyone will mess with us.”

“Okay,” Alejandro said reluctantly but still nodded his head in agreement.

“I think you two should just stay in your car for now and keep a hold on your shotgun. I can give you my shotgun to have in your car too.” Will opened up the passenger door and grabbed the shotgun and handed it to Alejandro.

Juana gasped and threw her hands up to her face. She was beginning to tear up again.

“This is too much. How could things be like this!” She cried out hysterically.

“Juana, it’ll be alright. We are just trying to anticipate the worst case scenario. We don’t really think we’ll need to use these guns but we want to be prepared,” Alejandro said as he pulled his wife closer to him and hugged her.

Alejandro and Juana got back into their car and set the shotguns resting against the seat beside them. They watched Will and Lea quickly walk into the store. Alejandro brought his window down a few inches and had Juana do the same. Alejandro kept his head on a swivel. His eyes went from mirror to mirror and out all the windows in a continual pattern. He told Juana to keep watch as well and to let him know if she saw anyone approaching their car.

Only a few minutes after Will and Lea disappeared into the store, they heard some shouting. Alejandro darted his head around and scanned the area of the parking lot he thought he heard the commotion. He couldn’t tell exactly what was happening due to all the cars in the way of his view. He could see the tops of heads as people were rushing around. He told Juana to stay in the car and that he was going to step out to see if he could get a better view. He stood up outside his car and held the shotgun low with both hands. He was in between his car and Will’s Jeep and hoped no one would see the gun. Now that he was standing he could see more of the disturbance. There were many people gathered around a small area. People were pushing and shoving each other and the shouting was escalating. He noticed six large 4x4 vehicles, an assortment of lifted trucks and Jeeps, lined up on the back lane of the parking lot. He thought they were parked there to be ready to leave quickly like he and Will had done at this other entrance. He didn’t recognize any of the vehicles. Having lived in this small town for many years he would recognize any of those if they were from the area.

As he focused on the fighting, a shot rang out from the direction he was watching and a cacophony of shouting and screaming instantly filled the air. The sound of the firing gun caused him to duck his head. He quickly turned to get back in his car and saw a man standing across from him outside Juana’s door, holding a large knife.

*****

Will and Lea had a single cart and were rushing up and down the aisles, remaining side by side the entire time. Just as Will had thought, most of the items they had on their list were already gone from the store. As he saw some items he hadn’t thought of, he would toss them into the cart. Whatever they could get would lengthen the store of survival food he already had. Most of the survival situations he imagined were more regional. The blogs he would read would base their advice on natural disasters or war zones and how people reacted to those situations. Will never imagined martial law for the entire United States.
What does that mean for the possibility of more food arriving at this store
? He always imagined state and federal aid eventually coming to the rescue after some point and returning things back to normal. It made him think of the history lessons on occupied areas during World War II. It took years before anyone came to the aid of the occupied people.

Lea was surprised when Will started loading large bottles of alcohol into the cart. He loaded an assortment of different liquors from the bottom shelf.

“What could you possibly need all that for!?” Lea asked with a baffled look on her face.

Will motioned for them to continue down the aisle as he answered. “Lots of things. Who knows how long this will all take until things are back to normal. We can use alcohol to help with sickness, cleaning, trading, and many other things.”

“Huh. I would never have thought of any of that,” she said.

“Just wait until you see what else I hope to buy,” Will said and winked at Lea.

Once they had gathered everything that they could find that was on their list, they joined one of the many lines waiting to pay. As they slowly moved forward they heard a loud bang that came from outside. Will and Lea looked at each other both wondering if they had just heard a gunshot. They didn’t have a view outside through the main entrance from where they stood so they couldn’t look to see without leaving the line and neither wanted to part from each other with how hectic is was in the store. The consistent noise from shouting and rushing of people made it hard to tell if it was a gunshot that they heard. However, Will was pretty sure that it had been. Though, he didn’t think it was a shotgun.

As they finally made it to the cashier, Will pointed to the cigarettes that encompassed the display, “Can I also get a bunch of cartons. Camels or Marlboros, I don’t really care.”

The chaotic sounds continued outside and Will thought he heard another shot. It could’ve been anything he considered with all the noise.

“I didn’t know you smoked, Will,” the cashier said.

Will was surprised that the cashier called him by name. He hadn’t looked at the lady yet because he was still thinking about the shot and also that he wanted to remember to buy cigarettes. It was Mary, his mother’s friend.

“Oh, I don’t. They are for a friend. Listen, Mary, if you already haven’t done so, you should probably make sure you get some of this stuff too.” Will swept his hand pointing from one end of the store to the other. “Who knows how long all this rioting and stuff will go on.”

“I think we’ll be okay.” She leaned in and lowered her voice, “The manager let us set aside some things for ourselves. Plus, he said that new government corporation is going to be coming into town sometime really soon. He said they are going to be rationing out food. He wanted us to get everything we needed before they came in and took everything. He said that technically he was supposed to close the store and wait until they got here to handle everything in the store. Are you all going to be fine?”

“Yes, thank you,” Will answered. “I think we’ll be set for now. And thanks for the information. We’ll make sure to get set up with rations too when that group comes into town.” Will paid and helped reload the cart.

As they walked towards the exit Lea whispered to Will, “Why didn’t you tell her we had a bunch of food at your house?”

“I don’t want too many people knowing about it. The more people that know the greater potential people will want to have some if things get worse,” Will whispered back.

“Good point. So, I understand the alcohol but you are going to have to explain the cigarettes.”

“Well,” Will began and paused for a moment, “it’s a luxury item. If they start rationing, which Mary just confirmed that they are, I’m sure cigarettes won’t be a priority to be shipped around the country. People are addicted to these things and their value will skyrocket. We could use them to buy something we need.”

“How on Earth do you even think of these things?”

Will laughed, “It’s stuff that has happened during wars or other big disasters. I read about this kind of thing on the prepping and survival blogs I read. People theorize what could happen on a much larger scale. On one hand, I hope that buying them is worth it. On the other, I hope I wasted my money and things don’t get that bad.”

They exited the store and turned to the right towards where they had parked. They both stopped abruptly. All they could see was Will’s Jeep. Alejandro and Juana’s car was gone.

“Will?” Lea said with an anxious tone in her voice.

“I don’t know,” was all he could say back to her.

Will had Lea push the cart as they approached his Jeep. He had his hand ready on his pistol. There was a deep crimson pool on the ground to the side of where the car had been. Once Will had seen it, he turned to Lea who noticed a moment after him. She put her hand to her mouth as tears began to flow down her cheeks and she began screaming.

Kenneth stood at the head of the large conference table with his hands up on his sides. He was scanning the group as people shuffled into the room trying to find a spot to stand in the space that was left.

“Alright everybody, please settle down,” Kenneth yelled out as an attempt to quiet the packed room. “There are a lot of rumors floating around and I’m going to try to clarify things as best as I can for everybody. Yes, we will be moving quite a bit of our operations to a smaller town in upstate New York.”

The room immediately erupted in displays of every emotion imaginable. Kenneth could see people nodding to each other with big smiles spread across their faces. He could also see people throwing their hands up in frustration. Some were yelling at him. There was a woman in tears that pushed her way through the crowd towards the door.

“Please, people!” Kenneth was yelling again. “I’m just the messenger on this. As you may or may not know, we are partially controlled by the new government entity...or corporation, whatever they are.” He was no longer yelling as the room had mostly settled down again, “It’s about as clear as mud. Anyway, the CMA, as they are calling themselves, are asking us to implement some of our disaster and safety plans. You may have heard that fires have been started in some of the buildings on our street and the surrounding blocks. The CMA wants us all to be safe and also for us to have continuous broadcasting. The streets are pretty dangerous right now with the rioting. The CMA has told us that they will have security posted on the streets by the end of the day to help combat the problem. Not everyone will be moving. The transition will take about a week. A very minimum crew will remain here. Well, they will remain here unless there is an emergency here. In that case, we may have to give over full control of the broadcast to one of our affiliates at a different location. The CMA has also told us that we will have plenty of assistance in the transition..as far as travel goes.”

Many began to ask questions and many others began talking to each other again. Kenneth didn’t have the answer to most of the questions he received. Too many similar questions kept getting asked over and over. He was getting frustrated.

“Listen! I’ve told you all that I’ve been told. There is plenty of work to be done. We can’t stay in here all day asking questions. You’ll find out more as I find out more. I just had a meeting with all of your immediate supervisors before this. They’ll have more information on what you should be doing for the rest of the day. Marcus, are you in here?”

“Right here,” Marcus put up his hand. He had been one of the first in the room for the meeting and was standing off of Kenneth’s right-hand side near the window.

“Marcus, follow me after this meeting. I have an assignment for you.”

*****

Marcus had to quicken his pace to keep up with Kenneth, which was difficult as he was still overly exhausted.

“You are going to be all over the place, Marcus. The CMA has things they’d like us to cover.”

“I’m sure they do,” Marcus said in a sarcastic tone.

“I know you don’t like this. I don’t like it either. But, what can we do?”

Marcus didn’t answer. He wanted to but he couldn’t think of anything to say that Kenneth would agree with.

“So the CMA has started to set up some camps around the country. They want you to go and do a story on one to show what they look like.”

“Camps? What, they already have concentration camps for dissenters?” Marcus asked.

Kenneth, surprised by the response, shot a glance over to Marcus.

“I’m just kidding,” Marcus quickly added. He then thought that maybe he shouldn’t joke about that.

“From my understanding, they are being put in place because of all the rioting going on,” Kenneth said. “They are anticipating people fleeing the big cities and trying to seek safety. I guess if you get too many people showing up in small rural areas without the infrastructure to support them then there’ll be more problems.”

“It’s still odd that they are already building these and we aren’t a whole day into the announcement of all these changes. I couldn’t have told who the CMA was yesterday. I couldn’t have told you who they were when I got here to work this morning. If they are building massive camps around the country to support people bugging out of cities, it means they already had everything they needed in place.”

“I’m with ya, Marcus. There is way too many things like that. For example,” Kenneth lowered his voice to a whisper, “they gave us a box full of I.D. badges for everyone that we are supposed to hand out today. How’d they get everyone’s information and pictures to have those ready? Someone up top must’ve known about this beforehand. They already knew we had contingency plans for relocation. They ordered us to move on those plans.”

“Huh,” Marcus was processing all the new information and didn’t say anything more.

They arrived at Kenneth’s office and Marcus was handed a packet that Kenneth picked up off of his desk.

“This has the details for what you’ll be doing for the story. You should probably go home and get cleaned up and get some rest. You’ll have a helicopter that you’ll be paired with for the time being. I think they want you back sometime in the middle of the night to head to the camp. All the details are in the packet. I think you have a long day tomorrow. There’s more than just the camp to cover tomorrow. Like I said, it’s all in that packet.”

“Anything else?” Marcus asked as he opened the packet and flipped through.

“Nope,” Kenneth answered and Marcus turned to leave. “Oh wait,” Kenneth yelled as Marcus reached the door, “your new badge is in the back of that packet. You’ll need that from now on, especially traveling with the CMA. Here is a phone as well.” Kenneth picked up a small cell phone from out of a box that sat on his desk and tossed it to Marcus. “They said cell service to the public is very patchy right now but these phones they gave us are supposed to work no matter what.” Marcus had his own phone in his hand and looked down at the screen and saw he currently did not have service. He frowned.

“I can see the writing on the wall, Ken,” Marcus said as he started to back up out of the office. “They are going to fly me to one of these concentration camps not to do a story, but to drop me off and leave me there for good,” Marcus chuckled and all Kenneth did in response was shake his head at him.

*****

Marcus placed his new cell phone in his desk drawer and closed and locked it. He didn’t care if they couldn’t contact him at his home or on his own phone. He’d be returning soon enough anyway to catch the flight to the camp. He thought of the new phone as if it were disease infested. He hated that he was now working for the corporation that stood for everything that he was against.

Marcus walked back to the conference room for the third time that day and saw it was empty again. He went in and closed the door and walked up to the window. He could see the uniformed CMA troops down on the streets below. It looked as if their presence was keeping the violent crowds away for the time being. He pulled the card Thomas had given him earlier out of his pocket and stared at it. He wondered if he should update him on the fact that he’d be out of the city the next day and also update him on WWNL’s move out of the city. He checked his cell phone and noticed he now had a few bars of service. He dialed Thomas’s number.