Martial Law (20 page)

“Hang on,” she replied, holding one finger in the air as she attempted to get a call through. “Damn, circuits are busy.” She wrote a text, and it went through.

“He only wanted me to contact General Sears’s chief of staff to expect an incoming phone call from Mr. Morgan. Sears is the chairman of the Joint Chiefs. I suppose Mr. Morgan gets his information from the top of the informational food chain.”

“I guess so,” said Steven. He grabbed her hand as they crossed Constitution Avenue onto the west side of the National Mall. Typically, the Tidal Basin reflected the lights of the King and Roosevelt Memorials. Tonight, the absence of the moon gave the water an eerie darkness. “Let’s work our way along the water down Maine Avenue. I don’t think it will be a good idea to walk through the inner-city streets. Once we pass the Gangplank Marina, we’ll make our way towards Nationals Park and your place.”

Katie replayed the phone call through her mind. Morgan had numerous other sources of intelligence, including the President’s staff.
Why General Sears
? As they crossed under Interstate 395, they were greeted by thousands of newly created pedestrians courtesy of the Metro system’s shutdown. The premature ending of the Nationals game dispersed fans to the west towards Arlington, Virginia, and the south towards Maryland. A mass of humanity, partially in shock and fear, made their way out of the city. But probably the oddest part of the entire hike towards her home was the lack of air traffic at Reagan National. Planes were grounded, the Metro was stuck in place, and confused people walked in all directions. Washington, D.C., was devoid of mass transit.
My, how things have changed already!

Chapter 37

Saturday, September 3, 2016

11:49 p.m.

27 O Street Southwest

Washington, D.C.

Between the delays for traffic and travelers, together with the extra precautions they took walking across the heart of D.C., it took over two hours to traverse the five miles from 51
^st
State Tavern. Steven and Katie quickly moved through her townhouse to gather up some essentials for the trip. Her Toyota Highlander was spacious inside and could carry a lot of gear. Steven wished she had more gas in it. The gauge read around two-thirds of a tank. They would have to find more along the way.

“Will you try to call Sarge while I load the truck?” asked Steven.

“Yes. I wish the satphone had a better charge. If I can’t reach them now, I’ll charge the phone in the truck and try again a little later.” She handed Steven another duffle packed with clothes.

“Where are the medical supplies that Donald put together?”

“I keep them in the back of the truck,” replied Katie. “I never remove certain bug-out essentials like the medical bag, a basic clothes duffle, and an
everything-else-I-wish-I-had
bag.”

“What the hell is that?”

“You’ll see it,” she replied. “It probably weighs fifty pounds.”

“If you had to walk, how would you carry it?”

“I wouldn’t take all of its contents, only the ones most useful under the particular circumstances.”

“Everything you wish you had?” asked Steven.

“Exactly. For example, I have things to create temporary shelters like paracord, mylar blankets, and a tarp. I have ways to procure and purify water like a LifeStraw, Aqua Iodine Tablets, and a small vial of bleach. There is a variety of fire starters like flint, waterproof matches, and wet fire tinder.”

“Whoa, you’ve been watching that show called
Alone
where they throw those poor suckers to the wolves in Canada.”

“That, plus Google is my friend.” She laughed. “I read a lot of survival fiction and imagined myself in the shoes of the characters. I learned from that and picked up the things I thought I might need if I found myself in a pickle out there. Some of this stuff may keep us alive.”

“Well, I’m impressed. But this should take care of all our needs,” said Steven, patting one of Katie’s 9mm handguns in a paddle holster.

“No doubt, our weapons will go a long way to protecting ourselves and what we’ve got in the truck.” She moved closer to Steven for a hug. “But a 9 millimeter can’t keep you warm at night, mister.” Steven resisted the urge to postpone the trip until tomorrow in favor of a roll in the sack with Katie.

“Listen, you better get away from me, or you’ll be in big trouble,” said Steven.

“Fine,” said Katie with a pronounced pout. He reached down for his duffle and zipped it up.

“Do you think we should get some sleep and head out in the morning fresh?” he asked, starting to have second thoughts.

“I’ve got a feeling that leaving D.C. is a good idea. This town can be volatile, and there are plenty of riot-control personnel to clamp down hard on all the citizens of the District.”

“Agreed,” he said. “I’m gonna pack the truck and then grab some food out of your kitchen for the road.”

“Let me find a map and try these calls again. Then we’ll leave.”

“Road trip!” shouted Steven as he walked to the front door.

“Yeah, road trip!” replied Katie.

Chapter 38

Sunday, September 4, 2016

1:35 a.m.

14
^th
Street Bridge

Washington, D.C.

Steven settled in behind the wheel of the Highlander while Katie attempted to use its navigation system. The traffic and weather apps were inoperable, but the preloaded maps and navigation were available. As they made their way toward the Fourteenth Street Bridge heading west toward the Pentagon, Katie thought about her staff and friends who might remain in the metro D.C. area out of a sense of loyalty to their jobs and the government. She had a brief sense of guilt for not fulfilling her duties, but her priority was survival and Steven. There were plenty of bureaucrats in Washington who would love to have her job.

“I guess it’s obvious,” started Steven. “We’ll avoid the cities at all costs. I have no desire to drive anywhere near Baltimore, Philly, Trenton, or New York before, during, or after the apocalypse.”

“According to this navigation app, it’s four hundred and fifty miles to Boston as a straight shot,” said Katie. “If we take a northerly route, finding our way as we go, it will be over five hundred miles.” She picked up the map book and started thumbing through the pages to find the state of Maryland.

“Fuck me,” shouted Steven.

“What?” Katie looked up from the map. Traffic was at a crawl heading across the Potomac River. “Is everybody leaving the city?”

“Do you blame them?” asked Steven.

As they passed L’Enfant Plaza, the traffic began to move a little more often.

“Nobody is headed into the city.” As the Jefferson Memorial came into view on the south side of the Tidal Basin, so did the military vehicles blocking the eastbound lanes of Interstate 395 and the Fourteenth Street Bridge. “Look, they’ve blocked access to inbound traffic.”

Several military transports and Humvees blocked the road, and cars leaving the city were stopped and given a cursory inspection before being allowed to pass. As Steven approached the checkpoint, he rolled down his window.

“Good morning, Airman,” Steven said to the National Guardsman.

“Good morning, sir,” he replied. “I must advise you that the city is closed to incoming traffic. Once you leave, you will not be allowed back into Washington until further notice.”

“We understand, Airman,” said Steven. He pointed at the guardsman’s uniform. “You’re with the Mississippi Guard. Aren’t you a long way from home?”

“Yes, sir,” he replied. “We were deployed two weeks ago as part of a special security detail. We’ve been instructed to cordon off the city. Please keep moving, sir.”

Steven rolled up his window and gladly continued across the Potomac. He sat quietly for a moment to digest what he just observed.

“I’ve never seen the military or the government move this quickly,” he said, breaking the silence. “They’ve closed off the city in less than five hours.”

“And they used National Guardsmen from Mississippi, who were in place two weeks in advance.”

Steven pulled off onto the George Washington Memorial Parkway and headed northbound along the river. “Do you know of any reason Washington was in need of heightened security?”

“No, I would have been informed. Maybe the troop deployment was routine. They did expand the Jade Helm exercise into FEMA Region Three this summer. Their stated purpose was to avoid the 2015 debacle in Texas and across Region Nine, where armed citizens monitored their activities. I guess in this region, people might welcome a strong military presence in the event of unrest.”

Steven thought for a moment about the public uproar during last year’s exercise. As he followed the news, he tried to differentiate between fact and conspiracy. Some aspects of Jade Helm always bothered him. “Have you noticed that the Jade Helm exercise has continued to expand every year?” asked Steven.

“It makes you wonder if they’re planning for something,” replied Katie. “Nothing has ever crossed my desk that would indicate the government hopes to implement martial law, but most of what I do is international in scope.”

People were fleeing the city, naturally. But no one, including a lawful resident, was being allowed back into the city. A National Guard detachment was a thousand miles from home, deployed just in time to secure Washington at the time of a catastrophic collapse of the nation’s power grid.
Very interesting
. It would take them days to travel to Boston, during which time there would be a lot to ponder.

Chapter 39

Sunday, September 4, 2016

4:22 a.m.

York, PA

Steven and Katie swapped driving after passing Frederick, Maryland. Upon crossing into Pennsylvania near Gettysburg, they turned northeast towards York. They had less than half a tank of fuel and decided to turn off onto some rural roads to look for gasoline and sleep for a few hours. The small York Airport helped on both issues.

“Turn here,” said Steven, pointing to the entrance to the York Airport on the right. “They might have some ninety octane fuel stored for the Cessnas or their groundskeeping personnel.” Katie cut the lights and made her way carefully along Airport Road. They reached the last building that had lawn-mowing equipment outside of it.

“I bet there’s gas in there,” said Katie. She pulled the truck to a stop.

“I bet you’re right, but do you want to climb the fence with the razor wire?”

“No, smartass,” she replied jokingly. “But I do have bolt cutters in the back.”

“Really?”

“Yes, and other essential burglary tools, including a lock-picking set and a four-way sillcock key.” Katie laughed because she’d walked right into Steven’s warped sense of humor.

“A sillycock key? I can assure you, it’s not silly at all!”

“You are so predictable. Get your mind out of the gutter. A sillcock key is used to open and close various types of water spigots when the handles have been removed. A lot of people remove the handles to keep thieves from stealing their water.”

“Thieves like you.” Steven laughed.

“Well, there’s a fine line between survival and looting when the shit hits the fan. But this is another example of where my bolt cutters and sillcock key trumps your nine millimeter.”

“No argument there.”

“So, Clyde Barrow, are you gonna do the B and E honors, or do you want a girl to show you how?” asked Katie.

“I’ll do it, Bonnie. You keep the Edsel running.”

A few moments later, Steven came jogging out of the building with a five-gallon can of gasoline and a machete. He quickly poured the roughly four gallons of gas into the Highlander and jumped in.

“How many gallons did you score?” Katie turned the truck around and headed back for the highway.

“Maybe four gallons—another eighty miles.”

“What’s the machete for?”

“Zombies.”

Chapter 40

Sunday, September 4, 2016

12:35 p.m.

Allentown, PA

Katie and Steven took the opportunity to sleep in the car for several hours before continuing east towards Allentown. The gasoline they acquired would advance them closer to the Connecticut state line, where they planned on taking backroads to avoid Hartford. Once off of the major interstate system, they hoped to encounter less traffic and locate another can of fuel to move them that much closer to Boston.

“Mother Nature doesn’t stop calling just because the world came to an end,” said Steven as he returned from his morning constitutional.

“It feels weird, doesn’t it?” asked Katie rhetorically. “Waking up in the car, in BFE Pennsylvania, was an additional reminder that our lives have changed forever.”

He replaced the toilet paper in Katie’s version of a bug-out bag and rummaged around in the back of the Highlander to find them something to eat before they hit the road. He slammed the hatch shut and jumped in the driver’s seat. “It could be worse.”

“How so?”

“You could’ve woken up with a hangover next to a naked Mets fan!”

Katie gave him a well-deserved slug. “Let’s go, asshole. If we hustle, we can make the four hundred miles or so to Boston by tonight.”

Steven wheeled the Highlander onto Route 30 and set his sights on Allentown. In this new world, he couldn’t focus beyond one hundred miles at a time. Lancaster and Reading were the next two towns on the map. As America learned about the extent of the collapse, travel would become more precarious.

“Seriously, the concept of a country with no power is just now settling into my brain,” started Steven. “You want to believe that the utility companies can send out their repair crews and make it better.”

“We saw the transformers on fire. Some of the substations were still smoldering as we drove through northern Maryland. If this has happened all over the country, there aren’t enough parts to put our Humpty Dumpty power grid back together again.”