Shelter: Book 2, A Long Days Night (22 page)

“Does anyone hear anything? Does anyone see anyone?”

John and Todd use night vision monocles to see if they can locate anyone. John whispers, “I don’t see anyone. The coast looks clear.”

“OK, let’s move out, single file, everyone keep your eyes open and your senses alert for anything. I’m hoping no one’s awake. I’m also hoping the sheriff really went back to town and didn’t double back trying to catch us doing what we’re now doing.”

We slowly advance to the back of my house. Since we cut the electricity, the house is dark. There’s not even any flickering candles visible. We place one foot in front of the other, the largest problem with night vision is the lack of depth perception. We don’t see the broken branches or piles of debris on the ground, we usually know we stepped on something when we hear it snapping or crunching. To us, the sound is deafening, we’re sure we woke up everyone on my property, in reality, the sounds are very soft, no one except for us hears anything.

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The President looks into the camera, he smiles so he appears friendly to those able to watch him.  “Good evening, my fellow Americans. I’m here to address you tonight to clear up the misunderstanding with the Chinese Premier. Global warming caused by the Chinese’s refusal to adhere to the latest United Nations global warming treaties has caused the deadly drought on the west coast. The drought caused fires destroyed thousands of homes, over one hundred thousand are homeless because of China’s refusal to honor agreements the rest of the UN members have already agreed to. The Premier is lying when he promises the people of Hawaii and California a better life. Look at how well the people of Hong Kong have made out living under the Chinese. They’ve been fighting the Chinese Communist central government for ten years. The Chinese rulers have arrested people for simply speaking out against the government. I encourage everyone to take the food and water the Chinese have offered as a partial payment against the damage they’ve caused the world by causing the global warming which has caused the death of so many of our citizens. I encourage those living in Hawaii and California to reject China’s offer. It’s late, I won’t take up too much of your time this evening. God bless the United States of America and the United Nations.”

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Many of the people of California who heard the President laugh at his remarks, many realized the Chinese Premier spoke the truth. They realized he was right when he spoke about their standard of living going down while their tax burden went up, crime rates doubled and tripled. They watched their jobs disappear, they watched their towns be turned into copies of Mexican towns and villages. Many sent telegrams, emails and text messages to Sacramento demanding an election, questioning the future of California. The people in the state who are very liberal, are torn, they don’t know if they should support the Chinese, a governmental system they’ve supported for many years, or their President who they’ve also supported. Most decide to take a wait and see attitude.

The California governor watched the President’s address smiling, knowing he made the key points that needed to be made. He knew his people would side with the President. An hour later his chief of staff entered the governor’s office carrying a large box of messages, “Mr. Governor, we’re getting swamped with messages from the people of the state.”

“I assume that the majority are backing the President.”

“Mr. Governor, no majority, so far it’s running five to one for holding a popular vote on the Chinese question.”

“It can’t be. I don’t believe the liberal and right minded people of California wouldn’t agree with the President. Let’s wait a little while so the pro-President messages can catch up and pass the pro-Chinese ones. The crazy Tea Party must have stuffed the message box with tens of thousands of ugly messages. I’m going to wait till morning when the President calls, tell him the messages are running in his favor. You may have to erase many of the pro-Chinese messages so we never received them. Prepare a press release I can issue in the morning which will be picked up by the morning news programs.”

“Yes, Mr. Governor, I’ll have one ready for your review in an hour.”

The governor thought, it had to be the crazy Tea Party in San Diego and the Central part of the state who stuffed the message box. I’m sure they will forget everything about the vote soon enough.

The media picks up and reports the governor’s press release starting with their 6 AM broadcasts. The news anchors reports, “The governor has reported the messages are running five to one pro the President’s stance. He said he has no plans to call for a vote on the Chinese question.”

The co-anchors agree that no one in their right mind would side with the Chinese point of view versus their beloved President. Hearing the news reports, the average citizens, many of them unemployed, homeless, broke, hungry and thirsty take to the streets protesting their lack of having the ability to vote on the issue. Hundreds take to Highway 101 in Los Angeles, the crowd grows to thousands, within an hour there are over one hundred thousand blocking the 101 freeway. Traffic trying to get into central Los Angeles is backed up to Santa Monica, the congestion spreads up and down the 405 freeway and the Pacific Coast Highway. The protesters are soon joined by an additional fifty thousand, they sit down, closing the 101 freeway. The Major and Governor try to reason with the protesters who refuse to move until an election is scheduled. The Mayor calls the Mayor of New York City for advice. He’s advised to join the protesters, to show solidarity with them. New York’s mayor advises him to support the protesters against the governor which will ensure his reelection. LA’s mayor pauses to digest what his friend in New York City said to him. He decides to follow his friend’s advice and go against the governor. He tells his staff to find a way to get him into the center of the protest. His chief of staff says, “Mr. Mayor, that’s not a good idea. Those people might not be happy to have you join them.”

“Arrange to have food, water, and portable toilets brought to them.”

“Mr. Mayor that would make both the Governor and President very angry. It will tie up traffic for days. We’re going to have to close the freeways until we can back the people off and find a detour around the demonstration.”

“I think it’s a good idea to close the freeways until we can get everyone off of them safely and prepare the detour. Tell the Governor and President, I have decided to support the people whose voices are never listened to by Sacramento and D.C.”

“Sir, what if they order you to leave the freeway?”

“They can order me all they want, I report to the people, not to them. In fact tell them they can go screw themselves. I’m going to show my support for the people who feel we’re not listening to them.”

“Sir, how long are you going to stay on the freeway?”

“Until the people get the election they’re demanding.”

“Sir, what if the people vote to accept the Chinese proposal?”

“Why would anyone want to break away from everything we’re providing them? We’ve turned LA into a paradise.”

“Sir, not everyone is going to agree with you on that.”

“Get me a list of their grievances. I’ll promise them I’ll look into them.”

“Mr. Mayor, the people sitting on the 101 aren’t going to buy your statement, you’ll look into their issues. Are you the mayor of all of the people or not?”

“Get me a list of their issues before I arrive there so I’m aware of what they’re going to hit me with.”

“Yes, sir. When are you planning on leaving?”

“In an hour.”

“We’ll have the list before you leave. Sir, there is the possibility the governor will call out the state police or the National Guard.”

“Get me the police commissar and the LA, County Sheriff. See if I can get their support.”

“Sir, I’ll make the calls, but be aware that they have their hands full, we have a very small amount of gasoline for our cars, we’ve had to reduce their patrols and we’ve had to leave more than 60% of the city without any roaming police patrols.”

“Can we increase the patrols in the short term?”

“Sir, not unless you can secure us additional fuel.”

“See if you can borrow it from the state agencies.”

“Will do.”

“I’m going to go home and pack, I’ll be ready to join the protesters in forty-five minutes.”

“Yes, sir.”

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We’re standing in the humid darkness of my back yard, the nervous sweat is running down my back like a river. It’s sending chills down my spine. I’m worried that the branch we stepped on and broke has alerted the mob. We hold the advantage in having night vision and automatic weapons, on the other hand, they have the numbers, which has proven useful to them before.

Chapter 14

In ancient Rome, Emperor Nero played his fiddle while Rome burned, in the current crisis, Congress and the President fought with each other trying to figure out the way out of the many crises occurring across America, not to mention, the world. The President wanted to increase taxes on the rich, again, reduce the military and increase government spending to stimulate the economy. He wanted to hand out trillions of dollars so people could have money to spend on food. The Republican-held Congress reminded the President his previous stimulus programs not only didn’t kick start the economy, in fact, there’s proof that the previous two stimulus spending bills increased the number of unemployed and extended the recession. Congress issued releases aimed at the President and his advisors reminding them this financial crisis was different from the 2008 recession. This was a worldwide currency and debt crises. Borrowing more was going to compound the debt problem. The Chinese are fighting a naval battle in order to absorb Hawaii and have gone directly to the people of California asking them to vote to join China. The President was ‘tone deaf,’ he refused to budge, he continued issuing executive orders which forced stimulus payments and borrowing through the executive agencies. Congress finally turned against the President. By a wide margin, enough to over turn a Presidential veto, the House voted to reduce all federal spending and voted to reduce the country’s debt limit. This placed Congress in a direct head to head battle against the President. Both sides took their case to Federal Court. While those inside the Beltway fought political games, the rest of the country burned out of control.

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Europe stood on the edge of another war for the first time since 1945. France, Spain, Italy, Greece and the United Kingdom threatened Germany with war if they withdrew financial support from the rest of Europe. Germany’s Prime Minister replied she was ready to defend the German people and force repayment of funds owed to the German banks and people. She ordered the total mobilization of Germany’s military. She poured salt into the EU’s wounds by ordering the ex-East German Army units to Germany’s western borders. Hundreds of German tanks lined up on the border facing the French army. David Cameron, the United Kingdom’s Prime Minister, asked his friend, General Dunford, the US Marines Command for military support, Cameron was shocked when General Dunford told his old friend that the UK and Europe was going to have to go it alone this time. America was tied up with its own internal issues and their battle with China. Cameron reminded his friend that America had been able to fight Germany and Japan, why couldn’t she now fight Germany and China.

General Dunford laughed when he told his friend, “David, in 1941 the people were behind the decision to go to war, Congress gave the military a blank check. Our industrial might quickly converted from consumer to war production. Today it takes years to build one fighter which costs $100 million. A destroyer takes three years to build. We don’t have any consumer industrial might to convert, it’s all in China and Asia. We have our hands full battling the Chinese, who are fighting us in the Pacific and waging a PR war against our people in California. I’m sad to say, they’re winning the PR battle. Our President doesn’t want to fight the Chinese, he’ll never agree to send troops to Europe.”

“General, if America doesn’t send support, the odds are very good that except for our small Island, the rest of Europe will be speaking German in a year.”

“David, I’m sorry, you people decided to pick a fight with Germany, Greece decided to tell her to stick the billions owed up her ass, how did you expect her to respond? Did you think she would bend over and say, again please? She’s a tough old bitch. She will crush Europe to get her money back, if she can’t get you to pay her, she’ll take it out of your hides. We gamed the results in the Pentagon if she decided to back her threats with the German military. Our games showed she would defeat the rest of Europe in six months. The only reason it would take six months is she will have to feed and care for the civilians she captures. Our game said she wasn’t going to give back the territory she won, this time Germany will keep everything she conquers.”