The Independents (8 page)

As the military personnel
started
arriv
ing
, there began a series of unintended consequences. Young soldiers
, suddenly pulled
from the relatively isolated confines of their bases
,
were shocked to see the state of their countrymen. Of course, this led to many of them wondering how their
own
wives, parents and families were doing back home.
As the situation deteriorated, the National Guardsmen were the first to begin deserting in waves. Thei
r families were usually geographically close by
and sometimes even within the city where th
ey were constantly reminded of their directive
to maintain order – at any cost. Desertion was
not tolerated by the American
m
ilitary. As more and m
ore personnel
were consumed by court m
artials covering
everything from dereliction of duty to sedition, overwhelmed officers began implementing harsher and harsher punishments.
A
young Nebraskan reservist was
the first to be
executed by firing
squad,
o
nly two weeks after his unit
occupied Oklahoma City. His crime was
sneaking food to his
cousin’s family. Nothing degrades a military unit’s moral
e
more than having to execute their own. Many soldiers commented they had joined up to defend America – not
kill her citizens and each other.

This is why the map on the wall of the V.I.P. quarters at Fort Knox continued to turn any other color but
t
he blue that
indicated f
ederal g
overnment control.

Shortly after it became apparent the military wasn’t going to be able to reestablish order
,
what remained of his
cabinet had approached
the
president
with a
new
plan.
T
he problem seemed simple enough:
food and
energy.
While the forces under the
president
’s contro
l had made every effort to jump
start American food and fuel production, ultimately the original plan was failing. The inter-dependency of a complex
,
free market economy
,
combined with the geographic dis
bursement of resources
,
seemed to handicap any effort. No single location had all of the tools, spare parts, electrical
energy,
and know-how to reorganize effectively
. The lack
of communication capability
was the
primary cause of failure for many of the attempts.
Almost every communication outlet in the United States was electrically operated.
Without television, radio,
email
or newsprint, calling in workers, rep
airmen or even finding the location of a spare part
was next to impossible.

A case in point was when the commander of
Portland
was approached by
two c
aptains of Brazilian
freighters tied up at the city’s
dock. They had several tons of refrigerated beef onboard
,
orig
inally destined for Japan. The c
aptains couldn’t requisition the diesel fuel necessary to make the trip and offered their cargo if it could be unloaded before it spoiled.
The commander agreed and ordered
military personnel to go house-to-house and retrieve
the crane operators and other wo
rkers to unload the ships. This seemingly simple task
took
a significant amount of time because
the payroll records
, and thus the home addresses of the workers, were sto
red on computers
housed in a different city
. A
time consuming house-to-house search
throughout
the city of Portland
was the only way to identify and contact
dockworkers
. Even if the military had commandeered the local television stations, powered them up
,
and broadcast the order for the crane operators to report to work,
the audience
would be
mostly comprised of upper middle class people who owned generators. Electricity was not generally available
to
white-collar
workers
. By the time the beef was being unloaded, most of it had spoiled.

The
president
listened intently as his staff outlined
what had been named Operation Heartland
. It was clear
that the resources available were insufficient to start any sort of recovery nationwide.
The
plan
was to begin with a small, limited area of the country containing all of the basic components required to initiate the recovery. Once this had been accomplished, they would use that region as a base of operations and expand outward from there. As the assets required to accomplish this plan we
re outlined to
the C
ommander-in-
C
hief, he had to agree that it all made sense. The first requirement was electrical power, and it was decided that nuclear power plant
s
w
ere
the best option. The second requirement was
for the refinement of
diesel and
gasoline
fuels.
The
third
,
and most important aspect
,
was large quantities of food
stuffs
.

The POTUS was shown a map that outlined the only region of North America known to possess all
three of these requirements. The area identified by the White House and Pentagon experts was the Mississippi River delta from New Orleans
, north
to
a
parallel with Chicago. The territory for 150 miles east and west of the river would be the focus of the vast majority of the government efforts.  Every available government resource from the Army Corps of Engineers to the Department of Agriculture would concentrate their efforts on securing this section of the heartland. The great river systems would
provide
the primary transportation
artery
. The nuclear power plants in Illinois and Louisiana would be restarted to provide energy. The vast stores of grain held in co-ops and along the river ports would be utilized to
start producing food. When the spring planting season arrived, the
Great Plains
would once again feed the hungry nation. A large percentage of the nati
on’s beef and poultry producers
had prospered
in this same geographic region as well.
The Gulf Coast, the region’s
southern border, possessed numerous refineries and could also contribute seafood harvested from the
G
ulf
of
Mexico
.

There were two major risks associated with Operation Heartland. The first was that the military had all but ignored this area during the initial deployment of forces. New Orleans,
Baton Rouge,
Memphis
,
and St. Louis were the only cities in the region that had received troops. The status of Memphis was currently unknown. The second risk was
sacrificing the stability and recover
y of the rest of the nation.
W
hat would h
appen to areas on the east and west of this initiative
when resources were reallocated to
accomplish the plan?
Currently, m
ost of the cities being help
ed
by the military were barely maintaining some level of law and order
,
and if the number of troops were reduced, no one could predict the consequences.

But the most prevalent complication was the lack of good
communication.
Beaumont
,
Texas, central to an area rich in refineries required for Operation Heartland
,
was used as an examp
le. No one knew how this medium-
sized city had coped or organized after the collapse had occurred.
Without at least minimum information,
the level of resources required to initialize production of fuel
was a complete unknown
.

The
president
absorbed all of the information being presented
, followed by the
inevitable
unending debates, due largely in part to lack of solid information. Debate without resolution was to be expected in a situation where no clear answer was apparent.
After listening to point and counterpoint for over five hours, the chief executive cleared his throat and stood. The conference room became silent as he paced
in front of the assorted
maps and charts scattered a
round the room.
Finally,
he announced, “When all of this started, I agreed to our initial actions without knowing the facts. I’m not going to do that again. Whatever our next step is
,
ladies and gentlemen, it is our last. We have one shot left
,
and it needs to be the right move. W
e
simply
don’t have enough information
to make a good decision
here
. Can
we
-
what do you call
it, General
-
perform a
reconnaissance
of these critical areas
,
and then make informed decision
s
?”

Eventually
, it was determined that a variety of
experts, both milita
ry and civilian, would execute
fact
-
finding
missions. The
president
sensed what was at stake and wanted input from people he trusted.
It wa
s thought that the majority of senators and c
ongressmen were in hiding or had not made it out of Washington D.C. alive. The few who had reported in to military commands had used their influence to be transported back to their home states and districts
,
and most had not
been
heard from since. It w
as finally determined that the
president
’s staff would reconvene the
next
day with a list of
recommendations concerning who would be assigned these
all-important
duties.

The following day had been a long and difficult one. For all of its former power and glory, the Unite
d States government was virtually incapacitated
.
A year ago, the
president
’s staff would have been
inundated with a practically endless list of available
academic, business
,
and government
professionals clamoring to fulfill the
job
s. Some would
have
volunteer
ed
to expand their influence and power,
while others were simply patriots. In the
end, choices were made
. Many of the people selected
had a personal history with the
president
. For the first time in his life, the POTUS made his selections based purely on qualifications and his belief that he could trust
the
people who would bring him their
recommendations. Influence, political favors and party influence had no bearing on his decisions.

Orders were drawn u
p and transmitted to the
military commands surrounding the area
defined for Operation Heartland. T
he POTUS hoped
this
plan
would
stir
the phoenix
to rise
from the ashes of the United States.

Those orders had been issue
d
some time
ago, and the information that had drifted in since was mixed at best. He was waiting on one final report before
making the decision regarding
the operation.

When the g
eneral returned a few minutes later, his report was the same as the day before – no new
information
.