Ok here is my first real shot at writing since high school. It is not exactly a SHTF story but it sort of is. Please feel free to make comments and suggestions. I really need a better title. I have written more, but I will wait to post it in case I need to make major rewrites.
1 April 2013
It started like any other weekday. Mike woke up a littlelate and was rushing to work like most days. Everything seemed normal when hegot to work, and the morning went on without incident until around 9:30. Mikegot a call from Sam a sergeant in his reserve unit. They had just had trainingon Saturday so Mike assumed he had forgotten something at the armory when hesaw his caller id.
“Hey what’s up Sam?”
“Mike you need to turn on a TV right now. There is somethinggoing on.”
Mike did not have a TV at the office so he did the next bestthing and went to Fox News on the internet. The banner at the top of the screensaid something about a military presence at several National Guard armories around the country. Mike thought it was odd.
“Sam I see something in the Fox News ticker but it does not make sense. There is nothing scheduled today that I know of at our armory. We just had training on Saturday.”
“Mike I know. What do you think is going on?” Sam sounded a little concerned.
“Sam meet me at the old bowling alley a couple of blocks from the Fairfield armory in 10 minutes. We need to do a quick check and see what is going on.” Mike hung up the phone and took off for his car.
Ten minutes later Mike pulled into the bowling alley parking lot and Sam was already there looking a little nervous.
“Sam you look like you have seen a ghost.”
“Mike I just saw two cars go down the road toward the armory full of soldiers. They were not our soldiers though. I think they were Chinese.”
"Ihope you didn’t bring me all the way out here for an April Fools joke.” Mike said half-jokingly.
“Mike I know what I saw. We should be really careful here.”Sam did not look like he was kidding.
“Alright let’s get to it.”
They walked towards the armory and when they got closer they slipped into the woods behind the large concrete and steel building. Sam had brought some binoculars and what he saw was not good. At least 50 Chinese troops surrounded the building. Several were working on sandbagging machine gun emplacements and building what looked like rudimentary defensive positions.
“That’s not good.” Mike said.
Sam did not have to say much. “What’s the plan lieutenant?”Sam only called Mike that when they were at their monthly guard training sessions.
“We need to get a hold of the captain ASAP. Let’s get out of here and let’s not let them see us.”
By the time they got back to the bowling alley Mike had a plan. “Those guys at the armory looked like they were expecting a fight. If they are securing all of the armories that way we are in trouble. All of our heavy weapons are in there. Between the National Firearms Act and Hughes Amendment, we have basically no machine guns outside of those armories and what is on other military bases. Go home and gear up Sam. Call anyone else you can think of from our unit or even anyone you know who ever served. In fact if you know anyone you would trust in a fight call them too. I think the **it is about to hit the fan.”
Mike called his wife and told her to get the kids and get home. He sped home thinking thoughts that a US citizen should not have to think about in the safety of his own country. Halfway home his phone rang. Captain Evans was on the other end. “Mike I got your message but it sounded like you’ve been drinking. “
“I wish it was just a joke Captain that would be better.The armory is locked down by what look like Chinese troops. I would guess about fifty. They are sandbagging and generally fortifying the building. They were driving in normal cars and trucks. They had AKs and light machine guns.”
“Mike the National Guard has people in that building 24/7,and they have not called or anything. Don’t you think we would have heard something by now over official channels if what you are telling me is true?” The captain was trying to reason with Mike for some unknown reason. In his 37 years Mike had seen a lot of people that had trouble dealing with news that seemed impossible and indeed what he was telling the captain seemed impossible two hours ago.
“Captain the US has a large amount of military weapons stored in National Guard armories like ours across the country. Most of our active duty military is spread around the world and they have their weapons with them on their person or on base in Afghanistan, Iraq, Japan, etc. You know civilians cannot afford machine guns, and they are not allowed to buy anything else other than a semi-auto AR15 or AK-47.” Mike felt like some militia nut job saying this, but it dawned on him that maybe not all of those militia types were nut jobs.
“Alright Mike I will call some people and see what I can find out.” Mike was still not sure Evans believed him.
“Thanks Captain. Sergeant Meyers and I are going to round up who we can in case this is what it looks like.” Mike hoped this might spur the Captain to quicker action.
“Be careful Mike and please don’t go marching around town in full combat gear.” Evans hung up the phone. Mike was home five minutes later. Mike was a gun enthusiast and he had a nice little collection at home. He also had his Guard uniform and boots but no helmet or other gear. That was all in the armory. No one had ever thought that a foreign army might somehow get to the armory before the locals could. Mike wondered how the Chinese had gotten into the country fully armed without anyone noticing. Mike heard what sounded like fully automatic gunfire in the distance and it sounded like it might be an AK. Most US combat veterans would be able to pick out AK47 gun fire from any other sound on earth. There is something unique about that weapon and being shot at by it seemed to instill that knowledge into just about every US veteran since the Vietnam War. Mike had served on active duty between the Gulf wars and was now a member of a Guard unit. He had somehow only managed to go to Iraq once and had not seen any action while there.
Mike put on his combat fatigues and hat and loaded up with 8 magazines and his favorite AR15. Just then the phone rang. “Mike did you hear that? I know you wanted me to stay out of trouble. I got over to Smith’s house,and we were getting ready to head out. We saw a Chinese patrol get out of a car on his street. They put a map on the hood and were looking around and pointing a couple of different directions. We set up an ambush and took them out. A couple of them got a few shots off before we put them down. Once we were sure they were dead we took weapons and ammo off of the bodies. They had maps and a list of all PD, guard, reserve, active duty, and retired military in the area. We think they were headed to Smith’s house and got lost in his neighborhood. This is bad.”
“I was hoping we had more time. Meet me at the gun shop on 3rd street in 20 minutes. Try to avoid more patrols.” Mike tried not to sound too nervous on the phone.
Mike called his wife and told her to get the kids to her parents house and not to come home. His name was also on that list the Chinese had, and he did not want his family getting caught in the middle of a Chinese patrol. He gathered up some of his families clothes and ran them over to his in-laws house. He left them on the front porch and took off for the gun shop.
Copyright windellmc 2012
1 April 2013
It started like any other weekday. Mike woke up a littlelate and was rushing to work like most days. Everything seemed normal when hegot to work, and the morning went on without incident until around 9:30. Mikegot a call from Sam a sergeant in his reserve unit. They had just had trainingon Saturday so Mike assumed he had forgotten something at the armory when hesaw his caller id.
“Hey what’s up Sam?”
“Mike you need to turn on a TV right now. There is somethinggoing on.”
Mike did not have a TV at the office so he did the next bestthing and went to Fox News on the internet. The banner at the top of the screensaid something about a military presence at several National Guard armories around the country. Mike thought it was odd.
“Sam I see something in the Fox News ticker but it does not make sense. There is nothing scheduled today that I know of at our armory. We just had training on Saturday.”
“Mike I know. What do you think is going on?” Sam sounded a little concerned.
“Sam meet me at the old bowling alley a couple of blocks from the Fairfield armory in 10 minutes. We need to do a quick check and see what is going on.” Mike hung up the phone and took off for his car.
Ten minutes later Mike pulled into the bowling alley parking lot and Sam was already there looking a little nervous.
“Sam you look like you have seen a ghost.”
“Mike I just saw two cars go down the road toward the armory full of soldiers. They were not our soldiers though. I think they were Chinese.”
"Ihope you didn’t bring me all the way out here for an April Fools joke.” Mike said half-jokingly.
“Mike I know what I saw. We should be really careful here.”Sam did not look like he was kidding.
“Alright let’s get to it.”
They walked towards the armory and when they got closer they slipped into the woods behind the large concrete and steel building. Sam had brought some binoculars and what he saw was not good. At least 50 Chinese troops surrounded the building. Several were working on sandbagging machine gun emplacements and building what looked like rudimentary defensive positions.
“That’s not good.” Mike said.
Sam did not have to say much. “What’s the plan lieutenant?”Sam only called Mike that when they were at their monthly guard training sessions.
“We need to get a hold of the captain ASAP. Let’s get out of here and let’s not let them see us.”
By the time they got back to the bowling alley Mike had a plan. “Those guys at the armory looked like they were expecting a fight. If they are securing all of the armories that way we are in trouble. All of our heavy weapons are in there. Between the National Firearms Act and Hughes Amendment, we have basically no machine guns outside of those armories and what is on other military bases. Go home and gear up Sam. Call anyone else you can think of from our unit or even anyone you know who ever served. In fact if you know anyone you would trust in a fight call them too. I think the **it is about to hit the fan.”
Mike called his wife and told her to get the kids and get home. He sped home thinking thoughts that a US citizen should not have to think about in the safety of his own country. Halfway home his phone rang. Captain Evans was on the other end. “Mike I got your message but it sounded like you’ve been drinking. “
“I wish it was just a joke Captain that would be better.The armory is locked down by what look like Chinese troops. I would guess about fifty. They are sandbagging and generally fortifying the building. They were driving in normal cars and trucks. They had AKs and light machine guns.”
“Mike the National Guard has people in that building 24/7,and they have not called or anything. Don’t you think we would have heard something by now over official channels if what you are telling me is true?” The captain was trying to reason with Mike for some unknown reason. In his 37 years Mike had seen a lot of people that had trouble dealing with news that seemed impossible and indeed what he was telling the captain seemed impossible two hours ago.
“Captain the US has a large amount of military weapons stored in National Guard armories like ours across the country. Most of our active duty military is spread around the world and they have their weapons with them on their person or on base in Afghanistan, Iraq, Japan, etc. You know civilians cannot afford machine guns, and they are not allowed to buy anything else other than a semi-auto AR15 or AK-47.” Mike felt like some militia nut job saying this, but it dawned on him that maybe not all of those militia types were nut jobs.
“Alright Mike I will call some people and see what I can find out.” Mike was still not sure Evans believed him.
“Thanks Captain. Sergeant Meyers and I are going to round up who we can in case this is what it looks like.” Mike hoped this might spur the Captain to quicker action.
“Be careful Mike and please don’t go marching around town in full combat gear.” Evans hung up the phone. Mike was home five minutes later. Mike was a gun enthusiast and he had a nice little collection at home. He also had his Guard uniform and boots but no helmet or other gear. That was all in the armory. No one had ever thought that a foreign army might somehow get to the armory before the locals could. Mike wondered how the Chinese had gotten into the country fully armed without anyone noticing. Mike heard what sounded like fully automatic gunfire in the distance and it sounded like it might be an AK. Most US combat veterans would be able to pick out AK47 gun fire from any other sound on earth. There is something unique about that weapon and being shot at by it seemed to instill that knowledge into just about every US veteran since the Vietnam War. Mike had served on active duty between the Gulf wars and was now a member of a Guard unit. He had somehow only managed to go to Iraq once and had not seen any action while there.
Mike put on his combat fatigues and hat and loaded up with 8 magazines and his favorite AR15. Just then the phone rang. “Mike did you hear that? I know you wanted me to stay out of trouble. I got over to Smith’s house,and we were getting ready to head out. We saw a Chinese patrol get out of a car on his street. They put a map on the hood and were looking around and pointing a couple of different directions. We set up an ambush and took them out. A couple of them got a few shots off before we put them down. Once we were sure they were dead we took weapons and ammo off of the bodies. They had maps and a list of all PD, guard, reserve, active duty, and retired military in the area. We think they were headed to Smith’s house and got lost in his neighborhood. This is bad.”
“I was hoping we had more time. Meet me at the gun shop on 3rd street in 20 minutes. Try to avoid more patrols.” Mike tried not to sound too nervous on the phone.
Mike called his wife and told her to get the kids to her parents house and not to come home. His name was also on that list the Chinese had, and he did not want his family getting caught in the middle of a Chinese patrol. He gathered up some of his families clothes and ran them over to his in-laws house. He left them on the front porch and took off for the gun shop.
Copyright windellmc 2012
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nice read..
