299 Days VIII: The War (8 page)

“Sure,” she said. “Why isn’t Todd doing it?”

“I will do it,” Todd said, horrified that his wife was being more of a man than he
was. “I’ll ride shotgun, or ‘AK’ if that’s what you call these things.”

“Problem solved,” Willden said, somewhat sarcastically. Rich people are so high maintenance,
he thought.

They went over the plan one more time, but they had it down by now.

“We’ll go at sunrise,” Willden said. “That’ll be in an hour or so. You didn’t want
to be out in this stuff in the dark,” he said, wondering why these nice, but naïve
rich people had been planning to leave before light.

“Stretch your legs while you can,” Willden said. The girls were getting restless being
in the Range Rover for so long, thinking they were going on a big trip to a cabin,
and then not going.

“Hey, girls,” one of the other officers said, “you want to see all about being a real
police officer?” The girls ran over to the guard shack and the officers began to entertain
them.

“What is Santa getting you guys?” one of the officers asked them. It was Christmas
Eve, after all. The girls began talking a mile a minute about all the toys they wanted.

“I bet Santa brought all those things to the cabin,” the other officer finally said
when the girls stopped talking. “He knows where you’ll be tonight.” He realized what
he just said and suddenly got very quiet. Todd couldn’t understand why the officer
was so disturbed about where the girls would be tonight.

“Time to go,” Willden said as it was getting light at about 8:10 a.m. Before getting
into the Range Rover, Chloe announced to the girls, “Daddy has a pretend gun to scare
any bears away.”

“But don’t worry,” Todd said. “There won’t be any bears. Know why?”

“Because they’re scared of Daddy’s pretend gun!” his youngest said.

“Let’s hope so,” Willden muttered under his breath.

Everyone was anxious to get the dangerous journey started; they had been waiting all
morning to get on their way. When it was finally time to go, time to leave everything
they ever owned, Todd and Chloe were ready.

“One last thing,” Willden said before he and Todd got into the Range Rover. He handed
Todd the AK-47. At first Todd didn’t want to touch it, but then he saw Chloe was watching.
He couldn’t wuss out in front of her, so he took the AK, but touched it softly so
it couldn’t go off by accident.

Willden saw Todd was afraid of the AK. “They don’t go off by themselves,” he said.

“Does this have a safety?” Todd asked.

“Yes,” Willden replied. “It’s that lever there,” he said pointing to the right side
of the rifle. “When it’s up, like it is now, it’s on safe. So push that lever down
when you want to fire.”

“Okay,” Todd said, knowing that he never wanted to fire it.

Once they were ready to go, they slowly left the safety of the subdivision. The other
officers waved goodbye to them. Willden seemed very serious about the journey ahead.
He didn’t talk at all.

Todd and Chloe hadn’t been out of the subdivision in weeks. The subdivision next to
theirs was also nice. They drove to a gate that was manned by private security contractors
and Willden flashed his badge. They rolled right through.

Todd had to break the silence. “That thing works pretty well,” he said, pointing toward
the badge.

“Yep,” Willden said. “That’s what you’re buying.”

They went through another few subdivisions, with Willden flashing his badge each time.
The neighborhoods were becoming less and less expensive as they headed to the streets
that fed into the highway. Each neighborhood seemed more and more crime-ridden. There
were a few burned out cars and garbage was strewn everywhere. One subdivision had
a huge pack of wild dogs running around on the hunt. Todd was glad they were in a
vehicle and not out in the open.

They came to what looked like an official police roadblock. Willden flashed his badge
and they breezed through. No other vehicles were allowed through it. Todd was thrilled
that he was renting that badge, even if it did cost him everything he’d ever owned.
Unfortunately, it appeared to be the best deal he’d ever made.

The streets were deserted except for a few small packs of dogs. Many stores were burned
out and had been looted.

“Did someone break that window, Mom?” one of the girls asked.

“No, silly,” Chloe said, “It broke when something fell on it.”

“Did that building get burned?” the other girl asked.

“No,” Chloe said. “They just painted it to look that way. Kinda silly, huh?”

The girls nodded, and then Chloe changed the subject and got them talking about the
Christmas presents Santa was bringing to them at the cabin, which occupied them for
long enough.

When they came up to I-405, there was a huge roadblock with military vehicles that
looked like tanks and had machine guns on them.

“Why are the Army men here?” one of the girls asked.

“To help us,” Chloe said, and then she changed the subject back to what Santa was
bringing.

“You might want to put something over the AK,” Willden said to Todd. “These are National
Guardsmen. They are under orders to seize assault rifles. Remember that you’re working
with me on an official law enforcement assignment. Got it?”

“You’re going to lie, Daddy?” one of the girls asked.

“Of course not,” Todd said as Chloe handed him a jacket to put over the AK. “I’m helping
the police by scaring away bears.”

The girls cheered.

A soldier came up to them. Willden had his badge out the window. The soldier carefully
scrutinized it to make sure it was a legitimate badge.

“What brings you out here, officer?” the soldier asked.

“We’re transporting the family of my chief,” Willden said, very convincingly. “Paras
are…” he paused and pointed at the girls and implied that he didn’t want to say everything
in front of the girls. “The paras are, you know, making trouble.”

“Who is your chief?” the soldier asked.

“Nick Moyes,” Willden answered. “Want to confirm all this?” Todd froze.

The soldier kept looking at Willden and Todd, and then Chloe and the girls. He didn’t
want to waste his time talking to some police chief.

“Aren’t they a little young to be the family of a police chief?” the solider asked.
Todd felt his stomach knot up.

“Second marriage,” Willden said. “And he’s pretty young. You know, with all the para
activity, there have been a lot of replacement chiefs lately.” He put his finger up
to his lip to signal to the soldier that he didn’t want to say anything that would
disturb Chloe or the girls.

“Oh, right,” the soldier said. His shift was over in ten minutes and he didn’t want
the hassle of confirming all this. Besides, the second marriage thing kind of made
sense. Everything Willden said to him appeared to make enough sense for him to let
these people through.

“You know we cannot guarantee anyone’s safety,” the soldier said like a robot. He
used this phrase a hundred times a day.

“Understood,” Willden said. “Is there anything I should know about down the road?”

The soldier didn’t have the time or patience to tell this cop about all the threats
out there. Besides, he didn’t want to scare the girls.

“Just the usual,” he said. Willden nodded.

“Good luck, officer,” the soldier said as he waved them through.

As they went through the roadblock, soldiers on top of the tanks – or MRAPs, as Willden
corrected Todd – were pointing machine guns at the Range Rover the whole time.

Interstate 405 was empty, which Todd had never seen. “We’ll take I-90 east to Wenatchee,”
Willden said. “We have enough gas if we don’t get delayed.”

Everyone was silent, except the girls and Chloe, who were talking about Santa. Willden
and Todd were tuning it out.

They went through another military roadblock similar to the one on I-405. Willden
used the same story about evacuating his chief’s family.

Interstate 90 was empty, too, except for occasional police cars and military vehicles.
There was one long convoy of semi-trucks with military escorts. “Food and fuel,” Willden
said.

They drove about twenty miles. As they went under an overpass, several vehicles zoomed
down the on ramp and started to chase them.

“Hold on!” Willden yelled and he punched the gas pedal. The Range Rover sped up, but
it was no race car. As the vehicles came up behind them, Willden slammed on the brakes
and the chasing vehicles sped on by. Their brake lights quickly came on. Todd was
terrified.

“Get out and point that AK at them!” Willden yelled. The girls were crying and Chloe
was screaming.

Todd did as he was told. “Use the Rover for cover!” Willden yelled. He had his AR
pointed at the brake lights, which stayed on for a minute or so. It was the longest
minute of Todd’s life. Finally, they went off and the vehicles drove off.

“Whew!” Todd said.

“Except that they’re up there and we’ll probably meet up with them again,” Willden
said. He was starting to regret taking on this job, despite how profitable it was.

“We’ll have to go slower now,” Willden said. They crept along at 35 miles per hour
for a few miles. They saw the pack of vehicles speeding back the other way.

“Are they coming back for us?” Todd asked.

“Nope,” Willden said. “If they wanted us, they would do a roadblock up ahead.” They
kept driving and didn’t see the vehicles again.

After about an hour, Willden looked at the gas gauge. He had just over half a tank.
“Let’s get out and stretch our legs,” he said. That sounded good to Todd. The family
got out and walked around for a bit.

Willden seemed nervous. “Stay here,” he said, as he got into the Rover. He started
it up and drove up to the family.

“Hey, this isn’t working out,” he said, as he rolled down his window. “I’m heading
back.”

Todd laughed. Willden didn’t.

“We’re not at Wenatchee yet,” Todd finally said.

“That’s your problem,” Willden said. “I gotta get back before dark. See you guys.”

This isn’t funny anymore, Todd thought. Before he knew it, he had lifted the AK to
his shoulder, pointed it at Willden, and yelled “Stop!” The girls started screaming.

Willden laughed. Finally, he said, “Go ahead and shoot, Todd.”

Todd pulled the trigger, but the gun didn’t go off. Then he remembered that the safety
was on. He pushed the lever down so it would fire, re-shouldered the AK and pulled
the trigger again.

Click.

Willden started laughing. “It’s not loaded, dumbass.”

Todd tried pulling the trigger again, but the gun did nothing.

“The magazine has been empty the whole time,” Willden said.

“Take care,” he said as he drove off.

Chloe was screaming and the girls were crying.

After an hour of arguing and trying to figure out what to do, Todd and Chloe finally
sat down on the shoulder of the highway. Not a single vehicle had gone by the whole
time.

After a long while of sitting there silently, Todd and Chloe heard the sound of approaching
cars. They felt a sense of relief.

Until they saw that it was the same pack of vehicles that chased them. Todd shouldered
his AK again and felt a hot punch in his chest and then heard a loud noise. He saw
blood everywhere and it felt like someone spilled hot soup on his chest. Then he realized
he’d been shot. The last thing he saw before he was swallowed by darkness was a group
of men grabbing Chloe and the girls.

(December 24)

Professor Carol Matson was having a delicious cup of hot cocoa and listening to winter
solstice music on NPR. She loved NPR. It was so soothing and civilized.

Carol was in a great mood. Winter solstice was a marvelous time. It was a time to
reflect on the year. There had sure been some scares this year. The initial shock
of the empty store shelves and all the teabagger violence. All the people recently
coming to Seattle to escape the right-wing terrorism. She had heard that the so-called
Patriots were rounding up minorities and killing them. But that wasn’t happening in
Seattle. People were treated right in Seattle. People were taken care of. They had
equality there: free health care, free food, free everything. Well, when those things
were available, which meant when the terrorists hadn’t interfered with the supplies.
The government was doing its very best to provide for everyone, but the terrorist
teabaggers were sabotaging that, which was why there were supply problems.

Carol loved diversity; people of all races who, thankfully, all seemed to agree on
things. In Seattle, everyone agreed that the government was doing the right thing.
Instead of her being a “liberal” in redneck country, now everyone in Seattle seemed
to think like her. Progressive. Smart. Open-minded. Caring. She felt like the decent
people were finally in charge. People like her.