Trent Reedy - Divided We Fall

“Let’s go,” Sweeney said.

We all went back inside, where Becca had started sweeping up the glass. JoBell handed me the rock. It was wrapped in paper tied with string. I ripped off the string, unfolded the paper, and dropped the rock to the floor. “Let’s see what these bastards have to say.”

We know who you are. We know what you did. The governor might have pardoned you but we don’t. Your responsable for this whole mess. We are going to make you pay. Like the people you killed in Boise. Sleep careful. We’ll be back.

“What?” JoBell asked.

I gave her the note, then went up to my room. I had thought Schmidty was kind of crazy with his guns and survival bunker, but now he was starting to make sense. From under my bed I pulled out Dad’s nine-millimeter handgun — my gun now. I picked up its empty magazine and the box of shells, wishing I’d taken Schmidty more seriously and gone to buy more mags already. I went back to the others, put the gun and ammunition on the coffee table, and grabbed my comm.

“You’re going to want to hide the beer,” I said to Sweeney. “Hank, get me a voice call with Nathan Crow.”

“You got it, ace! How’d you like to listen to—”

“Shut up, Hank,” I said.

“Hank’s still better than Eric’s porn assistant,” said JoBell.

“Hey, you’ll hurt Trixie’s feelings,” Sweeney said. “She’s very sensitive.”

“Danny Wright!” said Sheriff Crow when he picked up. “Good to hear from you. Did you see the news? How are you holding up through all this?”

“Not good,” I said. “Somebody threw a rock with a death threat through my front window. I’d like to press charges if you can catch the guy, but more importantly…” I looked at Sweeney. “I’m going to be staying at a friend’s place. I need someone to keep an eye on my house. Can you spare anyone?”

“For you, Danny, I’ll keep eyes on the house around the clock. I’m sorry I didn’t have my man watching this evening. The problem is, as you can imagine, with everything going on, we’ve been very busy. Traffic’s all backed up with a bunch of cowards trying to get out of Idaho as fast as they can. I can’t spare any officers, but I do know some men I trust like brothers. I’ll send one of them to keep watch. Don’t worry. Go do what you have to do. Your house will be safe.”

“Thanks, Sheriff.” I tapped out and looked at the others. “I’m going to join the Idaho Guard full-time.”

“Yes!” Cal said.

“Danny, you can’t,” JoBell said. “What about school?”

“I’ll have to see about classes online. Maybe just get the GED.”

She put her hand on my arm. “That will never be good enough for the University of Washington. You have to get your grades up and—”

“JoBell, you and I both know I’m not going to some big, fancy university. That’s part of what you were thinking last night, wasn’t it?”

“This has nothing to do with last night.”

“Last night?” Sweeney asked, but Becca elbowed him.

“Okay,” I said. “Never mind about that. This is something I have to do. I swore an oath to protect my home.” I swept my arm in a gesture to all of them. “To protect the people I care about. Now this asshole president has locked down the border.”

“Montaine was doing the same thing!” JoBell said.

“He was keeping outside military out. The president is keeping out civilians. There’s a difference. My home is in trouble, and I’ve got to help.”

“By going to war against your own country?” JoBell asked.

“Nobody’s fighting,” said Cal.

“I’m going to help keep the state from being overrun by the Fed until they can work out some kind of agreement,” I said. “If nobody goes to back up Idaho, the Fed will send in the Army and arrest me and the other guys in my squad in a heartbeat, and then they’ll go after Montaine.” JoBell was about to interrupt, but I cut her off. “Whatever you think of the governor, he hasn’t let me or my Guard guys down. He’s stuck by us and done his best to protect us. I owe him at least that much.” I brushed a few shards of glass off the couch and took a seat, then opened the box of bullets and started snapping rounds into the magazine.

“What are you doing?” JoBell pointed at the gun. “It’s against the law for you to have that thing.”

“It’s against the law to chuck rocks through someone’s window and threaten to kill him.” I held up the weapon. “I’m just leveling things out.”

—• president assures us this is not a prelude to open military conflict, despite the fact that a blockade of this nature hasn’t been in place in this country since the Civil War in 1861. In response to human rights concerns about the distribution of food, medicine, and needed supplies, the White House said merely that any difficulties resulting from shortages within Idaho are the result of Governor Montaine and the Idaho state legislature’s irresponsible policies. Exactly how much of its own food does Idaho produce? For more on that, we’ll talk to an agricultural expert from •—

—• CBS News has unconfirmed reports that shots were fired when an unknown person attempted to drive around a checkpoint on eastbound Highway 270 in Washington, on a stretch of road between Pullman, Washington, and Moscow, Idaho. The vehicle was trying to enter Idaho when it was reportedly fired upon and disabled. Again, this is an unconfirmed report, and we’re trying to get more information on that situation. If this has happened, we have no information as to whether anyone was injured or even who fired the shots. •—

—• live in the news chopper with aerial footage of an unprecedented deployment of federal troops and combat vehicles along Idaho’s borders with Washington, Oregon, Nevada, and Utah, with Montana and Wyoming state police and National Guard troops along their own borders with Idaho. Easily several thousand troops, if not tens of thousands. In this live picture, you can see people leaving Idaho after a brief inspection by federal troops, but nobody is being allowed to enter the state. This has traffic backed up for miles. Oh my word — Can we get… Do we have… Can we get a shot of that, Rick? Ladies and gentlemen, we’re being intercepted by a military aircraft. A well-armed helicopter gunship of some kind. We’re getting a signal. I’ll try to patch it through.”

“CIVILIAN AIRCRAFT, YOU HAVE ENTERED A RESTRICTED AIRSPACE. YOU WILL LAND IMMEDIATELY OR WE ARE AUTHORIZED TO OPEN FIRE.”

“Rick, land. No, no, don’t turn back. Just land somewhere. Anywhere! Ladies and gentlemen, I can’t imagine that the US Army would fire on an unarmed news chopper, but then again, yesterday I would never have imagined a blockade like this. My pilot will try to find a—”

…

…

…

“Ladies and gentlemen, that was Roy Greptis in our KREM 2 News Chopper. We don’t… Excuse me. We don’t know what has happened, but certainly the video you’ve just seen is disturbing. Again, we cannot stress enough, do not attempt to approach the Idaho border. We do not believe it is safe.”

“Okay, we’ve received a call from Roy. They are okay . They were forced to land their helicopter, but before they could even begin to descend, Roy says, their audio and video transmissions were jammed. We don’t know who jammed that signal, but that’s a powerful transmitter on our news chopper. We can only speculate at this time that perhaps the signal was somehow interrupted by military forces in the area. We have more reports that •—