BJ Knights - The City Burns

“Stay right there.” Another MP said approaching them. He kept his rifle in the crook of his arm, while the first MP looked over the orders and spoke into a phone in the guard booth. Jim tried to make out what he was saying, but couldn’t. The MP put the phone back down, walked out and handed the papers back to Twink. “Okay, looks like you guys are good,” replied the MP.

The gate lifted and they rolled out onto the highway. The base behind them got smaller and smaller until Jim couldn’t see it anymore. He lifted up the lid to the cargo trunk and Annie climbed out, followed by Samantha. “Next time you can ride in the box,” she said with an air of bitter resentment. Annie hopped on the bench next to Coyle as the truck rumbled along towards downtown Phoenix.

Back at the camp Hult sat in a tent re-watching the footage of them leaving the front gate. He turned to one of his men at a small control panel. “Is the honing beacon on?” he asked. “Yes, Sergeant,” the soldier replied. Hult cracked a smile as the sound of magazines clicking into rifles filled the tent around him.

Jim had only visited Phoenix once before last Christmas. Up until then Matt, Samantha, and Annie had lived in San Diego. Last year Matt had got a job offer that he couldn’t refuse and relocated the family, although Jim assumed he now regretted the decision.

Jim didn’t remember too much of the city, but he did remember that it wasn’t as rundown when he visited, and from the look on Samantha’s face she wasn’t thrilled about what the current residents had done with the place either. Trash littered the streets as trash can fires burned down alleyways and street corners. Windows were smashed and stores were looted. Cars were flipped onto their sides or roofs. The people they came across just scattered at the sight of the military truck. Jim wasn’t sure if this was because of something they’d encountered with military, or because they were the ones looting.

Brett slid the rear window open so Samantha could help with directions. She pointed further downtown where the skyscrapers were. “It’s about three more miles on the left. You’ll see the PamTech sign,” she said. Coyle jumped in the conversation. “How do we even know that the drive is still there? I mean what if it got looted with the rest of the city?”

Jim shook his head. “From what Matt told me you wouldn’t be able to find it unless you knew where to look.” Although Jim started to doubt that as they rode further into downtown. The conditions just kept getting worse, and the number of people they saw started to increase. These people, however, didn’t scatter when they saw the military truck.

“Get down.” Jim motioned for Annie and Samantha to stay low below the truck bed’s walls. He scanned the people on the sides of the street as the truck wove in and out of random parked cars that were abandoned during the evacuation. Then he started to see them. Hidden at their sides or around their backs. Guns. His eyes scanned up towards the buildings above them. He flipped the safety off the AR-15 and slowly brought the butt of the gun up to his shoulder.

Jim shouted over to Brett and Coyle, “Keep an eye out for the top floors.”

Annie started to whimper down below. “I thought it was safe,” she said. “I thought we could come out now.” Samantha stroked her hair and whispered to her, “We’ll be fine, sweetheart. We’ll be fine.”

Twink pointed ahead. “There it is.” Brett turned around and shouted, “Thirty seconds, Jim.” The people alongside the street were growing in numbers. Bats, crowbars, rifles, guns, knives; most everyone that was outside was armed with something. Jim kept his finger just over the trigger and looked into the scope. He must have counted at least sixty people on his side alone.

“Coyle!” Jim shouted. “How many you have on your side?” Coyle held the rifle’s sites up to his eyes as he surveyed the make shift militia. “At least forty,” he shouted.

The truck was moving slower now that the thickened cars were piling up. The truck finally came to a stop. Brett turned around and saw Jim and Coyle with their rifles at the ready. “We’ll have to hoof it from here, boys,” Brett said. Jim jumped out of the truck and helped Annie down. He told her to stay behind him. Samantha piled out next and grabbed one of the ARs.

Jim looked at her with his brows raised. “You remember how to use that?” Samantha racked the chamber and checked the scope. “I was always a better marksman than you growing up,” she said.

Twink jumped out of the driver side and kept his rifle on the circling crowds and they all met up at the front of the truck. Brett motioned up ahead. “There it is,” he said. Jim felt it all coming back. The adrenaline coursing through his veins as his heart pumped faster. The heightened sense of awareness that allowed him to see and feel everything around him; it was like riding a bicycle.

“Samantha. Coyle. You two keep Annie between you. Annie,” Jim glanced down from his weapon and saw the fear in the girls’ eyes. “You don’t leave their sides got it?” She nodded her head as tears started to roll down her cheeks. Jim nodded over to Coyle and Samantha. They shot him a nod back.

“Let’s move,” Jim ordered. The group moved as a unit with Jim covering the back left, Annie sandwiched between Coyle and Samantha on the back right, and Twink and Brett plowing ahead up the concrete steps to PamTech’s entrance.

The crowd started to move towards the truck and once they were safely inside PamTech’s lobby the crowd started tearing the truck apart. They took whatever they could find and swarmed it like ants piling on crumbs left on the ground. Coyle looked through the glass doors as the truck rocked back and forth in the street. “Well, there goes our ride,” he said.

Jim jumped over the security and dug into the bottom left drawer of the desk and pulled out a guard key. He walked over to the door and entered the code: 4-2-8-5 and slid the card key through the reader. Jim yanked the door open and Samantha, Annie, and Coyle followed him. Twink and Brett stood watch at the door. Jim pulled back the red filing cabinet to a solid, concrete wall. Jim ran his hands along the cold grey, but couldn’t find any creases.

“He said there was a panel,” Jim blurted out.

Coyle glanced down and pointed. “There’s a panel.”

The other three looked down along floor at the baseboard that wrapped around the bottom of the small office. Jim dropped down to get a better look and ran his hands along the baseboard and found a small groove. He couldn’t see it, but he could feel it.

He dug his nail into it and pried a section of the paneling off the wall. The piece of wood concealed a small safe no larger than a book. Jim typed in the code and it sprang open. He was met with the sight of a small hard drive the size of his pinkie. Jim examined it between his fingers and Coyle rushed up beside him.

“Well, that was quite anti-climactic,” said Coyle.

Machine gun fire sounded outside as the group turned to look at the lobby’s entrance. Jim looked at Samantha and Annie. “Stay here,” he ordered.

Jim rushed out to meet Brett and Twink at the door where they were watching the scene take place outside. Brett motioned over for Jim to come see. “Looks like we’ve got company,” he said.

The looters from the street were scattering and firing shots further down the street where two armored trucks were ramming cars out of the way as they plowed towards the building. The trucks came to a stop just outside the building steps where six soldiers from each truck poured out and began firing back into the looters. Two looters with assault rifles ducked behind the engines of a flipped car and began spraying bullets towards the soldiers. Other looters took position and shelter in shops along the street.