(STBSS) The Great Escape From Hell

it was a cool night for once when jorden returned to the base camp with the news of another group liveing several miles away from the lakeside that we have come to call home. our passed lives seem so distant now with all that had happened. had it realy only been a year? it somehow feels that it should have been so much longer than that to turn us from agueing over wheather ailians existed or if some guy named bin ladden was realy behind some terrorist acts. to just trying to survive as best we could. we lost four men dureing the harsh winter we had had. men that we had to bury and praise for giveing up their lives for us. if it haddn't been for them we would have been captured before we could move out. they had volinteered to stay behind but then again they were not in good health by that point.

the running had been much harder than any of us had expected. well other that jorden. he seemed to know just what was in store for us. in all honesty if it wasn't for jorden chances are we'd all have been dead or worse imprissoned long before. i still ask myself how things had come to this. what had happened to make it come so suddenly?sure we had had debates about that very thing but most of us never realy considdered that it could or would happen, at least within our lifetimes. well we were wrong. it had happened. happened so fast that most had only escaped due to luck, luck for me anyway. at least jorden had had a plan all laid out and ready. i'll never forget that night of terror, i am sure none will forget it.

it had been a hot day and i had ellected to stay late at work and catch up some work instaead of faceing the traffic snarl that awaited my normal departure time.besides belinda and i had had one of our rows that morning over money. so foolish we were. now i had lost her most probably for ever. it pains me now to think about it. we had had yet another "terror attack" the day before. at least thats what we had been told. now however i doubt the truthfullness about it. well i had come up to a radblock about 2 miles from my house where i was informed that the area was under quarenteen for a bio-agent of some sort. i was also told that everything would be ok that there was no reason to be concerned as it was not realeased and that the quarinteen was just a precaution, and that i should go to the school a block away for now. there i would be taken care of. it was the way that he had said it, plus why would it be a marine and not a cop at the roadblock?

instead ogf going to the school as told i went to the place that as a kid i and some friends had hung out at. it was a culvert system that covered a creek and that a storm drain emptied into. as kids we used to climb through the grates and explore the tunnels. well i knew that it would only take me five minutes to make it to where the creek exited to. just in behind my house. well i got there and watched helplessly as people were hearded into millitary trucks. i couldn't believe what i was seeing. it was something out of an old war movie. they were pushed in and when they didn't move fast enough they were hit with the stock of a rifle.

i made it back to my car in record time, wet from the falls i had taken in my rush. it was then i remembered the object of the mornings fight. a new laptop with a cell conection. it took awile to log onto my favorite site as i was shakeing so hard i couldn't get my password typed in propperly. i typed a headder of sos help , and entered what i had seen. well it just had to be jorden that was the first to reply to it. we had been adversarries on many topics but had always gotten along well. i had met him one night when he had held a small gathering of people that were local on our site. he had typed just 4 lines.

meet us at the location of our party.
take any backroads that you know avoiding any contact if you can.
pull the battery from your phone and shut the computer down pull it's battery as well if you can.
HURRY.

well at that point i didn't have to be told twice, i did as he told me and gunned the engine. half an hour later i arrived at the old quarry that we had held our gathering at. i was shocked to see about thirty people waiteing arround in the dark with only a computer screan showing any light in the underbrush. jorden ran up and congratulated me on my escape.he then pointed out where someone had set up a small campstove with some stew, and told me to grab a quick bite. as i ate some others pulled into the quarry. one was an old millitary duck w that had seen better days. that is when things started to happen.

"ok folks gather round and i'll explain to those who don't know what's going to happen." it wasn't a shout but everyone heard. it was not a sudgestion but a command. "first off for those of you who don't know me i'm jorden and we are all escapees as of now". "make no bones about it, we are on the run. it looks like the government is setting up those camps that some of us debated even existed. now the first order of business is to load some supplies that a few of us stashed here awile back into that duck. next any car newwer than ten years old will be pushed into the quarry lake. they may have a transponder in them that will let them know where we are. all cellphones or other electronics are to be put into that big box over there just in case we will look at them later but for now make sure any batteries are pulled and everything else is turned off."

it didn't take much over a half hour to load up all the boxes of gear. as i took a smoke break i noticed that while we were doing all that there were about five guys pulling the batteries and some other parts out of the newwer cars and loading them into several other vehicals.then a couple of kids began to siphen out the gas.

"hey jorden"i called and waved him over to wher i was takeing my break. "whats all that about?" i asked pointing over to where this makeshift autoshop was being run. "ah you'll see soon enough" he replyed with a conspirital grin. "we are not going to live like animals if i can help it. we may be on the run but thats no reason to loose everything that we have known, at least not for as long as we are able" with that he turned and went back to work going through yet some more crates that were stacked up by a van.

i finished my smoke and walked over to see if i could help out."you ever fire a gun ron?" he asked with an air of authority. "well i have a few times but i'm not that bad a shot". "good we'll teach you more later but for now i'll just show you the basics" he responded gently. "for now just keep it on single shot and you should be ok" with that jorden prceded to show me how to load and charge the m-16 he had handed me. then i was sent out to take the place of one of the gaurds that i hadn't yet noticed were spread arround the area. about an hour or so later i was replaced by yet another man and told to report back to jordan.

as i aproached jorden had a big grin on his face. "you did good ron, i had someone watch you to see how you did. you passed muster, and for that i'm glad you are gonna be amounst the soldures and not the sick lame or lazy". "the what" i replied as i had no clue as to what he had meant. "well you will learn in time, but for now it means that you are capable of fighting, and chances are we will need to do some of that before too long". i was stunned "fight" i asked. "are things realy that serious?". ron shook his head and sadly said "unfortunately it looks like it. remember all thoise camps that we used to argue about? the ones that most people scoffed at existing". "well yes the ones that the government had set up to hold civilians in?" it was then that the total reality of what was happening sunk in. "you mean that is what is happening?"he replied barely above a whisper this time "yes, i had hoped i would never see it happen,. but they are starting to lock people up without good reason. what you saw was the beginning of it. we are under marshal law and are to be interred untill they see fit to release us. we had contacts within the service that gave us at least a little warning as to it starting. it just happened so fast. too fast to even get a warning out to most, you got luckey and escaped, had you gone to that school you told me about you would be in one of those camps as we speak. we are waiting on a few others and then we are heading out. from that point we will see what we can do."

well eventualy we headed out. and true to his word we had to fight several times. we lost 5 men that way along with a mother and her child that got caught in the cross fire. it took several days of traveling but at the end we were at a lake that was beyond most signs of civilization. the duck that we had went right in and started ferrying people and supplies a fair distance. we had a couple other boats as well that helped out but the duck did most of the work. well we then sent out supplys that were cashed at differant locations in the area. i thought this was a foolish measure but later on i realized how smart it was. i did however find out what that little automotive work was about. they had removed the altenators and light from every vehicle that we left behind. these were hooked up to water wheels that were placed into a stream and provided us some moderation of light at night. we did set up a computer after awile. but found that even the cell network was a dead thing to at least us. we were alone. there were only about 80 of us that we knew were free. we split up into three groups to better conceal ourselves and proceded to spread ourselves out.

it was a hard summer building up small buildings that fit into the surrounding area as well as planting a small amout of vegitables that would be harvested before the winter set in. we also hunted and cured game so that we would have ample food to see us through the winter. we trained with the weapons that we had so that we would be able to protect ourselves. we also raided towns that were realitively close to get added supplies. it was a strange thing to go into what must have at one time been a thriveing community, but now was empty. we even found one of the camps on one run. it was a dismal place with gaurds in controll. we left a couple observers behind who reported that the people were used as a slave labour force growing food as well as being trucked back and forth to work elsewhere. how low this once mighty country had sunk, and somewhere out there my wife was amoung them.

well we made it through the fall and then the winter hit. it was the hardest winters that i can recall. so cold. it was like what the settles must have had to deal with. we had a few people who knew how to survive but most of us had to learn as we went.it must have been arround mid january when we were attacked. somehow they had located us we were winning the fight but backup was called in. we had to leave. we had 4 men who had come down with pnemonia they couldn't easily travel but decided amounst themselves to stay and give their lives tyeing up the backup when they arrived. we stripped equipement off those we had killed as well as hideing what we couldn't carry and headed out. we trekked for at least a week going even deeper into the wilderness.it was hard going in the snow and cold but we made it safely. our reargaurd covered our tracks as well as leaveing booby traps behind.

if we had thought that building places to live in summer was hard, in winter it was worse. but utilizeing some caves we again settled in and spread ourselves out. we did reclaim most of what was left hidden when we left. we also had to burry those four brave souls. one had survived only to be tortured to death. everything that had not been stashed away had been totaly destroyed before the soldures had left. i couldn't believe that my beloved country had turned so far against her citizens as to use torture as well as destroying everything that they could find so that we would not be able to survive. well we did survive and now it is once again summer. we have planted crops and hope to get a good yield from them. we are however verry carefull to try to do things in such a way as to blend into the surrounding area. we havn't been bothered again so we hope that they think that we died dureing the winter. even so we send out patrolls just to watch out for signs of the soldures return.

now that we have found another band of survivers things are getting much busyer. we have found out that they have contact with a couple of other groups of survivors. so we now number arround 300 we are planning to storm the prisson camp and release those that are interred from there we are going to try to stage a rebellion one camp at a time if needed and take back this country that we were so proud of. it will be a long fight but hopefully we are up to the task at hand. it is strange to think but WE ARE NOW CONSIDDERED TERRORISTS. something that i never thought i would see but i guess when one wants their freedom one must do everything possible to achive it.

really cool story. You underscored just what we fear may be around the corner.