Ragnarok Rising: The Awakening (Book One of The Ragnarok Rising Saga) Read Online Free PDF Page B

at the airport. For now, it’s providing information and emergency services to refugees from other areas. Let’s all hope and pray that’s all they need to supply. Should rioting begin here, you are to direct any and all civilian personnel to the Evac-center for evaluation, evacuation or quarantine if they’re a carrier. The National Guard and elements of this department will be providing security.”
    Everyone was quiet now. He had our undivided attention. For all of us, this was suddenly becoming all too real. The lump in the pit of my stomach now felt like a bowling ball. Bile rose at the back of my throat, and even overpowered the taste of the coffee.
    “You’re all expected to stay at your posts until relieved or dismissed. Call your families and make whatever arrangements for them that you see fit, but your place is here . This is what we get paid for, people. This is why we put on the uniform. The only thing that stands between these rioters and the good citizens of Nathanael County is US . You’re all about to be deputized and put into the field. Only a skeleton crew will remain behind, here at the jail. If any of you have no prior military service or weapons experience, let me or your chain of command know. You’ll be the ones we keep here at the jail. Anyone with any kind of formal weapons training is needed out there. I’ve given the Majors and the Captains a list of assignments and names. When your name is called, sound off with whatever branch of service you were in and if you know how to shoot or not.”
    The next half hour went by very quickly. Very few people in this crowd had little or no experience with firearms. Those of us who were prior military and had additional range time were selected for the more isolated posts. Posts where backup might be a long ways away, if you had any at all. The more isolated posts would be out in the country, mainly closing highways and securing facilities.
    Even with all of us together, we were going to be spread thin covering a lot of ground around the city and the county. Nathanael County covered almost 680 square miles. That was going to take some doing to cover it. Our biggest concern was Springfield, since it was where all the infrastructure and key facilities were at. It was sad, but the surrounding municipalities would have to stand or fall…on their own.
    Next, we all took our oath and were sworn in. Then they gave us our orders and assigned a partner for deployment around the county. By swearing us all in, the Sheriff was officially deputizing us and giving us the authority to act outside the jail. That would make us all Deputies. In theory, that made us all equals. But George Orwell said it best, “Some of us are a little more equal than others.”
    We were being sent to bolster the defenses near critical sites and strategic locations. Some of us were sent to help protect the hospitals and the Evac-center. Still others were sent to help prevent widespread looting, in case the rioting began in town. I drew a post with two other county officers to assist the National Guard in closing a section of US 65 north of town, just outside the small town of Fair Grove. Looking back on it, I should count myself as lucky that I did. Hospital duty turned out to be a death sentence.
    The real pain in the ass was the fact that Fair Grove was completely on the wrong side of the county from where I needed to be when the time came to go for my wife and kids. But, as much as I hated the location, orders were orders and I would do my best to fulfill them. I would do my duty, to the best of my ability. Anything else was unacceptable. I’d do my job, even if it meant laying down my life. Not that I looked forward to doing that or anything. In fact, I’d rather prefer it didn’t come to that. I, for one, subscribe to General George Patton’s philosophy.
    “It’s not the job of the American soldier to die for his country. It’s to make the other dumb son-of-a-bitch die for