The City Burns: A Prepper's Struggle for The Truth Read Online Free PDF

superior officers always looked down on him with a sense of pity and disgust. Everyone thought that Jim would be like his father. He looked like him. He spoke like him. But Jim wasn’t him. Jim told himself he would never be him. “Come on, pussy.” Hult was egging him on now. “Let’s go.”
     

 
    Jim stopped. The girls. If he did something stupid now he wouldn’t be able to keep them safe. He had to stay the course. He had to finish this mission. Jim stepped back slightly. The distance between him and Hult grew. Each step back the smile from Hult’s face fell downward until Jim couldn’t see it anymore. Brett kept his eyes on Jim. He didn’t know what to say, so he didn’t say anything. Like Jim he knew that you have to push aside what you felt and wanted. The mission took priority.
     
    When the two of them got back to the truck he saw Coyle in his fatigues looking incredibly awkward. Coyle kept fumbling with sleeves that were too long. “I look like a camouflaged bed comforter.”
     
    The only thing that didn’t look awkward on Coyle was the rifle. As much as he went to the range, he was probably a better shot than Jim. Jim peaked in the bed of the truck and flipped the cargo lid up. Samantha and Annie were crammed in. Annie looked up at Jim with big pouty eyes. “Can I get out yet?”
     
    Jim leaned in and whispered, “Not yet.” Samantha looked pissed as he closed the lid. Coyle walked up behind him. “Just so you know, I don’t want to be the one that lets mamma bear out of that box.” Brett threw Jim a pair of fatigues. He dressed, checked the weapon for ammo, and jumped in the back. Twink finished the dinner that Brett brought him and started up the truck. They bobbled along the dirt road to the front of the gate. Coyle’s grip on the rifle tightened as they got closer.
     
    Jim noticed how Coyle’s knuckles were turning white. “Hey,” Coyle said, “start telling one of your dirty jokes when we go through.”
    “What?” Coyle asked.
    “Do it. It’ll make you less conspicuous,” Jim replied.
    Twink slowed the truck as it crawled up to the front gate. An MP came to the driver side and Brett handed him the orders.
     
    Jim nodded to Coyle who reluctantly started to tell a joke about a guy who walks into a bar and sees this little man playing a piano. Jim’s eyes wandered over to the MP who was looking over the orders. He looked up and glanced into the back of the truck at Jim and Coyle.
     
    “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.
     

Chapter 3
     
    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