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

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