Thank God, literally, for the Oath Keepers. They had announced that Oath Keepers members would not carry out these new laws. That was the only thing preventing the government from taking over. The only thing. The politicians wanted martial law and most of the sheeple did, too. It was the “middlemen”—the Oath Keeper soldiers and cops—who got in between the politicians and the sheeple and prevented it from happening.
This was getting serious. Grant knew the Collapse was coming, and soon. The only question was when. The thing Grant was trying to figure out was when to bug out without overreacting, which meant bringing up the topic when conditions were clearly bad enough that Lisa would agree to go, but doing it soon enough that the roads would be safe enough to get out to the cabin.
One good thing out of Washington, D.C. was that they quit spending money. Finally. When it was too late. Now that they could not borrow money and were massively creating it, they decided to start cutting programs. In one stroke of the pen, they got rid of the annual cost-of-living increase for Social Security. That was a big deal with a real inflation rate of about 50%. They also capped Medicaid and Medicare payments to levels that no doctor could take, which effectively eliminated those programs. Grant figured Lisa would now start to care about politics.
Predictably, the tens of millions of people dependent on government programs came out of the woodwork. It only took a few hours for them to assemble. They protested like nothing the country had ever seen. Gigantic crowds surrounded federal and state office buildings in every major city. Since Olympia was the state capitol, it had massive protests.
Olympia and cities like it were overrun with pissed off people. The Baby Boomers were the angriest. They had been promised an easy retirement and free health care. What had happened? Who had taken it from them?
The protests in the other cities were getting ugly. Throwing bottles, breaking windows, riot police in every city, and clouds of tear gas. The vast majority of the protestors ran like scared children when the police showed up, but some stayed and fought it out. And lost. The police couldn’t fit all the arrested protestors into the existing jails. They just gave them stern warnings and let them go, which only encouraged them to come back the next day and do it all over again. The system could not remotely handle this level of dissent.
The sheeple with their hands out weren’t the only ones protesting. The Tea Party and some large tax protestor groups also rallied. They had put up with giant government for years and had finally had enough. They were not violent, although some radical elements of these groups tried to fight the police. And lost. Of course, the news showed the Tea Party arrests, but not many of the welfare protestors.
WAB’s office was a few blocks from the state capitol. When the protests started, Tom told everyone to go home. The traffic jams were horrible. Tom pulled Grant, Ben, and Brian into his office.
“Given that WAB is a household name in this state with the libs, and how much they hate us,” Tom said, “I expect some protestors to vandalize our office. I don’t want our people here when that happens. Our insurance is paid up, so let’s get people out of here.”
Wow. Another amazing moment. Tom was getting ready for WAB’s offices to get vandalized by a mob. This was really happening. Being a WAB staffer, and especially being on Rebel Radio, was a dangerous thing. Was Grant really thinking these thoughts? Oh, God.
The WAB guys were leaving the downtown Olympia area as the protestors were pouring in. They had seen plenty of protests before, but there was something much different about this one. There was an uncontrolled feeling to these protestors, like they were angrily screaming “it’s finally happened.” The protestors were meaner than ever before; furious, and egging each other on.
Grant got home early. Lisa, who hadn’t been going into work after her boss told her not to even try, was out running errands. Unarmed. Grant was terrified for her. He had to put a stop to this driving around town when riots were about to start.
Manda was surprised to see Grant at 3:30 p.m. “What’s up, Dad?” she asked.
“A bunch of dirtbags are protesting,” Grant said.
“Oh.” She paused. “Hey, Dad, when are we going to the cabin? This is getting scary.”
That pierced Grant like a knife. “Yes, honey, it is getting scary. Do you think Mom will want to leave yet?”
“Nope,” she said. “But I do.” There was a long silence.
Cole came in and asked if he could have some pancakes for an after-school snack.
“Sure, lil’ buddy,” Grant said. How much longer would those pancakes be in the stores?
Thinking about the stores, Grant decided to venture out and go get some food for the cabin. He told Manda to take care of Cole, and have her .38 handy.
Grant headed to Cash n’ Carry with his Glock 27. He wasn’t the only one who had the same idea about stocking up while things were so crazy. The parking lot was full and shelves were getting bare. Everyone seemed a little nervous. Finally. People were finally getting it.
Some of the staples, like beans and rice, were already gone. There was still a lot of mashed potato mix, oatmeal, and pasta. Everyone in the store had a big cart full of food. Some had two carts and were trying to push them both along. People were guarding the food on their carts so no one would try to take it.
Grant got up to the cash register and the checker asked, “Have you heard about the bombing?”
Oh, no. It was starting. “Where? Here?” Grant asked.
“No,” the checker said. “In D.C. A big one. Some federal building there. They still don’t know what’s going on.” People around him started telling each other. This was what people were expecting, and news spread like wild fire.
Grant paid for his groceries with some of the last of the cash he had left in the expense-check envelope in his car.
Grant walked quickly out to his car and turned on the radio. A Senate office building had been bombed; there were lots of casualties. Not much else was known, except that the group claiming responsibility was called the “Red Brigades.” The radio played audio from their website.
“Today, the Red Brigades took direct action to stop the dismantling of the social safety net millions of Americans depend on. We will not let corporations steal from you. Rise up. The time for revolution is now!”
Oh great, Grant thought. The tolerant, peace loving left was killing people. The media always talked about how the Tea Party inspired violence, but no one ever acted on it. Now the left had. The Right would get blamed for it, somehow.
Grant figured this Red Brigade group was probably a real one. If they were claiming to be left-wing terrorists, the government wouldn’t be the ones behind the bombing in a “false flag” operation. That was the term for when a despotic government conducts or allows a terrorist strike and blames it on its opponents. If the “terrorists” had been Tea Party people, then Grant would have suspected it was a false flag event to get people to rally behind the government and hate the “teabaggers.”
Grant saw some of the dead and wounded on TV. Even though he didn’t like politicians, he did not wish them dead. He especially didn’t like that now there would be a “crisis” that the feds would use to take even more power. Martial law hadn’t been imposed, but this might be the trigger for it. What was it that a previous president’s Chief of Staff said? “Never let a good crisis go to waste.” The Feds would not let this golden opportunity go to waste.
Grant decided right then and there: if there is a crackdown, especially if people like WAB staff are targeted, then it would be time to bug out. Lisa had better come, or else.
Grant had patrol duty that night so he tried to take a nap. He couldn’t sleep, so he just watched TV. There were more Red Brigade strikes. Chicago, LA, Miami. They were coordinated. No one had heard of this group before. How many more undetected groups were out there that would go on bombing sprees?