The Revolution Begins (Molon Labe) (7 page)

Chapter 18

"The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion."
Edmund Burke
British Statesman, 1784

We shrank into the shadows and drew our silenced pistols. We headed around to behind the steps and waited as the footsteps indicated that more than one person had entered the building.  Within five minutes we could hear at least four distinct voices. We decided to wait and see if they would leave.  No dice.  We could hear footsteps heading toward the door to the basement.  “Please don’t come down here” I said in my mind. 

The door knob began to turn.  Two steps down, and the guy turned to go back up the stairs
“Yo, Jimmy, you sure there’s some beer down here.  Shits dark. How the hell am I supposed to find it? By braille?”  A chorus of laughter rang out above.  He turned around and came down the steps.  He turned the corner to come face to face with the muzzle of my pistol.  “What the f….” Neil clamped his hand around the guy’s mouth and dragged him to the far corner.

“I’m going to ask you questions and you are going to nod yes or no.  Do you understand?
” I quietly but flatly stated.

He had his hands in the air and looked like he had seen a ghost.
He nodded yes furiously.

“Are there any soldiers upstairs?”
A nod no.

“If there are, I’m shooting you first.
Do you understand me?”  A nod yes.

“My
friend moves his hand, and you shout out anything, I’ll blow your head off.  Do you understand?” Another nod yes.

Neil
slowly removed his hand.  “Are you the fucking special forces man?  We’ve been waiting for you guys.” he asked with pleading eyes.

“Who are you?
” I asked. 

“My name is
Gerome. I live here”, he said.

“Shit. This pla
ce was supposed to be abandoned”, I said.

“It was until the damned smurf army kicked us out of our places and set up shop over there.  Who are you guys?
” he asked.

“Call me
Mr. Red and him Mr. White”, I said.  “So you guys set up shop over here huh?”

“
Yeah.  They pick us up for work in the morning and bring us back when they’re done with us. They were nice enough to “allow” us this place to crash after they moved in. Hell, they still got all my stuff.  They even kept all Jimmy’s whores.  Been looking like they working for free nowadays”, he said.

“W
here do they have you working?” I asked.

“They take us out to the army base and we do the shit they think is beneath them. You know, janitor shit and snow removal.  What are you guys here for?
” he asked.

“How many of you are up there? “
, I asked

“There’s four of us, and Jimmy
’s gonna come down and kick my ass if I don’t bring some beer up soon”, he said.

“Jimmy
’s gonna do more than kick your ass fool! Who’s your friend?.” Jimmy (a very large black man) was standing at the top of the steps flanked by two other guys

Jimmy
was holding a small semi-automatic pistol and pointing it at me. He failed to recognize the situation and also failed to see Neil who had backed up out of his sight.

“Someone better start answering some questions or there’s gonna be a dead whit
e boy in this basement!” Jimmy said.

Gerome
started to speak as Jimmie leveled his pistol at my head. I waved him off and pointed at the corner where Neil was standing with one pistol pointed at Jimmy’s head and one at his escorts on the steps. When Jimmy turned back around he was met with my muzzle pointed between his eyes.

Chapter 19

"What, Sir, is the use of a militia? It is to prevent the establishment of a standing army, the bane of liberty.... Whenever Governments mean to invade the rights and liberties of the people, they always attempt to destroy the militia, in order to raise an army upon their ruins." (Rep. Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts, spoken during floor debate over the Second Amendment [ I Annals of Congress at 750 {August 17, 1789}])

“I’m
Mr. Red, and that is Mr. White”, I said. “We don’t mean you any harm, but if you don’t lower your gun and your voices, we’ll kill all of you before you can blink”, I said with a smile.

A light clicked on in Jimmy’
s head and he placed his pistol in his waistband. “So what? Are you some kind of Delta Force Seals or some shit like that?”, he asked.

“Not exactly” I said as I lowered my pistol without holstering it.
”We are members of the West Virginia Militia and we are not here to hurt you.”

“That’s some bullshit
!  You go shooting up the blue hats over there and they’ll kill us all anyway.  You can’t be shooting at my house. I still got product over there”, Jimmie said.

I had already decided against shooting targets from the house but recognized its potential for a surveillance post to gather
Intel.  “I assume you are talking about the lovely working ladies over there, and no, we aren’t going to shoot the place up.  Any shots from here would likely bring you trouble, and as I’ve already said, we mean you no harm.  Gerome tells me you guys are working for the “blue hats” at the army base.  I’d like to ask you some questions about that.”

“What’s in it for me?
” he asked.

“W
e are working to get America back to where she was before all this nonsense”, I said.

“Man, you just worried bout keeping your guns.   You
’re an outlaw now.  Just do like me and keep your shit even if they say you can’t have it.  Way I see it, making stupid gun laws don’t affect me anyway”, said Jimmy.

“You don’t get it.  This is way bigger than guns now.  They attacked the
2
nd
Amendment so they could do away with the rest of your freedoms without resistance.  This shit started a long time ago.  This country was founded by men who fought to get away from power hungry tyrants.  We were all free men.  They changed that. It didn’t start with this gun grab bullshit, it started the day the politicians stopped working for the people and started working for themselves.  They stopped caring about what the people wanted and allowed foreign and personal interests to sway their decisions.  Hell, most of our country’s debt is owed to our worst enemies. The government that was supposed to be “for the people” lost sight of their mandate to uphold the Constitution that gave it power to exist. 

More and more liberal thinking
has degraded the moral fiber of our nation. It’s gotten so bad that the president himself has complained about the “restrictive Constitution” that holds back his progressive ideas. We elected a man to office that rose from obscurity.  The man has paid millions of his own dollars to hide vital information about his past from the same public that is supposed to trust that he has the best interest of the people in mind.

The same president has sold
our technology and arms to countries that are not friendly to us, but wants us to not be armed.  Yes we want to keep our guns, but what I want is my country back.  I want a new government based on the Constitution.  The one the original framers had in mind.  I need, you need, the government to fear the people.  That fear turns into respect and only then will their actions reflect what is best for America first, and all others falling in line after.

We are prepared to give our lives to make that happen.  All I
’m asking of you is some info”, I said stepping down from my soapbox.

“Yo man” Jimmie said, with his hand on his pistol,
“You’re a racist. You just don’t like the president because he’s a black man. That shit ain’t right. You might notta liked things from your side of the picket fence, but my shit was comfy.  I had a place to live, free food, free phone service, and free health care.  My business was good and all I see here is a white boy complaining because a white man didn’t get in office.”

Gerome
shook his head and rolled his eyes (showing me he might have potential as an intelligent being).  I said, “Are you too blind to see that the very president that gave you all of these things is the same one who just took everything away from you?  His side of the picket fence looked a whole lot prettier than yours.  It still does, for now. You just fell victim with a couple hundred million Americans to the truth that a government powerful enough to give you everything you need, is also powerful enough to take it all away.  I’m no racist. I’m an equal opportunity patriot.  I’ll hold accountable any man or woman no matter their skin color or nationality for acts against the Constitution of the United States of America.”

“
You think you had it all.  Now look at you. You’re living in a house that even the crack addicts abandoned.  Where’s your free phone, health care and food now?  I’ll lay odds that you are eating table scraps from foreign soldiers in what
was
a proud United States military installation. I’ve got news for you.  I’m standing up to do my part for freedom and liberty.  Life isn’t just going to go back to the American Dream if you sit back and wait this out.  These guys have no plans to leave. They are planning to dissect this country and you my friend will be like the rest of us: prisoners in our own country, no longer free, answering to some dictator, living and dying at his whim. If that’s what you want for you and your crew, you just sit back in your abandoned crack house and ride this out.  I’m offering you the chance to stand up and be counted”, I said with more than a little contempt.

His face twisted a little and he said
, “You a real boy-scout ain't you?  You really live this patriotic bullshit. Hell, I bet you bleed red, white, and blue”, he laughed. “Me and my crew will answer whatever questions you have, but that’s all I can promise.  Just try not to bring no heat on us.  These boys is like my sons. I look out for them. I’m just trying to do right by my crew. You cool with that?”

“Fair enough”,
I said.

“This here is Timothy, and his little brother Thomas.  I been raising them since they was little street
punks hustling for chump change”, Jimmy said. 

Timothy looked to be tall and confident with his shoulders squared and his jaw set.  He clearly looked at Jimmy as
a father.  Thomas looked somewhat smaller, and less confident. He eyed Timothy for approval before extending his right hand for Neil and I to shake.

“I do have a favor
to ask, on the personal side”, Jimmy said eyeing my sniper rifle. “You see this shit?” He turned to show a fading bruise and scar across his back. It looked painful. “I want the asshole that did this to die.” 

“I can’t make any promises.
I don’t do private contract killings”, I said.

“This came from one of those blue ass
-hats”, he said. “Kind of a tall white dude who sounded like that dude who plays James Bond, but loud and rude as hell.” Neil and I smiled at each other.  “He had two guys with guns on me and beat me with a chain like I was a slave.”

Gerome
spoke up. “They recognized him as the leader of our crew and wanted to make an example so the rest of us would fall in line.”

“
Unfortunately, I guess it worked”, I said, and added, “But I’m fairly certain that favor you just asked for got covered earlier this afternoon.”

“That guy was looking a little…
“deflated” the last time I saw him.” I said with a chuckle.

Jimmy
came over and held his hand out. I extended mine and he grasped it.  Pulling me into a brotherhood embrace, he whispered, “Anytime, anywhere, I owe you. I pay my debts.”  Then he let go.

Chapter 20

"They that give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
Ben Franklin
American Statesman

“Well, that explains why we were brought back early today”, Gerome said.  He was clearly the intellectual of the crew.

“They gathered us up quickly
, along with the other work crews, and drove us back here with a bunch of soldiers. They all looked nervous and the real important guys, the ones you soldier types call brass, were pissed.”

I hadn’t thought
about other crews, but it made sense.  A military base, even a small one, was a lot of work and maintenance. “How many other crews are there?” I asked.

“Six crews rode out with us.
They was locking the place down tight, and they wanted us gone. Crews are picked up from all over town”, Jimmy said.

“They probably couldn’t chance that the first guy we shot today wasn’t the beginning o
f an offensive against the base”, Neil said.

“
What do you mean “the first guy??” Gerome asked.

I smiled
and said “The day is still young my new friends.”  We all laughed.

Altho
ugh we had a rapport with Jimmy’s crew, we still watched the crew leave from a distance, away from the house, and watched them return from the same spot.  The last thing we needed was for someone to rat us out and then be taken by the enemy. To his credit, Jimmy and his crew kept our presence a secret.  Not only that, but they came back with details we otherwise would never have gotten from the base.