299 Days VIII: The War by Glen Tate Read Free Book Online

kept doing the tours anyway. It was her
     job. If she lost her job, she would have to leave Camp Murray. And if that happened,
     she’d be dead in ten seconds “outside the wire.”
    Jeanie’s boss, Rick Menlow, had finally realized his dream. He became the Governor.
     The former Governor resigned for health reasons. She was a wreck and had several nervous
     breakdowns. At least, that’s what everyone said. But, maybe she was shoved aside for
     political reasons. Who knew? Who cared?
    Jeanie shrugged when she heard the news. Her whole career had been built around the
     dream of her boss being the Governor and she being the press secretary for him. That
     was … months ago? Was that all? It seemed like a lifetime ago.
    Now Jeanine didn’t care. Her boss was a tool. He would just do whatever D.C. told
     him. He had gone from the fresh reformer conservative who miraculously got elected
     as the State Auditor to what he was now – a tool.
    Jeanie reflected on her enthusiasm when she and her boss bugged out of Olympia and
     first came to Camp Murray. Back then, she felt like she was going to help the state
     in a time of need. She was going to do all these wonderful things to help people.
    Now, Jeanie was a prisoner. Everyone in that building was a prisoner, even the people
     running the state. They couldn’t leave the protections of their government facilities.
     They had plenty to eat in those facilities, but they couldn’t leave.
    Something had to change. People couldn’t live that way much longer.
    Jeanie, who was out of the official loop because she had ties to some POIs, still
     overheard conversations about a war. A “war”? Not the little terrorism stuff or the
     police rounding up teabaggers. This was an actual war. They were calling it a civil
     war. That term sounded so outlandish. A “civil war”? C’mon. In America? That was crazy!
    There was constant talk around Camp Murray about which military units were still “sit
     outs” and which ones were going over to the teabaggers. Loyal units were highly sought
     after. They could have anything they wanted for their services. There were some stories
     of very nasty behavior by the loyal units.
    The rumors Jeanie overheard seemed to be that the teabaggers were about to launch
     something in Washington State. There were conflicting reports of what it would be.
     The legitimate authorities had spies in the teabagger army, but they were getting
     conflicting reports. Jeanie wondered if some of the spies were double agents sending
     out intentionally conflicting reports. Some said there would be a New Year’s Day limited
     attack that would bypass Seattle entirely. Others said it would be a full-on attack
     in February. Others said it would come in the spring and would be from units currently
     sitting out that would go over to the teabaggers. No one knew for sure.
    There was also continuous talk at Camp Murray about how the farms were not producing
     enough food to feed people. Jeanie learned that, before the Crisis, America had imported
     over half of its food. Over half! Most people couldn’t believe it. Those supplies
     were now cut off. The dollar was worthless and there wasn’t enough fuel to ship food.
     America had the most farmland in the world, right? Well, yes and no. America had the
     most land capable of farming, but for years, farmers had been living on government
     subsidies instead of actually growing any significant quantities of food. Before the
     Crisis, the government actually paid farmers not to farm. That amazed Jeanie.
    Even the farmers who still farmed didn’t help the situation much. Before the Crisis,
     Jeanie learned, the government paid them to grow crops, such as corn, to be used for
     ethanol. The fields to grow corn were still available—but many of the processing plants
     to turn the corn into food were not. They had been retooled to make ethanol. The processing
     plants to make cornbread and other things were shut down. Try