Post by kspence92 on Jan 10, 2022 6:51:25 GMT
The Rise of Gilead - a Handmaid's Tale short story on how Gilead came to be and the initial effort to resist it
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"Come on sweetheart, open up for daddy." Richard Harris tried to coax his one year old daughter Arianna in her high chair to eat her lunch as he made airplane noises with the spoon swooping down from the air. She was having none of it.
"Well, I don't blame you, I wouldn't want to eat that crap either." He muttered to himself with a shrug. His wife was a senior nurse at Walter Reed and was working overtime today, so for the next few hours he had his little girl all to himself. In a world where 1 in 100 pregnancies were viable, Arianna was truly his miracle. As Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, he didn't get a lot of family time, so what little he got he cherished.
Richard had 6 missed calls on his phone which he had mistakenly put on silent. The calls were all to inform him of the same things that the television in the corner of the kitchen was reporting. He glanced up and saw CNN was reporting live from the Capitol. A special Joint Session of Congress was underway in an effort to find a solution to heal the increasingly polarised nation. The Vice President was presiding over the session. There was something wrong Richard quickly noticed as the BREAKING NEWS bar kept flashing along the screen. He grabbed the remote and turned the TV up.
"...watching extraordinary scenes from this developing situation. It does appear that there are significant casualties at the Capitol this afternoon. For those just tuning in, in the last few minutes there has been an armed attack on the United States Congress. Gunmen opened fire on representatives and senators on the House floor. We can confirm that the Vice President has been shot, I repeat , the Vice President has been shot. We cannot confirm his condition. Likewise the Speaker of the House and President Pro Tempore of the Senate are also among those shot. Their condition is also unknown. The doors to the House floor were locked by gunmen allowing no escape for those inside. At this time it does appear as though the entire Congress has been wiped out. My God …."
"What the fuck !?" Richard exclaimed at the TV loud enough to scare his daughter who started crying. He picked her up and held her tight. "Shhh baby it's alright. Daddy didn't mean to scare you."
The TV continued to blare on : "We're now going live to the White House where a developing situation is reported. Janet, are you there ?" The anchor asked.
"Yes Steve, we're here live in front of the White House. We were due to enter the building a few minutes ago for a scheduled press briefing when the White House went into lockdown due to the attack on Congress. In the last perhaps 2 minutes, we can confirm there has been a loud explosion within the White House itself. If you look behind me you can see smoke billowing out of some of the windows in the West Wing. There is no word on the president's status as of yet."
"Sorry to interrupt," the anchor said "we're just now hearing that there is an active shooter situation at the Supreme Court. Police are asking people to keep away from the area until…."
The front door suddenly burst open. Richard almost dropped Arianna in shock but he held tight. Were the terrorists coming for him too?
"Mr Secretary." A man wearing a black suit and armed with a submachine said in a commanding voice "You have to come with us. Now."
"Who the hell are you ?" He asked as the four men in his home practically grabbed him and dragged him outside where a small motorcade of black SUVs waited on the street with red and blue lights flashing.
"Special Agent Simmons, United States Secret Service." The tall black man said as he bundled the father and daughter into the middle SUV and the motorcade sped off. "Thank god we got to you in time. Other members of the cabinet weren't so lucky."
"What the fuck is going on ?" He hissed. He kept his voice down to keep his daughter calm. The confusion had set her off crying.
"There's a coordinated attack against the government. Congress just got slaughtered. They set off a bomb in the White House. God knows how they managed that. They must have had people on the inside. We just got word they hit the Supreme Court too. There's been assassinations of cabinet members at their offices and private residences." The agent replied.
So many questions raced through his mind. Who did this ? Was it still ongoing ? Were he and his family safe ?
"We're heading for Joint Base Andrews. Marine One is waiting there to take you to the bunker at Mount Weather." The agent said as they screamed past traffic and through red lights.
"Marine One is the president's helicopter." Richard pointed out in confusion.
"We have confirmation that the President and Vice President are dead along with the Congressional leadership. At this moment every member of the US cabinet other than yourself has either been assassinated or is missing. As the only remaining member of the line of succession, you are the Acting President of the United States sir." The agent replied, struggling to believe his own words.
"I think I'm gonna be sick." He mumbled. "God help us."
The motorcade had barrelled through the streets of Washington DC at record pace and entered Joint Base Andrews where hundreds of armed military personnel were on edge.
A burley Secret Service agent opened the door and ushered Richard out with baby Arianna still clinging to him fast asleep despite everything.
"My wife ?" He asked the agent.
"She's on her way. We had a chopper pick her up at work." The agent replied as he led the Acting President to the large green and white Sea King helicopter that had "United States of America" emblazoned on the side.
With him in the helicopter was his daughter and four Secret Service agents plus the two pilots. He looked out the window and into the gorgeous clear blue sky. For a moment he could almost forget what was happening.
"How long till we get to the bunker ?" Richard asked, turning his head away from the window and to the tall black man who headed the Secret Service detail.
"We're not going there, sir. We believe there may be hostiles at the site. We can't trust anyone." The agent responded. "The situation is more complex than we initially realized. We received intelligence from the FBI a few minutes ago indicating that the Pentagon claim that ISIS is behind all this is a flat out lie."
"Why would the Pentagon lie about that ?" Richard shifted in his seat uncomfortably.
"We believe elements in the Pentagon are compromised by the same people who carried out the attacks . The FBI believes that this is a domestic plot. Have you heard of the Sons of Jacob?" Special Agent Frank Cole asked.
"Yeah, die-hard Bible Thumpers. You think they're behind this ?" The Acting President asked.
"The FBI thinks so. They're also concerned that the group has infiltrated right through the military and law enforcement ranks. It's how they managed to get into the White House and Capitol so easily." Cole replied as his phone vibrated in his pocket. His face turned to stone as he listened to the call before hanging up.
"There's been a truck bomb at the FBI headquarters. The Director and Deputy Director are unaccounted for."
Richard put his head in his hands "They're wanting to cover their tracks by taking out those investigating them."
"That's how it looks. Mr Acting President, at this time all intelligence indicates that hostile elements within our own government are involved in this attack. For all intents and purposes an attempted coup is currently underway. We don't know who we can't and can trust so that means for now all our continuity of government facilities are off limits in case Sons of Jacob members have infiltrated them. We have to go off the grid. We have a safe house in Maine that is secure. We will ditch the chopper about fifty miles from the safehouse and acquire a car and drive from there to keep our tracks covered as much as possible." Cole said, barely believing he was saying this.
"Now hang on, if I'm President then I need to be making a national statement as soon as possible to let people know that the government is still here !"
"Right now the entire country thinks the government has been wiped out. We've also put out rumors that you died from a heart attack after getting on this helicopter. We want to throw the attackers off your trail. Once we see who tries to come forward to take over power they may very well give themselves away as being behind the whole plot. That unfortunately means you going into hiding and pretending to be dead for a few days, sir." Cole spoke over the noise of the rotors.
Someone spoke through Cole's earpiece. "Well shit." He replied.
"What is it now?" The Acting President asked.
"They found the Secretary of Homeland Security. He's fine. He's just claimed himself as Acting President." Cole replied.
Richard shrugged, " Stephen Pinkerton? Well, he is above me in the line of succession, so he has every right to do so."
"We have reason to believe he had links with far right religious groups , one of which was the Sons of Jacob."
"Holy shit, you mean he's in on it?" Richard asked.
"We think so. To make it clear. We recognise yourself as the legitimate president of the United States. That man is for all intents and purposes a traitor to the Constitution. For now we need to lay low and get you to the safe house and try and link up with other patriots that are not with that group. God knows how many infiltrated us."
The flight took about four hours or so, with Marine One landing about six miles west of Bangor, Maine. One of the Marines on board threw a couple of grenades inside which ignited the fuel tanks and totally destroyed the aircraft in an effort to cover their tracks.
Accompanying the new president and his daughter were four secret service agents and the two marine pilots, who's mission was straightforward : keep the president out of harm's way. It would take hours of hiking through woods and back country to reach the safe house.
"I feel like I'm dreaming." Richard said to nobody in particular ,as they walked along a barely used , muddy path through the trees. He carried Arianna who was luckily fast asleep. He was just glad he had been working from home that day and not wearing his good suit and instead had opted for the hoody, sweatpants and beat up old sneakers option in the morning.
"None of this feels real, sir, but it is. We'll get you to safety and get these traitor sons of bitches taken down." Agent Cole said as he pushed some branches out the way. The agents had the misfortune of hiking in suits, which wasn't ideal to say the least.
"How far ?" The president asked.
"Not far now. Another hour and we'll be there. There should already be two agents there waiting. The safe house is manned round the clock." Cole responded as he fought with a spider web.
The sun shone through the cracks in the canopy - enough to give them plenty of light to see where they were going, but also enough cover should the SoJ traitors send any drones overhead to look for him.
Other than a few scratches from tree branches, all of them made it to the safe house unharmed. From the outside it looked just like an old hunting lodge. There wasn't even a road leading to it. As they made their way inside, that view transformed. A number of state of the art computers and communications equipment dotted tables as well as secure landlines. In the main room were two flags pinned to the wall: the US flag and the Secret Service flag.
"Mr President, welcome to Safe House Charlie. I'm special agent Harry Fairbanks." One of the agents who had been manning the facility said as he shook the new Commander-in-Chiefs hand. There's an office through the back with a bed and an en suite toilet and shower for you. We also have the capability to make contact with anywhere on the planet you need to get in touch with at a moment's notice."
"How safe are we here ?" Richard asked the agent as he lay Arianna gently down on a couch and draped a blanket over her provided by one of the agents.
"For now, it's fairly safe. This is a top secret fallback location designed specially for this purpose - that being an attempted coup by elements of our own government. Very few people know about it." Harry replied before tacking on "Oh yeah, we plan for everything and anything no matter how unlikely. Seriously we even have a plan on what to do if aliens attacked DC. No stone left unturned and all that. But to follow up on your question as to how safe we are, as I said we're fairly safe for now but when the powers that be figure out that flaming chopper wreck in that field is Marine One, they're gonna start to hunt around. This is only a temporary location. We may need to move you across the border to Canada soon."
"Canada ? Jesus Christ, I'm not leaving the country."
"We'll smuggle you to the embassy in Ottawa and from there we will fly you to Anchorage. We're certain Alaska is not loyal to those SoJ nuts." Harry said as he gave the president the tour of the cabin. "Good news is we have a handful of government staff accounted for and are being relocated to secure locations as we speak. Most are on their way to Safe houses on the west coast or to Canada . The Secretary of the Army, Deputy Secretary of State, an Assistant Secretary of DHS and the Under Secretary of HHS are secure. Unfortunately that's all that we could locate. The others are dead or MIA."
"We're gonna have to rebuild the government from the ground up." Richard sighed as he took a seat. He felt light headed.
"Mr President, you're gonna want to see this." Agent Cole said as he pointed to a TV in the corner.
The Secretary of Homeland Security stood in the Oval Office with his hand on a Bible and the other above his head whilst a Judge Richard didn't recognise, administered the Oath of Office.
"I, Stephen Willard Pinkerton, do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. So help me God."
"Congratulations Mr President." The judge said before shaking his hand and "Hail to the Chief" played
Everyone in the safe house stared at the TV in rage. How dare they do this .
"My fellow Americans, today is the darkest day in our nation's history. The very heart of our democracy has been attacked and our elected representatives murdered in a cowardly fashion. As sole survivor of the presidential line of succession, I have been honored with the immeasurable responsibility of this office. Rest assured we will pray for those lost and for their loved ones at this challenging time and we will absolutely have justice for this outrage. In order to bring about the perpetrators and restore order to our nation, I am announcing a temporary suspension of the Constitution and declaring a national state of emergency. A dusk till dawn curfew is now in effect and I urge all state governors to cooperate with the federal government - what's left of it - on enforcing the new but temporary regulations. Certain television networks will be taken off the air on a temporary basis as we have evidence that elements of the media were involved in these attacks. There will be more information in the coming days on our plans to rebuild the government and restore order to this nation, but in the meantime I ask that we all bow our heads in prayer and have a moment of silence….. Thank you. May God Bless America."
"That treasonous son of a bitch!" Richard yelled in frustration. He looked over at his little girl who had slept through his outburst. He would fight these traitors not for himself but for her, for her future.
"We need to get ahead of the narrative here, Mr President." Agent Cole said. We have a handful of support staff on their way from DC here by road. People we can trust. The Deputy White House Chief of Staff was in Boston at a funeral when it all went down. We've picked him up and he's on his way with a handful of staffers we smuggled out of DC before the roadblocks went up. But, we do have an issue."
"What?"
"Your wife. She was supposed to have been airlifted out of DC. The crew sent to pick her up couldn't find her. The staff told them that armed men had entered the hospital and kidnapped her. They took all the women who had recently had babies. Not just patients but staff too. We think they were looking for fertile women."
"No. No. No. This can't be happening. We need to get her out of there." The president put his head in his hands.
"Believe me sir we're doing all we can." The agent replied, placing a hand on his boss's shoulder.
When the surviving White House staff arrived a few hours later as night began to fall they all began to hash out a plan to let the nation know that the new regime in DC was an illegitimate usurper.
First order of business was getting the new president a suit to wear. It would do no good to address the nation in a dirty hoodie. One of the agents of similar build to the president swapped clothes with him. Then they were set to go. At 7:00PM, an address to the nation was uploaded to YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Reddit from secure and encrypted accounts to hide their posting locations.
"My fellow Americans. Many of you will not know who I am. I was the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. I am now the President of the United States. This was not a position I asked for, but as the only legitimate survivor from the line of succession, it falls to me to assume the role of Commander-in-Chief. The horrific events of today were not conducted by Islamic extremists as the imposter in the White House claims, but rather these attacks were conducted by treasonous and criminal elements within our own government. This was a coup d'etat. Stephen Pinkerton- the man who has proclaimed himself president - was involved in this coup. He is a traitor to the Republic and I call upon patriotic Americans to fight back against him and the Sons of Jacob. I am proclaiming that the Sons of Jacob is now a terrorist organisation and that all those who are members are to be arrested as soon as possible. I urge senior officers within our armed forces and law enforcement to be near their phones or computers. At this time, loyal American officials are preparing to make contact with various installations and units in order to begin a fight back against the terrorists occupying our seat of government. I will endeavour to continue these messages as long as I can. In the meantime, God Bless America and may God help us all."
The Sons of Jacob had tried to shut down the social media sites within hours of taking power, but delays had meant that they were not able to seriously curtail social media and the internet at large until the day after the attacks. That delay had allowed the real president to get his message out to tens of millions of Americans via the internet before the accounts were shut down. Even then, the videos were shared via bluetooth between phones and radio stations and smaller TV stations not yet closed down played it for their listeners and viewers respectively. The new regime played the legitimate government at their own game and released statements calling President Richard Harris a traitor and accusing him of being behind the attacks. Much of the country , and subsequently the armed forces, became split on who to back.
Things got messy and quickly.
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Emergency Presidential Residence, Classified location in Maine , Three days later…...
"Florida is...not great" the President was told by his aide Charlie Parker. Charlie had served as the former president's Deputy Chief of Staff.
"Define "not great" , Charlie." The president said without lifting his eyes from the paper in front of him.
"Well, the Governor has sided with the Sons of Jacob, the Lieutenant Governor hasn't. The Lieutenant Governor ordered the Florida Capitol Police to arrest him for treason. The Capitol Police went in and ended up in a firefight with the Tallahassee police department who were following the Governor. The Capitol Police were forced to withdraw. The governor called out the national guard to protect Tallahassee. The Lieutenant Governor orders them to arrest him after declaring himself the real Governor. There were some exchanges of fire between various units but we now know that a convoy did advance on Tallahassee. City cops opened fire on the convoy but they were easily overrun." Charlie said as he took a breath. "An Air National Guard unit out of Tampa , under the Governor's control, sent over a number of F-15s and took out six National Guard blackhawks that were over Tallahassee. That was quickly dealt with after another Air Guard unit out of Jacksonville declared for the Lieutenant Governor and their aircraft engaged with the Governor's. Anyway it seems the traitor forces have been forced from Tallahassee and are retreating northwards. It looks like we may have won Florida."
"Jesus what a cluster fuck." The president said. "What else?"
"It's the same everywhere on CONUS I'm afraid. The chain of command is a wreck. Nobody knows who's orders to follow. The entire country is breaking down into civil war. We've got state police fighting city police, national guard units fighting regular army, Marines fighting Marines. It's a mess. Looking at the latest reports there are still ongoing artillery duels between the Pennsylvania and Ohio national guard's. We're not even sure who's on our side out of the two right now. There was a coup against the state government in Colorado. The governor escaped and led loyal Forces in a counter coup. Fighting is still ongoing in Denver and Colorado Springs. Give it a few days and we should see things stabilize and front lines start to form." Parker replied.
"Front lines in the USA." The president shook his head. "My god."
It was just the beginning.
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"Come on sweetheart, open up for daddy." Richard Harris tried to coax his one year old daughter Arianna in her high chair to eat her lunch as he made airplane noises with the spoon swooping down from the air. She was having none of it.
"Well, I don't blame you, I wouldn't want to eat that crap either." He muttered to himself with a shrug. His wife was a senior nurse at Walter Reed and was working overtime today, so for the next few hours he had his little girl all to himself. In a world where 1 in 100 pregnancies were viable, Arianna was truly his miracle. As Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, he didn't get a lot of family time, so what little he got he cherished.
Richard had 6 missed calls on his phone which he had mistakenly put on silent. The calls were all to inform him of the same things that the television in the corner of the kitchen was reporting. He glanced up and saw CNN was reporting live from the Capitol. A special Joint Session of Congress was underway in an effort to find a solution to heal the increasingly polarised nation. The Vice President was presiding over the session. There was something wrong Richard quickly noticed as the BREAKING NEWS bar kept flashing along the screen. He grabbed the remote and turned the TV up.
"...watching extraordinary scenes from this developing situation. It does appear that there are significant casualties at the Capitol this afternoon. For those just tuning in, in the last few minutes there has been an armed attack on the United States Congress. Gunmen opened fire on representatives and senators on the House floor. We can confirm that the Vice President has been shot, I repeat , the Vice President has been shot. We cannot confirm his condition. Likewise the Speaker of the House and President Pro Tempore of the Senate are also among those shot. Their condition is also unknown. The doors to the House floor were locked by gunmen allowing no escape for those inside. At this time it does appear as though the entire Congress has been wiped out. My God …."
"What the fuck !?" Richard exclaimed at the TV loud enough to scare his daughter who started crying. He picked her up and held her tight. "Shhh baby it's alright. Daddy didn't mean to scare you."
The TV continued to blare on : "We're now going live to the White House where a developing situation is reported. Janet, are you there ?" The anchor asked.
"Yes Steve, we're here live in front of the White House. We were due to enter the building a few minutes ago for a scheduled press briefing when the White House went into lockdown due to the attack on Congress. In the last perhaps 2 minutes, we can confirm there has been a loud explosion within the White House itself. If you look behind me you can see smoke billowing out of some of the windows in the West Wing. There is no word on the president's status as of yet."
"Sorry to interrupt," the anchor said "we're just now hearing that there is an active shooter situation at the Supreme Court. Police are asking people to keep away from the area until…."
The front door suddenly burst open. Richard almost dropped Arianna in shock but he held tight. Were the terrorists coming for him too?
"Mr Secretary." A man wearing a black suit and armed with a submachine said in a commanding voice "You have to come with us. Now."
"Who the hell are you ?" He asked as the four men in his home practically grabbed him and dragged him outside where a small motorcade of black SUVs waited on the street with red and blue lights flashing.
"Special Agent Simmons, United States Secret Service." The tall black man said as he bundled the father and daughter into the middle SUV and the motorcade sped off. "Thank god we got to you in time. Other members of the cabinet weren't so lucky."
"What the fuck is going on ?" He hissed. He kept his voice down to keep his daughter calm. The confusion had set her off crying.
"There's a coordinated attack against the government. Congress just got slaughtered. They set off a bomb in the White House. God knows how they managed that. They must have had people on the inside. We just got word they hit the Supreme Court too. There's been assassinations of cabinet members at their offices and private residences." The agent replied.
So many questions raced through his mind. Who did this ? Was it still ongoing ? Were he and his family safe ?
"We're heading for Joint Base Andrews. Marine One is waiting there to take you to the bunker at Mount Weather." The agent said as they screamed past traffic and through red lights.
"Marine One is the president's helicopter." Richard pointed out in confusion.
"We have confirmation that the President and Vice President are dead along with the Congressional leadership. At this moment every member of the US cabinet other than yourself has either been assassinated or is missing. As the only remaining member of the line of succession, you are the Acting President of the United States sir." The agent replied, struggling to believe his own words.
"I think I'm gonna be sick." He mumbled. "God help us."
The motorcade had barrelled through the streets of Washington DC at record pace and entered Joint Base Andrews where hundreds of armed military personnel were on edge.
A burley Secret Service agent opened the door and ushered Richard out with baby Arianna still clinging to him fast asleep despite everything.
"My wife ?" He asked the agent.
"She's on her way. We had a chopper pick her up at work." The agent replied as he led the Acting President to the large green and white Sea King helicopter that had "United States of America" emblazoned on the side.
With him in the helicopter was his daughter and four Secret Service agents plus the two pilots. He looked out the window and into the gorgeous clear blue sky. For a moment he could almost forget what was happening.
"How long till we get to the bunker ?" Richard asked, turning his head away from the window and to the tall black man who headed the Secret Service detail.
"We're not going there, sir. We believe there may be hostiles at the site. We can't trust anyone." The agent responded. "The situation is more complex than we initially realized. We received intelligence from the FBI a few minutes ago indicating that the Pentagon claim that ISIS is behind all this is a flat out lie."
"Why would the Pentagon lie about that ?" Richard shifted in his seat uncomfortably.
"We believe elements in the Pentagon are compromised by the same people who carried out the attacks . The FBI believes that this is a domestic plot. Have you heard of the Sons of Jacob?" Special Agent Frank Cole asked.
"Yeah, die-hard Bible Thumpers. You think they're behind this ?" The Acting President asked.
"The FBI thinks so. They're also concerned that the group has infiltrated right through the military and law enforcement ranks. It's how they managed to get into the White House and Capitol so easily." Cole replied as his phone vibrated in his pocket. His face turned to stone as he listened to the call before hanging up.
"There's been a truck bomb at the FBI headquarters. The Director and Deputy Director are unaccounted for."
Richard put his head in his hands "They're wanting to cover their tracks by taking out those investigating them."
"That's how it looks. Mr Acting President, at this time all intelligence indicates that hostile elements within our own government are involved in this attack. For all intents and purposes an attempted coup is currently underway. We don't know who we can't and can trust so that means for now all our continuity of government facilities are off limits in case Sons of Jacob members have infiltrated them. We have to go off the grid. We have a safe house in Maine that is secure. We will ditch the chopper about fifty miles from the safehouse and acquire a car and drive from there to keep our tracks covered as much as possible." Cole said, barely believing he was saying this.
"Now hang on, if I'm President then I need to be making a national statement as soon as possible to let people know that the government is still here !"
"Right now the entire country thinks the government has been wiped out. We've also put out rumors that you died from a heart attack after getting on this helicopter. We want to throw the attackers off your trail. Once we see who tries to come forward to take over power they may very well give themselves away as being behind the whole plot. That unfortunately means you going into hiding and pretending to be dead for a few days, sir." Cole spoke over the noise of the rotors.
Someone spoke through Cole's earpiece. "Well shit." He replied.
"What is it now?" The Acting President asked.
"They found the Secretary of Homeland Security. He's fine. He's just claimed himself as Acting President." Cole replied.
Richard shrugged, " Stephen Pinkerton? Well, he is above me in the line of succession, so he has every right to do so."
"We have reason to believe he had links with far right religious groups , one of which was the Sons of Jacob."
"Holy shit, you mean he's in on it?" Richard asked.
"We think so. To make it clear. We recognise yourself as the legitimate president of the United States. That man is for all intents and purposes a traitor to the Constitution. For now we need to lay low and get you to the safe house and try and link up with other patriots that are not with that group. God knows how many infiltrated us."
The flight took about four hours or so, with Marine One landing about six miles west of Bangor, Maine. One of the Marines on board threw a couple of grenades inside which ignited the fuel tanks and totally destroyed the aircraft in an effort to cover their tracks.
Accompanying the new president and his daughter were four secret service agents and the two marine pilots, who's mission was straightforward : keep the president out of harm's way. It would take hours of hiking through woods and back country to reach the safe house.
"I feel like I'm dreaming." Richard said to nobody in particular ,as they walked along a barely used , muddy path through the trees. He carried Arianna who was luckily fast asleep. He was just glad he had been working from home that day and not wearing his good suit and instead had opted for the hoody, sweatpants and beat up old sneakers option in the morning.
"None of this feels real, sir, but it is. We'll get you to safety and get these traitor sons of bitches taken down." Agent Cole said as he pushed some branches out the way. The agents had the misfortune of hiking in suits, which wasn't ideal to say the least.
"How far ?" The president asked.
"Not far now. Another hour and we'll be there. There should already be two agents there waiting. The safe house is manned round the clock." Cole responded as he fought with a spider web.
The sun shone through the cracks in the canopy - enough to give them plenty of light to see where they were going, but also enough cover should the SoJ traitors send any drones overhead to look for him.
Other than a few scratches from tree branches, all of them made it to the safe house unharmed. From the outside it looked just like an old hunting lodge. There wasn't even a road leading to it. As they made their way inside, that view transformed. A number of state of the art computers and communications equipment dotted tables as well as secure landlines. In the main room were two flags pinned to the wall: the US flag and the Secret Service flag.
"Mr President, welcome to Safe House Charlie. I'm special agent Harry Fairbanks." One of the agents who had been manning the facility said as he shook the new Commander-in-Chiefs hand. There's an office through the back with a bed and an en suite toilet and shower for you. We also have the capability to make contact with anywhere on the planet you need to get in touch with at a moment's notice."
"How safe are we here ?" Richard asked the agent as he lay Arianna gently down on a couch and draped a blanket over her provided by one of the agents.
"For now, it's fairly safe. This is a top secret fallback location designed specially for this purpose - that being an attempted coup by elements of our own government. Very few people know about it." Harry replied before tacking on "Oh yeah, we plan for everything and anything no matter how unlikely. Seriously we even have a plan on what to do if aliens attacked DC. No stone left unturned and all that. But to follow up on your question as to how safe we are, as I said we're fairly safe for now but when the powers that be figure out that flaming chopper wreck in that field is Marine One, they're gonna start to hunt around. This is only a temporary location. We may need to move you across the border to Canada soon."
"Canada ? Jesus Christ, I'm not leaving the country."
"We'll smuggle you to the embassy in Ottawa and from there we will fly you to Anchorage. We're certain Alaska is not loyal to those SoJ nuts." Harry said as he gave the president the tour of the cabin. "Good news is we have a handful of government staff accounted for and are being relocated to secure locations as we speak. Most are on their way to Safe houses on the west coast or to Canada . The Secretary of the Army, Deputy Secretary of State, an Assistant Secretary of DHS and the Under Secretary of HHS are secure. Unfortunately that's all that we could locate. The others are dead or MIA."
"We're gonna have to rebuild the government from the ground up." Richard sighed as he took a seat. He felt light headed.
"Mr President, you're gonna want to see this." Agent Cole said as he pointed to a TV in the corner.
The Secretary of Homeland Security stood in the Oval Office with his hand on a Bible and the other above his head whilst a Judge Richard didn't recognise, administered the Oath of Office.
"I, Stephen Willard Pinkerton, do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. So help me God."
"Congratulations Mr President." The judge said before shaking his hand and "Hail to the Chief" played
Everyone in the safe house stared at the TV in rage. How dare they do this .
"My fellow Americans, today is the darkest day in our nation's history. The very heart of our democracy has been attacked and our elected representatives murdered in a cowardly fashion. As sole survivor of the presidential line of succession, I have been honored with the immeasurable responsibility of this office. Rest assured we will pray for those lost and for their loved ones at this challenging time and we will absolutely have justice for this outrage. In order to bring about the perpetrators and restore order to our nation, I am announcing a temporary suspension of the Constitution and declaring a national state of emergency. A dusk till dawn curfew is now in effect and I urge all state governors to cooperate with the federal government - what's left of it - on enforcing the new but temporary regulations. Certain television networks will be taken off the air on a temporary basis as we have evidence that elements of the media were involved in these attacks. There will be more information in the coming days on our plans to rebuild the government and restore order to this nation, but in the meantime I ask that we all bow our heads in prayer and have a moment of silence….. Thank you. May God Bless America."
"That treasonous son of a bitch!" Richard yelled in frustration. He looked over at his little girl who had slept through his outburst. He would fight these traitors not for himself but for her, for her future.
"We need to get ahead of the narrative here, Mr President." Agent Cole said. We have a handful of support staff on their way from DC here by road. People we can trust. The Deputy White House Chief of Staff was in Boston at a funeral when it all went down. We've picked him up and he's on his way with a handful of staffers we smuggled out of DC before the roadblocks went up. But, we do have an issue."
"What?"
"Your wife. She was supposed to have been airlifted out of DC. The crew sent to pick her up couldn't find her. The staff told them that armed men had entered the hospital and kidnapped her. They took all the women who had recently had babies. Not just patients but staff too. We think they were looking for fertile women."
"No. No. No. This can't be happening. We need to get her out of there." The president put his head in his hands.
"Believe me sir we're doing all we can." The agent replied, placing a hand on his boss's shoulder.
When the surviving White House staff arrived a few hours later as night began to fall they all began to hash out a plan to let the nation know that the new regime in DC was an illegitimate usurper.
First order of business was getting the new president a suit to wear. It would do no good to address the nation in a dirty hoodie. One of the agents of similar build to the president swapped clothes with him. Then they were set to go. At 7:00PM, an address to the nation was uploaded to YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Reddit from secure and encrypted accounts to hide their posting locations.
"My fellow Americans. Many of you will not know who I am. I was the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. I am now the President of the United States. This was not a position I asked for, but as the only legitimate survivor from the line of succession, it falls to me to assume the role of Commander-in-Chief. The horrific events of today were not conducted by Islamic extremists as the imposter in the White House claims, but rather these attacks were conducted by treasonous and criminal elements within our own government. This was a coup d'etat. Stephen Pinkerton- the man who has proclaimed himself president - was involved in this coup. He is a traitor to the Republic and I call upon patriotic Americans to fight back against him and the Sons of Jacob. I am proclaiming that the Sons of Jacob is now a terrorist organisation and that all those who are members are to be arrested as soon as possible. I urge senior officers within our armed forces and law enforcement to be near their phones or computers. At this time, loyal American officials are preparing to make contact with various installations and units in order to begin a fight back against the terrorists occupying our seat of government. I will endeavour to continue these messages as long as I can. In the meantime, God Bless America and may God help us all."
The Sons of Jacob had tried to shut down the social media sites within hours of taking power, but delays had meant that they were not able to seriously curtail social media and the internet at large until the day after the attacks. That delay had allowed the real president to get his message out to tens of millions of Americans via the internet before the accounts were shut down. Even then, the videos were shared via bluetooth between phones and radio stations and smaller TV stations not yet closed down played it for their listeners and viewers respectively. The new regime played the legitimate government at their own game and released statements calling President Richard Harris a traitor and accusing him of being behind the attacks. Much of the country , and subsequently the armed forces, became split on who to back.
Things got messy and quickly.
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Emergency Presidential Residence, Classified location in Maine , Three days later…...
"Florida is...not great" the President was told by his aide Charlie Parker. Charlie had served as the former president's Deputy Chief of Staff.
"Define "not great" , Charlie." The president said without lifting his eyes from the paper in front of him.
"Well, the Governor has sided with the Sons of Jacob, the Lieutenant Governor hasn't. The Lieutenant Governor ordered the Florida Capitol Police to arrest him for treason. The Capitol Police went in and ended up in a firefight with the Tallahassee police department who were following the Governor. The Capitol Police were forced to withdraw. The governor called out the national guard to protect Tallahassee. The Lieutenant Governor orders them to arrest him after declaring himself the real Governor. There were some exchanges of fire between various units but we now know that a convoy did advance on Tallahassee. City cops opened fire on the convoy but they were easily overrun." Charlie said as he took a breath. "An Air National Guard unit out of Tampa , under the Governor's control, sent over a number of F-15s and took out six National Guard blackhawks that were over Tallahassee. That was quickly dealt with after another Air Guard unit out of Jacksonville declared for the Lieutenant Governor and their aircraft engaged with the Governor's. Anyway it seems the traitor forces have been forced from Tallahassee and are retreating northwards. It looks like we may have won Florida."
"Jesus what a cluster fuck." The president said. "What else?"
"It's the same everywhere on CONUS I'm afraid. The chain of command is a wreck. Nobody knows who's orders to follow. The entire country is breaking down into civil war. We've got state police fighting city police, national guard units fighting regular army, Marines fighting Marines. It's a mess. Looking at the latest reports there are still ongoing artillery duels between the Pennsylvania and Ohio national guard's. We're not even sure who's on our side out of the two right now. There was a coup against the state government in Colorado. The governor escaped and led loyal Forces in a counter coup. Fighting is still ongoing in Denver and Colorado Springs. Give it a few days and we should see things stabilize and front lines start to form." Parker replied.
"Front lines in the USA." The president shook his head. "My god."
It was just the beginning.
