Forgotten Forbidden America: Rise of Tyranny (9 page)

Closing his eyes, Matt just shook his head and asked, “What are y’all doing here? The officers outside told me y’all have been stacking stuff up.”

“We have been,” Nelson said and explained. “You know as well as I do it’s only a matter of time before looters hit here,” he added.

Looking around to make sure they were alone, Matt stepped closer and whispered, “The ATF will be by this week to check and seize what’s here. They said the president is going to sign an executive order to cover them collecting existing stock of firearms and ammunition from all stores.”

The color drained from Nelson’s face. “You better be fucking with me,” Nelson said, stepping back.

“No, I almost fainted when I heard them talking about it,” Matt said. “It seems across the country, people are shooting any federal employee. Two senators have died from gunshots today, and the president was taken out of Washington to an undisclosed location.”

“You’ve been working with the feds?”

“Yeah, I’m one of several that have to follow and assist,” Matt groaned.

Reaching out, Nelson grabbed his shoulder. “You need to get reassigned,” Nelson said in a serious voice. “People are going to see you helping the feds and come after you,” he warned.

“That’s why I’m here. The captain finally released me but said I would be back with them tomorrow since I have SWAT training.”

“Get your shit out of your house,” Nelson said, heading back to the store.

Catching up, Matt walked beside him. “All my preps are at the farm. I just have guns and ammo not counting the personal stuff. I know I should’ve listened to you and Michelle and not bought that big ass house so we could have more money,” he said and looked away. “Ashley and I grew up in small trailers, and I wanted us to have a nice house,” he added in a low voice.

“So did I, Matt, but I would rather have assets I can carry. Kind of hard to do that with a house,” Nelson said as they came to the main aisle through the store. Matt stopped, seeing the mass of stuff loaded on the two trucks as one man and two teens pulled large, blue tarps over the loads and tied them down.

Breaking into a run, Matt caught up to Nelson and grabbed his arm, and Zeus gave a low growl behind him. Matt quickly let go as Nelson just looked at Zeus, who sat down. “Nelson, just how much shit are you taking out of here?” he whispered.

“A lot,” Nelson answered in a low voice. “I figure I have about five hundred rifles and about that many pistols. Then about five tons of ammo and other odds and ends,” Nelson said, knowing that was a low-range statement.

“Nelson, if the feds find out about this, they will lock your ass up. I don’t care what you have from home office. They want the guns from the stores. Hell, Wal-Mart just turned theirs over. They have a massive warehouse at the airport they are collecting them at,” Matt whispered.

“That’s why I’m taking these. Those guns and ammo will be worth more than gold, Matt. And if this goes really bad, we have weapons to arm fighters to take it back,” Nelson said in a low voice.

Matt looked over at the empty gun cases and ammo shelves then noticed the pallets of ammo that normally lined the aisle were gone. “Dude, if they catch you, they might just shoot you,” he mumbled.

“They can try, but I’ll shoot back,” Nelson told him.

Still in shock, Matt turned to look at Nelson. “When are you leaving?”

“I’m going at dark. I’m going to ask Daren to wait till then as well.”

“Before you leave, call me. I’ll escort you home and have someone do the same for Daren,” Matt said, knowing he was starting to slide down a slippery slope.

“You don’t have to,” Nelson said.

Matt let out a breath. “Yes I do,” he replied. “You are doing this for my family as well, and I can’t let you take all the risk.”

Patting Matt on the shoulder, Nelson smiled. “Glad you finally see what’s coming.”

“I’m going to send Ashley to your house if you don’t mind,” Matt said as they headed over to the trucks. “I don’t want her at home by herself with the kids. I’ll pack up what we have and bring my truck over, and we will just leave her Corolla at your house,” Matt said, not saying more since the others could hear them now.

Walking over to his truck, Nelson saw the back half of the trailer loaded, and the stack was taller than the two side-by-sides. “Shit, that is a lot,” he said, looking at the four axles and noticing the trailer was sitting low. “Won’t be able to go very fast,” he said, walking around the trailer, inspecting the load.

“That trailer can handle the weight,” Matt said, looking at it. “A guy on the force bought one from here, and he carried a thirty-five-thousand-pound dozer on his.”

Hearing that, Nelson felt much better and looked at his watch. “It’s about four hours till sundown. How about you come back around nine? That way, it will be good and dark,” Nelson said.

“I’ll meet you here,” Matt said, giving Nelson a man hug then headed to the front of the store.

Seeing the three carry blue tarps over to his truck, Nelson helped cover the exposed load. When they were done, he told them some of what Matt had told him. “Keith, I want you and your bud to get two of the biggest packs you can carry and load them up like you were going camping for a week. Then, get some of those plastic storage bins, and load as many as you can fit on that quad Razor with what’s left of the food,” Nelson said, and Keith and his buddy took off.

“Daren, Matt is going to have a cop escort us home. I suggest you call your wife and tell her to pack up what she can and head to your camp tonight. You can come back to your house and get what else you need, but don’t come back to the store unless I call you,” Nelson told him.

“Shit,” Daren spat out. “Maybe I should just leave it here.”

“Your choice, but when your wife and kids are hungry, you will kick yourself. You know this is an unlawful order, and when this ends, the company will see your actions in a positive light,” Nelson told him but really wanted to hit Daren and knock some sense in him.

“Yeah, that will be the best route,” Daren finally said and held out his hand. “Thank you for explaining it to my dumb ass.”

Grabbing his hand, Nelson shook it and smiled. “One last thing: You better be ready to shoot someone. You have a family to protect and don’t have the luxury to call the police. In a few days, they won’t be answering many calls,” he told Daren, who just nodded with understanding. “Think of your family when you pull the trigger. Would you rather your kids be dead or someone else?”

“On that, you have no worries,” Daren said, letting Nelson’s hand go. Nelson brought out some of the cash from the petty cash drawer.

He held it out to Daren. “It’s a grand from petty cash to pay for your workout today.”

Slowly, he reached out. “Thank you,” he said, taking the money.

“It won’t be worth much for long, so use it, but be smart about it,” Nelson said. “I want you to call one of the assistant managers and tell them they have to come in tomorrow and pay the police that are guarding the building out of the store cash and put a receipt in the safe. Tell them I’m going to check on the other stores, and you hurt your back, and I gave you three weeks off,” Nelson explained. When Daren nodded, Nelson added, “Tell them until further notice, they are in charge of the store.”

“You think we will know which way this is going in three weeks?” Daren asked.

“Yep,” Nelson said.

Daren turned around and headed to his office. “You know where my camp is if you need a place to stay,” he said, walking away.

When he was gone, Nelson headed over to shoes and got all the sizes in several hiking boots for when his kids grew. After condensing them down to a few boxes, he carried them to the truck and put them in the back then went back for insulated rubber boots and did the same. He and Michelle had several spares, but the kids were still growing. They had always planned to do this but never got around to it.

Michelle had a wide selection of clothes in sizes ranging from toddler to adult she collected over the years at garage sales, but they had never gotten around to shoes. He grabbed several heavy coats in different sizes and added them to the truck along with a few extra items then headed upstairs.

He opened the case with the expensive scopes and pulled several out. Then, he did the same with the binoculars. Seeing his stack was bigger than he could carry, he grabbed a shopping cart and placed his stack in. Next, he went to the night vision case and opened it.

Seeing how full it was, Nelson jumped back. “Damn, that is a lot of inventory,” he said, thinking of all the money that was just lying on the shelves. “You need to quit thinking like a businessman,” he scolded himself and started grabbing boxes.

He grabbed all the third generation, which were very good, and a few second generation scopes, monoculars, and full-face night vision. Closing the door, he left all the first generation stuff. You could see in the dark with them, but they were cheap.

Moving over, he unlocked the next one, and the businessman inside of him was glad it wasn’t packed with thermal gear, but the prepper inside was cursing up a storm. He took out the dozen boxes of monoculars and two binoculars. Putting the stuff in his cart, he went down to archery and grabbed as many boxes of arrows he could and started combining them in boxes then shoved as many as would fit under the cart.

Seeing some kid bows, he grabbed a few and some arrows. Then, he saw the pellets and loaded up. He had several air rifles and could use the extra ammo. You could feed yourself with one, so he put an armload in the cart then pushed it back toward the truck and saw an end cap with tactical gloves.

He just took all of them. Granted, he and Michelle had a dozen pairs easy that still hadn’t been opened, but he knew the others like Matt and Ashley only had one pair. He emptied his cart when he heard footsteps and looked up to see the boys walking toward him, pushing a shopping cart with expedition packs on their backs. From the look of how stuffed the packs were, Nelson was amazed they were walking.

“Put your stuff in the quad Razor,” he said, and they smiled, walking past. Finished packing the back, Nelson headed back to the gun room. He pulled out a twelve-gauge Remington 870 pump shotgun and a Ruger 10/22. Looking around, he found two AR-15s and two Beretta 92s in 9mm. Gathering up his stuff, he closed the gun room and locked it.

Putting the guns in his cart, he went down what was left of the ammo aisle and got several hundred rounds of each and several thousand rounds for the .22. He moved to the next aisle and grabbed spare magazines. Pushing his cart to the back of the store, he found the boys packing the Razor very nicely.

“Keith, I need you two to come here,” Nelson said, stopping.

The boys climbed out of the Razor and walked over. “Yes, sir,” Keith said, and Nelson looked at the other boy and saw his tag read, “Ben.”

“Keith and Ben, these are guns I found upstairs that we couldn’t take. You two aren’t on the store’s FFL. I’m willing to let you hold onto them until this is over, but if you are caught with them, they will stomp your ass,” Nelson said. Seeing the boys get nervous, he was glad he had their attention. “It’s going to get dangerous out there, and if you travel on open roads, they will catch you. If they catch you with these guns, you are in deep shit. Now knowing the risk, do you want to hold them for me?”

They looked at each other and looked back at Nelson. “Yes, sir, if you don’t mind,” Keith answered. “We’ll stick to back roads, and if we have to, we’re in the perfect ride to go cross-country.”

“Very well, and you better treat them with respect,” Nelson said, walking off. “Load them up, and just a word of advice: Load one of the pistols before you leave.”

The boys dove in the cart and started ripping open magazines and loading them as Nelson went to his truck and pulled out two third gen monoculars. He walked back over and handed them to the boys. “Get lots of batteries; these things eat them like donuts,” he said as the boys took them.

Walking back to his truck, he grabbed several more and two thermal monoculars and one of the thermal binoculars and carried them to Daren’s truck, putting them in the passenger seat. Nelson grabbed an armload of batteries from an end cap and threw them in the floorboard then closed the door.

He went over and grabbed a few sunglasses that he liked and some SOG knives. He carried them back and didn’t see the boys as he put the stuff in the truck. Closing the door, he called Zeus over, gave him a pig ear, and went to find the boys.

When he found them, he smiled as they were finding holsters for their pistols and extra magazines. They already had slings on the ARs and shotgun. “Boys, you can get a scope for that .22 and ARs if you want. If you think you need more ammo, go ahead and get it; then, I need your help rolling in some drums,” he said and walked away.

It wasn’t long before they came back carrying more ammo and shoved it in the Razor. Nelson called Zeus over and pulled out his pistol as he got near the back door. There were no windows back there to look through, and there were still cops around the building, but he wasn’t taking any chances. “Boys, I’m going to look outside and make sure nothing is around,” he said, grabbing the handle.

Both boys pulled out their pistols and held them low, making Nelson nod with approval as he opened the door. Scanning the area, Nelson didn’t see anything close but did notice several columns of smoke. He stepped outside. “Zeus, here,” he called, and Zeus came out and looked around.