Homefront: The Voice of Freedom (25 page)

We reached Montrose, Colorado, on March 8th
.

Through radio communications, we met up with a resistance cell located there at an abandoned machine parts warehouse in town. At first, both sides were
wary of each other, because Hopper had picked up some warning transmissions that the Norks were sometimes posing as Americans over the airwaves—or forcing Americans to make the transmissions, which seems more likely—and setting up ambushes. This happened to a cell in Texas. My friend Max reported that a group from Austin consisting of Texas Rangers and former Highway Patrolmen was completely wiped out after they thought they were getting reinforcements from an Arkansas cell. Very disturbing
.

Anyway, our rendezvous turned out okay
.

The Montrose cell is led by a black guy named Boone Karlson, who was formerly a policeman in the city. It was the first resistance cell in Montrose; apparently there are more popping up in different sections. Boone’s is a group of about 40 people that live in a camouflaged compound called Home, and it’s a really cool place. It’s located in the abandoned southeastern suburbs of the town, hidden right in a normal neighborhood of houses. Home takes up several houses and backyards bordered by tall thick trees, between which is suspended a camo mesh to conceal it from aerial surveillance. They’ve got an underground tunnel through which they enter and exit when performing military missions, so as not to draw attention to the compound. There are entire families living there—women and children—and a small army of men. They’ve set up a nice little communal system where they grow their own food, catch rainwater, use power generators for essential tasks, and repair electronics as needed. There’s even a school for the kids and swing sets in the yards. Areas have their own functions; for example, there’s a spot where a guy does nothing but repair circuit boards and electronics. Another fellow raises goats in a pen
for the milk. They’ve even got a guy who blows glass! I saw him making bowls and drinking glasses for everyone to use. The military aspect is well organized. I’m really impressed
.

There are some interesting characters in the cell, too. The guy you can’t miss is Connor Morgan, a true legend of the Resistance. I think he’s a little older than me, from North Carolina. Connor’s a one-man army, but I think he’s a bit off. I don’t know if he’s just plain crazy or if he’s just overly intense, but I find him intimidating. He may be a loose cannon, but he’s a gung-ho fighter and everyone respects him. I don’t think he’s afraid of a damn thing
.

As for Boone, he’s pushing 40, I’d guess, and he’s pretty down to earth. Smart man. Seems a little world-weary, but I guess that comes with the territory when you’re the leader. He and Connor are sometimes at loggerheads, but you can tell they really admire each other. So far, Boone and Nguyen get along and there’s been no vying for the leadership role. Nguyen understands Boone is in charge of the Montrose cell. The Ragtags and the Utah folks instinctively tend to follow Nguyen’s orders, but Boone could supersede those if he wanted
.

Then there’s Rianna, an attractive woman in her late 20s who I think is part Hispanic. She’s a tough cookie, having grown up in the backwoods of Colorado. She’s apparently very skilled at guerilla tactics. She’s kind of quiet, but I can tell she doesn’t miss a thing. I get the feeling she could be pretty dangerous, but Kelsie and I like her a lot
.

There’s a light Korean presence in Montrose, but the word on the street is a massive force is coming to exploit the nearby oil shale mining industry. The cell captured a KPA infantry man last week and Connor had no qualms about torturing the guy for information
(Connor tends to enjoy doing that). The soldier said the Koreans plan to build labor camps and draft the civilian population into working the mines. The KPA also intend to build a fucking wall around the city to keep people inside. I have a feeling it’s going to get pretty bad here soon
.

Kelsie and I carry fake ID cards now. Everyone in Montrose has to do so. When we’re not at Home, we do go into town and act like normal citizens. A KPA soldier could appear at any time on the street and ask anyone for his or her identity card. If you’re caught without one, you’re taken to KPA headquarters in downtown Montrose for an interrogation. They figure you’re either new to town, in which case you might be a member of the growing Resistance, or you’re bucking the system by not carrying a card, in which case you might be a member of the growing Resistance! No matter what, they give you a hard time
.

Boone told Kelsie and me about an abandoned radio station in Montrose. It was a local one that back in the day broadcasted country and western music. Kelsie and I took a look at it and decided we could use it. There’s a big antenna on the roof that’s busted, but there’s still a lot of equipment inside. Kelsie thinks she can repair it; at the very least, she hopes we can plug in our transistor board to the station’s control console and broadcast a message that’ll reach the entire U.S. from West Coast to East Coast and from Canada to Mexico. We have to sneak into town by way of the tunnel, but we started the job two days ago. Kelsie figures it might take a month to get it up and running. In the meantime, I’ve been using Hopper’s radio to make DJ Ben transmissions with no music. Hopper’s afraid the Koreans might be able to trace the signal to Home, so Kelsie and I have
been moving around town in the evenings and broadcasting from different secluded spots. One night we got inside an old, closed Wal-Mart. Another time it was at the top of a water tower! That was a little hairy, climbing up there and trying to do a transmission without being seen by Korean sentries. So far, though, we haven’t been caught. On a clear night we’ve heard back from several other resistance cells. There really
is
an entire network of underground radio folks out there. Besides my buddies Yankee Doodle and Max, I made contact with Cecilia up in North Dakota and a fellow named Derby in, I think, Kansas City. But the radio station is our best bet for a long-range broadcast
.

Rianna just rang the bell for chow time. All this resistance work makes me hungry, so I’m signing off for now
.

MARCH 23, 2026

Writing this in haste … Some good news and some really bad news
.

Last night, Connor and a reconnaissance team took out a Korean supply unit west of town. I wasn’t there, but I wish I had been just to see Connor in action. He’s a madman. He risked revealing his association with the Resistance by attacking the Koreans, but he knew they probably had some good intel. Turned out they did. Well, in typical Connor fashion, he and his men killed all of the Koreans except for one, and they brought him back for a little interrogation of our own. The good news is Connor’s team also brought back a lot of the Koreans’ stuff, like
meat
in a refrigerated truck. That’s going to be nice to hold on to, but we have to keep it hidden
.

Anyway, the bad news—Hopper translated some of
the Korean orders and determined the supply unit was only stopping temporarily in Montrose. They were actually on their way to Muscatine, Iowa. Everyone was puzzled by that. Why the hell are Koreans stationed in Muscatine, Iowa? So Connor tortured the Korean prisoner, and that’s how we found out what’s happened to the Mississippi River
.

Christ Almighty. It’s bad. It’s really bad
.

APRIL 4, 2026

As the MH-10 Scout helicopter flew over Muscatine, Iowa, Salmusa had a bird’s-eye view of the mission’s progress. Even at a height of four thousand feet, Salmusa took care to wear an Iron Fish suit. The air above the deserted city and the polluted river next to it was seriously dangerous. He didn’t care about the weak Americans contracting radiation poisoning, but he certainly didn’t want to experience that horrible death himself.

It had been a busy four months to reach this point. When he finished his preliminary work on Operation Water Snake at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the Korean agent continued to oversee the next and most important stage of the Brilliant Comrade’s most ingenious attack on the United States of America. It was the culmination of years of thought, effort, and sacrifice.

It was known from the very beginning that in the pursuit of its many noble and glorious goals around the globe to confirm the Greater Korean Republic at its rightful place at the top of the new world order, the Occupational Forces in America faced a unique dilemma. As detailed by the Brilliant Comrade himself in Executive Order 434, the objective in America was to not only deliver a quick strike to expunge the
land and its people of any remaining natural and technological resources, but also to exact revenge for enduring decades of the country’s arrogant “superiority.” However, even after the successful deployment of the EMP blast and the crippling effect it had on the American population and infrastructure, the Occupational Forces, which consisted of army and naval troops, weapons, food, medical supplies, vehicles, and contraband, would no doubt find themselves stretched to capacity. The Brilliant Comrade was wise to acknowledge the Korean forces did not have the necessary resources needed to invade, occupy—even temporarily—and systematically exploit the entire region of the continental United States to the fullest extent.

The enemy’s western territory contained the lion’s share of American natural and technological resources. On the other hand, although eastern America held little value for the Occupational Forces, it was still home to over eighty million residents. Since the EMP blast, the East still posed a threat and had a clear motivation to fight.

Kim Jong-un wisely decided to create an impenetrable barrier to ensure that eastern Americans would not be able to provide significant assistance to their western counterparts or additional resistance to the Occupational Forces. Years ago, when the Brilliant Comrade began planning the occupation of America, he immediately latched on to the lucky fluke that the Mississippi River was a natural dividing line between everything the Koreans wanted and the more problematic East Coast territories. How could the GKR keep the hordes of Americans residing east of the river to stay put, and at the same time subjugate the population west of the river?

After consulting with the genius Dr. Mae Chin Ho
from the People’s Military Science Institute in Pyongyang, Kim came up with Operation Water Snake, a revolutionary plan fitting only for the enduring legacy of the Brilliant Comrade. It was an inspired, albeit nefarious, scheme that would turn the Mississippi River into an impassable barrier.

Operation Water Snake’s goal was the systematic irradiating of the Mississippi River with highly radioactive solvents—a deadly cocktail. A radioactive Mississippi River would create the desired noxious barricade spanning from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, dividing the country. All cities within a hundred mile radius of the river would become contaminated and uninhabitable, forcing evacuations from north to south.

Not only would the operation create the deadly “fence” and redesign world maps forever in the Brilliant Comrade’s vision, it was also the most cost-effective strategy. This conviction included the deaths of over four thousand martyrs—many scientists, soldiers, and American collaborators.

The final phase finally executed in February 2026, Operation Water Snake was an extremely dangerous undertaking, but it was an unqualified success.

There were five Deposit Locations on the western banks of the river—Lake Itasca and Winona in Minnesota; Muscatine, Iowa; Cape Girardeau, Missouri; and St. Joseph, Louisiana. The five strategic Deposit Locations up and down the river played the role of planting a radioactive seed in the river; however, it was the river itself that was responsible for spreading its effect far beyond. The sheer size of the river, north to south, insured nearly three thousand miles of radioactive cover along the valley alone. The speed of the river’s flow constantly cultivated the materials in the water, creating volatility
between the hazardous elements and thus increasing the radioactive potency. The connected tributaries, rivers, creeks, and streams pushed the contamination east and west almost three hundred miles in each direction in select areas. The powerful discharge into the Gulf of Mexico stretched the effects of the radioactivity around the tip of Florida all the way to the Atlantic Ocean. In the end, Operation Water Snake contributed to the contamination of almost 210,000 square miles of land, river, and sea within the continental United States.

Even Salmusa, a man with a steely fortitude, shuddered to think of the physical effects of the Cocktail on human beings. Most of the exposure to the uranium fission fragments was through water and food. Ten hours after exposure, spontaneous symptoms would set in. After fatigue and severe nausea, victims would experience a phase of several weeks of relative normalcy called a “dormant phase” or “walking ghost.” After this, cells were killed in the intestinal tissue, resulting in substantial diarrhea, intestinal bleeding, and water loss. Death followed delirium and coma after a collapse of the circulation and nervous system. The only treatment available was palliative management.

The consequences of Operation Water Snake would remain relevant for years to come. Possible long-term effects included chromosomal abnormality, leukemia, anemia, and Down syndrome effects on offspring.

In addition, Operation Water Snake would force more than half of the four hundred different wildlife species to evacuate to more livable habitats. Those that were too damaged or sick to leave would produce additional health hazards to humans as the radioactive carcasses spread disease and further contamination.

Salmusa had no doubt the success of the operation would also produce psychological effects on the American population. The people, once they learned of what happened to their beloved river, would likely develop depression and anxiety, paranoia, and fear and distrust of all outside influences. Large parts of the populace would be brought to a halt, unable to function and operate normally under the constant fear of another attack.