Read Online 299 Days: The Visitors by Glen Tate - Free Book Online Page A

that the state didn’t have nearly enough troops or police to implement this outside of their two strongholds: Seattle, the biggest city, and Olympia, the state capitol. But it was frightening that they had given themselves this kind of power. Worse yet, most people, at least in the government-controlled areas, welcomed martial law. They were glad the government was “doing something.”
    Another frightening development Jeanie heard at Camp Murray was that a bunch of Patriot military and police units had defected and formed the “Washington State Guard.” This was an army, but it wasn’t controlled by the state or federal governments. It was the rebel army, the army fighting the government. No one at Camp Murray called it a “civil war’ – it wasn’t like there were blue and grey uniforms and two different flags. Now there was so much chaos that a formal term like “civil war” seemed too grand. It was just that everything had broken down and now some army had apparently formed that was out to replace the current government.
    The government people at Camp Murray were freaking out over the announcement of the Washington State Guard. They had back-to-back and overnight meetings about this. They talked about which units of the military and police were “loyal” and which ones had “gone over” to the other side.
    Delegations of military officers came to Camp Murray to meet with the Governor, who seemed to be trying to persuade—plead with, actually—these officers to stay loyal. Most of the officers were issuing demands as the price of staying loyal. They wanted money or supplies or to stay out of combat in exchange for not “going over.” The government was giving them whatever they wanted. There was no guarantee, though, that the units promising loyalty would stay loyal. In fact, a few officers were shopping out their units to the highest bidders, who were almost always the Loyalists, since they had stuff to give away. Besides, the Patriots were not interested in mercenary units just doing it for the money.
    Jeanie also heard rumblings about the gangs. Not just the street gangs that they’d all known about. The people at Camp Murray who oversaw gang activity were worried about the “super gangs,” which were large alliances of affiliated street gangs. Much like the mercenary military units, the super gangs were demanding more and more from the government to stay loyal. They wanted more food, fuel, medicine, and guns that they would then sell. They wanted more and more “territory,” which meant the government would lose control to them in a given area.
    Some of the super gangs got tired of the measly pickings the government gave them and went into business for themselves. South Seattle and much of Tacoma were run by various super gangs, mostly Mexican, Asian, and Russian. The government sent some regular Army units from Ft. Lewis to stand up against the super gangs. These units wore ski masks to hide their identities just like the government troops fighting gangs in Mexico used to do. Those photographs stayed off the news. The Army units cleaned out the rebel gangs, at a terrible cost in casualties and equipment. The civilian casualties were horrendous. Another disturbing outcome of these raids was that, due to the lack of Army manpower, the gangs still loyal to the government—the competitors with the rebel gangs—had to be used to occupy the conquered parts of Seattle and Tacoma. The loyal gangs were perfectly happy to have some new territory. They went on a looting and raping spree in the new areas. The Army just watched, and some even joined in.
    But, that was somewhere else, Jeanie told herself. Sure, it was only a few miles away, but it wasn’t where she lived. And it was only a small area of Seattle and Tacoma. That was not happening in the majority of the state, so most people were OK. Jeanie was trying to stay positive.
    Then she had another thought. Winter was coming. It was sunny and nice