inch of your life. Lose the tough guy shit before it gets you killed. Do you understand?”
Ed nodded to the affirmative as the guards released the pressure from his arms, allowing him to recover to the seated position of the chair.
“Now, you’ll be staying in quad two as I said. You’ll have a quad leader that changes with each shift rotation, but while on duty, he is your God. You will be fed twice each day. Your quad will eat together, sleep together, and use the toilet together. You’ll do nothing without your quad, and it will all be at the discretion of your quad leader. The quad leader’s decisions are final and will not be challenged. Now that we have all of that squared away, do you have any questions?”
“Yes sir,” replied Nate.
“Go ahead.”
“We still don’t really know what’s going on. How long are we going to be here, and what is the legal process that will determine that?”
“Good question, but that’s not the concern of anyone here. You are here indefinitely as far as the leadership of the camp is concerned. If someone well above our pay grades wants you out, you’ll get out; otherwise, consider it home. Now, if that’s all, these gentlemen will escort you to quad two.”
“But how can someone detain us indefinitely without due process? Is this not still America? Do we not still have our basic constitutional rights?
“Subsections 1021–1022 of Title X, Subtitle D of the National Defense Authorization Act was signed into law on December 31, 2011, and has been reaffirmed every year since. Like it or not, it’s the law of the land. If the government expects that you are involved with terrorist activities, you can be held indefinitely, without trial or due process.”
Nate knew the answer long before it was given. He had been studying the actions and trends of the government before the collapse. He just wanted to hear it directly from this man, who now seemed to wield total authority over him. And with that, Ed and Nate were led out of the trailer by the two escorts without another word being spoken. Ed stepped down from the trailer’s metal steps, cringing as his weight pushed the gravel making up the surface of the compound against his bare foot. He then stood by the steps, up against the trailer, so that Nate could lean on his shoulder while he hopped down on one foot. Ed helped ease him down from the last step onto the gravel below.
The two escorts then led them back in the direction they had come, beyond the main door in the center of the sheet metal compound wall, to another sliding metal door on the inner compound wall. As they walked, they looked around, trying to learn as much as they could about their new environment. Both the inner and outer sheet metal walls were approximately ten feet high with razor wire coiled on top. There was a distance of approximately thirty feet between the walls, and in each corner of the outer wall there was a guard shack with what appeared to be a guard armed with some sort of rifle, although it was hard to discern any details, as the guards stood in the shade of the interior of the tower’s guard shack.
All of the guards seemed to wear the same solid-color navy blue BDU style uniform, with a plain blue ball cap with no official logo. They had no nametapes sewn onto their uniform tops in the normal position, just a number. Some of the guards had numbers embroidered with white thread, while others were in yellow or gold thread. The men wearing the yellow-threaded numbers seemed to be the ones with authority over the others.
As they approached a sliding metal door on the interior wall, a guard on the ground received a visual signal from the adjacent watchtower and slid the gate open. Ed and Nate were then led inside, where they found a sheet metal building in the center of a large graveled courtyard. The lower floor of the building had a steel entry door with a guard posted next to it, while the upper level of the building seemed to
Ed nodded to the affirmative as the guards released the pressure from his arms, allowing him to recover to the seated position of the chair.
“Now, you’ll be staying in quad two as I said. You’ll have a quad leader that changes with each shift rotation, but while on duty, he is your God. You will be fed twice each day. Your quad will eat together, sleep together, and use the toilet together. You’ll do nothing without your quad, and it will all be at the discretion of your quad leader. The quad leader’s decisions are final and will not be challenged. Now that we have all of that squared away, do you have any questions?”
“Yes sir,” replied Nate.
“Go ahead.”
“We still don’t really know what’s going on. How long are we going to be here, and what is the legal process that will determine that?”
“Good question, but that’s not the concern of anyone here. You are here indefinitely as far as the leadership of the camp is concerned. If someone well above our pay grades wants you out, you’ll get out; otherwise, consider it home. Now, if that’s all, these gentlemen will escort you to quad two.”
“But how can someone detain us indefinitely without due process? Is this not still America? Do we not still have our basic constitutional rights?
“Subsections 1021–1022 of Title X, Subtitle D of the National Defense Authorization Act was signed into law on December 31, 2011, and has been reaffirmed every year since. Like it or not, it’s the law of the land. If the government expects that you are involved with terrorist activities, you can be held indefinitely, without trial or due process.”
Nate knew the answer long before it was given. He had been studying the actions and trends of the government before the collapse. He just wanted to hear it directly from this man, who now seemed to wield total authority over him. And with that, Ed and Nate were led out of the trailer by the two escorts without another word being spoken. Ed stepped down from the trailer’s metal steps, cringing as his weight pushed the gravel making up the surface of the compound against his bare foot. He then stood by the steps, up against the trailer, so that Nate could lean on his shoulder while he hopped down on one foot. Ed helped ease him down from the last step onto the gravel below.
The two escorts then led them back in the direction they had come, beyond the main door in the center of the sheet metal compound wall, to another sliding metal door on the inner compound wall. As they walked, they looked around, trying to learn as much as they could about their new environment. Both the inner and outer sheet metal walls were approximately ten feet high with razor wire coiled on top. There was a distance of approximately thirty feet between the walls, and in each corner of the outer wall there was a guard shack with what appeared to be a guard armed with some sort of rifle, although it was hard to discern any details, as the guards stood in the shade of the interior of the tower’s guard shack.
All of the guards seemed to wear the same solid-color navy blue BDU style uniform, with a plain blue ball cap with no official logo. They had no nametapes sewn onto their uniform tops in the normal position, just a number. Some of the guards had numbers embroidered with white thread, while others were in yellow or gold thread. The men wearing the yellow-threaded numbers seemed to be the ones with authority over the others.
As they approached a sliding metal door on the interior wall, a guard on the ground received a visual signal from the adjacent watchtower and slid the gate open. Ed and Nate were then led inside, where they found a sheet metal building in the center of a large graveled courtyard. The lower floor of the building had a steel entry door with a guard posted next to it, while the upper level of the building seemed to
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