Chapter 30 — The Push to the General’s Mansion
A serial novel in the form of correspondence among a family while the world as we know it collapses around us. I recommend you start at the Introduction:
https://readmedium.com/climate-for-change-introduction-5331d5ab9313
But you can start anywhere you want.
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Chapter 30 — The Push to the General’s Mansion
Email:
Dear Grandma,
We just woke up to the sound of explosions. Our watchers outside Farm Supply Outlet told us that shells were coming in from about half a mile away on the other side of the old interstate freeway. For now, nothing has been hit, except there are a few craters in the parking lot near our trucks. We are going to make a run for it and get in the trucks and get moving before they can zero in on our position.
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Ben,
I found out some news from your mother. It wasn’t a fake when all those people surrendered. That was real. The airdrop of your family’s underground newspaper might have helped some people decide not to fight, but it wasn’t the only reason. Carol said really no one wants to fight and die in a war against other Americans.
In the hours after the battle began, the General sent out many texts. He said that the Circle was coming, and they were going to kill everybody unless we pulled together and protected our New State. He told everyone to shelter in place in their bomb shelters. And he asked that soldiers meet at the General’s mansion to prepare to defend the people from the aggression of the Circle. Antonio (Daisy and Jorge’s cousin who was drafted into the army) went to the mansion. He opened a live chat social media window with Jorge and described what he saw while it was happening.
The General got up to give his rally speech. The soldiers were told ahead of time to cheer and yell. The whole event was to be a show of unity and strength. Of the soldiers around Antonio, no one was interested in fighting, but everyone cheered and yelled at the right times. They did not want to kill for this man, and they certainly did not want to die for him. After the speech, Antonio and some of the soldiers in his company started their own conversation about whether to fight or not. It didn’t seem like they had a choice, so they deployed to the front lines.
Antonio told Jorge that while his group was not ready to fight, there were many at the rally who seemed like they were cheering and yelling for real. There were a couple hundred black-shirted soldiers who were clearly ready. The black-shirts were up front, and when the General came out to address the crowd, they all cheered louder than everyone else.
After the rally, Antonio’s company was dispatched to the northeast boundary of the metro area. They deployed along the fence and sheltered in buildings near the fence. When the airdrop came with the issues of VeRU that exposed Stewart’s atrocities, Antonio and many of his company decided to stop fighting. Their black-shirt officer told them that they could all be shot for treason if they left their post. Then someone from Antonio’s company shot and killed the officer. Antonio was horrified, but he left anyway along with all of his friends. Since they still had their tracker chips, they decided it wasn’t safe to go back to the city where Stewart’s people could easily find them. Instead they went into the country beyond the fence to see if they could find the Circle soldiers to surrender to. Antonio called Jorge to tell him what he was doing. Antonio thinks that 95% of the new recruit soldiers have surrendered in his area. He thinks that the General probably has no fewer than a thousand loyal soldiers around him now.
I hope this information helps. Maybe they don’t have you surrounded.
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Dear Grandma,
Yes! That information helped a lot! Grandpa gave it to the Circle soldiers who radioed it to the unit commanders. They have confirmed that even though the convoys are all pinned down by artillery and sniper drones, none of them are completely surrounded. They also confirmed that the bridge is only lightly held. The Circle could blow them all up with airpower, but they want to limit damages to civilians and roads and bridges. They are sending commando units out to get the artillery and retake the bridge. Our militia has been given the task of taking out the artillery that is near Farm Supply Outlet. We have parked the trucks in a safe location, and the militia is going to fan out on foot.
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Ben,
What are you talking about? You are not trained for that! Do not, I repeat, do not go out on a militia operation!
Grandma
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Grandma,
We stayed back from the fighting and watched with binoculars. When the two soldiers with the artillery unit saw that we had them surrounded, they surrendered. No shots were fired. We are on the road again. Grandpa says that the Circle soldiers have advised all units to converge on the General’s mansion.
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Ben,
Be safe.
Grandma
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Grandma,
I wish you were here. We just stopped by the house and picked up Mom, Mel, and Jorge. It is so great to see them! If you were here, we would all be together. I am going to send you a group selfie when we get there! We are going to the General’s mansion. This could be it.
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Grandma,
Wow! We are outside the General’s mansion. It is crazy. The Circle soldiers and country militias have the mansion surrounded. There are hundreds of red and white Wisconsin hats! Up next to the mansion are machine-gun installations with black-shirted soldiers behind piles of sandbags, and between us and them are thousands of ordinary people who are singing songs in a ring around the mansion. The protesters have banners announcing that they are the Mothers of the Disappeared, among other groups. There are hundreds of children in the crowd, all carrying signs like “Greenwood Elementary School wants you to stop the violence” and “Don’t kill your sisters and brothers.” They sing one song and then they talk and then they sing another one. The protestors have speakers set up on a stage between us and the Stewart mansion, and there is a person with a microphone who is telling us all to lay down our weapons — both sides.
Every moment there are more people who are arriving from all directions, with more signs. I don’t know how we can battle the Stewart forces with all these people in the way.
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Ben,
This is great! Why not lay down your weapons? Why do you need to have a battle with the Stewart forces?
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Dear Grandma,
You will not believe what just happened. Melody worked her way through the crowd and went up to the stage. She asked for the microphone. She called for all of the children to come and join her. Children came from all corners of the crowd and surrounded her. She told the crowd that her brother had just come home to her after being in a re-education camp. She said that we all want a good world to live in. She said that even though the General has made her family’s life terrible, she knows that he also just wants to make the world a better place, too. She said if we ask for revenge, we will be just as guilty as Stewart is. Melody said we need to forgive each other and join together, because it will take all of us working together to thrive in the face of climate crisis. She called for General Stewart to come out and negotiate a peace so we could get started on this big work. Then she led all of the children off the stage, and she started walking straight toward the gun installations that are on either side of the front doors to the mansion.
She was leading the children, and she walked right up to one of the soldiers. He was still crouched down with his gun pointed at the crowd. Then he stood up, put his gun over his shoulder, walked into the crowd and gave himself up.
I wish I could say that was the end of it. Melody was so courageous to go up there. I don’t think I could have done it. There was probably a moment when all of the black shirts were ready to give up and end the fight like their comrade, but something happened. The doors to the mansion burst open, and someone threw out several smoke grenades. Then there was a wave of gunfire that came out from inside the mansion and into the crowd. The crowd went wild. There were people running in every direction, screaming.
We stayed in our place in the back of the pick-up truck behind the crowd. When the smoke cleared, Melody and the children who were with her were gone, and the doors to the mansion were closed again. The machine gun installations were abandoned. There were bodies on the ground outside of the mansion. Circle medics were running to them. I ran up to see if Mel was one of the bodies. She was not there. They must have brought her inside.
After the smoke grenades and gunfire, there is an eerie calm right now. Mom is having a hard time breathing, and there are Circle medics attending to her. Grandpa is with the command team. The Circle soldiers and the militia have moved their trucks, and now we are all sheltered behind the trucks in case any Stewart soldier gets the idea to shoot from inside the mansion again. All of the protesters who were between us and the mansion have dispersed.
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Text messages:
Ben, Dear God. I’m in shock right now. Please give me good news.
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Grandpa told me that the Circle command team has received a text message from General Stewart. He wants safe passage to Russia, and he wants to take the hostage children with him when he goes as a guarantee. Grandpa asked the Circle representatives not to take the deal, but it is either the deal, or we storm the mansion and risk the hostages. There is no good solution here.
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Ben, I am praying here and hoping there is another solution.
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Grandma, It is starting to get dark here. The Circle has set up flares all around the mansion. Tanks have come in and more Circle soldiers. The militia has been asked to back off. Jorge has taken us to the house where he and Melody did their stake-out when they got those photos. The ex-nuns are talking to Grandpa right now.
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I have lit candles here, and everyone is inside the house with me. There is a live feed from a Circle drone above the mansion on the internet now. We are watching it without blinking. I feel helpless. I am considering getting in a car and joining you.
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Grandpa just found me. He is trying to explain something. He is saying that the ex-nuns told him about an abandoned tunnel that goes into the mansion from their house. Their house used to be a servant’s quarters for the mansion, and there is a narrow tunnel that used to connect the two buildings. Grandpa is going to take the militia in through the tunnel.
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Don’t tell me that! He isn’t allowed. They should send soldiers in!
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Grandpa said there isn’t time to wait.
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Aargh!!!
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I hear gunfire Grandma! It is coming from inside the mansion! Do you see anything on the drone live feed?
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I see nothing! It is just the mansion.
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She’s alive! They just radioed that Stewart is dead, and the hostages are all alive!
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Praise the Lord! Is there any word about your grandpa?
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Nothing yet. I’m trying to text him.
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Tell him thank you for getting Melody.
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I will.
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Wait. There is something coming over the radio. Casualties inside the mansion. A white male in 60’s with a red cap.
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That could be a lot of different people.
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I’m going in.
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Careful!
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Oh noooooooooooooo!
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It’s him.
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The End.
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