"Texas Wildfire" - Chapter 9

Texas Wildfire

Chapter 9

By Dwayne MacInnes

Chief Mills grabbed the mayor as the situation quickly started to dissolve into chaos. The police chief shoved Mayor Locke towards one of the squad cars. The chief pointed to a young female police officer in riot gear and shouted, "Get the Mayor to Fort Hood immediately. They have to be warned!"

Locke was shoved into the passenger seat and before he could really understand what was going on, the policewoman had the squad car roaring down the street. Behind them, the crowd burst over the thin police cordon like an ocean wave smashing into a small sand castle. The riot police were instantly overwhelmed.

As the squad car raced towards the military base with its sirens blaring and lights flashing, a police antiriot tank sped towards the crowd of angry protesters. The tank fired off canister after canister of tear gas from its turret into the rushing mass of protesters, yet the angry crowd continued to riot. They only occasionally stopped to cover their faces with pieces of cloth.

"Mayor, sir," the officer said to Locke without taking her eyes off the road. "There is a shotgun in the rack between us. You had better arm yourself. Those people do not look rational right now."

Mayor Locke snatched the shotgun out of the rack and looked it over.

"Sir, do you know how to use a shotgun?" the young woman asked stealing a glance towards the mayor out of the corner of her eye.

Mayor Locke smiled, asking a Texan if he knew how to use a weapon was like asking a fish if it knew how to swim. "Yes, I think I can handle it."

The squad car turned down various streets on its way toward Fort Hood. Fortunately, there were very few vehicles on the road. Everyone was at either the protest rally or hunkering in his or her home. Only the occasional fire truck or ambulance raced passed the police car in the opposite direction.

Suddenly, something slammed into the hood of the police cruiser. Locke noticed a hole in the hood a second before the report of a rifle shot punctuated the air. The policewoman grabbed Locke with her right hand and pulled him down.

"Sir, we are taking fire!" she exclaimed without taking her eyes off the road. "You need to get down!"

Another bullet shattered the safety glass in the rear driver's side door spraying glass around the interior of the cab. Mayor Locke tried to cram himself under the dashboard on the passenger side of the vehicle. He covered his head with his hands.

"Officer…" the mayor began before realizing he did not know her name "ah…officer, are you alright."

"Yes, sir. It's Officer Hughes, Amanda Hughes," the policewoman said in a deadpan voice. Her total concentration was getting the police car through the gauntlet of gunfire safely.

* * * * *

Lieutenant General Albert K. Groves was the commander in charge of Fort Hood. Ever since President Roberts placed all military installations on high alert before he left office, the fort was more or less cut off from the public. The military had escorted off the base all private employees and relieved them of duty until further notice.

The army now had to do its own laundry, cooking, security, and a million other jobs that the military usually outsourced. Moreover, the general did not waste any time in strengthening the perimeter fence's defenses. The fort was huge and there was a great deal of area that needed to be covered. However, Groves made sure to place his tanks and armored vehicles where they would be of the most use.

"Sergeant how is the protest rally going?" the general asked a nearby sergeant who was listening to a newscast on his compu-phone.

"Not good sir," the sergeant shot back. "Those Teabaggers…I mean Tea Partiers are in full riot. It looks like they are headed our way."

"Great," LTG Groves muttered to himself. "Sergeant, sound the alarm. I want every man and woman manning the defenses. Oh, and sergeant make sure you pass the word that everyone is to hold their fire. We have strict orders on that from President Ramirez."

"Yes sir!" the sergeant saluted before relaying the general's orders.

* * * * *

The sentries at the front gate of Fort Hood were surprised to see a wailing police cruiser racing towards the gate. Bullet holes riddled the squad car and one of the lights on the roof was missing. Steam shot in the air in a huge cloud from the perforated radiator.

The police car slid to a stop a few yards from the gate. The soldiers armed with the M-18 assault rifle stared in wonder as a man dressed in a suit and tie, and armed with a shotgun stepped from the passenger side of the car.

Mayor Warren Locke looked over his shoulder as he jogged towards the gate. He was relieved to see Officer Hughes step from the driver's side of the now dead police car. She had her pistol from her holster as she ducked behind the squad car looking down the road in the direction that they just came.

"I need to see the general," Locke shouted to the sentries. "There is a mob on its way and it is armed!"

"I'm sorry you cannot pass," a lieutenant said in a matter-of-fact voice. "This base is closed to all civilians."

"Look, I am not here to visit," Locke shouted back as he stopped in front of the officer. "Alert the general that the NTTP and the SOTA are on the warpath and they are headed here."

"Sir, you will have to stay here," the lieutenant said. The officer then looked back towards one of his men. "Get the general on the line. Let him know we have a situation at the front gate." The soldier saluted and then proceeded to speak into the microphone that was part of his helmet.

Mayor Locke waited impatiently as the soldier spoke to some party on the other end. The only sound that he could hear in the tense air was some soldiers murmuring to each other and the hiss of the bullet-ridden police car's radiator. The lieutenant turned back to Locke.

"Who are you, sir?"

"I'm the goddamn mayor of Killeen and you are about to be…"

Before he could finish his sentence shots rang out into the air. Locke spun around to see Officer Hughes firing her service pistol into a mob that were armed with shotguns, rifles, and handguns that were in turn firing at the police woman. One round managed to clip Hughes on the shoulder grazing her riot armor but spinning her around until her legs collapsed under her.

When Hughes fell, the mob moving at a trot broke into a run and soon overran the police car. Locke wasted no time and raised the shotgun to his shoulder as he pumped a round into the chamber. The mayor in desperation fired shell after shell until the shotgun was empty. The mayor was oblivious to the bullets whizzing past his ears.

The lieutenant tackled Locke to the ground as the soldiers opened fire into the mob. Several people fell to the ground, even more retreated in a dead run. A few continued to fire taking cover behind anything they could. The first battle for Texas Independence had just begun.