20 Years of Hell - Chapter 2

         As I penetrate the edge of the deep woods I hear a tank start to roll down the street.  Another patrol is coming, I better get deeper in the woods and lay down.  I start to run until I'm about fifty yards away from the edge and I crouch down behind a tree.  I can still hear the tank as it rolls down the street.
         All of a sudden I hear one of the soldiers shouting, “Hey you!  What are you doing out here?”
         They've spotted me, I think to myself.  I can feel a chill run up my spine and crawl into my brain as I think about what they'll do to me.  Just as I think about getting up and running I hear another voice, “I'm just going for a late night walk.”  It's Alan Spencer, my next door neighbor.
         “You know curfew is nineteen hundred hours, nobody's allowed out at this time,” the soldier shouts back.
         “I'm sorry, I just needed to get away from my wife.  She's been a big nag all day and it's really getting on my nerves.”
         “You're gonna have to come with us.”
         “What -- what are you going to do to me?” I can hear the fear in Alan's voice.
         “You're gonna have to be held at the station until morning, then you will be returned to your home.”
         Bullshit!  Nobody is ever returned home after being arrested.  He's never gonna see his wife again and it's all because he couldn't put up with a little nagging.  He doesn't know just how lucky he is that he still has somebody that loves him.  As for my loved ones, God only knows where they are, or even if they're still alive.
         The soldiers place Alan in handcuffs and put him in the back of the Jeep.  I didn't even realize there had been a Jeep until I glanced back.  The sound of the rolling tank was so loud that You could barely hear yourself think, let alone hear another vehicle.  The patrol starts to move away but I lie still.  I'm still paralyzed with the fear of getting caught that all I can do is sit and think.

         *          *          *

         After the president had declared war on Syria, the American people decided that they had had enough.  There were protest all over the country.  The government called them riots, but they weren't.  People were marching through the streets, holding signs and shouting, but nobody did anything even remotely violent.  These weren't rioters, they were simple peace protesters.
         The government didn't see it his way.  They send in the National Guard to take care of these so called “rioters.”  They tossed tear gas into the crowds, but they continued to march.  A little tear gas was not gonna stop the American people.  They had had enough.
         I was at a protest in Washington DC at the time.  They had barricaded the streets so we couldn't march any further, so we all just sat down.  Right there in front of the White House, five thousand strong willed and fed up Americans just sat quiet in the street.  The soldiers arrested us one by one, beating those who refused to stand up.
         The prisons couldn't hold us, so they took us back to the army base.  The processed us, charged us with disorderly conduct, and let us go with only a fine.  We thought we got off easy, but the real sentence was yet to come.
         Less than a month later, the president declared marshal law on the American people.  They set a curfew and started to build holding camps.  They tracked phone calls and e-mail.  Anybody involved in what they considered terroristic communications was arrested and placed in these camps.  Some people were charged with even worse crimes and executed without even a trial.  Nobody was safe.

*          *          *

         The sun is almost up and I've made it about ten miles.  If I didn't have to keep quiet and covered I could have made it further.  I had to duck through neighborhoods keeping a sharp eye out for foot patrols.  I made it to a heavily wooded area near Camp Hill.  I had better try to get some sleep 'cause tomorrow I'm gonna have to try to get across the river into Harrisburg.
         I find a nice spot in between a couple of trees and I lay down in the grass and weeds that grow there.  Using my backpack as a pillow, I slowly drift off to sleep.