299 Days: The Restoration

Chapter 310 Picking the Wrong Side?

It had been just over twenty-four hours since Jeanie Thompson had learned of the Patriot attack. At first, it had seemed like they were attacking everywhere at once. It was a trick, she realized now. The Patriots were creating diversions to draw attention away from their real target: Olympia. In the early stages of the attack, they went after targets in Seattle and the suburbs. They hit Seattle-area political targets, police stations and FCorps facilities, mostly. They also assassinated several dozen government officials, including some high-ranking ones. Jeanie wondered if they got any of the people she had given tours to at Camp Murray.

The Patriots also raided the homes and mansions of some of the big government contractors. They killed the guards and the CEOs, but spared the spouses and children. They had very good intelligence and made pinpoint strikes. It looked like some of the guards were in on the raids. This sent most of the remaining elected officials and big government contractors into hiding. They couldn’t trust anyone anymore. This had a devastating effect on the government’s command and control; with so many officials in hiding, they couldn’t direct a counterattack. All of this was possible as soon the Limas couldn’t trust their own security guards.

The Patriots had also attacked throughout the state. They hit county seats, going after courthouses, county police stations, and any FCorps facilities in the rural areas. They hit some of the corporate food processors in the agricultural areas of eastern Washington. They stole truckloads of food and let the Mexicans, who were basically slaves on the farms, go free.

The Patriots’ goal was to cause massive confusion and force the Loyalists to rush out in every direction in an attempt to reinforce all their forces. All the while, the main target was Olympia. The state capitol. The symbolic state capitol.

Olympia fell after only twenty-four hours. The political people had basically abandoned Olympia in the last few weeks. Everyone who was anybody had slowly and quietly moved from there to Seattle. The good troops and equipment were moved to JBLM and Seattle. All defensible resources were concentrated into one area, and it wasn’t Olympia.

Of course, the National Guard and Lima police trying to defend Olympia would have liked knowing that they were a hollowed out outpost with no backup. They would have gone AWOL like everyone else, except for the hardcore Limas who knew they’d never be pardoned by the Patriots. Jeanie shook her head when she thought of all the poor National Guard kids who were sacrificed in Olympia.

Camp Murray was pretty much empty now that everyone important and even not-so-important was in Seattle. They left lowly people, like Jeanie, behind. Camp Murray was not yet in any danger of being taken by the Patriots because it was still in the JBLM ring and was heavily fortified. But the same thing that happened to Olympia could happen to them inside the JBLM ring: diverting forces from there to Seattle and then falling quickly to a Patriot attack.

People kept coming up to Jeanie and telling her how they never supported the “legitimate authorities.” Many were more coy than that because they could never knew if the Patriots would lose and the legitimate authorities would be back in power, so they hedged their statements by saying things like, “Politics are so stupid. I just want things to get back to normal.” That was odd because Jeanie knew some of them were actively involved in politics when their side was in power. It was funny how people feign a sudden disinterest in politics when it might cost them something.

Jeanie had no idea what would happen next. She was on the fence on whether she should just wait it out or make her way to Olympia. She told herself if she did go to Olympia, it would just be to see what was going on there. It’s not like she was retreating from Camp Murray and going back to an area the Patriots controlled. It’s not like she had picked the wrong side she kept telling herself.