As Leslie sits in his office, contemplating the worst possible scenarios, he wonders if his decision is the correct one. The temptation to use lethal force on agitated and unruly crowds is strong, but with the situation being as dire as it is and Nellis being abandoned anyway, the last thing he wants is to contribute to even more death and destruction. His authority—and arguably duty—is clear, but th
e moral argument is a far more pressing one in his mind. He prays that it ends well both for the men and women under his command and for the throngs of desperate people outside the base, desperately trying to get in.
Chapter 17
Nellis Air Force Base
Las Vegas, Nevada
When Colonel Leslie ordered Rick to be thrown into a holding cell, Rick had expected the Colonel to fetch him within a day at most. By the time a week went by Rick was trying to adjust to the fact that he could be in the holding cell indefinitely. Food was brought to him three times a day, and though it was bland it kept him alive. Every day he called out to the MPs multiple times, asking to see the Colonel. At first the pleas were indignant but by the fifth day he was reduced to begging anytime he saw anyone in uniform passing by.
On the eighth day of being held, as Rick was giving up all hope, he was awoken at an unholy hour by a pair of MPs who dragged him off of his bed and ordered him to get moving. As Rick was guided through the base he started realizing that things weren’t as they had been merely a week prior. Distant shouts and the roar of engines came from somewhere far above Rick’s head and what seemed like an abnormally large amount of soldiers and airmen were running down the corridors with worried looks on their faces.
A shout from down the hall behind Rick and the pair of MPs surprised the three of them. “Get down here! We’ve got a couple of wounded coming in and need crowd control!” The MPs dropped Rick and one of them ran back down the hall immediately while the other lingered for a moment to help Rick back to his feet and talk to him.
“Take this hall down to the end. When you see the stairs leading up, walk past them, through the door on your right and take those stairs up and out.” With that the second MP was gone, going after the first at a full-on run.
“Wait!” Rick shouted at the two men but they were gone around a corner in seconds. “What the hell is going on around here?” Rick shook his head and turned around in the empty hall. With no one else in sight and nothing else to do, Rick did as the man had instructed and continued down the hall, watching for a flight of stairs. A few minutes later the sound of boots on the hard floor alerted him to the presence of someone coming from a cross hallway and he stopped, waiting to see who it was.
While Rick expected to see someone from the Army or Air Force coming around the corner, he wasn’t expecting to see Colonel Leslie. Based on the expression on the Colonel’s face he wasn’t expecting to see Rick either.
“What are you still doing here?” The Colonel stopped in his tracks and looked Rick up and down. “I thought I had you released days ago!”
Rick took a step backward, almost ready to turn and run. “Days ago? What are you talking about? A couple of your goons just dragged me out of the cell a few minutes ago!”
“What?” The friendliness and charm that Leslie had been wearing like a cheap cologne the first time they had met was completely gone, replaced by a harsh look of frustration and lack of sleep. “No, that’s… dammit!” The Colonel started walking and Rick trailed behind him. “I’m sorry, Rick. You’re free to go now, though. The exit’s back the other way.”
“Yeah, the guards told me where it was.” Rick shook his head. “I didn’t think I’d see you again. What’s going on around here? Why was I just dumped in the middle of the hallway?”
Colonel Leslie stopped and turned to face Rick. “I don’t have time to stand here and figure out the minutiae of your incarceration. The situation around here has changed quite radically since you arrived.”
Rick had to close his eyes, take several deep breaths and clench his jaw to keep from taking a swing at the Colonel. “What, exactly, has changed?”
The Colonel checked his watch and shook his head, muttering to himself before replying. “Fine. I guess I owe you some sort of an explanation considering you’ve been locked up all this time. Though, really, that’s your own damned fault. Of all the people we picked up who were supposed to be sent off to Mount Weather, you were the only one who refused. I figured a couple days in holding would change your tune but that’s right about when the shit hit the fan.”
“A couple days?” Rick could feel the veins on his neck and head bulging. “Are you kidding me?”
“Calm down.” The Colonel shook his head. “You can act indignant about your own stupid decisions later, on your own time. The day you were supposed to be hauled back up here to reconsider your decision is, like I was saying, the day the shit hit the fan. One thing led to another and I guess nobody released you. Again, I’m sorry, but you’re out now so congratulations.”
Rick still didn’t know what the Colonel was talking about and he shook his head, confused by Leslie’s response. “I… what are you going on about? What shit hit the fan?”
“We’ve had… let’s call it staffing issues here since this whole mess started. Too many problems and too few men spread too thin. I assume you saw the crowds of people outside the base perimeter when they brought you in?”
“Yeah. Looked like a couple hundred, max.”
“Try a couple thousand. Which soon blossomed to many more than that. We couldn’t hold them here on the base so we told them to seek shelter in the city and started handing out emergency rations a couple times a day.
“The day after those ran out is the day some genius out there got a couple of bulldozers running and plowed through the side of the fence.” Leslie shook his head and sighed. “As much of an asshole as you think I am—and I am one, believe me—I’m not about to open fire on citizens of a country I’m supposed to protect.”
“The people just swarmed the base, then?”
“Yep. Not like I can blame them. We’ve got the only food, water and power in the area and it’s been hot as balls out here.”
“You’re a real humanitarian.”
Colonel Leslie ignored the jab and continued. “When you’ve got about ten thousand starving, hot and dehydrated people who are extremely pissed off, you can do one of two things. Let them wear themselves out and break all your toys while they scrounge for food and water or kill them all and live with being a mass murderer the rest of your life. I chose the former. Everyone pulled back inside the secure areas of the base and waited for the looting and rioting above to stop.”
Rick shook his head, suddenly confused. “Why is it you’re telling me all of this?”