PRIVATE CONTRACTOR

1- The March and the Noose

LOG #1

"Save America March?" I muttered, sitting in the driver's seat and reading the signs that a ton of protestors were carrying. "What's that supposed to mean?"

From a distance, these people with flags (including "TRUMP 2020" and "STOP THE STEAL" banners), signs, protest speech and a lot of other loud noises were headed through Burnsley. Of course, protesting is a right. I had a copy of the Constitution as a booklet in my desk drawer. But I didn't like the look of this.

I opened the trunk of my car for my tactical nylon quiver loaded with arrows that had rubber-bullet-heads, plus my Korean-style recurve bow hidden in its sock-like case. I figured the best thing to do for now, to find out what was going on, was to blend in. And given the state of things, I didn't wanna go in unarmed.

"Ugh, this is ridiculous." I said, making my way through the crowd.

I almost felt sorry for them. And that's a BIG 'almost' considering what they were doing. They weren't just waving their signs and flags around. A lot of them were throwing out threats, shoving into the Capitol Police, and the ones who made it through the barricades eventually wound up smashing windows and breaking into the building...!

I was dumbfounded and genuinely horrified by the scene. Having seen plenty of horrors up close like the Taliban and ISIS, what does it say that a riot like this would do that to me?

Now we had Americans fighting Americans!

Once I'd seen those extremists erect a hangman's noose intended for the Vice President out on the grounds, that was the last straw. Sure, I had no love for Mike Pence. I didn't care who he was personally at all. But it was still wrong and cold-blooded.

It was about thirty yards away. I grabbed the bow, put one arrow on the string to pull back using the thumb draw, and shot right past the person posing with that noose. He was holding it as if he'd actually been the one to tie that thick orange rope. My arrow missed only by a couple feet (as intended), having been launched with full overdraw under my earlobe. That poser was startled and frantically looking around for wherever the shot came from and what it even was. Let's face it, no one expects a bow to be brought to what they think should be a gunfight. So I let a warning shot fly and it kept going in its arc. I never saw where it landed but was sure it caused a bit of a disturbance in the crowd. Lord willing, maybe it bonked someone on the head as it landed.

I hastily slung the fifty-pound bow over my back and kept going through, blending in solely by not bothering to hide.