Chapter 1
Thursday, Day 1
The punch comes in hard and fast, straight for my nose. I block with my right forearm while raising my foot to catch him below the belt. Bullseye. He folds into my kick. I grab him by the head and raise my knee to his chin. One, two, three, four times. While he’s bent over, I quickly step around him and grab him by the neck.
“Wait, wait, wait, did you feel the tap to your stomach? He just shoved a knife in your gut.”
I wipe the sweat from my eyebrow.
“Katie? You okay?”
“Sure, Master. Just catching my breath. I didn’t feel the tap to my stomach. Thought I had him this time.” I gesture toward Leo, my sparring partner and boyfriend.
“It was definitely close,” Leo says with a smile, while Master Lewis nods.
“You’re doing really well; it’s hard to believe you’ve only been at this a few months,” Master says. “Of course, staying after for the private class when you can is a help, plus practicing on your own. I think that’s good for tonight. See you guys on Tuesday.”
We attend Krav Maga class, the fighting system of the Israeli Defense Forces, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, provided I don’t have a shift at work. It’s both an amazing defense mechanism and a serious workout. I never thought I could push my body so hard. When Leo and I first started talking about preparedness, thanks to my mom and stepdad, self-defense was a topic that came up. I knew I wanted to be able to protect myself if the need arose.
Years ago—after my dad died and before Mom married Jake—my mom, my three sisters, and I took a mom and daughter self-defense course. We went to a place used for Girl Scout and church camps, with the classes starting on Friday evening and ending late Saturday. We even stayed overnight in dorm rooms, sleeping on bunk beds.
I was very young then, only seven, and one of the youngest people at the retreat. I still had a great time and learned some good stuff. After that weekend, we’d practice at home. Logically, I should’ve always practiced with Calley since we were close to the same age, but we’d have different partners and rotate, so sometimes Mom was my partner.
After we finished the retreat, we kept practicing what we’d learned, at home. We’d pair up, with the fifth person acting as commentary to give a different perspective. From something we’d learned in the class, yelling “Fire!” became our call to action. The fifth person would yell it out, and we’d go at it—trying to be careful not to hurt each other by going at half speed and not really connecting. Of course, once in a while, the connections did happen. Soon, other interests took over and we stopped sparring as a group, but sometimes Mom and I’d still practice together. It was kind of a fun thing we did on our own.
Several times over the years, Mom has encouraged me to take another self-defense class. She and Calley took a day class together a year or two ago, and it refreshed some of the stuff they learned in the past. Last fall Mom; my stepdad, Jake; and my little brother, Malcolm, started taking a martial arts class together. They love it.
Mom suggested I look into Krav Maga since it’s considered to be a very effective form of self-defense. It’s also very trendy right now, and many places teach it. She’s right about that. There are three gyms and a college group teaching it here in Manhattan, Kansas. A little research led me to believe only one gym was legit; the others were not teaching true Krav Maga. Not necessarily a bad thing, but I wanted the real McCoy. Leo, who was trained in combat in the military, with their own discipline with techniques found in Krav Maga and other martial arts, agreed we made the right choice in our gym.
The primary goal in Krav Maga is to neutralize your threat as quickly as possible, doing whatever is needed to preserve your life, but never doing more than is necessary. I had a hard time with the aggressiveness and simultaneous offensive and defensive maneuvers. I was afraid I’d hurt someone. Not in the class—we don’t aim to hurt in training drills—but in real life.
How funny is that? I’d only use Krav Maga if my life were in danger, and I was afraid of hurting my attacker? I worked through that pretty quickly. Now, if someone comes after me, they’ll get exactly what they deserve. I won’t go down without a big fight. A BIG. HUGE. FIGHT.
In addition to the classes and private lessons, Leo and I spar together several times a week. While I’m new to this, Leo is a Marine and learned similar fighting techniques. Even though I’m much smaller than him and he’s better trained, the moves I’ve learned can still hurt. I discovered this rather quickly when, in the heat of battle, I forgot to pull my punch and gave Leo a bloody nose. Oops.
It’s about ten o'clock. I’m chilling on the sofa, exhausted and a little sore after tonight’s practice. Leo and I are both on our tablets. I’m looking at information about Billings since my sister Sarah and her husband, Tate, moved there last month to be closer to our mom and Jake. I like the idea of being around family, so Leo and I are talking about checking it out.
Leo and I live in Manhattan, Kansas, while attending K-State. Well, I’m still attending; he graduated a few weeks ago. I’ll graduate in December with a degree in graphic design. At that point, we plan to move . . . somewhere.
I do somewhat have my hopes set on moving to a warmer environment without snow, perhaps Las Vegas, but we’re keeping our options open. Over the Fourth of July, we’re going to visit my folks and Sarah. It’ll be the first time they meet Leo. And when we come clean on the depth of our relationship.
A Facebook notification pop ups. What’s this about?
I turn to Leo. “Have there been terrorist attacks?”
“What?”
“My supervisor just canceled the Sip and Paint I was supposed to facilitate Saturday because of the terrorist attacks. Here it is. ‘Planes crash while landing at LAX, JFK, and ORD. Terrorists suspected.’ Oh no, Leo. It looks bad.”
“I see it here.” Leo pulls up a news channel online and turns on the live streaming.
“What we know at the moment: At 10:22 eastern time, American Airlines flight 2245 from Miami to JFK crashed while attempting to land. At 10:34, United flight UA343 from Phoenix crashed at Chicago O’Hare while attempting to land. An unidentified flight into LAX crashed while attempting to land at 10:42 eastern. An unidentified flight into DFW crashed while attempting to land at 10:48 eastern. At 10:52 eastern, all flights were ordered to be grounded. Those in the air have been diverted to the nearest airport. At this point, we believe these events to all be related.”
Four crashes? The alert only mentioned three. The news guy looks away from the camera for a moment. He touches his ear and shakes his head.
“Friends, we’re receiving reports of a fifth crash moments ago in Miami. We don’t have any details. With five crashes within just over half an hour, we fully believe these to be related.”
Leo and I look at each other. Leo speaks first, “An event like this is going to be as hard on our country as 9/11 was. I hope we’ll see people pulling together the same way they did then.”
“I was only five when 9/11 happened,” I tell Leo. “I remember seeing it on the news, but my mom didn’t let us watch much. She was upset for days. And I remember the first time we drove into Portland after it, and I saw the tall skyscrapers and asked if a plane would crash into them. Mom said, ‘No, of course not,’ and that she hoped nothing like that would ever happen again.” Remembering 9/11 is hard for me.
Leo pulls me close. He says nothing, simply holds me quietly. We remain this way for many minutes. The news report is still playing on the tablet. The announcer says the president will be addressing the nation soon. I think of Mom. She’s away from home this week, in Oregon for work. She flew out and is now stuck there. If this is an attack, how could they stop it from happening again?
The newscaster makes what sounds like a choking sound or a sob. He starts speaking, barely controlling his emotions. “We are receiving reports of multiple explosions going off near JFK. These are separate from the plane crashes and are possibly large car bombs. Again, what is believed to be multiple car bombs have been detonated near the John F. Kennedy Airport. JFK was the site of an airline crash less than an hour ago. It’s hard to believe these are unrelated events. We’re expecting an address from the president any moment.”
Leo holds me tighter. I’m crying now. I don’t know much about car bombs, other than what I’ve learned in school. I don’t know how big of an area could be affected. I ask Leo if he knows.
“I think it really depends on its size and how it’s constructed. The truck bomb set off at the Federal Building in Oklahoma did a considerable amount of damage, and something like 170 people were killed.”
My text indicator sounds, causing me to jump. It has to be either Mom or Jake. I’m right. It’s Mom. She sent a group text to my siblings—Sarah, Angela, Calley—and me. I read it aloud.
“Jake and I are enacting Plan A. You should think about doing this also. We don’t know what tomorrow will bring. We included information on Plan A in your backpack on the sheet: Smart Practices. I love you.”
A few months ago, Mom and Jake sent me a very large backpack filled with items they thought I’d need in order to get to their home in Northern Wyoming—they made me a bug-out bag. Besides for physical items, they included maps and notes they thought would be helpful.
“Should I grab it, Katie?”
“What, Leo?”
“Did you want me to grab the paper? It’s in the outside pocket of the backpack?” Leo asks as he’s walking to the coat closet.
“Yes,” I gulp out between sobs.
“Oh, hey, looks like the president’s coming on. I’ll read this after he’s done.”
He repeats some of what we already know about the first two crashes. We hadn’t heard the details of the final three.
“Delta 1318 from Atlanta to Los Angeles International Airport crashed while attempting to land at 10:42 eastern. Frontier flight 234 from Denver to Dallas/Fort Worth crashed at 10:48. At 10:52, all flights were grounded or diverted to the nearest airport. American Airlines flight 1213 from Boston was already on final approach for its scheduled 10:58 landing in Miami. It crashed before landing. At 11:04 eastern, multiple bombs were detonated in or very near John F. Kennedy Airport. We expect the loss of life to be considerable.”
He continues on briefly about our great nation and how we’ll overcome this. His speech lasts only a few minutes total.
Leo turns down the sound on the tablet. He leaves the streaming report running and angles it so we can see it as he reads Mom and Jake’s Plan A aloud.
“Sometimes you may need to do a little extra. If you notice a local or national situation that could turn concerning, you should immediately do a few extra things, as long as doing these will be safe. Jake and I call this Plan A.
“If we’re enacting Plan A, we’ll let you know if it’s for a nationwide event. You can enact Plan A on your own at any time. You may find yourself in a Plan A situation we don’t know about.
“One example could be a protest in your town. You live in a college town and could have student protests. I’d encourage you not to participate in these. Even though they’ll likely be nonviolent and you’re within your constitutional rights to civilly protest, these nonviolent protests can turn violent in the blink of an eye.
“Plus, it’s possible not everyone there will have the same agenda. Some people attend protests with the sole desire of violence starting so they can loot. And, of course, the Aggieville riots happened right there and could happen again. Here is what our Plan A looks like:
- We drive into town, taking our gas cans with us.
- We take out as much money from our bank’s ATM as they allow. You know we keep quite a bit of cash at home but do still have some cash in savings and keep enough in our checking to pay our bills, gas, and groceries. If we feel there’s a Plan A event, we want as much cash on hand as possible. There may be a run on banks, banks may declare a “holiday,” they may limit transaction amounts, etc. We’re at the mercy of the bank, and they have our money. If we’re wrong and nothing happens—no biggie. We still have cash to use or we can put it back in the bank when things have calmed down.
- Next stop is the grocery store. We keep a list of things we think of and will shop from this list, adding other things that seem appropriate. For you, we’d suggest more food. Easy to cook or no-cook things and shelf-stable with some nutrition. You can always pick up the standard milk, bread, and eggs too. People tend to buy up these things and the shelves may be bare. Just remember, if the power goes out, eat the fridge items first. It may be smart to turn the eggs into hard-boiled eggs as soon as you return home. What else do you need? Toothpaste, a toothbrush, Advil, a small blanket? Pick them up. You can always use these things, so buying them now causes no financial loss. Do you need a propane canister for your one-burner stove, included in your bug-out bag? Most likely you do. Even if you have one on hand, a second is only a couple bucks. Warm chili tastes better than cold chili.
- Depending on the time of day, we may decide to stop at a sporting goods store, hardware store, or lumber yard. Think long and hard about additional stops. Get in and get out of these places so you can return to the safety of your home.
- Finally, fill your gas tank and your gas cans.”
When Leo finishes reading, he looks at me and asks if I have any questions.
“I don’t, but I think we should do it. We’d best get going.” I’m pretty sure SuperMart is open all night but briefly wonder if they might close because of tonight’s attacks.
“Uh-oh,” Leo says, gazing at his tablet. He turns it in my direction.
BREAKING NEWS:
BOMBS HAVE NOW BEEN DETONATED NEAR
ALL AIRPORTS AFFECTED BY TONIGHT’S CRASHES
Leo turns up the sound.
“We now have reports of bombs going off near all of the airports with earlier plane crashes. About fifteen minutes ago, a confirmed several bombs detonated in or near JFK. About seven minutes ago, bombs went off almost simultaneously near LAX, DFW, Chicago O’Hare, and Miami International Airports.
“We’re not yet receiving reports of casualties but expect the numbers to be quite high. The bombs appear to have targeted first responders and the multitudes of people still at the airports after all flights were canceled due to the crashes.”
I’m crying again, and Leo takes a moment to console me. “We gotta go, Katie. Your folks’ Plan A sounds like it may be necessary instead of just a good idea.”
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