Trapped

By Randy Nesbitt

The United States and Russia have finally come upon the World War III that we have always feared, after the occurrence of a terrorist attack in Washington, D.C. which has killed over twelve thousand American Citizens inside of a blown up building in the Nation's Capital.     With the terrorist attack causing the American President to send a naval flotilla to the shores of Syria to effect an amphibious landing with the intentions of destroying the terrorist element that resides inside of Syria forever.   But the American amphibious landing turned into the Russian soldiers in Syria sinking an American naval vessel in the eastern Mediterranean Sea and killing over one hundred Americans causing the American Admiral of the CAG Group to retaliate by Ordering the launching of missiles against the Russian Air Base that has killed over one thousand Russian soldiers.  With the military actions of both Countries continuing the escalate for days, and there are only two men in the entire world who know that truth about what has really caused the situation, and can stop the conflict before nuclear missiles are launched in both Countries.     But can they get the information to the right people in time to stop the conflict?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Randy Nesbitt
• Release date: Apr 13, 2024
• ISBN: 9798989506033

Randy Nesbitt

Randy Nesbitt Sr., was born in Washington, D.C., and committed himself to a life of crime that ended up taking him through some of the roughest prisons in the United States over the last decades of his life.    A journey that only made him stronger, and wiser.    A man who has now written several fictional books for the enjoyment of the general public.

Book preview

DEDICATION PAGE

Table of Contents

Title Page

TRAPPED

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

CHAPTER NINE

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-two

Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Four

Chapter Twenty-five

Chapter Twenty-Six

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Chapter Twenty-Nine

It is a must that I dedicate this book to

my nephew, Lavant Nesbitt. 

I first met this guy before he could even walk,

and watched him become a man,

a husband, and a great father. 

A man who has always been like a Son to me. 

I will always admire him for just being who he is!

Chapter One

Craig Varner was sitting on one of the uncomfortable red plastic seats in the Washington D.C. Metro bus at six that evening on a snowy January day with a smile on his face, and a good feeling in his heart, still finding it hard to believe that his life had begun to take a turn for the better after having suffered through the last ten years of his life as an incarcerated man.  During the time that he was on the bus he began to reminisce about the day, three months ago, when one of the correction officers at the prison he was being housed at walked up to the door of his cell to let him know that he was being released because the court finally overturned his conviction for an armed robbery conviction he never had anything to do with, causing him to quickly grab the few possessions he intended on taking with him as the hatred he held towards the judicial system for the last decade began to slip away leaving him only with the euphoric feeling of him finally being able to walk out of the prison to go on about his life as a free man. He walked off of the bus on Georgia Avenue wearing a pair of blue jean pants, black leather boots, and a black leather winter coat which came down to his waist to protect him from the cold of the snowy Winter's day, thinking about how good his life was beginning to turn out as he began to trudge through the snow towards the Howard University campus in search of his girlfriend Tammy, who was an Administrative Secretary at the famous college.  Happy to know that she had asked him to move into her apartment two days before, which allowed him to get out of the shelter for homeless people he had been forced to live in once he had been released from prison, with both of them thinking life would be better for the two of them if they were to combine the salaries from their two jobs in order to keep up with the high cost of living in the D.C. Metropolitan area.

Craig turned the corner of Georgia Avenue and was walking down the street in the direction of one of the Howard University parking lots, only to be pleasantly surprised by the sight of his girlfriend Tammy while she was walking through the parking lot in the direction of her older modeled light blue Toyota wearing some blue jeans, a long white ski parka type coat, and a pair of brown suede boots coming up close to her knees having never seen him as he was approaching her on the other side of the parking lot, which gave him the opportunity to sneak up behind her while she was in the process of opening the driver side door of the car.

Uh.  Help!  Tammy screamed out in fear once she felt someone grabbing her from behind, initially thinking Craig was some sort of stranger attempting to do her some form of harm.

It's only me Tam.  He laughed out with the steam with his breath being visible through the falling snow as he lifted her up in the air and twirled her around from behind in happiness.  Feeling good with the knowledge that he had been able to reconnect with someone from his past who came into his life to care about him as much as he cared about her.

You scared the shit out of me Craig!  A nervous Tammy replied, with her heart beating erratically of her fear of being harmed."

Craig continued to laugh as he lowered his five foot five inch girlfriend back down towards the ground, then contritely blurted out through his mirth:  I'm sorry.

You do realize that people have been known to get kidnapped around here, don't you?  Tammy replied with a scowl of anger on her face once she was standing back on her own two feet.  Quickly turning around and smacking him on his right shoulder with her left hand in playful frustration.

I'm sorry baby.  He told her, while he attempted to pull her into his embrace, so he could give her a kiss.  I didn't mean to scare you.

You play too much.  Tammy scolded while she attempted to extract herself from his embrace as she turned her face to the side to avoid his kiss.  Which gave him the chance to kiss her on her cold left ear, and suck her earlobe into the heat of his mouth.

Let me make it up to you.  Craig said.     Finally getting the chance to kiss her on her lips.  Let's go and see the movie that you have been bothering me about going to see for the last couple of weeks.

Are you saying that you are ready to go see ‘The Engagement Party’ with me?  A disbelieving Tammy replied.  Staring up at the six foot two inch man who she first met when they were fifteen years old.

I would rather that we go and see the movie called: ‘Shoot-'Em-Up.  He retorted.  Hoping he would be able to persuade her to change her mind from wanting to go and see the dramatic tearjerker.

No.  We're going to go and see ‘The Engagement Party.  Tammy scoffed out derisively once she turned to open the car door and climb into the driver's seat.  Turning her back to Craig while he walked around to the passenger’s side of the car.

Well.  If that is what you want to see, then that is what we will be seeing.  He despondently replied after shutting his car door back, and buckling his seat belt around his waist.  And everything will even be my treat tonight.

You don't even have any money like that right now Craig.  The understandingly somber Tammy told him, knowing that her boyfriend was a good man with good intentions but that he also had only been employed for the last two months and was finding it kind of hard to make his way through the new society he was being returning to.  I told you before that if you could just pay half of the rent, I will take care of everything else.

That's just a thing Tam.  Craig began as he stuck his hand into the right front pocket of his jean pants to pull out a folded up wad of currency.  Separating four one hundred dollar bills from the rest of the currency, and placed them in Tammy's right hand.  I have my half of the rent already.

Tammy started the engine of the car to running so some heat could start to enter the car before she allowed him to put the currency into her hand.  Turning to him with a shocked expression on her face as she looked at an amount of currency which she knew that he did not have the ability to obtain legitimately.  I told you before that if you go to jail on me, that you will never see me again!

Relax baby.  I didn't get the money by committing any crimes.  Craig said with a smile on his face to allay her fears of him doing something wrong.  Like I was telling you before, I only went to prison because I kept my mouth shut and did not tell on the dudes who committed the robbery and I ended up seeing one of those dudes today who gave me five hundred dollars out of appreciation for what I had done.

That's all he gave you was five hundred dollars for the ten years of your life you were forced to give up?  The derisive woman angrily lamented.

He wanted to give me some cocaine and sell also, but like I told you before, I won't be breaking any laws and I'm not going back to jail!  Craig tersely responded.  Not being able to forget the fresh memories still circulating in his mind about the decade of incarceration he was forced to suffer through.

And if you would have accepted those drugs from that guy, then you and those drugs would have already been on your way back to that homeless shelter you were staying at.  The distraught Tammy replied.  Turning to Craig with hooded eyes of anger directed towards him in emphasis to the words she had just uttered.  Wanting to make certain he understood the gist of her statement towards her feelings about him not committing any crimes.

I hear you Tam.  Craig quietly began.  Nodding his head in our affirmation to her words.  And I do understand what you are saying, but you need to understand that I'm not going back to prison, because I do not want to go back to prison not because of anything you are saying.

That is okay with me, as long as you and I are on the same page.  She divulged while she put the folded up currency into one of the pockets of her coat then put the car into gear, cut the headlights on, and started to carefully drive through the snow-filled parking lot after turning the windshield wipers on so she could clear some of the still falling snow off of the windshield in order for her to be able to see where she was driving in the darkness of the night.  But do you have enough money to carry you through the next week?

I got paid today too, which is where the rest of the money came from.  Craig said in response.  Reaching over to hold Tammy’s hand on the center console.  Which is the reason why I want to take my woman to the movies, just to show you a small token of my appreciation for you being so understanding towards my present situation.

Well.  Thank you for thinking about me.  An elated Tammy replied.  Having never looked for him to give her anything in return for her assistance in helping to get himself readjusted to a society he had been forced to miss for the last decade of his life.  But the thought itself made her feel good just to know he appreciated everything she had been trying to do for him.

Tammy cautiously began to drive through the falling snow in the parking lot until she made her way over to Georgia Avenue.  Following the other cars on the slushy street, as she made her way down towards the Verizon Center on Seventh Street, which was the building where the professional basketball team for the District of Columbia played.  But the same building also had a Multiplex movie theater inside of it which was showing the movie Tammy wanted to see, and the Verizon Center just so happened to be near where they already were.

Why don't you park over by the grocery store on Eighth Street instead of parking in one of the garages at the Verizon Center, so we can avoid paying them for parking there.  Craig told her.  Gesturing to his right once they passed Rhode Island Avenue.

That's a good idea.  Tammy said in response.  Making a right turn on P street.  Never allowing herself to forget that she and the man she was falling in love with were struggling financially, and were forced to exist within the confines of a very tight budget.  Understanding the foray into the movie theater itself that night as being a luxury which was even hard for them to expend funds for.  But she also understood that they had been frugal enough with their money for the last couple of weeks, which would now afford them with the opportunity to deviate from their budget for just one day.

Tammy parked the Camry in the black asphalt parking lot of the grocery store, with the both of them exiting the car and beginning to make the short walk down to the Verizon Center with Tammy sliding her gloved hand into Craig's right hand while they walked down Seventh Street on their way to the brown brick building.  Carefully moving through the four inches of snow which had accumulated on the sidewalk as she allowed herself to luxuriate in the thought of her finally having a good man in her life, and hoped he wouldn't break her heart by cheating on her like her last boyfriend had done.

They walked through the glass doors of the Verizon Center, and into the warmth of the building.  Passing the stores selling food, clothes, or ice cream while they stood on one of the escalators on their way up to one of the upper levels of the huge building, where the movie theaters were located.

It's about time we did something other than stay home and just look at each other all day long.  Tammy told him.  Pulling her hand out of his so she could unzip her coat, and take the dark red knit cap off to expose her black shoulder length hair.

I have to disagree with you on that one, because I enjoy looking at you, especially when you are naked.  The risible thirty-three year old Craig said in response before he stuck his hand into her opened coat so he could squeeze her well proportioned rear end.

Stop boy.  The embarrassed Tammy said.  Slapping his exploring hand away from her body, then she nervously looked around at the other people surrounding them in the area with a smile on her face, wondering if anyone else had seen what Craig had just done.

You love it.  Craig told her once he walked up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist before he moved her hair to the side of her neck and kissed the cocoa brown skin on the back of her neck.

Tammy continued to stand on the cream-colored marble floor enjoying his embrace and the warmth of his soft lips on the back of her neck, knowing his words were true because she really loved it whenever he touched her, and had never been able to forget the fact of her having had a crush on him which went all of the way back to when they were in the tenth grade together.  But in typical female fashion, she chose not to let him know how she really felt about him.  I do not love it either.

If that was really true, then you would be in a hurry to move away from me.  Right?  Craig humorously asked her once he kissed her on the back of her ear.  Still holding her body pressed to the front of his.

I might just still be cold, and am using your body to keep me warm.  She responded with a mischievous smile on her face before she turned around in his embrace to face him, then she stood on the tips of her toes to kiss him full on his lips hoping he would be able to develop the same feelings of love for her that she had developed for him.

Well.  I hope that you stay cold forever, if it is going to make you continue to kiss me like you just did.  Craig retorted.  Happy for every day during the last two months that she had allowed him to even be back in her orbit.  A budding relationship culminating with Tammy asking him to move into her small one bedroom apartment a few days before, with their new relationship giving him a better chance to get his life back together.

Craig still had Tammy enfolded within his embrace while people continued to walk around them on their way to some of the stores in the building with some of the people making their way down to the lower levels of the building where the basketball arena was located so they could watch the basketball game which was getting ready to start, when Craig happened to notice two men coming into their area with long black beards, white kufis on their heads, and wearing long white baggy shirts, which was regular attire for a lot of Muslim men Craig had been able to come across over the years.  But he was paying attention to the two men while they approached him because they looked familiar to him, and not because they were Muslims.  With Craig taking a few moments of sifting through his memories for his recollections of the two names which matched the two faces he was now seeing coming near him.  What's up Harry?  How are you doing Abdullah?

The two startled men turned to look in Craig's direction as they were getting ready to walk right past him without having seen him, looking as if they were not happy with the fact that they had come into contact with someone at the Verizon Center that happened to know who they were.  But once they had been able to recognize that it was Craig Varner who was calling to them, they began to walk towards Craig with haphazard smiles of indecision on their faces while they approached him.  Hey Craig.  How are you doing?

I'm doing pretty good Harry.  How about you?  Craig replied with a smile on his face.  Not finding it too hard to remember the man who he shared a cell with for over two years of his incarceration.  A man who had happened to be one of the better cell mates he ever had.

Doing good Craig, but we are in sort of a hurry right now.  He replied with an uncomfortable look on his face.

I didn't mean to hold you up.  Craig quickly told him.  Reaching forward to shake both of the men's hands before they walked away, then watched them as they headed down the escalator, and turned in the direction of the basketball arena.

That was rude.  A perturbed Tammy said.  Beginning to walk in the direction of the movie theaters with Craig following right behind her.  You didn't even introduce me to them.

I was going to Tammy, but they hurried off before I could even get the chance.  He told her retreating back, while he continued to think about the uncomfortable conversation he had just carried on with the two men from his past.  Continuing to think about the strange conversation with the two men as he bought their tickets for the movie, then stopped long enough to buy the both of them some popcorn, and some other snacks before they walked into the theater to take their seats.

Hell.  They acted like they didn't even know me.

So, who were they?  Tammy asked him, after putting some of the butter popcorn into her mouth.

Harry was in the cell with me for a long time, and Abdullah used to exercise with us from time to time for years, that is why the conversation was so strange.  The dumbfounded Craig replied, looking off into the distance of his memories as he tried to understand why the two men wanted to cut their conversation with him so short.  Thinking to himself that the time which they spent together in prison would have garnered them spending a little bit more time together than they had shown him.

You sound like you are not too happy to see them out here on the street!  The curious woman said once she turned in her seat to look at her boyfriend.

I'm happy to see anyone get out of prison, so it's nothing like that.  Craig lamented.  Shaking his head from side to side in a negative response, still going through the thought processes of his memories of the two men.  I was just wondering how they were able to get released from prison, when I left both of them in the prison we had been incarcerated at three months ago.

They were still locked up when you got out?  The disbelieving woman retorted.

Yeah.  Harry was still in the cell with me.  Craig divulged uncomfortably.  I left him everything in the cell I was not going to take out on the street with me.

Maybe they were able to get out on early release, or something.  Tammy replied with no real concern for the two men either way.  Still eating popcorn while she continued to look at the blank screen in anticipation of the movie coming on.

I know for a fact that Harry had a life sentence with no possibility of parole, and if I'm not mistaken, Abdullah was in the same situation.  Craig tersely responded.

They might have been able to escape Criag  Tammy sibilated while she shrugged her shoulders indifferently.  Believing that it wasn't her business if the two strangers had committed a crime anyway.

Craig didn't have any words he could formulate for a response to Tammy's comment, so he just stayed silent and watched the beginning credits for the movie as they started to roll across the screen, understanding that it would be real hard for him to be able to explain to her how difficult it would have been for the two men to have been able to get out of the Maximum Security Federal Prison they had been residing at.  A prison facility which also had an electric fence surrounding it, with guards stationed in gun towers who had no problems with shooting a person who was attempting to escape.

After a few more moments of contemplative thought, Craig put his right arm around Tammy’s shoulder, and settled down to watch the movie.  Dismissing his uneasy thoughts about the two men he used to know in another life.  Thinking to himself that maybe Tammy had been right, and the two men had somehow been able to escape from the prison.  Finally coming to the conclusion that it was really not any of his business anyway, so he just settled down to enjoy the movie with his girlfriend.

The movie was the tearjerker he thought it would be, and was even able to get Craig to shed a few tears himself.  But halfway through the movie, he began to hear the sounds of muffled gunshots and explosions coming through the sound-proofed walls of the movie theater they were ensconced inside of.  Sounds which concerned Craig enough for him to turn around in his seat to look behind himself at the exit of the movie theater they were in, but after he did not see any of the people behind them moving towards the exit in fear, he quickly began to think to himself that the sounds were most likely coming from the movie theater next door, where the movie ‘Shoot ‘Em Up’ was playing.  Becoming comfortable enough to turn back around to continue to watch the movie with the thought in his mind of him missing a good movie in the other theater.

After fifteen minutes had gone by, Craig began to imagine that the sounds he was hearing were getting closer to where he and Tammy were at, and started to nervously turn around in his seat once more so that he could look behind himself again, only to be uncomfortably rewarded this time with seeing some of the people who were sitting behind them quickly moving towards the exit.  With the sounds of the gunshots, and explosions, getting louder once the exit door had been opened, which made it clear to Craig that the sounds were not coming from any kind of movie playing inside of the building.

Let's get out of here!  Craig fearfully stated.  He was quickly pulling Tammy up from her seat, and pushing her towards the end of the row of seats as he watched a lot of other people running out of the door of the theater when he saw a blonde haired woman's head explode in a gout of blood and debris close to the door of the theater before the body fell to the carpeted floor next to a young African-American man whose body had been riddled with bullets before his body collapsed into death also.

Oh God!  The shocked Tammy exclaimed.  Looking towards the exit door, at the bodies which were beginning to pile up in front of it, right before she saw two men with AK-47s making their way through the exit door, and into the movie theater.  What do we do now?

Get down.  Craig hissed to her.  Quickly pushing Tammy down onto the dirty raw concrete floor in front of some of the chairs, then laid down on top of her to protect her from the bullets which were being fired by the two assailants within the confines of the theater.  Hoping the rows of chairs they were hiding inbetween would be able to keep them safe from getting shot also.

They were lying there listening to the continuing sounds of the fusillade of gunshots at the back of the theater intertwining with the sounds of the movie still playing, screams of pain, and shouts of anguish, also coming from the other patrons of the theater when Craig began to feel a thick liquid flowing down to them from the rows of chairs higher up behind them, which was when he began to realize the liquid which was beginning to get on them - as being blood.  A stream of blood from the people who had already been killed up higher in the theater that had now flowed down the concrete incline until reaching them, making Tammy shiver in fear underneath him.   After a short time - that seemed like an eternity; the shooting stopped with the villains who had been doing the shooting, shouting out to all of the people still alive and telling them they should stand up and follow them out of the theater - or die where they were hiding.

Once the announcement had been made Craig heard a couple of women up higher in the theater begging the men who had been doing the shooting not to kill them and that they were coming out, then he could hear the crying women as they cautiously moved towards the men who had done the shooting.  With the other woman, and men, begging the villains not to shoot them either while they came out of their hiding places and made their way towards the men who committed the massacre, which made Craig start to stand up himself after a short time of him considering what the consequences would be if they continued to hide.  Craig put his hands over his head as he began to stand up, and looked up higher in the theater until he could see that there were now five men standing around the exit door of the theater with their guns pointing down into the depths of the movie theater.  With some of the survivors moving past the men and out of the theater while one of the men motioned towards Craig with his AK-47 for him to make his way up towards them.

Get up Tammy.  They are not going to shoot us.  Craig whispered down at her while he brushed his foot against her back.  And I think that they are going to kill us if we continue to hide.

The terrified Tammy slowly stood up on her shaky legs with fear emanating from every part of her body.  Following Craig as he began to walk up the carpeted aisle inbetween the rows of seats towards the gun-welding men with his hands up in the air, while Tammy followed right behind him, and they were quickly ushered towards the exit as three Middle Eastern looking men walked past them and began to nonchalantly shoot the bodies on the floor with their automatic weapons.  Causing Craig and Tammy to begin to hear two men who continued to hide in the movie theater begging the men not to shoot them, but their protestations went unanswered as the gunmen quickly shot the two men dead.  Moving on into the depths of the movie theater, where they came across a woman that had also continued to hide, who also begged for her life.  But her begging did her no good either!

Once Craig and Tammy walked out of the theater they were able to see another eight survivors from the theater standing in the hallway with their hands held high looking at Craig and Tammy with fear-filled eyes, making Craig's heart skip a beat at the senselessness of the killing which had gone on inside because he knew that there had to have been at least seventy people in the theater while they had been watching the movie but that only ten people had been able to walk out of the theater alive.

Craig began to watch the men, looking for a slight opening which would allow him to turn the tables on them then give him and Tammy a chance to get out of the building alive.  Listening to the killers as they slowly motioned some of the survivors towards them to be frisked for any sorts of weapons, and came to the understanding, after listening to the killer accents; that the men were Americans and not Middle Eastern men at all.

Out of the fifteen men he could see some were African-American, and some were white Americans, with accents that sounded like some of them were from Boston, New York, Washington, D.C., California, and from some of the States in the deep south of the United States, but all of the men had beards, and some form of Islamic garb on, which made Craig quickly come to the conclusion that the Islamic Extremists he’d seen so far had been radicalized right here in the good ole United States of America.  Turning his stomach at the thought of some of America's own men turning against it like those men had done.

A few moments later it had become Craig and Tammy's turn to be frisked by a white man who had a full red beard who was going through the motions of patting Tammy's body down first, leaving Craig impressed with how professional the terrorist had conducted himself during the frisking of his girlfriend.  But he could see from the look on Tammy's face that she was disliking every time the killer touched her body as she stood there uncomfortably in her blood drenched coat, shuddering in fear and disgust as the man touched every part of her body while he looked for any concealed weapons she might have been trying to hide under her clothing.  With the frisking of Tammy being over in less than a minute and then the same man motioned Craig forward to search him also, which was something that Craig had been used to from his days in prison so he put his arms up and looked off down the hallway indifferently.  Watching another group of terrorists as they continued to bring dead bodies out of one of the other theaters before stacking them in the hallway as if they were stacking cordwood.

Once they had finished searching the ten survivors some of the killers motioned them to begin walking down the hallway in the direction of the other group of terrorists in front of the other nearby theater where they had been taking dead bodies out of, and to have a seat in the front rows by the blank movie screen.  Forcing them to sit on the bloody seats where some other deceased people had occupied right before they were forced to sit in them.  They had been seated in the new movie theater for fifteen minutes when they began to hear a commotion behind them which made them turn around to see what was going on, when they began to notice that the terrorists were bringing another group of survivors into the movie theater with them.  Twenty-three more survivors to be exact.  Mostly distraught women who were still shedding tears over their new plight in life.   With some of the terrorists motioning the newcomers, towards the seats they wanted them to sit in when one of the women began to complain about the gunshot wound her husband had suffered to his left arm.  Letting the terrorists know in no uncertain terms that her husband was going to need some medical attention in order to stop the bleeding, leaving one of the men to patiently tell the woman that they would get to him as soon as they got everyone else settled, but that didn't seem to be soon enough for the woman and she continued to loudly complain while she held onto the arm of her injured husband which was when another one of the terrorists quickly walked through the door of the theater with a scowl of hatred on his face before walking past the man who the lady had been complaining to and shot her injured husband right between the eyes.  Leaving pieces of the man's brains, and skull-matter on his wife's face for just a few moments until the terrorist shot the woman in her head also.

Put the two of them out there with the rest of the garbage!  The flagitiously devious man told the other terrorist the woman had been arguing with, using a very deep southern voice which sounded as if he was from the State of Kentucky.  Then he walked back out of the movie theater as if he had done nothing at all wrong.

The theater was deathly quiet after the execution of the couple had taken place.  With the only sounds in the movie theater being the sounds of four of the terrorists picking up the dead bodies of the couple, and carrying both bodies out of the theater.  Leaving two AK-47 welding men standing by the exit to guard the survivors, while the rest of the killers left with the men who were carrying the dead bodies.  Minutes later the terrorists brought another fifteen survivors into the movie theater and motioned  them towards seats also, with another thirty survivors being brought into the movie theater right after the other people had been settled.  This continued without interruption for the next hour, until the terrorists had brought over one hundred and seventy-five men and women into the movie theater by nine-thirty that night.  After completing this task, some of the terrorists began to bring in boxes of food from the concession stands, along with bottles of water and soda.  Putting all of the items in front of the blank screen before they turned to begin walking back out of the movie theater which is when one of the black male survivors stood up from his seat and began to tell the killers that he really needed to go to the bathroom.

The only response the man received for his pleas, was an AK-47 round being fired into his nose at point-blank range which shattered the back of his head, flinging his body backwards onto the row of seats in front of the seat he had been sitting in.  Causing an older gray-haired Latino woman to start screaming as she jumped up from her seat next to the dead body which had now released its bowels.  With the woman screaming her terror out so loudly, that she received two AK-47 rounds in the middle of her chest collapsing her body into death also.

Four of the killers quickly grabbed the two bodies, and took them out of the theater to be placed with the other dead bodies.  With one of the terrorists still standing by the exit shouting out that it would be alright for the survivors to begin moving towards the food in the orderly fashion, and told them that it would be in their best interest for them to hold onto the plastic bottles, and other containers, so they could use them to go to the bathroom because none of them would be leaving the theater any time soon.

Chapter Two

On that same day, Federal Agent Tristan Wilcox walked into his office at the FBI's Hoover building on ninth street in Northwest Washington, D.C. at four in the afternoon, deciding that it would be better for him to come to his office late in the day to take care of some of the backlog of paperwork he was going to have to file on several cases which he had been working on before going straight to his McLean Virginia apartment after coming from the Dulles Airport after having returned from an international trip.  With Agent Wilcox being one of the lead Agents on the Federal Bureau of Investigations Anti-Terrorism Task Force who had just landed back in the United States after leaving Amman Jordan, where his team had been working hand-in-hand with Jordanian Authorities on several different cases, one of which had been able to really get under the skin of the fifteen year veteran of the Federal Agency.  Consisting of a suicide bomber who decided to go into a very busy marketplace to nefariously explode a device that an Extremist Group which she belonged to had assigned to the young nineteen year old woman.  With the evil group having even figuring that it would be an added bonus which would allow them to kill more innocent people in the marketplace, if the woman was to take her one year old son with her into the afterlife by placing him into his baby carriage while it was filled up with explosives.

The explosion ended up killing the young woman, her infant son, and seventy other men, women, and children who just so happened to be in the area during the explosion at the marketplace with Federal Agent Tristan Wilcox going to the scene of the crime along with some of his Jordanian counterparts not that long after the killings had occurred in order to help the Jordanians collect as much forensic evidence as they could from the crime scene.

He had been able to make himself immune to a lot of the senseless killings that he had come across during his lifetime as much as he could, thinking to himself that he had most likely seen every devious plot another human being could come up with to destroy someone else's life.     But once he saw the decapitated bloody head of the one year old infant lying in the brown-sandy dirty ground of the marketplace with the head being caught up in some of the spokes of  the burned-up wheels from the baby carriage the child had been riding in, he began to feel that he could never truly see anything as horrible as that sight again in his lifetime.

Agent Wilcox had been specializing in Islamic Extremist groups from the Middle East during the last five years of his career, and was beginning to think the United States was fighting a losing battle with every new Islamic Terrorist attack his team was forced to respond to, coming to the conclusion in his own mind that it was time for the United States to abandon the Middle Eastern Countries to suffering the wrath of the Islamic Terrorists themselves.    Groups composed of Sunni Islamic Extremists, which had mostly been created and financed by the Saudis and the Jordanians, is in order to blunt the advance of Shiite Muslims throughout Iraq, with those Countries never realizing that their creation would get out of hand and become uncontrollable.

Now the Saudis, the Jordanians, and the Gulf Emirate's were turning to the United States and the European Countries, in the hopes of being able to convince them to bring their military troops back into Iraq and Syria to destroy the entity the Middle Eastern Countries had helped to create before their creation could turn towards their borders to bring destruction and instability to their societies.  Knowing that the Government Administrations of those Countries did not have the gumption to unleash their own military forces on the Islamic Extremists in Iraq and Syria, because it would most likely inflame their own Sunni Populations; causing an uprising which could bring down their own corrupt Governments.

Agent Wilcox was shaking his head while he thought about the senseless killings occurring all over the world in the name of the false teachings of the Islamic faith as he took his black suit jacket off and hung it onto the back of his brown leather swivel chair before he set his five foot eleven inch frame down at his desk.  Looking out of his office window at the peacefulness of the automobiles flowing up and down Ninth Street, heading to whatever destinations they were heading towards, happy to know that he was back in the peacefulness of American society, and had left behind the viciousness of the Middle East for a little while.

Did you catch him?  The black-haired six foot five inch Agent Gerald Tinley asked as he walked into the office uninvited.

Agent Wilcox turned his chair away from the window to face his second-in-command at the Anti-Terrorism Task Force, a man who turned out to be a good friend of his for the last decade of his life, and a man who had asked Agent Wilcox to be the best man at his wedding two years ago, with him also asking Agent Wilcox to be the godfather to his beautiful infant daughter once she was born.  We came real close, but he got away again.

That’s tough.  Agent Tinley retorted before he sat down in the other swivel chair on the other side of the desk.

The Jordanians allowed us to go with them when they tried to arrest the man, after having found out which time his convoy would be moving from one destination to another, but his men were very good and began firing on our vehicles while we were trying to surround the four car convoy he was in killing two Jordanian troops, and giving his car the opportunity to get away as the rest of his men stayed behind to do battle with us.    Agent Wilcox related.     Thinking about how hard it had been for them to catch the explosives expert for the Terrorist Group over the last year.  A man who had been training some of the followers of the Islamic Extremists in the manufacturing of improvised explosives and then sending them back to the Western Countries to kill as many people as they possibly could with their explosives.

We really need to get him Tristan, before he trains somebody who can make it into the United States to set off some bombs that are going to end up killing a lot of people.  Agent Tinley responded, with concern in his voice for the safety of the populace of the United States.

I agree with you one hundred percent on that.  A distraught Agent Wilcox told him.  Believing they were running out of time to either kill, or capture, the bomb maker before he could launch a nefarious attack on one of the cities in the United States.  Let's just hope the people who are operating the drones will be able to find him, and kill him, before he can do some harm to this Country.

Agent Tinley decided to change the subject by saying:  You do realize that Ann is going to turn two next Thursday, don't you?

Wow.  It's been that long already!  Agent Wilcox happily exclaimed.  Finding it real hard not to develop a smile on his face whenever his goddaughter came up in their discussions.

Yeah.  Time is just flying right along.  The proud father responded.  Hating the fact that he did not get a chance to see his daughter's beautiful smile before he left his home for work, because she had been in her little bed fast asleep when he left.

I know that you, and Gayle, are already planning on having a birthday party for her as we speak!  Agent Wilcox lamented.

Gayle has spent over one thousand dollars already on presents and preparations for the party.  Agent Tinley said to him while he acted as if he was mildly perturbed at his wife for spending so much money on a lot of things their daughter was going to end up outgrowing in the span of a couple of months, but both men knew that it was just an act of mild defiance on the man's part.

So, I guess I'm going to be forced to contribute to this madness by going out and buying a whole lot of presents myself, huh?  The risible Agent Wilcox put forth in jest.  Already thinking about the two items he had brought back from Amman for his goddaughter before he'd even come to the realization that her second birthday was coming up so quickly.  Then he began to think about what other presents he would be able to get for her before the party began.

"I can't believe a statement