Push Back: A Post Apocalyptic Thriller (The Disruption Series Book 2) by R.E. McDermott

as he stayed.
    He glanced at his watch. He was five minutes early, but he’d quickly learned Major, now Colonel, Hunnicutt considered ten minutes early as ‘on time.’ By that standard he was five minutes late. He hurried down the hall toward the conference room and the sound of raised voices.
    “I don’t give a damn, Lieutenant Wright. You know—” Colonel Hunnicutt looked up as Luke entered. “Well, nice of you to join us, Major. I do hope it wasn’t an inconvenience.”
    “Sorry, sir,” Luke said, slipping into an unoccupied seat and nodding at the dozen people seated around the conference table. Hunnicutt gave him a curt nod and turned back to Wright.
    “As I was saying, Lieutenant, you know the protocol and so should your men. We CANNOT police areas outside of our tasking and still hope to provide any relief to the bulk of the refugees. These criminals piss me off too, believe me, but we just don’t have the manpower and resources to be diverted by a conflict with the gangs at this point. I thought I made that clear?”
    “You did, sir. And I’ve reprimanded Corporal Miles for disobeying orders, but honestly, I don’t believe he did so intentionally. Our mission is providing relief to the civilians, so when they heard a woman screaming for help, he used his own initiative. I can’t fault him for that. So what exactly was he supposed to do when his patrol stumbled on a gang rape, say ‘carry on’ and drive away?”
    Hunnicutt heaved a sigh and fell silent. “I suppose not,” he said at last. “Where is the woman now?”
    “Miles’ patrol took her and her husband to the refugee camp. They didn’t much want to go, but he couldn’t leave them there,” Wright said.
    “And the bangers?”
    Wright shrugged. “Too many to do anything with, even if we had facilities. They just told them to scatter, all except for the one they caught,” he hesitated, “you know…”
    “I get the picture,” Hunnicutt said. “What did they do with him?”
    Wright hesitated. “He was killed resisting arrest.”
    The room grew deadly quiet as the meeting participants awaited Hunnicutt’s reaction.
    “Boo fucking hoo,” Hunnicutt said, and the room erupted in laughter.
    “But seriously, folks,” he said, “we can’t afford to get entangled with these bastards. We just have too much to do. Any expectations this will escalate, Lieutenant Wright?”
    Wright shook his head. “We have them outgunned and they know it. If anything, they might try to lure a patrol into an ambush as payback.”
    Hunnicutt nodded. “My thoughts exactly. Make sure not to answer ANY calls for distress, and double both the size and frequency of the patrols between here and the relief station until we’re sure this isn’t going to escalate.”
    “Already done, sir,” Wright replied.
    “All right,” Hunnicutt said, “let’s move on. Chief … I mean Lieutenant Butler, can you give us a quick SITREP on the facilities?”
    Mike Butler, formerly chief boatswain’s mate, USCG, now first lieutenant, Wilmington Defense Force, nodded. “Our defensive perimeter is complete, though I’d still like to improve on the gate arrangement. Our snipes, along with the engineers from the merchant ships, have nearly solved our water problem. Between all the ships, we have multiple water distillers, and they rigged up a way to triple process the river water and basically heat the hell out of it to kill any bugs.” He looked over at Lieutenant Josh Wright and grinned. “They tell me by this time tomorrow, they’ll be producing enough water to keep Wright’s Waterworks topped up for the foreseeable future.”
    “Great news,” Hunnicutt said, “but how’d they manage that?”
    Butler shrugged. “They didn’t say and I sure as hell didn’t ask, sir. Else I’d have had to listen to a two-hour lecture explaining the process in great detail.” He paused to let the laughter die down before continuing. “But it gets better. They plan to use