Allahtown (1) (1394 hits)
Category: NoneLabels: Allahtown
Rating: 1.77 on 38 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by Jack McCallum (View user info) at 2005-09-18 15:22:03 EDT
ALLAHTOWN
(1)
Samir stepped down out of the bus into heat and light.
His family, his ancestors, came from a place much like this. He wondered if the location of the internment camp was part of some sick joke. Put the Arabs in the sand and wastes in the middle of nowhere. Some joker probably thought they would do well there. Samir wouldn't know about that, having been born and raised in Amarillo.
Samir was a Texan first, an American second, and a sometime-Muslim third.
It was the last that put him on a Department of Risk Assessment watchlist, even though he really only celebrated a few holidays with other Muslim acquaintances. He could never really get into the whole formal prayer thing. He had friends who prayed five times a day. Who had time for that?
It was his Persian heritage and outspoken nature that drew closer scrutiny.
And it was his purchase of fifty pounds of fireworks on a day trip to Mexico that landed him here.
He wanted the fireworks for a big Fourth of July celebration, a party with family and friends, a plan to drive outside the city and put on a real show for the kids.
Homeland Security monitored the movement of any potential weapon within the USA. Someone in town must have called them and told them about the 'Arab' with the 'explosives,' and since Risk Assessment had already been watching Samir, it was only a matter of hours after he returned home that a pair of black vans appeared on his quiet street. His door was broken in, and he was taken to a Review Center.
He grateful for one thing only - that Ana had not been there when he had been taken away. It would have shamed him too much to be seen like that. He hoped he would have a chance to call her later at some point.
Within 48 hours he was investigated, charged, tried, and sentenced to relocation.
He had not been allowed to call family or friends or a lawyer. The charges against him were defended by a Risk Advocate who was overweight and yawned throughout the proceedings.
Some of the exhibits against him were in Arabic. They thought he was lying when he said he could only read and speak a few words.
"They don't teach that stuff in Public School," he had said. No one had laughed.
For a descendant of a desert people, Samir hated the heat. He liked take-out pizza and hi-def TV and air-conditioning and his mp3 player. He liked his sales job and the bonuses that were helping him pay off his condo. He liked taking Ana out to dinner and working on his old Mustang on the weekends.
He liked his material things.
Why would someone join the insurrectionists and throw all that away?
For the first time he was glad he and Ana were divorced. He'd always thought she was paranoid, reading alarmist websites and saying a day like this would come. They were making headway on getting back together, but for now there were no close ties between them. At least, none on paper.
He was glad that his son would not be touched like this. Johnny was only five years old. Samir wanted nothing more than for Johnny to grow up a typical happy, strong, decent American boy.
"Move it, fuckhead!"
A beefy redhead in the mud-brown uniform of Internment Security Services gave Samir a shove toward the gates, the only openings in five great rings of chain-link fence. He was holding a clipboard. His face was bright red.
"All of you assholes, move it!"
Samir thought he looked like an infant screaming for a tit.
Rumors said the guards were brutal. They were called governors.
Samir had read about all of this on the web three years ago, not long after the DRA received the go-ahead from Congress and began setting up the camps.
Homeland Security had decided that, short of declaring martial law after insurrectionist bombings in Philadelphia and Los Angeles claimed over six thousand lives, individuals who posed a threat to the country should be detained until their status was resolved. Then they would either go to prison, or be released.
Tensions had heightened after another attack, a dual truck-bombing that took down the Golden Gate Bridge, and the foiled attempt by insurrectionists to poison the water supplies of Las Vegas, Phoenix, and Dallas.
Many detainees went to prison, and the treatment they received there was brutal.
As far as Samir knew, no one had ever had his name cleared and been released from an interment camp in the five years they had been operational.
There were six of the camps now. One in the Mojave in California, one in Montana, one in New York, one in Florida that had been taken apart by a hurricane not long ago, one in Alaska that was supposed to be incredibly bleak and brutal, and this one, Camp Guadalupe, named after the National Park. Lupe was set in a few square miles of bleak wilderness between the parklands and a great salt basin, south of the Texas - New Mexico border.
Lupe was the end of the road.
The heat of day could be brutal. The nights could be very cold. Housing was unheated barracks. Bedding, extra blankets, warm clothes, all had to earned through work. Detainees did maintenance on state government vehicles. They did laundry from hospitals and prisons. They made furniture. They printed posters and pamphlets for the Department of Health and Human Services. They did a lot of shit work, and they did it at a dollar an hour.
Samir got another shove. He was with eleven other detainees in bright yellow jumpsuits, leg irons, and handcuffs. Most of them were young men. One or two were quite old, and Samir was appalled to see them here. He helped an old man who could hardly walk, lending an arm for support.
Gates closed behind them, one after another.
The beefy redhead made them stand in a line, shoulder to shoulder.
"Welcome to Allahtown you America-hating fucks!"
A half-dozen ISS governors, two women, four men, moved around the newcomers. They circled, paused to stare, moved again, all of them holding joysticks that hummed like ringing crystal.
Beyond this open area Samir could see men moving across the compound, in and out of the barracks and the big shop buildings with their hangar-like doors. These men didn't study the new arrivals or call out obscenities and taunts. This was no Hollywood prison. Men walked with eyes downcast and no one loitered.
One of the governors held out something that looked like a remote control. He hit a button and all of the restraints popped open, dropping to the ground.
A man in a blue jumpsuit ran forward, carrying a wooden box. He gathered up the cuffs and irons and scurried away.
"Okay," the redhead said. "Strip down, you fuckin dinks."
The men looked at each other. Most of them were older than Samir. One kid was younger. Two others were as old as the man Samir had helped through the gates.
"C'mon, c'mon," the governor said. "Fraid to show off your fuckin anteaters? Let's go!"
To Samir's left, a man with a chin-scar like a question-mark murmured, "This is bullshit. We're Americans."
A governor leaned forward and grazed the scarred man's back with his joystick.
The man dropped, convulsing.
The redhead consulted his clipboard.
"Yusif... Framazama."
A few of the governors laughed. One whistled, and two more men in blue jumpsuits ran forward.
Yusif's body continued to jerk and twist. He bit his tongue and sprayed blood as he tried to speak through clenched jaws. The crotch of his jumpsuit darkened and the air was rank with the smell of piss.
The men in blue started taking off Yusif's jumpsuit.
"Drop trou, boys," the redhead said.
The governors bellowed laughter when the convulsing man was naked, seeing that he was completely erect. A female governor prodded his penis with her joystick and Yusif ejaculated.
Yusif's agonized eyes showed that he was completely aware of what was happening.
Samir looked away. He pulled down the zipper of his yellow jumpsuit. He didn't give a shit if anyone saw his dick. He figured he didn't have anything to be ashamed of. He thought it was just wrong that the old men should have to strip in front of women, though.
The detainees were inspected for smuggled goods. Weapons, cash.
When they were cleared by the governors, they were marched into one of the barracks and given green jumpsuits. They were given assignments. Cleaning the toilets and kitchens of the camp.
*
It was a day later when Samir encountered Yusif again. They were digging latrines. The camp was too remote to be hooked up to any municipal water supply. Water and food came in trucks and when it was processed it went down into holes.
"Samir?" Yusif looked as tough as nails, and strangely humbled at the same time. He was shirtless, wiry, slick with sweat.
"Sam. You're Yusif?"
Yusif grinned. "Only to family. My friends call me Joe."
"You okay?"
"Sure," Yusif replied, spitting into the hole they were digging. "Those fucking joysticks pack a punch."
He forced out a laugh, but Samir could see something dark in his eyes.
"What were you on the outside? An insurgent? A criminal mastermind?"
Samir shrugged, glad to hear from Yusif's twang that he had found a fellow Texan. "A salesman. I talked people into buying shit they didn't need. Computers, cars, foreclosed real estate. I bought a truckload of fireworks for the fourth, and bang, so to speak."
"Maybe you do belong here," Yusif said. "I had a car shop. Engine repair, body work. One of the cars I worked on six years ago was used in a car bombing, so here I am."
Samir leaned on his shovel and looked around. Dusty buildings cooking under the sun. Fences. Desert. "They say nobody has ever gotten out of one of these places."
"Not yet," Yusif said. "Then again, has anyone ever tried?"
Samir shrugged again. One of the governors was watching them, and he set to the hole they were digging.
"Sam, I'd put cash money on betting not one of those brown-suited fuckers is from the Lone star state."
Samir smiled at that.
"Ever watch the History Channel, Sam?"
"I was more of an ESPN guy."
Yusif's shovel struck a rock, and he worked around it. "We should learn from the Jews."
"We're too busy wanting them all dead, remember?"
"No shit," Yusif said, releasing a hearty haw-haw-haw belly laugh. "Seriously, though. When the Nazis rounded up the Jews, they didn't fight back. When they started shipping them to the camps only a few fought back. Once they were in the camps and realized they should have fought back, it was time to piss on the fire and call the dogs."
Samir lowered his voice. "What are you saying?"
"I'm saying I'm gonna bust outta here, Sonny-Jim. Question is, are you in?"
User Reviews
Submitted by MyNameIsTim (user info) at 2006-04-14 09:56:17 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
oh yeah. that's the jack m shit i like.
Submitted by ih8u2man (user info) at 2006-03-27 15:28:39 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by paulblakeford (user info) at 2006-03-27 15:19:09 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
No Comment
Submitted by Anansie (user info) at 2006-01-09 21:00:36 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Bubba2341 (user info) at 2005-11-19 14:19:16 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
To offset the French ass.
Submitted by Psycosis (user info) at 2005-11-17 03:03:46 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Nice work, now to read the rest.
Submitted by Caulaincourt (user info) at 2005-11-16 20:03:18 EST (#)
Ranking: -2
sounds like Mein Kamph to me.
Submitted by matnotharry (user info) at 2005-11-07 18:11:30 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by munkeypants (user info) at 2005-11-06 15:39:59 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by sideshow (user info) at 2005-09-30 18:41:04 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
nice
Submitted by Jack_McCallum (user info) at 2005-09-23 19:20:03 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by Phinch (user info) at 2005-09-23 19:05:39 (#)
Ranking: 2
aren't fireworks legal in Texas?
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50lbs in one load + Paranoid Government = Samir in deep shit.
Submitted by Phinch (user info) at 2005-09-23 19:05:39 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
aren't fireworks legal in Texas?
Submitted by Jack_McCallum (user info) at 2005-09-23 11:24:47 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by thecaes (user info) at 2005-09-23 07:51:42 (#)
Ranking: 2
Would receving an electric shock directly to your penis make you blow your load? For real? I'm going to have to test that out with some copper wire and a car battery.
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Guaranteed. Couple of D cells and a tinfoil tube and it's greenlight heaven.
Uh, according to what I've read on the net, anyway.
Submitted by thecaes (user info) at 2005-09-23 07:51:42 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Not enough people say "sonny jim".
I like the concept Jack. Just close enough to the realm of possibility to be frightening.
Would receving an electric shock directly to your penis make you blow your load? For real? I'm going to have to test that out with some copper wire and a car battery.
Submitted by jack11058 (user info) at 2005-09-21 20:53:29 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by nrduncan (user info) at 2005-09-20 16:00:56 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by tlozoot (user info) at 2005-09-19 20:17:08 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
This has more promise than the hole thing.
Submitted by Jack_McCallum (user info) at 2005-09-19 19:51:16 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by horse87 (user info) at 2005-09-19 19:08:55 (#)
Ranking: 0
You're still painting?
You've been painting your place since Ubermadness.
Where the hell are you living now? The Cistine Chapel?
Jeez, one long weekend shoulda done it....four days, tops....
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Eat ass, for two reasons.
1) You broke my solid +2 since the goddamned colon-spelunking bullshit ratings count every time, not just the first time.
2) This place was built in 1927. It is apeshit with old mouldings on every wall, every window. If they are not done carefully by hand, they will look like shit. And I had to repair some shit, and get a plumber in to do some shit. I actually finished THE LAST of the painting this weekend. I was just cleaning up a while ago. I went to do a bit of mopping a dusty floor and my fucking plastic O Cedar mop snapped in two and released a dark, foul-smelling grainy substance. I went to get a sponge to clean it up and when I opened the cabinet under the kitchen sink both hinges suddenly snapped off and the fucking cabinet door feel on my foot. Then as I was taking off the broken hinges in the hope of finding replacements in the hardware store I suddenly noticed red shit smeared all over the cabinet doors I had painted a few weeks ago. It was blood, from the hand I had mysteriously sliced open minutes before.
THAT'S WHY IT TAKES ME SO LONG TO GET SHIT DONE!
FUCK!
Submitted by JonnyX (user info) at 2005-09-19 19:17:16 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
goddammit Jack, I wanted to do this!!
rrrgh.
Well, at least I know you'll do a kickass job on it - I wish I could collaborate with you on stuff like this!
Submitted by horse87 (user info) at 2005-09-19 19:08:55 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
You're still painting?
You've been painting your place since Ubermadness.
Where the hell are you living now? The Cistine Chapel?
Jeez, one long weekend shoulda done it....four days, tops....
Submitted by Brdn_Nkd (user info) at 2005-09-19 12:26:35 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
very cool
Submitted by Jack_McCallum (user info) at 2005-09-19 12:06:09 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Thanks for the reviews guys.
I've just been dicking around with this the last two weekends while endlessly painting my place. Hopefully I'll do another segment soon.
I have no idea what's gonna happen next.
Submitted by LadyPlural (user info) at 2005-09-19 10:21:43 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
This is scary.
Submitted by horse87 (user info) at 2005-09-19 09:52:53 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by kaos-king (user info) at 2005-09-19 06:13:45 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Chances are, Bush and his old white posse of Christian Zealots are jacking off to just this senerio right now...
Submitted by Benny (user info) at 2005-09-18 23:17:47 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Quite a good read. Do you think something like this could happen in America? In WW2, America rounded up the Japanese and put them in camps didn't they?
Submitted by freebie (user info) at 2005-09-18 22:48:46 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Gotta +2 this; however,
Change Texan for Sunni,
Change American for Iraqi,
Change Muslim for Christian,
and you got not fiction, but the real world.
Submitted by williamson (user info) at 2005-09-18 22:18:47 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Jalalalala
Submitted by Sacrilicious (user info) at 2005-09-18 21:40:16 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
This was riveting. I look forward to chapter 2.
Submitted by joedaddy (user info) at 2005-09-18 19:47:45 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
.
Submitted by Fungah (user info) at 2005-09-18 18:56:32 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
More
Submitted by brummie92 (user info) at 2005-09-18 17:13:20 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
THAT WAS AWESOME!!!!!!!! When's part two coming out.
Great stuff!
Submitted by RydinJ (user info) at 2005-09-18 16:52:16 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Fucking Excellent.. I want part two
Submitted by Barnymeinhoff (user info) at 2005-09-18 16:38:52 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
good stuff.
I'd go so far as to say the best I have read on this site.
Submitted by domenad (user info) at 2005-09-18 16:35:35 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
It's really creepy how our minds seem to get on similar tracks. I'm going to put something like this out soon. really good stuff
Submitted by GirleButterfly (user info) at 2005-09-18 16:30:15 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Long, but what more do i have to do? I like it.
Submitted by DeathJester (user info) at 2005-09-18 15:40:54 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Next part please.
Submitted by Feijuada (user info) at 2005-09-18 15:38:37 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
WTF I'M NOT READING ALL THAT
but +2 because fuck it