Free Homefront: The Voice of Freedom by John Milius and Raymond Benson

thoughts would ease my anger, but it’s just making it worse, so I’m going to stop
.
    Fuck me, too
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SEVEN
    JANUARY 19, 2025
    Salmusa sat in what he called the “safe house,” which was actually another small two-story home located within walking distance of the dwelling in Van Nuys he’d shared with Kianna. He purchased it a year earlier and made the necessary renovations to it in the months prior to the attack. First he insured the garage was shielded against the EMP. Stored inside was a fully gassed 1974 Volkswagen, ready to pull out and drive away anytime Salmusa wanted. Several five-gallon cans of gasoline were also hidden in the garage, the door of which remained locked.
    The house itself was stocked with plenty of food and water to last several weeks, if necessary, although Salmusa knew he wouldn’t have to stay there too long.
    Most important, the house contained three generators that provided enough electricity to give him some light in the office, run a refrigerator, and power his EMP-shielded state-of-the-art computer. The generator ran off gasoline, but he was in no danger of running out before he had to abandon the safe house.
    The computer was equipped with a satellite data card that connected to the Korean spacecraft and back down to earth. Upon arriving at the house on January 16, when chaos ruled the streets, Salmusatried out the computer to make sure it functioned. The data card connection worked only during specific times of the day, when the satellite moved over North America. There was a good three- to four-hour window in which he could communicate with personnel in Korea, including Kim Jong-un.
    The Brilliant Comrade was pleased with the progress. While America “burned,” the People’s Army sailed across the Pacific in cruisers obtained from Japan and South Korea. They were scheduled to reach California in six more days. Just a day earlier, on the eighteenth, Korean troops landed on the western shores of Hawaii. The infantry quickly mixed with civilians and moved freely through the land. Before the day was over, Pearl Harbor was under Korean control.
    The government on the mainland had no way of knowing this.
    Salmusa received a report that the ship carrying “the package” would reach Pearl Harbor on schedule the next day, the twentieth. The package, he knew, was a high-yield nuclear weapon. The plan was to move the device on the back of a truck to the middle of a town square in Honolulu, where it would sit in plain sight, unguarded. The message was clear: once the American military learned of the takeover, they would be forced to stand down or Hawaii, and over a million inhabitants, would go the way of the Bikini Atoll.
    As he made a hearty breakfast with a hot plate connected to one of the generators, Salmusa thought once again about Kianna’s body lying in their old home. The country was littered with the dead. Hundreds, even thousands, died on the highways when the EMP struck. Many airplanes fell out of the sky, killing passengers and people on the ground. TheAmericans were lucky the Brilliant Comrade had decreed that the EMP occur at night, when most of the population was asleep. Otherwise the death toll would have been far greater. Kim Jong-un had shown great mercy and compassion. It was not his desire to murder Americans. Granted, the collateral damage was an unfortunate necessity—it couldn’t be helped.
    Salmusa took his coffee cup into the upstairs bedroom, which served as his office. Switching on the computer, which was more than most Americans could do, he opened his encrypted mail server and saw that an e-mail had come from Korea. Salmusa smiled, as it was from the Brilliant Comrade himself. He opened it and read.
    Congratulations once again on a job well done. You have served the Greater Korean Republic above and beyond the call of duty. Of course, in the GKR, the call of duty has no ceiling. Dae-Hyun, you have made me proud that you are like a brother to me.
    I need not