LOVE HATE
Love Is a Battlefield
Hardcore military role players meet regularly to act out the Second Civil War. I strapped on an AR-15 and headed downrange.
We were a small combat element, just our squad leader, Rick, alongside Yuk, Slab, and Helios — some of the most battle-hardened warriors in the entire Civil Defense Forces. And me, of course. I took up the rear, green as could be, still not quite sure how to properly sling a rifle, much less put it to use.
My call sign is City Mouse if that tells you anything.
This wasn’t my fight. And taking up arms against my own country isn’t something I did lightly. Until a week ago, the only real combat I’d seen was on Twitter. But I heard what my government was doing in in the Free State of Oklahoma, and it made me sick. Told my wife I couldn’t just stand on the sidelines anymore, then I hopped on the first flight out.
My first morning as a paramilitary began peacefully. We checked in with Kaid, our young but steady commander, who had holed up at our forward operating base with a shortwave. On a table in front of him was a detailed map of what they were calling the area of operations (the AO) but what used to be just the sleepy town of Roosevelt, Oklahoma. That was before a battalion from the…
