Red Sky Mourning (Terminal List #7)

by Jack Carr

The National Security Act of 1947 changed the Department of War to the National Military Establishment, which was then renamed the more innocuous Department of Defense in 1949. Ironically, since its renaming, the National Military Establishment has been less about defense and more about war.

Today, war remains the most primal of experiences, managed and fought by flawed human beings at the tactical, operational, and strategic levels. It still comes down to a single combatant holding a weapon, off safe, finger on the trigger, applying pressure to the rear. That person behind the rifle is the final decision maker in a chain of decision makers spanning continents and even generations. On the other side is another combatant also sent into the foxhole by flawed human beings. Their weapon is off safe as well. They are aligning their sights. Their finger is on the trigger. They are applying pressure. None of the geopolitics matter when you are looking down the glass against an enemy doing the same, and it is not always the best man who walks away.

No earbuds or music for inspiration. Even before his feud with technology, he preferred the solitude of a run without music. Also, situational awareness was necessary in grizzly country. Reece had always been fast, but in these mountains one was not at the top of the food chain—and running from a grizz or mountain lion meant one would just die tired. For bears in particular, he had a Glock 29 subcompact 10mm pistol in a Hill People Gear runner’s chest rig. A minimalist Kydex sheath covered the trigger guard and was tied into a loop fixed at the bottom of the pouch. The plastic protected the trigger and would stay anchored to the chest rig, allowing him to draw in the event he needed to go to the gun. And always in the back of Reece’s mind was the possibility of an attack by an animal of the two-legged variety. A Snakestaff Systems tourniquet and Montana Knife Company Mini-Speedgoat fixed blade completed his trail-running kit.

“Freedom today is financial, Reece. In Africa freedom was in sweat, in the clay, in hard work, and eventually in the gun. One day, for everyone, it might be in anonymity.”

There was something about the earth under bare feet and the first rays of sun that signified life, a connection to the past while living in the moment; a promise of the future.

Play this like no one is coming.