For years, the town of Fairview was exactly the kind of place nobody ever heard about.
Quiet streets. Cheap diners. Soccer practice on Saturdays. Garbage pickup on Tuesdays. A suspicious number of yard sales.
The most serious disputes in town involved property lines, barking dogs, parking spaces, and whether Linda on Maple Street was technically allowed to paint her garage that color.
Then the government launched the National Community Preparedness Initiative.
After a series of highly publicized emergencies elsewhere in the country, officials decided that ordinary communities needed to become more self-sufficient during disasters. Towns willing to participate would receive enormous federal preparedness grants for emergency equipment, communications systems, shelters, medical supplies, and neighborhood defense training.
Fairview applied.
Mostly because the mayor saw the size of the grant.
The town received millions.
Unfortunately, there was one condition.
Every participating municipality had to establish a civilian emergency response program capable of protecting neighborhoods until professional responders arrived.
Fairview called theirs:
CIVIC WATCH.
At first, it sounded reasonable.
Residents attended emergency preparedness classes.
Mail carriers learned evacuation routes.
Garbage crews received disaster-response training.
Crossing guards got radios.
Retirees organized supply stations.
Soccer moms ran first-aid drills.
The hardware store became an emergency distribution center.
Then came the controversial part.
Under Fairview's interpretation of the preparedness mandate, every able-bodied resident was expected to participate in armed neighborhood defense training.
The city began distributing government-funded weapons.
Not everyone liked that.
Some residents refused immediately.
Others loved the idea.
Some thought the program was necessary but believed the city had gone too far.
Others believed anyone refusing to participate was putting the neighborhood at risk.
Arguments broke out at town meetings.
Then at grocery stores.
Then at schools.
Then in driveways.
People started putting signs in their yards.
- PROTECT FAIRVIEW.
- KEEP FAIRVIEW PEACEFUL.
- MY HOUSE, MY CHOICE.
- YOUR HOUSE IS IN MY RESPONSE SECTOR.
Civic Watch captains began keeping lists of who had completed training.
Residents who refused complained they were being harassed.
Participants complained that non-participants were benefiting from protection without contributing.
Nobody trusted anybody.
And because this was Fairview, every serious disagreement quickly became tangled up with completely unrelated grievances.
The Johnsons weren't really angry about emergency preparedness.
They were still angry because somebody kept parking in front of their house.
The garbage department still hadn't forgiven Oak Street for putting construction debris in residential bins.
The mail carriers were furious about loose dogs.
The retirees believed teenagers had been disrespectful since approximately 1997.
The youth soccer parents were already divided after what happened during the regional semifinal.
Nobody wanted to discuss what happened during the regional semifinal.
Then rumors started.
Someone claimed the city planned to confiscate weapons from residents who failed inspection.
Someone else claimed the city planned to force weapons into every household.
Neither rumor was true.
Both spread instantly.
Civic Watch groups began holding unauthorized patrols.
Anti-Watch residents began organizing counter-patrols to monitor the patrols.
The counter-patrols were then followed by people monitoring the counter-patrols.
Within a week, half the town was watching the other half watch the other half.
Then came The Incident.
Nobody agrees on what happened.
According to one version, a Civic Watch volunteer confronted a resident carrying groceries after curfew.
According to another, there was never actually a curfew.
One witness claims somebody reached for a weapon.
Another claims they reached for a coupon.
Someone's car alarm went off.
A dog started barking.
A garbage truck backfired.
And somewhere in the confusion...
someone fired the first shot.
Nobody knows who.
By morning, three neighborhoods had barricaded their streets.
The sanitation department had commandeered its own trucks.
Mail carriers had fortified the post office.
Parents had occupied the recreation center.
The senior community had declared itself "temporarily autonomous."
The HOA announced emergency architectural guidelines for defensive structures.
The hardware store sold out of plywood before lunch.
The mayor attempted to calm everyone down.
Unfortunately, during the press conference, somebody asked whether the federal preparedness grant could be revoked if the town appeared unprepared.
The mayor stopped answering questions.
By the end of the week, Fairview was at war with itself.
Not because everyone wanted violence.
Quite the opposite.
Almost everyone believed they were defending something reasonable.
Their family.
Their street.
Their freedom.
Their safety.
Their property.
Their right to be left alone.
Their responsibility to protect others.
Even people who had wanted absolutely nothing to do with Civic Watch eventually got dragged into the fighting.
The local librarian joined after someone shot a hole through the book return.
The pacifist yoga instructor snapped when an armored garbage truck destroyed her garden.
The elderly woman who had spent six months protesting the weapons program picked up a rifle after somebody broke into her house looking for emergency supplies.
A man who refused to participate in Civic Watch became one of its most aggressive fighters after discovering someone had been using his driveway as a tactical shortcut.
At some point, nobody remembered what side anyone had originally been on.
New factions formed around streets, occupations, grudges, sports teams, businesses, and extremely specific interpretations of municipal law.
The government attempted to suspend the program.
Fairview ignored them.
The National Community Preparedness Initiative officially classified the situation as an "administrative irregularity."
The mayor continued insisting the town was conducting an unusually realistic preparedness exercise.
And the giant electronic sign outside City Hall continued flashing the same message it had displayed since the program began:
CIVIC WATCH ACTIVE
REMAIN CALM
REPORT EVERYTHING
At this point, everyone in Fairview is suspicious activity.
Welcome to CIVIC WATCH.
JOIN THE WATCH ↗