by Jeff Ping
Chapter 17
Three hours later Jack shook Ralph awake. "Uncle Ralph wake up it's time to terrorize, I mean question some more prisoners. Bill says maybe we will try and get in touch with Hill AFB and see why they sent these guys."
Ralph sat up and stretched trying to loosen cramped muscles. "Damn, I must be out of shape, or maybe it's just age. I don't remember being this stiff when I was sleeping in my truck or even when I had to sleep in a tree once to stay safe," grumbled Ralph.
"I think you must be getting soft. You don't seem any older than when I first met you. Of course you seemed pretty old to me then too," teased Jack.
"Well, let's go see if we can make some more soldiers pee their pants Jack. Did somebody wake Sheriff Tom up?" laughed Ralph.
Jack said, "Yeah, I stopped by and woke him before I came to wake you up."
Ralph and Jack walked back up to my office. Inside they found Tom and I sitting at the table in the middle of the room. The room smelled deliciously of coffee.
"You have coffee, real coffee?" asked Ralph.
"Oh yeah, we located a large supply of coffee down in the Base Exchange warehouse. We have been rationing it by only making it once in the morning, after that its locally produced tea of some kind." I replied.
"I'm so sick of pine needle tea. Please give me a cup little brother. I can't even remember the last time I had a cup of real coffee," said Ralph.
"Knock it off, and get your coffee. We need to decide what our next step is going to be. Jack will you send someone down and retrieve Sgt Keller for me?" I asked.
"Yes sir, on my way." said Jack as he stood up and strode to the door.
When Jack returned, he was preceded though the door by Sgt Keller. I motioned Sgt Keller to a chair across the table opposite the group.
Sheriff Tom spoke first, "Well son, what the heck are you and your men doing here at our base. Why did your man attack a man nearly eighty years old? Unfortunately, he picked the wrong old man to mess with and it cost him his life.
Although, that does bring me to my next question, what kind of training did he have to lose a fight with a seventy year old, and he was what? Thirty years old?"
Sgt Keller stood up and started," Well sir..."
Tom interrupted him and said, "Just Sheriff will do son, now sit down and talk to me."
Sgt Keller cleared his throat and continued, "Well sheriff, we were under lock down for eleven of the last twelve years. Pvt. Parker was a just green recruit when we first locked down. We only came out of our bunker last year, when our above ground surveillance cameras showed lessening cadaver activity. Amn Parker was sent on this mission as an electronic specialist, not really a combat trooper."
"OK, let's start there. What was your mission?" asked Tom.
"We were suppose to determine who you were and what you were doing here at the base, then report the information back to Hill AFB." said Sgt. Keller.
"You can communicate with your superiors at Hill AFB?" I interjected.
"Yes sir... At least the Colonel could. That was before your helicopters attacked us," snapped Sgt. Keller.
"OK...OK, let's not get into who hit who first. That line won't get us anywhere. Why didn't you just contact us rather than send out spies and try to take prisoners." said Tom.
"Hill didn't know who you were, they thought you might be a foreign national invasion force," said Sgt. Keller.
"Well, then your surveillance skills must rank right up there with the combat skills of your troops. If you had six cameras and ten sets of eyes on us and couldn't determine we were American civilians," said Ralph.
"I need to know the status of Colonel Thompson before I say anything else," said Sgt. Keller.
"Are you telling me you want to go on another fishing trip with me Sgt." asked Ralph.
Sgt. Keller paled and he stammered, "No sir. I just need to know his condition. I would really feel more comfortable if you were asking him these questions."
"I checked on the Colonel's condition just before you were brought up. Our medical personnel are caring for him. He has some bruises, a concussion, and a few stitches. He should recover sufficiently for questioning in a day or two," I answered.
"How did you get here and when and how are you to return to Hill?" I asked.
"We're not returning, this was a one way mission. We were air dropped about 50 miles east of here. Our objective was to gather information and relay it by radio back to Hill AFB. I suppose we would have tried to return in our APC's. But we all assumed it was a one way ticket," said Sgt. Keller.
"Their not returning to evacuate you guys by air?" ask Tom.
"No sir. We had the APC's. So like I said, we would have tried to get back to Hill in them but this was definitely a one way mission," said Sgt. Keller.
"Damn military. There are so many of you that they consider all of you to be expendable?" I said.
"There aren't that many of us left, but I guess they thought the mission justified the loss of a few troops." said Sgt. Keller.
"Why aren't there many of you left?" asked Tom.
"Well, there were the cadaver attacks, the food riots, and then the thinning of infected and potentially infected people. We started with about nine hundred personnel. But I doubt there are two or three hundred even counting the breeders now," said the Sgt.
"OH HELL! I know I'll regret asking this question. What do you mean even counting the breeders?" asked Tom.
"The brass determined for the good of America and mankind as a whole the females of breeding age be isolated and assigned the task of producing offspring," said Sgt. Keller.
"Oh shit, when Elizabeth gets wind of this all hell is going to break loose." said Tom.
"Not just Elizabeth, when Jenny hears about it she will want to learn to fly just to make bombing runs on Hill AFB. Jenny asks me every time I head down to Wasco why the gangs haven't been stopped harassing the outlying people yet. When she hears that the supposed good guys are just as bad, she'll go nuts," laughed Ralph.
"What do you say, we all take a break? What time is it anyway?" asked Tom
"I've got 11:50 a.m.," said Jack, looking at his wrist watch.
Tom looked over at Sgt. Keller and said, "Sgt., if you give me your word to behave and not cause any trouble, I'll have Jack here take you down to the cafeteria for some lunch instead of returning you to your cell."
"I won't cause any problems, like I told you I've got nowhere to go. And without a radio I've got no mission," said Sgt. Keller.
Jack and the Sgt. walked out of the room and headed for the cafeteria.
"So, what now, are we just going to forgive and forget that these guys were spying on us and that they attacked Gus," asked Ralph.
"No. We're not forgiving or forgetting anything. Bill and I worked this out with Jack while you were sleeping in. Jack is going to make the Sgt. comfortable and relaxed, and then hopefully he will let his guard down a little bit and give us some more information. In the mean time we can question their Commanding Officer, Colonel Thompson. It seems he's recovered enough to question. Let's see if we can verify the information the good Sgt. gave us." said Tom.
"Damn cops, you guys always were a step ahead of me," chuckled Ralph.
There was a knock at the door and I got up and opened the door. A guard escorting Colonel Thompson ushered him into the room.
"Have a seat Colonel Thompson. I'm Sheriff Tom Hardin. I am the over sheriff for the Federated City State of California. This is Bill Mason the commander of this site, and this is Ralph Mason he is representing the cities of the northern part of the state," said Tom.
"The United States is under a state of martial law until further notice. The military is in complete control of all people and property in the United States. This installation is the property of the government of the United States and I demand that you release me and my men, and vacate this facility immediately," demanded the Colonel.
"Well Colonel, as far as I know, there is no longer a c
entralized U.S. government to make demands. And as far a martial law goes you lost all rights and authority of the U.S. military when you chose to hide underground abandoning the people you were chartered to protect. You know, they're the citizens of the United States.
This facility, all of the cities and resources inside the boundaries of the Federated City State of California are the property of the Federation. We are the lawfully appointed leaders of this government. And as such we have determined that you and your soldiers have attempted an armed invasion of the autonomous Federated City State of California," Sheriff Tom stated gravely.
"Now I want you to think well, before you make your next outburst and start demanding things. Why did you and your troopers mount this unprovoked aggression against the property of the Federation and its personnel?"
"I reiterate that this installation is the property of the government of the United States and I demand that you release me and my men and vacate this facility immediately," stated the Colonel.
At this point, Ralph stood up and walked over to where the Colonel sat ramrod straight in his chair. Ralph pulled his sidearm and shoving the barrel of it into the Colonels right eye socket said," I'm going to show you what I think of your demands, bud."
"Ralph hold on there. Let's do this all official. I declare this hearing concluded and I vote death for this prisoner." said Tom.
"I vote death" I said.
"I vote death, and volunteer to carry out the sentence." said Ralph.
"If you persist in these actions, you will be held accountable." shouted a visibly shaken Colonel as the guard hoisted him to his feet and turned him toward the door.
"I will gladly be accountable for my actions Colonel, something you have refused to admit to. You have threatened and demanded without any proof or evidence of your authority or legitimacy to make those demands.
Guard, please escort the prisoner back to his cell until sentence can be carried out," said Tom.
When the prisoner had been taken from the room, Ralph looked over at Tom and said, "That's exactly how I would have handled it, except I would have just shot him where he sat."
"Now you're starting to make me regret my letting my temper get away from me. Maybe I acted just a tad hastily. We might still have a use for the Colonel," said Tom.
"What if we get one of Ralph's electrical engineers from Jennyville to check out the radio gear in the Colonels APC? The Sgt. might assist us if he didn't know exactly what we were planning. If we were to allow the Colonel to escape and get to his command APC, we might be able to get frequencies and code words that would allow us to make a call to Hill AFB. Just maybe we could deal with the powers that be and cut the Colonel out," I said.
"That might be worth a try Bill. What do you think Ralph?" asked Tom.
"I would just take the bastard Zombie trolling," said Ralph.
"You could be right. It sure worked on the Sgt.," I said
I'll have Jack send a pilot to Jennyville. I've asked Rob to find a volunteer to assist us with the radio equipment and have them flown down here. They should be back here before morning," I said.
"Ralph, why don't you join Jack and the Sgt. Have a few drinks and loosen him up a bit." I told him.
"OK, I don't like having to spend the evening drinking and teasing Jack, but I'll do it for the good of the group, and because my little brother asked me to make the sacrifice." laughed Ralph.
Ralph stood up and headed out the office door to find Jack and Sgt. Keller.
