Minus America | Book 5 | Hostile Shores

by Isherwood, E. E.

  They spent the next few hours talking with their small group of survivors. While he and Emily had been alone, the other nine men agreed to call themselves the Freedom Riders because they were all carrying big rifles and supporting the cause of the United States of America. He thought it was nice the men who’d been kicked out of David’s organization now pledged their loyalty to the country they helped destroy, but he’d never trust them with his or Emily’s lives. Jacob typified the group: he seemed nice on the surface, but there was an underlying dislike against Ted. He sensed it every time he was around him.

  By late morning, he’d decided there was no easy answer to his dilemma. Before he tried to solve the riddle himself, he decided to ask his traveling companions if they had any ideas. It would give away details of what he planned to do, but none of that would matter if he couldn’t think of a safe way into Lamar.

  “Thanks for gathering ‘round. We’ve been lucky today in not seeing any of the enemy drones floating around this place. I guess the airfield is small enough not gain any unwanted attention.”

  “Where are we?” Jacob asked.

  “A town called Wild Horse,” one of the other men replied. Each of them were now dressed in dark pants and long-sleeved shirts, as if they’d modeled for the J. Crew catalog. The gun store where they’d taken the clothing must have had high-end attire.

  He and Emily remained in their black Legion uniforms. He wanted to keep the option of blending in with the enemy forces.

  Jacob addressed Ted. “The real fighters were in the group that split off. Do you really expect us to go with you to David’s bunker? You realize most of us are just average joes. I was essentially a caterer. We’ve also got a janitor, a psychologist, and a store...something.”

  “I was a grocery store manager,” a short, Hispanic man replied.

  “Yeah, see?” Jacob went on. “We’re hardly the people you want going with you toward my old boss. He’ll kill us on sight if he sees us.”

  A few of the men nodded agreement.

  Ted replied, “Look, we’re going to try to meet up with Rando’s guys again. It wasn’t safe to travel together.”

  “We’ll never see them again,” someone said from the back row.

  Ted wasn’t sure the guy was wrong. Based on what he’d seen of Rando’s men, they were probably heading for Lake Havasu or Padre Island for spring break, rather than into a dangerous fight.

  He tried to comfort them. “I can’t make you go with us. You’ve got vehicles. You can go anywhere. Believe me, I’d give up just about anything to ride off into the sunset with this woman—” He gently pulled Emily to his side. “—and live off the grid in Montana. But you guys know better than anyone what David is going to do to the world. Once he is done cleaning house here in America, which I’d say is a near-certainty, he’ll turn his attention to Europe and the world beyond. The only way we’re going to save the other seven billion people is if we do something now.”

  Jacob crossed his arms over his chest. “It doesn’t change what we are. We’re not warriors. We’re average people who want no part in combat, aside from this make-believe version of us walking around with cool hardware and calling ourselves Freedom Riders.” He motioned down to the rifle he’d liberated from the gun store.

  “I never expected you to fight a war. As far as I’m concerned, your only role might be getting us through the front door. From there, Emily and I will descend into his bunker and take out the one man controlling this invasion. David.”

  Jacob stepped forward. “You know, he’s not the only person controlling things…”

  A beeping sound emanated from the radar screen, calling him away from the discussion. At first, when he checked it out, there was nothing visible on the screen. However, as he watched, a faint signal appeared about ten miles out. The contacts didn’t show up again for half a minute, but then they fully lit up the board. There were two dots on the screen, both flying low and slow, and both heading right for him.

  “We’ve got some company coming!” he shouted.

  Over Africa

  Eventually, despite her misgivings about leaving the pilot’s chair, Priscilla had to stand up. She powered her way through the head, glad to finally find some relief, and was going to return immediately to the front. However, she happened to see that the hatch to the cargo hold was open. She figured it would be good to know what was in the back, how it was distributed, and so forth. Information her loadmasters would have shared, had they been assigned to her crew.

  “Major!” a man shouted. “Come on down here for a minute.”

  Oakdale waved at her. She could have refused, re-stating the situation up in the cockpit, but he knew it, too. Since she was already there, she decided to indulge him.

  “We were just getting ready to brief the men. I’ll keep it short. I know you need to get back up topside.” He stood next to a tan Humvee. A large crate sat on the cargo hold in front of it. The rectangular box was a little larger than the armored truck, making her wonder if another vehicle was inside. However, a black tarp had been tightly wrapped around the box, from top to bottom.

  “Thank you, sir,” she replied.

  Looking at a small group of American soldiers gathered by the vehicle, the general settled them down before he spoke. “Gentlemen, thank you all for doing this. The people of America thank you. Your government thanks you. If the president were still alive, he would thank you, too.”

  For a jealous second, she thought of Ted galivanting around on Air Force Two. Had he ever had the luck to meet President Tanager? She figured he had. In another life, that might have been her.

  Oakdale continued. “We’re currently on a heading to touch down at Diego Garcia, our base in the Indian Ocean. When we refuel, we’ll have another four-hour flight to our destination.” He held it out there.

  “Which is?” she asked in a guarded fashion.

  Oakdale turned to her, making her self-conscious about being dressed like a soccer mom. “Men, this is Major Priscilla Clairmont. We’re cutting her a break on the dress code because she was the only pilot in all of Fairford who could have gotten this bird out of England. She’s more than qualified to take us where we need to go.”

  “Which is?” she repeated, catching a smile from a couple of the soldiers.

  Oakdale took it with good humor. “The Reboot Legion was able to take out our countrymen with a weapon of tremendous power and cunning sophistication. We may never know how they pulled it off, or where they came up with the design for it, but a weapon that large was always going to leave forensic traces of its source, much as a tracer round will always lead you back to the barrel of a gun. Propeller-heads in our science services were able to trace a few clues. We knew their HQ was in Cheyenne Mountain, but didn’t think a weapon with so much power could come from one spot. We figured if we looked in enough locations on the globe, we’d find the one place that seemed to light up when the attack took place.”

  He tapped the front quarter-panel of the truck. “And that’s why we’re heading to the Indian Ocean.”

  One of the men spoke up. “But sir, it’s on the other side of the world from America. How could any threat to us possibly be out there?”

  Oakdale pursed his lips before answering. “I can’t tell you everything, yet, but I can tell you the rest of the cargo on this plane is above top secret. A precious few people know we’re snooping around out here. This security is because we’ve been told David has spies and assassins at every level of government. That’s how he caught us with our pants around our ankles.”

  “So, we’re heading to an island? Will they have a long runway for us?” Priscilla asked it in a serious voice. It was good information for a pilot to know, especially since their chunky C-5 needed an equally lengthy runway to take off.

  The general looked at the box wrapped in the tarp. “Yes, an island. To be honest, I don’t believe we’re heading for the right place, either, but we’ve got nothing else to go on. Headquarters did some calc
ulating and tried to tell me the enemy base was located on the direct opposite side of the earth from NORAD, though we found nothing but ocean down there. However, there’s a French island a few hundred miles away. If you cut through the earth below that island from one side to the other, it comes out in Colorado, not far from NORAD. A small town named Lamar.”

  She tried not to show disappointment. What started as an atta-boy by an important general had devolved into a wild goose chase, without the goose. They didn’t even know what they’d find on the opposite side of the globe.

  “A fishing expedition?” a soldier asked.

  For the first time, Oakdale seemed deflated. “We all go where we’re told, even generals, son.” He turned back to Priscilla. “Any problems keeping us in the air?”

  “No, sir,” she replied. After seeing the nuclear inferno consume London, flying over open ocean in a remote part of the globe sounded pretty good.

  Of course, she’d never tell a cargo hold full of rah-rah soldiers anything of the kind.

  As far as she was going to act, they were flying into a hot war.

  CHAPTER 17

  Wild Horse, CO

  Ted ran out the door of the airport radar station with Emily in tow. “Get them behind those barrels!” He pointed away from the building. Some remnants of the airport’s construction materials remained in place, as if the cleanup crew hadn’t yet come to get them.

  Emily paused. “Can’t we drive away from here? There’s time.”

  They’d both watched the two dots move closer to the airport. Based on the slower speed and tight formation, he suggested they were being approached by helicopters. They waited only long enough to confirm the pair of blips were heading right for Wild Horse. They went outside to warn the others, though Ted tried to address her question.

  “We probably can’t drive away. If they’re onto us, they’ll have sent drones ahead. I don’t think we’d get very far. Plus, they might have fancy optics up there. They might have eyes on us, even from the horizon.” The truth was difficult to admit, but even with all his precautions, there’d always been a chance they’d be struck down by dumb luck. It appeared as if David’s people had figured out where he was, perhaps as a result of flipping on the radar. It might have been that simple.

  He continued. “And tell them to grab their guns and all the ammo they can carry.” It was a futile gesture and he knew it right away. Not only were Jacob’s men lacking in experience with firearms but even experts could not realistically take on a pair of aircraft. His only hope was to get the helicopters to land by staying hidden. Once separated from their machines, the enemy would be vulnerable to his crew.

  “Roger!” she replied.

  Emily directed everyone to the assigned positions. At the same time, Ted grabbed his own supplies from the Wrangler. While running with his pack, ammo, and rifle, he thought back to his own Jeep. Was it still sitting on that bridge full of dead cars in Harrisburg? Wouldn’t it be nice to end the war and go collect it?

  He tossed his supplies and fell to the grass behind a small pile of metal girders. It looked as if the builders had intended to make a hangar. Maybe the construction crew had been heading to the job site the day David used his weapon. Their trucks could be somewhere out on the plains.

  He checked behind him. Like everywhere else in that part of Colorado, it was open grass fields and no trees in sight anywhere to the limit of his vision. Looking toward the west, where the helicopters were coming from, he saw mostly the same ground cover. A few farm fields were thrown in, creating a tapestry of different colors, but the one inescapable characteristic of the land was its general flatness.

  The helicopters soon appeared as two dark spots in the overcast sky, very close to the ground.

  “There!” He pointed, but then gave one last review of his people. Emily was by his side, of course. Jacob was four or five men to his left, on the end. A few were to his right, behind the empty fifty-five-gallon barrels. Everyone would be hidden if the helicopters landed, though they would all be spotted if the choppers went wide around the airstrip. It was the risk they had to take.

  It took about a minute for the rotary aircraft to approach. By the time they’d gotten close, Ted was sure they were coming in for a landing.

  “Hold your fire until I tell you otherwise. Our best outcome is to let them come down and then drive off in our vehicles. Live to fight another day.” If he was with a group of soldiers, he might have considered saying the exact opposite. Attack whenever the bad guys were on foot and in range. But they weren’t soldiers. He knew some of them would die if they faced men with guns.

  The helicopters swept in and landed at the near end of the runway. As the rotors spun down, Ted realized they were a pair of MH-6 Little Birds. The men unstrapping from their exterior seating positions were all dressed in US Army BDUs and looked like they knew what they were doing. They swept the radio room in two-man maneuver elements, then did the same for the vehicles.

  “Shit,” he whispered.

  The men with guns headed his way. Since there was nowhere else where a person could hide, it was natural the soldiers would want to clear the construction debris. He was faced with the choice of firing and praying he could surprise them, or—

  “Uncle Ted?” Kyla’s voice called out from near the radio building. He couldn’t see her, but the voice was certainly hers.

  “It’s us,” Meechum added.

  Now he saw the short-haired Marine.

  “Weapons down!” he called out to his people. Then, to the approaching soldiers. “We surrender! We’re not a threat!”

  The soldiers halted for a few seconds, but then proceeded to surround his motley band of resistance. He worried someone was going to end up shooting anyway, but his little team seemed more than anxious not to tangle horns with the cavalry.

  Kyla cut across the route of the soldiers, ran around the beams, and stood there looking at his crouching form as if he had risen from the dead.

  “Hey, Kye.” He beamed.

  “You’re still alive! We heard you on the radio and I couldn’t believe it. Not until I’m seeing you in the flesh. This is amazing.” Kyla ran to give him a hug, which he hurriedly stood up to accept. “I’m so happy to see you, Unk.”

  After a short embrace, they separated. He thought she was going to say something, but she flung herself at Emily. “I hate you for taking him, but I love you for keeping him alive. This is all so incredible!” They hugged like fast friends.

  When she was done with Emily, Kyla stood back. Meechum showed up a few seconds later. She looked terrible but smiled anyway.

  “Good to see you, Lance Corporal Meechum,” Emily said in her serious voice.

  Meechum saluted. “Good to see you, too, Madame President.”

  As if on cue, the other soldiers saluted her, too.

  “Now that’s what I call a rescue,” Ted blurted.

  Pike National Forest, CO

  It did not go well for Tabby when she had to keep making excuses for why the bird wasn’t showing up. The longer they walked away from the dam, and away from the campground, the more agitated Dwight became. The one thing she wasn’t going to tell him was the truth. That there was no way his bird was alive since the asshole shooters had made a Macaw piñata out of it.

  “I think I saw it flying over there, by that hill.” She tried to use distant objects as the places where the bird might appear. It gave Dwight a long distance to cover before she had to change her story, and it gave her a long way to walk herself closer to the back door of NORAD. She was now determined to get him back to the other people.

  “I have another confession to make,” Dwight offered as they walked in the pine forest.

  “What?”

  “My brain is not acting right. Yesterday, I swear I could solve math equations in my head. I could name all fifty states and their capitals. I could even tell you something interesting about the states I’d been to. Starting last night, things have become muddled in my hea
d, like I was back in San Francisco. I can’t name hardly any state capitals, my recall of where I’ve traveled is whack-a-do, and I swear I keep hearing Poppy cry out in pain from deep in the forest.”

  “You’re probably just distraught from losing…I mean, having your bird fly away. It would be painful and chaotic for anyone to lose a pet like you did. I’m sure once you find her, things will turn out for the better.” After telling the man a lie about seeing his bird, she’d fallen through the thin ice of truth. Now everything she said to him was a lie. Anything to keep the tour moving forward. Once she made it back, and had support from other adults, the truth would make its recovery.

  “Yeah, I hope that’s it.” He sounded as if he really believed her, which made Tabby feel terrible. She could almost reveal her game to the sane version of the man, though she fully expected the crazy guy to return a second later. He’d said himself he wasn’t acting right.

  After walking most of the way to the next landmark, they heard engines. While she wasn’t an expert on ATVs, she did recognize the distinctive whine of the same motors they’d walked in front of the day before. Mostly likely, the same two guys who’d captured them were now looking to round them up.

  “Come on, we have to make it to those trees,” she said in a demanding voice, picking up speed. Dwight followed, and they made it to the grove of evergreens as a pair of all-terrain vehicles came over a nearby hilltop.

  “Hold up,” she said, not sure it needed to be stated.

  “Is Poppy here?” Dwight asked, looking around. “You said she’d be here.”

  Tabby wanted to scream at the guy and ask him if he could really be so dense. However, the search party was too close to have Dwight do something unpredictable, such as yelling at her, calling her a liar, then storming off in the direction of the campground. It wasn’t what Dwight had done to her, but she’d seen five-year-olds do that exact thing when they didn’t get what they wanted back in Bonne Terre Mine. Whenever a toddler would throw an epic tantrum, her father used to joke those outbursts were why he got into tourism in the first place.