The gravity feed line from the creek was run to the outside of the kitchen, then pushed through a hole Carlos cut in the wall above the sink. There would be no water to any other part of the house but the kitchen. If a person needed to flush toilets, he or she would come to the kitchen, fill the bucket kept next to the toilet, and haul it back to the bathroom. If someone needed fresh drinking water, they could pour water through the blue barrel and collect it in the bottom in the tub.
Carlos wasn’t sure of the water’s purity, so he drank first. When after two days, Carlos remained in good health, the rest of the group took to using his filtration system. Although the water was cold, everyone was excited about being able to wash dishes, faces, bodies and brush teeth without having to go outside or worry about water rationing.
The evening Barry powered the house up, they all sat around enjoying not having to strain their eyes to read a book or see across the room. The mood in the ranch was light as everyone talked about the trip to San Jose, the helicopter, and having a little electricity. Things were getting better, and this served to lift everyone’s spirits. For the first time, the little ranch house felt cozy instead of cramped.
Before the sun was fully down, Jared stared at one of the lights, marveling at the amount of work and sacrifice it took to achieve this small luxury. The sacrifice of human life in the process had been great, and they all owed a great deal to Dwight. Jared knew Barry couldn’t have figured it all out without having spent the time talking with Dwight. As Jared sat staring, lost in his thoughts, his eyes swept across the window next to the front door, spotting the VW parked outside, causing his chest to tighten.
Jared and the rest of the group should consider themselves lucky not to have been contacted during their drive through San Jose. People wanted what others had, and a car was one of those things.
Jared got to his feet. “We have to cover all the windows. Someone can see light from a long way out. It will attract people if they see light,” he urged.
John shook his head. Here he’d been thinking about fresh water and being able to see where he was going when it was bedtime, and all the while Jared was sitting five feet away thinking about real-world issues. This kid would have been great in the unit. He was the type of guy who would have been a good operator, and after his time was up when his body began to fail him, Jared would have become a great leader, John was sure of this.
Jared would have been one of those guys in the operation command who would listen to all the ideas on how to solve a problem, then think on it for a second before shitcanning them all. Then he would have laid out a detailed plan twice as operational worthy as any they’d heard in the past, and the men of the Special Missions Unit would have respected him for this talent. John got to his feet and went to look for the materials they would need to seal their precious light inside the house.
Blotting the windows was something they had to do for the safety of the community. Why have the light if it was too dangerous to use? The only reasonable thing to do was what Jared had proposed, and John kicked himself for not thinking of it sooner. John returned from what was left of the shed with two rolls of duct tape. Shannon meanwhile located a roll of butcher’s paper in the pantry, and together the group set to stopping anyone outside from knowing about their delightful little secret.
Once the work was finished, Jared and John went outside, at which time, Shannon turned every light in the house on. Jared and John walked around outside for thirty minutes, trying to find an angle they could see light from. In the end, there were no leaks, Jared and John came back inside, and everyone settled onto couches and chairs inside the ranch house. Jared was about to take a seat when a thought came to him. He walked to the pantry and grabbed a bottle of whiskey, turned, and held it up to the group. No one waved him off, so Jared grabbed a stack of plastic cups and placed it all on the kitchen table.
He poured one after another, handing them to the next person while asking the group to wait before drinking the brown fluid. When everyone had a cup in hand, Jared held his own cup up toward the single light they had on.
“Here’s to Dwight. Many of you never met the man, and none of us except Barry really knew him, but he is the reason we have this small luxury tonight. We owe him at least a toast for that,” Jared finished and pushed his cup into John’s as a way of starting everyone off.
The group murmured their respects, toasted one another, then sipped at the whiskey. Jared felt the liquor hit his stomach, immediately warming his insides. He could feel the tension from the last couple of weeks melt away as he looked at the faces of all the people in the little house. It was times like these that Jared was most happy, times when his friends’ faces weren’t contorted in fear or drawn from the stresses a normal day could bring.
Jared was about to bring the cup back to his lips when he stopped and did a mental head count. Ten people sat around the living room and kitchen, one less than they should have had. Jared wasn’t overly concerned as he began searching faces, trying to figure out who was missing. The kids were sitting on the couch in between Shannon and Stephani and—of the kids, there should have been three. Devon was gone.
“Where’s Devon?” Jared asked curiously.
Everyone in the group looked at each other, then around the room as if Jared might have been missing the kid.
“He left after you guys went out to see if the windows were good,” Calvin said.
“Yeah, I thought he went with you guys,” Stephani added.
John got to his feet and went to the back of the house. He returned a few seconds later and shrugged his shoulders. “He’s not inside.”
Jared got up and started to pull his jacket on when John held up a staying hand.
“Hold up on going out. The kid likes to be out there. We just have to teach him to let us know when he goes,” John elucidated, waving Jared back into his seat. “No need to go out and wander around in the dark. He’ll be back.” John finished with a wink in Jared’s direction.
Jared dropped back into his seat, studied the whiskey for a moment, then decided he would take John’s advice. What the hell, Jared thought, I’m not driving. Without further ado, Jared took a long pull off his plastic cup. Devon was without a doubt learning the area around the ranch house and could warn them if anyone came sneaking up on the house, so maybe his being out was a good thing.
Devon was back the following morning, and John had a fatherly talk with the teen about letting him know if he was going to slither off. John explained that if someone went looking for Devon and got hurt, the fault would fall on the teen’s shoulders since he hadn’t told anyone where he was going.
Devon stared at the ground, kicking at a clump of grass, nodded his agreement, but didn’t say a word. John left it at that, knowing the kid wasn’t much for words.
John just hoped Devon maintained enough gray matter between his ears to understand the importance of letting them know if he was going to disappear. Time would be the only way to tell if he got it or not.
As Devon was walking away, John called out to him, “Hey, did you find anything interesting out there?”
Devon turned halfway around, looking sideways at John, and shook his head. John screwed his mouth into a tight knot. “Oh well, if one of us were going to find something out there, my money is on you.”
When Josh got back to the Stockton airport where the base was located, he showed the SEALs to the briefing room where Josh’s boss was waiting, arms folded. Josh’s boss was Colonel Leroy Carnegie, a legend within the special operations community. He was also the only man on the planet Josh feared.
“All ya had to do was pick up my SEALs, but instead you fuck up one of my helicopters. May I remind you I have exactly three other helicopters. After that, you and your people walk,” the colonel barked.
“I wasn’t flying the thing,” Josh countered lamely.
“Ah, shut the fuck up. You’re the mission leader. Anything goes wrong, it’s on you,” Carnegie growled angrily.
The SEAL commander stood awkwardly in the door while the colonel lambasted Josh, not wanting to get caught up in the colonel’s tirade. Carnegie caught sight of the SEAL in the doorway and frowned. “Nice of you to join the shit show. You bubbleheads enjoy riding the first ninety days out in the comfort of that submarine?”
The SEAL commander looked like a deer in the headlights. “Ah, you ever been on a sub, sir?” he responded a bit hesitantly.
“Ah, you shut the fuck up too. I need helicopters to conduct operations, and instead, this dipshit wrecks one. I need men, and all I get is the Navy’s swim team. Jesus H Christ, mother and Mary.” The colonel threw his hands in the air. “Both of you sit the fuck down.” The colonel pointed directly at Josh. “Go.”
Josh knew the drill. “Flight in was standard, no incidents. Made radio contact with Captain Kemper’s radio guy and confirmed the extract location.” Josh shook his head, heaving his broad shoulders. “Then the fucking pilot short stroked the approach and clipped a tree with the tail. We landed, and he shut down in order to check out the bird. They couldn’t see what they were doing, so we spent the night and flew out this morning,” Josh briefed.
Carnegie shot Kemper a sharp look, got an affirmative nod from the SEAL, and turned back to Josh. “Anything else?”
“Yeah, we saw a working vehicle. It was towing a trailer full of solar panels, it looked like.”
Carnegie’s face grew even more serious. “Go,” he barked for the second time that morning.
“We were transitioning through San Jose when the pilots spotted a car. It turned out to be a VW bug dragging a trailer with a bunch of solar panels on it. Two people in the car, maybe men, couldn’t really tell at the speed and altitude we passed. Unknown if they were armed, and we didn’t see any other people who appeared to be associated with it,” Josh finished, scratching the back of his head.
Carnegie leaned back in his chair and clasped his large hands behind his head, thinking about what his operator just told him. While the government tried to get back on its feet, the people were doing the same thing, he knew this. He was okay with this, but he couldn’t have any group of people growing in numbers and stability to the point of being a threat to him and his operations. He knew one car towing a trailer wasn’t much, but all great things germinated from a small seed. Carnegie needed to find out if these men and their solar panels were a germinating seed or a dying flower.
Carnegie kept a single drone in his arsenal of assets, but hadn’t found a need for it to date. Carnegie’s issue was he lacked spare parts for the aircraft. The drone pilot had been flown in from Nevada, but, with nothing to do, the man had been reallocated to standing a post on the base’s perimeter. Now, Carnegie needed to know where these people were, how many they numbered, and exactly what operational capabilities the people brought to the table.
The colonel knew he was king out here in California, answering only to someone in Colorado for the time being. Carnegie had been stationed in Colorado Springs when the event took place and for the first week sat around NORAD, waiting for orders. When they came, he hadn’t asked a single question. He’d loaded up on a transport plane and had been flown to Stockton airport, where he had operated out of ever since.
“Josh, I want the drone pilot and you to get together and figure out where you last saw this car, along with its direction of travel. Put together a search area and assist the pilot in any way he needs in finding these people. I want a closer look at them and what they’re doing,” he said, his voice losing some of its volatility.
When the colonel was done, Josh knew better than to stick around or ask any stupid questions. He rose, jerked his head toward the door so Kemper knew it was exfil time, and executed a hasty retreat.
Within forty-eight hours, the drone pilot was locked onto the ranch house and called for Josh, who came and confirmed the VW was the same one he’d seen from the helicopter. As Josh studied the layout of the property, he located the trailer, which was now empty and parked behind the ranch house. A detailed search of the property found the solar panels on some sort of rack. Josh thought this was actually pretty smart on the part of the people down there. No matter where the sun was, they could shift the panels, ensuring they were always gathering the sun’s energy-giving rays.
As the pilot locked the drone into an orbit around the ranch house, Josh saw a figure emerge from the house and walk up the driveway.
“Can you pull in on that?” Josh asked the pilot.
“Sure,” the pilot said as he worked the controls, making minute adjustments as the camera bounced for a second before reeling in the walking figure ten thousand feet below.
Josh leaned in close, seeing a man wearing basically the same uniform Josh was wearing, and carrying a rifle. As the drone came around to the right side of the man, Josh caught his breath. “Fucking John?” he whispered in question.
Thirty minutes later in the briefing room with Carnegie, Josh went over video as well as still shots of the people from the ranch house. From what they could tell, there were eleven people living on the small property. Two were children, and the rest appeared to be adults. Although the group of people had solar panels with lines running to the house, Josh had no way of determining whether or not they actually were pulling power inside the house.
Josh also watched footage of what appeared to be a water line running from a creek that showed water between its banks. These people kept several horses, the VW, and carried small arms. Josh was absolutely positive the man he’d seen wearing the battle dress uniform (BDU) was one John Buckley. Josh also located the downed Black Hawk and could only assume something catastrophic had occurred, causing the bird to fall out of the sky less than thirty minutes from the base.
No one else at the ranch house appeared to be part of John’s team, causing Josh to wonder if they all died in the crash, leaving John the only survivor.
Carnegie order Josh and his team to mount up the following day and retrieve John while assessing the rest of the group’s capabilities. He wanted to know how much food they had, how many weapons, and how much ammunition they possessed for said weapons. Carnegie wanted to know if they owned any level of communications equipment and, if they did, who had they spoken to. Lastly, he wanted to know who everyone in the group was and what they had done before the event.
Josh suggested just grabbing John and doing all the how, what, where, when and why stuff in a debrief once they got back.
Colonel Carnegie’s face contorted when Josh floated this idea. “I get it, some of you nitwits aren’t that smart, but Goddamn, man, don’t you at least watch a little television? Fucking Dances with Wolves, Apocalypse Now? Those are just a couple, you fucking idiot. What if your man has gone native, you ever think of that?” Carnegie roared, his face reddening with anger. “Now get your ass out there, grab Lieutenant Dunbar or Colonel Kurtz or whatever the fuck we’re calling Buckley these days, and find out what in the hell the rest of them are all up to out there.”
Josh thought about asking who Lieutenant Dunbar was, but decided he’d better just get the hell out of the briefing room and go plan the operation. The plan would be pretty straightforward. Josh would fly directly to the property, land, and contact John. He would have his team set up security and wave the aircraft off, but other than those basic precautions, he wasn’t too overly concerned about any sort of conflict with these people.
Josh felt they would probably be relieved to see someone from the government and would be upset when Josh only brought John and left all of them behind. He’d make some promises if things looked like they could get bumpy, promises he would never deliver on of course. Then he would fly back to Stockton, brief Carnegie, and let the old man at John. He was sure the colonel would tear John apart for not walking home.
Chapter 44
Jared and John had allowed the OP to go unmanned for the several days they’d worked on the water and solar issues. Before the work was completed, John suggested they put someone on the OP during the day a
t least. One of the women or Calvin or even Devon could sit and watch while the rest of the men did most of the heavy lifting required to get the ranch house running with water and a little power.
Jared cautioned John about how he worded the OP duties, knowing Stephani and Shannon were two very strong women and wouldn’t take kindly to any insinuation they were to be used for menial tasks while the men did all the important work. In the end, Calvin and Devon took care of the OP while Shannon spent time with Essie and Salvador, helping them with their school studies.
Stephani, Claire and Jared got back to creating the garden that Stephani and Claire had already started while the men were away. The work was difficult even with the use of tools they’d found near the partially disassembled shed. While Jared and the women gardened, John helped Carlos fit a shutoff valve to the water line inside the house. They attached an elbow joint to the end of the pipe so the water would flow down and into the sink almost like the original plumbing. The toilet was still flushing, and the sink continued to drain water, thankfully.
As Jared toiled away in the rocky soil, he suddenly stopped. His ears, if they could have, would have stood straight up. The women also stopped their work and stared into the sky. A helicopter was inbound, and now they could all hear it. A few seconds later, the aircraft came into view, flying low and directly over the house. It banked left and flew two complete circles around the ranch’s property before leveling off and slowing as it began to descend.
John came racing around the side of the house. “Grab your rifle,” he shouted as the helicopter settled onto a flat grassy area a hundred yards from the house.
Jared brushed his sweaty hands off on his pants and snatched his rifle from where it leaned against a tree and ran after John, who was already hotfooting it back toward the front of the house.
The Jared Chronicles | Book 2 | Tears of Chaos Page 33
