“She’s hot, smart, and she didn’t tell you what I told her, which earned a little trust, and you know how far trust can go these days,” Nathan shared with Denny.
“So fill me in. What are we up to?”
“I think we should head back to Menard Correctional and find out what’s going on with that prison. Jess said she saw a courtyard full of inmates with a guard in the tower.”
“Yeah, so what’s so weird about that?” Denny inquired.
“Well, she said the guard was a UN soldier and watched her through binos as she stole weapons, and did nothing about it. Apparently he had a rifle slung over his shoulder.”
“Man, I don’t like this. Just because something smells fishy, we’re going back? We lost a good man the last time we went there.”
“I know, but we’ll have more help this time, and what if those are not inmates? What if they’re legitimate UN prisoners like those people in the barges were?”
“Listen to yourself,” Denny said. “We don’t even know if it’s been reinforced since we left. We don’t know if there’s going to be a zealous UN guard this time that’s going to take a potshot at us. What if those prisoners are inmates from before the Flip? What if they’re murderous maximum-security inmates and they get out?”
“I’m not sure of the answers to those questions, Denny, but if we don’t go find out, I won’t be able to sleep knowing that we’ve turned our backs on them. I’m not going to make anybody go. This is a voluntary army I’m trying to organize. If you want to stay, you have my leave.”
“You know I go where you go. I just want to make sure you understand the cost and have taken all other risks and possibilities into consideration.”
Nathan put his hand on Denny’s shoulder and patted him. He walked outside and caught a glimpse of Jess sitting on the hood of an old broken-down car.
“I wonder how many more small communities like this there are still left out there,” Jess said to Nathan as he walked up to her.
“I don’t know. It’s still pretty early in the game to tell.”
“Yeah, I guess so.”
Nathan took another look at Jessica and asked, “What department did you work at before the Flip?”
“I worked at Menard and Chester PD. Why?”
“We might need your knowledge for the upcoming trip to Menard.”
“So we’re going through with it, eh?” Jess asked inquisitively.
“Only if you want to. I’m going to be taking volunteers from the list you and Denny prepped for me.”
Jess just kind of stared at Nathan.
“What?” Nathan laughingly asked.
“Nothing. What did you have in mind for the trip?” she asked.
“I was thinking of taking as many of the vets as I could muster. Everyone armed with at least a knife, a pistol, and a rifle. I would also like to take a nurse; I noticed we had three of them on the roster.”
“Indeed, we do. Would you like me to arm them and teach them how to shoot?”
Nathan peered into her eyes again and said, “Would you? That would be great. Try to work in whatever you can. We will brief after that and leave at first light.”
Nathan started to walk away then stopped and turned around “Oh yeah, can you look into moving the armory closer to the guard shack, later?”
“Sure thing, boss.”
Nathan smiled at her and walked off into the community and disappeared behind some houses. Jess watched him the whole time and never took her eyes off of him. It wasn’t out of suspicion or anything negative. She felt something between the two of them and it was more than a friendly bonding. She was attracted to Nathan. Everything about him. She liked his green eyes, stubbly face, and big smile. He was smart, kind, and a natural leader. She saw that the people of the community respected him. It wasn’t that kind of respect that is demanded, but earned. Nathan didn’t have to bark orders. He asked people to do things and they were happy to do them. She found that very attractive.
“Hello,” Jess heard as she was standing up from the hood of the car and wiping off her bottom. Jess turned around to see a man dressed in overalls. He was rugged looking and in his thirties.
“My name’s Scott.”
“Jess,” she quickly replied and walked away.
The man pursued her with a volley of questions and comments.
“It’s a beautiful day out here, Jess.”
“Yeah, it’s a pretty nice afternoon.”
“Can I help you with something?” the man asked.
“No, thank you, I’m quite capable.”
“Where are you heading?” the man persisted.
Jess stopped walking and turned around. “Look, I’m going to round up a crew, fetch some firearms, and do some practice shooting.”
Jess then turned from the man and walked away. Jess was watching over her shoulder with her peripheral vision. The man had stopped his pursuit.
Scott kept his distance and continued to watch Jess closely. He walked openly through the community, across streets and through yards. Unbeknownst to anybody, Scott was not a member of the community. He was a member of the Southside Raiders, a group of hooligans from Murphysboro. He’d taken a gamble walking into the camp. He’d sat outside the camp long enough to see where the sentries were posted and where the best point of entry would be. He didn’t know anything about the community, how long it had been there, who was in charge, nothing. He walked in unarmed, hoping nobody would call his bluff on being a community member himself. So far, it had worked.
Scott first approached Jess to put her recognition skills to the test and then tailed Jess to the armory, and nobody in town had stopped to ask him who he was or who he was with.
Scott watched Jess as she rounded up the RNs and LPNs that had registered their assets. Jess walked them up to the armored bus, which they had confiscated from the UN invaders, unlocked it with a key that was in her pocket, and proceeded to pull out several rifles, pistols, and boxes of ammunition. Scott took careful mental notes.
Evening hours had come to Gorham and Scott sat silhouetted by a tree, watching Jess and her group of amateur shooters.
“We need to get these weapons put away,” Jess told the shooters. “It’s getting dark and soon I have a briefing to attend.”
The nurses followed Jess back to the armored bus, where they housed the weapons and ammo. Each nurse patiently stood by with rifles in hand waiting for her to unlock the bus. Jess fidgeted with her key chain and was embarrassed that she could not find the right key. She looked back at the nurses and said, “You guys can stand your weapons against the bus, right there. I’ll get them put away.”
All agreed as they stood their weapons against the bus, with the buttstocks on the ground and muzzles facing up. They walked away as a group while Jess tried to fit every key in the lock. Once she had the right key, she unlocked the door and stepped inside the bus. Upset that she couldn’t identify the right key in the dark, she elected to put it on a separate ring unto itself. She carefully slipped the key off the ring and stuck it in her pocket.
Nathan was setting up for the evening briefing in the old firehouse. He was patiently waiting on his most experienced and trusted members, primarily Jess and Denny. Nathan knew they would be bringing all the vets with them. Jess was the only prior LE, so he wasn’t looking to be seeing any experienced shooters from that profession.
Denny came walking in with a barrage of vets. They each had a rifle that had been assigned to them.
“I count ten. Thought we had thirteen,” Nathan said as he pulled the notebook out of his bag.
“We do,” said Denny. “I imagine Jess is rounding them up.”
No sooner than Denny had said that, they heard the faint sound of the bus as it was being started.
“She’s probably moving it closer to the guard shack,” Nathan said.
The sounds grew chaotic as Denny and Nathan looked at each other the way they always do when something’s awry. They shouldered their rifles a
nd Denny called to the ten vets, “Let’s roll,” as they took off out the door of the firehouse.
They followed the sounds of commotion as they unhitched their horses and headed northeast towards the ruckus. They could only faintly see a pair of lights and hear the engine of the bus as it rammed through yards and through the perimeter fence of the camp. Nathan and Denny, realizing they were well ahead of the rest of the group, came to a stop and watched as the bus exited the camp and drove onto the train tracks, which headed northeast out of town.
When the bus was out of view, Denny said, “Are we going to wait until reveille to hunt it down?”
“Where’s Jess?” Nathan said, choosing not to answer Denny. Instead, he turned the horse around and went looking for Jessica.
“JESSICA!” Nathan yelled as he rode around town.
“JESSICA!” he shouted over and over again, sometimes riding up to people and asking, “Have you seen Jessica?”
Denny had never seen Nathan behave in such a frenzy. Denny would call to Nathan, but he wasn’t hearing him. Nathan ran from house to house, beating on people’s doors and asking them if they had seen Jessica.
Nathan ran back to his quarters and started prepping his assault rig. He was moving quickly, throwing items into his bag that he knew he would need. He grabbed some extra magazines for his AR, a map of the southern portion of the state, some dehydrated venison and beef, zip-ties, camouflaged face mask, and other things he felt he would need. The door flew open and Nathan quickly turned around with a pistol pointed at Denny.
“Whoa,” Denny said with his hands up.
Nathan turned back around and zipped up his assault pack. He began prepping his chest rig with magazines for his AR and his Glock, the preferred choice of both he and Jess.
“What do you think you’re doing, boss?”
Nathan kept prepping as he told Denny, “Jess is gone and I need answers.”
“But tonight?” Denny said as he tried to reason with Nathan. “If we go out tonight, we won’t be able to see the tracks, we won’t be able to detect an ambush. There’s any number of bad scenarios that could spring up. Nathan, it’s not safe to leave the camp after dark.”
Nathan plopped down on the couch and dropped his chest rig at his feet. Denny walked around the recliner and sat down on it.
“We need a plan, and then we go out when we can see,” Denny said.
“You’re right, Den. I’m being irrational and hasty. I guess not having answers makes me feel out of control and I don’t like the feeling of vulnerability. I mean, we don’t know if we were duped or if Jess was taken.”
“We’ll get our answers tomorrow, boss. Let’s stay up for a while and work on this. Maybe develop a plan, as best we can.”
CHAPTER XIII
Buchanan had the Black Hawk secured while he, Reynolds, Riley, and the senior enlisted Marines bivouacked for the night. It was Franks’ idea to get the officers together with the senior staff for some bonding time. He thought they could put their heads together and get a better feel for where Reynolds’ head was. Reynolds was still an outsider, and though several of the more seasoned Marines had experience in the trenches with Army dogs, they all felt a little uncomfortable with Reynolds until they knew just what his ideals were.
Buchanan took care of posting “firewatch” around the camp. Weapons Company had the advantage in the darkness with their IR (infrared) night-vision capabilities. They were perched atop every possible position that gave them a perimeter worthy to be called safe. Besides the heavy-guns advantages, there were individual ground units posted about a wide perimeter that made penetrating their temporary base nearly impossible.
Reynolds had offered to assist in the firewatch activities, but Buchanan, Riley, and Franks wouldn’t have it, given the circumstances. The other Rangers were segregated, not because of dislike, but because of distrust. Marines were especially wary of outsiders, but given what had just happened and the state of America, they were especially wary.
Reynolds had medium-brown skin, light-brown eyes, and black hair. His voice was deep, not unlike Franks’.
“When I was a boy, I used to run around outside with my toy guns and shoot my friends. We played army, cops and robbers, and things like that. I remember growing up and seeing restrictions and regulations tightening on our second amendment right to bear arms. Then came the executive orders banning ammunition and increasing taxation on distributers of firearms. The UN small-arms treaty was constantly being pressed down our throats, until one day, a liberal-led congress gave in to the pressure, forsaking the calls and emails of the voters, and made the possibility of not owning guns a credible possibility.
“That’s why I joined the Marines,” Franks said. “I knew what was happening to my country. We were actively being sold down the river by our government. It’s been full of corruption for so many years that the people came to expect it. People became used to politicians bragging about their education and upbringing in poor homes. They all wanted us to know that they knew what it was like to be poor, but now they’re educated and know how to fix Washington. The people buy that kind of stuff hook, line, and sinker. Once they win office, they become a part of the problem. The government got to a place where it was no longer made up of ‘the people’ but a place where the people were fearful of their government. That’s where tyranny lives. In fear of government. I vote for the government to be fearful of the people. That’s where liberty lives.”
The room became almost somber as they sat silent for several minutes. Every man thought of the Marines and civilians that had died earlier in the day. Before they bivouacked down for the evening, they had a makeshift memorial service where a young lance corporal had prepared a speech. The men thought of how the Marines were wrapped in blankets acquired from local homes, and how they were lowered into the Mississippi River. Their bodies, now miles downstream, would certainly be seen by other patriots. To Buchanan, the memorial service was twofold. He was counting on fellow Americans joining the fight. The sight of dead Marines would certainly raise an alarm and sound the bell of freedom, wherever that may be.
Buchanan was a pretty good read of character. He thought quite a bit about the day’s events and how Reynolds could have taken his shot at killing them on multiple occasions, especially when he had air superiority. It wasn’t just because the helos were losing the fight; on the contrary, the guns that one more Black Hawk could have offered would have tipped the scales in their favor. No, Buchanan knew Reynolds was genuine, but he reserved to himself a necessary need to be cautious.
Buchanan reached over his rack and pulled out Reynold’s M9 Beretta and handed it to him.
“Lance Corporal!” Buchanan called out.
“Yes, sir,” the Marine said as he peeked in the shelter.
“Give the Rangers their rifles.”
“Yes, sir,” the Marine said as he closed the flap.
The Rangers had been carrying MK16 SCAR-Ls prior to surrendering to the Marines. When the chopper was secured, so were the weapons.
“Tomorrow, we will no longer be a Marine unit; we will be an American joint-forces coalition. We’re going to have to work together to restore the Constitution. We need to focus on finding more active-duty units and veterans to make this work. Are you on board, Sergeant First Class?”
The senior enlisted Army Ranger did not hesitate to respond, “Hoorah!”
With that, the Marines and Rangers settled down for a well-deserved night’s rest.
Gorham, Illinois, October 26
Nathan had barely slept that night. He rolled around in his bed, wondering what had happened. Did Jess steal the bus and weapons? Were they rightfully hers because she was the one who acquired them? Why did she leave so aggressively? Why didn’t she say good-bye? These were the thoughts that probed his mind all night long. It was no wonder that when Denny came barging in his house at 0600 hours, he was already awake and eating eggs.
“Good morning, boss.”
“Good morn
ing, my friend. You know that boss thing is unnecessary. You make this feel like work. You packed up and ready to roll?” Nathan asked.
“I’m ready to go. I rounded up the ‘Posse’, That’s what we’re calling our inner circle of vets.”
“Are they outside?”
“Yeah, they’re cool.”
“No, have them come in. I insist.”
All the homes in Gorham were hooked to propane tanks. They had acquired them the previous year from a train that had stopped in their town. The conductor dumped his job and just left them there. To this day, he still resides in Gorham. It was that propane that Nathan used to fry his eggs every morning. The grease was very old and made the eggs taste like nine different kinds of food, but it was food nonetheless.
“You boys want something to eat before we roll? We’ve waited all night, might as well take the time necessary to eat.”
They all said, “No, thank you.”
Nathan choked down his two eggs and grabbed his chest rig and pack.
“Let’s go.”
CHAPTER XIV
Jess woke up with an excruciating migraine. Her mouth was gagged with a sock and duct tape wrapped around her head and over her mouth with multiple passes. She was in a sitting position in a dark room with her hands tied behind her back, which was latched to a rounded column of some sort. Her long brown hair was partially taped to her head in the back, but in the front, her bangs were hanging over her eyes. Her immediate concern was that she had been raped or some other despicable act of violence committed against her as she was unconscious. She had no recollection of what had happened or where she was. After assessing herself for discomfort, the only thing she felt out of the norm was her migraine. This gave her a sense of calm so she could focus on the next issue.
Where am I? she thought to herself. She heard voices overhead and footsteps stomping around the ceiling. With that bit of information, she knew that she was either in a basement or some other form of structure where there was an upper level.
Whiskey Black Book Set: The Complete Tyrant Series (Box Set 1) Page 20
