by David Nees
“No one’s here,” Reggie said when he saw Lori Sue walking up to the hotel door. It was late afternoon. He didn’t sound in a good mood.
“What do you mean? Where’d they go?” Lori Sue asked. She had the bolt cutters hidden under her jacket.
“Moved. To an unknown location.”
“She ain’t coming back?”
“Doubt it. That mean you’re not coming around anymore? I’d hate to think that.”
“I need to tell her about her kid. She asked me to do that.”
Reggie shrugged. “What can you do? You try to help and someone just ups and leaves.”
“She didn’t leave on her own. You helped, didn’t you? You know where she’s gone. You can tell me, I’m Donna’s friend.”
“Not supposed to. This time Leo made it personal, like he knew something was up. I ain’t going against him. He’ll kill me, or have me beaten. I don’t want that.”
“Leo ordered the move?” Her heart sank. “When was this?”
“This morning.”
Damn. He’s back already.
“Well, you can tell me. Hell, I ain’t gonna tell anyone, I’m just being friends with Donna.” Lori Sue sidled up to Reggie. “Did I ever get you in trouble? Come on, no one will know. And I’ll sure appreciate it.” Her voice dripped with erotic possibilities.
The guard shook his head. “Not this time.” He looked at her with a sour expression on his face. “Besides, you’re all promise. You never deliver. All I got was a quick kiss and feel.”
Lori Sue sighed. She knew this time would come. “You’re right. I haven’t taken care of you, but you know how busy I’ve been. Look, I can make it up to you right now if you tell me where to find Donna.” Before Reggie could say no, she grabbed him by the arm and tugged him along the street toward the alley. “Come on, you’ll enjoy this.” She shoved him forward and slipped off her jacket, dropping it to the ground over the bolt cutters.
It didn’t take long. She led him back to the entrance.
“Wow, that was hot.” He had a surprised look on his face. His attitude was now different. It’s so easy, she thought.
“You help me and I’ll make sure you’re happy. Now where did they move to?”
“To the southeast side of town. Ain’t many people there.” He gave her the address.
“Thanks.”
“You goin’ there now?” Reggie’s brain was starting to re-engage and he seemed worried. He looked at her sharply. “You better not let anyone know how you found the place.”
“You can trust me.”
“When are you coming back? I’d sure like to try that again.”
“Not right away. I’m pretty busy, big boy, but you’ll get more of what I got, don’t worry.”
He smiled.
Leo’s back. How’m I going to pull this off? Lori Sue left Reggie at the hotel entrance and walked back towards the bar. She had to step aside repeatedly for hurrying workers. Men shouted to one another, shouted to her to get out of the way. They were pushing, dragging anything they could find—desks, large copiers—into the streets to close them off. Lori Sue decided to walk around the perimeter to see what was going on.
Along the way she ran into some of her militia customers. “What are you doing down here?” The officer who had given her his pistol asked.
“What am I usually doing down here? I’m working.”
“Ain’t no work for you today or tonight. Everyone’s too busy.”
Nobody would talk to her. She looked at the developing fortress and shivered.
Then she saw Leo.
She was just passing an opening in the barrier, and she was in a position to be able to see down the middle of the four-block compound. Leo was far down the center street, by the bank building, but she recognized him instantly. He was giving orders to two nervous-looking militia officers. Then he jumped into a pickup and drove off.
Ain’t gonna get Donna today. He may be headed back to his place.
She might as well head back and tell people. They’d want to know about this.
When she got back to her apartment Billy wasn’t there, and the nearby rooms were empty too. She dropped the bolt cutters in her living room and ran across the street. The guard inside the door looked at her curiously, but he let her run past him and up the stairs.
“Hey,” she said as she burst into the room. Everyone stopped to look at her. She was surprised to see Billy there, but first things first. “They’re walling in the downtown area. They know you’re coming.” She began to explain the preparations she had observed and what she had learned from the militia officer.
“They’re not reinforcing the defenses at the perimeter wall?” Lieutenant Cameron asked.
Lori Sue glared at him. “I don’t know, maybe they are. I wasn’t out at the damn perimeter wall. But I know they’re making up the blocks around militia territory like a fort.”
“Damn,” Jason said. “Do they know we’re in?”
Sergeant Gibbs frowned and rubbed his chin. “They can’t know too much if what they’re focusing on is fortifications. That says they don’t know where it’s going to come from and they don’t know where to hit us. Maybe they’re guessing. Or just being cautious. But it does say they’re not putting their faith in their wall, which is disappointing.” He shrugged. “I think we can say at least that they’re pretty sure you’re coming. Maybe they even suspect you’re already inside.”
“But they don’t know we’re here,” Cameron said. “They think the full army contingent has left. They won’t be expecting any large weapons; heavy machine guns, mortars, grenades. This gives us a big advantage.”
As the men discussed Lori Sue’s new information, Billy took her aside.
“So, you all joined up?” she asked him.
“Guess so,” Billy said. “Right now it’s pretty boring. They’ve had me pointing out things on the map, sayin’ what building in the militia area is for what, and then they all argue. You didn’t get Donna?”
“She wasn’t there anymore. Leo moved her to a place over in the south side. I think it’s almost as empty over there as this part of town.”
“Leo’s back?”
“Yeah. I saw him. He’s directing the defense work. I can’t go get Donna tonight in case he goes back there. I told you, I’m being careful.”
“You shouldn’t go there at all, now he’s back.”
“I can do it tomorrow. He’ll be downtown all day from the looks of what’s going on.”
“No, no. This ain’t right. Wait ‘til after the battle. It’s too dangerous.”
Lori Sue whispered to him, “You don’t know how this’ll come out, you said so yourself, back at Chief Cook’s house. We’re on this side, ‘cause we ain’t gonna support someone like Leo.” She looked around and then put her head close to Billy’s. “They could lose, we could lose. Then it’s every man for himself. If I can get Donna out, no one will know who did it. We’ll just get along like we did before, only Donna’ll be free. If we lose the battle, there’s no way to free Donna. We free her now, that’s a poke in the eye for Leo and we’ll just act like we was with the militia all along.”
“You think we’ll lose?”
“It’s what you said. And besides, it makes sense. We help this group how we can, but we make sure we got a plan if things don’t work out.”
“Then why risk helping Donna?”
She gave Billy a long, serious look. “We girls got to stick together.”
The two sidled their way back to the group to listen to the plans.
“How many men you got?” Clayton was asking a man Billy didn’t know.
“We have about fifty,” the man replied. He looked subtly different than anyone else in the room, but he looked self-assured. He was dressed like a city man, in a maroon dress shirt and gray pants.
“How many can shoot?”
“Maybe thirty have shot before, but they’ve all been practicing. We haven’t shot, but we’ve gone over the M16,
how to aim it, how to load the magazines, change them, switch fire modes, what to do if they jam. They’ll do all right. This is their fight.”
Clayton gave the strange man a non-committal look but didn’t say any more.
Cameron turned to Billy. “I’d like you to go out this evening and scout the defenses. You should be able to move around without being challenged.”
Lori Sue looked sharply at Cameron. “You don’t believe me? I seen it all today.”
Cameron turned to her. She could see the surprise on his face. “It isn’t that. This is too important to go with just one report. I want more detail from Billy. And he can tell us what has developed since you saw the defenses.” He turned back to the group. “Billy can corroborate what Lori Sue reported with any updates, then we’ll have the best info we can get. We can attack tomorrow after getting his report.” The rest agreed.
“Well, then you better also recheck that Leo’s back,” Lori Sue said irritably. “‘Cause I saw Leo too.”
The whole room looked at her in surprise.
Chapter 23
As they walked back over to their apartment, Billy spoke ruefully. “I wanted to spend the night with you, but now I got to do this scouting. Damn! Things are gonna get hot tomorrow. Sure would be nice to have a chance to love some with you.”
Lori Sue hugged his arm as they crossed the street. “That’d be nice, but we’ll have plenty of time for that, no matter how tomorrow works out. You just be sure to take care of yourself tomorrow. Don’t you go getting shot.”
“I’ll be alright. But I still don’t like you going back to Leo’s place to get Donna. You should just stay here.”
“I told you. I’ll be okay. Leo’s going to be gone all day tomorrow. He’ll be working on the barricades and then you’ll all be attacking. He ain’t coming back after he leaves tomorrow, even if he went there tonight.”
Billy shook his head in doubt.
Later that evening, after getting something to eat, Billy headed for the downtown area. He figured he’d check out the whole perimeter from the outside, to see how things would look from the attacking side, which would entail an eight-block walk. If there were any streets or alleyways that looked like they’d be the best routes, now was his chance to find them.
He carried his hunting rifle and his backpack, figuring he’d look like he was coming in from a hunt, only with no game. He had detached his scope from his rifle, and at each street he made his way within a block of that point in the barricade and used the scope to observe. He had no binoculars, which would have been more noticeable anyway.
Large flood lamps lit up much of the four-block area and the streets outside the barricades. He could hear generators running at full throttle to power them. Beyond that, he was disappointed; he wasn’t learning as much this way as he had hoped. He wanted to give Cameron as complete a report as possible. Cameron had entrusted him with the final look. He had to go inside. Finally, when he had worked his way around to the south side, Billy slipped the scope into his coat pocket and walked up to one of the barricades. As he had expected, he was challenged and, as he had expected, he was let in after explaining who he was.
While Billy slipped through a small gap that had been left between two trucks, the guard he had identified himself to spoke to him again. “You gonna be hunting different game tomorrow.” The guard’s tone tried to be jocular and only showed nervousness.
Billy didn’t answer. He walked into the more lit up areas, taking note of mortars being set up along Main Street, just to the west of the bank building that was Stansky’s headquarters. Ammunition was being stockpiled at each barricade. He peeked into the bank lobby to see more reserves stacked there. He kept wandering around, trying to go unnoticed, taking in all the preparations.
Suddenly a militia officer yelled at him. “Hey you, hunter!”
Billy turned to look at the man. It was the officer who had saved him from getting beaten. Billy went over to him.
“You’re the kid who shot Harry. What are you up to now?”
Billy grimaced at the remembrance of that incident. “Just got back from the woods. No luck hunting today. Saw all this.” He gestured with a wide sweep of his hand. “What’s going on?”
“Expecting an attack. Apparently some of our people went out to the valley where the big shipment of flour came from this spring, and they had a run-in with the farmers. Don’t know what it was all about, but they got hammered. Commanders think the farmers are coming back to attack us.” He shook his head. “Seems pretty stupid to me. Hear it’s just supposed to be some homesteads out there. We’re a whole city. And we got the damn wall.”
“Sounds pretty stupid to me too,” Billy said.
“Come on,” the officer said. “I need a break from all this work. I’ll buy you a drink.” He led Billy to the bar, which was on the edge of the militia block, with the new barrier line running just beyond the sidewalk next to it. “What’s your name again?”
“Billy, Billy Turner.”
“My name’s John Hanson,” the officer said as he pushed into the bar. It was nearly deserted. “Hank!” John called out. “Bring me and my hunter friend two whiskeys. Not the crappy stuff. Bring me some good whiskey for who knows what tomorrow will bring.”
“That’s what everyone who’s come in here tonight says. They all think they should get the best, and get it free, because tomorrow they’re going to fight for their city. Trying to sound like a bunch of heroes.” The bartender shook his head, smiling sourly. “Then tomorrow nothing’s gonna happen, and they’re sure not gonna give the booze back. Every one of ‘em’s stirred up because the big boys got cautious and had ‘em put up all this crap.”
“Look, you’re right up against the wall. I wouldn’t be here tomorrow if I were you,” John said.
“Don’t plan on it. And if anything does happen, you think I get to do this? I get to grab my rifle and go see my captain, just like everybody else.”
“Well then, let’s all drink to that. Who knows how much booze will survive?”
“It’ll be safe in the basement, but just because it’s you, I’ll get you some of the good stuff.” With that the bartender stepped into the back room and quickly returned with a bottle of Jim Beam. “Here you go.” He set it on the table along with two glasses.
John took off the cap and poured. “Thanks. I’ll remember you in my will.”
The bartender grinned. “Now I feel so much better, knowing that. My future is secured.”
John hoisted his drink. “Here’s to good friends and good whiskey.”
Billy took a sip as John drained his glass. Billy started coughing. John and the bartender laughed.
“Looks like you haven’t drunk a lot of whiskey before.” John leaned forward to stare at Billy. “I thought you were a moonshiner. You just tell me that tale to save your ass?”
Billy looked back, not sure of the man’s intention. Finally, in a rough voice, his throat still smarting from the whiskey, he said, “I like makin’ it, don’t like drinkin’ it.”
John smiled and sat back. “Now don’t that beat all. A teetotaling moonshiner. Just more for me and Hank to drink. Right, Hank?”
“I guess,” came the reply.
Billy looked at the bottle. “If you figure there’s going to be fighting tomorrow, you sure you should be doing this?”
“I finished my work,” John said. “Told all my guys they ain’t paid to think about fifteen times. But the real answer is, yeah, I probably should go get some sleep. But I never could sleep when I thought there was gonna be fighting. Not a wink.”
“Bunch of crap,” Hank said.
“Look at Hank here. He proves my point. I’m not sure I do think there’s really gonna be trouble. But he doesn’t think there’s gonna be fighting tomorrow, and, if there is any at all, he doesn’t think it’s gonna be around here. But here he is at this hour, still here, in an empty bar. How do you sleep, Hank?”
“None of your business,” Hank said. He
sighed and got a glass for himself.
Billy watched and listened hard as John Hanson, his new friend, talked about the upcoming battle and life in the militia. John seemed to Billy to be essentially a good man. Billy remembered how he had admonished the men to not abuse women, even the prostitutes. “Pay ‘em or leave ‘em alone,” he remembered him saying.
“Seems to me to be pretty stupid to get so crossways with those farmers,” John said. “Triggering them to come after us. We don’t need all that going on. Got enough problems already. We’re close to getting things working again, and now this. If the top brass are right, now they’re going to come play bandit, and the wall guards’ll probably just shoot them, and then our food goes right back to terrible for the next year.”
Billy screwed up his courage and asked, “What’d you think about them executions? You think they was messing things up, getting the electricity back on?”
John shook his head. “Hell, I don’t know. It didn’t seem right to me.” He poured himself another drink. “Didn’t pass the smell test to me.” He gave Billy a sharp look. “But what do I know? How about you? You getting along okay?”
Billy nodded his head. “Mostly I get to stay out of things. You know, going out hunting most every day.”
“You not making whiskey?”
Billy shook his head. “Not yet. Mr. Goodman, he works for Mr. Mason, he said it’d be a while. I think they got sidetracked by the problems with the electricity.”
John threw up his hands. “Then what the hell am I getting you free drinks for? You can’t get me any good whiskey.”
Billy looked warily at the officer, but the big smile told him not to worry. John didn’t seem like so many of the others. He seemed to be a nice guy. He had saved Billy before, now he was being friendly, but tomorrow this man was going to be shooting at his friends.
