The Hunters

by T J Reeder

  After we all returned to the Base camp Fort Navajo I gathered everybody in the main dining hall where the cooks had set up to feed us all at one setting.

  After chow was done and coffee refilled I took the front along with my main people, meaning Sandy , Joe and Willy and of course Charley who always stood off to the side.

  I just laid it all out like it was. No sugar coating no bull shit. Everything my team had talked about and wanted to do. I told them that it was gonna be dangerous but most likely if they got killed nobody was gonna eat them, Everybody laughed! What a crew.

  I told them to get with their closest friends and decide if they wanted to keep treasure hunting which was fine because it still needed to be done in a smaller way. Meaning to find and secure every bottle of Johnny Walker within 500 miles of the fort! Another good laugh.

  I told them I wanted to keep Fort Navajo active and open for business so to speak with enough people they could fight off pretty much anybody who happened along.

  I also said I was going to reach out to the crew at the air base and have then get every thing we might find a use for loaded on transports , fuel, ammo, food, clothing , anything meaning some of everything.

  And I wanted it rolling here in a week with everybody who wanted to go hunting with us or wanted to make the move to the Fort. In other words we were making a move to consolidate our force in one spot.

  And the word went out just like I was George Patton. While we waited we went to work on our own equipment and sent out crews to fill the tankers at places we had marked as holding fuel. Everybody was excited and working their asses off so after several days I called a halt and declared a two day stand down and a big BBQ.

  Charles’s scouts located a herd of now wild cattle and took down several yearlings for the feast. They took a few deer and some desert quail. I think they were having more fun then anybody. Hunting season open 24/7/365 and no license and no limit.

  After thinking about it we decided to wait until the entire bunch was all together but we had a smaller two stand down just for the rest.

  Well it took closer to two weeks for the first trucks to start rolling in and it was another week before they were all here. Along with a few surprises. Meaning a lot of other folks had heard what we were going to do and decided life was to tame and joined up.

  After everybody was gathered once more the big dining hall was jammed. I laid it all out again, I explained that we were going hunting for trouble and we were for sure gonna find it. ( Little did I know!!) I called on all of them to decide if they wanted to go gunning or stay at the fort and maintain it as our main base of operations.

  I gave everybody a day to think about it and decide what they wanted to do and then to report to the Admin people who were organizing the logistics of it all. Thank God!! .

  This band of ner do wells was shaping up into a damn fine band of brothers. It was decided that maybe we should do some conditioning stuff ( not by me!!) so we set a course of five miles and everybody was required to do it every other day at their own pace for the first week then every day for a week then we would try it for speed, each person on their own.

  My ass was dragging bad the first week then really bad the second week, but Sandy who could run it walked with me and kept up a line of chatter to the point that my mind was off my pain and I never noticed the little witch had been increasing the pace every day plus asking me to take walks with her after dinner every night.

  I was so wrapped up in the excitement of what we were going to do that I just let her lead me like a mule and when the day came for the time trial I amazed myself!! Of course before the EMP I couldn’t have walked a mile the first day.

  Also in the second week we did a weapons inspection of everybody’s weapon of choice and then they had to prove they could handle it.

  We did encourage them to all use the standard M-16’s we got at the Air base but some of the old guys wanted to keep their “deer gun” and God Bless em.

  And them ol boys could shoot! So we formed a designated marksman set up like the military used. Another word for Sniper but PC.

  We ended up with enough people to form a damn good “Army”, rabble looking but they were all here coz they wanted to be and that counts more then short hair or shiny boots.

  One thing we had that I just wasn’t sure of was the Bradley’s mounted on flatbed trailers. We had some that had missiles for shooting at planes and tanks and just about every damn thing we might run into and we had folks who could not only run em but could teach others to run em.

  I don’t know what my problem was but I chalked it up to being an old mud Marine who looks at armor as a bullet magnet which means the grunts don’t care to be close to them. But we got em and we just might find a use for them.

  I will admit I’m in love with the ones that have the 25 MM chain gun! That baby is the cats ass! And I know Sandy is just frothing at the mouth to get on the trigger of one. She has a very serious problem when it comes to guns. I wonder where she got it ?

  I find myself sometimes thinking how just a couple of years ago I was in Montana hiding behind a log with 3 guys trying to kill me and I was armed with a 22 rifle now I was more or less in control of a small army complete with heavy weapons mounted on Armored vehicles.

  I can feel myself starting to over think this whole thing so I’m gonna stop. We are all set to roll out tomorrow morning at day break. 250 men and women heading out to hunt trouble and bury it. Nobody being paid to risk their life, no medals, nobody even aware if you die except those here now.

  We had come together as strangers and to a degree we still were in the sense we didn’t know everybody’s history but it didn’t matter.

  Everybody had their name written on the breast pocket of their BDU’s and that was enough. No officers, no saluting, everybody has a voice and can speak up when they have something to say and no idea is ever just blown off, because that idea may be the one that saves your life.

  Eat with whomever you want, sleep with who you want if they are willing , just don’t let it cause trouble with the overall safety of the unit. Any unsafe weapons handling will get you knocked on your ass because dead is forever.

  We do want everybody to cross train with everybody else, wanna drive a lowboy, climb in it and the driver will teach you, wanna be a gunner on a Bradley, go to school with the crew. We are a band of brothers and sisters and anybody can be or do whatever they are big enough to do.

  One area we want more people to work on is scouting, getting out with Charley’s lads and learn what you can because one day you may have to do it for real.

  The Bradley’s with the surface to air weapons have dedicated crews all of whom have served in them in the military but they will teach anybody who wants, we are a rolling school of death and destruction. But for good.

  We were ready to go and the crew staying at the fort gave us a grand going away party. It took two days to sober up but finally we were loaded and clear eyed and ready.

  So with a wave we rolled out, without my forward ho crap. I was sure some were just waiting to honk their horns and jeer.. well screw em!

  Sandy laughed and said you’re so childish! I stuck my tongue out at her and she said exactly! Sometimes I think I should have left her in Idaho but then again she is a lot of fun. And handy with them 45’s

  We were heading for interstate 80 and then east then wherever, but I wanted to see how it looked as far as the Mississippi which I had no intention of ever crossing again, once was enough but the up side was that’s where I met Miz Sheri and family and ended up in Texas.

  I wondered if any of the bridges were passable what with all the vehicles that stopped dead in the water so to speak. I was also wondering about the rumors I’d heard that some of the elected fools who caused all this were trying to form a new government with no regard for the Constitution or Bill of Rights.

  If this was true I could see even more bad news coming simply because those who get into politics tend to love power an
d this new batch might be even worse. Time will tell.

  In the mean time we are going exploring to see for ourselves just what’s out there beyond the horizon and for the first time since we started this whole trip I felt good about what we were doing. Of course as we travel if we see any ripe plums needing picking we were gonna pluck em.

  Three days later we made it to interstate 80 near Rock Springs, I had last been there in around 1980 and with the Oil boom it was a complete shit hole. And from the looks of it things didn’t improve, parts are burned to the ground.

  We had stopped in a low place and the scouts had eased up to get a look and I wasn’t gonna miss out on this so we drove up where they had stopped and eased to the crest of the hill. There was some people still hanging on that we could see and they were working gardens and just doing what it took to survive. We didn’t see any sign of guard posts but we had to assume there was some out there.

  One of the scout units hoisted the US flag and a White one and rolled over the hill. In less then a minute they were spotted and the people out in the open were just gone. They had to have some kind of bunkers to just go poof like that which said something for their organization and leadership.

  We watched as the scout rig stopped on the turn off over pass, it was still a pretty good distance into the edge of the city but they just stopped and waited until a pickup headed out toward them, there was a bunch of folks in the back all armed as they should be.

  After the truck stopped about 100 yards away from the HV one of the scouts walked out a ways and laid his rifle on the ground. Kinda over done since there was a big nasty machine gun pointed right at the town folks which wasn’t lost on them.

  The scout stopped about half way and waited while finally a man stepped out and laid his rifle on the hood of the truck and came out to meet. They talked a good while then the scout turned and mad a hand sign that Charley said meant it seemed ok. Seemed? But ok that was as good as it was gonna get so I headed for the HV to head down there, when I got to my rig I found Sandy standing in front of it and shaking her head no. I should have known these jerks weren’t gonna let me go in there until they had checked it out big time. Like I’m important.

  The rest of the scouts headed down into the town area and while we watched a fairly large bunch gathered around them. I did notice that two of the scout units had stopped back a ways and spread our to get a clear firing lane. I looked at Charley who was almost smiling and pride was shining in his eyes. Good men I said. He nodded and said this whole thing with the lights going out may have killed off a lot of your people but it saved mine. Drugs and booze no longer are a problem, young men are showing interest in the old ways as are the girls.

  I waited because I knew he wasn’t done. He finally said “so much good from so much bad. It is the way as always.

  Charley may not have had the benefits of so called higher learning but he had a PHD in life and any snobby collage professor could learn from this man.

  I asked him how to say “Brother”? he looked at me and smiled big and said “ Brother”. HA fkn HA I said. He finally said John you would never be able to say it, I’m sorry but that’s how it is. But why do you ask?

  I told him that having been an only child I never had a brother but if I ever had I could ask for no better man then him. He looked at me for a long time and nodded and said “ I feel the same for you John Long Walker”.

  I looked around and saw Sandy wiping her eyes with her shirt and then she said something haltingly to Charley in his language and he replied slowly. She squinted like she does when she’s really working a thought and then she smiled and said one word and Charley nodded and smiled at her.

  I asked how long the lessons had been going on and he said that usually while I was getting over being shot all the time she worked on it with the old woman who ran the café. Well damnit I don’t get shot all the time and I don’t remember having to recoup in Shiprock.

  He said no you don’t and walked away while Sandy laughed out loud. I get no respect as ol Rodney used to say. I asked her how much she could really speak and she said mostly the simple words like a baby would use as it grew.

  But she was getting the hang of understanding more and more of what was said if it was spoken slow enough, She said you know as smart as the Japs were in the war they never figured out what the language being spoken was.

  She also said other tribes had sent talkers to help out, I said really? And got punched because she knew I knew that. Word traps , she sets them like a mine field and it’s hard to get thru the day without getting something blown off.

  We were thru waiting and Charley motioned for us to roll out and down into the town or the remains of it.

  There we met the leader of the place who was again a woman, this makes how many places being lead by a woman? Not to say they can’t handle the job but it is kind of unusual.

  She was a tall lady in her 40’s and carried herself well, She introduced her self as Margo and the council as she called it and invited us to come on in. I told her we had a rather large group and it might be best if we parked outside the area. She said “ Hmm just how large?”

  I nodded at Charley who said something to the comm man in the HV who said something to the comm man back in the convoy and soon we could hear the roar of heavy engines and over the hill came the first sign of military these folks has seen since the lights went out.

  Well all in all they took it well but I could see a bit of fear in a few eyes. I spoke up and said we’re peaceful and would be moving east the next day or so.

  That evening we invited all of them to our camp for a meal that our cooks busted their butts to make special. It was helped out by the fresh veggies provided by the townies. And it was a feast! Them ol boys and gals could cook a boot and you’d swear it was a T bone.

  We sat up late talking with Margo who told us how things had shook out for them which actually wasn’t bad, they had their share of bad folks but they just buried them and went on living. The word must have spread because they stopped having to shoot the silly bastards as she put it.

  The were doing real well and lacked not much and wanted for less. It seemed they had learned real fast that working together meant everybody did well. She did say there was the usual jackasses who refused to co-opt with the rest but they didn’t last long or they got smart and joined in.

  I asked her to make a list of those wants and needs and I’d see what we could do. She was kind of amazed but said she would get back to me on that.

  We spent a restful night and when morning came and the cooks had the coffee going Margo showed up with her husband Harry, who had been away on a scavenging trip. He was a nice guy who had a military bearing about him and when asked said he had spent 20 years in the Army, retired at 38 and then got on with the Sheriffs dept here in his home town.

  I asked Margo if she had her list and she said yes but I’m afraid to show it to you because it’s a lot. Sandy spoke up and said oh hell give it to him he won’t bite and if he tries I’ll smack him.

  Margo looked at her and said yanno I believe you would and they both laughed while me and Harry just rolled our eyes.

  But I did get the list and looked it over and looked at her and said this is all you could come up with?

  She sighed and Harry laughed and said she made a list of stuff we really need bad then made one of what we would like to have but….and left it there.

  The second list was a lot longer and looking at it I realized how lucky we had been from the git go.

  I handed both to Sandy who looked at them and bounced up and said come on babe we goin shopping and she and Margo took off.

  I told Harry we would just drink coffee and wait, he said real coffee? And I busted out laughing. I told him I had no way of knowing how she did it but Sandy could find a stash of coffee like a hound finds a skunk. He just leaned back and held that cup and sighed and smiled.

  I excused myself and left for a moment to visit our tent and returned with
a new bottle of Jim Beam and doctored my cup and offered it to him. He just shook his head and said it’s happy hour in Bangkok and I laughed out loud and said I ain’t heard another person say that in years but I do all the time to the point Sandy makes fun of me.

  We sat and told each other our history and while I was older then him we had both kinda followed the same path in life.

  After the loaded coffee we both started yawning and soon dozed off only to wake up to Sandy commenting about old men and old drunks.

  I just kept my eyes shut and flipped her off. Which as usual got her to laughing. I finally opened my eyes and looked at Harry and winked then held out my coffee cup to her. She snorted but took both cups and returned with them filled but took the bottle away. I flipped her off again behind her back causing her to say I saw that! Harry laughed so I flipped him off too.

  I asked where Margo was and she said they had sent the first load down to town and she went with the driver. Harry said truck load? First load? What the hell did she take? Sandy said not much but I decided she needed help shopping and we had a ball.