by T J Reeder
She stepped closer and said OH Daddy I’ve been bad, spank me Daddy! Ralph turned so red I was afraid he was gonna blow a vein. So I told her to stop it and leave the poor guy along.
When everybody got done laughing Ralph said it was wonderful! And he thought he would never fly one again. I think I saw him blink away a tear.
Well we had a plane and a chopper and one pilot so there was nothing to do but start looking for more pilots. So we put the word out back to Rock Springs who booted it on to the Fort who ….well you get it. Someplace in our travels we had met pilots, now we just had to drag them into the fight. And if they all were as emotional about flying as Ralph we wouldn’t have to work too hard at it.
One thing I wanted to do was break out a few of those FAL’s they weren’t the most accurate in the world but out to 500 yards they packed more snot then a 223 could ever have even at close range. Face it I just really like the 308 round and I love my 308 rifles but there is just something about these heavy old war horses.
So I asked who wanted to play with guns ..might as well asked who wanted sex. They all jumped up and headed for the truck where we left the rifles.
They were packed in preservative but thank god it wasn’t that damn Cosmoline if they had I would have tossed them in a river. Well ok maybe not that but anyway they weren’t, so we really just wiped the crap off then and wiped the bores and loaded magazines.
I was willing to bet I was the only one here who had ever shot one of these babies. Except maybe Charley. We all took our new toys out away from the camp and I snapped in a magazine and hit the charging handle and put it on semi auto and fired at a rock about 200 yards away and hit over it so I moved the rear sight down on notch and fired again, and it was a hit! And the rock exploded in a cloud of gray dust!
I was ready to hand the rifle off because I couldn’t do that again in a week of shooting. Well that started the war and when we were done there wasn’t a head sized rock within several hundred yards.
I was surprised at the smiles! These folks loved shooting and I felt sorry for anybody who might be stupid enough to try to disarm us. Well then I noticed nobody had gone into rock and roll and realized maybe they didn’t know so I slipped a mag in mine and yelled going hot! EARS!!
After giving them time to get their ears covered I flipped the switch from safe to semi and fired 3 rounds slow fire then flipped it to rock and roll and lit up the hillside in front of me and that had their attention!! Everybody had to try that one time and it sounded like a real war for a fact, we very seldom used full from the M-16’s simply because you hit more when you’re aiming and squeezing the trigger.
After we got back to camp we all gathered at the back of the truck and I showed them how to break the FN down to clean, not much different from the 16’s.
I hadn’t gotten a count on how many there was but standing there looking at the long crates and multiplying by 10 we had a thousand of the things and enough ammo to last a year of heavy fighting, now why would some drug runner in the middle of bum fuck Wyoming want or need with that many full auto rifles?
Unless he was planning to arm a big army of shooters who never showed up or he never made it thru the EMP which if he was in an airplane he just might not have made it.
Well I wasn’t gonna worry about it because we had em and we would need them if we kept recruiting people which I think we best do. Nothing like getting invited to a war and having to decline because your side don’t show up.
Right then I had to ask myself when I had gone from looking at this as a recon to the big river to heading into a war? I didn’t have an answer but I best find one and damn fast. I had a lot of people, a lot of friends counting on me to know what I was doing.
Time for a meeting with Charley who was standing there like he was waiting for me. Spooky but not unexpected, I was getting used to the mumbo-jumbo shit between him and Sandy.
When I headed toward him he nodded and walked away toward the hills on the north side of the camp. We found a spot looking over the entire area and sat for several minutes without talking.
Finally he cleared his throat and said John, my brother, all things come clear in time, sometimes the person fights it or ignores it but it will still come in it’s time.
I sat until I knew he was done and I cleared my throat softly and said I didn’t know my ears were closed or my eyes shut, I seem to stumble along and things happen, when they do I react.
After a bit he said John, Why did you wake up one day and decide to leave Texas after fighting so hard to get home?
How did you know Joe and Willy needed help?
Why did you decide in mid stream to stop wondering around digging bones from the empty places?
Why did you go find a Fort to keep as place of safety when we need it?
Why did we come here?
How is it a man appears who can fly an airplane but loves Helicopters and you happen to find one?
How in all this empty land did you find a place with enough good rifles and ammo to fit out an army?
Again he paused and I waited and finely said I don’t know.
Charley said “ Yes you do. John you are not a believer in these things but there is a power, a force for good and evil. Your people call it Gods will.
My people have several names for it. But whatever we call it John it just is, it always has be and will always be.
When you open you’re eyes to see and you’re ears to hear and you’re heart for you’re spirit to sour you will know.
I sat for a long time and then said “Sandy”? And he smiled a real smile and said “yes, Sandy, she is a part of it all.” How was it you found her? Just at a time when you were lost and alone and walking in darkness. Yes she is special, I knew it as did the old woman the instant we saw her.
I sat for a moment and then asked a question I had long wanted to ask. I looked at him and asked if the old woman was his wife? He laughed and said no John, she is my mother! I sat there stunned and finally said “ Shit Charley she must be a hundred years old!! He said yes but nobody knows, when asked she will say “I got here when it was my time and I will leave when it’s my time now do you want your eggs over easy or scrambled? We both laughed.
I asked how I would get my eyes and ears open and he said “ When it is time” and smiled that gentle smile I had come to look for. And I knew right then and there we were going to be alright.
At last I decided we needed to load up and head East, We loaded the chopper on a lowboy and Ralph would fly bird dog for us. Since he could land damn near anyplace it was a good plan plus we weren’t sure yet about the role of the chopper, it could haul several people in the cabin and stripped of the seats could haul even more if we didn’t pack it full of 250 pounder’s plus gear.
We headed back to 80 and took off Ralph flew over the Cheyenne area and reported it was a burned out wreck and the big Air Force base was pretty much gone.
Nothing much moving but what looked like cooking fires scattered over the entire area, lots of what looked like gardens on the edges of the city or what was left of it.
He stayed high up and feathered his engine to avoid attention, he also said the highway system was really jammed with vehicles and advised we take a long detour around the entire area but send in some scouts to look at making contact.
He flew back over us and wiggled his wings and we followed him as he lead us thru the back roads and away from any bottle necks. Eyes in the sky!! Awesome! How sweet is this?
We were past Cheyenne on the North and just loafing along letting Ralph do the “Garmin” thing when he radioed that there was what looked like a fairly productive looking small farm/compound ahead and the people had spotted him but he was too high for them to shoot at so he circled around them and dropped lower and lower and tossed out a sand bag with a red streamer attached to it. Written on the bag was the words “we come in peace”. After it hit the ground and was picked up one of the crowd waved and made a come on in motion.
No
w we were faced with making contact in a way to not scare the crap out of these people so I sent a scout rig with a second Hv as a over watch, I told them to approach watchfully and be careful of chokepoints.
What pissed me off was I knew I should be the one to go because sending others into the shit wasn’t the way I was trained. Of course this is where “She” popped off with yea like a hundred years ago before you got fat and slow and then laughed with glee. I hate her.
We eased along while the scouting party moved in behind the two contact teams. I hoped it wasn’t gonna be a shit storm because we had managed this trip peacefully and I wanted to keep it so for as long as possible.
After about an hour Ralph said he could see the two HV’s approaching the edge of the farm and several people were out there to meet them. So far so good.
We stopped out of sight and sound of the place and just waited after about an hour one of the scout teams called in and said maybe I should come in for a chat. I fired up the rig and Charley piled in to talk to his people who said in Navajo that it seemed like everything was ok, happy people, well fed growing tons of food and for the most part seemed to be peaceful.
Charley told them to be watchful like the worried father he was and soon enough we were there. I drove up to their gate and stopped, got out and walked over to the group waiting for us. I knew without looking that Wyatt was on the gun watching for any tiny hair out of place and she would light them up. last thing I wanted.
They had several park tables set up outside the gate with a shed roof over them and invited us to sit. After introductions I explained who we were headed and what we were doing.
They just nodded and looked agreeable and happy but I was getting a vibe off them that they weren’t interested in outsiders. I asked what they did here and they said just lived at peace with the earth and grew their food and harmed nothing. They ate no meat only things they grew in the earth.
I asked about troubles and they said they were peaceful and while they didn’t wish to could protect themselves if they had to, they allowed no outsiders inside but would give food to any who asked, they just wanted to be free to live their lives as they wished. John asked how things went down after the EMP ? They said their place had already been here and was self sufficient even then and since they were off the beaten path they were let alone.
John smiled and said that’s good and we will be heading on our way but be aware that the Former Government has been replaced by what looks like a Marxist regime and had plans to move into the West ASAP.
Their spokesman smiled and said well I’m sure it won’t be any worse then it was before. John smiled back and said yea I kinda suspected that would be your response.
With that he walked away and the rest of his people withdrew under the protection of the guns. After they were a mile away he started laughing and Sandy asked why. He said you weren’t standing there or you would have gotten a contact high like the rest of us. Those folks are smoking as much of their veggie crop and they eat. Sandy started laughing and said “ A hippie commune”?? Even Charley laughed.
After leaving the stoners to their commune they rolled more or less East and South to get back to the 80 to continue their forward progress.
Word of the commune spread fast and everybody was having a good laugh and a few wondered if they might change sides! They may not have been joking! But it was the talk for the rest of the day and for the most part everybody felt WTF go for it if it works for you!
By evening we were in a nice little valley with a creek running thru it spotted by our bird dog who landed on the road where we turned off. We just put out our small personal tents and ate road rations and by dark we were settled in with guards out on 2 hour shifts. It was a very quiet night and morning came to the smell of coffee from the cooks trailer which was set up like a small rolling cook house.
Soon they had eggs and hot cakes ready and fed everybody.
I missed the old days when SOS was on the menu every morning wherever Marines were present except in the field, and said so with a smile.
We rolled out by 0900 and made the 80 before noon, it was a jammed up pile of vehicles still sitting wherever they rolled to a stop. We were able to roll thru and around the mess but it was a pain in the ass so we took an off ramp and then the frontage road which was much better, I put a six-by in front and had them use the big bumper to just move shit out of the way. We then made good time.
All day we passed signs of folks doing what it took to survive, it was to time consuming to stop everybody to chat so we send two HV’s to talk to the folks. Most were doing pretty good which made me smile because it looked more and more like the city folks had burned and shot themselves out of the big picture and the more rural folks didn’t, well some did as represented by the boot hills around a lot of the little communities.
Seems after the trash got hauled the type of folks who settled this land just dug in and started all over again, the hands out crowd was gone because they just couldn’t adapt or had and were doing better.
I’m not saying that all city folks don’t have what it takes to live without a central Government taking care of them but it sure was looking that way.
Hell for all I know Central Park in New York was a giant garden and folks were just dancing they was so happy. No I don’t think so.
Every day we moved closer to the Big River as we took to calling her and more and more we saw folks on the move away from it, we talked to some of them and they all said the same thing, The Government was disarming people and then putting them to work in places where they could get things going and their pay was a meal and they could sleep on the floor where they worked. These folks were the ones who found a way to escape and head West.
When they asked what we were doing we told them we were gonna look it over and if it came to it we were gonna stop them. We picked up a lot of folks who were willing to fight but more just kept moving away from the coming battle.
The folks we took on were vetted as well as possible and we gained a few mechanics, some former military and believe it or not a couple of pilots! One was a Airline Capt. And one was just a guy who liked flying. They were taken back to our “ Air Base” north of Cheyenne to help get something else flying.
The military guys were all former Armor types who fit right in with our bunch and all but peed their pants over our tracks. I never understood those Armor types, same with the cannon cockers, strange breeds. But I’d love to get a couple of 105!! That would really make my day. If I knew jack shit about artillery, but I knew sooner or later we would find somebody who knew all about them.
I figured I might lose Sandy to a 105 as gun crazy as she was but she would get bored with sitting miles back in the rear away from the action. I’d really kill for a 106 recoilless rifle!! I spent time as a gunner on one and if it’s within 2500 yards I can thread a needle with one! I did love them things but that also helped kill my hearing.
We were averaging around 350 to 400 miles a day and with all the shit we were hauling I figured it was plenty. We came up on a large rest stop and pulled into it, the place had a well so the sparky crew worked on wiring a generator to it and soon there was water. The head mechanic wondered over and said he’s like a day or tow to service all the vehicles because doing it on the move just wasn’t getting it done plus we needed to send the scouts out to locate fuel.
So we set about building a nice camp and with water the rolling showers were soon up and working with hot water, Ladies first.
We had a staff meeting after evening chow and worked out the plan for the next few days. Ralph was gonna fly a fast scout trip and see what he could see. I said I wished his place was a two seater and he smiled real big and said the chopper will haul several people! And ya know I had forgot all about that damn thing. So he got it ready to fly right from the lowboy so it would be ready first light.
I looked around and saw Charley shaking his head “NO” Joe and Willy both wanted to go but one had to remain incase some
thing bad happened. They flipped a coin. Joe lost this time but was next inline.
With Ralph and me in front and Sandy and Willy plus a pair of shooters we were set. The shooters drew for high card for the trip, those who wanted to. Surprisingly not a lot of folks wanna fly. Sandy just said she was going and that was that. Bossy damn thing.
And we were off. I’ve not been in a chopper since the glory days of misguided youth, and it was still a combo of elation and terror. Sandy on the other hand would have been on the hood if the damn thing had one. Someplace in her there is a small child screaming with joy. I had to smile.
We flew East over the 80 just looking at the road ahead, and what we saw was a lot of vehicles loaded to the max heading West. And they were going as fast as they could it seemed from our altitude. The line stretched back a long ways.
We kept heading East and passed over the end of the westward flow. We were pretty close to needing to turn back for fuel reasons. But We needed to see what was causing these folks to run like they were. And far ahead we saw smoke and headed for it.
