It was an hour later, still in a forest and on a dirt road, that they pulled close to Gerald, who was sitting on a small, dirt driveway that pulled off the right side of the road. Giving them a nod, Gerald eased down the driveway for a hundred yards, stopped, and got off his ATV, patting his leg for Duke to follow. On the satellite map, it showed a house a quarter of a mile down the driveway. They were two miles south of Van Buren as the crow flies.
Keeping an easy pace, Gerald eased down the driveway, which was lined with thick trees. Seeing an opening in the forest ahead, Gerald slowed and eased into the woods, continuing toward the house. Stopping at the tree line, Gerald studied the house and noticed stuff strewn across the front yard, and the front door was open.
“Duke, search,” he whispered then pointed to the house.
Duke slunk out of the trees toward the house, and Gerald saw Duke’s body relax as he got close. Trotting in the front door, Duke moved around the house then came back out and ran to Gerald. When Duke stopped beside him, looking up with his tongue hanging out, Gerald reached down and patted his head. “Good boy.”
Running back, Gerald nodded at them as Duke jumped on the ATV, and he climbed on, easing down the driveway. They pulled the ATVs behind the house into the woods then grabbed packs and went inside the house.
The inside was destroyed, and when they saw a gun safe that was busted open, Ronald shook his head. “Reclamation patrol has been here.”
“Could’ve been someone just looking for supplies,” Nelson said, moving out of the living room.
“If that’s the case, they are moving by vehicle to carry this much,” he said, waving at the big gun safe.
Gerald walked around the kitchen looking at the empty cabinets and the littered floor. “Shit, they could at least respect other people’s stuff. They don’t have to destroy everything,” he said, looking at the broken plates and glasses on the floor.
“Why?” Nelson said, moving up beside him. “They don’t plan on anyone ever living here again.”
“Thought you said it was someone looking for supplies?”
“False hope,” Nelson sighed, shaking his head. “We load vehicles from abandoned houses, and we don’t destroy like this. They were looking for hidden stuff.”
“Come on,” Gerald said, joining Ronald in the living room, who was looking at a family portrait he picked up off the floor.
“Guys, this shit is FUBAR big time,” he said, tossing the picture on the floor since all the furniture was destroyed. “We got a long war ahead of us.”
“Not going to argue that,” Gerald said, looking at them. “You guys want to catch a few winks or move to primary OP (observation post)?”
“I’m for going to the OP,” Nelson said. “The more we observe, the more we can destroy.”
“I’m with Nelson,” Ronald said. “Let’s get this shit done and kill these fuckers.”
Walking out the back, they grabbed nets and covered up the ATVs. Ronald watched Nelson and Gerald pull out small cloth bags and remove ghillie suits. “I take it I’ll be the one staying in the OP,” Ronald said, watching them pull the suits on.
“Yeah,” Nelson said. “Didn’t get around to making you one with everything going on.”
Ronald gave a low chuckle. “With everything this group has done for me and mine, it’s not like I’m hurt.”
“I’ll take point,” Nelson said, pulling on his hood. Ronald looked at Nelson’s ghillie suit and was very impressed as the sun broke the horizon.
Grabbing several bags, Ronald passed one to each of them. “Nelson, that doesn’t look like any ghillie suit I’ve ever seen,” Ronald said as Nelson put a ghillie cover over his backpack and AR.
“I took a hunting 3D suit and added to it,” Nelson said, putting on his large rucksack, which had a rifle case mounted to it, and grabbed the tote bag Ronald had passed out. Seeing the others ready, Nelson turned and eased through the woods with Zeus beside him.
“You take the middle, Ronald,” Gerald said when the trees almost blocked sight of Nelson. “I’ll bring up the rear.”
Gripping his rifle, Ronald nodded and followed Nelson. He soon found if he wasn’t keeping a close eye on Nelson, he would lose sight of him. The ghillie suit broke him up so well if Nelson stopped and Ronald wasn’t watching, he couldn’t find him until Nelson moved.
Moving slowly for thirty minutes, Nelson eased up to the tree line, where a paved road split the forest. Off in the distance, he heard a diesel engine. Moving out of the tree line, Nelson looked down the road to confirm where he was. Satisfied, he trotted across, back into the forest.
Once the others crossed, Nelson continued, slowly easing up a ridge until he saw a break in the trees where the road he was heading for was. Hearing a diesel engine approaching, Nelson eased down on one knee. It was coming from the west and heading toward town. Glancing at his watch, Nelson saw it was almost 8 a.m.
Knowing that sound anywhere, Nelson waited as the Humvee crept closer. From the sound, he knew it wasn’t going more than twenty-five miles per hour. Looking left, he soon saw the shape of the Humvee creeping down the road with a soldier in the cupola manning what looked like M240.
Nelson could see four other troops riding in the seats. All the windows were down, and rifle barrels were poking out the windows. As they slowly drove down the road, Nelson noticed they were all scanning their areas. Zeus sat down beside him, panting as he watched the Humvee through the trees.
When it passed, Nelson waited another twenty minutes after he couldn’t hear it anymore then eased up to the road and saw a street sign: Skyline Drive. “Where I want to be,” Nelson said, glancing around again then ran across the road along a ridge south of town.
Easing back in the trees on the other side, Nelson waited for the others. When Gerald and Duke crossed, he followed the road south to the house they were going to use for the OP. Passing through the backyard of one house, he saw clothes and trash scattered across the yard. Not stopping to investigate, he eased back into the woods.
Coming up on a large, open area, Nelson stopped and waited for the others. Ahead were three houses sitting right off the road. When Gerald knelt beside him, Nelson pointed at the middle house. “It’s the tallest.”
Nodding as he studied the house, Gerald noticed the back doors open on all the houses, and some of the windows were broken. “Move to it, and if it’s clear, wave us in,” Gerald told him, looking down into the valley below.
Nelson burst into a run across the first yard with Zeus beside him in a trot. When he reached the second house, Nelson stopped at the back wall and listened. Only hearing birds, he crept to the back door. “Zeus, search,” he whispered.
When Zeus trotted in, Nelson turned around and saw the town of Van Buren less than a mile away down in the valley. “Oh shit,” he mumbled and darted inside, moving to the front door as Zeus came down the stairs, panting. “Stay,” Nelson said, he slipped out the front door, and ran back across the front yards to Gerald and Ronald.
Coming around the front of the house, he saw Gerald jump, raising his AR, but he stopped when he saw it was Nelson. Nelson knelt beside them. “The Stryker has moved, and if they raise that sight this way, they will see us as we get inside. Let’s go in the front,” he said in a low voice.
They followed Nelson in a run to the front of and into the houses and saw Zeus still sitting in the same spot. Not stopping, Nelson headed for the stairs. Moving down the hall, careful not to trip on all the shit on the floor, he opened the doors on the right side of the hall to the rooms that faced Van Buren.
He stopped at the middle room that had the remnants of a young boy’s stuff. Looking out the two windows, Nelson smiled. “Let’s set up here.”
“They can see inside,” Ronald said as Gerald took off his pack.
“Thermal doesn’t see through glass,” Nelson said, dropping his pack. He moved the broken bed in the middle of the floor to the wall as Gerald grabbed an overturned kid’s desk. Nelson handed him th
e bag he was carrying, and Gerald pulled out a huge spotting scope.
“Those troops in that Humvee seemed really nervous,” Gerald said, setting up the spotting scope on the desk.
Nelson laughed, pulling out his binoculars. “Dude, if someone would’ve farted, they would’ve opened up with everything.”
Ronald picked up a desk chair and handed it to Gerald, who sat down behind the spotting scope. “They will soon learn that they need to be afraid,” Ronald said, flipping the mattress on the bed over and lying down.
“Seems they were already scared,” Gerald said in a distracted voice, looking through the spotting scope.
Standing behind him, Nelson looked through his binoculars. “The tank hasn’t moved. Wonder why they pulled the Stryker closer? It was half a mile further down the road; that’s why we wanted here.”
“You see any signs they were attacked?” Ronald asked, pulling out a notebook as he lay on the mattress, writing.
“No,” Gerald said. “It looks like they have expanded the internment camp on the other side of the river.”
“Yeah, I see,” Nelson said, putting down his binoculars, and he pulled out a map of Van Buren. “Thought so—it’s the parking lot for the campground. They just surrounded it with construction fence.”
“Did the same thing around the lodge they are using as a camp.” Leaning back, Gerald looked at the map. “There aren’t that many people in that prison area now, mainly little kids with a few elderly women, but it looks like that enclosure is set up to hold several hundred.”
“Maybe they recently transferred the others to a bigger camp,” Ronald offered.
Shaking his head slightly as he looked back at the area, Gerald said, “Maybe,” not buying that explanation.
“Since this is my home for the scouting trip, you two get some rest before you ease out, and I’ll keep watch,” Ronald said, getting up.
Nelson stood up, looking at the other two. “We need to spread out in the house. This many bodies may heat up those windows enough that they investigate.”
As Ronald sat down at the desk, Gerald and Nelson moved into the house, finding a spot to lay down and rest for the work ahead.
Chapter Thirteen
Nelson felt a hand grab his shoulder, and he tried to sit up but was held down. “A Humvee just left the camp and is heading toward us,” Ronald whispered.
When Ronald let him go, Nelson grabbed his gear and followed him as he walked out of the bedroom Nelson had been sleeping in. Stepping out in the hall, Nelson saw Gerald coming out of the room Ronald was set up in to watch the camp. “They will be here at the house soon,” he said, moving to the end of the hall and walking into the last bedroom.
“Shouldn’t we like boogie out of here?” Ronald asked, following him.
“No, when we set up this morning, a Humvee was heading into town. These houses have been searched, and there is no way they know we are here,” Gerald said, looking out a window that overlooked the road behind the house. “Ronald, you get back to the watch room, and Nelson, keep an eye out on the other end of the house in case they dismount some troops.”
With Zeus right behind him, Nelson ran back to the room he slept in and knelt down in the back of the room, looking out the side window down the road. He heard the Humvee long before he saw it. “Yeah, Hummers aren’t exactly ninja mobiles,” he said, reaching up and putting his hunter’s aid ear piece in his left ear. The rumble went from distant to very noticeable instantly as Nelson put the radio bud in his right ear.
It didn’t take long for him to see the Humvee slowly creeping down the road. A soldier was standing out the top behind an M2, moving the barrel in an arc covering the front, and Nelson saw four more troops inside. “Don’t shoot at me, and I won’t shoot at you—at least not yet,” Nelson mumbled, not liking Ma Deuce sweeping him.
Almost holding his breath, Nelson watched the Humvee slowly drive past the house and noticed all the troops inside were scanning their sectors. The apprehension on their faces was very visible. “What has you guys so on edge? We only attacked a small holding area, not a military checkpoint,” he said after the Humvee passed by his window.
When the sound moved further down the road, Nelson eased back to Gerald. Kneeling beside him, Nelson looked out the window with him. “You see how nervous they were?” Nelson asked in a low voice.
“Shit yeah, and the barrel of that fifty looked the size of the Lincoln Tunnel,” Gerald huffed. “We haven’t picked up any attacks around here besides those motorcycle gangs and their own troops. They act like they were patrolling the sand box.”
“You think that was a patrol? They weren’t exactly geared up for it,” Nelson said, and Gerald just shrugged. Ten minutes later, they heard the Humvee returning.
Gerald looked at his watch. “We got here around seven, right?”
“About.”
They looked out the side window to see a different Humvee coming back. “They changed guard. That Humvee has an M240 on it,” Gerald said.
“They are driving back a little faster,” Nelson noticed as the Humvee passed the house, heading back to camp. “They can’t be that far from here as slow as that other one was going.”
“When we move out, I’ll go and check,” Gerald said, standing up and leaving.
They went back to the room Ronald was set up in and found him sitting behind the desk, looking through the spotting scope. “Hey guys, a bunch of school buses just pulled up to that holding area across the river,” he said.
Gerald and Nelson both grabbed binoculars, looking out the window. “What the fuck,” Nelson mumbled as three buses drove across the bridge followed by over a dozen one-ton dually trucks pulling long, loaded trailers. Spread out along the line were Humvees with troops manning weapons standing out of the firing port on the roof. “What are those trucks carrying?”
“Supplies taken from houses,” Ronald answered, zooming the spotting scope in as the line of trucks and buses pulled off the highway, passing the hotel that was the center of the military camp. “Those are reclamation patrols.”
Looking back at the prisoner camp at the other side of the river, Nelson saw people forming lines as they got off the buses. A soldier moved down the lines, looking at a clipboard as another soldier waved a metal detector wand over them then motioned the line inside the area surrounded by fence. “Keeping tabs on your work force,” Nelson said.
Lowering his binoculars, Gerald glanced over at Nelson. “You still going to set up on that hill beside the highway?”
“Hell yeah,” Nelson said, moving his binoculars to the hill sitting just under two hundred yards from the tank. “I will be able to see their entire setup and get good numbers.”
Shaking his head, Gerald lifted his binoculars, looking at the hill. Part of the hill had been removed to make the highway and road running beside it, leaving a twenty-foot, rocky, vertical face. “Kind of close, don’t ya think?”
“All the better to see them with,” Nelson grinned.
“Has that tank or Stryker moved?” Gerald asked.
“Shit man, nobody’s even been over to them or got out of them,” Ronald said. “There is no way a crew has stayed inside buttoned up as hot as it is, and they can’t keep thermals on that long without cranking up to charge the batteries.”
“Yeah, I let the Stryker I was in once die because I didn’t remind the driver to crank up every few hours,” Nelson said, still looking through his binoculars.
“Whew,” Gerald sighed. “That makes me feel better. I didn’t like the idea of running around with them able to throw out hate from an M1.”
“Just because the armor isn’t manned doesn’t mean they don’t have patrols closer to base,” Ronald said. “With all the foliage on the trees, I can’t see a lot around the lodge they are using for their camp.”
“Buses moving,” Nelson said, and they all turned and watched the line of buses leave the prisoners, pull across the bridge, and take the same road the others did in fro
nt of the camp. “Keeping all the rides away from the prisoners. Ronald, can you see where troops are staying around the prisoners?”
“Yeah, the field right behind the area is a tent setup, and those trucks off to the side in that smaller parking area are a mobile kitchen,” he said. “Notice all those portable lights around the prison area. Some are pointed in, and others are pointing out.”
Zooming in, Nelson saw the portable generator lights that he had seen used on industrial sites. “For something that was thrown together, it looks set up pretty well,” Nelson said.
“I’m sure Van Buren was marked as a checkpoint long before this,” Gerald said, moving his binoculars around.
Dropping his binoculars and letting them hang around his neck, Nelson turned to Gerald. “Dude, it’s a small town, not a major metropolis.”
“That’s right,” Gerald said, still scanning the area. “Easy to evict the small population, natural chokepoint with the bridge over the Current River, hills and ridge lines overlooking the area around them so they know who’s coming, it’s consolidated enough that it can be controlled by a small number of troops, and all the roads on either side empty onto highway 60 to use its bridge.”
“Damn,” Nelson mumbled. “I want a tin foil hat now.”
“Oh, I’m sure this is only one of hundreds of small towns that they had planned taking over to control movement,” Gerald said, finally lowering his binoculars. “Before we take off, I’m going to ease down the road and see where that Humvee set up.”
“You want my ghillie suit?” Nelson asked.
“Nah, I finally set mine up like yours,” Gerald huffed. “I don’t see how in the hell you put that thing on in Iraq.”
“Hey, when the other side started getting thermals, I didn’t care about the heat as long as they didn’t shoot at my ass,” Nelson said as Gerald started putting on his gear. “I sure as hell hope you got the cooler vest like mine.”
Gerald stopped and looked up at Nelson, arching his right eyebrow. “You think I’m going to wrap myself in a thermal blanket and not find some way to cool off?”
Forgotten Forbidden America:: Patriots Reborn Page 25
