by Mark Goodwin
Wednesday morning, Everett led the way across the landslide area to the open road where Lloyd was to pick them up at 8:00. He wore a tactical vest full of spare magazines and a small pack which contained several essential items. Like everyone else on the team, he carried one of the AR-15s which Kevin had brought to the cave, rather than his HK. They had all drilled with the standardized rifle over the previous eighteen months so he felt confident he would be able to use it efficiently in a combat situation. Being able to share magazines and ammunition made them all stronger as a team. Everett glanced up at the sky. “It looks like rain.”
Courtney followed close behind him. “That will make a real mess. Ash and mud.”
Elijah was behind Sarah, who trailed Courtney by several yards. “We need the rain to wash the blood out of the streams. Perhaps it will stimulate new growth in the forest.”
Kevin was the rear guard at the back of the line. “Rain is good hunting weather. It helps to obscure our movements visually as well as audibly. It’s not comfortable to fight in, but if I’m hitting a compound full of trained men, I’d rather be wet from rain than from my own blood.”
Everett chuckled. “When you put it like that.”
The first drops of rain began to fall, just as they reached the pickup location on the opposite side of the landslide.
Sarah dug her military poncho out of her pack. “I hope Scratchy is on time.”
Everett glanced at his watch as he put his own poncho on. “He’ll be here. And by the way, he only answers to Lloyd. Scratchy is the moniker Courtney gave him before we’d been formally introduced.”
Courtney tucked her rifle under her poncho. “I still like Scratchy better.”
Kevin found a large rock to sit on while he waited. “Elijah, how were the animals back at your barn doing this morning?”
Elijah pulled the drawstring to the hood of his poncho as the drizzling rain fell steadily. “They were thirsty. I’m sure they’re doing better now that the rain is falling. Water from the roof flows into a rain catcher gutter and runs into a larger steel trough. I brought them a bag of deer corn from the cave. It was supposed to be for us to eat, but I simply can’t stand to watch them starve. Besides, I couldn’t possibly have more than a few months left here. I won’t be taking my supplies with me when I leave.”
Courtney came to sit by Elijah. “Don’t say that.”
He stuck his hand out from beneath his poncho and put it on her arm. “It is true, child. In the book of Daniel, we read of the seventy weeks. Each prophetic week represents a seven-year period. The final week began with Angelo Luz’s treaty of the nations. It has been two years and ten months since. According to the way I read the book of Revelation, I am to prophesy in Jerusalem for three and a half years. At most, I will be here for another eight months.”
“Still, I don’t like to talk about you leaving.” Courtney looked down toward the ground where rain drops were running off her poncho and mixing with the ash.
Elijah turned back to Kevin. “Some of the deer corn, I spread around my old garden plot. It’s more than four years old, so I don’t know if it will germinate. Even if it does, it’s that genetically modified corn, so it may not produce. But, as long as a stalk grows, the goats and the chickens will eat it.”
“I thought you bought all heirloom stuff.” Everett looked curiously at Elijah.
“For my seeds, I did. Deer corn wasn’t available as heirloom seed. In fact, when I bought it, it was illegal to plant deer corn. The company had a patent on the genetic modifications.”
“I’m sure it’s still illegal.” Sarah repositioned herself on the rock next to Kevin. “It’s just that Luz probably holds all the patents.”
Kevin chuckled. “I wouldn’t be surprised if it germinates and produces. They engineered that stuff to grow on concrete. I’m just not sure I’d want to eat it.”
Everett rolled his eyes. “We’ve got less than four and a half years till the end of time. The amount of harm Frankenfood can do to your body is limited at this point.”
Courtney stood up and pointed down the road. “There’s Scratchy's van!”
Kevin got up from the rock he’d been sitting on. “Everyone spread out. Safety off and rifles at a low ready until we confirm that it is definitely Scratchy . . . I mean Lloyd, and that everything is going according to plan. We have to remember that this is officially the Apocalypse, and we must remain cautious.”
Everett kept his rifle beneath his poncho but switched off the safety as the white van approached. He walked away from the group, positioning himself on the driver’s side of the van.
Lloyd drove up and rolled down his window. “Y’all getting wet out here?”
Everett looked inside the van to see who else was with him. “Only because you’re late,” he said with a wink.
“It’s a quarter after. That’s pretty darn good time considerin’ the shape these roads is in. Y’all get on in here.”
Everett nodded to the rest of the group and motioned for them to come to the van. He slid the side door open and held it while Courtney, Sarah, Elijah, and finally Kevin got in. Everett closed the door and got into the passenger’s side with Lloyd. “It’s good to see you.”
Lloyd slowly maneuvered the van to turn around on the busted up pavement. “It’s good to be seen, especially times being what they are.”
Everett kept his eyes on the road to help Lloyd spot obstacles and hazardous cracks in the asphalt. “Did your home survive the fire?”
Lloyd shook his head. “It’s gone. Tommy’s compound faired a little better. Stewart’s too. Tommy had some of his boys come in with front-end loaders and clear out fire breaks all around his property. He piled dirt up against the walls of the barn. Nearly as high as the roofline. He did the same thing to his house and to Stew’s house. His house and the barn had metal roofs. Stew had shingles, but they spread a half inch of dirt on top of his roof.
“I was over to Stewart’s the night it all started. The blood soaked into the dirt making it heavier. We could hear the trusses creakin’. We was afraid the dang roof was gonna cave in, but in the end, it held. We got up there first thing the next mornin’ and cleared that mess off his roof.”
Kevin stuck his head between the two front seats from the rear of the van. “How many guys are going with us?”
Lloyd shrugged. “I couldn’t tell ya. There’s me, Devin, Tommy, Preacher, and Stew, of course. Then Tommy’s got several of the boys with their families stayin’ out in the barn. There might be ten or fifteen fightin’ age men over there. And Stew’s cousin, little Joe.”
“I thought we were talking about a much larger force.” Kevin frowned.
Lloyd nodded. “There was about fifty of ‘em or so. Bunch of ‘em didn’t make it. ‘Course the fellas over to the GR compound got thinned out too. Ain’t near so many of them either.”
Everett huffed. “How many?”
“Tommy says way less’n a hunard.”
Everett blew out a deep breath as a sign of his disgust. “If a hunard is anything like a hundred, we’re way outnumbered.”
“Less’n a hunard,” Lloyd clarified. “Y’all hang on, we’ve got a good bump comin’ up here.”
The van jolted as it went over a major crevice in the pavement. Everett steadied himself by putting both hands firmly on the dashboard. “How much less?”
“Might be eighty or ninety of ‘em, I reckon.”
Everett gritted his teeth. “Lloyd. We’re talking about twenty people or so on our team. This is suicide!”
“Tommy’s a been dealin’ with big government numbers his whole life. It ain't about numbers. It’s about leverage.”
“And what’s our leverage in this particular instance?” Everett’s brow was heavily furrowed.
Lloyd swerved hard to narrowly avoid a missing section of road. “Heck, I don’t know. Leverage is some big city word Tommy uses. I figured you boys would know what it meant.”
Everett put his palm on his forehead.
“Leverage is a mechanism that allows you to use a smaller amount of effort to do a larger amount of work than you could perform without that particular mechanism.”
“Yeah, that makes sense then,” Lloyd agreed.
“So what is it? I mean, what’s the mechanism we’re going to use?” Kevin quizzed.
“Hmm.” Lloyd seemed to be thinking. “Could a surprise attack be leverage?”
Everett clinched his jaw as he turned to Kevin. “He doesn’t know.”
The trip which would take less than an hour prior to the Great Quake took nearly two and a half hours due to the poor conditions of the roadways.
Lloyd pulled past Tommy’s house and drove toward the barn. Everett remembered how quaint Tommy’s farmhouse had been. Now, it had dirt piled up on three sides of it, making it look like a bunker. He muttered to himself, “At least he still has a house.”
The barn was surrounded on three sides by dirt mounds as well. The front entrance was fortified by a series of trucks, cars, and farm equipment which appeared to be situated to deter a frontal attack by a vehicle. The obstacles could also function as defensive firing positions if need be.
Lloyd got out of the van. “Y’all stretch your legs. I’ll run up to the house and fetch Tommy.”
Everett opened the sliding door for the others. “What do you guys think?”
“I don’t like it.” Kevin stepped out and helped Sarah to her feet.
Courtney pulled the hood of her poncho back over her head as it was still drizzling. “Elijah, what do you think? And don’t tell me to pray about it. We did that, and we think we’re doing what God wants.”
“Then you have your answer.” The old man got out of the van and walked toward the barn.
Courtney began to protest. “Yeah, but . . .”
Elijah shook his finger in the air. “Ah ah ah! Just because the circumstances have changed doesn’t mean that God has.”
Lloyd soon returned with Tommy. Tommy waved upon his approach. “Y’all get on in the barn and dry off.”
The others headed toward the door to let themselves in, but Everett waited. He shook Tommy’s hand. “I’m glad you guys survived the fire.”
Tommy’s eyes looked sincere. “Glad to see you’re okay, too.”
Everett walked next to the tall man. “What time are you planning to hit the compound?”
“I was going to leave it up to you boys.” Tommy followed the others into the barn and closed the door.
Everett pulled the hood of his poncho off of his head. “Wait. So you don’t have a plan?”
Tommy pointed to Kevin. “Weren’t you in the military?”
“Yes. Sarah and I both were.”
Tommy stuck his hands in his front pockets. “Lloyd said you told him you were in law enforcement for a spell also.”
“That’s right. We both worked for the sheriff’s department.”
Tommy turned and led the way back through the barn. “Then you two have more training in this sort of thing than anyone else.”
Kevin walked quickly to keep up with Tommy. “I can’t throw together an operation like this in a couple hours. It takes reconnaissance, planning, training; it takes time.”
Everett listened as he walked past the people living in the barn. Ropes were tied between beams with various colored sheets hanging from them. The sheets appeared to partition off small rooms for the individual families. Men with their wives and children sat upon mattresses. They all offered a wave or a smile as Everett and the others passed by. Some of the families had boxes and furniture; tables and chairs. Others had nothing but a rug or blanket on the dirt floor. But all of them had guns. All of them were alive. All of them had chosen the hard path of saying no to the Global Republic. Everett wondered which of them had refused the Mark for the sake of Christ, and which had turned it down because they were patriots, rebels, or just preferred the underworld, like Tommy.
Tommy took them in the back of the barn to an area walled off with studs and drywall. The space had a poured concrete floor. He lit four kerosene lanterns which illuminated the room. “This was our office when we had the Gray Fox in the barn.”
“What is a gray fox?” Courtney asked.
Tommy smiled. “It was a little waterin’ hole we ran for the boys.”
“Oh yeah. Your speakeasy. Kevin and Everett told us about it.” Courtney found a chair and took a seat.
Tommy set one of the lanterns on a large table in the middle of the room. It had a smattering of wood blocks with assorted labels. “We’ve done as much recon on the location as we could. One of the fellas put this model together. It might not be perfect scale, but it’ll give you an idea of how the place is laid out.”
Kevin looked at the blocks. “This is Shenandoah University?”
“Yep. You been there?” Tommy asked.
Kevin looked back at Elijah and Everett. “We passed by there once, on our way to New Atlantis. The only thing the GR had set up at the time was a census station and a small relief distribution center. You had to take the Mark to get assistance, of course.”
Everett looked the model over. The wood blocks representing buildings sat upon a sheet of cardboard from a broken-down box. Streets were drawn on the cardboard with a thick black marker and labeled. His finger followed along a path. “When we did our drive by, we came down University here then turned on Shockley and followed it through the underpass. This area was all wooded, right?”
Tommy smiled. “It was, but it’s nothin’ but charcoal now.”
Kevin brushed his beard with his hand. “The census station would have been in this large building. And the relief center was set up in this parking lot on the other side of University Drive.”
Tommy nodded. “Yep. That’s about how they had it set up. But all these buildings are burned-out shells now. They’re brick buildings, but they had flat roofs, and the fire burned straight through the rubberized coatings. The GR boys have moved back to these three buildings on the southeast corner of the campus. I reckon they put sand or something on those three roofs that proved to be a better fire retardant. These two buildings were dormitories. And this one was the dining facility. We figured they’re using the dorms for living quarters, and the dining hall is their operations center.”
Courtney put her finger on her lip as if she were in thought. “Tommy, Lloyd, do you have an estimate of how many survivors are left in Winchester?”
Lloyd replied, “Some. I can’t say how many. Might be a thousand, might be five thousand. There’s a good many brick houses and brick buildings with metal roofs. Most all them survived the fire lest they was in a heavily wooded area.”
Courtney looked over the model. “Do you think the majority of the GR’s supplies are in the dining hall?”
“Maybe,” Tommy replied. “We can divvy up the loot after the raid, but we have to live through it first.”
“That’s not really why I asked.” Courtney turned to Everett. “Do they know where we used to work?”
“No. It never came up,” Everett answered.
Tommy looked Everett in the eyes. “She’s done got me curious now.”
“We worked in intelligence.” Everett continued to look over the small wood blocks on the table.
“You mean like CIA, NSA, that sort of thing?” Tommy’s face had a curious smile.
Everett nodded. “Yeah. Something like that.”
“Well, which one?” Tommy sounded excited.
“Both. I worked at the CIA, as an analyst. I wasn’t a spy or anything. Courtney worked for a company that subcontracted for NSA.”
Tommy turned to Lloyd. “You don’t hear that every day. Did you know about all of this?”
Lloyd shook his head. “Nope, but I spect that’s how they knew to get their tails out of the city when they did.”
Tommy chuckled. “I expect it was. But what does all this have to do with our little exploit here? Why are you telling me this now?”
Courtney crossed her arms. “In addition to d
irect military conflict, US intelligence would incite insurrections to weaken governments they wanted to dispose of. They would sow the seeds of discontentment among the population; spread a little money around to organize the trouble makers.”
Everett listened. “You’re talking about organizing an insurrection. That takes lots of time and lots of resources. We’re a little short on both.”
“Hear me out,” Courtney said. “Lloyd, where were the food distribution centers, and where was the food being kept?”
Lloyd took his ball cap off and scratched his head. “GR had five of the big grocery stores in town up and running. They weren’t very well stocked, folks with the Mark were rationed on how much they could purchase and all that, but they were gettin’ by.”
Tommy added, “The warehouses were over on Fairmont. That’s where they kept most of the food. But that’s all burnt down. The GR knew the fires were coming. They made sure they took care of their own hide, but they didn’t take any precautions to warn anybody else.”
Courtney pointed to Tommy. “Bingo! All the survivors are figuring that out about right now. We’ve got a grass roots insurrection growing in the hearts and minds of Winchester right now. All we have to do is give them a little push.”
“How do you suggest we do that?” Everett was beginning to see her plan.
“We write up calls to action on paper and go hand them out all over town. Kevin, Sarah, wasn’t someone in your group responsible for the Tallmadge Letter back when the old government was rounding up patriots and Christians?”
Sarah nodded. “Cassie. She worked for the local paper. The government had shut down social media and restricted internet, so she printed up little one-page newspapers. That’s part of what triggered the push back.”
Everett smiled. “We were seeing copies of the Talmadge Letter all the way up here.”
“I’ve got a computer and a printer in the house,” Tommy said. “I’m out of propane for my generator, but I could hook up an inverter to the truck for electricity.”
“And you’ve got ink?” Courtney was hopeful.
“Let’s go see.” Tommy motioned for everyone to follow him. “Lloyd, you bring the truck around, hook up the inverter, and pull an extension cord to my bedroom.”
