Desert Heat

by T J Reeder

  So he put out the word looking for people who would play ball. And that’s where the real problems started.

  Soon he had an army of scum that would do as he ordered. He didn’t want the system in place to break down so he backed off on the locals and simply said, “Produce or get out,” so everybody was farming every acre they could get water to.

  Now the scum bags were willing to do whatever he wanted so he took his troops who were willing to work with them and started training them enough to almost follow orders and maybe not shoot each other.

  I asked what happened to the troops who refused to follow this asshole. Harry said they were smart enough to get out before they could be disarmed and locked up or killed. He said he was going to leave too but the General, who was partially crippled from the stroke, asked him to stay and pretend to go over.

  So he did, and while it killed him to do it he was able to deal with it by reminding himself that sooner or later he would be in place to kill the son of a bitch XO and his pet mad dog who was in command of the gang bangers.

  The head gangster had been in the military long enough to know his way around a bit and was fairly well educated but he was 100 percent Ghetto gang banger and he was the source for all the trash we had been killing.

  He was high up in the gangs running the whole of everything from LA to the border. He had access to weapons and food so he had no problems getting new blood.

  Now I understood why it seemed so few of the people we had fought knew shit about fighting military style. They were more or less the close your eyes and just hold the trigger till it went click. A great number of the dead we searched had rifles with empty magazines and they were fumbling their reload when they died.

  The last thing I wanted to know was why he was with them? He said because the General asked him to and to try to escape and make contact with somebody he knew long ago who was here in this area leading an army and kicking ass.

  I raised my eyebrows at that and said, “Who is this guy?” He smiled and said, “Well unless you’re not Johnny Long Walker former USMC it must be you, sir.”

  I had a sudden thought and asked who the General was and he said his name was James Barrymore Sweet. And I smiled real big, as did he.

  I nodded and said, “I should have known when his pistols showed up here,” that got his attention so I told him about the ones the girls had bartered for, he said the General was very angry at having them stolen and at least some asshole didn’t have them. I said, “Yeah, but getting them away from the “Doom Dollies” might be harder then not.” I didn’t bother to explain, I figured he would find out soon enough.

  Well all that was left was to hear what General Sweet wanted of me and mine, it was simple, he wanted us to come, kill the son of a bitch who had dishonored his oath as an officer in the Marine Corps, that alone was enough in Barry’s eyes but the scum bag was dealing in slavery and was a pedophile because he only wanted very young girls. In his mind any over 14 were too old! I agreed he was gonna die.

  We talked a while longer and just to make sure I asked him what Sweet had to say about me and everything he said had to come from Sweet because nobody could know those things unless they were there and some of it was when nobody was left alive but us and a few of my unit. And I knew they weren’t talking.

  We left him there to get some rest and said come morning we would have breakfast and talk more. I needed to think.

  When morning came I headed to look in on Harry and surprising me all to hell he was up and dressed, the Doctor was with him and was explaining that the bullet had been a 223 not a 308, plus it was a full metal jacket (FMJ) and with nothing but pure luck it had passed between all the bones and left two perfect holes, I could not believe his foot wasn’t about to be removed! But the Doctor said it happens more then we know, just fate or the Gods smiled.

  Harry was using a pair of crutches but seemed better then I had been when I got shot. (Inner ear * In The ASS!* ) Without thinking I said, “Stop it!” Now the Doc and Harry were looking at me, but Doc had been with us a good while and like most of the troops had an idea something was going on nobody else could see or hear.

  I said, “Let’s go get some chow,” Doc said he had people to take care of which stopped me dead in my tracks. Before I could ask he said it was a couple of sprains, a few burned hands with funny markings,

  (A really hot flash hider leaves a nice funny burn branded into the skin) even Harry laughed at that.

  Doc just shook his head and muttering about “Grunts” walked off. I was starting to like Harry.

  We went to the café for breakfast where we joined Charley. My butt wasn’t even on the seat when the bat wing doors opened and out came the girls packing big trays full of food. Harry had an interesting look on his face when he saw all that food, then the girls sat down. None of them were wearing the jackets they usually did so Harry was treated to a nice set of shoulder holsters with 1911’s plus one in the small of the back except May who wore hers in a cross draw. Beth being more the lady only had that big assed 10 mm in a shoulder holster with two very hard to find extra mags under the right arm. I was watching how Harry was absorbing the sight.

  I finally introduced him to my wives and that got his eye brows climbing his forehead! The “girls” looked at him for a moment like a target that got away and Sandy said, “Well shit I guess if we’re feeding him we can’t shoot him…yet, eh?”

  Harry smiled until Charley said, “They are not joking,” that made him really do a double take. Beth asked how his foot was doing more to relieve the moment then any other reason. He responded that it was much better then it could have been, and must have been a lucky shot. The girls laughed out loud and Beth smiled and said, “Hmm, thru the second lace eyelet from the bottom, outside right foot?” Now Harry’s eyes got real big! I said, “Meet the “man” who shot you.” Beth offered her hand and said, “Sorry about the knock on the head but it was pretty funny!” We finished eating listening to the girls babbling about something to do with Old Woman and parts of it were English and other parts in Navajo, it was hard to follow to say the least.

  Charley interrupted them once and said a word, both girls looked at him and repeated it a few times until Charley nodded and they were off again.

  Harry kept looking at me so I shrugged and said, “Shit, I don’t know, they seem to absorb it like a sponge but have trouble with the right pronunciation.

  Charley said, “They are getting better about that, better then any of your people ever have except some real pros the military used to send around but they didn’t get “help” from Old Woman.”

  I don’t think Harry still had a grasp of the issue but was trying. The girls bounded to their feet and gathered the plates and headed to the kitchen allowing Harry to say, “Please tell me I really saw those two eat what I think I saw them eat.” I nodded as did Charley who added that they seemed to be off their feed this morning. Harry laughed, I didn’t. But I said, “Don’t worry about it, if they get hungry they‘ll chase some small critter down and rip it to shreds. From the kitchen was heard “We heard that and you’re heading for trouble buddy boy!” I laughed, Charley shook his head and Harry looked confused.

  I asked Harry to tell me about Barry Sweet, how was it he was still active duty? Harry said the General had never married and the Corps was his home and family so the HQMC gave him the supply center because he loved the desert and because he had always been in supply.

  I said “No not always! Once up on a time Barry ran with Tigers and had seen the elephant so to speak.”

  After the Un-War and remembering how fked up the supply system had gotten he switched fields determined to fix that problem so never again would Marines be fighting in boots held together with commo wire and duct tape, while REMF’s sold the new ones to the black market or traded for dope.

  And he had made a difference but like all things in the “Great Green Machine” it took time and hard work and sometimes having to fight hard battles to wi
n the smallest of fights. But he seemed to have made a difference.

  I was interested in the equipment on the base, Harry said that supply’s had been fully stocked but the wars in the sand box had really used up a lot of the armored vehicles so there hadn’t been a lot of stuff on line when the lights went out.

  I asked about the LAV’s, he smiled and said, “I heard you joy riding in one and saw the gunner on that 25 and he’s as good as any I’ve seen.”

  Just then the girls returned and Sandy said, “Hear that May? He liked your driving!!” May said, “Yeah, and your shooting was passable as well.” Now it was on! “Passable??” “PASSABLE??” And they were off and running. Before I could say anything Beth came out of the kitchen and said, “Hey babes, be cool,” and they stopped right then!

  The glares didn’t but they weren’t reaching for guns. Of course a duel with 25’s was the challenge until I reminded them we needed every round we could get, so off they went for their rifles to prove who was best.

  I looked up and Beth said, “I’ll go along to keep an eye on them but they are just jerking your chain and trying to make Harry think they are crazy!”

  Charley beat me to it by saying “Think?” I laughed. Beth kissed me and with a hug was off to capture her “kids?” She was a good example for them but I doubt it would soak in, they were having the time of their lives and loved it.

  Harry sat for a minute and at last said “I think I will assume those two are even more dangerous then they appear at first glance.

  Charley and I only nodded coz Harry had hit that one out of the park!

  I said, “Someday I may tell you all about them but I expect the troops will do it for me coz they worship the two hellions and they will of course make them sound wild but nobody really knows just how wild except me coz I was there and saw it.”

  He went back to telling me about the way things worked in Barstow, the people there were armed and while they had no heavy weapons they could hold their own with the rabble being brought in. At first some of the gang bangers went in expecting the locals to be scared shitless like their old neighbors were.

  But after a lot of them got their asses killed they decided to stay out of the town proper, so there was an uneasy peace between the few remaining military personnel and none with the bangers who got shot every time they tried to mess with the civilians.

  Now this was interesting and I could see there was room to exploit the situation. All in all outside of the bangers brought in by the head rat there wasn’t really anything to stop a well-armed motivated force from kicking ass. And with our force and Harry’s knowledge we could do just that.

  And what better time then now since we were already here, we just needed to gather more troops and supplies. Harry said between the LAV’s and the Tracks we had all we needed but it wouldn’t be a cake walk.

  Harry had some good news too, a lot of the Marines who got out before the clamp down with the XO were still in the area and were willing to fight plus there was a still a few on the base who were just marking time waiting for a chance.

  Harry also had some very interesting news about a flu or something like it that was slamming the big cities. He thought it was from all the unburied bodies left since day one of the EMP. Plus the general filth left in the rubble. He said so far none of the scum recruited from the LA area had shown up with it but it was only a matter of time.

  The word was it was spread from contact not airborne which was good if you could isolate the people in one area.

  This was all we needed on top of all the rest of the shit. It was only a matter of time before it spread to other areas where the gangs ruled and traveled.

  So besides having to kill off the assholes running the supply base we needed to find a way to keep this crap pinned up in the cities.

  And I have no idea how to do it short of fire-bombing the entire city. Harry said it might very well take that to stop the spread in its tracks. He also mentioned with a big smile that I did have a reputation of burning cities, that pissed me off, but Charley did smile pretty big and said, “Well yeah, you had to be there but it was a nice fire.”

  My main worry was how many innocent people were trapped in the cities but Harry said they had long ago either escaped or joined or died. That was a pretty cold analysis but I hadn’t been there so I didn’t know. I asked how many people they could gather if they really wanted to. His answer scared the shit right out of me! He said probably 35 to 50 thousand, and all hard core killers and rapist were just waiting to be called out.

  This whole situation just changed fast. It was time to do some real planning, so I set up a meeting right here and sent word to the canyon for Joe and Willy plus the leadership folks at Fort Navajo.

  With a brain flash I also sent word to Harry and Bear asking them to attend, it was set for three days later so we had time to get an idea of what we needed and where we needed it and how to get it there, the big issue was all the “ Its” we don’t have and really need.

  They started rolling in a day early which gave us time to have a feed thanks to the girls and Old Woman who really did it up good. We spent the evening just having a few drinks and filling each other in on all the latest goings on. Word from home was all was well. Mom was doing just fine, happy every day to meet “new” people and getting to tell stories of her life.

  Bear and Harry had never met Charley and were real happy to do so having heard so much about him. Harry asked about the magic weed I spoke of because his old body was starting to kill him.

  Charley said he would take care of getting a good supply of it, everybody got a good laugh when I told Bear to hold a gun on Harry when he drank the first few cups or he would lie and say he drank it while pouring it out.

  The next day everybody was here so I laid out all that had happened since we last were together. Most of the people here were involved in it all except Harry and Bear so they got to hear the whole thing. After that I brought out Captain Harry and introduced him and we grilled him and picked his brain until lunch time when we took a break.

  After lunch I asked for thoughts on the subject, and wasn’t surprised when the general opinion was to wipe out the vermin in their city holes.

  I mentioned I was troubled by the fact that there had to be a lot of innocent people trapped in that place and asked for thoughts on that.

  I was surprised when after a bit with no response it was Charley who spoke up and said that if there was in fact a plague burning thru the place then we had no choice except to wipe it out and if innocent people died then they were to be mourned alongside the many millions who had already died.

  Beth spoke up and said that if we as a nation were to survive and hoped to rebuild a better place for our children then we were going to have to do things we hated but by us doing it now others wouldn’t have to deal with it later, provided there was a later and provided there was others left to do it.

  Well that was a show stopper and a curtain dropper if I ever seen one. So it was decided thru the words of the gentlest person among us to wipe out Las Angeles.

  I could only hope it wouldn’t weigh heavy on her heart, Beth turned and smiled at me then leaned over and whispered into my ear that this was one of the reasons she loved me, I cared about peoples feelings.

  I hugged her close and whispered I loved her too. So much mush in the middle of planning to destroy what had once been one of Americas greatest cities.

  I asked for ideas that didn’t require us shooting our way into the place, Vegas was fresh in my mind as well as the lonely cross on the hill in Utah.

  We hashed it around until Sandy said “I wish we had some of those big cannons like the military use” my first word was “NO” you’re not getting a damn 105 to hang on the wall! Which got a lot of laughs but I swear I planted a seed, she and May looked at each other and smiled. Charley just looked into my eyes and shook his head.

  But Bear bless his heart said well shit why not use our artillery? Sandy pounced on that in a he
artbeat “We’ve got Cannons?”

  I swear she was breathing hard. Bear said, “Well the Republic of Texas does since we held on to all the National Guard units and their equipment and there was a few units that used 105’s,” before I could say a word Sandy said, “Is this a big gun?” Bear laughed and said. “It sure is lil lady!”

  That was all it took, she was ready to go get the big guns. I asked Bear if the troops were still there and yes they were, do they have access to ammo? “Yes they do!” “How long to get them rolling?” “Bout a week.” “Do it!”

  God being a General is awesome!! Joke!! Anyway, that part was done, now we needed to get a plan ironed out. We spent the next few days looking at maps and talking about the logistics of the road march plus the best strategy to handle two battles at once, taking out the XO in Barstow along with his top flunky and LA.

  Capt. Harry said in his opinion if we removed the XO and the other dickhead he felt the rest would break and run, so I set him to planning how to get both of them, and called for ideas on LA besides shelling it for the next year.

  Willy spoke up and said he had been thinking about something he had read about in a book several years back. Sandy said, “WOW, it must have had a lot of pictures in it.” May said, “Yeah, and small words.”