by Payne, T. L.
Jason, Will, and the others returned just after dark. Pete was smiling and headed straight for his wife. Jason was expressionless; Savanah couldn’t read him. Will—he looked sick, like all the air had been sucked out of his lungs. Savanah was afraid to ask what they’d discovered. After the string of bad news they’d received lately, she was sure this was the worst kind.
She greeted Jason with a kiss and he took her hand in his. “Are you okay, Will?” she asked, her tone low. Cayden and Isabella arrived as Jason began to tell her what they’d discovered on the scouting mission near the Texas-Louisiana border.
“There was a steady stream of military vehicles moving north along Highway One Eleven. It would take a sizable army to stop them. We talked to Pete’s cousin in hopes of at least slowing them down and we have a plan. Josh and his family are implementing a critical part of it now. We wanted to come back and let you guys know. We’re going to move to our secondary location at the store in Roseville.”
“Does that mean we are staying put for a while?” Isabella asked.
Jason’s head bobbed, and Savanah’s heart sank. The grocery store had been cleaned out in the first few days after the lights went out. The owner had placed three-quarter-inch thick plywood over the windows, but thieves had somehow smashed down the door and broken in. The shelves were completely bare, but it was big enough for the group to remain together.
“What about the town?” Savanah asked.
“We didn’t see anyone the last time we checked. It looked like everyone had evacuated already,” Jason said.
The scouting teams had cleaned out the walk-in freezer. That would be used to protect the children in the event of an attack. They had installed a lock on the inside of the door and Jason assured her that it would hold. She still wasn’t comfortable with being locked in the windowless space. If the town was deserted, they only had marauders and the Chinese to worry about but she took very little comfort in that thought.
“So far, the Chinese appear to be leaving civilians alone,” Jason said.
“That will all change when you start making trouble for them. They’ll likely respond by hunting us down and killing us all,” Savanah said.
“They won’t connect us with you guys. We won’t lead them back to you. Once we initiate contact, we’ll stay until it’s finished.”
Savanah shuddered. Jason reached out and touched her shoulder. “After we disable them, we can all get back on the road and make our way to Texarkana. Pete’s cousin said Texarkana is heavily fortified and well guarded. The Chinese army will avoid hard targets like that. At least that’s what I’m thinking.”
“Why are they aiming for Shreveport then?” Isabella asked.
“I’m not sure of the strategic importance of the city, but there must be one because they are racing to get there.”
“What about Fort Polk?
“The rumor is that the army has retreated and abandoned the base. They’ve been called up to help secure Texarkana.”
“Doesn’t that mean that they’ve given up on driving them out of Louisiana?”
“That could be the case. I know the soldier we spoke to said they were out of supplies and ammo. Their resupply never came. Maybe they’re waiting for a shipment before they can get back into the fight.”
“You really think there’s going to be another shipment?”
Jason said nothing.
Savanah looked to see if Will was going to comment. He looked out of it. “Will, are you sure you’re okay?” Savanah asked, sidestepping Jason and heading for her brother.
“Actually, Sis. I think I could use one of your herbal teas. My stomach and head aren’t feeling all that great,” Will replied.
Isabella reached up and felt his forehead. “You do feel warm. It could just be the heat, but it could be fever too.”
Savanah walked over to him and placed the inside of her wrist on his forehead. He did feel a little warm. She hadn’t brought many herbs with her, thinking she’d find what they’d need along the way, but she did have some echinacea and rosehips. That might help boost his immune system.
“Dad, how’s the cut to your shoulder healing.”
Savanah looked sideways at her brother then peeled up his left sleeve to reveal an angry-looking gash. “Dammit, Will. This is infected. Why didn’t you let me clean it when it happened?”
“We had enough to worry about. It was just a small gash,” he said defensively.
“And now that small gash is oozing pus, and you’re going to need antibiotics!” She was steaming. It was irresponsible of him. They needed to reserve the antibiotics for as long as possible. Savanah stormed off toward the field behind the barn where she’d seen some comfrey and had planned on cutting it to take with them. She’d need it now to make a poultice for her dumb brother’s stupid arm.
“I’ll come with you,” Isabella said. “I need some air.”
She sounded as pissed off as Savanah was. She was sure Will was going to get an earful later when they were alone.
“I can’t believe he let that happen again,” Isabella said.
“Again?”
“We’ve both dealt with infected wounds. Things were quite nasty in Houston after the hurricane. We had battle wounds that got infected. He should have known better than to ignore a cut.”
“I think the lack of food is causing us to make mistakes. Potentially deadly mistakes,” Savanah said.
“You think we should return your homestead, don’t you?” Isabella said as they picked the comfrey leaves.
“I’ve thought an awful lot about it, Isabella. It just seems senseless to wait here. We aren’t any safer. In fact, we’re less safe, even at the store with the sandbags and steel bars Pete installed inside the freezer to hide the children.”
“We have to believe that this new plan will work,” Isabella said.
“Do we?”
It was a crazy plan. They could all get killed. What would they do if Will, Jason, and the others never came back? No one had an answer for that. This was new territory for all of them. None of them had ever had to navigate a world where their homeland had been infiltrated by a foreign power. She knew that Jason, Will, Pete, and the others were doing their best, but what if their best just wasn’t good enough? How would she keep her children safe?
“You ladies need some help?”
Savanah turned as Walker approached. “Yes. I could use some help to convince Jason and the others that we need to return to the farm.”
“I think they have their minds made up on that point, Savanah. I know Pete is preparing to go after the Chinese and put a monkey wrench in their strategy to cruise through the midsection of the country and he isn’t going to be persuaded to set aside his plan. Not now. Not when he’s got people willing to fight back. I understand you’re concerned about the children. We’re all going to do our very best…”
“No matter how hard everyone tries, you can’t stop bullets, and we can’t outrun an army.” Savanah fought back the tears.
“No, we can’t, but that army makes a lot of noise, and it’s difficult for them to move without attracting attention. If Pete and the others can keep them tied down long enough, this plan of theirs might just work. At the very least, it will put a hurting on them and decrease their numbers.”
Savanah didn’t believe it for a moment. She shook her head, turned, and walked away without a word.
Seventeen
Will
Merryville, Beauregard Parish, Louisiana
Will wasn’t feeling one hundred percent yet, but Savanah’s treatments seemed to be working to curb the infection in his left arm. When Will and the others arrived back at Pete’s cousin’s, Josh, Lorraine, and the others had the roadblock ready to be set up. Two tractors had been found with enough fuel to move vehicles onto the roadway along the enemy’s route. The US military had managed to delay them south of Ragley. According to the scouts sent that way, a few Chinese units had broken through and would arrive at the roadblock by dar
k.
Would they move after sunset? Will guessed that would depend on how much of a hurry they were in to get to Shreveport. It was still a mystery to him why they would be heading there. Maybe they could capture one of them and find out.
“Is everyone in their places?” Pete called out.
Each two-person team relayed that they were. Josh and two other teams had crossbows and arrows trained on the road. Pete and his son were the only ones with rifles, so they covered the rear. They would take out anyone trying to retreat. Will felt useless with his shotgun and two shells. He had to continually dismiss the fact that what they were attempting was downright crazy based on the reality that they had to try. How could they do nothing? This was their country. If they didn’t stop the enemy, who would?
The convoy of five Chinese Dongfeng armored military vehicles arrived an hour before sunset. The communist army hadn’t been expecting resistance. If they had, they would have sent out a patrol to make sure there weren’t any roadblocks. They rounded a bend in the road and halted abruptly two hundred feet in front of the ten or so cars and trucks blocking both lanes of Highway 111. They just sat there for a moment before soldiers in the rear vehicle dismounted and made their way along the ditch toward the roadblock. Will heard the tractor start. A second later, he heard a rifle’s report echo through the trees. There was no way to tell if it came from Pete or the enemy. Then more gunfire erupted. Pete was returning fire. Will could tell it was him by the sound of the three-round bursts instead of the steady rounds of the automatic rifles. The gunner in the last vehicle began firing. Rounds tore through the trees, splintering wood and kicking up dirt.
Will strained to see if the tractor made it onto the roadway. He could see the big green machine rolling forward, but it was much too slow to have been moving with intention. The automatic gunfire continued, but the machine kept rolling. Eventually, it reached the roadway but stopped short of blocking both lanes.
From where Will stood next to the trunk of a large oak tree, he could tell that the driver had been killed. He was slumped over the steering wheel. The rear vehicle began moving backward at a high rate of speed. It swerved into the opposite lane, nearly missing the tractor. As it did, the next vehicle in the convoy followed suit and then the next. They fired into the woods on both sides of the road as they backed away. All Will could do was press his body as close to the ground as possible and pray.
The group had succeeded in causing the convoy to detour but had failed in their attempt to ambush them. There was only one road for them to take to head north. They’d have to go west for a couple of miles. Before they reached their turn, they would encounter another roadblock and another attempt at an ambush. Jason, Rob, and the teens would be waiting for them there.
After the last vehicle disappeared from view, Will rushed toward the tractor. Pete was already there, along with Josh and Lorraine who was cradling an elderly man’s head in her arms and sobbing uncontrollably. Josh was rubbing her back and attempting to console his wife. It was a heart-wrenching scene and stirred up emotions in Will as he recalled losing his wife. He pushed through the grief that tried to pull him down and walked past the couple to where Pete and Beau were standing. On the ground at their feet was a soldier. Will looked into the man’s eyes as he stood over him. He was so young. Fear framed his face. Here he was, bleeding out on a highway in America, far from his homeland and his family. He likely was only following orders. At another time, he could have been a tourist here to enjoy Mardi Gras. They could have sat down and had a beer together and talked about baseball. Now, they were enemies because his communist ruler said so. It was so pointless.
“He’s not talking,” Beau said.
The soldier coughed, and blood spurted onto his chin and ran down his neck. It looked like a round had struck him under his armpit. It likely went through his right lung. With Pete and Beau being positioned in the trees above the road, the bullet would have traveled toward the ground and injured vital organs.
Will knelt beside him. He picked up the kid’s hand and squeezed then leaned down and whispered, “I’m sorry this happened to you. We did not want this. We are fighting for our lives here.” The kid’s eyes shifted toward Will. He understood. Maybe not the words, but the tone in which they were spoken. “I can’t help you with your wounds, but I can stop your suffering. It can take a long, long time to die and be very, very painful.” He left the words to linger. The kid closed his eyes slowly and then opened them. “I can help you if you help me.” The kid’s eyes shifted to the right, away from Will. He was rejecting betraying his country.
“I say we leave his ass here to die a slow and painful death,” Beau said. He took two steps forward and nudged the soldier with the toe of his boot. “I wouldn’t spit on him if he was on fire.” He spat a few curse words and walked away.
Will released the kid’s hand and let it fall to the pavement. “Have it your way.” He started to stand and felt a hand brush his arm. “Knife,” the young soldier managed to get out.
“You want your knife?”
He moved his knife up and then down slowly.
“I want to know why your military is rushing to Shreveport? What is there that you’re so interested in?”
The kid moved his head from side to side.
Will stood and backed away. “You got nothing for me. Then I can’t help you.”
A few seconds passed, and then Will heard the kid whispering.
“Airbase,” the soldier said softly. “Airbase.”
“An airbase? What about it? Planes aren’t flying, are they?”
“Doomsday,” the kid said before going into a coughing fit.
Will knelt beside him once again and wiped the blood from his cheek. He gently rolled him onto his side slightly to help clear his mouth and throat. “Doomsday? What the hell is that?”
Pete stepped closer. “Are you talking about the president’s Doomsday plane?”
Will’s eyes shot up at Pete. “The president?”
“The fleet of E-4Bs are called Doomsday planes due to their function as a survivable airborne command post for the president. He can initiate a nuclear strike from the plane.”
“Could the president’s Doomsday plane be in Shreveport?” Will asked.
“It’s possible,” Pete said. They both stared down at the soldier. The PLA sure was in a hurry to get there. If that was the case, they had to do everything in their power to stop the Chinese from getting to Shreveport. It could be the country’s only chance to come back from this thing.
“We need to go help Jason and the others. We have to stop the convoy at all costs,” Will said, rising to his feet.
As the two men walked away from the soldier, Pete nodded over his shoulder. “What about him?”
“He’s not going anywhere,” Will said.
It was a long night as Will stared at the back of the Dongfeng, stopped at the second roadblock. The other team had stopped the convoy by blocking them in with a road grader and dump truck. The Chinese soldiers hadn’t attempted to dismount their vehicles or ram the heavy equipment. They occasionally fired rounds from their turrets but seemed to be just popping off warning shots. Will hadn’t seen movement for hours. Were they waiting for reinforcements? How long would they wait inside their vehicles? It had to be obvious to the occupants of the vehicles that his group didn’t have the means to force them out. Will wasn’t sure if even an RPG would do the trick. The People’s Liberation Army's version of the Humvee was likely as heavily armored as the US version.
Sometime before daybreak, a runner came bearing news from the battlefield to their south. Another convoy with ten vehicles was heading in their direction. Did the soldiers here have a way of communicating with the rest of their unit? Probably.
“We need to send folks back to the main roadblock to intercept them. We can’t let them break through the roadblock or reach this team here.”
“We need a way to blow them up,” one of the teens said.
“Li
ke an IED?” another kid said.
“Yeah.”
“Anyone know how to make one?”
“My cousin does,” a lanky teen with long greasy hair replied.
“Wait. What?” Will asked.
“My cousin makes IEDs. Pipe bombs.”
Will turned to the kid next to him. “Go get Pete. He’s going to want to hear this.”
While the teen repeated what he’d told Will, Pete’s eyes brightened and a smile spread across his face. “Alrighty then. Let’s get him up here.”
“He’s on his way to Texarkana.”
“That’s not helpful,” Pete said, turning to leave.
“He’s got pipe bombs in his shed though.”
Pete whipped back around and rapidly approached the kid. “What?”
“Yeah. He showed me. It freaked me the hell out. I wasn’t sure if they were safe. He said they didn’t have the detonators and showed me where they hooked in the wires on the bombs.”
“You know how to activate them then?” Will asked.
“I don’t know. He just showed me that one time.”
“You’re sure he still has them in his shed? Where does he live?” Pete asked.
“About a mile from here,” the boy said.
“You’re sure that the bombs are still at your cousin’s house?” Will didn’t want to go off on some wild goose chase. He was exhausted already and barely had the energy to stand.
“I’m sure. I asked him about them a couple of weeks ago. He said he was afraid someone would go rummaging through the shed looking for food or valuables and find them, but he didn’t want to move them. He didn’t want his parents to find out.”
