He looked around the table at each of them and took on a more serious expression. “OK folks; we have a serious problem that needs to be dealt with. The Sons of Freedom. They already have plans in motion that makes the collapse that is happening around our country the least of our immediate problems. We are all that stands between them and the people of this entire region as they try and establish themselves by force as the new, ruling power.”
Over the next couple hours Tak went over the plans that the Sons already had, and they discussed and made their own plans accordingly. Everyone was given the chance to refuse the tasks that would have to be done, but none did. The officers and soldiers understood that these extreme circumstances called for extreme measures. Half of them were military combat veterans and the others were like-minded officers who had already proved their mettle on the job and by simply showing up for work on this chaotic day. They were all in agreement on their plan and were resolved in what they had to do this day.
When the meeting ended the men stepped outside to have a meeting with their families. Officer Lewis had a set of adorably cute blonde headed twins; a five year old girl and boy named Mindy and Drew. Mindy wore a sparkly pink beret in her hair and was always bubbling over with joy. Upon seeing Tak exit his front door she ran up to him and gave him a hug. She knew him well from where her and her brother had been taking a weekly kids martial arts class with him for almost a year now. Drew, not to be outdone, ran up to Tak and gave him a huge hug as well. Mindy exclaimed “Sensei Graves! Is your meeting over now? Can we go play in your dojo?!” Drew liked that idea as he joined in “Ohh yes sensei, can we go there and play?!” Tak knew that the secret to having young kids enjoy and stick with martial arts training was for it to seem like play; and they played many games in class that helped develop their strength, balance and coordination while fostering a sense of teamwork and respect. Tak knelt down as he embraced the kids and said “If your mom is ok with it she can take you there to play a later. We’ve got to have a little meeting first though.” Tak looked up at Mrs. Lewis and she smiled and nodded “We’ll go play in the dojo soon kids, don’t you worry.” The kids screamed in elation and began hopping around in excitement. Tak kissed them both on their foreheads and stood up as they ran off to play with several other children while the adults had a meeting.
The few dozen adult family members of the officers gathered around the front porch where Tak addressed them. “Hi folks, and welcome to my home. Please consider it yours for as long as you stay here. It’s not the Hilton, but there’s room in the dojo, pole barn and bunkhouse out back for ya’ll to sleep. I’ve got plenty of cots and sleeping bags for everyone. There’s a bathroom in the barn and in the house. I’ve got plenty of canned food in the root cellar out back and more food and supplies in the basement. Hopefully you won’t need to stay here long but you are certainly welcome to. As I’m sure most of you know there is a very real threat out there today. Robberies, home invasions, looting and general lawlessness are running rampant not only in Marion but all over the country right now. It is our hope and belief that you’ll be safer here out in the country than in town on your own. If any of you need anything just let me know. Officers Braxton and DeYoung will be manning the communications center inside the main house and they can reach me at anytime. I’m truly happy to have ya’ll here. Please keep in mind that we need to keep the fact that we are using this place as a temporary police department a secret. As you likely know, our police department and the departments over several nearby towns were destroyed today. If the criminals responsible for those attacks found out about this location they would likely try and destroy it as well. I highly recommend that you don’t go into town, but if you must then make sure you aren’t followed back here.”
Everyone seemed to agree with the logic. The meeting continued for another ten minutes with some general Q&A about how the different family members could help and take care of different duties. Several expressed their sincere thanks to Tak for welcoming them, and to the other officers and soldiers who still cared enough to put in work in such a difficult time. Soon after the meeting concluded the officers left to bring the fight to the Sons.
CHAPTER 22: SIX BY EIGHT
10AM: Day 2 of the new world
Big Gunner snorted a long line of coke and then slammed his fist at the head of the 15 foot long, heavy oak table, which was set in the center of a large meeting room on the Freedom Compound. They called this building their clubhouse and it was a cross between a drug den and a hunting lodge. A dozen of his most trusted men were present. Lines of coke lay all over the table and lined several noses. Others smoked meth in preparation for the day. “Where the hell is Ghost and his crew?! They should have come back yesterday evening! Has anyone heard from them? When is the last time they checked in?” Gunner barked. The man sitting next to him, a chubby, ponytailed Hispanic man whose face was covered in prison ink, spoke up quickly; “He never checked in with us last night after he left on his pharmacy run, esse.” Gunner’s right hand shot out with speed that defied his large mass and grabbed the back of the man’s ponytail, slamming his face into the table with a mighty “THUMP” that filled the room. His nose crunched and blood poured from it. The man bounced off of the table and fell to the ground, covering his face with both hands and reeling in pain. Gunner's veins bulged out on his forehead and thick neck as he roared at the man; “AND I’M JUST HEARING ABOUT THIS NOW?! What’s the point of having the men checking in with you if you don’t even report it when they don’t, huh ESSE?!” He then looked over the rest of the men and addressed them. "You all better keep your heads out of your asses and get our business handled right today. Everyone’s gonna be puttin in work. Everyone single Son. Hammer; take 20 Sons and hit the pharmacies, like Ghost was supposed to be doin yesterday. In addition to getting drugs, try and find out where the hell is he. Hit all of em you can, including the hospital." Hammer, a mid-30's short and muscular black man in a leather motorcycle vest, nodded. "You got it boss; I'll be in touch over CB if da phones still ain’t working."
Gunner looked over at his bomb man, Bo. Bo was a greasy, mid 40's, average sized man with a 38 caliber revolver on his side and a pack full of supplies on his back. He wore a set of hunting camouflage pants and t-shirt with a large wad of chew in his mouth. He had experience working with explosives as an Explosives Ordnance Disposal technician in the Army years earlier and later working with TNT in the coal mines. "Bo, take 20 Sons and hit the banks. Hopefully you can get the vaults and safety deposit boxes open by making the workers open em for you, but if not; blow em open. Anyone won’t listen; kill em. We have to send a strong message right from the start. Were mainly looking for gold and silver, but grab anything of value you find… and make damn sure your men turn in everything they get. If one of them pockets even a penny and doesn't turn it in when they get back here, they will be made an example of in front of everyone by me personally." Bo nodded his understanding.
Gunner looked around the table at the rest of the men. "The rest of us are going to pay a visit to our friends at the National Guard Armory. We are due there at 11AM today. Percival goes in to work there today at 8AM. He’ll open the gates for us to hit the place when we arrive. I'm told that as of this morning there were just over a dozen soldiers inside their fence. Go get everyone ready and we leave in 20 minutes. Check everyone; make sure they’re ready for war. If we do this hard and fast, it should be a cakewalk. We ain’t leaving none of those soldier boys alive." Gunner stood up and everyone around the table did so immediately as well; knowing to remain sitting when he stood up would likely result in a fate as bad as or worse than Esse’s. Soon after, 48 men and women drove out of the Freedom Compound in a convoy of six pickup trucks, headed towards the National Guard Armory. Each truck held six Son’s in its bed with a driver and a passenger in the front. Most of them were pumped up on coke and meth and had a ragtag mix of guns, bats, machetes and other weapons. Big Gunner literally road shotgun in the lead truck as they took
off to raid the armory and kill anyone who stood in their way.
CHAPTER 23: PRIVATE PERCIVAL GRIBBLE
10:40AM, Day 2 of the new world
18 year old Private Percival Gribble had been in the Army Reserves for almost six months now. He was the first of his family to graduate from high school. He was a thin lad at six feet and 160 pounds, but the Army had gotten him into good shape. He was born and raised in a suburb of Marion, called Spillertown. It had no traffic lights and if you blinked, you'd miss it. His father Mike had been a member of the Sons of Freedom for five years now. Mike had injured his back in the coal mines and barely scraped by on disability. His addiction to pain pills didn't help their financial matters, and the Sons were able to assist Mike with pills that he otherwise couldn't afford. Percival wasn't very sharp, but he had always been a good boy and supported his father in any way he could. He loved his dad; even though Mike got violent when he drank. He had been abusive to his mother, forcing her to run away years ago. Percival’s love for his dad was the driving force behind him taking his father's advice and joining the Army Reserves. That way he could stay home to help take care of his father, work a low paying full time job at a local mechanic's shop while training once a month at their local National Guard Armory. In the Army he had received training on being a vehicle mechanic, and he helped take care of the fleet at their local duty station.
Unbeknownst to Percival, Gunner was the driving force behind his father convincing him to join the Reserves. Gunner had been getting Mike deeper in debt and addiction to pain pills for several years now; and Mike knew when the big man demanded payment that he'd have no choice but to give him whatever he wanted. Gunner had shown a fake caring side to Percival, often joking around with him and telling him what a good person he was for taking care of his dad. He’d given him extra spending money on numerous occasions, and had been trying to brainwash him for several years now. Percival liked Gunner, even though he didn’t really understand all the hate the big man had towards the government and any type of law; but he figured he'd understand it some later day.
On this day Percival was in the rear of the armory, waiting on the call from Gunner to unlock and open the rear chain link and razor-wired gates to the Armory's large rear vehicle yard. He had already reported the number of soldiers present at the armory this day; which was less than half of what it normally would be. He had reported that the dozen of them were on high alert, which he assumed was due to the economic collapse. He had the hood of a Humvee open, which was near the small guard shack with the controls in it to open and close the rear gate. He nervously pretended to tinker with the engine as he waited. He knew that violence would be coming and tried to muster the courage to help the Sons when they stormed the compound. He knew earning his colors would make his father proud of him…. Or at least he hoped it would. He repeated Gunner’s many lessons of hate inside his head, trying to convince himself he was doing the right thing; These soldiers are merely tools of a corrupt government… They lost their right to live when they joined the side of the government instead of the people… They were unthinking, unquestioning tools in the hands of greedy old men who needed to be wiped off the face of the earth. He didn’t know if he really believed all of that, but he gave Gunner the benefit of the doubt and was trying to. Gunner had been good to him… better than even his own father ever had, and he appreciated that. He would open the gates and help the Sons gun down his fellow soldiers, who had no idea he was actually in opposition to everything they and the government stood for. He was against it, wasn’t he?
His hand-held CB radio squawked with Gunner’s gruff voice, almost causing Percival to fall over in surprise, “Gribble, we’ll be there in about 20. Get ready son”. Percival swallowed hard and said, “Yes sir; standing by.” He broke out in a cold sweat and felt like he was going to puke.
CHAPTER 24: AMBUSH
10:50AM, Day 2 of the new world
Tak looked through his binoculars at the curve in the road where the convoy would first appear. He selected this particular stretch of country road as the ambush site based off of the information he had gathered from Ghost concerning the location of the Freedom Compound and their plan to hit the National Guard Armory to the south. The road stretched out straight in front of him before disappearing around a left hand turn some 200 yards away and north of his current position. Army Sergeant Allen was hidden in the tree line nearby there, standing by to report when the convoy approached. He was armed with his M16A2 service rifle on his back and the AT-4 anti-tank rocket launcher by his side. After the road went straight towards him for those 200 yards, it made a curve to his right; which was to the east. Hoyt was hidden in the tree line just around that curve on the south side of the road, waiting with a chainsaw where he’d already cut through most of a large tree, leaving it ready to fall on the road with very little additional cutting needed. Naff, Stotlar, Botha and PFC Wright were spread out in a 50 yard long row in the tree line about 50 yards to the east of the road. They were lying in the prone position behind their weapons. The two men on the ends; Naff and PFC Wright, each lay behind a M-249 machine gun. Stotlar and Botha lay behind their AR-15 police issued rifles. Each man with a rifle had eight full magazines of 5.56 ball ammo stacked right next to them. The machine gunners had a bit over 1,500 rounds each. Tak had passed the grenades out so each man had one or two, just in case. They had been here for almost three hours preparing the battlefield. Under Tak’s direction they had filled several sandbags with dirt and made fighting holes. They would be on the driver’s sides of the trucks that approached. Tak was betting the Sons would lack the discipline and training to keep proper spacing and distance when the lead vehicle was forced to stop and would stack right up behind each other. If he was wrong, they could be in for some serious trouble as the trucks in the rear wouldn’t be in the kill zone and could possibly mount a proper response to the ambush. Tak and Lewis lay in their own fighting holes just 20 yards south of where the road turned to the east, on the west side of the road. Lewis lay behind the third light machine gun.
Sergeant Allen’s voice came over his radio; “Officer Graves; I’m hearing rumbling… it sounds like a bunch of trucks.” Tak replied “10-4, let me know when they are in sight.” 30 seconds later Allen came back, “Convoy in sight”. Tak spoke into the mike “Hoyt; cut it now”. Hoyt replied “10-4; cutting now” and his chainsaw began buzzing through what was left holding the tree up. The lead truck came into Tak’s view around the corner from straight ahead 200 yards and to the left. They approached Tak’s position at about 40 miles per hour. When they were about halfway to him, Tak could hear Hoyt’s saw still buzzing away. It should have been down by now. The convoy got closer and all six trucks came into view.
Hoyt worked his 20 inch chainsaw on the big elm, but this last bit was tougher than he had expected. He pushed the saw into the remaining wood that held the tree upright and squeezed the trigger tightly as his whole body vibrated. The tree was already leaning towards the road to the north and should have fallen, but it kept hanging on stubbornly. The lead vehicle was almost to it now… the tree would have to drop within five seconds to just land in front of it. Gunner saw the officer off to his right sawing on the tree. He yelled to his driver “FLOOR IT!”, and he did, speeding past the point where the tree would land. Hoyt could hear the big old elm creaking and groaning as he furiously worked the chainsaw and woodchips flew all over him. The tree finally fell over with a sharp wood-splitting crack, landing hard between the first two vehicles. The 2nd truck had no time to swerve and slammed hard into its thick trunk; rising up on its front tires and launching the six Sons in its bed onto the road.
Tak watched in anticipation as the next two trucks behind it pulled up as close as they could to each other, one right behind the other. However the next truck; the 5th truck in the convoy, kept about 30 feet of distance between it and the truck in front of it. The 6th and final truck in the convoy pulled up right behind the 5th. Other than the last two trucks, the
y would all be caught well within his planned trap. He then fired the first shot; punching a round through the front window of the 2rd truck and easily hitting its driver in the forehead. Having anxiously waited for Tak’s first shot; the men in the eastern tree line began firing their weapons as soon as they heard it. Naff and Wrights machine guns unleashed a torrent of full auto gunfire. Stotlar and Botha were squeezing the trigger of their rifles about twice per second, adding to the hail of lead going into the raiders and their trucks. Many of the Sons were cut down before they could even dismount. With six men packed into the back of each truck, the officers could hardly miss. They rapidly fired shot after shot; each one hitting its mark easily from their short 50 yard distance. Chunks of heads were torn off and hundreds of holes were blasted into bodies as many of the Sons were quickly mowed down in a bloodbath. Those who lay down in the back of their vehicles in hopes of finding cover found no refuge as the 5.56 rounds easily punched through the sides of the truck beds and hammered into flesh. Some of them started firing back towards the east, but well protected by their layers of dirt filled bags, the officers were unscathed.
As soon as Sergeant Allen heard the first shot he fired his AT-4 rocket launcher from his right shoulder, where he had been waiting and aiming in at the rear of the last truck. He pulled the trigger and the explosive rocket blasted off towards its doomed target as a huge blast of flame shot out of the rear of the tube. A trail of smoke followed as the rocket quickly covered the short 100 yard distance to the truck, causing the entire vehicle to explode in a massive ball of fire upon impact. Most of its occupants were instantly vaporized, but several body parts were sent raining down in all directions.
IN THE APOCALYPSE, A HERO RISES Page 9
