He looked surprised at my statement. “We did not plan this. I saw her when you fell down and hugged her and Abby, and man, I could not take my eyes off her. She has been in my dreams every night since. She’s been in my thoughts every day. I have been tormented as I tried to figure it all out. And then there’s you, and Hannah,” he said, as he ran his hands through his hair, and bowed his head to face the ground beneath his feet.
I took my right hand, slapped him on the back and said, “Adam, I said I understand. I wish I had known. I wish I could have been observant enough to see it, but I was not. Damn if Hannah didn’t see it! All I ask is that you respect Lily and remember what she has been through. She’s still fragile. If you can promise me that, you have my blessing to see where this goes.”
Adam smiled, “Deal.” he said.
With that we stood up and walked over to the campsite. Lily and Abby came walking up to us. “Abby,” I said.
“Hey Dad!” Abby replied.
“Let’s walk over here and help set up a tent. What do you think?” I said.
Abby looked at Lily, Lily looked at Abby. Adam looked at me. I looked at Abby, as I reached out my right hand and took her left hand in mine. We walked off leaving Adam and Lily standing there in the middle of a bare spot on the side of a broken down road. As Abby and I neared some soldiers, assembling a tent, I looked back over my shoulder to see Lily and Adam sharing an embrace. With a sigh, I looked ahead as Abby picked up the corner of a tent, which was lying on the ground. She looked up at me and smiled.
“I love you Dad,” she said with a smile.
“I Love you too Abby,” I said as I picked up the opposite corner of the tent.
Chapter 10
The Last Supper
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“There is no difference between Communism and Socialism, except in the means of achieving the same ultimate end: Communism proposes to enslave men by force, Socialism by vote. It is merely the difference between murder and suicide”
—Ayn Rand
Shhhh!” General Davies whispered quietly as he raised the Ruger #1 chambered in .45-70 to his shoulder. Adam and I watched intently as he used the iron sights to lock in on the wild boar that stood before us at about eighty yards. BANG!
With that, the boar dropped to the ground and began kicking uncontrollably as his little brain did not yet quite realize he was dead. Adam and I rushed over to the boar with General Davies coming behind us.
“I do say old chap, it is quite the sport, hunting the wild beast around a vacant building in the big city,” General Davies said with a laugh.
“This will be a nice meal for everyone tonight. Three hundred fifty pounds of good old American pork,” I said.
Adam smiled as he began to cut open the boar with an old Buck fixed blade knife. “Are you okay there Adam?” I asked.
“Oh yes Sir, it’s been awhile, but I can still field dress a kill. I even brought my grandpa’s old buck knife with us,” he said.
With that, General Davies and I left him to his duties while we walked over and sat on a curb in front of an old Aaron’s Rents store that had long since closed up.
“I do say General, I know you do not wish to discuss The Bear, but I really need to know some specifics about his capture and release,” he said. “That is, if it is not too much trouble of course.”
Letting out a sigh, “Okay General, what do you want to know?”
“Well, how was he captured? I mean the man is a beast, and as far as I know, he has never been taken prisoner. To the contrary and to my knowledge he has never even come close to being captured. I am just surprised by it all. I had concluded that he would die before being taken prisoner,” he curiously mentioned.
“Well, we were finishing a battle here in New York, and honestly, I never asked just how he was captured, I just kind of turned around and my guys had him bound and tied to a horse. We took him to camp, did some interrogations, and then he escaped. But before he escaped, he killed twelve of our men. That’s about all I can tell you really,” I replied.
“That is precisely what I was talking about General Hornady!” speaking with decisiveness. “The fact that he was taken prisoner by two men, and then was not only able to escape, but kill twelve men at the same time? Did not that raise any suspicions for you?”
“When you put it that way I guess it should have. But I was blinded by the fact that we had him. We had Alexei Vadim in our custody. So many things ran through my head. Before I could do anything other than find out about Vermont, he was gone,” I said.
“Was his General with him when he was captured? I only ask because rarely are they ever separated. I highly doubt that one would be taken without the other or unless the other was dead. It just isn’t making much sense at this point old fella,” General Davies replied.
“I wasn’t aware that he had a General. I assumed he was in charge and everyone else were just soldiers,” I said.
“Oh goodness no! I do not recall his name right this minute, but he has a field General that he trusts with only the utmost of important tasks. He is a little man in height with a, how do you say…beer belly?” he asked.
I looked at him and shook my head no. “I don’t have any idea what you’re talking about General.”
“Oh my goodness, what was his name?” Lenard said drumming his fingers on his right cheek and his chin was propped on the palm of his hand. “They met here in the United States and have formed quite a bond you know. Almost like a father and son type thing. Very much like you and the good Major over there,” he said pointing to Adam.
I looked over at Adam who had made great progress in his field dressing of the boar. He had blood up to his elbows. “Are you alright over there Adam?” I asked.
Looking up and smiling, “Yes Sir.”
“What else do you know about The Bear General Davies?” I asked.
“Oh my goodness, I probably do not know much more than you at this point. He’s a beast of a man, and a beast with no conscience either. He kills, he rapes, he pillages and he plunders. I had heard that he did let one person go a while ago,” he said looking over at me with a raised eyebrow.
“Uh-huh. And what did you hear about that General?” I asked.
Clearing his throat, he began, “Well, I do say dear chap, do not get offended, but I heard that you and he met on the battlefield. After killing all of your men, he beat you within an inch of your life and released you to go home and deliver a message of hate to all who would listen. But the story goes that you disappeared and the message was never delivered,” he said.
“I’m not offended. That’s pretty accurate,” I said as I stared at Adam.
“I am sure he has never forgotten that you failed to comply with his demands. It would of course be well within his vicious character, to set you up so that he could be victorious over you yet again in Vermont. I am not meaning to embarrass you General, I am just making an observation at this point. He has already enticed you into a battle that was stacked against you,” General Davies stated.
Looking at the General, I was thinking of an appropriate response when my thoughts were interrupted.
“I think we’re ready to get this chunk of meat back to the camp,” Adam said.
Looking over at Adam I said, “Well, let’s get going then. Coyotes and wolves will come out as soon as they smell the meat. They’re probably already on the way.”
With that General Davies, Adam and I began the long trek back to the camp with a sizeable wild boar. “This is going to be some good eating tonight eh’ General?” I said looking at General Davies with a grin.
“Down right deplorable English!” General Davies once again reminded me.
“We’ll need it,” Adam said. “Tomorrow’s the day we start out for Schenectady. We need all of the energy we can get.”
The walk back to the camp was relatively quiet. We had to keep our eyes peeled looking for any possible Russian or Socialist soldiers, as well as any wild anim
als that wanted to attack us for our recently harvested meat. Once we got back to camp, General Thomas had the fire burning hot, ready to start roasting the boar.
“You kind of took it for granted that we would return with some meat didn’t you Grant?” I asked.
“I never doubted for a moment Paul. Never doubted for a moment!” he replied.
“If you good gentlemen do not mind, I think that I will retire to my tent. I do believe that it is tea time,” General Davies said as he walked toward his tent.
Adam and I began laughing as General Thomas just shook his head.
Adam and I spent most of the afternoon cooking the boar. The soldiers scurried about preparing to leave tomorrow morning. Hannah and the ladies of the group were preparing some soup and potatoes to go with the boar. There was not enough food for about sixteen hundred people, but it was enough so everyone did not starve.
General Thomas sat on a tree stump half nodding off and half awake. “Grant?” I asked
“Yes Paul,” he replied as he took the pipe out of his mouth and opened his weary eyes.
“General Davies sure does seem to know a lot about The Bear,” I said.
Grant looked at me intently for thirty seconds or so and then answered. “He should. The man raped his wife while he made his son watch. Then he killed both of them and left them for Lenard to find. He’ll not rest until he finds him and kills him or someone else does it for him. He doesn’t really care who kills the man, he just wants him dead. I’m sure it’s eating him alive knowing we had him and let him get away.”
“Damn,” I said as I sat there looking down at the ground and twiddling a charred stick that I had been using while cooking the boar.
“Exactly,” General Thomas said.
Adam had been listening intently to our conversation and took pause to speak. “I read somewhere once that ‘The man who seeks revenge, digs two graves’ or something like that.”
“If I had another opportunity with The Bear, you could dig two graves, one for him, and one for me. I should have killed him the last time. I won’t make that mistake again,” I said.
It got quiet and no one spoke. We just kept working on the wild boar, and looked forward to the taste of the cooked meat. Several hours later we were all eating and conversing when the conversation turned to The Bear once again.
“General Hornady, I will have you know that I have the name of that chap—how do you say—’On the tip of my tongue’? It will come to me I can assure you,” General Davies said.
“What is he talking about Paul?” General Thomas asked.
“Ahhh, something about some big time Field General that The Bear has as a trusted second in command or something. I don’t know. I think its hogwash,” I replied.
“Oh no, everyone knows of Forsyth. He’s a legend,” Grant replied.
I almost choked on the water I was drinking as General Davies spoke.
“By Roger! That’s his name Grant. Forsyth! Emmet Forsyth! Thank you for the help, I knew it would come to me. That’s his name General Hornady, Emmet Forsyth. Bloody chap always throws an esquire on the end of his name like he’s some sort of royalty,” he spoke laughing at the same time.
I sat there speechless. I sat there motionless. I could not speak, I could not move, I could hardly breathe. Emmet Forsyth? He was my savior in Tennessee? Really? The right hand of The Bear? Hannah had also grown silent as she watched my face. She too, remembered Emmet Forsyth, and the hug she gave him.
“General? Are you okay?” Adam asked. “You look like you saw a ghost.”
“Paul, are you okay?” General Thomas asked.
Looking at all of them in complete bewilderment I said, “I know him. He saved my life. He brought me home. I could have killed them both. Why have I never heard of him? I could have killed them both,” I repeated over and over again.
Chapter 11
It All Makes Sense Now
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“Of all the words of mice and men, the saddest are, ‘It might have been.’”
—Kurt Vonnegut
The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The NDAA was a United States federal law which, besides other provisions, specified the budget and expenditures of the United States Department of Defense. The bill was signed into law on December 31, 2011, by President Obama.
President Obama described the Act as addressing national security programs, Department of Defense health care costs, counter-terrorism within the United States and abroad, and military modernization. The most controversial provisions to receive wide attention were contained in subsections 1021–1022 of Title X, Subtitle D, entitled “Counter-Terrorism”, authorizing the indefinite military detention of persons the government suspected of involvement in terrorism, including United States citizens arrested on American soil. The detention provisions of the Act received critical attention by, among others, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the Bill of Rights Defense Committee, and some media sources which were concerned about the scope of the President’s authority, including contentions that those whom they claimed may be held indefinitely, could include United States citizens arrested on American soil, including arrests by members of the Armed Forces.12
The NDAA was passed and received very little attention from the general citizens of the United States. This was just another law that the President passed to take away rights of Americans. No one even noticed what he was doing. Beginning in 2018, the military began arresting and holding anyone that was speaking out against the President and his liberal policies. By the time 2020 arrived, each state had a prison camp similar to Guantanamo Bay. Americans were being held indefinitely, with no trial, no charges, just because they spoke out about the tyrannical government. The end was near.
The Guantanamo Bay detention camp, also referred to as Guantánamo or Gitmo, was a United States military prison located within Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, which fronts on Guantánamo Bay in Cuba. Guantanamo Bay was established in January of 2002 by Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld who said the prison camp was established to detain extraordinarily dangerous prisoners, to interrogate prisoners in an optimal setting, and to prosecute prisoners for war crimes. Detainees captured in the War on Terror, most of them from Afghanistan and much smaller numbers later from Iraq, the Horn of Africa and Southeast Asia were transported to the prison.
The facility was operated by the Joint Task Force Guantanamo (JTF-GTMO) of the United States government in Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. Detainment areas consisted of Camp Delta (including Camp Echo), Camp Iguana, and Camp X-Ray (which is now closed).13
Camps just like Guantanamo Bay were in every state in the continental United States in 2020. It was so sad to see how America had fallen.
“Why the hell didn’t you tell me about General Forsyth?” Adam asked as we walked toward my tent.
“He was a friend Adam, do I have to fill you in on all of my friends? I had no idea until thirty minutes ago that he was really an enemy,” I replied.
“Paul, we need to talk about this. Our trip to Vermont has just taken on a whole new appearance,” General Thomas stated as he walked into the tent behind Adam and me.
“What do you want me to say Grant? I had no idea that Emmet Forsyth was the right hand man to Alexei. The man saved my life, obviously for some unknown reason. And for whatever reason, he did save me. Can we be thankful for that?” I mentioned to both of them.
“Quite the contrary good man,” spoke General Davies as he entered the tent.
“Well, by all means, let’s just invite everyone into my tent,” I said in an ill-natured manner. I walked to the tent opening and hollered out, “Does anybody else want to come in here?”
“I am quite sorry for the intrusion General, but we simply must weigh all of the possibilities now. Perhaps you should tell us all what happened between you and this General Forsyth?” General Davies inquired.
“There really isn’t much to tell,” I said with a sigh as I looked down at t
he ground. Was I going to have to relive that day in Tennessee again? I thought to myself.
“Paul, we need to know what happened. You’ve got to tell us,” Grant demanded as he took hold of my arm and guided me toward a chair. “Sit down, relax, and tell us all about it.”
After a moment of hesitation I began. “It happened in Tennessee. Right after the battle, after all of my men were dead, the Socialist and Russian soldiers had beaten the ever loving shit out of me. I had broken ribs, a cut open side, a sliced open calf and they shot me in the shoulder. I was beaten so badly that I could not open my eyes except just a sliver to see blurred movement and hazy light,” I stopped and took in a deep breath.
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