by John Chapman
Kyle left the TOC to go check in with Chief Stone while Mark went to go wake up Manny, Dan, and Troy. Bones, and David built new teams from the late arrivals and assigned them to the Troops. Foxtrot team had done a good job of documenting who had arrived overnight, where they were from, and what their experience level was. This information was invaluable as a starting point for David and Bones in assigning guys, and a few women, to teams.
They assigned Manny to lead 1st Troop and gave him Alpha and Bravo teams, with a team of new arrivals they designated as the new Charlie team. Manny’s callsign would be ‘Knight One’. Next, they tasked Troy with leading 2nd Troop (callsign Knight Two) and assigned the old Charlie and Delta teams to him, renamed Alpha and Bravo, along with a team of seven SWAT cops from other jurisdictions who had straggled in overnight. Then they assigned Dan to command 3rd Troop, calling him ‘Knight Three’; giving him the old Echo team, renamed Alpha, and two new teams of recently arrived guys. Without waiting to talk to Kyle, they assigned command of 4th Troop, the support group, to Sgt. Wiggins of Foxtrot Team, and called him ‘Knight Four’. He had done an absolutely phenomenal job in organizing his guys and accomplishing his mission, and being the admin Sergeant for the PD, he knew everyone in the city. He was a good fit for that slot. They loosely organized the remaining available manpower into six-man teams and assigned them to 4th Troop, trusting Wiggins to sort them out.
By the time Mark returned with the newly minted Troop commanders, each of them appearing to be half asleep, Bones had a neatly handwritten roster for each of them. Mark got on the radio and put the arm out for Sgt. Wiggins, who appeared in the TOC momentarily. Mark briefed the Troop commanders on the new organization, all of whom took it in stride. When Mark finished, Manny said, “Well, I didn’t have anything better on my agenda today anyway.”
It was a little after 0630 when the Troop commanders left the TOC to find all of their guys and start getting things ready to receive missions. The sun was peeking over the horizon, casting a shadowed glow against the overcast sky. It looked like snow was coming, but nobody in the TOC could remember what the weather forecast had said about today before the lights went out. I guess we will have to dress for the worst and hope for the best, Mark thought. It was going to be a long and cold second day of the apocalypse.
Chapter 18
Walmart
Alliance, OH
When Troy’s armored HMWWV made the turn off of State Street into the western entrance of the Walmart parking lot, he saw big clouds of smoke coming from the back of the store, and peed himself a little. He thought the building and supplies they had worked so hard to secure the night before were on fire. He yelled at the driver to haul ass behind the store. Troy’s butthole unpuckered when they turned the corner and saw a long line of smokers, gas grill BBQs, and turkey deep fryers running full blast in the chill morning light.
As Troy’s HMWWV came to a stop, he bailed out and walked directly to a guy in an employee vest holding an AR-15 rifle, obviously pulling security. “Good morning!” Troy said. The employee replied, “Thank God you guys are back. I was sure the smell of all this food cooking would draw the crowds.” As Troy was formulating a response, Harold, the Walmart manager, walked up and said hello. Troy said, “Good morning Harold. What’s up with all the cooking?”
Harold smiled and said, “Well, with the power out all the meats won’t last long. I figured it was best to smoke or dehydrate everything we could, and cook the rest. We are starting with the fresh meat, and should have that all done by about lunchtime. Then we will start in on the frozen stuff that has already defrosted.” Troy was impressed with the initiative and said so. Harold just blushed and said, “I couldn’t let it go to waste. We have the means and fuel to cook it right now, so why not?” Troy said, “Hell yeah! Listen, we will be in the area all day, the Mayor wants to set you up as the center of a safe zone.” Harold nodded and said, “That makes sense. With us, Lowes, the nursery and the big greenhouse produce farm behind us, it’s a perfect spot.” Troy asked, “Um, did you say there is a greenhouse farm here?” Harold said, “Yeah, you didn’t know? Come on, I’ll show you.”
Harold led Troy to the southwest edge of the lot and pointed south. Beyond the trees lining the Walmart property, Troy could see over 100 large transparent greenhouses. “Holy crap!” Troy whispered. Harold said, “Sorry, I thought you knew that was there. It’s called Greenbrier Farms. We buy most of our out of season produce from them; it’s local and much cheaper than importing from South America. I got a huge bonus last year for striking a deal with them. I know the manager, Anthony Barton, really well. I know the Mayor knows him too.” “Holy crap.” Was all Troy could say. This was an amazing resource. Troy snapped out of it and said, “Thank you Sir. We will secure the farm as well. I’ll stay in touch today.” The men shook hands and Troy walked back to his vehicle.
Troy had brought all of 2nd Troop to Walmart with orders to set up another FOB there. The store was situated perfectly to secure not only Walmart, but to use as a base of operations to secure the Lowes, Goodwill, Stapes store, Holiday Inn (the hotel where all of the visiting CQB students had rooms), and Organic Nursery on the other side of State Street; and the Tractor Supply, indoor shopping mall, and 200 room hotel just to the east on the Walmart side of the street. His briefing hadn’t included the Greenbrier Farm property, but it was obviously now on his list. City leadership’s plan was the entire area, once secured, would become the new ‘center’ of town. It was a lot of area to lock down and search with just the 26 assaulters of 2nd Troop, but Troy was confident they could have it done by nightfall. His orders were to have the area ready to begin distributing food and supplies to the city’s citizens by daybreak the next day. He was told more manpower would be on the way to assist with the logistics tasks as soon as possible, but he was the main effort for the security situation.
Troy gathered his three team leaders and started giving orders. Alpha team was directed to search and secure the nursery and Goodwill stores, then set up a blocking position on State Street to the west. They brought the Brickyard’s backhoe with them: after it was done burying the dead from last night, it would use its front end equipped with forks to begin moving stalled vehicles to set up an ECP on the west side. Bravo team was ordered to search and secure Lowes, and to set a small security detachment on the roof of the building when done, then search and secure the office supply store and Starbucks coffee shop that shared a parking lot with the big box hardware store. Once those tasks were complete, they were to set up a blocking position to the east, to be built into an ECP once the west side was done.
Charlie team had the biggest task. Troy left the team’s M113 on the east side of the Walmart lot with a driver, machinegunner and two assaulters, to act as QRF. The rest of the team was going to clear and secure the tractor supply, the mall and the hotel. It was a big job for six assaulters. He gave his team leaders a few minutes to get everyone set to move, then addressed the entire Troop. “Stay frosty 2nd Troop. We’re all we got.” They responded with a robust, “We’re all we need!”
About 20 minutes later Troy was supervising as the backhoe was digging a trench for the mass grave of the marauders who died in the Walmart fight last night. He figured they would be fine laid to rest together. The real work would be digging the individual graves for their victims. Troy thought they deserved the respect of individual graves, despite the extra work. His train of thought was interrupted by the radio, “Knight Two, Knight Two-Alpha-One. We found the owner of the Organic Nursery sleeping inside the store. He is telling me he wants nothing to do with us.” Troy sighed and replied, “Knight Two copies. I’m on my way.”
Troy jogged north through the parking lot, down the berm, and across State Street. When he got to the front doors of the nursery, he found one of the Alpha team assaulters holding the door open, waiting for him. He said, “Thanks,” and slowed to a walk. When he got inside, taking note of the ‘Sanders 2016’ sticker on the front door glass, Troy fo
llowed the sound of someone yelling until he found the Alpha team leader, Ben, being berated by an old skinny white guy wearing a green ‘Earth Day 2001’ t-shirt and sporting a slate-gray bonytail.
Ben was patiently listening to the guy vent about how he wasn’t letting Trump’s ‘brownshirts’ come seize his property just because the power was out. “The whole thing is a made-up emergency designed to let Trump complete his establishment of a dictatorship!” the man concluded. He folded his arms with a nod of his head and finally shut up. Ben said, “Are you done sir?” The guy looked like he was going to explode again when Troy stepped up to him and put out his hand and said, “Hello Sir. My name is Troy. What’s your name?” Troy’s conversational tone, the smile on his face and the firm handshake caught the man off-guard, and he gruffly replied, “Um, Bernard Getty.” Troy quickly responded, “It’s good to meet you Mr. Getty. I appreciate your patience with us.” Getty was still trying to catch up with the verbal judo Troy was throwing down on him.
Troy spent the next few minutes explaining the situation to Getty, emphasizing the emergency nature of the event and its likely permanence. He told Mr. Getty about the raiders who’d killed about 30 people last night across the street from him, and how Troy and his team had helped stop them. Troy also told Bernard that he and his team were not from the federal government, but were representing the duly elected government of the City. Troy concluded with, “We are only here, Mr. Getty, to check on you and put you in touch with the Mayor; I think he wants to draw on your expertise to help everyone start gardens. This is going to be a long crisis and the people will need your help. You are also in the middle of an area we are setting up as a safe zone.”
Troy had carefully chosen his words to ensure maximum effect, and the now beaming smile on Mr. Getty’s face showed the wisdom of that tack. Troy knew the man’s knowledge of small-scale farming were going to be invaluable to the community as the crisis continued. He could tell his appeal to Bernard’s talent and ability to help others had struck him where it counted: Bernard’s ego and his sense of duty to help others in need. Mr. Getty stood a little straighter, stuck out his hand for a shake, and said, “Troy, please thank the Mayor for me. I am more than happy to help however I can.”
Troy smiled back and said, “Thank you Mr. Getty. I’m sure Mayor Barnhart will be by soon to get your input on planning. In the meantime, my men and I will be working in the area today. You may see us out on State Street; we are setting up a roadblock to keep men like those who attacked Walmart last night out of the area. If you need anything at all, please just contact one of them and we will get you squared away.” Mr. Getty said, “Thank you son.”
When they got outside Ben turned to Troy, grinned and said, “That was some ninja level verbal judo brother. Very nice.” Troy laughed and said, “Easy day. He is someone we will need on our side when we run out of Vienna Sausages and Doritos.” Ben’s chuckle was interrupted by the sound of three slow gunshots to the east. Ben said, “One’s a backfire, three’s gunplay.” Both started walking that way when they heard the belt fed on the M113 open up. “Venton must have seen something if he’s shooting back,” Ben said, as they both started running towards the gunfire.
They heard Venton get on the radio and say, “Two-Charlie-Two, some dong is shooting at the M113, from north of my pos. He’s hiding inside the Starbucks.” As they listened to Venton on the radio they could hear him continuing to work the M240, suppressing the shooter and pinning him in place. Troy keyed the radio as he and Ben changed direction to come up on the west side of the coffee shop, and said, “Knight Two copies. Fix him there while we get set. I’ll call you to lift fire when we are ready.” Venton replied, “Roger,” in between bursts.
It took Troy and Ben less than a minute to run to the coffee shop, where they took cover behind a dead vehicle on the west side of the building. They gathered themselves, and took a second to catch their breath as Venton continued to send streams of 7.62 justice over the shop’s patio and into the store. Venton saw Ben and Troy behind the Ford Taurus to the left of the shop, and keyed his PTT, “Knight Two I’ve got you. Let me know when you’re ready to move.” Troy looked at Ben, who gave him a muzzle release, then transmitted, “Shift fire. Assaulting through.”
As Troy and Ben sprinted the 15 yards to the west door of the coffee shop, Venton shifted the M240 to the right on its mount and ceased firing. Making it to the already broken-out glass door first, Troy cleared the part of the store’s interior he could see from the outside of the opening. As he finished that scan, Ben came to a stop on the right side of the door next to the handle. Ben gave another muzzle release and Troy yanked the door open. Ben launched through the opening, went left, and stumbled over someone crouched next to the wall by the door, sending him on a short but ungraceful flight to the ground. With his BCM 14.5” carbine in his hands, Ben didn’t have time to let go of the gun, and broke his fall with his face.
The guy Ben tripped over was just as stunned. He had been crouched next to the exit door, waiting for the terrifying stream of machinegun fire to stop so he could make a run for it, and was taken completely by surprise when the dude in the Navy Seal getup had barreled him over. When Ben hit him, the guy dropped his Mosin-Nagant 7.62X54 bolt action rifle as he fell over on his butt. Panicked, the man kicked his legs and clawed for the Beretta 92 in an Uncle Mike’s holster on his belt.
Ben recovered his senses quickly and looked over his left shoulder at the man. Seeing the guy was flopping around Ben launched himself at him, landing sideways on the man’s chest and shoulders, with his head over the guy’s right shoulder. He felt the air ‘ooph’ out of the man’s chest, and pinned the guy’s right arm against the ground. Ben grunted, “Stop resisting or I’ll kill you.” The man went limp. Ben found the guy’s Beretta in the holster and took it out, skidding it out of reach, then untangled his own slung carbine and rolled the man over. Ben quickly grabbed his Peerless steel handcuffs out of the pouch on his plate carrier and handcuffed the guy. It wasn’t pretty but it would do for now.
Once he was handcuffed, the man started writhing around on the ground, trying to get out from under Ben’s weight. Troy stepped over to the two-man dogpile after clearing the rest of the room and put his Danner boot on the dude’s head, pinning it to the deck. Troy said, “Stop moving.” The man got still again. Ben finished searching the guy, finding a KA-BAR knife in a sheath on his belt and a Khar PM9 pistol in an ankle holster on his left ankle. Ben ditched the weapons out of reach then asked the man, “Why are you shooting at us?” The guy didn’t say anything for a second and Ben asked him again, “Dude! Why did you shoot at us?”
The man replied, “I thought you was raiders. I walked up here before sunup. I was gonna get some supplies from Lowes, but that APC pulled up across the street,” he gestured with his head to the south, “before I could get there. I saw ya’ll weren’t in a standard uniform and figured ya stole that M113 and was raidin’. Figured I’d whittle ya’ll down some before I ran away.” Ben turned the guy over, sat him up and asked him, “What’s your name.” The guy replied, “Hank Mentor.”
Seeing Hank was a man in his mid-50’s dressed in woodland pattern BDU’s, wearing an old school surplus LBE and sporting a giant beard, Ben asked him, “You a prepper Hank?” Hank looked down and to the left and mumbled, “I ain’t tellin’ you that.” Ben smiled and said, “You just did Hank. You’ve been reading too many books. We are the police department, well, we used to be anyway, and we are here to secure the area to distribute aid. You could’ve hurt someone with that Russian peasant rifle Hank. That was dumb.” Ben stood Hank up and brushed him off.
Two Charlie team assaulters ran up to the door and called out, “Blue coming in!” Troy said, “Come in.” When they stepped in Troy motioned for them to come with him, and they finished clearing the building. Ben pushed the PTT on his vest and said, “Two-Charlie-two, two-Alpha-one. We are secure. One subject in custody.” Venton replied, “Roger.” Ben turned back to Hank and
asked him, “Where do you live Hank?” Hank replied, “Down the road a bit.” Ben got annoyed, “Hank, we aren’t going to come steal your stuff. I’m trying to figure out what to do with you.” Hank cleared his throat and shifted his weight, then replied, “I have some property west of here on Reeder Avenue, off Highway 173.”
Ben knew he’d seen the guy before, and now it clicked. Hank was indeed a prepper. About three years ago, Ben traffic stopped Hank for some minor equipment violation, and remembered it because he had seen a bunch of Wise food buckets in the bed of Hank’s truck. He hadn’t said anything about it at the time, but now it was useful information. Ben asked Hank, “What were you looking for at Lowes?” Hank replied honestly, figuring there was no use lying now, “I need a hydraulic log splitter. I ain’t got nearly enough wood put up for winter, and I’m getting too old to split wood the hard way with this bum shoulder.” Ben nodded his understanding.
Ben righted one of the chairs that had been perforated and knocked over by Venton’s controlled fury of machinegun fire, and told Hank to take a load off. When Troy and the other two assaulters returned, Ben gathered up Hank’s guns and knife and set them on the coffee shop counter, then motioned for Troy to join him. Troy walked up to him and said, “So, what do we do with ol’ Hank?” Ben said, “I was thinking about that. He’s not the sharpest tool in the shed, but I believe him. I’d say we let him go home and tell him to come back tomorrow with something to trade for the log splitter. It could be useful to have him splitting wood; someone around here will need it for heat. He could also serve as an outpost to the west.” “I agree,” Troy said, “Just make sure he understands the consequences for shooting at us again.” Ben nodded and walked over to Hank.
“Alright Hank,” Ben said, “Here’s the deal. This morning you are going to walk home. Return here tomorrow morning, and someone will be able to speak with you about trading for the log splitter. This area will be a safe zone for the near future, and I’m sure we will need split wood for heating.” Ben paused and kneeled in front of Hank, looking him right in the eyes, “But I’ll only say this once Hank. If you shoot at us again, we will kill you. Even if you get away, I know where you live. There will be no more chances; do you understand me?” Hank had lived a simple life, and was never really great at reading people, but he could tell by the look in Ben’s eyes that he could take that warning to the bank. Hank nodded his head and said, “Thank you.” Ben could sense the sincerity in Hank, and said, “Alright, let’s get you out of here.”
