by John Chapman
Keel was taken completely by surprise by the guard’s actions and words. He knew they weren’t ninja’s in the woods, but they must have sucked worse than he thought if the guy had seen them already. He keyed his radio and said, “Knight One, Knight One-Alpha-One. We’ve been made. The guard is calling us to him. I am making contact.” Keel heard the tail end of a curse when Manny replied, “Roger, One-Alpha-One. I’m on my way. Delay if you can.” Keel replied, “Roger,” then said to Zach, “I’m going to go meet him, keep everyone here until I call you over.” Zach merely nodded, a small smile on his face.
Keel stood up and walked across the road. When he got to the gate the first thing Lewis said to him was, “Damn you’re huge. You play football?” Keel laughed and said, “What do you think bro?” and stuck his hand through the gap in the fence for a handshake. Lewis chuckled and said, “I bet you hear that all the time. Jeff Lewis. It’s good to see you; I was starting to wonder if anyone was still alive out there.”
Keel nodded his head and replied, “Very much so. We are from Alliance, scouting the area.” Lewis smiled and said, “I know who you guys are, I saw the Black Knight patch. Is that what you call it, ‘scouting’? You guys sounded like a bunch of drunk frat boys trying to use a brass band to disguise the noise of hiding a body in the woods over there.” Keel grimaced and asked, “That bad huh?” Lewis replied, “Ha! That movement would embarrass a dumpster fire Jim.” Keel sighed, “Well, we hadn’t practiced yet.” “I’m just glad it was me you were ‘sneaking up on’,” Lewis said, using his finger quotes, “and not a bad guy. I could have owned you guys.” Keel nodded and sucked up the lesson.
Keel shook it off with an internal commitment to fix the problem, and had to laugh at himself. He said, “My commander is hauling ass up here as we speak, so expect to hear a HMWWV going mach 1.5 any second. What is your situation here?” Lewis replied, “As far as I can tell, I’m the only one left on post. I was following my Marine Corps General Orders and trying to figure out what to do when you guys showed up.” Keel nodded then heard a HMWWV screaming north on the road. “That must be the Boss,” Lewis said. Keel let out a breath and replied, “Yep.” Lewis smiled and said, “Don’t worry bro, I’ll make you look good. No need for Officers to know NCO business.” Keel just nodded and braced for the worst.
When the HMWWV pulled into the driveway leading up to the gate, it slowed to a crawl as Manny evaluated the situation. He saw Keel standing at the closed gate speaking with the gate guard. No one else was around. He had the driver pull close, then got out and walked towards Keel, keeping his carbine slung across his body, but keeping his firing hand on the grip. On the short drive from the patrol base he’d decided to play this straight, and see where it went.
As they watched Manny approach, Lewis took one look at him and said, under his breath, “Holy crap that dude’s all Officer.” Keel replied out of the corner of his mouth, “Ranger Officer. Awesome guy.” Lewis nodded slightly and stood up straighter.
When Manny got within 10 feet of them he said, “Good Morning.” Both Keel and Lewis replied, “Good morning.” Keel felt a little silly, as he’d just seen Manny less than an hour ago, but there was something about Manny that made you want to treat him like a General. Keel shook it off and said, “Manny, meet Jeff Lewis. Jeff Lewis, Manny.” The two shook hands through the fence while Manny said, “Nice to meet you Lewis. We are from the City of Alliance and wanted to come check-in with the Camp. Is the Post Commander on site?” Lewis said, “No Sir. According to my access roster, I’m the only one left on post. The Commander never came to work yesterday; I think he was on leave. The three employees who were working on the Camp left on foot yesterday evening. I haven’t left my post to check, but I’m pretty sure I’m it.”
Manny nodded his understanding and said, “Does the Camp have a plan for this sort of emergency?” Lewis replied, “Not that I know of, but I’m just the gate guard. I know the base doesn’t have a lot of missions these days. So far as I know all they do here is National Guard training and equipment storage.” Manny replied, “Ok. What do you plan to do? You can’t stay here forever.” Lewis said, “I was just thinking about that. My initial reaction was to remain at my post until relieved, but your HMWWV is the first vehicle I’ve seen that runs, and I have no comms. As far as I know I’ll never get relieved.”
Manny raised his eyebrows and nodded then said, “Well, you’ve gone above and beyond, staying on your post this long.” Lewis straightened up a little and said, “I’m a Marine Sir. They made me memorize the General Orders for a reason.” Manny said, “Yes they did. Well done. When did you eat last?” Lewis replied, “I haven’t eaten since lunch yesterday. The lights went out after lunchtime, and I had eaten everything I brought.”
Manny nodded and turned without another word and walked back to the HMWWV. He returned with an MRE and a bottle of water and handed them to Lewis, who thanked him profusely. Manny asked, “Can I consolidate my guys here at the gate?” Lewis replied, “Absolutely.” Keel got on the radio and called his team over to the gate and set them up to pull security. While waiting on the rest of the teams to move up, Manny explained the situation as he understood it, and briefed Lewis on the Alliance city government’s response, and the Black Knight Squadron.
Lewis took it all in and said, “Sir, as far as I can tell you guys are the only legitimate government entity around. I am willing to take my orders from you.” Manny nodded and said, “Alright. That’s how I see it as well. I know it’s not a textbook solution, but I think keeping the equipment stored here out of the wrong hands, and putting it to work for the right purposes, is the smart call.” “I agree 110 percent,” Lewis replied, then continued, “I have no idea if it’s legal, but I know it’s right.”
Manny nodded and said, “I have some National Guard troops with me. We will search the post and take as much equipment back to Alliance as we can, then lock up the Camp as well as possible. I’m hoping it takes the bad elements of society a while to figure out what’s here, and by then we will have most of it moved.” Lewis agreed and said, “I have the keys to get into the storage control office. We should be able to access whatever we want.” Manny replied, “Good. That will let us save our breaching equipment for other needs. Now, eat and relax for a few minutes. We are about to be busy.” Jeff Lewis didn’t need to be told twice it was time to eat.
The next few hours were a whirlwind of activity. 1st Troop was able to get 11 Strykers running, all of them M1126 ICV’s. They were taking all of them. The three National Guardsmen spent an hour teaching everyone how to drive the armored vehicles, and Manny was confident they could get them back to the FOB intact. A lot more training would be needed before they fully deployed the vehicles, but everyone was happy they found them. The Guardsmen loaded all of the spare parts they could find, filling the troop compartments of four of the Strykers.
The rest of the vehicles were loaded with the contents of the Arms Rooms of the four resident National Guard units, including 18 M2 .50 caliber machineguns, 31 M240 machineguns, nine M249’s, and over 130 M4 rifles. They also located four M203 grenade launchers, but couldn’t find any ammo for them. They loaded as much 9mm, 5.56, linked 5.56, linked 7.62, and linked .50 cal ammo as they could fit. Some of the Strykers were overloaded, but Manny figured they would just drive slowly and hope for the best.
Radios were high on Manny’s wish list, and they grabbed every piece of portable radio equipment possible. As far as he knew, no one in the Squadron knew how to use the complicated radios, crypto fill devices, and antennas, but he decided that was a problem for another day. Having the equipment was as good as he could do for now. He would have to trust God to send them someone who knew how to program everything.
In addition to the Strykers and other gear, the Troop took five soft-skinned HMWWVs from the motor pool of vehicles awaiting the DRMO process. The grass DRMO lot had at least 80 HMWWVs parked in it, but Manny was out of drivers. The rest of the Troop’s time was spent location an
d marking other vehicles and equipment they wanted to recover later.
It was late in the day by the time Manny decided they had done all they could for now, and they locked everything up as best they could. He gave a full convoy briefing and mounted up. The 20-vehicle convoy kept a sedate 25 MPH pace all the way back to FOB Card, while Manny tried to figure out where he was going to park everything. If the lights come back on, Manny thought ruefully, I’m going to have some ‘splainin todo to the Ohio Army National Guard.
Chapter 20
Ward 5
Alliance, OH
A cold artic wind blew in from the north, making the job of holding their rifles still enough to see clearly through their magnified optics much harder than normal. Mark, Kasey, and Gary had parked their quads on the north side of the railroad tracks where Bond Road crossed over into downtown, and were hunkered down observing what was left of the City municipal center, about 100 yards to their south. From their vantage point, Mark used the Schmidt & Bender 1-8 Short Dot scope on his ‘heavy’ rifle, a Knights Armament SR-25 EC 7.62mm Carbine, to see Freedom Square, a small park on the north side of the courthouse. It was relatively intact, but the Municipal Courthouse and Police Department buildings behind it were burned out hulks. The 2nd story corridor that connected the two buildings had collapsed, and it looked like the weight of that structure was pulling down the east wall of the courthouse.
Kasey quietly said, “For a fire to get hot enough to make that sky-bridge collapse they must have used a ton of accelerants.” Mark shook his head and said, “Leave it to the dongs to waste fuel, now that no one is making any.” Gary, who was behind them watching their six-o’clock, said, “If they were smart they wouldn’t be dongs.” “True dat’ my friend.” Mark replied, then said, “Let’s move east to Seneca then south. Judging from all the smoke in the air, I’m guessing the PD and Courthouse aren’t the only buildings that were burned down last night.”
Mark’s small team’s mission was to probe the Ward 5 area of Alliance from the north, and gather information. The Mayor wanted to help all of the City’s citizens, but not at the expense of running gunbattles like had happened yesterday afternoon in this very neighborhood. Mark, Kasey, and Gary’s job was to assess the damage these people did to their own neighborhood, and determine what, if anything, could be done to help them. Bravo team from 3rd Troop, under Trent’s leadership, was assessing the damage on the south side of Ward 5, on and around State Street. If the teams could get an idea of the ‘blast radius’ from last night’s fighting and looting, David could develop a plan to contain the problem. That was the idea anyway.
Mark’s team got back on their quads and slow rolled east, then turned south and cut over the tracks through a vacant lot, and out onto Seneca Avenue. As soon as they got on Seneca, they had a fairly straight line of sight south for about a mile, and what they saw shocked them. Most of the homes they could see lining Seneca, and all of the buildings they could see to the west on Main Street, were smoldering ruins. “Holy crap.” Mark heard Gary mutter from behind him. Mark quietly replied, “Holy crap indeed.” Kasey said, “Why would they burn down their only shelter? Don’t they know it’s winter? I could see the logic, from their point of view, of burning down the police station, but burning their own homes? This is crazy.” Mark replied, “I bet most of this destruction is accidental. The wind was from the north last night. When they set the courthouse and PD on fire, it probably got out of control and was driven south by the wind.”
As they were about to push south, Kasey shifted on her seat to get a more comfortable position. As she leaned forward, a shot snapped through the air. She could tell it was close because the shockwave of the round passing her head felt like someone slapped her. Mark happened to be looking to the southwest, at about his 2 o’clock, and saw the muzzle flash come from the corner of a burnt-out home, about 80 yards away. He immediately brought his rifle up, put the Short Dot’s red dot on the corner of the burned wall where he saw the flash, and fired five 7.62X51 rounds through the structure, hoping to hit the shooter on the other side of that corner. When no more fire came at them, he chanced a glance to his left to see if Kasey was alright, but she was already gunning her engine, leaned forward as close to the quad as she could get, as she charged right at the house where the muzzle flash came from. Mark immediately cinched up the rifle on its Blue Force Gear VCAS sling and launched to follow her, with Gary right on his tail.
No more shots came from the spot, and when they arrived about 10 seconds later, the shooter was gone. As Kasey jumped off her quad Mark screeched to a halt and said, “Stop. Do not chase him.” Kasey stopped but didn’t look happy about it. Mark got off his quad and said, “That probably wasn’t random. He might be leading us into an ambush.” Kasey nodded her understanding, but still looked pissed. Mark tac reloaded a fresh Magpul 20 round 7.62 Pmag into his heavy carbine. While he was putting the partial mag away, he said, “The ground is wet, we can track him. Relax and get your mind right,” and stared right into her eyes. Kasey visibly relaxed and got herself together, then nodded.
As they disabled their quads and Mark checked in on the radio, to let Trent’s Bravo team know what they were doing, it began to dawn on Kasey how close she had come to eating that bullet. She had felt the air on her face move when it snapped past her, it had been that close. She thanked God for saving her, then tried to put it out of her mind. She had been through several tracking courses with Mark, and instead focused on what would be expected of her while he tracked the spoor. She focused hard on that. Within a minute of arriving at the burned-out house, they were moving out on the track.
Within 50 feet Mark found a fresh blood smear at about shoulder height on the north-facing wall of a small shed. The smear looked like it was made by a hand. Something tells me I won’t need to be a Navajo Scout to follow this track, Mark thought. He warned Kasey and Gary to be hyper-vigilant; their prey was wounded and was probably looking for a place to hide. About 30 feet west of the shed Mark started spotting very fresh blood drops on the ground. He stopped and called his small team together. “This guy is seriously hit. He’s going to be close.” Mark said. Gary and Kasey both nodded and got ready to move out again.
Another 100 feet to the west Kasey called a halt. She saw a bloody white basketball sneaker sticking out of a bush at her 11 o’clock, about 20 yards west of them. The team spread out, on guard for a trap. Mark looked at Gary and said, “Overwatch,” while pointing to a stalled vehicle in the alley. Gary ran to the car and set up to lay some hate if it was indeed a trap. The weight of the Magpul D60 in his BCM carbine gave him some confidence, in case the hood rats decided to dance.
Mark and Kasey moved wide to their left, and were finally able to get eyes on the down subject’s body through the bush. Kasey was pretty sure he was still alive, given the fact he was blinking, but his breathing was shallow and he was lying in a pool of what looked to her like 50 gallons of blood. As she watched, Kasey saw him trying to speak then it appeared he fell asleep. She noticed his labored breathing had stopped, so that was probably it. Mark quietly told her, “Move to this car with me and pull security to the south. We will give this guy some time to expire.” Mark ran to a parked car, one of the seemingly endless numbers of Kia sedans in Ward 5, and took a knee, pulling security to the west.
Mark kept an eye on his wristwatch, thanking God for manually wound timepieces, and after 10 minutes he figured the guy was a goner. He said a quiet, “On me.” To Kasey’s back, then got up and cautiously approached the hopefully dead guy tangled up in the bush. When they got to him Kasey held cover while Mark grabbed his left foot and dragged the dude out from underneath the untrimmed Spicebush trees. Once they had his body exposed, Kasey saw a wooden rifle stock lying in the pool of blood next to the dead guy. She walked over and drug it out of the blood, and saw it was an M1 Garand.
“Holy crap!” she exclaimed, and told Mark what it was. He said, “Well, grab it up while I search and try to ID this guy.” Kasey repl
ied, “It’s literally covered in blood.” Mark looked up at her and calmly said, “Then wipe it off Baby. The faster you wipe it down, the easier it will be to clean up. We can’t leave it here.” Kasey looked around and finally saw a towel on the rear window deck of the Kia they had used for cover. She used the little window break tool she kept on a loop of paracord on her First Spear plate carrier to break the rear passenger window, and grabbed the towel. After seeing Mark glove up, she stopped and put on a pair of latex gloves out of her left cargo pocket. No sense getting the dead guy’s cooties on her.
By the time Mark was done searching the dead guy, finding a Hi Point .45 ACP pistol with a half-loaded mag in it, two Garand clips and an expired Ohio ID card with the dude’s name on it, Kasey was finished wiping the rifle off, as best she could anyway. As she cleaned, she kept stealing glances at the dead man, wondering how Mark could deal with the bloody body so clinically. Kasey felt sick to her stomach and decided to just ignore the guy.
When they were both done, Mark stood up and took the dead dude’s jacket off of him, then wrapped it around the guy’s face. Mark grabbed the dead man by the foot again and dragged him out of the alley and next to a burnt-out house. “He’ll have to keep for now,” Mark said, “We need to get moving.” He updated Trent over the radio, and the three-person team formed up in a wedge, then moved east, back to their quads. I hope this isn’t what the rest of our lives will be like, Kasey thought, knowing full well things were probably going to get far worse before they got better.
*
Trent acknowledged Mark’s transmission and turned to Ernesto, who was driving the MRAP, and said, “You copy that? We can resume our mission. Knight Five is fine.” Ernesto hadn’t heard the transmission; his radio was turned down too low. He nodded and slowed down. He made a series of left turns and managed to get back on State Street without doing a Big Foot monster truck impression on one of the stalled cars on the road. When they were again heading west on State Street, Ernesto asked, “Do you still want to stay in the area? Charlie team has Kyle with them and they are almost to the Judge’s house. We are close enough to help them if they run into trouble.” Trent thought about it for a second and replied, “No, let’s hit Giant Eagle and see how they fared last night. We still have to check the hospital before we head back to the range. I mean FOB.” Ernesto said, “Roger that.”
