Hell in the Homeland

by A J Newman

  She yelled, “I’ll talk! What do you want?”

  Beth helped get a sheet over the prisoner while Shirley went to get Gus. Gus asked her several questions and made copious notes.

  After about an hour, he looked up at the others and said, “Chain her to a post in a horse stall and keep a guard on her until her trial.”

  John gathered every adult that was not on guard duty and asked for six volunteers who could serve as jurors for the biker woman’s trial.

  One young lady asked, “Who will be her lawyer?”

  John said, “You can.”

  He got six jurors and told them he would be the judge. They brought the woman into the kitchen and asked her to tell her side of the story. She told them that she was with the bikers who killed Robin, but that she did not shoot at Robin and Sammy.

  Sammy told the jurors that he captured her at the scene, that there were eight bikers, and all were armed including the defendant. He also recounted her threat to kill his whole family when she got lose. John watched the woman’s face and body language throughout the brief trial. John sent the jury to the living room to decide her fate when the Q&A was completed. They came back in fifteen minutes with a guilty decision.

  John told them to chain the prisoner back in the horse stall and asked a volunteer to go with him. John stopped by the shed and got two shovels, led Sammy to a spot behind the barn and started digging a grave. It took about two hours and the grave was about four feet deep and just big enough for the defendant.

  John asked Sammy to get Gus and bring the biker defendant to the grave. They arrived in five minutes with a couple of the women in tow.

  The “lawyer” lady asked, “What are y’all doing?”

  John said, “We are about to execute this murderer.”

  The two ladies started arguing and demanded that the woman should not be killed. John told them that she had been found guilty and would be shot immediately. He added that they do not have a jail and he would not set her free to kill again.

  John asked, “Gus, do you want to shoot the bitch?”

  Gus replied, “No.”

  Sammy pulled his Glock, put it against her head and pulled the trigger.

  He said, “The bitch shot my partner on my watch. May God save her soul?”

  Shirley and Ginny were watching the men gathering to discuss the day’s events. Shirley told Ginny that she needed to pick one of these men and get a father for her children.

  Ginny said, “It wouldn’t hurt to have a man in my bed again. I really like Steve, but Janet has her claws into him. Mom, there are very few black men and I really don’t like any of them. I do like several white guys. Would that be a problem?”

  Shirley punched her arm and said, “I just want you to have a man who loves you and the kids. A girl does get lonely and sorry, but your last black husband was a worthless piece of crap. Try a white one!”

  Just then Gus walked by and Ginny ran out to him and walked with him to the house. She followed Gus around like a puppy for the next year.

  Shirley caught Ginny a while later and told her to be careful with Gus since he just lost his wife.

  Ginny said, “I know that you are right, but since the attack, our lives are in danger every day. I think we need to pursue whatever or whoever makes us happy and feel safe. Gus makes me feel safe and I know that he would be good for my kids.”

  Steve watched Ginny following Gus around the compound each day and was happy that a good woman was taking an interest in Gus even if he was oblivious to the attention. Steve even started sending Ginny to get Gus for him when he needed Gus.

  Gus was working on one of the pickups when Ginny came over and started talking to him.

  “Gus, could you teach me how to fix thing and I would really like you to teach me how to protect myself,” said Ginny.

  Gus replied, “I’m sure your dad would be glad to help you with those.”

  She batted her eyes at Gus and said, “But dad does not have the time and always gets so upset with me. You are so calm and I like the fact that you are a religious man.”

  Gus told her that he would be glad to help her and that he would call for her when he had to fix something. He also scheduled her for hand-to-hand training with Jim and he promised to teach her how to fight.

  Gus caught John and told him that George’s oldest girl, Ginny, was flirting with him and he needed it to stop.

  John said, “Gus, you are a big boy. Why don’t you tell her that you aren’t interested in her?”

  Gus said, “I am interested, but Robin just passed and Ginny is so young. I need time to heal and find a woman my own age.”

  John replied, “Gus, times are tough and bad things are going to keep happening to us for many more years. Grab happiness when you can. Just in case you haven’t noticed, there are very few women our age in our camp.”

  Gus said, “But damn it, she’s younger than my daughter. That brings up another topic; I have to go find my kids if they don’t show up soon.”

  Gus, I promise that we will go find them if they don’t show up”

  ***

  A guard saw George’s group coming home and alerted the whole compound, who promptly came out to welcome them home. George’s team rolled back into the bunker compound two days late and had filled every trailer-to-capacity. They had found four more trucks that they could get running and brought them back so they could take them to Sally’s group. He introduced the latest additions to their big family. In addition to the two families from Sally’s team, they had found another twelve adults and seven kids. There were only two men in the whole bunch, since six men had been killed saving the rest from a gang trying to steal the women. The good news was that three of the women had served in the National Guard and were handy with a rifle.

  George reported in to John and Bob to inform them about their trip. They had found Sally’s group and several others like her group. They had given out all of the guns they had and needed about fifty more to give out. He added that all of the groups wanted to strike out at the DHS for trying to run roughshod over them and trying to force them into the camps. Bob said that he would have plenty of arms delivered that night. George told them that there were several bad groups of bikers and gangs from the larger cities raiding the countryside between Pensacola and Montgomery. They were too lazy to grow crops and just took anything they needed.

  Bob said, “If you can get me coordinates on the biker gangs, I can get an Apache to wipe them out. I’ll need someone to paint them with a laser.”

  George replied, “I know just the group that will do that. I have to take guns to them.”

  Bob added, “John, what do you think about the Navy supplying some IEDs to you so you can do some real damage to these gangs and the DHS patrols? I’ll add them to the supply coming tonight.”

  John thought that was a great idea.

  George also told them that several groups told him that most of the population had died off from starvation, disease or murder in the past ninety days.

  Bob replied, “That matches what we are hearing from around the country. Very few were prepared for something like this and if they were, others tried to take their supplies from them.”

  George said, “That reminds me, we brought in a whole trailer load of guns and ammo from a gun shop in Monroeville. We only found hunting rifles, shotguns and pistols. Someone had taken all the ARs. We have half a trailer load of ammo of all types.”

  Bob replied, “You won’t need to scavenge for arms. I had already made up my mind to add M4s, M60s, mortars and more ammo than you can use. I’ll supply all of the MREs that you can stand, but I’d keep searching for food. You also need to bring back about ten pickups and grain type trucks that can be used by my men when the time comes.”

  John replied, “So you finally trust us?”

  Bob said, “Yes, and we have to pick up the pace, so I don’t want you to waste too much time searching for supplies to survive with. We need to start taking the battle to
the enemy and hit them hard.”

  ***

  Steve assigned the new people rooms in the underground bunker and gave them chores. Gus talked with them and planned to schedule them for military training.

  Shirley told George about Ginny’s plans for Gus and told him to behave and not get in their way. George said, “I feel sorry for Gus. When a woman sets her mind to a task it usually gets done.”

  Chapter 10

  Mobile, Alabama

  Watching the Enemy

  Aug 1, 2020

  Bob deployed three teams of scouts to scope out the DHS compound in Mobile. Ensign Roger was the leader and he selected Scott, Jim, Marvin, Karen and Meg. They traveled to Mobile at night and Gus dropped them off a mile from the city. It would take several days for Roger and Meg to get south of the DHS compound without being detected. They had the most difficult and dangerous assignment. Scott and Jim were to check out the docks and then check out the relocation camp. Marvin and Karen were to make their way through Mobile’s suburbs to see if they could find any other resistance groups that could help fight the DHS.

  ***

  The streets of Mobile were deserted, except for an occasional DHS patrol. The patrols consisted of a Humvee containing a driver, passenger and a man who operated the machine gun on top. They appeared about every two hours and drove very slowly up and down all major streets.

  Marvin and Karen traveled only at night from midnight to an hour before daybreak to make sure no civilians spotted them. It took them two days to get to the middle of Mobile. They began to notice that there were almost no dogs or cats roaming the streets, however, they did find quite a few carcasses lying around. Many had been shot, but most were so decomposed that you couldn’t tell what killed them.

  There were no lights in most of the windows, but Marvin noticed that the only houses with lights were only large houses in very rich neighborhoods. They traveled through numerous neighborhoods and did not see a single person other than the constant patrols. Marvin and Karen finally saw a group of people sitting on a patio with a fire in a fire pit having a barbeque. They decided to get close enough to listen in and see what they could learn. Karen saw that these people had a lot of money before the attack. There was a five car garage behind the house to the left of the patio. It contained a new Jaguar, Cadillac and three antique vehicles. There was a ’65 Cobra, ’49 FI pickup and an old Jeep. Marvin whispered to Karen, “I’ll bet that they don’t know the old cars will run.”

  There were five women and three men in the group and they were having a lively discussion about the state of the country.

  They heard an older man say, “The DHS and FEMA are doing the best they can to help those people and they have taken care of us in leadership positions.”

  A young lady replied, “They shot that black family for trying to sneak out of town to avoid being sent to the prison.”

  “Now young lady, you know that is a relocation camp to help feed them until a suitable place for them can be found.”

  A young man replied, “Many of the people that were forced to move into that prison had farms with plenty of food and water. Why were they forced to move when people like us are allowed to stay in our homes and live like this never happened?”

  They listened for about thirty minutes and learned that the three younger people were fed up with the DHS and with the two older people’s better-than-thou attitude. The older man was a doctor and a Mobile councilman. The younger man and two women worked at the hospital where the doctor worked.

  They waited in the shadows for another hour until the three left the house and followed them back to their house. Marvin let them go into the house, but pushed the door open before the man could close it. Karen and Marvin held them at gunpoint and forced the man to light some candles.

  Marvin told them, “We are not here to hurt you and just want to ask you some questions before we leave. We listened in on your conversation with that couple at the house and feel that you are not big supporters of the DHS and what they are doing with people around here.”

  One of the women said, “Why are you pointing those guns at us if you aren’t going to hurt us?”

  Karen replied, “Just being careful honey.”

  They frisked the three and then lowered the guns.

  The man asked, “Are y’all resistance fighters?”

  Marvin said, “And if we are?”

  The reply from all three was, “We’d like to join you. The DHS and FEMA are killing innocent people and torturing women at their compound.”

  The man and his girlfriend were general practice doctors and the other woman was a doctor of pediatrics. They were working at the hospital when the shit hit the fan. As medical professionals, they were treated very well, but they quickly saw the DHS at its worst. They saw men and women coming to the hospital for treatment being placed in trucks and shipped to the relocation centers without the needed medical treatment.

  While walking one Sunday morning at the edge of town they saw a whole family shot down like dogs. They hid because they were afraid the DHS would shoot witnesses to these atrocities. They decided that day that they had to get away from Mobile and the DHS.

  They had started hoarding food and scavenged at night for food, weapons and ammo. They had found several shotguns, a couple of hunting rifles and a dozen pistols from the abandoned homes. They stole medical supplies from the hospital and were only a couple of weeks from being ready to load up and walk out of town. They had a wheelbarrow to help carry the supplies.

  Marvin asked, “Why didn’t you steal one of the doctor’s cars and drive it to get away?”

  Ray said, “They told us nothing would run and all three of our cars are dead. Why would the doctor’s car run?”

  Marvin said, “They lied to you, pre-electronic cars will run just fine. The EMP blasts only fried the electronic components of new cars. If I were you, I would figure out how to steal that old Ford truck and join us. We will come back here in a few days and steal the Jeep at the same time.”

  Ray’s girlfriend, Betty, asked, “Can we ask some more friends to join us?”

  Marvin replied, “We just ask that we get a chance to vet them before they are allowed to come to our camp.”

  ***

  Scott and Jim decided to borrow a small john boat in Chickasaw and float down to the Mobile docks after dark. They took turns rowing and the trip was uneventful until the got to the Highway 90 Bridge when they saw lights approaching from down river. They quickly hid behind a barge tied up on the Mobile side of the river. A patrol boat finally sped by them shinning its search light back and forth. The boat was a good thirty feet long and had FEMA painted on its side. There were .50 cal. machine guns mounted on the fore and aft decks, but no one was manning them. They let the boat get out of site and then continued down river. They paddled for another two hours when the FEMA boat came back down river. They hid again while it passed them and headed out again. In a few minutes, they saw the State Docks up ahead and saw five similar FEMA boats docked at the wharf. Even at two o’clock in the morning, there was a lot of activity around the boats. They took notes and slid on past the docks.

  When they finally got to downtown Mobile, they saw several large war ships docked at the Coast Guard base. One looked like a missile frigate and the other was a destroyer or cruiser. They rowed to the town side of the river, disembarked and hid the boat. They skulked around the docks long enough to know that there were several large warships and cargo ships tied up, but none appeared to have much activity and none of the ships was getting ready to sail. They headed out beside Highway 10 to State Road 163 so they could head south to the relocation camp in Theodore.

  ***

  Roger and Meg had to travel cross-country through Mobile’s western suburbs to get to the DHS headquarters on outer Airport Bvd. This took a couple of days since they mainly traveled at night. Roger had night vision goggles, but really didn’t need them since there was no one out on the streets except for the patr
ol vehicles. They arrived at the northwest side of the compound at 4:00 a.m., found a place to hide and went to sleep.

  They took turns sleeping and watching the compound until 2:00 p.m. They ate and took whore’s baths in a nearby stream. They took turns watching the west side of the compound until dark. They noted many things that pointed to very poor security and defense for the compound. Several of the guards were drinking and most paid no attention to what was going on outside of the fence.

  That night, they again took turns sleeping and watching the compound for about five hours then moved to the south side of the compound and observed the compound until daylight.

  The main entrance was on the south side of the compound and had a guard shack just a few feet off Airport Bvd. They found much more movement on this side and the guards were much more observant. They noticed that several black SUVs left and came back at 10:00 a.m. and at dinnertime every evening.

  Roger told Meg, “The food must not be so good in the compound.”

  They continued to move to the east and north sides of the compound and made many notes. The most helpful fact they discovered was that the large contingent of DHS thugs were living in barracks on the north side of the compound. There was only a fence and a few guard stations between the barracks and the outside world.