by A J Newman
***
Major Johnson had to demand a meeting with Deke Jones to inform him of the recent increase in chatter on the short wave and handheld radios. Johnson knew that this usually meant that something bad was about to happen and he wanted the compound prepared. He had already told Deke about the Pastor’s info gained from Harris’ group, but Deke did not appear to take the information as a real threat. Deke had been in the waiting room for over an hour and was beginning to wonder if he should take his men and get the hell out of Mobile.
A couple of his closest officers were urging him to head out west with the men who were loyal to them. They could find a nice area and start their own country.
Deke was busy sampling the newly interned crop of ladies and didn’t want to deal with military crap. He truly felt that the old USA was invincible and no one could mount a credible attack on his army. There were only a few rag tag biker gangs and rednecks out there to deal with and they were poorly armed. Major Davis had told him that they had lost two patrols in the past two months and that did not worry him in the least. His fellow field marshals were losing five times that many to the west and east of him.
Deke let Major Johnson enter his office and greeted him rather coolly.
Deke said, “What are you complaining about now? Have you heard about some grand plan to overthrow our government?
Major Johnson replied, “Mr. Jones, I assure you that I am not here about trivial rumors or bullshit. We are hearing a major increase in chatter on the radio and that suggests a concerted effort instead of random attacks.”
Deke replied, “That’s Field Marshal to you and don’t forget it. Come back when you know something and stop the guesswork. Dismissed!”
Johnson never told him about the latest information about an impending attack. He went straight to his officers and began developing an exit strategy.
***
John asked all of the leaders of the groups that had joined them in the fight against the DHS to a final planning session before the attack. They gathered in the barn, which had the only room large enough to hold all of the team members. He proceeded to lay out the attack plan to the group of over twenty men and women. The plan was simple, but should achieve total surprise and totally decimate the DHS before they have a clue what just happened.
Bob said, “We will have three main groups plus the group that will stay behind and guard the bunker. John will lead the first Team and the goal is to free the detainees at the relocation camp. Gus will lead the second Team and that goal is to kill all of the DHS and take the compound. Our planned attack date is September 30, and we will update you if we change our plans before then. We have identified several large warehouses where we can pre-stage our forces starting five days before the actual attack. This will allow us to move smaller groups and not draw as much attention. We also will stage some small attacks on patrols in south Mississippi and Florida just across the Alabama border to keep the DHS attention away from our staging areas. The map at the front of the room has the location of the warehouses and the diversionary attacks.”
There were several astounded team members in the group and some chatter about “How the hell can three hundred defeat several thousand?”
Bob said, “Hold your horses and have a little faith. I will explain in due time. Now back to the plan. George will have a smaller Team with a goal to set up a shit load of distractions around the Mobile area just before the main attacks. Finally, Steve will stay back at the bunker, lead the Team guarding the bunker and keep the hospital ready for the wounded. We will also fly as many wounded as possible out to one of our ships in the Gulf for medical assistance.”
George said, “I have contacted all of our friends around Mobile and they are ready to join in the battle. Sally and the Pastor's groups are the largest so Sally’s Team will join Gus and the Pastor’s Team will join John’s Team. All but fifty of the other teams will join in as needed.”
He went on for a few minutes on the division of the team members and how he had already prepositioned arms and ammo with them.
More questions followed George’s briefing on the friendly groups that he and his team had brought into the family. Sally and the Pastor were a huge help in calming the fears of the leaders of the smaller groups.
George said, “My Team will have about fifty fighters and will divide up into ten smaller units that will attack as many DHS targets as possible about four hours before the main offensive. We won’t stick around for a major fight, but will make them think that a much larger force is invading their turf. Assuming this works, we should draw some of the DHS form the compound. This will set them up for an attack from the air by our Apaches and we should be able to take all of them out and distract the DHS leadership.”
There were several suggestions about targets for them to attack and George made copious notes.
John took his turn in front of the group to give a brief overview of the attack on the DHS Compound. He said, “As we have mentioned, we have the element of surprise on our side and along with several hundred pairs of night vision glasses, we will attack the DHS Compound at midnight after the successful attack on the Relocation Camp."
The Pastor asked, “What about the two thousand troops in the barracks? They worry me. How are we going to deal with them? They will be out of those barracks in a minute and slaughter our men.”
John said, “Our intelligence says that most are actually in the underground bunkers and we plan to set satchel charges at the three known entrances and bury them alive.”
The Pastor replied, “I like that, and the plan makes me feel a little better about my men. Bob, can’t the military give us any air cover? You have supplied a lot of arms, but no real air power or army tanks.”
Bob glanced at John and said, “Pastor, I’m sorry, but we only have a couple of helicopters and a handful of fighters stationed at Charleston. We will have about fifty men fighting beside you, but that is all we have. I know that is not what you want to hear, however our main forces are fighting in several foreign countries or dead.”
The Pastor said, “Sorry for being such a pain, but my men are my family and I just have to make sure that we have a successful plan.”
John finally went on to say snipers would take out the guards while several Teams infiltrate the compound and blow up the entrances to the bunker. Other teams would attack the main office to get control of the communications room. The rest of the group would take out any other DHS that came out to fight.
The Pastor stopped asking questions and the meeting proceeded at a much faster pace.
Gus said, “My Team will conduct the attack on the Relocation Camp and our objective is to neutralize the guards with as few killed captives as possible. We will not release the captives right away. We will use the military resources to check out their health before we allow them to mix with our people. We have heard rumors that there might be several bugs among the poor captives.”
Gus took everyone to the drawing of the compound to go into the details of the attack. Again, the Pastor asked several questions that had nothing to do with his responsibilities.
***
John and Bob left at dawn after a light breakfast. They were traveling towards Pensacola to scout out a warehouse that was supposed to contain several armored cars that had been used by banks. They took six men with them for security.
“John, this Pastor is my best guess to be our spy. He just asks too many good tactical questions for a pastor who has no military training.”
“Until we catch him, we have to move on with our plans. I don’t like giving the team bad info, but it won’t hurt our plans and might help us catch the DHS off guard.”
Beth had pretended to sleep in, but quickly got up after John left and started doing her nails and getting pretty. She took a long hot bath and then worked on her hair.
Shirley, Janet and Ann directed the ladies and several men to decorate the barn and set up the tables and chairs. Many of the other women were busy
in the kitchen preparing the food for the reception after the wedding. George had found several case of wine in a basement wine cellar that was very good and would be a treat for the guests.
***
The Pastor convinced his team that he would travel to the wedding by himself. This worried his leaders and his bodyguards, however the Pastor frequently went off by himself to walk and talk with the Lord one on one. They were not happy because several of them were attending the wedding and it made sense to all travel together, but gave into their leader. What they didn’t know was that the Pastor had been meeting with the DHS all along. He was feeding them information since the last major attack on their town.
The DHS had caught him and his family and threatened to torture and kill his whole family if he didn’t become a spy for them. They took his youngest daughter and held her until he helped them spy on the local gangs. When he reported John’s activities and the involvement of the military, they started paying him and let him see his daughter. They were very interested in Bob and the Ensign and coached the Pastor how to get intelligence without raising suspicion.
The Pastor left his house and drove to the designated meeting place about a mile off Highway 43 north of Axis. He pulled off on a dirt road and into a barn where the DHS agent was waiting on him. He passed on the information about the attack on Mobile, got his reward and quickly got back on the road. What he didn’t notice was that two of his trusted men had followed him.
***
Major Johnson and his men had come up with a very simple plan to send a major force out to eliminate a fictitious gang that had attacked several patrols since the meeting with Deke. Of course, those patrols had not been attacked, but in fact were part of Johnson’s team. Deke had been pissed when told that five ten man patrols had been attacked with total losses. He demanded that Major Johnson eliminate the ones responsible. He told Johnson to kill them and hang every one of them on trees on the road back to Mobile as a warning to the other gangs.
Johnson’s men had recruited over five hundred fifty additional men to join them in their new adventure. Under the guise of getting the force together to attack the rogue gang, the team had a convoy of trucks, armored cars, and Humvees loaded to the ceiling with weapons, ammo, food and gear needed to survive until they were established in the new land. They planned to leave immediately.
***
It was just after noon and Gus saw all of the plans coming together. Without any fanfare all of the friendly groups except the Pastor’s had moved to the real staging areas. None of them knew that the attack was actually planned for that night to keep the mole from alerting the DHS. The Marines had a senior officer and five sergeants assigned to each group. They spent the afternoon going over the battle plans while their leaders attended to the wedding and the mole.
Bob had brought John back from the short trip and parked behind the barn. They walked into the meeting room just in time for the last strategy meeting. Bob filled them in on the Military's plans at the last minute for operations security.
He said, “It’s not that we don’t trust you, but its need to know and you didn’t need to know. We must achieve total surprise to make this go off with few casualties. I know we can accomplish our objectives, but I don’t want to sacrifice mine or your men.”
Several of the leaders noticed that the Pastor wasn’t in the meeting. John heard the buzz and said, “The Pastor has been delayed and Bob will fill him in when he gets here.”
Bob told them that the plan had been refined and that George would start the attacks on the DHS patrols at about dusk today. The room started to buzz.
“Yes, today. We planned this all along and soon you will know why, but not now.”
He told them, “First the Gerald R. Ford will supply F-18s to take out all enemy aircraft and communications. Second, six Apaches will take out the guard towers at both the Compound and Relocation Camp. When that is completed, they will give cover for the trucks filled with C4 to get next to the troop barracks. After those are destroyed, they will assist in mopping up any stragglers. Third, the Navy moved a team of underwater demolition experts to Mobile Bay to take out the Missile Frigate and then Apaches will take out the gunboats at about eleven o’clock. Finally, the attacks on the Compound and the Relocation Camp will be conducted at the same time, at midnight." Bob went on to tell the team about the multiple assignments that the various military teams would secure.”
Scott said, “Not much left for us to do, but to mop up and try to capture the officers who are in charge of these hell holes.”
Bob said, “I’m glad you said that! We would like to capture some of the leaders and put them on trial for treason. Most of the Command will be taken out by the F-18s during the first strikes; however, we would still like to catch a few. They will be wearing army style uniforms with army rank. The highest civilian leader is Deke Jones who is the field marshal for Alabama. He is from the Mobile area and played football at Vigor High School."
Steve asked, “The football player from the late nineties? Is he the same one who travelled the world denouncing our military and having dinner at Hugo Chavez’s palace?”
“Yes, the same jerk who hated his country, became a friend of the president and helped him get elected."
Gus said, “I don’t remember him having any military or government service. He’d better hope he picked some strong advisors to help run and protect Alabama.”
Bob replied, “He is a mess. Even though he has credible military men at his command, he won’t listen to their advice. That is good for us since we will be attacking his stronghold. Let’s forget about Deke for a minute; we have presents for everyone.”
Several soldiers brought bulletproof vests, grenade launchers, LAW rockets and assorted grenades into the meeting.
John said, “Come on up and take a look. Uncle Sam has brought some gear that should protect us and give us greater firepower. Make sure everyone has a bulletproof vest, helmet and plenty of grenades.”
Steve replied, “I didn’t think they would trust a bunch of rednecks like us with the good stuff.”
Everyone in the room broke out laughing. They laughed more than one would have thought at the kidding. John knew that the laughter was a way to make fun of the situation and relieve some stress. He was afraid that many of these men and women would not come back alive.
There was a commotion at the back of the room and the Pastor was shoved into the barn. His two right hand men had his hands tied behind his back and pushed him to the front of the room.
One of them said, “John, we caught this bastard meeting with the DHS and we think that he has been meeting with them for quite a while.”
John thanked the men and replied, “We were suspicious of him for several weeks. We set a trap and he took the bait. We planned to arrest him today after this meeting. Well, Pastor, what do you have to say for yourself?”
The Pastor wouldn’t make eye contact and just hung his head down.
Bob said, “We will deal with him later; I need to bring you two up to speed.”
Bob only asked them to go back home and wait for orders. He strongly suggested that they find any other spies and deal with them before the upcoming attack. They thanked Bob and John and then left for their camp.
John said, “Good move. We can’t fully trust them for a while. I would love to have their firepower, but would hate to get shot in the back.”
Gus said, “You never know who to trust do you buddy? Speaking of which, when you head to the house a whole bunch of women talked Beth into marrying you today. I wasn’t supposed to tell you, but I figured that you might want to wash your face and put these clothes on. Oops, here is the ring for Beth. I got it in a jewelry store, but she doesn’t need to know that you didn’t pick it out.”
John gave Gus a bear hug and pulled some clothes from a nearby stall. He reached in the pants pocket and pulled out a bigger diamond.
“Gus, do you really think a bunch of women can out smart Big John?�
�
“No John, but you’d better damn well let them think they did.”
While John finished up with Bob and got dressed, Gus scrambled to find another preacher. He was sneaking around to the visiting group’s leaders when he found one who had been a Baptist preacher before TSHTF. He was very happy to perform the ceremony.
The last of the wedding decorations were put in place during the briefing. The ladies had worked hard with very little to work with to make this a beautiful wedding. Shirley and the other cooks had prepared a great meal and Steve had chilled the champagne. Poor Gus had to explain to Beth that the attack had been moved up to that very night. Beth took the news rather well in front of Gus, then went to her room and cried for a few minutes.
Ann heard her sobbing and asked, “Are you okay? What could be the matter on this great day?”
Beth told her about the change in plans and then cried for another minute.
“Beth, you have found your true love, share every minute with him like it is your last minute on earth and your love will always stay alive and strong. John may not be my cup of tea, but you know he is worth the effort and will be true to you the rest of your lives.”
Beth said, “But tonight could be the rest of our lives.”
Ann replied, “Now stop blubbering and get dressed. Your man will be dragged out to the Preacher any minute.”
***
Bob brought John to the back of the house still discussing the day’s events when they turned the corner and saw the crowd around the deck. He saw Beth standing with Janet and Gus on the deck with another guy that he did not recognize. Gus waved for John to join them on the deck.
