Going Home (Soldier Up Book 3)

by Steven Linde

  SSG Ramirez told the guard in Spanish that if he didn’t answer the questions it was going to get a lot worse. The guard answered that he had rights; he didn’t have to answer anything. SSG Ramirez told him he certainly did have rights, and they would be more than happy to call an attorney for him. The guard then realized how stupid his response was. It came down to who he was more afraid of right now, and right now he was more afraid of the Marines.

  “What’s your name?” SSG Ramirez asked for the fifth time.

  “Ronald Escobar.”

  “Ok Ron, are you the people that fired on the Sailors the other day?”

  Ronald looked at the two Marines facing him. He didn’t want to take another beating, “Yes but it wasn’t me that’s not my job. I’m a sentry only.”

  “Alright now we’re getting some place.” said SSG Ramirez. “Why shoot at them?”

  “El Jefe wanted their guns and boats,” Ronald said.

  “Who’s El Jefe?” This was the first time the Marines had heard the name.

  “He’s our leader. The Army Leader.”

  The two Marines looked at each other. “How big is the Army?” asked SSG Ramirez.

  “I don’t really know, I think a thousand maybe. Most of the Army is down South fighting the other Marines.”

  “What other Marines?” asked SSG Ramirez.

  Ronald looked at them puzzled. “The Marines at Camp Pendleton.”

  “How much of the Army is here?” asked Lance Corporal Taylor.

  “A few hundred is all; we’re all here around the Port of Los Angeles, well as far as I know.”

  “What kind of weapons does the Army have?”

  “Mostly AR-15’s, some AK-47’s maybe a few machine guns, I think they are called M-60’s and M-249’s maybe?”

  “Do they have any heavy weapons?” asked SSG Ramirez.

  “What do you mean by heavy weapons?” asked Ronald.

  “Like tanks or artillery things like that,” answered Lance Corporal Taylor.

  “Oh no nothing like that.”

  “Thanks Ron we appreciate the information,” SSG Ramirez said.

  SSG Ramirez walked away from Ronald. It looked to Ronald that the two Marines were talking to each other, but SSG Ramirez had his back to Ronald and was attaching a silencer to his pistol. Once that was done he quickly turned and double tapped Ronald in the head. Lance Corporal stood and watched and didn’t blink or question why the Staff Sergeant did it. They both knew that they couldn’t release Ronald, he would have gone back and sounded the alarm placing all of the teams in danger.

  Bravo-Two had cleared all of the buildings in its immediate vicinity and was probing a bit into the Port of Long Beach. In the first building they cleared they stumbled on a group of civilians, men, women and children. The civilians were terrified and didn’t know what to think, they were huddled in one of the back rooms together. It was dark in the room, and all they could see were six heavily armed men dressed like Soldiers. It had been a very long time since they had seen any Soldiers. Of course, they had seen and dealt with the Hispanic Liberation Army, but they didn’t dress like these Soldiers.

  The Marines had their night vision on and saw the terrified looks of the civilians. SSG Smallwood identified themselves. “United States Marines! United States Marines! We’re here to help.”

  The civilians continued to sit there as they weren’t sure what to believe. How could it be true? Marines? Here now? SSG Smallwood called out to the other Marines. “Let’s get some light in here. If you have any MRE’s bring them.”

  The Marines hustled to get out their flashlights and remove the red-lenses, while others dug through their backpacks to get at the MRE’s they brought with them. The Marines switched off the night-vision and with the flashlights pointed at the ground turned them on. While this was going on Sergeant Bradley took two of the other men and set up security. They found a position where they had view of the comings and goings of the area.

  Back in the room the Marines raised the flashlights and shined them on themselves, attempting to show the civilians they had nothing to be afraid of. The civilians looked back and forth, from man to man. At this one of the women in the group of civilians started to cry, and she and the rest of the civilians knew they didn’t belong to the HLA. SSG Smallwood positioned three of the flashlights in the room to give them enough light to see the Marines. The Marines handed over the MRE’s to the civilians, more than enough to feed all of them.

  “What is this?” one of the little girls asked.

  “Food, open the packets,” replied SSG Smallwood.

  The people studied the packets for a moment; they found the small tear and pulled across opening it. They spread out and dumped the contents out on the floor, and began devouring the contents. The Marines handed over their canteens with canteen cups to the civilians. It was the first meal they had in days.

  The man who seemed to be the leader of the group asked the Marines why they were here. SSG Smallwood told them they were here to take back the port and the rest of Los Angeles and the communities surrounding it. The man and others told them, ‘Good luck with that!’, the HLA had thousands of Soldiers. Lance Corporal Henderson said they can raise them several thousand Marines, an aircraft carrier, a battleship, fighter aircraft, bombers, tanks, artillery and that’s just to start with. The civilians’ jaws literally dropped and the only response they could come up with was, “Really?”

  Lance Corporal Henderson looked right at them, “Yup! Really.”

  “Where are they?” asked one of the women.

  “Sitting off the coast right now waiting for us to return.” SSG Smallwood said than he added, “What’s the HLA?”

  The man that came off as the leader looked at the two Marines. “Hispanic Liberation Army. They were most if not all of the Hispanic gangs from all over Los Angeles and Orange County. After fighting each other for about six months they just about whipped each other out then El Jefe got them all to join into one mega gang. That’s what the HLA is.”

  For the next hour or so they ate and talked to the Marines about what happened in and around LA after the event, the formation of the HLA, and how the average civilians were forced into slavery by the HLA as laborers and farmers. They barely fed their slaves and had no problem letting them die. When new HLA members were brought aboard, they used the slaves as target practice. This prompted SSG Smallwood to ask why they were here if the HLA was hunting civilians for slavery.

  “We’re escaping?”

  SSG Smallwood thought about his response to the civilians, and the story that they’re escaping could very well be true, along with everything else they told them. He knew that within the next twenty-four to forty-eight hours an invasion was coming and they were right in the middle of it. If these people were lying and were part of this HLA they could warn them, and if they weren’t and were telling the truth they were going to die.

  “Are there any others like you around here?” asked SGG Smallwood.

  “What do you mean others like us?” one of the women asked.

  SSG Smallwood sighed, he was frustrated. He knew they had been here too long. “Civilians like yourself, people not part of the HLA.”

  “We think so, the HLA controls both ports, but there are civilians, as you call them, within the ports hiding out.”

  “Do you know where they’re at?” asked Lance Corporal Hendricks.

  The group looked like they were thinking about how to answer the question. “Yes we know where they’re at.”

  “There’s an invasion coming,” SSG Smallwood said. He wasn’t ready to see the kids sacrificed. “In the next twenty-four to forty-eight hours the ports are going to be leveled followed by several thousand Marines. You need to get as far away as you can.”

  “What about the other people out there that are not part of the HLA?” One of the men asked.

  “If you can get word to them tell them, send a runner if you can, but the bottom line is get as far away as you can. I
f you stick around odds are you’re going to die.”

  The intent was meant to scare them, and it worked. They were chatting excitedly between themselves. “Whoa whoa.” SSG Smallwood could see the instant anxiety in the group. “If you can move now we’ll escort you out of the port, after that you’re on your own.”

  The group was up and gathering their belongings, securing the children. “We’re ready.” the group responded.” They all knew it wasn’t going to get any better than have six heavily armed Marines getting them out of the port and away from the HLA. “Once we get you out head north, keep going about seventy miles or fewer you’ll run into friendly lines,” Lance Corporal Hendricks said.

  “What do you mean by friendly lines?” asked the tall man.

  “It means that you’re free, the Army has cleared out all of the bad-guys.”

  Everyone in the group smiled. It sounded great to them to be out of this nightmare, but it was a log walk and with kids. “Alright folks we need to get moving now,” and with that the entire group up and left the building. With one Marine on point, SSG Smallwood with the group, two Marines on flank, SGT Bradly between point and SSG Smallwood, with the last man pulling up the rear.

  The other teams were dealing with similar situations. As the sun was rising, the teams began to return to the zodiacs and onto the ship, Bravo-Two had successfully escorted the civilians out of the area and returned to the ship.

  Chapter Sixteen

  The Mexican Army was making significant strides throughout San Diego as well as Yuma, where they had pushed up from Mexicali through Calexico to El Centro. They were held up at Yuma Proving Grounds by the US Army and the Marine Air Corps Air Station. They were putting up more of a fight then the Mexicans had expected, as their forces were split between San Diego and El Centro. If the Mexican Army wanted to overrun the US bases, they would have to pull resources from other areas and that wasn’t going to happen right now. However, the City of Yuma was wide open and wouldn’t put up much of a fight because the event had devastated the city. With no power to the city, there was no running water, although the Colorado River ran next to the city and through parts of it.

  It wasn’t as though the entire population of Yuma could get enough water out of the river for their daily needs. There was a large movement of population to the river and there wasn’t enough room to support everyone that wanted to locate near the water. There were water wars the first few months, and thousands were killed. Then there was the encroachment onto the Indian Reservation, which the Indians fought tooth-and-nail to keep people out but they were overwhelmed.

  The only things the Mexicans wanted was the water, they didn’t care about the civilians in and around Yuma. Once they entered Yuma, the Mexican Army began to exterminate the civilian population around the river. People fled out of terror and some did escape, but without the water they were going to die. Word had spread back to YPG and the Marine Air Base that the Mexicans were killing civilians. The Army and Marines geared up to attempt to help. The US Soldiers and Marines were outnumbered four-to-one, but the key difference was that the US Soldiers and Sailors were much better trained and had combat experience from Afghanistan and Iraq, which in the long term would prove to be a big plus in their favor.

  One morning as the Marines prepared for the push out of the perimeter, an old World War II airplane began circling the airfield and then landed. This caused chaos on the base where they had to redirect their effort to move off the base to base security. They locked down the base and formed a perimeter around the airplane. It was odd from the Marine officers perspective as they sat there watching the aircraft because no one disembarked.

  Captain Aron E. Banks decided it was ridiculous standing there watching a plane that no one has seen in over seventy years. He decided to approach the plane, and once there he knocked on the fuselage door. “Anyone home?” Captain Banks asked.

  The response he got was not what he expected. “Dave’s not here!”

  Captain Banks stood there totally confused, so he knocked again. “Who is this?”

  “I’m sorry man, Dave’s not here.” responded a voice inside the airplane.

  A Lieutenant Colonel Anthony Denozo stood nearby watching the entire episode unfold. He thought it was hysterical. The Colonel called over to the Captain and waved him over. “Captain are you familiar with Cheech and Chong?”

  “No sir, never heard of them,” The Captain said.

  “They’re a comedy team from the seventies and eighties and they had a routine called Dave’s not here.” The Colonel was hoping that the Captain would catch on, he didn’t. “Never mind Captain,” said the Colonel. “I’ll take it from here.”

  The Captain shrugged, then the Colonel stood and walked over to the plane and knocked on the fuselage. “Man I’m telling you Dave’s not here!”

  “Funny Cheech!” the Colonel said. “If you don’t have your asses out here in the next two seconds I’m going to kick Dave’s ass up and down this runway.”

  There was a flurry of activity inside the airplane and the door opened and out came two Marine Officers. “Sorry sir, we were joking around.”

  “Do I know you?” asked the Colonel.

  “Yes Sir, I’m Major Jack Carol we met last year right before the event at Pendleton. I have Lieutenant Colonel March US Army with me.”

  Colonel March stepped out of the plane after Major Carol. The Colonels shook hands. “There’s got to be a great story behind this,” Colonel Denozo said. “It’ll have to wait though Colonel, full bird type, Grant is waiting.”

  “Wait!” said Colonel March. “I have several large boxes in the plane that we need to bring with us.”

  Colonel Denozo gathered up Major Carol and Colonel March with his boxes and headed over to the bases HQ building in a couple of Humvees. They exited the vehicles and headed into the office building. One of the things that wasn’t missed by Major Carol and Colonel March was how active the base was and everyone was heavily armed. The entered the building and headed up to the second floor where the Colonels office was. Colonel Denozo rapped on the door jamb to the office and a booming voice answered, “ENTER!”

  The three men entered the office came to attention in front of the Colonels desk. “At ease.” the Colonel barked. “You’re the two that flew that aircraft onto my base?” the Colonel was sounded indignant.

  “Yes sir, we’re under orders from the Commandant of the Marine Corps, Lieutenant General Charkin,” Major Carol said.

  Colonel Grant was momentarily taken-aback, he knew the name and he knew he was the Senior Commander on the West Coast essentially his boss, “I see. What does he want?”

  Colonel March then spoke, “I’ve got two shortwave radios with me, one for here and the other for YPG. I can have it set up in twenty minutes and you can ask him yourself.”

  This caught Colonel Denozo and Grant both by surprise. They had communications with the outside world! “Get it set up will you Colonel,” said Colonel Grant.

  “Yes sir I’m sure your conversation with the General will be very enlightening. If I may, it looks like you have a combat operation under way?”

  “Not that it’s any business of yours Colonel, but yes we do.”

  “Sir may I ask you to stand down until you talk to the General, he will have other ideas that he can help take care of the problems outside the fence.”

  “What do you know of our problems Colonel?” asked Colonel Grant.

  “Sir we flew over for quite a while trying to determine whether or not it was going to be safe to land. We could see Mexican forces massing for an assault on the base. I urge you not to waste time talking to me and contact the General now.”

  “Alight Colonel I’ll order the stand down for now, I sure hope you’re right. Please set up the radio now.”

  Colonel Grant sent Colonel Denozo to pass the order to stand down the order to execute the push; they would maintain the status quo for the moment. Colonel March was good to his word and had the radio
up and running within twenty minutes. They were using a hand generator right now, Major Carol was turning it and Colonel March was on the radio dialing in and contacting the radio net. Another five minutes Colonel March was talking to the Camp Pendleton another couple of minutes they were talking to General Charkin. Colonel Grant recognized the voice; Colonel March showed Colonel Grant how to operate the radio and left the General and Colonel to talk amongst themselves.

  Colonel March wandered around the post for an hour then returned to Colonel Grant’s HQ. Colonel March was stopped repeatedly by Marines asking where he had come from, and it was exhausting so he returned to the HQ. When he walked into the Colonel’s office it was in an uproar, it was packed with people and the Colonel was barking orders at everyone. Major Carol was sitting in the corner enjoying the show. Colonel Grant saw Colonel March and waved him in. “I appreciate your advice Colonel with regard to standing down.”

  “No problem Colonel. I take it the General was able to help?”

  “Yes, apparently the Air Force is alive and well and have several B-52s, C-47s and other bomber aircraft. They are expected to drop ordinance within the next hour and a half,” the Colonel said smiling. “We’re supposed to be back on the air by 1400 to give ground coordinates to where we want them to drop it. They apparently have radios on the aircraft too.”

  “Yes sir, they do.” responded Colonel March.

  “Colonel, can you tell me what the hell is really going on? The General asked for a status report which I gave him then we talked about the overall status of the base and what he could do for us. He then offered up the bombers and we worked out that plan. That’s all he told me. He also wanted me to tell you and the Major to get to YPG ASAP.”

  Colonel March acknowledged the General’s orders via Colonel Grant, but before him and the Major left he brought Colonel Grant up to speed on current operations in and around California, the Southwest, and Midwest. The Colonel was startled by the events described to him. He knew there had to be others but they were caught out in the middle of nowhere and now hope and help was on the way. It was enough to make a Marine Colonel want to cry.