2024

by H. Berkeley Rourke

  The next day instead of separating their forces into two large units and attacking both Alberton and Arlee they came straight down the road into Arlee in massive numbers. There probably were at least eight hundred to a thousand of them when they started the attack. Of course we were somewhat ready for them and right away we discouraged them a great deal with IED's that tore up their armored Humvees. They had no more Bradley fighting vehicles apparently and no more of the large transport units that came out of the war in Afghanistan, the so-called MRAPS.

  They lost a lot of men that were coming on behind the Humvees or alongside them. That didn't stop them though. But their trucks began to falter and some ran off the road and turned over into minefields that then decimated the militiamen who were in the back of the trucks. Our sniping killed a lot of drivers that day.

  Once again they had no idea where we were. Once again we hit them with claymores from different spots and angles than previously. And since there was no real strong force going at Alberton, Allan came with quite a few additional men that were extremely well armed and good shots. The NSI attack stalled, then was pushed back, then faltered and failed and they ran from the area back to their enclaves some fifty miles away. It was the last gasp of large bodied attacks that we faced from NSI. They still existed. But their strength had been diminished so badly by our layered defenses and accurate fire into their ranks that they were no long an effective large fighting force. I don't think they ever knew the small numbers of men that they had faced.

  After the last of the large scale battles they began to send small units to our area to try and reconnoiter us. They came armed, they came with what appeared to be unfriendly intent. They left in the bed of a pick-up truck headed into Missoula and a common grave in an area filled with hundreds of dead NSI men and boys. After a time, I don't know, maybe they lost six or eight patrols, they stopped sending their men down to be killed. One day I was in Arlee working with the banker in an attempt to rebuild some of the infrastructure of the bank, the counters and the like, when a message came over one of their radios. We always kept one handy to make sure that we listened to their net just in case they should try to attack again. They were noisy buggers even on the radio. The message was short and addressed to “Allan.” It said “Please meet me at the off ramp to the airport in Alberton on Sunday afternoon at 2:00 p.m. I am Johnathan Corning. I am in charge of all NSI forces at the moment and would like to speak to you if I might. Thank you.”

  On Sunday Allan went to the ramp, or I should say went to the area of the ramp and waited to see what would happen. A single car drove up. There was one occupant. He parked at the bottom of the ramp, shut off his car engine, put the keys on top of the car, took off his coat, opened both sets of doors so that the interior of the car could be seen clearly from a distance, walked about ten paces from the car and stood there. Allan shrugged, looked at me and said “I'm gonna go talk with the man. I think that he really wants to talk.”

  We had positioned men in the edges of the forested areas and in any blind spots that might exist from the bottom of the ramp. Allan got into one of the Humvees that we had taken from the NSI and drove down toward the man. Allan got out of the Humvee, took his pistol off and laid it on the seat of the vehicle and walked toward the man. Allan had an open mic to a radio net we used so we could all hear the conversation or anything untoward that might happen in this situation. Nothing happened.

  As Allan walked toward him Johnathan Corning took several steps in Allan's direction as well. He extended his hand and invited Allan to shake hands with him as he said, “Hi, I am Johnathan Corning. I have no military title but if you wish you can call me commander. I will be the last commander of the NSI forces. Our military enclave in the Couer d' Alene has been closed. All of us who formerly worked with the NSI are now normal citizens of either the city of Couer d' Alene or Spokane or one of the small towns nearby. And I take it you are the infamous 'Allan' about whom we heard so much from Mr. Halloran before Cecil Fordner shot him for treason.”

  “Yes, Mr. Corning, I am Allan. I was one of the people your army faced here in the Alberton area primarily but there were many others with me. And we operated in a great deal more democratic manner than your people did apparently. But you didn't come here to talk to me about our fighting capabilities did you?”

  "On the contrary. It is exactly because of your fighting capabilities that we are disbanding, leaving all our weapons in an armory that the Couer d' Alene Police Department is taking charge of tomorrow, and going home to wherever that may be. There will be a few that will come to Missoula. Will your people greet them or push them away, I

  wonder?"

  Allan and all of us in the area had taken vows at one point that we held dearly. When we were boys we were sworn into the Marine Corps. The vow of Honor, Duty, and Country never left any of us. Allan said, “Mr. Corning we are standing on ground that is part of the United States of America. This part of that wonderful country is the State of Montana. Where you have been privileged to live for some time now is the State of Idaho. Both those places are part of the United States of America. If your folks who come from Missoula are willing to swear to the State Police that they will protect and defend the United States of America and all its people we will welcome them with open arms. But if they are still living in this fantasy world you called New State of Idaho then they had better go a different direction.”

  Allan continued, saying “We, all of us who fought you here Mr. Corning, are U.S. citizens. Many of us are or were members of the U.S. Marine Corps. We love our country. She has been hurt. How badly hurt she is I don't know yet. But I do know that she is beginning to make a comeback. And part of her comeback was the losses you have suffered as a dictatorial militia group. There were others before you and others no doubt will follow in your rather unenviable footsteps. Those who do and who come afoul of the people of Missoula and the surrounding areas will no doubt be buried along with the more than one thousand of your troops that are interred outside Missoula presently. Does that answer your question fully Mr. Corning?”

  “Yes it does Allan. But I hope we can be friends some day. I know you are wary, a little skittish that we might be using a ruse to prepare one last attack. Mr. Allan we have no guns left with which to fight. You are welcome to search my car and search me if you would like. And we would ask you to send a representative from your towns of Arlee and Alberton as well as Missoula to see that we are no longer a threat to anyone. In fact I would love it if you would come back with me today, share my home with my wife and children this evening and I will bring you back tomorrow. Could you do that, sir? It's not a long drive and I would enjoy talking more with you about your being a U.S. Marine.”

  “In a word Mr. Corning this conversation is a little strange to say the least. I could use other words as well. For the last month or so you have been trying to destroy me, trying to subjugate, rape and murder all those I love, and now you offer to have me share your home with you, your wife and children. I find this all a bit disconcerting and a whole lot strange. But, Mr. Corning, I will put the shoe on your foot instead. You go home, sir. You bring your wife and children to my home and you may share my accommodations for the night with my family if you wish. But I promise you, sir, if this is some kind of trick, some kind of device to get us to lower our defenses and our alert status you will be sorely disavowed of that trick and most likely be sent home in a body bag, if you are sent home at all.”

  Allan was adamant at that point as he continued, saying “Mr. Corning I tell you once more, and I will use an old phrase from a movie I saw long ago about the Vietnam War, you must understand that we are a lean, green, fighting machine. We are warriors. We were living peaceably and trying to put life back together again until you and your cohorts tried to kill us all. You have reaped what you have sown Mr. Corning. Can we be friends? Can two rattlesnakes be friends? I suppose so but the likelihood is not particularly high. Can I put aside from my mind all the dead, raped and mur
dered families that the likes of you and your friends heaped into piles before we started to fight back? I suppose so but it is going to take me a while to do that. And once more, while I am contemplating that if you and your friends think we will relax our vigilance because you came here you really are not very smart.”

  Allan had worn a police vest that day under his bulky coat. It was good that he did. He turned to walk away from Corning and a shot rang out. It hit Allan between the shoulder blades more or less. Corning stood there, shaking his head, saying to himself, “I told you this would not work.” Allan stayed still. The sniper moved slightly and Dan acquired him and I scoped him. And Dan killed him. We went quickly to Allan's side and took him back into the woods. Corning was still standing there in the ramp area. He had on a radio and I tried their usual bandwidth. “Mr. Corning, come in.”

  He picked up his radio and said, “This is Corning.”

  I said “This is the last voice you will ever hear again unless within the next thirty seconds you get in your car and get hell out of here never, ever to return. Your sniper is dead. You soon will be if you do not leave! Do you understand?”

  “Yes, yes I do and I am terribly sorry for this mess.” He turned and walked to his car, drove away and true to his word we never saw him again. That is not to say they didn't come again. Was he with them? I don't know. If he was he died. All that came to us in small groups after that died, to a man. And finally in a little less than a year they stopped coming completely.

  The end of the militia wars took place in 3 NE. We have shorthanded our calendar now and 3 NE means three years after the Nuclear Exchange. We ended it for good. We decided, after killing several hundred more of them in small skirmishes and ambushes such as those we used on the first militia group, that it was time to get rid of their influence and ability to fight. We took three Bradley fighting vehicles and several trucks to the outskirts of Couer d' Alene. We found the road to their main compound.

  Dad and I, Dan and Jim, scouted ahead in the forest while Allan brought the column slowly forward toward their bastion. There were no patrols, no outposts, but there were seismic devices that we could see and a few cameras mounted in the trees. We disabled each in turn and moved forward. There was not much left of them. There were maybe fifty men. Most of them were not armed but for a pistol.

  We gave them a chance. We announced on their radio we were coming and if they wished to surrender they should do so now! Some came out of the compound, waving white flags. I could see others running from one post to another inside the compound. Dan brought up the first Bradley and fired off maybe two hundred rounds into the compound with the large gun and another two hundred rounds or so with the fifty caliber machine gun mounted on the Bradley. By the time he had done that most of the buildings in the compound were on fire and a few men staggered out of them and fell on the ground.

  Again we called on them to surrender. At first there was silence. Then as the second Bradley pulled into place alongside the first one they came out. They were holding their weapons of whatever type out away from their bodies. There were only ten left. We cuffed them and after collecting all their weapons and ammunition, as well as some food supplies and gasoline drums, we lit the place afire. It left a stain on the sky that lasted for a week I am told.

  But the stain of that particular group of murderers, rapists and would be dictators was done. The second of the militia wars was done! Thank God there were no more in our area.

  We took the ten prisoners back to Missoula. Fordner was one of them. So was Corning. We tried them for treason against the United States of America and they were sentenced to life in prison with no benefit of parole in the once again working Montana State Prison at Deer Lodge. The others we sent packing in different directions with the clear indication that if ever they showed their faces there again we would simply kill them.

  Chapter 13

  Life ANE (After Nuclear Exchange)

  Post War

  For three years after the nuclear exchange we struggled, we fought, we prevailed and we went on. But what did moving on mean? First let's take the banks. And this is in part a comment about how resilient Americans are. St. Louis, Missouri became the seat of the United States government. As near as we could tell from the television broadcasts we saw, and they were becoming more regular, everyone seemed to agree that the gateway to the west was a good place to make a new start.

  In each state the governor who was in power at the time of NE appointed a senator and held special elections for the House of Representatives to the U.S. government. The government began to meet, passed some emergency powers that were granted to the new president who was chosen by the new Congress. The new president was an expert in finances and would need to be to help rebuild the banking and insurance business in the country. Her name is Elizabeth Warren. The Vice President was also chosen by the Congress. He is from Chicago, Illinois. His name is Rahm Emmanuel. He is said to be a real go getter, someone who can get things done in a hurry. Right away President Warren began the process of reestablishing the federal government. The army generals, navy admirals, all the military leaders that were left, were brought to the new “White House” in St. Louis and were required to swear allegiance to the new federal government of the United States of America. She also began the job of appointing new Justices to the Supreme Court of the United States as well as cabinet members. The federal government began to hire, was trying to reopen the post offices that had been shut since the nuclear exchange began. Many things were going on all at once.

  We in Montana, Idaho, eastern Washington and Oregon were busy fighting the militia wars so we didn't get in on the process until a time after many of the states. Many were not affected by NE at all. Most of the South, with the exception of Florida, parts of Georgia and Alabama, remained intact.

  Part of Texas was gone because some Russian in Cuba got careless with a small nuclear warhead. That ended the city of Havana forever as well as the city of Houston. We, the United States, still had the most nuclear warheads stored of any country in the world. Cuba allowed a Russian to go nuts. We retaliated and that ended that. But you get the picture. It was chaotic in some places and others were quite the same as they had been BNE (before nuclear exchange).

  But by three years after the exchange and with the end of the militia wars in the northwest we were beginning to find some normalcy. The fact that there was a mint in Denver as well as one in San Francisco helped us in the west to get back on a monetary standard more easily. The banks began to receive credit in the larger cities like Couer d' Alene and Missoula as time passed. That meant accounts could be opened and maintained, loans could be granted in smallish amounts, jobs opened in the branches of banks in our states as well as elsewhere.

  Jobs were being created in very large numbers. A lot of infrastructure needed repair. A lot of work had to be done to begin the process of rebuilding an electric grid that was dependable. There was much to do to provide adequate food for everyone in our country and there were needs in the world in general that had to be filled as well. Trade with the southern states, the southwestern states and the South American and Central American countries as well as Mexico began to flourish once again.

  One excellent byproduct of the exchange and all that followed was the ending of the American need for drugs from South America, Central America and Mexico. That began to reduce the dependence of the poor people of Mexico especially on the cartels. Mexican labor was once again welcomed into the southwestern U.S. to help plant, grow and harvest crops, to herd and deal with cattle and other meat

  sources.

  In general more people began to work at something, anything that would help, and as a result wages of some kind had to be paid. The banks borrowed money from the Fed which was renewed in St. Louis, the banks began to lend money to business people all over the heartland of America that still was habitable, excluding Omaha and its environs of course. A boom in employment and earnings began to occur and that made manufactu
ring begin to grown in the mid west again. Plants that had long been closed reopened. It was truly remarkable, almost miraculous how the whole economy began to unfold as though the wars had never occurred and to rebound even more robustly without the billionaires that had begun to rule the country before the exchange.

  Folks, don't get me wrong. There were many problems that none of us seemed to be able to solve, but we learned, and eventually along came people that knew what to do. How, for example, do you operate a sewage disposal plant? Do you know how to do that? Do you know anyone that knows how to do that? Well that is what our cities were built to deal with. So how does a sewage disposal plant operate? We worked it out. There were people! They knew what to do. They took over and did the work.

  How do you operate a water dispersal system? Especially in a place which has been bombed, mortared and has had claymores set off by the dozens? Did any of these explosions damage the water system that existed in each of the towns we fought over? How do you find all the mines, all the claymores, all the booby traps that you have set, much less those set by your erstwhile enemies in the militia wars? It had to be done. Some legs were lost, some hands and arms were severely damaged but the necessity prevailed and the job got done.

  Doctors were really scarce in our areas. There were several in Missoula and an operating hospital there as well that had continued to operate even during the militia wars. Arlee had no doctors; the same was true in Alberton and Frenchtown. Some who had gone south into Utah came back to rejoin the efforts of us all to restore civil life to our states. Births occurred, the population stabilized, was far less in number than it had been BNE but would grow in time. Trucking and train deliveries began to be regular and food supplies as well as supplies of other necessities stabilized.

  And the last question I will ask you, those of you who didn't live this, who didn't know the war, the killing the horror of watching women be raped when you knew there was nothing you could do to stop it from happening is how do you get over it? How do you learn to be a person again, not a killing machine.