Enforcing Home

by A. American

  “I’ll be over later to check the kids and explain some things to you,” Doc said.

  Tyler nodded, and they left the house.

  “What’s this all about?” Bobbie asked.

  “Just what they said; they could be sick, and we can’t take any chances,” Danny replied.

  “And you think it’s TB?” Bobbie asked.

  “We’re not certain. Some people came through that may have it, so it’s better safe than sorry.”

  “I’m going home; I’ll see you guys later,” I said. I was tired and wanted to just get away for a minute. Crossing the fence, I could hear Little Bit yelling in the house. Opening the door, I was greeted with chaos. Mel was trying to hold Little Bit down on the sofa. She in turn wasn’t having any of it, and was kicking and screaming.

  “What the hell’s going on?”

  Mel looked up exasperated, “She’s got a tick, and I’m trying to get it off her.”

  “Just wait a minute, wait a minute!” Little Bit shouted.

  “Chill out kiddo; it’s just a tick. Let Mom get it off,” I said.

  “Let me see it, I want to see it,” Little Bit said.

  “Look; it’s right here,” Mel said.

  Little Bit looked at the parasite, “Eww, it’s so big, get it off!”

  I laughed out loud. It was too funny; first she didn’t want Mel to mess with it, and now she wants it off. “Just sit still then,” I said.

  Using tweezers, Mel gripped the tick and quickly snatched it out. Mel held it up, “There, that wasn’t so bad was it?”

  “Let me see it,” Little Bit said, taking the tweezers. She took it outside and placed the tick on the handrail. She then mashed it. The door was open and I was watching her, “Ewww, that’s so gross!”

  She made me laugh again; the kid was so funny.

  Mel sat back on the sofa, “What are you doing home?”

  Sitting beside her and laying my head back on the cushion, I said, “Just needed a break.”

  “What’s going on?”

  Closing my eyes, I told her about the people we suspected of having TB, and how dangerous it was. And then I told her about having to quarantine Tyler and Brandy for two weeks.

  “That’s so sad; I hope they are alright.”

  Sitting up, I said, “I’m sure they are; it’s just a precaution.” Looking around, I asked, “where are the girls?”

  “Where do you think? Sleeping.”

  Looking back towards their rooms, I asked, “How are they doing?”

  “Better now. I think they’ll be fine,” Mel said as she stood up. “Want some chips?”

  “Wow, you make some?”

  “Yeah; made them today with Bobbie.”

  “That’d be good.”

  Mel went to the kitchen and returned with a bowl of kudzu chips and a glass of tea. I smiled at her, “I knew there was a reason I kept you around.”

  Handing me the glass and bowl, she slid onto the sofa beside me. “That’s the only reason you keep me around?”

  Sticking a chip in my mouth, I glanced sideways at her. “You do have other worthy assets.”

  “Hmm, is that so?”

  Smiling, I replied, “Oh yeah.”

  We spent the afternoon lounging on the sofa, snoozing, not asleep, but almost there. Little Bit even piled in as well, lying on the opposite end with her legs draped over me. It was pleasant, just hanging out. As the light coming through the windows began to dim, I patted Mel’s ass, “I need to get up.”

  She sat up. “Me too; I need to go help with dinner.”

  Chapter 5

  Mike stood in front of the safe again, Sharpie in hand. He’d been working on it for about an hour and determined there were three wheels on the lock, so he only had to figure out three numbers, a simple group two lock. By turning the spindle he’d listened for the faint tick of the flywheel, picking up the first wheel in the wheel pack. As the rotation continued, he heard the faint click of the additional two wheels, known as picking-up the wheels.

  He’d already determined the contact area on the drive cam. This wheel isn’t associated with the combination directly; but once Mike knew where on the dial the drive cam made contact, he was able to begin his graph of possible combos. Knowing the contact area for the drive cam, between seventy and eighty, Mike spun the dial to twenty-five, known as parking the wheels.

  From this point he slowly rotated the dial again, as the dial passed twenty-five he listed for the faint click of the drive cam, that click he ignored and the rest he counted, confirming there were only three wheels. Now for the hard part.

  Mike spun the dial to the right and set the dial on zero. From there he spun the dial, listening for the faint click of the contact area. Each time he heard it, he marked the numbers on the safe with the marker. Each time, he reset the dial three digits off from the previous search, doing this around the entire dial. When he was done, he had a series of numbers marked on the door of the safe. With the numbers he needed, Mike left the safe and went to a small room that served as an office. Rummaging around in the desk, he found a pad of graph paper and pencil and headed back to the bedroom.

  Sitting on the foot of the bed, he laid out his graph. For the short axis on the left side, he wrote down the contact points for the drive cam, and then one set for the right side. The long axis of the graph, he laid out with the three-digit offset of the dial, starting at one, then four, seven and so on. Just as he was about to get to the good part, Ted came into the room.

  “Hey, ruck up, time for a walkabout.”

  “Aw man, come on, I’ve almost got this thing whipped,” Mike moaned.

  “It ain’t going anywhere, let’s go.”

  Shaking his head, Mike tossed the pad on the bed and followed Ted out of the room. After getting his gear on, he found Ted in the kitchen.

  “Alright, let’s do this.”

  “You carrying that thing?” Ted asked, pointing to Sarge’s Minimi.

  Mike looked at the short weapon and shrugged, “Yeah, if we bump into anyone it’ll get their attention.”

  Ted picked up his M203, “Yeah, I know what you mean.”

  The light outside was fading, and when they stepped out, Doc was standing in the front yard. He looked back over his shoulder, “You guys going on a prowl?”

  “Yeah; when did you get back?” Mike asked.

  “Few minutes ago.”

  Mike reached into his cargo pocket and tossed Doc the stethoscope. Doc caught it and inquired, “When did you take this?”

  “Early this morning,” Mike replied with a smile.

  Doc stuck the instrument into his pocket, “Don’t take my shit without asking dickhead.”

  “You got it back; besides, it was for some important shit.”

  “That safe? It’s probably full of dildos,” Doc fired back.

  Ted started laughing, “Now that would be funny!”

  “Hey, where’s the old man?” Mike asked.

  “He’s still at Danny’s. Tyler and his family may have been exposed to TB, so we quarantined them.”

  Mike screwed his face up, “Damn, TB; that’s going to suck.”

  “Yeah, well, hopefully it’s nothing,” Doc replied as they made their way down the street.

  The guys went to the south, towards the tree line at the end of the street. They were being careful to be sporadic in their patrols, never going the same way twice. There wasn’t a real plan to these foot patrols, just to be moving and keeping an eye out. After going into the woods about thirty yards, they turned east and increased the interval between them. The pace also slowed, stopping often to look and listen. There was no conversation, no cutting up. While this was more than likely to be as uneventful as the previous patrols, all three took it se
riously.

  The area was thickly covered with palmettos and scrub pines. The brush made everything invisible from their waists down. All three were wearing NVGs flipped up on their helmets. It wasn’t totally dark yet, but the light was fading fast. They’d made their way along the southern border of the neighborhood and were just turning to the north to walk the eastern side when Doc saw movement. His head snapped around as his weapon came up, and he flipped the NVG down to get a better look. Through the green murk of the device he could clearly see the side of a head, an ear and part of a black clad shoulder.

  “Contact right!” Doc shouted as he squeezed the trigger on his weapon, at the same moment he was dropping to the ground. The world closing in around them as they dropped into the palmettos, Ted and Mike both swiveled, taking one step forward to pivot while dropping down as well. Mike opened up with the short machinegun; soon all three men were firing.

  Ted rose up to his knees, “Moving!” He shouted.

  Almost in unison, Doc and Mike screamed, “Move!”

  Ted jumped up and ran forward thirty or so feet, firing as he did, before dropping down. Once on the ground, he called out, “Check!”, letting the other two know he was changing mags.

  “Okay!” Doc replied, then turned towards Mike, “Moving!”

  Mike paused on the trigger for an instant, “Move!” At the same Ted’s rifle re-entered the fight.

  Mike could see Doc, and waited for him to reach his new position. As Doc dropped out of sight, he called out, “Check!” He was answered with an “Okay!” from Ted and Mike.

  Mike continued to work the brush with the machinegun in short bursts. As soon as he heard Doc’s weapon begin firing, he rose to his knees, “Moving!” Ted and Doc acknowledged the call, and soon Mike was up and rushing forward as well.

  Ted’s radio crackled in his ear, “What the hell’s going on out there?” Sarge asked.

  “Wait one,” Ted replied.

  During the encounter none of the men noticed the sporadic, ineffectual return fire. As Mike was moving forward, two men broke cover, trying to run. Mike shouldered the weapon and let out a long burst cutting down both men. Seeing the two men fall, Mike scanned the area and noted that Doc and Ted were still firing slowly into the bush. Mike didn’t see any other movement or hear any return fire, so he called out, “Cease fire, cease fire!”

  Doc’s head appeared above the palmettos, like a prairie dog coming out of its hole. He looked around, then at Mike, “Clear?”

  “I don’t see anyone else; there are two down up there,” Mike jutted the muzzle of the weapon forwards.

  “Change the belt on that weapon before we move up to check them out,” Ted said.

  Mike dropped to his knee and pulled out a green plastic container with a belt of ammo for the weapon. He pulled the leading end out and connected it to what was left of the other one. With the weapon now ready, he rose to his feet, “Ready.”

  The three men moved up, Mike staying a little behind them to provide cover should it be needed. Ted found the two men, lying face down. As he approached them he put a round into the head of each of the bodies, he wasn’t taking any chances. When in doubt, gray matter out. Doc came up and flipped the first body over, “Oh shit; this isn’t good.”

  “Nope; if they’re already sniffing around, we’re behind the eight ball,” Ted replied.

  “What is it?” Mike asked.

  “They’re DHS goons,” Ted replied. He then knelt down and gripped a subdued DHS patch on the shoulder of the corpse and ripped it off.

  Doc quickly searched the two bodies. As he was doing so, Ted called Sarge, “Hey Swamp Rat.”

  “What’s up?”

  “We made contact on the southeast corner, two DHS goons.”

  There was a pause, then Sarge replied, “You sure about that?”

  “Yeah, bringing you back a souvenir.”

  “Take it to Danny’s place.”

  “Ten roger,”

  The weapons were stripped from the bodies, as well as the packs and any other gear. They distributed the load amongst themselves and headed for Danny’s place.

  Fred and Aric were sitting on the couch together; she was napping in his arms. Thad, as always, was outside. If he wasn’t tending to the hogs, he was working in the garden at Danny’s. He was one of those people that always needed to be outdoors. This time Jess and Miss Kay were with him. He’d cut a palm down earlier, and they were slicing it up and feeding it to the hogs, well, most of it.

  “This is pretty tasty,” Miss Kay said, holding a small piece of swamp cabbage up to inspect.

  “Told you; we eat it too,” Thad replied as he chucked a piece into the pen where the hogs immediately set on it.

  “I like it raw. It’s ok cooked, but I like how it crunches when it’s fresh,” Jess added.

  Kay took another bite, “I think you’re right, Jess. I like the crunch too; this would be wonderful in a salad. How did you guys find this?”

  Thad tossed another handful of cabbage into the pen. “Morgan; he comes up with all kinds of stuff.”

  “He seems a little strange to me,” Kay replied, wrinkling her nose.

  Jess wiped her forehead with the back of her hand, “He’s a good guy though; he’ll do anything in the world for you.”

  Almost in a whisper, Kay replied, “But did you hear what he did to that man?” She looked around as though someone could be listening. “He just shot him in the head.”

  “Some people just need shootin’, Miss Kay. Morgan just comes to the realization a little faster than most,” Thad said.

  “And does it,” Jess added.

  Kay shook her head, “That just doesn’t seem normal to me.”

  Thad stopped for a moment. “Miss Kay, those men were trying to take his daughters, all three of them at once. Any man would do the same. We just live in a world now where justice can come immediately. No long drawn-out trials, no bunch of lawyers trying to find some loophole you get you off on. If you did it, you did it.”

  “But what if he’s wrong? You can’t undo that sort of thing,” Kay replied.

  “When you’re caught in the act, there’s no question.”

  The conversation was interrupted by a sudden burst of gunfire. Everyone immediately looked in the direction of the cacophony of sound. Thad reached for his shotgun, never far from him, then looked at Jess. She already had her pistol out.

  “Get Miss Kay inside.”

  “Come on Miss Kay; let’s go,” Jess said, taking her by the arm.

  As they were going into the back door, Aric and Fred were coming out. Aric had his rifle, and Fred had a pistol.

  “What was that?” Aric asked.

  “We don’t know,” Jess replied as she ushered Miss Kay into the house.

  The gunfire intensified, and the sound of fully automatic fire filled the air. Fred and Aric ran out to Thad; they stood together and listened.

  “I wonder who it is?” Fred asked no one in particular.

  “From the sound of the guns, I’d say it was Mike and Ted,” Thad replied as he stared off into the distance.

  After a few moments the fire died down, then stopped completely. Thad looked at Aric, “I’m going to find out what’s going on. You guys stay here so Jess and Miss Kay aren’t alone.”

  Aric nodded, and they started back towards the house. Jess appeared in the door as they got close, “It stopped?”

  “Sounds like it, Thad’s going to go see what’s up,” Fred replied.

  Jess looked at Thad, “This is BS Thad; all I have is this pistol. I want a rifle. What the hell am I going to do with this if someone shows up with that kind of firepower?”

  “Yeah, me too; I want a rifle,” Fred added.

  “Let me go see what’s going
on. We’ve got plenty of rifles; I’m sure we can get you guys one.”

  “Good,” Jess replied sternly.

  Mel and I were walking with the girls when we heard the shooting, we were on our way to Danny’s. Hearing the shots, Taylor’s face lost all color. Little Bit wrapped herself around Mel. I urged all of them to move faster; we were still nearly two blocks from the house. Lee Ann and Taylor both had their weapons. Despite her apprehension, I was pleased to see Taylor unsling the H&K. We moved as fast as we could and ran into Thad as he rounded the corner.

  “What the hell’s going on?” I asked.

  “I don’t know; you heading to Danny’s?”

  I nodded, and together we made our way to his house. Sarge, Danny and Jeff were on the front porch when we got there. Sarge filled us in on what he knew so far.

  “The DHS, again?” Thad asked.

  “They sure as hell got here faster than I thought they would,” I added.

  “What’s this mean? We had to run from them before. Are we going to have to again?” Mel asked.

  “I don’t want to go back to the river,” Little Bit cried.

  “I’m not going!” Lee Ann stated.

  “Ain’t nobody going anywhere. We’re going to finish this once and for all, right here,” Sarge said.

  “I agree,” Danny added.

  It wasn’t long before the guys arrived. They piled the weapons and gear from the two men on the front porch. Mike started to go through the packs as Ted filled the old man in on what went down.

  “Find any radios on ‘em?” Sarge asked.

  Ted shook his head, “No, I expected them to have comms, but we didn’t find any.”

  “Hmm, that seems a little odd,” Sarge said, rubbing his chin. “You sure they are DHS?”

  Ted tossed the patch to him, “They both had these on.”

  Sarge looked at the patch. “Guess we’ll have to assume they are. If they are starting to do recon of the area, we need to get ready for them.”