The Free Republic of Texas 2015

by Tj Reeder

  One phone call to our brokers and bankers did the job but of course they tried their best to talk us out of it or to at least just convert it all into stock market numbers in a computer, but in the end they did as told, then asked how the metals were to be bought, after more talk with Song we told them we wanted small denominations of coins for the most part, American and Canadian, and a goodly amount of junk silver coins.

  We were told to expect a private security delivery in a couple of weeks. When we figured out the volume we had to buy several large gun safes to store it all in and we put them in the new big bunker near the clan village, who better to guard it all?

  Song also told us there was a delivery coming that would require payment in gold at the time of the delivery and he would be here for that. Both of us had an idea what this was about but we never spoke about it aloud.

  The day the Gold arrived it was in a non descript truck that had rental markings on it, but when it was backed into place behind the mall which was as close as we wanted the delivery crew to get to the ranch it was very obvious it was an armored unit after the doors were opened there was a crew of 5 all heavily armed men involved in security for the shipment, and with Jody and John and Bob and myself it still took us almost an hour to unload the crates into the back of the gun shop, the crates were sealed and after checking it all out Jody and I signed for it and the truck and crew left.

  Now using the store help we loaded it in 3 pick ups and headed for the bunker where we stacked the boxes and the store crew left except for John and Bob who helped open and inventory the contents, I can attest that gold fever is a real, very real thing, we all just stood stunned looking at the first box we opened, we then decided that if the count was off so be it and just loaded the rest of the boxes into the safes. It was very heavy tiring work! But we felt maybe we had done a smart thing and had no regrets and what the hell we could always just load a sack into a car and drive to the bank and convert it to cash, well we thought we could, gold once gotten is not all that easy to handle, it seems you have to go though a metals broker who buys and sells actual metals and issues a check from their bank which can then be cashed or taken as cashiers checks which was fine with us as we weren’t planning to do any converting very soon if ever, we still had enough to handle the ranch business and the mall businesses were making a profit so we were fine for now.

  In the last days of fall we got a call from a man who only said he had a shipment for us and that it was C.O.D. were we prepared to accept it?

  We said we would meet him at the gun shop and headed that way with a sack of gold coins, the truck was parked behind the shop with John and Bob standing with the driver, he had a bill of lading that showed a truck load or “Crates of farm equipment” the price alone was enough to raise any eyebrows but the required payment in Gold was even more so.

  We took the driver into the store and counted out the required amount based on the day’s spot price for Gold. After he counted it we tossed in another $1000.00 in coins with the advice to disremember where he delivered the load. He smiled big and said what load? We took him over to my old house where he could bunk down while we unloaded the truck, after driving it back to the bunker it took the four of us and 10 of the clans men 4 hours to unload it and get it stored. After taking the truck back and parking it at the house we headed home to bed but come morning all four of us and the ladies went to the bunker and started looking over the shipment, there was more 7.62x39 ammo then we could count and crate after crate of new AK-47’s from the 60’s and 70’s…

  Five of the crates were marked with red X’s and looked different; opening them produced even a yelp out of me! Inside was 5 good old American made M-60 belt fed machine guns!!! I had not seen one since my Army days and had only fired one once in training, these baby’s were the cat’s ass! Somebody someplace was missing some goodies! I looked at Song who was smiling like a cat with a mouse.

  When I asked about them Song replied with a smile… and we all said “If I tell ya I gotta kill ya!” and laughed, so there sitting on the floor was 25 brand new US Military 7.62 x 51 Machine guns and enough belted ammo to fight a large war and nobody was talking… we closed the crate and lugged them away and out of sight for now..

  We opened a crate of the AK-47’s and they looked brand new, still in protective grease like they had just left the factory, there was a lot of cleaning here to do…

  Jody said we would clean enough to arm everybody who lived on the ranch and worked in the shops, after that the rest would stay protected until we needed to issue them.

  After closing the bunker heavy blast door we headed for the house and breakfast, While the girls were fixing it I asked Jody where this stuff had come from, he just shook his head and shrugged, Song smiled

  Jody and I along with Jade, Sally, Bob and John was now the Committee; Ellen was offered a seat but was just too busy to take the time. We held meeting every Friday evening to discuss the week and plan for the coming week. Most of the place was doing just fine with the people who were in charge; mostly Jody and I were the ones to deal with expenditures above the day to day dealings the store managers handled, which left us free time to wonder what we were forgetting.

  On this Friday we got a call from the Gun Shop that Ranger Bill was there and wanted to come in to the ranch proper, Jody told the young man on the phone that Bill had full permission to come and go as he wished and to pass the word.

  Shortly Bill and Joan drove in where we greeted them in the front parking area, Ellen and Jade came out and took over Joan and disappeared, Bill joined the rest of us on the porch and shortly the ladies brought out some snacks and a bucket of iced beer then sat down with us, we made small talk for a while then Bill cleared his throat and said Boy’s we got our place sold, did real well on it too, and we need a home, got any ideas?

  Jody smiled and said Bill, Joan; you’re as welcome here as can be, if you want to build here fine, if you want to just take an apartment in the married dorm for a while or for as long as you want that’s fine too, whatever we can do for you we will.

  Bill said well Jody we kinda figured you’d say that and we thank you but right now I think my job might be a problem at least until I retire, it could be misconstrued.

  Jade spoke up and said you know Mr. Ely’s place isn’t even as bad as he said it was and with a bit of work it could be a very nice place also it would put friends on that side of the property. Damn she was cute when she got all business like but I wisely kept my mouth shut on that. But she did have a good idea, so with several hours of good light left we headed over there, I had only driven past the place one time when Jody and I took a tour with Ely, and we didn’t go in the house, it was still filled with his life so to speak but Jade and Sally had ask him if they could go see it and he said honey it’s yours do as you wish and that he would get some boys to help move his stuff to the dump pretty soon.

  We got there and Jade had the key and opened the place up and I was very surprised, it was much nicer then he had let on and after an hour of looking Bill and Joan said it would be perfect for them if Ely wanted to sell it, Jody said well I’ll bet you can get a good deal on it if you want to buy it, but why not lease it long term and use your sale money to fix it up the way you want it?

  After we returned home we sat on the porch and talked about the place, Joan loved it as it was built in the early 1900’s and was stone with a fairly new metal roof. Bill asked how to get in touch with the owner and Jody said well let me talk to him and see what he will do, get some rest here tonight and I’ll go see him in the morning. Bill and Joan agreed and we settled down to a fun night of just relaxing.

  In the morning Jody took Bill and Joan to the café to meet Ellie and Ely where it was explained who owned the place and how it came to be.

  Jody said he was will to deed the house and as much land as Bill and Joan wanted back to Ely who could sell it to them for an agreed on price, leaving the ranch out of it and no conflict of interest. All agreed and a
price was settled on that was agreeable by all and Ely said he would finance it! For 10 % down and $500.00 a month until both he and Ellie were dead. Then he could leave it in his will to whoever he wished right?

  All agreed that it was a smoking deal for Bill and Joan so it was done with a hand shake and a check for 10 % down, and the deed papers would be drawn up that week, Ely said he and Ellie would go through the place and see what they wanted , the rest was the new owners to keep or dump, Joan said Ely there are some very beautiful old antiques in that house and he laughed and said well Missy me an Ellie are antiques so I guess we don’t need more.

  That deal was done and handled to everybody’s satisfaction and we all headed home to the ranch, Bill and Joan were very happy and so were we, the far side of our place was now covered by a Ranger and patrolled by the clan which made Bill very happy because it was very alone out there and when he was gone at night he worried, after meeting several of the Clan’s hunters who were moving into a new village complex near to the house and two of the girls had already asked to work in the house which Joan thought would be ok, she said she wasn’t used to having hired help and was told she still didn’t , that all the expenses of the ranch operation was paid for by the LLC so therefore the young ladies pay was paid by the ranch which cause Bill to shake his head, he said I have got to be careful about things like that, if audited I need to show I paid fair wages to them, so that’s how it was done. The girls didn’t care as long as they got paid!! It takes money to buy pigs for a girl’s dowry.

  That’s a joke son…

  One thing we didn’t tell anybody but the committee and a few of the clan about the hidden bunker and its contents, that was our surprise and if and when we had to break out that stuff there wouldn’t be anybody to care.

  For the most part we had done all we could to off set the end of days as we saw it and of the most part just settled down to living our lives.

  We had about 20 young folks living in the dorms, most worked in the stores and the rest taking care of the ranch chores, the green houses were mostly setting ready to be put into use as the gardens cared for by the clan women were giving us more then we could use or can, so we built a road side open sided shed by the road at the mall and the Clan girls who wanted to work outside the village were in charge of handling the gathering, cleaning and selling of the produce, they got half the money and the rest went to the village for anything they wanted or needed that we didn’t have or produce, I never had any idea what they might need because anything they wanted the ranch provided on request. But if it made them happy then so be it. And we had a very happy place on the ranch, nobody killed themselves working to hard and yet one could stay busy doing something.

  Ellen had her clinic, Jade spent a few hours a day with the village women just being one of the clan, Sally had the store but had asked about setting up classes for the clan children, that was a good idea so she spent a few hours in the afternoon being a teacher to a class of the most well behaved kids ever seen, all wanted to learn, all wanted to be there and all were fast learners.

  I guess not having stupid video games to stare at all day had its points, they spend the mornings learning about being a productive member of the clan and the afternoons learning to fit in with the rest of us. Even the youngest boys were taken into the woods to learn to hunt with their small crossbows made by their fathers, the local Squirrel population was taking a beating but the clan loved squirrel fixed any way they could so the ladies were happy, the fathers were proud of their sons, it still made me smile to see a 5 year old boy slip out of the woods with his small crossbow and a bunch of whatever got in front of the arrows, anything was ok for the big stew pot in the village fire pit until one of the youngsters came in with a skunk, he was sent to the river with a bar of soap and his prize to bury, from that day on all the boys knew about skunks.

  Some evenings we sat in the village at the central fire and listened to the old men talk about being in their native mountains, Jade and Jody translated for Ellen and me.

  I knew I would never understand the language but Jade had taken to talking to me in it and as strange as it seemed I was getting some of it so maybe some day.

  The stories were fun for the most part, sometimes they talked of the times when the bad men came to the mountains and the fights and the clansmen lost in the battles, but also how the bad men would run away because it’s hard to fight a spirit in the forest, and because a cross bow bolt makes no sound and nobody could tell where to shoot so they sprayed the whole forest before running away, in time the men were all armed with AK’s taken from the dead.

  But they still used the cross bows to fight with, they were saving the guns and ammo for the day when they would need to fight a bigger bunch of the bad men as they called the Viets, all viets were the enemy, North, South or in between, to them anybody not of the hill tribes was the enemy, which at times caused a lot of trouble since they would shoot the ARVN troops as fast as a VC.. And laugh all the way home!!

  All in all we had a very good life even knowing one day it would change, and we all knew one day it would change.

  At midnight of Dec /Jan 2010 as America and most of the rest of the world, celebrated the New Year, on the Border between Mexico and the U.S. border town Chocó Az. a convoy of vehicles, some painted as Mexican Military rolled across the border and right thru the small border crossing check point, the two US Customs officers on duty didn’t know it, they had been dead for 10 minutes, next to run afoul of these intruders was a car with 2 couples of teenagers who chose that time to drive to the border because one of the Girls dad was on duty and she wanted to wish him a happy new year, she was too late, for both of them, the young man driving the car never saw the oncoming truck as it’s lights were out and it was moving fast, with only a few seconds he did swerve and was only clipped by the heavy bumper of the truck but it was enough to flip the car, the truck just kept going as did the five behind it, the last vehicle was a large 4x4 SUV, it pulled over and 2 men jumped out running to the car, all of the kids were hurt and crying in pain which lasted only a few more seconds as the 2 men shot each in the head, then ran to their vehicle where the driver waited , then hit the gas, in moments there was only quiet in the desert again.

  The convoy moved fast on down the road then into the small town, where the entire police force was sitting in their car, complaining about missing the party’s going on, both were very surprised to hear then see 6 big trucks followed by a black Suburban race past them.

  Charley Cain grabbed the mike to call the county Sheriff’s dispatcher as Ben Hardy hit the gas and the red lights, Charley had just got the message across to the Dispatcher when they saw the Suburban stop in the road with no break lights, as Ben hit the brakes the two men in the road opened fire with AK-47’s on full auto and chopped the car to bits, neither Officer knew what hit them. One of the shooters ran to the now smoking car and tossed in an object that within seconds burst into white hot fire, another 10 seconds and the car was a raging inferno.

  Eight Americans were now dead in the opening 20 minutes of the opening stages of a whole new border war and almost nobody knew anything about it, except for a now wide awake dispatcher who was calling her patrol car and getting no answer.

  She then called the Border Patrol station in the next town 10 miles up the road, by the time she explained what her Deputy had told her the convoy was almost to the BP station, as it passed the Suburban pulled over and this time 4 men got out and opened fire on the building blowing out all the windows, one of the shooters ran forward and tossed two grenades in a window followed by another Thermite grenade, they then loaded up and took off..

  Shortly the trucks found and turned onto a dirt road and followed it for several miles where the lead driver turned off into a deserted ranch yard, there the men parked the trucks in and behind an old barn and waited a few minutes, soon another vehicle pulled into the yard and 4 men got out of it, one of them carried a large case and handed it to one of the men
from the suburban , not a word was exchanged, all the Mexican men got into the SUV and it rolled away at a quick pace, as the dust settled more vehicles could be heard heading to the old ranch, soon 2 SUV’s pulled in and several men got out.

  They were pointed to the barn and in moments the trucks rolled out and following one SUV and followed by the other the new convoy headed out.

  The first crew wasn’t done yet, they headed toward another town sitting on another crossing , as they pulled into town they could see the activity around the local police dept. where officers were piling out of the building ready to roll out, as the SUV pass the station it slowed and from the passengers side windows came a massive burst of full auto fire taking down all the men in the street, then the fire was aimed into the building windows with a repeat of the earlier attack and the Thermite blew with the same results as before, except this time people were still alive inside, for a short time.

  Rolling out of town the SUV headed for the border crossing where it was met with a blast of gun fire from the Customs guards and a two man border Patrol unit that had just checked in, the SUV rolled to a stop short of the border and a very hot fire fight followed for the next 5minutes.