The Free Republic of Texas 2015

by Tj Reeder

  After getting settled Song left his fellow traveler and went out to explore the airfield, armed with an M-16 and a combat harness with extra magazines he slowly and carefully checked out the field.

  Song may have been in the civilized world since he was a kid but his jungle instincts told him he was being watched, after looking over all the buildings he decided the flight terminal was the source of the watchers, he got as close as he could and decided on the direct approach , he yelled out that he was armed but not looking for a fight, a mans voice called back asking what he wanted, he said he would feel better talking face to face and taking a deep breath he stepped out into the open and laid down his rifle, the man called for him to walk forward and stop when told to, he did so and stopped when told, he could see several rifle barrels pointed at him from windows that were broken out and from the bullet marks on the concrete building these folks had been under attack before.

  The speaker stepped out of the door and moved slowly up to Song, and told him to turn around and pull his jacket up, after doing so the man said ok come on in but no fast moves, Song stepped into what had been the waiting area for the small airport and saw several people still watching outside instead of looking at him, he was impressed with that as it showed good discipline and or training.

  The man asked his name and some ID which he produced after looking at it the man relaxed a bit and said lets sit.

  The man introduced himself as Able Grant and said he had been a Air Force pilot until the collapse, Song could not help busting out laughing and couldn’t stop with tears running down his face, at last he got it under control and said well Able I came here looking for a pilot, want a job ?

  Grant looked at him and said well if there was a plane here that hadn’t been wrecked by the mobs we would be long gone, Song looked at him for a bit and said where would you go if you could have?

  Able thought a moment and said well we were thinking South and west away from the big population areas and try to find an area with a small airport or an abandoned ranch with a strip and just try to set up a place to stay alive.

  When asked if he had thought about East Texas, Able said well of course, good climate and long growing seasons so yes that was one of the thoughts, Song asked how many of them there was and was told 15 adults and 5 small children and 3 older teens and a new baby which was his and his wife’s who was here also.

  Song asked what aircraft Able was certified for and was told anything up to and including C-130’s which made Song laugh again, Able was starting to wonder if this guy was a bit off but Song said well if we can get a plane for you to fly how long for you and your bunch to be ready to go? Able replied, if I say the word we are out of here in 5 minutes, Song said well lets go cause I have a plane big enough for all of us, Able’s eyes got big but the he got a look on his face and said well you show me and two of my people the plane and then we will decide if your for real or trying to pull something.

  The walk back to the hidden hanger took 20 minutes and Able said we checked all of these old warehouses, nothing of use in any of them, but Song just kept walking and entered the open door to one of the empty buildings, he walked to the back and up to an empty shelf unit which he slid to the side and hit a set of numbered buttons and shortly the wall began to move up reveling a huge opening and a beautiful C-130.

  Able just stared and then started laughing and then started to cry with relief that they could all really get away from this place of death.

  The other men left at a run to get the others while Able looked over the big bird, he walked around it touching the skin like a long lost lover, he looked at Song and said how? Song said well lets just say I worked for an outfit that had the resources to hide most anything from almost anybody, Able said uh huh, kinda like the old Air America Company? Song just smiled.

  Song went into the back living area and woke up his traveling partner and introduced him to their new pilot, the poor guy looked at Song like he was a saint.

  As soon as the rest of the group was there they closed the place up tight and Song showed them where the kitchen and food supplies were located as all of them looked a bit thin, in the mean time Able was checking out the plane and reported that it was in new condition having been rebuilt before being parked all that was required was to get the fuel in her and other small things like that and she should be ready to turn over and if that went well they could leave in the morning.

  And that is just what happened, no freaking out, no last minute engine failures, and no problems at all. After looking at the crates stored in the building they loaded what amounted to everything required to keep the bird flying for a long time, also several crates of m-16 rifles and ammo and some other crates that were left closed for the moment, there was more MRE’s then they could take so they went thru the entire place and took some of everything, after getting the towing vehicle started they towed the bird out of the hanger thru the giant empty warehouse then when they had everything they wanted and had replaced everything that needed to be put back they shut the doors and returned it to a big empty space.

  After doing whatever a pilot needs to do to fire up a big aircraft and it was running Able had Song sit in the copilots seat while they taxied to the runways and 5 minutes later they were in the air, Song showed Able where they were going and he set the mysterious knobs and things that Song had no idea what was what and they were on their way.

  After Song had finished his story Jody filled him in on the outpost idea and the plans to get it rolling, Songs said well lets go out to the barn and I’ll show you some things you’re going to like!! In the barn with help from some of the scouts and security force we dug out the crates Song had brought on the C130, after opening one of them we all just stood looking at the contents.

  At last one of the Security guys said a quiet long drawn out

  “Holy Shit!!…somebody else said “oh yea“!!… we were looking at a crate with a complete 308 mini gun with all the hardware for mounting it on a chopper or a vehicle, then we looked at the other crates and counted them, we had enough of these things to arm every vehicle we had and some left over to use as defensive weapons in the outposts if need be.

  Song then looked around the stacks of crates and said “Here” drag one of these out, 2 of the big guys grabbed it and grunted a bit, it was opened and Jody was the first to laugh out loud!! And turned to Song and they high fived each other, Jody said boys this is the grand daddy of them all, the wonderful Browning MA duce…50 cal of doom and destruction waiting to happen!! Jody was in love and a good thing Doc wasn’t there she might have smacked him…

  Song then made Jody’s day by telling us that the warehouse where these came from held so much stuff like this it was hard to believe with all the parts and ammo to run for many years, thank God for paranoid Spooks!!…

  Jody turned to his comm. man and said get the brothers up here now, and it was done, within a few minutes the roar of the brothers big truck could be heard coming…fast .

  Jody listened a bit and said I should have known better then to say “Now” and I hope they have good breaks, they did!! And in a cloud of dust slid to a stop and both big men rolled out of their truck dubbed the “War Wagon” and as usual pushing and shoving each other thru the door slid to a stop and looked at the open crates, one said OH YEA!! The other said UH HUH!!

  We gonna like this job, ceptin we gets one of each fo de the War Wagon! As pay ya know? Jody smiled and said well I guess Miss Ellie could hear about you two butchering the Kings English with your Amos and Andy routine , both looked at him and one said, you wouldn’t do that coz we be telling Doc and she be dealin wif you….at this point everybody was laughing , one of the brothers leaned over and picked up the big 50 with not even a strain and said I really want this boss , I really do…

  The deal was done, they got one of each for their rig and would mount the others on whatever Jody wanted done…but theirs was first, sorta a learning thing they said… Jody just shook his head and said o
k, get to work, with that their truck was loaded and they were gone. I watched them drive away and then asked Jody how long it would take them to realize they had no belts of ammo to play with, he smiled and said well bout 30 seconds after they have them rigged up.

  We held a meeting that afternoon with the patrol leaders and scout team leaders, we told them about the new enhancements to the patrol rigs which brought big smiles, he then outlined a plan to load up a couple of the fast low profile patrol scout cars, sort of a dune buggy but more , with some light armor and now with mini-guns, and the teams to handle them and a work team and we were going to return to the hidden depot where the plane was stored and we were going to empty the entire warehouse and anything else we could find, if need be the plane would make as many trips as needed, the ground team could stay behind and secure the area so as to avoid an ambush later.

  While this was going on the rest of the troops would be gearing up their equipment for the long range patrol to last as much as a month or more, the needed equipment would be checked and rechecked and loaded out , some of the non scout rigs would pull trailers loaded with more supplies.

  This was to be a big push into the unknown and we would be hauling supplies to set up settlements as we found them.. We were on the move. And on the hunt , there was still a lot of bad people out there living off the good hard working folks, and we were gonna turn out their lights once and for all.

  After talking to the Pilot of the “ Big Bird “ we decided that three of the scout bugs would work better and 10 extra security troops as ground defense with the bugs as mobile rover patrols, and a dozen or so more to help load the bird, with the fork lift that would be a lot easier then by hand. The trip was planned out and would take a day to get there and set up, then as long as it took to load the first load out, refuel from the big underground tanks then the plane would return to base leaving the troops there on the ground to secure the area.

  Song was going as the detail commander, all the others would be made up of volunteers which meant the entire unit, so Jody told them to settle it between squad leaders…peacefully, so they played high card out until it was settled, then the work started, the three bugs had to be set up with the guns which meant the Brothers would need to convinced to do the Bugs first which wasn’t a problem, all they wanted was a nice load of belted ammo, and both smiled big at Jody while he just shook his head, gotcha they both said , and it was done, it took less time then we had thought possible, but the Brothers had a shop that could build a mini gun from scratch if they had the right metal and what they didn’t know about it somebody would, such was the talent that had come together in our group.

  I can not say I was sad to be left out of the trip back east, Jody looked like he wanted to go but being a good leader he knew he could not just run off at every whim, also he wanted to be there to make sure the unit was ready for the big push as it was being called. And that he was for sure going on as was I, we hadn’t had the fight we knew was coming with the ladies.. yet…but we knew it would come .

  Doc had a good argument that we might need her skills a lot more then she was needed at the base, and I expected to get no more from Jade then her biggest smile, which meant that fight was lost , so I planned on her being with us and planned on how to keep her out of trouble, funny thing it turned out that while I was busy she had taken to hanging out with Doc and had become a very handy aid to the doc and her med crew that were going, so in the heat of battle she would be with the med team , life can be good…maybe.

  The Big Bird detail took off on a clear morning with full tanks and all the crews and vehicles, we saw them off and then went on about our business, before we left the airport the head of the Air Force as he called himself with a smile , called us over to his shop where we found two twin eng. planes painted in a camo pattern like our patrol units and both had a mini gun mounted on it , he was very proud of his Air Force and only wanted to find some bombs to mount, Jody and I worried about him because he was just a tad bit crazy, which as Jody put it wasn’t all bad, but needed to be controlled and focused, best in another direction from yours… but he could make a plane sit up and beg that was for sure, he could build it, fly it and mostly land them…

  I had moments when he was in the air that I was sure he was flying with one hand and turning the pages in “ Flying for Idiots” with the other, but he kept the clean side up and the dirty side down as he put it, his usual answer to any question was “Whatever”… I quit asking things, Jody did it just to pull his chain, thinking about him racing thru the sky’s with a mini gun was a sobering thought, I told Jody one day we should paint bright red X’s on our vehicles for safety reasons , he said yea lets give him something to aim at…I decided I’d try to find a helmet and a flak jacket but thought of the laughs the “kids” would have and decided to just hope and maybe pray.

  We spent a few days working our butts off and then the call came that Big Bird was coming in so we raced for the strip and watched her settle down like a fat goose and roll out, then she taxied to the barn as it was called, we had told the truck crews to head out and they arrived at the same time.

  Song was the first off the craft and said they had a radio problem and needed the med crew as they had some wounded. That call went out fast and it was only a few moments before we heard the sound of the ambulance coming from town, we ran aboard and found 3 people laying on stretchers, all had been attended by the medics that went on all Opps but all looked to need more then band aids .

  We got them loaded on the ambulance and headed for the hospital, Song said he would tell us about it later , so we set to work unloading the cargo and trucking it to the ranch, some also went to the county Jail for Jim to use when needed to arm and help train his home guard .

  Mostly it looked like the same type of stuff we had already seen so we got it put away and headed for the house, the airport crew would check out the bird and get it ready to return the next day.

  After we got some food in us and a cold beer we sat out on the porch and Song gave a report.

  They had landed at the end of the strip and unloaded the “Bugs” who took off and made a fast recon of the entire place, looking for trouble so to speak, nothing showed so they taxied to the warehouse and towed the plane inside and shut the doors, a small watch team stayed out under cover, the ones inside started loading the plane with the stuff Song pointed out, With the pilot acting as the Load Master, making sure the weight was balanced right and tied down properly.

  The load was in and they were settling down for the night when the out post team called in that there was movement all around them then they heard a mini gun open up and then the roar of a lot of guns, the security teams hit the doors running and the other two Bugs roared out the bay doors, the fight was short and hot for a bit then it settled down to a few scattered shots as the enemy withdrew into the night.

  When they got everybody located they found 3 people with fairly bad wounds, the corpsmen took care of them as well as possible and it was decided they could wait for morning to take off , heading out into the dark had no appeal for any of the plane crew, with morning the scout teams headed out and found about 10 body’s and a lot of blood trails leading toward the end of the air port, they followed and at the end of the area they found some more dead, some had been shot in the head, no live enemies were found they followed for a ways but Song called them to return to base for now.

  As near as Song could figure it was a sort of a local War Lord which seemed to be popping up which was to be expected. They set the defense force to preparing for a fight after they took off, but had no doubts they could handle anything coming their way, especially since Song had dug out some special toys from the weapons room of the depot, grenade launchers which had the instructions with them and the ammo, obviously prepared for non trained people to use with a minimum of training, those alone would end a battle fast against an un armored enemy, but the need to haul ass back was pushing hard.

  At first light the cr
ew headed back to the air port where they found the Big Bird sitting with all engines warmed up and ready to go, Jody had also detailed 2 more Bug teams to go along with the idea of putting the War Lord out of business, he left that up to Song as unit commander on the ground.

  After the C 130 was up and out of sight everybody headed back to the ranch to get work and work we did, every person not needed for security or some other critical job was put to work doing something to get the big patrol ready to roll as soon as possible, the Jonas brothers had their shop working 24 hours a day, anybody who couldn’t weld could paint the camo on the rigs as fast as they rolled out the doors.

  We were taking plenty of the bugs, not all would be fitted with the big guns but would be instead fast lightly armored advanced scout rigs and flankers due to their ability to run anyplace on or off road, flank security was deemed as important as any and would prove so a great deal in the future…

  The heavy Military vehicles we had bought as surplus were becoming worth their weight in gold, big, tough and dependable they were the real work horses of the mobile force.

  Three days later the call came that Big Bird was coming in so we headed out with the heavy haulers and were waiting when she slid in smooth as silk, after shutting down and dropping the back ramp Able trotted out and around the plane and stood looking up at the wing, sure enough there was several bullet holes in it, but apparently nothing vital was hit, but it would be checked out before going out again.