Howard quickly asked, “You mean the President is part of this world takeover scheme?”
White shook his head. “No, no. As far as I know, he believes this asteroid story. At least, that’s what I’ve been told.”
Howard pressed him. “You say he left for an underground bunker some time ago. Why the hell did we just find out about all this twelve hours or so ago? Why hasn’t he warned the people before this?”
“Howard, all I can do is guess. I imagine the President wanted to verify that there really was a threat. You can pretty well bet he knows the truth of things now. I mean that the asteroid story is just that, a story.”
John’s wife, Roberta spoke up, “So what’s in Washington State that will be safer than we are here?”
“You’ll be underground and have a bunch of people to protect you. Here, we have my handgun and one automatic rifle. That sure isn’t much of an arsenal to fend off many people if we’re attacked. We need all kinds of high powered guns.”
Marcia had been quiet during the entire exchange, but now said, “We have a lot more weapons than we do people, Major. You wanta go check them out?”
“Hell, yes. Where are they?”
“Follow me”
~~~
“Hey guys, I’m going to run out and get the air atlas from the chopper.” Greg told the group. “If we’re going to Washington State, we’ll have to figure out where we can refuel. That is if we can find safe places to refuel.” He rose and headed for the sliding glass door.
Everyone else followed Marcia and White. She led them through the house, down a set of stairs to the lower level, and into a huge room that looked like a den. Bookshelves and leather furniture sat along the walls, and a stone fireplace rose from floor to ceiling right in the center of the room. It was altogether lavish, expensive, and beautiful, but a dead end. There were no doors other than the one through which they’d entered. But Marcia walked across the room, removed a book from a shelf, and the entire set of shelves swung into the room to reveal a steel door with a combination lock in the center.
Marcia smiled. “Jarmain would have shit if he knew I found the combination to this door.” As she spoke she twirled the dial back and forth several times, and the hum of a small motor could be heard as the door slowly opened itself.
Major White moved to the entrance and, without entering the room, glanced inside and let out a low whistle. “Holy shit, John, here’s your communications equipment.”
The room looked like the command center of a warfare room under Cheyenne Mountain. It was huge and had a dozen large screens. A dozen computers sat on worktables, and a computer server, its lights all green, sat in a niche in the middle of one wall.
Major White said, “Sophisticated damned equipment. Where are the weapons?”
Again, Marcia smiled and once more spoke of how Jarmain would just die if he had known how damned snoopy she was. She walked to a computer keyboard, typed a few words, and hit the enter key. One of the wall consoles moved straight out from the wall to reveal a large opening. From across the room, Marcia said, “Welcome to the Euclaid arsenal, gentlemen,” and held her hand out toward the door.
The room was filled with steel shelves six feet high, and every shelf was loaded with corrugated boxes, crates, cylindrical containers, and steel boxes. As Major White inspected the shelves he whistled. “Son-of-a-bitch! You weren’t kidding when you called it an arsenal. There’s enough shit here to start our own war.” He pulled weapons boxes and cases, and set them on the floor. “We need something to pry that crate open. It contains ten M 14s. They might come in handy. Those cylinders I sat down are shoulder fired SAMs. We’ll take a few of those with us, too.” As he spoke, he slid five small wooden boxes off a bottom shelf. “These are loaded magazines for the M 14.”
~~~
A half hour later, they had all the weapons taken to the kitchen, had opened the box of M 14s and ammo boxes. After giving each one of them an M 14, women included, Major White took them outside to show them how to use the weapon. The M 14 was designed as a brush gun, for close-in rapid fire.
White was surprised that Marcia knew how to handle the weapon. She was off to one side showing the women how to fire and reload the M 14 while he showed Howard, Greg, and Charlie. Two hours later, he was satisfied his small Army could take care of itself. He knew it would take a lot of luck to survive and secretly deep inside he didn’t give their little group a snow balls chance of surviving or making it to Washington.
By dusk, all the weapons, except their personal M 14s and a few magazines, were loaded into the chopper, along with a few hand held radios they scrounged from the huge electronics room.
“Why don’t we wait and leave at first light in the morning?” asked Charlie. “I need to go check some fluid levels on the chopper before we start a long flight.”
“Great idea,” Howard said. “I’m battling jet lag, and I’m about to drop.”
The last twenty-four hours had pretty well drained the whole group.
“I’ll show you up to the guest rooms. Take your pick. The rooms are well supplied, but if you need anything let me know,” Marcia said. She got up and started toward the stairs and was followed by the women.
Major White cleared his throat. “I’ll stay up for a little while longer. I want to make some plans and do some thinking. See ya all bright and early in the morning.” His real reason to stay up was this guy, Charlie. Something about Charlie nagged at him. Nothing he could put his finger on . . . something Charlie had said or done.
~~~
Major White sat deep in the shadowed corner of the house next to the helicopter pad and watched Charlie checking several places behind panels on the chopper.
Suddenly it dawned on him what it was about Charlie that didn’t add up. This Jarmain Euclaid character had murdered everyone who knew him. Even tried to kill his live-in lover, which the usually hard up Lee White considered would have been an unfortunate waste. Charlie had ferried this Jarmain guy all over the place, and probably knew as much about his movements, and the people with whom he met as anyone. Wouldn’t Charlie have been a primary target if this madman wanted to cover his tracks? Was he talking to himself while doing maintenance on the chopper? Charlie seemed to be having a quiet, one-sided conversation, but Major White couldn’t hear what he was saying.
~~~
“Hey, Charlie, how’s the checkup going?”
Charlie jumped at the sound of Lee’s voice. “Damn! You startled me. It’s so quiet out here in the mountains this time of evening, any sudden noise will scare the hell outa a person.”
“Sorry, didn’t think about that.” The Major smiled broadly, but if Charlie thought he was smiling about startling him, he was wrong. The Major smiled because Charlie accidentally dropped the handheld radio inside the compartment of the chopper. The Major, his right hand on the Glock, reached into the compartment with his left hand to retrieve Charlie’s dropped radio.
“My gosh, Charlie, I didn’t know you needed a radio to check out the oil level on one of these machines?”
“I uh . . . I had it in my hand in case one of you needed me in the house. Hey man, why you look so serious?” Charlie asked.
“Aw, now, come on, Charlie. You can do better than that. Tell me something, Charlie, you ferried Mister Euclaid all over the place, knew who he was meeting and so on. Weren’t you invited to his death shindig? If he wanted to get rid of everyone who knew anything about him, wouldn’t you have been close to the top of the hit list?”
“Just exactly what the fuck are you getting at, Major?” Charlie turned toward him and stuck his hands in the bulgy back pockets of his coveralls.
“I think you’re still working for him, Charlie. I think you were left to look after this place and get rid of anyone intruding here. Am I right?”
Charlie whipped a handgun from his rear pocket and pointed it at Major White. “Well, you’re quite the smart motherfucker, aren’t you, Major? Too bad. I was going to just disappear
and let you folks fly on out of here. Can’t do it, now.”
“At least tell me why you’re betraying your country before you shoot me.”
“Why you think? Money! Plain and simple, money, you dumb fucker. See how this son-of-a-bitch lives? Money, Major. That’s what it’s all about. The bastard can live like this, have a woman like Marcia, and every damned thing you see around here. That’s what you can do with money.”
Major White shook his head, trying to figure a way to keep him talking, stalling for something to happen-anything. “Tell me, Charlie, why were you going to let us fly out of here? Hell, if you were aware Euclaid was going to kill all these people, which made you just as guilty as he is, why not kill all of us to begin with?”
“I didn’t want to.” He stared at the Major.
“You didn’t want to harm Marcia, did you, Charlie?”
“Just shut the fuck up and walk off into the woods there.” He waved the gun at him.
Major White folded his arms. The safety was off, and he could see Charlie was trigger happy. “You love her, don’t you, Charlie? Truth is you can’t shoot the woman you love.”
Charlie screamed. “I won’t say it again. Get your hands over your head, and walk off into them woods!”
Major White wanted to make him mad enough to yell in the hope that someone in the house would hear. As he turned and walked across the grass at the edge of the helo pad, he knew Charlie wasn’t a professional. A non-professional could be surprised by a sudden move. He smiled as he walked into the woods, knowing he would outwit the man and kill him. It wasn’t that he enjoyed the thought of killing another human being, but he did enjoy outwitting someone who would betray their country for money or love, if that was the motivating factor. Perhaps Charlie figured with enough money he could own Marcia. He couldn’t blame Charlie for wanting her. Major White had known his share of women, but once in a great while a woman came along who had some indefinable allure about her . . . some unknown thing that one couldn’t put a name to.
“That’s far enough, Major!”
He stopped, turned around, and asked, “Just how are you going to explain to Marcia what happened to me, Charlie? You think she’ll want anything to do with you if she knows you’re as bad as Euclaid? She’s smart enough to figure that out if she hasn’t already.”
Charlie stared at the Major, not speaking.
The Major continued, “You’ve never killed anyone before, have you? Want me to tell you what it feels like after your first kill? You have nightmares forever. I’m going to give you the chance to live, Charlie. You can just walk away right now. Walk down the mountain and keep going.”
Charlie laughed loud and said, “Ha! You’re going to give me the chance to live? I think you’re confused, Major. I’m the one holding the gun.”
“Yeah, but if you raise it, Howard there behind you is going to put about a dozen slugs in you with his M 14.”
When Charlie whipped his head around to see if Howard was really there, Major White dove to the side, rolled over, and came up with the Glock in his hand, pulling the trigger as rapidly as possible. Five shots hit Charlie in the middle of his chest and threw him backwards and dead before his body hit the ground.
As the Major rose from the ground and walked past what was left of Charlie, he glanced down and said, “People like you shouldn’t fuck around with the professionals, Charlie.”
The Major met Howard and John half-way back to the house, both carrying their M 14s. “Sure could a used you guys a bit sooner,” the Major said.
Howard asked, “What was the shooting about?”
Major White chuckled, “Our friend, Charlie, took me out in the woods to kill me. I caught him with a radio out by the chopper. When I questioned him, he pulled a gun. Damned fool thought he was going to kill me. I think we’d better get our asses in the bird and go.”
The three men strode calmly back towards the house. John suddenly stopped short. “And who is going to fly that chopper?”
Major White chuckled and said matter-of-factly, “I flew Hueys and Apaches a couple of times. I can probably get it off the ground without killing us. C’mon, we better hurry. No telling who Charlie was talking to. You get the women ready and grab some food while I see if I can figure out how to start that bird.”
~~~
As the Major neared the edge of the helicopter pad, he heard loud automatic weapons fire. Dropping flat to the ground he turned and saw Howard and John lying at either end of a small retaining wall, firing downhill.
He ducked as low as he could and ran toward the chopper.
The women huddled behind the small tool shed that contained the pump for the fuel storage tank.
Major White jumped in the chopper, twisted the ignition, and the engine roared to life. He put the rotor control into idle, and set the rotor pitch for maximum lift. Crawling to the other door, he opened it and slid to the ground, an M 14 in his hand. He dashed behind the building where the women crouched. “What’s going on?” he yelled.
“We don’t know,” Marcia answered. “We were coming out to the helicopter when someone started shooting.”
“Anyone hurt?”
“I think John got hit in the arm,” Marcia’s shaky voice replied.
“Okay, you women run for the chopper. Stay low.”
White bent low, running, and flopped to the ground alongside John. “How bad is the arm?” Blood was flowing from the wound. John nodded as if he wasn’t sure how bad the wound was.
White asked him, “Think you can make it to the chopper?”
“I’ll try.”
“Okay, you go when I start firing!” The Major ordered. As he spoke, a hail of bullets dug into the retaining wall. He swung the M 14 around the end of the wall, emptied one mag, snapped in another, and emptied it. Then snapped in a third.
Howard yelled at him. “Major . . . run . . . I’m almost out of ammo!”
The women let go with a hail of bullets from inside the helicopter, cutting down the five men in fatigues trying to outflank them. White yelled, “Now’s a good a time to get moving outa here!”
The gunfire from the area of the chopper continued. The two men ran hard, and low to the helo pad. Major White threw a bag of ammo to Howard, climbed into the pilot’s door, and revved the engine to nearly lift-off power. Then he engaged the rotor for max lift. All the while, Howard lay on the pavement below the Sikorsky; spraying fire in the direction of the enemy . . . had now taken up position behind the retaining wall.
Marlene helped pull John inside. As Marcia and the other women fired towards the wall, Howard crawled under the chopper, into the door on the other side. “Go!” he yelled.
~~~
Major White cranked on full power, and the chopper lifted itself and its small Army off the pad. He steered the chopper in a circle, away from the mansion.
Howard, who had plopped in the copilot seat, yelled back at Josie, “How’s John?”
Surprisingly, John answered, “You get all those bastards, buddy?”
“Hey, John, you doin’ okay?” When there was no answer, Howard turned around, saw John in the seat his head lying to one side, and his eyes closed.
Roberta yelled, “We need to get him to a hospital fast. I have a handkerchief tied around his arm, but he looks bad.”
Howard turned back to Major White. “Any ideas where we can find some fast medical treatment? I think he’s lost a lot of blood.”
“Matter of fact, yes.” He turned the chopper on its side and headed toward Fort Collins. He prayed they had a hospital with a helo pad. After adjusting the rotors for maximum forward speed, he cranked the throttle on full and yelled above the roar of the engine, “Twenty-five, maybe thirty minutes.”
Luck was with them, and the huge Red Cross on the roof centered on a pad. An hour after arriving, the wound had been cleaned, and sutured, a bag of blood given, and John was placed on an IV drip of antibiotics.
“You’re one lucky man.” Doctor Sears commented. “A
n eighth-inch more, and the bullet would have nicked the artery. I’ll release you by noon tomorrow.”
As soon as the doctor left the room, White and Howard wheeled John on the gurney to the elevator, and back to the roof. Five minutes later they were headed west and climbing.
John was awake and in good spirits. “How many of the bastards did we kill?”
“Enough,” Howard replied.
They all laughed, and then Howard spoke to White. “Pretty good little fighting force we have here.”
“Yeah, all you guys and gals did really well.”
“So, Major, what’s our first stop?”
White covered a yawn with his hand before answering. “Vernal, Utah. There’s a small airport there. We’ll set down somewhere outside of town, get some sleep, and refuel in the morning.” As he spoke, he yawned again, then said, “Keep your eye on the compass, will you?” He laughed and added, “Keep an eye on me, too. Don’t let me fall asleep.”
~ 8 ~
Outside Richwood, West Virginia - Six AM, June 3
“General! General Parker! Wake up, Sir.”
Parker sat straight up in bed, wide-awake. “What is it?”
“Colonel Nelson, Sir. 101st We have to evacuate, Sir!”
“What the hell’s going on?”
“We have ten minutes to surrender or be under attack. I have people waking the others.”
General Parker pulled on the fatigues he’d hung across a chair when he went to bed. “Where’s my wife?”
“She’s getting the children up and dressed. Sir, we have to hurry.” Nelson had an M 16 slung across his shoulder, an ammunition belt with fifteen twenty-round magazines around his waist, and a Glock 9 mm pistol strapped to his hip. Whatever was happening, he was ready for combat.
Four Rangers stood in the hall armed to the teeth. One of them handed General Parker an M 16 and a fully loaded web gear.
Patriots Awakening Page 10
