War Zone: Homefront

by Thomas A. Watson

  “You waterboard him?” Aiden asked, a glint of the old humor in his eyes.

  Thinking over his words carefully, Nathan looked away, not wanting to have to say the words. “Tied ‘em to a tree for most of a day without food and water. I did threaten to cut their legs off, though. I think they knew I was serious when I shot their Russian Army bodyguards and let Ares eat the one still moving. I’ll let your mind fill in the blanks on how they got the cuts and lumps on the video.”

  “What do you mean ‘they’? You only mentioned the Army major,” Rusty observed. “And what did you do to them when they answered your questions?”

  “The other one was a mid-level drone with Homeland. Those guys really seemed to get off on going out in the field and counting the corpses, since he wasn’t the only one I rounded up. As for their fate, well, I let them go. Untied them like I said I would.”

  “Nathan, you can’t leave enemies like that behind,” Bill nearly moaned with exasperation. “I know we talked about it, but come on.” He liked Nathan. He really did, but that Dudley Do-Right thing of his might come back to bite them, if the Homeland guy had any idea about Nathan’s identity. At least, track him to the house now occupied by the sheriff and their fellow deputies.

  “Oh, I shot each man in the head after I got as much information as I could, but I did cut their zip ties loose after. A deal’s a deal, after all,” Nathan explained, and as he looked around at the slightly stunned faces, he saw realization begin to dawn. Whatever problems they’d experienced locally was only the beginning. Nathan, at least for the moment, remained ahead of the learning curve.

  “So, what did you find out?” Rusty asked, his tone that of a man not sure he wants what he’s asking for, but knowing he needs the information. For Nathan, it reminded him of patients he’d overheard when they’d asked their doctor, ‘So, what kind of treatments are available for this type of cancer?’

  Rusty’s question made Nathan pause, while he considered the implications. The kids already knew most of it, since Nathan couldn’t very well censor what they overheard, but Nathan knew they would not speak out of turn. All of them, save Emma and Chip, had understood the danger when Nathan had explained it. Their friendly neighborhood radio broadcaster, codename FU-GMAN, might be in a position to spill the details of the conspiracy, but doing so locally just attracted too much attention.

  “You guys heard some of this already on the radio, but let’s pretend that anything you say around the wrong person could get everyone you love killed,” Nathan finally said, his voice completely devoid of emotion. Trying to encompass the seriousness of his warning, Nathan continued, “I mean, the commanding general over the Mississippi National Guard is worried these asshats will drop a fuel-air bomb on his family’s farm if he breathes a word about what he knows, and trust me, I know lots more now.”

  “Jeez, Louise,” Aiden murmured, “I guess I really don’t need to know that bad after all.”

  “Let’s just agree, we keep the details I’m sharing here as top secret. Everything said here today goes into a lockbox.”

  “Nathan,” Rusty protested. “You know, Libby is going to be hounding me for more details.”

  “Same with Janice,” Billy echoed, “and you know if Janice wants to know, all she has to do is sic Penny on Aiden. Man, he collapses like a Bangalore sweatshop in a typhoon when his woman comes calling.”

  “Now that ain’t fair!” Aiden protested. He then continued, his voice a taunt now. “I didn’t say nothing when Penny was asking me about where you got that black eye, Billy.”

  “Redneck, you know I hate it when you call me Billy!” Bill exploded, “and the only reason you didn’t tell Penny was because you didn’t know she was a he, either. Freaking drag queen.”

  “I think the proper term these days is ‘transgender’,” Nathan added piously, glad to see the boys loosening up a bit as they teased back and forth.

  “I don’t think he was transgender, Nathan,” Rusty added, joining in the fun. “I was down at the jail when his wife came in with his lawyer. I think he just liked to dress up in women’s clothes. So, just a crossdresser.”

  “A crossdresser who couldn’t hold his own liquor and started a bar fight that landed two men in the hospital. And who, also had the forethought to slip a handcuff key in his garter belt,” Aiden chuckled.

  Nathan hadn’t been present for the infamous Kelley’s Bar incident, but he’d heard the story often enough in the last two years. In law enforcement circles, the really good stories managed to make their way into local lore, and the ‘Great Sausage Fight’ proved to be no exception.

  The suspect in question, wearing the obligatory little black dress, teased shoulder-length black hair and trampy pancake makeup, had downed several margaritas and flirted with half the men at the bar over the course of the evening. All the while, lifting wallets off two patrons celebrating an NCAA basketball victory for neighboring Gonzaga before being caught red-handed by a third.

  When Aiden and Bill arrived, responding to what dispatch called a simple case of theft at the local drinking hole, the two deputies discovered a full-fledged brawl in progress. The presence of the two deputies soon cooled off the conflict, since it turned out one of the more chivalrous cowpokes took exception to the bartender laying hands on the poor damsel in distress. In the ensuing melee, a thrown beer bottle ended up shattering against one of the wooden support posts in the center of the one-room bar, and sprayed glass shrapnel across the pool tables. One man ended up needing ten stitches to close the wound over his right eye, and a young lady needed to have a chunk of glass removed from her back.

  Since no one claimed the thrown bottle, and no one stepped forward as a witness, Bill and Aiden had to let that part of the incident go, even though privately, both had their suspicions. No, their trouble started in the parking lot when the handcuffed suspect managed to dig into a pocket sewn into the back of the thigh garter, pull a David Copperfield-worthy magic trick, and slip the bonds in one smooth motion.

  The suspect then delivered a solid right cross to Deputy Bill’s eye and broke into a sprint across the asphalt in a dash for freedom. Aiden, quick as a snake, tackled the escapee and in the ensuing scuffle, the little black dress took major structural damage, exposing first the falsies in the padded bra and for the full monty, the tucked male appendage flopped out of the restraints of the fire engine red thong panties.

  “Forget the Sausage Fight, boys,” Tim insisted, going serious, “this is dangerous shit here. We can’t tell the wives, or anybody else outside this circle.”

  “Guys, I’m serious,” Nathan added, his voice stressed. “If any of your wives give you any grief, send them to me. I’d be happy to explain. Agreed?”

  Sobered by Nathan’s concern, all four, including Tim, agreed.

  With that, Nathan quickly filled the gathered men in on what he’d learned from his various contacts, and the interrogations he’d performed along the way. Several times, he received pained groans from Rusty, Aiden, and Bill as the details unfolded.

  Rusty, for one, nearly spilled his coffee when Nathan revealed the true numbers of foreign troops already suspected of being in the country.

  “Nathan, we got word of Chinese troops in Coeur d’Alene, but five million? We don’t have enough ammo to fight that many.”

  “We aren’t going to have to fight them all,” Nathan assured his friend. “Any word on how many they have in Idaho?”

  Rusty shrugged before replying. “For Coeur d’Alene, I’ve heard different figures. Maybe five hundred? A short battalion, anyway. For some reason, they seem to be more focused on Spokane, with more than a thousand purported to be onsite.”

  “Fairchild,” Bill answered quickly, then shrugged. “If they’ve got working planes, which is apparently the case, they’d want Fairchild for the runways and the fuel dump. Also, it makes sense because the Washington National Guard had units co-located there. Probably wants to make sure they stay out of trouble.”

  �
��The question for you men, is whether you want to stay here and mind our own business, or go pick a fight with a bunch of Chinese soldiers,” Nathan put out, looking around the deck to meet each man’s eye. Rusty just growled when he came under Nathan’s scrutiny.

  “What are you planning on doing?” Rusty asked.

  “Oh, John and I have already decided to fight. We would have done more before, but we had the kids to worry about. Now they are here at the retreat, we can see about addressing our new neighbors. Biggest problem I see is keeping Casey and Amanda from going with us,” Nathan explained with a nonchalant air, like he was talking about the weather. “I’m hoping Vince extends the light duty.”

  Bill reacted first, his cheeks showing a bit red at the idea of bringing women and children along on such a dangerous mission. While not a chauvinist in the classic sense, Bill Engvist had grown up steeped in the traditional way of many Western ranchers. This meant more than deferring to his elders and tipping his hat to ladies he passed on the street. He was more the type who made sure women and children got to the lifeboats first, and would use his fists to ensure that happened.

  “Nathan, you just have to put your foot down and tell them they can’t come,” he announced, his pale Northern European features reddening when he spoke with emphasis. “They’ll listen to you. When we do this, it won’t be pretty.”

  Images of a tattered mass of dead and dying humanity scattered around a rain-swollen bridge flashed in his mind, and Nathan shook his head to clear the thoughts. Before he could respond though, Rusty spoke up first.

  “We can’t go anywhere until we deal with that gang out of Spokane,” the older deputy stated plainly.

  “How big are we talking about?” Nathan asked with a sigh, wondering if the madness would ever stop.

  He’d seen too much in the months it’d taken to get home to ever think mankind would change during his lifetime. Nathan never considered himself a philosopher, but the world was changing, and so was he. Best he could do, he discovered, was take care of what he considered his, and try to hold back the forces of evil from overtaking his country. If enough like-minded men and women joined in the struggle, then and only then would their nation have a chance at recovery.

  “Around fifty or sixty strong, according to the last word we got from the sheriff. That was two weeks ago though, and it sounded like they were recruiting. Traveling on a heading northeast out of Coeur d’Alene. Hitting small towns and wiping out farmsteads as they went.” Rusty delivered the words in short, concise sentences. Delivering the necessary data without any extra verbiage. It was something left over from his time as a Military Policeman and later, as a deputy.

  “You’re right, Rusty,” Nathan conceded. “We can’t let a force that size come sniffing around here. We might be able to hold the passes, but our neighbors would be fair game. I know …,” Nathan continued, holding up a hand to forestall Rusty, Bill, and Aiden, “I know the folks around here haven’t exactly been welcoming to us, but think about it for a second. If they are wiped out, who will we trade with? But more importantly, who will be our early warning system? And eventually, who will our kids marry? Nineteen families, some without any children I remind you, makes for an awfully shallow gene pool. I know some have others, but they don’t even double our numbers.”

  “Who are you,” Aiden asked with his typical exaggerated drawl, “and what have you done with our Nathan?”

  “That’s a might-bit-more forward thinking than we usually hear from you,” Rusty added. Bill and Tim, for their part, just sat and watched Nathan with fixed, curious expressions, as if waiting to see what the Oracle might spout out next.

  Finally, Tim shook his head. “Are you a clone of Nathan?” he asked out loud.

  “I’m a family man now, gentlemen,” Nathan replied with the slightest hint of a grin. “I have responsibilities now, so your ‘Wild Child’ is finally starting to grow up.”

  “Hallelujah!” cried Bill, making the other four men give him a surprised look. “Be nice to have a few more grown-ups around here!”

  Rusty rotated his head slowly, like a turret sighting on a distant target. When his eyes locked with Bill’s, he only had one word to say.

  “Seriously?”

  CHAPTER SIX

  After the meeting with his fellow deputies, Aiden managed to keep his peace once he returned to his small home, but his wife knew something was up. Despite his reputation for doing crazy things, from their earliest dates, she knew Aiden to be a quiet, thoughtful man, but Penny could also tell when her man was preoccupied. He was thinking hard on something, and she could barely restrain her curiosity.

  Fortunately, their daughter Gina supplied enough chatter for the three of them when she talked about the new boys, John and Tom. While Tom was her own age, she gushed over his maturity, and wasn’t John just a dreamboat? All those muscles, she enthused, and her mother tried to hide her smile. Gina might still be their little tomboy, but in the last year, she’d taken up the habit of boy-watching with a vengeance. The talk continued on while the two women of the house prepared an early dinner, since Aiden would be on watch duty at the sentry house that night. Every few nights they preferred to take a family meal, rather than eat with everyone in the reception hall.

  Over a simple but delicious meal of beans and rice, flavored with slices of ham taken from their own small hog operation, Aiden continued to listen to his daughter talk about the newcomers. She wondered aloud why the new kids didn’t relate more details about their trip, and while Aiden had a pretty good idea for the reason, he kept his mouth shut. After dinner, he graciously volunteered to wash the dishes if Penny would help dry. Taking this cue, Penny sent Gina to grab a shower and get ready for bed, thus leaving the two adults free to talk in the kitchen.

  “What’s got you so wound up, Buster?” Penny finally asked, setting aside the first plate to dry. They had a dishwasher, but by mutual agreement, the Conklins seldom used it. Even the most efficient model was an energy hog, and their small solar array and battery setup appreciated the frugality.

  “You haven’t called me that in years,” Aiden observed, his mustache twitching as a slight grin spread across his features. The thick mustache might have been called a Fu Manchu had it been cut shorter, but Aiden cultivated it into what his father had once called a ‘soup strainer’ style.

  “Quit trying to avoid the question, Aiden,” Penny nearly barked with exasperation. “What did Nathan have to say that got you so tense? We already know the world has gone to hell outside our little valley, so getting confirmation can’t be the only thing bothering you.”

  “You think Gina’s ready?” Aiden asked, his voice softer as he posed the question.

  “Ready? Ready for what?”

  “You know we talked about giving the kids more training, Penny. More…realistic scenarios and things like that. You really think she can take that kind of a workout?”

  “That’s why you’re fretting, Aiden?” Penny asked, but she knew it had to be more. Sometimes, her husband could be so frustrating with his southern gentleman upbringing.

  “That’s part of it, honey. You’ve heard the broadcasts, from FU-GMAN?”

  “Yes, Aiden, but please don’t change the subject. And did Nathan ever say how he knows this guy?”

  “He didn’t want to talk about FU-GMAN, but I’m sure he’ll tell that story later. That is the subject though, Penny. Nathan backed up everything the man has been saying, and more. He’s essentially confirmed the government knew the CME was coming, and took steps to use the disaster to their advantage. In conjunction with other countries who want to dominate the whole world. By suppressing the public. Those documents Tim showed us, the ones mentioning this ‘Dark Titan’ plan, are just the tip of the iceberg.”

  “And how does Nathan know all this?” Penny demanded, her patience wearing thin. “I thought he was busy dodging government agents and roving bands of looters on the road, when he wasn’t saving orphans and wooing young ladies.”
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br />   “Honey, you asked me what was wrong, and I’m trying to tell you. I asked about Gina because if Nathan is correct, it might not be long before our little girl has to use her skills to protect us all. Rusty talked about going after the Spokane gang again, and I think he’s right. Even more, I believe Nathan when he says he got his information from someone close to the source.”

  “What do you mean by that?” Penny inquired, and Aiden swallowed, wondering how to answer the question without causing her additional worry. In the past, everyone who knew him, considered Nathan to be a good-hearted person, maybe a bit of a prankster but overall, a nice person. He might still be all those things, but Aiden had seen a darker, more practical side to his friend when he’d related how he’d obtained the intel he now possessed.

  “Ah, you know how much Nathan adores those kids, right?” Aiden asked carefully.

  “Of course,” Penny replied with a touch of snap in her voice. “Anyone can see that.”

  “Well. Just imagine what someone like Nathan would do to anyone who ordered one of those children injured.”

  “What does that have to do with…” Penny started, then stopped. “Amanda and Casey? I remember Jasmine said they were still getting over being shot. Their body armor stopped the bullets, but Casey was still moving with a bit of pain.”

  “One of the men Nathan questioned, he was the one who gave that order. I gather Nathan and John dealt with the actual shooter, but the man who was in charge ended up in Nathan’s hands.”