A long Lonely Road Box Set 3

by T J Reeder

  He was asking them questions which they ignored. With not a word he shot one right in the middle of the forehead. The rest started crying and babbling. He split them up, started asking questions and writing down the answers, and then moved to the next one then the next. He then went back and reworded the same questions and wrote down the answers. When he was done, three were telling the same story, the other two were lying or didn’t know anything, but were making it up as they went out of fear.

  He went back to the two and asked them again. One was too scared to lie. The other had a look about him, so Fox asked the other three who their leader was- all pointed to the one man.

  Fox said something to the man about talking and got spit at, so he motioned over two of the scouts who still had long hair with sweatbands around the head. They looked very ‘Indian’ to even me, and I was used to them.

  Fox asked Sandy to come over to one side and said something to her. She smiled her evil smile, walked over to the two scouts and rattled off something in Navajo which made them smile.

  One pulled a long knife from behind his back and the other jerked the captive off the floor. For the benefit of the prisoner Fox asked her what she told the Indians. She said one’s sister had been stolen by slavers and she said they could have this one but she wanted his balls to make a witches’ brew.

  They hadn’t taken three steps when the man started talking so fast Fox had to hold up his hand to stop them.

  The man told them everything they wanted to know and a great deal was verified by some of the other prisoners.

  The captives were told who we were, where we were going and offered a place with us or they could head for home if they had one. Most were from long distances away and decided to stay with their saviors. A few said they could make it home and were given a weapon, all the food and water they could carry, and a ride as far as was practical. We hated leaving them but they all were old enough to know what they could and could not do.

  The head of this snake lived in a big villa about 20 miles out of town; it had a wall around it and about 50 of his troops. One good thing was none of the captives were there and every person there knew what was going on and condoned it.

  We headed right out about a mile behind the three trucks with some of the prisoners driving; sitting with them was some of our scouts who (from a distance) looked like Mexicans. Their job was to get the gates opened and keep them open until we arrived; in each truck was ten of our shooters down behind sand bags stacked along the sides of the trucks.

  We would close the gap as soon as we could- the last truck in would stop in the open gate like it had engine problems. I was not happy with this set up because we could lose a lot of people, but we were trained, worked together, and were better armed than anybody in the whole country. ‘Shock and Awshit’ was gonna work for us.

  I was hoping when the first truck rolled inside that all eyes would be on the new ‘meat’ which wasn’t there, just ugly men with a lot of guns.

  We held back until we heard the radio break squelch three times and then we dropped the hammer. We hit the place like it was the last melon in the patch. The firefight was raging inside and the truck in the gate was pulling inside when my Hummer hit the opening, May was up on the gun and it was roaring.

  I was yelling, “Short bursts!” at May who was yelling like a damn Comanche and hosing the upper floors of the big house.

  The two trucks were parked along the inner walls and had the whole front under fire; I kept rolling right around the house followed by two hummers while the others went the other way.

  It was the wildest firefight I’ve ever been in We got around the back in time to see the last of three Suburbans blasting out the back gate that we didn’t know about and should have expected.

  But they didn’t get very far. Sandy and Jasper were in the chopper with Ralph and they lit up the getaway rigs until they were just steaming piles of junk.

  They let up and we closed in on the junk pile. We approached real slow and a scout with good body armor went forward and looked in each. He fired a shot into the first one and nothing in the other two.

  After he gave the ‘all clear’ we dragged the mess out onto the ground where we ID’d the snake himself and his crew of body guards. I had no intention of taking any prisoners and I was happy to see there was none.

  While searching the bodies I heard somebody whistle and call May over. I didn’t even have to look but I did. It was the most pimped out 1911 I’ve ever seen. I don’t think there was room for one more speck of gold on the thing- the grips were platinum and the grip screw detents had emeralds in them. I just shook my head, and even May had a disgusted look on her face but I had no doubt it was going in their gun vault.

  In the trunk back of the rigs was what had to be a scumbag’s idea of a GOD ( Get Outta Dodge) bag- no food or water just gold and silver and diamonds and I’ve no idea what all. We just shook our heads but we took it and all the weapons we found. One of the guys climbed inside the leader’s rig and came out with a beautiful katana. It had to be hundreds of years old, if not more.

  He handed it to May who jumped for joy. An old sword gets her going and a gun with thousands of dollars’ worth of bling? Not so much.

  Ralph had landed by then and Sandy trotted up. May handed her the 1911, and she said, “Jeeze! What fuckhead ruined a nice 1911?” I laughed right out loud. Do I know my ladies, or what? May then handed her the katana and they were both jumping around. I know I didn’t go wrong raising them but they are weird.

  I took the sword and very carefully slid it back into its sheath before one of them cut an arm off.

  We had done it. The snake was dead, now all we had to do was head home. We weren’t going back on the black ship which was now retired from slaving and was gonna be hauling coffee and anything else it could carry.

  Costa Rica was the banana capital of the world (or close to it) before event. I know nothing about bananas, but if they could be hauled north there was a market for them. I’d leave that to Captain Pete. He was also taking over the former black ship that would be repainted and become a good ship again.

  We waited until everybody was gathered together again and I held a meeting. I told them I was heading right thru Mexico to Texas and when I got there I had a plan (which always gets a laugh).

  I told them that a big convoy was coming to meet us and we were going to clean up any assholes between here and there as was Charley who was dealing with the Indians whose country we were gonna be passing thru.

  It was time. This whole country had been a shithole from day one. The people were wonderful, and their food was even better; it was their leaders and the drug assholes that no longer had a market but would soon be trying to establish one in our country, so my thought was, “Kill ‘em.”

  As usual I said anybody who wanted could leave aboard the ships and head back with them. Nobody said a word.

  We took the time to find fuel and bought provisions from the locals, who were happy to see the snake dead. With the dawn we would roll out for Texas.

  Sandy and May came to me and said, “We need to talk.” “OK” says I, “Talk.” May said, “John? Speaking logically, can you explain why we are driving across the asshole of Mexico?” Now, when May trash talks it’s time to listen. With Sandy...not so much.

  I made the ‘come on’ motion with my hands and she took a deep breath and said, “OK. We started out to buy coffee and see my family. We instead ended up killing a lot of shitheads, then we stole a ship, then we sent a convoy of coffee home and you sent Charley off on some secret mission. Right so far?”

  I nodded. She continued by saying, “Then we loaded ourselves on a slave ship or former slave ship and headed south to kill a bunch of shitheads and save more innocent girls from a fate worst then death, right?” I nodded.

  She said, “OK, so we killed the head asshole, saved the princesses and now you wanna drive across Mexico? Why?”

  I didn’t think she was done so I did the
‘come on’ thing again.

  She said, “OK, now we want to set up a coffee supply system plus anything else worth hauling north, right?” I nodded. She took another deep breath (which, I might add, was causing a strain on her shirt button). She smiled and said, “John, listen to me and stop watching my tits!” Sandy laughed.

  So, she asked, “Why can’t we take the nice comfy ship south to Costa Rica, offload, and since it only this far from coast to coast” (here she held up her thumb and forefinger and held them an inch apart) “we could drive it in a day, two if we have to kill more shitheads. Right?” By now I was really listening and had stopped staring at her chest.

  I sat looking at her for a long time and finally said, “OK. You’re the boss, get with it.” She took it wrong of course. I said I was sorry for joking at such a serious time.

  I yelled out to everybody nearby and said, “Meeting in five minutes”. When everybody was present I explained what I had planned to do, then I explained what May and Sandy had come up with. Everybody started talking at once, then laughing, then all looked at the girls and applauded them. They took a bow.

  The communications lady was already on the horn telling the ship to hold in place- that we were heading back to the dock and in two minutes we were. Every person we passed waved and yelled a greeting, it was good!

  By the next morning we were loaded back on the ship which was already in the process of being painted white with red trim. We all chipped in and the job was done by the time we were off the coast of CR.

  She was clean from bow to stern and looking awesome with the new paint, Old Glory waving and the rail mounted m-60’s!

  By the time we got there Capt. Pete was waiting on the dock with the local bosses; all of whom seemed very happy to see us.

  We stayed there for several days talking with the government officials (such as they were). Not once were we hit up for one bribe. Maybe things down here were better these days. After I explained to them my plan they were all for it, since it meant establishing trade and would bring in stuff they needed.

  We were going to operate out of the seaport of Limon, so a week later we headed out for the Caribbean coast. Several members of the Government went along to smooth the way, which was good because I didn’t want to start this venture by shooting half the population.

  With no problems we made it in a day, even though the roads were starting to lose ground to nature. After we were settled in a warehouse complex right on the port we held more meetings with the local leaders and the Government types. At this point it was all looking good.

  We had several ships to look over, so Fox and crew took that job. We wanted something small enough to run with a small crew but big enough to haul a good payload, plus be able to handle storms.

  It took two weeks of looking and tinkering before Fox found what he wanted. He had several able seamen who were stranded in port when the EMP happened that were willing to work the ship as long as they returned to port here in Limon.

  Why these stranded sailors didn’t just head out was beyond me, except when looking at the local ladies I began to see why they might have stayed and wanted to return.

  The ship Fox chose was old enough that it wasn’t run by computers, but was in good shape. After a big crew swarmed over her painting and cleaning she was beautiful! They say it’s bad luck to change a ship’s name. So we changed her name.

  Sandy smashed a bottle of wine on her bow and named her the Republic of Texas ship ‘Beth’! That brought all our people to their feet giving their version of the famous Rebel Yell!

  A week later she was loaded with a cargo of coffee and all the bananas and other slow to ripen fruit we could load. Fox and crew sailed that day while others set to work on the second ship he had picked out. She was given the same treatment as the ‘Beth’ and in two weeks was spotless.

  The new captain was Fox’s former first officer now promoted to ship’s captain. He too had a well-trained crew and she was christened the RTS Old Woman! This had to be explained to the locals but we settled it by saying she was the Grand Mother of our village. They understood that.

  We started loading our vehicles, equipment and the bird dog. Everything except for the security team- that was staying behind to guard the cargo of coffee as it came in. I didn’t think there would be a problem but I wanted to make sure there wasn’t one.

  At the last minute I told the girls we weren’t going on this ship. We were heading back to the Pacific side to wait for one of the trade ships and we were heading back to Oregon to finish our search for May’s family. We were taking three Hummers and eight people with us plus our trailers full of everything we might need. Ralph and the chopper were going back with us. I got a lot of hugs with that one.

  We bid fair winds to our people and as they pulled away from the dock we rolled back to the Pacific coast.

  As we went I had to wonder why it was that for all intents and purposes the people of CR didn’t fall apart like we did.

  I’ve heard of no crazy shit like we have been seeing and fighting from almost day one. I know some will jump to say it was the easy availability of guns in the U.S. but I call bullshit on that one.

  The people of CR were allowed to own guns, and in fact most of the countries south of the US border have as many guns floating around as we do. And there are more Full Auto weapons down here than in the US- most either given to them by our government or the Communist governments around the world in their attempt to create a communist takeover in our southern hemisphere.

  Regardless, you would think it would be the same or worse here. But these people who are called third world have risen to the challenge better than we did. Interesting.

  I have seen that most of the outlying places didn’t fall apart because they couldn’t plug in their game station, they as a whole just kept growing their gardens and caring for their elderly. Doctors are still caring for people. We have seen nobody who looks hungry or for that matter even dirty. We have a lot to learn Up North.

  That evening we were back at the port and ready the next morning to load our equipment which would fit aboard both ships even though they were loaded with cargo. Of course most of our people and gear was heading north as we speak.

  The sun was just up when we pulled away from the dock. It wasn’t going to be a fast trip but it was going to be more enjoyable then the one down. We had plenty of room to move around and our people took over the stern area with awnings to keep off the sun. It was a time to sleep and read.

  We saw lots of small boats out fishing and while they avoided us they did wave, as we did.

  Day after day we worked our way north just a mile or so off the coast. More and more people were turning to the ocean to feed themselves as mankind has done since the dawn of time.

  Mostly they were using sailboats but there was a few of the bigger fishing boats. In time the oceans would heal from the harm man has done and maybe if we are lucky Mother Earth won’t shake us off like a pesky bug which she should have done long ago.

  The rape of the Amazon River basin had ended, and the rain forests were going to come back, I hope. I’m not a tree hugger but even a crusty old fart can see we were killing our Mother.

  There is a great deal to say about never getting back to where we were. I know where we live will stay as it is, that we won’t change it anymore then we have. Yeah, one day I expect the propane will run out and the cold room won’t have cold beer, but that’s the breaks. Our forefathers didn’t have cold beer unless they stored it in ice houses (which I guess they did).

  I love my cold beer, but if it means doing without to never go back to where we were then, so be it. But for now the ship has plenty of cold beer, so I smile.

  In some ways I hate heading back to the mess up north, but even I have to admit it’s much better than three years ago. Maybe we’ve managed to kill off most of the scumbags. Maybe with the advent of kids having a mother and father both they will grow up better humans. But there will always be trash, the
re always has been.

  The day finally came when we saw the ship turning toward the shore. We watched her enter into the port we seemingly left so long ago, when in fact it was only a few weeks if that long.

  The folks in the small city came down to cheer us in (I think they were getting low on coffee). It was a happy time for all.

  They reported no problems with raiders and life was good. We off-loaded our equipment and set up camp in the same park just outside town. It seemed huge without all of us camped in it.

  The former slave ship, with its new facelift, had been renamed the RTS Freedom in honor of her having been freed from her own slavery. She headed on further north to trade with the villages along the coast. I wasn’t worried about them because the entire crew was well trained with the weapons she now carried.

  They could stop anything but a torpedo and I was hoping none came her way. With the extension of the trade route north it would open up more trade growth which could only help in the long run.