by T J Reeder
Ralph said he and Jasper were going to locate several strips to use as springboards with fuel and other supplies on a line to the coast.
Sam was good to go with that. It was really the only way to do it. Going at this in our usual slap-happy manner wasn’t gonna cut it this time. We needed to act like a true military unit, not land pirates.
I asked Ralph if taking the chopper was maybe the best way for he and Jasper to go, but he wanted to hold the hours down on the chopper- plus they could make better time with the plane.
We needed to get moving. The scouts needed to be in place in a couple of days. The air strips were going to be located, but I wanted to use whatever there was close to the towns we had helped in the past and who had joined the outpost program.
I didn’t want Ralph or Sam landing on strange turf with no ground support. Sam’s plane would have a lot of shooters on board, but Ralph wouldn’t have that advantage.
So, I needed to get things moving right now. I called Kid in the Communications shack and told her to put out the word we were going to war and needed every shooter we could get including the cannon cockers. And also, to alert the gearheads that we were rolling in three days and would need some of them to come along- any or all, didn’t matter as long as they could operate a ratchet and shoot at the same time. She laughed at that and I was sure would put it just like that.
The girls came home with two sleeping beauties and a plate of cookies! My lucky day, ‘til Bear saw them. I assume his tummy wasn’t bad anymore the way he sucked down the cookies and coffee. Beth had a large sack in her hands, and smiling at me put it in a cabinet. I knew she was holding out some for us.
The guys headed out with Charley were staying with us in Kid’s room; she would crash with the baby watch anyway. I asked how he got away without his mother.
He said she was holding some kind of thing for the women or she would have tossed out the baby watch and moved in.
We sat and enjoyed the quiet for a while, then ‘they’ came in the living room and started in on me about going with Charley’s scouts which I squashed real fast. That, of course, led to all kinds of name calling and bullying.
Finally Charley said no, they couldn’t go because his scouts trained together and the girls hadn’t.
That took the wind out of their sails until they started pushing for a scout school that wasn’t just men and Indians: Women could scout too. It went on in that vein for a while, but unlike me Charley can sit and watch them for hours and never blink. They hate that, so they turned back on me.
I said I’d think about it. Charley sighed and shook his head. I really earned disapproval this time. But they took ‘maybe’ to mean it was a done deal and left me alone.
I think Charley mumbled something about selling them to the Mexican slavers. I didn’t think he was that cruel; the slavers were rotten but didn’t deserve that.
With the coming of morning Charley and I woke up to coffee by Kid, and were told to go sit on the stump until breakfast was ready. Charley smiled at her and said, “Thank you my dear.” She beamed like a spotlight.
We were joined by Beth and the babies. Charley and I each got one and a hug from their mom. We enjoyed the fifteen minutes of solitude before ‘they’ showed up- grumpy as usual and both glared at us because the stump was full. I got up as did Charley and they went thru the old quilt thing and the waking the babies thing.
Charley and I went in for more coffee, since I knew he would want to give Beth some privacy with feeding the now pissed-off babies. Why they feel compelled to wake them every morning I’ll never know…”No you won’t, so shut up about it.” I must have a ‘tell’ when they do that because Charley smiled and shook his head.
Kid had gone all out and we had fried spuds, ham and eggs, and of course hotcakes. ‘They’ refuse to start their day without their hotcakes. They will turn into hotcakes one day. Charley asked her if she wanted to get married, causing her to turn bright red.
The whole gang trooped in, put the sleeping, well fed and happy babies to bed and came in to eat. Sandy said, “ Why do we always have to have hotcakes?” May added a, “Yeah.” Kid never even turned around, she simply said, “Shut up and eat what I fixed or starve.”
Both said, “Yes mommy.” Everybody was laughing and they started their usual morning chattering about everything from butterflies to how to adjust the extractor on a 1911 to get the brass to pile up where you want it. I live in a strange world inhabited by even stranger creatures all soft, warm, cuddly and deadly at the same time. (Smiles coming at me).
I told them to head down to the main area when they were done and Charley and I left. We found the area full of coffee drinkers finishing off breakfast. We got a cup, waited until they were done and it grew quiet.
I told them what we were doing, when we were doing it and why. These people would pass it on to everybody they saw. I told them about the choppers and the Warthog, which got a lot of talking going. After that died down I explained about the scout teams and how Charley and a bunch were flying to the area to expedite the watch.
I asked for questions and the only one was ‘when we leaving?’ I said, “In three days. Bring bedrolls and weapons.” They headed out and the word would move like a grass fire. Sam came to get Charley who looked at me, nodded and left. I didn’t watch them take off.
I wandered over to the rubble pile the gearheads call home and was told they were ready and had been since two days after we returned from Mexico. I believed it- they lived for the grease.
I grabbed my Hummer and headed for the valley a mile away where the armory dudes did their thing, mostly to hold down the noise level in the living area.
I could hear the sounds of a fifty running wild long before I got there and had no doubt who was on the gun. Everybody but one has trigger discipline and she has no idea what the term means. I had just left them at the rock pile- how the hell had they beat me here?
I got there in time to see Sandy stand up with a big smile on her face. May was getting ready to light up another gun beside the first.
The head gun guy wandered over and looking sad said, “I don’t suppose you have any control over them do you?” I laughed out loud and said, “You’re a grown man and you outweigh both of them put together- you deal with them.”
He smiled and said, “Well yes, but you see I have back trouble.” I played along with the old joke and said, “Oh? What’s wrong?” He said, “I have a yellow streak running right down the middle of it.” We both laughed.
I asked if it was really that bad and he said not really- he had taken a note from Ralph’s playbook and only gave them short belts of ammo- he had the rest locked in storage containers and had the only key.
I said that was dangerous, but he was ahead of me. He said, “I don’t carry the key, so even if they kill me they can’t get into the ammo.” We were smiling, because we both knew if one of them wanted in, they would just ask sweetly for the key and he would cave in like a melted marshmallow. All these tough guys would and did, me included. But I gave him an A+ for trying.
After May was done blowing the hell out of a boulder that seemed to have offended her they came trotting over and started bitching about the short belts. I told them to shut up, knowing I would pay later.
I asked if the weapons were ready to be mounted on the vehicles and got a look that said ‘You have to ask?’ I told him when we were leaving, and I knew on the morning of the third day all the vehicles would be bristling with weapons.
I made the girls come with me so the armory dudes could get some work done. We had packing to do. I had no idea how long we would be gone so we needed to pack a lot of gear.
We started with personal body armor, then battle harness with full mags, boots, socks…well, you get the picture. When it was all laid out we went over each other’s load to double check.
We hauled it all out to the Humvee and got it packed away and out of the way. We all had checklists, so we went over them and rounded up the stu
ff we would need if this took more than a few weeks (and I was sure it would).
The next two days went by fast. People were pouring in to the main area, living in tents or just sleeping on the ground. The women were busy cooking and feeding, the troops were spending time going over weapons and drawing extra ammo. I’m glad we drive into battle- I couldn’t carry all this shit. Hell, Sandy and May had more ammo than I weigh- move and a bullet would poke your ass.
On the morning of the third day I woke to an almost empty bed. Beth was there. She snuggled close and said, “They took the babies to the communal kitchen to feed them garbage food for breakfast.” That translates to hotcakes smothered with butter and warmed syrup, which the kids loved, and a warm bottle to wash it all down.
We spent the quiet time wisely. A while later showered and awake we went down to rescue the kids from a life of guns and hotcakes. Both were sound asleep on a pallet under a tree with a big dog on each side. The girls were washing dishes, but pulled two plates loaded with food out of an oven so we sat and ate; it was a quiet morning.
Everybody was at their vehicles, talking softly as people do when they are heading into combat. The jokes were done for now, later today it would change but for now it was, as always, quiet with a stillness that belies the time to come- when there will be no silence, no calm, and people will die.
It’s as it has always been and most likely always will be. As long as two humans live there will be war. It’s what we do, what we are good at.
We rolled out and everybody fell into their usual place in the column, we have been here before, and everybody knows who’s doing what. A pair of scout rigs rolled out ahead of us. I knew there would be two more already a couple of miles out and two more would be falling in behind the last vehicle.
This time we were rolling heavy; we had brought everything including the kitchen sink. All the armor was loaded onto the lowboys, and all the tankers were full and dispersed along the column.
The chopper was loaded on its lowboy as were the 105’s we stole from the Texans, or as I should say the ones ‘they’ stole. All in all we had everything we needed to wage a war and we were going to do just that.
The girls had campaigned long and hard to put a Ma duce on the Hummer but I nixed that. The 60 hammering away was bad enough, with the fifty I’d be stone deaf instead of only half.
We made a beeline to the west and like last time we would hit the coast and head north, which is where I figured the enemy would be landing. I couldn’t see them trying the big coastal ports- too much trouble. Small places like we had visited on the search for the coffee traders is where I figured they would come in.
Also, something else was nibbling at me and had been for a while. It finally showed itself last evening when one of the girls said something to the effect of how the Chinese were biting off more than they could chew with us ‘coz we are the big kid on the block, and that lightbulb lit up again.
We weren’t just the big kid- as far as they knew we were the ONLY kid. We were the ones out there kicking ass and taking names, so they figured that taking us out would be most of the battle. They were, of course, forgetting those blades of grass and the rifles.
I figure they want to land north and come at us from above. I can’t believe they think they will be able to move around without us knowing it, and I assume they expect us to be looking south as was intended.
Remember that movie ‘The Princess Bride’? The part where the wine was poisoned? The, “You think that I think that you think … while actually I think.. knowing you will think I think”? Got it?
No?
Well, it was a long time ago. Anyway, I think they think I’m thinking ‘south’ so I’m thinking ‘north’. But if they come from the south they will have to deal with the Texans who are a whole 'nuther game.
We made good time, got to the first outpost and found Ralph had been there and passed the word so the locals were really cleaning up their old airport and making sure the runway was patched where it needed it. The greaseheads checked the fuel in the underground tanks , found it to be good and made sure the fueling equipment was working OK. The locals who had worked at the airport were still around and ready to assist in any way they could.
The folks there were ready to fight or send help if we had trouble, so things were good. We rolled on shooting for the next place which was about 200 miles further along. Ralph had been there too, and with the same results. So far things were going good.
Too good. Later that evening we got a call from Ralph that he was coming in, and shortly he was landing in front of the lead scouts. We pulled up and met with him and Jasper. He said, “Come look at this” and walked to the plane.
There was a bullet hole thru one of the side windows and a couple of holes in the fuselage.
He said they had flown in low over a small town which was so small it was more of a tiny village but they had an airstrip for the locals.
They had been an outpost for quite a while and knew Ralph’s plane so it looked like we had to deal with this shit before we moved on.
We spent the night right there on the roadway and come morning Ralph took off. We rolled out five hummers behind the lead scouts who had left before the dawn.
We met up with the scouts a mile from the small town and got their report. They saw several armed men on guard duty, but other than that things were quiet.
We needed information, so we needed somebody from the town or to get somebody into the town. Getting in was easier, so two of the scouts headed in while the rest of us eased into over watch positions.
We didn’t see a thing moving except the guards, who were mostly lounging around some vehicles. My five watt clicked three times meaning they were inside and talking to a local. Shortly after that I heard rapid Navajo and the nearest scout moved over to me and said the locals were being held prisoner in the school gym. The raiders had hit yesterday. There was about 20 of them and other than killing a few of the local men and raiding the food supplies, they hadn’t done anything else so far but they were starting to look the younger females over with an obvious thought in mind.
The scout also reported that the vehicles the raiders were driving all had Illinois plates on them. This means they had gotten past our Indian friends to the east and outposts along the way.
In truth I hadn’t really expected a westerly movement from the eastern areas. Why, I don’t know, but I guess it had to do with the bombs in Chicago and the fact we kicked a lot of ass while we were there.
Well, we needed to deal with these asshats so I asked the scouts to pinpoint the main bunch. They said, “That would be in the motel at the edge of the town.”
The scout said the guards were all outside and there should be around five. That was the number I was looking at.
Well, it was early, but these guys had been up for a good part of the night and were tired and ready to get some sleep. I moved several shooters into place and the rest into the area around the motel. When we were all in place I told the ones on the guards in town to take them out.
Several shots ruined the morning quiet and caused the motel doors to fly open. There was still some shooting in the town area and it pulled the main body out into road and heading to the fight.
On my command the rifles shattered the morning and the raiders all dropped without moving. We counted them- five in town and twelve on the road…seventeen, leaving maybe three to five?
I was looking at two doors that hadn’t opened when the rest did, so I ordered a ‘mad minute’ on those two rooms. In less than 30 seconds they were shot to pieces- the doors were shredded as were the front walls. We stopped firing and a scout eased up and peeked in a window, then moved to the next room, and then waved us in.
In both rooms were a man and a woman- shot to rag dolls, the apparent leaders of the motley band of trash. We searched and had gotten all of the raiders. Every room was empty. We dragged the dead leaders out and piled them with their own people. Shitty way to start a day for sur
e. More for them than us, but still not fun.
A search of their vehicles, rooms and bodies revealed the usual stuff- lots of weapons which the girls were digging thru in their never-ending search for that one something they don’t have. They don’t know what it is, but they assure me they will know it when they see it.
By this time the townspeople were gathering and told us they had taken in a couple of new folks a week past. They seemed to be working out really well, but one night on guard duty they simply let the raiders slip in and take over. The dead locals were the ones on guard duty when the take-down happened.
An act of kindness rewarded with deceit and death; at least we wouldn’t have to hang anybody today- that really was a bad way to start the day for everybody involved, hangers and hangees.
We told the locals what was going on and where we were headed. They offered to send men with us but I figured right now they needed all their people here. None would be thinking about the job at hand after this; their minds would be on home and what might be going wrong and that would get them killed. So I said, “No thanks, y’all take care of this mess- we will be going on after we check the airport to see if it will take some heavy traffic.”
