A long Lonely Road Box Set 3

by T J Reeder

  Benson was standing with his mouth open, his pistol half out of the holster. The girls’ partially empty mags were still falling to the floor as they slapped in a full one.

  The officers standing with Benson never moved and all were smiling a small smile. One said, “John, may I approach?” Sandy smiled and said, “Sure you can, you’re not armed.” He blinked and said, “You noticed that?”

  She laughed and said, “I’ve not seen anybody in uniform without a weapon since the trouble started so it was obvious you weren’t in charge of anything and were here as window dressing.”

  The man, wearing one star looked at me and I shrugged and said, “Yeah, I know. I live with them and they are both alike.” He nodded and said, “Why is it you never got involved in the shooting?”

  I laughed and said, “Hell, I knew they would be dead before I moved my hand, so I just left it up to them- they are good at it.” He nodded and said, “Understatement of the century.”

  Charley, who had never moved a muscle and was still sitting, finally spoke his first words of the meeting. He said to the girls, “Don’t forget your mags.” They both blinded him with smiles and picked up their mags.

  The people who sat with Bill were stunned- paralyzed would be the proper word. They just sat there like stone. Finally Sandy went around the table and reached inside the jackets of the two would-be shooters and dragged out their weapons.

  One was a Glock, which she handled like it was contagious and tossed it on the table in front of the sheeple who almost killed themselves getting away from it.

  The other gun was a Sig, which she at least looked at before tossing it on the table. Shaking her head she said, “Shit. Getting so a girl can’t find a real man with a real gun anymore.” I laughed, Benson laughed, Charley’s lips twitched and the General was in love.

  I told the bunch with Bill to wait outside…after they dragged the bodies out. They weren’t happy with that- the body dragging part I mean but they did it quickly.

  The General smiled real big, stuck out his hand and said, “Believe it or not, call me Bill!” We all laughed at that.

  He got right to it by saying he was worried when he saw the two gun thugs the other Bill brought along and that none of them were allowed to bring weapons.

  He said he now had doubts that he and his small staff would have survived to make the return trip to SLC. He had no idea just what the dead Bill had in mind unless it was a power play to take over the whole apple cart; meaning control of SLC and the state (such as it was).

  We had been thru parts of Utah and were well known and liked by those who had dealings with us, so the dead guy must have thought he was somehow going to come out in total control.

  I could only shake my head because the minute he started talking and with his two shooters making it obvious they had their own agenda he sealed his own fate. He was living on borrowed time: Bottom feeding lawyers.

  Why do so many men see a 5 foot nothing woman and think they are helpless? I’ll never understand it. To my eyes I look at my ladies and see not only warm smiles and loads of fun, but under it all is coiled violence if you only look.

  But then how many men’s eyes get past the tits? How many can talk to a good looking woman and five minutes later tell her what color her eyes are without looking? But ask how big her boobs are and they know within a fraction of an inch. It gets some fools killed (as we just saw).

  But those two so-called bad guys were dead men walking when we walked into the room. They were outclassed and still would be dead if they had started a second sooner. My girls are just that good. Me? Hell, I didn’t bother because I knew I was outclassed before it started.

  Back to the meeting- the General was saying that Utah Guard could field about five thousand troops, some armor, some artillery and a few Blackhawks. They were late getting stuff moving in the war department because taking care of the people came first with them.

  He asked what I had in mind and how he could help. I said my plan was simple. Let them come on until they were where I wanted them, and then we would wipe them out. He said, “That’s it? That’s your plan?” I smiled and said, “Yep, why clutter it up with a bunch of shit that don’t matter?”

  He laughed and said, “Well, your reputation precedes you so let’s get it worked out.” Out came the maps and we were off and running.

  The latest word we had was the enemy had stopped outside Reno, and were in the town of Fernley settling in for the night.

  I was worried about something and it was nibbling at me like a chigger. I took a break and went for a walk with Charley and the girls tagging along so I wouldn’t get lost.

  We walked for almost an hour just meandering along, nobody saying a word and at last it came to me. I know nothing about the Chinese military or their thinking- we needed Col. Chang here, right now.

  I stopped walking and more like talking aloud. not giving orders, I said as much out loud. Sandy whistled loudly and got Ralph’s attention and made the double time signal to him. He flipped her off and walked over to us. I asked if the radio in the airplane could reach the fort.

  He went into ‘think mode’ and said if he flew up several thousand feet it should, but why not use the much more powerful one in the Utah plane?

  Sandy made a rude noise and Ralph told her to bite him, then quickly retracted it just before she fanged him. Christ, we are in a war and these two act like kids. Charley and I headed to speak to the General while Sandy scuffled with Ralph, who was out numbered even before May joined in.

  Ralph must love them both for the amount of shit he takes from them. Secretly, I think he loves the attention and likes being the only kid on the block who can pet the big mean dog.

  I explained to General Bill what I needed and we headed for his plane. Five minutes later we had the fort on the line. Charley spoke to one of the People and signed off. He said the call was being booted to Shiprock and Chang would be informed we were coming for him.

  General Bill said his plane could make the flight faster than ours if there was some place to land it. We had that covered so Ralph and Charley piled onto the plane and took off with the general’s pilots flying it. Ralph just wanted to see how the bigger bird handled and no doubt would be flying it shortly.

  The rest of us settled down and continued talking about who had what. Bill was very impressed when he heard what all we had stockpiled.

  We told him more about the Barstow gig, the LA battle, and the truckloads of stuff we brought back. He was really impressed that the girls were experts with the shoulder-fired stuff.

  He had never fired one because they were very expensive and even the troops who were trained to use them hadn’t fired more than one.

  I told him it was all I could do to keep these two from hunting jackrabbits with them. He laughed and thought I was joking. I told him about them shooting at rabbits with the bloop gun. He shook his head at the thought of shooting grenades at a poor rabbit.

  The girls offered to take him rabbit hunting with the hummer and M-60’s. He just shook his head and said something about ‘some people’s children’.

  I told him some of what I was planning and what we had seen from the enemy. He was disturbed at their ‘no prisoners’ orders, and was uncomfortable when I told him we weren’t much for taking prisoners either.

  Sandy (bless her heart) said she would take all the prisoners she could if Utah would take them and house them and feed them. He looked really uncomfortable at that. She is a pistol, for sure.

  We settled in for the night at the airport and had Canyon MRE’s for dinner which is like eating in a five star restaurant compared to the standard issue MRE’s.

  We shared with Bill and his men because they weren’t prepared to stay overnight. We, on the other hand, never went anyplace without our jammies.

  Thank God Sandy don’t think to bring that old rag of a quilt along with us. I swear I’ll burn it one day. I don’t because common sense and fear of dying stop me. I swear half the C
onfederate army used it before she found it. I was worried about the babies being exposed to it.

  We built a big fire with pallets, assigned a watch to keep it going and slept on whatever we could find. The girls dragged out a couch from someplace inside the terminal, put as close to the fire as they could and crashed on it. Being small, they were comfy. As for me? Well it was a long night. At least I had a bedroll.

  About noon the next day we heard the bigger bird returning. It greased in like it was home and when I saw Ralph’s huge smile I knew who was flying it.

  Charley and Col. Chang were first off and headed right to us. We had hauled the chairs out of the conference room and at least had comfy seats.

  After introductions and Gen. Bill’s raised brows we got to it. I asked Chang to bring us up to speed on the enemy Commander. He said all he knew was the man was well-connected in the party and that this operation was deemed to be a cake walk. They really believed they could just walk in and take over our country for past debts.

  I asked him why they seemed to be focused on myself and our people. He said his thoughts on it were that all they knew was what they picked up from radio intercepts and that they heard my name more than any other. They knew where we

  lived and were going there first.

  I asked what would happen if we could take out their command structure? He said he doubted we could do that because this guy wasn’t going to pin a target on his chest. He was going to look like everybody else and mingle with the troops once they were in place to attack.

  Now I had to doubt that, but I could see Chang believed it so I let it ride for now.

  I asked how their military chain of command worked. He said if the CO was killed the XO took over, and if he was killed they would hold in place and wait for replacements. I was blown away with that. Hell, in the Marines everybody down to the last man standing is trained to lead as best they can. If a shell takes out the entire command group the nearest officer will take over. Barring that, the highest ranking NCO will- right on down to the last man standing.

  I could see their Achilles heel shining bright; we were going to be head hunters. Cut off the snake’s head and toss the body in the fire. Simple.

  We were still talking when the General’s communications officer trotted up with a message. He read it then handed it to me. I passed it to Charley and on around the circle.

  The enemy had made their move and it was a surprise to me. I had expected them to come right down I-80, but no- they had turned off on state highway 50 cutting across the corner. It was a smaller road but there was almost nothing blocking the roadway; they could move along at normal convoy speeds.

  And I was loving it… right into some really rough country where their tanks weren’t gonna do much more than take up space.

  I asked Gen. Bill about the Fallon Naval Training Base. He said it had been stripped and most of the equipment moved to SLC area. A lot of the aircraft were nothing but trash due to the severity of the EMP. I refrained from looking at May, but Sandy had a smirk on her face.

  I said I was still amazed at the damage the EMP had done to military equipment that was supposed to be protected from it. He said well, it was up to a point, but it was like covering up your head and hoping the monsters from the closet didn’t look there. I said, “In other words hundreds of millions were spent on the king’s new clothes?” He said, “Exactly.”

  Hard to really prove on a large scale how well the stuff works; kind of like ‘We have to pass it into law so we can see what’s in it’. I hoped the political hacks had died a special death for their shit.

  Well, now we just had to pick our spot to start the war, and I halfway believe they have no idea we are out here waiting. I picked Middlegate as the place to hammer them the first time- a small town right smack in the way of this bunch. We needed to get there and warn them, plus get the troops moving into the area.

  I told Benson to get his people moving into the area; I wanted them at the extreme limit of effective range for their 105’s.

  He got with the talker on our communications and contacted his people thru their talker. He laid it out for them and said we would be there by the time they got where we wanted them.

  I shook hands with General Bill and we took off, we had laid it out as best we could for now. I envisioned a rolling shitstorm not a set piece battle- which we weren’t going to fight with these pricks.

  Our people were rolling and had been most of the day. We caught up with them on the highway. They were converging on the area from all corners of the countryside. We landed on the highway and took off in the chopper to where the big guns were getting set up.

  I know nothing about big boomers, so it was up to Benson. I told him how I wanted it done and he went to work doing it.

  I can’t explain what’s called ‘counter battery fire’, but it’s like you shoot at them and they have radar or whatever to see your shells or some shit and use computers to set a back-path to your guns. They open fire and the shells cross paths and if you’re both good you blow the hell out of each other.

  Chang had said he didn’t know if the enemy had this capability, so we weren’t going to play that battery in line game. I had them scattered out across a mile wide front and close in behind hills. At that range we were engaging the tubes at max elevation. My plan was to rain shells down on them for several minutes, then haul ass.

  Benson had all the information he needed and could pretty well pinpoint his gunfire from the forward observer’s spot we were going to be sitting in. He would be looking right at the area we wanted to hit, because he was going to be in the little bird with Sam. I was gonna be with Ralph in the chopper.

  The girls were with us ‘womaning’ (as they call it) the door guns in case they were needed.

  We had people in town getting the people moving out of the way. The actual gunfire wasn’t going to be on the town, but I knew we weren’t going to stop them here so the people needed to be gone. But we were leaving a few welcoming gifts for them.

  We were going to let them roll into the town and as they moved on we were going to shell several different places along their column, each gun was shooting into one area and would traverse the gun to drop a shell every 50 yards along the convoy…I hoped.

  At last the scouts reported the enemy in sight and we were as ready as we would every get. On a nearby hill we had another surprise waiting- something I never heard of but the girls thought of it and wanted to be the ones to do it but I had vetoed that.

  Their plan was to have a pair of guns in close, dug in and camo’d real good. These were going to be direct-fire guns and the first rounds they were firing were canister shot rounds, (think big fuckin’ shotgun), the idea being to try to take out the ‘command and control’ chopper as it flew along- hopefully down low enough. If not they were not to fire at all until either ordered to or move out under the cover of darkness.

  I had no idea if this was gonna work but the girls were sure it would and they had shot up more of those rounds than anybody.

  As the lead vehicles rolled in close enough they opened fire into anything that a person could ambush from; they were learning about those blades of grass. When no return fire came they stopped, but maintained a close watch.

  We were sitting on a hilltop a mile away watching the show. We would take off when the show started. The convoy rolled right on thru the edge of town until a hundred vehicles had passed, then around 25 personnel carriers rolled to a stop in town. Troops poured out and started running thru the buildings.

  While we were clearing the town and had the chance, we took the time to leave a lot of goodies- all command detonated. As the enemy troops filled the town looting and in general acting like they were riding with Genghis Khan, their officers finally saw it was safe, got out and joined them. I sent the message to the people on the ground that it was time.

  It was spectacular! The whole place just disappeared in a cloud of smoke; dust and trash going everywhere. When it cleared not
hing was left. The personnel carriers were there, some on their sides and some on their tops but not a thing was moving.

  The people outside of the blast area took hits as well from flying bricks and other junk. Pretty much everything living and in the open for a quarter mile around the town was dead or hurt badly. It was a great first shot in our war. So far these asshats had been running free but now the buzzards were coming home to roost.

  But we waited. I knew sooner or later when nothing else happened they would come into the place we wanted them and they would bunch up trying to get thru the rubble.

  It took an hour before the first units started moving into the blasted area and they were moving slow, troops out of their vehicles gawking at the mess, like we used to do when we rolled past a car wreck.

  And when we had the maximum number in the kill zone I called for the big guns. It’s called TOT, time on target, keep shooting till there is nothing to shoot at. We did and caught them with their dicks in their hands. Shells started raining down and the FO’s (forward observers) were calling the changes as soon as a shell hit. They were walking them right down the highway and the vehicles had no place to go jammed up as they were.