A long Lonely Road Box Set 3

by T J Reeder

  It was a long haul from here to there and for what? I was really confused over this. It wasn’t like burning Las Vegas, or even parts of LA. Beth and the girls all walked with me and finally that small voice said, “Why do we have to be there? Why do we have to go shoot all those people who are just stupid and following the wrong voices in the night? Why not just cut off the snake’s head and watch it wiggle?” I turned around and grabbed the small voice and hugged her close and said, “How did we survive without you?”

  Kid was gasping, and Beth said, “John, don’t kill her!” I get carried away at times. I set her down and Sandy and May used it as an excuse to pound the shit out of her back. She finally got loose and said, “Shit! I’m gonna keep my mouth shut from now on!” Sandy laughed and said, “Yeah, right!” But I am almost hourly reminded of just how damn smart this young lady is. She has a way of cutting thru the bullshit faster than anybody I’ve ever seen. And she’s 100 percent right! We don’t need to go in there and kill anybody other than the snakes. With them gone I expect things will settle out sooner or later. Cream will in time rise to the top. I sent for Blain and when he arrived I asked him again about the troops guarding the new leaders. He said they were the most brainwashed of all. He said they were actually starting to take on some of the look and mannerisms of the old Nazi SS in the way they dressed and deported themselves. Long leather trench coats and polished riding boots… He said they were fast to shoot anybody they deemed to be less than 100 percent pro-government.

  Well, now this made it much easier to fry their asses along with their leaders. And with their self-imposed isolation away from the community, few if any innocent people were apt to get hurt. It was a go! Now the get that C-130 in the air.

  Fox said he wanted to take himself and some of his people and make a drop near the compound to act as observers and to gather Intel. I laughed at him and said, “Bullshit. You just want to get in there and cut a few throats.” He at least had the decency to not deny it. And he did have a very valid reason- being on the ground he could set up a transponder and radio wind information, all of great value. He said he would take ten men plus himself, and of course JJ. He said they would watch the results of the drop and then beat feet out to an area where they could be picked up by Ralph. The only problem was the distances involved. He said he would work it out and let me know what he had learned.

  We spent a quiet night and come morning with no enemy activity it looked like for the moment they were licking their wounds. After a less than wonderful breakfast (but with great coffee) we had another meeting. The communications people had heard from Texas as per the C-130 and that was a go. They also had an aircraft that had the range to haul Fox and his lads to their drop zone and return here where they could wait for the word to go back.

  The big bird would come here and refuel (which we would have to handle) plus fill the bladders with the fuel for the bomb. All this was happening tomorrow.

  We had to locate enough fuel and a landing strip for the planes. We knew the C-130 could land on the interstate so we mainly needed fuel and we had people aplenty to find some. The fuel for the bomb bladders could be dirty as long as it would burn, but the plane fuel had to be very clean. The place to look for that was the area airports. Somewhere out there was one with fuel still underground. The word was spoken and folks loaded up and took off with old maps of the area. I did insist they go in groups big enough to fight off an attack if need be.

  The rest of us took off to inspect and clean the roadway the plane would use. We dug holes for gas and diesel fires to light it if they got here in the dark, which I hoped wouldn’t happen. But shit happens every time. I’ve always said Murphy’s Law states, “If it can go wrong it will” and Walker’s Law states, “If it can go wrong, it already has, you just don’t know it yet.” Fuck Murphy; he’s a wimp.

  One of the search teams found a small airport that had fuel tanks still locked and were testing the fuel as they spoke to us. It came out good to go and we sent two tankers- one to haul the good stuff and one to haul the bad stuff. I hoped they wouldn’t get them mixed up. Just before dark the big bird called and said to light off a smoke pot for wind direction. He flew low over us and once again I was impressed at just how big that thing was. He made his turn and landed into the wind and greased it. These guys were getting good at working with us, and we sure have enjoyed having them.

  After they were stopped, we gathered as they dropped the ramp and out drove three heavily-armed hummers! All had mini-guns mounted on them. My eyes must have gotten big because the load master laughed and said the boys back home sent them ‘in case something happened and y’all need to go in on ground to fetch your people from the area’. I was very touched and grateful because I had planned to go with what we had if push came to shove. This just made a tough mission much easier.

  The load master said, “Uh John?” and nodded at the hummers. Sure enough, ‘They’ were there looking them over. He said his boss had said if he lost one to ‘them’ the next M.O.A.B’s would drop on our house. I sighed and shook my head and they both turned and flipped me off. Deciding to nip this one in the bud, I headed over there, where to my surprise I found them actually learning from the hummer crew what all was needed to set them up with Mini’s. They seemed to have located some and I was hoping they hadn’t stolen them from somebody who was a friend. They said our hummers with the 50 Ma deuces were ass-kickers, but these could replace the M-60’s still on some of our hummers. They were actually making sense, so I left them to it but I still had an itch down my back. I’d know later how bad I misjudged them…or not.

  Beth had wandered over to keep an eye on them and came back and said, “Well, surprising nobody Kid was the one who jumped on the idea of mounting Mini’s on our hummers and was the real force behind the idea.” I wasn’t surprised in the least. I would be surprised if the other two didn’t steal all three of the hummers or the C-130. Nothing was safe from them- they were walking, talking, cute, happy little killers who would smile while lifting your wallet and your watch, if you were bothering with either.

  Thank God, Kid was taking after Beth and in many ways was even more mature than her other mothers. But she could be easily led astray if the rewards were big enough. The main thing was they were more apt to not get caught if Kid was planning it. She could have pulled off the greatest robbery of all time given some time to think it out.

  The communications dude came over and said the plane being sent for our jumpers was going to be a day later than it already was- something about a sticky ramp gate. And right then I had an idea. I wandered off alone and worked it over and finally decided that screw it- I was going! I headed over to where Fox and his band of throat-cutters were lounging in the shade sharpening knives and other macho jumper shit.

  I told him about the delay which now put us three days from take-off and I intended to use those days on something productive. I told him I wanted to do my jump schooling right now because I was going and to not bother with all the ‘Too old’ shit because I wasn’t hearing it. AND! ‘They’ were not to know!

  He laughed, JJ laughed, the other shitheads laughed, so I asked what was so damn funny. He pointed over to our para-plane and there ‘They’ were, putting on jumper coveralls. I looked at Fox and he stopped laughing and said they had shown up thirty minutes ago and said they were going and needed fast schooling. They told him I would be along after I figured out what I was trying to figure out.

  They were looking at me so I flipped them off, which got the laughers going again.

  Then to make it even worse Charley walked down the ramp with coveralls on. He waved at me while shaking his head. I couldn’t hear it but I knew he was sighing. Now if Kid or Beth walked up wearing coveralls then I was gonna stop this shit.

  Fox and JJ walked with me to the plane where I found a pair of coveralls in my size already laying there waiting, and two smug girls smirking. Both came over and hugged and kissed me. May said, “Shit John, we knew you were gonn
a do this two days ago. You’re so slow.”

  I saw Beth and Kid coming and said, “NO, right now! NO!” They looked at me like I was crazy. Beth asked if I was OK, and Kid said if I thought she was gonna jump out of a perfectly good plane I was even crazier than her other moms. They had come to watch the show, along with damn near everybody around.

  We spent several hours learning how to tuck and roll if needed. The new (to me) style sail-looking chutes will set you down as gentle as a feather…when you know what you’re doing. I put in extra time on the tuck and roll stuff. We then had to double team with Fox and his crew; I got stuck with JJ because I’m so big that his size offset the weight issues or some such crap.

  I won’t say that falling out of the plane even hooked to somebody who knows what they are doing is fun, but after the damn chute opened I was in love! How I had missed out on this was beyond me. When the ride was over I was depressed until I found out we were going up again as soon as the chutes were packed. We made three jumps and then had more class time, this was a rush job and wouldn’t have been allowed back in the day.

  Charley was his usual self, the girls could be heard screaming all the way down, and they were in heaven! I’d never keep them on the ground again, but hell, I’d be there with them!

  The next day we had more class until we knew everything we could know without jumping alone. When we went up for that jump I was scared shitless; even the girls were quiet. Charley, he was just Charley. When we were ready, Fox and JJ went out first and the rest of us went off the ramp right behind them.

  I can only say that everything worked as it should, and it was so awesome even the girls were quiet. It was the most peaceful experience of my life and then it wasn’t, the ground was coming up fast and I was trying to remember everything I was taught. Did I make a perfect landing? No. A good landing? Mmm… not so. Did I at least walk away from it? Bet yer ass!

  The girls were slower getting down, something about being lighter, plus they were working the risers (or whatever Fox called them) and it let them stay up longer so I was able to watch the land. Both settled like feathers, I hate them. Their smiles told the whole story. We learned how to pack our own chutes and knowing we had to jump them made us the slowest packers in the world. I would have ironed mine if I could have.

  The first jump with chutes we packed was scary. I don’t care what anybody else says, it’s scary wondering if you just failed Chute Packing 101. No retest needed. But they opened and it was the best ride yet. We jumped two more times and called it quits. When we repacked them this time Fox and JJ were watching every second again but this time even more so. I guess because we were jumping next time into the shit.

  That evening the plane from Texas made it; it was something I’d never seen and was big enough for a lot more people than we had. And imagine my surprise when the ramp dropped and there came fifteen more jumpers! Their officer came right over to me and said, “Howdy Sir, consider yourself saluted!” We all laughed because the word had spread about me and saluting. They had all asked for the mission and were ready to go.

  I told them Fox was our jump master and his order were the only ones any of us were gonna listen to and his next in command was JJ, who also in charge. JJ looked at Sandy and said, “Hear that, Cupcake? Mess with me and I’ll pluck your wings!” She said, “Pluck my wings and I’ll hand you your balls, Buttercup.” Well, everybody was laughing, but the Texas boys weren’t sure what was going on. Fun and games.

  We had an op-plan meeting and I had Blain sit in on it. We had maps of the Richmond area (thanks to Kid the Map Queen). He showed us the location of the new Government. He told us all he knew about the place. Being a very exclusive area pre-event it was really plush and walled all the way around. Even the guard force wasn’t allowed inside- they patrolled outside and had worn a road around the complex. They were housed in portable classroom-type buildings with platoon-sized squad bays and bunk beds. It sounded like these asshats really didn’t like being around the people who were supposed to defend them. Sounds like the Clintons and Obama’s, hate the military but hide behind them.

  After the brain-storming we shut it down for the day and relaxed with a few cold beers, compliments of the Texas group. We were having a good time and somebody asked if we were gonna kill all these shitheads? And what about prisoners? The girls were sitting together and Sandy said, “Killing them is too quick”. Then Kid asked, “Why kill them?” She asked if it wouldn’t be more fun to haul them out of their nice comfy nests and drop them someplace where it was root hog or die?

  Now, that had a lot of appeal to me. One of the Texas lads said his folks had a compound where everybody worked together and when somebody stepped out of line they got the shit jobs for a certain amount of time; like 30 days in jail, except they worked shoveling pig shit or whatever needed doing that nobody wanted to do. This had everybody laughing thinking about some fat-assed Senator wading around in pig shit all day just to earn supper.

  I asked Blain if the guard force outside were neutralized what kind of defenses were inside. He didn’t know, but said most of them were very anti-gun and military and rarely ventured out of their plush prison. Now I was getting an idea!

  I wasn’t really inclined to fry anybody if it could be helped, plus there might be a lot of women and kids inside the place and they sure didn’t deserve to die like that. So, if we could take out the guard force without bringing their entire army down on us we just might put Kid’s idea to work and I was loving that!

  We had about thirty-five or so jumpers, and I hoped that would be enough. We could have the big bird loitering in the area and if push came to shove they could do their thing to save our asses, and that was a big stick. The drop load was in one thousand gallon units, so they

  could drop them one at a time where we wanted them for maximum force. I was liking this idea more and more if we could pull it off.

  I hadn’t noticed the pilots of the 130 sitting with us until one spoke up and said, “Yanno, John. We could fly in the hummers and drop them, then return to load the fuel bladders giving y’all some serious firepower.”

  Sandy punched Ralph and said, “See? I told you we could do that with the Jeep!” Ralph, forgetting he’s scared shitless of her, punched her back and said, “Well shrink the damn Jeep so it will fit in the plane!”

  Everybody was shocked! Sandy’s mouth fell open, then she grabbed her arm and , “Ouch! You hurt me!” Poor Ralph started stuttering when he realized what he had done. May was leaning into his face hissing and everybody was laughing.

  Then Sandy started laughing and hugged Ralph, who I swear was sweating in the cool night. He just forgot for a moment he was supposed to be scared of them. She said, “It’s OK, Ralphie. But, sorry baby, you gotta pay. So we get your first-born!” His voice went up like his balls were in a vice and he said, “I ain’t even married!” May said, “Oh. Well, that’s gonna change! We want another baby so you need to get busy!”

  Ralph was pleading with me- “John, please make them leave me alone.” I just shrugged and said, “Sorry, Ralph but I’m sure they will pick out a nice wife for you.” Poor Ralph, that almost did him in. He was in a panic.

  Kid said, “Yeah, you know, I think V kinda likes you!” Ralph was up and gone like a shot. I said, “V?” Kid said, “Nah. Ralph’s scared of her cat. Says it walks thru stuff like rocks and trees.” I looked in the direction he took off in…now I knew I wasn’t crazy! I’d be talking to Ralph (if he didn’t fly away in the night).

  Well, we had a battle plan, we just needed to put it into place. Fox and JJ were gonna be the ones handling the drop zone. They would jump in as pathfinders well ahead of us to scout the area and find the best place to bring us in. In fact I made the command decision right then that we would send them a day ahead of the rest of us. It would mean making two trips in the Texas plane, but it would be smarter to have them on the ground longer than a few hours. They would fly out tomorrow early enough to jump just before dark.

/>   Sandy and May wanted to jump out of the C-130 with their Jeep. I said, “Go talk to the wing nuts” and they were off. I knew I wasn’t up to explaining just what the C-130 pilot meant when he said ‘Drop the Hummers’; it involved actually landing the plane but not really slowing down. The ramp would go down and a big chute would deploy and drag the pallet-loaded Hummers off, one right after the other.

  That was provided they didn’t just find an empty stretch of interstate to land on and drive them off. I’m not a wing nut and I’ve never actually seen it. But long ago I remember something about a C-130 dropping supplies off during a mortar attack. The rounds and the loaded pallets were chasing it down the runway, but with the load off, he had power and just firewalled the throttles and was gone. Personally I’d rather get a root canal with a Kbar then do it. And then what? The vehicles would be on a road and no drivers? We needed to think this out better.

  It seemed like less trouble to just fire bomb them, but that was kind of not a good idea. Lots of innocent people would die really nasty deaths just to get a few. If we could do it without the fire we would, but I wasn’t gonna get a bunch of my people killed to save a bunch of assholes. But I also assumed these people had families (meaning maybe kids or grand kids and wives), and no matter the sins of the father the families should not pay the fiddler.