Rescue: Book 3 in the After the Fall series

by David Nees

  “Clayton, why don’t you take the men with the dogs aside and see what you can find out. I’m wondering if we need to worry about them or not.”

  Clayton nodded and motioned to the men to walk off with him.

  “There’s two injured,” Jason said to Rodney. “One’s not going to make it—sucking chest wound—the other one will live, but his shoulder’s going to be messed up.”

  He squatted down in front of the men. “Who’s in charge here?”

  No one spoke. Jason looked them over. Three of the men looked pretty young. One of the men was older, maybe thirty. He had a harder look about him.

  He moved over in front of the older man. “What were your orders?” He asked.

  The man didn’t speak.

  “Better start answering my questions. I got a few of them. It’s a pain in the ass to deal with captives. If you don’t tell me what I want to know, I might just kill you here and we’ll be on our way.”

  “You wouldn’t do that,” one of the younger men said. He had a fearful look in his face.

  “You willing to bet your life on that?”

  The young man stared at him with wide eyes and then lowered them, looking at the ground.

  “He’s afraid to tell you the truth,” the older man said. He stared straight at Jason. “We was told to bring you four back…dead or alive.”

  “Now we’re getting somewhere,” Jason said. “You’re a tough SOB, but an honest one.”

  “Now that we know the truth we don’t have to play around. I’ve got two choices. I can let you live and we go on our way, or kill you and go on our way.”

  “You should let us go. We didn’t have a choice about going after you,” the younger man said. “We won’t follow you.”

  “He don’t know that, idiot,” the older man said.

  “You want him to kill us?”

  “He’s gonna do what he wants. Makes no difference what we say.”

  “That’s where you’re wrong, hard ass,” Jason said.

  “You give me what I need, I’ll be happier. Might let you live.”

  “Whaddaya want to know?” the younger man asked.

  “Start with you name,” Jason said.

  “Gill,” came the reply.

  “How many men did the general send after us? There were more than you ten at that farmhouse.”

  “He just sent us with the dogs.”

  “The other team join him?”

  “How’d you know about them?” the older man asked.

  “What’s your name?” Jason asked looking back at the man.

  “Ed.”

  “I figured he’d want to follow both possible routes we might have taken. Now, did they join up?”

  “Yeah,” Gill said.

  “How many of them are there?”

  “Don’t tell him nothin’ else,” Ed said.

  “What’s it to you? I don’t want to get shot.” He looked at the ground and mumbled, “Didn’t want to come on this chase anyway.”

  “You just wanted to wear your uniform, carry a gun and tell people in town what to do. That it?” The older man’s voice dripped with sarcasm. “When real enforcement work comes, you don’t want no part of it.” He spat on the ground.

  Jason looked over at Rodney. “I’m going to take Gill over where I can talk to him privately. You keep talking to Ed. Maybe you can help him see the light.”

  “Be my pleasure,” Rodney said. “Since I spent some time in the company of the militia, I found out what they think of a black man. Now I’ll be happy to let them know what might be in store for them if I don’t like what I hear.”

  Jason walked Gill away from the others and sat him down in the grass.

  “Now Gill. I don’t know what Ed’s going to say, but I guarantee he’ll talk to Rodney. See Rodney’s a Master Sergeant, did tours in Afghanistan and Iraq. He knows all about hard asses. Killed a lot of them as well. Me, I shot Ali Babbas from the roof tops in Iraq. But I’ve killed more men back here since the power went out than I can count on both hands.”

  He leaned up close to the young man. “What you need to understand is that I don’t mind killing, when I need to do it. You’ve chased me and my men through the woods for two days and nights. Now you’re going to tell me everything you know because it won’t take much to make me shoot you and leave you here in the woods.”

  Gill was shaking now.

  “I don’t know much, but I’ll tell you what I know.”

  “Did the other group join up with the general?”

  Gill nodded.

  “How many men does he have?”

  “We started with about fifty men.”

  Jason did some quick calculations. Fifty men less the six killed at the Nutters, less the ten men in the chase, left thirty-four men to worry about.

  “What’s his plan? Where’s he going with the remaining men?”

  “I think he was going to go down I40 and set up somewhere to intercept you. If we didn’t catch up with you.”

  After more questions, Jason went back over to where Rodney was standing with the other prisoners. They walked off to talk privately.

  “From what the kid says, the general’s got about thirty-four men left. They’re going to try to catch us somewhere further down I40. They know we need to go across the highway.”

  “That’s pretty much what Ed told me.”

  “You got him to open up?”

  “I told him about my duty tours and some of the interrogation techniques I learned from some CIA guys I had the chance to work with. It seemed to impress him.”

  “You never told me about that.”

  “There’s some truth to it, but it’s mostly embellished. Makes for good stories, though.” Rodney grinned. “He said a lot more. He said the Vice Chairman, that Cordell guy, and the General, decided that they’d probably divert from their pending action against Johnson City to Hillsboro. They figured, even before getting the Chairman back, that he’d want to send troops to ‘teach us a lesson’ he said.”

  “Does he know how many men they’d send?”

  “He didn’t have any idea. Not that high up and not that bright.” Rodney paused to think. “But they must have over five hundred men in the militia, the way Ed describes it. They’re pretty well organized.”

  “Damn. Five hundred. That’s going to be ugly.”

  “For everyone,” Rodney said.

  Chapter 30

  ___________________________________

  J ason and Rodney went over to the men holding the dogs. The animals were acting friendly, wanting to jump up and be noticed. They eagerly sniffed around the two. These were the scents they had chased through the woods on their big adventure.

  “You boys work for the General? Are you in the militia?” Jason asked.

  “No sir. We was just brought in to track you. Didn’t know what was up except that ten men came with us.”

  The other man added, “We figured you were escaped prisoners. We did that before the power went out…track escapees along with lost people.”

  “What do you think?” Jason asked Clayton. “Think we can set these two free and they won’t cause us any trouble?”

  “You don’t have to worry none about us. We’d be happy to just go back the way we came.”

  “We don’t mind tramping through the woods with the dogs,” the other man said.

  Jason ignored them, looking at Clayton. These were country men, used to the woods. They had something in common with Clayton.

  “I think these boys are okay. They just trying to get along. Keeping their dogs alive was hard enough. I guess there ain’t many choices whether to work for the Chairman or not around Knoxville.”

  “Where do you boys live anyway?” Jason asked.

  “We’re south of Knoxville about fifteen miles near Pinter Gap. Up against Chillowee Mountain.”

  “You making it there?”

  “Yes sir. We got some farming and hunting. This work, with the dogs, gives us some ex
tra to buy things we need in town. Ain’t too bad long as we left alone.”

  “And you’re left alone? The Chairman hasn’t recruited you into his militia?”

  “No. Some others in the area went and joined. Mostly single men who had no family. He gets the rest from town. Most of the militia seem like city boys to me.”

  “I think we can let you go back the way you came. You’re not armed. You’ll leave that way. We see you again, we’ll shoot to kill, both you and the dogs,” Jason said.

  “You won’t see us. We be happy to just go back home.”

  “I expect you’ll have to report to someone. I don’t care about that. You tell them what happened here will happen to others if they keep after us.”

  Jason motioned for the two men to go and they headed off back the way they came, pulling their dogs with them.

  “They’ll have to keep them on a leash so they don’t start back after our scent,” Clayton said.

  “That’s their problem.”

  “Billy,” Jason called out. “Keep a watch on those for me. Rodney, Clayton and me need to talk together.”

  Billy nodded and Rodney walked over to Jason and Clayton.

  “What do you propose we do with these four?” Jason asked.

  “And the wounded men,” Rodney added.

  “One of them is probably already dead, but the other one, yeah. He needs to be considered as well.”

  “I don’t fancy killing them,” Clayton said. “Happy to if they’s shooting at us, but now it don’t seem right.”

  “I agree, but it’s awkward, Rodney said. “They could just follow us, if any of them have any idea how to track. Then they make a bunch of noise when we get near the interstate. Try to attract the other men.”

  “They could. If they can track us and if they’re near enough to the others. There are miles of road where we can cross. We can pick the spot,” Jason said.

  “They could head to the interstate and find the militia. They could help them narrow down where we are. Make it easier to find us.”

  “I think we can chance it,” Jason said. “The older guy, Ed, might want to do that. I suspect the younger ones have had enough. They barely survived getting killed.”

  “What about the wounded man?” Rodney asked.

  “We’ll make a trace for him. The others will have to drag him along with them. They’ll be responsible for him.” Jason looked around. “This road goes somewhere. We can send them east on it, towards the highway. That’s where they’ll want to go after we leave. It will take them the rest of the day to reach it, and we’ll be long gone to the south.”

  “And if they connect with the militia?” Rodney asked.

  “They tell them what the militia already knows. We’re heading south and trying to get back to Hillsboro. They’ll also tell them we’re very dangerous. The General still won’t know where we’ll try to cross.”

  “Makes sense to me,” Clayton said. “Let’s get this done and get going. We got lots of woods to walk before we get back.”

  A half hour later, with the trace made and the injured man strapped on it, Jason sent the four men down the road.

  “Remember, if we see you again, you’re dead men.”

  “You won’t have to worry about us,” Gill said as they started down the old road.

  Jason and the others watched until they were out of sight and then waded across the stream to continue their trek south.

  It was early evening. Jason and the others were hot and tired. They had been hiking at a fast pace for six hours since the shootout and had been up for more than thirty-six hours. Coming down off a ridge, they came to another small stream rushing its way out of the valley to join the Pigeon River. There was as flat area next to the creek under a tall canopy of beech trees.

  “This looks like a comfortable spot,” Clayton said. “We all dog tired. Let’s stop, make a fire, eat some food and boil some water for our canteens. I could use some sleep.”

  Billy sat down with his back to a large beech and closed his eyes. Rodney and Jason looked around.

  “Looks okay to me,” Rodney said. “We need a rest.”

  “Ain’t no one gonna see a campfire down here. We’re lost to the militia with no dogs tracking us. They won’t have a clue.”

  “You’re right,” Jason said. He shrugged off his backpack and sat down heavily. “I am tired.”

  “And we have two more days of hiking to go,” Clayton said.

  Jason lay back on the soft ground. “Don’t remind me.”

  After a few moments, Billy and Clayton got up and gathered some dead wood for a campfire. First small twigs and dried pine needles to start, then larger sticks until the fire would be hot enough to support a branch too large to break. Billy carried over a four inch in diameter limb to feed into the fire as it burned. They kept the fire hot but small. It burned clean and not only boiled their water, but gave warmth and cheer as the evening’s damp set in.

  Clayton and Rodney rolled up two larger logs for them to sit on. They heated their few remaining MREs in the water and ate in silence. Clayton refilled the small pot with water for boiling. After it had cooled, they would pour it into their canteens and repeat the process. Water was more important than food with the hot days.

  The cicadas kept up their mating chorus. Hundreds of them trying to outdo one another created a surprising din. Through the din they could hear the peeping of frogs from the creek calling out for mates. There was little conversation. Jason watched Billy. The young man sat with a scowl on his face. He had not spoken a word during the evening’s activities.

  “Billy, something bothering you?” Jason asked.

  Billy shook his head.

  “You’re looking a bit glum and you’ve been quiet all evening. What’s on your mind?”

  ‘It ain’t nothin’,” he replied.

  “Must be somethin’,” Clayton said. “Got you all shut up.”

  Billy had been toying in the ground with a stick. He threw it into the dark, beyond the fire.

  “If you gotta know, I ain’t happy about going back. I left with Rodney to start over. Leave all that sadness behind me. Now I’m going back.”

  He looked at Jason. Through the firelight Jason could see the anger in his face.

  “You shoulda just paid the ransom. Then me and Rodney would be on our way to Missouri. Now we’re back killing people. There’s always a lot of killing going on around you.”

  Jason sat on the log, looking at Billy. He wasn’t sure what to say.

  “You sure they’d let you go after they got paid?” Clayton asked.

  “That’s what they said,” Billy said. He turned back to Jason. “You said they’d probably be coming to Hillsboro since they can’t let you get away with what you did. How’s that help things? They’ll just be more killing.”

  Jason looked back at the young man. He knew how much sorrow Billy had experienced. His dream to go off with Rodney and put it all behind him was now smashed.

  “I’m sorry this causes more pain. I know it’s hard. I made a decision that sending the money wouldn’t help. It might not have freed you and Rodney and it certainly wouldn’t have stopped Knoxville from coming after Hillsboro. It seems we are a rich target. They’d come sooner or later.”

  “Well, they certainly coming sooner now you did what you did.”

  Jason raised his hands. He wanted to give Billy the respect his opinion deserved even if he thought it wrong.

  “Not sure I’d get easy treatment from Knoxville,” Rodney said. He looked over at Billy. “Not sure they’d just let me go when they got the money. I’m a black man. You didn’t know what happened when they separated us. It wasn’t pretty. There’s still some racists in Knoxville.” He paused. “Hell, there’s still racists everywhere, not just in Knoxville. I’ve seen it all my life. I just let it roll off my back, ignore it for the most part. Those fools are ignorant and don’t represent most of the people I’ve dealt with.” He leaned over towards the young man. �
��But from some of the things said, the taunts, I’m not sure I’d have been free to go.”

  He leaned back against the log. “So, I’m glad Jason did what he did.”

  Billy was silent for a moment. “But there’ll be more killing.”

  “We livin’ in dangerous times,” Clayton said. “Got to accept that and deal with it.”

  “I just want to put that behind me!”

  Billy’s voice rose in anger or frustration, Jason couldn’t tell which.

  “I killed another man just today. When is it going to stop?” Billy asked.

  “We’ve all been involved in killing since the power went out. Only Rodney and I have done it before—in the Army. But now there’s gangs and outlaws, dictators like the Chairman, and no laws or enforcement to deal with them. So, we have to deal with them on our own.”

  Jason looked Billy in the eye. “Let me ask you. You willing to live under someone like the Chairman? You willing to get in line, obey his orders, live by whatever he decides are the rules, just to live peacefully?”

  Billy dropped his head and looked at the ground. “I don’t know. Just know I’m tired of the killing.”

  “Just think about it for moment. Any killing we’ve done has been to defend ourselves. We don’t attack others, we aren’t trying to dominate them, conquer them. That’s what the Chairman and Stansky, guys like that, try to do. But we aren’t going to allow it to happen to us or the ones we care about.”

  Jason stood up. “If that means killing, then so be it.”

  He walked off into the darkness.

  There was a silence at the campfire. After a minute Clayton spoke up.

  “He be right. Rodney too…about that racism. I never been around many blacks until I fought with Rodney. You also, I bet. But we be brothers now. We helped save each other, made lives better for our people.”

  “Billy,” Clayton pointed a finger at him. “you did that too. You defended your valley, you dealt with Stansky, gave him what he deserved. Lori Sue may have died, but she died helping someone that needed her. She fought against that bad man, stood up to him. It’s what we have to do now. Defend ourselves.”

  “We’ll go to Missouri yet,” Rodney said. “I still plan to go and I still want you to come with me. But for now, it looks like we have to fight another battle, take down another bad guy.”