by David Nees
The afternoon had turned into evening. Jason indicated they should head towards the interstate again and then stop to eat something. They sat quietly, eating the dried venison and pork they carried, washing it down with water.
“We have to be getting close now, don’t you think?” Catherine asked.
“Yeah. We’ll keep going after a short rest, but we should check for the convoy more frequently.”
“Do you think they’re moving at night?”
“No way to know for sure.” Jason looked out over to the highway. “My guess is that they’re not. Stopping will keep his men fresh and avoid any accidents or problems with clearing the road. It would be more difficult at night.” He turned back to Catherine. “We’d have seen them by now if they had been going day and night.”
“You’re doing well,” Jason said, changing the subject. “You still move more easily than I do in the woods.”
“I learned it from you.”
“But you’ve taken that skill beyond me.”
“Maybe it’s just that I’m not as large as you, so it’s easier.”
Jason smiled at his step-daughter. He had taught her to shoot along with the rest of the family, but she had taken to it and excelled. She was a natural sharpshooter and had played an important sniper role in the battles they had fought together. His smile broadened as he thought that such an attractive girl was also so adept in the woods…and so deadly.
“Did you feel it? He asked.
“Feel what?”
“The energy. Being in the woods, being on the hunt, running to engage the enemy.”
Catherine smiled and looked down at the leaves where she sat. She seemed almost shy now.
“I felt it. Not sure what to think about it.”
“It’s what a warrior feels, the rush of engaging the enemy. The rush of fighting to protect others, the ones you love. You have that in you. I could tell early on.” He paused for a moment. “And you have the skills to go with that instinct.”
“I’m not sure how I like the killing though. When Bird got wounded and died, that shook me.”
“I know. But it didn’t stop you from doing your job in the later fight. And it didn’t stop you from going with Billy to help Lori Sue. That’s what a warrior does, run to the battle in order to save others.”
“I couldn’t stay away. Billy needed help, Lori Sue and Donna needed help.”
Jason smiled and nodded.
“Does that make me a freak? I want to have a family someday, be normal.”
“Not sure how we’ll define normal in these coming years.” Jason said. “But, no,” he continued, “feeling like you do doesn’t make you a freak. It makes you strong. You and Kevin will raise strong boys and girls. They may not have the warrior spirit, but they’ll be strong people, like your sister, Sarah. She’s strong, but she isn’t a warrior.”
Catherine sat and pondered what Jason had said for a few quiet moments.
“What do we do when we find the convoy?” she asked.
“We start shooting, sniping.”
“We start killing them, just walking along?”
Jason shook his head. “That may happen, but first we’ll try to stop the vehicles, the troop trucks, the Humvees, the artillery pieces which are set up on wheeled carriages.”
“What about the tank?”
Jason shook his head. “Can’t do anything about the tank. But it probably won’t go on without the rest of the convoy.”
He got up and stretched his arms. “Let’s go. We can move in the dark, just more slowly.”
They grabbed their gear and started through the woods
Chapter 41
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K evin departed the morning after Jason and Catherine left. He sent twenty of his men out ahead in pickup trucks. They were to try to get one hundred miles up the road and stop to wait for the rest. The main body of men set out on foot in a quick march. Kevin’s plan was to drive them day and night, allowing only an hour rest every six hours. He assumed the Knoxville force would only move during daylight. While he risked exhaustion, he knew that he needed to get as much distance between him and Hillsboro as possible.
He couldn’t expect his small force to stop the convoy with their first skirmish. It might take repeated ambushes followed by retreating and regrouping, during which the convoy would move forward. His men would have to backtrack quickly towards town, moving faster than the convoy, to set up another ambush. Kevin knew he needed as much territory as he could establish to give him the space for repeated attacks to wear down the approaching force.
The town council met in emergency session the day after Kevin departed with his volunteers. Steve Warner presided. He was feeling overwhelmed since taking over from Jason. Few council meetings had been routine, filled with progress reports on electrification and other projects aimed at bringing back some of the services lost from the EMP attack. Most had been crisis meetings with his loyalty being questioned at times. Today would be no different.
When he announced that an attack force was headed to Hillsboro pandemonium erupted. Steve’s further announcement that a volunteer defense force had departed the day before without any council authorization only increased the discord. After a long minute of gaveling the session back into order, he tried to explain in more detail what had taken place.
Immediately Raymond Culver stood up and interrupted him.
“We don’t need to hear all the details. Especially if you’re going to shade them to make this action seem less treasonous,” he said in a loud voice. “These men went out to engage in an armed battle with another city without our approval. In effect they have unilaterally started a war with Knoxville.”
“I wouldn’t put it quite that way—”
“I’m sure you wouldn’t,” Raymond said, interrupting him. “You have always excused this behavior starting with Jason’s actions. And speaking of him, he’s the one who led us to this point. He decided to not pay the fine demanded by Knoxville and to kidnap their leader instead. He started this mess and should be put in jail or banished from the city.”
Others now joined in with Culver’s opposition demanding a motion to sanction Jason and Kevin for their actions. Steve knew he had little support. With Kevin and Catherine gone from the chamber, there was only Bob Jackson, who headed up the water power project, and Dr. Morgan, head of the hospital. However, Dr. Morgan’s support was not all that assured. He was in danger of being seriously outvoted on any motion he allowed to come to the floor.
First of all,” Steve began. “I’m not an apologist for Jason or anyone else.”
A supporter of Culver tried to interrupt but Steve gaveled him into silence.
“I will not allow anyone to interfere with orderly discussions. I have the floor. If you don’t want to abide by the council rules, I will have you ejected. I am the interim mayor, approved by this council. I run these meetings and I will have order.”
He could only hope some of the council members would give him cause to be ejected. It could reduce his probable vote deficit.
“Secondly,” Steve said, “Mr. Culver disingenuously refers to Knoxville’s ransom demand as a fine. We’ve been through that bit of revisionism started by their spokesman, Cordell. I, along with most of you didn’t buy it then and I don’t buy it now. In spite of Raymond’s repetition, it remains a falsehood.”
He paused for a moment. Someone started to speak, but Steve gave them a sharp look and they stopped.
“My last point is that the group that left town was an all-volunteer group. There is no precedent for what is happening, but there is no edict that people can’t come and go without council’s approval. We are not a police state. If a group feels they need to defend themselves, individually, then they have the right to do it.”
“Were you aware of this group and what they intended?” Someone shouted out.
Steve looked at the man. “One more outburst from you and I’ll have you ejected.”
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There were two armed men from the Police Department in the chamber to keep order. They were under Steve’s orders as acting mayor.
“To answer your question, yes. As I just said, there is no law or edict that would cause me to tell the men they were acting illegally.”
A hand went up and Steve nodded to the member.
“Where is Jason? And for that matter, where is Catherine? She’s a member of the council and not present.”
“I assume they both left. Probably with the volunteer force. Jason was present when I met with Kevin but I didn’t speak directly with him. The volunteer force was organized and directed by Kevin. As far as I know Jason had nothing to do with it.”
Raymond Culver now requested the floor.
“We have to intercede. This has gone far enough. First Jason, now Cameron, our Chief of Police. We are betrayed by these men. I move that we send an emissary out to meet the convoy and consider their demands. We can avoid an attack if we can get to them before this foolishness erupts into an open gun battle. It’s still not too late to consider what it will take to allow us to live in peace with Knoxville.”
“Hear, hear.” Another council member called.
Steve looked over at Bob Jackson who was conversing with the town’s only legal guide, Andrew Smithfield, a lawyer who settled personal injury claims before the EMP attack. Andy got up from consulting his rule book and whispered to Steve.
“That is not a legitimate motion,” Steve said after listening to Smithfield, “All motions must come from me as Chairman of the council. A floor motion needs a super majority to get accepted for discussion and vote.”
“How many is that?” One of Culver’s supporters asked.
“Seventy-five percent of the council. That’s nine members, so the motion needs seven people.”
“It should be seventy-five percent of those present,” Raymond shouted.
“Not according to the rules.
A long discussion ensued, barely under control, but not disorderly enough to give Steve an excuse to eject anyone from the meeting. After motion, counter motion, and appeals to arcane parts of Robert’s Rules of Order, all of which nearly had Andy Smithfield to throwing up his hands in disgust and confusion, Steve had to accede to a vote using the present quorum of members. The vote now needed only five members to pass.
After closing arguments on both sides of the issue, Steve called the vote. Raymond Culver had three other council member’s support. Bob Jackson voted against the motion as did Steve. Dr. Morgan, thankfully, joined him in a nay vote.
“The motion offered by Ray Culver will not be considered,” Steve intoned.
“What are we here for, then? If it’s not to try to mitigate this irresponsible action on the part of Cameron?” Raymond asked with some bitterness.
“We need to be discussing what we do to prepare for an attack,” Steve said.
The council soldered on. Steve could see a hardening of the division in the group. Ray Culver had coalesced a group around him that wanted to radically reduce the role of the militia in the life of Hillsboro. This position seemed to Steve and others to be suicidal. He realized that the issue would be one that all of Hillsboro’s citizens would have to participate in. And to do that they would need a clear picture of the world outside of their city. The world with its lack of structure and laws.
By morning Jason and Catherine were running on empty. They slogged on through the night with an ever-slowing pace. The moon rising after midnight had made the latter part of the night’s running somewhat easier; but that was offset by their growing fatigue.
They reached a hilltop as the sun was coming over the hills to the east. Jason called a halt. They headed back towards the highway to check out where they could best set up.
A half mile ahead the hills on each side of the road squeezed close. The road twisted and turned and there were a larger number of wrecked and abandoned cars creating a bottleneck on the southbound lanes. The two of them walked forward along the mountain ridge until they came to a spot where it dropped away to the river below in a steep, rocky cliff. The position presented a clear line of fire to the choke point in the road.
“This looks like a good spot,” Jason said. “We have a clear line of sight to the road ahead. The convoy will have to stop to clear the wrecks. They’ll be vulnerable to our shooting. We may be able to hold them up here for a full day.”
“How far is it?”
Jason took out his spotting scope.
“It’s about a half-mile. Seven hundred and forty yards.”
“That’s getting near the end of my range with the M110.”
“Yeah. It will be difficult shooting. Your scope is set for one hundred yards, correct?”
Catherine nodded.
“Just dial in the correction out to seven hundred yards. You’ll be close and can adjust on the fly from there.”
“Can I do any damage from this distance?” Catherine asked.
“Oh yeah. You can take out tires. You can take down personnel if we need to do that, keep them pinned down. I’ll try to disable some of the vehicles, with the .50 cal. The 107 can carry out to almost two thousand yards, so I’m well in my range. Remember, the farther we shoot from, the safer it is for us.”
They set up their shooting positions and then settled down to wait.
“You go to sleep,” Jason said. “I’ll take watch for three hours.”
Catherine didn’t object and settled herself on the ground as comfortably as she could. Within minutes she was asleep.
The twenty men sent ahead by Kevin stopped on the second day. They had reached eighty-five miles and were at a place where the highway got pinched by a bluff on the east and the river on the west. The median was eliminated to fit the highway through with minimal blasting of the steep slope to the east.
Tommy Wilkes led the advance team. He called a halt and set the men to climbing the ridge. Once on top, he radioed Kevin.
“Mile eighty-five. We’ve stopped. Waiting for you to catch up.”
“Roger that,” came the reply. “We should be there in six hours.”
Few words were used in case Knoxville was on the same frequency.
Tommy had the men set up shooting positions. They were three hundred feet above the roadway. It would be easy shooting. It would also be hard for the opposing force to assault their position.
That same morning General McKenzie got his convoy going after a quick morning meal. He had a half dozen armored personnel carriers, four transport trucks, some loaded with supplies, some with troops. In addition, there were a six Humvees, four of them with .50 caliber machine guns and two of them towing the howitzers. A tanker truck loaded with diesel fuel brought up the rear. The M60 tank had a range of three hundred miles so if there was little maneuvering, it could get to Hillsboro and back on one tank. Two of the personnel carriers were loaded with ammunition for the tank, the howitzers and the men’s rifles. General McKenzie felt satisfied he had what he needed to bring Hillsboro under his control.
The convoy lumbered out. They would be half way to Hillsboro by the end of the day if they didn’t run into too many blockages. He had decided overnight to move the convoy to the other roadway if it was clearer when they came to a blockage. It would save time. Two days on the road with two or three to go would get him to his objective.
“You going to turn the tank loose on the town when we get there?” One of his lieutenants asked.
McKenzie shook his head. “I’ll let the town see it from a distance. I’ll send a messenger out under a white flag to also let them know there are two howitzers dialed in on the town. They won’t see them. I’ll leave those teams behind, about five miles back. It won’t take them many shots to zero in on the town.”
“They won’t stand a chance,” the man said in admiration.
McKenzie noted the tone in his voice. After his victory the whole town would share that admiration and he would be as popular as the Chairman. He’d have more influence o
ver Tom when this was all over.
“They’ll give in after they understand what they’re up against,” McKenzie replied.
“Kind of wish we’d have to use the tank and howitzers,” the lieutenant said.
“You got to witness the few practice shots we took. If we do this without firing another shot that just saves our ammunition for Johnson City or Nashville. You can bet we’ll need to use them there.”
The man smiled.
Chapter 42
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T hat evening, Kevin’s main force joined with Tommy’s team. Kevin sent half of the men, under Rodney Gibbs’ command, across the Pigeon River to climb the hills on the west side of the highway. The others joined Tommy’s advance team.
“You picked a good spot,” Kevin said when they were in position. “It’ll be hard to counter attack us up this slope.”
“I figure we can hold them here for days,” Tommy said with much enthusiasm.
“I wouldn’t count on days, but one day would be good.”
“How’ll they get to us?” Tommy asked.
“The tank’s gun, or the artillery pieces.”
Jason and Catherine kept watch through the morning. Around noon, they both heard the rumble of diesel engines. Jason scanned the road with his binoculars and spotted the convoy coming around a corner over a couple of miles north of their position.
“Here they come,” he said.
Catherine put her earplugs in and lay down at her shooting position.
