by Steven Bird
When they approached, Nate and Jessie could see her eyes were red and full of tears. She looked pale, and her cheeks were sunken from hunger. Reaching for Hank’s bridle with his right hand, Jessie fished around in his pants pocket with his left, retrieving a slice of dried apple. Giving the treat to Hank, he whispered, “Good boy. You did real good, buddy.”
Retrieving the girl from the horse’s back, Nate lowered her gently to the ground and asked, “Are you okay?”
Nodding in reply, the girl put her arms around him and squeezed him tightly.
“It’s okay. They’re not following us anymore,” Nate whispered, patting her gently on the back.
Regaining her composure, the girl stepped back and looked both Nate and Jessie over carefully. “Who… who are you?”
“I’m Nate. This gentleman is Jessie.”
“What… What happened? Why did they do that? Why did they just start shooting us?”
“It’s a long story,” Nate replied. “But unfortunately, it’s not an isolated one.”
With a puzzled look on his face, Jessie asked, “What’s she talking about?”
“Oh, you didn’t know?” Nate replied.
“Hank and I were just looking for a place to stop for water. We were working our way toward that creek when we heard machine gun fire.”
“She,” Nate said explained, gesturing to Britney. “She was with a group of civilian survivors on a government bus. I’m assuming they were told they were being relocated to another government-run survivors’ camp. Is that right?” he asked.
Watching as she nodded in reply, he continued, “Anyway, with the limits on resources being what they are at the present time, the UF…”
“UF?” interrupted Jessie.
“Unified Forces,” Nate grumbled. “With all the bad stuff going down under the UN flag, the foreign occupiers rebranded themselves the Unified Forces in an attempt to get people who didn’t know better to trust them, fooling them into believing they were here to stop the atrocities and abuses that were perpetrated by the blue helmets, instead of having been responsible for them. With no reliable sources of information out there, no TV, internet, or even phone service, all too many people fell for it. I mean, without an avenue for a dissenting opinion, who can tell fact from fiction these days?”
“That’s easy,” Jessie quipped. “If someone from what’s left of the government says it, it’s fiction.”
Nodding in agreement, Nate fumed, “The UF has just enough Americans on board to make it seem like an American-led organization, too, when it’s really the same bunch of globalists. They’re basically hiding right out in the open behind a different label.”
Shaking his head, Jessie grumbled, “Same filthy bastards, different flag.”
“Yep,” Nate confirmed. “Control the food supply, control the people. Anyway, the government-run camps, formerly operated by FEMA, can’t feed, clothe, and provide medical care for the masses. Illnesses that were once all but eradicated have been making a comeback, and some formerly easy-to-treat conditions have become a death sentence due to the lack of available resources.
“They’re slowly but surely filtering out the ones they think can be led or turned, and those who they feel may be threats. The ones labeled as not useful to ‘the cause’ are told they’re being shipped off to a new camp with more resources, but…”
“I get it,” Jessie interjected, sparing the young girl the gruesome details. “What’s your involvement with all this?”
“I’m with a group that’s not putting up with it,” Nate responded matter-of-factly.
“Good man,” Jessie replied. “What group? Who are you with?”
Pausing before answering, Nate replied, “Like I said, just a group that’s not putting up with it.”
Smiling, Jessie shrugged. “Good OPSEC. That’s smart. You just met me. I wouldn’t tell me, either.”
Looking around nervously, Nate admitted, “I guess I can trust you. I mean, we wouldn’t be alive right now otherwise. So, if you could stay with her for a bit, you know, just in case, I’ll be right back. I’ve got to see if any of my guys made it, and I’ve got to try and gather any intel I can on the current situation.”
Nodding, Jessie affirmed, “Of course. We’ll hang tight until nightfall. If you’re not back by then, I’ll get her somewhere safe.”
Reaching out his hand, Nate said, “Thanks. Thanks for everything. I’ll be back.” Turning to leave, Nate paused, looking back at the girl and then Jessie. Taking a deep breath, Nate turned and darted off into the woods in the direction from whence they came.
Looking at the girl, Jessie asked, “What’s your name, miss?”
With her head held low and her eyes looking up at him, she replied. “Britney. But people call me Brit.”
“Nice to meet you, Brit. Let’s get you something to eat. You look hungry.”
~~~~
While Britney rested in the shade beneath a large oak tree, Jessie dutifully stood guard, scanning the surrounding area for potential threats.
Looking her way, he could see the toll the day had taken on her. Her eyes were swollen and red, and the jerky he had given her was still lying next to her, now covered with ants. Not one bite had been taken.
Walking over to her, he knelt down and picked up the jerky, brushing the ants away with his finger. “There won’t be anything left for you if the ants eat it all.” Placing it in a strip of cloth and rolling it up, he placed it next to her and assured her, “It’ll be right here whenever you’re ready to eat.”
Seeing her eyes pass over the jerky and then away, off into the distance, he empathized, “I know it’s not all that appetizing, but once we get a little farther from here, we’ll get you some fresh protein to eat. We need to get moving as soon as Nate gets back. We can’t get too settled in just yet.”
Looking over to the cloth Jessie had wrapped the dried strip of meat in, she picked it up, pulled the cloth back, and took a small nibble. It was more of a symbolic gesture than anything, but it made Jessie feel better nonetheless that she was making an attempt.
Jessie knew all too well the emotional turmoil of having everything important to you stripped away in an instant. He ached in his heart for the young girl, but did his best to conceal his memory-fueled empathy so he could stay strong for her in her time of need.
“Do you think he’s okay?” she asked without even turning her head in Jessie’s direction.
“Well, he seemed like a capable fellow. I have faith in him.”
Just then, Jessie heard a twig snap underfoot in the direction from which they had come. Raising his Marlin.30-30 rifle to the ready position, Jessie saw Nate emerge from the brush, waving his hand to show it was him.
Lowering his rifle, Jessie hurried over to Nate, keeping out of earshot of Britney. “Well?” he asked.
Shaking his head, Nate hesitated. “I couldn’t find any other survivors. None of our guys made it out either.”
“Who exactly is ‘our guys’?” Jessie inquired, still uncertain of who he had been fighting alongside.
“There will be time for that later,” Nate maintained, as he looked to Britney sitting under the oak tree in the distance. “How’s she holding up?”
“She’s quiet and doesn’t seem to have an appetite, but that’s to be expected, I guess. Do you know her or her people?”
“No. Like I said before, I’m with a group that’s just not gonna put up with such things anymore. We’ll get her somewhere stable and safe, and far away from the UF. She can start to heal properly then.” After an awkward pause, Nate determined, “Well, mister. Thanks for the help, but I’d best be getting back to my unit. She and I will be just fine. You can ride along now.”
Taken back by Nate’s sudden dismissal, Jessie advised, “There’s no need to be in a hurry to part ways. For her sake, at least, let me help you get her somewhere safe, and then I’ll continue on as I had planned. But to be honest, I just don’t think it’s wise to split up just yet. She
can ride Hank while we walk. It’ll make things much easier on her.”
Thinking it over for a second, Nate nodded and said, “We’re heading east. What about you?”
“East as well,” Jessie responded.
“Where to?” Nate asked.
“I’m not sure exactly.”
Shooting Jessie a skeptical look, Nate raised an eyebrow and retorted, “So, let me get this straight, you’re not sure exactly where you’re going, but you know it’s east?”
“My sister moved to a homestead in East Tennessee a while before it all went down. We’d been separated by a divorce early in life and hadn’t really kept in touch other than the occasional “like” on a social media post.
“Later on as life got busy, especially when I entered law enforcement and began my political career running for Sheriff of Montezuma County I… I just lost track. Life just got in the way and we drifted further apart.”
“You were a sheriff?” Nate asked with piqued curiosity.
“Yeah, for a while,” Jessie chuckled as he kicked a stone on the ground. “The wave of organized corruption that was sweeping the nation finally caught up with my little out of the way county and I was forced out.”
Getting back on track, Jessie continued, “Then, the attacks began, and the next thing you know, we lost all contact. Since we were mostly communicating via the internet and social media, I never really wrote her address down. I guess, like everyone else at the time, I assumed when and if we went for a visit, we could just ask her for the address and plug it into the GPS. Like many others, we’d gotten out of the habit of actually keeping a paper address book.
“Then, when our online world went dark, it was gone. The few pieces of mail I had received from my sister over the years burned up with the house. I… I wasn’t in my right mind at the time.
“I figured I could just make my way to the general area, then start asking questions. That sounds ridiculous, I know…”
“No, that’s not ridiculous at all,” Nate interrupted, seeing there must be more to Jessie’s story that was haunting him so. “Hell, when it all started, and our cell phones went down, even if I could have found a functioning landline, I wouldn’t have been able to call my parents back east because I didn’t know their number. I didn’t even know my own parent's phone numbers! But why would I? It was saved in my contacts under Mom and Dad, right? And my contacts were backed up in the cloud, so what could possibly go wrong?”
Shaking his head, Nate added, “I know exactly how you feel. I think that level of dependency on technology made our nation ripe for the picking. We had lost touch with the basics on almost every level. We were soft. We were weak. And our guard was down, big time.”
“Did you find them?” Jessie asked, worrying if such a question would tear the scab off a wound in Nate’s heart.
Looking down to the ground and kicking a pine cone, Nate muttered, “One of them.”
Replying with only a nod, Jessie looked up at the sun, noting its position in the sky. “Let’s put a little more distance between us and… um… the scene,” he suggested, gesturing in the direction of the massacre.
Thinking it over for a moment, Nate looked Jessie squarely in the eye and said, “I suppose your horse will make things easier on her. For now, at least.”
Nodding, Jessie said, “I’ll get Hank ready to go. I’m sure he’ll enjoy having a thin young girl like Britney on his back instead of me for a while. He deserves a much needed break, too.”
“Britney?” Nate sighed as he shook his head. “Is that her name? I… I never even took a minute to ask. Everything was happening so fast.”
Putting his hand on Nate’s shoulder, Jessie smiled and assured him, “You had your priorities. You did everything you needed to do when you had to do it. A proper introduction would have come in due time.”
Chapter Three
As Jessie made his final preparations with Hank, he looked over his shoulder to see Nate keeping a keen eye on their surroundings. “So, do you have a desired course or path you want to follow? I won’t ask you for specifics, just give me something to go on.”
Removing a well-worn map from his pocket, Nate unfolded it and pointed at their location, saying, “We’re currently eight or nine miles west of Dandridge. My goal is to get us across the bridge on TN-92, right there, to get south of Douglas Lake. There’s another small road we’ll meet up with to head east from there. If we head south through the woods from here, we’ll come out in the back pasture of one of the small farms that line the south side of the hills. Once we get there, we’ll need to find a place to cross I-40.”
Looking over their options, he then noted, “We could go around Douglas Lake by going due south and through Sevierville, but I’d rather avoid the population there if we can.”
“Sounds good to me,” Jessie concurred. “And I agree. Avoiding population centers is how I’ve stayed alive while traveling as far as I have.”
With Hank tacked up and ready to go, Nate led Britney over to Jessie and the horse, saying, “Jessie and I will walk. You can ride Hank. Jessie will lead him, of course. All you have to do is go along for the ride.”
Responding with only a distant gaze, Britney walked over to the eight-year-old lineback dun horse and Jessie reached for her hand. Placing her hand on the back of Hank’s neck, Jessie explained, “Put your foot in the stirrup and boost yourself straight up and over. Don’t worry, you won’t hurt him by hanging onto the back of his neck or his mane.”
“Why not use the handle?” she asked, pointing to the saddle horn.
With a smile, Jessie said, “That’s for rope. If you use it as a handle while mounting, the saddle will shift toward you. It’s best to just place your hand here,” he said again, pointing to the base of Hank’s neck.
“Now,” he continued, looking her in the eye to ensure she was listening. “If, for whatever reason, you and Hank end up away from Nate and me, here’s how you can get him to do what you want. To turn left, pull back lightly on his left rein to apply pressure to the bit. Not much, though, as too much pressure can cause him pain and get more of a reaction than you want. He’s generally a compliant fellow, so be gentle. If he refuses, he’s probably got a good reason. If you want him to make a tight turn, block the side of him where you don’t want him to go with pressure from your leg, and open your other leg, pulling it away from his body, on the side you want him to turn. Think of it as putting up a gate on the side you don’t want him to go.
“To get him going, just nudge him slightly with your heels. To get going in more of a hurry, use more force. Don’t kick him, though. Just think of it as if you’re talking to him with your feet. To stop him, start by applying forward pressure to both stirrups as if you’re applying the brakes in a car while saying whoa. If you need more, pull back slightly on both reins as well.”
Looking at the stirrups, Jessie said, “Here, let me adjust these for you,” as he loosened the Blevins buckles before adjusting them to match her size. “There, put your feet in now and let’s see how it fits you.”
Doing as he asked, Britney nodded, indicating to him that the adjustments were acceptable.
“Okay, then,” Jessie nodded as he cradled his .30-30 across his chest with it resting in the bend of his left arm. “Come on, boy,” Jessie said as he started walking.
Britney was startled when Hank immediately began following along behind Jessie. She gripped the reins tightly and said, “I thought you were going to lead him?”
“I am,” Jessie answered with a smile. “He follows me like a dog. Even if you tried to turn him away, he’d protest and try to follow me anyway. Just relax and rest the reins loosely around the saddle horn. Just go with the flow and let him do the rest.”
“I’ll follow along about fifty yards back, covering our six,” Nate called softly to Jessie as he began to slow and fall back.
“Sounds good to me,” Jessie affirmed as he turned and focused on the terrain ahead of him.
As Jess
ie walked through the woods in the direction Nate had suggested, Hank followed along, keeping a keen eye on him just as Jessie had predicted.
Turning to look back, he could see that Nate was dropping back to follow in the distance. Keeping some space between them would allow Nate to both identify and respond to a threat approaching from their rear without immediately endangering Britney, as well as being able to respond to a situation as an independent force if a threat were to emerge ahead of them.
A side benefit of their separation, as Jessie saw it, was to keep the inevitable conversation to a minimum, helping them keep their eyes and ears on their surroundings. After all, they were still relatively close to the scene of the ambush.
After a few minutes of relative calm, Jessie heard the tell-tale thumping of a helicopter’s main rotor off in the distance. That’s a big one, he thought as he signaled Nate to take cover in the rear. Turning his attention to Britney, Jessie jogged over to Hank, taking hold of his bridle and quickly leading him and Britney into the thick of the woods.
“What is it?” she sheepishly asked.
When he pointed to his ear, she nodded, noticing the beat of the rotors as the helicopter drew near.
Within seconds, the helicopter flew overhead at a high rate of speed, barely clearing the treetops as it zoomed by at a very low-level.
“Was that a…?” Jessie mumbled aloud as Nate joined up with them.
“Gotta get moving,” Nate insisted.
“Was that a Hind?” Jessie stammered.
“Yep. We’ve dealt with those things before, and I don’t intend to again. They’ll mess your day up in a hurry. They’re also probably dropping off a few hunters on foot.”
“Hunters?” Jessie queried.
“Those things can hold up to eight soldiers in the back. My guess is they’re responding to what happened back there. They’ll drop what they call hunters, which are foot soldiers, trained in advanced tracking techniques, equipped for light and fast movement. They flush out their prey by keeping it on the move, then they radio in and the Hind comes back and rains hell on their prey from above. It’s a tactic they employ to keep us insurgent types afraid to make a hit. They come in fast and hard, and more often than we would care to admit, run us to our graves. So, get moving! Get her out of here. I’ll throw them off if they come our way. Just meet up with me on the other side of the lake!”
