by Zack Finley
As fate would have it, all my mission choices were currently in FOB Justice. They promised to return with the Valley work party.
Zeke also called in several team members to help prep all the vehicles for the journey. Each ninja had saddlebags with its flexible solar panels and chargers tucked into them. They also contained an auxiliary vest we could wear that allowed us to extend the ride time during the day if the sun was shining. We expected to drive all night and recharge and recon all day. The auxiliary vest would just be spread out beside the main charging panels for this trip. The guys took each system out and confirmed it was clean and ready for the journey.
The guys hooked up the two ninja trailers and drove them around for a few circuits in the valley, just to make sure they worked properly. The five ninjas we were taking with us were plugged in to ensure their charge was topped off.
Our two pickups were gassed up with five full gas cans, and an empty ninja trailer stashed in each one. After some consideration, Zeke included ammo cans in each for the M4s. Each pickup had mounts for two ninjas.
Either Joel or Razor would bring sniper gear. Each was a better sniper than either Tom or me.
The latest word out of Justice was that one of the Gammas was a hotshot boat driver, having taken a cruiser on the Intracoastal Waterway from Louisiana to Florida last summer. That experience trumped the rest of us. The Gamma was going to be a key contributor to this mission. The Rangers would provide the fire support.
The arrival of our contingent from Justice seemed more like a party than preparation for a dangerous mission. That told me everyone was loose and morale was good.
I asked Tom to double check everyone’s medical bags. Tom drilled us often enough on what was in them and what to do if we were wounded while waiting for him to come. Some teams had each soldier pack their own. Since the bag was mostly for the medic, I had a different point of view. This larger bag was mounted on our back, in the same place for us all. It was accessible to either the medic or a buddy.
Each of us carried our personal kit in the front part of our plate carrier. This was a much smaller bag, with our tourniquets, Israeli battle dressings, hemostatic gauze, the newer xstat plunger, duct tape, plus a few other items. Everyone carried this in a slightly different location, but it had to be accessible to either hand. Some of the guys carried extra tourniquets as well.
While I was making sure Tom knew what I wanted, Zeke brought the Gamma boat driver over. I was surprised it was a woman.
“Hi, Allie,” I said shaking her hand. “Welcome to the mission. I’m about to brief everyone on it. Be sure to ask questions if you have any.”
When I moved to the armory table where Zeke had the maps laid out, I was not surprised to see every Beta assigned to the Valley. I welcomed their help with planning the mission.
I summarized the proposed plans. The silence in the room was unusual. I looked up, and most faces looked shocked. Razor and Joel reacted first with high fives. To be surrounded only seconds later by their teammates, who were patting them on the backs.
“We go from wally-world to this,” I heard from more than one person. The only one who stayed stunned was Allie.
I thumped the table and regained control. “Any suggestions or observations?” I asked.
“Are you sure you don’t need everyone?”
“How come Joel and Razor get to go?”
“Man, I should have spent more time learning how to drive a boat.”
I thumped the table again, “Seriously guys, any input into the plan?”
“Our gasoline is stabilized, but we may need to goose any we find,” Joel said. “All the lighter molecules evaporate that makes it much harder for an engine to start. Any boat we find has probably been sitting since September. If we are lucky, they put a stabilizer in.”
“Do you need to bring a few tools?” I asked.
“Yeah, I’ll limit the weight and put them in one of the trailers, with the gas additive,” said Joel. “Do we have any marine oil? Most older boat engines need it.”
“Take a look when you grab the tools and additive,” I said.
“It won’t be optimal, but we can probably use the same oil we mix for chainsaws if I can’t find any better,” Joel said.
“You planning on running at night only on the roadways?” asked Tom.
“Yeah, two or three ninjas in front, scouting for the pickups. I want to avoid confrontations,” I said. “But, I think we’d better travel on the river during the day, no way to scout ahead.”
“I want to put a winch on the front of one of the trucks,” Zeke said. “Plus, some lengths of chain and a couple of snatch blocks before you go.”
“Why?” I asked.
“If you can get by unmanned roadblocks without having to abandon the trucks, then you should. Some of the less traveled roads may just have trees down. With a winch, you can get out of there quick. Besides, I’ve wanted to outfit those trucks better,” Zeke said. “You should also take three ball sizes for your trailer hitch. You never know when you’ll need bigger balls.”
“What?” I asked
“I suspect any boat you find will have either a 2-inch, a 2 5/16-inch or a 1 3/8-inch ball,” Zeke said. “Since we don’t know what size boat you may find, not having the right ball size would be problematic.”
“I thought you were making a joke,” I said.
“I don’t know if we have all three sizes,” Zeke said, still quite serious. “But I’ll get you at least one other size if I can find it.” He paused and grinned. “If I wasn’t so serious, I could definitely make a really great joke about this.”
“I’ll pass this time,” I said.
“Take some camo netting to cover the trucks,” Mike said. “It will come in handy when you ditch them and when you are waiting for dark.”
“I need a sniper for this op between Razor and Joel,” I said. “Decide between you. Whoever is the designated sniper, get with Zeke and pick out your sniper gear. I don’t think we have room for a ghillie suit, but short of that.”
“Pistols need to be silent, so everyone swap out pistols and magazines with Zeke,” I said.
“Should we bring wire traps?” Tom asked. “If we have to walk all the way down to Helena, it could take a few weeks, but it will be pretty rural, so rabbits should be plentiful.”
“Who are the best trappers?” I asked of my ops team.
“I probably am, Razor is next,” Tom confessed.
“Then you two should take traps,” I said. “Good recommendation.”
“How are we going to learn if Andy’s family moves somewhere else?” asked Joel.
“We’ll arrange for him to leave us a coded message at each one of his camps,” I said. “Other than that we are in the dark ages.”
Zeke said, “Remember you have a jack on each truck, you should take one with you when you abandon the trucks. They can come in mighty handy. Also, swap out those ninjas every few hours and allow the trucks to charge them. That way you have fully charged ninjas until you have to park the trucks.”
The guys thought both ideas were good.
I told those on the mission to gear up, letting Zeke assist Allie with some new equipment. I was hoping to leave very soon after speaking with Andy. I told them to plan on meeting back at the armory at 22:30 in full rattle.
I left to shower, spend some time with my girls, and prep my own gear. The kids and granny were all in the family room when I came in after my shower.
Melissa crawled into my lap when I sat in my recliner. I knew this was a phase she’d grow out of any minute, but I’d hate it when it came. Jennifer was still reading the book granny found for her, while Ellie, Joe, and Billy were playing a board game I didn’t recognize. Having Ellie take part at all was a significant step forward.
Not wanting to jinx it by saying anything, I just chatted quietly with Melissa about her day. She was a little downhearted today. Uncle George told her to pick two of her best hens to transfer to Justice and one of
her best goats. He gave her a few days to consider it, but that she needed to decide by the time the new chicken coops and goat pens were ready.
I got to hear a full analysis of each goat and hen from my 10-year-old’s perspective. I cuddled Melissa and reminded her about the new hens and goats she’d get instead. I could tell she was already working through the benefits of giving Justice her two most ornery hens. Once her perspective changed, she returned to her cheery self. Just before light’s out, I got my kids together and told them I was leaving tonight on a mission that might last several weeks.
That was met with stone-cold silence from Jennifer and shrieks of anger from Melissa. I knew we’d all just gotten over my injury and this was not a good time, emotionally. I explained that I needed to help get Andy’s family to safety. But there was no give in either of them. Eventually granny took them to their room, leaving me feeling like a heel. Suddenly my reasons for going weren’t so clear anymore.
The mission still needed to be done, so I went into the basement and fixed my travel rucksack, with bag, poncho, hygiene items, dry socks, underwear, and raingear. I’d put in food, spare batteries, and spare magazines when I picked them up from the armory. My plate carrier held my main fighting gear tucked into pouches and pockets on my front and sides. It also had my camelback. My large first aid kit went into the ruck when I was riding or driving in a vehicle. Most of the rest I carried on it stayed.
I went in to kiss the girls goodnight before I left. Melissa was sound asleep, but Jennifer was still reading in her bunk. Ellie was probably asleep. I kissed Melissa and stood next to Jennifer, trying to think of something more to say. There wasn’t much I could tell her and just leaned in to kiss her on the forehead.
She shocked me, throwing her arms around me and holding me tight. Her quiet sobs kicked me in the chest and made it very hard to breathe. “I’ll be back soon, honey. Don’t cry. I’ll be back soon. I love you, Jennifer. It will be okay. I have to go. Take care of Melissa for me.”
With great gentleness, I pried loose from her grip. It broke my heart to leave her there sobbing softly.
My eyes weren’t dry either.
I was only a few minutes early for the transmission. Sally was there, though we all knew it wasn’t her shift. It was no surprise that Roger, Carmine, and Audrey were there already. My dad came in with me. The hut was quite crowded, and I realized that my mom wasn’t there for that reason.
“River hangout to the Valley,” crackled over the radio, right on time.
“Valley here,” Sally responded.
“Hi Valley, this is Andy. We need help,” I could tell from Carmine’s face this was Andy’s voice.
“Roger Andy, what help do you need.”
“We have a group of 20 unable to cross the Mississippi River. We have two wounded and eight civilians.”
“Andy, what is your code word?”
“Baloney,” Andy said. Now we knew he wasn’t under duress and Roger relaxed slightly.
“What is your situation?”
“My group got attacked outside this town. We had four KIA and two wounded. They got most of our supplies.”
“Roger that,” Sally said, just to keep him talking.
“These nice people agreed to phone home. But we can’t stay.”
“Where will you go?”
“Where the St. Francis River meets the Mississippi,” Andy said. “We’ll leave a message in the approved way.”
I slipped Sally a note.
“Can we attempt a bridge crossing?” Sally read.
“Negative. Negative. Neither Mississippi or Arkansas want any company.”
“What medical care do you need?” Sally read the note from Dr. Jerrod, who’d slipped in while I wasn’t watching.
“Two gunshot wounds. One to the head and one to the shoulder.”
“We have an expedition leaving tonight. No ETA possible,” Sally said.
“Thanks, Valley. Sorry for not coming sooner, Out.”
Sally tried to reconnect, but the other operator was done.
I had all the information I was going to get. Now, all we had to do was make it across two rivers and find a boat, drive down the Mississippi River and reverse it.
◆◆◆
Chapter 8
Back at the armory, I updated my team. As expected, Zeke was there to help everyone get their final packs ready. I increased the amount of freeze-dried food we were carrying and added a second rocket stove and pot.
Tom was concerned about the wounded and was fine-tuning his medical gear, although how he could squeeze anything more in his pack was a mystery.
We would probably be splitting up. There was no way we’d find a boat that could hold all 25 people. While a tug might carry that many, it was probably more boat than we could handle.
I wasn’t even sure we could find a boat that could make it in just two trips.
Our strategy on getting to the Mississippi River had to change, too. With wounded and children on the return trip, we’d probably leave vehicles staged at roadblocks.
“Zeke, scramble three more Betas,” I said. “Add a third pickup, three ninjas, and a trailer. Five isn’t enough to cover two trips. With the wounded, we can’t hold everyone at a base camp while we make the second run downriver. We need more water and ammo. I’d hoped to bring the kids out on our ninjas, but with the wounded, we need a car or truck to move them.
Craig, Mike, and Ben arrived within 20 minutes, fully rucked.
Razor shouted, “Hallelujah! Craig and Ben are here. Now I won’t need to be the sniper.” Razor was eager to hand off his Mk 17 SCAR LB with the long barrel to Ben. Although we all knew if someone were going high, it would be Craig.
In a lot less time than I feared we were ready to go. My dad dropped in to see us off. There wasn’t much to say. I tried to shake his hand, but he just gave me a big bear hug.
We were only running two ninjas on lead, with our three trucks behind. I drove one of the pickups with Allie riding shotgun. I thought it would give us some time to get to know one another. I’d seen her at PT and sometimes at meals. The guys respected her enough to tease her. I took that as a good sign.
We brought one of the FRS radios to contact Justice when we got within 30 miles on our way back, but it was useless for anything else. We were now totally on our own. No sat link, no GPS. No bird standing by for retrieval. No resupply.
It was scary and exhilarating. Not quite as crazy as defusing a bomb by the side of the road, but close. I certainly felt alive.
Our route led to Oneida and then to TN-297 to get across the South Fork of the Cumberland River. We’d then take Basin Road to skirt north of Jamestown. All of that assumed the roads were passable. We wanted to thread the needle below Dale Hollow Lake and cross the Cumberland River at Celina. Then it was feeling our way north of Nashville and just south of the Kentucky border. We’d be home free if either US-79 or US-68 were open across the Cumberland and Tennessee rivers.
We’d have to leave the trucks behind and take someone’s boat if those were blocked. We were heading for the town of Hickman, Kentucky. By then we’d be towing a boat if we were lucky.
Allie had our gazetteer map set for Tennessee. While we had detailed maps of surrounding counties, we only had two full sets of detailed maps of the state. My mom just gave it to us after I swore we’d bring it back. Allie was charged with marking locations of roadblocks and the like on the maps. Her secondary job was to find a way around any block. Not easy to do with night vision in a bouncy truck. We’d established if the scouts saw a block they’d check for warm bodies and determine whether we could squeeze by, perhaps with a little persuasion.
If not, they would scout for a way around, with input from Allie. Even if main roads were blocked, there was a network of roads and trails which wouldn’t be. Except across those main rivers.
We sailed through Oneida at 40 mph and out on TN-297 with the ninjas in the lead, followed by Allie and me, then the last two pickups. We went past
the place I scouted for a possible roadblock that we never put in. This was the farthest distance away from the Valley I’d been since the crash.
I breathed a bit easier once we crossed the South Fork at Leatherman Ford. It hadn’t been a ford for years, having a bridge now. It was a straightforward place to block and would have required a significant detour to find another way across.
This was a beautiful drive in the spring and fall, especially. Although not so much tonight with night vision.
A few vehicles were just abandoned at the side of the road. Some were just parked in the traffic lane. I suspected they just drove their car as far as its fuel could take them and then got out to walk. Most cars appeared to have been left shortly after the crash, based on the level of grunge on the windshields.
