by AJ Newman
Charlie said, “Sorry, but you have excellent taste. There aren’t many women in our group, and the women soldiers are a bit crusty.”
I thought we needed to get back to bombs. “Charlie, come with me and see if our delivery system meets your needs.”
Charlie and I walked around the corner of the barn engaged in conversation when I heard the snap of the sling and swoosh on the jug heading downrange. Charlie’s jaw dropped when he saw the jug launch skyward and then hit the target about four hundred feet away.
“Holy shit! I eat my words and apologize. How did you come up with this?”
I said, “Our young warriors made the prototypes based on ancient weapons from a history class. Our mechanics are busy making more robust versions.”
Charlie examined the slingshot. “Is that as far as it will shoot?”
Mark snickered, winched the leather pocket back, and raised the elevation slightly. He tripped the trigger, and the jug sailed fifty feet above the previous target and was still climbing. Charlie stood there, shaking his head in disbelief.
I said, “Now, fill the jugs with gasoline and add a way to ignite them when they hit the ground, and we’ll have real bombs.”
Charlie grinned, “I have a bunch of bombs made up and can quickly add igniters to your milk jugs. I can make fertilizer bombs too. Eight pounds of ammonium nitrate and diesel fuel will blow a bunch of raiders to hell. The General will be pleased you have these slingshots. They could solve one of our largest issues.”
I said, “We’ll have to find a better test range. I can’t bomb the pasture where my cows and horses graze.”
Charlie rubbed his chin. “I have the perfect place to test the artillery. We have some major issues with a gang in south Nashville. I think the locals call it Antioch. How soon can we take one of these up there and test it out on our mutual enemy up there?”
I said, “I don’t think we have the time. The next generation slingshot isn’t ready. We need to head south to find one of your soldiers and one of our ladies the raiders kidnapped.”
Charlie said, “What if we haul this one up there and get it ready to shoot this afternoon, and use it to blast the bastards before we send the troops in before dark? I have some bombs already made up and can fix something to ignite the gasoline bombs very quickly.”
“Okay, but give us an hour to brace the uprights, so they don’t break and kill someone.”
Then Charlie said, “Hey, do you have any single women like yours?”
I said, “None like mine, but we do have some lovely ladies around the camp. In fact, the lady who was kidnapped would be perfect for you. That gives us another reason to find her.”
“That’s great because I’m assigned to your group for quite some time.”
Missy asked a rather astute question. “Charlie, your group controlled Fort Campbell after the fall, didn’t you?”
“Yes. What’s your real question?”
“What happened to the howitzers and cannons?”
Charlie laughed, “It’s really not funny, but in the Fort Commander’s wisdom, he decided to protect the artillery and ammunition from falling into rogue hands. He placed all of the artillery and ammo in the center of the fort. We were attacked, and one little bullet hit a 105-HE shell and blew the whole damned warehouse full of ammo to smithereens. The explosions set the other warehouses on fire, and we lost most of our equipment and supplies.”
☆
Chapter 20
The Walker farm - Walter Hill, Tennessee
I took Charlie to Mom’s deck for lunch with our resistance team. Of course, we didn’t tell him about the group’s goals and spent the time filling him in on our exploits. He told us his story, which started on the night the lights went out. He was on a small commuter plane when the propellers stopped turning. The pilot was able to land the aircraft on Highway 109 north of Lebanon without crashing.
His girlfriend and her parents were on the plane with him, and they walked into Lebanon and spent the night in a barn. The first couple of days were just seeking food and finding a safe place to survive the collapse. Charlie knew what was coming. His girlfriend’s father didn’t believe the situation was that bad and had almost gotten him killed. He’d left the barn and asked a gang member for help. Several gang bangers joined the conversation and forced his girlfriend’s father to take them to his family.
Charlie saw them coming and told his girlfriend and her mom to follow him to safety. Her mom wouldn’t leave her husband, and his girlfriend wouldn’t leave her mom and dad. Even though Charlie knew he didn’t have a chance, he picked up a pipe and met the thugs on the way into the barn. Charlie crushed the skull of the first man and broke the arms of the next one. The remaining two started shooting and killed her dad and mom before Charlie could kill them. He disarmed them and beat them to a pulp.
With no one left to fight, Charlie turned to his girlfriend and found she’d been hit by a stray bullet, and she died in his arms. He started drinking that evening and woke up in the FEMA camp in Kentucky, where he met John Long. Since then, he’d been fighting the gangs and raiders with John’s soldiers.
Mom looked at Charlie in awe. “That’s one hell of a story of survival. I’m afraid we’ll all have more suffering before this disaster is over.”
Maria waited for a few minutes and said, “Jason tells us that we’re going to attack a gang up in Antioch this evening. Do you have enough firepower to make this happen? We’ve heard there are some large gangs up that way.”
Charlie said, “Don’t worry, little lady. The General’s men are up to the task. I have to admit I was a bit worried until I saw that overgrown slingshot. It’ll give us an edge.”
Maria gritted her teeth, and her fists were clenched. “I’m not your little lady, and you’d better be worried. From what we hear, the General has very few battle tested men and women.”
Charlie took another look at Maria and saw her tats on her arms. “Did you serve?”
“Still serving. Jason, Corporal John Long, and I were on the last flight out of Iceland and one of the last flights from Europe. We fought together from Afghanistan to England,” she said.
“Oh shit, you’re that feisty Latin beauty that the General talks about all the time.”
Maria forgot who was around the table said, “If John had spent as much time soldiering as he did trying to get in my pants, he would have been a great soldier instead of a screw-up.”
Mom laughed and didn’t chastise Maria. “Charlie, do you think you can help us improve our ability to kill the enemy faster and more thoroughly?”
Mom’s question surprised Charlie as he watched Mom serve lunch. “Ma’am, your crew has a jump on the rest of us on how to deliver explosives to the enemy. I can deliver the explosives to you to drop on the bastards.”
Mom smiled. “Good, I like dead bastards.”
I said, “Charlie, shouldn’t we be on our way to Antioch?”
“Yes, just waiting on my guys to hitch up the trailer with the slingshot and fill the ammo jugs with gasoline. Maria, why don’t you join us?”
Mom saw that Maria wanted to go, so she said, “Maria’s in charge of our defenses here. Could you leave a sergeant and a couple of men to help protect us while she’s gone?
“Yes, that’s a good idea. I’d like Maria and Jason to see how we handle these people who’ve been attacking our farmers in LaVergne and Smyrna.”
I said, “I’ve asked Mark, Father James, Alex, and Ross to load up some maintenance supplies just in case we need to fix the slingshot. They and a couple of my people will join us. Kat and Michelle, you’ll come with Billie and me, Ross, stay here, and watch over the farm. Let’s roll.”
Antioch, Tennessee
Ninety minutes later, we arrived where Highway 24 crossed Bell Road and took the first Bell Road exit. We started hearing sporadic gunfire coming from the northeast when Charlie said, “George, drive on up to Hickory Hollow Pike and stop.”
Charlie pulled a small wa
lkie-talkie from his pocket and keyed the mic. “Bravo One, this is Dragon One. Sitrep.”
“Bravo Two and Three have fallen back as planned, and the gang thinks they have routed us. They’re around the building with the blue metal roof. Our men are in the first building east of their location. You’re clear to fire. I’ll call if the situation changes.”
Charlie turned to us and said, “Get the dragon ready to belch some fire.”
I said, “Kat, keep MMax in the Humvee. I don’t think you want to see this.”
Kat reluctantly got back in the vehicle as I’d told her but didn’t stay there long. We aimed the back of the trailer to the target, and Charlie handed Mark a gasoline-filled jug. Mark asked, “Is that a fuse?”
Charlie lit the fuse and said, “It’s about four hundred and fifty feet to the building. Get ready to lob this one dead center, and the next eight are to be shot, long and wide by twenty-five feet each way. Let’s shoot and keep shooting until my forward observer says to stop. We want to blanket the area. No one survives to give away our new weapon.”
Mark had drawn the jug back to the mark on the yardstick for four hundred and fifty feet and yanked the lanyard. Charlie handed him another jug, lit the fuse, and Mark launched the second. The jugs took off with the fuse sputtering. Then the first jug hit the backside of the building on the roof, which burst in flames. Mark saw the fire leap skyward and froze for a few seconds. He was in awe that his slingshot had actually worked, but was horrified when he thought about burning people alive.
The second jug was the short one and hit in the parking lot a few feet from the front door. Again, the jug shattered with gas spewing everywhere. There was a small explosion as the vaporized gas ignited, which shattered the building’s windows.
Charlie said, “Mark, wake up. Yes, it’s terrible, but please remember what these thugs would do to your mom and girlfriend if they captured them.”
I watched through my binoculars and could see the enemy troops running from the first blast only to be covered in burning gas. There were dozens of men and women trying to flee the burning building and parking lot. I could see their burning clothes and mouths open to scream, but I was too far away to hear them.
Three more jugs were launched before Charlie handed Mark a jug with a fuse and a blasting cap attached. “I’ll light this as soon as you have it ready. We’ll have to try a couple before we can get an airburst. Aim for five hundred feet.”
The first jug blew up a hundred feet from the target and was close enough to the General’s men to push them back toward us. The second and third jugs were on target and rained burning napalm down on about a dozen of the enemy hiding behind cars. I yelled, “You made napalm! We wanted to makes some for our new slingshot.”
Charlie smiled. “I have a few more tricks up my sleeves.”
At any one time, there were three jugs in the air, and Charlie’s troops fed them more jugs from the back of a pickup. Charlie yelled, “Now, some HE!”
The man handed Charlie a thing that looked like a pipe bomb. Mark placed it in the leather pocket while Charlie lit the fuse. The pipe tumbled end over end and didn’t go as far as the jugs. It exploded at the front door of the building and blew down half of the front wall. Mark added a hundred feet to his guess on distance, and Charlie loaded another pipe bomb into the device.
Mark yanked the lanyard five more times, shooting more of the bombs over to the building. The first one hit the ground behind the building and exploded, throwing two cars tumbling across the parking lot. We increased the range and finished off the remaining raiders who were trying to flee north.
We stopped lobbing pipe bombs, and Charlie gave his troops orders. “Sweep the area for survivors and kill them. Men, gather any weapons and ammo that aren’t burned all to hell.”
***
MMax lay at his human’s feet while the thing made all the noise, and the other humans cheered. He’d almost fallen asleep when the wind picked up, and he caught the smell of an unknown human. MMax stood up, snuck around the trailer, and scanned the side of the road for danger. He saw some weeds move and then saw a glint of light coming from the grass.
MMax barked loudly, leaped over the guardrail, and ran down the drainage ditch. By staying in the ditch, the man couldn’t see MMax advancing to the man’s position. MMax came up behind the man and soared to the man’s throat with his mighty jaws. MMax sank his teeth deep into the man when suddenly there was an explosion of fire and MMax rolled down the hill with his fur singed.
Before MMax stopped rolling, there was an explosion about a hundred feet past his human. MMax saw his human was still standing and ran up the hill to him. The attacker’s throat had been ripped open, and he had bled to death.
MMax stopped beside Jason and licked the blood from his lips.
***
I heard the bark and saw MMax take off down the ditch. I looked for any danger as the slingshot kept lobbing hell down on the raiders. I heard a whoosh above his head and turned to see the RPG slam into the side of a building. I knew MMax had saved them from certain death, even though I still didn't see the dead man. MMax ran to my side. “Good boy. You saved us.”
The others saw the explosion but didn’t know how close to death they’d been.
Charlie’s men cleared the area and confirmed that all of the combatants were dead. We drove over to the target building, and even I was horrified at the carnage. Kat walked around, pointing at what she called crispy critters, but Mark and Father James vomited, and I had to try to keep from hurling my lunch. Men and women were burned beyond recognition. The area smelled like a burned pork roast, and the building and several cars were still on fire.
I had to give myself a mental pep talk to justify this slaughter. I had always convinced myself that I was killing the enemy of my country before, but now I was killing criminals who would slit my throat and do unspeakable things to Kat and the other women. It had to be done, whether it was a bullet, knife, or fire. We couldn’t let the animals take over the world and make it unfit for regular God-fearing people.
Charlie gathered my people together. “Look, we all know this was a terrible way to die. These people were killing or enslaving the local people. It was kill or be killed. We killed them.”
Father James said, “I know this has to be done, but I won’t help with making any more weapons of war.”
The ride back to the farm was silent. MMax lay across my lap and tried to make me feel better. Even he knew I was sad and feeling bad. Kat put her head on my shoulder and didn’t say anything. I kept my thoughts to myself until we jumped out of the Humvees in our driveway.
I said, “I want everyone to put a smile on their face and celebrate this major victory. Father, you can do what you want, but there are now about seventy less rapists, criminals, and thugs in this world. It doesn’t matter how we killed them. It only matters that we did kill them and have hundreds more to kill before this is over. We have to get better at killing, or we will be killed. I don’t want to lose any more of our people. Not one!”
Everyone agreed, but all had frowns. “I must add that during the attack on the enemy, MMax saved our lives by stopping a raider from shooting an RPG into our group. We owe MMax our lives.”
Charlie added, “While we were busy lobbing fire down on the bastard’s heads, one man slipped through our guards with an RPG. MMax is now my hero.”
***
I had planned to lead a mission to seek out and destroy the raiders’ forward base over toward Lascassas the next morning after we’d torched the invaders up in Antioch, but the slingshot wasn’t ready. Ross and Rick had worked through the night to have it operating on time but had some last minute hitches to fix. They had a crew busy cutting the pieces to fabricate two more of the monster slingshots so we could trade them to the General’s men for ammo and other items we needed at the farm.
Mom invited Charlie to breakfast, along with the resistance team. I’d asked everyone to avoid talking about the burned enemy and t
he devastation we rained down on the gang. It was okay to talk about our upcoming mission but no ‘crispy critter’ talk. The group was uncharacteristically quiet that morning until Mark said, “I don’t care what people think. Killing those creeps before they kidnap or kill any more of our people was a good thing.”
Kat got up and hugged Mark from behind. “Mark’s right. You all know I was attacked by some evil men early on after the lights went out. I’d kill every one of the bastards, and I don’t care if they died in agony.”
I banged my spoon on my glass. “Of course, Mark and Kat are right about killing them. The only problem is that we can’t bomb them from thirty thousand feet or fifteen miles away with artillery. The ancient weapons make the killing very personal. I’ve killed hundreds of the enemy with my rifle or knife, but never more than a couple at a time. Killing seventy-five in a few minutes made me sick. I don’t want our young folks exposed to this mass killing.”
Missy said, “That ship has sailed, Jason. We’ve all lived through constant attacks by thugs and the raiders. We’ve all killed to survive. Hell, we survived that psychopath who tracked Billie to the farm. He butchered several of our loved ones and even killed our dog, Tina. The best we can hope for is killing every asshat now and saving our unborn children from this nightmare. I say kill them all now and save our future generations. Stab, shoot, or burn them all.”
Missy’s speech woke us up to reality, and we all clapped. Charlie gave her a pat on the back and said, “We need strong women like Missy and the others around this table in the General’s group to survive. This war will take a generation to win.”
Father James had walked up just before Missy had spoken. He listened, and he found new resolve to protect his flock. “Everyone, I was sickened by the horrendous scene yesterday and swore I’d never help make that happen again. That was probably the right thing to do as a priest; however, it won’t keep my flock alive. From now on, I’ll help design and fabricate weapons, but won’t kill anyone myself. I’ll also train others to make the weapons so I won’t have to unless it’s an emergency. Missy is right; we have to end this madness before the next generation is old enough to know this horror.”
