Her heart skipped a few beats. “But they couldn’t take out the dam, could they?”
Meechum thought it over for a few seconds. It was another hesitation of hers, though not as long as before. “Nah, something this big could withstand all of that.”
“So, what do you recommend we do? We can’t run across the dam to the elevator if they’re going to blow it up.”
Meechum took a deep breath. “For the record, I recognized my mistake, okay? But also for the record, if we hadn’t been over here, we might not have noticed this new threat. So, let’s call it even?”
“I trust you, Meech. Tell me what you need me to do.”
The sound of battle had died down. The smoke had almost cleared. Meechum pulled out her little radio. “Colonel. The enemy is using laser guidance to target the middle of the dam. It’s probably going to be something big to push you out of your strong point. Get your men out of there.”
Avery soon replied. “Understood. You do the same. Out.”
After securing the radio, Meechum took a deep breath, as if she had something important to say.
Kyla waited for a few seconds but immediately became impatient. “What is it?”
“I have to tell you something…”
Based on the Marine’s body language, it was going to be very bad news.
Colorado Springs, CO
The town of Colorado Springs was a gold mine of resources. David’s people seemed to have cleared out after the nuclear attack, not that Ted blamed them. It left them a whole city to plunder.
Rando and his crew sacked a local mall because it was, as one petty dictator’s aide claimed, filled with the riches of the capitalists. While distracted by the flashy trinkets of Old America, he and his friends went to the local gun shop to get the real valuables.
He and Emily still had possession of the rifles they’d taken from the gun dealer in Westby, Montana, although they’d lost all the others when they’d parked the Humvee in between the inner and outer doors of NORAD. Now was his chance to stock up on all the high-performance weaponry he could carry and put it in the new Jeep Wrangler he’d borrowed from the waterfall place.
“What should we get here, boss?” one of Jacob’s men asked him. He’d thought of his people in three groups. Him and Emily were his trusted circle. Tabby and her two friends, plus maybe the bird guy, were folks he could do business with. Jacob and the other people who had been David’s prisoners were his C-group. He didn’t fully trust them, but they all shared a common goal.
He glanced over, surprised to be called the boss. “I’d stick with AR platforms if possible. We’re not likely to find many of the same exact model, but if we use the same platform, we can share ammo. That, to me, is the most important thing right now. What do you do if you get into a firefight inside enemy territory and need to ask your buddy for ammo? If you’re carrying a giant sniper rifle using fifty-cal cartridges, you can’t expect anyone to have spares for you.”
The man looked at him as if he’d been speaking Chinese.
“Here. Get guns that look like this.” He pulled a plain-looking AR-15 off the shelf and pointed to the box-like middle. “Note how the receiver looks like this. It will help you distinguish it from other types of rifles.”
The man brushed at his white-and-orange jumpsuit, prompting Ted to mention one other thing. “And you guys should find some new clothes. There’s plenty of tactical pants and shirts here for sport shooting. Get something black so you’ll blend in with David’s people.” He thought about what he’d said. “Blend in again, I mean.”
While his friends picked the place apart, he snooped around the showroom. There was the usual supply of paper targets, slings, and lockboxes, but there was also a lot of survival gear. He started to gather supplies in a camouflaged backpack when he spotted something useful to him at the moment.
“Holy crap.” He grabbed the box and yanked out the device. “Em, check this out.”
When she came over, he turned it on, aimed it at her, and literally held his breath. When the needled didn’t move, he pointed the thing at himself, then exhaled loudly as if he’d been told he had a few more years to live. The Geiger counter had stayed silent.
“We’re clean?” she asked.
“Yes. It seems like it. I’ve been dreading this moment since we walked through the water back in the bunker. We’re going to carry this with us wherever we go from now on.”
She patted him on the shoulder. “Good thinking. I’m assuming you got what you wanted for guns. What do you want me doing?”
He motioned her over to the pistol counter. “Pick one of these that feels comfortable. I’d recommend a nine-mill, at least. While you do this, I’m going to keep an eye on the front of the store. I still don’t trust Rando’s people not to do something stupid, like trying to kill us.”
“I’ll do my best,” she assured him. The woman was full of confidence, and she’d been concealed carrying a revolver the day they met on Air Force Two, so he had faith she’d find a suitable everyday carry. As he walked to the front door, he did a quick count of his force and came up with the number twelve. Besides him and Emily, and the man Jacob, he didn’t know any of the other nine. What he did know was they would be badly outnumbered when Rando and his pack came back from the mall.
Ted was again faced with the prospect of ditching Rando. The mall was across the street, so it would be easy to hop in the Jeep and speed away, but he wasn’t sure it was the right move. Jacob’s men weren’t going to cut it by themselves. They couldn’t even identify a common rifle by sight. He needed men who knew how to fight and Rando’s people, despite where they’d come from, unexpectedly seemed like his only hope for saving America.
“Ugh,” he groaned, not sure he wanted the burden of going to war with such a force.
C-5 Galaxy over Africa
It took several flight hours for the action to settle down enough for Priscilla to think about the horrors she’d witnessed. London had been nuked, that much was certain, though the radio broadcast from David had said it was because Americans weren’t being kicked out of Europe fast enough. At least she’d done her part, getting the huge transport off the British Isles.
Once they escaped from there, she’d had to hug the border between Germany and France, and then Switzerland and France, before finally making it over the Mediterranean. Her aircraft transponder said she was a British-owned vehicle, though she knew it was false. She suspected the other countries knew it as well.
She picked up the internal mic and pressed the button. “Can someone please tell me what the hell is going on? Why am I flying over Africa? Why am I flying at all?”
The glow of dawn was sneaking over the eastern skies, providing the first hint of light above the expanse of the Sahara Desert. She’d been there before, and it had always been beautiful. Life changing, even. But not today.
“I can explain,” a man said from the rear of the flight deck.
“First, tell me why I’m missing my two flight engineers. We should not even be airborne without a proper crew, and as best I can tell from Airman Bell, here, this flight was never properly cleared.”
“Hold up. I’m Brigadier General Paul Oakdale. I’m with US European Command. I want to thank you for stepping in and not asking questions when you came aboard. I can see you went above and beyond.” He pointed to her, obviously highlighting her dress code.
“Yeah, sorry, sir, I wasn’t told to be in uniform. I thought I was taking a boat out to the refugee fleet. A bus driver took me to this bird instead of the transport to the coast.”
Priscilla shifted in her seat to keep an eye on Oakdale as well as the controls. The autopilot on the C-5 was good, but she was two men short and running with an inexperienced co-pilot. She wasn’t leaving her seat for anything besides punching out a hash brown. Even that might not get her moving when a one-star general was her commander.
“I am sorry you were kept in the dark. British authorities were worried about the speed of
our evacuation. Without anyone in the civilian chain of command, it has been difficult to coordinate with them about how we’re planning on exfil. They finally had enough of it and were arresting anyone with an American accent, then throwing them, not literally of course, over the cliffs of Dover.”
“The nuke will speed them up, I’m sure,” she said lamely.
“That’s God’s truth,” he agreed.
“Were they trying to stop this plane?” she asked curiously.
“We took a chance they wouldn’t shoot us down as long as we got out of their airspace. However, once London lit up, we became a suspect, at least until David said his piece.”
Her shoulders slumped. Almost at the snap of her fingers, she realized she’d been up all night. “Sir, who would believe we did that to our own allies?”
His face hardened. “We’re entering a new world order, Major. Without American might to keep the peace across the world, every bad actor and old enemy has begun sharpening their swords against their neighbor. David claimed responsibility for it, but it could have just as easily have been Russia, or China, or any of the jack-in-the-boxes in the Middle East.”
Oakdale was suited in battle dress, which was a woodland OCP suitable for central Europe. The fact they were flying over Africa led to her next point of confusion.
“So why are we on this course? We’re heading into darkest Africa, it seems. How will that help us? The fleet is off the coast of France.” Her husband, Kinkaid, was ferrying men and women across Germany. He was supposed to meet her on a boat out in the sea.
“I’m afraid I can’t tell you right now. All I can say is…and I’m not trying to put any pressure on you…this flight is the most important aircraft currently aloft anywhere in the world. You’ve helped keep the American people in this fight.”
“Great,” she said, sounding less than enthusiastic. “Now find me two engineers to fill those empty seats next to you, and your important aircraft can stay in the air all the way to your destination.” Belatedly, she added, “Sir.”
CHAPTER 13
Eastern Plains of Colorado
Things moved fast once both groups had gotten all they wanted out of Colorado Springs. For Ted and his small band, they’d focused on guns, ammo, and gear to make their assault on David’s underground bunker a lot easier. For Rando and his men, they took a different set of supplies. He and Emily saw one of their vehicles fly by in a blur while driving out of the city.
Emily pointed out the passenger side window of the Jeep. “It looks like those guys are taking the attack seriously.” The bright red pickup truck was lifted, with huge chrome wheels and massive tires. The Central American soldiers driving it had stacked about twenty female dummies in the rear bed. Their display clothing blew wild in the wind as the vehicle passed.
“I have no idea what they’re doing. It does scare me to think these are the men who almost inherited our country. I wouldn’t have thought it was possible to have lower IQs than the men and women we’ve seen working as David’s soldiers, but I’d now wager these guys have them beat.”
She spoke quieter, even though they were alone. “Do you think any of these men came from allied countries? Are any of them Panamanian? Bolivian? Brazilian?”
“I don’t know. Their uniforms are all over the place. It makes it hard to identify them at a glance. I take it as a good sign. If we’re being invaded by fake generals and cartel henchmen, then maybe our real allies stuck with us.”
“I wish friendly countries would send backup. I’d give them a whole state if they helped us protect the other forty-nine. It’s the desperate reality we’re facing now that all of our people are gone.”
“Seems reasonable, except if David is threatening them with his weapon. Still, I wouldn’t mind giving up some territory for them taking the risk. Just don’t offer them Texas. Even without the citizens, I know enough not to mess with Texas.”
They shared a brief laugh, though he was immediately distracted by an approaching aircraft. “There!”
He slammed on the brakes.
“What is it?”
Without waiting, he grabbed his rifle from the back seat of the Jeep, jumped out, and then set his weapon on the warm hood of the still-running vehicle. Other cars in the convoy passed him while he was on the shoulder, but he only had eyes for the approaching drone.
Emily had shifted into the driver’s seat. “Is it David?”
“I don’t know, but you better keep your head down, face covered.” The surveillance drone was a lot like the one he’d spotted driving into NORAD, but he couldn’t take a chance it wasn’t. It approached his line of vehicles at an angle, and it would soon be about two hundred yards in front of him.
“Can you take it down?” she asked.
“I’ve got to try.” He let his vision adjust to the small red dot scope and aimed for the front of the black quad-rotor drone. It was about three feet long and flew about twenty feet off the ground at maybe thirty miles an hour. When he was ready, he gently squeezed the trigger and sent a round out.
The drone tipped a little, signifying a hit, but it flew on.
“I got it,” he declared, immediately lining up a second shot. The drone remained on its original course, heading for the highway. “I bet those idiots in the red truck are looking up and smiling for the camera,” he complained to himself.
Emily heard him. “I’ve got my shirt over my face.”
He squeezed off the next one and tapped the drone, which caused it to lose about five feet of altitude. Without waiting, he took several more shots, alternately hitting and missing the target. He had to stop when the drone went directly over the line of vehicles, as he didn’t accidentally hit his friends, or Rando.
Once it crossed the road and presumably got good pictures of everyone below it, the little device seemed to give up. It fell to the ground, smacking itself into pieces.
In a hurry, he got back into his Wrangler. Emily hopped out of his way.
“We’ve got trouble,” he said simply. Before he started moving, he picked up the CB radio. Every vehicle didn’t have one, but he made sure both he and Rando had them. Without telling the cartel boss, he’d made sure the drivers in Jacob’s group also had them, with orders to stay on a different channel.
“Rose, this is Blanche. Rose, this is Blanche. Come in.” He stole a look at Emily.
“What?” she asked.
“Who knew Central American cartel bosses loved the Golden Girls so much?”
She shrugged. “It’s a strange world. If these idiots love our TV shows, at least our culture will live on.”
“Yeah, I—”
The radio replied with Rando’s voice. “This is Rose. Go ahead.”
“We’ve been made by enemy eyes. Recommend we all split up and find different ways to the target. Come back. Over.” He had misgivings two times before about abandoning Rando’s men, but seeing those dummies drive by made him finally make up his mind. Another problem he faced was the sheer number of vehicles surrounding him. While Jacob’s men had chosen to ride together in three stolen vehicles, Rando’s men all wanted their own. He’d much rather try to sneak toward Lamar with a small group of four vehicles than worry about a hundred and four.
“I saw the drone fly over,” Rando remarked. “This is not a trick?”
“Negative. Not unless it was your drone? We need to break up so the next drone can’t locate us all in one place. They could kill us before we got close to the target.”
Ted didn’t expect the man to protest too much. After establishing himself with the men from the convoy, and after a brief period of mistrust for Ted, Rando seemed to grow complacent in his leadership. He had underlings do dirty work, such as putting gas in his truck, and he seemed content to follow Ted’s advice for taking a wide arc across the plains and hitting Lamar from a direction other than head-on. The crime boss probably thought he didn’t need Ted and his inconsequential band of ex-prisoners anymore.
“Okay,” Rando said
nonchalantly. “We’ll meet you in the target town as soon as possible. We’ll be on this channel.”
Ted drove for another mile or two, making sure to inform Jacob’s men on the other frequency. He had them turn off the main road, toward the north. Rando’s crew powered onward as a group.
“Any idea where we’re going?” Emily asked, seemingly like old times.
“Nope. This time, I don’t even have a map. We’ll have to see where the winds take us.”
He couldn’t go north for long. He didn’t need any maps to tell him where the main force of the enemy would be found.
To the south.
Pike National Forest, CO
When Tabby and Dwight reached the camp, the first thing the men did was take Poppy. They said they only wanted to play with her, but Dwight became frantic with fear and almost seemed ready to fight anyone and everyone. He almost hit Tabby in the face when he was pushed against a tree by one of the men.
“Sorry,” Dwight said, not even looking. “They’re going to hurt her.”
“I don’t think they will. No one would be so heartless they’d hurt an innocent little bird.” She wouldn’t take that bet if money was riding on it, but if it helped Dwight feel better, she was willing to say it.
The bird cawed repeatedly as the men carried her over to some picnic tables. Dwight tried to follow, but several of the Legion soldiers had been placed in front of him, as if they expected it.
“Dammit, Poppy, how could you let yourself get caught?”
She calmly stood by a tree, watching the action unfold. They were surrounded by forest, which offered endless hiding places if she could sneak away. However, her first task was keeping Dwight from getting himself punched in the face. Unlike her, he repeatedly bumped into the guards, as if harassing them was going to get them to let him pass.
“Dwight!” she called out, getting his attention.
He turned around, red-faced. “Did you see that? They’re trying to feed her hot dogs.”
“Come here for a second, please.”
Minus America | Book 5 | Hostile Shores Page 9