The Rag

by Michael Connelly

  It turned out that Reynolds was also planning to escape and most importantly had the means to do so. At this time, Kaufman County, Texas, was still under control of the federal forces. The county included the cities of Forney and Terrell, and there was a federal hospital in Terrell. Since Dr. Reynolds was trusted by the federal forces, he was assigned to spend two days each week at the hospital in Terrell. He was provided with a car and enough fuel to take him on five round-trips to the hospital. Then the car would be refueled for five more trips.

  The car was due for a refuel during the week following his conversation with Kathy. Jarod Reynolds was in his fifties and had been a US Army physician who had served two tours of duty overseas during the war on terrorism. When he had been discharged, he had taken a job in Shreveport, Louisiana, where he lived with his wife and two teenage daughters.

  He had been attending a medical conference in Dallas when the EMP attack had occurred and had no way to get home. He soon found himself impressed into federal service at the hospital in Dallas. He pleaded to be allowed to return to Shreveport and was promised that he would be as soon as it was possible. However, after several months had passed, he soon realized that it was not going to happen. He decided to pretend to be satisfied with his new status and gain the trust of his superiors. This ultimately led to the situation where he had access to a vehicle to take him to Terrell and then back to Dallas. At first, he was only provided with the fuel to make a single seventy-two-mile round-trip to Terrell. Eventually, it was decided that it would be easier to just fuel the car for multiple trips.

  This gave the doctor the opportunity he had waited for—escape back to his family in Shreveport—and after talking to Kathy, he had offered to take her with him and drop her off in Forney before he proceeded to Shreveport. Kathy explained to Jamie that this was the way she had made it back to her family and why she had remained in hiding in her parents’ home for almost a year until Kaufman County had come under the control of the East Texas militia. Then she had resumed her career as a nurse, but this time, she was working in a hospital that took care of American patriots like Jamie.

  It did not take Kathy’s coworkers long to realize that the relationship between the young soldier and the dedicated nurse was going beyond that of a patient and a caregiver. On the day that Jamie was due to be discharged to return to his special operations unit, he proposed to Kathy, and she accepted. They were married in Forney a month later in a military wedding with General Donnelly and Matt Donnelly in attendance along with the members of Jamie’s special operations unit and all the men that Jamie had been with on the escape from New Orleans.

  The couple spent their honeymoon in a cabin on the banks of Lake Tawakoni not far from Canton. For a full week, they were able to forget the fact that they were in a war. They made love every day and just enjoyed each other and their brief respite from their duties. Then Jamie returned to his unit, and Kathy resumed her nursing duties. They had acquired a small house in Terrell where Kathy lived full-time and Jamie lived whenever he was off duty. Unfortunately, that was not often because the battle for freedom never stopped and seldom slowed down for long.

  Chapter XXXVII

  During the time that Jamie was recovering in the hospital and falling in love, his special forces A team had not been idle. The recon patrol that Ray Thibodeaux had sent out to survey the federal detention center where many of the federal prisoners captured at Fort Hood claimed their families were being held had returned. The patrol had observed the center through binoculars for two days and confirmed that the camp contained mostly women and children who appeared to be malnourished and suffering greatly.

  The recon team also determined that because of the composition of the people interned at the detention center, it was lightly guarded. There was only one understrength platoon of federal guards assigned to the center, and they alternated in working eight-hour shifts. That meant that were only thirteen men actively guarding the facility at any given time. For the militia special forces, this constituted a soft target that could be easily overcome. It was decided by Donnelly and his staff that there were several valid reasons for conducting this raid, the most important of them being the fact that these were American women and children being held by the enemy, whose lives would clearly be at risk if they were not rescued. In addition, it would send out a clear message to the enemy that they could not hold Americans as hostage without severe consequences and would also tell Americans that they did not have to be forced to serve as cannon fodder for the enemy.

  A plan of attack was carefully crafted that included three special forces A teams to make the actual assault and a company of militia infantry to secure the perimeter around the detention center while the prisoners were extracted. The attack would also be covered by a diversionary attack against a federal outpost in Dallas County not far north of the detention center. The outpost was a staging area for the troops that patrolled and controlled the city of Dallas and surrounding towns like Carrollton, Farmer’s Branch, Garland, and others. It was a large facility and also housed vehicles, weapons, and ammunition; so it had to be protected at all cost.

  The facility could be captured by a major assault by the militia, but it would be costly and was not worth the cost in the current environment with East Texas militia trying to expand its control over rural counties and prepare for an inevitable attack on the militia by the federal forces. However, a limited diversionary attack would hopefully keep the federal outpost from reinforcing the detention camp until the prisoners were safely evacuated. Another A team and an infantry platoon were assigned to create the diversion.

  Once again, the superior training of the militia and exceptional planning by the staff carried the day. Both attacks were successful, and the families of the federal prisoners were brought back to Canton. The federal prisoners were reunited with their families and provided with food and shelter, but they were also assigned jobs. There were no chances being taken since their loyalty to the militia could not be immediately established, so they were given jobs in the militia in supply and logistics or in the private sector, doing work in the construction of housing or military facilities. None of them would be assigned to combat roles or sensitive areas.

  It was assumed by most of the militia members that all the federal forces involved in the defense of Fort Hood had been killed or captured, but that was not exactly true. Five members of the federal force had escaped: four enlisted men and an officer who had led them out through a hole in the militia lines. The officer was Captain Jordan Billings, the American patriot who had provided the intelligence necessary for a successful attack and had killed the post commander and chief enlisted man.

  As the attack had unfolded, and it became clear that the federal forces were being overwhelmed, Captain Billings had pulled four men out of the line and ordered them to accompany him. He told them to hide behind one of the buildings while he tried to find a way out. He then walked boldly toward the militia lines with his hands raised in surrender. He was relieved when he was not just shot down, but the militia commander had given his men orders to capture any officers that they could. The captain was taken prisoner but asked to immediately speak to the militia commander.

  His request was granted, and when he was alone with the commander, he gave him a password that was immediately recognized. The militia commander had been briefed on the fact that he was to look out for a federal officer who was actually working for the militia. He was to facilitate his escape so he could rejoin the federal forces. As they talked in private, Jordan explained his plan. If he showed up to the federal command in the area as the sole survivor of the attack, he would probably be immediately a suspect; but if he brought other federal troops with him, his story would be more plausible.

  The militia commander agreed and called his first sergeant over and explained the situation to him, and the sergeant accompanied Jordan back to a spot near where the federal troops had been told to hide. Th
e sergeant told Jordan to give him ten minutes to clear the area for his escape and then to move his men out. When Captain Billings and his men finally rejoined the federal force, he was hailed as a hero who had managed to at least save a few men from the militia attack on the fort. He was promoted to the rank of major and placed on the staff of the federal area commander. He was now in position to provide even more valuable intelligence to the militia.

  Chapter XXXVIII

  Following the highly successful operations against Fort Hood and the detention center where the families of federal prisoners were being held, the counties controlled by the militia experienced a period of relative normalcy. It was springtime, and many of the members of the militia were sent home to their farms or ranches to plant crops and spend some downtime with their families. The militia continued to send out recon patrols to determine if there were any imminent threats to the Alamo. None were detected, and there were no air attacks on the militia-controlled areas. This actually caused some concern for General Donnelly and his chief of intelligence Ray Thibodeaux. It was almost like the proverbial calm before the storm.

  In the meantime, the people of Van Zandt County were going about their business. They were part of a vibrant free market economy that was based partly on the barter system, plus the development of a currency system that allowed people to be paid for the goods and services they provided. The members of the militia were paid for their active service as were the police and firefighters who protected their local communities. Other members of the communities received payment for the food they produced or the services they provided like carpentry, plumbing, or medical and dental care. Since Canton had once been the home of one of the largest flea markets in the world, the tradition continued except that instead being only once a month on the weekend before the first Monday of each month, it now occurred on each weekend.

  Similar markets had been in all the militia-controlled counties; and they provided residents with the opportunity to barter their crops, meat from slaughtered livestock, or even homemade wine or liquor for other things they might need or just want. It was a system that worked, and no one went without food, but the same was not true for other commodities like medicine. While local doctors and pharmacies were producing and using natural herbal remedies that could be effective for treating minor illnesses, there was a serious shortage of antibiotics and other drugs to treat the often serious injuries of members of the militia and residents who might need treatment for illnesses like cancer, cardiac, or respiratory problems.

  To try to alleviate this problem, Ray Thibodeaux sent out recon patrols to see if there were any vulnerable targets in Dallas where some of the needed drugs could be obtained. They isolated one location: a hospital in Richardson, Texas, a suburb of Dallas that was the primary facility for treating federal troops and the elite civilians who were in control of the occupation of Dallas. In fact, that had been the hospital where Kathy, Jamie’s new bride, had been forced to work.

  Unfortunately, the hospital was well guarded, and there were too many federal units stationed in the vicinity that could come to the relief of the hospital if it was attacked. The risk was too great, so for the time being, the counties in the Alamo would have to rely on their medical personnel to do the best they could with what they had. However, help came from an unexpected source. There was an Indian reservation in Polk County, which was one of the counties that had recently come under militia control. The Alabama/Coushatta tribes lived on the reservation, and true to their warrior tradition, many members of the tribe had served in the US military through the years. Many of these veterans and other tribe members were members of the Polk County militia that was now part of the East Texas militia.

  The tribal shaman, David Lone Wolf, had also been producing large amounts of traditional and often ancient herbal remedies to help his people and other citizens in the area who had little, if any, access to modern medicine. Many of the medicines were found to be remarkably effective in treating certain medical conditions, particularly potentially deadly viruses and infections. The word spread throughout the medical community and surrounding counties and eventually to the doctors and hospitals all over East Texas. While the remedies were not sufficient in all cases where they were used, they were successful enough times to keep David Lone Wolf and his assistants very busy producing them.

  The tribe also provided other valuable assistance to the militia. Some of the tribe warriors had been members of special operations units in the military including the Green Berets, Navy SEALs, and marine recon. They easily became integral members of the militia special operations teams. They also had some special skills that had not been taught to them by the military: they were expert marksmen with high-powered bows and arrows that could be used to silently kill the enemy from fairly long range.

  Their skills had been used in the recent assault on the detention camp where the women and children were being held. One of the tribal marksmen was Danny Lone Wolf, the son of the tribal shaman. The strike on the detention camp had to be swift and surgical so that the guards could be taken out without having an opportunity to kill or injure any of the innocent women and children being held in the center.

  There were elevated guard towers at the four corners of the detention center, and they were each occupied by one guard twenty-four hours per day with the guards assigned to eight-hour shifts. This was perfect for the A teams assigned to liberate the camps because they had four tribal marksmen assigned to the teams. They synchronized their watches at exactly 10:00 p.m., and they all loosed their arrows at the same moment, and all four federal guards died silently. This allowed the other member of the special forces teams to cut through the fence, breach the compound, and quietly kill the remaining guards. The women and children in the camp had been saved.

  Chapter XXXIX

  Several more months of relative calm went by with no direct aggressive action by the federal government, with the exception of more foreign troops and equipment being brought into the ports in New Orleans and Houston. It was a slow buildup and would eventually become a threat, but that had not slowed down the advancing of the militia. Three more counties had come under the control of the East Texas militia that now included territory from the Oklahoma border to just north of Houston. There were now over thirty thousand troops on call for the militia, and the Buchanan family had been joined by dozens of other gunsmiths who were adding to the growth of the militia armament.

  All this had not gone unnoticed in Washington DC where the current unelected president of the United States, Richard Thompson, was presiding over a meeting of his military command council. Almost half of the high-ranking officers on the council were representatives of the Islamic states that were the primary allies of the federal government. The extent of the influence and control they had was clear from the fact that Thompson was the third president to be named since the EMP attack. The person who had ordered that attack had been President Jeremy Brandon, a lifelong Communist who had failed in his efforts to drive the American people into complete subjugation.

  A significant number of Americans had fallen into the well-orchestrated progressive agenda to get people totally dependent on the federal government for their survival by getting free stuff. Yet there had been many more people who had refused to accept the false allure of Communism since they knew it required them to become subjects of the government and give up the basic freedoms that most Americans still cherished. This had led to the initial resistance to the imposition of the new order, and that resistance had been much stronger than the left-wing leaders had expected. They decided that there were too many people to control, and so their answer was to have the EMP attack reduce the population and allow them to ultimately take control after the deliberately created anarchy subsided.

  Initially, the plan seemed to be succeeding with the federal forces being able to take control of the large cities as their populations were reduced by riots, wholesale looting, starvati
on, disease, and even murder to more manageable smaller populations. However, the problem of continued resistance by certain dissidents was not being resolved; and ultimately, the federal council decided to replace Brandon with someone who would be more ruthless. They chose a former US senator from Delaware, Sharon Thompson, who had been steadfast in her defense of the imposition of the new progressive order on the people of the United States.

  She had no problem ordering the federal forces to arrest thousands of Americans, intern them in detention camps, and use drugs to control the inmates. She also was aware that the federal forces were not strong enough to put down rebellions on their own and needed help, so agreements were made with the only countries that had troops available to essentially invade the United States. These were countries like Syria, Iran, Iraq, and Libya that were under the complete control of radical Islam elements. For a high price, they agreed to provide troops to the beleaguered federal government. However, these troops would not serve under the command of a woman, so the federal council forced Sharon Thompson to resign and appointed her husband, Richard Thompson, to take her place. He was even more ruthless than his wife.

  He was now the president who was faced with the fact that the East Texas militia was continually winning battles against federal forces and expanding its control over counties in the state of Texas. Despite the best efforts of the feds, they had not been able to stop word of these successes from spreading to surrounding states and eventually all over the country. Thompson and his advisors decided it was time to go all in against the Texas militia. However, they would not make the mistake again of dividing their forces as had occurred during the first attempt to destroy the militia. This assault would be a massive attack from one location.