by Sally Six
Hank along with 120 of the local men would have one side joined by 45 of the base’s Mountain men. About one third of the men and women still had their uniforms on and were interspersed with all the other people. You could hardly notice them in this colorful mixture of warriors.
You could feel the excitement in the air. No one could stand still as the time ticked down to 4:00 AM. The General was in the lead as he gave the wave to head out of the gate. He didn’t want to be one of those leaders that led from the rear. Of course he was replete in a full decked out fringed Mountain Man outfit with beading and fringe across the front of his jacket. He loved his coon-skinned cap. He had always loved stories of Davy Crocket and Daniel Boone as a boy. Now he felt like a ten year old again. The General started to hum a song from his childhood, “Davy, Davy Crocket king of the wild frontier.” Some of the men around him heard the humming and grinned at one another elbowing some of the men and women next to them and nodding in the General’s direction and smiling. Soon the General noticed it was a little quiet around him and also noticed all the smiles.
“What’s wrong?” Was his comment.
He got “nothing, nothing at all,” from several people. He stood there and shook his head.
“Takes all kinds I guess,” he thought and went back to humming.
The General did have a Scotsmen outfit as well, but he didn’t really want to go into battle with a kilt on. Let the younger men do that. He had to get used to the drafty feel of the outfit with a breeze blowing up his kilt.
There was only a half moon as they set out down to the valley from all three entrances. Not too much to give them away yet and enough light of summer to be able follow the Rangers as their guides. The Rangers had divided into two groups. Bill and half his men went with those that went out the tunnel. Larry as his Second went with the group out the front gate. They had a small group of people head out the back gate to make sure no one from the enemy camp had been sneaking up during the night and somehow took out the guards. Everything was fine. The guards reported all was quiet. The same was found from the guards all around the base. Then the larger group’s started to thread their way down through the thick woods and towards the enemy camp.
* * *
Lt. Forest Sale had been up all night and had many of the mess people and slaves running, cooking and preparing for the day of celebration for the General. He was feeling mean, tired and grumpy and it showed. The Army personal were cringing right along with the slaves as Lt. Sale bellowed his orders. He pushed, shoved and hit to get things done faster. He needed more people. He had two of the three mess tents and people hopping. He decided he had to get the third involved if he was going to pull this off. He would have to go to Lt. Lee and ask his help. He and Lee didn’t get along very well, but maybe he had something he could bribe Lt. Lee with. He thought and thought, but his foggy brain kept him from coming up with anything at all.
Lt. Sale stepped out into the cool damp morning air. It was still a little cooler than August should normally be by at least 15 to 20 degrees for this southern clime but not bad. The cool air helped to refresh him and he headed over to Lt. Lee’s tent. He figured it had to be close to O 4:30 which was around the normal time Lee arose anyway to start getting the mess ready for breakfast. The fact that a whole weeks rations were going to go for this celebration probably wasn’t going to go over very big with Lee either. It hadn’t with the officers of the other two mess tents. Tomorrow he would have to send out more scavengers to restore their food supplies. This was just going from bad to worse, but the General said there was an old abandoned base around here somewhere. Lt. Sale figured men would be going out tomorrow to find it. It will be so great to be back on a base with real walls around him again. Maybe then General Smith would allow people to go up in rank. He would get his Captaincy with this idea. No one had an increase in rank since the world went to crap almost two years ago.
Yeah he had power that he hadn’t ever had before. Any slave girl that he wanted to take was his if the General was finished with her or didn’t have a claim on. But he wanted the rank for the respect he deserved. He was just about to Lt. Lee’s tent when he saw the lantern come on and heard Lee talking to someone inside. So the lout had taken a slave girl after all. An evil grin spread across Sale’s face. He thought it had better be one of the General’s leftovers. Well, well maybe he had something on Lee the terror after all. He sure hoped so.
Sale walked as quietly as he could up to the side of the tent to see what he could hear. Yes he could hear voices pretty darn clearly.
“Now look Lucy I want you to stay here and you just take care of your brother. There is enough food and water in here to take care of your needs all day without coming out. Just lay low for now and get your brother to feeling better. I’ll be back in about four hours to check on the both of you. Alright?”
They didn’t have to worry about a bathroom area. The Lt. had rigged up a bucket with a sheet around it for privacy in the back left of the tent. His tent was 12 feet by 14 feet so he had plenty of room.
Lt. Sale without realizing what he was doing was standing there rubbing his hands together.
Lt. Lee unzipped the door and went through his entrance. It was just a canopy, but that kept you dry if it was raining and you didn’t have to haul in your muddy boots. He hadn’t taken three steps past his tent when he heard his name being called from off on the left side of his tent.
“Lt. Lee, I need to have a word with you?”
Lee turned to find that brown nosing snake in the grass, Lt. Sale, coming from the side of his tent. That was getting him hot as he realized the man must have been standing beside his tent listening. He put himself on simmer while he saw what the dirt bag wanted.
Unknown to most all around him, he had real good control of his temper when he wanted and wasn’t putting on a show. He had been putting on an act of a hot tempered bully since what was left of his unit had joined up with this rotten excuse for this man’s Army last year. Those that knew him in his unit had just gone along with it and hadn’t told a soul that Lee just wasn’t like this. The rest of the unit hadn’t liked what was going on with the murdering, slave taking and cleaning civilians out of their life sustaining supplies. That’s not what the military was supposed to be about. They were biding their time until they could think of how to put a stop to it. They had pretended to be nothing but a mess unit and so didn’t participate in any of the so-called missions. It was really sticking in their craws to let it continue, but they didn’t have enough men yet to start a mutiny.
Lee would listen to see what the jackanapes wanted first before he decided on what he would do. Never did work to ask first and listen later.
“Lt. Lee, I see you have finally succumbed to a few of the new ways, but hopefully you have adhered to the rules.”
“Alright Lt. Sale. What rules are you referring to?”
Lee could have said more, but he wanted to see what this was all about first. He had to continue to play the game without giving himself away.
“Why Lt. Lee you know very well the General always gets first choice. You have to check with me to see which woman is available for a tent servant. Since I haven’t seen you and assigned you one, well that won’t go over very good with our Commander. But I will tell you what, I will overlook it this time if you do me a favor.”
Lee was thinking a mile a minute. Apparently Sale was so stuck on something that he wanted that he had over looked the talk about Lucy taking care of her brother and that the young man had to be in the tent also. He would go along with it for now.
“Ok Lt. Sale. Let’s say I do have someone I picked out and maybe I didn’t want to have everyone know right away. What’s the favor you want to keep this under wraps?”
“Well it’s not exactly under wraps Lee. It’s more of an extra. Today we’re having a big celebration honoring General Smith. I need all the stops pulled out. I already have the other two mess units going. I need yours to cook up everything you can
with some extra special things for the General. Let’s say you do even more. I will keep your little secret and later you can tell me who she is and I will sign her out to you. Subject closed.”
“Lt. Sale you know this will put our supplies dangerously low. If that base isn’t where the General thinks it is, we will be hurting. Plus, I don’t think there are a whole lot of locals around here.”
“I have thought of that after all Lee. What do you think I am stupid? I am going out on a limb here for you and now you’re telling me my job. I want to know if you will do it or do I inform the General this morning that you have broken one of his rules?”
“I’ll go along with you Lt. Sale. I guess I should thank you for giving me this break.”
Lee decided he had gone too far and needed to smooth things out, but it felt bad going down. A smile spread across Sale’s face.
“That’s better Lt. Lee. I will keep my end of the bargain and you go keep yours. I’ll check in with you in a couple of hours and see how things are going.”
Lee stood for a moment as Sale turned and left. Sale wasn’t thinking at his tiptop and had black circles under his eyes. This was really worrying him. I bet he has been up all night. He had never seen Sale up this early in the morning. Lt. Lee got on his way to the mess tent and made sure the fires were going under the big pots outside beside the mess tents. He should have been here 15 minutes ago. He sure hoped he didn’t tip his hand, not yet anyway. But for now the kids were safe and he needed to figure out just how he was going to keep it that way, at least until the boy was all healed up. That boy couldn’t take another beating right now.
Lee told a couple of his men what was going on and then the rest of the crew about the big celebration today for the General and got groans from everyone. This meant an extra hard day and then listening to the complaining about the lack of variety and watered down foods for the next few days until more could be found and brought in.
Chapter 30
The Battle
The attack had been coordinated to start at just at sunrise. The General was leading the attack on the east, Bill was on the south, Hank was on the west and Lieutenant Kernel Louis Douglas, the former Captain, was on the north. The General felt it was time for a few more promotions a few days ago before the action began. They wanted to make sure everyone was in position and ready before they went in.
Not to mention Louis Eagle Douglas was half Blackfoot from his mother’s side and similarly attired as Brigham Lightfoot. Bill had wished he could be there to see the looks on the faces of those in the enemy camp when Louis and Brigham with the rest of the braves came screaming bloody murder into the camp. Not like they would have done in real life which would have been stealth. They wanted people so scared they would surrender without too much of a fight. General Williamson knew that some men in the valley camp should be former war veterans and wouldn’t scare so easily, but the surprise of the base people dressed as they were should put some kind of delay in the soldier’s reactions.
The attack group had been within a few feet of each of the early morning watch and no one had been spotted. Most of the camp guards were dozing. A Ranger stood close to each enemy guard ready to take each one out as the attack began so they wouldn’t have anyone coming at their backs. Williamson really couldn’t believe how this camp of mostly Army personal had become so sloppy. Especially if they had suffered attacks before. It looks like the attacks on them had been too long ago. Now that they were the big bullies in the area. They didn’t think anyone would want to take them on.
Time seemed to be at a standstill as the base’s people waited for the right time to attack. The camp was beginning more and more to wake and start about their day. A few soldiers were moving around with a change of a few different guard stations, but it was mostly slaves for the time being.
Bill noticed a big man come out of a tent and another man that was standing beside it call to the big man and they stopped to talk. He also noticed the look of hard control on the big man’s face. Apparently there was no love lost between these two if he was reading things right. They parted ways, but the smaller man stopped by a tent for a few minutes like he was gathering himself and then went on his way. Bill wondered if this was the big man the local man, Rooks, had told them about. He sure seemed big enough. How many could there be this size.
Not long after, a war cry was heard through the early morning dawn and then more followed that. Bill grinned knowing how formable and deadly both Louis and Brigham looked. Then with their men running in behind them. “Man he wouldn’t want to be on the other side watching those men coming at him.” This went through his mind as he led his own charge into the camp.
When they hit the camp yelling, all other thoughts vanished from his mind as the battle ensued. Some of the slacker soldiers came running out of their tents with most in their underwear and some bare buck-naked shooting at about anything that moved. They were taken down quickly. Their panic killing them as they didn’t do a good job defending themselves. A lot of those the panicked soldiers did hit were their own people and a few slaves that didn’t get down and out of line of sight. Then there were the calmer ones who had seen action in the past besides just killing cons and other scum that they had come up against. They did the most damage to the base people. But even a few of these stopped dead in their tracks for a few seconds when Indians and Vikings came at them.
Lt. Sale came running out of mess tent 1 thinking maybe a few of the men had been drinking and decided to start the party early. What he saw in his tired frenzied mind was just unbelievable. There were people running into the camp in what he thought was impossible getups. They all belonged in another time and place. The camp had to be being invaded by a mass of crazy people escaped from a loony bin somewhere. That had to be the explanation. A bunch of lunatics must have gotten loose when this whole war started. He was reaching down for his pistol when a large man dressed in what he thought was a Viking hat but else all the man had on was a loin cloth of some sort reared up in front of him. He stood there with his mouth hanging open. He grabbed again for his pistol and was bringing it up to shoot when the Viking hit him over the head with his pistol. “A Viking has a pistol? How absurd could that be?” Then Lt. Sale blacked out.
General Smith didn’t fare much better. He had been awakened with a start as loud screaming and then the shooting woke him from a deep sleep. The girl beside him cowering down under the covers when she saw the General was now in a foul mood.
“How anyone dare make enough noise to wake me.” He shouted to no one in general. “They know better. I’ll have their hides. I need my sleep to lead as I should.”
He thought it was some of the idiots he commanded getting rowdy.
He came stumbling out of his tent in white cloth slippers and in a white night shirt that hung to his ankles. His General’s stars were stuck onto the shoulders. His belt and holster strapped around his waist. With his pistol in hand, he brought his pistol up to fire when he saw they were actually under attack. He stood there watching men in fringed shirts and pants, deadly red and black painted looking Indians, nearly naked men swirled with colors of blue and red and hair sticking up at all angles. When he turned to the left, Scotsmen in kilts with blue faces, on his right were large men running around in loin cloths with Viking hats on their heads and short beards with blood running down their bodies. Most had a weapon in each hand. A pistol in one and either a tomahawk or large knife in the other. General Smith proceeded to pee himself and drop his pistol. Then he turned and ran back into his tent. It took him only a few seconds to scramble under his four-poster bed.
The young girl of the week watched as General Smith ran back into the sleeping quarters fright clearly written on his face and crawled straight under the bed. She leaned over the bed and pulled up the cover to stare at the general cowering under the bed. This time it was the General who was whining. She wrinkled her nose as she realized he had peed himself and stank. She also realized that they were being a
ttacked and thought good. It’s about time that someone was going to put this no good scum bucket in his place.
Lyn climbed out of the large bed and wrapped a blanket around herself and walked out into the other room of the tent. She went to the door and looked out. The General had left the door unfastened. There wasn’t one guard anywhere near the door. What she saw amazed her. She would have thought that someone had transferred her in time, but this was worse than that. It looked like people from ages ago had invaded their camp. The shooting was dying down and it looked like the invaders were winning. A smile grew on her face for a second until she thought that maybe these men are worse than this bunch. She backed up into the tent and up against the wall and scooted down squatting down to the floor.
Bill had met up with his second, Larry Underwood. Bill was bloody, tired and mad. Brigham Lightfoot and a couple other of their men were beside them when he spied the flag flying over a large tent. General Smith’s, it was just as described. Bill motioned toward the tent and his men surrounded it.
“The General’s tent.” Bill said and nodded towards it with a grin.
Bill opened the door flap with his left hand and had his pistol ready in his right up in front of him with Larry behind him and then Brigham. When all three had entered and they hadn’t been shot at, Bill breathed a sigh of relief at least for that. He went left as he got inside the tent and Larry went right. As Brigham came in they heard a gasp and all three pointed their guns in the direction of the gasp. They saw a blond haired teenager now again standing up against the wall of the tent in a shadow. She was wrapped in a brown blanket which had made her hard to see at first. Her eyes were as large as saucers and were glued on Brigham. If the other men were a mess, Brigham was even worse. Brigham was a sight to see that was for sure. His black and red paint was smeared with blood on his face and down his chest and arms. Bill started to talk to the girl.