by Ricky Sides
“You did that all right,” Pete said with a grin. “I had no idea you’d found any M60s.”
“I had the armorer go over all three of them. You have the best of the lot. At least that’s what the armorer said.”
“Ammunition?” Pete asked hopefully.
Bill gestured to three wooden crates sitting in a corner of the tent. “We found a large supply. Ammunition shouldn’t be a problem for a while, unless we get involved in a major conflict,” the lieutenant responded.
For a few minutes, the two men discussed the use of the M60 machinegun as a support weapon for the group. Finally, Pete sat down and said, “Now tell me all about your mission.”
Bill leaned back in his seat and said, “Everything went fine, until we got to the base. Things started to look bad then. The base had been taken over by a large group of Marauders but we managed to slip in and relieve them of the supplies we needed.”
“How did you manage that, Bill?” Pete asked in surprise. After all, Bill had gone on the mission with a small squad and not a large group of fighting men.
“We created a diversion by blowing up a stockpile of gasoline that the Marauders were using to blackmail the citizens of Indianapolis. They had a scam going. The Marauders had secured all of the gasoline within a fifty-mile radius and were using it to trade to the citizens for food. We were lucky that we took extra fuel with us in the gas cans or we’d have run out of gas just trying to get out of the area they’d bled dry of fuel.”
Pete frowned and a cold chill ran through his blood. He said, “Bill, that sounds like free enterprise to me. Are you sure they were Marauders?”
“Well they would let most of the people have a bit of gasoline for the food they’d brought and then leave peacefully. But we saw them detain several women. I won’t bother to tell you what they did to them.”
With an angry expression on his face Pete nodded and said, “I can imagine.” Then he asked, “What did you do about it?”
Bill laughed and said, “Why, Pete, you know I had a mission to accomplish. What makes you think that I’d do anything to stop the Marauders?”
Smiling at his friend, Pete responded, “I know you well, Bill. Well enough to know that you’d wrack your brain to figure out a way to do something about them and accomplish your mission at the same time, if possible.”
“As a matter-of-fact, I did,” Bill said with a chuckle. He went on to explain how his small group had lured most of the Marauders into the vicinity of the gasoline and then blown up the entire supply and most of the Marauders along with it.
But how did you deal with the Marauders that didn’t fall for the trap?” asked Pete.
For the first time Bill frowned. He said, “We just let them run. There were just too many of them for us to engage. The only reason they left is they thought they were under attack by a large group of men. If we’d fought them, I didn’t think it would take them long to figure out just how few in numbers we really were.”
Nodding his head soberly, Pete said, “I agree with that assessment. That’s probably exactly what would have happened, and then your victory would have turned into a defeat. You did your best, as did your men, and in my opinion your best was more than up to the task.”
***
Two days later, Sergeant Wilcox, and his men returned from their mission. Like Bill, they had encountered Marauders at the base. They had also succeeded in taking several truckloads of food and ammunition.
They had observed the Marauders all day long, as they waited for darkness to fall. They had seen several raiding parties returning to the base with loads of food, whiskey, and a few women captives.
The sergeant frowned as he described the rough treatment of the women captives that he witnessed through his binoculars. “I considered attempting a rescue mission, Sir. In my opinion their lives were more important than the mission.”
“Under the circumstances, I’m inclined to agree with you. Nevertheless, you didn’t. Please tell me why you didn’t,” Pete requested. He suspected that he knew, but he needed confirmation from the sergeant.
“I weighed the odds of a successful rescue mission verses our original mission. The odds were stacked heavily against a successful rescue mission, but the odds favored a successful mission if we followed our original mission parameters.” A look of anguish appeared on his face as he broke it down. “In plain English, we had no chance in hell of rescuing the women. About three hundred Marauders surrounded them. On the other hand, the supplies were being kept on the east side of the base, well away from the main body of the Marauders, guarded by a small detail of men.”
“I see,” said Pete. “Then I agree with your assessment. Since there was no way to effectively rescue the women, the best thing to do was to fall back on the original mission plan.”
“We waited till past midnight. Most of the Marauders were drunk and many had passed out by then. We moved in and silently took out the guards. We got our trucks to the supply depot and loaded them. We were on our way out when a large group of Marauders spotted us. They opened fire on us, but we drove through their line tossing a few grenades as we did so. They wounded several of our men. One died on the way back here. Another may not survive the night. However, we secured two truckloads of food, and a lot of ammunition that they’d stockpiled. We put the ammo into a third truck. The weapons were few in number I’m afraid. Apparently they had been distributed to the men who controlled the base.”
“Who was the casualty?” Pete asked with sad eyes.
“Private Owens, Sir.”
“Damn. He was a really nice guy,” Pete said in sorrow.
“He was providing covering fire for us from the passenger widow of his truck. He took a round in the head. The poor guy never knew what hit him.”
“At least he didn’t suffer,” Pete, said looking thoughtful. “When I die, I hope I die that way.”
The death of the soldier saddened Pete, but he knew that before the world returned to normal, if it ever did, many more of his men would probably die.
Looking at the sergeant standing before him, Pete said, “Well done, Sergeant. See to your wounded, and tell them I’ll be by the infirmary to see them in a few minutes. Then eat and get a good night’s sleep. You’ve earned it, and, Sergeant, no guard duty for you and your men tonight. Tomorrow we leave.”
The sergeant saluted and turned to leave. He paused at the flap of the tent. Without turning to face Pete, he asked, “Does it ever get any easier?”
“What’s that?” asked Pete.
“Commanding men in the field and seeing them die?”
“No, son, but that’s probably a good thing. That awful, gut wrenching feeling, reminds us just how precious life is and that we should never order men to their deaths lightly. I’m sure you’ve heard the term, ‘Burden of Command.’ Now you fully comprehend why the term exists.”
“Thank you, Sir,” said the sergeant and he walked out, closing the tent door behind him.
Pete sent one of the guards to locate Bill. When Bill arrived at his tent, he informed him that they would be leaving at dawn the next morning. He asked Bill to see to it that the men were informed and to have everything stored so that they could break down the tents and load them early. “Remember to tell the cook to have breakfast ready an hour before dawn. By the time we’ve eaten and stored the mess gear it should be light enough to see to the tents.”
He then went to the infirmary and visited the two wounded men. The doctor who ran the infirmary was a skilled surgeon named Maggie Peterson. She was an attractive woman in her mid thirties with short black hair worn in a fashion known as the short shag. Maggie was one of three doctors who were members of the group. She was certainly qualified to serve as their physician. She’d been a trauma care specialist at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago who was known for her volatile temper and at times, her unorthodox approach to saving lives. Charges were filed against her on three separate occasions accused her of deviating from protocol. In each case, her unorthodo
x approach saved the lives of her patients, where following the protocols would have failed to do so. Therefore, the Chief of Staff ordered the incorporation of her new techniques into the standard treatment protocols.
When Pete inquired about the injured he was informed that if one of the men made it through the night, it would be a miracle but the other was going to be fine.
Pete went to see the wounded men. He thanked the man, who had the wound in his upper right arm, for his service to the group. Then he moved on to sit beside the man who had been shot through the chest. He said, “Dale, I want to thank you for your service to the group. Know that your sacrifice on behalf of your fellow survivalists may well mean the difference between life and death for many.”
Pete assumed that the man was unconscious so he was surprised when his eyes fluttered open and he said, “Thank you, Sir. I just wish we could’ve saved those poor women. I feel like I failed.”
“You didn’t fail. You did what you could to see to it that your friends survive. You succeeded in that mission. Your sergeant was right. There was no way you could have freed those women. By sticking to the mission that had a chance of success, you all provided additional supplies to help see the whole group through the winter. I thank you for that.”
“Am I going to die, Sir?” the young man asked without a hint of emotion.
“Yes,” Pete answered truthfully. “I wish there was something we could do to save you, but I won’t lie to you.”
“Then I need for you to make me a promise?”
“Just tell me what you want,” Pete responded.
“Please, if you save a woman from a similar situation someday, tell her it was for a guy who wanted to do it, but died before he got to. Would you do that for me?”
“That is a promise I can keep,” Pete said.
“Then I can die in peace. Thank you for that.”
Slowly the private’s right hand came up and he saluted Pete. The pain of this action reflected in his eyes. Pete stood and saluted the soldier. With a firm tone of voice, he said, “At ease, Private.” Then he said, “Dismissed.”
A faint smile touched the soldier’s lips as he lowered his arm. He murmured, “God bless you, Sir.”
“God bless you, son,” Pete said and then he turned and walked away.
Maggie met him at the tent entrance. She said, “That was kind of you.”
“Please inform me when…”
“Yes, of course,” Maggie said.
Without another word, Pete left the tent. As he walked across the camp, he shivered slightly in the cool night air. Looking up at the sky he thought, “The stars sure are bright tonight.”
He slept fitfully that night. Dreams of failing his people disturbed his sleep. It was past two in the morning when Maggie came to his tent. The guards had instructions that they were to admit her the moment she arrived. She followed a guard into the tent to inform him that the private named Dale had died peacefully in his sleep.
Pete thanked Maggie and she left to try to get what sleep she could before dawn.
The next morning, the group quickly ate and then broke down their tents, which were efficiently loaded into the supply trucks. As Dale’s body was lowered into the ground, all who were present stood at attention and he was buried with full honors including the twenty-one gun salute.
As soon as the burial was completed, they were given the order to board the vehicles and the convoy left heading south to Alabama.
Chapter 40
Jim drove the Peterbuilt slowly down the highway. Lacey was sitting in the cab with him, but Evan was asleep in the double sleeper. Lacey stretched her arms out in front of her and yawned. She was tired, and Lacey was seriously considering getting into the sleeper with Evan and sleeping for a while.
“We’ll be there soon,” Jim stated reassuringly. “I know you’re tired. Why don’t you get in the sleeper with Evan and take a nap.”
Lacey shook her head and said, “If we’re almost there, I think I’ll wait. I want to see what my new home looks like.”
Jim smiled at the woman he loved and said, “It’s not much right now, darling. Just a hole in the ground, but in a week I should be able to find us a nice place. I want to check on the retreat, and then we’ll go to one of the abandoned motels in the area for the night.”
“As long as we’re together, it doesn’t much matter to me where we are,” Lacey said.
Jim smiled at her and reached out to take her hand. He gently squeezed it and asked, “Would you prefer a house in the city or one in the country?”
“I think the country would be nice,” said Lacey with a wistful expression on her face.
“A house with a stream and some trees would be nice.” He looked at Lacey and added, “A place where a boy can grow up with nature.”
Lacey smiled as the image of Evan running and playing in such a spot came to her mind. He had done that at the secluded farm that Jim had fixed up for their retreat.
An hour later, they arrived at Jim’s retreat. He quickly checked to ensure that all was well there, and then they drove into town. It was dark when they got to town. The presence of streetlights told him that the power was back on in the city. Apparently, someone had gotten the power fixed. Jim said, “It looks as if things are improving around here!”
To Jim’s surprise, he found an open motel. Lacey was pleased to find that they also had running water. She enjoyed a lingering hot shower, and then encouraged Evan to do the same while she prepared their evening meal. When Evan came out of the bathroom, Jim entered it for his turn at the shower. When he came out a few minutes later, Lacey was serving up a hot meal of beef stew and crackers. Looking apologetically at the guys, she said, “Once we get set up in a home with power, running water, and appliances we’ll do better than this. For tonight, I’m afraid this will have to do.”
“It’s fine by me,” stated Jim and Evan quickly nodded his agreement. He was intrigued by the simple candle stand cooking arrangement that Jim had showed Lacey how to utilize in such situations, and always enjoyed watching his mother use that method for preparing a meal. Lacey smiled her appreciation as they ate the simple meal.
They were all three tired from the moving work and the road trip, so they slept late the next morning. Lacey prepared a quick breakfast and then they headed out.
The first thing that Jim wanted to do check with the man who now occupied his former home in order to see if Pete or Tim had been by looking for him. However, when he got to the house he found a note that read:
Jim,
I stayed put as long as I could, but I got wanderlust bad. I spent too many years on the road for this settling down business. So I went and found me another truck. I took what I wanted from the house. You can have it back. I stashed the keys to the car in that special place you showed me. I’m just too much the traveling man to stay put in one town. I’m going to California to see San Francisco and then I want to go to Washington and Oregon. I want to winter in Colorado. I hear it’s quite an experience.
I may be back someday to say hello. Thank you for everything. I hope you find your brother and your friend.
Robert
“Well I’ll be,” Jim said and showed Lacey the note. He walked over to a small statue on his front porch and picked it up. Evan watched curiously, as he turned it upside down and slid aside a thin metal plate that concealed a hollowed out depression inside the base of the statue. Inside this cavity, he found a key ring with the house and car keys attached. He unlocked the door and stepped inside. “I’ll be right back. Let me check out the house and then you two can come in and see your new home.”
A quick search of the house left Jim surprised. The trucker had left a large amount of the food that they had unloaded in the guest bedroom. All of the furniture and appliances were still here. Apparently, the trucker had taken very little with him when he had left.
Stepping back out onto the porch, Jim picked up Lacey and carried her across the threshold. He kissed her gently, a
nd then he set her on her feet and said, “Welcome to your new home. One of them at any rate, because I’d still like to look at a country home.”
Turning to Evan he said, “Looks like we’ll be spending the day rearranging your new room. Right now it’s half full of food.”
Evan wanted to see the room immediately, so Jim took him to see it. Lacey went and looked in for a moment and smiled in approval at what she saw. She said, “You guys start on the boxes of food and I’ll check the kitchen and bathroom.”
Jim and Evan stocked the kitchen cabinets with all that they could hold and stored more of the food in the attic. Still, several boxes would need to be relocated. For now, they settled on placing the excess boxes in the small utility room.
Jim found Lacey in the master bedroom about to change the bedding. “Ah, you’re just in time. I was about to come find you. Please flip the mattress for me. I tried but this thing weighs too much.”
Jim smiled and said, “Yes, Dear.” He flipped the mattress for her in a smooth flowing motion, stole a quick kiss, and then helped her make the bed.
Evan came running into the room then. He said, “Hey, Jim, the TV works, but there isn’t anything on. Could we get the video tapes?”
“Yeah, Evan, sure we can,” Jim said and walked outside with Evan. Thirty minutes later, Evan was content to watch some old videos while Jim and Lacey used the cleaning supplies that he’d also brought in when they got the video tapes.
By late afternoon, Lacey was content with the cleaning and changes that, she’d made to the house. She brewed a pot of coffee in the freshly cleaned coffee maker and sat down at the kitchen table with Jim. She said, “I’d like to talk to you about something.” She then related Evan’s concerns about his father to Jim and the way that she had addressed those concerns.
Jim responded by pointing out that he didn’t want to take her husband’s place. He wanted to carve out his own place in the boy’s life. Then he somewhat surprised her when he said, “The same is true of my relationship with you. You loved your husband dearly. That’s clear to me, and I understand that. I love you both enough to tell you that I wish your husband, Evan’s father, had lived. I say that knowing that had that been the case, I wouldn’t have you in my life now, but you would’ve been spared the misery of his loss. I love you both enough to wish you’d never endured that pain.”