by A J Newman
I poked her on her arm and said, “You have to stay and work to pay us back for all of that excellent medical attention and breakfast.
What’s going on out there around us? We only hear a few bits and pieces on the walkie talkies as we listen in on other’s conversations.”
“Prescott has taken over all of Daviess County and several of the cities along the rail lines. He crushed all opposition by either killing or running any opposition out of the area. He took charge of the grain silos, all food production and fuel storage.
Half of the town’s people are starving and will freeze this winter. People are dying every day in Owensville for no reason other than Prescott wants fewer mouths to feed.”
I asked, “Davi, what about the people out in the county. We had just brought the crops in and they should have plenty of food to make it through the winter. They also have plenty of coal from those barges plus the diesel fuel Paul found.”
“Prescott’s men went from farm to farm seizing all but a few weeks supply of all food and fuel from every farm. The ones loyal to you knew this could happen so most of them have hidden supplies, but not enough to last all winter. The rest are in bad shape and beginning to die off.”
“Damn, we have to do something. We have enough food for 50 more people with plenty in reserve. We have to help save as many of our friends as possible. We need a plan.”
Davi replied, “It’s not my place to tell you what to do, but be careful adding anyone that you don’t know really well.
How will you get to them and get them back here without leaving tracks that can easily be followed. Saving people is a great Judeo/Christian thing to do, but don’t get your group killed trying to save a few lives.”
“Good points, but we have to do something or we won’t be able to live with ourselves later.”
Davi looked around the table and said, “But you will still be alive to have regrets. Do something if you have to, but don’t do anything half-baked or irresponsible. Make sure you gather intelligence about what is actually happening out there before going off halfcocked.”
I caught Davi a little later and asked, “You didn’t tell us about how your mom and dad are doing, or anything about the Israeli settlers. Is everything okay?”
“No, our compound below Nashville on the Tennessee River was attacked and my mom was injured fighting off the invaders.”
“I thought your compound was well armed and prepared for any and all attacks. What could a bunch of local thugs do against the Israeli Army?”
“The attackers were well armed ex-military mercenaries. We fought off the attackers killing most of them with only a handful of them escaping.
They had three civilian helicopters outfitted with machineguns, rockets and one had a mini Gatling gun. They caught us by surprise and almost overran the compound before we took out the choppers with Stingers and antiaircraft guns.”
“How many were there?”
“There were approximately 90, not including the pilots and gunners in the helicopters. They knew exactly where to hit us, and the time of day for maximum impact. This wasn’t a bunch of punks. These men were part of the Prescott Corporation Security Group.”
“No shit? Prescott’s Group is that big and controls that much territory.”
“Yes. We interrogated the five survivors and learned that they have three large groups that are trying to gain control of the Kentucky to Lower Alabama region. We kept the Wheeler Dam in operation and they wanted it.”
“Why doesn’t the Army deal with them? Hey, how many compounds do the Israeli’s have, and where are they?”
“Zack, what’s left of your Army is fighting two wars; one with the Cartels on the Mexican border and one with the Russians on the northwest coast.
We have 15 compounds in the USA, and 15 more spread from Mexico down to Brazil. We also have compounds in Hawaii and other islands.
Our largest is below Wichita a few miles south of McConnell AFB. I can’t tell you the locations of the others for security reasons.
Prescott’s group has attacked several of our compounds. We have won every battle, but they are getting stronger as he recruits more ex-military men and women to join him. He offers food, security and housing for their families.”
“Son of a Bitch! How can our little group fight such a large well-armed group?”
“Cut the head off the snake and it will break into many smaller dictatorships that can be more easily dealt with.
✪✪✪
✪
Chapter 3
Rescue
The transition from fall to winter was slow this year until the end of November then winter fell upon us like a blanket. We had spent the nice fall days gathering nuts, berries and plenty of firewood in preparation for winter. Callie, Susie and Sally harvested the vegetables from our small garden while Joan and Ally canned and made preserves. Joan and Ally might never be friends, but they could work together without pulling hair and fighting. Joan was still grieving the loss of Chuck and Ally did everything possible to help her through the healing process.
We had a little over 30 days of beautiful fall weather and spent most of the time outside, but staying in the woods around the hideout. Only Mike and I ventured out to spy on Prescott’s men and the surrounding area.
Mike and I traveled through the woods towards Owensville and were careful not to leave any tracks out of the dense brush and woods. It was 5:00 and the sun hadn’t peeked above the skyline yet. There was a bite of cold in the air promising that winter was just around the corner. There was a light frost on the grass that could barely be seen by the light from the half moon. We scurried along tree lines and ditches most of the way; however, the last two hundred yards were through a subdivision along Miller’s Mill road. We arrived on the south side of Highway 54 at the Thurston Dermont crossing without being seen. There was one narrow escape where a woman surprised us and threw the contents of a slop bucket just behind us. Thankfully, she never saw us and we moved on.
I said, “Damn, Mike that was a close call.”
“Too damn close. Did you catch a whiff of that shit? If it had landed on us we’d have to call of this trip.”
“Yep, it would gag a skunk and the guards would get tears in their eyes.”
Mike and I hid under an abandoned delivery truck and listened to the guards. There were two men and a woman on guard duty and they were too busy talking to notice anything around them.
***
“Why don’t Prescott’s boys have to pull guard duty?”
“I was told that they are elite soldiers whose job is to fight our enemies and run off all of the drug pushers.”
“The bastards killed Chuck and probably killed Mike Norman and Zack. I’ll never believe they were the master minds behind a drug gang.”
“I don’t like this half rations shit and I hear the farmers are starving. That is, the ones that don’t freeze to death this winter. Damn it’s cold. Ralph, it’s your turn to put another log in the barrel. Get the fire roaring.”
“Get off my ass. I’m going now. I’ll even put two logs on.”
“Hey Sue, now that he is gone, how about coming over to my place for a little wine and some cheese I scrounged up just for you?”
“So you can get me drunk and get me in bed? Hell no! Not now, or ever. I know that you turned the Hager family in for holding back a little food for themselves. I grew up with Sam’s son. They are good people and now they will starve. You are scum.”
“You’d better show me some respect or I’ll tell Prescott you are part of the resistance.”
Ralph came up behind the asshole and struck him in the head with the butt of his hunting rifle. The woman checked his pulse and said, “The bastard is dead. What do we do now?”
“Grab the shovels out of the bed of my pickup. I’ll drag the body behind the Burger Shack and bury him in the burn pile. No one will find him. I’ll tell Jock that he got pissed about the short rations and headed over to Anderson.”
***
“Mike, it appears that not all of Prescott’s people are loyal to him to say the least. We should be able to get many of them to join us in the spring. Their story backs up what Davi told us about Prescott starving the people that aren’t loyal to him.”
“I’m worried that most of them might be dead by spring. You heard what he said about Sam’s family. Let’s get them to join us at the hideout along with any others we can trust.”
“Mike, we need to talk with our group first.”
“Zack, you are our leader. Lead, damn it. Let’s go get them now.”
“I guess you’re right. I couldn’t live with myself if Sam or Jacob’s family starved to death. We’re seven miles from Sam’s place and another ½ mile to Jacob’s home. We need to go back to the hideout and put a plan together and leave the hideout at sundown.”
“Sounds good to me. Let’s shag ass home.”
The trip home was uneventful and everyone had a million questions for us when we arrived back at the hideout. We filled them in on what we heard and saw while gorging on Joan’s deer stew and Ally’s cornbread.
“They actually killed that asshole and buried him.”
“Yes, I think he planned to rape the woman and they knew his plan.”
Callie spoke up, “Dad we have to help Sam and Jacob’s families.”
“Darling I agree. I want to put a plan together to bring both families here as soon as we can safely do it. Who else do we need to bring over here that we can trust?”
We all thought about who could be trusted and couldn’t come up with any more names that the team thought we could trust our lives with. We came up with several families that we wanted to save, but not bring back to the hideout.
Ally asked, “If we don’t trust some people with our lives, but may need them to fight against Prescott, could we help feed a few of these families?”
I replied, “You mean leave anonymous care packages?”
“Yes, something like that. Perhaps we leave a bundle of food with a note from the resistance saying to keep their chins up while the resistance deals with Prescott.”
Paul asked, “What is the name of the resistance and can we have a symbol?”
Mike replied, “How about “The Green River Rangers?”
Sally countered with, “The Patriots” for her suggestion.”
I looked around the picnic table and said, “All in favor of the Patriots raise your hand.”
Everyone except Mike raised their hand.
“It’s official, we are the Patriots. Now what is our symbol?”
Ally spoke up and said, “Our symbol has to be a Christian Cross.”
She drew one on a slip of paper that looked like this -✞.
“That’s what we place on walls, houses and care packages. If we shoot an evil person, we mark them with a cross.”
The group approved the cross as the symbol of our resistance movement then went on to plan the rescue of Sam and Jacob’s family.
Davi wanted to join us as we went to rescue Sam’s family, but my threat to chain her to her bed backed her off.
“Davi, it’s just been two weeks since you crawled in here half dead. I know you are better at this type of work than we are but you are wounded and recovering. You could get us killed if you have a relapse and we have to carry you back,” I implored.
“I know you are right. I just hate sitting here on my ass while y’all are having all the fun.”
“Damn, did I hear the Israeli girl say y'all?”
Davi kissed me on the cheek and said, “Your bad influence. Come back safe.”
“I will.”
Ally caught me as I left Davi, gave me a kiss and hugged me for a minute before saying, “Be careful. You aren’t 1o foot tall and bullet proof.”
The plan was for Paul, Mike and me to drive over to Sam’s place load the family up in the pickup and high tail it back to the hideout without being seen.
I saw Paul walking towards the pickup with his bow slung on his back and said, “We don’t have time for hunting this trip.”
“Zack, we might want to take out a thug or two without making any noise.”
We slipped away from the hideout after midnight and drove one of the old trucks the eight miles to my old farm where Sam’s family was still residing in camping trailers. We took the side road to the back of the farm and slipped up to the back of the workshop. I blew my house and barn up to make Prescott think we were dead. The trailers were between the workshop and the remains of the house.
We expected to find Sam, his sons, Greg and Ben, and Ben’s wife Millie. The ride back would be crowded, but it was only a thirty minute drive to where we would stash the truck in the old barn about a half mile from the hideout.
Mike saw the man guarding the campers and waved to the rest of us.
“It’s Greg and he is armed. Let’s don’t get shot doing a good deed. Let me get his attention.”
Mike snuck up closer to Greg’s position and kept a large oak tree between Greg and him.
“Greg, this is Mike Norman,” Mike loudly whispered.
Greg came to attention, raised his shotgun and said, “Mike, is that you?”
“Yes Greg, it’s me. I’m stepping out from behind the oak tree with my hands raised.”
Mike leaned his AR against the tree and walked out with his hands up in the air.
“Mike, I see you. You can put your hands down. What are you doing here? We thought you were dead.”
“Greg, Zack and Paul are with me. Can they join us?”
“Of course. What can I do for you?”
I shook Greg’s hand and said, “We want you to join us and get away from here.”
“I’d like that, but we are running out of food and don’t want to burden you.”
“We have enough food for us and your family. Wake them up and we need to leave now before someone spots us.”
Greg went into two of the campers, woke his family up and soon they were standing in front of us. I saw a young girl that I didn’t recognize.
“Sam, who is the girl?”
“Her name is Betty and she is an orphan. Prescott’s men killed her parents while she hid in a brush pile. She is 16 years old and we took her in with us. Ben and Millie have adopted her.”
I stopped at the front door and drew our symbol on the door so Prescott’s men would see our✞on the door. I wrote ‘PATRIOTS!’ below the cross.
“Grab a few personal items, your weapons and ammo and load up in the truck. Millie and Betty get to ride up front with Mike. The rest will ride in the back and watch for Prescott’s men. Hold on tight. We will be running without lights so Mike tends to run off the road every now and then.”
Everything was going as planned when I saw lights up ahead around a curve. Mike saw them at the same time, slowed up and drove off into the brush alongside of the road. He stopped about 30 feet in and cut the motor off. An old truck came around the curve, slowed up and stopped a few yards past where we had left the road. We could see a couple of men get out of the back of the truck and walk to the side of the road in front of the truck. It was soon obvious they were Prescott’s men and they were drunk. Two were relieving themselves while attempting to sing 99 bottles of beer on the wall. They finished, got back in the truck and sped off down the road.
Mike said, “Damn I’m glad those short dicked fuckers didn’t try to write their names on the ground. If they turned just a bit they would have seen us.”
I replied, “Mike, there is a girl present.”
“Sorry mam.”
Betty replied, “Don’t worry Mike; I was thinking the same thing.”
We arrived at the abandoned barn and parked the truck inside, then took some branches from a brush pile and wiped out the tracks leading off the road.
“I’ll take the lead; Mike, bring up the rear. Greg help me look forward, Paul take the left side and Ben the right. Be alert for any danger. Sam, please guard the girls.”
We were only a few yards i
nto our trek when there was a howl from our left.
Greg said, “Damn, that sounds like a wolf. Don’t worry they are afraid of people.”
We kept on walking, but heard something walking in the bushes behind us and on our left side. I looked back and saw Paul draw his bow string back and fire an arrow just as something flashed into my view. Paul grabbed another arrow and let it fly to the rear of our column; there was a loud yelp and then silence.
We bunched up with everyone looking into the woods around us when Mike leaped away and tackled a dark object flying through the air. There was a struggle and we heard growling and Mike cursing. I ran over to help, but only saw a mass of dark shapes wallowing on the ground. I wanted to help Mike, but knew any action could hurt him or his attacker. There was a loud yelp and the struggle was over. We couldn’t see anything, and then Mike came walking towards us covered in blood.
Mike wiped his bayonet on his sleeve and said, “I killed whatever the bastard was, but he scratched and bit me.”
Paul stepped out to the left with another arrow ready and came back into view with an arrow in his hand.
Paul said, “Wolves. I killed one and may have killed the one attacking from the rear. We need to move on because this is a large pack and they definitely aren’t afraid of us.”
We arrived back at the hideout an hour later and our team welcomed Sam and his family to our new home. The women had prepared two of the trailers for the Hager family and another for Jacob’s family. Ally and Joan showed them to their new homes and promised a tour of the hideout in the morning. Our new team members settled in for the night as did the rest of us who weren’t on guard duty.
Sally and Ally tended to Mike’s wounds and then everyone at last turned in for the night.
Ally lay beside me and asked, “Darling are wolves and lions going to be a problem?”
“Baby, I never gave that much thought before tonight. I always worried about stray dogs forming packs and killing people, but never thought about lions and wolves in Kentucky. I guess the short answer is yes. We will have to stay on guard for wild animals from now on. They are multiplying while mankind is still dying off.”