by Robert Boren
“Wow. All over… as far north as LA County. He said they were recruited by Ivan the Butcher.”
“It’s about time that guy noticed we’ve got a problem on the border,” Doug said. “Are they coming here?”
“Yep, they want to be in the spots where the border is closest to a road, and this stretch is one of the best.”
“When will they be here?” Doug asked.
“Any minute,” Jorge said, sending a reply. After a few seconds, his phone dinged. “Oh, God.”
“What?”
“Some of those guys have these apps, and they showed Luis. There’s half a million Islamists about sixty-five miles from the border.”
Doug’s forehead broke out in a sweat. “Say again?”
“You heard me, man,” Jorge said.
“We’re dead. Maybe we should take off, and live to fight another day.”
“Look, here comes a big line of vehicles,” Jorge said. “Let’s go meet them.”
They climbed out of their trench, rushing to the road. The lead vehicle was a commercial bus. Doug and Jorge rushed towards the door just as it opened. A large middle-aged man in camo came down the steps, his hawkish eyes scanning the area, then walking towards them. He set down the weapons he carried-an M4 and an M60.
“You Doug and Jorge?” the man asked.
“Yep,” Jorge said. “You talked to Luis?”
“Yeah,” he said, shaking hands with them. “I’m head of the resistance in San Bernardino. Conrad Kowalski.”
“You were recruited by Ivan the Butcher?” Doug asked.
“His recruitment leader, Ben Dover,” he said, a smirk on his face.
“Oh yeah, that guy,” Doug said. “Saw that video of him on the TV show. Love to shake his hand.”
“Me too,” Jorge said. “There really half a million enemy fighters down south?”
“Hey, Conrad, where do you want us?” shouted a man from the second vehicle–a stake truck with men jumping out of the bed. He was much younger, with the look of an army recruit.
“Let’s move the vehicles off the road, and bring up the K-rail tenders. Place the K-rails about five feet apart, all up and down the road as far as we can. Got it?”
“You don’t want them flush, so there’s no gaps?”
“We don’t have enough,” Conrad said. “Stake them down, too, but place them first, okay?”
“Yeah, okay,” the man said. “I’ll pass the word.”
Conrad waved the man off, then pulled his cellphone out, fired up the long-range app, and showed it to Jorge and Doug. “See all these icons here?”
“Yeah,” Jorge said. “Holy crap.”
“That’s one way to say it,” Conrad said, smiling. “I’d use a little stronger language.”
“How’d you get this?” Doug asked.
“Go on the recruiting site and sign up, and you can download it. Worth it. What’s your email addresses?”
They both told Conrad what they were, and he sent them emails with the link to the recruitment page.
“Thanks, man,” Jorge said.
“How many people we got coming?” Doug asked.
“Not enough yet,” Conrad said. “I know of eighty-thousand on the way, but they might not make it here in time. Obviously that’s not enough. The only way we’ll survive is to get a whole lot of recruits from San Diego. Ben Dover started recruiting there last night, and I hear the response is huge.”
“Good,” Doug said. “Ah, the app finished loading.”
“Mine too,” Jorge said. “I’m gonna forward this link to everybody on our team.”
“Yeah, you do that,” Doug said. “I’ve got the long-range app up now. There’s gonna be more than half a million. I see a long trail of icons stretching up from the south.”
“Yep, I’ve heard it could be as many as seven hundred thousand,” Conrad said. “Take a look to the north-east.”
“In Mexico?”
Conrad smiled. “I wish. California.”
Doug moved his fingers around, his brow furrowed. “Highway 78, almost to Salton Sea. How many is that?”
“They’re pretty stretched out, but I’ve heard about two-hundred thousand.”
“Hell, man, they’ve got almost a million men on the way,” Jorge said. “We can’t counter that.”
“There’s ten million people in LA County. Over three million in San Diego County, and almost that many in Orange County. Riverside and San Bernardino each have over two million. We can field over a million citizens, easy. Look at what was done in Texas, and Northern California, and Portland.”
“But in what amount of time?” Jorge asked.
“Well, I won’t kid you guys. We might be overrun and killed before this starts rolling, but these heathens aren’t going to win the war. No way, no how. We’ve already taken back Northern California, you know, and we own LA and Orange Counties.”
“Where the hell are the Marines?” Doug asked. “Camp Pendleton is nearby.”
“Maybe they’re in with the Feds,” Jorge said.
“They’re not,” Conrad said. “I’ve heard they’re being used to make sure the Navy base doesn’t get overrun. I agree that they ought to be helping us down here. It’s in their interest, after all.”
“Some Navy planes could be helpful too,” Doug said. “There aren’t enough Marines here to hold off a force the size that we’re seeing.”
Cars were leaving the road now, backing up and heading for the large flat areas between their position and Jacumba. Then two huge tenders rolled past them, and crews used the built-on cranes to lift K-rails onto the right shoulder of the highway.
“This is gonna take too long,” Doug said.
Jorge chuckled. “See where the enemy is right now? There’s no roads there. These folks are on foot. It takes a long time to march sixty-five miles on foot, man.”
“Yep, that’s why we’re taking the time to do this,” Conrad said. “Here’s a good rule of thumb. Infantry can march about twenty-five miles per day. We’ve got two and a half days before the main enemy force gets here. Oh, and by the way, our recruits can drive here. It’s all about the recruiting at this point.”
Jorge’s phone dinged again. He looked at it. “Luis. Another twenty-thousand citizens just got to town.” He laughed. “The traffic is a frigging mess. Maybe we’ll be okay after all.”
“We’d better have them park there and walk here,” Conrad said. “You know the right people to call about that?”
“Yeah,” Doug said, pulling out his phone.
“I got to go check on some stuff,” Conrad said. “Nice to meet you guys. I’m sure we’ll see each other a lot in the next few days.”
Jorge and Doug watched as he walked away with several of his men.
***
The battle wagons were all in place on I-80.
“This waiting is driving me nuts,” Shelly said. She was sitting at the dinette in their battle wagon, watching the high-res app on her laptop. “Hey, honey, we’d better run the generator for a while so I can charge this up.”
“No problem,” Jules said. He flipped the switch on the dash to start it. “How close are they?”
“The lead is right by Lake Putt,” she said. “The tail is just past Emigrant Gap.”
“How far apart are those two places?” Sparky asked.
“Just a sec,” Shelly said, typing on her laptop. “They’ve tightened up nicely. It’s only four and a half miles.”
“Perfect,” Sparky said. “The entire group will be in the kill zone before the first of them hit the busted bridge.”
“Yes, this almost too good to be true,” Jules said.
“That’s what worries me,” Dana said. “We’ve got a multitude of enemy fighters coming at a small number of folks.”
“We not stand and fight all,” Jules said. “Never plan that. Stop them from coming to Sacramento. Kill a bunch, then get away clean. That’s objective.”
“I agree, but I share Dana’s concern,” S
parky said. “As soon as the first vehicles go over the edge, you know messages are gonna be sent to the vehicles behind them, right?”
“We can attack the back end as soon as this starts,” Shelly said. “If we disable enough vehicles back there, it’ll be hard for them to escape.”
“That job of off-roaders by Baxter,” Jules said. “Placed more there than at Crystal Springs road.”
“I think they’re speeding up,” Shelly said. “The leaders just passed Whitmore Road.”
“Won’t be long now,” Sparky said.
“We still gonna back up there?” Dana asked.
“Probably best way, so we can leave fast,” Sparky said. “How do you feel about driving there backwards, Jules?”
“Piece of cake,” he said. “New back end armor keep us safe until we get into siege mode.”
“We shouldn’t go right to the edge,” Shelly said. “We’ve got the range to hit them from a further distance.”
“True,” Jules said. “Off-roaders do a lot more damage. Send text to Robbie. Only go far enough to see enemy, not all the way to edge.”
“We’re doing too much on-the-fly in this operation,” Sparky said. “Ought to be by the numbers.”
“We by numbers where need,” Jules said. “We aren’t important group, now that bridges down. Baxter group important, and strategy worked out well there.”
“That’s where Ted is, right?” Sparky asked, a sly smile coming on his face. “Say no more.”
“Yes, he handle,” Jules said. “He always handle.”
***
Ted and Bryan sat at the dinette opposite Haley and Brianna.
“Where are the off-roaders now?” Ted asked.
Brianna pulled out her phone and clicked the Find My Friends app, watching it for about thirty seconds. “Still on the eastbound side of I-80,” she said.
“Well they’d better get to Kearsarge Mill Road in the next five minutes, or they’d better get off into the woods on the side of the road,” Haley said, watching the high-res app on her laptop. “The lead group of enemy vehicles is pretty damn close to there now.”
“There’s guard rail all along there,” Bryan said, “until they get to the off-ramp for Drum Forebay, and they’d better turn right and go down a ways, or they’ll be seen.”
“How do you know that?” Brianna asked.
“The map program,” Bryan said. “Street view.”
“Oh,” she said, “that’s smart.”
“Says the woman who came up with using Find my Friends to track our off-roaders,” Ted said, smiling at her. “So impressed. You made my job much easier.”
“Seriously,” Haley said.
“We all used that, before the war,” Brianna said, her babyface turning red. Bryan looked at her, the affection showing to everybody.
“This is gonna be close,” Haley said, refreshing her screen to see the new position of the enemy. “They’re three miles from Kearsarge right now.”
“And the off-roaders are a mile and a half, but they’re slower,” Brianna said. “Not that much slower, though.”
“Thank God for that,” Haley said. “This makes me nervous as hell.”
“Tell me about it,” Brianna said.
“Dammit, I wish we’d get past this part,” Bryan said. “They there yet?”
Brianna looked at her phone again. “They can probably see the sign for the off-ramp right now.”
“Enemy’s less than a mile away,” Haley said. “Geez.”
“We’re gonna make it,” Ted said. “There’s no traffic light at the top of that off-ramp, is there?”
“Stop sign,” Bryan said. “No traffic, either, so they’ll be able to get around that corner in a hurry.”
“The first of them made it up the ramp!” Brianna said.
“You can’t tell where the end is, can you?” Haley asked.
“Nope. Should’ve talked to whoever was going to be last.”
“How close are the enemy fighters?” Ted asked.
“Less than half a mile,” Haley said.
“Arrrggg,” Bryan said. “C’mon, guys, make it!”
“Quarter mile,” Haley said.
Brianna’s phone dinged. “They’re all past the right turn.”
“Yes!” Bryan said, leaning back in his seat, taking a deep breath.
Haley smiled. “And there go the bad guys, racing past it.”
“So now we wait,” Ted said. “Is the enemy convoy still looking like about five miles long?”
“Four and a half,” Haley said. “How can this be going so well?”
“Don’t say that,” Ted said.
***
“They’re past Kearsarge,” Robbie said, watching his app.
“Did the off-roaders make it where they needed to be?” Morgan asked.
“I don’t know. Hope so.” Just at that moment, their phones dinged. Morgan got to hers first.
“Ted. Off-roaders got out of sight in time. Waiting for rest of the enemy convoy to get past that spot, then they’ll get on the westbound side of the road and head down.”
“That’s going to be very dangerous,” Robbie said. “Wouldn’t want to trade places. They have no armor.”
“I know, it’s scary as hell. They’re fast, at least.”
“Doesn’t help that much when you have machine guns firing at you,” Robbie said. “The only thing that will protect them is the trees at the side of the westbound lanes. Thank God there’s no guard rails along there, so they can get into the forest before they have to engage the enemy.”
“Yeah, could you imagine if it was the eastbound side, and they were trapped on the highway? That would be a shooting gallery for the enemy.”
“They just passed the Baxter overpass,” Robbie said.
“So Ted and Justin can probably see them.”
“I hope they can only hear them,” Robbie said. “These battle wagons are well known to the enemy now.”
“Good point. Where’s the tail end of the enemy convoy?”
“A mile east of Kearsarge,” Robbie said. “They’ve compacted a lot, though. Good chance they’ll be completely inside the kill zone before we have the front end flying off the bridge here.”
“What could go wrong? What should we worry about?”
“Too many of them getting out of their vehicles and overpowering us,” Robbie said. “They have the numbers. The leaders just passed Crystal Springs Road.”
“Won’t be long now,” she said. “Glad we’re just going back far enough to get a clean shot at the road.”
“We’ll have to watch for RPGs,” Robbie said. “Hopefully we can hit the first few rows with enough grenade and mini-gun fire to shock them into submission.”
Morgan glanced over at him. “We won’t be able to use the rear machine guns as well from where we’ll be.”
“They’ve got plenty of range and a good targeting system,” Robbie said. “We’ll use them to good effect, trust me.”
“How close?”
“Any second now,” Robbie said.
Suddenly they heard the crash of vehicles hitting the cement below the broken bridge, and the squealing of tires as vehicles tried to stop in a panic.
Robbie and Morgan looked at each other. “Time to go!” Robbie said, getting behind the wheel. He fired up the engine and backed up quickly. “Tell me when you have a clear shot in that sight.”
“You got it,” Morgan said as she pulled out the tray and looked at the sight. “Keep going, but slow down a little bit.”
“Jules is moving.”
“Watch the mirrors, not him,” Morgan said, “and be ready to angle like we did before.”
“Okay.”
“There, angle a little more towards the left.”
Robbie adjusted. “How’s that?”
“Perfect. Get us into siege mode.”
Robbie nodded, stopping the coach and hitting the siege mode button. Morgan opened fire, hitting several of the front vehicles right through t
he windshields.
“That got their attention,” she said.
Jules’s coach fired rear machine guns too, as Robbie waited for the M19 and mini-gun to rise into place. As soon as the M19 was up he opened fire, shooting a half dozen grenades into the stuck trucks in rapid succession, Jules doing the same. Enemy fighters were leaving their vehicles, trying to run for cover, when the off-roaders fired from the side of the road, blowing up the next several rows of trucks, gas tanks going, spewing fire all over the place.
“It’s gonna be tough to hit much more with these rear guns,” Morgan said. “We’ve wasted just about everybody that I can see with the sight.”
“I’ve got a ways to go with the grenade launcher,” Robbie said, firing off another half dozen further back, the explosions taking longer to sound. Machine gun fire hit the rear of the coach.
“They’re finally shooting back,” Morgan said, eyes back on the target reticle. “Stupid.” She fired, hitting several men who were lying between ruined vehicles close to the broken edge of the bridge. Several of them were hit, the others trying to crawl backwards as Jules landed two grenades right on top of them, body parts and blood flying into the air. Morgan leaned back from the sight. “That was gross.”
“Those off-roaders are still causing havoc, but they’re pretty far back there,” Robbie said. “Can’t see, but I can hear the grenades going off.”
“Most of the enemy fighters must be out of their vehicles by now, if they haven’t been hit. You haven’t even fired the mini-gun yet, have you?”
“Nope, and neither has Jules,” Robbie said. “Can’t see back far enough now.” He fired the grenade launcher several more times, aimed high so they’d fly far. “Hell, I hate using this thing without actually aiming at a target.”
“Those trucks are so close together that you’re hitting something with almost every shot,” she said. More bullets hit the back of the coach, and she fired again, hitting a group of three Islamists who were shooting from prone position behind some of their own dead. Robbie saw them and landed grenades on them. Then a text message came in.
“Who’s that?” Morgan asked, eyes glued to the target reticle.
“Ted. They’ve got the off-ramp completely blocked with broken trucks, and the off-roaders back there are almost out of ammo. He’s getting on the escape road.”