B00C74WTKQ EBOK

by Tackitt, Lloyd

  One man quickly stood and shouted out “General Bear is it true that you slept with a grizzly and gave her babies?”

  The crowd erupted into loud laughter and a lot of hooting and general applause.

  Adrian had been asked this so many times that he’d finally given up trying to explain the truth, though he’d only recently learned to roll with it. He smiled and waited for the laughter to die down then held up his hand and quickly got silence. “Yes it’s true, and I have the scars to prove it,” he said unbuttoning his shirt to show the scars that ran from his navel up to his cheek. “That’s what home-made whisky will do to you.”

  At this laughter rang out as some of the men and women bent over from laughing so hard.

  Adrian buttoned his shirt back up and as the laughter slowly died he said, “And she keeps calling asking me to come back.” This started another round of laughter. Adrian smiled back and waited, he knew they had to get this out of their systems before the real questions would start.

  “General, what flag are we going to use?”

  This caught Adrian off guard, he hadn’t thought about a flag. “Damn good question and one that should be put up to a vote right now. Let’s hear suggestions and then vote on them.”

  “How about that rattlesnake with ‘Don’t Tread On Me’ flag?” someone shouted. A loud cheer went up at this suggestion.

  Adrian said “Let’s see a show of hands. I’d call that unanimous.” More cheering. Adrian asked “Anyone here have the ability to make us a flag like that?” Several people raised their hands. Adrian nodded. “Those of you with your hands up please get together and see what you can do. I think it should also have ‘Texas’ on it somewhere, don’t you?” More cheers. “How about ‘Don’t Tread On Texas’?”

  Adrian looked up, he didn’t think it was possible but it sounded as though the bridge would be pulled down on them from the sheer volume of the cheering.

  Adrian fielded a series of routine questions after that. Where to set up sanitary facilities, did he know how many more volunteers would come in, and so on. One woman asked if he was authorized to perform marriages. Adrian replied, “No ma’am, but I’m willing to bet dollars to donuts there’s a half-dozen preachers here right now.” Several men and women raised their hands to let everyone know they were, indeed, preachers.

  “That reminds me,” Adrian said, “we also need a Chaplain’s Corps. You folks, please see me after the meeting.”

  After that the rest of the meeting was more subdued as the volunteers imagined the upcoming duties of the Chaplains.

  The days blazed by far too fast for Adrian to be comfortable with. Every day new volunteers arrived in droves. Keeping up with getting them interviewed and assigned to their companies was a full time operation in itself, but there was much more to do. Adrian set up training regimens for the company commanders to follow. As soon as the companies were operating with a semblance of order, they would train company to company and then move on to full battle tactics.

  He created a Messenger Corps whose duty was to quickly and accurately relay messages to and from the battlefield in case their limited number of radios became an issue. Adrian chose Ryan and Jose to be his Adjutants, his top staff. They were kept in constant motion coordinating the volunteers in their training and assignments.

  The men the Admiral sent arrived and everyone was extremely happy to see them. When the river boat trucks arrived in convoy, with the trucks full of troops and tanker cars of fuel, all of the volunteers broke discipline and rushed to greet them. Adrian sent runners to the Company Commanders to allow this break in discipline without punishment. They were volunteers, after all, and some allowances had to be made until they were closer to combat conditions.

  Adrian used a stick to point out the features in the terrain model that the intelligence team had made after they had returned from their scouting mission, and pointed out where the cartel was most likely to cross the river. “Here’s the plan.”

  Adrian outlined the plan, talking for half and hour, then asked. “Questions?”

  “How sure are we they’ll cross at this spot?” asked one of the company commanders.

  “About ninety percent.” Adrian responded. “We have good, on-the-ground intel coming in and they are still heading towards it. It’s about the only decent place for them to cross. Everywhere else has too many terrain issues. We’ll monitor their progress and if their direction changes we’ll move to meet them.”

  “Do we have a solid head count on them yet?” asked another commander.

  “No, we estimate maybe two thousand of them against our eighteen hundred, but the estimate does not have a high confidence factor. They’re well-armed and semi-disciplined. They’re on foot with only the four trucks used by their leaders. They may have the numbers; but we have the mobility and the element of surprise. These are not trained military men. They’ve never been in combat against a well-armed and determined enemy. But that doesn’t mean they won’t be hard fighters. If all goes according to plan, they won’t be able to organize a counter-attack”

  “Damn, I almost feel sorry for them.” one of the men muttered.

  Chapter 22

  Linda turned off the encrypted radio and walked over to Roman’s house, where the Fort Brazos Milita was quickly gathering outside. Over half of them were already there.

  Roman was among the men talking. When he spotted Linda approaching he called the men to fall into formation.

  Linda stopped in front of the men and said, “We’ve all heard about the Mexican invasion and the call for volunteers. I’ll be leaving tomorrow, who wants to go?”

  Within two hours all of the militia had come in, men and women alike, and all were determined to reach Cotulla as soon as they could. Linda made a last address to the full contingent

  “Pack your things, gather as much food and guns and ammo as you can. We leave in one week, get your affairs in order at home, make arrangements for your children and for neighbors or friends to take care of your place while we’re gone. We could be gone for a long time. It’s easy to underestimate how long a war will last and we have a long way to travel back and forth and our transport isn’t fast.”

  The volunteers left in small groups, talking excitedly.

  Linda turned to Sarah, “Sarah, I need to ask a huge—” but was interrupted by Sarah before she could get the next word out.

  “Of course I’ll take care of Scott, it’ll be a pleasure. He’ll keep me company while Roman is off gallivanting around the country. Rest easy on that. Scott will be kept busy with his schooling and chores. He won’t have time to worry about you.”

  “Thank you so much Sarah, I just don’t know what I’d do without you.”

  “It’s my pleasure, that little boy is a treasure and I love him like he was my own. It really will be my pleasure, he’ll keep me busy, too.”

  The militia pulled out in a convoy at daybreak one week later. They had nearly thirty pickup trucks that ran on wood gas, each truck heavily loaded with volunteers and supplies. They were carrying an enormous amount of food, more than they needed for themselves, knowing that the food would be needed at Cotulla. With the extra loads on the inefficient, wood gas trucks, Linda estimated that the trip would take three or four days if there were no serious problems.

  Linda had working CB radios installed in several of the trucks, including hers, and had decided that they would only travel in daylight for security; this meant lost time, but the danger of ambush was tripled at night and fighting in the dark wouldn’t be to their advantage against a determined and well thought-out ambush. It wasn’t worth the risk. They would still get there in plenty of time. She also had the encrypted radio and talked with Adrian frequently.

  Linda turned to Roman, who was riding with her. “I expect that raiders have heard the call, and will be expecting more than u
sual traffic heading south on the highway. Trucks loaded with things they want to steal. They’ll be thinking this is a golden opportunity for them so I’m anticipating roadblocks and ambushes. I’m going to pull ahead of the main body by several miles and act as point, relaying what we see as we go. Do you want to ride point with me, or would you rather not?”

  “Drive on.” Roman said with a smile. “I’ll enjoy being shotgun. But if I may suggest, I think it would be better to have two more trucks accompany us, trucks that have the most volunteers in them. That way, if we hit an ambush, we’ll have more firepower to deal with it while the main column catches up. You and I alone could get in pretty deep, too deep for the convoy to come in time to help.”

  Linda nodded, and picked up the microphone. “This is point to main body. Send the two trucks with the most people in it to follow me on point, we’ll have a stronger response to any problems that way.”

  The militia continued with three point trucks containing a total of twelve volunteers five miles ahead of the main body. Roman noticed on a sharp curve that Matt, Tim, Perry, as well as his own son and son-in-law, along with Adrian’s former army squad were in the trucks accompanying them.

  He told Linda who was back there, “That was no accident,” he said. “I’m guessing they stopped the convoy to switch some people around. Bet’cha that was a Chinese fire drill for the record book.”

  If they had to stop and wait for the convoy to catch up to them they would have a ten to fifteen minute wait. Once the convoy did catch up to them, the full contingent of 93 volunteers would be in place. Linda didn’t expect to find any serious opposition to that number of trained and armed soldiers.

  They stopped at noon for a stretch and comfort break and to grab a quick meal. An hour later they were back on the road and traveled uneventfully for several hours.

  As the point trucks approached the bridge over the Leon River, Linda caught sight of a flash of light. “Roman, I saw a reflection up ahead beside that bridge. Could be nothing, could be something. I’m going to slow down a bit; keep your eyes peeled.”

  She slowed down to about half-speed and watched intently.

  “That’s a good place for a blockade,” said Roman. “With the river there, we can’t bypass the bridge without going miles out of our way; can’t cross the river without the bridge, either. If I was going to set up an ambush, I’d have two trucks hidden on each side of the road on the far side of the bridge and pull them into position at the last moment to block the road, then I’d hit us from both sides. Plenty of trees there to hide as many men as they want to and they can fire from cover. Stop well ahead of the bridge and let’s see what happens. We can scout it out on foot, if need be.”

  “Glad you’re on our side Roman, you have a devious mind.”

  Linda lifted her foot from the gas pedal and let the truck drift to nearly a stop. As she did she radioed to the trucks behind her. “Roman’s got an itch and I thought I saw a flash of reflected light by the bridge. We’re going to stop short and scope it out before continuing.”

  The three trucks coasted to a stop a quarter of a mile from the bridge. Linda stepped out of the truck with her binoculars and began carefully scoping the bridge and its surrounds. “Let’s move up a bit closer.”

  They stopped again, two hundred yards from the bridge. As Linda stepped out from the truck she saw a man raising a rifle. Jumping back in she shouted, “Gun! We have to back up.”

  A bullet hit the door panel at a grazing angle and ricocheted off as she spoke. All three of the trucks immediately began backing up as fast as they could, while men came surging out of the woods ahead of them from both sides, firing rapidly.

  Linda knew they couldn’t take the time to turn around, and they couldn’t back up fast enough. She got on the radio to the other two trucks. “We’ll have to stop here. I’m going to turn my truck sideways, you two come up on each side and make a three sided formation to fight from.”

  As quickly as she could she backed to the right side of the road, then pulled across the road, stopping in the middle with her side facing the oncoming men. She had no more than gotten stopped when the other two trucks pulled up, one at each end of her truck, the three trucks forming a closed triangle. She bailed out behind Roman, and taking cover behind the truck opened fire on the approaching men. Within seconds all twelve of them were firing at the raiders, hitting several of them.

  The raiders quickly realized they were the ones in the vulnerable position and ran for the woods on either side of the road, quickly taking cover, but still shooting.

  Linda knew the convoy had heard her radio calls and would be coming as fast as they could. She crawled into the cab to get to the radio. “We’re taking heavy fire, men advancing on each side of the road taking cover in the trees. By the time you get here they’ll be on both sides, front, and rear of us. When we’re in sight, stop the trucks and advance on foot along the tree lines. Can’t tell how many there are, but it seems like a lot. This could be a long and dirty fight, be ready.”

  Linda then turned to the closely packed men and women inside the truck-triangle and said, “Our best bet is to stay here until help arrives. Watch your legs, stay behind the tires as much as possible, in case they think to shoot under the trucks.”

  She had barely gotten the words out when she heard the hiss of air from one of the outside tires, quickly followed by two more. The bastards are trying to immobilize us so we can’t run. They don’t have a clue what hell they’ll be in shortly.

  Linda picked up the microphone again and said, “We’re near mile marker 294, what’s your position?”

  “Two miles out and closing as fast as we can, figure five minutes and we’ll have boots on the ground right behind you.”

  “Hurry every chance you get, we’re take heavy and sustained fire.” Linda dropped the microphone as Roman called out, “They’re making a rush on the right!” She looked over and saw that at least a dozen men were coming in fast and firing faster.

  “Concentrate fire on those men, but watch the left side, it may be a diversion.”

  The pace of firing from inside the truck fort picked up rapidly, taking down six men in less seconds. The remaining men turned and ran back for the trees, losing three more.

  “Coming in on the right!” Roman yelled.

  This group was twice as large, but within seconds they, too, ran for cover under the heavy, well aimed fire, losing eight men. Heavy firing from the trees continued.

  Linda shouted out, “Watch for fire from behind us, they’ll work their way back there and probably try a rush from all sides next.”

  The radio crackled. “We’re about one minute out, what’s your disposition?”

  Linda keyed the mike and replied, “Two minor injuries so far. We’re still forted-up in the middle of the road and the bad guys are starting to move behind us. Trucks are taking a hell of a beating.” As she said that a bullet skipped under the trucks hitting near her foot and banging into the far truck with a solid thud. Too damn close, we’ve only got a few minutes before we start taking serious hits.

  It was one of the longest minutes of Linda’s life before the convoy crested the far hill. The attackers kept up their fire, but as the trucks came clearly in view began to slacken as they saw the long line of trucks. Linda watched as the trucks stopped a hundred yards behind her and men and women surged out, running for the woods on each side. The firing from the attackers came to a slow halt as they realized the game had just changed. They were now on the defense, something they hadn’t expected to happen.

  Linda and her team waited as the balance of the militia worked their way through the woods up beside them. When she saw they were even with them, she ordered the group to split in two and rush across the road and into the woods on both sides. “Make it fast, you’ll be exposed.”

  As they quickly
rushed for the woods they drew fire, but no one was hit. When they reached the trees she assessed the situation with the squad leaders.

  “We have to clear this snake’s nest,” she said. “Too far to go around, and it would be just plain wrong to leave them here for the next traveler. This is basic advance and cover fighting. One group on each side, meeting at the river under the bridge. The kicker is we have to contain them, not let them take off running up or down the river. They’ll take forever to catch if we do, and too many will escape. I want every one of those sons-of-bitches dead before we leave.”

  Her team nodded in silent agreement.

  “Split into two even groups on each side of the highway. One group advance along the tree line to the bridge, the other angle off and take up position up and down river, about three hundred yards from the bridge, who will wait until the runners come at them and mow them down. Questions?”

  “Okay, road group give the river groups half an hour to get into position. We move out in forty-five minutes. Get your troops briefed and ready.”

  At the forty-five minute mark the two roadside groups began moving towards the bridge, one half of each team moved forward under covering fire, then the second half moved forward under covering fire. It was a long and difficult battle, stretched out along the roadside trees, meeting heavy resistance that was hard to dig out because of all the available cover. But when they had nearly reached the bridge, the raiders fell apart and began running. From there it was a fast, run-and-shoot operation.

  It took three hours for the militia teams to reach the bridge, then turn and followed the running men until they heard gunfire from their counterparts as the retreating raiders ran into the militia ambushes.