Out of LA

by Dennis Elder

  “Couple things to note,” said Mark. “The good news is we’ve added five to our little family of vagabonds.”

  Again, there was muffled applause. The cheering was a little too loud and everyone started shushing each other.

  “Right,” said Mark, this time a little softer. “The babies. We also need to remember there may be HBs on the loose out there and even more bad guys. Loaded weapons are to be carried at all times. And no one, including me, is to go anywhere without their matched partner.”

  No one cheered at that thought. But there were a few nods.

  “Now the reality checks,” offered Mark. “So far we’ve ridden near or within large to mid-sized towns. Starting tomorrow that will change.”

  Mark turned to Boon.

  “How many miles to Vegas from here, Boon?” asked Mark.

  Boon didn’t even need to look at his clipboard. He already knew the mileage.

  “One hundred and fifty seven miles,” said Boon.

  “Long way in the open,” added Mark. “And if we can average 40 miles a day then it will take us three and a half days to get just to Vegas.”

  “Jake,” said Mark.

  “Yes Major,” responded Jake.

  “Remember when we were back in LA and some of us thought it was dumb to bring the tents and sleeping bags,” asked Mark.

  Jake just nodded his head.

  “Well this is where we’ll start using them,” continued Mark. “We will also begin eating our freeze-dried food.”

  The idea of eating freeze-dried food made everyone a little apprehensive. Nobody had tried any of it yet.

  “We should arrive in Baker tomorrow, by late afternoon,” continued Mark. “After Baker we’ll be spending the next three nights in tents and sleeping bags. There are few if any dwellings between Baker and Vegas. It can get very cold in the open desert at night. We’ll be grateful for the bags and our jackets once the sun goes down.”

  “Just like the boy scouts,” said Jeremy.

  “A lot like the boy scouts,” responded Mark. “Except every night we’ll have to carry our bikes, trailers and equipment far enough from the road so we can’t be seen. We’ll be tempted to light campfires, but we won’t do it.

  “What, no marshmallows?” asked William Hind, the group’s resident high school jokester.

  “Campfires can be seen from miles away, William. As much as I enjoy a good campfire, we can’t risk it,” said Mark. “But I promise you that I will personally make you the best fireside marshmallow and chocolate gram cracker treat you’ve ever tasted… once we get set up in the Salt Lake Valley.”

  “Sounds good, Major,” replied William. “I’ll hold you to it.”

  “Deal,” replied Mark. “We will also need to post guards at four points of the compass every night from dark until dawn. Everybody but the babies will get armed sentry duty. There will be four, two hour shifts every evening – four people per shift. If you do the math that means you’ll have one shift almost every night. Frank will be in charge of all sentry duty assignments.”

  That got a lot of groans out of the kids.

  Mark let the moaning die down. Then he gave the kids his serious look. The regulars knew what was coming next. Jake and Tyrone gave each other the “look out” face and dropped their heads.

  “You may see guard duty as an inconvenience. You may grow to resent how it cuts into your beauty sleep. But to me and my men it is a sacred trust. Those sleeping need to be able to know that if anyone or anything tries to harm this family, each of you, as guards, will be ready to at least provide a warning, and in some cases give your lives to protect those that are sleeping.

  Mark let that pause sink in.

  “It is in times of peril and trial that we learn to trust and rely on each other. No matter what the cost or sacrifice, we are a family first. Anybody that threatens that family will be dealt with severely. I will give my life for any of you,” said Mark, this time with a little more edge in his voice. “Will you do the same for me?”

  The Major took a deep breath and plowed forward.

  “Now for the kinda bad news,” said Mark with more levity in his voice.

  “Uh ho,” whispered Frank. “Here it comes.”

  “It has been brought to my attention that some of you may be getting a little frisky with some of the other members of the family,” stated Mark.

  “As in under the covers frisky?” whispered Randy, the family’s resident weapons expert.

  That got a laugh from a few people. But Mark could see that some of the teenage girls still didn’t’ seem to understand what he was refereeing to.

  “Ok,” Mark began again. “Let me be a little clearer. What I’m talking about is sexual intercourse.”

  “Gross,” said Caroline.

  “Gross today baby girl,” began Sylvia. “But it could be heaven on a stick a year from now.”

  That got everybody to crack up. There hadn’t been much to laugh at lately and everyone was wound pretty tight. People were trying to keep from laughing out loud cause the babies were sleeping. The regulars were punching each and snickering. Somebody fell off a chair. Jake turned to Tyrone and gave him a fist bump and then they pointed fingers at each other with huge laughing grins. The teenager boys’ eyes and mouths were wide open. The girls smiled but kept their heads down.

  Sylvia couldn’t believe she said that heaven on a stick thing.

  Even Mark smiled. Mary hadn’t seen him smile since they met. In truth Mark hadn’t smiled since he heard Boon snoring over the other passengers’ screams when their jet landed roughly on the LA airport runway over a week ago.

  “Sorry, Mark,” apologized Sylvia. “I don’t know what I was thinking.”

  “I think we know what you were thinking,” laughed Sam.

  And then the laughing and snickering started all over again. Mark let them laugh. It was a good release. They’d been serious for so long they deserved it.

  A couple of minutes went by before all the joking ceased. Then Major Mark got serious.

  “Frankly it is not up to any of us to pass judgment on who should or should not be sleeping with,” said Mark. “In fact, I endorse the practice wholeheartedly… once we get to the Salt Lake Valley. But a pregnancy on this journey now, no matter how innocent, could bring the entire group to a halt.”

  Mark let that sink in for a moment.

  “Let me give you a pointed example,” said Mark as he turned to Pam.

  “Pam, I hope you’ll pardon my question, but I need to make real life point here,” said Mark.

  “OK,” responded Pam, with a little hesitancy in her voice.

  “You lost your child to the recent disaster, behind back in Victorville, right?” questioned Mark.

  “Yes, Mary and I both lost our kids,” said Pam. Nobody was laughing any more.

  “Again, I hope you won’t be offended,” started Mark again. “But how long do you think you could have ridden your bike with us today if you have been pregnant during your first month?”

  Pam thought for a moment and said, “Oh, maybe half the distance at best. And you didn’t offend me.

  Mark let Pam’s response sink in for a moment.

  “I couldn’t have ridden a mile,” suddenly blurted Mary. “I was bedridden a week after I got pregnant with my first child.”

  Mark let another pause go by.

  “Thank you for your frank responses,” said Mark, looking at Mary and Pam. “That is why ladies and gentlemen, as of this very minute any woman who is having sex or even thinking about having sex with another member of the group is going to start taking the pill - immediately. Do I make myself clear?”

  A few halfhearted yes sirs wafted up from the group.

  “I didn’t hear you,” responded Mark.

  “Sir, yes sir,” responded the group. They were loud and clear on the second response. Only Mary, Pam and Lenny were a little slow on the uptake.

  After the group was dismissed and people began shuffling off to
bed, Doc approached Mark separately.

  “I’d like permission to visit the store next door tonight and see what kind of contraceptive pharmaceuticals they have on supply,” asked Doc. “You know, based on what you said I think it wise I gather a good reserve in case someone approaches me confidentially regarding preventive steps to an… accidental pregnancy.

  Mark did not smile. He showed no emotion.

  “Permission granted,” said Mark.

  “Thank you,” offered Doc.

  But before he could turn away fully, Mark asked Doc a last question.

  “Doc,” began Mark. “Any chance those contraceptive measures might be for personal use?

  Doc did not smile. He showed no emotion.

  “Well,” said Doc. “Let’s just say that given your wise council on the subject I think it equally wise that everyone on the team should have equal access to said contraceptives.

  “Well said,” observed Mark. “Well said.”

  Chapter 77: No Dr. Phil

  Ivan Petrovich and Claudio Martinez had been talking in Ivan’s Bellagio office for a couple of hours. Claudio was the Army of Vegas’ chief weapon’s officer and Ivan’s go to guy. Ivan wished he had ten guys like Claudio.

  It had been a rough couple of days in the Army of Vegas. Nine of his guys had recently died in personal fights. Two of them got into it during one of Claudio’s weapon’s certification classes. Twenty men had come to a basic M-16 training class. During firing range practice one of the two started bragging about what a good shot he was. Then the better shooter started making fun of the older guy cause he couldn’t shoot straight for nothin. Well, the older guy got pissed and ended putting half a clip into the guy’s chest. The certification trainer got spooked so he shot the older guy in the head. Two more down. And the day before seven guys took off on their own cause they wanted to start their own gang, like in the old days. Ivan could not let that stand. He couldn’t afford to look weak. If he did nothing others might get the idea it was OK to go off on their own.

  So, Claudio and fifty guys with automatic weapons were ordered to bring back the gang members and their self-appointed leader, Henry Blake. Blake was neo-Nazi supremacist. He had been complaining a lot about having to hang around with so many spooks and spics. His new gang would be all white, pure and real American.

  Claudio found them holed up in one of the nicer gentlemen’s clubs on the Vegas strip, toward the north end of Vegas proper. Henry also kidnapped one of the girls from the pleasure house. Ivan instructed Claudio to waste Henry as an example, but bring back the men and woman, if possible.

  Claudio held his guys well back from the club and positioned two teams, one on the south and east sides of the club. He wasn’t in the mood for a M-16 versus M-16 shootout. Some of his own would probably get wounded in that kind of fight. So, he brought in a couple of specialty guns he’d picked up at the National Guard Armory. They were heavy, so the guys brought the guns over on wheeled dolly carts. Once the tripods were firmly set into the ground, the men placed the two fifty caliber machine guns on the tripods and pulled back the bolts. Now Claudio was ready. He told the firing teams not to shoot until he gave the command. There were two teams, team red and team blue.

  “Attention, in the club,” Claudio shouted.

  “There wasn’t any answer.

  Claudio shouted again. “We know you guys are in there. There won’t be any trouble if everyone comes out with their hands in the…

  Claudio’s sentence got cut short because M-16 fire suddenly erupted from the club windows. The bullets pinged close to his feet and Claudio dove for cover. He’d previously instructed his two fire teams to find good cover as well. He was pretty sure Henry wouldn’t surrender.

  After the last round came out of the club, a few hoots and hollers inside the club were added to punctuate the effect.

  “How’s that for surrender?” came back a voice.

  Claudio turned back to the club, but he kept his head behind cover.

  “Last chance Blake,” shouted Claudio.

  “Not in this lifetime,” shouted a voice from within.

  Claudio could see the red and blue team machine gun positions from his location. Earlier he’d instructed the red team to first fire a short burst into the building as a simple warning. Claudio turned to the red team gunner and flashed him a thumbs up sign.

  Fifty-caliber machine guns have been in service since World War II. There have been very few improvements to the gun’s basic design and the mechanism remains much the same today as it did seventy years ago. However, the bullets have been greatly improved. Claudio loaded the two guns with armor piercing rounds.

  The trigger man tapped the big gun’s trigger for about two seconds. The blast of each round made his vision go a little blurry. But the fifty caliber wasn’t a surgical instrument. It was a blunt club. Seven armor piercing rounds bit through the stucco and wood walls of the club like they were made of paper. The bullets continued through the building and left the back walls with holes the size of baseballs. The velocity of the bullets didn’t begin to slow for another thousand yards.

  “Maybe a little overkill,” thought Claudio as he watched the bullets slice through the building.

  One of the bullets caught a supremacist in the shoulder and dismembered the guy’s arm from his body. The rest of him flew back ten yards and his limp body slid to a halt against the west wall. Two pints of blood burbled out of him before anyone knew he was hit. He made a brief soft noise and then took his last breath. Blake turned to see his friend’s mangled body.

  Instantly Blake stood up in a rage.

  “You bastards! I’ll murder every one of you for killin Reggie!”

  The club’s remaining M-16 rifles erupted on full automatic. Once it started Claudio gave the thumbs down sign to both the red and blue teams’ triggermen.

  The combined crossfire power of both fifty caliber machine guns on that single story building was something to see. Everyone inside was dead in less than five seconds. But the red team and blue team triggermen didn’t know that. They kept firing until all one hundred armor piercing bullets in their allotted magazines were spent. For a few seconds the smoke in the air was so thick it was hard to see the damage. Slowly Nevada’s dry desert breeze moved the smoke to the east and revealed the impact.

  The gunfire had literally collapsed the east side of the building. The studs that supported the roof had been shot away so that the roof dropped down a full five feet under its own weight.

  The fifty men Claudio brought with him slowly came out of their protected positions and gazed at the building with a shocked reverence.

  “Calvin,” shouted Claudio, breaking the quiet. “Check for survivors. Everybody else stay where you are and give covering fire.”

  The men brought their M-16s up to cover Calvin. But they all knew nobody could have lived through that.

  Calvin moved forward but kept low to the ground. He yanked back what was left of the front door and nudged his way inside the still smoky building. A little fire had started near the east side window. A few seconds later Calvin came out and faced Claudio.

  “There all dead,” he yelled over to Claudio.

  “All right then,” shouted Claudio. “Stand down everyone. Larry put that fire out.”

  Two prepared men rushed forward with large fire extinguishers and eliminated the flames.

  “Couldn’t let the fire spread,” thought Claudio to himself. “Might move to other buildings.”

  Ten minutes after Claudio got back to the Bellagio, he sat down with Ivan and reviewed the event with Blake in all its detail. Ivan just nodded his head every so often as Claudio talked. Ivan couldn’t find anything to criticize with Claudio’s operation.

  “Yup. I could use ten more guys like Claudio,” Ivan thought to himself.

  But the Russian thug didn’t have anyone else like Claudio. In fact, he didn’t have another guy that was half as good as Claudio.

  “I’m getting frustrated wi
th men,” said Ivan, his thick Russian accent showing. Ivan tended to lapse back into a heavier accent when he was stressed. “They don’t follow instructions. These pointless fights are reducing our numbers almost every day.” With today’s gun battle we’re down to 217 men and now only four women.”

  Claudio shrugged his shoulders and tilted his head to the side.

  “What are ya gonna do?” offered Claudio.

  “I don’t know,” responded Ivan. “But better do something or we’ll end up exterminating ourselves.”

  “How about a public hanging?” suggested Claudio, not knowing what else to say. “Could be motivating.”