The Hunters

by T J Reeder

  The next day as we were breaking camp a parade of clean young ladies wearing our BDU’s filed out of the tent where the former prisoners spent the night and led by Sandy and May and most of our women headed up to the grave on the hill where they spent time thanking the fallen for their freedom. When they came down there wasn’t a dry eye in the bunch. We men just kept working and left them some privacy.

  Before we headed to our different vehicles the former slaves came to me with Sandy and May where they thanked me for their freedom which I tried to point out was a team effort. All said they had decided that staying with us was their best chance to have a life and asked to be allowed to stay. I had to laugh when I said Ladies you don’t have to have my permission for anything we are a band of Free Gypsy’s who are here because they want to be and can leave when they want, nobody is paid and nobody has more power or authority then anybody else. Then I added that if we had a boss it must be Sandy because she got any damn thing she wanted from everybody in the tribe.

  They all laughed except Sandy who said “I want my own HV with a gun” I said “NO and hell NO” she smiled at the women and said “I rest my case” getting a big laugh at my expense.

  One of the women asked why she couldn’t have a HV? I asked if they had heard the non stop machine gun during the battle and all nodded, I pointed at Sandy and said “that’s the gunner. She’s trigger happy and can’t help it so I have to keep her in my HV so I can keep an eye one her.”

  I don’t think the questioner was satisfied with the answer.

  I told them to scatter out and find a vehicle to ride in and start getting acquainted and if they wanted to join us their schooling started today and their teachers were the folks they rode with. Plus they needed to swap rides every few days. With that we all scattered and mounted up and headed out.

  The Scouts were out and Ralph was up flying over watch with a different spotter since Sandy and May were with me. Sandy was teaching May all about the gun, I added that when one lets up on the trigger every few rounds it keeps the barrel from melting down! I git rapped on the head. Fine I’ll just see to it that her ammo belts are reduced to 12 inches. I couldn’t wait!

  Charley was in the front with me and was shaking his head and sighing. May said “ We heard that” and for the first in his life Charley laughed right out loud until he had tears in his eyes.

  I need a new HV all to myself, Sandy “ Said we heard that too” May laughed. Charley just looked out the windshield I guess because one laugh this century was enough. Stoic my ass.

  We were passing thru farm country in Iowa after just hi-balling thru Nebraska, We used heavy duty wreckers to simply push thru piled up vehicles they had rolled to a stop. It did slow us a bit but we just kept at it hour after hour. We saw lots of small settlements where people were working and surviving. We just kept on rolling since they seemed to be doing fine.

  Nobody had shot at us which showed a degree of common sense since we were the biggest dog on the street. We rolled into Illinois and slowly things changed,

  The closer we got to Chicago the worse it got, whole towns burned to the ground, remains lying where they fell and many were very recent dead. It was looking like a war zone. It was getting so bad it made anything we had seen so far like a nice day in the park.

  We saw no settlements where people were working and growing. The whole area looked like it had been scoured clean of people. We had no idea what was going on away from the highway so I asked Ralph to take some side trips to look it over.

  We were looking for a place to spend the night when one of the lead scouts reported being shot at from a barricade across the roadway, they said it seemed to be only a few people manning it and so far they had not returned fire. Charley ordered a pair of scout teams to circle around and come in behind these fools. After about a half hour the scouts reported a white flag waving from the shooters. He told them to advance slowly and to order them to come out which they did. I rolled out and headed there fast.

  When we got there the scouts had a half dozen men standing in a line looking scared to death. I couldn’t blame them, Charley and I got out and walked over to them and I asked why they had opened fire on us? One of them spoke up and said what do you expect after the shit you people have pulled?.

  Well this was gonna be interesting for sure! I explained who we were and where we were from and going. At first they didn’t believe us but that was changing. After we sat down in the shade of the overpass and passed around a bottle of good stuff I think we won them over so they told us about the people running around in Military vehicles like ours robbing and stealing women and girls and killing anybody who resisted.

  I was so tired of this shit and just wanted it to be over and doubted it ever would be. Women and girls as money? As chattel? I think not.

  We got all the information we could as to these people and where to find them but all they knew was they came from the east and raided small farms and communities, they did say their vehicles didn’t have the fire power ours had which I saw as a good thing. After warning them to not shoot at the convoy following us the scouts rolled out and 10 minutes later I did.

  We made it 10 miles before we once again hit a roadblock but this time the lead scout had the colors flying and a white flag so nobody fired on us. Their story was the same as the first group except they had an idea of where these people were living, if they were right we would know within a couple of hours and even sooner after Ralph did a fly over.

  From the sound of it they had a few HV’s and were posing as US Military. Time would tell on that issue. After an hour of flying recon Ralph spotted several military vehicles parked outside a building but nobody was seen moving around outside.

  Ralph vectored us into the area where these people were hold up, Charley sent scouts in to look it over after an hour we knew that there seemed to be about 10 to fifteen men holding around 20 women and girls in a large warehouse that was stocked with what looked to be pallets of food stuffs.

  All of the males seemed to be pretty young, most too young to be military, perhaps gang bangers who had got hold of HV’s and were using the appearance of being US military to get close enough to gain control.

  This looked like another rescue and we needed to work out how to do it without endangering the captives. After debating it we decided the old burning vehicle had worked every time so why not again. I hated to burn a good HV so the scouts picked an old pickup parked close to the building so that was the target. Before giving the go to the plan I told them to be sure the truck wasn’t full of explosives which got quiet laughs.

  The truck was lit off and within a few minutes was raging and like they had read the script here they came, all armed and some as young as 15 or 16, all we could do was yell to drop their weapons but of course that never works in real life and it didn’t in this case. It was over real fast and it wasn’t pretty. These kids couldn’t shoot for shit and half were holding their weapons head high and spraying the area gangsta style. I don’t think any of their fire came close to us and our people were using slow aimed fire.

  While this was going on a few of our people went thru windows to cover the captives inside, they found three guards and dropped them fast. When it was over we checked the bodies and found no survivors which was fine as I had no desire to hang kids.

  Yea I know, shoot em ok, hang em not so. There is a difference.

  Once again we had our hands full of crying and terrified women and girls. And our ladies were an hour away. So we got the fire out and dragged the bodies away from sight and allowed the captives to come out side, the fresh air and sun shine seemed to help a great deal.

  We passed out water and food to those who wanted it while urging our women to get here.

  But arrive they did and in short order had the situation in hand, leaving us free to look over the contents of the warehouse. It was full of food! Tons of food, It looked like somebody had emptied several grocery stores or more likely stalled 18 wheelers but who kno
ws. We called for the convoy to head right here since we would need the cargo trucks.

  Sandy came out and told us that the females were mostly recent captives and a lot were from places nearby and we could return them home if there was a home left. When the convoy arrived we started loading the pallets of food using the forklifts inside the building. It didn’t take all that long with all hands working.

  I wanted us out of here before dark and back in open country for better security.

  After cleaning the trash out of the captured HV’s the gear heads checked them out and added oil and fuel where needed and they were driven away by their new owners. The captured weapons weren’t much but as was our policy we took them to be worked over by our gun crew and stored to be passed out where needed.

  After we had our camp set up for the night and the captives had long hot showers and were fed they spent time with the other former captives learning who we were and all spent the night in the women’s dorm section as it was called and by morning it was easy to see the change in them. After breakfast we had a sit down meeting with them and I explained that we could return them to their homes if there was still a home. Most said they had nowhere to return to since they had lost their families when taken, a few said they would like to return to make sure and after pin pointing where they had lived they were loaded into the chopper with a couple of shooters and one of the pilot trainees acting as co-pilot headed out.

  Two hours later they were all back in camp. Sad but at least they knew.

  We offered them the same choice the others were given, we could drop them someplace of they could join us. All joined us and entered into the rolling school of destruction and garbage hauling. It was looking like our male to female ratio was vastly improved but nobody was going to be rushing these women because they had been treated bad and needed time to trust.

  As we got closer to Chicago the damage was total and then it wasn’t, we came up to streets barricaded solid and signs of people having been stationed there.

  We forced our way thru and within a mile we were rolling thru neighborhoods that looked like nothing had happened except the people were just starting to realize their free ride was ended. These were the ones who lived the good life while America died. I will never know how they were picked to be the ones saved but I felt no pity for them. They had to know what was going on and seemingly didn’t care as long as their rice bowl was full.

  They were crowding the streets wanting to know when the lights were going to come back on after all it had been several days! And the water seemed to be slowing to a trickle and this was unacceptable! We simply said we were working on it and to be patient and soon all would be well.

  At last we approached the area where the weapons damage had stopped and ahead was a waste land. I had seen what I wanted to see and we hauled ass out of there, leaving the people to their own devices, I expected they were going to get a taste of what the rest of the country was experiencing two + years ago.

  And high time too.

  We left the same morning we got there and headed South and west, The East has never held any interest for me and I just wanted to get back into the heart land but wanted to touch base with the folks holding the line in the south. We just rolled and didn’t stop for anything. We bypassed any place bigger then a few thousand pre event population. We stopped and camped in out of the way places and not nearer then 10 miles of a town.

  I guess we were all just sick of it all and wanted to be back in our part of the country. I knew if we stopped at every small place where folks were making it we would be stuck here for years trying to help everybody who was doing ok in doing for themselves.

  We had agreed to meet with some of the leadership from the Southern States of America. I will admit I as surprised they hadn’t called it the old Confederacy. I guess time does change some things. We met them outside a small town just north of the remains of Memphis. There was about a hundred of them and they had a camp set up so we set up close to them but separate. No reason I guess just that we were a tight nit bunch and weren’t used to mingling to much.

  They had a tall flag pole flying the Stars and stripes and below that was the old Confederate flag which didn’t bother me at all but I was surprised to see so many different races in the mix. Blacks, Mexicans a lot of Asians and some American Indians who were doing the same for them as Charley and his people were for us.

  After we were settled into our camp my staff and I met with theirs and talked long into the night about the country and how it was snapping back from the brink.

  They had little news of the rest of the world and in truth probably more then we did. I guess none of us were interested in anything outside our own country. It had been noted that while we were further north nobody in Canada had made any attempt to contact us.

  And I can’t blame them since our failed leadership in Washington had caused this horror that killed probably three quarters of earths population.

  These were good folks and seemed to be well led and trained and were in the act of sending large patrols north to start helping anybody they could.

  They had a lot of resources compared to us and were better equipped for the task.

  We talked about what we thought would come of us as a nation, if we were ever going to come back and what we would end up with after we did. I said that for my part the old Constitution and Bill of Rights was good enough and as far as I was concerned that’s how I would live my life. Free.

  After a few days we bid farewell to them and rolled West! I couldn’t wait to get back to open country. I spent a day wrestling with the thought of stopping off in Texas to check on the Family but in truth my spirit had taken a few hits as we all had and I wasn’t up to it just now.

  So we rolled across Arkansas and part of Oklahoma and up into Kansas and then up into Nebraska simply because I like it better then Kansas. We found a very nice place to stop right on the banks of the Platte River and set up a camp where we could just shut down and breath.

  We were spread out all along the river and nobody was crowded and if they wanted they could move further up the river. We all needed down time. Sandy and May picked a place under some trees right on the bank with a nice little beach sort of place where we could swim in the damn cold water. We had a nice large tent and an awning and a folding table with everything to even cook our own chow which was silly but we could make coffee. It was a nice walk to the chow tent and a lot of awnings were set up for shade.

  We did eat meals with the others but spent a lot of time just being, The three of us got acquainted and told each other about our lives, of course Sandy and I already knew all this but it helped May to fit even better into this whatever it was.

  May told us she was all that was left of her family since her brother was now gone. She had never married and had been immersed in her work after school and just never took time to have a life.

  We all laughed at how she was now a part of a “threesome” that being the giggle word, but I couldn’t think of the proper term if there is one. We decided we are just a couple and anybody who feels they need an explanation can go fuck themselves.

  We introduced May to hot sweet coffee laced with whiskey. Which took her breath away the first time she tried it but she liked it.

  So as not to disturbed others we took to driving a mile or so up the river to start May’s real training in gun fighting with her 1911. Pretty soon anybody who wanted to make noise would head to the “Range”, May took a bit to get the hang of the draw but she had the shooting down pat in good order. Her and sandy had a ball with it, they would toss chunks of wood out into the river and then blaze away as it floated past.

  One day Sandy took her “Chicago Piano” with us and asked me to show her how it worked. She took to that like everything else that goes bang or boom. Folks always have the idea that the Thompson is hard to shoot but in truth it’s easy and a lot of fun as long as you have enough ammo. Which IMHO was fast becoming a problem. But one of the armor
y types said to just bring in the brass and they could load it. I had no idea they were set up for that. But with all the stuff we salvaged they had a truck trailer just for that. Of course Sandy and now May declared open season on every chunk of wood they could drag to the bank, hell some of the other folks would chain saw dead trees into chunks and toss them in up stream for the girls. They are very pampered.

  I’ve found that I enjoy sitting in a camp chair with ear muffs on and reading a book while sipping a nice drink with ice! Yes we even have a reefer trailer. Of course I get interrupted to load magazines and drums but WTF, I need a break or I’ll sip myself to sleep. In all my life I’ve never seen two women of a certain age acting like teeny boppers with a machine gun.

  I do insist that they spend time on Mays pistol skills which are bypassing my own but hell I have to hot body guards why do I need to train?

  We settled into our situation with not a bump in the road, how they worked it out is beyond me and I don’t care. I’m happy and don’t give a shit what anybody might think, ours isn’t the only odd arrangement by any means. We have about as many diverse groupings as is possible and nobody cares. In fact I believe we have become a tribe and the more I watch it the more I see it. If that makes sense.

  I really can’t explain it but Tribe is as close as I can get outside of maybe “Family”. I asked Charley about it and he said he didn’t know anything about how tribes develop since his did it like a few thousand years ago so to them it just always was. I could see that.