by Glen Tate
Grant stood up and said, “I gotta go. I have some contagious enthusiasm to go distribute.”
Ted stood up at attention. “Hell, yes, Lieutenant!”
Chapter 267
A New Year Under New Management
(December 26 – December 30)
The next few days were a blur to Grant. He ran full speed for about twenty hours a day motivating people and getting things done. He talked to every single soldier in the unit and told them how important the mission was and how the Limas had it coming. He asked each soldier why they hated the Limas and received some stunning answers: rapes, murders, theft, destroying lives, missing relatives. Grant’s message was the same: it was time to get even. You are lucky to be in a position to be able to get even with these bastards, Grant would tell the soldiers. You’re not in some pathetic line with your FCard begging for cornbread mix like most people. You can fix this.
The troops loved it. They were charged. Everywhere Grant went, the troops flashed him the “gang sign.” It was euphoric.
The best part of Grant’s day was the morning runs. He would get up early and roust everyone out of bed while radiating enthusiasm and energy. It was, indeed, contagious. The soldiers would jump out of bed enthused and ready to go.
They ran to the Warrior Song, their unit’s official song. Grant would scream out the lyrics and the whole unit would scream them back. The song was only four and a half minutes long so they ran to it on a loop several times.
After a few days of telling the troops that this was their chance to get even, Grant realized he might be overdoing it. Some of the soldiers made comments about not shedding a tear if they indiscriminately killed the residents of Olympia. That was not what Grant had in mind; not at all. He meant getting even with the guilty Limas—the FUSA and National Guard soldiers who didn’t surrender, the cops still on the force and fighting, the gang bangers, the FCorps, and assorted sympathizers and enablers in the civilian population, like politicians.
Grant realized how moldable these soldiers were right at this point. They’d been cooped up in a compound for months with no contact to the outside world. When the Collapse hit, they saw everything they thought they knew about the world change overnight. Then Grant was soon telling them it was time to “get even.”
Upon this realization, Grant compensated—well, tried to compensate—by making it a point in each conversation to say they’d be getting even with the “guilty Limas.” He then went on to remind them that the civilians, unless they presented a threat like pointing a weapon, were to be protected.
“That’s why we’re doing this,” Grant would say. “We’re going in to fix things, not kill innocent people.” Most of the troops understood the difference. A handful, mostly the ones who had the worst things happen to them by the Limas, seemed to not understand the difference as well. Grant worried that he’d turned a few of his soldiers into killing machines of innocents and talked to Ted about his concerns. The potential innocent-killers, as Grant and Ted called them, would be watched more carefully.
Grant also worked hard on the planning of the mission. He, Ted, and Sap went through a million contingencies. What if the semi breaks down near Frederickson? What about near Olympia? They had a rough plan for most of these contingencies. For some, however, they had no plan whatsoever. They had very limited resources. Ted and Sap would constantly start to suggest a solution they had in the FUSA Army, like helicopters, and then remind themselves that they were going “third world” on this mission.
Grant also worked his ass off physically on the many heavy lifting jobs that came up as the unit was packing. If cases of ammo needed to be loaded, Grant was there doing it. He was a ball of energy and he wanted his men to see he would never ask them to do something he wasn’t prepared to do himself.
Grant went into Pierce Point to get Smithson’s semi. Smithson volunteered to drive his semi into combat in Olympia. He had not fully joined the unit a few months ago because he’d be away from his family during all the training, but he volunteered to do the driving job. Right then and there, the 17th got its first PMC, which stood for Private Military Contractor. It turned out there were quite a few PMCs who did brave and important things for the Patriots during the Collapse, just like in the Revolutionary War. They were Patriots doing dangerous things that needed to be done, sometimes for profit, but usually not.
At night, so no one in Pierce Point would see, members of the unit came to the Smithson place with all the diesel containers they could find and filled them up with the fuel from his underground tank. That diesel was worth a fortune now, and Smithson had willingly donated it, which was good because Grant would have shot him and taken it. He wasn’t kidding. Grant knew he wouldn’t have to do that, but had a conversation with himself going over what to do if this became necessary. They had come this far and nothing would stop them now from taking Olympia and ending this nightmare. Grant was going to finish this fight. He was impatient to get it started. Not only did he want to end the nightmare of the Limas’ tyranny, but he wanted get on with his new, post-war life. The sooner he started the fight, the sooner his post-war life could begin. Plus, he really wanted to hit back at the bullies.
One thing terrified Grant, and it wasn’t going into combat. It was Grant going to the Grange for some reason and accidently seeing Lisa. That was the last thing he needed right then. He was mentally in the game of being an “all-in” soldier and didn’t need any downers like that, so he didn’t go where he might run into her. Instead, he asked Rich and Dan to meet with him at the gate.
They came to the gate a few days before New Year’s. It was cold, rainy, and miserable. They met in the little office at the volunteer fire station, which was one of the few dry and warm places near the gate. Now that it was nasty outside, the guards were given several small travel trailers and RVs to stay in rather than stand outside all day. They still patrolled, but they frequently came in to keep as dry as possible.
Rich and Dan knew what this meeting was about.
“Haven’t seen much of you lately,” Rich said with a smile. Dan laughed.
“I’ve been working on a big project,” Grant said with a smile. Not knowing if the volunteer fire station walls were completely sound proof, Grant decided to talk in generalities.
“We’ll be kicking things off at midnight on New Year’s Eve, or, I guess, technically at the very beginning of New Year’s Day,” Grant said.
Rich and Dan nodded.
“Had you heard this before?” Grant asked, testing to see if word had leaked out.
Rich and Dan shook their heads. Good. Grant was a bit surprised this news hadn’t gotten out. He was relieved.
Grant told Rich and Dan the basic plan. The unit would leave right before midnight on New Year’s Day in a semi and two diesel pick-ups, fight through Frederickson, fight all the way down Highway 101 to Olympia where, hopefully, regular forces had taken the city. Then the unit would perform civil affairs work.
“What do you need from us?” Dan asked.
“From the guards?” Grant asked. “Just keep doing what you’re doing. Beef up when we go. If people realize we’re gone, they’ll know Pierce Point has less capabilities and might pick this time to attack. We don’t know of anyone planning on doing this, but it would be the time to do it if someone wanted to.”
“I have reserves and a plan for calling them up,” Dan said, with considerable pride. “I’ll tell them they’re working on New Year’s Eve and I’ll keep them for … how long?”
“A week if we’re lucky,” Grant said, “A month if we’re not.”
“What’s the cover story for Judge Matson, the Team, and eight of the guards being gone?” Rich asked. “The ‘rental team’?”
“Yep,” Grant said. “It’s been working so far. The story will be that we left to get the rental team up and running in the nearby—but still unnamed—community.”
“Okay, sounds good,” Rich said as he leaned back in his chair. He was still amazed that
this rental team cover story had worked as long as it had.
Grant paused. He didn’t know if Dan knew about Bennington, and he took the vow of secrecy he gave to Rich very seriously. So he said to Rich, “New Year’s Eve night is when you’ll need to activate your friend.”
“Bennington?” Dan whispered. Rich had either told him or Dan had guessed.
“Yep, Bennington,” Grant whispered back. “We’re going through Frederickson. It would be much, much easier if the local officials and gang leaders were dead.”
Rich looked very serious. This was for real. It was go time. “I’ll activate him. A couple hours ahead of your arrival.”
“Great,” Grant said. “Like one to two hours ahead of us. I don’t want to give them time to regroup or to be ready for us if Bennington fails to take them out.”
“I have a way to communicate with him,” Rich said. “Both to activate him and to get a report that the job’s been done.” Grant and Rich talked about how Rich would radio the news to Grant. Rich would use one of the powerful ham radios Curt Copeland had with a code phrase. Jim Q. and Scotty had ham radios that could receive the message.
When all the details were worked out, there was a long silence. All three men just stared at the little table in the room. They didn’t want to say what was coming up next, but finally, Grant did.
“Well, I guess this is it for a while,” Grant said as he stood up. He hated long goodbyes. Besides, these were guys. What were they going to do? Hug and cry?
“See you in a few days or weeks when Olympia is under new management,” Grant said with a smile. It was a forced smile; one to show confidence in the mission, not a happy smile. It was a smile to motivate and reassure Rich and Dan.
“That’s it, huh?” Dan said. “‘See you around’? It all comes down to that?” Dan was trying to comprehend that Grant and the others really were leaving for war. He knew this day had been coming, but it always seemed off in the distance. Now it was here.
“Yep,” Grant said, trying to act casual and confident. “That’s pretty much it.” He was confident, but he needed to be extra reassuring now. He knew whatever sense Rich and Dan had of the Olympia mission would color how they would communicate it to others in Pierce Point. It was important for Grant to convey confidence in the success of the mission.
“We’ll be back in, I’d say, two weeks,” Grant said with a shrug as if to say, “No big deal.” He went on to tell them how weak the Limas were and how people were leaving Olympia for Seattle. He needed them to tell this to people after the unit left. He really needed Lisa to hear this from Rich and Dan.
“You guys will do just fine here without us,” Grant said. “You’ll realize just how fine and not want us back eating your food,” he said, trying to make light of everything.
That comment brought up the topic of the diminishing food supplies. The FCard food would no longer be available from Frederickson after the unit attacked the town.
“We’ll need to break into the semi,” Rich said. “Are you okay with that?” he asked Grant.
“It’s your call, gentlemen,” Grant said. “I’m taking a leave of absence for a few weeks from political decisions here. I’m just glad we got through the calendar year without cracking that thing open.”
Grant didn’t share with them that he had been worrying about the food situation at Pierce Point. If Tet succeeded, the FUSA would no longer have control over the areas outside of Seattle, like Frederickson, so the meager government food supplies going there would cease. Not only would Pierce Point residents no longer have any FCard food from the daily runs into town, but the hungry in Frederickson would begin moving toward Pierce Point because news would spread that there was at least a little food there. It would be hard to keep the news of the semi-trailer secret when people a few miles away had no food whatsoever.
Tet would mean hunger at Pierce Point. Not just the smaller meals and lack of variety people had already been putting up with, it meant actual malnutrition. People would go to bed hungry, see their kids go hungry. Parents would hear their kids ask, “why didn’t we have dinner? We didn’t have any lunch or breakfast. My tummy hurts.” Older people and others with weakened bodies would die from common illnesses, even from colds and the flu. There would be more Sunday funerals at the Grange. Many more.
There was also a good chance that the Utility Treaty would break down, at least in Washington State, once there was full-scale war. The Limas had been trying to keep Undecided military units on the sidelines by promising to let the utilities stay on. The Limas would no longer have anything to lose by turning them off in the rural areas, like Pierce Point, that were supplying the units attacking Lima strongholds. Surely, the Limas had a plan to take down the utilities, if attacked.
Grant’s family was prepared for this, as much as they could be. Grant had that Berkey water filter at the cabin, which would treat any kind of water and make it drinkable. It was amazing technology. He had told Manda where it was and how to use it. At least his family would have drinking water.
They had firewood and a woodstove, so they’d be relatively warm. Many people in Pierce Point, however, didn’t have water filters or woodstoves. Everything in American society, even after the Collapse, ran on electricity. One critical example was the refrigerators at the Grange kitchen. Maybe they would have enough generators and gas for critical things, like the Grange refrigerators. Maybe. If not, perishable food could not be stored. This would happen at the worst possible time: in the winter, when people were malnourished and needed fruit, vegetables, and meat the most. There were some healthy home canned foods but not nearly enough. Instead of these nutritious foods, the people of Pierce Point would have to fighting off illness with mashed potato mix and cornbread, and even that would be in dwindling supply.
“This will suck, guys,” Grant said to Rich and Dan. “But Pierce Point is amazingly well-prepared.” Grant reminded them of all the ways the community had pulled together and all they had accomplished over the summer and fall: the semi-trailer, the meal cards, the gardening and hunting. “We’ll make it through this, and, best of all, this will end. This year will be the last year of this crap. Next year will be different.”
Grant looked them right in the eyes and said, “It will be a new year under new management.”
Chapter 268
Redemption Time
(December 30)
“Breaker nine, breaker nine,” Rich said on the CB radio, sounding like he was dying, “This is former Deputy Rich Gentry for Lt. Bennington. We have a serious illness out at Pierce Point, copy?”
There was static for a while until a voice came on and said, “We’ll try to patch you through.”
This was followed by more static for another two or three minutes until another voice came on. “Patching through.”
Rich was realizing how bad things must be in Frederickson. They couldn’t even get radio messages through quickly. Grant and the “rental team” might have it a little easier than they thought.
Finally, Bennington came on. He sounded calm. “Yeah, Rich,” he said. “What is it?”
“I’ll switch over to get off Channel 9,” Rich said. Bennington knew that the next channel was 11. They had come up with this when Bennington had brought little Lucia out to get her away from Winters.
“Roger that,” Bennington said. “Switching.”
Rich turned the CB to channel 11 and waited a few seconds. “John, this is Rich,” he said. “You copy?”
“Yep,” Bennington said. “What’s the emergency out there?” Bennington was playing along perfectly.
“Ruptured gall bladder,” Rich said weakly, like he was in pain.
“Who?” Bennington asked, knowing the answer.
“Me,” Rich said. “I have a ruptured gall bladder. I’m coming in to the hospital.”
“When?” Bennington asked, with a touch of excitement in his voice. He knew that “ruptured gall bladder” was code for activating him to kill Winters, and as many of
the others, as possible.
“They got me stabilized here,” Rich said, “but I need to get to the hospital by about 9:00 tomorrow night. To repeat: 9:00 p.m. on December 31. Copy?”
There was a pause. Maybe Bennington was writing it down. This was a pretty big detail to get right.
“Copy,” Bennington said, “9:00 p.m. on December 31. I’ll let the hospital know and we’ll be ready for you. We’ll all be ready.” Bennington sounded confident about just how ready they would be.
“Roger that,” Rich said. “See you then. Gentry out.”
“Bennington out,” John said.
So that was it. An inside assassination job had been put into motion.
Rich changed the CB channel to 31. “Giraffe 7, this is Fred 1. You copy?”
There was a pause. Then a voice Rich didn’t recognize, Jim Q.’s, came on. “Giraffe 7 is busy. I can take a message.”
Rich didn’t trust anyone, especially a voice he didn’t know. “Have him call me on this channel.”
“Roger that,” Jim Q. said. He knew that the person trying to reach Grant was a friendly because he used the call sign “Giraffe 7.”
A few minutes later, Grant came on. “This is Giraffe 7.”
“Giraffe 7, this is Fred 1,” Rich said. “Hey, man, sorry to bother you, but I wanted to let you know I called in the gall bladder situation. Everything is fine. Looks like everything is taken care of.”
Grant knew what “gall bladder” meant. “Glad to hear that,” Grant said. “Thanks for the update. Giraffe 7 out.”
“Fred 1 out.”
Rich looked around. He was alone in the radio room of Curt Copeland’s house. Curt was Pierce Point’s ham radio guy with the CB that had the big, powerful antenna, the one that could get out to Frederickson without a problem. Rich had asked Curt to stand outside and not listen. Rich didn’t give a reason and Curt didn’t ask.
“All done,” Rich said to Curt once he was outside. “Thanks for your radios.”