Stolen Liberty: Behind the Curtain

by Thomas A. Watson

  “I’m not crying over shooting those guys. I’m sad that I couldn’t help Jerome more. The angle was off, and the bad guys had cover and I couldn’t get to them from the landing. Clark tried to go down to help, but Mom told him to stay up here,” Emily said with her voice turning cold.

  Not liking the tone but very impressed with the tactical assessment, Robbie pulled back and looked at Emily. “She did the right thing. If they got past Jerome, you three would’ve had to hold out on your own. Don’t be angry with your mother. She did the right thing.”

  “Jerome died, didn’t he?” Emily asked bluntly.

  Keeping his eyes locked with Emily’s, Robbie nodded, “He’s buried out back by the pool.”

  Robbie’s radio crackled. “Get everyone down here. It’s time to move,” Randy’s voice sounded strained, so Robbie didn’t reply back over the radio.

  “Come on. Uncle Randy sounds a little testy. We have to get out of here. First, you put this on,” Robbie said and pulled out a bulletproof vest from the cops they’d killed. Helping Emily put it on, Robbie grinned to see it almost wrapped around her, then helped with her pack and headed out to check on Clark. “Hey, get your pack on. We are moving out.” Clark set his AR down. Robbie moved over, giving Clark the other vest. Clark’s fit better but was still big. Grabbing Clark’s pack and helping him put it on, Robbie pulled the straps over his shoulders before bouncing him up and down, pulling on the adjusters. Robbie checked the AR Clark had used to stand watch and shook his head. Blaster unslung his shotgun and handed it to Clark.

  “Your new weapon. It’s got eight in the tube and one in the chamber. Only use it for stuff up close, but it works fine.” Blaster showed him the safety catch and let Clark practice with it for a few seconds.

  “This is a lot like Dad’s shotgun, but I don’t have to pump it. Where did you get it?” Clark asked.

  “That shotgun there has a story. I’ll tell it to you when we get to safety. Keep it for me until then.” He fished around in his drop bag for a box of shells. “We don’t have a lot of ammunition for that gun, but it’s something we need to have in our arsenal on this hike. I know you like that AR, but I need you carrying something more lethal up close. We didn’t bring your suppressors and we used more ammo than we thought we would coming in and took all there was here, so stay on that. Emily told me you guys had to shoot at the gang trying to get in.”

  “We didn’t just shoot ‘at them’, Uncle Robbie. We hit several of them at the doorway and drove them off. Then we went to our rooms and shot at ones in the yard till we saw Uncle Randy run into the yard.”

  Reaching over, Robbie helped Clark adjust the sling on the shotgun and saw a younger version of Wheat standing before him for the first time. The boy had the same eyes as his father.

  His radio earpiece crackled again. “You coming, or should I come up and get you?” Randy asked.

  “Coming,” Robbie replied.

  Downstairs, Cody had taken up a position on the front porch and he scanned the street with his night vision. The Dillons milled around the living room and got in Robbie’s way when he tried to don his pack. Kristi pulled extra bottles of water from the pantry and stuffed them into the side pockets of her own pack.

  Patting his gear down, Randy glanced around the room. “I’m going out first. Cody will follow with Book. Kristi, get Clark and Emily with you. Ryan, take charge of your family and follow Kristi out. Blaster, you have the rear, as usual.”

  “Is that a crack about me personally?” Robbie joked.

  “Hey, you said crack, not me,” Randy smiled and stepped out the front door. He tapped Cody on the shoulder and said quietly, “Fifty yards for now.”

  Never taking his eyes off the street, Cody nodded and waited for Randy to take off down the way they’d come in before he followed at a slow jog. Charlie replaced Cody on the porch and used his optics to look down the street for Randy’s heat signature. He located Cody and took off after them.

  When Charlie took off, Robbie took his place on the porch and snapped his night vision goggles into place. “Kristi, get a move on. Go.” He waited for the Wheaton family to clear the front yard before he called for the Dillons to follow.

  “Come on! I can’t leave until you get your asses in gear. Go!” Ryan tried to protest, but Robbie grabbed him by his pack strap and physically dragged him down the steps of the porch and out to the street. Tabitha and Chase followed. After pushing them in the right direction, Robbie turned around to check the street. “Stupid m-,” Robbie started as he ran back to the house and shut the front door and paused before running to catch up with the Dillon family. They had already stopped running and were strolling along at a snail’s pace.

  “You have to keep going, people!” he hissed at Ryan.

  Ryan pointed at Chase, “He can’t keep up!”

  “Then carry your son! What the hell is wrong with you?” He scanned the street and picked up the boy himself. “If you want to see your kid again, you had better keep up with me,” Robbie snapped, and he took off running with Chase in his arms.

  Tabitha screamed and followed him. Ryan, not wanting to lose his entire family, ran after his wife. Ryan caught up with Tabitha when they hit 98th Street and headed due west. Far ahead, Randy ran down the right side of the street and stayed as much in the deep gloom under the tree-lined avenue as he could.

  “How are things back there, Blaster?” Charlie asked over the radio.

  “Peachy, son. Just peachy. Are we running balls to the wall all the way back?” he asked.

  “Stay off the net, guys,” Randy warned. “The hills have ears.”

  The distance between Kristi and Robbie narrowed as he found his rhythm while carrying Chase. Ryan and Tabitha gasped and wheezed as they tried to catch up. Over a mile later, Randy turned left and caught another rail line going south and west out of the city. Randy moved along under the cover of the thick vegetation and slowed his pace to let the civilians in the group catch their breath.

  When the group caught up, Randy signaled for Cody and Charlie to pull back into the trees, and he eased off to circle the area, looking for threats. Putting Chase down, Robbie snapped his fingers to get the Dillons attention.

  Fighting the urge to punch them in the face, “We are taking a breather for now. Drink some water and check your feet. Those boots were broken in by different feet, so they will take time to adjust to you,” Robbie instructed.

  “Why didn’t we take our car? We could have driven that in a minute, instead of running like idiots,” Tabitha asked as she flopped herself down on the ground.

  Gunfire erupted when a small sedan passed the tracks. The car accelerated away, but they heard a crash followed by another flurry of shots going off.

  “That’s why we didn’t use a car,” Randy explained, emerging from the shadows. “Did you see anyone driving while we ran down 98th Street? It’s not safe, so for now, we step light and slow. With our night vision, we do better at night in the city. Stay close, and don’t say anything.”

  “So, now what? We just walk out of Chicago?” Ryan sneered. “That sounds like a great plan!”

  “No, you idiot. We are walking to Ohio. Pull on your big girl panties and embrace the suck,” Robbie slapped Ryan on the back and chuckled. “I told you this was going to be painful. Shadow only has one foot, so don’t complain about your feet being sore.”

  “Yeah, Babyface is the only one who came back with all of his parts,” Charlie smirked as he stood from a crouch and scoped the train line. “We have a clear trail as far as I can see. How long are we going for this stretch?”

  “We are going until the sun comes up. We will jump off this line before Palos Park and head due south to find a place to lay up during the day,” Robbie explained. He had mapped the returning route multiple times and knew the lay of the land.

  “Why there?” Kristi asked as a torrent of gunfire sounded to the west.

  Turning to the west, Robbie figured the battle was about a mile away. Hea
ring that the battle wasn’t moving to them, Robbie finally answered Kristi, “A major power line crosses the tracks, and the green space under it goes for miles. There are all sorts of places to go to ground along that stretch.”

  “So, is the plan to run like we just did all night? Because I don’t think I can keep up,” Ryan complained.

  Charlie flipped his night vision up and got in Ryan’s face. “Kristi and the kids are probably carrying packs heavier than yours, but you don’t hear them griping. Blaster wanted to cap you back at the house for getting Jerome killed, but out of the kindness of our hearts, we talked him out of it. Continue in this same vein, and I will turn a blind eye when, not if, he bleeds you slow and puts you down. Your son needs someone to look up to, so earn his admiration or stay here and die. I don’t care either way, dumbass.”

  “I’ll keep them going, Charlie,” Kristi stepped between Charlie and Ryan. “You worry about getting us to the retreat.”

  “Okay,” Charlie snapped and stepped away, flipping his NVG down. Randy checked the map one more time before he headed down the line. The heavens opened, and a scattered rain increased into a full downpour. The early spring night, cool to start with, turned colder from the rain. The moisture soaked through their jackets first and spread down their legs. They stayed warm by picking up the pace, but poor Chase suffered the worst. Ryan opened his jacket and tucked the child next to his body, trying to stop the boy from shivering.

  As the eastern sky began to lighten, they reached Palos Park, and Randy led them off the tracks and under the silent power lines.

  “It’s getting light, but I have a good idea where we are staying,” Robbie told Kristi.

  “Can I count on at least four stars and turn down service?” she asked.

  Turning to Kristi, Robbie stifled a chuckle, “Nah, but you’ll appreciate a warm fart sack and time off your feet. You look exhausted, sis.”

  “Yeah, I didn’t get any sleep at the hospital and didn’t get much sleep at the house. It was a nightmare.” She wiped drops of rain from her face that had leaked down from her sodden hat. “Catching some sleep will do me wonders. With all of you here, I know the kids are as safe as they can be.”

  “Well, we should be there soon.” Robbie noticed Cody’s head bouncing along in the distance. “Shadow is picking it up for the last push. Babyface is jogging to keep up.”

  “I’ll try to keep up, Robbie,” Kristi sighed.

  Robbie shrugged in the dark, “I’ll carry you and the kids myself if I have to, sis.” He picked up his pace while keeping a constant watch on their backtrail. His wide-angle night vision goggles gave him the advantage in the dark, but with the sky getting lighter, the team would lose their edge in another hour.

  Moving surprisingly fast and quiet, they followed a bike path under the power lines and dodged multi-use fields and unused baseball diamonds until they reached Burr Oak Woods. The thick growth of trees gave them shelter from the blowing rain, and they set up two small tents and covered them both with a camouflaged tarp, held in place with a piece of 550 cord strung between two trees. The tarp gave them extra space out of the rain and kept the tents from taking on any extra moisture. They pulled out their sleeping bags from dry bags, got the kids to strip out of their soaked clothes and had them crawl into the sleeping bags.

  Kristi slept with Clark and Emily in one tent. Ryan and Tabitha slept with Chase in the second. The boys took turns under the tarp, with Randy and Cody taking first watch while Robbie and Charlie slept. It was only a few hours later when Randy and Cody traded spots with Robbie and Charlie. The rain fell throughout the day with no sign of letting up.

  Since none of them usually slept more than a few hours a day, five hours later, the four gathered up just outside of camp. “How are we on ammo?” Randy asked, looking around.

  “We took everything at Kristi’s and that barely topped us off,” Cody answered.

  “I have Clark on the scatter gun,” Robbie sighed. “I only gave him and Emily two mags each for their ARs. From the brass on their bedroom floors, it looks like each one blew through a hundred plus rounds at the house. Kristi blew through a little more.”

  Nodding as he wiped water off his face, “That’s good, Blaster,” Charlie said. “We want them to think run and not gun. How much is Kristi carrying?”

  “Two hundred rounds,” Cody answered. “Wish we would’ve brought their suppressors from the camp.”

  “Babyface,” Robbie smirked. “Wish in one hand and shit in the other, tell us which one fills up first.”

  Rolling his eyes, “Blaster, I just don’t want them capping off rounds that could give us away,” Cody grumbled.

  “Babyface, we want them to be able to protect themselves but not get in the shit,” Charlie explained, glancing around. “They know their guns are loud and won’t shoot unless they have to.”

  “What about food?” Randy asked, and everyone groaned. “Yeah, that’s what I thought.”

  “We eat from my stores first,” Cody told them, and everyone turned to look at him. “I’m not stupid, the body requires ammo also.”

  Everyone just grinned at Cody as Robbie leaned into the circle. “What are we going to do about the dead weight?” Robbie snarled.

  Turning from Robbie, everyone turned to Charlie. “Hey, I didn’t invite them,” Charlie snapped in a low voice. “We can’t just cap them. Kristi feels bonded to her sister and none of us can judge Chase by his parents’ actions.”

  “Okay, I’ll give you the kid, Book,” Robbie said, sitting back up on his heels. “But they cost us, I don’t know how many miles last night.”

  “At least six miles,” Randy sighed. “Kristi and the kids could’ve made it a lot further. I don’t need to remind anyone how far they’ve hiked in a day.”

  “No shit,” Cody scoffed. “Hiking the Grand Canyon, they humped our asses in the dirt.”

  “Can I make an offer?” Robbie interrupted, looking from one to the other. “They either keep up or get left behind. We set a pace Chase can keep up with.”

  “I can live with that,” Charlie nodded, looking from Cody to Randy.

  “Book, we can live with it, the question is, can Kristi?” Randy asked.

  Softly clearing his throat, “For her kids, she will,” Cody told them.

  All of them nodded at that and Randy asked, “Who tells her?”

  Suddenly, Cody saw three sets of eyes looking at him. “Why me?” Cody whined.

  “You are the next up for a lecture,” Randy grinned.

  Reaching over and patting Cody’s shoulder, “Babyface, I’m sorry to say, nobody can stay mad at you,” Robbie smirked. “That’s why we send you to Mom so much.”

  Leaning his head back and looking up through the limbs at the overcast sky as the light rain continued to fall, Cody gave a long sigh. “Mom raises an eyebrow, I run to Pop,” Cody admitted.

  “What, you think we don’t?” Charlie chuckled. “So how about it, troop? You talk to Kristi?”

  Tilting his head back to look at them, Cody nodded reluctantly. “Yeah, I’ll tell her,” he mumbled in a low voice.

  Still exhausted, Kristi got up and worked on heating up food with the camp stove. The lightweight single burner and the small lightweight propane tank got the water boiling in only three minutes. She poured the water into the silver foil packets and let the dehydrated food soften. Looking up, she saw the boys walking back into camp and could tell they had been talking about stuff that bothered them.

  Acting like the big sister she saw herself as, Kristi fed Randy and Cody first. After fixing a pouch for Charlie and Robbie, she woke up Clark and Emily for their meal to split. The breakfast food would give them each five hundred calories. She checked her pack and did some quick calculations before going to Randy.

  “We don’t have enough food at this rate, do we?” she asked.

  Looking around them, Randy spooned out his own breakfast and passed the bag over to Cody. “No, the freeze-dried food will run out in a fe
w days. Once we get out into the country, we are going to supplement our food with whatever we can scavenge. We are all going to lose weight doing this, but the adults have more reserve.”

  “So, keep the kids fed and let the fighters starve? How long can you keep that up? Until you start breaking down?” Kristi objected tactfully.

  With a look of indifference, Randy shrugged, “We’ve done it before in Ranger school. Granted, we are older now, but it’s going to get tight.”

  “I’m going to work on getting the kids’ clothes hung up, but in this rain, I doubt they will get much better.”

  “You can wring them out and run another line under the tarp. It’s better than nothing. Their boots are going to need to get dried too, if you can,” Randy suggested.

  “I’ll do the best I can. Tabitha and Ryan are still asleep. I’ll get them up and see if they want to help.”

  “Don’t count on it,” Randy took another bite from the shared packet.

  As Kristi moved to leave, Cody reached out and grabbed her arm stopping her. “Kristi, hold on a second,” Cody said, pulling her back down. “From now on, we are setting a pace Chase can keep up with. If Tabitha and Ryan can’t match it, they get left behind.”

  Jerking her eyes over to Randy, Kristi saw him nodding. “Guys, they aren’t used to this,” Kristi almost cried out.

  Raising his hand for her to lower her voice, “Kristi,” Cody said softly. “The longer it takes us to get out of the city, the more danger you and the kids are in. There are only four of us to fight our way out. That’s why we aren’t taking the way we came in, you can hear the gunfire. It wasn’t that bad when we came through. It won’t be long and all of Chicago will be just as bad. Your job is to protect the kids from anything that gets past us. How much are you willing to risk for the kids?”

  Hearing the words, they watched Kristi’s breathing increase. Closing her eyes, Kristi slowly nodded, “I understand, but she’s family,” Kristi sighed. Slowly, Kristi stood up. “I’ll tell them,” she said and walked off.

  “We are family too, Kristi,” Cody told her as she walked away.