Collective Retribution

by Edwards, D. S.

  Dmitri dragged the lifeless man into the trees. He did not like the smell of this American. He took an inventory of the man’s possessions and found nothing useful except the rifle he had been carrying. This might come in handy. It was a beautiful Remington 700 Titanium rifle, .270-caliber. The one good thing about Americans, they built nice firearms.

  Dmitri lay down under the stars and tried to put everything he had learned into a useful plan. This Levi Nirschell had been a rancher somewhere near a place called Seneca, in Oregon. He was sure that there were enough ranches to make finding Nirschell’s difficult, but as he got closer, he knew he would find someone who could point the way. He and Adya would pass right on through Idaho and go to Oregon. In no more than five or six days, they would find the home of this so-called great man and destroy his life. The man lying dead over in the trees had said that Levi Nirschell was away from home, leading the rebellion from a base camp in the Cascade Mountains. But Dmitri was sure his family would be tucked away at home, far from the fighting. If he lost everything he loved, he would lose his will to fight, and this little rebellion would crumble.

  Dmitri closed his eyes and was drifting into sleep as he imagined President Chekov giving him a commendation, along with the entire state of California, as reward for his work. He would be a powerful man, and he would once again bring glory to his homeland.

  38

  RESISTANCE BASE CAMP, SUNRIVER, OREGON

  9 A.M., TUESDAY, JUNE 9

  N IRSCH SAT IN HIS TENT AND PORED OVER MAPS SPREAD OUTon a card table. He was planning an attack on an armored column that would take place in two days near the California border. Something rustled behind him. He jumped to his feet, expecting to reprimand whoever had interrupted his critical work.

  His niece Debbie and grandnephew Jake stood in the doorway, the Central Oregon sunshine dancing off their hair. Nirsch’s head began to spin as Jake ran across the tent and jumped into his arms.

  “Uncle Nirsch!” Nirsch had to sit back down or risk passing out. They were actually here. He didn’t know how or why, but they were actually, truly, standing in his tent. They had survived and had made it all the way across the country.

  Nirsch thanked God with a short, silent prayer, and stood once again. He set Jake on the floor and threw his arms around Debbie. Nirsch was the happiest he’d been since he’d left the ranch.

  “Where did you…I mean, how did…?” Nirsch stammered. “Where did you come from?”

  Sam Carson spoke up from the doorway of the tent. “Hello, sir. I picked up a couple of strays for you. I thought you might want ‘em back.”

  Nirsch, confused, just stared at Sam.

  “We picked ‘em up just outside of Pioche, near the Nevada camp,” Sam said. “Your niece here helped us deal with some U.C. troops.”

  They sat down and caught up on recent events. Nirsch was so proud of Debbie and the strong woman she’d become. She had endured more hardships and pain than anyone should ever have to endure, yet still reflected a spark of joy and peace in her eyes. Jake had grown so much since Nirsch saw him last. He reminded him of Adam. Nirsch had no doubt that when those two got together there would be trouble.

  They spent the rest of the morning enjoying each other’s company. Nirsch showed Debbie and Jake around the camp and introduced them to several of the troops. Jake was fascinated with the aircraft. Nirsch was amazed at how much young Jake knew about military aircraft. He identified each jet and helicopter they passed, including all of the weapons specs.

  They stopped next to a Black Hawk helicopter. Nirsch lifted his nephew off the ground so he could see into the cockpit.

  “What do you think, Jake?” Nirsch said. “You wanna go for a ride?”

  “No kiddin’ Uncle Nirsch? You really mean it?”

  “You bet. That is, if you and your mom want to go to the ranch. Your cousin Jillian is getting married, and if I’m not there, I’m pretty sure your Aunt Michelle will make me live in the barn.”

  “Jillian’s getting married?” Debbie asked. “The last time I saw her, she was running around in pigtails holding her favorite doll.”

  Nirsch stared at the snow-covered Cascade Mountains for a moment as the memory of his little girl washed over him. “Well, she’s not so little anymore,” he said. “Now, let me finish up a few things, and we’ll head out.”

  Nirsch finished his planning and lined out the troops for the strike on the U.C. in two days. He left Bill in charge of the camp.

  They loaded into the chopper, Jake smiling and jumping up and down in his seat as the engine came to life and the blades started to spin. “Don’t bother the pilot, Jake,” Debbie said. “Let him concentrate.” Nirsch remembered she’d never liked flying. She’d probably never been in a helicopter. She had a death grip on her seat as they rose into the air.

  Two hours after they left the camp, they touched down in the field next to the ranch house. Debbie was pale and nauseous. Her hands had turned white from the tight grip on her seat.

  Jake jumped out of the chopper and ran toward the house as his cousin Adam rushed out to meet them. They nearly collided in the middle of the driveway, then ran together to the barn. “Jake!” Debbie yelled after them. “Don’t go off where I can’t see you!”

  She laid her hand on Uncle Nirsch’s arm. He spoke softly and smiled. “He’ll be fine. There’s nothing out here that can hurt him. Let him catch up and play with his cousin. It’ll be good for both of them to interact with someone their own age.”

  Debbie smiled at Nirsch as Adam yelled from the door of the barn. “Dad, can we saddle up and ride to Jillian’s new house, and maybe shoot some squirrels?”

  Debbie’s fingernails dug into Nirsch’s arm, nearly drawing blood. Her face lost the color that had been slowly returning after the terrifying chopper ride.

  Nirsch smiled at her again and summoned the most soothing voice he could. “They should be fine, it’s not very far. But if you’d feel better about it, I’ll tell him no.”

  Debbie thought about it. “No, it’s fine, I just…it’s just that I get a little worried. He’s seen so much death and pain. I feel like I should be there with him all the time to watch over him. He’s missed out on so much of his childhood. It’ll be good for him to be with his cousin, maybe regain some of that lost innocence.”

  Debbie let go of Nirsch’s arm and walked to the barn. She called over her shoulder, “Tell the girls I’ll be in shortly. I have to talk to Jake for a minute.”

  The house smelled wonderful when Nirsch walked through the front door. There was definitely a loaf of bread, or two, in the oven. He walked over to the wood cook-stove and opened up the oven to take a peek.

  “Close that door and back away, mister!”

  Michelle ran to him, threw her arms around his neck, and locked her lips to his. She smelled so good, felt so soft and warm in his arms. Nirsch pushed her back a few inches and smiled down into her blue eyes. “Miss me?”

  “Not really,” she said, grinning back at him. “I wish you’d call first. It’s kind of awkward when you show up unannounced. It makes the other man in my life feel uncomfortable.”

  “I don’t think your other man even thinks twice about me showing up unannounced. I just saw him, and he is happy as a clam, playing with his cousin Jake.”

  “Jake?” she asked. “You mean Debbie and Jake are here?”

  “Yup. They were delivered to Sunriver this morning.”

  Michelle pushed Nirsch away and ran toward the front door, apparently forgetting all about him and how glad she’d been to see him. She reached the door when Debbie walked through it. They threw their arms around each other and cried like schoolgirls.

  “What happened to ‘Welcome home, my darling’?” Nirsch said. He laughed and went out to check on the ranch. Pat and Brett Hanson had returned after the first battle in Boise to take care of both ranches and finish Brett and Jillian’s new house up the canyon. It was a lot of work for them to take care of both places, but as Nirsch insp
ected the area on his ATV, he marveled at what a good job they were doing. The fences all seemed to be tight. The first cutting of grass and alfalfa was put up. The irrigation had been kept up and the cows were in the upper pasture, looking fat and healthy.

  It felt so good to be riding on the land Nirsch had poured so much sweat and blood into shaping. He did not want to go back to the fighting. But go back he would, in just a few days. He’d return to the base in Sunriver and they would move it east. President Hartley had struck a deal with Mexican drug cartels that were now fighting for the Collective. Nirsch’s troops had taken a toll on Hartley’s troops west of the Rockies, and managed to rid the entire West Coast of them while increasing their own armaments and weaponry. Hartley still controlled the people east of the Rockies.

  Most of the larger towns now in the hands of Nirsch’s people had fallen like Boise. The Russians and Germans had started sending troops and supplies within days of the initial attack. Since Nirsch and his people started fighting back and the resistance grew, that number had dwindled considerably. Almost all American military that had been loyal to the president in the beginning had deserted. They were now fighting alongside Nirsch, bringing their equipment and weaponry with them. The foreign political leadership had reduced their forces due to rising tensions in their own regions and the fact that their losses on the American continent were greater than expected.

  It amazed Nirsch that his army in the west had grown to about seventy-five thousand so quickly. Each time they liberated another town, their ranks swelled. Everyone was eager to punish those who had oppressed them and, in most places, killed large numbers of their friends and family. Hartley thought if he could kill and torture enough people, he would control them with fear. He could not have been more wrong. The more the people suffered, the more they wanted to fight. Nirsch figured that Hartley probably could have ended the conflict right after it started and achieved total control, but he had made the fatal mistake of underestimating the people in rural America. If he’d read his history, he would have realized that people like the men and women who now fought alongside Nirsch were the very same breed of people who were responsible for creating America in the first place.

  Communication and coordination had been difficult. They’d managed to capture considerable communications equipment, but using it turned out to be trickier than they’d expected. The U.C. constantly changed the signals and bandwidth used by its satellites. Nirsch had many technicians trying to keep up and adapt, but usually within two days of communications being restored, the signals changed again. They had only one or two days a week to communicate with their troops east of the Rockies.

  What they really needed was their own satellites, but Nirsch knew that wasn’t going to happen. He’d sent a small group into the Rockies a few weeks after the initial attack on Boise, to set up a relay station. So far they had not made contact. Most of the commanders assumed that they were either captured or killed. The Rockies were the main stronghold of the U.C. Nirsch still had hope that they would succeed and that he’d hear them coming through loud and clear any day.

  In three months, the troops would be ready for a strike on the Presidential Palace in Colorado. They would send the majority of their forces north of Colorado and then east of the palace. The rugged terrain and dense forests would help hide their movements. Those forces would strike from the east while President Hartley concentrated his forces to the west, expecting the attack from that direction. Then Nirsch would send in the few thousand troops they had to the south. They would have the element of surprise, and hopefully they would end this.

  Nirsch rode back to the house and enjoyed his family for the remainder of the day. They laughed and talked as if the devastating changes of the last few months had never happened.

  When dinner was over, the girls went off to do more wedding planning. Nirsch took Adam and Jake out to the shop to work on Adam’s bow and have some “boy” time. The bow was shaping up nicely. They’d fashioned it out of juniper and had made the string with deer sinew. It pulled only about fifty pounds, but Adam wasn’t quite strong enough yet to pull it back. Nirsch had hoped to be finished with the fighting by the time the elk started their rut, but it was already almost mid-June. Nirsch would have to wait another year before they could chase them together.

  At 2 A.M., Michelle entered the barn and told them all to wash up and go to bed. The three of them whined in protest. She folded her arms and pointed toward the house.

  Nirsch spent the next day working around the ranch. His attitude improved greatly with all the good, “honest” labor. Being home, and focusing his attention on his sanctuary and his family, temporarily lightened the burden of war and bloodshed. Not that he saw much of Michelle or his daughter, or any of the women for that matter. It seemed they were taking care of last-minute wedding details.

  There wasn’t a cloud in the sky when everyone drove into John Day the next morning for Jillian’s big event. She would be married in a Baptist church built in the 1870s. It had a steeple that towered into the sky and a bell that had been brought in by wagon after making its way around Cape Horn by ship. Nirsch always felt nostalgic when he looked at the church. The history was so rich. Hundreds of weddings had been performed and thousands of people had given their hearts to the Lord within those walls. He imagined what it was like when it was built. He wished he could play back everything the walls had recorded over the last nearly two hundred years.

  The church was packed. Nirsch was sure everyone who lived in Grant County was there for the wedding, as well as people from as far as Boise. A unit of his troops even came in from Sunriver to be an honor guard for the new couple. Sam Carson led them. Nirsch hadn’t approved this. He and Sam would need to have a talk when this was over. Nirsch laughed at the idea. I truly am blessed, he thought, to be serving among the most honorable men in the world.

  Everyone took their places and waited for the bride and groom. Nirsch glanced at Pat Hanson, who was rocking back and forth on his heels. Nirsch motioned for him to follow. They snuck over to the room where Brett was getting prepared and stopped just outside the door. Nirsch pulled a small can of white paint and a soft brush out of his suit jacket.

  “You wanna have a little fun with your boy?” Nirsch said.

  “What do you have in mind?”

  “Follow me.”

  They went into the dressing room. Brett was finishing getting into his tux. Nirsch whispered to Pat, “Keep him busy for a second.”

  Pat put his arm on his son’s shoulder and turned him toward the window. “It sure is a pretty day to get married, son.”

  Nirsch reached down, grabbed Brett’s shoes, and quietly slipped out the door. A couple of minutes later, his work was complete. He snuck back in, replaced the shoes, and gave Pat the thumbs up. Pat hugged his son, and they joined everyone else back in the sanctuary.

  “What did you do?” said Pat.

  “You’ll just have to wait like everyone else.”

  Nirsch smiled, patted him on the back, and took a seat. A few minutes later, Michelle came in and sat beside Nirsch as the organ began to play. She looked him over and glared. “What,” she said, “did you do?”

  How, he thought, does she always know when I’m up to something?

  Nirsch feigned innocence and smiled as Brett and his best man, Adam Nirschell, took their places at the front of the sanctuary. Nirsch was so proud of his children. His eyes filled with tears as he remembered Jillian’s childhood. Michelle’s glare disappeared when she noticed the moisture pooling up in the corners of his eyes. She took his hand as Jillian marched down the aisle. She truly was a beautiful young woman. She had on the dress her mother had worn at her wedding over twenty years earlier. Nirsch’s eyes filled with a fresh batch of tears as he remembered his own wedding. He quickly wiped them away and looked around to make sure none of his men had seen him.

  The ceremony was beautiful. Nirsch barely choked out the words “Her mother and I do” when he gave her away.
When it came time for the new couple to kneel at the altar, pray together, and light their unity candle, Nirsch felt everyone in the church take in an enormous breath of air and hold it. No one wanted to be the first to laugh.

  Michelle turned on Nirsch with fire in her eyes, cocked her fist, and punched him in the chest for all she was worth. This was the trigger for everyone to release the laughter that had started to build up when they saw the bottoms of Brett Hanson’s shoes. While Bill had kept him occupied, Nirsch had used his best penmanship to paint the word “HELP” on the bottom of Brett’s left shoe and “ME” on his right.

  Brett and Jillian turned to see what was causing the laughter. Jillian noticed the bottom of her new husband’s shoes. She looked at Nirsch and smiled, doing her best not to laugh. She stood and pulled Brett to his feet after lighting the candle. She didn’t want him to know about the artwork until later.

  When the ceremony was over, the reception was winding down, and the new couple had been whisked away to their new home in one of the commandeered helicopters, Michelle grabbed Nirsch’s hand and led him outside, away from the wedding guests. Once they got behind the church, she really let him have it. Nirsch couldn’t remember the last time she had been that mad at him. He just bowed his head and took her wrath, apologizing profusely. When she had yelled herself out, she sat in the grass and began to cry. He sat beside her and apologized some more. She threw her arms around him and blubbered into his shoulder.

  “It’s over,” she said.

  “What’s over?” Nirsch was confused. He shook his head and thought, I swear I’ll never understand women.

  Michelle dabbed her eyes. “Jillian is gone. The mornings we share together making breakfast are gone. All the times she needed my advice and I could wipe away her tears, those days are gone. She has Brett now. She doesn’t need me anymore.”