by W. R. Benton
I must have been staring intently or drooling because she laughed and said, "Ya look like ya ain't seen a woman before. Hell, how long ya been livin' at the cave?"
"Not long, and it's not the fact you're a woman, but how you're dressed. Surely that ain't the uniform of the day?"
She gave a deep sexy laugh and replied, "No, not hardly. I've only got two other sets of clothin', woodland camo fatigues actually, and they're washed and hopefully dried by now. It was my turn to pull guard, so here I am."
"I have a small group on my tail and they're good people. We have one man with untreated injuries and another that's had to put off her treatment for a spell. Is your position considered safe?"
"We're as safe as it gets these days, but nothin' is certain. Your dog is well behaved."
Lawdy, woman, you'd make a small dog break a huge chain just to lick your palms, I thought, but said, "Her name is Dolly, and she was trained for security before the fall."
"I like that, 'the fall,' because it fits."
"What do you do with G2, or do you guys call it intelligence?"
"G2 is fine, and I'm a linguist and photo interpreter. I was on active duty when things turned to hell, so here I am. Most of us here are prior army, but I was Air Force."
I heard a slight noise behind me and when I turned, the group was approaching slowly. I had to admit, they looked like death warmed over.
I realized I'd not asked her name, so I asked and she replied, "Kate. If ya folks will follow me, I'll get y'all to the house."
As the group neared, I saw every eye on Kate and knew her bikini had caught their attention. Willy met my eyes, winked and whispered, "I'd follow her right into the flaming gates of hell."
Sandra shook her head and while she didn't say anything, her eyes narrowed as she gazed into my eyes. I gave a silent chuckle, walked to her side and said, "Her uniforms were dirty."
"Wipe the drool from your mouth." She whispered, and then laughed.
Like a fool, I reached for my mouth, but found it dry, so she gave another laugh. I shrugged and replied, "I am a man, remember?"
"Well, I can see right now, I need to get you alone so we can verify that statement. It's been too long, John."
I took her free hand and held it in mine as we walked. After a few steps I said, "I'm human, baby, and I was pretty shocked when she stepped from the woods dressed like that."
Once again she laughed, and after a few seconds said, "I wish I'd seen your face! It isn't everyday that a beautiful half naked woman holding an M16 rifle steps from the trees to ask questions."
I gave a blank look and asked, "She had a weapon?"
Top, who'd been walking behind us, burst out laughing and said, "Yep, she did and a sidearm, too."
"What kind of pistol?"
"Uh, well, I don't remember. I got to her hips, saw a holster and well, followed her legs all the way to the ground."
The three of us laughed and it felt good, it felt real good.
CHAPTER 20
The safe house was anything but a house, and was actually a well camouflaged barn that'd been emptied of hay and critters. It was ancient too, the wood unpainted, and the color reminded me of bark from an oak tree. As we neared, men and women were seen with weapons in their hands watching our approach cautiously. Finally we entered the structure and I was surprised by the desks and a couple of old manual typewriters I saw. Off in the corner appeared to be an old personal computer, but I knew it was worthless.
A man who looked more like a college professor than anyone involved with intelligence or the military made his way to us and said, "I'm Colonel Thomas Parker and the chief of intelligence. Top, it's good to see you again and you, too, Willy."
"Sir, do you have any medical facilities or supplies?" Sandra asked.
"Yes, we have both, and I see you have the need too. The last room on the right is our examination room and it'll have to do, because it's all we have. As for supplies, you'll find most of what you need in the room."
As Sandra, Top and Vickie made their way to the room, I heard my wife say, "Top, you first, so I can look you over better and give you something for the pain."
Willy introduced us and as we shook hands, I noticed for a man I'd thought was a bookworm, he had a solid handshake.
Parker said, "I want all of you to follow me into my office where we can talk in private."
Kate, standing with the butt of her M16 on her right hip and her hand holding the barrel, winked at me as I walked by her. Lawdy, now that I don't need. I suspect she's teasing me, and right now that's the last thing I need, I thought, and then entered the office.
"Pull up a chair and let's discuss what has happened and why." Parker pulled out a well worn leather chair and sat.
After each of us telling what we knew and with Willy handing him a copy of the sketch he'd taken of the base, Parker grinned. He studied the sketch for a few minutes, reach down to the bottom drawer on his desk and opened it. He removed a folder and sat it in front of him, and then pulled out a bottle of bourbon whiskey, along with some cheap plastic picnic cups. Pulling the cork on the bottle, he placed about two fingers of whiskey in each cup.
"Gentlemen, please, take a cup of whiskey and let me tell you what I know up to this point."
He waited as each of us took a sip of the drink, and I smiled as the amber colored alcohol burned a trail to my empty stomach. I then placed my cup on the corner of the desk. Dolly looked at me and I patted her softly on the head.
Parker opened the folder on his desk and said, "The Russians and Chinese both have military advisers in our area of operations, with the Chinese being our biggest threat. From what we've been able to find out so far, the Russians have sent no aircraft, missiles or tanks. The Chinese, on the other hand, have sent all three but in limited numbers, which to me indicates they are clearly here to stay. Right now, I think both countries are simply testing the waters to see if an invasion or other military action is feasible or even worthwhile. Our intelligence is not very good, so I may be wrong about all of this."
"Hell, colonel, just the land would make it worthwhile." Tom said.
"No, I don't think so, because our once waving fields of endless corn and wheat are no more. The Chinese would have to bring in farmers, protect them, and even supply their own seeds. The agriculture of our country died along with our government. It just wouldn't be cost effective for them take our lands. I'm afraid the airlift and security costs wouldn't justify the end results."
Willy said, "Political influence is my guess. If they can back an American leader, get him to gather up a large group of followers, and perhaps unite the whole country, they'd have a thumb in the pie once we became productive again."
"Why hasn't the United Nations protested the simple fact both countries are here?"
Parker gave me a smile a professor would give his favorite student that was close, but not really on the mark, and said, "The United States of America owed both countries billions and billions of dollars, and they're both claiming they have a right to be here since the United States no longer exists. They're laying claim to our land since we defaulted on the loans."
"Why they're here really doesn't mean a rat's ass to me." I said, and then continued, "The question is, how do we get rid of them. I think we should try to find out where they are and how many are here." I picked up my whiskey and threw the remainder of the drink back, giving a light cough as the alcohol burned my throat.
"Excellent idea, John, and my thoughts exactly. I have a number of teams, both here and at other locations, researching that information as we speak, but our access to solid intelligence is limited. See, we have a few computer geeks who've modified some old computers to access the internet. Now that we have that in place, we're attempting to hack websites that will provide us with a little more needed information."
"Hell, there aren't any internet access providers still around these days." Skinner said.
"No, they're all out of business, but we were able
to gain satellite access using a provider from India. However, I'm not at liberty to explain how that was done. The computer folks located an old satellite dish, made some magic changes to some things, and lined the dish up properly. It works, and well."
"What good is a computer without power, or do you have a generator?"
Parker smiled and replied, "We now use solar power, because running a generator made too much damned noise. We've gained access to a few military sites of both countries, but I can say no more about the project. You gentlemen do not have a need to know anymore than what I've just told you."
"What now?" Willy asked.
Standing, Parker said, "I suggest all of you get a bath in the river behind the barn, eat a good meal, and get some sleep. If you need medical attention, you can use your medic or see one of mine."
"Who do we see about the food?"
"We have a small kitchen behind the barn in an old storm cellar, and it serves our purposes most of the time. It's manned around the clock, so someone will feed you. Just have Kate show you were it's at, but don't clean it out of food." Parker said and then laughed. I knew right off he's been in the military and knew how much a hungry soldier could eat.
When we entered the main area of the barn, Kate was standing by the doorway with a rifle in her right hand. Hearing us, she turned. She was standing in such a seductive pose I decided to leave the group, "I'll see if Sandra wants to eat and be right behind you."
Sandra was finishing up on Vickie when I entered the small room. "If you're about finished, we can grab a bite to eat."
"Sure, just give me a few minutes."
A few minutes later, as she washed her hands in a basin filled with pink water, she said, "Top and Vickie won't be joining us for a meal. Both were given morphine and will be asleep in a few minutes. I also gave Top some antibiotics and started an IV with fluids. He has a slight fever, but it'll get worse before it gets better. The knife injury I'm not so worried about as I am his head. He told me when the door flew off the entrance to the cave, a part of it struck his head. That confused me, because I thought the door killed Alisa."
Now, I don't make it a point to lie to my wife, but felt she didn't know what I only suspected so I said, "A solid steel door is heavy and that one must have weighed a ton, because it was mounted on rollers. The door may have blown off, struck Top in the head and then fell on Alisa. Her death would have been instantaneous."
"I know enough about combat to know strange things happen, and it's not a big deal anyway." She dried her hands on a bloodstained towel that any hospital before the fall would have thrown away.
At the cellar, I saw nothing of Kate and I relaxed a bit. I suspected she was simply teasing me, but I didn't like it at all. There wasn't enough room in the shelter for all of us to eat, so we took our aluminum trays and moved under a large pine tree. The meal was simple but tasty. We had stew, cornbread, and believe it or not, milk served in an aluminum cup.
I took a long drink of the milk and then asked, "How'd they get milk here?"
Willy laughed and then said, "The colonel has two cows hidden back a ways, and they're guarded all the time. He only issues milk to fighting troops and guards, which I've heard pisses off his G2 folks. I also heard a rumor that he even makes cheese, but I've never seen any of it."
"Well," Skinner said, "it's damned good and much better than the bourbon he gave us."
"I wondered about that too, the bourbon I mean," Willy said as he looked over the rim of his aluminum cup. "Where in the world does a man get good Kentucky sippin' whiskey when for all practical purposes the state of Kentucky doesn't exist anymore?"
"He has some connections, and that's all we really need to know. Hell, he's got a working computer, so whiskey should be a snap." Skinner added, and then took a spoonful of stew into his mouth.
Sandra, who'd been silent and didn't know about the computer before now, said, "Lawdy, I must have fifty thousand unanswered emails." She broke into a loud horselaugh, and we all joined in for a few seconds.
Seeing a confused look on Skinner's face, I asked, "What's the matter?"
"The meat in this stew isn't beef."
"Nope, it ain't." Willy said, but didn't add anything else to his comment. I noticed the trace of a slight smile on his lips.
He's baiting the guy, I thought, and then grinned.
"What is it?"
"You got a soft stomach?"
"Hell, no, I'm an airborne Ranger. If it's slower than me, I can eat it."
"How about you?" Willy asked, as he met Sandra's eyes.
"Nope, my stomach is strong enough. We've had to eat cats, bugs, and even snakes since the fall, why?"
"Now, I ain't one hundred percent sure, but it tastes like dog meat to me."
Dolly growled and I touched the side of her head and said, "Stay, you're okay, baby."
"Dog?" Skinner asked, as he placed his tray in the grass beside him. I guess he was suddenly full or didn't like the idea of eating Fido. He looked pale and weak to me, so I quickly turned to Sandra, wondering how she'd react to Willy's comment.
She took a big spoonful of stew, looked over at Willy as she held in near her lips and said, "Bullshit." She then began to eat her stew.
"Ask the cook then."
My wife smiled, met Willy's eyes and said, "I grew up on a farm and I know what this meat is, believe me. It's not dog, horse, cat or some other domestic animal, because I've eaten all of them since the fall."
Willy grinned and winked at me before he said, "Okay, Missus Know-it-all, what in the hell is it then, if not dog?"
"This meat, sir, is 'possum."
Tom asked, "You ain't serious? You mean that rat lookin' gray thing with the curled hairless tail?"
"Yep, Tom. You, Sandra are wrong, but close!" Willy said.
"Close?" Sandra said.
"It's really rat."
Skinner, the big badass Ranger, suddenly gained his feet and moved for the woods, his tray forgotten.
Tom gave a blank look and took a bite of the stew before he said, "Hell, this stuff ain't half bad, huh?"
We broke out laughing again and after we sobered up, Willy said, "Actually, I have no idea what it is, but I'll eat it anyway."
Sandra looked in my direction and said, "Don't ask Mister Survival, hell, John will eat anything, and I do mean anything at all. I guess it really doesn't matter where the protein comes from as long as we get enough to stay alive. I'm positive some of the greens in here are dandelion greens and water cress."
I said, "Right after the fall we had all kinds of stored foods and supplies, but I wanted to save most of it for hard times. Then, when Tom here and his wife joined us, the stockpile doubled." I noticed Tom lowered his head when I brought up his wife, but death was part of life and he had to learn to accept her death.
"So, was she lying about all the different stuff she'd had to eat?" Willy asked.
"Nope, in order to save our foods, I'd bring in everything from worms to deer for supper. Now, I'll eat damned near anything, but I'm not crazy about cat, insects of any kind, or bird eggs with embryos, and we had all of them at some point."
Kate suddenly appeared, and I noticed right off she was dress in her woodland battle dress uniform and the bikini was gone. Seeing Willy, she walked to him and said, "Colonel Parker wants you and your team right now."
"Any idea what's on his mind?"
"Not hardly. Colonels don't usually tell junior grade sergeant's much of anything. He just said to find you and have the team come to his office."
Willy stood and said, "Let's drop the trays off in the kitchen and then go see the colonel. Skinner!"
"Yo!"
"Bring your ass over here. I think we have a mission brief to attend!"
"I'm comin', but if one of ya starts talkin' about eatin' dog or that other shit, there'll be a fight."
We laughed, and made our way to the kitchen.
*****
This morning, an hour before dawn and after a night of
good sleep, we were once again on the move, only we had an additional team member Kate. According to the colonel, she was not only an expert on languages and photo interpretation, but also a qualified sniper. I looked in her direction again and thought, You remind me of a black widow, deadly. You have the looks and body to entice any man alive and the knowledge, along with skill, to kill. I don't want anything to do with you. It ain't normal for a woman to train to be a sniper. I thought a bit more on the subject and finally realized times had changed, but I hadn't. I was still thinking of a wife in the kitchen getting supper ready for her husband when he came home from work, but those days were long gone. Every living thing alive was now a killer or soon died.
I finally reached the conclusion the reason I wanted so badly to dislike Kate was simple; I was attracted to her. I also realized that since Sandra and I had not been alone in close to a year, most of my attraction toward Kate was pure physical need. I loved Sandra with all my heart, but I'm a man and every woman knows most men do their thinking from below the belt. I'd seen Kate's body and I have to admit, it impressed me, only now I'd get to see how her mind worked, and that was what really mattered in the field. When bullets started flying and people dying, the size and shape of a woman's breasts suddenly lost any importance.
Tom, who was on point, held his left fist in the air and we went to ground. A fist in the air was an old army command to stop and seek cover. Well over twenty minutes passed before he moved to us and whispered something to Willy. Willy stood, pointed at me and then down the trail we'd just walked. I moved at a slow walk, knowing he wanted me on point as we backtracked a ways. Dolly walked beside me as if she was on a stroll on a country road. She hadn't growled, so that meant there was no one in front of use when we stopped or the wind was such she didn't smell anyone.
Once in a while I'd glance back to see when Willy wanted me to stop or move in a different direction. Finally, when I glanced back after about a half mile he point to the woods on the right side. I moved about fifty yards into the trees and then squatted as I waited.