Hubert stammered an attempted response, and then his mouth snapped shut like a bass after a lure. He glared at Lucas and Jeb, and if looks could kill, they’d have both been dead.
“You want to waste everyone’s energy with this, that’s fine. We’ll convene an assembly and the town can hear the council’s reasoning. One time only.”
“That’s a bad idea,” Hayden grumbled.
Jeb exhaled in frustration. “Why?”
“It just is. You’re trying to weasel out of being punished for clobbering me.”
“What gives you the right to punish me?” Lucas asked, his voice quiet. “You told me I couldn’t go back to town. You don’t have that right – you brought that lump on your head on yourself.” He paused. “I’m done arguing this. You have a problem with me, you deal with me one-on-one, not with twenty gunmen.”
“That’s not how this works.”
Lucas exhaled in exasperation. “I just saved your bacon for the umpteenth time, and you’re going to tell me how things work? I must have hit you harder than I thought.”
A couple of the guards laughed, and Hayden spun toward them with an ugly grimace. Hubert saw the situation spinning out of control and quickly interceded.
“We’ll grant you your audience.”
“Fine. Now tell your men to stop pointing their guns at us. We’re on the same side, even if some of you are too dumb to figure that out.”
“That’s not going to happen.”
“Then better hurry up and call your little meeting, because the clock’s ticking, and I’m not planning on sticking around here forever.”
They soon had everyone assembled in a circle around the clearing where they were camped, and Hubert gave a short introduction that consisted mostly of reminding everyone that Lucas and Jeb had conked Hayden on the head, and then gave Lucas the floor. Lucas had left Tango with one of Bill’s men and slowly turned so he could see everyone before he began speaking.
“My name’s Lucas. I brought your vaccine and lost two good men doing so, and another one in town, and almost lost my friend – a friend that Hubert promised to get out of town with you, and then failed to while I was fighting the Chinese and getting you weapons.” He paused, letting that sink in. “After I finished and brought you the guns, Hayden informed me that I couldn’t go back to town to check on my friend. I told him that wasn’t how I roll. He escalated it, so I knocked him out and left with Jeb, whose family is back there. I’m not proud of clobbering him, but I’m also not a subject of your little royal court, and nobody here is my boss. I come and go as I please. It’s called being a free man. I recommend it.”
Hayden began to protest, but Lucas cut him off with a curt gesture. “Everybody here has a problem. The Chinese are holding my friend and Jeb’s family prisoner, along with a bunch of the squatters. They’re here as an invasion force. They aren’t interested in letting everyone live in peace. On the way here, Jeb and I ran into a Chinese patrol that was tailing you, radioing your position to the mother ship. They weren’t doing it to wish you well. And they’re going to keep coming unless you do something to stop them.”
“Was that the shooting we heard?” one of the crowd asked.
“Yes. Jeb and I took them out so they wouldn’t pose a threat. But that was just one patrol. There’ll be more. Let that sink in. This is an invasion. It’s not a temporary circumstance. You want to live free, you have to defend yourselves, your country, and fight them back into the ocean. Otherwise they’ll own you, and you and your children will live as slaves.”
“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants,” an older man in the assembly intoned. “I think it was Thomas Jefferson who said that.”
“What are you proposing, Lucas?” Hubert asked, trying to appear reasonable.
“I want volunteers to take the fight to them. Understand – this isn’t something you can run away from. If you don’t want to be occupied by a hostile force that will grind you to pieces, you need to fight back. And that means some of you might not make it. There’s a lot of risk. But if you don’t take the battle to them, you’ll definitely lose, and they’ll decide when and how to fight.”
“You’re just trying to get help to save your friend,” a frightened voice said.
“That’s right. And Jeb’s family. Most of you know Mary and Rosemary. They’re behind bars with no hope of escape. Are they expendable? If so, aren’t all of you? Why are you any different from them? Why should anyone try to save you if you won’t fight to save each other?” Lucas hesitated. “I rode for a thousand miles to bring you the vaccine. I gave up my family to do it. I didn’t have to. I did it because I owed it to the people who helped me when I needed help. That’s how it works. You don’t just take. You have to give back.” Lucas waited a beat. “I’m asking some of you to give back now. That’s all.”
The crowd fell silent. The townspeople fidgeted uncomfortably, some studying their shoes, others shaking their heads. Lucas didn’t push it. He’d made his case.
Jeb stepped forward. “You all know me. I’ve never asked for anything. I’ve always helped when I could. Caleb, you’re a man of faith. We need help. Help us, that’s all we ask.”
Caleb avoided Jeb’s eyes, and Jeb realized in a flash that the General had been right – he wasn’t going to lift a finger to help them. Jeb shook his head in disgust and returned to the sideline.
Hubert cleared his throat again and spoke in a commanding voice for such a small figure.
“All right. You’ve all heard Lucas and Jeb. Now we need to decide their punishment for hitting Hayden and violating our rules. That is the job of the council.”
“Why?” Lucas asked.
Hubert looked at him like he’d punched him. “Because it is.”
“No, why do you presume you have the right to punish me for exercising my right to travel? Aren’t you just as bad as the Chinese, or the Crew, or any of the rest, if you limit my freedom?”
“We have rules. You have to give up some freedom for things to work in a civilized fashion.”
“Why?”
Hubert sighed. “Because you do. You can’t have everyone just doing whatever they want. People have to cooperate for the greater good.”
“So you get to tell me what I can and can’t do, for the greater good? Why don’t I get to tell you what to do for my greater good?”
“This is ridiculous.”
“No, it isn’t. I was born with rights. You didn’t grant them to me. As long as I’m not hurting anyone, what gives any of you the power to limit those rights? I never agreed to that. So who gave you your claimed authority over me?”
“My job is to keep the town safe–” Hubert began.
“What town?”
Hubert motioned to the crowd. “These people are the town.”
Lucas shook his head in wonder. “No, these people are about four hundred and something individuals, each with their own right to do whatever they want as long as they’re not hurting each other. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness – sound familiar? Nothing gives you the power to limit them unless they give you that power.” Lucas turned again, his eyes boring into the assembly. “Did you grant Hubert here, or Hayden, the power to confiscate rights they have no authority to take away? When did that happen, exactly?”
“You’re twisting things,” Hayden snapped. “Making it seem like enforcing the law is the problem instead of you.”
Lucas lowered his voice. “Hayden, I’m sorry I had to hit you. You should have just let us go. If you’re going to try to assert authority I never gave you, you’re going to get a fight. That’s what happened. You don’t own me, and you don’t own the road. Get that through. I’ve helped you over and over, and you’re treating me like a servant. Enough. I’m done with you. I’m a free man, a Texan, and you don’t tell me what to do, clear? I don’t tell you, either. But get in my way, and I’ll run you over. Don’t test that. I’ve already killed six men today t
o save everyone’s hides. Do…not…push…me.”
Murmurs rose from the throng, and Lucas left it there, having made his point. Nobody tried to stop him as he walked determinedly to Tango and climbed into the saddle. Jeb followed him and mounted his horse while Hayden quaked in fury. Hubert remained silent, sensing the limits of his power and the mood of the gathering, and Lucas adjusted his hat and looked out over the crowd. “I can’t do this alone, so anyone who wants to help is free to join up with me in the tent city. If nobody will, well, don’t expect anyone to help you when the Chinese come for you. And they will come. Make no mistake. They will.”
With that, he spurred Tango and galloped off, Jeb close behind, leaving the remnants of the town in shock, and Hubert and the rest of the council in a rage.
Chapter 22
Portland, Oregon
After four long days of marching from dawn to dusk, the Chinese battalion reached the outskirts of Portland and camped on the Multnomah Channel, the city’s skyline silhouetted in the distance as the last of the light went out of the sky. They had made better progress than Hong had hoped for, and the troops’ reward was a night of rest before moving on the city the following day. The soldiers pitched their tents, but Hong had forbidden cooking fires, not wanting to alert the biker gang of their approach.
They hadn’t encountered anyone on the road, which gave him pause – based on the size of the tent city, he would have expected some squatters to be making their way from Portland to Astoria, but they saw no one. He banished any misgivings he might have had and chalked his good fortune up to a crackdown in the city that had stopped the exodus of the more able-bodied.
The troops spent a long night at the edge of the channel. Sauvie Island loomed large across the narrow stretch of water, and a bridge spanned the channel only a half mile away. Ash from a recent eruption of Mount St. Helens coated the ground, and the volcano was still belching dark gray clouds into the air. Two of the travel days had been mild and relatively warm, but the other two had more than made up for it with nearly endless rain – apparently a constant in the area, accounting for the lush vegetation and verdant hills.
After the night of rest, they spent the following day concealed from view, awaiting the arrival of darkness to launch their offensive. Hong wanted to hold off on any reconnaissance lest his men be spotted and his hand tipped. When twilight had come and gone, Hong gave the order to march, now leading his column of fighters on horseback, a flak jacket in place and an AK in hand. He had sent scouts out an hour earlier to reconnoiter the bridges into the city that they would have to traverse, and was waiting to hear back as to which crossing looked the least defended. He had rocket launchers and heavy machine guns on the carts and felt confident that he would be able to shatter any half-baked roadblocks, but he wanted to minimize the casualties his men would suffer and was anxious to understand the current state of the city’s defenses. He’d been given to believe that the bikers, while vicious, were undisciplined and amateurish, and was determined to make short work of them while he had the element of surprise.
Many of the soldiers were equipped with night vision scopes, their batteries freshly charged on the ship, and the squad leaders and all of the officers had NV goggles – their ultimate advantage against the bikers, who would presumably be caught asleep, blind in the dark and easily vanquished. Based on the reports from the Americans, the generals had informed him that Portland had no power other than that generated by solar, and had determined that the likelihood of the gang’s gunmen being similarly equipped with night vision equipment was slim. Hong hoped they were right, because otherwise what should be a straightforward exercise of overwhelming the defenses at the most stable bridge and building a beachhead in the city from which to mount a sustained attack could turn into a costly exercise he hoped to avoid.
They passed the darkened hulks of petroleum storage tanks as they made their way southeast and veered along the Willamette River. The iconic towers of the St. Johns Bridge jutted skyward, glowing in the artificial light of Hong’s NV goggles. They were closing on the approach to the bridge when his handheld radio crackled softly at his belt, and he pulled it free and raised it to his lips.
“Report. Over.”
The voice answering sounded hesitant, which immediately alarmed Hong.
“We’ve checked out the closest bridges, and neither of them appears to be defended. The first one has fewer cars clogging the lanes.”
“You’re sure there are no defenses?” Hong snapped, puzzled by the news.
“That’s correct. We actually made our way all the way across to the city, and there’s a barrier that looks like it’s been abandoned.” The voice paused. “It seems like it was mainly oriented to prevent anyone from leaving rather than guarding the approach.”
“I don’t understand. Give me a more complete description.”
“There are two .50-caliber Browning machine guns here, with about five thousand rounds of ammo, but the guns are pointed at the town.” Another hesitation. “There’s nobody here, sir. No sign of life.”
“Do you see any obstacles to us crossing?”
“Negative. And no obvious sabotage, no charges we could spot.”
Hong mulled over the news. Could the bikers have somehow been warned of the Chinese column’s approach and retreated to a more easily defended enclave? Or were they lying in wait to ambush the invasion force once it was over the bridge? The scenario didn’t make sense.
“How does the city look? Fires? Lights? Movement?”
“Negative, sir. It’s completely dark, and we haven’t seen anyone – but it’s hard to see from here. There are a lot of trees.”
That meant that any observers would have a similarly difficult time seeing Hong’s force crossing.
“You’re sure it’s safe?”
“We’re at the barricade, manning the machine guns. If anyone shows themselves, we’ll cut them to pieces.”
“How long do you estimate it will take to cross?”
“We made it in twenty minutes, although it will take you longer with the carts due to the stalled cars.”
“Alert me if anything changes. We’ll be on the bridge in ten. Over and out.”
Hong’s second in command, Major Lim, came when signaled, and Hong gave him a brief rundown on the advance team’s report in a quiet voice. When he was done, he flipped his night vision goggles up and addressed his subordinate.
“What do you make of it?” Hong asked.
Lim thought for a long moment. “Sounds like they’ve left the area. We were probably seen at some point over the last twenty-four hours. Maybe someone out hunting or a patrol we missed. Doesn’t matter. If they cut and run, it makes our job easier – just like Astoria.”
“Seems a little convenient that they just walked away from their power center, doesn’t it?”
“Faced with overwhelming force? These criminal gangs are inevitably cowards. Bullies who use brutality to control their area, just like back home. They know they have no chance against real fighters.”
Hong looked unconvinced. “Perhaps,” he said thoughtfully. “Get the men up on the bridge and put rocket launchers in the lead and along the flanks. First sign of trouble, I want shock and awe – isn’t that what the Americans used to call it?”
Lim smiled. “A new era, isn’t it?”
“Indeed.”
The crossing was completed in less than half an hour, though the horse-drawn carts stalled at the halfway mark, which was completely blocked by abandoned vehicles, even the maintenance access strip the drovers had used to that point. Hong ordered fifty of the soldiers back to the carts to carry what they could, and continued the remainder of the way to the blockade at the far base of the bridge.
Once his men swelled the area, Hong instructed the squad leaders to branch out and take possession of the city block by block, reserving a hundred of his toughest men to work point.
“This is a big area. It will take days to investigate the entire place
. Our goal is to secure quadrants, occupy them, and use them as our base to expand our possession of the city. Any resistance is to be dealt with in the usual manner.”
The soldiers departed to carry out their orders, and Hong surveyed the surrounding buildings through a rifle NV scope, the magnification making them huge in his field of vision. The homes lit up neon green and he swept the area slowly, methodically searching for any threats. After five minutes, he slowly lowered the rifle and sat behind one of the sandbag walls on a collapsible field chair, pondering how an entire city could be lifeless.
Reports began coming in half an hour later, all the same: streets empty, homes empty, industrial buildings empty, no resistance encountered. The hair on the back of his neck stood up with each new transmission, and by morning he had sweated through his field shirt beneath his flak jacket in spite of the chill.
Hong called a meeting with his senior officers and briefed them. “We have yet to encounter a single living soul. Lots of corpses, though, most of them dead at least a week, judging by the decomposition.”
“Virus?” Lim asked, his voice hushed.
“No way of knowing, but we have hazmat suits for this situation. Our men are staying well away from any dead they come across.”
“Could that be what cleared the city?”
“At this point anything is possible, but one of our squads says that the larger bridges show signs of having been cleared, and the debris and mud on them show evidence of a large number of animals and horses passing over them recently, the tracks in the mud all headed in one direction. South – away from the city.”
“What about the northern bridges?”
“We won’t know until we’ve secured the territory between our current areas and there. Maybe another day, at this rate. There’s nobody opposing us.”
The men exchanged troubled glances. They had seen much during their time of service since the collapse, but this was disturbing at a basic level – they had been sent halfway around the world to occupy a city of the dead.
The Day After Never - Perdition (Book 6) Page 12