“I don’t see any activity at the airport or any of the hangers.”
“Hey, look towards town. I see some barely visible red dots.”
“Those are cigarettes. See that one dancing towards the other two. Everyone of their guards is smoking in the dark. A good way to get killed. There, see the glow get brighter! The SOB is taking a puff. Aim a foot or so below the glow and you hit them every time.”
“Now, John, they might be the good guys.”
“I doubt it. Let’s check out the hangers and see if there are any functioning planes.”
They snuck into the first hanger and saw two planes, both of which had their engines torn down to be serviced. There were several burned out planes between the hangers and several shot up cars. The next hanger had several old crop dusting planes. Three were the old Stearman biplanes with crop spraying equipment. Someone planned to restore the planes and sell them.
Just as they thought the place was empty, there was a clatter on the other side of one of the planes. John motioned for Joe to sneak around to the left while Imelda and he advanced from the right side. Something skittered across the floor and out a side door.
“I don’t know what it was, but it was short and moved fast.”
“Could have been a dog or a raccoon.”
“Look around; I think we disturbed someone’s hiding place.”
“Hey, look in the cockpit of the first plane. Someone has been living in here.”
The interior of the plane had several blankets and a treasure of can goods, candy bars, potato chip bags and canned drinks.
“Hey, my favorite candy bar,” said Imelda as she tore the wrapper off one of the treats."
“Damn, that’s so good.”
“Keep your eyes out for trouble. Whoever was here may come back with friends.”
“I think it might be a kid; there are a bunch of comic books and some small size clothes.”
“A kid with a gun can kill you just as quickly as an adult. Stay focused.”
John went back to examining the airplanes and found that two had perfect engines, but structural issues and another had a blown engine, but was otherwise sound.
“We need to replace this engine with one of those. These planes have large tanks to spray pesticide. I could reroute the lines and make them into spare gas tanks. Two of us could easily make it to Dallas. This is a major find. We need to clear this town of the thugs and get after fixing this plane."
***
“Beth, are you okay? This is the second morning that you have been throwing up,” said Billy as she watched from the porch.
“No, I’m fine. I think that cabbage soup is disagreeing with me this morning.”
Beth was upset that she and John hadn’t been careful during the first few weeks living without proper supplies. She was pregnant out in the sticks without any possibility of medical assistance. She hoped for a boy this time.
***
There were over 20 small hangers and 9 large ones along with the terminal to search. This took the rest of the day since they had to assume there was danger behind every door. The airport was deserted and except for the person living in the plane, they found no evidence of anyone else. They set up their base in the hanger with the three crop dusting planes. They chained the doors and set out to see what they could see from the airport tower before nightfall.
The tower wasn’t much of a tower, but it was tall enough to see over most of the buildings in town. They spotted over a hundred people going about their daily chores. The streets were plowed even though most traveled by horseback. The thugs were easy to identify since they had guns trained on the others every minute of the day. Most of the men on horseback were guards. There were numerous wagons heading north of the town and later coming back filled with coal. This explained the black smoke rolling out of most of the chimneys in town.
“We need to talk with some of the local people and see what is going on. The bad guys don’t appear to be as bad as what we’ve run into before. It’s hard to see if they are forcing these people to work or are just protecting them from invaders. Joe, after dark sneak down to one of the houses and see if you can listen in on any conversations. Imelda and I will try to find the guard’s barracks and see what they are talking about.”
They watched the guards come and go until sunset and noticed that they were all coming and going from a hotel west of the airport. They left the airport and infiltrated the city without being detected.
***
Joe tried several houses before he found one where he could hear the residents talking.
“We need the weather to break before we try to get away from here. Damn it, Jackie, you know that we’d be dead in less than a couple of days if we get caught out in the open.”
“Hon, we can’t keep Betty hidden forever. One of our neighbors might turn us in just to get more food. I couldn’t bear her being treated like the rest of the women.”
“I know, dear, but hang on for a week or two and we’ll try to head up towards Powell or Garland.”
***
Imelda placed her hand over John’s mouth and pointed at the door, which was opening slowly. They saw a young girl slipping out and gently closing the door. She walked past them heading across the street when the door burst open and a large man ran after her. She tried to outrun him, but lost the race. He grabbed her by the collar and slapped her twice.
“Bitch, you know better than to try to run away from me. I take good care of you. You are warm and well fed and only have to take care of me. You are going to get a beating and the next time I’ll break your leg so you can’t run. Now get in the fucking house and fix my supper. I’ll be there in a minute."
Just as John was getting in position to cut the man’s throat, three men walked up and two of them grabbed the big man and threw him to the ground.
“Zeke, you've been warned about beating your wife and spent a week in the cooler. This is against our laws and beliefs; you are going to jail until we have a trial. I can tell you now that you will be run out of town and if you come back, you will be shot on sight. Boys, take him to the jail.”
“But Joel, I just drank a bit too much. I promise that I'll stop and be good.”
“Too late! You're lucky we don’t take you out in the mountains and shoot you.”
John and Imelda found Joe back at the hanger and immediately began comparing notes.
“I heard the family discussing they had to escape to avoid their daughter being treated like the other women. I assumed the girl was to be a sex slave for the bad guys.”
“We saw a guy beat his wife and three men arrested him and put him in jail. The leader told him that he was lucky to be alive. We need to listen more before we start shooting.”
They watched the entire next day and noticed that the town was orderly and many of the town folk waved and smiled at the guards. There was no evidence of any abuse or gang activity. They went back to the hanger after dark and regrouped.
“Joe, I want you to make contact with the father of that girl and find out what they are afraid of. I am going to try to find someone to question and see what is going on here. Imelda, be ready to come out shooting if one of us gets in trouble.”
Joe went back to the house he'd had under surveillance and waited for the father to come outside. He caught the man from behind and dragged him behind the garage with a gun to his head.
He asked the guy, “Why are you afraid of the guards and why are you hiding your daughter? Tell me now and I’ll let you go.”
The man was scared to death, but responded, “They want to make her take a job. We’ve been on disability and welfare all of our lives and there is no need to start working now. They have plenty of food in those distribution centers and they just need to give us our fair share. She takes care of us and does all of the chores around the house. She belongs to me and my wife, not them.”
Joe replied, “You are a worthless piece of shit,” and hit him in the stomach then dropped h
im to the ground and then melted into the night.
John patiently waited on the leader and several of his men to get distracted enough so he could sneak into the building and get into the room next to his office.
“Joel, we have plenty of food, water and coal to last for several years. What is our next step? Those gangs are getting closer to us every week. When the weather breaks, they’ll be right on our doorstep.”
“Carl, that is why I have the veterans training all of our people how to fight. We need a small army to protect what we have and I’m convinced that we need to start wiping out these gangs before they kill us and take the food and women.”
“I don’t like looking for trouble.”
All of the others in the room were on Joel’s side and they shifted to the regular business of running the town. John slowly edged his way out of the building and headed back to the hanger.
Again, they compared notes and ended their confusion concerning this town.
“Guys, I think we need to meet with these people and join forces. Hell, they may even have a shortwave radio. We might be back in Mobile in a week. Let’s sleep on this tonight and form a plan in the morning."
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Chapter 3
What Would John Do?
Mobile, Alabama
2022
The smell of bacon frying was an aphrodisiac. He slipped up behind Joan and put his arms around her. She grabbed his left wrist, turned around and lightly elbowed him in the stomach.
“Down boy. Didn’t you get enough romance last night?”
“Darling, I just want to hug you and let you know how much I love you. I knew that training women to fight would backfire on us.”
“Keep making comments like that and you will have to romance yourself buddy.”
She gave him a kiss and went back to cooking.
Scott went back to reading the Mobile newspaper while Joan prepared breakfast. The newspaper was the only one for the region around Mobile and it was a combination of local gossip and hard news reporting. One article caught Scott’s eye. The headline made him choke for a minute. It read, “John Harris is Alive!” The story went on to give the author’s opinion based on the evidence reported by the military. It indicated that John was building another country in the area around Colorado and that the EMP blasts had destroyed all of the radios so John could not call for help.
“I think this author is closer to the truth than anyone could possibly believe. Dad took control of that plane and landed it somewhere in the northcentral US and is out of radio contact. He is building an army and we will hear about him killing all of the bad guys in that area.”
“I hope you are right. John, Beth and the others are the best the ISA has and if anyone could survive, it’s them. Have you found out any more intel on the Chosen People? We must take them out for trying to kidnap John and causing his disappearance.”
“We are surveilling numerous locations across the ISA and USA. We have found 23 locations and estimate they have over a hundred thousand followers. This will not be an easy take down.”
“What would John do? I’ll bet he would bomb the bastards.”
“There are several governors pushing back on whole scale bombing because they say many innocent people will be killed. While they have a hundred thousand supporters, they also have the same number of local people working in their factories and farms. We actually buy a significant amount of our food from them. They have the only large distribution supply chain in the country. They supply most of the food for the USA. We are working on a plan to take out their command and take control, then take out their entire leadership. All are top secret operations and are being conducted at all of their locations and their home base. I think Dad would approve of our plans.”
“I know that Gus and the Admiral will do the right thing, but the citizens are demanding action and they don’t know any of this. Hell, they don’t even know that CP is not just a company, but rather a fanatical racist group bent on world domination. Thanks for keeping me informed. I will not break your trust.”
Major Scott Harris reported into the command center at 8:00 a.m. sharp on Monday morning. His recent promotion placed him in charge of the ISA Special Forces and placed him on the Secretary of Defense’s staff. Gus McCoy was his Dad’s best friend and Scott had known him for most of his life. His XO, Captain Roger Teller, a 14-year Navy Seal veteran, was his right arm and commanded the most important missions.
Roger handed a folder to Scott and said, “This is the analysis of our surveillance on the CP installations. The last page contains my staff’s recommendation on neutralizing the CP command and control. No changes from my verbal briefing last Thursday. Good luck with the senior staff.”
Scott walked into the war room and took his assigned seat while the others at the table continued their heated debate. Gus had not joined the meeting.
“Scott, I’m trying to convince these yahoos that a surgical strike from the air is the only solution to the CP issue. What do you think? More importantly, what would your father think?”
Scott started to reply when Gus entered the room limping. Several, including Scott, started snickering and laughing under their breath about Gus’ limp. He had recently married the Vice President’s daughter, a woman half his age and they had made fun of her being the death of him.
“Now gentlemen, show some respect for the position if nothing else. Besides I tripped on one of the kids toys this morning and you can get your minds back on the matter at hand.”
As Gus finished, the door opened and the Sargent at Arms introduced Vice President George Washington. George was Gus’ father-in-law and biggest tormentor about him being too old for his daughter.
“Thanks for inviting me to attend your meeting on the CP issue,” George said as he looked over at Gus and then added, “That limp is getting worse. Do you need something for your arthritis? Old people need all kinds of medication.”
“Mr. Acting President, I would respond in kind, but I just told my men to show some respect. Thank you for taking time to join us as we decide on a proper response for the CP attack on our country.”
The professionalism took the wind out of George’s sails so he sat down so the meeting could begin.
Gus spoke up, “My team has several proposals which range from only an air campaign to the Seals attacking every site simultaneously. Commander Jones has reviewed them all and developed an overall strategy that will give us our revenge and neutralize the CP in the ISA.”
Commander Bob Jones was the son of Admiral Hiram Jones who commands the entire ISA Navy. The Admiral watched his son speak and was very proud of him and his success as a Navy officer. Both had defected from the USA bringing over 90 percent of the surviving fleet with them after the US President led a coalition of Iranian and drug cartel forces to attack his own country and the western powers. They used EMP blasts and nuclear bombs on many of the US and European cities. The Navy was the major factor in the ISA’s success and ongoing survival.
“Gentlemen, the plan includes the best parts of all three proposals. We have two separate plans for attack. One plan is for the sites in the USA and one for the others in our country and the unclaimed territories. For the ones in the ISA, we will begin the attack with surgical airstrikes on their defenses followed up by Seals and Special Forces capturing the facilities with the least damage as possible. We aim to take them over and keep them in operation. Of course, we will stop the trade with the USA and use the facilities to supply only the ISA and Pacific States of America."
"The plan for the operation in the USA is much more limited. We will send drones and Black Ops men to kill all of the leaders of the Chosen People’s facilities and the leaders at their home base in Georgia. We want revenge on the CP, not another war with the USA because we shut off their food supply.”
There was a low rumble around the room as it sank in that they would not wipe out or capture the facilities in the USA.
Scott spoke up first, “Thanks; that made me feel much better about the limited response in the North. My team is ready to support the operation. I will add that I think many of you wonder what John Harris would do. My Dad would want to nuke all the bastards, but after ranting and raving for an hour or two, Gus and George would calm him down and he would help make these plans the best possible. He knows that discretion has to win out over brute force once in a while.”
“Thanks for the insight. Major, your team’s plan is exactly what we need for the ISA and PSA. Please add the PSA sites to your operational plans. My XO will give you the intel on the sites on the West Coast.”
“Captain Goad, your plans are perfect, just change the USA portion to be solely drone attacks on their leadership.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Colonel Moreland, your 82nd battalion will provide support and mop up any hotspots in the ISA and PSA operation. The Seals and Special Forces should be able to handle any known forces, but we want to be prepared for surprises.”
Apocalypse in the Homeland: The Adventures of John Harris Page 2