Apocalypse in the Homeland: The Adventures of John Harris

by Anthony Newman

  Steve called a meeting of the team to set a plan to get them back to Mobile. He included the Sheltons, his team, the Cody town council and all of the people that had joined them since the crash. Most of them had been rescued from slave work from the area’s gangs.

  “I’d like to start the meeting with the Lord’s Prayer.”

  A woman on the Cody town council objected, “Sir, that’s not allowed. It’s against the separation of church and state.”

  “Ma'am, you are now part of the ISA and we are a Christian country that worships God every chance we get. Our constitution says that the government can’t force you to join any particular religion, but we will be based on the Ten Commandments and the Christian religion. You can leave the room or the country while the rest of us pray or you can stick your fingers in your ears.”

  “Well, I never……”

  “Hillary, shut up and let’s pray. I don’t think many of those liberal assholes on the west coast are left alive to sue us.”

  Steve led them in the Lord’s Prayer and then banged his 1911 on the desk to begin the meeting.

  Hillary glared at Steve and his big gun, but kept her mouth shut.

  “This meeting is to discuss mutual issues faced by Cody and the ISA and to develop a plan to get us in contact with the leadership of the ISA. I also want to discuss training and arming a militia made up of the people in the surrounding area. We need to keep eliminating all the thugs and criminals until the ISA troops arrive and take over. I recommend that the sheriff lead the militia since he has military training and has shown an interest in improving your security.”

  The sheriff accepted the new duties and was eager to start his training.

  “Joel, most of the training fits right in with your police training with one exception. We don’t make any effort to bring the bad guys in. We shoot them on sight and sleep good at night. We only have small jails for drunks and minor offenses. We do not have prisons for gang members; we wipe them off the face of the earth.”

  Hillary, the council woman, was now seething, “You are nothing but a bunch of murderers. They deserve a fair trial and prison if convicted.”

  “Hillary, did you move to Wyoming from California?”

  “No, I’m from Seattle.”

  “Look you pompous idiot. We are at war with these gangs. They rape women and little children, make slaves do their work and make their living trading drugs for women, guns and food. We will keep killing them until the earth is clean of the filthy bastards.”

  The mayor spoke up, “Hillary, please stop interrupting the meeting with your rants. We will meet with you after this meeting to discuss your concerns.”

  She got mad and left the building.

  “Joel, go get her after the meeting and bring her back to the town hall.”

  “What if she refuses?”

  “Arrest her sorry ass and drag her back here. We can’t tolerate her bullshit any further. Steve, thanks for keeping your temper in check.”

  “Unfortunately we have met several liberals like her who want the government to run everyone’s lives and think there are no truly evil people in the world. Now back to the meeting. There are a couple of additional items to accomplish and I want to assign owners to make sure they get done."

  "The first is that we need to get more vehicles running. Joe will take that one and mayor, please give him a team that knows vehicle mechanics. The next is developing raiding parties to wipe out the scum in this area. Joel will be in charge and Joe and Imelda will assist. Finally, I plan to try to make contact with the ISA by finding a working ham radio. I need everyone watching for that type of equipment during their scavenging trips.”

  The meeting was very productive and the town’s people were eager to begin taking back their state. The sheriff and mayor could easily be the leaders that John would want to manage the newest state in the ISA.

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  Chapter 10

  Bombs Away

  Mobile, Alabama

  2022

  General Mills watched as Commander Jones, the Vice President and the Chiefs of Staff discussed the final details of the plan to attack the Chosen People’s compounds. He never thought that in his 20 year Army career that he would be discussing an all out attack against Americans on American soil. The world apocalypse had changed everything and now he knew the meaning of protecting his country from foreign and domestic threats. The plan was excellent, but the general worried about taking the facilities intact. The CP may be bigots and the enemy, but they knew how to grow, process food and manufacture many types of items needed by this devastated country.

  “Sir, has anyone thought that these facilities may be laced with explosives to keep them from being used by the CP’s enemies?”

  Everyone in the room turned towards General Mills and stayed silent.

  “I don’t mean to throw a monkey wrench into the operation, but I was just thinking how much this group contributes to both the USA and ISA. If we inadvertently destroy the facilities, people will starve on both sides.”

  Gus stared at him and replied, “Damn good point. Commander, what does your intel say about this possibility?”

  “Sir, we only have intel from satellites and outside observation. There is no way to determine if they have packed their compounds with explosives. We would have to infiltrate a compound to know for sure.”

  Everyone of Gus’ staff agreed that a compound would have to be entered to determine if there were explosives.

  General Mills asked, “Bob, could you infiltrate a compound with your Seals before the main attack and get the answer?”

  “It could be done, but we will need several days to plan the operation. If the compounds aren’t rigged to blow up, we could go ahead with the attack as planned. Remember my Seals were already going to infiltrate all of the compounds and destroy command and control ahead of the attacks.”

  Gus spoke up, “Great catch General Mills. Bob, begin planning and give us a date and time for this party to begin.”

  “Aye aye sir!”

  ***

  “Bo, our spies report back that the ISA group in Louisiana is growing and now heading towards Dallas. One of them overheard discussion of the group heading towards Oklahoma City. We can’t have them discover our operations.”

  “Thanks for the update. Tell the director of operations to stop all activity that can be spotted from the air or surrounding roads until further notice. Tell him to stop all outbound and inbound traffic. I also want you to send one of our top assassination teams to Mobile. Let’s tackle this menace head on and take out their leadership.”

  “Bo, if we do this and fail, it will be all out warfare with the ISA.”

  “I think we are in a war now.”

  ***

  “Scott, I want your team to camp just outside of Oklahoma City for a couple of days. We will have taken the CP facility there and need you to guard the operation until we can get a large force into the area. The facility is actually a few miles southwest of Oklahoma City in a small town named Del City and it’s only a mile or so from Tinker Air Force Base. Set up your camp at Tinker and search the base for survivors and equipment. We moved anything that would fly to a more secure area when TSHTF, but there should be bombs, missiles and aircraft parts that are sorely needed. I will give you an update in two days on the CP attack, but I need you to secure the area and try to convert them into good ISA citizens. I know that this slows down the search for John, but we need that facility back up and running quickly.”

  “Gus, we will make happen. I would like a favor if possible.”

  “Yes, son.”

  “After the attacks are successfully completed, have Bob send us a couple of Apaches and a long range armed drone unit. I want to get ahead of the game and take out roadblocks before we have to fight hand to hand.”

  “Good idea. Consider it done.”

  “Gus, why haven’t you become President? Dad is listed as dead. The VP succ
eeds the President?"

  “Because, I know that John Harris is alive same as you do.”

  ***

  “Bob, how is the infiltration of the Nashville compound going?"

  “Sir, the night infiltration team has completed 50% of their search and found nothing. The day shift team has been in the building for two hours and has not yet reported back.”

  “Thanks, keep me updated.”

  “Sir, don’t worry. Their leader is my best at this type of operation. Lt. Barry Hue won’t fail us.”

  The Seals had captured an off duty worker and guard to interrogate. They knew nothing about explosives, but were able to be of great assistance on the layout of the compound. The Seals also copied their identity papers and badges for 12 Seals to walk into the compound in plain view at morning shift change along with another 12 that snuck in the night before. They were quickly searching the areas that were most likely to have explosives and finding nothing. They were also neutralizing the CP security forces, as were all of the other Seal teams across the country.

  “Bugout One this is Bugout Two. No signs of any packages. We are complete and ready to rock.”

  The team leader smiled and grabbed his radio, “Geronimo, this is Tonto, we are clear. Ready to proceed.”

  “Tonto, the rain is on its way.”

  “Bugout Two, bingo. I repeat bingo!"

  Both teams began eliminating guards and neutralizing all threats. Command and control centers were blown up and personnel shot.

  Large explosions rocked the compound and the team knew that the F18s had delivered their pay loads.

  “Sir, they have us pinned down in the hallway outside of the IT room in building number three. I have three wounded and one dead. They posed as workers and ambushed us. There are ten heavily armed CP firing on us. They also have RPGs, so cover your ass as you approach.”

  Hue and five other Seals ran to building three and placed charges on the outside wall of the IT room.

  “Mike, take cover. We are making a doorway into their room.”

  The charges blew a gaping hole in the wall showering bricks and glass for 50 feet around the building and either killed or stunned all of the CP in the room.

  Hue’s team rushed in through the opening, disarmed the survivors and placed a guard on them. The 82nd had charged in just after the explosion and went building to building subduing any resistance while trying to calm the civilians. This scene was repeated at 12 locations in the ISA and 3 in the PSA while 8 in the USA were destroyed by bombs.

  ***

  Bo talked big around his wife and his followers, but he was a coward at heart. He knew all along they would draw too much attention if they followed Joshua’s aggressive plans. The ISA was not as laid back as the USA and would never let the Chosen People get a foothold on their land.

  Several days before the attack he took his most trusted men into his confidence and told them that the end was a few days away and told them to gather their immediate families and valuables and travel to his secret bunker. He went to Joshua’s home and shot Joshua and his mother in law who had helped raise him to manhood, but were evil racist people.

  The toughest task was dealing with his wife. She was Joshua’s daughter and had been indoctrinated since birth by her father the leader of the Chosen People’s movement. He knew that she would never understand what must be done to make a safe life for his family. He waited until he received the reports on the attacks and shot his wife in the back of the head. He racked his brain for a plausible story for his kids, but the important thing was to get them to safety at the bunker in Columbia, Tennessee.

  ***

  The attacks by the ISA took out most of the senior leaders in the first few minutes and left the Chosen People dazed. The command and control centers were smoking ruins. Joshua and Bo were not to be found and there was no one stepping into their shoes. Gus sent teams of engineers and administrators to get the CP factories and warehouses back into operation quickly. He made sure that the ISA director placed in charge of each compound ensured that the people were treated well and told about the Chosen People’s plans to wipe out minorities and take over the country. Most of the people were horrified that they were a part of a group so horrible. A few bad ones had to be dealt with as they were rooted out from the good people. The factories, warehouses and stores in the PSA and ISA were back in operation quickly while the ones in the USA floundered. Naturally, the USA blamed the ISA when there was no food and their people were rioting in the streets.

  ***

  Bo and his five handpicked team members hunkered down and made plans to start over and build their group again from the ground up. None of them was racist, but they hated the ISA and wanted to undermine it as much as possible. Bo was busy working on his vision for a new world order.

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  Chapter 11

  Jim Takes Charge

  Billings, Montana

  2022

  John woke up with Kristen’s head on his chest and his arms around her. They were both naked and he remembered the fantastic night before. He thought that he must be the luckiest man in the world.

  He said to himself, “Gus would be jealous,” but couldn’t remember who Gus was.

  He started thinking about the day ahead and how much training this group needed and was surprised that they had survived so far. He could tell that they were great people, but he had a nagging concern that they were holding something back from him.

  Kristen slowly woke up, started kissing his chest and climbed on top of him.

  “Are you trying to kill me?”

  “With love.”

  “Put that on my grave marker!”

  Breakfast was pancakes and dried apples. It was not a great meal, but was very filling on this warm day at the end of winter.

  “Damn Jim, it’s all the way up to 35 degrees this morning. Some of this crappy snow might melt. I am praying that winter is over.”

  “Darling, I just want to be with you and I don’t care what the weather does.”

  “You always were a sweet talker.”

  “Hey, do I know a guy by the name of Gus?”

  “How do I know who you knew before we met?”

  “You never open up about your past. We did have a guy named Gus awhile back, but I’m not sure you met him before he left to go out on his own.”

  “Okay, time to round up the team for training this morning.”

  John had surveyed the area around the group’s cluster of houses and immediately declared it defenseless. The subdivision was on the southwest end of Billings, just off Duck Creek Road. It used to be a nice subdivision, but it was just a group of houses with no field of fire, no walls and nothing high enough to surveil the surrounding area. John knew they had to find a more defensible location when they started attacking the local gangs and dictators.

  “Jerry, we need to find a better location that can be defended. We also need to scrounge around and find some more food to last until the gardens can be harvested. Oh, by the way, why don’t we think about heading further south where there is a longer growing season?”

  “Whoa, one thing at a time, where do you think that we should move?”

  “I need to scout the area first, but we need to be away from the main part of town and have a building set apart from the others so we can see anyone approaching. We also need a lookout in a high enough position that we can see trouble before it sees us. We need a place where we can actually shoot our guns for practice.”

  “You take Kristen, Jeff and Tom and go find a new home. What can I do to find food?”

  “Start breaking into semi-trailers, railcars and warehouses to find canned and dry goods. Keep an eye out for gun shops and sporting goods stores. We need all of the weapons and ammo that we can find. Darn, I almost forgot. We need seeds to plant.”

  “Damn, this will keep us busy. I am glad you are here. We spent too much time thinking that the government would help us.”
>
  John went back to their house and found Kristen warming up some Spam from last night’s meal. He kissed her and sat at the table wondering why they hadn’t already done what he just suggested. He knew he couldn’t remember anything, but he knew he was no wallflower and spoke his mind. Why are they just beginning to listen? Just one more thing that made him feel uneasy about his friends.

  “I want you, Tom and Jeff to join me in looking for a new home for the group. We need a place of operations we can defend against attack. A small fort if you will. Do you know where we should start looking?”

  “As I told you, I am new to the area, but Tom and Jeff have lived here all of their lives, I would start with them. We do have some of those Chamber of Commerce maps that also list businesses and other buildings that might have guns or food.”

  “Great, I like the way you think. I will inform Tom and Jeff; we will be leaving before sun up in the morning.”

  “John, I need to tell you something. I thought your memory would come back, but you need to know that Jeff wanted me for himself before you showed up. He thinks he still has a chance with me. I don’t think he would harm you, but don’t turn your back on him away from the others.”