“Great job. It will be tough beating that performance.
“Paul?”
“I was posted on the east end of the airport and only saw 15 thugs and killed 8 of them. There were 20 women and children who appeared to be cooperating with the bad guys. We don’t want them in our camp.”
“Good job! Kristen?”
“I know I’m just a girl, but I killed 15 creeps and wounded another who moved at the last second. I saw eight men and women, but no children. They were slaves and were actually chained while eating lunch.”
“Kristen has exceeded my expectations. Great job. You get to sleep with the boss tonight.”
“Jim you better come up with a different reward because I intend to win tomorrow.”
“Sorry, Tom, but no sniping tomorrow. We have to go in and search door to door and get rid of the rest of the vermin. The airport should be the last sanctuary for the bad guys. Billings will be clean by end of day tomorrow.”
John was wrapped up in Kristen’s arms in a deep restful sleep when the yelling and gunfire woke them both.
“Get dressed and grab your guns. We are under attack.”
They both threw on some clothes, grabbed their pistol and MP 15 and cautiously left their camper. John motioned for Kristen to stay behind him as he cleared the end of their camper. He looked around the corner and motioned for her to follow him as he ran down the aisle between campers towards the gunfire. John saw Tom and Paul up ahead shooting towards the office, which was in the front of the warehouse.
“Tom, what the hell is going on?”
“I think the bad guys got tired of being killed and are trying to wipe us out. There are at least ten in the warehouse and another ten outside the office.”
By that time, most of the people in the warehouse were up, armed and shooting back at the intruders or anything that moved. John was afraid that they would kill each other if he didn’t take charge.
“Paul, go around the back of the warehouse and gather the people on the far side and flank the thugs on the north side of the office. Tom, take the ones behind us and attack from the south side of the office. I will get the ones to our left and attack from the east. Remember to pick off as many as possible without leaving cover.”
“Jim, where is the north side?”
“Shit, it’s that way!”
“Damn, I was just kidding.”
“Do I look like I’m in the kidding mood?”
“Nope.”
“Get your asses in gear. It’s 4:07. We attack at 4:30.”
John and Kristen travelled to the back of the warehouse and told everyone to meet up on the back aisle in the middle of the warehouse. He quickly gave them the plan and sent three snipers to climb to the top of the racks in the middle of the building. He told them to start killing as many as possible when the attack began. He slowly moved the others in position.
There was a commotion, shots rang out on John’s right and he turned to confront the enemy just as more shots came from behind him.
“Jim, duck.”
He felt a sting in his left arm as he drew a bead on a thug that was running towards him. He fired three rounds into the thug’s chest and the man dropped to the ground. He waved for his team to advance, but they were pinned down by volley after volley of riflefire.
Then from the middle of the attacking force he heard, “Kill those damn snipers. They are picking us off one by….”
John saw that while his team was pinned down behind a camper that the enemy was also pinned down in the same manner. He fell to the ground and looked under the camper and found he could see under the camper that the thugs were hiding behind.
He gathered his team and said, “Lie on the ground and you can see feet and legs under the green camper. Pick a foot and put some nasty holes in them before they have the same idea."
The quickly lay down and chose their targets.
“Fire!”
The attacking thugs began screaming while they fell to the ground only to receive more bullets.
John said, “Come on, let’s roll!” as he charged across the gap to the office.
The thugs panicked and fired wildly as they fell dead. The snipers had them pinned down and the attack from three directions from all at once wiped them out.
“Be careful, there are still a dozen or so outside the building. Paul take ten men out the south door and Tom take ten out the north door. I’ll do the same here at the front door and we’ll catch them in a crossfire. I’ll give you three minutes and we’ll storm out the door.”
It was a long three minutes and then John and his team flooded out the door to find only the other two groups searching for targets. The thugs had fled and there was nothing, but silence.
“Search the building for any survivors and tend to our wounded.”
Tom’s wife walked up to John and said, “Come with me Jim.”
“Sorry, but I need to help search for enemy survivors.”
“No, you need to get that arm looked at.”
John looked down at his left shoulder and saw a bloody hole in his sleeve just above the elbow. He realized that his arm was stinging and blood was dripping off his hand.
John looked over at Kristen and said, “Beth, you know that’s just a scratch.”
Tom’s wife led John off to the makeshift hospital in the office while the others stood and looked at Kristen.
Tom said, “Kristen, we probably need to tell John who he really is before he regains his memory. You have done much more than the rest of us to make him want to help us, but this can’t go on forever.
Kristen broke down and cried on Tom’s shoulder.
“Tom, I love him and can’t bear to lose him.”
“Kristen, he may end up hating you if he remembers by himself.”
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Chapter 15
Hearts and Minds
Highway 35 in Oklahoma
2022
Joan’s squad had the rear guard for the convoy as they left the Dallas area. Alice Meyer was manning the twin SAWs and watching behind them. Corp. Jack Miller rode in the back with Amit while Ziva had shotgun. Their Humvee was third from the rear and was responsible for covering the right side of the road behind them. An Apache flew over their route at one hour intervals so there wasn’t much chance of any large group running up on them from behind, but an ambush could happen at any time.
Joan had seen several men behind a house a mile back and questioned Ziva about them.
“Ziva, I asked you to watch the right side of the road. Have you seen anything dangerous?”
“No, just a couple of guys working on an old Chevy truck behind a house. They had a couple of shotguns. I didn’t consider them to be a threat.”
“Good, that what I saw, but next time, call them out so we can decide if we want to check them out.”
“Yes ma'am.”
“What type of shotgun?”
“Pump, 12 gauge.”
The drive up to Oklahoma City was uneventful. There were a couple of potshots with small caliber arms and Joan wondered if they were people who thought they were USA coming to put the locals in a work camp. She looked at the ISA emblem on the doors and thought they needed to be larger.
The CP facility was on the southeast side of Del City and just a mile or so from Tinker Air Force Base. They drove straight to the base and sent scouts out to look for threats and to contact any local authorities. Lt. Cates led the scouting mission and sent three squads out to look for hostiles and friendlies while Lt. Pope led the team to search and secure the base. He sent Sonny’s squad to the explosive bunkers and Joan’s to the aircraft hangers.
***
“Scott, we have more detail in on the attacks on the Chosen Peoples' compounds and manufacturing facilities. First, they were far more organized than we were led to believe and have more facilities than previously thought. There is one in Des Moines and another in Helena that appear to have large underground storage
facilities along with major training complexes. They are in the middle of nowhere so they can train with high explosives and light armor. The CP could have taken John to one of those facilities. If so, you will need a lot more firepower than what you have now.”
“George….err.. Mr. Vice President, how soon can you send re-enforcements?”
“I’ll have General Mills fill you in on the detail, but as promised we are sending five Apaches and a detachment of UAVs as soon as you secure Tinker.”
“Send them now; the base appears to be deserted. I have teams out now securing the base and we will check out the CP facility tomorrow. We need more troops to secure an area this large.”
“Scott, this is Mills. I have some issues on the Mexican border over by San Diego so I can only send three more platoons for now, but the Navy can send a squad of Seals and more Apaches and perhaps some Harriers for close air support.”
“General, how about another detachment of armed UAVs along with the surveillance drones?”
“Good idea. I’ll get my XO to work out the logistics and get back to you ASAP.”
“How’s Sonny doing?”
“He is developing into a great leader and hasn’t been too banged up so far.”
“Thanks and you keep yourself and Joan safe also.”
“Will do Mr. Vice President.”
***
Joan’s team fanned out around the largest of the hangers and prepared to enter when one of the 82nd patrolling the fence line sent a message.
“Zebra Three, this is Baker One, be aware that the fence has been cut in several places and there appears to be paths from the holes in the fence heading to the hangers.”
“Baker One, thanks for the heads up.”
“Squad pair off in twos for the search. Ziva, you are with me and Mita with Tony. Let’s go.”
They walked over to the office for the hanger and Ziva opened the door to the office carefully and stopped with only a two inch crack before she said, “Wire, I think it’s booby trapped.”
“Zebra Three, we have a booby trap. Proceed cautiously.”
Ziva pulled a ball of para cord from her pack and tied it to the door handle while waving Joan to move back along the side of the building. They both hunkered down against the building and Ziva pulled the door open. There was an explosion that blew the door fifty feet away and left a smoking hole over ten feet wide where the door had previously been.
“You just saved our lives. How did you spot the wire?”
“Just lucky, I guess.”
“I hope you stay lucky.”
The others found their doors rigged with explosives and Joan radioed for help in deactivating them. She was worried that the entire building might go up with a bang. In a few hours, the bomb guys cleared all of the booby traps and gave the okay to proceed into the building. There were no more explosives, but they found that a large group of people had been living in the hanger. They found bedding, food and large piles of garbage which indicated they had been living there for a long while. The hanger contained several aircraft and numerous engines spread throughout the building. All of the planes appeared to be in good condition, but most had their engines removed for maintenance.
“Joan, come over here!”
Joan walked over to Tony and he pointed at an A10 Warthog that had one of its engines hanging from a crane and halfway into its housing.
“I think someone was attempting to install the engine. The dust has been cleaned off the plane and the engine has no dust on it. The tools are spotless and looked like they were dropped in haste when we arrived.”
“Thanks Tony; I agree. I’ll report this in ASAP.”
Scott accompanied his maintenance sargent over to the hanger and he agreed that the work had been in progress in the past few days.
“Joan, someone was trying to get this bird in the air and it could have wreaked havoc on us if they had succeeded. Look, it is fully armed and ready to go once the engine was installed. No Air Force mechanic would change engines on a fully armed Warthog. My guess is that they were just about ready to install the engine when their scouts saw us approaching. They were rushing to get this plane up in the air to attack us.”
“My guess is it was the Chosen people. I’ll report it back to the General. Mack, can you get this A10 ready to fly?”
“Sorry sir. My crew and I are truck mechanics.”
“Sargent, keep a guard on this warehouse at all times.”
They continued their search and found several fixed wing passenger jets ready to fly, but no bombers or fighters able to fly. Scott radioed the general and asked for aircraft mechanics.
“We already have several on the way. Our Air Force contact told us what to expect and we need several of the planes in service right now. Thanks.”
“Sir, can you speed up the arrival of the Apaches? We may be facing a more dangerous opponent than we had thought.”
“We’ll do our best.”
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Chapter 16
All Good Things…….
Billings, Montana
2022
The weather was warming up and soon winter would turn into spring. The ponds and streams weren’t freezing every night and the sun was getting warmer every day. Kristen noticed that she couldn’t see her breath as she fed the goats and cows this morning. She knew with the warmer weather on the horizon that John would want to start searching for the bad guys and find good honest people to join their community. She also knew that he was starting to regain his memory one tiny bit at a time. He had called her Beth several times and once in the middle of their morning love making which really pissed her off, but she didn’t react. She saw John walking over to her and wondered if he was holding back on regaining his memory.
“Jim, do you still love me?”
“Of course I do. What makes you question my love for you?”
“You have called me Beth several times. Is she your dead or ex-wife? When you joined us you never told us anything about yourself or your previous life.”
“Darling, I just don’t know. I keep getting brief flashbacks of my memory and names and places run through my head at times. I do know that I love you and nothing can change that.”
“I pray every day that you still love me and that we can have a family and live out our lives in peace.”
“I don’t know about the peace part, but nothing can take you away from me.”
“You could already have a family and children. What if your memory comes back and you want to go to them?”
“I came here for a reason. My family must be dead or I lost them when the shit hit the fan. How did I get here anyway?"
“I found you unconscious and brought you to our camp. You seemed to be okay when you woke up.”
“How long ago was this?”
“A couple of months ago.”
“What! I thought that you told me that I’d been here for almost a year.”
“Jim, I lied about that because I had already fallen for you and I talked the others into backing my story. They wanted you to stay because you looked like a soldier and could help train us to protect ourselves. I wanted you for myself. Please don’t be mad at me.”
“I’m not mad at you; I’m just confused at the moment. Let this sink in for awhile and we will discuss it again. So you fell in love at first sight with an old fart like me.”
“Yes.”
They kissed and John went out to meet Tom and Paul to set up a hunting trip.
***
“Tom, I told him just about everything and he appears to be okay with it. I didn’t tell him that I kidnapped him and he hit his head on the way here and lost his memory.”
“Kristen, I still don’t feel good about keeping information from him. He could go back to Cody and see if anyone knows him. Hell, he may have a wife and kids back in Cody.”
“I know what I should do, but it doesn’t make it any easier. I’ll tell him when you get back fro
m your trip north to Lockwood.”
“I know this is tearing your insides out, but it will be for the best. It’s better he find out and leaves than finding out in a year or more and leaving you for another wife and family. I think he will stay with what he knows and loves.”
***
They headed out before daylight for Lockwood. It was only ten miles, but John wanted to get there in plenty of time to explore the city and look for friends and foe before heading back the next day. They headed up Highway 90 stopping numerous times to shove stalled cars out of the way. No one had tried to make a path and they only saw a few people on the way.
“Tom, I guess that you have been to Lockwood several times.”
“Hundreds. Billings and Lockwood are almost one city. I worked in Lockwood for several years managing a mom and pop hardware store right after college. It was a nice town, but Billings is home.”
“Where should we look for food, weapons and ammo?”
“Don’t we have enough weapons and ammo?”
“As far as we know there are no weapons or ammo manufacturers in operation, so what’s out there is all there is. We need to be safe and our kids and grandkids need to be safe. Bullets will fire for 50 years if you keep them dry. We need to get every weapon and bullet that we can find. We can grow food; try planting a bullet.”
Tom laughed and replied, “Okay, okay, I get it. Even though the gun shops will have been looted, we need to search them. Most thugs can’t open safes and vaults like you can.”
“That’s why I have the acetylene torch, hydraulic jacks and burglary tools in the bed of the truck.”
Apocalypse in the Homeland: The Adventures of John Harris Page 11