“So let’s stop at the Alamo Gun Shop, Sports Locker and Black Ops.”
The first two stops were disappointing, but they did find camping gear and gun cleaning supplies. Looters had picked the stores clean.
Black Ops was just off Johnson Lane right off Highway 90. They came off the ramp and immediately were under heavy fire originating from a house on the left. The front window on John’s truck shattered throwing glass shards in their face. They both received several minor cuts while John steered the truck behind a house about 50 yards from the attackers.
“Tom, follow me. Paul, take the others and keep the bastards pinned down until we can come up from behind them.”
“Keep your head down old buddy.”
“Will do.”
“You both look like extras in a horror movie with all of that blood dripping down your faces.”
John and Tom ran to the back of the house and used the hedge row between houses to hide their movement. Paul and the other five were placing round after round into the window effectively pinning the thugs down. They hit two of the attackers, but the return fire continued. The shots were rushed and Paul could see they were just raising their guns and shooting without aiming. Most of their bullets were high over Paul’s head.
“Jim, that’s the back of the house and look there is a guy watching the alley from that window.”
“I see him and have a bead on his sorry ass. When I shoot, I want you to break in the back door and open fire. I’ll be right behind you.”
John shot the man in the middle of the forehead. Brains, bits of bone and blood exploded across the room. Tom hit the door a few seconds later and started shooting thugs as they ran to the back of the house to help their now dead friend.
John took his walkie talkie off his belt and said, “Paul, we are in the house and the bastards will either be dead or running out the front door. Be ready.”
“Okay.”
John went in low and Paul covered him high as they charged into the front room firing their MP15s. John shot the first guy he saw twice and kept firing at one behind a couch while Tom shot a woman who fired on him with a shotgun. There were only two left and they were both dead from the withering fire. John told Paul to bring the guys over to the house and sweep the area for survivors.
John and Tom started searching the house and John found the basement was piled high with guns, ammo and archery items. There were also thousands of cans of food stacked on makeshift shelves.
“Tom, come on down here; we’ve hit the mother lode. Weapons, ammo and food.”
“Well that makes it a total success because you won’t believe what I found upstairs.”
John rushed up the steps and saw a group of women and young men chained to beds in each of the rooms. John looked at the nearly starved people and knew that each one had a horrible story about sexual and physical abuse.
“I’m John and the bad guys are dead and can’t hurt you anymore. We are going to get you some decent clothes and feed you. Is there anything else that we can do to help you?"
A dirty redhead stood up and said, “Why should we trust you? We were all prisoners of the DHS and were raped and beaten. We escaped and this group raped, tortured and made us work in their gardens. What makes you different?”
“Because we’re with the Independent States of America and are here to kill all of the thugs and bring law and order to this area. I’m John Harris and I promise that you will be safe from abuse and torture. We want good people to join us and help clean up this country.”
John suddenly realized what he’d just said, but couldn’t speak because his head was exploding from the memories coming back to him. He walked back to the kitchen, sat down at the table, laid his head on the table and covered it with his hands.
One of the women said, “Is that really John Harris, the president of the ISA? We kept hoping that he and the ISA would come and rescue us from the relocation camps. We heard that they had freed thousands of prisoners in the south and prayed that they would come to Wyoming.”
Paul caught Tom off to the side and asked, “Do you think that Jim is really the president of this new country?”
“We’ve been so isolated anything could have happened without us knowing about it.”
Tom went into the kitchen and said, “John, is there anything that we can do to help you get your memory back?”
“Tom, what do you know about me before I joined this group?”
“John, we found you and you lost your memory during an ATV crash. We saw you were ex-military and used you to help us prepare for survival. We never meant to harm you and Kristen loves you with all of her heart.”
“Damn, I love her too, but I have a wife and several kids back in Mobile. This is a fucked up situation. By the way have I always cussed this much?”
“Yep, pretty much.”
“Damn, I have to work on that. I remember everything from the wreck and the last thing I remember was traveling over to Cody to see if there were friendly people in the town. My wife, Beth, and several of my team were with me up here. An evil group kidnapped us and our plane crashed east of Cody. I have to get back to Mobile.”
“John, let’s check out the gun store and then start hauling all of our newly found gear and food back to our compound. We still have to survive and fight the bad guys even after you go home.”
“Thanks for reminding me that there are many people out there fighting to survive. I promise that as soon as I get back to Mobile the ISA will secure this area and get the power back on in the larger cities.”
***
“Are you sure these are the ones who killed my brother?”
“Yes, but why does it matter? We were going to attack them sooner or later to get their guns and women.”
“Because I want to make them pay for what they did and make sure that everyone in this territory knows not to fuck with the Tim Woods gang. I want to kill them all and place their heads on poles all around Billings to scare the shit out of anyone else who thinks they can kill my people.”
“Okay boss.”
“Get you asses in gear and get the trucks and rest of the men. I want four trucks loaded with explosives ready by this afternoon. We are going to give them a big bang tomorrow.”
“Tim, do we have to kill all of the women? Mine is ugly and they have some young pretty ones.”
“Jed, each man can pick one for himself. Kill all of the kids and men.”
***
John was glad he was away from their home so he could get his thoughts together before talking with Kristen. His mind bounced from wanting her to feeling like a lousy cheat for having sex with her while being married to Beth. He lay awake all night thinking about both of the women that he loved with all of his heart. He never felt that he had to choose between them. Beth was his mate for life and while he cared deeply for Kristen, he knew that Beth was his soul mate. He was ashamed he had been with Kristen and worried about Beth’s reaction. He tried to rationalize that he didn’t do anything wrong because he had lost his memory, but still felt sick to his stomach that he had violated Beth’s trust.
“John, are you awake?
“Unfortunately I’ve been tossing and turning all night thinking about how to tell Kristen.”
“She felt that this could happen. We all did. We knew that there was a chance that you had a wife and family, but Kristen hoped that you would stay with her.”
John laughed and said, “She certainly knew how to make me feel wanted.”
“Rise and shine. We need to check out that gun store.”
They loaded up their booty from the gangs house and headed over to the Black Ops gun store. They arrived at the address to find the front of the store had been burned down. The back of the store had collapsed around a cinder block structure.
“Men, let’s clear out the burned wood and crap from around that vault. I believe there just might be a bunch of guns and ammo stored in a fireproof room under that wood and roofing.”
/> It took an hour to find the door to the vault and clear the debris from around it so John could try to open the door. John cut the hinges off the massive door and tried prying the door loose to no avail. Then he started cutting the steel around the locking mechanism. Two hours later, he had a large hole in the six inch door and was able to pry the locking pins out of their holes. The door finally fell to the ground and they walked into the room to find rack after rack of rifles, handguns and ammo.
“There are over 50 ARs, numerous large caliber hunting rifles, shotguns and pistols.”
“John, this was the best gun shop in the area. People drove down here just to see the guns and shop for accessories even if they didn’t need the latest and greatest AR.”
“Load it up and let’s get back home.”
They were halfway done when there was a loud explosion southwest of their location followed by three more massive explosions.
Tom looked up and yelled, “That’s over by our new home.”
John scanned the skyline and saw a large black cloud rising into the air from the direction of their compound and said, “Drop what you’re doing and let’s go back home.”
Just then, Tom’s walkie talkie squawked and a voice said, “Help, everything just blew up.”
***
“Tim, the guards are dead.”
“Good bring up the trucks and aim them into the garage doors and set the timers for three minutes. Put them in drive and shove the gas pedal down with the steel rod just as we practiced. Now jump in the ditch.”
They watched as the trucks sped the last 50 feet to their targets.
“The dynamite covered by a ton of nuts and bolts will kill them all.”
Two of the trucks turned slightly and hit the outside wall, but the other two crashed through the street level garage doors and disappeared inside the warehouse. Just a few seconds later the trucks exploded in massive fireballs firing shrapnel in all directions. The two that stayed outside blew an enormous hole in the warehouse wall that completely obliterated the office area. The two that penetrated the warehouse blew the roof into the air and deposited the remains all over the land around the area.
Tim Woods had ducked during the explosion, but climbed out of the ditch and was laughing at how the explosions were much larger than he expected.
“Damn, you might have to settle for an arm or a leg of a woman. I don’t think anyone lived through that blast.”
They started walking towards the damaged building when gunfire erupted from several of the doors and the large hole in the building. They were caught by surprise, 12 men were killed and 4 wounded in seconds.
“Get back in the ditch. They’re killing us.”
“Hank, take what’s left of your men and attack from the back of the building. We’ll keep them busy out here.”
Tim still had over thirty men who could fight and he thought that there could be only a few lucky survivors in the building. He was right, but the six remaining ones were pissed and well armed.
***
They were on the road in minutes and everyone was armed to the teeth with extra M4s, 1911 Colts and 12 gauge riot guns. They were driving much faster than the trip up to Lockwood since they had cleared many of the cars that had blocked Highway 90. They arrived at the warehouse complex in just half an hour, but John made them stop behind the closest building so they could recon the area instead of blindly charging into the ongoing battle. They heard the gunfire and saw the enemy firing at the warehouse from a ditch about halfway between their location and warehouse home.
“Men, they will cut us to pieces if we try to charge their position without any cover. Let’s attach those two dumpsters to the front of two of the trucks and use them for cover as we advance. Our people are dying, so hurry.”
They quickly found it was much easier to tie the dumpsters to the back of the pickups after a short trial and error exercise. Then they started backing the trucks around the corner of the building and steered towards the thugs. The thugs saw the dumpsters moving towards them and started firing on them. John and Tom were lying on top of the dumpster on the right and Paul and Walt were in the one on the left. The rest of the men were shooting from the sides of the containers as they walked beside them.
The thugs had dropped below the edge of the ditch and could not be seen.
John yelled, “They are trying to escape.”
He and Tom stood up and could see the thugs crawling on their bellies trying to make it to a drainage pipe that ran under the parking lot. They were only a few feet from the pipe when John and Tom started firing.
“Kill the bastards before they get away.”
They stopped all but two of the thugs, however those two crawled into the pipe and escaped.
John stuck his MP15 into the large opening and fired off two full magazines before giving up.
“I might not have killed them, but their ears will be ringing for a month. Paul, take your men and go to the back of the warehouse and we’ll go in from the front.”
They pushed the dumpsters around the ditch and advanced on the warehouse as fast as the drivers could keep the dumpsters on line. There were no more shots fired and they quickly arrived at the large opening created by the blast.
There were only five men and one woman guarding the front of the building. John had seen all of them before, but didn’t know them.
Tom walked up to them and said, “Harry, how many are still alive and how many wounded?”
Harry had a dazed look on his face and shrugged his shoulders. He had a wound on his left side and three of the others were wounded.
John asked, “Has anyone seen Kristen?”
Tom joined in, “Has any one seen my wife, Brenda?”
This was met by shrugs and blank stares.
John tore off into the warehouse with Tom and Paul following him.
They found several wounded people and carried them out to a trailer in the parking lot that was being set up as a jury rigged hospital. They went in several times and found most of their friends dead. Many were in the aisles running to the front to confront the attackers when the bombs exploded. The bodies were shredded from the impact of hundreds of nuts and bolts from the bombs.
Tom finally heard a weak voice coming from under a trailer on the far front side.
“John, Paul, there’s someone under this trailer. I think it’s Brenda.”
They removed some debris and pulled her out from under the trailer. She had several wounds and a broken arm.
She tried to talk a couple of times and finally said, “Kristen is under……”
John crawled under the trailer, moved several large pieces of sheet metal and found Kristen. He called for Paul and they gently slid her along the floor until they got her clear of the trailer. She also had several shrapnel wounds and a gash on the side of her head. She was breathing, but had a weak pulse.
“Kristen, you are going to be okay. We’ll get you medical help and you’ll be back on your feet in no time.”
“Jim, I love you. Please don’t let me die.”
She closed her eyes and lay limp in John’s arms. He knew that they didn’t have a doctor and had to get her to one quickly. Cody had a doctor.
“Tom, we have to get her to a doctor or she will die. Brenda also needs better medical attention than we have to offer. Let’s go to Cody now. There is a doctor there and we can join my team and be safe for a change.”
There were only thirteen adults and six kids left from the community and they all wanted to travel to Cody as John recommended.
“Tom and I are going to leave now to get the women to a doctor. We have three trucks loaded with food, weapons and ammo from our scavenging trip so load up what you can find on the other trucks and follow us to Cody as fast as you can.”
John walked out to the parking lot and selected an old ’49 F1 panel van to haul Brenda and Kristen to Cody. He fired the customized truck up and drove over to them. Paul fetched a large mattress from one of the traile
rs and placed it in the back of the van. They carefully loaded the women into the van and prepared to leave.
“John, we gassed up the trucks and are ready to go all together. The trucks are loaded down and they won’t hold much more. Let’s go. It’s about a hundred miles to Cody and it could take four hours or four days depending on the road conditions.”
John and Tom decided they should be in the middle of the convoy since they had the wounded and less ability to assist in case they were attacked. Paul and two more armed men were leading the convoy in an ATV and were staying a half mile in front of the rest in case there was a roadblock or ambush. They were traveling at a good pace and had already gotten off Highway 90 onto Highway 310. They were averaging 45 mph due to stalled cars and one stop to make sure the coast was clear when they approached the city of Laurel, which was traversed without issue. They were now cruising at 55 mph on the two lane road without any problems. People in the country pulled their cars off the road when the engines died. Those damn city people just coasted to a halt in the middle of the streets and highways.
John looked back at the lady attending to Kristen and Brenda and realized that he didn’t know her name. He had become the leader of this group and didn’t know her name. It bothered him. Kristen’s head was just behind Tom’s seat and John reached back and stroked her hair.
“Ma'am, how is Kristen doing?”
“Jim, she’s in bad shape. I’ve stopped the bleeding from the shrapnel wounds in her legs, but she must have a concussion from the wound on her head. She won’t wake up and her eyes are dilated. It doesn’t look good. She’s alive and that’s all we can count on for now.”
“Thanks.”
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Chapter 17
The King is Dead; Long Live the King.
Apocalypse in the Homeland: The Adventures of John Harris Page 12