I was speechless and I am sure I had quite a surprised look on my face. “Oh hell no, you’re not going! Have you lost your ever loving mind?” I exclaimed as General Davies approached with a tightly packed full ALICE pack on his back.
ALICE packs. The All-Purpose Lightweight Individual Carrying Equipment—or ALICE—system, was adopted as United States Army Standard A on 17 January 1973 to replace the M-1956 Load-Carrying Equipment [LCE] and M-1967 Modernized Load-Carrying Equipment [MLCE]. Although the ALICE system was superseded by MOLLE in the 1990’s, ALICE gear was still in some limited use in the US Army in National Guard and training units up until the implosion of the country.15
An ALICE pack was an excellent way to carry whatever you may need into battle. While the more modern version was a MOLLE (Modular Lightweight Load-carrying Equipment), ALICE was used by many in the modern day battle landscape that was our new world.
“Deplorable English I say, absolutely deplorable,” General Davies said as he shook his head. “What is the matter now good man?” he continued as he stopped beside us.
“My daughter has just informed me that she intends to go with us on our march to Vermont!” I stated loudly.
“That is absolutely wonderful news!” General Davies responded. “Good god man, the manner in which she cycles that old shotgun was absolutely breathtaking.”
Looking over at him with my mouth hung open, “You stay the hell out of this. This is a family matter,” I said as I turned back to Lily.
“Ugh.” General Davies said as he walked off muttering, “His manners are as deplorable as his English.”
Adam walked up and put his left arm around Lily’s waist and pulled her close to him. “You know of this Adam?” I said. What the hell? I thought you loved her?” I continued.
“Dad! That is not fair!” Lily yelled as she crossed her arms across her stomach in a defiant manner and turned her head to look off to the side.
“General, we stayed up all night,” Adam started as I interrupted.
“I don’t need to hear anything about staying up all night Adam. Let’s stay on point here,” I said as a crowd of soldiers started gathering around us.
“Paul, can you lower your voice and take this inside the tent?” General Thomas asked as he walked up behind me.
“No Sir General Thomas,” Lily replied. “We can do this right here, right now. Dad, you don’t own me, and neither does Adam. I am an adult woman. I know how to handle a gun and I know how to fight. Those bastards held me prisoner for three years and taunted me, kept me underfed, and tortured me. If there’s going to be a fight, then by god, I am going to be there for it. My only hope is that I can recognize a few of them before I splatter their brains across the battlefield. I, AM, GOING!”
Hannah had been listening from nearby and walked up behind me. “Paul!’ she said with her aggravated tone that I knew so well.
I turned and looked at her as she grabbed my arm and pulled me to the side. “You’ve got to let her go Paul! If you don’t she’s just going to leave here in a few days and be out there all alone trying to find you. I would rather she be a part of your group than out there alone searching. Wouldn’t you? Let, her, go!” she said with command and determination.
Realizing I was outnumbered and could not win I looked back to Lily. “Fine damn it. You can go, but you do as we tell you. As far as I am concerned, you are a soldier and will do as you are ordered!!” and I stomped off as angry as a hornet.
“I do so love to see a plan come together don’t you General Thomas?” General Davies asked as they both looked on.
I turned around and saw Adam and Lily smiling and hugging. “Damn girl is going to get herself killed is what she is going to do,” I mumbled as I grabbed by Drago bag and slung it over my right shoulder.
I walked past the crowd and hollered out, “Form up!”
As the men started falling into a formation, General Davies, General Thomas, Adam and I stepped to the front of the line. “Is everyone aware of our plan as of right now?” I asked.
“They are,” Grant Thomas advised.
“Excellent. Five minutes to say goodbye!” I hollered out.
The soldiers began hugging wives, girlfriends and children. I saw Grant hugging Sally Anne. I saw Adam and Lily looking into each other’s eyes, smiling like two star- crossed lovers. I saw General Davies looking at an old, faded picture in his right hand, while wiping away tears with his left.
I walked up to Abby and held her tight. “I love you Sweet Pea and I promise you that I will be back!”
“I know you will Dad. I love you too. Be careful and take care of Lily,” she said.
I grabbed Hannah and pulled her close to me and looked intently into her eyes. “If this is the last time I ever look into those beautiful baby blues, you have got to know baby, they still make my heart stop beating,” I said and kissed her as passionately as I ever had. Standing there, outside a tent, in the middle of a once battlefield, and now campsite, I kissed my wife for what I assumed was the last time. As our lips parted, I wiped tears from her eyes before they rolled down her cheek.
“Come back to me my darling,” she said as she held my hands with hers while we faced each other.
“I always do baby. It’s my tragic flaw, I’m a survivor,” I said pulling away and then our hands separated.
I turned and walked away as I heard the sobs of Hannah and Abby behind me. Don’t look back, don’t look back I kept telling myself walking forward.
Approaching General Davies, I watched as he put the faded picture back into his front shirt pocket. I looked at him and said, “I’m sure your Audra was a remarkable woman General. I wish I could have known her.”
“She was heaven on earth General. She was absolutely heaven on earth,” he said.
Raising my right arm high above my head and letting it fall forward I yelled loudly, “Forward, March!” And, the clattering of twenty six hundred feet moving, exploded behind me.
Chapter 13
The New Hampshire 27th
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“Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light.”
—Helen Keller
Adam, report,” I whispered to Adam, who was lying on the ridge next to me.
“Our scouts think they are a group of resisters who put on socialist clothes to keep warm. But, they do not know for sure,” he replied.
I could see General Davies with his men about a hundred yards in front of me. General Thomas was to my right about seventy-five yards out. “We definitely have them surrounded. How many do you think there are? Three hundred?” I asked.
“That would be my guess Sir,” Adam replied.
Eight days into our move to Schenectady and this is what we happen upon. A group of approximately three hundred men, women, and children, some of whom were dressed in socialist soldiers clothing. How to approach them is now the question. What to do?
“Cover me Adam. If any shooting starts, you lead the charge and the General’s will follow suit. Understood?” I asked.
“Understood Sir,” he replied.
With that, I stood, placed my hands over my head and interlocked my fingers behind my neck, and began walking down the hill toward the group. “I sure hope they are friendly,” I mumbled while walking. I could see General Thomas shaking his head no as I walked. I continued on toward the group. A little girl was the first to see me.
“Mommy, who is that?” she asked, pointing toward me.
“Stop right there!” the female ordered aiming an old Ruger revolver at me.
I stopped walking and began to speak, “My name is General Paul Hornady, and I would just like to talk to whoever is in charge here please.”
She laughed and replied, “Good try. You ain’t no damn General Hornady. You’re a socialist ain’t ya?”
“Ma’am, I can assure you that I am General Hornady and I am not a socialist soldier,” I replied. As I sized her up, I saw that her hands were
shaking slightly, but her finger was firm on the trigger of what appeared to be a .44 magnum stainless-steel Redhawk. I was a dead man if she pulled that trigger.
“Daniel!” she yelled slightly turning her head to look behind her. “I need you over here. We got us a prisoner.”
The little girl started to walk toward me holding a rock in her hand. Great! She’s going to throw a rock at me. “Hey Mister, what kind of rock is this? Do you know?” she asked.
She began to approach me and the lady with the gun started yelling at her, “Melissa get back here. Get back here right now!” She continued to walk toward me. “What have I told you about strangers? Stay away from him, do you hear me?”
“Melissa, you really need to go back to your Mommy. Please go back to your Mommy,” I said.
I could see a man with a long flowing gray and black beard, waving in the wind as he ran, long, black hair flowing behind him, and a round belly hanging out over his old faded blue jeans. He had on no shirt and was running from behind the lady with the gun. He was carrying what appeared to be an old Marlin 336 lever action rifle. Running, he raised it and pointed it at me. “Don’t you come no further now, you here?” he yelled.
As he ran up beside the lady with the gun, Melissa had returned to her side. The lady said to him, “Says he’s General Hornady. Can you believe that?”
He lowered his rifle just a bit and had a confused look on his face. He spit a wad of tobacco juice out of his mouth and continued to look at me curiously. “What unit are you a part of?” he asked. “And don’t lie ‘neither, ‘cause I know.”
“I used to be a part of the North Carolina 33rd. Until we were massacred in Tennessee three years ago, as of late, I have been attached to the South Carolina Militia,” I said.
“Who is the Gen’ral of the South Carolina militia?” he asked.
“General Grant Thomas,” I replied.
He continued to look at me but lowered the rifle a little more. “What’s your wife’s name?”
“My wife is Hannah, and I have two daughters. I used to be a cop. Can we please hurry this along? My arms are getting tired,” I clearly stated.
Looking like he was satisfied, he lowered the rifle all the way and held it only in his right hand with the barrel pointed at the ground. The lady with the revolver kept me covered as she asked, “You ain’t buying all this bullshit are ya’ Daniel?”
“He answered all the questions right Martha. I think it is General Hornady. He kinda looks like him,” he said.
“May I please lower my arms?” I asked.
Daniel nodded and Martha lowered the revolver and took her finger off the trigger. “What unit are you attached to?” I asked, “If you don’t mind my asking?”
“The New Hampshire 27th” he replied.
I fell to my knees and said, “Oh thank God we found you.” I looked up at him and continued, “We’ve been looking for you, and we were thinking you were still a week away from us. We heard you were in Schenectady.”
“General, you’re in Schenectady Sir,” he replied. “Well, on the outskirts of Schenectady anyways. We just left there yesterday to start back to Virginia, to try to meet up with the Virginia militia. We fought with them about six months back. They were some good folks,” he said.
With a grave look on my face I replied, “Daniel, the Virginia militia was overrun. They are all gone now.”
Dropping his head and looking confused he replied, “Overrun Gen’ral?”
“Yes Daniel, overrun. On another note Daniel, I heard there were eight hundred soldiers in your unit, but I do not see near that many here. What happened?” I asked.
“We’re down to six hundred now. We got ambushed in Schenectady. We were lucky to get out of there with what we did. You’d better be careful out here by yourself Gen’ral, those there Russians that ambushed us, are probably still looking for us so they can finish us off,” he replied.
“Well Daniel, this is your lucky day. If you will allow me to call them in, I have thirteen hundred soldiers surrounding you on three sides of your camp. We’d like to rest here for tonight and invite you to go with us to Vermont. There’s a rather large battle waiting for us there that could turn the tide of the war.”
“Thirteen hundred you say?” he asked and began looking around him in confusion. “I don’t see nobody.”
“Yes Daniel. Thirteen hundred! Where are the rest of your men?” I inquired.
“They are out trying to find some food and water. They’ll be back by nightfall,” he replied.
With that I put my fingers to my lips and let out a whistle, raised my right arm high above my head, and started waiving it in a circular clockwise motion. I could see General Davies and his men, General Thomas and his men, and Adam and our men start walking toward the camp.
Martha looked at Daniel incredulously and slapped him on the side of his head. “Fine damn guard you are. They had thirteen hundred men surrounding us and you ain’t heard shit. Moron!” she yelled while turning, and began walking back into the camp dragging Melissa behind her.
Daniel said nothing. He just reached up and rubbed on his head where she had just slapped him.
“Who is in charge here Daniel?” I asked.
“Nobody is really in charge General. We had two Generals and three Captains that got killed in Schenectady. I made the decision to retreat and get us back here. Then I sent the guys out looking for food and water early this morning. I just hope they’re careful ‘cause those Russians chased us for a bit. They’re still out there looking for us. It’s gonna be a bad day when they find us,” he replied.
“How many soldiers do you think they had Daniel?” I asked.
“I’d say upwards of a thousand or so,” he replied.
“What’s your rank Daniel?”
“I’m a Sergeant, General Hornady” he replied.
“Not anymore Daniel, you’re a Captain now. Let me introduce the command staff.” General Davies, General Thomas, and Adam had walked up beside us as we chatted. I continued, “This is General Davies of the Alabama militia, General Thomas of the South Carolina militia, and this is Major Adam Jones, formerly of the Virginia militia. Guys, this is Daniel, he’s a Captain in the New Hampshire 27th.”
As they all shook hands, and began talking among themselves, Lily walked up to Adam and put her arm around him. He leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. She threw the Remington 870 over her shoulder, “See you inside,” she said, smiling at him and beginning to walk toward camp.
“Sir?” Daniel asked looking at me.
“Yes Captain,” I replied.
“Can you just make me a Captain like that?” he asked.
“He’s a bloody General in wartime young man, he can do anything he bloody well pleases,” General Davies remarked.
Leaving the chitchat I turned to Adam. “Well Adam, we are a week ahead of schedule. We are with the New Hampshire militia. Now we have some extra time to look for Iowa,” I said.
“Did you say Iowa?” Daniel asked.
“I did indeed,” I replied turning back to him.
“Do you know where they are son?” General Thomas asked as he sucked on his pipe.
“We saw them on the south side of Schenectady late last week. They were heading to Portsmouth. Something about heading out on a boat or something like that. They said they were done fighting up here” he informed us.
“Did they say when they were leaving?” I asked.
“No Sir, but they were moving kind of slow and didn’t appear to be in no hurry,” he said.
“So they have a five-day lead on us. If they are moving slow maybe we can make it before they leave,” I said.
“But I don’t think they wanna fight no more Gen’ral,” Daniel said.
“Captain, with your men, we now number nineteen hundred soldiers. I think maybe, based on that fact, I can sway them to take part in one more battle” I stated.
“He can be quite the convincing chap young man, quite convincing indeed,” G
eneral Davies replied.
My soldiers began assembling some tents, creating a rather large campsite. About an hour into our stay, Daniel’s four hundred men returned from looking for food and water. Daniel met them as they entered and prepared them for what they were going to see.
That night there were numerous campfires, food everywhere, three wild boars and a couple of turkeys roasting over open flames. Life appeared to be good. The “Command Staff” held a meeting.
We sat around a campfire and discussed the impending journey.
The Conspiracy of American Democracy - A Father's Revenge Page 10