by Robert Boren
Madison hobbled out the door on her crutches. “We won’t be able to sit together this time.”
“Yeah, Brendon needs to be in the second row because of the SMAW,” Juan Carlos said. “Don’t worry, I’ll sit right behind you. We’ll still be close. Hannah can sit behind Brendan.”
“That’s the only choice we have,” Brendan said as he loaded the last of the weapons with Richardson.
“Madison, get in the passenger side,” Richardson said. Juan Carlos helped her in, then climbed into the third row, sliding to the passenger side. Hannah slid in next to him. Brendan got behind the driver’s seat. Lita rushed out, tossing food leftovers and water bottles in the back. Then she got in her seat.
“Let’s get out of here,” she said. “That gunfire sounds a lot closer now.”
“Yeah,” Richardson said, getting behind the wheel. They drove away, leaving the cottage door wide open.
“Look, down there,” Juan Carlos said as they were waiting to turn right. There were two troop transport trucks on the way towards them, Islamists firing out the back at passing motorists.
“Think you can hit them with the SMAW?” Richardson asked.
“I know I can get one shot off,” Brendan said, opening the door. He grabbed the SMAW and loaded a projectile, then took aim. “Come to Papa.”
The grenade flew out of the barrel with a loud bang, exploding into the cab of the truck. It drifted into the center divider going way too fast and rolled, blocking the second truck. Citizens came out with guns blazing, firing at the men trying to escape.
“Good, the locals are getting involved,” Brendan said as he got back in. “Get us out of here before more enemy fighters show up.” He struggled to get the spent round out of the SMAW.
“Yeah,” Richardson said, flooring the SUV, tires squealing as they sped down the road.
“Stay on this road, sweetie,” Lita said. “It’s 628. It’ll hit route 77 in a few miles. Take that north, and stay on it as it transitions to 69E.”
“Got it,” Richardson said. “Juan Carlos, keep watching behind us. You got a rifle?”
“Yeah, boss,” Juan Carlos said.
“They’re not coming this way,” Hannah said.
“They would be if they could track us, I suspect,” Juan Carlos said.
“Yeah,” Brendan said. “Think Jefferson bought it?”
“I hope not,” Richardson said. “The enemy is a lot stronger than they’re telling us.”
“No shit,” Juan Carlos said. “Our new boats are probably toast.”
“Maybe they got out before the attack happened,” Brendan said.
“Maybe you don’t even have an outfit anymore,” Madison said.
“If we don’t, we’re screwed,” Richardson said. “If we lose any more of our infrastructure along the Gulf, it’s only a matter of time before it has a bad impact on the state. We’re on our own, remember.”
“What are we gonna do for money?” Lita asked. “We probably don’t have enough cash left for this.”
“We don’t,” Richardson said. “I’m going to stop at one of the towns along the way and take some out with my ATM card.”
“Won’t they see it?” Madison asked.
“Probably,” Richardson said, “but we’ll be long gone before they do, and we’re heading into a heavily populated area. Without the phones to track us, it’ll be like finding a needle in a haystack for them.”
“Thank God for that,” Lita said. “You got money saved?”
“I have a pretty decent sized account, yeah,” Richardson said. “Inheritance, mostly.”
“I’ve got access to the business account,” Lita said. “For the restaurant. There’s close to a hundred grand in that.”
“That’s your parent’s money, isn’t it?”
“Yeah,” she said. “Just a drop in the bucket, though. They’ve got several million in other accounts. They won’t mind if we use some of the money in the business account. Trust me. They’d be madder at me if we needed it and I didn’t use it.”
“Whoa!” Juan Carlos said. “Dude, huge fireball back there. Wonder what it was?”
“I hear jets,” Brendan said, scanning the sky through his window. “There! Air National Guard.”
“Yes!” Juan Carlos said. “Another couple of fireballs, and a lot of smoke rising back there.”
“This thing go any faster?” Lita asked.
“We’ll be okay, sweetie,” Richardson said.
“They can’t do that without hitting civilians, can they?” Madison asked.
“Probably not,” Richardson said. “They have to stop the advance of those troops, though, or we’ll lose the whole damn area.”
“Why aren’t we seeing more of the Army National Guard?” Hannah asked.
“I’ll bet they’re being used in the big cities,” Lita said.
“Probably,” Richardson said.
“Wow, more explosions,” Juan Carlos said. “We’re pretty far away, and I can still see them. Glad we got out of there.”
“Seriously,” Richardson said. “We were lucky.”
“Here’s route 77,” Lita said, sounding relieved. Richardson turned right onto it, speeding up.
“Damn, wish this was a normal freeway,” Richardson said. “These two-lane roads make me nervous.”
“It gets bigger when we get to Robstown,” Lita said, looking at her phone.
“We should stop there,” Richardson said. “Gas up and get some cash. Think it’s big enough?”
“Looks like it,” Lita said.
They settled into the drive.
Chapter 31 – Twitter Storm
Amanda woke up next to Curt, both of them still in their clothes, laying on top of the covers on his bed. She reached for her cellphone and checked the time.
“Shit,” she said, sitting up quickly. It was already past eleven in the morning.
“Curt,” she said, pushing him. He woke startled, smiling when he saw her.
“We didn’t even get changed for bed, did we?” he asked.
“One of these days we’ll have to actually make love,” she said. “I think it’s past time.”
“If we get started at that now, it’ll take up the whole day,” Curt said.
Amanda giggled. “Yeah, right. You’re not eighteen.”
“I know, but it’s been building up,” he said.
“Since when?” she asked.
“Since the first time I saw you,” he said.
“Oh, God, you can’t say something like that to me and do nothing,” she said, her face flushed.
“Oh yes I can,” he said. “We’ve got more work to do. If I know Junior, he’s already been down to get the rest of those pickup roll bars. They said mid-day.”
“You’re a real slave driver,” Amanda said.
“And you’re the best partner I’ve ever worked with,” Curt said, pulling her closer. “We can kiss for a few minutes, you know.”
“Ewww, our breath,” she said.
“I don’t care,” Curt said, moving over her. He kissed her passionately as their bodies writhed together.
Amanda broke the kiss. “Oh, geez. If we don’t stop now, we won’t.” Her breath was coming hard and fast, her whole body tingling.
“Maybe you have a point,” Curt said. “Let’s get up.”
“Should we change?”
“We might as well wait until the work’s done,” Curt said. “We did pretty well last night.”
“Yeah, we did,” Amanda said, getting off the bed. “We can do a lot of damage to the enemy.”
“I liked Kyle’s idea of buying more off roaders,” Curt said. “Wish we had more time. Love to send a swarm of those little suckers at the enemy.”
“Me too,” she said. “That new target and trigger setup you came up with is a lot better. I like how it can be used on the passenger side or the driver’s side.”
“We should have one person driving and the other working the weapon whenever we can,” Curt said
as he got up. “It took me a while to learn how to fire on the fly while driving the Barracuda.”
“We really going to put one on the bobtail?”
“Yeah, and since we don’t have many left to install, I should be able to get to it this afternoon.”
There was a bang on the door. “Hey, Curt, got those other roll bars.”
“It’s Junior,” Curt said. “Told you.”
“Good,” Amanda said.
Curt went to the door and opened it. “Excellent. Who’s installing them?”
“Kelly and me,” Junior said. “We’re getting pretty fast at that part.”
“Good, we’ll be out in a minute,” he said. “I’m getting pretty fast at the installs now, too.”
“With me helping,” Amanda said from behind him.
“Oh, Amanda is here, eh?” Junior asked, grinning.
“Shut up, pencil neck. You knew that.”
“I figured, but you didn’t tell me you two were together. Not officially.”
“Oh, that again,” Amanda said, following Curt out of the rig. “You knock up Rachel yet?”
Junior chuckled. “Too early to tell,” he said. “I’ll see you guys out there.”
He walked to the two pickup trucks Kelly was working on with Eric, while Curt and Amanda went to the back of the toy hauler.
“What are we making on the printers this morning?” Amanda asked.
“We’ve got more Jeep and Pickup truck sets than we have vehicles for now,” Curt said. “Let’s crank some out for off roaders. The Barracuda setup ought to work for any of them. They all have similar roll cage structures, from what I’ve seen.”
“Okay, show me where you have those drawings, then,” she said.
They got to work.
There were a few explosions off in the field behind the park.
“What was that?” Amanda asked.
“Practicing,” Jason said, walking over. “It can be a little tricky driving and firing at the same time.”
“Yeah, that’s why I altered the design to be used from either side of the front seat,” Curt said.
“That Bronco is going to be wild out there,” Jason said. “I watched Eric blasting around in that thing, eye in the sight. Didn’t seem to slow him down at all.”
“That’s Eric,” Curt said. “That guy is the most agile person I’ve ever met. He can pick anything up.”
“He’s fast, too,” Jason said. “A lot faster than I am. Especially in the 220 and 440. He was in the state finals one year.”
“Okay, the next set of gimbals is running on the printers,” Amanda said. “Wow, those guys already have the first roll bar installed.”
“Hey, Curt, this one’s ready,” Kelly yelled.
“On it,” Curt said. He picked up the gimbal set and the targeting unit and rushed them over to the truck, Amanda hot on his heels.
Moe walked over. “You got anymore M19 gimbal sets for off roaders?”
“There’s a set of four on the 3D printers now,” Curt said, “but no more vehicles. If we have time I’ll go buy some. They’re pretty cheap.”
“There’s five of them in my storage yard,” Moe said. “Think they can be hot wired?”
Curt grinned. “Piece of cake. Won’t your customers be pissed?”
“Yeah,” Moe said. “I’ll have to pay them off, but I’d rather be alive and have to do that than be dead and not have the problem.”
Curt chuckled. “Can’t argue with that logic. We should have the sets ready to go in an hour or so. Bring them over.”
“Wow, that’s a lucky break,” Amanda said, watching Moe trot back to the office.
“Yep,” Curt said. They got to work on the next pickup truck.
Jason was helping install a roll bar on another pickup truck with Kelly when his phone rang. He pulled it out. “Ramsey. I’d better take this.”
“Go for it,” Kelly said. “I got this.”
Jason walked away, phone to his ear. He froze, brow furrowed, then slipped his phone back in his pocket and trotted to where the others were working.
“Curt, Kyle, Junior, Eric, and Kelly,” he said. “We need to have a quick conference call with Ramsey and the others on the leadership team. Let’s do it in one of the toy haulers.”
“Okay,” Curt said. “Hope it’s quick.”
“That’s why we’re keeping it to just you guys. C’mon.”
“I’ll keep working,” Amanda said.
“Yeah, me too,” Kate said.
The men went into the second toy hauler and gathered around the kitchen counter as Jason hit Ramsey’s contact on his phone. He put it on speaker and set it down next to the stove.
“Hear us, Chief?” Jason asked.
“Yeah,” he said. “Who’s there?”
“The people you asked for,” Jason said.
“Good,” Ramsey said. “I’ve got Gallagher, Nelson, Hendrix, and Wallis on the line.”
“Hi, men,” Gallagher said.
“Glad you could get this going so fast,” Wallis said.
“What’s going on?” Curt asked.
“We’ve been getting hourly satellite images since late afternoon yesterday,” Wallis said. “We’ve got a big problem.”
“Tell us the bad news,” Kelly said.
“The enemy is gathering outside of Kermit, along route 18,” Wallis said.
“We expected this, right?” Curt asked.
“We expected an attack by Simon Orr, augmented by some Islamists in Texas,” Gallagher said.
“That’s not what’s happening?” Eric asked.
“It’s exactly what’s happening,” Gallagher said, “but the numbers are way beyond what we expected.”
“Oh, shit,” Junior said.
“How many?” Kyle asked.
“They’re continuing to pour in from several directions,” Wallis said. “There’s about seven hundred already at their base of operations. There’s another four to five hundred coming in.”
“Oh my God,” Eric said. “Where they all coming from?”
“New Mexico, the El Paso area, north near Lubbock, and east, past Midlands,” Gallagher said. “There’s also a smaller group just building up south of you guys, near Big Bend National Park.”
“We can’t take on a thousand men,” Kyle said.
“Yeah, we’ll be overrun in a hurry,” Kelly said.
“So what do we do?” Jason asked. “Flee?”
“That’s what we’re suggesting,” Ramsey said.
“Simon Orr timed this based on our plans to unite with the other groups,” Kelly said. “Dammit. That’s the only reason he was involved in that first meeting.”
“Frankly, even if you were with those other groups right now, it wouldn’t be enough,” Wallis said. “You guys have about sixty fighters. El Paso has about forty. Waco has more; just under a hundred, but they’re the worst-equipped and trained.”
“So at best we would’ve had only about two hundred, not counting Simon Orr’s group,” Curt said. “We were doomed from the start. Dammit.”
“Don’t look at it that way,” Gallagher said. “Our plan for you guys was to hit supply depots and caravans. We were thinking of you as a heavily armed and very capable resistance outfit. We never planned for you to be in a straight-up battle with a large force.”
“You had to know there were this many enemy troops around,” Curt said.
“We did,” Gallagher said. “Our longer-term plan was to field the Army National Guard. We’ve got about four thousand troops, but the officer corps is peppered with enemy operatives. We’re having a hard time weeding them out. A quarter of the force or more might turn in a battle, and that’ll end it for us real quick.”
“Son of a bitch, they’re gonna win,” Kelly said.
“Don’t get your panties in a bunch so damn fast,” Junior said, moving his fingers on his cellphone. He pulled a small pad of paper and a pencil out of his pocket and jotted down numbers.
“Dammit, Junior,
what the hell are you doing?” Kelly asked.
“Just a minute,” Junior said. “Keep talking about how much deep shit we’re in while I finish this.”
Gallagher chuckled. “Can’t wait to hear this.”
“We have the tanks,” Jason said. “You seeing any armor on their side?”
“No,” Wallis said. “Troop transport trucks, but not enough for all of them to ride to you. It’s looking to me like they’re marching in on foot.”
“Okay, I’m done,” Junior said.
“Well?” Kelly asked.
“Odessa has 110,720 people. Pecos has 8,780 people. Midland has 123,933 people. Lubbock has 249,042 people. We need to bring people into the battle from those areas.”
Gallagher laughed. “Son of a bitch.”
“What’s he getting at?” Ramsey asked.
“If we can convince even 20% of that population to get involved, that’s about eighty thousand fighters. We could have a Little Big Horn event with less than half that many people.”
“This is all very interesting,” Wallis said, “but how do we get them into the fight?”
“Ever hear of a Twitter storm?” Junior asked.
Gallagher laughed again. “Remind me to give you a job.”
“No thanks,” Junior said. “We’ll use Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, you name it. Flood the internet. Tell everybody what’s coming, where they are, and let them know that if we don’t beat them, their lives ain’t worth a plug nickel.”
“We got people who can do this?” Kelly asked.
“We’ve got a whole lot of people who can help,” Junior said, “including a number of teenagers who probably have ways to get this out that I don’t even know about.”
“You’re a frigging genius, Junior,” Kelly said, shaking his head.
“Let’s get this started right now,” Eric said. “Time is not on our side. Everybody who isn’t working on the weapons needs to be up and running on this within the next hour.”
“Yeah, we need people manning message boards to answer questions, too,” Kyle said. “Any chance we can get pictures from the Satellites that would show the enemy moving in?”
“We’ll shoot you our hourly files,” Wallis said.
“Guys, once we do this, we need to be ready to strike fast,” Curt said.