I replied, “Ok, but what’s the plan?”
“Everyone be ready to roll out at 11 pm on the dot. The pickups will move out first. The Hummers will provide a rear guard. Once we roll out, head to the bridge.” George looked at Billy Bob. “Can we get across the bridge at night?”
“Yeah, I don’t see why not,” Billy said.
“What will it cost?” I asked.
“Like I told y’all, about a thousand per car.”
“Maggie, count out fifteen thousand and give it to Billy to hold. He’ll ride with us to the bridge. He’ll do the talking and make the payment. We’ll cover him in case something goes wrong.”
“If something goes wrong we’ll blast our way across the bridge. Let the Humvees take the lead across,” George commented. Maggie and I nodded in agreement.
“Are we gonna give them the whole fifteen grand?” Billy asked.
“Yes, if we have to,” I said. “Billy you stay close to me until we leave. You’ll ride in my truck, along with Maggie.”
We broke up the meeting and walked around telling our men the plan. The idea was be in your truck and ready to roll out at 11 pm sharp. We noted that Ragsdale had left five men patrolling around our camp at a considerable distance, so not to be conspicuous.
Slowly, one or two at a time, as 11 pm neared our men started mounting up. Maggie, Billy, and the dogs were already in our truck. I was the last one to leave the campsite. After making sure everyone was ready to roll out, I mounted up, started the motor, and gave a hand wave as a signal to move out.
The sudden movement of all our vehicles speeding away at the same time seemed to take the guards by surprise. They just stood there not knowing what to do. Passing close enough by one guard to see the look on his face, I waved at him with a smile. Maggie yelled out the window, “Bye-bye.” Billy Bob ducked down in the backseat so he wouldn’t be spotted.
Once by the guards Billy sat up and said, “Keep going straight on Route 82 until we reach the bridge. Stop when you see the road block. Then we’ll get out and talk to them.”
“How far is it to the road block?” I asked.
“It’s around thirty miles.”
I said, “Maggie, give Billy the money and your handgun.”
Before Maggie could reply, Billy said, “She already gave me the money, and I don’t want a gun. I never bring a gun with me when I take the girls to visit the guards.”
“Ok, suit yourself!” I shouted over the wind noise, while zooming along at 60 mph. “Both of you listen up! When we stop, Billy gets out first. I’ll be right behind him. Maggie, you cover our backs.”
“Ok Boss,” Maggie said.
“Billy, what are you gonna tell these guys?” I asked.
“Good question, Jack. What do you want me to tell them?”
“Just tell them that I am your Uncle Jack. I have nine trucks that need to cross the river. Hand them the entire fifteen grand. Let them count it.”
“They might ask why we wanna cross.”
“Just say we’re going to see relatives in Arizona who need our help.”
“Alright, I got it. Don’t worry about a thing.”
I slowed down to 30 mph so the Humvees could catch up by the time we reached the bridge.
After slowly coming to a stop about 50 yards from the road block, Billy and I climbed out. We approached to within 20 yards and stopped. It was dark and I could barely make out the shapes of the men.
Billy yelled out, “Hey Joe! It’s me, Billy Bob!”
Joe replied, “Who’s that with you?”
“It’s my Uncle Jack. He’s ok.”
“Alright, come on up here.”
Billy and I started walking up the bridge ramp. Scouring around in the darkness I noted four cars were blocking the road. I could only see four guards on duty.
A man walked up out of the shadows and shook Billy’s hand. “Joe, how y’all doin’?” Billy said.
Joe had a smile on his face as he replied, “Say, Billy Bob. What’s up? Where the whores at?”
“Oh, they’ll be here tomorrow. I had to bring my Uncle Jack here tonight. I promised I’d help him get his clan cross the river.”
Joe studied me and so did the other three men. “You in the Army?” he asked.
“No, not exactly. We were at one time.”
Joe looked at me closer and commented. “Hey Sam, look at this. He’s got a real M4 with night optics.” Sam came over and stood in front of me, peering at my guns and uniform.
Joe and his men appeared to be just normal good old boys by looking at their clothes and lever action rifles. One man carried a double barrel shotgun. They all had on blue jeans and typical farm boy clothes with cowboy boots.
Sam had on a cowboy hat that he took off to wipe the sweat from his head. Putting it back on, he reached out to touch my M4. I made sure the safety was on while dropping the magazine, took it off the three point sling, and handed to him. “Here, take a look,” I said, as I slid my right hand to the grip of my Glock 17, and held it there, just in case he might try something stupid.
He smiled, placed the M4 to his shoulder, and scanned around in the darkness. “Joe, look at this night sight. We need this kinda gun.” He handed the gun to Joe for a look-see.
“Yeah, that’s sweet alright,” Joe said, as he handed the M4 back to me. “Here you go, mister. Can we buy a couple of those guns?”
Billy Bob looked at me wondering what I was gonna say. Joe used the word buy and not the word give, which means he was open to some type of negations. That told me these men were not really cut-throat bad guys.
While ramming the mag back in, I said, “Yeah, I think so. We just wanna get across the river. Billy, give him the money.”
I forgot to mention that the money we were using was part of the al-Qaida loot that we captured. Months ago, the Army Rangers and my group of Tocabaga Fighters managed to raid the al-Qaida HQ located near Tocabaga. We found a million dollars in greenbacks and gold. For killing al-Qaida leaders and taking their funds they put a $200,000 bounty on my head. This led to me being shot in the shoulder by an al-Qaida fighter who managed to infiltrate Tocabaga, but that’s also another long story.
Billy handed him the money. “Here you go, Joe. It’s fifteen grand for nine trucks to cross.”
“Give me ten grand, four of those M4s, and we’ll call it even,” Joe said.
I jumped in, “Joe, I’ll tell you what. I’ll give you the fifteen grand and four guns, if you do us a favor.”
“What kinda favor?”
“There’re some cars following us. One is a black pickup. It has a spot light on the driver’s door. All I ask is don’t let it cross the bridge. I’ll throw in a case of ammo, too.”
“Uncle Jack, you got a deal.” Joe was all smiles as he shook hands with me and Billy Bob.
I got on the radio. “George, we just made a deal. Bring four M4s up to me.”
“What for? We don’t have many spare guns.” George replied.
“They’re part of the deal to cross the river.”
George pulled up in his Hummer with Pete’s truck right behind him. When Joe saw our big Humvees with mounted machine guns, I believe he said, “Holy shit.”
I walked back to the truck and gathered up four guns taking them to Joe and his boys. They were like kids at Christmas time. I provided them some basic instructions on how the weapons operated and in fifteen minutes they were set to go. Joe and Sam had some experience with AR15s so they knew the basics.
As we mounted up Joe said, “You know, you coulda blasted your way through our road block.”
I just smiled and said, “Yeah, I know, but we don’t want any trouble.”
“It was a pleasure doing business with y’all,” Sam said.
“One more thing. What’s on the other side of the bridge?” I asked.
“Maybe a few gangs, but it’s nothing you boys can’t handle,” Joe replied.
As we drove away Billy shouted, “Y’all take care now.”
With two Hummers in the lead we proceeded across the Greenville Bridge and the Mississippi. We were now in Arkansas following Route 82, which runs through the southern part of the state. It would allow us to avoid any big cities. Basically, the state has very few cities and towns. From the Greenville Bridge to Texarkana, Texas is almost 200 miles. With any luck we would reach Texarkana by daylight.
Arkansas presented no problems. We didn’t see a single person while driving for three hours in the middle of the night. It made me wonder if anyone was alive in sleepy Arkansas.
Baldwin stopped the convoy to refuel and we took a short break. Maggie and Billy Bob let the dogs out. Most of us hadn’t had anything to eat or had a chance to clean up from the day before.
I was tried, sweaty, and hungry as heck. I guessed so was everyone else. As I pumped 30 gallons of gas into the tank the fumes made me nauseous. Now I had the smell of gas on my hands which I didn’t like. I poured some water in a dish and washed them off along with my face. It wasn’t cold but it was wet. It felt good and woke me up a little.
Maggie walked over next to me. “Jack, do me a favor and pour some water over my head.”
I laughed, “Really?”
“Yeah, I’m all sweaty and hot as hell.”
I climbed into the truck bed, picked up a 5 gallon bottle of water, and turned around to see Maggie had taken her shirt and pants off. Wow, that was a nice surprise. It was dark but there was a full moon and I could clearly see her. She wasn’t totally naked, but when I started to pour water on her, the wet underwear left nothing to the imagination.
The other men in our convoy were on the other side of the trucks eating or relaxing. So they missed the show.
Maggie glanced up at me and said, “You like what you see, big boy?”
I stopped pouring the water. “Ok, that’s enough hot pants. You should be cooled off by now. How about getting dressed and make us something to eat.”
“Ok, party pooper.” She blew me a kiss, put on her clothes, went to the back of the truck and pulled out a couple of MRE’s. I thought, damn that little prick teaser.
We had just finished eating when Captain Baldwin shouted, “Mount up.” Everyone scrambled to the trucks. The convoy started to roll. In an hour and a half we would reach Texarkana and the Texas border.
THE TEXAS RANGERS
APRIL 25, 2026
The city of Texarkana is divided in half by the Texas-Arkansas state line. Route 82 passes right through the middle of the city, which used to have a population of around 30,000. Texarkana, Texas is located in Bowie County, named after Jim Bowie who was killed at De Alamo.
We finally reached Texarkana just as the sun was coming up. As we approached the Texas border, there were six police cars sitting there with flashing lights. Slowly rolling to a stop at the road block, Baldwin and I approached ten officers who were armed to the teeth. Our M4’s were dangling by their slings and we made it a point not to touch them.
The officers held their guns in a low ready position while watching our every move. One of the officer’s stepped forward, closing the gap between us to a few feet. “Howdy boys. I am Captain James Walker. What brings y’all to Texas?”
I noticed he was dressed like a cowboy. He had on a white hat, boots, and blue jeans. I spied the shiny badge pinned to his chest. It was a star in a circle that read in big letters: TEXAS RANGER.
Captain Walker had a weather-beaten face full of premature wrinkles and dark skin which I assumed was a suntan. He stood about my height, in seemingly good shape. I guessed his age to be in the mid-fifties. He just looked like a tough old cowboy. The other men appeared to be in their late twenties.
I replied, “Good morning, Captain. I’m Jack Gunn, and this is George Baldwin. We’re just passing through Texas on our way to the Comanche Nation and then to Arizona.”
He glanced at our Hummers with machine guns and then peered down the line of our convoy. “Are y’all military people?”
“No sir, but we’re working for the Army.” I handed him the letter from Captain Sessions.
He read the letter and handed it back. “The letter doesn’t state what your business is about. You know, we can’t let just anyone into Texas, especially people with fire power like you got.”
“We’re on a classified mission so I can’t tell you any more than that. Like I said, we’re just passing through Texas, as fast as possible.”
Ranger Walker nodded his head and put his hand on his six-gun, while kinda leaning to one side. “Where y’all from?”
Baldwin replied, “From Florida, sir. We got all this fire power cause going across country and you don’t know what you’ll run into. There are still terrorists out there.”
“Yep, we know that. That’s why we got road blocks up on every major highway. We don’t want them coming here and making trouble for Texans.”
He stood there for a minute looking at us. I said, “Ranger, do you believe in God?”
“Yes. What’s that got to do with anything?”
“I can tell you we’re on a mission for God to help save the country.”
He looked at me like I was crazy. “A mission for God?”
“Yes, that’s right.” I pointed at the convoy. “These men are the modern Templar Warriors.”
“Templars! I thought they didn’t exist anymore.”
Baldwin spoke up. “We’re the new Templar Knights. We’ve been going around the country killing Islamic terrorist groups like ISIS, for a couple of years now.”
“I see. You men seem on the up and up. Let me talk to my Rangers, cause I got an idea.” Ranger Walker went back to the road block and we watched them all huddle together.
After about twenty minutes the Rangers came over to Baldwin and me. Walker said, “We wanna help y’all out, so we’ll give you an escort through Texas to the Comanche Nation. If any other Rangers saw you with those armored vehicles and machine guns, you’d be stopped for sure.”
“That sounds good to me,” I replied.
Walker said, “It’s about 600 miles to the Nation. It’s a long drive. We don’t want anything to happen to you, so I’ll send two cars with you. One will lead the way and another in the rear. No one will mess with you when they see the Texas Rangers in your convoy.”
“Top speed of our Hummers is only forty five. That means it’ll take thirteen to fifteen hours, not including piss stops and refueling,” Baldwin commented.
Walker said, “Anytime you’re ready to leave, let me know.”
“Ok, just let us top off our fuel tanks and we’ll be ready.”
“You don’t have to worry about fuel in Texas. We got plenty of stations along the way,” Walker said.
The famous Texas Rangers have a long and colorful history. By the early 1820s, some 700 families had settled in Texas. There was no regular army to protect the citizens against attacks by native tribes and bandits. In 1823 Stephen Austin organized small informal groups whose duties required them to range over the countryside to help protect the people. They became known as the Texas Rangers. The rangers were paid in property since Austin didn’t have the funds in cash to pay them.
However, it wasn’t until 1835 that the Texas Rangers were formally recognized. On October 17, 1835 at a consultation of the Provisional Government of Texas, a resolution was passed to establish the Texas Rangers. They totaled 60 men which was distributed into three companies. They were known by their simple uniforms, which were light dusters. The identification badge was formed from a Mexican Peso into the shape of a star in a circle. Within two years, the Rangers force had grown to more than 300 men. The Texas Rangers were known for always getting their man. They were rugged tough men, who risked death almost daily.
We rolled out of Texarkana with Captain Walker in the lead. I was surprised at how normal Texas seemed. People were driving around, stores were open, and life was good. Everywhere I looked I saw a Texas Ranger or the Texas Militiaman. Everyone carried some type of weapon for protection. It was clear to m
e that there was law and order in Texas.
I was riding with Walker to keep him company and to stay in communication with our convoy using my radio. I asked him, “How many Rangers do you have?”
“No one really knows exactly. Any person, man or woman, who wants to be a Ranger can, as long as their record is clean. All they need to do is get sworn in by the Ranger Captain in their county. Texas has 254 counties and we try to have at least fifty Rangers in each county. Some are more and some are less. Of course, no one gets paid anything, unless you’re a Captain like me.”
“So to maintain law and order you have the Rangers in each county, sheriffs, local police, and the Texas Militiamen.”
“Yep, that’s about right. Most Texans want law and order.”
Texas has more small towns than Arkansas does. It also has 254 counties which is more than any other state. By my calculations, if Texas has fifty Rangers in each county, then there are 12,700 Rangers state wide. That is a considerable force.
“You seem to have everything under control here in Texas.”
“Yep, we don’t put up with any bullshit from law breakers. Terrorists we shoot on sight. What about in Florida?”
“We still got a lot of problems, but things are a lot better than six months ago. We have the Army Rangers helping to control the situation. They’re slowly bringing law and order back.”
“We didn’t need the Army to help us here in Texas. I am glad however, that the Army removed the President and the commies from office. How long do you think the Army will run the country?”
“I heard from a good source it may take a while. Maybe years before new elections can be held,” I said.
Walker commented, “Who woulda thought, the whole country would go to shit.”
“Yeah, almost no one saw it coming.”
COMMENTARY ON THE COLLAPSE OF THE GOVERNMENT
The fall of our government didn’t happen all at one time. There was no one given moment that signaled the United States was in big trouble. It occurred slowly over a period of years. Like a sandy beach slowly eroding away day by day, as the grains of sand wash away. My best guess is the sand started to erode long ago, in 2001.
TEMPLARS QUEST: GHOST KILLER (TEMPLARS QUEST CHRONICLES Book 1) Page 6