by Mark Goodwin
Cassie huffed. “I don’t know.”
“Tell me what you guys talked about after Bible study yesterday. I saw maps in the radio room at David’s. And while we’re on the subject, where was David last week? Everyone was suspiciously quiet about him being missing last Sunday.”
“It’s a long story.”
Cassie rolled her eyes. “I’ve got plenty of time.”
“I told you about the information that Benny got from his intelligence contact, Undertow.”
“Yes, the ammunition dumps around the country that the Republic moved so the military personnel wouldn’t find them. That was back at the end of January.”
“Well, Benny and David have drawn up maps for ten of the locations. David has come up with battle plans and places to stash loot from the raids. His idea is that teams could hide what they are able to abscond with before destroying the warehouses. Then, they can make a full retreat and come back later to collect the spoils.”
“Sounds dangerous. Won’t the Republic be looking for the plundered supplies?”
“Not if they don’t know they’re missing.”
“And these places aren’t under heavy guard?”
“No, their strategy was that no one was supposed to know about them. They want the warehouses to attract the least amount of attention as possible, so they are under minimal guard. It’s not a bad plan. The safest asset is the one no one knows about. The only hole in the plan was this Undertow guy tapping into the system and getting the locations.”
She put her hand on his cheek and looked deeply into his eyes. “Are you going on the raid?”
Noah took her hand and kissed it. “I don’t know. Jim is adamant about waiting. David wants to strike while the iron is hot. It’s causing some friction between the two of them.”
“But Jim has the final say.”
“Yeah, but David is the tactical commander, and he expects Jim to give him full reign over that area of decision-making.”
“What is Jim waiting for?”
“He wants to wait until the Republic forces our hand, then hit them with everything we’ve got.”
“How far apart are these warehouses? Even with the new guys you’ve recruited from the Kettle, we don’t have an army that can split up and attack multiple locations.”
“I know. That’s where David and Clifford were last Sunday. Do you remember, I told you how Benny’s guy got all of those email addresses from the government watchlists?”
“Yeah, the so-called domestic terrorists who believed in God, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. That’s the list we used to disseminate the ‘Tallmadge Report.’ It doesn’t do us any good without the Internet or electricity.”
“Undertow was able to get the IP addresses and, subsequently, the physical addresses of the ones who were most likely to be affiliated with militias. David and Cliff were out on a mission for the last ten days. They went out on the road and made contact with a couple other organized groups in South Carolina and Georgia. Benny also got in contact with a group in Idaho over the radio. They used digital communications and a simple encryption system to pass info back and forth over the ham radio.”
“So it’s all set. But the longer you wait, the more organized the Global Republic is getting. Shouldn’t you have hit them when they were reeling from the earthquakes? They had all of their manpower and resources focused on relief efforts.”
“Jim thinks that was a facade. He thinks there were never any serious efforts to rescue anyone. Any GR teams sent to the affected areas were little more than accountants sent in to assess the amount of resources they’d lost. But you’re right about them getting more organized. The GR security forces are growing. Benny said they have a census office set up in Knoxville already.”
“And the census workers have military escorts?”
“Yeah, mostly Australian and South American. Former US military troops that take the pledge are being sent to other countries to enforce the new global standards. The theory is that people are much more willing to push around a population that they don’t share a homeland with. The GR peacekeepers from foreign countries won’t hesitate to fire on American citizens like former US troops would have.”
“Smart.” Cassie rolled over to get out of bed. “Wicked and evil, but smart.”
They got dressed, woke Lacy, and headed downstairs to eat breakfast with Elliot and Caroline. Afterward, Noah grabbed his gear; then he and Elliot headed to the checkpoint for the morning shift.
It was a quick drive to the roadblock. Noah parked in the parking lot of the abandoned filling station and walked over to the two Sevier County patrol cars, which were parked nose to nose to form the roadblock. Kevin, Sarah, and the two men from Sevierville they’d worked the shift with were anxiously awaiting Noah’s arrival.
“No action last night?” Noah asked.
Kevin grabbed his gear and headed toward the Tennessee Wildlife Resource truck, which he and Sarah used to commute back and forth from Noah’s house. “Nothing but freezing wind all night.”
Elliot winked at Kevin. “You had Sarah to keep you warm.”
Sarah threatened to throw her empty coffee thermos at Elliot. “Jokes aren’t as funny at the end of a shift as they are at the beginning.”
Elliot flinched as if he thought she might really throw it at him. “We left you some hot oatmeal on the stove. And brown sugar.”
Sarah squinted her eyes. “Oatmeal and brown sugar, huh? I guess I’ll let the remark slide . . . this time.”
As Sarah, Kevin, and the other men left, David drove up with a young man that Noah recognized from the Kettle. They parked in the lot of the gas station and walked over to Noah and Elliot.
David waved as he walked up. “Hey, guys, this is Jerry Allen. He’s one of the new militia members. Never been in the military, but he’s been hunting these woods since he could count to ten.”
“I’m Noah, nice to meet you.” Noah extended his hand. “I’ve seen you around.”
Jerry shook Noah’s hand. “Yep, I remember you guys. Pleased to meet you.”
Elliot likewise shook Jerry’s hand. “I’m Elliot Rodgers, pleasure’s mine. David, did you draw the short straw? How did you end up getting stuck guarding the bridge to nowhere?”
David chuckled. “If I’d drawn the short straw, I’d have been out here last night. You might think it’s cold now, but that little bit of warmth from the sun makes all the difference in the world.”
“Did you get anywhere with Jim last night after we left?” Noah checked the magazine of his HK rifle, as he always did at the beginning of a shift.
David pursed his lips. “Yes and no. We were in gridlock. You guys all know that we’ve got the guys up in Idaho, the militia in Greenville, and the crew out of Ellijay, Georgia, who have all agreed to launch simultaneous assaults on our lead. If any of them are disrupted by the GR before we launch an attack, all of that planning is out the window. By the time we went to sleep last night, Jim had agreed that we would launch an attack as soon as the first of the four assault teams is threatened.”
Elliot had one hand in his pocket and the other on the butt of his battle rifle. “By four assault teams, you mean Idaho, Greenville, Ellijay, or us?”
David nodded. “Yep. When a team leader makes the call, we’ll have twenty-four hours to mobilize. Then the hits will go down at the same time, which will be two hours after sunset in Idaho.”
Noah rubbed his arms to generate some heat. “So that’s what time here?”
“Roughly ten thirty.”
Jerry looked up as though he was in thought. “Is that the best plan, to hit them all at once? They’ll know it was a coordinated effort.”
David put his hands up. “We don’t really have a choice. Once one of the warehouses is hit, we can assume they’ll figure out that all of the locations are compromised and beef up security at all of them.”
Jerry nodded and looked at the road. “Yeah, I suppose you’re right.”
“
Which warehouses are we going to hit?” Elliot asked.
David replied, “We’re going to Nashville. It’s a huge stash, and I mean huge.”
“In Nashville? Why there?” Jerry scratched his head.
“I suppose because no one would ever think of it being a munitions dump. It’s also roughly halfway between the Holston ammo plant up by Kingsport and the Milan plant out in Western Tennessee. It’s also relatively central if you factor in Fort Knox and Fort Campbell.”
Noah nodded. “And what’s the plan?”
“I’ll have to show you the map later, but the warehouses aren’t far from the Cumberland. They probably won’t think of the river as an escape route. At least not at first. There’s a public boat launch up the river about five miles, and it backs right up to a water park which, even if this weren’t the apocalypse, would be closed for the winter. We’ll hide the boats in one of the service buildings and come back later for our haul. Once we make it to the water park, we’ll be outside of the search perimeter, and we should be able to make it home.”
Elliot chuckled. “I would like it more if you sounded more confident about the making-it-home part, but otherwise, sounds like a good plan.”
Jerry turned toward David. “What did you see when you and Cliff were out on the road?”
David sighed. “Lots of death. Lots and lots of death. We hear the reports over the ham radio, but when you see decomposing bodies on the side of the road, you see the reality of the crisis. We’ve had our share of deaths, but so far, we’ve been able to at least give the bodies a dignified burial. But even what we saw in the deserted small towns doesn’t hold a candle to some of the cities. One of the guys in Greenville has a cousin hunkered down in Alpharetta, Georgia, about twenty miles outside of Atlanta. He says when the wind is out of the south, he can’t even go outside because of the smell of rotting bodies.”
“That’s horrible.” Noah covered his mouth, then paused for a moment. “How did the fellows in Greenville receive you?”
“A lot less warmly than the bunch down in Ellijay. We showed the guys guarding the checkpoint in Ellijay an old copy of the Tallmadge Letter, told them who we were and how we found them. They called their top guy, his name was Jason, and he vetted us right away. After that, they fed us and we sat down to talk.
“The Greenville boys, that’s another story. They took our weapons, placed wrist restraints on us, and had a medical doctor wearing a hazmat suit look us over before they started questioning us. I wasn’t too sure how that was going to turn out.”
“Why a medical exam?” Elliot looked puzzled.
David raised his brow. “Typhoid. Greenville is one of the few population centers that is really thriving since the collapse.”
“Thriving?” Noah was surprised.
David snorted. “Thriving being a relative term, of course. They are getting by though. When the crisis hit, the mayor got right on it. He put together a comprehensive emergency management plan and got out in front of the problems as soon as they could be identified. The people chipped in and did their part as well. Leadership doesn’t do much good if no one follows. They have barter networks all over the place. Anywhere there was a large store or shopping center, they’ve got flea markets set up inside.”
“What do they do for light?” Elliot asked.
“Some stores have huge skylights, so it’s not an issue, but in the others, they only set up tables near windows. The streets close at sundown to deter crime, so they don’t need light at night.”
“And the police are keeping the peace?” Noah was impressed by the way Greenville was handling the collapse.
“Yeah, they’ve deputized a lot of volunteers as well. They’re all guys who know someone that can vouch for their character.”
Jerry asked, “Is the militia part of the police?”
“No, two separate entities, but there’s a lot of crossover; cops in the militia. They are intentionally distinct, so the police can continue to keep the peace without being blamed for any resistance activities carried out by the militia.”
Noah thought about what David was saying. “So Greenville had already been planning to take action against the Global Republic.”
David smiled. “Yep. Once they decided we weren’t spies, they took to our plans like bees to honey.”
Noah tapped David on the arm. “Looks like we’ve got our first customers of the day.”
David turned to look north along the parkway. “Jerry, can you hand me those binoculars?”
Noah waited silently to hear David’s assessment. Like the others, he stood with his rifle at a low ready position.
David dropped his binoculars. “It’s a UN convoy, four hummers. Elliot, call Jim and let him know they’re coming and have him advise us on how to proceed.”
“Ten-four.” Elliot retrieved his radio and walked back away from the roadblock to make the call.
The convoy soon arrived at the checkpoint and came to a complete stop. Two security operators got out first, wearing full tactical gear and the classic baby blue helmets. The only difference was the helmets displayed the initials GR, replacing UN on each of the sides.
A man in a black suit with a deep red tie stepped out of the second to last Humvee. Two more guards with black helmets and the red shield and dragon insignia escorted him to the roadblock. The man spoke with a thick Australian accent. “Good morning. I am Emissary Liam Martin, of the Global Republic. May I speak with the person in charge?”
David called out from behind patrol car. “I’m in charge of the checkpoint.”
“Very well. We are proceeding to Sevierville to establish a census station so we can determine the amount of resources needed to get things back up and running.”
“I’ll just have to clear that with the sheriff.” David motioned for Elliot to come up to where he was standing.
Martin was visually put off at the delay. “I must say, I would have expected to be received more cordially. After all, we are here to restore power, commerce, and order.”
“You’ll have to forgive my perceived insolence. Like I said, that decision isn’t mine to make. Please understand that while the rest of the world has been fast-tracked, we’ve been left to fend for ourselves.” David almost sounded sincere.
“Yes, well, I suppose it can be overlooked. I’m sure you understand that the Republic has done all that it could to preserve life and prevent further breakdowns, but the catalyst for the misery plaguing our planet did begin in the States. Far more resources are demanded to establish order in America because of the amount of personnel dedicated to security. Elements of the factions that caused the collapse are still operating throughout region six, or the former United States.”
Elliot whispered in David’s ear; then David said, “I’ve received clearance from the sheriff. You may proceed. We’ll move the cars for you right away.”
Martin nodded to acknowledge David. “Thank you. Before we go, we will have the temporary census center set up by nine o’clock tomorrow morning. All local law enforcement will need to register by noon, or they will be in violation. Please help me spread the word. Additionally, I’d appreciate it if you can help me get the message out that the private ownership of firearms is illegal under the Global Republic. I know this may be a bit much for your fellow countrymen to accept, but if America had been in step with the rest of the world on this issue, we could have avoided all of this trouble in the first place. Private ownership of firearms by people who do not work in the military or law enforcement is simply an antiquated notion that can no longer be tolerated.”
David motioned for Noah and Jerry to move the patrol cars and let the convoy through. He smiled at the emissary. “We will do our best to let everyone know.”
The cars pulled back to allow the vehicles to pass through, then resumed their position. Noah walked up to David whose face was blood red. “What now?”
David’s look of anger was exaggerated by the steam from his breath in the cold air. “Nobody tou
ches Liam Martin. I’m going to kill that cocky little rooster myself. Noah, head back to your place right now and tell everyone to get their things ready to go back to the cabin. We have to hit that census station first thing in the morning. We’ll set up teams to ambush the reinforcements when they come, and another team will hit the ammo dump in Nashville.
“Jerry, you and Elliot hold down the fort. I’m going to tell Benny to put out the message to Ellijay and Greenville that we are on the clock. Everybody stay off the radios, we’re probably being monitored. Noah, come on out to my place after you tell everyone at your house what is going on and what they need to be doing. If Kevin and Sarah are sleeping, wake ’em up and bring them with you to my place.”
“Got it.” Noah let his rifle rest on the sling and retrieved the keys from his pocket. “Elliot, you can take the patrol car if you have to leave, right?”
“Yep. Go do what you gotta do. See you when I see you.” Elliot waved.
Jerry said, “I can take the other patrol car if I need to. Talk to you guys soon.”
David put a hand in the air as he walked back to his vehicle.
Noah did the same.
He was home in minutes.
Cassie met him at the door. “What’s wrong?”
Noah kissed her on the check. “Why does something have to be wrong?”
She glared at him. “Noah, don’t stall. Just tell me what’s going on. You’re home six hours early from your shift. Where is Elliot; is he okay?”
“Elliot is fine. A UN convoy out of Knoxville just showed up. Jim said to let them through. David wants everybody to get ready and head on back out to the cabin.”
“Everybody? Does that mean you’re going out to the cabin?”
Noah sucked his teeth. “Not yet. Just the girls for now.”
“Are you going to launch the attacks on the ammo dumps?”
Noah nodded but didn’t speak.
Cassie was beginning to tear up.
Caroline walked into the living room. “Is everything okay?”
“Everything is fine.” Noah continued to give them a brief synopsis of what had just happened without divulging too much information about what David had in mind.