by Ryan King
“Yes, she is,” said Billy seriously. “And if you wish to have any hope of gaining our support, you will recognize that fact.”
Susan stared at Luke before turning to Billy. “We should remain neutral. There is no reason for us to become involved.”
Billy was silent and nodded finally.
“So that’s it?” said Luke. “You’re not even going to let us pass down the freaking river?”
“What would be our incentive to do so?” asked Billy.
Luke appeared taken aback. “You would get our gratitude. In the future we would come to your aid, of course.”
Billy scrunched up his face and shook his head. “Remember, we’re Native Americans. We have pretty bad experience relying on promises from the government.”
“Well, what do you want then?” asked Luke.
“Only one thing,” said Billy, leaning forward with a smile. “And you can even keep you payment for any provisions.”
*******
They stood side by side and watched Luke Carter being escorted away.
“You did well,” said Billy.
“I can’t believe they agreed to it.”
“They had no choice,” said Billy. “They need us for this to succeed. They’re in a tight spot, not just with Huntsville, but back home.”
“And you really think they’ll just stay neutral if the Creek take all of Northern Alabama in exchange for that help?”
Billy nodded. “I’m not one for trusting promises, but they can’t risk a war with us as well. They’ll follow through, even if they regret it afterwards. Besides, they’re having enough trouble without trying to govern even more lands.”
“Like we can do better?” asked Susan.
“That’s the difference,” answered Billy. “We’re not trying to govern our lands; we just live on them, taking freely of what the earth gives us.”
Susan snorted. “Does that include taxes from non-Creek?”
“Of course it does. They benefit as well. As long as they pay their taxes and live in peace, we leave them alone and they live without fear of getting murdered or enslaved. They live under the umbrella of protection we provide.”
She kicked at a rock. “I’ve never heard of Indian tax collectors. Ruling over non-Creek like the Roman Empire or something. I thought this was all about regaining ancestral lands.”
“It is, but times change, and we must as well. My ancestors would have massacred or driven off all non-Creek. This way is more…productive for everyone, wouldn’t you agree?”
Susan shrugged. “I suppose.”
“You played your part like a pro,” said Billy, smiling.
“I did take drama in college my freshman year.”
“Really?” asked Billy. “Were you in any plays?”
“Mostly minor roles,” Susan said, “although I was the devil in The Screwtape Letters.”
Billy looked at her critically for a few seconds before shaking his head. “I don’t see it.”
Susan shrugged. “That’s the magic of acting. You can be anyone simply by making yourself believe you are that person. Sort of like your prophetess.”
“You’re not pretending; that’s who you are.”
“And a Creek.”
“You heard me back there,” said Billy. “You are one of us. We adopted you into the tribe. That can’t be changed.”
Susan looked away.
“At some point you really need to let go of all this guilt. It does no one any good and is frankly getting old. You need to realize that nothing that has happened is your fault.”
She started chuckling and spread her arms to indicate the world around them. “Billy, that’s where you’re wrong. Everything that’s happened since that day is my fault in some way.”
Susan Who Brought the Fire From the Sky turned and walked down towards the bend of the river that contained the camper.
Chapter 17 – Wheeler Dam
Joshua opened his eyes and gazed at the setting sun. He had tried to sleep, as it would be a long night, but he had never been a day sleeper.
Evidently, most of the men and women under his command didn’t have the same issues. He could hear their snores over the steady drone of crickets from the nearby Wheeler Lake.
He looked back up into the woods and could see a few signs of their camouflaged vehicles. Although his father had impressed upon him the importance of the mission, the fact that he had been given actual running vehicles and a good amount of working fuel told him more. Given the distances they had to cover from the JP, southeast around Nashville and Chattanooga and to the east of Huntsville, there was no way they could have been in position to coordinate the attack without the vehicles.
Conrad McKraven slipped down beside him. “Saw you were awake.”
“How is everyone?”
“Good. A third are on watch and the rest are either eating, resting, or pumping up the boats.”
Joshua nodded. It was the largest military force he had ever commanded, nearly two hundred soldiers, and they would need all of the two dozen inflatable boats they had brought with them.
“Is everyone clear on their roles?” Joshua asked.
Conrad pulled out a canteen and drank deeply before answering. He pointed towards Wheeler Dam in the distance. It straddled the Tennessee River and provided electricity to Huntsville and the surrounding areas. “I’ll take half the soldiers and attack the north end of the dam and you’ll get the south. We’ll meet in the middle.”
“When?”
“You don’t have to quiz me. I know the plan.”
“Say it anyway,” said Joshua. “If not for your sake, then for mine.”
Conrad sighed. “Midnight. That’s when the JP main forces west of here will begin their main assault on Decatur. Jason Green’s forces will be conducting an extremely dangerous raid on the solar array in the Huntsville Botanical Gardens.”
“All of these missions are dangerous.”
“Yeah, but he got the short end of the deal. He actually has to sneak into the outskirts of the city and destroy the array and then run out before he gets caught. Poor devil.”
“He volunteered for the mission.”
“That doesn’t make it any less crazy,” said Conrad. “Also, doesn’t say much for Green’s sanity.”
“Someone has to do it,” said Joshua. “Once we cut off their electricity we can start the siege in earnest. We’ll unload most of our troops on the barges at Decatur Harbor while the Creek keep them bottled up to the north and east. They’ll run out of food soon enough, and without electricity, they’ll be more likely to talk.”
Conrad shook his head. “Not Lacert. I would tell you more, but you know the man. There’s no need. He’ll let everyone in there starve and won’t think twice about it.”
“I know,” said Joshua, absently rubbing his scarred head.
“You know,” said Conrad casually, “as your deputy on this mission, maybe I should stay with you. Lieutenant Grubbs is more than capable of leading the assault on the northern part of the dam.”
Joshua turned to look at him curiously. “Still here to protect me, are you? My dad put you up to this?”
“No one had to put me up to anything,” said Conrad. “You’re family has lost a lot lately. No need to lose more. Besides, your wife and mine are friends, and they talk. Alexandra is worried about you.”
Joshua stiffened at the thought of his wife talking to someone else about him. Then he remembered her grief at the loss of the baby and his anger melted away. It was good she had someone to talk to, especially with him being away. He shook his head. “There’s no truly safe place anymore. Even back in the rear, there’re diseases and other craziness. I’d rather be out here where I can see the enemy.”
“I agree with you there,” said Conrad, looking at the darkening sky. “Speaking of which, the moon will be close to full tonight. With any luck, we’ll get some cloud cover.”
“Any reinforcements arrive at the dam?”
&nbs
p; “Not that we’ve seen. Still about fifty to sixty guards. A few medium machine guns, but mostly light stuff.”
“Let’s not underestimate them,” said Joshua. “Surprise is everything, and if we can’t take the dam, we need to at least disable it.”
Conrad nodded. “The demo team knows their role and will plant the explosives as soon as the objective is secured.”
“Make sure they only blow the control equipment and stay away from the main part of the dam. Don’t want the blast weakening the dam walls. That’s all our JP forces needs: several hundred tons of water rushing down on their moored barges.”
“Actually, that’s what I would do,” said Conrad, thinking. “Might even be what Victor would do.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, if he knows he’s surrounded and that troops are landing downstream from the dam, why not use the water to disrupt them? He doesn’t necessarily have to blow the damn; he can just open the sluiceways as far as they’ll go.”
“Another reason for us to get control of that dam.”
“Right,” said Conrad. “I’ll go check on things again.”
Joshua nodded and thought about his wife far to the north.
*******
A quarter to midnight on a cloudy evening, close to two hundred nervous soldiers slipped quietly into inflatable rafts with their combat gear and began to paddle west along the broad flat surface of Wheeler Lake. One group hugged the northern shore while Joshua led the other across the lake to the southern shoreline. From there, they would make their way towards the southern side of the dam.
Initially, they had considered simply attacking the dam from land at each end, but someone evidently had been thinking of such a threat, and there were new fortifications and obstacles along the land approaches. Most of the guards’ attention appeared to be focused towards landward approaches, but that wasn’t saying much. What guards they had seen in the two days since they had arrived were obviously not expecting any sort of trouble. They spent their days in leisurely boredom.
That’s about to change, thought Joshua.
At the southern edge of the lake, he looked back at the ten boats behind him and motioned for them to proceed west again. The sound of the paddles dipping into the water made Joshua cringe, but he realized it couldn’t be helped and likely wasn’t as loud as he imagined.
As they approached, the dam’s surface loomed ahead of them. It wasn’t as big as Kentucky Dam, but it was still impressive. A long, tall wall of concrete and steel stretched across the dark water’s surface. At each end of the dam were large concrete structures that housed the machinery that sent electricity to waiting homes and people. Incredible. Something that no one would even consider building today. Something the likes of which might never be built again.
The shore came on so suddenly that it surprised Joshua. He stuck his paddle out ahead of them to keep the underside of the boat from scraping loudly along the bottom of the shore. Slipping into the water carefully, he motioned for everyone else to get out before they carried the boat up against the base of the dam’s edge where it would hopefully be difficult for anyone to spot in the darkness. The other boat teams did the same.
Joshua dispatched the security team first. They would make their way silently south through the forest and set up a position along the road that crossed over the dam. Their job was to stop, or at least delay, any possible reinforcements that might attempt to come help their embattled colleagues. Conrad’s group would be doing the same along the road to the north.
As the security team melted into the darkness, Joshua gave final instruction to the support team who would take up a position to provide flanking fire on the guard posts and fortified positions. This was the largest element and contained most of their heavier machine guns and grenade launchers.
That left Joshua sitting silently with two dozen handpicked men and women. They were the assault team. Their job would be to clear the dam of any resistance the support team didn’t take care of. They would hopefully link up with Conrad’s forces at the center of the dam. If not, they at least needed to stop the flow of electricity.
He looked at his luminescent watch, a gift from his father that was synchronized with dozens of other watches in the JP forces. Joshua felt some comfort in knowing that a great number of friends and comrades were staring at their watches now as well.
Watching the seconds tick away, Joshua said a silent prayer for his people and his family. He then pulled out the parachute flare, removed the safety, and slapped the bottom edge of the tube forcefully.
With a whoosh sound, the flare shot up into the air and opened with a loud pop and flash of light. A brightness like a small sun lit up the area, and harsh light began to slowly drift to the ground, suspended by a small parachute. Soldiers on the dam looked up and pointed while others started yelling a warning.
Machine gun fire opened up from their support team soon followed by small arms and grenade launchers. Joshua could hear similar sounds coming from the north.
Joshua looked at his watch, and after ninety seconds of this sustained fire, he pulled out another flare and popped this one as well. This time a dimmer red flare lit up the sky before descending towards the lake’s surface.
“Let’s go!” Joshua yelled and led his men and women up from the surface of the lake’s shore and around behind the makeshift fortifications. The support team firing had ceased, and he could now hear cries of the wounded ahead of him. He scanned for any threat while several soldiers used wire cutters to make a path through the concertina wire strung before them.
As the last strand was cut, Joshua charged through, and a blast erupted from his left. He felt something strike his backpack and let his momentum carry him forward to roll onto the ground. Looking back, he saw the JP soldier behind him fire a burst of gunfire into a man who had been hiding behind a barricade with a shotgun.
“Fan out!” ordered Joshua. “Clear the area up to the edge of the dam. Move quickly.”
They did, and he heard occasional sustained gunfire and even isolated pops that told him they had found someone wounded.
“We’re all clear here, sir,” said a female sergeant.
Joshua nodded and blew three quick blasts on the whistle hanging around his neck. This was the signal for the support team to move forward and set up a defensive position to hold the south side of the dam.
“Follow me,” ordered Joshua, moving north towards the road that ran across the top of the dam. They climbed over a burning truck. Two men, who were maybe enjoying the cab’s warmth when the attack happened, sat inside. One was clearly dead, but the other stared at them with wide eyes, blood pooled below his leg, the sharp white of his shattered femur poking through the skin.
Joshua continued forward and heard a pistol shot from behind him.
There were several more bodies in their path, but not as many as he would have expected. Sustained gunfire came from the north side, and Joshua realized that Conrad’s forces may have had more resistance since an attack on the dam from the north was more likely than from the south.
Creeping forward out into the dam, Joshua felt suddenly exposed. There was nothing but the broad flat expanse of the lake to his right and a sheer drop-off to the Tennessee River below. He unconsciously picked up his pace.
There was a sharp slap sound behind him followed by a flash and pop ahead of him. Joshua turned to see the soldier following him fall to the ground, blood leaking from a dark wound in the man’s abdomen.
Joshua and the soldiers with him dropped to the ground as several more shots rang out in their direction. He turned on the red lens flashlight attached to his rifle and shined it ahead. He saw three men, two working intently on something on the ground and another one pointing a rifle at them.
Joshua shot the man with the rifle in the face. Shots came from behind him, and the other two men fell.
As a medic came up to work on their fallen soldier, Joshua and several others moved forward to the three
dead or dying bodies. There was what appeared to be a radio transmitter of some sort as well as several bags of tools and snippets of wire. A coil of rope and a roll of duct tape lay off to the side.
“What the hell were they doing?” asked someone.
“Shush,” said Joshua, shining his light across the dam. He heard something from the northern direction.
There were three sudden flashes of red.
Joshua answered with two of his own.
“Coming forward,” said Conrad. “You skittish bastards, take your nervous little fingers off your triggers.”
They lowered their weapons as Conrad and a dozen soldiers made their way forward.
“Report,” said Joshua.
“We’ve secured the north side of the dam. Took three casualties; two were light, but one’s not likely to make it.”
“Any signs of reinforcements?”
Conrad shook his head, looking down at the equipment and tools at their feet. “What’s this about?”
“Not sure,” answered Joshua. “They were working on it when we arrived.”
Conrad poked at one of the tool bags with his foot. “Looks like electrical wiring and stuff.” He then gazed at the radio transmitter. “Now why would they want to transmit anything out here?”
“Maybe they were trying to tell Huntsville they were under attack,” suggested someone.
Conrad stared intently and then walked over to the lake side of the dam and shined his light down towards the water.
“What are you looking for?” asked Joshua.
He didn’t answer, only went to the opposite side and shined his light down. Conrad raised back up and pointed downward. “That.”
Joshua and dozens of eyes peered over the edge. In the dim red flashlight glow, they could see a small bundle, about a foot square, duct taped to a metal support against the dam’s surface. The bundle was about thirty feet below them. A small radio with a wire stuck out from the side of the bundle.
“Is that what I think it is?” asked Joshua.
Conrad nodded. “My guess? They were setting it up to be remotely detonated using this transmitter, but we interrupted them.”