Hell in the Homeland

by A J Newman

  The president looked across the room and spoke, “I called you together to adapt Phase II of Operation Brave New World to our current situation. Phase I achieved all of our objectives, except for gaining the support of the majority of the military and it killed many more of our future workers than planned. We need more laborers.”

  The Secretary of Labor said, “You are correct; we have lost almost one hundred seventy million people so far. The bad news is that the deaths are still occurring at an alarming rate.”

  General Walls spoke up, “Mr. President, we got played by the Iranians.

  Walls knew that this would piss the president off, but someone had to reach the arrogant bastard and shake some sense into him.

  “There never was a plan to use EMPs on our own country. The nukes were more than enough to accomplish our objective of cleansing the riffraff, but the EMPs destroyed the grid and took away our ability to maintain our cities. That is why our people are starving, rioting and killing each other. We need to nuke the Iranians and the rest of our allies in this debacle before they nuke us.”

  The president replied, “General Walls, the President of Iran has sworn that his country did not launch any EMP devices at the USA and in fact claims that our own bombs caused the EMP destruction.”

  “Respectfully, the Iranian president is a liar and a traitor to our cause. Mr. President, we tracked the missiles from their launch to the blasts. They came from ships off our coast. That bastard and some of his friends intend to take our country from us and you were played a fool. Iranian submarines and surface craft are staged in the Gulf of Mexico waiting to join in an attack on our country. Friends in South America tell us that there are major troop movements taking place and they are all heading towards the border with Mexico. The Mexican president is on TV telling his fellow countrymen that it is time to help the USA by giving support to what was once the northern part of Mexico.”

  The president pushed a hidden button and suddenly the room was full of DHS troops.

  The president told them, “Please remove General Walls from this meeting, place him under house arrest and have Field Marshal Williams join us to finish the meeting.”

  ***

  Port Arthur, Texas was much better off than most cities in the USA after the bombs fell. The Mayor, Police Chief and several other high-ranking officials were ex-military and most were dedicated preppers.

  Since they were on the Gulf Coast, the town was well prepared for hurricanes and flooding. Under the guise of getting better prepared for hurricanes after Katrina, the Mayor and city council spent a fortune for backup generators and survival supplies. The generators were EMP proof, as was the main power plant for the city. They had seen what happened to New Orleans and more importantly the small towns around it when the starving people and gangs moved to higher ground.

  Chief Charlie Adams had been in Army Special Forces and carefully selected his policemen from honest ex-military police and Special Forces when he could find them. He was always first in line to get surplus military arms, ammo and equipment. He had five armored cars and three armored personnel carriers plus hundreds of M4s and side arms. Besides protecting the civilians, his team’s major job was to seal off the town when TSHTF. There were only three major roads and a handful of small two lane roads coming from Houston and Beaumont to block off from the outside. In a pinch, he was prepared to blow a dozen bridges and make Port Arthur a safe island with virtually no way to get in or out of the city.

  Port Arthur’s most significant asset was that the majority of its citizens were ready to fight to protect their town if push came to shove. A large number were also preppers and had at least a year's worth of food, arms with ammo survival supplies.

  Chief Charlie taught a course in survival and self-protection at the local college. The police in New Orleans taking guns from its people sickened them and Obama’s attempt to take away their weapons only stiffened their resolve. They had become believers in the Second Amendment and most were armed and ready. Chief Charlie knew that he could have a small army in a matter of hours.

  Crime was not an issue in Port Arthur since Charlie and the Mayor decided that criminals had to leave Port Arthur one way or the other. Most left within the legal system, but some were taken out to the Gulf and dropped overboard with chains wrapped around them. Only a select few knew about the methods used to purge the town of all of the bad guys, but everyone in town loved the results. They still had the usual small town problems with wife beaters, DUIs and car wrecks, but there hadn’t been a violent crime in over four years when the shit hit the fan.

  The night that TSHTF found the Mayor sound asleep during a major rainstorm. There was some fool pounding on his door. He woke up and remembered one large lightning bolt that rattled the windows and shook the house. He tried to turn the lights on and there was no power. He looked at the alarm clock and it was blank. He grabbed his Glock, threw on a robe and told his wife to wake up and get dressed. He peaked through the spy hole, saw Chief Charlie at the door and told him to come in to the house.

  “Mayor, we have been attacked. Some SOB has nuked the whole country.”

  The Mayor responded, “Now Charlie, calm down. Are you sure about this and by the way how do you know that we were attacked?”

  “First, my officers saw several jet planes fall out of the sky at the same time. Second, there is no power and most cars won’t start. Several of my guys were driving down the road when their patrol cars just died. They got out of the cars and saw the planes falling to the ground. One hit in the middle of Groves and wiped out most of downtown. I think we were nuked with EMP devices and God knows what else. We need to put our plan into action now.”

  “Okay, Charlie, round up the city council and our town leaders and let’s get moving. We should have about two to three days to get fully up to speed with our plan."

  ***

  Chapter 3

  The DHS

  North of the Alabama Border

  May 28, 2020

  The team had cautiously pulled up to Tom’s shot up pickup. Tom was on his knees giving first aid to Sam. Tom looked up and saw the team getting out of their trucks and running towards him.

  He yelled, “Do you have anything to stop the bleeding?" Several yelled back at him to keep pressure on the wound.

  He replied, “No shitting Sherlock! Now get me something to stop the bleeding.”

  Beth came running and pushed through the group and dropped to her knees beside Tom. She ripped open a package and told Tom to move his hand off the wound. She poured half the contents on the bullet hole. She then placed a wad of gauze on the wound and told Tom to put pressure on it. She then lifted Sam’s shoulder and performed the same process on the exit wound. Beth took a pill from a bottle and made Sam swallow it with a drink from her canteen.

  Beth told Sam, “That was a pretty strong pain killer and you will sleep for several hours.”

  She told the group that Sam would live, but may have a lot of shoulder pain the rest of his life. She told Tom that the bullet had a clean entrance and small exit wound.

  John added, “Looks like a .223 wound, but must be military from the small exit wound. A hunting bullet would have left a hole that you could put your fist through."

  Tom looked at his son and said, “I love you son and I’ll kick your ass if you die on me.”

  Sam squeezed his dad’s hand and passed out. Beth had Sam loaded into the back of one of the five-ton trucks where she and one of the ladies could tend to him. Tom joined them and said several prayers for God to spare his son’s life.

  Beth made Tom calm down and let her examine him against his protests. He only had a few cuts on his face and neck from the shattered window during the ambush. Beth prayed that she would not have to nurse many more wounded friends and relatives.

  John asked several of the men to gather the weapons and bury the DHS goons. He went to the Humvees and quickly decided to take them back to the bunker. Two had twin Ma Deuces on top and one
had twin SAWs. These could make the difference in the next fight. John felt in his gut that they had not seen the last of the DHS thugs. He was sure there was either an ambush or a large group of these DHS goons between them and the bunker. He did not know this, but that is what he would do. He sent Scott, Bill and a couple of the guys out to scout the area. He told them to split up and each group was to go two miles down the road in opposite directions and report immediately.

  John got in his truck, got a shortwave radio out and tried to see if anyone was broadcasting while waiting on Beth to finish nursing Sam and the scouts to get back. He tuned the dial for a few minutes and heard a couple of men talking about the disaster. He heard, “Most of the world is in the same shape. The Israelis, Brits and our military took out most of the Islamic Country’s militaries that participated in the attack on the western countries and Japan. Russia and China nuked each other when China tried to invade Russia. Only a few countries in Africa and South America still had power and no destruction from nuclear bombs.”

  Beth heard the radio and joined him. She asked, “Why don’t you ask them where they are?”

  John replied, “Darling, we don’t need the government tracking us down. It’s easy to pinpoint the location of anyone who broadcasts over short wave radios. We just don’t know what they are up to yet. They ambushed our friends who were driving along minding their own business. I just don’t trust them!”

  Beth gave him a kiss and said, “John thanks for knowing what to do to keep all of us out of trouble. You know we have not had a minute alone since we met and I need some time alone with you John.”

  She ran her hand under his shirt and rubbed his belly. John pulled her close to him and kissed her while rubbing her backside.

  He said, “Darling, I think we need to go for a long walk after we set up camp for the night.”

  She smiled and continued kissing him. Scott interrupted them.

  “Get a room,” was all he said.

  Beth threw an empty soda can at Scott. She continued to listen to the shortwave while John debriefed the scouts who had returned. She learned that even though as many as 15 major cities had been nuked, there was very little damage to the rest of the country except for the power being off. The US government had moved to Harrisburg, PA since DC was now a pile of cinders. She also learned that most of the Tea Party congressmen were in Dallas at a conference and had been spared; however, the rest of congress had been decimated.

  Beth said to John, “Am I correct, but over fifty million people have been vaporized and most of them were on welfare or government assistance? They were also mainly Democrats. The USA is now a predominately Conservative country!”

  John told Beth that he despised the liberals that had been running the country, but he never thought that they would be burned alive in a nuke attack. He didn’t say it aloud, but hoped their worthless president and his minions had been vaporized.

  John remembered that they had captured the two nukes that had been heading to Memphis and Dallas. Not only did they save millions of people from being incinerated, they had saved the future leaders of their country. He thought that God must have been watching over them and guiding their actions that night. He also wondered if he could activate the bombs if they were needed because of some dire circumstance.

  Beth searched for other people broadcasting and found over twenty; several were close by. She made a list of what channels and what they were discussing. She learned that no one really knew what had happened and how bad the damage was. By piecing the discussions together, she found that there was a mixture of people banding together to survive and a great deal of lawlessness and looting. About half of the people didn’t give their exact locations, but most of the country was represented, with the majority being in the South.

  John ordered them to get back on the road and asked Scott to ride with him since Beth was back in the truck tending to Sam. As usual, he had scout vehicles about a quarter mile ahead and behind the main body to make sure there were no surprises or ambushes.

  John asked Scott how he was doing and what he thought about the recent events.

  Scott said, “You will be very lucky if Beth doesn’t adopt about a half dozen of those kids we freed back there. She is already beginning to mother them.”

  John laughed and replied, “You know, I think that woman is pretty strong willed so I may just be along for the ride. Besides, I did pretty well with you and Jim. Didn’t I?”

  Scott said, “Well Dad, Mom did most of the raising until I was about 12 years old so I don’t know how you’ll do with little kids.”

  John just laughed.

  Scott asked, “How do you think Mom and Beth will get along?”

  John replied, “I don’t know, I hadn’t given it any thought.”

  Scott broke out laughing and said, “Dad, the shit will hit the fan! My God, both of your women in the same bunker will be funny!”

  John sternly replied, “Your mom is not my woman!”

  Scott replied, “You’re taking a sexy younger woman back to meet your ex-wife. This will be like introducing a match to a can of gasoline.”

  John got his walkie-talkie and checked in with Gus. They spent a few minutes filling each other in on the day’s events and then John steered the conversation to Beth and Ann.

  Gus stammered for a minute then said, “Man that is something I had not thought about. Fireworks are what come to mind. Don’t you think we should keep them about a hundred miles apart?”

  They had driven for about 20 miles when the lead scout vehicle called to tell them to stop. John saw Bill and Tom dismount and look around the left side of the road for about five minutes then get back in the truck and head back to the convoy.

  Tom got out, walked up to John and said, “We saw signs where a large group of guys stopped for a break. There were MRE wrappers and empty water bottles all over the place. I think they were there about three or four hours ago. Judging from the tracks and footprints there are 5-6 vehicles and 30-40 men."

  Scott said, “Dad, pull out the map of this area. We need to see if we can spot a likely ambush position.”

  John fetched the map and spread it out on the tailgate. They followed Highway 65 from their current position down to the Alabama border until Scott said, “I’ll bet they are at the overpass where Hwy 64 crosses 65. They can ambush us and have cover from the air by ducking under the overpass. Gus killed ten of them and they never saw it coming! They have to be scared shitless of being attacked from the air again.”

  John and Tom agreed and started planning how to ambush the ambushers.

  ***

  The scout saw the vehicles approaching and radioed back to the Sergeant. “Sir, there are six trucks heading my way, they are going slow and they are armed. They are scanning the road ahead and appear to be expecting trouble.”

  The Sergeant replied, “Call back when they get in the kill zone.”

  The Sergeant was sure that these people were connected in some way to the plane that had strafed and killed over ten of his men earlier in the day. He ordered his men to take cover and to kill all but five of these criminals. He also warned them to keep an eye out for that damn airplane. He wanted to take prisoners back to Deke for interrogation. Deke wanted to find out what was happening in the other states around Alabama. Even the government had only sketchy info on most of the country since the nuclear attack had destroyed almost all communication.

  The president had sent an appointed leader over a year ago to govern each state in the event of a national emergency until the Federal Government could get the power and communications back in operation. Each “field marshal” had several thousand men, weapons, armored vehicles and ammo to use to restore law and order in his state. Most field marshals were from one minority group or another. They were a mixture of misfits that could not make it in the real world and political appointees that had blindly supported the president who was responsible for the downfall of the USA.

  The Sergeant did n
ot communicate back to his home base in Mobile about the disaster that morning or the upcoming ambush. His ego overcame his training and he thought that capturing these people would make him look good to Deke.

  The Sergeant wanted to kill or torture every one of these assholes for killing his men earlier in the day. The scout radioed back that the target just had to come another 100 yards and they would soon be within range, but had stopped. Just as it was dawning on him that something was wrong with this picture, the guy next to him slumped down to the ground. Then he heard the shots and ducked.

  “Take cover; we’re under attack. They’re coming from the woods!”

  He and his men were pinned down by withering fire from the woods on either side of the road. Twelve men were down and more were falling.

  The Sergeant tried to rally his men to counterattack, but they could only return enough fire to keep from being overran. He just hoped that he could hold the attackers off until help arrived. Then it dawned on him that central command did not know about the attack. He remembered that he had left his satellite phone in the Humvee. He desperately crawled for a few yards hiding in a low spot, but now had to get up and run to the Humvee. He got up and took two steps before a bullet knocked him to the ground.

  ***

  The remaining DHS couldn’t use the firepower of their two Humvees because Scott and Tom had them pinned down by using the twin .50 caliber Browning machine guns mounted on two of the Humvees that they had captured. The twin .50s were destroying the enemy Humvees and the twin SAWS were mowing down the DHS thugs. The massacre had only lasted about twenty minutes.