by W. J. Lundy
“We need to get to Grayling,” Marks said.
The man licked at his teeth and stroked his gray beard. “Well, you’re on the right track. Take the highway up the west side of the lake and you’ll run right into it. That is, if it weren’t for all the black eyes in the way. Son, I’m not sure you’ll ever get past that lot. To be honest, I’m not sure how you made it this close to the lake without them getting you.”
Marks shook his head in disagreement. “You seem to be doing okay.”
Stone dipped his head slowly. “Might seem that way. I’ve lost my sons and their wives out there. Eve and the kids are all we got left.” The man looked away. Gloria moved to his side and put a hand on his shoulder. He shook off the feelings and drank the rest of the tea. “If you could cause a big enough distraction—and I mean it would have to be big—you might be able to break away to the north.”
“What exactly do you have in mind?”
Chapter 21
“So what is it you have to show me?” Marks asked.
They were riding in the passenger compartment of a large crew cab truck. Stone was at the wheel and Stephens was riding shotgun while Jacob was in the backseat with Duke panting away in the space between him and James. Not as nice as the new one they’d left buried in the mud, but this truck was better equipped for the back country where they now weaved in and out of trees and large boulders. The truck was fitted with oversized tires, a raised suspension, and a large tubular steel brush guard that helped Stone force his way through the back trails and dirt tracks. The truck showed the dents and scars of being used in the rough wooded terrain, and Stone showed it no mercy as he fought his way through thick narrows in the trail.
Stone let out a long string of hacking coughs before spitting into a handkerchief. “You okay?” Marks asked him.
“Emphysema. The women don’t know and I want to keep it that way; they got enough to worry about,” Stone said. He slowed to ease the truck onto a gravel county road. After a short distance, he cut the wheel and put them back onto another all-terrain vehicle trail. “Just my luck. I build up this damn doomsday bunker, and by the time anything good happens, I’m too fucking old and sick to use it.”
“Hey, at least you didn’t have to spend your good years doing this. You got to enjoy them, right?” Marks said.
The old man shook his head and laughed. He reached over Marks and popped the glove box, removing a half-smoked cigar, which he placed between his teeth. “Yep, guess that’s one way of looking at it.” He slowed the truck and eased it off the road into a patch of tall grass. “It’s just up here. We walk the rest of the way,” he said.
They left the truck and followed the trail. The old man carried a Hungarian AMD-65 rifle with a short barrel and collapsible stock. He let it hang from his left arm while he navigated the trail. Just ahead, Jacob could see a wide path of cleared brush and exposed churned earth. The man continued on, walking directly into the barren field.
“It came down during the early fighting; mechanical failure would be my guess—never seen one of those black eyes take down an aircraft. I heard the crash from back at the cabin when I was still sleeping above ground,” Stone said as he left the trail and entered the debris field. “I came out here with my boys. We salvaged everything we could from it. The pilot must have ejected; there was no sign of him in the cockpit, but the plane was full of ammo. Couldn’t make use of the 30mm or the bombs. Still, we worked hard at removing everything.”
They followed Stone over a rise and into a depression. Just ahead of them, they saw the destroyed body of an A10 Warthog. Stone sauntered past the aircraft to a relatively flat spot covered in dried and dead tree limbs. The old man lifted the limbs away, revealing a carefully arranged stack of green bombs with yellow tips.
“Well, holy hell. You definitely got yourself some ordnance.” Marks moved close to examine the bombs. “You know these are armed—you could have blown yourself up moving them around.”
Stone grinned while removing a bottle of Schnapps from his back pocket to have a drink. “So do you think this would make enough of a distraction?” He offered the bottle up to the rest of them, all waiving it off but James.
Jacob crept close to the stack of bombs. “L-Tee, this is what we need; the way we can use it against them.”
“Use what?” Marks asked.
“The hunters, how they always attack and each wave gets bigger than the last, drawing in the main body. We could set these up, bury them in the woods and draw them to us. We lay down fire until the horde arrives… when they mass right over these things… boom,” Jacob said.
Stone laughed, causing more of the deep coughs. “Hell, yeah ‘boom’. You’re talking three thousand pounds of boom. That’s enough bang to get you all out of Dodge and then some,” Stone said.
Marks stared at the weapons, a smile slowly building on his face. “Okay, how do we get the bombs into position? These aren’t exactly light.”
“I got a Bobcat back in the barn. I can help you get ‘em moved, but there’s something I need from you in exchange.”
James, staying quiet till now, handed the bottle back to Stone before walking away from the bombs and moving closer to the aircraft body, leaning against it. “What do ya need, Stone? Talk to me, brother.”
“I think you already know.” The old man looked away, kicking at the earth with his worn combat boot. “It pains me to say it, but I need you to get my family out of here. This isn’t the end of the world I’d prepared for. Eve’s right; I can’t keep the kids locked up in the shelter all day underground, and it’s only a matter of time until they find us here. We were okay until my boys disappeared. Now I just don’t have the help to take care of the place and give the kids the attention they need.”
“So Eve is their mother, then?” James asked, shooting a covert wink at Jacob.
“What? No, she’s their aunt,” Stone answered.
Marks grimaced and stepped ahead thoughtfully. “What happened to them? To your sons, I mean.”
Stone turned away and moved closer to the aircraft before leaning back against it. He took another sip from the bottle before answering. “They went out on a run. Hardware parts to fix the radio, some plumbing supplies for the well. They never came back. It’s as simple as that, I guess. Left us here with the kids and Eve. And now the changes in the way the black-eyed bastards are acting, the numbers of them that keep moving to the lake—I’m worried our time is running out.”
Stone shook his head. “I set this place up to be big enough for my entire family—my two sons, their wives, their kids, and Eve’s family—if she ever slowed down enough to start one. That girl can’t hold still for a minute, always putting more focus on that job of hers than starting a family. She had a serious boyfriend or two but never a husband. She’s too damn stubborn for that, I figure.
“We all made it here, but the boys took their wives out salvaging that one morning and never came back. Eve found their truck down by the East Bay. She never found any sign of the boys or my daughters-in-law. Not a damn thing… no blood trails, not a single spent cartridge. I know those boys wouldn’t have been taken without a fight, tough as nails, they were.”
Marks edged closer to the old man, looking him in the eye. “I’m not sure if you realize what you’re asking. There ain’t much out there for them; the camps aren’t ideal for children. As bad as it sounds, you have it better here than anyone in those camps do.”
Stone moved near James and sat on the plane’s wing. “What else can I do? They can’t stay here, not with all of them out there and more moving in,” he said, waving his arm toward the tall pines.
James reached out a hand for the Schnapps and took another long drink then paused; looking up like an idea just came to him. “What about the dioxin?” he said.
“What about it?” Marks asked suspiciously, frowning at James’s mention of it.
“We have plenty of it. Hell, over three gallons—way more than the sample that command asked for.
There has to be a tributary feeding that lake; how much would it take to ruin that seed pond, maybe run some of them off?”
Jacob moved to James. “You want to poison the lake? That’s your answer?”
“News flash, hero. The lake is already poisoned. Take a swim in it if you don’t believe me. That oily shit has it all clogged up. I’m just saying, without the lake the Deltas have no reason to come here. It might open things up for Stone and his family. Hell, maybe I’ll even stick around and help him manage the place,” he said, shooting another sly wink at Jacob.
“What is this dioxin?” Stone asked.
James smiled, showing his teeth. “It’s like mustard gas, and it messes them up pretty damn bad. If they’re coming here for the lake like Eve says, this might be enough to change their minds.”
“And you say you’ve got this stuff with you?” Stone asked.
Marks pursed his lips and dipped his chin. “We’ve got it, but like Jacob says, it’ll poison that lake, kill everything in it. We don’t know the half of what else it could hurt. For all we know, it’s death in a bottle.”
“Then do it, I don’t care,” Stone said. “We’ve got nothing to lose here. If it doesn’t work, I have to leave anyway. If it runs them off, then maybe we can move back above ground. I can get my water upstream; it’s worth the risk.”
James shrugged and slapped the old man on the back. “It’s worth a try, right?”
Marks stood up and stepped closer to the bombs, hesitating before looking back. “Okay— let’s do it.”
Chapter 22
Working in shifts, they prepared the ambush site. Stone knew the area well and hand-selected a spot just off the main trail, a well-traveled and very dangerous spot to be in. A place where traffic naturally funneled up from the East Bay then broke off onto several different trails. If they poisoned the stream leading into the East Bay, it might be enough to push the entire horde to them. They moved the bombs early in the morning—the time of day when the Deltas were least active.
Jacob was sent far out ahead of the group with James on security, using Duke for early warning. Stone seemed to pick up on James’s attraction to his daughter and sent the bearded Marine off as far from her as possible. From their observation post, they could just make out the faint sounds of the distant Bobcat as it moved and buried the bombs. Using two-way radios, they would call back to the group, ordering them to halt work whenever a Delta was spotted walking the main trail.
The weather had turned for the worse and the temperatures slowly dropped. The day had started with a light rain that gradually built into a heavy snowfall that soon covered the ground with fresh accumulation. Jacob watched a pair of Deltas moving into view. Through his scope, they almost appeared to be ordinary hikers, except the woman was dressed in jeans and long black boots. The man in a dark business suit. Not only did they not belong together as a couple, they didn’t belong in the woods in the late fall. The scene almost made him laugh.
“You think anything human is left in them?” Jacob whispered, watching the man walk along the trail.
“I used to think that, but not anymore; especially not after that black-eyed bastard back at the factory,” James said, keeping his hand on Duke’s head to calm him.
The dog’s lips were curled in the presence of the Deltas. “Duke sure does hate them. I wonder if he watched his family taken. Don’t you worry, boy; it’s almost time for us to get some payback,” James said, scratching Duke’s neck. Duke pushed his head against James like he understood what he was saying.
When the Deltas passed, Jacob gave the all clear over the handheld and the work started again. The Bobcat ran long into the afternoon until the word was finally passed for them to return to the cabin. Stone told them over the radio to avoid the ambush site. They didn’t want anything being led into the area until the day of the attack, and Stone was worried about them leaving tracks in the fresh snow.
As ordered, James made a wide cut through the woods, working his way back to the bunker. Duke shadowed beside him with Jacob just behind. “So, I heard you have a family back in Canada,” James said.
Jacob sighed. “Yeah, a wife and daughter.”
“That why you joined up, for the benefits?” James asked.
“Yeah, I guess you could say that. If they’d offered us safety and shelter without it, I probably wouldn’t be here.”
James laughed. “That’s nothing to be ashamed of. Hell, men have been fighting for the benefits since the history of war. Sometimes the benefits aren’t as obvious, sometimes they are.”
“What’s your benefit?” Jacob asked.
“Me?” James said, “No, no benefit for me. I fight because it’s the only thing I’m good at. Heck, maybe that’s my benefit. You can’t do this on the outside without ending up in prison. I’ve tried the civilian life. Didn’t work out for me. You try writing warfighter as an occupation and blowing shit up as a special skill.” James laughed. “No, I got out for a minute after my second tour in Iraq, but I couldn’t stay away. I bet everyone would like to hire Sergeant James now though. Yeah, I signed right back up for a third tour. I was on leave when all this shit started.”
“Vacation with the family?” Jacob asked.
“Oh, no family for me, bro. This was a fun trip… out with my boys in Atlantic City,” James said, taking a long pause before continuing. “My best friend from high school. The son of a bitch was getting married. Best bachelor party ever, you know? Boys all out on the town. Hell, they were all there, all of the old crew. His brother. One of my favorite cousins. Man, I hadn’t seen those guys in forever. It was good, Jacob, real good. We had a lot of fun for those first couple days.” James looked away, reflecting, taking several steps before continuing.
“That wedding never happened.”
James stopped and turned, looking toward the lake. He moved away so that he stood next to a tree, his tone dropping. “Shit, Jacob—I’m the only one of us left now. All my friends are gone. They looked to me, the bad ass Marine, lean and mean. They thought I had all the answers. Hell, I thought I had the answers. There wasn’t shit I could do. As soon as we hit the streets, we were separated in the crowds. It was mass chaos. I barely got out myself.
“Fucked up to think about it. Them all gone and me still here. Why me, Jacob? I’m no better than they were. Their only mistake was trusting me.”
Jacob didn’t know what to say; he stood silently waiting.
“You know, Jacob, this really is the place for warfighters like us. It’s where we belong. Warfighters need to be together. We can’t get mixed up with civilians all together in cities like that. That’s how shit gets broken.”
“Like us?” Jacob asked.
James nodded. “Oh yeah, I’ve watched you. You’re a warfighter too; you just haven’t accepted it yet. You keep fighting against it, telling yourself you’re just here because you have to be, just trying to follow along doing the bare minimum. Screw that noise. You need to embrace it, bro. Don’t endure; you got to embrace this shit, or it will eat you alive.”
Jacob laughed. “You’re nuts.”
“You’ll see.” James turned back hard on the trail. He stepped ahead and faced Jacob, his expression suddenly serious. He moved so that he was inches from Jacob’s face. “I’m telling you. Tomorrow, when we are out there on that line and those things are coming at us, don’t fight like you’re being forced to; fight like you’re standing in front of something worth protecting. If the Devil points his finger at you, you better lash out and bite it.” James turned away, not waiting for an answer, leaving Jacob standing alone. “That’s how you keep your family safe,” James said over his shoulder.
They trekked silently down the trail after that, Jacob giving the man space. They crossed over the barbed wire and exited into the clearing of the cabin. Jacob saw the others gathered near the barn. Stone had a trapdoor pulled back, revealing a deep root cellar. It was the type people used to shelter in during tornados and severe storms. Jacob edged cl
oser and could see it was stocked with weapons. Jesse was in the hole removing items as Stone pointed to them. They stepped closer to the stack of weapons and James leaned down and grabbed a heavy machine gun from the ground. “I’ll take this 240 if you’re playing Santa,” he said.
Stone turned to face him, looking him up and down. “Yeah, you sure as shit do look like a machine gunner. Go on and take it; you’ll find some linked ammo in the barn.”
Peering down into the cellar, Jacob saw a scoped M14 leaning in a corner. The same as the one he’d used in training. “Sir, the M14.”
Stone looked back suspiciously. “You know how to handle it?” he asked.
“I had one like it in training,” Jacob said.
Stone waved a hand at the M14 rifle then pointed further in. “Give him old reliable over there. Yeah, that shorty AK47 pistol also. Works well for CQB and kicking them when they’re down.”
“How’d you buy all of this?” Jacob asked.
Stone smirked. “I owned a gun shop in town after I retired, but I didn’t buy most of this. Well, not all of it. The big hardware like that M240 machine gun and the .50 in the barn, my boys found out on the highway right where the military dropped them after things went to hell. Loads of abandoned military checkpoints up and down the highway and county roads; plenty of hardware to be picked up. Have to get to it before it gets to rusting though.
“Some of this stuff I owned from before or collected on my own. People with militia ambitions stashed the rest here. Being a licensed gun dealer, I’ve been holding some things for them. Hell, some I’m still expecting to come back and collect. Can’t believe all them crazy bastards are gone.”
Jesse looked up from the hole. “So that’s who you are, what this place is. You’re with the militia?”
“Go on, boy. Grab that big, green, square box-looking thing there and climb on out. So militia, ay? Is that who you take me for?” Stone laughed, looking down at Jesse.