by Robert Boren
“Son of a bitch, the fast ones might be Migs.”
“Migs?” Chance asked. “Shit, those are enemy fighters.”
“Blow the bridge now,” Cindy said.
“Yeah, I think you’re right,” Dirk said, handing the binoculars back to her. He pulled the cellphone out of his pocket and touched the screen. There were two huge explosions, the bridge flying apart, debris falling all over the road.
“Well, they noticed that,” Chance said, pointing to the last few troop transport trucks screeching to a stop.
“Let’s get to our vehicles now!” Dirk yelled. “We’re gonna have to take these suckers out ourselves.”
They rushed downstairs.
Chapter 15 – Death on the Road
Curt and Moe watched in horror as two of the Texas Air National Guard fighters were blown out of the sky by fast moving aircraft.
“Are those Migs or something?” Moe asked.
“Dammit,” Curt yelled, “those are Su-30s. Where the hell did they come from?”
Clancy looked through his binoculars. “Those have Venezuelan markings.”
“Shit shit shit,” Jake said. “What now?”
“There’s more of our guys coming, see?” Clancy said. “I count six of them.
“Yeah, but they’re gonna have their hands full with the Su-30s. They’re a lot faster than F-16s.”
The F-16s engaged the Su-30s, two more of them being shot down.
“Get out of there!” Curt screamed. “We’d better get to our vehicles.”
“What’s that?” Jake asked, pointing at several more fighters coming in low and fast.
“Yes!” Clancy yelled, looking through his binoculars. “That’s the US Airforce. Those are F-22 Raptors again.”
Curt got a big grin on his face. “Su-30s are no match for an F-22. Not even close.”
“Hope so,” Amanda said, getting on her bluetooth headset. “Put on your headset, honey.”
Curt nodded. “Stay back in that bobtail. Tell me if you see anybody coming close. Stay on that gun, but retreat if you have to. There’s enough ammo in that truck to blow you to the frigging moon.”
“I know, honey,” Amanda said. “Just like last time.”
“Look, the enemy planes are trying to flee,” Moe said.
“They won’t get far,” Curt said. As they watched, both of the Su-30s blew up in mid-air.
“Okay, let’s go take these bastards on,” Moe yelled. They got into their vehicles as the remaining F-16s began their first run, strafing I-40, the trucks running off the road, a couple exploding.
“Oh, yeah, baby!” shouted Clancy as they ran to their vehicles. Motors fired up all around them, and the off-roaders and armed Jeeps and trucks barreled down the street towards I-40.
“Look, five enemy trucks,” Moe yelled as he got behind the wheel, Jax getting into the passenger seat with an M60. Four other men got in the truck bed with M60s, BARs, and AK-47s as he took off.
“There, see,” Jax said. “They’re trying to go from the frontage road onto this road.”
Moe chuckled and brought the targeting system in front of his face. “Too bad I didn’t have time to train you on this.”
“Stop for a moment if you want,” Jax said. “They’re coming this way pretty fast already. I know those M19 grenade launchers have the range. Used them in the service.”
“Good idea,” Moe said, slamming on the brakes. Then he let loose with grenades, firing several times, the first two trucks in the line blowing up. The other three tried to flee, but Clancy flew around Moe’s truck, his grenade launcher blazing, catching the two fleeing trucks with rounds right into the back. Men jumped out, half of them on fire, and then citizen’s rifles all along the roadway popped up, killing the enemy fighters in a hail of lead.
“Yes!” Curt said as he flew by the bad guys in his Barracuda, heading for the frontage road. There were trucks streaming off I-40, trying to escape another run from the F-16s, which hit just about the time Curt got into a good place. He opened up with the M19, hitting two trucks, which exploded, blocking the frontage road. More armed citizens popped up and hit the fleeing trucks with gunfire.
“This is frigging insane,” Amanda said over the blue tooth headset. “There’s even more of our guys hitting them north of the interstate.”
“How are you seeing that?” Curt asked.
“I’m standing on top of the bobtail,” she said.
“Dammit, woman, get off there. You’ll get shot.”
“Don’t worry,” she said. “I’ve got an M60 and an RPG up here.”
“Shit, here comes more trucks,” Curt said, driving towards the west-bound frontage road, firing the M19 again, hitting three trucks, the first of them exploding in flames that engulfed the second. “Yes! There was ammo in that truck.”
Moe drove his truck next to the frontage road heading east, the men in back shooting at troop transports as they went, aiming for the cabs and the backs. Moe saw a big clump of trucks bottle-necked trying to get off I-40 before the F-18s got back. He fired several grenades into the midst of them, blowing up two of the vehicles, enemy fighters piling out of the burning trucks, only to be hit buy more citizens with their hunting rifles and shot guns. Only a few of the enemy fighters got shots off before they were killed.
There was a thunderous shot from the east, then another one.
“Tanks!” Amanda said. “They just splattered several trucks. One of them flew into the air a good sixty feet.”
“Yes!” Curt said.
“Get ready, honey,” Amanda said. “Lot of trucks turning around. They’ll be coming at you any second.”
“Good,” Curt said, his voice drowned out by bombs from the F-16s, which were back for another run. Several more tank rounds were fired, causing the stopped column of trucks to fly apart in all directions, raining down debris and fire.
“Wow,” Clancy said, driving his Jeep eastbound next to the frontage road, a few hundred yards ahead of Moe’s truck. He saw a few trucks trying to limp off the interstate and took them on, stopping them on the access road, blocking it, other trucks behind trying to ram their way off the road as armed citizens ran up. A small team of citizens set up their mortar and began firing, getting the range set to hit both sides of I-40.
“None of the trucks are moving on the highway anymore,” Amanda said. “They’re all stopped. A bunch of them are on fire, and enemy fighters are trying to get away on foot.”
“They’re running smack dab into thousands of armed citizens,” Curt said. “This is a thing of beauty to watch.”
Amanda chuckled. “None of them is getting anywhere near me so far. We’ve got a pretty good kill zone going. You ought to see all the citizens on the other side of the interstate.”
The tanks fired again, and the sound of the big .50 cal guns on the tanks started up.
“The tanks are probably getting close to the end of their cannon ammo,” Curt said. “Hope they’re saving some just in case.”
“It won’t matter, honey,” Amanda said. “That road is so bottled up with broken trucks now that nobody is gonna get east, even if the tanks weren’t there.”
***
“Wow, listen to that,” Kelly said as he drove his truck towards Vega, troop trucks at a standstill on the interstate before them. Gunfire started up from the backs of some of the troop transport trucks, one grazing the top of the cab.
“Whoa,” Brenda said. “Should I open fire?”
“In a minute,” Kelly said, starting to zig zag on the dirt of the field, Junior and Rachel rushing ahead of them.
“Hope they’re careful,” Brenda said. “Hope Rachel doesn’t have a problem with the baby.”
“We don’t even know if she’s pregnant yet, do we?” Kelly asked.
“She thinks she is,” Brenda said. “I tried to talk her out of this.”
“Fire,” Kelly said.
Brenda smiled and aimed, putting the target reticle on the truck where the shots came from
. She fired rapidly, targeting about five different trucks in a row, hitting all of them, one of them bursting into flames, which touched off more fire around it. Enemy fighters scrambled off the interstate, met with massive amounts of fire from citizens who revealed themselves in an instant. The enemy troops panicked, not even trying to return fire, running back onto the interstate which was being hit by grenade after grenade from the off-road vehicles racing up and down the frontage road.
“Look, couple of trucks got free of the first wave,” Rachel said to Junior. “Let’s go get ‘em.”
Junior spun the off-roader around and took off after them, but Eric and Kim blew past them in the Bronco, spewing grenades and M60 machine gun fire, taking out both fleeing trucks.
“Hey, no fair!” Junior yelled.
“There’s more, see,” Rachel said, getting ready on the sight. Junior sped towards them as she opened fire, hitting them before they could turn around, Eric and Kim spinning around and heading at more, trying to destroy them on the off-ramp. Then Jason joined in, and Kelly and Brenda, hitting several trucks on the off-ramp, blocking it completely.
“I can smell the panic,” Junior said as he drove, trying to find a spot where they could shoot onto the road.
“I’ll just start shooting high towards the east,” Rachel said.
“You’ll miss with some,” Junior said.
“Yeah, but I’ll hit with most of them,” she said. “We’ve got plenty more grenades back there anyway.”
“Okay, baby, have at it,” Junior said. He watched as she fired the grenades, spots further to the east blowing up as Islamists screamed. Citizens rushed I-40 from both sides, engaging the enemy, most of whom were hiding behind damaged trucks trying to return fire as grenades fell around them.
“Look, here comes some jets,” Junior said.
“Hope they’re ours this time,” Rachel said.
They watched as three jets made a run, dropping bombs and strafing the road, more of the trucks blowing sky high, starting a chain reaction of explosions and fire.
“Wow,” Junior said. “This battle isn’t going to last long.”
“There’s a lot of fighters on foot now,” Rachel said. “That’s not so good.”
Kyle’s truck sped past them to the east, looking for a place to enter the frontage road, Kate firing her M-60 out the passenger side window at the trucks stopped on the interstate.
“Fire the fifty cal, honey,” Kate said. “See that big off ramp? We don’t want these guys getting into town.”
“Exactly what I was thinking,” Kyle said, “but I want to blow some up on the ramp so it gets clogged up. We need some grenades over here.”
“Better fire now anyway, look at that line of them.”
“Perfect,” Kyle said, opening fire, .50 cal rounds hitting two trucks in the front, stopping them. The trucks behind them rammed, pushing them out of the way. Kate fired the M60, lead exploding into the cabs, the trucks spinning to a stop, other trucks trying to ram their way through. Kyle fired the .50 cal again, stopping the next row, and the row behind that, clogging up the ramp completely.
“We really need a grenade launcher over here,” he said.
“Here comes Jason,” Kate said, pointing as his Jeep roared up, Francis firing the M19, grenades exploding the stuck trucks, ruining the access road completely.
“They’re trying to get off on the other side,” Kate said, but then there was the sound of explosions on that side of the road. “Never mind, somebody’s using an RPG over there.”
“I’m going further east,” Kyle said, driving up the frontage road as another strafing run started above him.
“Hope they don’t shoot us,” Kate shouted as they saw the bullets and bombs hitting the road, less than forty yards to their right.
“Maybe I’d better get back a little further,” Kyle said. “Look at that structure over there. Small hill. I’ll get up there and we can nail these guys.”
“Go for it,” Kate said as she opened fire with the M60 again, hitting a group of enemy fighters as they tried to flee the interstate.
“Damn, look at Eric go!” Kate said, watching the Bronco fly past them, grenades firing out of the big gun as Kim fired her machine gun. “That guy is nuts.”
“He’s an old racer,” Kyle said. “What amazes me is that he’s firing that M19 and driving at the same time.”
“Gives Kate a chance to do damage with that machine gun,” Kate said. “Look, planes coming in again.”
“A bunch of enemy troops are trying to get off the road on foot again, see?” Kyle yelled. As they got past the frontage roads, a hail of bullets hit them from more than a thousand armed citizens, most of them falling where they were.
“Wow,” Kate said. “This is gonna be another rout.”
“This is the easy part,” Kyle said. “We still got New Mexico, and they might have a trap like this set for us.”
“Don’t remind me,” Kate said. She fired her machine gun again, hitting several enemy fighters trying to leave the interstate, about half of them rushing back behind the broken trucks.
There were popping noises, and the interstate exploded in several places, causing chain reactions in one of the spots.
“Mortars,” Kyle shouted.
“How we doing on ammo?” Kate asked.
“I’m getting a little low. Should we go get more?”
“Yeah,” she said. “I’m about done too.”
They turned and headed back to their position, several other vehicles on the way too.
Chapter 16 – Airforce and Navy
Kip Hendrix and Maria were sitting at the kitchen table, having coffee.
“You’re worried,” Hendrix said, watching Maria’s eyes.
“Celia,” Maria said.
“Cole assured me that they’d keep her there,” Hendrix said. “It wasn’t a pleasant conversation, but I got my point across. I think I helped him to have a healthier attitude about Nelson too, although that news conference might have ruined that.”
“Everybody seems to be pretty happy with that news conference,” Maria said. “Social Media is on Nelson’s side. That’s pretty clear.”
“The opposition will have a big problem with the comments about the UN,” Hendrix said. “I wonder what kind of proof there is about their antics in California?”
“You don’t believe what Nelson was saying?”
“I don’t want to believe it,” Hendrix said. “We haven’t seen action by them here in Texas…yet.”
“Oh,” she said. “Even good organizations can be corrupted. Look at what happened to the Federal Government.”
Hendrix sighed. “I know. I feel like we’re out there flapping in the breeze now.”
“Us? You and me?”
“No, honey, just Texas,” Hendrix said, his hand covering Maria’s. “I don’t trust the Europeans or the current UN leadership. They might make us a priority, if they can lock down California and the Atlantic states north of Virginia.”
“I never hear much about the Atlantic states,” Maria said, “except those early stories about the UN being kicked out of upstate New York after the martial law debacle.”
“I’ve read some things,” Hendrix said, “but not from sources I trust one hundred percent. All of the states from southern Virginia to the Florida Keys have overturned martial law. There’s also been a lot of resistance in Maine.”
“We don’t know what’s going on in Washington DC, either, do we?”
“This coup seems phony to me,” Hendrix said. “I think they needed to sacrifice somebody, and President Simpson was the best choice.”
“Did you ever hear if the stories about the Attorney General were true?”
“I saw pictures of Blake,” Hendrix said, grim expression on his face.
“You didn’t tell me,” Maria said.
“No, but I’m not trying to hide anything. Saw them late the other night. You were already asleep.”
“Bad?” Maria asked.
“Pretty gory,” Hendrix said. “All the staffers he had with him were killed too. I knew a couple of them. They weren’t all bad folks.”
“Depends on if they were in on this,” Maria said.
Hendrix was silent for a moment, then looked at her. “If Nelson went that way, we might not know what to do. We might not understand what the plans are or that they’re evil. I’m afraid that’s what happened with some of these people. I can’t imagine them wanting to be on the side of cretins like Saladin.”
“Oh,” Maria said, squeezing Kip’s hand.
“Some of my old friends think I’ve gone to the dark side by staying on Nelson’s leadership team, you know.”
“But you know he’s not an evil man, right?”
“Of course,” Hendrix said, “and I’m loyal as the day is long. It won’t look good to some of my progressive friends, though, and I can’t blame them for that.”
The console beeped in the other room.
“Uh oh, sounds like something is going on,” Hendrix said.
“I’ll go log on,” Maria said, getting up. She hurried into the console room, Hendrix right behind her. He pulled up a chair next to hers as she logged on.
“Hi, Maria,” Brian said. “The Governor will be on in a second.”
“What’s this one about?” Hendrix asked.
“The battle along I-40,” Brian said.
“Shoot, we didn’t have a nasty surprise, I hope,” Hendrix said.
“Doubt it,” Brian said. “The Governor and Gallagher were in pretty good moods.”
Nelson strode into the room, followed by Ramsey, Gallagher, and Wallis.
“Wow, Commissioner Wallis finally got to return to Austin?” Maria asked.
Wallis smiled at the camera. “Hi, Maria. Yes, I actually get to see my family for a few days.”
“It’s safe enough to put all of you into the same place?” Hendrix asked.
“Yeah,” Wallis said. “Some things have changed.”
“Oh, really?” Hendrix asked.
Major Josh Carlson rushed into the room, looking sweaty and nervous. “Sorry I’m late.”
“You’re not late,” Nelson said. “Have a seat. Welcome.”