by M. P. Lodi
“What's the plan?” Emily asked as a customer came out of the Love's, holding the door open for them.
Noah just said, “Shh until we're back in the car.”
As they walked in, Emily looked back at the Pathfinder. Jacob was still seated in the driver’s seat. All three walked in and she asked Joshua, “Why is he staying in the car?”
“Precautions and safety. He can be a lookout from there and make sure no one puts anything on the car.” He nodded and had a look on his face which told Emily that she should know that.
Noah pointed to the hot dogs and his face lit up as he went right for them. Emily noticed his wide smile, as did Joshua who also followed Noah. They were all hungry. Stress can make you eat like a pig. Jen and Emily had many nights in the past eating chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream and pizza, their favorite pig-out foods for those nights when you just wanted to tell the world to go to hell, and you didn't care about the consequences. Today was such a time. They had been driving for almost eight hours, stopping just to get water and use the restrooms. The smell of the hot dogs made Emily's mouth water. Food always smells better when you're starving.
Emily was right behind Noah. As they all stood in front of the machine with the hotdogs rolling, Noah said, “There's so much tasty food right here that I might cum.”
Emily slapped his arm. “Give it a rest, Hercules. When are we going to get some sleep and alone time? I could use some cuddling after I sleep for like a couple of days.”
Noah licked his lips. “So you want to feel my muscle?” He winked at her.
He patted her ass and said, “First, we satisfy our stomachs. Then we get to the hideout in the hills. Then we sleep and maybe even have sex. How's that for a plan?”
She smiled. “Sounds good to me. I need some tension relief. Sleep and sex are the best things you can do to get rid of stress.”
“I know... I'm all for our own tension relief sessions.” Noah nodded over to Joshua. “Joshua can't wait to get to New York. He and Charlotte had a thing going back there.”
Joshua took three hot dogs for himself and held them all in his left hand as he went to the soda machine to choose a soft drink. Noah still stood looking over all of the hot dogs, taking in the smell. If you didn't know him, you'd think he was deciding what to get when actually, he just couldn't decide how many of each to grab. They had been in similar situations before, and Noah would joke that he always knew what he wanted, he only debated with himself about the quantity.
Emily nudged him with her elbow. “Ready to consume mass quantities?”
He smiled at her, but she was sure he didn't get her obscure reference for the Coneheads movie and skits on Saturday Night Live.
Emily looked at Joshua. “Hey, you dated the friend we're going to meet while overseas? How did that turn out?”
Joshua turned as the soda started filling his cup. “We dated and it was a drama-filled time for us both. It ended with cars scratched and a pile of my clothes being burnt in the yard, and here we are.”
Emily showed her surprise. “That sounds interesting. And crazy.”
“Lives such as ours leaves few friends that you can trust. You'll like Spiderwoman. She is funny, witty, great-looking, and loves to read. She's up on all sci-fi, Game of Thrones included. And she's the toughest, no-nonsense chick you'll ever meet. You and Noah can have some serious chats with her on that show and the books. She can also teach you to shoot real well. She can out shoot any of us,” he said.
“She sounds a lot like my friend Jen, except for the tough soldiering part.”
Joshua didn’t look so sure. “Jen that I met at the house in Texas? Yeah... she was more the crying and scared type. The complete polar opposite of Charlotte.”
Noah grabbed two sausages and four hot dogs for himself. Then, with two hands almost filled with food, he headed towards the soda machine.
Emily turned back to him and tapped him on his shoulder. “Anything for me, dear?”
Noah looked at both of his hands, then, without moving his head, moved his eyes about in a comical way. “Sorry, hon. Let me get one of those boxes for us. I'll get you whatever you want.”
“I'll get it.” Emily grabbed a box and opened it.
Noah filled it with his food, then he stood there holding the box. “Pick what you want, hon. Hold it... I need to use the restroom.”
“Well you go do what you have to. Me and Joshua will take care of the food, and then we'll be over there waiting for you. Is that okay?”
Noah nodded yes and walked quickly to the restroom. Love's makes you walk past all of the merchandise before you can get to their bathrooms as part of their marketing strategy. It’s similar to the way big supermarkets always put the milk and bread way at the back, far from the front door. They know people buy a lot of milk and bread and want to make sure the customers see lots of other items as they walk to get them. That's the psychology of retail for you.
About eight minutes later, all three of them returned to the car. As they all sat down, Jacob said, “Be right back,” and headed towards the Love’s.
Emily watched as Noah scarfed down an entire hotdog with just two huge bites. As she looked at him with a surprised face, Joshua noticed.
“Sarge, tell your girl about how many hot dogs you ate that one day.”
Noah put his finger in the air again to gesture for them to wait as he chewed and swallowed. After a few more seconds he said, “I had 16 hot dogs and won the company hot dog eating competition.” He put both of his hands in the air, flashing a victory sign – two v's – and then bowed as if there were an audience in front of him to applaud.
Emily had a slightly disgusted look on her face as a piece of roll fell from Noah's mouth to his lap. “I have no doubts, you pig.”
Noah then ate another hot dog in just seconds as she looked on, with Joshua smiling from the front seat while sipping his Coke.
“Joshua, can I call you Josh?” He nodded yes as he took a bite of his own hot dog.
“Tell me about the incident in Afghanistan that turned you and your Sarge here and your whole team rogue.”
Joshua finished chewing and looked at Noah for permission. She glanced at Noah and saw him give Joshua a nod of approval as he gulped down some of his drink.
Joshua said, “The powers that be, ever since the war in Afghanistan started, didn't care much for our own people. Things only got worse when the current administration took office. It got so bad that the last Rules of Engagement given to us said that we were no longer allowed to even enter an Afghan home unless being fired upon from that home. And if we chased a terrorist into a home, we weren't allowed to search the Koran which the family usually had right in the first room. How fucked up is that? I think you can guess where these pigs could easily hide a gun. And they did.
“Well, one day we were shot at, and our good friend Jim was shot from one of three homes, but we weren't sure which. As he lay there bleeding to death, the Sarge, myself, Mike and Rob, along with two others from our platoon, flanked the houses. One by one we broke down the doors. In the first house we didn't find anyone. In the second there was only women and children. In the third, there were several men, but we didn't find anything at first. We had them all in the first room as we searched the house. Being Military Police – that's what our MOS stands for: MP95bravo is the designation for Military Police – being MPs we searched them all well. An officer straight from DC was with our unit. A political hack who observed us searching them. The idiots back in DC and the president's hand-picked idiots in the Pentagon wanted our troops watched. Noah went to look at the Koran and this nimrod goes, ‘No, do not touch that holy book. By orders of the new rules of engagement.’ We all looked at each other in surprise. I think he was himself a Muslim, not that that matters.” Noah had grunted a couple of times as he scarfed down yet another hotdog.
Noah paused in shoving food down his throat to ask, “Can you believe that shit? Someone just shot our friend and this piece of shit fro
m DC, appointed by this illegal and immoral administration, tells us we can't touch the Koran in the very house that we were fired at from. What the fuck?”
Joshua was nodding and then continued, “To make a long story short, we didn't find any weapons in the house at all. Then Officer Nimrod told us to vacate the premises and pay respects for invading their home. We started to walk out and just as we made our way out the door, Charlotte came over to the house and a shot came from that very room we were walking out of.”
“Let me finish it,” Noah interrupted. Emily turned to face Noah as he put his food back into the box. If it meant putting his food down to talk, that meant Noah really wanted to talk.
“The shot rang out and we all ducked and looked to see that it was one of the Towel Heads. Or sorry, the more politically correct term is ‘T-head.’ No one says that. Anyway, he took the weapon from the Koran, from cut out pages, and the motherfucker shot Charlotte in her arm. She almost lost that arm from the bullet. To this day she has a scar going from her elbow all the way down to her wrist. I blew the fuck out of that rag-headed bastard. I emptied my whole magazine into the prick. So did Josh here, and two others that you'll soon meet.”
Emily looked on and was amazed as he spoke.
Noah continued, “The kicker to the whole story is that Officer Nimrod dusts himself off and comes at me with a pistol after we're done killing the bastard. He goes 'Did you openly shoot this man who had a Holy book in his hand?' I looked at this mo-fo and wanted to knock him the fuck out. You have no idea how pumped up you are in a combat situation. Joshua here grabbed me to hold me back, along with Mike, who you'll meet when we get to New York. They sensed I was about to hit the asshole. I told him straight ‘Fuck yeah and I'll do it again, you asshole. He took the weapon from the Koran, are you fucking blind?’” He took a breath before continuing.
“I picked the Koran up and showed him the cutout where the pistol had been hidden, then threw the book to the ground.” Noah looked at Emily and then Joshua. Noah always seemed to go right back into situations from the past by just describing them. He would relive emotions as if they were happening right there and then.
Noah wiped his mouth with a napkin. “Well here's the hard part. This low-life scumbag whose life we just saved, who allowed our friend Jim to be shot and killed.” Noah paused to reiterate, “Yeah, Jim died that night.”
Then Noah said, “Officer Nimrod looked at me and said 'How dare I throw the Holy Koran to the ground like that.' Some woman was wailing as if the worst thing to happen at that house was me throwing that book to the floor. We had two of the other men on their knees at this point with guns pointed at their heads. And this asshole is blaming me for throwing a book to the ground? He goes 'You'll be brought up on charges for this, Sargeant. This administration and chain of command is sensitive to the culture of this nation, and you will be lucky if you don't end up in prison for murder.’”
Noah looked at Emily and Joshua. “Right then and there I knew. I knew evil lurked not only there in Afghanistan, but also right back in the good old USA. I was not about to lose my life over defending my buddies and my own life, buddies who would have been fine had we just been allowed to search a damned book. Fuck that, I don't need that shit in my life.”
“Don't tell me you killed Officer Nimrod?” Emily asked.
Noah didn't answer. Emily looked at Joshua and he sipped more of his soda.
Noah finally said, “Damn straight I did. It was him or me, and I'm not losing my life over politics. Especially the politics of asshole commie fucks from our own government. We buried that fucker and reported him MIA. He's lucky Private Glen... I mean Charlotte, wasn't alone with him after she was shot. She would have skinned him alive for getting Jim killed and getting her shot and risking all of our lives. He deserved death – that prick – and anyone in the chain of command that supports our soldiers being killed as easily as that, well they all deserve to die too. Fuck them all.”
Joshua said, “You see Em, that's why returning soldiers and all combat veterans are watched now in the US. By the Department of Homeland Security. They view returning veterans as a security risk because when shit does finally go down in this nation, we will be tearing politicians, lawyers and fake-ass military leaders a new asshole. Every one of them. Let them try gun confiscations anywhere and watch how the US goes into a real revolution.”
Emily shook her head and took a sip of her Sprite. “You really think a revolution has a chance against the US Military?”
Noah leaned closer to Emily. “Honey, we are the US Military. Don't in a million years think that you can replace the Joint Chiefs of Staff and a few generals with fake email scams to get rid of all patriotic officers like this administration has used his spymasters to do. We all know what's up, and our estimate is we have at least 75% of the military with us when the shit hits the fan. God help any enemies of the Constitution. Right now there are literally millions of American veterans home, armed to the teeth and all willing to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against any enemy, foreign or domestic.”
Emily exhaled softly, then said, “You better stay off those steroids. If you're like this now, you might just start a revolution yourself, especially with as heavily armed as you and your buddies are.” She watched Noah and Joshua as they exchanged a glance, and then a smile.
Emily, the woman who now stood by him through some of the hardest times any couple could face, had to be told what he and his buddies planned. She would find out sooner or later. Noah knew it was far better if he were the one to reveal it all to her before it got real. Not that you could get any realer than killing two hitmen when they came to kill you. Noah loved Emily with all his heart. He knew she would stand by him through anything once she jumped in the Pathfinder as they left their friends’ home after the shooting.
Now, all Noah had to do was ease her into his plans. That was going to be the hard part, he just knew it. He looked at her face and saw the woman he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. But under the circumstances, what kind of life would that be? And could she really handle what was about to happen?
Jen
The next day, as Jen and Jackson were sitting on their bed, propped up by pillows and ready to watch TV, Jackson suddenly said, “Show me that code you and Em created that you were telling me about.”
Jen turned around and opened her nightstand drawer, taking out a spiral green notebook with a pen clipped to the top. She opened the notebook and leaned on Jackson's chest as she showed him the page.
“It's easy. Basically, my Aunt Diana is really nosy, and as you already know, I went to live with her after the accident. She used to look at everything that I and Em did, and she read everything we wrote. I started to keep a journal to write down how I felt after my parents died. It wasn't much but it pissed me off that my aunt would read it. No matter where I hid it, she would find it when I was at school and read it. I would put it in an exact spot, or use a piece of scotch tape in a strategic position, like on top of the door to my closet, to prove she was opening and reading it. I love the woman, but she is so nosy. Me and Em came up with an idea to hide what we wrote in plain view.”
“Plain view?” Jackson seemed intrigued. He had that little crinkle on the sides of his eyes.
“Yes, right in plain view. We actually created a language of our own. It's not just a code. Em came up with the name. She called it Seclan, for 'Secret Language’, get it?”
Jackson nodded.
“Let me show you. Jen started writing out the alphabet on the page as Jackson watched.”
“We took our own alphabet, then added a few extra letters to mess anyone up who would possibly try to read our stuff. Not that anyone would care to read the writings of two eight and nine year-old kids, but you know kids, they tend to think they are the center of the universe. Anyway, we created a symbol for each letter, and a second symbol for the lower case letter. Then we had extra letters for common sounds like CH or TH in the word
'The'. So the word ‘the’ is spelled as such with just two symbols instead of three.”
Jackson looked at the word Jen wrote and watched as Jen finished up writing symbols next to each letter. Before she finished, he said “You do know the government has pretty good code breakers. I doubt that a creation by two eight year-old children is better encryption than say the Nazi code that they broke in World War II.”
She handed him the sheet of paper. “It doesn't have to be. The Feds will never even get to see it. It's just an extra precaution that will most definitely delay them if they did violate our privacy rights.”
Jackson looked at the paper. “Wow... you two really did all of this, and then passed notes to each other?” he asked.
“We wrote whole diaries over time, especially in high school. It was nice to be able to write and not have anyone looking over your shoulders. Once, a teacher caught us handing notes and took it from my hand. His policy was to read any notes out loud to the class in order to shame students into not passing notes. Well... he couldn't read our note.”
She smiled and continued, “Em and I were called into the principal’s office when we refused to translate it. Em got suspended for two weeks when the Principal said she had to translate the note or else. She took the note and made them believe she was reading and said ‘Go to hell.’ I almost burst out laughing and was also suspended for a week for it all. Em fancied herself a writer and used to write whole stories in Seclan. I did tell you that she started writing romance novels, right?”
“Yeah, you did. Loosely based on us. Too bad she can't make any money from them now, being wanted and all. This is all interesting, but what's the actual plan for communicating with Em?”
“I know she'll want to write and give us info that they can't say over the phone. Using our little language that we created, we can tell them anything in the open. She'll write to us, I just know it. Most likely to the office. She would guess that, chances are, the FBI won’t be opening business letters to your office. There’s just too much mail to deal with even if they wanted to,” she said.