by Mark Goodwin
JC walked over toward the Bronco and opened the tailgate. “We found two metal ammo cans in the back. Looks like about 500 rounds of 5.56 and another 500 rounds of 7.62x.39.”
“No kidding?” Danny’s face lit up.
“We didn’t see any .308. That probably means they’re not very well supplied with that caliber at their base.” JC popped open two more ammo cans. “We also found four flash bangs and four fragmentation grenades in the truck. It will all come in handy for what we’ve got coming at us.”
Danny quickly remembered that this whole episode was not a total windfall. Any assets they had just gained would likely be spent in the days ahead. But, better to have it than not. “What are we going to be up against when they hit us?”
“There’s a Hummer with a .50 cal in Greenville. I would imagine they’ll be rolling in that when they come looking. They had a couple MRAPs in Charlotte, but those are stationary, at least for the time being.”
“Sounds like this guy is building up some serious military hardware.”
JC nodded. “Yeah, he’s using his muscle to extort food, fuel and supplies. Then, he can trade that for whatever he needs. Imagine you’re a soldier that had the good sense to get out of dodge before everyone at your base started eating each other. That vehicle you bugged out in isn’t going to do you any good if you don’t have fuel. And it will be even more useless if you starve to death. He’s slowly putting together an infrastructure to be a complete war lord.” JC closed the ammo cans and picked up two of them.
Danny picked up the other two and followed JC toward the trailers. “So you’re expecting roughly fifty men to show up in various vehicles and a Hummer with a .50 cal?”
JC thought as he walked. “All fifty of the men at the Greenville outpost probably aren’t infantry. You probably have ten to fifteen fobbits.”
“Fobbits?” Danny had no idea what he was talking about.
“FOB is military for forward operating base. A fobbit is someone that never leaves the base. If this guy is running his organization like a military, which from the looks of Gorbold, he probably is, then the FOB likely has a few people dedicated to the DFAC, a couple mechanics and various other support positions that won’t be involved in the search for the missing team.”
“DFAC?”
“Dining Facility.”
“Oh, okay. So we should expect thirty-five to forty men?”
“It’s hard to say, but that’s how I would work it if I were him.” JC placed the ammo boxes on the picnic table next to the guns. “I’m going to give Korey one of these ARs. I guess give the other one to Steven, and give Dana an AK. And don’t worry, I’m putting you in charge of the ammo for the AK. But at least give her fifty rounds to practice with. She might be the one who pulls the trigger on the guy who was getting ready to kill you. Unless you want to switch over, then give Steven an AK and you take the AR.”
“I’m happy with my rifle. I guess I’m getting a little attached to it.”
JC snorted. “You’ve been through a lot together. You should be.”
Rocky came slowly down the drive in his tractor with the front-end loader attached. He drove up near where Danny and JC were and cut the engine. He waved as he jumped off and walked over. He held out his hand as he approached JC. “I was out of line earlier. I hope you’ll forgive me. I appreciate all you’ve done to help keep us safe.”
JC shook his hand and smiled. “Don’t even worry about it. We all get stressed out from time to time. Especially in this environment.”
“It’s no excuse, but thanks for being so gracious.” Rocky adjusted his hat.
“I’ve got some ammo for your M1A, so make sure you stop by at some point this evening,” JC said.
Rocky looked at Danny. “I’m going to need some help. A front-end loader is more for moving than digging. I’m pretty good with it, so I can definitely make the most of what I have to work with, but if I had a couple guys with shovels in front of me, it will look a lot more like a trench. We’ll get a much cleaner line.”
“Sure, I’ll get Steven.”
JC nodded. “Me and Jack were planning on filling sandbags with the loose dirt, so we’ll be there if you need us.”
“Sounds good. I guess between the three farms, we should have plenty of shovels.” Rocky turned to walk back toward his tractor.
JC patted Danny on the back. “Good job ironing that out for us. Sometimes we just need a peacekeeper. Take your ammo and weapons to the house. I’ll get those grenades put away and I’ll meet you down at the barn.
Danny did as JC had instructed. Inside, he ran into Alisa. “Fresh weapons and ammo, coming through.”
“Awesome. You have more ammo for your AK?”
“Yep. And rifles for Dana and Steven. I’ve got to get them put up and start working on the trench. We can use all the help we can get. Can you round up Steven and Dana and have them meet us out front?” Danny paused to give her a kiss. His hands were full, so he couldn’t give her a hug like he wanted. “You did a good job this morning. You’re certainly no victim.”
She wrapped her arms around him and kissed him again. “Thanks. I needed that. It was frightening, but I faced my fear and I got through it.”
Catfish, Nick and Korey disposed of the vehicles after the gas had been siphoned out. Catfish also took care of setting the bonfire behind Rocky’s house which disposed of the bodies. As Danny worked, he would occasionally get a whiff of the burning corpses, which made his stomach feel sour.
Pauline Cook made a priority of moving their belongings to one of the fifth-wheel trailers, while Rocky was busy utilizing the tractor. Tracey and young Jason Reese helped Mrs. Cook while Melissa kept an eye on the two little Reese girls, Kalie and Emma.
The rest of the day was spent digging the trench, filling sandbags, selecting defendable firing positions and digging out fox holes for positions around the perimeter of the compound. Locations, chosen by JC and Nick, to be firing positions were dug out to a depth of three feet, then shielded with sandbags, three deep, to reduce the odds of the person in that spot being hit by the .50 caliber machine gun.
As tired as he was after the day was done, Danny still didn’t feel sleepy. The apprehension of what was coming served as an unwanted stimulant that made a good night’s rest evasive.
CHAPTER 18
And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.
Psalm 50:15
On Thursday, Danny and the others hurried through breakfast. Nana heated up the morning meal which was served at the picnic tables in the common area, with the help of Cami and Tracey. It was the first time everyone had eaten breakfast together in the courtyard.
There was no delay after eating. JC and Nick coordinated training for the compound, making range cards for each of the five primary firing positions and making sure the people assigned to each position could hit a man-sized target anywhere within their lanes of fire.
Danny and Steven assisted JC in digging out a shallow trench which would conceal fishing wire that would be used to trigger booby traps constructed from the four live grenades found in the Bronco. The four devices were to be placed at defensible positions along the gravel driveway, which was the most likely avenue of approach. Each of the four grenades could be triggered by pulling a length of the fishing line from inside the front firing position, a fox hole which JC called the Pinnacle.
Of the four functioning radios, three were carried at all times by Nick, JC and Danny. The fourth was always in rotation to be recharged at the solar shed located in the center of the compound. A strict schedule was followed by JC, Danny and Nick so that no one’s radio was ever discharged by more than half. In the event of an attack, Korey was to get the fourth, as he and ten-year old Jason were responsible for manning the fortified firing position behind the barn, called the Delta. Danny’s position, which was a fox hole located directly in front of the house, was called Alpha and would be defended by him, Alisa and Dana. JC, Jack
and Steven would cover the Pinnacle, just a few yards down from Alpha position in the direction of the barn. Nick and Cami would cover Bravo, which was the heavily sand-bag-covered fox hole nearest to the front of the barn. Catfish and Melissa were assigned to Charlie position, the fox hole behind the house. Charlie position would not have a radio for communication, so in the unlikely event that it were to be hit directly, Melissa was instructed to blow a whistle, alerting JC who could then coordinate and direct fire from Alpha and Delta to assist.
Should the compound come under fire, Pauline, Nana, and Tracey would take the three young girls, Annie Castell, Kalie and Emma Reese, to hide under Nana’s bed in the house. Being under the bed would keep the children low which would minimize their exposure to stray bullets and the mattress over top of them would offer some level of protection from shrapnel and debris. Nana, Pauline and Tracey would be armed and prepared to defend the children to their last breath, should the compound be breached and the house taken by Regent Schlusser’s goons.
A minimum of three people stood guard at all times, with one watching the rear of the compound and two others in positions where they could see the sides and front of the compound, particularly the gravel driveway and road beyond. Lookouts who didn’t have radios were given whistles so they could summon a person with a radio if they were to see something.
From this day forward, everything would change and survival would become exponentially more difficult. Security would become the largest consumer of labor in the compound, but all the other tasks and chores still had to be covered.
Danny, Alisa and Dana finished adding the third row of sandbags to Alpha position as he felt the first rain drop.
“Great. As if this chore couldn’t get any worse.” Dana huffed.
“We’re almost done, so it’s not so bad.” Alisa tried to lighten the mood.
“It will be worse for whoever has to stand guard in the rain.” Danny pushed against the top row of bags to test their stability.
“Stand guard in the rain? Are you crazy?” Dana leaned her shovel against the wall of the trench and crossed her arms.
“Rain doesn’t stop the enemy, so it can’t stop us either.” Danny had been thrust into something of a leadership position. While it had never been directly expressed, it was implied by JC who held Danny responsible for the actions of Alisa, Dana, and even Steven. The three of them generally accepted the implicit authority, either because they genuinely respected Danny or because they didn’t want to get chewed out by JC for anything, especially insubordination.
“So, who has to stand guard in the rain?” Dana frowned.
“You two can flip for it.” Danny kicked the dirt off of his shoes as if he were leaving.
“Danny! That’s not fair!” Alisa protested.
He chuckled. “Just kidding, we’ll draw straws. Short straw loses.”
Alisa stuck her finger in the air. “What if, we put some boards over top of the dugout? We could cover the boards with some trash bags, then put sandbags on top of that. It would cover it from the rain, and keep grenades from being able to drop right in our fox hole.”
Danny nodded. He wondered why JC hadn’t thought of such an implementation. “Really good idea, Alisa. You guys start filling sandbags for the top and I’ll go see what materials I can find.”
“Why are we filling the sandbags?” Dana sounded cranky.
“Because I need to tell JC, so the other positions can build roofs also.” Danny walked up the steep ramp they had dug into the fox hole as an entrance.
“Okay, but get the stuff for our roof before you go telling everybody else,” Alisa said.
Danny turned and winked at her. “Another great idea.”
Danny gathered some trash bags from the back porch, then headed down to the barn to scavenge some boards. He brought them to Alisa and Dana, then went to find JC and Nick. Both were standing just inside the solar shed to avoid the light drizzle of rain, discussing the plan and speculating the different ways the compound was vulnerable to attack.
“Hey guys.” Danny waved as he approached. They made room for him in the entrance of the shed. He stepped inside, then filled them in on what his team was doing for a roof.
“Why didn’t we think of that?” JC looked at Nick.
Nick threw his hands up. “Simple solution. I’ll look for some extra materials and tell the teams working on the other locations. Tell Alisa that was a fantastic idea.”
The day wore on and on, but there was no sign of anyone looking for the missing patrol. Danny allowed himself to hope that perhaps the leaders in Greenville would just write them off as having gone AWOL. Or perhaps, they just weren’t in the position to expend more resources to look for the missing members of their regiment. But he knew better. If this man, Schlusser, was to have any kind of respectability in the area at all, he couldn’t let the disappearance of six men go without an investigation, both for his image to the public and, more importantly, for the perception of his own men. There’s not much of a chance to set oneself up as a war lord if one’s own men detect even the faintest notion of weakness. And it was this understanding that promised Danny yet another fitful night of sleep.
Danny woke up to the sound of knocking at his bedroom door. He instinctively reached for his rifle.
Dana’s groggy voice came through the door. “You’re on watch.”
“Thanks,” Danny called back. The watch shifts were intentionally mixed up to start and end at different times for the three main observation posts, the Pinnacle, Bravo, and Delta. This would keep any opposing force who might have the compound under observation from being able to time an attack to the changing of the guards.
Danny quickly got dressed and made his way to the Pinnacle. While JC had simply named the key position, Pinnacle, the foxhole had quickly become known as the Pinnacle. Danny keyed his mic when he arrived. “I’m at the Pinnacle.”
“10-4, I’ll bring you a cup of coffee when it’s ready. I’m sure you could use it.” JC’s voice came over the radio.
Danny thought about the coffee. He most certainly could use a cup. He scanned his lane of fire for activity. He practiced looking at the range card and finding objects out in his field of vision. He looked at the tree, near the gravel drive, which was a little less than halfway out to the road. “Seventy-five yards.” The same tree was only fifty-five yards from Alpha, so he had to make sure he wouldn’t rely on the information from the range card in Alpha if he were to be in another location when the compound got hit. Danny continued to review the card and the distances, making a mental note of how much the bullet would drop, traveling to the various positions between the Pinnacle and the hedgerow, which marked the likely end of the effective range of his rifle from this position.
Somewhere along the way, Danny’s mind began to drift back to school, his apartment in Savannah and stealing a kiss from Alisa at the service station in the back of Lilly’s restaurant. How had his normal life been ejected from such an average existence into this tumultuous world of disorder? By the abandonment of God. That’s how. America had pushed and pleaded with her creator to be left alone for nearly four decades. And being the gentleman that he was, God had finally granted that request. Danny sighed as he ran his finger under the Velcro strap on the front of his tactical vest, always double checking that he’d put the magazines in the pouches correctly; opening on the bottom, with the bullets facing right.
“Coffee’s ready.” JC’s voice startled Danny and he jumped.
“Oh, thanks. That’s great.” He took the cup and sipped the warm beverage. The smell alone rejuvenated him.
“They say war is 99 percent boredom and 1 percent sheer terror.” JC surveyed the field before them.
Danny nodded. He knew something of the terror after four firefights and a rescue mission. “And anticipation. They forgot to add that. It kind of gets in the way of being able to enjoy the boredom.”
“Yeah.” JC snorted. “Nana is working on some pancakes. I’ll bring yo
u a plate when they’re done. And, I’ll watch your post so you can eat without staring at an empty field.”
“Thanks.” Danny took another sip of coffee. “Looks like rain again.”
JC looked at the gray sky. “Maybe. It was like this all day yesterday and all we got was a few sprinkles. If we don’t get some rain soon, we won’t have any crops to defend.”
“Rain or no rain, cloudy days make me feel sleepy.”
“Well don’t go to sleep on watch. You’ll get a court martial.” JC winked as he left the fox hole.
Danny gave JC a wave as he left the fox hole. JC had a tough side that was harder and colder than steel, but he had a humane side, compassionate and caring; very uncommon features, especially in this post-apocalyptic landscape. Danny had an extremely high appreciation for both of those sides.
Half an hour later, Danny had breakfast and another cup of coffee. JC watched the Pinnacle so Danny could get a bathroom break, then it was back to the grind.
Just before noon, Alisa scampered into the fox hole and gave Danny a kiss. “Having fun?”
“Loads.”
“Well, your shift is almost over, and, I brought you a friend.”
Rusty looked into the fox hole and wagged his tail, but didn’t seem willing to come inside just yet.
“Hey buddy.” Danny gave him a scratch.
Suddenly, Rusty froze. He walked away from the entrance to the fox hole and over to the ledge of the trench.
“He wants nothing to do with that filthy hole.” Alisa giggled.
Danny was much more serious. “He hears something. Be quiet.”
The gravity of the situation quickly registered with Alisa as she froze and listened with Danny.
Danny peered through the hedgerow but saw no evidence of any vehicles on the road. Still he keyed his mic. “JC, Rusty hears something, tell everyone to be on alert.” Danny let go of the button. He turned to Alisa. “Run and get Dana, tell everyone to get to their battle positions.”