by Steven Bird
Sarah, Kevin, and Michael came running down the stairs next. Sarah looked at everyone and frantically asked, “What’s going on? Griff shouted and told me to get downstairs, but didn’t say why.”
Before anyone could answer, they all went silent as they heard the ominous pulsing of the Hind’s massive main rotor directly overhead. Fear gripped the adults and children alike. They knew they had fared well in the past when faced with hostile intruders, but a well-equipped and trained government force would be a different story.
Evan made a quick headcount and said, “Okay, we’re missing Griff, Jason, Jake, and Greg.”
“Jason’s on his daily comms run, Greg is on watch, and I think Jake was out checking on the sheep,” Molly replied.
Sarah spoke up and said, “Griff said he’s staying upstairs to keep an eye on things.”
Evan’s face was serious as he looked at Molly and said quietly, “Unlock the basement gun safe. Don’t start breaking everything out just yet and scare the kids to death, but be prepared. We know these bastards aren’t here for anything good. We’ve seen nothing but hostility and oppressive behavior from them everywhere we’ve seen them. I love you.” He kissed her on the cheek, turned, and ran upstairs.
Reaching the upper level, Evan saw Griff looking with binoculars out of the window at the end of the hallway on the south end of the house. “What’s going on?” he asked.
“One of the helicopters is lying low off in the distance, while the other is doing a slow orbit around the house. They’re both armed up—S-8 rockets on their hard points. They could obliterate this house with the mere twitch of a finger; we don’t have a leg to stand on in a fight with them. If they choose to make a move—I don’t know what we could do. We can’t get away. They could track us and mow us down any direction we run. We would have to have a damn underground tunnel to get away if it comes to blows.”
Evan gestured to borrow the binoculars. Taking them from Griff, he watched the orbiting Mi-24 Hind as it made its way back around the house. The Hind turned and faced them, almost seeming to stare Evan directly in the face, as if they knew he was watching. “What are you up to, you bastard?” he mumbled.
“Dude, we could hit the pilot with the fifty from here,” Griff said. “We could take that bastard down.”
“The other one would smoke us though,” Evan said, handing the binoculars back to Griff. “Hence the overwatch position. I have a feeling this guy is up close in order to use thermal imaging or penetrating radar to scan the house for threats. They’re probably watching us watching them right now.”
Just as Evan finished his sentence, the Hind turned and flew away toward the east, with the other helicopter rejoining it in their formation, disappearing across the ridgeline and over the horizon.
With the stress of the moment leaving his body, his heart still pounding through his chest, Evan said, “Looks like they are heading over toward the Thomas farm now.”
“I wonder what they are looking for?”
“Us. Well, maybe not us exactly, but those like us. But then again, considering what Jason and I got caught up in, I guess it really could be us. If they had any real intel at this point, though, they would have been kicking—or blowing—our door off its hinges by now. No, I think they are still gathering intel on the area before they make a move.”
“Man, I feel like we should be on the radio by now sending word to the other homesteads.”
“Yeah, I know. But if they are taking this sort of interest, employing two helicopters in the manner with which they are, they more than likely are already monitoring all radio traffic in the area. Our house-to-house gear being unencrypted in any way would be wide open to them and would just give them a clue as to our associations and intentions. I think we should just let things play out for the moment. They’ll keep their heads on straight over there and at the other homesteads too. Nobody would be stupid enough to make a move on those damn flying tanks unless it was a matter of last resort.”
“Yeah, you’re probably right. Still, it feels wrong just sitting here, waiting for something bad to happen.”
“We’ll get with everyone very soon. We need to get our bug out plans that you, Jason, and Daryl spoke about the other day up and running. As individual homesteads, avoidance is our best defense. The militia may have a better way to actually deal with the problem.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine: Provocation
At the Thomas farm, Mildred was sitting on the hill beneath the majestic magnolia under which Ollie was buried. She was enjoying the peaceful and beautiful view, talking with him as she did every day, as if he was still right there with her. As she was wrapping up her very personal and private conversation, she heard the faint sound of helicopter rotors off in the distance. Almost immediately, they began to appear over the opposing ridgeline at treetop level, traveling at a high rate of speed.
Crossing the ridge, the two helicopters swooped down into the valley and split up, one heading directly for the house while the other flew up the valley and toward Mildred’s herd of grazing cattle. Her heart sank in her chest at the sight of the two helicopters, knowing what had happened in the recent past when citizens encountered them.
~~~~
Closing the gate to the pasture after having counted the cattle as they entered, Luke heard the sound of the rapidly approaching helicopter that was flying up the valley, and immediately turned and ran for the cover of the woods. Entering the trees for cover, he looked back in horror to see the helicopter open fire with its 12.7mm four-barreled machine gun while heading directly for the herd.
Ignoring the urge to keep running, Luke took cover behind a large tree and watched in horror as the cattle, trapped in the confines of the fence, were torn to shreds. As the animals virtually exploded from the high powered 12.7x108mm armor-piercing rounds, the survivors ran in all directions in a total panic, attempting to flee from the helicopter as it continued to make pass after pass until every last cow was dead.
Luke was in shock at the gruesome scene and instantly feared for those at the house. He began to run through the woods toward home with his AR-15 on his back that he always carried along with him when out on the farm, performing his chores.
As he reached Mildred on her special hill, he saw that she was standing out in the open with her hands over her face, crying and screaming. Grabbing her by the arm, Luke pulled her into the woods. “Come on! Get away from there before they see you. Into the woods!”
She didn’t respond to his commands and nearly fell from his forceful tug on her arm. Realizing her mental state, Luke picked her up off her feet, threw her over his shoulder, and began running through the woods while she wailed and screamed, “Why? Why? Why, God? Why?”
Getting far enough into the woods to feel reasonably concealed, Luke stopped, put Mildred back on her feet, and guided her by the hand to sit down. “Mildred... shhhhh... Mildred. Please. Please hold it together. Listen to me...”
“They killed them. They killed them all. Why? Why would they do such a thing?” she said, sobbing heavily in a state of disbelief and heartbreak.
“We’ll figure that out later. For now, you just sit tight. Don’t go anywhere. I’ll run to the house to check on the others and possibly get them out of there. Please... just don’t go out there. It won’t help anything.”
Unable to speak due to her emotions, Mildred nodded yes to Luke’s request.
Luke leapt over downed logs and ran right through bushes, scratching himself on briars, brush, and branches as he continued his run toward the house. Abeam the house, he dropped down through the woods to the tree line, stopping to observe. The helicopter that had been orbiting around the house had just peeled away and was rejoining the other as they disappeared over the ridge as quickly as they had arrived. In just a few moments, the Mi-24 Hinds had managed to decimate Mildred’s cattle herd. The food source and livelihood that she and Ollie had worked to build for years had been taken away in an instant.
Once the helicopter wa
s gone, Luke ran into the house, yelling, “Rachel? Haley? Mom? Where are you?” He ran from room to room searching frantically until he finally heard Rachel shout, “We’re down here!”
Hearing her voice come from the basement, Luke ran downstairs to find the three women huddled in the corner in tears.
“What the hell happened?” Rachel asked frantically. “Why were they shooting? What were they shooting at?”
“The cows... they killed all of the cows.”
“What? All of them? What... I mean, why would they do that?”
“I don’t know. Control? Provocation? Maybe they're trying to starve people out of the mountains and force us into food lines in the cities? I don’t know, but they’re gone—for now, at least.”
“Where’s Mildred?” Judith asked with fear in her trembling voice.
“She’s fine. Shook up, but fine. She saw the entire thing. I’ll go and get her and bring her back. While I’m gone, get on the radio with the Homefront. Let them know what happened and to keep their flock hidden.”
As Luke ran out the door to get Mildred, his mother, Judith, did as he instructed and hailed the Homefront on the CB radio. “Homefront! Is anyone there? We’ve been attacked!”
~~~~
Back at the Homefront, Judy was dutifully monitoring the radio for any word from the other homesteads in regards to their aerial visitors when she heard Judith’s distressed-filled voice cry out over the radio. “Evan! Evan!” she shouted.
As Evan ran into the room, he said, “What? What is it?”
“Something bad happened at the Thomas farm.”
“What?” he asked.
“I don’t know. Judith only said that they’ve been attacked. I haven’t replied because I knew you wanted us to stay off the radio.”
“Attacked? Oh, my God. Go ahead. Respond!”
“We’re here!” she said. “What happened? Is anyone hurt?”
“They just started shooting and wouldn’t stop! They killed them all! Every single one of them!”
Grabbing the microphone, Evan replied, “What? They killed everyone? What the hell?”
“The cows... I mean, they killed all the cows.”
“Oh, thank God!” Evan said aloud, realizing what she had meant. “Is anyone hurt? How are you, Rachel, Haley, Mildred, and Luke?”
“We’re okay. Luke went back to get Mildred just now. She was out on Ollie’s hill when it happened. She must have seen the whole thing. Luke said they killed the entire herd. We heard one of the helicopters start shooting while the other just hovered over the house as if it was keeping us from intervening. What are we going to do? We’re wiped out. The cows are all we had.”
Before Evan could answer, Jason entered the room, out of breath from his run to the home. “Hinds!” he said. “Where did they go?”
Evan looked at him and said, “The Thomas farm, apparently. They hit the herd. They wiped it out.” Before Jason could respond, Evan said, “Just a sec,” as he gestured for him to wait. Getting back on the radio, he transmitted, “Copy all. We will send someone over. Stay safe.”
Judith replied with a trembling voice, “Okay.”
“Let’s take a stroll,” Evan said to Jason as the two men stepped outside.
Scanning the sky as he walked, Jason said, “Okay, things are getting serious fast. You know as well as I do why they hit the cattle.”
“Yep,” Evan replied. “The most effectual way to control the population is to control their food. If the government controls the food, they control the people. Looking at the size of Mildred’s herd, they probably realized it was providing beef for a lot more than just one household. With the herd wiped out, people will be more desperate and they may have to turn to government assistance out of sheer desperation.”
“But how they hell would people trust a government food line after seeing what they just did?”
Jason stopped and turned to look at Evan. “Most people would never see that, though. They would only know that the supply level changed. They could be trying to provoke us, too. Commit some heinous atrocity to flush out the militia when they mount a response.”
“Probably a combination of the two. One; flush out the pissed off patriots. Two; destabilize the fortunate. Then there is no one left to help the unfortunate, thereby increasing the number of those in need of assistance and, subsequently, the ability to influence and control.”
“There are two things I see that we need to do right away,” Jason proposed.
“What’s that?”
“We need to contact Q and the Blue Ridge Militia via the HiveNet, and we need to get someone over to the Thomas farm.”
“Agreed. You’ve been the comms guy, so you should hit the radios while Griff or I head over to the Thomas farm to see what we can do for them.”
“Are you up to traveling?” Jason asked, concerned about Evan’s recovery from his wound.
“I think so. Besides, Griff got banged up pretty bad not long ago, himself. His clavicle hasn’t had time to completely heal, and I know his chest still has some rib bones that give him trouble.”
“Damn, we’re a mess.”
“It’s been a rough ride for the past year and a half,” replied Evan. “It kind of reminds you why people didn’t live so long back in the day. They were beaten down and worn out.”
“Okay, then. After nightfall, I’ll head up over the ridge to make contact with the militia via the HiveNet, and you ride on over to the Thomas farm. I’ll get back here as quick as I can so that Griff and the boys aren’t standing the watches all by themselves—just in case.”
“Sounds good. Now I just have to convince Molly to let me out of her sight again,” Evan said with a chuckle.
Chapter Thirty: A Helping Hand
Later that night, Evan and Jason went their separate ways to complete their agreed upon tasks… after some convincing of Sarah and Molly. As Evan pedaled his bicycle through the hilly terrain of the homesteads, he began to miss the horse that he had been in possession of for the short time after their escape from the UN detention farm. I’ve got to get another horse, he thought as he pedaled up the last hill, straining his side and bringing back the dull and deep pain he had just started to shake off. This bike stuff is for the younger, less beat-up generation.
As he crested the last hill, he hid his bike in the woods alongside the road. He then slipped into the brush to continue toward the house with less chance of any unwanted observation. Slipping up to the edge of the home’s front pasture, he retrieved his handheld CB radio from his daypack and clicked the mic four times in rapid succession. Waiting a moment for a response, he began to click it again as he heard, “Go,” whispered over the air.
“Clear?” Evan asked quietly.
“Roger,” the voice whispered in reply.
“Moving. Don’t shoot,” Evan then said softly over the radio.
He heard two mic clicks in reply and began to slip quietly into the field, crouching down and traveling low and slow to the house. As he approached, he saw a flashlight illuminate briefly letting him know that they had seen him and that the coast was clear. Reaching the house, Evan looked around one more time, and then proceeded onto the porch, where Luke was waiting to greet him with the door held open.
“Where’s Mildred?” he asked, looking around the room and seeing only Rachel with Luke.
“She went to bed early,” Luke replied. “Judith and Haley are asleep as well. Mildred is taking this pretty hard. For several reasons, of course. First of which is the herd was basically the legacy that she had inherited from Ollie. She looked at them as more than simply a bunch of animals. They represented a culmination of Ollie’s hard work and were a way for him to provide for her, even after he was gone. Also, just as she was beginning to feel secure in her own home again, all that was shattered by being attacked from the sky. That’s something we can’t just fend off ourselves. It reminded her just how vulnerable we are and how our security is only partially in our own hands. What if the
y attack the house next time? There’s nothing we could do but run into the woods and hope they don’t pursue us as the house is destroyed. It’s like nothing is really yours anymore in this world. There is always someone there trying to take it every time you turn around.”
“Unfortunately, I think you’re dead on with every word,” Evan replied. He then turned to Rachel. “Oh, and thanks for patching me up, doc. You really saved my bacon.”
“Jason saved your bacon. My contribution was tiny compared to his,” she replied.
“Yeah. I don’t know how I could ever repay him for that one.”
“Be careful what you wish for,” replied Luke. “You don’t really want an opportunity like that these days.”
“So... what can I do for you ladies and gentlemen? How bad is the mess?”
“It’s awful,” Luke replied with a grimace. “Have you ever seen a cow get hit with a barrage of heavy armor-piercing rounds? They evaporate like a ground squirrel shot with a .308. Let’s just say there aren’t many intact cows lying around. It’s a mess.”
“When’s the last time you fired up Ollie’s excavator and that spare tractor he had? The one we got running after the Muncie gang shot his old Massey Ferguson to pieces.”
“That old Allis Chalmers? We use it to pull the wood wagon around every now and then. It should start,” replied Nate.
“Well, we could put that old rusty rock rake on the back of the tractor. You could drag that through the field, collecting the parts while I dig a hole way out in the back corner with the excavator. Once we’ve got a pretty good pile of cow parts, we can push them in with the little push blade on the front of the excavator. I’ve never thought those things were good for much, but in this case, it will fit the bill just fine. That way we don’t have to swap out the grader blade with the rake on the tractor. You can just keep raking, and I can keep digging, pushing, and covering the holes. If we don’t, it’ll get pretty dang ripe around here sometime soon, and the way the breeze blows through the valley, you won’t be able to stand it in the house.”