After the prayer, I asked Patty to introduce her son. I must admit, he was a nice looking young man, and I could see quite a few of our young ladies noticed that! After Patty introduced him, I asked Mark to introduce his team. I was surprised earlier to see six other soldiers get out of the MRAP. I was especially surprised to see that two of them were women.
Mark stood up, and began to speak. “First, I want to thank all of you for what you are doing here. This is really the first place we’ve seen since this whole mess started where there are a bunch of people who are actually trying to keep civilization alive, and who are being successful at it. Thank you all for welcoming my parents to this group, and for welcoming my team. As my mom said, I am Captain Mark Schmidt, and I am the commanding officer of this motley group.” He stopped and signaled one of his men to stand. “This is First Lieutenant Billy Roland, my executive officer.” Billy sat down, and then Mark pointed to an older, rather grizzled looking man. “Then I have First Sergeant Marcus Harper, who goes by Top.” Top waved, but did not stand. He nudged the man sitting next to him, who then stood. “Next, Sergeant Jim Wyatt. We call him Jimbo.” Jimbo looked like a combination of a football player and the incredible Hulk! He was easily 6’3”, well tanned, and had massive shoulders and heavily muscled arms. He had a very kind face, though, and a huge smile. He waved and sat down and the man next to him stood. “The goofy-looking guy with the crew cut – oh, wait, we’re all goofy-looking guys with crew cuts!” Everyone laughed.
“This is Corporal Paul Wilson. Paul is better known as “Scooter”. I promise you he really is old enough to be in the army!” Everyone laughed, because Scooter looked like he was about 15 and could pass for Dennis the Menace with his blond hair, upturned nose, and lots of freckles.
“The lady sitting behind Scooter is Second Lieutenant Alicia Roland, and she happens to be married to Billy.” Alicia was a slender brunette who looked to be about 26 or so, with pleasant green eyes and permanent smile lines. She looked exhausted, but smiled and waved at the crowd. “With her is First Lieutenant Kiara Diamond.” Kiara stood up and waved. She was a beautiful black woman, probably in her early thirties, tall and well-built. Her hair was pulled back in braids, and she had a wide smile and deep dimples. I thought to myself that she could be a heart-breaker.
“Allie and Kiara are not part of our unit, but when we made the decision to head this way, Billy made us go by and pick up his wife. I guess he didn’t want to hear her say he never takes her anywhere!” Mark grinned, and a number of people laughed. Then Mark got serious. “Allie is– well, was – with military intelligence as a Human Intelligence Officer, and Kiara is an electrical engineer.
“We’d like to tell you how we came to be here and what is going on. We had returned to Fort Bragg after our last mission and were getting set to ship out to Germany to do some short training. Instead, we were sent to Washington, DC. Folks, there are bad things going on there. First, let me tell you that the president, vice-president, and most of the republicans in the senate and congress are being held hostage right now. When things started to go bad, the president made the decision to enact the continuity of government plan. This involved moving the president, joint chiefs, cabinet, senate, and congress to alternate secure locations so that government operations could continue. Unfortunately, the events that led to the collapse of the economy were engineered by far left politicians, who were able to place their own people into the secure locations, where they are holding those politicians who do not go along with them. As far as I know, the hostages are all still alive, as their captors hope to use them to get the country to go along with their wild ideas.
“We also discovered these far left politicians invited a number of UN troops to come help us ‘stabilize’ the country. That does not sit well with me. Foreign troops have no business on American soil, and as far as we are concerned, they are enemy troops if they are following the directions of our phony government. At least, so far, they are not engaging in combat with Americans. If that happens, all hell will break out, because American troops will not stand for that.
“The person who is posing as president is the Minority Leader of the House, and she is one crazy woman. The latest travesty is she has now has ordered martial law, which basically strips all of us of our constitutional rights. We were sent to DC as part of a force being assembled to disarm the American public. I’m sorry, but American citizens have a right to their firearms, especially now while a coup is going on in our country! I gave my men the opportunity to comply with our orders, and to a man, they refused. I am very proud of them. Of course, much of our military is refusing to comply, as we swore an oath to defend the Constitution from enemies foreign and domestic. Those phonies trying to order us to violate that oath did not realize how seriously most of us take it. We packed our MRAP with everything we could get our hands on, including the trailer, and headed this way. Mom told me all about this farm, and that if we needed a place to stay, she was sure Major Armstrong would welcome us. We needed to swing by Fort Bragg to pick up Allie, and we found Bragg was a nightmare. We were able to get on base, and wound up getting into several firefights with people who had invaded the base. We found Allie and Kiara trying to fight off several people who thought the ladies would be a nice prize for their fighting efforts.
After we left Washington, we thought it would be a quick trip to get to Bragg, and then here, but that was not the case. This country is in chaos. The cities are for the most part burning. We saw looting like you would not believe. With the power out and no food to be had, we still saw people stealing flat screen TVs and stereos. We’ve seen riots, whole neighborhoods massacred, and utter destruction. We vowed that if we could get here safely, we would do everything we could to help protect this oasis of peace and civilization. So, there you have it. We are willing to do whatever we can to help all of us survive. We did bring some goodies with us – we’ve got cases of grenades, ammo, weapons, medical supplies, and a lot of bulk food. Allie and Kiara were at Allie’s when we found them, and that was right next to one of the chow halls, so we liberated what we could. It didn’t make sense to pull an empty trailer, right?”
I could tell Mark was a keeper. He had a great sense of humor and a way of putting people at ease. I could also see his passion and dedication to this country – or at least what this country used to be. I am really glad he and his crew made it here.
I asked everyone to go around the room and introduce themselves. That took a few minutes, and then Frank asked if everyone would relate their perspectives on the battle we just fought. I commented that is sounded like we had good fire discipline and did not waste ammunition. Sammy related that he got scared when the gang shot out one of the windows in the room he was in, and asked if there was some kind of shutter we could put up on the windows when people were shooting at us. Clark said that we needed to reinforce the hayloft a little better and create a few more shooting ports, as their options for engaging the enemy were limited up there. Zoe commented that Jeff and Sue did a great job helping to calm the animals during the shooting. Marcie complimented the new foxholes, explaining they were much better with the stairs, wood bottoms, and log supports for cover.
Bill suggested we try to find the materials to make more of our wired claymores – even if we had to use the ones we made with tannerite – as they were more effective than he expected. Mark jumped in and said they brought a bunch of real claymores with them, and they were happy to share their toys. That made Frank so happy he had to yell out, “Ooh rah!”, which made the rest of us laugh. Once a Marine, I guess!
Finally, Frank complimented Patty for being so calm and sticking to the code on the radio, even during the height of the battle. Mark said from a military perspective, we did everything right, and that we should all be really proud of ourselves. He also said to not get complacent because that battle might be over, but the war was not. He warned us that he would not be surprised if we did not eventually see UN troops here trying to impose their new
laws on us, and it was entirely possible we might have to fight them. That was a sobering thought. It is one thing for us to fight a gang of rowdy drunken bikers, but the thought of engaging trained soldiers was frightening. I think Mark realized he scared us, because he then added that we now had six rangers and a Marine, and that was the same as at least a hundred regular soldiers! That made everyone laugh and relax.
Everyone left to do their afternoon chores, and I took Mark and his group over to the house. I apologized that they were going to be in the basement, and the best we could offer at the moment was blow-up camping mattresses, but at least it was a warm and dry place for them to sleep for now. The whole group laughed and said that just being able to sleep inside was a rare treat, and the mattresses would be like the icing on the cake. Mark sent his troops out to get their packs and get settled in. He then asked if he could speak to me, so we went into my office.
He said he had a few things to tell me that he did not want to say in front of the whole crowd. He asked if we saw smoke this morning, and I told him yes, we were afraid it was from the neighboring farm. He confirmed it was, and said that they arrived at that farm just after the gang left. There must have been twenty men, women, and children living on that farm, because they found twenty bodies, tortured and mutilated. After the gang killed everyone and left the bodies displayed in the front yard, they set fire to the house and all of the outbuildings, even the ones with animals still in them. He said most of the gang stopped here, but he thought he might have heard some continue down the road. They could have been escaping, or they could have been going back to Riverdale. His plans were that after the dead gang members on our farm were buried, he wanted to take his men to that farm to bury the twenty people there. He said they would also do whatever salvage they could of animals and supplies. Then, in a few days or so, he would take his men into Riverdale to see what was going on in the town. If the gang was still in town, they would destroy the gang. I told him about what Lionel’s group and our newest kids had all gone through, and I could see that it was making him angry, especially hearing about kids seeing their parents murdered.
◆◆◆
The morning after the battle, people were still on edge and still fairly subdued from the battle. A bunch of the men from our farm and the soldiers helped load all of the bodies of the gang members onto a trailer, and Tom used the tractor to tow them to the area we had previously designated the cemetery for bad guys. Tim drove the backhoe, and one large hole was dug. The men then very unceremoniously dumped all of the bodies into the hole and covered it up.
Meanwhile, Judy had taken inventory of the items taken off of the bodies. In addition to weapons and ammunition, she had piles of knives, drugs, silver and gold coins, several flasks containing alcohol, and a large pile of cigarettes and marijuana. Frank took the pile of drugs and the cigarettes and pot and put them in a bucket. He then filled the bucket with water and, using a stick, stirred it all up to thoroughly destroy all of it. He took it down the driveway to the road, dug a hole on the side of the road, and buried the mixture. He explained that as a deputy, he had seen too much grief caused by the contents of that bucket, and we did not need any of it around the farm.
In addition to weapons and the loot that was in the gang’s pockets, we saved any items of clothing that looked to be in good repair, including boots, belts, leather vests, and jackets. We would try to clean them and refurbish them, since there was not likely to be any shoe or clothing stores open for a while. We did not try to salvage any other clothing, as they were filthy and, in many cases, bloody. While Frank did not keep any of their wallets, he did keep any drivers licenses or other forms of ID for each of the criminals.
We also now had 54 motorcycles. I had no idea what we would do with that many, but we rolled them all back and put them in between two storage buildings. Then, we covered them with a couple of large tarps. I guess in the future, we could use them for bartering or something.
After we took care of cleaning up our place after the battle, the men took the MRAP down to the other farm. They were able to use equipment from that farm to bury the bodies. Although the house and barn burned completely, the men were able to salvage a trailer from the farm, on which they placed the tractor and some other equipment. That farm did have some solar panels that survived the fire, and they were salvaged. They also found some animals that survived, including a few cows, a group of goats, and a horse. They were about to leave when someone noticed the door to the root cellar. When they looked inside, they found a number of cases of vegetables, buckets of wheat, rice and beans, and a lot of canned goods. By the time they gathered all of the contents of the root cellar, the MRAP and trailer were both full to overflowing, and most of the men had to walk alongside the MRAP to get home. They herded the animals with them. We worried the entire time they were gone, and were very relieved when the group finally got back. They made quite a sight. With the MRAP and the animals, it was almost a parade! They arrived back just in time, too, as they no sooner got home when it began to snow.
Chapter 20
Christmas was only two weeks away, and with so many more kids in our group, we adults were bound and determined that we would make Christmas a happy day for all of them. Janet and her crew by now knew what all of the kids’ favorite treats were, and they were making little bags of Christmas cookies for each child.
Stacy and her sewing group were working hard making additional clothes for the kids. In addition, each of the younger kids was getting a stuffed animal or doll. The adults all said there would be no adult gift exchange, but it seemed like there were a lot of secrets going around! The carpentry team was working on building toy trucks and trains from scraps of extra wood. I had already knitted a bunch of hats and mittens, and planned to have a set for everyone. I also made Christmas stockings for everyone. That might seem like a little thing, but we now had almost 60 people here! I had a big box of hotel shampoos, soaps, and lotions that I had been saving over the years, so each stocking had some of them. In addition, we had a lot of things that we got at the drug store in Asheville – toothbrushes, combs, small toys, etc. I also put a candy bar in each stocking. It wasn’t much, but it was something that was normal, something from before that could lift spirits. We decided we would put presents under the tree in the pole barn. Jon and Chris promised to build a frame to hold all the stockings so they could be hung up. The kids were all put to work in the days before Christmas stringing popcorn and making paper chains and little ornaments from pine cones and other scraps. Everyone got in on making ornaments. Even our new soldier friends were seen sitting with some of the kids and helping them make ornaments.
About a week before Christmas, Father Dan came to see me. He said he had something very special planned for Christmas Day. He was planning on doing a morning Church service, but he was asked to perform two weddings that day! Samantha and James and Judy and Tim! He asked me if I thought it was alright to hold the services after lunch so that we could maybe do a dinner reception. I was really excited, but also pretty shocked. Father Dan saw my shock and explained that it was hardly surprising that people wanted to live life to the fullest, because they now realized how short life could be. I told him afternoon would be great, and I’d get with Janet and her team and see if we could arrange a nice reception.
My next surprise happened when Stacy and Chris came to see me. They asked if I thought it would be okay for Father Dan to baptize Baby John. I told them I did not see why not, that even though they both were practicing Methodists, Father Dan still worked for the same Man upstairs. I asked when they planned to do this, and they said they thought Christmas Day would be a good time. I mentioned the weddings to them, and they decided maybe Christmas Eve would be better. Chris also wanted to know if John could wear the family Christening dress that four generations of Langstons had worn. I told him it was already cleaned and pressed and hanging in my closet waiting.
After I was finished talking with Chris and Stacy, I went to find Jan
et. I told her about the upcoming events, and she was really excited. She asked if we could make a wedding cake, and I told her to plan what she wanted to do and let me know what she needed, but to keep it a secret from the wedding party. I told her that Gabby specialized in cake baking and decorating, and Janet couldn’t wait to go talk to her.
◆◆◆
Going through a major battle in our front yard was not the healthiest of activities for our kids, and they were all reacting to it in one way or another. Even Jeff and Sue were struggling at times, although they both put on a brave front. Lionel, James, and I talked about the kids quite a bit, trying to brainstorm ways we could help them. We had not yet started any type of school for the kids, but Lionel suggested we start thinking about it, as these kids needed some routine and regularity in their lives to help them cope.
I called a meeting for that evening after dinner so we could start talking about schooling, and what needed to be included. I also wanted to see if there were any people who wanted to teach, and what subjects needed to be included. After a lot of discussion, it was decided the kids would have regular classroom time every day for three hours. In that time, they would study a variety of traditional subjects: math, science, English, history, art, music, and foreign language. They would also have three hours a day of “survival” training. During this training, they would learn about taking care of the animals, gardening, medicinal plants, carpentry, sewing, cooking, first aid, firearms training, and self defense. I knew we would add more topics over time, but we thought this was a good start. We divided the kids up into two groups. The younger group consisted of Tonya, Tory, Mandy, Billy, Anaya, and Freddy. The older group included Jeremiah, Nathaniel, Sam, Mike, Jeff, Susan, Elaina, Mariah, Thomas, and Drake. Tyler and Baby John were both too young, although we planned to include Tyler whenever we could.
Premonitions (Book 1): The Farm Page 22