Homefront: A Story of the Future Collapse

by Matthew Gilman

  Camp was a spot deep in the woods, any structure facing the tree canopy was camouflaged. Nobody at camp was allowed to walk out into the open without a green hat on. Fear of satellite images stuck with them, knowing their own government had that technology before the Day.

  A guard stood in a tree over the trail leading to camp. He heard movement in the woods and raised his weapon.

  “Rangers?” he whispered.

  “Hoe,” was the reply.

  The guard left his rifle leveled until he saw the first of the Rangers appear from behind a tree.

  “Did you have a good hunt?” River asked as he stepped out of the log framed doorway wearing a green boonie on his head.

  “We did, and they have an entire convoy of trucks that won’t ever run again,” Dallas said placing his rifle against a tree and removing his pack. The loss of added weight always made him feel like he was lighter than he really was.

  “What did the site look like?” River asked.

  “They didn’t get much,” Dallas explained. “They were equipped to start cutting, but they didn’t take down much before we got there.”

  River was quiet for a minute then went back into his underground room. The floors were dirt. It looked like something out of a World War II movie. The type of bunker that officers would be in looking over maps of the battlefield. River was inside, looking at a topographic map of the forest. He knew it well; it was the same one he used for his fight against the logging companies before the Day. Life didn’t really change for him except for the extra help and the people he was fighting.

  In the previous year, River had talked the Rangers into dismantling the local railroad tracks and taking the spikes with them to drive into trees. The tracks were no longer workable and would make the task of hauling the lumber out more difficult. He felt like it was an odd partnership from the beginning, but “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.”

  “We’re going to find another logging site and set up shop like this last one,” Dallas said.

  “How long do you think we can keep this up?” River asked.

  “However long we need to,” Dallas said. “How long were you at this?”

  “That was different. These guys are not going to stop coming. They will just keep sending more and more until they get what they want.”

  “I know that. You think I haven’t thought about that? It’s on my mind every day. Guerilla wars never work until you’re able to mobilize into a full military force. It won’t happen in these forests. We would have to take the battle to them. There has to be a turning point.”

  “I’ll keep fighting as long as I have to. I was set on that before all this shit happened. For some reason it feels more impossible now.” River sat on his cot, head down.

  “Don’t you give up on me. I’ve had my men out there doing your sabotage and other tricks to get them to leave while you stay back here moping about with your downer bullshit. Get your ass up and out there or find some other soldiers to go and do your fighting.”

  “Alright. Alright. Fuck. I’m sorry. Being stuck here without even being able to see the sun sucks, ya know?”

  “I get it, but that’s our reality. How about this, next mission you come with us. Get out, see the fight for yourself. Worst that can happen is that you’re bored out of your mind, but that’s how it would be here.”

  “Yeah, fine. I’ll go. When are you heading out?” River asked.

  “Tonight, get a head start. Most of it is walking.” Dallas said, stepping out of the bunker. “Be sure to have your bag packed and ready to go.”

  River packed his bag like he did for his previous hikes into the wilderness. He couldn’t believe he was going out on a mission. He had shown the guys how to pull railroad spikes the easiest way and sabotage equipment in the fastest manner. This was something different. This was a military mission, one that would involve men being killed and no mercy being shown. Secretly it was something he always wanted. He thought about killing loggers in the past but never wanted to cross that line. Now it was war and not a fight against the man. This was a matter of survival instead of morals. This was going to happen and he was excited and scared at the same time. He wasn’t going to be pulling triggers, but bullets could be flying his way.

  Chapter 23

  The scene with the loggers was different from before. The men had been shot and taken out one at a time. This showed that there was either one shooter with a silencer or multiple men who were shooting at once. Choi knew the slim odds of multiple shooters. These men had been executed and he had to get to the bottom of this.

  Looking into the cab of a truck, he tried not to touch the skull and brains that had dried on the door.

  “This isn’t sabotage this time,” one of the soldiers said looking into another truck. The driver of the vehicle had been smoking a cigarette that had dropped into his lap and burned a hole into his pants. “This guy didn’t feel a thing.”

  “Things have changed,” Choi added. “We need to take care of this problem regardless of what that bastard at base says.”

  “How are you going to convince him of anything?” the soldier asked.

  “I won’t have to,” Choi walked back to the jeep and sat in the passenger seat.

  As soon as they drove back into town Choi had a signal on his cell phone. He sent an email to his superiors and waited for the response.

  Later that day two soldiers appeared at the Colonel’s doorway.

  “What do you want?” the Colonel said.

  “You are to come with us,” the soldiers answered.

  “I’m a commanding officer. Piss off.” The Colonel went back to his lunch and papers on his desk.

  “You are to come with us, or you are to be put under arrest,” the second soldier added.

  “For what?” the Colonel stood up and placed his bowl of food down.

  “We are only following orders,” the first soldier responded.

  “When we get to the bottom of this you two will be cleaning latrines for years.” The chubby man tried to button his shirt to no avail.

  The Colonel was taken to a Humvee parked outside and ordered to sit in the back seat. One of the soldiers sat in the back with him as they drove down the road. The Humvee stopped a few miles away where the men ordered him out.

  “What is this?” the Colonel asked, looking around. He was on the shore overlooking the harbor. Ships were lined up loading cargo on and removing the new equipment for their operations. The Colonel was far from his post and wanted to know what the hell was going on.

  “I received a report that our people have been killed in the mountains while logging. This has been going on for a while?” A general walked up to the handrail. Below them was a hundred-foot drop to a street.

  “Some loggers are killed and I’m pulled from my post. I don’t get it.”

  “We are Chinese. We take care of our own. To ignore Chinese being killed is to allow China to die,” the General explained.

  “Oh dog shit,” the Colonel responded. “This whole operation is to make the rich richer and move us up our career paths. We are Capitalist now. We only care about ourselves and that is why we are the richest country in the world.”

  General Sun was an old school Communist from the days of the cultural revolution. He was a child then and saw his parents marching down the streets. The trials of the old traditions inspired him into military service where he thought he could best serve his country. Fighting the Americans was a dream he always had and now somebody was making him look like a fool. The papers that were spread over the Colonel’s desk included stock prices and jobs he would apply for when his service was over. There were only a few weeks left and the Colonel was already planning his retirement, working for a contractor at five times the pay he received from the generous Chinese people. That man didn’t want to serve, he wanted to profit. He was as bad as the Americans.

  “You had no intention of investigating the dead loggers,” General sun stated.

  �
�No, of course not. They knew the risk when they came over here,” the Colonel added. “This is Choi isn’t it? That little shit doesn’t know how to follow orders. I’m having him arrested as soon as I am returned to base.”

  “You have two options here,” General Sun stated. Pulling a pistol from its holster he removed the magazine and placed one bullet in the chamber. He placed the pistol on the ledge. “By your honor or we do it for you.”

  “This is dog shit and you know it. I want to talk to your superior. I have connections in the mainland. This isn’t how it’s ending.”

  General Sun didn’t listen and instead turned around and walked away from the ledge.

  “Two options. There are more than that.” The Colonel picked up the pistol and aimed it at General Sun. A loud crack rang out with the Colonel’s head exploding out of the side. His body dropped like a rag doll.

  General Sun sat in the back of his Humvee and closed the door.

  “Taken care of sir,” the driver asked.

  “Not quite.” General Sun answered. “Be sure to have the Colonel’s wife and child executed in the homeland. He has proven to be a traitor to the state and that kind of insult shall not be allowed to breed into the culture.”

  “Yes sir.” The driver started the Humvee.

  “Get a message to Choi. He is in command now. If he doesn’t take care of this sabotage matter, he will be next.”

  “Yes sir.”

  The Humvee pulled away and the body of the Colonel was lifted and dropped over the ledge.

  Chapter 24

  The day before the Rangers arrived at the site, a small crew of men had come through the area and cleared an area for a logging crew to set up shop. The purpose was to strip the side of the mountain of trees and ship them back to the port for China. The same pattern of behavior had been taking place since the occupation started. Trees are cleared out and moved to the side for a camp site; a crane and other equipment are brought in.

  The Rangers set up camp a few hundred yards away and waited for the loggers that would be dropped off. Everyone took up their positions around the camp. Kelly would be the primary sniper on this job. The only time the others would jump in is if they took fire and the gig was up. The men were covered in makeshift ghillie suits pieced together with pine branches, with moss and ferns. The roar of a truck approached and the heart rates around the camp raised. Dallas controlled his breathing. The buildup in anticipation always bothered him like a teenage boy going on a date for the first time.

  The truck was larger than most and had a canvas top to it. The black smoke from the exhaust burped out of the pipe running up the side of the cab. One driver sat in the front while the rest of the men had to be in the bed.

  The truck pulled to the middle of the camp and shifted into park. Kelly watched the driver through the scope and put the crosshairs on the man’s head. He steadied his breath. The driver was always the first to go. Without somebody to put the truck into gear the men in the back couldn’t escape once the shooting started.

  Kelly held his breath then released.

  The window cracked and the driver looked over to see the spider web of the broken glass. Kelly aimed again realizing he either missed or the window was bullet proof. The driver shifted the truck into first gear and hit the gas as Kelly fired again. This time he knew for sure the truck had bulletproof windows.

  “This is bad,” he said to himself.

  From fifty yards away Dallas watched as the truck turned around and showed the bed in his direction. Through the view of the binoculars Dallas could see that the bed was empty. The driver was now on the radio transmitting a report to somebody.

  Dallas stood up and ran over to Kelly.

  “We need to get the fuck out of here,” Dallas said. He whistled into the woods and watched Budd and two more trainees stand up. “Move. Move. Move!” The men started to run as the whistling sound of a mortar could be heard. The louder it became, the men started to drop to the ground.

  The rumble of the earth and the blasting splinters of trees flew around them. A second whistle could already be heard and Dallas gripped Budd’s shirt pulling him up with him.

  The men started to run again as a second blast struck fifty yards away. Not as devastating as the first, but the two trainees, young men in their twenties that had been working on recon training, were able to see the destruction. The site inspired them to run harder than they had before. The Rangers hauled ass two hundred yards out of the blast zone. The site had been set up as a trap.

  At the bottom of the hill a mortar team worked, in two groups of three men, sending mortars into the logging site. Choi watched through binoculars as the blast devastated the site. Trees fell from the blast and he could see pieces of wood flying into the air a hundred feet or more.

  “Keep firing,” Choi ordered as the men continued the barrage. The attack went on for twenty minutes before Choi halted everything. By that time the truck had driven back to the mortar site. Choi immediately noticed the bullet hole where the glass cracked in the pattern of a spider web.

  “Somebody tried to kill me.” The driver appeared shocked while looking at the window.

  “You knew that going up there,” Choi pointed out.

  “I was told it wasn’t likely that anybody would be up there.”

  “You want to be paid?” Choi asked. The comment told the man to shut up before he received nothing for going up to the logging site. “You men,” Choi directed his attention to his men. “Gather up your things. We’re going up there to check out the site.”

  The men started to dismantle the Mortar equipment and the rest sat in the trucks ready to move up the mountain. Two trucks and a Jeep would move up the two track road to search for the remains of the Americans killing the loggers. Choi could hope it would be this easy. He doubted that the plan worked. Unless he found bodies, his mind was already working ahead to the next phase of his plan.

  In less than two minutes the trucks were loaded up. Choi sat in the Jeep with his pistol resting in his lap. The trucks were forced to stop at the end of the trail from fallen tree trucks blocking the entrance to the logging site. The soldiers filed out of the trucks securing the site. With Choi’s command, they moved out into the forest, sweeping the area for any remains of the men they were after.

  In thirty minutes and a few square hundred yards covered nothing remained except for two spent shell cases belonging to a .308.

  “Get everybody back to the trucks,” Choi ordered. “Time for plan B.”

  Chapter 25

  Ben and Clive walked along the path towards the last camp site they knew of. Approaching the area, they could tell it was a lost cause. The camp was gone and now they had to look for signs of where the group had moved. The campfire had been buried. The lean-tos were dismantled and discarded over the area. The mules were hungry and started to eat the greens that were available while Ben and Clive searched for clues.

  “They wouldn’t move without leaving some kind of sign behind,” Clive said.

  “Agreed,” Ben said. Looking around he saw large rocks that didn’t fit the landscape. Too small for seats, Ben realized they were the rocks that had been used for the campfire. Like everything else they had been shifted around in random locations. After a few seconds he noticed they were not random.

  Ben moved to a tree and climbed up about ten feet overlooking the former campsite. Perched from there he could see the arrow that had been left behind.

  “We go that way.” Ben pointed towards the south. “Shouldn’t be too difficult to find their trail now that we know where to look.”

  Clive looked around and from ground level he was able to see the arrow that had been made. It was difficult to see without knowing what to look for.

  The men each took a mule and started on their way. Two hours later the smell of a campfire told them they were almost home.

  “Rangers!” an unfamiliar voice hollered out from behind a tree. The man was obviously working as a guard.

>   “Fuck off!” Ben hollered back. “Where’s Dallas?”

  “In Texas,” another voice replied.

  “Funny guy is put on guard duty,” Clive commented.

  The two guards stepped out from behind large tree trunks aiming their rifles. One of the men raised his rifle, appearing to recognize Ben.

  “Holy shit,” the young man said. “You look totally different without the wood ash.”

  “Nice to see you too,” Ben said. “Seriously, where is Dallas?”

  The man that recognized Ben ran back towards the new camp. The second guard reluctantly moved aside.

  Ben and Clive looked at one another, wondering who the new guy was.

  The mules were a new sight in the camp and people gathered around to see the animals. Dallas came out of his sleeping area and saw his friends with two mules and cargo. Ben looked back at the mules and the supplies they carried.

  “Canada likes us,” Clive said, shaking hands with Dallas for the first time since they left a month before.

  The mules were carefully unloaded, making sure the cargo remained balanced the entire time. Supplies were counted and Dallas was excited about the Claymore mines and C4 explosives.

  “We’ve had some trouble recently with the Chinese.” Dallas informed Ben and Clive. “They have been using the logging sites as traps to try and take us out.”

  “We talking booby traps?” Clive asked.

  “More like mortars and infantry,” Budd added, seeing that his friends had returned. “They have a fucking hard-on for us now.”

  “Good,” Ben said. “I can’t stand rejection.”

  “Now that we know to expect them from now on,” Dallas started, “we can turn the tide with our new toys. Are you with me?”

  “Hell ya,” Kelly replied.

  “Hell ya,” Ben added.