Homefront: A Story of the Future Collapse

by Matthew Gilman

  The cannon continued to fire, causing one building to collapse into the street. Fast moving Humvees and other vehicles wouldn’t be able to cross it. With the Chinese gone they evacuated the street.

  The sound of an ATV approached. One of the Canadians drove up, delivering intel on their progress.

  “We’re close to taking the supply depot,” Vance said. “We need support in securing the site.” Vance looked at the tank, finally noticing that they had used the vehicle in their attack. “You guys took a tank? Nice.”

  “Thank the Koreans,” Dallas said.

  Everyone evacuated the tank. One last grenade was tossed into the ammo supply before leaving. The tank exploded a few seconds later with flames escaping from the hatch.

  “What a waste.” Budd looked disappointed, wishing he could have driven the vehicle straight to the docks.

  Dallas’ group followed the ATV to the Supply depot where the Canadians were still dealing with the sharpshooters on the roof. The Canadians were pinned behind the guard post on the corners of the parking lot. They wanted to use the machine guns to take the building, but the sharpshooters did a great job of making sure the men couldn’t reach them.

  “What’s the problem?” Budd asked.

  “Oh you going to take this?” Kelly asked.

  “You mind if I use that four-wheeler?” Budd asked Vance, who was still sitting on the vehicle. Reluctantly, he moved from the seat and Budd slung his rifle over his shoulder. “You lay down some cover fire and I’ll be over there in a second.”

  “You are one crazy son of a bitch,” Kelly said.

  “That’s the nicest compliment I’ve ever received.” Budd twisted the handle, hearing the motor rev.

  Vance crawled on the back of the ATV, hugging Budd.

  “Just remember who’s riding bitch,” Budd said, shifting the gears.

  Dallas and the rest of the group moved out to join the Canadians at the guard post. Once Budd hit the gas and started flying towards the building, the two positions emptied their rifles towards the roof. The ATV crashed through the old sliding doors and disappeared inside the store. The sharpshooters could be seen moving around on top of the building. They must have known their position was compromised.

  “We’re moving inside,” Michael said to Dallas. “Hold here.”

  Kelly took the machine gun position at the guard post. On the opposite side of the parking lot one of the Koreans was switching the belt and reloading the gun at their post. Dallas knew that time was limited. Once the Chinese learned they lost a supply depot they would cut their losses and bomb the position. Depending on what the command knew it could be minutes or an hour before it happened. The group had to move quick to move out the supplies they needed.

  Gunshots could be heard in the store. Dallas assumed the sharpshooters had their last stand and hoped none of his men were injured in the process.

  “Building is secure,” Budd radioed back to the post. “One of ours is hit.”

  “Who is it?” Dallas asked. “What is the status?”

  “Them bastards shot me in the ass.”

  Dallas and Kelly couldn’t help but smile and laugh.

  “Copy that, over.”

  “At least they knew where to aim for the brain.” Kelly was now having a good day even after being shot in the leg.

  Chapter 49

  The silence of the forest told the monkey wrenches the area was secure. The crews wouldn’t be coming up to the logging site for another day or two from their estimate. By the time the crew was dropped off, the site would be booby-trapped and the monkey wrenches would be long gone. River had returned to his former “bigfoot” outfit as the Rangers had called it. He taught the others how to blend in with the forest and when they moved into an area it was difficult to see them as anything but forest spirits.

  River was in charge of ten men and women that had decided this would be their form of fighting against the Chinese. Many were prisoners that didn’t want to go back to the city and risk being captured again. They fell for the refugee centers once and weren’t going to risk being considered prisoners of war.

  The men worked at hammering spikes into tree trunks and the women had become proficient at destroying the electronics and fuel systems of the trucks and cranes. The women would spend an hour sabotaging the camp site while the men traveled downhill, selecting the most desired trees for railroad spikes.

  Gathered in the logging site, the women removed some of the dried food goods from storage containers and handed them out to the rest of the group. They waited for the men to return and ate their meals.

  River overlooked the hill and could see the men working. Turning around, he decided to grab a bite to eat and joined the women.

  “River,” one of the women said, grabbing his attention. “How long did you say you’ve been out here?”

  “Long enough,” River tried to remain vague about his answer, knowing that most people would consider him crazy.

  “No really,” the same girl asked.

  Looking around the circle River could tell the rest of them wanted to know the real answer. He stuffed a piece of dehydrated chicken into his mouth and let the meat absorb his saliva.

  “After college.” The answer was still vague, but the women knew he was in his thirties at least and college would have been his early twenties.

  “I thought it was after the Day,” another girl added.

  “The Day?” River was not familiar with the term.

  “You know, when Washington D.C. was destroyed.” A third woman named Janet explained. “It was the last real day anybody can recall. Like 9-11, everybody remembers the details of that day.”

  River didn’t remember the Day. He didn’t learn about it until running into the Rangers in the forest. Dallas explained to him what had happened and he finally felt justified in secluding himself into the forest.

  “I don’t remember it,” said River. “It was just another day for me.”

  The humming sound of something overhead caught his attention. Electric motors with propellers moved around and the circle that was sharing a meal a second before disappeared. Then came the loud crack of gunshots in the logging site. More could be heard down the hill where the men were working. River hid underneath the crane and watched as a drone the size of a coffee table flew into the camp and fired a gun towards two women running into the woods.

  For a second River couldn’t believe what he was seeing. One of the last big movies he ever watched was Terminator 2 and now he felt like he was watching it happen in real life. River crawled out from under the crane and threw a rock at the drone, knocking it to the side. The drone corrected itself and turned towards the attack. River ducked as the gun fired and missed him by a few inches. A second drone flew overhead above the trees, watching the logging site.

  River followed the women who had made it into the woods. The drone followed. More gunshots could be heard and River felt his clothing move, only to look down and see light shining through a hole in the fabric. Ducking behind a tree, River was out of sight. The humming sound moved forward and more shots were fired. River watched Janet fall to the ground. Needing to do something, River looked around and pulled the tree branch above him away from the path he was running on and held it. Once the drone appeared from behind the trunk, River let the branch go. The limb whipped in the air and the drone fell to the ground with two of the propellers broken. River stepped on the device and looked at the gun on the front. It was an odd modification of a pistol mounted to the frame. A lever pulled the trigger back. A camera was mounted to the side where an operator could control the device. The gun fired again, scaring River for a second.

  Pulling the lever away from the trigger, River could feel it trying to shoot the gun again. River removed the gun from the mount and looked at the pistol. He had learned how to use one from the Rangers and although this one was slightly different, he quickly figured out the design. Popping the magazine out, he looked at the holes on the side that sho
wed him how many bullets were left. There were maybe five or six, he wasn’t sure of the count. He slid it back in and looked for the other drones. More shots were fired from down the hill; distant echoes in the forest.

  River ran, following the women again. He had to make sure somebody got away. He would come back to this spot and figure out what happened. Everyone had learned to have a fallback location from the Rangers. If the group was split everyone would go to this spot and wait to see who made it. Once the group was organized they could return for survivors or rescue those that were left behind.

  Two of the women waiting at the fallback point. They were hidden in the hollowed out pine tree that was the size of a small house. This was a favorite spot that River would pick because it was so hard to forget.

  “Where is everyone else?” one of the women asked.

  “Where is Janet? She was right behind me,” the second woman asked.

  “She didn’t make it,” River said. A humming sound loomed overhead and River rushed into the tree trunk. The drone hovered for a minute before moving on. It was the longest minute of their lives.

  The girls started to cry. The men had not returned either. From their position it could take a while for them to reach the location. They could still be in the forest trying to evade the drones that were sent out. It was nightfall before the three of them left the tree trunk. River took the women to the logging site and found Janet’s body in the forest. She was shot in the back and she died quickly with the little blood that was lost.

  River moved down the hill and tripped over the first body he found. A drone was discovered on the side of the hill. The gun was empty. One of the men had taken the sledgehammer to it, but not before taking a bullet to the face. River didn’t let the women come down the hill to see the bodies.

  “We have to go,” River said.

  “Go,” one of the women said. “We have to bury them.”

  “The Chinese will be here in the morning to see how well their trap worked. If there are no bodies here, they will know there were survivors.” River grabbed some of the food from the supplies they were eating and handed it to the two women. It was at that moment he realized he didn’t know their names. “What are your names?”

  “What, you don’t know our names?” one of the women asked, sounding offended.

  “You’re talking to a man that spent fifteen years in the woods by himself,” river explained. “So no, I don’t know your names.”

  “Candice,” the first girl said. “And Stephanie.”

  “Candice,” River replied. “Please carry these. Stephanie…” he handed a second bundle to her.

  The three of them left the logging site and didn’t stop moving until the sun rose up over the mountains.

  Chapter 50

  The guard shack was like any other. By this point, the Chinese had become wise to the random shots that would be fired at the guards. The windows were bulletproof and by a certain point the guards didn’t bother responding. At first the Chinese would send troops out and comb the area, only to find the shooter had disappeared. That was when the Lurps changed tactics and started to make bombs from materials they had found. If the bomb didn’t detonate they could ram the truck into the guard shack, causing some damage that was at least a pain in the ass.

  Jack watched the guard post from three hundred yards away. The Chinese had stepped up security and now had five men at the post instead of the two they used for the last three years. Their reinforcements must have showed up and now they had the numbers for a security force. The men smoked cigarettes and relaxed in the shack, watching Chinese television.

  “They have TV,” one of the men pointed out with contempt in his voice.

  “Probably some propaganda bullshit you don’t want to see,” Jack replied. “Is the bomb ready?”

  “Setting the detonator now,” Carl said, playing with a pair of wires at the jeep. The vehicles were stolen from a motor pool the day before, then rigged with nitrogen and gasoline stolen from the motor pool.

  “Isn’t it odd that they just leave these guys out here like sitting ducks?” Frank was a former Marine and served a tour in Grenada and Panama before retiring. “Something doesn’t feel right.”

  Jack didn’t want to admit he had the same feeling, the feeling that told him to leave everything and go back to their camp and create another plan. They had done so many of these operations it was like clockwork, and maybe that was the problem.

  “You feel it too,” Frank said.

  “You don’t want to hit these bastards?” Jack asked.

  “I do,” Frank said, looking through the binoculars again. “But something isn’t right.”

  Jack could sense it too.

  “We going?” Carl asked. A former Iraq war vet, he had decided that his place was with the Vets who were building a resistance. He was trained in counter insurgency tactics and knew how resistance groups worked.

  “No,” Jack said. “I’m going.”

  The original plan was for Carl to drive the Jeep down, bail, then the rest would provide cover fire while the Jeep detonated in the guard post. Jack was changing the plan.

  “We don’t change plans,” Frank said.

  “We do now.”

  “Then we don’t go,” Frank replied. “That’s the rule. If the plan changes, we abort the plan.”

  “We are not changing the plan,” Jack explained. “We are adapting to the situation.”

  “I don’t like it.” Frank was being honest and Jack couldn’t help but like him for it, considering he was a jarhead.

  “Am I asking you to drive the Jeep in?” Jack could see the answer on Frank’s face. “Then shut up.”

  Jack sat in the driver’s seat, making sure everything was ready.

  “You ready?” Jack said to Carl.

  “All set.”

  Jack started the Jeep. The motor brought back so many memories every time he heard it. It was a time that he thought for sure he would never return home, but he did when so many didn’t. Jack pulled out of the spot and drove down the street to the guard post. He passed areas where his men were posted waiting for the attack and now they were flipping their safeties off.

  Jack saw the guard shack in view and jumped from the Jeep, making sure the gas had a last hit of power as he fell out. His old body shouted at him for the abuse. He ducked and rolled, but his back and legs were angry at what he had just done. He wanted his nervous system to shut up and let him move, but it wouldn’t. The explosion had him on his feet again and the distraction was enough to set him running back to the men who now covered him. One of the guards stumbled out of the shack, firing an AK-47 and the vets took him down less than a second later. Jack was in the clear.

  No one heard the humming noise coming from the sky as Jack ran down the road. One of the men moved out of the woods, giving away his location. He was hollering something, but Jack was more amazed that he had given his position away. Not knowing that his eardrums were gone, Jack couldn’t hear what was being said. Blood ran down his cheeks from his ears. Then he felt the punch to his back. Jack fell and tumbled into the drainage ditch on the side of the road. Facing the sky, he saw the thing that had shot him. A drone, a fucking drone. The weapon of pussies.

  The drone didn’t spend another second on him. Instead it moved on to the men in the woods that had provided cover fire. The shooting continued, giving Jack hope that his men would escape. More drones flew overhead and Jack wondered how many of these old tough bastards would shoot out of the sky. As he watched the drones being shot in the air he faded away with a smile on his face knowing that the new weapons the Chinese were throwing at them would never be able to counter a thinking human being.

  Chapter 51

  All six of the ATVs were parked inside of the former Lowe’s store with their trailers being loaded up. Any matching ammo for their weapons was added to the pile. Weapons in their possession with odd ammo were ditched and replaced with one available in the store. Explosives were grabbe
d along with grenades. Once gunfire was heard outside Dallas and Michael knew their time was up.

  “We continue to the next stop or fall back?” Michael wanted to make sure they were on the same page.

  “You feel like pulling the plug?” Dallas asked.

  “Hell no.” Michael placed another magazine into his belt. The bandolier on his vest was already filled.

  The ATVs were moved out. The gunfire was at a minimum.

  “They are trying to lock in our position.” Michael said he knew what this was all about. In a few minutes a jet would drop a bomb on the location and expect to kill all the insurgents in the location.

  “We’re moving out,” Dallas hollered on the back of an ATV.

  Kelly fired a few more rounds from the machine gun. He wanted to take it with him, but that wasn’t an option.

  “Where to now?” Michael asked.

  “I want that fucker that is in charge now,” Dallas said.

  “You know where he is at?”

  “I do,” Dallas said. “You like whiskey?”

  “It’s been a while.”

  Dallas thought for a moment. He made sure his radio was working. “Everybody fall back to the rendezvous. We will call you for the next location. Over.”

  “You sure about this?” Michael asked.

  “Ever want to take special operations by surprise?”

  A smile grew on Michael’s face.

  “Thought so.”

  Inside Kells Irish Pub, the headquarters for the Chinese anti-terrorist task force, Xing stands at the map on the wall marking the progress of the American forces into the city. He hadn’t slept in two days, but this is not out of the norm for him. He moves a pin on the board and sees that the frontline moved on the map. The supply depot had been taken and an airstrike was already on its way. The five-thousand-pound bomb would take care of the ammo and the people that took the location. When Xing heard how long it would take to drop the bomb he knew the Americans would be far away from the location. If there was anything that he had learned during his stay here, it was that Americans were not dumb.