by Darrel Bird
“We go on foot from here.” She said as she reached for her rifle that rested in a rack behind their heads. He reached for his own rifle, and checked the magazine for bullets, and then snapped it back into the rifle. She slipped the keys in her pocket as she got out of the truck and eased the door closed, “Don’t slam the door, no more noise.” She said in a low voice.
She began to climb the steep hill, and he followed; soon falling a little behind. He couldn’t help but notice how well she filled out a pair of jeans as he followed her up the hill. Just like us men, not able to keep our eyes off a woman’s ass, well, we are what we are. Soon his thoughts turned to the task at hand as he attempted to keep up. After a half hour of walking they topped out on the hill to a grand overview of the land below. Maria took her binoculars and began to scan the terrain below. As she scanned, she stopped the binoculars on a spot.
“Get down,” she whispered.
She handed the powerful binoculars to him, “See by that group of white rocks?”
He put the binoculars on the spot, “I don’t see anything. Wait, I see something standing under the tree just to the right of the rock formation.”
“Those are Antelope.” She had her rifle trained on the spot, “You take the one on the left, and me the right, now get your cross hairs set, and when I say fire, you fire. If we don’t get them both the other will run.”
Paul carefully lined his scope on the chest of the one indicated, and when she whispered “fire.” He fired, and both Antelope went down at almost the same time.
“Good job Paul, you’re a keeper. If you or I had missed, someone would go hungry.”
When they got to the Antelope he saw that they were not very big animals, he looked at the beautiful animals and was sad that they had killed them.
“Gets to you don’t it?” She looked at him. “I never get used to killing. Let’s get these animals gutted and back to the truck… here, cut the throat like this.” She swiped her sharp hunting knife across the throat of one of the animals, and the blood began gushing out onto the dry ground. “They have to be bled quickly…do it.”
He extracted the sharp knife he had been given, and almost passed out as he slashed the throat of the animal he had shot.
“Are you ok?” She asked.
“Just a little woozy, I’ll make it.”
“It gets a little easier with time. You must have had training to hit like that, I thought you would miss.”
“I had sniper training in the Marines, but I never actually had to shoot anything but targets. I guess God protected me from those kinds of situations.”
“Ok, they are drained enough, now we have to gut them, you watch what I do…we don’t want to nick the guts.”
She took the sharp end of her knife, and inserted it just through the skin of the underbelly, and expertly cut the belly open, and then cutting across the sinew at the throat, tied that into a knot, and then began separating the bowels from the back bones of the animal.
When she got to the anus she flopped the bowels out onto the ground. He watched carefully, and then did the same to the other animal.
“Great job Paul.”
“Took me a little time.”
“You’ll get faster, we can spare the time after the game is dead. That’s the way to do it on any animal, even squirrels or possums.”
“You mean we take clawed animals?”
“Yes, even Cougar, everything goes into the pot. There’s no stores out here, and with that many people to feed we can’t be particular.”
“What about the heads?”
“Everything but the guts and hoofs Paul.”
“I’m beginning to wonder if it was the right thing to come here.”
“I’m faced with that question with everything I do; it used to be that life’s decisions were clear cut, now it seems there’s uncertainty where ever we turn.”
“How long have you been out here Maria?”
“About two months, the other man that did the hunting fell off a cliff and died. The elders gave us shooting trials, and I tried out for it, I like the solitude. My husband was shot on the way here from Kansas City. I had to bury him in a corn field.”
“I’m so sorry.”
Her dark eyes studied his face closely, but only saw true regret for other people’s woes, and she wondered if he was right for this job, or place for that matter.
Part 4- Sergeant Danko
Staff Sergeant Joe Danko left his house that Saturday morning to work with his platoon of National Guard troops, who he felt were already getting sloppy since there were no demands for his unit to be activated. He had caught one of the men in the latrine lighting up weed the week end before. The National Guard had mostly lost its reputation for being week end warriors in Iraq and Afghanistan, proving to be highly skilled soldiers in combat. The United States had taken the tack of appeasement now this last four years, and there was no real work for his soldiers to do. One week end in the last year, they had been called out to quell a riot in downtown Denver, but that was all.
Sergeant Danko had been in the Army eighteen years. I’m not going to let them get away with this. Today is the day when the shoe falls on the troops. His mind wandered to the up coming wedding of his oldest daughter next month. I don’t like the bastard, but I’ll never let her know that unless he gets way out of line. I’m here for you baby. She would always be his baby, no matter how old she got, or married she got.
He parked his truck in the reserved space for cadre personnel and walked to the Armory as soldiers also walked toward the door of the building.
“Hi Sarg.” It was Daniel Moran, who was a mediocre soldier in post, but could be depended on in the field. Moran was his platoon leader.
“Don’t Hi me Moron, I’m going to run the ass off you guys this week end, spread the word.”
“Name is Moran Sergeant, how many times I gotta tell you?” The Sergeant opened the door and stood back, “Get in there troop, on the double!”
Moran walked across the floor where the rest of the troops were gathering for inspection, “Better look up, the Sarg is on the war path today, no rest for the weary.”
The Sergeant walked across the floor, “Fall the troops in Moron, and dress right, heads straight ahead!”
“Yes Sarnt, hooah! Dress it down troops! Damn it Watkins, your other right!” Specialist fourth class Daniel Moran wished for the day he would be discharged from the service. He would go back to Boston, and join his brother in the tire business. He had been mailing some of his checks to his brother to keep the business afloat, assuring himself of a job to feed his wife and kid when he got out. Guard never should have sent me to Denver anyhow. He thought as he scanned the four lines of troops for sloppiness.
Part 5 -The Rival
Liam Grant was one of the good old boys from down yonder in Okalahoma, Tulsa to be exact. Liam Grant was a merciless foe in an election race. God help the person who got in his way, and he had his eye on the presidency. He had to have Ohio, and his rival, Percy Lundquist from New York was doing well in Ohio. Liam had an old boy, Albert Winston, he kept close, paid him all kinds of ways, because said good old boy could get things done Liam didn’t have any idea how to do, or couldn’t do himself because he couldn’t afford to stretch the law. The law, as far Albert Winston was concerned, didn’t exist.
Liam was back at his campaign headquarters in Tulsa, when he decided it was time to call Albert in.
“Come in Albert, and shut the door.”
Albert slouched in, and sat down in a chair by the wall. Albert always sat with his back to a wall. He reminded Liam of some kind of spirit, or aberration, as people couldn’t seem to focus their eye on the man. Sitting behind his desk, Liam had the same problem as everybody else as he looked at Albert’s pale face, yet didn’t look at it.
“Albert, that New York bastard is giving me fits down there in Ohio. The son of bitch just camps out down there, and if we don’t do something, I’m afraid he’s going to take
Ohio big time. I want you to go down there and nail that Weasel’s hide to the barn door.”
Liam looked down to reach inside his desk for an envelope of money, and when he looked up, Albert was gone. The strange thing was, the room, which had been too warm before he came in, was now cold, and Liam shivered.
The next week, pictures came out in the papers in Ohio of Percy Lundquist kissing a male prostitute, and Liam dared not ask how that came about, the main thing is he won Ohio. The pictures would be a great hit with San Francisco, but he didn’t need San Francisco to win the election. When it entered Liam’s mind that Albert might one day be turned against him, he shivered again, and made up his mind to give that him more money out of his campaign finances.
Part 6- Denver
The next morning after the hunt, the elders sent for Paul and Maria. The two walked in and took a seat in the same little room where Paul and his friends had been interviewed when they arrived at the compound, only this time there were just two men sitting across the table from them.
“Was your breakfast suitable?” One of the men looked at them and asked.
“Paul hardly eats anything, but he likes his coffee.”
“Well, we’re sending you to Denver so you can get some more.” The other man said, “I know it’s dangerous, but we have no choice, we need beans, rice, and spuds. Meat if you can buy it, try to get into town without being noticed, get a motel room, and try to get all the buying done by ten AM the next day. Try to buy some from Mom and Pop stores; they are less likely to report it. If we lose you, we won’t last another month, so be careful, and smart. Take the other truck; it has four gas tanks on it. Here is your fuel permits, fill the tanks in Denver at the truck stop on the edge of town.”
“Where did you get those?” Maria asked.
“Best you don’t know. Your story is you work for the Chevron Oil Company; your badges are in the envelope. Pack clean clothes in an overnight bag. God go with you.”
“That it? Just mostly staples?”
“Yes, we can live on staples, try to remember to get the kids some candy though. You are free to use your own common sense. That’s it, you can go now.”
“Who are those people?” Paul asked on the way to pack a bag.
“Don’t ask questions Paul, it’s a matter of life and death.”
“I see…see you back at the truck in about twenty minutes.” Paul watched her go as she headed back to the barracks where she lived with a few other single women.
They both arrived back at the truck at about the same time, “I’ll drive.” Maria announced as she pulled herself into the truck cab.
“I’ve got no problem with women’s lib.” Paul sat on the passenger side of the truck.
“It doesn’t have anything to do with that line of thought; it’s that I made the trip one time before.”
“I didn’t mean anything by the statement.”
“I know you didn’t Paul, its just that we have to be clear on everything we do, as people are depending on us.”
They passed the last guard station. The guard was asleep with his head laid on the tall desk inside the shed. He never heard them pass. Maria thought about tooting the horn, but decided against it.
“The man was asleep.” Paul said.
“Yes.”
“Shouldn’t we report it?”
“Yes, but I’ll do it quietly to the board when we report in. I don’t see a need to embarrass the man. The board will quietly give him another job.”
“Who is this board anyhow?”
“Actually, nobody seems to know, but one of them are always our people, and two of them are theirs. Different men come and go.”
“Who is theirs?”
“Different individuals come and stay a few days to sit on the board. I think it’s a very rich man who sponsors the compound, and gave us the land it sits on. I suppose he wants to keep tabs on where his investment is heading.”
As Maria pulled the truck out onto the paved road, Paul found a small pillow and leaned he head against the window, “Wake me if you need me.”
Maria wondered about the man who sat in the passenger seat, as she drove. In two hours they passed through Fort Collins, and she pulled the truck onto the I-25 freeway. She reached over and punched Paul on the shoulder, “Time to wake up.”
“Where are we?”
“A few minutes out of Denver, keep a sharp eye out for big box grocery stores, we’ll need about three of them. We have to spread the buying around so that no one gets suspicious.”
“I thought we were supposed to wait until first thing in the morning.”
“We are, just jot their locations down. When we get close to Denver, we’ll look for a motel, its four O’clock now.”
Paul jotted down the big box grocery stores he saw, and then spotted a run down motel, and pointed, “I see it.” Maria said as she took the exit. By six O’clock they had a room, and Maria came back to the truck with card keys, “Here’s yours, but you won’t need it, we won’t be leaving the room.”
“Just one room?”
“Yes, we have to stay together, thems the rules.”
“And the board decided that.”
“Yes.”
“Strange they would house a single man and woman together.”
“I suppose they had a larger reason than the problems we could make for ourselves; we are not the center of their world. I’m going to get a bath, if you can wait.”
“I can unless there’s a rule against ladies first.”
“There’s never a rule against that.” She smiled and closed the bathroom door. By the time she had finished a long warm bath, she found Paul stretched out on the bed asleep and still in his cloths. She gently covered him with a blanket.
The next morning around seven, she awoke just as Paul emerged from the bathroom. He was freshly shaved.
“Found a razor in the shower.”
“I shaved my legs with it.” She grinned.
“Why do women bother to shave their legs when you live in a pair of jeans?”
“We women must look good even if no ones see it.”
“You would look good even under a Buffalo hide.”
She smiled, “I take that as a compliment, although it’s the most unusual compliment I’ve ever heard.”
“You ready?”
“Yes, let’s get going, we need to be back by five.”
They shopped three big box stores, and three smaller Mom and Pop stores on their way back through Fort Collins. After the last store they made sure the canvas tarp was secure, and then tossed on four bails of hay at a farm store.
It was after five by the time they came to the guard shack. Right away they saw the blood that stained the little door and the bullet hole in the window. They stopped the truck and got out as the guard came out of the shack, “What happened here?” Paul asked.
“Got hit and hit hard is what happened, the board wants to see you as soon as you can get there. I’ll call down and tell them you are here.”
As their truck came to a stop a young man walked up to them and said, “We’ll take care of the unloading, go directly to the board room.”
As they entered the board room, there were already three men there, two of them they didn’t know. One of them was Joseph Bottoms who had sent them to Denver. The two older men were stern looking gents in their sixties.
“Did everything go according to plan?” Joseph asked.
“Yes, we had no trouble, but it looks like you have had some here, what happened?” Paul asked.
“A pick up load of thugs came in and shot the place up, they destroyed the gate on the way in, we lost three adults, and two of the children with three more wounded.”
Maria and Paul both had shocked looks on their faces as they tried to take it all in.
One of the older men spoke as he peaked his fingers thoughtfully, “How committed are you to this compound?”
“Why do you ask that, we’re here aren’t we?” Maria asked.
>
“Because the people in this place have to be defended, and you two are our best riflemen. What we are going to ask you to do is to post yourself out along the front perimeter of the compound in case they come again. We believe they will, because now they have a taste of blood.”
“You mean shoot them if they come back?” Paul asked.
“Yes, if they don’t stop at the outer guard post. That is exactly what we want.” The other man who had not spoken said.
“I was in the Army, but I never saw combat.”
“We believe two snipers posted in the trees out of sight would be more effective than open combat.”