by Ira Tabankin
He’s yelling at his people, “Look assholes, they have to be here someplace. They set off smoke bombs and disappeared, where the fuck did they go? No one, let alone one hundred people, just disappear into thin air. It’s been a month and every day you idiots give me the same bullshit, you don’t know where they are. They have to be here someplace. I want them. I want to know where they are. I want them found and I want them kneeling in front of me to pay for what they’ve done. On a personal note, they must have hidden more supplies than we found. They wouldn’t have made it through the winter and spring with what we found. We need them so we can force them to tell us where their additional supplies are.”
Jack, who replaced Robert, after Dutch shot him, stands staring at Dutch saying, “We’ve been searching for them every day for a month. We’ve searched every house and barn that we can get into and all 1,000 acres, we haven’t found a trace of them. I have no idea where they went or how they disappeared, maybe they had a couple of buses or trucks hidden, they left in the confusion the smoke caused. All I know is they aren’t here.”
Dutch pounds my dining room table, every time his fist strikes the table I shudder, “Listen asshole, we provided the firepower that enabled you and your people to get here. If it hadn’t been for us, you would have all been mowed down, none of you would have made it to the trench, let alone to the houses. You would have had to limp across the street, and when you least expected it, they would have most likely come for you. They would have surrounded you and killed or captured all of you. We saved your asses. We made it possible for you to be living in a house, with a full belly. What do you mean, you’ve gotten access to the barns you can get into? What about the other barns?”
Jack’s face is red, his hands are clenched into fists at his side, he’s trying as hard as he can to hold his anger in, “You’re full of shit. We were working our way around their rear and sides. We could have done this without you. We might have lost a few more, but, we wouldn’t be on the outside while you keep everything of value. We demand you share the food with us. Some of their barns are built of reinforced concrete, we can’t get into them. The walls must be a foot thick.”
“What do you mean you can’t break into some of the buildings? Have you tried to drill the walls? And what do you mean, you’re making demands on me? Rob demanded too, do you still demand anything from me?”
“I have the right based on the number of people my group lost.”
“Tough shit, I don’t care about the people you lost. The way I see it, I saved your ass, and now I own you. You’ll do as I say.”
“All I want is our fair share of the bounty. We deserve it.”
“Jack, you’re a nice guy, tell you what I’m going to do, I’m going to give you, your fair share.” Dutch looks to his right saying, “Jose, please give Jack over here his fair share.” One shot ring’s out from Jose’s Glock 30S, the sound reverberates in the house, many of the gang members shake their heads trying to clear their ears. Dutch says, “I don’t know what’s wrong with these people, first Rob and now Jack, both wanted their fair share. They’re nuts.” The smell of gunpowder mixed with the release of Jack’s bowels taints the air in my dining room. Dutch laughs, “His fair share. I’m sick of hearing the phrase fair share. Might makes the rules, I have the weapons, I make the rules.”
Everyone in the gang hanging around my living and dining room laughs at Dutch’s joke.
Smiling, Snake says, “I like it.”
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“Jay, I have a suggestion, the next party they have is when we visit them, after their party they will be tired, and full of drugs. The gas will work better when they’re tired. I think tonight’s the best opportunity we’ve had in a while to hit them.”
“Look at what they’ve done to our fields, Christ, I bet they're tearing the rest of our houses apart. We’re going to have to fumigate them before we move back in.”
“Jay, we haven’t left the shelter while you were out communicating with your demons. I suggest we form a small strike team, there’s no safe way for most of the people to leave the shelter until these people are gone. For now, we have to consider the shelter our home. We’re safe here, we have food, water, and medical support. If we go outside before the gang leaves, we may get captured or shot. If the team gets captured, they will tell the gang how to find us. Everyone breaks under enough pain.”
“John, we have the weapons and we should have the element of surprise on our side, even while they have the numbers. Do you think we can mount a sizable attack to drive them off our land?”
“Jay, do you remember we just barely made it inside the shelter before the invading human waves flowed over our positions? Jay, if you had waited one more second before calling the retreat, I was going to call it for you. Instead of eleven wounded, and two dead, we’d have twenty or more dead. We got off relatively easy. One of our dead was their own fault for getting out of the trench and running, they had their vest on, but not tight, there was too much space between the vest and their body.”
“John, I know you’re right. It’s just I can’t bring myself to accept we lost.”
John knows I’m depressed, he tries to improve my mood by saying, “Jay, we faced at least two thousand people, forty against two thousand. It’s a miracle we did as well as we did. It’s a miracle we didn’t lose everyone.”
“John, it wasn’t a miracle, it was good planning and our defensive positions that saved us. We worked months on our defenses. We used the kids to load magazines and assemble mines, everyone worked their asses off on our defenses. In the end what did it matter? We lost the battle and most likely everything we own.”
Tony holds up his hand to stop John from saying anything, “Jay, I know how you feel, my home is overrun too. I agree with John, your foresight in building the shelters saved us all. Without the shelters, we’d be six feet underground.”
“So now we’re moles?”
Tony puts his arm around my shoulders saying, “Jay, at least we’re alive moles. Come on, let’s check on the wounded. I bet they would be happy to see their fearless leader.”
I look at Tony, “Who said anything about being fearless?”
Tony and I leave John and Todd in the security shelter, we walk towards our medical facility, we pass people leaving the medical facility, all are bandaged in one place or another. I’m thinking to myself, thank God Tony and I got our hands on body armor, without it, many of these people would be dead. The armor and our trench kept us alive. Looking at them, seeing nine of my wounded neighbors, two of them seriously, I know I responsible for their pain and suffering. Should we have just handed the farms over and left when we first noticed the mobs? What happens now? How can I lead these people back to where they were wounded? Is a house worth the risk of us attacking them? This time, they’ll be the ones in the defensive positions. We’ll be the attackers, the odds usually favor the defenders, unless the attackers have sufficient numbers to overwhelm the defenders, which we don’t. We need to figure out some sort of force multiplier.
Tony knows what I’m thinking, “Jay, we’re alive because of you. I know you feel guilty, there’s no reason for you to feel the way you do. You have to remember all you did to save our small community. We’re alive and able to fight another day. You and I both know not very many who face the odds we did can say that. Put a smile on your face and greet those who shed blood for us.”
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Tony takes me to see Fred, we hug like we haven’t seen each other in years. I look at his arm and shake my head. My eyes well with tears, “Fred, I’m sorry I got you shot again. I’ll find a way to make it up to you.”
“Jay, it’s not your fault. I’ve figured out I’m a bullet magnet.” Fred and I walked together to visit the other wounded. He put his arm around me to guide me to see the others.
Walking into the medical facility brings tears to my eyes. I pause at the entrance watching our two doctors and nurse check on my friends and neighbors. We invited our
family doctor, Doctor Basco to join us when everything turned to crap, Tony and Nancy brought their family doctor with them, Doctor Philip being 20 years younger than Doctor Basco sometimes clashed over theory, but they worked like the right and left hands on the same body when the wounded arrived at their facility. So far, we’ve been blessed that both doctors brought all of their sample drugs, bandages, and other equipment with them. In the weeks leading up to the attack, they wrote us prescriptions for antibiotics, pain medication, insulin, and heart medications. Between the two doctors and the other thirty-eight of us, we have over two years of medication stored in a cool, dark storage room under the shelter. Most of our wounded were hit in their arms or shoulders. In the month we’ve been in the shelter, we’ve had two sprained ankles, and one broken arm when one of the teens fell running in the shelter. Not counting the two of us who died in the fighting, we’re lucky we suffered only minor injuries. It dawns on me watching the doctors check on Flo’s injuries that we don’t have a preacher or any other person representing the Lord with us. I wonder how the hell I missed this. I feel a disturbance in the force, turning quickly I see Lacy and Cheri standing behind me, Cheri asks, “Are they going to be okay? They’ve been in and out of here for a month.”
Doctor Basco replies, while smiling, “Yes, only Fran has a long-term injury, she broke her arm when she fell against the steps. She came down really hard, she has a compound fracture. Normally she would need surgery, however, given our limited facilities, I’ve decided to see if I can find a way to keep the arm healing correctly without surgery.”
Lacy asks, “Doctor, do we have an X-ray?”
“Yes, Jay ordered a small one.”
Cheri asks, “How long will she need to have the cast?”
The Doctor shook his head, “I don’t know. I check her weekly to see her progress. My current guess is another eight to twelve weeks.”
I ask the Doctor, “Is there anything else I should know?”
“Yes, we’d like you to spend some time with us. We’re concerned about you. Lacy wouldn’t allow us near you for the month you decided to wander the shelter. We want to make sure there’s nothing lingering that may cause you or anyone else any problems.”
“Doc, are you suggesting I’m crazy?”
“Jay, I never said that. I never use that word. I’m concerned that you underwent a very traumatic experience and we want to ensure you’re OK.”
“I assure you I’m fine. What can you tell me about everyone else’s condition?”
“Jay, you know we’re not supposed to talk about other people’s health issues. There are laws about that.”
“Those laws don't apply down here!”
“Jay, given what you’ve been through, and what most everyone else is feeling, I think it best if we drop this line of discussion.”
“And if I don’t want to drop it?”
“Then I’m sorry, but if you’re not going to allow me to examine you there’s nothing for us to talk about.”
Leaving the medical facility, I ask Fred, “How’s everyone else doing? Don’t bullshit me, give it to me straight.”
“Jay, we’ve heard grumbling from some of the people who’d never been in the shelter before, they’re surprised at the small space they’ve been assigned.”
“They ought to be happy they have a private space. If someone hadn’t visited the shelter in advance, watching them being built and installed wouldn’t give anyone the scale. The rooms are small, we had to make them small so that every couple could have their own bedroom. We wanted to have as much storage space as we could squeeze into the shelter. We have no idea how long we’re going to be down here. The shelter seemed huge when one looked at the hole in the ground, but when forty people squeeze in among the cases and crates of supplies, there’s not much room. Some of the room is taken up with the security and medical facilities. There’s also the play room for the kids which can be made into a classroom and the mess hall which cooks the meals for us.”
Fred lowers his voice, “Jay, some people are very worried the motorcycle club and mob living in our homes up top will find us. It’s been the major item of discussion since we got here. Everyone is always looking over their shoulder. Many carried their weapons wherever they went for the first few weeks, they were scared shitless, some still are. Many have lost weight because they’re depressed. I think it would do everyone a lot of good if you addressed everyone tonight at dinner.”
“Okay, I’ll address them. They have nothing to worry about, even if the assholes above us found our door, they can’t break into it. Let’s assume they found some way to break through the first door, they still have two more doors of concrete filled steel. They can’t cut them with a torch, they will have trouble blowing them up. We have cameras which will enable us to see anything they try. If we have to, we can flood the space between the doors with gas. We have mini-claymore mines in-between the doors. Plus we have our escape tunnel. While the gang is trying to enter the front door, we can be escaping through the tunnel.”
Fred shakes his head, “I didn’t know we had gas ready to flood the entrance. That makes me feel better. I’m sure it’s going to make everyone feel better too. Jay, if you mention the escape tunnel, they are going to wonder if we had to use it, where we’ll go, what we’ll do, you should have a ready answer before you say anything about an escape tunnel, especially with your son in law Ricky’s attitude. If everyone thought we’d be forced to escape with nowhere to go, their morale will fall to new lows. The number of depression cases we have will skyrocket.”
Fred asks, “Where are you going now?”
“To my room, I want to change and get cleaned up.”
Fred smiles trying to hold back a smirk, I look at him and ask, “What’s so funny?”
Fred says, “Most people aren’t used to communal bathrooms, they were shocked when they saw them.”
“Tell them, at least we have men’s and women’s rooms. They’re not really communal.”
Fred laughs saying, “At least you’re not a good little progressive or we’ve had real communal bathrooms.”
Chapter 6
Captain Black, leading the main body of troops, pulls up to the barricade. He pulls himself out of the commander’s compartment in his Bradly fighting vehicle. He stands on the turret looking past the barricade, he sees the roofs of buildings and faint smoke from fires. He doesn’t know if buildings are burning or if the smoke is coming from camp fires. He notices movement from behind the barricade, he yells, “Movement ahead, make ready just in case they aren’t friendlies.”
He adjusts the image through his binoculars to see his Staff Sergeant and two civilians making their way towards him. He lifts the mic to make another unit announcement, “I see Sergeant Hill and two civilians, I’m not sure if he’s under duress or coming willingly. Stay on full alert until I give you the word.”
Sergeant Hill holds a white flag above his head, he yells out, “Captain, Sergeant Hill with two members of the town’s council. Permission to come forward?”
“Sergeant, daily code word?”
“Captain, code word is ‘red turtle,' repeat, ‘red turtle.’ “
Sergeant, counter, “Pink Panther.”
Sergeant Hill smiles walking around the barricade, he comes to attention in front of the captain, he salutes, “Captain Black, welcome, I’m sure the townspeople are going to be very happy to see you.”
“Sergeant, wait one, I’ll come down.” He picks up the unit mic saying, “All units, code dragon, repeat code dragon.”
The unit relaxes a little, code dragon meant probable friendlies, but not one hundred percent sure, stay alert and be ready to respond. Sergeant Hill said, “Sir, may I introduce council members, Mr. Jason Wright, and Mr. Robert Brown.”
“Gentlemen, thank you for your peaceful welcome.”
Jason smiles, replying, “Captain, we’re very happy to see you and your people. I’m sure Sergeant Hill will fill you in on our situation. We need some
help, we’ve been attacked by gangs who’ve stolen most of our supplies and all of our medical supplies, not to mention, several of our teen daughters.”
“We can take care of that.” The Captain turns his head yelling, “Corporal Gray front and center.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Please escort the MASH unit to town with these two civilians. I’m going to get a debrief from Sergeant Hill, LT Bander, position the rest of the platoons in a defensive position. Someone find 2LT Greek for me.”
“Yes, sir.” Replied LT Bander, who issues the orders to deploy the Bradleys and LAVs in a defensive position, their guns all pointing out. LT Bander allowed the troops to divide into four groups to take a needed break and stretch their legs while Captain Black learned about the conditions in the town. The more he listened, the more he shook his head. He thinks to himself, I can’t believe how far we’ve fallen, most communities have no electricity, no phones, no running water, most of the people we’ve come across are starving. We’ve had running battles with outlaw groups from as small as six people to one that was over one hundred strong. When people see us, they run into the streets begging us for help. It reminds me of pictures from the end of World War Two. Children and adults race to us, most are wearing rags begging us for food. Before the Captain can continue his thoughts, bullets ricochet off of his Bradley. Damn it, I wonder who’s shooting at us this time. I wonder when things are going to get back to normal. Before he can say or think anything, his people respond to the gunfire with 30 and 50 caliber machine gun fire. Two rounds struck the Bradley, over 200 rounds were returned to the area they thought the shots came from. The gunfire caused the townspeople to duck for cover, most fell flat wherever they stood. The Captain was about to order his LT to cease firing when, PING, PING, PING. Three additional rounds struck his Bradley, these struck within six inches of where the Captain stood. He picked up the unit mic, “LT, split the first platoon into odd and even, send the odd numbered units to left, send the even number units to the right. Have the second platoon take up the first’s position. Send the third platoon to town to protect the MASH unit. I worry that these shots are meant to pin us down while their main body attacks and steals the MASH unit’s supplies. Whoever is shooting at us most likely saw the red crosses, they’re thinking drugs.”