Shelter: Book 2, A Long Days Night

by Ira Tabankin

  “How could you do this? We just fought a major naval battle to save Hawaii.”

  “I’m sorry to say, you fought a battle and lost ships and people for nothing. At the end of the day, we are leaving the US and joining the People’s Republic. If you take any militant action, the Chinese said, it will be the same as attacking any other Chinese city.”

  “You’re telling me, if I use the US military to hold on to Hawaii, an American state, the Chinese will consider it an attack on the Chinese mainland and respond accordingly?”

  “Yes, sir. That’s what I’m saying. I believe them, they are sending troops by air and freighters full of equipment, both military, and consumer. They’ve promised us food and security, they’ve said they are going to set two islands aside for native Hawaiian’s. They are going to move non-native Hawaiian’s off of the two islands. They’ve also asked me to remind you, they claim a territory of two hundred miles surrounding their borders.”

  “Isn’t there something I can do?”

  “Mr. President, I’m sorry, the people have voted.”

  “Can you tell me how close the vote was?”

  “Mr. President, 65% voted yes, 20% voted to stay and 15% selected none of the above, which for some reason was something the Chinese demanded be placed on the ballot.”

  “When are you making the official announcement?”

  “Tomorrow morning at nine AM our time. I wanted to call you this evening to give you time to be able to respond. Mr. President, I’m sorry it’s come to this. I hope we can have good relations.”

  “I think the Supreme Court is going to overturn your election.”

  “Sir, I guess we’ll see. My gut is telling me, by the time the Supreme Court hears the case it will be too late, the Chinese will be so embedded in Hawaii, nothing except a war will dislodge them.”

  @@@@@

  Captain Sarnoff’s scouts returned from their mission from where they heard the shots, “Cap.. I am sorry, Bob, the shots came from a large farm and cluster of homes. They are building a large building of cement. Everyone goes about their business armed. They have lots of ARs, many wear tactical vests with extra magazines, we could not tell if the vests are armored or not. They are very organized, everyone is, I think the term they use is, busy bee, all doing something. Some working in fields, some working on building the large building, some patrolling.”

  “Are they military?”

  “Not that we could tell, they might be a militia, we know how much the Americans like their militias.”

  “Do you have any idea what the building is going to be?”

  “No, it looks like they are building a castle.”

  “A what?”

  “Ca…Bob, a castle.”

  “Someone is building a castle in Tennessee?”

  “That is what it looked like to us, we took some pictures, see for yourself.”

  “Holy mother, it does look like a castle. Why?”

  “We have no idea.”

  “How close can you sneak up to them?”

  “Bob, not as close as we expected. They must have cameras or other sensors. We thought we were hidden, they sent two armed people in our direction. We had to sneak out of our hide before they found us.”

  “So, there’s a well-armed group of people that are building a castle very close to us?”

  “Yes.”

  “I think I should visit this castle. Can you lead me there?”

  “What are you going to do there?”

  “See if we can make new friends?”

  “Bob, friends? We want to make friends?”

  Sarnoff laughs, “Yes, my friend, we will make friends, just before we kill them and take over this castle and farm. It sounds like the perfect place for us to make our new life.”

  “I understand your plan, I like it.”

  @@@@@

  The community doesn’t know what came between Tony and Jay, most decided to side with Jay, after all Jay built the shelter which saved their lives, he enabled them to keep their homes and the farm. They knew that Tony was the local ‘Don,’ if the two friends had a falling out, the community knows it must be very serious as the two were glued together in the previous battles. Tony realized he screwed up and risked getting himself and his family kicked out of the community, he already knew there were no buildings left standing on the street his restaurant had been located. Out of control fires left behind rows of burnt-out foundations. The same was true of the gated community his house had been located in. The wealthy areas were prime targets for the angry, hungry mobs. They attacked the wealthy bedroom communities, stealing anything of value. When they finished looting, they torched the mansions to their foundations. Tony had no place to take his family if Jay asked him to leave. He didn’t think Jay would boot him because the community needed all of the bodies they had. Their biggest weakness was their limited number of people. Reducing their numbers didn’t make sense if he knew anything about Jay, he knew he wouldn’t bite his nose off to spite his face.

  John approached Jay, who was watching Franco lower another wall section for his new home. “Jay, got a minute?”

  “Sure John, what’s up?”

  “Can I broach a sensitive issue?”

  “I assume you want to talk about the situation between Tony and I, if so, let’s get a cup of coffee. Any discussion about this issue should be in private.”

  “OK, want to grab a cup of coffee at the tent or back in the shelter?”

  “Shelter, if that’s OK with you.”

  The two men walk back to the shelter to talk, they sit in a corner in the mess hall with their cups of coffee. “OK John, I’m ready. Convince me to make nice with Tony.”

  “Jay, I don’t know what happened between the two of you, I know that we need him and his people, he provides us with more than half of our armed people. We couldn’t defend ourselves if he took his people and left. Let me remind you, I’m one of his people.”

  “I understand, you’re telling me to find a way to deal with Tony.”

  “Yes, can you do it?”

  “I’ll swallow my pride and find a way to make nice with him.”

  Before the two men can continue, the alarm sounds, both men jump up and run to the security room, John says, “Todd, what’s up?”

  “Group working their way through the fields across the street. Not normal people. Let me zoom the camera in, look how they move, they leap frog each other, they are very careful where they step and look how they move. They remind me of the military.”

  John stares at the monitors, “They’re military all right, question is whose?”

  Jay asks, “Any idea whose?”

  Before John responds, Tony shows up in the room, “What’s up?”

  Jay says, “Tony, look at the main monitor, Todd saw the group making their way through the fields towards us.”

  “How many?”

  “We see four, there could be others we don’t see or are already close to us.”

  “Shit, Jay, do you want to stop all work and get people into their fighting positions?”

  “I think it’s a good idea.”

  Tony looks at John who nods, “John, sound the silent battle alarm. There’s no reason to let them know we’re getting ready for them. Let’s get ready for an attack.”

  Everyone in the community drops the tools they're using, they pick up their weapons and dash to their fighting positions. Todd uses the pointer to mark the people on the monitor, the computer will now follow them and leave a red line showing where they came from. John studies the computer track, “We’re their target.”

  Tony says, “If they wanted to be friends, they wouldn’t be trying to hide their movements from us, they’d show up at our front gate with a white flag or yell, hello. I agree they’re doing a recon, they’re not acting friendly.”

  John asks, “Jay, want us to open fire when they’re in range?”

  “No, when they enter range tell them they are about to enter a mine field, that
should stop them in their tracks. It will let them know we’re aware of them and we’re ready to fight if required.”

  Tony smiles saying, “I like it.”

  Five minutes later Sarnoff is quietly making his way through fields when he hears a loudspeaker say, “You in the fields, we see you, we’ve been following your progress towards us. Don’t move any closer towards us, you are about to enter a mine field. Drop your weapons, raise your hands and move to your left to the street, do NOT move forward or you will blow yourselves up. If you agree, drop your weapons and raise your hands.”

  Sarnoff says, “Shit, I wonder how long they have been watching us. We must have crossed a security line. How the hell did we miss one?”

  “Bob, it may have been a laser which we would not have seen.”

  “Alright, we do not have a choice, so drop your weapons and let us move to the street. I can not believe a group of farmers caught us with our pants down.”

  Chapter 28

  Captain Black’s recon team locates the trail Captain Sarnoff left behind. Having operated in America for months, the Russians became careless thinking they were dealing with dumb citizens versus the American military. “Captain, we found their trail, we’re following them, it appears they’re heading to a small farming community.”

  “Follow them, don’t let the Russians or the community see you. Keep eyes on them, see if you can figure out what they’re up to. I don’t like Spetsnaz operating in our territory.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  The US Army scouts hide on a small hill watching the Russians drop their weapons, raise their arms and make their way to the street. “Interesting, the community saw them. They must have the area surrounding them ringed with cameras. Corporal, see if you can locate any of their sensors or cameras, I’d like to know if they’re watching us too.”

  The corporal returns in a few minutes saying, “Sarge, I found some wires and a wireless access point. I think they had cameras here, but they were lost in a battle, we found bullet holes in the trees, some of the wires had been cut.”

  “Very interesting, this community has cameras and fought at least one battle with someone. Let’s keep eyes on them, see how they interact with our friends.”

  Captain Sarnoff stands on the empty street with his hands up, he hears a truck approaching, they have fuel and trucks, interesting, I wonder what else they have. When the matt black truck arrives, he sees the four armed men in the truck’s bed. “Who’s in charge here?”

  “I am, name is Bob.”

  “Hello Bob, I’m John, want to tell me why you were trying to sneak up on us?”

  “We worried we would be misunderstood on the road.”

  “We’re more concerned with you in the woods. We don’t trust people who try to sneak up on us.”

  Sarnoff looks at the men standing around his men, each is wearing body armor and a US Army helmet. Two are holding US M4s and two are holding Uzis. He notices the people surrounding him seem very comfortable with their weapons, he’s thinking, these are not ordinary farmers, they must be either military or ex-military. They are very comfortable with their weapons. Full auto weapons which could have given us a bad time since they saw us before we saw them. “We come in peace.”

  “I don’t think so. What do you really want with us?”

  “To be friends.”

  “Sorry, not buying it. Try another answer.”

  “We are looking for a place to settle down?”

  “Again, not buying it, we’re not going anywhere until you start telling us the truth.”

  “I am telling you the truth.”

  “Here’s what we’re going to do. One of my people is in the woods picking up your weapons, we’re going to tie your hands behind your back, blindfold you and take you to a site where we can question you.”

  “Are we under arrest?”

  “No, we’re not the police, we’re much worse. We don’t arrest, we kill those who plan to do us harm.” John leers at Sarnoff who looks into John’s eyes believing his life is at risk. I got lazy and stupid. I didn’t expect any of these soft Americans to be able to get the drop on me. Shit, I have to figure out how to get out of this mess. They are blindfolded and their hands are tied behind their back. They are placed in the truck bed and driven for twenty minutes, Sarnoff is thinking, where are they taking us? Did we stumble on a different group who was protecting the farming community?

  John laughs to himself as he drives the roads surrounding our community twice confusing his captives. He arrives at a garage at the rear of the community, the Russians are kicked out of the truck and tied in chairs. A new voice asks, “Who are you?”

  “We are just a group of like-minded people looking for a place to settle.”

  “Where are your wives, girlfriends, and children?”

  “Waiting at our base camp.”

  “Which is where?”

  “I’m sure you realize for security I can not tell you.”

  Sarnoff is struck in the stomach by a metal pipe, the air is knocked out of him, he is surprised by the pain. “That’s nothing, if you continue to play games with us, we’ll start breaking bones, if that doesn’t loosen your tongue, we have a blow torch that may make you talk. Everyone breaks under torture.”

  “America does not use torture.”

  “So, you admit you’re not from America.”

  “I did not say that.”

  “Yes, you did.”

  Unknown to the community, the balance of Sarnoff’s people are coming after their captain because he missed two check in radio calls. The Army scouts see the additional men coming towards the community. “Look, more men, these are definitely military.” One of the army scouts taps the sergeant, “Sir, look to the left, a group of armed men on horseback coming this way, one is wearing a sheriff’s uniform.”

  “Something is wrong. I’ll contact the captain.”

  @@@@@

  The sheriff is riding towards Jay’s farm with twenty heavily armed men. They think they will be able to overwhelm anyone they find on Jay’s farm enabling them to take their time searching the farm for Jay’s hidden stash of supplies. The sheriff doesn’t know he’s being watched by both the Army scouts and the community’s security cameras. Todd hits the alarm again, he picks up the handheld radio, “Jay, trouble, the sheriff is coming with twenty armed men on horseback.”

  “I’ll tell John. Make sure everyone is in the fighting trench and ready, get the kids in the shelter.” John looks at me.

  “More trouble?”

  “Yes, twenty armed men on horseback coming our way.”

  Tony looks at me with questions in his eyes, “I think our mutual friend the sheriff is back.”

  “Jay, I know you don’t want to hear this, but we’re going to have to deal with him sooner or later and I think sooner is going to be best. If you want, I’ll take care of it.”

  “Let’s discuss it after we deal with the two groups coming at us.”

  “What do you want to do with these guys?”

  “We can’t be bothered with them now, make sure they’re securely tied to the chairs, bolt the chairs to the floor and duct tape their mouths, we’ll deal with them later.”

  Sarnoff asks, “What happens if something happens to you and you do not come back for us?”

  Jay says, “Than you die a slow death. You’ll learn not to sneak up on peaceful people.”

  “We did not…”

  “Shut up or I’ll shoot you in your knees and leave you.”

  Sarnoff knows he’s in trouble, he shuts up before he’s shot.

  I turn to the others, “Let’s go, we’ve got another fight on our hands. I hoped, we’d have had more time to improve our defenses.”

  Tony says, “We got the traps set, we were able to bury replacement mines.”

  “I hope it’s enough to stop the two groups, we better hurry if we want to make it back in time.”

  The sheriff is smiling to himself, he’s thinking if Jay’s back, I
’m going to have my revenge, if he’s gone or dead, I’ll take everything he had. I told him I always get what’s mine. I warned him it was better to play ball with me. If the farms are deserted, I’ll finally have time to search the barns, garages and use the metal detectors to find where Jay buried supplies. The sheriff doesn’t know there are Russian Spetsnaz troops coming to the farm from the right-hand side of the road while he’s coming in from the left, nor does he know there is a US Army scout team following the Russians and two platoons of US Army soldiers traveling as fast as possible thirty minutes behind the scouts.