by Robert Boren
“Sounds like a plan,” she said.
“We’re gonna take off,” Don said. “See you later, honey.”
“Bye bye,” Sydney said, blowing him a kiss. Then she looked at Amanda and snickered.
Both women watched as Don and Curt drove back to the clubhouse.
“Okay, tell me what really happened last night,” Amanda asked.
Sydney smiled. “Let’s talk about something else.” She rolled out the large steel vessel. “We got a water spigot nearby?”
“Yeah, right over there,” Amanda said, pointing as she was looking through another cabinet sitting next to the still. “Wish we could’ve left this stuff in the bobtail.”
“We should buy some of those sheet-metal sheds when we’re in town,” Sydney said.
“Good idea,” Amanda said, as she watched her fill the vessel with water.
“So tell me what went on between you two last night,” Sydney said.
Amanda glanced over at her, face turning red. “Only if you tell me what’s going on with you, dearie.”
“Nothing to tell,” Sydney said. “Well, almost nothing, anyway.”
“Come on,” Amanda said.
“Okay, okay,” Sydney said. “I slept in the trailer last night. I started out on the couch bed in the front of the rig. He slept in the bedroom.”
“That doesn’t sound very exciting,” Amanda said. “No fair.”
Sydney sighed. “I had a nightmare. I snuck into bed with him at about three.”
“Now we’re talking. Naked?”
“Yes,” she said quietly, looking around to make sure nobody was listening.
“I knew it,” Amanda said. “So you two did it?”
“Nope,” Sydney said. “We cuddled, and I let him look at me. That’s all.”
“That’s all? No way.”
“We kissed,” Sydney said.
“Why are you holding back? I know you’re on fire for this guy. You told me, remember?”
“He’s more conservative than my usual boyfriends,” Sydney said. “I like it. We’re going slow.”
“Well, I’ll bet that’s fun.”
“Oh, it’s all I can do to hold back,” Sydney said. “He’ll get me soon enough… or rather I’ll get him.”
“I’m glad,” Amanda said. “Teasing on the side, you two deserve each other.”
“I think so,” she said. “How about you? Did you two really do it?”
“Yeah,” she said softly. “I don’t think he planned on it yet, but as soon as I got into his bed naked, it was over.”
“Really?” Sydney asked. “How was it?”
“Oh, God,” Amanda sighed, “better than I imagined.”
“I’m glad, sis, especially after Casey,” Sydney said.
“Shut up about him,” Amanda said.
“Sorry. I just think it’s good that you’re finally getting over him, that’s all.”
“It’s okay,” Amanda said. “Curt’s twice the man anyway. I could see a real long-term future with him. Kids, even.”
“I think that’s great,” Sydney said.
“If we manage to survive this war, we stand a good chance of having a nice life,” she said.
“You’re worried,” Sydney said.
“Aren’t you? Look at this place. If a force a twentieth the size of the one we fought last night attacked here, we’d be dead meat.”
“That’s what my nightmare was about,” Sydney said.
Chapter 13 – Migration?
Kelly, Junior, Moe, Clancy, Jason, Eric, and Dirk were sitting on the office porch chatting. They watched Don’s SUV roll up.
“About time you got up,” Jason said, watching Curt and Don walk over.
“Shut up, pencil neck,” Curt said. “How’s Kyle?”
“Taking the day off,” Jason said. “Spending it with Kate.”
“That’s right where he should be,” Kelly said.
“Damn straight,” Dirk said.
“What’s going on?” Curt asked, walking up to Moe. “Heard you were looking for me.”
“We put those RFID chips on the goats. Probably won’t be there for long, though. You know how they are. They’ll chew them right off each other.”
Curt laughed. “How’d you attach them?”
“Belts around their middles,” Moe said. “I didn’t want to risk infection by stuffing them under the skin. They’ve got nasty rancid blood all over them, and I don’t know how to clean them well enough without causing damage.”
“They’re where the goats can’t reach themselves, but other goats can,” Clancy said.
“We got a team watching?” Curt asked.
“Yeah, we got a couple snipers set up, about forty yards away. They’re hidden pretty well.”
“So what’d you want to talk to me about?” Curt asked.
“We saved one,” he said. “It was Eric’s idea. Thought you might want to mess with them a little. Try to figure out what makes them tick.”
“Oh,” Curt said. “Those things might lead somebody to their location. Where did you stash it?”
“It’s in my office right now, in the safe. Think that will block the signal?”
“That’s a good question,” Curt said, brow furrowed. “You obviously think it’s a good idea, Eric.”
“Hey, they already know exactly where we are,” Eric said. “We aren’t giving them any new info. If there’s really a danger, they’ll hit the goats first. There’s more of them, and they’re not right in the middle of enemy territory.”
“Well, not quite, anyway,” Curt said. “I don’t know much about RFID. We need a manufacturing guy for that. Somebody who’s been in the IT department of a company that uses them to track inventory. I don’t know anybody like that.”
“Shit, neither do I,” Moe said. “Maybe we ought to send the idea up through Ramsey.”
“Yeah, maybe,” Curt said.
“I’ll call Ramsey right now,” Jason said, pulling his phone out of his pocket. He hit the contact and listened.
“Jason,” Ramsey said.
“Hey, Chief.”
“I’m kinda busy right now. What’s up?”
“Question about the chips. We can talk later if you’re busy.”
“Just a second,” Ramsey said.
Eric saw the worried look on Jason’s face and walked closer. “What?”
Jason shrugged and shook his head no.
“Jason, is Curt around?” Ramsey asked.
“He’s with me, along with Kelly, Junior, Eric, Don, Moe, and Clancy.”
“Got somewhere nearby that you can put this on speaker? We need to have a confidential chat.”
“The guys I mentioned okay?” Jason asked.
“Yeah, they’re desired,” Ramsey said.
“Moe, can we use your office?”
“Sure,” Moe said. “All of us?”
“Yeah,” Jason said.
Moe nodded and led them inside. Jason came in last and shut the door, then put his phone on speaker and set it on the counter.
“Okay, we’re alone in Moe’s office. What’s up? Something about San Antonio?”
“I wish,” Ramsey said. “I’ve got Gallagher and Governor Nelson with me.”
“Oh,” Jason said. “Sorry.”
“No, I’m glad you called,” Nelson said. “We would have been calling you anyway.”
“What happened?” Moe asked. “We got another invasion coming at us?”
“General Walker was killed last night,” Gallagher said, lump in his throat. “He’s on the internet. His head, anyway.”
“Oh, shit,” Curt said.
“No!” Jason said. “How?”
“He was at the RV Park of another group like yours. It was overrun.”
“Is that where the chip guy was?” Curt asked.
“Yeah, but he and his people escaped,” Gallagher said. “Just in the nick of time, too.”
“There’s more, isn’t there?” Eric asked.
; There was silence on the line for a moment.
“Guys, this is top secret,” Nelson said. “Don’t tell the rest of your group yet. It’ll put people in danger.”
“Understand,” Jason said.
“Good,” Nelson said. “There’s a coup in progress right now, in Washington DC.”
“Good guys or bad guys?” Curt asked.
“Good guys, we think,” Nelson said. “They investigated after that photo of Simpson and Saladin came out. His administration is behind this whole mess. People are being arrested now. President Simpson is already in custody.”
“You’re kidding,” Eric said.
“I knew it,” Moe said. “That bastard.”
“So what do we do?” Clancy asked. “Does this mean the war is over?”
“We really don’t know yet,” Gallagher said. “There might be a lot of blowback on this, given the number of Islamists and Militia who are in the fight right now.”
“Dammit,” Jason said.
“What about the RFID chips?” Curt asked.
“Oh, yeah, that’s why we wanted to talk,” Jason said. “We need an expert in manufacturing to look into them. We saved one. It’s in Moe’s safe.”
“Oh, that’s right, you put the other ones on the goats,” Gallagher said, chuckling.
“I know this is gonna sound bad,” Nelson said, “but I’m going to ask you to stand down on the chips. We don’t want the enemy to have any idea what we know about them. In fact, I suggest we remove them from the goats and burn them with the one you have in the safe.”
“Shit,” Curt said. “Really?”
“Yeah,” Nelson said. “That was a request from General Hogan. He’s managing the effort to break the chips. We were going to get with you on that within the hour.”
“We’ll get them off the goats as soon as we get off the line,” Moe said.
“I’m still not getting why you’re worried about us looking at them,” Curt said.
“This enemy is smart,” Gallagher said. “If they see you or people related to you search the internet about RFID chips, it might spook them into deactivating their system. We don’t want that.”
“Why not?” Eric asked.
“They’re putting these chips into very high-ranking people,” Nelson said. “We verified that Landry had a chip about two hours ago.”
“You’re shitting me,” Kelly said.
“I get it,” Junior said. “We’ll have to weed a lot of bad guys out of the government and the military. We might be able to use those RFID chips to do that.”
“You got it,” Gallagher said. “Understand, everybody?”
Jason looked at the others, all of whom nodded in agreement. “We all get it.”
“One other thing,” Nelson said. “Simon Orr had a chip.”
“He’s dead?” Kelly asked.
“Yeah, he’s dead. General Hogan killed him this morning.”
“What?” Kelly asked. “How?”
“He’s been out of Texas longer than we thought. We think he planned the attack that you guys beat back last night, but he did it from Utah.”
“Son of a bitch,” Junior said. “Remind me to buy Hogan a beer.”
“It was actually a guy named Jeb who took him down,” Gallagher said. “Jeb shot Orr with a bow and arrow while he was holding a gun on others in that group. Came really close to killing him. They locked him and the surviving Islamists in a cell.”
“Okay, I’ll buy him a beer too,” Junior said. “Sounds like our kind of folks.”
“How did Hogan kill him?” Jason asked.
“He tossed a grenade into the cell,” Gallagher said.
“Why?” Moe asked.
“Hogan wasn’t sure if the main enemy force knew where this new base was,” Gallagher said. “The chips don’t survive fire.”
“Simon Orr figured it out,” Junior said.
“True,” Gallagher said, “but Orr was a tracker. We’ve figured that much out. We don’t know how much communication he did with his superiors while on a hunt.”
“If I was him I would’ve been telling them exactly where things were as soon as I found them,” Eric said. “The enemy probably already knows about the new base. Hope the group is being careful.”
“I agree, Orr probably told his superiors,” Gallagher said. “This isn’t a cut and dried situation, though. The location is somewhere with very restricted cell coverage, which protects the group somewhat. It’s also got some topography advantages. That’s all I can say.”
“I think we get it,” Junior said. “So what now?”
“We’ve been looking at Satellite Imagery of the depot we wanted you guys to attack,” Gallagher said. “It appears they’ve moved. We’re trying to verify.”
“Moved to where?” Curt asked.
“South of Santa Fe,” Gallagher said. “Close to I-25.”
Junior pulled out his phone and brought up the map application.
“What’re you looking at?” Kelly asked.
“Keep your panties dry,” Junior said.
Gallagher and Nelson chuckled.
“This is gonna be good,” Ramsey said.
“Shit,” Junior said. “Anything bad going on in Colorado?”
There was silence on the line for a moment.
“I’ll take that as a yes,” Junior said. Kelly shook his head.
“What are you seeing?” Eric asked.
“I-25 is a perfect pipeline from Mexico to Colorado Springs, Denver, and Fort Collins,” Junior said. “New Mexico is still the wild west, isn’t it?”
“Yeah,” Gallagher said. “It’s still the number one problem in the Southwest. It’s being used to pump enemy fighters and materiel from Mexico and Southwest Texas into Arizona, Utah, and Colorado.”
“Well isn’t that special,” Curt said. “Santa Fe isn’t just a hop, skip, and jump from here, you know.”
“We’ll have to stage you guys up north to do this job,” Gallagher said. “Amarillo would be the best place.”
“What do you mean by stage?” Moe asked. “Do you mean move everybody up there?”
“I think that would be better than cutting your force in half,” Gallagher said. “You know anybody with a big RV Park up there?”
“Yeah,” Moe said. “How sure are we about this?”
“Pretty sure, but not a hundred percent yet,” Gallagher said. “We’ll need a few more days.”
“You might want to have a meeting,” Nelson said. “Tell your people what may be coming.”
“How about the tanks?” Gallagher asked.
“We have the three flatbeds,” Moe said. “Of course we’re down by one tank now. It’d be nice to get a replacement.”
“We’re working on that,” Ramsey said. “Same with the fuel tanks you requested.”
“You guys running the still yet?” Gallagher asked.
“Just getting it fired up this morning, as a matter of fact,” Curt said.
“Good,” Gallagher said. “How about the weapons systems?”
“We’re fresh outta vehicles, I’m afraid,” Curt said. “I still have the remote control machine guns. Deployed almost all of the M19s already.”
“You want more off-roaders?” Nelson asked. “That could be arranged.”
“That would be good, but we need more Jeeps or four-wheel drive trucks, too,” Jason said. “We’ll need to tow the off-roaders. If we have to relocate, some of our people will have to drag their trailers with vehicles we were using to tow off-roaders for the last battle.”
“Understand,” Nelson said. “Start planning for that, and let us know what you need.”
“Whoa,” Gallagher said. “You seeing this?”
“Shit,” Nelson said. “Guys, we need to go. Something big is going on in San Antonio. Talk to you later.”
“Okay, good luck,” Jason said.
The call ended abruptly.
“That’s a little scary,” Moe said.
“No shit,” Kelly said. “Wo
nder what’s going on in San Antonio?”
“I’m more worried about us having to pack up and go,” Eric said. “That’s going to be a huge undertaking.”
“We’d better set up a meeting,” Moe said. “When do you want to do it?”
“Couple of hours,” Jason said.
“Everybody agree?” Moe asked. Everybody nodded in agreement.
“Remember, nobody mentions what’s going on in Washington DC, all right?” Jason asked.
“We got it,” Junior said.
They left the office.
Chapter 14 – Water World
“Last flight, sweetie,” Juan Carlos said as he helped Madison in the stairwell. The others were already upstairs with the weapons.
“You made it,” Hannah said, rushing over.
“Yeah,” Madison said. “Hope we don’t have to go down soon.”
“Hey, Juan Carlos, come over here,” Richardson said.
“What’s up, boss?” he asked, standing behind a waist-high façade.
“Shit, dude, get down,” Brendan said.
“Oh,” Juan Carlos said, getting down onto his knees next to him. “There are snipers?”
“Yeah, they tagged a citizen on that roof half way down the street,” Richardson said. “Surprised you didn’t hear it.”
“Holy shit, dude, look at the water down there. It’s up to the tops of cars.”
“Yeah,” Richardson said. “I think they broke the channel in a few more places. This is just too damn much water.”
“Look to the west,” Brendan said. “It’s deep all the way down there.”
“Yeah, I know,” Richardson said. “Probably has City Hall flooded out. It’s in that direction. Really bad to the east, too.”
“Shit, the Alamo,” Brendan said, eyes tearing up.
“Don’t worry, it’ll be okay as long as they don’t blow it up,” Richardson said. “This river used to go over its banks a lot. That’s why they put the channel in there in the first place. The Riverwalk was an afterthought.”
“What’s going on?” Lita asked, coming over, scooting on the dirty roof. Hannah followed, helping Madison along.
“Flooding’s gotten a lot worse,” Richardson said. “Be careful up here, though. Stay outta sight as much as possible. We’re still hearing shots from snipers pretty often.”