by Robert Boren
The women nodded and got down. Brendan untied the rope and pulled it free of the window frame, and Juan Carlos turned the boat around and cruised slowly down College street, up to where it ran into Losoya.
“Which way?” he asked.
“Either Crockett or Houston Street,” Brendan said. “Wait, Crockett is one way.”
Richardson laughed, shaking his head.
Brendan got a sheepish expression on his face. “Okay, I guess that doesn’t matter.” Juan Carlos drove to the right, picking up Crockett and then turning left on North Alamo Street.
“There they are,” Richardson said, pointing to a group of men working on one of the other boats, still dripping from its trailer.
“Hey, guys,” one of the crew said from the bank. “I’ll back this down. Makes a good ramp here. You can just drive her on, and we’ll get her winched up.” He got into the cab of the big truck and backed up.
“Perfect,” Juan Carlos said. He waited as the trailer sunk beneath the water, and drove the boat onto it, one of the other ground crew men hooking up the winch and cranking the boat up to the front chock.
“Okay, Charlie, take her out slow,” the man in the water said as he stepped away. The truck moved forward, pulling the boat out of the water.
“That was easy,” Madison said.
“Yep,” Richardson said.
The ground crew man got out of the truck and walked over. “Looks like you guys got a little wet.”
“We had to jump into the water to get into the boat,” Brendan said. “Gonna be a squishy ride for a while.”
“There’s not enough room in that cab for all of you,” the other ground crew member said. “It’s got bucket seats in the front and a bench in the back.”
“We’re going to ride back here,” Juan Carlos said as he hit the button to tilt the engines up.
“Yeah, if anybody bothers us on the road we can blast them,” Brendan said.
“Not such a bad idea,” the first ground crew man said. “There’s still a lot of enemy fighters around once you get out of the city. I’d stay on the interstates as much as possible. They’re being patrolled more.”
“Roger that,” Richardson said, getting out of the boat. “C’mon ladies, let’s get out.”
“Maybe I should stay in the boat,” Madison said.
“No, you should get out and have Lita redo the dressing on your foot,” Juan Carlos said.
“Yeah, you don’t want to be in the wind when you’re wet, either,” Richardson said.
“Brendan and Juan Carlos will be,” she said.
“Yeah, but they haven’t just been in the hospital,” Lita said. “C’mon.”
Madison sighed. “Okay.” Juan Carlos and Brendan helped the women out, Richardson giving them a hand on his side.
“If I see a mall with a clothing store I’ll stop,” Richardson said.
“Find one next to a fast food joint,” Brendan said.
“Yeah, dude,” Juan Carlos said.
“Let’s get that foot cleaned out,” Lita said. “You got your stuff?”
“Yeah, in my pocket,” Madison said. “Peroxide and some gauze. The tape might be toast. It wasn’t in plastic like the gauze.”
“We’ll make it work,” Lita said, helping her over to the truck.
“You guys keep a good eye out up there,” Richardson said. “We’ll take off as soon as Lita’s done.”
“Sounds good,” Brendan said.
Chapter 24 – Open Road
The caravan was queued at the gate of the Fort Stockton RV Park, Moe and Clancy taking a last look before locking up the buildings.
“You need to lock the gate?” Kyle asked from his truck window. He was in the lead.
“Nah, it’s not gonna slow anybody down,” Moe said. “We might as well take off.”
“Remember where to let each of the tank flatbeds in,” Jason shouted from the door of his rig.
“Yeah, we got it,” shouted Junior from beside his Brave, Rachel next to him, arm around his waist.
The group started to move slowly onto the access road, turning left, then left on Warnock Road.
Junior and Rachel stopped to let the first flatbed get in front of them.
“That thing spews out some smelly diesel,” Rachel said, waving her hand in front of her as if to fan it away.
Junior cracked up. “Yeah, it does, but I’m glad we have these suckers.”
They took the bridge over I-10 and got onto the eastbound ramp, merging onto the empty road.
“Where is everybody?” Rachel asked.
“Hunkered down, I reckon,” Junior said, glancing at her as he settled into cruising speed. “This baby purrs like a kitten.”
“I’ll need to drive part of the way,” Rachel said.
“You don’t have to,” Junior said.
“You’ll get too tired,” she said. “It’s okay. I used to drive my brother’s rig, and it was bigger than this one.”
“Oh,” Junior said. “Seems like so long ago since we picked you up.”
“I know,” she said. “I’m glad you did.”
“You happy?”
“Do you even have to ask?”
“Yes, I want to make sure things go well,” Junior said.
“You remember our talk, right? I’ll never leave you. Ever.”
“I know, sweetie, but happiness is important too, and I want to make sure we keep track of that.”
“No worries,” she said, shooting him a smirk.
“That’s an interesting grin,” Junior said. “What’s funny?”
“I’m not sure if I should bring it up,” she said.
“Oh, go ahead,” Junior said.
“I’m still late. I don’t think it was nerves about the battle.”
Junior froze for a moment, then shot her a smile. “Oh, really now?”
“We need to get a test kit when we can stop for a little while,” Rachel said.
Junior glanced at her again, a look of pride on his face. “Wow. I thought it would take longer, since we’re both a little older.”
She giggled. “It’s been just about every night, you know.”
“I know,” Junior said, face turning red. “I can’t get enough of you.”
“That’s easy to see. We should make plans to get hitched.”
“Amarillo is a bigger town,” Junior said. “We might be able to get hitched there without too much trouble.”
“Well, it’s bigger than Fort Stockton, anyway,” she said. “I kinda liked Fort Stockton, though.”
“It’s not bad, but I miss the hill country. Dripping Springs, Wimberley, Fredericksburg. Those areas.”
“Is that where you want us to settle when this is over?”
“Maybe,” Junior said. “It’s not just up to me. We have to make that decision together.”
“I know,” she said, “but I don’t have any one place in particular that draws me. You’re what draws me.”
“I have a pretty big piece of land outside Dripping Springs. The house isn’t much, but there’s room to put a nice place there.”
She laughed. “Hell, I could just live with you in this thing forever and be a happy woman.”
“I love the Brave,” he said. “Not a good place to raise a child, though.”
“True,” she said.
“Looks like the last of our group is on I-10,” Junior said, looking in his side mirror.
“I hope we don’t get attacked on the road.”
Junior chuckled. “I wouldn’t want to attack all these heavily armed vehicles. I do wish we had a gun on the Brave, though.”
Rachel chuckled. “Sounds like you might get your wish, from what Curt was saying.”
“Sounds like,” Junior said.
“Think we’re going to make any stops?”
“For gas,” Junior said. “I know everybody gassed up before we left, but it’s a five-hour drive.”
Kyle and Kate were in the lead, watching the road unfold in front of
them.
“How you doing, honey?” Kyle asked.
“Better. I think my hormones are evening out a little bit.”
“Good,” Kyle said.
“You want to try again, don’t you?”
“Of course, honey, but maybe we should give it a little time.”
“We’ll have to,” she said, “but I still want to try. Maybe there’ll be a doctor I can talk to in Amarillo.”
“That would be good,” Kyle said.
“You think we’ll be up there very long?”
“No,” Kyle said. “I think they’ll move us someplace else, provided we’re successful in taking out that depot in Santa Fe.”
“They’ll still use us if we aren’t successful, won’t they?”
He didn’t say anything.
“Hey, don’t clam up on me,” she said. “What are you thinking?”
“If we aren’t successful we might not survive,” Kyle said.
“Oh. Shit. I had to ask.”
“Sorry,” he said. “It’s my protective nature.”
“Oh, I know. Speaking of doctors, I’m gonna push on Carrie to see somebody. She’s gone too long without pre-natal care.”
“Jason’s worried about that too,” Kyle said. “We were just talking about it.”
“Maybe we should stop working on a baby until the battles are over. That way I can fight alongside you and not have to worry.”
“Let’s not make that decision now,” Kyle said. “We’re both too emotional after what happened.”
She sighed. “Okay, I see your point.”
They settled into the drive, Kate nodding off for a while. Kyle kept an eye on the road ahead, also glancing in the mirror from time to time. The long line of vehicles behind them was both comforting and worrisome. His phone buzzed. He answered it.
“Kyle?” Jason asked.
“What’s up?”
“Just heard from Eric. He’s near the back of the line. There’s more people behind us.”
“Maybe they just don’t want to attempt a pass,” Kyle said. “It’s a long caravan, and we aren’t going that slow.”
“Might be all it is, but I thought I’d give you a heads up.”
“You can’t see them?” Kyle asked.
“No, I’m right in front of a flatbed. They’re wide and tall. Hard to see behind it.”
“How many we talking about?” Kyle asked.
“Eric said about five. Dammit. Gotta go.”
“What’s the matter?”
“Eric just sent me a text,” Jason said. “I’ll get back with you.”
“Okay, man,” Kyle said.
“What was that all about?” Kate asked.
“Jason said Eric is seeing other vehicles following us. He’s in the back section of the caravan.”
“Shit,” Kate said, eyes full of fear.
“Don’t worry yet,” Kyle said. “Could just be normal highway travelers. This is a long caravan to pass.”
“How are fast we going?”
“Sixty-six,” Kyle said.
“That’s pretty slow. Shouldn’t we have the eighty mile-per-hour crowd trying to pass us?”
“You’d think, but we aren’t in normal times,” Kyle said.
Jason called back. Kyle answered it.
“Hey Kyle.”
“What’s going on? You sound worried.”
“Eric said there’s over twenty vehicles behind us now.”
Chapter 25 – Three Leagues
Brian walked into Governor Nelson’s office.
“I got the meeting set up for three-thirty,” he said.
“Thanks, Brian. Kip was okay with coming over, right?”
Brian chuckled. “He was ecstatic. You were right. He’s got cabin fever bad.”
“You’re sending the armored car, right?”
“Yep,” Brian said. “You want him going through the scanner, I hope.”
Nelson gave him a sidelong glance. “You don’t think he’s dirty, do you?”
“He’s close to Holly and Sutton,” Brian said.
“He’s closer to me,” Nelson said. “The rule is that everybody goes through, so he’ll be no different. I’m sure he’s okay, though.”
“Sorry, sir,” Brian said.
“Hey, if you’re worried about something, I want to know about it,” Nelson said. “I don’t care who’s involved. Comprende?”
Brian nodded, then left his office. A moment later Nelson’s desk phone buzzed.
Nelson pushed the button on his speaker phone. “What’s up, Brian?”
“Wallis is calling. You have time for him?”
“Yeah,” Nelson said.
There was a click.
“Hi, Governor.”
“Wallis, how are you?”
“I’m okay. You?”
“Same,” Nelson said. “What’s going on? You sound a little worried.”
“My intel guys just talked to me. We have a problem.”
“What kind of problem?”
“The enemy knows about Amarillo,” Wallis said.
“What? How?”
“Over-zealous social media recruiting,” Wallis said.
“Shit,” Nelson said. “Was this a mistake or a plant?”
“We don’t know,” Wallis said. “We might want to re-route the group.”
“What about Santa Fe?”
“We wait,” Wallis said.
“We can’t wait,” Nelson said. “What if we use airstrikes?”
Wallis sighed. “We don’t know what Washington would do.”
“They might do nothing, after the coup,” Nelson said.
“I suspect there are still enemy agents throughout the Federal Government, and we can’t tell them what we know about the chips yet for that reason.”
“Don’t we have the US Airforce on our side?” Nelson asked.
“I wouldn’t say they’re on our side exactly. They’re against the Islamists and the UN. They might play along with whoever takes over in DC just to preserve their position.”
“What do you mean by play along?”
“They might bomb one of our cities in retaliation,” Wallis said.
“Really? You think they’d do that?”
“All of North America is at risk in this war,” Wallis said. “We aren’t their priority. Life on this continent is. I have that from some pretty good sources.”
“Dammit,” Nelson said. “Okay, I get it. We have any data on what our guys would be up against if we just let it go?”
“They’d probably get hit by thousands of enemy soldiers as soon as they get settled,” Wallis said.
“Why wouldn’t the enemy just hit them on the road?”
“They might do that too, but my intel guys doubt it,” Wallis said. “They’ll want to surround them in one location so our people don’t escape. Taking on those crazy vehicles of theirs might not be so easy, even if the enemy has some big numbers to throw at them. Remember how many off-road capable vehicles our guys have.”
Nelson sat in his chair silently for a moment.
“You still there, Governor?”
“I’m thinking, Wallis.”
“Sorry.”
“Find out how big the problem is, and whatever else you can. Then be ready to discuss it with the Fort Stockton group at the three-thirty meeting.”
“I thought that was about the gulf coast operations,” Wallis said.
“This is more important, and all the folks we need to discuss it will be on the line. I’ll have Ramsey get some of the key folks from Fort Stockton on the call.”
“Okay, Governor. Talk to you soon.”
Wallis ended the call. Nelson hit the phone button again.
“Brian, find Ramsey, and Gallagher if he’s around. My office, ASAP. Oh, and send Kip in here too, as soon as he arrives.”
“Yes sir,” Brian said.
Nelson got up and walked to the wall opposite of his desk, looking at a big map of Texas and the surrounding states,
his face grim.
“Hey, boss, what’s up?” Ramsey asked.
Nelson turned around. “We have an issue. Just talked to Wallis.”
“Oh, shit, what happened now?”
“Let’s wait until the others arrive,” Nelson said, turning back to the map.
“We’ve got too much going on in too many places, don’t we?” Ramsey asked.
“You’re reading my mind,” Nelson said, staring at the map. “We’ve got enemy fighters still coming over the Mexican border. We’ve got problems brewing along the New Mexico border. We can’t even get decent information on what’s happening along the Texas-Louisiana border, and we know there are more sleeper cells out there like the group we just defeated in San Antonio.”
“Yeah, I’ve been losing sleep over this stuff,” Ramsey said.
“On the other hand, it’s not all bad. We’ve got at least part of our National Guard back on line, and we know how to weed out enemy infiltrators.”
Gallagher came in. “Hey, guys. Just saw an armored car dropping Kip and Maria off. They’re going through the scanner now.”
“Good,” Nelson said.
“Is there some kind of emergency going on?” Gallagher asked. “I thought we were going to meet at three-thirty.”
Kip Hendrix walked into the room.
“Kip, nice to see you,” Nelson said, grinning. “Glad to be out of stir for a little while?”
“You don’t know the half of it,” Hendrix said. “I take it something new has happened.”
“Yeah,” Nelson said. “Ramsey, you get to the Fort Stockton folks?”
“Yeah,” Ramsey said. “Gave them the conference call number. I’ll send a text to Jason when it’s time to get on.”
“How many we gonna have?”
“I told them whoever they wanted to bring in,” Ramsey said. “Hope that’s okay.”
“It’s fine,” Nelson said. “Send the text.”
Ramsey nodded and pulled out his phone.
“Where’s Maria?” Nelson asked.
“She went to our office to gather up stuff we’ve been needing back at the bunker.”
“Good idea,” Nelson said. “We could get attacked here just like we were in San Antonio. I’m not ready to call an all clear. Not by a longshot.”
“I know,” Hendrix said.