A Distant Eden

by Lloyd Tackitt

  Roman placed his hand on Adrian’s shoulder. “That is precisely the kind of preparation we need. We can make up poached corn and corncakes and jerky and dried fish for the scouts.

  “Ok, here’s the story. We’re moving. I know this is a great place, next to the river and all. But eventually the river is going to flood over this place. The river is now feral, the dams are not being maintained. Once the lakes fill, it will be as though the dams weren’t there. We have to move to higher ground. I have an idea for a good location: the old Von Stutten place. If they are still living there, I think they will welcome us, as it will enhance their own safety and security. If they are not there…well, I’ll find out today. I’m going up there to check on the place.

  “The reason I suggest it is because their family moved there nearly two hundred years ago, some of Texas’ first settlers. They chose a place that would not flood but be as close as possible to the river. They built on high ground that is well suited for defense—as they defended it against the Kiowa on several occasions. The house and out buildings were made from cedar logs. Cedar logs bigger than any you’ve ever seen. Those buildings will never rot and the walls are so thick they’ll stop a .50 caliber bullet.

  “There’s also a large garden where the soil has been perfected over many generations; it grows vegetables you won’t believe. There are chicken houses, goat barns, milk stables, pigpens. The place was self-sufficient and is still set up to be self-sufficient. As you know, I have a lot of time and work invested right here. But it will all be underwater someday. We’ll take everything of value, including all the perennial edible plants on this place.”

  Later that day Roman and Jerry walked to the Von Stutten farm. It only took a few minutes to realize no one was home. Looking through the buildings, they found the Von Stuttens’ bodies. They had been murdered, their root cellar cleaned out. Their livestock butchered and eaten. But the buildings and the garden ground were in excellent shape. A rooster crowed in the woods. Roman said, “Excellent, we can live trap the chickens and re-establish them here. I bet we’ll find goats and cows loose too. We can catch and return them to the pastures.”

  As they were returning to the river, Jerry noticed someone following them. He had caught a glimpse of movement in the woods, then without seeming to, he watched until he spotted a face shining back in the shadows. He turned to Roman and said, “I always wanted to say this—Don’t look now; there’s someone following us. He’s back in the woods under that big cottonwood tree at your four o’clock. In fact, don’t look at all. Let’s just get back and see if he keeps following.”

  After Adrian had been filled in, he said, “Damn, that didn’t take long. We have to assume he’s up to no good. What we’ll do is watch him watching us. If he makes a move to do something bad, he’ll be dead before he knows it. If he leaves we’ll follow him and see where he goes.”

  To John and Isaac, Adrian said, “I want you to watch him. When he leaves, my guess is that he’ll take a straight line back to wherever he came from. One of you follow him and the other get out in front to figure out where he’s going. When you find where he is going, evaluate it for friend or foe. If you think it is a foe status, capture and question the spy before he gets back. I don’t want his body found. I don’t want them to know we’re on to them. One of you keep watch on them; the other get back to report. We’ll send relief as soon as we know where to send it.”

  Two days later, the spy took off. Isaac followed him and once he had established a direction, John got in front and traveled fast. Within thirty miles, John spotted where he was heading. It took only a few hours of watching them before John realized that they had taken slaves and were obviously not good people to have for neighbors.

  Chapter 26

  Isaac watched the camp for a few more hours to be sure, but his first conclusion was correct. These people were keeping slaves. The slaves were clearing a field, and it was obvious from the gun carrying watchers that they were not clearing it voluntarily. Isaac backtracked a couple of miles and waited where he knew the scout would come through.

  When the scout showed up, Isaac took him prisoner by simply walking up behind him and hitting him over the head. Before his inert body hit the ground John was there and said, “I take it you didn’t like their looks eh?”

  They bound and gagged the scout and carried him well off the path he had been following. Finding a secluded hollow, they tied him to a tree. When the scout awoke, the soldiers were sitting looking at him.

  John said, “My friend, there are two ways this can go. You can tell us what we want to know without lying, and we’ll turn you loose with your word of honor that you will disappear from this area forever. Or you can try to refuse to tell us, or lie to us, and be tortured and die for your troubles. You have one minute to choose.”

  John and Isaac sat still and stared at him without any movement or facial expression. They completely unnerved the scout. Before the minute was up, he said, “I take option number one.” And then, before the soldiers could even ask, he began hurriedly, “I’m on a scout for our fort. The fort is owned by Blair Fowler. He’d begun preparing twenty years ago. He ran a cattle ranch and hired men that thought the way he did. He also hired some women to work at the ranch. He didn’t tell them what their role would be if disaster struck. There are forty men, all ex-military or mercs.

  “They ran a good cattle ranch, made a steady profit, and everyone made decent wages plus room and board. They have a huge stockpile of food, weapons and ammunition. Blair was rich even before the ranch. He built a small kingdom on the ranch. Now he’s sitting pretty. He sent scouts out in all directions to report back on who they could find out there. I am the second scout sent to watch you. When he sends another and finds out how many women you have, he’ll attack.”

  John asked, “Are the men trained and disciplined as a fighting unit?”

  “Yes, there are drills every week. Blair is the general. He has officers that were in the military and know their stuff. We, I mean they, are a tight hard fighting group. Well armed, too.”

  “How many soldiers and how many officers?”

  “Thirty-five soldiers and five officers plus the General.”

  “Have they fought since the grid went down?”

  “Twice. Both were small battles—capturing groups that could be used as slave labor. There was no strong resistance.”

  “When are you supposed to be back and what will they do when you don’t show up?”

  “Day after tomorrow. I was coming back early because of the number of women. Yours is the largest group, besides ours—I mean Blair’s—that I’ve heard of. If I am not back on time, they’ll send out more scouts to find me. If those don’t come back then a combat platoon of sixteen men plus scouts will be sent out to search and destroy anything that can be considered a threat; and they will consider you a threat.”

  “Why the slaves?” Isaac asked.

  “Blair takes slaves on a regular basis. Anyone who wanders up to the camp is taken. They’re fed little and worked hard. They don’t last long. They get too weak to work and either die or are killed. Blair said that he is killing two birds with one stone; clearing the land for farming and clearing the land of competition.”

  “How well prepared is the camp for an attack? What are the strong points and weak points?”

  “It’s designed for defense. The main building is bulletproof; only artillery will break through. It has thick, dirt filled double walls, and the roof is metal and the outer walls are adobe, so they won’t burn. The doors and windows are steel plated and have firing ports. There are two machine guns in the attic that can cover the approaches. They have grenade launchers inside as well.

  “There is a wall around the inner compound, six feet high. It has a slightly raised walk inside so that our men can shoot over the top. There’s a trench from the main house to the four corners of the wall for resupply and personnel movement. The fort is secure.”

  John asked, “How about
food and water in there? How long can they hold out?”

  “I don’t rightly know but the rumors I heard said there’s enough food in there to last years. A warehouse full. There’s a deep well under the house pumped either by hand or a solar power pump. I don’t think you could starve them out even if you had enough men and firepower to trap them inside.”

  Isaac asked, “Do they post guards outside the wall?”

  “There are guards out day and night two layers deep. The outer layer has stationary guards; they are about a half mile out and they have field radios to call in with. The next layer’s a quarter mile out and the guards are in pairs. They move randomly around inside their assigned zones. The guard system is intense and is used for training purposes and to keep the men sharp. Every month there are two or three probes—elite soldiers—that try to sneak by.

  “If one succeeds he’s rewarded with his pick of the women. The guards he gets by are severely punished. It isn’t often that one of the elites makes it. You caught me outside the outer ring or else you wouldn’t be here now.”

  John and Isaac were silent for a minute, thinking. Then John asked, “Any mine fields? What do they have bigger than machine guns and grenade launchers?”

  The scout said, “No mines, nothing bigger than the grenade launchers.

  “OK. Anything else that we didn’t think to ask about?”

  “Just one thing. They want women, and lots of them. They don’t kill the women off the way they do the men slaves. They don’t treat the women well; they’re badly abused, but they don’t kill them. If your women are caught, they’ll wish they hadn’t been.”

  “We appreciate your honesty,” John calmly said. Then he removed his knife and moved behind the tree as though to cut the rope binding—but cut the scout’s throat from ear to ear instead.

  John and Isaac buried the body and eliminated signs that anyone had been in the area. John asked, “How much of that can you confirm?”

  “All of it. I spotted the guards and patrols he mentioned. I watched the camp for several hours and saw the slaves, all men. The camp is as he described it, with the wall and everything. I am guessing he told the whole truth, as he understood it anyway.”

  John and Isaac returned to Fort Brazos and gave a full report to Adrian and Roman. Adrian called a full tribal meeting that night and John and Isaac repeated their report for the entire group, children included. After they finished Roman stood up and said, “This is Adrian’s area and from this point until Adrian says the threat is over, Adrian is in charge. I want to remind everyone that we agreed that we don’t take votes on his commands; we follow them without question or hesitation. If anyone has any objection to this, say your piece now.”

  There was a long moment of silence, then Jerry said, “I think I probably speak for everyone when I say that I am one hundred and ten percent behind Adrian. Just tell me what to do and consider it done.” There were assents from each of the adults and the older children.

  Adrian said, “We’re at war. We can consider the scout’s action of spying on us for a positively unfriendly group an act of war. We have good intelligence on what we’re up against and we have maybe two weeks to prepare. As some of you know by now, I don’t believe in giving an enemy any chances that can be taken from them. We’ll act before they do. We know more about them than they know about us. We’ll act preemptively. I’ll scout the terrain and the enemy myself. I’ll be back in four days. We’re on full red alert status. They may have sent other scouts that we don’t know about, even the scout may not have known about. So now we vanish into the brush, denying them a target.

  “We’ll break up into small groups, no group exceeding five people. We’ll separate and stay undetected. Rendesvouz at the high knoll in four days. If any strangers are seen, remain unseen by them. If you’re spotted, capture or kill that person at all costs. Understood?”

  There was a chorus of “understood” from the group.

  After the meeting, Adrian found himself alone with Alice and said, “I’m damn glad you yelled at me back at that hospital, otherwise I would have left you behind, and what a mistake that would’ve been. I know you probably can’t abide the fact that I kill people when you save people, but it is a comfort having you near.”

  “I know your job sometimes requires killing. But I also know that you only kill to protect the people you care about. I understand that—don’t ever think I don’t.”

  Adrian was embarrassed. Something about Alice was causing him to feel unsure, a new situation for him. Adrian mumbled, “Well, I’ll see you in a few days. Take care of yourself,” and quickly strode off. Alice stood there in bemusement, and then smiled. She understood this sudden shyness meant that he liked her. It was progress, real progress.

  That night Adrian went west to look at the enemy camp.

  Chapter 27

  Adrian worked his way between the various roving and posted guards without difficulty. He found a good place to view the compound. He was underneath thick brush in a shadowed area. He carved out a small place where he could lie comfortably, and using a stick pushed into the ground, he built a little stand for his binoculars. He could watch for days like this. Using a pocket notebook and a pencil, he began recording the enemy’s routines; when the guards changed and where, when the slaves went out to the fields and came in. Anything worth noting was written down.

  He noticed that the guard changes appeared to be at random times. That was always a good policy, but Adrian knew that it was never truly random. Having a purely random schedule was impossible. It took constant maintenance and it meant that some guards were out only a couple of hours and others were out for long extended periods. This was not good for morale: people need predictability and eventually they will have it. Adrian surmised that given enough time he would see the pattern.

  Adrian put the binoculars up when the sun was overhead or moving in front of him. The old adage of using the binoculars only when the shadows pointed away from you was still good advice. By having the sun behind you, it can’t reflect off the lenses and give away your position. He would probably be safe given that he was in deep shade, but still, Adrian didn’t take unnecessary risks.

  As he watched, he grew to know who the order givers and order takers were. He watched in particular as one huge man moved around. It was immediately apparent that he was the top dog. Fowler. The man was enormous, standing at least seven feet tall as measured against the doorjamb, having to duck his head to go in. His proportional frame would put him at about three hundred fifty pounds. He moved with the ease and fluidity of a trained athlete. He had to have more on the ball than just his size though; it took more than that to hold command of this many trained and disciplined men. He must also be intelligent and ready to impose discipline.

  Adrian peered at Fowler through the binoculars. He looked familiar, but Adrian couldn’t place him.

  By the end of the third day, Adrian had the guards’ pattern down cold. He watched an additional day just to be sure. He made detailed sketches, with dimensions determined by comparison of objects, in his notebook. Everything that he could learn, he recorded. If something happened to him and the notebook got back to his people, it would be invaluable. Much as he might act otherwise, Adrian understood his own mortality.

  When Adrian had learned as much as he was going to about the compound, he switched to locating the guards and their routes. He drew a detailed map of the terrain around the compound out to where the outermost perimeter guards were stationed. It only took him a day to find each guard station and the paths they took back and forth. He also located the roving guards and carefully followed them around until he understood and drew in their patrol patterns. Men are creatures of habit, and these men had their habits like anyone else.

  Adrian knew all about guard duty. He had stood enough of it himself, and he had also used guard psychology in a number of attacks. Guard psychology was pretty simple. Guard duty is boring. Guards start out nervous and twitchy as they take on
the new duty and location. Pretty soon they have seen the same old trees and the same old bushes for hour after hour day after week after month, and nothing ever happens. Nothing changes. Eventually the guards just stop seeing. Their eyes might be scanning but their brains were no longer engaged. Their minds were caught up in thought loops. They might be thinking about how hungry they were, or how tired, or last night’s movie or the next date with that pretty girl or last summer’s fishing trip. What they weren’t thinking about was boogers behind the bushes. Not to say that they wouldn’t notice something obvious, but they weren’t really looking anymore.

  Keeping guard duty interesting and guards on their toes had been a problem since the days of Rome. It was absolutely nothing new. People get settled into routine patterns. Shifting the guards around the various different stations only created a more diverse routine and pattern. Each guard had a routine for each guard station. Look here, turn, walk, look there, sit here, stand up stretch, take a drink from the canteen, look there, walk a few steps, and on and on. Knowing these routines put the guards in severe jeopardy. If the guards really thought there was an imminent attack they would be alert, but they rarely believed it; not after endless tedium.

  The regular penetration attempts were a good idea to keep the guards engaged, but that would again become a routine set of habits. It would be the rare occasion that a penetration was attempted that the guards did not know about beforehand. Word always got out and spread. The penetrators would eventually get into the rut of following the same old routes, with only small variations. The guards knew those routes and watched particularly close for them. Adrian used this knowledge to spot the penetrators the one night they attempted to get in while he was watching. He not only knew they were coming, but could tell about when they would show up and where they would be “captured.” He could tell by the change in the guards’ normal routines. The changes pointed right at the penetration attempt.