by A J Newman
Julie and Tad saw him, ran to him and gave him hugs and kisses.
“The President said that we would all be safe and that the unit would be treated fairly when it surrendered.”
“Mr. Freels, they had us assaulting a town full of women and children. They killed thousands of innocent people. We would not go along with this mass murder. Please go to the field behind the Armory and prepare to be flown out of here.”
A man came out of the crowd and started shooting. The closest Ranger tackled him and brought him down quickly, but not before several people were dead or wounded.
“Tad, are you okay?”
Tad had been hit by the shots aimed at his dad. He lay there writhing in pain while being attended to by a medic and his mom.
“Ma'am, we need to get him to the hospital quickly. Load him up on the first chopper out of here now!
Major Mills walked over to the man who did the shooting and asked, “Why did you start shooting?”
“Because our President has declared you to be traitors and I won’t let you escape.”
The Major raised his 9mm and said, “May the Lord forgive you and me.” He shot the man in the middle of the forehead.
“Well, that SOB won’t get a trial and get off easy. If any of the rest of you support the President, keep your sorry asses here. If not, get on a chopper now.”
Twelve families stayed in the Armory.
There were twenty-one troop carrying choppers transporting the families back to safety. Another thirty Apaches and F-18s kept the skies and path back to Florence clear of any enemy. The flight took a little over an hour and a half and was uneventful. The Rangers in Henderson were not as lucky. Three of the original twenty were dead, eight wounded and four missing in action. Their attack had cleared the way for the rescue, but at a dear price.
***
“What the fuck just happened? I was assured that there were no ISA soldiers within 150 miles of Evansville. Where is Bill? Who the hell is in charge and where is my son?”
The agent looked at the President and said, “Sir, we need to attend to you and the first Lady while we find out what happened. Let the medic patch you up while I tell you what we know.”
“Okay, but make it quick, I want someone getting my son to me right now!”
“Sir, we were attacked by several hundred soldiers just as we left the bridge on the Kentucky side.”
“No shitting Sherlock, I was there.”
“Sir, let me continue. They took out the lead and tail Humvees with light anti-tank weapons, and then tried to take out your limo with a TOW missile. Our fire caused their missile to miss you; however, it did rock the limo and cause you to be shaken up.”
The first Lady said, “Our son was in the lead Humvee. Is he okay? Where is he?"
The agent gulped and replied, “I’m sorry to tell you, but there were no survivors from the lead vehicle.”
The first Lady fainted in the agent’s arms and the President went into an uncontrollable rage.
“Who killed my son? I want the SOBs dead!"
***
While the rescued families were being reunited with their soldiers, the ones who remained were being relocated to a prison in the new capital of the USA. The Mayor, City Council and all City Department heads were shipped out of town and executed for failure to warn the Field Marshall about the escape plans. Their families were sent to relocation camps. The Field Marshall held a town meeting and installed his own people to manage the town. General Black was court martialed and executed.
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Chapter 10
The Ohio River
Henderson, Kentucky
February, 2021
“Jesus, someone is moving over by the Humvee!”
Zack ran over to the Humvee with his M4 trained on the movement. He saw a young boy lift his head and then drop it to the ground. The Humvee was on fire so he grabbed the boy and moved him back towards Jesus.
"Zack, we have to go! We are missing the pickup.”
“It’s a young boy. What was he doing in the lead Humvee?”
Jesus looked at the boy’s face and suddenly remembered that he had seen the boy on TV before TSHTF. It was the President’s son.
“Holy Shit, Zack, we have captured the President’s son. I hope we didn’t kill him. That would really stir things up between the ISA and the USA.”
“That’s great, the boat will leave without us. They think we are dead.”
He barely got the words out of his mouth when the last two Humvees from the motorcade saw them and started firing on them. Three men were killed instantly right in front of Zack and Jesus.
“I got the one on the left, you take the other.”
Jack fired the LAW and got a direct hit on the driver’s window. The vehicle blew up in a burst of flames. The other laid down a storm of bullets right where Zack had been. Thankfully, he had quickly moved over to help with the boy while Jesus fired a LAW rocket at the remaining Humvee.
“Got it. Boy, did that sucker explode. What is that?”
“Damn, it might be USA helicopters. Let’s bug out."
The retrieval team left just before the helicopters arrived.
“Will, we can’t leave them. Those Apaches will chew them up.”
“We have to bug out or they will know this is an attack by the ISA instead of the Mexicans. I hate this, and we will try to find them later, but we have to get the hell out of here. Greg, put the pedal to the metal and get us out of here ASAP!”
Zack carried the boy through the brush while Jesus carried their gear. They moved quickly, but carefully and were not detected. The attack was about 500 yards from the riverbank and the terrain was horrible since it was mostly bottomland and sloughs along the river with sloppy mud, which tried to suck their shoes off. The underbrush was very thick. This made carrying the boy quite difficult for Zack, who had to stop and rest a couple of times as they moved northwest away from the road and downriver. They were almost to the riverbank when Zack heard sounds coming from behind them.
“Jesus, watch the boy while I see who’s following us. If I’m not back in ten minutes, get out of here."
“You know that I won’t leave you. We never leave a man behind.”
“Don’t argue. This mission is too important to worry about one man.”
“They're all are important, but never so much that I’d leave my buddy behind.”
Zack turned around, blended into the bushes and quickly disappeared. He traveled a couple of hundred feet when he saw a movement out of the corner of his eye and ducked. Just ten feet away, there was an enemy soldier walking just past him. He unsheathed his knife and steeled himself for the task at hand. He waited until the man got close enough and grabbed him from behind, placed his hand on the guy’s mouth and jerked his head back while drawing the knife back across the enemy’s throat. The man tried to scream, but only a gurgling sound could be heard. Zack gently laid him down on the ground without making any noise.
Zack scanned the area and saw two more DHS searching for him.
Zack heard, “Bill, Bill, where are you? We have to go back and get the hell out of here.”
It was a woman’s voice. Zack had never had to kill a woman before and certainly not up close and personal with a knife. He watched and waited as they went by him and then started turning back to the direction of the attack. When they were out of sight and he could not hear them disturbing the bushes, he stopped and took the dead man’s M4, pistol knife and ammo.
He traveled back to where he had left Jesus and the boy and found them still there.
“I thought I told you to move on if I did not return quickly.”
“I didn’t hear any shots, so I knew that you were safe and they hadn’t found you. Let’s move out. I’ll carry the boy and you get the gear.”
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Chapter 11
Life Goes On
The ISA
March, 2021
�
��John, I need to talk with you about the situation in Florida."
“Hello Gus, how is Ginny doing these days?"
“Well, Ginny and the kids are great. She makes me feel like a kid again. John, I feel bad about moving on so quickly to another woman, but even you said we only have what’s in front of us and can die tomorrow. She makes me happy. By the way how are Beth and Jenn doing? I have been busy and have not dropped in for a while.”
“They are doing great. Jenn looks just like Beth and is hungry all of the time. Beth has Scott’s team out looking for powered formula in their spare time. She just can’t keep up with that hungry child.”
“Did you ever think that you would have a little girl?
“No, but I never thought that you would be getting married either. When is the wedding? I know that you two aren’t sleeping together.”
On that, John broke out laughing and added, “Do you want me to have the scouts check the pharmacies for some of those little blue pills?”
“No, John, save them for yourself. Ginny will be happy with what the good Lord gave me. Maybe one of these days, but not now. Darn, I came to get help with Tallahassee.”
“So y’all haven’t done it yet?”
“Done what?”
“Damn, Gus, are you dense?”
“No, that was just none of your business. I respect her and that will come later.”
Gus quickly changed the subject and told him about the corrupt Mayor and the upcoming meeting.
“Gus, I have an idea that should work. Give me a couple of hours with Bob and we will help you with the plan. When is this meeting?”
“The meeting is this Thursday at seven o’clock at the town hall.”
“Thanks; I know just what to do. I’ll get right back to you with the plan.”
“We need something as good as the plan to free those people up in Kentucky; that was as perfect a plan as possible and was executed very well.”
John met with Bob, Roger and Scott to get an update on the mission to rescue the NG families.
“John, most of this you probably know, but from the start. All of the families that elected to leave Madisonville are safe and were relocated to the Compound in Mobile for their safety. The NG troops had left the RTJ Club House and joined them in Mobile. The Major’s son, Tad, is recovering from two slugs in his shoulder and thigh. He will be fine after a few months recuperation.”
“Bob, what about our men?”
“As you know, we lost three and have eight with non-life threatening wounds. Two of the missing men were picked up down river just short of Union town. They brought us a big surprise. I want you to meet him.”
Bob led John into the next room. There was a young boy in a hospital bed with several doctors and nurses tending to him. The boy had bandages, tubes and wires all over him.
“Bob, who is this boy and what happened to him? Why did your men bring him back here?
Bob took John back out of the room and said, “John, that was Johnny; he is the President’s son. He is why the four troops went missing. The boy had panicked and got out of the Humvee just before it exploded. He was the only survivor and everyone in the USA thinks that he is dead. He will survive, but may never walk again.”
“This could be a game changer for the good or a disaster. I would kill any and every one to get my son back. What do you think the socialist bastard will do when he finds out?”
“John, we are still evaluating our options. They have a few people in prison that we’d like to get back, but we have no definite plans at this time. This is Top Secret and only ten people know who the kid is counting you. Let’s keep this to ourselves. We are moving him to the Ford in the morning to assure that the USA doesn’t try to rescue him once they know that we have him.”
“That’s a good move. I know that I would move heaven and earth to get my son back.”
They took a break for lunch and John brought up the situation in Tallahassee. Bob wanted to help so they started working on a plan. After a long lunch, they had a plan that would make sure that the vote went in their favor and the Mayor had a couple of choices on how he would spend his retirement. They had a month to set the plan in motion.
***
The Bunker had swelled to over four hundred people since TSHTF. There were many of the same issues confronting Steve and the town council that confronted many towns across the southeast before the lights went out. Steve did not like waiting on large meetings to find out what was on the minds of the people that he governed, so he took a walk all around the small city every Friday afternoon and asked the folks he met a few questions. The main question was –“What can I do to make the Bunker a better place to live?”
“Good afternoon, how are y’all doing today?"
“Hi, Steve, we are doing okay. How is Janet doing? We haven’t seen her for a while.”
“She is great and we plan to get married in the near future. We will invite the whole town. I guess you know my next question.”
They smiled and said, “You don’t have to ask. We are concerned about a couple of the new families that arrived last month. They all stick together and say the right things, but never show up for community work and we don’t see their kids in school. There is a feeling that they don’t like black people.”
Steve replied, “I’ll look into them and see if we have a problem.”
“Steve, I just remembered hearing that they were asking a lot of questions about our arms and connection with the military.”
“Thanks, that makes it more important to check them out.”
“Everything else is going well. We really like having movie night every Saturday since the Navy sent the projector and DVDs to us. Thank Bob when you see him. Steve, what happens when the current supplies of toilet paper, feminine hygiene and medicine run out? What will we do?”
“I will thank Bob. I have heard a couple of concerns about those people. Toilet paper! Darn, you are right. We need to explore that. Have you noticed anything else about these new people?”
“Emmy, speak up!”
“Well, Steve, I noticed bruises on several of the kids and even a black eye on one of the wives."
“Thanks, I’ll take a couple of the guys by there and explain life to them while some of the ladies talk with the wives and children by themselves.”
“Steve thanks for using common sense to handle these situations.”
“Now what else can we do to make life better?”
“Steve, did you know that I was a physics professor at Mobile College before TSHTF? I think we have the opportunity to start over with how we make and use energy. We have a small population left, but tremendous resources lying all around the country unused.”
“Larry, what would you do if you were in charge of our energy program?”
“I’d let the ones working to get the usual power back up and running continue, while other teams are working on everything from windmills generating electricity to solar heating for the houses and industry. This can start out simple and build over the years with an end goal of not being dependent on coal or oil for anything but cars, ships and planes.”
“Larry, you have just been promoted to Director of Energy for the Bunker and probably Mobile. Are you up to the challenge?”
“Yes, but I’ll need men and supplies.”
“I’ll talk with George and Tom. Make a list of who, what and where you need it. I’ll get you a couple of interim supervisors and some clerical to get your department off the ground.”
“Thanks, we can start something very good for the people of the ISA.”
“Larry, do you know anyone with manufacturing experience? We need to fire up some of these factories making medicine and toilet paper when you deliver the electricity.”
“I’ll put out some feelers and see what we can do to get manufacturing started. I’ll take the lead in getting the people, but you need to find a permanent leader.”
Steve shook his hand and said, “Thanks, and I know just t
he person to lead the manufacturing effort.”
Steve walked the whole compound, drove to several nearby farms and heard a laundry list of issues that needed attention, but only two worried him. He heard about dead birds everywhere and the new group of people who had joined them. He saw hundreds of dead birds himself. He had not heard from Dr. Ray or the vet and he was concerned for the health of the community.
Steve met with George and Tom the next day.
“Steve, those are great ideas. I didn’t know much about Larry, but I’m damn glad we have people like him. George, what do you think?”
“I've always hated bureaucrats and now 'I are one”. Fellows, this just opened my eyes to the fact that we have our noses to the grindstone just trying to survive. We need a steering committee that just keeps us focused on the big picture of rebuilding the country. We know that we are a group dedicated to constitutional law, but what else do we need to adopt as a foundation to build our new country on?”
George took the concept of forming a steering committee to help develop a roadmap for the ISA to John and Bob.
They both had an aha moment and John said, “Larry’s idea sparked your idea and we will have a better country. We can’t waste the brainpower of the people and set up here like know-it-all kings. We sure can’t run out of toilet paper.”
Bob added, “We need people from many backgrounds to make sure that we cover as many possibilities as we can.”