Diego let the silence sit for several seconds before asking his second question.
“Are all battalion leaders in agreement with our current course of action,” he asked.
“Coopers, negative.”
“Harris, no way.”
“Roger,” Diego said. “Use UHF fallback frequencies in case of emergency.”
Diego switched back to the general mission frequency and made his announcement.
“Control,” Diego said, “Buzzard Hawk flight is aborting, repeat Buzzard Hawk flight is aborting.”
“Negative, flight leader,” control replied.
“Affirmative, control,” Diego said with a smile. “Illegal orders will not be followed, talk to the Colonel. All battalion leaders concur.”
“Negative, flight leader,” control replied again. “Orders are not illegal, proceed as planned.”
“No can do, Leo,” Diego said, using the control operator’s name instead of his call sign. “You and I both know this is wrong. We’ll find someplace to land, but I doubt we’ll be coming back to base any time soon. Pass the word: if anything happens to any of the families of these guys, we took off with a bunch of fully-loaded and heavily-armed Black Hawks, and we will exact our revenge.”
“Good copy,” was all Leo said, and then broke the connection.
…
“Major,” the radar operator said, “the Black Hawks are changing course. South-south-west.”
“What the,” Ben said as he looked over at the radar operator. “Why…”
“What, Sir,” Yale said when Ben trailed off.
“Promised Land,” Ben said. “Get them on the radio, now!”
…
“Not a good time, Ben,” Mallory said, “and things are only just starting to calm down after our new arrivals.”
“It’s not a social call, Mal,” Ben said. “I’m about to be invaded, but it looks like the air support just made a left turn and might be headed your way.”
“Excuse me?!” Mallory shouted.
“I didn’t send them there,” Ben snapped. “I’m just trying to give you a heads up before your radar goes crazy.”
“Thank you for that,” Mallory said. “I have to go shoot down some helicopters now.”
…
Ben and his command staff had known this day would come eventually, and had drawn up several different plans to defend the base. Ironically, Mathis had been critical to many of the strategies he was now implementing, which made Ben wonder if there were hidden dangers or weaknesses that had been intentionally left open. Unfortunately, he had to work with what he had since he’d only had a little over a day to prepare.
Every approach to, and all of the main roads on base had been turned into an obstacle course for the invading force while still allowing his defenders to have fairly unrestricted fields of fire. Ben knew they would be outnumbered–and outgunned–by several orders of magnitude, but he planned to make the invaders pay for every inch they took and had even toyed with the idea of burning the base to the ground on his way out.
The invading forces came from three different directions and Ben was glad he hadn’t waited any longer than he had to evacuate the base. The only way out now would be through one of the attacking forces. The initial attack seemed to have been delayed with the loss of their air support, but whoever was in charge over there had recovered quickly and the lack of helicopter over-watch only gained Ben a couple of hours.
Ben was relieved that the attack hadn’t started with a barrage of artillery to ‘soften him up’. That was the one thing he had no defense against and the death toll on his side would have been staggering. Instead, they led off with M1 Abrams tanks on all three fronts, followed by Bradley Fighting Vehicles. His anti-tank devices, large concrete structures that were either shaped like a caltrop or the giant ’16 ton’ anvils from the cartoons, kept the tanks busy long enough for his meager defense force of less than three thousand to move from point to point and engage them with medium-range anti-tank missiles.
The tanks crews also proved to be reluctant to use their main gun to clear the obstacles. Less than a dozen main guns were fired, and then only after his men had destroyed two tanks, before the tanks were called back and the smaller, more agile Bradleys began to make their way into the base.
It’s true that war is a nasty business, and once it comes down to one-on-one fighting it’s chaotic and all the best planning in the world goes out the window. On the other hand, a battle like the one Ben was involved in is almost orchestrated…choreographed even. Obviously neither side knew what the other was planning, but you eventually started to get a feeling for how the other side thought and what was coming next.
Ben almost felt as though the other side was being…hesitant in its attacks. It was obvious that they’d been instructed not to level the base, if at all possible.
He immobilized three Bradleys, again with medium-range shoulder-fired anti-tank missiles, but he was beginning to lose men on his side as well.
Less than an hour after the attack began, Ben’s troops had expended almost a million rounds of ammunition, most of it fired at the tanks and Bradleys, which basically shrugged it off but kept the occupants’ heads down and inside the vehicles. The second wave was going to be tougher, though, and Ben did his best to prepare his men to fire on fellow Americans. It was entirely possible, probable even, that many on today’s battlefield had served side-by-side during their careers. Not the definition of ‘friendly fire’ he’d grown accustomed to, but a fitting description nonetheless.
The sun was going down by the time the infantry started its assault all along the perimeter of the base.
There was no way for Ben to defend the entire perimeter; he simply didn’t have the manpower. Instead, he’d reinforced the passive defenses as much as he could; additional razor wire at both the top and bottom of fences and remotely detonated claymore anti-personnel mines, as well as unmanned sandbag bunkers to give the impression of a larger defensive force and discourage the invaders from using that avenue of approach.
Ultimately, it took less than a day for the invading force to gain a decisive advantage and Ben was forced to admit that they would have to abandon the base.
…
“It’s going to be a fighting retreat,” Ben told the platoon sergeants, “and we’ll punch through to the west.”
“Sir,” one of the Sergeants said, “it’s almost like they want us to do just that. The fighting has dropped off there and there’s hardly any heavy weaponry on that side.”
“I know,” Ben said. “And I admit that I don’t know for sure, but with the way this battle has progressed up to this point, I get the feeling that whoever’s commanding the troops on the ground on the other side would just as soon let us go as kill us to a man. He has to know he’s going to win eventually, but if he can give us a way out without making it too obvious, he’ll save a lot of lives on both sides.”
Ben didn’t say that he also got the impression that in the grand scheme of things, the opposing commander was on their side. Sure, people had died on both sides, many more on the other side than Ben’s, but the percentage of casualties was far higher for Ben and both sides knew it.
“First rule of an ambush,” one of the other Sergeants said. “Give the other side a way out and let them see it when the time is right. Yeah, I know this isn’t an ambush, but it’s still true.”
“What’s our casualty situation,” Ben asked.
“Seventeen dead, Sir,” the first Sergeant said. “Eighty-one who can’t be moved.”
Ben closed his eyes and squeezed the bridge of his nose. “I hate to have to ask,” Ben began.
“You don’t have to, Sir,” the Sergeant said. “Six medics have already volunteered to stay behind with the wounded.”
Ben nodded.
“Let’s start consolidating the forces for a final push to the west,” Ben said. “We’ll wait for a lull in the fighting, which should happen any time now. It’s been about t
hree hours since their last push and they’ll back off before they make another attempt. When they do, we fall back and put everything we have into getting out the back. Use our Bradleys to clear the way through our own defenses.”
…
Fighting retreat turned out to be an understatement. While the attacking force to the west was certainly smaller than the other two, either they didn’t get the memo to let him go or it had been a feint all along.
The initial push had gone well enough and all of his forces were able to clear the final fence without too much resistance. Part of that, he was sure, was due to the fact that his counterattack had been so unexpected.
That, of course, was when his plan, minimal as it was, met reality and it turned into an every-man-for-himself run for the border–in this case, the Tennessee border.
After what felt like a week, but was in fact only about an hour, the attackers broke off their pursuit. Without air support it was just too dangerous, and the further they got from the base greater the risk of an ambush grew.
With a final shot over Ben’s bow from the Abrams, which had been oddly silent during the entire chase, the pursuit was called off and the attackers headed back to the newly ‘liberated’ Fort Campbell.
Chapter Four
May 27, 2013 - Promised Land Army Base, Natchez Trace State Park, Tennessee
Dan knocked on the door frame of the office Joel used when his duties as Mayor forced him to spend the day in Redemption. “I see we got some new blood,” Dan said.
“Yup,” Joel said as he looked up from the pile of papers he was working on, “and a pretty good-sized group, too. It looks like the neighborhood or community, or whatever they were relying on, finally collapsed about three weeks ago.”
“How’d they know to head here?” Dan asked.
Joel leaned back in his chair and tried to stretch some of the kinks out of his back. “Well, we’ve been here for almost a year, Dan,” Joel said. “Word is bound to have spread that there’s something going on in Natchez Trace.”
Dan made a face. “Yeah, I guess. I mean, we found you and all we had to go on was a hunch based on how a bunch of postcards were arranged on a bulletin board,” Dan said.
“True,” Joel said and shook his head. “You know, I didn’t even know about that until you told me? I had to ask Rachael about it later that night. She admitted to it but claimed that she was sure that nobody we wouldn’t want finding us would be able to figure it out. I’m glad she was right.”
“Me too,” Dan said. “I’m really glad she left that clue or we’d have been toast. But back to this new group, where are they setting up?”
“For now,” Joel said, “they’re in the tents in camp. Now that we’ve filled the lodge, cabins, and the rest of the houses here in town, that’s all we have left.”
“At least they’ve all got wooden sides now,” Dan said.
Joel nodded. “After three weeks on the move, they were just happy to have a warm, dry, safe place to sleep.”
“How’re Rachael and Aurora?” Dan asked, changing topics.
Joel smiled. “They’re doing fine. Aurora is doing a great job of keeping us from getting a full night’s sleep, like a newborn should, and we’re doing our best to keep the world from seeing us at our worst.”
“Spoken like a new dad,” Dan said with a return smile. “Speaking of which, how are you doing? Not burning too much of the midnight oil?”
“I’m fine,” Joel said, “but I really think Ty could use a hand.”
Dan made a ‘humph’ noise and rolled his eyes.
“No, seriously,” Joel said. “I think the new group may have brought some kind of bug in with them and Ty’s already got a lot on his plate just dealing with the everyday stuff around camp.”
“Yeah,” Dan said. “Ty loves it when I offer to help. Gives him a chance to lord it over me that he’s a doctor and I’m just a medic. I don’t even bother asking anymore, Joel. A man’s ego can only take so much.”
“Well,” Joel said, “he really does look like he’s running himself ragged. Would you be willing to give it one more try…for me?”
Dan laughed. “Ok,” he said, “for you. But seriously, unless there’s someone who needs a splinter removed, or maybe an enema, he’s not going to let me help out with anything.”
…
“Dan,” Ty said, “I appreciate the offer, I really do, but this isn’t that big of a deal.”
Dan was trying to remain calm. He could already tell how this was going to play out by Ty’s condescending attitude. Still, he’d promised Joel he’d try, and now that he’d seen what was actually going around…he felt he had to try for his own sake.
“Ty,” Dan said, “Dr. Novak, please listen to me. We had something just like this back in our neighborhood. It killed my only son. Only eighteen-months old. One day he was with us, the next he was gone. It didn’t spread like this at first, but a couple of months later it came back, and it started with the kids both times. These are the same symptoms, Ty. I know they are.”
“Dan, listen…I’m deeply sorry for your loss. I can’t even imagine what that would be like, but you have got to calm down. These symptoms you’re so worried about are also the symptoms of a lot of other mostly harmless illnesses. Which you’d know…if you were a doctor.”
Dan quietly fumed as Ty continued, oblivious.
“I’ve got this under control. You didn’t see these folks when they first arrived. At the very least they all had somewhat compromised immune systems. Children get hit the hardest with that.”
“Ty,” Dan started.
“Look,” Ty interrupted, “I know you mean well, but I think I’ve been exposed to more of these things than you have. Go back to town and I’ll let you know if anything comes up and I need your help, okay?”
“Right,” Dan thought. “Just like you let me know we were letting sick people into the community in the first place?”
…
“April, honey, I really want you to take a nap,” her mother, Jean Oliver, said. “The doctor said you need to get some rest to kick this thing. You’ve been out with the other children every day since we got here.”
“But I’m already feeling better,” April whined. “There’s a bunch of kids here. I’m not tired, and lying in bed is so-o-o boring.”
Jean reached out to check her daughter’s forehead for a fever. She didn’t feel warm right now, so she gave in. “Ok, but take it easy. Don’t run around too much, and if you start coughing I want you to come right back to the tent and lay down. Understood?”
April sighed, but nodded. “Okay, Mom.”
“I love you, honey, now go make some friends.”
…
“How’s Derek handling the transition,” Jean asked Stan Bryant, one of the fathers from the neighborhood that had come in with her, while they were starting what little laundry they had.
“He was hoping to meet some of the older kids here in camp since it’s the weekend,” Stan said. “But he wasn’t feeling well this morning. He had a headache and I couldn’t get him to eat any breakfast.”
Jean shook her head. “April swore up and down she was feeling better, so I let her go out to make some friends. It’s probably just that everything’s finally catching up with him.”
“Probably,” Stan said. “He would sometimes get stomachaches and have trouble sleeping when things weren’t going well at school. It might just be the stress.”
…
Jean came back from the laundry to find April on her cot and inside her sleeping bag.
“Change your mind,” she asked with raised eyebrows–until she heard her daughter’s teeth chattering. It was easily in the mid-seventies outside, which meant that April must have quite a fever to be shivering like that. Jean hurried to her daughter and felt her forehead.
“Oh, honey, you’re burning up!” Jean tried to keep the panic out of her voice and was thankful, for the umpteenth time today that they weren’t on the road anymore. �
��Stay here, honey; I’m going to go get the doctor.”
April just nodded weakly and coughed a couple of times as Jean left the tent, and almost ran smack into the doctor on her way out the door.
“Doctor…,” Jean looked for the nametag on his shirt but couldn’t find it right away and couldn’t remember his name off the top of her head. She recognized him, though, as the man who had cleared them for entry into Promised Land.
“Novak, Ma’am,” Ty answered for her. “I just came from the Bryant’s. It’s Ms. Oliver, isn’t it?”
“Yes. It’s my daughter, April,” Jean said as she turned around, and they both walked into the tent. “She was fine this morning, but she came back from playing with some of the kids and now her fever is back.”
April was coughing frequently, and shivering hard inside the sleeping bag, despite sweating profusely.
After putting on gloves, Ty felt her forehead and then took her temperature. After checking the digital thermometer he cleared it and took it again; 103.2.
“April, I know you are shivering but I need to listen to your lungs, honey,” he said. “We’ll get you back under the covers as quick as we can.”
April nodded and sat up slowly. Ty listened to her breathing, which was growing more rapid, when she wasn’t coughing, and made a bit of a face.
“Ok, lay back down,” he said, and took her pulse.
“Ms. Oliver?” Ty said, and nodded towards outside. Ty wanted to let April try to get some sleep.
“Ma’am,” Ty started. “April has been on the antibiotics for four days. By now, the cough should have cleared up, and she really shouldn’t have a fever of any kind unless the infection is resistant to what we gave her. Since you said she wasn’t allergic to penicillin, I put her on something in that family.”
Ty stopped speaking as April had a coughing fit. He wanted to listen to how it sounded. “As bad as that sounds, at least she isn’t wheezing. Unfortunately, what sounded like an upper-respiratory infection a few days ago, and should have been responding to antibiotics, has settled deeper into her lungs.” Ty said. “I’m worried about pneumonia at this point, and I think we need to change the antibiotics. I’d like to move her to town, where we have a more permanent clinic, as well.”
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