by T J Reeder
The girls came back and said the pilot said they could sit in the jeep with seat belts on and ride it to the ground, and they weren’t looking like they wanted to do that. I assumed it was pure BS from the pilot- not that it couldn’t be done and probably had been, but my ladies weren’t gonna do it and that’s a fact.
Right now the whole ‘burn ‘em out’ gig was on hold. I wanted to see Who and What before we turned folks into crispy critters. Yes, we did it before but I knew exactly Who and What and had not one second thought about it.
So, we were gonna jump in someplace nearby and see What and Who, and I liked the idea of these wanna-be kings shoveling pig shit. Dead is too easy.
Fox got with Blain and the maps and worked out the best place to land after their long glide and low opening. If it worked as planned, they wouldn’t be under the chutes for more than a few minutes. Fox and JJ were going as were two of our scouts to provide secure communications.
They were going in heavy on firepower and short on everything else. At the last minute, Blain told Fox that he had made several jumps himself before the troubles and would go along to act as a guide. Fox came to me with the idea so I called Charley and the girls over to sit quietly and observe. I figured if the lad had something else in mind he would not get it past them. After we were settled in I asked him to lay out his idea to me. And everything he said made sense; he knew the area and knew a lot of people who weren’t very enthralled with the situation, but felt helpless to do anything.
After he was done he said he had one condition. I made the come-on gesture and wasn’t very surprised when he said he would help but he wanted to come back with us. Then he turned the nicest shade of pink and then I saw Kid was pink and the girls had their hands in front of their mouths. Only Charley was his usual stoic self. It took a minute for me to get it but get it I did. I didn’t know what to say, so Beth said, “Well Blain, do you have anything to bring to our community? Any skills? She was playing with him; we all knew he could fly a chopper, which made him golden in our camp. He stuttered a bit, then Kid jumped in and said, “Hey! He can fly a chopper! That’s good, right?” And as we all turned to look at her she turned from pink to red. So did Blain.
I couldn’t stand them torturing him anymore. Hell, I had already planned to ask him to make the move, and not just for his chopper skills. I said, “OK son, it’s a deal” and offered him my hand. Forgetting her ‘cool’, Kid threw her arms around me and said, “I love you dad!” I sighed. The day was coming faster than I wanted. She is so young in years but so old in life experiences. I said we adults had things to discuss and the ‘kids’ should leave. They needed no urging, they were gone like a leaf in the wind.
The girls were high-fiving each other. Beth scooted over to me and cuddled and said, “Well done, grandpa!” And that brought me crashing back to earth! Sandy and May even took a moment to grasp it, then started giggling and calling me grandpa until I smiled and said, “Fine. Grandmas.” That shut their little traps for a bit. I couldn’t for the life of me remember how old Kid was, but Beth said not to worry- she was more grown up than the girls, which was very true. But damn it, they were sure fun. Being an adult is greatly overrated and to be avoided as often as possible. Beth laughed softly and I knew she was picking up on my mood or something. ‘They’ were smiling and scooted over, too. I said I felt a nap coming on and I ended up the last one into the trailer and the bed.
Later that day the Texas plane lifted off with our people to make their insert into the enemy’s back yard. I wasn’t happy about standing here watching, but it was what it was. I might be the so-called leader of this pack of whatever we were and there comes a time when I have to step aside for expertise…but I don’t have to like it.
I took a long walk, followed by the girls who were up to god knows what. Beth was quiet, so finally I asked her what was wrong. She sighed and said, “How do you feel about another baby?” Well, I was stunned and missed a step or two but manned up and said, “Well my love, if you want one then so do I.” She said, “Well good, because we are.” I said, “Are?” She said, “Am”. I really am slow but at last I got it. I stopped and looked at her and she was smiling her most beautiful smile. I was at a loss for words. The girls came up and Sandy looked at me, then Beth, and just went wild. May was half a second behind her and both were dancing around like fools. How can they tell like that? 15 seconds ago they didn’t have a clue, and then they did. They went to hugging Beth and babbling a mile a minute- one talking twins, the other triplets. I said, “Hell, let’s just get a whole litter and sell the excess!” Getting hit in the gut hurts even if you’re young and have a six-pack, which I’m not and don’t.
We headed back to our camp and Kid came running up and said, “You told him?” I looked at Beth who was looking at Kid strangely, so Kid admitted Old Woman told her. Beth looked at all of us and said, “I never told her or anybody till now.” We made it to the camper and found Charley sitting by a small fire burning sage and waving it gently with a fan of eagle feathers. He looked up and said something which Kid answered. He nodded and smiled. Hell, even Charley knew. How? I’ll never know, unless Old Woman told him but Kid said, “No, she didn’t.” I know I never said that out loud.
I asked Charley what the sage smoke and feather waving was all about, and he said Old Woman told him to do it. I gave up; I wasn’t getting any more than this. We spent a quiet happy evening at the camper with a nice fire. Beth and the girls made up a nice meal while Kid sat with Charlie talking to him in Navajo. I swear she absorbs it like a sponge. I was right about the little ones learning other languages.
I didn’t feel left out at all watching them talk. I knew he was teaching, she was learning. It’s a good thing. Dinner was eaten by the fire, as it should be. It was really nice but I was worried about Fox and crew.
It was late when I heard the plane coming in to land. I got up and headed for their landing area in the Jeep. It was still too small and uncomfortable and then crowded when ‘They’, meaning all of them- Beth and Kid also, piled into it. I gave up, got out and into the Big Ford, which would haul all of us. Beth scooted over and Charley slid in with us. It was good that everybody was concerned. We got to the landing area and found almost everybody there.
The flight crew came down the ramp with big smiles and that got folks smiling and talking. The pilot said they got out in good order and opened low after a long glide, which they had to dress for, as it’s a cold business. They made contact shortly after landing and were already heading out. They would make contact at daybreak here. We headed back to bed but I thought it would be a waste of time and then I went out like a light.
Morning came, and by the time I got to the communications truck they had called in a short message saying they were in place and ready to observe and would report when they had something.
Being out in Indian country (no disrespect to our brothers) alone or in a small team is very nerve-wracking but here at least they all spoke the language and weren’t three feet taller than the locals. But being dressed in camo and face paint and armed for the invasion of someplace would stand out, so hiding was the word of the day. Around late afternoon they called in and while the radioman translated and wrote it down, Charley gave us a running commentary. They were in a good place, could see the entire compound, the guard force only made a couple of loops around every few hours and usually only one vehicle with two guys in it. They had communications, but on a different frequency than our gear. The guard unit looked good, but Fox said it was pretty obvious they were picked for political reasons, not military skills.
He said inside the compound there was a lot of activity- lots of women and kids. The political hacks all had big black town cars that hauled them to their meetings. Fox said one of them actually walked out of his house, got in his car and the driver made a U-turn and the guy got out and walked into the former community center (now the House of Congress according to the sign in the front). If this guy couldn’t walk across the street t
o work, he wasn’t going to be very happy shoveling pig shit. I was loving this.
I had them ask Fox if taking out the guard force looked like a problem. He said no, but suppressed weapons would be best. We had that covered. Not enough for everybody, but enough for the point people. And if we lost the surprise angle we would just light them up in a loud way.
It was a go, and we would fly out tonight to be ready to jump at first light, just enough to see the ground. We spent the time checking gear and thinking. At my age I find myself making a combat jump! This isn’t the way I planned my retirement. Well, in truth I never planned a retirement. And while it’s sad to say, the EMP probably gave me a lot more years than I would have had. Now I can’t wait to get out of bed and get going, life’s good, just keeping up with ‘Them’ kept me young and in fairly good shape, and now I’m gonna be a father…again? I should be the grandfather not the daddy.
With little fanfare the time arrived. We made our goodbyes and filed aboard the plane. I lingered to hold Beth and Kid and tell them I loved them. Kid whispered, “Bring him back, daddy. Please?” I told her I would; I only hoped it wasn’t on his shield.
And then we were gone into the night as so many before us had gone. In my mind I could see the scared young men of 60 years ago, boys mostly, heading off to a night jump into enemy country far worse than what we were doing. I could not grasp the fear that held their hearts in an icy grip, yet they stood up and hooked up and went out into the cold night- boys really, who just a couple years before were up in the dark throwing newspapers.
Well they did it, did what they were trained to do and won a world. Can we do less? Damn, I’m morbid. I woke with a start. I had actually nodded off and I looked around at the others, some with lips moving, some with closed eyes but awake. My girls were both asleep, one on each side and as close as they could get. I put an arm around them both and they scooted even closer. If they were scared they hid it well. I doubted they were, nothing yet has scared them. It’s all a big game and they play it to the max.
Charley was looking at me from across the plane and nodded. I returned it, and it calmed me having him here. If you must fight, then who better at your back then your brother? I let the sounds of the engines and the vibration lull me back to sleep and then a voice said, “Five minutes!” and we were getting up, stretching stiff muscles, checking our gear, checking our neighbors’ gear, then rechecking everything. I ordered magazines loaded, bolts open no rounds in the chamber, safety on. Then we checked each other’s’ weapons.
Then it was time. The ramp went down, the red light was on and the jumpmaster motioned us closer to the end of the ramp. It was dark outside and scary as hell. Then the light went green and I stepped out with the girls beside me.
It was terrifying. Below us several strobe lights were flashing, marking a large circle that was getting closer by the second. I heard the sounds of chutes opening all around me, so I pulled mine and felt my balls jam up thru my lungs. Then the ground was there and I barely slowed the chute. I did land on my feet, but was knocked flat by a small body that was laughing. I didn’t need to look. I was getting up and the next one hit me. They had to be doing this shit on purpose.
This time I stayed down and rolled into a ball waiting for something big to land on me, then Fox was standing over me asking of I was hurt. I said, “Well, my balls are breathing in my lungs and two smart asses landed on me.” His teeth showed in the dark of his face. He said, “Yeah, I saw it happening.” They were up by then and both hugged me and said, “Thank you daddy, for the big pillow to land on.” I really could hate them. (“Could not and besides you have fun around us”) Charley walked up and said if I was thru clowning around, we needed to get to cover. I could hate him too. He sighed. They laughed.
Fox led us to a tree line and then in single file we headed into the woods. I could see a scout ahead of us and was sure JJ and the other scout were playing Tail Gun Charley. We walked for a ways and found a place prepared for our chutes. We piled them in and leaves were raked over them. We would hopefully get them later.
We spent the next two hours moving along paths thru the woods until at last we stopped. Fox whispered for everybody to rest and waved me forward.
Charley came with me, the girls stayed behind. We came to the edge of the woods and I saw we were looking down into the gated community- now a compound for the would-be leaders of the soon to be “Not so free world”. Well, as Sandy would put it, “Fuck a bunch of that.” I watched a vehicle slowly drive around the outer parameter. Fox whispered, “Watch this.” The vehicle stopped and the two guards got out. After taking a piss, one lit a smoke and then passed it to the other one. I looked at Fox and he nodded. The idiots were passing a joint and one opened a bottle and they shared that too. They spent several minutes, then slowly drove away.
We spent a while just watching the place, but it was getting too light to chance so we faded back into the woods. Fox had Blain come over and we listened while he told us about the guard force. He said that while they were slackers they were very dedicated to the leaders and would fight to the death for them. He said it would be stupid to try to reason with them. He said the regular military types were more likely to listen to what we had to say but not with the junior SS in power. So, we would remove them and then once we had control of the leaders we would see where we were.
I had a couple of ideas on how to deal with the locals, but first things first. We decided that come night we would take out the guards, starting with the roving patrol. They would be our ticket into the guardhouse. Once we had the on-duty section under wraps we would take care of the off-duty bunch who would be sleeping.
We spread out and crashed. I slept like a baby, on a ground cloth and under another one, with two warm puppies trying to get under my skin. It was midnight before I was awakened by a nudge at the shoulder. It was Charley. He was up and looked ready for war; hair in a braid, face painted in red and black…I liked it! He offered his paint, but I wasn’t good at this crap so one of the girls looked at Charley’s and then did mine. I wrapped a bandana around my head biker style, and got into my gear. The girls were painting up and damn they looked hot! Scary? Not so much, but hot! They both smiled real big. They captured Blain and painted him; if Kid had been there we would have had to peel her off him. Everybody else took one look and got into the spirit. We looked more like a raiding party out for scalps than what we were, whatever that was.
We slowly eased to the edge of the woods and waited for the roving patrol unit. Everybody was just following Fox and JJ’s lead for now. After the patrol was taken we would lay it out in full detail. The patrol showed up at the right place at the right time and when they got out to piss they were both dropped with silenced shots.
Within minutes, Fox and JJ were dressed in the gear off the two dead guys and were slowly heading on around the compound, the two scouts who jumped in with them led us in the opposite direction. We had the shorter distance to go and arrived well ahead of the vehicle. We got in close and saw two men in the lighted guard shack and the lights on in the guard building. I assumed there was a Sergeant and Officer of the guard as well as a Corporal of the guard; the Corporal of the guard would be the one awake, the other two were asleep and would only be woken if there was a major problem. There was, but they wouldn’t wake up.
The Patrol unit pulled up, the door opened and the two men inside dropped out of sight. Fox waved us forward and we quietly walked to the guard shack and then to the guard bunk house. Fox and JJ were still in the uniforms from the dead guys and walked into the guard office. I heard the sound of the suppressed .22 pistol. When I got thru the door, the Corporal of the guard was sitting back in his chair, feet on the desk. He never even woke up in time to die. I heard the sounds again and Fox and JJ came from two rooms where I was pretty sure the OG and Sgt of the guard were sleeping the long one.
This left the big squad bay full of sleeping men. I was torn on maybe trying to deal with them, but Blain looked at me
and shook his head. He looked sad but he also knew more than I did. We eased inside and the people with suppressors went to work. It was quiet but with several going off at once it made enough noises to wake some of the sleepers who were dealt with before they could make an outcry. When it was done there were twenty-five dead people sleeping in beds.
We gathered all the weapons and ammo we could find. They might come in handy, since we still had more guard staff to deal with. We had to have all the guards under control before morning so we could take control of the political hacks. We had a lot to do and needed to get to it.
The main guard headquarters were a complex of temporary buildings that housed the rest of the guard company, troops and officers. We followed Fox and JJ in their uniforms and watched them walk in the front door like they owned it. Right inside was another guard who glanced up, did a double take at the face paint and was thinking about doing something when he died. We eased inside the building and our shooters followed Fox and JJ. We turned out the lights in the hall area and waited for the shots that weren’t suppressed. But they didn’t come. Shortly Fox came out and motioned us to follow him. We were in a hallway with doors opening off both ways.