by Robert Boren
“I’m fine with that,” Garrett said. He started the horses again.
Anna was still looking at him as they rolled forward. “We’re lucky.”
Garrett smiled. “Yes, we are, aren’t we?”
***
Sax and Jesse were resting with their men, the battle nothing but clean-up of stragglers for the last several hours.
“What now?” Jesse asked.
“The main body of enemy fighters are ready to hoof it to National City, last I heard. The battle wagons are there now. I think we should load up our semi-trucks and high-tail it there.”
“How long would it take to get there?” Jesse asked, a few of his men getting closer to listen, Luis and Erik among them.
“Before we go anywhere, we need to get our rigs un-stuck, remember?” Luis asked.
“Yeah,” Erik said, Kevin walking up with him. “We’ve got a bunch stuck in the sand on either side of Riviera.”
“We should be working that now, before it gets much darker.”
Kevin laughed. “Hell, dude, it’ll be dark before we can get over there. We’ve got flood lights. I say we get busy.”
“How many trucks are stuck?” Jesse asked.
“Couple hundred. Some got shot up beyond use, both there and in Lemon Grove. Most are usable, though.”
Somebody approached, wearing a police uniform.
“Who’s that?” Sax asked.
“It’s me, Officer Sanchez.” Several other officers were with him.
“Cool, great to see you again,” Erik said, rushing to shake his hand. “Where’s Officer Roberts?”
“He bought it,” Officer Sanchez said, trying to hold back his tears.
“Oh, dammit,” Jesse said. “Sorry, man.”
“Yeah, sorry,” Erik said, the others muttering in agreement.
Officer Sanchez nodded in appreciation. “We lost all but five officers out of the first batch. The citizens and the other squad cars from up north were enough to win the battle. There’s a lot of dead UN Peacekeepers in El Cajon. The guys from up north are doing a building-to-building search of their base now. You won’t believe what they found.”
“Try us,” Jesse said.
“Captive women and a whole lot of bodies. They brought in whole families, killed everybody but women of a certain age. Sick bastards.”
“Son of a bitch,” Sax said. “That kinda stuff really pisses me off. We won’t be done until all these creeps are pushing up daisies.”
“What are you guys doing next?” Officer Sanchez asked. “Where’s the enemy?”
“We killed the enemy fighters that were in Lemon Grove and the surrounding neighborhoods,” Jesse said. “A huge group of them escaped into the Bonita Country Club, but they’re starting to leave there now. Just heard about it from Ivan’s team.”
“Where are they going?”
“National City,” Jesse said, “and get this. There’s an armada of boats on the way up the coast from Mexico. Rumor has it that they’re all filled to the gunnels with UN creeps. Ivan’s team thinks that an attack on National City will be a diversion, to keep the military busy while all these boats land on the beach.”
“Well screw that,” Officer Sanchez said. “You guys are going, aren’t you?”
Sax chuckled. “That’s what we were just talking about. We’ve got to get some of our trucks un-stuck from the sand along both sides of Riviera drive. Then we can carry a whole lot of fighters and equipment right to the enemy.”
“We’ll help,” Officer Sanchez said. “Why aren’t we already working that?”
“Like I said, we were just talking about it when you walked up. Let’s go get busy.”
“I’ll get some tow trucks out here,” Luis said, pulling his phone out.
“How many trucks do we have left in serviceable condition?” Officer Sanchez asked. “Roberts said you started with almost nine hundred.”
“We’ve got about six-hundred that are still usable, from what I just heard,” Luis said.
“We lost three-hundred trucks?”
“Yeah, and a lot of men, but we won,” Sax said. “Let’s get busy, folks. We need to be on the road in an hour.”
{ 10 }
Rumble in the Distance
T ed was driving the battle wagon, taking the off-ramp from I-805 onto westbound Sweetwater Road.
“Where should we set up?” he asked over the Bluetooth headset.
“For now, I’d set up at the golf course and the shopping center across Sweetwater from there,” Seth said. “Be advised that the enemy halted their advance and moved back onto the Bonita Country Club.”
“Heard that, partner,” Tex said. “Wonder what’s up?”
“They’ve taken big losses around Lemon Grove,” Seth said, “and lost Dana Point Harbor as a landing spot. Then Ivan’s video hit the airwaves. They know the diversion they had in mind isn’t going to make any difference. Probably doesn’t seem worth the bloodbath they’ll be running into.”
“Dammit,” Ted said. “So what do we do? Just hang out for a while?”
“Yeah,” Seth said. “We’re looking at the big picture. We’ll get back to you.”
“When are you guys gonna sleep?” Tex asked. “You’ve been hitting it for hours and hours.”
“So have you,” Seth said. “Don’t worry, we’re good.”
“How far out is the armada?” Trevor asked.
“They’re only to Campo Lopez. At the speed they can go, it’ll take them a while.”
“But they haven’t turned around?” Haley asked.
“Nope, not yet,” Seth said.
“Maybe we should be parking and sleeping in shifts, then,” Ted said.
“Yes, that what I think,” Jules said. “We do same here pretty soon. Almost ten.”
“What about our allies from the Lemon Grove battle?” Sparky asked.
“The Teamsters and the ex-special forces guys are trying to get their trucks out of the sand,” Robbie said.
“Out of the sand?” Sparky asked.
Robbie chuckled. “Yeah, they parked a few hundred semi rigs on the sandy shoulders of Riviera Drive to cut off retreating Peacekeepers. Made a nice kill zone. Now they’re having to pull them out. They’ll probably be joining you guys, now that the El Cajon base has been captured and the Dana Point Harbor entry point has been shut down.”
“If the enemy doesn’t leave the Bonita Country Club, we might have to go in there and root them out,” Bryan said.
“That’ll be bloody and dangerous,” Karen said. “Why doesn’t the Navy just bomb the crap out of them?”
“Might come to that,” Jules said. “We’ll see. For now, get placed, in decent cover, and rest.”
“We’re in sight of the golf course and the shopping center,” Ted said. “We’ll split up, put some on both sides of the road.”
“Justin and Katie’s rig is being towed home,” Ji-Ho said. “Crew picked up. Still want more than two people in battle wagons during action, though. Too many problems happen without enough people to man side guns.”
“We discuss more, change strategy,” Jules said. “Remember what happen this time. We had to take off with no notice.”
“I know,” Ji-Ho said, “but lead to dead team members. Need to make time to develop crews of four or more. Pull from other teams.”
“I not disagree,” Jules said. “I’m getting off. Ivan call me. Talk to you soon. We start rotating people off for sleep. Tomorrow be crazy, as usual.”
“Thanks, talk to you later,” Ted said. He sighed, pulling his headset off. “This makes me nervous as hell.”
“What, honey?” Haley asked.
“Too much stuff hanging, and this enemy is tricky. The more pressure we put on, the more dangerous they become. We’re sleeping in shifts. I’ll take the first watch.”
“Where are we parking?” Brianna asked.
“I don’t want anybody at that golf course,” Haley said. “There’s no cover. I say we put the two coaches
with four people on either side of Sweetwater, in the shopping center parking lots, behind buildings so enemy fighters won’t see us if they come in from the east on that road.”
“I agree,” Ted said. He put his headset back on. “Everybody hear what Haley said?”
“Yeah, partner, and I agree,” Tex said. “We’ll take the north side. There are a bunch of ways out of there.”
“He’s right,” Haley said. “Honey, let’s go across the street. See the Barbeque place there?”
“I see it,” Ted said. “There’s a Denny’s, and it’s open 24 hours. We can get some food.”
Tex laughed. “Yeah, there’s a Taco Bell on our side. Can’t wait. My stomach is doing flip-flops.”
“You’re that hungry and Taco Bell sounds good?” Karen asked.
“I’m a man of simple tastes, little lady.”
“Where do you want the rest of us?” Trevor asked.
“Further west in the same two shopping centers, at least for now,” Ted said.
“Sounds good to me,” Angel said.
“Talk to you guys soon,” Ted said. “Charge up your headsets and make sure your phones are charged too. Use text messages if you need to report anything. Oh, and go into siege mode.”
“Okay,” Justin said.
“Got it,” Trevor said.
Ted parked their rig, shut off the engine, and went into siege mode immediately. He took off his headset and plugged it into the dashboard USB port.
“You okay, sweetie?” Haley asked from the passenger seat.
“Yeah. Want to go hit the Denny’s?”
“Well, I always was a cheap date,” she quipped.
“We’ll keep watch,” Bryan said.
Ted nodded as he got up. “One of you should sleep.”
“Brianna can go first,” Bryan said.
“You sure, honey?”
Bryan nodded, and she slipped into the bedroom as Ted and Haley checked their side-arms. They went out into the cool evening.
“How are you holding up?” Ted asked.
“Good, all things considered, but saving Justin and Katie was pretty scary.”
“It was.”
Haley studied his eyes as they walked. “You look worried.”
“There’s too many moving parts, and we’re being forced into reactive mode.”
“We can only deal with things going on here.”
“I know.”
“What’s the biggest danger that you see?” she asked.
“When we get into the restaurant, check out the satellite view of the Bonita Country Club.”
“Why?”
“It’s surrounded by residential area, just like the El Cajon base was. The diversion might actually be to attack the citizens there, in an attempt to keep us and our allies from concentrating on the beaches.”
***
Doug woke to an explosion, sounding only a few hundred yards away. “That sounded too close.”
“What the hell, dude?” Jorge asked, woken out of sleep in the driver’s seat.
Doug stretched. “Sounded too big to be a mortar.”
Gonzalez and the Marines rushed in through the back door. “We got problems, guys. Wake up.”
“You think we could sleep through that?” Jorge asked, punctuated by another blast, sounding closer. “What is that?”
“Enemy artillery,” Sessions said.
Jenkins nodded in agreement. “Yep, know that sound anywhere.”
“Shit, what do we do?” Doug asked.
“I’m checking with the CO now,” Gonzalez said. “So far they’re just hitting dirt. They might not be able to see us.”
“They’ll get lucky eventually,” Jenkins said. “They’ll see the fireballs and target them. We should spread out a lot more.”
“We’re pretty spread out now,” Doug said as another round flew, further away this time.
“What happens if we get hit with one of those?” Jorge asked.
“You don’t want to know,” Jenkins said, studying his phone. “Can’t see them with that group of troops we’ve been watching. They’re probably at the end of their range. Maybe we ought to just back up a mile or two.”
“Negative,” Gonzalez said. “Not without an okay from the CO, anyway.”
“Did he respond yet?” Jenkins asked.
“Nope. He’s probably on the horn with the Navy right now, trying to get some jets out here.”
Another explosion went off, this time hitting one of the L-ATVs, lighting the sky as it burned.
“Son of a bitch,” Jorge said. “That wasn’t far enough away.”
“Don’t panic, the crew was outside,” Gonzalez said. “We’ve got to assume that there’s still IEDs all over the damn place. Don’t start driving around willy-nilly.”
“The enemy troops aren’t moving at all yet,” Doug said. “Wonder how many have RFID?”
“Based on the last satellite view, only half at best,” Gonzalez said. “I was trying to compare what we were seeing in the pictures with the hits. We’ve got a lot of Venezuelans mixed in with the Islamists. That makes for a dangerous combination.”
Several more artillery rounds fell, all nearby the burning L-ATV.
“There you go,” Jenkins said, looking out the hatch. “Classic. They’re gonna try to soften us up before they come it.”
“Or they’re trying to get us to back up,” Sessions said. “We need a night-vision drone up there pronto.”
“Can the cannons on the M-1s make it that far?” Jorge asked.
“That’s just what the enemy would like us to do,” Jenkins said as another round landed, about one hundred yards west of the L-ATV hit.
“Yeah, man,” Gonzalez said. “They’d love for us to run our battle tanks out of ammo.” His phone buzzed. “Text coming in.”
He read it for a moment, then laughed.
“What?” Sessions asked.
“Morons. Apparently the EU and the UN worked together to move a WTO delegation into the states, and now they’re missing.”
Doug chuckled. “Don’t tell me, let me guess. They’re holding us responsible and are gonna take it out on us.”
Gonzalez nodded. “Pretty much. They say they’re taking the gloves off.”
“That’s rich,” Sessions said. “Nukes in our harbors and rivers? No problem. Some WTO cretins disappear, and now the gloves are gonna come off.”
“Don’t worry, they’ll get theirs. We’ve got Navy fighter jets and Air Force bombers on the way now, to carpet bomb their artillery and their men. It isn’t gonna be pleasant for them.”
“They’re doing this because we defeated them up north and down here,” Jorge said. “Temper tantrum.”
“I’m surprised they aren’t out in the streets protesting,” Jenkins said.
“Hey, the artillery stopped,” Doug said.
Sessions smiled. “Maybe they’ve got radar.”
“There’s no place for them to run,” Gonzalez quipped.
They sat silently for about ten minutes, and then felt a low rumble coming from the south.
“Whoa, did you feel that?” Jorge asked. They felt more rumbles, and then closer explosions flashed bright in the distance, the sound of jet engines floating towards them.
“What was that rumble?” Doug asked.
“B-52s and B-1s just flattened Ensenada,” Gonzalez said.
“Shit, man, why’d they do that?” Jorge asked. “That killed a lot of Mexicans who were on our side.”
Gonzalez shot him a glance. “They hit the harbor, because that’s where the armada came from.”
“Last I heard the armada was more than half-way to the border,” Doug said.
“Yeah, and they can’t turn around and head for home now,” Sessions said with a big grin on his face.
***
Ivan was watching the intel team, looking over their shoulders at the screens when his phone rang. He walked out of the room with it to his ear. “Ivan.”
“It’s General
Hogan.”
“Oh. Sorry, didn’t even look. What’s up?”
“A WTO delegation slipped into the states. The EU and the UN are saying they sent them here for some conference. They were heading for San Diego, but they disappeared.”
Ivan chuckled. “Yeah, I saw that communique. They’re going to take the gloves off?”
“Bluster. They can’t do jack, but I wanted to alert you that the delegation may be in Southern California.”
“Why would I care about that, General?”
“We think Daan Mertins is with them.”
“Holy shit. Are they really that stupid?”
General Hogan laughed. “You guys have been too busy to watch the news, I guess.”
“What about it?”
“After word got out that Saladin is taking a dirt nap, the Islamists in Europe went on a rampage. The EU is in danger of being overthrown by the public as a result. They’ve already lost Great Britain and Germany, and France is teetering on the brink of leaving too.”
“You know something else,” Ivan said. “I can hear it in your voice.”
“Very perceptive, my friend. We don’t think this WTO team was sent here by the EU and the UN. We think they fled the EU. They’ve been unmasked. The population knows those globalist dirt-bags were behind this war from the start.”
Ivan sat down in a chair next to the earthen wall, thinking. “You don’t think the WTO team is really in SoCal, do you? It’s not safe for them. They’ve got to know that.”
“I don’t know, Ivan. If I had to put money on it, I’d say they’re at the base at Carlsbad Caverns. We’re working a plan to attack that base, and it’ll happen sooner rather than later. If Mertins and the WTO get wind of it, they might make for California, because it’s the easiest place for them to get a boat out of the country. Lord knows they don’t want to go to Texas. It’s a turkey shoot down there now.”
“Good. Things are on their way to wrapping up here. There aren’t many Islamists left, and we’ve got a large portion of the UN Peacekeeper force on the ropes.”
“When the war gets over, don’t let your guard down.”