I told Mo to start driving, and as he was driving down the road, I opened it up a for little longer burst. I fell in love. I wouldn’t want to be jumping desert dunes as they did in “The Rat Patrol,” but it was a blast. I didn’t want to waste any more ammo, so we drove back to the house.
When we got back, Jake was standing there with pride on his face, and I told him he did one hell of a nice job. He said it was some work, and it had taken them a couple weeks, but he was pretty pleased with it.
“How did you put the armored plate on the front?” I asked
“Well, I had this laying in back. I bought it at a flea market a long time ago. I don’t even know why I bought it, except I thought it was unique being curved half inch steel that way. I forgot I had it, but when they came up with the idea of the gun mount, I thought it would make a nice add-on.”
“I’d say so. That’s perfect. No matter how it swings the plate is always in front of the gunner.”
“That was the whole idea.”
I told him that he needed to try it.
“No, I don’t want to waste the ammo.”
“Nonsense, go give it a quick burst.”
He formed a big smile, “Ok, You’ve talked me into it.”
This time Mo pulled up to the end of the driveway that overlooked the fixed targets we had. Jake, who walked with a limp from an injury he had years earlier, climbed into the jeep, put the SAW to his shoulder and yelled out, “Cover your ears!”
He pulled the trigger with a short burst and then looked up with a huge smile, “That’ll work.”
This setup was definitely going to come in handy. Hopefully, we’d never have to use it, but if a situation ever came up, just the intimidation factor of the setup may get people to think twice before they turn aggressive.
After all the guys and even Brandy had checked it out, we all walked back to the front yard to the party. When we walked up to the other ladies, they were shaking their heads, amazed how we all could get so excited about something like a machine gun mount. I knew Kim knew me well enough to know that I would love it and I asked her if she knew that they were building it.
“Heck yes. It was my job to keep you distracted several times while they went to Jake’s to work on it.”
I gave her a kiss, “Well, thank you for your part. You did a good job because I had no idea.”
Lulu came running up with all the kids, including Jake’s and Blake’s and asked, “Vince, could we all watch a movie?”
I realized that I had failed to tell Jake and Blake about the laptop that I had left under the ammo cans and we could use it for DVDs. I could see how all the kids were excited about it, so I said, “Well, I don’t see why not if it’s ok with your parents.”
Everyone agreed, and I took them into the back room and set up the DVD. The kids decided on watching the Disney cartoon, “Cinderella.”
While the kids were watching the movie, we all sat around talking. Blake reluctantly asked if they could borrow the laptop sometime and I told him whenever he wanted, which brought a big smile.
“My gosh, Blake. We have your travel trailer sitting here, and you’re worried about asking to borrow a laptop and an inverter?”
“Well, I know you have a lot of kids up here.”
“Don’t worry about it. We all need a break from reality, where ever we can find it.”
About forty-five minutes later, we heard and saw several military transport planes flying in the direction of Whiteman Air Force Base and then the distinctive sound of their escorts of the A-10’s that usually flew with them. As I was watching them, I turned and did something to my right shoulder and got hit with a shooting pain. Kim could see it on my face and asked me if I was alright.
“I just need to go take a pain pill; I didn’t take it this morning,” and I walked in to get one and she followed to use the bathroom.
As I was taking an Oxy, I could hear a helicopter, and it sounded like it was close and right over us. Just about that time, Wit came running in, “Vince, you better get out here. There’s a Blackhawk and an Apache flying around the house and a second Blackhawk is hovering right over us.”
Chapter Seventeen
Kim, hearing the helicopter and then hearing what Wit said, came rushing out of the bathroom and asked what was going on. All three of us ran out the front door to the yard, and when I looked up, the Blackhawk was about 100 feet above the house, and I could see what looked like a crew member staring down at us. Moments after we looked up, it turned to the south. We ran around the house to watch them, and the Blackhawk that was over the house acted as though he was going to land in the field that the horses were in but then after hesitation, flew to our homemade airstrip and landed. Then the second Blackhawk landed next to it but the Apache kept flying, and I could tell he was flying a security sweep pattern.
“What the hell do you think they want?” Mo asked.
“I don’t know, but we’re about to find out. Tag, take the SAW off the mount and hide it. Wit, Mo, Mike, grab your sidearms but leave them in the holsters and we’ll see what this is all about.”
I told Kim to run in and get my radio and tactical holster that had my Glock 22 in it, so she immediately ran in and grabbed it and brought it out to me. I gave her a fast kiss, and the four of us jumped in the jeep and drove down to the entrance in front of Jake’s and started driving across the field. As we approached, the Apache flew up into a position where he was ready to fire.
“Damn, that doesn’t look good,” Mike said.
“Everyone, just don’t do anything stupid,” I instructed.
We slowly drove up and got out of the jeep. I have to admit; my body was tense. It was the Army, a big part of my life, all of our lives but to have a gunship looking right down your throat and helicopters landing at your home, didn’t seem real and I sure couldn’t imagine how it could be anything positive.
A soldier wearing sunglasses was sitting inside the side door. He looked over at us, and I saw him smile and then started talking on the radio. The Apache immediately rotated 180 degrees and took off making one more pass around the field and then came down and landed.
The soldier climbed out of the Blackhawk and started walking towards us looking down towards the ground.
Mike, spotting his rank, said, “That’s a full-bird Colonel.”
“What the hell?” Mo asked more or less to himself.
The Colonel then raised his head. I smiled, “Stay here.”
I started walking towards him, and he smiled, and I saluted. He returned the salute, but as he was bringing it down, he gave a gesture like he was saying “Cut it out.”
It was Jim Range, Kim’s cousin. I met his father seven years earlier at one of Kim’s family functions up in Iowa. Everyone called him Ranger because of his last name and he was an actual Ranger in the Army in Vietnam. We really got along and shared a lot of Army stories together. A couple of years later I met Jim at a family funeral. He drew my attention as he was in full dress uniform and was a Major. At the time, he was an Apache pilot that had just got back from Afghanistan and was being assigned to Ft. Leavenworth, where he was about to attend the Army Command and General Staff College. He was definitely being groomed for bigger and better things.
After the funeral, we started talking as his dad had mentioned me and how well we got along. That was enough of an icebreaker for the two of us to really start talking. We got to know each other rather well, as we talked for hours about a variety of subjects, including, of course, the Army.
“Colonel Huh? Aren’t we climbing the ladder rather quickly?”
He laughed and stuck out his hand, and we shook hands while halfway embracing at the same time.
“Well, you know, it’s wartime. Rank comes faster during wartime.”
“Now, what in the hell are you doing here? You scared the shit out of us.”
“Sorry about that; standard procedures…..but I have to admit, the look on your face was priceless.
I promised Kim’s mom I’d
check on you guys. We can’t stay long because I had to make special arrangements to make this little pit stop.”
“You can stay long enough to visit a while can’t you?”
He looked at his watch, “A little bit, yeah.”
“Well, let's get you to the house then.”
I grabbed my radio, “Tag?” He immediately answered as I knew he would.
“We’re secure and we’re on our way up. Tell Kim we have company.
“10-4.”
I walked him and his pilot back to the guys who had some seriously puzzled looks on their faces. I made the introductions, and he introduced his pilot as Captain Roger Basinger. Mike and Wit stated that they’d walk back to the house and even though Jim objected, they both said that they could use the exercise anyway.
As we were driving back, Jim looked at the mount for the SAW.
“What’s that for?” he asked with a sly smile.
“Oh, just something we’re experimenting with.”
“Really? It looks like a machine gun mount to me.”
“Hey, that’s a good idea. You don’t have a spare one you could give us do you?”
“Well, that would be hard to explain. Hell, I don’t care what you’re putting on it, I’m not the feds. If you have a toy, good for you. Nowadays everyone needs a few toys.
Hey, I have to ask you, that plane’s not running is it?”
“Yep! It’s a 1964, so it kept running just like the older cars do. The problem is, we’re almost out of fuel for it. We have plenty of gasoline but not aviation grade.”
When we got to the driveway, Kim immediately recognized Jim, and she ran out and gave him a big hug. Everyone at the house was acting a little stunned with what was going on. I made short introductions to everyone and then gave a short explanation and asked them if they could excuse us.
Jim said, “Hey, I didn’t mean to break up your party. Just pretend I’m not here.”
We walked in, and Kim immediately asked if Jim and Captain Basinger wanted something to eat. Both said that they wouldn’t turn down a free meal, especially if no part of an MRE was included in it. Kim said she’d have to warm it up in the microwave.
“Hey, it’s better than an MRE heater. Microwave huh? You guys have a hell of a setup here.”
“Yeah, we’re set up pretty good. I know we have it better than most.”
“You don’t know how bad some of the areas are. Most of the larger cities are like urban wastelands. When you fly over the highways and roads, you can see too many dead bodies.”
“Yeah, we took a recon flight the other day and saw some of them.”
“By what we’ve seen, some of the small towns have their stuff together, but others look like ghost towns.”
He then gave Kim the happiest news she could receive. He told us how the whole family in Iowa was fine and how Kim’s mom bought a bunch of food and supplies due to Kim’s phone call to her right before we ran to Walmart to buy more food and supplies. Everyone made it out to her mom’s place which is also out in the country.
“A few of them took a day or two after the EMP went off but they made it.”
He said he didn’t know anything about Kim’s other sister down in Arkansas, except they started having some disturbances in Bentonville, so they did go out to her daughters farm a few hours before the EMP hit.
We talked for at least another thirty minutes. While we were talking Brandy and Mia took some food out to the helicopter crews. Tag drove them down and told us later, that even though the crews really enjoyed the food, they enjoyed talking with Brandy and Mia more. Of course two of the crewmen recognized Mia, so it was like a very short USO show as far as they were concerned because Mia and Brandy both love our troops and they made sure they flirted a bit, in a good way.
We filled Jim and Roger in on the Pine City incident and how we lost Carmen. I told him how we were set up and since then, how we pulled Pine City into the fold to a certain extent.
Jim raised an eyebrow, “Be careful!” Then after a short pause, he changed the subject, “I guess you felt the little quake? We certainly did at Whiteman.”
“Yeah, and it lasted a while. It was enough that we have some separation between the fireplace chimney and the house frame itself.”
“Well, it wasn’t such a little quake over on the eastern side of Missouri. The Mississippi Valley between Memphis and St. Louis is pretty well destroyed, or might as well be. The river actually has a new path now and the St. Louis Arch, isn’t upright any longer. It broke off about three-quarters of the way up.”
“Oh, my gosh,” Kim said with a look of horror.
I added, “The New Madrid fault. My gosh, they’ve been saying for decades that if it ever happened, it would be big.”
“Well, it was big. I don’t know where or how they got the number, but we were told that it was estimated to be a 9.2 on the scale.”
“My God.”
He filled us in on what was going in the world and with our own government.
“Apparently Barbara Bentley was out of the country and was sworn in as President…”
I interrupted, “NO! Not Bentley.”
“That’s what we all thought when we heard it. She was one of the biggest contributors to our military being stripped down to the bone. But no, she was sworn in, but it turns out that Robert Hatch, the Speaker of the House was out of Washington and he was sworn in by a Federal Judge as well.”
“So what happened?”
“Well, the military backed President Hatch because he was next in line to be President. Thank God he was alive. I’m sure when Bentley found out, she wasn’t a happy camper but off the record, I can tell you the military was.
Anyway, this is all classified by the way, but I’ll go ahead and tell you, President Hatch ordered a nuclear strike on North Korea.”
“We heard on the shortwave that North Korea had attacked South Korea with nukes, but we haven’t heard that we retaliated.”
“Well, you probably will soon. Those bastards attacked while our troops were getting ready to pull out, so that’s why we nuked them in retaliation. Let's just say that we don’t have to worry about North Korea any longer. They’re still glowing in the dark.”
“Did they confirm who attacked us?” Paul asked.
“Again, off the record but it had to be Iran. That was no weather satellite they launched. And you know Russia had to be behind it as well. There is no way they didn’t know what they were launching.”
“Son’s of bitches! Are we going to hit them back?” Mike asked with pure outrage.
“Oh, I’m sure we will, but nothing has come down the pipe yet. Nothing that we’ve heard anyway.” Roger said with frustration.
I shook my head, “Well, it sounds like the nuclear Pandora's box has been opened. Where are all of our troops? The last we heard was Prescott had ordered all of them home.”
“Let’s just say we’re still getting our ducks in a row.” He then nervously looked down at his watch, “ Listen, we have to get out of here. I stayed a lot longer than I planned. Is there anything I can do for you or bring you?” he asked.
“Well, believe it or not, we’re in pretty good shape. But if you're serious, I can tell you a couple of things that we really need.” I said very reluctantly.
Seeing the sheepish look on my face, he suspiciously asked, “WHAT?”
“Well…” then I cleared my throat, “We could always use some MRE’s for when our people are on patrol, and we could definitely use some more coffee. I know soft drinks are out of the question. What we really need though,” I paused knowing what I was about to say he wasn’t going to be real receptive to, “we could use some 5.56 ammo and some aviation fuel.”
Jim leaned back in his chair and clasped his fingers behind his head and asked sarcastically, “Damn! Are you sure you don’t need a helicopter too?”
With a little bit of a guilty tone in my voice, I said, “You asked me if we needed anything. I’m just telling you what
we need.”
“Damn man! The MRE’s are no problem. Hell, I can give you a couple of cases now. But the ammo and FUEL?” he paused for a few moments and then let out a loud breath, “Let me see what I can do but don’t bet the farm on it, ok?”
He looked up at Roger and smiled while shaking his head. I saw Roger laughing quietly, but he was looking down at the floor trying to hide it.
He stood up, “You said you have a ham radio. Give me the frequency you guys monitor.”
With a surprised look on my face, I told Paul to go get Red as he did everything with the ham.
While waiting for Red, he asked, “Have you had much luck using the ham?”
I told him how we get a lot of rumors and news and how we did get in touch with Mia’s parents. Then, I explained how Red was understandably anxious to get a hold of his wife in Australia and why she was down there. Jim raised an eyebrow when he heard that. Just about that time Red came walking in.
Jim just glared at him. Red had a look on his face like he was asking, “What the hell did I do?”
“I understand you’re the ham operator?”
“Yes, sir.”
Jim pulled a pad out of his pocket, “Write down the frequency you monitor in case we need to get a hold of you guys. Our call sign is “Predator.” You’ll be….. “Audacious.” He said sarcastically while looking at me.
I chuckled and shook my head. That was his way of saying I was being exceedingly bold for asking him for ammo and aviation fuel.
Red wrote down the call signs and pulled out the paper and handed Jim back his pad with the frequency written down.
“Now, I understand that you’re trying to get a hold of your wife in Australia, is that right?”
“Yes, sir!”
Jim growled, “Do you have her phone number?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Are you still in the Army Red?”
Red laughed, “No sir.”
“Then quit calling me sir. You’re older than I am. Call me Jim.”
“Ok, Jim.”
“What time is it where she’s at?”
Red figured it out in his head, “It’s 7:20 a.m.”
Into the Apocalypse Page 26