Mo pulled the tractor up to the trash, and Paul and him loaded the trailer. As they drove through the field, Mo said, almost having to yell over the sound of the tractor, “I see why your dad loves it out here. This is freedom. I know that sounds odd, due to the circumstances but I’m mainly talking about country life. No traffic jams…. and no mobs of people walking down the street like cattle. It’s a shame I didn’t discover this before things went to hell.”
“Yeah, I know what you're saying. When I went haywire, I knew all along I was leaving a good life. For me, though, it was like I was just losing control. Since being here, it reminds me of the type of life I could’ve had if I just would have kept my head on straight. It took me going to prison to learn that lesson.”
“Paul, at least you learned. Do you know how many people live and die and never learn the lessons that you have.”
That statement really made Paul think. As much as he had learned the hard way, this one statement really brought it together somehow, and the more he thought about it, the more it made him feel good.
I was sitting inside talking with Kim, Mia, and Brandy. I had received orders that this was my day off and I was to take a vacation day. I wasn't even supposed to plan anything, according to Kim.
I have to admit; it felt good. Lately, though, I had already turned a lot over to Mo, and he was doing a great job. I knew I would have to step in once in a while and still be the Chairman of the Board so to speak, but Mo was doing a good job as president. In reality, it was more like the officer's chain of command in the Army. I was the commanding officer, and Mo was the XO, the executive officer, who took care of the men and made sure things were done.
As the girls talked, I must have been staring at Mia. I loved Mia, and she was cute, and I understood why Paul was interested in her. I just hoped it was for real on Mia’s part. I needed to talk to her for Paul’s sake as I needed to find out if she was just being nice to him or if she did have an interest in Paul. Really, though, I needed to run this by Kim. Mia and Kim pretty well tell each other everything, so if she was interested, surely, she would have told Kim by now.
“What? Mia asked.
I came out of my daydream and Mia was looking at me with a smile on her face, and then I noticed so was Kim and Brandy.
“What are you talking about?”
“You were sitting there staring at me.”
Not wanting to bring it up yet, I said, “Uh, maybe I was just having sexual fantasies about you.”
She turned red for a split second, “Yeah, right. Really, what were you thinking?”
“Ok, I’ll tell you the truth. I was sitting here thinking about all four of us having a foursome.”
Kim burst out laughing, “Oh really?”
I looked at Brandy, “How about that Brandy, are you for that?”
Her mouth was wide open as I had never kidded around much with her but of course, Kim and Mia had heard comments like that countless times. I loved messing with them that way, but Brandy didn’t know what to think.
Mia burst out laughing, “Look at Brandy’s face. She doesn’t know what to think.”
Kim continued to laugh, “What’s wrong Brandy. You don’t want to get it on with us?”
I wouldn’t have thought it was possible but Brandy’s mouth dropped open even wider and with an amazed look said, “KIM!”
Mia slowly quit laughing and finally said, “Don’t pay any attention to Vince. That’s normal for him.” She then looked at me and in fun, slapped me on the arm lightly, “You old pervert you.”
I got a big smile, “Yes I am, and I’m proud of it.”
I then got up and grabbed Brandy and started chewing on her neck lightly and at the same time made the sound “Ruh, Ruh, Ruh, Ruh.”
Brandy lowered her head against her shoulder where I was chewing and started giggling as she knew I was kidding around now.
Kim was laughing so hard, she almost fell out of her chair, and that got Mia going again.
I stood up quickly and acted like nothing was going on and asked, “Do we have any coffee made?”
Brandy looked up at me with a look of amazement and laughed, “You’re just a nutjob.”
Kim, through her laughter, said, “There you go Brandy, you finally figured him out.”
Brandy then said something that showed me that we were all learning to move on from Carmen’s death.
“Carmen use to tell me how funny you were and crazy sometimes, but now I understand what she was talking about.”
Mia immediately came back, “Oh, if you only knew how he would mess with Carmen’s head at first.”
“I remember the first time you chased her through the house like you were some type of creature or something. It was so funny; Carmen acted like a school kid out playing.” Kim remarked.
Everyone continued to laugh and told different stories. I realized, even though it hadn’t been that long, that we were to the point that we could talk about Carmen and everyone wouldn’t get depressed or sad.
I thought to myself, “That’s where we all need to be. It happened quickly, but nowadays everything seemed to happen quicker than in normal times. We would still privately grieve at times for losing her, but at least now we were able to honor her with our stories.”
Mia was sharp, though. As we broke up our talk and started doing our own thing, she looked at me, “I’m assuming we need to talk?”
I smiled and nodded my head, ‘Later, ok?”
****
The dump site was back in the woods around one hundred yards. It was a very small road that in reality should’ve been called a path. While driving down it, both had to watch out for branches that were hanging low off of the trees.
When Mo pulled up to the dump site, he turned off the tractor, and he and Paul jumped off. As soon as they did, Paul caught some movement out of the corner of his eye about fifty yards ahead of them. At first, he thought it was a deer but a strange feeling came over him, and he immediately pulled his rifle off of his shoulder. Mo immediately responded and did the same. Paul pointed in the direction of the movement and Mo gave hand signals to spread out, and both started moving slowly to the area in question.
As soon as they started moving they both saw two men take off running towards the east in the direction of the gravel road that ran north and south on our property’s east border. As Paul and Mo ran, they had to dodge trees, briars, and downed trees and branches. Paul being younger than Mo was faster and took the lead.
The two men that were running away were running at full speed. Even though they had to cross it when they walked in, they forgot about a big drainage ditch, that was about fifteen feet across and seven feet deep that ran through the woods. The first man climbed down the ditch and made it up the other side but the second man, ran over the edge and fell to the bottom and let out a scream. When this happened, the man that had made it through, stopped, raised his rifle and shot at Paul, missing him by about a foot and hitting the tree that Paul was running next to. Both Paul and Mo dropped to the ground and opened fire, realizing that the shots were a burst from an automatic weapon.
When Mo fired, he could see that he hit the man that shot, but he couldn’t tell how effective his shot was, even though he heard the man yell out with pain. Mo immediately grabbed his radio and put out an alert to everyone that shots with an automatic weapon and at least two men were on the property to the east of the dump site.
I was in the living room when I had heard the automatic fire, followed by another burst of more automatic fire and then at least one shot fired by a regular rifle. Then almost immediately, MO’s voice came over the radio.
I grabbed my M-4 along with Kim’s and ran out the back door where I met Tag that was running in. As I was running, I called Mo on the radio asking for a status report. In a low voice, he stated that he thought one of the intruders was down and he was pretty sure that he had hit the other shooter but didn’t have confirmation. I advised him we’d be approaching from the road a
rea on the east side.
As we were running out to the jeep, Santiago asked if he could help. I paused momentarily and then asked, “ Are you ok, after the other day in Pine City? I mean this could get hairy.”
“Yes, you guys need the help.”
I looked at Tag, who nodded his head, yes, so I said, “Let's go.”
Tag drove, I climbed in the back of the jeep with the mounted SAW and Santiago took the passenger seat. As we were driving east towards the east roadblock, I called Mike on the radio, who was on guard there along with Red, to ask if they saw anything.
“No, all we did was hear the shots and of course the sound of the ATVs that we reported earlier. Do you want us to run down there?”
“Negative, stay there and keep an eye out but be ready to come up if things go to shit.”
When Tag drove through the opening at the roadblock he had to be driving 35 mph. It doesn’t sound that fast until you’re driving through an opening not much wider than the vehicle you’re in. When he made the turn to the south, the jeep skidded on the gravel. It’s a good thing that my adrenaline was flowing, or I probably would’ve had a mess in my pants.
Mo and Paul tactically approached where the drainage ditch was. They stopped to observe the area where the other man was, but no one was there. Mo got on the radio updating us of the situation.
As they approached the drainage ditch, they could hear someone moaning. They spread out where they were about 25 yards apart, and both crawled up to the edge of the ditch. As they both looked over the edge, they spotted someone that appeared to be around 20 lying at the bottom of the ditch, holding his blood-covered leg. Apparently, when the man fell into the ditch, he impaled his right leg with a broken off tree sapling that was about an inch in diameter.
There was, what appeared to be a .22 caliber scoped rifle laying on the ground with what looked like an old plastic soda pop bottle taped to the end of the barrel. Mo, seeing the man was in intense pain and holding his leg, pointed the M-16 at him and yelled out not to move.
When the man heard Mo, he started to reach for his handgun but froze when Mo yelled, “You’ll be dead before you get it out!”
Mo instructed him to grab the handgun with his fingertips only and toss it away from him, which he did. He then told Paul to go grab the guns and check the man out while he covered him. Mo wasn’t going to take any chances if the man moved in the wrong way, he was going to waste him.
Paul climbed down into the ditch and slowly approached the man. He reached the rifle first, which he tossed behind him and then grabbed the handgun and threw it back to where the rifle was, and then walked around the man and started patting him down for any additional weapons. He found a hunting knife in a sheath and tossed it aside, but he didn’t appear to have anything else on him.
“This guy’s going to need medical help,” Paul stated.
Mo, while scanning the area said, “He can wait.”
“Please mister, I need help. The pain is killing me!”
“Shutup!” Mo yelled, “We’ll get you some help in a little bit. Where’s your friend?”
“I don’t know. Please, mister, I need help!”
“You’re not getting shit until we find your friend,” Paul replied.
The man moaned in pain and with tears said, “He probably ran off. We’re under orders to leave if one of us gets captured.”
MO’s eyes opened wide. “Orders?”
Tag drove slowly as we approached the area that I knew Mo and Paul were in. I was standing with the mounted SAW, scanning the wooded area. After all of us checked the area, we got out of the jeep, and I told Santiago to stay concealed and watch the jeep.
Tag and I separated ourselves with a distance of about 25-30 yards and slowing worked our way through the woods, after notifying Mo and Paul of our approach. I would’ve liked to have been farther apart but the underbrush was so thick, we wouldn’t have constant eye contact with each other otherwise.
Besides the timberline being so thick, what made it more dangerous was we had to cross a couple of drainage ditches. One that was very deep. Some of the areas were as wide and almost as deep as the creek itself. You could tell by looking that when these ditches were flooded, the water that ran through them would’ve been like a roaring river. If you fell into one when they were flooded, you wouldn’t escape as you would immediately be swept away and drown. Thank God it was dry, and there was no water whatsoever.
I knew that Tag and I had to be close as I knew there was only one more ditch ahead of us. Suddenly, we heard what sounded like an ATV start and then accelerate and then three distinctive shots that had to be from the .357 magnum that Santiago was using.
I looked at Tag and yelled, “GO!”
Chapter Nineteen
President Hatch and Chancellor Kohl had just concluded a very heated secure phone conversation. The Chancellor was upset that the gold shipment that President Prescott authorized and shipped to the EU had been intercepted and returned to the U.S. She was also upset that the U.S. had not consulted with them before they launched their attack on North Korea as President Prescott agreed that the EU would have input on all major decisions the U.S. made.
President Hatch advised her that the steps President Prescott took were completely unconstitutional and he would not honor anything that he agreed to. He had agreed to meet with the Chancellor to discuss relations with the EU and showed a lot of gratitude for the relief assistance that they were providing, but due to the Chancellor’s anger, she stated that she could not guarantee any future aid due to the confrontation between U.S. troops and EU troops in Savannah.
She stated that due to the logistic problems, that it would be best for any surviving citizens of the U.S. to be evacuated to refugee centers throughout Europe. President Hatch stated that he would be very hesitant to approve such drastic action but agreed to allow anyone that desired it, strictly on a volunteer basis. He was not going to force U.S. citizens to evacuate if they didn’t have the desire to do so as some areas seemed to be more stable than others.
Aid had been sent from Australia, Great Britain, Israel, and some other nations but due to the vast area affected by the EMP throughout the U.S., Mexico, and Canada, it was a drop in the bucket for what was needed, and some of the aid needed to be used for resupplying U.S. troops.
President Hatch finally agreed to meet the Chancellor when he addressed the United Nations the next week.
The final discussion was about the evidence that Iran was behind the attack on North America and how Russia had to know that they weren’t launching just a weather and surveillance satellite for Iran. They both agreed that military actions should be taken but intentionally did not discuss what actions were being planned.
When Chancellor Kohl got off the phone, she immediately made a follow-up call to an undisclosed location, and all she said was, “We have run out of time. We need to take action before the President can address the United Nations. Is it ready?” after listening to the response that she was hoping for, she gave the order, “You have authorization then. Implement.”
Johnson Farm:
I stood covering Tag so that he could run at a faster pace. Even though Tag was older now and not in the shape we all use to be in, he still knew his tactics and made it quickly to the road. I told Mo to stand by and then started making my way to the road.
When Tag looked out of the woods, he could see Santiago standing over a three-wheeler ATV with a body slumped over it. The ATV tried leaving going down an old railroad path. Many years ago, some said as far back as the civil war, a railroad track crossed our property and the bordering properties. The tracks had been pulled, but the raised area that the tracks ran down was still there.
Tag cleared the area and then ran to Santiago. Santiago was standing over the body of someone that didn’t look much older than 21 years old. He stood there staring at the body. Like most people, he had never killed anyone before the woman in Pine City and now he had to kill someone again that
looked like a kid to him.
Tag checked for a pulse,…. the man was dead. He looked at Santiago and asked, “Are you alright?”
He stuttered around for a moment or two, then said, “When I turned, he was running across the road, and he stopped and pointed his rifle at me. I dove behind the jeep, and he ran to his ATV that was apparently parked in the woodline. He headed towards me and then turned onto this path, so I ran to the opening, and I just fired. I knew I couldn’t let him get away but……”
“Hey. You did well. Remember, this guy was shooting at Mo and Paul. You did the right thing.”
“How do you know it was him?” Santiago asked with a dazed look on his face.
“Because they caught one of the guys and all he had was a .22 and a handgun. This guy has an AK-47. They were shot at with automatic fire and trust me, we all know the sound of an AK-47. They have a very distinct sound. Once you hear one fire fully automatic, you’ll never forget the sound.”
“But I didn’t know that for sure. I just fired.”
“Well, you were right. Your instincts took over, and most of the time your instincts will tell you the right thing to do.”
About this time, I came running up. “Status?”
Tag repeated Santiago’s story. I looked at the body and then told Tag to look for another ATV. Tag immediately left to search for it.
I looked at Santiago who was pale, and I just patted him on the back. I knew what he must have been feeling. After a couple of minutes, I checked the body again, “You’re a hell of a shot. You hit him square in the back two out of the three shots. That’s not easy when shooting a handgun, especially at a moving target. The shot on his leg, I think was from Mo.”
Santiago, very reluctantly said, “Thank you.”
Soon we heard what sounded like a motorcycle start and Tag came driving down the path riding an older dirt bike.
Into the Apocalypse Page 29