Suburban Myth: Bobs story.

[kaijafon]

Bob's baaaaaacccckkkkk! yay!!! thank you!

[fightheat]

Excellent!

[warsparrow]

Chapter 3


He woke up with someone pounding at the front door.

Stumbling out of his little managers room still dressed from the night before, he made his way to the glass fronted shop and opened the door, after making sure his 9mm was still strapped to his leg and ready in case he needed it.

A week ago he wouldn’t have been able to sleep a wink like this, but now it was second nature.

Five men stood outside I a line, some dressed in new clothes and carrying boxes.

“Can I help you?” he asked as they looked at him.

“You asked for volunteers, we’re them” the one in front said. The guy who spoke was about 50 years old. Bob looked directly at him and did a quick summation of the man’s appearance and demeanor. He figured the man was about 5 ft. 11 and weighed somewhere around 180 lbs.

There was nothing that really stood out about the guy except for the fact that he had the weathered look of a farmer who had spent many years under the sun doing farming type work.

The man stuck out his hand and said, ´hi, my name is Earl Varney. Pleased to meet ya. We heard you needed some help with some important work. Hope I can help you out in some way.”

Bob noticed he had a rural accent.

He’d heard a lot of accent the last couple of days. He figured the man was probably local and he made a mental note to get the Earls story and background later. Earl sounded like a straight forward, get-to-it kind of guy; Maybe he was a natural born leader.

He could be an asset for later.

He shook the man’s hand firmly.

He had a strong grip.

“Pleased to meet you too,” said Bob. “why don’t you all come inside where its more comfortable and we’ll get introductions out of the way so we can get down to business”

He stepped back, pulling the door open and signaled for them to pass into the room.

They filed in one by one and the last man thru the door caught Bob’s attention.

He noticed the man looked down at the gun strapped to his leg, But it wasn’t in a fearful, shocked or uncomfortable way; It was a more calculating look.

Bob noticed the man was watching him closely, taking in everything he could about him and processing the info, cataloguing everything away into some remote area of his brain.

Bob swore he felt a strange vibe coming off the man. He’d felt it before in his past, when he’d had to deal with some of the government goons who were around leading up to the time when he was put in the witness protection program.

He made sure he didn’t flinch, or drop his gaze from the man’s eyes. He knew you had to project power and cool confidence to guys like this; they were predators, waiting for their chance to swoop down and do whatever it was they were intending on doing.

The man shifted his gaze a bit, realizing he’d been caught in a calculating and analytical gaze, then he was past and Bob closed the door.

They all pulled up chairs from the coffee house tables that were still there.

They formed a rough semi circle around Bob who then sat down at his desk by the window. He looked them all over for a minute without saying much. His scrutiny made one or two of them nervous and fidgety.

He leaned back in his chair and tried to project confidence and calm.

“So tell me about yourselves. Start with your names and just a brief bit about your background. Why don’t we start over here on the right and work our way left till you’ve all had a chance to introduce yourselves.”

He’d deliberately chose that way because coincidentally, Earl Varney was on the right and the last guy on the left was the Man with the strange vibe.

Earl Varney opened his mouth and spoke up. “Well, you already know my names Earl Varney. I have a small farm about twenty miles from here. It’s just me. The wife died a few years back of cancer, and we never had any children. It gets kind of lonely out there, so when I heard the news about all this crazy power outage stuff goin’ on in the East, I thought I would come into town to see what I could find out.”

“Don’t need to mind the farm as I pretty much don’t plant anything much these days anyway. This seemed like a good chance to do something different than hanging around on my porch swing all day;
I guess that’s about all I have to say for now.”

Bob looked over at the second guy, who realized it was his turn to talk.

He said “My name is Joe tucker. I’m from the East. Seen more crazy shit the last few days than I care to talk about. Thought I might like to help get things back to the way they used to be.” He stopped talking.

Bob looked at the third guy who started speaking. “I’m Greg Arnholt and the guy next to me is my younger brother Darrell. He ain’t gonna say too much cause he’s got a bad stutter. We’re from Minneapolis. When the power went out, we heard that the lights were still on just a bit west and decided to come here. About it I guess.”

Bob moved his gaze over to the fourth guy who said, H..hh..h…hey, M..mm..my N…nn..nn..names D..ddd..dd..Darrell.” Darrell lowered his eyes and stared at the floor.

Bob noticed that strange vibe had been watching each one of the other guys carefully as they spoke.

Now it was Strange Vibes turn and he spoke up.

He had a voice like gravel was in his throat. “My names Derek Clement. I’m a contractor from Delaware. When can we get started?”

Bob was a bit surprised to hear the Man cut the conversation short and cut straight to the chase. This one’s gonna be a real interesting nut to crack, thought Bob.

“Alright” he said to all of them “I guess we are in kind of a hurry; don’t see any reason to delay, Let me tell you why we’re all here.”

“What the Ex Governor needs post haste is inventory. There are a lot of people coming from the east that are hungry, hurt and scared. Most are coming in with little more than the shirt on their backs, and this region isn’t equipped to feed, house, doctor and resettle this many people”

He looked at each man in turn, lingering a little longer than he needed to on the Contractor.

“ That’s where we’re going to come in, we’re going to find the resources, allocate our recovery teams to secure those resources; plot the best and safest routes, give them the tools and supplies to accomplish this and a rally point in case things get hairy out there”

The men were all looking first at him then at each other.

“That sounds n awful lot like looting” Derek spoke up.

“Have you even been out to the Zone?” Joe Tucker said “ if somebody don’t get in there and get the stuff, then the real looters will take what they can and burn the rest; just out of spite, I’ve seen it firsthand”

Bob nodded to the man even as he looked down at his boots.

“Is this something you think you can do, not just do, but do and live with your selves while doing it? Looting sounds like we’re going to be kicking in some gramma’s door and raiding her pantry or knocking over a liquor store. That’s not what it’s about, think of it as procuring resources to ensure the future of this entire region”

“I need people who can think on their feet, people who can analyze and think outside of the box; Find a use for the items we locate or think of how to repurpose existing items in our inventory”

The people all looked at each other for a moment then back at Bob.

One by one they nodded.

“Good now to get this started I want, each of you to tell me one item that’s not on our immediate priority list that you think we overlooked”

He looked over at Darrell.

“I’m not saying this to make fun of you or demean you; but time is of the essence, so if you need to write something down to get it out faster, do it; and don’t feel bad about it”

Darrell nodded.

He started with the contractor by pointing at him.

“Gun safes and racks” he said without hesitation.

“Reason?” Bob asked.

“There are upwards of 220 million guns in the US. In seven days I managed to accumulate 22 pieces by myself; I had so many guns in the back of my rig, I felt like I was running guns to the Cartels or something. We’re going to need to maintain, catalog and store as many weapons as we can lay our hands on, so that’s why we need them” he said.

Derek Clement the contractor seemed ready with his numbers, bob noticed.

He looked at the Farmer Earl Varney.

“Feed, Seed and Fertilizer. It’s too late in the season to use most of it, but next year it’ll be like gold; if’n we want to feed these people”

“Paint” said Joe Tucker.

Bob raised an eye brow at this.

“Follow me on this; everybody remembers the pictures from Katrina right. Where after checking out a house or building they would put an x on the front with numbers on it for dead, injured, date etc. Then there are the Vehicles we’re going to send out to do this. If they go as is in their rent-a –van colors; they’re going to look like scavengers, they need to be painted so they look official; something like ‘Nebraska Salvage Recovery Team’ or some such”

Joe stopped for a breath.

“Then there is the people here themselves, we all know the saying ‘Idle hands are the devils workshop’. So anyone who wants to we give them paint and a brush and let them repair and repaint any of the abandoned properties around they want; if nothing else it will keep the occupied and give them a sense of belonging to the community”

Bob had to admit it made some sense, though paint would be really low on the list of priorities.

He looked next to Greg.
“Blankets, blankets and clothing. I saw people sleeping on the cold, hard ground with their jackets for pillows; weathers fine now but this is flat land and once that fall wind starts blowing it’s going to get mighty cold real quick”

Bob had been thinking the exact same thing just the day before and it had already slipped from his mind.

Finally bob stood and took Darrell’s paper. The man had been writing furiously the entire time.

Bobtails. Why go through a trailer on the side of the road when you can hook up a bobtail and haul it back to check it out. If it has nothing valuable it can be used to block roads or emptied out and used to house people or inventory.

Books. Knowledge is power.

Hygiene products and cleaning supplies. The major causes of disease are poor hygiene and dirty environments.

Mouse and rat traps. Because poor hygiene and dirty environments attracts them.

Anything Disposable. Because by its nature it has a single use or limited life, and the chances of people making more or China shipping it over now that the Government is down are just about none.

Bob looked over the list twice before he could even form a comment, Darrell might have trouble talking but his mind was a sharp as a tack.

“Wow. I’m going to get in touch with Hanrahan and see if he can get us a couple of computers in here so we can make up spread sheets and inventory paperwork, vehicle logs and all the things this operation is going to need”

“Good job everybody, now let’s get everybody situated and get work spaces staked out, and start putting together a list of everything we are going to need in this office to make this work”

They all stopped to watch the five Rent- a- truck convoy get ready to head out and Bob excused himself to give the Ex Governor a call with the latest additions they wanted to run by the man.

As he talked he turned toward the window to see people streaming down the sidewalks to watch the trucks leave.

He also saw the reflections of saw Derek and Joe watching him and made a mental note to be more discrete in the future.




Chapter 4

Hot Mess and lies

Bernadette was standing in her driveway watching the fire eat away at her house; the chimney was melting even though she knew it was brick and couldn’t melt.

On moment her children were there and fighting among themselves over who would get the last popsicle stick, and the next they were these little men from an old Bass and Rankin Claymation movie she used to watch as a girl on her parents big old counsel Television with the built in Record player.

“I’m Mr. Heat Miser, I’m Mr. Sun”

They ran around her singing and dancing in unison.

“I’m Mr. Bright Sunshine; I’m Mr. Hundred and one”

They continued they’re creepy dance as she looked desperately for anyway to escape the searing heat.

“I’m always melting whatever I touch, we’re too much”

*******

Bob sat at her bedside as she remained delirious from the fever; trying to make sure that the cool, wet towel wasn’t slipping off of her forehead as she moaned and turned her head side to side.

He had brought along a book from the coffee shop, just to keep his mind occupied as he sat with her; but his mind wouldn’t stay focused on it; there were just too many other things vying for his attentions.

Finally he closed Hermestius’ Book on the Dawn of the Gods and just stared at the steady rhythms the monitors were showing; trying to order his thoughts as the hours slowly ticked by waiting for the trucks to return from their first run.

The hospital made him think of something else; or rather someone else.

He got up and went to the nurses’ station.

“Can I help you?” The nurse asked.

“The morgue?” He asked.

“Why?” the nurse asked suspiciously.

“My…Friend was killed and I wanted to talk to the Coroner” He said.

“Which one?” She said.

“Which Coroner? “ Bob asked.

“No, which murder victim?” She asked him like he was dense or something.

“There was more than one?” Bob asked.

The nurse pursed her lips.

Bob realized she probably wasn’t supposed to say anything.

He stood there and waited.

She eyed him up and then stepped out and around the Kiosk.

“Go down this hall and to the elevator at the end, take it all the way down to the basement”

He thanked her and left.

Down in the basement he expected to find some old guy looking like Quincy, but instead he found a younger man in dark blue slacks and a plaid shirt reading a Dr. Who book Novelized by Philip K. Dick.

He looked up as Bob walked in.

“Can I help you?” He asked setting the book down open faced to keep his page.

“Just couldn’t get into the book I brought to read while visiting, and thought I would come down and found out what you could tell me about the murder of my friend”

“What are you reading?” He asked.

Bob showed him.

“Yeah, I read that at the coffee shop down the street; way too drawn out on the minutiae and explanations; maybe as reference for a theological dissertation in collage, but as light reading it definitely lacks” He said.

“I got it off the shelf at the Coffee Shop” Bob said setting down on the cold stainless steel table.

“Oh you’re the new logistics guy that moved in down there” The doctor said holding out his hand.

“Dr. Michael Hajal” he said.

“Robert Beech” Bob said and took it.

“Your Friend was?” he asked.

“Billy boy, purple Cowboy hat and fur boots” Bob said as a way of explanation.

The Doctor nodded his head, meaning he knew the corpse.
“What have you been told?” he asked, going over to the file cabinet.

“Pretty much what they knew. He was lured out to the field and had his throat slit” Bob said.

“They’re information was premature, he was hit on the head, then had his throat slit, then was dumped in the field. Whoever did it must have been a bloody mess; professional, but a bloody mess” The doctor said looking at the file.

“So this wasn’t spur of the moment, this was premeditated” Bob said.

“I would hazard so, but was it premeditated for your friend, or any likely target?” The doctor asked.

“Good point, anything similar?” Bob asked, probing now.

The doctor stopped and looked at him.

“Come on, I already know about the other murders” Bob said, building on what the nurse had said “Just not the specific methods used”

The Doctor opened the next files.

“One was strangled, the other bludgeoned; so there may be a connection” He said.

“But why these?” Bob asked “What connects them, I’m guessing you already looked into their lines of work, their known associations; all the usual CSI TV crap”

“Oh we have, and only one thing seems to connect them; they all agreed to work for the Governor” The Doctor said looking up from the files at Bob.

Bob thanked the man for his time, retrieved his book and made his way back upstairs. He checked in on Bernadette again and put the cloth back on her forehead before leaving to head back to his Coffee Shop abode; then he changed his mind and headed down to the Bar.

The night they had arrived Bob hadn’t even bothered to learn the name of the place, now he could see the old fashioned painted sign plainly.

The Watering Hole.

He walked in and saw several familiar faces, but made his way over to the one he was most interested in talking to.

He sat down across from the former special agent as he ate his meal and waited for the Waitress to come over.

“Steak, Potato, Salad and a pitcher of beer” Bob said.

“Does my work for the Governor cover food?” he asked the Philipino.

“No, but I’ll cover it; you paid for your whole group and then some the other day, it’s on my today” He said.

He drank down his beer and then looked over to the Accountant.

“How’s the woman?” he asked.

“Good I guess, still feverish. Their doing tests to see if she got Hepatitis from the well water she drank; I’m not sure if it’s A, B or C” Bob replied.

The man nodded as the waitress brought over Bob’s pitcher.

“You mind?” He asked pointing at it.

“You’re paying for it, knock yourself out” Bob said.

He refilled his glass then filled Bobs as well.

“I’m guessing you didn’t come here just for the good food and company” He said after a few more bites.

“No. truth is, I’ve been so busy here I forgot to eat yesterday. I didn’t even realize it until I walked in” Bob said in all honesty.

“Not good, you got to keep yourself up; your doing an important job, and we, meaning not just the governor and me; but everybody here; are going to be counting on you to secure the stuff we’re going to need to survive” He said.

Bob looked at him for a moment.

“I know that look. Out with it” Rohelio said.

“Is it true you recruited Billy Boy before he was killed?” Bob asked.

Rohelio didn’t stop his eating but did look sidelong both ways before speaking.

“Someone’s been speaking out of turn” He said and took a swig of his beer before continuing “Yes, and I assume you know about the others too now?”

Bob nodded and they became quiet as the waitress brought over his food.

“Ranch Dressing” he said.

“Sorry honey, all out” she said.

“Bleu cheese?” he asked Hopefully.

She shook her head.

“We’ve got vinegar and oil, and there might be a little Italian left”


“Surprise me then” Bob told her.

After she walked away Rohelio continued.

“You know what would happen to our recruiting if word of this got out? Someone’s trying to shut down what we’re trying to do here before we even get started” He stabbed at a cut piece of steak and shoved it in his mouth, chewing slowly as the waitress brought over a little plastic package of dressing for Bob’s salad.

“As long as the guy thinks he’s undiscovered he’s going to try again; we have the clothes he wore when he Killed Billy Boy, so we have his basic size; it’s only a matter of time”

Bob nodded his understanding; even he knew that to catch a predator, you needed live bait. He didn’t have to like it but he could understand it.

“Ok, but I’m letting you know right now, from this moment on my whole team is going to be armed” Bob said and started cutting in to his perfectly grilled steak.

Rohelio nodded.

“I wouldn’t have it any other way” he said.

[ydderf]

Glad to see you're back.Batteries recharged? I hope. Waiting with baited breath for more of Bob's story.

[nancy1340]

Thanks

[warsparrow]

Chapter 5

Shifting Priorities

He spent the night tossing and turning in his little double bed.

The recovery team should have been back by now.

He knew how bad the roads were out there and he was certain that they would have impediments to overcome as well as difficulties on their first run, but all the items he had earmarked were close and accessible.

He fell into a fitful sleep and was awoken by the sounds of trucks in the distance.

The sun was just coming up and the birds had started their morning ritual.

He dressed and made his way down to the staging area that they had set up at the Armada Inn.

He could have driven the duster but didn’t want to waste the gas and walked to it.

Several of the trucks definitely looked worse for the ware and there was a school bus that looked like it had been used for target practice.

Rohelio and Hanrahan were already there as well as almost his whole crew.

“What happened?” Bob asked as he walked up to the group; they were conversing with the lead driver and he could tell things hadn’t gone to plan.

“We picked up a bus load of refugees and were getting them situated in the convoy when we were hit by a bunch of gang bangers fleeing Chicago; they were in no mood to parley and wanted what we had; they were well equipped too, a couple of armored cars and one of those MRAPs, we can almost half the night before we lost them and hid out in the repair bay of a school bus depot”

There were casualties as well, four of the refugees were dead including an eight year old boy and a 96 year old woman who had a heart attack and died.

They decided to call an emergency meeting to discuss what had happened and what they would need to do to combat this type of aggressive behavior in the future.

The meeting got off to a rocky start as they question of what to do with the influx of bodies that had been piling up in the morgue. Some wanted to dig a mass grave, others wanted them intered in the normal cemetery, and some even wanted to simply burn them, like they were some kind of plague victims.

They finally compromised and decided that they would make a new cemetery by the highway, for the convenience of not having to move the dead as far to bury them, the equipment left by the road repair crews was there and the fact that having to pass that many crosses to get into town would act as a psychological deterrent for anyone thinking of causing trouble.
They were trying to decide how best to recruit for a militia that could patrol the area and still do their daytime jobs when a Humvee drove up with a local pickup truck as escort.

A sergeant and two privates were led into the building, and Bob’s hand reflexively dropped to his pistol butt.

The sergeant had apparently encountered situation similar to this in the past as all he carried was a pistol, and he already had the magazine out of it and was holding it in his hand.

The soldiers then saluted the Ex Governor and he returned it, then turned to the assembled members of his cabinet.

“I was a reserve Major for a few years before I entered politics” he said as a way of explanation.

The sergeant then handed a sealed envelope to the ex governor and waited for him to open and read it.

“It seems that I and several other leaders from the surrounding area have been invited to see the Base commander at Offut later today” He reread the message just to be sure of its contents before returning to the waiting soldier.

“Tell your superiors that I will be attending with my Logistics man” he looked at Bob

“And my defense advisor” He nodded to the man everyone simply refered to as The Professor.

The sergeant nodded.

“Any restrictions on weapons?” He asked as the soldiers turned to leave.

“None, though we would appreciate that they at least be on safe and holstered” He said then they were gone.

With that they moved on to their Gang Banging raider party that the Scavenging crew had run into.

“We all know that it is only a matter of time before they come this way and we have to deal with them” Hanrahan said as he poured himself a cup of coffee.

The others nodded.

“So we need a cohesive plan to deal with them, and ensure that we can continue to defend this community and the surrounding areas, so I need suggestions”

They spent the next half hour throwing idea’s back and forth, before agreeing on a tentative course of action.

They would make a pathway on the highway with abandoned tractor trailers, leaving two ready to be driven into place to completely block the end and make a kill box that the defenders could use to pour fire on the attackers.

If the armored cars were involved then they would block the pathway at the opening and force the heavy vehicles off onto the soft shoulders.

“these vehicles are designed for hard surfaces and solid roads, We take the construction equipment and dig up the whole area, turn over the soil so that it’s loose and they will bog down, then we have a tanker waiting to fill the loose dirt with Gasoline or Diesel and when they are bogged down we pour fire on them”

“Pour fire on them? Aren’t they bullet proof?” The Head IT guy from what the locals called the Hack Shack asked.

“What he meant wasn’t shoot at them” The military advisor said, a man from the University of Nebraska who had written several books on military strategy and campaigns everyone Called the Professor.

“What he meant was that we literally pour fire on them. Fear of fire is a primal thing, and a powerful deterrent to continuing an attack; especially if you’re most powerful weapons are the first to be set alight”

“Ok so how do we accomplish that with as few casualties as possible?” The Ex Governor asked.

“Ever watch the discovery channel?” the Hack Shack guy said.

“Every year they have a contest to lob pumpkins as far as they can, some get as far as 2/3 of a mile. There is a PDF on how to construct a trebuchet known as War Serpent, if we fill a pony keg with gasoline and put some bullet primers on it; it may be what we need” He said.

They others all looked at him.

“Hey, what can I say? I played a lot of videos games and a bunch of Post Apocalypse Role Playing Games; sometimes you have to think like a Visigoth”

Bob smiled.

“Ever play Twilight: 2000?” He asked.

“Yeah, the Free City of Krakow beat my ass” the IT guy replied.

“Bob Beech” Bob held out his hand.

“Marcus Brown” the guy shook it.

“That’s good for the armored cars, what about the MRAPs?” Hanrahans second asked.

The men looked at each other for a few minutes before Bob spoke.

“How about on the other side of the highway we dig out a pit next to the road, big enough to drop the truck into and fill it with water, then we cover it up like an African lion trap?”

“As good a plan as any, we’re going to need people to do this; I’ll have Rohelio start looking for volunteers with heavy equipment experience” Hanrahan said.

The Professor cleared his throat.

“I think we’re going to need to recruit an HR type person, and start having that person go around and get everyone’s names and occupations, that way we can start putting people where we need them without having to look”

The Ex governor thought about it for a moment then nodded.

“It’s a good plan, if anyone can recommend someone, get with Rohelio; I’ve got to get ready for my meeting” he said and the emergency session broke up.

Bob went back to the Coffee House and found that it was empty; his team must still be assessing the scavenging crew’s haul and collecting data on its mission.

He quickly changed into a fresh shirt and pants and made sure he went down to the high school so he could shower and get presentable for the meeting later.

He pulled up to the Ex governor’s convoy as they waited for him.

They looked over his Orange Duster as they made last minute preparations.

“Man, I loved Starsky and Hutch, why isn’t there a white stripe on it?” Marcus asked.

Bob just looked at the man.

“That was a Torino, not a Duster” Rohelio said, just shaking his head.





Chapter 6

Meeting new people.


They made the trip without difficulty and were waved through the gate to the base by a heavily armed group of soldiers.

A Humvee was waiting to escort them to their meeting in a large open cafeteria.

Bob guessed the short notice was so that the parties involved couldn’t plan anything funny or set up ambushes or other surprises.

There were five main persons and each had brought two men with them, making fifteen total. The Basee commander appeared promptly after the last man had sat down.

“Gentlemen as the civilian representatives in the area I’d like to thank you for agreeing to attend this meeting on such a short notice” The commander looked at each man in turn before continuing.

“As you all are well aware there has been a massive strike against the United States and that has led to some unprecedented problems, not the least of which is the lack of communication with both our military and civilian leadership”

“Furthermore the information we are receiving is not through the standard chain of command or are ordering us to do things that are blatantly and obviously outside of our mission parameters”

One of the men Bob did not know raised his hand.

“Let me finish please” the commander said, then continued.

“Therefore I am confining my areas of operation to within ten miles of this base, including Omaha itself; we will patrol and protect said area until I receive either direct word from my superiors or the President of the United States”

“What were your orders? If I may ask” The man holding his hand up asked.

“We were ordered two days ago to start detaining the families of service members; yesterday we were ordered to detain any civilians we deemed necessary for as long as we saw fit or until the end of the state of emergency”

The leaders all looked at each other, bob was sure they had already heard of what was transpiring farther east; and were worried about the same thing occurring in their areas; where there were several military installations.

“I want you gentleman to know that you are safe from the Military as long as you make no moves against us; we are far from self sufficient and we are going to need every resource and alliance that we can get in order to survive this” The commandant said “ I have talked to the other base commanders and they support The same”

“Thank you for your stance and honesty commander, if you need anything from us to help you and your men, just let us know” the Ex Governor said.

The commander looked at the ex Governor.

“Have you been watching the news?” He asked.

“No, The EMP burst did something to the Digital stations and we switched it off when the over the air Talking heads went into Full Retard propaganda mode” Hanrahan uncharacteristically said.

“Well you should, they did a whole smear piece on you yesterday. Murdering autocrat who refuses to step down for the officially recognized authority; it was a masterpiece of carefully worded propaganda and subtle innuendo. Chairman Mao would have been proud” The commandant said.

“And what do you think?” The Ex Governor asked.

“Four days ago, I was ordered to bring you in or Neutralize…Kill you; and obviously you are still alive and free to move about and do your job, so you have your answer” He answered.

“Well thank you for that then; but we have problems of our own that we could use your help with” Hanrahan said.


“I heard about the Raiders and killers streaming out of Chicago and points east, laying waste to everything in their path; but If you’re asking for arms, armor or aircraft then the answer is no; but technical assistance or other non lethal aid I may be able to render”

They spent the next hour figuring out everyone needs, wants, strengths and deficiencies.

The base desperately needed fresh vegetables and meat and was willing to trade some of the surplus equipment that was due to be auctioned off on the Govliquidation.com site, as well as items from their PX. Their Military advisor asked about some 24 volt Batteries, for an experiment he was doing.

Bob learned from another Logistics guy that they had set up a Ham shack to monitor all of the bands and television stations that were still active, and were even trying to get a TV station of their own up and running.

Bob spent a lot of time gathering information and ideas and scribbling furiously into the little notebook he had thought to bring along.

They concluded by setting up some ways that the various communities could and would be able to communicate with each other, both in an emergency and for general mundane things.

The Ex governor discussed with the commandant about transferring the ‘Regional Director’ into the Air Forces custody, but the man was hesitant to agree, saying that he would wait and see what developed before agreeing to take a civilian into his brig.

“I wonder if we should elect an overall leader?” One of the men mused.

“I’d wait to make sure the old ones aren’t going to return and hang us from lamp posts” Hanrahan replied.

The ride back was just as easy, they had no issues other than a brief rain shower and soon they were back.

They pulled into the Watering Hole and noticed that everyone appeared to be more subdued than usual, and they soon found out why.

“A double murder” Rohelio told them as soon as he got the news “Husband and wife truck drivers, they led the scavenging run; they were killed as they worked on their truck by the highway service garage, as usual no one saw anything”

They knew that this wasn’t going to be easy to explain this away, and they also knew it was going to make recruiting people that much more difficult.

Bob accompanied Rohelio out to where the murders happened and could see that the area immediately around the murder sight had been both swept clean and disturbed later as people found the bodies.

The dirt was stained almost black by the blood that had soaked in.

“This was close in work, someone used a knife, maybe a small sword or bayonet; to get this close the couple had to have known their killer, no one lets a person that close unless they know them” he examined the truck and the area surrounding, but found nothing.

They walked back to where the gate stood open and Bob spied something glinting in the grass and called Rohelio’s attention to it.

There in the grass was a long kitchen knife and a cheap pair of dark cotton work gloves, stained with dried blood.

“We won’t get any prints off of the knife but we may be able to match it with a knife set” Rohelio said as he picked the items up with a pair of pliers and put them into a plastic baggie.

“You know what worries me? That the killer knew that all of the major people who would be watching out for him would be gone, it’s not something we advertized” he said.

“Which means someone either in our inner circle or near to our inner circle” Bob said.

Rohelio Nodded.

“I have an idea” Bob said.

**********

The next day was an absolute blur of activity and bob didn’t have a moment to spare to go and see how Bernadette was doing. He was kept busy with inventorying the items that were brought back on the scavenging run, and looking into possible Human Resources people as well as having an artist come in and paint two wall sized drawings on the coffee house walls.

The place now looked for all the world like an old World War two bunker, with one wall painted with the town , with streets and houses and such and the other wall having been painted with the entire Midwest area. From Toledo all the way to the Nebraska border.

He and his team were also trying to recruit enough trucks and people for another scavenging run, this time with two trucks as out riders, to scout ahead and screen for trouble.

They also had a new list of things to look for; Including sandbags and barbed wire, electronics or Truck stops selling CB equipment. The list was growing by the hour.

Next to the Coffee House had been one of those ubiquitous Cell phone stores, and bob thought it would be perfect for all of the electronics that would need to be plugged in to monitor the air waves.

One of the bob tails had brought in a trailer from one of the big box stores and they were soon handing out 70” LED TV’s to whoever wanted one, just to empty the thing out for use as a roadblock.

They kept three of the smaller ones for use in the new communications’ shack and soon had three more trailers emptied and ready for use.

Things were shaping up to be alright if the raiders and other human detritus would only hold off long enough for them to prepare for they’re arrival.

Chapter 7

Eve of Destruction

The middle east,

It is explodin’

Violence Flarin’

Bullets Loadin’

You’re old enough to kill

But not for Votin’

You don’t believe in war

But whats that gun you’re totin’?

And even the Jordan River has Bodies Floatin’

But you tell me over and over and over again

My friend

You don’t believe we’re on the Eve of Destruction




Bob hadn’t heard the song in over thirty years, but now for some reason it had popped in and was stuck there.

He worked well into the night and finally had enough volunteers to send out, and didn’t waste a moment to do it.

Three box trucks, three bob tails and two pickups left in the dead of night; this time with Citizen band radios so that they could keep in touch.

A man Named George Houser had stepped forward when the call went up for Ham radio operators or shortwave enthusiasts. He seemed to know his stuff and brought out some of his older gear for the community to use and even fitted them into the trucks before they left. The wiring jobs and hasty work wouldn’t win any awards but they worked and functioned and that was all that mattered.

It’s estimated that as many as 50% of households still have a Video Cassette Recorder in their home, and with the loss of Digital Television with the EMP, they were making a huge comeback.

Someone had managed to record a late night rebroadcast of the Propaganda Piece against the Ex Governor and he had everyone over to watch it as they ate and did their nightly meeting.

Bob had to admit the Commandant was right, this wasn’t some hastily made local television production, this was as slick a smear jub as he had ever seen, bringing up obscure facts about the campaign and tenuously linking it an such away as to portray the man as an absolute dictator waiting to bring his foot down squarely on the backs of the masses; they included allegations about the Ex governors Ex wife and their financial dealings, their income tax returns, even what his grades were in highschool.

After it was over they just sat in stunned silence.

“Wow” Marcus said after a moment.

“Well, they say there is no such thing as bad publicity” the Ex Governor said jokingly.

“That may just be it” the Professor said.

It was well past when they should have all been sleeping when they left to go to their respective beds, but the Professor pulled him to the side.

“You got a moment to look something over? I’m going to need your help with it” He asked.

Bob was hoping to make his way to Bernadette’s bedside, but he guessed this would be more important and said he would once he checked on his own team.

The military advisor nodded and gave him an address to meet him at, then went on his way.

The Coffee shop was quiet and next door he Saw George with a couple of teenage kids, instructing them on the finer points of the equipment.

Bob would definitely have to look into some type of apprenticeship programs to set up, when he had a moment that is.

Satisfied he grabbed his Carbine and headed to the address he had been given.


Walking through the dark town, any sound would set him off, several patrols walked by and Bob said hello to them as he passed.


Don’t you understand what I’m trying to say?

Can’t you feel the fears I’m feeling today?

If the button is pushed there’s no runnin’ away

There’ll be no one to save with the world in a grave

Take a look around ya’ boy

It’s bound to scare ya’ boy

And you tell me over and over and over again

My firend

You don’t believe we’re on the eve of Destruction.



The place he found was an old, dark former lumber yard, with only the central building still standing.

He approached and knocked, then heard a muffled voice telling him to enter.

He pulled the large sliding door open and stepped into a dark room, a flashlight suddenly stabbed into his eyes and he was blinded.

His instincts kicked in and he raised his rifle.

“Are you alone?” the Professor asked.

“Yes” bob said.

The light flicked off.

“Close the door behind you” He said and after Bob complied the overhead lights were flicked on.

He was standing in an almost barren warehouse with bits of hay scattered about the floor.

But that wasn’t what had his attention right then.

Standing proudly in the middle of the room next to the Professor who was beaming was a Sherman Tank.

“You got a Sherman tank?” Bob asked incredulously.

“Yes. I liberated it from in front of the VFW. It’s an M4A3E8, they tell me it was overhauled right before it was put there” the professor was almost like a giddy schoolboy.

“This is why you wanted those 24volt batteries. Does it work?” Bob asked walking around it.

“Oh yes, once I changed the Fluids and sprayed some either down in it, put the batteries in and she fired right up; a beauty of American quality and engineering” he rubbed his hand over the faded white star “You understand why I had to make sure you were alone? With the way people who associate with us are killed I had to make sure”

Bob nodded.

“So why do you need me?” he asked.

“Well this is literally our secret weapon, the problem is we have no ammunition for it” the professor said.

“I’m not sure I could find any even if I knew where to look” Bob’s mind was already working on the problem even as he said it. Of course there were antique dealers and army/ Navy surplus stores he could look into.

“That’s not what I was thinking. Warfare has advanced so much in the Seventy years since this piece of American hardware was built; there are other ways” The Professor said cryptically.

He opened a book he had been holding and handed it to Bob.

“Modern military rounds, use a Tungsten Core submunition. What I need from you is a lathe, some raw stock, and a lathe man who can turn that raw stock into the ammunition we need”

Bob looked over the various types of rounds that the book covered HESH,HEAT, APDU, HEAP even anti personnel and Tear gas; before he handed the book back to the Professor.

“What can I say? I’ll see what I can do”

The Professor smiled.

“Remember, not a word to anyone” he said as he led bob out of the old building.

Bob was back at the coffe shop and ready to crash out, but he knew that the dark of night was the best time for this type of work, so he located a local machine shop and after going to The Watering Hole and enlisting Rohelio’s aid, he managed to gain enterance to the place and make sure that there was indeed a lathe there that was capable of making the 76mm ( 3 inch)rounds that were needed; then they went to the owners house, and waking him explained that they needed something that were highly secret that needed to be made.

After hearing what they would need, he got a gleem in his eye, and not even bothering to tell his wife he dressed and accompanied them to the old warehouse.

They told him that they had no rounds to use as a template but he said it wasn’t a problem. He left and returned with some modelers clay, then made a mold of the inside of the breech.

Satisfied, they turned off the lights and left, the man promising that by mid morning he would have a prototype ready for testing.

Finally Bob stopped back at the bar with Rohelio and had a beer with the man and they discussed the double murders from earlier.

“Still no leads, this guy is good” Rohelio said.

He and Bob went over the evidence they had and something Rohelio had said came back to him.

The killer had discarded his clothes.

When his own team had arrived the next day, several of the men had on brand new clothes.

Could one of his own team be the killer?

It would put them close enough to Hanrahan’s inner circle to know that they were leaving.

If he could just remember who had the new clothes on.

He bid the Philipino good night and chacking to make sure his pistol was loaded and ready he started his walk home.




Think of all the hate

There is in Red china

Then take a look around Ya’ Selma Alabama

Well, you may leave here

For four days in space

But when you Return

It’s the same old place

The pounding of the drums

The Pride and disgrace

You can bury your dead

But don’t leave a trace

Hate you next door neighbor

But don’t forget to say grace

And you tell me over and over and over again

My Friend

You don’t believe we’re on the eve of Destruction.



Bob fell into bed with the song still stuck in his head, and fell into another fitful sleep.

[ydderf]

Thanks for the update.

[kaijafon]

Thanks for the update but I'm not sure if I want to thank you for getting that song stuck in my head!!! LOL!

[warsparrow]

Chapter 8

Destruction

The crew was waiting outside when he woke up and he ushered them in, then excused himself to go and look over their preparations on the highway.

The graves had already been dug and filled and someone had made the wooden crosses for them.

The Bob tails had made three trips hauling in some empty 53’ trailers from a furniture warehouse and their kill box was shaping up well.

A digger was working furiously to make the pit and low lying areas and putting the dirt into the empty trailers to make effective bullet barriers.

The Professor walked up to him.

“We put a sign up about 5 miles out telling the thugs to turn back or be killed to a man” he said.

“When can we expect them?” Bob asked.

“Any time in the late afternoon” He said.

Bob knew how it worked. The people would stay up and party all night, then get a late start on the day to do it all over again; he had seen enough of that in the inner cities of California to know the pattern.

He went to the refugee center at the high school and talked to several of the people there. They told him of how the gang banger would ride in and kill everyone they didn’t want to rape, then rape and kill most of those; then party until they passed out, before moving on.

They told of inhuman treatment and degradation before they killed whoever was left alive.

More than one said that before they left Chicago that as many as one in four or one in five in the city were dead.

He went back to the coffee house and they worked on their scavenging plans and analyzed the data from the last runs, as well as the information the bob tail drivers brought in about the road conditions, congestion and the state of things.

He had everyone take a break then and get some food, and then made sure that they all were armed and their ammo was topped up.

“We need everyone we can get, to there waiting for these guys. I talked to the survivors at the refugee camp and they told me things that would shake you to the core about these inhuman parasites. I can understand if you’re reluctant to kill another human, but I want you to know what will happen if these killers get past our defenses and into the town”

He looked at each man in turn.

“First they going to kill anyone they run across, then they’re going to kill the men and boys, then they’re going to kill the children and rape the women, then they’re going to kill the women; then they’re going to drink everything they can, eat what they want, sleep in our beds and move on to the next town”

“When are they goin’ to be here?” Earl Varney asked.

Later today, but I want to be on the wall and waiting by four if we can. The other scavenging trucks headed south east haven’t returned yet, but they aren’t reporting any trouble. Mr. Houser will send a runner if anything needs our attention on the comms”

In the end the entire crew went down to the defenses.

The pit trap had been covered up with a brown canvas tarpaulin and some dirt sprinkled over it to hide it. the low lying area was completed, and there was a diesel tanker truck there, waiting for the order to open the valves and fill the area with the flammable liquid; no use in filling it now, only to have it soak in and not light.

The catapult that Marcus wasn’t coming along as well as he had hoped and as a backup they had located a bow hunter who had several wooden arrows with tampons soaked in kerosene ready to light from a tiki torch.

The professor caught his eye from over by a table where some volunteers had set up some food and drink for the men, and he waved Bob over.

Bob walked over and saw the Professor with a shot glass in his hand.

“Shot of Whiskey to calm your nerves?” He asked as bob approached.

Bob accepted it silently.

“May you die in Ireland” The professor said and they downed them together.

“Ready to see the fruits of a nights labors?” he asked.

Bob nodded and the man led him to his jeep Cherokee.

He opened the back and uncovered three brass and copper projectiles, their machined surfaces gleaming.

“ they’re filled with a varying combination of Slow burning shotgun powder, Green dot I think it’s called, and fast burning powder from a bunch of .22’s we pulled apart. The primer is literally the .22 shell”

He held one up for Bob to feel.

The finish and workmanship was superb.

“There was only enough tungsten to make one core, the other two are made from High speed steel. Once we work out the best powder mix and composition, then we can work on the penetrators”

The professor stroked them almost lovingly.

“How many?” Bob asked.

“You’re looking at them”

Three, their entire secret arsenal consisted of three untested shells.

The professor could see Bobs face fall.

“He says once we prove that these work, then he can bring in a few more guys and they should be able to knock out about one an hour. The cases are reusable, but the projectiles need to be precise and balanced for the best distance and penetration. It’s not easy work”

Bob nodded. He had assumed that they would be just a matter of clamping a piece of copper into a lathe chuck and hitting a button; but after thinking about how he used to watch How It’s Made on television; he knew that even what seemed like the simplest thing, took more than a little time and expertise to make.

“Maybe you should go there and fire her up. Have her ready just in case” Bob said.

The Professor nodded gleefully.

“I’ve recruited two old tankers from the VFW to be my crew, usually you need more but we wanted to keep this as secret as we could. I’ll take one of Mr. Housers hand held CBs to keep in touch”

With that the Professor was off. He was hoping that that had been the only alcohol he had drank today, but somehow he doubted it, a drunken Tank crew was not his idea of the best secret weapon he could think of.

Someone had thought to erect a series of ladders that would let the defenders have access to the roofs of the kill box and rain fire down on the attackers; but Hanrahan had arrived and forbade anyone from climbing up until the trap was sprung, so as not to alert the attackers that they were waiting.

They had several scouts hidden at intervals down the road; waiting to relay the progress of the killers as they approached.

The first one, who was about 5 miles out hidden at the top of a grain silo radioed in that the convoy was approaching.

He counted one MRAP, two armored cars, and ten pickups, cars and SUV’s. Following behind were two cattle trucks with what looked to be young women locked in them. The Vehicles all appeared to have armed men in them, and there could be as many as fifty.

Bob walked up to the Ex governor who was standing by the table and drinking a shot with several other defenders.

Rohelio was there also carrying a military M14 with scope.

“Bob, I’m glad to see you and your crew here; I hate to sound callus but we’re short on men who have actually killed people and you know how it goes sometimes” he said and offered Bob a shot.

“No thanks sir, I’ve already had one with the Professor” Bob said.

“I’m sorry I missed him, how did his project come out?” Hanrahan asked.

“Up and running, we only have three projectiles for it and they’re untested at that; but he is confident” Bob said “He’s waiting there now, in case we need him”

The radio crackled and the three mile Scout called in, saying that they had seen the sign and deliberately run it over.

“If you will excuse me sir, I believe it’s time we got to our positions” Rohelio said.

The Ex Governor nodded, and then raised the Walkie talkie to his lips.

“Dump the fuel” he said, and then he grabbed a mega phone.

“Everyone get ready! No one fires until they start it, stay out of sight until we give the order!”

Setting that down he picked up an imported G3 and Bob noticed for the first time the man had a belt of magazine pouches around his waist.

“I prefer the M4, but in this kind of a fight Range counts” He said to Bob and headed forward.

The land was flat save for the elevated track of the highway, but they had a highway maintenance building to give them both height to view the battle and as a vantage point to watch what the enemy did.

The one mile Scout called in saying that the enemy was slowing down now they had spotted the roadblock, but not stopping.

With his binoculars bob could see the heat waves on the road resolve themselves into a convoy of vehicles.

They further resolved themselves into individual vehicles and He could see the vehicles switching positions and the armored cars taking the lead, followed by the MRAP.

The MRAP seemed to have some type of weapon on the top and Bob looked over at the Ex governor, he had seen it also and leaned forward for a better view with his own 10 X 50 binoculars. Then he passed the glasses to Rohelio.

He refocused the binoculars before handing them back.

“It’s some kind of tear gas thrower sir. Unlikely that they have any rounds left for it”

“I think we should get our secret weapon ready” Hanrahan said and raised the walkie talkie to his lips.

*******************

New Mexico

“Sir. Sir I have something you should see” One of the airmen sitting at a counsel said.

The air force major came over and looked at the man’s screen.

It showed a thermal image of a tank hidden inside of a building, the way it lit up the entire building showed it was running and ready.

“Location?” he asked.

“Nebraska. Sir” the Technical sergeant replied.

The Major hesitated, then turned to the phone on the wall; catching the eye of the Staff psychologist that was required to be present.

He picked up the phone and spoke into it.

“Yes sir, a tank sir. Nebraska sir. Appears to be ww2 vintage. Yes sir”

He then hung up.

Turning to the Technical sergeant he walked closer.

“Take him”

The Technical sergeant hesitated.

“I said take him” The Major repeated, putting his hand on his pistol.

The man pressed the button.

“Weapons fee” he said and the main screen on the wall switched to the thermal camera view on the missile.

They watched it get closer and closer before going blank.

***************


The armored cars both raced around to the right and the tanker was forced to shut its valves and flee. They hadn’t gotten as much fuel into the trap as they would have liked, but they hoped it would be enough.

The MRAP was losing ground to the faster vehicles, but as soon as the first Armored car left the road and hit the fuel filled dirt it bogged down.

“Light it” Hanrahan called to the Archer.

He was as good as they said he was and the flaming arrow arched over the trailers and landed squarely in the trap, setting the whole thing ablaze with a whoosh of black smoke.

The second armored car was traveling too fast to stop and rammed the back of the stuck one, sending it deeper into the flaming pit. The back door popped open from the impact and money like confetti came flying out, the loose bills curling into blackened ash before burning up.

The MRAP altered course to come around the other side and hit the tarp covered pit only halfway, so instead of falling completely in it rolled over onto its side and impacted into the hard earth.

Just then an explosion rocked the entire area, they all looked back to see the old lumber building disappear in fir and smoke.

Hanrahan had his binoculars up and was looking, then shifted his gaze higher, following a trail of exhaust.

“A drone, a God damned Drone just blew up our tank!” He yelled.

But they were called back to their major problem right then as the other vehicles began to approach with every person in every vehicle firing for all they had.

“Now! Everyone attack now!” Hanrahan yelled into the megaphone.


Bob realized that his little M1 Carbine wasn’t going to make a dent at this range so he scurried down the ladder to the trailers and following another man came up to the MRAP.

The door was pushed open from within and the Man produced a a round item that looked to be made of PVC.

He looked back at Bob, pulled a wire attached to it and dropped it into the open vehicle, then shoved the door back closed. Forcing the man who was trying to escape back in.

He stood on the door and a second later there was a brief thump, and smoke curled out from the door seams.

“Homemade Grenade” he said, then turned to go up one of the ladders.

Bob followed and they walked to the edge of the trailers.

Two of the trucks were already disabled and the others were trying to turn around but had become jammed together; entangled with the dead vehicles.

Bob had his rifle up and emptied magazine after magazine into the Gang Bangers and their vehicles.

“Disable the Cattle trucks” He heard The Ex governor yelling through the megaphone.

Before he was even aware of it, he had burned through all six of his 30 round magazines.

He switched to the fifteen rounder on his stock pouch.

All of the vehicles were now disabled, and there were maybe ten people still firing; whether or not it was because they were down of just had used up all of their ammunition he didn’t know or didn’t care.

He descended the ladder and came around the trailers.

There were several people who were standing or sitting down with their hands up.

Bob as well as several other men and and he slung his rifle and pulled out his FEG, they walked along and put a bullet into the head of each of the people.

“Stop firing, Stop firing!” He heard the ex Governor call.

He looked impassively at the man next to him, who shrugged and turning his rifle around began to but stroke the remaining men there.

He turned and returned to the Maintenance building.

Hanrahan was organizing a group of support women with several of the men who had balked a firing, to go and free the girls in the cattle trucks; as well as detailing men to gather up the bodies and the weapons and generally clean up the area.

Rohelio was there with a bandage over his left eye and blood running down his face.

“Stone chip got me right in the eye” he said as a way of explanation.

Hanrahan looked over at Bob.

“How’d we do?” he asked.

Bob looked around.

“Well other than your body guard and one guy over there who took a round in the stomach, looks like we did really good. No fatalities on our side as far as I can tell; other than The Professor”

At the mention of that Hanrahan looked over to where they could still see the old lumber building smouldering.

“Could you?” He asked Bob.

“Yeah, I’ll go look over the damage” bob said with a sigh.

“Ok..I got five survivors that I need to interrogate; I’m pretty sure this isn’t the whole group” The Ex governor looked over at the carnage and the men who had rounded up the raiders.

“I’ll have my coffee House Guys go over what this action has cost us in terms of material and Goods” Bob said and descended the ladder yet again.





Chapter 9

Aftermath

Bob sat quietly in an old farm house as the three men who were handcuffed to an old butcher block table were woken up.

Rohelio dumped a bucket of urine over the men and they all came awake.

“I’m goin’ to beat yo ass!” The one man came awake yelling.

“You three men will tell me where the rest of your group is, and I will kill you quickly; refuse and I will hurt you in ways you never imagined” Rohelio told them without preamble, the bandage and blood still on his face.

“I ain’t telling you shit!” The other man said.

Rohelio went over to the kitchen counter where a myriad of tools and knives and implements sat.

He chose some opened can lids and grabbing a nail gun he turned and putting the can lid over the Raiders hands put a nail through it; nailing his hands palm down to the butcher block table.

“Hold the others” he said and they went around and did the same to the two others.

“I got Rights!” one of them yelled.

Rohelio picked up the wooden chair that bob had been sitting in and broke it over the mans head.

Then picking up the leg he again took the nail gun and put four nails through it.

Then dropping the nail gun he began to beat the man with the nail spiked table leg and screaming

“Tell me about your rights!”

“Tell me about those rights!”

“Tell me about those Girls Rights!”

He continued to beat the man until he cried, before throwing the chair leg into the corner.

The other two men watched in shock as their gang brother was reduced to a bleeding mess.

“Now, I’m going to be brutally honest with you pieces of garbage” The ex special agent looked at each of the three men in turn “None of you are going to leave this room alive, except to be taken out to the yard; Tied down, and we let those girls you held captive go to town on you with pipes and axes and hammers; then when that’s done I will personally douse you with gasoline and set you on fire”

“I didn’t do nothin’ I was just ridin’ wit them!” One guy said.

Rohelio turned to Bob.

“The Meat Cleaver please” he said and bob handed it to him.

Rohelio turned and chopped the man’s pinky off.

“Every time you lie to me, I cut off a finger” He said.

“I swear it’s true” He cried.

Rohelio cut off his other pinky.

Then he pulled up a small TV with a built in DVD player on a cart.

The ex governor had had the foresight to place cameras in strategic places to capture the battle, just in case anything came into question about their actions.

He hit play on the remote and since it already had been queued up to where it needed to be he let the men watch as the one who said he wasn’t doing anything was seen leaning out of the window with a pistol firing away, the anger clear on the man’s face as he pulled the trigger.

Rohelio paused it there.

“See this shot clearly shows you, with the exact shirt you’re wearing, with your name on the back of it in big bold letters. That makes you a liar”

He leaned forward and chopped the man’s left ring finger off. Then he chopped the middle finger off.

“that was for making me waste my time to show you what a liar you are” He said, then shoving the cart out of the way he went back over to the kitchen counter and brought over a hand cranked meat grinder, the kind that clamped to the table.

Once secured he dropped the man’s severed fingers into it and began to crank it. The resulting mess came plopping out onto the table.

One man threw up.

“If you’s gunna kill us anyways; Why should I say anything?” The one he had beaten said.

Rohelio again picked up the nail gun.

“Well there are plenty of ways to die” he said.

Then he began putting nails into the man’s leg, the air pressure sending the thin nails all the way into the bone. After about half a dozen or so, with the man screaming the whole time he stopped.

“See almost no blood, how long do you think I can do that before you’ll die? This nailer holds 500 hundred nails, and I’ve only used about sixteen of them” he set the nailer back onto the kitchen counter.

“You’re thinking right now that I’m just an evil son of a bitch; but the truth is I’m the moderate one. Bob there” Rohelio nodded to the Logistics man “He wanted to give you guys over to this violent rapist we have here, who gets off on raping young men; we will just let him have his way with you until you beg to tell us what we want to know”

Bob walked up then.

“After what you animals did to those girls, be happy I’m not cranking your junk through the meat grinder there” He said.

“I ain’t rape no one!” The lair said.

Rohelio took another one of his fingers off right there.

“See, that’s not what your partners in the next house said; so again you’re a liar. Your getting awfully low on fingers too”

The gangbangers finally realized that these men were seriously going to torture and kill them and began talking for all they were worth.

“The rest of us found a meth lab north of here, an they was partying hard when we left ‘em” the first one said.

“What were they’re numbers? How many women did they have with them? What are they’re armaments?” Rohelio asked.

“I don’t know” The liar said.

Rohelio took another finger, then he kicked the chairs out from the other two men. Causing the nails to tear their hands when they fell.

“Stand up!” he yelled.

Grabbing the first one who stood, he nailed the raiders feet to the floor with the nail gun.

The other guy refused to stand and Rohelio kicked him in his crotch then physically pulled him up by his sagging pants, while bob nailed the man’s feet to the floor.

Turning back to the liar he picked up the cleaver again.

“Talk” He said.

And the man did.

After he was satisfied with the answers he got, he nodded to Bob; who brought in a video camera and set it on the counter.

“Whats that for?” the liar asked, looking down at the two fingers he had left.
Bob just smiled.

Minutes later a muscled man in an orange jumpsuit came in.

He looked at them and smiled.

Bob turned to the man.

“Take your time, and make sure they scream a lot for the camera” Bob said and walked out.

“I’ll leave you a couple gallons of fuel outside the door, when your done just go ahead and burn the place to the ground; these pieces of garbage more than deserve it”

“No no no no!” 2 finger started to yell as Rohelio left.

*****************

They handed the information over to the ex governor, who was about to leave and pay the Commandant of Offutt; over the incident with the drone.

“You go and take care of them, now before they have a chance to move off, and when you’re done, burn that Meth lab to the ground” Hanrahan said.

He had gotten a hold of the other leaders and let them know what had happened and what was going to happen next. They were in agreement and they would join his convoy on the way there.

Bob took his duster and picked Earl Varney to ride with him because he knew the area and Derek Clemente as the back seat guy.

The guy who had made the homemade grenade would drive another expendable vehicle and bring three more experienced men with him.

One of the other leaders had promised him eight experienced men and two army surplus M35 trucks, plus drivers; they had linked frequencies and made a rendezvous point to coordinate everything before the attack. And as they drove they brought all the ammo they could spare and loaded up every magazine they had available.

The meet up went as planned and Bob was pleased with the look of the men the other leader had sent; after introductions were made they hashed out a plan of attack.

Bob in the duster and the Grenade guy, who was a cousin of Greg and Darrell Arnholt named John Barnett who was driving an 85 Buick Century wagon would lead the attack. While The other leader who had brought along a 79 Bronco with the cap missing, a guy named Jensen; Would come in from the opposite side with his men. They would leave the trucks out of the fight, waiting to pick up the girls and any equipment they could salvage, before burning everything else down.

They approached the house in question and could see there were clothes and bottles and other things strewn about the yard. Parked off to the side was the other armored car they had been worried about as well as two pickups and a third cattle truck.

They had expected a guard and planned for it, but no one was about.

Bob sent the signal to the other group in the Bronco and they came up carefully.

They all got out and crept to the building, peering in the windows. They could see people passed out in the living room and several people in one of the bedrooms.

This wasn’t what they had been expecting, and they held a quick discussion next to the armored car.

The consensus became to go in with pistols and shoot the thugs.

As they were talking a gang banger came stumbling out of the back of the armored car, high as a kite.

Jensen grabbed the man and had his knife in the man’s chest before he could utter a word.

They looked into the back of the truck and found a girl curled up there on top of piles of cash. She looked up at them and Bob put his finger to her lips, she nodded and crawled ot of the back to them; the minute she gained her feet though she was off like a shot into the corn field behind the building.

“Shit. One of the bitches is escapin” they heard the yell from the house.

“After her” another called and they watched as the sliding door at the back of the ranch house and half a dozen drugged up and half naked men came running out of the house.

“The rest of you assholes, watch the rest of them!” a greasy looking man with dread locks said as he placed a Remington 870 over his shoulder.

Bob and the others looked at each other and nodded.

They all stepped out and opened fire at the men who were still out in the open.

Several others came running to the back door and the men cut them down where they stood.

After a few minutes of silence Bob called out.

“You in the house, this is our Meth, leave it and come out and you can go” He lied.

They’re information said that there were ten or eleven men in the house and now 8 were dead.

A few minutes later and two men, pushing two naked girls before them came to the back storm doors.

“We don’t want no trouble. You lets us go and we’re cool and all” the one said.

They could see him wobbling as he stood there; but whether it was from fear or the drugs they didn’t know.

“Just you two? No tricks?” Jensen called.

“Yep” the other one said.

“Ok on your way then” Bob said.

They pushed the girls before them and as soon as the girls took the first step down and they’re heads were below the gang bangers, bob and his men shot them.

Then Jensen and his men pushed the girls out of the way and cleared the house.

They found five more girls in the house, all in various states of undress and most were doped to the gills also, they looked mostly to be in shock and all the men had to pitch in to get them dressed in what they could find and moving. Bob went back through with Jensen and they searched every room, even opening up the shower curtain to make sure no one was hiding there; as he turned to leave he saw a girl bound and gagged and hanging from the robe hook on the back of the door by her wrists.

He took out his Gerber Mark 2 and carefully cut her down as she watched him with a look of resentment in her eyes.

The minute her feet touched the ground she tore the gag from her mouth.

“Are they dead?” She said.

“Everyone” Bob replied and the girl walked out of the house without bothering to dress.

“I want to see them” she said.

Bob grabbed a towel on the way out and threw it over her.

She stood there staring at the dead men lying where they had been killed.

She kicked the dread locked one a fe times before her bare foot hurt too much to continue.

Bob drew his FEG and offered it to her.

“You want to make sure?” he asked.

She took the gun and put a bullet into each of the dead mens heads, even the ones that had already been shot in the head.

“What about the others? The rest of these animals?”

“Most are dead, three of the five that are still alive are currently back at our place being ass raped and then will be set on fire” bob Replied.

“Better than they deserved” she said and spit on the dead leader.

She went back into the house and managed to find some clothes and when she came out she watched as the put all the dead men back into the meth house.

“I want to light it” she said.

Jensen was all for it and Bob was distracted by the naked girl who had run off returning; so they sat and watched as first on women then the next took turns throwing molotov cocktails into the windows of the building.

After a few minutes it was well and truelly ablaze. Then they heard screaming; and a man who what obviously been an excellent hider in hide and seek came running out with his hair and clothes on fire.

No one tried to stop him or shot him as he dropped to the ground and tried to put himself out.

After he had gotten the fire out he pleaded with them.

“Help me”

The girl, who had not returned bobs pistol walked up and emptied the magazine into the man.

Then she walked over and handed his gun back.

“Feel better?” he asked.

“No” she replied and started crying.



Chapter 10

The world in Flux

Hanrahan was led into the commandant’s office and paced back and forth as he waited for the man to enter.

He walked in and went to sit down.

“I’m sorry to have kept you waiting but things have gotten more fluid since we last talked” the commandant said.

Hanrahan looked at the man sitting there.

“I thought we had an understanding” the Ex governor said.

The Commandant looked at the ex governor for a moment before he spoke.

“I’m not sure what you’re talking about, have my men overstepped their authority in some way?” He asked.

“This morning we were attacked by a mass of raiders out of Chicago; they had armored cars and MRAPs. We had a secret weapon, a Sherman tank we got from a VFW post; we didn’t have ammo for it: and a goddamned missile from a drone blew it up. Not the raiders who were attacking us, just ours”

The commandant looked stunned for a moment before he said anything.

“The Drone program is run out of New Mexico, and is well out of my sphere of influence. I don’t even have a way to reach that base if I wanted to, but I assure you it had nothing to do with my troops” He said “You know the Posse Comitatus act supposedly protects American from being targeted by the military; well in the last few years that has been mostly undermined by the Patriot act and other executive orders. This is a precedent that may change the balance we have”

“Oh it’s going to change our balance all right; it’s time for you and your troops to choose sides. If we cannot count on you to keep us from getting droned, then we have no use for your troops” Hanrahan said.

“Is that a threat?” the commandant said standing.

“Take it how you want; If you want to keep trading with us you will do what you have to to stop those drones, but we are going to start positioning men outside of the base; if you attempt to take what you need by force, then every person you meet will shoot at you, everything you touch will explode and every piece of food you confiscate will be poisoned”

The ex governor and the commandant stood facing each other across the desk, then the Commandant sat and took out a folder from his desk, he opened it and handed a picture to the ex Governor.

Hanrahan looked over the picture turning it this way and that.

“What exactly am I looking at?” He asked.

“Alaska” the commandant said.

“And these are?” The ex governor asked.

“Russian troops” He said.

“I’m sorry, you said?” The former politician asked, not sure he had heard the commandant correctly.

“You heard me, those are Russian troops. When the presidents plane was damaged from the EMP while returning from vacation in France. He landed in Nova Scotia”

The Ex governor hadn’t heard anything about this.

“Well, while he was in Nova Scotia, the Russian Premier called and offered assistance; Supplies to Alaska because it was going to be a cold winter and the US was obviously had other larger worries at the moment. The president apparently gave the Ok and The Russians started delivering supplies; well at first anyway. Now it is a full blown invasion, and no one has heard anything from the president or any member of the cabinet” The commandant took another sheet of paper from his folder.

“Until an hour ago, this is a communication from the president Pro tempor. He is a man named Thomas Kilkinney; it took us a while to find his job in the Washington DC directory; he was the assistant under secretary of Technology, meaning that every major player above that is either dead, missing or incapacitated”

He handed the piece of paper to Hanrahan.

It was marked top secret.

“He is ordering every available unit northward to combat the invasion, the Russians have it seems made great strides in taking the oil pipeline”

The Ex governor looked over the paper, it read like a world war two Soviet order from the commissar. Confiscate, subjugate, appropriate; the good of the country ETC. ETC.

“Are you going to obey it?” Hanrahan suddenly wanted a whiskey.

“I’m going to do something unusual; I’m going to gather up the senior officers and we’re going to vote on it. I can sit on the sidelines while Americans fight it out, but this is a foreign invasion; and they’re going to need air support. I know what id’ do in a normal crisis, but this isn’t a normal crisis”

“What about the Drones?” Hanrahan asked.

“Here’s what I’ll do. I’ll put two armed helo’s in the air. We will shoot down any unauthorized aircraft we see; if any of those happen to be drones, so be it”

The ex governor saluted the commandant, and then shook his hand.

“Thank you sir, I’m sorry for how it came out earlier; but I lost good men to something that should not have happened”

“We’re all under a lot of stress” the Commandant said and showed the man to the door.

[kaijafon]

Thanks for the update!!! things are getting hairy out there!!! even more so!

[ydderf]

Thanks

[warsparrow]

Chapter 11

Expedition

Bob sat with the only other two survivors of the raiders, with The Rapist behind him for good measure and The Philipino just outside the door.

“You…Men have by now, seen the video of what happened to your friends, and you got to watch the fire from here; so I don’t need to tell you what kind of night you’re going to have if you decide you want to be badasses right now” he said to the two gangbangers, who went by the names Tbone and Ramses.

They nodded.

“Good, two of your pick ups have been fixed and you’ll be free to leave in the morning”

Dats it?” Tbone asked.

“Yep, As long as you agree to never come back and tell every other low life you see that if they screw with us, what they’re fate was gunna be” he looked back at the man behind him.

“Can we get our gatt back?” Ramses asked.

Bob looked at him, then looked at the door.

Rohelio came win with a few items and set them on the stove.

“It may interest you to know that the Dutch East India Company had a long and successful run as a business, for those of you who didn’t watch the Disney movies; they were a trading company who sailed all over, and in their travels they would occasionally encounter pirates. Those pirates who surrendered and were set free were marked so that they authorities, if they were ever to be encountered in their unseemly trade again, would be summarily hung”

The two things just looked at Bob like he had grown a second head.

“now this is the part where you come in, you see the ones doing the branding would put the mark on the wrist or the back of the hand; some of the more vicious ones would put it in the middle of the forehead. For our purposes we want as many people to know that you two were cold blooded and killer rapists, So you guys get to have yours right on your face, the right cheek we’ll say”

Bob turned to the stove and the hulking other man in the room came up behind one of the bangbangers and grabbed his head to hold it still.

Bob turned with a stylized R held with a pair of vice grips.

The letter had been a part of a leather punch set, but for his purposes it would work nicely as a brand.

He pushed it onto the face of the one being held and the smell of burning skin and hair filled the room as the man tried to scream and pull away.

Then Bob put it back on the fire and splashed some alcohol waiting there onto the guys wound.

The guy was screaming and cursing until Rohelio punched him in the stomach.

“You’ll live, and this is the price of your life, so suck it up.

The man in the orange jump suit came up behind the other one and grabbed his head.

“Get off me, Get off me” He was screaming as Bob came near.

He stopped.

“You know what? I think we’ll let Our friend behind you just do his thing, since you don’t want to cooperate” bob nodded to the Boy rapist and he laughed.

Ramses Eyes got wide.

“You’re choice” Bob said.

“I’ll take the cut” he said, and to his credit he stayed stil and gritted his teeth as bob marked him as a raider.

Tommorrow we’re going to let you both go in different directions with a couple days worth of food and water; if we ever see you again in this area….” He let the rest of the warning drop.

**************************



They’re wrap up meeting with the Ex Governor went well on into the night.

The reading of after action reports.

The numbers of men wounded, ammunition expenditures and inventory, confiscated and salvaged goods, all of the things that people needed to know and assess so that next time this was to happen, they would know what to expect and what to allocate.

“While it’s a solid plan, are you sure you want to go through with it? it would be easier just to kill them” George Houser asked, having stepped up to fill the shoes of the Professor.

“Yes, but as Marcus said, there is no such thing as bad Publicity. It’s one thing to hear rumors about how secure we are and what the penalties are for attacking us, but it’s another entirely to meet people who have actually seen it first hand, and watched a video of their friends being raped to death before being set on fire”

“Speaking of Marcus, where is he?” Bob asked

The Ex Governor looked around the room.

“Dead. Strangled while we fought the raiders on the highway, right in the hallway of the maintenance building we were on top of”

Everybodies head dropped.

“We got bigger problems to worry about right now, I know it’s harsh to say, but its true” Hanrahan said as he stood and poured himself a whiskey.

Then he turned and proceeded to fill the inner circle in about his meeting with the commandant.

“First, the Presidents plane was either damaged and had to land in Nova Scotia, or was Diverted there” He said.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

“Don’t get so happy yet, no one has heard from him since then; there is now a president Pro Tempor in charge, I don’t know where their new white house is located but his name is Thomas Kilkinney and he was the undersecretary of Technology; the two people who were pest prepared to tell us about this and how it works, or even know of the man personally are dead; but the Commandant said it usually means that everyone above this position are either dead or incapacitated, and either way it’s not good”

He downed the Whiskey straight as the others talked animatedly to each other.

“The commandant also assured me he had nothing to do with the drone strike that killed the professor and said he would put two helicopters into the air armed and ready to knock down anything flying”

That made the others feel somewhat better, for a moment.

“Don’t get so happy yet. With the Russians invading, the commandant showed me an order that pretty much said any soldier or airman should pack his things and get ready to head north, so while we have air cover now, we might not next week, or tomorrow even”

“The orders said to take what they needed from the local population so they could make the journey, and that is going to cause a world of butt hurt if they do; cause winter looks to be on its way early and we are not nearly as prepared as we need to be” He finished.

“That firefight beat our ass in terms of ammunition, as well as the loss of our secret weapon” Bob said “I’ve got my team working right now to see if we can find some kind of distributor or warehouse that might have more ammo”

The ex governor nodded at that thought.

“I was walking past city hall today and I noticed that there’s a cannon there, the Professor had the idea to use the Sherman, but maybe we can do the same thing with the towed unit; it doesn’t give off a heat signature like the tank did; so maybe we can hide the fact that it’s functional” House said.

Everyone nodded at that idea, so they decided to try that.

Five police men walked into the room then and they all looked.

“These men are all Policemen, or they were before the world changed; they have all agreed to be your own personal bodyguards. From now on no one goes anywhere alone” Hanrahan said.

Bob picked on e who looked to have been a County sheriff and left to go to the hospital, hoping to get in and see Bernadette, even though it was late.

The Hospital was on a skeleton night staff after treating the wounded of the battle and exhausting themselves; So Bob just decided to head back to the coffee house and see what his team had come up with.

He Also knew that he needed to keep and eye on the Maryland contractor Derek; if any one of his team would be the killer, he laid odds on Him.

“Whats your name?” bob asked him as he walked.

“Sergeant Jeffery Holloway” He said.

“When did you get in?” bob said as they passed the old Cell phone store now known as House Comm’s.

“About three days ago, saw some really rough things out there. Got robbed, beaten up, shot at. You name it” He said.

Bob nodded and told him of his arrival and seeing the soldiers rounding people up first hand.

All of the lights were blazing away and Darrell was on the rolling ladder placing pins with pieces of paper into the giant wall map that they had painted, Joe was looking through two separate Yellow pages as well as about half a dozen gun magazines. Earl Varney was cleaning the guns they had used earlier and showing Greg How they worked.

Bob walked in followed by his new bodyguard.

The sheriff surveyed the room and the men in it, then nodded to them.

“Ok guys talk to me, what have you guys found?” He asked.

“We have two possible arms manufacturers and about six ammunition manufacturers, Most in Illinois. We’re trying to plot a course, but I looks like we’ll need two separate teams to try and recover all the components and equipment we’re hoping to find” Derek said.

Earl Varney looked up from the old walther P38 he was reassembling.

“We got other troubles too; Everybody heard about poor Marcus getting Kilt right under where we were fighting, ain’t nobody want to volunteer right now” he said.

Bob shook his head.

He was tired, more tired than he should be; but they needed weapons and they definitely needed ammunition.

“Ok, here’s what I’ll do, I’ll take one of the convoys, if we can get someone else to run the other” He said.

“If you’re looking for someone to talk you out of it, don’t. It’s a sound plan, and you’ve had experience out in the wilds; we discussed the same thing before you came back” Derek said.

“Ok then everybody get to working up two separate routes, one northward and one south. I’ll take the south first thing in the morning”

He went to his bedroom and found that Earl Had followed him.

“I’m not sure you’re leaving right now is a wise idea” He said.

Bob got out the bottle of Gin he had bought on the first night he made it to safety.

He offered some too the old farmer who accepted a glassful.

He was going to have a glassful himself but realized he needed to be up in about 6 hours; so he set it back on top of the file cabinet he still had in the old managers office.

Earl drank it down and made a face.

“Man that’s rough” he said then set the glass down before continuing “Staying around is getting harder an harder with the way important folks are dying around here, I don’t want to say I’m gunna cut an run but with you gone, I might have to look to my own”

Bob told the old man that he understood, and in the end the farmer would have to do what was best for himself.

With that the man left and Bob closed his door to get a few hours sleep.

[warsparrow]

Chapter 12

A sad trip

Bob was woken up by the sound of the pounding on his door.

He stood and opened it, clutching his pistol .

Rohelio was there.

Bob knew by now that if Rohelio came to see him then someone had been killed.

“Who was it this time?” He asked Putting his shirt on.

“Earl Varney” Rohelio said, the tan patch over his eye making him look more sinister in the early morning light.

Bob stopped at that.

“I just had a drink here with him last night” Bob said turning to the ex special agent.

Rohelio stiffened at that.

“Where?” he asked.

“Right here, I offered him some of the Gin I bought with that gold maple leaf the first night”


Bob turned to the file cabinet where he had the Gin and saw that it was gone.

He looked back at Rohelio.

“Well it narrows down who are suspects are”

“Did you drink any of the Gin?” Rohelio asked.

“No, I volunteered to lead one of the salvage runs this morning and didn’t want to go off half tanked” Bob replied.

Then he stopped.

“Wait, are you saying that Earl was poisoned?” He asked.

“We didn’t find any marks on him, but his tongue was black, so yeah” He Replied.

Bob realized that the poison had been meant for him, and just by a whisker and the hand of fate he had avoided being found dead in his room this morning instead of hearing about Earl Varney.

“I should cancel the run, so I can help you; but we desperately need Ammunition and weapons” Bob said.

“No, go on your run like you were planning, it might give us more time to figure out which of your crew is the killer” Rohelio replied.

Bob wasn’t about to let his guard down again and made sure everything he had he loaded and checked personally; then by seven am he was out at the first return truck with Houser giving him the codes and channel that they would be using for his run to the south.

They had three rent a trucks and two bob tails going with him, as well as a single pickup truck with three men in it to act as an outrider and scout to check the road ahead.

He was relieved to see that John Barnett had volunteered to head north and try to get the supplies they needed, he would ride in the outrider truck and they managed to get two rent a trucks and a single bob Tail.

They left heading east with Earls death still on his mind as his head nodded and a guy he had never met before drove.

The miles rolled on and his mind played back to all that he knew of the killings.

All have been either strangulation or throat cut, but the last. He wondered why the person had changed their method of operation. Had they almost been caught, were they worried about being caught on to? Was it even the same killer?

He rested his head back to try and figure it out.



*********************



Darroll Arnholt walked down the alley past where the old Lumber warehouse had been droned, the hulk of the old Sherman was clearly visible in the ruins. He turned and went between two fences and came out at the back of the hospital. Looking across the loading dock access road he made sure he had his ball cap down so that if any of the cameras were working they wouldn’t see his face.

Then he crossed the road and went to where he knew the staff left the door open so that they could slip out for a smoke, and without breaking stride he entered the building.

And took the service elevator up to the floor he knew was occupied by the person he was looking for.

Soon he was standing at the foot of Bob’s wife’s bed.

Bernadette was still sleeping.



**********************




He woke up as the truck slowed down at their first destination, a rifle range. Then it sped up again; bob looked out the window to see the whole building had been burned to the ground.

He drifted off again, and then was awakened when everybody stopped to eat and stretch their legs.

He took watch while everyone ate and then took over driving, after wolfing down a sandwich and a quick beer.

Every place on their list that had looked promising was burned to the ground; even the gas stations were looted and burned. This was definitely how things were when he had come this way a week ago.

They were forced to stop and siphon fuel to make sure their tanks never dropped below half a tank; and they had to break out the maps to see where their alternate route was, because the main route looked to have been picked over hard.


Late afternoon found them at a small hardware store that looked to still be intact, but they parked well away from it to be sure.

As they approached a shot was fired from the roof and into one of the rent a trucks paasenger windshield, peppering the driver with glass and a few pellets of # 8 shot.

“That’s far enough!” they called “Now just turn your asses around and get”

Bob motioned for everyone to calm down and lower their weapons.

Then he walked close as he dared before he stopped.

“I’m Robert Beech; I represent the State of Nebraska and surrounding areas. We are collecting supplies to make it through the winter” He started.

“I don’t care who you are or where you’re from, this here is mine!” he said.

Bob turned to the volunteers.

“You heard him, let’s mount up and move on”

Then he turned back to the Store.

“Just remember this, when the raiders or government come, and they will come; and they burn you out, that you could have packed this all up and moved to somewhere safe and secure with power and running water”

He went back into the truck that had its driver hurt from the scatter shot and checked his man. One of the Girls in the group was a first responder and had already seen to patching the guy up.

Bob said he would drive his truck while the guy relaxed.

They drove off and took the alternate route they all had marked on their maps.

“Are we really going to let one guy hoard all of that stuff” the guy, whose name was John Powers asked.

“We are for now, if the situation changes or we come back this way, We might change our view; I’m not going to take things from people by force unless we have no other choice. The governments already doing that and I want to distance our group from that as much as possible”

Bob was starting to feel a sinus head ache coming on and he wonder if an early fall storm was coming on, they might have to find shelter before too long.


They found a used car lot and decided it was as good a place as any to stop for the night, a few extra vehicles wouldn’t attract too much attention if someone wandered by, and it gave them plenty of vehicles in one place to siphon fuel from.

Normally they would keep driving through the night but with all the things they had seen and all the buildings that had been razed, he wanted to get in contact with The other members of the inner circle and let them know what was happening out her in the zone, as they were starting to call it.

*********************


Michael Hanrahan had been thinking long and hard about what they’re next move would have to be, and the complications of Kilkinney declaring himself or being declared President Pro Tempor were just another complication.

In his eyes they were now looking at two separate unelected governments; and right now that was not what this country needed to pull itself together.

Granted him and his inner circle had the higher moral ground if just barely, they had tortured and killed raiders who were trying to kill them; but on the opposite side, they weren’t rounding up innocent people and putting them behind barbed wire.

One of the unexpected things that had come from the smear piece that the television station did was actually make people who knew what was going on over the line in the dark zone to flock to his area of control in droves.

They were going to have some serious problems with overcrowding and trying to keep these people alive through, from the looks of it and what everyone was saying; it was going to be a brutal winter.

He decided that the only way to have any legitimacy was to have an election, not just within his own area, but among all of the leaders that the commandant had gathered at Offutt, they still had over two and a half months to put something together and if he could get Thomas Houser to put together a radio transmitter, then they could disseminate information that was not controlled by the government run stations.

He knew it would be against the FCC rules, but they had already broken so many rules that he didn’t even think it mattered; they had after all attacked his group first by blowing up their tank, so a little reverse propaganda and some factual information was the least he could do to get back at them.

Satisfied he got on the phone and started to make arrangements.

*****************************


Bob hadn’t been able to make contact with the House Comms, but he wasn’t about to be worried about it just yet. He would try again before midnight, then if he still couldn’t raise them he would have a decision to make.

He took the first watch as the others started setting about siphoning gas. They produced a ladder and he climbed to the roof, which gave him a slightly better view.

He saw no light and no fires and heard nothing, which was a far cry from when he had came the other way not so long ago, when he could hear gun fire and the occasional vehicle as well as see a few fires.

No, nothing.

Nothing but eerie quiet.

No airplanes no shooting, nothing.

He came down at midnight and managed to make sketchy contact with the Comms, they said everything was fine so far and he relayed the news of how it was looking, and then turned in.

He got up and took the four to seven watch, and the only thing he saw before the sun came and they made ready to hit the road was a lone coyote walking down the road with what appeared to be a rabbit in its jaws.

It made him feel a little better that at least the Wildlife would survive.

His headache was getting worse and he was secretly hoping they would come across a small gas station that had some cold medicine or something before this thing knocked him on his ass.



*******************************

Bernadette woke up with a man standing at the end of her bed she didn’t know.

She started to say something and he put his hand to his lips.

Then he took out a piece of paper and wrote something on it, and handed it to her.

[warsparrow]

Chapter 13

Just like old times.

They were all sleeping in the dealership, except for the watch crew. Bob woke suddenly from a horrible dream in which he was being suffocated by somebody holding a pillow down over his face with great force.

He sat up quickly with a shout dying in his throat as he struggled to get air. One or two of the other guys woke up at the sound and looked over at him with “what now?” expressions on their face.

His breathing evened out and slowed down as the fog of sleep cleared from his head. He realized where he was, but the extreme congestion in his head was still there. The thumping in his head was steady and he realized that’s why he was dreaming about being suffocated.

”I’m OK” he said. “Just coming down with a bad cold.” He heard his own voice and it sounded nothing like himself.

The other guys laid back down to go back to sleep.

Bob decided he would go out the back door and relieve himself before trying to find some kind of cold medicine

He stopped by the back door to make sure he had his rifle at the ready, with a round in the chamber.

Suddenly from outside, the sound of multiple grenades being launched all at once. A half second later, a blinding light and explosion that sounded like the building was being torn apart rocked the entire area.

The over pressure blew Bob out the back door and he landed between an older Mercedes and a cargo van, both of which looked like they had been recently traded in.

A second set of explosions rocked the area and the van was blown over, trapping Bob underneath it in the small triangle of space where the van landed on the Mercedes, crushing it.

He must have passed out because when he could hear again the firing had stopped and he could hear people talking.

Trying to move he discovered he was stuck and the triangle of space acted like a cone and funneled the sounds to him from the heavily damaged building.

“Where is Robert Beech?” he heard one person yelling from inside the office.

He had no idea who had attacked Them, or even why specifically It wasn’t for their vehicles or what they might have had inside them, because he was sure just because of the damage he could see in his limited view was that all of their vehicles were destroyed.

He could feel a massive amount of pain emanating from his foot and was pretty sure he was bleeding from his other leg, though he couldn’t tell how badly.
His arm was stuck under him and he couldn’t feel his elbow, but the feeling of it jammed into his rib cage told him it seemed to be swollen.

He strained to hear the reply.

“Dead” He heard John Powers reply “We ran into a guy defending a hardware store outside of Hartwell in Illinois; he blasted the cab of our rent a truck with a shotgun”

“I don’t believe you” Whoever was interrogating his men said.

“It’s true, you can go out and check the truck; well you could before you blew out trucks up” One of the other guys said.

“I think he’s tellin’ the truth chief, We found his pack and his rifle by the back door; Don’t think he would have run off without those” Another man said.

“Ok then, Sorry guys but I got orders to follow” The first man said.

Then five shots rang out in quick succession.

“Call up the Director and let him know, mission is accomplished, Everybody mount up”

His head was aching, not just from the headache he had started out with but with actual pain, but would need to find a way to get out of the predicament he was in.

He was going to have to get to one of the trucks also and radio back and let the Ex governor and everyone know that they were being hunted, and him in particular.

***********************

Bernadette read the note the stranger at the end of the bed had handed her.

‘My name is Darroll Arnholt, I work with your husband. I think we might have a problem’

She read it again just to make sure she had read it correctly, and her skin ran cold.

Her husband was alive?

And he was here?

She wished she had her pistol right now. She wished she wasn’t hooked up to an IV and stuck in a hospital.

How long had she been here?

She was fairly certain it was from drinking that bad water from the old well, but she had no idea if she had contracted anything else as well.

This was not the life she wanted to go back to; with her cheating husband and demon children. She would have to think of something quick.




He came to and heard the strains of ‘Drivers seat’ by Sniffin’ the tears.

At first he thought he was hallucinating, but then the first chords of ‘Norwegian Wood’ came on and he knew that someone was out there picking through the wreckage.

Then he heard voices, one sounded oddly familiar.

“They wrecked this place but good” He heard the first one say.

“Hey, anybody alive in here?” The familiar sounding one said.

Bob was going to respond, he really was, but something held him back.

He heard shifting and a few other things being moved half heartedly.

“Anybody?” He heard the first guy say.

He was just about to yell out when the first guy spoke again.

“Looks like Cherokee 1 was right, Robert Beech is dead; just like these guys”

“Damn, was hoping to be able to shoot that bastard for markin’ up my face” The familiar sounding one said.

Bob’s hairs stood up, now he knew where he had heard the voice before.

Ramses.

He swore if he got out of this and ran into that scumbag again, he would cut his head off with whatever rusty garden implement he had handy.

“I’ll call it in” The first one said.

A moment later he heard a car door open, and the strains of ‘The house you live in’ By Gordon Light foot belted out loudly, then it was switched off.

“Cherokee 3 to Cherokee 6; Cherokee three to Cherokee 6”

He heard a garbled response, then the First man’s reply.

“Confirm Robert Beech is most likely dead. We back tracked to the Hardware store and burned the civilian there out; he confirmed shooting one of the trucks but died before we could get any other information out of him before he died, we rechecked the site where Cherokee 1 ambushed the salvage party, no sign of life and nothing has been disturbed. Booby traps are still in place and active”

He heard more responses but couldn’t catch the words, probably from all the dried blood in his ears.

“Will do sir, we will proceed north and make contact with the other ambush team”

Then he heard the vehicle start up and drive off.

He vowed to wait at least twenty minutes before he really tried to worm his way out of his tight little cocoon.

He hoped it was a cocoon and not a coffin.


*******************

Bernadette quickly wrote down on the paper with a cheap hotel room pen.

‘what of my children?’

Darroll looked at her funny but then shook his head and wrote.

Then handed it back to her.

‘You came in with no children, and Bob didn’t mention any’

She breathed a sigh of relief.

They thought Bob was her husband.

Her real husband wasn’t here. No reason to let them think otherwise, Bob probably had his reasons for doing it.

She wrote back.

‘what’s are problem?’

She crossed out ‘are’ and put ‘our’.

Then handed it back.

He took out a new piece of paper and wrote furious on it.

‘someone has been killin people and I think it’s one of our (Bobs) men, and I think I know who it is, but don’t trust telling anyone til I’m sure’
She read the note and thought of a response.

‘what are we going to do about it?’

He read it, wrote something in return and pulled a Smith and Wesson model 42 snub nose .38 from his waist band.

‘wait, watch and trust no one’

And with that he was gone.

She tucked the pistol under her back and set to making plans.

*********************

When Bob woke up again it was dark, something had woken him.

He could hear now that, something or someone was rotting around in the wreckage of the building.

There was a ‘pop’ and some kind of flare went up. Then he heard a yipping as a coyote scampered off, scared by the light and sound.

It was time to try to escape. He wiggled around this way and that to see if he could get out. The pain was enormous. He was able to get one foot on some edge of something that was probably a fender or something from one of the cars that were crushed down on top of him.

He pushed as hard as he could despite the pain. He felt himself move forward about an inch. He pushed forward again, pain searing through his elbow and one foot.

He kept pushing again and again, moving forward slightly each time. He could see that he had nearly pushed himself to the end of his crushed car tunnel. He started to give one last hard push and then he could feel the darkness closing in on his brain as he passed out from the effort and strain.

His head dropped to the ground.

Darkness.

Nothing.

Bob felt himself coming to. He felt a hard peck on the side of his head, causing fresh pain. He lifted his head and looked up. A big crow was standing right next to him eyeing him with its beady black eyes.

He opened his mouth and tried to say “scat” or something like that but only managed a raspy squawk.

The bird jumped back and let out a caw. It then turned away and took off into the air in a flutter of wings.

Every part of his body ached. His throat was parched and felt very uncomfortable to the point of almost choking. He realized with some disdain that at some point during his blackout that his body finally let loose and he had pissed his pants. He never got to take a whiz before the explosion.

It had been many hours since then. He realized the sun was coming up and a new day was dawning. He summoned his strength and steeled himself for the pain. He pushed himself with his good foot the last bit out of the tunnel and rolled over.

The pain caused his head to start swimming again and he made a huge effort to maintain consciousness. Finally the spell subsided and his head cleared. He slowly staggered to his feet. Immediately he realized his left ankle was badly damaged, Probably broken.

He couldn’t put any weight on it. He saw a piece of steel that had blown there in the explosion. It was reasonably straight and narrow and about the right height to use as a crutch. He leaned over and picked it up.

He took a survey around him to assess his situation. The dealership was a lost cause. What hadn’t been blown apart in the explosion had burned down in the following fire. Nothing was left to salvage. He hobbled around and started checking the trucks for anything he could use.

Enough trucks were open that it took him awhile to check through them all in his condition. He found a thermos of coffee that had been half drank and a bottle of water in one truck. In another truck he found a billy club about 14 inches long. He figured that was his only defense now and took it.

In the last car he checked, he hit the jackpot. In the glove box he found a prescription bottle with what looked like an almost full bottle of pills. His heart leapt and a flush of joy came over him when he realized the bottle contained 500 milligram painkillers.

He had never been a particularly religious man, but he looked up at the sky and said, “thank you, God for small favors and the fool that left these behind.” He opened the bottle as quickly as he could manage with his broken right elbow, and took two of the pills and shakily popped them in his mouth.

He washed them down with a swig of the cold stale coffee. Ordinarily he would have shuddered and spit it right back out. This time however, it was the best damn coffee had had ever tasted. It went down his parched dry throat like liquid gold and he couldn’t wait for the sweet relief of the painkillers to kick in.

While he waited, he hobbled over to an area of some trees at the back of the parking lot that provided some shade. He painfully eased himself down and leaned up against one of the trees. He figured he would probably take a rest for about an hour and let the pills do their work.

About 25 minutes later, he felt the pills start to kick in. It felt like heaven. Bob didn’t even notice as his head got heavy and his eyes started to close. Within seconds he was dead asleep. Hours passed unnoticed.

With a jerk and a start, he woke up at some sound. Fighting the fog in his head, he looked over and saw two dogs fighting over something. Squinting his eyes to see better he realized the two dogs were fighting over a human hand. One of the guys that had got blown up in the attack.

Nausea swam over him and he could feel the bile rising in his throat. He hadn’t had anything to eat in many hours. There was nothing in his stomach to throw up. Still, he turned his head and choked out and spit up pure, bitter stomach acid.

That left him shuddering. He grabbed the coffee thermos and took a mouthful, swished it around and spit it back out. He upended the thermos and swallowed the remainder of the coffee, and dropped the thermos next to himself.

Deliberately avoiding looking over at the curs scrapping over the hunk of blown apart human flesh, he took two more of the painkillers with a swig form the water bottle and then slowly, painfully got up. He noticed the sun hanging low in the sky; the other side of the sky from when he had sat down.

Realizing that he had slept for several hours through the day, he knew that dusk and nightfall was coming soon. He had to get out of here quickly before anybody else came along or something bad happened again.

He gathered up his meager supplies and slowly started hobbling back in the direction the team had come two days ago. He tried to stay out of sight and off the road. This made the traveling even more difficult, painful and time consuming.

Talking to himself quietly he said, ‘alright Bob, you got to do this no matter how painful or how long it takes’ As it was now nearly dark, he decided he better find a place to bed down in whatever safety and comfort he could find.

As well as people, wild dogs were becoming a serious threat. He had no intention of becoming some damn dog’s next meal. He thought back to the scene of the two dogs fighting over human flesh and became queasy again. He forced himself to stop thinking about that and focused on finding shelter.

His mind wandered back to the last time he had been walking through a field. It was right after he had dumped those dead bodies down the road from Melissa’s house.

The pills must be working because for the life of him he couldn’t remember her last name.

He stumbled along, using the piece of conduit as a poor substitute for a real crutch and cursed his luck, then thought better of it; he was after all alive while everybody else that had been with him was dead.

He thought back to John powers and how he had lied to the men who were it was obvious to him now, soldiers; or more than likely conscripts.

Thugs and gangbangers pressed into the military, How far had they fallen in just a few weeks. He worked his way closer to the road in the fading light and saw something down the road a ways, but could see well enough to hazard a guess as to what it was.

In what seemed like an eternity he finally got close enough to see that it was a Semi with a sleeper cab but no trailer, and more than likely one of his own scavenging parties had taken the trailer.

He spent the night in the cab but not before using the last of the light to search for anything useful. He came up with a single bottle of water and one of those generic energy drinks.

He regretted opening the mini fridge.

Morning found his ankle swollen almost as big as his elbow was, but if he stayed here to rest he might just die in the cab.

He had to hide as a humvee drove past down the road, they paid the semi no mind but he still waited a good half hour before leaving.

His watch had been damaged in the attack and now the hands just spun around when he moved his arm, so he reluctantly left it.

Knowing that the military was still out there meant he had to continue to stay off the road and that slowed his movements to barely above a crawl and he was soon tired out.

He popped two more pain pills and cracked open the energy drink, downing it in one shot. His pants still smelled of pee and he hadn’t eaten now for 2 days; he was going to have to find somewhere to scavenge soon or it was going to get real tough real fast.

[warsparrow]

Chapter fourteen

Goodwill

12 miles Northwest of Columbus and 12 feet underground.

“Cherokee three confirms Ardent Vipers assessment of the Operation to neutralize the upper echelon of the opposition; Robert Beech is most likely dead”

The technical sergeant gave the director the gist of the call from their Men in the field, He wouldn’t even deign to call them soldiers; he barely wanted to call them men.

Armed thugs with big toys and spare uniforms; what could possibly go wrong.

“Get with Sanderson and analyze the call we intercepted from Hanrahan; I’m sure this talk of an election is just a code for something else; I want your findings on my desk by oh eight hundred tomorrow”

With that the Desk man knew he had been dismissed and returned to his desk to gather his notebook and pens.

This was definitely not what he had signed up for.

**********************************

Bob doubted he had moved five miles in the entire day, and he had been walking, well limping as it were; from the moment he was sure the Humvee was gone.

He was coming up to a crossroad in the fading light and saw a small strip mall there, consisting of only three attached businesses.

A Pizza shop which had its windows broken out and was most likely looted, a Hair salon which was intact and a Thrift store, which also looked to be intact.

He made sure to spend five minutes in the cover of an apple tree, all of the low hanging fruit having been picked or eaten by deer; and watching both for signs of movement and for any vehicles.

He then limped his way across the asphalt road, the noise of the conduit crutch he was using seeming louder than he thought.

The front door of the store had been jimmied and he opened it cautiously. It was definitely dark inside but didn’t look as if it had been looted.

He made his way to the glass case that held the cash register and saw that it had been popped open and the money was gone.

But that didn’t interest him.

What did interest him was the box of candy bars next to the cash register; which were marked for some charity at a dollar each.

He grabbed three and opening them quickly stuffed the contents into his mouth greedily; looking both ways like some kind of animal waiting for the trap to spring.

His hunger somewhat satisfied he picked two more candy bars and then went behind the counter. There he found some garbage bags, a flashlight and a pair of scissors.

The flashlight was what he needed most, but the bags would come in handy for collecting items until he could find a better bag.

He had learned a lot of things since he had made it back to civilization and he wasn’t going to let any of it go to waste.

His first stop was the house wares area, where he took a bowl with a pour spout from a juicer and headed to the back area. He wished he could carry more but with his elbow most likely broken he wasn’t going to chance it.

On the way he scored a pair of crutches and thought he would look for some other medical stuff as soon as he was done with what he was doing.

He found the hot water tank on an elevated platform and had no trouble opening the valve to fill the bowl.

After drinking his fill and refilling it he made his way back up to the front and found some empty sports bottles that someone had donated with a team logo on them.

He went back to the back and filled up six before he thought he had enough.

Then he went back up front and found a pair of pants in his size, finally happy to be out of the ones he had soiled himself in. He would have to go commando but it was better than nothing.

Then he started an aisle by aisle search for things he thought he might be able to use.

A can opener was one of the first things he threw into the garbage bag, then a church key and a well made butcher knife with the cardboard sheath still on it. He found a medical boot which he quickly strapped on. The swelling hadn’t gone down any but he also hadn’t given it time to rest and heal either.

He found a back pack and transferred his salvaged loot to it, and then went back and loaded the water bottles in as well; knowing he might well have to flee at any moment.

He stopped to peruse the books but found nothing interesting, but did grab one or two crossword puzzle books, both to entertain himself and to use for tinder if he ever got somewhere safe enough to have a fire.

He found a decent jacket that fit well, and would definitely come in handy as the weather was starting to turn. He put an extra pair of pants and a shirt into the pack as well.

It was full on dark now and he thought the abandoned store would make as good a place to spend the night as any; they did after all have beds and blankets, a toilet and food of a sort.

He passed the electronics section and stopped.

There was an old GE CB antenna sitting there.

He searched quickly around and found a Midland 23 channel CB.

He knew from Watching Tom Houser how he could hook it up directly to a battery, and he wondered if there were any abandoned cars close enough that he could make contact with the Comms guys tonight.

He realized he had expended a lot of energy though and it would be best to get his rest and try in the morning.

If there was a vehicle close enough he could find the access ladder and haul it up to the roof for better distance, and try it then.

He piled a few blankets onto a colorful double bed and laid down after taking two more pain pills, he would have to be careful and husband the rest, or there wouldn’t be many more sleep filled nights in his future.

He drifted off thinking of other things he should look for in the store when it was lighter out. The night was otherwise uneventful and he slept restlessly through the rest of the night.

When he awoke from the returning pain in his ankle, it was getting lighter with the dawn and he could see better again through the store. He gathered his things and prepared to get moving before the afternoon heat made traveling more difficult.

Just as he got ready to head to the front of the store, he noticed two swinging steel doors at the back of the store and a sign on them that said “RECEIVING-STORE EMPLOYEES ONLY- DO NOT ENTER”.
Curiosity got the better of himself and he decided to go check it out.

It was dark back here, but he could make out heaps and piles of clothing and stacks of boxes, everything was in great disorder.

He realized this was the room where everything that was donated was brought into first for sorting or cleaning before it was put out on the floor shelves and marked for sale.

It seemed like a pretty good chance to scour around for additional supplies. He started rooting through some of the boxes. He soon found out that most of the stuff back here was junk as much of what is donated to goodwill stores gets disposed of quickly as it is deemed unusable or unsellable.

However, he soon found out that it was also the area to find the hidden good stuff, because usually thrift store staff are not at all shy about setting aside a really cool find in the receiving area, that is as long as the boss didn’t see them squirreling away sellable items.

As he opened one box, he found a machete still in its sheath. He felt his heart jump and he muttered to himself

SCORE!

He strapped it on and continued looking through the box. He almost immediately found a pair of brass knuckles.

These kinds of donated goods rarely makes it to the sale floor, as management usually will not put donated weapons on the floor, and they usually get quickly taken and hidden by a staff member before the boss sees and insists that it be thrown away.

Bob was very satisfied that he had decided to check this room out before leaving. As he reached the bottom of the box, he found one other usable item. It was a fishing vest, the kind with many pockets for storing small items.

He put it on even though it smelled kind of musty. He felt something in one of the pockets and opened it up and pulled out what was inside.

A pack of unopened cigarettes; Marlboro 120’s, hard pack, The wrapper was still on and unopened.

Also inside the pocket was another cigarette soft pack. This one was open and half crumpled over, but as he handled it, he noticed a slight odor of something that smelled very familiar to him, like a very old distant memory.

His curiosity piqued, he opened up the pack and the odor got stronger.

BINGO!

He knew it, There was a small bag of reefer inside. He figured it was probably about an eighth ounce. Even though it was likely to be a month or two old, it still retained that distinct skunky odor.

Bob hadn’t smoked reefer since he was a teenager. His discovery took him back to those days as he fell into a few seconds of revelry, remembering those times. He smiled, not really knowing what he was going to do with it, but he figured it could always be traded to some stoner pot head for something he needed.

He stuffed it in his pocket along with the other things.

A sound from the front of the store startled him and he realized that he wasn’t alone in the store anymore, but here he was in the backroom caught like a rat in a cage.

He had to find a way out unnoticed.

He looked around.

In the dim light he could see the emergency exit sign.

AWESOME!

He started for the door.

As he was nearing the door, his foot hit something that skittered away in front of him and stuck the door, making a noise which sounded impossibly loud to him.

He looked down and realized it was a folding pocket knife with a blade about four inches long. He reached down and grabbed it as fast as he could, almost falling over.

Some kind of Sypderco Knock off.

He stuffed the Knife into his pocket. This was definitely not something you encountered lying on the floor in a thrift store; maybe whoever had jimmied the lock had dropped it.

He slipped out the door into the back parking lot as quietly as he could, easing the door shut behind him.

He started moving away as fast as he could in spite of the pain, but it was going to cost him later with even worse pain.

He was almost to the cover of the tall grass at the back of the strip mall when he saw two kids come running around the corner.

They looked as though something had startled them, and were looking back at the side of the building and not at Bob.

He noticed they had several candy bars each in their hands, and they looked familiar.

He knew now what had made the noise in the store.

He was still a good ten paces from the tall grass and he knew there was no way he was going to make it before these kids saw him, so he turned so that they could see he was injured and using his newly found crutches.

The both looked forward when they were about 20 feet from him, and skidded to a halt about ten feet away.

They looked stunned, and frightened and were obviously trying to form an excuse as to why they were running away from somewhere with handfuls of candy.

Bob spoke first.

“Did you find anything to drink?” He asked.

The younger girl who was about 13 or so shook her head no.

“I got some bottles of water in my pack, but I’m afraid if I move you two might jump me and take my stuff” He said as a way of making a joke.

The younger one actually laughed.

“Look mister, we don’t want no trouble, we’re just hungry… and thirsty” The older one said, she was about 15 or so.

“Good because I don’t want any trouble either, I got a broken foot and most likely a broken elbow; and my guns on the broken elbow side”

The girls looked at each other.

“Take the candy and run if you want, andI’ll leave you each a bottle of water; but I’m heading back into the goodwill to recover the CB I saw in there and try and get my guys to send help”

They seemed unsure.

“You guys from around here?” he asked, tuning back toward the exit he had just escaped from.

“No we’re from La Salle outside of Chicago, our parents tried to get us to Shabbona State Park, but that didn’t work out so well” the older one said.

By the tone and the way she clamped her lips shut after she said it, he knew that she meant that her family was probably dead.

He limped back into the exit and made his way to where the CB was then he came back out with it. the girls were still standing there.

He had forgotten to give them the water.

“Sorry” he said and taking his back pack off took two of the bottles and set them on the ground.

“Did either of you see and abandoned car close by? I need a battery to run this” He said holding up the CB.

The younger one pointed east.

“Aways down that way is a white car with a dead guy next to it, and another is hidden close by there” she said.

He nodded.

Then hid the CB just inside the door.

He spotted a first aid kit on the wall and walking over opened it.

As usual, the things that had been used up hadn’t been replentished, but there were a few alcohol prp pads, some triple antibiotiv ointment packets and an ace bandage.

He put the other things into his pack, but kept the ace bandage out.

Walking back outside he could see the two girls were now sitting on a curb and eating their candy and drinking the water he had given them.

He proceeded to wrap his arm the best he could.

Then he turned back to the girls.

“If you want to hang around that’s fine but keep yourselves hidden, there are a lot of nasty people running around now and there’s no telling what they’ll do to you” He took some water from his pack and drank it.

“But if you want to run, run west. it’s a long way but if you keep moving at night and hole up during the day, eventually you’ll find they still have water and power”

He put the water back in his pack.

“Stay away from the roads, avoid people; don’t stay in houses because they attract looters. You’ll be living rough, but it’s better than getting caught and the alterative”

With that he put his pack on and using his crutches began to make his way toward where the girl had said there were vehicles he could scavenge.

[ydderf]

So someone outed Bob as an informant is my guess. Thanks for the new postings.

[warsparrow]

Chapter fifteen

Luck

He could picture exactly what had happened in his mind’s eye as he looked over the scene.

The dead guy next to the white tempo had hidden his car in the corn field to the right and come out with a gas can and a hose to siphon the fuel out of the Tempo, when someone had spotted him and killed him dead.

The body hadn’t been looted or moved and the gas can was still sitting there with the hose in it.

He knew what group’s M.O. this was.

He knew for an almost certainty that it hadn’t been an ambush because the man’s car hadn’t been disabled; as the case would have been if they had been waiting.

He stared at the car.

It was a copper gold Satellite convertible, not the belvedere or the top of the line roadrunner, just a simple 318 powered satellite with a mechanical white drop top and pristine white interior. It still had the magnum 500’s on it and cooper reproduction redline tires.

Someone had definitely loved this car, and that someone was probably dead on the road next to the Tempo.

He looked both ways and carefully limped out into the road, waiting for that inevitable shot.

Nothing came so he approached the dead man’s gas can and was just about to grab it, when he thought about what he had heard when had re awoken to the Ramses and the other unknown soldier talking.

‘The booby traps are still in place and active’

Sure they had meant it at the used car lot but that didn’t mean it was the only place that they had laid traps.

He carefully got down on his knees, his broken and aching body protesting the whole way.

Sure enough there was a piece of fishing line running from around the spout to under the Tempo.

He had to lie on his stomach to see what it was attached to.

A grenade had been stuffed between the uni-body frame and the gas tank.

He was keenly aware of how much the body next to him stank, and he could see the movements of insects and maggots beneath the man’s shirt.

He also distinctly saw that the man had a Cross pen in his breast pocket and using his good arm he extracted it.

He unscrewed it and found the brass ink cartridge.

Extracting it he pushed it into the hole vacated by the grenade’s pin and bent it over.

Some ink oozed out but if that was the worst thing that happened he could live with it.

Then he pulled the grenade free.

The spoon stayed intact and Bob breathed a sigh of relief, he would have to find a better item to put into the hole but for now it was working.

The he took the can and filled the gas tank on the Plymouth.

The tempo must have been near full as Bob Got two five gallon cans out of the tank before making sure he set the can back where he had found it, so that it looked like it hadn’t been disturbed.

Now was the hard part, searching the dead man for the cars keys.

He was happy he hadn’t eaten all of a sudden; he found the keys in the man’s right pocket and also noticed the man’s watch was still ticking away.

It was a Vintage Omega Seamaster Deville with the stretch band, and he got it off though part of the man’s skin came off with it. He dry heaved for a few minutes before he got his stomach under control. Then he started to pop the hood and pull the battery, but decided to take a rest first.

He was straining his body more than he should and walked over to the Convertible to sit down for a moment.

His luck held.

As he sat on the hood of the convertible he heard another vehicle approaching, luckily the color of the convertible blended nicely with the late season corn where it was hidden.

Soon he heard the sound of the vehicle approaching slow up and come to a stop.

Before it did, he carefully slid off the hood of the satellite and limped over to the edge of the field. He kept himself obscured behind the last couple rows of plants and listened carefully.

He heard the vehicles doors open.

At least 4 men got out.

Through the stalks he could see it was another Humvee.

He heard one of the soldiers say “looks like nobodies been by”.
Another voice said, “Damn, I wanted to see me some Barbecued Body”.

A third Voice said “Ya know, you really are one sick Mutha”.

The first voice said, “Alright, enough talk. Lets report in and get moving”. Bob heard the voices fade away as they got back into the Humvee. He could just make out the driver putting a CB mic to his mouth and saying something.

The Humvee then started up and pulled away at high speed. Bob let out a deep sigh of relief and limped back to the car. The rough ground made his ankle hurt like wildfire inside the bones.

He thought how nice it would be to get inside this satellite and crank it up and make some good distance sitting down instead of hoofing it like a wounded cow the rest of the way back to the safe areas.

When he reached the car, he went around to the back of the car and popped open the trunk. He let out a low whistle. Wow. This guy apparently had been a person of some means before the crash. Either that or he got lucky and found somebody else’s stash and helped himself too it.

A wide smile crossed Bob’s face as he started digging through the contents of the trunk.

Pretty soon he was chuckling to himself and he even forgot momentarily about the searing pain that was his constant companion.

“Damn” he said.

Good luck and Mother Fortune must have really decided it was Bob Beech’s turn to receive some overdue luck and good fortune.

The first thing he saw was a 12 gauge Bennelli shotgun with the spare shell clip mount on the side.

The whole clip was filled and a shot gun shell bandolier was beside it with all the pockets filled.

Bob laughed out loud and said to himself.

“Bobby Boy, Daddy always said, there’d be days like these”. He picked up an unopened bottle of 12 year old single malt scotch, screwed off the top and took a healthy swig.

He felt the high quality liquor run down his throat, the secondary shudder of high potency whiskey run through him and then the sweet familiar spread of alcohol flow through his system.

He shook his head to work off the remnants of the shudder and said out loud, “OK Mr. bobby, you better watch that shit. That’s full strength juice and you don’t wanna go and lose your head and wind up finding yourself dead”

He screwed the cap back on the bottle and set it back in the trunk. He started rummaging through the trunk.

It really WAS his lucky day.

It only got better from there.

Two more bottles of Scotch, a case of 12 gauge ammo partially full, a Sig Sauer 210 still in the box. A Gerber hatchet, a box full of Mountain house dehydrated food, A Katadyne water filter. There was even one of those fancy stoves for cooking food on and some stainless steel pots and pans.

There was also a nice case with some numbers on it.

AN PVS-14 with head mount.

He had no idea what it meant or what was inside, but he would have to look at it later, he was burning daylight.

All of ththese weapons and stuff brought to mind why the man didn’t have these weapons on him.

Maybe he was behind the curve still, afraid of being caught with them locked and loaded.

Bob just looked at the amazing haul and shook his head again, he popped another pain pill and washed it down with the scotch.

He looked through everything again and found an unopened box of 9mm hollow points, he knew there had to be some if the Sig was there.

While he appreciated the firepower the shot gun would give him, he also realized that with his broken elbow, there would be no way for him to shoot it unless he was lying on the ground prone.

So he left the things there and made his way cautiously back out to the Tempo.

He got in and popped the hood, and then thinking about it he also popped the trunk, using the floor mounted trunk release.

Going to the hood first he realized he should have thought this out better, as he hadn’t brought any tools with which to remove the Battery he was looking at.

He went to the trunk and found it contained a few odds and ends but nothing he could use.

Searching under the seats netted him .58 cents and a lighter.

He closed the hood and trunk. He would have to head back to the thrift store and see if there were any tools he could use there.

[warsparrow]

Chapter 16

Contact

He drove the car back to the Thrift store and parked it in the back by the sunken loading dock, hiding it from casual view.

Both girls scattered when he drove up but soon emerged to finish their candy bars and sit on the curb watching him.

We went back through the rear exit and passed through the double employee doors to where the glass cases were.

This is where the store kept its more valuable items and he spotted several generic multi tools among the plated silverware and a student’s recorder.

He broke the glass with an old iron, the kind that took a piece of coal inside it to heat the metal.

He looked at the antique implement and his mind wondered, probably due to the combination of alcohol and pain pills, if America would fall to the point where this would again be considered ‘Hi Technology’

He took the new multi tools over to the house wares section and finding a decent steak knife he proceeded to cut the annoying plastic case from the tool.

He looked around once more as he was doing this and spotted some new shirts that some store had donated because they were no longer ‘in fashion’

New shirts.

New clothes.

His mind clicked right then.

The killer had put on new clothes.

Derek Clement and Joe Tucker were the two men who were wearing new clothes when they had shown up at the coffee house.

Derek the Contractor from Maryland.

He was the one who said that his going on this mission was a solid plan and they wouldn’t talk him out of it.

He swore when he saw Derek he would put a bullet between his eyes.

Walking back through the back room he realized that there was probably a maintenance section somewhere in the back here where they would keep odds and ends and tools to fix the mundane things that were sure to break.
After a brief search he found a small white dresser with a drawer marked tools on it. it was locked but the hasp holding it was a cheap bronze dollar store job and he pried it off with the multi tool.

Inside looked to be fifty years of donated tools of all kinds.

Everything from rusty plumber’s helpers to lathe spreaders were in the drawer.

What caught his attention though was a small set of bolt cutters. With this he could simply cut the battery cables from the tempo and if need be the battery hold down bolt as well; and it could also be used to cut the bolt on the roof access ladder he had seen outside by the dumpsters.

He hobbled his way back out and the girls were finishing up their bottles of water.

“Little road trip?” he asked them.

They looked at each other.

“Where to?” the older one asked.

“Down the road to the abandoned Tempo to get the battery, then back here so I can hook up the CB and try and make the call”

“Can I drive?” the older one asked.

“Don’t see why not. Ever driven before?” He asked.

“On the game console at home” She said.

He looked over at the classic car with trepidation.

“Ok let me pull it out and you’re the driver” He said.

He was pretty sure no one would be suing him if she wrecked the dead man’s baby.

After getting the car into the center of the driveway, he slid down the bench seat to the passenger side and let her get in.

“Aww, I wanted shotgun” the thirteen year old said.

Shotgun.

“Hang on a second” Bob said and took the keys from the ignition, then going back and opening the trunk he extracted the Bennelli and the Sig along with the ammunition.

The younger one had taken his seat so he managed to work his way into the spacious back seat and make himself comfortable as he could.

He quickly showed them the rudiments of the shotgun.

"This is the safety, it's semi auto so pull the trigger until its empty, then take the shells from here and put them in here until no more will fit and repeat until what ever is attacking you stops living"

the girls nodded and Anna got to driving.

“What do I call you?” Bob asked.

“I’m Anna and this is Liz” the older one spoke.

“I’m Bob” He said in return.

Anna seemed to have the basics of how the car worked and managed to get the big shifter lever into drive, then stomped the gas sending everybody reeling about the interior of the car.

“I’m thinking seatbelts might be a good idea” Bob said.

After several minutes of stops, starts and trial and error; Anna seemed to get the hang of the feel of how the car reacted and the ride smoothed out as they drove the straight road to the abandoned Tempo.

Two quick snips and the battery came loose.

He set it on the floor of the passenger side of the Satellite and went back to make sure he closed the hood on the abandoned car so it looked undisturbed.

When he came back he looked at Liz.

“You want to drive back?” He asked.

“I’m not sure that’s legal” She replied.

“You just watched me steal a battery from a car abandoned in the middle of the road with a dead guy next to it” bob came back.

She declined anyway so Bob let Anna drive it back to the thrift store.

Then they laid low for a few minutes to make sure no one had seen them and followed.

Satisfied that they were still alone he went over to the roof access ladder and cut the bolt that held a steel plate over the lower rungs to keep people from climbing onto the roof.

As soon as he tried the first rung he knew there was no way he was going to be climbing anything.

“I can’t do it” he said to the girls.

“I can” Anna said.

“no you stay in the car just in case we have to run suddenly, Liz can you climb to the roof and operate the CB?” he asked.

She nodded reluctantly and bob headed back into the thrift store.

He took a knife and cut the rope that was used to hold up all of the coats on hangers, then grabbing the pricing gun he took two green stickers from it, he also grabbed a pen and a receipt pad.

Back out in by the convertible he put one green sticker on the red positive wire and the other on the red positive wire of the battery.

“These two green stickered red wires get put together, the two unmarked black wires get put together” He showed her by doing it himself and the Cb lit up, but made no noise because the antenna was still not hooked up.

“Once you get to the top, throw this rope down and I’ll have the CB in a back pack so you can haul it up”

He then showed her how the antenna screwed into the back of the Citizen Band.

“Once you get the CB set up, put the rope through the highest rung and drop both ends down, Anna and I Will put the rope through the car batteries handle and pull the rope to lift it up to you; all you’ll have to do is connect the wires and make the call. Try and get the Antenna as High as possible”

Liz nodded her understanding and slowly made her way up the steel ladder to the roof.

Once there she ducked back down.

“Army trucks coming!” She yelled a little too loudly.

Bob tensed and was about to yell to the girl to hurry back down in case they needed to run , but he heard the big diesel as it came past the small strip mall.

The sound of the engine remained steady and the sound soon faded.

It was a good thing he hadn’t eaten much in the last couple of days.

He went back in and found a sports bag to put the Cb and antenna in and the rope was waiting when he returned.

Putting the things in, he wrote quickly on the pad before including it in and tying it on.

She hauled the items up quickly and set everything up, moving the antenna to the top of the Pizza joints sign to get maximum height.

Then she dropped both ends of the rope and Bob tied the battery to it.

He and Anna pulled it up to the rung and Liz surprised them by getting the battery onto the ledge so she could hook it up.

******************************

“Apple Cider, Apple cider Apple cider” a young voice came over Citizens Band channel three.

George Houser looked up from where he was showing one of the new recruits the ins and outs of a Heathkit model 102 shortwave receiver.

The drinks call signs were out of date by three days, but he walked to where the CB monitoring station was; the young kid who was on station listening was unsure of what to do

George put a reassuring hand on the kids shoulder.

“Apple Cider this is Gimlet one” the young voice came in over the static.

Gimlet. An old British navel drink made popular in the sailing days to prevent scurvy, it consisted of Gin and a lime.

And gin was Bob Beeches call sign, well four days ago anyway.

The fact that whoever was using Bob emergency call sign of Gimlet meant that something had gone wrong, which everyone pretty much knew because it had been four days now without contact.

He nodded to the kid who picked up the D 104 microphone.

“This is Apple Cider Four” the kid replied.

“Apple Cider Four, inform Six actual that Gimlet Six is damaged but repairable and requests expedited delivery to nearest repair center; plus two extras under warrenty”

Bob beech was apparently hurt, and needed picking up along with two refugees who were now with him.

George took the mic from the kid.

“Gimlet 1, status rest of equipment?” He asked.

After a long pause.

“Damaged by vandals beyond repair”

Everyone else in the scavenging party was dead.

“Need confirmation” he said. “I am a little teapot, Short and stout”

He couldn’t help but smile at some of the oddball saying they had come up with.

After another pause the young voice came back on and he could just hear the embarrassment in the young girl’s voice.

“This is my handle and this is…. Damn I’m a sugar bowl”


“Confirmed Gimlet One. We have a mortuary team thirty miles north of your last contact location. They will stay in place until your next contact” George said and handed the mic back to the kids there.

“Thank you” Came the sweetest reply over the static.

He moved to the High Frequency set up, where another young man was monitoring.

Today’s and tomorrow’s call signs were movie related things.

“Godzilla” He said once.

“Go” came the reply

“This is Unicornus Rex” George said “Confirm”

“Ishiro Honda” Came the reply. Talk about an obscure bit of filmography; no one would ever break their codes if they used something as obscure as the director of the first Godzilla movie.

“Sutherland is active but injured, he requires extraction”

Kiefer Sutherland was the main Vampire in the Lost Boys, and Bob Beech was definitely a lost boy.



***************************


Liz hurried back down the ladder with the pad in her hand and the hastily scribbled notes.

Bob read them through once then explained the note to the girls.

“Ok everything written is opposite and all numbers are double. If they said 30 miles north it means sixty miles south. A mortician buries people, so they sent a team to try and dig me up. When he said they would stay stationary it mean they will move out and try to make contact with us”

The girls looked at him as if he was trying decipher Swahili, so he let it drop.

“Ok let’s refill our water bottles get our radio equipment down and get the hell out of here” He said.


Chapter 17

Into the jaws

Bob was well aware that they were driving south.

South toward where the largest concentration of people who wanted to kill him were stationed.

He was trying to think if he should tell the girls or not, but so far they’re lucjk was holding and he didn’t want to push it any more than he had to or jinx it.

What should have taken a half hour by normal driving standard would probably take almost two hours by his estimate, almost guaranteeing that they would be spotted and caught.

A what he thought was a skunk sitting by the side of the road up ahead caught his eye.

“Slow down” he said to Anna, who was driving.

She did a passable job of not locking up the four wheel drum brakes.

He wanted to see if it was a Skunk, because if it was out in the day time it might indicate rabies; which would be really, really bad in this post apocalyptic world.

Instead it turned out to be a fat tuxedo cat that just sat and watched them nonchalantly as they drove up.

“This looks as good a place as any to hole up and make our next call” Bob said “No reason to push out luck any more than we need to and be exposed on the road”

The Satellite at least had power steering so she was able to turn into the driveway. Bob still had a death grip on the arm rest though as she just barely missed clipping the mail box by the driveway.

Bob noticed the flag was up and told Anna to stop while he got out to check it.

As he approached the cat came sauntering up and rubbed up against his leg.

He knelt down and picked it up, forgetting about someone elses mail.

He got back into the car with the cat, who didn’t seem to mind at all.

The cat jumped into the front seat with Liz.

“Hello Mr. Kitty” she said.

Anna drove down the driveway to the open garage, there was a a pickup sitting there with the hood up and the gas tank opened.

Obviously already scavenged.

“I’ll get out and knock just in case. If no one answer,s I’ll hid the car in the garage and we’ll get set up” He said.

The front door was open and after a quick look proved that the place had been looted he came back out and nodded to the girls.

Anna brought the sports bag with the CB and antenna, and slung the shot gun awkwardly over her shoulder.

Liz brought the cat but forgot the Sig

He backed the big Plymouth into the garage and saw some Chevy parts hanging along the wall, someone had owned and old chevy here.

When he came out he closed the garage to hide the car, he had to set the car battery down to do it, but managed to get it done one handed.

Liz was sitting on the front porch with the cat.

“What are we going to name it?” She asked.

“It’s a black and white sitting on the side of the road waiting for people to drive by, so if it stays we’ll name it Po Po” Bob said.

Which made the girl laugh.

A Po Po was the inner city name for a black and white police car.

“Ok I’m going to search the house better, you keep out of sight and watch for anyone, then we’ll set up the CB and make Contact” He said.

Anna had already gone around the back and spotted the garden, and was busy picking anything that looked even halfway ripe.

Bob went through the house better this time.

The only thing he found that was incongruous was a bloody shirt, that somehow made him think of Bernadette before all of this happened.

Of course there was no food and no beverages or even any cat food or bowls.

The other thing that had attracted Bob to this particular house, other than the cat ant the open garage was the old style TV antenna that reached a good thirty feet into the air.

If he could manage to use that with the CB he would be more than able to make contact with base.
He set up the CB and the battery inside by the old fashioned TV that was still there, and found that the antenna cables were incompatible so he took the whole setup back outside and hung it as high as he could on the old latticework antenna.

“Apple cider, Apple cider, Apple Cider” He called.

We knew his codes were out of date, as long as they knew it was him he hoped it would still be ok.

“Apple Cider this is Gimlet Six” he called.

“Gimlet six this is Apple Cider three, your new contact will be Godzilla. Do you understand?” Bob knew the kids voice.

“I understand” Bob said.

“Six actual wants to know the extent of the damage” the kid on the other end of the mic said.

“I’ve got Mafia chicken” Bob replied.

Mafia chicken was when you ordered chicken legs and wings the bones inside were broken, like the mafia did to their marks.

“Understood. Contact details?”

Bob gave the address of a house several doors down, just to be safe; it would give them time to hide if anyone was onto them. As per protocol he cut the numbers in half.

“Rt 15, 2231” Which translated into Rt 30 4461 for the address.

“Copy, expect company with a half hour”

That meant an hour.

They’re contact done Bob turned the CB off and left it where it was for now.

He remembered that the flag was up on the mail box, and wanted to check it.

He had just walking down the tree lined gravel driveway, using his crutch, but staying off to the side for concealment, with Liz watching for their contact from the front porch, not even bothering to hide.

The tree hid the sound an approaching Humvee until it was too late. The vehicle came down the road from behind the tree line, and bob stiffened; he was sure it was going to pass by but then it slowed.

They must have noticed the garage door was closed now.

Or that there was a girl standing on the front porch.

It turned and roaring over the drainage ditch and front lawn skidded to a stop in front of the porch.

Liz was too startled to even run.

Bob was sure that these soldiers hadn’t seen him, and off handing the crutch he managed to get the FEG into his weak hand, and then started limping back toward the HMMWV.

Four men got out of the Vehicle, but he only saw the two on the passenger side; they came around the vehicle and were lost to his view.

“Well, Well, Well. A nice young piece like you in an abandoned house. Looks like a looter to me, we’s might have to search her right boss?”

Bob knew that voice, and he knew what he was going to do.

“You guys check the rest of the house, I’m goin to interrogate this bitch” He heard Ramses say.

“Dude, she’s like 12” one of the other soldiers said.

“Shut it, with Carnes dead I’m in charge” Ramses said.

Liz started to say something and Bob heard a slap.

He was going to kill that thug.

“I tell you, you could talk?” The thug said.

Bob came around the back of the humvee and saw that Ramses had both of Liz’s hands in one of his own, preventing her from fighting back.

He put the gun to Ramses head.

“Hello Ramses, remember what I said I I’d do to you if I ever saw you again” Bob said coldly.

Ramses looked at him and his face paled, he had a bandage over his brand that looked to have been there a while without changing.

“Naw man, you’s dead” He said.

“No, you’re dead” Bob RReplied and put a bullet into his brain pan.

He grabbed Liz and pulled her back behind the back of the Humvee.

He knew the HMMWV was up armored, and would protect them from small arms fire.

He heard the two men come out onto the porch and then something unexpected.

The Benelli M4 opened up and he could hear the semi auto pounding slugs into the farm house.

One of the men inside swore, and he could hear then breaking out windows.

He emptied the magazine in the pistol, and was trying to figure out how to load another single handed when an idea came to him.

He dropped the pistol onto the gravel and pulled the grenade he had been keeping in his new jacket and carefully unbent the pen cartridge holding the spoon in place.

Then letting the pin fly he started counting.

He knew that a grenade fuse was about 5 seconds, right then the details on how he knew this were fuzzy.

Maybe from watching Combat!!! As a kid.


He threw it over the back of the HMMWV aiming for the front window and a morbid thought came to him.

‘I hope the cat isn’t in the house’

He learned why the other soldier before had said he wanted to see a barbeques person.

The white phosphorus grenade blew out all of the windows and set the curtains on fire, along with a myriad of other things inside the structure.

One of the men was blown out of the front window and alanded with a sickening crunch on the gravel driveway.

Bob picked up his pistol again and managed to eject the magazine into his jacket pocket, then stuffing the pistol into his armpit he extracted a new magazine and slammed it home.

He didn’t need to bother.

The man on the driveway was way past dead and the house was now ablaze and no one was coming out.

Ammunition inside from the soldier began to cook off.

Bob waved to Anna who came running up grim faced.

He threw her the keys.

“Save the Satellite” He said “Liz and I will get the CB and stuff”

“You ok?” he asked the young girl as they moved to the side of the house to get their communication equipment before it burned.

She nodded.

“This is why you always remember your Gun, no matter what” He said as they grabbed the CB and antenna and hurried away from the almost unbearable heat of the burning wooden house.

Anna managed to get the Satellite out without major incident and brought the shotgun over to bob so he could show her again how to load the shells into it.

Po po came wandering up then and Liz picked him up.

After that he went and recovered both Ramses and the dead soldier’s arms.

The soldier had a standard M4 and berretta, but Ramses had an older m16 and a chromed .44.

Bob looked at the weapon.

He had held this particular weapon before.

This was the .44 he had taken off of the sniper that had killed Also Bob.

It was also with the weapons he had traded to the senior Seever.

He didn’t have to guess too hard to figure out how this Gangbanging thug had acquired it, or the fate of Melissa Ahern’s soon to have been step father in law.

Checking out the Humvee he found several boxes of MRE’s and about ten magazines for the M4 and M16, as well as 2 .50 cal ammo cans for the mounted .50.

They heard a vehicle stop in front of the house and Bob got behind the armored door.

He had Anna clamor up into the humvee and get behind the machine gun.

Even though she didn’t know how to use it, he hoped it would look intimidating.

A pick up with four men in it pulled into the driveway and stopped.

The smoke from the burning house making everything hazy.

A man got out and carefully unfurled a flag.

It wasn’t white though.

It was a medium blue with a round yellow seal in the center.

The man approached slowly through the smoke until Bob could read it.

‘The great seal of the state of Nebraska March 1 1867’

Bob heaved a sigh of relief and called Anna back down.

“Mr. Beech” he called.

Bob recognized the man as being from the Offut Air base.

Bob was unsure of how to proceed.

“I was told you would be suspicious so I was given a code word from Rohelio to say to you to prove we are who we say we are” he said as he stopped and began carefully folding the flag.

“And?” bob asked expectantly.

“Tubby” He said looking up from his task.

Bob relaxed again.

“We’re ready to get the hell out of here when you are” Bob said.

“Not a minute more than we have too” the man replied “I’m not sure your decision to set a building on fire to mark your location was a good idea”

“It was either that, or let the soldiers inside kill us” Bob replied.

[kaijafon]

awesome!!! thank you so much!!

[ydderf]

WOW

[warsparrow]

Chapter 18

Homecoming

They drove though out the rest of the day and night, only encountering one other vehicle, which tore off at the sight of the Humvee that was leading their convoy.

Bob learned that more than a few of the men at Offutt chose to stay behind rather than head up north and fight the Russians.

They had divided up among the other vehicles and they had Let Anna drive the convertible, after putting the manual roof back up.

The medic they had with them immobilized Bob’s elbow and foot and gave him something a little stronger than what he had been taking; not enough to knock him out, but enough that most of the rest of the trip was a blur.

Except for waking up in the middle of the night in a moving Humvee with all of the lights off.

He had started to freak out but then the soldier up front told him they were using his night vision monocle to drive.

He had no idea what they meant until they explained that the box in the trunk of the convertible was a head mounted night vision system, which retailed for close to $3000 precollapse.

Whoever had owned the Satellite had some money Bob thought as the Medic gave him another shot and he fell back into his world of half sleep.



**********************



He awoke several days later with the Ex Governor and Rohelio standing be his bedside.

“It’s about time you decided to rejoin the land of the living” Michael Hanrahan said as Bob tried to sit up.

“Relax” Rohelio said, even as he put another pillow behind him; his eye patch now a real black one with the band around his head.

The hospital looked like it had been transformed.

There seemed to be a lot more staff about and all the lights were on instead of just the alternating ones.

“You remember when Marcus said there was no such thing as bad publicity?” Hanrahan asked.

Bob nodded silently.

“He wasn’t wrong. We have had so many people flocking in that were over capacity with skilled people and supplies.

“What else did I miss?” Bob asked.

“You missed the fact that you cut your foot and leg up pretty bad and it got infected; a few more days living rough and you wouldn’t be here at all” Rohelio said, deflecting the conversation.

“I’ve been waiting for you to come around, I have a proposal for you” The ex governor said.

“I’m sorry I don’t swing that way, and I’m not even sure that’s legal in this state” Bob replied without thinking, the medication still affecting him.

The Ex governor laughed at that, not the polite little guffaw that a politician will do to pretend he cared, but an actual laugh out loud laugh.

“No, I’m calling for elections this November and I want you to be my running mate” He said.

Bob was taken aback by his statement, and had to take several minutes to process what the man was saying.

“I’m not sure I’m the man you want for this job” Bob said finally.

Just then Bernadette came into the room.

“I leave you for five minutes and you have to go and wake up” she said.


The Ex governor looked like he had more things he wanted to talk about, but Bernadette ushered him out, Saying that they could talk about things when Bob was released.

“You are both a very smart and very stupid man” She said to him “But for now thank you for taking time to come and see me when I was sick, and securing us a place to live”

“What’s been going on since I was gone?” he asked again.

“We’ll talk about it when we’re out of here, first we’re going to get you ready to leave” She handed him a shirt and some pants, and even helped him dress.

Anna was waiting for them in the Convertible, which Bob thought was odd but said nothing.

Once inside the car Bernadette had Anna drive around for a bit while they talked.

“Darrell came to me after you left and let me in on what was going on. We, meaning him, me and his brother have all been keeping an eye on the others so no more deaths while you were away” She said as a way to start the conversation.

She handed him the BM and told him to hide it.

“Hanrahan has called for there to be open elections this November to form a new government, and the radio stations we have been able to get in are just going full anti on him for it; he tried to get in touch with them to gave his reasoning and they won’t even listen; this is going to get worse before it gets better” She said.

Anna drove past the burned out lumber building and the shell of the Sherman, bob wondered if the President Pro Tem would drone them for trying to have these elections and he silently shuddered, which Bernadette took as him being cold, so she put his jacket over him.

“From now on you are grounded, no more running off on these little adventures; as one of the only senior men left in Harahan’s confidence, he needs you here” She said.

“Nobody knows this but the Ex governor is secretly moving his headquarters fifty miles away, to where they were building a new hotel; it should keep him safe until after the elections” Bernadette looked out the open window at the fields of grain being harvested, even though there was starting to be a definite bite in the air.

She looked over at him then.

“Thank you so much for rescuing Phil” She said.

“Phil?” Bob asked; he couldn’t remember rescuing anyone but Anna and Liz.

“We know him as Po po; he’s the cat. He belonged to the guy who rescued her from Columbus” Anna said.

“Everything’s ready back at the Coffee house, I even managed to dig up some nice dressers” She mentioned as she instructed Anna to use her turn signal when turning.

“Dressers? How did you fit those into the manager’s office?” Bob asked.

“Like I said earlier, you are both very smart and very stupid. Did you ever even wonder what that extra door in the back of the shop was for? There is an entire second floor you never even looked at; or thought to utilize”

They pulled up in front of the Coffee house and Bob remembered what he had promised.

When he saw Derek he was going to shoot the man between the eyes.

He exited and Saw Anna walk in first and hold the door for him, before going down the hall to where the manager’s office was.

Greg and Darrell were there as well as Derek, but Joe tucker was not around.

Using the same crutches he had found in the thrift shop he entered the Coffee shop, which still smelled vaguely of roasting beans and stopped to look at the map.

There were dozens of places now marked on it, as well as routes that were safe and places that were hostile, and Darrell was up on the ladder adding more.

“We’ve been busy in your absence” Derek said looking up from the yellow pages.

Bob had remembered to move the holster to his weak side when he put it on and he had the FEG out and pointing at Derek in an instant, he almost dropped the gun because it was off handed, and his broken elbow was in a cast.

“You ratted on us to the Fed Gov” Bob said “Contractor from Maryland, I should have known”

Derek was frozen in place, his hands still holding the Phone book.

“I’m a CEMENT Contractor, from Maryland. I left of the last part because it sounds better and I wanted to sound useful” He replied carefully.

“Bull” Bob said.

“You think anyone’s going to need a Cement contractor now? I was working on the contract to repave part of the Chicago pier when all this went down” Derek made no move to defend himself.

Bernadette came up.

“He’s right. You have the wrong man” She said.

He felt the breeze as the front door was left ajar and the manager’s door opened.

“I knew it was only a matter of time before you figured it out” Joe tucker said, holding a Gun to Liz’s head as he pushed her in front of him into the room.

Bernadette looked right at him.

“You knew we were watching you, but you didn’t run when you should have” She said.

“My job here wasn’t done; besides even if you kill me The True government will still win in the end” he said.

Greg Arnholt, who had been sitting off to the side stood casually.

“You could have just walked away, and a lot of people would still be alive” he said “But you had to try and keep the past alive, no matter what”

Then he looked at Liz.

“Possum”

Liz instantly dropped to the ground, exposing Joe tucker.
Before any of them could reach for their weapons though a shot rang out and Joe Tucker was flung against the hallway wall, dead.

Liz ran over to Bernadette and hugged her.

“Sniper?” Bob asked.

“Yes, we left the door open, because replacement glass is hard to come by” Rohelio said walking in, carrying a bolt action .308.

Bob looked at Bernadette, then at Rohelio, slowly coming to the realization that they all seemed to be in possession of knowledge about Joe Tucker that he was not himself aware of.

He had been so sure that Derek was the killer due to the fact that on the first day when he met them all in his position working for Hanrahan, and in front of his new office, that Derek had had on new clothes.

Also Derek had been the one who encouraged him to go out on the scavenging mission and said he would not try to talk him out of it, but he also recalled that Derek wasn’t the one who suggested it.

Bob’s head was reeling as thoughts raced though his mind trying to put all the pieces together. He recalled the initial meeting between himself and the rest of his new assistants including Joe Tucker.

He realized that he had almost just shot an innocent man a few moments ago.

He looked at Derek and said, “I guess I owe you a sincere apology for mistaking you as the killer Derek; and I also apologize for almost taking your head off with my gun. I mistook you for the killer because of your brand new clothes on the day I met you.”

“It had occurred to me that you had to change your clothes to eliminate the evidence of blood on your clothes after the bloody death of Billy boy. But I also recall that Joe tucker had on new clothes also.”

Bob looked at the rest of them in the room and asked, “How did you all know Joe was the real killer?”

Rohelio answered him, “Remember the video of the ambush? Joe Tucker wasn’t present in that video, but Derek was”

“Actually, we only had strong suspicions that it was Joe Tucker who was the killer. That fact wasn’t confirmed until just a few minutes ago when He walked in and drew his gun on Liz. Sorry we couldn’t let you in on what our suspicions were Bob.” He continued.

“We figured that your reappearance might flush Joe out of hiding and get him to blow his cover, and we were right. As soon as he heard the news about your return, He’s been acting peculiar; my work undercover picked up on it right away. We set this whole meeting up today as the coup de grace to get Joe to react.”

“Sorry Bob if you feel we might have put you or anybody else in here in danger, but everybody including Liz was filled in on the facts and agreed voluntarily to play a part in catching the bad guy” Rohelio continued

“We were all prepped right down to Liz knowing the code word, to duck down fast and play dead like a possum if things got dangerous. It was a risk we had to take, but if you have any hard feelings, I’ll take personal responsibility for that.”

Rohelio took the gun from the dead killer before continuing.

“With your injuries and all, I knew it wouldn’t be smart to trust in your ability to react quickly if stuff starting happening fast. Besides your reaction’s and behavior had to be convincing and seem unawares so as not to tip off Joe and to provide all of us the cover to make Joe believe nobody yet knew that he was in fact, the real killer.”

Bob Looked over at Derek and said, “So that’s why you were so cool and calm while my gun was aimed at your head. You knew everything while I knew nothing.”

“Well, that’s part of it. As a child growing up, my mother was a Psychologist and she had to make very accurate judgments calls about people. I had an early interest in Psychology from her and even spent a couple of quarters in college studying it before my interest in the topic faded and I moved on” Derek replied.

“But from that experience I learned to make judgment calls about people’s character; I think I’ve gotten pretty good at it too, and I know more about you than you think. Deep down you are a good hearted person and you do what you have to do, but only to maintain the safety of yourself and those around you. That’s why you’re on this side of the country and not helping out the bad guys in the dark zone”

Derek stopped to take a deep breath; this was the most he had said since Bob had met him.

“Besides there just isn’t no way that you were gonna put a bullet right between my eyes with the girl’s right here in the office, because that just isn’t your way. You have too much civility and good in you to ever expose them to that kind of violence, unless you had no choice”

Bob put his hand in his chin and thought for a second.

“Darn it Derek, You’re going to go and make me look all soft and respectable in front of all of these people. I got a reputation to uphold you know.” His mouth broke in to a grin as he said this.

“Don’t worry about your reputation, My Man. You don’t know it but people around these parts think a whole hell of a lot about you. That’s why Hanrahan wants you to be his running mate; you’re popularity is growing by the day” Derek replied.

“Hanrahan’s a politician. He can sense the benefit you add to his campaign to become the new man in the big seat. People feel a sense of security around you, and coming back from the Zone with your injuries and the only one left out of your party to return practically makes you a war hero. Don’t think about Hanrahan’s offer too long; Say Yes, My sense of character judgment says it’s the right call. You ARE the right one for the job.”

Bob was totally speechless.

He just looked about the office at everyone.

Bernadette came up and gave him a hug.

“It’s all true Bob, Every word of it. You’re a stand up guy; No matter what might be in your past. Take a little position and glory for yourself. You deserve it.” She said as she looked at him.

Liz sidled up beside Bob.

“You saved me and Anna and we talked about it last night before we went to sleep. We agreed that we ain’t staying with anybody else; our family is gone, so you’re our family now. Maybe you will even let us start calling you dad.”

At this her shyness kicked in and she dropped her head.

Bob was stunned.

He looked around again and finally he put his arms around Bernadette and Liz and pulled them both in for a hug.

“You know what,” He said. “I think I might take you up on all of your suggestions. I feel like I’ve been run over by a bulldozer and I’ve got a long way back to healing up and feeling good. I’ve been alone so long; I think it might be good for me to experience what life is like on the other side. I’m sold.”

Everybody in the office let out a huge cheer and started whooping and hollering. Bob thought to himself.

“I think I might get to liking this new life.”





Epilogue.

It had been a hard couple of months.

But as he stood on the stage with his wife and two adopted daughters looking at the cheering crowds as President Hanrahan gave his acceptance speech he knew it was worth every minute of it.

It had taken several days to hand count all of the ballots, out in the open where anyone who wanted to could watch before they had the final numbers; unlike the old way where some electronic machine was announcing the winner with as little as 3% of the votes cast.

Even the propaganda television station in Omaha had sent a reporter and Television crew to cover the election watched and couldn’t find a single instance of fraud.

The president was talking about how the Fed Gov’s President Pro tem was even now railing against the outcome on all the available radio stations, even though he too had been placed on the ballot and lost.

He looked out at these people who had been knocked down and had gotten back up again, those who had fled the dark zone and made it here; all those who had volunteered their time for whatever task was needed and realized that this is what America was supposed to look like.

People pulling together to make a better community, not living in their own self centered Suburban Myth; constantly chasing the supposed American dream of being just slightly better than their neighbors while wholeheartedly digging themselves ever deeper in debt.

He nodded to their body guard detail as the new president of the Free states of America finished his speech and made ready to depart.

His wife and daughters made one last wave to the crowd before they exited the old Armada Inn and to their waiting armored vehicles.

They had been informed over the last few weeks about droves of refugees and gangs crossing the southern border and there were even rumors of Chinese troops in California, prompting Texas to also try and secede with Oklahoma and Arizona; but for now that was their problem.

He knew this section of the country was going to be alright.

If they could survive the winter.

Kespeeadooksit (Here ends the story)

[kaijafon]

Thank you so much!!! this was a great story!!! and I love the happy ending!

[223shootersc]

Thanks for the great effort.

[biggkidd]

Good job interesting read! Thanks
Larry

[crf78112]

Fine tale and well crafted.
Thank you.