Apocalypse in the Homeland: The Adventures of John Harris (13 page)

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Chapter 15

Joan’s squad had the rear guard for the convoy as they left the Dallas area. Alice Meyer was manning the twin SAWs and watching behind them. Corp. Jack Miller rode in the back with Amit while Ziva had shotgun. Their Humvee was third from the rear and was responsible for covering the right side of the road behind them. An Apache flew over their route at one hour intervals so there wasn’t much chance of any large group running up on them from behind, but an ambush could happen at any time.

Joan had seen several men behind a house a mile back and questioned Ziva about them.

“Ziva, I asked you to watch the right side of the road. Have you seen anything dangerous?”

“No, just a couple of guys working on an old Chevy truck behind a house. They had a couple of shotguns. I didn’t consider them to be a threat.”

“Good, that what I saw, but next time, call them out so we can decide if we want to check them out.”

“Yes ma'am.”

“What type of shotgun?”

“Pump, 12 gauge.”

The drive up to Oklahoma City was uneventful. There were a couple of potshots with small caliber arms and Joan wondered if they were people who thought they were USA coming to put the locals in a work camp. She looked at the ISA emblem on the doors and thought they needed to be larger.

The CP facility was on the southeast side of Del City and just a mile or so from Tinker Air Force Base. They drove straight to the base and sent scouts out to look for threats and to contact any local authorities. Lt. Cates led the scouting mission and sent three squads out to look for hostiles and friendlies while Lt. Pope led the team to search and secure the base. He sent Sonny’s squad to the explosive bunkers and Joan’s to the aircraft hangers.

***

“Scott, we have more detail in on the attacks on the Chosen Peoples' compounds and manufacturing facilities. First, they were far more organized than we were led to believe and have more facilities than previously thought. There is one in Des Moines and another in Helena that appear to have large underground storage facilities along with major training complexes. They are in the middle of nowhere so they can train with high explosives and light armor. The CP could have taken John to one of those facilities. If so, you will need a lot more firepower than what you have now.”

“George….err.. Mr. Vice President, how soon can you send re-enforcements?”

“I’ll have General Mills fill you in on the detail, but as promised we are sending five Apaches and a detachment of UAVs as soon as you secure Tinker.”

“Send them now; the base appears to be deserted. I have teams out now securing the base and we will check out the CP facility tomorrow. We need more troops to secure an area this large.”

“Scott, this is Mills. I have some issues on the Mexican border over by San Diego so I can only send three more platoons for now, but the Navy can send a squad of Seals and more Apaches and perhaps some Harriers for close air support.”

“General, how about another detachment of armed UAVs along with the surveillance drones?”

“Good idea. I’ll get my XO to work out the logistics and get back to you ASAP.”

“How’s Sonny doing?”

“He is developing into a great leader and hasn’t been too banged up so far.”

“Thanks and you keep yourself and Joan safe also.”

“Will do Mr. Vice President.”

***

Joan’s team fanned out around the largest of the hangers and prepared to enter when one of the 82
nd
patrolling the fence line sent a message.

“Zebra Three, this is Baker One, be aware that the fence has been cut in several places and there appears to be paths from the holes in the fence heading to the hangers.”

“Baker One, thanks for the heads up.”

“Squad pair off in twos for the search. Ziva, you are with me and Mita with Tony. Let’s go.”

They walked over to the office for the hanger and Ziva opened the door to the office carefully and stopped with only a two inch crack before she said, “Wire, I think it’s booby trapped.”

“Zebra Three, we have a booby trap. Proceed cautiously.”

Ziva pulled a ball of para cord from her pack and tied it to the door handle while waving Joan to move back along the side of the building. They both hunkered down against the building and Ziva pulled the door open. There was an explosion that blew the door fifty feet away and left a smoking hole over ten feet wide where the door had previously been.

“You just saved our lives. How did you spot the wire?”

“Just lucky, I guess.”

“I hope you stay lucky.”

The others found their doors rigged with explosives and Joan radioed for help in deactivating them. She was worried that the entire building might go up with a bang. In a few hours, the bomb guys cleared all of the booby traps and gave the okay to proceed into the building. There were no more explosives, but they found that a large group of people had been living in the hanger. They found bedding, food and large piles of garbage which indicated they had been living there for a long while. The hanger contained several aircraft and numerous engines spread throughout the building. All of the planes appeared to be in good condition, but most had their engines removed for maintenance.

“Joan, come over here!”

Joan walked over to Tony and he pointed at an A10 Warthog that had one of its engines hanging from a crane and halfway into its housing.

“I think someone was attempting to install the engine. The dust has been cleaned off the plane and the engine has no dust on it. The tools are spotless and looked like they were dropped in haste when we arrived.”

“Thanks Tony; I agree. I’ll report this in ASAP.”

Scott accompanied his maintenance sargent over to the hanger and he agreed that the work had been in progress in the past few days.

“Joan, someone was trying to get this bird in the air and it could have wreaked havoc on us if they had succeeded. Look, it is fully armed and ready to go once the engine was installed. No Air Force mechanic would change engines on a fully armed Warthog. My guess is that they were just about ready to install the engine when their scouts saw us approaching. They were rushing to get this plane up in the air to attack us.”

“My guess is it was the Chosen people. I’ll report it back to the General. Mack, can you get this A10 ready to fly?”

“Sorry sir. My crew and I are truck mechanics.”

“Sargent, keep a guard on this warehouse at all times.”

They continued their search and found several fixed wing passenger jets ready to fly, but no bombers or fighters able to fly. Scott radioed the general and asked for aircraft mechanics.

“We already have several on the way. Our Air Force contact told us what to expect and we need several of the planes in service right now. Thanks.”

“Sir, can you speed up the arrival of the Apaches? We may be facing a more dangerous opponent than we had thought.”

“We’ll do our best.”

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Chapter 16

The weather was warming up and soon winter would turn into spring. The ponds and streams weren’t freezing every night and the sun was getting warmer every day. Kristen noticed that she couldn’t see her breath as she fed the goats and cows this morning. She knew with the warmer weather on the horizon that John would want to start searching for the bad guys and find good honest people to join their community. She also knew that he was starting to regain his memory one tiny bit at a time. He had called her Beth several times and once in the middle of their morning love making which really pissed her off, but she didn’t react. She saw John walking over to her and wondered if he was holding back on regaining his memory.

“Jim, do you still love me?”

“Of course I do. What makes you question my love for you?”

“You have called me Beth several times. Is she your dead or ex-wife? When you joined us you never told us anything about yourself or your previous life.”

“Darling, I just don’t know. I keep getting brief flashbacks of my memory and names and places run through my head at times. I do know that I love you and nothing can change that.”

“I pray every day that you still love me and that we can have a family and live out our lives in peace.”

“I don’t know about the peace part, but nothing can take you away from me.”

“You could already have a family and children. What if your memory comes back and you want to go to them?”

“I came here for a reason. My family must be dead or I lost them when the shit hit the fan. How did I get here anyway?"

“I found you unconscious and brought you to our camp. You seemed to be okay when you woke up.”

“How long ago was this?”

“A couple of months ago.”

“What! I thought that you told me that I’d been here for almost a year.”

“Jim, I lied about that because I had already fallen for you and I talked the others into backing my story. They wanted you to stay because you looked like a soldier and could help train us to protect ourselves. I wanted you for myself. Please don’t be mad at me.”

“I’m not mad at you; I’m just confused at the moment. Let this sink in for awhile and we will discuss it again. So you fell in love at first sight with an old fart like me.”

“Yes.”

They kissed and John went out to meet Tom and Paul to set up a hunting trip.

***

“Tom, I told him just about everything and he appears to be okay with it. I didn’t tell him that I kidnapped him and he hit his head on the way here and lost his memory.”

“Kristen, I still don’t feel good about keeping information from him. He could go back to Cody and see if anyone knows him. Hell, he may have a wife and kids back in Cody.”

“I know what I should do, but it doesn’t make it any easier. I’ll tell him when you get back from your trip north to Lockwood.”

“I know this is tearing your insides out, but it will be for the best. It’s better he find out and leaves than finding out in a year or more and leaving you for another wife and family. I think he will stay with what he knows and loves.”

***

They headed out before daylight for Lockwood. It was only ten miles, but John wanted to get there in plenty of time to explore the city and look for friends and foe before heading back the next day. They headed up Highway 90 stopping numerous times to shove stalled cars out of the way. No one had tried to make a path and they only saw a few people on the way.

“Tom, I guess that you have been to Lockwood several times.”

“Hundreds. Billings and Lockwood are almost one city. I worked in Lockwood for several years managing a mom and pop hardware store right after college. It was a nice town, but Billings is home.”

“Where should we look for food, weapons and ammo?”

“Don’t we have enough weapons and ammo?”

“As far as we know there are no weapons or ammo manufacturers in operation, so what’s out there is all there is. We need to be safe and our kids and grandkids need to be safe. Bullets will fire for 50 years if you keep them dry. We need to get every weapon and bullet that we can find. We can grow food; try planting a bullet.”

Tom laughed and replied, “Okay, okay, I get it. Even though the gun shops will have been looted, we need to search them. Most thugs can’t open safes and vaults like you can.”

“That’s why I have the acetylene torch, hydraulic jacks and burglary tools in the bed of the truck.”

“So let’s stop at the Alamo Gun Shop, Sports Locker and Black Ops.”

The first two stops were disappointing, but they did find camping gear and gun cleaning supplies. Looters had picked the stores clean.

Black Ops was just off Johnson Lane right off Highway 90. They came off the ramp and immediately were under heavy fire originating from a house on the left. The front window on John’s truck shattered throwing glass shards in their face. They both received several minor cuts while John steered the truck behind a house about 50 yards from the attackers.

“Tom, follow me. Paul, take the others and keep the bastards pinned down until we can come up from behind them.”

“Keep your head down old buddy.”

“Will do.”

“You both look like extras in a horror movie with all of that blood dripping down your faces.”

John and Tom ran to the back of the house and used the hedge row between houses to hide their movement. Paul and the other five were placing round after round into the window effectively pinning the thugs down. They hit two of the attackers, but the return fire continued. The shots were rushed and Paul could see they were just raising their guns and shooting without aiming. Most of their bullets were high over Paul’s head.

“Jim, that’s the back of the house and look there is a guy watching the alley from that window.”

“I see him and have a bead on his sorry ass. When I shoot, I want you to break in the back door and open fire. I’ll be right behind you.”

John shot the man in the middle of the forehead. Brains, bits of bone and blood exploded across the room. Tom hit the door a few seconds later and started shooting thugs as they ran to the back of the house to help their now dead friend.

John took his walkie talkie off his belt and said, “Paul, we are in the house and the bastards will either be dead or running out the front door. Be ready.”

“Okay.”

John went in low and Paul covered him high as they charged into the front room firing their MP15s. John shot the first guy he saw twice and kept firing at one behind a couch while Tom shot a woman who fired on him with a shotgun. There were only two left and they were both dead from the withering fire. John told Paul to bring the guys over to the house and sweep the area for survivors.

John and Tom started searching the house and John found the basement was piled high with guns, ammo and archery items. There were also thousands of cans of food stacked on makeshift shelves.

“Tom, come on down here; we’ve hit the mother lode. Weapons, ammo and food.”

“Well that makes it a total success because you won’t believe what I found upstairs.”

John rushed up the steps and saw a group of women and young men chained to beds in each of the rooms. John looked at the nearly starved people and knew that each one had a horrible story about sexual and physical abuse.

“I’m John and the bad guys are dead and can’t hurt you anymore. We are going to get you some decent clothes and feed you. Is there anything else that we can do to help you?"

A dirty redhead stood up and said, “Why should we trust you? We were all prisoners of the DHS and were raped and beaten. We escaped and this group raped, tortured and made us work in their gardens. What makes you different?”

“Because we’re with the Independent States of America and are here to kill all of the thugs and bring law and order to this area. I’m John Harris and I promise that you will be safe from abuse and torture. We want good people to join us and help clean up this country.”

John suddenly realized what he’d just said, but couldn’t speak because his head was exploding from the memories coming back to him. He walked back to the kitchen, sat down at the table, laid his head on the table and covered it with his hands.

One of the women said, “Is that really John Harris, the president of the ISA? We kept hoping that he and the ISA would come and rescue us from the relocation camps. We heard that they had freed thousands of prisoners in the south and prayed that they would come to Wyoming.”

Paul caught Tom off to the side and asked, “Do you think that Jim is really the president of this new country?”

“We’ve been so isolated anything could have happened without us knowing about it.”

Tom went into the kitchen and said, “John, is there anything that we can do to help you get your memory back?”

“Tom, what do you know about me before I joined this group?”

“John, we found you and you lost your memory during an ATV crash. We saw you were ex-military and used you to help us prepare for survival. We never meant to harm you and Kristen loves you with all of her heart.”

“Damn, I love her too, but I have a wife and several kids back in Mobile. This is a fucked up situation. By the way have I always cussed this much?”

“Yep, pretty much.”

“Damn, I have to work on that. I remember everything from the wreck and the last thing I remember was traveling over to Cody to see if there were friendly people in the town. My wife, Beth, and several of my team were with me up here. An evil group kidnapped us and our plane crashed east of Cody. I have to get back to Mobile.”

“John, let’s check out the gun store and then start hauling all of our newly found gear and food back to our compound. We still have to survive and fight the bad guys even after you go home.”

“Thanks for reminding me that there are many people out there fighting to survive. I promise that as soon as I get back to Mobile the ISA will secure this area and get the power back on in the larger cities.”

***

“Are you sure these are the ones who killed my brother?”

“Yes, but why does it matter? We were going to attack them sooner or later to get their guns and women.”

“Because I want to make them pay for what they did and make sure that everyone in this territory knows not to fuck with the Tim Woods gang. I want to kill them all and place their heads on poles all around Billings to scare the shit out of anyone else who thinks they can kill my people.”

“Okay boss.”

“Get you asses in gear and get the trucks and rest of the men. I want four trucks loaded with explosives ready by this afternoon. We are going to give them a big bang tomorrow.”

“Tim, do we have to kill all of the women? Mine is ugly and they have some young pretty ones.”

“Jed, each man can pick one for himself. Kill all of the kids and men.”

***

John was glad he was away from their home so he could get his thoughts together before talking with Kristen. His mind bounced from wanting her to feeling like a lousy cheat for having sex with her while being married to Beth. He lay awake all night thinking about both of the women that he loved with all of his heart. He never felt that he had to choose between them. Beth was his mate for life and while he cared deeply for Kristen, he knew that Beth was his soul mate. He was ashamed he had been with Kristen and worried about Beth’s reaction. He tried to rationalize that he didn’t do anything wrong because he had lost his memory, but still felt sick to his stomach that he had violated Beth’s trust.

“John, are you awake?

“Unfortunately I’ve been tossing and turning all night thinking about how to tell Kristen.”

“She felt that this could happen. We all did. We knew that there was a chance that you had a wife and family, but Kristen hoped that you would stay with her.”

John laughed and said, “She certainly knew how to make me feel wanted.”

“Rise and shine. We need to check out that gun store.”

They loaded up their booty from the gangs house and headed over to the Black Ops gun store. They arrived at the address to find the front of the store had been burned down. The back of the store had collapsed around a cinder block structure.

“Men, let’s clear out the burned wood and crap from around that vault. I believe there just might be a bunch of guns and ammo stored in a fireproof room under that wood and roofing.”

It took an hour to find the door to the vault and clear the debris from around it so John could try to open the door. John cut the hinges off the massive door and tried prying the door loose to no avail. Then he started cutting the steel around the locking mechanism. Two hours later, he had a large hole in the six inch door and was able to pry the locking pins out of their holes. The door finally fell to the ground and they walked into the room to find rack after rack of rifles, handguns and ammo.