Jernigan's War (33 page)

HOMEWORK

T
he sun was lighting the eastern sky as Dix went back down into the wine cellar. He opened a bottle of Tate’s wine and drank heartily from the bottle as he slaked his thirst. He sat the half full bottle down and lay back on one of the mattresses he had brought down several days ago. Time and days were running together. He pulled one of the blankets on top of himself and drifted off. He slept until after lunch. He got up well rested for the first time in months. There were no nightmares he could remember. He raised the lid and climbed out of the cellar.

As usual he was wearing his shoulder holster and had Jake’s AR15 slung around on his back. His hand was on the pistol grip of Jake’s rifle. He went into Tate’s garage and found a shovel. He pulled the patrol car out of the garage next door where he had parked it and pulled it up into Tate’s driveway next to the back door. He opened the trunk and went inside. Tate’s body or what was left of it was still wrapped up in the rug in the kitchen where Dix had placed it. Dix carried his friend out to the car and placed him in the trunk. He threw his pack in the back seat and headed down the street and out Cemetery Road. He drove around to a
section where new graves were added, the old cemetery had been in use for several centuries or longer. He dug a grave and laid Tate to rest. He took a piece of treated 2X6 pine and carved Tate’s name, year of birth and the year of death. If the time should ever come when he could get him a stone, he would. There were a lot of graves he would have to mark with gravestones one day.

He drove back down to the jail in the police cruiser. He flipped on the lights as he approached and drove real slow until Butch’s men recognized him. Butch greeted him on the steps, “Looks like you’ve been hunting again.”

“No, I’ve been sleeping. I had this one stashed from a few days ago.”

“Our guys have been busy. They liberated the FEMA camp, the rest of the Mayor’s people are dead and we strung the mayor’s body up at the top of bridge hill. We want any of his loyal voters and supporters who are still around to see what happens to communists in our area.”

“What’s the word from Captain Miller?”

“The Chinese have been reinforced and are now moving north on Fort Polk. Evidently their run south was to secure a section of interstate within flight range of their carrier in the Gulf. They have landed some light armor and are bringing in troops and equipment in helicopters. They secured the spot that far south because it is at the farthest operational range of the helicopters without refueling them.”

Dix thought about what Butch had said, “We need to be shooting down helicopters. Call your men and see if those Chinese left any munitions we can use. Have the A10’s started coming in?”

“They’re coming in tonight. We’ve got the generators running at the airport. And we have the landing lights up. We commandeered the fuel trucks from the bulk oil distributors and have
enough diesel fuel under guard to run the generator for months. We also have 200,000 gallons of jet fuel at the airport and have another 100,000 gallons in railroad tank cars that were on a side track when the engineers and trainmen walked away from their trains.”

“We lucked out with that,” Dix said, “how’s the gasoline looking?”

“The gas stations are pretty much empty, but the bulk oil distributors have a total of 135,000 gallons between them. Other than food, we have fuel to remain operational.”

“What’s the food situation?”

“We are fully operational until we start dying of starvation in three days.”

Dix suggested, “Why don’t you send some men to look in every car on those trains, some of those funny looking cars should hold bulk grain or soybeans. Also send some men to check every grain elevator within driving distance of here. Check every barge that they see; put a boat and motor behind their trucks, a lot of those barges were full of corn, rice and wheat.”

”I’ll get them on it.”

Butch and Dix continued talking. It wasn’t enough to just survive, they needed to live, to rebuild, not only for now but for the future.

Dix began thinking out loud, “One--We need to find a couple of old farmers still alive with tractors and equipment and get them some diesel. If we don’t get some seed in the ground, no matter how much food we find, it will only postpone the inevitable. Two--try to start rounding up some livestock, buy them with corn and wheat, we’ve got to rebuild some herds. Try to get the old guys who want to fight, but can’t, working on it. Three--there are bound to be some old Baptist Deacons running around that need something to do and see if there are any Mormon elders
still alive, they can be a big help too. Do you remember Harris Communications over near the old tire plant, Butch?”

“Yea, I know it.”

“Go by their shop, they used to have a working grain mill, I don’t know if they survived, but either way the grain mill is probably still there, because nobody will know what it is. Find a couple of old guys to show you how it works, if there are any left, if not ya’ll will just have to figure it out. I can show you if I haven’t been killed by then.”

“Butch, what direction does Captain Miller want us to go in now?”

“He wants us to hold Natchez and to keep the fuel coming to the A10’s.”

“Has anyone found those damned Chinese that left the airport?”

“We found an old man that was living back behind the airport on Rice Road. He said three twin rotor helicopters came in and left about an hour later. They came in from the west and left the same way.”

Dix nodded at that information, “They evacuated them to join the battle. Unless you know someone who has a small plane we can use for reconnaissance, we have to assume they’re gone. Let’s put guys out around the airport with deer rifles and radios. Tell them to report first and shoot second, I’d say use four men and have them relieve each other every six hours day and night. I know they’ve all got climbing stands, get ‘em up out of view where they can see. It wouldn’t occur to the Chinese that there would be men in the trees. They don’t have deer hunters where they’re from. We can’t assume that we don’t have communists still running loose around the county, other than our missing Chinese.”

Dix looked at Butch, “I’m heading back to the camp, when you get word on where the Chinese are heading, send somebody
by to get me, or you come by and get some catfish. I’m taking that old patrol car; it’s got enough gas to get me over there and back. Get word out it’s me so I won’t get shot.”

Butch laughed and put out the word. Dix hopped in the cruiser and headed across the river on the old bridge. He was waved through the checkpoint and headed down the highway. He crossed the levee and pulled up at the camp. Beagle had a rifle on him until he recognized Dix getting out.

“Put that gun up old man, I’m ready for a mess of fish.” Rachel looked out, “I’ll make up some hushpuppies.” Dix took a shower in the catamaran and changed clothes. Beagle had the wood fire under the Dutch oven heating the oil and the fish went in as soon as Dix sat down. Ben and Frank wanted to sit in his lap, but they were too big. Dix had spoiled them when they were little puppies and they couldn’t understand why he didn’t let them rest their heads on his shoulder. The night was cool but not cold, the mosquitoes would be out in a few weeks and it would be impossible to sit around outside unless there was a breeze.

Dix brought out another bottle of Tate’s wine and everyone had a glass. They built a fire of drift wood and Dix told them what had happened. “Starting tonight a squadron of A10’s will be operating out of Natchez. They’re coming in tonight, over the next few days there will be support people flying in and they’ll be conducting sorties from here.

We won’t know for a couple of days what the Chinese will do. They have an aircraft carrier off shore and are deploying troops and light armor, if the fighting gets close we may have to move the boats up the lake or maybe even down the river. If I say go, we’ll take the house boat down the lake and anchor it up, then you or we will take the catamaran pulling the fishing boat and head to shelter up or down the river depending on the flow of the fighting. They could very well bring transports up the river.”

Rachel frowned, “Why would they bother us here?”

Dix gently told her, “At this point they realize that they are fighting everyone, not just the military, everyone is a soldier and a target. Do you think for a moment they want us here on their new land? We’re fighting for our existence at this point. So how’s our food supply holding up?”

Beagle did the math, “We can last about a month on what we’ve got, if I can keep catching fish we can last another four to six months or more. We’re going to need to locate some more canned goods or something. I got down to nothing but catfish for about two weeks until you showed up. I’ll be catching turtle now that the water is warming up. I’ve been catching some Buffalo and Spoon bills in the nets.”

Dix suggested, “Try to swap the fish for whatever kind of food anyone will trade for. I don’t care if its pecans or peanuts. We need to think about long term survival, if the Chinese don’t hit us, we’ve got to eat. Try to locate some garden seeds in your trading, we can raise a garden up on the levee before it gets to steep. I wish I had brought more food when I left the coast, but at the time I only had to feed myself and I left some with my sister and her family. I left them so I wouldn’t be an extra mouth at their camp. I don’t think the die off is over yet, if the survivors don’t get crops in the ground, all this fighting is for naught. The Chinese have food and that in itself is a good reason to kill them.”

Rachel grinned, “What gives me the feeling that you are planning to get it?”

The next day Butch came over the levee early. He joined Dix and Rachel for biscuits and honey. Beagle was already running the nets.

Butch started talking before he could get his mouth full, “The A10’s came in about 3:00am this morning. Their first sortie is
after lunch. The air force has set up operations and we’re ready to keep them supplied with fuel. We already found a barge full of wheat, another one of rice, a silo of corn, and a silo of soybeans; we are not going to starve. Chuck Harris is still alive, he’s set up the grain mill, and will grind it in exchange for whatever we can swap him. He and his wife survived, but his parents didn’t make it, they got sick and there wasn’t any medical help.”

“Tell him when you see him that I’ll bring him some catfish,” Dix replied. “What’s the situation on the Chinese?”

“We expect them to try to take and hold the bridges here at Natchez. They may also try to take and hold the Natchez airport or make a bombing run to stop the A10’s once the sorties start.”

“Where are they now?”

“They are still dropping troops and equipment, one group has headed north, we think they’re going to hit Fort Polk. But they could divert here to try and get across the river.”

“I suggest you mine the bridges here, just in case.”

Butch pointed to the map he drew of the area, “If they make a run this way, they’ll have to cross the Red River at Marksville, or the Atchafalaya River at Simsport. I think it’s more likely they’ll try crossing the Atchafalaya; otherwise, they’ll have to build a pontoon bridge at Jonesville. The other option they have is to transport them to a rendezvous point by helicopter. We can’t control where they can deploy with helicopters, we can only try to respond, if they do that it will be close to the airport.”

Dix studied the map, “I’d deploy as many people as I could around the airport. Not at the airport, but where we can intercept them prior to them hitting the airport. I’d cover all the approaches and the entire fuel route. Get Chuck Harris to monitor radio communications to see if they have any of the mayor’s former supporters communicating with the bad guys.”

“Five thousand trained and disciplined Chinese troops can chew us up and spit us out. You can’t fight them in a conventional manner. We’re short on men but heavy in sharp shooters, most of their guys never touched a gun until they were conscripted into the army. Our guys grew up in the woods. That gives us a leg up every time.”

Butch nodded in agreement, “I follow you.”

Dix continued, “If the Chinese come up the river road, we can slow or stop them using twenty men with deer rifles strung out over the 35 miles along the river. They would have a turkey shoot; particularly, if you barricaded the levee every four or five miles to slow them down, so our boys can have time to shoot. I would also put some guys in Catahoula Parish with radios.”

Butch thought about what Dix had said, “That could work. What do you want to do?”

“I don’t want to lead a squad again, I don’t like being responsible for anyone other than me when I’m in the field. I’ll go in wherever you think I can do the most damage.”

“As soon as I get word, I’ll let you know.”

Rachel looked over at Dix, “You’re the first General I’ve ever met who never gives orders.”

“What do you mean? I’m just voicing my opinion.”

“Maybe so, but you’ve led or orchestrated the battle from the moment I met you. Everyone looks to you for direction, what do you think they’re going to do when you get yourself killed?”

“Look Rachel, I led my family and our friends and now they’re all buried in the back yard. I’m not leading anyone but myself from now on.” Dix was nearly shouting, “I can lead myself to the bad guys, I can kill the daylights out of ‘em and I don’t endanger anybody but me doing it.” He turned his back to her.

“What about me, Beagle, Ben and Frank, we’d be dead right now if we didn’t follow you.”

Dix turned and pointed at her, “I never intended to make you dependant on me, as long as Beagle can catch catfish and teach you, you can trade for what you need. We confiscated that house boat for shelter. Rachel,” he said gently, “You had better get used to the idea of me not coming back one day. My luck is going to run out, everyone thinks I’m this super warrior. I’m not superman. I’ve been shot at and hit several times. I am reckless and have been just plain stupid lucky. I am going to continue going on missions until my luck runs out or all the bad guys are dead.”