The Forgiven The Fallen The Forsaken (14 page)

What Rob didn’t
expect was that four uniformed sheriff’s deputies were leading the group of
thirty or more men with AR-15’s and hunting rifles.  One of the deputies aimed
his assault rifle in the air and fired off a shot.  He picked up a megaphone
and said, “We know you’re in there.  Come out now.”

Rob said to
Jim, “Mind if I take this one?”  Jim shrugged and pushed the microphone over to
him. 

Rob pushed the
microphone and said, “We’re not risking contamination and we don’t have enough
supplies anyway.”  The speakers were intentionally set very loud in order to be
more intimidating and the mob did appear to wince.

The officer
said, “This isn’t a discussion.  Come out now.”

Rob said, “This
is a federal outpost and you have no authority here.  You will stand down and
you will leave now.”

The deputy
looked like he was about to lose it. “You are under arrest for disobeying the
instructions of a peace officer during a time of martial law.  You will come
out now or face the consequences.” 

Ann said to
Rob, “They’re hungry; they’re not going to back down.” 

Rob answered
her, “You’re right, but I have to try anyway.”

Jim pointed to
the monitors and said, “Look!”  There was a large group of men on foot entering
the trees a half mile to the rear of the property. “Screw these assholes.”

Jim activated
his radio and said, “Be advised, we have another group of at least thirty doing
a flanking maneuver at the back of the property.” 

Rob said,
quietly, “Move the reserve to the rear line.  Ann, get out there with a thirty
cal.”

Jim clicked the
radio on again. “Reserve to the rear line, now.  Contact in three minutes. 
Rules of engagement are no survivors.  Front line is to open fire on my order
or with first shots heard.  Rear line may fire at will once ambush is set.”

Rob picked up
the microphone and said, “Look, asshole.  I know you’re not going to leave and
I know you aren’t going to believe me when I say you don’t have a chance.  So,
fuck you, pig.  If any of the rest of you men would like to haul ass, now is
the time.  You have two thirty caliber machine guns pointed at your position. 
None of you will survive.”

Rob heard the
deputy screaming at a couple of the men who were edging toward the road, “He’s
lying.  Stay where you are!”  The rest of the men were nervously trying to spot
where the machine guns were hidden. 

Jim said into
the radio, “The second group is entering the kill zone.  It’s time.”  He keyed
the radio.  “All groups stand by to fire.  Pick your targets.  Stand by. 
Ready.  Fire!  Fire!  Fire!”

Two machine
guns and eight assault rifles opened up on the front group.  The deputy with
the megaphone died first with one shot through the forehead.  The rest of the
group was quickly cut to pieces. 

The enemy to
the rear lasted slightly longer and was able to get off a few aimless rounds,
but the machine gun and nine rifles firing from covered positions made short
work of the assailants.  It was a slaughter.

Rob keyed his
radio.  “Rear group, stay in place in case of stragglers.  Manny, we need recon
on the rear.  Front line, make sure the job is finished, and then cover the
cleanup crew.”

There were a
few shots at the front as Will made sure that all of the enemy were dead, and a
few more as Julio did the same thing at the rear.  Rob opened a new screen for
the remote controlled recon plane Manny had just launched.  The infrared camera
didn’t show any more of the enemy in the woods.

Once they were
sure it was safe, Jim and Ann put on protective gear and gas masks, and drove
the excavator to the rear.  She collected all the weapons and ammo into an open
barrel while he used the excavator to quickly dug a twelve foot deep mass
grave.  They both dragged the bodies to the pit and kicked them over the side. 
Jim almost threw up when he recognized what was left of the handyman he’d hired
to fill the pond.  They covered the bodies with lye and buried them.

Rob asked
Samantha to not take any pictures.  For once she was happy to agree.

Frank, Stewart,
Todd, and Dave donned MOP gear and masks, and then took the tractor and
bulldozer to the front.  Frank moved the embankment out of the way with the
dozer and started to dig a pit next to the road.  Dave collected the weapons
into a wheelbarrow while Todd and Dave started moving vehicles far back into
the tree line across the street.  They left the keys in each vehicle under the
driver seats.  Soon, the pit was complete and Frank and Stewart used the
tractor and bulldozer to push the bodies into it.

Frank filled
the hole with the bull dozer, and Stewart used the back hoe on the tractor to
dig up and move two small trees and several bushes to cover the site.  The
others collected pine needles and eliminated as much evidence of the
disturbance as possible.  Finally, Frank replaced the embankment blocking the
unpaved ranch road. 

They returned
the tractor and bull dozer to the ranch where everyone in MOP gear received a shower
with strong disinfectant before exiting the gear.  The excavator, tractor, and
bulldozer received the same treatment, as did all of the collected ammo and
firearms, and all were left outside to dry.  Anything that could have been
contaminated would be off limits for the next several days, until they were
positive that any bird flu virus would be dead. 

While they were
cleaning up the mess, Manny found where the rear group’s vehicles were parked
by the side of the road three miles away.  Julio and Manny went to check out
the site and were surprised to find no evidence of anyone left behind to
report.  Julio reported, “Unless they were parked elsewhere or knew how to fly,
those idiots didn’t leave anyone to report back to whoever sent them.” 

Jim and Rob
were both relieved at this.  They left the vehicles in place as there really
wasn’t much point in hiding them.  Jim said, “Whoever sent them knew where they
were going.”

Rob answered, “Hopefully
they will have learned their lesson and won’t be sending anyone else to hassle
us.”   Neither of them believed that.

Rob and Jim
called everyone not on guard duty to come in to the headquarters for sandwiches
and a quick debriefing. 

Rob started off
the session.  “Today was the hardest day of most of your lives.  Right now
you’re questioning if we did the right thing.  We buried 68 men today who were here
because they were hungry.  Know that they would have killed all of us and taken
everything.  Don’t ever forget that.

“Today you
chose to do what you had to do to live, but I need you to know this isn’t just
about your lives.”

Rob walked over
to the radio equipment that Frank had set up in the main room and said, “General
Whitman, can you hear us?”

“Yes.  Thank
you Rob.”

There were a
number of gasps around the room.

The General
continued.  “I don’t have a lot of time but I wanted to touch base with all of
you.  Satellites are back in place and we will be in communication from now
on.    

“What you had
to do today should never have been necessary in America.  I regret that it was
and apologize to you for the circumstances that led to it. 

“I want you to
know that we are a few months away from having a vaccine, and America
desperately needs you in place to deliver that vaccine once it is ready.  We
are grateful for what you are doing.  I know that sounds insignificant at the
moment, but know that what you are doing is of great importance and you will be
remembered for it.

“As of 19:00
hours, I am reactivating Robert’s commission in the United States Army and am promoting
him to Colonel.  Colonel Mullins, you have the full authority of the government
of the United States of America to do whatever is necessary to get that vaccine
out and restore government control over as much of the South Western United
States as possible.  Do you understand these orders?”

“Yes, General,”
Rob replied.

“We will be
sending you the vaccine and troops in the next few months.  Until then, I won’t
have much help for you.  Your mission is to maintain your ability to deliver
that vaccine, no matter what.”

“We will, sir.”

“Good luck and
God bless.”

“Thank you,
sir.”

There was
silence in the room. 

Jim spoke after
a moment.  “I’m so sorry for today.  We needed all of you on the line.

“Many of you may
have problems processing what happened today.  Understand that those men killed
themselves today by placing us in a position in which we were left with the
choice to fire on them or be killed. I gave the order to fire.  In the end, it
was my decision and I am fully responsible for all of the results.

“If you are
having problems with what happened today, I want you to talk to me about it. 
Tonight I want you to talk to someone about it.  Process it.  Talk about it as
much as you can.  Understand how traumatic and screwed up it was.  Forgive
yourselves for what you had to do.”

Rita stood up
at the back of the room.  “I want to say something.  My kids are safe today
because of what all of you did.” Tears were flowing down her cheeks, but she
looked furious.  “Those assholes would have taken everything and left our kids
to starve.  They deserve to rot in hell.   I’m glad we could help send them
there.”  

Jim noticed Rob
say something in to his radio.  A moment later, Pia opened the door from the
outside and the younger kids ran in wearing costumes ranging from superhero
outfits to various animals.  They marched around the room like it was a
Christmas parade. Immediately, the somber mood of the room was broken with the
kids taking over the room.  

Rob, you
smooth, manipulative, son of a bitch,
thought Jim,
I don’t know if we’re
lucky to have you or completely screwed.

Either way, one
thing was sure, Jim knew.  The community would never be the same again. 

Stewart, Ann,
and Jim took first watch that night.  Stew said that he wouldn’t be able to
sleep anyway. 

Jim spent a lot
of time talking with different community members in the communications room. 
No more incursions were attempted, fortunately, but even while he provided
solace to his friends, Jim couldn’t forget all of the corpses in cold graves a
few hundred meters away.
 Whatever happens from here on out, our lives will
never be the same,
he thought, sadly.

Later that
evening, the General called back on an encrypted phone and talked with Jim
about the village and how people were doing.  He told Jim, “Call me Paul. 
You’re our civilian leadership for that group and are not under my command. 
Besides, I’d like to have some sane civilian to talk to once in a while.”  At
the end of the call, Jim was left surprised that he would take such an interest
in their little camp.  They would have many more such conversations over the
next few weeks.

APRIL 6
^th

The week and a
half since the attack had been restless for everyone, but Luke noticed a large
difference in how the teenage boys were treated.  They had fought without
hesitation and had destroyed the enemy completely.  He was surprised at how
easy it was when there was no other choice. 

The downside to
it all was that they were now looked at as men. 
With all the crappy
responsibilities that go with that,
thought Luke. 
No more getting away
with anything.  This sucks!

There just
wasn’t a lot of slack for them anywhere.  Even Uncle Jim’s classes were getting
tougher and they were spending a lot of time on weapons, especially trench
knives and other blades.  Now Julio was training them in sniper skills in
addition to all of the small squad tactics training that everyone else was
doing. 
I always thought that stuff would be fun, but it’s mostly hard and
uncomfortable.  I still itch from that damn ant hill I crawled through
yesterday.

The highlight
of the past week was that Rob took them out for a ride in the helicopter so see
what was left of the world.  The homes within a few miles of them appeared to
be mostly empty, though a few had smoke coming from the fireplaces.  For these
they would land briefly to leave a box of MRE's with a note and a radio. There
were cars abandoned on the roads here and there, but nothing looked too bad
until they got to Flagstaff.

The city was a
mess with stores looted, broken windows everywhere, and even rotting bodies in
the streets.  Luke recognized stores that they had shopped in a few weeks
before that were now destroyed.  There were a few people who came out to wave
at them, but overall, it looked like a ghost town. 

The
understanding of the tragedy they had avoided hit him like a punch in the stomach. 
We were supposed to be like these people, but we cheated.  But I’m not about
to give up, ever.  No matter what.

He was very
happy to get back to the village.  When Matt showed the video of their recon after
dinner, Luke skipped out on it and went to the commons building to do some more
work on the ghillie suit he was making.  It felt better to be keeping his hands
busy.  He was getting into the flow of working on it when the door opened and
Jamie walked in.

“Hey, you.”

Matt looked up and
said, “What’s going on?”

“Just thought
I’d stop in and say hello. You doing okay?”

“That was awful
today. All those places we went shopping are empty.  So many of those people
are dead.  It’s horrible.”

She said, “I
know what you mean.  I still can’t get the image of those people I shot out of
my head.”

“How about a
game of dominoes?”

In the end they
played several games, and talked very little.  It was just right.