Whiskey Black Book Set: The Complete Tyrant Series (Box Set 1) (42 page)

“We need to push on,” Nathan said as he walked away from the table. “We still have an objective.”

Jess stood up and walked over to the FLIES drone.

“If we can barely see those things flying overhead, then we have a restless trip ahead of us.”

Ash joined their side and replied to Jess, “Before I shot that thing down, I didn’t even know it was there. It was making a soft buzzing sound, reminiscent of the old sound of humming electricity. I had no idea how long it had been watching or what it was doing.”

“Doesn’t matter now,” Nathan said from across the room. “We’ve been on the move for two months, and yeah, we’ve made progress, but we’re still quite a ways from Chicago.”

Nathan was packing up his gear and loading his weapons with ammunition.

Everybody was well loaded with ammunition, but sadly, they were having to accustom themselves to the shooting of UN-seized weapons. Not very accurate, but very reliable. Cade felt the most comfortable with AKs. He was loading his AKs when he started to go on another one of his diatribes.

“I remember when the lights went out. Before that day I had no idea I would be shooting these things again. My unit was in Iran and we had just won a major battle against the hajis. We were told to return home immediately, that our services were no longer required. The war wasn’t over and we were giving the jihadists a wartime victory by leaving. After that, they continued to flood through the Mexican border and were rallying on US soil and blowing things up. Everything was on fire after the Flip. It was impossible to tell which were acts of terrorism and which were caused by looters and rioters. I guess when it came down to it, they were one and the same.”

Ash shared a similar story as he was packing his gear.

“When the Flip went down, I was in the front room. I remember the sounds of low-flying jets overhead. There were dozens of them. They were moving so fast and creating so much noise that the chinaware in our home was vibrating. I went outside to take a look and about that time, the village sirens began to wail. Nobody knew why. We all thought that we were under some kind of attack. Little did we know, we were under attack alright, it just wasn’t the enemy we were expecting.”

The group finished their packing and started to load up the equipment. Before Buchanan had left, a month back, TOW platoon reported to Buchanan that their tube-launched, optically guided, wireless (TOW) missile supplies were running low. He had already routed a path on his map to the next TOW cache. He made sure it was in the direction they were already headed and was hoping the cache was still there. If it was, they could also pick up some much-needed ammunition for the 50 cals, M4s, and MK19s. The combined anti-tank assault teams (CAAT) were heavily used before the Flip. Any infantry unit would have a supply cache of the ammunition. The problem would be whether or not they were still there.

“I wonder if Buchanan did well with acquiring his heavy guns equipment,” Nathan asked.

“I’m sure he did,” Jess said. “His men know what they’re doing and they were surviving quite well before we were added to the mix.”

Gorham, Illinois

Tori Cunningham was a member of the Southern Illinois Home Guard before the Flip. She lived in Belleville and was also a Marine Corps vet. She was the same age as Nathan and met him on a forum that Nathan had designed when he was a web designer and blogger. He recruited her into the Southern Illinois Home Guard, but when the grid went down, her husband refused to leave town, choosing instead to stay and endure, come what may. In the end, they weren’t so lucky. The inner city proved too difficult to survive in. There was mass murder, looting, and violent crimes of every sort.

They had kept their house boarded against break-ins, but eventually they came. A group of men with guns demanding they surrender their home, food, and weapons. Her husband, Richard, refused. They sent Molotov cocktails against their sturdy reinforced doors and windows. They caught fire and burned their home to the ground, killing Richard and their six-year-old daughter Charity. Tori had barely escaped with her life and had almost lost that in the proceeding gun fight. She was unconscious when she was rescue by a group of preppers, only to awaken to the fact that two of her family members were burned alive. Her oldest daughter, Amelia, had escaped the fire, but was caught by the bandits and traded to an old man for whiskey. When Tori was well enough to venture out, she went looking for her daughter Amelia, only to find that she, and other children, had been cannibalized by the old man.

Tori had been on the road for a full day, having just recently traded a Ruger 9mm for a running motorcycle; she was tracking down the SIHG group. She had made her way to Gorham and was devastated at what had become of the place. She had been to Gorham on multiple occasions in the past, for meetings and training sessions with Nathan and Denny. She wasn’t prepared for what she was seeing.

Gorham, for the most part, was burnt to the ground. She saw very few residents and very few standing homes.

She was met with indignation from the people within the community. They looked out their windows and dropped the curtains when she looked in their direction. She knocked on doors where she saw movement, but they would not answer. Tori understood why the people were paranoid of her. She had endured such atrocities in Belleville, so was being empathetic toward their behavior.

“Hello? My name is Tori Cunningham,” she began to yell. “I’m sorry to disturb you, but I’m looking for some friends of mine. Maybe you know Nathan Roeh, Denny Ackers, or Stephen Gill? Nathan used to live around here, up the road, I think. We were supposed to meet here if martial law was imposed.”

It seemed like no one was listening, when a little girl came peeking around the corner of a burned-down trailer.

“Hello there,” Tori said as she stooped down. “My name’s Tori. Can you help me?”

The little girl just shook her head no and stood there. About that time, Christina came calling.

“Sydni.”

The little girl took off running and Tori stood up and walked towards Christina’s voice. She saw the little girl run to a tall lady that she assumed was the girl’s mother.

“Excuse me,” Tori said as she walked towards the lady. “My name’s Tori. I’m looking for some friends of mine. Maybe you know them? Nathan Roeh, Denny Ackers, or Stephen Gill?”

“What do you want with them?”

“I’m a friend of theirs. I knew them before the Flip and I’ve left my home in Belleville to search for them.”

Christina took notice of the pistol she had tucked in the front of her pants, the Remington 270 she had slung over her shoulder, and her rugged appearance. She had a black eye and a busted lip that looked to be scabbed over.

Tori took note that Christina was looking at her weapons.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Tori said. “This was a gift”—Tori touched her pistol—“and I captured this from a thug in Chester,” she continued, touching the shoulder strap of her rifle. “I don’t mean to scare anybody.”

“Are you a soldier or something?”

“I was in the Marines with Nathan a few years ago. He got out and I extended.”

“Well, they’re not here anymore. They’ve headed north to save some people from the FEMA camps.”

“I see. Did they happen to say which route they took?”

“No, I’m sorry. I watched them drive off in that direction.”

Christina was pointing east.

“That’s not north,” Tori said. “I wonder why they headed that way.”

“I’m not sure. Would you like to come inside, out of the cold, to warm up a bit before you leave?”

“That won’t be necessary, ma’am. I need to keep moving.”

“Okay, but stay safe out there. Our boys are with a group of Marines, so keep your eyes open for them. They might be able to help you.”

“Thank you very much. Your kindness is appreciated.”

“You’re welcome.”

Christina was not being honest with Tori. She knew that the group were heading to Chicago to overthrow a fortress full of American prisoners.

“Oh, by the way, if you see my husband, Rory, with them, tell him that we miss him and that his wife and daughters love him.”

“I will Mrs…”

Tori hesitated and waited on a name.

“Oh, I’m sorry. Christina Price.”

“Alright, Mrs. Price. I’ll give him the message.”

As Tori was getting back on her bike, Christina was overwhelmed with guilt that she had lied to Tori about the group’s destination. It was against her morals as a Christian to lie, and her conscience was now weighing heavily.

“Tori, wait,” she yelled, but Tori had already started the motorcycle and couldn’t hear Christina over the engine.

Tori left Gorham on her motorcycle and headed towards Murphysboro, not seeing or hearing the FLIES drone overhead.

Springfield, Illinois

In Springfield, a small command post had been set up by the UN and was commanded by Captain Zacharov, a Russian military man with twenty years’ experience. He was a tyrant and cared little about America’s status in the world. He cared only for Russia and would be a fine example of Russian patriotism, if not for his evil tendencies.

“Captain Zacharov, the Cunningham girl was followed to Gorham, where the suspected southern Illinois resistance was once located,” the junior sergeant said in Russian.

“Good, continue to follow her. She is the only remaining RFID-chipped survivor of the Southern Illinois Home Guard. What of the other resistance groups?”

“They are still actively repelling our forces. They know their areas and have the advantage, being their homeland.”

“Continue your surveillance and report to me immediately when you have something actionable.”

“Yes, sir.”

The Main Core program had been a growing conspiracy theory since the 1980s. Originally started as a way to monitor extremist groups, the government ran with it and it grew into a shadow government type of program that placed Americans, specifically veterans, on a watch list for the most simple of reasons. If you were government trained, you were eligible for placement; if you were outspoken and had opposing views to the government, you were placed on the list. Eventually the list became unmanageable and a new high-tech way of storing data on these extremists became necessary. In the two decades following September 11, 2001, the NSA’s program grew exponentially and became the melting pot of data collection for everyone the government wanted to watch.

Through spy programs, the Chinese were able to hack the Utah Data Center and collect information on everyone included within the list. Most recently, the Chinese started the FLIES drone program and synched the drones with the data center, essentially giving FEMA and what was left of the federal government unprecedented access to information.

For the last decade leading up to the Flip, the US was including RFID chips as part of the inoculations routine for all government employees, especially the US military. This data was linked directly to the UDC and provided exact whereabouts and whether or not the individual was living or dead. The RFID chip was powered by electrical currents emitted by the human heart. If the chip was somehow removed or the body was deceased, the chip would discontinue to function.

Tori had stayed in the Marines an additional four years beyond Nathan’s time of service. She had the chip imbedded in the fatty tissue of her buttocks, but like most people, she didn’t know it was there, even though it had been leaked to the media through government defectors. Most people didn’t want to believe shadow government conspiracy theories when they heard them. When these types of leaks were made public, most chucked it off and some listened but didn’t let it bother them. Tori was the latter; she listened, but didn’t seem to let it bother her.

The Russians had used the Chinese FLIES drone to follow a faint signal to her whereabouts. The RFID chip was like a homing beacon to the FLIES drone once it was in range. They worked in unison once it was on target. It could read heart rates emitted from the electrical signal of the RFID chip, and the UDC could receive visual and audio signals from the drone. The person’s location, which was approximate to GPS, combined with the capabilities of the FLIES drone, made triangulation possible and exacted a location.

There were a few thousand of these drones flying autonomously across a vast American country, searching for veterans. When one was located, all they could do was watch and relay data back to the UDC.

Marion, Illinois

The combined forces group had amassed a couple hundred more members from the Illinois National Guard unit in Marion. They had a discussion on which route would be safest to take to the next National Guard armory. Everybody was in agreement that the interstate was just too dangerous. They had agreed to take a state highway, but to get to that road would mean doubling back a ways and then rerouting north towards Mount Vernon.

Nathan had learned quite a bit about tactics from Buchanan. As was now customary for Nathan, he had the Army Rangers and the Force Reconnaissance units ahead of the group. Sending a small group of elites ahead of the bulk of fighters provided them with intelligence of what was ahead of them.

As they had traveled, they ran into small skirmishes of raiding groups and individual fire, but nothing unmanageable by the now seasoned grunts.

Before the scouts had a chance to completely leave Marion’s borders behind, they stumbled upon a train that was on the roadway blocking the convoy’s route. As FORECON approached the track and looked down the length of it, one of the Marines noticed that it had been knocked off the tracks in an apparent ambush of sorts. Several of the front train cars were smashed and off the tracks.

As the Marines and Rangers approached the train, the group stopped their HMMWVs and exited onto foot patrol, but not without first relaying back to the convoy what was happening.

Back in the convoy, Nathan and the rest of the Posse came to a stop on the state route they were traveling, and waited on the FORECON and the Rangers to relay back some intel.

Meanwhile, at the train wreck, the lead scout threw up a hand signal for
get down
and
column formation
.