American Meltdown: Book Two of The Economic Collapse Chronicles (22 page)

CHAPTER
47

“As our enemies have found we can reason like men, so now let us show them we can fight like men also.”

-Thomas Jefferson

Before breakfast Saturday, Paul Randall had his morning security briefing in his own study. The IT team which General Jefferson put together were among the best in the world. They linked all of the Coalition leadership through a secure network so they could communicate through encrypted video conferencing.

All of the governors and the commanding officer of each military base inside the Coalition States attended the briefings every Monday through Saturday.

Governor Simmons of Kentucky started his segment of the briefing which updated every one of the situation on the Kentucky-West Virginia border. DHS troops were building up on every road that crossed over into Kentucky.

Governor Simmons said, “We are sending armored personnel carriers and more troops from Fort Campbell and Fort Knox to back up the militia who are guarding the border, but this leaves the bases weak. Additionally, we don
’t have much in the way of heavy munitions.”

Tennessee Governor Sam Richards asked, “What about the stuff you have at Blue Grass Army Depot?”

Simmons replied, “We have used most of the MRAP transport vehicles out of there. We have .50 calibers mounted on top of all those. We have some Gulf War stingers scheduled for demolition and some mines sent there for disassembly and recycling, but most of the weapons stockpiled there are nasty stuff. The vast amount of the US chemical weapons stockpile is stored at Blue Grass Army Depot. In fact, it was all supposed to be destroyed next year, which is when the chemical destruction facility is scheduled to be completed. If we use any of that junk, we’ll lose public support. Those stingers look pretty rough. I would ask the general to speak to their viability.”

General Jefferson
said, “You’re right, Governor, we don’t want to use sarin gas or any chemical weapons if we can avoid it. The Gulf War stingers should work. Worst case scenario, you pull the trigger and it doesn’t fire. That might be the case with one or two out of a hundred. I’d hand them out. Just let the troops know they’re old. I‘ll get you some FGM Javelins from Fort Bragg this week, but try to use everything you can out of Blue Grass Army Depot. We need to try to make use of everything we have. We don’t know how long this conflict will last. The last civil war lasted four years.”

Paul Randall
clicked the icon that displayed his images on everyone’s monitor. “Intelligence has gathered these photos of the Port of San Francisco and the Port of San Diego. If you look closely, you will see that they each have the Chinese flag flying over the California flag on all of their flag poles. We also have reports of Chinese troops in the Port of Los Angeles. The troops have on Chinese uniforms, but the insignia’s are red ships where the red star would usually be. Chinese naval ships are in all three ports. We don’t know what this means, but we suspect that Howe has granted the ports to China for some sort of deal. We don’t know if he’s getting military support from China or what, but we need to stay very aware of this situation.”

Montana Governor Mark Shae sounded concerned. “That
’s frightening. I wonder if any deals have been struck for the ports in Oregon or Washington.”

General Jefferson answered him. “We haven’t heard anything. Howe would be a fool to let them get their foot in the door
that close to Seattle. His nuclear subs are stationed right outside of there. I’m sure he would give up Portland, though. If the Chinese wanted it, that is. At any rate, it is a disturbing development.”

The men continued their meeting. The discussion focused on the possibilities of future attacks on
the Coalition States and how best to position troops and assets to defend against such attacks.

CHAPTER
48

“Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you."

-Luke 6:38

Matt and Karen woke up early Monday morning. In a few minutes, Adam would be dropping off the young wife of the new militia member who would be staying with Karen for the week. As Matt finished packing for his patrol, Karen scurried around the house to make it neat and to finish preparing the spare room for the new houseguests.

“It will actually be nice to have someone else around. You’re gone every other week on patrol. It gets a little lonely around here,” Karen said.

“You spend most of the time over with Janice and the girls when I’m gone, don’t you?” Matt asked. “Besides that, you always have the sweet Miss Mae.” Matt reached down to pet the small cat rubbing against his leg.

“Miss Mae is wonderful, but she doesn’t talk much.” Karen smiled. “I don’t go to Janice’s much because I have so much to do in the garden. By the time I am done, it’s dark and I don’t like to walk over there by myself at night.”

“Well,” Matt said, “I hope it works out. Maybe she can help you keep up with some of the chores in the garden.”

They heard Adam’s truck as it pulled into the drive.

Before anyone came to the door, Karen said, “Be careful on your patrol. I know DHS has troops stationed on the other side of your checkpoint. I wish you didn’t have to go.”

Matt pulled her close and held her tight. There was a knock and Matt opened the door. Adam came in first followed by the young couple and Wesley. The young man was short, but looked very strong. He was in full militia gear. He wore camo from head to toe and a chest rig with several magazines. The girl wasn’t very tall either. She was pretty but looked a bit scared. She had on jeans and a sweatshirt and carried a backpack. The pack was the size a student might use to carry books to school. It wasn’t what you would expect a person to have carrying all of their worldly belongings.

“Come in.” Karen took the girls bag and asked, “Do you have any more luggage?”

“No.” The girl’s voice was shaky.

Karen could see that tears were starting to well up in the young girl’s eyes.

“That’s O
kay, we have everything you could possibly need right here,” Karen said.

Adam introduced the couple. “This is Justin and Rene.” He then held his hand toward Matt and Karen. “And this is my city boy cousin, Matt, and his beautiful wife
, Karen.”

Karen said, “Come sit down and have some breakfast.”

Adam replied, “We’ll have a quick cup of coffee, but we gotta roll out.”

Everyone had a cup of coffee and Karen wrapped up a few biscuits for Justin to eat on the road. They said their good
-byes and the men headed out.

Karen showed Rene to her room. She felt sorry for her. She couldn’t imagine being in her position. She knew they were doing the right thing by letting the young couple stay with them.

“I’m getting ready to wash clothes. Do you have anything to wash?” Karen knew they had been staying in a tent at Lt. Joe’s for a few days and probably didn’t get the chance to wash.

Rene said, “Yes. Thank you.” And dug out her clothes from her backpack.

“If you’d like to take a shower, I can give you a robe when you get out and wash what you have on as well,” Karen said.

“That would be nice
,” Rene said.

Karen got the laundry going and Rene got cleaned up. Karen
fought back the tears as she thought what it was like to be a refugee. She thought of all the others that were living in camps without the comforts they were used to having.

After Rene came out of the shower, Karen fixed her a big breakfast and sat down to have a cup of coffee while
Rene ate.

“So tell me all about yourself. Where did you grow up? When did you meet Justin?”
Karen tried to make the girl feel welcome.

Rene lost the look of dread that had been on her face and the two women chatted for over an hour as they got to know each other.

CHAPTER 49

“Among the natural rights of the colonists are these: First a right to life, secondly to liberty, and thirdly to property; together with the right to defend them in the best manner they can.” 

-Samuel Adams

Adam, Wesley, Matt and Justin went out to Adam’s truck. Justin jumped into the bed of the truck as the cab would be too tight to haul all four men. Matt jumped into the back with Justin to keep him company. It was early morning and the air was cool, but spring was here and it felt much better than the frigid winter air.

Matt said to Justin, “Nothing like a cold miserable winter to make you appreciate spring.” It was small talk, but Matt really did have a deep gratitude for the warmer weather.

Justin nodded and smiled but didn’t say anything.

“I guess you’re used to the cold winters, but it’s been a while since I suffered through such bad weather. Being in the militia and training out in the elements, I learned how much I don’t like being cold,” Matt said.

“You never get used to being cold,” Justin said.

“What did you do in West Virginia?” Matt asked.

Justin responded, “You mean before the crash?”

“Yeah.” Matt stuck his hands in his pockets to keep them warm. The air blowing by the moving truck made the air feel much cooler.

Justin said, “I did fence installation and repair during the spring, summer and fall. When it was slow, I helped a buddy build and repair barns.  I worked at my uncle’s auto repair shop in the winter.”

“Who did you work for in the fence business?” Matt asked.

“That was my own business,” Justin said. “I worked with a big fence company in Huntington for a couple years. I learned the business, saved up and bought my own equipment.”

“You’re pretty industrious.” Matt looked at the ambitious young man and thought of what Justin could have made of himself if the rug had not been pulled out from under him.

The two men talked and got to know each other during the hour and a half drive toward the 421 checkpoint. Matt told Justin about his adventures in getting out of Florida at the last minute and how God had blessed them to find their little farm.

Justin told Matt about his training with the West Virginia militia and about his family, most of whom had decided to stay in the Huntington area.

Adam pulled off US 421 onto a narrow one-lane road just before the hairpin curve in the ascending mountain road. The turnoff was about a mile away from the checkpoint. Matt looked around to see what was going on. Adam continued down the road about a half mile until he came to a pond. Gary Brewer, Brian Mitchum, JC Hunter and some of the Marines who had defected from Virginia were there when they arrived.

Matt jumped out and introduced Justin to the other members of Bravo Squad. After that, he went to Adam to ask him what was up.

“Why are we stopping here?” Matt asked.

Adam replied, “I didn’t want to say anything in front of Karen. I know she worries enough, but the border has been breached. Yesterday, the checkpoint at US 119 was overrun by DHS troops. The Kentucky National Guard patrol that manned the checkpoint were all killed or captured. They haven’t taken any more ground, but they are setting up an outpost on the Kentucky side of the Big Sandy River. US 119 jumps back and forth from Kentucky to West Virginia in that stretch. Whoever controls that stretch of US 119 would also control that stretch of the river. Howe might want control of the Big Sandy to move coal from the area up to Huntington. 

“Right across the bridge from the checkpoint is Williamson, West Virginia. DHS has set up a prison camp about five miles east of there. It’s a big one, so they must be expecting to put a bunch of people in it.”

“I wonder why they would put a camp there?” Matt asked.

“They’ll probably use the prisoners to mine coal,” Adam answered.

Two more trucks pulled up with Michael Marino, Lee Jessup and the remaining men from Bravo.

Adam called everyone to gather around himself so he could brief them on the change of plans. He repeated the latest developments to the newcomers to fill them in on the situation across the river from Williamson, ninety miles north of them. “Franklin Johnson is coordinating with the rest of the military and militia forces in Kentucky to strengthen the checkpoints. We don’t know what DHS will do next, but we know this isn’t the end. Johnson expects they’ll try to build their presence near Williamson and look for other crossings into Kentucky. We think they took Williamson because it was one of the most lightly guarded crossings. Our checkpoint at US 421 would also be a good candidate for DHS to hit because it’s relatively lightly guarded.

“Rather than build it up, Johnson wants us to maintain a low show of force at the border on 421. We
’re going to set up an ambush at the hairpin curve right before the checkpoint. The few guys from Alpha holding the border are going to melt into the woods if the federal forces take the bait and the checkpoint gets hit.

“One of the guys from Alpha Squad is related to the man who owns this pond, so we are going to keep our vehicles right here in the tree line. We are going to set up sniper positions up on the sides of those two hills that look down on the hairpin curve.”

Adam opened a duffle bag and pulled out two sticks of dynamite. “Harlan Mining Company made this generous donation to the militia effort. We have a whole bag of dynamite. We are going to tunnel under the road at two points on the hairpin curve up on 421. The first just past the turn off to Davis Lane and the second just after the turn coming out of the hairpin. This will do two things. It will shut down US 421 from being a throughway for Federal forces, but it will allow locals to still get through on the little one lane roads. Davis merges with Garret Hollow, which is where we are now. Garret Hollow goes back up to 421 which will create a bypass for locals. The stretch of road in-between will be a kill zone for any DHS vehicles trapped in the middle of the two explosions.”

Adam opened another duffle bag and pulled out two bowed, green plastic objects about the size of a book. “Anyone know what these are?”

One of the Marines that had defected and joined Bravo shouted out, “Claymore mines.”

“Claymore mines,” Adam echoed. “We have fifty of these, courtesy of Blue Grass Army Depot. These are old and were scheduled to be demolished, but now they
’ll be assisting us in our struggle for freedom. They aren’t exactly fresh out of the oven, but we’ll take what we can get.

“Once the vehicles are trapped in the kill zone, the objective will be to get the DHS troops out of the vehicles. If they come across the border in MRAPs lik
e they did up near Williamson, Claymores and small-arms fire won’t do much. After the initial explosions take out the road, we’ll give them a while to try to maneuver out. On one side they’ll have rock and on the other side they’ll have that gulley. If they can get their vehicles in the gulley without rolling over, they’ll be stuck when they hit the tree line. My guess is that a few of them will roll over.

“Most of these DHS agents are as green as this mountain. Several of them will panic and start pouring out of the vehicles on their own. As soon as you have a shot, take it. If you get
a few of them near one of your Claymores, blow it. For the ones smart enough to stay in their truck, we’ll smoke them out.”

Adam pulled out a glass bottle with a rag hanging out of it. “You don’t always have to be high tech. Sometimes low tech will do just fine. These Molotov cocktails are filled with gasoline that has been thickened with Styrofoam. The propellant will stick to whatever the glass breaks against. Ten or twenty of these will turn any MRAP into a convection oven. They
’ll either get out where we can shoot them or cook inside the vehicle until they’re well-done.

“That stretch of road is short. Depending on the spacing and the number of vehicles in the convoy, they may not all get in the kill zone by the time we blow the road. Alpha Squad is going to be inside the tree line between the checkpoint and the hairpin. They have eight old shoulder-fired Stingers to light up any
vehicles that try to retreat.

“That is the big picture. I’ll be going over your individual assignments in detail with each one of you. Are you guys ready for this?”

Everyone yelled, “Yeah!”