Avenging Home (24 page)

On the last street, the girls met in the road between the last two houses. The baskets were full to overflowing. They’d found so many spices and the like, that they were also packed into pillowcases. Lee Ann dropped a heavy pillow case onto the road. “How many cans of baking powder did you guys find?”

Fred laughed. “Oh my God. I think every kitchen had at least one, but usually two or three!”

“I know! What in the world do you use it for?”

Mary laughed. “For baking silly.”

Lee Ann laughed. “Well duh. But what’s it for?”

“It’s for leavening batter. Miss Kay will be pretty happy to have it for sure,” Jamie said.

Fred pointed to the now even larger pile of canning supplies. “She’s really going to be happy about the jars. Can you believe how many we found?”

“We need to get one of the buggies over here and load it all up. There’s just too much to carry,” Jess said.

“I’ll go get one,” Jamie said.

“I’ll come with you,” Lee Ann said and ran to catch up to her.

“We’ll be here when you get back,” Fred said.

At the armory we found Mike and Ted and loaded up. Sarge didn’t like being at the armory and wanted to get out of town as fast as possible. Not that there was much worry about anyone wanting him to stick around. As I was pulling out of the parking lot, Livingston walked up and asked, “How’d it go?”

“Let’s just say he wasn’t the right candidate,” I replied.

Sarge leaned forward and added, “You better keep an eye on Porky. I have a feeling he’s going to be nothing but trouble.”

“We haven’t had any trouble out of them. They came into town a few days ago and haven’t bothered anyone,” Livingston said.

“Our talk didn’t go well. So bad in fact we took their weapons from them. Shane has them at the PD. They can have them back in a few days after they cool off,” I said.

Livingston looked surprised. “What? Why’d you take them?”

“Ole Porky thinks he’s king shit on turd island. And those idjits with him treat him like some kind of royalty.” Sarge wagged his finger at Livingston. “Mark my words, he’s going to be trouble for you.”

Livingston let us know he thought we were wrong about Hyatt. I told him the man was his problem for now and made it clear to him that there was no way in hell he’d be made the judge around here. With that, I pulled away. It was time to get the hell out of town. As I drove up Bay Street, I noticed the dock along the lake was crowded with people. Some were obviously fishing while others were very obviously doing nothing.

“You know all those people lounging around out there could be out at the farm,” I said.

Sarge snorted. “If they want to eat, they’ll have to work for it.”

“Bunch of lazy asses out there,” Mike said.

“Mmm, yes. ne’er do wells,” Dalton said.

As we passed the barricade, Sarge said to stop by the farm. He had something for Cecil. When we stopped, I was surprised with the activity. There were people all over the field and they certainly looked busy. Maybe we’d get some crops this year after all. Sarge spotted Cecil and called out to him, waving him over to the truck. Mike, Dalton and Ted wandered off to check out the camp the Guard set up.

Cecil wiped his forehead as he walked up. His hands were filthy from working in the dirt all day. “How you fellers doing?” He asked.

“Fit as a fiddle,” Sarge replied. He looked around and leaned in close to Cecil. Sliding a plastic bag across the hood of the truck, he said, “Here, got a little something for you.”

Cecil eyed the bag. “What is it?”

Leaning in as though he were confiding a secret he didn’t want anyone to hear, Sarge replied, “Meat. Brought you some pork and some of that bear.”

A broad smile spread across Cecil’s face. “Don’t that beat all. I appreciate it, Linus. I get plenty of fish here in town, but red meat and especially pork is pert near nonexistent.”

“This should hold you over a couple of days,” Sarge said. Then he asked, “You got a way to keep it cool?”

Cecil shook his head. “Naw. But I got a smoke box. I’ll put it in there. That’ll keep it from going bad, not to mention, flavor it up real nice.”

“You could dry that bear meat out Cecil. I wouldn’t do it with the pork, but that bear you could just air dry,” I said.

Cecil picked up the bag and felt its weight. Smiling, he said, “It won’t last that long, Morgan. I’ll eat this up pretty quick. I’ve had a taste for some red meat for a while now, so I know I won’t be able to ration it none.”

“We’ll get you some more down here. Kay also made some sausage. I’ll get you some of that too,” Sarge said.

“That’d be fine. Be real fine.”

Sarge leaned back, resting his elbows on the hood of the truck, and looked out across the field. “It’s looking good out there, Cecil. How’s your help doing?”

Cecil mimicked Sarge as he rested against the truck. “You know, Linus. I really expected there to be a thin turnout. But look at all of ‘em. And everyone’s working hard, no fussin’. Everyone gets along and just fell in line. It’s nice to see people working together like this.”

“It’s for everyone’s good. It ain’t like before. You gotta earn your groceries now. You gotta grow it, find it or hunt it down and kill it.”

“I got high hopes for this patch of dirt.” Cecil pointed out into the field. “You notice anything about this crowd?”

Sarge looked the people over. After a moment, he shook his head and said, “No. I see everyone working. Looks like they’re all getting after it.”

Cecil looked at Sarge. “Come on Top.” Nodding out to the field again he said, “What’s the youngest person you see out there?”

“There ain’t no young people out there. I see what you mean. This is an older lot out here working today,” Sarge said.

“Remember all those people we saw along the lake?” I asked.

Sarge nodded. “Yeah, there’s a bunch of them in town lying around on their asses,” Sarge said.

Cecil let out a long breath. “It’s sad you can’t get people to understand that these crops aren’t just going to grow themselves.”

I laughed. “Well, you know they kind of are.”

Cecil chuckled. “You know what I mean.”

Sarge was more to the point when he looked over at me. “Smartass.”

Laughing, I replied, “Whatever, kettle.”

The guys returned from their inspection of the camp. Sarge asked them what they thought.

“They’ve got a pretty good set up. Hell, I’d rather be here than at the damn armory,” Ted said.

“Me too. Anywhere but there,” Mike said.

I looked out across the field. I was wondering where the chain gang was, and spotted them on the far end. Nodding towards them, I asked Cecil, “How’s the chain gang doing?”

“Oh hell, they ain’t happy. But they’re working,” he replied.

“Looks like they don’t have much choice to me,” Dalton said.

Sarge snorted. “That’s kinda the point.”

“They got to tussling this morning first thing when two of them found out they was chained up to the old boy that set that bomb. But them guards jerked a knot in their asses quick. Since then, they’ve been quiet,” Cecil said.

“I was wondering how that would go with the other two,” Sarge said.

“That guy, Dave ain’t got no room to talk. Hell, he killed his girlfriend,” I said.

“There’s a difference though. If he were in prison, he’d have to be segregated or the other inmates would wear his ass out,” Sarge said.

Mike laughed. “Yeah, wear it out literally!”

Cecil asked, “How long you going to keep them on that chain? And what do you plan to do with them?”

Shaking my head, I replied, “I don’t know.”

“Shwack em’!” Ted shouted.

“That’s your answer to everything,” Sarge barked.

“It’s the easy answer for sure. And that’s probably what it’s going to come down to. But while that will offer the families of the victims some vengeance, I figure making them work for the benefit of the community for a while has a better return,” I said.

Sarge snorted. “You ain’t turning into a damn bleeding heart liberal, are you?”

“What?” I shouted. “Kiss my ass! Dying is easy. But making these bastards work hard every day and getting something out of them before they become fertilizer, just makes sense. It’s not like they’re sitting around in the air conditioning and bitching about the quality of the food.”

Sarge laughed. “Just checking. I can’t have you getting all soft on me.”

“I think making them work is a good thing. You’ve got a real nice visual deterrent for everyone in town. I think they should have to walk through town like that. Hell, there’s got to be something in town they could do so everyone sees them,” Dalton said.

“I’ve got those little garden plots around town. I could put them to work there,” Cecil said.

Sarge nodded. “That’s a good idea. That way they don’t have to be transported out here every day and the folks in town can see them. They’ll understand that if they fuck up they’ll find themselves on the end of that chain.”

“There’s already folks guarding those gardens, so it wouldn’t require any additional security. I think I’ll talk to the Captain tonight and get that set up,” Cecil said.

“Sounds like it’s a done deal,” I said.

Sarge slapped the hood of the truck. “My work here is done! Let’s get on the road.”

“What work? You didn’t do shit,” Mike said.

Sarge shook his head. “You wanna walk home?”

Ted laughed. “You know he’ll do it! Again!”

Mike ran around the truck and climbed in. “Not this time!”

We mounted up and headed back towards home. I pulled into the plant on the way to check on the progress. One of the guardsmen providing security at the plant waved as we pulled in. Terry and Baker were buried up to their waists in a switchgear when we walked up. The sound of a ratchet banging against metal reverberated inside the small space. I stuck my head in and looked over Terry’s shoulder. “What’s up?” I asked with a smile.

Terry looked over his shoulder. His face was grime-covered and he was sweating. “Oh yeah. Here he is. Work on a power plant, he said. It’ll be fun, he said.”

Smiling, I replied, “Never said it would be easy.”

Terry and Baker extricated themselves from the cabinet and looked at me. Baker brushed hair from her eyes. “This is some BS, Morgan.”

“You going to let this beat you already?”

“This is going to take way more time than I first thought,” Scott said as he walked up.

“What? You think you were just going to walk up to this thing and flip a switch and it’d take off and start shitting electricity?” Sarge barked.

Baker tossed a wrench into a tool bag at her feet. “We were hoping it would go something like that.”

Sarge guffawed. “Shit, if it was that easy, Morgan here could have done it!”

Scott wiped his hands on a rag. “This isn’t going to happen any time soon. We’re going to have to go through this thing from top to bottom. It looks as though this thing has been sitting for a long time.”

“Well no shit, Sherlock. Everything’s been sitting for a while,” Sarge fired back.

Scott snorted. “No. I mean way before that. This heap of shit has been idle for a long, long time.”

I shrugged. “It doesn’t really matter how long it takes. This is the only chance we have for power. If it works, that’s awesome. If it doesn’t, all we lost was time; and we have plenty of that.”

“That’s easy for you to say,” Terry said. Pointing at the plant, he added, “You’re not the one crawling around inside this heap of crap.”

Sarge snorted. “What else you got to be doing?” Eric walked up and Sarge looked at him. “Where the hell have you been, Beech Nut?”

Eric paused and looked around, unsure. “Uh.” He pointed with the wrench in his hand over his shoulder. “I was connecting the leads to the generator.” Sarge didn’t say anything. He stared back at the kid. Eric’s eyes darted around, looking for some sort of indication of whether or not he was or wasn’t doing something he was supposed to be. After a moment, he said, “I’m going to check the torque on all the bolts.”

With a stern expression, Sarge replied, “You do that.”

Giving the old man a quick double take, Eric did an about-face and disappeared. Sarge started to laugh and Scott said, “You shouldn’t be so hard on that kid. He’s scared shitless of you.”

I was laughing and said, “He does have some amazing people skills.”

Baker rolled her eyes. “Boys.”

A low thumping sound began to fill the air. We all started looking around, craning our necks to search the skies for the source. After a moment, Mike called out, “Choppers to the southwest!”

Chapter 9

W
e all spun around and looked to see two Blackhawks and two Apache gunships flying low and fast. They made a wide orbit around Eustis. After circling a second time, one of the Blackhawks dropped out of formation. The other ships continued to circle.

“Let’s get back to town!” Sarge barked as he started to run towards the truck.

“What the hell?” Terry asked, looking up at one of the Apaches.

Sarge shaded his eyes with his hand and said, “Something is up if they’re flying in here.” Looking at me, he shouted, “Come one Morgan!”

Running towards the truck, I said, “Who the hell is it?”

“Gotta be someone with some serious brass in his ass to be out like that,” Sarge shouted back.

I ran to the truck and jumped in as Mike piled in behind me. He was slapping the back of my seat shouting, “Go, go, go!”

As we were passing through the barricade into town, one of the Blackhawks made a low fast pass down Bay Street.

Ted had his head stuck out the window looking up. Pulling it back in, he said, “This should be interesting.”

Mike slumped back into his seat and moaned. “Man, I miss the good old days of moving in a helicopter. The way a man should ride into battle.”

“Oh dry up!” Sarge shouted.

The Blackhawk that made the low pass was landing in the parking lot on the east side of Bay Street. Turning down one of the cross streets, I headed for it. People were coming out to see what was going on. The sound of the machine was getting everyone’s attention. The helicopters continued landing until all four were on the ground.

As I pulled into the parking lot, Mike said, “What the hell are they all doing on the ground?”

Ted craned his head to look out the window again. “That’s some fucked-up SOP right there.”

The first Blackhawk to land, killed its engines. As the blades started to spin down, a man climbed out of the back. I recognized him instantly and wondered what was going on to bring General Fawcett out here. Stopping the truck, Sarge was quickly out and heading to meet him.

“General!” Sarge said as he offered his hand.

Mike and Ted were leaning against the truck. Mike snickered and said, “Suck ass. He sucks any harder, his damn eyes will cross.”

Ted combed his beard and replied, “Be nice or I’ll tell him you said that.”

“Good to see you, Top,” Fawcett replied as he shook Sarge’s hand.

“Is this a social visit?” Sarge asked.

Fawcett shook his head. “No. We’ve got some things we need to talk about.”

Sarge led him towards the truck. “I kinda figured that.”

Fawcett got in the passenger seat and looked over at me. “Good to see you again, Sheriff. Glad you’re here. We’ve got some things to talk about.”

Nodding, I started the truck as I replied, “Good to see you, too. I hope.” The look he gave me didn’t make me feel any better about what I was going to hear.

Sheffield and Livingston were standing in front of the armory when we pulled up. Guardsmen were running around, having been ordered to provide security for the birds on the ground. The inhabitants of Eustis were out in force at the sight and sound of the machines. It was the most exciting thing to happen in many months. As a result, people were crowding around them.

Fawcett got out of the truck and greeted the two men, who were just as surprised as we were at the arrival of the general. Sheffield ushered the general towards the conference room. We followed them in and took a seat around the table.

Sheffield stood nervously looking around the room. Sarge and I each took a seat with the old man putting his foot up on the edge of the table. Fawcett sat down and looked at Sheffield. “Have a seat, Captain.”

Sheffield took a seat and asked, “What can we do for you, General?”

“We have a situation brewing that we need to talk about.”

Putting his hands behind his head Sarge, replied, “Is this about the Russians and the Chinese?”

Surprised, Fawcett asked, “Where have you heard about that?”

Interrupting, I said, “I’ve been monitoring the radios and found an outfit called the Radio Free Redoubt that broadcasts every night. They’ve been reporting on what the UN has been up to.”

Pointing in Sarge’s and my direction, Sheffield said, “They’ve told us about this. But we’ve never heard any of these reports. Are they true?”

Fawcett leaned forward, resting his clasped hands on the table. He let out a long breath and finally started to speak. He nodded his head and said, “Indeed it is. The UN Security Council vetoed the resolution to send in peacekeepers, but the Chinese and Russians have said they are going to act unilaterally and send them.” Sheffield sat back in his seat, stunned.

Sarge looked at him. “Why the surprise, Captain. We already told you all this.”

“Yeah. You guys told us,” Livingston said. “But it’s different hearing it from the General.”

Sarge looked at Fawcett. “You fly all the way down here just to tell us that? Made a special trip just for some gossip?”

“This is no gossip, Top. The Russians already have elements here.”

Sheffield jumped to his feet and exclaimed, “What!”

“Sit down, Captain!” Fawcett shouted. Sheffield lowered himself back into his chair. Fawcett continued. “We know there are Spetsnaz forces here already. They’re doing the same kind of pathfinding work our SF guys do. They’re also linking up with Federal forces. Which is why we’re here.”

“We’re about to deal with our local group of Feds shortly,” Sarge said.

“That’s what I want to know about. I’ve been moved to SOCOM in Tampa. We’ve consolidated some assets, and as part of that, I’m now down here. We’re preparing to deal with the Russians. Part of that is we need to take out as many of these Federal pockets as we can.”

“You say you’re preparing to deal with the Russians. What about the Chinese?” Livingston asked.

“The Defense Intelligence Agency has put together a bit of a picture of what’s going to happen. We think the Chinese will come in from California and the Russians will move in from the east coast. We know for a fact they are staging assets in Syria now. There’s also a lot of activity in Cuba.”

“What kind of time table are we looking at?” Sarge asked.

Fawcett shrugged. “We’re not sure. We don’t have all our intelligence assets, satellites and such, so we don’t have the full picture. But we have enough to know they’re definitely coming.” He looked around the table. “This is a game changer, folks. We’re not going to be dealing with a mob of Federal goons with small arms and a little armor. These are going to be no shit for real battle-hardened troops. They’ve had plenty of combat experience in Ukraine and Chechnya.”

Sarge swung his foot off the table. “Well, since you’re here with all this hardware, we should put it to good use. We’ve been planning an attack on the camp where our local litter of Federal mutts are holed up. It was going to be a hard nut to crack because they’re in a pretty big place. But with those whirlybirds of yours, we could end it pretty quick.”

Fawcett thought for a moment. “I’ve got other people I need to meet with. But if we could help eliminate this threat now that’s what we need to do.” He looked at Livingston. “Can you send someone to get those Apache drivers and bring them in here? We’ll need them involved in the planning of this.” Livingston was on his feet immediately and left the room.

Waiting on Livingston and the pilots, I asked Fawcett, “So this is turning into Red Dawn?”

With a halfhearted laugh, he replied, “You know. We’ve talked a lot about that very thing in recent days.” He looked up at me, “And as cheesy as it sounds, yeah, it’s about to go all Red Dawn.”

Sarge slammed his fist down onto the table causing several of us to startle. “Good, by God! I’ve been wanting to kill me some commie bastards all my life! Shit, I thought I’d leave this Earth never having had the chance to kill some!” He smiled and leaned back in his chair. “Far as I’m concerned, bring it on!”

Fawcett looked over at him. “I know you’re itching for a fight, Top, but this isn’t going to be a cake walk. We’re going to try and keep them out, but if they make it on the ground, then things are going to get pretty hairy.”

“Oh I know. It ain’t going to be pretty. But the rules of engagement are going to be on our side. These fuckers are invaders—“ Mike interrupted him.

“And no quarter will be given.”

Sarge looked at him and smiled. “Not an inch.”

Dalton cleared his throat. “I’ve always been interested in the Russian Military. These are some tough bastards. It’s not going to be easy. Just ask the Germans.”

Sarge rocked his head back over his chair, getting an upside-down view of Dalton. “That’s true. The Russians brutalized the Nazis in Stalingrad because they were on their home turf. They were fighting for their lives and it allowed them to turn the tables on the Germans.” Sarge looked around the table. “Now we have the home field advantage.”

“And we will be fighting for our lives,” Fawcett added.

The door opened and Livingston came in with the two Apache pilots. I recognized one of them, Mark. We’d met on our trip to Camp Riley. He came in and took a seat at the table with the other pilot. Falling into a chair, Mark said, “Well, now what kind of trouble are you boys in?”

“Shit. You’re just lucky we’re inviting you to this party,” Sarge snorted.

Fawcett sat up. “Alright. Let’s get down to business. You have any maps of this place?”

The large drawing Mike and Ted made was rolled out on the table, along with a couple of topo maps of the area. The plan we’d come up with was discussed. Fawcett was happy with the initial details. The two Apaches were an ace in the hole. The plan would remain the same with our group acting as a blocking force on the north side of the camp and the Guard attacking in force through the main gate. The two Apaches would provide cover for the assault from overhead.

Mark was doing some calculations on a pad. “Our fuel is limited though. We won’t be able to loiter long. You guys are going to have to push through the camp hard and fast.”

“How much time can you give us?” Sarge asked.

Mark shrugged. “Maybe fifteen minutes.”

“Shit. That isn’t long,” Sheffield moaned.

“Fifteen minutes is more than enough time, Captain. We can rain some serious hate down on these guys in fifteen minutes.”

“How fast can you have your people in place?” Fawcett asked.

The question caught Sheffield by surprise. “Uh, I uh. You want to do this now?”

“We’re here. You got a better idea?” Fawcett asked.

Sarge pushed his hat back on his head. “It’ll take a few hours to get everyone ready.”

Looking at Sheffield, Fawcett asked, “Your people know their jobs on this?”

He nodded. “Yeah. We’ve gone over it already. Everyone knows what they have to do.”

Fawcett stood up. “Then let’s get to it. We need to deal with this as soon as we can. We’ve got some serious party crashers coming and we don’t need crap like this in the winds when they show up.” Looking at Sarge, he asked, “You got enough IR strobes for your people?”

Sarge looked at Ted. He nodded. “I think we have enough to mark our positions. There won’t be one on every person, but there will be one in every position.”

Fawcett nodded. “Good.” He took a piece of paper from his blouse pocket and tossed it on the table. “Put these codes in your radios. You’ll be able to talk to us. I’ll be overhead for command and control.”

Ted took the paper and wrote the codes down on a notebook. “Soon as we get back, I’ll set up our radios and do a comm check.”

“Roger that.,” Fawcett replied.

Sarge stood up and looked around the table. “Things are going to get real interesting later this evening. Let’s take care of these assholes once and for all.”

Leaving the armory, I ran into Shane and Sean with the PD. The kid Micah was with them. “What’s with all the helicopters?” Shane asked.

“We’ve got some shit to take care of,” Sarge shot back.

“You going after those DHS guys?” Micah asked.

Before anyone could answer him Sarge replied, “Hell no. We don’t need this kind of hardware for those shit birds.”

I was wondering why he lied to the kid, but also glad. He made me nervous and I couldn’t put my finger on why. I told Sean the prisoners would be returned shortly and to keep them locked up until further notice. We quickly loaded into the truck and headed out of town as the armory became a bee hive of activity.

“We need to stop by the plant and tell those engineers to get back to town. We’ll need every swinging dick we can get,” Sarge said.

Nodding, I replied. “I’m going to the farm first to let those guys know too. We’ll need to grab Thad and take him home with us.”

When we got to the farm, the people there were already gathering at the trucks for the ride back to town. It was getting late in the day and their work was done. We told Cecil and his security element what was going on. Thad quickly collected his gear.

“I’ll be glad when they’re gone.” Cecil said. Wiping his forehead with the back of his arm, he added, “We got enough shit to worry about.”

Sarge snorted. “It’s going to get worse Cecil.”

Cecil looked around. “Shit, Top. What the hell are the Russians gonna want with this little hole in the wall?”

“Hopefully nothing. But let’s hope they don’t find a reason.”

Back in the truck, I headed for the plant. Terry and crew were also gathered around one of their trucks. It was quitting time for everyone. Except us, our work hadn’t even begun yet. I was still processing what was about to happen. We’d been planning this, but it seemed to be far off, not imminent. There was no denying it now. I pulled up beside the group and leaned out the window.

“You guys need to get back to town. Looks like we’re going to hit the armory as soon as we can get everyone in place.”

“No shit? Shawn asked.

“No shit!” Sarge barked back. “Now get your asses to town!” He slapped my shoulder and told me to go.

I pushed the old truck to get us home. Everything was a rush now. I roared through Umatilla, getting curious looks from the people lingering at the old Kangaroo. The same happened as we sped through Altoona. Once back at the neighborhood, I stopped at the bunker. Everyone got out, I told them I would meet them back there with Danny and everyone from the house. Thad said he’d go get the girls, Aric and Perez were already at the bunker.

Pulling up in front of my house, I jumped out and ran in. The house was empty. They were all probably at Danny’s, so I ran over there. Mel and Bobbie were sitting on the porch when I ran up. Mel quickly stood up, asking what was wrong.