Avenging Home (6 page)

“They are pretty bad,” Ted added as he slammed his palm against his forehead.

“You guys go get something to eat. We’ll take it from here,” Danny said.

“You have my pity,” Ted said as they headed off.

Danny slapped at his arm. “Damn, they are bad.”

I was waving the little bastards away from my head, “Yeah they are. Let me go get something that will help.”

I walked back up the road towards my house. I knew what I was looking for grew just a little ways away. Finding the Beautyberry bush, I cut several leafy stems and carried them back to the bunker. I handed several of them to Danny.

“Here, strip the leaves like this and crush them up. Rub it on your face and neck, your arms too.” I was going through the motions as I said it. The leaves have a pungent odor that mosquitos don’t like. While not as effective as chemical repellants, it’s certainly better than nothing.

“How well does this work?” Danny asked.

“It’s better than nothing,” I said. Then I took another couple of stems and crushed the leaves, leaving them on the stalk. Taking off my boonie hat, I wove the thin stems into the nylon webbing. “Hang it around your head too.”

Danny did the same as I had, though he made a wreath to lay over his ball cap. It did help keep them off our faces and neck. Our arms though were a different story.

“I need to remember to wear long sleeves,” Danny said.

As I rolled my sleeves down, I said, “It doesn’t help much. They bite right through it.”

We settled into trying to ignore the bugs while at the same time trying to keep them off us. They would be bad for a while and begin to taper off later. In an effort to distract myself, I pulled out the little AM/FM/shortwave radio from a pocket on my vest. I’d started carrying it around and scanning through the bands every now and then. On a clear night like this, I could usually pick up several foreign stations. Though I’d yet to find anything broadcast from here. To increase the reception of the small radio, I would string a wire antenna into a tree. It was in a small reel and had a clip to connect it to the telescoping antenna on the radio. Beside the bunker was a small persimmon tree. We’d left it because Danny and I both knew this tree bore fruit.

With the antenna up, I sat on the roof of the bunker and turned the little radio on. As I started scanning through the bands, I heard Doc’s voice from the darkness.

“Hey, Morgan. Let me take a look at your arm.”

“Where the hell have you been hiding?” I asked as I rolled my sleeve up.

“I was at the house,” he replied as I stretched my arm out. He took my arm and turned on a small light to inspect the test site. Doc pulled a small paper marked with measurements and laid it on my arm. He looked up and smiled. “Looks like you’re in the clear. It hasn’t grown any, so you’re good to go.”

I let out the breath I didn’t know I was holding. “Thanks, Doc. I was really worried.”

“Can’t say I blame you. But you’re out of the woods.”

“Good!” Danny said from the other side of the bunker.

“You going to hang out?” I asked.

Wiping a mosquito from his ear, Doc replied, “Yeah, why not. Got nothing else to do.” He looked at the little radio and asked, “What’s that?”

Picking it up, I replied, “It’s a small shortwave. I like to scan the bands and see what I can hear.”

“Pick anything up?”

As I turned the radio on, I said, “Lots of foreign stuff. Nothing to speak of, though.”

I set the radio on one of the bands and pressed the scan button, and the radio began scrolling through the frequencies. After a moment, it stopped on one, but it was rapid-fire Spanish. “Figures,” I said, and pressed the scan button again. It continued on for a bit and found several more Spanish stations, one German and what I think was French, but in a strange accent.

With no luck on that band, I switched the radio to another and pressed the scan button again. This time it hit a station that was actually in English. Not just English, but from the way it sounded, it was someone with a Midwestern accent.

…..
are moving against the DHS in the suburbs of Atlanta.
Doc slapped me on the arm and pointed at the radio as the voice continued.
In intense house to house fighting, the Marines are gaining ground. The fighting is intense as it is now apparent the Feds armed street gangs that were fighting alongside them.

In the south, the Navy has secured the Exxon/Mobile refinery in Baton Rouge. Pumping continues on offshore rigs with assistance from Navy Seabees and auxiliary ships providing power to the rigs. With the addition of the production capacity of the Baton Rouge plant, the fuel limitations are now easing, allowing additional strikes against Federal targets. However, the plant is not up to full capacity as a result of sabotage that caused moderate damage and several casualties among plant workers. The injured were airlifted to Fort Polk and are being treated by the 115th Combat Support Hospital. God bless the men and woman of our armed forces, fighting the good fight on behalf of the people of this nation.

You’re listening to John Jacob Schmidt on the Radio Free Redoubt, broadcasting to all of you in occupied territory, as well as those outside the wire. Bringing you the news you need in these uncertain times. On the international front, the UN Security Council today released a statement saying that the deteriorating situation in North America is becoming a humanitarian crisis. The Secretary General of the UN, Hussein Torboko, has asked the Security Council to consider a resolution to send UN peace keepers to the US in an attempt to quell the violence. The UK ambassador to the UN objected vehemently to the proposal, as did the Canadians and Australians. However, before the motion was even brought to the floor for discussion, the Russians and Chinese both said they were willing to assist the US, “in this, their greatest time of need.” Marine General Bill Puller replied to the UN in unequivocal terms, stating that any foreign troops setting foot on US soil will be seen as an invading force and dealt with accordingly.

I was stunned by what I was hearing. We’d been in the dark for so long about what the rest of the world was doing, and now all of a sudden we hear the Chinese and Russians want to invade! Apparently, I wasn’t the only one surprised. At some point, Danny came over and said exactly what I was thinking, “What the hell?”

Doc was a little more certain in his response. “Fuck them! Those bastards try that shit and we’ll be shooting blue helmets as well as black ones!”

The broadcast continued.
I don’t think they will like their reception. Tune in at 2100 hours for our next update.

A woman’s voice then came on.
Good evening, patriots. Prepare for a message.
After a ten-second pause, she continued.
The Maple Tree sings a lullaby. The Maple Tree sings a lullaby…
She then proceeded to read off a series of numbers.

…29185 39458 89085 57723 31931 94832 49495 22840

As the woman repeated the message a second time, I asked Doc if we should have copied it. When she finished the message, AC/DC’s Thunderstruck came on.

“Yeah, probably,” Doc replied.

“Who the hell is this?” Danny asked.

“I don’t know,” Doc replied. “But they’re obviously sending coded messages to someone.”

“You think you can decode it?” Danny asked.

Shaking his head, Doc responded. “Without the code sheet, I don’t think even the NSA could decode it.”

“I know who they are. I used to listen to Radio Free Redoubt. They ran AmRRON radio nets around the country. This is exactly the kind of thing they trained for back then. We’ll have to start checking for their broadcasts. Don’t know why I haven’t come across this until now,” I said.

Doc’s face was suddenly illuminated in a bright orange glow. We all looked towards the source of the light and saw a large ball of flame rising into the sky as a loud boom hit us. Doc realized what we were looking at first.

“That’s Tyler and Brandy’s place. It’s on fire!”

As Doc was about to run towards the house, a large caliber machinegun began firing at the bunker. The heavy bullets slammed into the log structure sending us diving to the ground.

Danny shouted, “What the hell’s going on?”

I crawled into the bunker and chanced a peek out one of the firing ports. “There’s a truck down there, one of those armored ones!”

Doc came crawling in and shouted at Danny. “Get the Goose and toss it in here!”

Small arms fire began to sound from behind us. I could hear numerous weapons firing and started to worry about Mel and the girls. Then I heard the unmistakable sound of two shotgun blasts in rapid succession. That had to be Thad and his coach gun. Danny tossed the Gustav into the bunker and I heard him start cussing. I looked back to see him and Dalton trying to get free of one another.

Dalton looked into the bunker. “They’re coming in from the back too, but I think they’re under control.” As he spoke, there was a large explosion to the back of the neighborhood. Dalton smiled. “That’ll teach the bastards!”

Mel and the rest of the girls were watching Dirty Dancing on my laptop. There were oil lamps and candles set around the living room, and they were busy talking and laughing over the movie when they heard the boom. Jamie was instantly on her feet, carbine in hand as she moved towards the front door.

“What was that?” Bobbie asked.

As Jamie got to the front door and looked out the window, she shouted. “Fire! Brandy’s house is on fire!”

She was reaching for the door knob when the sliding glass door leading to the back porch shattered, sending glass flying into the dinning room. Little Bit screamed and pulled a pillow from the sofa over her head. Jamie spun as two men came through the opening. She began firing as she brought the weapon up to her shoulder. The lead man went down, and the one behind him stumbled over the body and fired at the same time, sending a wild spray of bullets into the house. Drywall dust and insulation rained down.

Jamie fell back against the door and onto the floor as the man tried to regain his feet. Lee Ann ran into the kitchen from the opposite side while the man’s attention was focused on the entry into the living room. She raised her H&K and squeezed the trigger, letting out a long burst of 9mm. Mel got to her feet and she, Fred and Jess rounded the corner to the kitchen at the same moment a third man appeared in the shattered glass door. The second man was on the floor, riddled with bullets. The three women all raised their pistols and fired in unison, sending a hail of lead into the man in the door. He never had a chance to pull the trigger.

Mel looked over her shoulder and shouted at Mary. “Get Ashley to the bathroom!”

Mary quickly grabbed her with one hand and Miss Kay by the other and ran towards the bathroom.

Thad, Sarge, Mike and Ted were all sitting on the back porch of Danny’s house after dinner talking. Miss Kay and Mary had left to hang out with the rest of the ladies and watch a movie. It was dark, having turned off the lanterns to conserve fuel. They were talking about the need to hit the Elk’s Camp and how Sarge thought it should be done, when they heard the boom. They were instantly on their feet and ran to the front of the house. They were coming out of Danny’s gate onto the road when they ran directly into a group of six raiders. In the darkness, none had seen the other until they collided in the road.

Mike, being younger and faster, had crashed into two men of the group, them falling to the ground in a heap of flailing arms and legs. Ted hit the light from his carbine to reveal the other four men, who were obviously caught off guard. He began to fire as Thad pulled the coach gun from his back scabbard. Sarge began firing on the men with Ted, who were shooting back in a panic. But this was all taking place at contact range; they could physically touch one another.

The two men Mike ran into were fighting with him. One of the men had a grip on Mike’s carbine and was jerking it to keep him from getting his feet under him. With the single-point sling wrapped around him, it was as good as a handle. Mike fumbled for the quick release, trying to disconnect himself from the weapon. The second man charged Mike and wrapped him in a bear hug from behind. Thad stepped up and swung the coach gun at the crown of the man’s head with all the force he could muster, which was considerable. He split the man’s skull and he collapsed. As the body hit the ground, Thad fired one barrel into the man’s face.