Forsaking Home (The Survivalist Series) (25 page)

As quickly as he disappeared, Mike let out a howl. Ted and Ian looked down in the hole, Ted shining his weapon light down through the opening. They could see the light from Mike’s weapon and hear him moving around. After a minute he called out, “Clear!”

“What’s wrong with you?” Ted called through the hatch.

“I landed on some of those fucking balls and twisted my ankle,” Mike yelled up.

“Can you get out of there?” Ian asked.

“Yeah, just give me a hand,” Mike said as he started up the ladder. Ian reached down and grabbed Mike’s extended hand and helped pull him up.

Ian and Ted helped him out the door. Ted shouted, “Coming out!” as they stepped through it.

“Anyone in there?” Sheffield asked.

“No, it was empty,” Ted said, then looked at the bodies lying beside the connex. “Who the hell are they?”

“Civilian, I guess you’d call them employees.”

“We should probably look at the CIs too, just to make sure none of them are of the same frame of mind,” Ted said.

Sheffield looked over. “You think there could be issues with them as well?”

Ted shrugged. “We didn’t think about the civilian workers. Who’s to say there aren’t folks out there who really like it here?”

“We’ll check them out as well. I don’t think any of them ‘like it’ here, but if some of them were put into positions of power by the goon squad, they may be resistant to change.”

Ted nodded, then helped Mike over to the Hummer. “I’ll get him over to Doc to look at his foot.”

Sheffield nodded and turned to his men. “Let’s get these bodies loaded up.”

At the infirmary, Ted helped Mike inside. As he sat up on one of the stretchers, a familiar voice called out, “What happened, you get a boo-boo?”

Ted and Mike both looked up to see Sarge sitting up on his stretcher. Mike smiled. “Hey, you grumpy ole fuck, how you feeling?”

Still slightly slurring his words, he replied, “Like I been shot, how the hell you think I feel?”

Ted smiled. It was good to see Sarge back to his affectionate self. “They said you were lucky, said it hit your artificial hip.”

“Yeah, when did you have that done? I didn’t even know,” Mike said.

“Of course you didn’t know, dipshit, it’s none of your damn business.” Sarge looked down at the wound. “The VA did it after I got out. I’d taken a round”—Sarge jabbed a finger toward his hip—“in pert near the same damn spot in Iraq. Couldn’t take it anymore and had it replaced.”

“Huh, I thought it was just ’cause you’re older than dirt,” Mike said.

“You wait till I get out of this bed, I’ll show you old. What the hell happened to you anyway? Why you gimpin’ around?”

“I slipped on some sting balls and twisted my ankle.”

Sarge made a face like he was about to cry. “Oh, you poor baby,” then, pointing toward Aric, he said, “Least me and him have a real reason to here.” Sarge looked over at Aric. “You know you’re part of an exclusive club, don’t ya?”

Aric was still pretty out of it and stared as a means of response. Sarge continued, “There’s only one other person in the world who’s shot me and lived to tell about it.”

“Unlike the list of those who want to and haven’t yet. That one’s long as hell,” Mike said as he tried to get his boot off.

Sarge’s head snapped around. “Keep it up, smart-ass. You think ’cause I’m laid up, I can’t get to you, but I ain’t going to be in here forever.”

Through his own pain, Mike smiled. Ted helped him get the boot off as one of the nurses came over and started checking the foot out. Mike winced as she tried to turn it. She asked him to pull his toes toward his knee, but he wasn’t able to move them far.

“Yeah, it’s a pretty bad sprain. You can already see bruising. All we can do is wrap it up. Unfortunately, there’s not much else to help speed up the healing process,” the nurse said.

“Okay, wrap it up, then. If you could just try to keep it small enough so I can get my boot on, that’d be great,” Mike said.

Sarge looked across the room at Jess, who was sitting in a chair beside Mary. He motioned for her to come over. She smiled and walked to his side. Sarge had a sloppy grin on his face and held his hand out. Jess couldn’t help but laugh at him, and took his hand.

“How are you doing, Annie?” Sarge asked.

“I’m good, now.”

“I was worried about you, ever since we found out you were there.”

Jess cocked her head to the side. “How’d you find out I was here?”

“We did a little sneakin’ and peekin’. Morgan and Thad saw you.”

A big smile spread across her face. “Where are they? I really want to see them.”

“Teddy!” Sarge screamed. Jess jumped at the sudden outburst.

Ted looked up. “Damn, I’m right here. Whaddya want?”

“Get Morgan on the horn, tell him to get over here, and to bring that gentle giant with him.”

Jess looked at Ted. “How are they going to get here? Is his house near here?”

“They’re not at their house now. They had to leave, but he’s got wheels.” Ted looked at Sarge. “I’ll call him.”

Sarge nodded and looked back at Jess. “You’re goin’ ta be all right now.” He was starting to slur his words more and seemed unable to keep his eyes open.

Jess leaned over and kissed him on the forehead, pushing him back onto the stretcher. “I know, now get some rest.”

A small smile cracked his face. “I don’t need no rest,” he said as he drifted off.

Jess stared at him for a minute, then looked over at Ted and Mike. “You guys have no idea how much I prayed for y’all to come.”

“You have no idea what it took to get here. As soon as Thad and Morgan saw you, they knew it was you. Sarge wanted to come back right then, but it wasn’t possible,” Ted said.

“How long ago was it?” Jess asked.

“Three weeks, I guess,” Mike said.

Jess stared off into the distance and winced from the pain in her eyes. A few weeks seemed so long ago. “Can I have your sunglasses?” Ted pulled them off his hat and handed them to her. “What did you guys see? I mean, where was I?”

“Thad said it looked like you were cutting firewood,” Ted said.

“Was it the day where there was all the shooting, I wonder? Was that you guys?”

“Ha, yep, that was us. Not what we intended to happen, which is part of the reason it took so long to get back here,” Mike said.

“It doesn’t matter, now that you’re here,” Jess said, then looked at the floor. Looking back up, she smiled brightly. “Now what?”

“What do you mean?” Ted asked.

“I mean, now what do I do?”

“Whatever you want. Everyone here is free to leave or stay. The camp is now under the control of the National Guard.”

Jess stood there staring at them for a minute. “You all right?” Mike asked.

“Yeah, I . . . I just don’t know where to go.”

“Ah, don’t worry about it, you’ve got time now to think about that,” Mike said with a grin.

“Yeah, I guess.” Jess looked back at Mary, laid out on a stretcher, then at Fred. “What are you going to do, Fred?”

Fred looked at Aric. He was out again. “I’ll have to wait till he wakes up and see what he wants to do.”

“He ain’t going anywhere,” Mike said, pointing at Aric, “at least not yet.”

“Why not?” Fred asked. “It was an accident. He didn’t know what was going on. What are you going to do to him?”

“He’s DHS. We’ll have to wait and see what the brass wants to do with him. Right now, he stays.”

Fred looked down at Aric, then back at Mike. “But he saved us.”

“And that’ll be taken into consideration,” Ted said. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to call Morgan.”

Ted drove over to the comm shack, where two Guardsmen were stationed. “Anything come over the radio?” he asked as he went in.

“There’s lots of traffic on their net. Sounds like the shit has hit the fan for them,” one of them replied.

Ted looked at his name tag, it read
BREWER
. “Well, that’s a good thing, now, isn’t it, Brewer?”

“Yeah. It sounds like several of their camps are being hit.”

“That was the plan,” Ted said, connecting his radio to the power source. He unplugged the antenna from one of the other radios, connected it to his, and powered it up.

Forgoing the usual cloak-and-dagger radio protocols, Ted keyed the mic. “Hey, Morgan, you out there?”

“Yeah, who is this?”

“It’s Ted, can you guys come to the camp?”

“It’s a long ride out to your camp. It’ll take a while.”

“No, no, the DHS camp.”

“Uh, yeah, are you guys there?”

“Yep, but it’s no longer a DHS camp. We’ve got it under control.”

Morgan whistled and laughed.
“Okay, we’ll drop by later.”

“See you then, out.”

T
he ride to Salt Springs couldn’t have been particularly comfortable for our passengers, who had their hands bound behind their backs and their eyes blindfolded. Luckily, I wasn’t in the buggy with them to hear their complaints—Thad had offered to drive them in the lead buggy, while Danny and I traveled behind him.

We made our way west until we picked up one of the dirt forest roads and turned north. After several miles, we had to go cross country until we came to 445A, close to the intersection with Highway 19. As was our standard procedure on these rides, we stopped inside the tree line. Danny got out and walked up to check the road. He pulled his binoculars out and took a good look, checking both directions. I wanted him to hurry the hell up because the smell of their crap in the back of the buggy was choking me.

As he got back in I said, “Damn, man, you take long enough?”

“I don’t want to just run out there.”

I jabbed a thumb over my shoulder. “Yeah, but I had to sit here in this godforsaken stink.”

Danny smiled. “That’s why I went out to check the road.”

“Asshole,” I said, shaking my head.

“I’m going to keep us on this side of Grasshopper Lake,” Danny said. I nodded and he called Thad on the radio, giving him instructions.

I smiled thinking of good times spent at the lake. Mel and I used to take the kids to swim there. It has crystal clear water and, the best part, no gators—at least, I’ve never seen one in it. The area to the west of the lake, the side we were on, was a sandy plain with pines and scrub oaks. It was a popular place in the Before for swimmers, campers, and partiers. The remains of bonfires gone by littered the area.

As we pulled up to the swimming area, Thad suddenly stopped. Danny called him on the radio. “Hey, what’s up?”

Thad didn’t respond. After a moment he got out, then we quickly got out and started moving toward him. He stood by the buggy, looking straight ahead. Danny and I were scanning the area as we moved up behind him.

“Hey, man, what’s up?” I asked as I scanned the edges of the clearing.

Thad didn’t reply. He simply raised a hand and pointed. I followed his arm to see a body hanging in a tree.

“Oh shit,” Danny said.

“What the hell’s going on out there?” Andy shouted.

We slowly walked toward the body. It hung there motionless, the head at a hideous angle. As we got closer, it became clear it was a young black man, probably in his twenties. He’d taken a hell of a beating. His hands were bound behind his back with wire that had cut into his wrists.

“He hasn’t been here long,” Danny said.

Thad moved toward the rope, which was tied off to the tree. Pulling out a big blade, he cut the rope. The body crashed to the ground. Looking back at me, he asked, “You got your Leatherman tool?”

I pulled it from its pocket on my vest and handed it over. He used it to cut the wire binding the wrists. As he handed it back, he said, “I’m going to bury him.” Thad walked back to the buggy. Danny and I shared a concerned look and trailed after him.

Thad started digging around in the bed of the buggy. “Hey, what’s going on?” Franco yelled. Thad didn’t reply, eventually finding an e-tool. Taking the tool, he walked back over to the body and surveyed the area. Back from the water, toward the trees, was a low mound. An old downed tree on one side prevented anyone from driving over it. Thad walked over to it and knelt down. Unfolding the small shovel, he sunk the blade into the sand.

I was looking out across the flat expanse of the lake and thinking about the young man lying on the ground behind me. What was the reason for his death? Had he done something wrong—steal, murder, rape? Or, and this bothered me more than those possibilities, was he just in the wrong place at the wrong time? Or, worse still, just the wrong color? There is certainly an element in the backwoods of Lake County with openly racist views.

This led me to think of the many groups with these kinds of extreme views: white power groups, the Black Panthers, the Klan. It’s hard to imagine that those sorts wouldn’t seize the moment when there was no law to attempt to further their agendas. It was crazy that with all that was happening, people would think this would be the time to go forth and commit violence in the name of race, religion, or politics. But sadly, as is human nature, I was sure that was just what was happening. Reggie’s niece was a prime example.

Thad was digging robotically. I went over and unslung my carbine. “Let me have a go at it. Take a break.”

Thad rose to his feet and handed me the small spade. “I need a drink of water,” he said, heading toward the buggy.

I dropped down to my knees and continued the digging. I worked for a while until Danny came over and relieved me. Thad was leaning against the front of the buggy, saying nothing as he cradled the old shotgun in his arms. The crew in the back of the buggy were starting to complain. Julie insisting that she had to pee.

“Keep an eye on ’em, Thad, I’m going to take her out,” I said.

He nodded and turned to face them, gripping the shotgun. I got Julie out and pulled the blindfold from her face. “I’ll untie you, just don’t do anything stupid.”

She squinted against the bright sun, shielding her eyes with her hand. “Where are we, and why are we stopped?” she asked as she looked around. Then she saw Danny working on the hole and a look of terror swept over her. “Oh my God, please don’t kill us!” she cried out.

Her plea caused the other four to start asking questions. Andy was the loudest of them all.

“What the hell’s going on? Untie me, dammit!” he shouted.

“We’re not going to kill you. The hole’s not for you guys,” I said.

“Hole, what hole?” Andy shouted.

“They’re digging a big hole,” Julie said, sounding unconvinced.

Julie looked back toward Danny, then at me. I pointed to the body laid out on the ground. She gasped and covered her mouth. “Oh my, who is that?”

“We found him hanging from one of the trees,” I said flatly.

Staring at the body, she asked, “Who would do something like that?”

“Who are you talking about? What’s going on out there?” Andy asked, moving his head around.

“Shut up, Andy,” I said. Looking at Julie, I asked, “Don’t you have to pee?”

She nodded and I pointed toward some scrub on the edge of the lake. “Go in there, but I better be able to see the top of your head. Don’t try to make a run for it.”

Danny returned to the buggy and got a swig of water, and Thad took his place to finish digging.

“This is really fucked up,” he said, looking at Thad’s back.

Julie returned, looking at the water bottle Danny was holding. In a small voice, she asked, “Can we have some water?”

Danny handed her the bottle. “Don’t take the blindfolds off the others.”

She nodded and took a long drink before taking it to her friends. She handed the empty bottle back to Danny. “Thank you.”

Danny twirled his finger in a motion for her to turn around. She did and he tied her hands again, then put the blindfold on before guiding her back to her seat. Once she was seated we walked over to the hole. It was four feet deep and about as wide.

“That’s deep enough, don’t you think?” Danny asked.

Thad stopped his work and surveyed the hole. “I reckon it is. Let’s lay him to rest.”

From my vest I produced two pairs of nitrile gloves. The body was a biohazard nightmare, and I didn’t want to touch it. I handed the other pair to Thad.

“You don’t want to get sick, man,” I said as means of explanation. Thad nodded.

Together we carried the body down into the hole. Thad laid the man’s arms across his chest. Suddenly the sound of an engine straining in low gear drifted through the trees. Danny and I both looked up, rifles ready.

“Sounds like it’s headed this way,” Danny said.

“Is that a truck?” Andy called out. “Better hope it ain’t no one I know.”

Thad paid no attention to the sound. He was gently laying palmetto fronds out on the body, cutting them from a stand beside the hole. Danny and I stepped out toward the trail to get a better view down its length. Catching a glint of sunlight from a piece of chrome, we stepped back.

“Here it comes,” I said.

It wasn’t long before an old Dodge truck trundled down the trail. The driver pulled right past us but stopped when he saw the buggies. There were four people in the cab: two men and two woman. The man driving quickly got out, as did the male passenger, both of them with rifles in hand.

Danny and I were walking toward the back of the truck when the passenger saw us and called to his friend, who quickly turned to face us. He looked at the two of us then to the tree where the body had been hanging, then back to us.

“What’d y’all do with our nigger?”

During all this Thad was busy filling the hole. He didn’t bother stopping when the truck drove up. However, hearing that, he stopped.

“Your what?” Thad said as he slowly got up from the hole.

The driver looked at him and started shifting the rifle in his hands. Danny and I quickly brought up our carbines and began shouting.

“Don’t even think about it! Raise that rifle and you’re a dead man!” I shouted, drawing a bead on him.

Thad headed straight toward him, clutching the old coach gun by the grip in one hand. “Your what?!” he shouted.

“We was just coming out here to show our girlfriends that boy, is all!” one of the passengers cried out.

“And how’d you know about that
boy
?” Thad barked, adding a deliberate sneer to the last word.

“Lay the rifles down. Just set them in the bed of your truck,” Danny said.

The passenger looked at the driver with wide eyes, and the driver looked at us, trying to figure out how to proceed. We had the drop on them, as our rifles were already shouldered and they were semiautos. He was still holding the lever gun by the receiver, but there was no chance in hell of him getting a shot off.

The driver raised his hands slightly. “Calm down, boys,” he said as he stepped toward the bed of the truck and slowly lowered the gun in. The passenger did likewise.

Thad was nearly on top of the driver now. “How’d you know about this? Did you do it?” he shouted, pointing at the pit.

The driver licked his lips, looking from one of us to the other. “Naw, we didn’t do it, just found him out here.”

“An’ you bring your girlfriends out to see a
man
hung in a tree.”

The driver shrugged. “Not like he cares.”

Thad looked at his hands. “Why your knuckles all busted up? Bust ’em up on that kid’s face?”

The corners of the man’s mouth pulled back ever so slightly. “Naw, wasn’t us, told you that already.” He looked over at the buggy with the crew sitting in the back and pointed. “An’ what the hell are y’all up to? You got people over there blindfolded and tied up? What the hell are you doing out here?”

“They’re thieves. We’re just moving them to a place where they can’t steal from us anymore,” I said.

“Who’s out there?” Andy asked.

The driver laughed. “Andy, is that you?”

“Yeah, who are you?”

“Looks like you finally are getting what you deserve, dumbass.”

“Tommy Harrell, if I wasn’t tied up I’d whoop your ass.”

“If you wasn’t tied up, I’d shoot your sorry ass.”

“We don’t have time for your foreplay. Knock it off,” I said.

The driver looked back at Thad. “I don’t know, you people seem like you’re up to no good.” He nodded his head toward the tree. “Who’s to say you didn’t do it?”

Thad was enraged. “Because I don’t hang niggers,
boy
!”

Thad’s outburst unnerved the man and he seemed to shrink a little. “Jus’ sayin’.”

I walked up to Thad and put my hand on his shoulder. “Let’s just finish this and get out of here.”

Thad’s chest heaved with every breath. I could feel the anger coursing through him when I touched him.

Thad pointed at the man’s face. “I know you did it. You’re lucky they’re here.”

The guy shrugged and turned toward his truck. I called out, “Just stay where you are till we leave.”

He looked back. “You can’t tell me what to do. You ain’t shit.”

I brought my rifle up to my eye and looked down the barrel at him. “Right now I’m the shit pointing a weapon at you. Take another step and I’ll drop you where you stand.”

He squinted back at me. “Ain’t no need to be like that, friend. We’ll wait.”

I grunted. “We aren’t friends. You just stay where you are.”

Thad finished filling the grave and returned with the e-tool, tossing it in the back of the buggy. Danny and I moved toward the buggies. “Go ahead and get in your truck,” I said.

“I’ll be seeing you, Andy, when you don’t have anyone around to save your ass,” the driver yelled out as he hopped in the cab.

“We’ll see, asshole, we’ll see.”

Thad got behind the wheel of his buggy while Danny and I got into the other. We followed the Dodge out of the woods toward the road. They pulled out onto the blacktop and made a left, heading back toward Altoona. We stopped and watched them as they rolled away.

I looked at Thad. “You all right?”

“Yeah, I’m okay. I just know they did it.”

“I know. Let’s put this behind us, though, and get on the road. Now that the camp is secure we can use the road,” I said.

“How far are we going?” Thad asked.

“It’s about another ten miles.”

“We going out to the paved road?”

“Yeah, follow this trail. It’ll take you right to it.” Thad put the buggy in gear and pulled out. He really pushed the vehicle. Looking over, I saw our speedometer was nearly pegged.

“Damn, he’s in a hurry,” I said.

We drove along for a bit without talking, then Danny looked over and said, “I can’t believe they’ve already got the camp under control.”

“I know. Wonder how many casualties they took.”

“Yeah, I wonder. They sure did it fast, though. You think that girl you came home with is in there?”

“Jess? Thad’s certain it was her.”

“She’ll be surprised to see you.”

“I think all her surprise will be used up on Sarge and the guys. I bet she’s relieved. They’ll take care of her.”