The Fall of America: Premonition of Death (18 page)

"Any sign of infection?"

"No, and I don't expect any. She's still on antibiotics and will be for another two weeks. At some point this week we'll remove the drain tubes from her stump."

I put my arm around her, pulled her close and kissed the top of her head. "Sandra, I love you, and want you to always remember that."

"Well, I love you too, so don't forget."

I raised her chin with my thumb and index finger and when her eyes gazed into mine, I leaned over and kissed her deeply. I felt my desire kindle and then flash into a strong flame.

A loud explosion rocked the cave and the air filled with dust and smoke. Men and women screamed, but I heard Top yell, "They're attempting to breech the door!"

CHAPTER 19

"W
illy, get your team and Johnson's team out the back way! Go! Jameson, Wilson, and Prentice, your group is to follow the first teams out the back next. Turner, you and your group stay with me. Take weapons and your packs only! Move, People!" Top yelled, and I saw him move toward the booby traps that lined the entrance.

Willy stood, quickly cast his blanket aside and yelled, "Team 7, form on me!"

Sandra ran to the medical supplies, picked up two bags and slipped them over her shoulder. When she joined me, she had her shotgun in her hand.

"John, take point and if possible, when we exit, head due east!"

"Willy, we'll follow your group!" Johnston shouted.

"Yo!" I screamed as bullets began to strike the steel door on the entrance. I turned my flashlight on and move deeper into the cave. Dolly walked calmly at my side.

It wasn't until I neared a rope ladder, that I realized I was at the exit. Top had not mentioned disarming any booby traps, but I would make sure before I stuck my head up. I figured any traps would be near the entrance and not on the ladder. I waited until Willy and the team neared.

"Willy, hold the ladder as I go up. Once at the top, I'll scan for booby traps and if it's clear, I'll let you know."

"Go." Willy took hold of the rope.

The distance to the top was about thirty feet, but I wasn't worried about falling. It was when I reached the top that I discovered the exit was covered with a woven mat, which felt like it was covered with dirt. I pushed hard and the mat fell to the side, sending dirt to my face and rocks to those below. I wiped my eyes as clear as I could using one hand, and went up one more rung on the ladder. I slowly raised my head, but saw nothing except trees. Very slowly, I exited the hole and then began to search for explosives or trip wires, but found nothing. I leaned over the hole and using my right arm, which was extended into the cave, I motioned for them to come up. I pulled Dolly up using a rope and while she didn't like it, she didn't resist once in the air.

One at a time I helped the others from the hole, until Johnson's first man exited and I told him, "It's all yours now."

Willy said, "I'll take point, but John, I want you at our rear. Stay back about a hundred feet."

As we moved, I could hear gunfire and yells from the front of the cave, but it sounded to me as if they'd not been able to enter yet. I noticed Vickie, Sandra, Tom and Willy moving in front of me and wondered how far Vickie would be able to walk. She'd taken a light head wound and graze to her thigh, so she still had to have some pain.

Once, as we walked, we went to ground when a Chinese chopper flew high over our position, but for the rest of the day we saw no one. Tonight, as Sandra shared two MRE's she'd brought with us, Tom whispered, "In the morning we'll tag up with another group, if they haven't been attacked, and rest a bit."

"Who are they?" Tom asked.

"Our intelligence folks, or G2, so I suspect they'll want to know what is going on with Top. Each group was sent to different base camps so we could inform them of the attack on the cave."

"Do you think Top is okay?" Vickie asked.

Tom gazed into her eyes, then broke away and said, "No, I don't. I think they've all been killed."

Vickie lowered her head and said, "That's why I came along with you. I suspected the others in the cave would die." Then turning to Sandra, she asked, "Do you have anything for pain?"

"I can't give you much, because if I give you something strong and we have to run, you'll never make it." She reached into her medical bag, took out a pill bottle and let one white pill fall into her palm. "Take this, it's a light painkiller."

"Enough chatter." Willy ordered. "Guard will be Vickie, Sandra, Tom, John and then me. One hour shifts, then we start all over again. We'll start moving an hour before daylight. I want total silence the rest of the night."

I remembered how, before the fall, American's were soft and loud. Can you imagine a group of five sitting in the dark and not speaking for over ten hours in those days? It's hard, and even harder not to move much. Movement is usually spotted before a person is, so most of us stretched out to catch some sleep. I slept well, until I felt a touch to my shoulder and saw Tom in the moonlight. I moved to a position to watch over the others and got as uncomfortable as possible.

I was still sleepy and knew sitting on pebbles and sticks would annoy me just enough to keep me awake. Additionally, I didn't lean against a tree trunk or even try to get comfortable. I had to watch over my friends closely, or all of us could very well end up dead. Besides, they trusted me to keep them safe, and I'd damn sure do whatever it took to not let them down. Dolly, who was at my side, lowered her head to her paws as I scratched her ears slowly.

I was about to wake up Willy when I heard a slight noise and the night sounds disappeared. I slipped the safety switch on my shotgun to off and listened again. Leaning slightly to my left, I touched Willy on the ankle, and I saw his eyes open. In the moonlight, I cupped my hand behind my ear and saw him nod. He understood the night sounds were gone.

We sat in silence for well over an hour, before he whispered, "Wake the others. When they're awake, I'm going out there."

I nodded, knowing he could see the movement, and moved to each person, touching their leg. At the sounds of safeties switching to off positions, Willy said, "Don' shoot my ass comin' back in."

Fifteen minutes passed, and I leaned to Tom and whispered, "I'm going out "

"Tom, I'm at your 1400 position. Come to me now." I heard Willy say in slightly lower than normal tone.

When I met Tom's eyes, he shrugged and moved toward Willy.

A few minutes later I saw Willy nearing, and he was helping a man to our position. Behind him came Tom assisting another man and finally, a man I didn't know walking under his own power.

Willy and his group moved to us and he said, "It's Top, Smith and Skinner. The cave fell to the attackers and those inside went out the back, and had to escape and evade. These guys were moving to G2 when they collapsed."

"Where's Alisa?" Vicki asked, and I could hear the fear in her voice.

"She's dead, and so are many of the others. When the door blew open, it struck her and she died instantly. The survivors went out the back and fled to the four winds."

I heard Vickie crying softly. I suspected Top or one of the men inside killed her to prevent her capture. If captured, she'd have been used repeatedly and then killed. Of course, I knew Top would never tell anyone what really happened, because he was too professional to do that. I also knew it'd bother him for some time to come.

"Which of you is the most seriously wounded?" Sandra asked from my side.

"Smith took a round to his left lung, and I patched 'em up with part of a zip lock bag. Don't laugh when you see it, because all I had at the moment was duct tape and the bag, but I managed to seal the would airtight, so he could breathe again." Top said.

"And, Skinner?"

"I'm not hurt at all, but I carried Smith most of the way and I'm worn out. I ran out of fuel right in front of y'all."

Sandra was digging in her bag as she asked, "And, how about you, Top?"

"I took a knife blade in the upper left shoulder and have a concussion for sure, but the head hurts the most."

"Of a rating of 1 to 10, with ten being the worst, rate your pain."

"Fifteen."

Handing something to Top, Sandra ordered, "Take this and it'll help the pain a little. I can't give you anything stronger without it putting you to sleep. Now, if you gentlemen will excuse me, I have to cover myself with a poncho and check Smith."

Suddenly a bright light appeared from the general direction of the cave, followed long seconds later by a muffled blast. Top laughed lightly and said, "Someone opened a case of special grenades, I fear."

From the size of the light, I knew most of the ammo had gone up along with other supplies, including gasoline or other flammables stored. The blast would have killed anyone in the cave at the time.

Sandra pulled he poncho off and said, "This man is dead."

"Internal hemorrhage?" Top asked.

"Most likely, but we'll never know for sure."

"Well, Top, let me start with you and give you both the once over."

Willy suddenly ordered, "Tom and John, move out a ways and guard this place."

"Yo!" Tom said and as I stood, I heard Top say, "They couldn't have followed us, because they were too busy looting the cave."

"I want guards out anyway."

I glanced at Dolly and said, "Come."

Near daylight, just as a false dawn was on us, we returned to camp. Willy said just above a whisper, "We've got to move, and quickly. At some point today both Top and Skinner will come down with a fever. Once that happens, we'll go no place."

I gulped part of an MRE Top threw to me and was glad to have it. I was tired, but knew if we could get to G2, I'd get some much needed rest. A few minutes after I'd placed the empty MRE in my pack, I heard Willy say, "Saddle up, we're movin'."

As we moved just slightly faster than a walk, I thought,
What kind of future does our country have now? In the past it was always Third World countries who suffered from internal strife and wars, but we've gone from a world superpower to third world nation in less than two years. Hell, the last I heard, we didn't even have anyone making a move to pull us together or take over as a leader. How can this continue, or will it be as Top predicts, someone will eventually take control?

Near noon, as we took a short break, Willy pulled out a map and went over it with Top as they squatted near a large oak. A few minutes later, as he folded the map, Willy said just barely audible, "We should be there in less than an hour. They know we're coming, because Top radioed them before he left the cave."

Tom asked, "How do we know they got the message?"

Whispering, Top added, "They replied, so they're expecting us."

Sandra neared and asked, "How's the head, Top?"

"Headache, but I'll live, but the shoulder is throbbing now." He looked feverish to me.

"Once we reach a safe house, I'll fix you up good as new." She said, and then handed him another pill.

"Let's move, people," Willy commanded, and our break was over.

A little over an hour later, as I walked point with Dolly, she suddenly stopped and gave a low warning growl. I'd been expecting to run into a guard or someone, but I saw nothing.

I whispered, "What is it, girl?"

She continued to growl and jerk on her leash, so keeping the leash firmly in hand, I moved with her, allowing her to make her way toward the threat.

"That's close enough!" Came a loud command from a female. I suspect the voice wasn't much over a normal tone, except we'd been whispering so much it sounded like a shout to me.

I stopped and said, "Sit, Dolly."

"Who are ya and what do ya want?" The same voice asked.

"I'm looking for intelligence or G2 as the army calls it. I'm with Top and pulling point." I hoped telling her that much wouldn't get me killed, but we were long overdue at the safe house.

"Where did Top send his last radio message from?"

"I suspect the cave, since we don't have any other radios that could transmit the distance to y'all here. Only to be honest, I don't really know. Look, I'm tired, hungry, sore and not in the best of moods, so either shoot my ass or wait for the main group. Right now, I don't really give a shit which you do, either."

A strikingly beautiful woman stepped from the trees, and I've seen more cloth on a babies diaper than she had on. She was well proportioned, with deep blue eyes, long red hair and just a tad over five feet tall. Of all things, she was wearing a camouflage bikini, and it reminded me of the guns and ammo ads I used to see in magazines before the fall. The publishers obviously were using sex to sell their products and it'd worked too, except the buyers were usually men. Well, this woman would have sold a mountain of guns.

I must have been staring intently or drooling because she laughed and said, "Ya look like ya ain't seen a woman before. Hell, how long ya been livin' at the cave?"

"Not long, and it's not the fact you're a woman, but how you're dressed. Surely that ain't the uniform of the day?"

She gave a deep sexy laugh and replied, "No, not hardly. I've only got two other sets of clothin', woodland camo fatigues actually, and they're washed and hopefully dried by now. It was my turn to pull guard, so here I am."

"I have a small group on my tail and they're good people. We have one man with untreated injuries and another that's had to put off her treatment for a spell. Is your position considered safe?"

"We're as safe as it gets these days, but nothin' is certain. Your dog is well behaved."

Lawdy, woman, you'd make a small dog break a huge chain just to lick your palms,
I thought, but said, "Her name is Dolly, and she was trained for security before the fall."

"I like that, 'the fall,' because it fits."

"What do you do with G2, or do you guys call it intelligence?"

"G2 is fine, and I'm a linguist and photo interpreter. I was on active duty when things turned to hell, so here I am. Most of us here are prior army, but I was Air Force."

I heard a slight noise behind me and when I turned, the group was approaching slowly. I had to admit, they looked like death warmed over.

I realized I'd not asked her name, so I asked and she replied, "Kate. If ya folks will follow me, I'll get y'all to the house."

As the group neared, I saw every eye on Kate and knew her bikini had caught their attention. Willy met my eyes, winked and whispered, "I'd follow her right into the flaming gates of hell."

Sandra shook her head and while she didn't say anything, her eyes narrowed as she gazed into my eyes. I gave a silent chuckle, walked to her side and said, "Her uniforms were dirty."

"Wipe the drool from your mouth." She whispered, and then laughed.

Like a fool, I reached for my mouth, but found it dry, so she gave another laugh. I shrugged and replied, "I am a man, remember?"