Tyranny in the Homeland (4 page)

A series of shots rang out and Meg yelled, “I got the SOB who shot you. Are you okay?”

“It hurts like hell, but there is only a little blood and I think the bullet glanced off of one of the mags. I think I’ll live. I got enough ammo for both of us and an extra rifle.”

“Great, we need to be ready for them to storm our position. You watch while I pile some of these bodies around us for cover. Kinda like keep your friends close and your enemies between the bullets and your ass.”

“Don’t make me laugh, my chest hurts when I move.”

Meg had moved a dozen bodies around them so that the trailer's wheels gave cover and a hole to shoot from, while the bodies covered their sides. Meg was resting when suddenly bullets started raining down on them again from the top of the store. The sniper could not see them, but could keep them pinned while others rushed their position.

They had a limited field of fire. However, the enemy had to cross an open area on both sides of the trailer to attack them. Several tried to overwhelm them and were all mowed down.

The Rangers surprised the first group of DHS and slaughtered them without any casualties. The fighting got much tougher after that, because the enemy was made of regular army that had stayed loyal to the USA. They weren’t Ranger quality, but were well trained and disciplined.

“Will, bogey by the old Ford truck!”

Will aimed the grenade launcher up in the air and dropped a grenade about twenty feet behind the truck, killing all three behind the truck.

“I don’t have to remind you, but I will. Don’t take any prisoners unless they are officers. We need intel, not mouths to feed.”

The fighting was tough for the next mile, but the Rangers finally broke through to the supermarket parking lot. There were over twenty enemy dead and about the same amount wounded. They found Meg’s team one at a time and each one had a pile of enemy bodies around it. They finally found Meg and Imelda trying to get out from under the semi-trailer.

“Hold your fire, we are friendly! Are you two okay?"

“Hell no, we’re not okay. We both need a medic. Imelda needs the medic the most. She got hit in the right tit.”

“Meg, don’t talk like that. You’ll make these boys blush.”

“We don’t have a medic, but we are all trained in first aid. Mike, see if you can help them while we move on to relieve the others.”

“Tell Scott that we held our own and gave more then we got.”

Scott’s team lay behind rocks and logs watching the enemy advance through the woods. There was a small lake on their left side and a steep cliff on their right. This was a natural pinch point and was as good as any to ambush the enemy soldiers. Scott had positioned two men at the top of the cliff to make sure they held the high ground.

Scott heard two explosions and then firing from the top of the cliff and then it abruptly ceased.

The radio squawked and Scott heard, “Scott, about ten of the bastards tried to sneak up on us from behind. We set a couple of Claymores as you told us to do. They tripped one coming at us and the other trying to escape. We only had to shoot two.”

“Good job, now wait until the main group comes through and launch some grenades down on their sorry asses. Set a couple more Claymores just in case they come again from behind.”

***

General Black had seen his force get the crap kicked out of them at every turn and wanted a quick victory. He knew that he still had over a hundred fifty men at his command and he was not going to let this rag tag group defeat him. The ISA airpower would be back in less than an hour and he must kill their soldiers and take cover before they got back. A frontal assault was the only way. He knew that he would lose many men, but he had to get revenge for his losses.

“Major, give the orders to charge forward and overwhelm the enemy. Take no prisoners and regroup under the bridge when you have killed them all.”

“But, sir, we will be slaughtered.”

The General shot him between the eyes and yelled, “Captain, are you ready to take command?"

The Captain answered, “Yes, sir!”

He then turned to his squad leaders and said, “Drop your rucksacks, fix bayonets and prepare to charge the enemy position on my command.”

Only about half followed the Captain. The rest turned tail and headed to the river. The General started shooting the deserters in the back, but soon ran out of ammo. The General suddenly realized that he had been left alone.

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Chapter 5

Life and Death Goes On

The Bunker, North of Mobile

February, 2021

“Mom, you’re as big as a barn. Were you this big when you had Randy and me? You’re eating like …..”

“Like I’m eating for two! Little Jennifer is always growing and I want her to grow up big and strong like her older sister.”

Randy and Kristie were adapting well to this post electric world. There were no electronic games, TV or cell phones. Only the military had radios and cell phones. Social media had a new meaning after TSHTF. It meant that people actually talked to each other in person face to face. People sat on the front porch and waved at their neighbors as they passed by the house. Kids played outside after school if their chores were done and they minded their manners. It was a much more polite society since the TV died.

There weren’t any half-dressed rap star thugs singing about this Ho or that Ho and killing their Momma. If a kid misbehaved, they received proper punishment. Spankings were no longer taboo, but the community would not put up with real abuse.

If a man beat his wife, his neighbors would have a friendly talk with him. Twice, and they would show him how a few bruises felt. A third time and he disappeared.               These were hard men, but fair men for hard times. The women were the same. They only gave drunks and addicts one chance to shape up and then run out of town for good. Criminals were not tolerated at all. Prison was always hard time with back breaking work with no niceties. The prisoners lived in tents and grew their own food. The local militia was constantly checking all strangers and making sure, they were a fit for the team or quickly left the area. They shot biker gangs and thugs on sight.

Everyone above sixteen took training to serve in the military and joined the reserves until needed. All reservists were armed at all times, so there was no chance for a criminal or crazy person to commit a massacre. He might get a shot off, but would be shot to pieces in a second.

TSHTF had resulted in the deaths of millions through nuclear attacks and civil unrest, but the worst result of society's collapse was the millions of people killed because they could not get their medicine or medical help. Heart, cancer and dialysis patients died immediately after the attack, then other people with illnesses started dying off at a slower pace. Insulin has to be refrigerated, so diabetics died off next, then as pharmacies and drug stores ran out of medicine many others died. One of the worst nightmares was that the people on anti-depressants or medicines designed to combat mental health issues became unstable as the medicine ran out. Suicides and violence peaked for many months until these people either killed themselves or were dealt with by their communities.

“I have an appointment with Dr. Ray next week and should firm up the delivery date. Your stepdad is worried to death about the health of the baby.”

“Mom, we call him Dad. He has been more of a dad than our sperm donor dad.”

“Randy, please show a little respect for your real father.”

“Sorry, Mom, he has been gone for a long time. We don’t know him. We love John and he loves us.”

“Mom, I just remembered that the grocery is out of toilet paper and most feminine products. Could you get Steve to send scouts out to find some more? Please? These newspapers and catalogs are torture. What will we do when we finally run out?”

“Young lady, people made it just fine for thousands of years without toilet paper.”

Randy laughed and said, “But I wouldn’t want to shake their hand!”

They all laughed.

Randy then changed topics, “Mom, I was walking down by the creek and saw a lot of dead starlings. I’ve never seen so many dead animals before.”

“Tell Steve about the dead birds. It probably doesn’t mean anything, but make sure he knows.”

***

“Come to order.”

Steve banged the gavel a couple of times and the talking stopped.

“Now, let’s get down to business. Sally, start with your area.”

“Steve, we have done real well since the last meeting. The people from Port Arthur have been assigned farms and are digging in and getting the land ready for spring planting. We are just south of 5,000 people north of Mobile and all able-bodied men and women have been trained to serve in our reserves. Honestly, all of the new people were already trained in Port Arthur. Counting MRE’s, we have enough food for six months without slaughtering our breeding stock. We had to wipe out a bunch of drifters that were trying to capture some of our women. I cut the balls off one while he cussed us after his trial.”

“Thanks, Sally, and remind me not to piss you off. What help do you need and is there anything I can do to assist your growing community?”

Sally replied, “No, Steve, we are doing just fine, but keep us in the loop on any potential threats. This DHS attack on Decatur has everyone rattled.”

“Thanks, Sally. I’ll ask Roger to give an update on the situation in Decatur now.”

“Good morning team. The news is not good. Decatur was heavily shelled with a large loss of life. Our men are in a pitched battle and are out manned and out gunned at this moment. We have air support and troops heading in, but it looks bad for our advanced team. They have saved many lives, but we have losses in the Reserves and Rangers. I should have an update by five o’clock.”

George stood up and bowed his head, “Let’s have a moment of silence for our armed forces in Decatur. May God watch over them and keep them safe.”

George then led them in the Lord’s Prayer and asked God to watch over their men and women in the fight.

There was a round of amens said and they got back to business.

“Tom, how is Mobile doing?”

“Steve, we have made a great deal of progress since last month. Power has been restored to most of the city since we got the city power plant back in service. The main issue is that it is coal fired and none of the mines is being worked. I am trying to reach a mine operator in Western Kentucky to see if he can help get it back in operation. We have about a month’s supply of coal counting what is setting on coal cars at the rail yard. We have taken in about five hundred folks from Port Arthur and they are settled in and starting to contribute. We need some farm equipment and some garbage trucks repaired. Counting the DHS prisoners, the people who remained free and the Port Arthur folks, we have over ten thousand people in Mobile. We really can’t take more until we get the infrastructure back up and running. We need to aim any new people to the farms for a couple of months; we need the food. Mobile won’t support new people for a while.”

“Thanks for the update. I think we all agree with your assessment and will do our best to expand the population around Mobile before we send you any more people. Before we move on to the affairs of the state, has anyone noticed any dead birds? I mean a lot of them.”

Sally replied, “Now that you mention it we have had hundreds of dead starlings. I don’t like the damn things so I took it as a blessing, but several of the older folks are spooked by the sight of them.”

“I’ve asked the vet and Dr. Ray to look into this to make sure there is no reason to be alarmed.”

Steve banged the gavel and said, “Now we will hear from our Governor.”

George stood up, cleared his throat and addressed the group, “I am very pleased with your progress. I am working with the people in Florida and Mississippi to get their states up to speed, but they just are not organized. The people want to join us and duplicate our success, but their leaders are weak or corrupt. Several are trying to start their own small kingdoms and are strong arming the citizens. We have several contacts that want arms to overthrow these despots. I want your opinions on asking John if it is wise for me to give them more help then they want to get things going at a much faster pace.”

“Damn, George, I am in the room. Why don’t you just ask me yourself?”

Steve banged the gavel and said, “Out of order. John, you know that you are just an observer during these meetings. You know we obey your rules during the ISA Congress meeting; this is the Territory of Alabama meeting.”

Sally spoke up, “George, we all think that we have to shore up the states around us or their problems become ours. Don’t be bashful giving them help. Let’s send in some spies and make sure that we’re backing the good guys and then give them training, arms and whatever they need to overthrow the corrupt leaders.”

Ann added, “If the rest of the leaders balk, we’ll get John to let us take over their territories. We will give Louisiana to Port Arthur and you can take the rest."

Steve banged the gavel and said, “Now for the Bunker, we have grown to over four hundred people and have to stop growing for now. We have begun to extend the farming in all directions, but had to bring in some mobile homes until houses can be built.”

“Steve, why do we need to build homes, when there are so many vacant ones?”

“A lot of these people are city folks and need to be close to others. Why they’d rather live in a trailer park than a farmhouse I don’t know.”

George spoke up at the end of the meeting, “Steve, Sally, Tom and Ann, please stay and meet with me after the meeting.”

After everyone filed out of the room, George filled them in on the reason the Territory needed some strong leaders to step up to the plate.

Sally was first to speak when he finished, “George I think you already know who four of those potential leaders are, don't you?”

“John and I realize that we will need leaders for Alabama, Mississippi and Florida. We want to keep this secret for a while, but need you to get up to speed on your new assignments over the next few months and then we will announce them after he runs our plan past the Admiral. Sally, how would you like to take Florida and govern it until we have free elections? John asked me to take over day-to-day governance of our entire territory and I want you to take Florida, Tom take Mississippi and Steve will take Alabama. Ann will become the Mayor of Mobile. What do y’all think of our plan?"

Ann was the only one of the team with any misgivings and quickly put them behind her after George gave them a pep talk.

***

“Yes, I saw it with my own two eyes. Mobile has power, water and garbage trucks are making their rounds. Why can’t we join them and learn how they are getting their cities back up and running?”

“Sam, I have told y’all a hundred times that they are the puppets of the military and I don’t trust the government and don’t want them taking over Tallahassee or any part of Florida. This is our chance to start our own country and keep the Federal Government out of our affairs. As long as I am Mayor, we won’t join the ISA.”

“Mayor, this is not your decision to make. The majority of the people who live in Florida are for joining the ISA. We don’t want to start our own country; you do, not us.”

The Mayor signaled and two city policemen walked over to the speaker, handcuffed him and led him out of the meeting.

“Don’t worry about him. I’ll have him released when he calms down and can discuss the matter in a civil manner. Now I want to make it clear that Tallahassee is not going to join the ISA. Captain, please send everyone home. The meeting is over.”

“Let’s wait until Sam is released tomorrow and have a meeting at my farm. Bring your fishing rods and let’s make it look like an outing in case the Mayor’s guys are watching. I think we all agree that we need help.”

***

The Chief of Police for Tallahassee always was a fair man. He had joined the force after his second tour in Iraq and worked his way up the ladder. He did not want to go along with the Mayor, but the Mayor was blackmailing him. Before TSHTF, the requests for favors were minor in nature. A ticket fixed a raid on certain bars the Mayor did not like and the worst was arresting the Mayor’s political opponents on trumped charges.

“Mayor, I have to draw the line at jailing someone who speaks their mind at a town council.”

“Chief, you’ll do what I say, when I say or I’ll show the pictures to your wife. I’m sure she will welcome your bastard child into her arms. Now get with the program and stop this dissent before it gets out of hand and people get killed.”

The Chief left the meeting, went home and contacted his most trusted friends and coworkers. Damn the pictures. The Mayor had to go and Tallahassee would vote on joining the ISA. He took the time to make a list of friends and enemies. He was the Chief of Police and knew that if he played his cards right and took his time that he could make this coup work out in favor of the town.

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