A Long Lonely Road

Desert Winds

Book eight

By

TJ Reeder

    We had spent the last couple of weeks in the Canyon we called home, peaceful, quiet, and silent.

    Well most of the time it is quiet, I’m up in my secret place, it’s a ridge splitting our canyon from the main lake. If I want I can sit on the edge of the cliff and look down on the entire settlement, or I can walk about fifty or so yards and look out at the lake. It’s fairly flat up here and I’ve packed up a rubber sleeping mat and love just watching the clouds drift over.

              The sounds of laughter can be heard like a distant bird calling. I can see sail boats out on the lake where folks are running fishing lines. The lake is our bread basket so to speak, Water, food, and it keeps us cool in the heat of the summer.

    The canyon shelters us in it’s heart of stone thru the cold. I love it here.

    I love dozing in the warm winter sun; I can sleep and hear the birds. They call my name.

“John.”

Silence

“JOHN!”

“Go away, I’m not here.”

“Yes you are.”

“No I’m not.”

“John If you don’t open your eyes we will throw you off the cliff!”

I laugh…..wrong thing to do. One sits on my chest, one on my belly and that fkn mutt trying to step on my balls, I hate them!

“Do not.”

              Finally after not breathing for five minutes I asked what they wanted now. They didn’t move, I asked them to pout off of me. Nothing. Shit, I groveled and said, “Please tell me what I can do to make you happy.”

              I hate myself for being weak, but with no air in my lungs it’s hard to be a walking talking bad ass.

              At last they slid off on each side, now they were bringing the other weapons to the fight, they must really want something big. I may as well give in now.

              After I could breath and they buttered me up a bit we got down to it. And they surprised me, A lot!

              May said, “John you love it up here in your “secret“ spot. We love it up here in your “not so secret spot too, (snickering) and we love our Hobbit home but we like being able to look out over long distances.”

              I looked at Sandy who said, “Yeah, what May said” then added that they wanted a place they could look out and see the world, not the other wall of the canyon, plus after being with me they had learned the value of taking the high ground and would rather be up here.

              I said, “Why not just tell me this instead of crushing my ribs in?” They both gave me their killer smile and May said, “Cause it’s more fun to torture you into giving in?” then they both laughed, shit so did I. I love them. Dangerous pets, but loveable.

    So we took a walk and I looked it over with a different eye and soon I could see what they meant. The view is awesome, and it’s for sure the high ground! Hell we could see the settlement across the lake; well we could see the smoke and smoke from several smaller places along the shore line.

    We walked out onto the very point of the ridge where it dropped off what looked like a mile but was probably three or four hundred feet. A long way!

              I did point out that if we were ever over run and had our backs to the edge we were fked! May said, “Well then don’t ever let that happen, ok?” Sigh. Then I asked what and how we were going to build up here when getting stuff up here was damn near impossible.

              That’s when I learned they had been working on this all the time I was laying up here soaking up the quiet.

    First of all I have failed to mention that when we got here we found that Harvey and his family of miners had arrived and fell in love with the place, but they needed more room then we had here so they started looking for a home canyon of their own, and found it about a half mile away, it was as big as ours and it too had a creek of fresh water running into it, as hard as it is for people to believe there is a lot of water in the desert country. Their creek was smaller then ours but was plenty for them.

              They had also found a great place for digging cave (Hobbit) homes into the red rock of the canyon walls. I call it sand stone, hell it could be granite for all I know, rock is rock. Anyway they had found a good place with soil above the high water mark in any low spot, the run off builds up soil pockets and makes for great gardening.

              Harv and his clan had brought everything including the kitchen sinks and among their goods was air driven rock drills and a pretty good supply of blasting powder and the knowledge to use it right. By the time we had got home from burning Vegas and all the other stuff they were settled in and still working deeper into the cliffs, our places were small but comfy theirs were large and very comfy!

    It was great seeing them again and of course I caught a lot of shit for burning Vegas. The girls got to use all their comments like, “What burns in Vegas stays in Vegas.” I won’t go into all of them, some get pretty raunchy and there were kids present.

    Anyway, the girls had been working with Harv and his Moles and had cut a deal for them to bring their rock working experience up here and build our home, which they had already drawn out while I snoozed!

    I looked at their plan and could find no fault with it, oh sure there was minor details like getting water up here but they had talked to some of the others and they had a plan for that as well. It was looking like the whole damn group was involved.  

              I was kind of ashamed of myself for crapping out while others planned the work. Sandy patted me on the head and said it was ok; building big fires was hard work. (Laugh - laugh) They never let up.

              May snuggled me and said, “It’s ok John, it was a really nice fire.” (laugh-laugh) Actually it was a really cool fire, I didn’t know concrete and glass could burn so well, but those many tens of thousands of cars parked in the city with fuel in them were an added bonus!

    They had laid out the new house with a decided Spanish influence, open rooms, plenty of windows to let light in and a couple of fire places. There was a large master bedroom and a pair of smaller guest rooms. And of course a large gun room, very large, May was just starting to get into collecting but Sandy really had a big collection. I will say that they were all unusual or real collectors items she had found or bartered for, plus the troops went out of their way to bring them both goodies. I left it to them. It was their baby I was just gonna live in it, the living room was huge by hobbit house standards, the dividing wall between the living room and our bedroom had the bigger fire place which was open into both rooms. They had really worked on this and I was proud of them.

              The whole place was going to be made from big blocks of stone quarried from the ridge. The walls looked to be two feet thick. I had to ask just how we were paying for this. Of course they smiled that smile and said “Don’t worry John, you’ll think of something.” (Sigh)

    I left that to them and the Moles, I had bigger fish to fry, mainly the asshat in Barstow who seems to be pissed off about something. Dude either don’t have a sense of humor or don’t drink enough!

              I could send him a slap in the mouth and challenge him to a shoot-out but ‘they’ would drug me and one of them would shoot the bastard and I’d be snoozing. I know them too well!

    I did have boots on the ground out there close to his rats nest, thanks to Charley and his people who seem to be everywhere. Somebody’s brothers first cuz’s aunt’s uncle knew somebody who lived near the area and so Charley sent a radio team out there so we knew he was there and not sneaking up our ass from the East.

    They didn’t have eyeballs on the dude but they did know where he lived and it was a big place with a wall and guard.

    My first thought was to cobble together an air strike with Ralph and his air wing, but we couldn’t get anything off the ground big enough to do the job. But he was working on some other stuff and I knew from the smile from “them” that it had to do with the chopper and some kind of guns. I really thought I raised them proper but someplace they went wrong. Or maybe I did? Naaa, can’t be that. Whatever, I plan to keep them both grounded where the chopper is concerned. (“Keep thinking that buddy boy”)  Get out of my head!

              May looked at me all funny and said, “John? Are you ok? Are you having daymares? While awake?” I told them both no way were they gonna lay this shit off on me! They do something, whatever it is, it ain’t me! I hear them in my head when nobody around us hears them. Now they are laughing so I tell them I’m gonna have a talk with Charles mom! They really laugh and say his mom don’t even talk to him about anything so good luck with that. I file that one away.

    Back to the asshat, my plan is to wait until he makes a move and then plan a counter but I think I have it lined out so I’m gonna start the first phase of the plan today.

    I ask them if they wanna be included in the plan but they say no, they already have a plan. I know better but I have to ask what that might be?

Sandy said, “Well, we decided to kill him.” May said, “Yep, that’s our plan. Simple.” So I left them there and went in search of my troops. Actually I had told them to meet me in the blind canyon we used for a range. When I got there I had about 30 people, both sexes, all had rifles with them which is as it is, always.

              I explained what I had in mind and said anybody who wanted to opt out of this phase was free to go. One of the ladies said she had a cake in her earth oven and took off. We sat around for a while talking about what I wanted to do and what the idea was and everybody liked it a lot, coz nobody wants to play Marine (“Hey diddle diddle, straight up the middle”) nope we were going to fight the careful war and if my plan worked we just might win and not lose anybody. I like that.

    We had the ability to shoot out to five hundred yards here and I had steel targets made out of good steel cut in the shape of a human torso. First thing was to sight in the rifles at 100 yards then get to work. I should add that all the rifles were bolt guns we had picked up as we went. I guess I had a plan like this in mind all along because all of them were whatever the shooter wanted and could handle, nothing smaller then 308 up to a few 300 magnums.

              My plan was simple, when we knew the Asshats route we would pick the place for the fight and it was gonna be a long range sniper battle between us and his ground troops.

    Our armor would deal with his, but our shooters would be in secure bunkers built to hold up to three people.

     I wanted help in case somebody got hit, one shooting and one doing first aid, I had this plan all laid out in my head and I believed it would work. I wanted no more funerals if we could possibly avoid it. The when wasn’t important, the where was critical.

    We had 10 shooters on line and the rest acting as spotters, the 100 yards sight in was just a formality because everybody here was a damn good shooter, so the 100 yard stuff was done pretty fast. I wanted them sighted in dead on at 300 yards and to know just what to do to make 500 yard shots.

    The first relay started slow firing and the steel was clanging, I saw a couple working on their scope adjustments and when everybody was happy I called out one at a time, the object was to hit the 300 yard steel with the five shots in the bolt gun, but also with speed. The first shooter had five shots off in under ten seconds with one miss, the rest took a bit longer but nobody missed a shot.

              The first shooter asked for a reshoot and was hooted loudly while smiling and flipping everybody off. At the buzz of the timer he opened fire and did it in under the 10 seconds with no misses, amid more teasing and some clapping he bowed.

    We got everybody thru the three hundred in good order with only two people having trouble, I was willing to believe it might be a scope problem or maybe a tight spot in the stock warped and pressing the barrel a bit, we would work on that.

   At the four hundred the firing slowed a bit but the hits were very good, a few misses but that’s to be expected. At the five hundred I told them to slow it down and work at a hit every shot. By now they all knew where their rifle shot and they delivered. Nobody rushed it and other then the same two with the rifle issues it was a clean sweep.

    I saw everybody look past me and turned around in time to face two very pissed off ladies, who marched up and started finger poking me in the chest while taking turns talking. The gist of it was, “How can you just go off shooting and not tell us? How can you treat us this way? What did we do to deserve this?” On and on until I felt terrible ,which was their goal.

    Finally I just gave up and told them that tomorrow we would do it again just for them. Smiles,

     I hate getting played like a cheap piano in a whore house, but that’s my fate so I take it like a man.

    After I gave in and gave them what they wanted the others applauded their performance and got bows and curtseys out of the two…

              Of course everybody had seen them work me before and everybody loved the show, sometimes I try to be strong and fight back and the audience boos me and if “they” start pushing me around they get cheers and shouts of “ Hit him, kick his ass!!” well you get the picture? I’m abused.

    Now why did I say that out loud?  I’m being booed. I give up and take a bow myself which gets cheered.

              We really don’t have much entertainment so we make fun when we can. Why am I always the bad guy? Now they are each holding an arm and we head home. Life took a twist and a lot of turns but I swear that outside the deaths and the hardship at the beginning it’s turned out damn well.

    I asked what was for supper and they had no idea but grabbed their bowls and tossed me mine, so I guess we were going bumming tonight.

              First we had rabbit stew with wild greens of some kind and garden veggies.The next fire had thin sliced deer with a garlic sauce and new potatoes and  creamed peas, hot bread and fresh butter at the next fire where we sit to eat. Then on to the cake that Beth, the lady shooter took off to save! It was awesome! She told the girls about having to leave early so they told her they were shooting the next day and she was welcome.

              Everybody was happy; I was stuffed and as the sun started hiding behind the edge of the canyons rim we thanked everybody for the great meal and headed for the hobbit home and early night to bed, not sleep, just to bed. I’m too full of dinner, that didn’t work.

    Morning is my favorite time of the day, the canyon is still kind of warm from the day before, there is a wisp of foggy vapor curling off the water and I head for my stump outside the door, cup of coffee in hand and followed shortly by two quiet, sleepy, snuggle bunnies who drag a blanket with them so my stump (log, flattened ) gets crowded in a nice way, one under each arm. It’s hard to drink my coffee this way but its how our day starts and I love it.

              I get a lot of thinking done this time of the day, but soon it will get to be a normal day in the abnormal life we now live. Well our new normal.

    Without giving it any thought I got up and ambled over to another of my sitting spots on a rock point that jutted out over the canyon back water, during the heat of the day the little kids played here using it as a diving cliff all of four feet to water about six foot deep.

    I liked the spot because you could see down into the water and watch the fish. I stood there just looking at my shadow jutting out over the water and soon I heard “them” coming, still grumping at the early day.

              We stood there me in the middle and them on each side just admiring the day. Until I dropped my hands down to their butts and with just a little push off they went!! It was beautiful!!

    Well it would have been, but each of them grabbing frantically managed to get a bit of my shirt and we all three went off the rock!

     They screamed! Loud! I would have but my nads were trying to climb up into my throat. Then they were sitting on my head on the bottom. I think, which they later denied, they were trying to drown me.

    Just as I got loose and stood up that fkn mutt hearing his mommies screaming launched himself right into my chest and back to the bottom I went. And he hates water!

              With Walker working his feet to get someplace else I was getting scratched all to hell and gone so I launched away from it all and surfaced twenty feet from shore where they were still trying to make shore and cussing a blue streak! I started laughing and couldn’t stop. Most of the community was now standing on the ledge looking at us, most were holding weapons. I love my extended family.

              I saw Joe look at Willy and nod and their wives were launched into the water and it turned into a free for all with people falling in as they lost out in the battle to remain dry. I was still laughing when “They” came for me. Both had stripped to their gym shorts and tank tops and were hell bent on drowning me.

    The water war as it came to be called lasted for a half hour with the kids getting in to it which kinda tamed down the action since we are after all responsible adults, (yeah right) I grinned at them and caught them both up since I was standing on the bottom and they were a foot away from touching, a kiss and a big hug got them to laughing and we all realized we were freezing so I walked out with one on each arm. Great way to start the day! Next, Breakfast!

              Community breakfast, decided by the women while they were peeling off the soaked clothes and wringing them out. While nudity isn’t a practice here in the canyon, working on ones all over tan is accepted and everybody has seen everybody else in their skin suit so it’s not a big deal. Plus, from all the changes in our life style we all looked pretty good so! Just saying.

              Now that that little note is settled the ladies trooped off to find dry clothes and started getting breakfast ready. 

              After they were gone us guys sat down on the rocks and were soon talking about the coming battle, I went over my plan again to air it out and get input to fill the blank places. If everybody is involved in the decision making it makes it better.

              One very valid question was why I was restricting the snipers to bolt guns? It being pointed out that we have enough very good auto loaders to do the job just as well and have much better fire power. Good point!

              I get stuck in my old Marine head on the subject because I was trained to believe the bolt guns our snipers used were the cats ass, but in truth my AR 10 was just as good as my bolt gun. So we changed that right there, everybody could use what they wanted.

    One of the guys pointed out that his lady was a damn good shot with her AR 15 because it didn’t beat the shit out of her. And 300 yards wasn’t much of a shot at a human size target.

    So I was getting good feedback and all valid points leading to a change in the tactics I was planning. One of the men asked why we were doing it this way and I reminded them how well the canyon ambush went and that this guy wasn’t going to get caught again so what better plan then to hit him in the open, the last way and place he would expect?

    All this gave me more ideas and were going to involve a road trip to recon for the right place to meet the dude.

              Breakfast was calling so we trooped off for that. My ladies were helping by doing the pancakes which with eggs is their idea of heaven only made better with bacon which we have. It’s canned which is fine but we will need to be thinking about that in the future since we can’t live off a dead country forever. One of the really good things was some jelly made from a cactus by one of the ladies and when heated it turned back to thick syrup! Awesome! Have I mentioned life is good here in the canyon?

    After breakfast we headed to the hobbit hole to clean up after the “swim.” Then I took the girls and Beth to the range for some rifle work.

    The girls needed rifle practice like a duck needs to practice swimming but it was their chance to have fun and of course compete against each other. Beth, the other lady, like most of the ladies in our bunch had been involved in our little wars and showed her stuff real fast. After punching the five hundred yard target eight out of ten shots I told her to go make a cake or something, she laughed but said she was gonna get involved in the on. going match between “them” When she got into the equation they settled down and quit screwing off. I’d have to say they were all about even so that was settled, Beth asked to shoot the 1911’s so I wandered off to tell the loading crew to step up production of 45 acp since I could see a new rising star.

    The funny thing about hand guns is that most people seem to think the “plastic” guns like Glock and the Springfield XD series are the cats ass. Now I’ve owned several of them in 9mm, 40 S&W and 45 ACP and I like them, they are very good weapons. But I believe if you’re out of ammo you should be able to beat the bastards to death with a solid chunk of steel. But that’s just me. The girls just followed along with me I guess, I never really asked.

   I know Sandy grabs every 1911 she sees unless it’s some off breed type. She does love them, May, I think just went with Sandy because.

    Beth I don’t know really, I think she’s about the same age as the girls with long light brown hair and green eyes, she’s really good looking and I wonder why she lives alone, but it’s her business. She may be one we rescued from the slavers and don’t want anything to do with a man. That’s fine, can’t blame her a bit.

    I wandered over to the loading trailer and put in my order for more 45’s and the two old boys laughed and said they had already started because they could hear the bark of the 45’s going pretty steady, These two ol boys had loaded every round of ammo ever fired by mankind I believe, if it used powder and a primer they had loaded it and they were a couple of interesting old coots. One asked me if we needed some 45-70 rounds for Wyatts 1886 she got from old man Jones, I laughed and said, “Nope, they each fired it 5 shots and cleaned it and hung it on the cabin wall by my hundred year old Swedish Mauser. “Both laughed and said they would load some rounds the girls could handle just so they could shoot the rifle without breaking a shoulder. And a light bulb went off! I asked them if they had any 10mm’s? They laughed and said, “Shit John, we got ammo for stuff that ain’t seen the light of day for a hundred years.

              I took a couple of boxes and headed for the cave where I found that STI and hauled it to the range where they were taking a break. I laid it and the boxes of ammo down and they were both up grabbing.

              Sandy said, “I’m first coz I went back for it!” May said, “Big deal, I killed the fucker!!”

Beth asked to see it and asked if she could shoot it.

              Both of the girls said sure with smiles, then went to fighting over who was next, I sat in the shade and waited for the fun. I felt sorry for Beth but she would soon know.

    I watched Beth load the mag and call out, “Fire in the hole,” which stopped the cat fight since they had to put ear plugs in as did I. Beth took a good stance and in one move brought the gun up and dumped 10 rounds into the 25 yard steel target that could be covered with my hand, now I was interested. The girls were busy both trying to load the mag and I settled it by flipping a coin, May won, she took a good grip and fired a shot and looked a bit surprised then another, after a total of five she handed it to Sandy without a word. Sandy let fly and almost lost it! She looked at me then May who was smiling a

“Gotcha” smile, so Sandy fired four more and laid it down and kind of shook her hand. I loaded it and fired 10 rounds off fast and when I looked I had to admit Beth’s target had a bit tighter group then mine! I took another look at her and saw her eyes kind of sparkling a bit so I reloaded the mag with 10 more and handed her the gun and mag, she loaded it and took her time aiming and I noticed she was aiming high, she fired and the 100 yard steel rang out then she did it nine more times. Doc and Wyatt were kind of stunned and I was pretty impressed myself.

   She laid the gun on the bench and smiled a big smile and said, “Did I pass the test?” I said, “What test?” But she was looking at the girls, both smiled real big and said, “OH Hell yes!!!” Sandy picked the gun up and handed it to Beth and said, “Welcome to the club babe!!” And they all three laughed out loud.

              I was slow I’ll admit. But I had to ask how in the hell she learned to shoot like that. She said her husband had one and she used to shoot it a lot with him. He was killed in the raid that took her as a slave.

              I told her I was impressed and that I’d work on finding extra mags for the gun if she wanted, she did, so I put that on my list, looked like Old Bear wasn’t getting this one.

    I told the girls we were leaving in the morning to see Charley and we might be gone a few days on a scout to the west, I headed back leaving them collecting brass and chattering away like old friends. They could become best friends with somebody in a heartbeat, or kill them in the same time span.

    I’m afraid I somehow raised them wrong. I went by the vehicle storage area and was checking the Dodge out and the mechanics wandered over and after hearing what I had in mind said they would look it over for me, well I was feeling pretty useless so I went off to the ridge and took a nap.

    Morning came and I started hauling our gear to the truck and found it all cleaned up and looking new, the guys said they were bored. I thanked them and headed back for more gear, I passed the girls who said they had it and I should look around to make sure I hadn’t missed anything. I hadn’t and joined them and found Walker sitting on top of the canvas covered load like he owned the damn truck.

              I just mumbled and climbed in, fired it up and was rolling before I noticed somebody sitting right behind me. I turned the mirror and saw Beth sitting there. Sandy and May had small smiles on their faces and I had a funny feeling something was going on that I didn’t know about (Voice in head “no shit Sherlock!”) I refused to bite, I just took off and we were on the road again, Sandy turned on the radio and there was Willy singing it! What a crew.

     I figured I’d be informed in time what was going on but I think I already knew, I think I just got another orphan. How they work this out is beyond me and I’m not gonna ask, maybe it’s just they’re taking Beth under their wings as a friend (Laughter in my head) Shit! (Stop cussing!)

    We rolled into Shiprock and there stood Charley waiting with a smile. I love this man like the brother I never had. He makes my life complete family wise.

    We unloaded and the girls headed right to him with Beth in tow and Sandy did the introductions. He greeted Beth with a smile and offered his hand which she took, he didn’t shake it he just held it then nodded and said something to Sandy who smiled real big and they were off to see Old Woman who was waiting on the front porch. They disappeared inside and it was quiet again

    We sat in the shade and time passed and finally Charley did the little polite cough that was his notice he was about to speak.

              He looked at me and said, “How do you get into this much trouble?” “What trouble,” I asked ? “Beth”? he said, “Oh she’s a friend of the girls and they brought her along because she’s lonely.” He just shook his head and sighed and after a bit said “You are without doubt the dumbest white man I ever met!”

              Well I was a bit shocked at that so I had to ask why he said that. He shook his head again and said, “Remember when Sandy brought May into your family? I said you were gonna do well in Utah?” I just looked at him and then started stuttering and said, “Oh no!! No way!” He sat a while and I pondered what was going on. He sighed again which he does a lot around me and said, “Are your eyes open yet?”

   I just sighed back and said, “Maybe you’re wrong?” He almost smiled at that and shook his head slowly. I could feel a door closing behind me and didn’t know why.

    At last I had to set this aside and asked him about his thoughts on a scouting trip along the likely route of march of our enemy. He said it was a good idea and he wanted to show me something so we went inside to find the ladies ready to serve lunch so we sat and ate.

    Beth was paying way more attention to the girls talk then was needed with quick glances at me. Finally I took the reins in my hand and said.

              “Welcome to the family Beth, if you want to be.” The sneaky pair jumped up and took turns hugging me and then Beth,” and the Old Woman was actually laughing out loud, kinda.

   Beth had tears in her eyes and I stood up and offered my hand which she took and I hugged her for a long time while she cried quietly. When she was back under control we finished lunch, I asked the girls how they felt about waiting here while Charley and I took a trip to look at something, and they surprised me by saying fine.

              Charley took a black hat off the pegs by the door and handed it to me saying with my dark tan and the hat and riding in his old truck I would look like one of The People, several more men were already in the back of the truck along with a couple of women.

              We looked like any one of the trucks you see in this area full of people heading someplace where it seems there ain’t a place.

              We were all armed which was normal so off we went, the old truck was old on the outside but whatever was under the hood wasn’t old! But we just poked along like all the people do, never in a rush, that’s reserved for the white man.

    We drove for a good ways on highway 64 until it turned into the junction of 160 and 91, from there we headed West on 160 and then it was off the pavement and over back dirt roads and goat paths and no paths and eventually we slowed down and stopped, when we all got out, the women stayed by the truck and the men and I headed up a small hill. Near the top they dropped down on their belly’s so I did too, when in Rome and all that jazz!

    When I saw Charley ease up behind a bush and take his hat off I did the same and crawled up beside him. We were looking down on the small town of Kayenta which was on state road 163 and below us about half a mile from the road was a small camp. With binoculars I could count four men in the camp and one up on a hill doing just what we were doing except we were higher and could see the small town over the hill they were on.

              Now I will admit I was a bit puzzled and after looking at Charley he eased back down the hill leaving a couple of the others watching. Back at the truck he said he had all along figured this junction was the one the enemy would use instead of the big interstate 40 to come at us because the Interstate had a lot of people around it and word would leak out ahead of him.

              Charley said he figured the man was going to come at us with hit teams leading the way quietly killing everybody in their path. While I know it’s cold and not something I would ever be a part of I knew where he was coming from.  

    He wanted us dead, me dead, and he wanted to take no chances. But this wise warrior was leagues ahead of him and had people in the hills just waiting to see who might show up. Now we were forewarned, and could prepare for the fight.

    I told Charley about the idea of using long range firepower to chew them up and with the mortar units and the tracks we could rule the battlefield from a distance reducing our chances of losses. He nodded and said he just might know of a place that would work perfectly but we also needed to wave some bait under his nose, something to make him come when we wanted him to. That was something to work on.

              We headed back and arrived at dusk to find the ladies chewing their nails, they thought we were going away for an hour or so.

              I credit the presence of Old Woman and several of the other women in calming them down so I didn’t get beat to death. We all sat and ate a nice rabbit stew and what’s called fry bread, filling and tasty.

    Afterwards we sat outside and watched the night gather and the stars, listening to the night birds. We didn’t talk about the day or the coming battle, that was for the daylight, now was the quiet time to just breathe and feel Mother Earth. While we were gone the girls had set up the big tent. I had no idea what was on the evening agenda but I was tired, Charles’s old truck may have a wild assed motor but the suspension was rough on my ass.

    I told Charley I was heading to bed and got a chuckle in return, he headed inside where the girls and Old Woman were doing whatever, maybe stirring a caldron full of bat wings.

    I smiled at that thought and went to the tent where I found the bed all made up and looking bigger then usual, also I found a glass of JW sitting there so I tossed that back, undressed and slid into my usual spot. I don’t even remember my head hitting the pillow, I do remember waking up rested and alone then not alone, left side? May, so I gently pulled her over and curled up like spoons and went back to sleep.

    At some point my mind woke up to the fact that May felt different somehow, I checked and all the parts were where they belonged but different. And her hair was tickling my nose so I blew it away like always and opened one eye and found that overnight her hair had changed color! I did another inventory and realized I had been ambushed…again.

              I gave up without a fight, weak sorry example of a man that I am. Later, I’d like to say much later but maybe not that much later, Beth and I made our way to the café and found the girls helping make lunch and they grabbed Beth and away they went.

              I went looking for Charley and said, “Ok, what did they put in the booze?” He looked at me and said,

“Beats the shit out of me! They don’t talk to me either.” Now this was so out of character for Charley I just busted out laughing, then he joined in. After a bit he said he really didn’t know what I was talking about but asked if I woke up refreshed and feeling good? I said, “Oh yeah,” he nodded and said, “Don’t ask, you really don’t want to know.” Now I was really worried but WTF, I was alive and felt good even if I did feel like I had been put out to stud.

    But somehow I figured it was more then that and I would be informed when it was time. Ours wasn’t the only “extended” family in the settlement. One lady had two husbands and another was three women and two men, all were happy as could be and nobody thought anything about it. Several of the ladies we rescued lived together and nobody asked or cared what was what. It just wasn’t our business

    I know some might say how about the kids? Well a lot of the kids there with us are orphans and were saved by us and had a sad lesson in growing up fast and we as a whole were raising them with all the love we could give, they were happy, safe, warm and fed and cared for, they didn’t care who slept with who, just being there and with us was all they cared about and every person in our family, clan, group, tribe whatever, would fight thru hell for those kids and in most cases had in fact done so. Nuff said.

              The kids pretty much lived where they wanted, here one night there another, they were with family no matter where they laid their head down.

              I love our clan and life is good in the canyon, have I mentioned that? I should wonder about how it looks to the others but I don’t care nor will they.

After so much death we have learned to live for the day and to love the same way.

    The important part of the whole trip had shown that whatever was coming was coming soon, the advance scouts being watched by Charles people wouldn’t be here now if the attack wasn’t coming soon.

    But we had to assume that the leader, if he was in fact a former military officer, would have had some training in the art of war although the ambush in the canyon showed he didn’t have much or just didn’t care if his troops got wiped out.

    After we were all fed we loaded up in the Dodge and followed Charley in his truck to see the area he was thinking of as our battle zone.

              The main advantage of making him come to us lies in the fact that a long road march of military hardware always results in break downs, also the troops get exhausted with the constant movement, even just sitting a truck for hours and hours followed by days and weeks will beat down anybody and that’s how we wanted them, tired, wore down and with their equipment in rough shape. And of course it’s always best to fight on ground you’ve had your boots and eyes on.

              The plan was actually very simple; the troops riding in open trucks were sitting ducks for good long range shooters. They would have armor of some type for sure but so do we. If they bring tanks then we will need to deal with them but we have tracks with anti-tank weapons, we just never used them before. But our crews were trained very well by the people who had used them in combat.

    All I could ask for was a nice place where the road passed thru a low spot where my people on the high ground would have a turkey shoot, the tracks would be once again dug in, hull down as it’s called or was a long time ago when I was young. I wanted all our people shooting from strong cover and nobody exposed more then they had to be to use a weapon.

              There is nothing that says there have to be big charges over open ground right into the face of heavy fire, this wasn’t Iwo Jima or Gettysburg and I damn sure ain’t General Pickett. No ride of the 600 here and no Clusters last stand, nope this was gonna be an ambush leaving the enemy exposed and our side under good cover.

    The canyon ambush worked like a dream but that wasn’t gonna work this time, everybody learns over time and this dude wasn’t gonna roll right into a narrow canyon again, but open empty country? Yes, I think so. I planned some false radio traffic, seemingly not aware of his advance we would be sitting ducks. Not even. Never fight fair! I used to shoot with a guy whose motto was “If you’re not willing to cheat you don’t want to win bad enough.” I always just shook my head when he said that, but this time I would cheat and lie my ass off to lure this guy into the net.

    When we returned to Shiprock Charles scouts had reported the enemy scouts had packed up and moved out of the area to avoid any chance of contact now that they knew the area, they had headed back the way they came. The way was now open for us to start deciding just what to do and where to do it.

              I had given thought to not just where to ambush the man but also how to get him there. I knew where the fight would be or so I hoped. As to the bait, well it was me he wanted so I was going to be the Judas goat, except this goat was gonna be armed and ready for the tiger.

    We had returned to the canyon to find that Harv and his people were having a grand time making big flat thick rocks from a solid rock area of the ridge and the area was right where anybody attacking the house would have to come meaning there would be a deep hole to get across and since it was possible to drive up onto the ridge if one was very careful, they left a narrow area wide enough to drive across but no more then one vehicle, I don’t know or understand the ways and means of working stone but these men had it down for sure.

But they had worked in mines all their lives and knew it inside and out.

              Bill and Bob Bremmer and families had shown up when we returned, it was good to see them, they had settled a few canyons further down the lake from us and were busy building a home with the help of some of Harv’s clan.

              The brothers had it in mind to gather some of the wild cattle to start a small beef herd since they were happiest on a horse and meat is always welcome. Really it was all about doing what they wanted so if herding cows worked for them fine. Their wives were already planting their gardens and their kids were boating to our place to attend the school such as it was an open air affair with plenty of books that allowed the kids to find something that interested them and several of the people were there to help them in whatever they wanted to study. We really were a diverse group, so many people with different areas of knowledge that ‘school’ as such was more fun for the kids and the adults enjoyed it as well.

    May’s group that she worked with before the event , being mostly higher educated people, were awesome at teaching. They knew things most of us had no idea of but kids are like sponges and soak it up.

              We spent a few days on the ridge trying to help with the house but really just getting in the way, the knowledge and skill of moving huge slabs of rock where you want them is just as intensive as building  a rocket to the moon, just different skill sets.

              After damn near getting my toes flattened I said to Harv, “Fine! I’ll stay out of the way!” He laughed and said, “Thanks John, hate to lose you now that the girls got you house broke (laughter…right)

    They had done some leveling for the foundation stones and drilled then thru and deep into the rock floor and used real big rebar to pin them. When they had the entire outer wall laid out they floated the floor inside level using concrete mixed with some coloring stuff the same as the stone and when that was dried it was nice and flat. Then they went with raising the walls, set a stone and drill it thru and into the one below and hammer in the big rebar, they put a layer of the colored mud between each stone just like a brick layer would and dressed it as they went.

    I was amazed at how fast these guys worked and it was easy to see they had really missed working in the sun with good stone, how they had stood working underground was beyond me.

    They had it in hand and knew just what the girls wanted and with Beth now a member of the family they had three people adding their personalities to the mesh and it was working like a well-tuned motor.

I wasn’t needed so I went about my business. I had people working on getting our battle gear in order, weapons checked and everybody at the range working on improving their skills at long range shooting. The machine gunners spent some time getting laid out to support the riflemen in the unlikely event the enemy attempted to make a full out frontal attack to break our lines. And even the MG gunners would be using long range rifles until needed on the guns.

    All the armor was ready and loaded, as were the gun trucks, I started sending the ready units to Charley to take to the ambush area where he was getting them set into place.

    We still hadn’t had any word that the enemy was on the move but it was expected most any day. I knew all about road marching and knew they could only make so many miles a day and doubted they would just switch drivers and keep rolling.

    So it was going to take a good while for them to get where we wanted them. I was worried that this guy was thinking ahead of me so Charley had scouts out all over the country in all directions looking for any signs of large scale movement.

              I was pretty convinced that if this guy was in the Barstow area he knew about desert country and would want to get this out of the way while it was still cool, well cooler then it was gonna be down the road, I know I would.

              It was another week before the far western scouts reported movement and as they watched over the next few days people were pouring into the area in all forms of dress and then showing up in BDU’s the style called Marpat, (Marine Pattern) which had me wondering if he had access to the supply center in Barstow.

    I expect he had something going even if it was just side deals with supply personnel which would not be good from my point of view.

    A week after the people started showing up and getting geared up the transport units showed up. When the word came I was really blown away, they were coming without armor, no tracks! HV’s with MG’s, lot of them, but it looked like it was going to be an infantry war which was fine with me. I was not understanding this guys strategy at all, unless we had killed or captured all his tracks, now that was an interesting thought. The scouts’ reports kept coming in as the days moved along.

    One surprise was when a report came in that the scouts had finally noticed some odd vehicles in the convoy and after hearing the description there was no doubt they were Marine LAV’s aka, light armored vehicles, these were bad boys! Eight wheeled vehicles that can ford rivers or lakes, armed with the usual M242, 25 mm chain gun plus two M240 machineguns, they carried an operating crew of four and four scouts who also acted as security infantry. This was not real good news but we have our tracks and plenty of armor killing goodies, but and a big BUT, I wanted these units! I really wanted them big time. Meaning I didn’t want to kill them if I didn’t have to so this was something to be worked on.

    It was starting to look like this guy really had access to the supply base in Barstow and something needed to be done about that….someday.

    On another front I was kinda bothered by the girls push for the “Big” house on the hill. Above everybody else and I really thought it might seem a bit much. Like I was having delusions of grandeur and that was the last thing I wanted.

    So I had a talk with Willy and Joe and several of the other folks and learned that generally speaking most folks were happier in their hobbit holes simply because after all they had been thru it made them feel secure. I guess the girls and I had been out and about more then most everybody else and didn’t have the desire to “hide” so to speak.

              They thought we were doing what we wanted to do and everybody knew they could do the same, no rules, and no laws against.

              Everybody would help anybody who wanted to do something from tilling a new garden plot to building a high dive off the cliffs, well maybe not that because our kids had no fear of anything and would be doing crazy shit, or more crazy shit then they already do.

     We had to really watch them. One of them found an old bicycle someplace and they were riding it down a slope and off the edge and out into space for about a 40 foot drop into the canyon waters. Then they would dive down retrieve the bike and use a rope to drag it back up the rock face.

    That lasted until one kid didn’t get loose from the bike and got a nice deep cut on the head. “She” was back at it still bleeding when a

“mom for a day ”started throwing a fit telling her to get down off that cliff. It was actually funny because here’s this cute little button of a girl, maybe seven years old, wearing cutoff jeans and no top (just one of the boys) bleeding from the head who smiles real big, waves and dives off the edge. And like a cork bobber shot up and flew thru the water to shore.

    We were all watching while she got chewed out with not a sign of remorse and got doctored up and started to climb back up the rock wall.

    I never knew that lady knew those kinds of words! It was really funny, well us guys were laughing for a moment but that changed fast.

    Women have no sense of humor or don’t drink enough, whatever. It stopped that activity for about a week then they took the bike further down the canyon and got back at it. I guess when you’ve seen the shit these kids have you don’t fear much.

    Our enemy was moving slow and raiding as they went, but they were finding mostly empty places since our scouts were spreading the word about them. People just loaded up and taking everything they could and moved out of the way, not that there was that many people out on that route. In the meantime the girls and I headed out to the site of the forth coming battle to look it over from the highway.

    Hell I knew where they were dug in but I couldn’t see shit, nada, nothing. We headed on down the road until we were flagged over by a scout who guided us back into the area where the troops were working and gathering, there was only about fifty people there doing the work at the moment just to hold down on the traffic in the area.

    We weren’t using deep bunkers just shallow shooting trenches with poncho covers with bits of natural cover just in case the bad guys had some kind of air recon but nothing had been seen of any.

              At their rate of travel we figured a week before any advance scouts might come into the area. In the meantime we started some chatter on the radio, talking about an unmentioned “find” up in the area we wanted them to go.

    Finally a call was sent out to me telling me I needed to come see this because it was big, real big! The hint was some kind of hidden Government facility that had very interesting goodies. I told them I’d be there on a time frame that might make the enemy speed up to catch me away from my base.

              Meantime more of our people were filtering into the area from back roads and improving their firing places, no fires and MRE’s, sucks to be them (I laugh). But I was going to be there soon enough and try as I did I couldn’t get “them” to stay home and pester the builders.

              Harv and his guys were ready to come join the fight but our people had been working together for a good while, plus the home area had to be guarded so they became part of the home guard.

   When the bad guys were a day out we headed in to our spots which we improved.

    The girls will fight and squat in the mud to pee but they will have the best shelter they can possibly build and they will do it themselves, no wimps in my family.

              We were here, loaded for bear, every shooter had their favorite rifle and all were checked out on the ranges involved. We had some heavy weapons on the other side of the road on some higher ground where they could be brought under fire when they tried to take cover behind their vehicles when we started shooting. We had our tracks hull down and well covered and protected.

    I had given them their orders to do their best to not kill the LAV’s.

    I really want those baby’s, shoot out the tires and leave them stranded if possible, unless they had run-flat tires, whatever just try.

    The only track fire would be to take out the first and last vehicles if my first plan didn’t work.

    But also to stop any that try to get away across country. I wanted to salvage every bit of their gear we could because I had a feeling we were going to be going west.

    The mortars were zeroed for blocking fire. We were set as good as could be. We ended up with 300 snipers with troops held in reserve to back up any part of our line that might get breached.

    Now we wait. It looked good but the best plan seldom survives the first contact with the enemy.

    We had warned the people of all the settlements in the area to get out and most did, some refused and were rolled over with little effort. Our scouts were reporting the usual, kill the men and older women and keep the young girls and boys, 8 to 30 it looked like.

    I hated it because we were going to be in an all-out war and some of the prisoners would likely get killed or wounded. All we could do was hope they didn’t.

    Morning came with word they were heading right at us and there was a lot of them, no true count unless “A shit load” is a true measure of numbers.

    We heard them long before we saw them and according to the scouts they were strung out pretty good having learned from the canyon ambush.

    But we were prepared for that with two tracks set to slam the back door closed hopefully before the front got past and to insure that I had a really good shooter using a suppressed rifle in place to shoot out the front tire of the lead truck. With all the noises they wouldn’t hear the shot even though it was not a sub sonic round. And that’s what happened, tire blew out and truck stopped, simple. We didn’t move or even breathe hard and like a slinky the vehicles contracted before word passed back to the tail.

   Leaders had troops bailing out and taking cover but when nothing happened they soon relaxed and were smoking and some were heating rations.

All in all it was a big picnic. A HV rolled to the front and a large black man jumped out and began yelling to get the tire fixed.

              I thought we had hit the Jackpot but it wasn’t to be as he went to a radio and was obviously nodding and saying yes sir, a lot. I contacted the tail gunners and they said they could see nobody on the radio in the commo unit.

    The way back scouts said they couldn’t see any sign of anybody shadowing the convoy. Our people finally found the frequency they were using and just caught the end of somebody with a deep voice screaming to get moving. But where was he?

    I was getting the feeling we weren’t gonna get him today, like in Vegas, he stayed back and let his men fight for him. He was no leader but he was smart when it came to covering his ass.

    One thing that played right into our hands and gave me a thrill (woody? giggling) the LAV troops unassed like everybody else. I ordered the people on my team to take out the drivers and don’t let anybody lock them down.

              I ordered the battle to start by count down, 3-2 1-FIRE, and with one long crash they started dropping in the dozens. The ones around the LAV’s were all down in the first blast, I never took my eyes off of the LAV’s and when somebody headed for one I took him down, well I was one of several who shot at him.

              It was going as planned, they were lost and leaderless and most died running in circles, no matter which side of their vehicles they moved to they were in the cross hairs. It was even worse then the canyon ambush.

    I know they shot back but I never heard a round come close, the girls were slowly taking apart anybody that moved.

    I looked for the man who was on the radio being yelled at and finally spotted him under the HV hiding between the front tires. Him I wanted alive, I didn’t have the shot but asked if anybody could see him and got a few yeses. I asked who could shoot him in the foot and Beth’s rifle cracked and he like to have killed himself by ramming his head into the under carriage. I looked at her and saw her smile then look at me and wink, damn! I’m glad they like me! (You should be!!Laughter).

    I had given the order that we were not taking prisoners and once again being back away from them made it easier to drop them. Part of me felt bad but what was better? A bullet or waiting for space on the gallows? Nobody running with this pack could claim he was a soldier doing his duty; all were murders and rapist to mention only two of their crimes. No it was best to just put them down like the rabid animals they acted like. And we did.

    As with the Canyon the team with the 22 rifles went to work. Covering each other they worked their way thru the mess making sure all were dead. It was a nasty job but several of the people who had been held by the slavers were happy to do it. Their motto was “Never Again.” They meant never again would these bastards rape and murder.

    The good news was that this time we had nobody hurt, not even a scratch, there were a few burns from grabbing hot gun barrels which got them laughed at. I was so relieved; I had been so worried about losing somebody.

    I looked at the girls just as Sandy yelled

“SHIT!!” I jumped up but found her sucking on a broken nail for god’s sake. I just shook my head while May and Beth made a fuss over her, if Walker had been here he would have snarled at me for my lack of compassion.

    He was at the canyon, pissed off no doubt and blaming me. I smile! (John…don’t be petty…) shit (Don’t cuss).

    It was time to go see just what I had caused, one should never shirk at looking at the bad things one causes, so I did. It’s never pretty but to take the edge off was a few trucks with captives in them, people ripped from their lives by these bastards. No mercy, No pity.

              I went to look at the LAV’s !! Awesome! Only some paint knocked off by bullets and nobody had made it back into them, clean and still smelled new, the Mechanic Team was drooling over them. Hell they still had training manuals in them and there were eight of them! What a haul!

    I heard the sounds of big trucks rolling in from where I was supposed to be and when they arrived two of the low boys had bulldozers on them which were unloaded and went right to digging a huge pit off the road.

    When it was big enough we started hauling bodies to it and after they were searched for anything useable they were tossed in, nasty but necessary. I was waiting for somebody to bring some shiny toy for the girls for their new vault but nothing was found of interest.

              The Commo team said there had been calls from that same person on the radio but shortly they stopped and they never heard anything again.

    I figured the big dog had escaped …again; I was getting really tired of this shit. He had to be stopped “dead” and I meant to get it done somehow.

    Another thing that bothered me was where was he getting all these shooters? And I had a brain flash! I told the commo man to tell the dozers to stop filling the mass grave

     I headed that way trailed by my brides, that made me chuckle. And I heard from behind me “we are funny?” I stopped and turned around and said, “Oh hell yes yawls funny!!” They stared for a minute and finally Beth said, “Well yeah, that’s true, yawls funny!” They tried glaring at her but it didn’t work. May said, “Oh, and you’re not funny?” Beth said, “Well yeah, but not on your level, I’m new here.” That got them to laughing so I took off.

              At the hole I slid down inside it and started ripping shirts off and found what I thought, every jail house tattoo ever seen was there, some had full sleeves some just different gang tats.

    The bastard was recruiting from the inner cities!! No wonder the bastards were so bad, they had not a thread of humanity in them. Now we knew about the cities, but what were we gonna do about them, and this asshole?

    I needed some quiet time to think. We had just won a major battle but it was so one sided it felt like an execution, which is what winning is when you plan the fight and rule the field. Winning beats losing. But how many times can we get away with it?

              It was time to head right for him and end it once and for all. Only we have no idea who he is or even where he is really, hell the place in Barstow could be just a cover.

    I still can’t believe this mess turned out like it did, but the military had long ago left skilled marksmanship behind for massive fire power.

    We just took out at least two times our numbers with long range sniping. No bloody charges, no bayonets in the sun, nope, just simply a mass ambush with no mercy. General Pickett could have learned something today.

    By days end the grave was packed down and big rocks pushed over it and no marker to show where they died. We settled in at our fighting holes and spent a restless night.

    But morning comes as they say and we started getting ready to roll, the LAV’s could be driven and our tracks were on lowboys.

              The prisoners were offered rides back to their former homes but most said they were the only survivors and chose to come with us.

    I took the girls to one side and said, “No more wives! No more adopting another lonely woman, ok?” May said, “Well can we adopt some lonely men?” That shut me up, I sighed and walked away listening to them high fiving, I hate them (no you don’t!…) Was there three voices there? Naaa couldn’t be. Could it? (Laughter).

    Beth came to me and said, “John, if you want I can move on, I think they should have talked to you before dumping me on you but I was weak and lonely and I love the two silly girls. They are so full of spirit they pulled me out of the dark place I was in, but I’m much better now, so?” I looked at her and finally said, “Beth if you leave it will be because you wish to, I don’t want you to go, I think you have filled a vacancy in our family and I welcome you with open arms.” That got me a wonderful hug and some tears, Beth in her own way was more mature then the other two, close to the same age, maybe, but more quiet, serious and I think she will have a good influence on the girls, I know I found her calming presence to be good for me.

    I hugged her back and pattered her on the butt and said, “Damn nice shot on that dick heads foot!” She started laughing and then we both remembered him!

     Shit I had him saved to get information out of and forgot him and hoped nobody had just shot him.

              I kissed Beth and headed for the medics. I found him in the medic van, in pain and pissed and scared as well he should be. Somebody remembered me saying I wanted him alive and made sure he stayed that way…for now.

              I stood looking down at him saying nothing and finally he just shrugged and said, “What do you want to know?” I waited a long moment and then said “Why do you think I want to know anything?” He laughed a real laugh and said, “Well that was one hell of a shot to pin me under that HV!”

              I had to smile at that and said, “Maybe I’ll introduce you to the shooter, she’s quite beautiful but really hates slavers.” At that he got pissed and said “I’m no slaver!”

    I asked about the people his troops had collected and he replied they weren’t his troops, he had little authority in the pecking order. I was getting some vibes off this man and decided real fast I was going to let Charles’s Mother visit him, I had a feeling she would get the truth out of him.

    I had the commo man call Charley and

“she “relayed my request to have him meet me on the road near the LAV’s because I was gonna really look them over since I never seen one before.

    When I was in the Corps we had row boats and muzzle loaders (Laughter in my ears). “Stop it,” I said! The medics and the prisoner looked at me like I was crazy.

    I just walked away while the commo man laughed her ass off.

              LAV’s are really cool things! Bad assed and can have full eight wheel drive to get thru shit, plus a propeller to drive thru water. I wanted to ride in one, hell I wanted to drive one.

    Charley found me drooling over them and smiled at me. I told him my plan to have Old Woman check out this dude, he said all we could do was ask, she would or would not. I got that, I think. Charley had two of his lads head for the medic van and off they went after he told them what to tell the Old Woman. They got a funny look on their faces but nodded.

     I asked him if he wanted to ride in a LAV with me, he asked who was driving? I said “Me of course, why?” He nodded over my shoulder and there “they” were crawling all over one with Beth standing there smiling like a proud mom watching her cubs playing.

              Beth turned and smiled at me while the girls both flipped me off while laughing, then both disappeared inside the vehicle and before I could say a word the motor fired up and the hatches closed and with some jerking (and I swear I heard gears grinding) it rolled forward, all I could do was watch one of my new treasures rolling away and then the main gun opened up on some big boulders up on the high ground where we had no people. Watching the boulders reduced to gravel was interesting for sure but I was kind of pissed off then I heard Charley chuckling and felt Beth’s arm around my waist and I started laughing.

              I heard others and turned to see the whole unit watching them. Now they were racing across the rough ground with the machine guns roaring.

              They really are like bear cubs, into everything and yet like kittens, full of fire and off to something new every other second ….and, like rattle snakes, very deadly. God I love them! Beth hugged me closer and said, “They are fun huh?” “Yeah,” I said, “they are!”

    When they brought the LAV back and popped out the hatches like two gophers the entire troop gave them a loud round of yells and fist pumping which got the usual bows they were known for, they bounded off the big machine like cats and trotted over to me both breathing hard and trying to talk. When they could they said “We want it! It’s gonna be in our collection!” I was expecting most anything but that.

    All I could do was just shake my head and laugh, they are something else. And WTF we needed to park the damn things someplace so I guess having one for a planter or something would work, I could see it all covered with wild flowers.

              And they were gone, off to see what other treasures we had gathered up. Charley said, “I don’t know if you are showing wisdom or are simply whipped.” I wondered about that myself.

    But in a way it would be a really cool conversation piece sitting in front of the ridge house. Beth laughed out loud and said, “Come on we can’t let them run loose unsupervised.” It took almost thirty minutes to find them, they were sitting under a six-by with a couple of our troops, it was easy to see they were in a barter session, when we got there they both came out from under the truck and showed us their new sparkles. Seems the bad guys had raided some place and found a matched pair of 357 magnum Smith and Wesson model 19 revolvers, the old models, both were well used but in great shape and had consecutive serial numbers, With real old yellow ivory grips, they got the guns and the leather that came with them for who knows what.

    They each now had one and were off to try them out. Soon we heard the sharp loud crack of the 357’s, I could only hope they had their ear plugs in, more hearing was lost to that cartridge IMHO then most any other.

    Soon they were back and pissed because they were out of ammo and pissed that some asshole would go into a fight with only 12 rounds.

              I reminded them we had people who could load all they wanted, they were smiling again.

              To slow them down I said I was hungry and that worked, eating was one thing that would win them over shooting at least for a short time.

    While we ate I took a look at the guns. They were engraved with the legend “Col. Barry Sweet, USMC. from the troops.” Shit!! I knew him! He was a First LT. when I met him in a place one wants to forget.

              He was a good man who took care of his people and that was the best praise any Marine Officer would every want. I guess if these assholes had the guns then Sweet must be dead.

    I told the girls what I knew and it made them happy that they now had the guns instead of a murdering piece of garbage.

    They decided they would get the wood workers in the canyon to make a fitting shadow box case to display them in our home. I could see it now, every inch of the walls covered with guns. May smiled and said, “Is that a bad thing?” “What? I didn’t say anything.” She and Sandy laughed and scooted over for a group hug. Four is a good hugging number! Especially if you are the only guy in it! (Giggles).

    We took time to clean up the area before we left even the empty brass was salvaged. I had no idea how much in the way of supplies we had scored but it was a lot and we needed it, especially the 25 mm stuff, of course the girls had wasted a bunch but I have trouble getting on them, they work hard, play hard and fight hard, so if they wanna run thru a few rounds of ammo I don’t worry about it.

    I spent about an hour driving a LAV before I decided I might leave it to the kids who had younger butts and spines. Plus I wasn’t much into sitting in a steel box and not being able to see all around me.

     So I joined the girls in our HV with Beth driving and slept, which I’m able to do with her driving, the other two? Not so. 

              We made it back to Shiprock in pretty good order and stayed the night. I wanted to know what was happening with the prisoner. Charley had arrived before us and met us in the front parking area. He took me aside while the girls made a bee line for Old Woman.

              Charley took his time with it and finally said that what he understood from Old Woman was that the man has a good spirit and is a good man.

    Charley shrugged and said “But she says the same about you so take it from that.” (HA ha ha..he’s so funny). I said, “Well I guess we best have a talk with him,” he agreed so we headed to the room he was locked up in with guards on the door and window.

                We entered and found him sitting up with his foot elevated but otherwise seemed at ease.

              Charley and I pulled over a couple of chairs and took a seat, I just looked at him for a while, waiting for him to blink, he didn’t.

    Interesting to say the least. I wondered if I were in his place if I could be so relaxed. Since somebody had to open the ball game I asked his name, he said “Harold Harvey but we could call him Harry but please not “Paul.” I had to laugh a bit at that and said, “I bet he caught a lot of shit over that.” He said not as a kid because the place he was raised nobody knew who Paul Harvey was, but in the Corps, it was a different story.

    I asked him what his rank was when he got out, he smiled and said, “I’m not out.” I told him I understood the old ‘Once a Marine’ stuff but he said. “No, I’m still on active duty.” Well that was a conversation stopper, so I made the come on motion and he told his story.

    He was Captain Harold Harvey, United States Marine Corps. His present duty station was Marine Corps Supply Center, Barstow California.

    His story was pretty simple, when the lights went out the Supply center went on total lock down, gates locked, guns up, nobody in or out. Now this didn’t set well with the troops because most had some family outside the base so the General allowed a convoy under heavy guard to go out and gather all they could find. Which while being a lot wasn’t all. The public also wanted inside the base but they were under orders that nobody was allowed in,

              The General had violated his orders by allowing the dependents aboard the base and it got nasty for a while, but the General decided that his job was to take care of the people not guard the stuff they needed to live, so he set up the area as a shelter for any and all who could make it there.

     With big diesel generators to run things like hospitals and food centers, meaning the big grocery stores, they took over the entire infrastructure of the area. They couldn’t get power to the homes but they could pump water and that was a biggie in the desert!

              His troops were patrolling the entire area for miles around which stopped almost all raiding.

    They got people making gardens and over time things settled out pretty good. People had health care to a point and food and shelter, so things were better then most places. Even though more and more people were coming into the area things were ok.

   The desert only needs water to grow anything and the season is long compared to many places.

    So people were working together and while it wasn’t an easy life it was better then the alternative. And so it was, right up until about six months ago when the General had a stroke and the Executive Officer took over. He was different story.

    He wanted to be King. And things started changing for the worse. Some of the troops liked his new conditions for receiving support from the base, at first it was paying a percentage of their crops to the new King, then it got worse, he started demanding women in trade for fuel and other things the people had gotten used to. When they asked where they were supposed to find women because they sure weren’t sending theirs in there he said, “So look around, use your heads.”

So the raiding started, good people can be turned bad for sure but it wasn’t happening on the scale he wanted

     So he put out the word looking for people who would play ball. And that’s where the real problems started.

              Soon he had an army of scum that would do as he ordered. He didn’t want the system in place to break down so he backed off on the locals and simply said, “Produce or get out,” so everybody was farming every acre they could get water to.

    Now the scum bags were willing to do whatever he wanted so he took his troops who were willing to work with them and started training them enough to almost follow orders and maybe not shoot each other.

    I asked what happened to the troops who refused to follow this asshole. Harry said they were smart enough to get out before they could be disarmed and locked up or killed. He said he was going to leave too but the General, who was partially crippled from the stroke, asked him to stay and pretend to go over.

    So he did, and while it killed him to do it he was able to deal with it by reminding himself that sooner or later he would be in place to kill the son of a bitch XO and his pet mad dog who was in command of the gang bangers.

              The head gangster had been in the military long enough to know his way around a bit and was fairly well educated but he was 100 percent Ghetto gang banger and he was the source for all the trash we had been killing.

     He was high up in the gangs running the whole of everything from LA to the border. He had access to weapons and food so he had no problems getting new blood.

    Now I understood why it seemed so few of the people we had fought knew shit about fighting military style. They were more or less the close your eyes and just hold the trigger till it went click. A great number of the dead we searched had rifles with empty magazines and they were fumbling their reload when they died.

    The last thing I wanted to know was why he was  with them? He said because the General asked him to and to try to escape and make contact with somebody he knew long ago who was here in this area leading an army and kicking ass.

              I raised my eyebrows at that and said, “Who is this guy?” He smiled and said, “Well unless you’re not Johnny Long Walker former USMC it must be you, sir.”

              I had a sudden thought and asked who the General was and he said his name was James Barrymore Sweet. And I smiled real big, as did he.

              I nodded and said, “I should have known when his pistols showed up here,” that got his attention so I told him about the ones the girls had bartered for, he said the General was very angry at having them stolen and at least some asshole didn’t have them. I said, “Yeah, but getting them away from the “Doom Dollies” might be harder then not.” I didn’t bother to explain, I figured he would find out soon enough.

   Well all that was left was to hear what General Sweet wanted of me and mine, it was simple, he wanted us to come, kill the son of a bitch who had dishonored his oath as an officer in the Marine Corps, that alone was enough in Barry’s eyes but the scum bag was dealing in slavery and was a pedophile because he only wanted very young girls. In his mind any over 14 were too old! I agreed he was gonna die.

    We talked a while longer and just to make sure I asked him what Sweet had to say about me and everything he said had to come from Sweet because nobody could know those things unless they were there and some of it was when nobody was left alive but us and a few of my unit. And I knew they weren’t talking.

    We left him there to get some rest and said come morning we would have breakfast and talk more. I needed to think.

    When morning came I headed to look in on Harry and surprising me all to hell he was up and dressed, the Doctor was with him and was explaining that the bullet had been a 223 not a 308, plus it was a full metal jacket (FMJ) and with nothing but pure luck it had passed between all the bones and left two perfect holes, I could not believe his foot wasn’t about to be removed! But the Doctor said it happens more then we know, just fate or the Gods smiled.

    Harry was using a pair of crutches but seemed better then I had been when I got shot. (Inner ear * In The ASS!* ) Without thinking I said, “Stop it!” Now the Doc and Harry were looking at me, but Doc had been with us a good while and like most of the troops had an idea something was going on nobody else could see or hear.

      I said, “Let’s go get some chow,” Doc said he had people to take care of which stopped me dead in my tracks. Before I could ask he said it was a couple of sprains, a few burned hands with funny markings,

(A really hot flash hider leaves a nice funny burn branded into the skin) even Harry laughed at that.

    Doc just shook his head and muttering about “Grunts” walked off. I was starting to like Harry.

    We went to the café for breakfast where we joined Charley. My butt wasn’t even on the seat when the bat wing doors opened and out came the girls packing big trays full of food. Harry had an interesting look on his face when he saw all that food, then the girls sat down. None of them were wearing the jackets they usually did so Harry was treated to a nice set of shoulder holsters with 1911’s plus one in the small of the back except May who wore hers in a cross draw. Beth being more the lady only had that big assed 10 mm in a shoulder holster with two very hard to find extra mags under the right arm. I was watching how Harry was absorbing the sight.

              I finally introduced him to my wives and that got his eye brows climbing his forehead! The “girls” looked at him for a moment like a target that got away and Sandy said, “Well shit I guess if we’re feeding him we can’t shoot him…yet, eh?”

    Harry smiled until Charley said, “They are not joking,” that made him really do a double take. Beth asked how his foot was doing more to relieve the moment then any other reason. He responded that it was much better then it could have been, and must have been a lucky shot. The girls laughed out loud and Beth smiled and said, “Hmm, thru the second lace eyelet from the bottom, outside right foot?” Now Harry’s eyes got real big! I said, “Meet the “man” who shot you.” Beth offered her hand and said, “Sorry about the knock on the head but it was pretty funny!” We finished eating listening to the girls babbling about something to do with Old Woman and parts of it were English and other parts in Navajo, it was hard to follow to say the least.

    Charley interrupted them once and said a word, both girls looked at him and repeated it a few times until Charley nodded and they were off again.

    Harry kept looking at me so I shrugged and said, “Shit, I don’t know, they seem to absorb it like a sponge but have trouble with the right pronunciation.

              Charley said, “They are getting better about that, better then any of your people ever have except some real pros the military used to send around but they didn’t get “help” from Old Woman.”

              I don’t think Harry still had a grasp of the issue but was trying. The girls bounded to their feet and gathered the plates and headed to the kitchen allowing Harry to say, “Please tell me I really saw those two eat what I think I saw them eat.” I nodded as did Charley who added that they seemed to be off their feed this morning. Harry laughed, I didn’t. But I said, “Don’t worry about it, if they get hungry they‘ll chase some small critter down and rip it to shreds. From the kitchen was heard “We heard that and you’re heading for trouble buddy boy!” I laughed, Charley shook his head and Harry looked confused.

    I asked Harry to tell me about Barry Sweet, how was it he was still active duty? Harry said the General had never married and the Corps was his home and family so the HQMC gave him the supply center because he loved the desert and because he had always been in supply.

    I said “No not always! Once up on a time Barry ran with Tigers and had seen the elephant so to speak.”

              After the Un-War and remembering how fked up the supply system had gotten he switched fields determined to fix that problem so never again would Marines be fighting in boots held together with commo wire and duct tape, while REMF’s sold the new ones to the black market or traded for dope.

    And he had made a difference but like all things in the “Great Green Machine” it took time and hard work and sometimes having to fight hard battles to win the smallest of fights. But he seemed to have made a difference.

              I was interested in the equipment on the base, Harry said that supply’s had been fully stocked but the wars in the sand box had really used up a lot of the armored vehicles so there hadn’t been a lot of stuff on line when the lights went out.

              I asked about the LAV’s, he smiled and said, “I heard you joy riding in one and saw the gunner on that 25 and he’s as good as any I’ve seen.”

              Just then the girls returned and Sandy said, “Hear that May? He liked your driving!!” May said, “Yeah, and your shooting was passable as well.” Now it was on! “Passable??” “PASSABLE??” And they were off and running. Before I could say anything Beth came out of the kitchen and said, “Hey babes, be cool,” and they stopped right then!

    The glares didn’t but they weren’t reaching for guns. Of course a duel with 25’s was the challenge until I reminded them we needed every round we could get, so off they went for their rifles to prove who was best.

              I looked up and Beth said, “I’ll go along to keep an eye on them but they are just jerking your chain and trying to make Harry think they are crazy!”

    Charley beat me to it by saying “Think?” I laughed. Beth kissed me and with a hug was off to capture her “kids?” She was a good example for them but I doubt it would soak in, they were having the time of their lives and loved it.

                 Harry sat for a minute and at last said “I think I will assume those two are even more dangerous then they appear at first glance.

     Charley and I only nodded coz Harry had hit that one out of the park!

              I said, “Someday I may tell you all about them but I expect the troops will do it for me coz they worship the two hellions and they will of course make them sound wild but nobody really knows just how wild except me coz I was there and saw it.”

    He went back to telling me about the way things worked in Barstow, the people there were armed and while they had no heavy weapons they could hold their own with the rabble being brought in. At first some of the gang bangers went in expecting the locals to be scared shitless like their old neighbors were.

    But after a lot of them got their asses killed they decided to stay out of the town proper, so there was an uneasy peace between the few remaining military personnel and none with the bangers who got shot every time they tried to mess with the civilians.

    Now this was interesting and I could see there was room to exploit the situation. All in all outside of the bangers brought in by the head rat there wasn’t really anything to stop a well-armed motivated force from kicking ass. And with our force and Harry’s knowledge we could do just that.

              And what better time then now since we were already here, we just needed to gather more troops and supplies. Harry said between the LAV’s and the Tracks we had all we needed but it wouldn’t be a cake walk.

              Harry had some good news too, a lot of the Marines who got out before the clamp down with the XO were still in the area and were willing to fight plus there was a still a few on the base who were just marking time waiting for a chance.

              Harry also had some very interesting news about a flu or something like it that was slamming the big cities. He thought it was from all the unburied bodies left since day one of the EMP. Plus the general filth left in the rubble. He said so far none of the scum recruited from the LA area had shown up with it but it was only a matter of time.

              The word was it was spread from contact not airborne which was good if you could isolate the people in one area.

    This was all we needed on top of all the rest of the shit. It was only a matter of time before it spread to other areas where the gangs ruled and traveled.

    So besides having to kill off the assholes running the supply base we needed to find a way to keep this crap pinned up in the cities.

              And I have no idea how to do it short of fire-bombing the entire city. Harry said it might very well take that to stop the spread in its tracks. He also mentioned with a big smile that I did have a reputation of burning cities, that pissed me off, but Charley did smile pretty big and said, “Well yeah, you had to be there but it was a nice fire.”

    My main worry was how many innocent people were trapped in the cities but Harry said they had long ago either escaped or joined or died. That was a pretty cold analysis but I hadn’t been there so I didn’t know. I asked how many people they could gather if they really wanted to. His answer scared the shit right out of me! He said probably 35 to 50 thousand, and all hard core killers and rapist were just waiting to be called out.

              This whole situation just changed fast. It was time to do some real planning, so I set up a meeting right here and sent word to the canyon for Joe and Willy plus the leadership folks at Fort Navajo.

    With a brain flash I also sent word to Harry and Bear asking them to attend, it was set for three days later so we had time to get an idea of what we needed and where we needed it and how to get it there, the big issue was all the “ Its” we don’t have and really need.

    They started rolling in a day early which gave us time to have a feed thanks to the girls and Old Woman who really did it up good. We spent the evening just having a few drinks and filling each other in on all the latest goings on. Word from home was all was well. Mom was doing just fine, happy every day to meet “new” people and getting to tell stories of her life.

    Bear and Harry had never met Charley and were real happy to do so having heard so much about him. Harry asked about the magic weed I spoke of because his old body was starting to kill him.

    Charley said he would take care of getting a good supply of it, everybody got a good laugh when I told Bear to hold a gun on Harry when he drank the first few cups or he would lie and say he drank it while pouring it out.

    The next day everybody was here so I laid out all that had happened since we last were together. Most of the people here were involved in it all except Harry and Bear so they got to hear the whole thing. After that I brought out Captain Harry and introduced him and we grilled him and picked his brain until lunch time when we took a break.

              After lunch I asked for thoughts on the subject, and wasn’t surprised when the general opinion was to wipe out the vermin in their city holes.

              I mentioned I was troubled by the fact that there had to be a lot of innocent people trapped in that place and asked for thoughts on that.

              I was surprised when after a bit with no response it was Charley who spoke up and said that if there was in fact a plague burning thru the place then we had no choice except to wipe it out and if innocent people died then they were to be mourned alongside the many millions who had already died.

    Beth spoke up and said that if we as a nation were to survive and hoped to rebuild a better place for our children then we were going to have to do things we hated but by us doing it now others wouldn’t have to deal with it later, provided there was a later and provided there was others left to do it.

              Well that was a show stopper and a curtain dropper if I ever seen one. So it was decided thru the words of the gentlest person among us to wipe out Las Angeles.

              I could only hope it wouldn’t weigh heavy on her heart, Beth turned and smiled at me then leaned over and whispered into my ear that this was one of the reasons she loved me, I cared about peoples feelings.     

              I hugged her close and whispered I loved her too. So much mush in the middle of planning to destroy what had once been one of Americas greatest cities.

    I asked for ideas that didn’t require us shooting our way into the place, Vegas was fresh in my mind as well as the lonely cross on the hill in Utah.

              We hashed it around until Sandy said “I wish we had some of those big cannons like the military use” my first word was “NO” you’re not getting a damn 105 to hang on the wall! Which got a lot of laughs but I swear I planted a seed, she and May looked at each other and smiled. Charley just looked into my eyes and shook his head.

    But Bear bless his heart said well shit why not use our artillery? Sandy pounced on that in a heartbeat “We’ve got Cannons?”

              I swear she was breathing hard. Bear said, “Well the Republic of Texas does since we held on to all the National Guard units and their equipment and there was a few units that used 105’s,” before I could say a word Sandy said, “Is this a big gun?” Bear laughed and said. “It sure is lil lady!”

              That was all it took, she was ready to go get the big guns. I asked Bear if the troops were still there and yes they were, do they have access to ammo? “Yes they do!”  “How long to get them rolling?” “Bout a week.”  “Do it!”

              God being a General is awesome!! Joke!! Anyway, that part was done, now we needed to get a plan ironed out. We spent the next few days looking at maps and talking about the logistics of the road march plus the best strategy to handle two battles at once, taking out the XO in Barstow along with his top flunky and LA.

    Capt. Harry said in his opinion if we removed the XO and the other dickhead he felt the rest would break and run, so I set him to planning how to get both of them, and called for ideas on LA besides shelling it for the next year.

              Willy spoke up and said he had been thinking about something he had read about in a book several years back. Sandy said, “WOW, it must have had a lot of pictures in it.” May said, “Yeah, and small words.”

              God they are fun, I asked them to hold the jokes but of course May said “Who was joking?” poor Willy.

                He finally spoke up and told us about the book, it was funny because I had read that same book! Neither of us could remember the name of it but we both liked it. The plot so to speak was somebody wanted to get the attention of the Government or something so they emptied out a small town in the desert and flew a large plane with a cargo ramp over the town and rolled out a 5000 gallon fuel blivet with a detonator on it and at about a thousand feet or so it went off. The air burst flattened the town completely and in the rain of fire burned the scraps, instant no town.

              Great idea but where would we get a C-130 and who was gonna fly it?

              Again Bear spoke up and turned to Harry and said, “Your turn boss.” Harry said, “Well we also acquired a lot of airplanes and pilots and I’m sure we have a C-130.” I was rather astounded and had to ask just when they were planning to find a use for them. Harry said when things settled out they figured the planes could really help in rebuilding the country, but he saw no reason to not use one for a good cause. He would just pass the plan up stream.

    So we had tools to work with and a plan, now to bring it all together.

    While we waited for word on the air craft we studied maps and came to the conclusion that this was going to be a major issue! The sheer size of the city was mind boggling when faced with mounting an attack.

    Capt. Harry as we took to calling him since we had two Harry’s in the loop said his understanding was that the main gang turf was located in the center of the city and they had some power from generators, Big generators, so we might be able to centralize the attack.

              Joe offered the idea that if we had some artillery coming we might just shell the outer edges of the area and start driving them south toward the border area and then fire bomb them while they were running. I liked that idea. 

              We were not going to lose one person if I could help it; we had one big advantage in that they didn’t know we were coming. Capt. Harry was going to put together a plan to take the Base from within.

     I asked Harry 2 if there was any spec-ops troops in Texas? He asked if a Platoon of Rangers would be of use? Well yes I guess, jeeze Harry tell me what there is we can use. He said pretty much whatever we wanted.

    Well I sat down and said, “Harry, why have I been running my ass off trying to stomp snakes when y’all got big boots just sittin in Texas.”

              He smiled and said, “John, how many people have you lost since you started burning down cities, blowing them up and in general raising hell all over the heartland? “

              I was ashamed I couldn’t tell him for sure but I thought it was 15. He said well you’ve done more with almost nothing and very low losses then a regular army command would ever get done and they would lose a ton of people.

     He said your people mean more to you then the average grunt means to the upper level of command, they aren’t evil they just see things in a different light.” He also said if the Rangers worked under me he was willing to bet most if not all would get home.

    That wasn’t the case if the high command was running things.

   I leaned forward and said, “Harry I feel either a snow job or a blow job coming,” and before I could say more I felt a hand on my shoulder and knew it was Beth from the warmth of the feelings going thru me. I shook my head and said, “I’m sorry Harry, I was out of line, you don’t deserve that shit.”

              He smiled and said, “Sure I did because that’s what you were getting only you never gave me the chance to finish.”

              Beth sat beside me and leaned against me with her head on my shoulder while Harry finished, it was simple, they would make anything available to me as long as I was in charge of the way the assets were used. No high brass looking over my shoulder. No bird in the sky trying to run fire teams from 5000 ft.

    I felt real bad and said “Oh” he laughed and said, “You’re a good man John you just ain’t found it out yet, look around you at the quality of the people who follow you, they are the best troops you could find and have very little training beyond that which you taught them, you care for them, you lead from the front when Doc and Wyatt let you,” he then smiled at Beth and said, “I think this lady here is controlling all three of you.” I knew she had a way with the girls who I had forgot about and I started to get up but Beth said they are napping so relax. I was the luckiest man alive.

    Other then setting out our line of march and helping Capt. Harry cook up his plan there wasn’t much to do for now.

    We just rested and helped the Mech crews until they ran us off saying if we watched their price went to double. I said hell you work for free so big fkn deal. Beth took me for a walk.

    A week to the day after the call went out to the folks in Texas we had the word on the C-130, it was a go and the crew were pretty wild about the idea behind it all.

    The Rangers took a bit longer because of a General who said “His Rangers” would work under a crazy son of a bitching Marine only after he was dead!!

    Sandy and May were all ready to go see to that but Harry said it was settled, I asked if they killed him he said, “No, worse, he was put in charge of a small reserve base counting mess tins.” I had to laugh at that because I had seen it a time or two myself.

    I believe in calling the troops “MY” troops but if they go to a fight I will be in the front rank with them. Generals as a rule don’t do that.

    So we were waiting for the Air Force to work out the pay load and how to set it up while the demo folks were ironing out the ways and means to make it work at the elevation we wanted it to go off, plus how many chutes it would take to float it down to that area.

    Hell I thought it was simple, just toss it out the fkn door with a grenade up its ass. Grunts have a more colorful way of looking at problems then logistics types, but I think we have more fun and usually put on a better bang for the buck.

    We got some requests about how we wanted to disperse the load, Capt. Harry said the five K load was about max pay load for the 130, they wanted to know if we wanted one 5000 gal unit of avgas or 5 1000 gal units, after thinking it over it seemed that five smaller loads spread over a bigger area would be the way to go.

    Also the chutes would handle the loads easier, so we sent that back. They also sent a message that if we could secure a landing field closer to the target with fuel to use they could fly several missions using extra units they could squeeze aboard. Capt. Harry said that could be handled after he took the base so that became the first and main priority.

              The Air Force also sent a message that the proper term for the fuel delivery system was called a bladder, I replied that in the Marines a Blivet was a five pound sack with 10 pounds of shit in it so what’s yer point. I’m still waiting for a reply.

    Harry did say he heard the laughing went on for a good while and the Air Force General made some noises about turning “his” C-130 over to a fucking Marine! But his aide whispered in his ear about the mess tin counting jobs still open so he shut up.

              Harry said the Artillery was on its way and would be here in a few days.

    They had put command of it under a Captain who was under orders to follow my orders without question.

              This was gonna be fun! I just had to figure out how to keep “them” from stealing a 105 for their collection, but then again it would look good sitting by the LAV.

    I do have some questions wandering around in my head. But damn few answers are forthcoming.

              Such as why has the nation’s military sat on their thumbs while the country went to hell and millions died? Part of me realizes that there was little they could do simply because the task was too huge, I get that, but it sure seems to me some effort could have been made.

    Like this dick head in Barstow, WTF? Couldn’t they have at least sent people in there to waste the fucker?

              Capt. Harry said in the long run it would have simply drained the resources the military had and to what gain? But now that things were getting sorted out they would be able to do something.

              When I asked why we were going to have to deal with the LA gangs he said if the Military did it there would always be fear of them by the citizens and that wasn’t a good thing.

              But if some “cowboy” did it people would be cheering loud and long. So now I’m a cowboy? He laughed and said well not really since you do ride a mule which no self-respecting cowboy would do.

              I was starting to like this guy, he fit right in with the rest of the wise asses around me, Just can’t get any respect!

    I asked about General Sweet and why he was still alive, Capt. Harry said the XO kept him alive as an ace in the hole to control the loyal troops.

    The troops loved their General because of the kind of man and leader he was so they won’t endanger him by rebelling but that thread was very thin and the XO knew it and made sure the Old Man (military slang for the unit leader just not to his face) was well cared for.

              Also Harry said Sweet wasn’t as out of it as he pretended and was marking time before he made a move. So many of the military walked away after the EMP to try to get home to their families that it left damn few to handle security much less anything else.

              And this happened all over the country. I could understand that. Home and family were more important to most men then anything else.

    I enjoyed these talks with Harry because it brought back my years in the Corps and as they say, Once a Marine…etc. And it’s the truth, no matter what ones experience was while there, you never leave it behind and those few who have were never really there. You are either a part of the Green Machine or you’re not, there is no half way. Guess ya hadda be there.

    The Army moves at a slower pace then my troops do, we just decide to go and do it, thus it was almost two weeks before the Rangers showed up and another few days for the artillery to make it.

    The Ranger unit was about platoon size, around fifty men and they looked as you would expect them to, in great shape and very sharp in the brain department.

     Spec-ops troops are picked for their brain power as much as muscle power, in fact most of these warriors surprise folks when they see them, as a rule they don’t look like body builders, all that kind of muscle gets in the way when creeping thru a jungle, thin wiry strong men move thru the bush like a ghost where a bulked out defensive lineman type moves like a bull in a china shop, what they don’t step on and break they shit on. Nope, long, lean and mean works best in Spec-ops and these lads were all of that.

              Their commander was a First LT. who started to report as trained but I stopped him before he could by saying “At Ease LT,” he kinda froze until I smiled and offered my hand, after shaking hands I said, “From now on saluting and standing at attention is out, snipers look for those things. If you need something just walk up and say so, we will deal with it, my name’s John what’s yours?” He was a fast study and said he was used to just using his last name which was on his BDU shirt as “Watson” so that was what I would call him. I asked about his second in command who was a Master Sgt. He called him over and his years showed, he had seen the little thing between his LT and me so he just walked over kind of casual and we shook hands, his name was on his shirt

“Holmes” I said, “You’re shitting me ain’t ya?”

              Both laughed and said we get that a lot, I told them right then that their commo call signs were Doc and Sherlock which got a good laugh from everybody in the area.

    I heard voices pick up from the Rangers and turned to see the girls heading toward me. Both were dressed to get attention as usual, black tee shirts, black jeans, bloused boots and enough weapons to fight a war which is what we do it seems. I just shook my head and introduced them to Watson and Holmes who were kind of big eyed, I asked if they had never seen women before and the LT said, “Is this Wyatt and Doc?” The girls swelled up with pride and Sandy said, “Damn skippy bud!” “So be careful sonny,” said May.

    I looked around for Beth who was headed that way dressed like them but only carrying the 10mm instead of looking like a walking ad for a gun show.

              I introduced her and in a heartbeat she came up with something that got the girls all fired up and off they went, I hugged Beth and said, “Thank you!” She smiled that soft sweet smile and said. “I’ll think of something for payment! I think I turned red and off she went to stop the destruction before it got out of hand.

              How I survived before she came along I’ll never know! She could calm a rabid skunk.

              The LT said, “Come on, is that really the ones they call Wyatt and Doc?” I said, “Yeah, but don’t let looks deceive you, they really are a danger to everybody or thing that gets close to me in a way they don’t like.”

              I explained about Beth and how she seemed to have that something that kept them from getting into too much trouble. I could see he was still confused so I said and yes all three are my wives. Watson laughed out loud and said, “LT, John is a pretty tough man to handle those two not to mention being married to all three of them.” The LT was a youngster but he was getting it.

    After getting his troops settled I called a meeting with all the unit commanders so to speak, but we needed to lay it out. I explained it from the top for the Rangers troop leaders which included squad leaders. I told them we needed the Barstow Supply center back in good hands before we dropped hell on LA and I needed the Rangers to help with that.

    I told LT Holmes that he would lead his people but Capt. Harvey was in command of the operation. I asked if any of the Rangers had any problems with that. None seemed to so I said it again, “Capt. Harvey is a Marine Officer, he is a serving officer who is stationed at the Center, and he undertook a very dangerous mission to get word to me of the goings on in Barstow. He knows the center, and the loyal people he can count on. This will be a dark of the night raid with suppressed weapons which I assume you brought with you at my request?” Holmes said, “Yes sir.” I used that to bring up the no siring or saluting that we had been fighting as snipers and knew what happened when a nail sticks up.

              Capt. Harry held up his foot and said, “See this? And intentional shot for just over 300 yards when this was all that was exposed,” that got the rangers attention.

              Harry then added, “I believe you’ve seen these three ladies walking around with more guns then Josey Wales?” The Rangers nodded, and since they were sitting there near me, he said, “The sweetie with the light brown hair made the shot about one second after John asked somebody to pin me down since I was with the unit they wiped out without receiving a scratch!”

     He had them real good until Sandy spoke up and said “Bull Shit! I ripped a finger nail half off and it hurt! So bite me!” The rest was lost in the loud laughter, but I could see their eyes on Beth who was just smiling her calm smile.

    I held up my hand and said, “So for you Rangers, I know you’re tough and as well trained as any troops in the world today, but these civilians sitting around you were just in the fight that killed over 600 enemy without receiving a scratch.

    I pointed at Sandy and said, “Zip it babe!” She flipped me off so May followed suit.

              Beth being in between them put a hand on each shoulder and they smiled and scooted closer to her. PFM! (Pure fkn magic!) I wish I could bottle it for when Beth isn’t near.

              I told them the plan to fire bomb LA and got some cheers and then I told them about the 105’s that were coming but they already knew that.

              One of the Rangers raised a hand and said, “Sir” and stuttered to a stop and said “Uh John, will we be in on the LA gig?” I said, “You sure will and before we leave here I want you to go thru our armory and pick out a good heavy cal. Rifle to use because we won’t get closer then 300 yards to any of the trash running for it and while I know the 16’s you carry are fine but a real reach out and touch somebody round is pretty nice.” I added to the LT that as soon as we break here gather your troops and follow Willy and Joe then we will meet at the range. And just for shits and grins I winked at Capt. Harry who jumped up and bellered out in good Marine Drill Instructor voice “Attention!” 

    And everybody there snapped to! I was surprised. I laughed and said, “That is the last time you’ll do that! And Dismissed!”

The Girls had even snapped to so I asked about it and they ratted Harry out saying he leaked the plan to them so they told everybody, so much for Op-sec (Operation Security), but it was fun to recall the old days.

    I noticed LT Holmes and Capt. Harvey getting acquainted so I left them to it and headed off to find some chow which I had 10 seconds to enjoy in peace and quiet before “they” bounced in to shatter the eating and noises records.

    I did notice they kinda set it up so Beth was beside me and they were across the table, so I asked what was going on and they said Beth had been down a bit so they were giving her some extra John time.

     Beth blushed and shook her head. I thought for a moment and said, “Bull Shit what are you up to that requires you slipping away from both of us?” Beth laughed and they just smiled.

              May said, “I told you it wouldn’t work.” “You did not!” “I did and you said oh sure it will be easy!” It went back and forth until they remembered they had food so they stopped. I asked Beth why she was down? She said this would have been her wedding anniversary if her first husband hadn’t been killed and she worried about me because I take chances.

              I pointed out who was laying beside me in the rifle pit during the ambush, she did think about it and smiled and said well yes I guess.

              So there, that’s settled so now what? The girls said they wanted to head to the range and see if the Army could shoot.

     I said I didn’t care because Beth and I were taking a nap! They high fived and Beth leaned closer. They left and we had a real nice nap. I woke up a few hours later to find them in bed too, a group power nap.

    When they woke up I said I was gonna take a swim with the soap so they all trailed along, the only way to get in the water this time of the year is to just suck it up and jump, I did, they sniveled and whined until Beth pushed them in then dove in and surfaced behind me, they came up screaming and sputtering looking for her, I think her long hair gave her away because we both went under in the attack, it was fun but the water was a bit cool for this crap so I started scrubbing off and they joined in. We have a community shower with solar heated water but it’s a long walk and the lake is about 30 yards away from our door.

     We got dressed and headed out to check in with Joe and Willy, the girls had said the troops had a bit of trouble getting into the different style of shooting but I knew their training would get them up to speed right away.

     Willy and Joe both said the same and had planned a few hours a day for the next few helping the ones who had trouble, mostly city boys who didn’t grow up hunting. They are among the best in the world but very few people in the military train for long range shooting, not that 300 yards is long range but they may need to hit at 600 + yards.

    Three days later the trucks pulling the big guns rolled into the area and they looked awesome!! They had to travel slower then usual because each truck was as full of ammo as it could be. Anti-personnel

(frag) White Phosphorous (Willy Peter and bad shit!) HE (High Explosive) they even had some canister shells!! (Think big assed shotgun shooting hundreds of steel balls) hell I never knew they had that for the 105 but I’m old and traded in my Musket for house slippers a long time ago. 

              So we had a big load of ammo but it was slowing the trucks down, we can fix that, I ordered the guns loaded on lowboys and the ammo load split up with other trucks, that way we can make good time. Lowboys are awesome units and seem to not get used as much as they should be.

    I was also thinking about leaving the tracks here because they can be replaced by the LAV’s, fast and deadly was my motto.

              Sandy and May asked if they would fire a few rounds to let us see the power but I reminded them this was Navajo land and blowing up a mountain might offend them.

              They got me again because Charley showed up an hour later and asked if him and his scout teams could see the big guns do their thing. I glared, Beth laughed out loud and “they” bumped butts and high fived. Why do I try? (Right buddy boy!) Stop it! (And I’m getting looked at again.)

    The crew of gun one (they all have numbers in case you don’t know) wheeled into action and asked Charley where he wanted them to put a few rounds, He looked around and finally pointed out a round bald knob sticking out by its self maybe two miles away. The gun commander said ok since it’s so close how about we put one round at the base then walk up in 50 yard increments? Charley just nodded.

    The gun crew were doing their magic stuff which as a former grunt I confess, I have no clue. We were all watching the bald knob when the gun crew leader came over and said “Uh sir we have a problem”

I knew without looking. Beth said I’ll be right back and took off. She was back shortly with two pissed off wild cats who were arguing over who got in the way and got them kicked off the gun.

    In my misspent youth I had occasion to need fire support and usually had a radioman who could call in fire better then anybody I ever saw. So in truth I had no idea what kind of PFM it took but when the gun boss yelled “Fire in the hole!” then “ Round out!” the crash of the gun scared the shit out of all of us then off in the distance we saw the base of the knob turn to dust and before it cleared another round hit, then another until the last round hit the top of the hill. Then for good measure they lowered the muzzle and fired a canister round at a rock face about 500 yards away and it was just total devastation, it was like shooting a bucket with a 12 ga shotgun at 20 feet. It was scary to think what that round could do to an attacking force.

    The gun boss came over to us smiling big and said well that was fun!! Seems he had never fired a canister round!

    He was attacked by “them” who informed him that someplace down the line he was gonna show them how to shoot the gun. He looked at me and I just shrugged, he could see I was beat so he surrendered without a fight and agreed.

    They both hugged him then headed for the gun, he looked at me kinda funny as I smiled and called him a wimp and a pussy for not holding out longer.

    He said, “Well if even a third of the things I’ve  heard about them is true then I’m staying on their good side!” I assured him they were not only true but he hadn’t heard nothing yet.

    That got his attention! He looked at Beth who just smiled and nodded and said, “True” then offered he might try to save his gun from them, they were looking over the towing system and I knew what that meant.

    He took off and got his crew to cleaning the gun which interested them as much as shooting it. Somehow some way there will be a 105 sitting on the ridge and a gun will be missing from the Texas state Militia. Combat loss will be the word of the day; I know this like I know the sun will rise.

    Charley wandered over and said, “I hear you’re building a stone fort on the ridge.” I asked why he called it a fort. He pointed at “them” and said, “When you have a big stone building with cannons it’s called a fort and you know that gun will be missing when they head back to Texas right?” Beth laughed out loud and headed off to gather in the two before they killed the gun crew and stole the gun.

    Charley and I wandered off to a shady spot in the lee of a cliff and settled down to just be. After the usual silence he made his polite cough and when I didn’t say anything he said, “Are we really going to burn LA?” I said, “Yep why?” He just nodded and said, “Good it’s a sewer and was one before the EMP, now it’s a sewer full of rats and it needs to be gone.” Well I was surprised at his attitude but I could understand it. The Navajo people love their open spaces and the quiet of it and I guess the filth most big cities hold and the loudness just offends them.

    He waited a bit and said the Old Woman had told him that there was a very bad sickness growing in the cities and when it got loose it would spread and kill many of the people who had survived so far. He had no clue as to what it might be but he knew if she said it then it was true. She had told him fire was the way to kill it.

    This confirmed more then anything could have that there was in fact a plague but I sure wanted to know how the Old Woman knew about it.

    I asked if she said “LA” he said no, all the big cities. Damn! How was I supposed to handle that? He didn’t know. All I could do was pass that information along to the communications people to pass along to the people everywhere who had commo. They could handle their areas themselves. LA had become personal to me so we would deal with it.

    Charley said I’d probably get further if I left out that the information was from an ancient Navajo woman out in the desert. I had to laugh at that, but he was right.

    But there are so many big cities that turned into death traps and were filled with bodies that still lay where they fell. Rats and god knows what else were spreading whatever it was to the living. I had an issue with the fact so many innocent people might be caught up in the fire storm that I settled it by telling Ralph to prep his chopper to be transported to the coming battle where he would drop fliers warning the people of the coming battle, they were directed to head toward our lines where they would be cared for, anybody staying behind was in grave danger.

              I also wanted a warning to anybody showing up with Gang ink that they would be dealt with in a less gentle manner. It might not do much but I’ll sleep better knowing I tried.

    We rolled out on a clear and beautiful morning, heading right at Barstow, scouts out, guns up and not in a mood to screw around. Anybody who shot at us was going down hard and left for buzzard food.

    Capt. Harry had left two day earlier with his Rangers and our commo people which of course included “talkers.” They were driving HV’s and trailers with fuel and ammo and were not stopping for anything except a break down.

    We headed south until we hit I 40 and there we hit it, pushing as hard and possible without leaving vehicles along the way. And I must admit we made one hell of a picture!! Every vehicle was flying Old Glory! We had Scouts out front, looking for trouble, HV’s leading, with others in the convoy, we rolled with guns up and gunners watching everything close to us. We saw people who just stared but most were waving and cheering, why I don’t really know except I guess it seemed a sign that America was open for business. Not yet, and I don’t know when but it will be!

    We rolled thru the day and night switching drivers every four hours, we even had rolling bunk rooms for the drivers to get some good sleep, the rest of us slept where we were. I must admit I came to envy the girls, all three were like cats, they were small enough to curl up any place and sleep like kittens whereas I couldn’t do more then sit.

              The trip seemed to last forever but it did come to an end. When we were fifty miles out of Barstow we got the word that Capt. Harry and his Rangers had taken the base. No KIA’s and five WIA’s the fact there was help inside made it very easy. He said the outlaw element had become so complacent that it was a cake walk.

              They got all their wounded at the main gate where one of the guards was awake and manning a machine gun and got off a few bursts before being cut down. The rest surrendered.

              The former XO pulled his on plug rather then face a rope, General Sweet was in good shape because the people around him had remained loyal to him and their oaths which a lot of them did, but not all, sadly. I hated the thought of Marines turning their backs on their oath and their Corps.

They would be dealt with.

    Sneaky always works best; I like sneaky, fewer losses of people and equipment.

    We rolled right up to the gate and found Harry and his troops on parade, all they needed was a band playing. I could see pride on all their faces and they earned it.

              Harry took me to see General Sweet. I found him looking far better then expected, he had spent his time doing his physical therapy under the eyes of the base Doc and his corpsmen. It’s seems there was a bit of deception going on when reports were given of how bad Sweet was.

              I had last seen him on a jungle trail long ago, I was heading off into the bush while he was about to fly out to a much nicer place.

    But he had personally made sure my team had everything they wanted for our little adventure and because the supply lines were screwed up with thieves stealing so much stuff to sell on the black market I owed him big time.

              We looked at each other for a bit then shook hands, he gestured to a chair so I sat with him and talked about the long ago but mostly the now, he had heard my name on commo traffic and knew it had to be me and from what they were hearing he knew with my help he could rid the area of the traitor who stole his command. So now here we were. I told him where we were going and my plans for LA. He said “The whole place??” Yes Sir,” I replied, “You can’t burn a part of the bush to get the snakes out you have to burn it all.”

    He nodded and smiled and said, “Never half way with you John.” After spending a couple of hours with him I headed out to get my people settled.

              I found Capt. Harry ahead of me, the troops were settled into barracks and the chow hall was turning out food, soon all would be showered and fed and sleeping like the dead, it had been a trip.

    Harry had put us in the VIP guest house so I headed there to shower and then gather my flock and go eat. I found Beth but the troublesome twosome were gone, I had to ask and wasn’t surprised when she said, “With all this stuff that goes bang and boom you know they are walking off with all they can carry,” how well I knew that.

              Showering with Beth is fun as it is with all of them, we headed for the mess hall and found the girls eating, surrounded by Marines who had been listening to the tales of their exploits, at the moment they were telling how I burned down Las Vegas.

    Beth and I took a seat close by and since they hadn’t seen us I figured we could listen to the BS.

I should know better, they both turned around and flashed those killer smiles and said “There he is!! With wife number three Beth!

    Beth groaned while I just shook my head, they said goodbye to their audience and headed for us, hugs and kisses for both of us and then they commenced to tell us all the stuff they had “found” and all the stuff they had “borrowed” and could they have a truck?

     I groaned and asked why they needed a thousand hand grenades? They of course said coz we don’t have any. I pointed out that there are plenty of them in our demo storage area, but OH NO!! They don’t have any of their own! I gave up, then they asked me if I knew anything about Claymores? If my food tray hadn’t been in my way I would have pounded my head on the table. But I know better then to not answer them so I admitted I knew about them.

    They are so happy. I asked what else they had stolen, they looked around and May whispered, 50 K rounds of 45 ball ammo!! Now I was impressed but I had to ask why so little, Sandy said, “Well we need a bigger truck which brings us back to can we have a truck?”

              I just looked at them for a moment then said, “Ok here’s the thing, where did you get all this stuff?” They said the place was full of it, I asked what kind of base is this? Both said, “Supply base dummy!”

              I smiled and said, “You steal thousands of rounds of ammo and mines and you can’t steal a fkn truck?”

    They sat there for a minute and looked at each other then played the blame game for a couple of minutes until it dawned on them they were in the candy land of supplies and they were gone with a fast kiss for both of us, I slumped forward while Beth rubbed my neck and said, “John you’re the most wonderful husband three women could ask for,” and then laughed and said, “I’m going with them it sounds like fun!” And with a kiss she was gone.

              Now I wasn’t worried about Beth because she was the more adult one of the bunch but I also knew she was corruptible around those two. They have a way of getting everything they want so I did have a moment of worry about Beth. It was like the door to the vault was thrown open for them. I left to take a nap in peace and quiet.

    Napping is good and it lets me escape from the reality of the world around me and the things I’ve done under the guise of stopping bad people from hurting good people or some such shit.

    Anyway I like naps; I also like waking up to somebody snuggling close to me. I didn’t have to open my eyes to know it was Beth. She just walks into a room and calm flows in with her. Finally I asked where the James Gang were at the moment, she said, “Well John, now they need truck drivers.” I mumbled, “Shit.” She said, “Yep their reputation arrived before them and they are taking full advantage of it.” Then she laughed and said, “Well I think one truck is all mine.” I raised up and looked at her and she blushed and said, “Well girls like new stuff and I’m a girl so…” I asked her what kind of stuff, she mumbled something that sounded a great deal like Barrett, and so I said, “Ok, you got a Barrett?” She said, “Well kinda,” I asked how you could kinda have a Barrett, she replied that “A” was maybe a bit short, I sigh, as usual. She admitted she now has 5 Barrett sniper systems and more 50 cal ammo then she can ever shoot. I said “You shoot?” “Well,” she said, “I guess I’ll have to share a bit with the girls,” then she started giggling and said, “John it really is a candy store out there.” She also said there was a truck load of 25mm ammo! That we need!

    And ammo for the 40 mm auto grenade launchers on our vehicles, this made me very happy because we had been short of them all along. I did have to ask if they were stealing it and she said no that General Sweet gave the orders to give us whatever we wanted, he also said any of his Marines who wanted to go along to help out could but not so many as to leave the base security weakened.

    He was still a good officer, he knew his men were chomping at the bit to be out doing and helping instead of standing guard duty. For this I was grateful but I only wanted the ones who could operate some of the equipment we were getting. I have shooters.

I need people who can operate the equipment and keep it running.

                 Beth and I headed out to see what was going on and to get the latest intel info.

    I had also forgotten the main reason for our coming here and that was the leader of the rabble here at the base and shortly found out he had headed south after the last ambush to get more crud for his army, I had to assume he knew by now that the base was lost but he didn’t know how or why so he really had no idea we were coming for him.

    Capt. Harry has said he changed his name more often then his skivvies so names mean nothing but he was a product of the inner city gang areas. Even though he had served in the military and wasn’t stupid and also had never trusted Harry but was afraid to try to do anything about for the moment, he figured by sending Harry off to chase me down he would likely get killed so didn’t object when Harry offered to go.

  This whole mess was more then I really wanted to deal with but it was there and dealing is what a good leader does.

     I asked Harry to see if the base print shop could run off about a hundred thousand fliers telling people what was coming and to get them out asap.

    He got right on it. I took time to check on all of our people plus the Rangers and making sure them and the Marines were playing well together.

              I figured I’d end up having to break up some problems but not at all! They were working their asses off getting ready to go to war. It was funny that all these trained warriors with the rare exception had less combat time then my civilian army. I might need to make sure they had some of my folks sprinkled thru their ranks.

    Now we just had to get the C-130 here and get this show on the road, Harry had gotten the airport cleaned up and lights working so the C-130 was coming in tomorrow morning early. It was time to check that everything was loaded and ready to go.

    My staff and I spent the rest of day checking and rechecking that we had everything we could think of plus stuff we hadn’t thought of but others had.

    As soon as the big bird was on the ground the chopper was going to do the flier drop.

    I was giving them 24 hours’ notice and then the roof was gonna cave in.

    Morning found us at the airport watching a small speck getting bigger by the moment until the 130 seemed to fill the sky, it had been so long since we had seen anything bigger then our small plane in the air that we were just blown away, everybody was yelling and cheering, most of the town had turned out for the event which more then anything seemed to point to better days, some day.

    After the pilot shut down the engines and the crew came down the ramp we headed for the plane.

    The Lt. Col flying the bird looked around before asking where the commanding officer was.

I had to smile knowing he and I weren’t gonna get along at all.

     Sandy of course spoke up with “He’s standing in front of you, you stiff necked prick!” I swear he puffed up like a toad!

He looked at me then Sandy and said to his crew, “Load up we’re leaving right now!” Before he could turn away I said, “Colonel, you are free to leave anytime you want, but the plane stays, we have people who have more hours in a 130 then you do!” (A lie but fk him!) That stopped him and he marched right at me like he was gonna run me over, but he stopped when he saw three 45 muzzles right in his face.

    Even Beth was ready to splatter this asshole all over the ground. His people were scattering from behind him in case. Well he stood there sputtering until I said, “Colonel, really sir, get the stick out of your ass and follow me over to the shade.

    I was walking away and he hadn’t moved so I stopped and quietly said Colonel that was not a request. Now move it you pompous ass!” Well that got him moving and when we were alone I told him one more outburst and he was walking home so please tell me what his main problem was.

    Well he went thru the my plane this and my plane that until I said, “Colonel it’s my plane and has been since the people in Texas agreed to it so you’re out of line.”

              He wouldn’t listen to me at all and wouldn’t shut up so I made a motion to the Ranger LT and held up three fingers and made the double time arm pump and he pointed out three Rangers and ran to me.

    I said, “LT, the Colonel is under arrest, please take him to the BOQ ( Bachelor Officers Quarters) and place him under house arrest, if he says one word out of line take him to the brig.” After sputtering a bit he said, “Wait can’t we talk about this?” I said, “No, I offered to be reasonable and you weren’t willing to play so here it is.”

    He said he would toe the line but I just smiled and said until you’re off the ground and heading back to Texas right?

              I had him, he turned red as a beet and I told him to never play poker with Marines.

    The LT took him away and I returned to the air crew and looked at them then said, “Ok! Who else can fly this pile of beer cans?” Well that got some laughs from even the airmen and a Major said, “Well sir I spect ahm your huckleberry,” with a beautiful drawl. I smiled and said, “Sounds like home.” He said, “Yep, raised around East Texas not far from your family compound!” I said, “Then you heard of us?” He said, “Yep and I tried to tell that asshole but he just won’t ever listen so now what?”

              I asked if he could fly without a co-pilot and he said, “Yeah but it was nice to have somebody who knew how to wind up the rubber bands,” I was liking this guy! I told him I had a chopper pilot with a lot of fixed wing time but not big stuff.

              He said that was fine, just somebody to drive when he went to piss and get a cup of coffee. He said something to one of the air crew who took off at a run back up the ramp and returned with the most beat up dirty Stetson I ever saw, after he put it on he stuck out his hand and said, “Major Arnold Minor” sir!” While we all smiled at that he said his lady friend back at the base was a Capt. Mary Bumps who had a real nice set and when she made Major she would be “Major Bumps” now we were all laughing our asses off, if this guy could fly half as good as he could talk he was an asset Texas might not get back.

              I noticed the girls heading for the ramp and I yelled, “NO!! Damn it NO! They flipped me off and trotted up the ramp.

              I asked Arnie as he said to call him if he had left the keys in the ignition, he laughed and said, “Nope I heard about them two long before I knowed we was comin here. And there ain’t a thing in there they can walk off with!”

              He said Harry had warned him before they left and also told him to be prepared to fly the mission because he figured the Col was heading for a problem. He asked about the girls pulling the pistols and if it was a show, I said, “Your buddy the Col was a ounce of trigger pull from being splattered all over the runway.”

              He said, “Yep Harry said they was cute as a bug and as deadly as a pit full of rattlers.” He was watching Beth heading for the plane, he said Harry had told him about Beth and how she had just joined the family and was already kind of in control of the “rabid badgers” as Harry put it. I said I didn’t have the full story yet but I knew enough to know the girls had watched her for a long time and got to know her and really liked her before asking her if she was interested. I said I had little to do with any of it I just went along with it mostly but that I had drawn the line at the three of them. They were happy, so I was happy and I think they had planned to use Beth to keep me distracted while they run rampant but it worked out that Beth was calming them down to a degree and they were dragging her along with them to a degree.

    I heard the sounds of the chopper coming back and we watched Ralph coming in pretty fast, the props were still spinning when he bailed out and started running around the bird, we joined him and found him looking at a couple of damn big holes in the left door, the man who went along to kick out the fliers was still white looking, the rounds must had fanned him as they passed. Ralph said the bastards had some fifty cals in there that must have come from the base here and they almost fried his ass except the gunner was untrained and opened up too soon but still got two hits, he said they were at the far end of their loop and had dumped the last of the fliers when it happened. Luck, pure and simple. 

              Ralph looked at the 130 and said, “Sweet!” I asked if he ever flew one but he laughed and said, “No but I’d give my left one to try it.” I smiled and said, “Well good because you’re the co-pilot!” I thought he was gonna kiss me! I did the intros between the two and they walked off hands waving and diving and talking a strange language.

    Pilots and tankers are very weird ducks but we need em, so… I saw Beth herding the girls down the ramp where they stopped to say hi to Ralph who must have said something about getting shot at because Sandy was yelling at him for getting “Her” Chopper shot to pieces, Ralph looked at me, I shrugged and smiled. He flipped me off. Beth saved him by heading for the chopper where “they” joined her, Sandy was heard to say, “That?? That’s almost getting shot down?? What a pussy!! God..” One second you’re damned if you do and the next you’re damned if ya don’t. I’ve never seen one like her, May might be close but she ain’t there yet. Given her way I think Sandy would become a War Lord but on the side of good. (HA! Already am!) Stop it! (Looks again..) I need a nap.

    I got my nap and for a while didn’t have to share the bed, then all three trooped in and that was the end of sleep, they piled on the bed and turned it into a pajama party. I finally rolled over on my belly and Beth rubbed my shoulders and back and then I did sleep.

              I woke up in a pile, they were sprawled all over me and the bed. Beth was beside me and laying with my arm around her, I went back to sleep, we were gonna need it as we had learned in Vegas.

    Morning came and I couldn’t move, they were still sleeping so I started easing out of the tangle and made it to the bathroom before I peed the floor then I got in the shower and steamed the place up, Beth joined me then May and shortly Sandy squeezed in, it was crowded but kind of nice. Slippery is good.

              I got out followed by Beth giving them more room and bitching about running out of hot water. I got dressed kissed Beth and ran out the door before they could jump me all wet and fussing over cold water. I smiled all the way to the mess hall where I found the entire staff, I should have felt guilty but I didn’t. I’m old! I don’t have to care.

    Everything is done, the 130 is loaded and ready to roll as soon as we call, with nothing left we rolled out within the hour heading south, we circled around on secondary roads to the west to avoid the piled up freeways. Here it was so different then out in the heartland, millions of cars that just stopped dead in their tracks. And the remains of the beginning of the crazy times following the event, sometimes it looks like people just got out of their vehicles and started killing each other.

              It is sad that the people with more then any nation on earth could revert to savagery in the blink of an eye, I’ll never understand it.

    As loaded down as we were we took two days to get there, stopping for nothing, we bypassed small settlements who’s people either ran for cover of stood and cheered us on. I have to admit I was surprised to find these settlements this close to the cities but even murdering assholes need food so killing off the food growers don’t make much sense, I expect these folks had to pay a hefty tax to be left alone. Well I hoped this trip would end that shit.

    On the evening of the second long day we made it to the sprawling edges of the city and it looked like Dresden after the Air Force fire bombed it, desolate didn’t cover it, wasteland may come close to it. With a big wrecker with a plow on the front to move cars and make a road we rolled forward, as we went some people started coming out and they looked like they had been freed from a Nazi death camp, we could become bogged down here so I ordered the troops to start tossing MRE’s away from the road, the people fell on them like a pack of wild dogs.

              Bottles of water were added to the menu. I was amazed that so many could still be living here and it put a heavy weight on my shoulders. I asked the medical team to pick out a few of them and question them about what was ahead, they took in three men who after eating a bit were able to say they had been further inside the city when the fliers came and they at last took the chance to run for it, they said the main city center was all gangland and that any non-gang bangers had either left or died long ago.

    After learning all they could the med team left the three with a huge pile of MRE’s and water that I hoped they doled out to others. We couldn’t spare the time or people to do it.

    I had never really been to LA but had been close enough to know I never wanted to visit. We drove on until we could see the center of the city. I would have liked to spread the guns out over a very wide front but security wouldn’t allow it so we did the best we could by spreading their front so one gun was firing into its own sector.

    We had decided Ralph was needed more as a spotter for the fight so we took him and his chopper with us and one of the planes officers flew as co-pilot.

    Ralph and a spotter were up in the chopper well above ground fire and worked as fire control center. The gun crews were set up and ready so with nothing to gain by waiting I gave the order to open fire. The crash of the guns sounded like the gates of hell slamming shut. Ralph could see the shell fall of each gun and the idea was to fire and move the next shell fall to the right about 50 yards, we started with Willy Peter and the fires started roaring. Cars with fuel remaining and who knows what but there were explosions in the mess, they fired until the barrels needed cooling down then changed elevation and started again, it went on all day with my people replacing the gun crews where they could, Ralph said it was hell in there, I asked him to land and pick me up which he did but of course I wasn’t allowed to go alone, so the four of us got on the chopper after it was refueled and once we were over the city I could see it was an inferno, we went higher and flew over the city and I could see the rats running, cars bikes whatever they could find, on foot if nothing else. They were doing just what we wanted, running right into the coming blast, there were hundreds then thousands, hell they were even fighting each other as they ran, fine with me! We were well ahead of the shells and could see the line of explosions slowly walking at us.

    We flew higher and further south and could see the mass of trash piling up as they got bottle necked. I called Big Bird and said, “Come to Papa.” Ralph gave the coordinates and got us out away from the area, we would see the effects of the drop.

    About half an hour later Big Bird called to say they were going to make a pass from west to east and make their drop at half mile intervals, but I said to save the last one for the mass of rats in the bottle neck.

              We saw the plane and saw the first package slide out and the chutes open, it was interesting, the plane flew on dropping the load behind, Ralph said it looked like it was taking a dump which got the girls laughing.

              The first package was still in the air about 500 yards above the city when it turned into a small sun, the shock wave even shook the chopper causing Ralph to haul ass away from the next one. They went off like they were supposed to and left a raging fire storm behind them. The last load was right over the packed bottle neck of gang members when it went off and when the smoke cleared there was nothing moving, just flattened everything for a long ways, Big Bird flew away for the next load and we headed back to the guns.

    I called ahead to tell them to cease fire and we landed in a quiet like we had never heard. It was just silent, the sounds of the guns cooling were the loudest sound.

    I got with the leaders and told them what we had seen and offered any of them the chance to go up with Ralph for the next run. Joe and Willy both said they would go but nobody else seemed inclined to and I couldn’t blame them.

              We moved the guns to a new area and started it all over again; I was already tired of it all but it had to be done. Beth had a sad look on her face so I asked her if she felt bad for them, she said “Hell no I feel bad about all the beautiful museums and the libraries that will be lost forever, all the knowledge of the ages lost.” I told her we had saved as much as we could store and that I hated it too.

    I asked her what the best museum was in the city and she told me, I asked Ralph if he could find it, he said, “Sure,” I said, “Ok, we will take in shooters for security and see if the assholes left anything to save.” 

   She said it was too dangerous but the girls were up for it so I said I was going in the first load with all the shooters we could lift off with and the girls could come in the third load. I stopped the fight before it started and for once they didn’t push it. We loaded up and took off and true to his word Ralph flew right to it, he admitted he had been there several times and was glad we were trying to save some of it.

              We circled the Natural Museum of History and decided to land on the roof, we bailed out and Ralph was gone, we checked out the area and did over watch for the next load, we had come in really heavy on fire power, plenty of SAW’s with everybody slinging a 16 across their back and loaded with Mags. Water and one MRE.

    Ralph returned and of course the first ones out were the girls, two smiling and one just shaking her head, Ralph was shaking his also. I figured they would pull this because they went for the third wave stuff to easy. Ralph took off and returned two more times until we had 20 shooters with us. Ralph left the blades turning and stayed with the chopper with two shooters for security. We started down thru the fire door, we all had gun lights but it reminded me of that movie about Raccoon City and the crap that got loose, it was flat scary and I shit you not I didn’t fight too hard when I was pushed back while a pair of Rangers took the point.

    We made it to the top floor and I could see this was going to be an impossible task for just a few people but even though we could see some signs of plain vandalism it wasn’t as bad as I expected, we did a fast walk thru ready for most anything that might be there and my imagination was working over time, we moved down another floor and it was the same. All the way down thru the dark we expected to be hit any second by Zombies or god knows what but nothing jumped out. We finally made it to the ground floor and looked out into complete hell, it was a combat zone.

              Beth took my arm and said, “Let’s go John, nothing here is worth the lives of any of our people.” I felt bad but at the same time I knew she was right.

              We headed back up and found the security guys and chopper as we left it, I sent the girls out on the first run over their objections but for once they minded me but I knew I was going to have to mend fences later.

     We all returned safely and the war went on, the rats were still running in the thousands and as soon as we had enough in a bottleneck we fried them, when we got a bunch in range we shelled them.

    For 50 years the gangs had ruled parts of the city and now they were getting pay back for all the misery they had caused.

    I had to close my mind to the innocents caught in this mess and made the decision to stop shelling unless we spotted a large group, as long as they were heading south we let them run and when they ganged up in one spot we nailed them.

   So in a way we were saving a lot of the city and I had a thought I’d try to look at as soon as I could.

    For days we herded the rats with shell fire and fire bombed them when we got a big bunch located.

    After a week of it we stopped. And quiet settled over the city, then we mounted up in our LAV’s and armored vehicles and rolled into the mess.

    When we got shot at we simple dropped the hammer on them, they didn’t learn, but just moved ahead of us in small waves getting larger all the time until Ralph said to stop then he called in fire on them, the guns used Willy Peter and it wasn’t pretty, after that cooled down we started again, spread out over several streets in a crescent we moved forward taking fire and returning it 10 times as heavy and they still gathered in places to wait and Ralph did his thing.

    They still piled up in the bottle necks leading out of the city and the 130 still fried them. I sent heavy teams of shooters around to watch as many roads as they could and the snipers went to work, it wasn’t fun but it was there to be done and we did it.

    I knew we would never get them all the way we were going and finally stopped again.

              In the rear there were people coming out of the rubble, I had them stripped and searched for gang tats, those were taken away. The citizens we took care of, some had settlements amid the ruins, some had armed themselves and using the roof tops of buildings and parks had farmed as best they could, growing enough to stay alive, these were the people we wanted, the fighters, the survivors.

    After tents were set up and portable mess halls were feeding and the medical teams were tending them we started asking questions and listening and soon enough the natural leaders showed up, the ones who had organized the rest into groups, the ones who made treaties with their neighbors, the ones who fought back. And these I wanted.

    After they were cleaned up I met with them, ten men who were the leaders in the area. I told them we could arm them and leave food and water but it was up to them to clear out the remainder of the gangs.

              They were to a person ready to go right then, but their people were in need of time to get back on their feet and food and care was gonna do that. So we planned it out with them while we waited for the people to get their strength back and in the meantime more and more people turned up.

              We stayed there for a week watching for more runners and we found them and a few rounds of shell fire with Ralph spotting took care of them.

    At the end of the week there was around a thousand people who were cleaned up and able to start cleaning up their area, later they were going to start street by street until the city was clean of the outlaws.

     I claimed up on a truck bed and addressed them, I told them that we had other places to go and clear out and that they were on their feet and able to fight back and were armed and had been given basic rifle training.

    I looked right at the leaders and said we will be checking back and if any of you try to become Kings or Warlords we will deal with you just like the gangs. This is your chance to start living. What you do with it is up to you.

    One of the people in front said, “Why can’t you people stay and fight, you’re trained, it’s your job. We need food and water and power we don’t need guns.” I looked at him and said, “If I was in charge of this place you would be in a vehicle getting your cowardly lazy ass hauled into gang land and left for them to eat. So shut the fuck up and get off your ass and go to work!”

    With that we rolled out and headed South, we had a date down the road with the gangs who had stopped running thinking they were safe. They weren’t and won’t be, as they run for the border they will find us on their ass all the way and the border don’t mean shit, never mattered to them so it don’t mean shit to us, killing these dirt bags is all that matters.

    One thing that bothers me is that burning the cities loses so many things we need to help rebuild the nation but I won’t risk my people in house to house fighting to save things that may or may not have already be destroyed by the survivors. I find myself blaming the wanton destruction on the bad elements in society when in truth just the act of trying to survive can and does cause so much damage. 

              Hell look at all the busted in doors and safes Sandy and I are responsible for. Sure we are the good guys but is a busted in door any less busted if it’s done by good guys then bad guys? Hell are we the good guys?

              I gotta stop smoking this shit whatever it is I must be smoking to be thinking like this. I know we are the good guys, and I know the gangs are bad guys, but if we burn a city to the ground to drive them out are we really any better? I remember back long ago in the land of bad things when some news hack asked some grunt if they really had to burn the village they had just taken, the reply was something like “ We had to. To save it” I never actually heard it so hell maybe it was some POS reporter blowing shit.

    I need to have a talk with the command group but first I need to talk to Charley. He will explain more in ten words then a committee meeting will in eight hours.

    We headed East and a bit South on our way out of LA, the idea was to get ahead of any that made it and hammer them again before they can duck out of sight in some place between here and San Diego on their run for the border. But in truth I’m beginning to think this job is just too big for us and it’s not like a city in some rural “red” state where a city might be huge with a hundred K people, here we are talking millions of people who had lived there, where were they? All dead? Hiding out in basements? I was afraid we were going to need to look deeper into this before we did anything else. So, when in doubt, stop, recon, ask questions of whoever we can find.

    So this is what we are gonna do. We will get away from any larger type city, maybe stop in a town so to speak and use the time for vehicle maintenance and other prep work.

    After setting up near a small settlement of around 200 people who were doing a good job of holding things together we had a meeting with their leaders and found they had fought almost weekly battles with the gangs foraging for food but hadn’t had to face the heavy weapons that we had seen. Maybe because they were well off the traveled routes or weren’t big enough to make it worth the losses, who knows? They welcomed us and sold us fruit and veggies which were a welcome change from MRE’s but outside that they had no information for us, they had worked at holding a low profile and who could blame them?

    Ralph was flying daily looking for targets worth  expending ammo on, he was spotting small groups heading south but nothing like we got before.

              What we did do was fly out sniper teams well in advance with a mortar team as backup in case they were hit by a large group. They were getting a lot of kills but not enough to make a difference. I was also worried about this flu bug or whatever it was, we had seen no signs of it but I believed it was coming and if so there was nothing to do but back off to our nice hot desert and stop all traffic coming into the area.

     I’ve always doubted myself and my abilities but this was a problem way above my pay grade, what to do? We can’t just go from city to city shelling and burning, first it’s a task too huge for our small group plus we had accomplished most of what we set out to do, which was to deal with the bad guy from LA.

              I don’t know if he’s dead or like the rat he is was able to slip out a back door leaving his flunkies to keep us busy. We would never know unless he popped up again.

    I called a commanders meeting and laid out all my thoughts and doubts, I asked for help in deciding what was the right thing to do. And bless them they all came thru with the unanimous vote to go home and await developments.

              We were all scared of the thought of a plague spreading across the land and just wanted to get as far away from this place as soon and as fast as we can.

    As soon as the meeting was over I passed the word to be ready to roll come first light. I could tell everybody was feeling the urge to hit the ground running. It was a restless night but come the crack of dawn we were on the road and making a beeline for home.

              I feel in a lot of ways that we did a lot of good but in many way’s I feel it was all just a waste of resources which of course it wasn’t, by wiping out all those gang bangers we have save many times that in innocent lives and that alone was well worth the effort, we had accomplished all this with no KIA’s on our part, wounded? Yes, but those are better then digging another grave on some lonely hill.

    And something I’m not admitting to anybody, I’m tired, tired of fighting and tired of killing and tired of putting other people’s lives in danger, sooner or later if this shit goes on it’s going to cost me somebody dear to me, god forbid it’s one of the girls, Charley, Joe, Willy, on and on, so many chances to lose somebody close and it will break my heart, but for now, I’m just tired and I wanna go home and go up on my no longer secret spot and let the sun bake the tiredness and fear out of me. We stopped for the night and just set up tents and ate MRE’s and called it a night.

              I laid down in our tent alone and felt all the days thoughts still locked in me and making me feel like I would never know peace again.

    And of course along comes my own personal “joint” to relax me with her calm warm touch, Beth, the best addition we could have ever brought into our family. I somehow think she was sent more then found if that makes sense. 

              She settled in beside me and never said a word just took me in her arms and held me close, and I woke up to the promise of a sunny beautiful day.

              The girls were still sleeping so I headed out looking for coffee and found it then headed for a small hill to greet the day and was soon joined by Charley who never intrudes with his presence, we just sat and watched the day together.

              When our coffee was done he made the quiet cough he does to signal he’s wants to speak, when I didn’t say anything he said, “Your spirit is better today, you were tormented for several days and I’m glad you made the right decision to abandon the chase and go home. It was time, we need to be there to settle in and prepare for what comes.

              When I didn’t comment he went on, he said, “Old Woman” said it was time to come home because we need to close down access to our home land.

              She says the People are coming from all over to be away from the coming troubles.

    He sat a while and I thought about asking how he had talked to her but maybe I wasn’t ready for the answer. I was looking at him when he smiled and I knew who was coming.

              Beth arrived with more coffee and the usual affect her presence has on us all. We thanked her and she turned to leave but I stopped her and patted the ground beside me, we sat in the quiet of the new day knowing shortly it would be broken by the arrival of “them” and yes here they come both carrying a lot of stuff, they brought more coffee in a carafe and some homemade granola bars that we make in the canyon which are so much better then the old crap we used to buy. The girls were on their best behavior and were quiet, one leaning on me the other on Beth, is there a better way to face the day?

    We made it to the place where the Texas folks would split off to head home in around a week, a few breakdowns, a few flats but no gun fights!

              We all said goodbye and waved as The Texas Militia left us, once again driving their trucks pulling their guns along with the Rangers, we watched them roll away and I missed them already.

    I wondered how they would explain the two missing guns, I looked at the girls and sighed while they had the good graces to not say a word, I looked at the low boy with two canvas covered loads and crate after crate of 105 rounds all chained down.

    Finally, Sandy (as usual) said, “Daddy, they followed us home, can we keep them please?” Followed by May adding, “Can we daddy? Pretty please.”

              Hell even Charley busted out laughing out loud, in fact everybody was laughing, they do this shit so well. The icing was Beth tossing in a, “Please daddy!! We will be really good and you won’t regret it.”

    I looked at Charley who said, “You are so easy even for a white man.”

    I did the hand whirl and yelled “Forwardddddd” and the Boos and air horns wiped the rest out.

Home, we are almost home.

TJ

    I hope this one lives up to the series, I got lost in it a bit, I had to stop and think about what it would take to bring control to a city the size of LA and the surrounding area and I believe it would take an entire Marine Division to do the job. And I realized I had set too huge of a task for John and his group and had to weasel out somehow. I don’t function in cities and I can’t write about functioning in cities. For the last fifty years I’ve lived in either the desert or the high country, never a lot of people, so I have trouble writing about what it would be like fighting a war in a huge city, hell a small village is bad enough. So please forgive me for bailing out of the chase for the never seen bad guy, but he may well show up again.

    I know I get lose in the antics of the girls but that’s ok because they are so much fun and I’m glad they brought Beth into the family, we needed an adult in the house.

    Take a few minutes to think about a SHTF issue, if it happened right now, what will you do? Have food put away? At least enough to last six months? Remember it don’t take an EMP, a tornado can undo your life in a heart beat, the crash of the dollar and our economy can put us all in extreme danger, hungry people with kids to feed will become as bad as the MZBH  ( Mutant Zombie Bikers from Hell) of most PAW books.

     I’ve had good friends when asked if they are prepping say no, we will just come to your place, and sadly, they meant it.

So think about it, there is so much you can do to keep your family safe or as safe as it will be for anybody.

I  try to put some of my thoughts in these books but I think I fail at it. Others can do it so much better.

TJ

   PS…And yes, book 9 will be coming along in a bit, I have some interesting developments I’ve not thought out but I think it will be a good one. 