Hell in the Homeland (14 page)

              It was a little before midnight and the sky was clear and they could see jets flying in from the ocean towards Mobile. Johnson thought that these must be support from the government to help Deke stave off the impending attack. Johnson’s group was on Highway 10, just north of New Orleans camped for the night. Johnson watched as one of the Sergeants posted the guards and sent scouts out to ensure there were no surprises. Johnson just wanted to move his team to a town, take it over peacefully and live out his life without all this bullshit hassle. He had served in both Gulf Wars, the Canadian-Russian conflict and the Second War in Cuba.

Johnson was too tired to sleep. He sat down by the fire and reflected on his past accomplishments and failures. He had risen to colonel in the Army, but one little issue in Cuba had ruined his career. The young girl was a piece of human trash and she died accidentally during rough sex in his quarters. It was a pure accident, but her dad was a high-ranking officer in the Cuban resistance. That fucking bitch had cost him his career.

The moon was full and he could see the jet trails crossing the sky. He fell asleep and dreamed of being the leader of his own country and being able to have his way with all of the young women without someone stopping him. He did not hear the helicopters bearing down on him.

A few minutes before the Apaches were to make their strafing run on the convoy, they received urgent orders to return to Mobile. The lead pilot fired two missiles and headed back home. The missiles struck their targets. One armored car and a Humvee disappeared in a blinding flash that killed over thirty men.

Johnson woke up and went into action. He rallied the men and had them get Stingers ready for the next run on them. They stood ready for several hours, but nothing happened. Johnson had no clue what had happened.

***

              Jack Mays, the Mayor of Port Arthur, banged his gavel and started the meeting on time.

“Come to order. That means stop yakking! We’re here to govern, not swap stories. Pete, I do want to hear about the widow over in Grove City after the meeting, but now is not the time. Let’s get our asses in gear and do some serious business.”

His city had spent the last few months improving their defenses, preparing all adults to defend their city and increasing the amount of land being farmed. Every adult was required to be armed at all times, kids fourteen and above were trained along with the adults in gun safety, marksmanship and self-defense.

“Y’all begin as usual and give us an update on your areas. I’d like to hear from Charlie first as usual.”

Chief Charlie started, “We have over twenty thousand trained militia and weapons for all. Only about half would be qualified as real fighting forces. The rest can definitely shoot and kill the enemy, but would not last long in an extended campaign. We have armed checkpoints at all roads into our city. We have placed sensors and cameras covering all possible ways into our city about five miles out that will give us warning if anyone tries to approach the city. This makes it very difficult for anyone to enter in force around the roads. There are lookouts around the clock so there won’t be any surprise attacks. The blackout rules are in place before dark and my guys remind anyone not complying. There are rumors about some pretty bad guys over towards Stowell. It’s rumored they are building a small army of thugs and bikers and are kidnapping children.”

“Great work, Charlie. Thanks for staying on top of our security. Charlie we trust you to handle the Stowell situation. The only advice I’ll give you is to go in softly with overwhelming force. Make friends or wipe the thugs out.”

This brought out a mixture of cheering and blank stares. Everyone wanted a strong defense; however, a small group was very much against expanding their influence. The crowd died down and the meeting went on.

“All essential services are working with no issues. The water plant is back up to 100% efficiency thanks to Tim’s hard work last week.”

“Thanks, I will pass the praise on to the guys who work their asses off to keep the city ticking.”

The Mayor pointed at Mike, who was in charge of the farming for the town and said, “Mike, how are things going on the farm?”

“Sorry, but not all is well. We still need more tractors and fertilizer. Charlie took a large amount of our stores to manufacture those damned IEDs of his.”

“Now damn it Mike, we’ve had that discussion and those bombs will save us from attack. It’s not if; it’s when someone tries to take what we got.”

“Okay, okay, I get it. We are farming enough land to supply our current needs, but we need more so we can build up a reserve of corn, wheat and other semi-perishable foods. We are only one drought from starving.”

“Mike, I’ll send out my deputies to the surrounding counties to find some tractors and other farming equipment. Just give us a list. We’ll also search every farm supply, hardware store and Wal-Mart in a 50 mile radius for fertilizer. We won’t steal, but it appears most of these items will be found to have been abandoned.”

The group applauded Tim and his team’s efforts for repairing a long list of electrical issues caused by the EMP blast.

The Mayor and Chief of Police were very pleased with the progress in such a short time. They were self-sufficient and living almost as well now as before the attack. They had electricity, city water and sewage, which eighty percent of the USA did not have. They had several old fashioned round ups and had over twenty thousand cattle, fifteen thousand hogs and ten thousand sheep on their surrounding farms. No one tried to count the chickens, ducks and geese.

              Jack and Charlie left the meeting and went to Jack’s house to have their weekly private discussion. “Charlie, I need details on your plan to expand our territory and give me numbers on men, supplies and potential losses. Will Sowell be your first target?”

“I have a written plan and have the data that you need. Yes, to taking Sowell first. Those thugs rape young girls and if left alone, will get too big to handle without major losses. My plan will always be to strike first without mercy and overwhelm the opponent.”

“Do you have any fresh intel on other groups like us in Texas or Louisiana that we could join up with for a common defense against the DHS and thugs?”

“Not much change from last month. There is the group outside of Dallas that is slowly clearing Dallas and the one west of Houston. The Houston group is having a tough time with biker gangs and disease. They are barely holding their own. They have plenty of citizens willing to fight, but are poorly armed. There has been a lot of chatter the past couple of days about a group in Mobile that is standing up to the DHS. A few ham operators said that this group may actually be attacking the concentration camp.”

"Thanks, Charlie, is there anything that we can do help those guys in Houston? If we don’t, we’ll end up fighting those thugs alone.”

“Mayor, I think we can spare enough arms to help make a big difference and we can conduct some hit and run attacks that will weaken their enemies.”

“Can we secure the Sowell area and help Houston?”

“I am one hundred percent sure that we can be successful at both operations. In fact, the Sowell operation is the springboard to take all of Houston into our new country. You might want to think up a name for our new country that suits our conservative roots, Mr. President.”

The Mayor thought for a minute and said, “I’m a small town mayor and know it. We will need a strong man to lead our new country, but we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.”

“Or woman," said Charlie.

“Charlie, do you know a woman with balls big enough to run this country?”

“Well, Cliton certainly had balls, but socialism and welfare is not my cup of tea. I hope those last nukes fried her sorry ass. You know, that may be the best thing that happened during this disaster.”

***

              Major Johnson saw the sign that said Sulphur, LA and told his team to get off Highway 10 on 27 South.

“We will camp at the Sabine Pass Battleground Park for the night. Captain, send one scout team ahead to check our Port Arthur from the north and three teams up from the south. Do not make contact with the locals.”

“Sir, what if we are spotted? Should we take out the locals?”

“No, first do not get spotted; but if that happens, be nice and ask for directions. We want to win their hearts and minds, not kill them. Always remember we need workers to grow food and manufacture goods. We are not concurring hoards raping and pillaging.”

“Yes, sir,” said the captain to his superior.

The captain turned and said, “Lieutenant, take your squad out Highway 10 and make camp north of Port Arthur. Report back every hour and do not engage the locals.”

He passed on the orders, but noticed the Lieutenant was not paying close attention.

“Yes sir, we will scout out North Port Arthur and won’t rape any women.”

“Lieutenant, if this were the regular Army, you’d be in the stockade for that smart assed remark. Now get you’re your ass out of here before I have you arrested.”

The Lieutenant gathered his men and passed on the orders.

“What good is it to have the only army within a hundred miles if you can’t take all the beautiful women and steal everything you want?”

“Don’t worry about that, once we take over one of these towns, Mr. Johnson will have an unfortunate accident.”

The Lieutenant sent one scout team on down Highway 10 to approach Port Arthur from the north and he sent a three-man unit to keep an eye on Major Johnson.

              Major Johnson was one step ahead of his two wayward officers; he had a team following them.

“Sergeant, those SOBs are doubling back and spying on us. Keep an eye on them and kill them if they make any hostile moves. Keep in communications with my captain, but don’t give up anything about our attack plans.”

***

              The sun was peaking just above the pine trees chasing the shadows away. The roosters were crowing and the birds were chirping as if to tell the world that this was going to be another beautiful day on the gulf coast. The VW Bus was rocking a bit and there were moans and groans coming out of the window. Joe got out of the bed, looked out the window and saw the sun coming up.

“Darling, this morning is almost as beautiful as you are. There is a light wisp of a fog as the sun burns the night away. When are we going to tell your dad, so we don’t have to keep sneaking around? I love you and shouldn’t be forced to hide all of the time.”

“I’ll do it when I get the courage to tell daddy. He thinks I’m still his little girl and haven’t even had sex yet. He might come unglued if he caught us.”

Joe kissed Jenny and said, “I’d better leave first today. See you at work."

“Joe, let’s go to the beach this weekend. I miss the water.”

“Okay, darling. I’ll make sure we have the weekend off and we can camp on the beach and make love all night.”

She laughed and said, “All night or fifteen minutes?

He blew her a kiss and left before she got the best of him again. Jenny cleaned up, had breakfast and went into work.

The surveillance office was manned around the clock and all sensors and cameras were vigilantly watched. They saw mostly deer and only an occasional group of people drifting through the area. There was a beeping sound for the sensor for sector three, which covered the Northeast.

“Joe, please pan camera thirty-five left and right. That’s it! See those men in the bushes; they are spying on our northern border. Jenny, call the Chief. Joe, call the water tower and tell the men to hide until further notice. Warn everyone and tell them to hide until we know who these men are.”

Charlie ran all the way from the town hall when he got the alert about the soldiers at the north end of the town. He walked into the room, went over to Jenny and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

“How’s my favorite daughter doing this great morning? Get your boss a cup of coffee while Joe fills me in on what’s going on this morning.”

Joe played back the camera feed and then showed him the live feed from several cameras covering the area in question. Charlie watched the live camera for several minutes and gathered the team around him.

“These guys are soldiers, but not very good ones. They are military, but not Special Forces or CIA types. They appear to be grunts surveying the area for a larger force. I’ll bet that there are several more like them coming at us from all directions. Keep a close eye on the sensors and cameras. My men would have found the sensors and cameras and disabled them or avoided them."