Hell in the Homeland (17 page)

              Steve and Janet decided to make their home at the bunker. Many of the original group from Mobile decided to stay at the bunker to farm and get away from the city.

              Admiral Walter Jones was in charge of the southern part of the USA and all of the Gulf and Atlantic Ocean up to Virginia. His flagship was the Aircraft carrier, USN Gerald R. Ford. Two other Navy admirals had the west coast and northeast parts of the country. The Army and Marines had been decimated during the early days of the attack. The Air Force and Navy had only lost approximately twenty percent of their planes and personnel. Nukes had taken out most of our large foreign bases and desertion had taken another large chunk on the men. Many took their weapons and went home to protect their families. The Joint Chiefs were counting on getting these soldiers back into the fold as they stabilized the country one region at a time. The major fly in the ointment was that the president of the old USA had secretly placed several of his loyal men in some key positions and had about ten percent of the remaining Army and Navy loyal to his cause.

Colonel Hiram Stokes and Captain Bob Jones were summoned to meet with the admiral to give a personal update on the successful battle to liberate Mobile. Their commanding officers were not alarmed since the admiral was well known for conducting skip level meetings to find out what was really going on with the sailors. The colonel and captain saluted the admiral as they entered his office. He welcomed them into the office, had them sit around his desk and offered them a drink.

“Well, let’s cut through the formal shit and get to the point. Is this going as well as your bosses have told me? You two must walk on water.”

Stokes replied, “Sir, it is going much better than we could have expected. While Captain Jones deserves a medal for his accomplishments, we both agree that we got lucky with the caliber of the team that John Harris had already assembled. He was already planning an assault on the DHS to wipe them out and to free the detainees. Bob and I believe that they would have succeeded, but would have suffered much higher casualties without our assistance.”

The admiral thought for a minute then asked, “Bob, what makes this group so special? As you know, we have had mixed results in Florida and Texas and nothing in Mississippi.”

The captain answered, “John Harris is their leader. He is former Special Forces and Black Ops CIA and his second in charge is a former Marine who worked for the CIA also. They met on an assignment and have been best friends ever since. They have surrounded themselves with men and women who have former military and police experience. They put a topnotch boot camp together to train the civilians. Several of their women are Grade A snipers and every adult and kid over ten can shoot several weapons.”

The admiral soaked all of this information in while asking the two about their families and their safety. Both mentioned that the few hours’ notice before the bombs fell had saved their families and most of their men’s families.

The admiral asked, “Did either of you know how we got that advance notice that saved over five hundred thousand soldiers?”

They both replied that they had wondered how, but had been too busy to think about who or how the warning had come from.

Admiral Jones said, “An ex-Army Special Forces guy stopped two nukes from destroying Dallas and Memphis and called a friend in high places to warn the military. That guy was John Harris.”

Their jaws dropped and they were speechless.

Admiral Jones asked, “Is John Harris strong enough to lead a major section of the country in a battle against gangs, thugs, the DHS and even the rest of the USA?”

Both replied at the same time, “Yes.”

The captain added, “If he were running for political office, he could not win because he speaks his mind and is too honest. I would feel comfortable with him in charge of my town or state.”

The admiral replied, “Son, invite them out here to celebrate their victory and discuss future plans. Tell them to bring their wives and key members of their team. We need to get to know these people. Son, go to my cabin and see your mom. She’s been worried to death.”

***

The trip to the Ford was uneventful, but fun for a group who had just seen hardship for the past several months. None of the women, including Beth, had ever flown in a helicopter so that part was especially exciting to them. Everyone focused on how large the Gerald R. Ford was even from several miles out. It continued to fascinate them until they finally landed on the flight deck. They were ushered to their rooms and given time to clean up before the celebration.

Bob met them on the flight deck and said, “I’ll be your escort while aboard the Ford and just let me know if there is anything that I can do to make your stay more comfortable.

The Admiral and his team made everyone feel welcome and made sure that everyone was properly introduced, before he spoke. He gave them a brief history of the events that caused the mass destruction in their country. Then he brought them up to speed on the military’s efforts to take back control of the country from the gangs and DHS. He gave them thanks for their results and heaped praise on them for eliminating the DHS threat in this region. He then challenged them to assist in cleaning up the rest of the country.

John thought about what the admiral had said and thought that maybe there was a chance to get the country back to normal.

John said, “Before we get started, I noticed that Captain Jones looks a lot like you, Admiral Jones.”

“John, you have a good eye, Bob is my son and he has two brothers and a sister. All of them serve in the military. We have not heard from our oldest son since the lights went out.

“Sir, I’m sorry for you and your wife, but I’m sure that you raised them right so don’t give up on him, he might show up anytime.”

“Thanks, John. I hope that you are right because he was stuck in DC when it got nuked.”

John thought for a minute and said, “Gus and I will be glad when we finish here so we can go back to Mobile and get started with our new lives. We need to stabilize Alabama and get teams started on Mississippi and Louisiana so we can retire back to private life.”

Gus looked at Admiral Jones and said, “John, you have done a pretty good job so far and I think that we can’t just turn the reins over to any Tom, Dick or Harry. Why don’t you lead us for several years until we get stronger and are able to stand on our own? There are still a bunch of bad people hiding among the good folks and they are just waiting to take over and mess this new country up all to hell.”

The admiral spoke up, “Most of the country is under Martial Law until we can establish a new government. The Southern Territory of the ISA is made up of the lower southeastern states over to and including Arizona and is under my command. I am not going to turn control over to just any tin pot dictator who gets himself elected by a bunch of idiots that he promises handouts for votes. John, I want you to be the first President of the Southern Territory of the ISA. This is a temporary position for about two years until we can hold proper elections. This will be the nucleus for the new stronger USA.”

John asked, “What form of government will you try to establish?”

“John, I’m glad you asked. Here is a copy of the US Constitution. The laws contained in that small book will be the only laws for the Federal Government. Each state will have its own laws per the Tenth Amendment. As you know the Federal Government’s main duty is to protect the states. I highly recommend that you stick to the constitution or not take the job. The military will not allow a president to run rough shod over the states ever again.”

“Admiral, I couldn’t agree more with what you said. It’s a shame that you didn’t get a chance to hear me rant and rave about our recent string of socialist presidents who trampled the constitution.”

“John, I have listened to most of your broadcasts. We had recordings of them, thanks to the NSA who thought that you might be subversive. I liked what I heard and the founding fathers would feel safe with the country in your hands.”

The admiral went on to say, “I will also have three governors watching over the states to the west and east of you. I have a couple of people in mind, but John you are the only leader with the whole package. We need men like you leading the new USA.”

Gus said, “Sorry, admiral, won’t that be confusing, sort of like the uniforms?”

The admiral laughed and replied, “Okay, the new Independent States of America. The ISA it is!”

John said, “Admiral, throw in military support and get the power back up and I’ll be your man until you find a better man.”

“John, you will get all the support my team has to offer. Bob will be your liaison to the military and report directly to me. Let’s celebrate! I’ve got some fifty year old Kentucky bourbon to toast to our new country and its first governor.”

They all congratulated John and had a few drinks.

The citizens of Matamoros didn’t notice much change in their lives after the attack on the USA. While they had no power, the new Cortez Drug Cartel began providing food, clean water and jobs in some of the closed factories. The Cartel brought in massive generators on semis and then got the city power plant back in operation in a few weeks. They were manufacturing bullets, canned food and the old air-cooled VW beetle along with a host of other manufactured goods that were being shipped south.               The factories spread all along the border closed when the power was lost and all of the workers from Mexico City and the south went home. The Cartel took over the factories and retooled them to make products that were more useful. There was not much use for cell phones, tablets and TV’s. There was a huge need for simple farm tools, basic transportation and food items. Drugs had become only a small part of the Cartel’s enterprise for there were not many spoiled rich Americans crying for drugs.

There was a steady flow of Mexicans and South Americans crossing the border to return home. The loss of electricity and the chaos resulted in a lack of jobs for these low wage workers. Millions returned to their home countries. Others died of starvation or were murdered on the way home. The Black and Skin Head biker gangs killed the men and raped the women. The lucky women and children were turned into slave farm workers and sold on the open market in Mexico and the lower southwest USA.

***

              Lucio saw another convoy of soldiers heading north in the dark to cross the bridge to Brownsville and said to his wife, “That makes over ten convoys this month heading into Texas. Every one of them crosses the bridge after midnight with their lights off and the drivers all have night vision goggles. The gringos must have no army or police left to allow these drug hombres to run wild in Texas.”

“Keep your nose out of it and we will live longer. I know you are proud of your work with the American DEA, but these men will kill us and our kids, if they find that you helped their enemy.”

Lucio knew that even though their lives were better now, bad times were just around the corner. Being a well-fed slave was still being a slave. He knew he had to do something to get help for his town and family. He also knew that the Chupracabras were behind this cartel and they were well known in South America for cutting heads off and killing the entire families of anyone who stood in their way.

He kissed his wife and left to go back to work making his rounds in the northern section of Matamoros. He was a patrolman for the city police and could travel at will as long as he didn’t leave his home territory. His partner liked to sleep a lot since he worked the day shift at the VW plant. Lucio would leave the district command post and drop him off at his girlfriend’s home most nights so he could get some tail and sleep. That made it easy for him to report troop movements back to his contact in the USA.

Lucio had also found a local cantina that the Cartel Army frequented. A few beers and tequila loosened their tongues. The rumors floating around the cantina were that Corpus Christi had been taken and a major push to take San Antonio had begun.

***

“Gentlemen, a toast is in order to honor General Sanchez’s victory in Corpus Christi! General, congratulations to you and your men for taking the town of Corpus Christi, the land around it and acquiring several thousand workers and citizens for Nuevo Mexico!”

The room broke out in cheers and clapping. When the celebration died down, the wives left the room and the men lit cigars and got down to business.

“Wolf, what is the latest intelligence coming out of Mobile and this new country, the ISA? They may be our largest threat to our new country.”

“Sir, the group in Mobile does not worry me. They are a bunch of ex-military rednecks that are playing soldier and kicking ass with a bunch of biker gangs. The US Military presence is much stronger than we were led to believe. We need a plan to get rid of them for good. As you know, the US president was not able to keep most of them on his side. Even though they have a nuclear stalemate, they are supplying training, weapons and air cover for operations for these rednecks.”

“I will discuss this with the Iranian Commander and see what we can to take care of this issue."

***

“Mr. Cortez, our latest surveillance tells us that the US Navy has two aircraft carriers, three cruisers, ten missile frigates, at least two submarines and twenty five support ships in the Gulf. They keep them spread out to cover more territory and to keep one nuke from taking them all out. It will be very difficult to destroy all of them, but we can cut them down by half without much effort.”

“What are your plans?”

“A large part of their fleet is within one hundred miles of Mobile. We can never sneak up on the US Navy. Their radar and surveillance equipment is just too good for that. We will plant two nuclear mines as close as possible to them and then draw them out to fight. We plan to set off the nukes in the middle of their fleet.”

“Can’t they detect the mines?”

“The mines have had extra lead shielding installed which makes them hard to spot until they are too close. By the time, they know what they are; they will be too close to run. The main thing you should be worried about is that we can hurt them, but we cannot eliminate them. You poke the bear and the bear gets pissed. If they know where you are located, they can nuke you out of existence.”

“How will they know who destroyed their fleet? Even if they do find out, we have very few concentrated assets in North America that would be worth an ICBM. I will worry about their counter attack after I see how many ships we can sink.”

“They will know, because, they always know. If not immediately, then a while later, but they will know.”

“How do we draw them out of Mobile to the mines? Their airplanes can cover the whole Gulf from Mobile.”

“Ah, but their Apaches can’t. You just took Corpus Christi and they know it. You just need to get their attention so that they have to come to its rescue. Perhaps kill a bunch of women and kids. That will piss them off and get them moving. I think your Chupracabras can think of something so foul that these foolish Americans will rush to their deaths trying to save a few infidel women.”

Pablo was a Catholic and hated these Muslim SOBs, but knew he had to keep using them until he could do without them. The US Military had destroyed Iran, which made it easy to use these remaining Iranians against the USA. He would turn the Wolf lose on these godless heathens when the time came.