Hell in the Homeland (6 page)

As the crowd broke up, Ann said, “Beth, come on into the kitchen and we’ll get some sweet tea and get to know each other."

Beth agreed and they went into the house. The rest of the women stayed away and waited for the inevitable fight. They came out of the house about an hour later laughing and acting as if they were best friends.

Steve walked up to Beth, gave her a hug and said, “Y’all cost me two extra hours of guard duty. Several of us bet that there would be a fight.”

Ann hit him on one arm while Beth hit him on the other.

John and Gus helped get the vehicles unloaded and made sure everyone had a new home, then went into the barn and compared notes on the past several weeks.

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Chapter 7

Day after Independence Day

Smyrna, TN

Dec 21, 2048

              They all had a good breakfast, then went to their rooms and got ready for church. They had started a tradition of attending church on the day after the Independence Day celebration. Josh came out of his room and bumped into two men who were obviously security guards. They moved out of the way and stood by the front door. Josh walked into the living room and saw another pair of guards by the front door. He expected to see security for the ex-president on the ISA, but this appeared to be overkill.

Most of the family was in the living room with John keeping things lively and stirred up. He was dressed in a suit and tie so he was not rolling in the floor, but was still playing with his grandkids. He heard steps on the stairs and turned to see Lindsey and Jenn walk down the stairs. They were two of the most beautiful women that he had ever seen. They both had M4s and bulletproof vests in their hands.

Jenn smiled at him and said, “Just like the Swiss, every adult in the ISA is armed and ready to protect our country. We are on high alert today because of the 25
th
anniversary of the Republic.”

They all began walking out to the waiting cars when Josh noticed that there were three limousines and a dozen up-armored Humvees making up a rather impressive convoy. John motioned for Josh to join Beth and him in the middle car. Josh got in and saw that the windows were about an inch thick. These were bulletproof cars built for the leaders of this country. Josh slapped his head as he remembered that several of the founding “Fathers” of this country surrounded him. They would be a prime target for any enemies foreign or domestic.

John and Beth filled Josh in on the events planned for the day and Jenn gave him advice on what to do if there was an attack.

Josh asked, “Are you really worried about a real attack or is this just a way to remind me that you still have enemies after all of these years. After all, there have been no hostilities between the two countries in years.”

John replied, “That’s what your country tells you. We have averaged six attacks a year since the last war. Just five months ago, those bastards tried to bomb the kindergarten that my grandkids attend. We will eventually unleash holy hell on the USA and you had better not go back over the border. You appear to be a great guy and I can’t hold Scott back much longer.”

They drove for about fifteen minutes through a very scenic route and arrived in front of a majestic old church with massive oak trees lining the street. The preacher was at the front door greeting everyone and shaking hands. The preacher was a very distinguished young black man that could have passed for a politician running for office.

Billy “Gus” Harris was thirty-six, six foot two and built like a basketball player. He had fought in every battle since he was fourteen, but followed his heart to serve the Lord. He had a Glock 9mm in a shoulder holster and a bible in his left hand. His favorite motto was “The Lord takes care of those who take care of themselves.” After the last person entered the church, the pastor came in and waited until the choir stopped singing and welcomed the congregation and visitors.

As they entered, Josh noticed that there were numerous reporters and six cameras covering this event. They were ushered into a pew at the front of the church. He was seated next to John with Jenn on his other side. She filled him in on who was who in the ISA world. He quickly noticed that he was the only reporter that was actually even close to the leaders of the country. He could see the glares and almost feel the jealousy from the other reporters. One gave him a middle finger salute. It was just dawning on him how much he should feel honored.

Little Gus gave a hell fire and brimstone sermon that lasted for twenty minutes then yielded the podium to George Washington, the Vice President of the ISA. George thanked everyone for their service to the ISA and went on to cover the brief history of their country. He dwelled on the sacrifices made by all and the heroes that gave their lives to help give birth to this Republic. He mentioned big Gus’s first wife Robin, Bill James, Fred Allen Kristie Fox and a host of others who gave their lives during the fight to establish this fledgling new country. Little Gus then highlighted the diversity of this country born in fire and honed in adversity. He said that his father and mother, John and Beth, had found him scrounging for food for himself and his brother and sister. His first action was to shoot the future president of the ISA and they still took him and made him a part of their family. He then mentioned his Godfather, Gus, and Godmother, Ginny, who had been wounded during the battle for Mobile. With that said, he introduced John to the congregation.

“How do you introduce someone that everyone already knows? Radio personality, war hero, founder of this country, and president of this country are some of the highest achievements a person can attain. I think his highest achievements are great father and friend. John Harris.”

“Thanks, son,” said John. He then went on to tell the people that he was honored to be a part of this great country and still alive to be able to celebrate its 25th anniversary. He briefly covered some of the early battles, trials and tribulations and then spoke about the greatness of the people making up the country.

He then said, “All of you have heard every word that I’ve said and have been saying for the past twenty-five years. I never want our story to die away. We can never let the world forget the treason and the traitors. With that in mind, I want to introduce Josh Logan of CNG. Josh, stand up.”

Josh stood up while John continued.

John added, “This young man is down here to report the real story about the birth of and ongoing struggles of the ISA. He has promised to tell the story as it is told to him. Scott is opening up the archives and sharing all document related to the attacks on our country and the traitors that conspired with our enemies to kill over three billion people worldwide. If he does a good job with that he will be commissioned to write my biography.”

The crowd cheered and Josh just about fainted. He sat down and thought that he was living a "once in a lifetime" event for a newsperson. This placed a lot of pressure on him to make sure that he reported the facts as he found them. John’s offer to open up the ISA’s archives was a tremendous help to him in assuring that he had backup info to support his findings.

              Ann knocked on the door and opened it yelling, “John, the Navy wants to talk to you.”

John and Beth had only been asleep for a couple of hours when they were awakened by the knock on the door.

She walked up to their bed and said, “Get your hands off her ass John and get your ass outside to talk to these Navy guys.”

John shook the sleep from his head and said, “What?”

Ann said, “The Navy is in our front yard with a big-ass helicopter and wants to see you!”

John quickly dressed and put his shoulder holster on with his Colt 1911 and headed out the door. Beth gave the finger to Ann and jumped out of bed.

Ann said, “Put some clothes on, hussy! John never slept naked with me.”

Beth replied, “I give him a reason to, every night!”

John walked out the door into a squad of Marines in full battle gear. They took his .45 and marched him over to the helicopter. Marine Colonel Hiram Stokes and his staff were inside. They welcomed John and immediately began by thanking him for leading the resistance against the DHS.

John said, “Look friends, we are just trying to survive and those bastards were trying to make slaves out of these good people.”

The major filled John in on the current situation across the USA. As John feared, the DHS was trying to control the entire country and the Military was sure that the president and a large contingent of liberal progressives had been planning this for years. They weren’t sure, but they may even have been behind the nuclear attacks around the world. He also learned that Israel had used neutron bombs on most of the radical Islamic strong holds in the Middle East. Israel had been attacked by several countries and Al-Qaida. They nuked the bastards and took control of a strip of land one hundred miles wide around Israel. They moved all people out and mined the strip to stop all future attacks.

Back in the USA, the president had declared martial law, suspended the constitution and put his socialist friends into all key positions, but most of the military had deserted and would not obey his commands. They were actually threatening to remove him from power, but the president still controlled a handful of nukes so the military would leave them alone.

He then told John that most of the country was without power and in the same shape as lower Alabama. The exceptions were several cities that appeared to have been prepared for the EMP blasts. Chicago, Charleston, Sacramento and several other liberal bastions still had power.

John said, “Charleston is not a liberal city.”

The colonel replied, “The government moved a large contingent of the Navy, Army and DHS to Charleston and appeared to think that would be the new capital of the USA. The Navy and half of the Army did not go along with that and derailed the plan. The Military had stood up to the president and actually eliminated the DHS from Charleston and all other military bases.”

After catching up on current events, they got down to business. They wanted to know if John and his people were in the fight to take back their country.

John looked puzzled and said, “I may not be the brightest guy, but y’all are the military, why don’t y’all just kick their asses and take the country back?”

The colonel replied, “John, normally you would be right about that, but we have not gotten you up to speed on the state of the military. The problem is that we have almost 80% of the Navy, 80% of the Air Force, but only about 40% of the Army and Marines survived the initial attack and subsequent attacks by our enemies when they thought we were weakened. In addition, two thirds of the surviving troops are overseas trying to extricate themselves from local fighting. Therefore, the bottom line is we need every fighting man and woman that we can field to take back the country. In addition, I failed to mention about ten percent of the armed service still supports the president. We have them bottled up and shaking in their boots that we will nuke them.”

John had to stop and think for a minute.

Finally he said, “It goes without saying that everyone here will fight to save our country, but the only decent arms that we have are ones that we had to take from the DHS dead bodies.”

The colonel replied, “Did I fail to mention that we control all military supply warehouses? We can supply you with every possible supply and arm plus training. We will attach two Navy Seals to your group who are experts in arms and tactics.”

John replied, “I will have to meet with the team, but they will be on board.”

The colonel introduced John to Marine Captain Bob Jones and Navy Seal Ensign Roger Teller, saluted and left. The helicopter took off and made only a low rumbling noise as it left.

The captain said, “One of our Special Ops helos.”

John waited until breakfast was over and called everyone, but the children, together to have a say in the meeting. When everyone had settled down, John introduced the Seals and gave them a brief update on the state of the country and the armed forces. He then told them that they were needed to help establish law and order. He waited to see their reaction and when it was overwhelmingly positive, he told them about the conversation with the colonel.

John then told them, “This means that we go to war with every scumbag and DHS agent in the South. This will be a long and costly war.”

Ann spoke up, “I really don’t want to go to war with anyone, however, we are under attack and unless we bow down to the DHS and go to that damned camp, we have to fight. Count me in!”

All, but a few, raised their hands to volunteer to fight in this endeavor.

John asked several of the group to volunteer to serve on an attack strategy team, a home defense team and a supplies gathering team. John asked Gus to lead the defense team and George to lead the supplies team with him leading the attack team. He asked Ann to manage the day-to-day operations at the bunker. They quickly split up and held their kickoff meetings.

George went to John and said, “If it's okay with you, I would like to have my sons mix in with the other teams. I will keep Sonny with me and send Marvin and Sammy to Gus and you.”

John replied, “Do either have any recon experience? I’ll need that one to join me.”

George said, “Marvin has experience in recon, infiltration and explosives.”

Sammy reported to Gus along with Mary and Ginny.

John’s team quickly set up a command office in the basement of the house for operations security and privacy. They jumped right into planning surveillance of the DHS compound and harassing attacks on the DHS scout teams. John’s thoughts on priority were not the same as Bob’s. John caught Bob off to the side and confronted him with his concerns.

John said, “Bob, while we both want what’s right for our country and its’ people, I’m beginning to feel a difference in what I think is good for my group versus what I am hearing from you.”

Bob replied, “We have the same goals, but maybe the difference is how we get there.”

John stopped him and said, “No, you are gearing up for an all-out attack on the DHS compound. They have over two thousand men and we have just over a hundred men and women!”

Bob replied, “John, I guess I have to fill you in sooner than later. You are right, we are going to attack the DHS, kill every one of the SOBs and take their compound for your base of operations. John, you have been thinking small, we need you to think big picture quickly.”

Bob gave John the rest of the story that the colonel had hidden from him. The Joint Chiefs had been preparing for this type of scenario since Obama tried to purge the military of patriots during his last term. The military had planes, ships, artillery and everything else an army could possibly need, but was very short-handed. The rogue USA Government actually had more loyal soldiers and DHS thugs than the military. We can blow the hell out of any enemy or even nuke them, but we don’t have enough boots on the ground to take and hold large plots of ground. The Joint Chiefs did not want the US Government or our enemies to know just how few actual fighting soldiers had survived the attacks. Our plan is to have a hundred teams like yours defeat the DHS and take back our country. The JC did not want an open fight against the forces loyal to the rogue USA Government because they had more fighting men. They could bomb the USA forces back to the Stone Age, but feared there would be horrible civilian casualties, which would result in more support for the USA from the survivors.

John asked, “How do y’all tell one side from the other? You both are the USA Army and wear the same uniforms.”

Bob replied, “We are calling ourselves the Independent States of America and have the flag of the original thirteen states on our chests.”

John had seen the flag with the thirteen stars in a circular pattern instead of the fifty on the modern flag.

Bob added, “Same for our ships, planes and tanks. It’s a start.”

Bob and John kept the main objective, to capture the DHS compound, to themselves, but left the rest out in the open. Bob gave the team a list of priorities and then they started mapping out an action plan for each objective. They worked in the basement room for several days ironing out their plans and making lists of supplies and skills they had to have to be successful. They planned to send scout teams to Mobile to probe the defenses around the compound and make up-to-date maps of that area as their first action. The rest of the group would concentrate on finding able-bodied men and women to arm and join their forces.

***

Deke spent at least two hours per day sorting through the women in the relocation camp. He was the only one who knew the president’s plan and certainly the only one who knew his addition to that plan. The president had ordered each field marshal to weed out the stronger willed men and women from the rest and put them in slave camps to be kept under guard and worked to death. The other weaker ones would not resist and would become the new USA. They would be glad to be fed and taken care of by the government. Deke added his rule to the president’s set of rules. Deke’s rule was that he was going to have sex with every one of the keepers and impregnate everyone that he could. He wanted to be the father of the new state of Alabama.

Deke had no military training and actually thought that they were beneath him. Once the country was subjugated, he would knock them down a peg or two. This wrongheaded thinking filtered down throughout his team. There were many experienced ex-military men in his army, but most were in lower level positions and the less experienced leaders did not listen to them when they pointed out glaring issues with their defenses and tactics. The only exceptions were the complaints from the major who was in charge of the patrols along the Tennessee border and just north of Mobile. Major Davis was reporting resistance and lost patrols. Major Johnson who was charge of defending the compound was pleading with his superiors to move the troops into the underground bunkers instead of the barracks buildings just inside of the perimeter fences. Deke was not about to hide his army below ground like some scared rabbits. Besides the rogue military and the USA have agreed not to attack each other and no one else has any real firepower. The captain reminded them of the Marines killed in Lebanon in the eighties when Regan sent them in to keep peace.

Deke didn’t have time for this nonsense about security since he knew that the country was a shambles and the people only had a few ARs and hunting rifles. His men were heavily armed and had heavy machine guns, LAWs and mortars that would decimate any resistance. He was very pleased with their progress in getting the people of Alabama into the relocation and labor camps. There were only about five hundred thousand people left alive in Alabama due to disease, starvation and attacks by gangs and the DHS.

The president had requested that the field marshal come to the new capital to meet with him in person. The government would send a plane for him and his wife so the trip would be safe and would give them a chance to rub elbows with the leaders of the new country.

***

The captain warned Gus to be careful not to make any changes that would stand out from the air. He also told John and Gus that part of the overall plan could have them moving from the bunker to a more secure location in a few months. Gus gathered his team. They drew up their thoughts about improving the perimeter defense and how to make guard duty a little bit easier. Beth and Sammy volunteered to put a guard schedule together that would be effective and fair. Meg and Steve checked out the top of the barn and house for potential lookout stations.

George gathered the trucks with the horse trailers and got the team ready to go on a supplies search along Highway 65 North.

He took time to train the team to know when to hide and play possum and how to keep as low a profile as possible. Robin wanted to bring a Humvee along to protect them. Gus explained that a Humvee would stand out like a sore thumb and draw attention. He knew that their success depended on not being seen while scavenging.