Jernigan's War (31 page)

Dix looked at Rachel, “You now have a house unless someone shows up some day to claim it.”

“Why don’t you take it, Dix, I don’t feel right getting the best house.”

“I don’t stay around enough to worry about a nice house. I just need a place to rest up between missions. If I have to, I can move the catamaran wherever I need it.”

The house boat had a little diesel generator on the back. They cleaned out the fuel tank and put on a fresh fuel filter they found in a cabinet. Dix pulled the battery he took out of the brown bronco and fired it up. It ran great, the water system pressured up, fortunately someone had drained the water lines for the winter. The house boat also had a washing machine. Dix said, “go easy on the lights at night, we’ll run the generator once a week to wash clothes and charge up the battery. I’ll hook up the solar panel as soon as I have a chance.”

The cistern on the back of the house boat looked like it held about 250 gallons and it was full. Dix poured some Clorox in the cistern to kill any bacteria and gave Rachel a filter bottle to drink from.

He told her, “Once we start using the water and fresh water is added from rain we won’t have to worry too much about contamination.”

He ran a water hose over to the catamaran and topped off the water tank in it. Beagle fried up some more catfish and they cooked some corn bread in a skillet. Then Dix went into the catamaran and fell asleep. He woke up middle of the afternoon; the nightmare had left him in a cold sweat, his hands were still shaking as he put his gear together. He found Rachel in her living area sewing.

“Are you taking in mending, Rachel?”

She laughed, “I found some clothes that are a little big. Beagle is going to help me go through some of these other camps to see if I can find some more clothes, dry goods and stuff. This houseboat has two bedrooms and the bed is a lot bigger than in the catamaran. You can stay here as well.”

“I appreciate the offer, if I survive this mission I’ll think about it.”

“What mission, Dix?”

“I’m taking a squad in to do a little clean up in Natchez.”

“Why do you have to do it, Dix?”

“I don’t have to do anything, I’m going hunting, I take great pleasure in putting holes in bad guys. These people are tentacles of a great big octopus that caused everything that has happened. I plan on cutting off tentacles until the octopus is dead or I’m dead.”

“Sooner or later, Dix Jernigan, you’re going to have to realize that you are just a man and you can’t hold the weight of the world on your shoulders. I know your family is dead, and everything is gone, but you are still alive and there are people who care whether you live or die. You saved my life, you saved Beagle, and those dogs love you, look at them sitting next to you. Don’t keep trying to get yourself killed.”

“If I don’t do it, somebody like Butch who still has a family will have to take the chance. I’m almost an expert, I am one of the few men alive who can walk into the lion’s den, kill the lions, and walk out with their food.”

At that moment Butch and his men drove over the levee. “Are you ready? Here’s your propane bottle.” He reached over in the back of the truck and gave it to him.

“Thanks, the boat’s ready.”

Dix dropped his pack into the boat, slid Jake’s AR15 over his head and put on his oil skin coat and his cap with the green LED cap light. Rachel handed him the .22 Beretta. He took it and put it in his back pocket.

He told Butch, “By the time Beagle gets back here, we’ll be in position on Canal Street to kill any cops coming to the checkpoint rescue. You guys take the checkpoint communists out. We’ll take care of any reinforcements. Ya’ll come on across with our transportation. We’ll be going to the airport from Pine Ridge Road. I want us to go at them from the back side. If we approach from Airport Road, I know they will see us and put up an alert. They’ll have a generator going, so with a little luck, they’ll be lit for a few seconds to give us a chance to shoot. I want us to crawl through the woods and grass using the destroyed aircraft as cover. If we can make it to the damaged aircraft, we can use them as cover to shoot from.”

Dix opened the can of hand grenades he had taken from the police cruiser and passed them out among the six guys who were going with him on the boat. He recognized most of them from the Ferriday jail. Beagle dropped them off under Learneds Hill. The sun was setting as they spread out about 20 feet from each other in a line.

They made their way down the Bluff and along Canal Street. A police car pulled out down on Main turning in their direction. Almost as one they opened up on the car, the patrolmen inside never knew what hit them. The guys quickly cleaned out the car of guns and ammo and whatever else they could carry. They split up the food and by and large it was eaten by the time they
reached the bridge. About that time they heard Butch and his guys take out the guards on the bridge. As expected, two police cars came from the east. Both cars were riddled and the occupants instantly killed. Once again the cars were cleaned out.

Butch and his group came over in two Chevy Suburbans. One was full the other had only a driver. All but two of Dix’s men piled in the near empty one and they headed through town. They didn’t run into any resistance. Two men with AK47’s who didn’t get in, positioned themselves to keep the bridge open.

When they got to the back of the airport, they parked their Suburbans, and listened while Dix told them where the buildings were and where the destroyed aircraft were resting. They scattered out about 20 yards apart, eased into the woods and made it to the open grass area around the airport. On their stomachs, they crawled across several hundred yards until they were among the wreckage of aircraft.

Dix was surprised they had not met resistance. He could see the front gate, there was no guard and the generator was not running. He motioned for Butch to hang back. Dix crawled across the next runway until he was next to the fence that separated the tarmac from the parking area. Dix once again created an opening with a pair of bolt cutters he kept in his pack. Once through the fence, he crawled over to the building they were using as barracks. He pulled a pin from a hand grenade and hurled it with all his might through the glass window. The old single pane window shattered and the hand grenade rattled across the floor. Dix was against the brick wall on the outside. The grenade went off; nothing happened. Dix went around front staying clear of the windows. He tried the door and found it open. Inside he found the building empty. He motioned for Butch who came running.

“I think they’ve pulled out. Get your men to do a sweep of all the buildings.”

The Chinese had pulled out. They were either on the road or a transport came in and evacuated them. Butch radioed back to town and learned from the men in town that a caravan of police cars and SUVs just came down Canal Street and turned east.

“They are either heading this way or heading south to the FEMA prison in Woodville.”

Butch got on his radio and spoke with Captain Miller and told him that the Natchez Airport was secure and that they would try to get the generator running and the landing lights working. One of the guys with Butch was an electrician.

Dix told Butch, “You saw how we had to approach the airport. Any bad guys coming back will have to do it the same way. Get us some eyes among those wrecks looking in that direction. Now that we have it, we need to keep it without getting killed. Let’s head back to town, make sure the communists are completely gone and let whoever is in jail out.

“Let me assign someone in charge here and we’ll head out. We’re good to go, the Chinese must have left by air because they left several hundred rations and MRE’s.”

Dix nodded, “We had better take a couple of cases of food with us as any prisoners we find will probably be starving.”

They loaded up and headed to the jail. They stopped several blocks away and approached the jail on foot. Everything was quiet. As expected the jail was empty. Dix and Butch went into the cell block and found most of the guys in bad shape. They let them out and passed out MRE’s. One of Dix’s lifelong friends, Jerry Wilson, was among them.

Dix asked, “How long you been locked up, Jerry?”

Jerry looked at him twice, “Dix is that you, what the hell happened to you, you look like hell.”

“I’ve just been fighting for the past few months. I try not to look in a mirror if I can help it. You aren’t exactly ready for GQ magazine yourself.”

“We’re the mayor’s yard boys. They lead us out once or twice a week to work at Blackthorn Place or as the mayor calls it “The Governor’s Mansion.”

“I hate to tell you this Jerry, but it looks like you’ve lost your job, the mayor retired suddenly with about 2/3rds of his men. I know you’re here, what happened to your kids, Kelly and Matt?”

“Last I heard Kelly was in the FEMA camp south of here, I haven’t heard from Matt since we lost communication with him at school. He was out in Logan, Utah, at an engineering school.”

“Utah would have been one of the places I would have chosen, those Mormons believe in food storage and preparation.”

“What about your family, Dix?”

“They were all murdered.”

They just looked at each other in silence after that. Dix broke the silence, “Let’s get you armed up. Butch, do you have some guns and ammo, these boys want to go hunting.” “Do you guys need any help?”

Jerry shook his head, “You just show us the guns and ammo and get out of our way.”

“You may run into some Chinese troops, if you do, send someone back so we can help.”

Jerry and about 30 other former inmates armed up out of the mayor’s arsenal, wolfed down some food, and headed out.

Dix warned them, “Be careful if you are driving, I killed most of these idiot cops while they were sitting in their cars, you’re a sitting duck when you’re in one. Five or six cars passed our guys
heading east after we took out the bridge guards and three of their patrol cars with deputies. I figure they are heading to the FEMA prison. If they’re smart they’ll have a bug out location.”

Jerry looked back, “They aren’t that smart, they were just part of a political machine that we let get out of hand.”

Dix and Butch watched as they headed out looking for cars and trucks to take them south to the FEMA prison. “Those guys don’t look in any kind of shape to go fighting.”

“They look just like us when we started, I’d hate to be on the receiving end of what they’re fixing to dish out.”

Dix sighed, “I’m tired, this fighting all night is about to catch up with me.”

“Do you want me to have one of the guys run you back to your boat?”

“No, just run me up to a friend’s house on Linton Ave. I’ll sack out there for a while then I’ve got something to do.” Butch’s man dropped him off at the foot of the driveway.

CHAPTER 27

THE FINAL PUSH

T
he sun was just starting to lighten the sky in east when Porter reached the lodge. The sky was deep red, he didn’t know if it was a good thing or not, but it was pretty. A light wind was blowing from the Southwest. All the men were packing up and cleaning up around the lodge. Charlie would find that it was immaculate. The bed clothes were already washed and hanging on lines to dry. All the men waved when they recognized him. Sergeant Daniels called out, “Porter, did Charlie tell you the best way to head out of here?”

“He said for us to follow this map, it has water holes marked, after that we’re on our own and will have to find locals to point us to water.”

“Porter you lead the way, I assume you have some idea where we are going?”

“Sure thing Sarge, the road leads straight out to the highway. We can take the highway or cross it and continue cross country, that’s your call, I’m just a private.”

“Okay guys, saddle up and follow Porter.” With that, Porter gently bumped Old Dollar’s sides and the mule started up with
Ruth in tow. The line between them stayed slack, she had followed Old Dollar before. They didn’t go fast, the animals had a long way to carry them and there was no reason to tax the animals. They rode for several hours and came to a water tank by one of the windmills on the ranch. They let the animals rest so Porter set the packs off Ruth’s pack saddle to let her have some relief. The other guys left their horses loaded but Porter didn’t want to wear her down. They drank their fill and Porter spoiled them by giving each one a biscuit.

Some of the guys were curious how Porter was able to kill so many Chinese. “I don’t know, I just did it, I thought my family was prisoner in the house and I had to get them out. So I figured I had to start killing them to work my way inside. So that’s what I did, I just kept killing ‘em until I ran out of targets. I didn’t have time to count.” An older guy named Bill asked, “What did you use son, I mean what weapon did you use?”

“I used everything, I started with my long gun out on the range, changed to my AK47 when they came in on my blind, and used my knife and pistol at the house.”

“Damn, remind me not to get on your bad side.” Everyone laughed and they mounted up and headed down the road. Another two hours had them out to the highway. They once again gave the horses a rest and studied the maps. The decision was made to go cross country as the terrain looked easy and there were several small rivers and creeks on the projected track. They travelled the rest of the day and stopped for the evening on a small creek.