The Revolution Begins (Molon Labe) (6 page)

After checking all of our load
-outs, and verifying that all of our squads were properly equipped, I reported our readiness to Captain John who then gave us the execute order.  Neil and I were the first team to go. 

I was getting ready to head out when Neil asked me to wait.

“I need to head to the hospital to re-stock my med pack”, he said.

“Dude, you’ve donated
two gallons of blood and volunteered to mop the floors in there three times in the last two days.  You’d think you would have had time to kiss her good-bye at least one of those times” I kidded him.

Neil had returned to make small talk with Allison several times and even had a coffee with her.  I was shocked to see him work so hard to get her attention.  I shouldn’t be
surprised though.  He wasn’t the only man in the camp, and everywhere she went, she got noticed.  It was probably a good idea for him to let her know he was interested.  As far as I could tell, he had a better shot than Kyle, but Kyle would still be under her care for another week, and Kyle would make sure he got noticed!  It wasn’t really a competition, but the Alpha Dog does tend to have a need to mark his territory.

“
Thanks sweetie. You know just how to make a guy feel great” Kyle said.

Allison was rubbing
an ointment into Kyle’s shoulder, and at his words rubbed a little harder and rougher than he would have preferred. “No need to thank me. I’m just doing my job”, she said and held in a grin when Kyle winced and grunted at the rough treatment. “And my name isn’t sweetie.”

Allison turned to see Neil waiting patiently and smiling.
“Hi sweetie” she said. “Did you bring me more coffee?”

He did in fact have a cup of coffee for her and held it out for her to see.

“Aw, you know just how to make a lady feel great”, she said with a smile.  Kyle rolled his eyes and chuckled.

“I’m willing to trad
e the coffee for a few supplies”, Neil said. 

“You look lik
e you are ready to head to town” she said while pointing to his jeans and jacket (we opted to head out in civilian clothing to enter the town in day light so we wouldn’t be noticed by anyone along the way as soldiers.).

“Chris and I are heading
to town to take out some trash”, he said.

“Well, since you’ll be out anyway, bring me back some bed pans.
I’ll patch up the holes”, she laughed.  “But if you just wanted to say goodbye, you can do it without asking for supplies you don’t need.”

She took off her rubber gloves, tossed them on the bed next to Kyle and brought Neil a spare medical kit.  She held it out to him and said
, “Come back with it, or on it”, and smiled.

As Neil was smiling a
nd blushing at the Spartan movie reference, she took the opportunity to step up on her toes and kiss him lightly on the lips.

She then turned quickly and walked away leaving a very surprised Neil and a visibly stunned Kyle.
After developing a shit-eating grin, Neil waved goodbye to Kyle who nodded his head and simply said, “Be safe brother.”

Chapter 16

"The greatest danger to American freedom is a government that ignores the Constitution."
Thomas Jefferson
Third President of the United States

After Neil joined me with his spare med kit, we worked our way through the mine to the exit shaft that would bring us closest to our waiting ride into town. Neil was still grinning ear to ear, so I knew his rendezvous with Allison had gone well.  “I know this might be too early to presume, but you guys make a very mismatched couple.  You are really playing out of your league brother”, I kidded him. “You are the luckiest bastard I have ever met when it comes to women though.”  It was true.  He had been with Andrea for a few years. She was beautiful. The string of women he had “dated” in the meantime had looked like a who’s who of pinup models. All I could figure was the old adage that “women like a bad boy” is true.  He wasn’t a bad boy in the sense of being evil, but what he lacked in that aspect he more than made up for in being a “bad-ass.”  He just nodded to himself and said, “Well, in her defense, Kyle keeps making me look like a better alternative every time he opens his mouth.”  We both laughed.

The ride into town was bumpy and
slow.  We had to stop and walk in from a half mile out.  Check points had been set up along the routes into town to confirm resident identification.  Luckily, the edge of town bordered a hillside and making it through the security checkpoints was a simple matter of avoiding sporadic foot patrols in the woods. 

The town
we were operating in was named Queenwood.  It sat just outside of a known National Guard base. Many of our new guys had been National Guardsmen that had served on the base.  It was sure to be housing UN Troops and most likely being used as a base of operations as it had both a helipad and a landing strip for aircraft.  It also had training areas that included shooting and ranges and classrooms. We would be asking questions of the locals about its current designation.

We exited the woods quickly and began to assimilate into the locals on the streets.
UN troops were patrolling in pairs on every two to three blocks.  They seemed to not be paying much attention to what was going on, and rather were engaged in conversation (bullshitting) like complacent soldiers.  They had been largely unchallenged in this community.  Within a day or so, their complacency would cost them. 

Neil and I had split up and walked in two directions.  We couldn’t be sure that drones or
satellites were not being used to track certain areas of resistance.  We couldn’t see any low flying drones, but global hawk drones would be flying too high to see.  It was best to mix with crowds and arrive at our first hide site at different times.  The town’s people I observed seemed to cower away from the foreign soldiers, even gathering their children and hurrying away when they approached.  Workers were busy collecting trash and conducting business like you would see on any normal day.  The mood felt tense though.  All eyes were scanning and glancing. The town’s folk were on edge and just trying to act normal.  I couldn’t blame them.  The UN was very un-welcome in every part of West Virginia.

Neil and I met up
at the home of Mark Jones.  He was a local patriot who had not joined the resistance to fight, but was willing to let his house be used to operate from.  He and his wife Annie had no living children and were elderly. Their house was a simple two story home with all the normal items you would expect to find. The kitchen was outfitted with a white range/oven and the fridge had magnets and pictures of friends.  The wall had a rack of collectible spoons and several well used coffee mugs. They gave us the whole home tour and stopped in the living room. “This is where I spend my time”, Mark said and patted his leather recliner. He then motioned towards the corner of the room. In the corner stood a glass front gun cabinet with several hunting rifles. “I served in the Corps ages ago”, he said.  “We never had those M-16’s or AR-15’s in Korea.  They woulda been nice, but I did plenty of damage with one of these.”  He opened a hard side case to reveal an M1 Garand.  It was a beautiful rifle chambered in 30.06.  It was semi-automatic and when used correctly, had been very effective in war time use.  “I got plenty of ammo and if’n I have to, I’ll give it a workout again.”  Neil and I smiled and thanked the old patriot for his service and for allowing us to operate from his house.

I noticed a ceremonial folded flag on display over the mantle of their fireplace.  Beside it was a picture of a Green Beret that bore an uncanny resemblance to Mr. Jones.
Annie nodded softly and patted my shoulder as she kissed her finger and placed it on the photo. 

We were lead to the attic where we were able t
o take advantage of a gable screen that normally held an attic fan.  The fan had been moved aside, leaving an open slat window with a small screen to conceal us.  It was perfect.  Our scopes and binoculars would not be impeded by the screen.  We had a great view down the street. The view was of a three block area and gave us a shooting lane 70 feet wide and 400 yards long.   Annie brought us blankets and hot coffee.  She said, “I’m terribly sorry about the cold. We just never thought to keep the attic heated.  You boys stay warm and let us know if you need anything.  I thank you for what you are doing.”

Neil said “Thank you ma’am for the hospitality.  We’ll be fine.  Just forget we are up here and act like everything is as normal as normal gets anymore.”

She chuckled and said, “I never thought I’d see this day, but before I give up freedom for our next generation, I’d rather see all of those invaders dead. Aim small, miss small boys, happy hunting.” With that she closed the attic door and left both of us smiling and proud to be where we were.

Chapter 17

"There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters. "
Noah Webster
American Lexicographer

We stayed in that attic for three days watching and recording.  We noticed a definite pattern from the soldiers.  They had a shift change the same time, on the same corner every morning, mid- afternoon, and evening.  An officer would come by each evening to issue orders and inspect the readiness of the pairs.  A sergeant came around every hour to make sure the team wasn’t goofing off.

The fourth day was the day to start rai
sing hell.  We chose the afternoon shift to act.  The officer was a British prick.  He would come out and we could tell he was on his way two minutes before we ever saw him.  The town’s folk would shuffle to get out of his way as he shouted orders and berated his men. We waited until he was facing a crew of two soldiers who looked more like chewed bubblegum than fierce warriors.  He was almost nose to nose with them yelling something about “wankers” when I pulled the trigger.  He was exactly 150 yards away from our location. The distance required no scope corrections.  The shot entered his left ear just below his fancy blue beret and exited with a large part of both his brain and the right side of his head. He dropped like a deflated blow-up doll with his right hand still pointing accusingly at the two grunts.

The sho
t had sounded from our location, like a hammer striking a nail. This was convenient as somewhere in the neighborhood, someone was actually using a hammer to build something.  At first the two grunts looked at each other searching for what to do next.  Their next step was almost comical as they rushed to take cover behind a three foot sparse hedgerow.  We had been surprised to see that not all of the patrols had been equipped with radios.  This left them unable to communicate or call for back-up.  Neil was busy disassembling our rifle while I was watching to record the details of their reactions.  Two whole minutes went by until they decided that their best course of action was to yell for help.  I was tempted to have Neil take a shot at them, but decided against it as two additional patrols rounded the corner. They ran right past the fallen officer and asked what all the racket was. They didn’t bother to sweep the area for targets until they were made aware of the officer’s demise.  One of the teams had a radio and began to call for backup. 

We quietly made our way down the stairs f
rom the attic and told the Jones’s we were leaving.  Annie grabbed two paper bags from the counter and gave each of us one. She kissed each of us on the forehead and told us we’d be in her prayers.  Mark saluted us and told us we were welcome in his home any time. 

Neil left first from the back door and made his way through
the many gawkers who had gathered on the street to see what had happened to the loud-mouthed officer. He stopped just long enough to look normal, and then proceeded to our next hide site, across town.

As I went out the door, I could hear a troop carrier rolling down the street and loudspeakers being used to direct citizens into their homes.  I used the rush of people scattering to move across the street and down the alley to head across town.  Neil and I met within an hour.
Our new location was an abandoned home that sat across the street from public housing.  We set up in the basement of the dwelling and used the broken out windows to observe movement across the street.  What we expected to see was typical public housing with welfare occupants roaming about moving from cars they should not have been able to afford, dealing drugs to other occupants who should have not had the money to purchase them.  Instead we got a shock.

The public housing had been taken over by UN soldiers.  There was no telling where the folks who had lived there were, but at least the building
we could see was being used as a base of operations for the bad guys.  We watched and recorded the comings and goings of mostly middle ranking officers and sergeants from one office.  It was clear that one of the buildings had been conscripted for use as an officer’s-retreat, complete with prostitutes, who were likely working for free out of fear.  Either way, it sickened me.

It became clear to Neil and I that while this was a target rich environment, it might not be the safest place to operate from.  Our shots would have to be
timed with outside noises for cover, and we would have to make the first (and possibly only) one a very high value target.  What we needed was for the target to be alone so his elimination would not immediately raise alarms. We were planning this all out when we heard steps above us.