Tyranny in the Homeland (17 page)

Chapter 1

Commander Cox lay on the deck and thought that he was dead. He had a ringing in his ears and was soaking wet. He could not see anything but a red haze and felt pain. His eyes burned when he tried to open them and he still only saw a dark red haze. His head and right hip were hurt and he felt like he had been beaten with a baseball bat. His hip had the searing, burning kind of pain. It was a number 15 on a scale of one to ten that the doctor always asked you to use to let him know how painful your pain was. Well this hurt and the pain was getting worse as he woke fully up.

He felt a slight motion and heard mechanical sounds. Familiar sounds that he just could not place. His mind wandered back to his home in West Virginia and his dad’s shop. The sounds were almost like those that his Dad made while working in his shop at home. Suddenly there was a breeze blowing on his neck and face. It felt good. He realized that he hadn’t moved and immediately wondered if he was paralyzed. He wiggled his fingers and toes to start and there was no pain. He then tried to move his arm and the pain shot up to about 30.

“Damn," he thought. "I have to get up and get help. Where am I? How did I get hurt? Well, I can’t be dead because dead people don’t have pain, do they? Am I talking to myself or is this just my thoughts.”

He said, “Where am I?”

He heard his voice and thanked God because he was not dead.

“Commander, is that you? Damn I thought you were dead. I am finishing a bandage for the Admiral and will be with you in a minute.”

“Okay.”

His mind raced through his life and he remembered the Naval Academy and saw himself in a uniform. It only took another minute and it all came back to him. TSHTF, the battles with the Islamic Extremists and finally the attack here in the Gulf of Mexico all came back to him.

“Admiral, are you okay? Did we win?"

“Son, I honestly don’t know. I just woke up myself. The shock wave and then the monster sea wave nearly sunk our fleet. Captain Miller is performing damage assessment as we speak."

The medic finished with the Admiral and began working on the Commander.

“I stopped the bleeding on your head and hip, and I am going to wash your face with warm saline water and get this blood out of your eyes. I need to check you for concussion.”

The warm water felt good on his forehead and he noticed that more light was getting through as the medic rubbed his eyes.

“Okay, open your eyes.”

He opened his eyes only to close them quickly. The sun was streaming in through the broken windows. He partially opened his eyes squinting to block out most of the sun. He looked to his left saw the Admiral leaning against several life preservers and several crewmen with towels covering their heads. The Admiral was saying prayers over the bodies. He looked to the right and saw the Ensign, Captain and a crewman on walkie-talkies trying to command a carrier. He was now scared.

***

Meanwhile, back at the Compound, John and Bob were piecing bits of information together to determine what happened, how much damage was done and who did it. This was the ISA’s Pearl Harbor and it would be remembered.

“Sir, our intel team has pieced the following timeline together from recorded radio transmissions and radar sightings. Bob, Ensign Teller, Gus and John reviewed the information.”

Bob was the first to speak, “There were four nuclear explosions; two large underwater nukes and two small airborne bombs. We are in contact with both Carrier Strike groups and the story is very bad. The Ford Strike group lost 2,200 men and women and the Bush lost 800. The Ford lost one cruiser, a sub, two missile frigates, one Marine troop ship and 14 aircraft. The Bush lost one destroyer, a Marine troop ship and five aircraft. Every ship was damaged, with the Ford receiving the worst damage.”

John asked everyone to bow their heads, “Heavenly father, please have mercy on these brave men and women who died or were wounded during this mission to free the people of Corpus Christie from the tyranny of the USA and the Chupacabras. We vow that their deaths will not be in vain. Amen.”

Gus asked, “Now, who did it? Some or most of my family is in Corpus Christie and this will be a major delay in setting them free.”

Gus thought for a minute, realized how insensitive the comment could sound and tried to apologize.

“I’m sorry for sounding so whiney and please accept my apology.”

“Gus, we know what you have been through, so don’t worry about it.”

An aide walked up to Bob and said, “Sir, the radios are back in operation and the Admiral wants a staff meeting ASAP. He invited John and Gus to join in the meeting.”

Bob added, “If I know my old man, the shit is about to hit the fan for our enemies.”

***

The medic woke up with a huge weight on his chest and a pain in his butt. His head was pinned against the wall and he couldn’t see what was on top of him. He hadn’t felt this bad since that three day drunk in Singapore. He struggled with whatever had him pinned until he felt it move enough to free his head. This left him exhausted and he felt very cold. He turned his head to see what pinned him down and pain shot through his neck and brought tears to his eyes. He focused on the object holding him motionless and saw that a hospital bed was resting on his chest. He calmly tried to lift the bed to no avail. The pain was horrible at first, and then started waning. That’s when he realized that the wheel was sticking through his chest and blood was seeping across his belly onto the floor. He started praying.

He gained some strength, tried to move the bed again and actually moved it a little when something fell off the bed onto his head. It hit him right between the eyes and stunned him. Whatever it was, it was blocking the light and he could not see it. He grabbed for it and pulled it off of him when he saw two eyes staring back at him. This scared the hell out of him and he lurched upward and rolled the bed off him. This motion resulted in the rest of the body falling on him, which again scared the shit out of him again. He rolled over to find himself looking at the dead kid. It was the kid named Johnny, who always had several guards at his side. His neck appeared to be broken and he was as white as a ghost.

The medic took a pen and paper from his pocket and wrote a short note to his wife and five year old son telling them how much he loved them and that they will be together again in heaven. He said a prayer asking God to watch over his family and the ISA and died.

***

              The Admiral started the meeting by asking everyone to say the Lord’s Prayer and then asked the Lord to take care of their fallen friends.

              “Ladies and gentlemen, this attack was well planned and executed. I have no doubt that the massacre of civilians was conducted to force our hand and draw us to the trap to be vaporized. Our defensive plans actually worked much better than one would think considering the major loss of men and ships. If we had not spread the ships out, we would have lost all of them to those two large nukes.”

              There was a round of applause and thanks to the team when the Admiral cleared his throat.

              “Don’t pat yourselves on the back until we destroy those who executed this sneak attack on our country. Commander Cox, please brief the team.”

              “Our intel points at the Chupracabras as the group responsible for the attack with the UN happily playing a smaller role, but just as guilty. There isn’t any proof that the USA even knew of the attack. Each of you has the data that has been gathered and one can follow the trail right to the Cabras."

              John spoke up, “Sir, we need to wipe these bastards off the face of the earth. Do we have any active carriers and what are our capabilities?”

              “John, we still have two carriers in the Pacific and three on the east coast and just as important we have the long range B2 and B56 bombers from the Air Force. We need a plan that decimates the Cabras and the UN from the air while we take Corpus Christie with boots on the ground. I think this will send a message to the USA not to fuck with us.”

              “Admiral, I agree and my team will contribute in any way you need us to. Perhaps we give the President’s son back to him as a goodwill gesture to stop some of the hatred for our new country.”

              “John, I have bad news. The President’s son was aboard the Ford when we were attacked and he was killed during the attack. He was thrown from his hospital bed into a wall and broke his neck."

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I hope that you enjoyed the sneak peak of Book IV – Revenge in the Homeland.

Coming soon: Book IV

Revenge in the Homeland

The fourth book in this series, “Revenge in the Homeland,” will be published by late spring 2015. It continues the saga of John Harris, how he leads the fight against the “New USA” and the Mexican Drug Lords for the survival of the ISA. This story is about John taking the fight to the Mexican Drug Lords and the USA and punishing them for the atrocities they have committed against the ISA.

To contact the Author please leave comments on “The Adventures of John Harris” Face Book page.

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About the Author

A. J. Newman was born and raised in a small town in the western part of Kentucky. His Dad taught him how to handle guns very early in life and he and his best friend Mike spent summers shooting .22 rifles and fishing. He read every book he could get his hands on and fell in love with science fiction. He graduated from ISUE, now USI, with a degree in Chemistry and made a career working in manufacturing and logistics, but always fancied himself as an author. He currently resides in Kentucky with his wife Patsy and their three tiny mop dogs, Sammy Cotton and Callie.