Apocalypse in the Homeland: The Adventures of John Harris (7 page)

2048

He patiently held his eyes to the rifle scope waiting on his target to arrive. The room was hot and humid; his clothes were soaked and plastered to him. He was uncomfortable and wanted this job over. He thought back to the days before TSHTF and remembered vacationing in Cozumel with his wife and kids. They didn’t have a care in the world, just fun in the sun. He had been bitter ever since they were vaporized on the first day of the attack. The Virginia side of the Potomac was a great place to live, but it died with DC that day.

A Suburban and black Mercedes pulled up in front of the building an hour later than usual for a Thursday. Several men scrambled out of the SUVs and scanned the area before his target got out of the car. He tried to keep the crosshairs on the target, but his men were very good at shielding him from an assassin’s bullet. He had a split second opening and squeezed the trigger. The Barrett .50 caliber sniper rifle barked as it was driven back into his shoulder by the recoil. He saw one guard’s head explode and Cortez fall to the ground as the others started looking for the shooter. He placed the crosshairs on Cortez and saw a large hole where his heart should be.

He thought, “
Damn, I‘m good. Time to call in the cleanup squad
.”

He dropped the rifle, pushed a button on a device in his pocket and ran out of the room. He was 200 yards from the target and wanted to be a mile away when the mail was delivered. He climbed down the fire escape, dropped to the ground and ran as fast as he could to the end of the alley. He heard a whistle just as he cleared the end of the last building. He ducked into a basement door and hid in the corner facing the target. He barely hit the floor when the building shook violently; plaster fell and struck him on the shoulder. There were three large explosions and the building rocked for several seconds.

He heard men and women in the streets looking to see if there had been an earthquake. They saw that an entire city block had disappeared and most of the buildings on the next two blocks were severely damaged. Pablo Cortez and his entire drug manufacturing complex were obliterated with three bunker busting bombs and several thousand pound bombs.

He looked at his watch and knew that he only had 15 minutes to get to the schoolyard on the other end of town. Roger Teller hopped on his bicycle and calmly rode down the street with a smile on his face.

***

President Scott Harris was interrupted by his aide with a message from the Admiral. Scott took the phone call, listened for a few minutes and replied, “Thanks, that’s great. Give Teller my congratulations and a week off at the beach."

“Josh, that was great timing. You just asked when we would deal with the people responsible for the attack on Dad. Well that person and a large part of his organization are now on their way to hell, thanks to Teller and several Navy jets. We caught them by surprise and bombed Cortez and wiped out his entire cocaine manufacturing center at the same time.”

The room exploded in cheers and back slapping.

Scott looked over at his aide and said, “Karen, please go find some champagne, or something wet, that we can toast this victory with.”

John walked over and gave him a bear hug and said, “Son, please thank everyone for planning and conducting this strike against our enemy to the south. Will this put an end to our border problems?”

“While I didn’t rescue you out west, I have now gotten revenge for the attack on you and our country. Sorry, but there are a hundred Cortez want-to-be thugs out there giving us fits on the border. We have almost finished a fence along the entire border and are in the process of laying landmines on their side for thousands of miles.”

Josh listened and said, “Don’t you think that we should help the peasants take back their country and let them deal with the criminals?”

“We also have exactly that type of program in place right now. The problem is that Mexico was lawless for 50 years before TSHTF so it’s hard to know who to support and who to shoot."

The aide returned with two bottles of champagne and enough glasses for everyone.

Scott poured a drink for his family and friends then gave a toast, “Long live John Harris, long live our family and friends and long live the ISA.”

Gus quickly added, “May we always remember our fallen brothers and sisters who gave their lives to secure the future of the ISA.”

They drank their champagne and John started telling Josh more about his adventure in the northwest.

Beth looked up and said, “We still have the Stearman, but we don’t take it up as often now. Do we, John?”

“That was a low blow. Now on with the story.”

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✼

Chapter 8

“Jim, take the ATV over to that shed and park it. We keep everything hidden.”

“Do I always do what you tell me to do?”

“Yes, I just shake my ass and you do whatever I want you to do.”

He walked away thinking that this woman had him wrapped around her little finger and that might not be bad at all.

Jeff and Jerry saw them drive up and ran to Kristen to find out who the new man was.

“We only have a minute, but this man is a soldier and can train us. He lost his memory and he now thinks he is my husband and his name is Jim Jones. He joined us a year ago after saving me from a biker gang.”

She finished filling them in and Jeff went on to fill the others in on the scheme. They had been looking for a military expert for over a year now and Jim was their best hope. Jerry would stall them until the others could doctor Kristen’s room to match the story. All of the older kids were told what they needed to hear and all promised to keep the secret.

“Jim, Kristen tells me that you two got pretty banged up on the way back from Cody. What happened?”

“To tell you the truth, I don’t have a clue. I only remember things from the time I woke up in the snow beside the ATV. I don’t even remember Kristen, and I have no idea who you are.”

“Damn, that bump on your noggin has knocked your memories clean out of your head. I’ll bet it’s temporary. Why don’t you and Kristen go to your quarters and get cleaned up and then you two can fill us in on what happened in Cody.”

Kristen led him to their room in an old two story farm house. No sooner had they closed the door, Kristen removed her snowsuit and most of her clothes. She made them a couple of whiskeys and water and toasted their safe return to the camp. As they talked, she placed a pan full of water on the top of a wood burning stove and told him it was for their bath. Jim slowly took his clothes off without taking his eyes off the gorgeous young lady. He was down to his shorts and she was now down to her bra and panties. She was built like a “brick shithouse” as his dad used to say. She was short, but very well filled out in all of the right places.

Kristen noticed him staring at her and sat in his lap with her arms around his neck.

“Jim, you act like you never saw me naked before. Do you like what you see?”

“I do, but I just can’t imagine a hot chick like you with an old fellow like me.”

“Once you remember the devastation and loss of life from the bombings, you’ll understand why a younger girl finds a soldier like you very attractive. Protection and survival can be very sexy these days.”

She unhooked her bra and let it drop to the floor, then pulled her panties down and looked over at Jim. His jaw just about fell to the floor as he saw her take the wash cloth and clean her breasts and the rest of her body.

“Jim, take your shorts off, come over here and wash my back. A whore’s bath is about all we can do in the middle of winter, but it’s better than stinking.”

He washed her back very slowly and then she gave him a bath.

Kristen walked into the room and Jeff said, “Well, is he still buying the story? Does he still think that you are his wife?”

“He doesn’t know what to think other than he has died and gone to heaven. He believes anything I tell him.”

“You didn’t sleep with him, did you? You are supposed to marry me. I’ll kill the bastard.”

Jeff started to get up and Jerry pushed him back in his seat while saying, “Jeff, we need this man’s help and Kristen is the key. You keep bird dogging her and you just piss her off. She doesn’t belong to you or anyone in this camp. She is free to choose any man she wants. She would have already hooked up with several guys if you hadn’t scared them off. I don’t think this man can be scared off.”

“Jerry, I’ll behave around him, but I don’t want Kristen sleeping with him.”

“Jeff, shut the fuck up. You don’t own her. Kristen, you don’t have to sleep with him unless you want to. That’s too much to ask from you.”

“Jeff, you keep saying that I’m yours. Well if you hadn’t been such a jerk, you could have had me. You are too possessive and are a real jerk when it comes to women. You treat them like shit and then expect them to make love to you. Good luck on that.”

Jeff glared at her and left the room.

“I really like this guy and I’m bringing him on at my own pace. Keep Jeff away from him. Jim will break him in half if Jeff fucks with him or me. I can tell that Jim will be jealous and he can have a deadly side. I watched him and his team for hours and they jumped when he spoke and they respect him.”

“How soon will the drug wear off?”

“He’ll sleep like a baby all night and wake up next to me in bed. He’ll think that he got lucky. I wish I had.”

He laughed and said, “Well girl, you hold the key to getting lucky.”

John woke up at sunrise and was shocked to find himself naked with Kristen curled up in his arms. He fondled her breasts and then started making love to her. She woke up and joined in the passion. When they were finished, she felt a bit guilty for tricking him, but remembered that women were so much smarter than men and had been tricking them since time began.

She rolled over on top of John and started kissing his face and massaging his shoulders.

“Damn, for not knowing who I am, you sure knew how to light my fire.”

“I can say the same back at you. Can we stay in bed for the rest of the day?”

“I’d love to, but I have to re-introduce you to the camp and get our chores done for the day.”

“What are my chores?”

“You pull guard duty like we all do, clean and maintain our weapons and are the chief scrounger with me.”

Kristen and Jim went downstairs and joined the rest for breakfast. A woman younger than Kristen welcomed them and passed plates with fried eggs, fried spam and gravy. Jim thanked her and started eating as though he’d never seen food before.

Jerry started introducing everyone to Jim.

“Jim, there are 25 people in our camp and 6 scouts out in the field. As you noticed, we range in age from 5 years to 26, not counting yourself. How old are you? I don’t believe you ever said.”

Jim looked at him with a dazed look and said, “I think that I am 49. I don’t remember, but that’s what jumped into my mind.”

Jerry’s wife, Carly, said, “Jim, you don’t look a day over 40 and you have always been very muscular and good looking so I don’t think that you are that old.”

“I know that I probably asked this question before, but where are the older people like me?”

“We all escaped from a drug gang in lower Montana and they killed off anyone that didn’t fit their needs. We are a small group from a larger community up near Billings, but got trapped here for the winter. We were searching for arms, food and ammo down here in Wyoming. We rescued the kids from a gang west of here. We snuck into their camp and stole the kids and they didn’t know they were gone until we were 20 miles away."

"As soon as the weather breaks, we will head back to Billings. I’d really like you to start passing on your military skills to some of the others. We didn’t make use of your knowledge when we should have. I’m sorry. You told me I’d change my mind and I have finally realized that you were right all along. My nonviolence preaching is great, but as you told me a hundred times, it will get us killed. So I’m begging you to begin teaching us.”

“I honestly don’t know what I know. I’ll be glad to help; I just need to figure out how to remember it.”

Jerry handed him a Colt 1911 and said, “Take it apart and put it back together.”

Jim’s hands methodically tore the weapon down and put it back together astounding even him.

“See, you know what you are doing. Now we need to develop a lesson plan. We won’t start the training real until we get back to our home base in Billings, but you can start teaching us a few things along the way home. The weather is warming and the snow should be gone in about two to three weeks. We need to travel before the snow melts and the bad guys start stirring around.”

“I agree. My experience with this trash is that they hole up in the winter and wait for spring. I'll check the team out on gun safety and try dry firing for practice so we don’t alert the bad guys. I will also teach the team how to properly pull guard duty.”

“See you know a lot more than we do. Our home base is about 100 miles from here and it could take two days with the snow and watching for ambushes along the way. Let’s head home in three days if we don’t get more snow.”

“I agree. Jerry, were we friends before I lost my memory? You seem like the kind of guy that I like to be around. You need a lot of military training, but you seem to be a good man.”

“Well to tell the truth, you kept pretty much to yourself. We all get along well in our group, but I think you may have had some hard feelings when I didn’t listen to you about training our people how to fight. You weren’t hostile, just cold. I like you too and would like you to be my friend.”

“Same here. Oh, how did Kristen and I get along? She is a very outspoken and I can’t think of the other word.”

“Bossy.”

“Yes, I guess that’s what comes to mind. I like strong willed women and I can see why I was attracted to her. I just hate that I can’t remember her or any of you.”

“You two were deeply in love and inseparable. Don’t worry, your memory will come back one day. When it does, you may not like me.”

***

It was just after dawn and Billy was sitting at the kitchen table talking with her grandfather, Eric, while they finished their breakfast. They heard a sound coming from the bathroom and then Beth came running out and crashed through the back door.

“Papaw, this is the third day in a row that Beth has been sick in the morning. She throws up and won’t eat her breakfast. She mentioned that the bacon cooking was making her sick.”

“Baby girl, that woman isn’t sick; she’s pregnant. Your mom threw up every morning for weeks when she was pregnant with you. Go see if you can help her. It looks like John is probably dead and she will have to raise the baby on her own.”

Eric and Billy Shelton had taken John’s team into their home after the plane crashed on Highway 14. They were experienced military people and had saved Billy and Eric from some bad guys who wanted Billy for their own. John’s team had been killing bad guys for the last two months and had rescued over 50 people. They trained them in survival and military tactics and they had cleared most of the bad guys out of the area for at least 15 miles and were rooting out more of them every week.

“Billy, thanks for the help. I’m pregnant and John probably won’t be back for awhile. You are such a sweet girl and I appreciate the help.”

Eric looked over at Joe and whispered, “The poor thing can’t believe that John is probably dead and won’t be back.”

“No Eric, she knows that John will be back. The only question is how many thugs he will have to kill to get back to us. John is very hard to kill. He is either planning an escape or has already escaped and organizing the locals to form a branch army of the ISA."

Beth and Janet were in Beth’s room when tears came to Beth’s eyes and she started crying.

"I’m lost in Wyoming, pregnant and lost my man. Can it get worse than this?”

“Never ask that question. It can always get worse than whatever is going on in your life at the time you ask that question. John will be back in a week or two. Whoever captured him will be dead and John will be coming back to you soon.”

“Janet, I have a bad feeling this time. I just don’t think John is coming back before we get rescued.”

***

“Kristen, are you on the pill? We’re having sex twice a day and we don’t need a baby to be born in this mess.”

“No I’m not on the pill, but we can get some condoms at the next drugstore we plunder.”

“Oh shit.”

“Look dummy, I’ve been on the pill since before I met you. Don’t worry. I think our baby would be beautiful though and I do want a baby one of these days.”

“I wonder if I have any kids or a wife for that matter. Did I say anything about family when we met?”

“Just that all of your family was dead and that you never wanted to talk about it.”

“Do you have any family? Hey, how old are you?”

“I’m originally from Owensboro, Kentucky, and was in college when the bombs fell. I tried to get home and got stuck out here. I don’t know about my family, I’ve never been married and I’m 25 years old. You are 41 according to what you told me when we met, but old people always lie about their age.”

John grabbed her, threw her down on the bed and began tickling her while dodging her fists.

“Stop John. I hate being tickled. I’ll pee my pants. Please stop.”