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“Point.  Ok, go on.” Mallory replied.

“We don’t have a huge amount of control over the people who are going to die due to lack of medications either, but the consequences of their deaths are much farther reaching than fires would be.  If push came to shove, we could wait until a building was done burning and then go in with a couple of bulldozers and a steamroller and all but level the place.  You know where it is, or was, and you deal with it.”

Joel was glad the kids weren’t here; he really didn’t want to have this discussion in front of them.  “How do you know where every person in Nashville has died in the last twelve hours, and deal with it before the next twelve hours goes by?  It wouldn’t take too long to get behind.  The germs and bacteria in the dead bodies spread and then people start getting sick, and dying from being sick--you get more and more behind and pretty soon it’s a lost cause.”

“So disease in the populated areas is a big issue.  Next.”  Mallory looked like she was making a list in her head, literally.

“Well, then there’s Napoleon Syndrome.  Civilization has come to an end, I’ve got X amount of personal artillery and I think I’ll take over this little piece of Nashville.  I always wanted an 8,000 sq/ft house, and at this point it’s going to be survival of the fittest.  Sheri and Chuck were telling us about one of the guys she worked with at the dam who’s heading to Oklahoma.  Plenty of gas and tools to open the filler tubes, electric pump on his truck to pump his own gas should he run out, and as he put it, ‘sufficient means to convince any reluctant sellers’.  Supposedly that was just to get him to Oklahoma, but what if he decides he wants to stay here, or someone, or a bunch of some ones, planned to stay here all along?”

Joel glanced at Sheri and Chuck but neither of them looked like they had anything to add at this point, so he went on.  “Neither Tennessee nor Nashville have been real big on restrictive gun laws.  Trust me, I know--I have my son’s AR-15 in the car right now.  By the way, hon, can I have one?”

“No.”  Rachael didn’t seem to be budging an inch on this one.  Not yet at least.  Maybe he needed to get her when she was even more exhausted.

“Anyway, there are all kinds of AR-15 and AK-47 style weapons out there, in addition to your standard Remington 700/770 deer rifles, and handguns galore--all over the place.  If communication can’t be reestablished for the general population, the folks who do have communication are going to be seen as attempting to establish and maintain a position of authority.  That will cause resentment in those who don’t have that capability and all kinds of nastiness could ensue--not the least of which is the breakdown in the relationship between the people doing the protecting and those they are sworn to protect.”

“What role do you see the Guard playing in maintaining the peace?  We can be called out and activated by the Governor and/or the Army directly but until that point we are acting on our own based on the best information we have in a very small sphere of influence.  We also have to assume certain things that will restrict our actions. Things like the fact that the Constitution is still our ruling document, the Bill of Rights is still active…little things like that,” Mallory said.

“Unless directed to, and actually it is more like unless
asked
to by a specific law enforcement agency or branch, we cannot perform many basic law enforcement tasks.  We can actually be detained and charged for unlawful arrest for holding someone against their will, even if they were suspected of committing a crime.”

Joel had no comeback for what he’d just heard.  He’d always just assumed that the National Guard could act on their own to expand the local, county, or state police as needed.  And they could, possibly, but only to a degree, and in specific ways, and only if asked.  They were severely limited in what they could do and how they could do it.

Eric broke into the silence, “Mallory, worst case scenario, the Armory Company takes everything and relocates to a defensible position.  Let’s call it Natchez Trace for now.  We bring in the families of anyone here in the Guard, close friends, people we encounter on the way, and turn it into a mini base.  We still have the equipment, we still have the personnel, the structure is still intact, and you--oh all right
we
--are providing our primary role of support and security to the population while still maintaining our integrity.”

“We’ll be limited in what we can field, Eric, you know that.  We have a fair amount of hardware as far as mortars, crew-served weapons, a few tow-behind field pieces, etc.  But we haven’t got any really heavy artillery, and we don’t have any ammunition for the heavy stuff.  Our job isn’t to hold the ammo for those, it’s to hold and maintain the equipment, and train on it occasionally.

“We have plenty of personal weapon ammo, don’t get me wrong.  We’ve got literally tons of ammo for everything up to the M60 and the .50, but anything bigger than that and we’re hauling it along just to keep it out of someone else’s hands for the time being.”

Eric pondered that for a few seconds and shrugged.  “Keeping it under our control and out of anyone else’s hands both work to the same end, and we may be able to get up to the practice range after a while.  Once we have somewhere we can defend we can take a look at that in more detail.”

Mallory shook her head, “Actually, once you all are on the road in the morning and my brain trust has had some sleep, they’ll start looking at it tomorrow.”  She looked at Rachael and Sheri and nodded, mentally shifting gears, “How are you at directing people--taking general direction and fleshing it out and passing it on, that is?  I’ve known Karen for a few years, so I have a little bit of an idea how she works, but we’re going to have a larger group of civilians to handle, eventually, than she can ride herd on alone.”

Rachael smiled , “That’s pretty much what I do as a mom, I’d say.  It may not sound like it, but that’s my day, all day, every day.  Volunteering at the school, the Y, at Church.  Running the house, balancing the budget, making sure Og over here eats and bathes.  It sounds like you’re looking for civilian analogs to your Sergeants here.  I think, no, I know I could help with that.”

“I’m not management, but I do OK in a pinch.  I’m willing to give it a shot.”  Sheri added.

“Well said, you’ve just been drafted.  The pay sucks and the hours are lousy, but like you just said, you’re a mom so that shouldn’t be new to you,” Mallory smiled, “At this point, at least, there should be no more messy diapers for you.”  She gave a sidelong glance to Joel, “At least not for a few more years, anyway.”

“Oh thank you SO much…‘Ma’am’,” Joel shot back with a smirk.

“Touché,” Mallory laughed.

Within a minute of their hour deadline, the three platoon leaders arrived, took seats, and presented their deployment plan.  Rachael and Joel were torn between being impressed and wanting to roll their eyes at the promptness of both Eric during his debrief and the arrival of the three Sergeants.  In the long run they both came to the same conclusion; that in the military, timing was in fact
that
important, and if you got used to being that close on the little things, you would be that close on the big things.

“Suggested TOE, or Table of Organization and Equipment, is based on 1
^st
Squad, 2
^nd
Platoon,” Sergeant Halstead began.  “Recommended mobile units as follows: 2 HMMV each with mounted M60s and 2500 rounds; 1 M923 5-Ton, also with an M60, with 7500 rounds; 1 M577 for Como, with a full load out; 1 600 GPH ROWPU, or Reverse Osmosis Water Purification Unit plus 1 set of filters and two 3,000 gallon onion skins; 1 10kw Generator and 250 gallons of diesel; Rations for 1
^st
Squad for 90 days plus the attached civilians for same, and standard logistics supplies.  We anticipate using satellite communication back to the Armory, and in the event of a loss of primary communication we will have a long-wire already erected.  The only exception we suggest to your initial tasking is that none of the three of us needs to be in direct oversight of this detachment.  Staff Sergeant Ramirez is perfectly capable of running this, and frankly, Top, you’re going to need all the help you can get here getting everything set to move out there.”

Sergeant Jackson continued, “We’re going to need to move, simple as that.  We finally got word from higher, and they aren’t giving us specific instructions.  They haven’t even officially activated us yet.  There has been zero official communication from any state government to any military command authority excepting anecdotal comments through unofficial channels.  Washington DC seems to be up and communicating with NORAD and a half dozen other locations in and around the capital but that’s about it, all using the ‘baby birds’ that came online yesterday afternoon.”

“They had a plan for the event, but that plan called for power to come online six hours later.”  Sergeant Stewart added.  “It’s not going to happen and they don’t know what to do now.  It’s June of an election year Top, less than half of the Senators were even in DC, and a number of Representatives were out drumming up votes as well.  The President is apparently in the air but that’s where he’s been for most of the day, they still haven’t decided where he’s going to touch down.”

“How many functional water purification units do we have now?” Mallory asked.

Sergeant Stewart answered, “six 600 GPH and three 3,000 GPH, plus four sets of replacement filters for each unit.  We also have fourteen 3,000 gallon ‘onion skins’.  At last check, two months ago, all nine units were fully functional--including onboard generators.”

“How much diesel do we have on site including in the vehicles and what’s the current average fuel level in the vehicles?”

“Currently we have 14,000 gallons of diesel and 2,000 gallons of 87-octane unleaded.  Average vehicle fuel level is 2/3 of a tank.”  Sergeant Jackson replied.  They were using ‘normal’ terms for diesel and unleaded gasoline instead of DF2, Mo-Gas, JP-4 and JP-8, in deference to the civilians.

“Who’s going to set up the long-wire?”

“Bowersock can do it half drunk in his sleep without the book…in the dark…up hill both ways in the snow, wait, no, that’s for something else…scratch everything after ‘in the dark’, so I figured we’d leave it to him.  If anything, he can use his spare foot as the resistor.”  Ramirez had been Staff Sergeant along with Staff Sergeant Bowersock for almost ten years and been giving him a good natured hard time for pretty much the entire ten years.

“I don’t know, Ramirez.  He may need that extra foot when he breaks his primary one off up your butt.  Remember, if he rears back to kick you don’t let him do it with his left foot, that things carbon fiber and it hurts.”  Stewart shot back.

“Not only that, he’s a firm believer in the old axiom ‘If you find yourself in a fair fight, your tactics suck.’  He’s convinced he’s too young to die but too old to take a butt whoopin’ so he’ll just haul off and shoot ya’.”  Halstead chimed in.

Mallory had obviously been through either this very conversation or one much like it, many times before.  These four were starting to feed off of each other and in another minute or so they would reach the point where they were finishing each others’ sentences.  She gave them another ten seconds to get it out of their system, because it had been a long day, and it was going to be a long night followed by another long day and night combination, setting a pattern for the foreseeable future.

“Well, Ramirez, you know the drill…if he breaks it off you have to clean it before you give it back, so decide if it’s really worth all that work.  And back on track, this is a lot to plan and deploy in nine hours or so.  Ramirez, I want your squad to hit the rack in twenty minutes.  One of the other squads will get the gear loaded.  You’ll still be able to verify prior to moving out.”  Mallory got up and motioned to Kyle.  “Walk with me, Ramirez.”

“I want everyone loaded for bear.  Its eighty-five miles and it’s going to be cool in the morning, so I don’t want to hear any bitching about how hot it is.  I want full riot gear--Kevlar, lined helmets, and the trucks will have the armor on them going out.  At the speeds you should be able to make, it’s an hour and a half until you can hopefully stand down a little but we need to get a secure area set up as quickly as possible.  I know we’ll include chainsaws for this, but grab a couple of extras and I’ll see if we can tow a Bobcat behind one of the five tons.

“Think about it as you drift off into the unmolested slumber of the pure in heart and mind so that you can wake up refreshed with inspiration from on high, or from higher up…I’m fine with either at this point.”

“You turning in, Top?” Ramirez asked.

“Not yet, I need to sit down and think long term with Eric and Joel, I think.  Together, those two are just a bit frightening. Twenty minutes, Kyle, get your guys to bed.  It’s gonna be an early morning.”

“Good night, Top.  Please don’t wear yourself out.  We’re gonna need you.  We know that, we want you to know that.  We want you to know that we’re glad you’re here, First Sergeant.  We’ll keep this together, by working together with direction by our senior NCOs--starting with you.  Don’t burn out on us because this is gonna suck for quite some time.”

“Ramirez.  Staff Sergeant Kyle Ramirez,” at that he turned to face her, “Thank you.  You need to know that I try, I honestly do.  Those boys,” she paused, “no, those men, you included, are my family.  My husband couldn’t take it, and he’s gone.  When he left, you were all still here.  None of you judged me and I don’t think that was out of fear.  None of you treated me any differently because in your eyes I hadn’t changed--I just had a bunch of stuff move out of my place.” 

“But what you just said is the first time it’s been put into words that you guys need me and know it, and want me to know you know it.  That it isn’t all just fear and tradition and respect of rank.  I appreciate that Ramirez, I really do.  It’s another one of those things that makes doing this all worthwhile--because that whole ‘Army of One’ bull that they were selling for a while is great for sociopaths and people who don’t like people, but….”