Forgotten Forbidden America:: Patriots Reborn (4 page)

Stopping in a cloud of dust, Ashley jumped out with a smile. “Hi, guys,” she said, slinging her AR over her shoulder and bouncing inside. They turned to see Gerald dragging his sweat-soaked ass out of the UTV. Wiping the sweat off his face, he stormed over to Matt and pointed a finger an inch from his nose.

“We are fucking trading jobs!” Gerald spat. “Your wife is a slave driver!”

“I work with her all the time; no she’s not,” Matt growled.

“Fine, you can work with her. I’ll work with Paul Bunyan.”

Nelson grinned as he grabbed his vest and AR out of the UTV and followed Bernard in the house. After hanging up weapons and vests, everyone sat down as Nellie came over putting platters of food on the table. “Gerald, Hank called on the radio and said they started on the work you went over with them.”

“Well, that should keep them busy for the next week or so,” Gerald said, holding his glass beside him as Olivia carried a pitcher of tea around the table to fill everyone’s glass.

“You think Steven is helping?” Nellie asked, sitting down.

Gerald shook his head. “I doubt it. That man is worthless.”

“He never has been worth much,” Bernard said as Olivia filled his glass. “He found a way to make money sitting on his butt using other people’s money.”

Matt put his glass on the table after Olivia filled it. “You think Steven is going to be trouble for them?”

As Nelson helped Olivia into her chair, he watched Gerald get up, grab Devin’s highchair from between his and Michelle’s chairs, and carry it down to his end of the table. Setting Devin beside his chair, Gerald sat down, grinning at the baby. “You get any bubbles?” Gerald asked, and Devin squealed out, hitting the highchair.

“Damn, don’t even ask to take my baby anymore,” Nelson mumbled.

Bernard chuckled and looked up at Matt. “Steven’s going to be trouble for Hank and his family, not us. If they kick him out, Steven won’t come here. He knows I don’t like him.” They all clasped hands as Bernard said blessing.

After lunch, Matt headed to the sawmill with Ashley as Nelson and Gerald headed to the front of the house. Nelson stopped the UTV and climbed out. Gerald looked down the road to see all the larger trees cut back a hundred yards. “Damn, no wonder Ashley was running that sawmill like she stole it. You tried to turn into a lumberjack,” Gerald said, taking off his vest and putting on the chaps and gear.

“The big saw is mine,” Nelson said as he finished his chaps and grabbed the leather coat. “You can use the little one,” he said, grabbing his hardhat and the big chainsaw.

“Hey, no arguments here,” Gerald said, grabbing the other hardhat. “You knock them down; I’ll limb them out.”

After filling the chainsaws with fuel and oil, the sounds of crashing trees soon shook the ground. Unlike Matt, Gerald wasn’t afraid of the chainsaw, and Nelson would barely have a tree on the ground only to see Gerald walking over to attack it. Seeing Gerald would always stop and watch when he started sawing, Nelson wasn’t scared about him walking into a falling tree.

After a few hours, they had already cut down what Nelson did in the last three days. Bernard was having trouble keeping up with the two. As Gerald was refilling his chainsaw, he heard Nelson’s saw idle and heard thumping. Looking over, he saw Nelson driving wedges using the back of a hatchet in a cut he made with the chainsaw. “You need more fuel?”

“Nah, I just filled up!” Nelson shouted then grabbed his chainsaw and cut on the opposite side of the wedges. Gerald watched the tree fall the opposite way it was leaning.

“Shit, that boy needs to be a lumberjack,” Gerald said, walking over as Nelson grabbed his wedges and hatchet. “Why did you want it to drop that way? We are in the woods, and nothing is around; it really doesn’t matter.”

Pointing the way the fallen tree was leaning, he said, “Didn’t want it to take out all those smaller trees.” He pointed where he made the tree fall. “This way, it only hit one. Don’t want to make it really obvious we are thinning the trees.”

“Well, let me destroy the evidence then,” Gerald said, yanking the pull cord.

It was late afternoon when Gerald motioned Nelson to shut off his chainsaw. Nelson turned it off, looked back toward the house, and noticed they were several hundred yards further away than he and Matt had cut to the east. “Damn, didn’t know we went that far,” Nelson said, taking off his hardhat.

“Yeah, this should be good enough,” Gerald said, turning and walking back to the UTV. “I wonder how Matt is doing with the slave driver?”

“She’s that bad?”

Gerald glanced at Nelson out of the corner of his eyes as he walked. “I would rather take the Q course again than work with her on that sawmill. I couldn’t keep up taking the damn boards off as she cut them, and Ashley would just kick them on the ground.”

Nelson shook his head. The Q course was the tryouts for the Green Berets, and he knew how hard it was. “I’ll just cut trees down then,” he said, putting his chainsaw in the UTV. “It’s going to take several days just to haul all these limbs off.”

“Maybe, but that is far down the list. We need to get those other PVC panels over the moat.”

Putting on his tactical vest, Nelson turned to Gerald. “Those panels are PVC?”

“Uh, yeah, you couldn’t tell?”

“Shit, they look like wood quarter inch wall paneling,” Nelson said, grabbing his AR.

“It’s paint, Nelson. I didn’t want wood, and when they rebuilt one of the hangers at the base, I got those.”

Sliding behind the steering wheel, Nelson started the UTV and said, “Learn something new every day.” They passed Bernard heading to get more of the trees they dropped. Passing the driveway, Nelson headed toward the barn. When he came around the front corner, Nelson stomped on the brake. “Holy shit.”

“Yeah, and you wanted to know why I wanted to change jobs,” Gerald chuckled. There were stacks of boards everywhere. Way off in the back were the slabs that were left from the trees. They were neatly stacked in four piles each almost as tall as Matt. They could tell because Matt was throwing one on and moving back to the sawmill as Ashley kicked a board off on the ground.

At the end of the barn were stacks of logs, and Bernard was dropping the last ones on the stack, grabbed another one, and moved up, waiting on Ashley to finish with the log on the mill. “She may be small, but Ashley can run the hell out of a sawmill,” Nelson said, moving over then stopping the UTV.

“Like I said, her husband can work with her on the damn sawmill,” Gerald said, getting out. They took off their gear and helped Matt until supper.

When they were parked back at the house, Nelson looked over at Matt, who was waiting until Ashley ran into the house. “Your wife is a slave driver.”

“Nah, that’s how she always works,” Matt chuckled. “She’s small so she just moves at hyper speed.”

“No wonder you’re big enough to eat hay,” Gerald said, walking past Matt.

Chapter Three

It was two days later, and Nelson and Michelle were walking out of the cabin to head to the gym. Devin was draining his bottle making a lot of noise in the pre-dawn darkness. “He eats like a pig,” Michelle said, looking down at Devin in her arms.

“Hey, he’s got a soccer ball head; leave him alone,” Nelson said, slinging his rifle over his shoulder.

She let out a groan. “I wish you would quit saying that to him.”

“Well, he does have a soccer ball head,” Nelson mumbled, grabbing her hand. He saw Gerald walking out of his cabin. “Looks like Devin’s buddy is waiting on him.”

Without being asked, Michelle just held out Devin, who squealed upon seeing Gerald. “We are definitely having another one,” she said after Gerald took Devin and walked off in front of them with his rifle across his back.

They walked in to see Matt, Ashley, and Nancy already in the gym. Mike was sitting in his bouncy chair, chewing his fist as Gerald walked over and put Devin in his walker. Between sets, Gerald would chase Devin down and steer him back to the area they were in.

After the workout, everyone headed to the hot tub. When Nelson picked up Devin, Gerald took him, and Nelson looked up and saw Gerald was holding a bag. “I got him. I’m teaching him to call in artillery on the bubbles,” Gerald said, climbing in.

Nancy came over and took Mike away from Ashley and climbed in. “I’m the one that taught him to battle the evil bubbles,” Nelson mumbled.

Michelle came over and patted his shoulder. “Yes you did, but it seems Gerald really wants to join in this battle.” She smiled seeing Gerald pull out hollow, plastic balls from the bag. “For a minute, I was worried he was going to pull out hand grenades.”

“That would be fun.” Nelson smiled, helping her in.

“You know when we bathe Mike at night, he soaks the entire bathroom trying to kill bubbles,” Ashley said, climbing in as Devin yelled out his challenge. “If he doesn’t have bubbles, he screams till we put them in.”

As Nelson moved over beside Michelle, she laughed. “That won’t stop till he’s about two. Olivia will still yell out in the bathtub that the evil bubbles are attacking.”

Devin watched Gerald toss a ball in a large group of bubbles and laughed, liking this new attack. “Never thought about that,” Nelson said, impressed, as Devin tossed a ball across the Jacuzzi and almost hit Matt.

“You let Gavin put one of those remote controlled boats in our Jacuzzi to battle bubbles, which was too much for me,” Michelle said, leaning back.

Hearing that, Gerald looked up. “What?”

“Yes, that’s how Gavin and Nelson got into R/C cars and planes,” Michelle said.

“Can we use one of your boats? Devin needs to learn how to call in coastal guns,” Gerald asked as he handed Devin another ball.

Nelson looked at the hot tub. “This isn’t big enough for the boats we have now.”

“Just what the hell do you two have? I’ve seen Gavin playing with a remote controlled car out here, but you talk like you have several,” Gerald said as Devin raised his arms with a ball in each hand, yelling for the bubbles to surrender. Devin launched the balls then started slapping the water.

Before Nelson could answer, Michelle covered her eyes as the thrashing baby fist destroyed the bubbles. “They have several dozen boats, and I don’t know how many buggies, cars, or trucks, Gerald. Nelson and Gavin went to competitions all the time. Last year, Nelson went to Kansas and bought out a hobby shop that was going out of business,” Michelle said as Devin raised his hands in triumph. Seeing another cluster of bubbles coming, Devin grabbed a floating ball and squealed out as he tossed it.

“Got my ass chewed out on that one,” Nelson mumbled, handing Devin a ball, and Michelle just cut her eyes at him.

“You have remote planes?” Nancy asked as Mike dropped his face on a cluster of bubbles, trying to bite them. He came up coughing and started to hit them for trying to drown him.

“Shit, Gavin and I have quad copters with video mounts, planes, boats, rock crawlers, dune buggies, trucks, tanks… It’s a nice collection,” Nelson said, grinning at Mike as he tried to bite the bubbles again.

“You brought them here?” Gerald asked, handing another ball to Devin.

Michelle laughed. “What, you think he would leave their toys?”

“I told you I have plans for them if anything went bad,” Nelson said, laughing as Devin almost jumped out of Gerald’s hands to launch himself at a large cluster of bubbles.

“Yes, baby, and it’s a good plan, but you spent a lot of money buying out that store.”

“What plan?” Gerald asked, pulling Devin back to his lap and scooping the bubbles closer.

With an evil grin, Nelson said, “I’m going to put shaped charges on the cars with a small camera and use them as explosive drones.”

Impressed, Gerald nodded. “Damn, that is a good idea. What kind of range?”

“A mile, but with an antenna we made, I can get almost two. I want to use one of the quad copters to fly around to look around if we need to.”

“They only stay up for a few minutes,” Nancy said, scooping an armful of bubbles to Mike.

“Two of them do, but I have one that will stay up for almost an hour,” Nelson said, grinning.

Nancy looked up. “Can I see it?”

“Sure,” Nelson shrugged.

Gerald looked over at Nancy. “After we get the dam in, you can play with his toys.”

“I’m about to pop you,” Nancy warned as Mike raised his hands like Devin, squealing out as he dropped them on a cluster of bubbles.

When Ashley turned off the hot tub, Devin and Mike started screaming for the bubbles to come back. “Your kids,” Michelle said, getting out.

“Hey, Mike is doing it too,” Nelson said as he followed.

“I’m sure Matt and Ashley are thrilled they have a bubble warrior,” Michelle said, handing him a towel.

Matt laughed. “What do you think the president is going to say tonight?”

“They want everyone’s soul for safe keeping,” Nelson said, handing a towel to Gerald. If Gerald played with Devin, he damn sure was going to dry him off.

With her towel over her head, Michelle parted it to look at Nelson. “That’s not funny.”

“Shit, they have all the money and are rounding everyone up; what else could they want?” Nelson snapped, grabbing his vest. “I just wanted them to take a little longer before going crazy.”

“They can’t,” Gerald said, drying Devin off. “With seven states pulling out of the union and people killing any government personnel, they have to push up the time table. What they…” Gerald stopped when Nancy coughed.

They all left in a group, walking around the now covered moat. With an inch of dirt spread out on the panels, it looked like ground all the way to the berm around the house. They had spread out grass seed, and in a few weeks, it would have some grass to break up the fresh dirt. Most of the sides of the moat had been shored up with some of the lumber, but the rest would have to wait.

Heading to their own cabins to change, Nelson and Michelle didn’t even go to Olivia’s room, knowing Bernard had already come and carried her inside. They woke Gavin and got dressed, telling him what he needed to wear for the day.

Matt and Ashley were walking to the back porch when Nelson stepped out with Gavin. They were both wearing shorts and water sandals with their vests on. Michelle was wearing tactical pants, boots, and her vest. “You going to the beach?” Matt asked as Nelson slung his AR over his chest.

“No, I learned in Louisiana when you work in mud and water, don’t wear a lot of clothes or boots,” Nelson said, following them inside.

Matt shook his head. “I can’t stand for the mud to be on my skin; I’ll wear my pants and boots.” When Gerald came over to grab Devin, Matt stopped and noticed Gerald was dressed almost identical to Nelson and Gavin.

“How long you think this will take us, Bernard?” Gerald asked, putting Devin in his highchair.

“We’ll be finished with the dam today. We just have to move dirt. We already have the concrete barriers poured.”

Sitting down and handing Devin his sippy cup, Gerald said, “It’s going to take several hours just to load the shit.” All the women snapped their fingers at him, including Nancy. “Sorry,” Gerald cringed, looking around, and saw Olivia filling glasses with orange juice.

“Did that yesterday,” Bernard said, sitting down and taking a sip of coffee. “The only things we need to grab are those rolls of pipe and fittings.”

“Told you that’s why we needed to have everything put together for this project before we started,” Nelson said, adding creamer to his coffee. “That was the time consuming part.”

“Dad, can I have some coffee?” Gavin asked, seeing Nancy sipping hers.

“Use lots of cream and sugar the first time, son,” Nelson said as Gavin took off to the kitchen.

Bernard jumped up. “Hold on, Gavin; I got you a coffee cup,” he said, walking over to the cabinets, and he pulled out a John Deere coffee mug just like his complete with Gavin’s name on the side.

“That man bleeds John Deere green,” Nelson mumbled.

Mashing up Devin’s food, Gerald asked, “How long do you think it will take to bring everything online?”

“Tomorrow, just have to hook it up,” Nelson said, loading his plate.

After breakfast, Nancy stayed at the house with the kids to work on wiring up the monitors, and everyone else headed out. Nelson and Matt drove their trucks to the barn as Gerald drove Bernard’s truck. At the back of the barn, they found four trailers loaded.

The first held an eight-foot-wide, eight-foot-tall, and sixteen-foot-long steel box. Nelson had built it over a year. Using quarter-inch cold rolled steel four by eight-foot sheets, he had welded the box together, making an airtight room for the Pelton wheel generators. It couldn’t be seen, but the entrance was a hatch on the top. On each end pipes were sticking out. 

On the other three trailers were huge slabs of concrete. One held four, twelve by five-foot-wide slabs lying on their sides. Two more of the large ones were on another trailer with three more smaller slabs. These were six feet tall and six feet long and looked like oversized Jersey barriers used on highway construction sites. The last trailer held seven of the smaller barriers.

Nelson backed his truck up to the trailer carrying the powerhouse as Gerald backed Bernard’s truck up to the trailer with the mix of barriers, and Matt took the last trailer with smaller barriers. Hooking up the trailers, everyone looked up upon hearing the excavator fire up.

From the around the corner of the barn, Nellie drove up in the dump truck and backed up to the last trailer with the big concrete barriers. They were all wide at the base and tapered down at the top. The tall ones were five feet at the base and tapered down to eight inches at the top, so they were heavy as hell.

Bernard drove the excavator to the work site, where the creek met the Jacks Fork River. The others loaded rolls of pipe and other stuff in the back of the trucks. With stacks of rolled up pipe in each truck, they pulled out straps and tied them down.

Gerald walked over as Nelson finished strapping his load down. “I think it’s going to take longer than one day,” Gerald said, tightening his gloves. “Just unloading this stuff down there is going to take several hours.”

“If it does, so be it,” Nelson said as Michelle walked over. “You okay to drive this down?”

“I’ve driven a heavy transport hauling an M1 Abrams; I think I can handle this.” She smiled.

He smiled back. “Ashley, will you drive my UTV down, and I’ll drive the backhoe,” Nelson said, turning to look at Ashley, who smiled and ran over to jump in the UTV. “Nellie, you have the lead.”

With Nellie leading the way, the others followed her to the back side of the farm. The creek ran along the south side but curved back north, following a ravine to the river. When they left the fields and entered into the woods on a small dirt tract Bernard had made, everyone slowed, keeping a lot of distance between each vehicle.

The site they were using wasn’t on Bernard’s property; it was inside the National Forest just over a mile away from the farm. As they drove slowly down the dirt tract, the rolling hills of Missouri started taking on new meaning as they left the valley the farm sat in.

They found Bernard at the site already digging a diversionary route for the creek. Parking their vehicles, Nelson was really happy they had marked out all this two years before. Everyone had talked about solar and wind for viable energy, but Nelson convinced them hydro was twenty-four seven with a steady flow of water. The creek was several yards wide and averaged three feet deep. When they measured its flow one summer when it was at its lowest, it was still over three hundred gallons a minute.

Using the backhoe, Nelson unloaded the smaller barriers. He was under no illusions; only the excavator could unload the bigger barriers and the powerhouse. When the smaller barriers were unloaded, Nellie came over and opened the cab of the backhoe.

“Ashley is taking Matt’s truck and empty trailer back as soon as the pipe is unloaded out of the back. She’ll bring back another UTV. I’m taking the backhoe to the gravel pit, and she will bring the dump truck to the gravel pit when she gets back,” Nellie said.