The Siege (23 page)

     Marty said, “Agreed. We’ll have to be smart or we’ll run out the first day and go out of business before we have a chance to get started. But did you say beef and pork?”

     “Yes,” John replied. “Bring an empty truck to our compound the next few days and we’ll give four cows and a bull. Also four sows and a boar. If you let them breed, within a year or so you’ll be able to butcher them in limited numbers and still grow your stock. Again, though, we’ll ask you that once your stock is sufficient for your needs, that you share the wealth with another farmer or rancher. Be sure you get the same commitment from him.”

    
“We will. And thank you, my friend, for doing this for us.”

     “No thanks are necessary, Marty. You didn’t have to come and warn us that the bad men were coming. You may have imperiled your own life in doing so. If they found us before you came, and if they succeeded in taking our camp, they probably would have shot you on sight.

     “So you may well have saved the lives of my daughter or my friends. And that’s worth a hell of a lot more than a few animals and seeds.”

     Marty jumped on a golf cart and led the Hummer down the bumpy dirt road to the farm house behind the truck stop. They found Mason Bennett, in his once lush corn field with one of his teenage daughters.

     They were looking gloomily at a handful of pathetic corn plants they were trying to make grow from old seeds.

     Marty dismounted and made all the introductions. Then he handed the grizzled farmer the shoe box full of seeds.

     The old man’s eyes instantly teared, but he wasn’t ashamed. He looked at John and Mark, and struggled to find words. Nothing he could think of seemed adequate to convey the gratitude he felt.

     He finally stammered, “Well, you two sure don’t look like angels. But you must have been sent down here by God Himself.”

     Marty laughed and said, “You ain’t heard the half of it. Is your old chicken coop still capable of holding a brood of chickens? And are your fences still in good enough shape to keep livestock in?”

     Mason began to blubber. A tear rolled down his cheek but he didn’t care. And once again, he lost his words. He did the only thing he could think to do, and hugged John.

     A mere handshake just wouldn’t do.

Chapter 47

     The trip back to the compound was relatively quiet. The chickens were gone now, feeling their way around their new home in Mason Bennett’s chicken coop. The interior of the Hummer now smelled like chicken droppings, but it didn’t dampen the men’s spirits. They’d done an incredibly good deed, and they felt good about it.

     And, truth was, they were still a little choked up over Mason’s outburst of emotion. John and Mark were both men who were a bit more guarded about their
feelings. They were afraid that if they talked about reducing Mason and his young daughter to tears, that they might tear up themselves.

     And that just wouldn’t do. So instead they drove along in relative silence, the windows down to air out the Hummer, enjoying the fresh breeze on their faces.

     As they came around the last curve on Highway 83 before the turnoff to the compound, Mark looked out the window and said, “Well, I’ll be darned. Would you look at that?”

     Off in the distance, approaching them at a relatively fast clip, was a U.S. Army Huey helicopter. It was like a scene from an
old Vietnam war movie, the chop chop chop of the propeller getting louder as the helicopter approached, its nose angled slightly toward the ground and lower than its tail rotor.

     It flew almost directly over their heads, and continued on in the direction they’d come, to parts unknown.

     It was an unexpected treat for both of them.

     John commented, “I haven’t seen one of those in many years. I didn’t even know the Army still flew them. It looks like an antique compared to the Blackhawks and Apaches.”

     “I think some of the National Guard units still flew them before the freeze. I wonder what they’re doing in this area?”

     “I don’t know. Training missions
, probably. I imagine they’re pretty rusty after all those years of not flying. I’m sure they also lost most of their members during the freeze too. My guess is that they’re either training new pilots or the old ones are trying to regain their proficiency.”

     “Well, in any event, it’s nice to see them up there. Maybe they’ll declare martial law in some of the most violent cities and get some of the crime under control.”

     “Yeah, maybe.”

     John suddenly had a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. After the joy he felt at the truck stop, it came out of nowhere to dampen his mood.

     He’d had premonitions all his life. Many times they were just fleeting episodes of paranoia. But surprisingly often, his premonitions had merit, and often foretold dire events.

     Usually his premonitions were specific, though. And this one… well, this one he couldn’t put his finger on. He just felt a sour feeling in his stomach, and a feeling that something bad was on the horizon.

Chapter 4
8

     Five minutes out from the compound, Mark keyed his radio and said, “Sarah, are you still on duty?”

     “No, Mark. This is Karen. I relieved Sarah a little bit ago. What did they think about the stuff in the box?”

     “Let’s just say they thought it was a nice gesture. I’ll give you more details when we get back. We’re about five minutes away. Is the highway clear of traffic?”

     “Yes it is. I’ll let you know if anything comes into view. And I’
ll send somebody outside to open the gate when you get here.”

     “Thank you, Karen. See you soon.”

     “Oh, yeah. When you get in, come to security. We’ve had a bit of excitement here while you were gone. I don’t want to talk about it on the radio, but I’ll tell you when you get here.”

     “10-4.”

     A few minutes later John pulled the Hummer off the road and drove across the hilly ground to get around the stalled tractor trailer at the end of their access road. He then pulled up to the gate, and heard Karen say, “We’re all clear, Hannah. Go ahead and let them in.”

     The gate rolled to one side and they slowly drove through.

     Hannah blew Mark a kiss as they drove by.

     Even after all the years they’d been together, this beautiful creature still took his breath away.

     “Hi, honey. I missed you.”

     She pounced on him as soon as they parked the vehicle and got out.

     “I missed you too, doll.”

     “We have some news to tell you, but I lost the coin toss so I’m not allowed to mention it. That lucky gooberhead
Karen gets to tell you. I think she probably used a rigged nickel.”

     Mark laughed.

     “What?” she asked.

     “You. Every time you lose a game, or a contest, or even a coin toss, you claim that somebody cheated.”

     “Well, she probably did. After all, I am supposed to win at everything I do.”

     “Is that right?”

     “Yep. Indubitably.”

     Hey,” John said. “Watch your language.”

     “Indubitably isn’t a bad word, John. It means the same as undoubtedly.”

     She looked at John, who was grinning.

     “Oh. I guess you already knew that, huh?”

     “Yes, kinda. I taught you the word about a year ago, remember?”

     She thought for a moment and said, “Oh, yeah.”

     They got to the security desk and Karen nodded in Hannah’s
direction.

     “I hope that big blabbermouth didn’t already tell you about our excitement while you were gone.”

     Hannah stuck her tongue out.

     “No. What did we miss?”

     “There was a great big green helicopter that paid us a visit. First it just flew over us. Then it turned around and came back, and just hovered over the compound for about five minutes. It was so low that the girls all ran up to the roof, and could see the faces of the three men on the inside.”

     Hannah, the big blabbermouth, couldn’t resist any longer. She interrupte
d, saying, “We waved at them and they looked at us, but didn’t wave back. I thought the army was supposed to be friendly.”

     John had a very uneasy feeling.

     “Are you sure it was the military?”

     “Oh, yes. It said U.S. Army on the side, and the men all had uniforms and helmets on.”

     Karen saw the look of concern on John’s face.

     “But, that’s a good thing, right, John? I mean, isn’t that a sign that the world is getting back to normal, and that the government is running again? I mean at least the military part of the government is out there protecting us again. That’s good, right?”

     John kept his thoughts and feelings to himself. There was no sense in spreading panic at this point. But Mark saw his face too, and read something there he didn’t like.

     “John, I’m gonna go wash out the inside of the Hummer, to see if I can get that chicken smell out of it. Would you mind giving me a hand?”

     “Uh, sure…”

     Karen objected.

     “Wait! Before you go, you promised to give me some details about the people you visited.”

     John couldn’t disappoint Karen. They had grown quite close in previous months, and he did indeed promise her a report.

     “Those guys up there are going wonderful work. They’re looting all the tractor trailers that were abandoned before the freeze, sure. But they’re not doing it for themselves. They’re dispensing much needed food and supplies for travelers who are getting out and headed for their homes to see if they have any relatives left. And for the locals who’ve run out of everything.

     “Most of all, they’re dispensing hope for those who need it the most. Hope that things are going to get normal again. That someday soon there will be others like them who are sharing their time and talents to help the other survivors.

     “By far the best part of the journey was seeing the old farmer cry, unabashedly and without shame, when we gave him your seeds. He fell to his knees and looked up at the sky and thanked God that he could finally grow crops again.

     “He called you an angel. And I think he’s right. Of course, for a very long time I’ve thought you were the rock that holds this whole tribe of miscreants and misfits together. He just confirmed my suspicions, that’s all.”

     Now it was Karen’s turn to tear up.

     “Now stop it, Karen. Don’t you start getting all blubbery on me now too. Geez, what’s the world coming to, if everybody’s gonna start bawlin’ at the drop of a hat?”

     He said it with a smile, of course. And that made Karen laugh, despite the tear starting to roll out of the corner of her eye.

     “Thank you for that, John. You just made my whole day.”

     John went over and hugged her and kissed her on the cheek.

     “Good. Then I have accomplished my mission.”

     John turned and started walking out, turning his head and saying to Mark, “Well, what are you waiting for, dude? We’ve got a vehicle to clean.”

     “Did you just call me ‘dude?’ Nobody’s said ‘dude’ since the ‘60s, John.”

     “Yeah, well, call me old school.” John said as they walked out.

     Marked muttered, “Old… something…”

Chapter 49

     “Well, what is it exactly that concerns you? I mean, I see it as a good thing. If the military is active again, then that’s a very big sign the world is getting back to the way it used to be.”

     “Maybe. But for starters, we don’t know for sure it was the military. It could have been some weekend warriors who just know how to fly one. Maybe they stole the helicopter from an abandoned national guard base. Maybe they’re using it to scope out places to rob.”

     That was a possibility Mark had never thought of.

     He suddenly adopted the same serious look John had on his face.

     “But that’s not the worst of it,” John said.

     “The worst of it is that is they had enough access to the base to steal a chopper, then they probably had access to the armory and munitions storage area too.

     “That means if they’re bad guys, they’ll not only have the means to land in our own back yard, but they’ll be heavily armed too.”

     Mark was suddenly stunned.

     “Uh, oh. Should we tell the others?”

     “No. Let’s keep this under our hats, for now. But get Brad and Bryan together and set up a discreet meeting between the four of us. You can invite the three girls if you want, but swear them to secrecy and tell them to leave their silly sides behind. This is a serious matter.”

     “Okay, will do.”

     The group met at the picnic area, under an apple tree, later that evening. For the casual observer it was just a bunch of friends enjoying each other’s company on a beautiful late spring evening.

     But the topic of discussion was anything but beautiful.

     “Look, I know I’m a pessimistic old fool sometimes,” John started. “But my background is security. It’s pretty much all I’ve done all my life, first as a Marine and then as a cop. After that long I’ve learned to look at everything as a possible threat.”

     “But John, isn’t it possible that it was just a bunch of Army pilots on a training mission who happened to fly over by accident. And then were fascinated by our crops and cattle enough to want to come back and admire them for a minute?”

     “Yes. That’s entirely possible, and that’s why I want to keep this under our hats. There’s no reason to panic the others unnecessarily. But I wanted to get us together because every organization has a core. A group of individuals who do the bulk of the thinking and the planning and the getting things done. For this organization that’s you guys.

     “So the first thing I want you to do is consider whether my concerns have merit. If all of you pretty much agree that I’m just a suspicious old fool, and that my suspicions have no merit… then I’ll drop the whole thing.

     “But on the other hand, if
you think this threat could be real, it could be the biggest threat we’ve faced so far. And if that’s the case, we need to revamp some of our security procedures even more.”

     He drew a deep breath.

     “The Huey helicopter can carry a thirty caliber machine gun. Hell, it can be fitted with two of them if they want to. Those bullets come fast and furious, and can tear through normal walls like butter.

     “If we decide as a group that I’m not just being a worrisome old fool, and this threat is real, then we need to do at least two things.

     “We need to revamp our safe room. The walls in the current one will stop most bullets. But not these kind of bullets.

     “And, we need a way of getting from the big house to the mine without going outdoors.

     “Right now we have to evacuate by running from the big house to the feed barn and into the tunnel. And that’s an acceptable evacuation route if the attack is coming from the ground, outside our walls.

     “But if the attack is coming from up above, from a helicopter hovering above the compound, then it won’t do. It’ll cut us down by machine gun fire as we run between the
buildings.”

     Hannah grew alarmed. She had an ugly vision of Markie falling over in front of her
with a bullet wound in his tiny chest.

     “You’ve got my full attention, John. And I don’t think you’re an
old fool. I think you’re doing what you do best. You’re seeing things that none of the rest of us can see. Because you more than any of us know what bad men are capable of doing. So I for one am behind you a hundred percent.”

    
Bryan said, “Me too. As far as I know, your hunches have been right on every time so far. I don’t like the idea of marauders in helicopter gunships, but if it’s a possibility it’s something we need to deal with head on.”

     John looked around the room and could tell by the nodding heads and concerned looks. Everyone was in agreement.

     If he was a pessimistic old fool, he wasn’t the only one.

     He looked at Mark and Bryan.

     “You guys are the engineers. Any thoughts?”

     Mark started, “Well, structurally, the strongest part of the building is in the basement. The walls are thick concrete and heavy duty steel rebar. They have to be strong to support the rest of the building. That’ll be the hardest part for bullets to penetrate.”

     Brad added his two cents.

     “And the farther to the interior of the building the better. We’d want multiple concrete walls separating us from the outside.”

     “Right. What about the empty storage room across the basement hallway from the ‘Walmart?’ It’s big enough to accommodate everybody. It’s smack dab in the center of the building too.”

     “It has an outer wall we’ll have to reinforce, though. How many sandbags do we have, and where are they?”

     “Oh, we still have a boatload of sandbags. About a pallet and a half, probably a thousand at least. They’re in the very back of Bay 22, with the extra plywood.”

     “We can fill them with the tunnel debris in Bay 24. Salt is denser than either sand or dirt, so it’ll be good for stopping bullets. Getting them filled and into the building is going to be a major undertaking, though.”

     “Anybody got any ideas on how to accomplish it?”

     “The only way I can think of is having a team in Bay 24 filling them and then tossing them into the tunnel entrance. We can have a second team in the tunnel, loading them onto a wheelbarrow and rolling them to the other end. And a third crew with another wheelbarrow moving them from the feed barn to the big house, and into the basement.”

     “Figure two men on each team, on an eight hour shift we should be able to move a hundred bags or more.”

     Mark said, “Why don’t we run two eight hour shifts? It’s all heavy lifting grunt work, but we have enough men to do it.”

     He looked at the girls and added, “That’ll leave you women to run everything else. Unless you’d rather work the sandbags instead.”

     Hannah looked at Sami and then at Sarah.

     “I think I can safely speak for every woman in the camp when I say that we’ll gladly run everything else and leave the sandbags to you guys.”

     Sarah added, “I’ll start working with the others. Once the room is finished we’ll start doing drills and having everyone who isn’t essential run to the basement when the panic alarm goes off.”

     John said, “Let’s make this our first priority. After it’s done, I want to put our heads together and see if we can figure out a way to dig a tunnel directly from the basement of the big house. If we can connect it to the main tunnel, we can evacuate the big house if it starts getting ugly and go to either the mine or the woods without ever going outside.

     “Again, I apologize for leaning on you engineering types so much. But I don’t know a tunnel from a pot hole. You guys are much more qualified to devise a way to do that than I am.”

     “We’ll be throwing back and forth ideas while we’re filling sandbags. Once the safe room is done, we can get back together again and make plans for the tunnel.”

Chapter 50

     There was a lot of stress in the compound when faced with the possibility of an airborne assault. But it wasn’t all work and no play.

     Mark and Hannah both worked the first shift on the project, getting up in time to be at work at six a.m. He went to the mine
to fill sandbags, she went to the control center to pull security duty.

     Little Markie wasn’t so little anymore. He could be trusted now to wake up on his own, get himself dressed, and go to the communal dining room for breakfast. After checking in with his mom at the security desk and giving her a good morning hug, of course.

     The nice thing about the arrangement was that Hannah and Mark came off duty in the early afternoon, while Markie was still in school with Miss Helen and the other first, second and third graders.

     And that gave them some time alone.

     On the third day of the sandbag project, Mark went to Sarah and asked for a favor.

     “Would you mind picking Markie up from school and babysitting him for us? We’ll be back before dark.”

     “Sure. But where are you going?”

     “I can’t tell you. It’s a secret. But Hannah will tell you all about it when she gets back. And if you want to know more about it, I’ll show
Bryan where it is and he can take you too.”

     She thought momentarily and said, “Okay, it’s a deal. But I have to keep it a secret, even from Hannah?”

     “Especially from Hannah.”

     At two p.m., Hannah was coming off her shift and in the process of doing her outbrief with Debbie, who
came in to relieve her.

     Mark walked into the control center with a smile on his face and a backpack on his back.

     Hannah looked at the clock and then at Mark and asked him, “How’d you get off and get showered so quickly?”

     “Oh, I talked Joe into relieving me a little early. Are you about done?”

     Hannah looked at Debbie, who nodded her head to indicate she was ready to take control.

     “Yep. What’s with the backpack? And why are you grinning like a possum eating poop?”

     “What backpack?”

     “Um… that would be the one on your back…”

     Mark looked over his shoulder.

     “I don’t see any backpack. Were you sipping tequila under the security console again?”

     “Very funny, bucko.”

     She reached for the backpack, and he quickly turned and grabbed her wrist.

     “Well, you’re awfully jumpy for a man who doesn’t have a backpack on his back.”

     He released her wrist and kissed her.

     “Hush. You’re imagining the backpack. Just keep telling yourself
it isn’t really there, it really isn’t there…
”

     “Uh huh. And where are we going, anyway?”

     They were nearing the feed barn.

     “We’re just taking a romantic stroll, that’s all.”

     “A romantic stroll… in the tunnel?”

     “Sure. After all, it’s dimly lit, private and quiet, rather cozy…”

     They walked down the steps and started walking through the tunnel and a minute later Brad came rushing past them with a wheelbarrow full of sandbags.

     “Hello, you two,” he yelled as he passed.

     “Uh huh… private and quiet. Rigghhhtttttt…”

     He just looked at her and smiled.

     He led her into the new extension to the tunnel. She’d never been in it before, and was impressed. Even when they got to the part where it transitioned into a narrower and shorter tunnel, she was amazed at how much they were able to do in so short a time.

     They came out underneath the floor of the old hunting shack.
Bryan lifted the trap door and helped her out, then resecured the door in its original position.

     “So, where are we going, exactly?”

     “I could tell you. But then it wouldn’t be as much fun.”

     “Oh. Okay, so I should just place my life and well being in your hands and trust that you’ll take good care of me?”

     “Yeah, something like that.”

     They walked through the woods in a seemingly random and circuitous route. Hannah began to be
concerned that they might get lost.

     “Shouldn’t we be, like, dropping breadcrumbs or something?”