William H. Weber

LAST STAND:

PATRIOTS

Dedication

For my wife—your strength is an inspiration. And to Gary Stevens, whose expertise on amateur radio operation proved invaluable in the creation of this book. He was also kind enough to read through an early draft of the manuscript and let me know where I’d gone astray. Any technical errors are mine and mine alone. I’d also like to offer a hearty thank you to Damian Brindle, Justin Aeschliman and PJ @ prepper-resources.com for reading over an early draft of the manuscript and providing such incredibly useful feedback.

Chapter 1

“Here’s something I never understood,” Brandon said to John as they stood on a rise overlooking Stanley Lake. “What do you call more than one goose?”

“Geese,” John replied, not entirely sure where this was going.

“Okay, fine. Then what do you call more than one moose? Meese?” Brandon slapped his leg and let out a burst of laughter. The fourteen-year-old’s voice was changing, sometimes making him sound like a goose himself.

John tightened the cord around the slip knot he’d made. “Something tells me you aren’t taking this very seriously.”

The smile on Brandon’s face faded. John hadn’t intended to scold the boy, but sometimes his stare could be intimidating, even when he didn’t intend for it to be.

The two of them had set out from the cabins over an hour ago on a rather unusual hunting expedition. They were searching for geese and it had become clear from the start that young Brandon didn’t understand why. The goal was to bring back one or more. That was the reason they’d driven in John’s 1978 Blazer and brought the truck up to within fifty yards of Stanley Lake. At their feet was the wooden cage John had built yesterday to transport whatever they managed to capture.

“It’s just that I thought we had plenty of food at the camp,” Brandon said.

“Food’s not really why we’re here. At least, it isn’t the main reason. It took us about four months, but we’re down to the last of the batteries and candles are getting harder and harder to come by. Won’t be much longer before we won’t have any light once the sun goes down.”

“So you wanna use feathers instead?”

John smiled as a cool breeze blew off the lake and washed over him. A family of geese were over by the water’s edge and he watched them sunning themselves as he answered Brandon’s question. “The animal fat is what we’re after, Brandon. Diane and your mom will turn the lard into lamp oil by boiling it down with water and filtering it a handful of times to remove the impurities. Course it won’t burn as clean as whale oil, but this part of Tennessee is a bit short on whales.”

“Yeah, I see what you mean.”

“If we get desperate enough, we could always use other animal fats—possum, raccoon and so on—but the oil made from those guys tends to kick up far too much smoke. And apart from eating the geese, we can also keep ’em around the property for an extra layer of defense.”

Brandon nearly fell on the ground laughing.

“Sounds rather ridiculous, doesn’t it?” John said. “Can’t say that I blame you. I thought the same thing myself the first time I heard someone make the suggestion. Turns out their use goes back to ancient Rome. But there’s a real simple way for you to find out whether I’m pulling your leg or not.” John glanced down at the wooden cage. “Head over by the water and grab that mother goose by the neck and drop her in the crate.”

Brandon didn’t look so sure anymore.

“Go on,” John said, shooing him away. “Let’s see what you got.”

Like many teenagers his age, Brandon was eager to prove himself and something in John’s challenge must have lit a fire in his belly.

Brandon licked his lips, rolled up the sleeves of his shirt and slipped his hands into a pair of work gloves he’d brought.

John unslung a pellet gun he was carrying and leaned it against the crate. The AR, however, would remain on his shoulder, along with his trusted S&W M&P .40 Pro which he kept nestled in his Blackhawk Serpa drop-leg holster.

Back at the camp, his son Gregory had wanted more than anything to join them. Telling him that he’d have to stay behind had been tough for John, especially when the look of disappointment on his son’s face had edged toward tears. There was something John needed to talk to Brandon about. A conversation he would be having with Gregory soon enough. But all that would come later. Right now, John was curious who was about to win: Brandon or the goose.

It didn’t take more than thirty seconds before Brandon came charging back in John’s direction, a goose hot on his heels.

“This thing is crazy!” Brandon shouted, terrified. “Shoot it before it gets me.”

The sight of the boy running from a hissing bird required everything John could muster to keep from falling over with laughter.

A second later, Brandon sped past him, the goose gaining with every step, his beady little eyes fixed on Brandon. In a flash of movement, John snatched the bird by the neck, scooped him up with his other hand and dropped him into the wooden cage. Then he slammed the lid, trapping him against an echo of wild and angry cries.

Brandon was ten feet away, bent over, his hands on his knees as he tried to catch his breath.

“Excellent job luring it,” John offered with a wink.

“My pleasure.”

Grinning, John surveyed the beast. “Not exactly a Rottweiler, although not a horrible substitute under the circumstances.” He handed the pellet gun to Brandon.

“What’s this for?” The boy was looking at the goose, probably wondering whether John wanted him to shoot him.

“Lunch,” John replied. “Go find us a couple squirrels and I’ll show you how to cook ’em.”

Chapter 2

While Brandon was gone, John made a quick search of the surrounding area and gathered up the items he’d need to start a fire. He began to clear a patch of ground by scraping away the loose debris and wild grass. Then he gathered stones and set them in a small circle.

There were three main stages to building a fire outdoors. The first was tinder. Birch bark was his personal favorite given how plentiful it was. A lesser-known alternative was coal fungus, a black clump found on dead trees. Next John got some kindling to help feed the flame. In this case, he opted for thin dead branches. The final stage was the larger pieces of wood designed to keep the fire going for as long as it was fed. He fashioned the kindling into a teepee structure and placed the tinder inside. Using a flint rod and striker, John made sure to move the flint rather than the striker so it didn’t catch on the tinder and pull it away with each attempt. Within a matter of minutes the fire was going.

Rather than a large flame, the goal here was to create glowing embers. As he waited for the pieces of wood to burn down, he made a spit to roast the meat once it arrived.

By the time Brandon returned with two dead squirrels, the embers were just about ready.

The boy laid the squirrels on the ground at John’s feet, beaming with pride.

“Got ’em each on the first shot,” he volunteered, clearly proud of himself.

.22 rifles and pellet guns were some of the most overlooked items in a prepper’s arsenal. Neither had serious stopping power, this was true, but each came with their own set of advantages. A well-placed shot from the .22 was still enough to kill a man or small game. Having one also increased the amount of ammunition you could keep on hand, since .22 rounds were much smaller than .223 or .30-06.

The 1200 fps pellet gun was mainly for stealth. Wasn’t any sense making a racket to kill a squirrel when you could accomplish the same from a much quieter method. With resources becoming more and more scarce, you never knew who might be nearby listening. A pellet gun also featured a similar advantage to the .22, namely the increased amount of ammo one could have on hand.

Lifting the squirrel by the tail, John removed his Ka-Bar Becker BK9. The nine-and-a-quarter-inch length of the blade was overkill, but it was all he had at the moment. He began by slicing through the back of the tail, being careful not to cut all the way through the hide. Next he stepped on the creature’s bushy tail and pulled until the hide rolled off like a tiny fur sweater. Brandon looked on with disgust.

“I hope you’re paying attention,” John told him. “’Cause you’re doing the next one.”

After the squirrel was cleaned and gutted, Brandon did his best to emulate John’s technique. These were things he’d already taught his own children during many a camping trip in the past and it was important that Brandon learn the kinds of skills that might save him from starvation one day. Normally, as part of this process, John would have kept the guts to use as bait, but that wasn’t in the cards for today and so he tossed the remains into the woods. The hides he would keep, however, since furs could always be put to a variety of uses.

Later, when they were eating, Brandon wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. He had something on his mind and so John asked him what it was.

“The lights have been off for a while now,” he said.

John nodded. “Going on five months, I’d say.”

“When do you think they’re gonna come back on?”

He figured it was the need for oil lamps that had prompted Brandon’s question. In the beginning, his own family had asked him nearly every day as though John somehow had the magic answer as to when things would return to normal. He’d told them he didn’t know, and that was exactly what he told Brandon now.

The kid grew pensive.

“You’re worried things might never go back to how they were, is that it?”

“No,” Brandon said, shaking his head. He was clutching a squirrel leg between two fingers as though it were a chicken wing. “I guess I’m worried mostly about what it’ll mean when things do.”

It was a simple, but startling question from a young man, the answer to which John hadn’t spent much time dwelling on. What would there be to go back to? That was what Brandon was really asking.

In the years leading up to the EMP, John and his wife Diane had slowly begun rebuilding everything they’d lost during the financial crisis. Their 401k, which had taken a serious beating, was starting to show signs of life. But in the modern age of electronic banking, what was money besides little ones and zeros in a computer server somewhere? It wasn’t backed by the gold in Fort Knox anymore. The truth was, the minute that bomb detonated in the atmosphere, the country’s entire financial sector had been completely wiped out. The $63,000 in savings they’d managed to scrape together was now little more than a memory. And the house they’d owned on Willow Creek Drive? They’d be lucky to return and find that it was still standing. The Applebys’ situation was even more dire given the way their house had disintegrated into a heaping pile of ash.

John worked the tough squirrel meat between his teeth and struggled to swallow it down. “Chances are better than none there won’t be a thing left for us when the lights finally come back on,” he said. “My guess is the population’s already been cut by at least half. On those rare occasions when I take Betsy on a scavenging trip down near the interstate, I see more and more bodies piling up along the shoulder of the highway. All these months later, people are still trying to escape the city. Like us, they thought they could weather the storm and when they realized they couldn’t it was too late.”

Brandon wasn’t eating anymore, although his jaw hung open as though he was getting ready to. Or maybe it was shock over what John was saying. There were tears forming at the corners of the boy’s eyes and this brought John to the entire reason he’d taken Brandon along in the first place. The kid needed to toughen up.

“I never did get around to telling you,” John began, “how proud I was of the way you helped defend the cabin when Cain attacked. I know your dad was too. Taking a man’s life isn’t to be taken lightly. Whether you like it or not, you became a man that day. Not because you pulled a trigger, but because you chose to stand up and fight when others might have curled into a ball. I know fourteen isn’t all that old, but times have changed.”

Brandon blinked away the tears.

“You understand what I’m saying?” John asked and Brandon nodded.

“Those dead you saw along the interstate,” the boy said. “You think they were from Knoxville?”

“Most likely. Why?”

“I was just wondering why the army wasn’t there to help any of them.”

It was a good point. By and large, John and the others had opted to lie low and stay out of sight, but even so, they hadn’t seen a single sign of the military.

“I suspect a bunch of them might have gone home to protect their families,” John said.

“That’s what I figured too,” Brandon replied, although John could sense the doubt in his voice.

Surely there was a reason they hadn’t seen so much as a single National Guardsman since bugging out of Knoxville and the possibilities only magnified John’s growing sense of unease.

The goose was squawking again and the sound snapped John out of his reverie. “All right, let’s get this stuff loaded up and get back to camp.” He opened the back hatch and they both slid the caged goose inside, along with the pellet gun.

Once in the driver’s seat, John set the AR between his seat and the console, the way he always did when driving. They left the lake and started out along the narrow gravel path which led through the forest. Branches scratched the sides of the truck as the goose in the back began kicking up a racket.

They cleared the path and came to the road. John slowed down and checked both sides of the road, first left and then right. It was an old driving habit that never went away, all these months later.

That was when he caught sight of Brandon staring off straight ahead. John followed his gaze and spotted thick fingers of smoke rising from a nearby hill.

“Think it’s a forest fire?” Brandon asked.

John hit the gas without answering. The smoke wasn’t from a forest fire at all. It was coming from their camp.

Chapter 3

An eternity seemed to pass as the Blazer roared through the valley toward the burning cabins. Brandon continued to monitor the trails of smoke rising into the air.

John’s heart hammered in his chest with fear and uncertainty. His mind was locked on the simple mission of getting there as soon as possible, although even as he did, another part of his mind, the one sharpened from years of military service, began to assess possible threats.

Had the fire begun accidentally? Out in the mountains with no access to a fire department, it was a constant danger. All eight of them had drilled on how to respond. John had even risked heading into Oneida to search for fire extinguishers before turning back when he saw a handful of armed men milling about. During their drills, he’d estimated there simply wasn’t enough time to pump water up from the thousand-gallon storage tank buried underground before a growing fire would consume both cabins and everything inside them.

Of course, there was another possibility coursing through the darker alleyways of John’s mind. This scenario involved the camp coming under attack. If that were the case, there would be a definite loss of life, a thought even he found too hard to bear.

Rocketing down Buffalo Road, John was coming on so fast he nearly overshot the turnoff. Gregory, Emma and Natalie had reset the false treeline camouflaging the entrance as John and Brandon had left. But something had since knocked it over again. The heavy pit of fear in John’s belly was turning to dread. It was beginning to look like his worst fear had come true.

John thundered the Blazer up the path and through the hidden detour around the fallen tree. Already he could see yellow gouts of flame licking up through the forest as he approached. He pulled to a stop when he reached the clearing and grabbed his AR as he jumped from the truck.

“Go around back,” he shouted to Brandon, “and check to see if anyone made it out.”

The heat was intense. Both cabins were towering infernos, flames dancing out from windows likely shattered from the intense heat. Items were strewn on the ground, but John’s focus was on searching for survivors. Also on his mind was the possibility of an ambush. In Iraq, insurgents would often wait around after an explosion in order to pick off the first responders. A quick survey of the area quelled those fears. Either way, he would need to risk walking into an ambush if it meant saving his family.

As he circled the burning cabins, it wasn’t long before John’s hope sank into despair. If anyone was still inside, there was no chance they were still alive.

That was when he saw the body lying face down by the forest’s edge. He hadn’t noticed it at first because of the US woodland camo pattern it was wearing. Even before he approached, he knew perfectly well who he was looking at.

Tim Appleby.

Brandon was still behind the cabin and out of visual range. John turned Tim’s body over and felt for a pulse. The move was purely automatic since four high-caliber rounds had torn through his body. No one could survive that. Tim’s lips were bloody, a common reaction when people were shot in the chest. Then John noticed that the whistle Tim kept around his neck also had blood around the tip and it all became clear. Tim had died signaling an intruder.

John was closing his friend’s stiffening eyelids when he caught sight of footprints around camp. The heavy tread came up from the path and spread out in all directions. John stood, trying to make sense of the story they were telling him. Other footprints, these ones smaller, led from the cabin and from around back.

They’d been caught off guard. Diane and Kay had likely been around back tending to the garden while the kids had worked on chores out front. In a strange twist of good fortune, they hadn’t had time to head inside to the perceived safety of the cabins, a move that would have cost them their lives.

They had been taken.

That was the thought rushing through John’s mind as he called Brandon’s name. Jumping to his feet, John found the boy circling back in his direction. Already the fires were beginning to weaken as John pulled out his S&W, handed it to the boy and told him to walk a hundred paces into the woods and conceal himself there until John returned. There was a chance that whoever did this might not have gotten too far, and John was damned if he was going to risk Brandon’s life on a dangerous rescue attempt.

But this wasn’t like the old days where you could call the local sheriff or maybe the FBI. If a man wasn’t willing to step up and fight to keep the people he loved safe, then he had no business living in this new world.

Chapter 4

The Blazer hit Sugar Grove with squealing tires, a cloud of acrid white smoke trailing behind it. Impressions in the gravel told John whoever did this had turned right.

One branch of Sugar Grove led down to the interstate, the other through a series of back roads. John needed to decide fast. Head toward the interstate or navigate along a series of winding country roads?

He opted for the interstate and made a sharp left-hand turn. When he got there, he found rows of rusted hulks, some pushed off to the shoulder where people fleeing the city had set up temporary dwellings. A few of the cars had open doors with tarps flung over them, tied down with yellow rope. These were the few meager resources the refugees had managed to scrape together as they fled the chaos and the hunger. But their real enemy was a lack of food and proper drinking water. John knew from his experiences in Kenya and other parts of Africa that unsafe drinking water could turn a camp into a breeding ground for disease and death in no time.

Not surprisingly, dead bodies littered the shoulder, but every time he passed this way, there seemed to be more of them.

A drainage ditch that ran along the interstate was at least partially to blame. Weary and exhausted, many passerbys probably assumed that it was drinkable rainwater. Sometimes the greatest dangers were the ones you couldn’t see.

After another few minutes without a sign of the men who had taken his family, John turned around. He decided to try the back roads, keeping an eye out for ambushes. The sun was shining down on what should have been a glorious day, but all John felt was rage. It wasn’t often that he left the cabin. Sometimes Tim and his wife had gone fishing. Surely one couldn’t be expected to stand guard twenty-four seven. Even in the old homesteading days, the man would head into town to gather fresh supplies.

Stop beating yourself up and focus, that little voice told him. Whenever he wavered or criticized a decision he’d made, that was when the voice would creep in and call him back. It was his training. What he didn’t know was why it sounded so much like his father.

Follow your chain of command. Perhaps it was that simple.

Foliage from the canopy overhead whipped by, along with occasional flashes of blinding sunlight.

For a moment his vision washed out and when it returned he hit the brakes at once. Up ahead, maybe three hundred yards, was a checkpoint. Two older pickup trucks were parked across the road, forming a barrier. The men standing there seemed startled by his presence. They had weapons drawn, that much was clear, and with no sign of the people who’d kidnapped his family and friends, he wasn’t going to risk a confrontation. There was a difference between bravery and stupidity. Forgetting where that line lay often led men to their deaths.

A stocky man at the roadblock took aim as John threw the truck into reverse, backed up and then spun himself around. A split second later he’d kicked it back into drive and floored it. If a shot had been fired in his direction, he hadn’t heard it.

John’s mind was still racing when he made it back to what was left of the cabins. The fire continued to burn, although both roofs had collapsed and part of the structure had fallen over. There wasn’t much left.

Brandon had done as he was told and stayed put. That was good, not just because he had obeyed and kept himself safe, but because he hadn’t discovered his father’s body before John had a chance to return.

John took Brandon by the shoulders. “I have some bad news.”

“You found them, didn’t you?”

The implication was that he’d found them dead somewhere.

“The trail was cold, but that isn’t what I’m talking about. Your father didn’t make it.”

John led him over to his father’s body and Brandon broke free of John’s grasp and collapsed near Tim’s body, sobbing.

“I’m so sorry, Brandon. I know it might not mean much to you right now, but he died raising the alarm. It was quick and painless. The truth is, they were probably outside tending to things around camp and were caught completely off guard.”

Brandon wasn’t saying anything. One of his hands was resting on his father’s chest.

“We’ll bury him, son, and say a prayer together. It’s the least we can do. After that, we need to put this behind us. The tracks leading around camp tell me they loaded everyone else into trucks and carted them off. That means they might still be alive, but we won’t be doing them any good if we can’t think straight.”

Brandon nodded, although John wasn’t sure how much of what he’d said managed to penetrate the boy’s searing grief.

Chapter 5

After Tim was buried, the two said a quiet prayer. John understood the boy would need some more time and sometimes talk didn’t do a whole lot other than bring the tears to the surface.

Good old-fashioned hard work would help and there was plenty of that left to do. By now the fires had died down, leaving smoldering ash in its place. Although it was still too hot to sift through, nevertheless they could peer into what remained, searching first for any hints of human remains.

That was when he spotted something glinting in the sun at his feet. John bent down and scooped it up. It was Diane’s silver necklace, the one with the sapphire heart he’d bought her to match her beautiful eyes. It had been a gift for their sixteenth anniversary, a night not long before the whole world had collapsed in on itself. The setting had been a swank restaurant in downtown Knoxville. First an amazing meal, followed by live music, dancing and finally home to the kids. His neighbour Al from Willow Creek had never been shy about telling John to keep the romance alive.

John gripped the sapphire silver necklace tightly in his fist, fighting back the tears building behind his eyes.

He distracted himself by sifting through the rest of the ashes so he could be sure no one had died in the fires. After he found nothing, John’s heart lightened. If they were alive, they could be found. And that also went for the men who had taken them.

The few remaining possessions that hadn’t burned up in the fires lay scattered around them. Whoever had done this had ransacked their possessions, taking whatever they felt was useful. A few cans of beans and corn as well as a trail of brown rice had likely been left as one of the raiders slung the bag over his shoulder and carried it off.

Long before the fire, the food stores had been divided equally between the two cabins. The thinking was that if one was ever destroyed, the other would still be there. John knew from experience that keeping all your food in one location was a bad idea. Now he was coming to realize he’d overlooked the possibility of losing both cabins.

The assumption had been that if their camp came under attack and both cabins burned, it would likely mean they’d all been killed. Grim, yes, but that sort of thinking was inevitable now that the thin veil of civilization had been stripped away. What John hadn’t counted on was that some of them might be left behind. In the future, he would need to bury a cache away from the main camp as an additional backup should the worst happen.

Rigid thinking. That was really what it came down to. It was the sort that got people killed and John filed the lesson away, promising to never make that same mistake again.

After a quick look around, it appeared even the vegetables from the garden and greenhouse out back were taken. No doubt the rest of the weapons and ammo were also gone. That meant all they had left to defend themselves was John’s AR and his S&W M&P .40 Pro along with four thirty-round polymer magazines.

He glanced down at the nearly ten-inch Ka-Bar Becker BK9 on his left hip. With no shelter besides Betsy and very little food, John knew this knife would soon become his best friend.

“Let’s gather up what we can,” he told Brandon, who stared at his father’s grave as though he still couldn’t believe it was him under all that dirt. “Brandon.”

The boy looked over and nodded. Already, John could see the first glimmers of manhood—a wide-set jaw and determined glare. He would be a force to be reckoned with some day. If he lived that long.

In the end, they filled the truck with a few canned goods, a tarp, and a length of paracord, as well as a half-dozen three-gallon jugs filled with drinking water. They’d needed to use the hand pump in order to call the water up from the storage tank underground. There was plenty more down there and John knew he couldn’t take it all with him. It would mean heading back every few days to get resupplied.

Either way, staying here wasn’t an option anymore. The property’s location had been compromised and he feared rebuilding would only invite further attacks. No, he and Brandon would find a secure spot in the woods on the other side of the road. Somewhere they could hide the truck, but close enough so that if any family members managed to escape, John and Brandon would see them coming.

The two got into the Blazer and headed down the path toward the road. The goose in the back was still kicking up a racket and John wondered if they’d be eating bird tonight.

“Where are we heading?” Brandon asked, a dull film of sadness still coating his eyes.

“I know just the place,” John replied. Scoping out a secondary bug-out location wasn’t all that common, but this was where his military training had once again kicked in. Sometimes it was smart to have a contingency for your backup plan. As they said in the services, two was one and one was none—a motto which underlined the importance of redundancy when it came to preps.

Chapter 6

John nudged the car across the road and up into the forest on the other side after spotting a space between the trees large enough for him to fit. The tricky part was maneuvering the truck around so he could go in rear first. In the event they needed to escape in a hurry, the last thing he wanted to do was lose time trying to back out of the woods.

Camo netting that he kept in the trunk would offer an additional level of concealment he intended to supplement with leaves and brush. The goal was that only someone staring directly at the truck would be able to see it was there.

Near the top of a small hill was an outcropping of rock which formed a perfect roof from the wind and rain. For security reasons, it made more sense to sleep in the truck, but that wouldn’t make an ideal place to cook and make camp. This was why John had decided to set them up here, at least for now. Slowly, they unpacked the truck and brought some of their items up to the new location. Having learned from his previous oversight, John decided to keep their food and water supply divided into three separate spots. One remained with Betsy. The second was in camp, sheltered from the sun and protected from predators. The third they buried thirty yards away in a shallow hole John dug in the soft earth.

From the outcropping they could survey anyone approaching from below. It also reduced the chances of being snuck up on from behind. An added level of protection came from setting a series of traps designed to alert them should anyone approach from the rear. An Apache foot trap would work nicely. This was made from digging a hole and lacing the edges with sharpened sticks. The blunt end would be sticking out from the walls, the tips pointing toward the middle. The idea was that once a man’s foot broke through, the spears would tear into his flesh as he tried to pull himself free. A second type of trap was a simple hole in the ground covered with a grate and fallen leaves. The drop wasn’t more than a few feet, but the sound of cracking wood and stumbling would alert them to approaching danger.

They were each sitting on a pile of dead leaves they’d collected from the underbrush to use as padding. Both of them were sweating and tired from the effort it had taken to prep the camp.

John filled a plastic cup he normally kept in the truck with water and took a long draft. Among the items salvaged from their property was a Lifesaver water bottle. It was about the same size as a regular water bottle one might bring on a hike, except this one had a built-in filter. Dunk it into a muddy puddle and the water that came out the other end was clean and safe to drink. At least that was what the instructions said. John had never tested it, although given their present circumstances, it wouldn’t be long now before he got his chance.

“We’re gonna get them back,” he told Brandon after wiping his mouth dry. The conviction in his voice seemed to soothe the boy’s fears for a moment. Apart from his father, Brandon’s mother, sister and even Emma had been taken from him. John needed to remember that Brandon also felt a deep-seated need to protect Emma. The crushing sense of guilt over not having been there to help them was likely also playing havoc with Brandon’s mind as it was with John’s.

“What do you think they wanted?” he finally asked.

“They didn’t kill them,” John replied. “At least that gives us hope, but quite frankly I can’t say.” That last part was a lie. John could think of plenty of reasons to kidnap people. Unlike his earlier suspicions when the Applebys had first disappeared from Willow Creek Drive, this time it wasn’t about ransom money.

The United States EMP Commission had estimated that six months after an attack, the population loss would exceed fifty million. From everything John had seen so far, not least of which were the throngs of dead along the interstate, that estimate was probably far too conservative. The real figure was likely closer to triple that. One consequence was that human beings would become the next major commodity. Forget gold. Slavery was about to rear its ugly head again in the United States and the problem would only get worse if the commission’s final conclusion came true: one year following an EMP, the population would be reduced by up to ninety percent. It was a staggering figure that was hard to fathom. It made John think of the famous quote that was sometimes erroneously attributed to Joseph Stalin: A single death is a tragedy. A million is a statistic.

For John it spoke of the difficulty in grasping those kinds of numbers when it came to human life. Fill Yankee Stadium to the rafters over six and a half thousand times and you began to grasp the magnitude. It brought John back to something Brandon had been asking him earlier in the day. What would things be like once the lights came back on?

More importantly, what would be left of America’s sense of morality when all of this was over?

John took a final gulp of water and let the cup fall on his lap. “First thing in the morning we head out to find out who did this. So why don’t you head down to the truck and get some sleep. You’re gonna need it.”

Chapter 7

John kept watch for another hour, struggling to contain the dread building up within him. By the time he made his way down to the Blazer and settled in the driver’s seat—the chair pushed back and reclined as far as it would go—he could already feel his eyes beginning to close on him. Sleep was a welcome escape from the day’s tumultuous events. At least, it was supposed to be.

It wasn’t long after dozing off that John dreamt he was in Iraq again. Camp Stryker. Ten miles from the center of Baghdad and headquarters for the 48th Infantry Brigade Combat Team.

First Sergeant Wright entered the operations center. Tall and gangly, he didn’t have the squat, powerful build of a typical First Sergeant, but he commanded the respect of his men and that was all that really mattered.

“LT, we have a situation.”

John looked up from his morning briefing. The date was June sixteenth, 2006 and it was already hot enough outside to sap the moisture from your eyeballs in under a minute. Course, it didn’t help that the 48th was stationed inside the infamous Triangle of Death. John had been waist deep in situations since he’d come awake this morning at 0500 hours, listening to the distant sounds of an Iraqi man in a minaret singing Allah’s praises.

“What is it, 1SG?”

“Insurgents attacked one of our checkpoints near Yusufiyah this morning.”

“Any casualties?”

“Yes, three dead. Two more wounded.”

Nine times out of ten that meant a suicide bomber had driven up and detonated his payload as he approached the checkpoint. It was an all too common tactic and one the military was quickly trying to adapt to. John suggested as much, but First Sergeant Wright shook his head.

“This wasn’t a PBIED,” Wright said. “They came in on pickups dressed as Iraq army grunts and opened fire.”

A PBIED was army slang for person borne improvised explosive device.

John’s jaw clenched. America had the most powerful armed forces in the world. No one could stand toe to toe with them and live to tell the tale. And yet it was also beginning to look as though that was its greatest vulnerability. The enemy refused to engage them head on. The insurgents’ hit-and-run tactics were designed to sow fear and frustration in U.S. forces. Ever since arriving, John had felt plenty of the latter. Two thousand years earlier, the Romans had faced much the same problem while trying to conquer Britain. Celtic armies often waited for the legions to enter a dense forest where they would be forced to march only a few men abreast. That was when they would attack, denying the Romans the ability to use the awesome power of the legion in full formation.

“There’s more,” Wright said.

“Go on.”

“Two of our boys are missing. PFC Steven Hutchinson, nineteen years old, out of Luzerne, Michigan and PFC Ryan S. Davis, twenty-two, from Knoxville, Tennessee.”

John put his coffee down and felt a terrible weight immediately settle on the tops of his shoulders. He couldn’t deny the responsibility he felt to make sure all his men made it home safe and sound. It was one thing to be killed in action, but kidnapped, likely tortured and only God knew what else—the thought was difficult to fathom.

“Are either of them married?” John asked, not entirely sure he wanted to hear the answer.

“Only Davis,” Wright said somberly. “His wife’s pregnant, expecting any day now. I was in the MWR room when they were talking on Skype and they both seemed real…”

Happy. That was what Wright was gonna say before he cut himself off.

“Don’t worry, 1SG,” John said, mustering every ounce of faith he could under the circumstances. “I promise you we’re gonna find those boys and bring them home safe and sound.”

“Roger that, sir.” Wright straightened up, turned and left.

John opened a line straight away to his commander in order to push the CCIR (Commander's Critical Information Requirement) up through the chain of command. There was no telling what his men were being subjected to and he knew time was of the essence.

Within an hour, nearly eight thousand men from dozens of units were out searching. Tips began rolling in. A number of Stryker teams went house to house, knocking in gates with Humvees and searching suspected insurgent safe houses. The truth was the enemy counted a captured US soldier as a prized trophy, one that could be sold by the local insurgent leader to al-Qaeda. The clock was ticking and with every minute that passed, the chances of finding those men alive diminished exponentially.

Chapter 8

John came awake clutching the Blazer’s steering wheel. Beside him, Brandon was staring at him, worried. It took a minute and a handful of deep breaths for John to catch his bearings.

“You all right?” the boy asked.

Beads of sweat rolled down John’s face. “I’m fine.”

“You were talking.”

“Was I?” The camo netting was still draped over the front and sides of the truck, although the doors could be opened if done carefully.

“Who’s Davis?”

“Davis?”

“Yeah, you kept saying the name.”

John didn’t want to talk about it. “We should get going.”

“You said he was missing.”

“Did I?” A pause, then: “He was someone I knew from the war.”

“Vietnam?”

John smiled. “You watched too many movies. I knew him from Iraq. He and another soldier went missing and I promised I’d find them.”

“Oh.” Brandon seemed to be contemplating this. “And did you?”

“I did. Listen, we should probably eat something before we head out.” In the back of the truck, the goose sat in his cage, not making a sound. John threw a thumb over his shoulder. “You know, I forgot he was here.”

The boy laughed. “Who, George? Me too.”

John frowned. “I’m not sure naming him is such a great idea. Might not be long before George ends up on a spit over a fire, and it’s so much harder to eat something you’ve named, don’t you think? That was one of the reasons we got rid of the rabbits. Had a pen in the backyard and Emma named each and every one of those little buggers. Whenever we tried to grab the fattest one for dinner she’d raise a real ruckus. You’d think we were trying to cook her best friend.”

The smile on Brandon’s face betrayed a hint of pain at the mention of Emma’s name. John decided to change the subject.

After losing both cabins and just about all his preps, they’d been reduced to eating from the few cans they had left. There was plenty of game in these woods and Brandon’s aim was good enough to keep them freshly supplied with squirrels, but at the moment there really wasn’t time for all that.

The funny look on Brandon’s face made John ask what was wrong.

“I’ve gotta go to the bathroom,” the boy said.

John studied him from the corner of his eye. “You don’t need my permission, son. Go on and I’ll have the food heated up by the time you return.”

“The thing is, I don’t need to pee.”

One of John’s eyebrows rose. “I see.” Who would have thought that toilet paper would become such a prized commodity after a societal collapse? The average Joe might have told you gold or silver, maybe even batteries, but surely not toilet paper.

“All right,” John said, nudging the car door open. “Wait here with George. I’ll be right back.”

The search in the woods took him a little longer than expected, but John returned to the truck when he found what he was looking for. He handed a number of furry-looking leaves to Brandon who stared on with bewilderment.

“You want me to wipe with leaves?”

John shook his head. “These aren’t regular leaves. They’re mullein. One of the best toilet-paper substitutes you’ll find in the woods. You can thank me later.” John held up another plant that had a series of small white flowers. “I also grabbed some yarrow since I was out there.”

“What’s that do?”

“You apply it to bleeding cuts to promote clotting.”

Talk of bleeding created a noticeable change in Brandon’s face. “I hope we don’t need it.”

“Me too,” John said. “Go take care of your business so we can get a move on.”

Brandon took the leaves and waved them in the air. “This better not be poison ivy or something.”

John wasn’t much of a practical joker, although he had served with men who would relish any opportunity to pull a prank like that on a fellow soldier. He held up three fingers. “Scout’s honor. Now go.”

After a quick breakfast, John rolled the camo net back up and put it in the trunk. George looked up at him. He didn’t nearly have the fight from when they first met. John reached into his pocket and pushed some soft grasses he’d collected in a nearby field through the spaces in the cage. He knew geese preferred corn and grains, but for now this would have to do. George looked at the offering briefly before starting to eat.

John reached into his pocket to get some more and came out with Diane’s silver necklace with the sapphire heart.

“Whatchu looking at?” Brandon asked, returning from the woods.

John shoved it deep into his pocket. “Nothing.”

“You were right,” Brandon said, poking his head in to check on George. “It’s even better than the double-ply stuff from the grocery store.”

Back in the driver’s seat, John started the truck and put it into gear.

“What’s our plan?” Brandon asked. The crack in his voice made John wonder if he was still thinking about the blood clot remark.

“Plan’s simple,” John said. “First we find the ones who killed your dad, kidnapped our loved ones and burned down our cabins. Then we make them pay for what they’ve done.”

Chapter 9

They weren’t cruising along the back roads for more than a few minutes before they spotted a man with bloody clothes. He was staggering along the centerline, which meant he was either crazy, suicidal or somewhere in between. John slowed down, feeling for the familiar weight of the pistol in his leg holster. After coming to a stop, John rolled down the window and called out to him.

“Where you headed?”

The trick was to act as though nothing were out of the ordinary. The man spun and threw his hands in the air.

“I knew you’d be back to finish me off.”

“What’s he saying?” Brandon said.

“I’m not sure.” John asked him to clarify, after which the man burst into tears.

“He’s gone crazy,” Brandon observed, offering his clinical assessment.

John scanned the forest on either side of the road, then up ahead and behind them. There was no sign of anyone else. He opened the door and stepped out. His gut told him this wasn’t an ambush, since it hardly seemed reasonable that a man would wait for a vehicle to come along in a post-EMP world.

“Take the AR and cover me from here,” he told the boy, who did so by leaning slightly out the passenger window.

It was one thing being sure this wasn’t an ambush, but another thing altogether not taking the proper precautions in case he was wrong.

The man in the middle of the road was still sobbing. His clothes were ripped and it was clear someone had beaten him, possibly even left him for dead.

“You’re bleeding,” John said.

“My son,” the man said. “I’m looking for my son.”

“Where did you leave him?”

A string of drool ran down his chin. “I didn’t. He was taken from me.”

Chills ran down John’s spine. He checked his surroundings again, to calm the creeping feeling that they were being watched.

“Do you know who did this to you?”

The man nodded.

“Okay, come with us.”

He ushered the man into the back of the truck, checking him quickly for knives or weapons and finding none.

A second later they were off again, rolling down Carson Hill Road with a million questions coursing through John’s head. He still wasn’t sure what the source of the man’s wound was, or if the blood was even his. Sitting in the back, the man pulled his hand down over his face in an effort to clean away the tears and dribble.

“What’s your name?” John asked.

He drew in a deep breath. “Gary Bertolino. Thank you for stopping to help. Seems decent people are getting scarcer and scarcer these days.”

“I couldn’t just leave a bloodied man on the side of the road. Where are you from, Gary?” John wondered if perhaps the man had been in one of the waves of golden horders who’d fled the city.

“I have a house in Oneida and a cabin on Owens Ridge. Once the lights went out and the cars stopped working, my wife and son and I packed a few supplies together and made our way east.”

“You walked here from Oneida?”

Gary shook his head. He was a skinny man who floated in his clothes and moving his head only accentuated the impression. “We rode our bikes. It wasn’t further than twenty miles or so and I knew our cabin would be as safe a place as any to ride out the storm. Least, I thought it would be.” His face crumpled with fresh tears.

“I need you to hold it together for me, Gary. We’ve lost people too and I need your help to figure out who did this.”

Gary was pawing at the blood on his shirt as though he were seeing it for the first time. “All I know is that a bunch of men in trucks came onto our property and told us to hand over our firearms.”

“What?”

“Yessir. They waved around a piece of paper that looked official enough. Had the president’s seal on it. You know that thing on the carpet in the Oval Office?”

“Yeah, I know it.”

“Well, these guys looked real official, wearing black cargo pants and armed to the teeth. Said the governor for this district had sent them to disarm the local population by order of the president.”

“Governor for this district,” John spat, hating the way the words sounded. “That doesn’t make a lick of sense.”

“You said it. I told them as much too. They replied that I could keep one pistol and fifty rounds of ammo. ‘How am I gonna hunt?’ That’s what I asked them. And you know what they said? ‘That’s what the pistol’s for.’ You ever tried hunting with a pistol?”

John shook his head. “Can’t say that I have.”

“Course not, ’cause I can see you’ve got a good head on your shoulders. Man can’t hunt with a pistol. Wasn’t even gonna let me keep my deer rifle. Anyway, I told them to turn those trucks around and head back to where they came from. Told them to go have a read through the Constitution again if their recollection was rusty. That was when they opened fire. Killed my Beth right there in front of me. Then they went through the house and took my Ruger American and my brand new Glock 21 and anything else they fancied. Pretty much cleaned me out and then set the place on fire.”

“What about your son?”

“They threw him in the truck and drove off. Probably figured without food or water I wouldn’t last long. I wasn’t worth wasting a bullet on, I suppose. If I’d only given him my guns, maybe Beth would still be alive and I wouldn’t have lost Billy.” Gary was getting choked up again and John gave him a minute.

“Do you remember hearing where they were taking them? Knoxville, maybe?”

“I wish I knew.”

John gripped the steering wheel as they drove on. It was clear enough that whoever had done this to Gary and his family had also been the ones to kill Tim and kidnap the others. If ever there was a time when regular folks needed weapons to defend themselves it was now, with the grid down and the police no longer an effective deterrent. John couldn’t grasp the logic behind the president’s decree, nor the legality of such a move in the first place. Any proposal that threatened the Second Amendment had to first go through a long legal process. Thankfully, it wasn’t something a single figure could change with the stroke of a pen.

Unless, that was, there had been a coup. Or the rights that they had come to know and cherish had somehow been suspended.

Chapter 10

John made a right on Phillips Road, which led down from the mountains and into the valley near Oneida. Yesterday he’d gone a ways along the interstate without seeing any sign of the people who’d taken his family. Afterward, he’d taken one of the small back roads west and come across what looked like a roadblock of some sort. The men pointing rifles in his direction had been an added incentive to save that route for last.

There was a systematic way to go about this. Gary had provided an important, although slightly vague piece of the puzzle. If they failed to find any sign of them between here and Oneida, John would then find a place to fill the jerrycans on Betsy’s rear door with diesel and consider heading back toward Knoxville.

He was contemplating that very possibility when he made his way around a curve and came to an older SUV on the shoulder of the street. Nearby were four men. Two of them were kneeling on the ground, their wrists bound behind their backs with zip ties. Two others were wearing green fatigues and aiming a pair of AKs at their prisoners’ heads.

John was about to throw the truck into reverse when he noticed the men on the ground were wearing dark cargo pants. Could they be from the same group that had attacked Gary and John’s family?

He slipped his S&W out from its holster and slid it over to Brandon. “Crack your window open and get ready to back me up if things go bad.”

John pulled the AR from between the seat and the middle console and opened the driver side door.

One of the two guarding the men on the ground swung his weapon in John’s direction.

“Don’t make a move,” he said.

John remained still. “Take it easy, friend. We don’t have a beef with either of you gentlemen. We’re looking for our families who were taken from us. We’re on the same side.”

“Drop your weapon and kick it over here,” the one aiming in his direction ordered.

If he’d been alone, John might have angled the car so he could take cover behind the wheel well, but that move would have left Brandon and Gary exposed. Contrary to the movies, 5.56 and 7.62 rounds could penetrate both car doors with ease.

“They’re going to execute us,” one of the men kneeling started to say, and John didn’t feel an ounce of pity, especially if they had done what he thought they had.

“I’m afraid I can’t hand my weapon over,” John informed him. “I’m assuming you caught these men ransacking your cabin.”

The men in green fatigues looked confused. “These boys are insurgents who are about to be executed,” the first one said. “We’re here by order of the president. Charged with bringing law and order back to the county.”

And suddenly John realized he’d been wrong. He’d assumed because of their dark cargo pants that the men kneeling on the ground were responsible for the attacks against the locals, but now it was crystal clear who the real threat was.

Pushing off with his forward foot, John raced to the back of the truck right as the first one opened fire. Bullets tore through the open driver’s side door. Splinters of rock and asphalt jumped at his feet. Brandon stuck his hand out the window and rattled off a handful of shots, all of which went wide.

Now behind the truck, John dropped into a prone position. With a clear view from under Betsy, he aimed and then squeezed the trigger three times. The first man with the fatigues was struck in the chest and dropped at about the same time as the second took off sprinting toward the forest’s edge.

Moving to the corner of the truck, John settled into a kneeling position and tracked the man through his Trijicon ACOG as his target ran over uneven ground. He was having difficulty keeping the sights on him. Soon the man was climbing the side of the hill next to the road. Taking a deep breath, John fired five rounds. The first four narrowly missed, kicking up dirt around the fleeing man’s legs. The fifth took the top of his head off.

“Darn it,” John blurted in frustration. He hadn’t wanted to kill him. Least not before he had a chance to ask him some questions. But moving targets were some of the hardest to hit. It was an element of prepping most didn’t take into account. Of course firing at a range was important since, like all muscles, marksmanship had a tendency to atrophy if neglected. But most shooters tended to practice by firing on static targets, often paper cutouts or AR500 steel plates, rather than at a dynamic range where movement was incorporated into the drill. He made a mental note to address this deficiency in his tactical training as soon as possible.

The other men in dark cargo pants were on their feet now, contemplating whether or not to run. One of them had a mohawk. He wound up and began kicking the body next to him.

“Enough,” John shouted. He was still trying to assess the situation and abusing the dead, no matter what they’d done, wasn’t part of his ethos. He rapped on the side of the truck. “You two okay in there?”

Gary’s weak voice came back after a moment’s hesitation. “I think so.”

Brandon opened the passenger door, the pistol out in front of him. “Did I hit anyone?” he asked.

John edged closer, his AR in the low ready position.

Brandon’s question was met with laughter from the one with the mohawk. “Not even close, kid. But I think you gave a squirrel in that tree over there a heart attack.”

His buddy next to him also chuckled.

“You did fine,” John told Brandon before turning back to the men in the black pants. “You wanna tell me who they were?” he asked, ignoring any pleasantries.

“How about you cut these zip ties off us first?” the blond guy next to Mohawk said.

John looked down at the dead man and slid his rifle away with the tip of his boot. He told Brandon to collect the other man’s weapon.

“Where I come from, the guy with the gun makes the decisions. They called you two insurgents.”

Mohawk grinned. “We been called worse. Domestic terrorists is my personal favorite. Let’s just say we’re part of a movement against anyone who thinks they can come along and take what’s ours.”

“They’re here on behalf of the Feds,” the blond man said. “Don’t make no difference to me. We were living peacefully, trying to get by without power just like everyone else, and then a bunch of these government spooks show up demanding we hand over our weapons.”

Gary was at John’s elbow now. “They did the same to me. Killed my wife.”

Mohawk’s gaze settled on John. “What’s your story? Just a Good Samaritan passing through?”

John grinned, squeezing the dimple in the center of his chin. “Seems we’re all in the same boat. My family was taken and it looks like I may have just killed the very men who could have led me to them.”

“Hell, there’s plenty more where they came from,” Mohawk told him enthusiastically. “Oneida’s full of ’em. That’s where they’re headquartered.”

“How do you know for certain?” John asked, not wanting to get his hopes up.

The corners of Mohawk’s lips rose in a smile. “You heard it from the dead man’s own lips. We’re insurgents.”

Chapter 11

“Listen, I’d love to keep chatting,” Mohawk said, “but we should probably get off this road before more of those government goons show up. Wanna cut these ties off?”

They were both eyeing John’s BK9 Bowie knife.

“I got one better,” John replied, eyeing their zip ties. They weren’t law enforcement or military grade, which would make escaping so much easier. “I’ll show you a simple way to get out of zip ties, just in case you find yourself in the same bind sometime down the road. Push your arms as far back as they’ll go, then bring them forward against the small of your back while pushing out with your wrists.”

Both of them did it two or three times without success.

“Put some muscle into it,” John suggested, demonstrating the motion with his own arms.

They did it again and there was a popping sound as they broke free.

“Not a bad trick,” Mohawk said, rubbing the red mark on his wrists.

“Glad I could help,” John told him.

“I’m Moss.”

The one with the blond hair nodded. “Sullivan.”

John and the others introduced themselves.

“Glad that’s taken care of,” Moss said, pointing to the truck the dead men had driven up in. “Now that we’re no longer strangers. I hope you’ll excuse us while we liberate this here vehicle.”

John headed back to his truck, his mind on the road ahead. Now that they knew the people who took Diane, Kay and the kids were headquartered in Oneida, it seemed like the logical place to start looking, albeit carefully.

“I hope you’re not thinking about heading into that hornets’ nest,” Moss stated matter-of-factly.

Brandon and Gary were already inside and doing up their seatbelts. John was in the act of pulling the driver’s side door closed when he stopped.

“You just saved our skin,” Moss told him. “So let me give you a piece of advice that may just save yours. You head in there now, with nothing by your side but a boy and an unarmed man, and you might as well start digging three graves.”

John always prided himself on plotting a careful, logical course. Emotions got you killed, a sentiment Moss was echoing at this very moment. But he couldn’t just sit by planning when he knew the ones he loved were in such grave danger. With no authorities to call, John would need to become his own law enforcement. He glanced over at Brandon and Gary.

“If either of you want out now I won’t hold it against you. You should know that where we’re going, people are gonna die and there’s a chance it could be us.”

“What other choice do we have?” Brandon asked. “Stand around while my mom and sister are killed?”

John’s gaze turned to Gary, who swallowed hard. “All right,” he said, his voice shaking slightly. “Let’s do this.”

“I appreciate the heads up,” John told the men outside. “But we don’t have much choice in the matter. I hope you understand.”

Moss shook his head and John wondered even then if he was making a terrible mistake.

•••

The main road into Oneida was marked with the occasional car wreck. Many of them looked abandoned, some smashed from collisions, most left to rot after the EMP. All of them had been nudged off the road and onto the shoulder. That told John a certain amount of traffic passed this way.

Approaching the town by vehicle would draw far too much attention, so John pulled off the road when he found an opening in the forest where he could stash Betsy. She didn’t need to be more than a few feet in, since the camo net would keep her from being seen by anyone passing by.

Once stopped, John got out and opened the hatch at the back. George eyed him suspiciously.

“I’m not here for you, big fella,” he told him, removing a box of 5.56 green-tipped rounds as well as some .40s for his pistol. Those were the only weapons they had and the few remaining rounds, but John knew their biggest asset would be the intel they were about to gather. The plan was to walk the few miles to town and find a nice spot from which to observe the comings and goings. Depending on how many residents they saw walking around, there might even be an opportunity for John to slip in amongst them undetected, his S&W concealed in his back waistband.

Taking a page from his colleagues in the Special Forces, he understood that a successful mission was often one where shots were never fired. Bring the weapons along, sure, but pray you don’t need to use them. As soon as rounds went live, the chances for a successful conclusion dropped exponentially.

John communicated the emerging plan as they walked through the forest, shadowing the road. He handed Brandon the keys as they went, keeping his voice low as he spoke.

“What are these for?” Brandon asked.

“In case we run into trouble. You double-time it back to Betsy and get yourself to safety.”

The flash of doubt that swept over the boy’s features made John wonder whether bringing him along was such a good idea.

Nearby, a woodpecker knocked away at a dying tree.

John pulled to a stop.

“You hear something?” Brandon asked.

“Just birds,” Gary answered, even though the question wasn’t directed toward him.

John turned and faced the boy. His heart was telling him taking the boy along was a mistake. “Go back to the truck,” he said.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean what I’m about to do goes against all of my training. My emotions are screaming for me to charge into Oneida and free everyone. My training is telling me to lie low and watch for the place for a few days.”

“But you might need backup.”

“Maybe,” John said. “But I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself if you were hurt because of something foolish I’d done. That’s why I’m telling you to head back to Betsy and wait for me there. Take the pistol and these extra rounds. If I don’t show by dusk, then bring Gary back to our camp.”

“You’re not the only one who lost someone,” Gary said, raising his voice.

Brandon crossed his arms and nodded vigorously.

“And what good will you do your family if you’re dead?” John asked. “Besides, you don’t even have a weapon to protect yourself.” He turned to Brandon. “This isn’t a debate. Do as I say.”

John turned, continuing on while the other two stood and watched him leave. He was more than fifty yards away before he heard the sound of their footsteps heading through the forest in the other direction.

He took this moment to steady his breathing. The intense summer heat was making it hard to breathe, sapping his energy, but not his resolve. The feeling reminded him of the call to move into Iraq back in the spring of 2003. It had been his first time in combat and his heart had been hammering a wild beat in his chest. Sweat from the sweltering desert heat had poured down his face in a never-ending cascade just as it did now. The only thing missing in this Tennessee forest was the distinct odor of diesel fuel kicked up by the Bradleys as they rumbled ahead.

Keeping low and moving from cover to cover meant John’s trek would take longer, but it also reduced the chances that he’d be spotted.

The road remained on his left and it wasn’t long before he spotted a roadblock. Four men, none of whom were in military gear. Their weapons were mostly AKs, which John felt was strange. Normally in a societal collapse, folks would grab whatever they had handy. In most cases that meant a shotgun or perhaps an AR like the one he had. At the very least he’d expected to find a mishmash of weapons.

Dropping low to the ground, John took a moment to observe the men. They looked like some sort of militia, undisciplined and bored to tears. One of them was waving his rifle around in the throes of an animated story while the other three looked on laughing. John only caught snippets, but it sounded as though he was telling them how he’d mowed down a man who’d resisted his orders to hand over his hunting rifle.

Scanning the forest ahead of him, John didn’t see any other pickets set up. He guessed the first layer of their defense was still geared toward intercepting approaching vehicles. He wondered if this was the same militia he’d encountered yesterday during his mad dash to find his family.

Moving further into the forest, John cut a wide swath around the men at the checkpoint.

A mile further on, the forest opened into a series of acre-sized properties. This wasn’t the big city where folks were wedged into tiny parcels of land. Here there was space to spare. But this also meant the bulk of his cover and concealment had just vanished. John would need to move from house to house, covering portions of open terrain.

He stopped for a moment and made a game plan. Once he reached the first house, he would move around back toward the shed and the derelict vehicles, always ensuring he kept them between himself and the road.

Already it was clear that the city center and a train yard lay just ahead of him. Not that the latter was working, but when the government finally did find a way to swap out the newer high-tech engines for the older ones waiting to be mothballed, these rail lines would take on a whole new importance. Yet another reason why the weeks and months to come would resemble the 1800s in more ways than one.

Chapter 12

The house before him was completely boarded up. After that was a home with broken windows and a front door hanging off its frame. It hardly seemed as though anyone were living here and if John hadn’t spotted the sentries on the road back there, he might have wondered if he were entering a ghost town.

As he set out at a quick pace, his AR gripped tightly in his hands, the weight of his tactical vest sloshing from side to side, he couldn’t help feeling exposed. This was usually where a half-decent shot with a Remington 700 put one right through your heart.

After scrambling to the corner of the first house, he heard what sounded like a loudspeaker. The monotone voice from it sounded like the teacher from that Ferris Bueller movie John had seen years ago. The distortion was making it hard to understand.

The amount of equipment the town would need in order to run that kind of system was staggering. Someone in Oneida must have had one heck of a Faraday cage—a metal enclosure designed to protect electronics from getting fried during an EMP blast.

John moved to the far side of the house and peered around the corner. Once he saw that the coast was clear, he headed for the shed. Once past this ring of outer properties, John was sure he’d get a better view of the town.

Route 27 ran right through Oneida and John was willing to bet that many of the important buildings would be along that road. Important buildings that might just contain his wife and children. But he wasn’t there yet. He’d have to cross the last few open properties before he reached a safe place from which to observe.

Breaking cover, John wasn’t more than thirty yards from the next house when a shot rang out. There was nowhere for him to go except for a drainage ditch that ran between both properties.

Scrambling down into it, John took a moment to catch his breath before he peered up to search for the source of the shot. Was someone hunting nearby? Or had the bullet been meant for him?

The sharp crack from another rifle echoed from the town and this time the dirt kicked up near the lip of the ditch. Then came the distinct sound of men whooping and hollering in the distance and something else. An unmistakable sound that made the blood in his veins turn to ice.

Horses’ hooves. Lots of them.

Taking another peek, John understood quickly that he was in trouble. His only guess was that they must have spotters looking out for approaching scavengers and other ex-military types like him. Who else would still be alive in a country where law and order had completely disintegrated?

The men on horses, perhaps a dozen strong, were moving quickly in his direction and suddenly John was glad he’d told Gary and Brandon to stay back. If the jig was up for John, at least he wouldn’t be bringing anyone down with him.

Think! he scolded himself.

The closest house was less than fifty yards in the opposite direction. The doors and windows were sealed tight with plywood, but it was his only real chance. Moving closer to the enemy wasn’t an option. But first, he would lay down some suppressing fire and hopefully buy himself a moment to escape.

Resting his AR on the top of the depression, John peered through the scope. The men charging toward him were bouncing up and down in his sights, making them hard to hit. But he knew he didn’t need to peg the men. As much as he detested having to do it, he only needed to hit the horses carrying them.

Slowing his breathing, he aimed and pulled the trigger three times. The first grouping struck the horse in the neck and it fell to the ground, tearing up a large chunk of earth, throwing the rider forward violently. He struck the ground, rolled and didn’t move.

John quickly readjusted and fired at the next man in line. Thankfully, this volley struck the rider instead of the horse, dropping him from the saddle, leaving the horse to run aimlessly without him.

Seeing that they were under attack, the other mounted men scattered left and right and John didn’t waste a minute, springing from the drainage ditch and across the open ground. A few of the horsemen saw what he was doing and called out to their comrades. More shots broke the humid summer air and thudded into the shed to his left. There was a good chance he wasn’t going to make it. John swung around the shed and used the angle to take out two more enemies moving on his right flank. He then fired at a third, but the rounds went wide.

Breathing hard now, he popped his mag out, loaded a fresh one in and stashed the empty in the front slot of his vest. This was where experience helped. Someone who hadn’t practiced enough reloading in live fire situations would likely be shaking so hard he’d drop the mag on the ground, or maybe even leave the empty one behind like they did in the movies.

Checking around the other corner, John saw the rest of the attacking force was nearly on top of him. An alarm sounded from the town center and he knew it could only mean more enemies were on their way.

The ground here was particularly uneven which was making it hard to build up enough speed. With the possible cover from the house looming only yards away, John’s boot caught on a discarded tire from one of the derelict cars. He fell head first into the dirt. The grip of his AR dug into his belly as he hit the ground, winding him. His forehead struck a patch of hard dirt, causing bright starbursts to bloom before his eyes. With a light head and blurred vision, John began to realize the full extent of the trouble he was in. The overwhelming sense of peace enveloping him now was a dead giveaway.

Staggering to his feet, John willed his body to move. The thud of hooves thundering closer and closer grew louder all the time. The horsemen must have had him in view because more shots rang out and slammed into the side of the house. John crashed into the wall, unable to fully stop his forward momentum, and skirted around the other side. Once there, he swung his AR up and opened fire at the nearest enemy. He was sure he’d hit him, but when he blinked, the man pulled his mount to a stop so he could fire.

Two loud bursts echoed from somewhere over John’s shoulder and the man with the gun fell from his saddle. Looking behind him, he spotted two vehicles speeding in his direction. The one in front had its grill dented as though it had smashed through a barrier.

Or could it have been a roadblock?

The man driving had a mohawk and in his disoriented state, John wondered if he were dreaming that Moss, the man he’d just met, was swooping in to save his life. In the seat next to him was Sullivan. Gary was behind them, driving John’s Blazer. Hanging out the passenger window was Brandon, firing with the S&W at the other mounted men across the hood of the truck.

Both vehicles rolled up on either side to form a protective barrier. Sullivan was out of the truck first, laying down suppressing fire. Perhaps realizing they formed too large a target, the men on horseback turned and galloped for cover.

Hands pulled him into the Blazer. The two trucks gunned it in reverse and spun around. They weren’t out of danger yet. Rounds whizzed by as they sped away.

John was exhausted and woozy, but not nearly enough to keep from feeling a sting of humiliation. He’d broken his own rules and been saved by the very people he’d tried to protect.

So much for being Rambo, he thought with a healthy dose of self-deprecation.

As the adrenaline began to subside, the world began to swim away from him. His last memory was Brandon in the passenger seat asking him if he’d been shot. John wasn’t sure. Then everything went black.

Chapter 13

John came to as the Blazer’s tires struggled to gain traction on a steep gravel road. Blinking hard, he took in his surroundings, aware of a dull thumping in his head. Thick forest lined the narrow path.

Ahead of them were Moss and Sullivan. Slowly, the road leveled out and came to a checkpoint guarded by four men with an assortment of low-grade weaponry. Two had twelve-gauge shotguns, another a deer rifle and the last a Kel-Tec SU-16.

Ahead of them, Moss pulled to a stop, lowered his window and announced their presence. Compared to John’s days in Iraq and North Africa, security here seemed lax. There were no spike strips for starters and the men at the checkpoint allowed a car to get right up before making clear who they were. This wasn’t John’s problem, he thought, feeling his old self starting to return. His only hope was that following Moss would soon lead to information he could use to find and free his loved ones before it was too late.

When he looked down at his chest, his rig was undone and his shirt pulled open. Brandon must have been searching for wounds when he was out. It appeared that John’s only wound was a bruised ego.

A few yards on they came to a clearing in the woods that looked more like a shanty town than it did an armed encampment. On the right were rows of older cars, from pickups to collector sports cars. Mounted on the back of one pickup was something John had only ever seen in Africa and the Middle East—twin ARs with drum magazines tied together into a single weapon. He assumed they’d also been modified to fire automatically. Which meant this group had at least one gunsmith.

“A poor man’s technical,” John said, impressed.

Gary leaned around from the driver’s seat. “What was that, John?”

His breath smelled of rotting food. Another of the many drawbacks of living in a world without sanitation.

“They have a technical. It’s usually a pickup with a large-caliber machine gun, normally a .50 cal or higher, mounted on the back. It’s popular with poorly equipped armies. Iraq, Syria, Somalia. It’s a light and mobile way to bring fire onto a target, but it offers virtually no protection for the driver or gunner.” He pointed to the truck with the twin ARs. “Short of large-caliber weaponry, these guys have created the next best thing. Great for laying down some suppressing fire.”

“Suppressing fire?” Brandon asked.

“Large-caliber weapons are designed to keep enemies pinned down so friendly forces can move into position and engage them,” John told him. Even though Brandon could handle himself in a firefight, like many kids his age, most of his combat knowledge came from movies and video games. What did Sylvester Stallone need suppressing fire for when he could mow down hundreds of enemies at once with a .50 cal?

On their left were rows of flimsy wooden-framed shacks with tarps laid over as a makeshift roof. Many of the fighters in camp looked like the Rebs in the final days of the Civil War, hungry and wearing ratty clothes with gaping holes. Punctuating this image was the odd individual in full tactical gear. To John, it was a clear sign that circumstances had thrown this wild assortment of men together toward a common cause.

A knock on his window. Moss and Sullivan were standing there, waving them out. Standing behind them was a man with a dark, unkempt beard and deep-set eyes.

All three exited Betsy.

“Moss and Sullivan here tell me you saved their rear ends from being turned to hamburger meat,” the bearded man said. His voice was deep and gravelly. He looked like the sort of man who smoked too many cigarettes, but more than that he looked like a man you didn’t want on your bad side.

“That might be true,” John replied, “but they’ve already returned the favor.”

“I heard that too. So tell me,” he said. “What were you doing charging into a fortified city on your own?”

“My wife and children—”

“—were taken,” the bearded man said, finishing John’s sentence. “Look around you. We’ve all suffered loss here.” He studied John up and down before offering him a callused hand. “I’m Marshall.”

They shook. Then Marshall greeted Brandon and Gary.

“You’re former military, aren’t you?”

“I thought I hid it better than that,” John replied and Marshall’s belly shook with laughter.

“Any wannabe can wear the gear,” the commander said, “but there’s a special look a man gets when he’s seen his friends shot and killed around him. Iraqi Freedom?”

John nodded. “For starters.”

Marshall clapped him on the shoulder. “Desert Storm for me. The precision war. That’s where I cut my teeth. Came back from that hot mess and became a plumber. Now look at me. Forced out of retirement.” That beaming smile again and a set of crooked teeth too small for his mouth.

“What is all this?” John asked. He was referring to the camp and what looked to be a few hundred fighters.

“They’re Patriots, John. Defenders of the Constitution. I told you before you’d be hard pressed to find anyone here who doesn’t have a story.”

“We’ve all suffered since it happened.”

“Do you mean the EMP?” Marshall asked, leading them over to a large tent in the middle of the camp. This was presumably his command headquarters. “’Cause I ain’t talking about the burst. I’m talking about the Chairman, the tyrant who’s taken control of Oneida.”

“Moss mentioned something about that.”

“He should know. Our mohawked friend used to live there, that was until the Chairman rolled in with his Secret Service goons and took over. Truth is, no one knows a thing about the Chairman. Only that the trouble started when he showed up. He’s been slowly solidifying his power. In part by disarming anyone in what he’s calling his district. Claims it’s to preserve law and order the way sheriffs in the old days made cowboys turn in their guns on the way into town. If you refuse his men use deadly force. Then when they have your guns they return for your supplies and eventually your women and children.”

“He returns for the children?” John wondered out loud, his jaw clenching. “What for?”

“Use your imagination. He’s like one of them medieval lords, taking whatever he wants from those in his domain.”

John nodded. “I’ve seen his type before back in Knoxville right after the collapse. Drug dealers and gangbangers used their gang members as muscle to fill the power vacuum.”

“Oh, the Chairman’s no gangbanger,” Marshall said. “I can promise you that. This guy’s well spoken and intelligent. Along with his Secret Service men, he also showed up with a presidential decree designating him the temporary mayor of Oneida. And he ain’t the only one around. Seems nearly every city in the country with more than a few thousand residents is under new management.”

“But a presidential decree?” John repeated the words as though saying them over might help make more sense of them. “What about elections?”

“Suspended apparently. As was the Constitution and the Second Amendment, from the looks of things. Hey, we already knew the Feds were heading in that direction. I guess it took a major attack for them to finally come jumping out of the closet.”

Even as Marshall was telling him about the Chairman and the unlikely edict which put him in charge of Oneida, John was beginning to formulate a new plan for infiltrating and extracting his family, the Applebys and maybe even Gary’s son if he could find him.

Marshall must have sensed John’s attention shift. “Are you hungry?” he asked. “I’ve got a group of men who should be returning with some deer anytime now.”

“I’m so hungry I could eat a horse,” Brandon blurted out before John could give him the eye to stay quiet. Lethargic as he was, Gary was in agreement.

“Firing guns in the forest is a sure way to draw attention,” John said. “There are easier, quieter ways to get food. Trapping, fishing, planting a few crops. There are also a number of edible plants in the forest.”

That smile was back on Marshall’s bearded face. He turned to Moss who’d been standing quietly by his commander’s side. “Our new friend is a real jack of all trades.”

Moss nodded. “We could use someone with your skills, John.”

John had been worried this would happen. Not that he didn’t want to lend a hand. Marshall’s men and resources could help him free his family, but it also created a danger that his immediate objectives might get put on the backburner. Time wasn’t on his side. Every minute, every hour wasted only increased the chances of losing his family forever.

But what was also becoming clear was that in this new world, where groups of like-minded people were banding together, it would become increasingly difficult to go it alone.

“You don’t need to answer yet, John,” Marshall told him. “The truth is, you saved two of my best men. Tonight you and your friends are my guests. Tomorrow we can discuss how to get your family back.”

Chapter 14

As Marshall had promised, a group of men eventually returned with three Virginia white-tailed deer. Each man brought his own metal plate and water cup and cooked the piece of meat he was given over a small fire. John understood perfectly well this sort of hunter-gatherer lifestyle wasn’t ideal. So long as Marshall could keep the location of his camp a secret, it made far more sense for them to find more self-sustaining ways of gathering nourishment.

Instead of building a spit, John instead laid metal tent pegs across stones and used those as a makeshift grill. Brandon couldn’t hide his anticipation as he watched the meat sizzle over the fire. John served the boy first, then Gary and himself last. Deer was a lean meat with very little fat. It had a gamey taste that John quite enjoyed. Judging by the expression on Brandon’s face, he wasn’t alone.

After dinner, John went and fed George. He was hesitant to take the goose out just in case the thought of cooking the bird proved too great a temptation for some of the men in camp. Keeping the windows open would also help, but it wouldn’t be long before they had to decide what to do with him. Already the thing had pooped once in his cage and no doubt plenty more was on the way. Of course, the ideal scenario would have been to build an enclosure where they could keep him. Seemed a shame to release food back into the wild when you were never sure where the next meal might be.

As they had done last night, John and Brandon would sleep in the Blazer. Moss had found an extra spot for Gary in one of the shacks.

John was closing up Betsy’s rear hatch when Brandon got up from his seat around the fire and walked to the edge of the woods. The sun had set an hour ago and already the moon was bright in the evening sky. John went over to see if the boy was all right.

“How you holding up?” John asked, feeling a stabbing pain in his gut from missing Gregory and Emma.

Brandon looked over briefly, but didn’t say anything.

“It hurts, I know. Trust me, it’ll only get worse.”

“I’ve been thinking about what Marshall said this afternoon,” Brandon said, his face bathed in white light from the moon.

“What about it?”

“They’re probably all dead.”

“Don’t say that,” John chided him. The very suggestion that his family was gone made his gut tighten painfully.

“I’m not trying to be negative, but after what Marshall and some of the others in camp have said…”

“Like who?”

“Oh, I don’t know. A guy, think his name was Gus or something. He said he heard from people living in Oneida that his wife and daughter were charged with aiding and abetting terrorists and that they were executed. Those folks are putting on mock trials.”

John swallowed hard. Since when had ‘patriot’ become a four-letter word? It was beginning to look as though whoever was running the tattered remains of the government was quick to label any armed American who sought to protect his family and his country a terrorist.

“Thinking that way never leads to a good place, Brandon. I promise you we’re gonna find them.”

“You can’t make that promise.”

The kid was right. “Maybe not, but I can guarantee you I’ll do everything in my power to get them out of there. I tried going in alone and it was a dumb thing to do. I’m lucky to still be alive. Besides, we need to get a grasp on this Chairman character and figure out what we’re really up against. What do you think?”

Brandon didn’t reply. He didn’t need to. John reached out and pulled him into a hug. This was all Brandon probably wanted anyway, someone to tell him everything was going to be all right. And who could blame him in a world like this?

Brandon wept until he’d exorcised as much of it from his system as he could. Processing the loss of his father wasn’t going to take thirty minutes like it did on Dr. Phil or countless other TV shows that were thankfully gone. This was a real loss. The kid had known and loved his father for years. It was going to take a while for the wave of grief to gradually subside. Although it never would completely.

Not long after, they headed back to Betsy, exhausted and eager to hit the sack. Nevertheless, it was a while before John managed to fall asleep. He kept seeing the faces of the two men he’d killed today. The first as he’d collapsed in the middle of the street. Then his companion as the top of his head had exploded in a fine red mist. Eventually, sleep engulfed him and that was when John dreamed of Iraq.

•••

June nineteenth, 2006. Apart from the two soldiers who were still missing, it was looking like just another day in Iraq. News had been trickling in to the operations center all afternoon and none of it was good. Seven bombings in and around Baghdad had left forty-three civilians dead. In one of them, a man had detonated a shoe bomb in a Shiite mosque, killing eleven.

To the west, U.S. and Iraqi troops were in the process of surrounding the Sunni city of Ramadi. The civilians trapped in the city expected a Fallujah-type assault any time now. John was moving onto something about prisoner mistreatment when First Sergeant Wright appeared.

Sweat poured down Wright’s neck and John wasn’t sure if it was due to the stifling desert heat outside or the news he was about to deliver.

“I’ve seen that look on your face before, 1SG,” John said. “And both times you were bringing me bad news.”

“We found them,” was Wright’s only reply.

“PFC Hutchinson and PFC Davis?”

“Yes, sir. About three miles from here.”

Wright didn’t say more, not right away, and John had a good idea why.

“They’re dead, aren’t they?”

“Yes, sir.”

The muscles in John’s jaw tensed as though he were working something hard between his teeth. He’d been to the base dental clinic three times already for grinding. During the day his response to the stress was often to clench. In his sleep he tended to grind, but all that really accomplished was a slow erosion of his enamel. At this rate he’d be in dentures within a year.

“Found them in a gulley south of the village of Mufaraji.”

“Had they been…” John paused.

“Decapitated? No. They’d been tortured, at least as far as we’ve been able to tell, but they weren’t mutilated.”

“Good. It’s horrible when the family has to see that sort of thing.” Whether they heard it on the news or not, John knew they would find out once the body arrived Stateside. Of course, the barbarity perpetrated by the enemy only strengthened his will to destroy them. “Wait, what do you mean as far as you can tell?”

Wright’s eyes dropped. “The EOD team’s still working on them.”

Wright’s answer confused John for a moment. EOD stood for Explosive Ordnance Disposal. He asked his sergeant to explain.

“Hutchinson and Davis were both rigged with an IED. Those initial explosives were attached to lines leading to others in the immediate area. The idea was to lure our boys in and then detonate to create more casualties.”

The bastards were using their commitment to leave no man behind against them. Now this would surely be in the news. Not that John gave a damn about the bad publicity. It was the young soldiers’ families having to hear about this. It was hard enough losing a loved one, but to lose them like this?

The other implication was something that showed ever so slightly in Wright’s expression. John had committed to bringing the missing soldiers home alive. A promise that he’d failed to keep.

Chapter 15

John awoke sweating profusely. He sat in the driver’s seat of his truck for a few moments, not entirely sure which was worse: the dream or his present reality.

After a simple breakfast of canned beans with Brandon, he went looking for Marshall. They were supposed to discuss the Chairman and a strategy for freeing Diane, Gregory, Emma and the Applebys. Making his way into the command tent, John looked around and saw that Marshall wasn’t around. In a corner of the tent, however, one of his men sat at a table with a radio, fiddling with dials amid a sea of static.

“Looks like not everything got fried by that EMP,” John said casually.

The man at the radio turned and introduced himself as Robert Rodriguez, call sign KZ4TG, a former military communications and electronics specialist.

“She’s an oldie,” Rodriguez said, making a dull clang as he patted the top of the radio. “I kept her in a Faraday cage, which is why she made it.”

John had done the same back at the house for a few of his more important items. He hadn’t bothered with radios in part because he’d never had the time to figure out how to use one properly. Although it had certainly been on his prepping list, along with a million other items. That was the addictive, never-ending nature of getting you and your family ready for a worst-case scenario. There was never enough time to cover every single eventuality. Pick your battles—a pearl of wisdom his mother had repeated her entire life, one he’d ended up applying in the most unlikely of situations.

“After the military,” Rodriguez told John, “I returned to Oneida and joined the Emergency Management Office. Once the country was hit, we began reaching out via our radios, first to local towns, then as far away as California and Oregon.” Rodriguez drew in a deep breath. “Wasn’t long, though, before they stopped responding.”

“Maybe more immediate survival needs took over,” John suggested. On Willow Creek, fiddling with radios hadn’t been their first priority.

Rodriguez looked at him knowingly. “People are busy just trying to get by. Yeah, that was my guess. But before long Jefferson City was the furthest west we could reach.”

“What about Europe?” John asked. “I heard these signals can travel quite a ways.”

Rodriguez seemed happy that someone else was finally taking an interest in something he was passionate about. “Oh, they can. But most of the folks in Europe we’ve spoken to are in it up to their eyeballs just like us. Seems like they were hit just like we were. But talking to them was a real waste since they ain’t got a clue who did it.”

“Truth be told, neither do we,” John told him. “I mean, it was an EMP. That much is clear, but who and for what purpose?”

Rodriguez snickered. “I could take a guess or two. You look through any history book and you’ll see what I mean. The day you become a dominant power in the world, everyone wants to knock you down a peg or two.”

“So how’d you end up as one of Marshall’s men?”

“Same reason you did.”

“The Chairman?”

Rodriguez nodded solemnly. “Soon as the Chairman came in waving those official papers around, he pretty much had the town eating out of his hand. First out was the mayor and then, one by one, the other members of the Emergency Management Office started disappearing.”

John’s eyes grew wide. “He was trying to isolate the town.”

“Seems that way. But I didn’t wait around long enough to find out. Grabbed my gear and carted it out of town under the cover of darkness.”

Rodriguez put his earphones back on and swiveled the knob on the radio.

“What are you hoping to hear?” John asked. “Word from the West Coast?”

“In part, yes. But since most of the country’s gone radio silent, we use our equipment to identify other nearby Patriots, pass information back and forth and coordinate attacks.”

That last part caught John’s attention. “Aren’t you worried someone’s gonna listen in and hear what you’re saying?”

The whites of Rodriguez’s eyes flashed with surprise at John’s insight.

“They can listen all they want,” Rodriguez told him. “First of all we use coded messages. Morse code backwards, sometimes pig Latin, or even a simple substitute cipher where we slide the alphabet off by one or more positions.”

“But surely they triangulate the signal and pinpoint your location?”

“Ah, that’s where it starts to get fun. We’ve got two counters to that. The first is what’s called EME, which stands for earth, moon, earth. By bouncing the signal off the surface of the moon, it makes tracing the signal incredibly difficult. Of course it requires larger antennas. The second method is a bit more complicated. It involves using a manual spread spectrum. Fancy talk for switching frequencies and swapping bands every sixty seconds. Every once in a while we use the same techniques to send out false information just to see if anyone’s managed to figure it all out.”

John’s head was starting to spin just listening. It sounded as though they had things under control.

“Any news coming out of Oneida?” John asked.

“Rodriguez, are you giving away all of your secrets?” It was Marshall, and in spite of his light-hearted tone, John could tell he wasn’t happy. Behind him was Moss and Sullivan.

“We’re on the same side,” John told him. “I was just wondering if you’d gotten any information coming from the town itself.”

“I know exactly what you were asking and I don’t doubt you’re being honest with us. We’ll be happy to share when the time is right.”

“Fair enough. Well, given you’ve been communicating with the outside world, maybe you can answer a few general questions.”

The muscles on Marshall’s face didn’t move. “What is it you’d like to know?”

“Well, for one,” John said. “Why haven’t we seen the military since the EMP hit?”

Marshall turned to Moss who explained. “Word is troops have been seen in convoys moving west.”

“For what purpose?” John asked.

“We’re not sure yet,” Marshall replied. “Our lines of communication don’t go beyond Jefferson City, Missouri anymore. But we’re working on it. It could be there’s a major uprising in some of the western states. Don’t forget California alone has a population of nearly forty million, four of which live in L.A. It’s not inconceivable the military’s been deployed to the areas that need them the most.”

“Knoxville was one of those places in need and we didn’t see a single uniform.”

“There may be other explanations, many of them far more grim, but why bother speculating before we have more information?”

John nodded. “So how do I get my family back?” He could see the question was a delicate one.

“You’re not the only person who’s lost someone to the Chairman,” Sullivan said, a lock of his blond hair tumbling into his face before he pulled it back with the flat of his hand. “We all have a score to settle. If it were that easy, don’t you think we would have hit the town already?”

Drawing in a deep breath, John tried to quell the frustration building up within him and listen to what these men had to say.

“The Chairman’s been consolidating his power since the beginning,” Marshall said. “He’s spent the last few weeks bleeding the mountains dry and scooping up every useful weapon he can muster. The people in town seem to be going along with him now since he’s got the backing of the president. Frankly, I’m sure half of ’em don’t believe a word of it, but if it’s between a liar who keeps the streets safe and an elected official who can’t, who would you choose?”

“The one who upholds the Constitution,” John replied. “Or was that a trick question?”

Marshall grinned. “Not at all. Although most of the folks in town are loyal Americans, they might not be Patriots.”

“You really believe that?” John asked, not even trying to mask his surprise.

Marshall tapped a finger on the table. “Don’t get me wrong. The folks in Oneida are patriotic, I’m not arguing that, but the men and women in this camp are ready to lay down their lives to free their families and defend the Constitution. That’s the difference. The problem is most of our boys are armed with shotguns and deer rifles. The few like yourself who’ve arrived with ARs and anything equivalent are eager to fight back, there’s just not enough firepower to go around.”

“And once you find that firepower?”

“We move in and take Oneida back.”

“And what if the president really has issued a decree?” John asked. His question wasn’t exactly a trap, but he wanted to see what Marshall would say.

“Any president who dissolves Congress and suspends the Constitution no longer rules with the will of the people. That makes his laws illegal and unbinding.”

John smiled. “I was hoping you were gonna say that. So where are we supposed to get the weapons we need?”

Marshall returned the gesture. “Let me show you what you missed during your assault on Oneida.”

Chapter 16

Moss, Sullivan, Marshall and John set out in a single vehicle. They snaked along back roads at high speed. Moss’ skill behind the wheel was becoming clear and John was growing more and more certain the man had learned evasive driving techniques at some point in his life.

“I’ve got you pegged as either former law enforcement or military contractor,” John told him from the back seat.

Marshall nodded his approval. “Looks like he spotted you a mile away, Moss.”

Grinning through impossibly white teeth, Moss tapped the wheel. “I used to be a deputy in Oneida. Worked there up until the Chairman came in and started using the Second Amendment as a beer coaster.”

“The Second along with all the others, that is,” Marshall corrected him.

“So you left.”

“I took an oath to protect people, not gun them down like some Nazi brownshirt. So yeah, I left. Shaved my head into the fine display you see before you, packed my guns and fled.”

“But he didn’t get very far before we found him,” Marshall said.

Sullivan half turned in John’s direction. “It didn’t help his getaway much that he was on foot.”

“Well, not anymore,” Moss said, turning off Paint Rock Road and onto a narrow mountain trail. The truck bounced up and down over a patchwork of what might have passed for a road in India.

“You wanna tell me where we’re heading?” John asked Marshall who was sitting beside him.

“I guess it wouldn’t do much harm at this point. There’s a spot on Owens Ridge with a perfect vantage point over the city. It’s a spot we often use to keep tabs on things down there. We almost always have someone posted, recording patrols, the strength of the garrison. The lookout probably even saw you get your rear end shot off.”

The men in the truck burst into laughter.

“All my parts are still attached,” John told them, appreciating the dig at his expense. That was one of the aspects he missed from his years serving. Soldiers were experts at spotting each other’s flaws and revealing them to raucous laughter and high fives. Course, it was rarely meant in a bad way. Maybe it was just the way men let you know you were all right.

The truck came to a stop and all four got out. A narrow path that cut through the brush led to a fortified firing position. Draped around it was camo netting and additional branches and leaves. From Oneida, even a pair of high-powered binoculars would only see a row of shrubs.

A Patriot sat on a chair with a cigarette between his lips, peering through the scope of a Remington 700.

“This is Reese,” Marshall said. “Spent eight years with the French Foreign Legion.”

Reese glanced over and nodded.

“I’ve heard more than a few stories about the FFL. What was that like?” John asked.

“Hell,” Reese replied, pulling on his Marlboro. “We were the ultimate group of expendables. Doesn’t help that those Frog COs are a sadistic bunch.”

Marshall stood over him, surveying the view. “From here to the center of town’s about half a mile,” the commander told him. “If the wind conditions are right, someone with a steady hand could really do some damage down there.”

The faint glimmers of that monotone voice drifted up at them from below. John stopped, trying to make it out.

“That’s the public service announcement,” Moss spat. “‘Please be advised. We are in a state of martial law. By provision C19 of the local charter, the ownership or transport of firearms within the city limits of Oneida is strictly forbidden. An evening curfew of seven pm is mandatory for all residents. Failure to comply with regulations will result in switch punishment.’”

“Sounds like something out of 1984,” John whispered.

“What happened in 1984?” Moss asked.

Sometimes John forgot not everyone was his age. “A book by George Orwell, where he envisioned a world that looks and sounds very much like Oneida.”

Almost on queue, a group of armed men on horses rode through the middle of town. Even with the naked eye it was easy to see the defensive points they’d set up. The flat rooftops of buildings were reinforced with sandbags. There wasn’t a ring of them as much as they were spread all around.

“Defense in depth,” John said. After a quick glance, he saw the others weren’t catching on to what he was saying. “The Russians perfected the strategy during the Second World War. It was meant to wear down an attacker and cause mass casualties rather than stopping him at the gates, so to speak.”

The set of train tracks that ran through town led to a yard about half a mile away. Its location would eventually make Oneida an important supply junction for getting the country back on its feet—once the trains got moving again, that was.

“Over there,” Marshall said pointing to a row of white eighteen-wheelers approaching the city from the north. There were maybe three of them. John peered through the binoculars, noticing the black UN decal on the front and sides.

“At least one town’s getting resupplied,” he said.

“That’s the confusing part,” Moss told him. “We’ve managed to use the radio to make contact with a handful of neighboring towns, some twice as big as Oneida, and none of them have received any aid yet.”

“There’s FEMA and the UN for you,” Sullivan said.

“Maybe,” Marshall responded, “but we know this isn’t FEMA and I’m not sure it’s the UN either. And one of our contacts tells us some of these shipments may contain more than just bread, purified water and medical supplies.”

“Weapons?” John asked, remembering the men he’d seen at the checkpoint outside Oneida.

Marshall nodded. “For the last few weeks we’ve been gathering intel and drawing up a battle plan to assault the town. This morning, Rodriguez received a report over the radio from our contact in Jefferson City, Missouri. Says there’s a convoy moving east along Interstate 64, headed for Oneida. A large one. And at least one of those trucks is rumored to be filled with all the firepower we’ve been waiting for.”

Chapter 17

After arriving back at camp, the men assembled in the command tent. Rodriguez was by the radio, waiting for them.

“The ETA on that large convoy is five hours and counting,” Rodriguez told them as they entered. “My contact tells me ten trucks in all.”

“We saw a handful roll into Oneida earlier today,” John said, “but they looked like rigs to me. Will this batch will be military vehicles?”

“Negative,” Rodriguez replied, tapping the pencil against his knee. “According to our man in Jefferson City, they should be the same UN type that’s been rolling in these last few days.”

Marshall drew in a deep breath, which pushed his belly out another few inches. “What do you make of that?” he asked Moss. In spite of Moss’ mohawk and quick wit, it seemed as though Marshall valued the younger man’s counsel.

“We’ve put enough money into the UN over the years,” Moss said. “It’s about time we got something out of it.”

Marshall was smiling as John turned to Rodriguez and asked: “Did your contact in Jefferson City say whether the convoy had an armed escort?”

Rodriguez shook his head. “He didn’t mention any escort. I’d get on and ask him again, but we only communicate once a day. Even with all our precautions, we can’t risk the wrong people zeroing in on our signal.”

“Best to assume an armed escort is shadowing them then,” John offered. A map of the area was on the table and he tapped a finger on a spot north of Oneida. “If you want my two cents, I suggest we create a roadblock here, just inside Daniel Boone National Forest along route 27. Lay down some spike strips in case they try and break through.”

“Attack the convoy before they reach the town,” Marshall said, scratching his bearded chin. “Good idea. How many men do you think it’ll take?”

John looked up with cold determination. “At least twenty, maybe thirty to be safe. We’ll need to strike with overwhelming force, while also keeping enough people to drive all the vehicles back to base. Just keep in mind, there may be casualties if they put up a fight.”

“I think twenty’ll be more than enough,” Moss countered. “And besides, what’s all this ‘we’ talk? You’re the new kid on the block and now you’re telling us when and how to attack. Last I remember, Sullivan and I were saving your hide from becoming target practice for the Chairman’s men.”

“I’m not here to tell you folks how to run your business,” John said. “But every indication we have is that our loved ones are being held in Oneida. And only God knows what horrors they’re enduring. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I intend to do whatever it takes to get them back.”

“We’re all on the same side here, John,” Marshall said, weighing in, “even if it sounds like some of us aren’t. Every soldier we lose on a mission is someone’s father, someone’s husband. We all want what you want. We don’t mind you coming along and helping out, but what Moss here’s trying to make sure of is that you remember who’s in charge.”

There was a tense moment of silence as John let Marshall’s words settle in. You didn’t make it in the military if someone in your face got you all riled up. He also understood their point. John was in a focused state and sometimes men took that to mean he thought of himself as their boss. But nothing could be further from the truth. Nothing would make John happier than if none of this had happened: the EMP, the battle with Cain and now the loss of the ones he loved most. The thought of breaking off and going it alone wouldn’t get him very far. His ill-fated attempt to infiltrate the town had brought that home loud and clear.

Through the small group of men assembled around him, John saw Brandon and Gary standing anxiously by the truck. Gary was biting his nails and Brandon had his arms crossed, his hands buried up into his armpits. Splintering from the Patriots now would only set them further back from their goal.

John put an arm around Marshall’s shoulder. “I don’t want your job, I just want my family back.”

“Good,” Marshall said, folding the map and tucking it away. He turned to Moss. “Take Sullivan and gather thirty men. We’ll take eight vehicles along with the technical.” He was referring to the pickup with the twin ARs mounted on a pedestal. “In less than an hour I want the ambush in the forest north of Oneida set and ready to spring.”

For all their talk, it appeared Marshall had taken John’s advice. John only hoped the plan would work.

Just then an image of Diane’s battered face floated up before his eyes. His imagination was getting the better of him, a torturous impulse he’d tried hard to suppress since the kidnapping. Nevertheless, he couldn’t help wonder if she and the kids were all right.

Involuntarily, John’s hand slipped into his pocket, his fingers curling around the silver necklace.

Stay strong, honey. It won’t be long.

Chapter 18

Diane sat on the cot inside what appeared to be Oneida’s county jailhouse, wondering how long it would be before John would discover where they were and try to free them. She’d heard shots the other day and looked through the barred windows to see men on horseback galloping in the fields east of town. Not long after, she’d spotted a pair of trucks in the distance and assumed they were part of a group that’d taken a wrong turn. For a moment her heart had leapt with the notion that it was John coming to break them out, only to have that hope dashed when the trucks turned and drove away at high speed.

Sharing a cell with Diane was Kay Appleby, who seemed to be trying her best to put on a tough exterior, although she’d been crying secret tears ever since being thrown in here.

In the adjacent cell were the kids. Gregory, Emma and Natalie. Apart from a few scrapes and bruises, they hadn’t been too physically hurt when those men had arrived and demanded they hand over their weapons. But not every wound showed on the outside and Diane was sure seeing Tim shot and killed before their eyes was playing over and over in their heads. At least it was for her and surely for Kay.

At first, Diane had been upset that John was away when the attack had come, although after seeing what had happened to Tim as he tried to warn them, a bigger part of her was relieved. John wasn’t one to hand his weapons over to anyone and his fate would surely have been the same as Tim’s. She’d learned long ago from John that life was far different than how it was portrayed in the movies. Squaring off against a half-dozen armed men was child’s play on the big screen, but in the real world, it usually meant death.

Diane wrapped an arm around Kay’s shoulder and told her everything would be fine. They were alive and right now that was all that mattered. Kay nodded, absently, as though her mind were a million miles away.

“Natalie needs you right now,” Diane whispered, aware that Kay’s daughter was watching her mother slowly come unglued.

As strange as it sounded, being put in cells right next to one another was a blessing. It had given Diane a chance not only to keep an eye on Gregory and Emma, but also to reach through the bars and hug them.

Slowly, her awareness returned to her immediate environment. Coughs and other noises filled the jail. There were other cells in here as well, many packed with men, women and children labeled criminals for failing to obey the edict. A guard was posted outside and if he heard anyone talking, he would often barge in and whack a police baton against the bars, threatening to make you disappear if you didn’t shut up.

Still, it wasn’t completely clear why they’d been attacked and taken here in the first place. The men who had showed up wearing a mishmash of dark clothing and carrying rifles had mentioned something about a decree from the president. That the country was under martial law and the Constitution had been temporarily suspended. The next thing they’d demanded were the weapons, but by that time, Tim was already dead, likely for blowing the whistle and signaling the alarm.

The truth was, signal or not, those men in black had been on them so quickly, shouting and forcing them to the ground, that there hadn’t been much of a chance to resist at all. They were like those SWAT teams you’d see on TV—back when there was such a thing—swarming in and barking orders for everyone to get down and lace their fingers behind their head.

The toughest part hadn’t been seeing them ransack the cabins and then burn them to the ground. That had hurt, but the toughest part was knowing this little slice of heaven they’d designed and built was gone forever.

Diane got up and went to the window. Peering through the bars, she watched as the local townspeople went about their business. She’d come to discover the name of the man who ran Oneida, at least the title he went by. They called him the Chairman and all she’d been able to gather so far was that he ran the town in some official capacity for the federal government. She supposed the existing mayor hadn’t been willing to implement the harsh measures the Chairman was proposing, because he had also been thrown in jail. Nor was it very reassuring that he’d recently been executed after trying to escape.

Maybe some states were okay with folks messing around with their Constitutional rights, but not the people of Tennessee, nor a few other states she knew. Was hard to understand then why so many of the folks outside seemed to be cooperating. The alternative, she imagined, was sitting in a jail cell or maybe worse. For someone who was the sole caregiver to children or elderly parents, perhaps the risks seemed too great to stand up for what was right.

Diane turned to see a face peering in through the concave glass portal that separated the cells from the guard room. Then a terrifying reverberation sounded as the metal door was unlocked and the guard came in.

“She the one?” he asked, pointing his police baton in Diane’s direction. He seemed to be speaking with someone behind him who was standing in shadow.

A hushed voice confirmed her worst fears.

“Step back,” the guard told Kay, who rose from the cot and stood by the window near Diane.

“Today’s your lucky day,” the guard said and it took Diane a moment to realize he wasn’t about to beat her. “The Chairman would like to have a word with you.”

•••

The guard led her through a series of locked doors to a hallway. Without electricity it was dark, although the building seemed to have been designed to take advantage of the natural light. Up ahead was an office, perhaps one that had once served a member of the jail staff.

Inside, a man sat behind a desk. Diane wondered if he’d been the one in shadow pointing her out to the guard. On the desk was a single candle that threw grotesque shadows against the walls. The way the man sat in the chair, hardly touching anything around him, the office didn’t appear to be his. Rather it was a secluded place where he could ask her a few questions, figure out if she knew anything useful. At least she hoped that was all he wanted.

“We’ll be fine,” the man told the guard. “Just wait outside till I call you, Jeffrey.”

Jeffrey closed the door as he left. The click as it snapped shut left Diane feeling decidedly uncomfortable.

“You’re probably wondering why I brought you here,” he said.

“Are you the Chairman?” she asked.

“The Chairman sounds so pretentious, I know. But it helps to remind people who’s really in charge. Charles A. Morgan’s my real name. You can call me Charles.” He grinned, a look that was supposed to put her at ease, but that long, thin face of his was doing anything but.

“What’s the A stand for?” she wondered, trying to distract herself from the sight.

“Augustus.”

Diane almost rolled her eyes, but fought the urge. This guy really was full of himself. He then asked for her name and she told him.

“It suits you,” he said.

She wasn’t sure if he was trying to be flattering, but this whole thing was giving her the creeps. “I’m not sure what this meeting is supposed to be about,” she started. “But none of those people deserve to be locked up. Your men are committing crimes by going around confiscating guns and burning down folks’ homes.”

“I’m acting on behalf of the president,” the Chairman cut in. “And I’m not the only one. Delegates chosen by him personally have been sent from the capital to every city with a population greater than five thousand. Our objective was to help the local leadership accept and implement the president’s directives. Unfortunately, not everyone saw fit to comply, including Oneida’s former mayor.”

“So you had him locked up and then killed.”

“We were forced to make an example of him,” the Chairman said. “But this wasn’t why I wanted to see you.”

Diane had seen other women pulled from the jail cells since she’d arrived and all of them had returned with torn clothes and tears. They wouldn’t say much after that, but it was clear they’d either been roughly questioned or abused in other ways.

“Do you have someone?” he asked.

“Have someone?”

“Are you married?”

“Yes,” she replied, holding her wedding band in the air. John had the duplicate and they’d vowed to never remove them.

There was something really strange about this guy and it wasn’t just the way he looked. It was the way he spoke. Almost like he didn’t belong.

“Of course you’re married,” the Chairman told her as he rose out of his seat and circled around the desk toward her. He was tall, but John had taught her the bigger they were, the harder they fell.

“I hope for your sake you don’t have any funny ideas about you and me.”

He grinned again and the tar between his teeth from years of smoking made her stomach lurch. “A beautiful woman like you should be careful,” he said, casually. “This is a violent world we live in, especially for those with no one to protect them.”

“I can handle myself just fine.”

“I’m sure you can.”

He was reaching for her when she grabbed his hand in a pronating wrist lock John had taught her, bending it back until the bone clicked. A squeal of pain escaped his lips as the Chairman’s eyes grew wide with shock and his head connected with the table. He made a bizarre noise that sounded like biliat, a word that didn’t make a lick of sense.

She kicked the seat away and angled her grip, bringing the Chairman to his knees. Looking around, she didn’t see anything nearby she could use as a weapon.

The Chairman howled in pain again and a second later the door flew open. Jeffrey, the guard, saw what was going on and before she could maneuver swung his baton against the back of her skull. Diane saw stars as she crumpled to the floor.

He hadn’t knocked her out, just stunned her enough to let go. Jeffrey’s hands came down and pulled her up and into the seat. He was getting ready to hit her again when the Chairman stopped him.

“You have guts, Diane. I like that in a woman. I like it a lot. But if you try another stunt like that I’ll take you out back and shoot you myself.” He rubbed his wrist, rotating it in slow circles. “Put her back,” he told Jeffrey, “and bring me the woman sharing her cell.”

Chapter 19

Back in the Patriot camp, a team of thirty was being assembled for the ambush on the approaching supply trucks. Very few of the fighters had actual military combat experience, so Marshall had asked John if he would consider joining them. He agreed on the condition they were going to avoid any unnecessary killing. While John felt zero compunction disobeying laws instituted by a bunch of corrupt bureaucrats, he also worried about the countless innocent souls caught up in the gears of the terrible machine they had set in motion.

The plan, Marshall assured him, was to force the trucks to stop, remove the drivers and take them back to camp as prisoners along with whatever supplies they were transporting.

They would be leaving soon and John wanted to make sure he took care of something before they left.

He arrived at the command tent to find Rodriguez sitting before the radio.

“Listen, I need you to do something for me,” John said.

Rodriguez swiveled around in his chair, looking decidedly uncertain. “Conversations that start off that way usually spell one thing: trouble.”

“That contact you have inside Oneida. I need you to send him a message.”

“No can do, John, and it’s not because you’re new around here. You know we’re only allowed a limited number of transmissions each day. We start breaking that rule and—”

“I know, they’ll figure out where we are. I’m not asking to send something every day. I just need one message.”

Rodriguez didn’t look like he was going to budge.

“I know food’s been hard to come by lately,” John said, rubbing his hands together. “What would you say if I gave you a mouth-watering goose?”

“A what?” Rodriguez sat bolt upright.

“Caught him down by Stanley Lake yesterday. Been feeding him wild grasses. He’s in the back of my truck. You do this for me and I’ll let you have him.”

The radio operator’s gaze drifted over John’s shoulder for a moment. He seemed to be considering the offer, maybe even imagining how the bird would taste.

“Looks like you got yourself a deal. So tell me, what do you wanna send?”

John leaned in. “I need your man on the inside to find my wife and kids, make sure they’re all right. Tell them to stay strong, that I’m coming for them.”

“That’s very touching.”

“There’s nothing worse than losing the ones you love. I hope you never know the feeling.”

Rodriguez’s eyes fell.

John laid down a paper on the desk with the radio. It contained the names of his wife and kids, along with those of the Applebys.

“You’ve got a big family, John.”

John grinned. “I’m a lucky guy. Just make sure your man looks for them and gives them the message.”

•••

“What do you mean you gave George away?” Brandon was following John toward the back of the Blazer.

“What’s more important, Brandon, a dumb bird or making sure our families are okay?”

Brandon became quiet for a second. But it wasn’t that he was weighing the question. John could tell like most teenagers his age, he wanted two contradictory things at the same time. Life was about making choices, often difficult ones that tended to leave long jagged scars. The deepest marks were the toughest to forget. Turning away those poor people at the barricade on Willow Creek Drive, that was a scar still fresh in John’s mind.

But sacrificing George for the greater good hardly qualified. Sooner or later he was going to end up on someone’s plate. This was the reason John had been so against naming him in the first place. That was also the reason he’d initiated the chat with Brandon. In some ways the kid had proven himself a man, particularly in prepping the cabins, during Cain’s assault and in coming to John’s aid near Oneida. When push came to shove, the kid was there, but it was times like these that John saw the boy in him coming through loud and clear.

John opened the hatch and pulled out his tactical vest. With the cabins and all of his preps and ammo gone, he only had what he’d brought with him to the lake. He hoped the ambush would help replenish his dwindling supply. For now, he still had four polymer magazines with thirty rounds of green-tipped 5.56 ammo stuffed in the front mag pouches. The ammo box itself was down to two hundred rounds.

On his left hip was the BK9 and on his right the S&W M&P .40 Pro. As always, he kept his AR-15 with Trijicon ACOG Scope on a two-point sling.

Sure, there were probably rifles out there as good or better. At the end of the day, John’s choice had more to do with familiarity. Better to have a weapon system you knew like the back of your hand. Especially since clearing a jam on a rifle in the heat of battle could be a life-or-death situation.

Stuffed into one of his back pouches, John had yarrow for blood clotting as well as a small survival kit that contained wire, his flint and striker as well as some water purification tablets. He would also take his Lifesaver water bottle to provide an easy way to scoop up possibly unsafe water and filter it in seconds.

An eager-looking Rodriguez appeared just then. “I sent your message,” he told John.

John tightened the straps of his tactical vest, his gaze dropping to the sadness on Brandon’s face. Reaching into the back of the truck, John pulled the crate with George out onto the tailgate. Rodriguez went to grab the crate and that was when George sprang to life, squawking and snapping at his fingers.

Rodriguez recoiled. “Your bird’s crazy, John.”

“He also doesn’t taste very good,” Brandon added.

John snickered while George continued making a racket.

“How would you know how he tastes?”

“The kid thinks the bird’s his pet,” John explained. “But I gave you my word, so go ahead.”

“That’s right,” Rodriguez said. “You did give me your word.” He reached for the cage again when John stopped him.

“I didn’t say you could have the cage. I only said you could have the bird.”

Rodriguez froze for a moment.

John opened the lid and the radio operator barely got within a foot of the cage before George seized one of his fingers with his powerful beak. Rodriguez swore and tore his hand away. “What the hell, John? This is thing is possessed.”

John couldn’t help but laugh. “Believe me, I know. How about we do this? We’re gonna need to eat this thing sooner or later. I don’t mind doing all the nasty work, plucking his feathers, gutting him, and giving you half of what I cook.”

That offer seemed so much better to Rodriguez than getting his face pecked off. “Okay, deal. Just shut that thing up before I go deaf.”

John closed the cage and slid George back into the truck. He then reached into his pocket and gave George some more wild grass to eat.

After closing the hatch, he caught the smile plastered on Brandon’s face.

That was when it struck John that George was likely Brandon’s only friend, especially since no one in the Patriots was close to his age.

A call came just then for everyone to meet at the assembly area. As John got ready to leave, Brandon took him by the arm. “I wanna go with you,” Brandon said. “I’m a good shot with a rifle, you’ve seen me.”

“You are, Brandon. And we’ll need you when we head into Oneida, but I need you to sit this one out. Besides, who’s gonna feed George while I’m gone? Keep him nice and plump.” John reached into his pocket and handed Brandon what was left of the wild grass. “You know how to find more, right?”

The boy nodded.

“If you need anything, Gary’s there to help.” He paused and laid a hand on Brandon’s shoulder. “Don’t worry, son. I’ll be back before you know it.”

Chapter 20

Navigating the eight cars and trucks along with the thirty men who would participate in the ambush was nerve-racking. As John had recently discovered, the Chairman had checkpoints covering each major road into Oneida. Moreover, after John’s attempt to enter the town and the daring rescue mission which had saved him, the local militia was probably on high alert.

Keeping a safe distance meant they had to cut a wide circle to the east of the city. Before long, they found Route 27 north and headed into Daniel Boone National Forest. As they crossed the border into Kentucky, mobile homes along the road displayed torn and weathered signs promising state line discounts. The doors on many of them hung ajar, one blown completely off its hinges, likely from looters.

Not far ahead, a curve in the road offered the ideal place for an ambush. It was important the approaching trucks not see what was waiting for them. Equally important was the need to make sure the heavy vehicles would be able to stop before colliding with the trucks blocking the road. For that reason, two pickups were maneuvered to block the road fifty yards past the curve. A heavy spike strip was also laid across the asphalt in case the lead truck tried to break through.

Marshall seemed confident that at the slightest show of force, the truckers would stop their rigs and come out with their hands held high.

The remaining Patriot vehicles were stashed along the edge of the forest, out of sight.

John had opted to leave his Blazer back at camp. This way, if the operation lasted into the night, Brandon would have somewhere to sleep. The thought of making a more permanent dwelling in camp had occurred to him and on more than one occasion he had started gathering the material, although the truth of the matter was, he had no intention of staying very long. As soon as Diane and the others were home safe and sound, they would begin the long and arduous task of rebuilding their former bug-out location. And this time they would do everything they could to strengthen it from a similar attack.

With the vehicles in position, Marshall sent a group of ten men to wait a few hundred yards up the highway. Hunkered down and spread out across both sides of the road, they would help close the trap once the vehicles entered the ambush.

Ten more including Moss, Marshall and John would remain near the point of contact. The final ten were then divided into two groups and placed fifty yards south of the ambush site. Their job was to act as a stopping force for any rig that tried to burst through the blockade. In addition, this last group would monitor and engage any threats approaching from the rear.

Now came the waiting game as the men settled down and watched for the convoy. All they could do was hope that the intelligence Rodriguez had gathered was accurate.

Above them, the noonday sun looked on from a cloudless sky. Being in the shade helped somewhat, although strapped into full tactical gear with an AR at hand, John could feel his clothes becoming soaked with perspiration. It was important to stay hydrated at times like these and he fetched the canteen off his belt and took a long drink of warm, funny-tasting water.

The water had come from the camp’s filtration system, a tarp designed to funnel rainwater into a series of fifty-gallon drums. A stream nearby provided the rest. None of it was treated, which meant individuals scooped up what they needed and either boiled it or popped in some bleach or purification tablets. John wasn’t sure if the problem was laziness or lack of time. In large quantities, the iodine in the tablets wasn’t good for you, since they were only intended for emergencies. The same went for the bleach treatment.

It was a health risk for everyone and an issue John would address with Marshall when they returned. But right now, John had other things on his mind.

Beside him, Marshall scanned the baking length of asphalt through a set of binoculars. One man had positioned himself far ahead of the curve and was sending hand signals letting them know there was no sign of them yet.

Marshall sighed. Beads of sweat rolled down his forehead and into his right eye. He didn’t seem to notice. His beard looked dirty and matted with leaves and small twigs.

“Waiting around for something to happen,” Marshall said. “Just like the leadup to Desert Storm.” He turned to John. “You remember that?”

“Wasn’t there,” John answered, offering him some water.

Marshall declined. “Yeah, that’s right, Iraqi Freedom. Did you know we lost less than three hundred men in that entire war and only half of those were in combat?”

“I’d heard something about that.”

“Yessir, my CO was one of them. Part of the second group, that is. He was a fifty-four-year-old lieutenant colonel in the air cav. AH-1F Cobras. Anyway, so early dawn before the air campaign finally got underway, the colonel doesn’t show up for his briefing. They send an airman out to see what the holdup is. You know what he finds?”

John wasn’t sure he wanted to know. “Was he dead?”

“Dead as a doornail. Poor guy had a heart attack in his sleep. Fifty-four years old. Heck, that’s my age.”

“Died in his sleep,” John said thoughtfully. “Not a bad way to go.”

Marshall fixed John with a cold eye. “I thought the man got cheated, if I’m gonna be frank. Made it all the way out there, fixing for a fight, and bit the big one before he could get a shot off. That’s not how I wanna go out, no, sir. For me it’s guns blazing or nothing.”

Be careful what you wish for, John thought. In his mind, blazing guns were about defending what was sacred and precious. It was starting to sound as though the leader of this group saw himself as some kind of Viking. A tough warrior, no doubt, but was he also a reckless one? Special Forces and most regular soldiers he’d met prided themselves on completing a mission and then returning home safely to their families. There wasn’t a lot of glitz and glamor and it didn’t always make for exciting movies, but that was part of being a professional.

A hand signal from up ahead told them a group of trucks were approaching from the north.

“Here we go,” John said before making a final check of his weapons.

Chapter 21

More hand signals from the spotter up ahead. Ten trucks were approaching fast. This particular stretch of road was relatively clear of abandoned cars, allowing them to build up speed. In retrospect, placing a single vehicle a hundred yards up across the center line would have allowed the trucks to pass, but slowed them down. Either way, it was too late now. John would keep that bit tucked away for next time.

As the lead vehicle came into view, John noticed something strange. By all outward appearances, the intelligence Rodriguez had gotten via his contact in Jefferson City had been accurate. These were rigs with trailers on the back marked with UN decals on the front and sides. But even as they approached, John could see something was off.

“Pass me those binoculars,” he said to Marshall, who was rising onto one knee.

John peered through and focused on that first truck. The cab had a flat nose with a wide brim at the top, a similar design to the one he’d seen heading into Oneida the other day. It looked European. Then he read the company name across the grill.

“You ever heard of a truck company called Kamaz?” John asked Marshall, who looked at him strangely.

“Not sure,” Marshall replied. “Maybe that’s the brand the UN uses.”

After many years spent working overseas in war-torn countries, John knew that wasn’t the case. Generally the UN preferred Volkswagen trucks and Toyotas for their SUVs.

The vehicles were almost at the ambush point and Marshall was getting ready to give the signal. The plan was to swarm out as they slowed down and remove the driver from the lead and rear trucks, trapping the rest in between.

But the closer they got, the clearer it became these guys had no intention of stopping. John heard the lead truck hit the gas and that was when he charged out from cover. The others charged out as well. It was important they disable the first truck before it got through or the whole convoy might escape. Technically, Marshall hadn’t given the order to move out, but they couldn’t afford to wait another second.

The first truck was less than ten meters from the blockade when its engine roared to life. Men began firing from the edge of the forest. Most were aiming for the driver. John peered through the ACOG scope and fired at the front right tire. The first couple of shots hit the wheel well and then the tire rims. With the next squeeze he saw the tire explode. The truck swerved violently, losing control, and plowed through the blocking vehicles, spinning them like children’s toys. Shards of metal and bits of glass flew into the air. The lead truck veered off the road and into the ditch.

In the front cab, the driver was dead, but he wasn’t alone. A man with a rifle sat shotgun and he struggled to undo his seatbelt. John couldn’t risk allowing him to bring the weapon to bear. He zeroed in and put three more rounds through the windshield. The man slumped forward and lay still.

Now came the second truck and if they could stop it cold, it might just be enough to block the road.

A handful of men were already racing toward the back of the approaching convoy of trucks. The goal here was to engage the armed escorts in the passenger seat without disabling the trucks themselves. Otherwise they would never get all those supplies back to camp.

Just then, the second truck roared past the shattered cars and over the spike strip. Both front tires blew out, flinging the strip itself into the air. The device was good for a single use and John just hoped it would be enough.

The ten Patriots south of them emerged and engaged the second truck. Sparks sprayed from the asphalt as it tried to flee on a pair of twisted rims.

AK fire from the passenger side of the truck hit two Patriots before the driver and gunman were killed. The vehicle slowed until it came to a stop in the middle of the road, blocking the path.

Running gun battles were raging up and down a fifty-meter length of Route 27 as Marshall’s men tried to prevent the rear vehicles from turning around and fleeing. This wasn’t going completely to plan, but combat never really did.

The truth was there was far more resistance than any of them had anticipated.

On John’s left, more Patriots began to fall. Not that it was a huge surprise. They were using shotguns, deer rifles and a few even had pistols while the men guarding the trucks were armed with AKs. John dropped to the ground and peered through his scope. Three enemies were positioned under one of the trailers, firing on the advancing Patriots.

Under fire from all sides, the men had taken cover wherever they could. For John, it had only meant they lined up perfectly. He opened up with a short burst. By the time the first two were down, a final volley finished off the last. That was another thing the movies never talked about. A large enough round would slam through the human body and often keep on going into the man next to him.

When the rest of the drivers and the men guarding them recognized the Patriots could hit them from every direction, they threw down their weapons and surrendered.

Now came the time to gather the prisoners and commandeer the remaining trucks. The first two had been completely disabled, which created a problem. They could either leave the supplies they were carrying or spend valuable time transferring them to the remaining vehicles.

John advised Marshall not to get greedy. They would do a quick search through their contents to make sure they weren’t leaving behind any weapons or vital supplies. There were also a number of wounded who would need to be cared for.

After a quick search, they discovered that the contents of the first two trucks consisted mostly of clothing and blankets. Confident nothing important was being left behind, they assigned men to drive each of the remaining rigs.

They needed to make it quick before any patrols from Oneida caught wind of what had happened.

John climbed into an old GM pickup with Sullivan riding shotgun. They would cover the rear of the column.

The price of the ambush had been costly. Five dead and another six seriously wounded. John only hoped they would find what they were looking for.

In all, the returning convoy consisted of sixteen vehicles in all, eight trucks and eight of their own vehicles.

As they rolled out, a thought came to John that hadn’t occurred to him as he’d watched the row of eighteen-wheelers barreling down on them from the north. Apart from displaying a name he’d never seen before—Kamaz—these UN trucks looked brand new. Certainly they weren’t relics from the 1970’s the way Betsy was, which meant they were likely brought from overseas. John remembered seeing something on the internet years before about fears that the UN would one day show up to confiscate American guns. Was he witnessing the realization of this conspiracy theory? Or was a more sinister plan afoot?

Chapter 22

John and Sullivan followed closely as the convoy headed back toward the Patriot camp. If these trucks contained assault rifles and perhaps even more, then a takeover of Oneida would finally be possible. There was a certain appeal to overthrowing a tyrant and it wasn’t just about saving Diane and the kids. No one deserved to live in the equivalent of a North Korean labor camp.

Beside him, Sullivan rolled down his window and stuck his hand out, letting the wind push it back and forth. “What did you do before the lights went out?” he asked.

John’s grip tightened on the steering wheel. The sting hit him whenever he remembered his old life. One he would likely never know again. “General contractor.”

Sullivan laughed. “I never did understand what those guys did.”

“We get ulcers,” John replied. “That’s what we do.” He was looking at the back of the truck driving before them. It was missing a license plate as well as safety stickers.

Caution: Wide right turns

Wherever it was they were made, they were right off the assembly line.

“You get a chance to speak with any of those drivers?” he asked Sullivan.

“Nah, I don’t think they said much of anything. Seemed scared as hell, cowering down like we were gonna execute them. Listen, I don’t have a problem returning fire when I’m attacked, but the thought of killing people who are just trying to make a living in this crazy new world doesn’t sit well with me.”

“Me neither,” John said, replaying in his mind how the drivers had tried to run the blockade as the guards in the passenger seats sprayed AK fire into the Patriots’ ranks.

Most of those guards had been killed, but the Patriots had suffered their own losses.

“What about you, Sullivan? What did you do before the world went to hell?”

“I taught geography at the local high school.” Sullivan was nodding his head as though reliving hallways filled with rowdy kids and boisterous laughter.

“A noble profession. One of the residents on Willow Creek was a gym teacher. Peter Warden. Good man.” John paused. “No, he was a great man.”

“Was?”

“He was killed when our street was overrun by a group of gangbangers looking to consolidate their territory. Seemed like it wasn’t long after the grid went dark before the whole city was carved up by criminals. They already had the manpower and infrastructure in place, not to mention the weapons. When the police were no longer able to effectively patrol the city, the takeover was inevitable. We held out for as long as we could, but most of those people had never fired a gun in their lives. ’Sides, the majority weren’t armed with anything better than pistols and deer rifles. Maybe it was a lost cause from the start.”

Sullivan’s hand was still out the window, pushing against the air stream. “Nah, man. You guys stood up when most people probably rolled over and took it in the tailpipe. The Alamo was a lost cause, but you didn’t see any of those boys running away.”

Maybe Sullivan had a point. John was still letting the words percolate through his mind when he heard a loud crack like a muffler backfiring. Then came a spray of blood from the passenger seat.

Sullivan shrieked in pain, clutching his right hand, now a bloody mess.

More shots and John swerved, glancing in the rear view to see two pickups and one Jeep Wagoneer. Men with semi-automatic rifles were hanging from the windows firing at them.

A patrol from Oneida perhaps?

There wasn’t time to think about where they’d come from. All he knew was that if he didn’t do something fast they’d both be dead. A rear gunner would have been nice, but they’d been too short on manpower after the casualties they took during the firefight.

The back window shattered, then a round hit Sullivan square in the back of his head. The front windshield turned red and his body slumped forward. It was John’s job to help protect the convoy and so he did the only thing he could under the circumstances. He slammed his brakes and braced himself as the Wagoneer came racing up and smashed into him.

The back end swung around into the pickup filled with men, sending it careening off the road and into the ditch. The third pickup jerked its wheel and fishtailed past him.

John punched the gas and caught the smell of burning tires as he charged ahead. The collision with the Jeep must have damaged his rear axle because it felt like the back wheels weren’t spinning properly.

Men in the back of the pickup took aim and fired. John ducked under the console, taking cover behind the engine. Four rounds tore through the windshield. One of them connected with Sullivan and whipped his limp body back against the seat. If his new friend wasn’t dead before, he was now.

After seeing that the guys in the pickup were reloading, John pulled the S&W from his tactical holster and took aim at the pickup’s back right tire, sending six rounds into it. The back tire exploded, sending strips of rubber flying in all directions. Whatever was left in the magazine he emptied into the men loaded in the bed of the truck, hitting at least three of them.

The pickup swerved, smacking John on the left front tire. The steering wheel jerked in his hands as his own vehicle lost control and crashed into the ditch.

John was thrown forward into the wheel, but his chest rig and AR mags helped to shield him from a crushing blow. Smoke rose from the hood of the GM. Next to him, there was no longer a doubt that Sullivan was dead.

The convoy slipped around the corner and disappeared from view. He’d done his job in preventing further loss and for that he was happy. Perhaps some of the escort vehicles would circle back and lend a hand. But getting those weapons back to base was the top priority, which meant that he might be on his own.

On the other side of the highway, the men from the disabled pickup scrambled out, looking in his direction. A quick glance in his rearview told him the other men he’d crashed into a few hundred yards back were now on foot, heading his way.

John’s AR was still next to him, along with the Mossberg Chainsaw Sullivan had been wielding. A quick check revealed John didn’t have any broken bones. He reached over Sullivan’s body and opened the passenger door. Crawling over his dead companion, John dropped into a row of tall grass.

With still no sign of any Patriots coming to bail him out, John reached back in for the AR and the shotgun. The latter he swung over his shoulder. With the AR in hand, he moved behind the engine block and laid his rifle on the hood, taking aim through his ACOG Scope. Four armed men were heading his way from the east. Six more were coming from the south. Behind John lay the forest. He knew the tall grass would cover his escape into the woods, but first he would need to keep the enemy’s head down while he made a break for it.

All four men to the east had AKs. Normally, the plan of attack called for targeting the man who had the best chance of killing you. Assault rifles were always first. When there wasn’t much of a choice, it came down to who looked like they had the most experience. The one on the far right was in full tactical gear, but the man next to him had a beard and carried himself as though he were ex-military, his weapon at the low ready as he advanced, his finger beside the trigger.

Laying the red dot between his eyes, John squeezed the trigger. The shot was an inch low and to the left, but it was fatal none the less. Seeing their comrade fall, the others scrambled for cover. Perhaps they thought John had been gravely wounded or knocked unconscious in the crash and they were simply coming to finish him off.

Sprinting through the spindly grass, John ran for the forest’s edge, hoping to make it to the relative safety of the treeline before he took a bullet in the back.

Chapter 23

By the time he reached the edge of the forest, hot lead was already pouring in, striking the ground and trees, filling the air with bits of dirt and bark. Laying down more fire would only get him killed, so John kept on running. No more than a few yards into the forest, he was already sucking in deep lungfuls of air. It wasn’t just his tactical vest and ammo that was tiring him out, it was double-timing it with his AR and Mossberg Chainsaw over uneven ground.

His Blackhawk Serpa drop-leg holster proved to be a real blessing. Most flopped around when running, which had the unbalancing effect of slowing one’s movement. The Blackhawk was solid and adjustable, which kept all twenty-six ounces of his S&W from getting in the way. Seemed like such a minor consideration, but any soldier who’d ever needed to dash for cover understood the importance.

Now that he was a hundred feet in, John swung around, rifle perched against a low-hanging branch, scanning the horizon. Movement in the distance caught his eye and he put his eye to the mouth of his scope. Not seeing anything, he decided to keep low and continue moving. With several of their own already dead, the men after him knew he was no pushover. Surely now they would approach with caution, an advantage which would buy him extra time to disappear.

Navigating by the position of the sun and the moss growing on the trunks of trees, John continued moving southeast. He was still a ways from the Patriot camp, although he knew the general direction he needed to head in. At some point he would cross back over the highway or else he would end up in Oneida.

To his mind, helping the Patriots gear up for an assault seemed to offer the greatest chance of success. Shortly before the attack, Rodriguez would send out a coded message to his contact in the city. His contact in turn would advise John’s family along with anyone else the Chairman’s men had imprisoned to keep low when the shooting started.

John stopped again and scanned the forest behind him. A squirrel perched on a nearby tree watched him intently while nibbling a nut. Otherwise, there was no sign of anyone or anything nearby.

They would be tracking him, that was certain, which was why circling back toward the highway would be important. He would be exposed, yes, but with a stretch of straight road, it would be difficult for any vehicle patrols to spot him before he spotted them.

John changed direction and cut east. Within a matter of minutes the edge of Route 27 came into view.

After reaching the treeline, he scanned for any sign of the enemy. Seeing none, he ran across the open ground as quickly as he could. The lactic acid in his muscles burned his already wobbly legs. With a burst of willpower, he ordered himself to push on.

Once safely across, John made some headway through the dense foliage before stopping briefly to drink some water and eat a power bar. As he took cover behind a birch tree, he became aware of the sting from early blisters forming on the heels of his feet. In a back pouch was a small roll of duct tape. When he’d purchased it all those months ago back at the Home Depot in Knoxville, it had come in a large spool, so John had wrapped some around an old credit card—might as well put the plastic to good use—enabling him to keep a discreet amount in his rear tactical pouch.

He removed his boots and socks and examined the young blisters. They were red and a little puffy, but that characteristic bubble hadn’t yet formed. John tore off strips of duct tape and stuck them anywhere he saw chafing. This wasn’t a permanent solution by any stretch. But with a long walk ahead of him, his feet were likely to be his only source of locomotion and it was important to keep them working properly.

The sun was low in the sky when John found a place to make camp for the night. There’d been no sign of the men who’d ambushed and chased him into the forest. Whether any of the Patriots in the convoy knew they were under attack he wasn’t sure, although it was hard to believe they hadn’t heard the gunfire coming from the rear of the column. If they didn’t know at the time, they would certainly have found out when they arrived back at camp. It was also more than likely they would send someone back to look for him and Sullivan. John had also weighed the chances that the Chairman, upon discovering his convoy had been taken, would send whatever men he could spare to retrieve it. The threat of roving bands of militia had encouraged John to avoid the roads.

Sure, the trek back would take longer, but his bushcraft was more than enough to keep him alive between now and then. All he needed was stay out of sight and if that proved impossible, he needed to be the one to shoot first.

Before starting his shelter, John searched the area for possum burrows. When building snares, he preferred using picture wire since it was cheap and reusable. With the BK9 he sharpened two sticks and drove them into the ground forming an X, then tied them together with a length of paracord. A young, bent-over sapling would act as the engine, snapping the possum into the air once the trigger was sprung. For the noose itself, he used a bowline knot, reciting the mantra he’d learned as a child in Boy Scouts to help him remember the sequence: the rabbit comes out of the hole, around the tree, and back in the hole. With the trap in place over the possum’s burrow, John could then begin building his shelter.

The spot he chose for the night was on elevated ground. This was important to reduce the chances of water saturating his camp site. There was also a tree nearby with a low, but thick branch. This would prove important for the A-frame debris shelter he would build. Most survivalists tended to teach themselves how to build a single shelter type, but more often than not this could get them into trouble. The shelter one chose often depended on the available resources. A lack of thick pine tree bows would make building a lean-to shelter difficult. If that was all someone knew, they’d likely be in a real jam, especially if storm clouds were brewing.

The process for the A-frame shelter wasn’t terribly difficult. John started by searching the forest floor for a five-to six-inch-thick piece to act as the main support. This would need to be taller than he was so John’s entire body would fit inside the shelter. The end of the main support beam would rest against the tree stump and be secured with a length of paracord. Shorter branches would form the sides, overlapping like fingers steepled in prayer. Next he piled up dead leaves against the frame, making sure to start at the bottom and work his way up. A final layer of thin branches on top helped to keep the dead leaves in place. Finally, John collected dead pine needles and more dead leaves to form the bedding inside. He wasn’t expecting the Taj Mahal, but this would do just fine.

Chapter 24

While he was gathering wood and tinder, a whoosh nearby followed by rustling told John that his trap had sprung. Hopping to his feet, he rushed to find a possum hanging off the ground with the picture wire cinched around its neck. He put the creature out of its misery quickly with the BK9 and then skinned and gutted it on the stump of a fallen tree. He took care to do this a few meters away from his camp to avoid attracting scavengers. While most people tossed the entrails into the bush, John kept them to use as bait for fishing and future traps.

A stagnant pond sixty meters to the west of his camp would provide his drinking water. Usually that would be arduous work, building a filtering system and then something to boil the water in. This was where his Lifesaver water bottle would come in handy. John normally liked to keep things as natural as possible—relying on gizmos in a survival situation was all too often a recipe for disaster—but after watching murky, undrinkable water at the Patriot camp go in and clean, safe water come out, he’d been convinced. The other advantage was the ultra-fine fifteen-nanometer filter that kept out all waterborne pathogens. So far as he could tell, the major drawback to the thing was the inability to tell when the water filter was nearly done. Given that it could treat over a thousand gallons and he’d only just started using it, he was confident he had all the water he would need.

After building a small fire and cooking the possum over a spit, John removed the duct tape from the heels of his feet to let them breathe. He was listening to the sounds of the forest, his AR by his side and his shotgun waiting for him in the A-frame shelter.

There was something about the trees here that reminded him of the lush hilly forests in Rwanda. The vast majority of folks might have had difficulty placing the tiny country on a map before the genocide of 1994. That was when the whole world saw horrifying images of gangs of machete-wielding men hacking at anyone they could find. The war had started as a tribal conflict between the majority Hutus and the minority Tutsis. But it wasn’t long before the lust for blood on all sides had turned into a killing free-for-all.

At the end of ’94, John had entered the ravaged country as part of the humanitarian mission, Operation Support Hope, and the sights he’d seen there were nearly beyond description. That was when he’d fully understood how sheltered they were here in the West. For John, however, this wasn’t a reason for condescension. Rather, it was a hallmark of how safe life was in America. At least, the way it used to be.

John recalled searching in the village of Gahini for a local doctor named Mutsinzi. There was a young girl with gallstones who needed treatment and the doctor there was reputed to be the best in the area. When he’d arrived, John had discovered the man had been killed in the final days of the genocide. In the hospital where he worked, he’d treated both tribes without discretion and so in retaliation he was taken one morning by a gang of Hutu extremists, sat in a chair and disemboweled, his guts dragged across the road to form a macabre checkpoint.

The story itself had been shocking enough to John that he’d never forgotten it. These sorts of acts were beyond Western understanding. It wasn’t since the Indian wars in the eighteenth century that Americans had witnessed such barbaric atrocities. But with local warlords springing up, laying claim to first neighborhoods and now entire cities, it was anyone’s guess how long it would be before the nastiest side of human nature would rear its ugly head.

Chapter 25

John came awake, wondering for a moment if he was still in the mountains of Rwanda. The sound of a woodpecker knocking away at the trunk of a dying tree told him otherwise.

He stretched, feeling the stiff muscles in his back ache with pain. The shelter he’d built yesterday had kept him warm, although it certainly hadn’t done wonders for his spine. The mattress he and Diane shared at the cabin had been harder than their king-sized pillowtop back home. That was a transition he’d been fine with. Even dozing off in the front seat of his Blazer, while not ideal, had also been better than his current bed of pine needles and dead leaves. To make matters worse, by the time he woke up, the mound he’d collected had been pushed to the side so that John’s back was digging into the hard forest floor.

Some of the possum was still left over from last night and he ate half of it, washing the tough meat down with a drink of water. He was eager to get a move on. If he kept up the pace, there was a chance he might just reach the Patriot camp by dusk.

After reapplying duct tape to his blisters, John slung the AR and the shotgun over his shoulder and headed out.

Within an hour, he hit Cleamon Strunk Road and crossed to the other side after making sure no one was in sight. Once on the other side and back into the forest, it wasn’t long before moving through the thick brush brought on some serious hunger pangs.

John still had some possum meat left over and intended to keep that for that night’s supper in case he didn’t reach his objective. Reluctance to draw any attention by shooting his rifle or by stopping to build a fire meant that meat was out of the question right now. But there were other options.

Most people spent years trekking through the woods without realizing how many plants were edible. Of course, it was always important to be careful when eating anything that grew in the wild, but with enough practice at differentiating species, living off the land in an emergency situation became so much easier.

Wood sorrel was the first plant he found. It looked a lot like clover and was tough to chew with a slightly sour taste to it. Not too far from that was a patch of wild lettuce. They were easily identified by their long spindly branches. John shoved it in his mouth, wincing from the bitterness. As he walked, he collected what he could. Lambsquarter, chickweed, and whenever he came to an open field, dandelion.

Not long after, he came to another field. This one was larger than the last, but different in one important way. While the open terrain where he’d collected dandelions had been flat, this field had a crop about the height of a man and with thin, pointy leaves. It didn’t take a genius to realize he’d stumbled upon a marijuana farm. Except this one wasn’t a legal operation, like the ones springing up in a handful of other states. Neither Kentucky nor Tennessee had legalized medical marijuana.

On the heels of that realization came another. If this land wasn’t run by a gutsy entrepreneur eager to exploit lax drug laws, then it meant he was likely on land worked by criminals.

John planted one knee in the ground and readied his AR.

So far he hadn’t seen a soul or heard so much as a whisper, but caution wouldn’t take any chances until he saw good reason to lower his guard.

He weaved between rows of the tall marijuana stalks which smelled like something between lawn grass and skunk. From John’s limited knowledge of horticulture, he believed this indicated the crop was flowering.

Up ahead was a small shack. If anyone was around, they would likely be near that structure. As much as John wasn’t interested in a confrontation, the last thing on his mind was moving past an unsecured area only to get a bullet in the back. He would do a quick sweep and then decide whether to back out the way he came and circle around or proceed straight ahead.

Approaching the shack, John paused, his finger next to the trigger. He steadied his breathing, listening for voices, movement or even the telltale sounds of someone snoring.

The first sign that something wasn’t entirely right came when he saw the legs sticking out of the doorway. Drawing nearer, he caught the buzzing of flies around what was obviously a dead body. Then the odor came and he pulled his shirt up over his nose. That was a smell you never got used to, no matter how many battles you’d lived through. It was more than the psychological impact that came with knowing that someone’s life was over. The stench was just plain bad.

John swung his attention from right to left. A few yards away were two more bodies. Bullet holes riddled the shack. Blood-soaked hundred-dollar bills led from the hut down to a set of tire tracks.

The place was eerily quiet. The bodies weren’t bloated, which told John they hadn’t been here long. It would likely be impossible to tell exactly what had happened, but the slaughter here had been over money, probably a lot of it, judging by the hundreds sprinkled on the ground like fallen leaves.

Once he was certain there weren’t any immediate threats, John made his way over to the shack. Perhaps there was something useful inside. Food, ammunition, weapons. The latter was already a given since rifles and pistols lay next to each of the dead men.

The man in the shack was dressed in blue overalls and looked to be in his early sixties. He’d been killed by a rifle round to the head. Next to him was a twelve-gauge pump shotgun. Even from here, John could see both of the dead attackers had been peppered by the old man’s shotgun.

Inside, John found some candy bars, a few cans of food and vegetables but little else of importance. He was about to leave when he spotted two books on the table. Both of them were on hydroponics and hydroponics systems. John picked them up and leafed through each quickly.

If they could use this to rig up a system that worked, the Patriot camp could quadruple food production while reducing water consumption by the equivalent amount.

Of course, given their shortage of weapons and ammo, it would be unforgivable for John to leave all of this for someone else to scavenge. On the other hand, he knew dragging home several rifles and pistols just wasn’t realistic.

Over the next thirty minutes, John carefully hid the weapons and ammo he’d found several feet into the forest. An old tarp from behind the shack would help keep them dry until he returned at some point to collect the stash.

The books, however, he took with him.

Chapter 26

Diane was lying in her bunk watching as the late afternoon sun painted the prison cell walls a rich shade of orange.

Above her was Kay, still bruised from her own meeting with the Chairman, although she was doing her best to hide it from her daughter Natalie. In spite of Diane’s gentle questioning, Kay didn’t want to discuss what had happened. Either way, that creepy guy had put his hands on her, that much Diane knew. It was a fate Diane had only narrowly avoided.

In the next cell over, Gregory, Emma and Natalie were sitting on the floor playing Gregory’s favorite game: Slap Jack. The idea was simple. One player hovered her hands palm down over another player who held theirs underneath in a mirror image. From the bottom, the slapper tried to strike the top of her opponent’s hands before she had a chance to move them away. A successful hit meant she continued. After a miss, they would switch positions and payback would ensue. The kids had played the game for hours yesterday, until the tops of Emma’s hands were glowing red.

Most of the time the cells were so hot that beads of sweat would soak their clothing. Every night, once the sun set and the room became pitch black, there was little option but to sleep.

Although she was watching the kids play, Diane’s mind was elsewhere. She chided herself whenever she let her mind go over how many laws the Chairman was breaking by keeping them locked in here. For starters, they hadn’t been read their Miranda rights. Their refusal to hand over their weapons to the men in black cargo pants hadn’t lasted much longer than it took for them to shoot Tim dead. Hard to believe that their apparent hostility was enough to end a man’s life.

And this was why Diane hated when her mind tried to grasp the legality of their imprisonment. The old laws were clearly gone. They’d gone up in the same puff of smoke that had fried every electrical circuit in the country. This was exactly when regular citizens needed to arm up and defend the tattered remains of the Constitution against enemies both foreign and domestic. But it seemed the Chairman was following a president with a different set of plans. If he thought he was caving in to the practicality of the current emergency, then he was jeopardizing and perhaps had already killed everything that was great about this country. The irony of dissolving the Constitution, effectively stripping citizens of their rights and privileges, in order to preserve them was not lost on Diane. And with nothing to do in this tiny cell but sleep, think and slip her kids some extra food to ensure they were properly fed, she couldn’t help spin herself into useless circles.

Just then the door to the jail opened and one of the meaner-looking guards named Edward sauntered in. He had narrow shoulders and couldn’t have been taller than five foot four, but the scowl on his face made it hard to meet his cold eyes. Every second day it was his job to come in and hand them their food. Since they’d been here, what passed for food tended to be stale bread and mushy beans. A stuffy room with poor circulation and a dozen other inmates all on a diet of beans only added insult to injury.

Edward stopped before Diane and Kay’s cell and ran his club along the bars, a sign for them to approach and take the food through the slot. Diane went forward, feeling Edward’s eyes passing up and down her body. The first food tray was in the slot already. She reached down to grab it, but he held on tight to his end. Glancing up, Diane caught his glare and tried not to let on that her chest was tight with fear.

“You Diane?”

Diane was too frightened to say anything. Edward’s forearms were powerful and covered with tattoos. By the looks of things, he should be the one behind bars, not her. With a snap of his wrist, he could have his hand through the bars and around her neck.

He asked again, this time more forcefully. Perhaps he’d heard what she had done to the Chairman the day before and was going to get even. Diane swallowed hard and said yes.

“Listen very carefully. Your husband John’s looking for you. Asked me to find you and your kids. Wanted me to tell you to be strong, that he and others are coming to get you out of here.”

Tears were welling up behind Diane’s eyes at the news that John was alive and looking for them.

“Keep it together,” Edward scolded her in a gruff voice. “I got exactly ten more seconds before the other guards here start getting suspicious. Word is the Chairman’s taken a liking to you. Not sure exactly what you did, but I hope he didn’t do to you what he did to your friend over there.” He motioned to Kay, who was starting to sit up. “I’m doing what I can to get you and your family transferred to a more comfortable spot, got it? But I’m not making any promises.” Looking down at the tray of food, he said: “There’s a present in your beans. It’s all I could get at the moment. Keep it hidden. And if the Chairman takes you out for another chat, use it on him.”

Edward then shoved the tray at her in mock anger. “You gonna take your food or not!”

The commotion brought the attention of the other inmates who looked on with worry.

“Yes, I want it,” Diane said in a low voice and took the first tray and then the second.

She handed the second to Kay, who arrived beside her just as Edward lumbered over to the next cell.

“What was that all about?” Kay asked, her voice slightly distorted by a swollen bottom lip.

“I’m not entirely sure,” Diane replied. She went and sat by the corner of her bunk and stirred the beans with her spoon. As she did the top of a knife handle began to emerge.

Diane’s head snapped up at once. She was suddenly worried that those around her knew what Edward had done. And, more importantly, that he wanted her to kill the Chairman.

But everyone around her was busy eating.

Don’t be silly, she told herself. No one saw.

She still didn’t understand how Edward knew about her husband. Could it mean that John was somewhere in town? Was he being held in a cell just like hers? Her mind swirled with terrifying questions she had little hope of finding the answers to, at least not yet.

When no one was looking, Diane set the tray on the cot beside her, quickly removed the knife and slid it under the bed. There weren’t many hiding spots in an eight-by-five cell, which meant under the bed would have to do.

After taking back her tray, she caught Kay watching, a fearful expression blooming on her swollen face. “I hope to God you’re not about to do something that’ll get us all killed,” she said.

Diane didn’t know what to say. The knife had practically been thrust on her by Edward. There hadn’t been enough time to question him, let alone refuse. And even as she turned away and tried to finish the rest of her dinner, Kay’s words kept ringing in her ears.

Chapter 27

John arrived back at the Patriot camp the following morning. The shocked and surprised looks he received from the men guarding the main approach weren’t lost on him. Nor were the similar expressions he saw from the others in camp, going about their morning activities. Sweaty, covered in mud and leaves and limping slightly, John knew he probably looked as though he’d crawled up from hell itself.

Moss hurried over the minute he saw John approach.

“We doubled back looking for you, but—” Moss glanced over his shoulder. “Where’s Sulli?”

“He didn’t make it.” John cut him off, feeling that sting of guilt he’d experienced many times before. It was the sensation every soldier felt when the man next to him didn’t live to see home again.

Moss nodded, trying not to show any weakness. He would keep the pain buried down deep, John knew, locked up tight with alcohol and denial. That was the heartache of losing someone who was like a brother to you.

“They came up behind us in three trucks,” John told him. “A patrol from Oneida. Sullivan got hit by a round through the back window. He died instantly.” John decided to leave out the rest of the gory details. He remembered the words from Confederate general Robert E. Lee to General Longstreet at the Battle on Telegraph Hill. It is well that war is so terrible lest we should grow too fond of it.

“We saw some tire marks on the street, but nothing else,” Moss told him, his eyes ringed with growing red lines. “They must have come and cleared everything away before we had a chance to go back for you.”

“They were really counting on those supplies,” John said thoughtfully. “When you got the trucks back, tell me you found something useful.”

“Get yourself all cleaned up and I’ll show you.”

John did exactly that. First, he made his way to the Blazer where he found Brandon oiling the pellet gun. On the ground next to him were three dead squirrels.

Hopping to his feet, Brandon ran up to John.

“They said you were dead,” the boy beamed.

John couldn’t help but laugh. “For a second back there, I was sure of it myself.” He peered into Betsy and saw George in the trunk. The back door was open to give him some air. Brandon saw what he was looking at.

“Rodriguez came up to me when everyone thought you were dead. He wanted George and I told him to shove it.”

“You did? What did he say?”

“He wasn’t happy, not one bit, but I told him the deal he had was between the two of you. If you didn’t come back that made it mull and void.”

“Null and void,” John corrected him, smiling. “I think one day you’ll make a fine lawyer.”

Brandon’s own smile brightened, then began to fade. “I’ve been thinking about my mom and sister a lot since you’ve been gone. I wanna be there when we go get them.”

John set his weapons down, along with the books he found at the pot farm. He then settled himself on the tailgate and peeled off his boots and socks. Next came the duct tape. It had done exactly what he needed it to do. Prevent a small blister from becoming large and possibly infected.

“Sometimes completing a mission isn’t as easy as just charging in guns blazing. Fact, that’s usually the best way to get yourself and all your friends killed.”

Brandon seemed to be mulling over John’s words.

“We need intelligence on how many people are in Oneida. How many of them are armed. What they’re armed with. What building the prisoners are being held in. On top of that, regardless of why we’re going in, the people there will see us as invaders, trying to steal their resources. There will likely be a fight, maybe a big one. If we go in without the proper knowhow and gear, we might just blow the one shot we have of getting them back.”

Brandon put the pellet gun down and stared at the dead squirrels.

“I told you earlier that, fourteen or not, you’re a man now, Brandon, whether you like it or not. I’ve seen you handle yourself in a tight situation. That isn’t the issue. But being an adult also means making tough decisions. Sacrificing things we like in order to preserve things we love and need.”

“You mean like freedoms and stuff?”

“That’s part of it, sure, but it also goes beyond that. Sometimes it comes down to choices we didn’t think we had the courage to make.”

Brandon was about to ask John something else when Marshall, Moss and a small entourage of other men appeared before them.

Marshall extended a hand and John took it.

“I was sorry to hear about Sullivan, but I understand without your actions, the entire mission might been compromised.”

Perhaps Marshall was right, but John wasn’t about to gloat. The truth was, a good man had been killed at a time when they needed everyone they could get.

“A lot’s happened in the short period you’ve been gone,” Marshall said.

“You found something in the trucks, didn’t you?” John asked.

“We did. But you should probably see for yourself.”

Chapter 28

The eight rigs they had captured during the ambush were parked in a field next to the Patriot camp. The way the vehicles were lined up, it looked from here as though they were approaching a truck stop. Marshall explained that the men who’d been taken during the assault were being held in a makeshift jail and were currently undergoing questioning. When John asked if they’d revealed any useful intel, Marshall brushed aside the question with a, “Let’s see what you make of this first.”

The Patriot leader was referring to the trailers ahead of them. The cargo doors for each stood open, awaiting inspection. Many of the items inside appeared to have been moved around already, perhaps as Marshall’s men had investigated their contents.

They walked up the ramp. The first rig was loaded with cardboard boxes. Each one had a red, white and blue sticker. But this wasn’t the stars and stripes. John ran his hand over the words and read them out loud: “State Reserve of the Russian Federation.”

He looked over at Marshall, Moss and the others and caught the grim expressions on their faces.

“What is this?” John asked, rather stupefied.

“We’re not entirely sure,” Marshall replied. “We’d assumed most of the trucks would be loaded with UN humanitarian aid, items from FEMA. Our man in Jefferson City mentioned weapons, so maybe a few crates marked US Army. You spent some time in Africa, so I was hoping you could shed some light on this for us.”

John opened the lid of a box that someone had already gone through. It was filled with a Russian brand of rice, divided in small plastic bags. Suddenly the strange markings on the trucks made sense. Kamaz must be a Russian truck manufacturer. “Are they all like this?” John asked, waving one of the rice bags in the air.

Moss cleared his throat. “Most of ’em. Two had clothing, a lot of it old outdated stuff. One was filled with boxes with Chinese markings. We haven’t gone through that yet, but it looks like noodles and other edibles. Only one had any weapons and as you can imagine they were AKs and boxes of 7.62 rounds.”

“At least there’s some good news,” John said, trying to stay optimistic. “Arming your men was the primary objective and so long as you have enough rounds for the weapons you’ve found, that part is done. Of course, it’ll take some getting used to using AKs over ARs. The 5.56 round is smaller and more accurate.” John stopped. “Are they full auto?”

Marshall nodded.

“Russian military,” John said, tapping his finger on one of the boxes. It made a hollow sound. “What are the drivers saying?”

“We’re not sure,” Moss said. “They don’t speak any English. Sounds to us like Russian, but who the hell knows.”

This was quickly going from bad to worse. “I know what a lot of you are thinking, that we’re being invaded by Russia and possibly China,” John told them. “And you may be right, but we need to at least be open to the possibility that this convoy was one of many intended as aid.”

“I was thinking the same thing,” Marshall admitted, “right up until we found the weapons and ammo. I mean, darn right we were hoping for rifles and bullets. Everyone here knows that. But we thought they’d have a US Army decal on the side instead of a foreign flag.”

John’s head was spinning. For every question they answered, ten more seemed to take their place. If the US was being invaded and these shipments of food and weapons had been sent by the Russian and Chinese military, rather than by an aid organization, then it begged the question: What president was the Chairman really working for?

Chapter 29

Back in the command tent, John and the others continued to discuss what they’d seen in the trailers.

“On the bright side,” Moss said, sweating profusely in the noonday sun, “at least it means we have food and weapons.”

John was in Rodriguez’s seat by the radio. “If we can trust it, that is. For all we know this is some elaborate ploy to poison us. I think it’ll also be worth testing the weapons to make sure they work properly.”

Marshall drew in a deep breath, his wide chest expanding under his vest. “I don’t see any other option but to go ahead with Operation Hammer Fist.”

John looked up at him, puzzled. It was the first he was hearing about a secret operation.

Seeing the confusion, Moss elaborated. “We have an agent in Oneida. He’s been tasked with gathering intel. That part you know. What you don’t know is that we’ve also sent orders to initiate an assassination of the Chairman.”

Marshall cleared his throat. “Given what we’ve discovered, I just don’t see any other way. We need to cut the head off the snake, and the town should fall quickly. A bloody battle will only endanger the very loved ones we’re trying to free.”

John couldn’t agree more with the last part, but certainly not the first. “And what do we do if we’re wrong about this?” he asked.

“Wrong about what?” Marshall asked, rocking back on his heels as though John had taken a swing at him.

“What if the president really did declare some type of martial law and put men like the Chairman in charge of small cities and towns all over the country?”

“But if so then where’s the military?” Moss argued. “Wouldn’t they be rolling through the streets?”

“For a small town like Oneida?” John countered. “I doubt it. New York or Atlanta, sure. Don’t forget we live in a country with over three hundred million people, most of whom are either dead or have turned to looting and lawlessness because they weren’t prepared for a prolonged blackout. The military could be concentrated in large cities, trying to regain control. Perhaps these shipments are part of a multinational relief effort.”

The others looked skeptical and John thought that skepticism was perfectly justified. He didn’t necessarily believe what he was saying, but making an informed decision meant not going off half-cocked and latching onto the most obvious conclusion. Sometimes being the single voice of dissent was the only way to ensure that. “If we kill the Chairman and he is who he says he is, we’ll be branded as criminals or worse: terrorists.” John drummed his fingers against the desk, racking his brain to come up with a solution. “All I’m saying is let’s be smart about this. Without email or phones or television, the Chairman should have arrived with a piece of paper bearing the president’s seal. You said yourself he showed up in town with official-looking documents. If we can find those papers then it may help us prove he’s a fake.”

Marshall was quiet while he contemplated what John was saying.

“I don’t know what kind of president would revoke the Constitution even under such extreme circumstances,” John continued. “On that level alone, he’d have quashed every reason I have to be loyal to the man. The very purpose of his job is to protect the Constitution. But here’s the thing. Why should we slaughter the people of Oneida simply for being caught in the middle? They’re Americans too, don’t forget. If they think the Chairman’s legit, no matter how reprehensible, then it’s our job to prove that he isn’t. If we do that then I guarantee you the whole house of cards will come tumbling down. If we simply assassinate the man, who knows what tyrant may take his place?”

“Either way we’re in trouble,” Marshall said, weighing both options. “If the Chairman’s been put here legally, then it means we have a dictator for a president who’s stripped all our rights away.”

“And if he’s not?” John continued. “Then given everything we’ve seen, it could mean the Chairman’s a fifth columnist and foreign troops are already on American soil, perhaps even headed this way.”

“Fifth columnist?” Moss asked, wiping the back of his hand across his forehead.

“An expression from the Spanish Civil War and used throughout World War II,” John explained. “It refers to a small group of individuals sent in to subvert an enemy’s ability to fight. Near the end of the war, German troops in stolen American uniforms made it behind enemy lines to misdirect traffic and supplies during the Battle of the Bulge.”

“Sneaky buggers,” Moss shouted, grinning, his dark mohawk standing as rigid as the plumes on a centurion’s helmet. “How’d they finally catch ’em?”

John gave him a sly grin. “Tripped ’em up in a way they never expected. At checkpoints, US forces would ask questions only Americans would know. Like which league did the Chicago Cubs play in, or who’s Betty Grable? Most of the German spies had near flawless American accents, but stumbled over simple trivia.”

Moss slapped his leg and howled with laughter. The childish side of the young Patriot was shining through and seeing it brought home the stinging memory of Emma and Gregory. For a brief moment, John said a silent prayer they be kept safe.

I’m coming, kids.

As John grew quiet, all attention returned to Marshall, who stood scratching the edge of his bristling chin. “I’ll need more time to make a decision,” he told them, dismissing those assembled in the command tent.

Chapter 30

As they shuffled out, John pulled Rodriguez off to the side.

“Has your man in Oneida found Diane and the kids yet?”

“He has,” Rodriguez answered without elaborating.

John paused, his guts twisting in knots. Even though he knew he was talking to Rodriguez, he couldn’t help seeing First Sergeant Wright’s thin face looking back at him. His hands went to the radio operator’s shoulders. “Tell me they’re all right.”

“The report that I received was that they’re safe. Along with the Appleby family.”

The tension in John’s chest dissipated. “You have no idea how relieved I am to hear that. How long do you think before your man will get a hold of the Chairman’s presidential orders?”

“Who can say?” Rodriguez replied. He was being curt and John didn’t understand why. “He’ll need to reconfigure his previous goals and objectives from Operation Hammer Fist toward this new mission.”

“I don’t understand.”

“It’s not quite as simple as dropping everything you have and snooping through drawers. He’s made contacts and commissioned friendly assets toward helping the cause.”

“You mean members of the Chairman’s entourage? Citizens of Oneida?”

“In a few cases, yes, but…” That funny look flashed across Rodriguez’s eyes again.

“There’s something you’re not telling me,” John said, noticing the subtle twitch in the radio operator’s lower lip. “Something about Diane.”

Rodriguez paused and sighed heavily. “The Chairman’s taken a liking to her,” he told him.

“A liking?”

“The report from the agent said the Chairman had taken her into a room to be interrogated and she nearly broke his wrist.”

A toothy grin grew on John’s face, although the act betrayed the simultaneous dread he was also feeling. “She can be a real pistol,” John said with pride. “It was one of the reasons I married her. She’d kill me if she knew I told you this, but we were both freshmen on the campus of Tennessee U. She was a literature major and I was enrolled in what would be a failed attempt to become an engineer. We were on the city bus, heading to our respective classes, packed in like factory-farmed chickens. It was hot and sweaty and the guy next to her decided her bottom would make a perfect resting place for his hand. A grab and a squeeze was about all he had time to accomplish before Diane turned around and decked him. Course, Mr. Touchy Feely didn’t like that one bit and made like he was gonna hit her back.”

“But you caught his arm and beat him?” Rodriguez said, clearly getting into the story.

The grin on John’s face widened. “I might have if she hadn’t kicked him between the legs first.”

Rodriguez’s face mirrored the pain the pervert must have felt.

“You don’t just let a girl like that slip away,” John said. “I thought she did a fine job. A couple years later, once I’d managed to make her my wife, I taught her that wrist lock in case another man tried to put his hands on her.”

“She sounds like she can take care of herself just fine then.”

“I’m sure she can,” John replied, remembering the soft features of Diane’s young face that day on the city bus.

For the time being, Rodriguez didn’t say more about the Chairman’s apparent interest in Diane. But John knew perfectly well, some men liked what didn’t come easy. There was something about trying to bend a strong woman to their will that excited men like the Chairman. A lesser man would have licked his wounds and sent her away. Someone with a rather unsettling fetish for power and control, however, would see Diane’s defiance as nothing more than a challenge.

Chapter 31

Edward let Diane, Kay and the three kids into the apartment and stuffed the keys back into his pocket.

“I told you I’d get you out of those cells,” he said gruffly.

There was something unusual about the man, Diane thought. Even when he was doing something kind, he somehow managed to sound cross.

“We can’t thank you enough,” she told him. “Although I can’t help but feel guilty. There are still so many others still locked up.”

“You’re not the first family I’ve gotten out,” Edward said. “But don’t go thinking you’re free, ’cause you’re not. A guard’s gonna show up any minute to stand right outside that door. Consider this more like house arrest.”

Gregory was thumbing the remote for the TV.

“Honey, you know that isn’t going to work.”

“Yeah, but you never know,” he said, grinning.

Kay and her daughter Natalie were in the kitchen playing with the faucet. Emma was probably checking out the bedrooms.

“No water either,” Kay said, wrenching the faucet lever back and forth.

“This isn’t a hotel at Disneyland,” Diane said curtly.

Edward nodded. “A gallon jug of clean water will be brought up once a day for each of you. As per FEMA standards, three quarters for drinking, one quarter for sanitation. You’ll need to make it last.”

He moved to the door and waved her over.

“Oh, yeah, there’s been a change of plan,” he said.

Diane went over to where he was standing. The others in the apartment were still snooping around every nook and cranny like a bunch of curious cats.

“You mean about the Chairman?”

He nodded and at once Diane reached down and removed the knife from the bottom of her pant leg. She was handing the blade back to him when he pushed her hand down.

“You’re having dinner with the Chairman tonight,” Edward said.

Diane looked both shocked and horrified.

“And there’s something you need to do. Slip this into his drink,” Edward told her, producing a small paper pouch.

“What’s in it?”

“Ground-up Ambien sleeping pills, strong enough to knock him out for a few hours. More than enough time for you to complete your mission.”

“My mission?” Diane was liking this less and less every second.

“In the breast pocket of the Chairman’s jacket are documents from the president, stating his appointment as temporary administrator for Oneida. We need you to find those documents and bring them to us.” He motioned toward the bedroom. “In the closet you’ll find a leather pair of size six-and-a-half knee-high boots. Wear those tonight.”

“But I’m a size seven.”

Edward fixed her in a steely glare. “Then you’ll need to squeeze.”

“What are the boots for?”

“So you can smuggle the knife in.”

Now the anxiety was making Diane’s heart slam against her chest.

“But what about the sleeping powder? I thought I was just knocking him out.”

“You are. The knife’s in case you get caught.”

•••

The man who would stand guard outside their apartment arrived just then and Edward left without saying another word. Even with the door closed, knowing they couldn’t simply come and go as they pleased made their new dwelling feel so much smaller. Even so, it was infinitely better than a cell block filled with all those other people.

Edward’s words were still echoing inside her head when Gregory came next to her, his dark curly hair matted and greasy.

“Just went through all the drawers, Mom, and there are no knives, just a dozen spoons. Hey, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing, honey. I’m simply tired. Listen, I think we all need to wash up. I’m sure there’s a water heater in one of the closets. Why don’t you look for a bucket under the sink and see if you can’t fill it.”

Gregory smiled, eager to start the job he was given. He sped off and then put on the brakes. “Hey, Mom, you think we’ll ever see Dad again?”

Diane was suddenly hyper-aware of the guard standing outside and put a finger over her lips to tell Gregory to be quiet. “Of course we will, honey. If I know your father, he’s already on his way.”

While Kay was with Natalie, investigating the rest of the cupboards, Emma returned from the bedrooms and fell into the couch, kicking up a thick cloud of dust. She coughed, waving her hand in front of her face.

“This place hasn’t been cleaned in months,” she complained. “I think I preferred the cell.”

Diane went and sat next to her. In spite of the way she was acting now, Emma wasn’t a spoiled brat. It was clear she was missing Brandon and her father and no doubt still dealing with the shock of what had happened back at the cabins.

“I know how you’re feeling,” Diane said, “but compared to other people, it could be a lot worse.”

“We’re locked in a dusty apartment without running water with no way of getting out.” They were on the second floor with windows facing the street, but climbing out of them without being seen wasn’t a realistic option. Especially since it meant getting shot on sight. For a moment, Diane’s attention was directed outside where the loudspeaker was reminding the residents of Oneida to obey the authorities and turn in any and all weapons.

“You’ve got a roof over your head,” she said at last. “And a father who’s still alive.”

“Yeah, how do you know he’s still alive?”

“I just do.”

“You mean the same way you know God exists?”

“Not faith, honey. All I can tell you is your father’s making preparations to help free us. But we all need to do our part.” Now Diane was whispering. “But Brandon and Natalie don’t have a father anymore. So the next time you’re feeling like you’re hard done by, you just remind yourself of the sacrifice that they’ve made.”

A knock came just then before the door opened. The locks had been removed and reinstalled on the other side. As comfy as it was, there was no fooling—this was still a prison.

“Who do you think it is?” Emma asked, fear creeping into her face.

Diane looked back at her with a matching expression. “I told you we all had a part to play. This is mine.”

Chapter 32

John entered the command tent to find Marshall alone inside. “There’s something I need to talk to you about,” John said.

Marshall looked weary, as though the weight of the entire country were resting on his shoulders, a feeling John hoped to never experience again. “What is it?”

“I’ve come to understand that this camp was thrown together out of necessity, but without knowing how long it will take to overthrow the Chairman and reclaim Oneida, we may need to start making some long-term plans.”

That the camp looked like a hobo town from the Great Depression wasn’t a big surprise, although it was clear that few people knew how to fix the problem.

Marshall’s eyes narrowed. “What do you have in mind?”

John told Marshall about the pot farm he’d discovered and the books on hydroponics.

“I think we can use the information there to begin growing our own food, rather than relying on captured supplies. It’ll help boost morale as well as the soldiers’ health. You could also make some improvements to your clean water situation. I see a lot of men and women in camp using iodine tablets and bleach to purify water. Some boil it, sure, but I think many see the first two methods as quicker and more convenient. They don’t realize those were really meant as short-term solutions. I noticed some ceramic candle filters in that first truck we inspected. It wouldn’t be too difficult to get a number of fifty-five gallon drums and create a nice, simple filtering system. Besides, it’ll do away with needing to gather stones, sand and charcoal. The improvement in taste will help too.”

Ceramic candle filters were short, cylindrical devices that could be attached to the bottom of a water drum. Pores in the shell were small enough to block bacteria while still allowing water to pass through. The colloidal silver kept bacteria from growing on the shell while the activated carbon inside absorbed dangerous chemicals and impurities.

“I think that can work,” Marshall said. “Although, God willing, we won’t need this camp for much longer.”

“I hope you’re right, but what if you do?” John asked him. “I’m just as optimistic as the next man, but a healthy dose of realism never hurt. That’s why I’m also worried about the sleeping conditions. I don’t see why we can’t look at building some simple barracks where people can sleep. We can model them after the Iroquois long houses which slept dozens and kept them warm through the winter months.”

Marshall let out a raspy laugh. “John, you’ve going Native on us.”

“I use what works,” he replied, ignoring Marshall’s slight dig. “When it came to survival and living off the land, the Natives sure as heck knew what they were doing. Take crops for example. They used an ingenious technique called the Three Sisters. Corn, beans and squash. Each one complemented the other. Since the beans needed tall poles to grow on, they were planted next to the corn. In turn, the bean roots captured nitrogen helping to enrich the soil for the corn. The squash was then planted between the rows of corn and beans. The shade from their leaves helped the corn’s very shallow roots and kept the ground moist, which in turn favored the growth of the beans. A perfectly circular system.”

“Okay,” Marshall spat, throwing up his hands in surrender. “I’m sold. All this talk of food is making me hungry. I’ll get someone on it in the next day or two.” His eyes fell to John’s tactical vest and the S&W on his hip. “Moss has the kinda guts most men dream of,” Marshall said. “But there’s one thing he doesn’t have. Something you can’t teach.”

“Experience and wisdom?” John answered.

Marshall nodded. “I wanna make you my number two, John.”

“But you won’t,” John said. “And you shouldn’t. I’m not here to step on anyone’s toes. This isn’t about validation or ego for me, although I appreciate your vote of confidence. You know why I’m here.”

“The same reason we’re all here, John. But I respect your position.”

The two men shook hands.

“When this is all over where you gonna go?” Marshall asked him.

“I’m not sure,” John answered. “I wanna say back home to rebuild. I mean, that’s the right answer. It’s just I don’t know where home is anymore.” He drew in a deep, stinging breath and held it for about as long as he could. After letting it go, he found Marshall standing there, watching him curiously. “What about you?”

“There’s only one thing I’m aiming to do before I die,” Marshall told him. “Give my wife and son a proper burial.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know they’d passed. When you mentioned we’d all suffered loss I just assumed they were being held in—”

“And a perfectly normal assumption that would be. The Chairman’s responsible, so we have common cause there, no need to worry. But Jane and Greg are lying in a pair of unmarked graves on Cedar Ridge. Wasn’t time to give them the burial they deserved. That’ll come later, once we free Oneida from that tyrant.”

“My son’s name is Gregory too,” John offered and for a reason he couldn’t explain, something as simple as a name made Marshall’s loss seem all the more devastating.

Chapter 33

The guard led Diane to a small greasy spoon called Fran’s Diner on the corner of Main and Church. The sun had already begun to set, dousing the streets in creeping darkness. A flickering light from inside the diner told her someone was inside, waiting for her. After opening the door, the guard ushered her inside. Diane entered, her heart thumping in her neck. Tucked into the brim of her panties was the paper pouch with the crushed Ambien. The knife was wedged into the tall boot on her right foot. The act had made walking a little awkward, but so far she’d managed to avoid drawing suspicion.

For a moment, Diane wondered whether the restaurant was empty. Then in a corner, sitting at a table with the warm glow of a single candle, she spotted the Chairman. Next to him were two men in dark suits, standing rigid and yet nearly invisible. One of them was black and thick with muscle, the other white and shorter by a full head. It didn’t take her long to determine they were either military in plain clothes or Secret Service. Figuring out which wouldn’t be easy.

“There you are,” the Chairman said, rising and setting his napkin on the table.

The suits both stepped forward and intercepted her as she approached, patting her down.

They’re gonna find the drugs or the knife, she thought with a burst of terror.

“Please, gentlemen,” the Chairman said. “You have to treat a woman with respect, not paw her like a common criminal.” He turned to Diane. “I’m so sorry.”

She nodded, unsure if she could bring herself to speak.

“Come,” he said, motioning to the booth. The table was set with fine china and wine glasses.

As she slid into her seat, the men who’d tried searching her stepped back into the shadows.

“Something to drink?” the Chairman asked. “It’s so hard to find good wine in this tiny backwater of a town. Washington’s positively brimming with them, but with so much power and corruption concentrated in one place that’s hardly a surprise, is it?”

Diane smiled, her mind going to the paper pouch. “I’d love a drink, Mr. Chairman,” she told him.

“Please, call me Charles.” He opened a hundred-and-fifty-dollar bottle of Leoville Barton and filled her glass till it was three-quarters full. He was trying to get her drunk, of course, and she would need to play along until she had an opportunity to do what the resistance had asked of her.

“Such nice plates,” she commented. “Are they antiques?”

“Seventeenth-century Chinese porcelain, donated by the former mayor of Oneida after his imprisonment.”

Or more like stolen, she thought, but didn’t say.

“You certainly have fine tastes,” Diane said.

His eyes narrowed and held hers for a moment. “I know what I like,” he told her, before breaking away to fill his own glass. Once done, he raised it.

“A toast,” he said. “To new beginnings and second chances.”

When they chimed, she noticed his wrist was bandaged.

“I hope I didn’t hurt you,” she lied.

“Oh, this? No, not at all. It’s more of a fashion statement.”

He giggled and Diane joined in, hoping she sounded genuine.

“You’re nervous,” he observed. “I can feel your leg bobbing under the table.”

“Wouldn’t any girl be?” she asked, laying a hand on her knee to keep it from moving. “I mean, you practically own the town.”

The Chairman grinned the way rich men did when their egos were being stroked. “I wouldn’t say own. I’m running it at the behest of the president. We’re living in dark times, Diane, and I’m not just making a bad pun here. I’m doing my duty as any American would. Someday soon I may be asked to relinquish my position as Chairman and a civilian mayor will once again be elected. At the present, it’s my job to restore order. Not a responsibility I enjoy, but one I’m compelled by my patriotism to fulfill. You see, I don’t like punishing people. At heart, I’m really a lover.”

“So you’re not a military man then?” she asked, probing for information. She took a sip of wine in an effort to encourage him to do the same. No one liked to drink alone and she wanted him to feel relaxed and maybe soon enough a little drunk.

The Chairman tilted his glass back and drew in a mouthful of wine, seeming to savor the taste. “You’re attracted to men in the armed forces, are you?”

She nodded. “Who isn’t?”

“How do you feel about the Marines?”

“You’ve got my attention.”

“Good, because I was a medic with the 1st Battalion 2nd Marines before being honorably discharged and joining the diplomatic corps. I told you I was a lover.”

Diane smiled, trying to hide her concern. One of the details in the Chairman’s story was setting off alarm bells in her head. The Marines didn’t use the term medic. That was the army. In the Marines, the men and women who provided medical treatment on the battlefield were called Corpsmen.

“Fascinating,” she said. “Where did you grow up?”

The Chairman took another long sip of wine. “A small town outside of Philadelphia. My mother worked fourteen-hour shifts in a factory making children’s bicycles. My father was a butcher and dedicated his entire life to the state.”

“State? You mean Pennsylvania?”

The Chairman stammered and ushered the awkward silence away with more wine for both of them. “Yes, he was a patriotic man, but he was from another generation. Back during a time when the needs of the many outweighed the needs of the few. Now, everyone wants nothing more than fifteen minutes of fame and easy money.”

“So why would the president send a diplomat to run a small town?”

“Ah, a question built on several assumptions.” The Chairman’s words were sticking together in the most subtle way. A clear sign the alcohol was starting to hit him. “First of all, I’m not the only one. The president sent hundreds of men and woman just like me all over the country.” Diane wasn’t understanding and, seeing that, the Chairman paused. “Do you remember Paul Bremer?”

“The head of the provisional government in Iraq after the war? Of course.”

The Chairman clapped his hands together. “Paul was a special envoy sent over to lead as Director of the Office for Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance. He was a diplomat, sent as a special envoy.”

“To a Third World country,” Diane countered. She’d come out of character as the sweet, easy conversationalist she’d been playing and hoped she hadn’t blown her cover.

The Chairman’s eyes became glassy. “What kind of a country do you think you’re in now, darling? America’s now part of the Third World.”

Diane smiled sheepishly, pretending to be a weak woman who’d been put in her place. She was appealing to the Chairman’s oversized ego. Her eyes then rose to the Secret Service types standing a few paces behind him.

“Is there any way we can be alone?” she asked, biting her lip.

The Chairman’s gaze shifted between his men and Diane. “Give us a moment, will you?” he told them.

The smaller white one didn’t look so sure.

“Stay in the kitchen if you must, but I’ll be fine.”

Reluctantly, they turned and shuffled through the swinging door into the diner’s kitchen area. Diane spotted a handful of other figures back there, working by candlelight.

“What’s going on in there?” she asked.

The Chairman laughed at the foolishness of the question. “How else do you expect to eat?”

The sight of pampering and opulence in a world where so many were struggling to scrape by made her sick, but Diane had to swallow it down and play the part.

Over by the counter, next to an empty cake fridge, was an antique gramophone.

“Oh, wow,” she said with genuine surprise. When she’d entered the diner, her gaze had been pulled toward the candlelight and she hadn’t noticed the giant horn-shaped device sitting on the counter. “My great-granny used to have one of those. Oh, it’s been years.”

“And months probably since you heard any music, am I right?”

“You’ve thought of everything, Charles. Would you play me a song?” she asked, summoning the sweetest voice she could and batting the doe eyes that always seemed to work on John.

The Chairman grinned, his teeth stained red from the wine. “I thought you’d never ask.” Depositing his napkin on the table, the Chairman rose, then braced himself for a second when the alcohol hit home.

“Someone tell the captain the ship is bobbing,” he said, letting out giddy laughter.

“Be careful,” Diane said, noting another instance where a supposed Marine forgot the proper terminology. Perhaps this was why the resistance wanted so badly to get a hold of his presidential papers.

The Chairman staggered over to the record player and Diane quickly went for the pouch she’d stashed in the brim of her panties. It was no longer there. A hot panic rose up her neck and into her cheeks. It had slid further down and she pushed her fingers deeper to retrieve it. The Chairman was by the gramophone now, winding it up.

“I’ve got just the song.”

Finally she found it and with shaking fingers struggled to pry it open. She heard the needle scratch as the Chairman tried to steady it. Tearing a small hole, Diane reached over and poured the contents into his wine glass as the music started to play. It was from the 1859 opera Faust by Hector Berlioz.

Diane glanced over to find the Chairman glaring back at her. He didn’t seem drunk anymore. Gone too was the warm smile he’d been wearing since she’d arrived. That was when she knew for certain she’d been caught.

Chapter 34

In three quick strides he was nearly on her, his face a mask of anger. Diane reached into her right boot and pulled out the knife. Edward had told her this was her last resort if she were caught trying to slip him the Ambien and now she was getting ready to use it.

“Get back,” she shouted, waving the blade in the air. If he took another step she was ready to jam it into his belly.

The Chairman skidded to a stop. He had a smirk on his face, as though he knew she didn’t really have the upper hand.

Sure, Oneida wasn’t the biggest town, but if this was who the president had sent to restore order and protect the people, then the commander-in-chief’s judgment was far worse than she’d previously believed.

In a flash, a choice was suddenly before her. Turn and charge out the door behind her or lunge and end the life of a man who’d already victimized countless others.

“Diane, if you only knew how much trouble you’re—”

Flipping the knife into an overhand grip, Diane took two giant steps and swung down, narrowly missing his chest. Instead, the edge of the sharpened blade pierced the dark blazer he was wearing and tore a long gash down the front. Up went the knife for the next strike when a clump of folded papers dropped from the hole in the Chairman’s jacket. That split-second delay was all the time he needed to turn and run to the kitchen screaming for help.

Were those the papers she’d been sent to retrieve? Diane scooped them up and ran for the door.

The swinging kitchen door blasted open right as she rounded the last set of tables. The humorless Secret Service agents emerged, pistols drawn and firing. But Diane continued running until she slammed through the front door, bullets shattering the glass around her. If she’d been hit, she didn’t know it.

“Get her,” the Chairman screeched from inside.

Escape wasn’t possible. Diane was smart enough to know that. But she needed to find somewhere safe to stash these documents. She ducked around the back of the next building, hoping to buy herself some time, and that was when she saw it. A mailbox not ten feet away. Because of the curfew, the streets here were empty, but she knew that with the gunfire and shouts that would all soon change.

Charging full force, Diane skidded up to the mailbox, pulled open the lip and slid the documents inside, waiting until they landed with a dull thud.

From there she ran north on Main Street, heading back toward the apartment where Kay and the kids were staying.

A handful of shots rang out behind her. They were firing at her with pistols and the rounds went zinging over her head. She was less than a dozen yards from the building when the men on horseback came galloping up from the other direction and surrounded her.

Diane put her hands in the air and let the knife drop to the sidewalk where it fell with a clang.

The men in dark suits were there a moment later, twisting her hands behind her back and restraining them with zip ties.

She kept expecting them to read her Miranda rights, before remembering those didn’t exist anymore. One of many checks and balances that had once made this country great and had become some of the first casualties in the new world order.

The Chairman caught up a few seconds later, his shredded blazer showing clear signs of her handiwork.

“Where is it?” he demanded.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You like to play games, do you? Well so do I.” The Chairman turned to the suit beside him. “Send her to the interrogation room. And bring the others along too.”

Diane gasped. She knew perfectly well ‘the others’ meant Kay and the children.

Chapter 35

The townspeople emerged from their homes as Diane was led away by the two Secret Service men. She could tell by the looks on the faces of those gathering that they’d seen many others carted away.

Although John didn’t often open up about his experiences in the military, he had told her about neighborhoods on the outskirts of Baghdad that were controlled by militants and in some cases Al-Qaeda. He’d tried to describe to her the meek way people watched the injustices going on around them. The fear of being the next victim often made them subdued as yet another member of the community was taken away never to be seen again.

They couldn’t entirely be blamed, John had told her. Risking one’s life for a cause took tremendous courage and extraordinary foolishness. But what these people watching now didn’t fully understand was that by standing by, they were becoming complicit in the crimes they were witnessing.

“Don’t you people see what’s happening?” she shouted. “Is this the kind of country we want to live in?”

One of the Secret Service men swatted her on the back of the head with an open hand. She felt a burst of stinging pain, but kept appealing to the growing crowd of onlookers.

“Shut her up,” the Chairman yelled from somewhere behind them.

The next blow wasn’t with an open fist. Something hard connected with the back of Diane’s skull and for a moment she saw stars. She struggled to catch her breath. Her arms wrenched at a painful angle behind her back.

Within minutes she was led into a small warehouse off the main strip and shoved into a wooden chair. Her hands were freed of the zip ties and lashed to the back of the seat. After that, her ankles were bound to the legs of the chair. Opposite her was another seat, presumably for her interrogator.

Diane wasn’t entirely surprised to see the Chairman enter wearing a new blazer.

“Frankly, I expected more from you, Diane,” he said, examining the cuticles of his right hand.

“Yeah, well, I’m happy to disappoint you.”

The Chairman grinned and there wasn’t an ounce of humor in it. “I could have made you and your family comfortable, do you know that? I didn’t ask for much. Just a little company. Some nice conversation.”

“When the president finds out what you’ve been up to here…”

The Chairman laughed. “When he finds out? Whose orders do you think I’m following? When the threat against democracy is this high then extreme measures must sometimes be used. The freedoms you enjoy are guarded by men who break the Constitution every single day. You don’t see it because it’s hidden from you. That’s the reality that none of you are willing to accept. Sometimes the rules must be bent in order to preserve the things we love. You had a chance to bend your own rules with me and you chose not to.”

“Because I’m married.”

“See what I mean? Your loyalty to that vow was stronger than your need to protect your family. If you’d only played along, Diane, then none of this would be happening.”

“You said ‘freedoms you enjoy,’” she said. “Why not ‘freedoms we enjoy?’”

The Chairman looked confused. “What are you on about?”

“When you were talking before, you spoke as though you weren’t one of us, as though the freedoms promised by the Constitution didn’t apply to you.”

“A slip of the tongue. Are you a linguist, dissecting every word I say?”

“No,” Diane replied. “It just struck me as odd.”

The Chairman leaned in closer. “Well, let me tell you what’s odd. For a woman whose life is hanging in the balance, you don’t seem very worried.”

She stared back at him. Of course she was afraid. But not so much about what might happen to her. It was the fate of Gregory and Emma that worried her most. By going on that mission, she’d risked losing everything, but the Chairman had said it best himself. Sometimes to protect the things we love, we must bend the very rules we seek to preserve.

“Who ordered you to slip that powder into my drink?” he asked. His hands were gripping the chair back.

“No one,” she replied.

A loud clap filled the room as he slapped her face. A deep red mark bloomed on her cheek.

“I’m going to ask you again,” the Chairman said as his hand rose above his head. “Who ordered you to steal the presidential papers?”

“I don’t—”

Whack!

Blood dribbled down her chin. Diane felt her lower lip start to swell.

She held out for a few more minutes before the Chairman swore in frustration.

“Get Chiang!” he called out to someone Diane couldn’t see.

A large sliding door opened and one of the Secret Service men slipped out. A moment later he returned with a short, frail-looking man holding a briefcase. Another man entered with them, carrying a small table. He arrived first and set it down. Chiang then laid his metal briefcase on top, undid the combo and opened the lid. Inside was a row of stainless-steel instruments.

Chiang was old and slightly hunched, the flesh around his eyes puffy with age. His mouth curled into a permanent grin.

“Hello, young lady,” he said, addressing her, his breath reeking of fish sauce. “I have a certain level of experience encouraging people to tell me things they’d like to keep secret.”

To his left, the Chairman looked on with glee.

Diane’s heart began to hammer in her chest. This was like some horrible nightmare you couldn’t wake up from.

“Yes, Chiang. She’s a stubborn one, no doubt about it. Perhaps you could encourage her.”

Diane’s eyes darted between Chiang and his briefcase packed with torture devices. The old man seemed to be surveying his options, trying to decide which one to use.

Squeezing her eyes shut, Diane clenched her teeth, almost able to feel the excruciating pain that would soon rack her body.

Chiang pulled out a scalpel, that sick, widening grin plastered on his weathered face. “We start small.”

He began to approach her and then stopped, shaking his head.

“What is it, Mr. Chiang?” the Chairman asked.

“No, too easy. This is too easy.” He turned to the Secret Service agent who’d disappeared back into the shadows. “Bring the little girl.”

“Which one?” the Chairman asked. “There are two.”

“Emma,” Chiang said. “We start with Emma.”

•••

The agent brought Emma in and sat her roughly in the chair opposite Diane. Her daughter was crying from the moment she entered the warehouse and grew louder when she spotted the blood on her mother’s face.

“Don’t do this,” Diane howled. “I’ll tell you everything you wanna know, just don’t hurt her.”

“I’m afraid it’s too late for that,” the Chairman said flatly.

Chiang looked Emma up and down then turned back to his briefcase. He was whistling a happy tune that Diane had never heard before. After a moment, his fingers settled on a head clamp with a row of inward-pointing screws. Emma’s eyes grew wide when she saw it, her chest heaving with fear.

Chiang swung around, holding it out as though he were about to crown a princess.

“His name’s Edward,” Diane said, a mist of blood spraying out as she spoke. “He came to my cell and gave me the knife, said he wanted me to stick you with it the next time you asked to see me.”

Chiang moved toward Emma as she struggled in her seat.

“Mom, please make him stop.”

“He was the one who got us transferred to the apartment,” Diane said, firing the words out as quickly as she could. “Then he told me there’d been a change of plan. They didn’t want you dead anymore. They wanted the presidential commission you kept in your breast pocket.”

The Chairman held up a hand and Chiang paused, the crown of screws still outstretched in his hands. A growing look of disappointment was on the Asian man’s face, as though he hadn’t wanted Diane to talk before he had a chance to play with his toys.

“How’d they know where the document was?” the Chairman asked.

Tears were streaming down Diane’s face. “I have no idea. All he told me was to drug you and check your inside pocket for the papers.”

“What about the knife?” the Chairman asked.

Chiang’s arms were starting to shake.

“That was in case I failed.”

“And fail you did, although not entirely. Where did you hide the document? Did you give it to this Edward?”

Diane shook her head. “I stuffed it into a mailbox.”

“The one on Main?”

She nodded. “That’s all I know, I swear. Just please let Emma go.”

The door behind them opened and the agent slipped out.

“I hope for your sake it’s still there.” The Chairman turned to Chiang. “Put that thing down before your arms fall off.”

Less than five minutes later, the agent was back. He approached, stepping into the single shaft of light. He had a wide face with small eyes and fleshy lips.

“And?”

He shook his head.

The Chairman turned to Diane, who looked just as shocked.

“It must still be there,” she cried. “Look again.”

“I believe you,” the Chairman said. “Which is why I’m going to let your daughter go.”

The agent untied Emma and held her back when she tried to lunge forward to hug her mother.

“But treason is something I will not tolerate,” the Chairman told her. “That’s why tomorrow you’ll be taken out and hanged in front of the entire town. I want them to see what happens when people break the peace in Oneida.”

Chapter 36

The radio crackled to life as Rodriguez waved Marshall, John and the others inside the command tent.

“John Hancock, this is Patriot One, your signal strength is ten over nine, go ahead.”

‘Patriot One’ was Rodriguez’s call sign, which meant that ‘John Hancock’ must be Edward, their contact in Oneida.

“Patriot One, I have the Chairman’s presidential commission in my possession. I’ve spent the last thirty minutes going over it in detail and I’m about as certain as I can be that it’s fake.”

John’s breath hitched in his throat. The revelation wasn’t completely shocking, but the words sent chills up his spine. The implications were staggering.

“Ask him how he can be so sure,” John said. This wasn’t something they wanted to leave to chance. Taking out an imposter was one thing, but murdering a presidential envoy, no matter how corrupt, could bring the might of the US military down on them.

Rodriguez asked the question.

“Patriot One, gosh, where do I start? First off, the document is laced with grammatical errors. Mostly missing conjunctions. ‘And,’ ‘or,’ ‘so,’ ‘but.’ Parts of it are readable, but others seem like they were written by a foreigner. Most of the problems I’ve found, however, show up in the presidential seal. As you may know, the number thirteen plays a big part in the seal. There are supposed to be thirteen stars in the crest, thirteen stripes in the shield, thirteen arrows in the eagle’s talon, as well as thirteen olive leaves and thirteen olives. In the Chairman’s seal, those numbers are all over the place. For example, the eagle’s only carrying a single arrow.”

Those gathered in the command tent looked from one to another. The white-hot anger over what the Chairman had done to their loved ones was now so much stronger than before. They and the people of Oneida had been conned by a shyster.

“If that weren’t enough,” the contact continued, “there are only forty-seven stars representing the states instead of fifty and E Pluribus Unum is spelled wrong. Looks to me like whoever made this either did it in one hell of a hurry or thought we’d be too stupid to know the difference.”

For some reason that last part stung the most. As though they were being mocked and insulted all over again.

“Thank you, John Hancock. Good job.”

“Patriot One, just doing my duty. I do have some bad news however. The agent who retrieved the papers was captured during the mission. From what I’ve been able to discern, it looks like they’ve been scheduled for public execution sometime tomorrow.”

John caught a strange shift in Rodriguez’s expression, one that almost looked like guilt. “I’m sorry to hear that,” Rodriguez said. “Is there anything you can do to help?”

“Negative, Patriot One. As it stands I’m preparing to vacate my post as soon as we’re done here.”

“Have you been compromised?”

“That’s still uncertain, but I think the wisest course of action would be to destroy my equipment and rendezvous with you at—”

A pause and then a sudden burst of static.

“Please say again, John Hancock, you’re breaking up.”

Another rush of static mixed with angry voices. It sounded like Edward was holding down the mic during a struggle. A deafening boom sounded before the signal went dead.

All assembled looked at one another. They knew now without a doubt that the Chairman and the cronies he’d brought into Oneida were con artists or maybe worse, but gaining that knowledge had cost them their only window into the town.

Chapter 37

“We gotta get in there and help him,” Moss shouted.

“Rushing in hastily isn’t going to help Edward,” Marshall scolded his lieutenant. “He knew the risks. So too did the agent he enlisted.”

That funny look flashed across Rodriguez’s features again and this time John didn’t think it was just empathy. The radio operator was hiding something.

“We still have our mountaintop observation post,” John told them. “At least we can use that to see if reinforcements show up. The major problem we have is, even with the new AKs, we still don’t have enough men.” He couldn’t help thinking of Willow Creek and the friends he’d lost there. “I’ve seen what happens when two evenly matched forces do battle and more often than not both of them get decimated.”

The radio came to life again and this time everyone hushed. The signal was garbled and hard to make out.

“John Hancock, is that you, over?” Rodriguez said, clutching the mic in a desperate grip. “You’re coming in very faint. Check your signal strength.”

After a tense moment. “Is that better, over?”

“Reading you loud and clear.”

The voice on the other end was different. Clearly this wasn’t their contact in Oneida and the mood in the command tent began to flounder.

“What’s your call sign?”

“This is Captain Brian Mitchell, 278th Armored Cav Regiment. There aren’t many Americans broadcasting these days. Good to hear your voice.”

Moss looked skeptical at the mention of armored vehicles. “Didn’t the EMP destroy just about everything the army had?”

“Tanks, Bradleys and Humvees, among others,” John told him, “were hardened against the effects of an EMP blast. But the real challenge is delivering the fuel and parts to keep them running.”

Rodriguez got back on the radio and explained to Captain Mitchell who they were.

“Keep your strength up, boys,” came the Captain’s enigmatic reply. “We may need you up at the front soon.”

Rodriguez shook his head. “Say again. Which front are you referring to?”

“Well, I guess you haven’t heard. We’re at war. A combined force of Chinese, North Korean and Russian troops landed on the West Coast about two months ago and we’ve been sending everything we have to slow down their advance.”

John and the others were positively stunned. Foreign troops on US soil. Nothing like it had happened since the war of 1812.

But there was more shocking news.

“What about aid from the European Union?” Rodriguez asked.

Mitchell laughed. “They were hit just as hard as we were. Seems like this new Axis of Evil took aim to conquer the continental US while leaving Europe to thin itself out through anarchy and social chaos.”

“I don’t know what to say,” Rodriguez told him. “We’re all sitting here with our jaws on the floor.”

“I can’t blame you,” Captain Mitchell said. “But there’s more bad news if you’re ready for it. Since that EMP hit, Russian agents have been taking over towns and cities all over the country, claiming to be presidential appointees. Those tricky Slavs are now playing havoc with our logistics, lemme tell you.”

“What is your current position?” Rodriguez asked.

“That’s classified. All I can say is we’re moving west through Tennessee. A last defensive line is being drawn up along the Mississippi river. If we lose that then we lose this war.”

For a moment John was utterly speechless. He remembered hearing about troops moving west, but he’d assumed they were heading to restore law and order to some of the big cities.

Marshall was pacing back and forth in the hot confines of the command tent. “There must be some strategic importance to Oneida, or else the Russians wouldn’t have bothered with it.”

The answer formed in John’s head as clear as a summer’s day. “They need the rail yard,” he said and the words fired out all on their own. “With the roads piled with cars, what better way to control the movement of large numbers of troops and materiel than with the rails?”

“You might be right,” Marshall said, running a hand through his beard.

John’s spirits rose. “A single Bradley fighting vehicle is all we would need to swing the odds in our favor and take back the town,” John told them. “Rodriguez, explain the situation to him, that we have a fifth columnist in control of a major rail hub and that we need support to recapture the city.”

Rodriguez looked to Marshall who nodded. “Do it.”

“Captain Mitchell, this is Patriot One. Are you there, over?” A moment of silence followed. “Captain Mitchell, are you there, over?”

When there was still no response, Rodriguez glanced down at his equipment. “I think our signal’s being jammed,” he said.

“What do you mean?” Marshall spat.

Rodriguez switched the receiver on, producing a loud pulsating signal.

“They must have done it after they saw Edward’s radio,” John said. “The Chairman wants to keep us isolated. It’s the main reason our forces have been pushed back to the Mississippi. They can’t effectively communicate with one another.”

“Oh, God, this is a nightmare,” Moss said, dropping his head into his hands. “Didn’t we beat these guys during the Cold War?”

John shook his head. “We did, but that was before Putin’s ambitions to reinstate the former Soviet empire became apparent and before he, China and North Korea apparently found common cause.”

“So what now?” Moss asked no one in particular.

“We need to get someone into Oneida and destroy that jamming equipment as soon as possible,” Marshall told them. “If the army shows up, the town is sure to surrender without a fight.”

“I’ll go,” John offered.

Moss didn’t look at all convinced. “I’m not sure that’s such a good idea. We know what happened the first time John went in on his own.”

John clenched his fist. Moss seemed to forget how John had saved him and Sullivan from a summary execution on a lonely stretch of road. But long ago he’d learned not to stoop to another man’s level.

“The three of you will go,” Marshall said, motioning to John, Moss and Rodriguez. “Get your gear, we leave in ten minutes.”

“We?” John asked.

“The rest of us will launch a probing attack from the north and east to draw their attention away from your insertion point. Once you get Rodriguez to that jammer, we’ll use their own radio to call in the 278th.”

Chapter 38

“There’s something you aren’t telling me,” John said to Rodriguez. The others were filing out of the command tent in order to prepare their men for the coming assault.

“I’m not sure what you mean.”

“Come on,” John snapped, clenching his fists until the muscles in his forearms pushed against the sleeves of his shirt. “I saw that funny look on your face during the briefing.”

“Listen, we have a mission to do,” Rodriguez began. “It’s best if neither of us are distracted…”

“Distracted by what? Did you hear something about Diane or the kids?”

John’s voice was starting to carry and the people around paused what they were doing to listen. Among them was Brandon, who had been loading John’s AR magazines.

Rodriguez sighed and the breath wavered as it came out of him. He was nervous, which could only mean John’s gut had been right.

“Please tell me none of them are dead.”

“Not yet,” Rodriguez replied, shaking his head.

“All right, you’ve got fifteen seconds to spill it because after that I won’t be responsible for what I—”

“She was recruited by our man in Oneida, Edward.”

“Recruited? What are you talking about? I thought she was sitting in a prison cell.”

“Well, the Chairman took a liking to her. I told you that much. I’m sure you remember.”

“How could I forget?”

“I guess Edward saw an opportunity and brought her on board.”

The muscles in John’s face went lax. “You brought her into the plot to assassinate the Chairman?”

Rodriguez’s hands flew in the air. “I didn’t do a thing. Edward was acting on his own. But yes, he approached Diane with the plan and she accepted.”

John’s head fell into his open hands.

“But then we scrapped Operation Hammer Fist, remember? You said killing the Chairman might be a bad idea until we knew who we were dealing with.”

“Yes, I did say that.”

“So we took your advice and informed Edward to retrieve the presidential commission instead.”

“Except Edward wasn’t prepared to do that himself.” John’s voice was rising again.

“He was, but Diane could get so much closer and without arousing suspicion. They agreed to spike his drink and…”

“Spike his drink? How on earth was she going to do that?”

“During dinner.”

“Oh, this keeps getting worse by the second.”

“Yeah, well, she tried and apparently was only partially successful. She got the papers to Edward, but your wife was captured in the process.”

“And why on earth are you only telling me now?”

“I only discovered it myself. Besides, what would you have done if you knew? Forbidden her from doing her patriotic duty?”

“I would have gone in there and done it myself,” John shouted.

“Yes, and gotten yourself killed. You’re a practical man, John, but when it comes to your own affairs you can’t see ten feet in front of you. Under the circumstances, there wasn’t any other choice. Edward took an asset under his wing and they did the best they could. You can’t protect them at every turn, John. I know that’s killing you right now. It’s a father’s and a husband’s job, I know, but guess what? This is real life. You aren’t Superman.”

The anger and sense of impending loss was surging through John. “Before he was yanked offline,” John said. “Edward mentioned the asset had been compromised. That they were going to be executed.”

Rodriguez’s eyes fell. “It’s supposed to happen sometime tomorrow. But we’ve got a mission to fulfill. If those Bradleys leave the area and roll into position along the Mississippi we may not get another chance to call the army in to help clear the Chairman out of Oneida.”

John glared at him with determination. “Then we’ll just have to find a way to do both.”

Chapter 39

When John arrived at the Blazer, Brandon was already wearing a small tactical vest. But that wasn’t the part that confused him the most. It was the fact that the boy was reaching into the truck to remove George’s cage.

“What are you doing?” John asked him.

“You told me a while back that becoming a man meant making choices. You said kids want to eat their cake and have it too. That adulthood was about compromising the things we want for the things we need.”

“I did.”

With great effort Brandon lifted the cage off the tailgate and set it on the soft grass. Inside, a rather sedate George stared up at the boy, seeking food with the tip of his beak.

“I remember how you ran for your life that first day George came chasing after you,” John told him. “I think you were less afraid when Cain and his men showed up.”

“Maybe I was,” Brandon replied, unlatching the cage. He reached in with both hands and closed them around George’s neck.

“What are you doing?”

“I think I finally understood what you meant,” Brandon said. “I might be able to shoot someone who’s coming to kill us or peg a squirrel off with a BB gun, but neither of those are as difficult as they seem. I mean, there’s always this part of you that takes over and does most of the hard work, doesn’t it? Training, fear. Not sure which, but there isn’t a whole lot of choice involved when someone’s got a gun pointing your way or when you’re starving and looking for something to eat.”

George was starting to thrash around in his cage and Brandon tightened his grip.

“But letting go of those childish things. Facing the hard facts of life and making the kind of choice a kid hopes he never has to. That’s the last bit that I’ve been holding onto.”

Brandon looked down at George, fixing him in his gaze. He was about to break the bird’s neck and part of John wanted to reach out and stop him. Not because the thing had a name and not to prove a point, but sacrificing the creature’s life as a rite of passage just somehow seemed wrong. For a moment, he thought of Abraham on Mount Moriah about to slit his son’s throat to prove his obedience to God.

A strangled whine rose up from the bird as Brandon squeezed him ever tighter.

John laid a hand on the young man’s shoulder. “Ease up, son. Part of becoming a man is also recognizing when you’ve arrived.”

Brandon’s fingers relaxed. John pushed the lid closed.

“I’m coming with you,” Brandon said.

John smiled. “Of course you are.”

•••

A few minutes later Moss showed up with what looked like armored vests. He handed one to John and one to Brandon.

After examining it for a moment, John said: “I’ve never seen one like it before.”

“Fits under your chest rig,” Moss explained.

“I’m not talking about that. I mean, these look homemade.”

Moss laughed, brushing his hand through the single strip of spiky hair on his head. “That’s because they are. I figure even with the feigned attack Marshall is launching from the North, we’ll need a bit of extra protection.”

The vest itself was heavy laminated fibers, divided into long vertical bands about five inches wide. Two of those covered the chest, while two more covered the back.

John rapped his knuckles against the armor inside and heard a strange metallic sound.

“What kind of protection you got in here?”

“Quarter-inch circular saw blades,” Moss said without batting an eyelash.

“Excuse me? I thought you said saw blades.”

Brandon was beside them, laughing and having trouble holding it in.

“We found them in the trailers and added slots to the vest to house them. Hey, no one’s forcing you to wear them.” Moss was looking insulted.

“Listen,” John told him. “I’m never one to look a gift horse in the mouth. I’m just saying I’ve never heard of circular saw blades being used as armor plating.”

“Overlap ‘em like scale armor,” Moss said, “and they work like a charm.” He pointed at what looked like a ballistics test they’d performed on John’s vest.

Now that John looked closer, it seemed as though they’d fired quite a few rounds at this thing.

“So what’s it rated for?”

“Well, it stopped .22s without blinking an eye. Even a .38. I’d wager that most pistol rounds won’t penetrate this gear, although I don’t know about 7.62 and 5.56. Guess it’ll depend if they have AP”—armor-piercing—“rounds along with range.”

John rolled his eyes. “Well, it isn’t all that heavy and it’s certainly better than nothing.”

Taking the next few minutes, John made sure all the gear he’d need was assembled. As always, he would use his Colt-AR and ACOG scope. The tactical vest over his body armor housed four now fully loaded thirty-round magazines. Additional green-tipped 5.56 NATO rounds were in a pouch on his belt. Secured in his leg holster was the S&W M&P .40 Pro with two additional mags.

In the months leading up to the EMP, John had been part of several online forums with people interested in prepping and living a self-sufficient lifestyle. Invariably, someone would ask what the best weapons would be to weather a grid-down or societal collapse. The question would generate a knowing smile from many for the simple reason that it implied one set of weapons was the best while another was inferior. Sure, there were quality and reliability factors with whatever gear one chose, but most of that came down to personal comfort levels and training.

For John, he felt most at home with the AR after serving in the military for a number of years. The platform was sleek and reliable and he knew he was proficient at putting rounds on target. Swap his main rifle out for an SU-16 and that was no longer the case. When bullets were flying over your head, it didn’t matter nearly as much that your rig made you look cool or your rifle turned people’s heads. You either put in the hours required to fire, reload and clear the occasional jam when the stuff hit the fan or you prayed whatever you were using worked well right out of the box.

Course, that was rarely the case. Skill sets degraded which was why the men and women in the Secret Service and other branches had to requalify every few months.

The other question John commonly received was about his choice of the S&W pistol over the far more ubiquitous Glock. For him, it came down to two things. A comfortable grip that fit perfectly in his hand and a great mag release.

Once Brandon had his armored vest on, John went in the back of the Blazer and pulled out the Mossberg Chainsaw.

Brandon’s eyes went wide. “For me?”

“Think you can handle it?” John asked.

“Sure I can. Got real good with the Kel-Tec, didn’t I?”

John nodded, grinning. “You were the best of all the kids.” Slowly the smile faded.

“Don’t worry,” Brandon said. “We’ll find them. Maybe even sooner than you think.”

The weight bearing down on John was starting to feel like shortness of breath. Not an ounce of it had anything to do with the armor and weapons he was carrying. This weight was the kind you couldn’t see, but the sort that seemed so much more crushing. He, Moss, Brandon and Rodriguez would need to slip into Oneida while a battle raged on the other side of the town. Once inside and undetected, they would then need to knock out the Chairman’s radio jammer. It didn’t matter that this was John’s second attempt at infiltrating the town, that the first had nearly ended with him lying in a shallow grave. He needed to keep his head clear. Shove all thoughts of seeking his wife and kids to the back of his mind and complete his mission.

Sometimes it wasn’t the gear or the lack of reinforcements that let you down. Sometimes it was the inability to keep a cool head.

Chapter 40

Soon the entire Patriot camp was assembled in a circle around Marshall. On the ground was a sandtable: a six-by-six mockup of Oneida and the surrounding area. To represent roads, they used rows of small stones. Old food cans doubled as buildings, and upside-down coffee mugs as strong points.

“We’ve received reliable intelligence,” Marshall began, “that the Chairman isn’t who he’s pretending to be. His claim of a presidential appointment was a lie intended to hide the fact that he’s a Russian agent.” This revelation elicited gasps and shouts of disbelief from the crowd. “I asked my lieutenants not to spill the beans before I had a chance to tell you all myself. I’m happy to see they honored their word. If you haven’t already figured it out, the United States is at war. I’m sure many of you assumed as much the minute the EMP hit. What you probably didn’t know was that for the last few months a brutal war’s been waged along the West Coast to repel a combined Russian, Chinese and North Korean invasion.” Now he really had their attention.

A woman next to John clapped a hand over her mouth. She swayed back and forth and reached out to steady herself. Similar scenes played out all around them. It had been centuries since a foreign power had invaded American soil and the news was even more staggering than witnessing the events of 9/11.

“We’ve learned,” Marshall continued, “that the Chairman, and many others like him, were sent far behind enemy lines. Their purpose was to hold towns, preserving vital infrastructure the enemy would need to conquer our vast country. Oil refineries, communication centers, railway depots. It looks like their plan was to swoop in, fix what was broken and then use our own transportation network to move troops and materiel. A small team is now being sent in to help reestablish contact with US forces nearby. If we can bring their heavy weapons into the fight, Oneida will have no choice but to capitulate.”

One of the Patriots wearing full tactical gear and frayed sneakers put his hand up. “What’s our job then, sir?”

“We’ll be the decoy.” Marshall used the stick in his hand to indicate Route 29, which led into town from the north, and Route 456, which entered from the east. “The bulk of our forces will attack from here and here.” He motioned to a series of bean cans along the northern and eastern sections of town. “These buildings overlooking the approach will be natural strong points. Our job isn’t to advance beyond them, but if the Chairman has reinforced them, they need to be taken out. While we do that, Rodriguez and a handful of others will slip in from the south and use directional antennas to locate the jamming signal emanating from the southern part of town.”

“So our job is to draw in their forces?” the man asked.

“It is,” John answered, stepping forward. He glanced at Marshall, who gave him the okay to speak. “There’s something I would like each of you to remember when engaging. Most of these are fellow Americans you’ll be up against, not Russians. We think the Chairman will be surrounded by a small bodyguard posing as Secret Service agents. More likely than not they’re Spetsnaz. That’s Russian Special Forces. They are ruthless and not to be trifled with. They’ll also be dressed in either dark suits or full black tactical gear. Show them no quarter. Everyone else who’s part of the local militia is a former neighbor and maybe even a friend. They’ve been conned by the Chairman’s fake presidential orders into defending the town against all encroachment. Our only hope of minimizing the bloodshed will be to pray that once the tanks and Bradleys show up, the average folks in town will lower their weapons.”

“But none of that can happen,” Marshall said, “until John and the others find and neutralize the source of the jamming.” He looked at John. “Once things get hot, you’ll have less than thirty minutes before we run out of ammo, so whatever you’re going to do, you better do it fast.” Marshall took a deep breath. “All right then.”

It sounded like the meeting was over. “What about the back brief?” John asked. “And rehearsals? A large operation involving this many moving parts…”

“We’ll have to skip it,” Marshall growled. “We can’t let those armored units move out of range.”

A grease-stained Patriot named Erik took his cap off and slid a forearm across his hairline. “We may have a problem,” he said.

Marshall’s brow furrowed. “We don’t have time for problems.”

“The way I count it, we got close to two hundred men and women prepped and ready to assault the town, but no more than twenty vehicles to get them there. Unless my math is wonky, most of these folks will be walking.”

“What about the other cars and trucks we have?” Marshall barked. “We counted them this morning and there were close to fifty.”

“Fifty-three,” Erik replied. “But only twenty are operational.”

Marshall tore the camo-pattern cap from his head and swore. “I don’t believe this.”

“There may be a solution,” John told them. “What about the rigs? They’re just sitting there, loaded with goods. If you get a team over to unload one or two, you can load people in. Send one rig with each branch of the attack.”

Marshall was nodding. He turned to Erik. “No reason that shouldn’t work.”

“No reason at all.”

“Good, then grab twenty men and unload the two rigs that have the most fuel and are the least shot up. I don’t want one of those beasts breaking down along the way.”

“Will do,” Erik said, scanning those gathered, looking for the group he would commission for the task.

“All right,” Marshall told all of them. “Take care of any last-minute preps. Make sure your gear’s on properly. Weapons loaded and stowed safely. We move out in a few minutes.”

The crowd dissipated to attend to those last remaining details.

Marshall came up to John, Moss and Rodriguez to give them a final briefing on their mission.

“These are the last two hand-held radios we have,” Marshall told them. “We been saving them for a special day. There’s only so much a man can fit in a single Faraday cage, after all.”

They all let a burst of uneasy laughter.

“You remember Reese you met the other day up on the hill overlooking the city?” Marshall asked John.

“The former Foreign Legion soldier. How could I forget?”

“We’re gonna run the other walkie up to him. He’s got that Remington 700 with a box of .30-06 black-tip armor-piercing rounds. You run into a fix you can’t get yourself out of and you call it in. His handle is Eagle Eye. Yours will be Mole One. That way he’ll know it’s a friendly calling in support fire and not one of them Russkies. We’ll also let him know where you boys are gonna be so he’ll be dialed in and keeping an eye on that area.”

“That’s good to know,” John said.

“You worried?” Marshall asked.

John swallowed hard. “A man who stands to lose everything dearest to him should always be worried.”

“What I mean is are you up for this? I know most of these other folks don’t have the combat experience you do. I’d hate to send them in for such an important mission, but I need to know you’ll be able to keep it together. Especially if you see the Chairman.”

John tapped his AR. “If I see the Chairman, he’ll be the last to know. There’s no need to pull any punches now that we know he’s a spy. It just worries me to think what might happen if the line along the Mississippi doesn’t hold. We might find ourselves speaking Chinese, Russian or North Korean.”

Marshall smiled. “Well, at least we’ll have options.”

John clapped a hand on Marshall’s shoulder and squeezed. “See you in Oneida then.”

“Godspeed.”

A few feet away, John spotted Gary.

“I need you to do something for me,” John said.

Gary’s thin frame made his shirt look like it’d been draped over a skeleton. “What is it?”

“I need you to feed George for us while we’re away.”

“Us?”

“Brandon’s coming along. His mother and sister are in there. It’ll be dangerous, I know, but I’m gonna keep him close. Besides, he’s good with a shotgun.”

“I’m not worried about his age,” Gary said. “These aren’t the good old days where parents can afford to coddle and dote on their kids’ every whim. We’ve gone back in time, John. Back to when children needed to grow up real quick, whether they liked it or not.”

“You’re more right than you know,” John admitted. “He and I have had a few talks about that very thing. It’s not my place exactly, but now that he has no father, he looks to me for guidance and…”

“Acceptance,” Gary said, his Adam’s apple bobbing wildly as he swallowed.

“Yes.”

“But I’m afraid I can’t bird-sit for you, John. I’m going in with Marshall and with my bum luck I’ll be one of those poor dregs crammed into that Russian-made eighteen-wheeler.”

The look of surprise on John’s face must have rubbed Gary the wrong way.

“I’ve got just as much riding on this as you do,” the skinny man hissed. “My son’s in there, John. Eight years old and all alone. At least your kids have their mother.”

“Not anymore,” John told him. “She’s set to be executed sometime tomorrow.”

Gary crossed himself. “I’m sorry to hear that.”

“We all have a lot at stake, Gary. Don’t worry about George. I totally understand.”

“I thought you were gonna eat that thing anyway.”

“So did I,” John said and winked. “Be safe out there. Just remember, you’re not just going in to liberate your son, you wanna make sure he’ll have a father when all of this is over and done with.”

Neither of them said anything about the invading army pushing east and the bleak prospects for the future. Both men knew on some level that you fought wars much the same way you fought life. One battle at a time.

Chapter 41

The Blazer charged along Tunnel Hill Road going fifty over the legal limit. Not that speed limits existed anymore. They were a relic from an age when vehicles clogged the streets. But even relics didn’t always stay dead and John knew eventually they would all make a reappearance.

John made a left onto Route 29 North, gripping the wheel tight. In the passenger seat next to him was Moss. In the back were Rodriguez and Brandon.

“So you gonna know this jammer when we see it?” John asked Rodriguez.

“I hope so.”

“That doesn’t sound very encouraging,” Moss said with a growing lack of confidence. “If these guys are Russian, my bet is they’re using something military.”

“I’m sure you’re right,” John agreed. “Once we slip into town, we need to be on the lookout for anything on the nearby roofs that looks out of place. An antenna would be a dead giveaway.”

“Speaking of slipping into town,” Moss said. “How exactly are you planning on us getting in undetected? I know things didn’t go so well for you the last time.”

“I was waiting for you to bring that up again,” John replied, spearing him with a sharp sideways glance. “Obviously the direct approach isn’t going to work, even with Marshall’s diversionary attack.”

John slowed the Blazer and nosed her down a narrow country road. They weren’t more than a few feet in before he cut the engine.

“Brandon, get the camo netting over her, would you?” John turned to the other two. “This is as close as we’re gonna get to a cloaking device.”

“Driving in with camo netting,” Rodriguez said in disbelief. “That’s your plan?”

John couldn’t help but laugh. “No, this is so that when we return, Betsy’s still here waiting for us.”

“Tell me you’ve got something else up your sleeve,” Moss said.

Brandon was leaning over the back seat, pulling the camo netting together. “He usually does.”

“Oneida has a storm drain,” John told them. “It isn’t big, but for our purposes it doesn’t need to be. I spoke to some of the Patriots who once lived in town and they informed me the main pipe releases the excess water into Ponderosa Lake.”

“Oh, boy,” Moss said. “Something tells me I’m about to get my hair wet.”

John leaned over to study the spiky mohawk running across Moss’ skull. “Thank God you don’t have much there.”

After exiting the truck, John went in back and pulled out a pair of bolt cutters. He handed them to Brandon, who slung his shotgun over his shoulder.

“Bring these,” John said. “I wanna keep your finger away from that trigger for as long as I can.”

Brandon opened his mouth in protest, but held back from saying anything. He was happy to be included. John only hoped it was a decision he wouldn’t live to regret.

•••

They made their way through the forest in silence with nothing but a compass to guide them. Before long, glimpses of civilization began to materialize through the trees. Houses, and a collection of low buildings, but no movement. The town looked deserted.

Directly ahead of them was Ponderosa Lake, although seeing it now, John realized it looked far more like a reservoir than it did a lake. At the other end, he spotted the pipe they would use to sneak in.

“You see the entrance?” John asked Moss.

Bringing the binoculars to his eyes, Moss scanned back and forth. “Yeah, I see it, but it looks mighty quiet over there.”

“Maybe they all left,” Brandon offered.

“Nah, they’re there,” Rodriguez said with grim conviction. “The Chairman’s gonna want an audience when they execute Edward and—” He stopped himself. “Oh, I’m sorry, John.”

John waved him away. “No harm done. That’s one party I’m looking forward to crashing.”

The group stayed low, circling around the edge of the lake until they reached the rainwater runoff.

“Bolt cutters,” John called out to Brandon who handed them over.

A concrete opening the height of a grown man stood before them. Covering it was a metal grate sealed with a padlock. John worked the mouth of the bolt cutters while the others kept an eye out.

“Hold up,” Rodriguez whispered. “We got a patrol, east of our position, over by the edge of the lake.”

Chapter 42

All four of them remained still, attempting to squeeze into the shallow lip of the storm drain runoff pipe. The lock was still in place since removing it would require room for John to maneuver the cutters. In the distance, a group of men from the town were patrolling on horseback, walking their mounts slowly as they watched the surrounding area. Running alongside them were guard dogs.

“They’re probably part of the same group that nearly finished me,” John told them. “Great to see they have dogs now.”

Moss was nodding. “The kid saved your life back then,” Moss told John. “Not sure if he ever took credit or not.”

“Did you?” John asked Brandon, who blushed.

“Darn right he did. Don’t be so humble, kid. After they heard the shooting, he practically strongarmed that bag-of-bones fella—Gary, I think—to come find us.”

John brushed Brandon’s hair. “Shoulda let the old man get what he deserved.”

“Nah,” Brandon said. “You made a choice. Maybe one that wasn’t so good, but you did it for all the right reasons. I was happy to help you unmake it.”

The men on horseback turned and seemed to stare in their direction. Moss was the most exposed and inched his body further into the concrete opening. Yelping and barking filled the air.

“Think they saw us?” Rodriguez asked.

John peered out and watched as they turned and moved in another direction. “Knowing those guys, if they caught our scent, they’d be on us like flies on—” John’s gaze met Brandon’s as he bit his lip. “Never mind.”

A few seconds later, with the lock finally cut, the four entered the drainage pipe. Murky water sloshed about their feet. Moss pinched his nostrils while his cheeks bulged out. Finally, he couldn’t hold it any longer and pulled in a big lungful of air through his mouth.

After thirty seconds he let it out and swore as he took in his next breath. “I thought this was a rainwater pipe, not a sewer.”

Up ahead, John saw the source of the foul odor. A dead body lay face up, maggots covering its face and chest. The gases released from the decaying flesh were horrible and John plugged his nose as well and hurried past it.

“My science teacher says that when you smell stuff you’re actually tasting the molecules in the air,” Brandon offered.

Moss doubled over and dry-heaved. After a second, he stood and wiped at his mouth. “I wasn’t cut out for this.”

“None of us are,” John said. “But suck it up, ’cause we’re almost there.”

A trickle of faint light shone in from one of the manholes above them. John scaled the ladder that was recessed into the wall. In one of his back pouches was a tiny piece of broken mirror attached to a pencil by an elastic. When he’d decided to enter via the storm drain, he’d gone hunting for a way to peer through the grates without having to lift them up and expose himself to enemy fire. The solution had come from the side mirror of a broken-down car in camp. John slid it through the narrow opening and scanned the world above. They were on a sidewalk, next to a clothing store. Outside, people were walking around, going about their business. That meant Marshall’s forces hadn’t launched the diversionary assault yet. It also meant they weren’t where they needed to be.

“What’s taking so long?” Moss complained.

“This isn’t our stop,” John told them.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean we need to keep going and stay to our left.”

“Oh, brother.”

Moss was normally a calm customer, but even the best soldiers had their breaking point. For some that trigger was prolonged cold or discomfort. For others it was as simple as depriving them of oxygen for short periods. For Moss, that trigger was smell. He had a sensitive nose, which was enough to generate a laugh or two in camp among the men, but out on a mission, it could spell doom. John needed them all in tip-top shape. Otherwise the entire mission could fall apart.

Chapter 43

The next manhole sat between two abandoned cars. This would provide them with enough cover to exit the storm drain and move to a safe location. Gripping the top ladder rung, John pushed the manhole up and out of the way. After climbing out, he helped Brandon and the others. Moss took a deep lungful as soon as he was clear of the stench they’d just escaped.

“I was losing my mind down there,” he said.

“We could tell,” Rodriguez sniped.

Hunched down beside the front bumper, John scanned the area for threats. Finding none, he motioned to a nearby building. It was a three-story commercial building with a pharmacy on the ground floor and what looked like apartments above that.

“That roof should give us a nice vantage point to begin searching for the likely source of the Chairman’s radio jammer.”

With a final check, they moved out, single file, scrambling over the hot pavement. The sun was arcing down toward the west, which told John it was at least mid-afternoon. Normally an operation like this would take place at night if the proper optics were available or during the early dawn hours. But the news from Captain Mitchell’s armored battalion had left them little choice. It was now or never. John kept imagining those Bradleys rumbling past their position and out of reach. They would need to hurry.

They double-timed it toward a recessed doorway, their gear and weapons clanging as they hustled. The team was nearly there when the distinct rattle of AK-47s broke the silence. It sounded as though the gunfire was coming from the north.

“Marshall’s men must have begun the assault,” John told them.

Moss nodded. “Let’s hope he can keep them busy long enough for us to find that jammer.”

John stood and threw a front kick at the door that led to the apartment complex. He aimed his heavy boot right below the locking mechanism since this was the point of greatest resistance. He’d read an article years ago about how SWAT teams breached drug houses and the tip had always stuck with him.

With a crack of splintering wood, the door swung open.

“Let’s move,” he said, charging inside, his AR at the low ready position, his finger beside the trigger. There were innocent people all over town and telling friend from foe would not be easy.

Three stories later, John could feel his lungs begging for oxygen. Running up a flight of stairs in shorts and sneakers was one thing. Doing so wearing full tactical gear and an improvised armor vest packed with stainless-steel circular saw blades was something else entirely.

As they ascended, Moss covered the rear, ensuring an enemy didn’t surprise them from behind.

The top landing led to a metal door with a push bar. The four made their way onto the roof and were greeted at once by the sound of more distant gunfire. Far from the low-level hit-and-run tactics they’d planned, it sounded as though the battle was heating up.

John turned to Rodriguez. “All right, let’s see what you can find.”

They knew the jammer was somewhere in this quadrant of Oneida, but pinpointing exactly where would require additional ‘fox hunting’.

Fox hunting was a technique often used by amateur radio enthusiasts where radio direction-finding techniques were used to locate one or more hidden radio transmitters.

Rodriguez attached the attenuator to his setup in order to reduce the power of the incoming jamming signal they were trying to locate. He then removed the quad antenna from his pack and checked the display as he swung it back and forth in a sweeping pattern. A tiny readout with an LED light would alert him when the antenna was aiming directly at the signal.

A few moments went by as John and the others stayed low, peering over the edge of the building for possible threats. They could see groups of armed men and some women running east along Main Street toward the sound of gunfire.

“At least they’re brave,” Moss said. “If not a bit stupid.”

“Don’t be so quick to judge,” John said, trying to mollify the scolding tone in his voice. “These people think they’re defending their town from an invading army of raiders. No doubt the Chairman’s worked hard at convincing them that everyone beyond the town limits is out to steal their resources.”

“It’s too bad we can’t convince them they’re wrong,” Brandon said, almost to himself.

The Chairman’s fake presidential papers would have been the key to doing that, John knew. Otherwise it was one man’s word against another’s. How could the townspeople be expected to overthrow a leader who was providing food, shelter and something akin to security in the face of baseless accusations? In the townspeople’s minds, the assault on the Constitution and their personal liberties had been initiated and condoned by the president himself.

“I think I got something,” Rodriguez hollered. He was aiming the quad antenna toward a patch of trees nestled behind a set of buildings to the south.

“Can you see anything from here?” John asked. “Any type of comm array poking up through the trees?”

Rodriguez peered through the binoculars. “Negative. Oh, wait. I do see something.”

He handed the glasses to John. The foliage was thick, but a camo-patterned dish was barely visible sticking up over the canopy.

To the north, the sound of gunfire began to spread.

“How do you think they’re doing?” Brandon asked.

“I’m not sure,” John replied. And he wasn’t being vague to protect the truth. From here, there was no way of being sure. Only Reese up on Owens Ridge with his Remington 700 trained down on Oneida had any idea what was going on. John wanted nothing more than to call him with the hand-held radio, but he knew that would be impossible until that jammer was knocked out.

Let’s just hope he’s got our backs.

The sound of a woman’s scream snapped John back. Two hundred yards away, someone was being led through the street. John put the binoculars to his eyes and adjusted the focus. The woman’s face was bloody and it didn’t take long for John to recognize who she was.

“What did you see?” Moss asked.

John answered without looking away. “It’s my wife.”

Chapter 44

“Get to the mobile communications vehicle and cut that jamming signal,” John told Rodriguez and the others. “I’ll meet you there.”

All four of them went down the stairs, checking quickly before moving out into the open street. The others cut left, heading to the comm vehicle, while John went right.

He’d seen Diane being led across the road by two men. They’d travelled swiftly and disappeared into a building on this side of the street.

Sounds of fighting continued to echo in the distance as John pushed ahead, his AR at the low ready position. A door leading to a three-story apartment complex was ajar. The entrances he’d seen while moving this way were either boarded up with biohazard signs or locked. It stood to reason that with the lack of food and sanitation, a healthy percentage of Oneida’s population—the old and infirm in particular—hadn’t made it. Even with a population of five to ten thousand, the loss of up to fifty percent of the local residents would have quickly overwhelmed the town’s ability to dispose of the bodies. And for all John knew, that number could very well be higher.

Leaning against the apartment complex with the open door, John swung his AR over his back and removed his S&W. Of course, it didn’t quite have the firepower or magazine capacity of the AR, but tight spaces required maximum maneuverability. Swinging the barrel of his rifle from room to room as he cleared them would add precious seconds to his reaction time.

A group of men wearing black cargo pants and carrying AK-47s ran across the street barely thirty yards from his position. John lowered himself. Their focus seemed to be on the battle raging just out of view and he hoped none of them would turn in his direction. When they were out of sight, he peered into the open doorway and went inside.

Moving purposefully and listening for voices or footsteps, John analyzed the layout. A narrow hallway with a row of apartments lay on his left. Before him stood a stairwell that circled up all three levels. Following the railing with his eyes allowed him to see all the way to the top floor.

That was when he caught a woman’s voice. She sounded afraid. Above him, hands gripped the railing along the second floor as the two men pushed Diane forward.

John crept up behind them. The key to freeing her would be to ensure the element of surprise. The stairs were a cheap imitation marble instead of wood. That was good, because it meant his combat boots wouldn’t make nearly as much noise.

By the time he reached the second floor, they were already on the third. He didn’t know what they were doing or where they were bringing her. But the thought of what might be about to happen gave him chills.

He would need to kill both men at once or the situation could get ugly. That was why Special Forces teams often stormed a building from multiple entry points. Converge and neutralize before the enemy knew what had hit them.

John wasn’t a one-man army. He was a father and a former soldier, but mostly he was alone and doing the best he could under the circumstances.

A silent prayer echoed in his mind as he rounded the stairwell and onto the top floor. Ahead of him the two men were moving briskly down a dimly lit hallway, Diane sandwiched between them. On either side were apartments. At the end of the hallway was a push door that read exit.

“Diane, get down,” John yelled. The risk of shooting his wife was too great and so he had taken the chance of exposing his position.

Without a moment’s hesitation, Diane dropped to the floor, curling into a ball.

John fired at the man closest to him the minute she moved.

Three shots rang out. The first two aimed at center mass, the third at his head. All three hit their mark, killing the man instantly.

One down.

John got off two more shots, both striking the next man in the chest, but with no noticeable effect. A result that could only mean he was wearing body armor.

The other man returned fire with a MP-443 Grach.

John felt two blows to his chest that knocked the wind from his lungs. He rolled out of the way toward the stairwell.

Diane screamed when she saw John get hit.

The man in black fatigues fired off three more rounds. John wasn’t in his line of sight, but the bullets still ricocheted off the stone floor and into the wall nearby.

“We go now,” the man shouted in a strange accent.

John pawed at his chest, looking for an entrance wound. A misshapen pistol round protruded from his vest. That was when he remembered the saw blade armor. It had felt like little more than a hack job when Moss had first handed it to him, but without it he certainly would have been severely wounded or worse.

John peeked quickly around the corner just in time to see the man raise his pistol for another shot. He ducked his head back as the gun went off and the round passed inches from his face, exploding into the wall behind him.

This was precisely the situation John had dreaded. Now the man could take shots at him and John couldn’t fire back or risk hitting Diane.

A second later he heard a metallic clang, like someone using a push-bar door. Peering down the hall, he saw Diane being dragged into the emergency stairwell.

Rushing down the hall, John followed close behind.

They were heading up a final flight of stairs instead of back down toward the street. The move puzzled him at first, until John realized the gunman would be vulnerable to overhead fire if they’d tried to descend the emergency stairs.

Another door opening and slamming shut told John they were on the roof. He followed cautiously, not wanting the man to feel too desperate or he might shoot Diane outright. John wanted him to think he still had the upper hand.

Scanning out the tiny rectangular roof door window let him know the gunman wasn’t in sight. John made his way out, gravel crunching under his boots. That would make it hard to approach quietly, but at this point there was no better option.

The roof was a perfect square, with this opening in the center. That gave him the option of going right or left. With still no sight of them, John chose right. Statistically, since most of the population was right-handed—the gunman included, John had noticed—the majority of people, when given equal options, tended to head right.

Sure enough, John found both of them near the roof’s edge. With tears in her eyes, Diane was telling John to get back.

The man in black fatigues had his left hand gripping the back of Diane’s neck and the pistol aimed at the rear of her skull. In the action movies, they always showed villains nestled up to their victims with the gun to their temple. But this guy knew better. The movie way still gave John a clear shot if he was a skilled enough marksman. By keeping Diane’s body directly between the two men, the man had left John without a shot.

“Set your pistol down and we can all walk away from this,” John told him.

The man didn’t answer.

“I don’t want to hurt a fellow American,” John said, trying to ease him. The truth was, the minute John had heard the man’s broken English, he’d known he was probably Russian. Perhaps one of the Spetsnaz men Marshall had mentioned. That also meant he was well trained and not to be underestimated.

This row of buildings looked over onto the lake and into the woods and hills beyond. It was also high enough that he couldn’t jump without risking serious injury or death.

“What do you say we talk about this?” John said, reaching out with his free hand.

“There’s nothing to—” the man started to say when blood sprayed from his wrist.

The pistol fell to the ground as he stared in agony at his mangled hand. Diane rolled to the side as John fired four rounds, hitting the gunman repeatedly in the face and neck. He fell backwards and tumbled off the roof where he landed with a wet thud.

“How did you do that?” Diane asked, amazed that they were both still alive.

“We had a little help,” John answered, scanning the hill that overlooked Oneida for any sign of Reese’s sniper nest.

Chapter 45

They were hugging each other tight when John asked: “Where are Kay and the kids?”

“I don’t know,” Diane answered. Her lip was swollen and the sight filled John with the dark desire to kill those two men all over again. “They were going to execute me tomorrow.”

“I know, honey, that’s why we’re here. For now all we can do is hope they’re hiding somewhere safe. They know enough to keep low and stay away from windows.”

The clatter of weapons fire and the sound of men hollering in agony told them the Patriots were still in the thick of things. Once the jammer was disabled, Marshall’s forces would retreat to a safe distance and lay siege to the town until the army arrived. With any luck there hadn’t been too many casualties.

John and Diane crossed the roof, heading for the stairway and the street below.

“Thank goodness you stopped that awful message the Chairman kept blaring over the loudspeaker,” Diane told him as they reached the first door. “He practically played it day and night.”

John skidded to a stop. “You might have just given me an idea.”

“I did?”

“Hurry. We need to get to the mobile comm vehicle.”

A minute later they were at street level. John scanned to ensure the immediate area was clear. To the north, men were firing from the rooftops and out of windows, presumably at Marshall’s men. They’d discussed not pushing too far into the city to avoid a potential bloodbath. But even with a carefully laid plan, it was far too easy in heat of battle to lose control of your men.

“Okay, move,” he told her.

She tore across the street while he covered her with the AR. If even a single weapon was pointed her way, he’d cut them down before their finger had a chance to kiss the trigger. Next it was his turn and John hustled across to meet her in the recessed doorway of a shoe store.

Cutting behind the building, they headed next in the direction where they’d spotted the comm truck’s antenna.

A moment later, the truck came into view, surrounded by a thicket of trees and heavy shrubs. It wouldn’t have been enough to try hiding the vehicle from the locals, but the Chairman knew he wouldn’t need to. After all, as far as anyone was concerned, he was here on behalf of the government. Their only mistake was assuming that government was American.

The bodies of two men in black camo gear lay near the back of the truck. Even as they approached it became clear to John the vehicle was Russian. In fact it used the same chassis as the Kamaz rigs they’d taken during the ambush. Only the green military paint and module on the back was different. The focus in the Russian military tended to be on practicality, sometimes to the point of ugliness.

A trail of blood led from the men into the rear truck hatch. John pushed Diane behind him and leveled his rifle. For her part, his wife knelt down and grabbed the AK at the dead man’s feet. She checked the magazine and then pulled the bolt back slowly to make sure a round was chambered.

John gave her a quick wink, thinking about how much he had missed her.

John cut the angle on the doorway to ensure if there were enemies inside he would only expose himself to one of them at a time.

What he saw inside made his heart sink. Moss was sitting in front of a wall of knobs and dials. Sitting next to him on the floor with his back to the wall was Rodriguez. Blood oozed from a wound in his belly. Hovering over him was Brandon. It appeared he’d already applied yarrow leaves to the wound to stop the bleeding and was trying to bandage the opening.

With a weakened voice, Rodriguez was giving Moss directions on how to cut the jamming signal.

“The third knob on the right that looks like the volume on a stereo,” Rodriguez told him. “Turn it three clicks to the right.”

Moss looked panicked and John understood perfectly. Not only was the radio operator gravely wounded, all the instrumentation in this vehicle was in Russian.

“Is anyone else hit?” John asked, pulling himself in.

“No, only Rodriguez,” Moss told him.

Brandon looked up and smiled when he saw John and Diane. Then the look faded.

“Don’t worry, son. Soon as we finish up here we’ll go look for your mom and sister. But right now we’ve got work to do.”

John moved over to the control panel while Diane and Brandon closed the back hatch and kept watch through the porthole.

A series of green indicator lights filled a readout that went from one to ten.

“There should be some kind of red switch on your right. That controls the level of electromagnetic interference.”

“Are you crazy?” Moss shouted. “This stuff is all in Russian. I can’t make heads or tails of it.”

“There’s a dial here with a red lightning bolt on it,” John said, pointing.

A trail of blood ran from Rodriguez’s lips. “Yes, turn that counter-clockwise.”

John did and watched the green lights descend from ten all the way to one.

“Is that it?” Moss asked.

Rodriguez nodded.

Pulling out the walkie-talkie, John depressed the button. “Eagle Eye, this is Mole One, do you copy? Over.”

A few seconds of static went by before John repeated the message. The voice that replied was deep and familiar.

“Mole One, this is Eagle Eye. Reading you loud and clear.”

“I appreciated your help back there,” John said.

“I had the shot so I took it. Good job finishing him off.”

“Do you have a visual on Marshall’s forces?”

“Affirmative. Looks like they’re moving back, although from here I can’t say whether it’s a tactical withdrawal or a retreat.”

The thought of the latter made everyone in the comm vehicle bristle with fear.

“Thanks for the update,” John said.

Moss leaned over by Rodriguez, tending to his wound.

“Now you gotta show me how to make a call with this thing,” John said.

Chapter 46

With Rodriguez’s help they dialed into the frequency Captain Mitchell had been using during their last communication.

“This is a call to any US forces in the northern Tennessee area,” John began. “We are currently in the town of Oneida. A team of Russian fifth columnists has taken over and we require your assistance.”

He wanted to keep the message simple, but also open the dialogue to any other unit passing by in the area.

His concern was that most of the available US assets might have moved west already to meet the Russian, Chinese and North Korean threat.

Before long a voice came on. “This is Colonel Higgs with the 101st. Who’s broadcasting on this frequency?”

John explained who they were and the gravity of the current situation. “If you can spare something as small as a company-sized unit with a Bradley or two, I think the townsfolk would raise the white flag. We could certainly avoid the loss of any more innocent life.”

“I’m sorry to ruin your day, ’cause your group sounds to me like a fine bunch of Americans, but all remaining forces have been assigned to hold the line along the Mississippi. I can’t afford to peel any of my men off this river bank. That, however, isn’t the only reason. This Chairman you mentioned is one of many foreign agents sent in to wrest control of towns and cities all across the country. When we discovered this we moved in aggressively to stamp them out, but you know what happened?”

“They ran away?” John guessed, although he knew what the real answer might be.

“No, sir. The local population fought us tooth and nail. They’d been convinced by these foreign agents that we were the enemy representing the forces of a puppet government attempting to wrest control of the country. They know what they’re doing. We ended up turning Park City, Kansas and Glenpool, Oklahoma into dead ringers for Fallujah before we realized it wasn’t worth it. Instead, we decided to island-hop, like we did in the Pacific during WWII. Once the immediate threat was taken care of, we could then roll back and clean those towns out one by one. So I agree with your desire to avoid loss of life. It’s a noble one, no doubt. But you’ll need to find another way ’cause I can promise you, rolling in troops and hardware is only gonna create a small-scale Stalingrad.”

John felt like his guts had just been ripped out of his stomach. Colonel Higgs’ revelation that the citizens of local cities and towns were being duped into fighting against the military didn’t entirely surprise him. Since the country’s inception, Americans had been willing to fight and in many cases die to protect their homes and way of life. Hearing the colonel’s reasons for avoiding a direct confrontation in Oneida brought home a disturbing truth. Sometimes in the hands of a cunning enemy, a country’s biggest strengths could become its greatest weakness.

“There is one piece of info I can pass on about the agent in Oneida,” Higgs said. “This comes straight from military intelligence, so take it for what it’s worth. He’s a former KGB operative who infiltrated the Georgian rebels and helped to destroy the organization through infighting and internal power struggles. I’m not sure what he’s calling himself nowadays, but it looks like his real name’s Jacob Golosenko.”

Diane laughed. “He’s been going by Charles Augustus Morgan.”

“Oh, I wanna kill him so much more,” Moss growled, driving his fist into the palm of his hand.

“Thank you, Colonel,” John said. “I think I speak for all of us here when I tell you we’ll be praying the line you’re defending holds strong.”

“So do I. Now good luck and God be with you.”

“What now?” Brandon asked when John was done.

“We get out there and join the battle,” Moss shouted, rising to his feet, his bristling hair nearly brushing the truck’s low ceiling.

Brandon stood beside him and racked his Mossberg Chainsaw. “Let’s do it.”

“There must be another way,” Diane said. “You heard the colonel, if those Patriots storm the town who knows how many more innocents will die. It’ll be playing directly into the Chairman’s hands. He wants us all to kill each other. But think about it. Since the EMP hit, we’ve probably lost more than half the country’s population. If we want any hope of making it out of this one day, we need to preserve as many lives as possible.”

John couldn’t agree more. He’d had an idea before on the roof after rescuing Diane and it had to do with the speaker system the Chairman had trucked in to help subdue the population. What if they could use his own propaganda machine against him, the way he’d used their staunch defense of American values against them?

“What are you thinking, John?” Diane asked.

John turned to Rodriguez who looked deathly pale.

“The speaker system,” he asked the radio operator. “How do I turn it on?”

Rodriguez peered up at him through the slit of his right eye. “See that mic in the corner?”

John looked over. On the far right of the control panel was a mic surrounded by a series of flashing lights.

“They must have recorded a message,” Rodriguez whispered. “And been playing it back in a loop. If you press the lever right below the mic, it should give you a live feed.”

John followed his instructions. For a minute he eyed the button, his finger hovering over it.

“What are you gonna tell them?” Brandon asked him.

“The truth.”

John pushed and held the speak button. “This is John Mack from Knoxville, Tennessee. Like many of you in Oneida, I’m an American citizen, a father and a patriot.”

Moss opened the back hatch and listened as John’s voice echoed over the speaker system.

“Crank it,” Moss said, jerking his thumb into the air. “Let’s really wake this town out of its sleep.”

John turned the dial up to max.

“I’m here to let you know that each and every one of you has been the victim of a terrible lie. The United States is currently at war with Russia, China and North Korea. As we speak their armies are amassing along the banks of the Mississippi. This is a battle none of us can afford to lose. The man you know as the Chairman isn’t a special envoy assigned by the president, he’s a Russian agent sent here to enslave you and make you fight against your own people.”

Moss was looking through the binoculars, jumping up and down. “I see people standing around listening, John, whatever you’re doing, don’t stop now.”

“And his real name isn’t Charles Augustus Morgan,” John went on. “His real name is Jacob Golosenko and he’s a former KGB goon. If you still value freedom, the Constitution and everything else that made us great, then I appeal to each and every member of the militia in Oneida. Lay down your arms and help us expel the true enemy in our midst.”

John was about to continue the message again when the walkie in his back pouch crackled to life.

“Mole One, this is Eagle Eye, over.”

John put the walkie to his lips. “Go ahead, Eagle Eye.”

“Be advised, you have a large group of armed tangos heading your way. ETA fifteen seconds, maybe less.”

“Close that hatch,” John yelled. “What about Marshall’s tactical withdrawal?”

“Negative. The Patriots weren’t withdrawing. They were routed. I’m sorry, Mole One. You’re on your own.”

Chapter 47

The connection with Eagle Eye went dead at about the same time the first shots rang out. With no gun ports to shoot back from and no way to move to the driver’s area up front, their options were indeed limited. Added to that, opening the hatch to shoot back was an equally bad idea since it provided the enemy with a single target against which they could concentrate their fire.

John got on the walkie again. “Eagle Eye, this is Mole One, do you copy?”

There was no response.

“Eagle Eye, do you copy?”

“Forget him, John,” Moss roared. “He’s long gone, man, along with the rest of our men. You heard him. We’re on our own.”

Rounds pierced the truck’s relatively thin armor and slammed into the radio equipment, blasting a spray of sparks and shattered components. John pushed Diane and Brandon to the floor.

Soon they were all hunkered down as the enemy outside continued to shoot the truck up. The thin armor might help ward off pistol rounds, but the AKs’ large 7.62 rounds were cutting through these walls like a dagger through papier-mâché.

“What do you say, John?” Moss asked.

The semi-crazed look in the Patriot’s eyes told John he wanted to go out in a blaze of glory. A romantic thought perhaps, but an incredibly selfish one that would accomplish little apart from getting them all killed.

“I have a plan,” John said, calculating the odds of success in his head. They were slim. Maybe too slim, but anything was better than being drilled full of holes in the belly of this tin can. John pulled off his right boot followed by his sock.

“What are you doing?” Diane asked. Clearly she was sure he’d lost his mind.

He waved the grimy sock in the air. “We’re about to surrender.”

•••

A few minutes later, their weapons confiscated by the men outside and their hands bound with zip ties, John and the others were led out from the clump of trees and into the street where a crowd had begun to gather. Many of them wore black and in some cases dark blue cargo pants. Their faces were bloody, some with bandages wrapped around fresh wounds. Most looked weary and shellshocked. This was how the few surviving residents of Willow Creek had appeared after fending off Cain’s attack. John was sure they felt as if they’d thwarted a similar invasion by marauders. That was what made this situation so tragic and frustrating.

Diane, Brandon and Moss stood huddled together in a growing sea of hostile faces. The occasional slap or strike from the mob was met with raucous cheers.

John recalled his speech to Brandon, about how life was comprised of a tightrope walk between two equally painful choices. This was certainly one of those moments.

It wasn’t long before the crowd parted and the Chairman appeared before them. He and John stood less than a foot apart. A snub-nosed .38 was in the Chairman’s hand, the same kind of pistol from that image of an execution following the Tet Offensive during the Vietnam War. John imagined it would be put to much the same use.

The mob grew quiet as the Chairman leaned forward. “Why am I not surprised to see you mixed up in all this, Diane?” He turned to John with an almost pained expression. “The crowd wants nothing more than to tear you all limb from limb. After your heinous attack on our peaceful town I have half a mind to let them. Killing our citizens, hijacking our emergency broadcast to spread your lies.”

“The lies are your own,” John replied. “You were sent here as a Russian spy and I can prove it.”

“I have a special mandate from the president,” the Chairman shouted, waving the gun around.

“Yeah, we’ve seen your so-called presidential commission and it’s so riddled with errors I’m shocked anyone believed it. In fact, I think the only one who questioned it was the mayor and look what happened to him.”

“By the unilateral power invested in me,” the Chairman said, ignoring John’s accusations, “I hereby find each of you guilty of murder and sentence you to death.”

The crowd didn’t move, not right away.

John was gambling that many of the residents had heard his plea over the loudspeakers. Some would have dismissed it outright, but the goal had largely been to plant a seed of doubt in their minds. Facing the truth that you had been played for a fool and manipulated by the enemy was a hard pill to swallow. John needed to be the glass of warm water that would help wash the medicine down.

“You came from Washington,” John said. “That’s your story, right?”

The Chairman didn’t answer. He was looking about him, sizing up the mob, wondering perhaps why they were so eager to hear what John had to say.

“And I can only assume you know about the Constitution. The Sixth Amendment. Are you familiar with that one?”

“I don’t have time for this,” the Chairman said. “The Constitution’s been suspended anyway. It’s no longer relevant. Besides, what is this, primary school?”

“The right to a speedy trial,” a man with a John Deere cap said from the crowd.

Nearby, a woman holding a pistol spoke up next. “The right to a jury of your peers and a right to legal counsel.”

The Chairman’s head was swiveling left and right as more and more voices spoke up.

“‘Give me liberty or give me death,’” John said. “Who spoke those words, do you know?” He was looking straight at the Chairman’s forehead and the beads of sweat building on his brow. “You don’t, do you, Jacob? That’s your real name, isn’t it? Jacob Golosenko. Yes, we’ve been in contact with the military and they know all about you.”

Diane spoke up now, her voice tense with fear. “You told me you served in the Marines as a medic, but I knew that wasn’t right.”

“They’re called Corpsmen, Jacob,” John added scoldingly. “Medics serve in the army.”

“And that word you uttered when I nearly broke your wrist. Biliat.”

“It’s a Russian curse word,” a townsperson said to their left. “My mother and father immigrated here from the Ukraine.”

“This is ridiculous,” the Chairman wailed. “You attacked our town and now that you lost you’re prepared to say anything you can to save your skins.”

Just then the radio they’d taken from John when they were captured hissed with static.

The Chairman’s eyes found it. “This is how you’ve been communicating with the leader of your little insurgency, isn’t it?” the Chairman asked. “Well, I’ve got something I want him to hear.” He grabbed the walkie and raised the pistol to John’s forehead.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you, Jacob,” John said calmly.

The mob was starting to stir. It looked as though they weren’t so sure anymore about this little man who had suspended their inalienable rights and liberties.

The Chairman regarded John defiantly. “Watch me,” he said and pulled back the hammer.

He brought the walkie to his lips and depressed the button.

From the corner of his eye, John caught the silent muzzle flash from the side of the hill overlooking the town.

Then came a thud, like a fist slamming into wet dough, and the crack from the rifle as the sound finally caught up. John had a front-row seat to the entire grisly sight: the Chairman’s head coming undone, a gout of blood spraying the people beside him. His eyes remained open and staring, but they’d turned inky black. Whatever life force had once been in the man was now gone. Jacob Golosenko collapsed in a heap as though the invisible strings holding him up had been snipped by a pair of giant scissors.

Eagle Eye hadn’t cut and run.

For a moment, the men and women assembled around them stood stunned. John then turned to one of the Spetsnaz who’d been protecting the Chairman. “Tell me what you know about Paul Revere.”

Chapter 48

With the Chairman’s men either dead or in custody, John, Diane and Brandon set off at once to find the kids. After checking the apartment and finding it empty, they headed for the prison. There were still people in the cells, many of them cowering, wondering what was going on out there with all that gunfire. Several wept when John had the guard release them.

He and Diane searched through the thin faces, not seeing Emma, Gregory, Natalie or Kay among them.

Then someone heard voices coming from one of the first-floor offices that had been set up as interrogation rooms. The door was locked and John kicked it open to find Kay and the kids, clutching each other.

“Oh, thank God,” Kay said, as thick tears streamed down her face. “I was sure they were coming to kill us all.”

Emma and Gregory ran into John’s arms.

“We thought you were dead,” Gregory told him.

“I knew you weren’t,” Emma replied with typical sibling rivalry.

It looked like some things never got old.

“You have no idea how much I missed you,” John told them. “I prayed quietly every day that you’d be kept safe.”

“Did you pray for me too?” Diane asked. “I’m feeling a little like chopped liver over here.”

John laughed, stuffed a hand into his pocket and produced the silver necklace with the sapphire heart.

Diane’s jaw dropped. “Where did you find it?”

“Near the cabins. When the fear that I’d never see you again got too strong, this was what kept me going.” He put it around her neck and pulled her into a kiss.

For his part, Brandon helped Kay off the floor, looking shocked and disturbed by the bruises on her face.

“Who did this to you?” he asked angrily.

She squeezed him tight. “Don’t worry about that.”

“Not anymore,” Diane said next them. “The man who did this can’t hurt anyone else.”

Then Brandon and Emma exchanged a look.

“You miss me?” Emma asked sheepishly.

He gave her a hug. “You have no idea.”

“You’re not blushing,” Emma observed, studying his face. “You always blush when we hug.”

“A lot’s happened since you’ve been gone,” John said.

Emma clutched her belly. “I’m starving. Is there anything to eat?”

John and Brandon exchanged a glance.

“I’ve got just the thing,” Brandon said, grinning.

•••

The next few hours were spent caring for the wounded on both sides. Another group was tasked with burying the dead. What a waste of life, John thought as he walked among them, helping to sort the more serious cases. He’d seen a similar scene played out back in Knoxville, but then it had been good guys versus the scum of the earth. Here it was more a case of the good guys versus innocent folks who’d been deceived and misled.

Among the dead was one body which looked familiar. Thin and underfed, high cheekbones. But it wasn’t until John turned him over that he knew for sure it was Gary. He’d taken a shot through the neck that severed his spinal cord. He had probably been dead before he hit the ground.

Moss appeared by his side, looking like the weight of seeing all this death was taking a toll on him. That was one of the unknowns of combat: how a man would deal with seeing friends, family and brothers in arms lying motionless before you.

“Did you check on Rodriguez?” John asked.

“Yeah, he’s fine. Cranky as ever, but fine.”

“Good,” John said, eyeing a long-haired man with black cargo pants. “What did Marshall have to say?”

Moss shook his head, like he didn’t want to speak.

“Was he wounded?”

“No. Dead.”

Their eyes met and John put a hand on the young man’s shoulder. “I’m so sorry.”

“That’s why the offensive turned into a rout. Once news spread that Marshall had taken a bullet, people got scared, lost the will to fight.”

“I’ve seen it happen, even to professional soldiers,” John told him. “Losing a commander is often like losing a parent.”

Moss looked up and John knew that was exactly how he felt. Marshall had been like a father to him.

“I remember he wanted nothing more than to see his wife and child receive a proper burial,” John mentioned. “I’m sure he’ll be happy to be laid next to them.”

Moss nodded, his hands folded behind his back.

Glancing over, John couldn’t help but notice the concern on Moss’ face. “As his second-in-command, I guess that makes you leader of the Patriots now,” John said.

Moss offered him one final glance, but didn’t say a word.

Chapter 49

“Don’t worry, you’ll do fine,” John was telling Moss the next day as he went over his speech. Moss was getting ready to address the townspeople of Oneida. As head of the Patriots it only made sense that he also lead the town.

“Do I look nervous?” he asked.

John smiled. “Apart from your green complexion, not really. Listen, the point you wanna get across is that we’re at war, but the US Constitution is still very much in effect and everyone will need to do his or her part in the coming days to ensure we’re not speaking a foreign language by the end of the week.”

“Okay,” Moss said. “I’m ready.”

The two exited the Mayor’s Office to the sound of rapturous applause. Close to two thousand people were standing before them. They represented the remaining residents of Oneida along with the Patriots who’d made it through the battle.

Moss spoke for a few moments, his voice cracking once or twice from the nerves which still hadn’t settled. Eventually, he mentioned that an election would take place shortly for a new mayor.

That was when someone from the crowd spoke up. “We’ve already conducted a vote,” the man said. “It was rather impromptu, but the tally was overwhelming.”

Both men were stunned into silence.

“With seventy-five percent of the vote, we’ve elected John Mack our new mayor.”

John’s eyes grew wide. Publishers Clearing House could have emerged from the woods, handed him an oversized check and he would have been less surprised.

“But I wasn’t running,” he told them. They’d seen the Chairman’s dramatic takedown and were attributing all the glory to him. Reese had been the one to take the shot and none of this would have been possible if the Patriots hadn’t launched that costly diversionary attack in the first place. John put his hands up, palms out. “I’m flattered by your vote of confidence, really I am, but I’m not the man for this. I have land and a cabin to—”

The crowd started to chant his name and John waved his arms to make them stop. This was becoming too much.

Next to him, Moss threw him an awkward smile. “Maybe I should call you Garth Brooks from now on.”

A hand touched John’s elbow. He glanced over to see Diane. “Do I need to remind you that both cabins are ash heaps, honey? These people need someone they can believe in. Someone they can trust.”

“Yes, but Willow Creek,” he started to say, before she put a finger over his lips.

“The past doesn’t equal the future,” she replied. “You’re the one who told me that, remember?”

“I did?”

“Yes, and you can do this. Your country needs you. They need you.”

And with that John begrudgingly accepted his nomination as mayor of Oneida. He spent the next few minutes in stunned disbelief, shaking people’s hands and issuing a series of orders.

It was at about that time that the young man who had replaced Rodriguez showed up. His name was Henry Chamberlain and apparently he knew a thing or two about working a radio.

“I’m sorry to disturb you, Mr. Mayor.”

“What is it, Henry?”

“I just heard from Colonel Higgs. He wanted to let us know that the Russians, Chinese and North Koreans have started their attack along the Mississippi.”

The news nearly made him flinch. “That’s about six or seven hours’ drive from here,” John said pensively.

“Affirmative, sir.”

“Then let’s hope that line holds,” he said, feeling that old knot working through his guts again.

“And if it doesn’t, sir?” Henry asked.

“If it doesn’t, then God help us all.”

Thank you!

Thank you for reading

Last Stand: Patriots!

I hope you enjoyed the story. I’m always grateful for a review. For thoughts, comments or feedback feel free to send me an email: williamhweberauthor@gmail.com

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Copyright

Copyright © 2014 William H. Weber

Cover design by Keri Knutson

Edited by RJ Locksley

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Content

William H. Weber
LAST STAND:
PATRIOTS

Dedication

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Chapter 38

Chapter 39

Chapter 40

Chapter 41

Chapter 42

Chapter 43

Chapter 44

Chapter 45

Chapter 46

Chapter 47

Chapter 48

Chapter 49

Thank you!

Copyright