Chapter 36

Well, I quickly got showered and went back to the dining hall. There I found several men were setting up chairs for the town meeting. I quickly got a cup of coffee and sat down, thinking on what I was going to say. I hadn't seen Sarah since we got back and I was wondering where she was, when I heard a disturbance towards the area where the kitchen was. I had just stood up when she came running in and looking around. When she saw me, she started running towards me with a grin that went from ear to ear. I braced myself when I saw she wasn't going to stop, but it didn't help a bit. She hit me, jumping into my arms at a full run. Although she wasn't that big, she knocked me on my butt and was kissing me and thanking me over and over. I was trying to get her to stop so I could get up as my head hurt where it had cracked into the floor when I went down.

"Sarah, will you please let me up? I don't know why you're all excited, but this floor is hard." I was finally able to get her off me and stop kissing me by tickling her into submission. By this time, there must have been thirty people standing around us with big smiles at her giggling. I sat back down, with her climbing into my lap, trying to kiss me some more. It dawned on me why she was so happy when I saw BK laughing so hard that he was holding his sides and gasping for breath. She suddenly froze and hopped down, running for the bathroom. I flipped BK the bird which caused everyone around us to start laughing. He sat down, gasping and trying to breathe. It was then that I realized that my coffee cup was in a hundred pieces. One of the older kids was laughing and trying to sweep it up as he did.

"Thom, before I told her it was from you, I got the almost same treatment. Hell, she didn't care, she was so happy she just kissed me a few more times and screamed and went looking for you. I almost broke a leg trying to follow her to see what was going to happen. Of course Shelly and Mikey were trying to keep up with her so we all kind of tangled up in the doorway getting out of the armory. That is one happy little girl. You should have seen her face when I laid it down and told her to open it, and then told her it was hers. She picked it up and the first thing she did was look to make sure it wasn't loaded, just like I had taught her. I think I was as proud of her at that point as anyone I ever taught to shoot. She will be hours settling down tonight."

"Well, I am glad she is happy but my old bones and this hard floor just don't agree with each other. I got a nice knot on the back of my head when it slammed down with her on top of me. Damn she hits hard. I hope she calms down a little as I don't know if my old body can take much more of that."

"Pops, she is so happy she is about to bust. When she screamed she scared me out of a year's growth it was so sudden and loud. That's a nice setup you gave her and I have a feeling she won't let any of us shoot it. Where did you find all those long magazines for it? Dad looked for some for ours but he only found one for each of us and gave up trying to find more. I bet she will want a vest like you wear to keep them in."

Well, before I could answer I was assaulted again with kisses and hugs. "Thank you Pops; that is the best gift I ever remember getting in my whole life. I promise I will take good care of it and remember everything BK taught me about safety. It is so pretty and I love the sling, but I need to find a vest to be able to carry all those magazines so I don't ever run out of ammo while I am protecting you."

Everyone around us started laughing again so I just hugged her. Barry was behind her with a smile on his face and Brenda had tears in her eyes, watching the byplay between us. I swung my eyes around, looking at who was standing around and to my surprise Gertie was behind Brenda with a big smile on her face. When she saw I was looking at her she got a little red, but nodded her head at me and I smiled back at her.

"Ok, excitement's over, folks. Let's finish getting the chairs set up so we can have the meeting. Zeke, you need to finish setting up the sound system."

"Yes ma'am, I will get back to work." He gave me a grin and Brenda gave Barry a dirty look, so he disappeared almost as quickly as Zeke. "BK, don't you need to go count bullets or something?" He didn't even answer, just got up and almost ran to the back. Brenda gave Shelly and Mikey a look and then they were gone just as fast. She went over and brought me back a fresh cup full of coffee, winked, then went away too. Sarah looked around then looked at me and quipped; "Well, she must be the boss here. I wondered why everyone always seemed to go to her whenever they had a question to ask."

I lost it on the spot and started laughing. Well, she gave me such a look that it was all I could do to hang onto her, I was laughing so hard. In retrospect, I should have known Murphy would kick in 'cause things were going so smooth, but when my walkie went off, it surprised me to the point I almost froze.

"B1 to SS1, we have ten vehicles just crossing the ridge from the border. From what I can hear they are not trucks and I can hear loud music coming from them even this far away." I heard the outside siren go off as I sat Sarah down and ran to the radio room. I told him to call the Fort and put them on alert in case we needed help. I went back and grabbed my AK and vest, running for the front door. There were two trucks loading up so I shouted for one to go to B2 in case this was a ruse and for the rest to come with me. I motioned Barry to go with the B2 bunch as I climbed into my unit with BK and Zeke scrambling in at the same time.

"Zeke, if I remember correctly you can handle a fifty, can't you?"

"Yep, I used to be damned good with one and I have had a little time on the ones we have."

"Good, here is how we play it out. If I take my hat off and scratch my head, I want you to open up on them immediately. Take out the vehicles from the back to the front and kill anything moving towards the barricade. If these are raiders, we need to take them out as fast as possible. Just keep an eye on me 'cause I will hit the deck and don't worry about hitting me. BK, you cover my flanks as much as you can and have a couple of the men looking for side rushes. They all have night goggles so don't forget to close one eye so you don't get completely blinded. I don't know what Kittrick sent over, but if they are the old style you can get a bright flashback from the weapons when you fire which can blind you."

"We tried out those ones he sent and they have somewhat of a flashback as you put it, but I doubt we will need them when we turn all the lights on. We set them up so at least two hundred feet of the roadway is lit up like it's daylight. We use two, but have a main switch that will turn them all on so they won't be sneaking up on anyone. We even mounted some further down the road that shine out towards the sides."

We were pulling up as he finished so I just smiled at him. I got out and racked one up the spout in the AK as I walked up. I heard several more doing the same thing and thought that they should have already been ready to go, and I knew I would have a talk with BK to remind them. I could clearly see the lights coming towards the port as I slipped on a pair of the goggles. These were not big trucks and even above the muted talk around me I could hear the loud music playing from them. I was hoping they would pass us but as I watched, they took our exit. I told the men to get ready and to let me do the talking when they got here, but be ready to fire if they made a hostile move. I watched as they slowed down and went to side by side formation like they had practiced it. When they got close enough, I could see the lead truck had a light bar on the top and when he got close, he turned it on. The man who climbed out had a beard and looked like a bum, but he was wearing a Border Patrol uniform. His shirt was unbuttoned and as he approached, I stepped between the barricades. I could immediately smell the rank body odor since the wind was blowing towards me. I had the AK pointed towards him, not enough to alarm him, but I could turn just a smidge and shoot him if needed. He didn't have a weapon out so he probably thought I figured he was Border Patrol. I did notice that several of them were walking up either side of the road, so I gave the signal to turn on the lights that BK and I agreed on.