Chapter 15

From what I learned from our prisoner, Wallace had a very large force. Most of them had been working on Fort Sally and were not here to take part in the ill-fated meeting yesterday. Well, they were getting an ear full from the person who ran when we arrived. Those at Fort Sally would know that we had struck back. It was time to go home.

Our ride back to the garages and parking the carrier, was not pleasant. Our new passengers all needed a good washing. The smell was terrible, and even with all the vents open it was almost more than we could stand. Violet had asked us vie radio to bring the women and children back with us. We brought the two men along for their wives. We needed man power, even if they were hiding in lockers.

Later after our new members had been showered and shaved, another general meeting was called in the council room. It was filled to capacity, every chair was taken. Bill made the remark that anymore of these meetings would have to be in the Cafeteria, where there was abundant seating. The council room was not designed to hold the entire bunker population. Violet was seated next to the Head Mans chair, which was empty. No one looked at me, to see if I would take the chair, which I didn’t. It was being left empty for me to relent and resume my figure head as the Head Man. That was a position that I wasn’t going to take, not without being asked and some new rules being laid down. It was obvious that it just wasn’t going to happen. So I remained standing by the passage way door.

Violet seemed to be steady, and only suffering an obvious bruise on the side of her head. She occasionally held a cold compress against it. Looking around the room, but avoiding me, she said. “I think we’re all here. We have several more members now,” she acknowledged the new women and men, along with their children. I counted eight women, and six children, two boys about eight or nine, and four girls, from two to about ten. The women, ranged in age from about twenty to maybe forty. The two men about mid thirties. Clean shaven now, they looked a lot better than the first time I saw them. The whole group were thin, and under nourished. Violet said that the meeting would be short as we all were late for dinner. I could see their eyes light up at the mention of Dinner.

“From the reports, we’ve learned that we have a formidable enemy living quite near. It is a large force and a great threat to our growing family. It has been brought to my attention, that we do not have sufficient weapons to deal with this enemy. So, we must acquire the needed weapons in order to meet this new threat and wipe it off the face of the earth.” She was speaking as if it was a simple matter, of just finding the weapons and doing the job. “So what we need to know, is there any one here that has knowledge of where we could acquire the weapons of sufficient force?”

Around the room, there was silence. It seemed that no one, knew of any place like that. If they did they were not saying anything. I was thinking about some national guard centers and stations that were scattered throughout the valley. I knew of a couple but whether they contained anything we could use, I had no idea. After a few minutes Greg said something about just what I was thinking. He knew of a compound and some metal shop buildings where they might have some training equipment. He wasn’t sure if there would be anything after so many gangs were reported to have roamed the valley.

“Well, we need to find out. If we are to remain here, we’ll need the means to defend ourselves.” Violet again looked around the room. “What has to be done now, is someone must go and find those weapons.”

I had heard enough, and left the room. Whatever else was to be discussed, I didn’t care about. I knew that if someone was going out on a scouting party, there was no reason why it couldn’t be me. There were enough able bodied men and women to take care of everyday problems, and until our enemies discovered our exact location, they posed no threat. I knew that we were just a moment away from anyone discovering us. At least they could discover our entrance. Getting into it would be a different matter. I supposed it could be done, but it would take a while. In the mean time, I would be looking for some means of fighting Wallace and his group from Fort Sally.

Our Armored Personal Carriers, were good, but they couldn’t destroy a fortified position like Fort Sally. It would take something with explosives. Maybe a tank or howitzer, at the very least a mortar capable of blowing the hell out of concrete shelters. Whatever we came up with, would have to do some mass killing. We couldn’t do an eye for an eye sort of thing. Not with our numbers. A loss of only one person was more than we could spare. We just didn’t have the man power needed to defend ourselves.

Bill found me in the communication room after the meeting was over. He made no mention of my not taking the Head Man chair. I was grateful for that, as I didn’t want to spend anytime discussing the topic. What Bill did have to say, was that he wasn’t going to take part in any raid on Fort Sally. His reason was that we couldn’t win in the first place, and any losses we suffered would destroy us in the long run. In his estimation it was suicidal. For the time being, I had to agree. I did think we could probably win with what weapons we had, but at a tremendous loss of life. Lives that we all agreed we couldn’t afford to lose.

“What about going on a scouting mission with me.?” I asked, but he shook his head no. He felt that Greg was the better one for that. Greg could operate just about any kind of machine or mechanical device. Plus Greg had some idea of where national guard armories might be. I told him I was going, and he wished me luck.

With a map print out, our team set out for an area Greg said once held a national Guard armory. We hoped it would still contain something we could use. Either to defend ourselves or attack Fort Sally with. We were taking the Wheeled Apc this time, as it had a longer range and better fuel economy. It did hold us to roads and paved areas. It was all wheel drive, but we just weren’t sure enough of its abilities to take it across the country side, like we would the tracked Machine we left in the garage.

Our party consisted of Marla, Greg, Nicole and myself. We thought about bringing some of the new members with us, but decided we needed enough personal at home, in case of an event happening. The miles we needed to cover, just couldn’t be done on foot. Not in the time limit we’d set for ourselves. I didn’t like taking the APC for one reason, it made noise and would attract attention. We didn’t need people taking pot shots at us.

At stream crossings we had to check the bridges carefully. One was to make sure there wasn’t structural damage. Usually a crack in the asphalt told of more serious damage below. Not being experts in detecting damage, we only looked for obvious signs. So far we didn’t have any trouble crossing the bridges we thought were okay. The other thing we had to look out for, was if the bridge was being guarded. Had anyone set up a road block, or some type of gate. Most of the time we found alternate routes around those crossings. Sometimes it took us a couple of miles to find another bridge. We didn’t want any confrontation at all. We only had to ford one small stream, and that was because the bridge was broken off on one side.

We’d left just at sunrise, and ninety minutes later, we stopped at a point just around the bend from the National Guard Post. From there Marla and I would advance on foot, while Greg and Nicole stayed with the rig. We didn’t dare leave the APC unguarded. It was both an advantage and a handicap, especially when we had to leave a good part of our party just to guard it.

Other than some water and a radio, we took nothing else except my rifle and Marla with an M16. We were traveling light because we only expected to be out of the machine for twenty minutes or so. Just time enough to see if the Post was there and unguarded. We walked along the side of the road, it was the quickest way and easier then walking through unknown forest and underbrush. When the Post came into view, we saw a tall steel linked fence surrounding a long tin shed. A small office by the side. We couldn’t see anyone about, but took cover and approached using every ditch and rise as concealment. Marla kept relaying by radio, what our situation was and how we were proceeding. If we got into trouble Greg and Nicole would come for us, but we hoped to check out the place and if occupied, we would try to leave undetected. The fewer people knew we were about, the better for us.

The gate was secured with a lock, but a hole had been cut through the fence. A good sign that there was nothing left inside. Nothing that would help us. We had to make sure. To come this far and be put off by a cut fence was childish. Marla used a small pair of binoculars to scope out the Office building, and didn’t see anything unusual. I moved through the fence while she took up a position to cover me.

My first objective was the long metal shed. I could see the door on the closest end was left a jar. Someone had broken in ahead of us, but hopefully they weren’t there now. When I got to it, I looked around the compound and saw no threats. Marla picked up and came running across to join up. I waited for her to calm her breathing from the run, before checking inside the door. There were enough transparent siding pieces letting in light, that I could see clearly in side. The place wasn’t empty, like I’d feared, but held several pieces of equipment. The nearest vehicles were trucks, they looked old and worn, but seemed serviceable.

Moving to the first truck, without any trouble, Marla came in after me. We went down the row of machines, some were different types of trucks but at the back of the tin shed, stood an old M48 tank. I remember seeing some in movies. They were a replacement for the World War Two Sherman tanks. Long obsolete, they were no match against any modern tank. I could only guess the reason they had it here, would be for training or Sticking in front of a VFW building or some park, as a war relic. At a glance, it looked in good condition, capable of running. I figured to come back and look it over later if we had time.

We saw no one in the tin shed, so we moved to a side door and looked across to the office building. It was a small mobile home type affair, with a flag pole stuck out front. Marla said she was ready, so I moved across the ground and took a spot where I could see inside the building. Marla quickly joined me and we entered. The door was unlocked, and so were all the other rooms inside the office. It all appeared empty, with no one occupying it for a long time.

Marla got on the radio again, and called for Nicole to bring the APC into the compound. Mean time, I started going through some of the files and looking for anything interesting. Pulling out the drawers of the several desks, revealed ledgers and log books. By the time Greg and Nora parked outside, Marla had come up with a list of supplies in the shed.

With all of us going through the logs and manifests, we quickly discovered that we didn’t have any munitions stored on the site. There were fuel pumps at the rear end of the Tin Shed, and some storage tanks. That got our attention, and we moved down to check them out. The pumps all had locks on them, but that wouldn’t stop us. “ snip of a pair of bolt cutters found in the shed and we discovered the tanks had fuel. Greg and I looked at each other and said, AWhy Not.” So we brought the APC around and topped off our fuel tanks.

After bringing out the log books and manifests, we went back through the shed. The different type of rigs were probably in the log books but I wanted to show Greg the tank and anything else he thought might be interesting. The tank did perk his interest, and he observed that it probably was in good enough condition to run. Without munitions though it was useless, and could only bluff an enemy. That would only be effective for a moment, and not worth the effort to bring it back. His delight in seeing two fuel trucks made our search worthwhile. With the fuel trucks he exclaimed, we could travel the whole state and not worry about refueling. We could go anyplace the fuel trucks could go.

Later we would come back for it, but right now we didn’t have time, and we were after something different. We were back on the road headed for the next spot on our map. Marla was looking through the log book and came across several entries mentioning munitions. She brought them to our attention, and noted that the entries named several locations where the munitions were picked up and delivered. Going to our map, we sought out the closest address and changed our route.

The address turned out to be a state highway motor pool. There were several trucks parked in the lot and several large buildings, containing an office and repair shops. Nicole drove right through the open gate and parked in front of the large building housing the office. Greg traversed the Fifty Cal, just to let anyone watching that we had the fire power to take them out. It turned out, that again we were alone.

Marla and I, did our commando stuff and moved into the building. Inside we saw auxiliary equipment for the highway trucks, Plows and sand spreaders, along with several forklifts. Items that we knew would come in handy once we took up residence outside the Bunker. There was no one there and we moved into the office. There we found papers scattered across the floor. We weren’t the only ones looking for things.

I went back out and opened the large doors to the building and Nicole drove the Carrier in and parked. With everyone going through the scattered papers in the office, I started a search of the buildings. Each room was open, and held things that I wasn’t interested in. The building was a bust, and so I moved across to the next. Marla caught up with me there and admonished me for going alone. She was right, but there was just so much that needed looking at.

The next building was for supplies. It had big bay doors that opened and delivery trucks could back up to a loading dock. Again there were forklifts parked to the side, and large pallets of supplies in the middle of the floor. Everything looked to be either oil, grease or filters. I didn’t see any munitions. Here we found some locked doors. Marla wanted to go look for keys, but I got a hammer from a red tool box on rollers and simply smashed the door knob, breaking it off. Then taking a screw driver I just inserted it in the exposed hole and moved the latch. The door swung open.

“That works too.” she stated, and we entered. Again we found things that would come in handy later, but un-needed now. We were in a section with plenty of no smoking signs and warnings about open flames. There were many hazard stickers posted on the walls which didn’t seem normal. There was a large inter concrete wall, which was unusual too, and a heavy metal door, that rolled open and shut on a metal track imbedded in the floor. It had not only one lock on it, but three. Again, we used the bolt cutters and had the locks off and tossed aside. Together we tried to open the door, but found we couldn’t budge it.

Looking up at the top of the door, we saw gears and a chain roll that opened and closed the heavy door. Seeing it would take power to operate the door, we went back and found Greg. Telling him our problem, he dropped the papers he was going through, and joined our effort. It took longer to find what we needed then it did setting it up. We could have used our APC to power the giant garage door opener, but it would have required us to move supplies and other rigs to get close to the area. We did use a small fork lift to carry a portable generator and leads past all the material. Once there, Greg plugged into a junction box and we fired up the generator. When the power was flowing through the system, we hit the wall switch and the door started to roll along the track. After it was open, Greg shut down the generator and looked inside with us.

There we saw several pallets loaded with wooden ammo boxes. We had found what we needed. Or just part of what we needed. There was M16 ammo, pistol ammo, grenades, and other munitions that we didn’t have a gun or launcher for. I was hoping for some wire guided rockets, or laser ones, but that stuff wasn’t there. What we did find was some mortar shells. There wasn’t a launcher for them, but Greg said it didn’t matter he could make one if need be. So we collapsed the seats in the Armor Personal Carrier and cleared the area for the three pallets of munitions.

Using the fork lift was more my forte than anyone else’s. Once we got a fork lift started it was easy doing. We had to put down rollers for the pads so I could shove one against the other and get them all in the rear of the APC. We now had what we came for. The grenades would certainly give us a boost in fire power. The small supply of artillery shells for now were worthless, but if we came across a cannon, we would at least have the ammo. What all was on the pallets, we didn’t know yet. Each pallet had a list of what it contained, but with it being printed in military language, it would take some time for our civilian minds to decipher.