Chapter 20

Once inside the barn, we saw that it was truly a barn. It had a loft, but no hay. Just some old boxes and a couple of leather trunks. Using our brown wool blankets we rigged up a blind, with our scopes sticking through it and settled in behind our arranged boxes and trunks to view the day. Normally I wouldn’t have changed the outward appearance of anything, but we were so far back from the open loft, That I figured the change wouldn’t be noticed.

From what our scouts told us, the Patrol would be along by seven O’clock. They were not always on time, but close enough. Their route would take them behind us. The worse situation would be if we were discovered, we’d be cut off from our escape route. I carried a 7mm magnum rifle, with a silencer. Dean packed the M16. If we got into a fire fight, our plan was to shoot our way out. Short and simple, just start fighting and make a break for it. That was our plan. We just hoped it wouldn’t come to that, as it didn’t sound very successful to me. Because it hurt my chest and shoulder when firing a rifle, I was more than happy to avoid a fire fight.

Daylight came after we waited for three hours. Dean napped while I kept watch and then he spelled me for a half hour. Dawn found us looking at the compound and seeing very little activity. At first only a couple of movements could be seen. Then as the hour went by, some smoke came out of several chimneys. Dean was filming this, or videoing it, so we didn’t have to take notes. It was all on camera.

I was wishing we had coffee, but water would have to do. Dean set the camera on it’s tripod and was letting it just run and record. I was still scanning the compound with the scope, looking it all over and trying to get a general feel of how to began the attack. I could see some sort of gun emplacements on both sides of the east entrance. I knew it had an west entrance too, but we couldn’t see it from here.

I could tell that an early morning surprise attack would have us in the compound before they could know what hit them. They were so slow and lazy getting to the positions, it would be hard to put up a defense. My problem was the surprise part. That M48 Tank, made one hell of a racket when it moved. On top of that, the route we needed to take, could be mined and covered with all sorts of booby traps. They would be fools if it wasn’t guarded in some manner. Any obstacle they might throw in our way would be blasted with the armor piercing shells, Greg was manufacturing. While we were doing that, Our enemies would be doing something to us. I just hoped we would have a big enough hammer to hit hard enough and put a stop to any counter measures. Once inside the walls they were still constructing, we could finish them off. We had a modest supply of high explosive shells, more than enough to destroy the entire compound.

The plan that was forming in my mind, was to lead in with the Tank, and have one of the APC’s covering the tank, maybe both. They could take out any organized defense with the fifty cal machine guns. Most of the attack could be done with all three vehicles buttoned up. What was needed was a team at the other end of the compound, cutting down any that tried to escape. It would have to be the All wheel drive APC. As it could get there a lot faster than the tank or the tracked APC. I didn’t want the ground troops going at it without cover.

That was the problem, We couldn’t afford to lose even one person. Every fire team, needed to be behind cover and dug in. They could arrive with our APC, but would need to take positions at the West end. I didn’t want them caught in the open without armor support. So as strong as we were with armored vehicles, we needed one more. That wasn’t going to happen. So I had to except a modified battle plan, and hoped that it worked.

Fort Sally was constructed on a site next to a paved highway. When building their defenses, they left the highway out of it. So my thinking was, that the first attack would be at the East gate, The tank would enter leading the two APC’s. Once engaged in the fight, and knocking out the gun emplacements, the All wheel drive APC would break off and head to the West gate. There they would put a stopper in the bottle, and we would have the bunch trapped. Though trapped wasn’t what I was after. My aim was to slaughter every last one of them.

We spent the day, looking and filming. The gates were opened and closed each time someone left or entered. Most of the traffic coming in and out, was to the West. Where ever they were getting their supplies, had to be in the coast range. Outside of a few small towns, there wasn’t a whole lot to draw from. They used the west gate more than the one closest to Waller Ville, which only stood to reason. They had nothing going or coming from Waller Ville’s direction. So that gate was mostly idle, but the one most heavily guarded. They knew we would be coming. Dean drew a map of the area directly in front of Fort Sally, and marked down the paths people took when leaving the gate.

What we were looking for was a pattern of foot traffic that might suggest a safe way through a mine field. If there was one. What we saw was people walking everywhere without much regard to where they put their feet down. Course it took all day for enough people to come and go, for us to note that. It didn’t appear to have a mine field. At least nothing that was a contact mine. There could be explosives rigged to be detonated by a sentry. From what we could tell, there was only the two gun emplacements that were constantly manned. If there were mines to be remotely triggered, they would probably have someone standing by all the time. I assumed the detonator was in one of those gun Emplacements. I just knew they had the approach mined.

Our day passed uneventful, except when the patrol came across our back trail. We were expecting them, and watched carefully as they traveled their route. They stopped on the dirt road we had drug blankets over to cover our tracks. They looked up and down the road as if something was out of place. We watched through our scopes, looking for any sign they suspected we were here. A sheet of paper was produced from one of their pockets and several looked on as one pointed in different directions each time going back to the paper. After some more talking, the sheet of paper was folded and put back in the pocket. We breathed a sigh of relief when they finally moved along their route and disappeared over a rise.

When it was dark enough, we left the barn and retraced our steps back along our path. We took pains to make sure nothing in the barn or along our path, was left to show we’d been there. Again we drug a blanket behind us, to cover our tracks. We felt just a bit more secure when we moved into the small woodland, and had some trees to conceal our movements.

Once back at the Bunker, I showered and ate, then reported to the council room and made a report to everyone gathered there. Dean brought his video and set it up so we could view it. Most of the video was run at a fast speed, as there just wasn’t that much going on. Whenever something changed, the video was stopped and we watched the event in normal time. On one wall we had maps of the different proposed battle plans. After watching the videos and hearing our reports, it was suggested that we retire for the night and think about what we’d seen. In the morning we would share ideas, and modify battle maps.

Before I could get to my quarters, Violet caught up with me. A look of concern on her face as she asked me if I thought we would be successful. I informed her that I wouldn’t be going on this fight to lose. That answer didn’t help, she then put a hand on my shoulder and told me, that she cared for me. She went on to say that, she knew our differences in age, was a very big factor in our lives. Mostly our sex had been just to keep me from making mistakes with the younger women. It was suppose to be clinical like, on her part, but she confessed that she cared for me. I was beginning to think that she wanted to start up again, but she ruled that out.

“I’m glad that you have Marla and Nora looking out for you. I know they care and will make good wives. If I was younger, and could bear children, I would be going with you. I know I’m too old to be pioneering across the mountains, my place ... Well I’m needed here. So what I want you to know, is that after this is all over with those Shelter People, and you leave. You will always be welcome where ever I’m at. I love you Robert Johnson, and I want the best for you.” With that she gave me a hug, then turned and left. I did manage to hug her back, but not much more. Then she was gone down the passage way and out of sight.

Marla and Nora were both waiting in our room, and put me to bed quickly when I entered. I spent a few minutes hearing what interesting things they did today and it sounded as boring as what I had done. We were all tired and spent only a few minutes caressing each other before fatigue and sleep over took us. One thing Nora had to say before we dropped off in dream land, was that there were several more wanting to leave with us. I didn’t like the sound of that, because I didn’t want to be responsible for anyone outside of our family circle. It was something to deal with later. Now was the time to sleep and in the morning decide how to go about removing a dangerous threat to our people.

Breakfast was brought to the council room, where we were listening to each other’s proposals on how to attack Fort Sally and wipe them all out. Greg didn’t have a plan, but informed us that we did have four trucks in good running condition, that could carry our forces should we need more transport. He apologized for the trucks being old, but reminded us that the computer chips in the newer models didn’t come through the Magnetic electronic pulse at all. The high altitude explosions had fried everything and there just wasn’t any replacement parts. Even some of the older cars and trucks were out of action because of the Pulse. He did assure us that eventually he would put together some vehicles without the computer chips. Right now they didn’t have time.

Bills modified battle plan was almost the same as his old one. It was to send in the tank and one APC, with the other APC going to the west gate and closing off their escape route. Now with Gregs addition of four trucks, he proposed that they could transport our fire teams, and have the element o surprise at the west end gate. Once we neared the compound with our tank, there would be no surprise as they would hear us coming for maybe a mile or more. I didn’t fault Bills plan, I just said that we couldn’t bank on the element of surprise. Whether it was tanks or trucks, the world was silent now and anything mechanical could be heard for miles.

Several others gave a vague description of what they thought would be a battle plan, but I couldn’t follow what they were laying out. Some of the ideas didn’t consider the fact that those people would be shooting back at us. They had already demonstrated that they had equipment beside just rifles. They had used grenades against us in our last altercation. We had RPGs now and they could have Rocket Propelled Grenades just like us. Our tank without support could easily be taken out. The Germans had panzerfausts in the second world war that took out tanks, and I knew that some of our National Guard war games played with something just like them. In order to have grenades, they’d found them someplace. No telling what all else was found.

My modified plan was to attack with the Tank in the lead, followed by our tracked vehicle, and one truck with a fifty Cal machine gun mounted on it. Some steel plates could be welded in place to give some protection, and even some for the driver. The wheeled APC would head for the west gate, carrying two fire teams and block off any escapees. Before all that, we needed a good sniper in the barn, to take out the men in the two gun emplacements at the east gate. That was to remove the men who would set off the mines on our approach, if there were mines. I just had a hell of a feeling that there were.

Bill listened to me, and we marked off on the map where I thought the mines might be planted. Also the barn where Dean and I had spied from. Bill began to present another plan which sounded a lot like what I just submitted, only with two snipers in the Barn instead of one.

The hope of a surprise attack was not in my plans, and I explained why I didn’t think we could count on it. They were probably sending out spies just like we were. They left after dark and came back after dark. Most likely had an outpost some place to give warning of our approach. As I said before, the noise of the tank would go before us by blocks if not miles. My plan was to overcome them by sheer force. Our snipers would take out the men manning the gun emplacements and then the tank leading the attack would blast its way into the compound. The modified truck, and the tracked APC would protect its flanks. Our other APC would again race down to the other gate and take up a position blocking an escape.

There was a general acceptance of our modified battle plan, and we began assigning people to the different positions. Roger Caseman who had been helping Greg in the machine shop, asked a question that had escaped everyone else. “What do we do if they surrender?”

“I don’t think any of his special troopers, the ones riding herd on the slaves, will do any surrendering.” I shook my head, with doubt. “It’s the women and children we want. If they have husbands or a special person that isn’t one of the bad guys, we will take them too. The main thing is to destroy their facility and deny them access to food and comfort. We will leave the compound burnt to the ground. The rescued people, if any, will be brought back here and checked out. There are plenty of jobs for everyone. With more people we can control more land. The more land we control, the safer we will be.”

“Yeah, but what do we do with the bad guys if they try to surrender.” Roger asked again, since I didn’t answer his question the way he wanted.

“If you don’t kill them out right, Then we will give them a half a loaf of bread each, a bottle of water and point them North, back the way they came.” Violet spoke up and her answer seemed to placate the question. Course it wasn’t the answer I had in mind.

The plan decided on included having our snipers, taking out everyone they could at the Gun emplacements, then giving the okay to launch the drive into the Enemy compound. I would lead the formation with my Tank. The Tracked APC would follow close behind with the modified truck and our fire teams bringing up the rear. Once the tank was inside, the Wheeled APC was to make it’s end run to head off any fleeing hostile’s.

Then we would systematically go through the compound and look for stragglers and any captives that they may have confined. We needed people to work the fields and improve our living standards, but we went at it a lot different then what our competitors were doing. We had them join us, and for the most part, they could pick out the work they felt would be the most benefit to our Community. If they didn’t want to do that, they were welcome to leave. No one was to be held as slave labor. That was what we were striving to achieve, but sometimes we had to bribe people into doing work they didn’t like. Paper money wasn’t any good, but coins had some value. The problem was, that we didn’t need the metal they were made of. There was so much which could be stripped from other sources. Coins still held value, but the amount needed to make a difference was too large. Gold was valuable but there was nothing really to buy. So it was a problem, and for the time being, valued services were rewarded by extending privileges.

In the bunker, the privileges included special seating in the theater, and in the gym during games. Other privileges were giving them first pick on housing. We were improving the farms and all the buildings with them. The living quarters on our farms were being up graded and people were being handpicked to live there. Our next bit of work was to start rebuilding what we could of Waller Ville. There was plenty of damaged housing that would take a great deal of fixing, but it could be done. Our intent was to have power and running water to all our outside living quarters. Our generators in the Bunker could only do so much. So something had to be constructed for power. We had the river, and it flowed strong enough that a paddle wheel could be constructed. I was familiar with several over the years and knew something about generators. We just had to find the materials needed for it all.

Much of the privileges granted would only last as long as they performed the duties required. Later when safety and security were established, we would rebuild the town for family living. That was how we were able to field a militia. They were fighting to remove a hostile force and for the life we could afterwards.

On the day Greg finished working on the truck we would use for our fire teams, a message was radioed from our Sniper position in the Barn. We had been keeping a vigilance on Fort Sally for any changes in their security measures. What we heard from our Snipers, was that activity in Fort Sally was dropping off. After some activity in the morning, there had been nothing since. Not even the patrol had been sent out. Though they couldn’t see the West Gate, they could see the comings an goings from it. Nothing arrived from the west all day.

That raised the hair on the back of my neck. Immediately I thought Fort Sally had moved an attacking force out during the night and was now closing in on us. Bill thinking the same thing I was, sent out the code red alarm. Everyone dropped what they were doing and went into a defensive mode. All lookouts went to full alert. Those working the fields were called into preplanned security zones. Everything not connected with defense went into lock down.