Hell in the Homeland (5 page)

He dashed back through the back door and down the stairs. The kids were asleep! He woke them up and carried his brother while urging his sister up the stairs. The whole front of the house was ablaze when they cleared the door. Billy had them stop so he could make sure they were not seen and then ran to the barn and hid until the guys drove away.

The house burned to the ground and only Billy knew that their mom and dad had been burned along with the house. While Billy was only eight years old, he worked around the farm with his dad and was more mature than his age would indicate. He quickly started looking for food, water and anything that would help them survive. He found a couple of hams in the smokehouse, a case of bottled water in the barn and several knives. He placed the supplies and his brother in his toy wagon and left home for good.

***

They continued their trip to the bunker the next day and the kids rode with Beth and Alice. Beth told Billy about their situation and where they were headed. The two bonded quickly and Billy opened up to her about being scared that they would starve without help. Beth assured him that she would make sure that they were taken care of.

The group continued to open up trailers on the way to Mobile and quickly determined that they needed to get a large truck and trailer running to haul all of the can goods and supplies. They filled every nook and cranny with supplies until every vehicle was over flowing. They were also able to fill their tanks with gas and diesel from the stalled vehicles without much trouble.

During the break for lunch, John asked Beth how the kids were doing.

Beth replied, “John, they are so cute and special. Billy has fed and protected them for several weeks and he is only eight years old. Bill and Alice want to adopt Rich. What do we do with Billy and Lindsey? Not everyone wants to adopt little black kids. I just hope that someone at your farm will want to adopt them.”

John took Beth by the hand and asked, “Beth, where are we going in our relationship? I hate to suggest that we adopt them when we aren’t "we" yet. I love you and want to live with you forever. We could adopt them!”

Beth gave him a kiss and said, “Yes”.

John asked, “Yes, we will adopt?”

Beth said, “Yes we will adopt Billy and Lindsey, but what I meant was yes I will marry you!”

They kissed and then got the group together and announced their engagement.

Scott was the first to congratulate them.

He said, “It’s about time. The whole camp was wondering when you’d make an honest woman out of my new mom!”

The rest of the group hugged Beth and John and wanted to know when they were getting married.

John asked, “Does anyone know a preacher?”

They all laughed and looked at each other.

Bill said, “Well we need to add a preacher to our list of skills we need. A real doctor would come in handy also."

John, Beth, Bill and Alice got all three of the kids and discussed their future with them. The two little ones were too young to understand, but sat in Alice and Bill’s lap and felt loved. Beth asked Billy and Lindsey to live with John and her. He was worried about his brother, but John explained that they all lived at the same place so he would always be around his brother.

              Gus had expected his friends to take three to four days to get to Mobile and they were long overdue. He was resisting sending a search party out to find them. Steve was even worse than Gus; he missed Janet and wanted her with him. He had only known her for a couple of days and could not imagine life without her.

              Their imagination was running wild with all of the bad things that could have happened to their friends. Finally, they came to their senses and decided that John and Scott were well trained and were both born leaders so they could handle themselves. Whatever had slowed them down had been dealt with and nothing could stop them from getting to the bunker.

Then Gus said, “If the bastards don’t get here within three days, I’m taking the DC3 and heading north to find them.”

They agreed and got back to work.

Steve left to go on patrol and Gus went to check on Jim and his latest crop of trainees. Gus walked over behind the barn and watched Jim training a bunch of ladies how to shoot BB guns. Jim’s girlfriend was keeping guard on him and making sure that no flirting was going on. Gus thought to himself that she had reason to be worried, not because Jim was a ladies' man, but because there were two women for every man due to the attack. He knew that women would be either cherished or turned into slaves depending on who had control of them, but no sane man would kill women in this new screwed up world.

Imelda was by far the best shot since she had attended three of Jim’s training sessions and was ready to graduate to a real gun. Each of the men or women that took the full three days of training was moved up to the .22 rifles, then to a combat weapon. Gus then watched Robin for a while and prayed that she would never have to fire a shot in anger.

***

The women were of various ages from fourteen to late fifties and were all chained to the wall without any clothes, but their panties. Several guards had dragged them from their cells, stripped them and chained them to the wall by their wrists. The guards took turns watching the door and molesting the women for about an hour before the door opened. A large black man walked into the room and told all but one of the guards to leave. Deke walked over to one of the young women and ran his hands all over her while she struggled. He told the guard that she was a keeper. Next, he went to one of the older and very attractive women and tried to place his hand on her breast when she kicked him on the leg. He slapped her twice and told the guard to leave her chained for later use. He felt up all of the women until one tried to kick him in the balls. He pulled his pistol and shot her in the head. The blood and brains splattered several of the women. Two started to cry and Deke shot them.

He then turned to the guard and said, “Tell the men to come back and take these two to my quarters and all of the rest to the brothel except for the old bitch. Tell the men to take turns with her until they get their fill and then shoot her."

***

Steve was on a four-wheeler riding along the perimeter of the compound just after noon when several men with guns stepped out of the bushes and confronted him. Steve had his M4 and a 9mm strapped to his side, but saw five big black guys surrounding him and they looked like they knew what they were doing. He decided to play along with them and see what they wanted.

The oldest of the group stepped forward and said, “Drop your guns and let’s talk.”

Steve replied, “Let’s talk and I keep my guns.”

The reply was, “Drop your guns or we drop your sorry ass.”

Steve dropped his M4 and used two fingers to pull his pistol and drop it to the ground.

The leader said, “Now we can talk. What are you doing out here and why should we trust you?”

Steve replied, “You should trust me because I say so and none of your business.”

George started laughing and had to force himself to stop.

George said, “The bottom line is, is it safe for black folk around here?”

Steve replied, “So because I’m black I know everything about blacks being safe? No, blacks aren’t safe around here; however, whites and Chinese aren’t safe either. What you need to ask is “Can you join our team and be treated as equals?”

George replied, “I guess you cut to the bottom line there buddy. We’d like to get to know you and your team. We were just passing through, but this looks like a good area to check out.”

They took Steve back to their camp and introduced him to the rest of the family. They compared notes on their recent experiences and when George told him about the fight with the DHS Steve knew why the DHS had not come back to the bunker. Steve asked for more detail and George gave him a blow-by-blow description from finding the girls being attacked to hiding the Humvee.

Steve asked, “Do y’all want the Humvee? If not, we may be able to use it to fight those dirty bastards.”

George said, “We don’t need it and you should be careful it stands out and would draw more of those DHS assholes.”

Steve laughed and replied, “That is exactly why I want it, cheese to bait the trap!”

George asked, “So y’all are strong enough to take on the US Government?”

Steve replied, “Not in a face-to-face all-out battle, but we have a few veterans that know how to handle themselves and I’ll bet you and your crew have some military experience. Together we can start with harassing them while we grow strong enough to defeat them.”

George gave Steve his guns and then led him back to their camp. The camp was just waking up and Shirley and the girls were preparing a big ham and eggs breakfast when they saw the men walking towards them. Several kids ran up to George and asked him what he had brought back to them. He pointed at Steve and told them he had brought them an Alabama redneck. They all laughed. George introduced Steve to his family and the girls and then Steve told them his story during breakfast. Steve was careful not to tell them too much detail about the bunker or their supplies and weapons. He really liked this family and felt that they would fit in well with his people. He asked them if they wanted to come with him to the farm to meet the rest of his people and perhaps settle down for a while at the farm.

George asked Steve to take a walk for about fifteen minutes while the family had a meeting to discuss joining Steve’s team.

Sandra and Linda started walking with Steve when Shirley walked up to them and said, “Where are you two going? We are having a family meeting.”

Both stared at Shirley and then Sandra said, “We know that you are being nice, but we really aren’t part of your family.”

Shirley replied, “You two are good people and we would love for you to join our family.”

They walked off to the meeting.

Steve walked the perimeter of the camp and saw a man about 200 yards out at each end of the camp on lookout. He was pleased that these people were vigilant, could contribute to the safety of the group and would not be a hindrance. He thought he heard something and looked all around when it dawned on him to look up. He looked up and there was a helicopter about a mile north of their position heading east. While he knew, they could not be seen, he knew that the helicopter was searching for something and he did not want them to find the bunker. He ran back to the camp to warn the others and saw that they were already hiding in the brush in case the helicopter came back their way.

When the helicopter disappeared over the horizon George rounded everyone up and said, “I want to travel to Steve’s group and see about joining them. Get ready to travel.”

George said to Steve, “We will be ready to travel in thirty minutes and wanted to join your group.”

Steve shook his hand and told him that everyone that he thought that they would fit in and the group would be stronger and better able to survive together.

“I hope this is not a problem, but my group has mostly white people.”

Shirley responded, “Do they believe in God? Are they good people? That’s all that’s important.”

“We all believe in God and yes, they are great people. We have a few hard heads, but they are good and would give you the shirt off their back.”

Steve told them that they were only a couple of miles from the farm and that he should go in first by himself to make sure that there were no accidental shootings.

He led them to the farm, had them stop about five hundred yards from the perimeter fence and went on in to greet the guards. He checked in with the guards and then drove up to the house. Steve filled the team in on the newcomers and the team was glad to have more good people join them, but there was some concern about food and supplies. Gus told them that they had just found several truckloads of can goods and there were many more plus the gardens could be expanded so there really was no food concern. The group decided to welcome the newcomers with open arms and make them feel at home.

Steve led George’s family into the compound and introduced them to their new family. They were welcomed and the women took over figuring out living accommodations. Alice, Ann and Shirley hit it off from the start and quickly got Shirley and her daughters and daughter-in-laws into the cooking and guard schedules. Shirley was an excellent cook and took over the kitchen, which hurt no one’s feelings.

Ginny tapped Imelda on the shoulder and pointed to the horizon. It was just before sunset and she had seen a glint of light just below the tree line about a mile out. Imelda raised her rifle and used the scope to check out the tree line.

She said, “Darn, I hope they are friendly because there are a bunch of vehicles heading our way.”

They called for Gus and he drove up to their position with Steve and Jim in the pickup.

Gus said, “That’s John and Scott bringing the rest of our crew home.”

Ginny replied, “You could have told us. What if we had shot at them?”

Gus said, “John told me that he wanted to test our defenses. Y’all passed the test.”

Imelda ran back to the house to tell everyone that the crew from Tennessee had finally arrived. They all came out to greet the rest of their ever -growing family.

There were fifteen trucks in the convoy and all were towing trailers full of food, water, guns and supplies. The string of trucks drove through the gate and on up to the house with John and Beth in the lead vehicle.

John jumped out, shook Gus’s hand and said, “Well we made it and everyone is alive and except for Sam, all are well and sound.”

Gus gave Beth a big hug and asked her, “Has John been good to you?”

She replied, "Yes, he is wonderful. Gus, where is your wife, Robin? I want to meet her!”

Gus turned to see Robin and the rest of the group approaching them. Ann was leading the group and walking fast. Gus introduced Robin and Beth and then left with Jim to help get the trailers unloaded.

Ann walked up to John and gave him and Scott big hugs.

She said, “Now, John, where is this new girlfriend of yours? I want to meet her.”

Beth walked up to John and held his hand.

She said, “I’m John’s new girlfriend and you must be Scott’s mom. He’s told me so much about you.”

Scott said, “I got to go help Jim and Gus, bye.”

He took off running.

Ann said, “John, did you and Scott think that I would make a scene? Y’all probably have this girl afraid of me.”

John said, “Ann, I don’t believe Beth is afraid of anything, however, I did not bad mouth you.”

He took off to help the others.

Ann took Beth by the hand and said, “Beth, you don’t have to be worried about me. I just got rid of John two years ago and am not interested in him.”

Beth replied, “Thanks for clearing the air, but I really wasn’t worried.”

Ann looked at Beth who was wearing short-shorts and a tight fitting tee shirt and was very beautiful, and said, “I’m sure you weren’t darling.”

They both smiled at each other, but before anything could happen, Steve interrupted them and yelled for everyone to gather around him so he could introduce the new comers. He introduced the people from Mobile first.

John asked, “Where is what’s his face, Ann’s boyfriend?”

Steve said, “A long story, but Ann kicked his racist ass out of here.”

Steve then introduced George’s family and the people that George’s team had brought in to join the team. John finally introduced the group from Tennessee to everyone and was ready to get back to work when Steve motioned him over to the center of the crowd.

Steve said, “We have one last introduction and then y’all can go about your business. For those of you who have joined this band of misfits, John Harris is our leader. Say something John.”

John looked over the crowd and said, “Welcome to our bunker. I can’t think of much to say now, but you all know that the country has gone to hell in a handbasket. It appears that elements of our government have actually turned against us and are forcing people into concentration camps. We have food, water, shelter and weapons, but need to keep gathering as much of those as possible until we can expand the garden and find out how dangerous Mobile is. We all need to work together and share the load. That’s it for now. Have a good night.”