The Guardians (2 page)

Over the course of several months Nate became quite close with the family.  They taught him the basics of farming and animal husbandry, and he used those skills to help in numerous ways on their farm, in addition to his security duties.

As Nate began to get a little too comfortable with life on the Peterson Farm, he felt that he needed to get back to his mission of finding his brother before he lost the fire in his heart.  Comfort can quickly turn into months and years that have gone by, and he wanted to keep his promise that he had made to himself to reunite his family.  The Petersons, being a very tight knit family, understood and gave him a healthy young mare and fitted him out with a saddle and packs to carry along some food and supplies. 

After saying his goodbyes, Nate rode away from the Peterson Farm and continued his journey by following the Pecos River down to Pecos, Texas.  From there, he headed due east towards San Angelo.  From San Angelo, he continued on to Brady, and then across Interstate 35 near Temple and then on to College Station.

After a long and dangerous journey from Southern California, through Arizona, New Mexico, and through Texas, Nate as most everyone in his family called him, had finally arrived on the outskirts of College Station.  Having been hardened by a journey full of conflict and struggle, Nate approached the city with extreme caution.

Along the way, Nate had gathered as much intelligence as he could as to what to expect.  Texas had been one of the constitutionally loyal states that worked against the
Federal Government and its attempt at using the state of emergency as an opportunity to impose its will on the states.  Before the collapse, the Texas Army and Air National Guard's already had a healthy force strength due to the state's patriotic and proud population.  Currently however, with a massive flood of patriotic civilian volunteers and deserting federal service men and women, their numbers where nearly double what they were before the collapse.  This made Texas a safe haven for those seeking to flee the near totalitarian rule of the Federal Government.

So far in his journey, he had found Texas to be a much more stable place than the other states
that he had traversed to get there.  Some smaller towns had even managed to get a partial electrical grid up and running for their hospitals and core infrastructure components, returning their citizen's lives to a certain level of pre-collapse normalcy.  He was very thankful that his brother had chosen Texas A&M over The University of Massachusetts and Northwestern University in Chicago, as those regions of the country were devastated by both the terror attacks and the violence and lawlessness that followed.  The population die off in those areas and others was rumored to be as high as fifty percent. 

This was due not only to the devastating attacks and the violence that followed, but also the regional instability meant that there was no supply chain from the other regions of the country that they normally depended on for food and supplies.  Many people died of starvation
and illnesses associated with malnutrition, as well as other health problems that would have been treatable before the collapse.  Those areas of the country that had populations that depended heavily on the rest of the country for constant support and supply simply could not defend or provide for themselves.

Even with the hope that his brother was still safe and sound here in Texas, Nate knew
that finding him, if he had not moved on himself, would take what seemed like an act of God.  He had been avoiding government authorities of all kinds during his journey, both because he was a deserter and because he did not want to get caught up in anyone else's struggles, but he felt that was the time to ask for help if he had any chance of finding his brother.

As he rode into the outskirts of town, he approached what appeared to be a Texas National Guard outpost.  It had a sign with bearing the Texas flag and simply read "CS Post 19".  His shotgun was in plain view in a homemade scabbard tied to his saddle, and his M9 was on his side holstered in plain view as well.  The Guardsman standing watch at the entrance to the office stood
up as he approached.  Nate brought his horse to a stop and slowly climbed down from the saddle.  As he got closer, he noticed the soldier was wearing the traditional National Guard uniform, but appeared to be in his mid-fifties and wore a short goatee beard.  He had a Texas flag on his sleeve, but no U.S. Government markings could be seen anywhere on his uniform.  This gave him pause as he did not fit the profile of a traditional guardsman, but he approached the man regardless, as he was desperate to begin the search for leads that may help him find his brother.

"What can I do for you Sir?" asked the obviously cautious soldier. 

"What agency do you serve?" questioned Nate in reply.

"I only serve the people Sir.  My name is Jeff Collins.  I'm...well... we here, are with the Texas Citizen's Guard.  We are working in voluntary cooperation with the Texas State Guard."

"Do you mean Texas National Guard?" asked Nate.

"Formerly the National Guard," he quickly replied.  "When the State of Texas decided to take a stand against the regime's push for power, the governor dropped the word National and severed all ties with the federally controlled U.S. Army and Air Force.  There was already a Texas State Guard in place, which was a volunteer group that augmented the Texas military and civil authorities during a state of emergency.  The governor essentially merged the Texas Army National Guard and Texas Air National Guard with the Texas State Guard.  As a result, the traditional National Guard military forces and the Texas State Guard stand as one, organized like the traditional military side of the house, with a few special considerations here and there.  The Texas Citizen's Guard is basically civilian militia volunteers that work in concert with the State Guard in local areas.  We are people who want to be the guardians of our own communities, on a strictly local level.  Some of us can't just pack up and go wherever the governor needs us, due to family constraints or disabilities, but we can help out in our own local areas.  The affiliation with the Texas State Guard gives us more of a standing and trust with the people than if we were a bunch of different unaffiliated militia groups."

"That sounds like a damn good way to run things, at least in a patriot state like Texas," replied Nate.

"Yes Sir, it works for us.  So what can I do for you?" he again asked.

"My name is Nate Hoskins.  My brother Luke is, or rather was, a medical student at the university when it all went down.  I've traveled all the way here from San Diego to try and find him, and I'm hoping you can maybe give me a place to start looking."

"Wait right here, I'll be right back," Mr. Collins said.

After a few moments, another gentleman followed Jack Collins back outside to where Nate was waiting with his horse and said, "Mark Tucker, pleasure to meet you," as he reached out to shake Nate's hand.  "So you're looking for a medical student"?

"Yes Sir, my brother Luke Hoskins
was a first year med student here.  I've not heard from him since the lines went dead."

"Well, I can't tell you about your brother personally, but the Texas State Guard set up a make-shift hospital/rehab center at the university to make up for some of the hospitals that were hit during the attacks.  They offered the students food, shelter, and membership in the Citizen's Guard if they volunteered to stay on and help.
There were a lot of initial casualties from the attacks, as well as casualties brought on by the violence during the peacekeeping efforts that followed.  Over the past six months or so, the cartels from Mexico have been rushing across the border pillaging some towns and turning them into outposts for their smuggling operations.  With the Federal Government only being concerned about themselves and their agenda, the border is effectively wide open.  They have a constant flow of border skirmish casualties from there as well.  A lot of the students stayed on to help, so your brother may be there," Mr. Tucker explained.

"Great!  How do I get there?" Nate asked enthusiastically.

"Well, you may not receive a warm welcome arriving unannounced with those guns, it being a base now and all.  I'll go with you so that I can introduce you to the right people," replied Mr. Tucker.

"When can we leave?  I'm ready anytime," said Nate excited
for the possibility to find his brother.  The long and hard journey from California had taken a toll on him both physically and emotionally.  He was in desperate need of a positive turn in his life.

"Well, we can't both ride your horse and it's too far to walk.
We have to ration our fuel around here as well, so we have scheduled runs in our van to get us around.  The next one leaves at 1800 this evening.  You can leave your horse here; she will be taken care of.  Also, if you don't mind, you can leave your shotgun in our armory until we get back to get your horse.  You can take your sidearm though, we encourage everyone to be armed, but we don't want to make anyone there question your intentions.  A lot of the injured guys there have been shot up by their fellow citizens, so being low key once we are inside is the respectful thing to do," Mr. Tucker explained.

"If that's what you need me to do I'll do it," Nate apprehensively agreed.  He had not been without both of his guns for even one moment over the past year.  They had become an emotional and psychological crutch for him having saved his life so many times. 

"Jeff here will show you where you can water your horse, store your shotgun, grab a bite to eat, and wash up.  Then just meet me back here at 1800 and we will go and see what we can find out," Mr. Tucker said as he shook Nate's hand looking him dead in the eye with a smile.

Nate had not felt this welcomed anywhere for quite some time.  He felt like this was all too good to be true, but he just had to trust them, if even just for the possibility of finding his brother.  Now all he had to do was wait for 1800 to get here.

****

Chapter 2: Homesteading On the Homefront

After the harrowing journey to The Homefront in East Tennessee by Evan, Peggy, Zack, Judith, and the Jones family during the initial stages of the collapse, Evan and Molly Baird's little hundred-acre homestead had become a homesteading community.  It was now home to not only the Bairds, but also Jason and Sarah Jones and their two young boys Kevin and Michael, Peggy and her son Zack, Judith, Mike Vandergriff and his wife Judy and their son Greg.  Fifteen people in all, spanning every age group, now called The Homefront home.

Immediately after last year's thwarted attack by the gang of looting marauders, the men went to work rebuilding and fortifying what was damaged during the attack.  While they were doing the necessary exterior repairs, the women planned and arranged temporary living quarters for the new arrivals inside the home.

The men were very pleased with the level of basic ballistic protection that the home had provided during the attack.  They felt that only basic repairs and modifications were needed, other than completely rebuilding the chicken coop that Jason had destroyed during the barrage of .300 Win Mag that he relentlessly pounded it with while ending the assault.  They also felt that now, with their sheer numbers, they could defensively cover the property very well after what Griff and Greg had accomplished when holding the attackers off alone.

Griff, whose specialty in the Marine Corps was physical security, was put in charge of making security assessments and recommendations to the rest of the group.  His duties also included establishing a watch rotation, where someone would stand watch at night while the others slept.  This person would be relieved from any duties or chores that they were responsible for a reasonable time before and after their night shift for preparation and recovery.  The night watch-stander would be responsible for keeping an eye on security cameras, as well as making rounds throughout the property near the house and the immediate perimeter.  Although their staffing levels would allow for multiple watch-standers during periods of increased threat levels, Griff recommended, and Evan and Jason agreed, that on a regular basis they would use only one night watch throughout the night, in order to help make life seem as normal as possible, especially for the children.  In addition, their homesteading workload during the day would become burdensome if they had multiple people standing watch each night and resting during the day.  All of the adults, as well as Greg and Jake, were trained to Griff's standard and were rotated through the schedule.  This meant that each person would only have to stand watch once every nine days.  They were all trained to awaken Griff if any abnormalities were to occur, or either Evan or Jason when they were deemed as an alternate watch leader for the night.

After much discussion and thought, the women came up with a way for everyone to live comfortably under one roof for the time being.  Evan and Molly would of course retain the master bedroom, Griff and Judy would take a room of their own, as would Jason and Sarah.  Peggy and Judith decided that they would be roommates by sharing a room, the older sons, Jake and Greg would share a room, the younger sons would do so as well putting Kevin, Michael, and Zack in a room, and lastly the girls Lilly and Sammy would share a room. This arrangement was cramped, but equitable, putting all six bedrooms to good use and at full capacity.  Eventually, if the situation ended up being long term, they had discussed building additional structures on the property, but for now, they had to focus on security and sustainable living.