Worst Case Scenario - Book 5: Militia (6 page)

CHAPTER 11

“Leah, this is Violet, over.”

Leah was watching the small family reunion with tears falling down her cheeks.  She had her arm around her daughter.  Experiencing joy in the new world was a blessing.

“Go ahead, Violet, over.”

“Leah, it’s your personal two-way radio, the one you leave on channel 25,” Violet said.  “A lady named Amy is trying to reach you.”

Ian looked at Leah.  “Rob’s wife, Amy?  Our neighbors from across the street?”

“Yeah, remember, they’re staying in our house because of the freakers that broke into hers and…”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, I remember, you told me. I’ve just been so focused on everything else, I kind of forgot about that,” he said, waiving his arm around his cast of characters.

“I get it.  I haven’t talked to her since before we left the farm.”

“If she is using one of our older radios…”

“She is.

“Then, it probably couldn’t even reach us for the last two days since we’ve been behind the mountain ridge.”

Leah hadn’t thought about that.  She keyed her microphone.  “Violet, thanks, I’ll radio her in just a minute,” Leah paused, as she and Tabby made eye contact for the first time.

“Oh my God!  Leah Burrows!  Ian, Grace!  Is that you?  You’re all alive!” Tabby yelled and ran the few steps to hug them all.  The two mothers embraced deeply, neither one holding back tears and laughter.

Anna’s father Seth was right behind his wife.  He pulled up in front of Ian, tear streaks glistening down his cheeks.  “Thank you.  Thank you for saving my daughter,” his voice cracked and the two men embraced.

Joshua and Adam stood next to each other, watching the reunion, and feeling a little out of place.

“Big guy with rifle, headed this way,” Joshua quietly mouthed to his brother.  Both boys put their hands on their pistols and separated around the group.

“Doc, is everything okay?” the big guy with the rifle asked.  He was wearing Army ACU pants and an army t-shirt.  The second guard, a woman wearing the same type of clothing, stayed back at the medical tent.

Dr. Seth Cadet turned to the big guard and slapped him on the shoulder.  “Yes, yes, these are friends of ours, and this is my daughter.”

Tabby turned towards the guard, still hugging her daughter.  “You did it Reed, you and Raven did it!  This is Anna!  We found Anna!”

Reed looked at the girl and nodded. She was only a few years younger than he was.  She looked like a good mix of both doctors with a dash more good looks.  “Yes, ma’am,” he said, and looked back at the female guard.  He waved her over.

The female guard had been watching the entire thing from twenty yards away and suspected what was happening.  “Ma’am, Sir,” she said, approaching the group.

“Raven, this is my daughter, Anna,” Tabby made the introduction.  “It’s because of these two that we made it this far.” Tabby told her daughter, thinking she would just
know
about everything they had been through.

Grace watched the introductions and smiled as Tabby introduced the group to Raven and Reed.  She also saw Joshua’s eyes linger a little too long on Raven.  She wasn’t sure she liked that.

“…and this is Ian Burrows, Grace’s father…”

“And a colonel in the Army,” Anna blurted out.

Reed became rigid immediately. “Sir, I didn’t know.”

“At ease.  For right now, why don’t we be low key about rank and protocol?”

“Roger that, sir,” Reed relaxed.

“This is Joshua and Adam,” Ian waved the two boys to come closer to the circle.  Everyone nodded at them, not knowing their relationship to the Burrows.  “Do you have a place where we can talk?” he asked Seth.

“Sure, in the tent,” he waved them over.  The group made their way over to the tent, and the duo of Reed and Raven took their old positions of watching over the area. Joshua and Grace went a separate way with promises to return.

The tent was a 30x30 canvas structure that contained two exam cots and a few trunks used for tables.

“We…I thought you were killed in Atlanta,” Anna stated, wiping a last tear off her cheek.

“We left the conference early.  We had stopped at a Starbucks on I-20 when the bomb went off in Atlanta.”

“We must have been at the edge of the blast radius,” Seth added.

“I rescued Raven, the girl out there,” she pointed beyond the flap of the tent.  “She was trapped at the Starbucks.  Both she and Reed are National Guard.”

“I’m assuming you two got
drafted
?” Ian asked, and making a motion to their ACU pants and military issue boots.

“Raven’s father is a Colonel in the Guard, and once he found out we were doctors, well, he kind of pressed us into service,” Seth took up the explanation.

“That’s pretty standard operating procedure,” Ian agreed.  “So, is the Guard here in Alabama?  I haven’t seen any other sign of them.”

Seth shook his head.  “We’re it.” 

“Really?  There can’t be only you four?  I mean how did you get the equipment, the tent, and why are the freakers out there leaving you alone?” Ian peppered the questions.

“The short explanation is that I helped Raven, and she helped us,” Tabby offered. “We needed to get back to Alabama and find Anna, and I had saved Raven’s life.  So, she paid us back.”

Realization of what they were saying started making sense to Ian.

“They’re not deserters, are they?” Adam said, throwing a thumb back towards the entrance.

Both Tabby and Seth shook their head vehemently.  “No,” Tabby spoke first.  “If anything, Seth and I were going, regardless.  Raven said she would help us, and I tried to refuse.”

“Did you order her not to come with you?” Ian wasn’t terribly concerned with the legalities but rather wanted to know what kind of people were
guarding
them in the tent, military or not.

“No, if anything, I ordered them to help us,” Seth offered, catching onto the line of questioning.  He wanted to nip the legal question in the bud and get past it as soon as possible.  If he took the blame for ordering the soldiers away from their base so that he could find his daughter, then he would deal with the consequences later.

“Roger that,” Ian said, giving no more thought to the matter.  “So how did you get all of this stuff, and how did you get here?”

Grace and Joshua reentered the tent with a woman in tow.

“This is Angela. She has been pretty roughed up,” she said, looking directly at Tabby.  “She could really use some help.”

Tabby jumped up immediately and directed the lady to a screened portion of the tent. 

“Leah, this is Violet, over,” the two-ways crackled, again.

Leah stood up and moved to the entrance of the tent and slightly away from the others.  “Go ahead, Violet.  Over.”

“Leah, it’s your friend again on your channel. She sounds pretty desperate.  She said they bugged out to try and find you.  Something about rounding people up for camps.  Anyway, she said they were taking fire from the Chinese, and some old man shot a few soldiers.  She said she needs your help!”

Every one of the War Dawgs heard the communication.  Ian stood up and moved next to his wife as she dialed in channel 25 on her two-way.

“Amy, this is Leah.  Do you copy?  Over.”  Nothing.  “Amy, this is Leah.  Do you copy?  Over.”  She looked at Ian.  “We might need to go help her.”

“That’s not part of the plan,” Ian said a little too quickly. 

“None of this shit over the last two weeks is part of the plan!  Ian, I’m not going to lose friends if I can help it!” she growled.

Ian nodded.  “Understood.”

“Leah!  Leah!  It’s Amy!  Oh thank God it’s you!  We had to leave.  They were taking everyone and killing the others!”

Leah turned her speaker on so that everyone in the tent could hear.  “Amy, Amy,” she said with an even tone.  “You need to slow down.  We can help, but you have to calm down and tell me where you are.  Over.”

“Mr. Rivers was shot.  We were trying to go through a roadblock.  He killed the soldiers.”

“Oh, God,” Leah gasped and put her hand to her mouth.

“He’s still alive. I found a medical kit in your truck,” Amy said.

“They are in our truck?  The Rover?” Ian asked his wife.  She nodded that he was probably right.  “Find out exactly where they are.”  She nodded again.

“How is he doing, and where exactly are you?”

“He’s…he’s still alive, but he is really cold and pale.”

“He’s in shock, and his pulse is probably low due to blood loss.” 

“She needs to get some fluids in him and stop the bleeding.  She will also need to keep him warm,” Seth offered his medical advice. 

“Okay, now where are you?”

“I’m at the intersection of I-20 and I-459, on the Atlanta side of Birmingham.  I drove under one of the flyovers.  I’m down by a creek.”

“Wow, she made it pretty far,” Ian remarked.  “Besides Mr. Rivers, is she in any real danger?”

Leah relayed the question.

“We lost them after Mr. Rivers shot the guards at the roadblock, but they are constantly sweeping through the area.  They have tanks now!  There are roadblocks at each part of the intersections.  I can hear them above us on the road.  I’m afraid they’re going to find me or hear the kids.  I’m…I’m afraid Mr. Rivers isn’t going to make it…Oh please hurry, Leah!”

CHAPTER 12

“We need to get to her,” Leah pleaded with her husband.

“They’re 30 miles away, Leah.  I don’t have the equipment or men to launch a rescue.”

“I’ll go get her,” Joshua said, surprising them both.

Grace grabbed his elbow.  “You can’t go alone.”

“Sir, I have a hummer, and I’ll go with him,” Reed said, standing in the doorway of the tent. 

“And I’ll go,” Seth volunteered.  “It sounds like her gun shot victim needs a doctor.”

Ian looked around at the others in the tent and then circled back to his wife’s eyes.  They were pleading with him to let them go.

“Alright,” Ian finally broke.  “We can go get them.”

Leah put her hand on the side of his arm.  She mouthed the words, ‘thank you.’

Grace stepped up to her parents.  “Dad, I’m going too.”

Both parents turned to look at her.  Neither one said what they were thinking. 
No.

“Before you say no, hear me out.”  Grace didn’t give them a chance to respond.  “You want me to be one of your Captains, great!  I have learned more than I ever thought from you, but now I need to learn at a different level.  If you want me to survive, then letting me develop the skills to lead and survive is the fastest way to achieve that goal.  This world isn’t getting any easier.  I’ve already been battle tested, and…”

Ian held up his hand to stop his daughter.  “Okay, you can come.”

Leah swallowed hard; she hadn’t been convinced.

Ten minutes later, Reed had driven Ian, Seth, Grace, and Joshua up to their camp, leaving Leah, Raven, Tabby, Anna, Adam, and their patient, Angela, at the medical tent. 

Mary was sitting just inside of the tree line when they pulled up.  She had her rifle scoped on the driver of the Humvee.  She knew they were coming but wanted to be sure. 

Ian got out of the vehicle and waved her down.

“I didn’t want to broadcast on the radio, but the three of us are leaving with Specialist Reed to attempt a rescue of my neighbor Amy and her children.

“That’s the lady on the radio, right?” Violet asked.

“That’s the one.  She’s about 30 miles towards Birmingham, trapped under a flyover interchange, and the Chinese have roadblocks above her.  The old man she’s with is also one of my neighbors, and he killed a few soldiers at a roadblock, so they are currently being hunted.”

“That sounds dangerous,” Mary surmised.  “Do you need an extra hand?”

Ian thought about that for a second but stuck to his original idea.  “Not on this one, I need you to work with the soldiers at the medical camp below.  The others are there waiting on you two.  But first, let’s stash the vehicles up here.  Other than the Humvee and the bad guys, I don’t think people have seen too many working vehicles.  I don’t want them rushing you,” he said with concern to the two women.

“Roger that,” Mary said with a nod.

With the logistics out of the way, the team briefed Mary and Violet on the situation at the track, and then dropped them off at the medical tent.  Once they felt that the crew was safe, they headed west onto the highway.

“Specialist, I want to ask a little more about your unit, and what you know about our military response. But before I get to far away from where my wife is, I want to know about those freakers, or war lords, or what ever the hell they were that were set up next to you?” Ian asked the young soldier driving the vehicle.

“Sir, we seem to have an understanding,” Reed answered.  “We set up shop there as a temporary camp, and word got around that we had doctors. The next thing you know, we have people lined up outside of our camp for treatment.”

“It was a little scary at first,” Seth chimed in from the back seat.  “We treated a number of heavily armed people, but for the most part, they were friendly.”

“Their leader, a guy named Malcolm, showed up a few days after we had treated a number of his men.  He said we could stay as long as we kept treating his men.  Quite frankly, his crew out gunned us, so we weren’t in a great position to tell him no,” Reed said, the edges of his mouth curled, and he furrowed his brow under his sunglasses.

“What is it?” Ian asked.

Reed swerved off the road and into the median to avoid a stalled out car and then popped back onto the pavement.  “Well, sir, the guy is former military.  I’ve heard that he was an MP, but frankly, sir, I think the way he does things and the way he organized his men is a Charlie foxtrot.  Sorry, ma’am,” he said, casting a glance at Grace.  She shrugged her shoulders that it was no big deal.

“How do you mean?” Ian pried for more information.

“Well, sir, he says that he is helping to feed people and keep the peace, but I know for a fact that his men are stealing, looting, and raping women.  He’s got to know that they are doing that stuff.”

Ian moved a little in his seat. He knew what could happen to desperate people in desperate times, and this was all of the above.  “Well, he may be something that we have to deal with in the new reality of things.”

“Hoora, sir.”

“Alright, next subject,” Ian said, eyeing his driver.  “Where did you come from, and why are you here alone?”

Reed swallowed, never loosing the fact that he was talking to a colonel. He kept his eyes on the road. “Well, sir, it’s a little like this.  Private Horn is Colonel Horn’s daughter from the Georgia National Guard.”

“You mean Colonel Jerry Horn?”

“Yes, sir.”

“I knew Jerry in Iraq. He was with the 3
rd
Infantry Division down in Savannah.  Those sons of bitches were tough dudes.”

“Roger that, sir.” 

“I think he was from Georgia, and with his time in the 3
rd
, that made sense to take a post with the Georgia Guard.  But,” Ian stopped to glance at his daughter.  “That doesn’t explain why you are here with two doctors and the Colonel’s daughter.”

When Reed heard the colonel say it that way, it did sound kind of bad.  He swallowed again, and aimed for the truth.  “Sir, Private Horn mad a promise to…”

“Reed, why don’t you let me field this one,” Seth offered, leaning forward from the back seat.

Ian turned to look at the doctor.

“Ian, Tabby and I, well, really Tabby in this case, rescued Raven, err, um, I mean Private Horn after the nuclear bomb.  She felt she owed something to us, and that something was for her to try and reunite us to our daughter.”

“So,” Ian’s eyes shifted back to Reed.  “Are you here under Col. Horn’s orders?”

“No, sir.”

Ian waited for him to go on.

“Sir, Private Horn and I have been dating for a little over a year.  She stayed with me even when I was deployed for nine months.  She was going to go with or without me, and I knew that if the Colonel found out that I knew she was going and didn’t talk her out of it, then I figured he would have wanted me help her.  Sir.”

Ian thought about that logic for a minute. He had no intention of disciplining the young man. He actually admired the fact that he thought he was thinking of the best interest of his commanding officer.  But, there’s a reason why the CO is the CO. 

“So, I’m assuming that you have not been in contact with your command structure.”

“He hasn’t, but I have,” Seth interjected.  “I don’t want Reed disciplined for helping us.  The Colonel was not too pleased with our decision to leave him two doctors short, but he has an entire hospital now to draw from.  I promised him that she would not be harmed.”

“And how did he take that?” Grace asked.  She was finding the entire thing very amusing and somewhat romantic.  She knew her dad could be tough on guys, especially the few that she had brought home, but she had never seen him grill any guy like he was doing to Reed.  Joshua kept his mouth shut and squirmed in his middle seat every once in awhile.  Grace slid her hand down next to his, and their hands intertwined between the thin spaces between their legs.  They never looked at each other.

“He blessed me out and said that he would send a chopper to find us once he could get one up in the air.”

“Now that sounds like Jerry,” Ian said.  “I think after we are successful here, I would like to talk to him on the radio.”

“Yes, sir,” Reed responded.

“Now,” Ian pressed, he noted that they were about half way there. “What is our readiness state with the Guard in Georgia?”

Reed was ready to talk about anything else.  He slowed down to survey a slurry of cars blocking an underpass, and then decided to take the exit and go over the obstacle.  He threaded the emergency lane and actually stopped at the sign at the top of the exit before getting back on the highway.

“Well, sir, we got hit pretty hard.  I heard that the Chinese rocketed most of our bases along the Gulf coast after the nukes.”

“I heard that too,” Ian confirmed.  “Do you know if they got Fort Stewart in Savannah or Rucker in south Alabama?”

“Yes, sir, they did.  That’s why we can’t get any choppers in the air around here. It’s not that the EMP got them; it’s that they either destroyed them on the ground or killed the pilots with gas at some point.”

“Damn,” Joshua whispered.

“I hear that the heavily armored guys out of Stewart are okay, Sir.  When we bugged out with the docs,” he threw a thumb towards the back seat.  “We heard that they were headed our way in Carrollton to support us and mount some sort of assault.”

“Good to know,” Ian said, shaking his head.

“Oh, and the guys in Anniston, just up the road from the race track, they were ordered back to Georgia, so if our population is fighting the bastards, it’s with hunting rifles and the occasional Navy air cover.”

Ian looked out of the front windshield.  The last statement really pissed him off.  He knew that we needed to be fighting these guys head on.  What were they waiting on?

“I think we are about to start changing the game,” Ian warned.

“Hoorah,” a collective chant went up in the vehicle.