Chapter 18

[Atlanta, Georgia]

We had made two blocks when we saw the Mustang. Shirley stopped it and jumped out and into my arms. She held me tightly. “You had me worried, Jack. I can’t lose you.” I comforted her. After a moment, we moved back to the car. Ted and Mike got in back. I drove us and took an easy, circuitous route back to our temporary headquarters. Shirley called in and told Janice what was happening. We all met back at our temporary house.

I said, “We will leave in the morning. Ted and I will be up the hill and will take the Mustang. The rest of you will take the trucks. Shirl, you drive my truck.”

“Yes, Jack,” was all she said.

We all went to bed for the night. In the morning, I had everyone police the place to remove any signs of our presence. Ted and I went to over-watch while the rest began to move out. They were as quiet as possible. A couple of people seemed to notice but made no effort to say anything to anyone. I had the keys to the Mustang. Shirley reported that they were all well away. Ted and I went down and cranked up and left. He spent most of his time looking behind us as I drove and watched the rear view mirror though neither of us saw anything.

We had an uneventful trip back home. Once there, we prepared to talk with my dad. I had Janice download and print out maps with plans for our attack. Shirley was not happy when I had her leading the backup group and sniping. However, she admitted that she knew where the house was located and could shoot as well as anyone.

Shirley, Janice, and I met with my dad and my mom and Uncle Jack. They liked my plans and went over with the three of us what we had found and our experiences while there. Finally, Uncle Jack said, “It’s a good plan. We will need about a week to make it happen.” Janice started to say something but he raised his hand. “I know that there is going to be more misery there until we stop it and some poor woman may die. However, we know the people here. We can’t lose any so we will do this right, finish it the first time, and minimize casualties. Janice, have you thought about Shirley or Jack being killed?”

“No,” she looked distraught, “I just see those poor women and feel so sorry for them.”

“I do, too. I don’t think the Blasters would ever threaten us, so this is as much about saving those folk as it about terminating a threat. Now, the two assault teams will need full body armor which we can obtain from an army base. The backup group should have it, too, or vests at least. The back group will be okay with vests in case they have to come down. The assault groups will also need silenced pistols. This is supposed to be stealthy. Rifle shots aren’t quiet.”

Shirley said, “We can get some more sniper rifles, body armor, and vests from one of the bases. Where will we get silencers?”

When we returned home, Shirley and Janice went online to check out the army bases and National Guard armories near us. I went outside and caught up on chores and checked out my generator water wheel. All was well. I cleaned up a few things.

Jeff came over for lunch at Linda’s invitation and I got to meet him in person. He was younger than most of the hams we had met thus far being in his early thirties. He admitted that his dad had been a ham and given him the bug. He and Linda seemed to get along well. Perhaps, a romance was beginning there. I would ask Shirley later what she thought. Janice reported on their online findings at lunch. They had found a good base that, suggested by the groups headquartered there, would have the items we needed. We would go there tomorrow.

Talking with Shirley later that night in bed verified my thinking. She said that Linda was interested, but cautious.

We went to the base the next day. Janice’s research was spot on. We retrieved plenty of body armor, more sniper rifles, and even found some silencers for .45 pistols along with a number of the pistols. We also grabbed plenty of ammo for both the rifles and the pistols. We found some manuals and cleaning kits for both which we took, also.

We gathered our groups together and prepared as best we could. Ted would lead from one side and I would take the other. Shirley had the backup group and Ben would be in charge of the back snipers. Janice would go with Ben and coordinate communications just in case. Michael and Mike would be with Shirley. Everyone had earphones and throat mikes. We had worked out a series of signals for each part of the attack. We would go up tomorrow morning and attack that night to utilize the cover of darkness. We thought about cutting the power but decided that there would be a warning in that. We did have a separate two-man team who would cut the power on command. We had the goggles and they didn’t so, if the alarm was raised, the power team could cut power on their own or at the request of a team leader. We were as ready as we could think to be.

We borrowed a school bus to transport most of our people. We had also borrowed three SUV’s to get our folk in place. We pulled in at our same temporary headquarters as before. Our teams split up and went to their posts. We would start at ten in the evening or later. Our back watchers would determine the actual start time because they would watch for the Blasters to go to bed and let us know. Our target was to have everyone in place by eight and wait. They had two sniper rifles with silencers and those people would start shooting as soon as the signal was given. We wanted any late folk out of action before they could sound an alarm.

Ted and I each loaded our team into a SUV and left. We would have to go a long way around to avoid noise being heard. Our watchers would let us know if there seemed to anything happening. I took my guys way around to avoid noise. We had the only side that hadn’t been actually been scouted. We began to walk in watching for any sentries or cars with people. It took us two and a half hours to get in position. We finally got in position though were ten minutes late. Everyone was set. Janice and Bennie had been running a commentary every few minutes to keep us advised of what was happening with the Blasters.

My guys were comfortable in their places and were watching for any sentries that had been put in place since we had been there. On our side, we had no prior experience except for what we knew from the other side.

“Jack, this is Ted.”

“Go ahead, Ted.”

“We have a sentry on this side. What about you?”

“We haven’t seen anyone yet but are looking. Stand by.”

“Team One, you heard Ted. Let’s find the one on this side. Be extra careful not to be seen.”

A few minutes passed and I heard, “Jack, this is your Uncle Jack. I’ve found him. Marshal has him in his sights. We will handle him when the time comes.”

“Good. Jack standing by.”

“Jack, this is Janice. They’re quieting down. They were whipping a woman earlier. She’s still there tied to a wall hanging by her arms.”

“Okay, Janice. Keep watch. We will move as soon as you and Ben agree that it’s time.”

We were still there almost an hour later when Janice came on the air. “All teams alert. There are just two still outside. Bravo is one of them. We are getting ready to take our shots. Stand by. Very soon!”

Not more than fifteen seconds passed and she said, “Shots fired! Go! Go! Go!” My uncles, Jack and Marshal, took out the sentry and we started forward as quickly as made sense. We wanted to be stealthy but quick.

“Front sentry down.” Shirley’s voice came over the earphones.

We entered the complex with our pistols drawn except for Uncle Marshal who still had his rifle and Uncle Jack who had an Uzi type sub-machine gun. We started in teams of two on the different apartments in the complex. We would enter quietly with our goggles on. I found Dave and shot him twice in the chest. He was with a younger woman who jumped up and started to scream. I grabbed her and put my hand over her mouth. “Shhh! We’re here to help.” I told her in a low voice. She relaxed and exhaled. “Okay, stay here and stay quiet.” She nodded. I released her and left for the next apartment.

This one slept by himself and died in his sleep. As we entered the next, shots were fired. Janice came over the radio, “Someone has started an alarm. Move fast. Backup group cross the road and prepare to support Side Teams.” I went into the bedroom. The guy there was pulling on his pants. I came in and he moved for a gun. Mine was already out and I shot him. The woman with him said, “I’ll kill you!” She reached for the gun and I shot her, too. Uncle Jack was at the front door when there was a loud shot from a shotgun. He fell back inside the door. He had taken the shot in his chest and it had knocked the breath from his body. I looked out and shot the man with the shotgun. I stayed in the doorway for a moment until I heard my uncle say, “I’m okay but I hurt. It was a real blast. Go!” I looked at him and he was sitting up with his gun in hand.

“Okay.” I said. “Alert. Side Team One, Have one of our men hurt but not seriously. He’s in Apartment 22B.” I had looked at the door for the number. I continued on a bit more slowly as I had no partner, now.

“I see a single.” over the radio.

“It’s me, Jack.” I said as I waved my hand.

“Okay, Jack. Watch this area. You’re without a partner.”

“Okay.”

There was little chatter. With two groups working toward the middle and anyone who went out back being shot, it was over quickly. We lost one person, Mike, to an unlucky shot to the face. That was the only area we couldn’t protect. Shirley was with his body and his dad. That Blaster was dead to Shirley’s gun. The back team joined us.

We rounded up twenty-two live men and forty live women. Janice cut down the woman on the pole. Her back was badly cut from the whipping. Both of her last two tormentors were dead to the backyard group snipers.