Chapter 12

[Janice writes from France]

Equipped with radios, Robby and Pam went behind our landing path and Ted and Lois went forward. The trio climbed over Prince looking at everything carefully. Bennie and I went to what appeared to be an intersection and walked to the right. That was where the people we saw would approach us. Ten minutes later, Bobbi said, "The plane is fine. We can takeoff in either direction though I would prefer not to turn around. Mom Janice, we are armed and are locking the doors. Should we stay or meet someone?"

"Stay for now. We hear horses. Ted, Lois, come back to the plane. Robby, Pam, come half way back. Bennie and I are located where they should approach."

We could hear the beat of horses' hooves and waited patiently. Our rifles were in the crooks of our arms. There was a slight bend one hundred feet away and the horses came around it. Seeing us standing there, they slowed abruptly. At twenty feet, they stopped and two people, a man and a woman, approached on foot.

I said, "Hello. Do you speak English?" They spoke to each other in a fluid tongue that I was sure had to be French. Speaking multiple languages was the one thing we had decided we couldn't control. The woman went back to the group and returned with an older man. Before he could say anything, SJ came over the radio. "Mom, I can speak some French. We thought it a good idea to learn another language."

"SJ, join us. Be quiet. I want you to listen." I realized we hadn't really thought through the language issues for this trip.

The older man approached us and said, "Hello. My name is Jacques. Who are you and where are you from?"

SJ came running up and stood between Bennie and I. She hugged Bennie's leg. I said, "I am Janice. He is Bennie. She is our daughter, Shirley. We are from America." That started a buzz. They may not know English but they did know America!

While they were talking among themselves, I told SJ not to let on that she could speak French. I told her to let me know generally what they were talking about. Jacques came back to us and said, "We would like for you to visit us for to eat."

"I will talk to my party and decide. We usually stay close to our plane when it is on the ground." Bobbi, Lois, Ted, and Jacob had joined us.

I gave him a little nod and turned to SJ and Bennie. We walked toward the rest of our party. SJ said, "We don't go. There are two bad men and they have some kind of power over the others. Most don't like them. The bad guys want us. They are planning to kill dad, Jacob, and Uncle Ted. I don't want that."

"I don't either. Everyone nod. I will go back to Jacques with SJ. Bennie and Ted will walk toward the plane with Lois. Bobbi and Jacob will move to the left like you are looking at something. If someone makes a move for a weapon, take them out. No warning. SJ, describe the two bad guys to me. Key your mike."

"Yes, mom." She grabbed my hand and seemed to pull me toward Jacques. "The leader of the two is wearing the red long-sleeved shirt. The one wearing the dark short-sleeve shirt is his number two. He has black hair while red shirt's is brown."

I spoke to Jacques. "We must lock our plane and notify the others to prevent an attack to avenge our deaths. We come in peace but are very able to defend ourselves. If we do not contact the others often, they will presume we are dead and carpet bomb the area until they are sure there are no killers of our party alive." Jacques was surprised and hurried back to the others.

"SJ, listen to what they have to say."

Pam's voice came through my ear bud. "Robby and I have a group of ten men trying to sneak by headed your way."

"Roger, Pam." I moved to Jacques. I shouted, "You had ten men sneaking along the runway." I pointed. "We will kill them, now!" There was a lot of fast gunfire.

Pam said, "They are all dead but one and he is dying."

I said, "Jacques, they are all dead. We have been attacked. We shall call our planes to avenge our deaths." I raised my arm over my head in a back and forth motion. That was enough. The two that SJ had marked made their move and died to Jacob's rifle while Bobbi knelt before him looking for other targets. I said, "Jacques, do the rest of you want a war with us?"

"No. We don't fight anyone for any reason. It's wrong to fight or resist."

Bennie said, "There are worse things than fighting and resisting. Jan, I don't feel like teaching. Let someone else finish clearing the gene pool of them."

"Jacques, we have found your beliefs to be foolish and don't work for long-term survival. We will leave and go elsewhere. Good bye." We left in groups. The Trio backed us up. We covered for them. Jacques had gone back to his group. They left. Interestingly, they left the two dead men where they had fallen. We loaded into Prince and took off to follow Duck and Mallard.

I explained what happened to the others on Duck and Mallard. They had heard some from the ground but I gave more details. Andy came on and said she was surprised that they had survived that long.

Andy called again from the Mallard. She said, "We have landed at Frankfurt and are still on the ground. There is fuel here and it's good. Why don't you join us and tank up?"

I had handed the plane's radio headphones back to SJ. She responded. "We hear you, Andy, and are headed your way. SJ is clear." SJ gave Bobbi a heading for Frankfurt. The takeoff had been without drama though Bobbi didn't stick around once she started Prince rolling.

We were looking out the windows and still flying a little over stall speed at five hundred feet. We arrived in the Frankfurt area and landed at the airport having seen no one. We topped off our tanks. Poppa Jack was there and asked about the meeting.

I said, "They have been taken over and will be again until none are left. Poppa, pacifists don't have a good survival rating when there isn't a government to control those that aren't. My reading from before the Day on Europe suggests a high order of socialism and atheism. So far, I'm not optimistic about what we will find." Poppa nodded though I could tell he wasn't happy with my statement. Refueling was complete and we took off. Duck was already waiting for us in Copenhagen. There was plenty of fuel. I told them to get ready for us and to map out our next set of routes further east. We were following Mallard and heard them fly over Hanover and Berlin. They turned north for Copenhagen. We trundled along. As an old song I heard in El Paso put it, we just saw miles and miles of miles and miles. The song was about Texas but Europe looked vacant and the buildings were falling into ruin. We cut a little north of Berlin to head for Copenhagen. There were no people. We landed and refueled. Everyone had settled in and marked out sleeping areas in the terminal. We locked up the planes and went inside for the evening for supper and talk before bed.