Chapter 13

Jas, Kat, and Ben converted the office/bunk room into a bedroom for them. Mike reported to General Braxton about Katalina’s linguistic skill and she was quickly put to work via a military webcam conference to help with issues in Europe and China. Everyone was very excited about working together to improve survival and past problems were forgotten at least for the time being. Jas was proving to be a wonderful cook as she turned our normal everyday meals into wonders. I still don’t know how she is able to do it, it must be magic.

It had been close to a month since Kat Jas and Ben joined our group and Mike got a call from BG Villa-Verne. One of her teams in California had responded to a call for help from Seattle. The Seattle group was a joint group of Navy Marines and Army from the surrounding military bases. Someone was stealing military equipment. Two naval patrol boats, a Coast Guard frigate, and a supply barge out of the port. Four helicopters; two Blackhawks, a Kiowa and a Sea Stallion from the airfield next to the port. Multiple weapons from a National Guard armory and an Air Force ammunition depot were the last things to be taken. Increased patrols and guard posts had not helped in fact the only reason they were aware of what was taken so far was due to cameras capturing this well-organized group of close to twenty calmly taking the stuff.

Now, no contact with the Seattle group for over a week and the California group reporting their arrival at the Seattle groups headquarters two days ago and nothing since. This why Mike was being called; Two C17s were on the way to pick him and a group of his choice to tactically retake or reestablish the headquarters and report what happened or is going on there.

Mike told BG Villa-Verne that he would contact her in an hour after talking with our group.

It took 12 minutes to get everyone together to discuss the situation and ask who would not be going. As it turns out we would need to request a squad of soldiers to watch our home while our entire group went to investigate. BG Villa-Verne said a company was on both planes and would be meeting us at the old base. She was planning to reopen it and could supply a squad to guard our home.

Hour and a half later we were all driving back to the base. The company had already arrived and was setting up security and operations. We were briefed by the Company Commander a Captain Reed Harris. The C17s were being refueled and could carry an armored hummer each along with up to 20 people per plane. We loaded the armored hummers with a .50 cal machinegun and 4000 rounds of armor piercing rounds. CPT Harris also handed out a new toy for each of us an AA12 auto-shotgun. These were mean mothers, a 20-round drum that could fire slugs’ buckshot flechette and grenades like a small 40MM. We had 30 in our group as Dr Earl would not be coming with us. CPT Harrison was sending 10 Soldiers to provide guard support for the two C17s while we went on our scouting trip.

We checked all our gear grabbed anything we thought we might need and didn’t already have and then checked all our weapons. Everyone had at least two pistols for convenience we all were carrying .40 caliber to minimize ammunition, and all use the same. We all had an AA12 three 20 round drums and six 8 round magazines. As a backup weapon some were carrying M4s two would have M249 Squad Assault Weapons a few of us would be carrying Armalite AR10 in 7.62 and we also had an AR50 just in case we needed to make a long-distance call.

The flight was boring, and we used the time to break our group down into teams.

Tm1: Al, Tammy, Tia, Laura, Emily & Colette

Tm2: Daryl, Jessica, Helena, Rachel, Karmen & Yvette

Tm3: Geof, Danny, Shirley, Mika, Mirell & Jamie

Tm4: Riley, Adriana, Briana, Steve, Dana & Meghan