Chapter 17

The barbeque was delicious. And soon it was time for sleep. Even though we were just outside the town we still had our own security on watch, two people were in each of the armored vehicles for a three-hour shift during the night. I along with Tammy were not on the guard roster tonight as the team drew straws for who would be off tonight with me as I was going to be talking with the new people it was felt I should be well rested. I relented with the stipulation that I was automatically on the next guard roster regardless of what was going on. They all laughed and agreed.

The next morning, I met Freya at the gate, and she escorted me to meet with Albert, Will and Inez. To my surprise they had called for a town meeting with me as the guest speaker. I gave an abbreviated explanation of my visit and our offer. I was sent with Freya to the town hall while the group had a discussion and took a vote. I was shocked that less than fifteen minutes had passed when Freya was called on her radio to bring me back. I felt bad that our offer had been refused so quickly.

Everyone cheered when I arrived and the look on my face had Al, Will and Inez almost pass out from laughing so hard. I was told there were no questions, they just discussed the pros and cons. Then they made a motion had it seconded and voted unanimously to join our forces. I called for Tammy to bring me a Sat-phone and called General Villa-Verne to let her know how things turned out. We were in Tallapoosa Missouri just about halfway between Fort Bragg and Fort Sam Houston. She quickly coordinated for an Infantry Platoon, air traffic control, a mobile fuel depot and a helicopter company consisting of two Chinooks, four Apaches and eight Blackhawks two medically equipped. Five hours later everything arrived and were met with cheering. Before it was dark the military had a working base setup next to the town. Three days later you would not have known the military base was less than a week old. Families of soldiers assigned to the new base which was called ‘Middle Point’ because it was in the halfway point between Fort Bragg and Fort Sam Houston started to arrive with the supplies being trucked in. This was quickly becoming a major base and General Villa-Verne was supporting it 100%. With nothing left to do we were on our way home the next morning.

We were just crossing from Kansas to Colorado when a call came over the radio!

“Missile in Bound!” “Missile in Bound!” “It’s a Nuke!” “Mid-America Nebraska/Kansas Area!” “ETA 3 Minutes” “Payload Unknown”