Chapter 26

Two days later, we pulled out. I noticed that Alex’s squad had pulled down their antennas. Alex had setup a new item in his squad’s Humvee’s adding antennas to them. He had done the same thing to our Humvee.

We left at what I would call late dusk. It was enough after sundown to be getting dark though it wasn’t truly dark quite yet. Alex was in one of the squad Humvee’s while Janey was in the other. Alex put a young man in our Humvee to watch over the new radios. He was wearing earphones, noting that plurally because he had two pairs on his ears. I was curious and tapped his shoulder. “What’s with the two earphones?”

“I have VHF for talking from car to car. I’m also listening on HF for any new signals on six megahertz for chittering.”

I nodded. “That’s good.” I looked out the front window and he went back to his listening.

There wasn’t much to see as it gradually became darker. It became an effort to stay awake. Around midnight, I heard, “This is command car. Go ahead.” It was quiet while our radio guy listened. He then said, “Roger. Stand by while I report.” He looked at me. “General, point reports a barricade though it isn’t manned.”

“Who is point?”

“It’s Mary’s Squad, part of Joe’s platoon.”

“She’s good but new. I want Joe to pull up and dismantle it sufficiently for us to get through safely. Remind him to watch for booby traps. I also want to know how old he thinks it might be.”

“Yes, Sir.” He bent to his radio and talked. Our convoy came to a halt. I waited trying not to order my car up so I could be involved in what was happening. In a few minutes, I heard, “Roger, Mister Joe. I’ll tell the General.” He looked up at me. “General, Joe reports that the barricade was old and not booby trapped. They are proceeding.” I nodded.

Sheila grinned at me. “That was good. You didn’t go up and see for yourself. Joe’s good and Mary will be taught what to look for so she will learn for the future.”

I squirmed a little but nodded. We resumed our progress into the night.

That was the only excitement for the evening. At about four, we started looking for a place to stop for the night. We had transitioned onto I-81 and made good time though didn’t try for speed records. We were looking in the vicinity of Bristol, Tennessee, for a place with cover. We found a car dealership and all of us pulled in. We covered our vehicles after filling the service bays. We would sleep in the showroom area. It was more exposed than I would have preferred but I saw nothing as we passed by places that looked better. It was just for the night, or day, and we just wanted to stop. We pulled food and fixed a light breakfast for everyone and all but our sentries went to sleep.

It was around noon when I woke up to see Janey walking toward me. I sat up noticing that Sheila’s eyes opened as I did. Janey still whispered as she squatted down beside us. “Alex thinks you should join us. Something is happening.”

Sheila and I pulled on our outer clothing and followed Janey to Alex and the radios. Alex was listening to earphones. He looked up as we joined him and smiled grimly. “They believe they’ve found us. Joe put his platoon across the street in a strip center with the vehicles hidden from an air or heat search but visible. He instructed Leon’s squad to let their folks get close but not too close. They have and the Spring City folk are using two meters but a regular simplex frequency. They don’t seem to be thinking we might hear them and use another frequency that isn’t normally used and that lightly. Joe’s group is using code words and only transmitting infrequently. They are planning to attack but won’t like the results when or if they do. Do you want to listen?”

I nodded and he handed me a small radio with a pair of earphones. “It’s got a good receiver but is low power. If you want to transmit, let me know.”

I nodded again. I put the earphones on and began to listen. I heard, “Jack, we have the strangers surrounded. What should we do now?”

Another voice said, “Give them a chance to surrender first, then take out the men and save the women.”

The earphone were actually ear buds with Sheila listening on the other one. She looked very unhappy about what she heard. “Maybe we should take them out.”

I nodded. “I think that’s what Joe has in mind. Do we have a head count on this group?”

Alex said, “Joe tells me through Leon that this group is eight with various arms and little discipline. He’s ready on command. I think Leon’s planning on taking a prisoner if possible.”

I heard, “Now.” Then, after a pause, “You in the Stop N Shop. We have you surrounded. Come out with your hands in the air and no guns.” That went over the radio as well as a loudspeaker system. It was loud enough to wake most of our people. I saw Margaret approach the door carefully. I motioned for her to stay down. I whispered to Sheila. Go to the door with Margaret. No one goes out and everyone stays down. There will be a bunch of bullets fired in a moment.” She nodded and scurried off. I heard Mary shout, “You can give it a try but you won’t like it.”

I heard the guy, “Girlie, surrender and we’ll treat you well.” There was a hint of a laugh in his voice.

Mary shouted back, “That won’t happen, asshole.”

The guy shouted, “Shoot!”

Mary said, “Squad, fire!” Suddenly, Joe’s platoon let loose. There were a lot of bullets fired. Leon said, “Cease fire!” It quieted down quickly.

A few moments later, the one I heard after a prior call named as Jack came on saying, “Fred, what happened? We heard a lot of gunfire.”

Mary came on the radio. “I warned him not to shoot. ‘Fred’ is dead and so are his men. I will tell you that we women won’t be your slaves.” It was quiet on my radio for a bit. Mary came back on saying, “Come on over here and surrender or we’ll come after you.”

It was quiet. Half an hour later, Mary came to the door with a wounded man I didn’t recognize and asked to enter. I moved to the door nodding at Sheila and Margaret.

Mary said, “This is Al. He’s the only survivor for the moment. He’s willing to talk if he wants to continue to survive.” Al looked scared which was probably a smart emotion for him. He had just seen all his friends killed. Mary was looking at him fiercely.

Sheila said, ‘Al, tell us about your folks.”

Al looked subdued. “I am Al Bartlett. Fred and Jack were, are, our leaders. Fred was in charge of our group. I was the only one you didn’t kill. Jack was the bigger leader and sent us with Fred. There’s ten still with Jack. We don’t have many women and none lead, they have to serve. I don’t want to go back to Jack. He would kill me.”