Chapter 21

Greg Baron was feeling much better. So good in fact, that he was chopping his way through a cord of wood. While his wound still bothered him, he was not a person to lie around when things had to be done. Adam was still worse off than he was. The poor kid had developed a severe infection and that had set his recovery back for weeks.

For the next fifteen minutes, Greg chopped away at the pile. After all, it was a huge fire place that had a voracious appetite. That was a good line for a novel. Too bad there were no publishers left in business. He had hundreds of ideas for novels that would have sold very well indeed. Unfortunately, most of the people left were probably living a lot of his ideas.

He finally stopped, a little breathless. He ached, but it was a good ache, with the exception of his chest. All in all he felt good. He took the ax and put it in the bin located at the rear of the house. He looked at the shovel, pick ax, the ax he just placed inside and the pry bar. A sledge hammer and two different types of hammers one with a claw and a handsaw rounded out the bins tools. Everything a house should have but never had room for.

Of course, they had a complete shop in one of the sheds with every tool imaginable, but a house needed to have some things directly at hand. Grinning, he locked the door to the bin and made his way inside for some ice cold water. He had worked up a good sweat and planned on taking a shower soon.

"General Sir?" Private Saul asked.

"What is it, private?" Greg asked.

"A message from the ranch sir. They would like your presence down there this afternoon if at all possible. Should I let them know you're coming?" The private asked.

"Tell you what. I will get on the radio and find out what they want. Don't worry about it, I'll handle it." Greg said.

The president of the United States was stunned.

"You're kidding. You mean to tell me there is a group or organization of people of like mind with this, what was his name, Gary?" The president asked agog.

"According to the investigation, the body, and the house turned up the reason for the attempted kidnapping and the attempted murder of General Baron. First and foremost was that the soldier that General Baron had executed was this man's little brother. After the execution of the soldier for sleeping on guard duty, this man developed a plan of vengeance.

"Also, a check of his house turned up a diary and papers that showed he was affiliated with a 'group of like mind'. What that means we still don't really know. Was it before the disaster, or before and after? We have no evidence on that. What we do know is what we found. We have documents of some sort of a support group that is active today. One paper specifically states that if he would hold off on any actions at this time, that an anti tank weapon would be transferred to him to take care of, "The General" quote unquote.

"That document alone sends a very chilling message sir. We can only assume that the general in question was in fact General Baron. That they have access to anti tank weapons is also frightening. We don't know anything about them. Who they are. How come they have access to anti tank weapons? Also, if they do have access to that weapon, what other weapons or materials do they have access too?" General Avery finished a little grimly.

"I don't like that either General. I also don't like the idea of an organization second guessing the US Government. Am I supposed to ask permission before I take a step now? No! I will not be blackmailed by a country like France or China; people in my own country who happen to disagree with the local authorities will definitely not intimidate me.

"Was he right in executing that soldier? It was his call, and I won't question the commander in the field. He was within his rights, and that's that. I just wish we had the FBI still going. This group needs to be eradicated." The president stated.

Four ships had been sailing in a south easterly direction for some time. They were the aircraft carrier Ronald Regan, one destroyer, and one missile cruiser one huge tender. One Los Angles attack sub also went with them. Their orders were to steam as quickly as possible around South America and sail north and take up station along likely routes to the US from North Korea.

They had been challenged twice as they got close to South America, and the challenges turned into requests for help from desperate governments asking if help could be gotten from America. Although the West coast areas of South America did not get hit with the tidal wave, they still had problems from the following rains and bandits.

Admiral Allen Page, task force commander, promised to forward requests through to the appropriate authorities. He was as good as his word. He relayed the request only to have to inform the countries in question that America had no assets with which to help them.

One country acknowledged the status with sorrow and regret and wished the admiral luck. The second country tried to stop the ships from leaving the area, and the admiral ordered them blown out of the air. A strike force was then sent and the runways of the offending country were bombed into uselessness.

Greg was spending more and more time at the ranch. He had teams roaming farther and farther, and they were in turn finding more and more stocks of canned goods, and they had even found one trailer full of cigarettes. Despite that fact that smoking was bad for your health, and most people had run out of tobacco months ago, they were quickly handed out to those who wanted them. After all, they would not last long.

While sitting in his office at the ranch Greg received a report of a roving group of raiders or survivors that were hitting the edge of his community. By now they had over 100 new soldiers trained to the point that they at least knew what to do. They still had not taken part in any combat, but that was likely to change if the reports were true.

Greg was also surprised to hear that the Navy now had ships back in the Atlantic. That would take the pressure off of the base down in Texas which was flying missions of watch along the new American coastline. He was still stunned every time he looked at the satellite photos of the North American East coastline. It was totally unrecognizable. He was a little curious about the configuration and the coves and harbors that had been newly made. It would be interesting to go and explore that new coastline.