Chapter 4

At first everyone was wary of Cindy of course. However they soon became used to having her around. Her friendly nature and polite behavior soon won them over and she became an accepted member of our community.

Vicki was fast becoming a legend among the fighting men and women of our group, and I had to firmly quash the efforts of several who wanted to follow her example. Vicki helped there by telling the more eager ones about the times that she had nearly been caught etc.

I was laying plans for an aerial recon of Billings using that old DC3 that we had brought back the previous fall. But first I had plans for the National Guard Armory just outside of the town of Ronan. I had been there before, scouting it out long before the Hellbug plague. As a Ghost, it was a habit to know where supplies and arms could be found.

The armory at Ronan had piss poor security even before the plague. I anticipated little trouble in getting in and out. The only problem I could foresee would be the local Changelings. And we had all had enough experience in fighting them that we should go through them like grass though a goose. Vicki stayed behind on the initial recon flight while Melissa sat beside me in the co-pilots seat. The flight was uneventful and we had little trouble finding the armory. The road near the Armory was plenty flat and long enough to set the gooney bird down with room to spare. Melissa took notes as we orbited the area, marking concentrations of Changelings on a map of Ronan.

On the way back, Melissa turned to me. "Michael, we have to talk." I looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "Go ahead Honey, you know that you can always talk to me about anything." She took a deep breath. "I never told you what I did before the Plague did I?"

"Nope," I replied. "I worked at the Los Alamos labs," she said. "I had figured out a while ago that you weren't just a housewife," I said with a grin. "What did you do at Los Alamos?"

"I was a biochemist," she said after a moment. "Bio weapons or chemical weapons?" I asked. "Bio weapons," she said quietly. Several things added up in my head and I didn't care for the answer. "The Hellbug?" I asked. She just nodded.

Well shit.

"And what fucking fool authorized the development of a mutagen like the Hellbug?" I demanded. "General Hamilton," she replied. The plane dove sharply as I reacted to the name. I pulled up back into level flight and stared at my wife. "Travis Hamilton?" I asked in disbelief. She nodded and stared straight ahead out the windscreen.

That fucker Hamilton had been the man in charge of the Ghosts. It had been on his orders that we had gone around the world killing and destroying anything in our path. Hamilton had been to one to tell me personally to slit the throats of an entire family in Japan just to provide an example and a warning. Now I found out that he had been involved in the Hellbug program. Somehow it didn't really surprise me. "It's unstable you know," Melissa spoke suddenly. "The Hellbug?" I asked. She nodded. "That was why we were going to destroy all traces of it. The organism mutated too rapidly for us to develop an antidote or a vaccine."

"Let me guess," I said in disgust, "Hamilton wouldn't let you get rid of it."

Melissa gave a short bitter laugh. "He was thrilled with a toy that would kill and keep on killing forever. When we told him that it would literally wipe out the human race, he just laughed and said 'so what's the problem?'" Yeah, that sounded like that bastard, a true psychotic all the way to the bone.

"So how did the Hellbug get loose in the first place?" She shook her head. "I don't know for sure. When General Hamilton started acting more and more unstable, I put in for a transfer and got it. That was where I met Charlie and married him." Half of me hoped that Travis had caught the Hellbug and died horribly. The other half of me hoped that he'd survived so that I could kill him myself.

Then we were over our landing strip. I circled low a couple of times looking for the all-clear signal. When I got it, I put the plane down and taxied up to the shelter that had been built to protect it through the winter. Melissa and I climbed out of the plane as a couple of our men started to refuel and get the plane ready for the next flight.

I put my arm around her as we walked back to our cabin. "No matter the past, I love you and always will." I told her quietly. Vicki came out of the cabin holding her brothers. Melissa quickened her stride to take the baby from her arms. She opened her blouse and let the infant nurse. Vicki cocked an eyebrow at me in inquiry. "Did you find anything interesting?"

"Should be a piece of cake," I told her. She fidgeted there for a moment, shifting the toddler in her arms from one hip to the other. "Ok spill it," I said. "Jack asked me to marry him," she blurted. I grinned despite myself. "And you said?" She blushed and lowered her eyes. "I said yes, but only if you approved."

Jack was our best at reloading ammunition. A tall slender man in his mid 20's, he was utterly fearless and a dead shot. "Well then I guess I had better go have a talk with the groom." I said. Vicki leaned forward and kissed me on the cheek, then went inside to tell Melissa.

Cindy came skipping up with several of the other kids. "Hi grandpa!" I ruffled the hair in her head, "Hi sweetie. What are you lot up to?" She giggled and said that they had been out checking the trap lines and had just taken the days catch over to the tanning shed. I told them that they had done good and to go to the cabin and tell Vicki or Melissa that I said that they could each have a cookie or two if there were any left. With that the kids scampered off and I continued to our little rock walled armory.

Jack was sitting in his usual comfortable chair, turning out precision ammunition for our hunting rifles and didn't see or hear me come in until I cleared my throat. I was taken aback by the speed with which he spun out of the chair to come to a stop on one knee at least 4 feet to the side and with his .45 pointed straight at my head. "Take it easy Slick," I said. "Vicki'd take it poorly if you shot her old man before the wedding." Jack rose to his feet, putting away his pistol. "I take it that Vicki had a little chat with you when you got back?"

"She sure did," I replied. "And I told her that I would come and talk to you."

Jack met my eyes squarely. "And do we have your approval?"

"Of course," I assured him. "Actually what I wanted to talk to you about is the raid on the armory. How would you like to come along?"

"Hell yes!" Jack said with a grin. "I've been going nuts around here doing the same old thing over and over again."

"Then come on up to the house after a bit for the briefing." I told him. I turned to go, then paused and looked back at him. "Before you two can get married, you will build her a house of your own." Jack nodded, "Already in the planning stages. We start building after the raid."

"Good man," I said. "Just remember, Vicki is my daughter, and if you hurt her in any way, I'll kill you if her mother doesn't beat me to it." I let him see the Ghost in my eyes for a second and he paled. "I understand Sir," he said.

That evening at the cabin when the pre-raid briefing started, I was amused to note that Vicki was sitting on the couch as close to Jack as she could get without quite being in his lap. Cindy was sitting snuggled up to his other side and he had an arm around the little Changeling affectionately. Melissa nodded toward them and gave me a wink and a smile.

"Here's how we are going to have to do this," I began. "I will put the DC3 down and come to a stop near the main gate. As soon as the plane comes to a stop, the first squad will deplane and set up a hard perimeter. Second squad will come with me for the initial penetration of the facility, Third squad will follow to help haul away anything useful that we find. We will board the plane in the reverse order." I looked at Jack and Vicki. "You two will each command a squad. Jack, you have First Squad, Vicki, you have Third Squad. You two pick out 6 fighters each and report back to me when your have your rosters filled."

I looked over at my wife. "Melissa, you and Cindy will come with me as part of the Second Squad. I'll decide who else goes in a little while."

"What do you mean Cindy's going with you?" Vicki demanded furiously when we were alone after the meeting broke up. "I'm not letting anything happen to her!"

"Settle down!" I snapped at her. "I'm not going to let anything happen to her either. But her senses are far more acute than ours, and she would be able to spot ambushes and lurkers long before we will. That makes her more valuable to our success then me or you or anyone else." She subsided then, but it was clear that she didn't like the situation one little bit.

The next morning we gathered at the plane long before daybreak. I wanted us to be landing at dawn. During the long winter months, we had all rehearsed un-assing the plane over and over until we could empty the aircraft in less than 3 minutes. Jack and a man named Bradley had even installed twin .30 caliber machine-guns in a chin turret controlled from the co-pilots seat. There wouldn't be a repeat of Carl's sacrifice. Once everyone was aboard, I signaled for the chocks to be taken away from the wheels and fired up the port engine. Once I had it running smoothly, I started the starboard engine and waited for it to settle down. Melissa checked the free movement of the chin guns and gave me a thumbs-up. I pushed the throttles forward and adjusted the pitch of the props. We were soon airborne and climbing into the pre-dawn sky.

We came out of the West just as the first rays of morning were lightening the horizon. I lowered the landing gear and flaps. "Hold on everybody! 60 seconds to green light!" I side-slipped us down with everything hanging out in the wind and we came to a stop right where I had wanted to be. I hit the switch to turn on the green disembark light over the rear hatch. Melissa was already out of the plane before I finished shutting down the engines. As soon as I cleared the door, I motioned with my H&K, "Let's move out."

Melissa was toting the shaped charges of C-4 from my cave stash. I took the first from her and used it to blow the gate open. Cindy stayed close, sniffing at the air and listening hard. We had all drilled with hand signals, so there was little noise after the first pop of the gate being blown. Cindy froze and pointed at a nearby building. I flipped my night vision goggles down and spotted the Changeling trying to hide behind the corner. I pointed him out to our sniper, and she took out the Changeling with a single silenced shot the next time it poked its head around the corner. Melissa tapped me on the shoulder and pointed at the building that we had come to raid. I looked closer and saw several dead Changelings near the personnel door. They had been shot, and we hadn't been the ones who had killed them. We had company.

I told one of the men to take Cindy back to the plane and to bring up Third Squad. I wanted as much firepower as possible if we were going to have a firefight with humans. Vicki came up a few moments later and whispered that Cindy was securely inside the plane. I raised my hand and signed to move ahead in pairs. We made it to the armory building without incident. I was about to blow the door when it occurred to me to try the doorknob. Sure enough, it was unlocked. I examined the doorframe and found no less than three different booby traps. Once I disarmed those, I opened the door and went in low and fast, followed at 3-second intervals by the rest of the squads.

I pulled Vicki closer, "Don't touch a damn thing, there are traps everywhere," I breather in her ear, she nodded and faded back to pass the word.

Something was hellish wrong here. This place should have been crawling with Changelings, and yet we had only seen one live one. Someone had put those booby traps there recently, and someone had killed those other Changelings within the last hour as the blood was still flowing from their wounds and hadn't started to coagulate yet. There should have been at least some gunfire from the plane, as Changelings would have surely been drawn to the sound of the landing.

With a sinking feeling I broke silence. "Everybody back to the plane on the double. Anything moves, kill it." I headed further into the warehouse as everyone else slipped out the door and away. I knew about what I was looking for, and it only took me a few moments to find it. Hidden among some boxes of BDU shirts was a SADM, (Special Atomic Demolition Munitions) and the counter was at 10:33 and counting down. I spun and ran like hell.

I sprinted back to the plane and was gratified to see the port propeller start to move as soon as I came into view. By the time I settled into the pilot's seat, Melissa had both engines running. I got the DC3 turned and shoved the throttles to the firewall as soon as I heard the rear hatch cluck shut. "Everyone get down on the floor and lay flat!" I called over the intercom. As soon as the tail came up, I hauled back on the yoke. The moment the wheels left the ground I raised the landing gear and adjusted the flaps. We roared down the valley at treetop height. If I could get enough distance between us, before... Behind us there was a brilliant light just as I banked around the side of a mountain. "What the hell was that?" Melissa asked shakily. "Someone set a pony nuke back there." I told her. "But they don't keep those at a Guard armory!" she protested. "No they don't," I agreed.

The mountain shielded us from the worst of the blast, but the gooney bird still buffeted briefly as the attenuated shockwave caught up with us. I stayed low and fast until the manifold temperatures forced me to throttle back and climb a bit. "Someone had to bring that SADM with them for the express purpose of destroying that armory." I said. "But who would have access to a backpack nuke?" Melissa asked fearfully. "I don't know. But we had better start setting watches again out in the woods and along the roads." I answered.

I orbited over Carltown at about 9,000 feet looking for anything unusual. I saw a convoy of military trucks coming up the road that would take them right past the turnoff to our place. I swung off to the north and came back low and quick, putting down as soon as I cleared the tree line at the end of the landing strip.

"I want everyone that can carry a gun to meet me at Check-post Alpha as soon as you get out of the plane." I said over the intercom as I taxied to the shelter. "Vicki I want you to take our snipers and set up about 300 yards back into the trees and look for infiltrators. Take Cindy with you." As I was shutting down the engines, I kept Melissa back for a moment. "Take Becky and the children to the cave, then come back down yourself." She nodded and then left as I finished shutting down the plane.

By the time I got to the cabin, everything was deserted. I stopped long enough to get my heavy weapons from the bedroom, and then headed down to Check-post Alpha.

I had chosen this place for the main check-post on our driveway because of the high ground on both sides. With our men and women on the slopes above the road, we had any potential hostiles in a murderous crossfire. There were also a dozen or so claymores on either side of the road in the ditches just in case anyone tried to shelter there.

As I approached the roadblock, I saw the first of the military trucks pull up and stop by the barrier. I took in the details as I got closer. four armored personnel carriers, of Vietnam War vintage, four 2 1⁄2 ton trucks, two Humvees, and a Bradley fighting vehicle. But in the front was the real surprise, a WW2 era jeep. I heard a noise behind me and saw that someone had decided to bring our own heavy machinery up. The old half-track with the snowplow blade was growling down the road to the Check-point. I noted that the blade was raised to provide cover for the driver, and that the big .50 was mounted on the roof pintle, manned by Jack.

I caught a glimpse of someone slipping out if the truck at the rear of the convoy and gave a hand sign. My people turned and slipped off up into the trees on either side of the road, vanishing from sight within seconds.

The man in the passenger seat of the jeep stood up and leaned on the top of the windshield. "Now this isn't a very friendly reception," he remarked. "It's as friendly as it's going to get until you tell your men to get back in their truck," I said evenly. "That is, if you don't want them killed." The man affected surprise. "I don't know what you're talking about."

About then Sally Kendall and Cindy came out of the trees leading several bound men in camouflage uniforms who {or you could use that instead of who} looked mighty dejected. Cindy came to stand next to me and I noted that the men shrank away from her as she passed. They were obviously terrified of her. "Hi daddy!" she said as she gave me a hug. "Vicki said we should bring these guys to you."

"Thanks Honey, :" I told her.

The man in the jeep was looking at is in dawning horror. "Vicki said I shouldn't bite them," Cindy said with a wink at me. "But I haven't eaten at all today, and some of them look delicious." I knew that she was kidding, but the men didn't, and one or two wet themselves at her words. The little minx was enjoying playing the bloodthirsty role to the hilt. It occurred to me that Melissa hadn't come down to join us yet. I leaned down and whispered for Cindy to go get Vicki and check out the cave, She hugged me and then took off up into the trees again.

I turned back to the man in the jeep. "It would seem that your intentions were less than friendly." He straightened up and snarled. "I give you one minute to lay down your arms and call your people down here and disarm them."

"And who the hell are you to demand anything?" I asked. I am Colonel Frank Carter, US Special Forces."

"Do you know who I am?" I asked. He gave me an unpleasant grin. "Michael Phillips," he said. "My orders are to bring you in and to wipe out any potential resistance that I find."

"Bye-bye fucker," I said and flickered my fingers in a pre-arranged signal. The men in the jeep died first, their heads blown apart by our snipers. The rest of our people opened up from the trees. A few of the intruders tried for the ditches and were promptly killed when the claymores went off.

Sammy, who had been sitting in a dugout near by, detonated the explosives that we had planted beneath the roadway, wreaking havoc with the vehicles. We only took a handful alive, the rest were either killed outright in the firefight or had suicided when capture seemed inevitable.

Vicki came back down and told me that I had better come right away. I hustled after her up to the cave. There were a dozen dead men scattered around the cave entrance. Inside the cave was a nightmare. Almost half of the children had been slaughtered and Becky was lying on the ground with her intestines spilling out of a gash that split her from crotch to breastbone. Melissa had been shot in her side and was sitting against the wall of the cave with one of our medics treating her injury. I knelt beside her and checked her over as best I could without getting in the medic's way. "She'll recover in time," the medic assured me. "The bullet passed through the muscles just above the hip bone and exited cleanly."

"They caught us by surprise," Melissa said through teeth clenched against the pain. "They tossed in flash-bangs and came in shooting. I got hit right away." She let out a hiss as the medic began stitching her wound. "Becky tried to stop them from killing the kids, and one of the men laughed and stabbed her, then jerked up on the knife, ripping her open," she continued when she could breath again. "Just relax," I told her. "They are either dead or captured." Melissa grabbed my sleeve and pulled me closer. "They knew your name and mine," she said urgently. "I heard them talking before Vicki showed up."

"I know," I told her. "The one down by the check-point knew my name and said that his orders were to bring me in."