Chapter 4

Before dawn the next morning the raiders assembled at the house and were fed egg, potato and chorizo tacos with lots of coffee by Ann with help from the other clan members. They picked out a lunch from an eclectic mix of freeze dried food and checked their weapons. Joshua, the Reynolds war clan leader, called them together and reviewed the planned attack, then everyone loaded onto the vehicles. It was time to start.

We drove until we came to the edge of Redding where we paused and waited for the dawn to break. I had asked Joshua about attacking at dawn, but he was worried that they might have managed to pick up night vision goggles at the raided armory. He didn't have any and that would give the defenders an advantage over his attackers in the dark. He had sent out a team last night to take out the outposts and a sniper was poised to shoot at the machine gunners at the same time as we attacked. Zero hour was 0900 and everyone should be in place by then. He wanted to feint in one direction and attack from another.

We rested and Joshua went over the plan once again. Getting back into the vehicles we drove to within a half mile of the Baron's holdings and dismounted. From here on it was time to walk. Joshua told me and Rita to wait at the vehicles with the other drivers and be ready to come forward when we were called. I watched as Amy led a group in a different direction than Joshua's main force. They were to act as the feint to draw the defenders out of their position. I worried about Amy but knew that she was capable of taking care of herself.

At 9 o'clock we heard a crack in the air and a machine gun began firing. Soon there was a constant crack from the rifle and the noise of fire from the Baron's area started getting louder, then it slowly began to die off. Suddenly I heard the sounds of semi-automatic fire and automatic weapons begin again. This went toward one direction and I worried about what was going on. It was hard to sit here and not know. Suddenly the noise rose to a much higher pitch and I heard two loud explosions from the direction of the battle. The fighting continued and slowly started to peter out. Suddenly the radio crackled and I heard Joshua's voice, "Bring the vehicles over here."

I passed the command along and we drove over to the site of what was the Baron's keep. Most of the bodies we passed were unfamiliar, but I did see at least two I recognized among the dead. When I got closer, I saw where the tank tracks had been blown up and bodies scattered around where the defenders had tried to get into the tanks. Apparently the Baron's men had not kept a standing crew in the tanks, depending on the watch posts to give them time to man them.

When I got there I found Joshua talking to an unfamiliar man who was holding a white flag. Joshua introduced us, "This is Baron Williams, Jon Taggert of the Taggert Clan."

The baron was abrupt in his demands, "I want you out of the compound and a promise to leave us alone in the future or we will kill the slaves."

I 'tasted' his emotions and knew he was lying, "I will spare the life of you and anyone not a danger to my people. You will carry a single weapon and be escorted out of the Clan area."

Having stated our positions, we began to bargain in earnest. I made him bring up his surviving people from the slave section and release the slaves except for a single slave each that they used as shields. I had the slaves brought before me and was quickly able to separate the ones we would welcome and others we would not. One of the Baron's men tried to pretend to be a slave but as soon as he came in I 'tasted' his deceit and felt the disgust and hate for him I had felt for some of the other men of the Baron's. I shot him and had the men drag him out of the room. I returned to the Baron and his men where they were clustered behind the hostages. I 'tasted' the Baron and felt two things: an overwhelming ambition and a feeling of entitlement. As I 'tasted' the others I felt mostly disgust with two exceptions. One was an older man who had a feeling of despair as he looked at a girl the Baron had as a hostage along with a desire to die and shame. The other was a man who I hated as soon as I came near him. I could 'taste' his desire to hurt someone and his self centered feeling that only he mattered.

Before we bargained I had to get rid of the man I hated so I could 'taste' the Baron while we were bargaining. His sour 'flavor' overlaid everything else. Pointing to the man, I told the Baron that he had to die or there would be no deal. He threatened the hostages if I killed any more of his men. I told him if any of the hostages were hurt all of them would die, not just the one man. He blustered, threatening to resume fighting when one of his followers behind the man I hated on sight, pulled out a knife and stabbed him in the back of the kidney. The young girl he had been holding ran to Joshua and held on to him as if she would never let go again.

With him dead I could 'taste' the Baron again and felt his rage at the death. Apparently the dead man had been one of his best followers. I 'tasted' the others and felt only a sense of relief that he was dead. The man who had 'tasted' of shame felt glad and at the same time felt cheated. I called the shamed man forward and 'tasted' a feeling of acceptance of death and a fear for someone else. I found out his name was John and asked how he got involved with the Baron. He refused to answer within the Baron's hearing so I whispered in his ear that if he wanted he would be accepted into the Taggert clan along with whoever he loved so much if they qualified. He started when he heard me but gave no other sign. I 'tasted' his emotions and felt a surge of hope flare up. I sent John back to the group and began bargaining again.

Finally we reached an agreement that the Baron could live but would be banished from the clans area. He could take a backpack with food and other supplies with one rifle and a car. Any of his followers who wanted to join him could do so, but they would be able to take only the backpack with food and a rifle. Any of them found in a clan area after that would be immediately executed. No slaves would be going with them. If they raided in the area of the clans they would be hunted down and killed.

I hated letting the Baron go, but I knew that he had been pushed as far as possible at that point. Any further and he would have killed the girl he held hostage. When he pushed the girl at me he walked toward the Hummer. I stopped him and told him that I had agreed that he could take a car, not that I would give him one. He began to rage, then he saw the ring of weapons pointed at him. I guess that even he had enough sense to realize at that point that he had no more chips to bet. He looked at the others and commanded them to join him. Two of his followers started walking toward him when I mentioned that they could go with him if they chose to, but they didn't have to go. They stopped and turned back to the others.

This filled the Baron with so much rage that he pulled a knife and started toward me. He took one step forward when he was hit by several bullets simultaneously. He jerked in different directions as he was hit and finally collapsed in a heap on the ground. I released the girl he had shoved at me and she ran over to John and grabbed him. I 'tasted' the emotions of the two and felt a sense of joy and relief from them both. The other men who had followed the Baron released their hostages and Joshua's men quickly disarmed them. I called the slaves forward and they identified the man who had been killed as the man behind many of the atrocities that the slaves had suffered. There were two others who were also involved in many of them and I had the man who pretended to be a slave brought out. He was identified as one of them. The other hadn't been seen for a couple of days and the women especially shuddered when they talked about him. Joshua described the captive I had shot at the storage area and several of the women cried in relief when they recognized his description and knew he was finally dead.

I called John forward and asked if he would like to join the Taggert clan with his daughter, Emily. This was the first time anyone had seen two members of the same family who had survived. I 'tasted' their emotions again and felt that both would be a good match for the clan. When I looked at the slaves who had been hostages I found that almost all of them with the exception of John's daughter were members of some clan. I ended up offering membership in the Taggert clan to 15 people in the end. Now I had to determine the punishment of the Baron's followers.

John spoke up at that time and reminded me that I had told them that they would be given a backpack of food and a rifle and banished. I reminded him that I said that I would release anyone who wasn't a danger to my people. I had no intention of killing anyone unnecessarily, but I was damned if I was going to release any predators into my area. I talked to the men individually and found most of them were just ordinary men who had gotten caught up in the Baron's schemes by being held in the same prison complex when the sickness hit. Fear of reprisals from the Baron and his close followers rather than loyalty had kept them with him.

They were the survivors from a prison population of over three thousand mostly low-risk prisoners. Many of them were being held for non-violent crimes when the die off began. John had been a guard at the prison mental ward. While he was in the coma stage of the sickness, the Baron and his three followers had managed to escape from the mental ward and released the others. While searching for weapons he had found John and his daughter still in the coma stage of the sickness. That's when he decided that he would make John act as his sergeant, with his daughter as a hostage to ensure his compliance.

While I acknowledged that they were victims as well in a way, I felt that none of the men that I questioned would be a good fit for the clan. After being told that the worst that most of them had done was take an unwilling slave to bed with them, I had one of Joshua's men give them their back pack and an unloaded rifle. I only had one man killed, when I 'tasted' his desire to steal one of the slaves for himself. The rest were placed in the back of the delivery truck and I told several of the men to escort them to Eureka and drop them off there. I asked that they find out if anyone was around who wanted to come back first. After that they were to be warned that if they came south from that point they would be shot on sight.

Joshua asked if I wanted anything from the compound. I told him I wanted the tanks, but I wanted the former slaves to have an opportunity to get anything they wanted out first. Joshua agreed and the slaves went in and began carrying out items that they wanted. I was surprised at how little most of them wanted to take. Mostly it was pictures and little mementos of some aspect of their previous life. While this was going on I talked to the people I had offered membership into the Taggert clan. I was glad to find I had chosen a doctor and two LPNs who agreed to join the clan. I was sure we would have a use for them in the future. After the former slaves were finished, Joshua gave his troops permission to take whatever they wanted from the compound. I was surprised at how much the definition of valuable items had changed. Some took jewelry but most took items such as hand tools and weapons. One man carried out load after load of bed linens and blankets.