Chapter 4: The Journey Begins

Friday the 20^TH

I stood there with the pistol smoking in my hand. All of a sudden it dawned on me what I had just done, and I started shaking. Sitting down on one of the cargo trailer's sideboards I buried my face in my hands and wept.

I wept for my son, I wept for my wife. I prayed they would forgive me for what I had done. To kill a person in cold blood was against all I believed in.

Rala walked over and knelt beside me and wrapped her arms around me.

She whispered, "They are at peace now. You have set them free from him."

"I shot him in cold blood!" I said.

"No. He was armed. He had a pistol in his belt. Didn't you see it? Didn't you see him reach for it?" Rala asked.

Shaking my head no, I looked at the body and stood up. Walking over to the scum who killed so many of our men and woman, I stood there looking at him. Using my foot, I rolled him over onto his back. Tucked into his belt was a pistol and I bent down and yanked it out of the sash. It was an old Russian Markov pistol. I pulled the clip and saw it was loaded as well.

"I will get you some more clips and ammo for the weapon," Rala said.

"Thanks, can you drop his body off at the gate of one of our bases along with a note saying who he is and where his base is?" I asked.

"Yes, I can do that. Now, why don't you and Mike go into town and have some fun. Be back by midnight and have everything loaded up on the trailers. I would suggest you just go to sleep. We will do the rest," Rala said as she vanished.

I looked over at Mike who was sitting petting his cat. Going over, I rubbed Tiger's ear and said, "Mike he can't go?"

"Yes, he can. I asked Rala while we were waiting for you. I even got three more females to go with us," Mike replied as he put the tiger striped cat in his motor home.

"Cool, I know how much you love your cats," I said and then thought for a second, and continued, "We better go get some cat food, cat litter, pans and stuff for them."

"Ok, we can load up the truck beds since everything else is full," Mike replied and we drove into town.

Pulling into Wal-Mart, I let Mike head to the pet aisle, while I headed for hardware. The first thing I did, was grab every garbage can they had. I then started filling the cans with everything I wanted to take with us. I then hit the electronics department and picked up four of each music and DVDs to watch as well as computer games for the Play Stations I picked up. I would park a cart near the entrance, grab another, and a trash can, then I would fill the can with more stuff.

One of the things I bought, was forty fishing poles, reels to go with them, hooks, weights, lures, and bulk line. As I was going through with the last items, I stopped in 'Stationary'. I filled a cart with paper, pens, glue sticks and all the shit children need to learn with as well as binders and folders.

I pushed the last cart to the checkout, and grabbed another. I started stacking cases of coffee and filters into the basket.

"Damn, you must love your coffee," a woman said as she picked up a small jar of creamer.

"Yep, and I need to help fill up my friends in the morning at a get together we're having," I said to the woman in the business suit. I watched her ass as she walked away and then went back to loading the cart. Walking down a little ways, I started tossing boxes of tea and hot cocoa into the baskets as well. I then picked up a dozen coffee pots, crock-pots, rotisseries and other kitchen items.

Mike was filling the trucks as I pushed the carts out. With the help of several employees, we got the beds loaded and then started on the trailer. The last items I loaded was garden supplies, I had cleaned them out of hoses, shovels, packets of seeds, and bug spray. Mike had pointed out several items he thought we might need and I agreed, so the Koi ponds went into the bed of the trailer with stuff stacked inside.

We finished up our shopping and started out of the parking lot. I noticed Joe's Tarp shop was still open, so I pulled in. Mike pulled in behind me and we went inside the business, where I bought every tarp he had of every size as well as hundreds of bungee cords, and all the aluminum tubing he had in stock. We drove home and unloaded the trailer, placing the stuff that was in it, in the other carts. We finished at around 9 pm and loaded the first truck. Then Mike ran into town and went to KFC. He was back forty minutes later with all the food he could get. We loaded the fridges down and I was carrying a handful into my trailer. I stopped as I saw the Milk Majestic Bulk machine sitting on the counter. Putting the food on the table I took the note off the door and read it.

Walter

I know how much you like milk. This machine will dispense, white, chocolate and strawberry. The milk will stay clean and fresh for one month. When it is empty, it will self clean and refill. If you don't drink it all, just empty the remaining milk at the end of the month, and it will follow its routine.

Enjoy!

Your Friend,

Rala

"Cool," I said and grabbed two large glasses. I filled them with milk and set them on the table and started eating dinner as Mike came in. He grabbed some food and sat down across from me.

"The trucks are loaded, and I covered the two big trailers with tarps to keep everything covered from the sand. I also stacked all the remaining tarps in the cabs of the trucks and on my spare bed," Mike said as he grabbed a plate and started filling it.

Room 32 Holiday Inn

Elko Nevada

Friday the 20^th 10:20 pm

Special Agent Richard Hanson:

I looked up as Agent Nina Marcus came in the door.

"Hi, Nina, I just got the imagery. It looks like they have hooked up all the trailers and formed a chain. I sure wish I knew what these two guys were up to," I said.

"I don't know, but they sure cleaned out Wal-Mart. They spent eighteen thousand dollars there, tonight. Mister Brakes paid for it with his credit card," Nina said.

"So, what's wrong with that?" I asked.

"Nothing, but it's this Mike Sampson that has me worried. He has a Federal Weapons license. He owns an M-60, a .30 caliber and a .50 caliber machine gun, now. When we go in, we are going to have to be very careful that we don't get our asses blown off. It's a good thing we have those snipers. I say take them out before they know what hit them," Nina said as she picked up the images of the trailers.

"Fuck! How the hell did they get those machine guns?" I asked.

"He bought them. Along with several thousand rounds of ammo, and dozens of other weapons," Nina replied as she picked up a magnifying glass and cursed.

"What is it?" I asked.

"There is a dead body lying on the ground," Nina said as she handed me the picture and the glass.

I examined the picture and I could tell it was Walter Brakes standing over the corpse. I could tell the man was dead as his head was gone. Picking up the phone, I hit speed dial, and contacted the teams.

"Roll! Take them down!"

Mike

I finished my chicken leg and was looking out the window when I saw the flashing lights coming up the dirt road. "Shit!" I said as I got up and looked out the door.

"We got trouble," I shouted to Walter who was in the bathroom.

"What do you mean?" Walter asked as he came out of the bathroom.

"Cops, and lots of them," I replied.

Walter

"Shit!" I said as I walked over to the door and looked out. Taking in the situation, I said, "Better get to your RV."

"I'm gone," Mike said and jumped out of my RV. He took four steps and flew backwards.

"Crap!" I shouted and hit the deck as a bullet went through where I was standing. Peeking around the door to where I saw the flash, I fired four rounds from my .44 and saw them hit the tractor. The rounds bounced off as I rolled away from the doorway and to my chair.

"RALA! I NEED HELP!" I shouted and fired four more rounds out the door. I quickly reloaded and was behind my chair when several rounds ripped through the wall where I had been standing a second before.

"THIS IS THE FBI! Throw down your weapons and surrender. We have you surrounded," shouted a voice from the darkness.

Rala

I was sitting at my computer imputing the coordinates for the transport when the alarm started sounding on another computer system. Turning to the console I brought the system up and I felt my blood turn to ice as I looked at Walter lying on the floor of his trailer. Pulling up the scanner, I saw dozens of humans advancing on Walters and Mike's RVs. Pulling up the transportation system, I caused a dense fog to suddenly appear over the area and then I started beaming the cargo into Cargo bay ninety. I also swept the beams over the law enforcement cars and the SWAT vans and emptied them as well. I scanned with the matrix looking for my recruits and I felt my heart skip a beat when I found Mike and Walter. Their life signs were faint, and fading as I activated the transporter to send them to the medical bay where the doctors stood ready to begin their rejuvenation and enhancement.

I touched my left ear, which turned my com unit on, and said, 'This is Rala, to Medical. Subjects are inbound. Both have been wounded. Execute emergency enhancement and rejuvenation procedures.'

'We are ready.' Medical replied.

'Rala, what is going on?' another voice butted in.

'Captain, our subjects have been attacked. I'm initiating recovery now.' I reported.

'How were they discovered?' the captain asked.