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A Story of Survival

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#1 · (Edited)
Updated! New Chapters 5-7 now posted.
Chapter 1 – The Fall

Jack always talked about something like this happening. For years he said it but none of his coworkers or his family ever listen to him. His kids always thought the things that he did were cool but never took it really seriously. But now, unfortunately he was vindicated.

He never wanted this to happen. But he knew it would. It was inevitable. The economy was going down the tubes and nobody could do anything about it. Domino after Domino fell. First it was the euro. Germany bailed out Greece and for a while it looked like everything was to be okay. Then the worst happened, terrorists detonated an atomic bomb in London. Hundreds of thousands of people were killed or injured.

That was on a Saturday, on Monday the stock market began to spiral out of control. The automatic stops kicked in and limited the sell off to 619 points. The next 19 days the New York Stock Exchange only managed to stay open for no longer than one hour. The shock of this was felt around the world.

Everything ground to a halt. The value of the dollar dropped so fast that retailers started making up prices as they went. The last time Jack went to the store to get last-minute supplies a fight broke out at the checkout counter over the cost of a bag of rice. The price rang up $213. You could see the initial sadness in the man's face turn to anger. He threw down $40 and picked up the bag and started leaving the store mumbling something about how ridiculous that was. By this time however, grocery stores had already put security guards at the doors. After a struggle the man was subdued and the police came and arrested him.

If that wasn't enough, Saudi Arabia and Russia stopped accepting US dollars for oil. Within a week of that happening there was no more gas or diesel available anywhere. That was it. That was the day the United States died.

Even though nobody around him prepped, Jack did. From about the time that Obama bailed out all the banks, Jack started prepping. He stored food. He had over 25 – 5 gallon buckets full of rice, beans, pasta, oats, couscous, and sugar. He stored seeds for a garden. He had guns and ammo. He even went as far as digging his own well with a small consumer well drilling kit. He made that solar right away.

Jack was definitely ready to bug in. The first year he freaked out about not being ready. He prepped like mad. After that year was over he felt prepared enough that he and his family could survive over a year without leaving the house.

The next thing he did was prepare to bug out. He put together a very comprehensive bug out bag for himself. Once he was satisfied with that, he built one for his wife and one for each of his 3 children, Jasper- 16, Mason – 12, and Dayna-7. When he finished those he started on a big project.

He bought a small covered utility trailer and began modifying it. He started by extending the tongue. The stock tongue extended 3 ½ feet from the enclosed portion of the trailer. He extended that to 10 feet. He then added a small platform just forward of the box which would hold a 12 V ice chest and four golf cart batteries. He put three 130 W solar panels on the roof of the trailer. He jumped on the opportunity to buy the rear suspension off of a wrecked 1979 Datsun truck. He removed the stock suspension from the trailer and put this new suspension on which raised the trailer 5 inches and made it more rugged. He added a 100 amp solar charger and a 2000 W inverter. He even put three outdoor rated outlets to the outside of the enclosed trailer box.

The trailer was big enough to carry almost all of his preps. He could definitely carry his food, weapons, tools and outdoor gear. There was not enough room for all of his water containers so he settled for (2) 35 gallon barrels. He added a small platform at the top of the trailer, inside for a small memory foam mattress.

Jack had always been a Jeep person. He owned a 1985 Jeep CJ-7. He put a 15 W solar panel on the hood to keep the battery charged and to prevent him from ultimately getting stuck if he left the lights on someplace remote. He built the Safari rack himself and put four KC lights on it. It had a brush guard with a Warne winch and two more KC lights. He also added two very small driving lights in which he added infrared filters to allow him to drive with night vision. He then added a switch to disable his taillights and brake lights. On the rear rack he had four – 5 gallon gas cans in which he kept stabilized gas that he had rotated four times in the last two years.

Even with all these preps, Jack did not feel ready for what was happening. The trucks carrying food stopped arriving. The results of that was the murder rate going through the roof. People were killing each other for food. Desperate people do desperate things and this was the proof of it. It was only a matter of time until people started to starve to death. Following that Jack was sure that there would be some kind of terrible epidemic from all the dead bodies.

Jack lived in a small community in southern Arizona. Jack moved his family to this community not by accident. This community had a very heavy Mormon population and though Jack was not a Mormon, he knew that they stored food and that made them less of a threat to Jack.

Chapter 2 – Community Bridges

When the gas ran out, so did the electricity and running water with it. The telephone lines were down as well. Society went back to the Stone Age's overnight. St. David Arizona didn't feel the effects like a lot of communities. The Mormon Church banded together with the community and was helping those without supplies. The Mormons held meetings at their church every Tuesday and Saturday. They put flyers on virtually every telephone or the whole area. The St. David volunteer Fire Department would come to the church and use the siren to alert the community that the meaning was about to start. People from all over the community came. Mormon or not, the whole community came together.

Jack did not attend the first meeting but his wife convinced him that the community could use his skills and experience. John reluctantly agreed and attended the second meeting. At the meeting Jack saw a lot of familiar faces. The self-appointed community leaders were discussing the need for volunteers to fulfill vital roles in the community. Jack was hesitant to speak up but when they brought up security and the ideas they had for securing the town Jack could not hold his tongue any longer.

The council had decided that they should set up roadblocks with volunteers to screen who came in and out of the community. They talked about putting out cones to stop people. Jack knew right away that these ideas were coming from people who knew nothing about security. Jack interrupted:

“Excuse me, may I speak?”
“yes you may. But first please tell us who you are in a little about yourself.”, Said one of the council members.
“My name is Jack Adams. A few of you in this room know me. I live on N. Miller Rd.”, Jack responded.
“What do you know about security Mr. Adams?”
“Sir, I am a retired sergeant first class, United States Army. I served two tours in the first Gulf War and four tours in Iraq during operation Iraqi freedom. I also served two tours in Afghanistan. I served all of my time in the 2nd Ranger Battalion. I believe I know a little bit about security operations.”
The council members talked amongst themselves momentarily and then the obvious leader spoke up.
“Mr. Adams, we would like to hear what your ideas for security would be. Could you please meet with Tom Jacobs after this meeting concludes?”
Jack nodded and sat down. Jack knew Tom was and respected him. Tom owned and managed the Ace Hardware in Benson which had recently burned to the ground due to a particularly violent riot that broke out there in which over 40 people were killed.

Jack sat through the rest of the meeting. Most of what they talked about was the logistics of getting food to those who didn't have any. Jack felt a little guilty about not sharing his food but stood firm knowing that he had enough food for his family and it was his responsibility to make sure his family was okay way before his community. He decided right away that he would not accept any food if he wasn't going to give any.

After the meeting Tom found John in the foray and they exchanged small talk for a few minutes. Then Tom got on track.

“I wish you were here for the first meeting. I was kind of thrust into the position of security coordinator. I definitely feel you're more qualified for this job.”
“I don't know about that but I'm sure I can help.”, Jack humbly replied.
“Well then, what ideas do you have?”
“We need to set up a very formidable roadblock with an overwatch position and some men trained to deal with trouble. We also need to set up a quick reaction force or QRF for short to respond to any trouble in the community at a moments notice. The QRF will be particularly handy when we have trouble at the roadblocks.”

Tom looked overwhelmed at this and felt very inadequate.

“Let me go get Ralph because I think he needs to hear this.”, and Tom walked away.

A few minutes later Tom returned with Ralph.

“Tom was just telling me what you were talking about and it sounds good. Tom also mentioned that you may be more qualified for his job.”, Ralph said.
“Are you offering it?”
“If you'll have it Mr. Adams.”
“I'll have to discuss it with my wife first but if she doesn't have any problem with it then I accept.”
“Very good then. Pending your wife's decision, were happy to have you aboard!”

They all laughed at that, shook hands and Jack made his way to the Jeep. On his way home all Jack could think about was what he got himself into. He knew he would have to train these people in some basic infantry tactics if they were going to be effective at all. That would certainly take time away from the family but then it was not like he had to go to work or anything.

Jack returned home to his family. The children were already in bed. His wife was anxious to hear about the meeting and brought it up immediately as he walked through the door.

“So... what happened?”
“They want me to be head of security.”
“Really! What did you tell them?”
“I told them I would have to talk to you first.”, feigning a reluctance to the idea.
“I think you should do it. I don't know of anybody who has more experience than you for a job like that.”, Jessica said excitedly.
“You know that it would take me away from the house a lot and expose me to terrible dangers in the middle of the night.”, Jack said jokingly.
“It's not like I haven't been through that before with you traipsing all over the world, visiting exotic countries, meeting interesting people and killing them!”, She said with a laugh.
“Well then I guess that settles it. Would you like to go to bed with the head of security of the St. David community action network?”
“You know I love a man with a big important title.”

Jack and Jessica went to bed but Jack had trouble sleeping. He knew how important his job was going to be especially when the people from the cities started to show up in his small community. Jack eventually drifted off to sleep but he did not sleep well, his nightmares woke him up more than once.

Chapter 3 – Boot Camp

Jack realized right away how much you miss the Army. This was almost as good though. Jack called the group to attention. He had 22 volunteers under his command. Three squads he decided. Two squads short of a full company to himself. Jack was already working on discipline. He had to have people who did what they were told. Their uniforms were all different but he could not expect more of them. To their credit they did make an effort by all wearing various forms of camouflage. Out in front stood Tom Jacobs. Jack had felt a little bad about taking his position. To make up for it Jack made him platoon leader. Tom spoke:

“At ease!”

The men all immediately went to parade rest. Jack was surprised at how fast these men had picked up Drill and Ceremony.

“Of all the jobs in this community, you have chosen to be part of the most important and the most dangerous. I am not here to train heroes. I'm here to train soldiers. If you do what you're told and learn the things that I teach you, this team will become a very formidable force. The squads will be rotated through the position of gate guard for each of the roadblocks. The remaining two squads will train during the day and be on call at night. Right now, we will be working seven days a week because we lack the manpower for days off. Hopefully that will change. I need hard men for this job. I have an open door policy for complaints but if you come to me whining that you need a day off then I don't need you. All of you look to your rights. The man standing at the far right of each squad is your squad leader. The man standing at the front of the platoon, Tom Jacobs, is your platoon leader and his name is now Sir. His rank is First Lieut.”

Jack stepped forward and pinned to silver bars to his lapels. Jack had taken these silver Lieut. Bars off of an officer that he beat the crap out of in Iraq for being a lousy and lazy leader. Jack was not prosecuted for this for at least this officer had enough pride not to report what had happened. After he had pinned the bars on Tom, he told him to have the squad leader's post.

“Squad leader's post!”, Tom yelled.

The squad leaders marched out to a position just forward of the new lieutenant. They did it wrong Jack thought but decided not to say anything he would teach them the proper way later. The newly appointed squad leader stood at attention in front of Jack. Jack walked to each of them in a proper rigid military manner and pinned a Sergeant's insignia on each of their lapels and shook their hand, congratulating them. When he was done he had them return to the formation.

“In my absence, you will take orders from your lieutenant. Anybody who fails to follow orders will be removed from this task force and not asked to return. In the absence of your lieutenant, you will take orders from your squad leader. These orders I'm giving you now are concrete and will not be questioned. As for my rank, I am your Colonel but you will refer to me as Sir.”

Tom couldn't believe he just named himself Colonel! He said it so unthinkingly and last-minute but he had to outranked a Lieut. It sounded so much like a cliché. He thought about it for a second while he stood there and decided what was done was done. He hoped they didn't see the perplexed look on his face while he thought about it.

“Lieut., let's get first squad on the road blocks. Team Alpha will always go to the North roadblock and team bravo to the south. Second and third squad will remain here to start QRF training.”, Jack said quietly to Tom.
“Yes sir”, Tom said with a smile.

Tom did a perfect about-face. Jack could tell he'd been practicing.

“First squad, you will break into your teams. Alpha team will be going to the North roadblock. Bravo team you will be going to the south. Second and third squad remain in the area and be prepared to move out to my farm for training.”, The new lieutenant yelled.

Tom did another about-face And reported that his platoon was ready. Jack called them to attention and dismissed them.

Jack decided to walk the quarter mile to Tom's farm but he was not going to miss out on some good cadence. Jack had Tom get the two squads together in formation and he marched them over to Tom's farm singing some of Jack's favorite cadences.

For the next seven hours Jack held class for his new recruits. He walked them through some basic infantry tactics and then had them do it themselves. Over and over they would do the same drill until Jack was satisfied that some of it was sticking. He knew however, that he had a long road ahead of him.

At one point Jack realized that one of his soldiers was picking this up quicker than the others and was frustrated by his squad leader's performance. The squad leader of second squad just wasn't a leader and Jack could tell. Jack called the squad leader over and took his rank off. He explained to the man that he felt that he wasn't ready to lead quite yet. The man explained that he was surprised he was made a squad leader anyway and conceded without argument. Jack called over the young man who was obviously way ahead of his peers and promoted him to squad leader. The young man whose name was Quinn Boyd was elated by this turn of events and promised that he would do a good job.

As the day went on, Jack could tell that this group of men was motivated and with the right leadership and mentoring he could make them into Rangers, “Jack's Rangers”

^^^

Two weeks went by very quickly. Jack had been with his men every single day. On the second day Jack stopped teaching infantry tactics and went into some basic checkpoint tactics for the roadblock crews. The on-duty QRF and himself spent an entire shift at the North roadblock. They set up an overwatch position where two soldiers would be stationed. One of the community members donated a huge stack of railroad ties and the men under the tutelage of Jack built a bunker and camouflaged it.

The men dug a hole down 4 feet. The hole was about 5' x 5'. They put two stacks of railroad ties, three high, out in front of the hole. In between the railroad tie close to the ground and the ones above it, they put some 2' 4x4s at each end of the ties creating a firing port. They did this for both stacks of railroad ties. The men then filled sandbags for about an hour until they had enough to stack up as high as the railroad ties. Then the men took some natural vegetation which consisted of tumbleweeds and Mesquite tree branches and camouflaged the position. Then the men cleared all the vegetation out from in front of the bunker so that the overwatch position had a clear field of fire.

Jack was satisfied with the roadblock situation. At the end of two weeks, both of the roadblocks were finished which were situated on on the furthest end of bridges that ran over washes at the north and south end of the community. All the men were trained on how to run the roadblocks. Vehicles that had run out of gas or that were broken down on people's properties were taken to the roadblock and put out so that vehicles approaching would have to weave around the vehicles back and forth four times. This would greatly reduce the speed of approaching vehicles and if the vehicle appeared hostile, the overwatch position would be able to pour effective fire into the hostile vehicle. A small compact car was situated in front of the opening where cars would go through after weaving through the other cars. This car was left in neutral and when a vehicle was okay to pass, the new soldier could push it out of the way easily.

Jack was really happy with how the training was coming. The men were learning quickly. They were motivated and were excited to be a part of something like this. Jack was particularly satisfied with how well the QRF training was coming. The men were starting to move and fight as a team instinctively. With every after action report, Jack would have to correct them less and less.

Jack would get volunteers from the community to be the OP-FOR or opposition force. He would give the OP-FOR a rough scenario and have them “attack” the roadblocks.The roadblock teams would react to the attack and immediately called for the QRF. The QRF would race out to the roadblock and engage the OP-FOR from pre-determined rally points that the roadblock team would designate depending on where the enemy was.

The QRF had been drilled so many times that Jack was confident that if the roadblock had a problem, the QRF would solve it. Jack was by no means done training the men. This would be an ongoing process but Jack knew that he had a good fighting force.

Up to this point at the roadblocks, there had only been a few vehicles that had requested to pass through St. David. Jack knew this would not last. Jack knew that eventually people would start coming to small farming communities for food. It was no secret that Mormons stored food for themselves. And it was no secret that St. David was a Mormon community. It was only a matter of time until people came. Jack wanted to be ready.

Chapter 4 – Home Sweet Home

Jessica was no stranger to hard work. She had taken her small home based craft business start up, and built it up to three retail stores in Tucson. She did this to pass the time while Jack was away at war. All the while, she managed to raise their three children. Jessica, when Jack retired from the Army, said that she wanted to take a vacation. Someplace without children but the needs of her business prevented her from taking that vacation. When the whole world fell apart, her businesses were no longer. She didn't even get a chance to close the doors herself. Now that she didn't have to go to the stores and deal with the finances and other problems that came up, she found that she actually had a lot of time on her hands.

Jessica and the kids immediately got to work on starting a garden. She put Jasper in charge of the garden as he was the oldest and she felt that this was a very important task. Jasper to gardening quickly and felt very important being put in charge of such an important responsibility. The house was built on the east side of 4 acres. Jessica decided that 1 acre of that would be for the garden. Jasper didn't like that his mom referred to it as a garden and started referring to it as a farm.

When Jack and Jessica were looking for property to buy, one of Jack's buying points was good soil. He didn't tell Jessica this because she wouldn't understand his reasoning on this. But it turned out to be a moot point because Jessica fell in love with this property the moment she saw it and Jack was in love with the soil.

Jasper and Mason set out to start their farm. Jasper was meticulous about digging furrows. He put stakes in the ground at 2 foot intervals on either side of his farmland. Then he took kite string and strung it all the way across the plot. Jasper and Mason started digging the Furrows. It took them (3)-12 hour days to complete this task But they were proud of the work they were doing and call their mom out more than once to look at it. Mom would regularly bring water out of them and remark on what a good job they were doing.

Jack had seeds. Jack had been collecting heirloom seeds for just this moment. He did his research. He talked to local ranchers and farmers about what vegetables would grow here and how to grow them. He had enough seeds to sow land 10 times greater than what they were about to plant. He let Jasper and Mason choose what crops they wanted with a little help from mom.

Jack had purchased 300 seed starting flats Before the crash. Jasper and Mason meticulously planted each seat with care and label each flat. Then at dinner that night, reported to the rest of the family that they would have exactly 1500 plants to take care of.

Jack was proud of how his family was adapting so quickly to this new situation. Dayna was especially happy because she didn't have to go to school anymore. She was very disappointed when, after the farm was planted, Jessica started daily two-hour school sessions that included homework. When she told the children of her intentions, she told Jack that she thought the children would go on strike.

Jack was especially proud of Jessica. She had risen to the challenge without a complaint. She managed the household perfectly. Jack could not be happier. In fact Jack was kind of enjoying this new life. Family time was really family time. Jack had managed to rig a couple small 12 V lights in the house utilizing the bug out trailers solar system for power. He also ran an extension cord into the house so that Jessica could use some of the small kitchen appliances. To save power, however the family started going to bed shortly after sunset. The results of this was that the family would generally get up right around dawn and did not even have to be told.

Chores were evenly distributed. Once the farm was planted, Jasper and Mason didn't have very much to do. One day a week was dedicated to weeding the garden. The rest of the week regular chores were done before the kids could go play. Because of jacks forethought about the well, they had running water However, they did not have enough power to continually use the washing machine and dryer. Therefore, laundry was done manually.

Using a 5 gallon bucket and a gamma seal lid, the children would do their own laundry. Jack showed Mason how to build one and Mason built two more. Sunday and Wednesday were laundry days for the children. It only took them 20 minutes to do their laundry each day. Jack hadn't thought of stocking laundry detergent so Jasper, once the laundry detergent ran out, was tasked to dig up some soap tree yucca roots. The Chiricahua Apache tribe would use the soap tree yucca because of its soap like properties. Jack deduced that this would work for detergent as well. The soap tree yucca roots were used for every manner of washing in the Adam's household when the soap ran out.

As far as food is concerned, Jessica became a master at making the Food stored in the 5 gallon buckets taste good. But soon the children wanted meat on the menu. The boys after a thorough talking to by their father about strangers and the dangers that they now faced, were sent out with their .22 caliber rifles to get some meat. Jack knew this would be a relatively hard task. Since the crash, the people in the area without food were hunting. Daily you would hear the report of rifles in the distance. Jack figured that there wouldn't be any game to shoot. Jack could not have been more wrong. The boys within 15 minutes had shot two cottontail rabbits. They didn't have to go very far. While working in the farm they had seen lots of rabbits. Most of their free time was spent chasing a rabbit out of the garden. That night Jack and the boys skinned the rabbits. Jessica the master chef made the tastiest rabbit stew anybody had ever had.

To Be Continued...
 
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#3 ·
The idea with this story is to keep it as plausable and realistic as possible. I am trying to keep it away from a Rawles fantasy. The preps are based a lot on what I have and what I am currently building. Oh, and I wasn't a Ranger, I was Infantry for 12.
 
#8 ·
Chapter 5 – The Elmer

Jack's internal time clock woke him up every morning at 5:30 AM. This morning was no different. Jack tried to go back to sleep but it was no use. So, Jack got up and made tea. The coffee was gone. Jack really missed coffee. He put on a jacket and walked out the front door like he did every morning to watch the sunrise. Sitting on the front porch, Jack pondered the day ahead of him. His QRF training was becoming routine and he was ready to try out some more advanced tactics. As he stared off into space, he heard something coming up his driveway. He waited for whatever was to clear the trees. When it did, he was surprised to see a man in an electric golf cart.

“Good morning Mr. Adams.”, Said the men driving the golf cart.
“Good morning. How can I help you sir?”, Replied Jack.
“Mr. Adams, my name is Theodore Henley, but my friends call me Theo. Tom Jacobs said I should stop by and talk to you about what I do.”
“Well then Theo, would you like to come inside for some tea?” ,Jack asked.
“Jack, I haven't had a cup of tea in two months. I would love one.”

Jack and Theo went inside and Jack took the teapot from on top of the wood stove and started making Theo's cup of tea.

“So Theo, what is it that you do?”, Jack asked.
“Well, it used to be a hobby of mine but now it has become more of a full-time job. You see, I am a ham radio operator. For the last 40 years I have been talking around the world from my little house here in St. David over the air. Since the crash, I have been spending a lot more time on the radio listening to other ham radio operators around the world.”
“No kidding? You know I always wanted to get into that ham radio but I just never had the time.”, Said Jack.
“The thing is Jack, I am hearing rumors from around the world that China has been capitalizing on everybody's misfortune. It started with Taiwan apparently. China conquered Taiwan in two days. About two weeks ago I made several contacts with ham radio operators in Taiwan calling CQ.”
“What is CQ?”, Asked Jack.
“Sorry, that is ham radio talk for,'is anybody there?' Anyway, these hams wanted to tell the world what was happening there. They said the Chinese swept in fast. Apparently they dropped airborne troops in all the major cities. There were beach landings, tanks and everything.”
“Really?!?! What else have you heard?”
“Well, I wasn't quite finished. You see it looks like China had bigger aspirations than just Taiwan. One day after China overran Taiwan, they attacked Japan. Japan tried to put up a resistance but China just overwhelm them. I haven't heard any calls from Taiwan or Japan and over a week. Yesterday, I was talking to a good friend of mine who I chat with regularly in Hawaii on Oahu. His house overlooks Pearl Harbor. It was about 8:00 PM their time. We were chatting about conditions on Hawaii and how people were coping. All of a sudden, he keys up and starts telling me about explosions. I asked him about what it was and he didn't answer. I was really starting to get worried but about 10 minutes later he came back on. He said that every ship in Pearl Harbor that he could see was on fire. Most of the buildings on the naval base were on fire too. He said he also heard explosions and flashes of light coming from the area of Schofield barracks. He signed off right after that and told me that he would contact me tonight with more details.”

Jack stood there in silence. He was trying to process what he was just told. Jack didn't want to believe it but Theo had no reason to lie to him. If China attacked Pearl Harbor, they were going to occupy Hawaii. Was the United States China's next target? Jack didn't want to jump to any conclusions. But all the conclusions he came to were bad, really bad. He almost wished That Theo had not come by.

“What time are you supposed to talk to him again?”, Asked Jack.
“I usually look for him on the air around 2300 hours our time.”
“Would you mind if I came over and listened in?”
“Actually, I came over to invite you.”
“Good, where do you live, I'll come over about 2230.”
“I live on Sibyl Road. Just look for the big tower with a giant antenna on it. You can't miss it.”
“I know exactly where you are talking about. I will see you tonight. Hey, who have you be told about this?”
“Nobody actually. I know what this information would do to the community and I knew if anybody could handle the information, it would be an ex-soldier.”
“Good thinking. For now I think we should keep it that way.”

Jack asked Theo if he had enough to eat. He told Jack that most ham radio operators are preppers too. Theo got up to leave and Jack walked into his golf cart and shook his hand. As Theo drove away, Jack just stood there. He stared at a small ant that was crawling over a rock in his driveway. The ant made its way down one rock and up another. Jack was trying not to think about what you just heard. The idea that this was happening was too big to contemplate. The ramifications of China invading the United States were enormous. China could not have picked a better time to take over the United States. The United States was on its knees and China was going to chop its head off.

Jack went into the house. Jessica was up making breakfast.

“I heard you out here talking to somebody, who was that?”, Jessica asked.
“His name is Theodore Henley. He lives here in St. David. He was just stopping by to see how he could help out with security.”, Jack lied.
“Oh, that's nice. It sounded like some pretty serious conversation to me.”, Jessica probed.
“Theo knows a lot about communication and wanted to offer his services.”, Jack lied again.
“Do you think you'll be of help?”
“We'll see.”

Jack hated lying to his wife about this but things were hard already without dropping this bomb on her. Jack wanted to find out more information about this before he broke the news to anybody.

Jack decided to take the day off. He had worked every day for five weeks straight. The QRF teams needed a day off from training as well. Jack decided to take inventory of his preps again. For whatever reason Jack felt better when he organized his preps. Jack didn't start with the food this time. Jack went to the gun safe. He pulled out his M4 that he'd been carrying every day and even though he cleaned it the night before he decided to clean it again. He stripped it down like he did for 20 years. He meticulously cleaned every part. Then he lightly oiled every part and reassembled it. He checked the action. It was smooth. It was ready.
The next weapon he cleaned was his Springfield arms XDM. One he was done with that, he pulled out his Ruger 10/22. He loved this little gun. Many a squirrel had lost its life to this weapon. He laughed to himself when he thought about how he had killed more with this weapon than all other weapons that he had ever used combined. That included his time at war. Jack knew that if he had to bug out, probably the most important weapon that he had was this little gun. Jack cleaned it and put it away with care. He had a funny feeling that someday he may have to use this to feed his family.

Chapter 6 – Baptism

Jack calculated that it would only take him four minutes to get to Theo's house. It was 10:15 PM. The last 10 minutes would take an hour. Jack went to the gun cabinet and pulled out his pistol and put it into his BlackHawk drop leg holster. Once he had that on he took out the M4 and walked out to the Jeep. He started the Jeep and looked at the gas gauge. Three quarters of a tank. Jack had avoided using the Jeep as much as he could. He knew that gas would be a commodity and that eventually he would probably need it for something important. He had 30 gallons of gas in the garage in 5 gallon cans and 20 on the back of his Jeep.

Jack pulled out of the driveway and started to head over to Theo's house when he remembered that he had left his GMRS radio on the kitchen table. He backed the Jeep down the driveway and put the Jeep in neutral and jogged into the house and grabbed the radio. He looked at the battery indicator, three out of four bars. He thought about the coincidence between the battery level and the gas level in his Jeep for a second. He jogged back out to the Jeep and headed over to Theo's house.

Theo must've heard Jack coming because he was waiting in the front yard for him as he pulled up.

“Good evening Jack!”, Theo yelled over the engine noise of the Jeep.
“Good evening.”, Jack responded.
“I've been on the radio for over two hours. Things are going down in Hawaii. I have made over 50 different contacts in Hawaii so far. China has invaded Hawaii! The big Island, Oahu, Maui, and a few other islands have all reported troops on the ground.”
“Dammit, I can't believe this is happening.”, Jack responded.
“Come inside Jack, we need to listen.”

Jack and Theo went into the house. Theo's house looked more like a RadioShack store them a place to live. There were wires and gadgets and radios everywhere. Even the magazines had pictures of radios and antennas on them. Theo had put a chair next to his by Theo's ham radio station. The chatter on the radio sounded exciting. Theo rotated the tuning dial. There was static and squeals as the turned it. Suddenly there was a voice on the radio.

“CQ CQ this is W6AF big Island Hawaii. CQ CQ this is W6AF Big Island Hawaii.”

Theo press the button on his microphone.

“W6AF this is K1QE Arizona I hear you 5 x 5.”
“K1QE QSL. This is an emergency transmission. Are you prepared to copy?”
“W6AF go ahead with your transmissions.”
“Be advised, the Chinese are invading Hawaii. I am on the big Island in the city of Hilo. Reports are coming in mostly on the 2 m repeater of troops making landfall on the north end of the island near Honokaa. The report said, hundreds of landing craft are on the beach and that lots of gunfire can be heard. Several reports from around the island including here in Hilo of parachutes in the sky. I can hear gunfire from my position probably less than a mile away. There have been several explosions in the last hour in the city of Hilo. The 2 m repeater went off the air about 15 minutes ago. My name is Roger Douglas. This may be my last transmission. Over to you. W6AF.”
“W6AF that is a good copy. Our thoughts and prayers are with you. Good luck to you.”

Theo and Jack waited anxiously for a response but there was only static. Jack ran his hand through his short military cut hair, unable to fathom the helplessness that man must feel. Theo just looked at the radio. Jack leaned back in his chair. Nobody said anything. Nobody needed to, the bad news spoke for itself. Just then, Jack's GMRS radio crackled to life.

“Alpha actual, this is team alpha one, over!”, The men said excitedly.
“Alpha actual, go.”
“We are taking fire from an unknown position directly N. Up the Rd. We have two men down.”
“Roger that, help is on the way.”

Jack's mind raced. How could two men possibly be down. Two men should have been in the bunker and one on the road. The worst-case scenario should have been one man down. Jack got back on the radio.

“QRF teams do You copy?”
“Sir, the QRF was monitoring and is mobilizing now Sir.”
“Good, we will stage a rally point Charlie. I will be waiting for you.”
“Roger that Sir”

Jack jumped up without saying a word and rushed out to his Jeep. Jack reached into his center console and pulled out his generation II night vision and turned it on. He then fitted it on his head. Jack reached down and disabled his brake lights and turned on his night vision driving lights. He had tested this before but never used it for real. Jack backed up and realized that he had not disable the backup light and was blinded by the extreme amount of light. Jack flipped up his night vision and completed the backing maneuver. He turned forward flip down the night vision and started driving. The lights illuminated everything in front of him especially the street signs. Jack flew down the road. He blew off every stop sign and sight. In his rearview mirror he could see several vehicles behind him. The QRF was coming.

Jack turned onto a dirt road that would take him to rally point Charlie. The turnoff was before curve and hid him from what was going on at the northern roadblock. Jack reached rally point Charlie in less than a minute. Rally point Charlie was situated in a large grove of Mesquite trees. These were mutant Mesquite trees and were over 30 feet tall. Jack always marveled how large Mesquite trees grew in St. David. Jack got out of the Jeep and opened the rear door of the Jeep. He pulled out his level IV body armor And put it on. Within seconds, the rest of the QRF arrived. Jack called them all around him.

“Okay guys listen up. We have two men down out there, that leaves one man defending the roadblock. We need to find, fix, and kill whoever's out there. Is that understood?”

The QRF responded with a muted “yes Sir”

“It is just like we trained. I don't want any heroes out there. Do what you're told, listen to your squad leaders and above all be safe. What is our motto?”
“Speed, audacity, and violence on the objective.”, The QRF said in unison.
“Hooooaaahhhh!”, Jack responded.
“Squad two will be the fixing force. Squad three you will be the assault force. Wedge formation and let's move up until we can identify where our target is. Moveout.”

The two squads immediately formed a wedge formation. Jack fell into the middle-rear of the formation. They move quietly but swiftly through the Mesquite trees. The moon was only half-full but threw plenty of light for the soldiers to see. They move forward for about 250 yards when the man at the point of the wedge threw up his fist in a freeze gesture. Everybody stopped. Jack ran up to the point man.

“What you got.”, Jack asked.
“I saw to muzzle flashes right there.”

The man was pointing up the road to a natural rock formation on the East side of the road. Jack knew that that could possibly be a location bad guys would use against the roadblock but did not have any high explosives or Claymore mines he could use to booby-trap that location, however, Jack had trained the scenario several times with the men and the men knew exactly what to do.

“Third squad, I want you to flankk around to the east. Use the wash that winds Northeast. Get on the radio when you are in position.”
“Yes Sir.”

Jack grabbed his radio and called the roadblock.

“Team alpha one, team alpha one, status report!”
“Sir, both of us are returning fire sparingly as we were told Sir, Be careful Sir, there fire is extremely accurate”
“Roger that, the assault team is moving into position now.”

Jack was puzzled. Both of them? How many people were there at the roadblock? If there were two men down in two men were shooting who else was there? He let the thought escape him. Tonight he was in the business of killing.

Within 10 minutes the assault force was in position. Jack had the fixing force move up on line. Jack was planning an offensive ambush and so far everything was working. Second squad had found the positions they used during training. Jack ran the plan through his head one more time and then gave the order to fire.

Second squad opened fire with a loud roar. Angry little lead bees screamed toward their targets. Flashes of impacts told the story of well aimed fire. The men knew to concentrate their fire accurately on the rock formation and not too far east of it. The men knew that the assault force would be coming. The occasional return fire from the rock formation was not well aimed. You could hear the pop and the Wiz of the bullets passing overhead. Suddenly there was a scream. None of the men moved. They continued to fire on their target. Jack ran over to where the scream came from.

“What happened!”, Jack screamed over the gunfire.

The men turned to look at Jack from behind his rifle.

“Oh, sorry sir, there was some grass that was getting into my sight picture and I reached out to pull it out and my arm touched my barrel and burned the crap out of me, sir.
“Jesus! You scared the **** out of me!”
“sorry sir...”

Jack jogged back to his position keeping his head down. The adrenaline was coursing through his veins. Jack grabbed his radio and screamed into it.

“Third squad move out! We will shift fire at your signal!”
“Third squad moving out.”, The man responded in a whisper.

Third squad climbed out of the wash and silently made their way toward the rock formation from the East. They had 300 yards to cover. They were not in a hurry. They moved like ninjas in the night. The idea was to reach a small rock step off that afforded them cover and concealment. Every step they took was deliberate. They could not afford to be compromised now.

When they reached the rock step off, they got down in the prone position. Each man picked a target from left to right based on their position in the squad. There were six targets visible and there were six of them. If all went right all the men should go down on the first volley of fire. The third squad leader asked for a readiness check. Everybody responded with “up” which meant they were ready to rock 'n roll. He gave the command to fire. Third squad let loose with a blistering barrage of fire. Immediately all the targets went down. Third squad shifted their fire to the ground and fired into it for a full 30 seconds of well aimed fire. The third squad leader gave the command to prepare to move. All the men took a moment to reload the rifles and gave an “up” again. He then said, “moveout!” the men got to their feet and started moving forward firing their weapons into the target area. The third squad leader grabbed his whistle from around his neck and blew through it three times as hard as he could. It was working. Second squad stopped firing.

Adrenaline was squirting out of Jack's ears at this point but he maintained his composure like a professional soldier. He gave command to second squad to prepare to move. Second squad reloaded their rifles and prepared to charge the rock formation.

Third squad reached the rock formation, as they did they put one more bullet into every man there. When they finish their sweep, the third squad leader blew one long burst through his whistle.

When Jack heard the whistle he gave the command to move out.The men jumped to their feet and started moving out, on line, scanning for targets. They walked with a purpose. Upon reaching the rock formation, no targets were identified as they swept through the objective to the far side, Jack ordered both squads to create a perimeter. Immediately all the men created a circle about 25 m across around the rock formation. Jack stayed in the center near all the dead men and crouched down next to the rocks. Everybody stopped moving. There was pure silence except for the ringing of Jack's ears. He waited and listened for any movement. There was none. Jack asked for a perimeter status. The men responded one by one, “secure!”

“Squad leaders, on me!”, Jack said.

The two squad leaders ran over to Jack's position.

“Each of you grab two of your men and perform a proper POW search on each of these guys.

The squad leaders went off and volunteered two men each. They returned and started safely rolling the dead men to make sure they were not booby-trapped. Then, each man was checked for anything in their pockets. This went on for about 15 minutes until the squad leaders both reported back to Jack.

“Sir, from what we can tell these were just a group of civilian hillbillies that decided to take on our roadblock. There are no uniforms, their weapons are hunting rifles, and nobody survived.”, The second squad leader said.
“Good job you guys. Get your men ready to move. We will move out in a wedge formation back to the roadblock.”

Both men responded affirmatively and went back to their squads and prepared them to move. The group formed a wedge formation with 5 m spacing between men and started moving toward the roadblock. Jack was still being cautious. He knew it wasn't time to let his guard down quite yet. That's how you get killed he thought.

The men reached the roadblock. Jack had the men set up a wide perimeter about 100 yards across. The men immediately ran to their positions and got the prone position facing outward scanning for targets. Jack stepped into the bunker. There were four men in the bunker. Jack turned on a red lens flashlight and shined it into the faces of the two men lying motionless at the bottom of the bunker. It was Mark Judd and Tom Jacobs. Jack was mortified. What was Tom doing here?

“Tell me what happened.”, Jack said without emotion.
“Sir, Tom came out here and brought us hot coffee. He brought it to us first. It had been quiet all night. We hadn't seen a vehicle since before the sun went down. Tom talked to us for a couple of minutes asking us how it was going and then walked out to Mark with his cup of coffee. We sat in the bunker drinking our coffee. We could hear them talking but we couldn't hear what they were talking about. All of a sudden we heard Mark scream out in pain followed closely by the report of a gun. We dropped our coffee and started looking for where the fire was coming from. We could see muzzle flashes from the rocks so we returned fire. I yelled for Tom to get in the bunker. I looked over and Tom was dragging Mark off the road towards the bunker. I saw Tom get hit. He went down and he wasn't moving or making any noise. I yelled out to them both. Mark was calling out for his wife. We continued firing into the rock position sparingly so that we would take the bulk of the fire. Their fire was pretty accurate. We had to stay down because their rounds were coming through the firing ports regularly once they figured out where we were. We contemplated going out and getting those two but the fire was just too accurate and we knew we wouldn't make it. As soon as we heard the single long whistle blast we jumped out of our hole and pulled Mark and Tom back to the bunker. I was dragging Tom I just grabbed his arm and started running dragging him behind me. When we got to the bunker I noticed that Tom had been shot in the head and that he was obviously dead. Larry was attending to Mark. Larry told me that Mark was dead too.”

Jack sat there for a moment contemplating what just happened. He felt sick to his stomach. Every time he was in combat, when the battle ended, he felt sick to stomach. He gave the men the best “good job” he could muster. Then he called all the squad leaders together and told Second squad to get a detail together to handle Tom and Mark's bodies. They were to put them in the back of a pickup truck and take them to the mortuary in town. He ordered third squad to take over duties, full strength, at the roadblock until shift change the next morning.

Jack gave himself the hardest detail. Mark was a single man with no family but Tom was not. Tom had a wife at home and a 19-year-old son who lived in town as well. Jack had to go tell his wife what happened. Jack never have to do this before. This was the job of an officer and up till two months ago when he gave himself the rank of colonel, he had always been an enlisted man.

Jack looked around to make sure everybody was doing what they were supposed to be and then started walking back to his Jeep. He opened the front flap of his body armor to let some air in. He was suddenly exhausted. Overall, tonight had been a success. His soldiers did exactly as they were supposed to. They took orders well and performed like professional soldiers do. All that was a small consolation compared to the loss of two men. Two men who didn't know it was coming. Two men who didn't get to fire back in defense. These two men were murdered. The attackers paid the ultimate price but Jack wouldn't trade two of his soldiers for 1000 bad guys. Jack wiped a tear from his eye. Jack still had work to do in the early morning hours. It was a terrible work. But Tom's family had to know.


Chapter 7 – Bad News

Jack decided to walk to the community meeting at the church. He wanted to clear his head. It had been two days since the Northern roadblock incident. The two survivors of the first squad alpha team identified the six enemies as a group of men who had approached the roadblock earlier that day. They asked why this roadblock was there and if they could move into the community. Larry was the one who talked to them. He told them without authorization it would be impossible. They apparently did not know that the bunker was there. They figured they could just kill Larry and drive right in. They must've been surprised by the return fire from the bunker and just stayed by the rock, shooting, while trying to figure out what to do.

Jessica had changed her mind about Jack's position as head of security for St. David after hearing the news of Tom and Mark's death. Jack couldn't quit right now. He needed more volunteers and he had to train them. Jack had nothing but bad news to share at the community meeting. He had discussed the incident at the Northern roadblock with the community. He also had to break the bad news about Hawaii.

The last few meetings the attendance was way down but as Jack walked the last few hundred yards to the church it was obvious that everybody was there today. Jack paused for a moment and took a deep breath and then continued walking. Jack was going to be late. At least by 10 minutes so his watch said. Jack walked the last few steps to the front door to the church and stopped to take one last breath before he entered. He felt a lot of pressure. The responsibility of the two dead men weighed heavily on his conscience.

Tom opened the door quietly and stood in the back of the church while the council members talked. As usual the council was discussing food disbursements. One of the council members noticed that Jack was standing in the back of the room and whispered something to the lead council member. The man's eyes perked up. He interrupted the other men talking and announced that Jack Adams was here. Every head in the room turned to face Tom. Somebody stood up and started clapping. The whole room joined in and there was a long roar of applause and whistles and cheering. Jack was taken aback. He did not expect this at all in fact he thought for sure that he would have been relieved of his duties.

The applause went on for over two minutes without wavering. A couple people in the back rows walked up to shake his hand and to thank him for what he was doing. They had to know that Tom Jacobs and Mark Judd were gone Jack thought to himself. One of the councilmen started to quiet the crowd and asked that Jack come up and talk to them.

Mark walked up the aisle. As he walked by people or patting him on the back and reaching out to shake his hands. Everybody he looked at was smiling. Mark walked up to the podium and stood there. The crowd quieted. You could've heard a pin drop. Mark cleared his throat and began to speak.

“I had not expected this kind of reaction from the community. In fact the speech I had prepared had been prepared to defend myself from the community.”

The crowd laughed.

“Well, thank you. Thank you all for the show of support. The real heroes here are my men. They had a lot to learn in a short period of time. All these men did this without complaint. Not only that, in the face of danger these men did not blink. These men went out without question and put their life on the line for this community. These men are the heroes today.”

The crowd erupted into cheers again. Jack wished that all his men could be here. Some of them were but others were on duty at the roadblocks. When the cheers finally subsided, Jack continued.

“I have taken the loss of Tom Jacobs and Mark Judd very hard. Changes have already been made to the roadblocks so that this will not happen again. The sentry on the road has been given a bunker of his own that gives him a safe place to be while he waits for vehicles or people. We have a great community here and on the outside, people are becoming aware of this. The people starving in the city are beginning to migrate to the countryside into farming communities in search of food. The people on the outside want what we have but as you know we do not have the supplies to provide for the entire population of the city. In that way we have to be selfish unfortunately. Most of us in this community have taken the time to prepare ourselves for something like the crash. We did this so we could provide for our families. The generosity of this community has spread to those in the community who were not prepared and that has made us stronger.”

The crowd started to cheer again but Mark gestured to the crowd to stop.

“Now I'm a shift of focus to some very important information that I have become aware of. Reports from ham radio operators around the world have confirmed that China has begun marching across the Pacific Ocean invading islands and taking over countries. Reports indicated that Taiwan and Japan both are now under the control of China.”

Mumbling and whispering began to break out in the crowd Jack waited for a moment and then asked them to please be quiet and let him finish.

“Three days ago on the night of the incident at the North roadblock, the islands of Hawaii were invaded by the Chinese. I have been in constant contact with Theodore Henley regarding any further news of the Chinese advance. Theodore has informed me that transmissions from Hawaii have ceased. We can only assume that Hawaii is completely under the control of the Chinese at this point. I have asked Theodore to work with ham radio operators in Mexico, California, Oregon and Washington to have them start watching the coastlines for the presence of any warships or aircraft. Theodore informed me that the people in these areas had already started this. Nightly, as the radio propagation allows, he listens to these ham radio operators giving reports. So far, nothing has been seen. In my educated opinion, the Chinese intend to attack the United States. I have no proof to go on except my gut instinct. I highly recommend to those who are able to, make plans to be able to move at a moment's notice. I do not have any other advice to give other than be ready. Theodore Henley has asked that you not bother him, He will pass along any information to me. Any information I get I will pass along to the community through these meetings. Thank you.”

Jack stepped down off the stage. As Jack walked down the aisle the room erupted in chatter. Jack walked out of the front doors and into the crisp winter air. It was a beautiful day Jack thought to himself. He was sorry he had to ruin it for everybody. Jack decided that today would be a perfect day to go fishing. Jack walked back to the house knowing that the nearest fishing was over 60 miles away but that wouldn't stop him from being lazy today.
 
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