The Resolution (16 page)

Henry looked down at the ground, took a deep breath, and said, “The boys and I knew they would be looking for Ed and Nate. We knew it would be an opportunity to catch them off guard and send a little payback their way. We used Ed as a guinea pig. He put his orange jumpsuit on for us, and when the initial patrol rolled into town, he caught their attention and started a chase. They were so focused on him, they didn’t even know we were there. On our way back—”

“So you killed them,” she said with an icy stare.

“Yes. Yes, we killed them. In our defense though, they were trying to kill Ed, not capture him. He took one of them out with the Colt hidden inside of his jumpsuit. Anyway, afterward, we worked our way back to the rally point—”

“The
what
?”

“A house on Fourth that we were using to meet up away from anyone’s actual residence. Anyway, we worked our way back there, being careful to make sure we weren’t being followed. Ed changed out of his jumpsuit, we grabbed the crutch, and just as we started to leave, we saw another Humvee go by one street over, heading in the direction of our house. Ed and I went straight there, while the others went back to their homes just in case any of us had been seen leaving our own residences, or in case someone had tipped them off to where we might be. I have a feeling some son of a bitch around here rolled over on us. They seemed pretty intent on searching our house with a fine-toothed comb.

“As Ed and I arrived, we heard the shooting begin. I almost died of a heart attack right there on the spot. If anything had happened to you...” Henry paused to maintain his composure. “Anyway, we rushed straight in. The bastards didn’t hear us running through the house because of their own irresponsible gunfire. We dropped them both on the spot and that’s when I came running down to the basement.”

“How long has this little neighborhood war of yours been going on?” she asked.

“War? There hasn’t been a war. Oh, no, nothing like that. The boys and I just had to take care of things every once in a while. Tonight, I’ll admit, we took things a little too far. Our overzealous attitude has brought those foreign bastards down on our homes. Before that, we just did what we had to do to keep the looters and criminals away.”

“So you killed others before this? When you were out supposedly searching for supplies, you were out killing anyone you didn’t want in our neighborhood.”

Henry stared at the ground then raised his head, looked her in the eye, and said, “I did what had to be done. Nothing more. Nothing less.”

Meredith took a deep breath and placed her hand on his. “I know you’re a good man, Henry. I trust your judgment. Please don’t ever doubt that. Just, please, please don’t hide anything from me ever again. I’m not a child. I don’t need or want you to shelter me from what’s really going on around us. Promise me.”

Henry smiled and said, “I promise, my love. Never again.”

Chapter Twenty-Eight:
The Immanent Threat

Back on the Homefront, several days had passed since Charlie and Jason had gotten the encrypted radio relays set up and connected to the HiveNet network. Jason had been the point man in regards to network communications. He dutifully monitored the radio a safe distance from the Homefront and the other homesteads each day at his assigned time. Each day, he had received a routine update of light activity in the area. Jason would respond in kind and then return to his hectic daily life, trying to keep up with all of the things that made the homesteads function as a quaint and civil little society. Additionally, the moves to the new properties for the Jones and Vandergriff families had been put on hold, given the outcome of the supply run and the current security situation.

After the days of relative calm, as Jason listened in at his assigned monitor time, he received a slightly different message than usual. “Fox Three Two... Fox Three Two. Fox Three One. JADAM. JADAM. Fox Three One. JADAM. JADAM.”

Jason’s heart skipped a beat as he realized JADAM was their call for Joint Area Distress Message, meaning something was underway that was affecting all of their area of concern. Gathering his thoughts, he replied, “Fox Three Two Copies.”

“Confirm.”

Jason then replied with the day’s confirmation code to let the sender know it was indeed him on the other end of the transmission. “Kilo Echo November Oscar.”

“Fast movers over Fox Three. Report contact.”

Fast movers?
Jason thought, wracking his brain to try and remember all of the lingo he had been so diligently studying. Unable to carry a notepad with any such radio coding and lingo on it for security reasons, he had to rely on memory alone, and this was still all new to him.
Damn, that’s an aircraft. I think.
“Copy all and WILCO. Contact negative at this time.”

“Fox Three Three and Three Five both report soft contact. Go hot air.”

“Wilco,” Jason replied.

“Fox Three One out.”

“Fox Three Two out,” Jason replied, signing off.
Damn it!
he thought as he began to jog through the woods for home, scanning the sky as he went.

As he neared the Homefront, Jason ran toward the most recent tree stand on the outer perimeter that he knew to be occupied by a watch stander. “Greg!” he shouted as he approached the stand.

“Yeah? What’s up?” Greg shouted from the tree.

Pausing to catch his breath, Jason said, “Eyes up! There may be aircraft in the area. If they spot you, just hang tight. Don’t leave the tree. You’re just a deer hunter in a stand. No radio calls while it’s in the area. Got it?”

“Um... yeah. I guess. What’s going on, Jason?” Greg asked, unsure of the extent of the situation.

“It may be something, or it may be nothing. Either way, step up your game and keep OPSEC and COMSEC at the top of your priority list. Travel smart and communicate smart. Someone has an interest in the area, and we want them to think we are just simple mountain folk. Got it?

“Yeah. I’ve got it,” Greg replied.

Jason then turned and continued his jog back to the Homefront. Over the next hill, he could see the house off in the distance as he heard the dreaded sound of the
thump, thump, thump
of helicopter rotors. Without even looking up, he knew it to be the sound of a Hind. He had learned to fear that sound, and from his Army days, knew it wasn’t a Blackhawk or other helicopter types in the U.S. Army’s inventory. The Hind, to him, had a unique sound that he would not soon forget. Halting his movement, Jason stepped up next to a tree, sharing its form as the ominous beast flew overhead toward the house, followed closely by a second Hind.

A flight of two? They must mean business,
he thought as stress surged through his body. Sarah and his children, as well as the others, were in that house. From the deeds he had personally witnessed the UN soldiers do, he was not confident that this was merely a routine flyover patrol.

~~~~

After placing her eggs in the basket to carry back into the house, Molly started to step out of the chicken coop as she heard the helicopters approaching in the distance.
The girls!
She dropped her basket, cracking the eggs, and ran for the house, not knowing what was about to happen. Swinging the back door open wildly, Molly yelled, “Everybody in the basement! Now! In the basement!”

Peggy ran into the room carrying little Zack and said, “What? What’s going on?”

Molly replied frantically and in broken thought, “I don’t know. Helicopters. Where’s Evan, Griff, and Jason?”

Seeing the fear in Molly’s face, Peggy replied, “Jason went to do his thing, Evan’s taking a nap—I think he’s a little tipsy from his meds—and Griff is—”

“I’m right here!” Griff said, running into the room. “What’s going on?”

Before Molly could answer, they all heard the sound of the helicopter rotors fly over the top of the house at near rooftop level. They ran to the window only to see both of them arc around as if to make another pass over the house.

“Downstairs!” she yelled, not knowing if they were going to open fire on the house. After Evan and Jason’s experiences with them up to this point, she knew it was smart to expect the worst.

Griff looked at Molly. “You go and get Evan. Peggy, get Zack downstairs like she said. Judy is watching Lilly and Sammy. I’ll round up the rest and meet you all down there.”

Running into their bedroom, Molly ran over to Evan, who was still sound asleep, and began vigorously shaking him, yelling, “Evan! Wake up! Wake up!”

“What the...?”

“Just get up!”

“What’s going on? How long was I out?”

“There are big helicopters circling the house. Everyone is going down to the basement.”

Snapping to his senses, Evan threw his legs out of the bed, put his pants on, and ran barefoot across the room, stopping to grab his VZ-58 and magazine-laden load-bearing vest.

As he and Molly joined the others in the basement, Lilly and Sammy ran from Judy’s care to the open arms of their parents crying and saying, “Mommy! Daddy! Mommy! Daddy!” They were too young to understand what was going on, but they knew the adults were worried and anxious about something.

“It’s okay, girls. It’s okay,” he said, trying to calm them.

Sarah, Kevin, and Michael came running down the stairs next. Sarah looked at everyone and frantically asked, “What’s going on? Griff shouted and told me to get downstairs, but didn’t say why.”

Before anyone could answer, they all went silent as they heard the ominous pulsing of the Hind’s massive main rotor directly overhead. Fear gripped the adults and children alike. They knew they had fared well in the past when faced with hostile intruders, but a well-equipped and trained government force would be a different story.

Evan made a quick headcount and said, “Okay, we’re missing Griff, Jason, Jake, and Greg.”

“Jason’s on his daily comms run, Greg is on watch, and I think Jake was out checking on the sheep,” Molly replied.

Sarah spoke up and said, “Griff said he’s staying upstairs to keep an eye on things.”

Evan’s face was serious as he looked at Molly and said quietly, “Unlock the basement gun safe. Don’t start breaking everything out just yet and scare the kids to death, but be prepared. We know these bastards aren’t here for anything good. We’ve seen nothing but hostility and oppressive behavior from them everywhere we’ve seen them. I love you.” He kissed her on the cheek, turned, and ran upstairs.

Reaching the upper level, Evan saw Griff looking with binoculars out of the window at the end of the hallway on the south end of the house. “What’s going on?” he asked.

“One of the helicopters is lying low off in the distance, while the other is doing a slow orbit around the house. They’re both armed up—S-8 rockets on their hard points. They could obliterate this house with the mere twitch of a finger; we don’t have a leg to stand on in a fight with them. If they choose to make a move—I don’t know what we could do. We can’t get away. They could track us and mow us down any direction we run. We would have to have a damn underground tunnel to get away if it comes to blows.”

Evan gestured to borrow the binoculars. Taking them from Griff, he watched the orbiting Mi-24 Hind as it made its way back around the house. The Hind turned and faced them, almost seeming to stare Evan directly in the face, as if they knew he was watching. “What are you up to, you bastard?” he mumbled.

“Dude, we could hit the pilot with the fifty from here,” Griff said. “We could take that bastard down.”

“The other one would smoke us though,” Evan said, handing the binoculars back to Griff. “Hence the overwatch position. I have a feeling this guy is up close in order to use thermal imaging or penetrating radar to scan the house for threats. They’re probably watching us watching them right now.”

Just as Evan finished his sentence, the Hind turned and flew away toward the east, with the other helicopter rejoining it in their formation, disappearing across the ridgeline and over the horizon.

With the stress of the moment leaving his body, his heart still pounding through his chest, Evan said, “Looks like they are heading over toward the Thomas farm now.”

“I wonder what they are looking for?”

“Us. Well, maybe not us exactly, but those like us. But then again, considering what Jason and I got caught up in, I guess it really could be us. If they had any real intel at this point, though, they would have been kicking—or blowing—our door off its hinges by now. No, I think they are still gathering intel on the area before they make a move.”

“Man, I feel like we should be on the radio by now sending word to the other homesteads.”

“Yeah, I know. But if they are taking this sort of interest, employing two helicopters in the manner with which they are, they more than likely are already monitoring all radio traffic in the area. Our house-to-house gear being unencrypted in any way would be wide open to them and would just give them a clue as to our associations and intentions. I think we should just let things play out for the moment. They’ll keep their heads on straight over there and at the other homesteads too. Nobody would be stupid enough to make a move on those damn flying tanks unless it was a matter of last resort.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right. Still, it feels wrong just sitting here, waiting for something bad to happen.”

“We’ll get with everyone very soon. We need to get our bug out plans that you, Jason, and Daryl spoke about the other day up and running. As individual homesteads, avoidance is our best defense. The militia may have a better way to actually deal with the problem.”