A long Lonely Road Box Set 3 Read online

  She isn’t anti-social, she just thinks deeper than most folks, plus it’s hard to talk to somebody who has a squirrel sitting on their head.

  But I’m glad we have her because her healing abilities are very welcome and Doc likes her, but Doc’s a bit strange too. I will admit I often wonder if there is something going on behind the smoke but then again I really don’t wanna know.

  Beth likes her and the kids do, as well as Molly. Walker tolerates her as he does most people but just barely.

  He used to be overly protective of Sandy until the “puppies” came to live with us. Now he has no time for anybody but JC.

  I had one small chore to attend to that entailed a trip to the fort, so I asked Ralph to take me over in the chopper. The girls were pissed when I told them there wasn’t room for them when I brought back what I was after and I refused to answer questions. I can be a dickhead with the best of them!

  We took off early in the morning and made it much quicker than driving. We met with the guy who keeps everything in order’ “Mr. Whipple’ as I call him. Yes, behind his back but in a nice way. He’s an accountant and is only happy when he knows to the bullet how much ammo we have.

  I had to set him straight one time when he wanted an accounting of ammo we expended in some firefight. I offered to take him to the bodies of the assholes we killed and left in a gully so he could count bullet holes against rounds expended; he’s not brought up that issue since.

  I told him what I was after and we headed down into the cell block area where all the goodies are piled. I looked at what I was after and asked Ralph how much weight we could haul. He figured without the guns and the overload of ammo the girls tried to pile in we could easily carry several hundred pounds.

  He did ask why I needed several hundred pounds of gold. I smiled and said, “Well, I’d tell you but if it don’t work out you’ll be so disappointed that you might cry, so wait and see.”

  With several helpers we got it all loaded up in wooden crates and lashed down and no surprise I was handed a clipboard to sign for what I was taking. Mr. Whipple said it was important to know what went where. I agreed with a wink at Ralph, and we were up and away.

  We landed and gathered some of the loafers to help unload it into the trailer behind my Hummer which was then covered with ammo cans.

  I was enjoying being mysterious.

  The next morning amid many hugs and kisses from and for Beth and the kids we loaded up and were gone. Next stop Shiprock and Charley.

  When we arrived, Charley and his scout teams were ready to roll and some had already left hours earlier. We hardly slowed down long enough for the girls to run in to see Old Woman. They were back quicker than I figured they would be and we were rolling again.

  Since we were traveling thru our turf with scouts well out in front we set a pace the heavy trucks could handle and settled into the grind of the road.

  A military convoy never makes fast miles but it grinds on steady; any breakdowns are handled by follow-up recovery units, which in our case is a six by loaded with everything the gearheads can think of plus a flatbed trailer that they can load a vehicle onto and work on it while on the move. They have become very good at that. I don’t think the military ever had people working on something while rolling along at 50 MPH- maybe they could have learned something from our people.

  They had even put up a railing over the down rig and the mechanics wore safety lines which made it impossible for them to fall off the trailer. Dropped tools were another thing but the follow-up rig kept an eye out and usually managed to recover whatever it was. These ol' boys were pretty damn good at not dropping tools. Thinking about that gave me an idea which I passed on to the mechanics crew that evening.

  Put a rail around the trailer with canvas walls and nothing could fall off; they were still scratching their heads when I walked off. I’m sure they will wait until enough time passes so they can claim it’s their idea. Gotta love the greaseballs!

  We made a few hundred miles the first day. The scouts found a small town that welcomed us and traded us fresh food for ammo- we have tons of it in all calibers. Most settlements don’t have military weapons so they need civilian ammo- we have it from the old 32-20 Winchester to the big magnums and it’s the new currency.

  We always pay well because these folks are the first line of defense for our area.

  The cooks always start these trips with a reefer unit full of beef, pork and chicken and with the fresh veggies and milk etc. we eat very well.

  We set these places up with transmitters if they wish to belong to the growing network of settlements that have become outposts for our expanding area of influence.

  We spent a quiet night and rolled out at daybreak with coffee and hot bread with butter and jelly under our belts- great way to start the day but I missed my eggs and made the mistake of saying so and will now spend the days getting ribbed over it. They get bored and need to be entertained and I’m usually the one paying the price for their boredom.

  One time we were off someplace in our desert area and Sandy was so bored she got up in the turret and with no warning opened up on a damn jack rabbit. Here’s this poor rabbit dodging and ducking, running for its life and then the whole fucking convoy opened up on it. They all stopped when the rabbit ran out of sight. I think that fit of boredom cost us 5,000 rounds of ammo, which I informed her was coming out of the stash she and May stole from Barstow. May wasn’t having it because she didn’t shoot at the rabbit, so now they weren’t bored because they could argue for the next hundred miles. In the end somehow it all became my fault…of course.

  So, no more rabbits: Now she looks for coyotes. Charley told her the coyote had mystical powers and was held in some grace by the People.

  She spent a week trying to decide if it counted since she ain’t of the People. She carried it so far as to ask Old Woman who said, “Those nasty bastards steal my chickens and I shoot every one I see!” End of discussion.

  I asked Charley if he thought the story he told her was gonna work, and he said, “No, but for a week she’s not shot up the whole desert.” Charley’s a cunning old guy.

  We were heading due west as best we could. I have no idea where we will hit the coast and don’t really care because what I’m after is someplace along the coast of Oregon or Washington. I’m just not sure where.

  I was looking for the ship or ships that were hauling products from way south to way north- most importantly, Coffee beans! When we met Seth ‘Longbow’ Daniels up in the high country and bought the girls their bows, he told us about some folks who were bringing coffee and other stuff north and selling for gold or silver, which we have a lot of but damn little coffee. I refuse to go thru my life sipping tea made from some desert weed.

  I’ll drive to wherever the hell Juan Valdez is picking them beans one at a time and get my own. Anyway this was the reason for the trip…wel,l finding May’s people plus just seeing how things are going up in the Pacific Northwest as well. I have to believe things are going good in general. They have the Pacific to help feed them and good farmland to the east. So I tend to think they are doing good. Now to find that damn ship.

  We were someplace in the Nevada desert when the scouts reported smoke ahead and were checking it out. We next heard a broken message with gunfire in the background- something about ambush and then their radio went dead. Before it went dead I was dropping the hammer on the Hummer slowing down only to allow Charley to jump in with us. Sandy was on the gun and May was ready to give fire support to our left flank while Charley had the right, windows were down to avoid flying glass.

  Charley was as quiet as I’ve ever seen him and the ice in his eyes spelled bad shit for the people on the other end when we caught up to them.

  We arrived at the ambush site and found two other scout units were there giving aid to the ones who got hit. I saw right away that two of the men were dead while the other two were hanging on. I grabbed the radio mike to call for the chopper to do a medivac when
Sandy touched my arm and pointed at her ear and then pointed up. I listened and heard the chopper headed our way balls to the walls.

  When Ralph landed the first person off was our head doctor followed by his react team and within moments he had taken over the care of the wounded.

  I heard the chopper spooling up and saw it lift off with Jasper in the door; I didn’t even have to look around to know who had the other door gun. They banked away and headed after whoever had done this.

  I yelled for Charley to tell him I’d be back, but he was heading for the Hummer while yelling in Navajo at his men who were mounting up as well. In a minute or less we were rolling down the highway in the direction the chopper took. We were heading at the smoke the scouts had spotted and were heading to when they were hit. I was pretty sure we were safe from another ambush with the chopper hunting ahead of us but we never let down.

  Charley said something over the radio and one of his scout teams blasted past us to take the lead. I started to say something, but he stopped me with a lifted hand. I knew why he did it but I didn’t have to like it. I don’t see my life as being worth more than one of his young men. Then I felt May move up on the gun and realized Charley was looking out for her more than me or even himself and I was grateful.

  We never heard anything over the roar of the vehicles but we came across a pickup shot all to hell with several bodies scattered around it. The scouts had stopped and were removing weapons and checking the dead, and they were all dead for damn sure- Jasper and Sandy made sure of that.

  A short distance ahead we came up to the original reason for all the smoke. We found three vehicles stopped on the road with bodies scattered around. Several were women, all had been shot in the head after being hit several times before.

  Why they died we would never know but the women were all older and there was no younger people among the dead.

  I had a feeling the same old shit had led to this and it would never stop- hell it was going on before the EMP.

  All those cute little girls on the milk cartons didn’t end up in shallow graves; white slavery was and is a major market and always has been from the beginning of time. Women have meant money to slavers and there has always been a market out there, buyers willing to pay top dollar.

  It will never end but I try to kill every one of these scum I come across. So far we have ended it for a lot of them.

  Now we need to find my chopper crew before they get into more of a dog fight than they can handle. As fate had it we heard the sound of the door guns rattling ahead. We were rolling in seconds and came up on an ongoing firefight between the chopper and a shitload of bad guys on the ground. Charley was on the radio calling for a full-out rush to our location. We rolled up within 200 yards of the bad guys. Spreading out we opened up on them with everything we had.

  I noticed Jasper’s training had worked with May at least, five-round bursts and aimed fire; she was tearing their vehicles to shreds and soon a fuel tank started burning. The scout teams moved closer on a different angle and soon we had them dropping like grass meeting a weed whacker. It wasn’t pretty but they didn’t seem to want to surrender and who can blame them? Getting killed by a bullet beats hanging, and that’s where these would end up.

  I was worried about any captives these people had but it was too late by far. After a bit the return fire ended and we slowly moved in where we found all of the shooters dead or bleeding out. A quick check of the vehicles produced three young girls tied and gagged. Fortunately, the bad guys had un-assed their rides to fight; how May’s fire had avoided hitting any of the captives will always be a mystery to me. Either pure luck or maybe something else, I wasn’t going to question it.

  Charley was questioning one of the wounded who could still talk and was getting info as to who and what these people were. After he got it all he came to me and said they were just what they looked like- slavers looking for easy targets.

  I was interested in just where they were planning to sell these girls. Charley said the man told him there was a town about a day’s travel west of us that was the gathering point for the women and girls and yeah, boys too. When they had a load they took to them the coast where a ship from South America bought them for gold, weapons and ammo.

  My very first thought was, “Shit! I bet it was the coffee traders who are buying the slaves” and me dearly hoping it wasn’t.

  We now had a problem in that we needed to locate this town and end their business. We called the main convoy forward to our location while Charley and I started planning. Ralph landed the bird and Sandy joined us. She was bouncing like a rubber ball as she always does after a fight. Soon she will need a nap because the adrenalin dump will drain her but for now she’s ‘up’.

  May and Sandy join forces and compare notes. My little Lords of War- I raised them all wrong I know. Kind of wish Beth was here to calm them down.

  While we waited, we looked over the vehicles to see what we could get running to use for our sneak approach to the bad guys’ base of operations.

  I wanted to use at least three vehicles so we could have a strong force inside when the attack came: Hitting from outside and inside at the same time would confuse the hell out of the enemy or so we hoped- of course the chopper was our force multiplier.

  We spent the night working out the issues and drilling the plan. It called for at least ten of our people and several women to get inside the town.

  I hated to ask any of our women to go in as captives but they were all as well-trained as the men and would all be armed under their bulky clothing. The men would be carrying extra-long guns in the vehicles. As plans go it was a good one but plans only last until the first round goes off- after that training will win the day.

  It was close to midnight when the scouts returned with news that brought our first plan to a screeching stop. They had located the small town in time to see the slavers loading an old school bus with their cargo. They said they counted at least forty people being loaded on the bus and as they watched the convoy pulled out heading west for the coast.

  This was both good and bad. They were out in the open which was a real good thing, but we had to catch up and hit them before they got where they were taking the captives to be sold.

  Another good thing was their transportation was so crappy they weren’t making good time. And the best thing was the two scout teams trailing them!

  As the crow flies we were pretty close at the moment. It was time to get Ralph back in the air, this time I was going with him. The scouts showed us where the town was and which way the slavers were heading.

  I figured we could catch them pretty fast, so we got moving. This time we took the plane; quieter and the ground crew was getting the chopper loaded with fuel and ammo.

  I’ve never been a fan of small planes. I will ride in them, but I’d rather drink real cheap beer as do it.

  We got all the altitude we could and I started looking for lights moving on the ground. It still seems strange to not see lights everywhere I look but that’s just how it is for now, maybe someday.

  But for now it helps, because what we are looking for should be about the only thing moving. And it was. We spotted them from a long ways away and with our altitude we were able to shut off the engine and glide right over them at close range. Thru the binoculars I was able to count the vehicles and they matched what the scouts saw. I heard the radio break thru my headset; it was the scout teams trailing the slavers.

  They had night vision gear and saw us when we passed overhead; how I don’t know, but with the stars as a backdrop I guess we stood out to their equipment.

  We got far enough past the slavers to start the engine and regain altitude and now I wanted to scout well ahead of them for a place to hit them but we had to have time enough for Ralph to use the chopper to shuttle some shooters.

  We flew a long ways along the lonely small road before I saw what I wanted, a dip in the roadway with good cover on all sides. I asked the scouts on the ground if they c
ould gain ground and get around the small convoy and get to my location without being seen. They said with night viz they could do it easy.

  I had them put two of their team in one vehicle and for the short term to remain on drag. I told the six man team to get to my location and to bring the M-60 off the Hummer that was in drag. They got it and within minutes the Hummer with the six man team was doing as requested. This was all on the fly, (pardon the pun) but it looked like we were gonna do this.

  At this point I asked Ralph to use his night viz gear and set us down on the road where the ambush was gonna happen- he said I was crazy, I asked what his point was.

  He flew real low and put on his landing lights to scout the road and decided he didn’t need the night viz. He banked around with the lights off and realigned with the road, dropped down low and relit the road. With almost complete ease he had us on the ground. I’m always impressed with his abilities.

  I climbed out taking my pack and weapons and I sent him back to get the plan rolling. I didn’t watch him take off; I always kind of avoid that if I can.