Weaving and stumbling, she made a good drunk, demanding to be admitted, claiming that one of the jarheads had knocked her up. She stumbled into the guard, and put a knife in his ribs as she did. Unfortunately, it did not disable him. With a roar, he knocked her to the floor, and raised his weapon.
Cindy started firing, advancing as she came. The guard was wearing body armor and although hit, his finger contracted as he fell, and Cindy was hit in her unprotected chest.
Rose grabbed the assault rifle from the dying guard and emptied it into him. She then ran to Cindy and trying unsuccessfully to stop the blood. Cindy gasped, and said “Promise me you will take good care of Lilly, and get her away from this place.”
Cindy died before Rose could answer. Weeping, Rose took the Keycard, and opened the door.
With a glance, Walter took in the scene, and asked, “Is she gone?”
When Rose nodded yes, he said, “We'll take the stairs up to the ramp after we visit Level 8. The Marines stopped on Level Eight and passed the word that any of the women there who wanted to leave with them were free to go. The women left several dead “customers” as they departed.
On level One, most of the vehicles stored there had joined the convoy. The Marines and the women took all of those that remained, and drove up the ramp. Only a few security personal were on duty, and they were quickly dispatched. Within an hour the Osprey was fueled and ready to depart.
The remaining Marines and the women formed up in a convoy that included the Osprey support trucks, a pair of fuel tankers, and all of the other vehicles. The convoy headed South toward Minden, NV and the Osprey headed for El Dorado.
Chapter 16
The USS Chicago (SN721) was finally getting close to home. She had been lying on the bottom of the Yellow Sea, a few miles off China on Day 0.
In the weeks and months that followed, She had unsuccessfully attempted to communicate with anyone, while carefully searching for a clear path back to the West Coast. After passing the few mountaintops that were all that remained of the Japanese Islands, and verifying that their Home Port of Guam was submerged, she encountered a new string of a volcanic land mass that stretched from the Bearing Sea to South of where the Hawaiian Islands used to be.
With food supplies low, they were running Northwest at flank speed. Constantly monitoring all bands, they had detected David's next to the last broadcast. They were 500 miles west of the San Francisco Bay when they received the chilling last broadcast. Still too far over the horizon to communicate with Rebecca, they continued to monitor the 10 meter band.
When the Osprey reached 10,000 feet, Walter attempted to communicate with Rebecca. Instead of her reply, he received a call from the Chicago.
“Aircraft calling Rebecca, this is the USS Chicago, are you receiving me?”
“ That's affirmative. This is Marine 243 Osprey, Captain Brent speaking.”
The next half-hour provided an update to the skipper of Chicago Commander Thomas Moore, and he replied. “Those thugs do not represent what I swore an oath to. I think we can help stop that convoy. Do you have laser illuminators on board?”
“Yes, we can light it up when you need it.”
“ We have three Tomahawks loaded with Dispenser TLAM-D sub-munitions. Each one should disable a 100-yard string of vehicles. We can get them close with the lousy GPS signals, but you need to tell us when to launch, and then to illuminate the beginning target zones in the last 30 seconds. The birds will take about 45 minutes to get there from where we are now. “
“We'll try to make them hold up near Twin Bridges on Highway 50. You will probably loose our signal when we drop down to land. Just stand by for more updates.”
The Osprey landed at the Best Buy Trading Post, and in a meeting with Rebecca, Tiny, and Zeke; they developed a plan of action.
That afternoon, they dropped a team of snipers and a former seal, who rigged a series of C-4 charges that covered the highway just east of Twin Bridges with boulders and debris. The Osprey then flew on to Minden to refuel and update the team on the ground.
Their plans called for the Marines to follow the convoy and be in a position to block an escape from the ambush at Twin Bridges. Tiny Landon had boarded the Osprey, and would act as a guide, since he was familiar with Highway 50 and knew where to set up the retreat blockade.
When they described the plan to Gunny Larson, Rose McAllen and about half the other women, refused to stay in Minden. She insisted that the women had just as big a stake in the battle outcome as anyone. She then reminded them that they would still be outnumbered, and the more guns firing the greater their chances of success.
In the end, Gunny and Tiny agreed, and Walter relented to the change in plans. The children, with the remaining women, and all the supplies, stayed in Minden. Tiny, Gunny, and Rose in a lead pickup, with a load of mortars and ammo, led the Marine convoy toward Highway 50. They drove through the night, making slow progress over the debris-strewn roads.
The DHS convoy had camped for the night just west of Phillips, on Highway 50. Kemp insisted on an early start, impatient at the delays necessary to clear the roadways. An armored combat vehicle led the procession, followed by the two bulldozer hauling flatbeds, and then the rest of the convoy. Two scouts on dirt bikes ran about a mile ahead.
The scouts reported the rock slide at Twin Bridges and the convoy pulled up to it and stopped. The bulldozers were unloaded and started to work.
When the Chicago launched the Tomahawks, Walter issued a radio command to the ground forces. From mountaintop hides on both sides of highway 50, snipers took careful aim, and killed both bulldozer operators within 5 seconds of each other. Other snipers, many firing deer rifles, cut down anyone not buttoned up in armored vehicles.
The guns on the convoy responded immediately, with continuous streams of fire that shredded the vegetation on the ridges, without much effect. The vehicles in the rear of the convoy started to turn around. Walter was tracking the battle progress and relayed an order that started the Marine force dropping mortar shells among them. The mortar barrage kept the vehicles from retreating, but the counter fire started taking a toll.
Tiny was hit by shrapnel in the thigh, and would have bled out had Rose not provided immediate action. Even though he was hurting, his face turned beet red when Rose pulled down his pants and drawers to apply a pressure bandage. She took a look at his obvious embarrassment and said, “I’m not seeing anything I haven’t seen lots of times before. Although you are very well equipped. It would have been a shame if that shrapnel had hit a little higher. I’m looking forward to knowing you a lot better when you get healed up.”
Tiny could not think of anything to reply.
One of the armored combat vehicles managed to turn around and was threatening to break through the Marine defenses.
Walter had been watching the radar display, waiting for the first Tomahawk to show up, His joy at seeing the first one was terminated when it crashed into a mountaintop before it could lock on to the illumination signal. All would be lost if they could not stop the armored combat vehicle assault.
Two minutes later, the second Tomahawk appeared. Walter had shifted the illuminator to the rear of the convoy, where the threat was the greatest. The missile dropped into the canyon with a solid illuminator lock. The shower of sub-munitions covered the last third of the convoy, and disabled all of the vehicles.
Walter quickly illuminated the forward portion of the convoy, and the last Tomahawk created a path of destruction for the forward third of the vehicles. The vehicles in the center were mostly undamaged, but unable to move either forward or backward.