“Roger, listen you sound like you’ve given up.”
Roger said, “No, just making sure I have things covered. I’m going to get some rest. Talk to you in the morning.”
Haliday stood up and called everyone over. “Ok people, we’re going over the plans again.” He covered the plans and explained where everyone would be and what was expected of them. He covered the bug out if it came down to that. “I screwed up the endgame here. We might not be in this position if it went down differently. I think I could have done a few things differently. I’m sorry guys.”
Rich spoke up. “Listen Roger, you have nothing to be sorry about. This all came together because of you. We wouldn’t have made it this far without what you’ve done. There’s nothing to be sorry about. Whatever happened to the country happened, and whoever caused that, well it’s their fault, not yours. Those thugs would have made it here anyway in due time and you just reduced the amount of people who could have shown up. We’re all proud of you.” Roger ended the meeting.
Everyone took their turns pulling security. Some slept; some stayed up longer and kept going over the plans. Haliday just kept checking everything and trying to figure out what he could do that would be better. He came up with a few more ideas. He went out into the small storage building and did some work, He worked through the night. The rest he would finish later, he needed a rest.
He walked back into the house where everyone was getting ready to eat breakfast. “You hungry Dad?” Kayla asked.
“No sweetie, I’m going to take a nap for a couple of hours. Ok?” he said.
She said, “ok, we’ll wake you up if anything happens or we need you.” He wandered up the steps and lay down for a bit. He slept away for a couple of hours.
Kayla woke him up. “Dad, can you come downstairs?”
“Sure.” He went to move his legs but they were heavy. He had a cat and the mutant dog Max lying on them. “Ok, time to get up,” he said. They just rolled over and went back to sleep as he got up. Must be nice, he was thinking, just stay in bed all day. He walked downstairs and looked over at the table and smiled. “Damn, you guys didn’t have to.”
Mike and Linda were sitting there. “We couldn’t let you guys have all the fun now could we? We even brought a couple of friends.” He looked over at the common area and saw a young couple sitting there. “That’s Bill’s son Mark and his wife, Lisa.”
He walked over and shook their hands, “Nice to meet you, but you guys didn’t have to do this.”
“Mike thought we might come in handy. Lisa here married me after I proposed to her at Ft. Campbell. I did three years active duty and I am currently inactive reserve. Eleven Bravo sir.”
“It’s Roger, and I was an NCO. Drop the ‘sir’ stuff.”
Mark went on; “I did two tours in the sandbox. Lisa here was our unit admin clerk; still knows how to fire a rifle. We even brought our own. They even have a special feature, full auto. We can go if you want.”
“No, glad to have you here,” Roger replied.
Mark said, “Let’s see what you have?”
He went over the entire plan with everyone again. Mark offered a couple of ideas which made sense now that they had extra manpower. They went over the changes and then he walked everyone around the property.
“Listen, we expect this to go down tonight.”
“Ok, we’ll all be ready,” they answered.
Haliday had everyone double-checking everything, adding extra ammo to the stockpiles, placing thermoses of hot tea by them, canteens of water and hand warmers as well. They were also helping him set the rest up. Dawn and Diana moved the horses over to the other neighbor’s property. They were snow birds and were already down in Florida, so he didn’t think they would care. He staged the vehicles for quick departure.
He had Mark hold the range session and get everyone ready. He checked in now and then. He looked over at the neighbor who was standing there. He made contact first, showed her she was number one. He held that finger high. Randy called him in, “Hey Uncle Roger, come in here quick.” He jogged over to the house to see what Randy wanted.
“What’s going on Randy?”
“Rob is on the radio for you.”
“Ok, thanks,” he said. “Rob, what’s the word?”
Rob answered, “You’re getting hit tonight. These guys are finalizing the vehicle loads and gear, and double-checking everything. I guarantee they are moving out soon. As soon as they move out, I’ll be calling you. We are all in position here near the airport and ready to go ourselves. Good luck Roger.”
“Good luck to you too, Rob.”
This was the calm before the storm. He walked around and hugged everyone and thanked them. Everyone was dressed and ready. They were finding themselves idle things to do in and out of the house. He sat there with his eyes closed and prayed a bit. The ham crackled and he listened. He ran outside and cranked an old fashioned air raid siren, which sent everyone running to their positions.
He wasn’t worried about the neighbor calling it in. She already knew what was coming and he had Kevin sneak over there earlier. Kevin unplugged her whip antenna and connected some power leads to it he triggered a stun gun which popped a chip in her handheld. He then snipped the antenna to double up the effort. The militia relying on her to relay info for the attack was out of the question now.
They had placed all the radios they could out there. If there was a need for retreat, a flag would be raised at the crow’s nest and it would be lit up. He’d also fire a couple of red flares up into the sky. Haliday took off for his position. Everyone’s blood was pumping and it would be less than an hour now. Anticipation coursed through their veins.
“Rob, what do we have coming our way?”
“Roger, you have one motorcycle, and no other ATV’s of any sort at all, scratch that, you have two quads in the back of the deuce. There are also four people in the back of it. There are three pickup trucks, each has two people up front and two in the back. Two Jeeps and a Bronco with four people in each. Thirty-one people total.”
“They all have AR’s; they look pretty standard except for a few oddballs here and there. Lights attached, lasers, scopes, magazines taped together, the works. It looks like a couple have some 308’s in the same configuration. One guy has some big bad ass rifle or something. It looks like a small cannon.”
“The other night they loaded up all the ammo cans and a lot of other gear. Tonight they threw some packs and boxes in the trucks. A couple of guys look like they have night vision goggles. Those old ones you see in the movies, nothing new like you see them wearing today. The cases looked pretty old as well.”
“Wonderful news there Rob, I expected about half. Any idea of the make up of their ranks, as far as males and females?”
Rob gave him a quick rundown of what he thought there was. “Looked like 24 men, and 7 women. A couple of them were teenagers.” Haliday figured these were the neighbor’s daughter and her boyfriend. They were most likely familiar with the area since she lived across the street. Plus he couldn’t forget two fighters across the street as well if both were in on it, but he was thinking she was the only one.
“How about you guys Rob?”
“Oh, we’re ready. We just need to know when to start.”
“I figure about 45 minutes or so,” he said.
“Rob, this is the only chance you have. You guys do what it takes. You won’t have another chance like this again. I hope to be talking to you very soon.”
“You too, Roger.” Mark and everyone else was listening and heard the news.