Dan and the Bottle Ch. 16

"Well, no matter how hard they try, they can't stop human nature. Carry on, Sergeant."

"Yes, Sir... uh, Sir, I'm a corporal."

"Not any more... this is your seventh patrol, and you and your men have gotten better with each outing... carry on, young man. Stop by the quartermaster's, tell him I sent you to pick up your new insignia."

"Yes Sir!"

George Klein led his small squad of students through the brush, about ten miles out from the Cave, assessing their abilities in what he thought was going to be an uneventful two day patrol.

All of that changed when they heard the helicopters.

They were walking down a forest trail when the three big 'Hind' choppers landed in a clearing less than half a mile away. Three men stepped out of the rear doors of each, rifles in hand, packs on their backs, as George and his team watched through binoculars.

He clicked his throat mic. "Well, kids, it looks like we're going to earn our pay on this one. Hold back until those choppers leave, then we work our way towards them, quiet and easy. Roberts, Carmichael, I want you two out to either side... you're our wing men. Davis, you're on point. Silenced weapons only. Let us know when you're in position... we move forward, as a team, on your mark."

Three responses came through his earpiece immediately. "Yes Sir!"

The nine man team of Chinese were getting themselves organized when George and his scouts got there. Jerry Davis held up his hand in the 'Halt' gesture he'd been taught, dropping to one knee less than ten feet from the edge of the treeline of the large clearing the helicopters had dropped off the patrol in. The rest of the team mimicked his actions, and they settled in to observe for a moment.

Three of the soldiers were arguing over a sheet of paper, each pointing in a different direction. Finally, they seemed to reach a consensus, and started to move off in a westerly direction... they would walk right past the spot where George and his group were settled in, concealed behind trees and undergrowth. The one who appeared to be in command folded the sheet, which appeared to be a map, and nodded to himself, taking up a spot towards the rear of the group.

George looked on as the group started to move out, thinking to himself 'Typical... leading from behind.'

Clicking his throat mic, he murmured "Ok... center mass and head shots as finishers... leave that officer to me, kids. I want him alive."

Silenced .270 rifles came up, and whispered... and eight soldiers dropped like stones. The ninth dropped his rifle as he grabbed for his arm, and George worked the bolt quickly, bouncing a second round off the top of the Chinese officer's helmet, knocking the man to the ground, stunned.

The entire action was over in less than three minutes.

Cleaning up the mess took considerably longer, as the team searched the bodies of the dead, stashing the bodies back in the brush where the animals would find them, and the enemy officer was disarmed and dragged off to one side.

George caught one man's eye.

"Alvarez, get on the field radio, give our coordinates to the Cave, tell 'em we need an extraction. One Chinook should do, with an Apache escort. Tell them to keep an eye on the radar... those Hinds might still be in the area."

Back at the Cave, a Chinook troop carrier and four of the Apache gunships were towed out of the tunnel and spooled up, and were in the air within seven minutes.

Within another thirty minutes, they were all back, the 'copters were back in the hanger, and the blindfolded Chinese prisoner was led to a holding cell.

John Corcoran looked on in awe as the line of trucks approached the main entrance to the Cave's equipment garage. Each was towing a big trailer carrying one big piece of farming gear of some sort, mostly tractors and harvesters of one sort or another. Several were towing low trailers with three or four small, garden type tractors, and smaller, downscaled equipment for use with such smaller equipment. Those would come in handy, considering how many of the local villages were farming gardens that were only a few acres in size.

Lou Gunn, who was commanding this group of scouts, got out of the lead Humvee and came to John's office to report... it seemed he'd found more than one dealership of the heavy equipment; Corcoran was tempted to do a back flip when Gunn told him how many machines he had left behind, due to a simple lack of trucks to tow it all back with. They now had enough to supply Juniper, the Jacksone hole base, and several other semi large base-towns and still have enough left over to augment their own equipment pool. In addition, they had enough of the smaller machines to equip half a dozen small towns.

Lou was sitting in the great hall with Corcoran, Jim Archer, Frank Bergen, and Bob Gunderson, having coffee and muffins and going over his long range patrol.

"When we go back out, we need to take along some extra men... as guards. We ran into several Chinese patrols to the south east. I think they were brought in by chopper; I know we heard helicopters off in the distance three times, and we never found any kind of ground transport. We'll also need them as support drivers, so be certain they can all drive. We'll also need to take along about five or six more humvees or duece and a halfs, to tow back some of the heavy equipment we found. There were excavators, bulldozers, and backhoes left behind... they might need some work, but they'll make good additions to what we have right now. "

Jim Archer caught his eye. "You said you ran into Chinese patrols?"

Gunn nodded, taking a sip of coffee. "Ten men in the first one, twelve in the second, nine in the third. Don't worry... we stripped them of weapons and left the bodies in the underbrush. The local wildlife has probably reduced them to piles of bones by now."

He paused for a moment, to take another drink, and continued. "The paperwork they were carrying, and a few maps, we passed on to the intel geeks. We also ran into a few wandering traders... something new, that. I traded one a Chinese pistol and a few hundred rounds of ammo for a few cans of pre-war coffee that he found in a smashed up old grocery store. He was carrying it, but had no idea what it was. He never admitted it, but I got the distinct impression the old fart couldn't read."

Corcoran grinned. "Did you at least teach him a little bit about shooting?"

Gunn nodded. "Gave him a down-and-dirty, twenty minute lesson in the care and feeding of a Chinese 9mm Semi automatic pistol, taught him to clean it, and how to use the safety when he's carrying it, so's it won't go and shoot his pecker off when it's stuck in his belt. Gave him a cleaning kit and about 200 rounds of 9mm, so he should be good to go for a while. I also told him about the free zone we've set up... he already knew some of the towns; conducts trade with a few of them."

"I'm not so sure that was a good idea."

Gunn frowned at this. "Sir, what's the point, if we set up towns that are afraid to trade with guys like him? He could become a minor intel asset."

Archer nodded. "Ok, you might be right...and it's not like we're hiding."

Gunn nodded. "True... oh, yeah... we need to step up the patrols to our southeast, too... another group of the traders we ran across mentioned a bunch of what he called raiders and bandits working that area. One of the ones I talked to said he thought they were led by deserters from the Chinese... they're using Chinese weapons, at any rate. They haven't attacked any towns yet, but they're getting more brazen about attacking lone traders; it's why he was traveling in a caravan with four others just like him, plus paid guards. He gave me a lot of information, that one did."

He spread an old road map out on the table which covered the entire country and pointed to an area in the Dakotas, saying "This area here... they call it the 'Black hills'... he said there are several machine shops there, and a very big dealership of those old motorcycles. Those might come in handy. They can go into areas where a Humvee has trouble navigating, due to their size... might be worth looking into." He paused in thought for a moment.

"I gave him and a few of their guards a couple of the Chinese rifles, taught them a little bit about using them and taking care of them, plus gave 'em all of the spare magazines and ammo... got a couple of nice blocks of stainless steel in return... geiger counter says it's clean. I already turned them over to the shop. Walt Towers almost kissed me when he saw them."

Corcoran smiled at this; he'd been wondering where they were going to find any, and here it was, falling into their lap!

"Did he tell you where he found that?"

"Just a general location. He played that one pretty close to the vest. Still, they're pretty nice pieces... about fourteen inches long and nine inches wide, about four inches thick... we should be able to make some good gun barrels out of them."

"Gun barrels, hell! We need those for chipper blades! That'll be perfect for them... we can get started on shredding those tires for the road repairs we're working on."

Sherice nearly broke down in tears when George finally came in through the door of their apartment.

"Damn you, George! I thought you said that was gonna be an easy patrol!"

"Whoa, whoa, honey! It Was an easy patrol!"

"Then why did Mrs. Corcoran come all the way down here to tell me that your people got into a fight, and I should be ready for bad news?!?"

George frowned at this, mentally cursing the Mayor's wife.

"Sweetheart, Lucille Corcoran has a long history of paranoia, and a bad habit of jumping the gun. My kids performed exactly as they were supposed to, and did better than I'd hoped, if you want to know the truth. It was sheer bad luck that the Chinese were out there today, but my team handled it properly."

"They have a good teacher."

He moved to embrace her, awkwardly, as she was holding Julie Ann to her breast, allowing the baby to nurse. He still managed it, careful not to squeeze the child between them, and kissed her lightly.

"Not to worry, babe. I'm back, We're all well, the Chinese soldiers are dead, and everything is right in the world."

"Wellll... ok, then, but you better go take a shower... as soon as the baby's had her lunch and I can get her down for a nap, I'm takin' your white ass to bed!"

He chuckled at this, a little confused... he thought combat was supposed to hike up HIS hormones. 'Might be because the baby's still on the tit.' he thought.

"Let me fix a cup of coffee and a sandwich first, hun... I haven't taken time to eat since last night. We were just about to stop and make camp for the afternoon, fix some breakfast, when we heard the Chinese choppers dropping off that patrol."

Rick Jamison looked out the window of the armored Humvee at the numerous new fields his people were preparing for planting... and there were several dozen new ones. There were nearly five hundred new people living in the suburbs surrounding the base, and even with help from the Cave dwellers, it was all they could do to keep up with food production. Most of what they were planting was easy stuff... low maintenence with high yields, but it was still a long, time consuming process. He noticed that the planters included everybody from the new villages, including kids who looked to be no older than seven or eight years old, and remarked on this to his driver.

"Yes, Sir... teach 'em young. Gives them a solid work ethic right off the bat. We don't want the kids thinking they get a free pass, just because they're young. There'll be time enough for them to go to school once the planting is finished and the crops are off to a good start. We do need to get some composting piles going, though."

Jamison nodded absently, still gazing out the window, seeing a small group down by the river setting nets. "Have they been getting a lot of fish?"

The driver nodded. "Yes, Sir... about thirty pounds a day, although some of it isn't really what you'd call the best eating... the carp they've been chopping up and burying in the fields, but the trout and whatnot is pretty good. Some of the kids are running trap lines, too... I understand some of them are using those 'live-catch' traps, and bringing the rabbits and such back to raise in cages in a few of those old garages. They've learned a lot."

Jamison thought this over, then realized how the man's thoughts had been worded.

"You're Cave raised, aren't you?"

The driver nodded. "Yes, Sir... my family were part of the first generation, dating back to the months before the War. My Great, great grandfather was a veteran of what was then known as the Gulf War. He Joined the original 'dwellers because he was thoroughly fed up with the mess the country was in."

He paused in thought for a moment, realizing Jamison was hanging on his every word.

"Great grandpa was a bit of a closet historian. He kept a series of personal journals, that have become family heirlooms; basically, a history of the country and world events up until the day of the war, and events inside the cave afterward. Some of the things he wrote, well... they were a little hard for me to believe. It wasn't until I was school-age that I realized they were true; He wasn't the only one keeping the history alive, you see... many of our founders did the same, and the tale they tell... well, it was pretty sad."

"How so?" Jamison prodded him, now interested more in the young man's words than the passing scenery.

"Well, Sir, first off, there were, basically two ruling political parties in what this country used to be... 'Democrats' and 'Republicans'. There were a bunch of smaller political parties, too, but the Democrats and Republicans basically kept them locked out of the process. The Republicans basically believed that hard work could make a man successful, but that some things should be restricted... they mostly agreed with another group, called 'Libertarians'... and the Democrats believed that success should be taxed into the poorhouse, and everyone should be 'equal'. A 'get from the rich, give to the poor' mentality, that often meant paying people not to work... as if that would ever work!"

"But... everyone has to work! You can't reward people for doing nothing!"

"Great grandpa agreed with you, Sir."

"And what about these 'Libertarians'?"

"Well, from the things the founders said, the Libertarians were pretty much the best of both worlds, so to speak. They had a firm belief in hard work, but also believed in taking care of those who had a hard time, or were in need... but only to a point. 'A hand up, not a handout' was their basic creed, along with a firm belief in personal freedom. The only people they thought should get any sort of real, full time help were the very old, who had already 'paid their dues', the smallest children, those who were disabled, and veterans who had problems, due to their service to the country... After all, a guy who lost an arm or a leg in combat was hardly qualified to go out and pick fruit in the fields. They believed in the right of anyone to own a gun, for example, something the Democrats vehemently opposed. They believed if you shot a thief or someone who was raping your child, that was your absolute right, and something you should never be punished for. The Democrats put laws in place so if you defended your self, or your daughter, or even the family pet, you would be called a criminal, and put in jail."

"That's absurd!"

"Yes, Sir... but that is what was happening."

"What about the 'Republicans'?"

"Well, Sir, they sided with the Libertarians on some things... the guns, for example... but they wanted too much control in other areas of life."

"Like..."

"Well, sir, they seemed to think they could stick their nose into your bedroom, see who you were sleeping with."

"But that's crazy!"

"Agreed, Sir... if the Republicans had their way, I wouldn't be having sex with my girlfriend until we get married... if we do."

"So if your girlfriend didn't like having sex with you, you wouldn't find out until it was too late?"

"Yup... and then the process to end the marriage could take a year or more."

"That doesn't make much sense either."

"No Sir, it doesn't. They also had a problem with couples of the same sex."

"What did those others... the... 'Libertarians', you called them? What did they say on the subject?"

"They said it was the business of the individuals, and the government should keep it's overly large nose out of it entirely."

"Was there a down side to the Libertarians?"

"Well... yes and no. Some Libertarians wanted all drugs legalized... including some that were extremely addictive... like two that were called 'heroin' and 'cocaine', along with the Marijuana we still use today. From what I learned in school, both of them were pretty bad. The Democrats were apparently okay with the marijuana, but against the heroin and the cocaine, and with good reason, as far as I can tell. The republicans were against all three. I guess in a way, the war accomplished that much. Neither Heroin or Cocaine have been seen in this country since. We still have marijuana, of course... matter of fact, we grow it at home... use parts of it to make things like paper, cloth, animal feed... the seeds get fed to our chickens. The flowers, well... they make a nice smoke... I have a little, myself, from time to time... I understand some of that goes into a pain relief ointment that one of the labs at the Cave has developed, too."

"I'm beginning to like these 'Libertarians.' "

Tom Whittle sat back and smiled, nodding.

Herb Montgomery, meanwhile, was sitting in his office, going over the new inventory listings of equipment they'd gotten from the last Chinese base they had hit. It was gratifying, knowing that instead of worrying about every round of ammunition they fired, he could actually use some for training for a change... and the four 'drill instructors' who had come down from Archer's command had brought along truckloads of ammunition for the M16 rifles his men were now equipped with.

He looked out of his west window, watching, idly, as one of those instructors stood behind a line of recruits at the new target range, barking out orders that he couldn't quite hear, seeing them respond by firing what appeared to be short bursts. Such a thing would have been unthinkable a year ago.

At another section of the range, he watched, this time through binoculars, as a group of two dozen of his people fired bolt action rifles, at targets that were much further away, while yet another of the Cave instructors looked on.

He shifted his gaze to the targets themselves, seeing that some of his troops were, in fact, doing quite well, while others were having trouble hitting the paper, much less actually getting near the Bull's eye.

Pete Coswell sat back with his morning coffee and a small plate of donuts in the base cafeteria, enjoying the short break. He'd been up since before dawn, getting another of the Hawker Harriers prepped for the upcoming operation, making sure the load of Maverick missiles were installed properly and the fuel levels were topped off.

Tina Brawley, a young woman from one of his training classes, stepped up, coffee pot in hand, and asked if he was ready for a warm up.

He nodded, and she topped off his coffee cup, idly asking how the work on the planes was going.

He looked up at her. She was a slightly chunky blonde, a bit too flat chested for his tastes, though not really unattractive. She had a cute face with a button nose and always seemed to have a mischievous grin, and she'd flirted with him more than once.

"It's going... we need to get a few more planes ready, but the work goes on pretty well."

"Sir... are we getting ready for an operation of some kind?"