JAA Ch. 01: Aftermath

"At this rate, it will be dark before we get to base camp," Cappy muttered.

"If it wasn't for the meat on the hoof I could go faster."

"When we get to where we're going remind me to have someone go back and collect all that meat on the hoof."

"Sure will Cappy."

"You do know it's going to be you don't you?"

"I figured as much."

It was now their fourth day on the road from Chicago. They had only planned on two days but complications arose on the way causing delay after delay. Everyone in the buses and trucks was exhausted as witness Michelle and Larry asleep in the back seat of the hummer.

"Only after a good night's sleep my friend."

"Well, there is that to look forward too."

"One can only hope."

The next two hours they crept along at a walking pace through the mist. All of a sudden, they hit an unexpected clear spot. Waylon looked at Cappy and Cappy at Waylon as he pressed down on the gas pedal. The hummer surged ahead down the road toward their new home.

For the next five minutes, the vehicles careened down the road as fast as they could. Every minute at speed was that much closer to their destination. The wall of mist was fast approaching and Waylon reluctantly eased off the throttle. Within seconds, they were going slower than they could have walked.

As they drove through the mist down the road Cappy started to see shadows of people walking alongside them. Rolling down his window, he squinted at the figure alongside the road.

"Hey," Cappy shouted.

"Hey, yourself you old goat," Sue answered.

Before he knew it, Sue was on the running broad and face to face with him. She grabbed his head and planted a big sloppy kiss on his lips.

"Half a klick more and your there," Sue told him as he smiled at her. "I told you to wait but no you had to bull on ahead. If you would have waited, you all could have been there just as soon. The mist will be lifting in about ten minutes."

Cappy could see the outline of a gate appear in the mist then it was gone as they passed through. Waylon pulled up in front of the largest log cabin Cappy had ever seen. He had seen the plans for this structure so long ago yet the size just could not be conveyed with drawings. He slowly opened the door as Waylon came to a stop and shut the engine off.

The next thing Cappy saw was the face of his wife as she tackled him in a bear hug to end all bear hugs. She kissed his face, his nose, his neck, his ears, as she held on tight.

"I missed you so much," Jenny, shouted as she kissed Cappy.

"I missed you too sweetheart," Cappy told her.

"Did you miss me too," Susan asked.

"Of course I missed you too. Everyone missed you, dear Doctor."

Susan smiled at Cappy as Michelle poked her head out the door and looked around.

"What's all the commotion about? A girl can't get any beauty sleep anymore."

"I don't know about anyone else but I'm going to find a bed and sleep for the next fourteen hours." Cappy was looking around.

"Don't worry, we have food, beds, and showers all set for everyone. Jenny why don't you take Waylon and Cappy upstairs and put them to bed, I can handle things down here for a little bit."

"Sure," Jenny said grabbing Cappy's hand and pulling him away from the chaos that was developing around the hummer. Waylon was close on his heels. Within five minutes, he was in bed asleep.

Chapter 17

"Why are the Chinese this far east and north?"

"Who knows, maybe the units here were cut off from those that were pushed back across the Mississippi. So no lone patrols, groups of six to twelve only, everyone armed."

"Right, I'll pass the word."

The door burst open and Sue and Jenny walked in. Both stood there staring at Cappy as he sat behind his desk still in his combat gear.

"What can I do for you two?"

"We just heard," Susan started.

"That you were attacked by the Chinese," Jenny finished.

"Kind of but, I'm fine, though. No need to worry." Cappy smiled at both women. "Now if you don't mind, Waylon and I have some things to discuss."

"Go ahead, we'll be quiet."

"Out, both of you, this is my office and I want some privacy."

"Fine," both women huffed in unison and left.

"Now," Cappy started as the door closed behind them, "how many marines do we have?"

"We have forty-eight marines, plus me, twenty or so army rangers and two teams of seals."

"Good, good indeed. We need to go active on this. We need to find their base and destroy it and scatter them across the countryside."

"I'll see to it Cappy."

"Anything else?"

"Nothing that can't wait, go take a shower and eat."

"Thanks, buddy."

Three days later Waylon walked into Cappy's office smiling like the proverbial cat that caught the mouse. He plunked himself down in the chair in front of Cappy's desk and propped his feet up on the desk. Cappy just stared at his friend.

"Proud of yourself there are you?" Cappy asked.

"Kind of, Falcon and I found the base."

"You did! Fantastic, do I, we need to start worrying?"

"No. There were only about twenty-five on base. However, we did see several patrols come and go. We really don't know how many are around. I left half of Falcon there to try to determine how many. I also had two men follow a patrol as they left. The rest came back with me and are getting re-supplied as we speak to head back out with Gamma team."

"Good. Now no violence unless we can't help it. Eventually, these men will be trying to survive just as we are and may be looking for a place to co-exist."

"I know, I'm the one who told you."

"I knew I heard it somewhere. Now get your lazy ass to the mess hall and stock up. You're in command out there. Go command. Go win the hearts and minds of our enemy."

"On my way brother," Waylon smiled as he turned and left the office.

Waylon watched as the Chinese commander strode into his office. A house commandeered by the Chinese. As the commander sat, Waylon cleared his throat. Before the commander could yell out or reach for a weapon a knife was at his throat.

"Do you speak English?" was Waylon's first question.

The commander nodded slightly. The man behind him eased up on the pressure of the knife.

"Please just listen, we are not here to hurt you or your men unless you force us too. In the past month, your patrols have had encounters with our patrols. Your patrols have lost badly. It is my commander's suggestion that you go back west, as far west as you can."

"We are not here to do anything but survive. We have been pushed this far east by your forces. We are just looking for a place to live in peace."

"Again, I suggest you go west and south to do that. In two months we will be gone and it will be too cold here to survive very long."

"I see. Being cut off from our main force, we no longer have access to climate change forecast data. Where would you suggest we go, out west?"

"Arizona, New Mexico. The ice sheet will extend down to just north of Sacramento in California, curving north of Las Vegas, Nevada, then dropping south to just north of Albuquerque, New Mexico then north of Wichita, Kansas, to just north of Saint Louis, Missouri, down through Kentucky and along the North Carolina border with South Carolina. More than two-thirds of the country is going be covered with ice. South of that line is where you are going to want to be."

"I see. And here is south of the line but not far enough?"

"That's right. Saint Louis is just ninety klicks to the northwest. The wind will come off that ice sheet and freeze anything in its path for one hundred and fifty klicks. And where you have set up base there will be no game, no fishing, no food, and no warmth."

"Then I guess we will have to move south and west. I take it Texas is not an option?"

"No sir, not unless you are willing to surrender to the military there."

"You are not the military?"

"No sir, ex-military but not active duty military."

"I see. What if we surrender to you?"

"I could not accept as I am not a government representative."

"Well then, we have no choice."

"No, sir. We can provide you with enough rations for you to make your way but, that is all."

"That will do nicely, thank you."

Waylon took a piece of paper from the commander's desk and wrote some numbers on it.

"This is where you will find the rations. They will be there tomorrow at noon. You show up before they are there and there will be none dropped. Clear."

"Yes, very. And thank you again. But tell me just one thing." Waylon nodded. "How is it you know how much to leave?"

"We have been watching you for some time, two weeks to be exact. We know how many of you there are, what arms you have."

"I see. I feel we have become lax in our vigilance. I will have to correct that."

"We will bid you good night sir. Tomorrow after twelve, after that time, the rations will be there. Before that, they won't. Don't be early."

Waylon slipped out the door and into the night. His men had left halfway through the conversation and waited for him outside. They all slipped out of the base before the commander called for his aides.

Waylon watched as the Chinese commander along with twelve of his men arrived at the drop site. It was ten after twelve. The men set up a perimeter and waited. Soon a panel truck arrived and the rations were loaded. As the loading was finished, fifty more men marched up to the drop point. The Chinese commander talked to his men for a while then climbed in the passenger side of the truck.

The twelve men that had come with the commander lead off on point. The truck started forward at a walking pace. The column of fifty men followed. They headed west toward the river and the only bridge in the area still intact. Waylon smiled as he rose from his hiding place. Along the ridge, where he stood, Falcon team also rose.

"Let's get back to base," Waylon said.

The team turned and headed down the ridge to the east and home.

Chapter 18

Without thinking, Sue spun to her right, knife up, cutting edge out, stopping short of slicing through the throat that now kept still under her intense gaze.

"Take it easy there Sue," Dutch said as he slowly started to step back away from the knife.

"Don't you dare move, pinhead," Sue said harshly moving forward with him. Dutch stopped in his tracks.

"But sweetheart..."

"Don't you 'sweetheart' me you goon. This is your last warning! Follow me again and I will cut your heart out with a sharp, dirty, stick. Is that clear moron?"

"Cry..." Dutch stopped as the knife pressed against his throat, "...stal."

"Now turn around..."

"You're not going to hit me in the head again are you?"

"Turn around Dutch, now." Dutch turned around, his hands at his side, expecting a hit on the head at any moment. "Now walk, walk until your legs get tired. You turn back to look at me and I will kill you."

Dutch gulped as he took the first step, expecting any moment to feel something hit his head, then another and another. He kept walking for another hundred paces before turning to look behind him. Sue was gone, vanished into the mist that hung over the tumbling blocks of building from a bygone time.

"Dutch," a whisper came out of the air to his right.

"What?" yelled Dutch into the haze, spinning to his right.

"Dutch," the whisper was now to his left.

Dutch spun to his left. There was no one there.

"Dutch." From behind him.

"Fuck you," Dutch yelled as he turned and walked into the haze the way he had come. "Bitch," he said under his breath.

"I heard that moron," a voice called out in the mist from somewhere behind Dutch.

Sue smiled to herself as she walked on, deeper into the forest that ran along the road. Her encounter with Dutch had raised her spirits and she now had a bounce in her step she had not had just a short time ago.

She was now anxious to get back "home", to see her children, her husband, Michelle and him. Susan had forbidden him from coming with, she was his doctor and he was not in the best of health. He had tried to overrule her, but Michelle had backed her as had Jenny. Jenny was his wife and was not in the best of health herself and although he had come a long way in improving his health, he was not quite as young as he thought he was. Sometimes you just get old and cannot do the things you use too.

Sue smiled again as the tableau that had played out as she walked out of the compound. It had been her, Dutch and Johnson on their way to help with some injured people in a small village five klicks from them.

"You're not going," Jenny said as she pushed John back onto the bed. "I'll sit on you until they are gone if you don't listen to them."

Jenny's voice had an edge of hysteria in it that caused her husband to lay back with a worried look on his face. Michelle stood next to Jenny, with a stern look on her face. John scowled at them both and nodded his head. John could hear Sue, Dutch, and Billy leaving the compound as he closed his eyes.

Sue was walking next to Billy Johnson, a young man who had been a combat specialist in the Marines. Behind them was Dutch Higgins. No one really knew where he was from except John. Dutch had been with John for the past couple of years and was almost his right-hand man, but not quite.

John's right-hand man was a quiet, tall, dark man whose demeanor would scare the crap out of anyone who did not know him. A brooding man who carried out Johns every request, promptly and without question, his name, Waylon, just seemed to fit him.

Dutch on the other hand constantly questioned John's requests. Even today, when John had asked him to accompany them Dutch had questioned him. When Waylon moved from John's side toward Dutch, Dutch shut up and turned, walking out the door to go with Sue and Billy.

Waylon had not interfered with Jenny and Michelle as he always left when John was with any of the three, Sue, Michelle or Jenny. Waylon left the woman to the business of taking care of his friend. He never interfered with what the women wanted John to do or not to do.

Sue, Billy, and Dutch were on their way to a small village built over the last couple of months just on the outskirts of what used to be a not too large city. It lay in ruins now, the city not the village, but not long ago, it had been a thriving metropolis. The invasion of the Chinese had wreaked havoc on the city here. Word had gotten around that Sue and Michelle and several others at the compound were doctors. Messages received stated that several people were sick and injured and required the assistance of medical personnel.

The village was five klicks away, an hour and a half walk at the best of times, but this was not the best of times and took the trio the better part of two and a half hours. By the time they arrived, the late morning fog had rolled in to blanket the landscape in soft grey-white billowy cotton. Visibility was down to twenty feet or less.

As they approached, the village Dutch had Billy and Susan lag behind him. He stopped just outside where all they could see was the first hut. Dutch kneeled and waved Billy and Sue forward.

"You two stay here, I'll go in and make sure everything is okay," Dutch said, silently sliding a magazine into his rifle.

"No," Sue whispered, "we all go in without weapons."

"It could be a trap," Dutch countered.

"Why? What have we got they don't?" Sue asked.

"You," Dutch pointed out, which was true. Not many other villages and there were about twenty in the area, had a doctor, let alone five of them.

"That's why you and Billy are with me. To make sure I get back. Right?"

"You bet," Billy, answered. Dutch scowled at him and shook his head.

"Yes we are, but you stay put when I tell you too, lady. It's for your own safety."

"Fine, go be BMOC," Sue huffed, folding her arms on her chest.

Dutch frowned at her and headed into the fog. Sue turned to Billy with her finger to her lips and turned, indicating he should follow her. Twenty paces to the right of their starting position Sue stopped, she squatted pulling Billy down with her.

"I don't like this. There something up with Dutch I can't put my finger on."

"Ma'am?" Billy queried.

"Something is wrong, Billy, trust me. Give me your sidearm and your knife. I want you to circle around the village and come in from the other side. If something happens, don't try to stop it. Just get back to the compound and let them know what happened."

"But, Ma'am, I can't leave you..." Sue cut him off taking his sidearm from his hand and reaching for his knife.

"I know what I'm doing, I had a good teacher. Now go! That's an order, Marine!"

Billy jumped to attention, spun on his heels and headed, at a trot, in the direction Sue had indicated. Sue returned to the spot Dutch had told her and Billy to wait. Taking a knee, she waited in silence, listening to the stillness in the air, which in itself was strange if this was a village of any size.

Peering into the gray blanket of fog she suddenly sensed more than heard the stealthy footfalls coming from behind her. Out of the corner of her eye, she glimpsed a figure, carrying a rifle slowly coming toward her. He pointed his rifle at her head. Spinning and laying down at the same time, she brought her pistol to bear on the stranger coming toward her. As he quickened his step, she fired, striking him in the knee.

He went down like a sack of potatoes screaming his agony as Sue stood and stepped over to him, yanking the rifle from his grasp. Hands came out of the fog to grab her. She swung the rifle through the dense blanket of gray. A yelp and the sound of someone hitting the ground came to her ears as she turned to deal with the next problem.

She stood with her legs spread, pistol in her right hand and her rifle barrel in her left. The silence returned to the twenty steps she could see. She waited, slowly turning to see every direction.

"Susan." Dutch's voice came out of the fog.

"What do you want traitor?" she screams at him.

"I'm not a traitor, sweetheart. Just a man who thinks things should be run a little different."

Three shots rang out in the direction of Dutch's voice.

"Crap, did you send that stupid kid around behind us Sue?"

"Billy is not stupid," she shouted as she took four silent steps to her right.

A whistling sound passed through the spot she had just vacated. Tossing the rifle to the spot, she had just left, she steps forward three steps taking out the knife she had taken from Billy. Three more shots rang out in the distance answered by a scream that stopped as quickly as it started.

A dark figure came through the fog toward where Sue had been. Standing perfectly still, she waited until the figure had passed. Turning quickly she slashed down across his back with her knife. The figure screamed in agony as the knife sliced through his clothing and deep into the muscle on his back. Pressing the gun to the small of his back, she pulled the trigger once. The man went down like a rock.

Taking five steps to her left, she was back in the position she had first occupied. Dutch came out of the fog toward the scream of the man Sue had just crippled for life if he survived. Sue hit him in the face with the gun as hard as she could. Dutch fell back, blood spurting from his nose, his eyes rolled up into his head so just the whites were showing.

Out of the fog came two more figures with rifles. Sue shot them both in the head. She was acting on instinct, the instinct of her training in the combat arts she had learned from John and Waylon and to some extent from Billy.

Crouching down behind Dutch, she worried about Billy. She picked up Dutch's rifle tossing it into the brush off to her left. She then took Dutch's sidearm and knife, the gun she made sure the safety was on and shoved it in her waistband. The knife she slipped into the top of her boot. As she crouched over Dutch, again, he started to moan, she hits him in the side of the head, he was once again quiet.