JAA Ch. 01: Aftermath

The men looked at Cappy and were going to answer but were distracted by Waylon exiting the vehicle on the passenger side.

"Holy fuck, it's a giant nigger," one of the men yelled.

Sue pulled the bolt back on the fifty. Every eye was now on her and the barrel of her gun.

"Crap, they have women here," another one said.

"Gentlemen," Cappy snapped his fingers to get their attention. "What can we do for you?"

"First you can send that nigger back..."

The cough from Cappy's rifle stopped the man's voice mid-sentence as a hole appeared in his shirtfront. Guns started to rise as the extremely loud report of the fifty barked three times. The men in front of Cappy froze.

"Now, the rest of you gentlemen, if you are a gentleman, what can we do for you?"

As Cappy waited, he could see the Alpha force moving into position on the right flank of the men in front of him.

"We have movement three hundred meters behind this lot," a whisper in his ear informed him.

"Deploy Delta, Echo, and Foxtrot," a voice whispered back.

Waylon walked up to the man who had first called him a nigger.

"The man asked you a question slim ball, are you going to answer him?" Waylon smiled evilly at the man.

"Sure, sure, we're just passing through and wondered if we could stay here the night.

"No. Anything else?" Cappy asked.

The man raised his rifle to his shoulder and his head blew apart as the roar of the fifty once again disturbed the silence of the forest. As his body hit the ground and before the rest of the men could react, Alpha force was on them.

"Now two hundred meters," the voice whispered in Cappy's ear.

The other three groups of men came running up the road behind Cappy, who signaled them to deploy to the flanks. They could see the larger group of men running toward the compound. Alpha squad finished securing the men at the gate and fell back into the woods on the offside.

The large group of men skidded to a halt just outside the group of men on the ground. Most were armed but some were not. They all looked down at the men on the ground with disgust.

"We would like to thank you, strangers, for capturing this scum."

"What are they to you, sir?"

"Nobody if you mean what I think you mean. But, they are wanted by us for crimes against our people. They have raped and pillaged our village and killed several of our men and women."

Cappy and Waylon walked forward, guns lowered. Cappy waved and the four groups of men slowly appeared around the group like ghosts out of the mist. Susan swung the fifty skyward and climbed down out of the humvee. Most of the men in the group took a knee or flopped down on the ground out of pure exhaustion.

"Men, water for our friends here," Cappy told his men as he pulled a canteen from his belt and handed it to the man who had spoken.

"Thank you, sir," the man said taking a big draught from the canteen.

"Keep it," Cappy told him when he went to hand it back.

"Thank you again."

"Cappy some of these men need to be attended too, as quickly as possible."

"Right," Cappy pressed the button on his radio. "Medical team to the front gate, ASAP."

Seconds later three humvees roared up to the gate. People started to jump out loaded down with supplies. Michelle ran up to Cappy with a smile on her face as she scrutinized the man barely standing in front of Cappy.

"Why don't you sit down and I'll have a look at you?" Michelle told him.

"No, I'm fine, just a little tired. Please to see to my men first, miss."

"Doctor Tomlin at your service sir," Michelle told him.

"Doctor, doctor, I thought they were all in Mexico?"

"Not hardly, there are five right here looking after your men," Michelle told him.

"Cappy, Sue says she has five who will need to be seen back at the infirmary."

"Fine, get them up there. We'll take the rest to the mess hall and get them fed. Waylon, make sure these," Cappy said pointing at the group in cuffs, "get to the brig until our guests have rested."

"Sure thing, Cappy, it will be my pleasure. Alpha team, get them on their feet and follow me."

Alpha team moved as one getting them on their feet and moving.

"Delta team help the med teams get those men to the infirmary. Echo, Foxtrot let's help the rest to the mess hall," Cappy said. "Sir, if you would come with me."

"You can call me Jeff, I'm the sheriff in our village."

"And I'm Cappy, John 'Cappy' Abernathy, I guess I'm kind of the Mayor here."

Cappy climbed into the humvee as Jeff climbed in the passenger side. Men from Echo team put five more in the hummer before Cappy took off toward the mess hall. As the hummer came to a stop in front of the building, two big dogs came running up to the driver's side of the hummer. Cappy jumped out and roughed each dog's head as he stood on the porch waiting for Jeff.

"Rudy, Sunny, sit! Come on in Jeff they won't bother you. Let's get something to eat and talk a bit."

"Uh, okay. We don't allow dogs in our village."

"Why not? Dogs are invaluable. They know when someone is coming before we do most times."

"They also have fleas and ticks and all kinds of disease."

"Fleas and ticks are no longer a problem. As for disease, we have a vet who checks them out once a month."

The two walked inside and Jeff halted in amazement at the buffet style mess hall. He was almost knocked off his feet by his men pushing past him to get to the food.

"Not much food where you come from is there?"

"No hardly any at all. And from the looks of things, a lot of them will be asking to move here over the next couple of days."

"Come on get some food and we'll sit and talk," Cappy said leading the way to the buffet.

They each grabbed a tray and went through the line getting food. Cappy only put enough on his plate to be sociable, as he had just finished eating an hour ago. Jeff, on the other hand, had big eyes and piled the food on his plate. Susan walked up behind him, took the plate from him, and scooped half the food off handing the plate back to Jeff. She did the same for each of the men in Jeff's party.

"Why did she do that?" Jeff asked.

"Because you probably haven't eaten much in quite a while and she doesn't want you getting sick."

"Oh. Is she a doctor too?"

"Yes, one of the best I have known. And if I were you, I would eat slowly and drink slowly or you might just find yourself in the infirmary."

Jeff nodded his head as he and Cappy walked to an isolated table. Sitting down across from one another, they started to eat.

"So Jeff, how many people do you have in your village?"

"One hundred and fifty-four, at last count."

"A small number even by today's standards and you have thirty men here? How many men are left back at the village to protect your women and children?"

"Sixty-five."

"So that leaves fifty-nine women and children?"

"No children, just fifty-nine women, there was ninety-five women but this lot we have been chasing killed thirty-six of our women."

"So your village contains, now, fifty-nine women and ninety-five men? And it would have contained ninety-five men and ninety-five women?"

"Yep, those bastards kidnapped our women and raped them and then killed them when they started to slow them down."

"How many men were killed in the raid?"

"None, they caught us by surprise late at night. Took our women, one for each of them and left. We set out the next morning to catch them and get our women back. As we trailed them, we started to find our brutalized women dead along the trail. Most looked like they had fought off their attackers until their last breath."

Jeff put his head down at the remembered sight of their dead. Cappy just sat silent for a while. When Jeff's head rose, Cappy started to talk again.

"When you have rested you can start back to your homes. In about a week, I'll drop by with a couple of doctor's to check everyone out. Just give me the coordinates of your village and we'll see you in a week."

"That would be good. We could use a once over by a doctor. One of our women is a nurse and has been doing the best she can but, we also don't have many medical supplies."

"That's too bad, we'll bring what we can. I have to go now, someone will show you where you can get some rest before you head back."

"Okay, thanks."

Cappy rose and headed back to his office where he hoped to meet Waylon. When he got there, his office was empty but Waylon entered just as he sat down in his chair.

"What was their story?"

"They say they didn't kill the women. They do admit to taking the women but only the white women?"

"What?"

"Jarrod, that's their leader, said they only took the white women away from the nigger scum that was keeping them for breeding stock."

"White supremacist?"

"Yes. It wasn't very hard to get that out of them. They were a little reluctant to speak to me at first but, I convinced them it was in their best interest."

"How did the women die?"

"Jarrod says it was the darkies who killed them as Jarrod and his men let them go."

"Why did they let them go?"

"Each one expressed a wish to return to the niggers, his words not mine."

"I didn't think they were. Do you believe him?

"Not really," Waylon said.

"Could you go to the mess hall and bring Jeff here, please?"

"Sure, no problem Cappy."

"And then get Jarrod and bring him here."

"Is that wise?"

"Probably not but it's the only way to get to the bottom of things. Oh, and have Delta and Echo teams ready to disarm Jeff's bunch when I give the word."

"Sure thing Cappy," Waylon answered as he left the office. "Delta team report to the mess hall, Echo team report to the infirmary and be prepared to disarm our guests on Cappy's orders."

"Echo, Roger."

"Delta, Roger."

"Come with me Jeff," Waylon asked.

"Sure, what's up?"

"Cappy wants to talk to you if you feel up to it that is."

"Sure, no problem."

They walked together to Cappy's office. Waylon let Jeff go in by himself as he turned and headed to the brig. Jarrod was highly uncooperative. So much so that Waylon and four members of Echo team had to restrain him with leg irons and elbow cuffs. They also had to carry him to Cappy's office.

Once there he was unshackled and pushed into a chair next to Jeff.

"I'm not sitting next to this nigger," Jarrod told Cappy.

"You'll sit there and like it," Cappy shot back.

"Or what?" Jarrod sneered

Cappy pulled a small caliber handgun from his desk and shot Jarrod in the leg.

"Now the next one goes in your knee cap, so shut the fuck up and be nice."

Waylon stood behind Jarrod laughing. Jeff's eyes got wide with amazement.

"One or both of you are lying to us. We will sit here until one or both of you tell the truth. People have been killed, women have been killed, for no good reason."

"They were nigger sluts..."

The smack to the back of Jarrod's head was felt by all present except Waylon.

"You better tell you trained nigger to quit hitting me..."

"Or what?" Waylon whispered in Jarrod's ear.

Cappy raised the gun again.

"Fine, fine, I'll be nice to the niggers."

The shot was not loud but another hole appeared in Jarrod's leg.

"Christ... stop it, I said I'll be good."

"Every time you use the 'n' word I'm going to shoot you in the leg. You got that asshole?" Cappy yelled at him coming up out of his seat to lean over the desk.

"Yeah, yeah, I go it," Jarrod yelled back.

Michelle came running into the office just then, looked around, then noticed the blood seeping out of the two small wounds in Jarrod's leg.

"Fix him up for now and stick around he may need more fixing," Cappy told her as he sat back down. "And you just keep your mouth shut while she fixes you so you won't bleed to death."

Michelle went to work on Jarrod, as everyone else in the room was silent.

"This will sting a little," Michelle told Jarrod as she injected the wounds with Novocain to deaden the pain receptors.

Jarrod jerked a little until the pain subsided. Michelle took out some forceps and extracted the bullets from his leg. She then placed a stitch in each wound and pressed a bandage to each.

"If I were you I would be on my very best behavior," Michelle said as she stood up and moved to the corner behind Cappy and took a seat.

"Now who's going first with the truth?" Cappy looked at each man.

The silence lengthened, neither man making a sound. Cappy just sat staring at the two men. Waylon stood behind Jarrod humming a tune that Cappy was having a hard time placing.

"So, no takers on telling me the truth about what happened out there?"

"It's none of your business," Jarrod said.

"That's enough," Cappy yelled waving the pistol in the air. "Who's next? Jeff what are the coordinates of your village...GPS coordinates please?"

"34.975861,-101.680012 good enough?"

"Yep," Cappy replied punching in the numbers on his GPS device. "And your Jarrod?"

"I ain't givin' mine out."

"Waylon."

"Ow, ow, ow, +34° 49' 42", -101° 27' 45"... mother-fu...ow."

"Not what I asked for but it will do. Now let's see. You two are a good seventy-five miles from each other. Jarrod, what the fuck were you doing so far up in the panhandle?"

"None of..." he ducked before Waylon could hit him, "business."

"Waylon, take him out of here. Take the rest of his men, escort them to the main gate, and turn them loose. Call in Falcon team and have them escort them to the coordinates he gave us. Falcon has two duties, one, protect them from others, two make sure they get to these coordinates. Clear?"

"Affirmative, Cappy." Waylon grabbed Jarrod's collar and literally dragged him out of Cappy's office.

"Jeff, once you and yours are rested I will have a team escort you home."

"I appreciate that Cappy."

"Now tell me what really happened out there."

"It's just like I told you. They attacked, took our women, we gave chase and found our women along the trail dead."

"How were they killed?"

"Knife to the heart."

"Michelle, when you were checking Jarrod's men over did any of them have blood stains?"

"No."

"Did any of Jeff's men?"

"Now that you mention it, there were two."

Jeff moved with speed to try to jump Cappy over the desk but three shots impacted his body before he landed on the desk. He was still alive but, barely. Michelle was at his side in seconds.

"Disarm them," Cappy spoke into his keyed mic.

"Roger," Delta team leader replied.

"If you would have just told the truth none of this would have happened. I don't care that you are all out there killing yourselves. I just care about my people. I would have let you go. I'm not a judge or a jury or a cop. I'm just worried about my people. I don't give a rat's ass about anyone until they become my people."

"But," Jeff whispered then his mouth went slack and his eye clouded over.

"I couldn't do anything to stop the bleeding inside. You got him in the heart."

"I know Doctor, I know."

Waylon came charging into the office with his gun drawn. He relaxed when he saw that Cappy was all right.

"What the hell happened?" Waylon asked.

"We figured out that it was his men that did the killing. I figure once Jarrod and his men had their fun they let the women go and Jeff and his men killed them for some reason known only to them.

"Michelle, point out the men that were covered in blood to Waylon."

"There were none."

"What?"

"There were none. I was just going along with your ploy."

"There must be two of his men with bloody clothes on, go find them."

Waylon turned and left. Michelle just stood there, mouth agape.

"Why did he attack you then?"

"Because they were guilty, that's why."

Michelle just shook her head as she collected her things and headed for the door. Cappy sat there thinking, staring at the dead man on his desk. A few minutes' later two members of Delta team came in, picked up Jeff's lifeless body, and carried him out. Lucy came in with a bucket and some wet clothes and cleaned up the blood on Cappy's desk and on the floor.

Within a few short minutes, he was alone again wondering about the future of the human race. Yes, he had killed and killed more than he could remember but, those of his were alive and unhurt for the most part. He believed they were doing the right thing, for themselves, for humanity and for a crumbled nation.

Waylon found the two men. They had tried to wash the blood out and failed. He brought them to Cappy and they freely talked about what they did and why. It was as Cappy suspected. They found the prospect of their women getting pregnant by those racist bastards distasteful, to say the least.

Cappy told them that if something like that ever happened again to bring the women here instead of killing them, Cappy and his would look after them and they didn't have to worry about them anymore. Cappy told them how racist their line of thinking was and that the rednecks were just bigots.

Tempers flared until Waylon told them Cappy was right. He reinforced what Cappy had told them. Then took them and the others from their party and escorted them home. Falcon team reported two days later. Jarrod and his men were dead. They had tried to overpower Falcon team and steal their weapons.

Falcon team is twelve men who do nothing but patrol the outer perimeter. They spend every day of every year out in the surrounding bush making sure that the valley is safe. They are tough, well trained and ruthless. They are a mixed team. Three blacks, three American Indians, three Chinese and three Caucasians. They only come in once a month for showers and supplies and a little R&R.

Any force they encounter of up to triple their size is overwhelmed by them. They are good, they are the best that America had to offer before V-day. They are Recon.

Chapter 32

"Foxtrot two-niner, this is whiskey one-five-delta-delta-four, do you copy?"

The static came back on the speaker for a few seconds.

"Whiskey one-five, foxtrot two-niner, I copy, request landing instruction, on heading two-seven-zero at angles one-five."

"Foxtrot two-niner, we are not an airport. Where are you coming from and what is your destination?"

"Whiskey one-five, we are flying a polar route from Beckham, UK on route to Lackland Air Force Base for refueling, then on to Grenada."

"Roger foxtrot two-niner. Say again your fuel?"

"Whiskey one-five, fuel just over five thousand pounds."

"Foxtrot two-niner try Lackland air control on frequency one-one-four point three-five. And good luck sir."

"Whiskey one-five, roger, one-one-four point three-five, thank you, sir, Foxtrot two-niner out."

The radio speaker shouted with static again.

"How many is that?" Cappy asked the radioman, Phillips, as he turned the squelch up.

"Uh, one carry the three...two today, twenty all together over the past two and a half weeks."

"How many yesterdays?"

"One."

"Are they all from England?"

"No, some are from France, some from Germany. All northern tier European countries, all cut off from the equatorial regions."

"Do they all think Lackland is still a viable destination?"

"Yes, they have been in contact, they say, with someone at that location."

"Have we been in contact with anyone from there?"

"Two days ago, yes, since then, no. Most have come through here when we were still in contact with Lackland, only these last three since we lost communication with the air base."

"Alright, keep a log of all further traffic."

"You bet, Cappy."

"Waylon... "

"Yes, Cappy."

"I want you to take a six-man team over to San Antonio and see what's going on. Take two of the hummers."

"Sure thing but, twelve men would be better," Waylon said as he turned to leave the radio room.