When The Fault Breaks: Life Will Never Be The Same Page 28

  "That's a better question Beth."

  Alex had a suggestion, "I brought maps of the area below, so we could see how far it is before there is any known roads."

  "That is a great place to start, where are they?"

  Alex brought over the maps and we poured over them for hours before we came to the conclusion that we were a bit over two hundred miles above any roads on the map. We decided that it was too much of a risk to fly down so we planned on exploring it on foot. We would use the same method as we did when we came here and try not to leave any trails to follow back. Alex and his family returned home the next morning and we began planning the trip.

  The scouting party was made up of George, Allen, Susan and Floyd. Their mission was to go past where Floyd's party had met the valley and keep going until they either found civilization or until they ran into people. If possible they were only to observe and listen if they found anyone and report back anything they found. They were not supposed to use fire during the day or cook any meals except MRE's to avoid detection at any cost.

  Chapter 35: The Valley Below

  Of course that was not as easy as it sounded. They were out about ten days when they noticed smoke coming from the valley floor below them.

  Sue asked, "How far away do you think that smoke is Floyd?"

  "Several miles down valley would be my bet Sue."

  Allen exclaimed, "SMOKE? Where?"

  "Look down there, it almost looks like fog or wispy clouds."

  "Well guys you know the drill, I stay here with Susan and you guys head down there after dark."

  "I do; remember I was on the receiving side of it when you guys came to our camp that night."

  Floyd asked, "Hey Susan, have you seen the night vision goggles?"

  "Yea they are in the pack over there by the cedar."

  "Thanks, I found them."

  And off they went. That night they crept up on the camp hoping to gain a little intelligence, it was a good thing they did. As they approached the camp their hearts sank when they realized they were looking at scouts who were checking the valley for signs of life. There were four men dressed in matching fatigues, from what they could make out of the conversation the men would be heading up in the morning. They were at least two days from the lowest and smallest of the big waterfalls.

  Floyd did not want these guys to see them because the scouts were armed to the teeth. Each of them had AK-47s and Glocks on their sides. Their combat vests were hanging on trees nearby and all of them had hand grenades attached. From what our guys were able to make out they were part of a very organized militia exploring all the valleys above their base, which was further down the valley.

  It was easy to figure out who was in charge because everyone referred to him as Captain and all replied back, "Yes sir."

  "That hike up here was brutal Captain, I wonder how much harder the rest of the valley is."

  "I know Braxton, but we have a job to do and we all knew it wasn't going to be easy."

  "I'm with Braxton Captain, I don't know how far we are going to be able to go, besides all this is stupid."

  "WE WILL GO AS FAR AS I SAY WE WILL GO!! YOU GOT THAT JONES?"

  You could see the disgust in Jones' face, "YES SIR!!!"

  "We will be heading up at first light so every one hit the sack, Jones you have the midnight to six tonight, Smith you relieve him."

  Both of them responded with a resounding "Yes Sir" and headed off.

  As the two men were heading off our scouts could hear Jones complaining.

  "Man I don't believe he gave me the balls to six again, I have had it the last three nights while the rest of you get different times."

  "DUH!... Dude I could not believe you said that to him, he is getting tired of you talking back to him."

  "Screw him, who died and made him God?"

  "Well that would be our insane leader Anderson, unless you want to question him as well."

  "Not a chance in hell, not a chance in hell," they both laughed.

  With that Floyd decided it was time to go, they quietly moved away and returned to camp, it was almost midnight before they made it back and told everyone else the news. None of them were very happy with what was heard that night.

  "What are we going to do Floyd, if these guys make it to Little Haven they will bring back reinforcements? From what I could see of those four we would not stand a chance against them. There are sixteen grenades back there that I counted, you can only imagine what else they have."

  George asked, "Did you guys cover your tracks back here?"

  "We did, we stayed in the stream coming back."

  "Good thinking Allen."

  "How long did it take you to get up here Allen?"

  "About three hours Sue, but we moved very slowly making sure we did not leave any signs."

  Floyd said, "Then we need to get out of here at day break."

  Allen replied, "They said they were going to head out at first light, so if we leave at day break too we will be able to stay ahead of them."

  "What do you mean stay ahead of them?"

  "We don't want to lose sight of these guys. I don't want them to surprise us. We are going to keep watching their camp every night until either they give up or we make it to the first outpost."

  "Good thinking Floyd, we will know even more by the time we get there."

  They spent the next few nights sleeping on rocks, no fires and only eating MRE's. It was very difficult not leaving any sign that they were ever there especially with the scouts so close on their tails. At least they knew the way up the falls, Floyd thought to leave ropes that they could use to go up, and the militia scouts would not have that in their favor.

  Floyd's team stopped at the top of the last really big falls, it gave them a good view of the area below it. Floyd stayed a bit lower so he could hear what was being said when the scouts found the falls. None of them were prepared for what was to take place when the scouts reached the area.

  "CAPTAIN! I think you need to see this."

  As the Captain came around the bend he did not like what he saw.

  "HOLY SHIT"

  "That's for sure Captain, look at that thing, it must be one hundred foot tall. The rocks on both sides are slimy and covered with moss. Look at this thing, there is no way we are going to get past this monster."

  "Smith, front and center... you're the climbing expert here what do you think."

  "I'm sure it's possible to get past it but there is another question you should be asking yourself Cap. Should we? We are over a hundred miles from the closest road and have been climbing for weeks and have not seen even one sign of any human activity. The maps show this heads deep into the wilderness and has never been inhabited. There is no way anyone is up there."

  Braxton commented, "It's your call Captain."

  Then Jones asked him in a sarcastic tone. "Well Captain now what do we do?"

  You could see the anger building in the Captain. He pursed his lips, closed his eyes and sort of rolled his head in a no manner. Then in a very harsh, angry voice, said, "Jones, if you say one more word to me I swear to God I am going to…"

  Jones stepped up behind the Captain, and in an even more confrontational tone asked, "You're going to what… SIR…" with the sir in an even more sarcastic drawn out and challenging manner.

  As the captain turned around he had his pistol in his hand and put it against Jones forehead.

  The captain replied in a very deep slow voice, "I am going to blow your damn head off you piece of shit, I am sick of your snide attitude and I am not going to put up with it anymore."

  No one could believe their eyes. A .50cal Desert Eagle was pressed up against Jones' forehead with the safety off and the Captain's finger on a hair trigger. Everyone, both theirs and ours, froze and watched as it played out.

  Captain continued, "I suggest you not utter another word, step back, turn around and walk away and not come near me for a while."

  The man very slowly step
ped back and turned his head as he walked away. You could see the fury stewing up inside of him, the Captain still had his gun trained on him as he moved away. What the captain could not see was the guy removed his Glock from his chest holster and was going to shoot him.

  However, one of the other guys did. When Jones noticed the Captain had turned his back and lowered his gun, then Jones started to spin around and began to raise his weapon when, POP! POP! POP!

  As Jones was dropping to the ground the Captain raised his gun again in time to see Jones hit the ground.

  "What the hell just happened?"

  "Jones was going to shoot you in the back Captain, look it's in his hand, and his finger is on the trigger."

  "Did you do that Smith?"

  "Yes Sir I did, if I hadn't you would be dead now Sir."

  "He is right Cap, I saw the whole thing he just beat me to the shot, I didn't see the gun until he turned."

  "What are we going to do Cap?"

  "Thank you guys, it's nice to know you have my back, literally. What we are going to do is go home, I'm tired of all this. There is no way anyone is up there. You know guys the sad thing is, I was just about to say that when he started talking smack again, what a waste."

  Smith said, "I told him the other day he was out of line, I guess he figured in this new world he did not have to follow rules anymore."

  "Guys we will never be away from someone telling us what to do. NEVER."

  "What about him, do we just leave him like that, shouldn't we bury him?"

  "Nope leave his dumb ass to be eaten by the critters, his body will be gone in a few weeks. Collect his gear and weapons and let's get out of here."

  With that the three men turned and started down, Floyd could hear the Captain say that he was going to report there was no reason to pursue this one any further, the relief was almost palpable.

  There was no reason to go any further down, they already knew they were over a hundred miles from Little Haven and they heard them say it was at least another hundred more to the nearest road.

  The next morning, they started back, this time it was a bit easier because they had left ropes and vines in place to use to get back up and they did not need to take all the precautions they did the last few days. They still restricted their fires to night use only, and eating MREs but it was not so bad getting home.

  It had been more than a month since they left when they saw the outpost above. They decided to freak out the watches and tried to sneak up on them. Little did they know the watches had seen them first and were ready for them.

  "Shhh, lets scare the shit out of them."

  "You guys go ahead, I'm going to brief Brandon, have fun."

  "Thanks Floyd, we will see you tomorrow."

  When the scouts went through the door to the outpost no one was there, as soon as they were in the blind one of the watches on duty released the trap door handle that collapses the roof on the shelter to hide it and trapped them inside. The guys inside could hear everyone laughing outside.

  "GET US OUT OF HERE."

  More laughing.

  "Alright you win you got us good, now get us out of here."

  The watches opened the cover and replaced the panic trigger so it was set to drop again if needed. After filling in the watches the two of them headed up to tell everyone else what they saw. Floyd briefed Brandon and us on what they found and later that night had to repeat it once more to everyone at the amphitheater.

  After that we still kept watch on the valley but we were not as worried about anyone making their way up. The valley below the point where Floyd and his team came in was even harder than what was above it.

  Chapter 36: The Flight

  It was mid-summer and we had set a day with Alex to fly us on the resupply run we talked about. Just after breakfast we heard the sound of the rotors coming down the valley and knew he was on his way. Alex landed his helo in my yard and powered down. We met him outside and shook hands and gave each other a manly hug.

  "Welcome back Alex."

  "My pleasure Peter, I'm looking forward ta this trip even though it's with some trepidation. Any time I fly I take the chance of being detected and shot down. So Peter, are you going on this trip?"

  "Not this time Alex, this kind of stuff is for the young and strong, not the old and fat."

  Alex replied, "I'm with you there, man, but I'm still young as far as I'm concerned."

  "Well you are still young compared to Fred and me." We all laughed.

  "Okay ya got me there, so who'll be going with me?"

  "That would be Malcolm and Doug."

  They are both decorated Army Special Forces snipers with four and six tours respectively in Afghanistan and Iraq under their belt. I cannot think of anyone that I would rather have with me than them. These two are as good as it comes when dealing with guerilla warfare. Let me introduce you to them."

  "Malcolm, Doug, can you guys come over here?"

  "We'll be right there, Peter."

  We were approached by two huge guys. They are both body builders and have worked hard to make sure they maintain their shape. Doug is a big black dude and Malcolm is a short stocky Mexican, and both had matching Special Forces tats. They had been a team for many tours having served in the same unit in both Afghanistan and Iraq.

  "It's nice to meet ya guys. Have ya ever been in a helo?"

  They both nodded their heads and did one of those acknowledging grunts and replied, "More than we like to think about."

  "That's good 'cuz this will not be a smooth ride."

  "Trust us we can handle ANYTHING you can throw at us."

  "Alright guys let's get loaded up and go."

  As Malcolm was putting in his rifle, Alex noticed it and asked, "Is that your sniper rifle?"

  "It sure is, it's my little baby, it's an M40 A5 sniper rifle. With this baby I can shoot a fly off a pile of shit at a quarter mile."

  Alex replied, "Yea right, that I would have to see to believe."

  "It's true Alex, we were in country one day waiting for our target to arrive and he bet me he could do it. I doubted him and bet him two weeks' pay. I lost."

  "Now that sounds like someone I want with me. I cannot tell you how much better I feel knowing I have someone flying with me that can shoot back if someone is shooting at us."

  Patting his gun Malcolm replied, "Well with this baby, you can count on us."

  "Somehow I get that feeling."

  Malcom asked, "So how we doing this Alex?"

  "I have configured the helo to only carry three of us so we can carry more cargo. I also brought along the sling, so if we need it we can carry even more. I have removed both the side doors where you'll be sitting, so you'll be able to shoot if ya have ta. Ya should strap in."

  Doug spoke up, "That's a negative Alex, we NEVER strap in a helo, if it's going down we want to be able to go without worrying about being strapped in."

  "That's fine Doug, I'm sure you've done this stuff more than me seein how it's my first. We're gonna head out up valley and when we reach the ridge we'll turn south and follow the ridge top for some time. After about a half hour we'll turn east and drop down the valley adjacent to where the warehouse is til we reach the end of it. Then we'll come up the valley with the warehouse."

  Ann said, "Sounds like you have done this a few times."

  "I have Ann but things could have changed, so we need ta be ready for anything. Now when we approach the warehouse, I'll fly real high and slow ta see ifin we can see if anyone is there. If we think it's safe we'll land there, if not we'll leave and decide what to do."

  Allen asked, "What about the saw blade, are you still going for it?"

  "We will be Allen, when we finish at the warehouse we will continue up that valley and drop down another one to get it. From there we will make our way home."

  With that they loaded what was needed for the trip and off they went. The flight up valley was nice and the flight over the ridge was real exciting. Alex decided to be
funny when it was time to drop down the first valley, he did not give them any warning.

  All of a sudden he pushed hard on the stick and rolled the helo almost on its side and dropped down the valley. Doug was not too happy about the unexpected maneuver but Malcolm loved it, Alex made several quick maneuvers while he flew along laughing every time Doug reacted to it. It wasn't their first flights in a helo, but Doug never liked them.

  After about an hour Alex called through the headset to be ready as they were coming up on the warehouse. At first they could see cars in the lot but no one was outside. As he hovered over the warehouse for a bit and started to lower they could see men running out of the warehouse and they started to fire on them. You could hear bullets pinging off the helo and Alex pulled back on the stick and took off almost strait up and off to the side.