Both Alex and Lieutenant Busby remained very still. Neither even considered reaching for their handguns. Then they heard;
"Get their weapons."
They were treated roughly as unseen men grabbed their pistols.
"Hey, look at this. They are both Makarovs'. Those are Russian pistols. Maybe we should just shoot them now."
"Jimmy, you have got to stop being so trigger happy. In case you haven't noticed, that AK-47 you are holding is Russian made too. Maybe I should shoot you."
"That's different. We know each other, but we don't have a clue about these two."
"And we won't if you go around shooting people before you ask any questions."
The lead man used the toe of his boot, to turn Busby over onto his back. Looking up, Busby was staring into the business end of a shotgun.
"Care to do some explaining?"
"A man named Dennis Heath said we'd find you here."
The man named Jimmy started to lose it.
"WHAT have you done with Dennis?" He demanded. Then turned to the other man who had spoken. "You see. These two have done something to the brothers. We have to find out what they've done."
"Jimmy! Calm down. We don't know that they've done anything. They've been gone less than an hour. They couldn't have gotten far. Did you hear any shots? None of the rest of us did." He looked again at Busby. "I think you need to do some talking Mister."
"You're right in more ways than one. They didn't get very far. You can't see it in the dark, but their wagon is only a little over a half a mile down the road. They got out, and walked right up on top of one of our patrols. They are unharmed, but we held they in order to check out their story."
"That sounds reasonable. I'd do the same, but how can we be sure you haven't harmed them? That's the question." He looked at Alex. "What do you have to say?"
"There isn't much to add, except they sure didn't want to shoot anybody. Well, one of them started to pull a weapon, but he was persuaded not to do it."
"Which one?"
"I think it was the one named James. But I can't be sure."
"That sounds like him. How did you persuade him?"
"With a shotgun, kind of like the way you persuaded us not to reach for a weapon."
The leader smiled at that. "Alright. I'll buy that for now, but we seem to have a stand-off. You say you came to check out their story. What did they tell you?"
Busby spoke up. "There are thirty nine of you here. Twenty seven of them women, and you were lead here to escape the Russians."
"O.K. Now I believe you have talked with them."
"How can you buy that? They could have forced them to talk."
"Jimmy, will you stop talking stupid. Do really believe anyone could get the Heath brothers to say anything they didn't want to say?"
"I guess not. But what are we going to do?"
"I have a suggestion." Busby said.
"And what would that be?"
"It will be light soon. I'll lead any number of you back to where they are, and you can see for yourselves."
"Almost. You're a kind of big fellow. I think you will stay here under guard, and your partner here will walk back with Jimmy and someone else."
"Why me?"
"Because you are the one who has the itchy trigger finger. If you are right, you'll get your chance. If you are wrong, which I think you are, you'll have a chance to see for yourself just how stupid you've been."
"Stop calling me stupid."
"Then stop acting that way. If it was up to you, the Heath brothers would have been shot as soon as those people heard us shoot these two. As it is, we have every reason to believe they are alive and well, no thanks to you. Use your head, Jimmy. We out number these two almost twenty to one, and they come here with pistols. Does that sound like they were planning an attack?"
"They could have been scouting us out. Come back later with more men."
"Jimmy, you give me a headache. If they were going to do that, then why were they talking about introducing themselves when we got the drop on them? Think boy, think. Don't just follow you first impulse. You'll live a lot longer that way."
It was almost an hour later, when Alex, Jimmy, and another man named Larry started down the road towards the wagon used by the Heath brothers. While the horizon was starting to show the first rays of light, it was still to dark to see very far. They hadn't gone far before Jimmy started again.
"They better be alright, for your sake."
"They are." Alex answered tiredly. He too was getting his fill of Jimmy's' mouth.
After a short distance further, Jimmy started to complain that he still didn't see the wagon, and occasionally would use his shotgun to hit Alex in the back, to make him either move faster, or to 'behave' himself. Finally, it was Larry that interrupted Jimmy's' tirade.
"You know Jimmy, maybe you should talk a little louder. Maybe they didn't hear you yet."
"You don't tell me what to do. You don't have the right to tell me anything. I'm tired of people telling what to do. And I'm not going to let this one start." He hit Alex yet again. "You hear that boy. You try telling me what to do and I'll hurt you."
That did it. Alex remembered something his father had told him while he was still in high school.
"Jimmy, do you know what the problem with talking big like you've been doing is? The problem is that sooner or later you're going to have to live up to those words."
"I can live up to them, and I'll show you."
Alex had been listening carefully for it. He heard Jimmy take a quick step forward to hit him again, and then he moved. Michelle had spent a lot of time teaching him a few things, before her pregnancy. As Jimmy came at him, Alex dropped low and spun around. He caught Jimmy perfectly with the leg sweep, as it was called, and sent him toppling backwards onto his back. The rifle that had been in his hands went flying up, as Jimmy tried to regain his balance, and Alex caught it. Without even thinking about it, he immediately tossed it to Larry, with one word.
"Catch."
Larry did so, but with a weapon in each hand, all he could do was watch. Alex moved to the fallen Jimmy, and checked him. The fight was all gone out of him. He had hit the ground hard, and had the breath knocked out of him. Alex paused, then looked at Larry.
"Sorry. I just couldn't put up with that anymore."
"Don't apologize. Do you have any idea how many times I've wanted to do something like that? You a karate expert or something?"
"No. That's something my wife taught me."
"Say what? When we meet, remind me not to make her made. Is he going to be O.K.?"
"Yeah, he just had the wind knocked out of him, that's all."
A voice came from the hillside above them.
"Thanks for not hurting him to badly."
"Dennis? Is that you?"
"Alive and kicking. Or maybe I shouldn't say that. We're alright. They haven't hurt us. Matter of fact, we were on our way to meet you, when we heard Jimmy talking big again."
"Think he learned this time?"
"I hope so. Help him up."
Director Ives was once again becoming upset. The master didn't blame him for the losses from the tsunami, but with the number of Russian forces on the east coast so badly reduced, the cursed Americans were starting to make serious gains against the remaining Russian forces. The east coast Russian army was falling back further by the day. In Georgia, for example, the Americans had retaken land almost to the new coastline. Things were better organized in the Mississippi River valley, due to the fact there were more men. But they were still losing ground.
To make things even worse for him, Ives had been hearing rumors that the Russian government was beginning to believe that their losses were just to heavy. They were thinking of pulling out entirely. About the only men they had left, in large numbers were guarding their boarder with China. And now in their weakened situation, it was believed that the Chinese might just take advantage of it, to expand their territory.
He also knew that if the Russians pulled out, the Chinese would find themselves in a bad situation. Without the forces in the east to tie them down, these battle-hardened men would be moved west, to battle the invaders there. The Chinese knew it as well.
Ives had to come up with a new plan. He noticed the paper that was still on his desk. A new idea began to form in his mind. If he couldn't kill them all, he would breed them out of existence.
He called for his secretary.
The latest arrivals in the town were treated like all the others that had come. First they were sheltered in the community center, until they could be interviewed. It was here that Anna proved her worth to the community. Since she had the degree for this kind of thing, Bob asked her to help in getting things organized. She set to work with a will, glad to have found something that she could do to help out.
Mrs. Molton eyed her suspiciously, and every time Anna turned around, there she was. At first it bothered her a little, but she took Gerald's advice, and forgot about her. Besides she was too busy to even care what the woman thought.
For her part, Mrs. Molton was busy asking questions of the newest arrivals about what Anna was doing. She became more and more frustrated as she got nothing but glowing reports on how helpful and well organized Anna had been. Each night, she went back to her home, and berated Anna to her husband. The man was wise enough to not say anything to his wife which she might think was in any way supporting Anna's' position, and wondered as he often did, when this woman was going to talk herself into real trouble.
He wondered how anyone could be so slow to learn. She had bullied her way onto the advisory council, and that had lasted only until the first meeting. Once the people in her area had seen how she behaved once in power, they had gone to Bob and asked what to do about it.
"You put her there by voting her in, so it seems to me you can vote her out. There isn't any 'term in office' you know."
As it always happened, when she was replaced because of her behavior, she blamed others for her troubles. He almost believed that she thought that woman she didn't like, was sleeping with everyone in his wife's group, in order to get his wife removed from her position.
Tonight, she was having a gathering of the few friends she had left, and the women agreed that they didn't want 'that harlot' around, but each of them had differing ideas about what to do about her. After listening for about half an hour, he stood and walked to the door.
"Where do you think you are going?" His wife's voice came angrily from the other room.
"You ladies seem to have a lot to talk about. I thought I'd go for a walk."
"Good idea. You aren't any help here."
He stepped out of the door, and soon found himself at the home of Pastor Jim. He thought for a long time, then finally reached out and knocked on the door.
BW, Vietnam Vet