The Day America Died Trilogy Read online

  “Okay Dad, be careful.”

  I got in my old Ford FI and drove down the driveway, turned right and headed over to Sam’s place.

  “Mike, are they following me?”

  “Yes, but there are two trucks. I don’t like this. Watch out. We’re on the way.”

  Mike hollered at the rest, drove his truck around and waited for the rest to join him. Roger, Chuck, and Lynn grabbed their ARs, got in Mike’s truck and took off to help stop the attack. The men were in the bed with their rifles on the roof of the truck and aimed ahead. They went around a bend and saw the three vehicles ahead and a fierce firefight going on.

  I had tried to act as if nothing was happening when several bullets struck the back of my truck and blew the back glass in all over my back and neck. I saw the stalled truck on the right side and slid to a stop behind it while firing at them as I moved into position behind the truck’s back wheels. Bullets were peppering the ground beside me and ricocheting off the truck. There were four of them, and I knew I was done for if help didn’t arrive soon. I took a deep breath, took the time to aim and shot one of the attackers in the leg. He fell out from behind the pickup, and I put a slug into his head. That slowed them down for a minute, and then I heard more gunfire behind them. Mike and the others had arrived and were coming up from their back side. They couldn’t cover themselves from both sides, and one more fell dead. The other two tried to run out in the brush to their left to escape. Mike never stopped and ran right over them. Roger and Chuck shot both of them as soon as the truck got past them. They aimed and made head shots to make sure they were dead.

  I yelled, “Grab their weapons and body armor and let’s get back to the farm. My truck is dead; I’ll ride with you.”

  We drove up and found everything was normal except their worry about us. I quickly filled them in and told them we need to bug out now before these men are missed.

  “Sorry, but we have to chance it now. These men will be missed in two hours at their shift change. You have ten minutes, and we need to hit the road.”

  “Hon, we anticipated that, and we are ready now. Let’s go.”

  “Paul, set your traps, Mike set the Humvee booby trap, and I added a small surprise for the thugs in my shop. I hate to blow the house up, but they need to think that we died while under attack. The trip wires will make the rifles fire until empty, and those homemade smoke bombs will confuse them as they attack. The trip wire between the pole barn and the barn will set the timer in motion to set off the rockets in all directions and finally the fireworks stash in the basement beside the two 50 gallon drums of gasoline.”

  I had Ally and her daughter Susie in my truck along with Susie’s puppy. It was the brother to Callie’s dog and would be great companionship for Susie once we holed up in the hideout. There wouldn’t be any other kids to play with for quite some time. I was glad that Susie was low maintenance like her mom since we were moving into what amounts to be a cave for who knows how long. I had a bad feeling that evil was lurking around every corner and I had to protect my family every minute of the day.

  Susie said, “Mom, look, Joan and Chuck are turning around. I wonder why?”

  Just then, Joan’s voice came over the radio, “Chuck and I have to go back, I forgot something in the house. Don’t worry; Chuck knows where the trip wires are located. We’ll be on the road in twenty minutes.”

  I replied, “Hurry up! We’ll see you there.”

  Thankfully, the drive over to the hideout was uneventful, and there was no one on the road. We pulled directly into the hole in the wall and parked the trucks.

  “I want everyone to grab some brush and help me erase our tire tracks. Mike, come with me down to the road. We’ll start down there and work our way back to y’all.”

  “Zack, we can’t start until Joan, and Chuck gets here.”

  “Damn, you’re right.”

  “Mike, let’s brush out the tracks by the road just in case someone drives by before they get here.”

  “Okay, the rest of you go ahead and get everything unloaded.”

  A half hour passed and they hadn’t arrived.

  “Something's wrong. They said they would be right behind us.”

  “We’ll wait thirty more minutes and then Mike, and I will go looking for them.”

  The time passed, so Mike and I got in my truck and headed back towards the farm. We were a mile away when we saw the black smoke and heard explosions coming from the direction of the farm. We turned off the road and drove up behind my place through the woods, stopping a quarter mile away. I saw my shop, but the house and barn were leveled but still smoking. I got my field glasses and could see men searching the workshop and the ’49 Ford car that Paul had given to Carrie. Then I saw the bodies by the shop. There were two bodies covered with blankets. I got a lump in my throat and tears came to my eyes.

  I could barely speak, but said, “Mike, there are two bodies, and I can’t tell who they are.”

  “Let’s go down and kill those bastards and get Joan.”

  “Mike, calm down. There are two dozen heavily armed men down there. We could kill some, but we’d be also killed. We don’t know that’s Joan and Chuck on the ground. It appears that Carrie drove up to the house before they could leave. They may be criminals and thugs, but I don’t think they would kill women just for fun. Let’s go to the hideout until we can find out what happened. Getting ourselves killed won’t help Joan.”

  “I know you are right, but I want to kill all of them.”

  “Me too, let’s go.”

  I couldn’t help feel we should have stayed at the farm while we waited on Joan and Chuck, but reality kept slapping me in the face. Had we stayed, all of us could be dead now. I knew this was right, but it didn’t make me feel better.

  Chapter 15 - Kidnapped

  The Farm

  Joan and Chuck were walking onto the porch when the old Ford car drove into the driveway. Chuck had just disabled the trip wires, or they would all be in the middle of an inferno with explosions all around them.

  “Hello Joan, Carrie brought me over to see if we could borrow some flour and sugar.”

  “Stay there, and I’ll get it for you. We’re in a hurry to leave and have to be on the road in a minute.”

  “Does it have anything to do with the men pulling up over there just out of sight? Are they trouble?”

  “Yes, they are Prescott’s men, and they attacked us earlier this morning. Find cover and get your guns.”

  Carrie and her mom ran to the car, retrieved their rifles and took cover behind the porch.

  “Chuck, are you sure they mean to hurt us? I don’t want to hurt them if they are just investigating the shootout this morning.”

  The men continued to walk towards the house and began shooting at Chuck as they advanced. Bullets also struck the end of the porch that Carrie and her mom were hiding behind for protection.

  “I guess that answers your question about them not meaning to hurt you.”

  Carrie and her mom began shooting and killed several before the men fell to the ground trying to find cover. Joan and Chuck had the other side of the front yard covered and hit several of the men also before a dozen more men came running out of the trees in a frontal assault. Just then, Chuck was hit in the shoulder and dropped to the ground.

  “I’m hit, Joan; we can’t escape. They have us surrounded. Drive the truck into the barn and set the charge as you leave. I’ll set the charges for the house. We’ll blow the place as we surrender. They have to believe the rest were caught in the fire.”

  Chuck set the trip wires, and immediately the rifles rigged to fire started shooting, and several charges exploded in front of the house. Chuck returned fire and slowed the attackers down until Joan closed the barn door and ran back to him.

  “We have to get over behind the workshop in less than a minute, or we’re all dead. Run!”

  All four jumped off the porch and ran towards the workshop. Mary fell after being shot in the le
g and the chest, but Joan helped her up and on towards the workshop. Bullets were hitting all around them when one struck Joan, and she fell. Chuck looked over and saw her holding her bloody head. That was the last thing he saw. A bullet tore through his chest and destroyed his heart. He fell beside Joan thinking they were both dead. Carrie tried to drag her mom to cover, but the whole world exploded around her knocking her to the ground. She blacked out.

  ***

  The explosions flattened the house and barn killing twelve of the men attacking the farm. The house and barn were blazing, and small explosions were still coming from them.

  “Stop shooting you dumb SOBs. I told you not to shoot the women.”

  “They were shooting at us. What the fuck did you expect us to do?”

  “Check them out. The boss is going to be furious if you killed them.”

  The men turned the women over and checked the damage.

  “This one is dead, but the girl is alive and may have a concussion. Her face looks like hamburger. Oh crap, she has a large chunk of metal stuck in her side. I don’t think she’ll make it.”

  “Damn, this is Joan Johnson, and she has a graze to her head, but is alive and might recover. The girl is her daughter Callie. We have both of the women the boss wanted; we just have to keep them alive.”

  “Load them up and let’s get them into town to the doctor."

  They placed Joan and Carrie in the back of the pickup along with two guards and sped towards town.

  ***

  Joan woke up in the bed of a pickup bouncing down a highway. Her head was pounding, and someone was holding pressure on her wound. She kept still because she wanted to know what was going on before her captors knew she was awake. It was daylight, and the sun was still high in the sky, so she hadn’t been unconscious for very long. There was another person lying against her, and she couldn’t tell who it was, but it was a woman. That made her remember Chuck falling after being shot. Tears came to her eyes as she realized that Chuck was dead and Mary probably was dead also.

  She heard one of the men in the bed of the pickup say, “The older one is Joan Johnson, and the young girl is her daughter Callie. Alan is trading them to Todd.”

  “The woman will be okay, but the girl probably won’t make it to the doctor alive.”

  She thought Callie was with Paul and went on to the hideout. This can’t be her. Damn, it must be Carrie. I’ll let them think it’s Callie, so at least they won’t be looking for her.

  Chapter 16 - The Hideout

  Daviess County, Kentucky

  Mike and I returned and told the team to use the brush to cover our tracks before we had time to bring them up to speed. Callie grabbed me and asked about her mom.

  “Dad, where is mom? Are she and Chuck going to join us later?”

  “Darling, I don’t know. We didn’t find them, and I’m sorry to say, but I think they were captured by Prescott’s men.”

  “You think they were captured?”

  “The house and barn were smoking ruins. The old Ford Paul gave Carrie was there, and there were two dead bodies. I think they were Carrie and her mom Mary, but the truth is we don’t know. There were dozens of Prescott’s men there, and we had to come back here.”

  Callie began crying in my arms while Paul and Mike looked on. There was nothing that could be said that would make her feel better, so I just comforted her while she cried.

  After an hour she looked at me and said, “I know mom is alive and I want you to kill the bastards that captured her and killed Carrie.”

  “I will.”

  “Paul, hold me.”

  She went over to Paul, and they went into one of the campers and sat on the couch the rest of the afternoon. Paul came out after a couple of hours and said that Callie was asleep on the couch.

  I walked over to Mike and Sally’s camper and knocked on the door. Mike came to the door and invited me in.

  “Mike, are you okay? Is there anything we can do for you?”

  “No, not now. I’ve been racking my brains on how we can find out where Joan is and what their plans are for her. Surely, they will release her. She hasn’t done anything to Prescott. I guess the only thing that we can do right now is to pray for Joan and Chuck.”

  “That makes sense to me.”

  I kept racking my brains on how to find out where Joan was and how to rescue her. I was sitting at the table in our camper with Susie while Ally prepared supper.

  “Ally, Mike and I need to sneak into town to find out where they’re keeping Joan and the others, but I can’t think of a way that doesn’t end well. We can get about halfway there by truck, but we’d have to walk five miles into town to avoid being seen.”

  “Why don’t you ride our bicycles on the Greenway into town? Several of us kids have snuck back into town several times. The paths are open, but the weeds and brush are tall around them. You could drive to Green River Road, park the truck and ride bikes into town. After dark of course,” Susie said.

  I reach over, kissed Susie on the forehead and said, “From the mouths of babes comes the solution to my problem. We’ll ride bikes into Owensville and slip in right under their noses.”

  “Darling, you do know you won’t be invisible and could get shot. Look, I’m all for saving Joan, but I don’t want to lose you because you and Mike have to do something even if it’s wrong. Please think this out before you do anything that gets you two killed.”

  “I promise Mike, and I will be very careful. We won’t try to do anything but find out where they are keeping her.”

  I looked over to see that Susie was playing with her puppy and whispered, “I just hope for Callie’s sake, Joan is still alive.”

  “Hon, what happens if you run into someone out on the road? Are you going to shoot them just to keep our hideout secret? What if you get in a gun battle with Prescott’s men and get killed or captured?”

  “Darling I’m not going to BS you into thinking it won’t be dangerous, but we will leave the hideout after midnight and return way before sunup. There is no one on the road and only guards at the major roads. We should be able to sneak in and out without being detected.”

  “How will you find out where she is if everyone is asleep?”

  “Okay, I need to work on the plan. I promise we won’t do anything stupid and get hurt. Is it okay if I share my ideas with Mike?”

  “You are a grown man, and we’re not married, so you can do what you want.”

  “Wait a minute. We may not be officially married, but you belong to me and me to you. I won’t do this without your approval.”

  “Thanks, I feel the same way. Let’s work on the plan with Mike and see if you can safely get the information you need.”

  I walked over to Ally, kneeled down on one knee and said, “Ally, will you marry me and be my wife forever?”

  “Yes, I was wondering when you would get around to asking. Now stand up and kiss me, but don’t think for a minute I’ll let you get killed doing something crazy.”

  We had Jalapeno Spam, macaroni and cheese and spinach for supper. Susie cleared the table, and I washed the dishes while Ally had a glass of wine and rested. We finished the dishes, and I sat down beside my beautiful woman and thanked God that I met her. I needed someone with a calming influence on me during these trying times. Ally read a book titled Bush Craft 101 and Susie played with her dog while I had a book in front of me planning how to get the information we needed. I can thank Sally for figuring out how to accomplish that task.

  ***

  Joan continued to keep her eyes closed and didn’t react when the men picked her up and carried her into the hospital. They placed her gently on a bed and went back to get Carrie. Joan heard them talking, and then they took Carrie to another room.

  “Too bad about that one. She bled out on the way here. Alan will be pissed, but it wasn’t our fault those idiots booby-trapped their farm. Only one left alive out of eight to ten. Alan wanted to put Johnson and Norman in jail and try them for
stealing food from the people.”

  “Well tough shit. They wounded me, and a dozen of our buddies were killed. I’m glad they are dead, and I’d kill this bitch too if I could get away with it.”

  “I don’t know about that. I can think of other things to do with her.”

  “Keep your paws off her. If Alan found out she’d been messed with, he’d cut our balls off.”

  Joan could hear another voice in the hall coming towards her. It was Doc Brown.

  “I know this young lady. It’s Joan Johnson. Her head is covered in blood. What happened to her?”

  “She almost got lead poisoning. Stop asking questions and fix her head.”

  He took a small flashlight out of his pocket, pulled her eyelid down and shined the light on her eye to check her pupils. She blinked and startled the doctor. He realized what she was doing and winked at her. She winked back.

  The doctor cleaned the wound and shaved her head around it before injecting antibiotics and painkillers into her scalp before stitching her wound.

  “Let her sleep for the rest of the night, and I’ll check her in the morning.”

  He held her hand and squeezed it. She squeezed his hand and held it for a minute.

  “Tell your boss it will be several days before she will be able to be moved. I’ll have my nurse come over and watch her until the morning. She’ll be unconscious for a day or so.”

  Joan knew she had to escape before they tied her up or handcuffed her. That meant in the next two days. She looked around the room and saw that she was alone. She tried to pull herself up, her head pounded, and she was too weak to move. She would try again tomorrow. The nurse watched over her all night, so she slept through until dawn.