GGS: Good Gaelic Souls A Biker Saga (G.G.S) (25 page)

Finally, he spoke again, "The front door is guarded, but for the next 20 minutes, anyone that is not willing to put their families or themselves in harms way to protect these many years of hard work, our land, our personal freedom, and Slider's legacy, is welcome to leave without issue. Not one of us will speak against you. We are all making a choice today." He let this sink in before adding, "Do not stop to say goodbye, I would prefer to remember you as I knew you, before this day." Looking down at his watch he advised, "It's almost 0700." Picking up his cup of coffee, he stopped for a refill before walking back to his office. Stax and the Officers followed suit, leaving the club members to decide what they were made of.

Inside the office, everyone kept their thoughts to themselves. None of them could imagine who might actually leave, but then again times had been good and times had been easy. Many of them had lived a pretty peaceful life, except for the ex-military members, ex-cons and those that were brought up fighting just to stay alive on the streets. The silence was broken after several minutes, when Moby spoke what was most on his mind. "
Today we find out the truth about our own life choices, in regards as to whom we chose to surround ourselves with.
" Across the table  Griff nodded solemnly, "
Tis true brother, there is much we will find out about others this day, and we will confirm to others what they have thought about us.
" Rage looked at his brothers, "
Aye my brothers, we'll know the answer in a matter of minutes now. Tis' a great shame ol' Slider isn't here to witness the outcome."
The table fell silent again as they sipped their coffee and kept an eye on their watches.

At 0720, the President of the G.G.S, followed by his Officers and the club Founder's only heir, stood up and walked back into the Bar Room. They took their rightful seats once again at the Officer's table and looked around at the silent bikers. As far as they could tell, everyone of them was still sitting in the same seats as before. They would know for sure when the guard at the front door informed Strangler of any activity, but for now, it was back to immediate business.

Standing up, showing no concern for the last twenty minutes, Strangler began to give instructions as to what needed to be brought inside the Castle walls, stored in the garage or left in the courtyard. But first, seven armed men were to take the truck down to the barn and ride back on the ATV's. These would be used to ride alongside the trucks as they hauled the teams to their perspective buildings, keeping watch while they gathered and loaded supplies. The slaughter house team was advised prepare as many hogs for the for the freezer as they could, and to make sure to bring back as many live ones as would fit in the pens behind the castle.  Everyone was to be armed and time was of the essence. He would only give them until noon to return to the Castle. He sent out another team of six men who could drive the heavy equipment and eighteen wheelers. Each was given a list of what to bring to the Castle and what to hide on the back corner of the pasture land across the street. "We have four hours people, unless you hear word from one of us indicating a change. If danger arises, you will be informed where to hide or to make a run back here, so stay alert and move quickly." 

As everyone left, Strangler fixed a drink and walked over to the guard at the interior double doors, as he handed him the glass, he asked quietly, "How many?" The guard raised his hand and ran his fingers through his hair, "None sir," he answered, "Your not gonna believe this, and if I hadn't witnessed it myself, I wouldn't either. But Prez, nobody even
spoke
while you were gone, not one fucking syllable. They just sat there, all quiet and shit, right up until ya'll came back. It gave me the goddamn creeps." Deep in thought, Strangler went back to the bar and fixed himself a drink this time, changing gears he walked into the kitchen to check on Della's progress.

Stax had already headed upstairs to pick out some fresh clothing for her and Strangler. She grabbed both of them a new package of underwear, socks and a few bandana's. Next she picked out some t-shirts and jeans and headed back downstairs. Putting the clothes on the bed, she layed out her new t-shirts and took a pair of scissor's to the neck of each one. Heading back through the office, she made a bee-line to the Barracks-Medical Unit to check on the nurses.

Della was working on a daily menu, and when Strangler walked into the kitchen, she asked his opinion. Taking a look at it, he could see how much work she was creating. "We need to think simple, easy meals, like lamb stew and soda bread or maybe chili and cornbread. One pot wonder's so to speak." While he was talking, a text came from the team at the warehouse, which read,'
Can't find Autoclave
', he replied quickly, '
Keep looking
'. Turning back to Della, he told her, "There is no sense in making more work for yourselves, keep it simple. If it ain't easy to cook and easy to clean, don't bother. I know you love to cook and present a wonderful meal, but for now we have to change our mindset. Think along the lines "We are gonna be here for a long time" and "We have to make the food last." Work on a simple menu for breakfast and dinners, and on my way back through, we'll go over it together." He advised on his way out of the kitchen.

Stax walked into the barracks and found the nurses busy setting up the medical unit. At the moment, they were taking inventory of the OTC meds that were brought from various member's homes. As she looked around, she saw several carry-on bags sitting on the hospital beds, "What's in the bags?" She inquired. Dimples glanced over in the direction that Stax was looking and answered, "
I.V drips, tubes, anti-biotics, pain killers, sedatives, you name it. We've already put what needed to be refridgerated, in the kitchen last night.
" Stax looked at the nurses, still busy with their task, "Did you
steal
all of this from the hospital?" Stax asked bluntly. Dimples, who was now obviously pissed, stopped what she was doing. Indignantly she replied, "
Really Stax
?
Don't you think that in our positions, that we might carry just a wee fucking bit of clout? Of course we didn't 'steal' it, we explained why it might be needed and what they didn't offer to give us, we chose to borrow. Shame on you lass! Did we fucking steal it!"
She muttered, and turned back to her work.

Tandy looked over at Stax and winked, in an effort to fill in the blanks, she offered, "
We both took an emergency leave of absence, lass. With Slacker in the ICU surrounded by cops and bikers, it didn't take much to convince them that our family issues were quite substantial. Once we gave them a simple explaination of what was happening, they offered to help. Remember our place in this community Stax. People respect us for what we do for them, and the hospital wanted to help. We have both been there long enough, that they consider us a part of their family too. Just think of it as a perk, it's all good."
She smiled again and went back to her work, leaving Stax feeling like a wee bit of an ass.

On her way out of the barracks Dimples yelled to her, "
You tell Strangler, that if there is a mini fridge or better yet, a big one in the warehouse , we need it brought here. If not, tell him to bring us the biggest cooler he can find. It's a long walk to the kitchen during an emergency."
Stax made a mental note and as she entered the main entrance hallway, she ran into him. After telling him what the nurses requested, he sent a text out to the warehouse team, and together they went to the Daycare to see how Cat was coming along.

They walked into a buzz of activity. Using chalk on the concrete floor to show them where to set up the makeshift walls, Cat had the older children helping her set up the office partitions to create various rooms. Both parlor's were huge, so there was much space to work with and still end up with a very large play area. Strangler looked around the room, and although it looked well stocked, he needed to be sure. "Cat, this may be our only chance to gather supplies, is there anything that you still need in here?" He inquired, ready to text a team to bring in anything that she requested. However, the way Cat looked at him, he had the distinct feeling that he had somehow insulted her. Brushing off his concern with a tinge of scorn in her voice, she informed him, "
Laddie, you know that Griff and I have been preparing for a natural disaster or a civil war scenerio for many'a year. When Slider decided to put things in motion, Griff had everything that we've gathered brought up from the warehouse before anything else. The wee ones are covered, the only thing I need, is for you to take care of business to keep 'em safe."
She turned around to get back to work, but had a change of mind. Quickly she spun back around again, and with a little more sugar than vinegar this time, she added,  "
Ya know laddie, there is something that I need, you can send someone to find an extra coffee pot and some whiskey and cremé. It's for me nerves now, you understand,"
Chuckling to herself, she went back to doing what she did best.

Strangler sent off another text to the warehouse and then another to Serenity. Stopping in the hallway for a moment, he then decided that the next places to check on should be the downstairs bar, the laundry room and then back to the kitchen to check on Della's menu. As they were walking back through the Bar Room, Serenity began walking towards them with a bottle of whiskey, a container of cremé and a fresh cup of coffee. "By the end of the day, we should have the bar completely cleared off and stocked. I'll need someone to take the overflow down to the garage." She said as she passed them. Lee was still working behind the bar, so they stopped to check on any needs that she knew of there.

"Well," she told them, "We have everything except the bar stools. We were going to start a list, but that's really the only thing missing. Serenity showed me where the library was, and I couldn't believe the cases of liquor and shit stacked up in there. That's where the barstools are, but they are too heavy for us to manage, it's too far away. This place is fucking huge! I'm thinking that they must have brought the stools in through the laundry room and staged them in the library. " As she went back to work, Strangler looked at Stax, "Fuck me running, we never did get to the library and the armory. Let's get that out of the way now."

When they entered the Library, they spotted the Autoclave. Strangler sent out another text to the warehouse telling them to mark the Autoclave and the barstools off their list. "If I had checked this room, I could have saved them a lot of search time. Fuck! I need to be more efficient." He muttered. Stax stopped, seeing the stress etched into his face, she could only imagine what his brain waves looked like right now. "You've done everything right Prez, your priorities cannot be questioned. I'm not going to stand here and listen to you kick your own ass over stupid small shit." She reached out and took his hand, "We are all, in total awe of the way that you have been leading us. This is not a regular Clubhouse, it's a goddamn Castle for fucks sake. It's gigantic, and there's no way in hell that you can know everything about it in less than twenty-four hours. Not to mention that during the time all of this was being brought in, you were on a run dealing with recon-missions and all that shit." She stopped abruptly, as her brain clicked on yet another light bulb, "We need to find the revised blueprints, baby.  Da mentioned several times that he wanted to add another hidden passage and a second elevator. Jeeezzz, I should have paid more attention to the details!"

This time it was Strangler's turn, "Who's kicking their own ass now?" he smirked, "I forgot about this shit too. Your right, we either need to find those blueprints or sit down with the Trio and get on the same page. Too much, too fast, nobody's had time to think." He walked forward, taking mental note of the items stored in this room, "I need to remember to grab a pen and pad next time. Let's go check the armory."

Using his 'keys to the Castle', they entered the the Armory, where everything was already in place. Apparently the Trio had been taking care of business. The stock of weapons from the old Clubhouse had already been combined with the military weapons that they had been acquiring over the years. They looked like toys compared to what he was seeing now, he was familiar with Mac 10's, AK-47's and the like, but he hadn't even thought of things like explosives and rocket launchers. There was more than enough ammo for everything, and more than just a few pieces that he had never seen before. In fact, he couldn't name half of what he was looking at. He had always considered himself a decent marksman, versed in semi-automatics, but this shit was the major leagues! It occured to him then, that back in the day, when making deals with the established clubs in the area, the original four had actually been working on their own agenda.

"These men are even more dangerous than even I thought they were." He admitted, trying to remember in what movies he had seen some of these pieces. "I'm feeling better about our chances now that I've seen our source of power, and even more in knowing that we have so many men that are military trained." He looked at Stax, again sharing his private thoughts, "All this time I've been 100% invested in our whole survival of the family way of living, but I don't think that I've ever really comprehended just exactly what that might eventually mean,  until just now." Watching her face for signs of disappointment or accusation and seeing neither, he continued on, "Angel, if this doesn't work we're done for, in every sense of the word."

Inwardly Stax shivered, understanding exactly where he was coming from. She too had just been slapped in the face with the raw reality of it all. For her, it had been a daily way of life to talk about and act on things to prepare for what might happen." But the truth was, nothing had ever really happened. It had always been about putting your efforts into the preparations for the future. Now, here they were on the threshold of physically acting.