Liberty or Tyranny (12 page)

In the back of his mind that same constant ache ate at him, because he knew if the military had acted it may have saved a lot of lives and brought America much further down the road to recovery, but on the other hand he also knew that military coups seldom if ever resulted in more freedom and stability. You just could not trust one general or a group of generals with absolute power. The trouble was, they had a new president who was reaching
his
goal of absolute power, and the results were likely to be even worse than a military coup. For this man had no honor, no compassion, no humanity.

The APC slowed and hooked a right turn, where the driver was confronted with an instant decision of whether to drive on and run over a group of men in the middle of the road or stop. Six or seven skinny, filthy young men from 15 to 25 years of age were in the process of raping an equally emaciated and filthy teenage girl. In most cases, the driver would have just run them over, but he knew the general would be angry, so this time he swerved around to the right and passed them.

As the limo went by, the general saw what was happening. He yelled to his driver to radio the APC to stop. He reached for an M4 and opened the door of the limo. Immediately, the driver and his bodyguards protested loudly. He did not hear them. Already out of the limo, he aimed and released a 10-round burst. Two rapists remained unscathed and tried to run, but he cut them down before they got 10 yards. The girl lay on the asphalt crying, looking at him in dismay.

Carl Strovenov, General of the Army and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, reached inside to his seat and grabbed a bag that was going to be his next meal. Soldiers swarmed around him, their weapons trained outward, scanning the area for danger, as he walked up to the girl and handed her the bag. “Here is some food. I’m sorry I can’t do more for you.” He gritted his teeth and walked back to the limo, sliding in and closing the door behind him.

The girl took the bag and ran down the street.

Carl Strovenov put the smoking M4 down on the seat beside him and wiped his face. He kept his head down and refused to look out the window all the way to the White House.
We could’ve had law and order by now. We could’ve had them fed by now. Fed two or three times a day, 365 days a year. So much time wasted. So many lives wasted. If only the government itself had survived the plague somewhat intact, if the president and a few more Senators and Congressmen had survived, things would’ve been different.
He shook his head and closed his eyes, pressing moisture from them, causing a rivulet to flow down each side of his weathered and strained face.
And this faux president. The SOB’s evil. He hides it, but his actions reveal his true heart. People are expendable to him. He loves only power.

He reached into a pocket and produced a photo of his late wife and two sons. Both sons were in their 20s and in uniform at the time the photo was taken, recent graduates of West Point. Other than memories, the photo was all he had left of his family.

On entering the White House, General Strovenov was searched way beyond normal procedures, in fact he was nearly disrobed.
I know the president doesn’t trust me. You bastards don’t have to light up a neon sign
. “Are you through?”

“Yes we are, General,” the Secret Service agent answered. “Sorry for the inconvenience.” He waved him on past the security station.

An aide to the president escorted the general to the Oval Office, where the president waited behind his desk.

President Capinos stood. “Thank you for coming so quickly, Carl. There is a situation down in Florida that I think you should be brought up to date on.”

Strovenov sat down, laying his thin folder on his lap. It contained information he had gathered and wanted to show the president. For months, he had been trying to persuade Capinos to concentrate on two things: providing protection for the citizens from the criminal element, and helping the people produce their own food. He believed that all they needed was technical know-how, some equipment, and if allowed to farm fertile land close enough to their homes that they could walk there without any need of motorized vehicles, they could learn to feed themselves. This would allow them to not only farm the land but to get the produce to the people who needed it, and all without burning any more scarce fuel than needed for the farming equipment.

So far, his efforts had been in vain. In fact, the president had grown ever more angry whenever the general brought the subject up. He intended to try harder this time, even if he had to throw out protocol and insist, even be rude, more than that, dare to accuse the president of actually wanting the American people to starve and be at the mercy of violent criminals in the streets. Yes, such a thing would be insane, but he was more convinced each day that the president wasn’t playing with a full deck of cards. Certainly, you would find more humanity in a block of marble stone.

Capinos immediately threw a monkey wrench into the general’s plans.

“Carl, we have a lieutenant colonel in North Florida who is giving us problems. He’s reluctant to follow orders and continuously restrains his men from performing their duties. I want him relieved of command and put up on charges.”

Though Strovenov tried to conceal his reaction, he was not entirely successful. “I don’t believe I’ve ever heard of a president being directly involved in the discipline of Army officers below the rank of general. If there is a problem with any officer, it will be dealt with. I’ll look into it.”

Capinos leaned over his desk and glared at the general. “Not good enough, Carl. I want action today.”

The general stared back. “So far, all you’ve given me are vague statements and accusations. Reluctance to follow orders? What orders? Was the order immoral or illegal, such as to slaughter half of a town? I have to look into this and see what the hell is going on before I have any officer relieved of duty and charged with a crime. You say put him up on charges, what charges? Anything I can think of, just to get rid of him?” His face turned red. “I don’t work that way. I refuse to ruin a man’s life without good cause. Exactly what crime has he committed?”

Capinos looked him up and down, disgust in his eyes. “For one thing, I have reason to believe he tipped off enemies of the state. He told them they were about to be arrested, and gave them a chance to get away. We’re searching for them now. But that would not have been necessary if he had not tipped them off.”

The general coughed. “This sounds like another one of your witch hunts to me. I’ll have this investigated.” He tried to relax in his chair and regain control of his emotions. His stomach felt like a boiling bowl of acidic bile, and a severe case of heartburn was adding to his burning fuse that was growing shorter by the second. “Exactly what do you mean when you say he’s overly restraining his soldiers?”

“He coddles the indigenous people of the area and insists his soldiers do the same.”

Strovenov’s eyes flashed something undecipherable for a millisecond. “Must you insist on vagueness and indirect, meaningless answers when I ask you a question? I cannot charge him with coddling the American people. There is no such crime. I cannot charge him with instructing his soldiers not to commit atrocities, if that is what you’re referring to. Again, there is no such crime. On the contrary, if he had instructed his soldiers to murder American citizens or abuse them in any way, he
would
be guilty of a crime. Even if he had simply looked the other way and allowed it tacitly and without any spoken or written orders given, he would be guilty of a crime. But you seem to be complaining that he has done exactly what he was supposed to do. So far, it sounds to me that we have a good officer down there. As to the other charge of tipping off fugitives – some group of people you call enemies of the state – as I said, I’ll look into that.”

Capinos jumped to his feet. “You’re treading close to insubordination yourself!”

You have no idea,
Strovenov didn’t say. “Mister President, I have simply asked you to be more specific. I still do not know what crimes this man has committed other than the one charge of tipping off what you call enemies of the state. And I have already said I’ll look into that. The coddling of civilians is so silly there is nothing I can do to respond to it. As I have stated, it’s not a crime. This is why I have asked you to elaborate and be more specific as to what the problem is.”

Regaining his composure, Capinos sat down and spoke with measured words and in a calm tone of voice. “For now, I will be satisfied to see your report on my desk by 10 PM tonight detailing the results of your investigation of this officer’s crime of warning criminals and giving them enough time to get away before my men arrived. If you find anything at all on him, I want him relieved of duty and under arrest.”

General Strovenov raised an eyebrow. “That’s not much time. It won’t be much of an investigation. The colonel is in Florida. I’m here in Washington. But I’ll do what I can.” He stood. “Now, with your permission, I must communicate with my subordinates in order to get this investigation rolling.”

“Yes, by all means.” Capinos exhibited a cold smile. “I look forward to your report at 10 PM tonight.”

~~~

Brian heard something in the brush 20 yards to his left. He slowly shouldered his rifle and clicked the safety off, waiting to be sure of his target. It was about time for his father and Deni to be back, but to assume it was them before laying eyes on one of them could prove to be a fatal mistake. Well hidden in thick brush and camouflaged with his boonie hat and olive drab jacket on, he remained perfectly still, moving only his eyes.

Two minutes passed, and he caught a slight movement in the shadow of tall pines. And then he saw four square inches of Deni’s face and recognized her. Turning his head slightly to his right, he witnessed his father emerge from the wall of green, materialize. One second he was not visible, the next he was, standing there looking at Brian.

Nate hand-signaled him to remain quiet and worked his way slowly over, while Deni stayed back and overwatched.

The silent question on Brian’s face could not have been spoken louder with words.

Nate answered, “It looks like they got away before the soldiers arrived. Someone warned them.”

Brian’s eyes lit up. “Colonel Donovan.”

Nate nodded. “Or he had someone else do it for him.”

Deni stood beside them. “Anything happen while we were gone?”

Shaking his head, Brian answered, “Nope. We managed to get a little rest in between worrying about you and the people at the farm.”

Tyrone and Atticus heard them talking. They walked up with their packs strapped on and ready to travel.

“Good news it seems.” Atticus scratched the back of his ear. “We haven’t had much of that lately.”

“You two want to rest a while before we head out?” Tyrone leaned forward slightly to counterweight his heavy pack and held his rifle in both hands. He still was not used to carrying a heavy load. “Glad to hear they got away. Probably we should be making tracks ourselves.”

Everyone agreed. Brian took just long enough to grab his pack and strap it on before they headed deeper into the woods, downhill, to the wet lowlands and the river valley.

~~~

Nate chose a spot just on the edge of dry land but not far from the river. It had been way too cold for mosquitoes the last four months. In fact Nate felt mosquito season would be so late in the year they would not arrive in great numbers until summer was finally well set in. Tyrone and Atticus mostly stayed out of the way and stood watch, while the other three worked to set up camp. In less than 30 minutes, they had a lean-to set up, using a nylon tarp and covering it with freshly cut pine boughs. They cut palmetto fronds and laid them on the floor to provide some waterproofing from the moist soil. On top of that, they added six inches of the driest leaves they could find to provide insulation from the cold ground at night. So far, winter had showed no signs of relinquishing its hold on the weather and allowing spring to arrive, and they had no idea how long they would be there, since going back to the farm or even Mel’s bunker was out of the question for the time being.

Next on Nate’s agenda was a reliable source of drinkable water. Both he and Brian had water filters in their packs, and Deni had chemical water purification tablets. But Nate preferred to boil the water to make it potable. And he preferred the cleanest water possible for boiling. With that in mind, he and Brian left the others in camp and headed for the river to look for a spring or at least a sand boil on the river’s edge.

The sand in Florida sand boils was usually granulated limestone and could be filtered out with cloth from a shirt or some other apparel. Sand boils were small, weak springs, and the water clean, straight from the aquifer. Even so, Nate always boiled or purified it with chemicals or filters before drinking spring water just to be safe.

This was where Nate and Brian’s knowledge of the area came in to play. Though they were many miles from Mel’s bunker and even farther from their farm, they both had intimate knowledge of every inch of the river for 25 miles or more in either direction from where they stood. As a boy, Nate had spent many days exploring the river valley, searching out the springs along the river. Some of the springs were fairly large and in the bottom of the river itself or on the edge, while others were anywhere from a few yards to hundreds of yards back from the river and in the swamp. Most of the larger springs were known by fishermen and other people who frequented the area, but the smaller ones were known only to Nate and Brian. If not for the danger of the largest springs being known by others and therefore an attraction that could result in unwanted visitors, Nate would’ve brought the group to a very large spring eight miles away. Not only would it have been a source for clean cool drinking water, the spring held enough water in its basin to hold many fish and would’ve been a convenient source of food. The spring’s run also held fish that they could’ve trapped or caught with hook and line. Unfortunately, such a large spring would be well known by the locals and serious fishermen, hunters, and backpackers from other parts of the state. He knew of one spring 20 miles south of him that canoe trip guides brought tourists to before the plague ended normal life. Such a spring would be so well known he wouldn’t be surprised to learn there were three or four families living near it, trying to ride out the storm.

Nearing the river, Brian moved close enough to Nate he could whisper. “If I remember correctly, there’s a sand boil or two downstream a ways, where the river gets a lot deeper.”

Nate nodded, keeping his eyes busy scanning the woods for trouble. “Yeah, and uphill from that about 100 yards from the river into the swamp, there’s a pool of clean spring water that comes up out of the ground. The little pool is about five feet wide with a white sandy bottom. I suspect it’s from the same underground stream that the sand boils come from. Just a little ways farther, the ground slopes up fast, gaining over 50 feet in elevation. I guess the underground spring runs under that hill and the pressure causes it to boil up at this place I’m looking for.”

“Why didn’t we set up camp at the spring?” Brian kept his voice low and his eyes busy.

“Even though it’s a small spring, we might not be the only ones who know about it. I didn’t want to take the chance on us stumbling onto a nasty group and get into a shootout, just because we were unwanted quests.” Nate grinned. “Besides, I don’t remember exactly where it is after all these years. It’s better to have a camp set up until I find the damn thing.”

Brian’s eyes lit up. “Oh.” He looked around. “I guess we’ve been lucky to have all these woods around our farm and Mel’s bunker. These woods have given us a place to hide many times when we needed it.”

Nate agreed. “And it’s acted as a buffer. The remoteness of our farm and all this state and federal forest land around us has kept a lot of undesirables away.” He glanced at his son and grinned. “Even though it hasn’t seemed that way at times, especially when that gang was trying to get across the bridge. It’s the reason Mel bought that land close to our farm in the first place. He was looking for a remote area with lots of woods, few roads and few people.”

“I hope Mel makes it back here someday.”

“So do I. Let’s find that spring. We’re wasting time.”

They headed uphill in silence. Despite everything, they were both in a good mood, simply because they knew their friends at the horse farm had managed to escape before the soldiers arrived. Even so, there were plenty of dark clouds hanging over not only their heads but everyone they knew and cared about.