Ozark Retreat (10 page)

When Brady ran over he saw Sam sitting in the passenger seat of the truck, holding onto a bloody shoulder.

“Doc!” Brady called and waved him over.

Sam said, “Have him look at the others first. I’ve got several wounded. I can hang on for a bit longer.”

“What happened, Sam?”

“They laid low and ambushed us. They must have been monitoring our frequency and knew we were coming. One of them fired early, before we were in the kill zone, inside the compound fences. The rest jumped out and began firing. I saw one of them turn to the man that had fired first and shoot him in the back of the head. Everyone tried to turn around or back up and we just interfered with one another. But we finally got away from them. We maybe got one or two, but that’s all. It was a mess. We stopped when we got out of range and swapped injured drivers for uninjured and headed for your place for help.”

“We’ll do what we can. Do you think they are on your tail?”

“I don’t know. I don’t think so.”

Brady deployed his people in a hasty ambush just back up the road a little ways in a sharp turn. Drivers took the vehicles well clear and came back to join the ambush. Brady sent the doctor and his nurse with Sam’s crew to Brady’s compound while he commanded the rear guard action.

Brady waited until almost dark before calling off the ambush. They loaded up and hurried back to the compound. It wasn’t good news when they got there. Three of the ten people Sam had with him had died. Three more had serious wounds, including Sam.

When Brady was able to talk Sam again, after he’d been seen to by the doctors, Brady got another shock. It hadn’t come up in the first conversation. “I saw Harvey Blankenship and two other men I recognized. It was Colonel Machabee’s group. They’ve gone rogue. I can’t believe it of the Colonel. His group has been a big help every time they were needed.”

“Don’t blame the Colonel. He’s dead. Tied up and slaughtered with two others. His men must have turned on him. There wasn’t a scrap of food in the place, though even if they had left for some other reason, they would have taken it. Why wouldn’t they have contacted us? We could have spared some food for them.”

“Us too,” Sam said.

Brady didn’t want to bother him anymore. The pain killer that Doctor Amos had given Sam was taking effect. And Sam obviously didn’t know any more than he’d stated.

Star came up to Brady. He was staring off into space, thinking. “Are you all right?” She asked, putting a hand on his shoulder.

“No. We don’t need this. I mean, a nuclear war and Yellowstone. Survivors shouldn’t be fighting survivors. It’s just not right!”

“I know, Brady. But we have to deal with it.”

“We will,” Brady said coldly. “With a vengeance. Come on. I want to talk to the other MAG commanders.”

It was the first time Star had ever seen Brady angry. He threw down the microphone and said a bad word. “I cannot believe the others refused to join us in an attack! Don’t they realize we’re all at risk until this situation is resolved? They’ve turned rogue and killed their own. They are liable to do anything. We have to stop them as quickly as possible.”

“Do you think… what about the families?”

“I don’t know,” Brady looked glum. “This is not going to be simple. Would you go find Harry and Barbara? We need to brainstorm this. And check the security team. Make sure they are on high alert.”

“Okay,” Star got up and headed outdoors. Brady was depending more and more on her and she liked the feeling and the responsibility. After finding Harry and Barbara and sending them to see Brady, Star stopped at the MAG armory. She still carried her Walther in the inside the waistband, small of back holster, but she had taken to carrying one of the MAG’s Glock 21’s in a flap holster on her hip. Brady had checked her out on it before issuing it to her.

At her insistence, Brady had also trained her on everything else in the armory. She picked up a Steyr AUG from the armory and went to help the security detail. She joined the rovers on top of the wall, encouraging them and setting an example.

When Barbara and Harry showed up Brady took them and Dr. Amos to his housing unit for a private conference. “What is your take on this?” he asked, after filling them in on everything he knew about the situation.

“We have to address it quickly,” Barbara said. “As much as I hate violence, I think violence is the only response to this.”

“Me, too,” Harry said. “We have to root them out and destroy them. I don’t relish the idea of being on constant high alert, waiting for them to attack us.”

Dr. Amos didn’t respond, just nodding his head in agreement.

“Something we haven’t considered is the fate of those in the Lowry compound. Did they kill them all, or are they holding them?” Brady asked. “We very well may be risking innocent lives if we attack.”

“That place won’t sustain a double population,” Harry replied. “The Lowery MAG was scraping by as it was.”

“You think we might be able to infiltrate and scout the situation?” Harry asked.

Brady shook his head. “They are almost all ex-military. I’m sure they are on alert now that what they’ve done is known. That fact is also going to make it difficult to attack successfully, without losing a lot of people.”

“I just don’t know,” Barbara said her voice low. “I really don’t want to make this kind of decision, Brady. The survival aspects were okay. Some hard decisions had to be made, but this… A lot of people are going to die, no matter what we do.”

“I’ll back you, Brady,” Harry said, “Whatever you decide.”

“Ditto,” Dr. Amos said.

Their words were leaving the decision totally up to Brady and Brady knew it. “There is something bothering me about the Machabee compound,” Brady said after a long silence. “I want to check it out before I make a decision.”

The trio broke up and Brady went to the armory and then to the Suburban, ordered the gates open, and left the compound. Star saw the vehicle leaving and ran down to find out where Brady was going.

“He shouldn’t be going off by himself in a situation like this!” she protested, more concerned than she wanted to admit. She was ready to go after him in another vehicle, but Barbara and Harry talked her out of it, insisting that Brady would be more upset if they let her go than if he ran into trouble.

Brady took his time going back to the Machabee compound, not expecting an ambush, but too cautious not to take precautions. He made it to the compound without a problem. He parked the Suburban and got out, carrying an HK-91. He kept it at the ready as he wandered around the compound, searching for he didn’t know what.

Despite his care the voice from the edge of the forest caught him by surprise. “Turn around and put down your weapons! I have you in my sights!” It was a woman’s voice. It sounded scared, but firm.

Brady hesitated but the unmistakable sound of a pump shotgun racking convinced him. He laid the HK-91 down and then took the Glock 21 from its holster and put it down beside the HK.

“Turn around, too,” came the voice.

Brady did so, his hands out to his sides. She hadn’t told him to put them up. He tensed when he heard running footstep coming toward him. “Take two steps forward and stop.”

Brady didn’t move. When he felt something prod him in the back. He spun, knocking the barrel of the shotgun out of line with his body, continuing the spin with a low sweeping kick. His booted foot caught the woman in the ankles and she went down hard, the shotgun flying away.

When he stopped the turn and spun back around he suddenly realized that it was no woman, but a mere girl child. She couldn’t have been more than twelve or thirteen. She was huddled on the ground now, crying, her long blonde hair hanging down over her face.

“Geez!” Brady whispered, going to one knee to try to comfort her. “I’m not going to hurt you,” he said, reaching out to touch her shoulder. She shied back away from him.

“What is your name?” he asked gently, not trying to touch her again.

“You know who I am! You’re one of them!”

“Them? The people from this compound?”

“Yes.”

“I’m not. I’m Brady. From the St. Louis MAG compound. Are you hurt? Can you stand up?”

“Really? You’re not one of them?”

“Honest. I won’t hurt you.”

The girl didn’t protest as Brady helped her to her feet. She took a step and almost fell. “Ow! My ankle!”

Brady went to one knee. He felt of her ankle. It wasn’t broken, but he’d obviously bruised her badly when he kicked her feet out from under her.

“I’m sorry,” Brady said, standing up again. “I didn’t know.”

She didn’t comment about the ankle, instead asking, “Do you have any food?”

It was her turn to tense when Brady leaned down and picked up his weapons. He holstered the Glock, and slung the HK. He stepped over and picked up the shotgun. It was a Remington .410 bore 870 pump. He handed it to her.

Her eyes got big. “You’re giving it back to me?”

“Yes. I want you to know you can trust me.”

“It’s empty,” she said.

“What? You braced me with an empty shotgun?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Come on over to the truck. I have some jerky and gorp.”

She was limping, but she followed Brady to the Suburban. He handed her the food and a canteen of water. She was tearing the jerky with her teeth, barely taking time to chew it. Brady stood silently, letting the obviously starving girl eat until she finally stopped and took a drink of water. “Thanks. I was starving. Can I keep this for later?”

Brady nodded. “Can you tell me what your story is?” His eyes kept scanning the forest and the entry into the compound, as she began to talk.

“We got really low on food.”

Surprised, Brady asked, “You’re a member of the group?”

She frowned. “Not anymore! Not after what they did!”

“What is your name?”

“Claudia Machabee. Colonel Machabee was my Uncle.”

“Okay, Claudia, go on.”

“We got really low on food. They stopped feeding the ones that got sick during the winter and just let them die. Uncle Bob was against it, but Captain Meyers forced him to let it happen. Uncle Bob wasn’t the same after Aunt Jean died. Before he was really powerful. But he just couldn’t seem to tell people what to do after she died from food poisoning.

“Captain Meyers said it was your fault she died. Because you wouldn’t send a doctor to help her when she was sick.”

“What? We never got a call about anyone sick here!”

“Really? I bet Captain Meyers was lying about it. I caught him in a bunch of lies, but Uncle Bob wouldn’t believe me. Captain Meyers kept talking bad about your group. He scouted the place out he said and you guys were taking stuff from the other groups.”

Brady just shook his head. This Captain Meyers sounded like a head case.

“When it got really bad, Uncle Bob and a couple of the others stopped eating almost completely and began insisting we get help. He ordered Captain Meyers to contact you, but the Captain said you wouldn’t answer. That you were just waiting until we died to come take our stuff. I don’t know why Uncle Bob didn’t get on the radio himself to check, but he didn’t. He believed in the chain of command, he said. I don’t really know what he meant, but he wouldn’t do anything about Captain Meyers. I hate him!” Claudia’s eyes blazed. “He tried to do stuff with me, but I wouldn’t let him.”

“Where were your mother and father?” Brady asked.

Her face fell. “They sent me down here with Uncle Bob and Aunt Jean. They never got here.”

“I’m sorry,” Brady said gently. “Can you go on?”

Claudia nodded, sniffing back tears. “They tried hunting, but they said not much game survived. And Captain Meyers and some of them started talking about eating someone when they died. There were big arguments. I wasn’t supposed to hear them, but I did. Uncle Bob seemed to come alive. He was really mad. Then a few days ago one of the babies died and some of them were going to cook it and eat it. That’s when… I don’t know the word… Captain Meyers said he was taking over. They tied up Uncle Bob, Captain Murcheson, and Emily Waters. They were good friends with Uncle Bob and helped out a lot.

“A bunch of the women tried to stop the men from cutting up the body. Captain Meyers was looking at me funny. I guess I went kind of crazy. I sneaked into the gun room and got my shotgun and ran away and hid in the woods. My dad and uncle used to take me camping all the time. I can shoot good, but I was scared and forgot to take extra shells for the shotgun.

“Some men came after me, but I’ve been out in the woods a bunch, trying to hunt squirrels and rabbits the way Daddy taught me. I knew lots of places to hide. They quit looking after a couple of days, after I shot one of them. I don’t think I killed him because he was really cussing and screaming.

“I kept sneaking back close then, hoping I could run in and let Uncle Bob and the others go, but I couldn’t.” Claudia started to cry softly then, but continued with her story. “Then they brought them out and all the guys and some of the girls all shot them at once. Then they all got into the trucks and left. Some of the women didn’t want to go, but the others made them. I didn’t know what to do so I just hid in the woods. I was here getting water when the trucks came. I thought they’d come back, so I hid deeper in the woods. I guess it was you guys. I wish I’d come out then.”