A Town Called America (32 page)

“You’re going to lock me up?” Chris asked.

“Guard, take Chris and place her in one of the holding cells aboard
The Gem of the Seas
. Chris, your accommodations will be quite nice, and when this war is over—and it will be very quickly—if you haven’t misplaced your priorities, you’ll have your place at the table of the Nine, as I promised you.”

Chris was escorted out of the room. It was the last time she ever set foot on the oil rig of the Nine.

FORTY FIVE

W
eeks passed before Chris finally received that word that Rick’s army had attacked the M.M. She was sitting in her room on
The Gem of the Seas
—a high-end stateroom on the twelfth floor that had a balcony with an amazing view of the ocean. On the far side of the room, toward the inside of the vessel, was an additional balcony that overlooked the most impressive courtyard she ever had seen, with trees, plants, and a garden right there on the ship.

Night after night Chris had been waiting for news about Rick. When she did receive it, she didn’t know what to do. She wanted to be with her family, and she owed it to them to support them, but she also knew that if the Nine died, humanity ultimately would perish.

“Thank you, Captain,” she told the man who brought the news.

“Ma’am, is there anything else I can do for you?”

“No.”

The M.M. captain turned and walked out of Chris’s room, locking the door behind him.

Across the Midwest and the East Coast, Rick’s army struck all M.M. units simultaneously. The M.M. had been warned and were as prepared as they could be, but as Mr. Magnus noted, they were indeed spread too thin.

The Army for the Free People of America cut off all M.M. supply lines. Unable to resupply with provisions and ammunition, all seven M.M. outposts were left to their own devices. Although Rick didn’t like the tactics his army was employing, they were effective.

Soldiers, young and old, volunteered to serve as suicide bombers. They drove vehicles stolen from the M.M. near the bases and, with large amounts of explosives, breached the outer walls, allowing Rick’s troops to gain access. Just as Rick had planned, the M.M. hadn’t expected this, and therefore they lost their tactical advantage.

A few months later, word once again reached Chris, this time informing her that every M.M. military outpost had been destroyed and that the Army for the Free People of America officially had won what was now being called the Slave War. It was bloody and dirty, and Rick had lost more than 20 percent of his soldiers. If the M.M. had been able to hold out a few weeks longer, Rick was sure his troops would have had to retreat.

The victory occurred more quickly than anyone had anticipated—neither Rick nor the Nine had expected it to turn out the way it had—but it was over. In the process Rick’s soldiers had found that on nearly every M.M. outpost there were cages numbering in the thousands, all filled with slaves the M.M. had captured. Rick himself gave the order to free the slaves, which in his mind would help justify the loss of so many good people.

It was a day of mixed emotions for Rick and all his soldiers. They had won the land war, and the only remaining soldiers were aboard the cruise ship
The Gem of the Seas
and on the oil rig. Even with the celebration, which Rick knew his troops deserved, he felt solemn. His lost soldiers—people with families and children—were people. It was because of these brave souls that Rick and his remaining troops were still standing.

When Chris learned that Rick’s army had won the land war, she knew the cages that had been on the M.M. outposts weren’t filled with
human slaves, as Rick had thought them to be; they were filled with vampires, and now the vampires were on loose.

She knew Rick and his soldiers truly believed they were doing the right by opening the cages, but she also knew what had been set into motion ultimately would destroy the human race.

With the first phase of the war over, Billy and Robbie were celebrating as Rick sat alone in his tent. Wine and cigarettes were a fine treat around the giant bonfire that night with the soldiers who had made their victory possible. For the first time in more than a decade, those men were truly free.

All were in excellent spirits and were enjoying the evening—all except Rick, who, beyond the loss of his men, was thinking only about Chris. He didn’t talk about it, but he felt it. She should have been celebrating with him. Regardless of what she thought they should or shouldn’t do, Rick didn’t consider her a traitor, nor did Billy or Robbie feel that she had betrayed their trust. They knew she was doing what she felt was right at the time.

Phase two was about to take place, and it would either end the war once and for all or merely delay the Nine until they rebuilt their army.

If they were to win and the remaining M.M. were destroyed, along with the Nine, Rick already had set in motion the process of restoring a new US government.

Trusted personnel were being put in place as temporary government officials, based on the original constitution. Each of the few surviving towns was being appointed a mayor, a police chief, a judge, and security for these positions until official voting took place. It would be a long process and require a great deal of effort, but they needed a new government that was just and fair—a true place of hope, just as a town called America once had been for so many.

Darkness fell on the East Coast, and a group of twelve men led by Rick, Billy, and Robbie arrived on the beach. Behind them, not sixty feet from the shore, were the remains of a once-great hotel standing
silently under the dark, cloud-covered sky. The building was now a fraction of its former self; all that remained was its outer shell. The windows had been shattered; the floors had collapsed; and thick vegetation covered nearly every inch of what was left.

Outside the massive building, the men sat on broken concrete that once had been a curb for VIP parking; Rick was the only one to remain standing. Looking out toward the water, they saw, off in the distance, the lights from
The Gem of the Seas
and the oil rig, which sat silently on the horizon.

These men weren’t Rick’s everyday soldiers. He had handpicked this group, as they were his most trusted men. It had been his idea to keep the group small in order to maintain the element of surprise.

His plan was simple: sneak aboard the cruise ship quickly and silently; take control of the vessel; and plant explosives. After that all they had to do was set the ship on a direct course for the oil rig and use a remote device to set off the charges.

Initially the idea didn’t seem possible because nearly all the explosives in their possession had been used in other battles, but Rick’s army overcame that problem after they took the second of the M.M. bases. They had gained control of enough ammunition and explosives to minimally sustain themselves for months.

On the beach they reviewed the last of the details, and Rick broke his men into four groups. He had kept this part of the plan secret from the group, including Billy and Robbie, as he couldn’t take any chance of the Nine gaining the upper hand in what would determine whether the human race would remain free or continue to provide slaves for the Nine.

Rick initially had wanted to attack the oil rig first and take out the Nine then attack
The Gem of the Seas
, but ultimately he decided to attack the cruise ship first and use it as a makeshift battering ram.

After much thought it had been decided that the operation would take place at night instead of the daytime. This was for two reasons. First, Rick felt the Nine would assume the attack would occur during the day when the vampires were the most vulnerable. An attack at night, he hoped, would catch them off guard. Second, at night
they’d be able to approach the ship under the cover of darkness, not to mention that anything in direct sunlight would be problematic as not desired to be cooked.

As for attacking
The Gem of the Seas
first, well, that was simple logic: destroying the cruise ship first would destroy most of the remaining members of the M.M. If they did it the other way around, the M.M. soldiers on the cruise ship surely would aid those on the oil rig, and Rick and his men had no idea how many were aboard.

After everyone had been briefed regarding their tasks, the four groups headed off into the night to carry out the second phase of the war effort.

It was summer, and the air was thick with humidity that created a slight mist just above the surface of the water, which was ideal, as it would be harder for anyone on the cruise ship to see them as they approached.

The cool ocean breeze, the calm of the water, and the hope that this would be the last battle any would be involved in were the only things keeping the men in such high spirits, as they all knew it might just be a one-way trip.

Although
The Gem of the Seas
was an astounding vessel, it required a tremendous amount of fuel to be fully operational. From his sources Rick knew the ship was operational, but fuel was still scarce, so the M.M. kept the vessel anchored off the coast in deep water, where it could move freely but only if necessary.

Rick led the first group of three. His mission was to gain control of a vessel that was used to refuel the massive cruise ship. His intelligence also had indicated that the vessel would be meeting up with
The Gem of the Seas
in a just a few hours, so timing was of the utmost importance.

Robbie led the second three-man group. They were in a skiff, heading toward the cruise ship. Their mission was simply to wait, cause a diversion at the right time near the front of the vessel, and enter the ship as additional support if necessary.

The last group belonged to Billy. They were in another skiff, and they would enter the ship then gain access to the engine room and the bridge.

Taking the fuel vessel would be easy enough if their intelligence proved correct. Only three men operated the vessel. It wasn’t intended to refuel the engines of the cruise ship, only its generators. The fuel ship was small—140 feet long—and held approximately twenty thousand gallons of diesel. One of the three men operating the vessel was a longtime friend of Rick’s, and he didn’t hesitate to pull a weapon on the other two in order to gain control of the vessel to support Rick’s cause.

He, however, was surprised when he pulled out his pistol and pointed it at the two men on the bridge; they attempted to remain in control of the vessel by attacking him.

He had assumed they would give up easily. He had no choice but to shoot one of them, leaving him with only one remaining round in his weapon when the bridge commander took a stab at him with a large knife. He had intended to keep the commander alive but was forced to shoot him as well.

Rick and his two counterparts climbed from a small raft aboard the fuel vessel, which was waiting for them about a half mile from shore.

“What the hell, L.J.? Two people dead? We needed the commander alive,” Rick said from the bridge.

“He came at me with a knife,” L.J. said. “What the hell was I supposed to do?”

Before Rick could respond, the radio on the bridge buzzed to life.