The Free Republic of Texas 2015 (26 page)

He told us the gang had been together since the war started and at times was bigger or smaller depending on how many they lost in taking over the next place they came up on. They avoided any place that looked well defended  , when asked how they gained entry to the smaller places he said his mom and a couple of the other women would drive up in an old car and ask for help when the folks there gathered around to talk to them the gang would hit them from hiding. He said also it was a standing order to not shoot the younger women.

I could see Jody’s jaw working while he listened, any sympathy we might have had for the young man was dispelled when he was asked why they did these things, he replied with the answer that “Hey we gotta live too and it’s a dog eat dog world, the strong will win  the weak are just cattle to be used. Sadly he seemed to believe this and saw nothing wrong with it…

Jody at last said well enough of this and got up and walked away , he said something to the clan scouts who nodded and he headed back to his rig, fortunately the ambulance was parked around a curve , soon there was several quiet popping sounds as the scouts used silenced 22’s to clean up this part of the mess.

After the body’s were removed from sight we rolled on up a ways and Jody called the Bird dog and told him to make a gun run over the place and see what it stirred up , this was the first real gun run for the bird dog but we all knew what it could do , shortly we heard the plane then the fools shooting at it for sport, then came the ripping sound of the mini gun , followed  by the sound of vehicles starting up and heading right at us , before we ever saw them they were hit by the scout bug with the M-60 mounted on it and the clansmen in the woods finished the job when the BG’s bailed out to run for it. It was over fast and we moved in to the farm house, there was a few holding up in the old barn but a few rounds from a 50 brought them on the run with hands up…

It never ceased to amaze me that these bastards who raped and murdered would start hollering for a lawyer the minute they were flushed out into the light of day.

Jody had the scout who found the family’s bodies lead us to the spot, he called for the med crew to come up, when Doc Ellen and Jade and the med crew saw the Mother and Father laying there with their three young kids that solved the problem of how we handled this kind of trash in the future.

Jody had 3 shovels brought up and ordered the bastards to start digging and when a grave big enough for the family was done the remains were gently placed in it and then covered up by several of our people.

After heading back to the barn and a rough question and answering session and we knew all we were going to get, Jody ordered them hanged, they were still screaming about their lawyers and their rights when they finely stopped dancing at the end of the rope, the rest of the trash was piled into the barn and it was burned.. Doc Ellen watched the flames and turning away said “Good riddance to bad trash”… thus summing up the feeling of the entire group.

It was hard for decent folks to imagine or understand how fast and badly so many people had slipped back to a time where there were no moral guidelines , how could it be that people who wouldn't steal a candy bar one day could resort to killing innocent people and selling young girls the next ? It’s very easy to blame the big city gangs but while there was many thousands in the bigger cities that couldn't account for the non gang members going rogue.

We just figured that there was a very large part of the population that while having surface morals really couldn't wait to let the beast out… and unfortunately it seems women and girls were their target… but while we couldn't save the ones who were already victims we could do out best to stop the ones we found… and find them we were.

We had decided it was best for now to avoid any of the larger and smaller cities. Rural towns seemed to be the place where things were held in check and we hoped that would continue to be the way of it… but we knew one day we would have to take care of the city issues once and for all. But for the moment we were just taking them as we found them…

After the last shoot out ...if it could be called that , we decided to head due West ...more or less , we passed South of Dallas and East of Waco  we were seeing lots of signs of the horrors of the aftermath of the collapse , after being out 10 days the Bird Dog spotted a small town starting to burn.. It was several miles due West and a bit south of our line of travel… the pilot flew over the place and radioed that there was a hell of a fire fight going on and the defenders were out numbered by what looked like the usual trash we had cleaned up to date..

Jody told him to back off and observe for a ways out and we dropped the hammer...so to speak… between the bad roads and the heavily loaded vehicles we weren't moving all that fast... Jody and I both decided to jump into a couple of bugs and take a fast react team into the area... after consulting the maps and laying out a route we called the B Dog and told him to fly back our way over the road we would be using..

In just a few minutes we heard then saw him , he said the way was clear as far as he could tell , he was told to fly ahead of us as slow as he could and as low as he thought safe.. He laughed and asked why he was trolling for? Jody told him Sharks! We all had a small laugh but knew he was hanging his ass out doing this… our hopes were that the BG's wouldn't have ambushes out .

After a low slow pass Birddog called back and said he saw nothing but wasn't gonna say it was safe! Jody sent one of the fast Bugs up the road to play bait with a Gun Bug a short ways behind them... the Bait Bug called back excited saying they had blown thru a small ambush so fast that the BG's had to run out behind them to shoot. Meaning they ran right in front of the Gun Bug...bad Juju on them! They then reported that 4 BG's had been put down and the road was open we dropped the hammer and soon were within half a mile of the battle… the Birddog had flown  back over the battle and reported the defenders were holding their own for the moment and that nobody seemed to have spotted him..

We decided to ease in and have the scouts go in and grab a warm body to "talk" to... it took the Clan scouts just a few minutes to locate a spotter on a small hill watching the fight thru binocs .. He was alone with a cheap radio like one might buy at any outdoor store. Shortly he was wrapped up and back with us… he was the usual trashy looking weasel but was smart enough to know asking for a lawyer wasn't gonna do him any good, after a few minutes we knew his bunch was about 40 shooters and were freelance slavers and after scouting the small town they figured they could take it and take the females.. and any goods they had , except this bunch were more like wolves then sheep and the slavers were not doing well but they had a lot of ammo , their plan to burn the folks out had ended when the wind came up from the wrong way for their plans .

About then the scouts on the up wind side called in and said they had just took out 3 BG's with fire bombs trying to get in close enough to toss them.. After calling in more scouts who were observing and having them point out the lay of the land we drove up a lot closer on the road into the town, Jody sent the gun bugs off with a scout bug each to get into a good spot with a clear field of fire…

Jody and I unassed the bugs and eased up to the observation spot the scouts had taken the spotter... the scene below was laid out right in front of us and the BG's were in sight from behind so Jody called in the snipers with their suppressed weapons, things went well until one of the BG's saw his buddies head explode out the front and knew they were under fire from behind... by then they were down to maybe 25 shooters who unwisely opened fire on the hillside where we were.. Jody simply said NOW in Clan speak and the "Saws" started running… it was over in a few seconds with about half the BG's tossing their weapons aside and raising their arms .

Things work out better when you have all the big sticks , once again we had nobody hit , one of our guys took a tumble down a wash and split his head open which hurt far less then the crap he was getting from his buddy's .. He was hauled back to the Doc's who were pleased to have something to do… and happy to not have any real work.

After the shooting stopped and we had the attention of the townies we sent two scouts in to talk to them… one was the lady we rescued who was now known as "Shooter" , we figured a woman even one dressed in tiger stripes would be more apt to be welcomed then a small Asian armed with an AK... Kate with her red hair and well tailored tiger stripes was really easy on the eyes and made contact with folks pretty easy.

After Kate had checked things out she called for the Medical team who rushed up and bailing out went to work on the town folks who were wounded, they well lead by an older man who knew what he was doing or the town would have fallen to the slavers, as it was they had suffered 3 dead and 5 wounded all of whom were going to make it if Doc and her bunch had anything to say about it.

Jody and I sat down with the old fellow who turned out the have spent 25 years in the army Rangers and knew which pile his crap was in. so to speak. His name was Harvey ( Harv) Williams , Harv said the town was mostly occupied by the folks who lived there before the war and was mostly a farm and ranch supply town , at the peak it had 350 people in town , when the world went out of control he just assumed control and people knowing his back ground followed his lead , and he just did what he had done all his life , as with most of the other places we had visited he had the roads closed and had everybody with a weapon to show up , women and kids too .. then he set about preparing the town to survive , with trusted men on guard duty at the road blocks the rest of the town were set to starting gardens and building fighting positions  that were interlocked .

It seemed to us that for the most part the small towns had held it together because of the community ties of a small town. There had to be something to this, but since we hadn't moved on any place bigger then a few hundred and small farms and ranches we really couldn't say but we needed to discuss it for sure.

But for now we had some scup bags to talk to, the slavers who had given up were being held separate so we could get all the information and cross reference it, by this method we could pretty much figure out what was what, as usual we let the Clan scouts scare the crap out of them and they all talked like their lives depended on it.. We learned that this slavery thing was a big deal and also who was buying the slaves and best of all. Where they were!

The next problem was that this nut was a big one and to crack it we needed more people and some heavy fire power and a plan, which we couldn't develop sitting here on our asses… So we needed to do a major recon on this dickweeds if we were going to save the folks being held and crush this bunch for good...

After we had all the information these mutts had we turned them over to the town folks , Short trial , long drop , short rope ... We chose to just leave it to them and we didn't even watch , instead we went to work with the maps , and talked over a plan for getting more information.. As much as it chapped mine and Jody's asses we just couldn't go on this recon  , so Jody called over 3 of the older Clan scouts who had worked with him some in the Central Highlands , It amazed me how many people he got out of there and who had stayed in contact ..

Jody laid out the plan to these men who would lead 3 separate scout units again as much as we both wanted to go along we had to forego it. It seems that there is a base of scum bags near Waco who took over a small town and turned it into a slave camp where the men were worked to produce food and the women were used as it pleased the scum bags, the kids were held until they had enough then sold to god alone who knew and for what although we all feared we knew..

Jody and I and the wives sat around our camp talking to the team leaders when Jody laid out the thoughts that were troubling him, it boiled down to the fact that while we had been killing off a few assholes we weren't doing anything about the bigger problems which was the root of the problem the main headquarters of the various gangs, it was like trying to wipe all the fire ants in Texas by burning out one mound which in and of it's self didn't work either..

Jody said he felt we needed to follow the 3 F's of Marine logic , Find em , Fix em and then Fuck em!... I think that translates to locate them find their main HQ then wipe them out… but some how his version seems more fun… but depending on how big a place they have and how many  guns not to mention how many innocents were in the line of fire would dictate just how big a force we would need..

One thing we have is massive fire power, but we don't have any artillery, but Jody is working on that??? I was wondering how we would handle cannons when we were trained in rifle work… Jody just smiled and said he was working one that too…

At this point we were kind of dead in the water so using the maps we located a state park a days ride away and bid good by to the folks in the little town who were now armed very well and ready for bear. We made the park easily enough and found a pleasant little place with a lake and the usual outhouses and camp spots after pulling in the scouts headed out for a recon which meant we would have deer and pig for dinner…

After reporting all quiet around the area for a couple of miles and bringing back the usual fresh meat the scouts set out the defenses around the camp , pretty much nothing was going to move thru the area without us knowing..

While waiting for the pig to roast we all headed for the lake and enjoyed a good swim and washing, the ladies were happy to get their hair clean after days of sweat and grime and smoky fires… dinner was great and relaxing was so welcome, we all went to bed early and for once got full nights sleep while the guard force stayed alert then took the day to rest.. It was a bit of heaven!