The Guardians (27 page)

"Everything looks legit Sir," said the Sargent as he returned Docto
r Stafford's paperwork to him.

Doctor Stafford
turned back to Rachel, gave her a hug, and said quietly, "You be careful out there in this messed up world.  Don't make me regret this."

Their escort Airman Castillo then interrupted and said, "Ma'am, we had better get you to the plane.  They won't wait for you."

"Yes, go, go!" Doctor Stafford said as he nudged them towards the checkpoint.

Rachel, Nate, and Luke picked up their packs and rushed through the entrance to the ramp where the C-130 crew was finalizing their pre-flight checks and preparations.  As they ran for the plane
, Rachel turned and looked back at Doctor Stafford, who was still on the other side of the checkpoint and mouthed the words "Thank you."  She then turned and ran to the plane, not looking back again. 

As Doctor Stafford watched her boa
rd the plane with Nate and Luke he thought to himself, Lord what have I done?  Please watch over her during their journey.  Please don't let her be just another tragedy in this messed up world.

The crew of the C-130 rushed them to their seats
and helped strap them in.  The crew chief told them all of the standard safety briefing items, and added, "The skies are still contested.  The Federal Government still considers the airspace above the states to be a no fly zone.  We fly in opposition to that declaration.  They have yet to take aggressive action for doing so, but, well, just so you know, there's always a first time for everything.  We stay low to avoid radar as best we can, so it will be a bumpy ride.  Here are some sick sacks.  Don't puke in my plane.  I'm not your mother, so I don't want to clean up after you," he said.

They closed the aircraft doors and the Allison turbine engines began to whine
.  With the swoop swoop swoop sound of the propellers spinning up to speed the airplane came to life.  Within minutes, they were taxiing out to the runway for takeoff.  Once in the air, Nate couldn't believe it.  He was beginning yet another chapter of his journey and was excited and apprehensive about what was yet to come.  When he was just beginning his journey, his goals were so uncertain and so far away it was easy to deal with things one day at a time, but now thoughts of the future were constantly bouncing around in his head.

As Nate's thoughts were keeping him occupied,
he looked over and saw Rachel with her head on Luke's shoulder sound asleep.  Luke just looked at him and smiled, as he had to sit there uncomfortably, holding her head in place as the near vertical seating position of the cargo plane jump-seats didn't allow for much else.

"I'm surprised she fell asleep on this loud and bumpy thing," Nate said.

"She was up all night worried sick," Luke replied.  "Her nerves are shot after all of the things that have happened lately.  She went to medical school with dreams of a small town family practice somewhere in the Midwest.  She never planned on being a combat Doc.  That was just a timing thing.  After she graduated medical school, it all began to unravel.  The TNG was the only game in town, and it felt like the right thing to do.  She just wasn't cut out for it though."

"Well, maybe with God's grace
, the two of you can have a little community family practice in Tennessee someday," Nate said with a smile.

"I wish I shared your optimism brother," Luke said.

"I wouldn't be here right now without optimism my brother," Nate said with a smile.  "Sometimes there is nothing more powerful than faith in God and a little optimism."

As the airplane began to descend and maneuver for the runway, a crew member came over to them and said, "Time to wake her up and snug up your harness.  We will be landing in a few moments."

They complied and prepared themselves.  Rachel felt refreshed after her short, but much needed nap.

As the aircraft touched down, a feeling of relief and uncertainty ran throughout each of them.  Relieved to be safely on the ground and one step closer to their goals, but now they were at the end of their formal plan.  Luke looked at Nate and said, "It's all on you now brother.  Yo
u're the experienced survivor. You're in charge from here on out."

****

Things on the Homefront had been hectic to say the least.  The other men who had c
ame along to help move the herd had returned to their own homes to prepare for what would inevitably come.  Linda however, had stayed at the Homefront.  Given the fact that she lived alone, in her injured state she knew she would not be able to adequately defend herself if need be, especially given what they now knew about the Muncie boys and their new group.

The homesteaders had a lot of work to do fencing in the cattle, as well as getting Mildred and Haley settled into the now overly crowded home.  Greg and Jake were assigned the duties of completing the livestock fencing as well as keeping an eye on the herd
, while the men focused on the physical security of the property.

As the dust began to settle Evan, Jason, and Griff got together in the back yard by the fire pit to discuss what they should do next.  "I think first thing should be to organize and secure our group.  We need to stay off of the radio as best we can.  Now that conflict has been initiated, they may very well be able to listen in on our CB communications.  Any sort of request for a meeting over the air may as well be a request for an ambush," said Evan.

Jason and Griff both agreed and then Jason said, "I think we need to make our rounds to each of the homesteads to check on everyone and to set up a meeting.  Word of mouth can be considered our only secure comms right now."

"I agree," Evan replied.  "Griff, you've been stuck here at the Homefront doing your security thing for nearly every outing.  Why don't you and Jason go make the rounds
this time and I'll stay and hold down the fort.  Maybe you can evaluate the security situation and provide recommendations for some of the homes that you feel could use a hand."

"That sounds like a great idea," said Jason.

"Yeah, I can do that.  I've been getting cabin fever anyway," Griff said.

"Great," Evan said.  "Before you go, let's get with Linda to see if she needs you to do anything, or get anything from her place while you're out."

"Roger Roger," said Jason.

"Will do, " replied Griff.

"Oh, and maybe you can swing by Mildred's and check on our house guest.  Maybe throw the dog a bone or something," Evan added.

"Will do," Jason replied.  "We'll get an early start in the morning since it'll take most of the day."

With that, Evan, Jason, and Griff all got up and went back into the house to spend some quality time with their wives, while Greg and Jake took care of the security duties.  As they walked into the house, they could hear screaming and crying coming from the basement.  They immediately ran downstairs to find Judith sitting at the HAM radio station nearly hyperventilating and crying.  Peggy was with her and was holding her tight, but had a huge smile on her face.

The men were confused and Evan said, "What's wrong?  Is everything OK?"

"Yes, yes, oh my Dear Lord yes!" Judith said through the tears.  "My sons...it's my sons...they are out there looking for me.  They are OK...They are alive and on their way to find me," she said struggling to talk through what the men could now see were tears of joy.

Evan, Jason and Griff were happy for her, but confused as to how she may have heard this news.

Peggy just looked at them and said, "It's the Survivor's Locator Network.  She heard about them through there."

Judith interrupted Peggy and said, "I'll explain it to them.  I'm sorry.  I'm so sorry that I broke your rules.  I knew better, but I couldn't help myself.  It was gnawing away at me knowing that I may still have some family out there somewhere.  I didn't want to be all alone in the world."

"It's OK Judith, just catch us up on what you're talking about," Evan said in a calm and understanding voice.

"Well, you guys told me I could listen in on the HAM and then relay any news of the outside world to the other homesteads by way of our CB radios," she explained.  "That's all I was doing, exactly as I was told.  Then one day
, I was listening to a man from Indiana reporting on how to contact the Survivor's Locator Network.  He was basically reading an advertisement for it over and over again for a few minutes.  He explained that the Survivor's Locator Network was ran by a group of HAM operators that were with a church group based in Arkansas.  They simply act as a collection point for information about people who are either looking for someone, or trying to be found.  They try and match people up.  For example, I gave them my name and who I was looking for.  Then the next time I call back, they tell me if they have any matches, and if they do they give me their information.  They found a match for me.  It was both of my sons, Nathan and Lucas.  They are in Texas and searching for me.  They also must have been given my information because they left a second message saying they were on their way to Tennessee to find me."

At this point Evan, Jason, and Griff began to get a little uncomfortable.  They were happy for her if this was true, but the thought of someone being able to get their location over the radio was troubling.  Especially considering that the Homefront was raided by a group of well-armed and informed individuals early on in the collapse.  Evan calmly asked, "What exactly did you put out about your location?"

"I didn't put any details on there.  I had only said Tennessee.  I didn't say a town, a county, or even a region.  Just the state," she replied.

Relieved to hear this, the men just looked at each other and exhaled in relief.  She then looked them in the eyes and said, "I'm so sorry.  You have saved my life repeatedly, you took me in and cared for me when I was alone in the world, and I betrayed your trust.  It was a spontaneous moment of excitement to think I may actually have a way to find my sons, to at least know if they were OK
, or if I really was all alone in the world," she said with a defeated voice.

"Judith," Evan said as he put his hand on her shoulder and kneeled down to her as she sat in the chair at the desk.  "You will never be alone in the world.  We may not be related by blood, but everyone here in this home is family.  We have gone through more in a year than a traditional family goes through in a lifetime
, and we have never faltered in our devotion to each other.  We have a special thing going on here, and you are just as important and special of a part of it as anyone else, shared DNA or not.  But that aside, I'm so happy for you.  I can only imagine the hole you must have been feeling in your heart, not knowing if your own children were even still alive.  If my kids were older, and off on their own when this all happened, I would have been devastated to not be able to even contact them.  I hope I never have to know the pain you have had the strength to suffer through over the past year.  That being said, I want you to know that there is nothing we wouldn't do to help you find your sons.  We just have to be cautious in doing so.  We don't want to lead another batch of looters here by putting out any information about our little piece of the world.  We are better prepared and supplied than most and there are a lot of people out there would gladly come and try and take it and kill us or our loved ones to get it.  Heck, with the situation at the Muncie place, those types are literally just a few miles away.  So please don't feel you have to hide something like this from us.  Just let us know what is going on and we can all sit down together and try to figure out the best way to help you or anyone else here with exactly what they need."

Judith leaned over and gave Evan and hug and said, "Thank you so much.  You can't imagine how thankful I am to God every day because he led me here."  She then stood up and gave both Jason and Griff hugs as well.

"So what's the next step," Evan asked.  "What do we need to do next in regards to your sons?"

"Well, according to the last message they left with the network, they are on their way to Tennessee.  I have no idea when the next time they will be checking in will be.  I guess I just need to leave them some sort of location for them to be traveling towards."

Evan just looked at Jason and Griff and Griff said, "Let's give them a point, not too far from here, that they could get the rest of the information they need without giving away precisely where we are."

"That's a good idea," Jason replied.  "How about the Baptist Church in Del Rio?  They have their doors open to the public still."

"That's right," said Evan.  "They have men from Del Rio who stand watch over the place so that they don't get looted and ransacked.  They have a women's and children's shelter set up there right?"

"Yep," Jason replied.  "We could set the church up with an extra CB radio if they have a power source for it, and then get Charlie Blanchard's place to relay for us since he is the closest to town.  He should be able to pick them up from there.  The church could then just contact us when they arrive so that we can travel to town to escort them home."

"Heck, it wouldn't be a bad idea to have a radio relay going all the way to town anyway," added Griff.  "They could call our group if they needed assistance as well as being able to give our homesteads early warning if something bad is moving through the area."