The Guardians (6 page)

"Who wouldn't stop what Honey?  It was just a dream," she said trying to comfort him.

"No! It was real! It was real!" he screamed repeatedly as the tears rolled down his face.

She just hugged him and rocked back and fourth trying to comfort him saying, "It's OK, Mommy is here now, it's OK."

Jason said to his boys quietly, "Michael, you and Kevin come in here with me and your Mom for the rest of the night.  Let's give them some space."  The Jones boys grabbed their pillows and blankets and followed Jason out the door.  Pretty much everyone else in the house was standing in the hallway at this point. 

"What happened?" asked Evan.

"Boys, go on in there with your Mom," Jason said as Sarah led them into her and Jason's room.  After she closed the door Jason said, "Looks like he was having one serious nightmare.  He kept screaming to get off of her.  It looked like a pretty intense dream."

"Well, from the way I found him in Newport, after witnessing what happened to his grandmother and grandfather, it's no surprise he's having issues.  Quite frankly, I'm surprised it took this long for something like this to come up.  That kid has gone through something worse than any of us have," Evan said.

"Well, now that everything is under control, let's leave him in Peggy's hands and go back to bed.  We can talk to her about it in the morning.  Right now we are all just guessing," Griff said.  "I'll make rounds through here occasionally to see if Peggy is up and in need of anything."  Everyone nodded in agreement and they all shuffled off back to bed.

The rest of the night was fairly uneventful.  Most of the adults had a hard time sleeping after what had happened.  They all had thoughts of the horrors that Zack had to live through before he was found by Evan, Peggy, and Judith at Peggy's parent's home in Newport.

Six o'clock in the morning rolled around and Judith walked into the kitchen to find Griff and his wife Judy sitting at the kitchen prep table.  Griff was eating a bowl of scrambled eggs and potatoes, while Judy was looking around in the pantry.  "Good morning," he said.  "We made you all a pot of coffee, it's ready if you want some," he said taking another bite.

"Oh thank you so much," she said.  "I really need it.  I didn't sleep at all after what happened.  I've been worried sick about poor little Zack.  It was hard enough for me to get over what I saw in Newport, and that poor boy had to live through it.  And it being his very beloved grandparents.... Just how does a little boy like Zack deal with such a thing?" she said as she poured herself a cup of coffee.

"We can talk to the others later, but I think we need to rearrange the sleeping arrangements at a minimum for now, so that he can be with his mother at night," Griff said taking his last bite.

"I agree completely," she said.  "Are you not joining us for breakfast?" she asked noticing his empty bowl.

"No Ma'am, I'm whooped.  That and I have a lot to get done this evening so I need to get in bed sooner rather than later," he said.

Just then, Molly came into the kitchen and said, "Oh, good morning.  I thought it was Peggy's turn to get up early to make breakfast, so I thought I would come down to help and just tell her to go back to bed and get some rest."

"That's exactly why I'm here," said Judith.

"Me too," said Judy.  "I couldn't go back to sleep so I just came down to keep the hubby company and figured I'd cover for Peggy since I was already up."

Next Sarah came through the door and paused, surprised to see Molly, Judy and Judith in the kitchen so early.  Molly, Judy, and Judith just looked at each other and laughed.  Sarah said, "What?"

"Oh nothing," said Judith.  "I guess we can all four just help each other with breakfast."

Realizing that she was there for the same reason as the other women, Sarah just shared a laugh with them and said, "OK, what are we making?"

With that, Griff said, "Well ladies, I will leave you to your business at hand.  I'll see you all this evening."  Griff kissed Judy on his way out and the women got on with the business of breakfast.

A little while later as everyone got up and gathered in the dining room, they discussed the current sleeping situation.  Sarah volunteered to move Kevin and Michael's bunk bed into her and Jason's room for the time being, to allow Peggy the opportunity to be with Zack and to give them privacy.  Everyone agreed and thanked her for volunteering a solution to the immediate problem, while they tried to figure out how best to help Peggy with Zack in the long run.  The ladies brought out scrambled eggs and potatoes with diced tomatoes with a pitcher of fresh cow's milk to wash it down.  Evan led them all in a special prayer for grace before they ate, asking for help for poor little Zack and his mother Peggy. 

After their wonderful breakfast, they all went on with their day and life seemed, for the time being at least, to return to normal.

****

When Nate awoke the next morning, he was relieved to realize that he had finally fallen asleep.  All he remembered was tossing and turning with thoughts of what may come the next day bouncing around in his head.  The sun was now up and he could hear talking in the next room over, so he knew it was time to get up and see if there was any word from Colonel Tucker.

He got dressed and went into the main area of College Station Post 19 and saw Mike Collins and another gentleman in a TSG uniform having a cup of coffee.  He also noticed that another TSG member was at the sentry position out front.  "Good morning Nate," Mike Collins said as he noticed Nate enter the room.  "Would you like some coffee?" he asked.

"Sure, I'd love some," he replied.

"Hello Nate, I'm Sargent Heath Wilson with the TSG," the other man said as he reached his hand out to Nate.  Sargent Wilson was in his early thirties and seemed to wear his uniform with pride.  He was wearing the TSG's multi-cam field uniform with a matching multi-cam boonie style hat and desert tan desert tan suede boots.  He had on a molle load-bearing vest that held six magazines of AR15/M4 magazines.  He also wore a drop leg holster, which carried one of the Marine Corps' new Colt M45 1911 pistols.  His sleeves were crisply rolled up revealing a Marine Corps globe and anchor tattoo. 

"Pleased to meet you," said Nate as he returned the handshake.

"So you're a squid I here," said Sargent Wilson with a smirk on his face. 

"I was, an MA2 to be exact," referring to his rating as a Master at Arms Second Class, which is an E5 equivalent to a Sargent in rank.

"I was on the green side," responded Sargent Wilson.  "Like you, I couldn't see myself serving in the capacity that the higher ups these days wanted, so I bailed.  I joined up with the TSG here and they've been my brothers ever since.  Colonel Tucker sent me to see if you wanted to join me and my guys on a run.  I was a 3531 in the Corps," Sargent Wilson said.  As he looked at Nate he said, "I see you looking at me with a blank look so I guess you don't know what that is, it's the motor vehicle operator MOS.  I was a motor transport guy so I've got lots of convoy experience.  Anyway, they've put me to work in that capacity delivering supplies to our forward deployed units, and bringing back the wounded when necessary.  We've got a run going out tonight to take ammo, MRE's, and mail down to a unit that's been mixing it up with the cartels pretty heavy.  They are trying to hold them off from entering an area south of Beeville, which seems to be the cartels next point of interest.  There is a medic at a mobile medical unit there you may be interested in seeing."

"Luke?" Nate said with excitement.

"That's what I'm told," replied Sargent Wilson.  "Anyway, we are loading up a convoy of three Humvee's, five guys total, six if you want to ride shotgun for me."

"Hell yes!" said Nate.

"Good.  Get your stuff and come with me.  We'll be leaving this evening at dusk to arrive by morning.  I'll get you some TSG gear and get you suited up like us.  We'll need to go over a few standard operating procedures so that you can work in sync with us if something goes down along the way."

"Sounds good," Nate said with enthusiasm.  He went back to his rack and gathered his things.  On his way out, he went out back to check on his horse.  He kissed his horse on the head and said, "Don't you worry ol' girl, I'll be back.  These guys will take good care of you until
then."  He turned and walked towards the door, pausing to turn and look at her one more time with a strange feeling in his gut.  He then then turned and went back inside to go and meet up with Sargent Wilson.

Sargent Wilson was standing out front smoking a cigarette with two other TSG Guardsmen.  Both of the men were rough and weathered looking.  One, a caucasian man a little over six feet tall with a slim build, had a sleeve tattoo on his left arm and had severe scaring on his neck and the side of his face.  The other was a Hispanic male with a stocky build that stood about five foot nine and weighed around two hundred pounds.  He wore a Catholic rosary around his neck and wore a boonie style hat with a miniature Texas flag on a tooth pick safety pinned in place. 

"Hoskins," Sargent Wilson said in a loud voice when he saw Nate come out of the building in order to get his attention.  "Smoke?" he said as he offered Nate a cigarette.

"No thanks, I don't smoke," Nate said as he walked over to join them.

"Good," Sargent Wilson replied.  "These things are worth their weight in gold these days," he said with a crooked smile.

"Hell Sarg, you don't buy'em.  You get'em off of dead Mexicans," the taller of the men said.

"What this insensitive jerk means is dead cartel gunmen, not Mexican civilians," responded Sargent Wilson as he flicked his ashes at the man.  "Besides, every situation I get in where I can pick up a pack of smokes is a situation where I can get smoked, so it's not like I'm rushing right out to get more.  Anyway, this is Corporal Jeff Shockley.  We just call him Shock because it shocks us that he manages to stay alive.  He was an Army Ranger when the shit hit the fan.  That probably explains a lot.  This other fine specimen of male crudeness is Private Jose Garcia.  We call him Chop for reasons you wouldn't tell your mother."

"He ran out of ammo during an ambushed supply run and ended up chopping his way out with an old rusty machete he found in a shed that he dove into for cover," Shock said.  "He was such a demon possessed freak some of the cartel thugs that had ammo actually ran from him.  Then again, seeing some of your compadre's literally lose their heads will do that to a lesser man."  Chop just took a draw off of his cigarette as if the trash talk didn't phase him.

"So anyway guys, this is the squid I was telling you about.  He will be riding with me," Sargent Wilson said to the Guardsmen.  He then looked at Nate and said, "These two knuckleheads will take the other Humvee, and the supply guys will take the third.  We are supposed to meet up with them later at the depot.  We are basically the point and rear guard for the run.  I'd give you an M4 carbine to carry, but it's against SOP to arm up unverifieds.  We've had way too many of our own weapons end up pointing back at us."

"I've got an M9 pistol and my 12 gauge that I plan to bring along unless you object," responded Nate.

"Oh hell yea!  Bring'em.  I was afraid you'd be dead weight," Sargent Wilson said enthusiastically.  He then tossed his cigarette butt on the ground, stomped it with his foot and said, "OK ladies, let's mount up."

Nate couldn't believe it.  He was finally on his way to find his brother.  Not just to find out more information or follow more leads, but to actually go and find him.  He was motivated beyond belief.  As he and Sargent Wilson pulled away in their Humvee with Shock and Chop following close behind, he turned to Sargent Wilson and asked, "So, where are we heading?"

"I can't tell you that just yet.  It could compromise our OPSEC.  If you got snagged by the cartels and they started sawing your head off with a rusty knife, you'd more than likely give up our destination, which would let them know where our boys are and it could blow everything," Sargent Wilson said as he drove.  "By the way, keep an eye out at all times.  You're in a moving target now.  The cartels make Southern Texas feel like Texghanistan with all of the IED's and ambushes.  It doesn't help that these turd National Guard trucks aren't up-armored.  Avoidance is our only defense.  That's why we are heading out at sunset.  With no electrical power in most places, it gets pretty damn dark at night so we drive with NVG's and our lights out.  It's the best cover we've got."

"I understand, but you can trust me not to give anything away if I'm interrogated," Nate said as he turned his attention outside of the window as Sargent Wilson directed him to do.

"Everybody says that until the knife is slicing into their throat.  You'd be amazed how many people give it all up at their last breath," he replied.

After an uneventful drive through town, they came upon a fortified warehouse that was serving as a supply depot for the remotely deployed TSG units in the region.  They pulled up along the street and parked in a row of other TSG vehicles.  Sargent Wilson shut the truck off and said, "You can leave your guns out here.  I can't bring in an armed outsider.  This street is heavily surveiled, so they'll be safe.  We don't take vehicles inside unless necessary.  Our third Humvee is already inside and it will come out loaded when we leave.