TOCABAGA (Revised Edition) (Book #1 of The Tocabaga Chronicles) (3 page)

Rick commented
, “We are lucky to get water from the city water supply so we can take showers, but only with cold water only because there’s no electric power. However, we can use the toilets. Thank God for that benefit. Keeping clean is important to stay healthy. You need good sanitary conditions to keep disease from taking hold. We boil all water before drinking it as no one can be sure if it is totally safe. The big problem for us is having enough soap. Soap is not easy to make and we don’t have lye or animal fat to produce it. We can only obtain it when we go to town to trade or barter for goods and food.”

Eddy
who worries about the little things like bugs, jumped in with his concerns saying, “There are killer bees here and they are extremely dangerous so we try to stay away from them. The only thing you can do is burn the nest if you can find it but who is brave enough to do that? Nasty little bugs I hate them all. So far only a few people have been stung with no serious reactions.

“
We are infected with Black Widows and Recluse spiders, which are two of the most dangerous types. Black Widows have been here as long as I can remember. They make thick sticky webs and eat anything. I have never been bit by one but others here have. To treat the bite you need antibiotics. The female spider is very big and usually has a red hourglass spot on the stomach. The Brown Recluse is very dangerous and I have been bitten twice. If you don’t treat this bite it will rot your skin away in the bite area and possibly kill you. Needless to say, I hate spiders.”

Sessions
said, “Well, sounds pretty much normal, anything else?”    

I
replied, “My concern is not the bugs, snakes or spiders but the dangerous people who will kill you and your family for a can of beans, guns, gold, car or anything that suits their fancy. These dangerous people are the gangs, terrorists and criminals running loose causing our society to fall into disarray. I guess that’s it.”

Sessi
ons started to laugh and said, “Well, that is quite a list, and I agree with you, dangerous people are the main concern for us also. Now can we review your defensive positions for the compound?”

Sessions wanted
to ascertain our methods for protecting our compound and find out how we obtained food. We showed them our first line of defense, the one and only road into our compound. He was impressed that we had cars interlocked blocking the road so no one could just drive through and also liked the fact that 24/7 we had sixteen people on guard.

Captain Sessions asked me, “What type of weapons do you have and how many?”

I said, “We have a lot of weapons, mostly handguns and rifles, nothing big but a Cobb 50; I’ll give you a list.”

I provided him with a list
of every weapon we had and to whom it was issued. The list also kept track of the ammunition, which was all stored at what use to be the local bank. The bank is our armory and it is under guard at all times.

I advised Sessions, “All
weapon cleaning is performed by the person each gun is issued too and any repair work needed is performed by myself, Bob, Mike and Tommy.”

Captain Sessions commented,
“There is not much I can do to improve what you have already done but do you have a fallback plan with another defensive position?”

Robbie
advised, “No, not really, our idea is to hold that entrance at all cost. We have a total of about 96 security people. That is the choke point; if the bad guys get near us there, then we have a problem.”

Sessions replied, “
I suggest you redo the bridge controls so you can control it from this side of the channel. Once the bridge is opened up no one can cross.”

We all agreed that was a good idea but doing it
was another problem, I didn’t know if we had the technology to do so. That was something I’d have to check on.

Sessions
inquired, “What do you need in the way of supplies, food or water?”

I
said, “We are in pretty good shape for food and water. What we need is ammo, bulletproof vests and most of all medical supplies. In addition we need bug spray, hand soap and laundry soap.”

Captain Sessions
, while taking notes, advised us that Special Operations was now involved in local fighting, trying to bring law and order back to the country.

This is a good thing and maybe it will make life better. Maybe there is hope that things will turn around and be brighter in the future
, I thought.

Sessions finally asked, “Are you willing to take in some new people?”

“Like
who and how many?” Rick asked.

The Captain admitted to us that things
were not getting better any time soon and some of his men had family that they wanted to protect.

Sessions said, “We want to bring Ranger families he
re.”

Rick replied,
“Yes, we welcome them; we have enough food and supplies. It is the least we can do to show support to our troops.”

Stores run out of food all the time. Trucks carrying food are robbed and the goods are sold on the black market. No truck is safe on the open highway. Farmers cannot get their goods to the food processing centers and those food companies cannot get the food to the stores. No person is safe unless you travel in a convoy and are armed to the teeth.

Schools have shut down excep
t in the green zone in the inner city. Most kids are home schooled now as it is safer. Kids on a school bus are easy targets for kidnapping.

The
government is now controlling the food and there are food lines at every store. You must wait for hours to get anything. If you can find and buy staples, they are only enough for a few days. You cannot feed your family on a loaf of bread. Fresh vegetables and fruit are not available. Supplies are reduced to canned goods or freeze-dried, ready-to-eat meals, same as the Army rations.

Captain Sessions replied, “That’s great, it’s a big relief for me and my men. We plan to bring in about 200 people, mostly women and older kids, and some retired Rangers, if that is ok. We also plan to use the empty island south of here as a Ranger base of operations in this area.”

Eddy said,
“You mean No Man’s Land? That’s what we call it. How many Rangers will be based there?”

Sessions replied
, “There will be about five hundred men.”

I
advised, “We guard the bridge leading to it, and use that area for raising chickens and growing most of our produce. It would be great to have a base there.”

Sessions
answered, “Yes, we know a lot about your group as our drones have been watching you.”

Rick commented
, “We wondered who was sending the drones to spy on us.” We all laughed, relieved that now we knew the reason for the drones.

Captain Sessions said, “
Well, that about wraps up our meeting. We’ll be back in a few days.”

Eddy
, who would give you the shirt off his back, commented to the Captain, “It is our honor to be of service.”

By the time we got back to the choppers his men were sitting around talking to our people and
seeming to get along quite well. It looked like one big happy family and I noticed our people had given the Rangers drinks and snacks to enjoy.

Sessions went over to one
chopper, took out a box of grenades and gave them to me.

That was great
, as we had no such explosive devices other than Molotov cocktails. These are glass bottles filled with gasoline and a rag stuffed in the top. You light it and throw it as hard as you can …BOOM… it is a big fire bomb when the glass bottle breaks. The problem is these are dangerous to store and handle. So we don’t keep them on hand but can make them quickly if needed.

Captain Sessions said,
“We will bring more bulletproof vests, grenades and maybe other little goodies with us when we come back. By the way, coming here we saw ten cars about 60 miles away heading this direction. We don’t know if they are friend or foe, so be careful. See you soon.”

He
told his Rangers to mount up. They all boarded the Black Hawk UH 60 choppers. The motors started to whine, the big blades turning slowly at first and then gaining speed until they were only a blur. They lifted off one at a time, leaving in a whirlwind of dust. About 200 people watched the Rangers leave and goofy as it sounds, we all waved goodbye.

The Rangers visit
let us know we were no longer on our own and could depend on them for help and supplies. It gave us all a feeling of security, one we hadn’t had in a long time.

Now w
e were waiting for the Rangers to come back. It had been five days.
Where were they?

May
13, 2024

11
Months Earlier

At this time U. S. unemployment had reached a whopping 55 percent and inflation was at 28% a year. There were a lot of cheap homes available if you had the money to pay cash. Gasoline skyrocketed to around $25.00 per gallon if you could find it. Many people out of work were roaming the streets looking for handouts, food or some kind of work. Things were out of control and every month the unemployment numbers went up another point. Finally, the government stopped the news media from putting out the unemployment percentages and inflation rate.

Everyone
could see the prices going up each week. Fifty out of every 100 people did not have a job. Every day I heard about someone who lost their job. Things were getting worse every day, every month but everyone thought the economy would get better because the President told us the worst was over.

Maybe you can remember the attack
at the Boston Marathon back in 2013, or the other random attacks committed by radical Islamists. These terrorist acts were becoming normal, along with other violence committed by skinheads and gangs. We needed to carry a gun everywhere we went for protection against people who would kill for a car, money or food.

For us it all started one summer night about 4 am. This is when we realized how bad things were becoming. I was woken up in the middle of the night by gunfire. I listened carefully to determine the type of gun used and the location. You can tell the type of gun by the sound it makes when it is fired. These were AK47 rifles, the preferred guns of gangs, cartels, and terrorists because they were cheap.

An AK 47 fires a 7.62 x 39mm round. It is an assault rifle developed in the old Soviet Union by Mikhail Kalashnikov in 1947. Officially it is called the Auto Kalashnikov hence AK 47. It is the weapon of choice for terrorists since it is cheap and readily available.  Worldwide more of these guns were produced than any other type. It is a sturdy rifle and dangerous at close range but it is not very accurate. 

Pulling on my pants, I grabbed my Glock 9mm and stuffed it into my waistband. I went to my gun safe and pulled out my Colt AR 15 9mm carbine along with 3 mags of ammunition. After picking up my cell phone, I ran out the door.

The AR 15 rifle is a lightweight, 5.56 mm/.223-caliber, magazine-fed, air cooled rifle. It is manufactured with extensive use of aluminum alloys and synthetic materials. The AR 15 was first built by Arma Lite, hence the meaning of AR, a small arms manufacture. They sold the design to Colt Firearms. Colt redsigned the rifle and Government renamed it the M16. Colt then started selling the semi-automatic version of the M16 rifle as the Colt AR-15 for civilian sales. The AR 15 H barrel is identical to the M16 the only difference being the AR 15 is only sold in semi-automatic. There many types of AR designed rifles and carbines. Orginally CAR was meant to mean Colt Automatic Rifle but with shorter barrels becoming popular it now means carbine model which means the barrel is shorter than the standard rifle. The AR can also be purchased to fire .22L, 9 mm pistol ammunition or larger rounds.

My phone rang. It was my son Tommy, who asked, “What’s going on?”

I
said, “Meet me outside with your rifle, there is gunfire coming from the local 7-11 down the street.”

The 7-11
was open 24 hours a day. Looking down the street I saw the Sheriff’s car with its flashing lights on, sitting in the middle of the street. The Deputy was standing behind his car firing his handgun; I could see the flashes of fire coming from the barrel.

All of a sudden I heard
footsteps behind me. I turned to fire and saw it was my neighbor Steve who had an M-14 rifle in his hand.

The M-14 rifle fires a 7.62x51mm NATO round and it was the main battle rifle for the Army until it was replace by the M 16.

Steve said, “What the hell is going on?”

I said, “
Steve, you scared the shit out of me, I almost shot you.”

Steve scared me, but
I was glad to see him. Soon my son showed up, meeting us in the middle of the divided highway under the cover of thick bushes. We slowly approached and saw the Sheriff Deputy fall down in the street.

Tommy said, “
Look at that! The Deputy just got shot, what should we do?”

I replied, “Nothing right now, there are too many of them.”

“I
can shoot some of them from here and they won’t know where the shot came from,” Tommy replied.

“
Wait; don’t shoot unless they come closer.”

Steve
agreed.

I saw
four cars and with about sixteen men ransacking the store, as I looked through my rifle scope. One big dude walked over to the officer and shot him again, then he took the cop’s handgun. I could not make out his face, only his silhouette, but his big dark evil shape and huge head with a big beard was burned into my brain.

About
ten minutes went by and the flashing lights of more Sheriffs’ cars were coming over the one and only bridge that let people on and off our island. There were only three vehicles, which meant a total of three officers. They had no chance against a gang of sixteen men.

The gang members just stood
on the side of the road and started shooting at the police. The three cars ran the gauntlet of gunfire and were heading towards us about 500 yards away. They slammed on the brakes, screeching to a stop near our location and the Deputies jumped out.

As they h
id behind their cars one officer, Deputy Matthews, saw us after we called out to him; he knew us since he lives on the island, and told the other two officers, “Stand down, these are my friends.”

We ran over to
Matthews’s car and ducked down. The rifle fire had stopped for now.

Mat
thews asked, “What the hell is going on?”

I said,
“It seems some guys are robbing the store and I think they killed the Deputy.”

Matthews got on his radio and called for more backup. Amazingly
, the officers were not wounded from the gunfire when they came over the bridge but their cars where shot up. Lucky for them the bad guys were crummy shots.

Looking down the street
, we were surprised to see the gangs’ cars pull out over the bridge, one by one leaving the island, randomly shooting their guns at us as they left.

The big dude who shot the
Deputy stood in the street and shouted, “We’ll be back.” He aimed his rifle at us and fired off a couple of rounds that pinged off a police cruiser as we ducked for cover. His car, the last to leave sped away burning rubber.

The
Deputies jumped in their cars and went to the aid of the fallen officer. I asked my son to take our rifles back to the house, just to be safe, as I didn’t want them in our hands when more police backup arrived. I didn’t want to get shot by mistake.

Steve and I ran to the store
only to find a bloody mess. They left one dead officer, two dead store clerks and one dead bridge attendant. That explained why the bridge was not raised. Whenever a robbery is committed here the Deputy calls the bridge attendant to raise the bridge so they cannot escape the island. The gang must have shot the bridge attendant first.

This was our first encounter with gang attacks on our island. About 30 minutes later the Sheriff himself showed up with about a 15
-man Swat Team that roped off the area. By that time it was almost daylight and most people who lived near the store were out in the street wondering what had happened.

The Sheriff roped off the area with yellow tape. Everyone stood around
gawking while the coroner came and took the bodies away after the crime scene was searched for evidence. Officers were asking everyone there to come forward if they saw anything.

I advised them
that all I saw were the four black cars and I didn’t know the makes. I also saw the officer get shot but I didn’t see the shooter’s face; it was too dark and I could only see shapes. There was not much evidence. The spent shells on the ground were collected to see if they could be traced and would be held for future evidence in case they caught one of the scum bags with the gun that matched the shells. Chances are they would never be caught.

We
called an emergency meeting with the Sheriff about providing more protection than one officer round the clock. Deputy Matthews commented that since he lived on the island, he could be stationed there 24-7 to provide protection but he still needed three more Deputies. The Sheriff agreed as this solved his problem and ours without costing him any more officers.

I said, “Why not swear in any man that wants to be a
Deputy who has some military training?”

The
Sherriff agreed to this as long as Matthews was left in charge and we all reported to him. Twenty-four men stepped forward to take the oath. The problem was solved, for the time being. That night eight men were on duty guarding the bridge. Everyone slept well that night except me.

The County Sheriff recommended that we all move to the new green zone or the so-called protected zone downtown in the city, as he could no longer offer us protection. This was not for me as two or three families were crammed into one small room. You lived where they told you to live. Oddly enough, that day about 1500 people moved to the green zone, leaving their homes as well as extra cars, as you were only permitted to have one car in the green zone, due to parking problems. The next day another 944 people left leaving about 556 who wanted to stay in their homes.

I though
t fine, let them go, as they would be a burden on the people who had the guts to stay and fight to protect their homes and lifestyle. No one was going to kick me out of my home. Now I was lucky as my two kids, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, granddaughter and brother lived on the island with my wife and I. We were all excellent shooters and long ago I started buying guns and ammunition. Most of the people that stayed also had guns and knew how to use them. I had drawn up a defensive plan years ago with my friend Eddy, a plan to protect our island from looting after a hurricane.     

We decided to call a meeting the next day to elect officers for our
new security organization and to discuss the subject of how we would protect our homes, as well as other civil matters. It was time for us to get serious about self defense, time to become serious about defending our homes, family and our American way of life. We had heard about these gangs and terrorist attacks but never seen one. Now attacks were becoming common all over the city. The police could do nothing about this as there were too many bad guys and too few officers.

The first
directive was to guard and protect our location, 24 hours per day, seven days a week. We needed a total of 16 men for each eight-hour shift. This meant a grand total of 48 people to cover us around the clock. But we also needed time off as we couldn’t work seven days a week, so we had to recruit 48 more people to cover the weekends two days a week. They would also act as rapid response team members. This brought the total number of people for security to ninety-six. Ninety-six people are a considerable force to protect our location, but necessary to defeat anyone who would do us harm.

This left
460 people to work on other necessary projects for our island such as fishing, farming, cooking, cutting grass, cutting trees and garbage pickup. Everyone would be assigned a job and no one would get a free ride.

I knew the gang would be back sooner or later. They always come back.