TOCABAGA (Revised Edition) (Book #1 of The Tocabaga Chronicles) (7 page)

I sat on top of this junkie holding him down with my knife still in his shoulder. He started to
moan; suddenly he opened his eyes and tried to push me off. He was doped up and strong. I punched him in the face as hard as I could several times hurting my hand, while grinding my knife blade around in his shoulder, as his blood pumped out. Finally, he stopped moving.

The cops took my knife for evidence but I never got it back.

At the Med Clinic
Amy saw Mark and just started to weep. Doc Scott said he never seen anything this bad before. We put him on the table and Doc checked his heart.

Doc stated
with sorrow in his voice, “I’m sorry, Mark has passed. There is no heart beat, no signs of life.”

The room was
silent except for Amy’s sobbing and we hugged each other. Crazy Mark, my shadow, my go-to guy, dead at the hand of those dirt balls. I was the last one to leave the room and I promised Mark I would get the bastards that did this to him. They would indeed be fish food.

I pulled Mark
’s knife out of his chest, wiped off the blade and put it in my pocket, saying out loud, “I will never forget you buddy.”

I couldn’t help but wonder how Mark got out of the compound and across the bridge without anyone seeing him leave.

Robbie arranged the funeral and it was held just like the one for Big Dan. Everyone attended and this time I spoke about Mark’s life and so did Robbie. I said the Lord’s Prayer for him. Robbie and I, along with Tommy, took him out to sea for his burial.

As we
lowered his body into the ocean Tommy said, “We’ve got to put an end to these guys.”

Robbie
commented in anger, “If I get one alive I am going to do a lot worse to them than they did to Mark.”

I
replied, “Robbie, we aren’t animals like them. We’ll just kill’em and feed them to the fish. God will give them their just punishment.”

We arrived back at the dock just as the sun set and headed to the bar to have a drink for Mark.

Tomorrow we will go hunting.

APRIL 21, 2025

Rick called a meeting in the morning to review our plans. It was a heated debate as we do have rules of engagement that should be followed.

Rules of
Engagement: 1. Only shoot someone who has a gun or weapon and is an immediate threat. 2. Never shoot blindly at a target … meaning you must be able to see your target so as not to endanger innocent people. 3. Never take unnecessary risks. 4. Always be sure who you are shooting.

Deputy
Matthews said, “I can’t let you guys blow holes through a wall not knowing who is inside the building. So you can’t shoot anyone without a clear shot and must verify they have a gun in their hand. What if there are innocent people with them?”

Most of the group agreed with Matthews and
so did Tommy and I.

Robbie
said, “That’s bull shit; we know these guys cut Mark up and murdered him and Dan. If other people are in the building with them then whatever happens, too bad for them.”

Matthews
replied, “What if those people have no choice because they were kidnapped? It’s true we don’t know if they have any more slaves with them and thanks to Jack we saved five of them. So those are the rules of engagement we set up and they must be followed.”

The punishment for not following the rules of engagement is removal from the security team and possible banishment from the compound for life. We do not have jails or a court system and since we are in a war-like state that is the best we can do. Anyone who fights another compound member runs the risk of being banned. The outside world is mean and scary so no one wants to risk that punishment. The jury we use is made up of the Board and the Security Team leaders, a 12-member jury of our peers. Disputes are also settled using our jury system. All-in-all everyone gets along fine most of the time. We maintain respect for each other.

So it was settled. We would not snipe at anyone we could not see, blow holes in the building or shoot anyone who didn’t have a weapon. This was going to make our job a lot harder.

The plan was the same as before only this time we took Amy with us. Amy would help sh
oot using the 308, with Tommy on the big Cobb. Robbie and I would be security. Using a laser range finder we drove down the west side of the road in the dirt to within 600 hundred yards. That way both guns could be put in action. I turned the Tundra around with the bed facing the one building where we believed most of them were staying.

Robbie
and I fanned out and watched the road and large shrubs and trees for possible movement.

It wasn’t long before I heard the 308 Amy was using fire a
round. On the radio she said, “I got one through the window; he had a gun and was looking at us though a scope.”

No one said a word. Then we heard shots come from the building and we ducked but the bullets were about 200 yards short and landed in the ground
with soft thuds. I guess Amy’s shot got their attention. We clearly had them out-gunned.

About two hours
passed. No one else popped their heads up for us to target. I looked down the road and could see what appeared to be a little girl walking towards us. I looked through my rifle scope and she seemed to be about ten years old. She wore a backpack, the kind kids carry their lunch and books in when going to school. As she got closer she began to run towards us but the gang started shooting at her and bullets were dancing all around her. Amy and Tommy began shooting back at heads in the windows. The little girl was about 200 yards away when Amy sprang up and started to rush towards her.

I
screamed, “Amy, no! Wait she might have a bomb planted on her!”

Amy kept running towards her and I jumped up and r
an for Amy; Robbie was right behind me.

I
shouted, “Amy, take her into the water to cover the backpack! Putting it underwater is the only way to block a radio or cell phone signal if she has a bomb.”

Amy is a fast runner and she sco
oped up the little girl and jumped into the bay, submerging the backpack while we were all providing cover fire.

Amy
called out to me, “Dad, she has a bomb tied to her, I need a knife!”

I ran as fast as I co
uld to Amy; I always carry my Black Bear Cold Steel Bowie fighting knife. As I jumped into the water I only had a few steps to get to them. The little girl was crying. While keeping the pack submerged, I cut through the ropes like butter with my Black Bear. I swam with the pack, holding it underwater, for about 50 feet and tried to bury it in the mucky bottom but it wouldn’t sink. Then while trying to dig a hole in the bottom my foot hit an old metal crab trap stuck in the muck. I tied the pack to it hoping it would not surface and swam like hell to shore. Metal crab traps are big and heavy, it was just what I needed.

In the salt water there are creatures that can hurt you, like sting rays and jelly fish. If stung by jelly fish you need to pour urine on the site to stop the stinging. I know this works well since I have used the urine treatment myself. Sting rays have an arrow or barb at the end of their tail and they swing the tail and stick you with the arrow. It hurts like hell but is not a serious injury. We also have sharks in the shallow and deep water. Years ago a man jumped in the water right off his dock and landed on top of an eight-foot bull shark, which promptly bit him in half, killing him on the spot. I stay away from the water as much as possible.

I waded out and sprinted to the truck along with the others, jumping in the vehicle, and we all headed back to the bridge. Amy was cradling the little girl in her arms. Amy was never able to have kids but she loves them.

She was te
lling her, “You’re ok now, don’t worry. Don’t cry; you are safe with us.”

The little girl was sobbi
ng, “I want my mommy.”

When
we arrived back at the bridge we took her to the med clinic. She was a skinny little thing, clearly suffering from hunger and Amy gave her fish, beans, and fruit, which she gobbled up in a hurry.

Amy asked
her, “Where is your mommy?”

She replied,
“My mommy is back there,” pointing toward the building she came from.

“What
is your name?”

“Shanda
Jones,” she replied.

Shanda was safe now and
able to fill her little tummy. She was tired and starting to fall asleep. I watched her little eyes close as Amy wrapped her in her arms and took her home to a safe place to sleep for the night. We could ask her more questions tomorrow but now she needed to rest.

A few of us sat around the main campfire
downtown talking about how these people were willing to blow up a little girl to gain entrance into our compound. What dirt bags they were. What lowlifes they were to use a little girl by putting a bomb on her back? It was clear we were dealing with some dangerous and evil people that would resort to any measure to get what they want. Were they really that crazy? Maybe little Shanda could shed some light on this tomorrow after a good night’s sleep.

I
was thinking to myself,
I want them all dead.

April 2
2, 2025

The next day Amy came to our house with Shanda. Hemmi gave the child a lot of attention and the little girl ate a lot. The cutie seemed happy being with us. No one asked her any questions and she could relax here, not fearing for her life. Amy and Hemmi took her on a tour of our compound and she drank her first Coke and had her first taste of chocolate, which was not common even for us but someone had been saving the candy and decided to give it to her.

We did
n’t go sniping and stood down for the time being. Shanda was our main concern and everyone wanted to meet her and show her love. She brought an infusion of new life, new hope, a reminder of what it is to be innocent. It made us all start to think about others that were out there in need of food and shelter.

How many other kids
were living in that cruel world with no hope? It broke my heart to think about it. It made us all wonder what we were doing to improve the situation for mankind. What were we doing to the little kids who had no concept of why people were fighting and killing each other? How could we make a difference? 

I
remained in the background as Amy and Hemmi played with her.

Later that day
Amy asked her, “What is your mommy’s name?”

“
Her name is the same as mine,” Shanda said.

“Why did you come out yesterday and walk down the road to us?
” Amy asked.

”
Because Mommy told me to go over the bridge and get some food. Everyone wants to have food. I could take some back to Mommy. She is hungry too.”

“Shanda, where is your
daddy and what is his name?” Amy inquired, in a soft voice.

“
My daddy is Big Jim. I don’t know where Daddy is,” replied Shanda, while smiling at Amy.

The three of us
just looked at each other in disbelief. Stunned, I got up and left the room. I killed her daddy.

APRIL 23, 2025

I woke up and thought
Big Jim, the guy I killed, was her father!
Now she had no father and didn’t know what would happen to her mother.

I
started to wonder was the bomb a fake? Did her Mother allow to her come to us so she could be saved? That way the other gang members would not be suspicious. I was pretty sure the mother did send her out but not to blow us up it was to save Shanda’s life.

Maybe
she just wanted her daughter to have something to eat and a safe place to stay, now that she had no one like Big Jim to protect her. Maybe she thought it was better to be with us than the gang. This theory could be correct, and if it was, maybe her mother was not a dirt bag like her father. The only way to find out was to verify if that bomb was real or not.

It was about 10:30 am when a
ll of a sudden I heard choppers coming. I rushed outside and saw the UH-60 Black Hawks fly directly overhead about 200 feet in the air. They were too many to count but I guessed there were about twenty of them. Two Black Hawks circled back and landed downtown near the Fire Station, which always flies the American Flag. The rest flew to the south toward NO MAN’S LAND. The Rangers were back, thank God!

I jumped into my truck with Tommy
, Robbie, and Eddy. We raced to meet the Rangers just a few minutes down the street. Arriving, I saw Rick was already there along with Captain Sessions, a full-bird Colonel and a one-star General, along with a four-man security detail dressed in black. These were the General’s security guards and they are real pros at what they do. There were also four other Rangers who I assumed were assigned to the Colonel under Captain Sessions.

We got out of the truck and walked up next to Rick.
We all stood there in a straight line; Rick, Tommy, Eddy, Robbie, Mathews, and I.

Captain
Sessions approached in the lead and said, “Hello gentlemen, it is good to see you once again. I would like to introduce my commanding officers, General Harper and Colonel Turner.”

They went
down the line shaking hands and we each introduced ourselves and told them our positions.

When the General
stepped up to Tommy he said, “Are you Tommy Gunn, the Marine Sniper with 45 confirmed kills?”

Tommy replied, “
Yes sir General, retired Marine now sir.”

General Harper said, “
It is an honor to meet a Silver Star winner.”

The
men in black were watching everything and everyone, forming a protective circle around the group. Three of them carried M4 carbines and one carried a SAW M249, which is a Squad Automatic Weapon, a light machine gun that holds a 100-round drum of 5.56 bullets.

Rick
suggested, “Let’s go into the church and talk in the shade, out of the bright sun and heat.”

Sessions
agreed, “Good idea.”

One of the security men
said, “Sir, we have to check the church first.”

Two
men went inside for five minutes and then called out, “General Harper Sir, it’s all clear.”

They followed us inside the church
to the small conference room.

General Harper
got down to business saying, “Gentlemen, let’s not beat around the bush our country is in a serious state. Captain Sessions told me about your compound, how you run things and follow the Constitution of the United States. As you may know the President has declared a state of emergency invoking the Executive Order 13603, which basically declares the government owns all property, homes, guns, money, and even your kids.

“Gentlemen
, we Rangers do not believe that order to be lawful or Constitutional and therefore will not follow it. We have put out a warrant for the arrest of the President for treason. When I say we I mean all Special Forces, Rangers, Delta Force, Green Berets, Seals, Marines and Air Force special ops. The rest of the Military is standing down for now. As you may know the President has the Federal Police Force under the Secret Service, a force of about 50,000 men, protecting him and the Congress in Washington. Make no mistake, we will arrest or eliminate anyone who may stand in our way. We have to regain control of our country.

“
We intend to replace all members of Congress who are communists, and hold new elections sometime in the future. In addition the heads of the FBI, CIA, NSA, IRS, EPA, etc., and the entire Cabinet will be charged with treason for following his orders.”

The President started a draft but not for the military, it is for the new Federal Police Force or FPF. Their job would be to start green safe zones in the cities and guard the electric power plants and water supplies. They were to keep things running and generally enforce the laws. The Federal Police have all the same weapons, trucks, and tanks that the Army does. There were now 50,000 new police officers. Even this number could not control the situation. The President put into effect Presidential Executive Order 13603, which to everyone’s surprise, declares that all property belongs to the Federal government. They could tell you where to live and where to work.

“We operate under SOCOM based in Tampa, commanded by four-star General McNab. Our job is to secure a base of operations to gain control of the west coast of Florida. We want to put a base here and I assume you all would agree to this in short order as my Rangers are on the way. I just had 80 men land at what you call No Man’s Land. We plan to have 580 Rangers based here within the next five days, most are coming by truck with supplies and so forth. The Rangers are from the 3
rd
Battalion of the 75
th
Ranger Regiment and also the 7
th
Special Forces group. Both are under SOCOM, Special Operations Command.

“I
would like to house some families here for protection as they are in great danger of being arrested by the Federal Police Force. There are about 250 wives and children. Now, any questions or comments?”

I asked,
“How will you remove the President?”

”
Our forces will move on Washington and arrest the President, his communist cabinet or anyone else we have identified as a communist in the Executive Branch. This will include any affiliated Senator or Congressman. They will all be put on military trial for treason and breach of their oath of office. If the FPF stands in our way they will be run over.

“General
McNab will be acting President along with the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. New elections will be held as soon as possible. First however, we must get this crime and terrorism under control, thereby restoring law and order. It’s a big job but some states like Utah, Arizona, Texas and Montana are already under control. We have new enlistments joining our forces every day. The worst places are Washington, New York, L.A., and generally the northeast and west coast. Any states that do not support this cause will have their Governors arrested and also put on trial.”

Tommy
asked, “How long will this take?”

The
General replied, “We expect it may take up to another year. This is why your support is critical.”   

Rick
stated, “Your Rangers and their families are more than welcome here. We stand behind you 100% and agree that the President overstepped his lawful bounds, while a spineless Congress did nothing to stop him. We need new elections. We are lucky to have you here. If you give us a list of the family names we will select proper housing for them and assign people to help them move into the compound.”

The General replied,
“Thank you Rick, for your comments. We feel right at home here already. Now if I may, I would like Jack, your Director of Security, and Tommy Gunn to take us on a tour around the island.”

I
responded, “Yes Sir, we will take two trucks; one for all of us and one for your security team.”

Captain Sessions r
eplied, “Ok mount up. Security take the red truck, and we’ll be in the blue one.”

I drove with the General sitting next to me and Tommy in the back seat with the
Colonel and Captain.

The General asked,
“Have you had any trouble here over the last year?”

Tommy answered, “
Yes Sir we have had small groups of five to ten people try to breach our island but they gave up real quick when they saw how many men we have. Our biggest skirmish happened five days ago. Captain Sessions warned us of ten cars about 60 miles away coming in our direction; they arrived here a few days later.

“There
were about forty gang members at the start and we had a couple of battles with them right here at the main bridge. We eliminated about 20 of them. We aren’t sure but we think some of them are hiding in the first high-rise down the road about a mile. They did manage to kill two of our people, sorry to say.”

Captain Sessions
asked, “Which gang are they affiliated with?”

“Captain
, we don’t know and we didn’t ask them as we were too busy shooting. All their bodies were thrown into the shark-infested waters here. We called them fish food.”

Everyone got a good laugh from that comment. The Captain had a point
, as the gang name may be important. I hoped there weren’t more of them coming because I knew some gangs can have several hundred members. 

We pulled up to the bridge and
everyone climbed out of the trucks. We had ten guards posted on duty. Everyone watched as the General walked with us over the bridge and surveyed the area.

General Harper said, “
We are going to put one Abrams Tank at the foot of the bridge and two Bradley fighting vehicles with four guards 24-7 as soon as they arrive in a few days. Then your security problems are over. As far as any group that may still be in that building I will have my Rangers remove them. Colonel, please take care of that.”

Colonel Turner replied, “
Yes Sir General, right away Sir.”

Turner was on his
satellite phone talking to someone in less than a minute.

I told the
General, “Your security is appreciated. As for the gang, we are not sure they are all bad, some may be held against their will and some are women. We managed to save four little kids and one woman, who were being held as slaves. They tried to sell them to us.”

Harper
said, “Slaves, my God! This country has gone to hell!”

Then I told them the story
about little Shanda coming to us and the bomb in her backpack. The Colonel got on his phone immediately and in 15 minutes a Black Hawk flew overhead and landed in the road.

Out jumped
one Ranger who said, “Master Sergeant Smith, reporting as ordered.”

“
Jack, can you take Master Sergeant Smith to where the bomb bag is located? He will inspect and disarm it on the spot,” ordered Colonel Turner.

I
replied, “Ok, Master Sergeant, let’s go.” As we walked down the road the chopper took off, blowing dust in our faces while we held on to our hats.

We reached the
spot where I sank the bomb and I told Smith there was a radio wired up to it. He pulled the bag to the surface of the water, peeked inside for a minute, and retrieved the radio.

Smith said,
“Nothing to worry about; the radio is dead from the saltwater and it is not wired. The dynamite is real however.”

That mean
t my theory about Shanda’s mother was correct. She was not a dirt bag who wanted to murder everyone, including her daughter.

Going back to the bridge, I asked the
Colonel, “When your men go into the building can you have them look for a woman named Shanda, and have her brought here, so she can be reunited with her daughter?”

Turner
affirmed, “Roger that, on with the tour.”

On our way to the
bridge at NO MAN’S LAND a little sign on the side of the road that had been there for years read BURIAL MOUND of the TOCABAGA Indians.

The General said, “
Interesting, I will name this island compound CAMP TOCABAGA in honor of the original inhabitants, the Indians, and NO MAN’S LAND is Fort DeSoto, the original 1898 name of this fort.

“Jack
, do you have an email address?”

I
replied, “No, I don’t now but I used to have one a few years ago. The internet doesn’t work well anymore.”

“I
suggest you set up an email address that you can use to communicate with me and others. How does tocabaga.jack sound to you? It is easy to remember. You can tap into our Army wireless email system. Captain Sessions will set up your own Army Gmail account and issue you a new super smart phone.”

”
Thank you, that sounds good to me. We may need to keep in contact.”

“Yes we will Jack, as my wife and
little boy will be coming here to live and I am making you my primary contact. I’ll be counting on you to watch out for them since you are Director of Security here. I would like you to notify me if any problems arise.”