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Dear Diary,
It’s me, Jessica.
Once Sean and Jack returned, Jack said he needed to do a RECON mission to get a better idea of what we were up against.
I didn’t even think about it. Just out of habit, I went to follow Jack when he stopped, gave me a small grin, and said, “Not this time. I need speed and stealth for this mission. I move faster and quieter on my own. Stay here with Rae, Billy, and the rest, and keep looking out.” He nodded toward the other side of the barrier.
I actually felt a little disappointed as he left, but I knew he was right.
Surprisingly, he was not gone long. About an hour later, Jack reappeared seemingly out of nowhere, dirty and sweaty. To Sean, he said, “Just as I thought he would. Their military guy put four guys up on the hill, overlooking their position, as guards. The terrain, there was not enough cover, I couldn’t get around them without risking them seeing me.”
“How did you know he would put them there,” Rae asked.
“It is what I would have done,” Jack replied simply.
“What about the hills on the far side of the bridge?” Sean suggested.
Jack looked to the West at the hills across the river. “Not sure my binoculars could make out much of use at that distance.”
“Nate has a pair of high-power ones. He says near spotting scope power.”
“Those just might work.” He then glanced at me and grinned, “Okay, Jessica. It is going to be something of a hump.” And nodded to the hills on the other side of the river.
“What else is new?” I grinned back.
After nearly two hours of a fast walk and humping it up the hill, we came to a vantage point where we could view their position. We both sat behind a tree next to each other. Jack looked through Nate’s binoculars for a few minutes, then handed them to me. The binoculars were so high-powered I had to steady them on my knee to see anything.
“What do you see?” Jack asked.
After a few moments, I responded, “The wagons are set well back from our barrier. It looks like they are in a line, so they could use them as their own barrier. I can see some armed men behind the wagons. Two groups of horses, six each on each side of the road. Saddled and ready to ride if needed. I can see rifles on them. The rest of the horses have been unsaddled, and it looks like two groups picketed in two different areas.”
“The one group is the rest of the horses we saw the armed men on. The other is the horses that pull the wagons.”
“There looks like one large white tent. It has a stove chimney, smoke coming out of it. There are two smaller white tents. No chimney. They have set up cooking fires, and a few women appear to be cooking. I see what looks like barrels.”
“What would they hold?”
Looking through the binoculars, I thought for a moment. “Water.”
“Right. Let’s head back.”
Entry two
By the time Jack and I returned to Four Corners from across the bridge, it was late afternoon. We were hot and sweaty from the long hump. We first went to refill our canteens and took long pulls of cool water from them.
Sean, Rae, Daniel, and Savannah sat in front of Sean’s shack on the logs. There were three children.
Sean explained about a half hour ago, there was a commotion at the Northern barrier. These children were running full out from the cult, with six armed men in pursuit behind them on horseback. The children were screaming, “Help!”
Once the children ran through the defensive trenches, the men on horseback reigned in, seeing a multitude of rifles aimed at them. They turned and rode back to their camp at a gallop.
The two, a boy and a girl, looked about ten or eleven years old. The other girl was in her early teens. They had escaped from the cult and were shaky with relief.
Daniel and Savannah were looking them over for any medical issues. Once done, Daniel motioned for Sean, Jack, and me to one side out of earshot.
“I did not find any major issues, but they are slightly malnourished and underweight for their age. The younger girl has head lice. Savannah and I will ask around if anyone has Ivermectin, Permethrin, Benzyl alcohol, or Spinosad. If we cannot find those, we just might have to use some of Jack’s industrial strength cleaner. It might burn her scalp, though. We can use some of the goat milk soap to help with that.”
“They have experienced some kind of severe trauma. I know.” Savannah said with a strange look in her eyes. “When we ask, they get quiet and look away. They won’t make eye contact. It may take some time, but they may come around and talk about what happened to them. It will require long-term therapy. They seem to trust Rae, though,” she said as she looked back at them. Rae was talking with them and got them laughing. “Their names are Samuel, Abigail, and Sarah. We need to make them feel safe and cared for.”
“Aye. Get them a proper meal. See to the girl’s lice. We need to find them a proper bed for the night,” Sean said to Daniel and Savannah. They took the children toward the South side to get them dinner and somewhere to sleep.
“I will need to talk with them,” Jack said with a stern tone in his voice.
“Agreed. But they have needs to be tended to first,” Sean replied, looking after the children as Daniel and Savannah led them away. “What did you and young Jessica find?” Sean asks, turning to Jack.
Jack’s eyes seemed to be thinking for a long moment. “They are nomads. The horses. The wagons. Tents. They move from place to place, looking for resources, food, and water. I don’t know if there are any other military members in the group aside from their military tactician. But we would not stand a chance against armed mounted cavalry on foot even armed. We do not have enough horses or enough people who know how to ride in combat. Me included,” Jack said with a sense of irony.
“Aye. So what do we do?
“Warfare is a question of economics, logistics, and manpower. The economic equation is which side can produce the most military material at the lowest cost with the manpower to put it to use. The logistic equation is which side can field that material to the battlefront and supply the manpower at the lowest cost. In this case, we do not know how much material he has, but we know that with horses, he can field what material he has faster than we can. We have the advantage of being on the defense. Historically, it takes three on the offensive to overcome one on the defensive. They do not have those numbers. But they have the advantage of armed mounted cavalry. He will try for a decisive win. We need to fight for a draw, where neither they nor us wins. Fighting for a draw versus a win will give us the advantage. We still have some of the medium weapons and the grenade launchers but limited ammo. He does not know that. We don’t know if he has any medium or heavy weapons either.”
“Jack, ole boy. Methinks that is not a good feeling.”
“No, Sean. I don’t have a good feeling about it either. We need to adjust accordingly to mitigate his win and cost him more economically, logistically or manpower to quit the field. That could prove to be hard.”
“When will he come at us?”
“Maybe tonight. First light, most likely.”
“Aye. Let’s get set up for watches and pull some from both the East and South defensive lines. Then, put skeleton teams on those lines, everyone else to the Northern barrier before dawn.”
But no attack came either during the night or at first light.
Entry three
It was nearly mid-morning, nearly everyone manned the Northern barrier and still nothing. A sense of tension was in the air.
“Well, Jack,” Sean asked.
Jack looked through Nate’s binoculars at the wagons in the distance. There were several men behind the wagons, armed, facing Four Corners. He could see the tops of the tents. He could see smoke rising from their cooking fires. He could see the two sets of saddled horses on the sides of the road, none of them mounted with riders. He could see someone with their own set of binoculars looking back at him. He handed the binoculars to Sean.
“He is waiting for something,” Jack said. He left the barrier at a slow walk, looking at the ground. To no one, he said, “What is he waiting for?”
Jack then stopped, looking toward the East. Then, the South. A number of the people of Four Corners who could not fight were tending to fires or bringing water up from the river for those standing guard. The children who escaped the cult were there, helping the others where they could. Jack looked to see Sarah, the teen girl, looking at him nervously. After a long moment, he suddenly gave a rare smile, walked up to her, put a hand on her shoulder, and said, “Hi, honey. Everything is going to be fine. You’re safe.”
She smiled back.
Jack then walked past to find Mr. Miller sitting on a log in front of one of the cooking fires, eating breakfast. They talked for a few minutes when Jack suddenly turned and ran back to the Northern barrier.
“Billy! You and your father need to get the whole militia and march eastward! Find a spot to set up an ambush! They are trying to outflank us,” Jack shouted.
Billy gave me a quick glance in alarm, then, with his rifle in hand, ran to his dad. They both ran for their horses and galloped away for the east gate.
Jack swore a few times, very much unlike him. He realized several of us were watching him and said simply, “Pardon my French.”
He then looked at Sarah and sheepishly said, “Sorry for swearing.”
“It’s okay. I’ve heard worse,” she replied with a small smile.
He sighed and said,“Thanks, kid.” He then announced to those manning the Northern barrier, “Okay. They are trying to flank us to the East with others we have not seen, likely another group armed on horseback. I have dispatched the militia to the East. But if they fail, we need to split our forces between the Northern barrier and the East gate. They will come at us in a pincher movement. We need to be ready.”
Jack then began to give orders for who should remain at the Northern barrier and who should re-deploy to the East gate, taking a number of the medium machine guns and rifles with grenade launchers. As people began to move, I walked up to Jack and asked, “You really think they are going to attack from the North and the East at the same time?”
“Yes. It is what I would have done.”
Jack turned and walked off to see to defensive preparations when I noticed Sarah looking very concerned. “It’s okay,” I told her, thinking on what Savannah said about making them feel safe and cared for. “Everything will be fine. Jack has everything under control,” and gave her a reassuring smile.
Sarah did not smile back.
Diary, I am not sure how I felt about that.
Entry four
“They’re gone!” Rae exclaimed as she ran up to the Northern barrier shortly after daybreak.
“Who’s gone,” Sean asked.
“Samuel, Abigail, and Sarah. The children from the cult! Sometime during the night!”
Sean turned to Jack as Jack put the binoculars down when Rae announced the news. “What do you make of it Jack?”
Jack responded flatly, “They didn’t escape from the cult. He staged it. He sent them. He sent them as spies.”
Diary, I suddenly had a very bad feeling.
About 1stMarineJarHead
1stMarineJarHead is not only a former Marine, but also a former EMT-B, Wilderness EMT (courtesy of NOLS), and volunteer firefighter.
He currently resides in the great white (i.e. snowy) Northeast with his wife and dogs. He raises chickens, rabbits, goats, occasionally hogs, cows and sometimes ducks. He grows various veggies and has a weird fondness for rutabagas. He enjoys reading, writing, cooking from scratch, making charcuterie, target shooting, and is currently expanding his woodworking skills.
