The truck slowly lumbered down the shoulder and turned onto Pierce Point Road. Grant motioned for the Team to come back. They retreated with one man closest to the threat—the road to Frederickson—covering the road while the others ran back toward the bridge. As soon as the last man got to cover, he yelled, “Set!” That was the signal for the man closest to the threat to turn and run back toward the bridge. A leap frogging retreat. They’d done this on the range a bunch of times. Special Forces Ted had taught them. They weren’t perfect doing it today, but they didn’t practice this for a living. Even with the flaws, Ryan was impressed. He fit right in, executing his cover right when he heard “Set!”
Grant was one of the first to the gate. The guards were looking at him like he was on drugs. Rich and Dan came running up and yelling, “What the hell?”
“FC tried to steal this guy’s truck,” Grant said, winded.
Rich and Dan weren’t sure that was a good answer. Why was Grant letting this stranger drive a truck—possibly filled with looters—through the gate?
Dan yelled to the guards, “Cover that truck. If people come out the back, shoot ‘em!”
This was the first action the guards had seen, and they were jumping around. Dan looked toward the hill where the snipers were and motioned with his arm.
Gideon parked the truck and put his hands out the window. Grant ran up and said, “Move this over there,” pointing to the volunteer fire station. “I don’t want people seeing that we have your truck.”
Gideon nodded. He started to drive. Some of the guards yelled, “Stop!”
Grant ran around the truck yelling, “Let him drive it! Let him drive!” The guards, too, assumed that Grant knew something they didn’t.
Finally, the truck was parked so it couldn’t be seen from the road. The Team was behind cover on and near the bridge, sweeping the entrance with their rifles. Any cop car driving down the road would be cut to pieces in seconds.
Grant ran back toward the gate and yelled to the guards, “Be on the lookout for a cop car. Shoot it. Got it? Shoot the cop car.” The guards slowly nodded. They were in shock. No one had ever told them to shoot a cop car before.
Grant yelled for the Team to retreat across the bridge while the guards covered them. The guards were clumsily covering the bridge as they started streaming back. The Team was definitely smoother than the guards, but there were way more guards.
Grant was at the gate, trying to catch his breath when the Team started coming up to him.
“What just happened?” Pow asked. “Who is this guy?”
“I dunno,” Grant said.
Chapter 118
The Spoils of War
(May 12)
“What?” Ryan said. “You dunno?”
“I dunno who he is,” Grant said.
“Why the hell did you let him in?” Rich asked as he came up.
“I felt like I should,” Grant said.
“What?” Several people said in unison.
Al, the immigration guy, the former Border Patrol agent from the meeting at the Grange, came up and angrily asked, “Who let this guy in?”
Rich pointed at Grant.
“Why did you let him in?” Al asked.
“I dunno,” Grant said.
Grant realized how stupid that sounded. He needed to give a better explanation. Except he didn’t have one. So he made something up.
“You’ll see,” Grant said as he walked toward the truck. “You’ll see,” he repeated.
Grant didn’t know for sure what was in there, but he knew in his gut that they needed to rescue the driver and bring the trailer in. He knew they needed to do this fast before they got caught.
Gideon was standing outside the cab with his hands up with about a dozen rifles pointed at him and the truck. He was starting to get nervous surrounded by all these rednecks with guns. Gideon was beginning to fear that he had walked into some white power compound. He had been told by his company and the news that these types of compounds were springing up everywhere and that the “Don’t Tread on Me” flag was a Nazi militia symbol. Other drivers said that was a lie, like just about everything else the company and the news were saying. Gideon hadn’t actually seen any signs of it out there as he drove across the country.
Just as he was getting really nervous about all the white guys in hunting clothes pointing rifles at him, he saw an Asian guy who looked like a tactical badass. Gideon scanned the guards and also saw two Hispanic looking guys. That was a relief. This surely wasn’t some white power compound.
Grant said to Gideon, “Open the trailer.”
“The keys to the padlocks are in the cab. Can I get them?” Gideon asked.
“I’ll get them,” Grant said. He got up in the cab and found a key ring. He came down and asked Gideon, “These them?”
Gideon nodded.
Grant ran to the rear of the trailer and started to open the locks. There were three of them.
Grant opened up the trailer door and gasped. He could not believe his eyes.
Gideon came running to the trailer door. “I was bringing a load to a grocery store called Martin’s. This is a semi load of food. Non-perishable. Want to see the paper work on it?”
The guards exploded with whooping and hollering. They were jumping up and down.
Grant’s knees gave way. He fell to the ground. He was overtaken with emotion. They’d eat for weeks! The constant worrying about having enough food was over. He was ecstatic.
Everyone was screaming with joy. Rich yelled to Grant, “How did you know what was in there!”
“I didn’t,” Grant said as he shrugged. “I just knew it was stuff we needed. I just knew.” He wasn’t about to explain the outside thoughts and how they had always been right. No one would believe him.
Grant looked inside the semi-trailer. It was full of huge cases of beans, rice, biscuit and pancake mix, and stacked high with cases of canned meat , soups, and vegetables. Grant saw jams and cases of peanut butter, even cookies and crackers. He smiled and then he started laughing out loud.
There was so much food in there. Pierce Point could serve meals from this truck for…Grant had no idea, but it would be a long time. They would be able to provide food when the government couldn’t.
Grant realized that the FC would be coming back to get “their” truck. Let them. Let the first blood be those FC dickheads. Let the Undecideds realize who was feeding them and who was trying to take it away.
“Get that damned truck up to the Grange and post a guard,” Dan said. He was smiling. “Nicely done, Mr. Matson. Nicely done.”
Grant realized that the FC, or cops, or whomever would be looking for the black truck driver. “We’ll get Gideon to the Grange and have him hide out there,” Grant said.
Dan nodded and then asked, “What if someone asks who the new guy is?”
Grant smiled and said, “We’ll tell them he’s Chip’s cousin.” Chip, who was white, could actually convince someone of that. Dan laughed, and then turned serious. Grant knew what he was going to say next.
“Yeah, I know,” Grant said to Dan, “prepare for an attack.” Grant looked out toward the gate and said to Dan, “The FC will be coming to call. It’s not like we can have five hundred households here keep a secret like this. Well, Dan, we’ll see how good our defenses are pretty soon. What, you figure around night fall?”
Dan nodded. He started yelling orders to the guards to double up, be alert, and shoot any cop cars. “Shoot to kill anyone coming across that bridge until further orders.” It sounded so weird to hear someone actually say that.
Rich was on the radio, one of the ham radios instead of the CBs, calling in to Linda the dispatcher at the Grange. He wanted every able bodied and armed man to come to the gate. “Tell the Chief to be ready for an attack from the water, too,” Rich said into the radio.