However, it was not prudent to carry on ahead into a potential ambush that the pickup may have been driving them towards, so they turned around and headed back down the road a ways, to where they could take an alternative side road.
As they passed the ambush site, Jack and Andrew vigilantly scanned the bodies for movement, weapons trained through the open windows of the Suburban. Caitlin had put a DVD in the roof mounted player to distract Sarah and Connor, so they never even noticed.
Once they were past, they brought their weapons back inside to resume a low profile posture.
Luckily they did not encounter any more hostile vehicles as they exited the area.
They drove down the road towards Bill and Cindy’s farm. It was situated off a rural road out in the countryside. They arrived at the turning, which was a small lay-by with the gate to the farm driveway set back from the road; there was a small gravel area where they could park.
They could see the farm building set back several hundred meters away on a rise, behind a screen of trees and nestled in a cluster of barns and outbuildings. The gate was of metal construction and it was locked shut with a chain and padlock. There was no sign of anyone.
Jack decided not to park in the obvious place and had Caitlin drive on a little way to a place where they could get the car off the road onto the verge and in the cover of some trees. He told Andrew to pull security, everyone else to stay in the car and he climbed out, slinging his rifle on his back.
He walked cautiously along the road for the fifty meters back to the gate and stood, staring up to the farm. Beside the driveway, which curled up to the farm buildings, was a ditch with a hedgerow on the outside of it. Fifty meters back the hedgerow merged with a copse of trees before exiting on the far side and continuing alongside the driveway up to the farm.
Nothing.
He waited.
How to get their attention in the farm?
He was getting nervous, his family sitting there in the car just down the road. He was about to turn back to the car when he caught the glint of an optic from up near the farm buildings.
Crap!
He instinctively crouched and half turned to shout to Andrew when a soldier stood up from the edge of the small copse. Jack threw himself into cover, reaching back for his rifle, and was just pulling it forward when he saw that the soldier’s weapon was held down by his side.
“Whoa there, Jack, steady there!” called the unknown soldier as he started to walk forwards, grinning. Jack paused, and stood up slowly. No shots rang out. The soldier approached, and Jack still did not know him.
“How do you know my name?” asked Jack, feeling a little dumb, as the man approached. He was a big guy, fully geared up in the old style woodland BDUs, with a tactical vest and AR15 style rifle. Jack realized that although he looked like a soldier, he did not look like an active duty army soldier. He also looked well trained and switched on.
“Bill told me, on the landline. You must have seen him watching you through his binoculars. I’m Jim,” said the soldier as he extended his hand, which Jack took, “welcome to the farm.”
Jack called the family forward in the car as Jim unlocked the gate, explaining that they had an observation post (OP) in the copse covering the entry gate, keeping it low profile. They had a field telephone run up to the farm, which was how they were able to alert Bill, who had recognized Jack through the binoculars and given the all clear.
They walked up to the OP position, Caitlin following in the car, and when they got on top of it they saw that it was a concealed foxhole with overhead protection, camouflaged in the trees. There was another man still in the OP, covering his sectors, who nodded to Jack as he approached.
There was an ATV concealed at the rear of the copse; Jim told Jack to follow in the car as he led the way up to the farm on the ATV. He drove round the back to one of the barns and gestured for Caitlin to drive in and park.
There were several other vehicles in the barn. Jim took them round to the back door of the farm building where they bumped into Bill, who had a huge grin on his face. He grabbed Jack in a bear hug, only letting him go to grab hold of Caitlin and the kids.
“Damn it Jack, it’s good to see you. I was worried about you and the family.”
Bill was older than Jack by about ten years. Jack had served under him as a young lieutenant when Bill was a Major in the Ranger Battalion. Bill had mentored Jack and they had kept in touch after Bill left the service.
Bill hustled them into the kitchen where they found Cindy. She broke off the coffee she was making on the wood stove to launch herself into a hug fest with Caitlin and the kids. Jack and Bill sat down at the kitchen table and Jack suddenly felt relieved yet extremely tired all at the same time.
They all sat around the kitchen table, drank coffee, ate, and talked for a long time. Jack was determined to make it clear to Bill that he did not want to impose on him. He explained what had happened at their house, to Cindy’s huge shock, and how they had decided to head to the farm simply as a first stop and somewhere to aim for as they bugged out. Bill and Cindy would not hear of it, and told them they were welcome at the farm for as long as they needed.
It soon became apparent from the comings and goings in and out of the kitchen, and from what they could see outside of the kitchen windows, that there were quite a few more people at the farm, most of them moving about in some form of camouflage clothing.
After a while, the kids started to drop off to sleep, including Andrew, and Cindy helped Caitlin put them to bed in a spare room. Then they sat around and talked.
As it got dark outside Cindy lit some lamps. Bill began to explain that he was part of a Resistance movement, fighting against the excesses of the Regime, the destruction of liberty and the loss of the Constitution. The time for political solutions was long gone, and the only option left for them was to fight to restore the Republic.
One of the key things that had concerned Bill in his operational planning was the potential for reprisals against the families of Resistance fighters. It was plain that the Regime respected no law or morality and there was no separation of fighters from their families or the public at large. It was a form of total war, against the American people.
Regime forces would simply wipe out a man’s family if they discovered he was a Resistance fighter. It was brutal and nihilistic and entirely in line with national socialist tyrannies throughout the ages. It was a game of kill lists, lethal raids and reprisals by the Regime. Truly, the Regime had the monopoly of terror and was exploiting it to reinforce their agenda of fear.
Bill explained that since before the collapse he had been working covertly with his Resistance cell on a couple of secret hidden locations in the hills and forests to the west of the Shenandoah Valley. They had found several locations that were well hidden in small valleys, ravines or draws in the forested hills. Each location could only be accessed by hiking trail at a distance from a single forest road or track.
They had selected the best location and taken small excavators up there and over time had dug reinforced bunkers into the sides of the draw, creating underground living spaces in the hollows.
They had named it Camp Zulu.
The idea was that this hidden place would be a refuge for the families and loved ones of those engaging in the Resistance fight. Bill hoped to expand the number of bases as time went on. The fighters could live there from time to time, and visit, but operations would not be conducted from those bases.
Instead, each base would be for the families of a certain Resistance company and that company would rotate through providing security and defensive forces for that base, while operating elsewhere. Each location, in addition to the underground living spaces, would have a well sited network of fighting positions dug in around it.