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The assault on the McKean Federal Prison surprisingly went off without a hitch. Colonel Harris sat in the passenger seat of an MRAP about a hundred yards from the front gate with a pair of binoculars. On their approach to the prison, he had radioed the Scout Sniper units and given them permission to take out the men on watch around the prison. The lead MRAP with an MK-14 grenade launcher on top quickly destroyed the machine gunner’s nest inside the front gate and everything after that went according to plan. In fact, Bruce had been extremely surprised that his men only received very minimal, if any, return fire. During their assault, the buses had been able to easily navigate the perimeter road to pick up the hostages. Even the big grinding wheel Corporal Losee had brought with them apparently worked like a charm.
Captain Zrucky had come over the radio announcing that all the hostages were on board and they were moving out. ‘Nothing goes this easy,’ Bruce thought to himself as he looked skyward, waiting for the Spector to show up and ruin his day. That would be his luck. Or maybe the looters inside were getting ready for a counter assault.
A short, tense minute later Bruce saw the buses come around the west side of the prison and slowly make their way back out of the front gate, followed by Captain Zrucky and the last two MRAPs. Bruce radioed the retreat and the four MRAPs guarding the front gate turned around and fell in behind the MRAP Colonel Harris rode in. A couple hundred yards up the road they came across the rest of Charlie and Delta Companies and had to wait as nearly a hundred military vehicles slowly turned around on the small two-lane road. Bruce sat nervously as it seemed forever before both companies were turned around and ready to head back to the base.
“Whiplash, this is Captain Zrucky!” a frantic voice broke the radio silence. “Sir, we have a large procession of vehicles approaching from the rear! How would you like us to proceed, Sir?”
“If they get within a hundred yards, open fire!” Bruce hollered back over the loud diesel engine of the MRAP. Bruce needed to make a split second decision. Turn and fight or flee and look for a better location to turn around. “All vehicles get moving! We have enemy vehicles approaching us from the rear! Captain Whalen and Charlie Company, you race ahead and set up an ambush at the next crossroads and provide cover as we pass through and get the convoy turned around. Move out!” The long column quickly gained speed as they rushed in the opposite direction of the looters. Bruce was confident they could easily win a pitched battle with the civilian force, but how many men would he lose in the process and how would he write up the report for HQ? It wasn’t very far before they approached the large intersection with Rte. 219. As Bruce’s vehicle passed through the intersection, he could see over a dozen MRAPs on each side pulling into a “V” formation, essentially blocking off the intersection.
“Stop the column and turn around!” Bruce radioed as the last vehicle passed the road block. It would take nearly five minutes to get both companies completely turned around, but the 24 MRAPs already in place should have no trouble holding their own until they were reinforced. A few minutes seemed to take forever while the rest of Charlie and Delta got into position facing the road to the west...and just in time. Lifting his binoculars again, Bruce could see the long procession of civilian vehicles as they slowly approached the intersection. It was obvious they were taking their time and basically shadowing them. Bruce was about to give the order to fire at will when the lead civilian vehicle separated from the rest and slowly moved forward, the passenger waving a white pillowcase out of his window. “Hold your fire, men, unless you perceive a threat!” Colonel Harris ordered over the radio. The vehicle came to a slow stop just fifty feet from the road block and the passenger exited the vehicle, still waving the flag. He approached on foot with his hands in the air.
“What would you like me to do, Colonel?” Captain Whalen asked over the radio.
“Take a team with you and see what he wants,” Bruce answered. “Don’t leave the cover of your trucks, though. Make him come to you....” Colonel Harris lost sight of the man as he came closer to the lead MRAP.
A few minutes later, Shifty’s voice came over the radio. “Sir, the man’s name is Paul and he wants to speak with you directly. Apparently, he’s the leader of this band of rabble.”
“Alright, Captain Whalen, escort the man back here.” A few moments later, Bruce watched as Shifty, flanked by three of his men, led a man in his mid-forties to his vehicle. The man was freshly-shaven, clean cut and his hair was cut short into a flat top. He looked ex-military. Bruce jumped down from the MRAP as they approached and the man reached out for Bruce’s hand, causing Shifty to jerk him away from Colonel Harris by the back of his collar. “What do you want?” Bruce asked gruffly to the man who was still recovering from Shifty’s yank of his collar.
He glanced irritably over his shoulder at Shifty while rubbing the front of his neck before turning back to Bruce with a slight smile. “I just wanted to come and introduce myself. You obviously killed some of my men and, as you could see, we didn’t return fire. Our group is made up of mostly ex-prisoners who are just doing what it takes to survive. We don’t want a fight with you or your men and would be happy to establish some form of professional relationship as neighbors.”
“Doing what it takes to survive?” Bruce said, disgusted, as he spat on the ground in front of the man’s boots. “I guess that includes keeping dozens of sexual slaves and terrorizing a small town for months?”
The man grimaced uncomfortably. “That was not my doing. That happened before I came to power. I recently took over control at McKean after I personally killed the previous leader who was a blood-thirsty sociopath. He couldn’t understand that if they kept killing everyone, then our entire group would soon die of starvation as all the local resources would be gone. I have since convinced most of the men to give up their previous ways of looting and we have been developing working relationships with numerous local farmers to help them grow crops and protect their livestock from other looters. Since then we have even taken in numerous local families who have run out of food.
“We are in the process of rebuilding a family-oriented community at the prison and trying to rebuild a normal life for people. I’d be happy to give you a tour if you’d like me to prove to you how the dynamics at the prison have changed.”
“Oh yeah, I can see the family dynamic,” Bruce said sarcastically. “I’m sure the local farmers are real cooperative after you steal their daughters and force them into sexual slavery.”
“That’s not how it is!” the man protested loudly, causing Shifty to step closer and give the man a grave warning look three inches from the side of his face.
The man calmed himself and softened his approach. “That’s not how it is, Colonel. The relationships we are building with the locals now are organic and mutually beneficial for both parties involved. I told you that those other things happened before I took control. As far as the women go, I have been working on that. Hell, I have my own wife and three-year-old son living in there with me and others have brought their families in as well. Most of us don’t want that type of environment, either. I think what has been going on is disgusting, as do others, and I’ve been secretly working with some of them to develop a plan to help the women escape. Unfortunately, there are still some in our group that don’t want that to happen, and they are a big enough percentage that if I were found to be involved, they could have me killed. It’s a touchy situation right now with a lot of undesirables in our group. If we banished them, they would be powerful enough to come back and wipe us out whenever they wanted, and then most of the group would go right back to their previous ways. I don’t want that. Like I said, I’m trying to build a community. It’s all I’ve been able to do up to this point to keep everyone under control with such a wide range of personalities and wildly different types of people. In fact, with your rescue of the women today and with your backing, I’d be happy to hold trials for the degenerates in our group for their past crimes and set an example for the community moving forward. I could actually provide a list of names for you, and your men could come in and arrest the bad element in our group. I’m serious here.”
“What about your attack on the town of Tionesta last week? Your men killed innocent civilians in that town who were peaceful. What happened to forming mutually beneficial relationships? I’m sorry, Paul, but your actions speak louder than your words,” Bruce said, shaking his head. The man seemed sincere, but there was too much mayhem in the group’s wake.
“Sir, please...,” the man begged. “I never ordered that. Those men were on a long-range patrol looking for other surviving farmers we could work with. They told me they were ambushed by the survivors in Tionesta. I will believe your account over theirs, but this is what I mean. If I am going to clean out the bad members of the prison population, I am going to need your help to do so. Please.... There are a lot of others there, including some of the original prisoners, who want the same thing I do,” the man pleaded.
Bruce rubbed his chin in thought. The fact that the man would open the prison to his soldiers and hold trials to clean out the undesirables sounded promising. He would need to follow up with the other farmers and be sure they weren’t being unfairly coerced, but it had its merits. It would be a lot better than wiping out the entire prison, especially now that Bruce was aware of other locals living there, including women and children. He would have to move quickly to call off the attack. ‘How would he explain this one to General Oates?’ he thought to himself. Once again, Bruce found himself in a moral dilemma. If he called off the attack, he would most likely lose his unit and get court-martialed for disobeying a direct order to stay away from the prison.
Bruce sighed deeply as the others watched him in silence. He was tired and weary. Maybe he would just go AWOL and try and make the trip out to Colorado to check on his brother. Colonel Harris turned to reach back in the cab for his Sat phone when a low rumbling reached his ears, quickly growing louder. As he halted, the dread washed over him. Suddenly, loud explosions could be heard and Bruce looked back in the direction of the prison to see smoke plumes quickly reaching into the sky. The explosions grew louder and more frequent, and Bruce knew that it was too late. Anyone left in the prison would soon be dead.
Bruce glanced back at Paul whose face was frozen in horror. “Anna!” he screamed at the top of his lungs, startling Shifty and the other men who were all looking back at the prison now. Paul took off at a dead run, with Shifty and his men quickly pursuing.
“Let him go!” Bruce yelled at his men, who skid to a halt and slowly started to walk back to him.
Bruce wiped his hand over his face, knowing that the man’s wife and kid were in the prison and feeling sick to his stomach. How many other innocent women and children did they just kill? No matter what he did and no matter how hard he tried, Bruce just couldn’t seem to prevent innocent Americans he swore to protect from getting killed. Once again, he cursed the EMP that had brought his beloved country to its knees. Colonel Harris stood in awe at the destruction that was being waged just up the road and the large cloud of smoke that now billowed into the sky. He wasn’t sure how long it lasted, but a few minutes later the explosions ceased and just the faint sound of a raging fire could be faintly heard in the distance. Bruce looked over at Shifty, who just raised his eyebrow in concern. “Load the men up and let’s get out of here,” Bruce ordered solemnly.