Chapter 36 -- VBYURGSMVLCNVEKOBIYOFW
The next day after breakfast they said their goodbyes and headed for Cedar Ridge.
Using the directions they had been given they arrived a little after eleven,
As they neared the top of one of the wooded hills, a gate blocked the road.
As they approached, a man stepped out of a small group of trees and opened it,
closing it behind them. They continued another quarter mile or so, around a
couple of curves, and into a small woods covering about forty acres
or so.
The trees were in most places just close enough that a motor vehicle could not
easily pass between them. There were only two points of entry,
one being the road they were on and the other exiting one side at
approximately ninety degrees to it. Cleared spaces within
the grove contained houses and a few larger buildings.
As they approached the first intersection a young man who had been watching
them approach stepped to the side of the road and held his hand up. Jessica
lowered the window.
"Hello," he said. "Welcome to Cedar Ridge. I'm Carl. Let me get my ride
and I'll show you the way."
An ATV was parked nearby. He mounted it and drove out into the road in front
of them. Jessica followed him to one of the large, plain-looking metal buildings of sort present at
many freeholds. Functionality and economy was important, appearance was not.
Inside he showed them to a small conference room where the other leaders were
already seated. There were four of them and Carl introduced them.
"Roger over at Emerald Ridge called and told us you were coming," said Carl.
"He described you and your vehicle, so we were able to have lookouts along the
last few miles. No reason anything should happen to you but we can't be too
careful."
"That's true," Jessica said. "It's surprising that we've been able to maintain
secrecy for so long - I suspect that's going to become more difficult."
"That's almost certain," said Eric, a middle-aged man. He was neatly dressed
in the common garb of the majority of freeholders, but looked like a
businessman who was accustomed to an office, or perhaps a doctor. "I'm afraid
we're close to the edge, and the edge is at the end of next year, or early the
year after."
"That's the consensus overall," said Harold. Harold was, like Eric, middle-
aged and had a distinguished look. Of the remaining two men, one resembled
Eric and Harold, the other was, like Carl a younger man. Carter guessed them
in their late twenties, one of them possibly in his early thirties. The other
older man was named Russell, and the other young man was named Frank. Carter
thought one or perhaps both were former military. Which proved to be correct.
"Until last year, after the election, Harold, Russell, and I were still living
in town running our businesses," Eric said. "We were part of the original
freehold, but primarily financed and helped manage it. Our political activity
brought us together with Carl and Frank, both ex-military and concerned about
the future. Carl had left recently enough to have experienced the
attempts to turn the military into a tool for an incoming socialist government.
He and others like him got out as soon as they could, and a lot of them
started looking for a way to survive what was coming.
"The three of us had had contact with a couple of guys from Copper Canyon for
a while and they helped us to set up an organization that could get an
invitation to join the freeholds. We were fortunate enough to have the money to finance
it, and we looked at it as a safe place to go if things fell apart. As the
inevitability of that became apparent, we built it up to what we have now,
forty-four members.
"Only about half of us live here. The others still have their jobs, businesses,
outside - over in McAlester and a couple of small towns. The three of us sold
everything about two years ago, we've got enough to keep this going for a lot
longer than the country is likely to last. We've been stockpiling supplies, we
could sit up here for a long time if no one bothered us, but that's unlikely
to happen."
"No," Jessica said. "They won't leave you alone. All the freeholds are under
the radar, so far, and maintaining that status will be essential to our
success in the end."
"How likely do you think we'll have a hundred percent response?" asked Frank.
"Your father have any idea?"
"We haven't discussed it much," said Jessica, "but he seems optimistic. Our
vetting process obviously works for security, I'd think we've got a good force.
And since we'll be up against the wall - fight or flight - I don't believe too
many, if any, will run."
"Let's hope not," Carl said. "The hardest decision for some won't be whether
to resist when attacked. It's firing the first shot. Deliberately killing
someone who isn't an immediate threat, is a hard line for all of us to cross,
otherwise we would be like them. Yet it may come to that."
"And from the looks of things," said Russell, "it will. None of us can see a
way around it. We may be able to deal with some of the errand boys, but in the end we'll
have to cut off the head of the snake."
And that, Carter and Jessica both knew, would test them to their limits.
Physical and mental preparation for battle could overcome most challenges, but
the moral question, even with the answer known, could be difficult to act upon.
All were silent for a few moments, all pondering the gravity of the situation. Then Carl
pushed back his chair and got up.
"It's about time for lunch," he said. "I'm sure our guests like to eat as much
as we do."
"Well, not as much as some of us," said Russell, giving him a playful elbow in
the ribs. "We pretty much fend for ourselves around here. Let's see what we
can find."
There was a kitchen with a pantry down the hall, much like a break room in an
office building. "Pizza would be quick," said Russell.
"Sounds good," Jessica replied.
A pair of large countertop ovens with a two-pizza capacity were quickly loaded
and activated. Shortly they were sitting around two of the large round tables,
eating pizza and drinking sodas from the refrigerator. Jessica was seated at
the table with Carl and Frank, while Carter sat with the three older men.
"We've known Jessica's father for a while," said Russell. "Sierra Verde is a
mostly a family affair. Are you related?"
"Not quite," replied Carter. He told them briefly of his incarceration and
meeting Tommy in prison, and his subsequent recruitment.
"I remember that case," said Russell. "That was one of several back a few
years ago. That was one of the things that drove us crazy - these cities were
really being run by crazy people, or really sick, or both."
"Yeah," Carter said. "We were all just cops doing our job, not having time to
look around and see what was happening. Until it happened to us."
"Eventually it stopped because cops stopped taking chances," said Eric. "They'd
let a criminal walk away rather than shoot, some even got killed that way.
And more and more just looked the other way, and crime got worse. There weren't
any decent cops left."
"That's where they've got this new federal agency," said Carter. "Supposedly
to deal with those places, but the idea is for it to grow until all law
enforcement is federal. Which is part of the plan. Then they can
round up the opposition at their leisure."
"Or so they think," said Eric. "We're mostly, just about all of us, out here
in the boonies. They have no idea where to look, for us anyway. They'll go
after any independent groups, or individuals, that get their attention. But,
if we are successful, they'll never know we're here until we hit them. And
maybe not even then."
"Certainly the outliers will come in handy, both for drawing resources that
could be used against us and providing cover," Harold said. "As long as they have visible targets,
there's no reason to look elsewhere."
After they were finished and the dishes consigned to the dishwasher, they went
on a tour of the place. Several of what looked like old army jeeps were
parked in the lot, and they got in with Jessica in the front seat of one and
Carter in the same position in the other. Carl and Frank drove, with the
others in the back seats.
"Where do you get Jeeps?" Carter asked Frank. "They look like old military jeeps."
"Yeah. Some of the later ones from the Vietnam era. Lot of them came on the
market when they replaced them with the Humvees. They work well for us, cheap
and easy to maintain, and can go places the Humvees can't."
Their hosts showed them several concealed bunkers with supplies of small arms,
mostly rifles and shotguns, but a few grenade launchers with a generous supply
of ammunition, and an assortment of other items including a large amount of C-4,
and hundreds of hand grenades.
"No need to ask a couple of ex-army guys where to get this stuff," Carter said.
Frank grinned. "It's amazing how much stuff the Army loses. I imagine some
of the other freeholds have stuff, as many ex-military as there are."
The ring of trees surrounding the area, spaced so that passage through them
was only possible on foot or a vehicle no larger than a motorcycle. The ring
was almost a hundred yards deep, and Frank pointed out that any intruders
coming through the ring would be shot at by defenders behind the trees, moving
from one tree to another after each shot. They could retreat a considerable
distance if the enemy was gaining ground.
"We could take down a considerable force before they get close to the center,"
he said.
Along the way they met a number of the members, mostly younger men, some with
opposite-sex companions, and a dozen or so older men and women.
"Some of us old guys," one of them, a retired sheriff's deputy who had worked
in the next county over for years, said. "Probably too old to fight except from
a stationary position, but we'll do what we can."
The tour ended back at the administration area, where a couple of small guest
houses were located. After dinner with their hosts Carter and Jessica retired
to one of them.
The next morning they left early - the drive to Chillicothe would be at least
seven hours, perhaps more depending on traffic. After a quick breakfast they
said their good-byes and headed back.
After passing through McAlester on I-44, they settled in for the long cruise.
Both were somewhat subdued, but that was becoming more normal.
"You all right?" asked Jessica, without looking over.
"Good question," he replied. "It's getting hard to know anything these days,
to think about how we're going to get through this. You ever think about how
big this is, if it goes the way we expect?"
"Sure," she replied. "It's scary. Is it for you?"
"Yeah. I've never really felt that way. I was apprehensive sometimes, lots
of times, anticipating an operation, dealing with things going wrong. But
this is bigger than anything that should even exist."
"Strangely enough," said Jessica, "the enemy almost certainly isn't expecting it. They're
sure it's all locked up. And being conscienceless, they don't lose any sleep
over anything they do."
"They're overthrowing a government, enslaving a society of hundreds of millions,"
said Carter, "and it's just business as usual for them. They'll imprison, kill,
enslave millions without any self-doubt at all, and we're going to have to
make ourselves do what has to be done, if we can."
"Well," said Jessica, "we know people are capable of that kind of evil. Hitler,
Stalin, Mao. The one thing that remains to be seen is whether those on the
side of right can be ruthless enough to save themselves, and the millions of
sheep who don't even deserve it."
"It's never really been done, what we're planning," Carter said. "You talked about Michael
Collins, who did it on a very small scale. We really don't know what will
happen."
"No," said Jessica. "We don't. I guess the only consolation is knowing that not doing
it will be worse."