Chapter 45 -- LTRXCQZMOTZSA CM
"Hello, Luther," Grant said as he answered the call. "How are you?"
"Not so well, I'm afraid. At least, some bad things are happening. I suppose
you saw the news."
"Yeah, we saw it," Grant replied. "It's not surprising, except for the resistance."
"Can we meet?" Luther asked.
"Sure. You want us to come over?"
"If you can. It's rather important."
"OK," said Grant. "Bill and I are here, and I believe Arthur is. I'm not sure
about the others. Give us about ten, fifteen minutes?"
"That will be fine," Luther said. "See you shortly."
Grant called Arthur and the three of them went over to Luther's home. He had
three of the elders with him.
"The others will be here in a while," Luther said. "We can get started - they
are apprised of events already. Do you know anything about the place that was
attacked?"
"No," Grant replied. "Just what was on the news, for what it's worth. And they
don't seem to have much interest now that it's over."
"That seems to the usual procedure now," Luther said. "Once it's over there
is no further coverage, no investigation. Since a number of the residents
escaped, whether they continue to cover it remains to be seen."
"It seems that they would," said Grant, "but everything is different now. Do
you know anything outside of the news?"
"Regrettably, I do" Luther replied. "My late wife's nephew was there. He was
one of those who escaped into the woods, with about twenty or so others, I'm
not sure how many. They had some sort of booby traps, to slow down pursuit.
Apparently it worked, but now they're in hiding. He called this morning - he
and one of the others are in Hickory Ridge, about fifty, maybe sixty miles away,
I'm not sure."
"I know where it is," said Bill. "It's about that far. How did he get there?
It's over a hundred miles to Camden."
"Once they got away from the place they were able to make calls to people they
knew to come out and get them. They figured the police, whoever, would be
back the next day to continue the search. Eventually most or all of them got
someone to come and pick them up. Wesley and one of them, he said his name
was Jack, were able to get hold of one of Jack's friends. He drove out there,
picked them up and drove them to Hickory Ridge. He apparently owed Jack,
sufficiently that he went to get them but didn't want any further involvement.
"They didn't dare go to one of the motels there, even in small towns they have
to show ID, so they're hiding in a cornfield outside of town. There's nothing
to do but go get them and bring them here, so a couple of us are about to
leave for there."
"Do you or someone here know the area?" asked Bill. "Will you need any help
finding them?"
"I've been calling some of our members, I haven't found one yet. It should be
easy enough to get there, and have them give us directions when we get close."
"We're pretty familiar with the area," said Bill. "Why don't we go over and
get them? We can give you a number for a burner phone they can use."
"I don't like the idea of you putting yourselves at risk," Luther said. "But
it probably isn't something I should be attempting at my age. I was about to
see if one of the younger men, perhaps Ted, maybe Scott..."
"It's no trouble," said Grant. "Our trucks are inconspicuous in this
environment, and stopping at a corn field won't arouse any suspicion. Why don't
you contact them, we can be on the way as soon as you let them know we're coming."
"I really appreciate it," Luther said.
"Not a problem," said Bill. "We have a certain amount of experience that may
be useful here."
Within a few minutes Luther had contacted the men and advised them help was on
the way, and Grant and Bill left. Stopping to collect Bill's truck they
headed for Hickory Ridge. They were there in just about an hour, and stopped
in a parking lot at a small shopping center. Grant called to confirm their
location and departed, Bill following. Driving along the main road out of town,
Grant and Bill looked at the cornfields on both sides of the road. Before
long Grant spotted two men standing at the edge, not quite concealed by the
tall stalks.
They had given Luther the descriptions of their trucks, and as they slowed to
a stop on the roadside the two men ran over, one of them getting into Grant's
truck and the other into Bill's. They quickly accelerated away, driving down
the road a mile or so before stopping again. Grant got out and went back to
talk to Bill.
"We'd best not go back through town," he said. "We can turn onto 49 about a
mile or so ahead, and there's not much between there and Morrilton. In case
they've been tracked this far."
"Good idea," Bill said. "We'll need to keep an eye out for tails."
The route was a little longer, so it was over another hour before they were
back. They delivered the two fugitives to Luther's house and went in with them.
Grant called Arthur to update and then they talked with Luther and the men
they had rescued.
Wesley, Luther's inlaw was relatively young considering Luther's age - he was
in his seventies and if his wife was close in age, her brother was considerably
younger, looking to be in his late forties or early fifties. The other man, named
Tyler, seemed to be in his thirties. He gave them a concise narrative of the
previous day's events.
It seemed the community where they lived was similar to Luther's, perhaps a little
more inclined to the militant side. They were well armed, but with for the
most part common and, in the past at least, uncontroversial weapons. Most
households had one or were well armed, but with for the most part common and,
in the past at least, uncontroversial weapons. Most households had one or two
of the ubiquitous AR-15 type rifles and a supply of magazines and ammunition.
The remainder of the armament was conventional rifles and shotguns, with the
usual assortment of handguns.
Wesley knew of no reason they would have been singled out. They had little
contact with the locals, either rural neighbors or the people in town. They
home-schooled their children, and all of those who attended church did so on a
church in one of the homes in the community.
"You had some sort of improvised, I guess, booby traps in the woods," said Bill.
"Would your obtaining the explosives been noticed by anyone?"
"Only the dynamite," Wesley said. "And we'd had that for quite a while. We
got ours from a farmer who had used some of it for blasting stumps, and that
was a couple of years ago."
"Any large ammunition purchases?" asked Grant.
"No, not really. Each person bought their own, as they had the money. And it
would have been bought at different places, there's actually only one gun shop
in town, and Wal-Mart. With the short supplies in recent years, people were
getting it at a lot of different places, and usually in small quantities."
"It's hard to say why," Grant said. "There have been a lot of these raids in
the past few months. Some people think the government is beginning to
eliminate any kind of potential resistance to upcoming policies."
"Like gun confiscation?" asked Tyler.
"Eventually," said Grant. "The laws they'll be using haven't passed yet, so
they'll probably wait for that. And they may get as many as they can from the
people who voluntarily comply, before they start to use force. The home-
school laws are already in effect, so when school starts in the fall we'll see
what happens. Since a lot of the home-school community is also religiously
based, they're a special target. It's the whole reason - to prevent escape
from the indoctrination of the schools, and to suppress religious education.
Your community would be targeted on both counts."
"Whatever your plans are," Bill said, "you need to be careful. They're going to
be looking for anyone who escaped. I don't know how long it will take for
them to find you who and how many you are, but they will. With any luck it
will take long enough that no one will know you're here. The weakest link is
probably whoever took you to Hickory Ridge. How reliable is he?"
"He's OK," Jack said. "He owed me a favor, and was decent enough to help when I
needed it, but if they get to him he'll do what he has to to save himself.
Not that I'd blame him. But he can't tell them anything except where he took us."
"Yeah, as long as there's no way to trace you here you should be all right,"
said Bill. "But if they're really determined, they'll fan out around the area
looking for places like this. So you're still likely to be a target."
"We accepted the risk when we took you in," said Luther. "It was our choice.
We will just have to wait and see what comes."
"The most important thing," said Grant, "is for you guys to stay hidden here.
Don't go to town. And get rid of your phones immediately. Are they burners?"
"Burners?" Luther asked
"If you want to avoid being tracked, credit and debit cards and phones make
you easy to find. You can cut the risk by using prepaid debit cards and phones,
and change the phones often. You should get rid yours immediately - do both
of you have them?"
Both affirmed that they did.
"Turn them off immediately," said Grant. "And get rid of them. If you're not
used to doing it, we can get you some new ones, buy them in Lewisburg or one
of the larger cities and some distance away. I know phones cost
money and you don't like to throw them away, just get the cheap ones."
"Come to think of it," said Bill "give me you phones. Are they prepaid?"
"Yeah," Wesley said. "Here you go."
Bill took the phones.
"We're going over to Lewisburg this afternoon. We'll take them with us, make
a couple of calls, so they'll be tracked to over there. We'll bring back the new
ones. We can't be too careful. And remember, stay here. Luther, if anyone
shows up looking for them, or for anyone, make sure they're out of sight. And
if they have warrants, you know where the trail to our place is. The ends of
it are hidden, they won't notice it. Send them up the trail."
"Thanks for helping us," said Luther. "You don't know how important this is.
Or perhaps you do. In any case, you have our gratitude."
"We have to help each other," Grant said.
"If you aren't already doing it," Bill said, "you should probably start having
some kind of watchers on the entrance, so you can see what's coming. If you
like, we can set up some cameras looking down the road. You can monitor them
from inside."
"That might be prudent," Luther said."
"We'd best be going," said Grant. "We should be able to get back before dark."