“I think I was retired in my cabin which had no cable, no internet, and I could fish, hunt, and just enjoy nature.”
“Didn’t you wonder about the skies darkening or the change in the weather?”
“I knew about the rock, I didn’t say I lived under a rock. I had everything I needed to keep me going.”
“Yeah, but for how long? I’ve seen people saying they had supplies, but none had enough to last for years…”
Gary laughed, “My cabin backed up to a mountain. I’d found a large cave which I spent three years tunneling into. I had enough stored supplies to last me the rest of my life. I had a large library, generator, VCR…”
“A what?”
“A VCR. A video cassette recorder, you know a recording machine that recorded and played TV shows, movies, etc., it was what was used before DVDs.”
“I don’t think I ever heard of one. Why did you use one instead of a DVD?”
“Many years ago I transferred my 8 mm movies to VCR tapes. I had hundreds of hours of recordings of my family. I also had maybe a thousand movies. I bought them at Goodwill stores for less than a dollar apiece. I had five extra machines, some were brand-new in case mine broke.”
“Did you have a tube TV too?”
Gary laughed, “Yeah, but I also had some flat screens. Look, I had a deep well for water, I had a pile of propane tanks. I was set for life until one of your guys showed up with recall orders and here I am.”
“Were you sent to other locations too?”
“I taught officers who were going to command the FOBs so they understood what they were going to be dealing with and then I was on my way to see the ‘Falls’ for the last time when I ran into the Coats and since I had trained your Colonel, here I am.”
“Wow. Let me ask you, is the weather ever going to turn around?”
Gary smiled, “Yup, it will, only none of us will be alive to see it.” He looked through the thermal sight again, “Our friends are back. 2 o’clock, 75 yards if I’m reading this right.”
“Can you tell if they’re armed?”
“Can’t tell until they fire them and then it might be to late. Want to take them?”
“Shit, do you mean dismount?”
“If you want them alive or we can just walk the 20 mike mike at them.”
“The Colonel will want live prisoners, if we stop they’ll get wise…”
“If they don’t shoot at us, pull past them and find a large snowbank which hides us. Then we’ll dismount and grab them.”
“I’ve decided I don’t like you. I trained on these vehicles so I wouldn’t have to go outside. I don’t like the cold.”
“What are you doing up here then?”
“Shit, we’re talking about the Army, tell them you like the warm, you’ll be sent north, tell them you like the cold and you’ll end up along the Mexican border which isn’t very warm anymore. I didn’t learn that lesson quick enough.”
Gary laughed, “First lesson I learned, never volunteer for anything. The second lesson is if you want something, ask for the opposite.”
The soldiers in the Bradley laughed and nodded at Gary’s comments. Before anyone could say anything, they heard the pings of bullets bouncing off the armor. Gary said, “I’m really glad you guys up armored all of your vehicles. The original armor wasn’t worth a damn.”
“Thirty plus years of fighting in the sandbox taught us something.”
Gary nodded, “Thirty plus years and the Taliban is still in Afghanistan. It would have been cheaper to drop a handful of nukes on the country, kill everyone and let Allah sort it out. They wanted to see their god so why not speed their progress?”
“The world would have hated us if we used nukes…”
Gary laughed, “They hate us anyway. They only love our money. When we stopped funding all of the crazy UN’s projects, they hated us even more. When we recalled all of you, many of the countries went nuts. They hated us for being in their country and hated us when the President pulled you out. I say, screw them. We should have left years ago. Why should we have been the world’s policeman, whoops sorry, police person?”
The soldiers laughed again. Gary said, “Someone out there is still shooting at us. I haven’t been able, wait, I’ve got them, he fired too quickly, his rifle barrel is hot. I’ve got him. He’s hiding inside the large snowbank at our 1 o’clock position. Why not drop a couple shells on top of him?”
The gunner smiled, “Easy to do, sarge?”
“Three rounds, HE, set them for air burst over his head.”
“Roger, three shells, air burst, over his head.”
Boom, boom, boom, then a moment later the three shells exploded over the snowbank tearing it and whomever was hiding in it apart. Gary said, “Let’s check it out. Maybe we can learn something from whatever is left of him.”
Gary volunteered to check the snowbank out if the gunner used the thermal sight to scan for other threats. The rear ramp was lowered so Gary could exit, he carried an M3 with a silencer. He wore a new generation bullet proof vest under his thermal jacket. He wore snow pants over his BDUs and heavily padded boots. There wasn’t an inch of skin exposed to the freezing wind. He wore a face mask and googles that covered his eyes.
Gary stepped
