The convoy now had six Abrams tanks, all with plows mounted on their front while still having their 120mm main canon and three machine guns. The Suburbans were equipped with racks to hold an M4 and a shotgun up front and three M4s in the back. The cargo compartment was loaded with metal containers, each holding 1,000 rounds of rifle ammo. There were also wooden crates of extra rifles, shoulder fired missiles and grenades.
There were ten supply trucks loaded with MREs and additional weapons, ammo, and parts to repair the vehicles and rifles. The medical unit was made up of six trucks and trailers full of medical equipment. They had the supplies for one and half MASH units. There were also four fully filled fuel tankers, the Colonel was upset he had to leave hundreds of gallons of fuel behind because he had no more place to carry it. Every fuel tank was filled, every vehicle had extra full fuel cans tied on their roofs, and the tanker trucks couldn’t hold another drop.
The interstate under the snow and ice was in horrible shape, the freezing and thawing at the start of the weather change had left massive potholes and opened sink holes in the road’s surface. No money was allocated to repair the damage since once the glaciers moved in, the road surface would be torn up. The tanks had to move very slowly as to not further damage the road. The plows were set to leave between one and two inches of snow on the road, the theory being this snow would act as a buffer and not lead to the sink holes opening any wider than they already were.
The convoy left the FOB at 8 AM and planned to arrive the Scranton base by 6 PM. The distance was only 65 miles between bases, the shortest of any of the bases built on the North to South freeways. In normal times such a trip would have taken less than an hour, today the Colonel was hoping they could make it in 8. He knew the roads were in very bad condition. He had zero idea about the conditions they would run into or if they would find any other raiders. The Colonel was worried that most of the vehicles were manned by only a driver or driver and someone riding as shotgun. If they ran into problems, they might have issues defending themselves.
The Colonel placed two of the tanks up front to plow the road and one as the last vehicle, the others were spread out in the convoy. His gut kept telling him this was going to be a very difficult 65 miles, maybe the most difficult of his life and he’d seen a lot in his years.
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The naked church leader sat with his legs crossed inside the igloo. Somehow, he had survived almost seven hours naked inside his snow cone. He was shivering from the cold but forced his mind to ignore the cold and pain the extreme cold caused. He concentrated on praying to his lord and master for help. He focused his mind on calling for help from his master for whom he promised to bring revenge on all who didn’t worship him. His training allowed him to lower his heart rate. He sat still for hours, he ignored the numbing frost bite and the loss of circulation in his fingers, toes, ears, and nose. He sat and chanted a call to Satan, he repeated his chant and prayer for hours when a head pushed through the small opening of the igloo, “Are you alive?”
“Has the master sent you?”
“Master? What are you talking about? Who are you?”
“I am the voice of my master here on earth, I am here to cleanse the way for his arrival.”
“You’re naked, aren’t you cold?”
“Cold is meaningless, soon the world will burn with hellfire.”
“Well until that happens why don’t you come with us, we have warm clothing, we have heat, water, and food.”
“I will come with you because my master sent you to me. He saved me so I can continue my work preparing his way.”
“Whatever, if you want to be out of the cold, come with us. We are seeking revenge…”
“Revenge is something my master invented. I will come with you because he wills it.”
They dressed him in the arctic camo uniforms they’d taken from the base. They gave him warm soup and hot coffee. He smiled and promised them salvation when Armageddon came. He promised them a seat at his master’s table. The leader of the small modified Jeep convoy thought the man they found had lost his mind from being out in the cold so long, longer then he thought anyone could survive. The man they saved stared out of the window while he mumbled a chant to his master. He thanked Satan for saving him and he promised to rebuild a new church of thousands of followers.
He noticed that everyone in the jeep was heavily armed with what looked like new military rifles and there were boxes of ammo behind the back seats. His eyes glowed when he saw one box that interested him, the box said, “Hand Grenade, Enhanced Tactical Multi-Purpose (ET-MP)” he smiled, Just what I need, I can use these to help my master’s plan. These simple fools are seeking revenge, one of my master’s favorite sins. Revenge is what I’m going to help my master bring to this planet of fools.
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Colonel Spivey checked the map display on his command terminal.
