Glimmer of Hope (Land of Tomorrow Book 1) (22 page)

Chapter 13 – Tornados

Lieutenant Beau Myers was more than a little overwhelmed by the mission General Anderson had so suddenly thrust upon him. It was not just the obvious importance of the mission, but also the near complete lack of means to accomplish it. Thankfully, he had thought of his cousin Teddy just in time.

Teddy had taken just enough flying lessons to crop-dust his father’s various large corn, soybean, and tobacco fields. He loved flying, hunting deer, drinking whiskey and not much else. He and Beau had gotten in lots of trouble over the years, but nothing too serious.

When Beau pulled up to Teddy’s house with the two soldiers, Teddy was thrilled at the idea of flying, and they immediately drove over to the small county airfield. No one was around, so they broke into the flight office to get the keys for a nice little Cessna Teddy liked and then hit the fuel shed. After fueling up the plane, they left the soldiers behind and lifted off without a flight plan, or any other real plan for that matter.

Beau initially felt some concern about the dark clouds that seemed to hang over everything, but Teddy wasn’t worried so Beau deferred to his superior experience in such matters. It was not until later that Beau suspected Teddy’s lack of concern was related to the fact he had been drinking heavily since noon.

Beau had never flown before and was mesmerized by the sight below him, but probably not as much as those individuals on the ground. They looked up at the low flying plane in total amazement while Teddy whooped and yelled and Beau waved. Beau’s sense of responsibility eventually asserted itself. He directed Teddy to fly south while he consulted maps and a list of notes he had made on the way over of information he thought Anderson would want.

His biggest fear, other than crashing, was crossing over into Tennessee. On the map there was a very clear line, but he knew he would not have that benefit from the air and after vainly looking for landmarks decided to err on the side of caution. They changed their course from dead south to due east several miles from the border. He also told Beau to get some altitude so he could get a better look at the forces to the south.

Beau was just starting to get a good look to the south when he heard Teddy say, “Uh oh.”

“Uh oh, what?” said Beau.

“Uh oh, those clouds,” said Teddy. “Those are tornado clouds. We need to get either some distance or some altitude.”

“Well give me a few minutes. I just saw something,” said Beau. He refocused his binoculars and saw what he was afraid he had seen. There to the south, directly adjacent to the Purchase Parkway behind some barns and farm buildings, Beau saw three tanks. He had always been fascinated by tanks and recognized these as M1 Abrams. They must have cost a fortune in fuel to move them at all, much less get them north. If Beau remembered correctly, those monsters burned something like 30 gallons of fuel per hour simply idling. He had also heard they actually had a jet engine and therefore required special aviation jet fuel.

Teddy interrupted his thoughts. “Uh…Beau, we gotta go, buddy.”

“Okay, okay, just give me a minute,” responded Beau.

“No, now!” yelled Teddy and Beau noticed that he sounded completely sober all of the sudden.

Turbulence threw the small plane about like a cork on the water. Beau looked from the ground to see Teddy’s eyes were wide to the front and following his gaze he saw a large black funnel cloud descending towards the ground in the distance and three more further ahead. Teddy was leaning forward to look up through the windscreen to see if any funnel clouds were descending on them from above as he quietly said under his breath over and over “ohshitohshitohshitohshit.”

Teddy pulled the plane in a tight turn and headed back north where the skies looked clearer while Beau gazed out the back. After flying a few minutes north, he convinced Teddy to turn around so they could see what was happening. When they did resume their course it was like a scene from a nightmare.

The sky looked like it was literally boiling and there were at least six large tornados over miles of ground each cutting wide swathes of destruction hundreds of feet wide. Beau saw debris thrown high and people running in every direction, some of whom were suddenly sucked right off their feet into the center of one of the angry tornados. Teddy and Beau watched the scene mesmerized for what seemed like hours, but was probably only a few minutes. Eventually, the tornados receded back up into the clouds where they had formed, and the sky quickly cleared up as if nothing had ever happened.

“That…was…awesome!” said Teddy suddenly breaking the silence. “I mean like really awesome! Can you believe that? I ain’t
ever
seen nothing like that!”

“It was definitely something,” said Beau feeling the adrenalin flooding through him. His mission reoccurred to him. “Let’s get a little closer and then turn east to see what we can see.”

They turned east and flew for the next twenty minutes while Beau looked through the binoculars making notes on everything he saw while approximately every three seconds Teddy asked, “Wha cha see?”

At Barkley Lake they turned around and went back west. He was tempted to have Teddy land at the airport so he could rush the information he had back to General Anderson. He would be shocked by what Beau had seen, but his orders were clear, so they continued on for another fifteen minutes past the airport to the Mississippi River before turning around and heading back toward the airport. This took some convincing on Beau’s part since for some strange reason Teddy was insistent that while up they just had to fly over the house of one of his old girlfriends up in Draffenville.

They barely came to a stop before Beau jumped out and began racing toward the two soldiers laying on top of the General’s car. He yelled and waved frantically for them to get the car started.

Teddy meanwhile followed Beau along in the plane, ignoring the taxiway. He yelled out “Hey buddy that was fun! Let’s do that again!” Beau had a moment of horror when he thought Teddy would accidently run him down and cut him up with the spinning propeller. He turned on an extra bit of speed.

Beau made a mental note to come back and lock up the keys and the fuel. Neither would now be safe from Teddy’s drunken ideas on how to overcome boredom, but that would have to wait. He had to get to General Anderson right away and tell him what he had seen.

He wasn't going to believe it.

Chapter 14 – Race Against Time

David, his platoon, and all their gear were crammed into three pick-up trucks, going north at a crazy pace. He prayed a deer or something didn’t jump into their path because his men would certainly all die. They were hanging on for dear life in those open vehicle beds.

They had gotten Joshua’s message. Billy and his team were nearly dead on their feet by the time they reached Captain Jason Green at the southern portion of the park. Luckily, Harold decided after the electricity had gone out to run a single TA312 wire from north to south allowing them to communicate, at least on a rudimentary level.

Captain Green reasoned he could not cover both the Lake Barkley and the Kentucky Lake approaches, and still have men left to cover the southern border. He recommended that he detach what troops he could to focus on the Lake Barkley approach while troops from the central region cover the Kentucky Lake side against any possible attack on that side.

Nathan decided to take a different approach. He was skeptical of the ability of troops on the shore to impede a large armada of ships passing, due to the width of the lake which was nearly a quarter of a mile in most places. Nathan would be happy if Captain Green could only slow the armada and give them time.

As far as guarding against an approach on the other lake, Nathan decided against it completely. They had too few troops to place them everywhere an enemy might attack. Since he reasonably believed the dam was their target, Nathan directed Captain Luke Carter to detach what troops he could to go reinforce the dam. The remainder of Carter’s troops, were to protect the headquarters and civilians in case the enemy decided to raid into the park south of the dam.

So, David and his platoon volunteered to go north and Captain Carter accepted without another word. David admitted to himself that he was still a little raw over Joshua getting to lead the recon instead of him. It was possible Carter had allowed him to lead this mission to make up for the one he lost.

When they arrived, David directed his men to unload while he went to seek out Captain Jim Meeks. He found the large man in the thick of frantic activity, and reported to him. David was glad to see Jim and thought the feeling was mutual.

“Where do you want us?” asked David.

“I’ve been thinking about that,” said Jim. “We don’t have enough soldiers to cover every approach, and there are several possibilities, due to the way this whole thing is built. Both lakes come together at the dam and the locks at the top of the land between them. I’m going to take a risk and leave the water side approach thinly guarded since it will be hard for them to climb the dam walls. We’ve let some water out in order to make it even more difficult for them to get over. If they want to take the dam, they have to land troops and approach from land. My guys can cover the approach from the west and the top of the park, can you cover the east side approach over the locks?”

“I can, but we could probably do more,” said David.

“I’m not doing you any favors, you’ll have plenty to do,” said Jim. “You’re going to have those WTR boys on you first. I’d rather give you more help, but I can’t until I know they’re not coming up both lakes. Just hold them off for a while, and I’ll try to get you some help.”

David nodded and ran off to gather his men taking them east along the road atop the dam towards the locks. After seeing their position, he had to admit that he really had no idea what he was talking about earlier with Jim Meeks. The area his men were covering was rather large. Their main threat was a landing on the east side to roll up their flank. He decided to put his heavy weapons there and focus his efforts initially on building a strong defense where the locks met the land.

He looked out across the lake and was struck by how beautiful it was. The sun was on the still water and ducks flew in the distance. His father had spent most of his youth and weekends up here fishing with his own father or hanging out with friends once he was older. David thought that image seemed pretty nice and he had a moment of resentment towards his father for the ability to have had such wonderful carefree times.

David’s thoughts were shattered by yelling and scrambling from the dam area. Within a few minutes, one of Jim’s runners came up out of breath, started to give David a salute, stopped halfway, and then went ahead and finished it. He seemed not quite certain what to do. David returned the salute and would have given the boy a hard tongue lashing as he had seen Captain Carter do, but doubted he had time for it.

“Sir, Captain Meeks directed I report to you that we just received word from Captain Green in the south,” said the boy out of breath. “The Tennessee ships passed by their position and they could do nothing to stop them although they got a lot of good shots off. The distance was just too great. Central Region is going to try to slow them some more when they pass under the big bridge at Route 68, but they likely won’t stop them either. Says he wants you to know that time is limited, and whatever you need to do, do it quick..”

“Thank you private,” said David. “Tell Captain Meeks that we will be ready and also request that you be assigned as the runner between us so I might keep him regularly informed of our situation.”

“Yes, sir,” said the private, who saluted and then ran off at a lope.

David sighed and wished his father was there to see him.
He might be proud of me
, thought David wishfully.

He went to prepare his men as best he could.

Chapter 15 – A Desperate Plan

Although every fiber of General Anderson’s being screamed for him to get up and start moving, to start issuing orders, he resisted the impulse and sat appearing outwardly calm and patient while Lieutenant Beau Myers finished giving him his report. When Myers finished, Anderson clearly saw what must be done, but first he had to take care of other business. He knew that in times of extreme conflict and strife, men usually showed their true colors and maybe his initial impression of Beau Myers as a clueless screw-up wasn’t completely fair.
Heck, I only sent him on that all important mission because he was the only officer around at the time.

“Very good report, Lieutenant Myers,” said Anderson to the pensive young man in front of him. “But why exactly did you feel it was so important to rush back here to tell me this information? The soldiers tell me you made them pull over so you could drive since they evidently weren’t going fast enough. Told me you nearly got them killed in the process.”

Beau looked flabbergasted and was at first without any words. “Sir, the force on the river going north-”

“There’s nothing we can do about that,” interrupted Anderson. “Our comms are down and they’re too far away. We just have to hope and pray for the best and that Colonel Taylor and his men are ready. Is there any other reason you were in such a hurry?”

Beau again looked concerned. “Sir, those tanks.”

“What about them?” asked Anderson inwardly tense.

Beau thought for a moment before speaking. “Sir, we don’t have anything that can stop those tanks. They would roll right over us, we’d be crushed meat to them.”

“So?’ asked Anderson.

“But, sir!” Beau nearly yelled, forgetting his courtesies. “They’re all in disarray from the tornadoes, maybe not for long, but for now. We could race in there and destroy those tanks before they could use them against us!”

Anderson smiled openly at Beau and let a breath out, “Exactly. Well done. Do you know there’s probably not many soldiers who would have gotten the tactical significance of what you saw, but you did. How did this all come to you?”

Beau looked relieved and confused at the same time and said, “I’m not sure sir, it just seemed right.”

“Just seemed right, huh?” asked Anderson. He squinted at the young man for a moment. Lieutenant Myers reminded Anderson of his own son. They would be about the same age. Anderson hadn't pushed any of his children towards the military, but had secretly and in vain hoped his son would one day become an officer.

This is not your son
, he reminded himself.
Do what is best for your country
. Anderson made a quick decision and said without ceremony, “Lieutenant Myers, I hereby promote you to Captain. Go find some rank and then get back here.”

Beau looked flustered, turned to leave, then turned back and started to salute and then turned back again.

“Get!” yelled Anderson and smiled as Beau ran off down the hall at a sprint. Anderson turned and called for an orderly outside to summon the Commander of the National Guard Engineer Battalion responsible for their current sector. Approximately ten minutes later the Battalion Commander and his Sergeant Major reported. Anderson quickly briefed them on what Myers had seen concerning the tanks and the disarray the tornados had caused.

“Colonel,” said Anderson, “I want a task force from your battalion to attack and destroy those tanks as quickly as possible and just as quickly to get back over here. We’re not looking to engage enemy or win any battles, just take care of the tanks. Do you understand?”

"Begging your pardon, sir," said the Sergeant Major, "but won't we be starting a war? I thought we were trying to avoid that."

"War's already started," growled Anderson, "and we nearly missed it. They've invaded in force to the east. We have to do what we can to help them."

“Sir, if it's all the same to you,” said the commander with concern on his face, “I’d really rather not risk my men on such a mission.”

Anderson’s face showed surprise, “You’d rather not. Well, hell, why didn’t you say so. In that case do it the fuck anyway!” Anderson roared.

Both the commander and the sergeant major looked shocked.

“Both of you get a few things straight,” continued Anderson with a fierce gaze. “First, your unit will conduct this mission, after all, you are in the military. Second, those tanks could destroy this entire army, we have nothing that can even slow them down. And third, we have a very narrow window of opportunity to do something about them.” Anderson paused and gazed each of them in the eye allowed his heart rate to slow. “Do you understand?”

The two men nodded solemnly and the commander began to speak, possibly to apologize, but Anderson knew there wasn’t time. He continued, “I suggest you send a reinforced platoon at least, in several trucks. Speed will be key. Try to bypass any resistance, you don’t want to get bogged down.” Anderson saw that they understood. “Now, how do you plan to destroy those tanks?”

The Battalion Commander looked momentarily uncertain, but the Sergeant Major spoke up. “Sir, we disengage the halon fire control systems, pop thermite grenades into the engine compartment, and run like hell. That should start a fire and also set off the tank rounds in the ammo compartments.”

“Do we have thermite grenades?” asked Anderson.

“Well no,” admitted the Sergeant Major, “but we probably don’t need them. Turn off the halon, pour diesel all over the inside and the tank rounds, maybe throw some rounds onto the engine for good measure and then set the whole thing ablaze. Could probably put some C4 from a few of the claymores into the tank barrels so there’s no way they can be used again just to be sure.”

“Very good,” said Anderson, satisfied. About that time Beau Myers returned out of breath, wearing captain’s rank.

“Captain Myers here will serve as guide to the location of the tanks,” said Anderson. “He saw the area from the air and knows the lay of the land. He is an advisor only, your designee is in charge. Speaking of which, who will lead the mission?”

Before the Battalion Commander could answer, the Sergeant Major grabbed his arm and whispered in his ear.

“What is it?” asked Anderson, annoyed.

“Sergeant Major Givens here would like to lead the mission,” said the Commander. “And it makes sense. He’s a veteran combat engineer and grew up in north Tennessee. He should lead the mission.”

“All right then,” said Anderson. “Again, speed is the key. I know you would like more time, but I want you to depart here no more than one hour from now, earlier if you can.”

“Yes sir. With your permission…” asked the Sergeant Major, indicating the need to get moving.

“By all means,” said Anderson. “And good luck. We need to destroy those tanks, otherwise…well I don’t want to think about what happens if we don’t.”

“I understand, General,” said the Sergeant Major as he and his commander strode out the door. Anderson turned and saw Myers looking at him expectantly.

“Damn it man, go with him!” said Anderson in annoyance as he felt the time melting away. Myers took off in a flash after the Sergeant Major.

“And for goodness sake don't do anything to get yourself killed!” yelled Anderson after him.