Conflicted Home (The Survivalist Book 9) by A American (learn to read books TXT) 📕

Sheffield. “As you can see, you can relax now. It’s not all on your shoulders. Now, it’s all on my head. You just do what you’re instructed to do and let me worry about the rest.”

Sheffield looked off into the distance. “So now, I work for you?” Sarge shook his head, confirming the new pecking order.

Sarge gripped his shoulder. “Look, nothing is going to change. We’re going to move some folks around so there’s not so many people here. It’ll make your job easier because you’re going to still be in charge here. I’m not going to meddle in your business here. I will, from time to time, need your help. But overall, you’re still in charge here. And no one needs to know about this either. I’m not here to undermine your authority.”

Sheffield listened, and when Sarge finished speaking, Sheffield clucked his tongue. After thinking about it, he shrugged and replied, “Fine by me.” He took a deep breath and said, “So what’s the order?” There was a short pause and he added, “Colonel.”

“Don’t start that shit. We’ve got to get your fuel bladder refilled right now. The rest of the fuel we’ll be taking back with us. With Russians and Cubans sneaking around, I don’t want to keep all of our supplies in one place. There’s also ammo for you and I got a couple of Mark Nineteens for you as well.”

“I’ll get some people on it,” Livingston said.

“We’re going to step up patrols,” Sarge continued. “I want to find any Commies that may be sneaking around. We need to find them, before they find us.”

Sheffield nodded, “I’ve got a patrol out now. They were told if they found them, not to engage, but to call it in.” He nodded at the Stryker and continued. “Now that we have that, we can deal with their armor.”

“We’ve also got a TOW launcher that can be mounted on a Hummer. I’m leaving that here as well. You need to get it mounted. There’s only eight rockets for it. So, use it with discretion. I’ll be coming back up here tomorrow so we can draw up a plan to deal with these assholes. In the meantime, do not engage them if you find them. We’ll have to coordinate things carefully. We don’t have the manpower or equipment to go off half-cocked.”

Sheffield nodded. “I agree. It’s been worrying me.”

“Me too. That’s why we’ll pick the time and place. Not them. We’ll stack the deck in our favor before we put the boots to them.” Sarge looked over at the park where the food was being handed out. “But for now, we’re going over there to help out. Have your people unload the stuff in the Hummer, it’s all for you.”

“I’ll get it done. Livingston and I will be ready when you get here tomorrow.”

Sarge nodded and patted him on the back, “Don’t worry, Captain. We’ll be fine.” Then he looked at me and said, “Bring you ass. Let’s go to the park.”

I walked with him towards the park. I couldn’t help but smile. He noticed and said, “Go ahead. Get it out of your system.”

I laughed and replied, “I just can’t help but have the image of the southern colonel in mind when I think of this. I can’t believe they made you a Colonel.”

“Wasn’t my idea. But Fawcett said, desperate times call for desperate measures. I asked to be made a Major or something. Anything but a Colonel.” He stepped in front of me, stopping me. Jabbing his finger in my chest, he said, “You keep this shit to yourself too! If Mikey finds out about it, he’ll make my life hell. This changes nothing here. Got it?”

I pushed his finger away and replied, “Don’t worry, Colonel. Your secret is safe with me.”

He shook his head. “It’s hard to get the big picture when you have such a small screen, ain’t it? Work with me here.”

“I won’t say anything. I promise,” I said. But I was already thinking about getting Little Bit to start calling him Colonel. “But, I gotta admit, you handled that way better than I expected you would.”

“Sheffield is a good man. He’s just out of his depth. Some people know how to lead. Some know how to make their way through the system, punching their ticket. Sad thing about the military, you do that long enough, you get promoted. Nothing against him. He’s just a different kind of officer.”

We made it to the park and I found Mel and Little Bit helping in the distribution. Things were going smoothly. But there were a lot of armed men making sure it stayed that way. I nudged Sarge and said, “I told you it’d go smoothly.”

“Yeah,” he grunted back. “Altoona went real well this morning.”

I was thinking about something smart to say back when Aric walked up. He tapped my shoulder and pointed, “You see that guy over there working on that net?”

I looked in the direction he pointed and saw a man sitting in the grass. A net was piled beside him. He was working on a section in his lap. “Yeah. What about him?”

He studied him for a minute and said, “I think that guy worked in the camp.”

I shrugged. “So?”

“For the DHS. I think he was their interrogator.”

I looked at him, “Really?”

I looked back at the man. He was focused on his net. Another man walked up to him and knelt down. This one, I did know. Something about Micha always rubbed me wrong. I couldn’t figure out what it was about him I didn’t like.

“Well, if you’re right, then so am I. That guy that walked up, never have cared for him either. Don’t know why.” I watched as the man working on the net handed something to Micha. It was small, too small to see from where we were. But Micha nodded and quickly walked off. I told Aric to keep an eye on the him.

Dalton was standing by the front of the truck.