The Wars: Chapter 4

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This is the fourth installment of my short story “The Wars”. If you haven’t already read Chapters 1 – 3 you can

< click here to read Chapter 1 >

< click here to read Chapter 2 >

< click here to read Chapter 3 >

Please read the Chapter 1 intro to understand a little more of this story.

Also, there is a disclaimer that you can read there as well.

[I asked Dad to touch just a bit on the ‘why’ of us going to Arizona from Florida before he went into the whole story, which I assume is going to be interesting to say the least. I might have to correct his account if he strays from the exact truth. Or, maybe I should just inject my version of the story when Dad is done. Since I was right there and he was telling me the story while I recorded it and took notes. I am going to change the “you” when it makes sense to “David” to make it easier to understand who Dad was taking about. Yes, David is me.]

Okay, so you [me, David] remember we actually started talking about preparedness back during the Obama years. That d**kh**d Marxist Muslim prick. I mean I was into preparedness back in the 1970’s and 80’s when it was more of a ‘mother earth’ movement. So was the church, but to a slightly different degree back then. To me it just made sense. But I think it was about 2009 or 10 that we started talking seriously about it because we could see the country making the shift to real authoritarianism.

To be honest, that started in earnest back with George Bush in 2001 when the Muslims attacked the US on 9/11. That whole mess opened the door perfectly for the Patriot Act along with a whole host of other draconian laws that destroyed most liberties, freedoms and rights that we had left. And it started decades of wars that killed and maimed, physically and mentally, 10’s of thousands of good men and women in the military. America sure loved war back then. All those wars and conflicts made a lot of rich people a whole lot richer while killing Americans, and hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians in other countries that we invaded. Eisenhower called it the military-industrial complex. We could talk for days on that subject alone. Evil it was.

By the 2020’s we both saw how desperate the situation was becoming and got serious about what to do, exactly what to do. David knew almost everything to do on his own, I just threw my 2cents in when it was needed or asked for. In early 2023 David showed up with his 8’ x 20’ trailer pulled by his big ole Dodge Ram dually. Too bad you couldn’t afford a good truck like a Ford. [Yeah, he chuckled at his own joke. It was the age old truck rivalry thing. Dad was a Ford guy, I was a Dodge guy. Never shall the twain meet.]

That ole trailer was packed as tight as a man could get it; side-to-side, top-to-bottom. Just about everything that would make a serious prepper drool. No food though, no need for that, there was plenty here. We just parked it in the shade of a couple of big junipers, well hidden from the road or even the house. Didn’t want nosy neighbors or visors asking questions. We painted it first. That was fun, rolled on primer and a base coat, then lots of spray cans. I don’t remember what we finally called the camo pattern, but we sure laughed about it. Looked like a redneck graffiti job. But it worked, at least no one ever asked about it, or talked about it if they did see it. It was a bit windy the last day when we covered the whole thing with a camo net. That camo net made us feel better, not sure how much it helped if someone really wanted to see it from the air. But it did make us feel better about it and it did really break up the hard edge, straight line profile.

So that was spring 2023, maybe March or April, I don’t remember. Coming down the big hill wasn’t going to happen, so we brought it in the back way. A little muddy but we didn’t have to worry about trailer brakes or jack-knifing.There I was telling you how to do it and you being the heavy-haul specialty trucker. I think we argued for 3 straight hours. That sure was a lot of fun!

[Dad didn’t exaggerate at all. I am pretty sure it was 3 hours and we loved every minute of it. I am my father’s son. And I am proud of that.]

By the end of 2023 we knew it was just a matter of time. When F15 happened in early 2024 we knew it was close, real close. So David laid plans for their tactical withdrawal from Florida. Yeah, you are one smart kid I‘ll give you that. [I was 46 at the time. Some ‘kid’, eh? Dad was 69 by that time so I guess anyone under 60 was a ‘kid’ to the old man.] But, I didn’t know you were that smart. [Dad chuckled again. It is good to see him laugh, he hasn’t done much of that lately.]

You see Texas had already put the feds in their place. President Joe-the-Perv had opened the southern border up like laying out a welcome mat. Millions of foreigners poured across the border at will. Hell, the border patrol helped them, welcomed them, housed them, fed them, gave em free health care, debit cards for meals, transportation to the city of their choice, every damn thing you could imagine. And it was all intentional, purposeful, to accomplish their master plan. And it nearly worked! Damn them!!! It was treason, every bit of it, everyone one of them, TREASON!!  [I thought Dad was going to have a stroke. The veins in his neck and head started to stick out. That big one you could see the blood pumping through it.]

Anyways, Texas had kicked the border patrol off the border finally. Those Texas military boys went in there and started in some park that was a main crossing point for all these foreigners. They put up a shipping container wall with loads of razor wire on em. That stopped those b*stards in their tracks in short order and at minimal cost. Then they set up a full-blown military base and a couple of forward operating bases [FOBs]. It was sight to behold!

Well, JoeyP didn’t like that his plan, or rather his masters’ plan, was getting thwarted by a bunch of redneck Texans. He ordered border patrol to take it back and get the foreigners flowing again. Well, them city-slicker border agents show up at that park, base, and FOBs and tried to make entry. Uh, no. Those Texans told them to go to h*$$ by golly. It worked at all but one of the FOBs. Something about a bunch of soldiers standing around with M4’s and Hummers with Ma Dueces [50cal machine guns] mounted on them makes a bunch of CBP pretty boys with nothing but pistols want to turn around and leave. Except one idiot.

At one of the FOBs a border agent pulled his pistol, an H&K P2000 I think, I’m not sure, I think so though. Great pistols actually. Well, the Texans pulled up their M4’s, lot’s of shouting, all of em on both sides high as a kite on adrenaline and testosterone at that point. All the border clowns pulled their pistols, stupid move just from a ballistics point of view. No on knows why for sure, but a border agent fired a round and hit a Texan, then all hell broke loose.

When the shooting stopped all 12 border patrol agents were on the ground 9 dead, 2 critically wounded, 1 had only minor wounds. On the Texas side there were 10 injured, 3 seriously. The border patrol body armor was only rated for handguns and didn’t hold up to the M4 rounds. The Texans all had on body armor and plates. The 3 wounded Texans were all shot below the plates in the pelvis area. It is thought that the 3 were all shot by the same border agent who knew it was ridiculous to shoot center mass against military-grade body armor.

What really showed who the Texans were was the fact that they medivac’d all the wounded border agents out before their own men. That didn’t help sooth things over at all with the clowns in Washington. The CBP never showed up with their own medivac choppers; odd. One thing that did make a huge difference was within minutes, the video of the gun fight was released on the Internet clearly showing the border agents were the aggressors and instigated the encounter. It also showed the muzzle flash from the border patrol agent that started it all.

I found it interesting that for about 24 hours no one talked about what I saw the second time I watched the video. The CBP agent that fired first was standing next to one of the border patrol SUVs on the passenger side. If you looked hard through the heavily tinted windows you could see a man sitting in the front passenger side seat. He was on the phone from the very beginning of the released video. The passenger window was open slightly. Here is were it gets interesting. If you go frame by frame you can see the man in the SUV turn his head away from the phone and towards the agent beside the door next to him. Then the agent nods his head almost imperceptibly. A couple of seconds later he fires his weapon at multiple Texans.

As I’ve said from the very beginning, it was all a set-up and those CBP agents were sacrificed to light it all off. Wouldn’t the first time the damn federal government was behind something like this.

On day 2 all hell broke loose on the Internet. I think it was Glenn or Tucker that broke it first. They did it smartly, they simply asked questions; who was the man in the SUV, who was he talking to on the phone, what did he say to the agent standing next to the SUV and why? Were these all just coincidences? Of course they weren’t!!

Within 30 minutes the White House toilet bowl head of a press secretary came out with a joint statement from DHS, the NSA, and the FBI stating the video was an AI [artificial intelligence] deepfake product and was not real or from any device that was on site at the time. She took no questions. I doubt anyone other than complete morons believed her. All of those alphabet agencies are all well-known to be liars even giving a weather report. Hell, I don’t think those agencies could tell the truth about anything, ever!

Then it got worse.

The next day the FBI had issued arrest warrants for all the Texas Military folks that were there, the Texan commanding officer in charge of the border operation, and the commander of the Texas Military. Yeah, that didn’t go over well in Texas as you can imagine.

The Governor held a press conference and said this, “This is Texas, we have a long and rich heritage of standing against tyrants. In the words spoken nearly 200 years ago, with my minor change; Come and take them!” He wheeled himself off the stage and the Texas Military commander then spoke briefly. He said that the arrest warrants would not be recognized as legal, the FBI would not be tolerated, the military personnel were in protective custody on a Texas military base. Any attempt to arrest these men and women or enter a Texas Military facility would be met with all appropriate force, including lethal force.

Then it got worse.

A combined force of FBI HRT and SWAT teams approached the base that the commanding office was located on. This some 40+ FBI force showed up at the base main gate, they were met with Texans armed to the teeth, 7 Hummers with Ma Dueces mounted on them, and a freaking Bradly fighting vehicle. The FBI had 4 armored BearCats. Yup, a mismatch with the FBI on the losing end of that stick.

Now, I don’t know if I will remember it all as it really happened. But, as I remember it was a big ole Mexican stand-off. Eventually the FBI left without anyone in custody and no shots fired. One thing they did do was video everyone on the Texas Military side. Then the Texans did the same thing, posted it on Youtube that night. Youtube took the Texans’ down but by then it was everywhere on the web, including X and Rumble. Those sites didn’t take it down, at least they still believed in free speech and not bowing to the government god. Now everyone knew who the FBI was, individually, by name, they couldn’t hide themselves anymore.

I think it was the next day some Texans, not the Texas Military, found the FBI guys at a Holiday Inn Express in Austin. Might have been San Antonio, I don’t remember for sure. So the FBI guys had all their vehicles neatly parked backed into a block retaining wall. All nice and neat like a showroom or some parade thing. Well, that night a couple of semi trucks and two concrete trucks parked right in front of that nice neat row of them city boys’ toys.

Turns out that all the tires on the semis and the concrete trucks had holes drilled in them, flat as pancakes. And yes, the concrete trucks were full of dried concrete and the semi truck trailers were full of recycled cardboard bales. None of those government rides could get out and no one would come tow away the trucks. Not even a US military unit from Ft. Bliss would come help out. From what I hear a bus came in from Las Cruces to haul those FBI thugs back to whatever hole they crawled out from.

But it wasn’t all fun and games. I didn’t hear about it at the time, I learned about it a couple months later. North of Lubbock, Texas the FBI raided a Texas Military man’s home thinking he was there. They identified him as one of the leaders in the original shootout. Turns out only his wife and 4 kids were there along with their dogs. When all was said and done the house was in ashes and all were dead, bodies burned, including the dogs. Well, there was the boy, a teen about 13 or 14, right in the middle of it he came running out of the house with his dad’s shotgun. The FBI hauled the boy’s body off before the County Coroner could get there. But rumor has it there was over 30 bullet holes in the kid.

That FBI taskforce was only 20 or so folks. They stayed the night in Lubbock and headed back to their field office in Dallas the next morning. They stopped for breakfast in Snyder at some upscale eatery place. When they came out there was well over 100 armed men and women waiting for them. Rumor has it they [FBI] eventually put down their weapons and surrendered. Didn’t help them any. There are plenty of pictures of them all zip tied to the chain-link fence behind the restaurant. All of them had been shot at least a dozen times and their FBI badges were pounded into foreheads. Justice served. People just weren’t going to take it anymore.

Strange, not a single Snyder cop was in the area at the time, or available to respond at all. The County Sheriff’s department reportedly was at a training in El Paso along with all surrounding Sheriff’s departments. The only available Texas DPS officer was responding from Wichita Falls about 150 miles away.

FBI personnel were dispatched from El Paso, Oklahoma City, and Dallas. While those agents were in transit someone raided the FBI office in Dallas and stole everything and then burned the place to the walls. Huh, seems there was a problem with dispatching Dallas emergency services, not a single LEO or fire unit responded to the call.

At this point the US was really at war with itself, serious war. All hell was breaking loose.

Shortly after all of that went down the ATF, not to be outdone by the FBI, started raiding gun stores and then gun ranges that rented full-auto firearms to customers. That didn’t last long. By the third day of the raids three different ATF teams were basically slaughtered. The showed up in their typical Nazi SS raid style but they were ambushed. No prisoners were taken, people were over all of that by then, it was all out war. People were just fed up with the feds and saw them for who they really were, finally Saw them as nothing more than thugs and arrogant bullies with fancy badges.

By in large the ATF ceased to exist due to the casualties and those who just simply left never to return to the office. Whoever remained were absorbed into the FBI. The few, very few, FBI agents who were actually honoring their Constitutional oath deserted from the FBI within about 2 weeks of hostilities breaking out. There were damn few decent law-abiding FBI agents with any morals who left. Most agents were nothing more than thugs that got a rush from the badge, pushing people around, killing folks, and no one to stop them. Hell, no one to really even challenge them back then. The DOJ always protected them from any criminal charges.

Most, not all, police departments weren’t much better, at least not in the larger cities. As everything started to fall apart every big city police department went into full-blown martial law authoritarian mode. They didn’t think it through and realize what was actually happening and the root cause of all of it. They just wanted to exert authority over everyone. The absolute worst was New York City, oh my gosh! Chicago was a close second.

NYPD started with a dusk-to- dawn curfew but the mobs were just too much to handle. Then they went into a state of emergency with officially declaring martial law with a 24/7 curfew. When the violence just got worse the cops started firing on mobs. I think it was the third, maybe fourth, time they did that the gang members in the crowd fired back. The video made it look like a running gun battle from from Cartel City.

Within a week or two the cops were defeated, some 1000+ killed and maybe another 2000 – 3000 wounded. The gangs then took over the streets until the NY National Guard showed up. Heavily armed military folks with Hummers, machine guns, snipers, M4s, and a couple grenade launchers thrown in for good measure pretty much ruled the day. The NYPD then conducted retaliation raids. Blood flowed.

[Dad, Hayden wants the story of us leaving Florida. Could you just stick with that for now?]

Come on, I had to set the stage, layout the context so it is clear why you did what you did. Patience son, patience.

So the wars had started, basically everyone against everyone else. The worst of it was the law enforcement, they just wanted martial law and to control everything and everyone. Yeah, the Constitution and Bill of Rights was secondary for the most part. But it wasn’t national martial law yet, but pretty damn close.

Most states had set up road blocks on any kind of major roadways into their state. Most of them were looking for criminals, people with guns, and illegal aliens that had been invading for months causing crime, chaos, and havoc. Yeah, I mean them illegal aliens from the southern border. But Texas was also looking for any federal law enforcement officers. Go figure. People were getting real paranoid by then and knew a civil war was coming. A bunch of us knew it had already started.

So Hayden, you know back then your dad, my son David, was a pretty smart cookie. I can’t speak to the here and now though. [Dad loves it, Hayden understands it. I allow it. What a weird sense of humor, he always had it. Most never got it.] David and I had been talking for a long time about prepping and he was pretty dang dialed in. After he delivered the trailer back in 2023 we both agreed it was just a matter of time. While he was here we did a little work on the cabin, my shop at the time, including some electrical and plumbing work as well. We even spent some time expanding the area were we had planted the raspberries and blackberries in the fall. Doubled those patches. He got off easy on the blueberries though, had to do them myself.

Anyways, David had been doing that heavy-haul trucking for years and knew everyone in the business it seemed. The job he hated the worst was picking up the Abrams tanks at the Port of Miami and hauling them to different plants for major overhaul work or salvaging. The tanks were pretty shot up from Iraq and Afghanistan but hauling them paid well.

In early 2024 another round of those tanks were coming into Miami and being shipped mostly to a plant in Oklahoma. David was hauling wind turbine blades at the time but that kid is smart. He stopped doing that and returned home to Tampa and resumed doing crane maintenance through the union. He wanted to be close to home. And of course putting the final touches on his exfill plan. [SOF term for exit plan.] And he made contact with a good friend of his that was hauling tanks and made an arrangement with him. A $5,000 arrangement to be exact. Worth every penny!

When it all was ready to go down the crapper David contacted his guy who was more than grateful for the $5k and the opportunity to stay home. David got his buddy’s truck and headed for the Port of Miami. Fortunately for David the paperwork only had the truck and trailer ID and not a named driver. The next day he was pulling into a truck stop on I-4 where he met up with your mom, and you, plus Robbie, his wife and their two kids.

See David had already started a pilot-car business the year before and was licensed to do that work, and he could use any licensed driver he wanted. Robbie’s van was also on the company paperwork and insurance as well. So now David had two pilot-cars, vans actually, and they had both families in them. And rather than the standard yellow emergency flasher-warning lights, they were red. He had also swapped out yellow lenses on the truck for reds as well. Off they went, north on I-75, then west on I-10.

There wasn’t a single problem of any kind until Texas. He hit that border and there was no way around the roadblock, they were stopping everyone, including David’s little caravan. He timed it to hit Texas about 3am to get every advantage of sleepy cops at the roadblock. That kinda worked, but not really. It was David’s cocky attitude and confidence that won the day.

He didn’t really think they were going to let him pass at first but the bunch of flashing red strobe lights and the US Army Abrams tank was a sight to behold I bet.

He was headed to I-45 where he was to turn north towards Oklahoma according to the wide-load paperwork. The cops basically didn’t want to allow the tank in the state for the US Army but David told them that he didn’t get paid unless they delivered it. That made them a little sympathetic. The two pilot cars did raise a red flag to the cops. But David handled that without missing a beat. He explained that Florida was simply too dangerous to leave his pilot car drivers’ families home without their dad’s.

Once again, sympathy won out, decent cops. However, had they checked they might have questioned why there was only one dad driving but two families. But I am sure David would have handled that just fine as well.

And to add to all of the great planning, all of their equipment, clothes, food, guns, ammo, and tactical gear were safety stored inside of the tank. And they had spot welded the tank hatches closed. All that was in the vans was minimal clothing, toys, snacks, etc.. They looked exactly like they said they were; nothing out of the usual, not a single item to worry about, not any kind of weapon, nothing, had the cops done a close inspection. They hit I-45 a couple hours later and headed north at maximum legal and safe speed I am sure.

They hit Oklahoma state line about mid-day and crossed without incident or even stopping. They hit I-40 and turned west. A couple hours later they were doubling-thinking their plan to wait and do the 3am thing going back into, and through, Texas at the panhandle. They decided to just push on and let David work his magic.

Remember the paperwork said the load was headed to some factory in Oklahoma, that was now the opposite direction they were headed. David came up with a brilliant plan once he heard how the roadblock was set-up over the CB from other truckers. Texas DPS and DOT were working together and had the left lane open but pulled everyone over into a weigh station which was full and a long, almost two-mile long, back-up.

They had already stopped to fuel-up and eat before hitting the state line. They wanted to hit the state line just as it was getting dark and all those red emergency flashers would be putting on quite a show for everyone at the roadblock.

As they got close to the roadblock their little caravan stayed in the left lane as if they owned it. They did slow down a bit as they passed the first DPS cruisers, but they didn’t stop and did stay in the left lane. Nothing happened and no pursuit. As they approached the weigh station with everyone pulled over and cops all over the place they approached like the roadblock was for everyone else, not them. The troopers simple waved at them as they entered Texas. Same thing as they hit New Mexico three hours later. Arizona was a different story.

Arizona State Guard was manning the border and they meant business. There was a Bradly fighting vehicle there complete with a 25 mm M242 Bushmaster chain gun. They had barriers set up to make vehicles zig-zag through them and there was no by-pass lane of any kind. They didn’t yield way to David’s caravan. Not only did they stop him, they made them pull over into a special parking area. A Major walked over with two large MP types.Everyone stayed in the vans, David was the only one that got out.

After the Major looked over the paperwork, David explained to the Major that before he could deliver the tank to the plant in Oklahoma he had been called by the trucking broker to redirect to the Port of San Diego as quickly as possible due to some kind of BS emergency. The Major got on his cell phone and spent 20+ minutes talking to someone. When he got back to David he was not impressed.

There was no record of any kind that he could find that indicated that the tank was supposed to be anywhere but in Oklahoma. Undeterred David kept talking and trying to explain with everything going on it wasn’t surprising there wasn’t any readily available paperwork or tracking info. About that time your mom and Robbie’s wife came over with two very unhappy crying and screaming kids. Alice, your mom, winked at David and he went a whole different direction with the conversation.

David realized the roadblock was out in the middle of nowhere, new plan! He very politely asked the major for a favor, for help with the kids, the families. He wanted to take the load, pilot cars included, to Holbrook, about 80 miles to the west. There was a large truck stop there with a motel. He wanted to get the kids some food and into bed since they weren’t doing well. The kids even cried louder as if on cue. The wives had pinched them. He told the Major it would be impossible to try and escape with a 60 ton army tank on his trailer. And he offered to have the Major send an escort or put an Apple air tag on the tank to prove they would go to, and stay at, the truck stop.

The Major had a heart and saw that there was no threat there but he did tell David that a trooper would meet him in Holbrook at the truck stop. If he failed to show up he would send a highly-trained Javelin missile crew or an Apache helicopter after him. [Of course he was joking, the Major even smirked a little.] An hour and a half later he pulled into the Holbrook truck stop found a spot, parked, and met up with two men in a Hummer. They called the Major as the kids started crying again, short conversation, the men left, all was good.

Twenty minutes after the Hummer pulled out they were grinding the spot welds off, supplies and gear transferred to the vans, then the trailer was unhooked, and the little caravan was headed south minus the red strobe lights on. He was here early morning, minus the tank of course. Everyone pretty much slept the entire rest of the day, everyone needed it. I spent the day watching over everyone, AR-15 in hand being the bad a$$ I was. Lisa spent the day cooking for a huge comfort-food dinner that we all pigged out on that night.

And that is how you ended up here in Arizona and the Arizona State Guard ended up with an inoperable M1 Abrams tank. Well, there was a rumor going around that while the tank couldn’t be driven, there was nothing wrong with it loading and shooting. I imagine it was put to good use.

<- click here to read Chapter 3                                                                 click here to read Chapter 5 ->

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