Hell in the Homeland Read Online Free PDF Page A

mission.
     
     
                  They were all up and ready to travel by 4:00 a.m. John and Beth were yawning during the morning meeting with Scott making fun of them behind their backs. John told the team that they would drive slowly with no lights until they got past Decatur, which was a total of 20 miles driving in the dark. He asked Scott and Bill to take two pickups with six heavily armed men and stay about 100 yards ahead of the main body. He also had another pickup trail the main body by 100 yards.
    John told them, “I don’t know what is waiting for us around Athens, but we cross Lake Wheeler just outside of Decatur and I would have a roadblock there if I wanted to block entry into the area. We need to remember that there are a lot of good people out there that don’t want just anybody travelling through their towns and property.”
    They got just about five miles below Athens when Scott radioed back for the group to stop. He said he thought there were friendly people on the road. He had seen a van on the side of the road with a man, three women and four kids just getting up for the morning. Scott and several of the men walked up to within 30 yards of the van and Scott went ahead so as to not scare the people. He stood behind a stalled car and hailed the camp. The people ducked behind the van and told him to leave them alone. Scott told them that he and his people were just trying to head south on highway 65 and meant them no harm. He even asked if they needed any supplies. Scott talked with the group long enough to know that these were just people caught on the road and meant no harm to anyone, but he also knew that a cornered man was a dangerous man. He radioed back to his dad and told him the situation. John told him that he would come up and talk with the people.
    John arrived in about five minutes with Beth by his side. They walked up to Scott and hid behind the car while Scott gave them an update and pointed out where the people were. John told him that Beth and he were going to talk with these people and then walk up to them and see if they could stop this impasse so there would be enough time to get past Decatur before dawn. Beth called out to the group and told them that they needed to hurry up and get on past Decatur before daylight.
    A woman spoke up and said, “Why should we trust you? You might just kill or rape us.”
    Beth replied, “If we wanted you dead, you would be. We have over 30-armed people in our team, machine guns and Humvees. We also have food and supplies. We don’t want to hurt you”
    Two of the Humvees with the dual .50 MGs pulled up and turned their lights on. This scared the shit out of these folks and shook them to the bone.
    Beth said again, “As you can see if we wanted to hurt you it would have already happened. Come on over and let’s talk.”
    The others huddled for a minute, walked out from behind their van and laid their guns on the ground.
    The man said, “Please don’t hurt the children. Do what you want with us, but don’t hurt our kids.”
    John, Scott and Beth went up to meet with them and shook their hands and introduced themselves.
    John said, “We really do have to get on across the river before daylight, but we can give you food if you need it.”
    The man replied, “We certainly could use some food, but I wouldn’t get in a hurry to try and cross the river. There are about a hundred bikers and escapees from the prison just on the other side. They are making people pay tolls to cross the bridge into Decatur and when they do get across, they kill the men and kids and take the women. Also the I-65 bridges are totally blocked by several burned out tractor and trailers and you have to go through Decatur.”
    John said, “How do you know this?”
    The man’s wife, Pat, replied, “We originally had 15 adults and 13 kids in our group. We paid the toll in old silver coins and half our guns and ammunition. When we crossed the bridge, they ran a bus