kronic's musings

Dedication
This book is dedicated to my sister who is my best friend. Through her eyes I have seen a glimpse of things I can do even though I did not think the ability was there. Even though the book is fiction I hope it serves two functions to all who read it. I hope you never doubt that you can achieve a goal if you want it. The character in the book shows that strength and perseverance can and will win the battle. If a farm boy from Texas can write a book, you can all do what seems impossible. I wish you luck on the quest you undertake whether it be a book or just building a chicken house.
Go for it.

Chapter 1

The sun beat down on an already baked land, as he lie hidden from prying eyes. He scanned the area with his rifle scope the heat waves obscured his vision even through his treasured Ziess scope. He drifted off into thought wondering. Why the hell am I out here ? Born and raised in the east Texas swamps of Caddo lake, this arid parched landscape of west Texas was a far cry from his childhood home. Swimming in cool waters of Caddo Lake was one thing he missed badly, there wasn’t much water here to swim in, what little there is stays hot. He thought, well at least I don’t have to worry about alligators here.
After the collapse of the American economy he moved west thinking that perhaps the solitude would let him live out his remaining years in relative peace. Not being married and alone his choices had only been an impact on himself. He enjoyed the solitude but he had to admit, he at times missed the little things most people take for granted. Life is hard when your alone, most people he knew had partners or friends to lean on. He chose the solitude simply because he didn’t want the responsibility of looking after another person.
A smile, however faint crept across his face as he remembered the swamp and a now long gone girl he had met there in his youth. His wife of only a few years was just a fond memory, long before the gray had colored his once blonde hair. Perhaps in reality he chose this wasteland in an attempt to escape from memories he should have forgotten years ago. Life has a way of kicking a person when he’s down, so in life you had better be ready to kick back.
He chose three companions that would be of benefit, their worth far out weighed the work needed to support them out here.
Tied about a 100 yards beyond the sight of anyone traveling the old rock road was Taz, she was a striking paint horse that stood 17 hands tall. He no longer drove the old dodge truck as fuel was next to impossible to buy and he still would not bring him self to steal. On the ground beside him was a north American Indian dog, named Chea. At 130 lbs the dog was as much his protector as he was a friend. He had found that Cheas eyes and ears were far better than his own and had learned to watch and trust the dogs instincts. His last was another horse named Red who he affectionately called Gimp.
Cheas sudden tensing up snapped him from his dreams of the cool waters and cypress trees of home. Looking out from the dug out he had made a year ago, his eyes strained to see what had gotten Chea’s attention. A glimpse of a reflection instantly drew his eyes to a small ravine. He raised the scope to peer at what had gotten Chea’s dander up. as the massive beast was growling softly beside him. He had found Chea as a pup, not really wanting a dog at the time. Chea was the last one and the people had said he was going to the pound as they were moving soon, he couldn’t let him go to that place just to be killed. He was named Chea after an Indian word but couldn’t for the life of him remember what it meant.

The powerful scope magnified the shimmering heat waves but he could clearly see a desert camo HumVee sitting at the crossroads he had just crossed earlier today.

He cursed himself for coming that way, it was far easier to ride the old road than to go cross country. Damn I hope they don’t put much stock in Taz’s hoof prints he thought. Taz was shod so her prints would easily be made out, they would know she was a cared for horse not one of the many wild ones running free. He had taken horse shoeing lessons just so he could tend to their feet, a Ferrier out here wasn’t likely to be found.
But then again these UN troops were not the brightest soldiers. Perhaps not being smart was a bad term, they were just not knowledgeable in the desert life style. As he watched they were unaware of him or the horses prints, and went about setting up a camp spot.

He noticed one was talking into a military radio, and seemed very unhappy with the conversation as he slammed the radio down. No one used cell phones any more as most of them no longer worked. He carefully scanned the soldiers equipment as they unloaded and thought several times “wow I want that”. It is easy to want things when there’s no way to get it, he used to work for what he wanted.

Just as he was about to turn away one of the seven uniformed figures caught his attention, something was different about this soldier, as he studied the lone figure he chuckled. “James you been out in the badlands too long, that’s a girl, and a mighty fine specimen as well”, he was startled he actually said it out loud.

The thought crossed his mind, to sneak down after dark just so he could see her up close, after 3 years this was the first girl he had seen. Even though he was not X military or police he had a keen sense of his limitations and thought of confronting this force was unwise at best. He knew from strangers that had wondered through in the last three years how these military groups dealt with people. He had heard reports of them being placed in camps, mistreated or even killed in some cases.

Taking a drink from his canteen which had become as hot as the air temperature he considered his options. Not wanting to spend the night in his dugout but not comfortable in riding after dark when the soldiers had bedded down. He feared a sentry they might post could easily see him in the cool of the desert night with night vision or infrared scopes. He frowned at the thought of sleeping in a hole but thought it was the best of the two options he had. During the day the temperature would be close to his own and with the Santa Anna winds his dust would go un noticed.
The dugout as he referred to it was a system of five he had built over the last three years. Each was on a high vantage point but had a somewhat concealable entrance to them. As he built them they were dug out 5 feet deep, then covered with wood planks. He then filled two feet of dirt on top of this and with a bit of work they were almost impossible too see. The dirt he hoped would make it hard to detect with infrared from the air. They gave him the ability to watch his land free from prying eyes if there were any.

In all these dugouts he had stashed food, water, a rifle, ammo and a backpack just in case. People did not seem to last long in this place without preparations, most times even the UN soldiers avoided the badlands. This gave him cause for concern as to why they were here and why they seemed prepared to stay at least a few days. After three years few of the stragglers from the once great state of Texas ever came through.

When the economy fell and martial law was declared Texas was making noise of leaving the union. The immediate response from the feds was a stunning blow the Texans were not expecting. Within four days the refineries and military bases including the national guard depots were seized and put under federal jurisdiction. The feds knew they could not survive without the fuel that came out of Texas.

UN troops stationed in Fort Hood were sent into the bigger cities to control the crime and to make certain the civilians were kept under control. The smaller towns of twenty five thousand and smaller were left untouched as the feds figured when they ran out of food they would migrate to the big cities. This was a very bad mistake on the feds part, these primitive zones as they were called soon became a problem.

Instead of running to the cities as the feds had anticipated they hunkered down, grew food, started their own micro countries. They developed a huge hatred of the feds and after a year started gorilla tactics against them. Within two years they openly attacked any federal forces they perceived them selves capable of over taking. For the most part the feds convinced the rest of the country these were fanatic religious zealots.

The feds has vowed to bring justice to these lawless areas but as of yet had failed. Most of the Texans knew a real fight was coming, this was the reason he had came to this area. He wanted nothing to do with the feds or the Texan resistance force. He wasn’t a coward but simply didn’t want the headache. Little did he know as he watched the tall dark headed female soldier the headache would soon be coming to him.

In the early morning coolness he could watch through the scope without the heat waves distorting his view. He sat and watched and notice the soldiers setting up their long term camp. This bothered him, for it meant he could not come and go as he wished and that his hunting would be postponed for a while. As he watched he could easily tell the soldiers were Asian with the exception of the female soldier he had named Lita after Lita Ford a singer he enjoyed in better times.

A year earlier, he had learned from a refugee headed to Wyoming that the UN troops were required to have an American with them, mainly to translate and to serve as their guide. He was disappointed at the thought of the lovely Lita being capable of helping the soldiers mistreat and even kill her fellow citizens. As he searched for her in the camp he saw her feet at the back of the HumVee, that’s when he realized she had been cuffed to the truck all night.

Perhaps she was not the traitor he had just moments ago assumed she was. His mind toyed with him, she needs your help, go save her. He actually wanted to but knew it would be difficult at best and suicide at worse. As the sun rose higher he was still thinking of being the knight in how ever tarnished armor. By noon it was a hundred and five, it was obvious the Asian soldiers were not well adapted to this extreme. Before getting out some jerky and water he thought could this be enough of an edge.

Looking around his dugout he surveyed his gear, an SKS with 220 rounds that he kept in the dugout. He carried a Kimber 8400 in 308 and fifty rounds with him and his trusted Walther P-38 with 2 extra clips. He had not come prepared to save a damsel in distress. Hell he wasn’t even sure she needed or wanted saving, for that matter if you could even call a military gal a damsel. He picked up his rifle and crawled out of the dugout to the rear. Knowing he could not be seen by the soldiers, he headed west towards home.
Darkness was settling in by the time the cliffs of El Gatto were close enough to see. He had bought a section of the arid land, it was a mile square. He chose the hardest area to get too as his home. Three years earlier when scouting out his new empire he came into this canyon. It was half a mile long and only hundred yards wide. He liked it because of the natural cavern hidden at the far end. Long before there was a Texas, water from centuries of rain had eroded a very nice cave.

This cavernous hole had become home, the entrance being six feet above ground level with a three feet tall by six feet wide opening. The front with the exception of the entrance was twenty feet of solid rock, the rest of the cave was embedded into the rock of the mountain side. He could not have found or built a better Alamo for himself. Hidden by an old mesquite tree and by a bit of his own ingenuity the entrance was all but invisible to even a trained eye. The rocky ground gave no clues to the passage of man or beast.

His ritual when he came to the entrance he looked at the bottom corner as he lightly moved the door, a tiny piece of cloth fell out, great he thought no ones been visiting. He had the cloth as an alarm, if it wasn’t there when he returned he knew someone had been there and he didn’t want to rush into a hornets nest. He entered the cave and turned on the light, the dim LED was like a light bulb but it drew little power and the dozen solar panels he had hidden were more than capable of keeping the batteries charged. He chosen a dozen twelve inch panels he could hide in trees instead of two large ones, so not to be easily seen.
Once inside he lowered the steel grate over the door and dropped the pins to lock it down. He had built the grate from one inch rebar as a type of burglar bar to keep out the riff raff. Letting his eyes adjust to the much dimmer light he placed his gear in its proper place, he had always been a stickler for neatness. The advantages of a cave home became suddenly obvious as it was only seventy degrees inside, the stone walls kept the now hundred and twelve degree temps out. He sat on the home made couch and removed his boots, thoughts of Lita still toyed with his mind. There was an artesian spring in the cave, providing a continuous supply of fresh cool water. On the days he knew he would be gone awhile he ran a bath and let it sit all day. The water coming straight from the well was bone chilling when you were used to over a hundred degrees. These thoughts of Lita faded as he slipped into a cool tub of water.

After almost an hour he had stepped out of the tub and was on his way to the kitchen. There had been no scrimping on labor when he built his home in a cave, it had a bath a kitchen, even a separate bed room, even though small, it gave him the feeling of a real home. Sitting and enjoying a meal of venison and prickly pear he then headed to the main room.

As the tubes warmed up they made a buzzing sound on the old Drake TR4 ham radio. He tried to listen an hour each night, it was his way of keeping up with the news and events of the day. He rarely ever talked for fear of the feds being able to locate his position. But after hearing a ham from Nevada speaking about UN recon teams he asked the ham to describe the teams. The ham operator told him of teams with less than ten members that took females along as translators, mainly because they didn’t feel the females to be a threat. The translators were called WIAB’s which the ham said stood for worthless ignorant American bitch.

These girls were often mistreated or killed if their performance was believed to be less than perfect. His blood boiled at hearing the degrading term, his mother had driven home a deep respect for women, the idea of this miss treatment was something he could not come to terms with. He spent the next three days planning a rescue, he checked on them daily. On the fourth day his hopes of a rescue for his new found friend had taken a turn for the worse. There were now nine trucks and a camp of well over a hundred soldiers. There was far to much activity so he headed back home. That night he again asked for info on the teams in case there were any new developments. The same ham who was called Scratchy responded.

The recon teams were trying to find a way into New Mexico without their militia knowing about them till the UN soldiers were entrenched. Over the next seven days the teams went out on scouting trips, usually gone for most of the day. On the eighth day he noticed after the morning flurry of activity all the soldiers but three and the intriguing Lita left the camp on scouting missions deep into the badlands. He could see she was chained by the foot to the remaining truck.

After a troubled night of sleep he had his plan, simple and hopefully successful. By four AM he was sitting in his dugout, waiting on the first shades of red that the desert sun brought each morning. With him was Chea and Taz along with Gimp. The two horses were tied beyond sight of the camp in a ravine this was his normal practice in case he needed to leave quickly and unnoticed . When the sun had finally risen he got his first look of the camp, the same hectic preparations were being made as the day before. He could only wait and hope they only left three men today as well.

What seemed like hours was only 45 minutes as he looked at his watch repeatedly, he was nervous, never having had to make a stand and the thought of actually killing someone weighed on his mind.
But closing his eyes he could almost see his mothers face and the soft smile she always had when she saw him. There was 6 kids but he was the light of her heart never giving her much pain in his young years. He whispered to her, this woman now gone many years if he was doing the right thing. Either in his mind or her spirit softly spoke, your a good man, do what your heart says is right.

When he opened his eyes the last of the trucks were heading out, left at the camp was the lonely HumVee. As he carefully scanned the camp he caught sight of Lita, she was as before chained to the HumVee. After staring for an hour he decided there were three men as before, perhaps as guards of the camp as Lita was chained up she needed no guard. He sat quietly for another hour, he wanted to make sure the others were far away.

He carefully opened his case, which was home to a rifle he hardly ever thought he would need. As he pulled out the tactical eliminator .338 Lapua. He knew the rifle even at the 800 yards was dead on. His plan was simple, shoot three times, three dead UN soldiers. But he had things to consider, if he missed, one could get in the truck and drive off, perhaps dragging the reason he was here acting like an 19 year old wannabe Rambo.

You could see the dust from the trucks for an easy ten miles before they were at the camp. Ten miles in this terrain meant he had thirty minutes before they could get back, even if the team called for help. So an escape on his own before their arrival was in his favor. He knew he had to get them before they get to the truck He knew if he missed one of them he would have to watch the truck, not missing was his first priority, he ran his plan through his mind several times.
He pulled rifle up and set its bipod up and looked through to once again scan the camp. After years of hunting he had become a very patient hunter, he was in no hurry to make a mistake he couldn’t get out of. In his youth he had shot in long range competition but the awards he had treasured were now gone and forgotten by him.

He took a drink of now steaming water, it did nothing to quench his thirst, wonder if all snipers feel like this he thought. The three days had wore on his mind and the over 110 everyday had wore on his body as well. He was 53 years old, way to old to be running through the badlands shooting at people he didn’t even know. He said out loud “Chea am I nuts or just stupid“, the faithful dog just looked as if to say, we are in this together, lets do this thing cause I want to go home.

When he looked back to his amazement two of the three had gone to the spring, they were taking a dip, there was only the one soldier left at the truck. If he could take him out first the other two are in the open and will have to cover well over a hundred and fifty yards before they could get back to the safety of the camp. That’s a long run in the open when your under a rifles scope, maybe they will just run off he thought. He scanned back to the camp, the third soldier was sitting under a mesquite tree trying to avoid the scorching sun. He dropped 5 rounds in to his rifle not liking the fact there were only five and the he had to reload. He laid a bandanna on the ground and laid out 10 more rounds.

He muttered “Hell if I cant hit three guys with fifteen shots I need go home anyway” . He opened the bolt and pulled it back, then slid it forward, it was as smooth as silk, that’s workmanship he thought as the bolt locked. He then took a laser range finder out and ranged the man under the tree, eight hundred and eleven yards, he adjusted the scope to match. He thought Damn I wished I had shot a few rounds first but knowing the soldiers were there he couldn’t afford the attention.

Scanning back to the creek the other two were swimming blissfully unaware of the fact the next few minutes that could be their last on this earth. He once again moved back to the camp, the last soldier was still doing his best to avoid the west Texas sun which seemed to dislike him. Moving the scope up to the right of the soldier he saw Lita sitting under the rear of the HumVee with her head hung low as if she did not want to see the coming event.

Moving back to the soldier under the tree he placed the crosshairs on his chest about six inches below his chin. He whispered softly “Please god don’t let me miss” . The vicious recoil of the rifle startled him, the compensator threw the fine sand back into the dugout, his ears rang. He quickly looked back to the tree, he’s gone “shit where is he“ he actually yelled. He couldn’t believe he had missed him or had he. Franticly searching the camp he saw no sign of the soldier, instantly turning back to the creek the other two were trying to get their boots and pants on. Still wet from the creek their task was not as fast as they would have liked. Chambering another round he took aim on the closet soldier who was putting his last boot on. This time the recoil wasn’t a surprise, as he reacquired the target he was face down in the creek, the second was standing knee deep in the water randomly firing a pistol into the hill.

Once more the .338 barked out, the echo was almost as loud as the shot itself. Looking back both soldiers were in the creek and neither moved. Hell he thought, he had forgotten about the first one, he could have driven to Dallas by now, quickly turning back to the camp. The first soldier was no where to be seen, could I have missed he thought. Why is he not returning fire, the HumVee had a roof mounted 50 bmg, that sat quietly. He focused on Lita she was hiding under the HumVee and looking towards the tree, “can she see him” he said out loud again. He searched his mind trying to explain where the soldier was, did I miss or did he have body amour on, hell can body armor even stop this cannon he thought.

He now had to do the one thing that he knew was bad, he had go to the camp and find the first soldier. Picking up what he referred to as my little friend. An original Tommy gun with a drum magazine he was at a dead run to Taz, “I’m to old to run up and down these hills” he wheezed. The long legged Taz made the eight hundred yards in what seemed like a few seconds, damn she’s still fast he thought. Plus I might be a harder of a target to hit at forty miles per hour. Sliding to a stop behind a small out cropping of rocks he was off before she stopped, remembering his younger days from the rodeo.

He called out to Lita suddenly remembering he didn’t know her name. “Where is the soldier” he yelled, but only silence, if she knew she wasn’t talking, was she even alive. Looking around the rocks he could see her face down at the back of the HumVee, is she dead , no he could see the fine dust moving caused from her breath. There was a trickle of blood running down her face, the soldier must have hit her, where is he dammit. Not ever being a soldier he let his emotions get the better of him, he rolled out from behind the rocks and sprayed the truck, tents, boxes and anything else he thought the soldier could hide behind. Slipping a new drum into the Tommy gun he laid there carefully watching for anything that moved or looked like it didn’t belong. He counted to three minutes then crawled closer looking behind him every few seconds just in case. After crawling fifty yards through rocks and cactus he muttered “cripes no girl is worth this much trouble“. Only twenty feet from the object of his attention he looked to both sides then quickly looked back towards the tree. Something caught his attention, there was a fist sized chuck out of the tree trunk, the tree was covered in blood. As he inched closer he suddenly stopped and just stared, the body of the soldier had fell over into a small depression never knowing what hit him.
Jumping to his feet he yelled out, “you stupid SOB you crawled through cactus and rocks for nothing, you’ll be picking thorns out of your ass for a week“. Turning back towards the prone Lita who still lie in the same spot, he instantly pulled the Tommy gun up. Then who hit her he thought as he dived behind some crates, peeking around at her he saw her move. As he watched she sat up, looked around with blank look on her face, leaned over and kicked the rear bumper. He sat there staring , well for petes sake, the idiot hit her head and knocked herself out. He stood up and walked over to where she sat, hearing him she rattled off something in Asian, not sure of the meaning he spoke. “Excuse me miss I don’t speak UN, only English and that’s even heavy on the redneck side“. She snapped her head around and whispered, “run hurry two are at the creek and ones napping, they will kill you if they see you“. He replied “Miss they wont be coming back if you are looking forward to it, if your not we better get the hell out of dodge“. She still whispered “I’m chained I can’t leave“. He asked her “which one has the key. She asked “are they all dead ?” with what seemed to be a faint trace of hope. He snapped “Yes miss their all three dead, now which one has the key, we are out of time“, . She snipped back, “its on the table mister“.
When she stood up he couldn’t help but notice, she was 5′11 with a beautiful figure, maybe 35 to 40 years old and long red hair, still a prize by any standard. She suddenly shivered and pointed saying “wolf wolf“, turning he saw Chea sitting and observing the party. Thinking back in his mind when he was spraying everything in the camp Chea was standing beside him. Damn I should have noticed he wasn’t worried he thought. He smiled and said “that’s not a wolf.”
She asked “can we please go mister please” clasping her hands together, he responded “yes miss as soon as we make this camp, not a nice home“. He went about poking a hole in the fuel tanks as to make a nice fire, there were explosives of all kinds but not being military he was unsure how to use them. As he was tipping barrels over she walked up handed him a small block of something which had a timer on the front of it and it was ticking. She quipped with that I knew something you didn’t attitude of a kid. “put it where you want but hurry, we have 15 minutes”. He looked around, so much stuff and no way to carry it or the time to stash it he fussed to him self, she grabbed a large pack obviously heavy and pointed at a second one. He grabbed it and they headed towards taz, he hung the packs on the saddle horn, she looked puzzled, and quickly asked “cant we ride mister”.
His reply was short “no missy we can’t, she can’t carry both of us and both packs, I have another horse but we need to scoot“. He realized just how far eight hundred yards was as they trotted back to get Gimp and his rifle, Chea didn’t seem to mind the run even at 110 degrees. Just as they were about to get to the dugout the explosive went off, he hadn’t been around one before, “damn” he said as he turned back to see the HumVee on its side and the camp clouded in flames and black smoke.
Riding in the scorching sun he didn’t speak, it wasn’t a matter of being rude but his solitude had made the need for expression, a thing of the past. He wondered what she was thinking as they rode on. She kept her head hung low, her long red hair covering her face so that he couldn’t see her expression. Four long hours later the safety of home became visible, he wanted a bath and needed to remove the cactus thorns that were now becoming a bother. He opened the entrance to the cave and turned to see her face, some what reserved on the idea of crawling into a dark hole in the middle of no where with a stranger. Inside when her eyes adjusted to the dimness of the soft glow of the LEDS she softly said “wow”. The interior was clean and well laid out, not much different from her home in her home town of Leonard Texas. He spoke his first words since leaving the camp after her rescue from the recon team “I’ll fill the tub so you can get cleaned up”. The mere thought of a real bath in this God forsaken place seemed to shock her. She had seen only cactus and rattlesnakes in the three years since being forced into the employee, for the UN troops. The water ran slow from a bladder higher up on the ridge, well hidden it served as a natural heater, it was hot enough to be uncomfortable without adding cold water to it.
“You can lay your clothes by the door before you get in the tub.”
She nodded and waited for him to leave before she anxiously removed her clothes that now felt like they were embedded into her skin, from days of wear. She wondered what she had got herself into. She decided It couldn’t be any worse than where she had been forced to stay. The water was warm, like a soothing balm. For an hour it had taken her mind off her life as it was today. Dreams of medical school and a veterinary practice rarely entered her mind these days, staying alive was much more of a priority. Jumping at a sound from the other room she had no idea that her bath had become an hour long nap. She reach for a towel hanging on a rack, and chuckled when the large set of antlers seem to hold the towel out to her. She decided the stranger had a pretty good idea on being self sufficient. Standing in front of a mirror, she picked up his hair brush, hoping he wouldn’t mind her using it, but not really caring if he did. Hating the idea of putting her clothes of two weeks back on, realizing she didn’t have a choice in the matter, she glanced towards the stool where she had placed her clothes. her Irish temper flared. Her clothes were gone.
He went about his evening chores while the red headed Lita was taking her bath. Taz and Gimp were left to run free, he had no fence but as they were fed each night and this was the only water besides the creek where the soldiers had fallen, the two horses never wondered far away. Walking back to the cave he hoped she had finished her bath. He was tired and his hands were swollen from the cactus thorns still deeply stuck in his flesh and irritating as hell. Walking to the door of the bathroom, which was only a beaded curtain he could hear the water splashing. He leaned down and grabbed up her clothes from the small stool she had put them on. They were filthy and not suitable for desert living. He checked the pockets before throwing the clothes into a trash can. He hated trash because it was hard to get rid of out here, he couldn’t have a trash dump to tell people he lived here. he looked through an old trunk and found some clothes that he thought would work for her. He had acquired them before moving out west, hoping a lady friend from years ago might one day join him. Carmen was her name, but along with his family they had decided he was a paranoid nut and most of them, wanted no part of his ideas. He laid the clothes out side the door, not wanting to startle her and walked back to the main room. The once perfectly clean rifle was now covered in fine dust, thrown up when firing. A dirty rifle was one thing he hated. He screwed the cleaning rod together and placed an oil coated swab on the end. After missing the barrel twice he noticed his hands were shaking, “Damn!” he whispered, looking at his hands .
The shooting part was easy, but dealing with the thought and image of the dead soldiers was more unsettling than he had thought it would be. His effort to come to grip with his actions were cut short by Chea jumping to his feet. Instantly coming to his feet as well, since experience had taught him to listen to the powerful dogs instincts. Turning he saw Lita, standing in the doorway, butt ass naked, with a look he had seen before. It wasn’t a come and join me look, either.
“Ok, Mr. hero lets do this and get it over with, so my debt will be paid.” she spoke loudly, clearly pissed off.
He sat back down, going back to his task of cleaning the rifle. He cursed himself for not being able too look away.
“You owe me nothing.” His voice was soft even though it carried an air of strength.
“You took my clothes so you obviously intend to keep me naked and stuck in this hell hole, in the middle of now where.” she yelled.
She was far more beautiful when she was clean and up close, he noticed. It irritated him that she assumed he would want to swap his gentleness for a roll in the hay. Standing, he laid his rifle down and walked to her. Stopping nearly toe to toe, he stared into the dark green eyes. Green eyes that any normal man, could get lost in. “Unless that’s something you just want to do, your clothes are just outside the door. It‘s up to you.” He gave the slightest hint of a smile before returning to cleaning his rifle. She had a dumb look of disbelief on her face when she saw him point to the clothes he had laid out for her. The same ones she had walked pass without even noticing. He couldn’t help but be amused as her face turned red, the redness spread to her neck and her upper chest. The girl that was so defiant only a moment ago, now used her hands to hide parts of her body, in a ineffective manner . Feeling a bit sorry for her, he again stopped the rifle cleaning, retrieving her clothes, he handed them to her. She quickly grabbed them, covered her upper body, ducked past him and headed back to the bathroom.
“You moron, she is cute.” He whispered to himself before resuming his task. He was just sliding the clean rifle back into its case when she came in and sat down on a matching chair that was a smaller replica to his home made couch. Not looking up he continued his task.
“Mister I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to act like that”. She said after several minutes of silence.
“Want to repay me? Then you cook supper, I’m taking a bath.” he said before turning and heading towards the bathroom.
Half an hour later he came into the kitchen, clean and feeling a tad bit better. He sat down on a bench beside the small table.
“I’m May Grant.” she said, setting a bowl of beef stew in front of him before extending her hand toward him in a show of truce.
“James Richards”. he said, taking her hand. He was trying his best not to let her see the pain that her firm grasp had caused on his now aching hands. They sat and ate without another word, as he reach to pick up his plate he made a small frown as the plate put pressure on the thorns he couldn’t see to remove. Taking the plate and sitting it in the wash basin she turned and took his hand, saying in shocked voice “ these things have got to come out”, he nodded. He went and got a first aid kit and sat back down, she jabbered away while pulling each one out, so tired he never responded. He had preferred to be asleep by now, not listening to someone talk.
Nodding off, some thing she said sank in, he jerked his head up “what did you say about dogs ?”, she replied “it’s a good thing we rode horses here, that way their dogs cant trace our foot prints”. He rarely cursed but he blurted it out “damn it, dogs track by being able to detect the sweat and adrenaline particles that drift off a person as they run, they can track on horse or on foot.“ Grabbing his boots he called “Chea outside patrol”, the dog had learned the word patrol after three years of hearing him say patrol each time they went out to look around for things or people. Pleading “ I’m sorry I didn’t know, what should I do ?” her tan face now lost of its color, the fear was plain for him to see. Putting his hand on her shoulder “nothing, just don’t go outside, I’ll be back”, he then turned and disappeared into the darkness.
His hands still were hurting as he pulled back a slab of stone that served as a lid to his weapons locker as he liked to call it. He took the Tommy gun and the Walther and his vest which he loaded down with magazines for the Tommy gun. He only had two drums one of which was empty from his Rambo act from the morning, fussing to him self he reloaded it. Chea returned and from his actions he knew it wasn’t good, patting the dogs head he whispered “go get Gimp”, he pulled the saddle and bridle out and checked his gear. He would have rather taken Taz but her white coloring would stand out at night, he much preferred stealth to speed on this ride. He heard the sound of hoofs on the rocky floor of the ravine, both horses over time had learned to know to follow Chea as it usually meant sweet feed. He haltered Taz and tied her behind the mesquite trees, he couldn’t afford for her to follow them tonight, then he saddled Gimp up and headed down the ravine. Gimp although not as tall as Taz but was a handsome horse, half quarter horse and half Arab, he was well suited to life here. Speaking in a whisper “Chea show me” and off the dog went to what ever waited for them in the dark. With no moon and the clouds had rolled in it was a dark night, he was happy for that. He would take any advantage he could at this point, out numbered out gunned his options were slipping away. Gimp as with all horses had great night vision, far better than mans, he let the horse follow Chea not even using the reins as Gimp could see what was in front of him. Hearing a soft growl told him that the threat Chea had found was near by so he slid from the saddle and laid a rock on the reins. Placing the rock assured Gimp would stay put but if things went bad he could leave when he got hungry or thirsty. Laying on the ground he pulled a night vision scope from his vest and tried to muffle the whine of it powering up. Scanning the valley below it took a few minutes to find what he knew had to be here. Even with night vision it was hard to make out the figures at that range but he was certain they were five soldiers walking up the far side of the valley. Hearing the one sound he dreaded, “ blood hounds” he muttered, Chea stiffened and growled as he said “hush boy”. Dew settled in as he lay on the ground running ideas through his head, he had to stop them or the hounds would walk up to his door. He knew these soldiers would be ready, he couldn’t catch them off guard as he had the ones at the camp site. Thinking of having to kill more was not an easy thing to grasp but he had ran out of options, the question was how to do it. His mind raced how, think man then it popped into his head. Chea can hear the hounds, that means the hounds can hear Chea. Moving to the right as far as he thought he could and still hear the hounds he found a small gully that rain water had washed into a nice fox hole. His idea was to wait on the soldiers to walk up and sit up and hopefully surprise them. Looking over he told Chea “bark boy” at the command the dog started barking at the hounds. Watching the five through the night scope he could see they had changed their direction and headed up the mesa toward him just as he had hoped. The soldiers took their time coming up the hill, it seemed like hours as he waited, whispering to Chea ”find Gimp bark at him”, this took the hounds and the soldiers about twenty five yards to his right. Doing this he hoped would prevent the hounds from finding him and hopefully the soldiers would be intent on the hounds and not on looking around much. He could plainly hear Chea barking as could the hounds as they struggled against their leashes, they were passing no more than twenty five feet not the yards he had thought. He lay on his back waiting, intent on rolling over and letting his little friend deal with the soldiers. Raising his head just enough to see, they were barely 30 feet away, rolling out of the hole he squeezed the trigger, the Tommy gun though considered to be an antique still functioned as if it were new. The recoil of a .45 caliber full auto weapon was a handful to keep on target, as he fired flame shot three feet out of the barrel. He realized he was still holding the trigger and gritting his teeth as the last round was fed through. Dropping into his make shift fort he quickly replaced the drum. He couldn’t see the night scope, he pulled a dog whistle from a chain on his neck and blew, no more than he had dropped it a huge figure appeared. Trying to raise the Tommy gun was in vain as the figure jumped onto him, it took a few seconds to realize it was one of the hounds. Grabbing his left arm the hound was vigorously shaking its head as to cause more damage and pain, his trusted Tommy gun had been dropped in the initial attack. Remembering the Walther he pulled it and started firing, ten rounds later the hound had let go and crumpled at his feet. He had no idea if the first or the tenth shot had killed it and didn’t care at this point. Spinning around to grab the Tommy gun just as another hound stood above it growling, “good boy” he spoke hoping to gain enough time to reload the Walther. Never thinking the dog whistle would have the same effect with the hounds as it would with Chea, he had drawn them directly to him. The tan hound seem to be content just standing but any movement to replace the magazine only drew the hound closer. He had a buck knife on his side but was certain the hound could make the two yards before he could get it out, the thought of another bite was unsettling at best. He blinked and the hound was gone, it took a second to put together the hounds weren’t the only ones that heard the whistle, looking to his left in the dim light was Chea and the hound in a battle in which one must die. Grabbing up the Tommy gun he yelled “ back off “ Chea immediately ceased the fight and he aimed the gun but there was no sound from the hound, his loyal friend had done the one thing he could to protect his master. He dropped to the ground and hugged the dog who started trying to investigate the injury to his arm, Chea “guard them” he said loudly and pointed the dog ran to the soldiers. He pulled a flashlight from his vest and walked carefully towards the soldiers, darting from one to the other it took only seconds to see the Tommy gun had done its job well. He looked at each soldier they carried a machine gun that he had not seen before, also they wore tactical vest laden with magazines and gear, one carried a military radio as well. Considering it wasn’t stealing since they were trespassing he removed the gear, sending Chea to get Gimp, loading everything onto the horse he headed home. He was careful to follow the dry rock creek bed as the horses prints couldn’t be seen. He placed his newly acquired fire power in with the rest of his weapons and sat for a few minutes thinking, four days ago I was happy, now I’ve killed eight men and two dogs. His mind raced from one thought to another, there will be more soldiers coming, I wont be lucky for ever, I’m not a soldier I don’t know how to plan this out. Thinking of his grandfather who was full blood Seneca Indian he remembered a story from his child hood, the Indians used to place their fallen enemies in ways to frighten the rest away. Could it be this simple he wondered, can it work in modern times ? Would the UN soldiers even give a second thought to a fallen comrade ? He knew he had nothing to lose as he again headed back towards the valley. Stopping after a few miles he wrapped his arm which he had forgotten about but now it throbbed.
He rode the last mile in a daze knowing Chea would alert him to any danger, he was tired and sore and wanted his bed, if Chea felt the same way it didn’t show as he searched the area in front of the lone desert rider. Staring at the five dead soldiers he thought what to do, he dismounted and loaded three of them on to the horse and walked another mile south hoping they might think their attackers were in the next valley. He dropped them at the base of a huge sequoia cactus and returned for the other two. He intended to simply leave them there but decided that had no fear factor so sat thinking of a way to at least make the others worried. Driving stakes into the cactus about eight feet above the ground he stripped each soldier and tied their feet together with their belts. He then hung them upside down around the base of the huge cactus, and wrote in blood on a paper one had in his pocket “ your next “.
He walked back into the cave three hours later to find his guest hidden behind the couch, she did seem happy to see him. Noticing the bandage on his arm which was now soaked in blood she fell into the mother protective mode and set about doctoring his arm. He was impressed with her skill, she cleaned it well and her love of medicine was easy to see. He then took a second bath trying to keep his arm dry, on his way to his bed room he stopped and pulled a quilt and a pillow down from a shelf and handed it to her as he said “ that couch isn’t a half bad bed”. He dropped onto the bed, tired sore and begging for sleep to come. Sleep tried its best to avoid him that night, he thought damn what a day, I hope tomorrow is a bit more boring.

Chea woke him and he knew it was 5 AM as this was Chea’s breakfast time. The hungry dog was better than any clock and trying to hit the snooze button didn’t work well. Walking down the hall the smell of coffee caught his attention, even though he didn’t drink much of it he loved the smell. He sat at the table as she handed him a cup which he had to doctor with cream and sugar before he could drink it. They sat a few minutes before he spoke “ I have to do some

scouting I may be gone all day and night” . He put deer meat down for Chea who was happily eating away knowing they would be out roaming soon. She noticed his arm had bled through during the night and went about changing the dressing. She frowned at the site of the injury as she carefully washed it with soap and water then applied antibiotic cream and wrapped it back. Looking into the bag she pulled out a roll of vet wrap and went over the dressing, the vet wrap was stretchy and it stuck to itself it would assure the dressing stayed put. He walked back to his room and sat on the bed as he dressed, not the usual jeans this time, he was clad in desert camo his nephew had gotten him during his marine enlistment. Opening the grate on the door he turned to Chea, “you stay , don’t let her go outside” the dog looked like a child that had just had his hand slapped. Sitting under a mesquite tree he reloaded the drums and checked his gear, he left the drum out as the Tommy gun so that it would fit into a scabbard on the pack and he wouldn’t have to carry it. He felt vulnerable without Chea but if he had to be gone a day or two he thought the girl might need the company more than him. It was three miles to the dug out that looked over the valley where he had left the soldiers the night before. The valley was not on his land but he hunted there as the owner lived in Florida and never came here. He chose this valley because it had a small adobe cabin with in sight of the giant cactus where he had left the trespassers hanging. Hoping the troops might think he was in the cabin and just blow it up and consider the matter closed. He sat and went over the possibilities in his head as to how things would play out, the soldiers might leave after destroying the cabin, they might start a detailed search, he didn’t know. It was still dark as he left the dugout and slipped into the cabin, pulling a fire log from his pack he started a fire in the fire place, adding all the wood it would hold. He wanted the troops to think he was in the house, the dug out was directly behind the cabin and higher up the mountain. His idea was simple, wait on the troops to find their comrades then fire a few rounds into the group hoping they would assume the fire was coming from the cabin and destroy it. He lay there watching a horned lizard play and search for ants glancing towards the giant cactus every few minutes, it was after noon by now and as he looked up he saw the tell tale wisp of dust coming up the old road. The soldiers stopped and there was a hectic running around with some talking and pointing others just standing, but none came close to the men. Why aren’t they taking them down he wondered he pulled the scope up and looked through the haze and heat waves, what he saw made a sweat break out along his back. The heads and dangling arms of the soldiers were gone having been ripped off during the night, but by what he thought. Then the idea crept into his head he muttered “hogs”, feral hogs traveled the old road often at night but he hadn’t thought about them as they never came up in the high areas. During the night they had passed by the soldiers, smelling the blood they ate all that they could reach and moved on to the next meadow. He shuddered at the grizzly thought but it had scared their soldiers buddies, they seemed to have no idea this mutilation was any thing but the act of a deranged Texan militia bent on revenge. What the hell he thought, he pulled SKS up and fired 5 rounds at the men not really trying to hit them but to draw their attention to the cabin which they had so far not noticed or not thought it needed any investigation. Before the echo of the shots died down the .50 bmg on the HumVee started pouring rounds into the cabin, he kept his head down just in case the shooter got careless. Stopping their assault to try and get a look at the cabin assuming that was the source of their new enemy. The shape of these valleys confused the ear when listening to sounds and the heats waves rising distorted your vision, the soldiers could neither see or hear where their attacker was. Again he fired a few rounds with the soldiers actions being the same, hoping after a short while they would tire of this and just blow the place up hiding the fact their enemy wasn’t there. Watching as they searched in vain with binoculars trying to catch a glimpse of the invisible shooter the big machine gun sporadically went over the cabin. Each time they seemed to lose interest he fired another few rounds to get them worked up again. The one that seemed to be in charge was talking into a radio as he dropped it to his side he motioned to the men and the scrambled into the trucks. Their leaving he thought, this confused him but the trucks only backed up about a quarter of a mile and sat there. He could no longer make things out at this distance through the shimmering waves of heat but why were they just sitting there. He couldn’t understand, they had him out gunned and out manned, he had three days of food and water, they could simply wait him out but at that range a person in the cabin could sneak out. He noticed fine dust falling from the lip of the small opening, then he heard the ever growing sound it was almost a rumble like that of thunder. Taking him a few more seconds the sound became familiar, it was the sound of huge rotors, they had called in a chopper. The gunship streaked by his dug out shaking the ground and came to a hover about a hundred yards down the hill in between him and the cabin, with no hesitation rockets streaked from under its wings into the tiny structure. Firing six rockets in a matter of seconds the cabin was gone, what little remained was spread across the valley, the chopper than fired once more, this rocket didn’t explode like the others it engulfed the entire area in flames, jumping back wards in his dug out from the surprise of the flash of fire. It took several hours for the men to look over the area after the chopper had landed, he noticed the pilot wore an American flag on his arm as the troops commander flailed his arms and yelled apparently not happy with the pilots actions. The commander turned and walked off to be saluted from behind by the pilot, hiding in the dug out. He smiled at the pilots salute as it was the bird. Climbing back in to the chopper he noticed the pilot was watching the soldiers leave, before he ducked his head into the cock pit he looked up the mountain smiled and gave a thumbs up.
Shocked at the pilots action, he thought the man knew I was up here, that’s the reason for the fire rocket as to hide evidence of the shooter from inside the cabin.

Waiting an hour he crawled out of the dug out and was making his way home, being far more careful the normal as he didn’t have Chea’s eyes or ears, not wanting to be surprised he stopped often to listen to the sounds of the desert. He climbed down a small draw and knelt down to listen and to catch his breath, diving to the ground he fumbled getting the drum into the Tommy gun. That smell, they found me I wasn’t careful enough, in the soft desert breeze the distinct smell of a cigarette drifted past him. His mind raced how, I was so careful, even with the thought of being caught he couldn’t help but want a long drag off that smoke. As a voice from the dark called out “don’t shoot we mean you no harm, we are navy seals now members of the New Mexico Regulars” . Trying to sound meaner and bigger he called back to the seals, “come forward and your weapons had better be hanging not in your hands”. The seven men slowly walked into view holding their hands out to the side away from their weapons. When the men were twenty feet away he said “ stop that’s close enough, now state your business”, one of the men took a silver case from his pocket and pitched it to his feet as he said “have a smoke, I thought it be easiest way to let you know we were here than to just yell hey you”. Looking down at the case he knelt down not taking his eyes or the gun off the seals, taking a cigarette and lighting it , damn I missed this bad habit he thought as he motioned for the seals to sit on a rock ledge he joined them a few feet in front of them. Taking a long draw he looked at what he thought was the leader and asked “how were you sure I wouldn’t shoot first then just take your smokes ?”. The man responded “I’m Conner this is my eight man team, now you know why I wasn’t worried” He said “I’m James and I’m assuming number eight is close” Conner only nodded slightly. The team leader looked around the area before asking “where’s that big dog that’s always running with you ?” Wanting some kind of edge in this situation as he was unsure of his new friends his answer was all bluff, “he’s watching your number eight,” Conner smiled not sure of the truth but saw no need in asking more. He asked Conner about how things were outside the badlands. Conner went into an hour of detailed information. Texas is fighting back, the UN troops are having a hard time controlling the oil, that’s the reason for the push into New Mexico. That is the closest and easiest oil fields to secure, the logistics of transport would also be faster. The Texas Militia has started winning major battles against the UN troops but were spread to thin to stop the march into New Mexico. That was the reason for the seals based there coming into Texas in an attempt to disrupt them as the UN searched for an easy path into New Mexico. Conner with a touch of humor said “had we known you were here we would have just stayed at home.” Conner and his team were uncertain of the response they received , he said “this isn’t my war, I want nothing to do with it,” The older of the seven stood up and spoke, “ if you didn’t want this war why did you take out a squad and leave a hundred men with out food or water ? Why also did you mutilate and hang their bodies out for the rest of the soldiers to find ?” Conner snapped “Chief that’s enough.”
Looking at him though he did have a point but he was unwilling to tell the team about May, he was unsure of them plus he had found and rescued her not these fancy seals who weren’t even close to the ocean. He stood up to leave Conner asked “Sir wait, I’m not asking you to fight only to watch for us. We can offer you food and water to make it worth your time, what do you say ?” Staring at the team leader he thought for a moment then said “ Conner I have food and water, I’m not interested “ he turned and walked into the dark .
He walked along a ridge line with a hundred things dancing in his head, should I help them or just go home, their trained for this I’m not, I’ll end up getting killed for them. He was a half mile from home as he sat and rested the horses wondered up begging for cookies. Opening his pack he took a few treats out and gave a couple too them as they made smacking noises he softly rubbed Taz’s neck, she was a lot more affectionate than Gimp. The strong gelding had never warmed up to him even after three years, the horse belonged to his sister who only let him take the horse because the two horses had never been apart. To a true horseman it was plain Gimp had a master and this desert dweller wasn’t her. Gimp how ever served him well never running from him and always did what ever was asked from him. the muscled up horse did seem to respect him. Taz and Gimp both turned staring off into the night, Gimp snorted, plainly showing he wasn’t happy with some thing out to the east.

He rose to his feet thinking, what now ? I am almost home, I don’t want to fight or talk or run any more tonight. Pulling a rope from his pack he fashioned a makeshift halter and placed it on Taz using the ends of the rope as reins. With out stirrups he stood on the rock he had been sitting on as she was tall and he didn’t feel like trying to jump up to get on her. Letting her choose her way the three headed off to the east, once more moving him farther from the bed he kept thinking about. Riding a mile the sound of metal squeaking soon became evident to even his ears. But he couldn’t decide what the sound was even though it sounded familiar in a way. Stopping just below the top of the ridge he dumped his pack and laid a rock on the reins as before with Gimp, Taz would stay put and the gelding would stay with her. He crawled to the top of the ridge and waited on the night vision to power up, looking off towards the sound he could see shapes but not what they were. He would have to wait till either the moon came out or the sun came up, his night vision scope was a first generation Russian design it didn’t do well in complete darkness. Unlike modern designs it had no means of illumination of its own, it was dependant on at least star light in order to provide an image.
Settling down he decided to just wait and see, he was high on a ridge, even if men saw him, climbing or driving up after him would be impossible. Having dozed off when he awoke he could see faint red glow to the east, Damn he thought as he rolled over to look down into the ravine, there was more than enough light for night vision to give a clear image now. Sitting at the entrance to the ravine was a tank or it looked similar to a tank. He didn’t know what it was, it looked like a box with tracts and a rather impressive cannon but it was by no means an Abrams, which was the only tank he could identify. The soldiers around the tank had by now a large fire going, laughing and seemingly in a great mood considering they were in a desert soon to be in the triple digit heat in a metal can with tracks. He went back to his pack leaving the Tommy gun he took his Kimber out of the scabbard he then removed the bridle so horses could go drink. Only a mile and half from home it was an easy walk and he had water but not enough for horses. Watching as the horses headed down the ridge he made sure the Tommy gun was resting on the pack and not in the dirt. He didn’t think he would need a weapon but he did need the high powered scope on the Kimber in order to see what was so exciting to the UN troops. Peering through the scope he could see them drinking what seemed to be liquor, thinking idiots the sun will make you regret that in a few hours. Alcohol dehydrated you in the desert, it wasn’t a good thing to drink in the morning out here. Having watched these soldiers for days he had never noticed them celebrating, perhaps it was a holiday from their home or they had gotten orders to leave this desert. One of the soldiers poured liquor on the head on another who was sitting on the ground, who didn’t seem to be interested in partying with the rest. Looking closer there were 6 men sitting on the ground and their hands were bound behind them, guess I wouldn’t be in the party mood either he thought. Watching as the UN troops were searching through the bound men’s pockets and packs one of the soldiers held up a prize he had found. Looking intently through the scope he saw the prize, a silver cigarette case, the same one he had smoked from a few hours earlier. Those dumb bastards got caught and they wanted me to help them he thought. He scanned the ridge line on the other side looking for the other two seals since he saw no bodies near the tank, after a minute he shuddered, looking back at him through a scoped rifle was apparently the eighth man. The lone figure blended well in to the desert terrain as he looked through the scope the figure pointed west as if to say lets go. He gave the man the thumbs up and backed down from the ridge fussing that he had sent the horses home, now it would be a long walk. Walking west on the trail he was thinking I need to mind my own business no more rescuing people or drawing attention to myself. They got them selves into this they can get out of it with out my help, its only a matter of time at this rate my luck will run out. He met the lone seal an hour latter, the man was young maybe 25 and appeared to be weary and not sure of him self, the desert had a way of making you feel useless and stupid, he doubted the young man had ever seen a place like this.
The young seal introduced him self as Mike and proceeded to tell him of the events that had led to this meeting. The seals walked along a trail and as was their normal tactic the young sniper Mike was above them and to the rear, never walking with the main group in case of an ambush he could in theory defend the pinned down team. When the armored personnel carrier caught them it was between the sniper and his team, he could not shoot without hitting his own team. The sniper told him the UN troops thought the seal team was responsible for the acts of terrorism against them and were taking them to be hanged.
Looking at him Mike said “you have to help me, I cant do this by my self, I only have 20 rounds for the barret and 4 extra clips for my side arm.” He had lost his pack in his effort to avoid being seen, he thought he could rescue them later but one of the UN soldiers found his pack before he could retrieve it. The UN troops had shot one member of the team, stripped his gear and left his body, Mike seemed to be just as concerned for his fallen brother as he did for the six living ones only a few miles away.
Cursing to him self, here I go again as he told the young seal “follow me.” He pulled back the slab to his weapons stash and handed one of the UN soldiers machine guns to Mike along with the tactical vest carrying the extra ammo. “Take what you need son” he said with a touch of pride, his stash was impressive. While the young Mike looked over his options He swapped his Kimber for the .338 . Along with the .338 he took a 100 rounds for it plus the Tommy gun and two 100 round drums , also the Walther P 38 but he only had 4 extra mags for it. Mike asked “ you want one of these Q’s ?” he looked and said “one of what ?” Mike with the first smile he had seen on his face replied, these are 5.8×42mm QBZ95 from china. Looking at his Tommy gun he replied “nope I‘ll stick to American steel“. The two men readied their gear for the battle both knew was coming without speaking, he spoke to Mike “I’ll be right back.” Opening the cave door he called to Chea who almost knocked him over hoping his affection would guaranty he could go this time. “Chea get the horses” he said and off ran the dog in his search. Closing the door it stopped part way shut and a voice from inside said “no you don’t, I want to know why that mutt wont let me out.” He opened the door back to see May’s face, Damn she’s pretty he thought. He looked toward the stash but it was out of sight from the door he looked back at her thinking, I’d like come home to her everyday if shed get that scowl off her face.
He said “things are about to get very bad out here, if you wouldn’t mind I would like you to promise me one thing.” She looked confused, he said, “I may not make it back from this one the only thing I ask is stay inside till sunrise, if I’m not back by then you and Chea leave and head west to New Mexico. There’s a lever action rifle and ammo under my bed. Chea will take care of you.” She stared at him then asked “why are you doing this ?” The only thing he could think to say was “I wanted to be a knight in shining armor and save the damsel just once, and I still have make sure she lives.” He quickly shut the door and headed off to where Mike was gearing up.
Chea and the horses were back by the time he reached Mike, and the dog was not happy to see a stranger hanging around. He said “Chea back off” as he walked up. The dog instantly sitting and no longer growled at the young man. He saddled both horses and put his gear on Taz as Mike did the same with Gimp. Walking away a few feet he called the dog to him, kneeling he hugged the beast and said “ you have been a great friend you old hound but you have to stay and protect the girl.” Unlike before there was no hurt in the dogs eyes from being left behind, some how he knew his task was no small one. He watched as the dog walked back to the cave stopping once to look back almost like he knew it was the last time he would ever see his master.

The two men rode in silence the hour back to the ridge, once there they took their original positions, now both well armed and hoping their sniping abilities would be more than enough. The five soldiers that manned the Bradley were sleeping under a tarp stretched from the tank and tied to the ground. Their night of drinking now haunted them. Sitting tied in the sun were the six seal team members also being tortured by the relentless sun. Looking through the scope to find Mike they gave each other a thumbs up, each turning back to the tank. Each man ranging their targets, the distance was twelve hundred yards, but both the barrett and the .338 were more than capable at that range in the hands of a true marksman. Firing almost simultaneously both of the powerful rounds hit home, as he chambered a second round the barrett had already fired its twin. Picking out his next target he thought this is wrong, the other men had not moved, they couldn’t be that drunk six hours later. He realized the barrett was also silent, he quickly turned to find Mike. The youngster made a gesture of what’s going on, he too was confused.
Rocks and dirt rained onto him as he covered his head, the deafening sound beat into his ears, smoke burned his eyes. Confused he didn’t know what was going on, through the gaps in the roar of the thunder he heard the barrett firing again, he looked to Mike, the youngster was firing at him, “what the hell” he yelled. Rolling over to get out of Mikes line of site he looked straight into the cannon barrel of a second Bradley, Damn he thought the kids shooting at the tank, he could see sparks caused from the armor piercing rounds the powerful barret spit out.
The cannon fired again and there was silence no roar from the explosion no flash of light, every thing was dark.
Mike cut the ropes holding his brothers arms behind their back, the men stretching their aching arms. Conner looked towards the youngster he had not wanted on his team because he seemed to be the Rambo type. “You did good Rook” but no smile came across the young face. Conner puzzled said “spill it kid.” Mike told him of the plan he had made with stranger they met the day before and of the trap the UN soldiers had set. “Well where’s he at, I owe him a beer” piped the twenty four year navy veteran, Mike had difficulty explaining the events. Something he hit inside the Bradley caused it to explode but not before it fired again at his partner in the rescue attempt. He searched for him but there was no sign of him only a broken .338 that had fired its last round in defense of men he didn’t know.
The seal team gathered up their gear and destroyed the remaining Bradley and went up to the ridge where the man that had helped save them fired his last. Looking around the crusty old sailor said “Attention on deck” all seven men snapped too , saluted and turned west towards home. Conner stopped beside the rifle, he took a silver cigarette case from his pocket and laid it beside the rifle, “Have one on me, It would have been an honor to serve with you sir.”

Walking up to a sign that read New Mexico republic, they stopped and ate lunch, it had been three days since their escape from the UN soldiers and the men had become weary from the heat and their ordeal. Conner spoke after a few minutes “lets camp here for the night“, he knew the men were beat and one more day wouldn’t change anything. Mike offered to stand first watch as he knew sleep would not be his friend tonight, he sat through the night not bothering to wake another team member to take over. He thought of the horses still saddled who had run when the cannon fired, would they be ok alone wearing saddles he thought and what about the dog. Mike woke the team just as the sun peeked over a mountain top, as they packed their gear Conner asked “Mike you didn’t fall asleep did you ?” “No Sir” was the instant response Conner knew Mike strived to be the best and he also knew he wouldn’t have fallen asleep. Mike spoke “Sir may I ask why ? “ Conner turned around and said “no reason sailor” as he took a smoke from his silver case that his father had made when he became a seal. Conner stared out into the badlands as Mark walked up beside him he asked “what is it sir”? Conner spoke “this seems like a God forsaken place but even here God sees fit to put good in with the bad to even things up.” The young seal stared for a minute and replied “maybe, but the good out there is gone now sir”. Conner turned to walk away and stopped, years of missions had taught him to know when there were eyes on him. He didn’t turn back to look but caught up with Mike, he laid his hand on the young mans shoulder and said “son don’t worry about the good out there. I believe there’s a phantom roaming the badlands, and his intentions are honorable.”

May sat by the door through the night, Chea never leaving her side, in the east a hint of red began to show, it was sunrise. During the night she had heard the rifle fire then the cannon firing later, she didn’t know what it meant but she had a bad feeling. She dozed off for an hour only to be awakened by Chea, she strained to see any thing that looked like her knight, she smiled at the thought of having her own knight. The sun was well up and she had promised, she went to his room, surprised by the way it looked. It was clean and the bed was made, odd for a bachelor she thought as she reached under the bed to get the rifle. Walking back to the kitchen she found her pack, looking through it she added only water. She took deer meat from the refrigerator, wondering where the electricity came from to run it. Handing Chea the meat she took some jerky to eat as she walked. It took her four hours to walk to the end of El Gatto ravine and head west, it was a three day walk but she had food and water not to mention a new found guardian walking beside her. She stopped at the New Mexico border and looked through binoculars at the pass , another mile and she would be safe. She could see several men packing up camp, not knowing these were the very men her knight had helped save. She followed but not close enough to be seen but just to keep them in sight. She shadowed the men for 5 more days until they reached a military camp. New Mexico regulars had built the camp in order to stop the UN troops from trying to slip in. She walked through the camp it was not hard to see the men here were not used to seeing a woman in their camp. “Hey Lady” a voice called out, she turned to see the young seal Mike, he asked “ mind telling me where you found the dog ?” Staring at him she said with a snap “yes I mind and turned away.”
“Wait lady please, that dog belongs to a friend of mine” turning back to face the young man she replied in much softer tone “this dog belonged to my knight but he’s gone now.” “I guess you’re the reason for that aren’t you ?” She asked, the young man seemed at a lose for words as he spoke but there was no authority in his voice “ yes lady I am” In her mind the youngster seemed guilty of a crime he didn’t want to confess or he was hiding something. She dropped her pack and aimed the rifle at the seal, “then why don’t you join him since you caused his death.” Several of the Regulars scrambled at seeing this, trying to convince the lady to lower her rifle.
Conner grabbed her rifle as if from no where, speaking in the commanding tone he used when dealing with the kids that he had trained through the years, “Miss that young man could shoot you three times and still have your shirt off before you hit the ground, I suggest you calm down now.”
Conner pointed to a building and said “wait there for me.” Walking up to Mike with a scowl on his face he snapped “ you have a problem with living sailor ?” Mike shook his head but didn’t answer, Conner’s booming voice carried through the camp as he shouted “ I asked you a question and I want an answer and it better have Sir before and after it, do I need to repeat myself ?” Mike stiffened from instinct and said “Sir no Sir”, “now what’s going on “? Conner asked.
Mike answered “Sir that dog, that’s that guy in the deserts dog, he was there when we picked up more weapons before coming after you.” “As you were sailor” Conner barked as he headed for the building where May waited on him.

Walking into the room he saw her sitting at a table, beside her was one of the meanest looking dogs he had ever seen, pulling out a chair he sat but he kept an eye on Chea. He handed her the rifle back and said “ I’m sorry about your friend but there’s one thing you should know, I don’t think he’s dead, if that’s the impression you have.” Staring at him she jumped up and walked out, he followed her into the street where she headed east back towards Texas. He barked out “wait, you cant go back, the UN has moved several thousand troops into that area.” Her pace didn’t change as he spoke, the dog trotted beside her, he yelled Mike “shoot her in the knee if she reaches the mess tent.”
Mike said “ stop lady or I will shoot” , hell the young seal thought, I cant shoot her so he walked up to her and decked her. Conner and four others finally pulled the enraged Chea off the startled Mike, as Conner barked , “I didn’t mean for you to stop her it was a threat.” Mike looked around at the red head now face down with a very upset dog standing over her, trying to calm the dog it became obvious that wasn’t going to work.
She woke, her head hurt and her eyes were blurry as she sat up she felt like she had been hit by a truck, looking around there sat her assailant. He had a look of I’m sorry I screwed up on his face, He handed her a cup of water and said “Lady I’m sorry I thought Conner really meant for me to shoot you, I thought hitting you was a better idea.” May only nodded as it hurt to move her mouth. Mike walked to the door and yelled “Sir she’s awake”, as she looked up there came Conner’s booming voice “rook don’t knock her out again , I need talk to her first.”
She smiled at the embarrassment of the young sailor, he ducked his head and out the door he went. Conner entered the room and sat at the foot of her cot, he spoke softly “ I believe he’s alive Miss, as soon as the troops move out I’ll go back and find him, your welcome to come.” “He is a survivor, he can hide out for a bit until their gone” he said. May nodded and the old sailor walked to the door stopped and said “can you come get your dog, it took 6 men to get him in a crate, but he’s chewing his way out.”
May emerged from the tent looking both ways not seeing Chea, but it was not hard to tell where he was, she walked up to the crate and spoke “ Chea” as she opened the door the dog pounced on her licking her face. Dang she thought this hurts worse than getting punched by a sailor.
May was tired of sitting around, the UN troops still had not left the area and she wanted something to do as she was hoping it would make time pass faster. Conner was instructing a group of new men on how to strip an M-16 as she walked up. She grabbed one up, stripped it down then reassembled it in a minute, tossing it to Conner. He cocked the weapon smiled and said “your hired, carry on” and he walked off. He grinned as he looked back as she was again disassembling it in front of the new men.
In the desert it gets cold at night sometimes dropping to forty degrees. He shivered as the cold crept into his bones, as he opened his eyes he thought, I must be alive because being dead surely wouldn’t hurt this bad. He tried to roll over but he was pinned down, after wiggling for several minutes he was able to crawl out of his intended tomb. Looking at the burnt out hulk of the Bradley he went to the ridge, the first Bradley sat still smoking, the seal team had left. He went to search for his pack, remembering laying it down before going to the ridge. He walked towards the pack, seeing his rifle twisted he cursed to himself, beside it lay a silver cigarette case. He picked up the case and lit one up and headed home. He was battered and bleeding, almost deaf as it took him five hours to get home. When he walked in he knew Chea and May had left, she had honored her promise to him. He ran a bath and slid into the tub but he didn’t stay long. The towel hurt as he dried himself off, his arm was red, he knew it was infected from the red streaks. Walking to the kitchen he dug out the aid kid, he cleaned his wounds and applied antibiotic cream. He then dug into the out side pocket and took out a bottle of penicillin and he had a few vicoden left. He washed them down with cool water, he then went to his weapons stash and got the Kimber and ammo. He searched for an hour until he found the horses, Taz ran up nuzzling him even Gimp seemed happy to see him. He mounted Taz and headed to New Mexico. He rode through the night hoping to catch up to May. He looked thru his scope, he could see figures camped at the border, as he got closer he saw it was the seal team. He noticed the young Mike sitting with his back against a rock he seemed lost in thought, Walking up he was going to speak to Mike but the young man sobbed trying to keep quiet so the others wouldn’t hear. He didn’t want the boy to know someone heard him as Mike thought men crying was weakness. His feet made no sound in the soft sand, he walked over to Conner’s pack and gently laid the cigarette case on the sleeping mans pack. He then turned and headed east towards home. He stopped a mile from the men and looked back, thinking of May he knew she had already passed here. He toyed with the idea of going after her, he muttered “ you old fool, a fine woman like that has no use for a broken down cowboy.” He softly spoke “I hope life treats you well May”, he turned and rode towards home.
The wind blew hard, the sand stung his skin, he stopped along a ridge and covered himself with a tarp to wait out the storm. Never knowing only a few hundred yards away May and Chea lay beneath a similar tarp. In the driving wind Chea’s senses were dulled, he never heard or caught the scent of his master. Neither knowing they passed each other, May heading to an unknown future and him heading to a place that would surely kill him one day.

He awoke feeling sick, his arm hurt but he knew he needed to get up, he needed to take some penicillin for his infected arm and get something to eat. In the badlands food and water were not things to do without, even being sick he needed food if had any chance of getting over this. He walked into the kitchen, it had been three days and his arm worsened , he could smell the decay, the drugs weren’t helping, perhaps they were old or the wrong kind. He sat on the couch covered in a blanket, he picked up a book about the Amazon and started reading, as he read he saw where early Indians used maggots to eat dead flesh. He read further, thinking this is damn nasty, where could I find maggots if I wanted to try, his head jerked up and he muttered “blood hounds”. The two dead hounds were close, he could make it that far he thought. He half crawled out of the cave, to his surprise the horses both stood there, he had forgotten their water, he poured water for them and then put a bridle on Taz. He couldn’t get the saddle on her with his arm the way it was so he moved her next to a rock and got on bareback, it took him only 20 minutes to find the hounds. He wrinkled his nose as he got close, well there’s plenty of them he thought, sliding down he picked up a dozen or more and put them in a old snuff can. He climbed back on Taz with the help of another near by rock and headed to the cave.
He reread the book three times, not looking forward to this he took bandage off his arm, it was bad, the smell almost gagged him. He laid the maggots on his arm and covered it loosely with gauze and laid back on the couch. “Ouch” he said, his arm stung, he wanted to get these damn bugs off him but he knew it was all he had. He took a vicodin and went back to sleep. Waking up his arm didn’t hurt worse, that’s a good thing he thought, he went to the kitchen to get water, as he stood there he looked at the battery powered clock, “damn “ he said loudly, he had been asleep two days. He unwrapped his arm expecting the worse, the maggots had died, after eating the decayed flesh they had no food source as they cant eat living tissue. He washed his arm with warm water and soap. It was tender but not painful, after washing he applied antibiotic cream and wrapped it lightly with gauze. He had to admit he felt better but being a bit freaked out he went and counted the maggots to make sure they were all accounted for.
Seven days later he looked out of his dug out, back to his old routine, he scanned the UN troop encampment, almost hoping to see a red head in their camp. He made a rough count of their number, Damn he thought, there are thousands of them this time. The thought crossed his mind, how do I stop this many ?, they had their dogs chew on me, they blew me up and now their trespassing, I’m done being a spectator.

Conner had spread the word of the Phantom that roamed the badlands. Claiming he was near supernatural and that the UN troops couldn’t kill him. Conner had no idea of the events unfolding eighty miles to his east.
He scanned the camp and noticed there were sentry’s every fifty feet all the way around the camp, he chuckled and thought, this will be hard. He had no plans of attacking this force, he just wanted to screw with them but he needed to be extra careful without Chea’s eyes and ears. He smiled at the thought of Chea, he had been his best friend for a long time and he missed him, he even had to admit he missed May a bit as well.
He noticed the creek where he had shot the two soldiers weeks ago, they have a good water source he thought and moved his scope back to the camp. He quickly returned to the creek thinking, they aren’t guarding their water source, hum this could be an edge he thought. He sat and stared at the creek, he thought, how do I use this, several thousand men drink a lot of water. The water came from an artesian spring higher up in on the mountain, how could he affect the water supply and still avoid a confrontation with the soldiers. He now had to think of a way to do it without permanently damaging the spring as both he and the wildlife needed it. He climbed high up the mountain far from the camp, sitting down he watched the water bubble up from its underground home, looking back down he saw where the water took two paths., one towards the camp the other towards the north side of the mountain. He worked for two days damming the creek so that all the water flowed north, the camps creek would soon be dry, if anything would get them worried it would be no water. He crawled into the dug out before dawn, he settled in looking forward to seeing their reaction to a dried up water source. A single soldier came running from the creek obviously excited, he pointed to the creek. Twelve men drove to look at the source of the soldiers excitement. The men stared at the dry creek, looking up the mountain with binoculars, unknown to them the spring was far above a ridge and they couldn’t see it from the valley.
He snickered as he thought, “don’t you just love a cold glass of water in the morning” He laughed out loud and said “ a man can last three days here without water, I bet I can avoid you for that long.

He arrived at the dug out three days later, crawling in he looked towards the camp, “holy crap” he said, the camp was deserted, they had left during the three days, he didn’t know when. Spending four hours scanning the camp and the hills behind it in case there was a sniper hiding up there he slid the drum into the Tommy gun and went down to take a peek. He sat watching a hundred yards from the camp, as he watched a few deer wondered through the now deserted camp. He flinched as an explosion ripped through the camp, looking he saw a deer running across the camp and he saw it blow up. Searching the hill side he was thinking mortars or maybe bazookas, then he looked back towards the camp, and said “ land mines”. OK I need to avoid this place he thought, and returned to his horse. He rode carefully following the troops, he wanted to know where they had went. The next closest water that could support that many men was 60 miles away, he turned back after ten, at least they were gone from his land.
He awoke the next day skipping breakfast, he headed back to the old camp. He carefully scanned the ground, the rocky land didn’t lend it self to hiding mines but these weren’t really mines. Remembering them from TV he knew they were claymores, they had simple trip wires attached to them. He walked up to one carefully removing the small stones placed to hide the explosives, after studying how it worked he cut the wire and removed the mine, each mine had a detonator which he removed. He spent till three that after noon removing all of them, as he packed them on to Gimp he decided it was only fair to return them to their rightful owners. He removed the mines at the weapons stash he didn’t want to start out till morning. He awoke early stopping on the way through the kitchen on his way out., he took jerky and a few biscuits. He carefully loaded the explosives back onto Gimp, chuckling he said “ bet if you knew what these were you wouldn’t fidget so much.” He searched for a roll of safety wire he had, it was very small but extremely strong, it would make for great trip wires. He rode for two days before reaching what the Indians had once referred to as the last chance for the US Calvary in times past, long before there was a UN. The small lake sat nestled in a valley about a mile long, the troops had set up their camp as a base, they sent patrols out every day in an attempt to hopefully find a easy way through or perhaps to capture some one that could tell them the way. He knew there were probably no detailed maps of this place as it was considered worthless by most people. He watched and took notes for several days trying to learn how they carried out the duty they had been given, but it seemed they were more interested in avoiding the sun, in the badlands in July its common to see over a hundred and ten degrees, and this was a hot year. He almost felt sorry for them, they really seemed to suffer from the heat, there was little shade and tents were like ovens in the sun. He watched as they gave up posting sentries and just had men on guard duty in the camp. He crawled across the ridge that surrounded the valley, as he went he placed the claymores behind large rocks in hopes they would be blasted loose and roll into the valley. The soldiers had left thirty six not counting the two the deer had set off, it took him two days to set them all, but he didn’t have enough wire to tie them all to a trip wire. He spent the next day retrieving the mines, he needed a better plan since he couldn’t set them all off at once. His next idea was to place them all at the entrance to the valley, it was only fifty feet wide, if he could close the door they would be on foot, on foot here was a death sentence to a person not used to this land, it was a beautiful place in some ways and would provide you shelter, food and water but you had to come to terms with the land.
He placed half of the mines on either side, running only one trip wire to a single mine on each side, he hoped the force would explode the rest since they were stacked one in front of the other. He waited till midnight before he set the trip wires, that way the vehicles leaving in the morning would be disabled and add to the blockage he was hoping for. He had no dug out here so he found a crevice a couple hundred yards away where he could hide but still see the entrance to the valley.
The valley had been used as a safe haven by the Indians during the war between the Calvary and the plains Indians, no one came here these days,. Only a mile long and barely seventy five yards wide the sides were straight up fifty feet, the entrance was the only way a vehicle could come or go. He considered the out come, if the entrance was blocked they couldn’t leave by truck, they had to walk, there was plenty of water but he was sure their food supply was limited by now. He knew if the plan worked they would have to leave sooner or later and the three hundred miles to a town would be the end for many of them if no one came looking for them. He also knew that their radios wouldn’t work in these valleys because of the many load stone pockets that littered the hills, their compasses also would not work.

He sat chewing on a piece of jerky washing it down with water, his water was still cold from the chilly night, it had dropped to fifty degrees but he knew with in a few hours it would be another fifty degrees hotter. He stopped chewing as he seen the first truck heading for the entrance, it lumbered along seemingly taking for ever to reach the trap. He ducked down as the truck snagged the trip wire and pulled the detonators on the mines. He looked back up, his ears ringing and debris fell around him, even at this distance the explosion was shocking to him. He whistled as the blast echoed through the valleys, never had he imagined the force would be so powerful, feeling the ground vibrate and the dust blown up, he was amazed. He had to wait for five minutes for the dust to clear so that he could see the pass, as he peered through his scope he could not have done better, the entrance was closed being nearly 30 feet tall. He smiled and said “have a nice walk boys.”

Conner sat talking with a few of the other officers going over plans when Mike escorted a team leader in. The team leader didn’t salute as was the custom for soldiers in the field, “Sir my group found a large force of UN Turks”, Turks was a term given to the Asian UN troops, most were from China and South Korea. Conner eyes came up quickly, was this the real fight he was expecting ? Conner pulled out a map asking the man “ show me their location, hopefully you can show me their direction”. The young scout pointed to an area on the map, Conner looked puzzled, “ what in Sam hell are they doing out there” he said, not really a question more of a statement. The scout took it as a question he replied “ Sir their just walking in a big circle, they have no vehicles and no gear, only a few had weapons”
Conner studied the map, what the hell is going on he thought, he looked at the scout and asked, “how many “, the response startled him. “ I would say at a rough guess Sir, twenty five .” Conner said “well I’m not to worried about twenty five Turks running around in the desert” The scout interrupted the seasoned sailor, “ no Sir I mean twenty five hundred not twenty five.”
Conner sat down, he was lost, he had no idea why they were there. His military training told him its not possible, no army loses twenty five hundred men. Looking up at the scout he said “ son I’m sorry to ask this, I know you just got back but I need one of those Turks, you think can grab me one ?” The scout smiled and said “he’s out side Sir.”
Conner handed the Turk a canteen which he eagerly drank from, he seemed reluctant to hand it back as if he thought he may never see water again. Conner’s commanding voice intimidated the soldier as he asked “why were you wandering around in the badlands?” The soldier rattled on for half an hour, telling him about how the valley blew up, and they couldn’t get out. He told about them leaving when they ran out of food, taking all the water they could carry. The soldier delirious from his ordeal and at times rambling told of a creature riding on a pale horse that often followed the lost men but never getting close. Conner said “creature?” The soldier continued his story telling about the sounds that came from the dark, howls, barking even grunting. Conner stood up saying “take him to the brig and feed him, Mike arrange a patrol to capture the others. No need to let them just die out there.” Conner sat and smiled as he thought I guess the phantom has struck again.

He sat on a ridge a mile from the lost souls wandering through the badlands, He actually felt sorry for them. No man should die like this, but he had neither the resources to help them or the ability to control them if they got out of hand. He looked to the east seeing a column of dust rising up. What ever it was it was big or there were a lot of them. He watched as a parade of trucks appeared and after a few minutes of talking to the lost men the soldiers started loading into them. Conner’ s men set up a temporary camp knowing it would take three or four days to ferry them all to safety. He sat watching the event unfold, not knowing the UN soldiers were shipped to California to board ships to their homes.
He sat on the ridge watching through his scope, the last nineteen soldiers loaded up, he saw the driver and his co driver drag a large wooden crate from the truck and drop it on the ground, they then got it and turned around heading back towards New Mexico. He waited an hour before going down to check out the crate, being rather cautious he eased the lid open, inside was a carton of cigarettes a box of tea and a thousand rounds of .45 caliber ammo. He reached and picked up a note laid on top of the ammo, it simply said a gift to the Phantom.

May walked to the mess hall, she seemed tired and was distant to most here, the only one she spoke to was Conner . Her life from before the UN occupation seemed a lifetime ago. She had always been a bubbly happy person. These days things had changed for her. She had become non trusting to people she didn’t know or trust. She entered the mess as men were getting up from breakfast, looking around she saw Conner eating oat meal. She sat beside him after getting her coffee, she sat in silence not even looking towards the old sailor. Conner wasn’t a tall man but he was built like a tank, at sixty one his demeanor still demanded respect, he was fighting this battle because his wife and sons were in Port Author, he just wanted to see them again. Conner had bought a small home in a suburb with his last reenlistment bonus. He had intended to retire but with the way things went he was forced to stay in. In his mind he wondered if they were alright, he had missed so much of his sons growing up. May seemed to make it easier, even though she wasn’t his daughter she needed someone. He looked at the girl half his age, not knowing why she felt the need or desire to return to the badlands, she had told him that the man living there was a stranger to her. He asked “ what’s on your mind woman?” She responded without looking up,
“ I’m heading into the badlands in a bit, is there a way I could take one of the dirt bikes ?” Conner replied “ I cant stop you but you have to know it will be damn near impossible to find that place again, my men have tried.” She said still not looking up “ no choice I have to go, I’m not sure why but I have to. I’m not worried about finding him, I figure he will find me.” Conner stood up and put his huge hand on her shoulder, saying “ Gods speed little one, take any thing you need.” Her response was “ I only want a bike and water.“

She packed all the water bottles she could into her pack, taking an extra three gallons of gas she kicked the bike and it roared to life, putting it in gear she shouted “ Chea front and center.” the large dog jumped to his feet beating her out of the camp heading off into the desert. The journey was a lot faster on a bike than her first on foot. She made camp the first night, not sure how far she had left to go, she hoped Chea knew his way home. She woke at six to the insistence of Chea, it was breakfast time and he knew it. Just because they were out camping he still demanded his food. Smiling she patted his huge head and pulled a can of Alpo from her pack, he ate it but didn’t seem impressed. Chea sat for a half hour with his head in her lap, he seemed to know she needed comfort. May rode till near dark that day, she went slow because the dog no matter how strong couldn’t keep up with a dirt bike all day. Chea stopped and stared off into the distance but turned and run up to her as she killed the bike. She stopped in a small group of cactus as they offered a bit of concealment. She awoke to the sound of the massive deep growl from Chea, she had not heard him make that sound before. He stood with his hackles raised staring into the dark. She grabbed her rifle pointing it in the direction Chea was looking. Far off she could see lights coming, they looked like other dirt bikes, “quiet Chea” she whispered. She laid the bike over on its side and laid beside it trying to remain unseen. She watched as the bikes approached. Suddenly they stopped she heard one say “there’s something over there“, she cursed to herself. One of the men called out, “give us what you have and you get to live.” She fired one round into the dirt as a warning, the men dropped their bikes and fired back. “Shit” she yelled, they have full auto Ak’s. She heard a voice call out “ we have food and water, we can wait, can you ?” She laid thinking I cant let Chea help he’s no match for that kind of fire power. Damn what do I do ? She looked at the rifle, it was a work of art, a .45 long colt lever action. It was a fine weapon but no match for four AK-47s. She didn’t want to call out as she feared they would assume a girl alone is easy prey. One of the men called out, “ we know your alone and that you’re a chick, give us what we want and we will leave you alive.” “If not we will leave you dead, people will think it was that phantom guy that killed you” they all laughed.
She lay thinking, man I screwed up, what can I do ? She ducked instinctively as the Aks fired, they were firing continuously. However nothing was hitting near her. She heard another rifle fire but it was much bigger and behind her. She covered her head and pulled Chea close, she didn’t want him getting hit. The powerful rifle fired three more times and the bikers guns fell silent. Chea jumped to his feet running into the dark, she tried to hold him but she couldn’t. She heard him barking then silence, nothing save a lonely coyote in the distance. Thinking what have I done, he trusted me with Chea. She lay with her head down waiting, hearing the sound of feet moving through the sand she tensed. She prepared to roll over and fire. She spun over, the .45 shooting flame but nothing was there, “WTF” she whispered. She froze as a voice came from behind her “how many times do I have to save your skinny ass?”
She jumped up and punched his arm, grabbing him she gave him a hug saying “ I thought you were dead.” He looked at her and said “join the club missy.”
She stared at him as best she could in the dark and said “can we go home ? I could use a hot bath.” They walked the half mile to El Gatto. As she opened the door and went inside, Chea sat chewing on a large bone. “Chea thanks for warning me about the phantom sneaking up on me.” she said jokingly, the dog never looked up, he was too busy and he was home. “Phantom” he asked looking puzzled.
She smiled to herself as the cool water of the bathtub eased her soreness. Drying off she stood in front of the mirror thinking, im clean, but I wish I had some clothes that were a bit nicer. Just maybe he might look at me as a girl not a damsel that needs saving. After considering her options she just went to the living room wrapped in a towel, but he was not there. Puzzled you looked in his room and he was sound asleep. Thinking ok he’s weird she went to couch and made her bed.
She sat the next morning over looking the valley where the UN troops had abandoned their trucks, a small bull dozer labored moving the debris. She wondered where her knight was, he had been gone going on the second day, She thought he’s a great guy but I don’t understand him, I come all the way back here and he wont talk to me at all and seems uninterested in any type of a relationship, guess I should move on. She noticed a man riding to her on a dirt bike. Even with out a scope she knew it to be Conner, remembering a saying her Dad had used she giggled, ”Dirt bikes makes big men look like a gorilla trying to screw a basketball.” Conner stop a few feet from her and said “you look good wearing a smile, where’s that phantom of yours ?” She shrugged and said “ I guess he’s out trying to get killed or scaring little children.” Conner sat beside her saying “ with all these trucks in great shape we decided they would be an asset to the Regulars. I assume he wont mind.” She didn’t reply so Conner kept the one sided conversation going. He said “ I been in the navy twenty four years, I’ve seen it all, but never anything like this.” He continued “ Do you know how many heart broke kids I have seen dragging their hearts back to base at the end of rope ? I have seen that look, even been there a few times.” She smiled but knew he was right and said “ what is it that drives you men ? I came back here because of him but he wont talk and stays gone for days, am I that bad looking or is he gay, you are a man explain it to me.” Conner’s laugh bellowed across the valley as he tried his best to explain “ May that man has been here a long time, he lives alone except for that dog, they don’t need to talk to convey their thoughts, body language is enough. Now there’s a beautiful girl in the picture, I would imagine he honestly doesn’t know what to say, he’s not a spring chicken and you’re a couple decades younger. She stuttered “ Hell I came back does he need a picture or a written invitation ?”
Conner was having a hard time keeping a straight face as he said “May give him some time, I would imagine he thinks you will run off after this war is over, most young hotties don’t go for us old grumps.” Conner stood up, handing her a radio he said “from that hill top over to the east it will reach our base if you ever need us just yell.” He patted her head and walked off whistling some song she knew was either a navy song or one that was directed at making fun of her.

She jumped into the saddle and headed home she rode the old road even though he had advised against it, as she neared the cross road she could see vehicles lining the road. She had seen them before, belonging to no one he had used an abandoned Bradley to pull them all here. He thought all of them just sitting there served as a message to others, she had even written a sign directly in front of the cross road. He put them here because there was no other way into the badlands from the Texas side besides this one old mining road. He didn’t seem to share her humor of him being a phantom, he shook his head as she wrote the sign. She tried several ideas before settling on this one. She sat and read the sign. To all who pass this way, if your heart is pure you may pass in safety but respect my home, if you wear a UN patch on your sleeve this will be your final resting place. It was signed Phantom of the Badlands.
She lay on a blanket in the morning sun, covered in sun tan oil and wearing a Bikini of Stars and Stripes, the dark oil magnified the muscles in her stomach and legs, she worked hard to keep them. She had told him of three UN scouts from her ride home, she could see them riding her way. She didn’t jump up to run when the sand rail stopped, taking a cold beer from a small cooler, and taking a few swallows she said in a happy mood “morning boys.” This place was called Devils Plate as it was a vast area of sand, perfectly flat with no features of any kind. The three men climbed out looking around as if expecting a surprise but you could see twenty miles in any direction, with the exception of Gimp and a rather large dog chewing on a bone there was nothing but sand. She noticed these men were Americans not Turks, ones name tag said Powell. Powell walked up placing his hand on the inside of her thigh, and saying “baby this is your lucky day.” She replied I guess you cant read or you are just stupid, that’s a UN patch on your arm.” Powell replied “the UN pays better plus I don’t put much stock in local legends about mad men roaming the hills.” Powell and his two friends laughed and he said “ I’m first do you have a preference on who’s second ?” She stared at him and said in a voice filled with contempt and a touch of sadness, “dead men don’t get far with me.” Powell stood up dropping his tactical belt the youngest of the three said “sir this isn’t right, we should leave.”

He rose up from the sand like a phoenix rising from the ashes, a Thompson sliding from a cloth bag, the three soldiers were unprepared for the sudden roar of the Tommy Gun, but it hit the sand in front of them. She stood up walking up to Powell she said, “the only reason your alive is fact there’s stars and stripes on your other sleeve, now be a real Americans and a real men, three days travel east is a New Mexico Regular’s camp go join them and take our country back.” She turned to walk away, Powell noticing how small the Bikini was, she stopped and said two more things, “first get your eyes off my ass, second if you decide not to go to join the Regulars, I hope you have made piece with God, because the Phantom is about to introduce you to him.” She walked off whistling and the three men saw a huge dog leading a horse, she stepped into the saddle and said “ don’t take too long, he gets impatient fast”, she then spun around and rode off.
He stared at the three men, his clothing was made by her to blend into the badlands, a hood covering his face seemed to not be made to protect his face but to hide some hideous malformation. Powell said “boys I guess we are joining a new army, I have no desire to die out here”, as they turned to leave he said to them “ leave your weapons and rip those patches off or you die here.” His tone left no doubt this wasn’t a topic of debate, the three men unloaded their weapons from the sand rail and dropped them and the UN patches to the ground. He said “when you get there ask for Conner and you better tell him the truth.”

She sat soaking in the tub, the water was warm, she thought I’ve lived in beautiful houses my whole life, why is it this hole in the middle of no where feels so much like home to me. Her mind went to happier days back in East Texas she wondered how her parents were, she hadn’t seen them since the UN troops gathered her and any students that could speak Chinese up and forced them into being translators. She wondered what her Dad would think of her living in a desert oasis with a man near his age, smiling she thought, Dad would love him I bet. She got out of the tub, drying off she noticed clean clothes on the stool, she didn’t know he was back. He had been gone several days. She picked up the clothes, it was a dress, very classy and black with small straps, there was also a bottle of perfume and a few other items girls tended to want or need. She slipped into the dress thinking well he has great taste, she brushed her long curly hair and looked into the mirror.
He sat at the table when she walked in, taking a second look he thought, this is one gorgeous woman, she was tall and weighed no more than Chea, he guessed about a hundred and thirty at the most. He could see the muscles under her dress as she walked to the stove picking up the pot of stew she had been cooking, she turned and asked “you hungry ?” He only nodded, they ate in silence till she finally “said, thank you for the dress, it was very sweet.” He again only nodded, he stood up and said jokingly “I hope you didn’t use all the hot water.” She sat at the door of the cave staring out into the dark when he came from his bath he said “I’m tired, I’m calling it a night,” as he turned and walked to his room.
She sat staring at him as he walked away and thought, does this idiot really need a picture or an invitation ? He lay under the covers reading a book he had read several times before, She knocked as he looked up. She stood with a rather perturbed look on her face as she handed him a sheet of paper, he looked at the paper and couldn’t help but chuckle. He read, I May request the pleasure of a roll in the hay, at the bottom was a drawing of two stick figures apparently involved. He looked up at her and pulled the covers back, she jumped in snuggling up close and said “its about time, I was afraid the invitation wouldn’t be enough so I added a picture.” She lay watching him as he traced a finger along her face, shivering at the touch. She wasn’t a school girl but for some reason she felt like one. He softly kissed her and in her mind it felt like there was an emptiness that seemed to pull her soul out. It was something she couldn’t resist, she fumbled for the light switch as she leaned into him. She actually wondered if he was really human, she had never felt that before, could he really take her soul or was it just lust.

She woke reaching over but he wasn’t there, hell she thought a morning kiss couldn’t have been that unpleasant. The thought crossed her mind, who is he, what is he ? He defiantly isn’t a simple man from a swamp in far east Texas. There was a force of will in him that defied normal reasoning. She had met many men in her life, some good some bad. He seemed to be neither good or bad, he just was. She walked to the kitchen, the door which lifted from the bottom was propped up, he sat just out side with Chea resting at his feet. She thought, well at least I kept him home today as she sat beside him taking hold of his arm and staring off to the east. She jokingly said “a penny for your thoughts, twenty bucks to act them out.”
Static from the radio Conner had given her cut short their quiet morning, she tried to respond but there were only garbled words, “we need to get to higher ground if we answer him,” she said. He returned in a few minutes with both horses saddles, they rode to the hill Conner had pointed out to her. She keyed up the radio saying, “Regulator camp this is Badlands UN Interceptor force.” The radio crackled a bit as Conner’s voice came back, “May the two of you need to get out of there and I mean now, we have learned the UN intends to bomb that area.” She started to respond but the radio only beeped and displayed low battery, looking towards him she said “I guess we leave.” He stared off to the east, he turned to her and said “no May you leave, I wont be pushed from my home, and before you argue you cant stay, I cant fight and worry about you.” May knew the horses were to slow to get out of the fight in time, it was why she didn’t argue the point.

She had her pack on as he gassed up the bike, “with out Chea to slow you down, you can make the base by late afternoon, I’ll be in touch once the batteries are charged.” He touched the tear sliding down her cheek, “now go” he said, watching her as she rode off he wanted to go with her, but he knew his horse couldn’t make the trip fast enough and he didn’t want to be caught out in the open. Chea stood beside him as he watched the bike fade into the shimmering heat waves. He thought to himself damn will this ever end, I’m to old for this.

He spent 4 hours working on the Bradley’s 50 bmg, if the UN bombers came it wouldn’t be a free pass, he hoped the tank would afford him some protection if they did bomb the area. He gathered all the ammo he could find for the heavy machine gun, he counted twenty thousand rounds. He sat in the shade of a tarp strung between two trucks, he listened for planes but he heard nothing but the wind, they were almost to him before he heard them, the Apache gun ships were quieter than he thought but he was expecting planes not choppers. They ignored the burnt out vehicles and made repeated runs firing rockets into the valley where the cabin had been destroyed a month ago. He peeked out not touching the sky ward facing .50 bmg as he didn’t want them to see it aimed in their direction just yet.
Two more choppers appeared both much larger, he didn’t know what they were. They both landed as soldiers poured out the back of them running into the valley. He watched as three of the four Apaches landed, one stayed in the air as cover he assumed. For a half of an hour he sat watching, sweat running into his eyes, the tank was like an oven by now, finally the last Apache landed. He sat watching as the soldiers went over plans, occasionally pointing in different directions. Now was the time, at only a hundred yards it would be a surprise to the troops, he pulled the lever back and aimed the machine gun towards the choppers. He knew he had to stop the Apaches from taking off, if just one of them could get into the air he was toast. He fired, the sound from the gun vibrated the Bradley, the armor piercing rounds ripping through the soft aluminum of the choppers, he started at the farthest one and moved down the line. Stopping long enough to reload he continued the lethal attack on the machines, not concerning him self with the troops, he could hear rifle rounds hitting the tank but he kept firing. He saw the rotors on the last Apache start to spin, as he reloaded the gun, he had to hurry, the other two heavy choppers were also starting but they had no rockets and he wasn’t concerned about them. The Apache lifted off only to be torn apart from the force of the .50 caliber rounds, it crashed back to earth like a large egg dropped from a kitchen counter. He concentrated his fire on the two heavy choppers both were smoking but neither went down as they headed South. He knew if they had to land it would be a long walk because in that direction was a lot of nothing. He let go of the handles on the machine gun, he could see the heat coming off the barrel, thinking I bet that ain’t good for them to fire that many times non stop.

May sat in an office with Conner and a radio man, they were in touch with a scouting party eighty miles to the east, she heard the voice come over the radio ”enemy has been engaged, two birds are away both are losing feathers, we are unable to see the other four.” Conner jumped up and shouted “that’s the way you kick ass, four out of six is damn fine shooting.” May’s heart sank as the voice crackled in the radio “Sir I see planes coming in, their making strafing runs” Conner shouted “strafing what !” May listened for the reply, “ Sir as near as we can see from here they are strafing the abandoned vehicles along the road.” the voice crackled again “Sir their dropping every thing on those old wrecks but the kitchen sink.”

May ran out running towards her bike, she heard Conner’s voice “Mike you stop her and I’m not bluffing.” She stopped short of the young seal, he said “please I really don’t want to deck you again, they still kid me from the last time.”
Conner came up and took her rifle, turning to Mike saying “ take her to my office and keep her there, I’ll be along shortly.” May sat rocking in an old wooden chair, rocking seemed to take the edge off a bit. Conner came in “the scout team is going to wait an hour and then go in to search for him, all I ask is enough time for that before you go running off like a love sick teen.” She only nodded never looking up but she continued to rock. Conner answered the radio as the scout team radioed in” Sir we found nothing, they seemed to be directing the attack at the three Bradleys on the end, no sign of survivors sir.” Conner hung his head turning he saw her standing there, ”I’m sorry May he might have ran out of luck, but if you want I’ll take you to help look.”

Conner and his seal team headed off in jeeps accompanied by May, he had promised he would go search for him. The land was harsh and rugged, it was a lot slower in jeeps than it had been on a bike, the trip took seven years or to May it seemed like that long. They stopped and made camp, no one seemed in a talkative mood even the young Mike was silent as they ate. Conner scanned the area after meeting with the scout team, the team had headed home as they had been out here over two weeks. Mike yelled “ Sir over here,” inside and around the last Bradley was thousands of spent rounds, Conner whispered “was there a body” Mike only shook his head. May’s nervousness only increased, she thought where is he, is he dead or hurt and cant get home, where’s Chea ? She thought as she turned towards Conner. She asked Conner “can we go to the cave he might be there and be hurt?” Conner agreed and they headed to El Gotto. Mike was the only one that had been there and he knew the way from here, May didn’t seem up to telling them which way to go. She searched the cave as Conner and his team searched the surrounding area, finding only the two horses, it worried Conner that Taz was still saddled. He brought her back to the cave where Mike took the saddle off,
She cooked breakfast for the team, after being in the desert it was nice to sleep in the coolness of the cave. Conner pushed his plate back and said “May I want you to come back with us, if he’s alive he will come for you, if not we need you, but you don’t need to stay here alone.” She only nodded trying her best to hold back tears. She thought as they rode towards home, it took me thirty three years to find the one man that could stir my soul and I only had him a few short months. She cried softly not wanting the others to see or hear her, Conner never looked around but sat like a captain at sea looking straight forward. Mike was driving he, glanced over at the toughest , meanest man he had ever known, damn he thought, the old dog has a heart as a tear appeared in the sailors eye, but Mike knew better than to mention it or let Conner know he had even seen it.
UN bombers bombed the badlands time after time, more for revenge perhaps than actually trying to kill him, surely no man could live thru that. May looked out the window to see a scout team coming home, they led Taz and Gimp, after Conner spoke to them he came to her and said the horses were found forty miles west of El Gotto and the team thought it best to bring them here as there’s no water there. May walked up to Taz she hugged her, the horse seemed content to allow this but soon was soon searching her pockets for a cookie. Gimp made no bones about it, he wanted no hugging only food, and he was persistent. She gave them water and oat meal as that was closet thing they had to feed, Mike said he would get feed in Taos in the morning when he was there for supplies.

She yelled at Mike, “can I come?” he nodded as she jumped in, it was early morning and she thought the drive would be a nice diversion from life at the base. Mike told her as they arrived at a small store, “ they supply us with all we need, if there’s any thing you need feel free.” She walked the store, things she might have loved a few years ago now held no interest to her, she got only deodorant and a hair brush. Mike was staring at a poster as she walked up, moving aside to allow her to read it. Her heart fluttered as she read the words aloud.
“ Join the Regulars and save our state and our country, don’t let the memory of the one who fought and died for us fade away with no meaning. God bless the USA , Texas and the Phantom of the Badlands.”

Water bubbled up from the artesian well, the same well he had redirected the creek from a month earlier. Chea sat like a Roman Centurion proudly doing his duty. If it were not for mans opposable thumb and the ability to solve complex problems he would not be at the top of the food chain. Every sense and physical trait Chea had was vastly superior to his masters, Chea was faster, he had better eye sight, hearing and smell. If he could only reason he and his kin would rule not man. The powerful dog had eleven days earlier half dragged him here. His master hurt and bleeding and almost deaf from the explosions that ripped apart the old trucks. He saw the planes coming and got as far from the Bradleys as he could before the bombing started. He left the Bradley after the duck shooting of the choppers, walking back to his horse the planes caught him off guard, he had no idea there would be both. UN planners had called the planes in as standby in case there was a larger force than the choppers could deal with. Chea had hunted for rabbits and lizards, anything he could catch, the dog brought his prey back sharing what little the badlands chose to give. Chea seemed to enjoy returning the favor of food and protection that he had been given in times past. His master sat looking towards the smoking trucks, he was feeling better, He had been off his feet for five days, the first two he was certain he wouldn’t make it. When Chea had helped him here his first task was to remove a large piece of metal that had pierced his leg. His only medical kit was a few bandages and his Gerber Multi Tool, which he used to pull the ragged fragment from his thigh.

He did not know but over half of the dwindling American air force in Texas was deployed in an effort to stop the terrorists that lived here, they had heard the rumors of a phantom but paid such things no mind. The military planners thought they were up against a large force. Conner’s teams were the main force the UN was fighting, the UN did not know they were based in New Mexico. His real contribution to the war effort was the fact he kept the UN scouts from relaying news back to their head quarters, with out satellite data there were thrown back into a WW TWO mind set, dependant on manned recon.
May read mission reports daily in a fading attempt to catch some thing that might tell her he still roamed the badlands, but she was coming to terms with knowing he would not come rescue her again. Conner never made any comments in front of her regarding him, and had threatened his teams with keel hauling if they did, most of the youngsters had no idea what a keel was but coming from Conner it had to be bad. Mike called to May on a cool Saturday morning, “we have a Turk, would you mind telling us what he’s babbling on about?” May dressed quickly, it was four AM when she arrived at Conner’s office, she saw a young man maybe twenty clutching a bottle of water and excitingly pleading for sanctuary. She said “Conner he wants sanctuary, he doesn’t want to fight only to go home.” Conner spoke, “tell him he should be in California with in a month, he can board a ship there for home.” The young soldier relaxed at that point and answered every question Conner posed. Conner stood up to leave the young soldier grabbed his arm. May and Mike had weapons drawn and at the head of the soldier in the blink of an eye, he released Conner’s arm apologizing, he only wanted to warn him. Conner looked at May and asked “warn me about what ?” May had trouble getting the words out at first, “there’s a devil out there, he hunts you in the dark, and eats your soul.” He told the story of something in the dark, you couldn’t see it. It came and destroyed things seemingly intent on making sure you could never leave. It isn’t human, its pure evil. It isn’t interested in just killing you, it wants you to suffer.
She walked out side unable or unwilling to talk to Conner, she was a soldier and always did as she was told. But she knew even if she asked Conner he wouldn’t let her go back. The badlands were the front lines in this war, if they could stop the UN here they were finished, as most of America was rising up. The UN had over two hundred and fifty thousand troops here, not realizing the American military would not stand with them but in fact switch sides. The UN wanted out but saw no way to leave with out becoming a useless force in the world probably being disbanded, they did like their power.

The war raged on, by September the UN had with drawn all support for the Police Action as they called it. China held on to Texas claiming it was their right as the USA owed them a lot of money.
Texas had decided they would not be subject to China and issued a statement, that said, we will fight until one of two things come to pass, we win or we die.” The Texan Militia started wearing a small patch on their sleeves, it was a cartoon figure of a masked man with word Phantom written across it. The Texan soldiers never admitted he was dead and even saying that usually started a ruckus. Special Ops teams from around the USA that had come here to fight for freedom. They wore masks in fights that displayed an evil skeleton looking face. The units became known as Phantom Soldiers, their training made them in some ways an actual depiction of the creature they respected. Most of these teams were Army SF teams and they personified perfection, giving no quarter to their enemy.

Large numbers of Chinese troops poured into Texas, many heading to the badlands. It was by now am entry point for food and weapons the Chinese desperately needed to close this door. The Chinese army did well in standard battles with tanks and planes, but here they did not seem to grasp a single man could have any effect on a large force. They were not trained to deal with hit and run tactics, that gave him the advantage, he strived to exploit it as it was the only one he had.

Conner was ninety nine percent sure the phantom no longer roamed the badlands in search of evil doers. Conner for some reason he couldn’t explain continued dropping supplies near the old cabin. Conner’s only reasoning was if by chance he was alive, he owed it to May. He never told May he left supplies, she had become used to the idea he was gone. If she knew she might try to go back and Conner couldn’t allow that.

He shivered, it was a cool morning, he could see one of Conner’s teams, they had camped for the night. It was clear they were on their way home as their supplies had dwindled away. They loaded up their sand rail, but before the last man got in he pulled a long tube from the rail and laid in gently on the ground. He broke his own rule about always waiting an hour but he opened the tube and to his surprise was a new .338 tactical. As was the usual case a hand written note, it read “in case your still alive you might need this.” The note was signed Drake Conner.
He now had his trusted Thompson Tommy gun for close encounters and the new .338 super magnum so he could reach out and touch the evil that poured in.

He had decided since he had lost his girl and his horses that dying was more of a release than a threat. He did not know that they still missed him or that all three were at the Regulars camp. It had been six weeks since the great chopper hunt and he thought May had probably moved on. The idea that a beautiful young woman would spend long missing him was alien to him. He had searched for a week looking for the horses but they were gone, they had ran as the bombing started. He felt bad thinking that they would have been terrified by the blasts.
He looked through the scope at four men on bikes as they were looking at the bombed trucks along the old road. He could see they were Chinese troops, he had gotten bitter concerning them. He aimed and fired, even at a thousand yards the amazing rifle was a tack driver, it ripped their bikes to pieces. He rarely aimed at the soldiers any more but preferred to leave them on foot, perhaps he wanted them to suffer a bit as he did. He tried his best to not dwell on the reason why. His tactics had changed dramatically, he used almost entirely old American Indian tactics. He was hopeful the Chinese knew little about them. Hiding under the sand was one of his favorites, he was very good at making him self invisible to them, only to spring up like some desert phantom to reek havoc on the surprised soldiers. The term phantom that once irritated him he now took as his own, and was determined to prove that a phantom couldn’t be stopped.

May sat at the mess hall sipping a diet coke, she frowned at the taste and thought, I don’t know why I try to look good, no ones here to look at me like a hungry bear. She had her choice of any man she wanted but unknown to her probably none of the men here entertained that thought. She had recurring dreams of him standing alone in the badlands, beside him was the ever faithful Chea. A lone figure in a waste land where no man wants to live. His wanting to stay and defend a home in that god forsaken land was a subject she couldn’t grasp. The thought of him being alone played heavily on her mind, even though he was a loner by nature. She often thought that fact bothered her more than it would have him. The thought crossed her mind, did he even miss her or had that one night been simply a conquest to a man that seemed to always win.

She avoided the young Mike, not because he wasn’t friendly or nice. She saw in the beautiful blue eyes of the young sailor the same fire that she saw in his eyes. Many times as she closed her eyes she saw his deep blue eyes, she could not look into the same blue eyes of Mike. Conner had given her a heavy load to keep up with, he depended on her. He knew that her being busy kept her mind off things better left alone for now, there would be time for grief but this wasn’t the it.

He stared out into the night, it was the only day of the year he felt loneliness, it was Christmas day. In the valley in front of him he could see the Chinese troops but took no action towards them. He could not bring him self to kill a man on this day, he simply went home. He spent the day playing fetch with Chea, who seemed to love the attention. Holding a small silver medallion that hung from his neck, a gift from his mother, “merry Christmas Mom” he said.

Far to the west Conner’s group celebrated the day as well. May played the role of an elf, handing out presents and Conner served as old St. Nick, he seemed to fit the part even. The town of Taos had donated gifts to the camp, they were not expensive or fancy. It was all they had to give and the men and women of the camps were happy with the tokens of friendship. Conner sat proudly smoking his new pipe. He motioned for May, as she walked up he gave her a small box and said “ it’s not much little one.” She eagerly ripped the crudely wrapped package open, looking like a five year old to Conner. She took out a navy medal, looking at it she thought I cant take this. Conner smiled and said” I won that in a war long ago, no one I’ve ever known has deserved the navy cross more than you.” Conner and May sat late into the night talking of things they looked forward to when Texas was again free. She laughed when he said he wanted to buy a boat and sail the seas with his wife. She patted his shoulder as he got quiet at the mention of his wife. He had married her while he was on his first leave, she was still he thought a hottie like May but just a tad older than her. Conner said “and your plans little one?” May stared blankly, she really hadn’t considered that, she replied “I’m not sure what I want to do.” Conner didn’t say more as he knew he had made her think of things that were hard for her.

In the darkness before dawn in the badlands, the thunderous roar of a .338 drifted across the sand and rugged rocks. Chinese soldiers ran out of their tents half dressed to man the guns, but no more shots were heard. He often fired a round towards them just to tick them off, but this shot had a purpose other than irritating them. He looked over the scope at the flames that burned out in the night like a beacon, he hoped the troops would investigate. He watched the troops drive through the desert to where the fire that burned earlier was only black smoke by now. They were cautious as they neared but in the devils plate not seeing anything they parked in a large circle around the burning truck.
He had spent the nights before preparing a trap for these trespassers who had played into his hands. Unknown to them there were claymores buried under the sand in three circles around the burnt truck. The two outer rings faced towards the truck, as claymores only fired towards the front. He had placed the third ring facing out so as to catch the soldiers in a crossfire of death. He had learned from an army manual the mines could be detonated not only by trip wires but also with electric detonators as well. He had placed over a hundred of them in the three circles, he had no training so he was unsure how many he needed. He decided more is better, he might not get a second chance if his trap failed. He watched as the soldiers looked the site over, they decided it was not worth the effort to remain in the scorching sun. He was hidden under the sand when he turned the hand device to detonate the mines. He knew he was immune to the deadly shrapnel that flew through the air ripping flesh and destroying trucks. He however had not understood the principle of tectonics. The concussion from the detonation of so many mines at such a close proximity was unexpected. The soldiers could not have been in better position for his trap, the first ring was directly under their trucks. The second ring fired towards the men walking around the truck at the same time the inner ring fired outward towards the trucks. He rose from the sand and scanned the trucks, several had been over turned in the blast, all were on fire or smoking. He walked through surveying his work, he felt happy his trap had been a success but at the same time, he was bothered by the fact he could feel no remorse. No one lived, not even one, he counted the dead becoming more unsettled with each body. He stopped at forty six and just sat down, he didn’t feel well he wasn’t sure it was from the death he had just caused or the blast concussion. He wiped the sweat from his face noticing a trace of blood. He pulled a small mirror from his pack to look for a cut but to his surprise it came from his right ear. He knew now that being under ground and setting off mines was unwise, his hearing was diminished for several days. After returning home he sat in a tub of warm water wondering what kind of damage he was doing to him self by these attacks.

May knelt down picking a small purple flower, it was the only one and was the first one of the spring. Her night mares of him in the desert alone were mostly gone, they only cursed her on those nights when she was too tired to sleep. She didn’t look the same any more, still a beauty by any standard but there was a air of separation she gave off, few people even tried to carry on a conversation. She stayed alone any time she was off duty, in her mind she was sharing with him. Conner had all but adopted the girl, he had no hesitation yelling at her, she even enjoyed it in some way. She often shook her head up and down smiling when he tried, he would just grunt and walk off cursing, “damn women don’t belong in this mans navy.”
She walked up to Mike and a team that had just returned, Mike seemed to be hiding something but was unwilling to share his prize. She thought it no business of hers and went to the mess hall. She ran into Conner coming out, she started to speak but he only held a finger up and moved towards Mike. She stood watching as Mike showed him something he had in a bag, she saw Conner look towards her. Conner walked towards his office he looked over towards her and said “in my office.” She didn’t know what was going on but his tone was unusual for him. She sat in front of his desk, she could see his mind was troubled. He looked up as he said “May I look at you like my own daughter, Mike wanted to keep this from you.” She looked puzzled as the big sailor continued “you have the right to know, I can’t keep it from you little one.” He handed her the cloth bag. She couldn’t stop the tears as she hugged the strange cloth she had removed from the bag. She sat on her cot, thoughts raced through her head. Her hopes had been whittled away to near nothing, she wanted to quit and go home or go any where but here. She jumped as the clock beeped, it was time to go to work, she stood up and carefully laid out the mask she had made for him. She might not have been as bothered by its discovery had it not been for the blood she saw on the right side.

He watched as a large group of soldiers moved through the grave yard of trucks along the old mine road. They always slowed but he had never seen them actually stop and get out to look. He could see several dirt bikes in the back of their trucks. These men were dressed differently than the ones that had come before, they looked more determined. He followed them to determine what their intentions were. He peered through the scope as they sat up camp in the valley he had blown the entrance shut not that long ago. He wondered why here, surely they had heard of that attack by now. The men unloaded their equipment and that’s when he noticed their weapons. They carried some type of bolt action rifles, he couldn’t see what kind at this range, but he knew they were snipers or some type of special forces. He frowned and spoke to Chea, “we had better be on our toes hound.”
He watched them over the next several days, he couldn’t establish any kind of pattern to their movements, he could before but these guys were different. They stretched netting around their camp, its only purpose was to obscure peoples vision, he couldn’t see them. He stared through his scope, it was barely seven in the morning, it was time to take action. They seemed to ride in pairs, probably a shooter and a spotter, he really wasn’t sure yet. Two set out that early morning riding north towards the wrecked trucks, but they went up the valley instead of going to the old mine road. He watched as they were looking over the cabin that been destroyed by the Apache, then to his surprise they went up the hill. Damn he thought as he watched, they were actually looking at the very spot he was when he shot the SKS to get their attention. He muttered “these guys are good.” They scanned the ridge with binoculars, he figured they were looking for him or another of his hiding places. He decided it was time, he put the cross hairs on the one with the rifle and squeezed. The .338 roared, the sound echoed through the ravines and ridges. He reacquired the two men and one was down the other was out of his sight. He didn’t try to get a better vantage point, he normally would have but these weren’t regular guys and he knew sooner or later the man would need to reach his water. “Chea watch our backs boy” he said and the dog went to the edge of the ridge staring back down the other side. He noticed a hat moving, he smiled and thought, that only worked in the movies. He wasn’t about to shoot until he had a clear target, he wasn’t going to give up his advantage by shooting at hats. The sun was brutal that day, he sipped water from canteen, that man has been without water for six hours, he had to go for it soon. He noticed a tiny movement off to the left, there was his target, trying to get to his bike. He looked towards Chea who sat watching but gave him no reason to suspect any thing from his back. The man slowly crawled to the bike as he watched, he was waiting on the man to screw up. He whispered “come on guy just give me a shot.” He lay with his finger on the trigger and he saw the hand reach for the canteen, he could see just the top of his back. He had no clear shot but thought if he shot through the gas tank on the bike he would be dead on. He didn’t like blind shooting but this was a necessity this time, as he squeezed the trigger. He saw a cloud come up from behind the bike and assumed it was gas, he watched for an hour but the hand never moved. He slowly crawled back from the ridge collecting Chea as he made a large circle in order to see the man. It took him almost an hour to make his way to where he could see his target, and to his relief he had not missed. Wonder if this will tick them off bad now that two of their group is now dead he wondered.
He was again in his hiding place as the sun rose, he saw them loading their gear up along with the two bodies. He counted the bikes, there were four as before but he could only make out eight men. He was sure there had been nine but decided that if they rode in teams of two that he had miscounted. He really hadn’t paid close enough attention this time and that bothered him. He decided he was wrong over the next several days as things went back to normal.

He sat alone watching dust rise to the east, there was traffic on the old mine road. He thought it was more troops coming to check on the men since they had lost contact with them after his trap. He held a detonator, it was wired to claymores along the road, he had placed over forty of them. There were twenty mines on each side roughly thirty feet apart, they were wired to all go off at one time. He waited until the first truck passed an old dead mesquite tree and hit the switch. He still was surprised at the force those things delivered, the four trucks were caught between the mines as they went off. He used this tactic because it had worked in the Indian wars, the Apache commonly used the same tactic but had they only had claymores instead of arrows. He rose to his feet feeling a burning sensation then the report of a rifle seconds later. He knew what had happened, he was now the hunted not the hunter. Damn it he thought, I knew they were nine men in that group, nice trap they set and I fell in it.
Chea ran beside him as he headed for the safety of the cave, but they had figured out the area he called home. He dropped into a group of sage brush as two planes streaked over his head, he saw them make several passes into El Gotto dropping bombs. He whispered to Chea “we need to find a new home hound.” He thought if I live long enough to need a home, his neck hurt and blood had soaked his clothes to almost his knee. The sniper had him on the right side, the bullet had passed through and not hit anything important. He did his best to wrap it, he wanted to stop the bleeding mainly because he was leaving a trail. He couldn’t afford to stay still long, he didn’t know where the sniper was or if he was following him. He knew he couldn’t face his unseen enemy with only the Tommy gun, he had left the .338 in a dug out before leaving to stop the trucks. He told Chea “get my rifle” Chea tried to get the Tommy gun from beside him. “No in the dug out, go get it boy” he said again, not sure the dog understood. Chea seemingly getting the grasp of it was off and running. He thought damn that dog is smart, as long as he doesn’t bring back a can of Alpo I might make it. He pulled him self to his feet and headed to the devils plate, at least he could hide there and he knew Chea would find him. He lay covered in sand, completely unseen, unless his new enemy had seen him bury him self he was safe for a while. He lay waiting, his mind wondered to May, was she ok, had she found another and found happiness as well. His emotions rose and he was angry, these soldiers had taken every thing, the woman that often clouded his mind, his home, his horses and his blood. He knew he couldn’t stay buried for ever, and he was sure darkness wouldn’t be much cover as the white sand make him easy to be seen.
The sniper lay watching the desert sand, having followed the blood trail to the flat sands. He could not see the phantom out there but he knew he was there, the wind blew strong covering his tracks. The sniper wanted one more shot, he had been upset his first had missed, he had problems with a cold shot even in sniper school. He was dead on his second shot but that first shot always seemed to be off a tad, but he had no intention of missing again. The half a million bounty was his and he wasn’t leaving with out the phantom’s head. He walked across the sand scanning every thing, there was no need to crawl as a body was obvious out here. Stopping every few yards he knelt down, both to make his silhouette smaller and to search for blood. He was a jungle fighter and didn’t like this place, he could see no blood as the wind and moving sand seemed to be more of an enemy than the phantom. Looking as far as he could see in any direction there was nothing but ripples, moving across the sand looking like waves on a lake. Covered in sand the reluctant phantom could see his new enemy, only fifty feet away but with him facing his direction he dared not raise up. The sniper reeled and fired, what the hell is he shooting at he thought. He felt the blood rush as he heard a yelp. He rose from the sand, the Tommy gun firing even before the cloth cover came off, the sniper turning firing as well. He emptied the drum but kept the trigger down maybe hoping one more round might come out. He slipped the new drum in and carefully walked towards the sniper, but it was clear this man wasn’t a threat any longer. He turned his head slowly looking for Chea, his heart sank as he saw his best friend and protector laying on the white sand.
He knelt beside Chea, gently rubbing his head, thinking I cant go on with out you, I cant do this alone. He slung the Tommy gun and the .338 Chea had carried by the handle of the soft case. Picking up his friend he turned back towards the sniper, thinking being a good shot doesn’t help if your careless. He thought lesson learned, he would not make this mistake again. Walking towards the artesian spring his mind wondered, he was tired and hurting, carrying a hundred and thirty pound dog plus being shot was near impossible. He said out loud “I wont leave you buddy even if I die out here with you.” He walked slowly tripping once but he never dropped Chea, who only whimpered once, his shoulder ached and his vision blurred the world began to spin but he would not stop. The thought of dropping his load and making it to the spring alone was an idea he never entertained. He carefully washed the blood from his dogs side, seeing it had hit his left front shoulder and broken the bone. He wished May was here to fix him but it was up to him. The bone had split along its length, so he did what any carpenter would have done. He took the stainless safety wire and wrapped it around the bone once it was back in place. He hoped the wire would hold the bone together until it healed, he then stitched the incision closed. He laid down beside his huge friend saying ”I bet it don’t even leave a scar.” The dog amazed him, after being carried several miles and being cut on he never barked or flinched, he hurt as well but decided he could wait till morning, as the dark had crept in.

Chea ran and grabbed the stick and brought it to him, he didn’t even have a limp, the break being healed now as well as his own wound. The Santa Anna winds were blowing in, he knew it was September now, May had been gone almost a year now, “damn I miss her” he said and looked west towards Mexico.

May sat looking out across the camp as Conner walked up, “you hear the news” he asked. She shook her head as he spoke, “it seems the Turks have offered a five hundred thousand dollar bounty on the head of the phantom.” He patted her on the head which she grumbled about, probably why he did it she thought. He sat down saying “strange things happen in the badlands.” He told her of trucks and equipment being taken and destroyed, it seemed there was a war raging out there no one could explain. He told her that to the best of the teams ability to find out over seventy vehicles had been lost, the death toll was a far greater number, but most died from the badlands not from the war. She looked at him and said,
“ your honest opinion, do you think he’s still out there?” Conner sat for a bit “I really don’t know little one but there’s something strange out there.” She looked back towards the east and said “either he is or there’s a real phantom out there,” She leaned her head on to his shoulder, a tear ran down her cheek “I miss him, its been a year, why do I still hurt ?” Conner put his arm around her and said ”if he’s out there you can bet your ass he’s looking west right now.”

Sitting alone on a ridge he watched as the armored vehicles lumbered along the mine road. He was certain his claymore trick wouldn’t work on these things. Knowing his only options were to remain out of sight or wait on the men to emerge from their rolling fortress. He followed them to the point where they made camp, they parked trucks in a circle and strung netting. He couldn’t see them and didn’t like the fact they were probably plotting against him.
It was dusk and wind blew softly but it had an intense hot bite to it, it cooled off fast after sun went down. He had no intentions of allowing them to enjoy the cool of night, he would see to it they stayed awake and had no rest. Several times through the night the sound of the .338 echoed across the valley, it seemed odd to him, they never once returned fire or to even acknowledge his shots. In his mind he knew, these guys were getting smarter, and were probably brought in just to combat his techniques. Knowing full well it was only a matter of time before he ran into the one that was smarter or faster than he was. These men were young and strong, well adapted to the harsh life of a soldier, superior to him in all but one way, this was his sandbox not theirs.
Three long days and he had not seen a single man emerge from the camp, but he could at times catch a glimpse of a reflection, perhaps a scope or binoculars. He cursed himself, I’m the one getting rattled it seems not them, he decided he would change his tactics. There was no way he was going to attack them which he figured was there goal. His actions would have been odd at the very least to a soldier, he left, he didn’t bother them or shoot any where around them. He was fully aware of fact he had the resources to out last them, he wouldn’t be drawn into a fight he couldn’t win.
Nine days passed, he spent the days relaxing and spending time with only thing he had left, Chea. He often checked on them in the dark of early morning but never approached them or let them know he was or had been there. If they wanted to play mind games he was up to the task, this was his home and he knew how to enjoy the simple things the desert gave to ones that asked.
He looked through the scope carefully aiming, as he softly squeezed the trigger. Chea had beat him to his prize, this was Chea’s only weakness, he did love his deer meat. He dressed the deer and buried the remains, as he shouldered the load he scanned the area before setting out for home. He looked to Chea and said “go look around boy”, as Chea headed off on his patrol. His shot probably would get no response from the men still camped but it seemed smart to have Chea look around just in case.
He sat and ate with Chea who was obviously as near to heaven as a dog could get, he thought he would take a nap before going to check on his squatters in the next valley. Chea nuzzled him, he awoke but didn’t move, he looked intently at the dog, he trusted the dog and wanted to see to the reason he was woken up. He saw no concern in the dogs face, but he was certain the dog was bored and wanted to go, so he gathered his stuff and the two headed off into the darkness.
Sitting staring at the circle of armored trucks he could see no movement and could hear no sounds coming from the camp. Nine days is a long time to stay huddled down out here, water and food is limited by the storage area of truck you drive. One hundred and twenty degrees puts a strain on the body and mind, they had to be getting tired and frustrated, there was no way they could have much supplies left. He watched Chea’s face as he looked towards the trucks, the dog seemed unconcerned as if they had left or were no threat.

He watched Conner’s team as they camped for the night, he never approached them, but these men had something he wanted. Tom Parcel a young track star from Bryant Texas stood up from the scouting party and moved off to the brush. He had joined the Regulars as he felt it was the right thing to do, he didn’t like the idea of people running his state. He squatted down to take care of his morning business, not concerned about the possibility that there may be someone out here. He whistled softly and stopped suddenly, the hair on back of his neck standing up, standing in front of him was one hundred and thirty pounds of growling dog. “Damn” he muttered as the two stared at each other, looking to his side where his .45 lay but he knew in this position he couldn’t get to the pistol before this massive dog could get him. The dog walked slowly forward but he had stopped growling, the young man now only a foot from the animals face dared not to move. To his shock the dog dropped something at his feet and backed up and sat down as if to say I’m waiting. Tom reached slowly for the small folded paper and read the words, I need a infra red scope, and I need it now, and your word that you saw or heard nothing out here, it was sighed the phantom. The youngster quickly finished his task, even though he was nervous doing it in front of the dog, hurrying back to camp he looked for the FLIR the team carried. He took care so the others didn’t notice him getting it, he had no intention of saying anything about his visitor, slipping quietly back into the brush. Chea sat patiently waiting on him as he walked up, he knelt down and placed the scope on the ground in front of Chea, the dog grabbed the case and was gone into the brush before Tom could even blink.
The Phantom sat watching as Chea ran up with the prize, he patted the dog and they turned and slipped away into the early morning darkness. He sat watching the circle of trucks looking through the scope, it picked up heat, even if the men were hidden from view their body heat could be seen. He removed the scope from his eyes, he didn’t understand, there was no one there, or their heat image was hidden. Now he was bothered, not understanding was dangerous to him, he could not afford to make a mistake now. His only thought was the men had booby trapped the trucks and left, but he was puzzled how they left the valley without him or Chea noticing, but he had no intention of ever going to the trucks to find out.

“Lets go Chea” he whispered as he turned quietly to leave, if the men were hidden they could just sit there and suffer from the heat. He would not now or ever approach the trucks, he crawled over the small ridge before standing so they could not see him, if there was any one even there. The deafening roar of machine guns broke the morning silence, they were coming from every where, dirt blew up from the ground as he dropped among the rocks. He pulled Chea close to him and hoped they didn’t hit him, damn who are these guys he thought. He instantly knew his mistake, he never scanned the area around the trucks first, the men weren’t at the trucks, it was a decoy. His only saving grace was the fact from his position the gunners could not see him, but he was pinned down and could not leave his hiding place. They now had every advantage, his options were slim to none, he laid his mind racing, what do I do. He looked at Chea, and without hesitating he rubbed dogs head “Chea run boy” he said very sternly and the dog took off, he raised the tommy gun up and fired till the drum was empty. Surprisingly none of the gunners saw the dog, if they did they paid him no mind, they were focused on the five hundred thousand dollars they knew was now theirs. He was certain this was the end, he gave Chea the only gift he had to give his best friend, his life, there was no need for Chea to die out here. He smiled at the sight of the dog sprinting over the rocks, he looked back on his life with him. He had turned into a great friend over the years, and had never let him down, the thought of him living made his situation seem better. He was tired and the constant fighting wore on him body and mind, he in a way wanted this to end. His only decision now was did he just wait on them to come get him or did he take it to them. He had one drum for the tommy gun and three magazines for the Walther, not much ammo to take on machine guns.
Chea sat watching the event unfold, he had not went far, unknown to the Phantom the dog had no intention of leaving his master. Hiding in the small crevice he tried to see his enemy but they were well hidden, they didn’t seem eager to reveal their positions. Damn he thought, at least let me take one with me, as a drop of water hit his hand. He looked up and smiled, great now its going to rain, after 5 years it rains on my last day alive. He sat huddled in the pouring rain, it was cold and shown no sign of letting up, he thought about trying to sneak out hidden in the rain. Raising his head up soon made it clear that was not a good idea, as the guns strafed his make shift fort. He had decided they would have to come and get him, that gave him the best odds for taking as many out as he could, so he sat quietly in the rain waiting on their move.
The soldier looked towards the Phantoms hiding place knowing the money was theirs, a movement in the shadows caught his attention. He turned and stared but there was nothing there to see, as he turned back to his target he saw only a flash of white. The soldier screamed for help but his comrades were to far from him, the others yelled into their radios trying to decide what was going on. Two approached their comrade’s position and stared in shock, their friend was dead, he had been torn to pieces. They stood not sure what had happened as the screams of another echoed through the valley, before they could reach him a third was screaming. The terror was getting to them, they were tired and had almost given up on the reward. The leader radioed the rest to meet them at the truck, they stood looking towards the ridge, one finally said it, “do you think it’s the Phantom?” They sat trying to decide their next move, unsure of what was happening, one man sitting next to the netting started screaming as the rest jumped up, he was being dragged through the netting, by a force they couldn’t see. The men just stared, they could see clearly the man was dragged into the dark, there was no one dragging him, it was as if a invisible force took him away.
The other men piled into the trucks, they had made their decision, they were leaving, four were dead and they couldn’t see anyone to shoot at, perhaps this Phantom was more than a story.

He peeked up as he heard the sound of an engine, he looked puzzled as he watched the trucks speed away, bouncing across the rough ground. He stood up and walked down to the camp, looking around he saw they left everything, they packed nothing. What’s wrong with these idiots he thought, they had me, all they had to do was wait. He tensed hearing a sound behind him, thinking to himself, you numb nuts, you fell for this one. Turning slowly he wanted to find a target before firing, he had no intention of giving up, this would not be a free ride for them. A smile came over his face and he shook his head, there sat Chea wagging his tail, he was covered in blood, this time it had been him to serve the role of the Phantom.

Conner walked up to the mess hall door and peered inside, he could see the lone figure sitting against the far wall. May as usual sat alone, he wished she would talk to the others, its not good to keep things inside. “May come with me” he said as he turned and walked back to his office, where six men sat chained together. Conner wanted her translating abilities again, she had been a great asset to his team for just that reason. Walking along he spoke “these guys speak English a little but their story is confusing.” She stood listening to the soldiers story as they rattled on and made gestures, she had an odd look on her face, Conner noticed the look. She walked outside accompanied by Mike and Conner, she retold their story. They were trying to capture the Phantom but after about two weeks things went bad. They thought they had him cornered and were going to wait him out but the Devil came for them. Conner looked and said “say what”, “how do they know it was the Devil?” May continued her story, it seems the shadows came and carried four of them away, but even when they were dragged away there was no one dragging them. They claimed that there’s some kind of evil force out there kills at will and cant be seen. Mike asked “you believe this ?” Conner only shook his head and replied “more like the heat got them”. Conner watched as May walked away, her head down, obviously in deep thought, he wanted to make her feel better but he had no words.

He looked across the arid land, it was October it was starting to get cold at night, he hadn’t seen a soldier in a week, nothing but tumble weeds passed by. Chea was sunning in the early morning, he seemed fine from his ordeal, he smiled at the dog thinking he needed to end this soon he couldn’t bare the thought of losing all he had left. He wondered through his domain, it was a lot different now, it was littered with remnants of war, even his home was now gone. He had re done a dug out that now served as home, he didn’t like it but Chea didn’t seem to mind. He thought if its good enough for him its good enough for me. He noticed a single jeep coming down the road, he raised his rifle but didn’t fire. The jeep had two officers in it, there was a white flag blowing from the radio antenna. The jeep stopped on his side of the wrecked trucks, the two got out and set up a small table with three chairs. He watched puzzled, they sat down and one picked up a microphone and said “phantom we know you are here, please do us the honor of a face to face meeting, we are unarmed.” He looked at Chea “you see any thing ?” he asked Chea didn’t seem concerned. He walked down figuring it was a trap but he wanted this to end. The closest officer stood up and bowed, saying “please sit . This is Commander Leoh, he is the army’s high commander. He sat but the Tommy gun was off safety and switched to full auto, he was taking a big enough chance as it were. He looked towards Leoh and said “to what do I owe the pleasure of the Chinese Commanders visit ?” The first man translated for Leoh saying, “ I wish to honor a true warrior , in our custom a defeated army’s commander makes a gift of his sword to the victor.” The older Leoh stood up, handing the sword out with both hands, he took it from him looking towards the translator. The man spoke, you are a true hero to your people, this war is over, we shall go home. Commander Leoh spoke as the translator listened, then he turned and said “ the commander wishes to invite you to one day visit him at his home, it is considered a great honor.” He stared at Leoh, but felt no anger, it was over, the man had shown him respect and offered him a precious item. He replied “one day sir, it would be an honor.” He smiled as the two drove off, thinking they lost and had the balls to admit it with no excuses, that’s a fine character of a soldier.
He packed his remaining belongings into a vehicle, he guessed it was left for him, as it was new and sitting where the table had been set up. It was a long drive to the swamps of Caddo lake but one he looked forward too. He drove slowly past the wrecked trucks and stopped and looked at the sign May had painted, thinking I wonder where she is now. He turned onto a high way headed east, as he drove he saw Chinese troops loaded in trucks headed south, he guessed to board ships for home. Looking over to Chea he said “we made it hound, lets go home.”

May noticed occasionally reports came through referring to strange things that happened in the badlands, but there was never any proof or an credible eye witness. She did her job and did it well, but she didn’t socialize, with others. She had dinner with Conner every Saturday night at his insistence.
May sat reading reports and heard yelling, grabbing her rifle she went outside running in to Mike. He shouted “its over May, the Chinese have left Texas.” She was stunned, she knew now that it was time to go home, the thought of that with out him felt wrong. Conner came by the next day telling her he was giving her one of the UN’s version of a HumVee and a farmer gave her a small horse trailer. She loaded the horses up and her belongings, as she started the truck Conner walked up and said “ you have no idea how badly I want to see my family, but I cant go without looking one more time.” She smiled as the entire team loaded in, Conner said they would drop the others off in Fort Worth at the Naval Air Station and that he would ride with her to Leonard where his wife and sons would meet him. She had hopes but they had dimmed over the past months, but those collapsed as they entered El Gatto. The cave where she had once for a few short months been happy was gone, a bomb had hit directly in front, even twenty feet of rock was no match for that force. The cave was nothing but rubble, she stood unable to speak, she was again lost just as she had been when he rescued her. She sat on the truck bumper just staring off into the desert, Looking towards Conner she said “there no real chance is there ?“ Conner only shook his head, he didn’t have any words to ease her heart. She sat looking off for over an hour as Conner and the team did their search, he was a man of his word.

Mike had the team load up his weapons stash as he thought it was fair for May to keep them, he saw no need in letting them rust away. Mike and the team sat waiting as Conner walked up to May he said “ I have no words little one, but I think he would want you to be happy.” Conner hugger her and said lets go home. She only nodded as Conner opened the truck door she climbed in, they pointed the trucks east and left the badlands in the past.

They drove along seeing the wrecked trucks Conner stopped as she said “wait please.” She walked up to the sign placing her hand over the name phantom, Conner walked up and said “we can take the sign little one if you want it.” She looked at him, seeing only compassion she shook her head and said “it belongs here with him I have the part of him I need, just not the part I want.” They drove along the old mine road, Conner was amazed at the damage one lone man could cause, he thought maybe he really was a supernatural phantom, he sure wasn’t a normal man.

May hopped from the truck as base personal were holding back a mob of reporters, one reporter asked if they had five minutes for a press interview. The team stood and answered the many questions the press hurled at them. May and Conner stood up to leave as one reporter yelled I have questions about the phantom, May turned to face the man. The man said “were you the phantom’s lover ?” She raised her hand as Conner and Mike both moved forward probably she thought to kick this guys butt. She stared at the man who became very uncomfortable as he now was facing not just her but a rather upset team. May said after an awkward silence “ no I was not.” Conner looked at Mike as he was confused.

He sat in a small café near Caddo Lake, he and Chea were almost home. He had to admit this hamburger was good, it was his first in five years, he ordered two, one for Chea as well. He noticed several men involved in a heated discussion in the corner, as they watched the news. He turned his attention to the TV, the sight of May caught his attention, he walked towards the group as to hear her words. He walked up to hear her answer the reporters question, the thought ran through his mind, I guess I don’t need to go look for her now, he and Conner had both taken her answer in the wrong way. He dropped a silver quarter on the counter, as most people preferred silver these days. He picked up Chea’s food and walked to his truck, he was only thirty miles from home. He drove along not in a hurry, smiling as Chea made short work of the burger and seemed disappointed there was only one. Turning the last corner on the main street he could see the water, it was the most beautiful thing he had seen in months.

He parked beside a small bait shop, he walked to the waters edge and stared off into the swamp. His thoughts toyed with him, why did she say no, as a shadow came up to him he turned. The old man that ran the bait shop stood there and stared, he smiled and said “ I knew you would come home, no one leaves the swamp for long.” He had known the old man since he was a child, they shook hands and sat down and talked for an hour. The old man called grumpy went on to tell him that his house boat was right where he left it and his boat was in the boat house.
“hope its ok, I have used your boat a bit ?” Grumpy said.
“its fine.” He stood patting the man shoulder.
He dropped his last bag into the boat as Chea jumped in, he looked at Grumpy.
“thank you for watching my stuff.”
Grumpy nodded and said “that’s the least I could do for the phantom.”
Looking up at the old man he smiled and said “I’m no hero Grumpy, just a tired man who wants to fish off his porch.”
Grumpy was always talking, maybe too much but he didn’t mean any harm.
“ when are you going to bring that honey of yours home ?” Grumpy asked.
“I’m not Grumpy, she doesn’t want me, plus its for the best I suppose.” he answered, as he fired the boat up and headed into the swamp.
He was sensitive to questions concerning her and with the roar of the motor he didn’t hear Grumpy’s last few words.

He idled through the maze of Cypress trees for an hour as he moved into a small clearing there sat his home. He bought it fifteen years ago as a weekend place but decided he wanted to live there and did till things went bad.
He sat stretched out watching the warm waters of the swamp, Chea seemed happy to be home as he had went swimming a dozen times.
He spent the following days doing as little as possible, he went to the bait shop a few times, it was nice to see his friends. He politely declined when they asked him to be the mayor, stating the reason as he disliked politicians. After lengthy discussions he finally agreed to act as the sheriff until they could have an election and vote one in. He wasn’t concerned as nothing ever happened here.

Grumpy’s boat pulled up and he stepped out and said in rather stern tone, “I need to show you something, since you can be a tad dense give me your word you will watch it all.”
“you have it, but if there’s naked men on here, I’m throwing you to the gaters.” He reached and took the video camera from Grumpy. He watched as the news story came on, seeing May he stopped it, “Grumpy why ?” he asked.
“so the word of the phantom holds no meaning I guess ?” He frowned and answered. Grumpy started his boat and left him sitting there still holding the camera.
He pushed the play button, his word meant a lot to him, as he heard her say again “no I was not” he wanted to throw the camera but he had given his word so again he pushed play. Mays face came back on the tiny screen, and she finished her answer, he had not heard it all. May stared at the reporter and said “no I was not.” she paused a few seconds and said “ I am now and will always be his.”

Conner hugged and shook hands with each member of his team at the base, their families were waiting for them, it was a joyous time, even May felt good at seeing their families rejoined, if watching it bothered her she never let it show. Her and Conner pulled out onto the interstate, she knew in a little over an hour she would be home. Conner would see his wife and two sons, it had been almost four years.
She turned onto the farm road that led to her house, feeling butter flies at the thought, the old farm house came into view as she rounded the last curve. It looked exactly like it had the day she left, and seemed to call out to her “welcome home.” She jumped down running around the truck only to run into her Mom and Dad. She couldn’t hold back the tears any more as her Mom stroked her hair and said my baby. May’s Mom didn’t want to let go as if she feared her daughter would again vanish.
“Finally we are a family again.” her dad said as he gently touched her cheek.
“you folks should be proud, she served her country well.” Conner said as he stepped down from the truck and hugged May.
May heard a voice behind her “ Drake Conner, I leave you alone for a few years and you find a new model.”
Conner stared almost not believing what he was seeing, there was his wife of twenty seven years. Standing beside her were two of the most handsome young sailors he had ever seen, he grabbed her up as the boys joined in.

May’s Mom cooked dinner and they ate out side, it was a nice evening and every one enjoyed it. Conner bragged on May and they shared some of the stories of the last few years, but May never mentioned the phantom. May woke at seven and went down for coffee as Conner and her Dad were loading his things into his car, he walked up to May and hugged her.
“if I had a daughter I would want her to be just like you“, he stammered a bit and said “your always welcome in my home child.” “if you ever need me I’m here, I love you old man.” May whispered as she hugged the crusty old sailor.
May stood watching as Conner and his family drove away, she was happy for him.
“so much pain for a person so young to carry.” Conner said to his wife as he turned back to look one more time, the house no longer in sight.
Conner’s wife drove and he leaned back enjoying the ride, almost asleep.
“Dad did you really know the phantom ?” his younger son asked, leaning up over the seat.
“yes I did, he was one of the finest men I have ever known, I will miss him.” Conner answered, smiling at his son.
Conner was surprised at how far the legend had spread, the boy explained there was a story on the news about him as well. Conner awoke as they pulled into his drive.
“man its nice to see this place again, I’m not leaving the yard for a month.” he said smiling at his wife.
Conner walked out in the back yard and laid down on the grass, just happy to be home, his wife came and sat beside him.
“ you realize you have four years of loving to make up, I suggest we start now.” she teased.
“yes Sir .” Conner said, quickly helping her up, tuning toward the house when he saw his young son.
“Dad this was in the mail box for you.” he said as he handed the envelope to his dad.
Conner took the envelope and didn’t miss the wink he got. He chuckled as he glanced down at the envelope thinking his young son was growing up. Hell, he thought. He was grown, he’d missed four years of his life.
Conner opened the letter as they walked towards the house. His wife stopped and glanced back when she noticed he was not beside her.
“What is it husband” she asked.
Conner pulled a silver cigarette case from the envelope.
“I’ll be Damned.” he whispered.

May sat on the back porch watching the horses play, they appeared to love rolling in grass again. She closed her eyes and saw a lone figure standing in the desert, at his side his friend and protector, the thought of him still roaming the badlands haunted her but she had no answers for this problem. Was he alive or dead? She honestly believed either way he would still be out there some where, still alone. She thought of Chea, she smiled thinking of the dog playing fetch with her. Her smile faded as he came into her thoughts, he had been so gentle but at the same time she had never known such power. Was he even real or had it just been a twisted dream. She had nothing but a few weapons to prove he had ever walked this earth. She instinctively jumped at the sound.
“would you mind running to the store hon,” Her mother hollered from the back porch.
“Sure mom.” she answered.
May drove into town and as she pulled to a stop in front of the main store, she noticed two rather drunk men making rude comments to a couple of ladies as they entered the store. May walked on by into the store, it seemed almost normal to her, but something seemed out of place. She quickly gathered the items her mom needed, paid and with an anxious feeling hurried on back outside. As she walked out, the two men tried to flirt with her. She ignored them, and didn’t respond to their comments. The closest one patted her butt as she stepped past him.
His friend laughed hysterically at seeing her knock him down, without ever missing a step.

“ Do you think she will be ok ?” May’s mom asked as she stood beside her husband watching May sitting in the back yard talking to the horses.
“in time, in time.” May’s Dad responded.
May answered the door surprised at seeing the young man she had knocked down at the store the day before.
“what do you want ?” She questioned.
“I want to kiss and make up.” The man said, obviously still drunk or drunk again.
He grabbed May and threw her into the yard. He picked her up and raised his hand to hit her, still mad because she’d embarrassed him in front of his buddy. The blow never materialized because he stopped when he heard the devilish sound from behind him. Turning slowly he saw what had to be the biggest and meanest dog he had ever seen, and the dog didn’t seem happy.
May stared at Chea, unable to speak, then she heard a voice.
“I’m not going to rescue your skinny ass no more missy.”
She turned slowly, expecting nothing to be there, she thought it was only her mind playing tricks on her, but there stood James holding out a piece of paper. She took it, still in shock and looked at it. Written were the words, I James want a rematch in the hay rolling. “Chea escort this man off my property.” She said over her shoulder to the faithful dog as she grabbed James and squeezed as hard as she could.
““what’s going on here?” May’s dad bellowed as he appeared at the front door with a shotgun in his hands.
“Dad its ok. I’d like you to meet my new husband to be, if he will have me”
James reached out to shake hands with her dad.
“Dad, I’d like to introduce you too James, The Phantom of The Badlands”