Story Market Day

ComCamGuy

ComCamGuy

Remote Paramedical pain in the ass
At the hide site deep in some thickets, they arranged themselves in a circle, all three facing outward with their feet touching. This would let them alert one another with the least amount of movement. They had too few people to keep a constant watch and yet get some rest. Instead, they were relying on the axiom taught to Kara and learned by Zed. Predators, both two-legged and four-legged, will follow the path of least resistance. The harder or more unpleasant it is to go somewhere, the less likely it is for them to go there.

Once everyone woke up, they took some time to eat a quick meal, take care of bodily functions, and pack sleeping bags and bivy sacks. Time to move out and find the camp.

Being careful required them to move slow and deliberate. The terrain was rugged, hampering it as well. To keep everyone fresh, they did a single file leapfrog technique. The lead would move forwards two to three hundred meters, then the second and third would pass them and number two would take the lead and the overtaken one falls in at the end. In this way they traveled parallel to the trail left by the raiders.

Angelique was in the lead when she smelled something different. It brought her up short. She called the others up to her.

When Zed and Kara got to her, she pointed at her nose and then pointed ahead of her and made a wispy rising motion with her other hand in front of her face. She mouthed the word ‘Smoke’.

Now hypervigilance was paramount. They needed to find any sentries, trip lines, game cameras, and remote cameras, anything that could alert the camp. Zed took the lead as they moved around the perimeter of the camp. He was looking for a good place to move forward and lay eyes on the camp.

Halfway around, they found the road into the camp. It was a simple gravel single track leading back towards the direction of the smoke. Zed pulled out the pocket GPS and saved their location. It was time to pull back and look at the map. With this level of gravel road, it should be on their topo maps.
 
ComCamGuy

ComCamGuy

Remote Paramedical pain in the ass
“Looks like a hunting camp. Two structures at the time of this map. One road in and out. Several tight turns and such. If we have to bottle them up vehicular, we should be able to drop a tree or two, but not in a hurry since I don’t think anyone brought a chainsaw.” Kara offered.

They were looking at the topographical features, trying to find some good vantage points with decent escape routes. Finally, they found a couple promising points. They measured and calculated the bearings and waypoints. They could make it there before full dark. It would put them in overwatch off of the lines of travel.

Data, Data, Data. They had to have data before anything else happens.
 
ComCamGuy

ComCamGuy

Remote Paramedical pain in the ass
Dusk found them in the tree line above a rocky outcropping. Below them was a small valley between two ridges. The original structures on the map were there. It was a small one story house and a large open-sided pole barn. The house was obviously occupied, with smoke rising from the chimney. There was a lot more activity, though. Two fifth-wheel campers were tucked under the pole barn. Lights showed in them, so they assumed they were occupied as well.

Three more, smaller campers were tucked in between the pole barn and the house. None of them currently had lights on in them. Many cars and trucks were scattered around the yard.

The easy part was done. They found the camp. The hard part was next. The long, boring watching without losing focus or getting caught.
 
ComCamGuy

ComCamGuy

Remote Paramedical pain in the ass
Days on a mound of rocks, looking at the border, trying to tell through the 1992 technology compressed gas cooled thermal imager whether that moving blob is people or animals. Can’t move around, two hour shifts on the watch and only three of you . After five days, you have every rock in sight named
 
ComCamGuy

ComCamGuy

Remote Paramedical pain in the ass
The weather was and was not friendly to them. Drizzly rain and snow made the static position less than pleasant but made it much less likely anyone would see or find them. The actual prone observation position had some overhead cover from tree limbs, augmented by some additional ones carefully placed. A bed of pine needles protected them from the cold rock underneath.

Just behind the edge, out of line of sight from the camp, a pair of small camouflaged tarps were strung up to create an isolated dry space big enough for two to sit up. This was where they compared notes. Each had a notebook with a compilation of all three sets of observations. This was to ensure if anything happened to any of them, as long as one made it back, they had the data.

To protect their home base from gaining too much data from anyone capturing one of the notebooks, each of them wrote their notes in something other than English. This was at Kara’s suggestion and something she did the last time she was scouting.

Kara wrote her notes in Norwegian, Angelique in Russian and Zed in Dutch. Unless they have a linguist down there, none are likely to be translated easily.

“So, I still have two groups of five out on patrol and twenty seven in camp. No new weapon types. Pink beanie is still doing morning chores, no change there. She still has the little one in green boots following with her. The old guy is still smoking on the porch with his morning coffee. Same people staying in the same trailers. No long guns being carried except by the patrols. Same basic twenty-four hour patrol duration.”

As Angelique gave turnover to Zed, he was taking notes rapidly.

“I think the big thing now is to keep an eye out for anyone who wanders away or near the edges of camp. I think it is time we need to talk to someone.”
 
Griz3752

Griz3752

Retired, practising Curmudgeon
ComCamGuy said:
Days on a mound of rocks, looking at the border, trying to tell through the 1992 technology compressed gas cooled thermal imager whether that moving blob is people or animals. Can’t move around, two hour shifts on the watch and only three of you . After five days, you have every rock in sight named
Click to expand...
You've been out way, way too long when you start baking them B'day cakes & such
 
ComCamGuy

ComCamGuy

Remote Paramedical pain in the ass
Griz3752 said:
You've been out way, way too long when you start baking them B'day cakes & such
Click to expand...

Plus side, the John Wayne cookie won't melt in the heat , either on a rock in the noon day desert sun, or a C-130 Crash and burn, which is the reason the wife would never eat them again
 
Sportsman

Sportsman

Veteran Member
I guess this group is going to be a kill or be killed option. But, many of them may be there against their will. Well see. Before long, I hope.
Thank you!
 
C

Chapulin

Veteran Member
Talking with them isn't necessarily in friendship but getting a more complete picture of their operation. Checking for hidden capabilities, reserve units and identifying leadership are standard elements.
 
O

Old Gray Mare

TB Fanatic
So can we please have the recipe for a John Wayne cookie?

I did get a recipe from a Desert Storm vet. Take packet of coffee creamer powder (probably from MRE). Put it in desert sun. Sun/heat will harden the creamer into a "cookie". Not sure if that is what is being referenced here?
 
ComCamGuy

ComCamGuy

Remote Paramedical pain in the ass
Old Gray Mare said:
So can we please have the recipe for a John Wayne cookie?

I did get a recipe from a Desert Storm vet. Take packet of coffee creamer powder (probably from MRE). Put it in desert sun. Sun/heat will harden the creamer into a "cookie". Not sure if that is what is being referenced here?
Click to expand...

the.chocolate covered cookie in the original MREs. My wife was photographing a C130 crash and burn in Mississippi in the dead of summer and after a week one of the things they found was one of the cookies still in its flame charred package. When opened, it was unblemished. She alway claimed they were the prototype or the leftovers from the space shuttle heat tiles
 
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ComCamGuy

ComCamGuy

Remote Paramedical pain in the ass
The reconnaissance group had been out about a week and a half when a radio message came in after dinner.

“ATC, Dawn 63. ATC, Dawn 63.” Angelique’s voice came over the radio.

Bekka was the closest to the radio.

“Dawn 63, ATC.”

“ATC. Need an Uber for two at the Qik-Y Mart.” Her voice was low and a little rushed.

Angelique’s message sent Bekka’s gears spinning down six different tracks. Need an Uber. That was their code for Allyson and Heidi to race down and scoop them up next to a road. She said Qik-Y Mart, which corresponded to a small pull out location on the map. They had at least a dozen identified scattered around the area they were operating in, all of them with names of convenience stores.

The part worrying Bekka was ‘Uber for two’. Where was the third person and who was staying behind?

“ATC, copy, Uber for two at the Qik-Y Mart. Wait one.”

Bekka stepped around the table over to the intercom on the wall.

“Allyson, Heidi, did you hear the radio?”

Garen’s voice came over the little speaker on the wall.

“They are getting dressed and hopping in the truck now. I’m going down and do the gate for them.”

Bekka heard the truck start up while Garen was talking,

“Garen, tell them to be careful. We don’t know what all is happening yet.”

“Got it.”

“ATC, Comm check.” Heidi’s voice came over the radio.

“Pelican 28, this is ATC, Comm check good. Cleared to taxi.” Bekka said.

Allyson’s voice was next over the radio.

“ATC, Pelican 28. Taxiing now.”

Bekka was writing notes now. She had to turn things over to Andrea. She had gear to prep. With a crew out, the next up as a rescue group was her and Garen. The Subaru was ready, but she needed to change clothes. Sweats and fuzzy slippers were not the right attire.

“Andrea.” Bekka half yelled.

Andrea came out of the spare bedroom, pulling a shirt on over her tank top.

“What’s up, Bekka?” Andrea walked over to the radio desk.

“Allyson and Heidi just launched, Garen and I are next up so I have to go get dressed.” The radio squawked again. Bekka and Andrea moved next to the radio.

“Pelican 28, on take-off roll.” Heidi’s voice was drowned out by the roar of the truck’s engine.

“Taxiway secure, Airfield secure.” Garen said over the radio a moment later.

Bekka picked up the mic and flipped a switch back over to the other frequency.

“Dawn 63, ATC.”

Angelique’s voice came back quiet and fairly calm.

“ATC, Dawn 63.”

“Pelican 28 Uber outbound to your location. Stay inside out of the weather as much as you need to. They will call when they get close.”

“Copy, we will stay dry.” The radio went dead in her hands.

Bekka wanted to know more, ask more, demand more information, but she knew she had to wait. One problem at a time. First get dressed for the next call.

“OK, Andrea. I’m going to go get changed. The radio is yours. Jesse is supposed to take over from me at midnight if I have to bolt, then you guys can rework the schedule from there.”

“You go, I got this.” Andrea said as she sat down at the desk.
 
ComCamGuy

ComCamGuy

Remote Paramedical pain in the ass
It was decided, they needed to grab someone. Zed brought some stuff to help with some subterfuge. The best target seemed to be the woman and little boy. They were always out and about at a set timeframe. The real trick would be grabbing both of them at once and getting far enough away to question her.

It was decided Kara would grab the woman and Angelique would grab the boy. Zed would be the lookout and the backup if anything went wrong.

In the end, it went a lot easier than they anticipated.

The little boy went around the side on one of the outbuilding. When he did, he saw the smiling happy face of a woman younger than Missy. She was squatted down so she was right at eye level to the little boy. She put a finger of one hand up in front of her lips in the universal ‘be quiet’ sign. Her other hand was gesturing and becoming him forward franticly.

Missy came around the corner of the shed on her way to check on the rabbits. Jeromy was running ahead as normal. He loved playing with the rabbits while she got the eggs from the chickens. Turning the corner, She saw someone she didn’t recognize knelt down with Jeromy.

“Hey! Who are you?” She was going to say more but she saw movement beside her out of the corner of her eye and, more importantly, felt what had to be a gun pressed into her body from the same side. A woman was speaking to her now.

“We need to talk. You need to be quiet for now. We are going to take a short walk so we won’t be disturbed. We won’t hurt you, and more importantly we won’t hurt him, as long as you are quiet and come with us. We take a walk, have a talk, then we let you and him go. You screw this up, a lot of people get hurt.”

Missy was scared shitless. The woman in front of her had knives and guns all over. She was now standing, holding Jeromy on her hip with one arm, making silly faces at him. Silly, that is, except for her eyes. Her eyes were unreadable. There was no warmth in those eyes. She was staring at her and the woman talking beside her.

“We got a deal? We take a little walk, have a little talk, and you and your Brother? Son? You come on back to the house, none the worse for wear. We got a deal? Yes or no?”

Missy nodded her head, yes. She had to. She couldn’t risk her son.
 
Griz3752

Griz3752

Retired, practising Curmudgeon
Cohickman said:
Me thinks that Missy will see a chance and sceedaddle with Jeromy with the help of the group. Now when they are discovered missing.......
Click to expand...
A high probability if she's w/ the ambushers under duress and possibly a high val Intel source but you're right; them missing will likely trigger something loud & violent. Hopefully their (the ambushers) just desserts and, final resolution.

Wait one .....
Message follows ......
 
ComCamGuy

ComCamGuy

Remote Paramedical pain in the ass
They traveled through the forest following no trail Missy could see, taking seemingly random turns every hundred yards or so. The one constant was Missy locked onto the sight of the woman in front of her carrying Jeromy. She knew the other woman was behind her, not that she could hear her at all. She just knew.

Finally they came to a clump of pine trees. The woman in the lead wormed her way through the interlacing branches, disappearing into the pines. Missy pushed in after her. She was surprised to see an older gentleman sitting behind a small camp stove with a cup heating on the flame.

Missy looked around quickly. Off to one side, deeper in the trees was the woman with her son. She was handing him a cup of something, while she squatted behind him.

“Good morning. I’m sorry we were so dramatic, but we need to speak and this seemed the best way.”

The man’s tone was pleasant and had a strange musical tone to his accent, like English wasn’t his first language.

“What do you want? Why did you kidnap me and my son?” Missy spat back, finally having someone to lash out at. The man seemed unphased by her outburst.

“I needed to ask some questions and didn’t want any more bloodshed until I had the facts.”

“What do you mean, more bloodshed?” Missy was confused now.

“Several days ago, members of your group fired on two vehicles down on the road, crashing one and killing my daughter and two granddaughters.” There was an acid to his tone now and a glare in his eye as he pulled several Polaroid pictures out of his pocket and handed them over to Missy.

Missy took them and looked at the three pictures. Three batter and bruised red-heads, Correction, three dead red-heads. The woman didn’t look much older than herself and the two little girls were maybe nine or ten. Oh God!

“I want to know why?” His words hung in the air as she looked at the pictures again and again. Finally, he held out his hand for the pictures back.

“We didn’t find anyone dead. We didn’t know!” Missy was trying to figure out how to explain…tried to come up with something…anything to say.

“You didn’t find anyone because we put them in my wife’s car, the one in front. My Son-in-Law had to drive his dying wife and children to us in a futile effort to save them, leaving my wife and my only grandson behind hiding in the woods hoping to not get caught before we could get here. You have patrols out hunting them right now.”

Missy tried to take all of this in. She had no idea!

“I ask again. Why did you kill my daughter and granddaughters?” There was iron in his voice now.

“We didn’t know! Billy said they must be the ones who killed our patrol! He said he recognized the vehicles from the cameras we had on the roads!” Missy blurted out.

“You didn’t think the fact you found nothing but woman’s and children’s clothes and a small amount of food odd? Instead, your group decided you had to track down any survivors. I guess that’s to eliminate any witnesses. Tell me why I shouldn’t let the rest of my group have the revenge they crave?”

“You can’t! We are innocent!” Missy practically screamed.

The older man held up the pictures again.

“As opposed to the evil demons my daughter and her kids were?”

Missy didn’t have a good answer for that.
 
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ComCamGuy

ComCamGuy

Remote Paramedical pain in the ass
“She isn’t denying they did it, Sir.”

The other woman who had been behind her spoke. Missy turned to look at her for the first time. She was tall. Even taller than the one carrying Jeromy. Where the one in front of her had a hard look to her eyes, this one seemed hard all over. She looked like she stepped off the set of Game of Thrones or Knightfall or one of those other medieval shows. Her pale features and bone white-blonde hair seemed to make her grey eyes even more piercing as they bore into her. Unconsciously, she stepped back as if struck a physical blow.


Missy thought it was good she didn’t see her prior to now. She might have run screaming away from her, and where would that leave Jeromy. How could she explain? What could she say to save her life? Jeromy’s life? She was staring into those eyes when the man behind her asked a question she didn’t catch.

“What was that?” She tore herself from those eyes to turn back to the man.

“I said, what happened to your patrol?”

Missy swallowed. She didn’t really feel like revisiting that memory but, did she have a choice? She began, haltingly.

“We have been sending out three person patrols for months now, just to keep an eye on the area. Well we had one of our regular groups patrolling north of here not report back in a couple weeks ago. When we sent out another patrol, they found them.”

Missy stopped. She could see the bodies again, how they were when they brought them back. She fought the urge to vomit. The man spoke again.

“OK, you found them. What happened?”

Missy started again, the bile and the anger rising.

“My Uncle was the leader of the patrol and two of his sons, my cousins were with him. All three were killed, stripped of their stuff and even their clothes. Shreds of them left lying in the middle of the field around their bodies.” She was seeing it again from the recovery team’s description.

“How were they killed?” The man asked, his weird accent more pronounced now.

Missy spoke through choked sobs.

“My cousins had their heads blown off. My Uncle, they tortured him. They stabbed him too many times to count. I don’t know how long he lasted, but they said he looked like a human pincushion.” Missy was crying now.

No one spoke for a few moments. Missy saw some looks pass among th dark-haired woman and the man. He also looked at the woman behind her. She couldn’t decipher what the looks meant, though.

The woman behind her spoke.

“Your Uncle was wearing a red flannel shirt under his denim jacket.”

Missy spun looking at the woman behind her, staring at that face. A face marked with a fury not there before.

“What do you know of it? Why did you do it?” Missy screamed.

“Your Uncle was a piece of shit! He got himself and his sons killed because they were trying to rape a woman and her fifteen-year-old sister!”

“Bullshit!” Missy was furious now and started to attack the woman. The woman easily swept her legs out from under her and pushed her down next to the camp stove.

The man spoke without moving.

“I don’t recommend you continue trying to attack her. We are just here to talk.”

“My uncle wouldn't do such a thing! I don’t know what that woman told you all, but he wouldn’t do it.” Missy was still looking up at the blond towering over her.

“He tried, and his sons were going to watch and help, otherwise they would be alive today.” The blonde’s voice was cold as a mountain stream and flat as a pond.

“I don’t believe you! That woman is lying!”

The blonde locked her gaze on Missy’s eyes. There was a strange emotion she couldn’t read now. Sadness? She saw the woman pull something from her pocket and toss it to her. Missy caught it. It was her uncle’s lighter.

“I’m not lying. It was my fifteen-year-old sister they were going to rape.”
 
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Texican

Texican

Live Free & Die Free.... God Freedom Country....
Well, it looks like this group does evil for the sake of doing evil.

ccg, is it not time to clean them out?

Texican....
 
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