The Gulf of Death Read online

  Bug Out! Texas Book 12

  The Gulf of Death

  Robert Boren

  South Bay Press

  Copyright © 2018 by Robert Boren.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed “Attention: Permissions Coordinator,” at the address below.

  Author/Publishing South Bay Press

  Publisher’s Note: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination. Locales and public names are sometimes used for atmospheric purposes. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, or to businesses, companies, events, institutions, or locales is completely coincidental.

  Book Layout ©2017 BookDesignTemplates.com

  Cover design: SelfPubBookCovers.com/Fantasyart

  Bug Out! Texas Book 12 – The Gulf of Death/ Robert Boren. – 1st ed.

  For Bob G.

  "I have not yet begun to fight."

  ― John Paul Jones

  Contents

  Previously – in Bug Out! Texas Book 11

  Fairground Lines

  Dockside Pick-Up

  Ferris Wheel

  It’s Like Dunkirk

  Permission

  Attack from the Perimeter

  Hostages

  Concussion

  Bree

  Citizen Navy

  Tight Groups

  Shadow Soldiers

  Awake

  Enemy Operations

  Training

  First Shipment

  Defectors

  Inlet Positions

  Executions

  New Command

  Back to Base

  Surveillance System

  Suicide Attacks

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Bushmaster

  Mobile

  Base Mayhem

  Quitting Time

  Dirty Diversion

  Wire Harness

  Battleship Memorial Park

  Dallas Exodus

  Gun Run

  Hearne

  Road Battles

  Radar

  South or West?

  Freeport

  The USS Alabama

  Prevailing Winds

  Hot Pockets

  Cast Of Characters

  Previously – in Bug Out! Texas Book 11

  The DPS Patrol Boaters were on the armed barge in the gulf, guarding the entrance to the waters around Galveston. Intelligence told them small enemy boats were rushing towards populated parts of the gulf coast with nuclear devices. EU Destroyers fired on the barge, everybody but Juan Carlos and Brendan having to abandon ship. The US Navy arrived to destroy the EU ships, and none of the small boats with nuclear weapons got through. The team made repairs to the barge, enough to get it back to dock. Contractors arrived to get the barge back into working order, and the team got hotel rooms in town. The US Navy left the gulf the next morning, racing to the mid-Atlantic and New England ports to stop an invasion of EU Navy ships. Many small enemy ships remained near the gulf, sitting in the Caribbean, biding their time.

  In Dallas, the battle raged, the enemy frantic knowing they were visible via the RFID apps. They fortified their positions, while repeatedly attacking patriot bases and field hospitals using lead shielded vans to hide their movements. Kitten continued working in the field hospital, which was running short of doctors. Chance contacted her, telling her the Fort Stockton team would be in Dallas shortly.

  The leadership bunkers in Austin were attacked by small vans carrying commando troops and explosives. They were not successful in taking out the leadership, but communications at Wallis and Gallagher’s bunker was knocked out. Nelson’s team feared the worst, but the rescue team saw that the cell antenna was destroyed during the explosion. They worked frantically to repair it while fighting off snipers. Wallis and Gallagher were found safe in their bunker.

  The Fort Stockton Group was heading to Dallas, a massive number of citizen recruits joining them along the way. They were attacked by a huge enemy force west of Dallas on I-20, and defeated them with help from the M-1 tanks and the multitude of new recruits from the east. The group made it to their new base in Bonton. Their numbers swelled as more citizen recruits arrived.

  Contractors working on the DPS barge said it was damaged by depleted uranium rounds, which the EU Navy has. They called in contractors to clean the radioactive contamination. The cleanup contractors arrived and made everybody leave the boat. This team of contractors were enemy plants, and they packed the barge full of explosives, but Richardson got wise. When the contractors realized this, a battle ensued, and all the dirty contractors except the leader were killed. The leader escaped in the DPS patrol boat, setting off the explosives with remote control. The blast injured Lita, and she was taken to the hospital. Her situation wasn’t life-threatening, and she recovered. The doctor told Richardson that Lita was pregnant, and that he should break it to her gently.

  General Hogan told Governor Nelson about a new RFID history program that was developed by one of Ivan’s people in California. They offered to share it with their Texas allies. The new program took snapshots every few minutes of where the RFID chips are for a selected area, with detailed counts, using it to populate a reporting display. It was useful to track motion, but the most important benefit was its ability to highlight when RFID chips disappeared, giving the patriots warning when the enemy was loading fighters into shielded vehicles. The program was given to the Fort Stockton Group, and used by the Leadership team as well.

  The history program was useful right away, showing the small numbers of Islamists who were disappearing from their base and re-appearing at the field hospitals and forward command posts in Dallas. Don and Sydney monitored it and noticed several groups of five-hundred enemy RFID chips disappearing. Their first thought was that the enemy would attack the Bonton base, so they warned Jason, who had a conference call with the leadership team. A drone was provided to look for the shielded trucks. Don’s team used it to find where the trucks were parked, waiting to take off with their deadly payload of enemy fighters. A few thousand more RFID chips disappeared at another location in Dallas, which the drone was also able to see. When the trucks finally got on the move, it became clear that most were going to the command post and field hospital in central Dallas, not Bonton. That area had a lot of civilian fighters and some SWAT teams, but not enough forces to hold off what was coming. The Fort Stockton leadership sent a team, led by Chance, who was worried about Kitten. Don’s team told the citizen recruits about the trucks, and they went into action, engaging them before they could get to their target, stopping some but not all. A huge battle started in central Dallas, Chance and his team getting there just in time. The patriots won the battle, but Don called, letting them know that a larger set of trucks was lining up to reload, and RFID chips were disappearing again.

  Chance, Francis, Dirk, and Cindy realized they’d have to get the hospital indoors in a hurry. The SWAT Team leader told them of a high-rise building nearby that would work, but it had been occupied by the enemy before the citizens chased them out. He warned about booby traps, which they’d found in other buildings occupied by the enemy. The team rushed to the high-rise and found a booby trap there. Francis figured out how to disable it, allowing the hospital to move in the nick of time.

  The next group of enemy fighters in shielded trucks arrived, and a battle started. Nationa
l Guard men had been busy before the battle, setting up mini-guns on the roofs, covering several of the critical streets in the area. They made a big difference when the enemy attacked, holding them at bay until the rest of the fighters from the Fort Stockton Group arrived. During the battle, Chance and the others lost contact with the Bonton base. They rushed back there to help.

  At the base, Don and Sydney’s team saw that a group of enemy fighters were loading up, heading for them. Then their cellphone service stopped, cutting them off from the internet, which shut everything down except the peer-to-peer short-range app. The group prepared for battle, passing the word manually since text messaging was down. The enemy attacked, but superior numbers plus the short-range app gave the Fort Stockton team a huge advantage. While the battle was raging, Curt and Amanda looked for the cell tower and found it attached to the high-tension wire towers that ran along the back of their base. Curt checked it out, finding that the power wire had been damaged. He fixed it, and the base was back online.

  The Texas Leadership Team was told divers found nuclear devices where the small enemy boats were sunk at various harbor entry points along the gulf coast, in both Texas and Louisiana. They rushed more patrol boats to the Texas harbors, and asked Richardson’s team to go on patrol the next morning, the main objective being to guard the harbor opening against small craft, since Houston was close to that waterway. Some fishing boats had been stolen from east of Texas on the gulf coast, and it was feared that they might be used to run nukes into the harbors. The patrol was uneventful at first, but then they noticed people on Bolivar Peninsula, which was a restricted area. Richardson used the PA system to talk to them. The people took cover and opened fire on the patrol boat. The patrol boat returned fire, killing them all. Richardson conferred with Wallis, who promised to send a commando team to Bolivar Peninsula. Things were quiet for a short time, and then more people on the bank arrived and opened fire on the Patrol Boat, forcing them back further in the inlet. Five Grady White fishing boats appeared, heading into the harbor at full speed. Richardson’s boat engaged them, but was at a disadvantage because the fishing boats were faster. Even with that, the patrol boat sank three of them. One of the surviving boats got past the patrol boat, the other one right behind them, trying for a clear shot to end the pursuit. They wounded Juan Carlos. Richardson took over the helm and chased the boat, which was heading for Houston, Brendan trying to take out the boat following them. Then Richardson was hit and dropped to the deck, still steering the boat as best he could on his knees, the enemy boat pulling away as Brendan continued to fire at the boat behind them.

  The Fort Stockton group attacked the enemy stronghold around the Dallas Fairgrounds with two teams, one led by Kelly and Junior, the other by Jason, Kyle, Eric, and Curt. The first part of the operation went well, with the teams taking out one building after another, using the apps as their guides, facing fierce resistance but winning with superior numbers, weapons, and tactics. The two teams linked up in front of the entrance to the Fairgrounds, and attacked the last two large buildings showing enemy RFID hits. They found that there were no live enemy fighters in these buildings – only enemy bodies. They destroyed the buildings to keep them from being used by the enemy, who were rapidly approaching on foot. One of the buildings was booby-trapped, and when it blew up, there were many patriots too close to the blast, Kelly and Brenda among them. As the Fort Stockton team tried to pull themselves together, a multitude of enemy fighters were on the way in a dead run…

  {1}

  Fairground Lines

  J unior ran towards the shattered building, searching for Kelly and Brenda, Rachel trying to catch up with him.

  “Junior, they’re dead!” Rachel yelled. “There’s thousands of enemy fighters running towards us from the fairgrounds. Your people need you.”

  Junior froze, turning around as she rushed to him. He was sobbing, tears dripping into his beard.

  “My God, I can’t take this,” Junior cried.

  “Stop it!” Rachel shouted. “Pull yourself together right now. You’ve got a child and a country to think about.”

  He stared at her for a moment, the look of resolve flashing over his face. “You’re right. I’m gonna go kill me some heathens.” He turned to rush away, but she grabbed his arm, stopping him.

  “Honey, you’re going to fight smart, and I’ll be with you every step of the way, so if you give it all up in sorrow, you’re taking me with you. Understand?”

  He looked at her silently, then nodded yes. “I know what to do. We’ll live to fight another day. I promise.”

  “That’s the man I love,” Rachel said. They ran back to their off-roader and got in. “I’ll reload the grenade launcher.”

  “Good, I’ll reload the machine gun.” He grabbed a fresh belt and fed it into the M60, then handed it back to Rachel as she finished with the grenade launcher.

  “Done,” she said.

  Junior nodded. “Hold on.” He started the engine and drove over to where Jason, Curt, Eric, and the others were.

  “Kelly?” Curt asked.

  “Gone,” Rachel said softly. “Brenda too.”

  “Oh God,” Jason said, trying hard not to break down.

  “Later, bro,” Eric said. “They’re only three hundred yards from us now, and coming fast. We’ll grieve later.”

  “Let them come out here,” Jason said, eyeing Eric and then the others. “They want to draw us into a trap, and they don’t have anything set up out here. Let’s bring up the rest of the citizens. We need to prevent them from escaping. Where are the rest of the off-roaders?”

  “The batch that was with us is reloading,” Curt said, nodding to the right. “Don’t know about the folks who were with Junior’s team.”

  “They’re coming,” Junior said. “Same thing, they’re reloading. Rachel and I just did that too. Are all of you ready to fight?”

  “Hell yeah,” Curt said. “This is for Kelly and Brenda.” He let out a war cry, Amanda looking at him, the goosebumps visible on her arms.

  “That’s right, let’s get our blood up!” shouted Kyle. The core group let out a roar, and then the multitude behind them gave a thunderous reply, startling Rachel, who turned and looked.

  “My God, there’s thousands and thousands of people behind us,” she whispered to Junior. He nodded, his eyes sad but full of grim purpose.

  Everybody got back into their vehicles or took up positions behind cover, waiting for the enemy line to show up, many of the team watching their apps, refreshing them every few seconds.

  “Two hundred fifty yards,” somebody yelled.

  Curt was watching his phone as Amanda checked her weapon. “Hey, we’ve got some of the enemy fighters fleeing to the northeast.”

  “They know we’re gonna beat them,” Amanda said. “We got anybody back there?”

  “Yeah, lots of citizens coming in from that direction,” he said. “Down East Grand and Barry Avenue. They were supposed to flood Haskell to keep the enemy from escaping when we hit them from 2nd Avenue. I’m gonna send out a broadcast text on this.”

  “Two hundred yards!” somebody shouted.

  “Is that shouting a good idea?” Amanda asked. “Makes it sound like we can see the enemy’s every move.”

  “They already know we can see them,” Curt said as he finished sending the text. “If they didn’t, we wouldn’t see lead-lined trucks.”

  “Oh, shit, you’re right.”

  “One hundred and fifty yards. Get ready!”

  There was a murmur rising from the patriots, and the sound of magazines being removed and replaced.

  “Come to papa,” Curt muttered, starting the engine on his off-roader. Others started their engines all around him, and he could hear the pounding of footsteps coming from the fairgrounds.

  “No vehicles,” Amanda said.

  “What?” Curt asked.

  “The enemy doesn’t have vehicles. Why not?”

  “We may see some yet,” he said. “You k
now this enemy. They’re full of surprises. We usually win, but it’s never easy, and it never goes exactly as expected.”

  “That’s already happened today.”

  Curt fought back tears, memories of Kelly and Brenda racing into his head. His grip tightened on the off-roader’s wheel.

  “Fifty yards and running!”

  A roar went up from the ranks of the patriots, and thousands of people fired, the noise rocking the area like thunder. The enemy opened fire at their positions as they rushed forward, trying to cross 2nd Avenue, finding themselves in a hail of patriot bullets. Most of the first wave were cut down by the lines of citizens before they could find cover. Some citizens were hit, others rushing in to shore up the lines, the gunfire going at a fever pitch.

  Curt and Amanda fired their weapons into the running mass of enemy fighters, grenades blowing them up ten or twelve at a time, the other off-roaders and armed vehicles joining in from behind 2nd Avenue.

  “The first wave didn’t go so well for them,” Amanda said as the gunfire slowed, bodies littering both sides of 2nd Avenue.

  “Went well enough for us,” Curt said, turning to look at his grenade launcher.

  Amanda touched his shoulder. “You’ve got three quarters of your grenade belt left, honey.”

  “Good. That second wave will be coming any second.” Gunfire started up again, this time from further back in the Fairgrounds. “Speak of the devil. They’re trying to lure us back there.”

  “Yeah, and don’t fall for it,” Amanda said. “Just checked the apps. They’ve got thousands of fighters just the other side of 1st Avenue, from Pennsylvania Avenue all the way to Parry Avenue.”

  “Hey, guys, hear me?” Junior asked over the conference call line.

  “Finally somebody remembered these Bluetooth headsets,” Amanda said. “What’s up, Junior?”

  “See the enemy on the other side of 1st Avenue?”