Them-2 Chapter 42

Chapter Forty Two– Near Pikeville, Kentucky

Tappy stood outside the small airport hanger with Colonel Grace in the misty morning sunlight. They watched as a C-130 floated down like a graceful bird and settled onto the glimmering runway. The aircraft was painted in camouflage pattern but stood out against the silvery worn asphalt. Within minutes the plane taxied and stopped about fifty yards from where they stood. The tail ramp lowered and a team of soldiers dressed in battle dress uniform and carrying a heavy load of equipment started unloading. One of the men detached himself from the others and casually walked over to them.
He placed his ruck sack on the ground and offered his hand. “Doctor Schmitt?”
“This is Colonel Grace.” Tappy pointed to Mike.
The man came to attention, saluted the Colonel and identified himself. “Major Stiehl, United States Army Rangers. We were sent here to support you on your mission. I have a full company with me.”
Tappy grinned. She knew very little about the military. Her father had been Army Special Operations Forces and her cousin was Air Force, but she had never delved into the mysterious world they lived in. She was aware that Rangers were elite troops, Paratroopers and Commandos or something like that.
“We have a section of the hanger here to work out of.” She pointed to the building behind her. “First thing we need to do is locate one of the ant nests or colonies. We can’t simply pick one ant at random. It is imperative that we know where its home is. I can imagine by now that the nests are spread a good distance apart, each claiming a wide territory around it as a buffer against other nests.”
“There are three more C-130’s coming in with the rest of the company. I’ll have my executive officer take charge of their landing and join you in the hanger.”
The interior of the small hanger was bustling. Although most of the people from the complex were out in the open, protected by a ring of Bradleys and old M113 Armored Personnel Carriers, there was still several dozen conducting business inside the hanger and smaller buildings.
Huck had taken a third of the population with him to locate the friendly forces in the Greenbriar State Forest and the military had located and brought in scores of steel shipping containers for protection in the unlikely event the ants breach the armored perimeter. They soon discovered Huck’s ulterior motive for moving them all to the airport. General McKensey had agreed to evacuate them all to a secure military base in Southern Florida where thousands of troops had off loaded from overseas bases. The tip of Florida had been completely secured from north of Miami across the peninsula to the everglades. The military was slowly moving up the peninsula to reclaim territory taken over by the ants. The final decision for their evacuation wasn’t made until after Huck left to find the children.
“Do you have enough fuel to fly a pattern around this area?” Tappy asked when they were standing around a small table inside the hanger.
“We have several CH-47F Chinook helicopters on their way to this site as we speak,” Major Stiehl replied. “They have additional fuel bladders that can be off loaded to supply plenty of fuel for area reconnaissance and they should be here by noon.”
“Good. As soon as they arrive we need to get into the air and look for ant nests. The closest one we can find to this area would be best. I know the pilots may be tired, but time is not on our side.”
For an hour Tappy and Colonel Grace explained what they would need in the way of military support. By the time they finished the Major was looking at them with renewed respect. “You’re going to physically go down into a nest of those monsters?”
“We have no other choice, Major,” Tappy shrugged. “Do you and your men have the capability to do it?”
“We’re Rangers,” he grinned. “Of course we can.”
Two hours later three CH-47F Chinooks landed on the grass just off the runway. The crew chiefs immediately started unloading the extra fuel bladders and moving them a safe distance from the helicopters. The pilots reported to Major Stiehl. The pilots insisted that they were not tired. All they wanted was some coffee, if it was available, and half an hour to go over the latest satellite maps of the area.
Tappy gave them an hour to rest while a Ranger Team went out to hunt for deer or some other wild animal to use as bait. They were unsuccessful. The ants had purged all animal life in the area. At Mike’s suggestion, they opened a dozen cans of tinned meat and saturated it with the formula then wrapped it in a sheet and placed it in a cooler. As hungry as the ants had to be, this would not be much but it would serve their needs just as well.
Soon, they were flying over the countryside surrounding the airport in a continually expanding circle. They decided to use two CH-47F helicopters. One flew out for twenty miles and started flying in a constantly shrinking circle back towards the airfield, while the crew of the third helicopter got some much needed rest. They would rotate and relieve one of the operational helicopters every two hours.
It took almost five hours to find the first nest. It was located approximately thirty miles from the airport and it was amazingly easy to spot from the helicopter. The anthill was at least two hundred feet tall and covered a good twenty acres. It stood out in stark contrast to the highway running parallel to it. There was no sign of activity around the nest.
“Can the pilot get us low enough to drop our bait?” Tappy asked Major Stiehl, having to yell over the whine of the helicopter rotors. The Major gave her a thumbs up and walked towards the cockpit. Within seconds the helicopter started to descend. When it was no more than twenty feet from the surface of the ant mound, Tappy handed the bundle to the crew chief who threw it over the tail ramp. It landed on the side of the mound and slid down the rubble hill for a few feet. The helicopter quickly climbed back to several hundred feet above the nest.
There was still no activity. Tappy hoped this was not an abandoned nest. She knew that occasionally ants would abandon a nest due to internal or external threats. “Any way we can disturb the nest to see if the ants are at home?” She asked the Major.
Once again, he went forward to check with the pilots. Seconds later they had backed off several thousand yards from the huge mound. A sudden tearing noise ripped through the helicopter and a geyser of dirt flew off one side of the nest. Even before the dirt had completely settled, the nest swarmed with hundreds of ants. In no time at all, the nest was  covered with the huge ugly monsters who fanned out in all directions looking for the nature of the threat.
The guard ants remained in place while the workers started repairing the minor damage to the huge mound. Tappy watched through a pair of binoculars as their package was picked up and carried into the nest.
“Package delivered.” Tappy waved to the Major. “Take us home.”
“What’s next?” Major Stiehl asked, as they landed back at the airport and the sound of the helicopter blades faded to into silence.
“Based on the time line from our experiments, it should take about twelve hours to completely infect the nest. Give the fungi another twenty-four hours to do its job and we should be able to go down into the nest and check out the results. Three days tops.”
“In the meantime, we’ll work on getting the people evacuated to Florida,” Major Stiehl remarked.
“That may be more difficult than you think, Major.” Tappy replied. He cast her an inquisitive stare, seeking an explanation.
“Most of the people here are military family members and the majority of their husbands, and some wives and mothers, are now on their way to the Greenbriar National
Forest to do battle with thousands of people under the influence of a lunatic. I’ve heard talk, lots of it. I don’t think they’re going to willingly relocate to some place hundreds of miles away while their loved ones are in harms way.”
“They’ll be much safer there and they’ve got to know that their loved ones will be concerned for their safety.”
“If this formula works as well as I hope it will, our problem with the ants will be over,” Tappy continued. “Of course there’ll be weeks, possibly months, of hunting down all the nests and destroying them. However, the majority of the people here are from this part of the country and I’ve heard them mentioned that they want to stay here and rebuild once the ants are gone and the religious fruitcake is taken care of. I’m certain there will be some who want to leave but very few.”
“You have a point, Doctor.”
Tappy continued. “You said you have a Company of Rangers here, Major? How many soldiers is that?”
“Company size usually depends on the mission. In this case I have four platoons, combined with other assets, a total of 162 personnel.”
“At most we will require no more than ten soldiers to descend into the nest. If the ants are dead, which I expect them to be, those men will only be needed to assist us in climbing down into and back out of the nest. Commander La Roche and the four hundred people with him are about to fight four or five thousand maniacs. They will have the help of a group of civilians living in the woods, but we don’t know their numbers or what kind of weapons they have available. Wouldn’t it be advisable to send some of your trained commandos down to help them?”
Major Stiehl thought about her recommendation. It made sense. “I have satellite communications with General McKensey. Let me run it across his desk, because our primary mission here is to support you and our secondary is to protect your people until they are evacuated. This is a major change.”
Tappy cocked an eyebrow and smiled. “No time like the present.”
Mike walked over to a table with coffee and sandwiches set out for the workers. He filled two cups and brought one back to Tappy. “Cream and one sugar,” he smiled. She politely took the steaming brew.
“I still can’t believe the President chose to put the safety and security of so many people at risk to save the lives of three.” Mike sipped his coffee. “I know it makes perfect sense to you because one of the three is your son. Don’t get upset, I’m happy he made that decision. I’m just curious as to why he made it, especially when it boiled down to just his daughter.”
“Some people believe the value of one life is equal to the value of a thousand or more,” Tappy stated. “As military personnel you live under a different code. You know that there will be casualties among your numbers and you learn to expect and accept them. But, how often do you hear of a squad or platoon of men risking all their lives to save the life of one or two wounded or pinned down by the enemy? I think the President values each life and is willing to sacrifice all for the sake of a few. I do not believe his daughter was a deciding factor.”
“I like the way you put it,” Mike smiled. “Instead of one sacrificing their life for the whole, the whole would sacrifice for the one. Sort of like live together or die together.”
Tappy nodded. “I believe that should be the ultimate goal of all humanity. I finally realized that when I witnessed what Commander La Roche said to his young gung-ho task force.”
Mike looked puzzled.
“A squad of soldiers started screaming that they were going to kick some fruitcake ass and blow all the nuts to hell,” Tappy continued. “Huck tore into them and told them they would do no such thing. He said their first goal as soldiers was to protect life and they would first try their best to reason with the misguided people. He said those people were fellow Americans, terrified Americans, who desperately wanted to survive. The fact that they had been brainwashed by a con artist made no difference. If they could save them without fighting them or killing too many of them, their job was to do exactly that. But, first and foremost, they deserved a chance to regain their lives and dignity.”
“Thank God we have leaders like Commander La Roche,” Mike whispered.
“Push come to shove I think you would have done the same,” Tappy smiled.
“Don’t give me too much credit. I may be a Colonel but I’ve never led men in life or death situations like Huck.”
“Rank has little to do with it. There are many corporals and sergeants who have had to lead desperate men in desperate struggles. It’s what’s inside that makes a great leader, not the stripes or brass.”
“Aren’t you the philosopher!”
“No. Those honest words were my dad’s, and he was far too often one of those desperate leaders.”
They turned as Major Stiehl rejoined them. “General gave me permission to send three Companies to join up with Commander La Roche. I’m to remain with you with one company.”
“Thank you Major,” Tappy nodded. “I know you are trained commandos and your primary job is to kick ass and take names, but could I pass on to you what Commander La Roche told his soldiers before they left?”
Major Stiehl looked puzzled again.