Read Online A Private War by Donald R. Franck - Free Book Online Page A

Handing the hot coffee to Gaylon, she unwrapped a candy bar, took a bite, and then passed it to Gaylon too. Gaylon looked up, smiled, and took a bite himself. In silence they enjoyed the sweet candy and they both wondered if they would ever taste such a beautiful thing again. Kate finished her coffee and taking Gaylon's empty cup, washed them out with snow and put them in her pack and the cooled pack stove back in Gaylon's. Then Gaylon helped Kate with her snow shoes and pack and reaching down tied on his own. Then with a little help, get on his own heavy pack frame. Checking the action on his M-4, as Kate checked her own, Gaylon started back on the trail to Austin. Reaching into her coat pocket, Kate pulled out a pair of sunglasses and put them on. The glare off the fresh snow was blinding and even with the sunglasses, Kate and Gaylon could hardly see and Gaylon was having an even harder time of it. Then Kate laughed as Gaylon pulled out a pair of clip-on sunglasses and put them on over his other pair. Leave it to Gaylon to think of that! But she was thankful as he pulled out another pair and handed them to Kate. A beautiful winter wonderland was revealed and every where she looked, it shone with a bright light and she knew that she would always remember this day.
    Four long days later, Gaylon studied the layout of the town of Austin through his glasses. Numerous watchtowers and machine gun emplacements ran around the side of the town that he could see. Whoever had set up the defense of the town had known what they were doing. He hoped that they would listen to what he had to say.. Touching Kate on the shoulder, he pointed to the patrol that was making it's way around the base of the hill. Standing up, he waved toward the men to get their attention without getting shot, then helped Kate to her feet. Reaching the bottom of the hill, Gaylon laid his gun near his feet and held his arms in the air and Kate did the same. The town's people would be uneasy seeing two strangers approach and Gaylon wasn't about to get shot by the very ones they had come to see. As the patrol got nearer, the team leader had some of his men check the back trail to see if there was anyone else around as he kept the two of them under his gun.
    "Who are you and what do you want?" the team leader asked, "and if you are looking for food, we can't help you."
    "I'm Gaylon Masters and this is Kate Johnson. We're from Redway and we're here to talk to your town leaders. There is something we need to show them. Also I have a letter from Captain Samuels of the Paramilitary for a guy named "Sgt John Peters", is that you?" Gaylon asked.
    "That's right, you said Samuels, small guy so tall?"
    "Well, he is smaller then King Kong, but not by much!"
    The smile said it all, "that's him all right, and how is the old bastard these days? It's been a long time since I saw him, since before… you know." He said as he pointed his gun down to the ground. Peters and his men were all dressed in white coveralls that blended into the snow covered landscape perfectly. They looked well trained.
    "He's doing ok, but he's had better days."
    "Yeah, I know how it goes so grab your guns and I'll take you into town to see the boss. But I'll tell you ahead of time that it's a waste of time, better to squeeze blood out of a rock. People have been pouring in since the war and we just don't have the resources to feed them all. The standing order is to turn everyone away, except some doctors and the like. But we don't have too many of those, we've had to fight the pirates more times then I care to think about. And we'll be hard pressed if they really attack in force."
    Then Peters signaled to his men and the party made it's way across an open field at the edge of town and uncovered a concealed field telephone. Peters gave a coded password and then told the towers they were coming back in with two extra then put the phone back under cover. Gaylon was impressed with all the security and told Kate