299 Days: The Visitors

Chapter 161 “Never Go Off to a War That You Don’t Have To” (July 3)

A couple of evenings later, Grant was at the Grange talking to people who had volunteered for various jobs.

Linda Rodriguez, the dispatcher, suddenly flew out of the little radio room. She ran out the door into the parking lot. A few seconds later, Chip was with her and the two of them were running toward Grant.

Chip started to yell to Grant, but caught himself so he wouldn’t cause everyone else alarm. He said to Grant, as calmly as possible, “You and I are needed.” Chip pointed to Grant’s AR leaning up against the wall and motioned for Grant to get it and come with him. Grant excused himself from the conversation and walked quickly over to his AR. Then he nonchalantly got his kit hanging in the coat closet. Whatever Chip needed him for, this wasn’t good.

Chip was trying to be calm so Grant took the hint and did the same. He knew there must be a good reason Chip was trying to underplay this. As great as Pierce Point was, there was one bad thing: rumors. People had nothing else to do but talk all day about things like this. Seeing Grant and Chip frantic, they would start rumors and speculate. They weren’t vicious like small town gossipers can be, but it wasn’t very helpful for people to be spreading wild rumors. This was just a fact of life out there.

It was getting dark outside. As they walked out, Grant asked, “Just you and me? Not the rest of the Team?”

“Yep,” Chip said softly. “Just us.”

Chip pointed toward a white Toyota pickup that Grant didn’t recognize. He got some keys out of his pocket and headed toward it. Chip got in. Apparently someone had donated a truck to the Grange guards. Grant got in, too. As they were leaving, a guy everyone called “Ro Mac,” who ran the night shift of the Grange guards, came by. He and Chip talked briefly about the shift change. Ro Mac could tell that Chip was in a hurry, but he didn’t know why. Grant continued to act like it was no big deal.

Chip said goodbye to Ro Mac and drove out of the Grange parking lot. He turned toward the cabin instead of toward the gate.

“What’s up?” Grant finally asked.

“Visitors on the beach,” Chip said.

Grant got chills. “Visitors” was a scary word.

“Good visitors or bad visitors?” Grant asked.

Chip didn’t smile like Grant had expected. “Depends on how you look at it,” he said. “Overall, good. But things out here just got a lot more serious.”

What the hell did that mean?

“Huh?” Grant asked.

Chip was speeding down the road toward the cabin. “You’ll see,” Chip said. “You’ll see. I don’t want to spoil the surprise. Besides, I don’t know all the details. Just that a code word was used.”

Chip stared down the road as he was speeding toward the water.

“What code word?” Grant asked.

“The ‘green team,’” Chip said softly. “That’s what Linda ran out and told me. Our visitors used that code word. Chief picked them up and they told him to radio that term to his headquarters.”

What in the world was going on? Grant had no idea.

“C’mon, man, tell me,” Grant said.

Chip was quiet. Finally he said, “If it’s a false alarm, I don’t want to spill the beans. I have been sworn to secrecy about something and I can’t break that. All I will tell you is that this is not a threat to Pierce Point. It is probably a big plus, but I made an oath to not tell a soul and I will keep it. Sorry, man.” Grant respected that.

Pretty soon, they pulled into the cabin area. Gideon was at the guard shack with Manda’s AK-74. He had agreed to be the night guard for Over Road. He didn’t have to do any jobs out there given his donation of the semi load of food, but he wanted to do something. He was a night owl so he didn’t mind the guard duty. Besides, Gideon was a former military policeman and knew how to guard. He was thankful that the Team had saved his life from the FC thugs and felt indebted to them. Grant arranged for the cabin next to the Team’s place to be used for night shift people. They could sleep during the day in the “night cabin,” as it was being called.

Gideon must have just started his night shift. Chip waved at him, parked the truck, and looked around, checking to see if anyone was watching them. Satisfied that no one was watching, Chip motioned for Grant to come with him. They went to Grant’s cabin and started to walk down the steps to the water. Chip took the lead. As he headed down the stairs, Chip did a press check of his AR. Grant did the same.

Before starting down the stairs, Chip said in a loud voice, “Chief and Green Team: coming down the stairs.” It was like he wanted the people on the beach to know he was coming to avoid a friendly fire incident.

“Roger,” he heard in a familiar voice.

Was it? No way. It couldn’t be.

Chip and Grant walked down to the beach, and in the dusk, saw Chief and Paul holding guns up to two men.

Chip asked, “That you, Green Team?”

“Roger, Chip,” the familiar voice said. “How ya been, brother?”

Oh my God. It was him. Grant was simultaneously elated and horrified. The stakes of the game just jumped. This was serious; it meant they were no longer just surviving out there. Grant always thought he’d probably get killed out there and now, seeing the visitors, he knew exactly how. Even if he lived, Grant knew his marriage was probably over, given who the visitors on the beach were. The love of his life would be cold to him for the rest of their lives, if she didn’t just leave him. He remembered his Grandpa’s words: “Never go off to a war that you don’t have to.”