Chapter Seven - "We've Been Sold a Rotten Bill of Goods"

The Best Laid Plans O'Mice and Men

Chapter Seven - "We've Been Sold a Rotten Bill of Goods"

Daytime was an uneasy time as the six knew that the closer the clock ticked to the time that the full moon rose into the sky, the danger grew. At least during the daylight hours, they knew where the threats were coming from and could see them clearly. With the approach of night, the darkness would swallow them up and they wouldn't be able to see well, whereas the vampires and the werewolves would be able to keenly see and smell where their opponents were. Mac had been in a firefight before at the embassy in Indonesia where a mob tried to storm the embassy after not liking the judiciary decision on a case where a Marine was accused of gross misconduct with a minor. And she knew that it was pretty much like that situation...however instead of an angry mob, it would be hordes of weres and vampires, all of whom had the capability to kill, severely wound or even worse turn them from human into something that they had nightmares thinking about.

Plans were made to replenish the foodstocks and stock the fridge so that they could withstand a siege. Tosh was the highest ranking officer in charge, Harm was next in seniority so the two had a conference with each other. "I think we need to put in an interior perimeter wall so that anyone who comes over the first one has to scale a second. That just might slow them down enough that we can get off a shot or two before they overwhelm us." Harm suggested.

"Good idea, Harm, but I don't think we have the time to build one before the moon rises at least this time around. We'll have to wait for sunrise and start construction then of our secondary perimeter. I think we should also have M134 7.62x51NATO emplacements along the perimeter. If we start chucking hot 7.62 in their general direction with the rate of fire at over 6000 rounds a minute, they might start thinking twice about trying to breach our wall." the vice-admiral replied nodding, however, a sign that he thought the suggestion from Harm was a good one, just that they didn't have time to do that before tonight's Full Moon.

"And quite a few of them are going to go down." Harm responded, "Tracer rounds."

"Negative. I don't want them to be able to see where the rounds are coming from. Use the barrel of your weapon to sight."

An initial wolf-howl that rent the air at around 1730hrs brought the officers the information that the transition had started. Despite the cold chill down the spine of the officers at the inhuman howl, the comforting feel of the M-16A3s in their hands, provided a sense of security. Phil and Mac took first patrol, well, Mac because she knew and prescouted the lay of the land so that they would be able to figure out exactly where the defences needed to be shored up. The weakest structure point of the fence was the security gate. Wrought iron, but still able to be ripped from the mounts, it was certainly easier to try to breach than scaling the walls. The fountain could be utilized as cover, just in case the vampires were smart enough to carry weapons themselves.

...and Phil, just plainly because he was insane and wanted to have something interesting to do.

"Sir, permission to back them up?" Kimber asked as she hefted her M-16 and glanced meaningfully towards the door that the other two had left.

"Granted...keep your eyes peeled."

"Aye-aye, sir." and with that Kimber headed for the door, rifle at the ready to go back up her friends.

Harm stated, "I know that this is dangerous, but we need to get an idea of the lay of the land beyond the perimeter during this full moon."

"Are you suggesting a LRRP, Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol? And exactly where?"

"Sir, might I suggest that we take a run down to the grocery store and see exactly what's going on, under the pretext of buying more food?"

Tosh was uneasy, but he knew that they needed more information. At least they were in civilian clothes and well, people did go hunting, even with military style weapons. "That might be a good idea...we could use the intel to our advantage, Meg. Harm" he said, looking over at her then over at Harm.

They exited the house...indicating to the three on point. "Hold the fort, we're going on recon to get some intel!"

"Aye sir!"

"Safeties on while in the car. Don't want to get perforated by 5.56 tonight."

"Aye, sir."

When they reached the grocery store, they found humans mingling with occult with no sign of hostility or aggression, other than the occasional worried stares at the weapons in the hands of the ones who just arrived, meaning them. Tosh and Harm took up positions. One by the rear of their car, one by the hood. There was tension in the air as the occult in the crowd and the officers sized each other up. But none of them made a move towards each other.

Meg headed into the store, her M-16 by her side as she went into get a few more items to stock the fridge with.

Meanwhile, outside, the humans were looking over at the officers outside, "Hey...you one of them gun-rights guys?" Tosh was sizing them up and gave them a stony glare. "Nice guns, man..." No response. "2nd Amendment rights, huh?"

When Meg came back out, the officers tensed, hands on their weapons as she cut a path, "Excuse me...thank you, Excuse me..." through a group of them. Not one raised a hand towards her. Whether it be vampire, werewolf, fairy or otherwise.

Witches were pretty much undetectable because they looked nothing like the ones in the Wizard of Oz, they looked pretty much like any other human on the street with nothing to give them away other than if you were to see them in the act of casting a spell. And Tosh wasn't about to go up to one of them and go, "Are you a good witch or a bad witch?" Yeah, that wouldn't go over well and he didn't want to be turned into a toad. Flies might be an alright source of protein, but it certainly wasn't something his gastronomical palate was inclined to sample. As Meg moved the car out to the road, Tosh and Harm walked backwards towards the road, their eyes not moving from the crowd, M-16s at the ready. Not a single one of crowd moved.

When Tosh got into the vehicle, he looked over at Harm and Meg silently for a long while as Meg drove them all back to the house and he finally spoke as Meg pulled up to the house. "Meg, Harm, I think the Pentagon sold us a spoiled bill of goods."

"Sir?"

"Form up...Listen up!" he stated as he got out of the car and the gate closed behind them as they stepped back onto friendly ground.

The women and men under his command assembled as he stood there with one hand holding his rifle and a contemplative look on his face as the green tinged moonlight cast a menacing glow on his head.

"Now, I'm just a beat up old combat veteran..." Tosh stated, "And maybe I've lost a few braincells in my day...whether it be at Olongapo during deployment or bashing my head against the canopy a couple times too many during a knife-fight in a phonebooth, but I can tell you this much, something doesn't add up here in the Pentagon's story."

"Sir?" the air of question was in the faces of those assembled looking back at him.

"What I can see here, is a Sanctuary. A place where occult go to get away from humans. They're not assembling here to conduct an all-out attack, they just want to live their own lives. The LRRP told me one thing. Nobody's out here to attack anybody, other than us. And that's not going to happen."

"When I took my oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, I didn't take it to promote speciesism; the superiority of humans over everyone else; the rights of humans over anyone else. The Constitution of the United States of America is supposed to protect everyone in the United States. When I took up my officer's oath in 1980, I promised to defend everyone, not just a select few. These people just want to live their lives and the government seems to think that they're a threat when all they want to do is send their kids to school, cook up a nice meal, and have a great day just like the rest of us. We've been sold a lie...and told to come here and stir up unrest. So that leaves us a choice, do we break our oaths to protect and defend the Constitution and the rights of these people to have a life or do we follow orders. That worked out really well in 1946 at Nuremburg."

"Go on inside...all of you, I don't think we have anything to fear from these people."