Chapter 29
Crawfordton
Since everyone was on precautionary high alert in Crawfordton, Patrick and Elijah took the opportunity to do some of their real farming. The beans at the Farm needed a lot of weeding. So they went into the shed and grabbed their hoes. Then they started doing the tedious physical job on the large planted area.
"This sucks," Patrick said.
"Who you tellin'? I do this all the time, so welcome to my damn world," Rata said. "Elijah just sits in the kitchen and plays chess and talks. Otherwise, his ass is on the couch."
"No! No! Look!" Patrick said.
Rata looked up. A large group of Hexmen was seen a klick to the north. "Aw, hell no! Here we go again! There must be a hundred of them! Get Bella and run to the Fort. I'll go tell Elijah at the House."
Rata ran to the Crawford's House and burst in uninvited. Phil came around the corner and into the doorway with his pistol pointing at Rata. "You know you really ought to. . ."
"They're coming!" Rata said, pointing and trying to catch his breath, "from the north!"
Hearing the commotion, Elijah and Jayden came into the room. then Amy and Ayanna followed. Ella and Lieutenant Kowalski came upstairs to see what was going on.
Phil told Jayden, "Gofinns are invading from the north."
"No! Rata said, "Hexmen!"
"What?!" Jayden said. He put his hands on the side of his head in a display of desperation. "Okay, okay, uh. . .Kowalski, go out back and ring the rally bell. Ella! Go downstairs and tell your Platoon to get outside in the front trench, then bring your sniper rifle up here. Everyone else take up arms! Hurry!"
Lt. Kowalski was walking to the back yard to the rally bell, when he noticed something in the woods behind the house. The reflection of a rifle scope. It was not their own guard. Then he saw another figure move. Kowalski kept moving as if he had not seen anything. He could be shot at any second. He walked in a wide angle to diminish suspicion and took a pee. . .
"Where's that bell?" Jayden said. He looked out the window, "What the. . .Dammit!" He tapped on the window.
Kowalski waved at Jayden like he was acknowledging a request to come back into the house. Kowalski entered the house. "Everyone away from the windows. They're also in the woods out back."
Jayden said, "Pass the word. Everyone away from the windows. Get quiet."
Elijah told Rata, "It's that John Smith, isn't it?"
Rata said, "No, I don't think so. Maybe the Hexmen just wanted him back. I guess it depends on which group it is."
Elijah said, well, anyway we don't have him here to use as a bargaining chip.
Ella came upstairs with her sniper rifle.
Ayanna stood there in a daze. Phil was there to comfort her.
Ayanna's mind was pulling her in a stream of thought. Don't give up; Art of War; God With Us; Soldiers are our Children; Then she pictured those in the house fighting against the Hexmen. The house was being ventilated by gunfire. In her mind's scenario, Phil was killed, Amy killed, all were killed, she was killed. It was over. They finally lost. Evil had won, then had them for dinner.
"You okay?" Phil asked.
"Ella has big boobs," Ayanna said.
"What?" Ella said, looking at Amy.
"She's delirious," Amy said.
"No! Ella has big boobs!"
"What?" Amy said, Hush now Ayanna. Go downstairs now where it's safe.
Ayanna said, "All warfare is deception, Ella has big boobs."
Elijah asked, "What the hell, Ayanna?"
Ayanna said, "All men here, who don't like to look at Ella's boobs, please raise your hands."
Amy looked at Phil.
Phil said, "Ayanna, what are you talking about? This is the worst time to talk about this!"
Ayanna said, "I know my enemy. You want to win, or not?"
Ella handed here sniper rifle to Amy and said, "I know what she's talking about. It's time for me to use my best weapon. . .s."
"Huh?" Jayden asked. "No! This is stupid!"
"What have we got to lose? I'll be back," Ella said. She opened the back door.
"Ella!" Jayden said, but it was too late. Jayden was preparing to follow her out the door.
"Don't do it, Jayden," Ayanna said. "She knows what she is doing. Trust her."
"This is messed up," Jayden said. Jayden went and looked out the back window. "She's getting a bucket of water out of the cistern! She's gone crazy! She's going over to the garden. I can't see her! Damn it! "
Everyone went upstairs so they could get a glimpse of what Ella was doing outside. Ella went into the gardening shed and brought out a hoe. She started working the soil vigorously. she took a break to wipe the sweat from her brow. In doing so, struck an interesting pose with her voluptuous figure for the benefit of her hidden audience. She worked awhile longer, still very very hot, and she "needed" to cool down further. She pulled down her jeans and kicked them off revealing some high cut panties.
"Jayden, my man!" Elijah said.
Amy said, "Phil you go downstairs!"
Phil turned and said, "Yea, whole thing ain't real good on my blood pressure."
Rata said, "Holy crap, man! That bitch is hot."
Elijah said, "That's the Colonel's wife dumb-dumb."
"Sorry Colonel. Damn, you're lucky!" Rata kept staring out the window.
Jayden said, "You know, this could work."
Elijah said, "Hell yes it will work."
Jayden said, "Kowalski, take your men from the front, and go flank these guys."
Ella was playing as if she was very concerned with hyperthermia after hoeing the garden, displaying herself from different vantage points as she worked and wiped the sweat. It was just too hot out for such physical activity. It was time for the bucket. She held the bucket over her head with both hands and let the water pour out over her form. As the water flowed over her, all of her thin undergarments became soaked and transparent.
"Oh!. . .my!. . .God!" Amy said, looking out the upstairs window.
"Indeed," Elijah said.
Rata was standing back with his jaw dropped open.
"Nice work," Jayden said under his breath.
Ayanna rolled her eyes and shook her head, then went downstairs so she could watch the Platoon in action.
Kowalski gave Platoon-A the plan.
Sergeant Yamakawa said, "You say just run around and flank them, huh? Like that will work."
"Oh, it will work."
"It's suicide! I can't take my men. . ."
"I'll take point," the Lieutenant said
"Where's Ella?"
"She's in position. Now let's go!" The Lieutenant led the way the long way around the house.
Sergeant Yamakawa was used to Ella being deployed separately since she was the best sniper in the Guard. "Okay! On the Lieutenant!"
Private Preston Martin could see to his side in the distance what was going on in the garden. He almost ran into a tree when he saw his friend cavorting around, being all lively and uninhibited.
Ella heard a clatter in the distance. Out of the corner of her eye she could see the Platoon doing the flanking maneuver. She was seriously worried that her little ploy was not enough to distract the enemy, considering the noise they were making. Were they always that noisy when they moved? But the enemy better not see them this time, or she would be the first one to get it, then them.
Oh well . . .She whipped off her top and started hoeing bare breasted. Please, not the panties, she thought. Not that they were covering anything at this point. Unarmed; undressed; knowingly alone in front of an armed hostile enemy; she couldn't had ever been more vulnerable. But she had faith in herself, and her amenities which had been the subject of constant scrutiny her entire life.
Jayden saw Ella take the step of removing her shirt and knew the situation was serious. "Everyone take cover!"
Each thrust of the hoe into the soil sent constituent parts of Ella's voluptuous form in motion. Each stroke of Ella's hoe impacting the ground sent the enemy deeper into an erotic trance.
Platoon-A shot the Hexmen in the back rows first. The enemy wrongly assumed the gunfire was friendly when it started. Once they tried to gather their wits, it was too late for them.
Ella dropped to the ground when the shooting started.
Within a seconds, an entire group of two dozen Hexmen had been slaughtered mercilessly by the Platoon. Only one Hexman managed to fire a desperate return shot because he was not seen. The shot missed, then he was pulverize simultaneously from multiple Guardsmen.
Jayden looked out the window after the shooting had stopped and saw Ella on the ground. "Oh no!" He stared at her a few seconds, then she got up, holding her T-shirt over her chest.
Before she could grab her clothes and run to the gardening shed, the rest of the Platoon passed by the garden on their way to reinforce the Fort.
Ella was subjected to all sorts of catcalls and remarks from her fellow soldiers. Morale had never been higher. Even Lt. Kowalski saluted Ella and winked.
Jayden went out in the backyard to check on Ella. They hugged. Jayden told Ella he was amazed at her nerve. "Never do that again! I'd pin a medal on you, but. . .you know."
"I gotta run," Ella said, looking around.
Then Jayden went to survey the scene. Phil's nephew, Wesley Crawford, who was supposed to be on guard there, took an arrow into the neck. He went back in to report it to Phil. But Phil, Elijah, Rata, and Ayanna were behind Elijah and saw Wesley.
Phil sighed. "He probably fell asleep one too many times. I tried to tell him he was going to get us all killed. Damn! Come on, Ayanna, let's go pick up some guns."
Ayanna said, "I should have been out here. I can smell them." She got up close and sniffed them, then their belongings. "Ugh! That's terrible! You guys can't smell that?"
"Not a bit," Rata said. "I can only smell money, when it's around."
Before the main force of the Hexmen could advance into town, they were met by a crossfire from both Platoons A and D and retreated. The action of Platoon-A was the key factor in the decisive victory.
Elijah told Ayanna and Rata, "Something was wrong here. If it wasn't John Smith, then how did the Hexmen know we had weakened defense right now. Maybe they are in alliance with the Gofinns or maybe we need to figure out how to carry out counter-espionage. This could have ended a lot worse today."