Homeland Defense

Chapter 1 - Sundown - PedroShadow held Pedro's limp, moist hand in both of hers and looked up at Lorraine. “Is he going to die?” she asked softly. Lorraine was sitting beside them both and nodded. “If we don't get some antibiotics or penicillin into him soon, he won't last the week.” McFly entered to find his wife and Lorraine crying at Pedro's bedside. “What? Is he dead already?” he blurted out when he saw the two girls in tears. “Darn it, McFly, not so loud, he'll hear you!” whispered Lorraine. “Can you please sit with Shadow and Pedro for a while?” A sob suddenly escaped her lips but she managed to continue before she fled the room in tears. “I've got to speak to Sundown about that d**g order he's sending Fat Boy to collect.” “I'm not b****y dead yet, you boofheads,” croaked Pedro, his eyes still shut, “and I can hear every word, McFly.” Shadow almost leaped out of her chair when she heard him, “Pedro,” she yelped as she hugged his emasculated body, “you scared the living daylights out of us.” “Just keepin' you's on yer toes, me little missie,” he whispered. “Pedro, hey.” McFly leaned over almost touching Pedro's ear with his lips. “Do you need anything? A drink, a beer, a smoke or something?” “Get out of me ear hole, yer boofhead! And yes to all of those. I'm b****y parched, I need a beer.” Pedro moved a little as he tried to sit up. “And not one of that bludger Andy's warm, fruity piss he passes off as beer, I need a real beer. Get me a cold one from Harry's secret stash.” The old man had a bit more force to his voice now as he slowly forced open his eyes. His skin was hot to the touch and yellowish, his eyes bloodshot. “On my way old man,” said McFly with a grin. “And boofhead yourself, you old bastard, I thought you were dead.” “I'll b****y go when I want to b****y go! The old scythe-master ain't tapped me on the shoulder yet.” Pedro lay back panting as Shadow propped him up with some pillows. “Shadow, me little girlie, can you push me up a bit more? I need to get into action when McFly brings me that cold beer. You can't drink beer through a straw you know.” McFly excitedly told everyone in the kitchen that Pedro was awake. When Billie heard he ambled himself into Pedro's room like he owned the place. “Hey, me ol' son, Pedro, how's it goin'?” he said sitting on Pedro's bed, his skinny legs swinging back and forth like pantyhose on a clothes line. “Hi Billie, got that hip flask on you, mate? I could do with a drop of the ol' mountin' dew.” Pedro smiled for the first time in quite a few days. Gail was just on her way to Andrew's office when she spied Billie entering Pedro's room. She suspected what he might be up to, so she followed him. “Billie!” she called through the open door in her proper British nurses voice, reserved for troublesome patients. “I can see you, and put that rum flask back in your pocket, or I'll tell Tricia. She'll cut your rum ration if your not careful.” Billie stopped with his flask in his hand half-way to Pedro's lips. “I'll be damned! That woman has eyes in her backside I'm sure of it,” he said as he eased his flask back into his pocket. “Sorry, Pedro me ol' son, that woman scares me, her and that damn Tricia. They remind me of me childhood in the convent school. Bleeding nun's tortured the living daylights out of us kids, and I was one of them goody two-shoes too.” Pedro pushed himself up into an awkward sitting position. He tried to yell but he only managed a whisper in retaliation. “Look wot you done, Gail, you big bully! You frightened me ol' mate, Billie. It's unfair scaring that nice old man.” He paused for a second then called, “Ya boofhead!” Then he eased back into the fluffed-up pillows. “Darn it, Pedro,” said Shadow as she settled him in again, “just ease up a bit will you. McFly's going to find a way through that incoming fire with your beer so just relax.” She wiped his sweaty face with the wet cloth. Lulu and Donna came in with some soup and another jug of water. Pedro groaned, “s**t, not another b****y bucket of water. I'm up to me back teeth in water. Now ya's have to add soup to it. I'm already farting like Niagara Falls,” he complained. “Pedro, Lorraine said you have to have it, it flushes the muck out of your system she said. Come on, sit up and let us pretty, young girlie's feed yer proper,” said the ever bright Lulu. For once she was almost serious. Like all of them she was afraid Pedro would soon pass away. “You're sick Pedro so just let us help you.” She turned away and a tear escaped from the corner of her eye to drip onto her t-shirt. “OK, but only if ya help McFly bring me a cold beer, or I won't drink a drop o' that butt fountain-water.” Pedro was slowly coming back to his old cantankerous self. “Lorraine, for the tenth time we've given the list of medications to Fat Boy and Blondie, it's safe in their hands. We've given them a list of Cessna parts too. They're heading off in just a few minutes.” Andrew was sitting in his office with Sundown studying the maps for the two biker's rescue trek. It was just on dawn and the place was starting to crawl with soldiers and Sundown's commandos. A head poked in through the office door. “Sundown, ah, Andrew, you don't mind me joining you for a minute?” It was Captain Lewis' smiling face. “We'll soon be heading back to Alice Springs but we've just heard that there's a bit of a crisis happening. Do you need some help?” Sundown looked across at him and nodded. “We sure could do with some extra fire support, Captain.” “So what's this about, Sundown? We heard Pedro was dying or something.” The captain's face was now serious. “Yeah, he took a turn during the night. Lorraine and Tricia said that he needs penicillin or antibiotics but we've got nothing like that here so we're sending Fat Boy to Mount Isa for it. It's the closest large town and it should have what they need,” replied Sundown. “You're saying that Major Thompson wants to help?” The captain's face lit up in a smile that threatened to break his face in two. “Yes he b****y-well does!” he almost yelled. “I was praying that something like this would happen. We've not had a proper stand up stoush - ever! Me and the boys were hoping that meeting you lot would give us somewhere to point our 25 mm guns.” He let out a little 'whoop!' and then stopped, calmed his face and continued. “Sorry, Sundown, I got a little carried away with myself. Right, what do you have planned? I'm sure the major will permit you to advise us.” “Thanks, Captain Lewis, we certainly do appreciate this,” said Sundown smoothly. “OK, we've got Fat Boy and Blondie heading into Mount Isa in about five minutes. They'll be riding their Harley-Davidson. I was planning to send Wiram and an armed squad with our two machine guns to set up an ambush about three hundred click's from here and another just outside Mount Isa itself. But if you can take your ASLAV, and we include one of our commandos, that should be enough. What do you think?” “They've got, what, six hundred kilometres to Mount Isa? Fat Boy should be able to do that in a day, even though it's mostly dirt, hmm.” The captain rubbed his chin, thinking. “Our intelligence tells us the terrorists have multiple road blocks and the township's controlled by them and the local bikie g**g. We've had the town under surveillance for months and every exit and entry point is covered. They've started preparations to move against you lot too.” The captain nodded guiltily at Andrew and Sundown, then continued quickly. “We weren't going to tell you until we knew for certain that you were with us, but you might as well know now.” “Thanks for telling us, Captain,” said Andrew drily. “We will need your ASLAV to run up there in about an hour, do you think you could manage that?” “Better than that, we'll send two bushmasters and the ASLAV and hit them up the arse once we get Fat Boy out of there.” The captain was almost salivating. “Leave it to me, I'll get it sorted out right now.” The captain paused, “so, who did you want to send with us from your commando?” Andrew looked at Sundown and said, “Assassin hasn't had much time on patrol and he's been pestering to get away from the CB listening post again. Not McFly, he's asked to have a break from patrolling to spend more time with his missus, Shadow. Not Wiram, I want him here to run the Birdsville Track and Marree patrols. What about Cambra and Donna?” Sundown ran his fingers through his thick, greying hair as he assembled his thoughts. He really wanted to go with the patrol himself. A ride in one of those Bushmasters at one hundred kph would be fun, he thought. “Yeah,” he said at last. “Send Cambra and Donna, she deserves a break. Oh, hang on, Lulu and Danni might get upset. Hmm, OK, Cambra and his girls, Lulu and Danni, they work well together. I know the girl's are busy fussing over Pedro but I'll offer it to them anyway.” He was thinking out loud, something he did a lot these days. “OK, I'll get them in here and ask them.” The captain headed out to his crews while Sundown went to find Cambra and his fan club. He knew Cambra looked after the two teenagers like they were his daughters and they adored him in turn. The problem, he realised, could be with those hot blooded soldiers all crammed into the vehicles for several days. But then on second thoughts he was sure the girls could handle themselves well enough, he'd seen them in action enough times to know that. Besides, he thought, if they could handle the terrorists at the mines they can handle our own soldiers. Sundown knocked as he walked into Pedro's room. McFly was trying to hide Pedro's beer behind his back. Shadow innocently said, “Hi, Sundown,” as she looked around nervously to see if Lorraine was behind him. Lulu and Donna's face had flushed a bright red. “It's OK everybody it's only me for crying-out-loud.” Sundown nodded to McFly who quickly brought the bottle out from behind his back and handed it to Pedro. “Ahhhhh,” sighed Pedro taking a long pull on the bottle, “give me that any day! Sundown, me ol' matey, what's happening? I can hear footsteps racing everywhere, are we under attack or something?” “Nope, not that I know of, except for your legs and blood poisoning we're just dandy.” Sundown smiled brightly as he clasped his friend's proffered hand. Pedro pulled his friend in close to his mouth. “I'm not well, matey, when I fart me butt squirts and it's damn embarrassing. Can you tell the girls to leave off with the water and just give me beer?” He winked at his friends around him. Just then he loudly passed wind, and what may have been a bit more than wind. “Sorry, can someone get that for me?” He let out a soft laugh. “I never knew what a relief it would be to let someone else clean me arse for me.” He chuckled again but Sundown and everyone else knew that those tears weren't necessarily happy ones, the poor old warrior was in a lot of pain. “OK, everyone out,” announced Lorraine as she and Tricia entered. They could smell Pedro's latest production from the other room. “We'll look after this, we've done it a million times before. Just give us a moment and then we'll leave you in peace.” “Thanks ladies, and please be gentle with him, I need him back on deck by the weekend. And Lorraine, while you're wiping his butt please don't wipe his smile away?” Sundown tried to make a joke but not even Pedro responded. “Well, that sure went down like a lead balloon,” he said as he walked out with the others. The break gave Sundown the opportunity to sort out what he was really there for. “Lulu, go and get Danni and Cambra, please. Bring them to Andy's office, pronto. I need you all there five minutes ago,” he said. Lulu looked up realising something exciting was in the air. She raced away, her wide smile shone bright against her dark skin.