Jim handed Chloe a beer with his left hand and stared at his own in his right.  Time for a little courage he thought as he took a big drink.  This beer was much better than what he had on the night of his birthday.  It had a much stronger flavor and he didn’t feel the need to vomit at the very smell of it.  Nothing but the best for the Summer Celebration apparently he thought.  He didn’t like the taste, but figured that if he had enough it wouldn’t matter anymore. Chloe took a drink from hers as well.  Jim was finally ready to try and have a conversation when a woman began screaming behind the band.

“You lousy Son of a Bitch you slept with an Ist didn’t you?”

The woman yelling at the top of her lungs startled the pair and they both turned in the direction the sound had come from.  “Well someone is angry,” Chloe joked as she grabbed Jim’s free hand.  “Come on let’s see what’s going on.”  Her blonde hair bounced as she pushed her way through the crowd dragging Jim along behind her.  What horrible timing Jim thought until he realized that Chloe was holding his hand.

“Now Doreen; just calm down honey.  You’re making a scene.”

The man was speaking softly and Jim could barely make out his words.  He did recognize him though.  Jim leaned in close to Chloe’s left ear and whispered, “That’s Patrick Dempsey.  He’s my neighbor.  I think he works in the food panty.”

Chloe leaned into his ear and Jim could feel her warm breath on it.  “Yeah I recognize him.  He used to be the mayor’s assistant until Mayor Parker was elected.  I’ve heard some rumors that he was crooked, but no one seems to have any proof.”

“Don’t you ‘now honey’ me.  I don’t care if I make a scene.  Joanna saw you heading up North a few days ago and now I hear that there are Ist around.  What am I supposed to think?”

Jim could tell that the man was getting frustrated.  He let out a big sigh and raised his hand up in the air.  The sarcasm in his tone screamed that this was not going to end quickly.  “I don’t know, how about thinking that you should trust your husband?  How is that for what you are supposed to think?  Maybe,  ooh crazy idea, just maybe you should ask him in private instead of yelling at him in front of the whole town.  Oh and how about just this once having the conversation BEFORE you start drinking?”  She started to speak, but he cut her off.  “Besides if I were to ever cheat on you I haven’t sunken quite low enough to do it with a filthy Ist woman.”

The woman was crying now, but fought back the tears with loud sobs.  “How do you know there is a woman up there and that she’s dirty if you weren’t up there with her?”  The words were barely understandable through the sobs.

“I know there’s a woman because I heard the stories about yesterday just like you did and I know she is dirty because she is an IST.  Of course she is dirty.  Besides who knows if the stories are even true.  There might not even be an Ist woman up north.”

“Jim knows.”  Jim was caught completely off guard by Chloe suddenly speaking out loud.  He was caught even more off guard by her hand shoving him out towards the fighting couple.  “He was there yesterday.  He knows exactly what happened and what the woman looked like.”  The crowd was staring at Jim now and he was getting very uncomfortable.

The man turned angry eyes towards Jim and Chloe.  “You two just stay out of this.  This is between me and my wife.  It’s none of your business.”

The sobbing woman looked at Jim.  “Was she prettier than me?”

“Uhm,  uh.  She was,  uhm.”  Jim heard Chloe failing to hold in a giggle behind him.  He had dealt with quite enough of being made fun of the last two days.  When he spoke again he was forceful.  “Pretty?  She was a violent bitch that tried to kill me.  She was a dirty horrible woman that stabbed someone who was just trying to protect me from her.  If your husband even tried to approach her she would have killed him without blinking and he wouldn’t be here to listen to your drunken ramblings.”  Jim wondered if he was being too harsh, but the woman annoyed him.  He had always liked Patrick and didn’t think he deserved this kind of public humiliation.

Jim turned to force his way through the crowd.  He heard the man call out behind him, “Hey you can’t talk to my wife like that.” He decided to ignore it and keep moving.

Chloe called out from behind him.  “That was harsh.  I like it.”  She was slipping through the crowd trying to catch up with him.  “Hey wait up.”

Jim turned to face her.  “What the hell was that?  I’ve been in school with you for years and you have never so much as said a word to me.  Now suddenly you are following me around trying to find new ways to make me uncomfortable.  What is your game here?”

Jim and his father live almost a mile from town square.  It takes them on average twenty minutes to make that trip.  This is exactly how long Jim had to listen to his father give him a speech about his reckless behavior the day before and how lucky he was to still be alive.  This also happens to be the same speech he had given him the previous night and all morning.  By this time Jim didn’t think he could take hearing much more of it so as soon as they reached the crowd and he could hear the band playing he shot forward into it.  This was his escape.

“Don’t think we’re done talking about this!”

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Jim yelled back as he slipped out of sight.  He knew the band would be set up in town square at the statue’s feet and the beer carts that he was now old enough to buy from would be circling that square.  Street performers would be spread throughout the crowd and gathered around the bonfire that lit the square.  As it got darker the town officials would walk the street lighting torches.  The whole thing was kicked off by a speech from the mayor that Jim was thankful he had missed.  He did wonder whether the events of the previous day had been mentioned or not.

As Jim neared the bonfire a drunken man stumbled into him.  He was knocked off balance and barely managed to keep from falling on the ground.  Beer splashed onto his shirt.  “What the hell man watch where you’re going.”  The man turned and Jim finally got a look at his face.  “Joe?  Are you already drunk?”

“Yeah I’m drunk.  After what happened yesterday you think I could have any fun if I wasn’t?”

“We are supposed to be keeping an eye out for trouble though.”

“Bah they just didn’t want us kids involved in tracking down those Ists.  Well they can shove that in their pipe and…..  pipe,  Piper.  Project Piper.”  He smacked his head a little too hard and it glowed a soft red.  “We forgot to tell Sergeant Reynolds what Danny said about Project Piper.  I better do that now.”

“I think you are a little too drunk to do that now.”

“Whatever,” and with a dismissive wave Joe stumbled off in the general direction of Fort Massac.

Jim shook his head and continued towards the music.  As he reached the bonfire he noticed a crowd of boys about his age all dancing and decided to take a closer look.  As the he got closer he glimpsed movement in the center of the circle and moved into a better position to see.  There in the center of the crowd was Chloe Reynolds wearing a tight red dress that clung to her hips and didn’t leave a whole lot to the imagination.  The front was cut low and showed off quite a bit of cleavage.  As she was dancing with her hands in the air her long blonde hair was flying around her.

Jim stood and watched as Chloe captured all the boys attention.  She slide her back tight against one of the boys and wrapped her arms around his neck rubbing seductively against him.  When she let go she bounced over to a boy across from her and wrapped her arms around his neck.  She leaned close and Jim thought for a minute that she was going to kiss the boy, but as her lips were just about to brush his she spun to the right with a giggle and ran her hands across another boy’s chest.  This continued for the remainder of the song as Chloe went from boy to boy teasing each of them.

When the song ended she waved at one of the boys and started for the beer carts.  As she passed the boy she almost kissed reached out and smacked her butt.  The next few moments happened so quickly that Jim could barely register what he was seeing.  As his hand touched her backside she reached back and grabbed the boy by the wrist.  She twisted the wrist hard spinning it around behind his back and using her other hand to put pressure on his shoulder.  The boy slammed into the ground hard and Chloe rode him down landing with her knee in his back.  “Is that any way to treat a lady?” she asked as she let go of his arm.  She ruffled his hair and smacked his head into the dirt fairly hard as she stood up.

Jim froze as he realized that Chloe was walking right towards him.  She stopped about two feet in front of him and ran two of her fingers down her chest.  “Well if it isn’t the new guy.  So tell me do you have any hobbies besides staring at me?”

“Well uhm, I un.”

She startled Jim as she laughed loudly.  “You’re more nervous than you were with Daddy.  Relax I don’t bite.  Much.”

“Sorry about the staring and all.  I was nervous yesterday and today well you were putting on quite a show.”

“Do you know what it’s like to have complete control over a group of people?  No I don’t suppose you do.  It’s a real rush and the closest thing you can get to adrenaline rush of a fight.”  She looked back at the boy who was just now being helped to his feet.  She blew him a kiss.  “So what’s your name new guy?”

“Jim, I’m Jim.”

“Well Jim today is your lucky day.  You are going to make all those boys back there jealous by getting the privilege of buying my next beer.”  She wrapped her right arm through his left and led him off towards the beer carts.

This is already the most interesting celebration ever; Jim thought as he walked Chloe towards the beer cart.

Hey everyone this is a very tired Wayne typing to you live from Gencon 2010.  I’m fairly exhausted, but enjoying myself.  I wanted to make sure that I had something a little extra out there for everyone that couldn’t make it.  With that in mind here are some pictures of what the real Fort Massac look like in modern day.  These are vacation pictures I took while there for the Superman Celebration a few months ago.

David’s horse didn’t lean down for Jim to get on like Buttercup had.  No this horse just stood there waiting for him to get on.  He grabbed on and tried to pull himself up.  The ground hit him hard in return for his effort.  The second attempt went much better.  He actually made it up onto the horse.  He held on tightly as the horse started walking around aimlessly.  This definitely wasn’t going to be as easy as riding Buttercup and certainly wasn’t going to be as smooth.

As the boys took off towards Fort 24 Jim was finding it hard to keep up.  This ride was not nearly as smooth as the previous ones.  He noticed that the horse needed constant correction to stay on course.  Buttercup had taken care of all of that for him.  She knew where she was going and didn’t need him to get there.  This horse was very different.  He didn’t feel like he had complete control and was not comfortable riding as fast as the other boys.  Jim knew that this was necessary though.  David needed the smooth ride.

Jim glanced up at David on Buttercup.  He was leaning over and barely upright.  They had grabbed a bandage from Rick’s pack and wrapped it around David’s wound to apply pressure.  The former white bandage was now a bright red.  This did not look good. A knife wound like that would not be bleeding this much unless it had hit something important.  They had to get him help quickly.

The land they were riding through was beautiful and he knew that if he wasn’t so worried about David he would have wanted to go much slower and take it all in.  There were fields of grain, fenced in cows grazing, and a pond being fed by a natural stream.  He could see geese swimming across the top of the water.  The grass covered hills rose and fall all around them.  All the while not a sound could be heard except the birds and their horses.  He wanted to take it all in.  Of course he also might have just wanted to go slower because he couldn’t control this horse.

As they crossed on final hill Jim got his first look at Fort 24.  The building was an old brick building with one square barbwire fence enclosing another one around the outside.  At the corners of the outer ring of fences were large wooden lookout towers and even from here Jim could tell that there were men with guns in them.  Between the two fences Jim could see at least 3 armed men walking patrols.  Behind the fort was a large field with multiple animal pens sectioned out and converging in a small pond.  A large barn sat on the other side of the pens.  Across the trail a large grain silo sat at the end of the forest.  This strange site of farm and fort unnerved Joe.  He couldn’t help but wonder why a farm would need so much security and even stranger secrecy.

As the boys started down the hill two horses rode out at top speed to meet them on the hill.  “Hold there.  Identify yourselves.”

Joe took point, “We’re the daily report from Fort Massac.  We ran into some serious trouble a few miles back.  David is hurt bad.  We need to get him inside and get him help now.”  Almost on queue David fell off of Buttercup and onto the ground.

The man who had addressed them turned to his partner.  “Chris let the Fort know what is going on and get an emergency bed set up.  I’ll bring David down.”  As the second man rode off at full speed towards the Fort the speaking man turned back to face the boys.  “Get him up on my horse.  I’ll take him in and we’ll see what we can do for him.  You boys need to get back to Fort Massac and let Sergeant Reynolds know what just happened here.”

Joe stepped towards the man.  “We are not just leaving him here.  This is my friend and I don’t give a damn about your secrecy I’m going to make sure he is ok before I go anywhere.  Then I want to go with whoever goes out there to hunt the Ist that did this.

The man raised his voice, but it still had an air of control about it.  “You will stand down now recruit.  David is our friend too and he is the only one of you that has clearance to be in Fort 24.  None of you are cleared for active combat either.  You will report to Fort Massac as you have been ordered because even if I wanted to,” he pointed to one of the wooden towers, “those men would not let you in.  We will take care of him, but every second I’m standing here arguing with you is a second that he is losing more blood.  ”

“Damn it Joe; David doesn’t have time for this.”  Frustration filled Rick’s voice.  “I don’t like it any more than you do, but we have to get him in there.  Besides he’s right that Sergeant Reynolds needs to know about this now.  They were organized and the whole town could be in trouble.”

“Fine,” Joe pointed to the Miltia Guard.  “if he dies I’m holding you personally responsible.”

Jim was getting very uncomfortable.  He never cared for being around arguing, but in this case he also felt responsible.  David was hurt protecting him and he could just as easily be the one laying on the ground bleeding out right now.  The realization struck him hard.  I could have died.  This was just supposed to be a training day and this mission was just supposed to be a simple ride.  I was stupid and because of it I could have been killed and David might still die.

Rick helped the man pull David onto his horse.  Joe watched them both with a scowl the whole time and as soon as David was in the gates he took off full speed towards Fort Massac.  Rick just shook his head, “You know the sad thing here Jim is that I agree with Joe.  We should be in there with him, but standing out here arguing that was just doing more harm than good.  If you don’t learn anything else from today you should at least learn that following your gut isn’t always the best thing to do.”  He hopped back up on his horse.  “Come on let’s get back.  If everything I hear about GCs is true Buttercup here should be smart and loyal enough to follow without us needing to tie a rope onto her.”

No one spoke on the entire ride back to Fort Massac.

Jim’s head spun trying to process everything that had just happened.  This woman he thought was in trouble was really waiting to ambush them.  She would have stabbed him if David hadn’t arrived and taken that hit for him.  David was now lying on the ground with a knife embedded in his upper leg.  The muscles in his leg seemed to be spasming wildly causing more blood to gush out around the knife.  If that wasn’t bad enough Joe was aiming his gun at the woman and preparing to kill her right in front of his eyes.  All this going on while I’m standing here like an idiot, Jim thought.  I have to do something.

Jim finally snapped out of his indecision and started moving.  He wasn’t sure what he could do for David, but he could still reach the woman and hopefully Joe wouldn’t shoot if he was in the way.  Jim lunged at the woman and tackled her to the ground just as Joe pulled the trigger.  The gunshot was loud and left Jim’s ears ringing.  He had never been this close to a gunshot before and he could have swore he felt the air rush by him before the bullet struck a tree a few yards from him.

The Woman hit the ground hard.  She raised her hand to try and cushion the fall, but had been taken by such surprise that she couldn’t stop herself in time.  The right side of her face smashed into the path and she let out a grunt of pain.  Jim was grabber her arms and pulling them behind her back twisting her shoulders in a way that sent shock waves of pain through them.  She raised her head as best she could to the woods.  “THEY HAVE ME, GET OUT OF HERE!”

Within seconds of the woman’s scream sounds could be heard in the woods.  Bushes rustled and soon the sound of hoofs moving away joined it.  The sounds came from three different points in the woods and all seemed to be moving away further in to the woods.

“AMBUSH,” David screamed through clenched teeth.  He had finally gotten a hold of the knife handle and ripped it out the back of his leg.  Blood gushed from the now open wounds.  He reached into his backpack for an extra shirt and started wrapping it tight over the wound.  He had been on the sidelines too long.  David with great pain pulled himself to his feet, but the moment he put weight on his bad leg it gave way.  He found himself once again on the ground.  This time he was cursing.

Joe stalked over to Jim and the woman.  It was obvious that he was angry, but Jim wasn’t sure if he was angry about being set up for an ambush or about Jim’s own actions to save the woman’s life.  She was struggling under his weight trying to get free.  Jim would not underestimate her again.

“What the hell was this?  Why were you trying to ambush us?”  She did not answer Joe’s questions.  Instead she continued to struggle and spit at Joe’s feet.  “So that’s how it’s going to be huh?  Fine, I’m almost glad new blood here saved your life.  He guaranteed that you will rot in a cell.”  Joe was almost yelling as the anger came out in his voice.

Rick looked nervous.  He had rushed to David’s side after the fall and was now helping him to stand again.  “Come on man, we need to get you on a horse and get out of here.  Oh god you’ve lost so much blood.”  David leaned on Rick and they limped towards his horse.  “All this bumping is going to make things worse.  We have got to hurry.”  David just grunted as Rick led him to Jim’s horse. “Jim you take David’s horse.  Buttercup will be a smoother ride.”  On the walk to the GC David never once took his eyes off the captive woman.  Rick helped him onto the horse.

Joe walked over to Rick and the woman.  “I’m going to check for more weapons.  Hold her tight” Joe reached out for the woman.  She struggled against Jim’s grip and finally managed to get a little movement room.  She bit down hard on the inside of Joe’s hand between his thumb and index finger.  He screamed out in pain and jerked back causing her teeth to rake against the smooth flesh.  His hand was bleeding now.

Jim was caught off guard by the scream and loosened his grip slightly.  It wasn’t much, but it was just enough.   The woman was able to turn herself slightly and struck out with her knee.  The blow landed on target between Jim’s legs and pain shot through him.  His hands dropped as he crumpled to the ground in a fetal position.  Breathing was difficult and his eyes blurred slightly.  He couldn’t say or do anything, just ride the pain.

Not wasting a second of the confusion the woman ran for the woods.  As she was about to disappear into the brush she reached down for a backpack that was lying on the side of the road.  Taking a second too long she glanced back behind her focusing her gaze on Joe and in the process failed to make contact with the bag.  He was pulling his gun out again.  With only a split second to act she dove into a bush and out of sight.  Joe fired in after her and listened for a scream of pain to indicate he had hit something.  The sound never came.

“Guys we have to get to Fort 24 now.  David has lost a lot of blood.”  Rick was climbing into his saddle.

David was slumped over on Buttercup.  “Get that bag,” he managed to grunt out and pointed to the bag the woman only seconds ago had failed to grab.

Jim was still struggling to get off the ground so Joe approached the bag first.  He picked it up and unzipped the top.  “Let me just see what’s in it then we’ll get you some help David.”  He glanced into the bag.  “It’s food.  Canned and jarred food.”  He paused.  “It all had the Metropolis logo on it too.  How did an Ist manage to get this much food from town without being caught?”

As the group started off to the east Joe turned to Jim.  “So far we have been riding through the safety of town.  The path to Fort 24 is going to take us along the outside of town.  It’s pretty safe, but you need to keep your eyes open.  I have seen Ists once or twice along this route.  They tend to get spooked by people on horseback and even more so when they notice that I am armed.  We simply don’t look like an easy target.”

“I didn’t realize that they got this close to the city unless it was an attack.”

Jim was startled when David spoke for the first time since the awkward conversation about the Militia.  “Don’t ever underestimate them.  They are always pushing to see how close they can get to town.  Sometimes they even clean up and wander into town with the traveling merchants.  Most of them are just wandering groups looking for supplies, but there are a few organized bands nearby.  You can hear them hooting and hollering off in the woods if you ride this patrol at night.  So you keep your eyes open out here.”

“Trust me; I know how bad these guys can be and I wouldn’t dream of letting them get the drop on me.”  Jim was riding with his head down and his mind lost in memories that he wished he didn’t have.  He barely remembered his mother, but he certainly remembered how his father had reacted to her death.  Thirteen years ago as of next week his mother had been brutally murdered to prove a point.  His father had a breakdown and spent the whole night crying.  That was after all the natural reaction to having your wife’s severed head left on the side of the road for you.

The boys rode in relative silence for a while.  They passed numerous identical fields and a pond as the path started to veer more to the North.  There was the occasional small talk between Rick and Joe, but the look of pain on Jim’s face sent a clear message that he did not want to talk.  David was silent again as he had been for most of the trip.  Jim thought that perhaps he had his own story about the ists, but he couldn’t imagine it possibly being as bad as his own.

A woman’s scream cut through the silence from the path ahead of them.  Without pause Jim spurred his horse to run full speed towards the sound.  As he gripped the reigns tightly he was reminded that Buttercup was a GC and she could run considerably faster than the average horse.  He was twenty feet ahead of the other boys before any of them had even registered what was going on.  David looked back at the other boys as he prepared to spur his horse on.  “That damned idiot is going to get himself killed.”  The rest of the boys followed, but Jim was moving so fast that he was soon out of sight.

As Jim hit the top of a small hill he caught sight of a woman laying in a fetal position in the road ahead.  Her back was to him, and her dirty blonde hair covered much of it.  Even from this distance he could tell that her clothes were torn.  He strained his eyes, but could not see any blood on her.  He slowed to a trot and called out, “Are you OK?”  When she didn’t reply he decided to hop off the horse and take a closer look.

As Jim approached the women he noticed that she was sobbing into her hands.  He could also hear the sounds of the other Militia boys just over the last hill.  This is my chance to prove myself to them Jim thought.  If I can calm her down and find out what happened before they get here maybe it will make up for all my stupid comments today.   “My name is Jim.  I don’t know what happened here, but I’m going to help you.”  He tried to sound reassuring, but thought it came off more nervous than anything else.  He kept looking around to make sure whoever had done this wasn’t waiting for him.

David reached the scene next.  He quickly sized up the situation.  There was a seemingly injured woman lying on the ground and Jim was approaching her.  She was lying in a fetal position with her hands down near the ground.  Her arm muscles were tensed like she was gripping something and she was watching Jim approach out of the corner of her eyes.  David knew the signs and realized that he would only have seconds to react.  He leapt off his horse and lunged between Jim and the woman.  He just prayed that he could move fast enough.

Everything happened so quickly that Jim could barely register what had happened.  As he stepped near the woman he saw a glint of light reflect off of something on the ground.  David whirled in grabbing him and pushing him back away from the woman, but her arm was already in motion.  David presented his back to her shielding Jim as best he could.  Jim saw the tip of a knife explode out of the front of David’s upper leg with a splatter of blood.  David let out a scream of pain as his leg gave way and he dropped to the ground.  Blood had already soaked the front of his pants.

“What the hell!?!?” Jim exclaimed as he pulled himself up off the ground.  The woman was struggling to her feet and trying to move off into the woods.  David was bleeding pretty badly and couldn’t seem to reach the knife handle in the back of his leg.  Jim knew that should either try to stop the woman or help David.  He told himself that he just needed to decide which and move while he still had time.  He didn’t move though.  He stood in a state of shock hesitating to do anything.  His mind screamed at him to move, but fear and shock left him paralyzed.

The other two boys came over the hill at full speed and one of them let out a gasp of shock.   Jim suspected that it was Rick because Joe instantly took command of the situation.  He pulled his horse to a stop and pointed at David.  “Rick help David and Jim.”  He pulled the hand gun from his side and aimed it at the stumbling woman.  “I’ll take care of her.”

The boys were farther outside of town than Jim had ever traveled.  The path had taken them through the northern most edge of town and out into open fields.  It had been a few minutes since they had seen any buildings and no one had said a word.  The awkward silence was finally cut by Rick.  “Well Jim this is it.  Over this hill is ‘The Fortress of Solitude.’”

The first thing that Jim noticed about the fort was that it was much more open than Fort Massac.  There were no outer walls or large towers and it was noticeably missing the constant flurry of people.  In fact if Jim didn’t know it was a fort he might have mistaken it for just a collection of buildings.  The only odd thing that stood out was a long road that was better maintained than any Jim had seen before.  Jim wondered about the purpose of this road to nowhere.

Four large metal building rectangular in shape were lined up in a row along the road. Each of them looked to be pre-bomb construction which he could tell by the curved roofs.  Postwar buildings were far more focused on function than aesthetics and curves were much harder to build.  The skeletal remains of a fifth building barely stood next to them.  It still had the basic frame, but most of the outer walls had been pulled down over the years.  Jim noticed patches on the remaining buildings and realized that this one had most likely been used as parts to keep the others standing.

“Well Jim, since this is your first patrol I think we will give you the honor of taking point..”  Jim noticed a chipperness in Joe’s voice that had not previously been there.  “Just ride around and approach the first building from that Road.  We’ll hang back a bit and let you get to know Big Dan.  Just tell him that you are from Fort Massac and you are here to get the report from the ‘Fortress of Solitude’.”

“Ok, I guess.”  Jim knew that they could hear the trepidation in his voice.

As he rode around the front of the build Jim noticed that each of the four buildings had a very large door in the front.  In fact the door covered most of that side of the buildings.  The road had a well maintained path to the second building, but the paths to the other building had been allowed to atrophy.  Jim also noticed a normal sized door on the side of each of the buildings.

As Jim headed for the first building a rather big man was walking out through one of the large doors to meet him.  He had the kind of build that was difficult to tell whether he was muscular or pudgy.  In all likelihood it was mixture of both.  The man had a large bushy black beard and mustache that matched his curly unkempt hair.  He wore jeans and a t-shirt with little rips and black stains all over it.  “Well hello there boy.  I don’t recognize you, but I see Joe and the boys back there so I’m guessing you must be a new recruit.”  There was a certain kind of cheeriness to his voice that put Jim at ease.

“Yes sir.  My name is Jim.”  He remembered what Joe had said.  “You must be Big Dan.  I’m here from Fort Massac to get the report from the ‘Fortress of Solitude’.”  As the words left Jim’s mouth he noticed the smile slightly fade from Big Dan’s face.

“Dang it boy this place is NOT named the “Fortress of Solitude”.  That was just a nickname some guys from town thought was funny 40 years ago when this place was set up.”  His hands were waving wildly in the air as he spoke.  “This Fort doesn’t have a name.  I guess if I gave it one maybe I wouldn’t have to deal with everyone reminding me how lonely it is up here.”  He paused.  “Wait a minute, Joe put you up to that didn’t he?”

“He told me what to say yeah.”

“Ah good old fashioned hazing.  I remember my first day in the militia.  James set me up on lookout duty outside Fort Massac while him and Jason climbed the wall so they could dump a bucket of leftover oatmeal over the wall onto my head.”  He shook his head.  “Oh I got them back, but that my boy is a story for another time.  For now let’s see what we can do about Joe.  My name is Daniel by the way, but most everyone just calls me Big Dan.”

Jim dismounted from his horse and offered Big Dan his hand.  “Nice to meet you Dan.”  Big Dan took Jim’s hand and gave it a firm yet friendly shake.  Jim could tell that this man could seriously hurt someone with just a handshake.

“Nice to meet you Jim.”  Big Dan walked towards the other boys with a purpose.  “Joe, Joe, Joe….  Hazing the new boy at my expense.  I thought you’d know better than that.”

“Awe Danny, it’s just harmless fun.  Figured you’d give him a scare to rival the one Sergeant Reynolds gave him this morning.”

“You know you are one of the few people who know me well enough to call me ‘Danny’ and that means you know me well enough to come up on Sunday and help me with some cleanup in the garage.”  The other boys laughed at this, and Big Dan turned back to Jim.

“So Big Dan are you all alone up here?”

“Almost.  I have an assistant named Luke, but he is picking up a package from town for me at the moment.  We are all alone up here and don’t hear from anyone else except these daily patrols.  As for that…”  Big Dan took up an official tone.  “I don’t have any Ist news to report out this way today.  It is quiet as usual.  You can tell Sergeant Reynolds though that I should be done with “Project Piper” by Wednesday.”

Joe nodded his head at Dan.  “Danny, you take care and try not to get too bored out here.  I’ll make sure to stop by early on Sunday so we can chat for a while before getting to work.  We need to get a move on if we want to make it back to Fort Massac for a late lunch.”  Joe rode ahead a ways while Jim was getting on his horse.

Big Dan walked closer to Jim.  “Jim you should watch out for Joe.  He is a good kid don’t get me wrong, but he doesn’t seem to know how to deal with a conflict he can’t shoot at.”

“Thanks Dan.  I’ll keep that in mind.”  Jim rode off to the East to catch up with other boys.