Chapter 9-A Texas Son in Washington's Army

     The next task was to let General Washington know that General Gage was dead along with his entire command staff. The man who rescued him from Gage’s house had went back for Revere’s body. He hadn’t even managed to learn his name. Carl rode along the path out of Boston until he came to an intersection. This was where he was to make camp and wait for his unnamed companion. When carl happened upon the intersection, he immediately began looking for a hidden location preferably with defensive terrain to make a rally point. He dismounted his horse whom he also did not know the name of and lead it by the reins into the wooded area. Carl was amazed at how fast the transition from city to wilderness happened as you rode along. Most of this would be gone in Carl’s time, cut for fuel and building material and cleared for infrastructure. Within twenty five meters he found a small clearing with surrounding brush and trees that could mask their location and give stand off from approaching interlopers. Carl tied up the horse and pulled off his go bag. Carl finally had a moment of quiet and that was usually not a good thing. The weight of what Carl had done was beginning to take it’s hold. In less than a month he had managed to kill more than twenty people. Carl already struggled with the moral implications of his service. Carl finally sat down and quietly listened for horses approaching. He had not slept in too long and had not eaten since midday. His stomach quietly groaned but Carl did not pull out one of his remaining meal bars. Instead laid his head against a mound of dirt he would use for cover in a fight, and closed his eyes.

     Carl was sitting in a chair, leg bouncing uncontrollably while squeezing a rubber ball. The therapist was quietly sitting in front of him neither smiling nor frowning. Carl had been fine in previous sessions. Normally she just let him complain about his relationship and use her as a sympathetic ear, but today she asked him a question he was not ready to answer. “What do you hide from everyone?” Carl did not ever want to say his deepest thoughts and shame outloud. That is not what you do. You take your feelings, fears, anxieties, and shame and stuff them deep down so as never to see the light of day. He always had to be strong, never weak. The men demand a competent leader, the leadership expects the same. A man’s family expects him to die on his horse, not to fall off of it. Carl could not stop his leg from shaking. His jaw was clenched, and his hand was beginning to cramp from continuous flexing. “My biggest secret is that I loved fucking killing those two men. The rush of that life or death struggle was more than I can explain.” The therapist did not make any facial changes. Carl looked right at her and could ascertain any emotion. Carl had expected the first time he said that out loud it would create revulsion in the person, but his therapist offered no such expression. She continued to sit and listen intently. “My biggest shame now is coping with that feeling. I am still not sad I did it. I feel shame that I liked it. I don’t know if this makes me a monster, but I feel unworthy of any love. I don’t deserve anybody’s affection. I can’t explain this to my wife, because I have to explain to her why I am so cold, I can’t quit being cold, because I don’t feel like she should be around me.” Mrs. Patty the therapist finally adjusted her facial expression with an understanding nod. It was not the first time she had heard a similar story. The details were always different, but the end result was usually the same. She heard it too often. “How do I tell the woman I admire more than anything in the world, the mother of my daughter, the woman I lost my virginity to in high school, that she is now married to a fucking monster” Carl got louder as he said it, emotion billowing up from that dark place he always shoved it into. Carl began to sob with his whole body. He tried to stop it but he could not stop the tears from falling down his cheeks and he could not stop the snot from running down his upper lip. He placed his head in his hands and tried to bottle it back up, but it was too much. Mrs. Patty never offered comfort or said a word. She merely allowed him to continue crying and she did not judge him.

     Carl lifted his head up and realized he was no longer in his dream. He could see the tree and the glow of the crimson pool at its trunk. “Gage was well done. Revere complicates things.” The apparition that brought him here stared at him in extreme judgement. “Why am I here!” Carl screamed at her. “You are here to refresh the tree and you will do as you are told.” She said with a hint of anger. “Fuck you lady. If you know me, you know what I would say to this. Send me home. Let me feel the Padre Island sand under my feet one last time. Let me just go. I don’t have enough ammunition to fight this war on my own. One man and one rifle can not make this kind of difference. I don’t know the battles of the revolution well enough to be of any intelligence value, and once I fire my last five point five six I’m useless.” Carl began to walk toward her when she appeared right before him and grabbed him by the shoulders and said, “Wake up, someone is approaching” and then she dropped him. When he hit the ground, he woke up and immediately grabbed for his bag. He pulled out his rifle laid on his belly. He slowly inched up to the top of the dirt and looked out towards the intersection. He saw the light from a lantern coming towards him from the road. Carl waited until he was close enough to see the person’s face if he used his flashlight. The man was pulling a horse by had as well and seemed to be alone. Carl decided to stand up and turn on his light. He shined it in the mans face and recognized his escort.

     “Damnit Carl, is it necessary to scare me like that?” “Shit man, I forgot your name and I didn’t know what to say so I decided to use surprise just incase it wasn’t you.” Carl lowered his weapon and shrugged his shoulders. “Did you manage to secure Revere’s body?” Carl asked. The townsfolk took care of him. No redcoats were taking any bodies away tonight. I have not seen the citizens that riled up in an age. Most had been indifferent to the occupations so long as their lives are not inconvenienced. I guess you showed them they didn’t have to put up with redcoat inconvenience.” Carl did not know what to say. He wasn’t trying to become a revolutionary hero. He didn’t need poems being written about him. He wanted to help end this war quicker if possible and hopefully die in the process. “I guess we showed them. Speaking of ‘we’ what is your name sir?” “Benjamin Edes sir. I ran a publishing company until the intolerable acts and then I joined the Sons of Liberty” Carl stuck out his hand. Benjamin shook it giddily with two hands. “So Benjamin should we sleep here tonight or keep riding? I’m honestly not really familiar with the surroundings.” Benjamin agreed they should sleep but they needed to move deeper into the woods, far away from traveled routes. Carl concurred and they moved until they could not see the open area where the road was. Carl tied up his horse to a tree near Benjamins and found a spot away from the horses to go to sleep. Carl built a fire while Benjamin was relieving himself. He didn’t want Benjamin to see the lighter he used to make it easier. They both found their spots and settled in for the night.

     Upon waking Carl reached into his pack and pulled out a meal bar. He felt in and found only 4 more remaining. He grabbed a second bar and offered it to Benjamin. Benjamin saw the wrapping and crinkled his nose. Carl in his sleep haze had failed to remember exactly where and when he was. He retracted the item, removed it from its wrapping and took a bite. He then offered the first wrapped bar to him again. Benjamin accepted it, and tried to pull open the sealed covering. Carl snickered a little then reached over and grabbed the wrapper by the zig zag edging and tore down. He then went back into his pack and grabbed his water bottle. He took a big swig of water and offered some to Benjamin. He shook his head and grabbed his own water skin and took a drink. Carl was just thinking to himself that we would kill for a toothbrush. His mouth was starting to feel like gross. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his tin of Grizzly and put the last dip in his mouth. He tossed the can into the burning embers and watched the plastic melt down to nothing that could be seen. Benjamin was quietly observing Carl. Benjamin had was oblivious to the truth of who Carl was and questions began to enter into his mind. Carl looked at him as if to anticipate and said “Please don’t ask my any questions, because I cannot tell you any truths.” Benjamin began to open his mouth and paused. He thought about it and closed his mouth and shrugged his shoulders. They both began to break camp and both kicked dirt over the embers to ensure they were extinguished.

     They mounted their horses and began to follow the road back out. Carl had his rifle slung under his coat for ease of use, but still hidden from plain sight. His beard made him stick out and that was something he would have to fix. He was surprised at the sheer lack of facial hair he saw amongst most people. Carl may have to break his own rules and shave his face. No clippers would make that less than a fun task. The new destination was to meet up with General Washington as he was preparing troops to move to Boston. Hopefully cleaning up the redcoat presence would be simple now. No need to bombard the city with cannon fire. Carl was not sure what he would tell Washington now since the only thing he knew was coming was the battle of Long Island and that would not be for at least a year. In that time maybe he could find time to teach some future Artillery techniques to the Redlegs here in this time. Carl would need to learn more about the capabilities though. For all he knew all they did was shove in a big metal ball and fling it in a general direction. In linear warfare that could still be devastating, but indirect fires would be a game changer. Artillery has no forward observers or fire direction currently but that could be the difference between dying for America or making the redcoats die for England. Carl learned that true soldiering wasn’t dying for your country, but making the enemy die for his. He would need to explore this idea more once he talked to Washington. They continued to press on to Virginia where they knew the General would be coming from and hopefully meet them on the way. Carl was sure that in the short time it took him to execute this mission that most likely Washington had not managed to even completely form this militia.

     The trip was uneventful. Days on the road or skirting it when possible. Nights spent in depressions with small fires. Carl used a musket to take down a deer but without salt most of it was wasted. The inability to cure the meat was sad for Carl because he never killed an animal unless he used most of the animal. He did not have that luxury on the road though. With bellies full of venison they did not eat meat again for the next week, instead relying on the kindness of the colonists they met on the trip. Carl ate porridge and even a few raw carrots. His waistline was beginning to suffer. He had dropped muscle mass and felt weaker. There was literally zero sugar in his diet and that was something his brain was not happy about. Drinking a sugar infused energy drink every morning was something he had become accustomed to. Now he had water and the occasional warm ale. His diet was literally meat and vegetables since he was saving his last 3 meal bars for solo travel and emergencies. Benjamin told him stories about his town of Boston. How the Boston Massacre was a pivotal point in turning the tide of opinion against the monarchy. Carl asked him about life, but had a hard time framing the question in a way that would make sense for someone from this time. He heard stories of mass amounts of death due to disease and old men dying at the age of fifty. The way he said it was just so ordinary. People were lucky to live to fifty and yet if someone dies before they are ninety people in his time find it shocking. Carl and many of his friends had spent so much time talking in abstraction about the revolution and colonial life on occasion they forgot just how truly devastating it had to be. Vaccines were truly a modern marvel. Then he smirked as he remembered the anti-vax movement. If they were here now they would just shoot themselves when they saw the ravages of disease. The people who were losing entire families would mock them for not protecting themselves against the ravages of diseases which would be wiped out in the future but still plagued the people of colonial America.

     After two weeks of easy travel off the normal path they managed to find General Washington’s camp. There were about 500 men as near as Carl could count. He looked for the first person he could find with a blue coat and shoulder boards and trotted up to him. “I have an urgent message for General Washington” Carl shouted over the commands of the drilling that were taking place nearby. “General Washington does not take visitors who just wonder up and demand to see him” the officer said. Uniforms without names placed on them seemed weird. How would he know who he is talking to? I guess people just asked. Carl grinned thinking about the utter insanity of modern times and how people just talked to each other when necessary. Carl looked at his shoulder boards and saw two bars, annotating a Captain’s rank. “Captain, you go tell General Washington Chaos is here, and he needs to talk to him immediately.” Upon hearing the word Chaos the Captain perked up. “Colonel, I apologize. I will lead you to him at once.” The Captain shouted at some poor guy to take care of the horses. AS the person grabbed the rigging Carl and Benjamin dismounted. Carl turned and looked at Benjamin to say “Listen Benjamin, there are things that you cannot be privy to. I am going to have to ask you to stay here. Find yourself some food and rest.” Benjamin nodded and then Carl turned to follow the Captain. “How did you know I was a Colonel?” Carl asked. “I only know that Chaos is someone of import to the General and that if he ever showed up I was to address him as Colonel and offer all manner of respect that I would for a uniformed Colonel.” Carl thought that was simple enough. Well done Washington. The Captain led him to a small house with two guards standing outside, tall and clean with muskets at order arms. The Captain knocked and then stuck his head in. “Sir, Chaos is here to see you” and then he stepped aside and motioned Carl to enter the building.