by Ryan Walker
One by one, each member of the team said, “Right.”
“It’s that pre-dawn time when the overnighters are most tired and least alert,” Robert said. “Best time to hit them, but we need to move. We’re burning darkness right now.”
Chapter Seven
Randall and Robert went over the wall about 200 yards from the back gate. They carried only their sidearms and bladed weapons, to minimize their noise signature.
As Robert had predicted, the guards watching the gate were far from alert. One was sitting on a tree stump, dozing off.
The other was pacing back and forth near the small fire they’d built to ward off a bit of the nighttime chill.
On a signal from Robert, the two men went into action.
With a good couple of thousand people in the Compound, nobody knew everybody else.
The two cousins took advantage of this fact and the darkness to walk right up to the two guards before they drew on them.
“Hands up,” Robert said.
The two guards, taken by surprise, hesitated only briefly before complying.
“Over here,” he said, gesturing with his Ruger .357 towards a part of the wall in deep shadow.
Once they were all out of the firelight, Robert ordered the guards to carefully put their weapons on the ground and step back.
Randall and Robert kept their handguns trained on the guards while they moved forward and picked up their weapons.
“On your faces,” Robert said, having them follow him out of the firelight.
“We’re looking to get in and out without any killing, and we’d appreciate your help,” Randall said. “One of you got the key to that gate?”
“On a nail, just to the right,” one of the guards said.
Robert kept his Ruger aimed at the guards while Randall quickly let the rest of the team into the Compound.
Together, the rescue team searched the guards for any holdouts, bound them, and taped their mouths shut.
“OK,” Robert said, watching the seconds count own on his watch.
The rest of the team followed suit.
As soon as the second hand hit zero, Robert said, “You all know your jobs!”
He started making his way to the center of the Compound with Randall and Jane.
Bruce, Marcus and Claire went off to do their part.
The latter three each carried a spike awl. They went into the small motor pool and checked the first two Toyota Hi-Lux pickups they saw.
As Robert had hoped, the keys for each vehicle were in the ignition. Claire took Marcus’ Glock .40 in lieu of her AR-15, as it would be much less conspicuous, and made her way to an open common area near the east side of the Compound.
Under one of her father-in-law’s jackets, oversized for her, she carried three quart-sized milk jugs of gasoline.
Meanwhile, Marcus and Bruce took their awls and started spiking the tires of every other vehicle they could find.
* * *
Closer to the center of the compound, Robert, Randall, and Jane were making good time.
They hugged buildings whenever they could, and when they came to an intersection two could watch the street both ways while the third crossed.
When the got to the main building, they gathered around one of the back doors.
Robert took longer than he’d have liked to pick the lock, the pressure to keep to a strict timeline making him jumpy.
Finally, he got the lock open, and his half of the rescue team stepped inside.
* * *
“Fire!” Claire shouted. “Fire! Fire!”
She had waited until she’d removed any fire extinguishers she could find and lit up the three different sheds before sounding the alarm.
As soon as she saw people moving towards the fires, she quieted down and slipped into the shadows to go back to the motor pool.
Whatever guards were on duty started running towards the burning sheds.
A low level of panic started building up as they discovered the fire extinguishers were no longer in their designated places.
Claire heard somebody say, “Pull up a water buffalo!”
Shortly afterwards, she was passed by two men heading for the motor pool at a dead run.
She had to think fast. It wasn’t going to take long for them to notice all of the flat tires.
Bruce and Marcus couldn’t just stick around waiting to be discovered in the only two vehicles that could drive – they’d need to get out of there.
Her chances of rendezvousing with them at the motor pool were not good at all, so she resorted to the contingency plan – meet the trucks at the main office.
* * *
“Things just got hot,” Robert said, as the sound of gunfire came from outside.
They’d covered about half of the first floor of the building, and hadn’t found Thomas yet.
Fortunately, they hadn’t run into any of the Compound’s people, either.
Randall realized that was very likely to change, when he heard a door down the hall open up.
He, Robert, and Jane tried to back into the last room they’d checked, but it was too far away.
In the dim light of two small LED lamps, one at either end of the hallway, they saw three men step into the hallway, turn, and look right at them.
The men were armed, but by the time they realized what they were looking at, the rescue team was already firing.
Robert and Randall each got five rounds downrange with their handguns. With the stronger recoil on her .30-30, Jane got just one shot off.
By the time she got her sight picture back, all of the targets were either down or back in the room they had come from.
There was the sound of footsteps up on the second floor, running down the hallway away from them. Company was on its way.
They’d passed a stairway at the door they came in. It was reasonable to assume there was another one at the far end of the building.
“You all might want to give up if you don’t want your buddy here to get it,” came a voice from down the hallway.
Randall swore. It was clear to him now where Thomas was, but it also looked like the rescue was going to fail.
Robert, in the process of reloading his .357, didn’t let that deter him.
Seeing Robert reloading his weapon made Randall remember to reload his. His hands shaking vigorously, he managed to eject the magazine from his Colt .45 and insert a fresh one. He picked up the old magazine and stuffed it away in one of his pockets. Magazines were now a precious commodity and even in the heat of the moment he knew it would be unwise to leave any behind.
“Cover the end of the hallway,” Robert whispered to Jane, then looked at Randall and indicated the right side of the hallway. “Stay out of her line.”
Robert started slowly walking down the hallway, back to the wall.
Randall followed.
“Step out unarmed and we let you walk! You hurt our man, we hurt you!” Robert called out.
The footsteps upstairs were no longer audible.
“There’s more of us than of you,” came the voice from down the hall.
“I’ll still have plenty of time to kill you!” Robert shouted, still sidestepping down the hallway.
“Not likely.” The statement was punctuated by the sound of a single round going off from the room.
Robert and Randall gave up their attempts at stealth and ran the last dozen steps to the doorway.
Behind them, Jane’s Winchester fired.
Randall glanced left and saw somebody ducking back around a corner at the end of the hallway.
He left Robert to deal with the man who’d just shot his brother, taking up a position to back up Jane if anybody else showed around the corner.
He thought he heard a woman’s voice say something from the room, then he heard Robert say, “Thank God, Claire!”
Randall really wanted to look into the room, but another target appeared.
He and Jane both fired at it.
One o
f them scored a hit, judging by the sudden sounds of pain that came from the end of the hall.
Randall heard glass breaking in the room Robert was in, followed by his cousin yelling, “On me!”
Randall signaled for Jane to move up.
While she ran, he exchanged a few rounds with somebody who popped around the corner at the end of the hallway.
Jane tapped him on the shoulder, and said, “Switch.”
Randall let Jane take over covering the end of the hallway, and stepped into the room. Robert was taking Thomas over to the window of the room.
Claire was outside, splitting her attention between Robert and shooting at the Compound’s men with her borrowed Glock.
One of the Compound men was lying still in the middle of the room, blood pooling from his head.
Randall heard a truck come up to the building and skid to a halt. Jane fired two more rounds down the hallway.
Thomas was barely able to stand, but was doing his best. Randall came up and helped Robert lift him through the window.
Marcus was there, and with Claire covering him got Thomas into the bed of a pickup. A second truck skidded to a halt.
“Let’s go!” Bruce shouted.
“Jane!” Robert shouted, pointing at the window.
Jane didn’t need to be told twice. She went straight for the window and climbed through it.
Robert and Randall followed, rifle rounds from inside the building punching through the wall.
While they ran for the bed of Bruce’s truck, Marcus sped away with Thomas, Claire, and Jane.
It must have taken only fifteen seconds to clear the Compound, but to Randall, it felt like forever, as bullets cracked through the air above him or shattered the Hi-Lux’s windows.
Once they got through the gate, the walls that kept the inhabitants inside safe also hindered their ability to fire at the fleeing trucks.
Behind him, Randall could see two sets of headlights following them from down the main road of the Compound…
Chapter Eight
Dirt Road Outside The Compound - Night
Randall reloaded his Colt 1911 .45 in the passenger seat of the old Toyota Hi-Lux truck as Bruce pressed down on the gas pedal and they sped down the dirt road. Robert was in the car with them.
Marcus, Jane, and Claire were in the other Hi-Lux ahead of them with Thomas.
While the rescue of Thomas itself had been miraculously successful, they were hardly out of the danger yet.
Behind them were two sets of headlights from other vehicles coming fast for them. Every few seconds a gunshot would ring out from the leading vehicle and either strike their car or WHIZ past them or overhead.
“Hang on!” yelled Bruce as another bullet whizzed right over them again.
Though the dirt road was bumpy and filled with turns, Bruce never touched the brakes. They had to evade the Compound’s men quickly, or else they would catch up and there would no doubt be a large shootout that wouldn’t end well for either side.
Randall had seen that Thomas had been severely beaten and bleeding and his fingers broken when they had rescued him, and he feared more for his brother’s life and well-being than he did the Compound’s men who were after them now.
The Compound’s men were slowly catching up. Right when Bruce would swing the Hi-Lux around a curve in the road, the headlights of the leading enemy vehicle would only be a second or two behind, followed by the second vehicle soon after.
These guys aren’t going to give up, Randall thought.
Suddenly, Bruce slammed the breaks and the Hi-Lux came to a screeching halt.
Randall looked up to see why: the Hi-Lux in front of them had also come to a sudden stop because of a fallen tree that blocked half the road. Marcus, Jane, and Claire were piling out with their rifles, ready to make a stand.
“Tree’s in the way!” yelled Marcus. “Get your guns out and fight!”
“Out, out!” screamed Bruce as he quickly put the truck into park and hopped out, with Randall and Robert following him out shortly afterwards.
Randall and Robert quickly retrieved their rifles, an M1A and AR-15 respectively, while everyone else lined up with guns aimed at the two pairs of headlights coming right for them…
* * *
Gale Butler was driving the leading Chevy Blazer chasing after the rescue party, his Ruger Mini-14 carbine on his lap.
There were four other men in the Blazer with him, plus four more in the Ford Bronco trying to keep up behind them.
As soon as the Compound had been attacked and Gale had seen the raiding party escaping in the stolen Hi-Lux’s with Thomas, he made no hesitation in climbing into one of the Blazers and firing it up to go after them.
He didn’t need to call out for more men, as they simply piled into the car with him while he was gunning it down the main street of the Compound to engage the rescuers in pursuit. When another man had tried to climb in with no more available seats, Gale simply shouted at him to fire up another vehicle and follow them.
Gale had launched the pursuit after Thomas’ rescuers largely on instinct and in the heat of the moment. He had no plan and only now he wanted to see to it that Thomas and all of the members of his rescue party would be dead in a hail of bullets. Beating Thomas and dislocating his fingers wasn’t good enough for Gale despite the sick satisfaction it had given him in watching it happen.
It was to Gale’s surprise when both of the Hi-Lux’s came to a rapid stop. Finally, there would be a fight and these people would pay for their invasion of the Compound and the death of his brother.
“Slam the breaks and turn around!” the man riding shotgun yelled at Gale.
“No, we take them on!” Gale screamed back. “They’re not getting away with this! Ready your weapons!”
The members of the rescue party were now piling out of the two trucks with rifles. Gale was still speeding towards them with his foot pressed hard on the gas. They were less than a hundred yards away and he was closing in fast.
“They’ve got the drop on us!” another man in the backseat said. “Turn the damn car around or we’re all gonna take a lot of bullets!”
“No!” Gale yelled.
The man riding shotgun drew a pistol and held it to Gale’s head.
“Turn the damn car around now! I won’t say it again!”
Both of Gale’s feet immediately slammed on the brakes, not because of the gun that was being held to his head, but because he could see the rescue party members taking aim at them.
The men arguing with him were right: the rescue party had gotten the drop on them.
* * *
Marcus fired first, squeezing off two quick shots with his AR right after Gale slammed the breaks in the lead vehicle.
The rest of the group soon opened fire as well, the bright muzzle flashes illuminating each of their faces in the darkness: Marcus, Robert, and Claire each squeezed off shots with their ARs, Randall pumped heavy .308 rounds downrange with his M1A, Jane racked and fired her Winchester .30-30 as fast as she could, and Bruce’s .45 blasted away!
With bullets either whizzing past them or slamming into the vehicle, Gale kept his head low as he quickly put the Blazer into reverse and slammed the gas pedal.
Wheels spinning in the dirt, the Blazer began going in reverse as fast as it could, nearly hitting the Bronco behind them before it too spun into reverse.
Two bullets smashed through the windshield and struck the man who had pointed the pistol at Gale in the chest, splattering blood over the glass.
“Faster, faster!” another man in the rear seat yelled, ducking from the incoming fire.
“Stay low!” another screamed over the shooting.
More bullets smashed through the windshield and into the car or zipped right over it, but Gale and the rest of the men in the car kept their heads and shoulders low.
Finally, Gale managed to swing the Blazer in reverse around the corner to evade the incoming fire.
“Get out of the car, we try agai
n! This time on foot through the trees where there’s cover!” said Gale, opening the door.