by Mark Goodwin
“Okay. I’ll text you either way.”
“Thanks.” Josh closed the door behind himself.
***
Three hours later, Nicole drove the pickup down Mammoth Cave Park Road. Josh rode shotgun and Emilio sat in the back seat. The sun had set long ago, but the waning moon offered enough luminescence to make out basic features of the landscape.
Josh pointed to the left. “Turn here. Roll to a stop. As soon as Emilio and I are out of the truck, start driving again. This road leads to a picnic area on the river. It’s about a mile up. You can turn around there.”
“And I pick you up at 6:00 AM tomorrow?”
“Yep. In the morning, drive all the way down to the river and come back. We’ll tie a red bandana to a branch where we want you to stop on the way out.” Josh got ready to bail out of the vehicle.
“You guys are going to freeze being out there all night,” she warned.
“We’re dressed for it. We’ll survive,” said Emilio.
“Okay, I love you both.” She rolled to a stop.
“Love you, too.” Josh jumped out and shut the door.
“Bye, baby.” Emilio blew her a kiss as he exited the truck.
The two men hurried to the tree line while Nicole drove off. Josh led the way 200 yards through the woods where they’d have a vantage point of all the dwellings at the ranch. “This spot looks good.”
A fallen pine offered visual cover from anyone who might peer into the forest. Emilio removed his rifle from his shoulder, dropped his pack, and dug out his binoculars. “Let’s settle in for a night of fun and excitement.”
“The less excitement, the better.” Josh positioned his rifle to be ready in case they were spotted. He got situated and retrieved his own binoculars from his pack.
The minutes crawled by slowly. The job required them to be still, so they had little relief from the chilling night air, which hovered in the low 40s throughout the night. Lights were on inside of all the mobile housing units as well as the main house, the metal buildings, and the small house on the far eastern side of the ranch.
“I’m guessing that metal building is being used as a bunkhouse.” Josh watched streams of smoke pour out the top of makeshift chimneys placed at even intervals along the roof of the large metal barn.
“I’ve counted twelve people go in or out,” whispered Emilio.
“Yeah, a lot of going back and forth between the barn and the trailers. Seems like the trailers are where the parties are going on.” Josh saw several people smoking pot and drinking beer as they made their way from one dwelling to the other. “It’s definitely more guys than gals, but I’ve seen a few females in the group.”
“Yeah, but no kids so far,” Emilio said in a low voice.
“That’s a good thing,” Josh replied.
“And I’ve not seen many people coming or going from the main house.”
Josh agreed. “Me neither. I’m guessing that’s the head honcho’s pad. He probably doesn’t keep company with the help.”
“At any rate,” said Emilio. “I’m betting we have a lot more than twenty people to contend with.”
“More like forty or fifty,” said Josh.
“That’s a lot. We need Solomon to come through for us. Any word?” Emilio asked.
Josh took his phone from his pocket. It was set on do not disturb, so he’d received neither sound nor vibrating notifications. However, he saw the icon indicating that he had a message. “Yep.” He read the text from Christina. “He’s in. He’ll be down with eight other shooters Saturday afternoon.”
“Saturday? No chance of them coming tomorrow?”
Josh was as anxious as anyone else to get this operation over with. “I don’t want to rush him. Besides, it gives us a chance to do some training with our people. We’ll be a total of sixteen people up against a much larger group, hitting multiple dwellings. We can use all the drilling time we can get.”
The two men continued to observe the movement and numbers of the enemy for the rest of the evening.
***
Josh slept all day on Friday waking up shortly before 4:00 in the afternoon. Stiff from the reconnaissance mission on the evening prior, he took some time to stretch before coming out of his room to eat.
“Hey, Dad. How did it go?” Micah came into the kitchen.
Josh could hardly bear the thought of dragging his son into harm’s way, but the options were few. If they failed at eliminating this threat, Micah wouldn’t be safe anyway. “It’s a bigger group than we thought.”
“But we can still lick ‘em, right?”
He hugged his son and put on a pot of water for some pine needle tea. “Yeah, we can lick ‘em. But we have to train. We’ll use our compound to mimic the layout of the ranch. I have a pretty good idea how far their living quarters are from the tree line. I’ll mock it up as best I can.”
Micah nodded. “When do we start?”
“At sunset. We’re going to be attacking at night, so we have to train at night. Be geared up in one hour. Emilio and I will assign everyone to a position, and then we’ll start running some drills.”
“Should I wake up Emilio?”
“I’ll get him up in a few minutes. We had a long night. He needs his rest.”
“Okay.” Micah glanced at the stairwell and then back at his father. “But I don’t mind. I can wake him later if you want.”
“Why? What’s going on?”
“Nothing. Just trying to help out.” Micah began to walk out of the room.
“Hang on,” Josh said.
Micah stopped and turned around.
Josh asked, “Is he sleeping in Aunt Nicole’s room.”
Micah shrugged.
“Does that happen a lot?”
“I don’t know. It’s none of my business. Can I go?”
“Yeah.” Josh made a small pan of oatmeal, ate it, and then went to find his sister. When he located her, she was training with Christina, Lindsey, and Mackenzie. Josh informed them all of the training exercise, which would begin at 5:00, then he called Nicole to the side.
Nicole followed him toward the house. “Mackenzie is doing much better. She can change a magazine in like 20 seconds.”
Josh shook his head. “She better have some good cover if it takes her that long.”
“What did you want to talk to me about?”
Josh looked up at her window. “When you were sick you told God that you were going to get serious about following Jesus.”
“I am. I do Bible study with you and the group any time you have it. Why are you bringing this up?”
“Your—sleeping arrangement. James says be doers of the Word and not hearers only, deceiving yourself. He’s saying don’t trick yourself into thinking that because you pray and go to Bible study that you are okay with God.”
She shook her head. “The Bible also says that I’m saved by grace, not by works. I love Emilio. Quit making me sound like some prostitute.”
“First Corinthians 6, Ephesians 5, both of those chapters say don’t be deceived into thinking that fornicators will receive any inheritance in the kingdom of Jesus and God.”
She put her hands on her hips. “The Bible also says judge not lest ye be judged. You should worry about the plank in your own eye instead of picking the sawdust out of mine.”
“I’m not judging you, Nicole. I love you. We’re going into a very dangerous situation tomorrow night, and I want to make sure that you’re on solid ground with God.
“And, I’m well aware of the fact that I’m not perfect. I need God’s grace every day. But, I don’t use it as a license to sin.
“Look, I don’t care what you do or who you do it with. They’re God’s standards, not mine. The only motivation I have in bringing it up is that I want to know that if something happens tomorrow night…” He swallowed hard. “That I’ll see you again on the other side.”
She turned away from him and dried her eyes. “I’ve gotta go. I need to eat something before train
ing.”
Josh watched her walk away. He couldn’t help but worry about her eternal destiny.
***
By 6:00 PM, the group was up-to-speed on the general plan of attack. Josh split the group into two elements. Mackenzie, Micah, and Lindsey would be on the sniper team. They would be tasked with harassing the enemy from the woods across the road from the ranch. They would shoot into the residences from the southwest, forcing the enemy to leave the safety of concealment.
Josh’s team would lie in wait in the forest to the northwest of the ranch and pick off the enemy as they emerged from the houses, bunkhouse, and trailers. The training exercise would not utilize live ammo but would allow the teams to work out any bugs in communications and recognize any instances where they could be potentially exposed to getting caught in the crossfire.
When Solomon’s group arrived, they would function as a secondary fire team working from the northwest, alongside Josh’s group. Once Josh’s group began advancing on the residences, Micah’s team would pull back and provide cover fire in the likely incident of the primary assault teams needing to sound a retreat.
Josh ran the drill. The performance was sloppy, but pretty much what he’d anticipated. He ran the drill again and everyone seemed much more confident of their roles than they’d been the first time around. The group continued practicing a third, fourth, and fifth time.
Josh looked at his watch. “10:00 PM.” He could see that they were getting tired. “Great work everyone. You moved like a well-oiled machine on that last one. But, I want to run it one more time. I know you’re tired, but you’ll be ready for tomorrow. You only have to run it once tomorrow night, but it’s for all the marbles.”
“Couldn’t we run another drill tomorrow afternoon?” Lindsey looked particularly tired.
Emilio backed Josh up. “Nope. You need to be rested tomorrow. Right now, when you’re doing it over and over, is when your body is memorizing all the steps.”
Josh clapped his hands. “Okay. Everyone in position. One last drill.”
The two teams split up for the final run of the evening.
“Bang, bang, bang,” Micah yelled to mimic the sound of his rifle.
Josh’s team advanced from near the back fence line toward the farmhouse. Likewise, he and the rest of his team made sound effects. “Bang, bang, bang.” Josh ran to the RV, Emilio opened the door, Josh went in first with Christina and Nicole behind him. They cleared each room of Mackenzie’s RV, then repeated the process, first on Christina’s travel trailer, then on the farmhouse.
“Dad,” Micah called over the radio.
Josh had just cleared Nicole’s room upstairs. “Yes, Son?”
“Mackenzie is down.”
“Down? What do you mean?”
“She tripped over something,” Micah replied.
Josh could hear Mackenzie in the background. “I stepped in a badger hole or something.”
Josh called to her over the radio. “We don’t have a lot of badgers in Kentucky.”
Her voice came back, much clearer, talking on her own radio. “A hedgehog or groundhog or whatever. I don’t know what made it, but I stepped in a hole.”
“Can you walk?” Josh asked.
“I can’t even stand up.”
“Okay, Micah, Lindsey, help her back to the house. We’ll take a look and get it fixed up.” Josh put his radio back on his belt.
“Down to six, and the bullets haven’t even started flying yet,” said Christina.
Emilio looked at Josh. “I hate to say it, but it might be just as well. Three days ago, she wouldn’t even touch a gun.”
Josh nodded. “Maybe you’re right. But another shooter in the forest would have helped to create more stress for the enemy. We’ll have to make the best of what we have.”
CHAPTER 27
Though an army may encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war may rise against me, in this I will be confident.
Psalm 27:3 NKJV
Josh had just finished eating breakfast with Nicole and Emilio when he heard vehicles in the drive. Lindsey’s voice came over the radio. “Solomon’s group is here.”
“10-4,” Josh replied. He put his empty bowl in the sink. “Let’s go offer a warm welcome.”
Josh walked out onto the porch, followed by Nicole and Emilio. He counted the men as they exited the two vehicles.
Solomon came up the stairs. Like the rest of his group, he was dressed in olive drab military attire. “Good to see you. You look better than the last time I saw you.”
“Yeah, well, thanks to you, I’m still around to be seen.” Josh offered his hand. “Christina said you were bringing nine. I only see seven guys.”
“We thought Chuck was over the bug, but he had a slight relapse. Nothing major, but he wouldn’t be doing anyone any good by coming along. Eric, too. This is a high-stress mission. I don’t want anyone by my side unless they’re feeling 100 percent.”
Josh examined the men who all looked like capable soldiers. “One of ours twisted her ankle last night, so we’re short, also.”
“That leaves thirteen total,” said Solomon. “Unlucky number.”
“You don’t get caught up in superstition, do you?” Emilio asked.
Solomon cracked a smile. “Unlucky for the enemy, not us.”
Josh slapped him on the arm. “Come on inside. I’ve got a map. We’ll go over the basic operation.”
“Is this a standard pre-dawn hit?” Solomon asked.
“Not exactly,” said Josh. “Judging from our observation, we’ve got some tweakers in the group. So, a few meth heads are always awake. Four in the morning seems to be the time the party starts winding down. That’s when we’ll hit them.”
***
The teams loaded up at 3:00 AM Sunday morning to drive out to the objective rally point, which was located on the narrow access road to the Green River. Once there, they continued all the way down the single-lane gravel road to the picnic area, turned around and came back to park within a hundred yards of Mammoth Cave Park Road. Having the vehicles ready for a hasty retreat could mean the difference between life and death.
Josh stepped out of the Suburban. He hugged Micah. “You and Lindsey stick together. Once my team makes entry to the residences, come back to the vehicles. We may need you guys to pick us up if things get too hot.”
Micah adjusted his rifle. “Yes, sir.”
Josh looked at Lindsey who was hugging her mother. “Same goes for you. Don’t let Micah out of your sight. Anything else between you two has to be set aside. Everyone’s survival depends on you working together right now.”
“Yes, Mr. Stone.” She checked the magazines in the front of her chest rig.
“I love you,” said Christina to her daughter.
“I love you, too, Mom.”
“Be safe,” Christina added.
“I will.” Lindsey walked up the gravel road next to Micah.
Josh glanced at Christina. He could see his own pain mirrored in her eyes. He turned away quickly before either of them had a chance to get emotional. He turned to Solomon. “When we get to the buildings, we’ll all have to hit the bunkhouse together. After we’ve finished that, we can split up and clear the rest. We’ll take the main house. Your group can split into two fire teams, one takes the trailer, and the other takes the small brick house. Then, we’ll just have the travel trailers to mop up.”
Solomon turned to a rugged woman with one side of her head shaved. “Dana, your team will take the trailer. I’ll take the little brick house.”
She answered without smiling. “Roger that, Top.”
“We’ve got a short trek through some dense forest, so we should get moving.” Josh motioned for the others to follow him and Emilio, who also knew the way. They soon arrived at the edge of the woods. The three fire teams positioned themselves about fifty feet from one another so not to make an overly convenient target by being too close together.
Josh, Emilio, Christina, and Nicole
posted up at the fallen pine tree where the two men had conducted their reconnaissance two nights prior. They waited quietly as several revelers from the ranch walked from residence to residence, howling loudly, laughing, and yelling slurred remarks at one another in passing. Five of them passed a bottle and a joint around a rusty metal barrel being used as a fire pit.
Josh checked his watch. “Four o’clock. Get ready.” He lifted his rifle and took aim.
Shortly thereafter, a barrage of gunfire erupted from across the road. While Micah and Lindsey’s commotion kept the party-goers distracted, Josh took careful aim and picked off three of the enemies who’d been warming themselves by the barrel fire. Sporadic shots rang out from along Josh’s line. Many of the discharges resulted in the death of more hostiles.
The attack went on for a full minute before the ranch residence seemed to understand that they were under attack. Another minute passed before they realized that they were getting fired upon from the woods behind the buildings, as well as from across the road.
A few new arrivals to the fight came out from the bunkhouse. Their speech was indiscernible at such a distance, but they managed to bring several of the confused survivors into the large metal building.
“That’s our cue.” Josh pressed the talk key. “Micah, we’re going in. Pull back.”
“10-4,” Micah answered.
Josh led the charge out from the cover of the trees and across the field.
Solomon sprinted to keep up. “I saw a few stragglers take off down the road heading east.”
“On foot?” Josh asked.
“Yep,” Solomon answered.
“They won’t get far. We’ll get ‘em.”
Emilio was first to reach the entrance door. He positioned the barrel of his rifle on the doorknob. “Ready?”
Josh held a finger in the air, waiting for the rest of the assault team to catch up. When they were all present, he dropped his hand. “Go!”