“And this ‘Carol’ broad is the same one you mentioned last night?” Xander then asked.
“I assume so, yeah.” Bray replied. “I honestly haven’t said a single word to her, Xander. I have no idea what she’s capable of. I only know that the others seem to look up to her, even more than they do Linda.”
“Enough of this shit.” Mars said out of the side of his mouth. “Let me take out this bitch right now, Xander. We’ve been in tougher scrapes than this.”
“Hang on, guys.” Bray said. “Let me try talking to her.”
“This bitch isn’t smart enough to know how fucked she is, Bray.” Mars said. “I’m getting this party started… fuckin’ whores.”
Without even giving Xander a second to try and stop him, Mars quickly dropped to a knee while swinging his rifle around. The move was meant as a way to buy himself an extra second out of a sniper’s crosshairs, but it had also caught his men off guard. The man standing directly behind him, a Frenchman by the name of Luis, immediately caught a bullet with his teeth. Mars had felt the bullet streak over his head as its air turbulence disturbed a wisp of his hair. He did get a shot off, but the sudden startle had sent the bullet high and wide of his intended target.
An instant later, before Xander or any of his men could get a single shot off, the air was suddenly filled with the thunderous report of automatic weapons fire. It seemed as though a rifle was spitting lead towards them from beside every cottage and behind every tree. They all quickly scrambled for the ditch on the other side of the road and the treeline beyond. Like most of the others, Mars managed to dive into the ditch unscathed, but Xander had taken a bullet to the left tricep and Bray was hit twice in the right forearm.
The only reason they weren’t all immediately torn to pieces was because none of these women had ever squeezed the trigger on a fully automatic rifle before. Like 99.8 percent of women in Canada, most of them had never fired a weapon of any kind. The experience had proven far more ‘energetic’ than any of them had expected and as a result the tree tops had taken the brunt of their initial barrage. In hind sight they would have been much better off just keeping them in semi-auto.
Poor hapless Luis had inadvertently eaten the bullet meant for her primary target, but Carol would see to it that she didn’t repeat the mistake. Unlike her neighbours, she had wisely chosen to keep her rifle in semi-auto. Carol was a seasoned hunter, a champion sharpshooter. She had no interest in spraying her ammunition in every direction unguided. While the others laid down what would amount to suppressive fire, she would choose her targets deliberately and take these men out one at a time. As her friends served up the shock and awe, she would dish out the death and destruction.
Carol peered out from behind Linda’s chimney again and quickly chose her next victim. She placed her sights on the back of a man’s head as he ran for the trees and calmly tracked his movements. One disciplined squeeze of the trigger, one deafening belch of fire and one spray of blood and brains. Two bullets expelled, two heads ventilated and 28 cartridges to go.
Linda and her friends on the porch had immediately dropped to their chests and joined in on the assault. They knew that eventually the men would get into the trees and offer them some return fire. Their best chance of success was to thin them out enough to convince them that this was a futile endeavour. They knew that if these men disappeared into the trees this could be drawn out for hours. That was one thing that Carol and Linda were not prepared for. They needed to end this battle right here and right now.
As Linda reloaded, she watched another man collapse to the ground. This one was riddled with holes. Looking down the road, she saw that Joanne had run across to the other side. Joanne was a happily married mother of two only a few short months ago. Now she lived in a cottage with three other women, a 30 year old childless widow with nothing left worth living for. She had run out into the open and positioned herself in such a way that the trees offered the man no cover from the side. If she had any control of her weapon at all, Xander’s crew would have been dealt a tremendous blow. As it were, several of her bullets had struck a single man and the trees had swallowed the rest.
Looking down at Zach’s shredded body, Tom suddenly realized that he was in a similar predicament. He quickly turned, aimed and fired. Joanne would take her final breath thinking of her beautiful children and her dear husband. Later that day, her friends would find her with a bullet wound in her chest and a haunting smile on her face.
The bullets in Linda’s magazine ran dry once again. Her last volley had chased a group of men running through the trees, but none had found their mark. One of Carol’s certainly did though. An oaf of a man named Wesley would find himself with a hole in his upper back and a bullet lodged in his spine. He laid in the snow paralyzed and alone, knowing that he was bleeding out, but unable to apply pressure to the wound that would slowly take his life. The women would find Wesley later that same day as well, but they would not find a smile on his face.
Along with lasting nightmares, Linda and Carol’s desperate expedition into the burned out barn last night had rewarded them with a good amount of weapons. They had found 30 functioning rifles and close to 200 loaded magazines for them. They had also managed to pick up a dozen pistols among the charred corpses. They figured that they had more than enough ammo to deal with Xander’s bunch, but they didn’t have nearly enough to waste any needlessly. As their targets finally disappeared from view the gunfire quickly died down.
Thankfully, Xander was more than willing to talk again at this point. His crew hadn’t been prepared nearly well enough to deal with these surprisingly obstinate women. Being quickly reduced to eight and finding himself suddenly skewered as well, Xander was definitely ready to renegotiate. He didn’t think that his men had fired more than a few rounds during the entire engagement. He certainly hadn’t. He only hoped that he wouldn’t be shot again the moment he stepped out from behind his tree.
“Alright, we’ve had enough!” Xander shouted towards the cottage. “You win! Cease fire!”
“Cease fire! Cease fire!” he heard Linda quickly shout out in response. She was obviously ready and willing to end this as well.
Then Xander turned around quickly to see if he could spot Ken. Seeing him a few trees away, Xander waved him over and then nodded Mars over as well. As they made their way to their leader he lifted up his coat and unholstered his pistol and 9mm magazines.
“Mars, I want you and Kenny to disappear into these trees and make your way back to the house.” Xander whispered, handing Ken his handgun and spare magazines. “Get one of those trucks and the tanker started and get the hell out of here. Listen to me very carefully. Do not take the truck with the cargo trailer attached. Take one with a camper. Don’t screw around with your gear or anything else. Just grab the trucks and go. I want you guys to drive 20 minutes down the highway and then wait for us.”
“What are we…?”
“…There’s no time for bullshit questions right now, Mars!” Xander said. “Just go before it’s too late.”
As Mars and Ken crawled back into the trees, Xander turned his attention back to the cottages. The women had stopped firing, but he wasn’t completely convinced they were done. He needed to make his surrender abundantly clear to them. He and his men had lost this fight and they wouldn’t get anymore arguments out of him. Just as they demanded, they would leave this place behind with nothing but what they had brought with them.
Of course, when they discovered that two of his men had ‘broken ranks’ and taken off with two of the trucks, Xander would feign outrage. He would plead ignorance and swear to make the deserters pay if he ever caught up with them. He doubted very much that these women would keep hostages and insist that he bring the trucks back. Ridding themselves of their testosterone filled menace was their end goal after all. Xander didn’t think they would choose to prolong their eviction over a couple of trucks… not when they still had six others.
“Is it safe to come out?” Xand
er shouted. “I don’t want anymore of my men killed. We’ll do it your way. We’ll just leave on our sleds.”
“None of you will be safe if we see a single rifle.” Linda shouted back. “Set them down and put your hands over your heads. Then it’ll be safe to come out.”
“Alright, we’re setting them down now.” Xander said, nodding to his men.
“I know you probably have other weapons too.” Linda said. “If you keep your hands up, you’ll be perfectly alright. If you drop your hands, we drop you. Got it?”
“Yeah, we got it.” Xander replied. “We’re coming out.”
Xander took a deep breath, raised his hands and stepped out from behind his tree. Bray needed to link the fingers of both hands together and rest them on his head to do the same. He wasn’t even able to move his mangled right arm, let alone raise it above his head without the assistance of his left. When they saw that Xander and Bray weren’t immediately executed, Cam, Tom, Geoff and Easton followed suit. There were now six unarmed men standing with their hands up in front of 23 women with rifles pointed directly at them.
“We only shot four. There should be two more of you back there.” Linda said as Carol walked out from around the side of the cottage to join her.
Testing his acting skills, Xander looked at his men with a confused expression and then back towards the trees.
“Mars, Kenny, get out here.” Xander shouted.
After a few seconds, he tried again to the same result.
Deciding to take on a supporting role, Bray leaned in and whispered something into Xander’s ear.
“Oh, come on!” Xander shouted at Bray impressively. “Those chicken shit little…”
“…What’s the problem?” Linda asked.
“Two of my assholes took off when the shooting started.” Xander replied. “I guess they’re gone.”
“Some professionals.” Linda said to Carol.
Carol leaned into Linda, so the two of them could carry out a quiet conversation of their own. Once they agreed on the best way to handle the situation, Carol turned to their friends.
“You ladies staying at Liz’s place, stay here in case those other two pricks show up.” Carol shouted. “Shoot on sight.”
“It’s time for you pricks to hit the road.” Carol then said to Xander and his men. “You’re going to march your asses back over to that house, pack your crap and ride your snowmobiles out of here. To make sure that you do, you’ll have 18 pissed off women with rifles walking right behind you.”
“Before that, though, I want all eight of you to open your coats.” Linda added. “One at a time, I’m gunna check you for weapons while Carol and the rest of my friends point their rifles at your heads. If one of you lowers your hands, we’ll shoot every last one you and call it a day.”
“You said we could keep our shit.” Xander said.
“That was before your man decided to start this.” Linda said. “Now that we know you’re all a bunch of murdering assholes we’re taking all your weapons. We’ll still let you load up your moose, so you don’t have to worry about hunting with sticks for a little while.”
“Why don’t you let…?”
…Carol fired her rifle at Xander’s feet immediately shutting him up. Apparently, she felt that Linda was offering these guys far more of an explanation than they deserved.
“I guess that means question period’s over.” Linda said. “You open up your coat first, tough guy.”
While they were frisking the men, Linda had noticed how badly Bray was suffering. Seeing also how much blood he was losing, Linda had decided to show their former friend some mercy. Instead of forcing Bray to keep his hands on his head, she had separated him from the others and sent one of her friends for some towels. She wrapped his forearm tightly in one towel, tied the other into a sling and cradled his arm into it. Other than Bray thanking Linda for her kindness, no words were spoken. Bray’s eyes, however, silently pleaded for Linda’s forgiveness. Linda’s saddened eyes offered him only disappointment in return.
Bray’s first aid had eaten up about 10 minutes and their walk back to the house would burn up another 10. It would be more than enough time for Mars and Ken to get both trucks out of there. By the time the group arrived they would already be several kilometres down the highway. Xander couldn’t help but sigh slightly when he saw the plow truck with the cargo trailer full of weapons and supplies still parked where they had left it.
As badly as Xander wanted that truck and its contents, he knew that he couldn’t have his men steal it. These women would find losing the tanker a hard pill to swallow, but the loss of all their hunting rifles, ammo and supplies would be absolutely unacceptable. That would be more than enough to send them into that hostage taking situation that Xander was trying desperately to avoid. His choice to leave it behind would be one of the only good decisions he would make all day.
“Oh, you have got to be kidding me…” Linda said, noticing the missing vehicles as well. “Where’s the fuel truck, asshole?”
“Damn it… I don’t know, Linda.” Xander replied. “We parked them all right here.”
“I hope you enjoyed your little barbecue this morning, prick.” Carol said. “That just cost you your moose.”
“That’s bullshit!” Xander shouted. “We did everything you said.”
Carol instantly swung her rifle around and targeted the hood of one of the snowmobiles.
“You’re getting really close to walking your asses out of here, prick.” Carol said. “Pack your shit and get the hell out.”
◆◆◆
After about 20 minutes, Ken noticed that Mars was finally starting to slow down. Mars had the blade down on the lead truck, plowing the way ahead, while Ken followed a safe distance behind in the tanker. Ken had no idea yet how Mars’ journey had been, but his had been smooth and trouble free… physically anyway. Mentally, he was experiencing a tumbling mix of regret, concern and anger.
As Ken pulled to a stop, he couldn’t help but think of what they could have accomplished had they simply left with all eight trucks this morning. They could have easily turned north, picked up the 30 guys in the Burwash area and then when down to offer Mick and his guys a lift. Once they had regrouped, 47 men strong, they could have escaped this barren wintery wasteland and enjoyed the considerably milder weather of Southwestern Ontario. As well equipped as they would have been, they may have even been able to continue south into the States and vacationed on a warm South Carolina beach. Now, though, they were down several men and a midwinter move south was out of reach.
Ever since Ken had known Xander, he had watched his boss’ personality faults mess up one opportunity after another. On numerous occasions Xander’s insatiable greed and unbridled libido had prevented them from achieving that next level of success. The decision he had made to kill those cops and highjack that transport truck full of Army weapons had essentially ground their entire operation to a halt. That was only one glaring example, of course, but there were many others.
The Company had continued to grow, regardless of the countless mistakes, but Ken always felt that Xander’s childish insistence that he get ‘just a little bit more’ had held them all back. This time, like many others, the error had been made for nothing more than a ‘piece of ass’ and an opportunity to exert his will on another group of women. His worse decisions usually ended up costing them all financially, but this one had cost them far more.
Ken had never said anything to anybody about this and he had no intention to do so now. He had no idea if any of the others had ever questioned Xander’s leadership, but he certainly wouldn’t… not out loud anyway. As differently as Ken would like to see things done, one truth was irrefutable. Xander had built The Company into a successful organization that had made them all a lot of money. As useless as cash had become, Ken’s massive safe at home was completely stuffed with reasons why he would remain loyal to Xander. The events of today, however, had severely tested that loyalty.
Mars
and Ken left their engines running as they climbed down from their cabs. They then walked towards each other to have a discussion while they waited for the others to arrive.
“Well… that was a fuckin’ disaster.” Mars said. “Xander’s gunna be seriously pissed about this one, man.”
Ken felt exactly the same way, of course, but he was smart enough to keep his opinions to himself. A man like Mars wasn’t truly interested in anything someone under him had to say anyway. Ken knew enough about Mars to just remain quiet and let him vent. He was at least relieved to learn that their second in command didn’t always like the way the boss handled things either.
What Ken didn’t realize, of course, was that Xander hadn’t ordered Mars to start that fight back there. Xander would indeed be incensed, but the bulk of his rage would be aimed directly at Mars. Xander’s initial decision to stay on Lake Nipissing had been a poor one, but the decision to start a war with its residents was on Mars alone.
“We lost six trucks today over this shit.” Mars continued. “We should have just pulled out this morning like Bray was saying. How many of our guys got shot back there?”
“I’m not sure how many got hit, but at least three are dead.” Ken replied. “There’s no way Luis, Zach or Emmitt made it out alive. Shit, man, Emmitt’s head exploded right in front of me.”
“Xander and Bray got shot too, but they’ll be alright.” Mars added. “I saw Wes go down, but I don’t know how bad he got hit. I never saw him get up anyway. That means this bullshit might have just cost us four guys.”
“Having us get these two trucks out of there was a good idea.” Ken said, regretting the words even before he had finished saying them.
Mars stared at Ken for a moment as his blood began to boil. He was about to make it abundantly clear that he was not at all in a ‘look on the bright side’ kind of mood. Like Ken, Mars was deeply loyal to Xander and he would never consider a move against him. Unlike Ken, however, he was not above voicing his displeasure when the boss pissed him off. Ken suddenly realized that he really should have followed his own advice and just kept his mouth shut.
EMP [Collateral Darkness] | Book 4 Page 23