Turning back to the fight, Xander saw that Mars now had Rob pinned against the door. Xander lowered his rifle, pulled his handgun and placed it against the side of Rob’s head.
“Sorry, Mars, I know I promised you this one.”
Xander fired, Rob dropped and one second later the door came crashing down.
◆◆◆
Dan was directly behind Stu and instinctively fired as Stu went down in front of him. Corey sprayed lead at the man as well, but there was really no need. Dan’s shotgun blast had already removed everything above the man’s chin. The headless man’s right leg still twitched where it laid in the rubble of the burning front room.
While Dan and Brian covered the hallway with their shotguns, Corey helped Stu up and looked him over.
“Damn, Stu, you alright?” Corey asked.
“Shit, I don’t know. You tell me.” Stu said, grimacing as he tried to get a look at his left shoulder.
“It’s a clean through and through, buddy.” Corey said. “You’ll be fine ya big baby.”
Multiple gunshots suddenly rang out from the bedroom. Once again, they could hear that a desperate struggle was occurring inside. Without a word, Stu immediately charged at the door dropping his rifle and drawing his Glock as he ran. Corey dropped his rifle as well and ran after him with his Beretta drawn. Even in a desperate situation, they had enough presence of mind to know that a handgun was far better suited for a close quarter engagement.
Brian and Dan followed, but not before picking up their friends’ rifles. With the fire gaining momentum, there was a good chance they would lose them if they didn’t.
As the sound of one final gunshot reverberated down the hall from the bedroom, Stu leapt into the air and slammed both of his feet into the door as hard as he could. Rather than swinging open, the door was savagely torn from its hinges. The entire wooden slab came crashing down into the room with Stu on top of it.
Firing from his back, Stu fired repeatedly between his boots at the man he had pinned under the door. While Stu methodically blew Mars’ face apart, Corey simultaneously fired into the chest of the other. He placed no less than six rounds into Xander and still he refused to fall. He was being pushed back violently and he was unable to return fire, but he was somehow still standing.
Corey watched as an unfamiliar woman suddenly stood up behind Xander and raised a table lamp over his head.
“No, don’t!” Corey shouted.
As the lamp came crashing down, Xander squeezed his trigger and fired a bullet into Alyssa’s chest. One millisecond later, two bullets streaked in from the back window and entered the back of Xander’s neck. They both exited his throat in a spray of blood. As Xander collapsed to the floor, Sydney appeared to them outside of the window. She was standing there with her barrel smoking and still pointed in the window.
“Clear! All clear!” Stu shouted. “Everybody put your guns down… it’s over.”
“Hang on one second, Stu.” Corey said. He stepped over top of Xander’s body and fired one final round into the top of his head for good measure. “Now it’s over.”
The sound of flames and exploding knickknacks started to grow in intensity in the living room. Looking back, Brian and Dan knew that their exit would be blocked by fire in seconds.
“We gotta go, guys.” Dan said. “The fires getting out of hand back there.”
“You guys go.” Stu said. “We’ll go out the window.”
The sound of a wall collapsing cut him off. The far end of the hallway was now completely engulfed in flames.
“Alright, everybody out the window.” Stu said, looking back at the flames.
Nora crawled over to Hal as Corey moved in to give Cathy a hand. She immediately shrunk away and began to shake with fear.
“Syd, can you help this young woman out the window, please.” Corey asked.
“S… Stu.” A weak voice said from the corner of the room.
“I’m here, buddy.” Stu said. “We’re all here.”
“Thank you… for coming… pal.” Hal said as his wife hugged him.
“I’ll go find the doc.” George said from the window.
“R… Rob?” Hal asked, looking around the room.
“I’m sorry, Hal, Rob didn’t make it.” Stu replied.
“Did everybody else… get out?” Hal asked.
“Yeah, buddy.” Stu said. “They’re all outside waiting for you.”
“Liv?” Nora asked.
“She’s safe and sound too.” Stu replied. “So are all of your guests.”
“Who were these guys, Nora?” Corey asked. “Is one of them Tom?”
“No, the guy you’re standing over is Xander, the asshole in charge.” Nora replied. “The one under the door is Mars, one of his henchmen.”
“Tom’s… around here somewhere though.” Hal added.
Stu and Corey looked at each other both assuming that the dead man in the front room must have been Tom.
“It’s time to get going, buddy.” Stu said, taking Hal’s hands. “Can you stand?”
“Brian, Dan, go out ahead of us and we’ll pass Hal and Nora to you.” Corey said.
Once everybody else was outside, Corey took a moment to gather weapons and pass them out through the window. Before he hopped out himself, curiosity got the better of him. He dropped to a knee and pulled the bottom of Xander’s shirt out of his jeans. Sure enough, the man had body armour on that covered most of his torso. Corey could clearly see several tears where his 9mm bullets had hit him. He was certain that the bullets strikes must have hurt, but they wouldn’t have wounded him in any significant way. Sydney’s timely shots had probably saved his life.
Pulling the door off of Mars, a quick rap on his chest told Corey that he had armour on under his shirt as well. The only reason he had succumbed to Stu’s attack so quickly was because Stu had been targeting the only part of him that he could see… his face. Body armour was considerably less effective against that sort of thing.
As Corey exited the window, George and Terrell came running over with Donny trailing behind. Once Stu realized that Grace still had Olivia hidden in the trees, he ordered everyone back to the road. He wanted to group them all together and let them know what had happened before they went back to meet up with Olivia. She had lost another family member today and Stu wanted to make sure the news was delivered properly.
With Grace’s absence, Sydney figured that this would be a good opportunity to inform them of Cole’s death as well. George could then decide on the best way to let his daughter know that her boyfriend was gone. Like Stu, she wouldn’t get a chance.
“I’ll go get Stacey, Collin and Mia.” Corey said.
“We don’t know if we got all of these guys yet, Corey, so keep your guard up.” Stu said. “Bring Stacey and them to the road and then we’ll reload and go out again to count heads.”
“Roger that.” Corey said as he jogged off.
As Stu’s group arrived at the road, the same rumbling sound that Fran had heard a short time ago began to fill the air. Looking to the west, it slowly became apparent that there were several vehicles approaching.
“You hear that, Stu?” Sydney asked.
“Hear what?” Stu asked in return.
“Stu, your ear plugs.” Brian said, tapping at his own ears.
“Oh, right.” Stu said, pulling them out.
“The sound coming from down the road, Stu, do you hear it?” Sydney asked again.
“Shit… yeah, I hear it now.” Stu said.
“That sounds like a lot more that just Fran’s pick up.” Brian said.
“It sure as hell does.” George said.
“Everybody get across the road!” Stu shouted, realizing that they were about to have a lot of company. “Donny, get your lighter ready. We may not be done with that bag yet.”
They all ran across the road as fast as they could. Stu and Donny ran straight for their bag of dynamite while the others leapt into the ditch wherever was most convenien
t.
“Don’t light a fuse until we see what we’re dealing with here, Donny.” Stu said.
“Way ahead of you, Stu.” Donny replied.
“How much of that shit you got left?” George asked as he and Brian crawled over.
“Plenty.” Stu replied. “Help yourself. Long fuse is a 20 second delay, short is 10.”
“Here’s goes nothing, I guess.” George said, plucking a short fuse stick of dynamite out of the bag. “Got a lighter for me?”
“You won’t need it.” Brian said. “I think we need to drop our weapons, Stu… like now.”
“What the hell are you…?”
“…Hang on.” Dan said, suddenly standing up next to Brian.
Stu and the others looked quizzically at the Brian and Dan as the two of them stared intently up the road. They were obviously hearing something that concerned them, but none of them had any idea what it was. Dan was the first to react pulling the shotgun off of his shoulder and setting it on the ground. He then looked at Brian before shouted out in a panic.
“Drop everything! Do it now or we’re all dead!”
Chapter 26
Ducking down behind the front grill of the overturned dump truck, Corey called out for Stacey. Receiving no response, he crawled along the hood to look in through the shattered windshield. All he saw inside the cab was some smeared blood and a rifle that had been snapped in half, so he made his way around to the roof. What he saw turned his blood cold. Collin was lying motionless on his back about three metres away with his shotgun still in his hand.
Corey went prone and pointed his rifle towards the treeline. He panned the edge of the trees as quickly as he could and then scooted over to check on Collin. It was immediately obvious that there was nothing he could do. It took Corey all of two seconds to figure out what had happened. Collin had been shot in the stomach and after falling to his back, his executioner had fired a finishing round into his forehead from close range. The back of his head rested in the blast crater that the bullet had created upon exit. There were other things in that crater too.
Staying in a crouch, Corey moved towards the rear of the truck. His face turned white when he saw a woman’s hand lying palm up in the snow. The rest of her was still hidden behind the truck, so Corey willed himself to move slowly towards her. His heart sank and his eyes began to water when he noticed the gold band on her ring finger.
As horrible as it made him feel, a wave of relief washed over him when he found Mia lying there instead of Stacey. The unarmed woman had been shot in the chest, no doubt as the cowardly killer ran past to make his escape.
Panic stricken, Corey wiped his eyes and ran in circles trying to locate Stacey. The truck’s dump box was a horrific nightmare, two people having been completely obliterated back there, but he was certain that Stacey’s remains were not among them. Realizing that he needed back up, Corey tried to calm himself enough to yell for help, but the sound of trucks approaching prevented him from calling out. He had no idea who was coming and he didn’t give a damn. If his friends were preoccupied he would go it alone. His fiancée was missing and he had no intention of waiting around for anybody or anything.
Trying to decide on a course of action, the glint of metal reflecting in the sunlight caught his eye. He ran to take a look and was surprised to find Stacey’s karambit sticking straight up out of the snow. The area around it had been thoroughly trampled, but two sets of tracks leading down the driveway stood out from the rest. The droplets of blood that rested in several of the larger footprints sealed it for him. Stacey was alive, but she had been taken down to the cabins.
◆◆◆
“Freakin’ military…” Stu said, shaking his head as he removed his holster.
“About damn time, I’d say.” Donny said as he picked up the bag of dynamite and started heading for the trees.
“Where the hell are you going?” Stu asked.
“Army or no, they ain’t takin’ my dynamite from me.” Donny replied.
Brian looked over at Stu and said, “That’s actually not a bad idea. The Army might not let us hang onto a lot of this stuff, especially the military rifles.”
Unable to disagree, Stu instantly turned to his wife and asked her and some others to gather up the pistols and black rifles and run off into the trees with them. Regardless of how this went, at least Stu could rest easy knowing that the bulk of their people and their finest weapons would remain safely hidden in the forest. Little did he know that Sydney had no intention of staying in the trees.
Stu, Brian, George and Dan climbed up onto the road and waited for their fate to find them. To their surprise, they were soon joined by all of the others. Even Liv and Hal, as injured as they were, insisted on coming out. Sydney wasn’t the only one that felt that they needed to face this together. Instead of protesting, Stu only smiled and gave his wife a small hug as she stepped onto the road beside him.
“Corey and Stacey aren’t back yet?” Sydney asked, looking down the line.
“I imagine Corey knows what’s going on too.” Stu said. “He’s probably got them all hidden away.”
“Okay, so… who’s doing the talking here?” George asked as the first of the trucks began to slow down.
“Let Brian handle it.” Stu said. “Everybody else just stay quiet unless you’re spoken to directly.”
“Great.” Brian said sarcastically.
One after the other, the military vehicles came to a stop. As far as the eye could see there were green troop transports, G Wagon light utility trucks and armoured vehicles of every configuration. While soldiers stood outside the hatches of the G Wagons at the controls of their C6 machine guns, dozens began pouring out of the back of the transports. None of them were being particularly shy about pointing their weapons either. If Stu had to guess he’d say that he and his friends each had a half dozen rifles pointed at their chests.
Stu and the others stood calmly with their hands slightly raised. They may not have had any firearms on them, but many of them were tattered and blood stained. Anybody that looked at this group would immediately assume that they had been up to no good. The fact that the road they were standing on was covered in small bloody chunks of unrecognizable carrion wasn’t helping either.
Each of them were ordered to stand perfectly still while they were quickly and thoroughly searched. The man in the lead truck remained in his seat the entire time pleased with the performance of his troops. Now that his soldiers clearly had the situation under control, he opened his door and stepped out. He tugged slightly at the bottom of his jacket while glancing towards the raging inferno that the Weyr house had become. He shook his head before walking over to the people that were currently being held at gunpoint.
One of the soldiers saluted him and said, “All teams report clear, sir.”
“Very good, Sergeant. Port arms.”
The sergeant immediately turned and shouted, “Port… arms!”
All of the soldiers instantly pulled their rifles into their chests with the barrel pointed skyward at a 45 degree angle. Even the men and women in the gun hatches raised their machine guns into a safe position.
“You can all put your hands down now.” The officer said to the line of civilians in front of him.
They all did as the Army commander said, but nobody spoke. This was totally and fully Brian’s show now and none of them had any intention of stealing a single second away from him. The officer looked around the area a little and continued.
“Blast craters in the road, a house burning to the ground, chunks of charred flesh all over the damn place… I don’t know if you people noticed or not, but the lower half of someone’s body is stuck in a tree over there. Now… I don’t know where you got the explosives or what the hell you people have been up to, but none of you will see the light of day again if I don’t get a damn good explanation.”
“Sir, may I speak for my friends, please?” Brian asked unassumingly.
“You may.”
A
polite and respectful mass murderer… How refreshing.
“Several men were holding our friends hostage inside of that house. We managed to get them out, but the house caught fire in the process. We barely escaped ourselves, sir.”
“And the explosives?”
“We got our hands on a few sticks of dynamite.” Brian replied. “It was the only way we could get it done, sir.”
“Where are your weapons and the rest of this dynamite?”
“We used up all the dynamite and several of our weapons were lost in the fire, sir. The few rifles we have left are in the ditch below us.”
“I see.” The officer said, nodding to the sergeant beside him.
Without a word, the sergeant immediately gathered a few soldiers and headed into the ditch to find them.
The officer didn’t need to get any closer to Brian or the others to smell the smoke emanating from their clothing. He had no trouble believing that many of these people had been inside of that house. The story was at least somewhat plausible.
“Tell me, these men… is that their home or yours?” the officer then asked.
“Neither, actually.” Brian replied. “It belongs to the hostages, Hal and Nora Weyr. They’re standing further down line the, sir.”
“Understood.” The officer said. “And what about these… men?”
“Some may still be at large, but these red stains we’re standing in represent the majority of them, sir.” Brian replied. Then with a shrug he added, “A few chose to remain in the house.”
“Hmph.” The officer snorted.
This guy is either former military or law enforcement.
“What’s your name and what branch did you serve with?” the officer asked, his intuition surprising them all..
Brian smiled and replied, “My name is Special Operative Brian Baker, Canadian Security Intelligence Service. My credentials are inside my jacket if you’d like to inspect them, sir.”
“No need. How is CSIS involved in this, Special Operative Baker?”
EMP [Collateral Darkness] | Book 4 Page 42