“Can you get one through the glass of the front window? And will one do it?” I said as loudly as I dared.
He smiled grimly and nodded.
“These things are designed to stop tanks”, he said, propping the rocket launcher against his right shoulder. “One will do it. Put your fingers in your ears, these things are loud.”
He flipped the sight open.
“Ready?” he asked.
I nodded.
I took a deep breath and held it…
Without warning, the door of the bar opened and spilled light out onto the snow-covered parking lot as the silhouette of another Chinese soldier emerged.
Shit!
Thankfully the door closed behind him and, as my eyes adjusted, I saw him looking around and calling out, clearly looking for the soldier we had taken down.
“Still a go?” Luke asked me in a calm voice.
In answer, I pulled my revolver out and gave a sharp nod.
“After three. One ... two ... three ...”
There was a loud clap and whoosh that echoed off the empty buildings. I felt a quick burst of heat behind me, but all my attention was taken by the brief and bright journey of the grenade.
Luke’s aim was true, whether through luck or skill I’m not sure, but it hit the window dead center and the windows and doors blew out in a spectacular blast. We ducked as glass fell around us like sharp rain. When it was safe, I looked back over the hood of the Chevy and saw the soldier who had emerged just before the blast staggering to safety behind a Hummer, a pistol in his hand.
No one else emerged from the smoking building. I stood up and walked around the rear of the Chevy and began to cross the road. Luke called to me, but I knew this had to be done. We couldn’t have anyone radioing for help, even in the unlikely scenario the blast hadn’t been heard or seen by any nearby patrols or soldiers.
I was protected from his line of sight by the vehicles in the lot and knew at this point he would be in a state of shock. I didn’t think he would be looking to fight. I walked calmly to the first Humvee and crouched, resting my back against it.
I heard a door open a few cars along.
“He’s in the Hummer two across from you!” Luke yelled, his voice loud even over the crackling and popping of the burning building.
I moved quickly and ran out from my position with my gun in front of me, squeezing shots as soon as I had him in sight. He was in the Hummer and had just raised the mic to his mouth. My first shot missed, but the second hit his shoulder and the next got him in the chest as he slumped forward.
The horn started blaring. I stood where I was for a minute, my gun trained on him but he didn’t move again. With my weapon still aimed at him I walked slowly around to his door and pulled it open. He was dead. I pocketed my gun and used two hands to pull him away from the wheel. The horn cut out into a silence interrupted only by the crackling of the fire.
There was a semi-automatic rifle on the floor of the cab under his feet. I grabbed it – I had a feeling we would need all the firepower we could get in the next few hours.
I ran back to Indigo and Luke who were ready to roll, and we headed back to the truck as fast as we could in the icy conditions. The others had obviously heard the explosion; they surrounded us as we got back, their looks of concern turning to relief.
All except Sonny.
“What the hell happened?” Sonny asked.
A little taken aback by his sharp tone, I brushed past.
“We need to move,” I said. “I’ll explain when we’re on the road. Everybody! Back in the truck!”
Indigo asked Luke if they could swap places so she could go in back. She was withdrawn and I knew she was upset with me. It was strange to think that just 20 minutes ago, she had kissed me on the lips and now we weren’t even talking.
I have to admit I was kind of relieved when she got in the back; both because I would have Luke up front, but mainly so I could avoid discussing what had happened with her.
In just a couple of minutes, we were moving again. From the corner of my eye, I saw Sonny glaring at me.
“Well?”
“We just took out a whole platoon with a rocket launcher!” Luke blurted, clearly excited at the evening’s events.
“Sounded like it, too,” he said bitterly. “Haven’t you guys ever heard of stealth? We’re going to have the whole damn Chinese Army hot on our asses now!”
I was silent for a moment. It was crucial not to get into a fight at this point. We needed to be a cohesive unit. In calm tones, I explained what had happened and also my reasoning to Sonny. Whether he agreed, or whether he just decided to let it go because he didn’t want to fight, he left it at that, but I could tell he wasn’t a happy camper.
We continued along the back roads a few blocks before turning back onto the main street again. It would turn into the highway once we left Concord. Sonny drove as fast as he deemed safe in the conditions.
We didn’t see any other sign of occupation and I began to think the group of soldiers at the bar may have been the only presence in the small city. A few minutes later, the searchlight of a helicopter piercing the night about two miles to our right disabused me of that idea. It was clearly headed to the scene of our recent show of defiance.
Luke and I craned our necks to watch its progress, but it didn’t turn in our direction. We breathed a collective sigh of relief.
“I wish this thing could go faster,” Luke said.
“It could,” said Sonny. “But we don’t want to draw attention to ourselves if we do happen to pass any Chinese vehicles.”
There was a slight lull in the snowfall as we reached the intersection where the highway joined another major road to turn and follow the river. Sonny took a left, following the sign that pointed the way to Interstate 93.
An incident-free half-hour later, we were on the freeway headed north. The ease of our passage led to happy optimism, with Luke cracking jokes and telling us what he would eat when we arrived at the safe haven. I hoped fervently that it really did exist; we didn’t exactly have a plan B.
We didn’t see the vehicle that had come up behind us until I saw the headlights in the passenger side mirror, barely a hundred yards back.
“Crap,” I said. “We have company.”
16
We were only five minutes beyond the outskirts of the city. I felt the buoyant mood in the cab dissipate like smoke. Sonny swore under his breath.
“What do we do?” I asked, scowling into the mirror as I pulled my gun out again.
“We just keep driving, nice and steady,” Sonny said, placing his hand on my gun. “You two get down in the foot well.”
Luke and I awkwardly climbed down onto the floor. I somehow ended up on top of him, my elbow accidently poking him in the butt as I tried to keep my gun hand free.
“I didn’t know you cared,” he cracked, and in my adrenalin-wired state, he almost brought a giggle from me. The laugh was choked from me when the car following us moved into the center lane and came up alongside the truck.
I watched Sonny from my vantage on the floor. He stayed focused on the road ahead, but when it was clear the occupants of the vehicle had slowed to the pace of the truck, he looked down at them and waved. They didn’t pass us though and just as I was thinking the game was up, he put a hand to his ear and made a strange face as though trying to understand something.
I heard him make an ‘Ahh’ sound and he reached out and flicked the lights on, waving gratefully to the SUV. They tooted their horn and after a few worrying seconds, sped up and passed us before shooting off.
“They’re gone,” Sonny said.
Luke and I struggled back into our seats.
“My bad with the headlights. Maybe they would have just passed if I hadn’t made the call earlier to switch them off while we were driving,” I said.
“I can’t believe they didn’t try and pull us over. This truck is pretty damaged,” Luke said.
“I don’t know,”
Sonny said. “We got lucky I guess, maybe seeing me in the driver’s seat allayed any suspicions they might have had about the damage? If I had to guess, I would say that was a government vehicle, not military and they were probably in a hurry. We still need to be wary of heat from your little escapade back in Concord though.”
“Yep, we dodged another bullet,” said Luke. “You played it real cool, Sonny, well done. I’m worried about the road ahead, though. What if they have some sort of checkpoint or base up I-95?”
“If there is, we’re screwed,” I said. “I think maybe we should take the truck all the way into Lincoln. It’s the only disguise we have. If a military vehicle passes us while we’re walking along the freeway on foot, you know for sure they’ll take us. At least in the truck we have some chance.”
“I’m still worried it’ll make us easier to track us if the Chinese find the truck further along our route, but it’ll certainly be a safer and warmer trip,” said Sonny.
“Why don’t we take it all the way to Drake Mountain?” Luke asked.
“Too risky. If there are refugees there or nearby, we might lead the Chinese right to them,” Sonny said.
“Yeah, we’ll have to walk at least a few miles in the snow either way.”
“Worse than that,” Sonny said. “The road from Lincoln to the Drake Mountain Resort is all up hill.”
“This is not going to be fun,” said Luke. I could almost hear the groan in his voice.
The snow resumed what could reasonably be called dumping down again and we rode in silence for about 15 minutes, each lost in our own thoughts. I dared to hope we might make it to our destination without any other encounters with the Chinese. It was not to be, however. We had just passed a sign proclaiming it was five miles until we reached the exit to Lincoln, when we saw four sets of headlights speeding from the opposite direction toward Concord.
“Uh oh,” said Luke. “Those are most definitely Hummers and they’re in a real hurry. The word is out ...”
We watched as the line of vehicles sped past. For a second, I thought we were safe and then I saw one slow and turn onto the snow-covered grass strip that separated us from them.
Luke and I craned our necks watch it.
“He’s definitely coming for us,” said Luke unnecessarily.
Sonny didn’t need any more encouragement and immediately planted his foot. We put some distance between us and them as the Hummer slipped and slid across the grass before finally skidding back onto the tarmac. The truck’s engine whined in protest at Sonny’s heavy foot and maxed out at 65 mph.
The headlights of the Hummer closed the gap quicker than seemed fair and I found myself leaning forward as if trying to help propel the truck.
The wind whistled through the broken windows. My ears were numb and I wished I was wearing a beanie and earmuffs. Miraculously, once it caught up with us, the pursuing vehicle slowed so it maintained about a two-hundred-foot gap between us.
“Why aren’t they pulling us over?” I shouted.
“I think they called for assistance!” Sony yelled over the howling wind. “There is another set of headlights coming up behind the first.”
That explained it. They were waiting for the second Hummer before they ran us off the road. If their commanders had put two and two together, they would know we were the same truck which had busted up their roadblock and that we had struck again at the bar.
I reloaded the empty chambers of my gun and Luke held his crossbow cocked in his hand. The rocket launcher was at his feet, along with the remaining two grenades.
I felt a sinking feeling as the headlights of the second Hummer caught up with the first. The first one moved into the left lane and sped up as both vehicles began to close in on us.
“There’s the ramp!” Sonny called.
I turned back to the highway and was surprised to see we were closing on the off-ramp pretty quickly. Just another two minutes and we would make it.
Sonny stomped the accelerator to the floor of the truck and managed to eke out another few miles an hour. It wasn’t enough. The Hummer in the left lane drew up beside us and matched our speed.
Sonny twisted the wheel sharply, crashing into its front fender. Metal screeched for a few scary seconds and then the Chinese vehicle braked and slowed as Sonny veered back into his own lane, swerving this way and that to prevent the Hummer coming up on us again.
His evasive driving bought us the time we needed and he waited until the last second before he took the turn onto the off-ramp without slowing. Luke and I gripped the dashboard but we were still thrown in the air hard enough to bump our heads on the ceiling of the cab. I heard muffled squealing from our people in the back.
Sonny sped towards a set of blacked out traffic lights and slowed only slightly as he took a wide turn onto the two-lane road that bisected Lincoln and the freeway. The truck leaned sickeningly but righted itself with a heavy bump. Luke took a quick look back through his broken window.
“They’re still hot on our tails. The good news though is their Hummers don’t have machine guns on the top,” he reported.
I was thankful that he hadn’t thought of trying to take a potshot at them with the rocket launcher. We couldn’t afford to waste a shot – I was pretty sure we were going to need everything we had very soon.
I was thinking furiously. We had to lose these guys or we were screwed. We couldn’t continue to outrun them, and pretty soon they’d probably call in air support. I made a quick decision.
“Sonny, take a right into the next alley you see.”
“Are you sure that’s a good idea? We’ll be trapped if it’s not open at the other end ...”
“We have to try something, we can’t risk them calling in air support.”
“Alright, what do you have in mind?”
“Luke, make sure your rocket launcher is ready to fire. If we can disable the one in front, it will block the second from following us. Here, take this one Sonny!” I gestured wildly to the narrow alley coming up fast on our right.
The tires screeched as he swung us into it and I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw that it was open at the other end. The truck narrowly squeezed past a large dumpster.
“Pull up here!” I yelled.
Luke and I jumped out just as the first Hummer pulled into the alley and he began to bring the rocket launcher up into firing position.
“Wait! Help me move the dumpster first.”
We heaved it into the middle of the alley as the second Hummer turned in behind the first. The lead vehicle screeched to a halt about fifty feet away and Chinese soldiers began to pile out as we ducked back behind the dumpster.
I took a breath, about to scream ‘fire’. I didn’t need to. The launcher was already nestled against Luke’s shoulder.
When the soldiers saw Luke, they stopped in their tracks and turned. One of them managed to squeeze off a burst from their weapon as they retreated; I ducked as bullets whizzed by and thunked into the dumpster. Luke didn’t flinch at the hail of bullets, and calmly pulled the trigger.
The rocket launcher jerked in his arm and the grenade zeroed in on the front grill of the Hummer. There followed an almighty whump and a burst of heat as the front of the Hummer exploded, the whole vehicle jumping into the air a few feet before crashing back to the pavement.
Without exception, all the soldiers who had jumped from the vehicle were cut down by the blast. The twisted, smoking wreckage of the vehicle now blocked the alley. I heard shots being fired from behind the smoking wreck.
“Quick! Back to the truck,” I yelled to Luke. He looked a little dazed so I grabbed his arm, dragging him along as we ran for the truck.
As we passed, I could hear voices calling from inside the cargo bay.
“Stay down flat on the floor until I give you the all clear!” I yelled.
Luke and I piled back into the truck cabin and Sonny had it moving before I’d even pulled the door shut. He took a sharp left at the end of the alley, causing the tru
ck lurch treacherously again.
Once more, I heard muffled screams in the back and was thankful I wasn’t in the cargo bay. Indigo would surely be regretting her decision to ride in back. If we managed to get out of this, they would again be a bruised and sorry group of people. Luke gasped audibly as the truck righted itself.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
Luke was a pale guy at the best of times, but his face was the color of ash now. He smiled ruefully at me and pulled his heavy parka open.
“Honey, I forgot to duck ...” he said.
My heart sunk when I saw the bullet wound. The round had taken him in the abdomen and blood was seeping steadily from the wound. Sonny took another left and Luke flinched. We were headed back to the main road.
“I don’t think it went through, man.”
He lifted his parka at the back and turned so I could see. He was right, it hadn’t. I felt tears sting my eyes. My best friend was shot and we had no way to care for him. Even gut shot, his crooked smile was still in place.
“Don’t worry, Chief, it’s going to take more than a little lead to bring me down.”
“Get something on that to staunch the bleeding,” Sonny ordered. “The first aid kit is in the glove box.”
We turned right onto the main road and Sonny again floored the accelerator. There was no sign of the second Hummer, but I knew it was only a matter of time before they were tailing us again.
I pulled out the kit and sopped up the blood as best I could. His wound didn’t seem to be bleeding too badly, thankfully, but I knew an abdomen shot was supposed to be one of the worst. I put two gauze pads against the wound and covered it with an adhesive bandage. Luke didn’t crack a joke, which told me how bad it really was.
“We’re almost out of Lincoln,” said Sonny. “We need to dump the truck, it’ll be harder for them to trace us on foot.”
I argued for a driving on, debating it would be too hard on the wounded, but, in the end, a pair of headlights in the distance behind us won the argument for him.
Again, luck was on our side. One of the last buildings on our side of the street was a three-story office building and we turned down the side street and then down into its underground parking garage. Sony pulled up short of the boom gate.
Fight Like Hell [America Falls Series | Books 1-6] Page 27