Fight Like Hell [America Falls Series | Books 1-6]

by Medbury, Scott

  “So, we’ll have the water plant going too?”

  “A part of the team has already headed over there. Once the power is on, they can start up the pumps and filtration. It will be a few days before its clean enough to drink without boiling though.”

  “And the sewer?” asked Allie, her nose wrinkled.

  “Well, its connected,” said Jamal. “So yeah, that will be on too.”

  “Oh wow, it will be so strange,” said Indigo.

  “Yeah,” agreed Luke. “Just in time for winter.”

  “Oh, I forgot Luke. The fuel and car battery you requested will be arriving with the professor.”

  “What’s this?” asked Isaac.

  “You’ll see,” said Luke mysteriously.

  The rest of the meeting covered some general housekeeping business and broke up twenty minutes later.

  “Seriously, what’s the gas and the battery for?” asked Isaac as they headed out of the conference room.

  “Oh, just a little project.”

  Isaac's shoulder bumped him.

  “Come on; you’re not going to tell your best friend?”

  “Oh, leave him alone Isaac. If I know Luke, whatever it is won’t be a secret for long,” said Indigo with a laugh.

  “There,” said Luke. “Your boss has spoken. Now excuse me, I have to relieve Ava, she’s been babysitting Erin and the rest since before dinner.”

  They took the stairs as they were only one flight down from their floor. Luke led the way with Isaac and Indigo following. Diana and Ben followed behind, more slowly.

  “Great meeting, huh?” said Diana.

  “As far as meetings go, I guess,” Ben said.

  Diana giggled.

  “What?” he asked.

  “I was just thinking how lame that attempt at making small talk was. Great meeting? Wow, I need to work on my social skills.”

  He laughed.

  “No lamer than my answer,” he said, then mocked himself in a BBC accent. “As far as meetings go!”

  “You did sound a bit Famous Five.” She laughed.

  “Oh,” he said, surprised. “You know them? You read Enid Blyton?”

  “Yeah, my friend had the whole collection. We used to giggle over the names. You know, Dick and Fanny.”

  He laughed.

  “They’re really old fashioned now, but I loved them when I was a kid. They were great adventures.”

  “Yeah, actually you remind me of how Julian might have looked. You know, tall and blonde… and handsome. All you need is a striped jersey.”

  Ben’s cheeks burned at this unexpected compliment, and he focused on the steps as they reached the top of the fire stairs.

  The others had already disappeared through the door to the top floor. Ben paused with his hand on the door handle.

  “Um, I was wondering if... well, if you’d like to go up on the roof later? You know after the kids are asleep.”

  “The roof?”

  “If you want,” he stammered. “Just to look at the stars and talk.”

  “I’d love to. Shall I knock on your door when it’s all clear?” she said in a British accent.

  “That would be nice,” he said, smiling.

  “It’s a date.”

  ***

  On the western side of the Merrimack river, a group of three armed men was hiding out in a condominium overlooking the large waterway. They were situated directly west of the Brady-Sullivan Tower and from their top story room were able to see the upper portion of the tower unimpeded. They also had a man on the roof.

  Their leader was Dan Eshman, a twenty-year old from Albany who had joined the ranks of the New American army four years ago. He was tough and competent. He’d been raised with guns, and his father had been a marine. When the president’s son and his army had risen up to start taking back control of New York state, it had been a no-brainer to fall in with them.

  Dan had risen through the ranks quickly and was now head of the special ops team. They did all of the reconnaissance and forward probing for New America, and what they had seen on this mission made the rest of their missions’ pale into insignificance.

  They had reconnoitered and studied Concord for over three weeks, and it had been the most difficult assignment yet. The city was well armed and patrolled. The level of sophistication of their security meant that the team had only been able to operate on the edges of the city and in the dark. They had learned enough to take back some very disturbing intel regarding the size of the settlement and their manpower.

  It was only a fluke that they’d spotted a few vehicles heading south out of Concord the day before. They’d been about to return home, but given he’d been ordered to take his time and make sure they covered every angle, he had thought it might be worthwhile tracking them.

  It had been.

  Not only would he be confirming that Concord was better organized and defended than any settlement or enclave they’d attempted to take before, but that they’d expanded to Manchester. At this stage, the southern city didn’t appear as populated or well-defended, but one had to assume it was on the agenda.

  The walkie talkie on Eshman’s hip hissed.

  “Echo Foxtrot Charlie, we have movement on the roof, over.” He put down the plate of beans he had heated over the small butane cooker and snatched up the Walkie Talkie.

  “Roger Hawk 1, what do you see, over,” he said, picking up his M24 sniper rifle and heading to the balcony.

  “Lights on the roof, along with two targets, male and female, over. I have a clean shot.”

  “Negative Hawk 1. You know the orders, Bruno. Observe and await instructions, over.”

  Eshman put the walkie talkie back on his belt and slid the glass door open wondering if it was time to put someone else on lookout duty. Bruno was a novice and keen as hell to shoot someone. This was the wrong mission for him.

  The cold night air hit Eshman like a hard slap. He knelt beside the rail and put the stock of his M24 to his shoulder and peered into the scope. 430 yards away, the roof of the Brady-Sullivan was lit up like a Christmas tree. The couple was easy to spot, even though from his vantage he could only see from their shoulders up. They had drifted to the southern end of the roof and were looking over the city. He focused the scope and took a closer look.

  One was a tall male, the other a dark-haired woman. Both appeared to be around twenty and were unarmed. They leaned over the rail and chatted. From his end of the rifle scope, they looked carefree and happy. Eshman scanned the rest of the roof to make sure no one else was around.

  By the time he’d swung his scope back to the couple, he found them engaged in a kiss.

  “How romantic,” he said under his breath and took his eye away from the scope before heading back inside.

  “Hawk 1,” he said into his walkie talkie. “No threat, just a couple of lovebirds. Keep an eye on them. An eye only. Understand Bruno?”

  “Roger, Echo, Foxtrot Charlie.”

  “Good, I’m going to get some shuteye. Over.”

  Eshman sensed the disappointment in the voice of his man on the roof. He understood it. His team was used to a more ‘hands-on’ style when reconnoitering, and Bruno was on his first mission. He was a skillful marksman and a good kid, but way too gung ho.

  Still, the order was to gather intel and under no circumstances engage unless their hand was forced, and that’s exactly what they would do. On the spur of the moment, he decided to go up on the roof and give Bruno a quick pep talk before he rested.

  On the roof, Bruno Juliano kept his rifle trained on the couple. He was frustrated. This was his first mission, and after hearing the stories of killing and glory on their previous missions from the other men, this one was plain boring. In fact, it was a fucking letdown.

  Feeling pissed, he put his finger back on the trigger and peered through the sight. The crosshairs of the sight split the back of the guys blonde head into quadrants as he kissed his girl. They wouldn’t know what hit them. With one shot he c
ould take both of them so easily.

  Recklessly, he squeezed the trigger ever so slightly…

  ***

  “You’re a good kisser,” said Diana, breaking away from Ben, and leaning back over the rail as she took a deep breath.

  “You too.”

  He smiled, pleased and joined her at the rail, looking back over the dark city.

  “So, I’d really like to see you again,” said Ben.

  Diana laughed, and Ben’s face fell, wondering what he’d said wrong.

  “Sure,” she said and put her hand on his. “Me too. You’re very nice. Very British! Shall we go on a date?”

  “Yes, I’d like that.”

  “Me too. Well, I guess we better go in.”

  “Yes,” he said as they turned from the rail.

  He put his arm out and was taken aback when Diana ignored it and leaned in to kiss him again. Her lips had only just met his when the crack of a gunshot shattered the silent night.

  10

  When Eshman emerged onto the roof of the building it took a while for his eyes to adjust to the dark. He spotted Juliano, a dark shadow against the low wall that edged the flat rectangular roof. He was laid out full length, shoulders tense, his eye against the scope of his rifle.

  Eshman began sprinting silently across the roof, glancing across the river as he closed in quickly on his team member. Even from this distance, he could see the silhouettes of the couple on the roof of the Brady-Sullivan. Time seemed to slow as he turned his attention back to Juliano. The kids’ finger was on the trigger. Eshman dived.

  ***

  “Did you hear that?” Indigo asked Isaac.

  He was busy horsing around with Max on the carpeted floor of their apartment.

  “Huh?”

  “A bang?”

  The words were no sooner out of her mouth when there was an urgent rapping on their door. Isaac flipped his laughing son onto his back and stood up, running to the door.

  It was Luke, his hair wild.

  “That was a gunshot,” he said, waving a pistol in the general direction of the river. “I think Ben and Diana are on the roof, come on!”

  Isaac looked back at Indigo as Luke ran for the fire stairs.

  “Go,” said a pale Indigo.

  Isaac barreled out of the door only remembering he was unarmed as he entered the stairwell and began chasing Luke the one flight of stairs to the roof. No time now.

  The door was open when he got to it, and the big switch that controlled the lighting on the roof was switched to the off position. Luke was down on his haunches a few feet out onto the roof, peeking cautiously around a large air-conditioning box. Thirty feet away, two figures lay unmoving on the tar sealed roof.

  ***

  Eshman struck Juliano hard in the side. The rifle spat death with a loud report as his momentum rolled them over. Eshman’s ears rang painfully as he wrestled the other man onto his back and punched him hard in the cheek.

  The kid released his rifle and held his hands up to protect his face.

  “What the fuck Juliano!”

  “I wasn’t going to shoot boss; I was only playing!”

  “You took a shot, asshole.”

  “I was just testing the trigger! To see how it felt! It only went off cos you surprised me.”

  Eshman shook his head, barely able to refrain from punching him again. There was no time to waste. Whether he’d meant to shoot or not, he had, and they needed to be gone. He pulled Juliano roughly to his feet by the collar and glanced across to the tower in the distance. The couple was nowhere to be seen. Before he turned away the lights on the roof went black.

  “Grab your gun. We have to pull out right now.”

  ***

  Luke with his heart in his mouth, crouched and ran as fast as he could to the where Ben and Diana were sprawled. Isaac followed close behind.

  “Some bloody bastard shot at us!” called Ben, popping his head up as the two arrived.

  “Oh Jesus,” said Luke falling to his knees next to them. “I thought you were dead.”

  “No, they missed us. It hit over there,” said Diana pointing to the wall that ran parallel to Elm Street. From the angle of her gesture, the shot hadn’t missed by much.

  “What direction did it come from?” asked Isaac.

  Ben pointed west.

  “From across the river, I think.”

  “Come on,” said Isaac. “Let’s get inside.”

  All four of them stayed low and made their way back to the open door before racing down the steps to the top floor. The door to Isaac’s room opened, and Indigo came out to meet them. She was in jeans, and a jacket with a pistol tucked in her belt. She carried another.

  “I have Ava and Allie watching Samuel, Cade, and Max,” she said handing Isaac his Glock. “What happened?”

  “Someone fired at Ben and Diana from across the river while they were on the roof,” said Luke.

  “Right, are we going to investigate?”

  “Yes,” said Isaac, moving to the lift and pressing the down button. “Ben, you and Diana take the stairs and grab Jamal from the fifth floor. Meet us down in the lobby. We’ll have weapons waiting, hurry.”

  Luke, Isaac, and Indigo stepped into the lift.

  “You think it’s a loner?” asked Indigo.

  “No idea,” said Isaac. “We’ll take two semi-automatics in case.”

  “Yeah. We should probably go on foot; they’ll hear the Jeep coming a mile off.”

  Four minutes later the six-person group was crossing the bridge at a cautious sprint.

  “I can’t be sure, but I think it came from the direction of those buildings,” said Ben, pointing at the row of structures that lined the western riverbank.

  “Okay, we’ll head there.”

  Isaac paused in the shadows on the other side of the bridge.

  “Luke, you Ben and Diana go around front. Jamal, Indigo and I will enter from the rear. We’ll check the buildings one by one. It will take a while, but we have to go floor by floor and room by room, okay?”

  “Roger let’s go. Be careful.”

  As it was, they found what they were looking for in the first building. Luke, Ben, and Diana found a room on the 4th floor that had clearly been occupied until recently. The faint smell of smoke lingered in the air, and the sliding door to the balcony was open. Luke went to the kitchen and found a pile of beans in the sink. He stuck a finger in them. Still warm.

  “They were definitely here,” he said. “Come on.”

  They met Isaac and the other two in the hallway and Luke nodded to the door he’d just come out of and mouthed they were in there. He then gestured to the door at the end of the hallway marked ROOF. Luke and Jamal had the two semi-automatics and went through first.

  There was no one on the roof. After they’d made sure, they all walked to the edge and looked over the river.

  “The tower is pretty easy to see from here. Do you think this is where they shot at us?” said Diana.

  “I’m sure of it,” said Isaac, bending over and picking up something from the roof top and holding it up for all to see. It was a bullet casing. He handed to Luke.

  “8mm,” said Luke and sniffed it. “That’s what they fired at you.”

  Ben’s eyes were wide.

  “Who do you think it was?”

  “No idea,” said Luke. “But based on the mess they made in that room, there was more than one.”

  “Not sure what they hoped to gain by shooting,” said Isaac. “We should report this to the colonel.”

  They all agreed that Luke and Isaac would head over to Concord the next day, before cautiously making their way back to the Brady-Sullivan.

  ***

  Eshman and his men made their way on foot back to the spot they’d left their transport. It was in a little town, west of Manchester. General Orton had picked it for its proximity to Concord and the fact that it was well away from the main arterial roads.

  It was only a fluke that it was
close to Manchester, a part of the Concord expansion they hadn’t been aware of when they began their mission. Now, it was a little too close for comfort, and even though he would have liked to have monitored the small offshoot in Manchester for another 24 hours, it was out of the question now. Juliano and his reckless actions on the roof had seen to that.

  Still, they had enough intel to take back. Eshman was sure General Orton would be quite interested in what they’d learned about Manchester. Something told him when they finished with Concord; it mightn’t be in a fit state to be the first choice for their first New Hampshire outpost.

  Yes, Eshman did not doubt that young Bruno would have more than enough shooting in his near future. That’s if he wasn’t summarily shot after Eshman made his report to the general and president.

  Part Three: War Footing

  11

  “Thanks for the intel. That’s pretty concerning but only goes to show we’re doing the right thing by increasing security.”

  Randall paced his office as Luke and Isaac drank the coffee that Becky had brought in.

  “So, you think maybe it was a forward team of this New America?” asked Isaac.

  “Well the casing you found indicates they had at least one high powered rifle,” the older man said, sitting down. “If it was a random loner, they sure chose an interesting spot to camp out and take a potshot. It may well be unrelated to New America, but we should assume the worst case here. If I put myself in their shoes, I’d be sending out a team or teams to assess us just like I did them. If they did get information from my missing team, it means they know we’re big and well-armed.”

  “What do you think they were doing in Manchester then?” asked Luke.

  Randall shrugged.

  “I’m pretty sure if they were scoping you out, they’ve scoped out Concord too. Maybe they’ve seen the comings and goings. From the outside looking in, it might even appear that we’re a part of the same group expanding over two cities. Perhaps it’s time to come to an agreement?” he said, nailing Isaac with a look.