With the MP dispatched, Bill used the flashlight to find the wrench, and make sure that Benton was good and fully dead.
Chapter 10
“Shit! Cole. Jenny.”
“Mom?” Cole asked as Sally kicked him awake.
“Get a good look at the man at the power house door,” Sally told him.
Cole grabbed his rifle and put the scope to his eye. He quickly scanned until he found the door and saw the soldier who was standing beside it. He was wearing an MP uniform, but…
“Dad?”
“I think so.”
“What?” Jenny asked.
“It’s dad. In a uniform.”
“Two men went in just a couple minutes ago.”
“You think dad took ‘em out?” Jenny asked.
“It’s the best guess I’ve got.”
“What do we do?” Cole asked.
“Keep him in sight. Suppose he’s going to just try to walk out?”
“It’s what I’d do,” Sally said.
“What do we do if somebody tries to stop him?”
“Think you can actually hit somebody from this range?”
“Not likely. But we can at least scare them. Maybe give dad an edge?”
“If we start shooting, how do we keep the Wilkersons and the Meiers from shooting dad?” Jenny asked.
“Give them a good reason to not shoot towards him. Get their attention somewhere else,” Cole said.
“Huh?” Sally asked.
“Let’s give dad a distraction. There are three guards watching the tent city. I’ll take the one closest to the water,” Cole said. “Let’s hope that when trouble starts there, Dad makes tracks in the opposite direction, and that the other teams fall in with what we’re doing.”
“OK,” Sally said. “I’m ready.”
“On three. Two. One.”
Cole and Sally fired almost in unison. As soon as his round left the barrel, Cole chambered another round, got a good sight picture on the guard he’d just shot at, and fired again. The first shot didn’t look like it had accomplished anything, but the second did. He heard Sally fire a second time next to him, and he scanned for the third guard. By the time he got the guard in his sights, it looked like they might have accomplished what they’d set out to do. The tent city had exploded. The one guard that hadn’t yet been shot at was scrambling for cover while looking up towards where the Chandlers were hiding. The internees were half running into tents, half running around madly. A couple went for the guard Cole had hit, but whether to render aid or violence, he didn’t take the time to see.
Sporadic gunshots sounded from two other places on the hillside to the left of them. Even without a scope or any binocular, Jenny could make out more soldiers running for the tent city, donning helmets and equipment vests as they went. Cole raised the rifle to start scanning along the power house but didn’t see anybody in MP gear.
“Rendezvous point.” Cole asked, after sending a couple more quick shots towards the assembling soldiers.
“That was our plan.”
“Let’s stick to it, then.”
Chapter 11
Bill Chandler threw a fist-sized stone out the window of his cabin. It landed in the middle of his driveway. Instantly, eight people jumped into the brush at the sides of the drive. Some were better at taking cover than others and quickly got their guns to bear in his general direction. Some were not so good.
“Sally. Jenny. Cole. It’s me. I’m going to open the front door real slow over here and step out. Nobody shoot, OK?”
“Yeah. Real slow. Is it just you?” Bonny Meier asked.
“Just me, Bon,” Bill said using the nickname she only ever let him get away with. From the window, he thought he could see her relax ever so slightly.
Bill turned the door knob and stepped out of the cabin slowly, hands up, and waited until he saw gun barrels lowered. Once nobody was aiming anything at him, he put his hands back to his sides and started to walk down the porch steps.
His wife and kids quickly handed off their rifles and shotguns to others and ran up to him, almost knocking him flat.
“That was you that got all that mess started back there?” Bill asked, when Jenny let up on her fierce hug enough that he could breathe again, through a chest still sore and tender from blows Benton had given him.
“Yeah. Took us way longer than it should have to get back here after we’d kicked the hornets’ nest up like that. We were on the far side of the dam from here, so had to swing real wide to get to our rendezvous point. Then there were so many random people wandering around, soldiers, folks that had been locked up, a couple workers… We didn’t know who would react how if they came across us, so we only let ourselves move at night, and then painfully slow and cautious, until we got past the bridge,” Cole said.
“Scared a few people that came across us, but we were a big group with a lot of firepower, so they just turned around and moved on when we told them to. Not many people up here with a liking for the military, or willing to risk any contact with them to report us. Kept them from getting the Army on us,” Steve Wilkerson said.
“Did you lose anybody?” Bill asked.
“Nope,” Bonnie said. “Eight out, eight in, Captain.”
“Very happy to hear that,” Bill said. “What say we all have a drink, then figure out what we’ve got and get ready to deal with whatever comes.”
THE END
Where Hope Remains : A Post Apocalyptic EMP Survival Thriller (One Family's Survival Book 3) Page 4