by Lopez, Rob
Unfortunately, his men also decided that movement would be a good thing. Just not in the same direction. When Rick turned to look, his entire unit was running away, apart from the man who’d been hit in the face, who was still rolling on the ground.
Rick yelled at his men to stand their ground, but in the next instant, a heavy caliber round hit the tree by his head and smashed straight through.
*
“Did you hit him?” asked Connors, observing from high ground to the rear of the barricade.
“No,” said Taft, adjusting the scope on his fifty-caliber sniper rifle. “He’s moving too much.”
“But you’re certain it was him?”
“Oh yeah. I’d recognize that son of a bitch anywhere.”
Connors turned his binoculars to the squad he’d sent up the side of the interstate. He could see Parson trying to rally them, but they moved too slowly. It was clear, however, that the enemy were on the run.
He signaled his mortar crew to commence firing, and waved at his mobile reserve unit to advance.
*
Shaken by his close call, Rick pulled wood splinters from his face. Scott moved down onto the highway to help the guy who’d been hit in the face, and Rick slid down the slope to help him. Scott got the guy to stand, and his lower jaw was a mess of blood. With the situation collapsing around them, they had no time to bandage him, and Rick finally decided it was time to retreat. They started to move when they heard the ominous hollow thump of a mortar round being launched. Rick had heard that sound too often on battlefields to mistake it for anything else, and he immediately dropped to the deck, pulling the wounded guy down with him. The round whooshed overhead and exploded on the embankment ahead of them.
“Who the hell are we up against?” gasped Scott from his prone position.
Rick didn’t know, but it was clearly time to get the hell out. Together, the trio leaped up and sprinted down the road, hugging the embankment. Ahead, the rest of the militia were running as fast as their legs could propel them. The next mortar shell landed farther on, on the interstate itself, and Rick guessed they were trying to range on their vehicles. Bullets cracked overhead as they crested the embankment and witnessed the mad scramble to get in the cars. The third mortar shell landed amid the group as vehicles backed up and spun around, the flying shrapnel smashing windows. It only spurred them on quicker, and by the time Rick got to the assembly area, the vehicles were speeding away. In the distance however, Packy’s Blazer arrived, leading another two trucks from Camp Grier. The other vehicles zipped by him as he slowed, and Rick and Scott waved wildly to get his attention.
The two trucks from Camp Grier, seeing the rout, turned around to follow it, but Packy gunned his engine, driving straight for the three stragglers. There was an explosion on the pavement in front of him and the Blazer drove straight through the debris field, the suspension bottoming out as the vehicle dipped into the crater. The rattling, bullet-marked SUV skidded to a halt by Rick. Throwing the wounded man in the back, he and Scott swung on board and Packy floored the accelerator and spun the wheel, his face dotted with blood from the debris that had come through the smashed windshield.
Rick looked back as they sped away, seeing a distant convoy in pursuit.
“Who are these people?” he said.
“I don’t know, man,” said Packy, spitting out a nugget of asphalt, “but they’ve got some serious shit at their disposal.”
Scott watched the pursuing vehicles. “They ain’t finished with us yet. Do you think we can hold them?”
Rick wondered the exact same thing. Clouded by his concern for Lauren, his mind was in turmoil as he battled with conflicting priorities. He’d prepared defenses at Round Knob for just such an attack, but he hadn’t anticipated meeting a group with these capabilities.
Meanwhile, a troubling thought about who might be leading this group nagged at him.
32
April waited impatiently at the lodge for news. When she saw the first vehicles coming in and their occupants staggering out and looking like they’d just run a marathon, she knew it would be bad. Ordering Daniel to stay in the lodge, she ran down the steps and across the compound. Faces marked with bloody scratches blurred past her as she searched for Scott. Finally, Packy’s Blazer came bouncing in. Rick leaped out and shouted for Sally to come over with her medical bag. With her heart in her mouth, April dashed to the SUV, fearing the worst. The guy they pulled out of the back had the most hideous facial wound.
But he wasn’t Scott.
Sally attended to the man’s wound, and Scott appeared at April’s side, taking her by the arm and leading her away at a brisk pace.
“What happened?” stammered April.
“Total shitstorm.”
“What about Lauren?”
“Couldn’t get to her. Where’s Lizzy?”
“In the lodge with Daniel.”
“Get them out of there. Take them to the trenches behind the cabins and stay there. If it looks like we’re going to be overrun, I want you to take the children into the forest and up the mountain. Don’t look back.”
“But …”
“Don’t argue with me. We’ve got tough opposition on its way. Just get away and I’ll find you.”
April tried to say something but Scott put a finger to her mouth. Taking off his body armor, he forced it over her.
“Scott, no!”
Scott put his hand on her belly. “You keep our baby safe,” he said.
He kissed her once, then turned away.
*
The western defense of Round Knob centered on a sharp bend of an elevated road. On one side of the road was a steep forested slope going up to the hill top. The other side dropped away into a snaking valley, leaving the side of the road exposed. A log bunker had been built that covered the road, and trenches dug on either side. Snipers positioned in the lodge behind the defenses looked across at the same level as the road. With the non-combatants sent to the east side of the compound, Rick had anyone else who could fight manning the defenses. Fresh ammunition was brought up, and checks were made on the wide assortment of rifles and shotguns.
For once, they weren’t short of weapons, but Rick worried about the lack of people to fire them. When Scott arrived at the line, Rick stared at his missing body armor.
“Don’t say nothing,” said Scott. “What’s the situation so far?”
Rick looked out over the road. “Not good. I thought they’d rush in, and we’d be able to give them a hard first strike, but they appear to be smarter than that.”
“That’s been worrying me too. Whoever’s leading these people understands strategy. You think they’ll try to flank us by coming up from Old Fort instead?”
“No idea. I’ve stationed a couple of guys with Packy to watch the south road, but they’re not going to be able to hold anything. Have you seen Josh at all?”
“He’s still out with Red.”
“He’s probably safer there,” muttered Rick softly. “I’ve completely messed this up.”
“Dude, now’s not the time.”
Rick glanced back. In the dip between their position and the lodge, Harvey and some other guy were busy digging fresh trenches by the rail line as a second line of defense. They dug frantically, as if they knew their lives depended on it.
“Heads up. We’ve got contact.”
Enemy militia could be seen filtering through the trees on the side of the road. Rick waved to alert the snipers back at the lodge, then aimed his rifle. Sighting one creeping figure at just two hundred yards, he fired.
All hell broke loose. Outgoing fire peppered the treeline, and from an unseen position on a far slope, the dreaded machine gun began pumping rounds back.
*
Josh halted at the sound of distant, staccato cracks. “Do you hear that?”
Red cocked his ear. “Holy crap, that’s a battle. We need to get back.”
Together, the two hurried down the mountainside.
*
From the east side of the compound, April listened with alarm as the crescendo of fire increased. Gripping her shotgun tight, she looked across at all the children in the trench. Chuck, with another shotgun, held the other end of the trench. A couple of mothers in with them hugged their children, their faces a picture of fear. The news had already passed around that they were facing a bigger force than they’d ever seen before. Lizzy held on to Daniel, who glanced up at his mother with a questioning look. April felt guilty that she was the only one in the trench with body armor.
She felt even worse at the thought that Scott needed it more.
*
The initial onslaught grew fiercer as the enemy militia multiplied in the woods. Although they had numbers on their side, they found it hard going against the entrenched positions, manned by people fighting hard to defend their homes. As soon as the attack faltered, Rick and Scott launched a counterattack.
Unwilling to rely on a static defense, the two moved from tree to tree, snap-shooting anything that moved. Surprised by the ferocity of the defense, the enemy started to pull back. Unwilling to let up, Rick and Scott charged, swerving between the trees and firing from the hip. The enemy militia, faced with two madmen intent on closing the distance, turned tail. Rick and Scott halted in cover and sniped them on their way. With the maneuver complete, they dashed back to the trenches before the enemy realized there were only two of them.
The machine gun in the distance focused its fire on the log bunker, blowing chips out of it. Another enemy militia squad tried to advance along the valley-side of the road, but one of the men was hit by sniper fire from the lodge and he went down. The rest of the squad dropped to the dirt and tried to hide in the ferns.
Rick made it back to the trenches and ran through them crouched down, checking to see how everyone was doing. He found Sally tending to a woman who’d been hit in the arm.
“I told you to wait back with the others,” Rick told her.
“I’m needed here,” said Sally calmly as she dressed the wound.
“I need you alive,” said Rick.
Sally leaned closer to Rick and lowered her voice. “You realize many of these people can lose limbs from wounds like this? I don’t have any antibiotics left.”
“There’s not a lot I can do about that.”
Rick detailed one of his defenders to help her get the wounded woman out of danger and continued his tour of the defenses.
With most of the enemy going to ground, there were fewer targets to shoot at, and the firing slackened. For a moment, everyone was buoyed by the fact they’d beaten off the attack.
Then the mortar struck.
Rick yelled a warning, and the shell exploded by the road, shaking the ground and sending dirt over everyone. Nobody was hit. The next shell, however, hit the tree tops above the trenches in an airburst that showered red-hot shrapnel down on the defenders. Several people cried out as they were sliced by metal and hit by tumbling branches. The chaos and dismay was such that few noticed the enemy’s renewed advance. Rick ran through the trench, rallying the defense, but the defenders were truly shaken after tasting their first bombardment, and slow to react. The enemy militia pushed until they were less than a hundred yards away, and their fire was intense. Rick ducked and fired, snapping from one target to another, but the position was crumbling as defenders began to run. Fighting his way to the end of the trench, he reached Scott who was firing like a machine, empty cases gathering around his feet. Rick added his rifle to the fight at this end, forcing the enemy to take cover. Then the fiery trail of a rocket propelled grenade streaked across the forest and hit the log emplacement with a jarring thump.
That was enough for most of the defenders. They broke and fled.
Rick knew it was all over. “We’ve got to go,” he shouted to Scott.
No further words were needed. It was now a race to get to the next defense line. Ducking and weaving down the slope, Rick and Scott ran until they found the elder Clement dragging the body of his younger brother. Rick turned to give covering fire while Scott tried to help carry the sibling, but then Rick heard: “He’s dead! Leave him!”
The younger Clement was as limp as a sack, and there was a hole in his forehead from which trickled only a tiny amount of blood.
“I can’t leave him,” cried the older brother.
“You have to!”
“No!”
Rick shot the first person to crest the ridge by the trenches, then looked back to see Scott wrestling with the elder Clement. Running to join them, he slapped the older brother in the face and knocked the younger’s corpse out of his grip. Together, he and Scott dragged the elder backwards through the trees, ignoring his cries of anguish.
*
Connors watched through binoculars as his troops overran the first trench line. “Good,” he said, nodding his approval.
From the lodge, a couple of snipers attempted to stem the tide. Connors turned to Leon at the mortar.
“Target that building,” he said.
“We don’t have many rounds left,” said Leon.
“Okay, just the one then. Aim carefully.”
As Leon dialed in the range, Fick turned to Connors.
“I think we should get down there,” he said. “We want to make sure we get Nolan.”
“It’s kind of chaotic down there,” said Connors. “You’re better off waiting.”
“You want him to get away again?”
Connors turned to give him a blistering look. “You know I don’t.”
“Then let us go down and get him.”
Connors held his gaze for a moment, then softened. “Okay. If that’s what you want to do. Good hunting.”
*
At the southern barricade, Packy waited with two other guys for a threat that hadn’t materialized yet, but all three were getting anxious. The sound of gunfire from the eastern defenses sounded bad enough, but once they heard the explosions, they realized this was getting hardcore.
“Should we get back up there?” asked one guy in a worried tone.
He didn’t receive an answer. Packy was thinking more of Dee. He hadn’t seen her in a while and he wondered where she was. Was she safe? Had she gone? Would he see her again? The possibilities were tying him in knots. The longer he waited, the more antsy he got. Rick had put him in charge of this position, which, in past times, he would have felt chipper about, having got the recognition he thought he deserved. But right now, his mind was someplace else.
The whistle of a falling mortar bomb came again, and an explosion tore the roof off the lodge and blew out all its windows.
“Holy crap,” said the first guy.
Packy watched the falling debris and, to him, it looked like the end of the world.
*
Rick lifted his head from the dirt as pieces of glass tinkled down like hail. He’d made it to the half-dug second defense line. Harvey and someone else held the line, firing into the trees ahead. Sally crouched at the foot of the trench, treating a wound on some guy’s leg. The woman he’d treated earlier sat nearby, weaponless and in shock.
“Where’s the guy we pulled from the truck?” asked Rick, indicating the man with the facial wound.
Sally jerked her head to indicate the smoking ruin of the lodge.
Rick sighed. The elder Clement sat curled up and crying. There was simply no way now that they could make a stand. Most of the others had fled across the second line and kept on running.
“You need to get out of here,” he told Sally. “You and Harvey take the wounded and just go. And take this guy too,” he added, nodding to the sole Clement brother.
“What about you?”
“We’re going to hold them for a while.”
Sally gazed at him, then at Scott, who was grimly checking his ammunition.
“If you see April,” said Scott, “tell her not to wait.”
Sally didn’t see a need to say anymore. With a nod to Harvey, she packed up her bag and helped he
r patient out of the trench.
As soon as they were gone, Rick and Scott looked across to the one man who’d elected to stay.
“What’s your name?” asked Scott.
“Leroy,” said the man with a look that suggested he wasn’t sure whether he was doing the right thing or not.
“Make 'em count, Leroy.”
Leroy nodded, still uncertain. Together, the three hunkered down and aimed their rifles.
Figures moved in the trees. As soon as they emerged into the clearing by the rail line, they were cut down by vicious fire from the trio.
33
April watched with growing alarm as the situation unfolded. People ran everywhere, bullets cracking overhead. April tracked them with her shotgun, but she wasn’t really sure whether they were friend or foe. The complete abandon with which they fled led to the dispiriting conclusion that they were likely her own side.
John Yorkin dashed around from the cabins and ran up to the trenches. “Grace,” he shouted. “Grace, where are you?”
Grace, sheltering from the fire, leaped up. “I’m here, Dad.”
Yorkin jumped into the trench and hugged his daughter.
“I’m scared, Dad,” uttered Grace.
“It’s okay, baby. We’re going to go now.”
Without even a glance at the other occupants of the trench, Yorkin lifted his daughter out and ran with her into the forest.
The mothers in the trench, disconcerted, watched them go, then clambered up to follow them, hauling their children up.
“Wait,” said April, feeling she should have been in charge.
Nobody waited, and soon it was just her, Daniel, Lizzy and Chuck.
“I’m staying with you,” said Chuck after seeing the concern on her face. “But maybe we should go soon?”