Feral Nation Series Box Set 2 [Books 4-6]

by Williams, Scott B.

  She tried asking questions of the man in the seat beside her, but now he pretended not to understand English, and when she switched to her limited Spanish, he simply ignored her. Shauna gave up and resigned herself to the fact that she was going to have to wait until they reached wherever they were going and hope there would be someone there with whom she could reason. In the meantime, she resolved to take careful note of the route they were driving, as she had no idea how far they would travel. There was only one way out of the compound at the end of the gravel road, so that part was easy. But when they reached the pavement, the trucks didn’t turn left and head back to the east the way she’d been brought here. Instead they took a right and headed west. Shauna also noted that while the pickup truck in front continued to lead the way, the one following them turned around in the intersection and headed back in the direction of the compound.

  Now that they were on the pavement and traveling faster, Shauna turned again to the man beside her, pointing to her wrist that was zip tied to the grab handle as she tried to find the right words in Spanish to explain that it was too tight. She had deliberately twisted and pulled against the restraint in advance, so that her fingers were turning blue and it appeared that her circulation was being cut off. “Por favor!” she pleaded.

  There was a rapid-fire exchange in Spanish between the man beside her and the others up front. Shauna understood enough of it to know that one was against the idea of cutting her loose, but the guy in the back said he would watch her, and besides, she wouldn’t jump out now because they were going too fast. After a couple more expletives that Shauna understood perfectly, the one up front in the passenger seat relented, and her seat mate pulled out a big folding knife and snapped the blade open with a flick of his wrist. Then he leaned forward and held the stiletto-like tip close in front of her eyes, whispering a warning that was easy to translate, regardless of the language barrier. Shauna nodded that she understood, and then thanked him when he slipped the blade into the tight space between her wrist and the grab handle and sliced away the thick plastic tie.

  She certainly had no intention of jumping out of a moving vehicle but having both hands free made Shauna feel a lot better about her situation, even if there was little hope of escape. She couldn’t just hop out and run, even when the vehicles came to a stop, because like the contractors, these men in the two SUVs were heavily armed. Shauna couldn’t miss the two AK-47s leaning against the front seat by the console when they put her into the vehicle, and the man sitting next to her wore a pistol in a shoulder holster that was in plain sight under his unbuttoned coat. She figured the other two were carrying pistols as well, and then there were the three contractors in front of them and the two Mexicans in the other SUV bringing up the rear. No, running wouldn’t work, unless something changed, and sometime about an hour after they’d first turned onto the pavement, it did.

  The first indication she got that something was up came when the driver suddenly slowed and then stopped in the middle of the road. Shauna looked out the windows to see why but didn’t think it was because they had arrived anywhere. The terrain here was much lower in elevation and she’d noticed the changing landscape and vegetation along the way after they’d slowly made their way out of the mountains on a steep, winding road. Here it looked almost like semi-desert, the low, rolling hills covered in dry brush and grasses. It seemed like an unusual place to stop, and from what she could understand of the conversation in her vehicle, the Mexicans were as confused as she.

  She saw two of the contractors get out of the pickup truck with their rifles in their hands. One of the two remained in place next to their vehicle while the other approached the driver of hers. A conversation ensued that quickly turned into a heated argument. There was something said about having to wait there because the chief had forgotten something, and it would only be an hour or so. Shauna could tell the Mexicans didn’t like this new development. The guy in the passenger’s seat in front of her got out with one of the AKs in hand, yelling back at the two contractors, who insisted that they had to do this. Shauna then saw the third man exit the pickup with his rifle, and it was clear that it was becoming a standoff. She’d momentarily forgotten about the other SUV behind her when gunfire suddenly erupted, and all hell broke loose.

  Shauna saw the contractors up front retreating for the cover of their truck as they brought their own weapons up to fire. The man who’d gotten out of the seat in front of her with the AK went down, and when the one beside her exited the vehicle with his pistol, Shauna saw him get hit and fall too. Bullets shattered the windshield on the driver’s side as the last man inside dove to the floorboards for cover, and Shauna opened her door, deciding it was more dangerous to stay inside than to get out. The other two Mexicans in the rear SUV were still firing, so the battle wasn’t over. Shauna knew it was now or never, so she dropped low into a crouch beside the door as she climbed out. She spotted the fallen AK where it lay on the shoulder of the road near the twitching body of the man who’d carried it and scooped it up as she broke into a sprint for the brush. Keeping as low as she possibly could, she busted through thorny branches that ripped at her hands and clothing, but she never looked back. It didn’t matter to her who won and who lost the unexpected firefight, she knew her only chance was to get away from both parties, so she didn’t pause until she was completely out of sight of the road. She checked the chamber of the AK and pulled the magazine out to verify that it was full. The weapon was the real deal, and not a civilian clone, and the selector switch was in the full auto position when she’d grabbed it. Shauna switched it to safe and kept going, keeping her finger near the lever and ready if she needed to fire.

  The shooting behind her stopped as suddenly as it had begun though, and Shauna heard cursing in English that told her it was the chief’s men that had prevailed. Why this had happened, she had no idea, but now one of the men was calling out to her, saying that it was safe to come back and that the danger was over. She heard him yell to her that they were in the middle of nowhere, and that she would die out here if left alone, but Shauna ignored him and kept going. She didn’t know if they would come after her or not, but if they did, she was determined they weren’t going to take her captive again. She set out at a run, working her way around the worst of the thickets and among the rocks as the terrain climbed the farther she got from the road. It was almost like Déjà vu from just a few days ago, but in a different setting. This wasn’t going to be like the last time she ran from these men though. She wasn’t trying to create a diversion today; she was running for her life. This time she knew for sure that they weren’t U.S. soldiers, she knew what they were capable of, and she was armed with an AK-47 rifle and she had a good head start. But when their calls for her to stop didn’t seem to be receding into the distance as she ran, Shauna knew the contractors were coming after her. She scanned the terrain above her looking for cover that would give her an advantage, and when she found it among a jumble of large boulders, Shauna took up position there and switched the selector on her weapon back to full auto. It was several more minutes before the first man came into view 150 yards below, and Shauna didn’t know if all three of them had survived the firefight with the Mexicans or not and didn’t care. If she could eliminate one of them now it would improve her odds regardless. She squeezed the trigger without hesitation, easing her finger off only when the muzzle began to climb. It was maybe a five or six round burst, but it was enough. She saw the man go down, and it wasn’t an intentional dive for cover either. He folded up at the waist and dropped, either dead or wounded. Shauna waited a few minutes to see if the other two would appear, but when they didn’t, she got to her feet and took off running again, thinking that maybe the others had decided she wasn’t worth it. Perhaps they didn’t see her grab the AK and had no idea she was armed until she fired.

  She ran fast, driven by adrenalin and the pent-up energy from all that time confined in the little supply room. The afternoon air was already chilly, and she knew t
he night would bring real cold, but right now the important thing was putting distance between herself and the road. She had no idea where she was or how big this tract of desolate land into which she was fleeing might be, but she thought that if she could just elude them until dark and find a place to survive the night, she would figure out the rest tomorrow.

  Fifteen

  ERIC, NANTAN AND LUKE stood around the desk where the base station radio unit was set up and watched as the chief attempted to make the call to his men in the escort truck. He repeated his contact attempt several times before he got a reply.

  “Yes, Reece, you heard me right. Stop the trucks! I don’t care what you tell the Mexicans. Tell them I forgot something else I had for them, and that I’m bringing it to them. Just make sure the woman doesn’t go anywhere and give me a call back as soon as you have it all under control.”

  The chief turned to Eric, “They’ll get it done. Juan Lopez isn’t going to like it, but Reece knows how to bullshit him into waiting. We don’t need to keep them waiting too long though, or they’ll start getting nervous.”

  Eric looked at the map the chief had sketched on a piece of paper, showing the route the convoy took and the approximate location of where they were when his man answered the call. Despite the amount of time that had passed, much of the route was slow and tedious on mountain roads, so they weren’t that far away. “I’ve changed my mind about taking you with us, Chief.” Eric turned to Tommy and Luke. “We’ll go in two vehicles. Check the fuel levels and get them out to the gate. Get that other guy, Wilson, off the horse and bring him in the compound.”

  “If you say so, but why not just shoot him? We don’t need him.”

  “Because I told him I wouldn’t if he gave me the correct information about his boss here, so I won’t.”

  “Wilson?” The chief spat. “That son of a bitch gave you all that? No wonder you took us down as easy as you did. You ought to kill him, because if you don’t and you don’t kill me, I’ll damned sure do it myself!”

  “That’s between you and him, and you’ll get your chance, but I would have taken you down with or without him.”

  “So that woman really is your wife, huh? I guess what she told me was true; that she had a real badass for a husband and that you were in the soldier-for-hire business too, but you came back here looking for your daughter. Good luck with that, man! I mean, I’d hate to know I had a daughter missing out here, the way things are going in this country.”

  “She’s not missing anymore, but even if she was, I wouldn’t stop until I found her, just like I won’t stop until I take her mother back to her.”

  “And what about after that? Who are you working for? A guy like you has got to be working for somebody. What about your buddies here? They’re not Mexican, but they’re not white either. Indian?”

  “Jicarilla Apache!” Nantan said. “We work for no one!”

  “And I’m officially retired,” Eric said. “I’d suggest you do the same after today. Your illicit operations with the drug cartels are about to come to an end.”

  Eric made the chief show him where he’d been keeping Shauna detained, and when he saw the room, Eric shoved the man inside. “Put the other one in here too, and lock the door,” he told Luke. “They can work out their differences in private while we’re away.”

  “We have to come back for the horses, you know.”

  “Of course. In the meantime, they’ll be fine with the run of the compound. I don’t expect that we’ll be gone all that long.”

  They drove the Land Rover and a pickup out of the compound and Tommy locked the gate behind them. Eric was at the wheel of the Land Rover with Nantan riding with him, while Luke, Tommy and Red followed in the truck. Since the chief had believed at the time that he was going with them as a hostage, Eric was confident that the route he’d sketched out for them was the correct one, and there had been no real need to bring him once he had that. His other three men in the escort truck thought their boss was coming to meet them where they stopped the Mexicans, so they would have their guard down when they saw the familiar Land Rover and pickup roll up to where they were waiting. Eric hoped the element of surprise would enable him and the Apaches to take control of the situation without a fight, because the last thing he wanted was to have bullets flying while Shauna was in one of the vehicles.

  They sped down the gravel road past the shot-up truck they’d ambushed earlier, leaving behind them a cloud of dust. Once on the pavement, Eric pushed it harder, knowing that like the chief said, the cartel guys that had Shauna weren’t going to be happy about the unexpected delay, and were likely to get nervous if too much time passed. There hadn’t been time to ask many questions, but Eric learned enough to know that the two SUVs had come there to make a delivery of cartel merchandise they were stockpiling for later when they expected the market to return. The chief was sending Shauna back with them because it was a convenient way to get her off his hands, and the Mexicans had agreed to it, saying their boss in Sonora had a thing for American blondes. Eric could only hope the men didn’t try anything with her while they had her in the truck, which was another reason to intercept them with as little delay as possible.

  The route led west winding through more mountains before it entered the more open country of lower elevations. Much of the landscape along the roadway was uninhabited rangeland, but here and there they passed the rubble of burned down ranch houses, and Eric figured that was the work of the C.R.I. contractors or the cartels. They really had taken control of the region and he was sure that the chief’s operation was just a small part of the big picture. Eric was just wondering whether or not they might encounter other members of either group when he and Nantan spotted an approaching vehicle in the distance on the road ahead, coming their way at high speed.

  “I’m pulling over to the shoulder,” Eric said. “We’ll see if they recognize the trucks and stop. It could be another C.R.I. patrol, so get ready!” Eric pressed the buttons to open both front windows of the Land Rover and waved back at Luke to follow him as he brought it to a stop. The oncoming truck was closing fast, and Eric knew the driver had seen them.

  “It looks like the other truck we saw this morning,” Nantan said. “The gray Ford.”

  “I think you’re right, and if it is, they didn’t wait like the chief told them to. Shauna may be with them, so we’ve got to keep our cool. There’s no telling what they’ll do when they see we’re not who they think we are.”

  “I’ll cover you from the rear,” Nantan said, as he slipped out the door and closed it behind him.

  “Tell the other guys to be ready!”

  The approaching truck slowed as it came straight towards Eric, and he could see two men in the front. He was sure now that it was indeed the truck they’d seen escorting the black SUVs that morning, and the driver was pulling up to the Land Rover now, probably expecting to find the chief sitting there waiting. Eric saw the surprise on his face when he saw it was a stranger behind the wheel instead, and by then Nantan had stepped out from behind the vehicle with his rifle leveled on them. The man at the wheel threw the truck into reverse immediately and stomped the accelerator, backing away in an erratic weave as he tried to escape. Nantan opened fire, aiming at the tires, and when the truck came to a stop again with its front tires flattened, the guy in the passenger’s seat began firing back at them, forcing Nantan back into cover and Eric to get down to the floorboards and crawl out the opposite door. Dammit! He cursed under his breath. He hadn’t expected those idiots to try something like that with Nantan’s rifle on them. Now they were under fire and couldn’t really shoot back with purpose because they didn’t know if Shauna was in that truck or not.

  “We’re going to have to flank them!” Eric said. “That truck’s not going anywhere. If we can keep them focused on the Land Rover, it shouldn’t be too hard.”

  “Let me and Luke do it. We’ll go from either side of the road. Just keep shooting in their general direction so they don’t
get suspicious. Give us ten minutes.”

  “Tell Red to get that pickup back up the road, out of rifle range. If they disable both of our vehicles out here, we’re screwed! If Tommy wants to help me keep them busy, that’s up to him.”

  Nantan said he would, and Eric fired several more rounds in the direction of the two in the other truck. If it weren’t for Shauna likely being in there, it would be a simple matter to take them out. As it was, it would still be simple, but it was going to take time for Nantan and Luke to get into place. In the meantime, Eric expected to take a lot of fire on the Land Rover, and he was correct in assuming it would be disabled when the two shooters directed their fire at the tires and the radiator, even as Red hurried out of range with the pickup. Tommy came into position alongside Eric by keeping low in the roadside ditch, and Eric made a dive for it to join him, deciding there was too much incoming fire to risk relying on just the vehicle for cover.

  “They apparently aren’t short on ammo, are they?” Eric said, as he took up position in the ditch near Tommy. Eric couldn’t imagine what Shauna must be going through, if she were indeed in the back seat of that truck. She would have no idea who her captors were engaging, and she certainly would never imagine it was him. He knew she would know to keep down and stay put if at all possible, but it would still be a hair-raising situation for her, trapped there in the middle of a hot firefight. Eric and Tommy kept up their sporadic shooting to keep the two guys focused, but he knew they were experienced operators and that they would have to know they couldn’t hold their position long against several armed men. If they suspected they were being flanked though, there was little they could do about it, because Nantan and Luke were so stealthy in their approach that neither was detected until it was too late. Eric heard their rifles as the two of them unleashed a simultaneous crossfire on the men behind the truck, and when the echoes faded away, there were no more sounds of resistance from that direction. Eric saw Nantan move in while Luke waited in place to cover him. A few seconds later, Nantan waved the all-clear signal, and Eric sprang to his feet and ran to the truck, hoping that Shauna was unhurt. But when he opened the back door and looked inside, there was no one there!