by Warren Ray
“We can clear them out,” said Scar. He dug into the bag and grabbed a grenade. He loaded it and then asked Meeks to warn Bassett.
Meeks pulled out his own radio. “Corporal, fire in the hole.”
“Roger that. We are good to go.”
Scar rose up and peeked over the hood. He lifted the launcher and fired it. Everyone dropped to the ground, and a couple of seconds later the grenade hit the target. The car the Jijis were using for cover exploded in a fireball throwing shrapnel in all directions.
Meeks patted Scar on the shoulder.
“That is one badass weapon,” said Eddie. “How’d you get it?”
Scar turned to Amber. “She got it.”
Eddie nodded and flashed her a thumbs-up
Bassett came over the radio. “One more should do it. A couple degrees to the east, there’s a group taking cover.”
Scar didn’t want to waste the grenades and decided to take a quick look. He asked for binoculars, which Eddie handed him. Hiding in the foliage was a group of twenty Jijis, a big enough group to justify using another grenade.
He loaded another one and aimed. The grenade shot up and landed on the group instantly killing everyone in a fifteen-foot radius.
“The coast is clear. The rest are running through the woods,” said Bassett over the radio.
Scar wanted to fire into those trees but didn’t risk it because he wasn’t sure how many Jijis were still in the woods on their side. It would be better if they drove across the bridge and then fired from that side.
“Let’s move this thing. Amber, go get the truck, we’ll get across and then drive them into the open.”
They pushed the car out of the way as Amber ran back to the truck. She again took off in a full sprint and as soon as she reached it, five Jijis popped out of the woods and took aim at her.
Chapter 55
The rapid gunfire was a sound Gunnery Sergeant Nick Nordell had been anticipating for the last week. He knew it wouldn’t be too long before Mordulfah struck back. He had been outside talking to his friend John Hollis in his driveway when it happened.
Nordell had formulated a strategy with Winters and Bassett on where people should go, when, not if, this happened. It was a solid plan, but like all plans, they could go from a solid plan to a disaster in an instant.
The gunfire echoed from the direction of the hospital, which was smart on the enemy’s part. It was where the majority of the Shadow Patriots slept and the heartbeat of the town. By attacking the hospital, the Jijis would keep a significant portion of their enemy contained. Even if it took all day, it would allow their overwhelming numbers access to the rest of the town unimpeded.
Nordell had expected this and would now implement a plan to hopefully prevent it. Without saying a word to each other, both headed back inside their houses to get what they would need. Within a few minutes, they started throwing their armament and supplies into the back of Nordell’s pickup. He loaded up the M249 Squad Automatic Weapon, affectionately known as the SAW. The Shadow Patriots had been using two of these with tremendous effect and still had plenty of ammo. Hollis gently laid his Knight’s Armament SR 25 rifle in the back along with a full steel box of ammo. This weapon had precision-fire on targets past a thousand yards, especially with the attached Schmidt & Bender scope.
Nordell’s plan was simple. He was going to put his friend, Hollis on top of the old Energy building that had a good line of sight to the hospital. The building was just under two hundred feet high and looked right down East Michigan Avenue to the hospital. It was easy pickings for a sharpshooter like Hollis. To protect him, Nordell would set up teams across the street and around the high buildings to fire at any approaching Jijis trying to take out the sniper.
As he was backing out of his driveway, a truckload of Nordell’s men pulled up. Ten guys were sitting in the bed of the truck armed with M4’s that Winters had provided.
Nordell backed out of his driveway and pulled up beside them. “We’re going downtown like we planned. Now let’s go.”
He stomped on the gas and looked at his friend. “It’s going to be a long day.”
“Yep. I got plenty of food and water.”
“Stick to the plan, and we’ll be good,” said Nordell trying to give his friend a confidence boost. Hollis had never served in the military and besides fighting out on Robinson Road, had never been in a firefight. It wasn’t an easy thing to acclimate yourself to and would test your mental readiness like nothing else in the world. Most of the guys with him were civilians as well or had served but had never seen action.
They reached the intersection of Frances and Michigan Avenues just as more of Nordell’s men showed up. He parked the truck in the middle of the street and got out to direct the vehicles.
The area had a natural border because of the Grand River. This narrow river was only thirty feet across but came from the north and ran right along the outer perimeter of downtown providing an ideal defensive border. He had already closed off the bridge on Mechanical Street last week by parking a tractor-trailer across the street and another on Business 94 effectively shutting down the whole intersection.
This left four other bridges to defend. There were others, but they were further south and were not an immediate concern. The ones the Jijis would use were right in front of them.
“I want those bridges blocked off and fortified. You know your stations now get to them.”
“Bobby, get your truck over here.”
Bobby was an old friend from high school and had been instrumental in getting everyone organized into different teams. He was a mechanic and had been helping Taylor with the maintenance of the vehicles.
Nordell wanted to clog up the area as much as possible to prevent the enemy easy access to the streets. He needed as much control as possible because it would be a primary route for the Jijis. There were eight tall buildings in a four-block radius, and he was sending his men to the tops of each one.
Nordell picked up enough chatter on the radio to know the enemy’s main assault was coming from the east and north. If they could control downtown, then it might be enough to prevent the Jijis from taking the whole town. The downside was the possibility of getting his men trapped in those buildings. However, since the enemy surrounded them anyway, it was a risk he was willing to take, as it was their best option.
Hollis grabbed his equipment and led a squad over to the Energy building. He would have spotters on all four sides to give him protection. Others took off to their assigned areas, and Nordell stood watching and giving last minute orders.
He grabbed his radio and called Scar. “Scar, come in.”
It took a few more tries before he answered.
“We’re all set up downtown and ready,” said Nordell.
“Gunny, they’ve got seasoned fighters with light armament.”
“Copy that. We’ll give ‘em hell.”
Nordell tucked the radio into his vest and picked up the SAW. He walked through the entrance of a five-story brick building on the corner of Francis Street and Michigan Avenue. It would be in the heart of the action and just the way he wanted it. He hurried up the flights of stairs to the rooftop. The air was starting to get humid, which meant it was going to be a hot one today. He looked down on the street and was satisfied with the placement of vehicles. Across the street was the Energy building and a spotter waved to him. He acknowledged him and drew out his radio.
“Hollis, you set up?”
“Just about ready, Nick. There’s a crap-load of them down there.”
“Should be easy pickings then.”
Hollis looked through the rifle’s scope toward the hospital. The enemy was scrambling around in different directions, with cars lined up on Michigan Avenue waiting to make a turn into the parking lot. Gunfire was coming out of the upper-level hospital windows as Shadow Patriots returned fire.
The hospital was just under a thousand yards, but the parking lot where the Jijis took position behind cars was rig
ht at seven hundred yards. He adjusted his scope before looking for his first target. His heart was racing from the twelve flights of stairs, so he took a couple of deep breaths to settle down. He pulled his ball cap down and took another breath. He decided to take out a driver in a van that was sitting on the street waiting to turn. Hollis lined up a shot and squeezed the trigger. The .308 round took two seconds to travel before it penetrated the window killing the driver.
Hollis allowed himself a slight smirk before lining up another. He aimed for a group hiding behind a Chevy Impala thinking they were protected. There were four of them, and Hollis started picking them off one by one. None of them suspected a sniper was bearing down on them.
Chapter 56
Amber raced to Scar’s F150 so they could drive it across the overpass. As she reached it, five Jijis broke out of the woods fifty yards away. They raised their rifles and fired on her. She had ducked down behind the front of the truck, while rounds hit the side, just as a group of Eddie’s men raced in to take them out.
The automatic fire forced the Jiji’s heads down, so Amber rose up and fired a volley taking one out as he tried to run back into the woods. She didn’t have time to worry about them and hopped into the truck praying it would start as it had taken some hits.
She turned the key and smacked the steering wheel with her fist when the truck came alive. She threw it into gear and took one last look at the remaining Jijis. They were in panic mode because Eddie’s guys had the advantage. She floored the gas and took off for the bridge stopping to pick up the guys.
Scar jumped in on the passenger side while Meeks and Eddie hopped into the bed. She punched it and shot across the bridge hoping the enemy wouldn’t take pot shots at them from the other side. She came upon the smoldering car Scar had just hit with the grenade.
“Push on the rear and spin it around,” said Scar.
Amber hit the brake and let the truck coast into the backend of the car. She then pressed the gas and had a determined look on her face as the truck started pushing the car. The tires of the bombed out car started squealing. She then pressed the pickup harder, and the car slid forward before spinning to its side.
“Take it easy, Reese,” smirked Scar.
“I know, right, kinda fun.”
Up ahead Bassett and Burns waved them over, so she eased the truck over to them and parked it.
“Nice seeing you guys,” said Bassett. “We got here as fast as we could.”
“Where’d you see them?” asked Scar.
“On the interstate. We took out some before we had to get out of there.”
“How many you think they brought in?”
Bassett looked at Burns. “Good five hundred serious men, maybe more?”
“Right around there,” confirmed Burns. “We had to have taken out fifty or so of them though.”
“These guys are the real deal,” said Bassett
Scar nodded. He already suspected it. If for no other reason the firepower they had brought was a good clue. In total, they had right around two thousand men attacking the city. Those were big numbers, and it meant they going to lose a lot of people today. They still had about nine hundred civilians in town, which included a lot of women and children. He was thankful they had moved a hundred of them out last night.
“Where’s the SAW?” asked Bassett.
“Nordell has one and Badger the other,” said Scar.
“We could use it here,” said Bassett pointing to Eddie’s side of the interstate. “We need to light up those woods.”
Scar turned to Eddie. “Tell your guys to keep their heads down.”
The six of them rushed back to the bridge and split off into two groups on each side of the entrance. They navigated through the brush to get to the clearing in order to see across the interstate below.
“Two magazines each,” ordered Scar not wanting to waste ammo.
They started firing all at once, and the smoke floated around them as brass shell casings hit the grass. Across the interstate, tree branches snapped free, and leaves flew up in the air. A few Jijis began tumbling down through the thick foliage and screams could be heard through the non-stop staccato fire of the shooting.
It took just under a minute before everyone finished emptying their two magazines. Bassett and Burns moved down the embankment to the interstate and hopped over the median barrier to finish off a few lying on the ground. Satisfied they had the bridge under their control, they ran back up and joined the rest of the team.
Scar grabbed the binoculars, looked down the interstate on both sides, but didn’t see any more Jijis. He let out a frustrated sigh. The enemy left no one else on the interstate, which meant their main assault, as far as he could tell, was from the north and east. He got a status report from the guards on the west who were starting to be passed by Jijis going around their positions. The southern border reported no movement from the cops.
Scar looked at Bassett as the SITREP came across the radio and was thinking the same thing as he was.
“They’re gonna push everyone south,” said Bassett.
Scar gave him a firm nod. With the Jiji’s overwhelming numbers, they could direct the flow of the battle. All they had to do was start burning the town and make a big show of it, which wouldn’t be too difficult. Scar had only so many people in too few places. Not being everywhere today would be problematic.
The thought forced him to face reality that they could very well lose the town today. This presented two problems. Besides the obvious one of taking out the enemy as best they could, he needed to evacuate as many people as possible. This was going to be difficult, to say the least, and he knew they were going to lose a lot of them today.
He let out another sigh of frustration. If he was lucky, he’d get half of them to safety. Another quarter or so would be able to hide somewhere, and the remaining quarter would either be shot or captured while on the run.
He had no doubt they were on the hunt for young girls, of which there were still plenty in town. If he was right about forcing everyone south, then the cops were in perfect position to scoop them up. The more he thought about it, the more sense it made.
Still, the southern border might be their best option. If the Jijis were trying to force everyone to the south, the town’s people would put up less resistance, that is until they ran into the cops.
The geography made better sense for refugees to go south. It was wide open country and didn’t have any major roads to cross until they hit US 12, but by then it was spread out even more.
“Corporal, you think you could sneak us down to US 12 in your cruiser?”
“Don’t see why not. What do you have in mind?”
“I want to come in from behind the cops and take some out.”
Eddie gave him a concerned look.
“We need to open up an escape route. We’ve still got close to nine hundred people in town. Half of them are going to be running scared, right into the cop’s arms.”
“What about our guys?” protested Burns.
“They’re going to need an exit too.”
Amber put a hand on Scar’s arm. “Are we going to lose the town?”
“We have to assume that’s a real possibility,” said Scar with a grimaced look.
Chapter 57
All of Nordell’s spotters reported that the coast was still clear. He wasn’t expecting the enemy to be marching down from the north or the west anytime soon. He agreed with Scar that they would be driving the population to the south. He’d just gotten off the radio with him asking for a SITREP.
A lot of his fellow citizens were starting to head that way in vans and the beds of pick-ups. He had just instructed his Block Captains to barricade themselves in the old Jackson College down on Browns Lake Road. The facility consisted of a half dozen buildings with a couple of them tall enough to facilitate spotters on the roofs. If the Jijis wanted to drive them south, then they would oblige them.
With the exception of the hospital, all the
other gunfire was still in the distance and Nordell was thinking he needed to change his strategy. He hadn’t considered the Jijis would take their time corralling everyone in one particular area, which he now thought was an interesting strategy.
If the enemy created chaos by shooting into the first few houses they came to and setting them on fire, everyone would have enough advanced warning to hightail it. By doing so, they’d have fewer people holed up in houses making it easier to assemble them in one area. This would save time by eliminating the need to go house by house.
Nordell wasn’t foolish enough to think this was the only thing they would be doing. If the Jijis saw anyone on the streets, they would shoot at them without hesitation. He entertained the thought of leaving this area to engage the enemy on the west side of town. If they were moving slowly, then they could take pot shots at them and harass them as they continued across town. The majority of their citizens were behind him and not in front of him.
He was growing anxious to get into this fight and had to fight off the temptation. There was fighting six blocks away at the hospital, and surely the Jijis would eventually realize they had a sharpshooter plucking off their men. Hollis had been at it now for close to twenty minutes with great success. If these guys were real fighters, then they would know and would be planning something to stop it.
This notion gave Nordell pause. What would he do in their situation? He’d assign a team to sneak in to take them by surprise. Try to infiltrate the building and go up the stairs. This wouldn’t work though, because he had ground forces all over the place keeping an eye out for this very scenario. They were in pairs and in constant radio contact with those up top, who were keeping an eye on the ebb and flow of the situation. It wasn’t like in the movies where you could just sneak in. Then what would they do?
A flash of sweat popped up on his forehead. It is precisely what he would do, and it made sense. They would fire an RPG. He pulled his radio out just as all hell broke loose.