by David Wilson
Moving to his right, Ben stayed inside the tree line and deep enough so his movement would not be easily seen from anyone inside the main building or the maintenance building. Once he had moved far enough to get a good look at the maintenance building, he stopped again and watched that building and the back of the main building for a few minutes. Again detecting no movement, Ben continued to circle the maintenance building until it blocked any view of the main building. Moving to the back door of the maintenance building, he paused and listened for any movement. Hearing nothing, Ben reached out and slowly tested the back door to see if the door was locked. He breathed out a long sigh of breath when the door handle turned easily and quietly under his fist. Ben double checked to make sure there was not anything to stop the door from opening he eased the door open about six inches before stopping and listening again. Ben knew he had already given up any chance at surprise if someone was inside the shop and if they were awake, but he still felt slow and quiet was the way to go right now. Sliding the muzzle of the shotgun into the opening of the door, he used his forearm to open the door wide enough to turn into the open doorway. Taking two steps into the building, Ben did a fast sweep of the entire bay area from left to right. Ben thought Talon had been right. Most of the building was empty other than a small tractor with a mowing deck attached sitting in the last work bay. Letting his breath out and trying to slowly suck back in a lung full was louder than he intended, but it drew no attention from anyone or anything. Moving along the back wall, Ben was careful not to trip on the various tools and equipment placed haphazardly around the shop.
There was one small enclosed area in the back corner that appeared to be the manager’s office. It couldn’t have been more than 10 feet by 12 feet and had a small air conditioner hanging from a cutout. It appeared to have no windows but did have one door facing the work bays. For the umpteenth time, Ben wished Talon was here with him, but he pushed those thoughts away. He had to clear these buildings and get Talon inside. Moving over next to the office door, Ben stopped and listened but could not hear anything moving inside. Knowing he was running out of time, Ben carefully gripped the door handle and then quickly turned the knob and pushed the door wide open and stepped into an empty office. Breathing a sigh of relief, Ben backed out of the office and turned to head over to the main building.
Chapter Fourteen
As Ben turned his PVS-14 flared and went into shutdown as a half dozen flashlights came on. Ben froze in place as a voice said, “I thought you said there were two of them. Damn it, spread out and find the other one, he must be with the horses. You three, go find him and kill him if you have to. Don’t shoot the horses.”
A thousand thoughts flooded through Ben’s head, but the thought of what Talon had done back on that second day at the lake with the bikers came to him clearly. This wasn’t the time to talk, these men meant to kill him and Talon, and he wasn’t doing to just lay down for them. His shotgun was pointed to the left and hanging from the two-point sling. Pistol it would be. Ben slight raised his hands to show the men behind the lights that he was not going to do anything rash with the shotgun.
“Our horses are over on the other side of the main building,” Ben said, as he pointed with his left hand in the opposite direction of where they really were and at the same time, trying to make his voice sound like he was scared to death. As he heard himself, he thought well that didn’t take much acting. As a couple of the lights swung to follow his pointing hand, his right-hand dove for the holstered Glock in the drop-leg rig on his right leg. Counting in his head, he recited the drill Talon had taught Mat and him yesterday. Just as his left hand met the gun coming up and he began to push it forward, he pulled the Glock’s trigger as fast as he could. As Ben’s body was square with the light on the far left, he triggered five rounds of 9 mm toward that light before taking one step to his right and firing another five rounds at the second light.
By this time, the lights were going everywhere, and his NVD came back on, giving him a clear view of the men for the first time. Dropping his Glock, he again took another step to his right and came up with the DP-12 and shot the next two men, who had begun to turn away from him for some reason. A quick look at the last two men revealed they were down and had multiple wounds. Well, Ben thought, guess Talon wasn’t down for the count yet. Seeing no one else still on their feet, movement caught his eye, and he saw the second man he had shot with the Glock struggling to raise a pistol in his hand. Having already racked the shotgun, Ben put a load of 00 buckshot square into his chest just below the man’s collar bones. Scanning the area, Ben didn’t see anyone else moving, but he wasn’t going to take any chances. He quickly thumbed rounds into the shotgun until it was full again and stepped back over to where he had dropped his Glock. Scooping up his Glock, Ben walked over to each of the men and coldly fired one round into the head of each of the six men. Rule number one, never turn your back on someone you have just shot and thought were dead. Always make sure. Dropping the mostly empty magazine out of the pistol, he shoved a full magazine into the weapon before holstering it and putting away the empty magazine.
Ben startled when the sound of a horse breaking into a run came from in front of the main building quickly followed by the coughing sound of a suppressed weapon firing three-round bursts. Ben ran towards the front of the building when a sound that he had never heard stopped him dead in his tracks. It wasn’t a human sound that Ben had ever heard before, then it dawned on him, that was a horse making that noise, and he again ran towards the sound. Coming around the building, Ben saw Talon moving slowly towards a horse down on its side, about 50 feet from the main building. Talon approached the horse, speaking softly to it before raising his M-4 and putting the three rounds into its head to put the animal out of its suffering. Talon then shifted his aim and fired one more burst into the man who had been riding the horse. Talon turned and saw Ben, he raised his hand and motioned him to come, then collapsed to the ground. Thinking Talon had been hit again, Ben rushed to his side.
Talon awoke and attempted to sit up, needing to pee so bad he didn’t know if he could hold it any longer. The pain that hit him was blinding, and he was confused about the when and where he was. How did he get hurt? He raised his hands to feel his head and found the bandages wrapping his head. His mind flashed back to the vehicle explosion in Afghanistan, no that couldn’t be right, that happened years ago. But right now, none of that matter, opening one eye while struggling with the pain in his head, he saw the vague outline of a door, and he stood unsteadily and staggered over to the door. Finding the door handle, he flung the door open and stepped outside. Leaning against the side of the building, Talon completed his urgent business and turned to go back inside the building.
“Welcome back to the world Old Man,” Ben exclaimed with a huge smile on his face. Memories of the last week came flooding back to Talon in an instant.
“Where the fuck is my coffee,” Talon asked, “I save your ass for the umpteenth time, and nobody appreciates it in the least.”
“Actually there is hot water on the stove right over there,” Ben said as he pointed to the solo stove sitting on the workbench, “I found your alcohol burner in the packed stove and figured that would be best to use inside here. But from the look of you, you should go sit down before you fall down, and you really need to get some water and some food down before you go straight to coffee.”
In spite of Talon’s false pretense of I’m alright, he let Ben help him over to the pallet Ben had made for him. Easing him down Ben asked, “Your water bladder is right beside you, once you get a little water and some food down, I’ll get you some of those horse pills you have in your kit. So does anything sound good? The stuff you tried to eat earlier, you just threw up, but you seem a lot better now.”
Talon thought for a second before replying, “I was wondering why my mouth tasted like a cat took a crap in my mouth. Bring me my toothbrush and toothpaste, then I’ll eat a couple of packets of that MRE jelly and maybe one
of peanut butter. I don’t remember the earlier try at food by the sugar from the jelly, and the peanut butter should be as gentle as anything else we have. But I also want my damn coffee, the caffeine will go a long ways towards fixing that headache you are about to have.”
Ben grinned and said, “You mean your headache.”
Talon returned his grin with a look of pure meanness, “No, I’m talking about the headache you’re going to have when I finish beating you up with my bad intent and harsh language because right now that’s all I’ve got. But I’m going to try anyway if I have to get up from here and get myself a cup of coffee. Now, all joking aside, bring me up to date. First, where are we exactly, and how long have we been here?”
Ben walked over to the packhorse saddle and began to dig through one of the sacks. As he worked to find Talon something to eat, he briefed Talon on the events since he hit his head. Ben began, “I don’t know how much you remember, but after you got thrown from your horse, we got you patched up and made it to the Fairfax Lake Park. Right after we got here and I was scouting the buildings, a bunch of friends of those guys we shot at the bridge showed up. After hauling you around all night, I wasn’t in the mood to talk, and with your assistance, we took them out too. Then I got you settled in and gave you three of those horse pills of yours, dragged off all the bodies and the horse you killed. I next went up to the road and erased any evidence that we stopped here, then led those guys horses down the road for about a mile and drove them south. Even if they return, they are just going to confuse the tracks all the more as they won’t return here, but to their homes, that is minus the saddles and tack, of course. And just so you know, there are a couple of larger saddles among that lot. And to answer your question that was last night. It’s almost 1600 now, but you are still not good to go for tonight. Maybe by tomorrow night, you will be, and I really don’t want to argue about it. You know I’m right, and I know I’m right, so just let it be for now. You took quite a blow from that fall, and you need to at least rest one more night and tomorrow to be in any shape to continue this mission. Oh, and thank you for saving my skin one more time last night.”
Finally, finding some of the jelly packets and a couple of the peanut butter, Ben came back to Talon and helped him sit up. Ben moved Talon’s water bladder closer to his side and then walked over to the Solo stove and made Talon a cup of coffee. Carrying the coffee back over to Talon, Ben saw Talon had already downed both the packets of jelly and was working on the peanut butter. Sitting the coffee within Talon’s reach, Ben pulled up an old milk crate and sat down.
Talon said, “I’m not going to lie, I’m not looking forward to getting back up on that horse with my head still throbbing like it is now. Anyway, where did you put all the bodies?”
Ben actually blushed from the question, “I put them in the main building. A couple of those guys were pushing 250 pounds. Sure found out the old saying about deadweight being hard to handle is true,” he said, trying to hide a smile. “Anyway, I used my horse to drag them over there, then I dragged them into the first office and left them. I collected all the weapons and pocket litter from them, just as you taught us. I have it all here if you feel up to going through it all. I didn’t see anything interesting, it's not like they were soldiers or cops, at least from the ID’s they had on them.”
Talon nodded his approval, “Good job, I take it, you dragged the dead horse off also.”
Ben nodded and explained, “Yeah that was a little more difficult, had to use two of horses for that, mine and that big Belgian of yours. Dragged it about a quarter-mile from here. I haven’t spotted any buzzards yet. Hopefully, we get out of here as any search parties will home in on those in a heartbeat.”
Talon asked, “Did any of those guys last night say anything before they started shooting?”
Ben blushed again, “No, they didn’t get the chance, they caught me flat-footed as I was coming out of that office and were confident I wouldn’t try anything with six guns on me. They were focused on my shotgun, and I took the first two down with my Glock, before getting the other two with my shotgun,” pausing to pat the gun as if it was a pet, “Anyhow, then you took out the last two as I took the two with the shotgun, then you shot the guy that I’m guessing was holding the horses. The weapons are all run of the mill, a couple deer rifles, two AR-15’s nothing special, and a couple of hunting shotguns. The upside is we picked up about 500 rounds of 5.56 and 200 rounds of 00 buckshot, some nice flashlights, an assortment of knives, but the coup de grace are these.” Ben got up and walked over to a workbench and picked up two swords.
Talon gave a snort of disgust, “Hate to tell you, but 98% of swords are pieces of crap…” Talon broke off his sentence when he saw the markings on the swords. “Well, I’ll be damned,” Talon said, “That’s a Deuce III and a Sharkalope. Are they marked? I mean, a lot of people have some identifying mark put on theirs. ”
Ben grinned widely, “Nope, already checked them, and they appear to be fairly new and have not been used much at all. The edges are good, and they also came to us with leather sheaths, not the Kydex ones they come in from the Zombie Tools shop. Soooo, the question is now, which one do you want?”
Despite the pain, Talon also grinned like a kid at Christmas, “Nope, you carried the fight to them last night, you pick.”
Ben laughed and said, “I’m not going to hold back on this one, I want the Deuce, but I feel bad taking it as it is the better weapon.”
Talon said, “Hang on there, Chesty, I am just fine with you taking the Deuce, I’m more of a finesse guy when it comes to the blade. I’m just fine with the Sharkalope. What a find, two years from now, everyone will be running low on ammo, and weapons like these will more than likely save us someday. Might not be that soon but mark my word they will one day. Oh, and don’t even think about slinging that thing on your back like Conan. You will end up with a bigger cut on the back of your head than me or lose an ear. Strap it to your saddle on the offside under the skirt, which will still give you quick access to it, and the leather of the saddle will protect the horse and yourself.”
Ben handed the Sharkalope to Talon with a look of disbelief on his face, “I can’t believe you would pick the shorter one over this,” he said proudly holding up the Deuce, “This thing is a work of art, and I’m amazed on how sharp it is. Oh, and by the way, I got the whole Conan thing, but who the hell is Chesty?”
Talon gave a belly laugh but winced from the pain jolting through his skull, “Ok, that joke backfired on me as you didn’t get it, but it was still funny enough to circle back on me. Chesty Puller was a famous US Marine during the Nicaragua and Korea Wars. He won the Navy Cross twice for defeating larger insurgent groups. It was also reported that he once said, ‘I’d trade a seabag of dogtags for a Medal of Honor.’ Based on what I know of his career, I doubt he ever said that, but it is part of the legend.”
“What else do I need to know that I missed,” asked Talon.
“Nothing important that I can think of after you took out that guy on the horse, you passed out from your concussion or loss of blood or both. Anyway, I then had to carry your sorry ass over to this building, and no, I didn’t use a horse to drag you, thought about it, but didn’t. Found those cushions in the main building and got you settled in. Then took care of the bodies, had just finished with putting up the horses when you woke. Oh, and you will need to choose between those two saddles over there. Either of them is better than the one you are using right now. I have most of the gear packed up and ready to go, but I do think we need to stay for one more night to give your head a chance to heal,” stated Ben.
Sitting and thinking for a minute, Talon had to be truthful with himself, he felt like crap warmed over. Right now, he could do more damage to an enemy with harsh words and some heavy disapproval then he could with what little strength he had right now. God, he hated feeling so weak. “You are right, we need to stay in place for another night and get back on the road tomorrow night. How are we set for w
ater, and have the horses had anything to eat?” asked Talon.
Ben grinned, “We are good, that back corner where the horses are is filled with hay bales, think they use it here in the park when they plant grass seed, as far as water goes, we are in pretty good shape. There is a fifty-gallon hot water heater in this building and two more in the main building. I haven’t even touched the one in this building yet, and I just checked the horses. They have plenty of water for the next ten or twelve hours.”
“What else do we need to do before we bed down tonight?” asked Talon as he lay back down on the pallet of couch cushions Ben had put together for him.
Ben laughed and said, “Well, I can’t think of anything ‘we’ need to do. But I do need to lock this place down and get some rest myself. I’ve been up all night and day taking care of everything, and I’m worn down a little myself.”
Talon opened one eye and looked at Ben before saying, “You have handled yourself well these last few days, and I guess you deserve some sleep. Grab me a couple of those horse pills before you lay down, please, and make sure all the doors are locked and tied with 5/50 cord from this side so no one can sneak up on us.”
Ben nodded and stood to go secure the doors, thinking why I didn’t think of that.
Talon was pleased with the replacement saddle as he sat the big Belgian. This one actually fit the Belgian and was much more comfortable than the one he had started out with, and he was sure Shadow appreciated the better fitting saddle as well. Talon looked up as Ben came out of the building and walked to his horses. Talon nodded at him as he swung into his saddle and got settled. Talon’s head still hurt, but the throbbing was to a manageable pain, and they couldn’t waste any more time sitting around waiting for his boo-boo to heal. Actually, it probably needed stitches or staples, but it would be ok if he kept it clean. At this rate, he thought to himself, he was going to need to find a pharmacy and pick up some more of the 800 mg ranger tabs before long.