by Robert Boren
Garrett stuck his spur into Black Crow’s thigh wound, causing him to scream in pain. “I didn’t hear you.”
“Damn, dude,” James said. Tyler glared at him, then turned back to Black Crow.
“I’ll ask you again. Where’s Silver Wolf?”
“He went to the happy hunting ground,” Black Crow said.
“Where is he?” Garrett asked, poised to dig the spur in again. Black Crow tried to spit at him, blood spewing out with the saliva, landing on his belly. Garrett dug in again, and he screamed bloody murder.
James got up and walked away. Ryan stayed there, watching, his face showing mixed emotions. Tyler glanced at him, then back at Black Crow.
“How long have you been against us?”
Black Crow laughed. “Why should I tell you anything? I’m done anyway. Unless you’ve got a chopper at your disposal, I’ll bleed out long before you can get me out of here.”
“Why’d you do this, son?” Garrett asked.
“I’m not your son,” he spat.
“No, but I’m your chief,” Tyler said. “So is Silver Wolf. At least tell us why.”
“You wouldn’t understand,” Black Crow said, his breath laboring now, sweat pouring off his face.
“Try me,” Tyler said.
“We could’ve used this opportunity to get our land back,” he said. “All of it. We could’ve teamed with the Islamists. They aren’t all that different from us, you know. We’ve both been wronged by the white man.”
Garrett laughed. “Are you kidding me? You planning on converting to Islam? Because if they win and you don’t convert, you’re dead. You’d just be trading one dominate culture for another.”
“They are warriors,” Black Crow said. “Like we used to be.”
“You are one mixed up son of a bitch,” Ryan said. “Can we shoot him and move on? We have a whole lot of Islamic warriors to kill.”
Black Crow laughed hard, turning to a cough, blood leaking from the corners of his mouth. “What do you have, about forty guys? There’s hundreds coming for you, and another thousand sitting north of there, getting ready to hit your little stronghold at the Williams place, and that stupid western town.”
Garrett laughed. “We’ve got five hundred mounted men closing on the enemy forces at the highway, and another two thousand heading for Descanso, you idiot.”
Black Crow’s eyes opened wide.
“You’re beaten,” Tyler said. “Honor your ancestors and tell us where our chief is.”
Black Crow started to cry, as his breath slowed even more.
“C’mon,” Tyler said.
“All right, if you agree to end me quick.”
“Agreed,” Ryan said.
“We don’t know where Silver Wolf is. I never found him. He probably crashed that stupid hovercraft of his somewhere.”
“So why were those guys coming down here?”
“To pick me up,” he said. “They were making me a general.”
“That’s what they told you?” Ryan asked, shaking his head.
“Screw you,” Black Crow said. “Kill me. I did what you asked.”
Ryan pointed his gun at Black Crow’s head.
“No,” Tyler said. “I’ll do it. Stand back.”
The others left. Tyler pulled his pistol as Black Crow shut his eyes and tensed up. Tyler fired.
***
Ted and Haley rushed into their coach, which was already in siege mode. Brianna had her gun in her hand, eyes wide with fear. “Thank God you’re back.”
Bryan had his gun ready to go, when all of them got buzzed with a text. Ted read his phone. “Shut down the engine. Jules thinks they might just drive by, unless they hear us.”
Bryan nodded and rushed to the driver’s seat, shutting down the engine as the other coaches around him did the same. Then it was silent.
“Turn out the lights,” Ted said. Haley got close to him, putting her arm on his back. He turned towards her. “Don’t worry, honey. We know how many there are, and we’ll see them if they make the turnoff.”
“I know,” she whispered. “Just scared.”
“Gather around and I’ll display the app,” Ted said. “I’ll have to refresh it every few seconds.”
Haley rushed to the counter and pulled the coffee maker away from the wall. “Here, prop it up against this.”
Ted nodded and set his phone down. All of them watched the screen, Ted hitting the refresh button every ten seconds.
“They’re passing the turnoff,” Brianna said.
“Yeah, thank God,” Haley said.
Ted shook his head. “We aren’t out of the woods yet. They just went by the back entry. They might still turn in through the front gate.”
“There’s not that many,” Bryan said. “We could take them.”
“We could,” Ted said, “but they’d get a call out, and we’d have to leave before we’re ready to hit the Mertins plant.”
“Okay, I can see that,” Bryan said. “Sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry,” Ted said. “Always be thinking.”
“They’ve passed the main entrance,” Haley said.
“So it would appear,” Ted said. “We’re probably safe, but it’ll be a long night.”
“You going to monitor them?” Haley asked.
“Damn straight,” Ted said. “We need to know where they go.”
Everybody got buzzed by a text message. Haley looked at her phone. “Jules just sent an all clear, but said we need to keep lights off, be quiet, and watch the apps.”
“Should we leave this in siege mode?” Bryan asked.
“Yes,” Ted said. “It won’t hurt anything. More headroom too.”
“Let’s go back and get some sleep, Bryan,” Brianna said.
He nodded and followed her.
“We can share the convertible sofa,” Haley said.
“I’d like that,” Ted said. They got their bed set up in a few minutes.
“Thank you,” Haley said as they got undressed for bed.
“For what?”
“Everything.” She climbed under the covers. He joined her after a moment, and she snuggled up close. “This okay?”
“Yes,” Ted said, putting his arm around her.
“We can, you know,” she whispered. “I can be quiet.”
“Let’s wait,” Ted said. “You mind? I’m still pretty stirred up.”
“Okay,” she said, watching him as he refreshed the screen on his phone. “Where are they now?”
“They’re almost to Santa Cruz. Now why would they be going there?” He switched to his text app and sent a message.
“What are you doing?”
“Sending a text to Jules, asking what he thinks,” Ted said. His phone buzzed.
“He got back that fast?”
Ted chuckled. “Yeah. He’s already talking to Ivan about it.”
“You don’t think they’ve got bad guys coming in from the Pacific, do you?”
Ted shot her a glance. “That’s the first thing I thought of. Not much of a harbor there. Just pleasure boats. The harbor does go some ways inland, though. Look.” He showed his phone to Haley.
“Looks like someplace they wouldn’t want to be,” Haley said. “They could get attacked from two directions in there.”
“Yeah,” Ted said. His phone buzzed again. “Jules again. Ivan got visuals via a satellite feed. It’s not military vehicles. They’re in commercial trucks. They’re trying to hide themselves.”
“Does he want us to do anything?” Haley asked.
“We’re the closest assets, so he’s putting us on alert.”
“What does that mean?” Haley asked.
“He wants my phone someplace where I can be reached in the middle of the night,” Ted said. “Let’s try to get some shut eye.”
Haley smiled at him. “Can I have a kiss?”
“You think that’s wise?”
“I don’t care,” she said. “Come here.”
They embraced and
kissed, and then it was like a damn bursting.
“Wow,” Haley said. “That was something.”
“Gonna be hard to sleep now,” Ted said, his breath coming fast.
“Then let’s stop,” she said. “We’ll just cuddle, okay?”
Ted nodded, giving her a peck on the forehead.
***
The battle wagons were parked along Los Terrinitos Road, among the trees surrounding several abandoned mini-ranches.
Sam and Erica walked over to Ji-Ho’s rig. Trevor and Kaylee were in there with Seth and Kaitlyn. Megan and Angel were walking up.
“You heard?” Sam asked Ji-Ho as he entered.
“Yeah, no Ed,” Ji-Ho said. “Hope he still alive. Be hard to find.”
“Seems pretty strange that his phone isn’t working,” Trevor said.
“I know,” Erica said. “I’m worried sick.”
“Where’s the cavalry?” Angel asked. “Getting close to dark.”
“Two hours to the south, if they can keep up the pace,” Sam said. “They’ll have to slow down when it gets dark.”
“They can’t be anywhere near the roads,” Erica said. “Too many of them. It’d raise attention for sure.”
“It might anyway,” Seth said. “We could probably take on the enemy with the people here.”
“Too risky,” Ji-Ho said. “Things go wrong. Battle Wagons not hard to break. Only four hundred men to fall back on. They have over thousand men between Descanso and the road down from Julian.”
“Yeah, and more getting ready to leave from Julian, from what I’ve been seeing,” Sam said. “We have to wait. This is not going to be an easy battle, either. The enemy will have better weapons.”
“Yes yes,” Ji-Ho said. “Sam right. Wait. Make sure. Lower risk. Remember what happen in Julian.”
“That was different,” Angel said.
“Why do you say that?” Erica asked.
“I’ll lay you ten to one that Black Crow guy helped the enemy with the ambush,” Angel said. “Think about it.”
Erica looked down, then up at the others. “You’re probably right about that.”
“That was not your fault,” Sam said, “and besides, he wasn’t even with our group in Julian, remember? He was with the group you were in, in the alternate location.”
“We all knew about the battle there,” Erica said. “He could have made phone calls.”
“Not matter now. Black Crow dead,” Ji-Ho said.
“Where’s Garrett’s guys?” Angel asked. “I thought they’d be right next to us.”
“They close,” Ji-Ho said. “In huge pasture, just before this road. Maybe four hundred yard.”
“Okay, makes sense,” Angel said. “They’ve got about seventy vehicles.”
“Seventy-two,” Megan said, smiling.
“Let’s go back to our rig,” Sam said. “The enemy is close. We’re too far from our weapons systems.”
“Yeah, good point,” Trevor said.
Everybody but Ji-ho left the coach, heading quickly back to their rigs.
Sam opened the door to their coach and followed Erica inside. “Should we be in siege mode?” she asked.
“Yeah,” Sam said, “since we’re going to be here for a few hours. Send a broadcast text out about that, okay? I’ll get ours set up.”
She nodded and sent the text. Sam watched out the window of the rig as the electric motors in the other coaches whirred to life, armor plates moving into place, guns rising from the tops. Then there was gunfire, bullets bouncing off the first coach in the row.
“Dammit,” Sam said, pulling down the sight and scanning, other coaches doing the same. “Where’s that coming from?”
Trevor’s coach fired a burst from the mini gun.
“I feel like we’re sitting in a tin can,” Erica shouted, picking up one of the M60s. “I’ll be ready at the gun slits, but if it gets too crazy, I’m going out there.”
“Me too,” Sam said. “Text Garrett’s guys.”
“Doing that now,” she said.
{4}
Merrill
K aylee sat at the target tray in the passenger seat of the battle wagon. “You get them?”
“Yeah, but there’s more,” Trevor said, his eyes glued into the sight for the main guns.
“Why didn’t we get buzzed?”
“Shit. There’s why. UN Van. See it?” He fired the grenade launcher, blowing the van sky high, but another one moved up, the side door sliding open, blue-helmeted fighters rushing out. Trevor shot a grenade into the open door, blowing up the vehicle.
“Yes! They’re in front of my guns,” Kaylee said as she opened fire, killing all seven men. Then Trevor’s phone buzzed. He looked at the app in a panic. “Islamists coming in.”
“How many?”
“Looks like a couple hundred,” he said.
“Dammit, we aren’t ready,” Kaylee said.
One of the other battle wagons fired its grenade launcher, taking out another UN van.
“Should we get on the road?” Kaylee asked.
“No,” Trevor said. “We’ve got four hundred men only a few hundred yards away. You know they’ve heard this.”
Gunfire erupted from the south as more UN vans rolled up. The smell of black powder floated into the air.
“Speak of the devil,” Kaylee said, taking aim at more running UN troops, opening fire.
“I’m saving the mini-gun,” Trevor said. “We’re going to get hit with worse than these vans.”
“Yeah, you’re probably right,” Kaylee said. “Where are the Islamists?”
Trevor refreshed his app. “Two hundred yards and closing,” he said. “Do we stay in here or go outside?”
“We’d better stay in here,” Kaylee said. “We’ve got a lot of firepower. If things turn, we can high-tail it. Just be careful not to hit any of Garrett’s men. They’re running in, see?”
“Yeah, I see them,” Trevor said. “Crap, Gaz Tigr coming in on the left.” He fired the grenade launcher, hitting the vehicle in the front, but it kept coming, so he moved to the mini gun, firing into the windows of the vehicle, which rolled into a tree. Then he fired a grenade inside. It blew up big, spreading fire, causing some of Garrett’s men to flee.
“Wow,” Kaylee shouted. She picked up the M60 and headed for the slit on the passenger side of the coach.
“What do you see?”
“About fifty Islamists and a few UN thugs running towards us broadside. I’m gonna ruin their day.”
She slipped the M60 through the slit and opened fire, sweeping the line of men, dropping many as bullets hit the side of the coach.
“Nice,” Trevor said. “Let’s see how they like this.” He rapid fired several grenades into the fleeing men, knocking many to the ground as Kaylee continued firing. Other coaches joined in.
“Sam’s moving his coach,” Trevor said. “Getting to a better position, I hope.”
“Won’t that expose his tires and his windshield?”
“Yeah, hopefully he goes back into siege mode quickly.”
“I see why he did it,” Kaylee said. “He can use the forward guns and fire right down the road. They can’t come that way now.”
“Yeah,” Trevor said. “He just went back into siege mode.” There was a large explosion.
“He just blew up something big on the road,” Kaylee said. Several more enemy fighters rushed the side of the coach, and she opened up with the M60, dropping all of them.
“This is great,” Trevor said. “Sam’s got Wildwood Glen Lane completely blocked… he can shoot down one direction with the front guns and the other direction with the back guns.”
“Seth just did the same thing on Los Terrinitos Road,” Kaylee said. “Nobody can get in that way anymore either.”
“We should go position ourselves on Highway 79 the same way.”
“That’s a lot bigger road,” Kaylee said.
“So we move two coaches out there. I’m texting Angel.”
&n
bsp; “Okay,” Kaylee said nervously.
“Angel agrees. I’m taking this baby out of siege mode. You okay with handling the forward and rear guns?”
“Of course, but what about broadsides?”
“I’m on the mini-gun and the grenade launcher. If worse comes to worse, I’ll get on the other M60 and do what you were just doing.”
“Okay,” she said. Trevor took the coach out of siege mode and started the engine, moving towards the highway, getting out into the right-hand lane and stopping, setting up siege mode again. They got hit with gunfire right away.
“This was a good idea,” Kaylee said, opening fire with the forward machine guns, stopping two vans which were driving towards the turnoff onto Wildwood Glen lane. One of the vans rolled, landing on the blacktop, blocking both lanes.
Angel pulled up next to them and set back up into siege mode.
“We’ve got to clear that wreckage,” Trevor said. “It gives the enemy cover to get onto Wildwood Glen.” He fired several times with the grenade launcher, lifting the van into the air. It came down on its side, still partially blocking the road. “That’s not good enough. We might have to go push it out of the way.”
“Try again,” Kaylee said.
Trevor nodded and fired several more grenades. This time it moved the van’s burning hulk out of the road. “Good, it worked.”
“There aren’t any more enemy fighters coming,” Kaylee said.
“Well, not yet, anyway,” Trevor said. “Wonder how many escaped?”
“Or how many got calls in to their leadership,” Kaylee said. “I’ll keep watch. Check what’s happening on the apps.”
“Yeah,” Trevor said, putting his phone in front of his face. He shook his head.
“What?”
Trevor looked over at her. “The enemy is evacuating Descanso. I don’t think they’ll hit us here again. Nobody else is coming.”
“We can’t see the UN,” Kaylee said.
Trevor nodded. “That’s true. We should stay parked right here until the cavalry arrives.”
“I agree,” Kaylee said.
***
Sam looked over at Erica. They were still sitting on Wildwood Glen Lane, covering both directions of the road with the forward and rear machine guns. “The enemy gave up, and they’re leaving Descanso.”