by Jeremy Lock
“Is she alive?” Jason asked as he reloaded his rifle.
“She’s breathing and has a pulse” Teddy replied looking over her body.
Jason got up and started to head back out.
“Where are you going?” Jessica screamed, terror on her face.
“Sean needs help!” Jason shouted.
“Your hurt!” was Jessica’s loud reply.
“I’m fine!” Jason replied.
“Look at your leg!” Jessica shouted at the top of her lungs.
Jason looked down and what he saw completely shocked him. Expecting to have a bullet hole in his calf he was shocked to see the nearly foot long piece of plywood completely penetrating his calf through to the other side. That’s when the pain and shock took hold. He felt light headed and nauseous and started sweating profusely. Jessica ran to him as he took 2 very wobbly steps and sat down in a chair. That’s when he noticed the utter lack of gunfire and relative silence of the evening. Jessica grabbed him and made sure he was ok.
“I’m ok” Jason replied to her frantic questions.
“Go help with Cassidy. I’m fine, just in a little shock.” Jason continued.
“Are you sure?” Jessica asked with absolute concern on her face.
“I’m good.” Jason said kissing her.
The relief on her face was obvious as she returned to check on Cassidy. Jason pulled out his combat knife and cut away the bottom of his pants to look at the wound. There were actually several large splinters in his calf, but no bullet hole, he couldn’t imagine how he hadn’t been hit. The report of Sean’s sniper rifle brought him back to reality and he hobbled himself back out to the balcony against the protests of Jessica.
“What you got?” Jason asked bringing his weapon up to survey the area.
“Nothing right now, put another one down. I think they are realizing we have night vision and they are way outclassed. How is Cassidy?” he asked with clear fear for her in his voice.
“Jessica and the Doc are looking at her now, she’s alive is all I know.” Jason replied.
Sean’s response was a nod as he returned to survey the ground in front of him looking for movement.
Chapter 46
Money was as angry as he had ever been. Not 5 minutes before he had literally beaten one of his own men to death for refusing to charge the house. The man was right and Money knew it, but he didn’t care. He wanted these motherfuckers dead and he wanted them dead right now.
“Tim! Get over here!” he bellowed.
Tim shook his head and cursed under his breath before he headed over. Jew boy was there and they appeared to be putting together a plan, but the look on Jew boys face told him it was a lost cause. Jew boy laid out the plan, it was a little more clever than the night before, and took advantage of the dusk. They would move two teams up the flanks; one would be a distraction while the other team moved up to set the house on fire. He had 10 gallons of gasoline ready to go. Tim’s job would be to lead the distraction force and draw their fire. He knew this was absolute suicide, they clearly had a well-trained shooter in the house, but Tim knew what had happened to the man who just refused the last order given by Money; he knew he had a better chance making the fatal charge.
Chapter 47
The exhaustion was completely overwhelming as was the pain in his leg. Jason sat in the chair with heavy eyes. Less than 30 minutes of combat and he was already exhausted. How could men go to war? How could this happen to this great country? How could people turn into complete animals? These questions along with the pain in his calf were the only things keeping Jason awake. Cassidy was unconscious, not shot, but had been knocked off her feet and struck her head against the wall, she should be ok. Sean amazingly had not been shot and continued to keep watch with his night vision scoped sniper rifle. Jeff watched his side as well although he hadn’t seen much action on his side of the house. They had located Mark out in the back field behind enemy lines, he knew where the cameras were and got himself into view, he was waiting behind a large pine tree. Teddy and Jessica tended Cassidy and then finally stitched up Jason’s leg. He refused pain medication saying he needed to stay alert, but the pain of removing the large splinters and then stitches was clear on his face. Jessica and Teddy were both equally amazed that he didn’t cry out. Jason conferred with Jeff and Sean and they decided that the enemy was probably going to wait until morning so they should get some people rest. Sean tried to protest as he was able to spend days without sleep during combat as had been forced on him both in Recon school and behind enemy lines in Afghanistan, but Teddy made it clear that he was wounded and he needed more rest than anyone else. They would let two people rest and the other 4 would stay on watch and then they would rotate every couple hours. Jason and Sean were volunteered to go first as they were wounded. They didn’t protest. Jeff took up post on Sean’s balcony and Jessica took over on Jeff’s balcony. Teddy took over on the surveillance and Allie went between the three to keep them company. Everyone was amazed at how well Allie handled the combat; she was a girl who was 13 and scared of a dark room, but performed incredibly well under dire circumstances. The 2 hours felt like moments to Jason and Sean and they were soon back on watch observing the blackness of the dark night. The night went by in perfect stillness until the edges of the sun were visible on the eastern skyline. Then a booming staccato ripped through the stillness with such power that the occupants of the house could feel the entire structure vibrating. They all hit the ground, the only one to say anything with Sean. “We’re fucked!”
Chapter 48
At the appointed time Money gave the order to Tim to have his men move in one minute. Tim knew he was screwed but what could he do. Defiance was death and Tim planned to live, and live away from Money’s insanity. He just needed to wait for his moment. Tim eyed the watch and as the clock ticked passed the minute he gave the order and his men began moving but he hesitated. His gut told him something was wrong. He looked back to Money who glared back at him, the message clear "move or I’ll kill u myself." Tim began moving when the air around him churned like a deep bass drum, he couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think, it entirely overwhelmed his senses. He watched the men in front of him get blown to pieces. It was his time to move. He got to his feet and looked back to Money who had complete shock on his face. He and Jew boy stared forward at the unknown force blowing his men limb from limb. It was Tim’s chance. He pulled out his short barreled .357 revolver and ran back, clearly retreating, and ran passed Money and Jew boy. He paused for a moment, fired 2 quick rounds, and then continued running into the hundreds of square miles of forest before him. He smiled he was free.
Chapter 49
Jason and the other residents of the house looked on in utter shock as the men in the woods were cut to pieces. No one could understand what was happening. As they looked on the noise stopped and a new noise took its place. Jeff Jason and Sean all shouldered their weapons and targeted the large vehicle rolling up their driveway until they recognized what it was. The military Humvee came to a stop with the large .50 caliber machine gun pointed in their direction. A second followed and covered the area where the attackers had once been. Jason and the others all lowered their weapons, a sense of relief filled them, and then the man got out of the vehicle and the sense of relief was gone, filled with dread, compete dread.
Chapter 50
Jason was the first to realize something was wrong but Sean wasn’t far behind. The man’s movement and the visible tattoos immediately gave away the fact this man was not military and once the man turned to face Jason immediately recognized him. A second man joined him at the truck and awaited a meeting.
"I know this guy, we might be ok. Jeff and Sean, you guys keep an eye on the 50's I’m gonna go talk to him." Jason said while heading downstairs.
He left his AR inside but kept his pistol. As he headed out the door Jason saw the man’s recognition. “So now the game begins.” Jason thought. Out of the corner of his eye he saw mark who had his crossb
ow up and aimed at the man he was meeting.
"Officer Byron" the tattooed man said with a nod in greeting.
"Royal" Jason replied nodding in return.
Marcus “Royal” Royce was a man he had known over his many years at the jail. He was respectful Inmate but he was also a known Latin King. The tattoos gave that away instantly, particularly the large crown on his neck.
"I see you had a little trouble here." Royal stated.
"We were doing ok." Jason replied.
"I can see that." Royce said as he looked around.
"So where'd you get the hardware?" Jason asked.
"Well, funny thing, the guard unit in Port Jervis was ordered up to the army base the other day before the attacks and they got blown up. Deeds here…" pointing to the man next to him "…is a guard Sergeant and luckily he wasn’t on, but he could get us in to the armory."
Jason was truly scared now, “they have an entire guard armory” he thought.
"So what’s your plan?" Jason asked bluntly.
"That’s why I like you Byron, you don’t bullshit, you’re a straight shooter." Royal said chuckling. "It’s pretty simple, its survival of the fittest and I plan on being the fittest. If people can help me I’ll allow them to stay, for a price, or they will leave one way or another." he concluded.
"So you’re taking over?" Jason asked.
"Consider me and my boys the new sheriff and government, trust me I’m not the animal Money was, I’m firm but fair, but I am in charge now." Royal stated.
"Ok, so what does this mean for us?" Jason asked.
"Well I’ll be honest, I can’t have you in my territory, you’re a cop and my boys can’t respect that. But you’ve always done me right and treated me with respect. Plus you took care of Money and a lot of his boys so I’ll make you a deal. You have 48 hours to leave and you will be left alone, but in 48 hours I’ll be back and your house will be mine one way or another. I have enough men and fire power to take out your group and bring that house crashing down so don’t be stupid." Royce said as he got back in the Hummer.
"Byron, be gone in 48 hours." Royce said as he drove away.
Jason headed back in waving to Mark to follow. Everyone wanted to know what was said and what was going on. Jason checked on Cassidy who was now awake and got everyone downstairs where they could sit and discuss the situation. Everyone was included, the surveillance was left abandoned. Considering the firepower that had ripped through the area over the last 12 hours no one would be coming near and this was an extremely important discussion. Jason relayed the information from Royce along with his deadline. Everyone started talking at the same time. Jason got everyone quiet and then took charge.
"Sean, what are our chances of fighting these guys?" Jason asked.
"Honestly about zero, especially if you want to keep the house." Sean said matter-of-factly.
"Alright, so I guess we go. The problem is fuel. We have enough to fill each truck with one tank but that’s about it. We will need to get a lot more to make it to Wyoming." Jason said clearly pained to make the decision.
"Why Wyoming?" asked Cassidy.
"My parents have a large ranch out there and we’re welcome there. I don’t know where else we could go." Jason said.
Cassidy looked at Sean and Sean nodded back to her.
"Sean has property in upstate NY." Cassidy stated.
"How much property and where?" Jason asked shocked.
"About 200 acres about an hour east of Lake Ontario. It’s in the middle of nowhere surrounded by state land." Sean said.
"How far away is it?" Jessica asked.
"Normally about 4 or 5 hours, but with the abandoned cars it will probably take a couple days." Sean replied.
"Does it have water, farm land and game on it?" Jason asked thinking this might work.
"It has a year round stream and a decent size pond and swamp area. It has some fields on it and some scrub apple trees. It may have been farmed years ago but there is no evidence of it other then the open fields. The problem is shelter. It has an older double-wide trailer on it but it can’t hold all of us. And winter is rough up there, a lot of lake effect snow. We will be way behind the 8 ball. We will need tons of firewood and some kind of shelter to make it through." Sean said.
"This may work. Bill told me we can have his travel trailer if we need it and we have the wall tent in the basement plus the artic stove for it. If we take the woodstove from our bedroom we can have 3 shelters almost instantly ready with some work. With only 48 hours we have a ton of work to do so we best get to it. Sean, can you and Cassidy check weapons outside and gather up the weapons and ammo that make the most sense?" Jason asked and Sean nodded.
"Jessica, can you and Mark start loading up food and keeping an inventory of what we have? I’m not sure we can take everything." Jason asked and Jessica agreed.
"Teddy and Allie, I’d like you two to come up with a way to move as many of the animals as possible to take with us." Jason stated.
"Bringing them is easy but where will we keep them? Without shelter they won’t last the winter." Teddy replied.
"Think about it, Jeff and I are going to get Bill’s trailer and then start disassembling the solar system." Jason said. They all got to work.
Chapter 51
The men had just left their daily meeting and the chairman was very pleased the reports were just as he had hoped. All domestic policing forces had been over run, all National Guard units that had not been at local military bases had disbanded and the international situation was even better. Japan and Russia were both at war with China, Iran had exchanged nuclear weapons with Israel, India and Pakistan had also exchanged nuclear weapons. The European nations were at war with a Russian supported middle east. Australia and New Zealand had been struck by a Chinese EMP and were dealing with an invasion force from China. The entire world was destabilized and the men in this underground bunker and their allies overseas were very pleased indeed. By toppling the one true superpower that could intervene around the world everyone had made their move and in the end these men would be the ones left in power. Things were going exactly to plan. Now to wait for the great citizens of America to kill each other off to such an extent that the group could seize control and begin rebuilding the country starting with its government and a new constitution. In 6 months the world would be a brand new place and he would be its ruler.
Chapter 52
Jason was very somber as he brought Bill’s travel trailer up the driveway and looked at his home. He had spent his whole life dreaming of this home and he finally had it, but a disaster that he had foreseen had taken it from him. How could he lose all this? All the planning and supplies, all the money and research gone, all gone. He was nearly in tears as he parked the trailer. There was no time to feel sad though. He and his people had more work to do then they could handle and had had to get his game face on. Sean and Cassidy were piling up weapons and ammunition near the front door, Jessica and mark were loading up essential food into the utility trailer and Allie and Teddy were setting up a cage to carry the chickens. Jason saw Sean and Cassidy carrying the large M60 machine gun back to the house.
“We gonna bring that with us?” Jason asked.
“Hell yeah. It may waste ammo but it’s certainly an intimidator. It’s worth bringing with us.” Sean replied.
Jason nodded and headed inside to see Jessica and Mark.
“I think we should load the food into Bill’s travel trailer, it will be protected by the weather in there and we can load the utility trailer up with tools and other supplies.” Jason said to them.
Jessica looked to him with sadness.
Jason embraced her. He gave her a kiss and looked into her eyes. “We will be ok.” he said.
“I don’t want to leave.” she replied with a tear rolling down her beautiful face.
“I don’t either, but we have no choice. We will be ok and who knows, maybe one day we can come back here.” Jason replied confidently as much f
or himself as for Jessica.
She held onto him and buried her face in his chest and cried for a moment. He held her there comforting her until she was done and headed back to work.
“Don’t forget the seed supplies.” Jason said as he headed out.
“Already loaded.” Jessica said and he went to work.
Jason and Jeff disassembled the radio, security and solar systems and loaded them into the back of the suburban. The solar system had 12 deep cycle batteries but Jason only brought 6 of them due to the limited space. He also loaded up all the spare radios, motion sensors and other important electrical components into the truck. He was moving as quickly as he could but he was getting tired and his leg really hurt.