Dark Toll

by Warren Ray

  “They talked everyone into staying.”

  “Who?”

  “Mr. Miller. He convinced all of us to stay and wait them out.”

  Winters wondered about any stragglers who thought it best to stay put. He could only imagine how many more decided to stay. They were playing a dangerous game of hide and seek. Either that or simply didn’t know what was happening, which was hard to believe because Mayor Simpson stated everyone in the area knew about the terrorist and the crooked cops.

  “How many of you are there?” asked Winters.

  “There’s like twenty of us, maybe a little more.”

  Winters reached for the radio and gave everyone an update. He ordered Bassett to hightail it this way. More gunfire came from Hanover Road. Winters flipped his goggles back down and could make out figures moving in the distance. One threw a torch up on top of a roof. Flames then shot straight up into the night air. More gunfire rang out. The cops were slaughtering Nicole’s neighbors. Winters didn’t think they would be in time.

  Chapter 19

  Winters didn’t want to endanger Nicole but didn’t want to leave her alone either. He didn’t hold out hope they’d be able to rescue any of her neighbors. They had been foolish to try to hide when they lived on a well-traveled road.

  He thought about the best way they could save the women. He didn’t think the cops would kill them, as they still needed women for their party house. The cops outnumbered them, so they couldn’t do a full on assault. If he could figure out where they would take the women, an ambush could be set up. However, it would be foolish to take too many chances, because fourteen citizens sat in a field waiting to be moved either back to Jackson or across state lines, which was feasible again, provided they didn’t draw any attention to themselves.

  While going over his options, Winters looked at Amber trying to console Nicole who still shook from fear. The way Amber took out that cop without hesitation impressed him. Her confidence had grown since killing that cop the other night. He thought back to the way she handled herself in last night’s battle. She certainly proved she was able to hold her own and she definitely had a mother-hen instinct the way she hovered over the wounded Reese.

  Winters couldn’t believe his luck having two strong women with him. He chuckled to himself knowing he sounded sexist for thinking that, but to begin with, getting any strong recruits was difficult. Some good ones came through their ranks, but also some weak ones, which wasn’t necessarily a bad thing as everyone had brought different skill sets to the group. Some were good at scrounging for supplies, doing guard duty or reloading magazines. All were welcomed, but not all were fighters and some died because of it. Fortunately, both Amber and Reese were badass chicks and had Sadie been older, he would have had three.

  He heard his radio come to life.

  “Captain, Bassett here, what’s your location?”

  “I’m one field over from the Luttenton Road sitting at the edge.”

  “Another five and we’ll be there.”

  “Copy that. Hit the open field and I’ll flash you.”

  Winters reached in for his small penlight, unscrewed the top, and removed the red lens. Five minutes later, he gave a quick flash and signaled his location.

  Bassett arrived with Burns and eight other men. Winters gave them an update and his thoughts on what they could do. Bassett agreed and the twelve of them set off toward Hanover Road.

  They emerged from the woods to the sound of non-stop gunfire, and as they got closer, they could see the cops attacking a mobile home and ripping it apart with a constant barrage. The occupants inside didn’t stand a chance.

  Winters surveyed the area and didn’t like it. With one house on fire, small groups of cops were scattered around the grounds, which consisted of six homes spread out over two acres. A few of these homes were mobile homes and one of them was taking all the gunfire.

  He turned to Nicole. “Whose place is that?”

  “It’s Mister Millers.”

  Winters shook his head. He was paying the price for his stupidity.

  “Nicole, how many women are there?”

  It took a couple of moments for her to answer. “I think fifteen.”

  “And kids?”

  “Eight of us.”

  Winters grabbed Bassett’s arm. “What do you think?”

  “Those people are screwed,” Bassett whispered, turning away from Nicole.

  “We need to get closer and see what they’re going to do with the women.”

  Bassett nodded.

  Winters, Bassett, and Burns set out toward Luttenton Road. They left the safety of the woods and scrambled across the open field staying far enough away from the action. As they hit the road, the gunfire stopped echoing in the crisp night air. Winters could clearly hear screams from women yelling out as cops attacked them.

  Bassett led the team hugging the side of the road keeping to the cover of the trees, which bordered both sides of the road. They crept toward the intersection and observed a couple of vans parked in the middle of the street. Winters wondered if the cops were going to use them to transport any prisoners they might take.

  They kept observing when a couple of squad cars came from the east on Hanover Road. They stopped at the intersection and unloaded three handcuffed females who were sobbing. The cops escorted them to the vans.

  Winters then knew that the cops were out hunting for women. These girls must have been in houses down the road. Gunfire came from that direction but didn’t last long. Winters shook his head in amazement that not everyone had heeded Mayor Simpson’s warning. The spy in town must have given the cops a heads up as to where they might find stragglers.

  Winters thought about where the cops might take their prisoners. Would they take them back to the party house or straight into Detroit? More importantly, what route would they take? Their only chance was to take these guys by surprise after they left this area. There would be less of them and be easier to take down. They needed to do it before the cops hit US 12 where it would then be impossible with all the cops on that road.

  He pulled the radio out of his jacket and called out to Scar to give him an update just before asking him his opinion on the cop’s route.

  Scar took out his map and suggested the cops would go south on Luttenton Road, which would eventually take them to Litchfield Road and then to US 12. “Wouldn’t make sense to go back to Pulaski and then go south.”

  Winters gave it some thought and agreed. “Get over here then.”

  “Copy that.”

  Winters thought about what to do and turned to Bassett for advice.

  “Captain, I agree with Scar. They’ll go south from here and this road only makes sense. These two vans will be full of prisoners in a few more minutes, so they’ll be leaving soon.”

  “Then we need to go now,” said Winters.

  “Agreed. If you want, we can send a two-man team back here and give us a heads up when they leave.”

  Winters nodded.

  They hustled their way back to their group and pulled them into the safety of the woods.

  Chapter 20

  Scar put the radio down. He didn’t like the idea of taking an SUV and leaving these people here. It would take at least eight men to take out the cops, and if Winters didn’t arrive in time then he would need to supply all eight. Scar looked around and realized he only had eight men.

  Nordell could see Scar’s dilemma and said, “It’s a crap sandwich, but we can’t leave them here unguarded.”

  “Agreed.”

  “We can take seven and leave one here. Them boys can help, I know ‘em, and they’ll be alright.”

  Scar hesitated because if the cops found them sitting there in the field they would lose fourteen innocents, which would haunt him forever. If something went wrong and they had to run, then what would happen to them? He decided to take them with him. They needed to get across those fields to get back to Jackson anyway.

  A few minutes after giving the
order, they moved south across the field. Meeks sat up front and held up the night-vision binoculars guiding Scar through the borders. It didn’t take but ten minutes before they came to Luttenton Road.

  Scar stopped the truck and got out. Elliott came up to him and suggested they get the civilians across the road. Scar agreed and ordered Hadley to get on that and then sent men up and down the road in case there were any more cops on guard duty.

  Scar called out to Winters.

  “We’re on our way, about a mile out,” said Winters.

  “Copy that.”

  Feeling nervous, Scar hopped up on top of the truck to survey the area. Five minutes went by before he started feeling confident that Winters would arrive in time when the radio came alive.

  “Scar, they just passed us. You got two vans with an escort of a cop car, front and rear.”

  Scar yelled out for everyone to get ready before jumping off the hood of the truck. He then had an idea and jumped in the SUV to pull it into the center of the narrow road, blocking it completely. He removed the key before hurrying back to the safety of the trees.

  His heart pounded in his chest as the convoy came slowly toward them. He gripped the handle tighter on the M-4 and decided to move a little further up the road away from their SUV. He crept forward and ran into Meeks.

  “C’mon guys, no one’s here but your fellow cops,” whispered Meeks.

  They watched as the first squad car stopped about seventy-five feet from the parked SUV. The driver turned on his spotlight and pointed it at the parked truck. He then swung it around scanning into the woods, and right over the heads of Scar and Meeks. Then a door opened and out came a cop to investigate. He was short and sported a thick beard. He held a flashlight in one hand and a sidearm in the other and cautiously approached the SUV. He got to the door and peered inside before opening it.

  “What’s the deal?” asked Carter, his passenger, as he stepped out from the first squad car.

  “I don’t know,” said the bearded cop. “There’s no keys and we can’t get around it. What do ya want to do?”

  “Hell, I’ll ram the damn thing,” said Carter.

  “That’s a big ole truck to be pushing around.”

  “You don’t think I can do it?”

  Scar nudged Meeks and shook his head. These guys were not the best or the brightest. He had thought this might be a difficult takedown but changed his mind. Scar hadn’t imagined blocking the road would work so well. However, as it was unfolding, he couldn’t have asked for a better scenario. He continued to watch as the other cops got out of their vehicles and came out to watch Carter attempt to push the SUV.

  Scar whispered to Meeks who gave him a firm nod. Meeks then got up and moved back toward Nordell. A second later, he came back with Elliott and another man. Scar stood up, held out three fingers, and counted down. The four of them rushed forward yelling for the cops to raise their hands. The cops looked surprised and thick beard tried raising his sidearm. Elliott rushed him and hit him in the head with the butt of his M-4.

  Scar ordered them to the ground and held them at bay as his men cuffed them. He looked over to see Nordell pushing Carter forward.

  “Nice idea, Scar,” said Nordell.

  “Hell ya, buddy,” said Meeks.

  They finished securing the cops when Winters arrived with the rest of the men. He looked at the cops on the ground and then over to Scar.

  “I see we shouldn’t have bothered hurrying,” said Winters.

  “Well, if they weren’t so damn stupid,” answered Scar.

  Winters walked over to the first van and opened the door. Eight women of various ages stared at him with frightened eyes. “Everything’s gonna to be alright, you’re safe now, okay?”

  They all nodded.

  “Any of you Nicole’s mom?”

  “She’s in the other van,” answered one. “Is she okay?”

  “She’s here with us.”

  Winters then stepped to the second van and opened the side door. The women gave him the same frightened stares as he asked for Nicole’s mom.

  “I’m right here? Where is she? Is she okay?”

  “She is.”

  Winters motioned for Amber to bring Nicole over.

  She ran over and broke out in tears as she climbed into the van.

  Winters stepped back and walked over to his men. “This changes things a bit now doesn’t it?”

  Everyone nodded.

  “Now that we’ve got these nice police vans and cars, I don’t see any reason why we can’t continue with what we set out to do.”

  “What about the cops?” asked Elliott.

  “We’ll take them back to Jackson. No one is to know we have them.”

  “What about them?” asked Scar pointing to the vans.

  “They’re going across the border tonight and they don’t have a choice in the matter. I don’t want any new faces in town. I have a feeling that spy gave the cops a heads up tonight.”

  Chapter 21

  Winters leaned back in his seat as Elliott drove Amber and him back to Jackson. The night turned into a success after a rough start. They managed to capture six cops, two squad cars, and two police vans. They saved the lives of Nicole, fifteen other females, and eight children. Unfortunately, the cops killed two small boys and the rest of the men. Thankfully, they were able to also get the original families from Jackson across enemy lines to safety. The women they rescued were too upset about losing their families on Hanover Road to protest their removal from the area. Winters ached for them, but they shouldn’t have stayed in the first place.

  Winters’ mind wandered to the spy who must have tipped off the cops as to where they could find stragglers. This person needed to be dealt with right away. First thing in the morning, he’d get Reese to verify Thomas and then get him back to Grosse Pointe so he could find out who the spy was. As far as the new prisoners were concerned, Taylor will enjoy scaring the hell out of them in order to extract anything useful.

  Winters laughed to himself thinking how Captain Vatter will be puzzled by the cop’s disappearance and whether or not they ran off with the women. It’ll drive him nuts thinking he can’t trust his own men. Rumors would then run rampant through the ranks. Winters smirked because he loved sowing seeds of doubt in the mind of his enemy. According to Bassett, it drove Green to fits when they had done the same thing to them.

  He heard movement in the back seat and turned to see Amber staring out the window. No doubt, she was thinking about killing that cop in the field. Despite killing who knows how many in last night’s big battle, killing someone up close like tonight was more personal. Hopefully, she’d get used to it without becoming too jaded. Winters let out a scoff knowing that to be impossible.

  His thoughts turned to that poor girl, Nicole, running away from the cop, knowing if he’d caught her then she’d have been raped and possibly killed. He thought back to how scared he had been entering the train station back in Iowa and how Johnnie-Boy almost killed him. He’d never forget that feeling of helplessness. Nicole must have experienced the same desperate thoughts, which forced her to dig deep and fight off the stomach pains from running so long. She would never forget this night and would think about it the rest of her life. He’d certainly never forget when he looked through the thermal goggles and to see this small white glowing figure running past his field of vision. It had struck him so odd that it took a second to realize what was happening. A guardian angel must have been watching over her tonight. There was no other way to explain how they would happen to be there at the very moment she needed help. A warm feeling ran through his body knowing this to be the case. He couldn’t help but feel humbled by it, knowing someone trusted him with such a valuable task.

  He reached to the back and grabbed Amber’s hand.

  “You did good tonight.”

  She tightened her grip.

  “That girl is never going to forget you.”

  “It just seems so surreal now.”

/>   “I know the feeling.”

  “That bastard though…I just keep thinking about him.”

  “He deserved it, Amber. Just keep that in mind.”

  “I know. I’m just glad I was the one, is all.”

  Winters didn’t expect this response and wondered if Reese was rubbing off on her. Winters knew then that she’d be all right but just needed the time to work it all out in her mind.

  Chapter 22

  Jackson Michigan

  The morning rays penetrated the windows of the hospital room Winters had found empty last night. After dropping off the new prisoners at their makeshift holding cells, he headed straight to bed exhausted after an interesting night. They started the night off attempting to get citizens to safety but found themselves rescuing others and adding some police vehicles to their fleet. He smiled knowing these vehicles would come in handy. He gathered up his belongings and headed to the cafeteria where Elliott was eating breakfast.

  After grabbing a roll and a cup of coffee, he sat down across from him. “Morning.”

  “Helluva night last night,” said Elliott.

  Winters nodded and took a sip of coffee.

  “What’s the plan today?”

  “Going to get Reese up to see Thomas.”

  “What then?”

  “Maybe go do some target practice,” smiled Winters.

  “I’d be up for that, we sure do have plenty of targets to choose from.”

  “Don’t we though.”

  “Scar and Meeks pulled in about an hour ago. The trip to Findlay went well. They’re getting some sleep now.”

  “Good. We’ll see about getting more out tonight.”

  “Be glad when everyone is out of here.”

  “I hear ya.”

  “Feels like we’re babysitting.”

  Winters understood Elliott’s assertion. They all wanted to be on the move and not stuck in one place. As important as their new mission was, it would be better to be on the offensive and surrounding the enemy instead of the other way around.

  Winters tore off a piece of the roll. “This won’t last much longer.”