Mitch leaned over his brother as Paul came alongside, still searching the area for any kind of movement. “You don’t look so good amigo,” Mitch said quietly.
“He took a burst up across him,” Paul said as Mitch turned Jack over face up, so they could check him out. Paul pointed out where the first rounds had pierced Jack's coat; coming up and across from his right to his left, with one round having torn away part of his scalp on the left side of his head. They could not find a place where any rounds had pierced the vest. As Mitch reached to unzip Jack's parka to check for damage under the vest, a blood-curdling scream erupted in the direction of Wolf's entry into the woods. The voice paused as if to gather breath, and wailed away again, only to be cut short. Paul and Mitch had dived to the right and left of Jack, with weapons ready. The quick movement saved their lives, although they would not know it for a time.
“Jesus H. Christ,” Paul whispered. “What the fuck was that?”
“It has to be Wolf.” Mitch answered. “I guess he found another one.”
Jack rose up weakly on one arm, and peered back where his brothers now stared. “You guys will have to go, and check it out. Wolf will stay low next to the body until someone comes. There may be more than one, and he knows to stay still.”
“What about you,” Paul asked. “You have to get looked at, before you go into shock or something.”
“Help me onto my stomach again before you go. Stay quiet. If you guys went by that one on the first pass, you can bet he might not be the only one.”
Mitch helped Jack roll over, while Paul watched the woods. With his AK-47 next to his right hand, Jack lowered the wounded left side of his head into the snow. He was sweating, and he knew he needed to get out of the snow. The whole front half of his torso felt as if it were on fire, and ached in throbbing waves constantly now. “When you get to the body, send Wolf out again, and stay put until he comes back to you.”
Paul tapped Jack’s shoulder in confirmation of what he said. They started out quickly to the left, towards the camp. Mitch waited a few more moments, and paralleled his brother’s path; which would keep him in Paul’s shadow, twenty to thirty feet to his right. Jack heard them leave, and tried to concentrate on something besides the pain.
Five minutes passed, and Jack began to black out. His teeth had begun to chatter. He tried to clench his hands into fists, to keep his fingers from stiffening. Each time he managed to make a fist, the pain would race up his body. He heard a tiny snapping sound to his right. Jack lay still, listening intently. Close to fifty yards directly in his line of vision, Jack spotted a white clad figure slowly rising up out of the snow. Although his head throbbed, and felt as if it were twice its normal size, Jack knew this was no hallucination. The figure still lay prone in the snow, but now a rifle barrel poked out from under the white parka. The twigs and bush pieces fastened to the white cover made the soldier almost invisible. Jack blinked and tried to refocus, panicking when he could not spot the soldier for a moment. He very carefully moved his right hand over his face, to wipe away the fevered clammy sweat from his brow. The touch of the ice cold glove made him winch in pain; but for a moment, his vision cleared, and he regained sight of his adversary. Jack took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. He inched his right hand into position on the AK-47 trigger and grip. He paused, praying Paul and Mitch would not come in sight until he at least fired a shot to warn them. He gently pulled the rifle towards him; cursing the noise he made doing it. Just as he drew it to him, the camouflaged figure twisted towards him, and Jack gave up any thought of concealment. As he fired a burst towards the prone figure, the AK-47 was torn from his grasp, bending his right wrist back almost to the breaking point before Jack could release it. He rolled weakly away to his left, and the next burst tore up the ground where he had been a moment before. Knowing he had warned his brothers, he felt relieved. He fumbled with the 9mm Smith and Wesson pistol at his side, awaiting the burst, which would tear his head off. A scream of pure and utter terror sounded so near, Jack wondered if he had voiced it. He gave up on the pistol, and looked up to see the black furred body of his dog ripping through the now up lifted arms of his attacker. There was only silence as the flailing hands tried in vain to hold off Wolf’s ravaging jaws, which continued to rip and shake, until all resistance ceased. Jack smiled grimly and lay down in the snow once more.
Chapter 6
The Friends
Wolf immediately lay down over the body with his muzzle still at the soldier’s neck. Jack saw his two brothers coming at a dead run, knowing from where the shots had originated. Wolf shook the corpse as they approached him cautiously, to let them know there was no danger. Paul checked the body, while Mitch stayed still, and searched the area. Paul straightened with some of the weapons from under the ground cover. Motioning for Mitch to stay put, Paul released Wolf to finish his sweep. Wolf left the body, and went directly to Jack. He sniffed him from one end to another, and whined a little. Jack reached out a gloved hand, and pushed on the side of Wolf’s head.
“Get your sweep done dopey so I can get the hell out of this snow.” Jack twirled his finger, and Wolf again took off.
Having seen Wolf again clear the area around Jack, Paul and Mitch approached their brother, watching for any movement from other directions. They helped him over onto his back again to check for anything serious, before moving him.
“You look about the same… like night of the living dead,” Mitch quipped. “How the hell do you feel now?”
“Now, on top of my head, and rib cage, I have a sprained wrist,” Jack answered.
“Poor baby. Consider the alternative,” Paul said. “That was very close. This guy had us nailed. We sent Wolf off in the wrong direction.” Paul looked into Jack’s eyes. “I’ll be sure to have him go over any ground you’ve already checked, slacker.”
“Fuck you. I must have walked right over that guy. If Wolf had not made the other one scream, I bet he would have popped up, and capped us all. I have to get out of this snow, boys. Save the medical exam for somewhere warm.”
“Paul, are you sure you want to save this guy,” Mitch commented. “He’s turning into an old pussy right before our very eyes.”
Jack groaned, as he tried again to get his sidearm out. “I’ll old pussy you.”
Mitch grabbed his arm and said, “come on, let’s get to the cabin and get you warm. The kids will be glad to see you, and I have a little surprise for you when we get in.”
“Just remember, we ain’t got a hell of a lot of time. Pray this weather stays lousy, or we will be dead meat.”
Jack bit his lip, clenching his hands tightly as his brothers helped him up. They walked him a little, as Wolf returned without further incident. Paul took full support; while Mitch watched their backs, and radioed they were coming in. The sweat poured down his face, as Jack feverishly tried to stay on his feet. His vision blurred with every step, but Paul helped him along easily. When they reached the cabin, the door swung open. Paul hustled him through the doorway, and into the interior of the large, one room structure.
The fireplace, in spite of the danger, flamed hotly in the otherwise darkened room. Paul eased Jack down onto a sleeping pad the kids had laid out for him. Mitch and Paul stripped off Jack's outer clothing, and the ruined Kevlar vest. Sarah washed off his head wound first with soap and warm water, and then with peroxide. Jack flinched as the peroxide bubbled furiously on the open wound. Gradually as Sarah continued to sponge the wound with fresh peroxide, a warm feeling generated by the peroxide, soothed the pain. Jack's uncontrollable shivering eased with the heat of the fire. Paul stuck three aspirin in his mouth, and helped him wash them down with some water. In a matter of half an hour, Jack lay comfortably dozing, his head wound bandaged with a painkilling antibiotic suave and compress.
“Jack,” Mitch said as he shook his older brother gently, “you have to stay awake for a while until we see if you have any other problems. Can you sit up and drink this tea?”
Jack ope
ned his eyes. His vision cleared. He started to sit up slowly with Mitch helping him. Paul shoved a bedroll up tight against his back, so he could recline comfortably against it. Jack took the steaming cup from Mitch, and sat back slowly. “Man, I feel so much better, I think I could fly in a couple more minutes. You know caffeine is bad for a patient with a possible concussion. Where did you get your license to practice medicine?”
“Give me that cup, you ungrateful prick.” Mitch laughed as he reached for the teacup. He found his wrist grabbed in a bone crushing grip, and Jack smiling in his face. “I guess you ain’t in too bad a shape big boy. Let go that arm, or I’m going to make the other side of your head match this bandaged one.”
“Don’t think I’ve forgotten that old pussy remark out there.” Jack said released his brother. “This tea tastes like nectar from the Gods.”
“I see your sprained wrist ain’t all that bad either,” Mitch added, as he rubbed his wrist. Mitch leaned closer as he looked into Jack’s eyes. “Your pupils look more normal too. I guess you might live after all. Take some advice though, and don’t look at your chest when we wrap it.”
“Black and blue, am I.” Jack smiled painfully. “Like Paul said, ‘consider the alternative’. Thanks for the help out there, Mitch. You timed your arrival just right. Did you get Paul’s bandage changed? He has a bad one down the center of his back. All the hiking, and now this little set to, sure couldn’t have done it any good.”
Paul walked up within Jack’s sight. “Already taken care of, and after looking at you, I feel like dancing.”
Paul sat down next to Jack with his own cup of tea, as Mitch sat cross-legged in front of them with his cup. “You okay enough to take another little jolt Jack,” Mitch asked.
“I better be,” Jack replied. “We have to get the hell out of here. You know as well as I do, these guys can’t be the only ones. How did they know where the damn camp was? Do you guys have anyone out there sweeping the area?”
“Calm down,” Mitch said quietly. “You know we wouldn’t sit here like a bunch of campfire girls, if we didn’t have some back up. We have a couple of old friends of yours sweeping the area, along with Wolf. When they get back, they can fill you in on why there won’t be any more attacks for a little bit. As to how they found this place, we found bugs on everything we gathered from those bodies in the clearing.”
“Shit,” Jack whispered. “We have coats, and gear from the clearing. How did you find the bugs? We don’t have anything to check for transmitters.”
“We checked everything while you were dozing. You were carrying a couple, but we smashed them already. As to how we found them, we had this.” Mitch reached under his coat, and pulled out a small rectangular device, which looked almost like a cell phone.
“Where the hell did you get that?” Jack asked
The door to the cabin began to open. Jake, who was watching through the cabin window, motioned the okay sign to his sister and cousins. Jack looked around at the tension in all of their faces as they returned to what they were doing. Wolf glided into the room, and immediately headed for Jack, who braced himself for impact. The dog pulled up short, and lay down next to him. Wolf rested his wet snowflake covered head on the blanket Jack had over him.
The cabin door opened wider, and two white-clad men with thick beards quickly came through, and closed the door behind them. They both carried AK-47s and packs. They carefully put their weapons down, and began stripping off their parkas. Jack watched with consternation as the two hung up their coats. They both looked to be about six feet tall, and stocky. As they walked towards the brothers, Jack’s mouth dropped open in shock.
The older man in the lead laughed, as he saw the look on Jack's face. “What’s up, Jack? You don’t look so good.”
“Oh my fucking God,” Jack exclaimed. “Steve Goodwin, as I live and breathe. Peter, is that you back there?”
The second man came forward, and reached down to give Jack’s shoulder a playful shake. “How you doin’ Jack? Guess you didn’t expect to see us.”
“I haven t heard from you two since back before my family caught up with me. Last word I had from you two, you wanted to solo some kind of ambush. When you never got back in touch at our regular spot, I figured it went bad, and you two were taking the big dirt nap.”
The two men grabbed a couple of chairs, and moved them close to the fire. They shed their Kevlar vests, and laid them off to the side. After they sat down, the man named Steve laughed, and shook his head in wonder. “The last time we saw you, I figured you for dead at any time. You wanted no part of joining up with us, and you were causing so much trouble around your neighborhood, I figured they would nuke the mountain to get rid of you. Much as I hated to, I needed to keep some distance between us. You were too damn dangerous all alone up there, blowing apart everything moving. Peter and I liked soldiering with you, but we were reluctant on the dying part.” Steve looked around the cabin, gesturing at the others. “I decided to look you up again, and what do I find, but the fucking Brady Bunch. Imagine my surprise.”
Jack nodded in agreement. “You did right getting away from me. I went sour and mean. I almost got Wolf killed. I settled down, and used my head a bit after that. When the Army sent some people to contact me, I controlled my more suicidal impulses, and tried to do some real damage by passing information. After they helped my family reach me, I started being a good boy. I owe them. They might have their heads up their asses most of the time, like you always said, but they gave me back some hope.”
“Sold out to the man, huh?” Steve grinned. “You hear this sellout punk Peter? We have to get away from this boy. Pretty soon, we’ll be saluting each other, and having roll call and reveille.”
Peter laughed. “Don’t pay any attention to him, Jack. After we put some distance between you and us, we put out some feelers, and started linking up with another operations base. We’ve been feeding them the same kind of info you do, I guess.”
“We tired of playing mountain man survivalist, and figured it was time to get our feet wet again,” Steve added. “I’m glad to see you, buddy. If you hadn’t told me about this place, I would never have known what they had planned. We saw all the action get started about a week ago. More trucks, and soldiers, than we ever saw before. We called in air strikes, and got the ones we found hit in time. Some made it past us, and we ambushed a couple like I expect you did.”
Paul laughed. “Your friend had sense enough to search the trucks, and he found the antidote.”
“No shit, Steve, you got the antidote,” Jack asked incredulously. “We cannot be that lucky.”
“Luck had nothing to do with it,” Steve replied. “The only thing I didn’t know until we arrived here, was what the hell it was for.”
“We thought it might be the disease, rather than the cure,” Peter added. “I wish we could have heard the story from the guys we took prisoner; but the same thing happened to us as happened to you, only we were long gone by the time they assaulted our place. We swept the trucks for bugs, and found plenty. We knew they would be there shortly.”
“Left them something to remember us by though,” Steve said. “They found their bugs, and our camp, but I doubt if many of them lived to do much else. The weather hit, and we were home free. I remembered you telling me about this escape hatch, so we headed in your direction. I thought we would get some supplies here, and since we didn’t think you were alive, we figured…”
“You figured to use my trucks at my next station to get out of Dodge.”
“Jack… buddy… pal… you don’t think I would have taken them without trying to look you up first, do you?” Steve asked smiling.
“Oh no,” Jack answered. “You know I would have had those suckers, and this camp set, so the only place you would have gone with the trucks was straight to hell.”
Steve laughed. “Oh yeah, I knew you’d have this place wired to maim and kill. I would have looked you up anyway. Hell, you make more noise out in the woods t
han a herd of buffalo. Turned out we spotted helicopters heading our way, when we were about five miles from here. Scared the shit out of us. We had taken nothing from those fucking, bugged up trucks, except the cases of injections, which we had already swept for bugs. I knew we were clean. They passed right over our heads, and landed in the clearing East of where we were. We hauled ass over there before they had a chance to get too settled. We counted a bunch of guys getting out, and grouping to head towards your camp. They took off real quiet, and when they had been gone about ten minutes, we blew the fuck out of their helos. When they busted ass back towards us, we circled around, and took off around them for your camp. Mitch was out to check on all the noise, and your fucking dog almost tore my fool neck out, before he got my scent.”
“I came up thinking it was you and Paul, with bad guys on your tail,” Mitch broke in. “We heard the helicopters blow, and figured it must be you two. When I arrived at the Wolf meeting your friends spot, Wolf had Steve trapped in a lick-fest, so I knew he had to be okay.”
“Good Lord, Jack,” Peter said. “I forgot just how quiet this goofy mutt was. He had Dad on his back, and his whole mouth covering his throat in about a second. He came out of the pitch black, with no noise. You ought to put a bell around this mutt’s neck, just to give the unsuspecting a chance.”
“Sure thing, Peter,” Jack agreed. “As soon as we wrap this shit up, we’ll all lay our weapons down, and play Ring-Around-The Rosie in the woods. Did Mitch fill you in on what we found out about the attack they have planned?”
“He filled us in. We have bad news on that front for you, Bud,” Steve said. “We tried contacting our base right after we were hit, to try and find out what they thought those boxes of ready to go injections were: dead air my friend, and no luck since. Anyhow, Mitch brought us into camp, and we waited for the attack. He showed us how well you had the perimeter wired, and where we could get through. They started hitting the perimeter trip wires about thirty minutes after that, and we started setting off the charges at ten-minute intervals, until they backed the hell out. Not long after, we heard yells and a firefight. Mitch knew for sure you two were out there, so we kicked back, and waited for targets.”
American Survival (DeLeo's Action Thriller Singles Book 5) Page 6