The truck reversed and the two dismounted guys ran in through the smashed doorway. One of them carried a SAW with a box of two hundred rounds on it and as he stepped to the right of the doorway, the other guy going to the left, he unleashed a long burst of fire, swinging the weapon in an arc. The long burst spewed across a large arc in front of him, smashing through the walls and passing through into the back of the house.
Luckily, he had not aimed the weapon down through the basement floor. His next arc was aimed up, chewing through the roof and into the upstairs rooms. The two guys from the truck cab joined the two already in the house and they prepared to stack up and move through the house.
Just as the last roar of SAW fire died away, Jack burst through the back door. He had line of sight through the archway where the basement door was situated, central to the house, and into the foyer.
He came on with righteous fury.
The piano was between him and the three men preparing to clear through the house, the SAW gunner was out of sight to the left. He came on with the M4 in his shoulder, both eyes open, firing rapidly and instinctively into the three men in front of him. He saw his rounds hit at least two of the men; one was hit in the throat and his blood sprayed out across the foyer closet, the other took a round through the skull, snapping his head back.
Jack pushed through the archway and as he did so he saw the third guy behind the piano break and try to run through the broken doorway. He instinctively laid the weapon onto him and pulled the trigger rapidly, dropping him in a sprawl as the corpse slid over the concrete step and into the shrubbery.
Jack was still walking forward firing and as he rounded the arch he heard the distinctive ‘clunk’ empty sound as he expended the last round in his magazine and the bolt locked itself to the rear.
Shit.
At the same time, he caught sight of the SAW gunner out of his peripheral vision to the left.
Jack dived behind the piano as a burst of fire ripped through the wall above him. He ended up sprawled on the ground, cheek pressed to the decorative tile, looking into the eyes of one of his daughter’s dolls, incongruous in the violence.
He rolled, reached and freed the Glock from its holster, low crawled and moved to the right side of the piano as the SAW rounds continued to smash through it, the gunner trying to annihilate him. Jack popped around the piano and shot the guy rapidly in the legs, working up into his pelvis; as he fell to the floor Jack was up on one knee, firing into the gunner, before moving rapidly forwards and finishing him with a double tap to the head.
Jack realized that he was now exposed in the open doorway and he moved quickly back to the archway, holstering his handgun and putting a fresh magazine in his rifle. Suddenly there was silence, except for the crying of his babies in the basement and the barking of Jasper.
He ripped open the basement door, “Hon, are you ok? The kids?”
“Yea, we’re good. You ok - and Andy?”
“Yea, we’re good,” he replied.
“Thank God. I‘ve got bad guys round the side, trying to get in the windows.”
“Ok, stay there, I’m gonna check it out.”
Jack headed out back. “Ok, cover me,” he shouted to Andrew, ‘are you ok?”
“Yea Dad. Wow that was some crazy stuff.”
“Ok, keep it focused, you did real good son. I’ll clear the side of the house; we’ll take it from there.”
Jack moved up to the corner of the house. He could see the guy on the ground that Andrew had shot, and then laying out from the corner was the one he had got. As he approached, he put a round into each one, to the head, to make sure they were dead.
No live enemy left behind him.
As he neared the corner he stayed back from it and circled out to the left, keeping his weapon back from the corner but scanning carefully as he ‘sliced the pie’ and brought more and more of the area beyond the corner into view. Eventually, he could see two men lying by the broken basement window, one moaning in place and the other trying to drag himself away across the lawn, both legs shredded and bleeding. They got the same treatment, double taps to each, then again, until they stopped moving.
Jack did not want to move up to them because he would be exposed to fire from across the road to his left. He was already exposed but having cleared the left side he moved back to the corner. He wasn’t prepared to expose Andrew and himself by moving out with bounding over-watch to where the enemy had been. Such a clearance patrol would have been the only way to ensure there was no enemy out there, but it was too risky to expose Andrew. Anyhow, the two Suburbans were no longer there, they must have bugged out during the fight in the foyer.
“Ok, let’s secure the house,” he said to Andrew as he moved back to him. “We’ll confirm the bad guys are dead and get them out of the way so the kids don’t see them. Then, we’ll get the hell out of here. Andy, you realize we can’t afford to let any of these guys live right, it’s just too dangerous?”
Andrew nodded.
They moved through into the foyer and dragged the bodies to the door, pitching them out. They took anything of value, their weapons, ammunition and body armor, in particular the SAW.
As they were picking up the last guy from the foyer Andrew noticed a chain round his neck and what looked like an ID badge stuffed inside his shirt. He brought it to Jack’s attention. Pulling it out, it was a Department of Homeland Security ID badge, current.
They checked the others, they all had them. Civilian clothes, unmarked vehicles, with state of the art tactical vests and weapons, with full auto capability; it all made sense now. These bad guys were not marauders at all. They were FedGov, Regime thugs.
The currency of the Regime was fear. What better way to spread it.
Chapter Three
The only choice was to leave, to bug out. Not only was the house uninhabitable, shot to pieces and covered in blood from the attackers, with the front door hanging off, but the discovery that the marauders were in fact all part of the Regime fear machine made it doubly worrying. Had they called in the address with a ‘contact report’ during or after the battle?
The Suburbans had gone, so at least a couple had managed to run away. There were no emergency services anymore outside of the zones, no 911 call, flashing lights and police sirens coming to their aid.
The family had bug out bags ready to go and they started to load the two cars. Jack had already mostly loaded the trailer with their stored food for just such an eventuality, leaving it loaded in the garage, and together with Andrew they started collecting the rest of their gear and bug-out bags and rapidly throwing it all either into the trailer or into the cars. They grabbed personal bags and also family camping gear and loaded up the vehicles and the trailer. Caitlin was grabbing the kids’ clothing and all the various ancillaries that they needed, throwing it into bags.
They moved as fast as they could. They could have just jumped in the cars and left, but Jack felt they had to take the gamble that the marauders were a ‘deniable’ asset without immediate backup, because they needed to pack their supplies and equipment if they were to survive out there and not become refugees.
During the packing, they saw no-one. Not a single one of their neighbors had helped, nor did they come out of their houses now, those that were left.
Fear.
Even the Johnsons were no longer around, and Jack did not want to go down there and get involved in their grief. It looked like they had moved Mr. Johnson off the front lawn, probably taking him inside the house.
The Berenger’s plan was to put the seats down in the minivan, which made a large cargo space, and load it up. Jack would drive it, alone, as the lead vehicle. The Suburban would be driven by Caitlin, towing the trailer, Andrew riding shotgun with the kids and dog in the back,
They would keep a ‘tactical bound’ behind Jack, the theory being that a tactical bound was not a specific distance, but depended on the ground. In close country it was shorter, in open country longer, the idea being
that the distance of the tactical bound would prevent the family vehicle being caught in any contact that Jack might drive into up front.
They knew that the streets were not deserted, and although traffic was limited by the fuel situation, there was still traffic around. So although it was not completely unusual to be out driving, it was sufficiently unusual to be noticeable. Particularly if they were tied to the battle that had just taken place and ended up on any law enforcement BOLO lists.
They simply could not trust any law enforcement given what had just happened and given that they were armed and weapons were being confiscated; being stopped, questioned and searched would not go well for them.
Jack and Caitlin agreed that their best plan would be to go to Bill and Cindy’s farm, if not to stay with them at least as a goal to get out of town and see them on their way. They knew that the great danger of bugging out without anywhere to go was that they could end up as refugees. They did have supplies, so long as they could keep them out of other people’s hands, but without a solid base anywhere they went would be tenuous.
In fact, that first afternoon they didn’t go anywhere far. They drove to one of the outdoor swimming pools that the HOA ran in their neighborhood, open only during the summer months. This particular pool was a couple of miles away and down a secluded lane, without having to leave the network of suburban back roads.
Jack cut the padlock on the gate and, once they had driven through, replaced it with a spare. He had collected breaking tools for just such a purpose. They drove into cover at the back of the pool buildings and got the cars into the trees. Jack figured that if law enforcement worked out what had happened at the house, and that the family had bugged out, it would be easy to catch them in a net of roadblocks.
They set up the tent in the woods and still had plenty of propane to cook with before they would have to use an open fire or the rocket stove. For the kids, it was another camping trip. They even got to watch a movie on the DVD in the Suburban. Caitlin concentrated on the kids while Jack and Andrew took turns with a roving watch throughout the night, accompanied by Jasper. The only thing the kids missed from their normal camping trips was an open fire.
Later that evening, when the rush was over and Sarah and Connor had gone to sleep, it was the quiet time. Jack noticed Andrew pacing nervously and he walked over to him, placing his hand on his shoulder and squeezing it reassuringly. Andrew looked at him and started to shake, and then he began to sob uncontrollably as the adrenaline come-down from the day’s events began to take over. He hadn’t stopped to think since the battle and the rush to evacuate, with the possibility of being chased or found. Now, he had time to reflect.
Jack pulled him into his chest and held him, “Its ok son, you did great, you didn’t freeze, you did real good, I’m proud of you.”
Caitlin came over and hugged them both, tears running down her face. She took Andrew and sat with him cradled in her lap as she comforted him, his soft sobbing more under control now. She gazed down at him under the fall of her blonde hair, just as she had when he was a baby. Jack took the watch.
How had it come to this?
The next morning they were up and packing at dawn. Jack had worked out a route solely along minor back roads. I was a little circuitous and he thought they had about fifty miles to go. They had battle cleaned all the weapons during the night, one firearm at a time, and reloaded all the magazines. They wore their battle belts and Jack wore his tactical vest; they wore civilian clothes, jeans and outdoor boots, and had not yet put on the tactical and camouflage clothing that they had for the backwoods.
Jack had a light jacket and put it on over his vest, so that at first glance in his car he would not appear to be kitted out. They all wore their handguns holstered on their battle belts and the rifles and shotguns were kept down resting by their legs so they were accessible but out of view. The idea was to move slowly so that they would not run into anything by surprise around a bend.
For this reason, and also so that they could get the kids out quickly if they had to, they did not use the child seats for Connor and Sarah.
They had a couple of two way ‘walkie-talkie’ VHF radios that they kept in the cars, recharging in mounts plugged into the 12 volt cigarette lighter socket. Jack wanted to stay off the radio as much as possible. In case something happened and he did not have time to grab and talk on the radio they arranged that he would use the hazard lights and/or the horn to indicate any trouble ahead.
Caitlin would stay a tactical bound behind and if Jack stopped she would reverse out to a safe spot, turn around, and wait for him to reverse out. If his vehicle was immobilized for any reason he would fight back on foot, with cover fire support from Andrew if possible.
The idea of going slowly was so as to not be taken by surprise and therefore they would hopefully be able to stop short of any trouble, reverse back, turn around and drive away. Jack did not want to be ramming or attempting to drive through any ambush or road blocks: not only did this have the potential to be a catastrophic fail, but it would force Caitlin to follow through after him, unless they were to get split up, and this would put the kids in danger.
The vehicles were not armored in any way and high velocity rounds would pass through them like a knife through butter. The only effective protection to be had from the vehicles was from the engine block and the metal parts of the wheels. The tires on the cars were also standard, not ‘run-flats’ and thus could be easily punctured, thus immobilizing the cars.
The drill for if they got stopped, maybe as a result of their vehicles being immobilized or trapped under enemy fire, was to get out into cover on the opposite sides of the vehicles from where the fire was coming from. They would return fire and then use fire and the cover provided by the ground to move out of the enemy kill zone and escape. Caitlin would run close protection on the young kids, while Jack and Andrew provided covering fire and ‘leap-frogged’ out of the kill zone by bounds, working as a buddy pair.
The route they had chosen avoided obvious main thoroughfares and kept to the smaller back roads, sometimes going in the wrong direction in order to get to a junction to take a minor road heading the right way. They got into the countryside south of Manassas.
Whenever they drove over a junction with a main road they saw evidence of the panic and the evacuation from the cities. Gas stations had run dry and were closed and many vehicles were abandoned by the side of, or even on, the road. Down the back roads there was less evidence of this, but there was still a trail of abandoned vehicles.
Occasionally they drove past parking areas that had become impromptu refugee camps, tents or tarps set up back in the woods or people simply living in their cars. They did not get much interest from the hopeless eyes of many of these starving beaten people.
Sometimes they saw evidence of violence, abandoned and occasionally burned out cars, bodies laid by the side of the road surrounded by the detritus of their looted possessions. They passed some groups of exhausted refugees, shambling along carrying their meager possessions, often pushing children in strollers also loaded up with what they could carry from their homes.
It seemed that, a month after the power had gone out, much of the violence had already happened; leaving the survivors starving, hopeless and exhausted, prey to gangs.
They were passing through a mix of open fields and forested areas, typical of Northern Virginia, when they entered a wooded area where the road started winding a little more. Jack came around a right hand bend at about twenty five miles an hour and saw the roadblock ahead, about one hundred meters distance.
It looked like two military armored Humvees, parked on each side of the road, staggered, so as to force vehicles to slow down; the turret mounted machine-guns facing opposite directions up and down the road. There were a couple of uniformed soldiers standing around.
Jack stepped on the brakes and put the car into reverse, as he did so he saw the guard in the road shout, raising his weapon. The turret gunner popped his he
ad up behind the armored glass shield and trained his weapon on Jack’s car. The troops at the roadblock opened fire.
The first burst from the turret gunner tore into the road in front of Jack, ripping up the asphalt in a storm of noise and violent impact. Jack ducked his head, using the wing mirror to reverse towards the bend. Rounds came cracking through his windshield, leaving white snowballs and cracks in the glass as they passed through.
Caitlin had been following Jack as they drove along. Andrew was scanning out to the sides. She had closed up a little to Jack given the close nature of the road in the trees and she did not want to lose sight of him. The tactical bound had shortened.
Sarah had started crying and Connor was asking for chocolate milk, which she didn’t have. She had turned in the seat to try and console the kids when Andrew yelled out. She turned, took in the sight of Jack stopped and the roadblock ahead, and slammed on the brakes.
The heavy SUV with the trailer came to a slewing stop and she put it into reverse as Jack started to reverse back towards her, the sound of gunfire erupting from the roadblock. In her haste, she forgot the trailer, and as she reversed it jackknifed behind her, slamming into the tailgate, stopping her. She had only managed to get partially back round the bend, and was still in line of sight of the roadblock. She slammed her palm onto the car horn to alert Jack.
Jack saw the Suburban stopped in his rear view and turned the wheel to the right to angle the minivan across the road, stopping right there. He grabbed his rifle with one hand and opened the door with the other, rolling out into the road, slamming the door and popping up behind the hood of the car, by the wheel well. He brought his weapon up and started to engage the roadblock with rapid fire.
Without turning he shouted “Contact front! Andy push out right! Cat, get the kids into the ditch!”
Patriot Dawn: The Resistance Rises Page 4