After a few seconds more frantically glancing around, Rob now had a plan. “Okay, Alton pick somebody to go with you. The two of you head north for those trees while the rest of us cover. See if you can’t come around behind them.”
John Alton looked around as the gunfire continued, “Okay, McCain, I guess it’s you and me. You’re the best shot here, besides me.” Alton laughed.
But McCain wasn’t so amused, “Yeah, that’s what I let you think.”
They both got ready to go and Rob addressed the rest of his men. “Listen up! When I say, Rudd, you, Martinelli, Cornwell, and D’Cruz start firing on those two southeast. Peavey, you and me will fire on the one directly east.” He turned to James and Nicky who were crouching low to the ground. “You boys just stay down.”
The sound of guns at a distance remained, but slowed some.
Alton turned to Rob a last time. “We’ll either get them, or get them running this way; be ready.”
Rob checked to see if he had a chambered round. “All right,” turned again to the men. “Everybody ready?! GO!”
All of the men popped up and began firing on the enemy, Alton and McCain waited a half second and took off. As they ran, bullets started hitting the ground at their feet, both men began twisting and turning, running faster, heading for the tree line.
Rob and his men continued firing from cover and with Alton and McCain gone in the trees, all three rifles concentrated on them.
Suddenly Rob shouted, “Stop! Everybody back down, hold your fire!” The whole group dropped back down in the ditch. “They made it. Everyone conserve your ammo, I think we’re going to need it in a minute.”
The enemy continued to fire on them for a few seconds more and then the shooting came to an abrupt stop.
After four minutes of uneasy silence, more rifle fire could be heard, this time they all recognized the sound; it was Alton’s and McCain’s rifles this time.
They could hear two distinctive groups of rifles, battling each other; Rob’s men with their M4s against an odd assortment of guns.
Rob kept watch, his eyes just above the edge of the road, “Okay guys, get ready, if I say, everybody get up and start shooting.”
The gun battle continued and then at a distance Rob saw something; it was a man running and firing his rifle right at them.
Rob popped up and shouldered his M4, “Fire!”
The man was cut to pieces as Rob and all his men unloaded their guns into the attacker. He slowed and then dropped dead, not fifty feet away.
Rob shouted out another order to his men as he motioned with his hands, “Cease fire, down!”
All of the other gunfire had stopped and now Rob and the group waited, keeping low. After a few more minutes, a voice came over his radio.
It was Alton, “Rob, come in.”
“Go ahead, Alton.”
“It’s all clear. We got them all.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yeah, send the men out east of your position. You’re not going to believe what we’ve got.”
Rob stood up, “Everybody, you heard him, go out there and meet him. Boys, you come with me.”
All of the men did as they were told. Rob and the boys went to the cart. “Nicky, James, you stay here, I’ll be right back.” Rob started walking but then stopped and turned back to them. “Check and see if you can’t stop the barrel from leaking ... and how much water we have left.”
Rob took off running right for the dead man. He looked the man over a few seconds, picked up the corpse and threw it over his shoulder. Rob stretched out his arm, picking the rifle up off the ground and started back.
When he arrived, the boys were standing there next to the cart waiting for him. “What about the barrel?”
James was quick with an answer, “It’s got two holes. I think it can be fixed, if we have some tape or something. We lost about two thirds of the water though. I guess we’ve got about fifteen gallons left.”
“Okay,” Rob dropped the dead body on the ground right at James’s feet. “Go through this guy’s pockets, see what he’s got on him.
Both boys got on their knees and went right to work, trying hard not to touch the bloody parts.
Then Rob could hear several of his men yelling. He turned to see them returning with the prisoners leading far out in front. From another direction Alton was returning too, carrying a body over his shoulder. Cornwell and Martinelli were following behind. Rob watched both groups for a few moments.
By now Nicky and James were ready to report, this time Nicky doing the talking, “Rob, look.”
Rob turned around again.
“This is all he had in his pockets,” Nicky held a fistful of twenty-two rounds and some waterproof matches. James was holding a pocketknife, a cheap compass, a metal fork, and another loaded ten round mag for the rifle Rob was still holding in his hand, a Ruger 10/22 carbine with scope attached.
Alton yelled out as he came closer, “Look at this,” and dropped a dead body right next to the other one laying there. It was the man Rob wanted to kill this morning.
Rob was not surprised, “Damn! I knew I should have killed him, that was the smart thing to do.” He cleared the rifle and threw it in the cart. What about his wife ... or whoever she was, any sign of her, or the other guy?”
“Nope ... no sign of either,” Alton reached out and took the Ruger in his hand. “But maybe those other two can tell us about it.” He looked the rifle over briefly and placed it back where it came from.
The rest of the men crossed the field; from a distance Rudd and Peavey held two men at gunpoint. McCain was out ahead now and had his own rifle slung on his shoulder, and one in each hand.
McCain approached and dropped two more rifles in the back of the cart, a beat up World War I era British Enfield and a cheap semi-auto AK-47 clone that didn’t have a mag.
Alton stopped McCain right there, “You did unload them first, right?”
“Yes, do I look stupid to you?”
“Should I answer that?”
Rob stopped them both before it got beyond the half-joking stage; he didn’t have the time. “Okay guys, stop it. Don’t I have enough to worry about from these clowns?” Besides, Rob had more immediate concerns. “McCain, is something wrong with these prisoners? Why are all of you keeping your distance?”
But before McCain could even speak, Rob heard the answer. The younger prisoner now had his attention. The man was in his mid-thirties and painfully thin. His skin was ashen and he barely had the strength to walk. He had a disgusting wet cough; it was a disturbing sound that couldn’t be faked no matter how hard you tried. It was a sound they all recognized, that sound of someone dying.
At last McCain answered him, “That guy has got something, something bad. Just keep away from him.”
Rob stopped the man before he got any closer, “Rudd, hold him out there, don’t come any further.”
Rudd stopped his man while Peavey, D’Cruz, and the other prisoner continued to approach. At last they came to a halt right in front of Rob.
Carefully Robert undid the snap on his holster and pulled his Magnum out. He held it at his side as he addressed the older man.
Peavey stepped aside, as did everyone.
“All right,” Rob continued to stare the man down, “I’m telling you right up front, I am in no mood for games. I’m going to ask you some questions, and if I suspect, even for a moment, that you’re lying ... you’re going to die. Understand?”
The man solemnly nodded.
In the background, the other prisoner continued hacking, it sounded like he was going to die at any time.
“Was it just the four of you that attacked us?”
The healthy prisoner stood there mute.
Rob pointed his gun right at the older man. He appeared in his mid-sixties, his clothes were tattered and his face was a leathery mask marked by many hard years. “Okay, talk now, before you get me angry. How many was in your group?”
The man finally
found his voice. “Four ... just us four.”
Rob pointed out the dead man he already knew with his revolver. “How do you know this guy?”
“We just met him, a few hours ago.”
“You didn’t know him before?”
“No.”
“Was there anyone with him?”
“Yes ... a woman, and another guy.”
“Where are they at?”
“They took off, they didn’t want no part of this. The woman said we were crazy for trying.”
“So why did you try? Are you crazy?”
The old man sneered, “For a chance at this much food, I’d gladly kill all of you, or die trying.”
Rob laughed, a little, “Well, you’re honest, I’ll give you that.” He pointed to the corpse again, “What did this guy tell you?”
“That you guys had a whole cart full of food and a lot of other good stuff too, just ready to be taken. He said we would divide it up evenly.”
“He didn’t tell you we were armed?”
“No, he told us; eight men with machine guns.”
Rob laughed again, “And that didn’t bother you?” He moved over to the cart. “You with your,” and looked down at the newest guns in their collection, “which one is yours?”
“That’s my three oh three.”
Robert was astonished, “So you weren’t scared to take on eight men with automatic weapons, you with your Enfield, your friends here with a single shot AK and a twenty-two?”
“Mister, all I’ve had in two days is half a chipmunk. I’d take all of you on alone, for a tenth of what you’ve got.”
“You’re still thinking about taking it now, aren’t you?”
“Yeah ...” The old man looked around at all of them, and then stared at the two boys standing there, “I’d kill all of you right now and take it ... if you gave me half a chance.”
With his gun Rob got his attention again, “Did this guy tell anyone else about us?”
“I have no idea.”
“Just you three?”
“That I know of.”
“Would you tell me if you knew?”
“Probably not, not my business who or how many this guy told about you.”
Robert laughed again, “Well, I appreciate the candor, you are an honest SOB, I’ll give you that. Now put your hands on the cart.”
As the man was being thoroughly searched, his partner collapsed to the ground.
Rudd guardedly approached the prisoner before Rob stopped his man, “Rudd, don’t go anywhere near him, just leave him there.”
Then they tied the old man by his neck and arms to the front of the cart.
Rob was ready to go, “Start pulling.”
The entire group helped as the prisoner slowly pulled the cart down the lonely road towards that next target.
They left the other one laying there on the ground, struggling to breathe. He tried several times to stand on his feet again, but never did get back up.
After about a mile of pushing, Rob dropped out; he let the cart get about fifty feet ahead, “Alton!”
Alton stopped and let Rob catch up. They both stood there in the road until Rob was sure they couldn’t be overheard. Both started following behind it again.
Rob broke the silence between them, the cart about fifty yards ahead. “Alton, we’ve got a serious problem here.”
Alton was grave in his tone, “I know ...”
“That dead guy could’ve told a lot of people about us, and even if he didn’t, that woman, or her new boyfriend, could be telling a lot of people as we speak.”
“Yeah ...”
“Right now this cart is more of a liability than anything else. Sure, we’ve got a lot of food and other valuable supplies, but it’s so heavy it takes the whole group to keep it moving. We don’t have enough manpower left to even send out scouts. It’s so heavy we’ve got to keep it on the road too, where all the refugees can see it. You know how they talk. Another day or two of this and everyone within twenty miles will know about us. We’re sitting ducks out here.”
“I’ve been thinking the very same thing. I have some ideas; what’s yours?”
“This next target, this house, if it’s good enough to serve as a base of operations, well, none of this matters. We can hole up there for a long time. If it’s not good enough, or if we can’t take it, we’ll have to come up with another plan. I was thinking we could cache a lot of this stuff. Bury some, hide some, break the supplies down into manageable pieces so we can come back for them later. The most important thing right now is that we become mobile again. We won’t survive out here like this for very long.”
“Yeah, that was my thinking too. I’m also thinking about this prisoner; we can’t let him know where we’re going. We’re going to have to get rid of him soon.”
“Yep ...”
“I want to take Peavey, we’ll lead him on a good long walk, blindfolded, get him real confused. It will be a long trip, I figure it will take a day for us to do a good job of losing him and get back.”
“Okay ...”
“Can you handle it while we’re gone?”
“Yeah ... we’ll manage, we might as well do it right now, before we get any closer to Mendon.” Rob made a loud whistle and the group and cart came to a complete stop.
Alton told Peavey the plan while Rob tied the prisoner’s hands and blindfolded him.
Just as Alton and his group were leaving, Robert came running after them, Rudd and McCain right behind him. “Alton! Hold on!”
“What’s up, Rob?”
“I’ve been thinking, I’m going to need you to stay, Peavey too.”
“Why, what’s the problem?”
“I need your expertise, Alton. We’ll be in Mendon in a few hours, I’ll need your help assessing the situation, right then, we can’t wait. Besides, you and Peavey are younger and stronger, we need your help pushing.”
“Okay ...” Alton looked at Rudd and McCain silently standing a few feet behind Rob.
“McCain and Rudd, I’m sending them instead.”
“McCain and Rudd, really?” Alton was doubtful, “I don’t think they can handle this.”
“Oh yeah, they can handle it good enough.”
At last Alton agreed and McCain and Rudd took off with the prisoner. As he watched them leaving, Alton had a bad feeling he couldn’t put a name to.
Chapter Four
They stopped briefly for the night and started again before dawn. Late that next morning, they arrived in Mendon and that water tower was the first thing they could see as they approached. Like so many towns before, this one was gutted and desolate, it appeared to have been years since anyone lived there.
They set up a temporary base in an old post office; it was the only building nearby that still had windows.
As they were preparing for the mission, Rudd and McCain showed up only a few hours behind them. Alton was suspicious as he thought the job should take twice as long, but didn’t say a word.
Rob sent out two teams in the known direction of their target hoping to make contact with the enemy. Coyote – Alton, Cornwell, and Peavey, and Jackal – McCain leading Martinelli and Rudd – set out midday in search of treasure.
Late in the afternoon, Alton checked in with command and had only good news to report, “We’ve found them. That older couple you questioned, they weren’t too far off. They’re approximately three klicks north, bearing three hundred fifty degrees from your position.”
“Good work, Coyote! I want you to stay there and observe, try to locate some good spots for reconnaissance. Send the rest of your team back to help us. Jackal, come back to base.”
They waited until near dark before leaving, the entire band loaded down with all they owned. In the black overcast sky, they finally arrived with Alton there to greet them. The boys were already exhausted, so Rob let them get some sleep, but for the men there was still plenty of work to be done. Into the early morning they labored, first splitting up and then
digging in, setting up three different observation posts surrounding the home.
Alton set up a half mile east, while McCain was nearly the same distance to the northwest. Robert and the rest of the men set a cold camp, concealed in some trees three quarters of a mile south of their target.
After three days of careful observation, they could write a book on the subject of their latest victims. Robert called Alton and McCain back to base camp that night.
When everyone had a good supper, they all gathered around and Rob got them started on the real work. “Okay, let’s see what we’ve got,” throwing Alton’s handmade map on the ground and pointing out various features with a sharp stick he found. “First, the building itself doesn’t seem like anything remarkable. It’s an old one-story farmhouse with an attic, wood with siding construction, definitely susceptible to fire. I’d say about a thousand square feet in size. They have a working outhouse and a pump out back, so I doubt it has indoor plumbing. No electricity either, looks like they’re using lamps at night. McCain, you said it might have a root cellar?”
McCain pointed it out with his finger on the map, “Yeah, in the back there was some type of small door, on the northwest corner of the building. No one went into it the whole time I was watching.”
Rob turned to his second in command, “Alton, the house is not much, but they have reinforced it, right?”
“Yes, they’ve reinforced the outer walls with sandbags, I’m assuming filled with top soil; the bags are stacked about four feet tall.” He took the pointer from Rob’s hand, “They’ve done a lot of work. Look at this, ten meters out the entire house is surrounded with a chain link fence, ten foot tall and topped with razor wire. There’re only two gates, one on the north side and one on the south. All the way around, inside the fence line, are lengths of old telephone poles set in the ground. They’re set about four feet apart and probably buried deep. Obviously they were put there to stop vehicles, and I bet they will. Not that it matters to us. But I mention it to show the effort they’ve put into their defenses. Beyond the fence line it’s all open field in every direction. They have a large garden tilled on the northeast side but even so they’ve got a clear shot in every direction for at least one klick. Their defensive perimeter is well thought out; it will be a tough nut to crack.”
Joshua (Book 2): Traveler Page 7