I heard movement behind me and chanced a quick glance back. I found Conners just exiting one of the other rooms behind me. Shit, I’d committed a rookie mistake and forgot the other offices after getting fixated on this single avenue of approach. Fortunately the savvy corporal was covering for me.
“What you got?” he asked, dropping down next to me and shouldering his carbine.
“They just tried to rush the stairs and got spanked. There’s two here, and two more down stairs with buckshot in them.”
“There any more with them?”
“Oh, yeah. I think they had at least three guys trying to give cover fire. Maybe more. What does the sergeant have to say?”
Conners gestured to his earpiece.
“Captain Devayne is on now. He’s got the rest of the boys offloading a little ways back and closing on foot. Since I said we are holding here now, he’s going to assault the band hall first. You got another half hour in you, Luke?”
“I do, but you need to cover the other door down there. I figure they’ll try it next.”
“Headed that way.”
“How bad was it in there?”
“Bad, Luke. I mean, I thought Barden was just going to hose them once we got the cuffs on.”
“Did Jimenez make it? And what about Rufus?”
“Jimenez did. I recognized him. I don’t know about the other guys yet. The two guys we capped certainly looked like muscle. I saw a pair of police uniforms in there, all neat and folded up.”
“Yes, Rufus reportedly has a couple of cops working as his bodyguards. Well, we will see what’s in the trap after we weather this storm.”
Conners held out his fist in a familiar way, and I gave him a fist bump in agreement.
CHAPTER TWENTY NINE
The grenade nearly scared me to death. Whoever lobbed it up had a good arm, and the small device ricocheted off the far wall and landed not five yards in front of me.
“Grenade!” I screamed, and then it detonated. I hunkered down and missed the flash but then the hall began to fill with smoke. Conners probably would have recognized the grenade as a smoker, but I just saw death in a little ovoid sphere. I was already behind the reaction curve as I heard a sudden rush of footsteps up the stairs. These guys had a persistent quality to them for sure.
For the last ten minutes Conners and I waited while dodging the occasional potshot from one end of the building or the other. No one had seriously tried to mess with the other entry way after Conners waited for a group to stack up and attempted to breach the door. He’d gone full auto and sprayed right through the cheap wood barrier, killing or wounding several in the process.
As the white smoke began to fill the space in front of me, I blindly fired the shotgun into the obscured area, hoping the buckshot would find flesh. From the cries erupting, I knew some pellets struck home. I also noticed the shockwave of the muzzle blast cleared a cone of air in front of me for a brief second, both giving me a glimpse of the growing mound of bodies and acting as a point of aim for men trying to kill me.
Bullets impacted the corpse I was using as cover, and I slid further back and closer to the wall as I emptied the shotgun’s magazine. Instead of reloading, I dropped the empty weapon and grabbed the AK. This was a civilian model, semi-automatic, with a thirty round magazine. For once I wasn’t worried about the accuracy. We were entering what my father would call knife fighting range at this stage.
The AK bucked in my hand as I swept the barrel back and forth, triggering rounds in an irregular pattern. In addition to constant pounding on my ears from the roar and boom of the weapons, my throat was burning and I felt my eyes tearing in a useless effort to combat the itching, stinging smoke. These were meaningless sensations and I relegated them to the back of my mind as the fight for my life reached a ferocious pitch.
Bullets pounded into the wall overhead and I heard more cries of pain and terror but I would not, could not, stop. The smoke rolled over me and I was completely blinded by the acrid veil. I continued firing, hoping to erect a wall of lead my attackers would not be able to penetrate.
Then I felt something slam into me, a body toppling over the corpse and falling on my already prone form. I barely made out the shape of the man as he struggled to bring his shotgun into play, the weapon trapped momentarily between our bodies. He was on my back and for a helpless instant I was trapped. Then the idling demon, the berserker I’d been holding in check since the battle started, broke free and time seemed to slow down.
Using my knees, I lifted and rolled, to find myself now completely trapped against the wall as the snarling, bearded man tried to swing his shotgun around. Frantically digging into my pocket, I found the small knife and lunged. The blade barely had time to deploy before I buried it up to the hilt in the man’s throat. As he bucked and tugged at the knife, bleeding out, I snagged his shotgun and rapid fired the magazine dry into the billowing smoke.
A roar erupted from my chest as I emptied the shotgun, and my blind hands found the AK and began firing once again. I rose from my crouch and edged over to the lip of the landing, crawling over unseen bodies as I began to fire down into the landing below. Then into the foyer at the base of the stairs.
When the AK clicked empty, I dropped the magazine automatically and fished a fresh one from my back pocket. As I rocked the full magazine into place, I heard a noise behind me and spun. The rifle was almost to my shoulder before recognition dawned. In the smoke, I saw Corporal Conners. He was crouched down and had his carbine set.
“You okay?” he asked, and his voice sounded further away just the scant few yards separating us.
“I’m alright,” I managed to gasp, the act of speaking making my throat burn.
“Captain said to quote ‘get that maniac to stop shooting’ unquote. They’ve secured the band hall and seized the first floor of this building. We’re good, Luke. You can stand down.”
“Were the girls still there? Summer and the others?”
Conners shrugged. “Too soon to have any details, man. Captain said there were over forty girls in the band hall, though. Some with parents from the center are already trying to get them out, but we need to get a handle on things first.”
“And the first thing I need to do is check on Bar and the prisoners. Then, I need to get rid of that smoke grenade and let this fucking place air out a little bit.”
“Sorry. I should have just tossed it back down the stairs. I thought it was a, you know, real grenade,” I said, looking down. I hoped the smoke covered the embarrassed redness I was sure colored my cheeks.
“Don’t sweat it. When I heard your warning I think I pissed myself. They tried at the other end, too, but the stairwell was too narrow for many to come at once. After I picked off two or three trying to rush me, they backed off.”
And with that, Conners shouldered his rifle and gave me a little grin.
“You are something else, Luke,” He said as he gazed down at the carpet of bodies littering the linoleum. Then he rose and headed back down the corridor.
“Yeah, well when you figure it out, let me know.”
Suddenly, I felt overwhelmed with fatigue and went to one knee, watching the soldier walk away. I was tired, bone weary in a way I couldn’t remember ever experiencing. I placed the rifle carefully on the ground and moved further up the corridor, away from the weapon, to take a seat with my back against the wall. I closed my eyes and waited for the National Guard troops downstairs to make an appearance. Distantly, I looked up to see Conners as he came back with a wet rag and a bucket of water to dispose of the smoke grenade, which finally stopped hissing a white cloud.
With a sigh, I realized this whole plan had been misguided and poorly thought out from the start. We may have still carried it off in the end, but I never felt more like a child making grown up decisions. I should never have let my emotions get the best of me. Instead, I should have listened to Nick and Mark, who advised we wait for the National Guard to act on the information we provided.
I decided to learn from this mistake and move on. I figured the lesson should be to quit biting off more than you can chew. Listening to Amy and Lori talking about the probable fate of these girls drove me to act impulsively. Fortunately, Corporal Conners and PFC Barden turned out to be better soldiers than I had any right to expect.
The sad truth was, these girls would likely have died no matter what I did. Even if filth like Rufus or Jimenez didn’t sell them to some sadistic pedophile or murdering raider, they would most likely starve to death in the worsening food crisis. Except now, with Darwin’s promise of aid and shelter, they might actually survive the coming winter. The old farmer, not the young fighter, would be their real savior.
I thought about going into the room down the hall and checking out our prisoners, but decided I’d seen enough. Enough killing, enough torture, to last me a lifetime. From what Conners reported, the four girls they’d rescued had endured a terrible time of it. They didn’t need some curious asshole to add to their trauma. If we’d grabbed Rufus, then great. If not, his time would come soon.
I was thinking about that fact when the first National Guardsmen came stumbling up the blood soaked stairs. I slowly raised my hands and watched as they filed by. One moved to approach me, flex cuffs already out, when I heard Sergeant Erlich’s familiar bellow.
“Hold off, Ramirez.” I heard the sergeant say. Then in a more conversational tone, he added, “Luke’s okay. You boys just leave him be. He’s with me.”
CHAPTER THIRTY
The next week seemed to pass in a blur of constant motion and activity. The Branson group was being integrated into the farming community as like-minded individuals teamed up to form groups better suited for working together.
The Tighs, for instance, had a wealth of knowledge to share but needed help around their little homestead. The Tigh’s modest garden would not support more people, but Darwin assured the young couple who wanted to double up with the oldsters that they would get food support from the Keller farm. That included a dozen laying hens and a cantankerous old rooster Hazel said she was tired of fighting. Nick drove the tractor down and plowed up an extra acre to expand the garden. It was kind of late in the year, but Mr. Tigh was confident they could get a crop in before the frost.
The Laretto farm also benefitted from some new help and I know Gene was actually able to sleep the whole night without worrying about being overrun. He was so happy for the help he didn’t even raise too much of a fuss when Sam came and asked for his blessing to court his daughter Melinda. Ruth laughed when she told us the story, saying that everybody knew Sam had a thing for Melinda except for Sam. That is, Sam has a crush on her for years but never felt confident enough to act on it.
I spent as much time in the evenings as possible with Amy and now that the mess in Bentonville was being untangled, I could actually talk and laugh with her new friends. Lori was especially appreciative, since I located and brought back Summer with me before leaving. She gave me a kiss on the cheek that I thought might stir Amy up, but she just grinned.
Taking Summer from the center at the time might not have sat well with some of the National Guard troops, but Sergeant Erlich helped smooth things over. He explained she was the sister of a friend back at the farm, and she was the reason why I was there in the first place.
I bumped into Gary Keller a few times and expected a confrontation, but the old man just nodded and kept going like nothing had happened. He still looked like shit with the broken nose and bruises on his face. Worried the old man might try something, I’d even gone so far as to ask Glenn about it, but his son said that was just the way his father worked.
“Pop is a bully at heart, you know,” Glenn confided one evening. I found him sitting on the back porch alone after dinner. Truth be told, I tracked him down and summoned up my courage for this conversation. I was still a little apprehensive about this discussion, but I knew it had to be done.
“I don’t know your father that well, but he took an instant disliking to me. I didn’t understand it, and just figured it was because he was upset about you being missing.”
Glenn looked out into the distance and sighed before answering.
“That might have been part of his problem, but he is just like that. One of the reasons I moved away was to avoid having to deal with him. Mom is great, and I never could see how they stay together. Or why she puts up with him. You’ve established yourself as someone who won’t take his shit, so he should steer clear.”
“We cool?” I finally asked.
“Yeah, we’re cool. Actually, I was kind of worried you would hold my old man against me.”
I laughed then and we shook hands. Like grown-ups do.
During the days, I worked hard from sunup to sundown, mainly at the intersection down by the abandoned Trimble homeplace. Under Nick’s direction, we erected a log and metal pole reinforced outpost. Nothing that would stop an armored vehicle, but it served as a guard post protecting the entryway to the collected farming area. What the newcomers insisted on calling Kellerville. Darwin and the boys complained, saying this was always known as South Gentry, but I figured after a few years it would stick.
Every unused or abandoned house on the road was taken over for more space, except the Trimbles. A lot of people knew what happened in that house and no one, especially Sarah Trimble, wanted to live there. Nick, his wife and their kids moved into the foreclosed property between the Keller homeplace and the Laretto farm.
At the end of that week, Captain Devayne came out to the farm for a visit, read inspection. Before he would allow Sergeant Erlich to lead a convoy of repaired and reinforced buses down from the school to the Keller farm, he wanted to look things over for himself. The Captain was plenty upset about what Jimenez managed to pull right under his nose. He would not be duped again.
In private, Sergeant Erlich admitted they couldn’t do much to provide for the displaced persons left in the refugee center, so if Darwin could take the girls, even on a temporary basis, the help could be appreciated. When I relayed this request to Darwin, the old man simply started making plans to cut more trees, erect a temporary sawmill, and start building more barracks.
When I heard over the radio that Captain Devayne was at the outpost and coming to the farm, I went back to what I was doing. Since getting back, I tried to stay busy and out of the way. I’d done too much to draw attention at the school, and now I just wanted to fade back into the scenery. Unfortunately, the Captain wanted to have a word with me and sent Corporal Conners to go, with Scott Keller as his escort, to track me down.
Scott knew where to find me, of course. I had reserved the range for the day for my students, and we were spread out at the tables as the two men walked up. Besides Sarah Trimble, I had Amy, the Thompson sisters, Carrie and Hailey all lined out doing a thorough cleaning job on their rifles after chewing up some targets.
Amy continued to improve as a shooter, building on her early shooting skills as she learned the ins and outs of the slightly larger rifle. Mrs. Trimble, for having never picked up a weapon before her ordeal, was an absolute machine with the AR-15 as she centered out the target at one hundred yards. The other girls tried their best and I knew these lessons meant more than they would have, before the lights went out. Like Amy, these ladies would “man” the line if the need ever arose for them to defend the homeplace.
“Yo, Luke” Scott said, and he waved as I looked up. I saw Corporal Conners with him and nodded back to the duo.
“Amy, can you finish up with the class? Looks like I have someone who needs to talk to me.”
“Sure thing, Luke.” She replied, and then lowered her voice before continuing, “do you need me to do anything else?”
“No, sweetheart. We’re good. That’s my good buddy, Corporal Conners. You remember I mentioned him from the school? He covered my back there and got me home safe to you,” I said, and waved them both over. Conners knew Summer, of course, and was pleased to meet Mrs. Trimble and the other girls. He paus
ed when I introduced Amy and looked over at me with a grin.
“This beautiful young lady is your girlfriend? What, is she blind or just taking pity on you?”
“The way she shoots, it must be pity,” Scott murmured and we all laughed.
“Sorry to bother you but the Captain wanted to speak with you again. Nothing big, just had a few questions.” Conners explained.
“Yeah. Last time he had a few questions he grilled me for two hours.” I complained, and not just for show. I was hoping to avoid any official scrutiny. Then Mark had to mention how I’d come to be at the farm, and Captain Devayne had been intrigued. Particularly when I finally got tired of fencing with him and explained, vaguely, why I was not all that comfortable around National Guard types.
I described being grabbed up after only a week on the road and stuck in a camp in rural Illinois where the only thing to eat was tree bark and the detainees were worked like we belonged on a chain gang. I didn’t mind the hard work, but the FEMA types in charge didn’t know what they were doing and refused to listen to common sense. Escaping had been easy, since all I had to do was slip out of the camp when everyone else, including the guards, went to sleep.
Then, I described the “enhanced accommodations” I saw at the NG camp outside Jefferson City. The Colonel in charge set up the system where his troops were allowed to release their tensions with girls selected from the general population of the refugee camps. In exchange, the girls got to eat and sleep in a tent.
I omitted mentioning how I’d killed a trio of privates intent on raping a mother in front of her children just after escaping that hellhole. Fortunately for me, and the lady being molested, that I’d managed to stash my pistol and pack in the neighborhood before being picked up by another roving patrol. That was why I was there, only a street over, when she started screaming. Not looting, but reclaiming my lost property.
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