“I lied. Just like you did, you snake,” I yelled back.
“You two were the gullible ones who fell for my story. Hit on the head and waking up next to a corpse? You pair of stupid fucks,” he laughed. “We just want to talk.”
“Yeah, it looks like it,” Jack called back. “We saw what happened to Greg in Maybrook as well. I take it you gave away his location?”
Jerry’s face turned into a foul expression.
“If you fire one more shot, your friend gets it in the back of the head.”
“You’ve one revolver, and we’re both aiming straight at you. You are in no position to negotiate,” I shouted.
Bernie stared at us with frightened expression.
“Guys, I’m sorry. He came to the house and shouted, ‘It’s Jerry, come out.’ I came to the door and then saw the flare. As I was looking up, they smashed me in the face and dragged me out.”
Jerry glared at us.
“There are more people coming this way. If you don’t drop your weapons and give yourselves up now, you’re dead. We just want the bitch in the house.”
“Do you think you can hit the other man in black?” I whispered to Jack.
If we could get rid of him, he wouldn’t have a chance to exact revenge for his fallen partner. Then we’d only be left with Jerry.
Jack nodded and quietly reloaded his bolt-action rifle.
“This is your last chance to let him go, Jerry. You seem to be in charge, so we’re going to shoot you next,” I shouted.
“You haven’t the guts. You’re too worried about your friend,” Jerry laughed.
“And you’d have killed him already if you thought you could,” I replied. “He’s your last bargaining chip. Use it wisely.”
“We can just wait here until the others arrive. They’re heavily armed and already know this location. You, however, might not like that option.”
“What do you want out of this? Let Bernie go and you can both walk away,” I said.
“No, this prick is our insurance. We’ll let him go if you give us the bitch whose at the first floor window. Then we will take her in the Range Rover and leave you two alone.”
They must have seen Lea through a window. There was no way any man would give up a woman to a person as disgusting as Jerry. I guessed his intentions for Lea would be far from honourable.
“Not a chance,” I replied. “Let Bernie go now, or we’ll shoot.”
Jerry said something quietly to the man who nodded with a smile.
“No!” Bernie shouted.
The overweight man aiming at the back of Bernie’s head pulled the trigger and a puff of red mist appeared in front of Bernie’s face, before he quickly sank to the ground. I stood in shock as Jerry and the assassin used our hesitation to run towards the fields.
Jack and I started firing. One of us hit the shooter in the thigh, and he dropped to his knees. I ran out of ammunition just as Jerry made it over the fence and started running through the field in the direction of his farm. Jack quickly reloaded and shot the fallen man before he could turn his pistol on us. The force of the impact ripped the jawbone from the right side of his face. He slumped lifelessly against a fence post.
I ran up to Bernie shouting his name. When I reached him, I pulled up short; realising there was nothing we could do. The front section of Bernie’s skull was missing and some of his brain was visible around the exit wound.
“Fucking hell,” Jack said, joining me.
Lea came running out of the house.
“Is he dead? Is Bernie dead?” she cried. When she reached us, she put her hands over her mouth. “Oh, my God, no.”
We stood there for a few minutes looking at each other and then at the ground, anywhere but at Bernie. Everyone had tears in their eyes.
“Jerry.” Jack said, gritting his teeth.
I looked at Jack and felt rage bubbling up inside me.
“That sly fucker.” I said.
Jack ran over to pick up the bearded man’s rifle and tossed it to me, an AR-15. I carried out a make-safe procedure on it and placed the loose round back into the top of the magazine, which now contained a full thirty rounds.
“Let’s go.” I said, as I cocked the rifle.
All three of us jumped over the fence and started running across the field towards Jerry’s farm. He was going to pay.
I was in a furious rage, we had been completely fooled and the price we paid was Bernie’s life. Jerry had a head start on us, so I didn’t expect to see him as we approached his property.
We slowed down as we neared the barn; I said to Lea and Jack, “I want that bastard alive.”
“Fuck that,” Jack answered, “he’s going to have a long, slow, painful death.”
“That’s fine with me,” I replied. “You can do what you like with him after we get him to talk. I would say there’s enough evidence to believe he knows what’s going on, and I want some answers.”
Chapter 8 – The Barn
We approached Jerry’s barn from the same direction as earlier. He would probably be lying in wait for us somewhere, so we couldn’t just going to walk through the front gate.
As we sneaked up to the back of the building, I could hear a muffled voice coming from inside and turned to Jack and Lea, putting a finger to my lips. We all crept closer and listened through gaps in the timber cladding.
“Control, this is NY three. Do you copy?”
A crackly voice replied, “This is control. Please reconfirm the numbers.”
“This is NY three. There are three of them, and they’re all armed.”
“What happened to NY patrol six?”
“Those fuckers shot them. They’ll be coming here soon. I’ll hide in the barn until you send assistance.”
“I’ll go around to the front with Lea,” I whispered to Jack, “you take the side door.”
Lea and I walked around to the large double doors at the front of the barn. One of them was slightly open. I indicated for Lea to stay outside and then quickly slipped in, pointing the Glock in front of me. Jerry was seated with his back to me, wearing a headset and leaning into a radio transmitter.
“Thanks,” he said. “Tell them to come here first, but to be on the lookout.”
“Roger. Control out.”
Jerry took off the headset and turned around. I was standing about five yards away from him pointing the Glock at his face.
“Hello, Jerry. Fancy seeing you here.”
A look of shock flashed across Jerry’s face, and he immediately ran for the side door. As he swung it open, Jack stepped in and smashed the butt of his rifle into Jerry’s forehead. Jerry dropped to the floor, and Jack followed up with two firm blows to the top of his head. Jerry lay motionless.
“Good job,” I said, “but please don’t tell me you’ve killed him?”
Jack checked Jerry’s pulse.
“No, he’s just out cold.”
I scanned the barn and saw a long table against the rear wall.
“Jack, give me a hand pulling that table into the middle of the barn. Lea, you find some rope.”
“What are we going to do with it?” She nervously replied.
I could see pure anger in Jack’s eyes and I felt the same emotion, Bernie did not deserve his fate.
“We’re going to strap the bastard to the table.”
Jack and I hauled the heavy wooden table into position and then lifted Jerry onto it. He was a lot heavier than he looked and it took three attempts to get him in place. Lea brought some thin rope that had been wrapped around a barrel. We cut four long pieces then tied each of Jerry’s limbs to the table legs so he was spread across the table and unable to escape.
With Jerry secure, we could have a closer look around the barn. Stacked high against the left wall were crates of bottled water and piles of various food items, mostly in cans. On the workbench, were five respirators and an equal number of ear defenders. It was also where Jerry had left a rifle. He’d regret not keeping that by his side. In the right h
and corner of the barn was a large, black metal object in the shape of a rectangle. It was about half the size of a single bed and had a chrome pole protruding out of the top to make the total height around six feet tall.
Jack picked up the rifle and checked the magazine. He clicked it back into place.
“It’s an AR-15 with a full mag. The same as yours.”
“When do you think the other people are going to arrive?” Lea asked.
“Soon I reckon. Did you hear Control say, ‘What happened to NY patrol six’? That must mean there are a few patrols in the area, but it’s unlikely they will be all based here. Still one of us had better keep watch outside the barn,” I answered.
“No,” Jack disagreed, “we should set up an ambush behind a couple of trees on the road leading to the gate. I bet they’ll drive right in here if they’re as stupid as patrol six.”
“What do you mean stupid?” Lea said.
“They drove right up to Greg’s house. He might not have been expecting what it, but it still wasn’t exactly subtle. At our place, they didn’t shoot Bernie straight away. If I were them, in a hostile situation, I’d have taken Bernie out immediately and picked off Lea from range with the rifle.”
“Charming,” she said, looking slightly surprised.
“They weren’t even watching out for us,” Jack continued, “even though Jerry probably told them of our existence as soon as he saw Bernie.”
“We’ll set up the ambush and wait,” I said.
“What shall we do with him?” Lea said, pointing at Jerry.
Jack picked up a dirty rag from next to the generator, walked over to Jerry who was just starting to regain consciousness and stuffed it into his mouth. His eyes opened wide when he realised he was restrained.
Jack leant down, “Just you wait.”
As we walked away, Jerry spat out the rag and shouted, “Fuck you.”
Jack turned back, ran to the table and smashed his fist into Jerry’s left eye. His head hit the table, and he looked dazed. He then grabbed Jerry’s hair and forced the rag back into his mouth as he struggled and tried to wriggle free. We had done a good job restraining him, he didn’t have a chance. I grabbed an extra piece of rope and wrapped it around his head, tying it around his mouth to stop him from spitting the rag out again. We didn’t need Jerry calling out when his backup arrived.
We ran to the top of the road and spotted three decent sized trees that would provide a good hiding place to spring our ambush. They were within a few yards of each other, on the left side of the road.
We waited in silence for the next hour in case anyone approached on foot.
“What shall we do about Bernie? We can’t just leave him lying on the front lawn of the house,” Lea said.
“We can go back and give Bernie a burial after we’ve finished here,” I replied.
Jack held his arm in the air.
“Quiet. I think I can hear the sound of an engine.”
We waited and listened. Something was approaching. A minute later, a black Range Rover appeared in the distance.
“Jack, you and I will empty our magazines into the windows and doors. Lea, you run out and finish them off if required. Are we all okay with that?”
They both nodded.
As the Range Rover approached the turn off into Jerry’s drive, it slowed to a stop. I glanced around the tree and saw that two people dressed in black were in the vehicle. One was a man wearing thick glasses and the other a woman with her hair pulled back severely from her face. This certainly was a coordinated effort, but I had the feeling that we weren’t exactly dealing with elite soldiers. The Range Rover turned into the driveway and came slowly towards us. The woman in the passenger seat was holding a rifle up to her chest, from that position; she wouldn’t have time to react.
As the driver’s window came level with me, I shouted, “Now!”
Jack and I stepped out from behind our trees and started firing into the driver’s side window. It shattered, and then collapsed. We’d scored a number of direct hits into the side of the driver’s head and body. He was slumped sideways towards the passenger who was also motionless as the Range Rover rolled past us and came to a halt. Lea ran around to the passenger’s window and fired two shots. A spray of blood covered the interior of the windshield.
She looked back at us, “Her eyes were moving.”
“Let’s get them out of the way in case anyone else is coming,” I said.
We dragged the corpses out and put them into the back seats before taking the magazines out of their rifles and reloading ours, they were all the same type, AR-15’s, confirming these people were probably all part of the same group. I put the Range Rover into neutral and we rolled it around the side of Jerry’s house, out of view from the road.
“Come on, back in position in case any more of these amateurs show up,” I said.
We waited by the trees for the next two hours, but no one else appeared. I couldn’t figure out what was going on. The killers we encountered had been extremely dangerous and a serious weapon had been used to turn normal people into killing machines. I could imagine that a complex and coordinated attack of this scale would require huge resources and skills. However, what we had since seen didn’t match this level of competence. It was time to start making Jerry talk. We needed answers, and I wanted them now.
Lea volunteered to keep watch from outside the barn in case anyone else showed up, Jack and I both agreed. Lea would possibly disagree with our methods of obtaining information from Jerry, and I was going to suggest she stay outside of the barn anyway. I was quite confident, now we had a couple of loaded rifles that we’d be able to take out any other patrols, even if they saw us first from a distance. The evidence so far suggested that we were far more dangerous than they were.
I walked into the barn and untied the rope around Jerry’s head, pulling the rag out of his mouth at the same time.
“You’re going to fucking die. I am going to make sure of that. You all are,” he shouted, then spat in my face.
I resisted a strong urge to punch Jerry in the mouth. His words, not his actions would dictate his fate.
“Do you want the good news or the bad news?” Jack asked.
“I’ve already told you the good news,” Jerry laughed.
“No, the good news is that we have killed your latest patrol. You probably heard the gunshots,” I said.
“There’s more where they came from,” Jerry replied. “You won’t get away with it. Even if they don’t get you, you’re still dead.”
“You didn’t ask me what the bad news was, Jerry.” When he remained silent, Jack continued, “We’re going to torture you.”
He didn’t laugh at the response this time.
“What? What are you going to do?”
“That depends on how cooperative you are,” I replied.
Both Jack and I knew a few different techniques from our days in the army.
Jack turned to me, “Do you think Jerry will enjoy waterboarding? Can you go into this piece of shit’s house and fetch me a t-shirt, two towels, and a few jugs of water.”
I nodded. I wasn’t sure if Jack was openly threatening Jerry to try and make him speak or if he was serious. If Jerry wasn’t prepared to speak to us, then I wouldn’t have a problem assisting Jack with waterboarding, it was the least that Jerry deserved after what happened to Bernie.
When I arrived back with two jugs of water and a couple of towels, Jerry was struggling violently.
“You fucking prick,” he hissed at Jack.
“Just tell me all you know,” I shouted at Jerry. “We’ll get it out of you eventually, so you’ll be saving yourself a lot of suffering if you talk now.”
Jerry had a spiteful and defiant smile across his face.
“You won’t kill me because you need information. Do your worst.”
Jack patted him on the head.
“Jerry, I don’t want to kill you, I want to know everything you do. The waterboarding is j
ust the start. When I have finished with you, you’ll be singing like a canary.”
Leaning against one of the piles of food cans was a pair of bolt cutters; Jack walked over, picked them up, and then placed them on the table next to Jerry.
“You don’t scare me. Keep me here as long as you like – you’re dead anyway.”
I circled the table while maintaining a stare into Jerry’s eyes.
“I don’t think so. We can fight off the fools that get sent here for months, and every time we do, they bring us more weapons and ammunition.”
Jerry started laughing again.
“You have no idea what you are up against. You’re toast, and there’s nothing you can do about it.”
“Let’s get started on him,” Jack sighed.
The radio crackled, I immediately spun to face it.
“This is Control. NY three. Please confirm the patrol has arrived. We have lost contact.”
“If I don’t respond, they’ll know something is wrong, and then all hell will be unleashed,” Jerry said smugly.
“Shall we respond? You could pretend to be Jerry,” Jack said.
“It’s worth a try. Gag him.”
Jerry tried to shout as Jack stuffed the rag back in his mouth and held it there. I sat in front of the radio, put on the headset and pressed the transmit button.
“This is NY three. The patrol has arrived,” I said, attempting to mimic Jerry’s Boston sounding accent.
“You are not NY three. Confirm your call-sign,” A crackled voice replied after around twenty seconds.
“I am NY three. The patrol has arrived.”
“What is the pass-code for today?”
I looked back at Jack who shrugged his shoulders, our cover was blown and there was no point trying to pretend anymore.
“Jerry’s told us all about you. I know where you are and I’m coming for you.”
I waited at the radio for two minutes, but there was no response. I walked over to Jack who was still holding the rag in Jerry’s mouth.
“Oh dear, Jerry, Control now thinks you’ve talked. They also won’t come and save you as they think I’m on my way to get them. For all they know, you’re dead,” I said and patted his shoulder.
First Activation: A Post Apocalyptic Thriller Page 16