John was back on the radio.
“They’re moving over to the gate. Bryan, switch to the other blind. Mark, give Brad some backup.”
Bryan overruled John.
“Negative. I’m not in the open, and I’ve got a clear shot at whoever comes in the gate. Brad, you have no cover where you are. Mark, you can’t see the gate from where you are. You guys get the hell out of there.”
Mark hesitated for only a moment. He knew from the confident tone in his brother’s voice that he had a handle on the situation. So Mark retreated as told.
As for Brad, he didn’t have to be told twice. He was already hightailing it to the tunnel to check on Sami.
Outside the gate, Skully was barking orders as well.
“Okay, put the ladders back up again. Marky Mark, I should have known not to rely on those stupid bastards before. This time you’re the man. Get over that wall and get that damn gate open.”
Mark had been following orders from Skully for so long he didn’t even take the time to ponder whether going over the wall was a good idea. Even after he’d seen three of his friends killed for doing the same thing.
As soon as the ladder was in place he scrambled up.
Skully looked at two more of his men, and shouted, “You’re next. Go.”
Marky Mark, who looked like the rapper but couldn’t sing worth a damn, would never sing again. When he was halfway over the wall he was hit in the left side of his chest with a bullet from Bryan’s gun. He went down in a heap on the inside of the gate.
The other two men on the ladder changed their minds and jumped down.
“Screw that!” one said as he scrambled back into the pickup.
“Okay then! We’ll just bust our way in!”
Skully jumped back behind the wheel of the Hummer and backed up about twenty feet. Then he floored it and rammed the gate with the full fury of the vehicle.
John told Hannah, “Go! Get out of here. Help Sarah make sure everybody got the word to evacuate. Then make your way to the tunnel.”
John knew that the gate was sturdy enough to take a pounding, but was not infallible. He reached behind the security console and removed a cable that connected the array of monitors to their dedicated hub. All of the monitors instantly went to black.
He jammed the cable into his pants pocket and logged off the computer that ran the whole operation, grabbed the AR-15 at the corner of his desk, and abandoned ship.
Chapter 39
Hannah ran from the security center screaming.
“Oh, my God! They’re knocking down the gate!”
Skully slammed the Humvee into reverse and backed up forty feet to get a running start. This time the heavy steel gate gave way, but still didn’t break free. He backed up to try again.
Bryan knew he wouldn’t get a shot until Skully and his gang broke through the gate. And then it would be too late.
John had sounded the evacuation alarm twenty minutes before, and most of the residents were already in the tunnel, headed back to the mine.
Hannah ran through the first floor of the big house, making sure none of the elders or children got left behind. Karen was in the tunnel counting heads.
Sami was conscious and able to walk, but had lost a lot of blood and was light-headed. The pain from the bullet would come later. Right now she was just numb and in semi-shock. Helen led her through the tunnel, toward the safety of the mine.
Skully hit the steel gate a third time. This time one of the hinges popped. He knew one more time would do it.
Bryan trained his rifle on the inside of the gate, ready to fire as soon as the vehicle broke through. His plan was to take out the driver first, then as many of the passengers as he could.
Skully didn’t know it now, but he was living his very last seconds on earth.
The fourth time was the charm. The Humvee hit the gates and flattened one of them, driving over it and then over Mark. The huge front wheel drove over Mark’s chest, shattering his ribcage and collapsing one lung, leaving him in agony and unable to move. Or breathe.
Bryan squeezed off a shot that went through the windshield and hit Skully squarely in the chest. His heart exploded and he was dead even before his head slumped forward and rested on the steering wheel.
Bryan immediately pivoted slightly to his left and sent another round through the passenger side of the windshield and into the passenger’s head.
Five other men scrambled out of the Humvee and scattered in all directions. Bryan was able to clip one in the leg before he hid behind a trailer.
Over the radio on his hip, Bryan heard Hannah’s panicked voice: “All clear! All clear!”
Bryan took two more shots in the general direction of his enemies, just to keep them from coming out of hiding. Then he scrambled down the fire escape, ran south between the greenhouses, and to the ladder leaning up against the inside of the fence on the south side of the compound. He shouldered his weapon and fairly ran up the ladder, dropping down to the other side and turning his ankle as he did so. He heard bullets hitting the fence behind him as he hobbled away to safety.
John had been standing at the entry to the secret tunnel and watching through the open doorway. He was waiting for Bryan to bolt from his firing position and run toward him.
Instead, Bryan ran south, toward the wall of the compound where the initial assault was made. He was intentionally drawing fire away from the tunnel entrance, so that the marauders didn’t see how the rest of the group had escaped.
John muttered, “Damnit!”
He knew he and Bryan were the last two in the compound. He hoped that Bryan made it over the fence to safety. He went to the tunnel, shut the secret entrance, and bolted full sprint through the tunnel and to the mine.
In the mine, chaos reigned. Bryan was the electrician and was still out there somewhere. Maybe even dead, for all they knew. Without Bryan around to get the lights back on, it fell to Mark, stumbling around in the dark, trying to get the generator cranked up.
Most of the group was still huddled around the tunnel’s entrance to the mine. Many were crying. And all were terrified.
David was a dentist by trade. Debbie had been an EMT. Together, they treated Sami for shock and assessed her wound. Brad was at her side, holding her hand and trying his best to comfort her.
He was in the way, but neither David nor Debbie had the heart to tell him to stand aside. So they worked around him instead.
John made his way up the wooden stairs and into the mine just as the generator started up and the lights came on. Sarah was expecting Bryan to be with John. When she saw that he wasn’t, she screamed in panic.
“Where’s Bryan? Where is he?”
John ran through the mine toward the control center, shouting over his shoulder, “He ran for the south wall. He’s still out there!”
At the control center, John turned on the computer that drove the video surveillance system.
Still out of breath, he managed to tell Mark, “Your brother’s still out there, making his way to the mine. Go to the main entrance, but don’t open it until I give you the all clear.”
Mark started toward the door, and John stopped him.
“Here, you may need this.”
Mark turned around and John tossed him the AR-15.
Mark sprinted through the four insulation bays that separated the main entrance from the main part of the mine.
John watched the monitors as they slowly came to life, one at a time. It was an agonizing process. Finally, monitor one came on, and he could see Bryan stumbling toward the mine from eighty yards away.
“Okay, Mark, he’s coming, but he appears to be injured. Go help him. Sarah, get to the doorway and secure it as soon as they come in. David and Debbie, get ready. You’ve got another casualty coming in.”
John had assumed that Bryan had suffered a gunshot wound. He actually just twisted his ankle when he climbed over the wall and jumped to the ground below. But it was still enough of an injury to slow h
im down.
On the monitor, John saw Mark sprint across the open field to intercept his brother. Bryan threw his arm over Mark’s shoulder and the two made their way as quickly as they could to the safety of the mine.
Sarah slammed the door closed behind them and slid the heavy metal bar in place to secure it.
Chapter 40
Sami was moved to the two room clinic as soon as she was stable, and was placed on a hospital bed. Debbie administered an IV and hooked up a bag of saline solution, then gave her some morphine for the pain. The morphine was seven years old, and she didn’t know how potent it was. But she knew that the human mind was the most powerful ally when it came to pain management. She didn’t tell Sami that the morphine might not work. She would monitor the patient and hope for the best.
David started tending to her wound.
“The only local anesthetic I have is Mepivicaine. It’s what I used for my dental patients,” he said as he made several injections around the wound. “But if it works to deaden your gums, it should also work to deaden the nerves around the wound. Let me know if you want me to back off and give you some more.”
It turned out that the Mepivicaine was quite effective. Sami couldn’t feel a thing as David stitched up her wounds. The exit wound was larger than the entry, because as the bullet tore through her collarbone it carried some jagged pieces of bone with it. The bone fragments ripped the muscle on the back of her shoulder.
He’d pulled a lot of children’s teeth over the years, and sewing up gums in the back of tiny mouths made David pretty good at making tiny sutures in tight places. He was able to repair a torn vein and a torn muscle before sealing off the exit wound. He also put a small drainage tube in place to channel the seepage and help keep the swelling down.
Sami was conscious during the entire procedure, but had to throw up once when the nausea overcame her. She asked for a couple of shots of whisky, but neither Debbie nor David thought that was a good idea.
Sami protested.
“But they do that in all the old cowboy movies whenever the town Doc is sewing up a patient.”
“Yeah, maybe. But what the old cowboy movies don’t tell you is that most of the time, those town Doc’s patients wound up dying.”
In lieu of the whiskey, Sami squeezed Brad’s hand throughout the procedure. A couple of times she squeezed so hard his fingers turned purple, but he either didn’t notice or chose not to complain.
“Now you have something to brag about, Sami. You can show off your bullet wounds to your children and grandchildren and say you were in the midst of a ferocious battle.”
She managed to chuckle.
“Battle my ass. I went to smell the blossoms on the apple trees, got shot, and fell right down into the dirt. Nothing glamorous or heroic about that.”
“But you survived. That’s what counts.”
“How’s Bryan doing?”
“We think okay. He’s in a lot of pain, but I don’t think the ankle’s broken. I’m going to put it under my portable x-ray machine as soon as we’re finished here. My guess is he’ll be on crutches for a few days and then will be fine.”
“Do you think they’re coming after us?”
“John and Mark are out there watching the monitors from the compound. John took the cable and turned off the computer before he bugged out, so the security station in the compound is dead. But the cameras are still working, and they’re also wired into the mine’s security console. So John and Mark are able to see everything they’re doing over there. In all likelihood, they don’t even know they’re being watched.”
“What are they doing?”
“Mark said they’re just going through the place, basically looting it and pigging out on our food stores and fresh fruit. He said they’d let us know if anything changed, but I think the threat is over for now. They got what they came for. They chased us out of our compound and took it over.”
“Do we have enough supplies to live in the mine again?”
“Oh, yes. Remember, we planned for something like this to happen. We still have our diesel fuel and water stores, and we left all of our MREs over here. I’m sure it won’t take long to get tired of the MREs, but they’ll keep us alive.”
“Thank God we didn’t lose anybody.”
“Yes, indeed. Now, I’m prescribing two days of bed rest for you, right here, so I can monitor your vitals. I’m tempted to double up on your antibiotics, since they’re out of date, but I don’t want to overdo it. So I’m going to draw your blood once a day to keep a close eye on your white blood cells. The morphine seems to be working, so we’ll keep you on it for the next two days. Then we’ll talk about whether you get to take it any longer than that. We’re only going to give you liquid foods for twenty four hours, and then we’ll play it by ear. Any questions?”
“Yes. Can Brad stay here with me?”
“Well, the bed’s not big enough for two, but if he wants to wrestle a mattress or a cot in here and lay next to you, I don’t see anything wrong with that.
Chapter 41
Alvarez took charge of the bunch of thugs at the compound. With Skully dead and Marky Mark mortally wounded, there just happened to be an opening in the leadership position.
Alvarez stepped forward to fill the void. He’d hated Skully for as long as he could remember. Considered him a poser and a braggart. He definitely wouldn’t be missed.
After he posted two men to guard the gate, the rest of the crew went into the main building to execute the men and children. They’d also decide which women to leave alive for their own personal needs, and shoot the rest.
Considering the resistance they’d encountered thus far, they expected a fight every step of the way.
John and Hannah had been the last two out of the building and the door closed and locked behind them.
But a locked door wasn’t a problem. Alvarez shattered the glass and reached inside to depress the panic bar while he laid down fire down the hallway at the same time.
Room by room, floor by floor, they searched the building.
“It’s empty. They all got away.”
They’d seen one man climbing up a ladder on the south side of the compound and scampering over the wall. As they looked around the compound, they saw similar ladders set up on all three of the other walls.
“That must be how they escaped. They all climbed over the walls while we were busting down the gate. They’re probably miles away by now, running like scared little rabbits.”
“No,” Alvarez grumbled. “They put too much work into this place to give up on it. They’ll be back. But we’ll be ready for them.”
Alvarez was a hulk of a man. He’d played football in college at Texas Tech University. Some said he was in the running for the Heisman Trophy. But then he screwed up. Got high at a party and insisted he was okay to drive home.
But he wasn’t. He broadsided a church van on its way to church and killed four people.
Lubbock, Texas didn’t play. Especially when someone killed its little old ladies on their way to church.
They’d thrown the book at Alvarez. Gave him forty two years. The judge said he wouldn’t even be eligible for parole until he was forty years old.
And he fumed. He figured those old ladies were all due to die soon anyway. Yes, he’d made a mistake. But he shouldn’t have to forfeit his whole life because of it.
He grew sullen and kept to himself. He earned a reputation as a surly bastard with a chip on his shoulder. And it suited him well.
Alvarez had no friends in prison. Not one of his current crew even knew his first name. But as a convict, he didn’t really need a first name. Or friends, for that matter. He had something better. He had the respect that one earns in prison by keeping to himself and not taking any crap from others. Every time he clashed with guards or other inmates, his rep as a tough guy grew.
And now, he was in charge. And no one else was willing to question his authority. They would follow his orders without question o
r hesitation.
“Alvarez, what do we do about Marky Mark?”
“Drag him to the back of the place and set him on fire before he starts to stink.”
“But, he’s asking for you.”
“I thought he was dead.”
“No. I mean, I think he’s close to it. But he’s asking for you. Wants you to find him a doctor.”
“Shit. I’ve got a better idea.”
Alvarez went to the broken down gate, where two guards stood with weapons at the ready behind the Humvee. Mark lay on the ground, a dazed look in his eyes, his mouth foaming blood.
Alvarez stood over him and said “You should have got out of the way, you fool.”
Mark struggled mightily to get a single word out.
“Please…”
Alvarez took his handgun and fired a single shot into Marky Mark’s forehead.
“There. Now you look like a dead rapper, you son of a bitch.”
He turned to the others and said coldly, “Shoulda moved faster.”
He noticed that several of the men were following him around, unsure what to do.
“You two guys, get the Hummer out of the entrance. Put Skully on the same burn pile as Rapper Boy. Go out in the field and get those other two bodies too. Put them all on the pile and find some gasoline to dump on ‘em. Then burn the bastards.”
The two he pointed at scampered off to fulfill their mission.
“Did we leave any ladders out front?”
“No, they’re all here.”
“Good. I don’t want to make it too easy on them when they come back. You two, get up on the roof of this building. Get on opposite corners so each of you can see in two different directions. Shoot anything that moves out there. Don’t come down until somebody relieves you. And if you fall asleep you die. Got it?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Okay, the rest of you, stand that gate back up. Drive the pickup against it to hold it into place. Then report to me for your next assignment.
“You two guards… you stay here until you’re relieved. You fall asleep on guard duty and I’ll shoot you myself.”
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