by Warren Ray
“What’s going on up there, what’s on fire?” asked Elliott.
The driver frantically shouted. “You best not be going up there.”
“Why, what’s happening?”
Tears started streaming down her face. “They’re shooting up the town, killing everyone and setting everything on fire.”
“Who is?”
She tried speaking without choking on her words. “Al Qaeda, ISIS, whoever the hell they are, they’re killing everyone.”
She stepped on the gas and sped off. The two vehicles followed her with one of the drivers yelling out to not go any further.
Elliott and Winters exchanged glances.
“Step on it,” roared Winters.
“Looks like we found out what they’re up to,” exclaimed Elliott.
Winters didn’t respond.
Elliott got the speed up to nearly ninety miles per hour and blew right through the small town of Baxter. Crossing the Mississippi into Brainerd, they spotted a few teenaged girls running through a parking lot and heading north on Chippewa Street. Behind them was a group of men dressed in Middle-Eastern garb.
“Elliott,” Winters barked.
“I got it, Captain,” he said interrupting Winters, knowing what he wanted him to do.
Winters turned to the back. “Get ready.”
The tires squealed as Elliott took a hard left. The five terrorists were oblivious to the approaching car. They were too preoccupied with hunting their prey.
Winters screamed out. “Run the bastards over.”
Elliott came up fast behind the men. He had a clear shot. He punched the pedal to the floor. The engine roared alerting two of the slower ones, and both jerked their heads around. Their eyes got big as the car came screaming at them. The first one fell face forward as both left wheels ran him over. The second man flew straight up, bounced off the hood and landed on the pavement. The other three heard the screams and took off running in different directions.
Scar and Meeks leaned out the windows, with their weapons aimed at the fleeing men. They squeezed the triggers and cut them down.
The three girls stopped to watch as Scar and Meeks got out of the car, walked over to the terrorists to give them each a double tap to the head. The girls then turned back around and continued running up the street toward the woods.
Meeks and Scar jumped back into the car, and Elliott smoked the tires as he spun it around. At the end of the block, he took a left and headed down Washington Street. A few blocks later, he pulled into a parking lot behind a building. All four got out, to the sound of gunfire and screams. They rounded the corner of the building to find people fleeing in all different directions. Scar pointed over to several men dragging a screaming woman away by her arms.
Scar and Meeks both took aim and fired at them. One fell. The rest ran for cover. The woman got up and ran away.
They now all fired at the fleeing terrorists.
Scar glanced around and saw more coming. He got Winters’ attention and pointed. “Captain, we’ve got a hell of lot more than we can handle.”
Winters looked around and saw a small army swarming in.
Chapter 45
A large group of terrorists came running up the street, shooting wildly at them. Scar and Meeks laid down cover fire as they all ran back to the car.
Out of breath, they all scrambled in. Elliott cranked up the engine and threw the car into reverse all while bullets flew past them. He spun the tires as he pulled out of the parking lot.
Winters turned to the back. “Sure as hell more than a hundred.”
“At least twice that,” said Scar.
Between breaths, Meeks leaned forward. “Remember that one who was thrown from the hood of the car? Damn, Elliott. Helluva a job.”
Elliott drummed his fingers on the steering wheel.
The car flew back across the river and through Baxter.
“We’re going back aren’t we?” asked Elliott.
“Hell, yeah, we are,” growled Winters.
“Bunch of pansy Jijis,” replied Scar.
Meeks looked at him askew. “Jijis?”
“Yeah, you know short for Jihadis,” said Scar.
“Jijis. Sounds feminine.”
“Damn right brother, it’s just what they are, little girly men.”
Winters and Meeks nodded in agreement.
The drive to the rendezvous took about twenty minutes. After the initial excitement, they drove the rest of the way, in silence, each in their own deep thoughts.
Meeks was shocked at what he had witnessed. He’d felt as if he was inserted into a war movie about the Middle Ages, with the other side on an unstoppable rampage and winning. He wondered how something like that could be happening in America.
Scar sat in his seat disgusted. He wanted nothing more than to get back there and annihilate them. He didn’t serve in the Corps to back out of a fight, especially when it could stop the slaughter of innocent Americans.
Elliott kept thinking about running the terrorists down with his car. The way he had slammed into them and the sound of their screams. A wave of exhilaration came over him as he thought about how he had reacted to the situation by sheer instinct. He had just stepped on the gas, locked his elbows and tightened his grip around the steering wheel. He’d never forget the frightened eyes of his victims as he plowed through them. They had the look of certainty that they were about to die. Elliott curled his lip at the thought.
Winters again wondered the reason behind this and still couldn’t wrap his mind around it. Who were these terrorists and how did they get here? He shook his head to get it out of his mind because he had a more vital question to be answered. How would the Shadow Patriots perform? Taking out Patriot Centers had been relatively easy because they'd had the element of surprise. However, taking on an army of terrorists was going to be a much more daunting task.
There was only one thing he knew for sure. By the end of the day, he was going to find out just how good their aging group of patriots were.
Elliott pulled into the new makeshift camp and everyone stopped what they were doing to wait for the news.
Winters got out and yelled to Nate. “Get everyone armed and ready.”
Burns stood up. “What do we got, Captain?”
“Friggin terrorists, shooting up a town.”
Burns wrapped his arm around Murphy. “Let’s give them a proper welcome.”
“Let Allah do that. We’ll just facilitate the meeting,” said Murphy.
“Make sure everyone has plenty of ammo, we’re in for a long afternoon,” ordered Winters. “Scar, can you map out our line of attack?”
“No problem, Captain,” said Scar who turned to his fellow ex-servicemen Burns and Murphy. He pulled out a map and the three of them went to work.
Winters yelled to Meeks. “Now would be a good time for that RPG.”
“I’m on it, Captain.”
The men all gathered whatever was available, checked their weapons, loaded the vehicles, and headed back to Brainerd.
“We’ll keep it simple, Captain,” said Scar, once again in the back seat of an SUV with Meeks. “We’ll park the vehicles just south of downtown. Go in, do a quick recon and find out exactly what we’re up against.”
As they got closer to Brainerd, smoke continued to climb high in the sky as the fires consumed the town. As soon as they crossed the river, they headed south and parked all the vehicles behind the high school.
The men exited their vehicles and formed a circle around Winters anticipating his orders.
Winters inspected them and saw some exhibited considerable anxiety, while others appeared impatient and ready to go. “I need Scar, Meeks, Burns and Murphy to recon. Everyone else stays here, till we find out where the largest body of them is concentrated right now.”
The five of them took off running across a field and came up behind the public library. They ran across parking lots and crossed two more streets. They stopped when they came upon two bo
dies lying in the street. It was a mother with her arms around her child. Blood soaked through her dress making it difficult to see where the terrorists had shot her. Her little girl’s eyes were open and listless.
Scar muttered under his breath. “Bastards.”
As they moved further up the street, it was obvious the mother and child were not alone. The dead were scattered everywhere.
Thick gray smoke drifted overhead adding to the horrific scene and obscuring their view of the town. Gunfire rang out all around.
They kept pushing forward through the disturbing sight, finally reaching the downtown business section. They entered a three-story building, through the back door. A staircase led to the top floor. So, they climbed to the roof where there was an unobstructed view of the town.
All five of them crouched down and made their way to the edge.
Looking through his binoculars, Scar immediately sighted a disturbing scene.
“Got some Jijis over there. They’re holding a small group of young girls, Captain,” said Scar pointing.
“Seems they can’t wait for their seventy-two virgins,” quipped Meeks.
Scar spoke sternly. “Their wait is about over.”
“They’re mostly scattered all over the north part of town now,” said Burns. “Over to the east, it appears more fires are being set.”
Scar put down his binoculars and turned to Winters. “They’ve got their force pretty well split up, Captain. I think we should bring our guys up the same way we just came in.”
“Murphy and I can handle the sniper duties from up here, Captain,” said Burns.
“Okay, Meeks, go back and get everyone moving, and go get those girls,” ordered Winters.
Ten minutes later, Meeks came back with everyone else and then headed off with five of them to rescue the girls. The rest split into two groups with Nate and Elliott each leading one. They spread out over a couple of blocks and took up firing positions.
Winters and Scar moved down one floor so they could shoot through the windows unobserved. Five terrorists came out of a storefront onto the street, yelling at each other in incomprehensible gibberish.
Scar raised his rifle and squeezed off a few rounds. Two of the Jijis were hit dead center and tumbled to the ground. The sound blended in with all the other gunfire and the crackling of the fires, raging through the town. The other three spent the remainder of their lives in a state of confusion. Winters joined Scar to clean things up and shot them dead. This attracted the attention of more terrorists, who began pouring out of the woodwork.
Ten, twenty, then thirty of the Jijis came running to where their five companions lay dead. They fired wildly, aiming at nothing, but hoping to hit whomever just killed their friends.
Burns and Murphy watched them run to the bodies of their friends. They patiently waited for more to enter into the kill zone. They turned to the right and noticed the men who had been holding the girls had left just one of their number to guard them.
Meeks and company had watched them leave. He snuck around from behind and crept up on the man, who was paying more attention to what was going on than to the girls. However, he still had his rifle pointed at his cache of virgins.
Meeks inched closer and put his finger to his lips to silence the girls. Pulling his knife from his belt, he got in behind the Jiji, put his arm around the victim’s head, covered his mouth, and shoved the sharp blade into the man’s throat.
“Let’s get out of here girls,” said Meeks dropping the dead man to the ground.
They didn’t hesitate for a second and obediently followed Meeks.
“Do you have somewhere we can take you?” asked Meeks.
“Yes,” said a cute blond girl of about twelve. “We’re supposed to get across the river.”
“Is there someone waiting?”
“Our Pastor will be there. When the shooting started, we got, like, separated from our youth group in the park.”
Meeks instructed two of his men to make sure they were reunited with their Pastor before coming back. The girls took off, some giving Meeks a hug and thanking him as tears ran down their faces.
“Okay guys, let’s get into this thing and kill these bastards,” ordered Meeks getting up.
* * * * *
Winters and Scar were taking too much fire to their position. They exited the building from the back and ran to the end of the block. As they turned the corner, Jijis fired at them from across the street. A window shattered and out came an AK-47 drawing a bead on them. Scar raised his M-16, but before he could fire, the man fell out of the window courtesy of Burns who had been watching from his sniper perch. He and Murphy had been waiting and covering Meeks as he got the girls out of harm’s way. Now they began to make use of their vantage point.
Another contingent of Jijis poured in from the east side of town, taking up positions against Nate and Elliott’s men. Meeks brought his squad in behind the terrorists to effectively boxed them in.
The Shadow Patriots proceeded to rain hell down on the Jijis who screamed at each other as they tried to get organized. They broke out storefront windows in an attempt to gain a covered position. Their wounded yelled in agony as they tried to crawl to safety.
The Shadow Patriots engaged the enemy for the next twenty minutes. They had taken them off guard and were inflicting heavy causalities. Up on the roof, Murphy noticed the enemy’s numbers below were dwindling. He stopped firing and looked up the street. He saw that the enemy was coming at them in such numbers that they looked like a massive swarm of hornets. Then, from the corner of his eye, he spied a rocket racing in on his position.
Chapter 46
The grenade smashed into the left side of the building, and the ensuing explosion threw broken bricks in every direction causing a part of the roof to collapse. Murphy had managed to throw himself onto Burns before the impact. Both men were stunned and neither of them could hear anything. Murphy pointed to the door and shoved Burns to get him moving. They crawled across the rooftop on their hands and knees and tumbled through the door and down the stairs as another RPG ripped through the area they had just vacated.
Elliott and Nate ran over and helped them out of the building. Both were still dazed but managed to tell the others about the arriving reinforcements.
“Let’s get these guys back to the trucks,” shouted Elliott to his men. “Nate, go and tell the Captain what’s coming.”
Nate quickly found Winters and Scar, “Captain, those RPG’s hit where Burns and Murphy were at. They told us there’s hundreds more of the Jijis coming at us.”
Winters looked mortified. “Are they okay?”
“Yeah, Elliott’s got them, and they’re headed back to our rides.”
“Good, run over and tell Meeks to fall back. Fight another day?” said Winters looking at Scar.
Scar nodded.
“Sure as hell a lot more than two hundred men.”
“Probably a small battalion.”
Winters tilted his head in confusion.
Scar recognized the look. “A good five hundred men.”
Winters and Scar kept firing, covering the men who were falling back. Finally, a couple of blocks up, Nate, Meeks, and his squad were also retreating. They reached the corner of a building but the heavy fire kept them pinned down.
One of the guys handed Meeks the AT4. Holding it in one hand, he peeked around the corner for a quick look. A group of twelve Jijis huddled together between two buildings using the alley as cover. He signaled his men to initiate cover fire. They laid down an impenetrable barrage. Meeks shouldered the launcher and took a quick breath before flipping around the corner. He zeroed in on the target and squeezed the trigger. The rocket bolted across the street and detonated in a blinding explosion. It was a direct hit. Pieces of brick and mortar blew out onto the road. A blanket of thick, black smoke spread over the dead and out into the street.
Wasting no time, Meeks yelled for everyone to get moving. They had one more block to go before they w
ould be able to safely escape. They were crossing the street when the enemy returned with their own RPG, which exploded into the side of the building where the last of Meeks’ men were waiting.
The concussion knocked him and Nate to the ground.
Winters' eyes grew wide at the carnage and ran toward them with Scar behind him.
Scar helped them up. “You guys alright?”
Winters ran to check on the other men. The thick smoke spread throughout the block, giving them needed cover. He dragged one man to safety and ran back to see the others. They were still on the ground, and upon arrival, he discovered all were dead.
Winters was shocked at the horrific scene. He had witnessed the death of his friends back at the train station, but this was altogether different. These men were missing limbs and their burnt skin left them unrecognizable. The unsettling scene forced a gag reflex. He turned away and clenched his jaw to suppress throwing up.
The smoke began to clear making him a perfect target as Scar ran to him. “Captain, we need to leave now, there’s nothing we can do for them, boys.”
Winters, snapped out of it when he realized bullets were zipping past him. He ran back to the one he had dragged to safety. As he helped him up, more lead came flying down around them.
Scar laid down cover fire as they barreled across the street to the next block. Elliott and a couple of his men were on the opposite side of the street. They brazenly exposed themselves and started firing at the Jijis, giving their friends the cover they needed. They maintained the rear guard until everyone was a safe distance away, and then turned and ran back to the high school.
The Shadow Patriots loaded up, tore through the parking lot, up the street and finally crossed the Mississippi. Elliott and Winters brought up the rear of the escaping convoy.
They all took a right on Highway 371 and headed north. Just as Elliott had finally made the turn, Scar caught a glimpse of other vehicles coming from the west.
“Who in the hell is that?” he asked from the back seat of the SUV.
Winters reached for a pair of binoculars and tossed them to Scar. He grabbed them and turned around in his seat. “I’ll be damned.”