The Shadow Patriots Box Set

by Warren Ray

  “I sure do hope we can find her mom,” said Meeks.

  “What if we don’t?” asked Scar.

  “I don’t know,” answered Winters.

  Elliott drove the lead vehicle and headed toward Eau Claire on Highway 31.

  Scar looked up from the map. “Captain, we should go through Berrien Springs and check things out before we go over to Eau Claire.”

  Winters turned around to Scar. “Where’s it at?”

  Scar extended the map to him. “Right here. It’s on the way.”

  “Go east on Snow Road,” said Winters to Elliott.

  Winters grabbed the handheld radio. “Nate, we’re going to stop in Berrien Springs, over.”

  “Ten-four,” came the reply.

  They arrive in Berrien Springs and drove through town before hitting the business center. A few people were milling around, staring at them as they drove in. The two SUV’s took a left on Main Street and parked. They all got out and walked over to a coffee shop. The seven of them entered the shop and just like in a movie, everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at the strangers.

  It was a small shop and there was a group of four old men sitting at a table to the left with another two at the lunch counter. A middle-aged woman was behind the counter. She wore an off white apron around her shirt and jeans.

  Scar walked up to the counter. “Are you still serving?”

  “We are,” she looked at him cautiously. “We don’t have much though.”

  “Well, we don’t need much,” he responded to her smiling.

  Another man came out from the kitchen. He also wore a dirty white apron over a t-shirt. He appeared to be the boss as the lady behind the counter showed him deference.

  “Where you guys from?”

  “Most of us are from Iowa.”

  “Why are you here?”

  “We’re just passing through is all.”

  “You here to cause trouble?”

  “Not at all. Why do you ask?”

  “Whenever strangers come into town, it’s usually to cause trouble and you guys are not from around here. So, we’d all be happy if you left.”

  Nate had heard enough and started to move forward. Elliott grabbed his arm and held him back.

  “Sir, we’re not here to cause any trouble, in fact, we think there’s trouble coming here soon,” said Winters.

  All the patrons kept still with their eyes on Winters.

  “Why do you say that?” asked the man wearing the apron.

  “We’ve been through some towns where all the houses were burned down and we believe this might be the next one.”

  “Really. How do we know you’re not the ones doing it?”

  “Well…we’d certainly not announce it.”

  “Hmm maybe. What’s your name?”

  Winters extended his hand out. “I’m Cole Winters.”

  The man leaned back. His eyes opened wider.

  Winters drew back his hand. “What’s the matter?”

  The man twisted around and opened a draw. He pulled out a .38 revolver, turned back and pointed the snub-nosed gun at Winters.

  “Hey, what are doing?” shouted Winters putting his hands up.

  “Get the hell out of here.”

  “What are you doing that for?”

  “You said your name is Cole Winters. You’re the ones that have been on a murdering rampage. We know all about you.”

  “Sir, I can assure you what you’ve heard was all lies.”

  “Really, so you didn’t murder your wife huh?”

  “What?” Winters' voice started to quiver. This news hit him fast and hard. “No, no, that’s not true. My wife died of cancer.”

  “I just heard it on my satellite radio this morning.”

  “Sir, if you’d please put the gun down. We can explain everything. We don’t want any trouble here. We came through to warn people is all.”

  Winters could see the man was unconvinced but didn’t know what to do next. He decided to get his men out of the coffee shop.

  “Listen, we’re going to leave okay. Like I said we don’t want any trouble.” Winters turned his head. “Guys, let’s just back up and get out of here.”

  All the Shadow Patriots started to back up. Burns and Murphy hit the door first, followed by Elliott and Nate. Scar kept a smile on his face as he grabbed Winters by the shoulder and guided him backward. They made their way to the entrance, where Meeks held the door. Before shutting the door, Meeks looked at the people in the coffee shop and said, “Don’t say we didn’t warn ya.”

  Outside, Nate was extremely angry. He wanted nothing more than to go in there and beat the hell out of the man with the apron. “I just want to knock some sense into that dumb-ass.”

  Elliott put his hand on his shoulder. “Let it go, Nate. They can’t know, what they don’t know. It’s not their fault.”

  Winters silently walked away to the SUV. The rest of the men followed him. They knew hearing about his wife that way was a punch in the gut. He reached the passenger side of the vehicle and before he got in, he heard a man come out of the coffee shop.

  “Excuse me.”

  Everyone turned around and waited as the man came jogging up to them.

  “I’m really sorry about what happened. My name is Jim.”

  He walked up to Winters and shook his hand. Jim was in late sixties. He wore a ball cap over his white hair. His blue jean overalls covered his long sleeved multi-colored flannel shirt.

  “Don’t worry about it,” said Winters. “You don’t know who to trust these days.”

  “Well, it’s just that Henry in there tends to believe everything he hears on the radio.

  “Like I said, I don’t blame him.”

  “So, it’s not true what the news said about you guys, huh?

  Winters shook his head.

  “I knew it all to be lies anyways. It’s just so hard to know what’s what anymore.”

  “I can assure you, we’ve been doing nothing but saving people.”

  “Your wife, you said she died of cancer? I’m real sorry to hear about that. It’s sickening that they’d say that about you.”

  Winters looked at his men and noticed they were all giving him a sympathetic look. This was the last thing he wanted from anyone. Winters needed to change the subject and spent the next five minutes giving Jim a brief synopsis of their story.

  The news shocked him and he promised to share the story with everyone in town. He then told them all of the news concerning the Shadow Patriots, and what the media was saying about them. He shook everyone’s hand and scooted back into the coffee shop.

  The Shadow Patriots loaded back up into the two SUV’s and took off for Eau Claire. Winters noticed right away that no one was saying anything, which was unusual for this bunch. He turned in his seat to face Scar and Meeks. “Something tells me we need better PR.”

  This broke the tension.

  “Maybe we can hire a D.C. firm, maybe one of those K Street ones,” quipped Meeks.

  “I’m sure they’d love the challenge,” added Scar.

  “Might have to pay a premium,” said Meeks.

  Scar grabbed Meeks’ arm. “Yeah, and all of it up front.”

  Chapter 11

  Eau Claire Michigan

  The two SUV’s were on Hochberger Road when they saw a car coming toward them from the North. Elliott looked at Winters. It was unusual for a car to be on the road, so they knew something wasn’t right.

  “See if they’ll stop,” ordered Winters.

  Elliott put his foot on the brake and flashed his lights off and on. The approaching vehicle didn’t appear it was going to stop, but then it slowed down so as to get a look at the two SUV’s. Scar rolled down the window and stuck his head out. He smiled and waved for them to stop. The minivan stopped just past them and then backed up.

  The driver of the van was an older man who had what looked like his wife next to him and his grandchildren in the back. The driver rolled down his
window.

  “Don’t mean to rude, but I wasn’t sure if you were government folks.”

  “We’re not. I’m Scarborough and this is Elliott.”

  Elliott nodded his head and said hello.

  Scar continued. “You look like you’re in a hurry, is there anything wrong?”

  “Oh, you could say that, alright. The damn National Police pulled into town about two hours ago and started ordering people around. They told us there’s a gang of terrorists coming this way and they needed to get us all to safety.”

  Elliott turned to Winters. “So that’s how they’re doing it.”

  Winters got out of the vehicle and walked over to the mini van.

  “What did everyone do?” asked Winters.

  “Hell, they weren’t giving us much choice. A buddy of mine came to our house and told us. They’ve got all the roads blocked off. Nobody can get in or out of town.”

  Winters shot Scar a concerned glance.

  Scar look back at the driver. “How did you get out?”

  “Oh please, you can block off all the roads you want, but this here is farm country. I took off through the fields.”

  “How many men you think they have?” asked Winters.

  “My buddy said at least a hundred, maybe more.”

  “Did they say where they were taking you?”

  “No, only that it was somewhere safe.”

  “Where are you headed to?”

  “Berrien Springs. Say, who are you guys? I don’t recognize any of you.”

  Winters didn’t want to introduce himself in case the man also heard about him on the radio. “We’re not from around here. Listen, when you get to Berrien Springs, warn everyone there what you saw and tell them to get out town right away. These men, these National Police, are not our friends. They’re not here to help anyone but themselves. They’re rounding people up and taking them somewhere, and they’ve been burning down all the houses. We’ve seen them do this in other places.”

  “Damn friggin government!” the driver replied hitting the steering wheel with both hands.

  “How can we get into town without being seen?”

  “Why? What the hell are you going to do?”

  “Try and stop them.”

  “Well…alrighty then. Best thing I could tell you is to get out into the fields right now. Go over there,” the driver said pointing west. “You’ll run into some woods, get out and start walking. It’ll take you right up to Main Street, which is where they’ve got all their trucks parked.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Good luck and God bless you.”

  The minivan pulled away from the Shadow Patriots. Winters walked back to Nate who had been behind them. He told him to follow him to the tree line, and then he hurried back to his SUV and got in. Elliott slowly pulled down into the ditch and up on the field, where he picked up the pace. He had been a farmer and was used to driving through fields.

  Winters turned to Scar and Meeks. “What do you guys think?”

  “Not sure what we can do Captain, but recon it and plan as we go,” said Scar.

  “We need to see how they operate before we do anything,” said Meeks.

  “Yeah, kind of what I was thinking,” said Winters.

  “Sly little bastards, coming in pretending to be saviors and helping everyone,” said Meeks.

  “No kidding,” said Scar.

  “Question is, where are they taking them?” asked Winters, as he leaned back in his seat. He wondered if they would be able to do anything to help the people of Eau Claire. They didn’t have enough men or firepower to be able to do much, but find out where the cops were taking them. This would be a big help in figuring out what they were up to and perhaps allow him to find Sadie’s mom.

  After crossing through a baseball field, the two SUV’s came to the tree line that had been described to them. Elliott pulled in as far as he could and parked it. Nate came in next to him. Everyone got out, grabbed their rifles and without saying anything, the seven of them started through the woods. Ten minutes later, they found themselves on Staley Road, which led to Main Street. They crossed the street to another small set of trees and hustled behind houses to get further into town. As they got closer, they saw transport trucks parked on the road all up and down Main Street. They also saw the National Police ordering the townspeople around. The citizens didn’t look happy with what was happening. The scene was chaotic, with children crying, and everyone scrambling to avoid having their families separated. The cops were barking out orders and police dogs pulled on their leashes.

  They sat silently watching the scene unfold. They were anxious because there was little they could do. The National Police had a much larger force and were scattered everywhere.

  “Captain, when they pull out, what do you want to do?” asked Scar.

  Winters debated the question in his mind. Should they stay and take out the smaller force that would stay behind or follow the transports and see where they’re taking everyone?

  “To hell with the town. We need to see where they’re going.”

  They started back, keeping out of sight and soon came up on Hochberger Road. Winters and Elliott came out of a patch of trees and started to hustle across the open backyard of a house. As soon as they reached the intersection, they heard a bullhorn crack.

  “Stop, right where you are,” came the voice.

  The two were startled as a black car came racing toward them. Winters and Elliott stopped dead in their tracks. The rest of the team returned to the cover of the trees.

  The car stopped in front of them, and two cops got out keeping themselves behind the doors. They ordered them to drop their weapons.

  “Don’t shoot us,” yelled Elliott.

  “Drop your weapons old man,” shouted a cop with sergeant stripes on his sleeve.

  Winters and Elliott slowly removed the rifle slings from their shoulders, dropped the weapons to the ground and raised their hands.

  Another police car came racing to the scene. Two more cops got out and the four of them came rushing in on Winters and Elliott, knocking them to the ground.

  “Where in hell you two going?” asked the sergeant as he placed handcuffs on them.

  “We don’t want any trouble,” said Winters.

  “Trouble is what you got, old man.”

  The cops kept them on the ground as the sergeant radioed his commander. “Got a couple of loose ones here, over.”

  “You got it under control, over,” came the response.

  “Ten-four. We’ll bring 'em down.”

  “Where are you taking us?” asked Winters.

  “Somewhere safe, old man.”

  “Why?”

  “For your own protection.”

  The sergeant looked at his men with a slight smile on his face and gave them a nod. The four cops then went for their batons, pulled them out and started to give their captives a beating.

  Winters looked up to see a baton swinging down at him. The cop wound up for another blow when Winters heard the crackle of gunfire. Blood spurted out of the man’s head as he fell backward. Two more dropped beside him, while the sergeant looked up and then down as a bullet knocked him over. His bullet proof vest prevented the bullet from penetrating, but it knocked the air out of him.

  Nate came running up to him and held his rifle to the sergeant’s head. He looked down at the frightened cop. “Here’s for screwing with a bunch of old men.” He pulled the trigger.

  Scar helped Winters up. “You guys alright?”

  Burns reached into the cop’s pockets, grabbed the handcuff key and took off the cuffs.

  Winters rubbed his arm. The baton hit him right at the place where Johnny-Boy, back at the train station, had shot him. His arm throbbed with pain.

  “Sorry that took so long,” said Scar.

  “Yeah, we sure as hell weren’t expecting them to give you guys a beating,” said Meeks.

  “Nor was I,” said Winters.

  “What ab
out these guys?” asked Meeks.

  “Let’s move 'em over to the trees and get their cars out of here, no sense in making them too easy to find.”

  After moving the bodies, they hopped in the cop cars and took them up Staley Road. They drove down a long driveway and parked it behind a house. They jumped out and trampled back through the trees to their SUV’s.

  “What now?” asked Elliott.

  Winters turned to Nate. “Let’s split up. As soon as we figure out the direction they’re headed, we’ll hook back up.”

  Elliott pulled out and headed back through the field. As he crossed Hochberger Road, he spotted a farmhouse with multiple outbuildings and headed toward it. He pulled up to a large red barn.

  “Think we can get on the roof?” asked Winters.

  “Meeks can,” said Scar with a slight grin on his face.

  Meeks gave him a dubious look.

  “I know how much you like heights, buddy.”

  They walked into the barn and found a ladder. Scar and Meeks grabbed it, carried it outside, and leaned it against the barn. Meeks scurried up the ladder and was quickly out of sight. Moments later he called down. “Got a good line of sight here guys, come on up.”

  Winters ascended the ladder. “This is perfect.”

  Scar held the binoculars up. “They look like they’re about done.”

  Winters got on the handheld radio. “Nate.”

  “What’s up?”

  “We’re up on a barn roof. Got a good view here.”

  “Yeah, us too, we’re on top of some warehouse.”

  Twenty minutes later, they heard the roar of engines. Winters and company all waited in anticipation for them to leave. They didn’t have to wait too long before the trucks started heading east. The convoy consisted of twenty military transports. Two police cars led the convoy with two bringing up the rear.

  “Let’s give them a minute, guys,” said Winters. He got on the radio and repeated the order to Nate.

  As the convoy pulled out of town, Winters could see a large majority of the cops staying behind. He knew that they would be the ones to torch the town. The thought of this angered him so much, that he was tempted to take them on, but knew it was more important to find out where they were taking everyone.