The Shadow Patriots Box Set

by Warren Ray

  Taylor picked up the radio laughing. “Those idiots don’t even know I’m out of range.”

  “Move in a little closer Badger, don’t be playing hard to get.”

  “You challenging my manhood, Twinkle.”

  “I’m challenging your age, old man.”

  “You damn kids.”

  Taylor turned to his wingman, Harris. “Get over here, I need your shoulder.”

  “He’s only messing with you,” said Harris, an old friend of Taylor’s from Minnesota. Harris was nearly bald and always wore a Viking’s ball cap. Harris was the Ying to Taylor’s Yang. He was much more mild mannered than Taylor. He preferred to stay quiet in a crowd but would never back down to a bully or an injustice.

  “I know that, but a challenge is a challenge.”

  Harris shook his head.

  “Come on, just one shot.”

  “Fine, but you owe me.”

  The two of them moved fifty yards closer to the overpass. They could hear bullets ricocheting off the pavement up ahead. Harris stopped and covered his ears as Taylor placed the rifle on his shoulder and looked for another victim. He scanned the area and found a Jiji standing in the median thinking he was out of sight.

  “Don’t move. I’ve got one right about now.”

  The shot rang out and the Jiji fell to the ground.

  “Damn, I’m good.”

  “Can we go now?” asked Harris.

  They walked back to their vehicles and Taylor picked up the radio. “Doesn’t look like I’m exciting enough to be chased. I guess I’m losing my charm, Twinkle.”

  “Not sure if you had any to lose, Badger.”

  Taylor let out a laugh. “Enough to have your mom scream out my name.”

  Bassett rolled his eyes. “Well, whatever the case, something doesn’t seem right with these guys.”

  “I think we’re being played, Corporal,” Taylor responded seriously.

  It was back to business and Bassett wondered just what the Jiji’s end game was. He didn’t like sitting there. He felt like they were babysitting. They were wasting their time and resources waiting for these guys to make a move. It was getting dark and he knew from his experiences in the Middle East these guys did not like fighting at night. It was an odd thing to learn about them. American service men made the night their friend and preferred to operate in the dark.

  The squawk of the radio broke up his thoughts when he heard Hadley’s Texas drawl on the radio.

  “Bassett, come in, over.”

  “This is Bassett, over.”

  “Captain needs you ASAP. We were set up. Jijijs are everywhere. Scar’s boxed in on Route 12. Captain wants you to come down on 52 right away and help get him out of there. He’s surrounded.”

  “Son-of-a-bitch,” thought Bassett, “That’s what they were up to.”

  Within minutes, he was headed down US 52. He ordered a squad to keep an eye on their six while the rest of his men raced to help Scar. It was close to forty miles and it would be completely dark soon. He knew from driving on US 52 earlier there was nothing but empty fields in the area. That would be his approach to get into a field and surprise the bastards. It would be nighttime and darkness was his best friend.

  Chapter 52

  Woodstock Township Michigan

  Winters was relieved when Burns burst through the trees and raced across the field pulling up to their position. He walked over to him and shook his hand asking if he had any casualties.

  “None on our side,” he said giving Winters a smirk.

  “Giving them hell are we?”

  “Oh, yeah, besides scaring the hell out of them, the SAW took out several cops. Something tells me, they’ve never experienced that kind of fire power before.”

  “Good, now we just got to get Scar out of there.”

  Burns nodded. After getting an update from Winters, he suggested they keep the enemy as busy as possible on their front and wait for Bassett to get there.

  “If there is one thing I know about Corporal Bassett,” said Burns, “he’ll be wanting to sneak up on these scumbags.”

  Winters ordered half the men to stay put to protect their flank. He then had ten more back up a half-mile onto 127 to guard their escape route. The rest would join the main group and keep the cops busy at the intersection.

  Winters picked up the radio. “Scar, how you holding up?”

  “I’ve got some wounded, a couple of vehicles are done for but so far no bad guys have been brave enough to come knocking on the door.”

  “I’ve got Bassett coming in, shouldn’t be too much longer.”

  Winters was about to continue when Basset called in.

  “Basset here, over.”

  Winters was relieved. “What’s your ETA?”

  “A few minutes out. Scar, where exactly are you?”

  “I’m right before the strip mall. I’ve got shooters on both sides, about a hundred cops behind me.”

  “Ten-four, Scar. Get your guys ready for an EXFIL to the north, pack light.”

  “We’ll be ready.”

  “Captain, is Burns there?”

  Winters handed him the radio.

  “Right here.”

  “You up for bringing a knife to a gun-fight?”

  Burns cracked a smile. “You mean tomahawks.”

  “Mine’s nice and sharp.”

  “I’m game.”

  “I’ll be coming down 127, so look for me.”

  Winters gave Burns a curious look.

  “He wants to go hunting.”

  Winters felt better about their situation and was glad Bassett was almost there. He was more experienced in this type of combat and his youth gave him an edge. Winters’ next thought was about Meeks’ group. He hadn’t heard anything from them in quite a while and decided to contact them.

  “Meeks, come in.”

  No one answered.

  “Meeks, come in.”

  He waited a few more moments before trying again.

  “Nate, come in.”

  With no response, Winters worried that they might be in trouble. He just hoped the cops hadn’t captured them. If that was the case, he prayed to God the enemy wouldn’t kill them right away.

  Chapter 53

  Meeks had heard the radio chatter from Winters, Burns and Scar and he was torn as to what to do. His best friend was in trouble and he wanted to help him, but he had fourteen girls ranging in ages from eleven to eighteen to extract. Their relatives, who included mothers, grandparents and a couple of smaller children, were dead and stacked like unwanted garbage in another room. It was as bad as he’d seen in the sandpit. These girls were frightened and some were in shock, so he wanted to get out of there as fast as possible. He wanted to load them into the vehicles sitting in the parking lot. However, he didn’t know if there were any Jijis to the south lying in wait. They were behind enemy lines and he had never experienced a situation like this. He had to make a choice but he didn’t have enough info to make an intelligent call. He wondered if Winters was here what would he be doing right now? Then it hit him. He needed to recon the area. He turned to see his friends staring at him waiting for an order.

  “We only got two choices. We either sneak out the back into the woods or drive south on 127. We need to do a recon before we decide. Nate, you and Amber protect the girls, while Reese and I go check it out.”

  “Leave me the radio,” said Nate.

  Meeks nodded.

  “I’ll give you fifteen minutes, after that, we’re in the woods,” said Nate.

  With that, Meeks and Reese hustled out the back door. They kept low, darting between the vehicles, and raced across the parking lot to a small white house located behind the building. Meeks heard the barrage Winters was laying down to help Burns’ group escape. They peeked around the corner and saw about a hundred Jijis across the street in another parking lot, some were standing in the road. They were all staring at the intersection, curious at the battle they were waiting to reinforce if need be
.

  Meeks knew they wouldn’t be able to take any vehicles and tapped Reese on the shoulder to signal they should move across the parking lot to the east and check the woods.

  They moved out with Reese in the lead as they sprinted a hundred yards to another large metal building that butted up to a field. Reaching the safety of the building and breathing hard, Meeks smirked to himself that he wasn’t as fast as he was when he played football for Iowa. Reese was catching her breath when Meeks realized he might have a plan of escape. It was hard to tell in the darkness, but he thought there was a trail going across the field into the woods.

  “Is that a trail?” he asked her.

  “There’s definitely an opening,” said Reese.

  “Let’s take a look.”

  For the next few minutes, they were able to easily maneuver through the sparsely wooded area. Satisfied they could drive vehicles through the woods, they were heading back when they heard an explosion. They stopped and looked at each other in surprise.

  “Let’s hurry,” said Meeks.

  As they came out of the woods and around the metal building, Reese stopped short and backed up into Meeks.

  “Cops,” she told him.

  Meeks cautiously looked around the corner and saw men in the parking lot in front of the building where Nate and Amber stood guard of the girls. He couldn’t tell if they had entered the building.

  “Stay here,” whispered Meeks.

  “Where are you going?”

  “I’ve got to see if they’re still in there.”

  “But…”

  “Just stay right here.”

  Meeks crouched down and scurried across the parking lot darting through the parked vehicles. He came around a pickup truck and surprised a cop standing there.

  “Who are you?” asked the cop.

  Meeks quickly blurted out. “I’m with Mordulfah.”

  “You are? Wait a minute.”

  Meeks moved in closer and pulled out his knife. He swung it at the cop who pulled back at the last minute. The blade cut across his arm and the cop yelled out. Meeks jumped on top of him and sank the blade into the cop’s gut.

  The cop’s scream was loud and garnered the attention of the others. Meeks jumped up and ran back to Reese. On the way, he heard another cop yell out, “they’re still here.” Meeks now knew Nate and the others were gone.

  A shot rang out just as Meeks turned the corner. He grabbed Reese’s arm and broke into a sprint back into the woods.

  Chapter 54

  Bassett’s quick arrival had interrupted Winters’ thoughts on the whereabouts of Nate and Meeks. He filled him in on where they had taken enemy fire and where he had men positioned. He then asked Bassett for his input.

  “Because we’re outnumbered, it’s best we sneak in and eliminate only what we need to and slip Scar out. I left the men with Badger a couple of miles east on 12, but told him to stay out of sight unless we needed him.”

  Winters pulled out his map and pointed to where he figured Scar was located.

  Bassett nodded. “We can come in around here. What we need is a big distraction. We can use an RPG and fire it into the intersection. A nice explosion should do the trick.”

  Winters had all but forgotten the RPG’s Taylor had gotten from the Canadians. They hadn’t been on his wish list and he hadn’t really taken note of it. Bassett had the right idea about the diversion. An explosion would indeed divert everyone’s attention and scare the hell out of them as well.

  Winters left Elliott in charge of their position and grabbed a squad of men to join Bassett and Burns. They grabbed the night-vision optics, which would give them a huge advantage over their enemy. The Canadians had given the Shadow Patriots quite a bit of night training. It took considerable practice to make sense of the green world created by the optics.

  Bassett led them across the field to the far end of the tree line where they stopped and were in a good position to observe their enemy. There was close to thirty men. The enemy clumped together in the middle with only a few of them on the eastern end where Bassett wanted to do the extraction.

  Not sure of Scar’s exact position, Bassett radioed him.

  “Scar,” whispered Bassett.

  “Here.”

  “We’re in position. Need some fire to pinpoint your location. Keep it high.”

  Seconds later, Scar fired a three shot spurt. The enemy returned fire.

  Bassett pressed the mic button. “I see you. We’ll come in just east of you. Move when you hear the boom-boom.”

  They edged into the tree line and took advantage of the crackle of gunfire to move rapidly through the woods. They were no more than twenty yards away from the cops. Bassett handed his rifle to Winters and pulled out his eight-inch knife and his carbon steel tomahawk.

  “Captain, I’ll clear them out. Have Elliott fire off that RPG when I take out the last one.”

  Before Winters knew it, Bassett had left to begin his bloody task.

  Burns turned to Winters. “Watch a master at work, Captain.”

  Winters radioed Elliott to get ready with the RPG. He then watched in amazement as Bassett moved toward the far left cop. He moved so fast it seemed that the targets were frozen in time. He leaped toward the first cop swinging the tomahawk across the side of his face. He rushed to his next target coming down hard with an axe swing to the back of the neck. The cop screamed and fell back as his partner next to him tried to fire his rifle. However, Bassett twisted his body and shoved his knife into his gut. Without stopping, he vaulted at the last two cops with the same deadly results. In a matter of seconds, he cleared the way for Scar to move his men out.

  Winters got on the radio. “Elliott, now.”

  A few seconds later, an explosion sent an orange fireball straight up into the air and Scar ordered his men into the woods. They picked up their wounded along with what they could carry and took off.

  Chapter 55

  Nate hustled the girls out the back door when he saw the cops coming toward the building. He took advantage of the exploding RPG when it diverted their attention from the building. He was glad he had Amber prepare the girls to leave when Meeks and Reese had taken off. He didn’t know where Meeks was headed and hoped to run into him in the woods. They had only been gone for ten minutes and figured they couldn’t be too far.

  Nate led the girls east behind the strip mall and they slipped into the woods. It was pitch black out, which protected them but also, caused problems navigating through the tree branches. He was happy to see his charges were sufficiently motivated as they held hands and quietly crept through the woods. It didn’t take too long to reach a field where the going got easier. He could hear gunfire to his left that came from the Jijis who had Scar boxed in. Another few hundred yards and they’d be out of immediate danger.

  They came to a dirt road where Nate felt comfortable giving them a break. He had them sit down while he would sneak up to US 12 to see where they were. He walked down the dirt road to US 12 and looked up at the street sign, Briggs Highway. He shook his head. “They call a dirt road a highway,” thought Nate.

  He grabbed the radio and turned the volume up. “Nate here, over.”

  He waited a moment. “Nate here, anyone, over.”

  Winters responded. “Nate, you guys alright?”

  Nate gave him a brief update and his location.

  Winters called out for Taylor to facilitate a pick up.

  Taylor responded. “You’re about a mile from me. Can you hoof it a little more?”

  “Be about thirty minutes, girls are pretty worn out.”

  “We’re in an old cement plant. Big and wide open.”

  Nate hustled back to Amber.

  “Got good news, Taylor is about a mile up the road.”

  Amber let out a big sigh. “Thank god. Anything on Meeks and Reese?”

  “No. Nothing.”

  “Should we go back?” she asked.

  Nate thought about it. “Let’s get these girls
to safety first and see what happens.”

  Nate was stalling her. He knew his first priority was to get these girls out of harm’s way. After which, he’d see about taking one of the guys to go after Meeks. He’d come to enjoy having Amber around and she had proven herself, but he preferred to have her safe as well. He was old school and couldn’t help himself. Plus, these girls would need a women’s touch, at least till they got them back into Jackson.

  Chapter 56

  Meeks’ bravado finally got him into trouble and he didn’t have Scar to bail him out, as was usually the case. Instead, Scar was about three hundred yards away in his own trouble while Meeks had inadvertently put himself and Reese in danger. They ran back through the woods with the cops hot on their tail. He felt like an idiot, but he brushed that aside from trying to figure out his next move. He didn’t know how many he had chasing him and he wasn’t sure if he should stop and eliminate a few of his pursuers or just try to lose them in the dark. It was a cloudy night and the moon was just days from being full. Ambient light penetrated the scattered clouds casting shadows off the trees. His only advantage was that he knew where he was going. At least he did until they got past the point he and Reese had previously scouted. Reese kept up, even passing him. His pride as a former running back was at risk and he dug deep to push himself forward.

  More shots rang out.

  Meeks heard a round whiz by him.

  They broke through the woods into an open field where he could see the dark outline of a house up ahead. Not wanting to be seen racing across the field, he turned back toward the safety of the woods.

  “It’d be easier to run across the field,” said Reese panting.

  “Yeah, but there’s just enough moonlight for them to see us.”

  “Then we can see them, too.”

  “Good point. Let’s move over a bit and see who's coming.”

  They didn’t have to wait long before Meeks could make out five silhouettes moving into the field. The cops separated once they were out in the open. Each cop held a rifle and slowly inched across the field.