Sarge said, “How good are you with that peasant rifle?”
Jeff didn’t blink. “This isn’t your average peasant rifle.”
“I bet it ain’t. You’re with us,” Sarge said as he turned away. “Reggie, we need some rags, you got any?”
Reggie nodded and headed for the house. Sarge went to the door on the barn and opened it. “Thad, Morgan, come in here and help me take these guys down.”
We loaded the militia men into the Hyena. Ted was finished with Jeff’s instructions and Sarge called for everyone to load up. Reggie got into the rear third seat of the buggy Mike and Ted were talking while Thad and I got on our ATVs. Danny climbed in behind the wheel of the Hyena and Sarge gave a couple of last minute orders to Mike and Ted. They were to take up a position south of where we were going to drop the four men and wait for us. Mike nodded his head and drove away in the fading light of evening.
We took a trail out the back of the neighborhood with me in the lead, Mike followed along for a while until he got to the point where he would break off and head for their target. Since I was out front I didn’t see them break off the trail, but the two clicks in the headset Sarge had given me followed by a one-click reply from Sarge told me they were leaving us. We still had a ways to go to get to the spot we had decided on.
Mike stopped in the thick edge of a swamp. The three of them took a few minutes to cover the buggy with a camo net before taking a knee and going over the plan one last time. Ted scratched out a rough layout of the little clump of trailers, detailing how he and Mike would enter, go through them one at a time and then exit the area. He stuck a stick in the soft dirt to show where Reggie was to position himself and gave him instructions on who to engage and how to engage them. Women were off the list unless they were armed and posed an immediate threat. Any women he and Mike encountered would not be harmed unless they had to, and they hoped not to find any.
When the instructions were done, Mike handed Reggie a night-vision monocular and helped him get it on and showed him how to use it. Then Mike handed him one of the captured MP5’s. He said, “I put an IR laser on this, here’s the switch.” Mike turned the weapon on its side to show him. “It’ll show up nice and bright in the goggle but no one else will be able to see it. You’ve got your radio. If you see anyone coming, let us know. If you see anyone running, take them out, got it?”
Reggie nodded and Ted said, “When we’re in position we’ll let you know. You reply with one key of the mic, then we’ll move in. You ready for this?” Reggie nodded his head and turned to move off into the darkness. Mike and Ted were immediately on the move, heading the opposite direction from Reggie’s line of travel.
Reggie moved carefully through the woods, like he would if he was deer hunting. He felt like he was moving too slow, but he knew that going quickly and being quiet didn’t go together, and he forced himself to take his time. He could hear voices coming from the clump of trailers, and he knew if he made any noise they might hear him too. It was still early, but without electric lights, most people went to bed early and so got up early. He made it to his assigned position and once there he understood why the guys had chosen it, it was the logical escape route from the trailers, almost a funnel out of the place.
Mike and Ted slipped silently around the edge of the group of trailers. Occasionally they caught glimpses of a fire burning out in the center of the park, but they couldn’t tell if anyone was out there. The occasional voice drifted through the trees, but overall it was quiet. They made it to the corner of the first trailer where they would start the clearing operation and took up a prone position behind a long-dead pine tree. Ted keyed his mic. “In position, gonna wait a bit.” A single click answered him.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
As we approached Highway 445 on the trail, I slowed to see if there was anyone around. Stopping a good fifty yards of the road, I called back to Sarge to tell him we were at the road and I was taking a look. He told me to be careful, and I eased up to the edge of the forest to take a look. I knelt down and listened to the black night, looking both ways, then listened again. Not hearing anything, I called back and told them it was clear and to come up, then climbed back up on the Polaris to wait for them.
It didn’t take long for them to show up. Sarge waved me forward and I quickly crossed the road, pushing the Polaris wide open so as not to expose myself for long. The Hyena and Thad both crossed without incident and we were soon heading down an old power line right-of-way.
Ted looked at his watch then up at the sky, it was black as pitch. He tapped Mike on the shoulder and pointed towards the house. Mike nodded and the two men stood up. Ted keyed the mic and sent, “Moving.” A single click answered him.
Ted stepped up to the first trailer and gripped the knob. Mike nodded at him and he slowly turned it. It wasn’t locked and they went in. Ted went left and Mike went right.
Ted moved down a small hall. The first door he came to was a bathroom and he quickly pushed the door shut as the smell coming out of it assaulted his nose. The second door was a bedroom. There was a small bed there with a body lying under some blankets. From the size of the figure and rest of the room’s contents, he concluded it was a child, a little girl. He quietly shut the door and moved to the last room. Ted looked in and saw a form on the bed, a woman. He shut the door and went back to the front door.
They moved on to the next trailer, and this one had lights on inside. Mike gripped the knob, looked back at Ted, got the nod and opened the door with a jerk. The door entered into the living room and the kitchen was visible off to the right. Sitting in a recliner was an older man, hunched over a TV tray eating something. When the door opened he looked up, but never made a sound; a 230 grain .45 cal ball from Ted’s pistol crashed into his forehead, snapping his head back and splattering gore all over the wall. The suppressor on the pistol made a dull coughing noise and no more. The only other person they found was an old woman still asleep in the back bedroom. They left her as they found her.
After crossing the road we made our way through the thick sand under the power lines. We had to pull off the right-of-way when it turned to the west, crossing over the highway, and the many forest trails became our new route. I had been on many of them during hunting season or just riding around the woods and knew which ones to take to keep heading in our intended direction of travel. We wound our way along for some time, then Sarge called for a halt. I stopped and he pulled up to me. He had a map out lying in his lap. Thad rolled up behind him and walked up to us.
“I don’t want to get any closer. We’re close enough. They’ll find ‘em here.” Sarge paused and said to Thad, “You an’ Morgan ease out to the road and see if anyone’s out there. Take a minute and look an’ listen. We ain’t in a hurry.”
We moved off towards the road, making our way through the small sand pines and thick sand. It reminded me of my walk through the forest north of there to get home. The same green gloom filled my goggles as it had then.
We stayed just inside the tree line looking and listening for several minutes, not seeing or hearing anything. Finally, Thad made a noise and I looked over in his direction. He jutted a thumb over his shoulder and I stood, half crouched and backed away from the road.
Danny, Jeff and Sarge had the four men out standing in a line.
“See anything?” Sarge asked.
“Nope, looks clear,” I said.
“Let’s get this done then,” Sarge said, then reached into the passenger floorboard of his buggy and took something large and flat and tucked it under his arm. “Alright, ladies, hands on the shoulders of the man in front of you. Give me any shit an’ you’ll regret it.” To emphasize his point, he drew his taser, pulled the cartridge off the end and hit the trigger. The loud snapping and popping made the men jump and they immediately raised their arms, groping at the air, looking like zombies in a bad B movie. When th
ey were all lined up we started out into the brush again.
When the four men felt the road under their feet they were visibly relieved. Sarge turned and looked at us kind of expectantly. I just looked back at him. Not getting the reaction he was expecting, he held his arm out and waved it at the four men.
“Well? I can’t do it. Has to be one of you,” Sarge said.
I wanted to ask why. I don’t know if it was genuine curiosity or a subconscious stalling tactic on my part, but I didn’t get the chance. A loud pop and a flash of light caught me by surprise from my right. I ducked and looked just in time to see Goat fall back onto the pavement. Jeff was standing in front of the falling man, his suppressed Glock in his right hand. The other three men jumped at the shot and Jeff shot Marv next. Avery and Ned started to run blindly down the road into the night. Avery tripped and fell and it took two shots for Ned to go down. Jeff walked towards the fat man as he rolled around trying to get up. Jeff shot him in the top of his head and he fell over. Continuing past him to where Ned lay, he fired a round into his head as well.
Jeff calmly changed the mag in his pistol before re-holstering it in the shoulder rig under his coat. Seeing everyone looking at him he said, “What?” He nodded at me, and I knew my speech earlier had hit home.
Sarge said, “You’re a weird little fucker, aren’t ya?”
“Yeah, but in a good way,” Jeff said.
Sarge smiled and shook his head. “Alright, drag ‘em all to one spot.”
We worked together to drag the bodies together. Sarge wanted them all in a sitting position, leaning on one another with their legs out like an X. Once they were all positioned, Sarge took what was tucked under his arm out. It was a big piece of cardboard. He unfolded it and painted in large letters it read Looters and murders working for the DHS. We didn’t linger once the job was done; no high-fives or shit talking. It was a quiet and somber walk back to our rides.
“Where are all these guys? There were more here earlier,” Ted whispered to Mike as he shut the door to the trailer.
“I don’t know. Where’s that fire we saw on the way in?”
Ted shrugged, then pointed around the corner. Mike nodded and they started around the small trailer. As soon as they rounded the corner, they found the rest of them. They were sitting around the fire pit. One of them was standing and looking in their direction.
Mike raised his pistol and fired at the standing man. Two rounds and he was down. The other three scrambled for their weapons. Mike engaged a second as Ted drew down on the two other targets. After a moment of rapid firing, they changed the magazines in their pistols. There was one trailer left and they quickly searched it. There was nothing inside except a mess, the place was filthy.
The two quickly made their way back to the fire and policed up the fallen weapons and exited out the rear of the little complex. As they moved towards the tree line, Mike keyed his radio. “Coming out,” he called to Reggie, who replied with a single click. Reggie fell in behind them and the three made their way back towards the trail Sarge and the others would be coming back on. Picking out a spot on the side of the trail, they took up positions and waited.
We rode out of the woods and onto the road, and hauled ass down the pavement to the intersection with 445 and made the left onto it for the short distance to the trail. Once we were back on the trail, I heard Sarge call Ted on the radio telling him we were close. They were ready. Through the goggles I saw the UV laser Ted flashed to show their position and soon we were stopped while they loaded up. The rest of the trip was uneventful and we were soon home.
We went back to Reggie’s house for quick chat. Sarge and the guys were going to stay there that night, but the next day he wanted me to show him the place I had mentioned. He told all of us that we needed to start thinking about bugging out. He said the neighborhood wasn’t defensible, and things were going to get rough soon. Danny wasn’t happy with the thought of leaving his house and neither was I, but he had a point.
I went home and found the house quiet. Mel was sitting on the couch staring at the fire that crackled in the fireplace. When I went to sit down with her, she moved her pistol off the cushion.
“You hungry?” she asked.
I shook my head. “No, thanks though. I’m tired.”
“What’s wrong?”
I looked at her with a half smile. “What isn’t?”
Her reply was to lean over and kiss me, and then she stood up and grabbed my hand. “Come on, let’s go to bed. It’ll be alright in the morning.”
We went to our room and I started pulling off all the gear, vest, holster, the carbine, and deposited it beside the bed and then just fell into it. I really wanted a shower but didn’t feel like taking a cold ass shower at the moment.
I woke up and bolted upright in the bed, my heart pounding in my ears. If I had been dreaming I didn’t remember it, but I was damn sure rattled by something. I sat there in the dark listening for a minute. Everything seemed fine, but I swung my legs out of the bed and pulled my pants on. After picking up the carbine I slipped my feet into some crocs and went out to the living room. Everything was quiet and I went and checked on the girls. After making sure they were okay, I went out the front door and stood on the porch looking at the blackness and listening to the stillness. There wasn’t anything out there, but I still felt weird.
I went back in the house and grabbed my coat then came back out and walked out to the gate. It was quiet and I didn’t see anything. About halfway to the gate the dogs came trotting up, yawning and looking sleepy. I figured if they were sleeping and nothing was bothering them I should go back to bed. As I walked back to the house with the dogs in tow, a string of far-off shots broke the silence, five or six full auto rounds ripping into the night. In the old days it was nothing to hear a few rounds popped off, didn’t even warrant a second thought, but things were different now, and I wasn’t going to go wandering around in the dark looking into it. I went inside, locked the door, checked on the girls and went back to bed.
I slept through the night without any more disturbances and woke up feeling good. Knowing I was going to meet with the guys that morning, I decided to make some breakfast for everyone. I set a bunch of eggs out and lit the old Butterfly then headed out to the shop for a can of the Red Feather cheese. I grabbed one of the last two canned hams I had and headed for the house.
The stove was ready and I set the twelve-inch cast iron skillet out, then poured in a little oil. After cracking the eggs, chopping the ham and shredding the cheese, I poured the eggs into the skillet and stirred them around until they firmed up then added the cheese and ham. I took the pan from the heat and set it aside and replaced it with our small flat skillet. Since things had gone south, Mel had been keeping fresh tortillas in the fridge. She made them every couple of days as needed. Taking the stack from the fridge, I heated them one at a time on the skillet and then filled and rolled them.
When I was done I had about a dozen burritos. I thought about making coffee, but knew Sarge would certainly have some ready when I got there. I felt kind of bad about not leaving any of the burritos for Mel and the girls, but there was plenty for them to eat, even if was only oatmeal. I put the burritos in a plastic grocery bag and went to tell Mel good bye.
She was still in bed and she let out a little sound, half groan half sigh, when I put my arm over her and I pushed my face into her back and held her for a minute.
“What are you doing today?” she asked without rolling over.
“We’re going to go look at the cabins on the Alexander Run. We might have to move there.”
She rolled over now, far more awake. “Move there? Why would we need to move there?”
“Things are going to get a little more dangerous around here. We did something last night that’s going to stir up some shit.”
“I don’t w
ant to leave here. As bad as things are, at least we still have our home. How do you think the girls would take it?”
I rolled away from her, putting my feet on the floor. “We may not have a choice. As bad as things are, they might get a lot worse.”
Mel sat up on her left elbow looking at me. “Well, I don’t want to leave unless we have to. And I mean really have to.”
“I got it. I’ll see you later. What are you and the girls going to do today?”
“We’re going to rake pine needles from the driveway and use them to replace the hay on the floor of the porch. The chickens have made a mess of it and it needs done,” Mel said as she sat up.
“Good idea. I’ll be back as soon as I can. Love you.”
“Love you too.”
After strapping on all my hardware and grabbing my sack of burritos, I headed out for the Polaris. As soon as I came out, the dogs were on me, or at least they were on the bag of breakfast. They followed me to the ATV and sniffed around as I climbed on. They followed me to the gate and I had to lock them in to keep them from following me to Reggie’s.
I found all the guys sitting on and around the picnic table behind Reggie’s house. Sarge and a couple of others had coffee, though I don’t know how much longer that was going to last. My stock was down to two bags. The burritos really got them excited.
“Hot damn, breakfast, we were just talking about shootin’ one of the hogs and dressing it out just to have something to eat,” Sarge said, then stuffed the end of a burrito in his mouth.
We had our breakfast and then it was time to get down to business. Sarge wanted to take his two buggies to go recon the cabins. Since there were eight of us, he wanted four of us to go and four to stay. If he had had his way, the four who stayed would start packing up and getting ready to move, but Danny and I held our ground about not wanting to bail out of our houses so quick. Sarge let it die for the moment and then went about making assignments. Mike, Ted, he and I were to go on the recon. The rest of the guys were going to hang out and keep an eye on things.
Surviving Home Page 42