by Jack Hunt
“So when are we doing this?” Luke asked.
“We aren’t until we know how many there are and what we are going into.”
“So you are just going to wait here?” he replied.
“We’re watching not waiting.”
Luke snorted. “Twist your words, it doesn’t matter. All of you are pussies. I’m going down there.”
I grabbed a handful of his jacket. “No, you are staying here,” I said without even looking at him. I adjusted the focus on the binoculars.
He yanked his arm away. “You are not in charge, Frost.”
That’s when I glanced at him. Both of us were laying flat on the concrete. My elbows were in pain from sitting in one position for the last half an hour.
“Use some common sense, Luke. You are like a bull in a china shop. You go rushing in there, you are going to end up dead.”
“And you would know… because?”
I got up from the rough ground. I was growing tired of listening to his shit. Billy was in the process of lighting a regular fire. He already had the flame lit and was pushing small amounts of twigs into it to get it bigger. I stamped on it and put it out.
“What the hell are you doing? You want to get us killed?”
“It’s freezing out here.”
The temperature had dropped considerably now that the sun was below the horizon.
“You will give away our position.”
“I wasn’t going to build it high.”
“They would see the smoke, dickhead,” Corey said while he leaned against a tree keeping an eye on the forest behind us. He swept his AR back and forth, stopping occasionally and squinting in the darkness. Kiera and Ally were the only ones that hadn’t said much over the past hour. With their backs against a tree they gazed out looking lost.
It would have been easy for all of us to do the same. Life wasn’t getting any better. Everything that was comfortable about our daily living was gone. At one point we thought being crammed inside that bunker was torture but it was bliss compared to our situation now.
I was in the middle of talking to Ally when Corey asked where Luke was.
I turned. “Luke?”
“Uh, guys you might want to take a look.”
Billy handed me the binoculars. Staring towards the town my gaze shifted across and then I saw him. He had gone ahead and was already down
“Stupid idiot.”
Billy scrambled to his feet. “I’ll go after him.”
“No. If he wants to get himself killed, let him.” I placed the binoculars back to my eyes and watched him make his way through the trees down to a makeshift wall they had erected.
“Knowing him, he’ll get them out.”
“I doubt it,” Billy replied. “He’s a lunatic.”
He could say that again. I couldn’t believe he had done that. Actually I could, I just didn’t think he would be that stupid. He must have thought he was a one-man army. I thought back to how he had taken that truck and driven it at the skinheads back in Mount Pleasant. Everything about it was absurd, but that was him. It was as if he was trying to prove something to everyone.
“What’s he doing?”
“He’s reached the fence and… he’s…” I squinted and watched in shock. He threw down his weapon a short distance away and began banging on the outside with his fist. The faint sound of metal echoed through the valley. “What the hell?”
Two armed guards came around the side and I saw them shouting at him to get on the ground. He complied and dropped to the floor. He stared back up the steep hill in our direction and I swear I caught him grinning. The soldiers took a firm grip on his arms and hauled him up before escorting him inside their compound.
I lowered the binoculars. “He just got himself taken in.”
We stared at each other baffled by why he would have done that.
“Doesn’t make any sense.”
“Oh it does,” Ally added. She looked unalarmed by it and continued to stare off into the forest.
“Care to elaborate?”
She cast a glance over her shoulder. “He’s either creating a distraction or…” Before she finished she squinted into the forest. “Guys, I’m pretty sure I just saw someone.”
“It’s your imagination,” Billy said.
I was ignoring what they were saying. “I’m going down.”
“Are you out of your mind?” Ally said. “Only a moment ago you were saying that we were going to stay here and observe them from distance.”
“That was until Luke decided to hand himself over.”
“He made his choice.”
I scowled. “You sound just like your father.”
With that I got up and starting edging my way down the steep incline. A few loose rocks broke away and I lost my balance. My boot slid and I toppled over several times before colliding with a tree. I groaned and gasped for air. Billy rushed down. I could hear him chuckling to himself.
“Glad you find it amusing.”
“With Luke handing himself in, Ally seeing things and you trying to kill yourself, I’m starting to actually feel like the only normal one among us.”
I rolled my eyes and took his hand. A second later I was up on my feet and brushing myself off.
After we eased our way down the side of the incline and began making our way towards the area where Luke had gone, I gripped my AR-15 tightly and scanned the top of the wall they had erected. It was about ten feet high and ran along the side of the town. It wasn’t complete and by the looks of it, they were using anything they could get their hands on. It was mainly made out of corrugated galvanized steel paneling and chain link fencing.
“Why do you think they are only building it on the north and south side? Seems a bit odd, don’t you think?” Billy said as he tried to keep up with me.
“Keith said they had the east and west blocked off by checkpoints. Probably allows them to not have to keep an eye on too many places.”
“It’s going to take them ages to build it. Could you imagine blocking off Mount Pleasant?”
“No need, the mountains and forest do it. They just had to prevent vehicles getting in and out.”
As we shuffled along the side of it, Billy ran his hand along the fencing.
“They’ve been busy.”
“You can get a lot done if you have enough men.”
Suddenly, several floodlights came on, and a siren blared loudly. They must have had a generator running it all. It was deafening. It was like an air-raid siren that was heard in World War Two, or those that could be heard when a town was alerting people to a tornado coming their way.
I grabbed a hold of Billy and threw him to the ground. Right then a figure in the darkness came rushing towards us. It was hard to tell who it was as the floodlights were aimed inside the town, not in the area we were in. They were moving at one hell of a pace. What came next was the sound of gunfire. A lot of it. I was about to get up but pieces of bark from the tree flew off as bullets hit it.
“Let’s go.”
As soon as I heard his voice I knew it was Luke. He soared over the top of a large boulder, scooped the weapon he’d dropped off the ground and turned back to fire rounds. Billy jumped up and both of us double-timed it up the incline.
“What did you do?” I shouted to Luke.
“Ah you know. Raised a little hell, found out if Murphy was in there.”
“And?”
He replied without looking. “Yep.”
Getting down the steep hill was hard, going in the opposite direction was even worse. The thick brush and boulders sought to keep us from climbing fast. We weren’t going to make it. I took cover behind a tree and returned fire. There had to have been at least eight men in pursuit. They fanned out. Billy was clambering up the side of the hill. He would make it about two feet and then come crashing back down. Luke wasn’t having any better luck. I saw him launch off a rock in an attempt to escape only to get hit by a round in the leg. He was now on the ground thrashin
g around. I fired a round to my right then left hoping to keep the men from circling around us. I cast a glance up the hill wondering where the hell Corey and the others were.
In my pocket I had a flashbang from the storage unit that Dan had left. I’d never used one before. I glanced at it while trying to maintain a steady grip on my gun. Billy had taken cover behind a boulder.
There was no communication between the soldiers and us. I could hear them yelling orders to one another. I was furious with Luke. Any attempt to get in undetected had been ruined. And now it looked as if we were about to get our asses handed to us on a plate. To top it off, Luke wasn’t of any help now that he had taken cover behind a thick tree and was gripping his leg with both hands.
“Luke. Pick your gun up.”
“Fuck you.”
I made a mental note that if we managed to get out of this, I was going to beat the living shit out of him. His reckless nature hadn’t just placed his own life in danger but all of ours. Another flurry of bullets peppered the ground and tree. At this point I didn’t even dare look around for fear that I would end up with a bullet in my skull. I yanked the pin and tossed the flashbang. After a bang and a flash of light, I twisted my arm around the tree and just fired randomly in one direction and then in another. One hand held the AR and the other the Glock. Running out of ammo was the last thing on my mind. If any of them managed to circle us we were dead.
I glanced over at Billy. He was doing remarkably well. For someone who had allowed his fear to overwhelm him back in our town, he hadn’t given up yet. I think deep down he knew that this was it. If he didn’t return fire, we wouldn’t see tomorrow.
I pushed away from the tree and scrambled up the side of the hill just trying to get to the next boulder. Over the next five minutes that’s all we did. Shuffle, hide, fire and hope to god that a bullet didn’t hit us. I was certain that had the forest not been as dense, or had it not been as dark, we would have died.
Another sharp series of cracks rang out and that’s when I heard the men shouting and hollering.
“There’s only three.”
Shit. The fear was palpable. I really believed I was going to die. I looked at Luke who was trying to claw his way up. Billy fired again and one of the soldiers collapsed. I knew if I didn’t get over to Luke fast he wasn’t going to make it. They were gaining on us and they had the advantage — military experience. At least that’s what I assumed if we were to go by the army fatigues. It was possible they weren’t.
There was no easy way to get across. There were three boulders positioned five feet apart. I was going to have to make a dash for it. I could feel my heart slamming against my chest as I mentally prepared myself to enter the kill zone. There would be nothing but darkness shrouding me and by now I was pretty sure their eyes had adjusted to the night. I pushed off with my right foot and exploded out firing round after round. When a bullet grazed my left arm, I didn’t even feel it. I was so amped up with adrenaline and focused on getting over to Luke, I just kept going. It was only when I reached him that I felt the sharp burning sensation in my arm. Instinctively I grasped my arm and my fingers became covered in sticky blood.
“Come on. Put your arm around me.”
“Oh no you don’t.”
I stared back at him dumbfounded.
“You want to die here.”
“No. But I’m not having you gloating that you saved my life.”
“Oh shut the hell up.”
Billy was yelling something but all I could think about was getting us up that hill. I didn’t care in that moment. I grabbed a hold of Luke. He thrashed around trying to push me off, so I brought up my rifle to knock him out when a series of cracks behind us echoed throughout the valley. I dropped on top of Luke, practically crushing him. I thought the soldiers had managed to circle around the back. It was only when I looked up that I saw the silhouette of a group coming down the hill. They weren’t soldiers. They were firing round after round in rapid succession. There had to have been at least twenty of them. We remained still not wanting to get caught in the crossfire.
“Get off, you idiot,” Luke was saying. I stayed on top. Knowing him, he would have stood up and got his noggin blown off. From around the corner of the boulder I saw the soldiers retreating. Billy scrambled up and gazed at the figures fanning out in a line across the hillside. Slowly but surely several approached and I saw Corey among them.
“Corey?”
“Sam.”
He scrambled, dirt giving way below his boots, and then pulled me up.
“Hey, give me a hand,” Luke said.
“Ah, get up yourself,” Corey said.
“I’ve been shot in the leg.”
“Serves you right,” Billy added giving him a kick in the other.
“Who are these people, Corey?”
Corey twisted towards two others, the rest of them were moving down the hillside driving the soldiers back.
“Sam. This is Hank.”
“Pleased to meet you,” He reached out a hand and I shook it. He nearly crushed mine with his strong grip. From what I could make out in the darkness, Hank looked as though he had been bred in the mountains. He had long hair, a beard and a cigar hanging out of his mouth.
“Who are you?”
“Answers later. Right now let’s get the hell out of here.”
“I won’t argue with that.”
Two of his men hoisted Luke up and carried him. Once we reached the outcrop of rock where we had been spying on the town we saw more of them. Another ten were monitoring the others.
“Gus, Rico, tell the others to pull back.”
As we slowly made our way back into the forest, I badgered them for answers about who they were but he remained vague. He kept telling us that he would explain everything once we were out of the hot zone.
Under the light of the moon, I noticed that they were all dressed in regular clothing except for him. That’s when I saw a partially torn badge on Hank’s arm. Some of them had hoods up and I couldn’t see their faces. They took us deep into the forest. We must have been walking for at least an hour before I saw a few small fires in the distance. They had set up a campground. There was no protection around it. Except for men and women in various places looking out with guns.
A couple of kids jumped down from the trees above, laughed and rushed back towards the camp. Hank said something to them and they burst into laughter.
“Mind your step.”
He put his hand on me and I stopped. A piece of wire was tied around a tree and it passed in front of us, just off the ground.
“What is that?”
“One of the many ways for us to make sure that they don’t get near us before we can act.”
As we got closer, I saw two figures in a hole. A piece of what looked like a door was held above them with a thick log supporting it. Dark eyes looked out. A guy was smoking a cigarette. Both of them were armed with AK45s.
Luke groaned as the two men carried him. He glanced over a few times and gave me his usual scowl. He and I were going to have words once they had pulled that bullet out. I felt a wave of nausea and tiredness.
“You okay?”
“Yeah, just…” I touched my arm and Hank took a look.
“It’s just a graze. Don’t worry; we’ll take care of that. You’re safe here.”
“Why are you helping us?”
“Because your girlfriend asked nicely,” he then chuckled.
“Girlfriend?”
He motioned with his head towards Ally. That was the first time anyone had referred to her that way.
“She’s not my girlfriend.”
“No? She seemed pretty worried about you when we showed up.”
My brow knit together as I remembered back to her saying something about seeing someone. “You were in the forest?”
“We saw you long before you arrived. All that firing you did earlier today. Gunfire carries on the wind. You need to be more careful.”
“W
ho are you?” I asked him.
“No one special. Just someone trying to survive.”
As we arrived in the camp there wasn’t much to the place. There were no tents like the kind that someone might have bought from a local camping store. Instead they had set up branches in A-frames to create a form of protection from the elements. It was a lot like Camp Zero, except instead of a tarp they used tree leaves and debris to cover gaps and prevent rain from getting in.
What the hell was this place?
“How long have you been here?”
“Since they took over the town.”
CHAPTER 14
While there were people of all ages, most looked to be in their thirties or forties, some with children. All of them look weathered. After being reassured multiple times that we’d be safe, I was taken into a large makeshift tent and two women tore my sleeve open and laid me back on a bed of branches. It wasn’t soft but it sure as hell beat the cold earth.
Hank left them to tend to my wounds. Across from me was Luke. I figured they had assigned this place to be their medical bay. There were six other beds and a woman and man occupied two, both looked like they had sustained serious injuries to the shoulder region.
“Here, you might want to bite down on this.”
A woman handed me a chunk of leather that looked as if it had been ripped from a saddle.
“Why?”
I saw the needle and didn’t think twice. I took the piece of leather in my mouth. I winced as it penetrated my skin. It stung but it was nothing compared to what Luke was going through. He was writhing around in agony and a guy and two women were trying to keep him still as they began digging in his leg with what looked like needle nose pliers. It wasn’t the right device and it sure as hell didn’t look thin enough to go into the bloodied hole. It would have widened it and caused even more pain. Unfortunately, whatever meds they had weren’t strong enough for the pain. Luke screamed so loud that he passed out.
Once they had sewn up my wound, I was given some water and told to rest but I wanted to get up and speak to Hank.