by Nick Randall
Everything was just happening so fast, Josie thought as she watched for hostiles in the upper level of the home. One moment, she and Ben had been trapped in a building with no chance of escape. The next moment, they had miraculously run into Roy and Jon. The next, they were frantically trying to save Ben on the kitchen table. The next, she had an opportunity to finally relax next to Roy. And yet the next after that, after having only a couple of hours to sleep and relax with Roy, they were already embarking on another scavenging mission into the town filled with hostiles. And now they were surrounded…and preparing to leave everything behind in a matter of moments.
Josie’s brain could hardly keep up. Her life had never moved at this fast of a pace before. Only around a week ago, she was nestled safely and securely with Roy and Alex at their peaceful homestead in the tranquility of the Idaho countryside. And now her previous existence had been forcefully taken away and she was in the middle of a dangerous war zone struggling to keep herself and her family alive.
Would life ever return to normal like it had been before? Was this her new reality, the new normal?
It was only now that Josie asked herself those questions. Their homestead was destroyed, their possessions lost, and all she had left was Roy and Alex, only with nowhere left to go. She had no idea where they would be going when they bugged out imminently, only that they would most certainly never see Jon’s house again just as they would never again see their homestead.
Just then, out of the corner of her eye Josie caught a quick flash that darted across the street to Jon’s wall. She snapped herself out of the train of thought she was in and raised her AK-47, peering through the red dot sight.
To get a better view, she raised herself from a crouching position and rested on foot against the window sill. This position left her more exposed, but it also gave her a much better viewpoint on the road before her.
Her eyes darted between Jon’s wall and the houses across the street for any more signs of movement from the hostile forces. Sure enough, she soon spotted some movement through the front right window in the house directly across from Jon’s. Then, she counted five more masked people with guns darting across the street farther up the road. They weren’t out of rifle range, but she didn’t know if she could make an accurate shot so Josie held her fire. It was obvious what they were doing: a flanking maneuver as preparation for the next assault.
If one thing was clear at this moment to Josie, it was that the enemy forces were done sitting around and watching. They were preparing to launch the next attack, and this one would be merciless.
* * *
“All loaded up,” Roy grunted as he tossed another gear bag and a Ham radio into the back of the Suburban, which was already filled to the brink with supplies.
Jon slammed the last nail home to finish bulletproofing the car as best he could. The doors and front engine of the Suburban were now covered with the layers of wooden boards, aluminum sheets, and ballistic nylon, and he had aluminum slabs shielding the upper half of the tires as well.
He then loaded up a Taurus Judge .410 bore revolver, and shoved it in a holster secured in between the Suburban’s front seat and the center console for easy access by the driver. The Judge was loaded with a total of five rounds of .410 self-defense buckshot loads, each equivalent to three 9mm FMJ rounds going off at once. Not exactly something that any carjacker would want to feel in their face at point blank range.
“Jon,” Roy said as his comrade stowed the Judge away in the front seat. “Thank you. I know you’re giving up everything here — ”
“No time for that kind of talk now,” Jon responded without an ounce of emotion in his voice. “Now come on, we gotta get that kid on a stretcher and into the back of the Suburban.”
* * *
Josie kept her eye trained through the red dot of her AK-47, watching out for any signs whatsoever of more hostiles. Since she had seen the last five dash across the street up ahead, she hadn’t spotted any more movement.
Just then, she caught a quick flash of something that briefly peeked over the top of the front wall. She aimed her red dot over to where the flash had just been and stayed still.
The flash appeared again, and this time, Josie could see that it was a gloved hand trying to get a grip over the wall. She rested her finger over the trigger.
Finally, the hand caught a hold of an edge and held on, followed by another hand that also got a firm grip over the wall.
With both hands holding onto the wall, the head, neck, and upper torso of a male militia member soon followed. This guy didn’t have a mask, but he had a rifle slung over his back and a fully loaded tactical vest strapped on.
Josie didn’t even give any thought or debate to whether she would shoot or not. The combat situations she had been in the past few days had taught her that she couldn’t afford to take any more chances or make any more hesitations.
With her red dot placed directly over the man’s neck, she took a breath, prayed that the AK was sighted in correctly, and pulled the trigger once.
BANG!
The bullet ripped through the side of the man’s neck, ripping entire chunks of flesh away as a thick crimson mist of blood was caught in the wind and carried away. The man’s head fell unnaturally to one side, still held to his shoulders only by a few loose strands of muscle that the bullet hadn’t taken away.
Likely already dead, he lost his grip over the wall and fell back to the ground behind the wall with an audible THUD.
* * *
BANG!
The report of Josie’s shot echoed throughout the entire house and seemed to shake the very foundations of the steel building as Roy, Jon, and Alex loaded a half unconscious Ben onto a stretcher.
“What’s happening?!” Roy called out. “Information, Josie!”
“They’re trying to climb over the walls!” Josie called back.
“Move, move!” Jon insisted as he lifted up his half of Ben’s stretcher. “We’re running out of time!”
Suddenly, more gunshots sounded off from outside the walls of the house, striking the concrete walls and a couple whizzing through the windows!
“Now, now!” Jon was already struggling to carry Ben’s stretcher away while Roy was fumbling around to pick up his end.
At the upper level of the house, Josie was forced to hit the floor again as more bullets struck the concrete walls or whirled through the window where she had just been. She could feel the heat wave of each individual round as it passed over her, as if each were a missile or rocket being blasted off into outer space.
Rather than try and shoot back, she crawled over to the staircase, a few more bullets passing over her head and back, and upon reaching the top she threw herself down and rolled all the way to the bottom with a thud.
“Dammit!” Josie swore when she realized she had left her AK-47 in the room above.
Rather than go back and retrieve it, she instead pulled herself to her feet and dashed for the garage. Roy and Jon were in the process of loading Ben on the stretcher into the back amongst all the supplies.
“The attack is on!” Josie screeched as she assisted them in loading Ben. “They’re trying to scale the walls!”
Once Ben had been loaded into the back, Jon took the driver’s seat of the Suburban and fired up the engine. It roared to life like a pride of lions roaring in unison. Josie held on tightly to Alex in the back seat, and looked behind her at Ben laying amongst all the gear in the space in the back.
“Jo…Jo…” he was trying to say.
Josie leaned in closer.
“Yes?” she asked.
“I…I never told you…” he was trying to say.
“Never told me what?” Josie asked.
“We’re all set!” said Jon in the front seat, revving up the engine even more as he pressed and depressed his foot repeatedly over the gas pedal.
Ben shook his head.
“Some other time,” he said. “If we make it…”
Josie could
tell he was in bad shape. Simply placing him on a stretcher and then moving him into the back of the Suburban had caused a great deal of stress on his body, and he was now feeling a lot of pain.
“Ben,” she said. “If at any point you start bleeding again or think you’re going to pass out, you tell us, okay? I want you to tell us.”
“Okay…”
Roy was at the garage door and his hand was wrapped around the rope that connected the door to the rails along the wall. All he would have to do is yank it upward to open the door and grant freedom to the Suburban so the bug out could begin.
Roy looked at Jon, who gave the signal with a quick nod.
“We’re in for it now,” Jon remarked, and then looked around the garage and the provisions that he had had stockpiled but was now being forced to abandon. “I sure am going to miss this old place.”
Roy then proceeded to open the door to the garage by pulling upward with the rope and then lifting up the door himself once it had gotten high enough. He then made a quick beeline over for the gate while Jon shifted the Suburban into drive and pulled forward to follow him.
Roy had his AR-15 at the ready as he made it to the gate and took cover behind the wall.
“Open the gate, buddy,” Jon murmured under his breath.
“What’s going on, Josie?” Ben asked from the back.
“We’re leaving now, Ben,” Josie answered, holding Alex tight.
Roy carefully opened up the gate with one hand while keeping his AR-15 upright and ready with the other. He finally got the gate to unlock and then kicked it open with his foot.
Now assuming a proper two handed firing grip with his AR, he backed up to the Suburban.
Just then, two militia men swerved around the walls by the opened up gate. Roy immediately popped off several rounds and the men dove for cover back where they were, the rounds striking the pavement of the road before them.
“Get inside!” Jon called out.
Roy fired four more shots as insurance as Alex covered her ears from the gunfire.
“Get inside!” Jon repeated. “Now!”
Roy swung open the passenger door to the Suburban, stepped inside, and then slammed it shut.
“GO!” he shouted, and Jon gunned the engine.
The Suburban roared louder than it ever had in a long time and it took off down the driveway and out the gate to the paved road.
Jon immediately swung the big SUV hard to the left, turning the steering wheel with his hands as fast as he could. A few shots opened up and struck the Suburban, but the bullets either ricocheted off or were absorbed by Jon’s armor that he had installed.
“Hold fire!” they could hear the voices from outside, and the gunfire soon came to a stop.
One man appeared in front of the Suburban and held out his hands, indicating for them to stop. Jon only floored the gas pedal as flat as it could go.
The man tried to run out of the way but he was too late. Struck directly by the front edge of the Suburban, he went flying and crashing into the side of a building, where he crumpled to the ground like a bag of broken bones and lay still.
Jon let off the gas a little as he made another hard swing to the left to take off down the road that would lead them out of Carleton.
“Hang on!” Jon said. “We’re not out of this yet!”
Sure enough, all along the road in front of them militia members were materializing out of the trees, brush, and buildings. It was only now that Jon, Roy, and Josie realized that there was far more than the initial forty they thought there had been.
In fact, as more and more militia members were materializing off the side of the street with guns raised, it became apparent that they were a small army.
“Shoot out their tires!” they could hear someone else calling out and the gunfire opened up again.
“Dammit!” Jon cursed. “They take out are tires we’re done for!”
Roy rolled down the windows on his side.
“Roy, what are you doing?!” Josie asked in amazement.
“Keeping us safe!” Roy responded, and opened fire with his AR-15.
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM
The AR was so incredibly loud in the confined space of the Suburban that Josie’s ears went ringing. She buried Alex under her body to protect her while covering up her ears as best she could.
The bug out had begun!
Chapter 3
Roy’s AR-15 clicked empty and he ejected the magazine, allowing it to spill out onto the road. He clumsily inserted a fresh one through the window, chambered a round, and continued firing again.
The militia members were firing at the Suburban from all sides, the bullets striking the aluminum sheetmetal and ballistic nylon layers that Jon had installed.
Roy had managed to take down a couple of the militia members, forcing several to dive for cover on their own, as Jon applied as much pressure to the gas pedal with his foot as he could.
Firing the rifle through the window of the fast moving Suburban was incredibly difficult even for an experienced soldier such as Roy, and the fact that there were numerous bumps and potholes in the road wasn’t helping anything either. His shots were being sent all over the place, several finding their mark in the trees and buildings that served as the backdrop behind the militia members he was trying to hit.
Soon, however, the gunfire came to a stop as the Suburban sped on fast down the road.
“Why did they stop shooting?” Josie asked.
“They’re falling behind,” Roy
“Did you hear that back there?” Josie asked.
“Hear what?” Roy was reloading his AR-15 in the shotgun seat.
“They said ‘hold fire,’” Josie said. “They didn’t want to kill us. They only wanted to shoot out our tires.”
“We can’t go back now,” Jon said.
“But why didn’t they want to kill us?” Josie pressed. “They never wanted to kill us. They wanted us alive.”
“Then let’s go back and ask them why,” Roy said sarcastically.
“Dammit,” said Jon.
“What?’”
“We’ve got more company.”
Roy glanced at the rearview mirror, which revealed three motorcycles coming up behind them and closing in fast. He quickly finished reloading the AR-15 and chambered another round. “Here we go again.”
Roy rolled down the window to the Suburban again and leaned out with his rifle. He opened fire again on the motorcycles. Previously all three were closely bundled together, but once he had fired his first few shots they began to spread out across the open road to avoid drawing all of his fire.
“Hold fire, buddy,” Jon said. “Wait for them to get closer. I’ll slow down a little.”
“SLOW DOWN?!” Roy couldn’t believe it.
“You wanna take them out or not?” Jon asked.
Jon eased his foot slowly over the gas pedal.
“Ben, how you doing back there?” Josie glanced back at Ben in the back, who was still sprawled out over his stretcher that was in turn laid out over the gear.
“As good as I can do,” Ben murmured with both hands wrapped tightly about his ears to shield them from Roy’s gunfire.
“You bleeding anymore?” Josie asked.
Ben shook his head.
Suddenly, a series of pistol bullets struck the Suburban! The men on the motorcycles were firing handguns!
Roy leaned out of the Suburban again and took quick but careful aim through the scope of his AR-15, getting the center crosshairs to line up perfectly over the upper torso of the motorcyclist that was furthest to the left and closing in fast.
BOOM!
The 5.56 bullet struck the motorcyclist in the chest and he fell back from his motorcycle in a visible spray of blood. The motorcycle continued traveling on with out him until it barreled into a tree where it was halted dead in its tracks.
“One down,” Roy said.
The other two motorcyclists came up behind the Suburban on the
opposite side of Roy’s side.
Roy leaned out of the Suburban window again. “Dammit, I can’t see them!”
Jon slammed the breaks of the Suburban and one of the motorcycles crashed head on into the fortified bumper. The driver was sent lurching forward and was crushed between the impact of the motorcycle and the SUV together.
“One more down,” Jon said. “One left.”
The third and final motorcyclist came up to the side of the Suburban, running even and parallel to Jon’s side.
Jon rolled down the window while also drawing his Taurus Judge that he had placed in between the center console and front seat.
He pointed the gun at the motorcyclist and FIRED!
BOOM!
All three 9mm-sized pellets exited the Judge’s wide barrel and struck the motorcyclist in the helmet, shoulder, and torso respectively, sending him and the motorcycle crashing into a ditch where a spray of dirt kicked up upon impact in a fantastic display.
“All down,” Jon rolled up the window and re-holstered the Judge.
“Where’s the Land Rover?” Roy asked.
“We’re not there yet,” Jon responded.
Roy was staring down the road.
“No, Jon, we parked it right up here. I know we did.”
“No, buddy, it’s gotta be up a ways longer.”
“No Jon, I am telling you, we parked it right up over there. The Land Rover’s not there anymore, they took it!”
“Watch out!” Josie called out.
Her eyes had picked up what Jon and Roy had failed to: a line of nail boards across the road facing up.
Jon instantly hit both feet over the brakes but it was too late as the front tires of the Suburban skidded in a thick cloud of smoke over to the nail boards and with a loud thunderous crack blew out immediately upon making contact!
“Dammit, hold on!” Jon had lost control of the Suburban as it swerved from side to side.