War Zone: Homefront

by Thomas A. Watson

  Reaching the bank, Nathan scanned it quickly before picking a spot and walking up. Apollo climbed out soaking wet, and John was shocked when Apollo climbed out but didn’t shake off. Soaking wet, Apollo just stayed at Nathan’s side going up the bank. Cresting the bank, Nathan headed for a tree and took a knee, glancing over his shoulder and seeing John copying him.

  “Shake,” Nathan breathed out, and John barely heard it. Apollo shook the water off for a second and then stopped, staring across the road. Studying Apollo as he gazed across the road, John could easily see Apollo killing everyone in his mind’s eye. There was no playful anything in Apollo’s rigid stature, and his eyes just gave the impression of looking for a target.

  Seeing Nathan’s arms move, John shifted his gaze to see Nathan letting his rifle just hang under his right arm by the one-point sling. Pulling his XDM pistol from his thigh holster, Nathan pulled out a suppressor with his left hand and screwed it onto the pistol. Leaning back, Nathan turned his head slightly toward John, but kept his eyes across the road.

  “You stay on your rifle and keep the same distance, but just to my left. If one gets close, I’ll deal with them. If one walks out behind us and you think they’ll spot us, you shoot them,” Nathan breathed out and John nodded. “Tweakers are very hard to put down. You shoot three times just like you’ve trained, two in the chest and one in the head.”

  Sucking his cheeks inward attempting to wet his mouth, John finally spoke. “I will.”

  Getting up, Nathan eased across the road in a low crouch with John following behind just to his left. John breathed a sigh of relief when they cleared the road and entered the trees again. When John took a deep breath, he felt his lungs hurting and wondered where the cat litter box was because he smelled the ammonia from cat urine, so strong it burned his nose.

  Turning around quickly, “Don’t breathe deep, the lab is just ahead,” Nathan told him in a low voice.

  Giving a nod, John kept his breathing shallow and was shocked when Nathan didn’t continue straight ahead, but paralleled the road. They soon came to a small road that turned off the main road and led into the subdivision. Glancing down the road toward the subdivision and not seeing anything, Nathan led them across.

  Not liking roads anymore while he darted across, John followed Nathan through the trees at a slow pace and could see light through the trees to his left. When Nathan went to one knee facing the light through the trees, John did the same. Realizing his lungs didn’t hurt when he breathed, and the smell of cat urine wasn’t as strong, John really wanted to ask some questions. Racking his brain, John couldn’t figure out why anyone would let a litter box stink like that. He just couldn’t process someone cooking something to ingest when it had that as a smell.

  Looking up in the treetops, John could see them swaying slightly and realized the wind was blowing down the river. When Nathan spoke, John gave a startle because Nathan had to put some volume in his voice to be heard over the music. “We were downwind of the lab, that’s the light you see ahead. We’re moving up to the tree line where you’ll stay and cover me. I want to see the lab because we might use it like a bomb.”

  Getting up, John nodded as Nathan moved ahead with Apollo at his side. Keeping his eyes scanning, John knew that was one big party on the large sand bar half a mile away, and the music was even loud here. When he reached the tree line, John knelt next to a tree holding his barrel low while Nathan ran across the road.

  Moving across the road, Nathan flipped up his NVGs before they shut off. Light spilled from the house and Nathan could hear big fans inside. Stopping next to a tree, Nathan saw an industrial six-foot circular fan in a hole cut into the garage door. Looking at the front of the house, he saw lights behind every window and fans in many open windows blowing the fumes out of the house.

  “Yeah, they don’t have to worry about someone calling the cops for the smell,” Nathan mumbled, glancing around. He could see people on the road deeper into the subdivision, but none close. Pushing off the tree with his left hand, Nathan held the pistol level with his right hand as he moved toward the garage.

  Reaching the door he lifted his head, looking through the window and his eyes nearly fell from his skull. His biggest bust had been twelve ounces of meth. Bill had the record for the posse at twenty-one ounces. Laid out under heating lamps throughout the three-car garage, Nathan was looking at hundreds of pounds of meth. “Fuck me,” he breathed out, dropping down.

  Keeping his left shoulder close to the house, Nathan motioned for Apollo to follow and Apollo dropped behind him. Reaching the corner, Nathan peeked around it. The front door was open with a fan blowing air in, and through the bay window, Nathan could see figures inside with respirators on moving around the kitchen and living room. Glass beakers and tubes were everywhere, letting Nathan know he didn’t need to stay around anymore. Darting past the front porch, Nathan stopped at the wall and saw a fan in a window ahead, blowing air out.

  Holding his breath, Nathan eased up and could instantly tell the room at one time had been a little boy’s bedroom, but now was lined with metal shelves. The shelves were packed with gallon bags filled with meth. Turning away and glancing around, Nathan darted away from the toxic spewing house, hoping he could still father children someday and not grow an arm out of his forehead.

  Reaching the trees across the road, Nathan let out his breath and tentatively took a sniff and could barely smell the lab. Gulping down a breath, Nathan moved back to John. “We’re getting the hell away from that house,” Nathan informed him, flipping his goggles back down.

  Not even waiting for John’s nod, Nathan turned to head deeper into the subdivision. A looped drive ran through the subdivision, and John noted very few houses on the outside leg of the elliptical closest to the main road where Nathan led them. They passed a small clearing a hundred yards past the lab they had seen from the ridge. The open space housed rows of solar panels, and Nathan slowed while trying to listen for the rumble of generators, but it was impossible with the music.

  Continuing on, Nathan motioned ahead at a group walking, or more appropriately, dancing down the road. They were heading away from them toward the music. Nathan slowed to let them get ahead and John counted nine in the group. John could tell at least three were girls from the way they were dancing.

  Now three hundred yards down the road and away from the lab, Nathan knelt next to a tree before staring at a house across the road. John knew this was one of the houses that’d shown up white on the MU from human electrical fields, and only a little red from electronic fields.

  On the MU, the lab had looked like it was bleeding it was so red, and they’d never seen white.

  “Cover,” Nathan said in a normal voice because of the music.

  Seeing John pivot and hold his rifle low, Nathan eased across the road. Coming up on the house, the first thing he noticed were most of the windows had boards over them. Not plywood, but boards like slats from under a bed. Slowing as he neared the house, Nathan smelled human waste, and it got stronger the closer he got to the house.

  Before reaching the house, he heard a kid crying inside and dropped lower, crouch walking to the wall. Reaching the wall, Nathan rose up above the window ledge and saw a room without any furniture packed with women and kids. Dropping back down, Nathan didn’t want to see more and turned to head back across the road. Feeling Apollo pass him and glancing down, Nathan looked down the road to see a man walking down the middle of the road toward him.

  The man was a good fifty yards away and bringing his hands to his mouth when Nathan aimed his pistol and slowed his pace. A sonic crack was barely heard over the music, and Nathan watched the back of the man’s head blow out. As the body dropped to the ground, Nathan heard two more sonic cracks and watched the bullets impact on the man’s chest.

  “Well, he’s doing what I taught him,” Nathan nodded, leaning forward and speeding up. Not seeing anyone else, he darted out to the body and saw a meth pipe in one hand and a lighter in the oth
er. “The boy capped you before you could suck the glass dick,” Nathan chuckled, grabbing the glass pipe and lighter.

  Grabbing one arm, Nathan pulled the body off the road and into the trees, then turned motioning John to him. Facing into the subdivision, Nathan scanned around waiting on John. When John knelt beside him, Nathan put his pistol down and took the M4 off the man’s shoulder. It had an ACOG sight and Nathan saw ‘Property of US Government’ stamped on one side.

  Dropping the rifle on the ground, Nathan frisked the body and pulled out a plastic bag. “Shit, that’s four ounces,” he mumbled, setting it by his pistol. He found two magazines for the M4 and a revolver shoved in the small of the man’s back.

  Grabbing the drugs and pipe, Nathan shoved them in his left thigh pocket. “You’re taking the drugs?” John asked in shock.

  “I’m not going to use them,” Nathan chuckled. “We aren’t hiding the body and if I left the drugs, they would know someone outside the group killed him. Trust me, a meth head will kill his own momma for some crystal. Now when they find him, they’ll think one of their own did it.”

  “Fuck, you’re so cool,” John mumbled.

  “Where the hell did he come from?”

  “The next house that’s whited out on the MU,” John motioned down the street toward two houses further into the subdivision.

  “Good shooting, Big John,” Nathan said, turning to the house.

  “I was scared he would see you before you got close enough to use your pistol,” John said quickly. “Nathan, I saw a group of thirty-seven leave that house heading for the music. That man just turned, leaving the group and heading this way.”

  Reaching over and patting John’s leg, but not turning to face him, “You did good, now let’s move,” Nathan told him. Staying inside the tree line, they continued on and Nathan saw boards over the windows like the last house. He was about to tell John he wasn’t going to check it out when the front door opened.

  Coming to a stop, Nathan dropped down to one knee when a man came out, dragging a teenaged girl by the arm. As the man shut and locked the door, he turned to John. “We aren’t doing shit, understood?”

  Gritting his teeth, John gave a nod as the man pulled the girl across the yard. The girl wasn’t fighting, but she wasn’t going willingly. The man suddenly turned, punching the girl in the chest. She let out a cry they heard over the music and before she could fall, the man held her up rearing his fist back again. Holding her chest, the girl stood up and stopped struggling as the man led her down the road.

  “This sucks donkey dicks,” John mumbled.

  Turning to John, “John, we got a freebie with the one you capped. As many tweakers as there are around us, if we try to be heroes, you and I will die, and I assure you, it won’t be pretty,” Nathan explained. Seeing John give a nod, he turned and saw the man and girl farther down the road, passing another house a hundred yards away that was lit-up. This house was huge. They had seen people coming and going constantly all day. Like the lab, this house was red on the MU, so they knew there were lots of electronics inside.

  Continuing on and getting closer to the lit-up house, Nathan saw movement near a tree at the end of the driveway. “What the fuck?” he mumbled, slowing to a stop. Not sure what he was looking at, Nathan kept moving through the trees when the shadow near the tree let out a piercing scream. When they were thirty yards away, Nathan stopped, shaking his head.

  “That’s a naked man chained to a tree like a dog,” John said beside him. “What’s he doing to his arms?”

  “Look at the sign on the tree,” Nathan said, jerking his chin.

  Wondering how he’d missed the sign, John read: ‘Don’t steal from Big D or you die going dry.’

  “They’re going to let him die without water?” John asked.

  Shaking his head, “No, that’s a meth head. He’s clawing the skin off his body because he can’t get any more drugs. I’ve seen some cold shit in my day, but this ranks right up there at the top,” Nathan replied.

  “But he’ll be off the drug,” John pointed out.

  “No, meth is very addictive, and he’ll be dead by tomorrow night, just from those wounds he’s clawed into his arms and legs. Now I know why they didn’t have guards on the lab,” Nathan explained. “That’s about the only way to make meth heads listen.”

  Feeling sorry for the meth head, John followed Nathan until they could see the front of the lit-up house. A group was sitting in chairs on the porch, but the yard was packed full of people. There were so many packed so tightly and moving about, it was impossible to count them. “Motherfucker,” Nathan hissed, going to one knee and putting his pistol on the ground before lifting his rifle up.

  John started panting, thinking Nathan was about to open up, then saw Nathan flip his goggles up and use the scope on his M4. “Doyle Bailey, you slimy cocksucker,” Nathan growled, and John had no trouble hearing it over the music.

  Lowering his rifle for a second, Nathan turned and saw another lab set up in the garage with the door rolled up. Bringing his rifle up, he saw a man working at the makeshift lab, but wasn’t wearing a respirator. “Oh, you bitch. You’d better be glad you have so many here because I would pull the trigger on your ass in a heartbeat.”

  “Don’t like it when Nathan knows the bad guys on a first name basis,” John mumbled as Nathan let his rifle hang and picked up his pistol.

  “John, did you ever see that man, the one with the girl between his legs, today?” Nathan asked.

  Having purposely avoiding looking at the house for just that reason, John took a deep breath before flipping his goggles up and sighted on the man’s face. He looked around forty, clean shaven with deep black hair that was brushed back neatly. “No, I never saw him,” John said, lowering his rifle and flipping his goggles down.

  “I’m tempted to come back for his ass,” Nathan snarled, lowering his own goggles back down.

  When Nathan turned and headed off, John gave a small sigh of relief. From watching Prichard all day, John knew there was one more house that’d been white on the MU, but unlike the other two, this one was visited much more. A part of John just wanted to tell Nathan they should just go, after watching the man drag the girl out of the last house.

  They could now see clusters of people across the road, moving through the trees and yards of the houses. Scattered about were burning barrels with groups standing around them, and John had given up on keeping count. Hoping Nathan wasn’t going to cross the road to check the house ahead, John walked sideways, so he could bring his rifle up on targets faster.

  Stopping across from the house, John looked behind them and could see the main road through the trees. The music was pretty loud now, and he could see the flicker of a bonfire over the trees. Knowing how many were partying around the bonfire made John nervous. It had looked like an outdoor rock concert before they’d come down the ridge.

  Studying the house across from them, Nathan would glance around, memorizing where people were at. “Apollo, stay,” Nathan commanded, then said, “Cover me.”

  John felt his pulse skyrocket when Nathan darted away, clearing the tree line and crossing the road. When Nathan stopped next to a tree, “He knows what he’s doing,” John kept repeating as he pulled his rifle tight against his shoulder. When his NVGs flared from a light in the house, John gave a startle and then scanned the groups around the house.

  Moving from tree to tree slowly, Nathan saw boards over the windows like the last houses. He was about to leave when he heard a man yell inside. Since he’d heard the yell over the music, Nathan’s interest was piqued.

  Like a shadow, Nathan moved below a window and flipped up his goggles before peeking inside. Two men were holding a struggling man down while another shoved a syringe in the struggling man’s arm. Nathan’s eyes grew wide when he turned to scan the room, and saw young men and women around the room. Many were curled up in the fetal position and others were laughing. “Oh, we are so fucked,” Nathan mumbled, dropping down.<
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  Flipping his goggles down, Nathan eased back to the road and had to sit in the shadows when another large group walked down the road. Nathan was so proud of John for not engaging them, but he could see John aiming. When the group was just ten yards further down the road, Nathan darted across behind them.

  In his mind, John knew if he had to pee he would’ve wet his pants, watching Nathan slip across the road just a few yards behind the group. When Nathan stopped beside him, John lowered his rifle. “They’re getting some of the people they’ve taken captive hooked on meth,” Nathan told him. Each stared at the other with the four tubes of the NVGs. “John, they’re growing an army,” Nathan clarified. “One that’s hooked on a drug they’re making.”

  A shiver ran down John’s spine, “That’s so fucking cheating,” he mumbled.

  “Did you hear any talking from that group who just passed?” Nathan asked.

  “Nathan, I can barely hear you over the music. I had to take my hunters ear out because it shut off,” John reported.

  Shaking his head, “Give it here,” Nathan told him. Taking the hunters ear, Nathan pulled out his knife. “Keep it in or your ears will be ringing, and you’ll need your hearing on the way home.”

  Reaching up, John pushed the earbud for the radio deeper in his right ear. When Nathan handed the hunters ear back, John put it in and could still hear the music, but it was much lower. Then, he realized he could hear voices and turned. The closest tweakers he could see were on the far side of the house and around a burning barrel. “You are so showing me how you did that.”

  “Altered the frequency it picks up,” Nathan told him, staring past the house where they were getting people hooked on meth. “That group was talking about ‘a rite of passage’ when they passed. Let’s go.”

  Following Nathan until they’d almost reached the main road, John followed him across the subdivision road toward the river. They had to change course several times because of people in the woods. Some doing drugs, and others rolling around on the ground in lust, but John knew these were tweakers because they had been doing it all day.