War Zone: Homefront

by Thomas A. Watson

  “Hot stepmom is being a hog,” Tom said, lifting his eye off his scope. “Every time I found one moving, she brought the rain down.”

  Putting the .338 brass in a bag, Nathan shook his head. “Sorry, but I’m not saying anything. Stepdad needs lovin’.”

  Tom busted out laughing as he got to his knees and grabbed his empty magazines. “There at the end, I was hitting every shot. It makes a big difference when your target’s not moving fast.”

  “Shit. On the trucks, I was hot. People, I was averaging one in three,” John said, rolling up the woobie Nathan gave him.

  Walking over as Jasmine reloaded the 240, Nathan grinned when she carefully closed the feed tray. Then, he turned and saw the mountain of brass and links. “Glad I spread out a sheet,” he mumbled. “How many belts did you use?”

  Jasmine turned to see Nathan picking up the corners of the sheet he had spread out beside her to catch her brass and belt links. “Seven,” she smiled, amazed Nathan had known just where to put the sheet.

  “You did good, hot stepmom,” Nathan grinned. A muffled explosion sounded across the ravine and everyone turned to see the last cargo truck a roaring inferno. “Take out the rides, and put them on foot.”

  Carefully picking up the 240 to avoid the hot barrel, “How many would you guess we took out?” she asked.

  Giving a shrug, “Maybe seventy or so,” he replied.

  “Damn, I was hoping for more,” Jasmine moaned. Bill and Aiden had gone over the pictures and video of the scouting Nathan and the guys had done, and put the number of tweakers in Prichard between six to seven hundred. But like Bill told everyone, more trucks kept coming in adding more bodies, and nobody knew how many trucks were out. So they still had no idea of what they were facing, and it didn’t help that the tweakers were adding numbers quickly. Jasmine didn’t like the fact Nathan was putting the numbers of tweakers at over a thousand.

  “We took out rides, so that hurts their recruiting,” Nathan said, tying the four corners of the sheet up.

  “Sorry, but I hope Bill gets more than we did,” Jasmine said, heading up to the ridge.

  “Me too,” Nathan admitted in a sigh, staking a one-foot-by-two-foot piece of cardboard on a stick in the ground. The others grinned and Jasmine chuckled.

  “Okay, I like it,” she nodded. “Amanda will be happy you’re using the calligraphy.”

  We See You Punk Ass Bitches

  Death to all tweakers

  THE POSSE

  ***

  Seven miles west of Prichard, Bill sat on the south ridge overlooking the valley. On the other side across the river, Coeur D’Alene River Road was tucked right next to a steep slope, and the river ran directly beside the road. “We’ve seen people riding bikes toward Prichard. Where the hell are their patrols?” Bill grumbled.

  “Bill, we didn’t know who they were and couldn’t risk exposing our position,” Rusty said beside him.

  Giving a long sigh, “I know, but I don’t have to like it,” Bill replied, seeing Aiden checking his watch. “What time is it?”

  “Fifteen after four,” Aiden answered. “Wonder if Nathan and them had any luck?”

  “Unless the tweakers use explosives, we won’t hear the tweakers’ gunfire from fifteen miles away,” Bill noted.

  “This is around the time we saw trucks coming from the west,” Tim said, but knew everyone already knew that. Like Nathan, they had been sitting on the ridge before sunrise. As the group set up, Bill had left surprises on the roadway. The part they didn’t like, was Bill had to take his packhorse with him to set up the surprises. Unlike Nathan’s group, they took practice shots into the kill zone six hundred yards away and three hundred feet below them when Bill was done.

  Aiden and Tim were on Barretts, and Bill and Rusty were on M240s.

  Everyone froze, hearing the far-off sound of engines. “Start up on my mark,” Bill said, picking up a remote that had two toggle switches, one red and one blue. He looked at the tube on a tripod pointed into the valley. Making sure the directional antenna was hooked up for the thousandth time, Bill turned to look down the valley.

  “Got ‘em!” Aiden called out. “Seven pickups and five box cargo trucks, moving about forty-five.”

  Holding the remote in his left hand, Bill gripped the M240 and soon saw the line of vehicles. “Didn’t expect that many,” Bill admitted.

  “Pull your panties up,” Rusty said in a whiny voice. “Are you on the rag? Because you’re bitchy.”

  “He’s pregnant,” Aiden chuckled, pulling the stock into his shoulder. “Janice doesn’t like him on the pill, says it decreases his libido.”

  “Fuck you all,” Bill snapped, never taking his eyes off the trucks. “If I was on duty, all except for the lead truck, I’d pull them all over for tailgating. There can’t be more than ten feet between each truck. Why are they driving so close?”

  “They’re about to get that lesson,” Tim laughed, following the trucks in his scope.

  The trucks slowed as they neared the bend that followed the river, and Bill held his thumb over the red toggle switch on the remote. Entering the bend, the trucks slowed more approaching a sharp curve and now, they could see people in the beds of the pickups. Flipping the red toggle with his thumb, Bill wasn’t expecting such a blast.

  ‘KABOOOM’ shattered across the valley, making their ears ring, and they felt the air get sucked from their lungs while the ground shook under them. “I fucking told you, a hundred pounds of C-4 was too fucking much!” Rusty shouted, watching his 240B jump off the ground.

  Only ten miles away at the time, Nathan and his group froze when the ground shook, and then heard a sharp explosion roar over the mountains. More than one looked up, thinking airplanes were overhead dropping bombs.

  Rusty saw the trees above the curve falling into the road, then realized there wasn’t a road where the trees were falling. The first truck drove into the slope, then into a crater. Just before it fell in, Rusty saw the concussion had blown the windshield into the cab. Since the convoy had slowed down so much, all hit their brakes to stop quickly with only a minor bump or two between vehicles. With how close they were driving, that really surprised Rusty.

  Aiming at the rear of the convoy, Rusty squeezed the trigger and because of his test shots, he saw impacts on the cab of the last cargo truck. Putting the remote down, Bill gripped the 240 tight as he squeezed the trigger, aiming at the bed of the second truck.

  When he saw the bodies dropping, Rusty shifted his aim to the last pickup, seeing the people scrambling to get out as he squeezed the trigger. Aiden and Tim moved from cab to cab, firing two rounds each.

  Changing magazines, Tim saw several on the opposite side of the fourth truck in line, leaning over the bed and shooting at them. Opening his mouth to call it out, Tim saw bullets starting to impact on the truck when Bill shifted aim.

  Hearing Rusty call reload, Tim continued down the line. When he was done, Tim demonstrated to the tweakers why the bed of a pickup wouldn’t stop a fifty cal. When Rusty started shooting, Bill reloaded. “Time?!” Bill shouted.

  “I forgot to start the fucking stopwatch because you tried to blow us up, cocksucker!” Rusty shouted. All their weapons were suppressed, but everyone’s ears were ringing from the explosion.

  “Children, please!” Tim shouted as he squeezed the trigger, blowing a tweaker in half. “I can’t take any of you anywhere!”

  “Just blow it!” Aiden snapped.

  Picking up the remote, Bill shouted, “Fire in the hole!” and then flipped the blue switch.

  This time, everyone ducked down, covering their heads. Near the middle of the convoy, along the inner guardrail that kept cars from crashing into the river, a battered cardboard box, that advertised at one time it’d housed a fifty-five-inch flat-screen TV, propped against the rail vanished in a ball of light. ‘KABOOM’ roared over the valley when the second charge went off.

  After the explosion, everyone lifted up to get back on guns and saw a t
ruck, fifty yards above the road on the mountainside, rolling down the slope. “How the hell did it get up there?” Bill wondered out loud, then dropped his eyes to the road.

  “Because a hundred pounds is too fucking much for one bomb!” Rusty shouted. “We all told you, but did you listen? NO!”

  All the trucks were twisted hunks and unrecognizable. The only exception was the one that had been blown up the mountain before rolling back down. It was the only one that resembled a mode of transportation. One pile was in the curve where trees were across the road. The other pile was at the entrance to the bend. The road was completely gone between the two piles.

  “A hundred pounds can’t do that,” Bill snapped, gathering his stuff.

  “Bill, that’s a flat slope across from us. We’re in a narrow part of the valley. The blast had nowhere to go that way. You used a hundred pounds twice, so learn to add,” Aiden laughed. “It’s safe to say, they are dead.”

  “If they aren’t, we leave them the fuck alone,” Rusty huffed. “I knew breaking into that Forestry Station and getting that C-4 was a mistake.”

  Grabbing his pack, “Now you know why Nathan wouldn’t give you any of his explosives, Bill,” Aiden chimed in.

  “All right, you nagging bitches! I used too much! Are you happy?” Bill shouted, pulling his pack on.

  Grunting as he picked up his Barrett, “And all of you laughed when I hobbled my horse this morning,” Tim finished in a chuckle. Bill, Rusty, and Aiden all froze as Tim just headed up the ridge. “I did advise each of you, but what do I know? I’m only a reserve deputy who’s a logger. What the hell do I know?”

  Curling his lips up in a snarl, “Bill, if I have to walk back on foot, we’re going to settle up,” Rusty warned. “I’m goin’ Nathan on your ass.”

  “I was wondering why Tim kept saying we needed to hobble. Since the horses are on the other side of the ridge, the shock wave should’ve rolled over them,” Aiden shrugged.

  “Hey, Texas shitkicker,” Rusty snapped. “You didn’t hear the explosion? We trained our horses for gunfire, not tactical nuke detonation.”

  When they all walked over the ridge they stopped, seeing Tim take the hobbles off his horse and packhorse. But Bill’s horse and packhorse were gone, as was Aiden’s packhorse. “Oh, you are one lucky fucker,” Rusty chuckled, heading to his horse and packhorse. Never in his life was Rusty so thankful he had tied his horses to a tree, and not a rope hitch line like Bill had done.

  “I’m sure they’re halfway back to the valley,” Tim said. “We can shift some gear, and you can ride a packhorse.”

  “I didn’t think it was going to be that big,” Bill moaned. He knew the posse would never let him live this down.

  Strapping the 240 down, Rusty turned to the others. “We’re taking the explosives away from Bill from now on. I don’t care if he has a demolition license. He’s repeatedly shown he’s not responsible,” Rusty said in a parental tone.

  “We have given him multiple chances,” Aiden added, grinning.

  “Last time I ever vouch for friends to join the fireteams,” Tim huffed. “You blow fire lanes, Bill, not the entire side of the mountain and catch the valley floor on fire.”

  Holding up his hands in mock surrender, “I’ll admit, I was totally in the wrong on that, but you don’t drive a truck overloaded with crates of explosives and say, ‘Blow a fire lane there’,” Bill explained. “I’ll admit, I got excited.”

  “If I would’ve been Nathan, I would’ve kicked your ass,” Aiden laughed, stowing his gear on the packhorse. “Blowing up his brand-new four-wheeler. That’s low.”

  “I tried to buy him another one,” Bill shot back.

  “You know that shit don’t work with Nathan,” Rusty snorted.

  “Nathan laughed for three days,” Tim chuckled. “Glad I started carrying a camera everywhere like Nathan does.” Bill turned to Tim with a death glare. “Not many people can say they survived a blast that ripped their clothes off,” Tim smirked, turning away and grabbing the reins.

  “Oh, the news crew who showed up wondering what bomb went off, got an eyeful of a butt-naked fire fighter. It just seems fitting Nathan always TiVo’d the local evening news,” Rusty said, then waved at his packhorse. “Your chariot awaits, Oh God of Thunder.”

  “Fuck you all,” Bill huffed, storming over to the packhorse.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  Flipping his NVGs down, Nathan looked back along the trail. It was near midnight and the others hadn’t shown up. He and his group were sitting on Kings Point, a mountaintop that sat two miles south of Prichard and overlooked the town twenty-one hundred feet below on the valley floor. Hearing footsteps, he turned to see John and Jasmine coming back.

  “Well?” he asked.

  Shrugging, “Nathan, the town looks just the same. Lights still on in the buildings and guards at the roadblocks. The only thing different is, no bonfire,” John said with a shiver. “Oh, and Jasmine spotted a lookout on the ridge we were on.”

  “Why? They have a roadblock on the other side?” Nathan huffed.

  “Nathan, they’re fine, or they would’ve called out on the radio,” Jasmine told him again.

  “Those explosions sounded awful big,” Nathan mumbled. “They couldn’t have gotten that much from the Forestry shed.” Hearing a soft whistle, they all turned, dropping low. “Let me find out what Tom and Natalie have.”

  Watching Nathan move off under the trees, Jasmine gave a sigh. “They’d better be all right.”

  “You just told Nathan they were,” John hissed.

  “Of course. He’s worried,” Jasmine snapped.

  Moving along the ridge, Nathan crept to the tree line where Tom and Natalie were set up, looking down into the valley below. The valley below ended at the finger they had used to scout days ago. “Two trucks went by twenty minutes ago, but a group of horses just ran across the road heading toward us,” Tom said, then pointed.

  “Beaver Creek Road is the only way the tweakers can get in and out of Prichard now,” Nathan said, looking down the slope at the trees covering the small valley. “How many horses?”

  “Sorry, they moved across too fast,” Tom said.

  Giving a sigh of relief, “That sounds like them,” Nathan said.

  “Wish we had the Mew2,” Tom admitted.

  “So do I, but we need it covering home more,” Nathan said. “I know it was rugged, but I was so scared we would break it. Putting it on that peak to the southwest will let us know someone is coming, long before they can walk close to the valley.”

  “I know, and I like it there,” Tom sighed.

  “Yeah, Tom. I still want to kick my ass for giving that SF team our spare. What the fuck have they done? Should’ve made them get their own.”

  Turning to Nathan, “They did give us safe roads to travel,” Tom reminded.

  “Okay, they cut a few days off our arrival,” Nathan huffed. “Next group we see, I better get some neat shit.”

  “Nathan,” Natalie said, looking up. “Why are you cussing more? You aren’t scared, are you?”

  Giving a chuckle as he knelt down, “No, princess, I’m not scared. But when I get around the posse, my language takes a turn. I’ll try and watch my mouth.”

  “Oh, that’s okay. I think it’s funny,” Natalie told him. “I just wanted to know if I needed to be scared.”

  Patting her leg, “I’ll let you know,” Nathan assured her.

  “Horses,” Tom said, lifting the thermals up only to hit his NVGs. Flipping them up, Tom scanned the slope a half a mile away that ran up toward the ridge they were on.

  Able to see the figures with his NVGs, “That’s not enough horses,” Nathan mumbled, pulling his AR up. “Can I see the thermals?”

  Not replying, Tom just handed them back as Nathan flipped up his NVGs. Watching the spaced-out group moving up the slope, Nathan shook his head. “The one leading is Tim. He’s the only person alive that rides like he has a board shoved up his ass,” Nathan declar
ed, and Natalie snickered. “It’s them, but they’re missing three horses.”

  “Aw, I hope they didn’t get hurt,” Natalie moaned, and Nathan nodded, lowering the binoculars.

  “Yeah, that could put us in a bind down the road,” Nathan said. “Let’s go tell John and Jasmine.”

  They moved back into the trees and headed toward the peak. When Jasmine spotted them coming, she saw a casualness in Nathan’s step. “They’re all right,” Jasmine sighed out. Afraid to ask how she knew, John just kept his mouth shut.

  “They should be here in a few minutes,” Nathan said. “But, they’re missing some horses.”

  “That’s not good,” Jasmine grunted. “That could hurt us later.”

  Having just heard Nathan say that, Tom and Natalie gave Jasmine a double take with gaping mouths while Nathan walked over and hugged her. “Now that you mention it, yeah, it might,” Nathan told her.

  Ten minutes later, they heard a soft trilling whistle and Nathan responded in kind, and they saw the horses weaving around trees toward them along the ridge. As the posse stopped, “What happened to the horses? Were you shot at by helicopters or drones?” Nathan asked.

  “No,” Bill snapped, climbing off and Nathan saw he was riding a packhorse bareback.

  “What blew up?” Nathan asked. “You didn’t get into my bunker, and the Forestry shed never has more than two or three crates.”

  Tying his horse to the hitch line Nathan’s horses were tied to, Rusty spun around, waving his arm out majestically. “Ask Oh Ye God of Thunder,” he sang out.

  “I’m getting pissed,” Nathan warned. “Losing three horses could put us in a bind later.”

  “I tried to warn them,” Tim chuckled, walking past Nathan. “But, oh no. Don’t listen to the reserve deputy.”

  “Bitch, you heard how many times I warned Bill’s ass, he was using too much,” Rusty snapped at Tim.

  “No!” Nathan gasped, dropping his shoulders like a ton had been placed on them. “You guys didn’t let Bill have some explosives, did you?”