by AJ Newman
“Why El Paso? We planned to fuel up there and then cross the border fifty miles east of El Paso.”
There will be a lot of air traffic around the city and it will be easy to get lost mixed in with the other planes. If we are noticed, I speak Spanish and he wanted me to convince the Mexican authorities that our aircraft was one of theirs that had communication problems. By the time, they got suspicious; we’d be much further south and would just have to deal with the locals to get fuel. I assume several of you speak Spanish.”
Patty knew this was flimsy as hell, but it was the best she could quickly make up.
“The two men your friend killed were our interpreters. You have that job now. Have you been to Mexico lately?”
Patty had been to Cancun a couple of years back and replied, “I go all the time to the resorts, why?”
“With all of the drug gang violence, I want to only land in safe areas.”
“Damn, make it hard why don’t you? Let me see the maps and give me the range of this copter and I’ll make some suggestions. Until then I’d make for Highway 25 and come in from the north.”
“Okay. Jack, you heard her. Do it.”
She was shocked when the pilot steered due east towards 25. She knew she had a chance now. It was a tiny chance, but much larger than an hour ago. She studied the maps and started penciling in names of drug gangs that she’d heard on the news. She was now convinced if she talked fast, she might be able to blow some smoke up their asses and she might just pull this off.
She thought, Now, I believe I truly understand Matt’s thinking. These assholes want to sell me into slavery for some fuel, fuck ‘em, either they will be dead, or I will. Matt, I hope to live long enough to tell him how sorry I am, and for what a fool I’ve been.
Patty knew that they would be landing in El Paso in just under two hours and felt she had to act as soon as they were close to Highway 25. She watched the sun and knew they were flying southeast and guessed they would intersect Highway 25 about halfway to El Paso in about an hour.
She quietly rummaged around in Matt’s bag to find something, anything that would help her escape. She felt around until she found a military bayonet. She took it and slid it under her right leg.
“That’s Highway 25 on our left. It looks like a big runway. Okay, let’s follow it south.”
Patty looked ahead and saw nothing but highway and dirt for 10 minutes. It hit her that there was no snow then a patch of green showed up ahead and she saw buildings a couple of miles farther down the road.
She aimed at one of the captor’s duffle bags and fired a shot into it to get their attention while sticking the knife against Barbara’s side. Don’t move; stick your hands in the air. I’ll kill Barbara and start shooting. I have 16 bullets and I’ll kill all of you if you don’t let me go.
The man in front of Patty turned to shoot her. She had steeled herself for this moment and proved to be quicker on the trigger. She shot him twice. The first round entered Bills forehead, propelling him into the windshield and splattering blood and brain matter across the now bullet pierced glass. The second round passed through his neck and also exited the windshield. Cracks began to form and it was only a matter of a few moments before the windshield would be blown into the cabin.
There were screams and Barbara tried to reach for Patty’s gun. Patty rammed the knife deep into Barbara’s side puncturing her lung and spearing her heart. Death overtook her as she slumped down into the seat. The only sound now heard in the cockpit was the whistling sound made by the air screaming through the holed windscreen.
“Anyone else want to die? If so, I can certainly oblige, ‘cause I am thoroughly pissed. No takers? Fine, now land this piece of shit right now!”
The pilot landed in the middle of the road and Patty kept the pistol trained on them while she tossed her bags out. She took Matt’s AR10 from one bag, slid a magazine in and jacked a round in the chamber. She stuck two more magazines in her pocket.
“Okay, I have my stuff and I have a 30 round mag in my .308 AR. Get out of here and don’t fuck with me or I’ll put all thirty in your fuel tanks.”
The pilot began to plead with Patty, “But, if we take off now the windshield may shatter, and cause us to crash. Please let me stay long enough to put hundred miles an hour tape over the cracks. It will only take 3 minutes.”
“If this piece of shit is still on the ground in 3 seconds you will be dead. Now fly, or die.”
She slammed the door, ran to the side of the road and ducked into a shallow ravine where two dry creek beds came together and puked.
The pilot lifted off inside of 2 seconds. He was not much more than a mile down highway 25 when the bird nosedived into the ground and became a massive ball of flame.
She said aloud, “Dang, I guess that windshield didn’t hold after all, pity.”
She had excellent cover and could defend herself from all directions by moving only a few feet.
She hauled all of the bags over to the rocks and hid them.
***
Patty took a pair of field glasses from one of the bags and surveyed the surrounding area.
Looking south, she saw a small village on both sides of the highway about two miles ahead. She could only see the tops of the houses.
The built up exit overpass was the tallest structure for miles. The overpass was a mile and a half away. It took her three trips to move all of the bags to the exit and tuck them into a high ledge under the overpass.
She kept an eye out for people while eating an MRE and drinking some water from her canteen. There were three backpacks and four duffle bags to sort through since she knew she couldn’t carry everything. She laid everything out on the concrete and started placing the items she had to have on the right, items she wanted in the middle and items she could live without on the left.
The have to have pile had:
her 9mm carbine
Glock 17 and all of the 9mm ammo and magazines
M&P15 and ammo and mags for it
Ruger MKIII .22 caliber pistol plus three mags and 500 bullets
Weapons vest
MREs
Three canteens filled with water.
One change of clothes, two more sets of underwear, a jacket
Rain poncho
First aid kit.
Bayonet
Backpack
Her wild assed guess was that she had nearly 100 pounds of gear selected and didn’t have some of the survival gear such as water purification tablets, fire starter, axe and 20 other important items. She moved the M&P15 and its mags and ammo to the middle pile along with 400 rounds of the .22 ammo.
She then added several of the survival items to the backpack, loaded everything into or onto the backpack, strapped the 9mm holster on and tucked the Ruger into her belt. She strained to get the backpack in place. Her life’s work had made her strong and determined, but Sylvester Stallone she was not, several somethings still had to give.
She reassessed her situation while guzzling most of the contents of a canteen and eating another 2,000-calorie MRE. She ditched the jacket and rain poncho since her parka was waterproof and reviewed the remaining gear. She moved a canteen and only kept three magazines for the Glock and Carbine leaving 250 9mm rounds. The pack was heavy, still weighing around 60 pounds, but manageable now.
For the first time in her life, she was glad she had thrown all those hay bales, feedbags, and stock boxes. Yeah, she knew she could manage, but dang, she hated to leave all those treasures, and thought, I sure hope the good guys find this stuff.
She made up a second backpack with only some MREs, water and a FA kit along with spare survival gear to take with her as she scouted the area to prevent losing her primary backpack to “the good people” of this tiny hamlet.
She tucked everything else tightly under the overpass and hid them with brush and rocks. She didn’t want to take everything with her and lose it all to robbers. She kept her carbine with its 31 round magazines and her Glock.
She decided to curl up under the overpass and spend the night there. She would scout the area before everyone was awake in the morning.
Patty was startled when she felt something snuggle up to her in the dark. It was whimpering as it tried to bury it’s self under her parka. She slowly turned her small flashlight on and lifted her parka to reveal a medium size grey dog with dark eyes and a long wet tongue. It began licking her face and wagging its tail. It was shaggy and she couldn’t tell what kind of dog it was, but she couldn’t bear pushing it out from under her parka. Things were definitely looking up, because now she had a much-needed friend.
They soon fell sound asleep and woke up just before sunrise when the dog made a low growling sound.
Patty looked around and saw three Coyotes sneaking up on them.
She threw a rock, while yelling, “Go! Get out of here!”
The nasty beasts ran away and the dog sat in front of Patty wagging its tail and staring at her. Patty opened an MRE and ate it along with some water. She offered the dog a small bite of the MRE, but the dog turned up its nose and ran off.
She saw the dog leaving and said, “That’s the shortest time I ever had a dog, so much for making a new friend.”
She busied herself getting ready to scout the area and didn’t notice the dog had returned until it dropped a small rabbit at her feet. Patty saw the freshly killed rabbit and placed it in a plastic bag for supper.
She petted the dog and said, “Thanks for supper. Hey, what’s your name?”
She held her hand out and the dog licked her hand. She rubbed its ears and peeked at its collar. The dog’s name was Max.
Max smelled like wet dog. Yep, he desperately needed a bath and some flea treatment if he was going to sleep with her in her parka. She already had several bites and was itching by morning.
She took off towards the village on the west side of the highway. Max followed and stayed out of the way. She found a position behind an abandoned tractor to watch several of the houses. There were about 30 people living on this side of the highway and she quickly noticed that one small group was in charge and packed guns. The others did all of the work
She watched for several hours with Max by her side. She knew this village was not for her and was obviously dangerous. Max followed along as she headed back to her hiding spot.
It was well past noon when she offered Max a piece of dried meat from her MRE and again he ran off. She finished eating and about 20 minutes later Max dropped another rabbit at her feet. This rabbit was almost as large as Max.
“Good boy Max, good boy. I like rabbit.”
She noticed he had some blood on his muzzle and knew this dog could feed himself, and her, in a pinch. She covered up Max in her Parka and took a nap for a couple of hours while waiting for late afternoon.
Max’s growl woke her again to see a man driving an ATV on the road below. He didn’t see her hiding under the overpass.
“Good boy Max for warning me about the man. You are a good watch dog for a pint sized fur ball.”
They went scouting again that afternoon to the east side of the road. The villages of Ramamillo and St. Lucia consisted of about twenty houses each. There was a gas station with a small general store with a pool table.
Patty surveyed the houses until she saw two young kids playing outside as a woman stacked firewood. She tied a white handkerchief to the barrel of her carbine and took her parka off. It was midday and the temperature was around freezing, but she wanted the woman to note that she was a woman walking up in peaceful way.
She walked slowly with Max towards the house when one of the children alerted their mom. The woman turned towards the house, a few seconds later a man came out with a shotgun and watched Patty walk towards them.
“Ola Senorita. Since you ain’t from around here, what do you want?”
“You are right, I’m not from here. I’m heading to warmer places. My name is Patty, and I am not here begging.”
Keeping the shotgun aimed at the ground, but ready, he said, “My name is Antonio and this is my sister in law Carla, mucho gusto. What can we do to help you? Did that helicopter drop you out in the desert, before it crashed?”
“Yes, the helicopter dropped me off. Those were bad people. They kidnapped me. I had to force them to let me go.”
“Why they kidnap you?”
“I don’t know. They offered three of us a ride down to Mexico, but shot one of my friends and threw him and another friend out the door while taking off. My friends will be coming down Highway 25 in a couple of days looking for me.”
“You and your dog need to move on. We have some bad peoples here also. You don’t want them to find you.”
“Are they a part of a drug gang?”
“No, but they don’t like strangers. It’s our mayor and his familia. They took over the area when the lights go out.
Anyone who disagree with how they run things disappears. We have doubled in peoples in the last two weeks since the snow started up north.
Peoples, they do their best to go south. We have seen them pass through on foot, horseback, old trucks and even ATVs.
We don’t have extra food so we give them some water and send them on their way. The mayor recruited one group to stay and they have become his enforcers.”
“Aren’t you afraid of the mayor? Openly bad mouthing him could cause you trouble.”
“Mayor es puta. We go my coussins casa in Guatemala this weekend. We have an old truck and almost enough food for two weeks travel. We find the rest on the way.”
Patty quickly thought that this family was leaving in 5 days and that her friends should be coming through in 2-3 days at the latest.”
“How many of you are going.
“Just my sister-in-law, my ninos, eh…kids and me.”
“Is your wife going?”
“She die two years ago.”
If my friends don’t get here before you leave, can I go with you?”
The woman spoke first, “We don’t know you. Why we trust you aroun’ the children?”
“I can help drive, pull guard duty and I have my own food. It’s going to be a long dangerous trip and we could help protect each other. I also have better weapons stashed a short trip from here, both Glocks and M&P15s plus ammo.”
“I don’t know, me and Carla, we go in me casa and discuss it.”
“Fair enough.”
Patty didn’t want to let them know that she also had enough extra food for two more people for two weeks. She was thinking about how dangerous the trip south would be when she heard Max growl his low alert growl. She turned to see Antonio at the door.
“Come on in. It must be 30 degrees out there. Please share our fire.”
“Thanks. Can Max come in also.”
“Yes, bring him. Will he bite my kids?”
“No he’s very gentle. What have you decided?”
“You can come with us, but you’ll have to help and share the guns and ammo with us.”
“That sounds like a deal. How do you plan to get to Guatemala?”
“We go to Corpus Christi, find boat and cruise down to Guatemala.”
“I like what I’m hearing, but what about food?”
“We scrounge along the way and find enough food to take on the boat.”
“How many people do you think will be on the boat?”
“If we find Carla’s familia there will be 12 counting the five of us here.”
“We will have to find a lot of food.”
“Si, we search warehouses, abandoned trucks and stores.”
“I’m in, if my friends don’t show up in time. Max and I will be ready.”
“Perhaps your friends could join us, but I don’t know about the dog, unless he is maybe on the menu.”
“I’d like it if they joined us. I won’t go without Max, and hell no, he is not food. He is a good guard dog and he catches his own food.”
Antonio smiled and said, “If he catches his own food, he’s b
etter than most people. Si, he can go, but none of our food will be wasted on a dog. You and the dog can sleep in the living room.”
“Thanks I’ll go fetch the rest of my gear and will be back shortly.”
Patty really didn’t like that they had more people joining the party without a certain food supply, or the thought that Max would be in a stew. She also knew who would be kicked out if food ran short.
She was careful to assure that no one was tracking her as she traveled back to the overpass. She sorted through her supplies and decided to keep most of it hidden until needed. It’s not that she didn’t trust the family; she didn’t trust anyone, well, except, of course, Matt and Mary.
Patty returned an hour later with enough food to last three days. She also brought an extra two days’ worth of MREs for the family.
Antonio saw her meager possessions and said, “You going to need more food if you go with us.”
“Hold on. I just brought enough to get by until either my friends show up or I know they won’t be coming. I brought your family a two day supply of MREs for the trip even if I don’t join you.”
He seemed satisfied with the gesture and helped her carry her gear into the living room. Muchas Gracias, Senorita Patty, I did not mean to offend you.
He asked, “How your friends to stop and look for you here?”
“I made a big sign on the overpass that says Patty is here!”
***
The time passed and Patty realized that Mary and I were not coming, or worse, had missed seeing the sign and gone on south.
Antonio asked, “They didn’t come today. We are leaving in the morning. Are you coming with us?”
“Yes. I don’t know what happened, but I’m thankful that you will let me travel with you. I’ll go get the rest of my gear.
“I drive you over after the sun go down. Can we find it in the dark?”
“Yes, I stuffed my things up under the overpass.”