“Did you see the new girls Russ brought in?” the new peeing guy asked through the darkness to the first peeing guy. “He’s got them in the skybox.”
“Not yet, but I bet…”
“Adam, this is Joshua. Do you copy? Adam, this is Josh. Do you copy? Over,” Joshua’s voice boomed in Adam’s ear again. He missed what the men had said about the ladies, but he got the gist.
“Yeah, and then there’s the young one with the red hair. That’s my type, I tell ya,” the second guy responded, as he finished up. “I want to get to her before the others do. They can have the old ladies. I’m ready for something young.”
First guy was done, and instead of turning to walk out of the door in which he entered, he walked through the darkness towards the light of the second door. “I’ll be next in line,” he said, right before he kicked something soft and fell over.
A small “yelp” escaped from Daisy.
“What the…?” first guy exclaimed as he tumbled down onto the tile floor.
Adam moved quickly across the darkness.
“It’s a dog!” second guy said. His eyes adjusted enough to make out the shape of the dog.
“Stupid ass dog!” first guy said, rising to his knees.
Daisy growled softly but still had not moved from the spot where Adam had commanded her to stay.
Adam saw the man on his knees reaching for his pistol. “DAISY, ATTACK!”
Both men were startled by the yell coming from the darkness of the bathroom. The hesitation of both men gave Daisy enough time to lunge at the man on his knees.
The second guy reached for his pistol but didn’t get a shot off. Adam had the momentum and propelled himself from the darkness to the light, driving the blade of his knife deep into the man’s upper chest. They both collapsed to the floor under the weight of the attack. Adam continued to drive the blade deeper and up. The man struggled, gripping at Adam’s hands and the handle blade, but he was loosing strength rapidly. Adam backed off of his attack as the man started to gurgle and gasp for air.
Daisy was growling and snarling and ripping into the arms and hands of the first guy. He was screaming for someone to get the dog off.
“Daisy heel! Heel!” Adam commanded, as he pulled his knife out of second guy and put the bloody edge to first guy’s throat.
The dog backed away but never let off of the growling. Adam moved behind the man to avoid the bloody injuries to his face, arms, and hands. Picking up the man’s pistol, he put it to the back of the man’s head with a metallic thud.
“Hands against the wall,” Adam ordered. “You move, and I turn the dog loose. Got it?”
The man nodded, and put his bloody hands up to the wall. Adam then scooped up the pistol from the guy on the floor and felt for a pulse. There was none, and Adam breathed in and out heavily. He cleaned his knife off on the man’s shirt before putting it back into the sheath on his belt.
“Josh, this is Adam. Do you copy? Over,” Adam said, multitasking as he waited on his brother to return the call. Finding a dozen large zip ties hanging off of the dead man’s belt, Adam grabbed the arms of Daisy’s new dog chew and brought them behind his back, binding them with two of the ties. He then put the man onto his knees and bound him again to the metal plumbing under a sink.
“Go ahead, Adam, this is Josh. Over.”
“I…” he looked at the dead man on the tile floor and over at the man bound to the sink. I’ll do my best…to God and my country. “I ran into some trouble, but I’m okay, now. I think I know where they are being held. Did you guys run into problems? Over.”
Joshua looked at the carnage that was still playing out in front of the mobile home park’s community center. “I’ll have to tell you later. Over.”
CHAPTER 18
Leah sat in the plush chair, her hands bound in front of her. The view beyond the glass was that of a race fan’s dreams. They were in the middle skybox above the Talladega Super Speedway, and the legendary track spread across their view like a giant HD television.
“Do you like it in here?” Russ asked the two women.
Leah noted that the man had a hard time balancing being evil and trying to pull off faux high class. There wasn’t a great delta between the two emotions. “Where are the others?” she asked. This was the third time she had asked, and she felt that it might be her last without Russ crossing back over to evil.
Russ ignored Leah’s question and instead continued to talk about the pleasantries of the location. “You see, we have this one guy who is pretty good at fix’n things, so he was able to get a generator working, and ‘poof’,” his fingers made small explosions in the air, “we have air conditioning and lights. You see, ladies, we’re not that uncivilized.”
“Yet, you set people free from jail!” Tabby said. Leah turned to her; she had suspected that some of the men that had manhandled them had done time by the looks of their tattoos, but she hadn’t known it as fact.
Russ shrugged. “Like I told you when you first got here, I needed help, and I needed people that would be loyal. When I worked in the pen, I treated them nice, and then when all of this shit hit the fan, well, I knew exactly where to recruit some trustworthy followers.” He snickered with the word trustworthy.
“How many did you set free?” Leah asked, hoping he would divulge information.
“Oh, so now you want to talk! Does that interest you, mommy soldier!?”
Leah bit her tongue; she needed him to keep talking. She needed the data so she could get to the others.
He walked behind the chair she was sitting in and ran his hand across her shoulders. Leah didn’t move. He traced his fingers down the front of her shirt, lingering around her cleavage. With one swift move, he grabbed her neck and brought her chin back so that she was looking straight up. He moved his unshaven face down to her neck and lingered there for a second. He took a deep breath in and let his warm breath wash down the front of her V-neck t-shirt. “Just the ones I needed,” he whispered, released her head, and walked back to stair out at the track.
Tabby, Leah, and Violet exchanged looks. Tabby’s eyes asked if the other woman was all right. Lean nodded slowly.
“I know she is a big wig doctor,” he said, looking over at Tabby, but what I don’t know is what you are, mommy soldier?” he asked, turning back to Leah. “You seem to be the one in control. I like that, and, yeah, I can see you’re hot, but I’ve spent too long studying people to know that you aren’t just a hot-bodied G.I. Jane. So, what’s so special about you, mommy soldier?”
“Okay,” Leah tempted, “I’ll tell you about me, if you tell me if the girls are,” she selected her words carefully, “not being harmed.”
Russ seemed to think about that for a minute before answering. “Ahhh, no. And you two want to know why?”
The three women did not answer.
“Well, I’m going to tell you anyway,” he said, slamming his fist into a table.
The women startled at the outburst.
“Because every time I wanted something from a woman,” he spoke softly through gritted teeth. “I had to give something up,” he yelled. “Every girlfriend wanted something; my ex-wife took everything! Even if I got a hooker, shit, I had to pay her first. So, no, there is no exchange of information between you and me, mommy soldier!” He pointed a finger at Leah and lowered his voice to a tone thick with danger. “I will only ask a question one time from now on, and you will provide me with an answer. Understood?”
Leah didn’t respond. She didn’t change the expression on her face or harden her eyes to his threats. She did, however, remain calm, which only seemed to piss Russ off more.
“My boys have them,” he said with a snarl. He hoped that the admission would break Leah’s front. “I imagine about now, considering that most of them were in the slammer for rape, that…” he let the sentence go, and shrugged his shoulders like he really didn’t know. The corners of his mouth turned up when Tabby squeaked out a ‘no’.
“See!�
�� he moved over to Tabby and stroked her hair. “She gets it. So, why don’t you, mommy soldier?” He walked back over and backhanded Leah across the face. He then turned back around to take in the view of the track again.
That is when Leah made her move. In one swift motion, she was out of the chair and had her zip tied hands over his head. She then put her knee into his back and using her momentum, pushed him forward, riding him to the ground. Russ’s instincts were to reach for the hands and plastic zip tie around his neck. He didn’t have time to brace for the fall. He fell face first onto the carpeted floor with Leah providing ballast. The fall knocked the wind out of the man, and he heaved trying to get his lungs to function.
“Give me your belt!” Leah said, turning her head to Tabby.
Tabby did as ordered and handed her the military issue cotton-webbing belt. She then put it around the man’s throat and closed the loop, pulling tightly, with a measured amount of pressure.
“You’ll kill him!”
Leah didn’t respond.
Russ flailed on the floor like a fish out of water. Leah put more pressure on his spine, further hampering his ability to breathe. He flailed one more time, choking noises escaped his throat, the top of his head turned tomato red, and he collapsed. Leah released the belt and handed it back to Tabby.
“He’s not dead, he’s just passed out. It’s like a…”
“Choke hold,” Tabby finished the sentence with a rise in her eyebrows. “Smart.”
“Lock the door,” Leah said, pulling the man’s boot off and then his sock. She rolled the sock up and shoved in into the man’s mouth.
Tabby rushed to lock the door as Violet rifled through a desk looking for something to cut the zip ties off. Finding a pair of scissors, she first cut Leah’s binds off of the women, and then, Tabby reciprocated.
“Keep them as a weapon until we find something else.” Leah instructed, pulling Russ’s pistol out of a holster on a table. She checked that the magazine was full and then chambered a round. “I’ve got what I want.” Her radio was there also.
“What about him?”
“Unplug those two lamps and cut the chords off. I’ll use those to tie him up.”
Two minutes later, Russ was hog tied to a decorative metal pole dividing the room. Tabby reached down and shoved the socks a little extra stuffed into the unconscious man’s mouth. “That should hold him. Now, let’s find the girls,” she said with a crooked smile.
Leah nodded at the other woman. And then thought about the situation at hand before activating the radio. She had heard the ‘War Dawgs 911’ transmission, and knew that Adam was out there somewhere. She dialed in the new frequency and listened. There was nothing.
“Adam, this is Momma B, over,” she whispered.
“Momma B, this is Adam. Go ahead, over.”
Leah gave a thumb up to Tabby.
“Are you safe? Do you know where the girls are?”
“I do, but they are in trouble, and you need to hurry!”
CHAPTER 19
Mr. Rivers was sitting up, and actually had the makings of a smile on his face.
“How do you feel?” Amy asked the old man. She thought he looked like shit.
“I…” he stopped and took a sip of water. “I feel like death sucked the soul out of me, took it out for a night on the town, and then put it back in me the wrong way,” he said, with a voice that warbled.
Amy laughed, and Mr. Rivers tried not to laugh. They were sitting inside of the community center. He was lined up against a wall with several other wounded people. Dr. Cadet was busily trying to work on the wounded. He was being assisted by two elderly nurses that demanded that, ‘they still got it,’ and jumped right in to assist the doctor.
After the attack, it had been a gruesome time helping to clean up the scene. As it turned out, the community center and trailer park were located at the edges of a large retirement community along a lake next to I-20.
The local police officer showed up on an old motorcycle after the battle. He was shocked at the carnage but was ready to help Ian and his team in any way.
“You’re the first military we have seen since this entire thing started,” Officer Waters noted to Ian.
Ian nodded; he didn’t want to make an excuse for the Government’s lack, or inability, to respond. But, by the same token, he wanted the people to have some sense of hope that the Government had their backs…and would eventually fight back!
“It has been hard pulling the pieces back together,” Ian stated. “We’re not really more than a militia right now, but I guess we’ll do our best to help.” He didn’t think he was the best rah rah speech giver.
“Well, that’s more than anyone else has promised us. What can we do to help? We’re not much more than a few hundred old folks, two cops, and a few others.”
“Don’t sell us short, Waters,” one of the men said, listening in to the conversation. Both Ian and Officer Waters turned to listen.
“My name is Jim Tribbie, I’m 72, but damn it, I can fight! I was in Nam from ’66-68. I volunteered after college, and they made me an officer. I can still lead people, and I know there are a bunch of us here that are tired of this crap! I had brothers die to protect this country, and I don’t want their lives wasted any more than I want to see more of us slaughtered like what just happened!”
Ian cleared his throat. “Thank you, sir, for your service,” he said, and looked around for Reed; he had an idea. Catching his eye, he waved him over.
“I need the radio we gave you.” A crowd had formed around the group. They all wanted to feel needed, protected…they wanted to know their fate.
Reed unhooked the earpiece and gave it to the colonel. Ian then handed it to Jim. “You want to help,” Ian handed him the radio. “I know that most of you want to help fight the enemy,” he said, raising his voice and addressing the entire community center. “I know you want to strike back at those that murdered the innocent here today. I know you want to make a difference,” he looked over at Grace. She was smiling at him.
“So, today is the day that you start to fight back!” There were sporadic ‘yes’ and ‘alights’ that rose from the group. “Officer Waters and Lt. Tribbie will be your points of command. We need people that have medical skills, people that can fire weapons, people that can repair things and make them run again. This is your time to show America that you are still relevant, and this is the start of when we take our country back!”
The crowd exploded with applause and whistles. Fists flew into the air, and people slapped each other on their backs. They just needed someone to tell them that there was something to believe in and give them a direction.
“Start with weapons and ammunition,” Ian ordered Waters and Tribbie. “Find what you can. Find the people that know how to use them and train others. Save as much of your ammo as you can. Think about food and water, these will kill you before the Chinese do. We will be in the area supporting you and taking the fight to them. You will see us using the highway. Don’t let your people use it, it could be a deathtrap.”
Both men nodded, casting affirmative looks at each other. “How do we get hold of you?” Officer Waters asked.
“The radios, channel 25, ask for Colonel Burrows with the War Dawgs.”
“Sir,” Joshua broke through the crowd and grabbed Ian’s elbow. “I got through to Adam. He has given me the details on what’s going on. We need to move, now, sir.”
“Okay, let’s go. Amy, would you mind staying with the kids and Mr. Rivers here for right now?” he asked, standing in front of the elderly patient.
She shook her head, tears forming at the base of her eyes.
“Ian,” Dr. Cadet stood up, “I’m coming with you, everyone here is stable until we can get back…” Ian started to shake his head, but Seth was not taking that as an answer. “Ian, they took my wife and kid.”
“I know,” he said, putting a hand on the other man’s shoulder. “They took my wife, too. Let’s go!”
> The team exited the community center to cheers and to chants of ‘USA! USA! USA!’
“Adam, report! Over,” Ian ordered into his headset as they sped down the interstate. He was in the hummer with Reed; Joshua and Grace followed in the Rover.
“I am on the other side of the track, directly across from the grandstand. They have the women separated and in two different skyboxes. Somehow, they have lights on, so I have a really good view into the boxes. Over.”
“Roger, that. What I want to know is, are they being harmed in any way? Over.”
“No, sir, not that I can see…wait a minute. Hold. I’m switching to an open mic,” Adam said, toggling the switch on his radio and then looking harder into the optics of his binoculars. “Shit!”
“That doesn’t help, Adam!” Ian fought to contain the tone in his voice. He knew that, for the most part, he was dealing with untrained people, under an extremely stressful environment, and asking them to do things he used to ask Rangers to do. “Tell me the details of what you are looking at.” His voice calm and deliberate.
“Well, sir, there are two levels that are lit up. Both are completely glass on the racetrack side. There are no other ways to get to the boxes except from the inside. I can see Momma B, Dr. Cadet, and my mom in the largest box at the top in the exact middle. There is a guy that is talking to them; I think he is the leader. He looks like he is the only one with them, and their…their hands are tied together.”
“Perfect, Adam,” Ian praised. “Now, what about the others?”
“Ah,” Adam shifted the view of his optics and focused on the lower skybox. “I see Anna and Raven. They are also bound and sitting in the room alone. There are several armed men in the room next to theirs and several more in the adjoining skybox. The men look like they are arguing amongst themselves.”
Worst Case Scenario - Book 5: Militia Page 8