by Darrel Bird
“I have to ask the question, who are you two? I’ve seen this man, but I’ve never seen you here before today.” Paul looked at the two men and asked.
“My name is Bill Preston, and this is George Mallory. We represent the man who put up the land, the housing and the money for this complex. However you don’t have to do what we ask of you. Everybody is free to come and go as they wish at any time. Our employer did say that the people in this compound has to be protected if at all possible.”
“Even to the point of killing someone?”
“Yes, even that. If you are both willing to do what’s necessary, we believe they will strike again soon. I know you are both tired and hungry, so you need to get some food and a few hours rest tonight. We’ll have people on guard until you are rested.”
“I’ll do what’s necessary; we can’t have people coming in here to slaughter children. If that’s all, I need to get cleaned up. I know of a place I can station myself if they come again.” Maria said, and stood up to leave.
“How about you Paul?” The man asked.
“I signed on; I’ll do what is necessary.”
He followed Maria out of the room, “Maria, wait up.”
She turned, “What?”
“Don’t turn cold on me, I needed to ask questions.”
“I’m not turning cold Paul; I already knew what you would do.” She waited until he walked up to her.
“You already know that much about me?”
“Does that bother you?”
“No.”
“Then let’s get something to eat, get cleaned up and get some rest. We need to be up by three in the morning.”
“Why that early?”
“Because we need to be on station by daylight, I think they will hit us before noon tomorrow. They’ll drink all night, and celebrate their victory, and come back for more.”
“Any special reason you think this will happen?”
“Just woman’s intuition maybe, but I know it will, and Paul, we have to stop them.”
“Yeah, I get that, and we will. These kinds of people won’t fight if it costs them.”
“Yes that’s it; we have to make them pay a price.”
The next morning a young man gently shook Paul awake, “Sorry sir, but they told me to wake you at three.” He whispered.
Paul threw the covers off, rubbing his eyes as the man walked away. Soon he walked into the kitchen where Maria was already sipping coffee. She pushed him a cup of steaming coffee across the table. The neither one said anything as they waited for the cook to bring them breakfast.
When the cook brought a breakfast of eggs, toast and a small bowl of fruit, Paul began eating, “You’re not saying much this morning.” He looked across the table at Maria.
“This is early even for me. After we eat, we get on station.” A man came into the room and laid two small walky talkies on the table before them. “Boss said to give you these. I do want to thank you for all you do for us. I don’t often get the chance to personally thank you.” He smiled and walked away.
“What was that all about?” Paul asked.
“Everyone in the compound knows who the hunter’s are Paul.”
“Hum…I didn’t know that.”
“Take one of these talkies with you, they are VHF radios, and they are good for about a mile and a half, we’ll be way closer than that. That’s the way we will communicate. We will be stationed across the road, and up the hill from each other. We’ll be able to see each other, but they won’t be able to see us.”
“You already know where these places are?”
“Yes, I explored the whole area around the compound on my own before the other hunter was killed. You can see the guard shack and all the way down to the compound fence from either place.”
Paul took the last swallow of coffee, and put his cup down, “Ok, if you’re ready, let’s get it done.”
“Paul, before we go, I just want to say, I’m glad you came here.” She got up from the table, and she was smiling. Paul all of a sudden knew he wanted to take their relationship farther, “I feel the same.” He smiled back at her.
Part 6– Ambush
Maria led out, and walked toward the compound gate. The gate was bent and twisted, but the group had managed to get it to close. She took a key out of her pocket, and unlocked the chains around the gate posts.
“They should have taken the junked cars and put them before the fence.” Paul said after they were through the gate.
“Yes, I suppose we didn’t think we would be attacked without warning by drunken red necks.”
When they reached the trees Maria led off the road and began the climb up the hill, angling toward the first guard post. When they were almost all the way to the top, she stopped at a large tree. “This is your spot; I’ll walk to the far side of the road over there, and wave my hankie so you can spot me. I’ll be on almost on the same level as you.”
“Ok, be careful Maria.” She reached up and kissed him quickly.
“I’ll be careful. If they try to take us out, we can run and fight in the trees up here, at least we’ll have the high ground in our favor, but I really don’t think they will fight.”
“If they try to fight you, God help them.” He smiled.
He watched as Maria disappeared in the trees down the hill, and he picked himself a spot to sit by the large tree. He scanned the road carefully through the scope, and knew right away why she picked this spot. They could do some real damage to would be attackers without being seen, and the rifles had silencers. With the silencers they could not be heard shooting from this distance. The silencer made the rifle a lot heavier, but the 270 Winchester was a deadly weapon, and the added weight made the rifle steadier on its tripod.
He sat and waited, training his scope across the road. After about a fifteen minute wait he saw Maria appear through the trees on the other hill, and about that time his radio crackled to life, “Paul, I’m in position.”
He punched the button on the transmitter, “Yeah Maria, I already spotted you through my scope. You’re pretty over there too.”
“Ok you big flirt, what I want you to do is take out the driver if they come in the truck again, but try not to damage the engine, we want them to be able to drive away. Can you do that?”
“Why the driver Maria?”
“We have to throw them all off balance at once. If they try to run for the trees, do your best to stop them. Ok?”
“Ok, but what if there are two trucks, or even three?”
“There was only one truck yesterday.” There was a moment of silence on the radio, and then, “But you are right, and I never even thought of it. You get the first one, and if there is more, I’ll take out the second one, and so on.”
“Keep a sharp eye out partner.”
“You too Paul.” The radio went silent.
Paul sat and listened to the light wind sowing through the trees. The sounds from the wind would rise and fall, rise and fall, and he thought that was what life on this earth was like. He thought about his wife who was forever gone from this earth from him, and he thought about Maria, it seemed she had come to take her place, the rising and falling of life.
The sun was growing hot, and he wiped beads of sweat from his forehead, and waited, every so often training the scope on the first guard shack. They had ordered the men who manned the shack to run into the trees if they saw a strange truck.
He had lain in his position about an hour. He swallowed a drink of water, and then had just retrained the scope on the guard shack when he saw the checkered shirt of the guard run around the back of the shack into the trees. He punched the button on the transmitter, “Maria, someone’s coming.”
“Do you see them Paul?”
“Not yet, but the guard took off. Wait…I see two trucks coming!”
“I see them, get ready. Remember…the driver first.”
“Yeah, yeah, I got it Maria, let’s wait until they get into the compound clearing.”
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“Why?”
“If we shoot to early there is no chance we’ll have the law on our side Maria.”
“Ok Paul, I have the second driver lined up now, I’ll wait until you shoot.”
The trucks sped on past the guard shack and down the hill toward the compound. Paul could see the men on in the pickup beds waving beer bottles and guns. They were yelling and whooping so loud he could hear them plainly. One man almost fell off the first truck as the truck weaved a bit. A man fired over the cab at the compound with a shotgun.
He retrained the scope on the driver, and he could see the man’s chest in the early light of the day. The truck sped into the compound clearing and Paul squeezed the trigger on the rifle. He saw the bullet go through the windshield and hit the man’s chest. The man slumped over the wheel and the trucked veered sharply toward the trees. The truck ran into a tree and stopped. The man next to the driver opened the driver’s door and kicked the man out of the truck. He clambered behind the wheel and then the truck was spinning around, and speeding back up the road. He saw the other truck still in the compound clearing. A man was franticly trying to pull the fat man who was wounded from behind the steering wheel of the truck.
He gave a final yank, and flung the man to the ground, clambering into the driver seat of the pickup. The men on the back of the pickup were huddled together in the floor of the bed. One of the men let loose at the compound with a fully automatic weapon. Other men on the truck were firing wildly. The man got the truck started and spun out of the clearing, throwing rooster tails of dirt behind him, until the wheels got traction on the road, and they were speeding away. He quickly trained the scope on the first truck that was disappearing over the hill past the guard shack.
Paul put a bullet in the corner of the driver side window of the second truck as it sped past the guard shack. He sat by the tree and waited, watching the compound through his binoculars. Some men walked out of the compound and surround the wounded or dead men. Soon he saw the doctor running toward the men. He watched as the doctor rose and shook his head. He realized then that he had killed a man.
His radio crackled to life, “Are you ok Paul?”
“We just killed two men, I don’t know if I’m ok or not Maria.”
“We did what had to be done Paul.”
“You go on back down if you want Maria, I need to sit here a while.”
“I’ll sit with you Paul; I’m right over here where you can see me. Look through your scope.”
He trained his scope on Maria, and she blew him a kiss, and mouthed, “I love you.”
After about ten minutes the radio came to life again, “This is Weldon. You two whole up there Paul?”
“Yeah, we’re ok Weldon, how about you down there?”
“No one hurt; you can both come in now. I don’t think they will make another run like that.”
“Ok Weldon, be there in a few. Did you hear that Maria?”
“Copy. Heading back now.”
Part 7- The Sheriff
Sheriff Wayne Wright had been sheriff of Grand County Colorado for ten years. He had lost the election to Rod Cole and was in the process of transferring office to Cole. They were in his office doing paper work when Roy Cantrell boiled through the door, followed by six other men.
“Sheriff Wright! We got shot up out by the rim rock, and Bill Jackson and Moose Smith are dead!”
“What are you spouting Cantrell? We’re trying to do real work here.”
“Just like I said sheriff, we were hunting up by the rim rock, and the people in that compound up there shot us up. They killed Moose and Bill!”
“Ok, we’ll head up there and make some arrests!” Cole announced. He drew his 38 revolver and began checking the loads.
“Cole…hold on a minute.” Wright said. “Get out of here Cantrell while I talk to Cole here.”
“Ain’t you going to do nothing sheriff? Two men have been killed here!”
“Just go on outside Cantrell!”
The men turned to the door and left. Wright could hear them outside in the outer office talking loudly to his two deputies’ and they were all talking at once.
“Cole, you are the sheriff now, but Cantrell is a trouble maker, they probably got drunk and went out to that camp with guns. No telling what they’ve done out there.”
“Yes I’m the sheriff as of now, and I’ll do what needs to be done. Go on home Wright, go fishing. I’ll handle this.”
“Cole…”
“I’ll handle it Wright.”
Cole cut him off, and walked through the door leaving Wright standing there in mid sentence. Wright looked sadly after him, and he knew full well that hell was coming to this area of his county, but he wasn’t the sheriff any more.
Part 8- Threats
Cole drove into the compound with his squad car, but he couldn’t get to the gate because the group had pulled the stripped hulks of cars and planted them before the gate. He got out of his squad car and marched up to the hulk that lay across the gate. He had his hand on his service revolver.
“Open up! I’m the sheriff of Grand County!” He announced importantly, puffing out his chest.
Preston and Mallory walked to the gate, “Can’t do that sheriff, this is a privately owned compound!” Preston said.
“You are all under arrest for insurrection! If you don’t comply, my men will be forced to shoot.”
“There are two rifles with scopes trained on you sheriff. My advice is to turn around and go. Those men attacked this compound, killed three adults, and two children. That’s cold blooded murder, and then they came back to attack again. We have a situation here sheriff.”
Cole looked around and he knew he was in a bad position, “If that’s the way you want to play it.” He stomped back to his car, and drove back up the hill.
The next morning five squad cars and a pickup truck came storming into the compound clearing. The men backed the truck up to the hulk that was in front of the gate, and a man got out of the truck to hook a chain to it.
Someone in the group of men fired toward the compound, and Cole exclaimed, “Oh crap!” as he dived into his squad car.
The men didn’t expect rifleman on the hill behind the compound, and a one hundred ninety grain round went through Coles door and just grazed his leg. “Dammit they are shooting from the hill!” He said, as he spun the car around and sped out of the compound. The others followed him, and when they reached the guard post, he stopped his car.
The others stopped too, and one of the deputies walked around to his window, “Whatcha gonna do now sheriff? They had us zeroed in real good down there.”
“Get on the radio Hank, and call Lane County for more deputies; get them out here now!”
“Yes sir.” The deputy walked back to his car. About that time his radio speaker blared, and he reached to turn it down, “You out there Cole? This is Wright.”
“What do you want Wright?”
“Are you at the compound? What’s going on?”
“They shot at us, nicked my leg.”
“I got it out of Sam Grafton after I threatened to give him a bloody nose; those red necks got drunk, went out there and shot the place up three days ago Cole. Those idiots had no business going out there and attacking peaceful people. They are the ones that broke the law.”
“Well its none of your business now is it? You are not supposed to be on a police radio, this is police business!”
“Cole, don’t go out there and start a war with these people…please.”
“I’m the sheriff now Wright!”
“Yeah, you told me.” Wright laid the mike on the desk. He was sixty five, but he felt like he was eighty.
Part 9- The President
Liam Grant walked into the presidential office that first morning after being sworn in. He was now the president of the United States. He didn’t have to run all over the country holding babies, kissing old women, or take the crap any more. The election had been hard won. He had
gotten out of bed tired from all the Washington rigamarole, and he was already in a fowl mood. Five of his advisors were already seated, and they all stood when he entered the room. It felt good to have men stand up when he entered a room. He hoped Percy ended up driving a garbage truck in New York.
After the hand shaking and fawning was through from these underlings, whom he detested, he began, “I suppose we need to get down to business.”
One if his advisors hand went up, “Mr. President, a wire just came in about an hour ago, a Ruby ridge situation is brewing as we speak.”
Yeah, and this fool can’t wait to lay it on me.
“And whereabouts is this desperate situation brewing at Hal?”
“Grand County Colorado Sir.” The man got up and handed him the sheet.
He scanned the sheet enough to get the gist of it. He couldn’t begin his presidency with the slaughter of a bunch of women and children by some red neck sheriff in some back woods Podunk place in Colorado, and he wasn’t going to.