John smiled. O’Neal’s timing couldn’t have been more perfect.
“Okay, guys, let’s sit tight. He’ll either be right back out, or he’ll be there for a few minutes. Let’s hope for the latter.”
They continued to monitor the updates, and after a full minute, sandwich man still hadn’t returned from the restroom. It was time to go.
Mark moved quickly to the door and used a master key on a chain around his neck to unlock it. Then he eased it open as the other three quickly entered the hallway. Mark followed them in, closing the door quietly, and grabbing the AK-47 in the corner. He had no intention of taking it with him. It would hinder his ability to fire his primary weapon if he was carrying a second one.
Instead, he removed the magazine from the AK-47 and slipped it into his pocket, quietly ejected the round in the chamber, and placed it back in the corner.
The next update came over the radio.
“No change. Sandwich guy is still in the bathroom. Other guy is still sprawled across the chair.”
John said, “Mark, you and Brad take the bathroom guy. Bryan and I will get the sleeper.”
Then he took off like a shot, down the hallway and into the common area of the building. The others were mere steps behind him.
In the mine, the rest of the group cheered when they saw their team rush into the lounge, getting the drop on Bennett, who had indeed dozed off in the easy chair.
O’Neal had finally finished his business and was walking out of the bathroom when Mark and Brad swooped down upon him, weapons leveled at his chest. He had no option but to surrender.
Hannah swelled with pride as she saw Mark force the man to the floor and frisk him as Brad held him at gunpoint. Then Mark reached into his pocket and removed a heavy duty electrical zip tie to bind his bands.
The siege appeared to be over. And, just as John had predicted, they were able to capture the last two without firing a shot.
Chapter 23
Bryan and Brad took the prisoners to one of the utility rooms in the basement. They took two metal folding chairs and duct-taped them together, back to back.
Then they sat the men into the chairs and bound them tightly with rope. Since their hands were zip tied in front, and were resting on each of the men’s laps, Bryan made sure the rope’s knots were behind and beneath them, far out of reach.
Brad commented, “It’s a good thing you just went to the bathroom. You’re gonna be here awhile.”
Bennett, ever the whiner, immediately complained. “What about me? I need to go.”
“Hold it, you son of a bitch.”
“Hey, you got it wrong, mister. I didn’t shoot anybody. I just came along because they made me.”
“Shut up. Nobody made you do anything you didn’t want to do.”
Brad had no sympathy. He had fire in his eyes and wanted revenge. Revenge for them shooting the woman he loved. Revenge for leaving her scarred and self conscious. Revenge for the misery his friends and family had suffered at the hands of these fools.
And whether these two killed anybody or not, it didn’t matter. They were part of the same bunch of scum.
John walked in.
“Mark’s up there in the security center now reconnecting the cables for the base radio and the surveillance cameras. He says he has some wireless cameras in his storage closet. He’s going to set one up in here and program the signal into one of the security monitors. Until then we’ll have to guard them.”
Bryan was afraid to leave Brad alone with them.
“I’ll take the first shift.”
O’Neal looked at the older man, John, and assumed he was in charge.
He pleaded, “Please don’t hurt us, mister. It won’t do you any good to kill us. Please, just let us go. We’ll walk away and never come back, I promise. And we’ll never tell anybody about this place. You have my solemn word.”
John just looked at him and said, “Shut up, or I’ll run some duct tape around your head a couple of times to shut you up. You have no say here, not anymore. And none of us want to listen to your crap.”
John was Sami’s father, and Brad’s future father in law. He, like Brad, had little sympathy for the plight of their prisoners.
Bryan looked to John and asked, “What, exactly, are we going to do with them, John?”
“Right now they’re going to sit here in their own piss. We’ll get the key players together tomorrow and discuss their future…”
He looked at O’Neal directly when he finished the sentence.
“… and if I were them, I’d worry.”
Their radios suddenly came to life.
“John, this is Mark. The base station is working again. So are the monitors. We’ve reestablished contact with the others. They’re awaiting instructions.”
“10-4, Mark. I’m headed back your way.”
John double checked the knots on the ropes, and the zip ties on the prisoners’ hands. Satisfied they were secure, he gave Bryan a few terse instructions.
“I don’t want them out of the chairs for any reason. Not even to go to the bathroom. They can sit in their own crap. They deserve no less, and we can clean up the mess later. Stay far away from them. Keep your weapon charged and trained on them, safety off. If either of them tries to work their way free, don’t hesitate. Do what you have to do.”
John and Brad made their way back upstairs to the security console. John sat in the controller’s chair for the first time in two weeks and keyed the heavy microphone in front of him.
“Hannah… Sarah… Sami…”
Hannah answered.
“Go ahead, John.”
“We’ve got too much to do to reconcile anytime soon. We have a room to room search to do, and bodies to bury before we bring the kids back over here. It’s too much to do today.
“The four of us are going to get started, and we’ll stay here tonight. Tell the others they’ll have to spend one more night over there, but that it’ll be the last one. Tell them to pack up in the morning and we’ll try to have them back home by lunchtime tomorrow.
“In the meantime, continue to man the security station and to watch the monitors. Notify us immediately if you see anything suspicious.”
He could hear the disappointment in Hannah’s voice. She wanted to come back to the compound. But she understood.
“10-4, John. I’ll make sure everyone gets the word.”
“Mark, we’ll only need two men on security each shift. One here watching the monitors, and the other guarding the prisoners. After you hang the wireless cam in the utility room, I want you and Brad to get some rest. The two of you can relieve us at midnight.”
“Then what?”
“Once you relieve us, Bryan and I will start the room by room search. I want every pillow turned over, every bed looked under. I know there aren’t any more men here hiding, but God only knows what they might have left behind. I don’t want any of the little kids coming across a loaded hand gun or a hand grenade and start playing with it.
“At daybreak tomorrow, whoever is fresh enough can take the Bobcat out by the trash pit and dig a grave. I want to get all the bodies away from the building and hose everything down real good.
“We can bury them all in one grave. They’re past the point of caring, and even if they found a way to object, I’m not in the mood to listen.
“One last thing I want to do is to get the welding rig out of the barn and over to the drive through gate. I want to weld that sucker shut until we can figure out how we’re going to repair it. I don’t want anybody else trying to drive through it while it’s weakened.”
“Once those things are done and our search is finished, I’ll feel comfortable about letting everyone else come home.”
Chapter 24
By daybreak, the four of them were exhausted. John relented and let Sami and David come over to pull security duty, while he and Bryan napped for a couple of hours. The room by room search was completed, and they were exhausted. Bryan had gott
en two hours sleep in the previous thirty six hours. John had none.
While Bryan and John slept, Mark and Brad went into the compound as soon as the sun came over the horizon. Brad jumped on the Bobcat and used its bucket attachment to dig a grave for the body on the roof and the others on the east side of the building. Their prisoners were left locked in the utility room, unattended but watched closely on the monitors.
The bad guys had thrown their own dead into the trash pit after they took over the compound, and burned them with the garbage.
It was ironic that these men would get a more dignified burial from Mark’s group than they would have received from their own comrades.
The Bobcat’s bucket was narrow, at sixteen inches. But it would suffice.
While Brad was digging, Mark fed the livestock and apologized to poor Bessie, their milk cow. She hadn’t been milked in almost two weeks, and she was in misery. Her body had mercifully stopped producing milk, simply because her udder had no more capacity to accept any. Now the udder was swollen and sore, the teats dripping milk. She was beside herself.
Mark took a milking stool and spent a few minutes with her. He doubted the milk would be any good, so he poured it out immediately. He stood next to her after he’d drained two gallons from her udder and stroked her neck. She looked at him with her big brown cow eyes, but he couldn’t tell if she was angry with him for abandoning her for so long. Or grateful for the relief to her pain.
He finished the feeding and went to the greenhouses to survey the damage.
Bennett had done a half-ass job of caring for the plants. It was obvious which berries and vegetables he personally preferred. They were the ones still succulent and well watered. The things he wasn’t fond of, like the squash and cucumbers and lettuce, were dry and parched. Some of the plants were withered and dead.
He had faith that Karen could repair most of the damage. She was a magician when it came to plants.
He gave everything a good soaking, and then went back into the big house to retrieve some white sheets.
By the time Brad finished digging the grave, Mark was finished wrapping the bodies in sheets. The easiest way to do so was merely pulling each man’s feet until the body was straight, and then laying each arm by his side. Then he laid the sheet next to the body and simply rolled it, collecting the sheet as he went, until the body looked like a large cocoon.
Brad called on the radio.
“Mark, this is Brad. Where are you?”
“On the roof. Come give me a hand, will ya?”
Five minutes later the two were standing side by side on the roof, looking down at what used to be Toby Hance.
Mark said, “I’m at a loss. This guy must have been lifting weights in prison for years. He’s got to be close to three hundred pounds, and it’s all muscle. How the hell do we get him down?”
“Do we have any equipment that’ll reach this high?”
“Nope. Even the big forklift only goes up to the second story.”
“Can we drag him down the stairs?”
“If we want to use every last bit of strength we have left, and waste an hour or more.”
For several more minutes, they stood looking at each other, and at the body.
Finally they formulated a plan.
Brad ran down to the workshop and brought back a roll of duct tape. They used it to wrap around the body at the neck and feet so that the sheet didn’t come off while they were moving it.
Then they struggled to drag Hance to the edge of the roof. Mark even tried to find a bit of humor in the situation, grunting, “Man. This gives a whole new meaning to the term ‘dead weight.’”
“Shut up and lift, funny man.”
They got Hance to the short wall which surrounded the edge of the roof, and managed to prop his back up against it.
“Now remember, don’t ever tell the girls about this. They would freak out big time.”
“You got it. I’ll never tell a soul.”
With that, they both reached their arms beneath Hance’s knees, locked their wrists together and lifted, tossing Hance’s body over the wall and to the ground three stories below. He landed with a sickening thud.
“Just tell yourself he didn’t feel it.”
“Hey, it wouldn’t bother me if he did. I have no pity for any of the bastards.”
Back downstairs, Brad took an all-terrain forklift from the back of the pig barn and used it to pick up an empty wooden pallet outside the barn. One by one, they used the forklift to carry the bodies to the trench he’d dug, and then rolled them into it.
The Bobcat didn’t dig deep trenches. It maxed out about four feet deep. There was no way they could have stacked the bodies on top of each other. So Brad had done the next best thing. He dug the trench long enough to accommodate all of the bodies, laid end to end.
It was a grisly task, made ten times worse by the stench the two decomposed bodies put off. The flies followed them every step of the way, buzzing around their heads and landing on them covered with all sorts of disgusting bodily fluids.
Finally, when the bodies were in place, Mark said, “Why don’t you cover them up, and I’ll hose everything down?”
“No problem.”
Brad used the second Bobcat, which had a blade attachment on the front, to shove the piles of loose dirt into the hole. It was a lot faster than digging the trench, and he actually finished up before Mark did.
They met back at the big house. Brad said, “I need a shot of whisky after that. You want one?”
“What I want is a hot shower. My hands are covered with blood and God knows what else. Then I’ll come back and down a couple.”
Both men went to the respective apartments and tried to clean themselves of the disgusting thing they’d just had to do. When they finished and met back in the lounge, all the grime was gone. The memory, though, would be with them forever.
Especially, Mark suspected, the sound of the awful sound that Hance’s body made when it hit the sidewalk after being tossed off the side of the building.
Chapter 25
“How big of a mess did they make in your apartment?” Brad asked after the two met back at the control center.
“Oh, it’s trashed. But Hannah will have it back together in no time. She’s a real clean freak. Which, in this case, is probably a good thing.”
“I wish my girlfriend was a clean freak. Mine’s a real slob.” He smiled and winked at Sami, who was sitting in the controller’s chair behind the console.
“You better watch it, Buddy. I’ll come over this counter and kick your little ass. And I won’t even feel bad about it.”
“Oh, I’m not afraid of you. You hit like a girl.”
“I’ll show you who hits like a girl, tonight, when you’re laying in bed thinking you’re gonna get lucky. Then, wham! To the moon, Alice!”
Mark looked at Brad and smiled. Then he observed, “That’s a real tiger you have there. Maybe you better quit poking her with a stick.”
Brad blew Sami a kiss and said, “Hey, a guy’s got to have a little bit of fun. Especially after what we’ve all been through lately.”
“True. I just hope it’s over now.”
Mark turned to Sami and said, “Would you give the others the all clear and tell them to start coming over through the tunnel? Tell the security team to take a head count so they don’t leave anyone behind, and to be the last ones out.”
“That’s a message I’d be happy to pass on. Do you want them to turn the lights and everything off?”
“No. Tell them to leave everything on. Bryan and I will go over later and shut down all the systems and the generators and make sure the water lines are drained. First, though, I want to spend some time with my sweet wife and son, and then get a nap in.”
Brad looked at the monitor from the utility room where their two prisoners were being kept. It was hard to tell, but Bennett appeared to be crying.
“I guess it sucks to be them around now. What do you think we s
hould do with them?”
“I don’t know. John wants to meet tomorrow to discuss it, after we’ve all had a good night’s sleep. If it were up to me, I’d drive them down to the Gulf of Mexico, put them on a motor boat, lock the rudder, and send them out to sea, still tied up.
“Whatever we decide to do, I’m glad I’m not in their shoes.”
Mark went to the feed barn and propped open the false floor that led to the tunnel. Then he walked down the steps and waited, as the refugees began returning home.
“Welcome back,” he said to each one as they came into view.
Most of the women and children hugged him as they went by. Some of the men gave him a fist bump or a “good job.”
Among the last of the returnees were his wife Hannah and son Markie. Markie came running as soon as he saw his father.
“Daddy!” he squealed.
Mark picked him up and held him, as Hannah came up and hugged them both.
She had tears in her eyes.
“Hey, what’s that all about?”
“Oh, shut up. I’m entitled. I just sent my man off to war and he survived.”
“Okay. Should I wonder whether they’re tears of happiness or tears of disappointment?”
She punched him in the arm.
“Yeah, you big jerk. You wonder about that. I so love you. Are you okay?”
“Yeah, and I so love you too. And what about you? Are you okay?”
“I am now.”
Mark put his son down and held Hannah, kissing her passionately.
Markie rolled his eyes and said, “Ah, come on! Get a room, you two.”
Hannah was shocked.
“Markie! Where in the world did you hear that?”
“That’s what you tell Uncle Bryan and Aunt Sarah, Mommy. Every time they start kissing and stuff.”
Hannah looked at Mark and said, “Don’t you dare say a word.”
“About what?”
“Exactly.”
“Come on, gorgeous. Let’s get out of this tunnel and go home.”
Chapter 26
The following day, school was back in session for the little ones. Karen was back in her greenhouses, trying to fix what she could of the damage done to her plants. David assembled a team of volunteers to start prepping the fields for the crops they’d be planting in a few days, and Joe took it upon himself to give the barns a much needed cleaning.
The Siege Page 8