“I say you should stay.” Jack said without hesitation.
“To bad it’s not your call.” I said. Jack turned to look at me. He again gave me the impression of Jack Nicholson on the stand stating that I couldn’t handle the truth. “What do you mean by that?” He asked.
“I am the leader. You made sure of that. It wasn’t something I wanted, but it is something you made me do. That makes this my call. All you are here for is to help me as I need it. You don’t get the final say in this.”
“Really?” Jack asked. “You feel like having a pissing match this morning?”
“No Jack, there will be no pissing match because there’s no question who the leader is. You made it absolutely clear on our first night that you didn’t want, and would not take, the role of leader.”
Jack looked at me. I knew this fight had been coming for over a week now. He was acting more and more like he was leading us while sticking me with all the responsibility for the decisions that were being made. I needed that to end. Amanda had been telling me that this was his place, his roof, and we needed to let him have his way. I didn’t agree with that. This wasn’t his place anymore, this is our place now. I offered him the chance to make all the decisions and he threw it back into my face. He had a voice in the decision making process, but the final word was mine. I returned Jacks glare, and nobody spoke, or breathed, until Jack finally sighed, saying, “You’re right Charlie. You are the man in charge. What do think we should do?”
I turned my attention from Jack and looked back to Jane. “With the work we did yesterday could we repel a large scale invasion without you and Amanda here?”
Jane looked to Amanda and she looked at him and nodded.
“No.” Jane said. “You couldn’t.”
“We have enough explosives buried around the parking lot to hurt someone in a bad way and scare the survivors into never wanting to come back.” Amanda said.
“The trouble is, if they are more scared of whoever is leading them, they will come back and after you’ve popped the explosives you are going to have nothing left to throw at them.” Jane added.
“And they would return because the supplies we have in this building could keep them going for a long time. Either fear, or hunger, or a combination of both would drive the surviving forces back. When that happens, you will need people that can shoot quickly and accurately.” Amanda said.
“And that would be us.” Jane said with a smile.
“When the hell did you two start finishing each other’s sentences?” I asked.
“So, what should we do?” Sass asked.
“Okay. Here’s what I think. You three military peeps take some time and think about what we would need to do to make this place defendable without Jane and Amanda. Once you have your plans drawn up we will begin to build whatever you think we need. We spend our time on fortifying, but if we see bikes again I am sending you two out to find where they are and how many of them we are facing. Anyone have an issue with what I’m saying?” Nobody did.
While the three dealers of death figured out what they needed to make us safe Sass and I caught a quick nap. When we woke up the game plan had been settled on and was in the process of being carried out. Jane and Jack were down in the store making nail bombs. I have no clue what you need to do to build these things, but Amanda described them as an antipersonnel device that killed anything around them. Jane later told me that even up on the roof we would be at risk of injury if the nail bombs were employed. Amanda was building security barriers that could also be used for cover while returning fire into whoever sat below in the parking lot. At the time I thought these barriers were an amazing feat of engineering, but after seeing the walled city of the head hunters, where we were currently trapped, I had to admit that Amanda’s barriers were preschool construction.
By early evening everybody turned in for the night. Shawn had agreed to take the first two shifts on watch and then Sass took the early morning shift. There proved to be no need for a watch. It wasn’t until noon the next day that the sound of the motorcycles returned.
FOUR
Jack, Amanda, and Sass had left to shore up the defenses on site B, which was to be our back up plan if we ever lost control of Wal-Mart. Jane and I were the only council members at home when the bikers rolled into our parking lot. I was amazed at how well our work was panning out. The way we had moved the cars made the invaders take a very specific path to the front of the store. This specific path put them in the center of explosion central.
There wasn’t just five this time. Harley Davidson had a group of fifteen riding behind him. Jane and I stood at the edge of the roof watching as they parked and got off of their bikes. I had hidden everyone else away inside the store. Jane and I would be the only people to be seen in this exchange. If we didn’t have to kill them I wanted them to know nothing more than they knew when they pulled in. Harley was looking up at us as he took a few steps away from his bike.
“Afternoon.” He said.
“Howdy.” I said in response.
“Nice day, isn’t it?” Harley said looking around at the front of the building.
“To nice to be wasting it. If you have a point I suggest you get to it.” Jane said. Harley looked back up at us and smiled.
“A straight forward man. I like that. The short of it is, you are done here. Your building and supplies are no longer yours. Get out and you can keep your lives. Stay and we will kill you and then take what we want.”
I looked to Jane and he looked to me. We made a show of us talking things over then I gave Harley our answer.
“Get bent.” I said.
“Excuse me?” Harley said.
“You heard me. What we have, we earned. If you leave now and never return, we will let you live. You persist in this and you will all die.” I said. Harley thought that this was the funniest thing he had heard since possibly the dead had shuffled into town because he laughed so hard I thought he would need to sit down.
“You? Kill us?” Harley asked still laughing.
“Hard to believe isn’t it?” I asked.
Harley wiped his eyes before speaking. “That’s what I was thinking.” He turned and looked at the bikers standing behind him. “Is that what you boys were thinking?” The other bikers confirmed that they were thinking the same thing. That’s when Harley pulled his gun and pointed it at me. The other bikers did the same thing.
“As much as I like talking to you, Wal-Mart man, it’s time to end this. You have it, we want it. I suggest you give up before we decide to use you for target practice.”
“Stall.” Jane said from beside me. “Jack and Amanda should almost be here by now. Once they take up flanking positions we can take this group down without much trouble.”
Harley must have thought that Jane was advising me to not do anything crazy because, in a show of pure irony, he yelled up, “Listen to your friend. He looks like a smart man.”
“Let’s put the guns away and discuss this like rational men. I’m sure we can work something out” I said.
“We’re not rational men and there is nothing to work out. Leave and we let you live.” Harley said.
As I stared out at the bikers I saw a dark shape zip across the back of the parking lot. It had to have been Amanda. I looked towards the woods that lined the right side of the parking lot placing a barrier between the store and the interstate and I noticed a man waving at me. The man made a fist and then punched at the air in my direction. I took that to mean that it was time to hit these guys in the face. I turned my attention back to Harley as I flashed him my best Han Solo smile.
“Will you guys do me a favor? Remember I warned you about the whole death thing when you wake up in hell.” I said dropping to the roof. Jane had dropped with me, but he had already picked up his rifle and was sighting his first target. He told me we wouldn’t need the explosives for this group. My military hit squad would be enough to take down Harley and his pals. I was hearing the repeated, pop…pop…po
p of gunfire. After it was over Jane told me what happened. Six of the bikers were dead before they even realized they were being attacked. Another three were down before they drew their weapons. By the time the remaining bikers fired the first bullet there were only four left alive. No second shots were made. Harley had taken two shots to the chest, but Jane said he was still moving. He had landed on top of the automotive moat we had built around the building. He motioned for me to stand up as Amanda approached him.
As Amanda reached Harley he stood up. She put a gun to his head, but before she could pull the trigger he said something. I couldn’t make it out. It was too soft to hear from my distance.
After Amanda put Harley down her group returned back to the roof to talk to Jane and I.
“Nice job.” Jack said.
“None escaped. We need to clean the battlefield and prepare for the next engagement.” Amanda said.
“Prepare for what? We just beat the bikers what else is there?” Sass asked.
“We didn’t beat the bikers. Not yet.” Amanda said.
“What do mean?” I asked. Amanda looked at me with dread in her eyes.
“Before he died the leader spoke to me. He said, ‘We are just the tip of the spear. The others are coming. There is no escape for you now.’”
FIVE
By the end of the day we had the parking lot cleared. The bodies had been loaded into the truck to be disposed of. Amanda had gone with Jane and Sass to do this duty. Jack was helping me reshape the parking lot.
“Guns won’t be enough.” Jack said.
“Worked fine this time.” I said.
“Yes, but there will be a lot more next time. I spoke to Jane earlier and he said expect at least ten times the number we had today.”
I stopped what I was doing and looked at Jack. “That’s a hundred and sixty people.”
“Yeah, hell of an invasion force, wouldn’t you say?”
“Could that many even fit up here?” I asked. Jack looked around. “I’d say we could get around three or four hundred in here, but it would be tight.”
“We have to know what we are facing here Jack. You don’t want to hear it but, we have to send out the wonder twins.”
Jack grabbed the remote and lowered our last car into its assigned spot as I began detaching the cables.
“Charlie, the rest of the gang could be here tonight, or tomorrow. We have no way of knowing. We need to prepare and bunker in. Fortify, fortify, fortify. Use the lessons we learned from the Japs in World War Two and the VC in Nam. Pull back and fortify. Make your enemy dig you out and rip him apart as he tries. That kind of fight favors the hidden whether it’s in a cave, a underground bunker or Wal-Mart. We make them jump through our hoops and we can cut them down with ease and little risk to ourselves.”
“Sounds good. What if there is so many that they are able to pour through those hoops, shattering them in the process. What if there are so many that we can’t kill them fast enough. We would be overwhelmed. We would be defeated.”
“That is a bit farfetched, Charlie.” Jack said with a frown.
“How many would it take to realistically do what I’m saying?”
“Couple hundred I would imagine.” Jack said. “But it would have to be well thought out. It would have to be a coordinated attack. They would have to marshal their forces at our barrier and pound it until it broke. It would take discipline. It would take patience and sacrifice, especially with the explosives we have to throw at them. Keep in mind these are hillbilly bikers. Do you really think any of them have the ability to put something like that together?”
“Jane is an ex-hillbilly biker.” I said. Jack looked at me and I cocked an eyebrow at him, daring him to refute my logic.
“Point. But still, I can see no advantages to sending them out. Any way you look at it all we do is weaken ourselves.”
I sighed and, putting my hands on my hips, looked out towards the interstate that started all of the trouble. I could see his point. The bad thing was that I could also see mine. I had to make a decision and I had to do it now. If I was going to send them out I wanted them gone at first light. I wanted them in the sack as soon as they got back so they would be fresh when they left. However, if we were to do nothing more than fortify and wait as Jack wanted, then we could work deep into the night with the proper look out. Its times like these that make being the leader suck.
“I just don’t know which decision is the right one.” I said more to myself than anybody.
“I sympathize. Really, I do. I have been lost in this type of dilemma more times than I can remember. I have had to make decisions where, either way, I knew I was dooming good men to die a horrible, painful death. It’s what hardens your heart. It’s what makes men into leaders. You have to set the mission above any personal biases you may have. Your mission, Charlie, is to keep us safe and fend off this rolling army when it appears. All you have to do is ask yourself which decision best does that?”
Which decision best protects us? That was easy. It all comes back to Sun Tzu. Know your enemy. Know where he calls home. Know how he is trained. Know how well nourished he is. Know how well armed he is. Take this knowledge and build your tactics around it. Force him to march to you, depleting his supplies and tiring his soldiers in the process. Feint, misdirect, and then when you’re ready, crush your opponent. To win, know your opponent and know yourself…I had to send my scouts out.
As this thought was forming in my head I saw the white box truck come rumbling up the hill and pull into the recessed area of the building near the automotive department.
“Come on up top Jack. I’m about to piss you off.”
Jack hopped into the tow truck and looked at me out the window, “You? Piss me off? But you get along with everybody.” The diesel engine growled awake and I could hear him laughing as he pulled away from me.
SIX
“I need the two of you to go find where these bikers are, how much trouble they will be, and what we could best do to disrupt any plans they may have.” I said.
“Yeah. Can’t say I didn’t see this coming.” Jane said.
“Charlie, now is not a good time for Jane and I to be leaving.” Amanda added.
“I told you if we saw the bikers one more time that I was sending you out to find their base. I’m fairly sure this qualifies as seeing them.”
“Yeah, but…” Was all Amanda could get out before she fell silent.
“Can you and Jane track them down?” I asked.
“It can be done. But like I said before it won’t be quick or easy.” Jane said.
“It just seems like there is more than enough work here preparing for the next attack.” Amanda said.
“We’re not even sure that there will be a next attack. Mister Harley Davidson could have been lying to you.” Sass said
“I have wondered about that. If I was about to die I would want to take one last jab at my killers. Try to get under their skin one last time.” Jane said.
“And that’s my point. We don’t know anything, not for sure. We are completely in the dark here. We need some light. We need to see what’s standing in front of us. If anyone else could take one of your places I will make it happen. Could that work?” I asked.
“Yeah.” Jane said. “It would slow us down even more, but it could be doable.”
“I wouldn’t recommend it.” Amanda said.
“I wouldn’t either.” Jack said. “If we are sending them out I want them back as quickly as possible. Two trackers will get the job done much faster than one and a helper.”
“How long are we talking here?” Sass asked.
“Couple of days at best.” Jane said, and Amanda nodded.
“Okay. Get some rest. I want you hunting as soon as the sun rises.”
Jane and Amanda both nodded. The danger I was sending my two deadliest warriors into was huge and I knew if one, or both, of them didn’t make it back it would be hard for the others to forgive me. It would be hard for me to forgi
ve myself. I had to put the group before anything else though. I needed to know what needed to be done to successfully defeat this enemy.
“Well. You have officially made your first hard leadership decision. How do you feel about it?” Jack asked once it was just him, Sass, and I.
“I still think it’s what needs to be done.” I said.
“And if they both get infected out there?” Jack asked.
“I have to trust their abilities to prevent that.”
“You don’t think Charlie made the right call?” Sass asked. Jack looked at him for a moment then turned back to me.
“We’ll know in about three days. Until then it’s all a crap shoot.” Jack looked at me once more then walked away leaving just Sass and I standing alone.
“I don’t get it.” I told Sass. “He says that he doesn’t want to lead. He makes me take it. But every time I make a decision that goes against what the military peeps want I have to deal with him talking down to me. It has gotten old.”
“No doubt.” Said Sass. “You ever thought about just leaving? Finding some place new to hang your hat?”
I had thought about it, but it was complicated. The easy answer was yes. But that wasn’t the real answer. This place infuriated me at times, but it was safe. It’s hard to argue with being able to sleep through the night worry free.
“Have you?” I asked him back without answering his question.
“Every single day. It’s getting too big here, too complicated. As we get more and more people it’s just going to get worse. Jack and the others are wound so tight already that I keep waiting to hear one them just go pop. I was thinking, if you ever entertained the thought the next couple of days would be the time to leave. With Jane and Amanda gone we could get out of here clean.”
I thought about it and the thought was much more tempting than I wanted to admit. Get out of this mess and start fresh somewhere. No pressure. No rules. No leader. It would be nice.
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