by Steven Bird
“What?” Greg asked.
”Oh nothing, just mumbling to myself,” replied Griff.
Just then, a barrage of bullets struck the shutter where Griff was shooting, and a random bullet found its way through the shooting port. It whizzed by Griff and grazed the top of Greg's head. Greg screamed and dropped to the floor, holding his hands on his head as blood ran down his face. Griff let go of the fifty and turned around and limped over to Greg.
“Let me see it,” he said forcefully. He pulled Greg's hands out of the way and saw a deep laceration going all the way down to his skull where the bullet grazed off of his head. He could see the impact point on the wall behind him. “You’re fine, you’re fine!” Griff said. He clicked his mic four times and Judy came running up the stairs. She almost panicked when she saw all of the blood on Greg's face, but Griff reassured her it would be okay. “Just bandage him up to stop the bleeding for now,” Griff said.
Downstairs, Molly heard some rustling and struggling by the window next to the laundry room. “The Pyracanthas! One of those guys is caught up in it by that window.”
Jake looked at her, confused and then she said, “The fire thorns!” She ran across the room and grabbed Jake's VZ58 and yelled, “Watch your sisters!” She shoved the VZ barrel through the glass pane on the inside of the window, breaking through to get the barrel through the shooting port, pointed the gun down towards the bush, and emptied the thirty round magazine into the man. It was the first time she had shot someone and was so caught up in the adrenalin rush, that without a clear view of the assailant, she just shot until it ran dry.
She pulled the gun back in and had just begun to run back to the main basement room, when a man rammed the door with a makeshift battering ram in front of her, and in between her and the kids. The structural reinforcements, however, kept the door on its hinges for now. It was just then she realized she had emptied the gun and didn't bring a spare magazine. Jake ran across the room in front of her with the Mossberg 590 in hand and shoved it through the cat door that they had installed for a prone shooting port at the bottom of the door, and blew the man’s leg apart. He pulled the shotgun back in, racked a round in the chamber, shoved it back out the hole, and blindly fired another round killing the man who was now lying right in front of the blast.
Molly ran by him, grabbed him by the arm, and pulled him back into the center basement room. She slammed and locked the security door behind them where they met Judy as she was running back down the stairs. Judy and Molly updated each other on what they had each just seen and done.
Judy said, “Griff thinks they've figured out the fifty can't get a line on them once they are in close to the house, so if they draw the fifty's fire up front, they rush the house from the rear, or possibly vice versa. Either way, these guys are coordinating their attacks.”
Out on the road, Evan and Jason quickly developed a plan. They left the women and children with the truck and put several cans of ammo and Jason's Remington in the car. Evan looked at Jason and said, “I don't have enough 5.56mm left to get into a fight. In hindsight, we should have hiked up on that hill and stripped those guys you smoked at that roadside ambush of their gear. But hey, we are new to the whole end of the world thing and hindsight is 20/20. Give me one of your SKSs and a can of ammo and a bunch of mags.”
Jason ran back to the truck and grabbed two of the SKSs. Then slung one over his back and tossed the other one to Evan. Both had been fitted with thirty-round magazines and he tossed Evan a magazine bag containing eight loaded mags. He also grabbed an SKS for himself, as well, to back up the slow rate of fire from the Remington bolt action. They then jumped in the car and took off towards the gravel road.
Evan said, “You remember the tree stands, right?”
“Sure do,” replied Jason.
“Well, I'm giving you your hunting license. Go from stand to stand with your Remington and snipe at those guys. They will never think to look up into the trees, and if they do, remember you can rappel down, using the tree for cover. There is a climbing rig in each stand. I'm gonna try and be a thorn in their side, distracting them while you take them out. Just don't shoot me from a distance because you can't tell who I am.”
“No promises,” said Jason as he took off into the woods with his Remington in his hands and his SKS on his back.
Evan also slipped off into the woods, but he took a different course and set out to flank the truck that was parked sideways to block the road. He crept up on the lone gunman they had left behind to watch the truck. He must be their rookie, Evan thought as he stalked the man like he was a game animal. Evan readied the SKS with his right hand, and then picked up a rock and tossed it at the side of the truck with his left. The man heard the metallic thud as the rock hit the truck. He spun around in the direction of the noise as Evan lit him up from the side, sending three thirty-caliber bullets into his vitals. The man dropped dead to the ground before he even knew where Evan was.
After Evan verified that the scene was secure and that it did not appear that anyone was coming back to check on their cohort, he snuck over to the truck and opened the gas cap. He reached down and tore off a piece of his own undershirt from underneath his jacket. He twisted it up, shoved the t-shirt down into the gas cap, and lit it with the survival lighter that he always carried in his jacket. Once it was burning, he jogged on down the road towards the house and ducked back into the woods.
Meanwhile, Jason had come to his first tree stand. He climbed up the small tree stand hunting ladder that consisted of strap on climbing sticks. It was hardly noticeable at a glance, keeping the location of the stand hidden. Once he got up in the tree, he strapped himself into the harness for a quick egress. He raised his Remy up, propped it on a tree branch, and started scanning through his scope for an opportunity. From his vantage point, he had a great view of the field of fire in the front of the house. Just then, he heard an explosion coming from back on the road.
The explosion that Jason heard was the car fire that Evan made out of the aggressor's pickup truck. He did it to get the attention of the aggressors and to help with a diversion for Jason or anyone at the house that may need a moment to get a shot off. Just then, Evan saw a rough-looking man in his early thirties, with a tattoo wrapping all the way around his neck and up the side of his face, running down the road to investigate the explosion. Evan waited until the man jogged just past his hiding spot and he let two rounds go from the SKS. The first shot struck the man in the lower back and the second the back of his head, spilling his brains all over the road.
From Jason's vantage point, the man who ran back into Evan's trap gave away a hunkered down position where he and two other men lay low. They were using their position to occasionally spray a harassing fire at the house. Jason didn't know it at the time, but that fire was directed at Griff to keep him occupied with the fifty out front, while their cohorts approached the house from the rear. Jason zoomed in his scope to its maximum zoom and scanned for a target of opportunity. It was at least two hundred yards away, but with the powerful Nightforce scope, Jason was able to make out the top of a bald man's head. He adjusted his shot for the prevailing wind, and let it fly. The impact of the round took the very top of the man's head off, spraying matter all over the man sitting next to him. This caused the second man to move, giving away his position as well. Jason chambered another round and shot through some thin brush that was blocking his view where he assumed the man would be. The bullet ripped right through the man's side. The impact of the bullet tossed the body slightly into view, just enough that Jason knew he got the kill. He then patiently watched for any more movement from the position. He didn't see anything after a few minutes, so he slung the rifle on his back and rappelled down the tree. He then took off running through the woods to the next tree stand location.
Griff watched the position that Jason had just decimated through the scope on the fifty. He couldn't get a shot at the guys from where he was, but he could see the crossfire coming from nine
ty degrees to his position taking the men out. Griff got on the radio and said, “The cavalry is here, dirt bags. You picked the wrong house today.” He wasn't sure who was doing the shooting, but he thought a little psychological warfare couldn't hurt. Molly heard this and thought to herself, Is that them? Are they finally here? Oh, God, please let it be.
Evan ducked back into the woods and circled around the house to the right, while Jason's position took him around to the left. Jason reached the next tree stand, climbed up, got himself set up quickly, and was back to searching for a target. He could now get a clear view of the left side of the house as well as most of the back. He scanned the area with his scope and saw the two bodies behind the house that Molly and Jake had dispatched a little while earlier. He kept scanning the area until he saw two men behind the stacked firewood. The firewood was almost around the other side of the house in the back. Jason knew if he tried but missed, and they ran, they would likely go around towards Evan. He picked up his walkie-talkie and said, “Ev, sending.”
Evan heard the transmission and thought to himself, I hope that means what I think it does. He crept up to the edge of the woods on the right front side of the house and held his aim on the back corner. Jason took aim at the clearest target he could get, which was one of the men's boots, from what appeared to be him having his foot out behind himself while in a kneeling position. Jason carefully took his aim and squeezed the trigger. Through the scope, he could see the .300 Win Mag round rip through the man's boot, shattering his foot and blowing parts of it out the other side. The man fell backwards in agony and Jason quickly chambered another round and ended his misery with a shot center mass. The man next to him, realizing that they were being fired upon from an unknown position behind them, retreated from the wood pile, running directly towards where Evan patiently waited. The man ran right into Evan's sights as Evan put three rounds into him, dropping him like a sack of potatoes.
Griff watched through his scope and saw Evan dart out of the woods after his muzzle flashes gave his position away. “Holy crap, I think that's Evan!” he said out loud.
Evan crept up to the corner of the house and lay down in the prone position, being careful not to get into the Pyracantha bushes while using them as visual cover. Jason could now see him through his scope from his elevated position. He then turned to scan the rest of the yard, where he saw a man hiding in the chicken coop. Jason got on the walkie-talkie and made a chicken sound, “Bock, bock, bacock.”
Evan, again hoping he understood Jason's message, placed his sights on the chicken coop. Jason topped off his Remington, took aim at the coop roughly where the man was hiding, and started a relentless pounding on the shack. Shot after shot after shot, the air around the coop was filled with feathers and flying wood debris. Finally, knowing he was not going to be able to hold out there any longer, the man bolted out of the coop. Just as Jason was about to pull the trigger to again fire on the coop, he saw him make a run for it. He adjusted his aim, and sent a round into his back, while at the same time Evan saw him break cover and begin to run, and he also put several rounds into the man. He was torn to shreds from both sides in an instant.
When the man's body hit the ground, Evan and Jason both just lay in wait, scanning the area, waiting for any signs of movement. They waited patiently for a little over a half hour before Jason got back on the walkie-talkie and said, “I think we got the whole herd.”
Evan responded, “Yep, I think so. Don't shoot me, I'm breaking cover.” He then yelled, “Molly! Are you in there?”
“Yes, yes, yes, oh my God, yes! Thank God you are here!” said Molly in a frantic, yet elated voice.
“Tell everyone in the house to hold their fire. Jason is going to cover me while I sweep the area to make sure it's clear,” he responded.
For the next twenty minutes, Evan carefully and patiently swept the perimeter of the house. He went in and out of the woods, all while Jason covered him from the stand. He counted eight bodies total. He yelled from the front yard up to Griff upstairs, “How many were there?”
“Not sure, couldn't see them all from here,” Griff replied.
Evan picked up his walkie-talkie and said, “Jason, what do you think?”
“Looks clear to me and I've got the best view in the place. I think we are good,” said Jason over the radio.
“Okay, then, I'm going in the house. You get out of that tree and go get your family and the rest. I'll have the front gate unlocked by the time you get back.”
“Roger Roger!” he replied.
Evan walked around to the back door, stepping over the two dead bodies. He rang the doorbell and said, “Hi, Honey, I'm home.”
Molly opened the door, grabbed Evan, pulled him inside, and collapsed on the floor with him while holding him tightly as she broke down into tears. Jake, carrying Sammy and Lilly, came running from behind as they were yelling, “Daddy, Daddy, Daddy!” and they all joined in on one big group hug.
Griff came limping down the stairs and looked at Evan. He smiled and said, “I think we are even on the beer.”
“Yeah, well, heal yourself up quick. We are going to have a lot of work to do around here.”
*The End*
The New Homefront Series is continued in - The Guardians: The New Homefront, Volume 2.
http://www.amazon.com/Guardians-New-Homefront-2-ebook/dp/B00L826G5W
A Note from the Author
First and foremost, I want to thank you for purchasing and reading this book. It has been a labor of love and an amazing experience for me to be able to put my heart and soul into a story that hopefully entertained and informed you. This story will be continued with new books coming out from Homefront Books in The New Homefront series.
I also want to thank Jason D. Jean, a good friend, who contributed his time and effort in helping me with this project. His knowledge and insight on many of the subjects contained in this book were key in the development of the story and the finished product of the book.
In addition to being a free-lance author, I currently work full time as a Captain for a large domestic regional airline. I served over twenty years in the U.S. Navy/U.S. Navy Reserve and retired as a Chief Petty Officer. In addition, I have both military and federal law enforcement experience. I am married with three children, and in my spare time I am an amateur competitive shooter and an avid hunter and outdoorsman. My wife and I share an interest in homesteading and self-sufficiency, and apply those interests to our daily lives on our property in East Tennessee.
Visit
http://www.homefrontbooks.com http://www.facebook.com/homefrontbooks
or follow on Twitter @stevencbird for information and updates on the upcoming books to be released as part of the series. The sequel to The Last Layover is The Guardians: The New Homefront, Volume 2, which is available now, and The Blue Ridge Resistance: The New Homefront, Volume 3 available January 2015.
Thank you very much, and I hope you return to read more of my books in the future.
Steven C. Bird
Table of Contents
Disclaimer
Dedication
Introduction
CHAPTER 1: The Alliance
CHAPTER 2: Flight 4225
CHAPTER 3: The Layover
CHAPTER 4: Back on the Homefront
CHAPTER 5: The Journey Begins
CHAPTER 6: The Jones Home
CHAPTER 7: The Journey Continues
CHAPTER 8: Intrusions
CHAPTER 9: Reinforcements
CHAPTER 10: A Time for Action
CHAPTER 11: By the Sea
CHAPTER 12: Friendship through Fate
CHAPTER 13: Charity
CHAPTER 14: Faith and Friendship
CHAPTER 15: By the Air
CHAPTER 16: The Reunion
CHAPTER 17: By the Land
CHAPTER 18: Not So Quiet On the Homefront
CHAPTER 19: Newport
CHAPTER 20: War on the Homefront
A Note from the Author
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