The loader stalled out as he rammed through one of the poles and barely made it across the fence. It had overheated and shut down. The cooling system was toasted. They had two men inside the perimeter, two positions of cover and two breaches of the fence now. They would need to get more people in. If they could control at least the south side, they could start chipping away at them more heavily.
At the southwest corner was the younger militia guy. He had helped provide fire toward Rob. The breaches got him to thinking some more. This was serious and they had run into some real opposition. He kept wondering about his parents. He asked the HQ to call for an update. He was told no, there was too much going on. He was thinking something was wrong. Fifteen minutes later, he called for ammunition and told them he was low and used a lot during the last breach.
Rob had made it to Brad and they met up with a few guys in the woods who had taken out the gunner earlier. They sat there and watched the deuce come creeping up. The deuce stopped by the guy who had called in for ammo. Rob and the guys watched closely. The deuc’es armored side was facing them. They spread out and tried to get a better look.
The guy was arguing with the driver, he wanted to go back to the admin building and was told that he could not. He pushed his way past the driver and told the driver to stay there in his place. The driver reached out and grabbed him trying to tell him he had to stay. The guy pushed him off and he stumbled from behind the deuce where he was met with multiple rounds.
The guy watched the driver die and he panicked himself. He got behind the wheel of the deuce and tried to take off. He wasn’t used to the clutch and it was hard for him. The townspeople opened up on the back of the deuce. The guy jammed it in gear and took off. He drove right over to the admin building and climbed out. He took several rounds from Rob’s men across the street. In his haste he left the area between the deuce and the admin building wide open and that’s where he was. Rob’s group had now started taking a toll, but not fast enough.
Rob called Haliday. Haliday told him he was busy, he needed a few minutes. He would have to call him back. He told him to hold on for a few minutes if possible. Rob let it go at that, he knew Haliday was deep in a fight. Haliday waited where he was. Just a few more moments was all he needed. Just a few more moments.
Haliday was watching carefully. He heard the militia’s radio crackle again. He just laid there and watched. The two approaching men stopped and dropped. Haliday knew it was their sniper they were calling and the lack of an answer a second time clued them in to a problem. They were at a loss as to what to do. They thought they were moving toward safety.
Before they had time to run Roger fired the first round into the militia man striking the man through his left eye. His patrol cap came off along with some bits of brain matter. The second man rolled over a couple of times and then fired at Haliday. Haliday fired rapidly with the remaining four rounds in his rifle.
He struck the militia man’s rifle in the upper receiver, rendering it useless and managed to hit the man in the ass as well, but it was not bad enough to render the man neutral. The man was struggling with something that Haliday couldn’t see. Haliday wasn’t going to wait; his location and deception had been discovered.
Haliday drew his pistol and initiated slow sustained fire as he rose up and then moved for cover deeper into the woods. Haliday heard shots and ducked down. He crawled over to where he had set his AR. He slung his M24 on his back and grabbed the AR. He heard rounds striking the trees around him. He called for help and tried to explain his location so he wasn’t hit by friendly fire.
Kayla, Linda, Alan and Nancy were trying to cover the woods. It was dark and the militia was well protected by the trees and lack of light. The militia had the advantage here. They were using this advantage to keep the women in their fighting positions. The militia in the woods, over at the neighbors’ and the other house across the street all started to fire at once.
Kevin, Diana and Dawn returned fire as best they could. Dirt was flying all around them and they kept having to duck debris as the militia fire searched them out. The neighbor had pretty much filled the militia in on everything they needed to know. Kevin was convinced she used to walk the property when Haliday wasn’t up here. Who knows what she actually knew.
The people in the woods crept closer yet. Alan was searching for a target frantically. He didn’t want to fire until he had acquired a target in order to avoid them being able to pinpoint his location. Kayla, Linda and Nancy would fire three round bursts and duck. They were starting to lose ground.
The militia member by the empty neighbor’s house continued to fire. All of a sudden two cans of smoke were tossed toward David, Lisa and Mark. Alan swung his rifle that direction. It was dark and the smoke clouded the area heavily. He scanned back and forth over a distance almost 50 yards wide.
Kevin yelled over to Diana to hit the west corner of the house. He told Dawn to do the same thing. As soon as they saw a muzzle flash, they each burned through their magazines. The man hiding behind the corner of the house was shredded. With almost 70 rounds striking within a 7X7 foot area and piercing the vinyl siding and insulation, it was almost like a Claymore had gone off. He was struck almost eight times by 5.56 armor piercing rounds.
Randy, Sarah, Mike and Blake fired toward the activity in the woods near Haliday. Haliday started crawling like crazy to get deeper into the woods. The militia man firing on him now had more than just Haliday to worry about. Haliday was managing to use that edge and gained some more ground. He rolled over and popped a smoke grenade in the 37mm and fired it toward him. He popped one more and fired it behind him.
Inside the house they could hear the stray rounds hitting the cabin. Rich had everyone hiding low so the armored lower half would keep them safe. He sent Bobby and Matthew downstairs to stay and told them to send Karen up. He called Bev over. “The woods are a big problem. We need to see about helping them out.”
One of the side windows had been broken out. He grabbed a broom and knocked the glass out. He tossed a folded wool blanket over the broken glass on the floor. Karen came up the stairs, “What do you need me to do?”
“You and Bev go open that window. You’ll have to fire into the woods. I’ll use this window.”
Alan caught movement toward his left. The first man appeared through the smoke with the second man appearing about 25 feet to the right of the first one. These guys were heading straight for Mark and Lisa’s positions. They were within 50 feet and rushing as fast as they could and firing blindly.
Alan opened up on the second man who was actually closer to him. Mark fired on him as well and then spun to fire at the first man who was almost on top of Lisa’s position. Lisa had been reloading her rifle and couldn’t aim it in time. David had raised himself to one knee so he could fire on the man.
The man continued forward and he stepped on one of the foot traps. The three inch spike pierced his heel and went deep inside his ankle. He tried to shake the spike strip off and he stumbled and started to trip. The rubber sole of his boot kept it in place. David hit him once and the guy half fell into Lisa’s hole. His momentum had overcome his ability to stop and control his fire as well. She couldn’t get out and felt the man struggling. Now he was struggling to free himself from the hole.
Haliday called Mike and told him to fire into the smoke only. Randy, Sarah, Blake and Mike did as they were told. The militia man hugged the ground and took cover. Haliday crawled another 20 feet and then shot up and ran into the woods. He angled himself and headed northwest. He stopped for a moment to catch his breath. That was very close, he thought.
Haliday had a problem now. He was literally behind enemy lines. He took a moment to gather his wits. He surveyed the scene from his location. He saw the firefight between the woods and the house. He had no idea if anyone had gotten injured or killed or what the count was on the militia side either. He had about a second to make a decision.
As David had fired on the man, the last militia mem
ber by the empty house fired toward David. David was partially in the haze of the dissipating smoke now and the militia member saw this. David took a hit to his thigh. He laid down prone and dragged himself back to his landscape wall for cover.
Mark fired on the struggling man in Lisa’s hole and the man went limp. “Lisa, are you ok?” Lisa answered back that she was ok. “I’ll try to help you,” he said.
“No, don’t move. I think they got David. You might get hit too. I’ll be ok, I can handle this.” The dead man was about 210 pounds and halfway in her hole. She struggled. but was able to get his body out of the hole.
The militia on the south side of the property was still firing, but not as heavily as before. David was wrapping a bandage around his thigh. He tied it snuggly. He couldn’t crawl back to the house; he would expose himself doing so. He would ride it out and provide as much support as he could.
Kevin, Diana and Dawn kept them at bay. It was now pretty much a stalemate on this end. The east was so wide open that the militia didn’t dare try to use it. Early on, they learned that lesson with their casualties and the Jeep. The north side was still a problem, but the biggest problem was the woods on the west side of the house.
Mark, Kayla, Alan and Nancy needed help. Mark called in to Alan. “Alan, can you get up into the crow’s nest?”
Alan said “Ya, I’ll let you know when I get up there. You want me to use the .308?”
“No,” Mark said, “Take the AR and as much ammo as you can.”
“Ok, I’m on my way.” Alan made his way to the crow’s nest.
Haliday made his decision. He would try to get to the west to help. He started slowly working his way there. He called Mark and told him his plan. Mark told him it would work with only the right execution.
“Listen, Mark,” he said, “it’s going to be your call, on your command. I won’t be close enough to tell when it’s time.”
“I’ll have Randy, Sarah and Blake cover the north. Maybe Mike can get over there.”
“Rob, this is Roger.”
“Go ahead, Roger.”
“Look Rob, we’re deep in this. We have casualties on both sides and we are getting ready to get hammered with a big offensive. How you guys doing?”
“It’s a stalemate over here Roger, any suggestions?”
“Ya, when they get done here and return, ambush them. Make sure they don’t make it back into the compound. I gotta go. I gotta go.”
Chapter 30
Roger heard an increase in the rate of fire. The west woods were heavy with militia. He called into the house. “You guys ready in there?”
Rich said, “Ya, just tell us when.”
“No, Mark has to do it. I’m in the woods and can’t see what’s happening well enough. Mark is going to make the call and everyone needs to move when he says go. You guys give it everything you have, you hear me?”
“Roger, we got it, we’re ready if it comes to that.”
Roger continued making his way toward the heavy fighting. He was now northwest of his property. He moved in as close as he could and checked out all the gear he would need. He took his mags and made sure they were all loaded. He took out all of his 37mm rounds and checked to see what he had. He placed the rounds he would use in his left cargo pocket of his pants and dumped the rest.
He laid his M24 down and covered it up with some leaves and branches. He piled everything else up by another tree and loosely covered it up. It was more obvious than the rifle, but that’s what he wanted. He would prefer this was found instead of his rifle. He had to lighten his load as much as he could. He would take only what was immediately needed for this part of the assault.
Over by the south side of the house, the militia was firing only randomly. The north side was pretty much the same. Mike had Dawn, Diana and Kevin lay down some cover fire and he jumped from position to position until he made it over to David. David was laying there looking south toward the area where the man who shot him had been.
“You ok, David?”
David said, “Not really. This thing hurts like hell. I think the bleeding has stopped though.”
“David, you stay down. I’ll stay here and help out.”
“Sounds good,” David said. The two of them waited.
Mark called on the radio. “Hang tight everyone. Conserve your ammo if you can. You’ll need it. Keep your heads low. This is going to get dicey.”
Haliday was thinking through the fight step by step. They had done a hell of a job fending off the militia. He knew they took some heavy fire, but his group was fairly well concealed and had great cover. A rush would end that though. They almost succeeded and David got hit, and Lisa almost got it too. They were almost overrun. One last chance to even this thing out.
Alan was up in the crow’s nest working like mad. He had everything he needed laid out and was fixing a little issue with the main component of their next defense for when the militia rush on the west side came. He grabbed the wires and twisted them together and then double checked them. It was ready to go now.
The militia on the north started first. They fired at the house, the crow’s nest and the previous positions where they knew Randy, Sarah and Blake were located. The shots came roughly one every two seconds. The south side started up next. These guys were doing the same thing. It was almost methodical, a slow rhythm of shots.
Diana stepped down from a sand bag she was using to adjust her height. She went to step back up and was near the rear of the hole when she did. As she did, she was struck in her right upper shoulder area, which she accidentally exposed. Diana dropped her rifle. She tried to pick it up and her right arm wasn’t strong enough. She grabbed it with her left and rested it in position. She would have to fire as best she could.
The west side started up, but far more rapidly and sporadically. The majority of the militia was located over in this area now. The militia moved a little closer and the rate of fire tripled from this side. In a matter of about 30 seconds the north and south tripled their rates of fire and the west increased yet again. It was a full on assault coming in on them now.
The entire compound was under heavy fire now. Mark saw movement very close and called everyone. “Now, now, now!” Alan grabbed a metal spoon and slowly dragged it across a wooden board with terminals on the top. The terminals were connected to a large 12 volt battery wired to Haliday’s favorite rocket engine igniters. Throughout the west side of the woods, the trees lit up brightly.
The flares were originally parachute flares and were stripped down, altered and set in the trees. Burn time was about 45-55 seconds. Haliday had installed two sets of them and these couldn’t be shot and extinguished. Ten locations spaced along the wood line. They would constantly burn bright white until they burned out. This was the last of the tricks Haliday had in his bag.
As soon as Haliday heard Mark tell Alan to ignite the flares he started launching his 37mm rounds. These were CS tear gas shells and would cause some serious discomfort to people running for cover and trying to save themselves. He had seven and he launched all seven of them in about 30 seconds. He took off toward the west wood area to see if he could now help repel the militia.
The militia stopped in their tracks. They were not only completely illuminated now, but they could not see the house or fighting positions very well. They had no sooner started to back off or take cover when the tear gas shells started to land around them. They started a hasty retreat to get out of the light and out of the tear gas.
Everyone in Haliday’s group on this side of the house lit them up. Alan up in the crow’s nest started to fire down into the woods. He kept his eyes on the first flare that went off. As soon as this one burned out he would ignite the second set. This was going to give them about a minute and a half or more of light to even out the odds.
Inside the house, Rich fired a 12 gauge shotgun full of double aught buck into the retreating militia line. He pumped seven rounds as fast as he could moving from left to right. He dropped down and
started reloading the shotgun to fire again. Over by the other window Bev and Karen were firing 22lr’s but had plenty of magazines and kept the rounds flying. They started at opposite ends and worked toward the middle and then back again. The group on the ground could hear the shots flying over their heads and they were firing as well.
Lisa, Mark, Kayla and Linda all kept firing at the militia. If they saw someone dive to the ground or behind a tree they would concentrate their aim on that location. The first flare sputtered out and Alan dropped down and started the second set. Everyone else continued the heavy sustained fire.
When the militia had moved forward they didn’t expect the flares and barrage of gunfire. As they retreated from this they incurred the heaviest losses yet. They had eight members here that had been advancing. Out of the eight, only three had escaped unharmed. Two were injured and three3 were dead. This devastated their ranks.
One man had stopped to aim at a flare that he thought he could shoot and put out. A couple of shots and it didn’t go out, however Mark had put a couple of five rounds bursts in that direction and this was the first casualty. Another member had moved laterally not knowing more flares were being ignited and Rich had hit him with the shotgun twice.
Off toward the other side, Karen and Bev had gotten lucky with the 22lr’s and hit a woman in the back of her neck as she retreated. She laid there paralyzed, unable to do anything. One of the other members reached down to grab her and Alan had fired his bursts into him. The carnage in such a short period of time was horrific.
The rest of the injured suffered arm, leg and torso hits, but were able to continue out of the area. The tear gas had them coughing with tears and snot running down their faces. They either didn’t don masks or plainly didn’t have any. As the flares all died out so did the firing from the militia. The militia were now just trying to get the hell out of there and handle their injured and dead. During this, however, the south end of the property and north end had their own battles they had endured.
Dark Days Rough Roads Page 34