Everyone had made it in and Haliday did another quick count. They had gained about 10 more members. The doctor approached and introduced another doctor and three nurses. They had gathered as many medical supplies as they could, and had an area prepared for medical treatment in the conference room of the police station. Anyone wounded they planned to put in an office next to the police station for now.
“Move them out Rob.” Haliday and Mark went and got ready as well. Haliday had his faithful old Armalite AR180 with him. He chose it over a short barreled AR15 because of the folding stock and usefulness in close quarters. Chuck had his own entry weapon of choice which was an MP5. After the initial assault, they would meet up with their teams and start the building clearing.
Everyone had gotten into position. The daytime assault was a big risk, but they took it because it would help level the field. No night vision goggles, or night vision scopes, plain sight, easy to discern friendly from foe, and the daytime conditions would allow the hunters with their scoped rifles to maximize their ability.
The militia compound was ready for the attack. As soon as they had seen the attack mounting, they had sounded their alarm and everyone was in position. They sat there and waited. Haliday’s group sat there and waited. He called them on the ham. “We are going to give you the opportunity to surrender.”
The response came quickly. “Negative. Disband and go home.”
Roger called them again and explained it all to them. “Listen, this is how it is. You can surrender and we can go from there. If not it’s going to be ugly for both sides. You have women and children in there who don’t deserve this. It’s the best option for everyone involved, so let’s work this out.”
A one word response came. “Negative.”
Haliday mumbled to himself. “What was that song from that stupid movie Small Soldiers. Some Spice Girls song; wish I had that right now.” I’ll tell you want what, what I really really want. “Oh great,” he said, “I’m going to die with that stupid song in my head.”
Mark looked at him, “What’s wrong?”
“You don’t want to know,” he replied.
One more try. Haliday said, “Listen. A lot has happened, a lot will happen and we don’t need to go down that road. Anyone who wants to give up and go home can do so now. We’ll give you one hour to decide. After that we may take action. Don’t be stupid. Listen to us. Come on guys. No one wants to die today.”
All he heard was “Screw you.”
“Ok,” he said, “One hour. Time has started.”
Haliday had told everyone to expect what came next. The militia started firing on the group’s positions in order to try and gain an edge during the assault. They fired a lot of rounds into the barricades, toward the tree line and everywhere else. The group didn’t fire a single shot back. Not a single person even got hit as they maintained cover.
Haliday had what he wanted, the proof that the militia would not make a deal and firing first meant just that. They gave them a chance and they refused it. Haliday had a few guys fire a couple of rounds toward the compound, but not at anyone in particular. This drew another barrage of fire from the militia. He clicked the radio. “Forty-five minutes left.”
Time was counting down; the militia was persistent in not giving up. Haliday gave them one last warning. “You have five minutes left. Last chance to get out now for anyone wanting to leave to get out now. Come on out with your hands empty, no questions asked and we will take care of you and get you to safety.” He waited the five minutes and switched the channel to his own. “Game on folks. Good luck. Godspeed. Fire when you have a target.”
Haliday had made sure they didn’t have a sniper on the roof of the admin building. This would have been the first man to go. They learned their lesson the hard way by taking hits on that position. He searched the property with his spotting scope and had everyone else looking as well. They had to make sure they didn’t have one hidden. Haliday was convinced no one in the compound had higher ground.
Haliday loaded an armor piercing round into the Barrett he had liberated and fired on his first target. This was the lock on the door of the building that held prisoners. He saw that they had another lock and hasp on the door and he fired on that one too. He waited patiently, but no one came out. They would check this building out as soon as they could. There was some return fire from the militia, but nothing to worry about. They couldn’t reach his position.
From over on the north end of the compound came 30 shots from four different men. These were all concentrated on the militia’s prized deuce, or actually its tires. They flattened as many as they could, rendering the up-armored pig useless. All they had to rely on now was the regular complement of vehicles that they had.
The militia took aim and returned fire. They fired almost 200 rounds toward the men in a matter of seconds. As far as firepower was concerned, they had the advantage over the townspeople. They didn’t have the amount of concealment, however, so many of the rounds were wasted with only an occasional hit.
Haliday took aim at target number three. He hated to do it, but he had to. He zeroed in on the front tire of their fuel truck and flattened it. He shifted his aim slightly and flattened the other front tire. Both the fuel truck and deuce were now out of commission. He started to hear some sporadic gunfire from all sides of the airport.
As he searched out some more targets he gave the order to start the tires on fire. They had some small balloons of gas placed in them and the guys tossed some road flares into them. The thick black smoke started to fill the air in those areas as the tires burned. Nobody was sure how long they would burn but anything helped at this point.
One of the guys throwing the flares took a round to the shoulder. This was only the first of many casualties to come. The men around him fired into the compound and allowed him the chance to get to safety so he could be treated. They had one man and a woman nurse dedicated to picking up the injured with a four wheeler. They’d be busy today.
Haliday scanned the south end of the compound. The stacks of bricks they were able to get in place were still there. The front loader was still sitting where it had stalled out. Haliday called Rob. “Rob, get some people over to the west breach and see if you can get that front loader started. Get some people into those brick emplacements.” Rob told him that the front loader stalled out.
Roger asked him what happened. Rob told him it had overheated. “Well, try it anyway. If it didn’t seize it may start. You can use it to at least get some guys into those positions.” Rob made the arrangements and got everyone in place. He gave a command and the whole south end started popping as five guys ran to the loader. The militia positions were quiet as they held their heads down.
The group made it to the loader and sure enough it started. The guys just jumped on and the guy driving it went straight to the brick emplacements where he dropped off two guys at each one. He turned around and headed back toward the west breach and almost made it before the engine seized up. The radiator had taken hits the last time and it had stalled out, but this time it was dead for sure with the seized engine. The driver jumped down and used it as cover.
Haliday moved to another position so he could fire past the emplacements without worrying about the guys being in a crossfire. He told the men with the hunting rifles to try and take shots at the militia positions. They needed to take out 3 of the 5 positions that could cover the south end if they expected to get the building entry teams in there and continue to take some of the compound.
Haliday moved over toward the west breach area himself now and took a look. He looked over at Rob. “Grab your binoculars and look at that position on the west corner of that building. We need to take out that one and the ones on each side of it. Tell them that’s what the plan is.” Rob sent a couple of runners out to the town’s snipers and word spread. He used some hand signals and eventually got the point across to the guys behind the bricks and front loader.
Over toward the north side of the
compound, Mark and Brad got the men ready. They used some probing fire to see where the militia’s strong points were. Mark told Brad to go launch some cans at the admin building. These had been pulled out of the hunting shop and were merely cans of gel fuel. They had close to a hundred of them. They partially unscrewed the lids and launched them all toward the admin building. Almost half had hit the building and quite a few landed on the roof. The tops popped off and the gel ran every where.
One of the townspeople tried to launch a flare onto the roof, but couldn’t get the distance he needed with the giant sling shot. After a couple of failed attempts, he resorted to attempting to use some fireworks, but couldn’t get the angle. He risked moving in closer and was met with a few rounds into his chest. Mark had told them to abandon the attempt if it didn’t work with the flares, but the guy must have insisted. They had to leave him lay where he was.
Haliday was concentrating on the center militia position. He saw the muzzle of the rifle above the sand bags. He took aim and fired a shot. It was off, but close enough to let the guy know he was being watched. He saw the muzzle shift. Haliday gave it one more shot and fired into the sand bags, but still had no luck. Haliday moved backwards and into the trees where he looked around.
There was a man up in a tree stand with his rifle pointed toward the compound. Roger asked him, “Hey, you can’t see these guys at all?”
The man said, “Not enough to get a good center mass shot.” Roger asked him what he could see. The guy told him that once in a while he could see the top half of a head.
“Take the damn shot,” Roger told him. “Forget that center mass bullshit.”
The man steadied his rifle and kept aim at the militia position. Haliday was crouched down low and looked at his watch. After almost five minutes, he was about to climb the tree himself when he heard the shot. He looked up and jumped to the side just in time as the man threw up. The guy had taken a perfect shot from ear to ear, cutting a channel through the militia member’s head.
Haliday yelled up to him, “It’s them or you. Get the hell out if you can’t hang or get ready to do it again.”
The man said he’d be ok. Roger asked him if there was anyone else in the position there and the guy told him no, it looked like just one guy.
“What about the ones to the left and right?” Roger asked.
“Looks like two in each.”
“Ok, keep your rifle on them, take the kill shots. You’re doing good.” he told the man.
Roger moved back toward the west breach area. Chuck was still there. “What do you think, Roger?”
“Chuck, I think we need to get our asses in there as soon as possible. The center position has been taken out, and we need to get the ones on the sides of it. Let’s try and work on the one to the right first.”
“How are we going to do that?” Chuck asked.
“Give me a minute to think about it, Chuck.”
Haliday thought for a few minutes. He called Rob over, “Look, this is what we’re going to do. We have to concentrate fire on the southeast side. A light rate of fire. We need these guys to shift in their positions. At the same time, I need the east side to have some men move in a little closer, not try and rush the east side, just make a few good attempts to get in closer.” Rob said he would get it taken care of. “You wait for my signal Rob; I’m going to have Mark pop a few rounds of smoke over there.”
Rob headed over to the east side in the four wheeler and told the guys what they were going to do. The men who volunteered got ready, while over on the west side Haliday told the town’s snipers what to do. Haliday himself climbed up into a tree and got ready as well. He could hardly see the guys behind their fighting positions; admittedly it was harder than he thought.
He took aim on the inside of the fighting position and keyed his mic. “Mark, do it now.” Mark launched four rounds of smoke toward the east perimeter and Rob had some of the guys fire into the east side positions as four of the guys made short advances through the woods to get closer. The advancing men just concentrated on getting closer and they fired just a few rounds from the SKS’s they had.
Rob was helping them suppress the militia on this side. He spotted the militia shift in their positions to provide more return fire toward the advancing townspeople. One of the militia was able to fire toward the advancing men and struck one in the abdomen. This man went down and crawled behind a tree. Rob and the rest of his men opened up.
Haliday was aiming at the sandbag and saw the color change in his scope. He fired the round and watched it penetrate the man’s back square between his shoulders. The man went forward and Haliday could only see his arm and hand on his rifle. Haliday fired another shot and the man’s hand came off at the wrist. Haliday knew the guy was dead from the first round, but with Haliday himself going in soon, he was just making sure.
The men firing with Haliday managed to wound two and kill one more. Out of the three positions, they still had one fully capable militia, two injured and two dead. Going into the compound directly from the south was their best option. Chuck came over and Haliday explained the change in plans and they moved the two building entry teams to the south.
Back up toward the main gate, Mark ordered them to launch a dozen of the tannerite cans. They made a last minute change and used fluorescent green highlighters to paint the tape so they could be spotted more easily. A few didn’t make it over the line of cars the militia was using, but that worked out in Mark’s favor.
Mark had one of the guys fire at one. The can exploded in front of the cars and they could hear the nails peppering the sheet metal. The militia just looked at each other. One more exploded and the nails flew everywhere. The militia looked around and saw a few of these lying on the ground behind them. They didn’t know what to do with them.
Mark had the guys pepper the whole north side of the compound and around the admin building with the remaining tannerite cans they had. Haliday’s and Chuck’s teams each had five of their own that they would use. These were turning out to be nice little devices. Haliday was surprised he hadn’t thought of it before.
Mark had them blow a few more tannerite cans and the word had thoroughly spread throughout the militia what these things were about. They all kept a very close eye on them. A few of the militia had taken their jackets off and tossed them, trying to cover the cans up. One guy managed to cover up the one by him and then he shot it himself. Kind of like the redneck who says, ‘Hey y’all, watch this.’ Fortunately the jacket contained the nails, although it was fairly well shredded.
Haliday was ready to move in. He was behind the wheel of his Jeep and he had four other men with him. One in the passenger seat, one on each nerf bar and one in the back seat. He had Rob behind the wheel of the four wheeler and the rest of Chuck’s entry team barely hanging on so they could exit quickly. Haliday had secured the Barrett and was ready with his pistol and AR180.
Each team was four men. Two with shotguns, two with AR’s and everyone had pistols with them as well. Haliday was the only one carrying a Smith. The rest had Glocks. He never liked Glocks;, something about a pistol that was dishwasher safe didn’t appeal to him. That and the fact that once on the range at the police station years ago, he watched a hot reload blow the top of the grip off one. The guy ended up with 25 stitches. He had seven magazines for his, so he didn’t worry too much about interchanging mags.
The plan was not as suicidal as it sounded. They had the two injured and one full bodied man to deal with. With any luck they would already be neutralized before they got there. Haliday clicked his mic, “Ok everyone, we are a go.” Haliday and Rob had about 450 yards to go and left one behind the other.
As they approached the southern buildings, they criss-crossed paths a couple of times and would widen and narrow their space between them to try and randomize their approach and throw off the target acquisition anyone might have on them. The groups on the east and west side started firing into the militia positions while the snipers looked
for targets.
One of the injured militia raised himself up to take aim on the approaching vehicles. He went down before he could pull the trigger on them. The other militia positions on the east and west sides didn’t have enough cover to help out. To shift fire and help out would mean exposing themselves and possibly be overrun themselves. They continued their fight to the east and west.
Of the three positions they needed to neutralize, the center one was empty. The one to the east only had one injured man left and this was where Rob was heading. The one Haliday was near was the one to worry about. They still had that one guy in there with his injured partner. Haliday kept a steady pace as he approached it.
The west tree line positions opened up with everything they had. As the Jeep came to a stop, the men on the nerf bars hit the ground running and fired into the position as the other two exited the Jeep. The return fire dropped one of the men with a hit to the chest and one to the man’s leg. The other three advancing men fired into the position with 10 rounds of buck shot and a full 30 round magazine.
The guy was hit multiple times and the advancing men heard screams from the other man who had been injured and was now lying down on the ground with his hands in the air pleading to not be shot. One of the advancing members rolled the guy over and placed handcuffs on him and left him there. Haliday moved the Jeep toward the building as they rushed toward the last of the three positions.
Rob’s four wheeler approached and before it came to a stop the militia member came up firing. Chuck, who was next to Rob, fired back along with the other two. One of the men in the back fell off the four wheeler and tumbled along the ground dead. A sniper from the east side had to fire three shots, but hit the injured militia member, ending his life.
The militia group on the east fired up into the trees when they spotted this man and hit him. The man had only been hit in the leg, but lost his footing on the reversed tree stand and fell to the ground breaking his arm and some ribs. He laid there unable to move and the militia finished him off as he laid there trying to get behind the tree.
Dark Days Rough Roads Page 38