Rescue: Book 3 in the After the Fall series

by David Nees

  “You don’t want to answer my question. That’s what.”

  “Well I’m going to have to ask you some questions, since you say my men never came here.” Sam started forward and the other two men got out of the car. “Go around back and check things out,” Sam said to them.

  “Sam you stop,” Joshua shouted. “You got no right to come snooping on our property like this.”

  “Yes I do. I’m authorized as the Area Administrator. Now just settle down. We’ll look around and I’ll get a statement from you. After that we’ll be going. If you got nothing to hide, you got nothing to fear.”

  Emilia went back into the house. She ran back through the kitchen to the back door. She opened it just as Sam’s two men came around the house to find themselves confronted by four armed men. They quickly put up their hands and Billy disarmed them.

  “Tarnation,” Emilia exclaimed. “What are we gonna do now?”

  “Let’s all go inside and get Sam settled down,” Jason said. “We can figure things out from there.”

  The group marched back in the house. Sam was standing in the kitchen with the rest of the family.

  “What’s going on?” He said, seeing the four men.

  “Just unshoulder your rifle…carefully,” Jason told him, “and you won’t get hurt.”

  Clayton took Sam’s rifle and stepped away.

  “Now sit down,” Jason commanded.

  Rodney had the other two men sit on the floor while Clayton covered them.

  “Joshua, you’re gonna be in a heap of trouble. These here look like the men General McKenzie is looking for. What you want to be hiding them for?”

  “We ain’t hiding them. We’re being hospitable. They’re passing through and asked for something to eat, so we gave it to them.”

  “You can’t be aiding criminals,” Sam replied.

  “How do we know they’re criminals? We don’t have anything telling us that?”

  “So, what happened to my men? Did they come here?”

  “I don’t give a hill of beans about them. I expect they’re like you, crooked as a dog’s hind leg,” Emilia said. “We don’t have anything to do with them.”

  “Well you’re gonna. The Chairman put me in charge and he’s got the militia behind him.”

  “Bunch of busybodies,” she replied. “Useless as tits on a boar hog.”

  “Enough of this,” Jason said. “Are you in communication with this general?”

  Sam shook his head. “Radio’s back at my office, up at Hartford.”

  Jason looked over at Rodney. As soon as they left, Sam would head back to the radio and contact the general.

  Jason nodded to Joshua to follow him. He stepped towards the rear door. Emilia followed them outside.

  “What do you want to do?” Joshua asked.

  “Don’t kill them,” Emilia said. “That don’t seem right.”

  “Can’t let them go. They’ll have the general after you and us both.” Jason thought for a moment. “We’ll tie them up, here in the house and give both of us a head start. Do they know where you’re going?”

  “No, no one but kin know about the place. I expect half of them are already there,” Joshua said.

  “We figured this day would come. Not the way it did, but something would happen and we’d realize it was over here…time to go,” Emilia said.

  “Let’s do it,” Joshua said. “Time to get going.”

  They trooped back into the house. Jason directed the men to be tied up while Joshua and the family completed their preparations. When they were done, they gathered out in the yard.

  “You sure know how to stir things up, don’t you?” Emilia said.

  “I’m sorry,” Jason replied. “Didn’t mean for this to involve you.”

  “As I said, we knew this time was coming.”

  “You sad to say goodbye?” Joshua asked her.

  “Some. It’s a good house. Gave us good shelter and we had good times here. But nothing lasts in this world, only the next. This time’s past. Time to look to what’s next for us and Enoch. Different world now, with different values.”

  “Ain’t wrong about that,” Clayton said. “We got room in Hillsboro for strong folk like you.”

  “I told you. Don’t much care for city life. We’ll do fine with our own back in the hills. Surprised you came out to the flat lands.”

  “Like you, things change, so we trying something new. You all take care of yourselves.”

  Hands were shaken all around and the Nutters got into their vehicles and drove off.

  Chapter 27

  ___________________________________

  Y ou boys are in some deep trouble,” Sam said when Jason and the others came back into the house. “The General and Chairman ain’t going to go easy on you. Running around, breaking the laws. Did you do something to my men? You kill them?”

  “You got a big imagination,” Jason said.

  “I crawled over to the window, I seen the Jeep leave with the Nutters. That looked like the one my men used. Only way they’d have it is they’ve been killed or taken prisoner.”

  “You gonna kill us?” One of the men asked in a fearful voice.

  “Not unless you make us,” Jason replied.

  “We can’t let them loose,” Clayton said. The man turned to Clayton with a frightened look on his face.

  “We won’t turn them loose. Just leave them tied up here. Someone’ll find them sooner or later.

  “You can’t do that,” Sam said. “We’ll starve.”

  “You won’t starve. You’ll die of thirst before you’d starve to death. We’ll leave you some water. I expect the General will find you before a day goes by.”

  “He won’t know where to look for us,” Sam said.

  “We’ll leave your car where it can be seen. I’m betting he knows about the Nutter’s place and will come and check it out. In any case, you’ll probably figure out how to get free before then.” Jason turned to the others. “Let’s pack up,”

  They put the three men in different rooms, each with a pail or basin of water near them. Jason figured keeping them apart would slow down their getting free. It was a half hour after Emilia and Joshua had departed before they headed out of the door.

  To the north they heard the sound of multiple engines on the interstate. They could see the troop truck weaving through the abandoned cars on the freeway.

  “Damn,” Jason exclaimed. “We have to get back across the creek and up the ridge.”

  “We should be going down the east side,” Rodney said.

  “Yeah, but we’d have to cross the highway. They’ll catch us out in the open. We can do it later, let’s get out of here.”

  The men took off and splashed through the shallows of the Pigeon River, pushing into the thickets on the far side. They stopped to look back at the compound. The vehicles were just turning into the yard.

  “Hell,” Rodney said. They’ll see us if we try to climb the ridge. We’ll be exposed.”

  “Let’s make our way downstream,” Clayton said. “Maybe we can find some cover to get up on the ridge. Once we’re up there, they can’t get to us. We’ll just pick them off and melt back into the woods.”

  Jason nodded and the men started pushing through the thicket along the bank of the river. They were on a flat area along the river’s edge. It showed signs of regular flooding. Thickets of willows and short grasses, bent to the water’s flow, grew in the rocky soil. They kept low, stepping around the larger stones, worn smooth from the regular erosion of the water. There were many puddles that couldn’t be avoided. The men stepped through them as quietly as they could.

  Shortly they heard shouting. The General’s men had found Sam and the other two men. Now they ran out into the yard yelling and pointing to the river. Some of the men started across the yard.

  “They coming,” Clayton said.

  Jason nodded and unshouldered his rifle.

  “They know we’re over here, somewhere. Can’t let
them get across. Spread out, but stay in sight of one another. I’ll take the first ones out. While they’re re-grouping we’ll try to keep moving downstream.” The men nodded.

  Jason lay down, fitting himself against the rocky ground. He ignored the puddles that soaked through his clothes. After getting a sight line, he waited until the men got to the bank. They stopped at edge of the water and stared across it. Finally, the three of them stepped into the water. They were close together which wasn’t a good idea.

  Jason fired. Three quick shots rang out. He only needed to move his aim an inch for each figure. The three men went down into the water. Two hung up on the rapids and the third washed downstream in the current.

  The men in the yard ducked back around to the front of the house when they heard the shots. Jason and the others began to move south. They went as carefully as they could, making sure they stayed well screened from the yard.

  Suddenly Clayton whispered, “They coming again.”

  The militia hadn’t pinpointed the shooter’s location, which had now changed as well. Jason crept forward in the damp ground. He carefully slid his rifle through the brush and sighted the men in the yard. He could get off a few shots without being located, but then he’d have to back away and move.

  “We near any cover going up the ridge?” He asked over his shoulder.

  “About fifty yards downstream there’s a split in the face of the slope. Some of the bank slid down. It gives us some cover if we crawl, Clayton said.”

  “They won’t see us?”

  “They may see us, but if we stay low, they can’t hit us. Ain’t the best, but we can crawl to the top.”

  “I’ll buy us some time. You guys get down there and start up.”

  “We aren’t leaving you,” Rodney said.

  “Don’t worry about me. Just get started so we’re not all bunched up. I’ll follow. When you make the ridge, you can cover me.”

  Let’s go,” Clayton said.

  Jason heard the men shuffle off downstream. He watched the yard. Two shooters were lying prone on the grass, barely visible from Jason’s vantage point. He guessed there was some discussion going on about who was going to try the river next. Probably no one wanted to expose themselves to his fire. The fear of a sniper. You never see the death coming. A grim smile spread on his face.

  He swept his scope around the yard. No one moved in the open. There were some rifles pointing out of the windows. Then farther up river he saw movement. Four figures dashed for cover near the bank. The river was deeper there, with no rapids to wade through, but the men must have thought it was safer, being farther away from where they guessed Jason was hiding.

  Jason switched his sights to the spot where the men had disappeared. It was fifty yards further away. He made a mental adjustment to where he’d place the reticle when he took his shot.

  A moment later he saw a body slip down the bank and into the water which was chest high. The man held his rifle up over his head and started forward. Jason waited. When he was half way across the river the second man slipped into the water. Still Jason waited. The third followed. The first man was nearing the west bank. It was time to act.

  He fired. The first man lurched to the side, his rifle flew out of his hands. In a moment his body slid under the water, pulled by the current. Before he disappeared, Jason fired again and the second man collapsed mid-stream. The third man now turned back. Jason’s shot hit him as he climbed up the bank where he had entered. He was slammed forward and then slid down the bank. His body spun in the current and began to float downstream.

  The two men lying in the grass at the house started shooting. They were aiming across the river, but Jason could tell that they still hadn’t located him. They hadn’t seen where the shots had come from. He pulled back and began to follow the others.

  When he arrived at the cleft, he could see the rest of the men nearing the top. Jason cradled his rifle ahead of him, being careful to keep the muzzle out of the dirt and not hit the scope. He started crawling up the cleft. The dirt broke loose from the face in places and he slid back some feet. The loosened rocks and dirt clattered down the slope. If they look carefully, they’ll see the dirt sliding, even if they don’t see me. He could only hope that the others would reach the top and give him covering fire. They had climbed while everyone was focused on Jason’s shooting.

  As Jason was crawling, some shots rang out. He could hear the deadly whistle of the bullets overhead, a short, sharp zing that meant death. Keep going. The shots came closer. Some of the bullets hit the edge of the crease he climbed, showering him in a spray of dirt and stones. Then he heard return fire from the ridge, short and steady. The deadly whistling stopped and Jason redoubled his efforts to crawl up the slope.

  In a few moments he had made the top and scrambled into the brush and rolled behind a boulder to catch his breath. Clayton and Billy stopped firing. Rodney reached out a hand and patted Jason on the shoulder.

  “You had them completely focused away from us. We scrambled up the cliff with no one seeing us.”

  “What do we do now?” Clayton asked as he crawled over to where Jason was lying. Billy kept watch, taking an occasional shot when someone showed in a window.

  “We have a commanding position. We can hold them off for a long time up here. They’ll be reluctant to try the river, especially with us above them.”

  “They probably calling the others, so their numbers going to get bigger,” Clayton said.

  “They’ll fan out and cross where we can’t get to them, upstream and downstream. Try to pinch us in,” Rodney said.

  “I agree. Now’s the time to melt away, put some distance between us and them,” Jason said.

  “But we on the wrong side of the river,” Clayton said.

  “Yeah. We’ll have to deal with that later,” Jason replied.

  Clayton waved Billy over to them and the four men faded back into the forest and turned south.

  Chapter 28

  ___________________________________

  G eneral McKenzie was not happy. The area administrator was found tied up in the farmhouse. From what he said, it seemed as though the men who had taken the Chairman prisoner and escaped Knoxville, had killed some of his men and fled across the river.

  Sending men across Pigeon River had proven disastrous. The shooter had killed six of his men with sniper-like precision. This situation was more than he had anticipated. He knew the men were bold, but now he realized they were skilled and disciplined shooters. Even though there were only four of them, he had to be careful.

  The first thing he did was to radio his other team and order them back to the I40 corridor. He knew the men fleeing had to cross I40 somewhere in order to get back to Hillsboro. He’d plant a team to the south to watch for them and send another team across the river to track them.

  After assembling his men in the yard, sheltered from any shooting from across the river, he picked out four men who knew the woods. They were in the militia but they were country boys. They could hunt and track animals. He sent them a mile upstream to ford the river, out of sight of any shooters. They were to head south and try to locate the fugitives’ trail.

  The other team had two dogs with them. When they arrived later that night, he would send them across the river to pick up the men’s scent. They would then track them down the old-fashioned way, with dogs and men, hounding them until they were worn out or gone to ground. We’ll get you. The dogs’ll find you.

  Jason and the others moved at a steady pace through the woods with Clayton and Billy leading. Their experience in the woods showed as they navigated around thickets of wild rose that always tried to reach out to ensnare them. The two had the ability to find the subtle game paths that offered an easier way through the brush. It reminded Jason of how he had learned to come to grips with the forest; to not fight it, but work his way through it, with his eyes shifting from the detail close in front of him, to scanning ahead for the best route. Once a person got into the rh
ythm the walking became easier. Still their pursuers would have men adept in the forest as well. And he was sure there would be pursuit.

  “We got to think that they might have dogs,” Clayton said looking back at Jason.

  “Not many dogs left that didn’t go wild,” Jason said.

  “Still, there’s a good possibility they got one or two. They get our scent, it’s like marked highway for them. They won’t have to tramp around looking for where we went. They just follow the dogs.”

  “They work them day and night?” Rodney asked.

  “If the dogs are strong enough.”

  “Don’t like dogs tracking me,” Billy said. “They catch you, they tear you up.”

  “We’ll have to go through the night,” Jason said as they hiked along.

  “Be slow going, even with the night vision goggles,” Clayton said.

  “If they have flashlights, they can keep up a faster pace,” Rodney said.

  “If the dogs are strong, they move fast,” Clayton said. “Seen men have to run to keep up with a dog on a scent.”

  The four walked in silence. They followed ridges and flat areas as much as possible over the rugged terrain. The problem was the grain of the mountains ran generally northeast to southwest so their direction of south involved them going over ridges and down sometimes steep slopes. Adding to their difficulties was the fact that the flow of the mountains was confused in this part of the chain, breaking up into a confused jumble of ridges and closed valleys, sometimes cut by creeks with steep banks.

  Some sections had generations-old trees that left the understory clear and almost park-like. These, however, were few. Most of the terrain, especially on the south and west facing slopes, had thick undergrowth from the increased amount of sunlight penetrating the canopy.

  They hiked on in silence, following Clayton and Billy. Large boulders, fallen thousands of years ago from the upper ridges often blocked their path, forcing them to scramble around them. Some were house-sized and overgrown with mosses and other plants growing in the soil that collected in their crevasses. When they got to a ridge, Billy, would climb a tree to look for any pursuit and to try to see the interstate. There was little to see.