by Warren Ray
“I can see why. If these guys got more of those,” said Meeks.
“Exactly,” finished Scar.
Amber came up beside them. Scar turned to her. “You okay?”
“Yeah. I’m, I’m, good. What the hell was that?”
“Grenade,” said Scar. “And it’s laying right there.”
Amber sensed what Scar wanted to do. It was about seventy-feet away. A little bit more than running to first base. “Give me another second, and I’ll get it.”
“You sure?” asked Scar.
“I’m the fastest here.”
She grabbed her canteen and took a sip of water before splashing some on her face. The water cooled her down and flushed away the remaining haziness. She offered it to Meeks who grabbed it. He took a big gulp and handed it back. He gave her a firm nod. Today there was no such thing as cooties.
“Okay. You guys ready?” asked Amber as she dropped her backpack to the ground.
“He probably has it on a strap, so be ready to cut it away,” said Scar.
Amber nodded and patted the knife on her belt. After the other night, she now carried two knives, one in her boot, the other on her waist. She checked the magazine on her weapon; satisfied it was almost full, she said, “I’m ready.”
Scar and Meeks turned the corner and started laying down a barrage at the Jijis. They quickly scattered, trying to take cover behind cars.
“Go,” ordered Scar.
Amber took off in a full sprint and cleared the seventy-feet right at three seconds. She fell to her knees keeping low to the ground. Scar had been right. It was strapped to him.
She rolled the bloody corpse over and noted his glassy eyes staring at her. She pulled her knife out and cut the nylon strap making quick work of it.
A bullet whizzed over her head and made her flinch as she pulled on the launcher. She hated that sound because it meant she had barely survived another close call. Too many times over the past couple of weeks, she had heard the eerie noise.
She looked around and saw a Jiji had snuck around the corner of a car off to her side. He was moving up to get a better angle on her position. She lifted her weapon and fired as he peeked around the corner.
He moved back to take cover.
She didn’t have much time before he’d try again, so she yanked the launcher free and was about leave when she remembered it needed ammo. A black nylon bag was strapped around his waist. She opened it up and saw it was loaded with grenades.
Movement over by the car caught her attention again, so she kicked her legs out into a prone position. She rested her M4 on the corpse using it as cover and carefully aimed at a pair of boots sticking out from the front tire.
She took a breath and let it out before gently squeezing the trigger. The loud snap of the gun was followed by the man rolling over to grab his bloody foot.
Big mistake.
Amber kept her aim and fired again. The bullets ripped into his thigh rolling him over exposing his head. The next volley exploded the head blowing one side of it away.
She then grabbed her knife again and cut through the belt. She scooted up on her knees and looked over to Scar and Meeks.
Meeks waved at her to come over, and she raced back to them.
Scar let out a sigh of relief. He adored and respected Amber as a valuable member of their team. She and Reese had proven themselves many times over. However, what she had just done was beyond risky, and he would have hated himself forever if she had been killed.
He grabbed the handheld grenade launcher. “This baby is an M three-twenty single fire launcher.”
“Ever used one?” asked Meeks.
“Nah, but similar ones. They all fire about the same.”
Scar looked in the bag and was pleased to find ten grenades.
“Got a lot of cars coming in,” said Meeks flickering his eyebrows at Scar.
“Then let’s welcome them,” said Scar as he loaded a grenade into the launcher. He turned the corner and saw a string of cars at the entrance. He hadn’t fired one of these in quite a while, but it wasn’t something you forgot. He took aim and pulled the trigger. The launcher thumped as the grenade took off in an arc through the air. Scar scooted back around the building and waited.
It took a couple of seconds to sail right into a Suburban and detonate in a blinding explosion. Glass and bodies erupted through the air as black smoke rose in all directions.
They looked around the corner at the chaos. Jijis, dazed by the impact, were running away. Some were in full panic mode, but others were not. Those were the seasoned fighters, and they motioned for the approaching vehicles to keep driving up the street.
“Those guys are good,” said Scar. “Look at ‘em keeping order.”
“Hit ‘em again,” said Meeks.
Scar threw in another and aimed at them. The grenade launched toward the bunched up fighters and hit a smaller SUV right at the entrance of the parking lot throwing another fireball into the air killing a few of those soldiers.
Amber stayed behind Scar and Meeks as they came around the corner to inspect the damage. She looked back over to where she retrieved the launcher and saw two men further back in an adjoining parking lot. He had something on his shoulder, and she realized what it was just before he fired. An RPG was headed their way.
Chapter 52
Reese woke up thinking she had just heard gunfire. As she slowly shook off the fog of her deep sleep, she wondered if she dreamt it. It wouldn’t be the first time she heard gunfire in her dreams. It was the downside of being around it all the time. You sometimes had flashbacks of past gun battles or dreamt of future ones. So, sleep became a challenge for her with some nights being good and others, not so much.
Last night she had gotten to bed later than she would have liked having played cards with Nate and Elliott. It had been a fun night because she actually won a few hands of poker. Both of them were quite good at it with Nate coming out on top.
More gunfire rang out.
The hairs on her arms stood straight up as if an electrical charge shot through her body. She threw the sheet off the bed and grabbed her jeans. The gunfire multiplied and became louder as she pulled her pants on.
The hospital was under attack. Was the whole town?
She laced up her boots while thinking what she needed. If it were a full-on assault, then she would not be coming back here. She shoved the knife down her boot, strapped on the Velcro holster holding her Taurus 9mm before grabbing her M4.
She looked around the room and decided to take a Motrin. She’d be running today and fighting off the pain. She took a tablet before throwing the bottle into her go-bag and putting her arms through the straps. She was about to grab her crutch but decided to leave it.
She burst out into the hallway to find several of the guys running toward the darkened stairwell. She followed them not questioning why they were going this way. She had absolute trust in these men and knew they would be heading toward the battle.
Because of her bum leg, she was slower than the others descending the stairs. Just as she reached the first floor, gunfire echoed through the halls. She was last one through the door as the rest had disappeared around the corner.
She came to the corner, and her heart was caught in her chest. Screams mixed in with the gunfire echoed in the hallway. Her friends were taking bullets, and one fell backward tripping her and knocking her to the floor. She had to shove him off before crawling to the corner on her hands and knees to see that the whole group was dead.
She flicked her eyes up ahead and could see why. There were at least twenty Jijis holding the advantage. Her friends hadn’t stood a chance.
Images of Robinson Road flashed through her mind. They had been outnumbered that night and lost a lot of good men. If the whole town was under assault, then they were going to lose even more. Nate had been wounded that night, and he would need help moving Elliott now. She had to go to help him.
A few rounds flew over her head, so she turned
and moved back to the stairwell, which was dark because the electricity had never been restored. She opened the door and began taking the steps two at a time.
She heard footsteps below but couldn’t see anything through the dark. They were down there. It sounded like several different footsteps. She pointed her M4 down the stairwell and squeezed the trigger. Muzzles flashes lit up the darkened area with a blaring assault on the ears. She didn’t have time to see if she’d hit anyone and stormed through the door. She raced down the half-lit hallway with the morning’s rays spilling through the windows.
She ran into Nate going to Elliott’s room. “What the hell, Nate?”
“It’s a full-on assault. The bastards snuck in here before they attacked. Our guys are fighting ‘em everywhere.”
Nate shook Elliott. “Elliott, wake up. Wake up.”
Elliott struggled to open his eyes. “What’s going on?”
“We’re under attack, brother.”
“Oh damn.”
Reese kept watching for the Jijis who had followed her up the stairwell. She shouldn’t have come here, but it was too late for regrets. She heard a door close around the corner and moved over to see what was going on.
Her heart pounded like a piston, and a wave of sweat broke across her forehead as she peered around the corner and spotted four of them. She pointed the M4 and squeezed off a couple of three-round bursts. She waited for it and wasn’t surprised when they returned fire. The bullets ripped through a door behind her to the empty room next to Elliott. She ducked down to fire another burst.
She turned her head and yelled. “We need to get Elliott out now.”
There was no way Elliott could walk, and Nate couldn’t carry him. He turned back to Reese. “Go get a wheelchair. At the end of the hall.”
She threw down more cover fire before bolting down the long carpeted hallway. There were a few wheelchairs in a storage room at the end of the hall. Her heart was already pounding against her chest, but not out of fear, but frustration. They should have had a wheelchair ready to go for Elliott.
She reached the storage room just as Nate laid down his own cover fire to keep the advancing Jijis at bay. They just needed another minute before they could get Elliott out of there. She grabbed the wheelchair and struggled to maneuver it out of the room.
She cursed aloud as she yanked it through the doorway and started running back down the hall pushing it. Her M4 hung down from its sling bouncing between her and the wheelchair. She was twenty feet away from Elliott’s room when a grenade flew into it.
She didn’t have time to react before the explosion rocked the whole floor blowing out the entire wall out into the hallway. Reese felt the impact to her left shoulder before it threw her against the opposite wall like a rag doll.
Several Jijis stormed over the fallen wall through the smoky debris into the hollowed out room. They fired their AK’s riddling Elliott and Nate’s already bloodied bodies until they emptied their magazines.
The thick smoke and dust swept around their jerky movements making it difficult to see as they looked around for anyone still alive. Satisfied with the results, they turned and headed back to their friends to kill more infidels.
Chapter 53
Iron River Wisconsin
The sun was starting to come up, so Winters took his night-vision goggles off. It had been a long night made even longer with the firefight. Killing those gang-bangers had taken its toll on him. He figured the girls were getting tired as well. They’d been driving all night and the adrenaline from the excitement was surely wearing off.
They were on US 2 going through Wisconsin where the landscape would change from woods to open fields and back again. There wouldn’t be anybody out on these roads, and it would take them right into Michigan.
They’d been on the road for a couple of hours and were far away from the gun battle. It was the girls’ first real battle, and their performance had been quite impressive. Sergeant Hicks would have been proud of them. He had trained them for just one day, but apparently, they caught on really quick. Collette stood her ground suppressing the enemy gunfire while Laney, who was always impulsive, acted decisively by taking out Butler. The poor bastard probably didn’t know what hit him. However, Winters hoped he had known and had a WTF moment before taking his last breath.
The thought made Winters smile. He had immense respect for the girls with what they had gone through and how they had helped him the other night. He now saw them in a much different light and felt better about bringing them into a war zone. They had proved themselves to be just as good as some of the guys he currently had in his group. They didn’t run away and wanted to get into the fight. They did what they were told and stood tall while doing it.
A lot of guys who had come through the group didn’t get anywhere near that. Some had talked a big game, but when the fight started, they ran away. Not that he blamed them. Hell, he had done the same thing himself at the train station. He ran away as soon as he could and didn’t turn around until his guilt got the better of him. It wasn’t something easy, and a lot of the guys died trying it.
Winters saw a barn up ahead with its roof partially missing. It sat at the end of a field about five hundred feet from the road and backed up to a wooded area. A demolished house sat across the road, and it didn’t look like anyone had been around for a long time. It was an excellent place to hide the trucks and get some rest. He slowed down and turned onto the grass-covered roadway. The two-story barn was eighty feet long and forty feet wide giving them plenty of room to park the trucks. He got out and directed the girls where to park.
There were old bales of hay still stacked against the south wall, and an old baler was buried beneath the collapsed roof. It looked like a tornado had come through the area destroying the house across the road and damaging the barn.
“This is a neat place,” said Laney as she hopped out of the truck. “Think it’ll hold up while we’re here?”
“Damn well better,” said Winters. “We need some rest.’
“Tell me about it. My eyes were starting to close.”
“Yeah, I figured.”
Collette climbed out of the truck. “I hope there’s, like, no spiders. I hate spiders.”
Winters laughed. “It is a hay barn, so yes, probably so.”
“Ewwe.”
“C’mon girl,” laughed Laney, “look at all this hay we can make a bed out of.”
“But the spiders.”
“You just fought off a bunch of gang-bangers, and you’re afraid of spiders?” laughed Laney.
“Ah…yeah…duh.”
Winters shook his head and pulled out his knife. He grabbed a rectangular bale and moved it across the floor before cutting the twine. He then began pulling it apart and spreading it around.
“See. No spiders,” said Winters. He repeated it on four more bales and piled up a nice bed for the girls.
Laney let out a laugh while falling backward on it. “This is comfy.”
“I don’t know,” said Collette.
“You can rest in your truck then,” suggested Winters
“It’ll get too hot,” said Collette as she joined Laney in the hay. “It is comfy.”
“It’s the best,” said Laney.
Winters broke out boxes of food and found some MRE’s. They gladly ate the food before collapsing back onto the hay. He told them he’d take the first watch and let them sleep for a few hours. Both girls fell asleep within minutes, so Winters grabbed his rifle and headed down the driveway. He wanted to fluff the grass back up on the roadway to hide any indication they were there.
The tall grass came alive with every step as grasshoppers and ladybugs scurried out of his way. The morning dew soaked his pant legs by the time he made it to the road. He held the binoculars up and looked in both directions before fixing the grass at the entrance. It took some doing as it was still wet, but he added a fallen branch to finish off the deception.
He wasn’t going to take any chances w
ith these trucks especially since they had been in a gunfight with a gang. He had no idea how big this gang was but didn’t think it consisted of just eight members. More than likely, it was part of a much bigger group, and they could be out looking for them. They were a couple of hours away from the battle, but there weren’t too many roads out of the area.
He had grown more paranoid recently, which helped him avoid some of the mistakes he’d been making in the past. Keeping watch while the girls slept was a more recent habit. He hadn’t always done that it and he had paid the price with the lives of some of his men.
He went out on the deserted country highway to take one more look before heading back up to the barn. He put the binoculars up to his eyes and scanned the horizon. Then a shiver shot through him when he spotted an object way off in the distance. He stepped over to the side but kept the glasses fixated on it. A car was approaching, and it was moving fast. Winters ducked down behind a bush and waited for it to pass. He didn’t have to wait too long before a Cadillac flew by. He barely had time to see the passengers but could make out that they looked a lot like the ones he had killed earlier. He was about to get up when another Caddy sped by.
They were out looking for them and would have caught up in no time. Thankfully, he decided to pull over to get rest because there was no way they could have outrun them in those slow trucks.
Chapter 54
Jackson Michigan
Having retrieved the grenade launcher, Scar fired it twice at the vehicles coming into the parking lot to stop their advance to the hospital. While inspecting the damage from the second grenade, Amber spotted two bad guys launching an RPG from across an adjacent parking lot.
Amber screamed. “Over there.”
Scar turned to see a Jiji holding a launcher and the rocket start to take off. He had a split-second decision to make as to which way to go. They couldn’t outrun it, and it was coming straight at them. He had only one option, and it was to head into the line of fire.