by Liscom, Sean
“Then why haven’t they resurfaced?”
“Again, I don’t know. They have been hiding out for two or three years now, you would think that they would be ready to see the sunlight again,” Braden said.
“Regardless, we still have to continue on with business as usual. By the sounds of it, these Arks don’t even know that we exist. Either way, we’re still on our own.”
“That’s very true.”
“Go get some sleep Braden. You and Kalin still have to meet with Jill today. I’m off tomorrow, maybe the two of us could sit down and take a closer look at the coding in this journal and see if we can figure out the cipher,” I said. “I wouldn’t let what’s written down
here worry you too much. It’s all intelligence that’s two years old now,” I smiled.
“Yeah, I know. It all just freaks me out a little,” he said, standing from his chair. “Breakfast at your place in the morning?”
“You bet, then we can start on this,” I said pointing to the journal on the desk.
“Alright bro. Keep it quiet around her for a little bit. I need some sleep!” he chuckled. After he left, I opened the journal and began to read.
Jill was going to go talk to Braden and Kalin today since we had missed dinner the night before. She had caught both of them out on the pond fishing right around noon. I don’t know how the conversation went but all three of them were out there for a while. It was about 2:30 in the afternoon when they moved under the shade offered by the trees by the medical building.
Shortly after that, the HAM radio sounded off.
“Sterling ranch, Mayor Calvert’s office, do you copy?” the voice asked. I picked up the mic and keyed it.
“Sterling ranch, we have you loud and clear, go ahead.”
“May I speak with Jason Sterling please?”
“This IS Jason, who am I speaking with?” I asked.
“Oh, sorry Mr. Sterling, this is Brian, I’m an assistant to Mayor Calvert. He wishes to know if you could possibly come to town for a meeting in the next hour or so.”
“I can do that. Let Jim know that I will be on my
way shortly,” I replied. I didn’t recognize the voice or name but I knew that Jim had about a dozen assistants.
“Copy that sir, Calvert’s office out,” I hung up the mic and stood up. After a hearty stretch, I walked out the door and headed to medical where Jill was. The three of them were having a very intense conversation, I felt bad for butting in.
“Sorry to bother you guys,” I said sheepishly.
“Jason, it’s no problem, please join us,” Jill said and patted a spot on the grass next to her.
“Actually, I can’t. I just got a call from Calvert’s office. He wants me there for a meeting. I came to see if you wanted to go?”
“I’d love to, but I’m going to pass this time. This is a conversation that your niece and I really need to finish,” she said looking up at me.
“No problem, should be a quick trip. I’ll take one of the Jeeps and be back in a couple of hours,” I said as I leaned down to give her a quick kiss. I stood back up and started to turn away when she grabbed my pant leg. I stopped and turned back.
“Who are you taking with you?” she asked.
“Everyone is tied up working or asleep, I will just run in and back.”
“JASON STERLING! You know the rules! Who are you taking with you?” she admonished.
“Um, I don’t know dear. Who would you suggest?” I asked with a half grin. Braden and Kalin were trying and failing to suppress their smiles. It was just about that time that Melissa Lange walked by on
the sidewalk. Jill smiled back.
“Lange!” she shouted. Melissa stopped and turned toward us. Jill waved her over and winked at me.
“Yes ma’am?” Melissa asked when she stopped next to me.
“Are you busy right now, Melissa?” Jill asked her.
“No ma’am.”
“Would you mind riding shotgun for my husband this afternoon? He was trying to get out of here without his security detail.”
“Not at all ma’am.” Melissa said giving me a sideways glance. “Give me a minute to grab my gear and Foster,” was her reply. Jill looked at me and smiled sweetly.
“There you have it, you are NOT going to town alone!”
“Yes dear,” I replied with a grin and leaned down for another kiss. “You stay out here much longer and you’re gonna get wet. Looks like a pretty good thunderstorm rolling in today,” I told her as I stood back up. She looked at the clouds and nodded.
“Get your gear Melissa, let’s go to town,” I said as I started for the parking area. She took off at a sprint for the barracks. True to her word, she and Rex Foster met me at the Jeep about a minute later. Jill, Braden and Kalin decided to move into the cooler security office to continue their conversation.
We left the ranch at 2:40 in the afternoon and could see that the thunder clouds were building fast. I
had a feeling that we were the ones who might get wet. Melissa and I made some small talk during the drive but she was damn near all business. If I didn’t know any better I would think that Jill had a smaller identical twin. That thought made me laugh to myself. She told me that she had just turned 21 years old. Her mother and father were on vacation in Hawaii when the EMP had hit. It was the first vacation they had taken in 10 years. I learned about her brothers and their exploits in life.
Rex Foster sat in the passenger rear seat of the Jeep and spent his time looking out the windows. These two were very serious about their job and after the events of yesterday, it seemed that their job positions were warranted.
We were getting down the two lane road at 60 mph and we were about halfway between the now abandoned housing subdivision and the highway. The rain was just starting to hit the windshield but I could see that we were going to be hitting a pretty heavy downpour a few miles up the road. Nothing to worry about though.
CHAPTER 7
Thursday, August 3rd, 2017
“I just want you to understand one thing, Kalin......” Jill was in the middle of saying when she was interrupted by the HAM radio.
“STERLING RANCH, EMERGENCY TRAFFIC, PLEASE RESPOND!” came the almost panicked voice of Sheriff Darren Watson. Jill grabbed the mic and put it to her mouth.
“Sterling ranch here. What's up Sheriff?” she asked.
“Thank God, you're still there. Jill, I need to speak to Jason.”
“Jason left for town about 15 minutes ago. Can I help you?” there was a short pause.
“Jill, I need you to get him back to the ranch, right fucking now! What channel is he on, we will start calling him from this end.” Darren asked over the airwaves.
“He's on channel five, what the hell’s going on?”
“He's headed into an ambush, Jill. We are rolling equipment right now. Do the same from your end!”
“Copy,” was her one word answer. She hit the wall switch behind the chair and set off the emergency klaxon. “Braden, get on channel five and start calling him!” she said as she sprinted out the door of the shack.
THE AMBUSH:
I never had a chance to react. I remember hearing Melissa scream as the whole side of the road exploded just ahead and to the right of the Jeep. The explosion blew all of the windows on that side inward and catapulted the Jeep onto the air. It came crashing down hard on its left side. I remember my face and arms getting cut by flying glass fragments and I remember the concussion knocking the breath from my lungs.
The Jeep continued its roll onto its roof and when it came upright again, the fiberglass roof was flung off like a child’s discarded toy. The roof rack and all of the other equipment went flying with it. The Jeep rolled three more complete times and ended up on the driver’s side in the sagebrush. I could smell gasoline, antifreeze and smoke. The acrid smell of gunpowder was heavy in the air.
It took me a few seconds to clear the fog from my brain. My head was pounding from the impact it suffered wit
h the door post and I had dirt in my eyes. As my vision began to clear, I could see a man approaching, his rifle was pointed at me and he was shouting something. I couldn’t hear a word of it because my hearing was shot. As he drew closer, I did hear the boom from Melissa’s handgun. It was more of a muted thud but I had heard it. The back of the man’s head exploded in a pink mist as the round entered just
above his left eye. He dropped to the ground face first
and twitched a few times.
As I started to comprehend what was happening, I reached for my pistol with my right hand. Once it was free, I tried to unhook my seat belt with my left hand. As soon as I moved my left arm, shock waves of pain exploded from my left shoulder. Just then, a second man came into view. This time, I leveled my pistol and squeezed the trigger. The big .45 caliber handgun bucked twice and the man ended up on the ground next to the first one.
Still trapped on my side in the seat, I tucked my gun between my knees and tried frantically to release the seat belt. It was jammed tight. I reached for the knife that was secured to the left strap of my body armor. As I freed it, I heard Melissa’s pistol sound off again. Looking up, toward the threat, I saw a third man go down. I reached over my left shoulder and sliced the seat belt clean through. As I rolled clear of the Jeep, I was sure that I was going to pass out from the pain in my shoulder. My left arm was useless.
I laid on my back, trying to push back the blackness that was surely going to envelope me. Melissa fired three more rounds, at who I wasn’t sure. In between shots, she too was trying desperately to free herself from the seat belt that had her suspended in the Jeep. I stretched my hand up toward her with the knife that I had used. She took it with her left hand. She fired off two more shots and I could see that her
pistol had gone to slide lock, empty. Instead of fumbling with it, she dropped it and quickly cut her
restraints.
She landed on top of me and quickly rolled off. Grabbing the pistol that I had dropped, she scrambled to her feet. Using the hood of the Jeep as cover, she peaked around it and quickly fired off a volley of five more shots. Deciding that I had better get my ass in the fight, I picked her gun up off the ground and proceeded to reload it with one hand. I ejected the empty magazine and held the gun between my knees. Pulling a fresh one from the pouch in the front of my plate carrier, I inserted it hard enough that I could feel the click of it locking in. I gripped the pistol and thumbed the slide release.
I rolled to my right and used the roll-bar to help me get to my feet. Once I was up, the spinning in my head worsened and I almost ended up back on the ground. Using the Jeep to steady myself, I started to work toward the rear of the wrecked vehicle. I was about a half step from the corner when a woman charged around it and came face to face with me. I started firing immediately as I brought the pistol up. The first round hit her in the knee and the rest worked their way up. She was falling as my rounds climbed up her body, the last one hit her in the throat. She was dead before she hit the ground.
Instead of trying to reload, I picked up the dead woman’s rifle. Holding it between my knees, I racked the slide on the AK-47 and brought it to my shoulder. Peeking around the corner, I could see two cars parked
on the road about 50 yards away. Using the spare tire
to steady the rifle, I aimed at a pair of feet that were visible under the back of the nearest car. I squeezed the trigger and the tire that was next to the feet blew out. My aim was close enough because I could see someone drop to the asphalt. I fired again and hit the person in the lower back.
Just then, there was a volley of automatic weapons fire from the cars. I ducked back behind cover and looked to my right, where Melissa was. She was also seeking shelter from the attack. Instead of simply hiding, she dropped the magazine from her pistol and slammed home a fresh one. Satisfied that her weapon was fully loaded, she stepped around the corner of the hood and opened fire. I did the same thing from the rear of the Jeep. I’m not sure who got him, but one man dropped in the road as he was making a run for the furthest car. Both of his buddies, who were also running for the car, returned fire.
Neither Melissa nor I let up in our counter-attack. One guy was hit in the right thigh as he jumped into the backseat. The second guy made it to the driver’s seat. We put a lot of holes in that car before it sped off, headed back toward the freeway. I don’t know how fast he was going, but I was sure that it was in excess of 100 MPH. Then I realized why he had hauled ass. In the distance, I could see two Hummers and one MRAP coming toward us. Apparently the driver of the car saw them too. He made a hard left onto a dirt road and continued to haul ass to the west.
As the small force came to that road, the two
Hummers broke off and gave pursuit. The MRAP continued to barrel toward us. The cavalry was rolling in to save the day. I dropped the empty AK from my shoulder and put my back to the spare tire of the Jeep. Looking back toward the ranch, I could see three more Hummers and an MRAP screaming toward us. As relief began to flood through my body, the adrenaline began to subside. Suddenly my knees felt week and my head started spinning.
I collapsed to my knees and slowly toppled over to my right side. The last thing I remember before blacking out was the lead Hummer from the ranch turning off the road and plowing through the sagebrush. It came to a stop between the wrecked Jeep and the car that was still in the middle of the road. I thought I heard Jill’s voice but I blacked out before I ever saw her.
Friday, August 4th, 2017
When I woke up, it was half past two in the morning. I recognized the room that I was in. It was one of the rooms in our clinic at the ranch. The lights were turned down really low but I could make out Jill’s sleeping form on the bed next to mine. She was still
wearing her uniform and sleeping on top of the blanket.
I laid there for almost an hour trying to remember everything that had happened. It was all so vague after the explosion, almost like a dream. At 4am
on the dot, I heard the door handle turn and the door slowly opened. Doc eased himself through the gap and quietly closed the door behind him. When he was a couple of feet from my bedside, he realized that I was awake.
“How ya feeling?” he asked just above a whisper.
“Like hell,” I answered. That earned me a smile from the old man.
“You should, that’s what happens when you go get yourself blown up,” he said as he reached over and took my left wrist in his hand. He felt my pulse for a few seconds and then let go. “Can you tell me what day it is?”
“Well, if that wall clock is right and I wasn’t out for more than a day, it’s Friday the 4th.”
“Good, do you know where you are?”
“The clinic at the ranch.”
“Who was in the Jeep with you?”
“Melissa Lange and Rex Foster. Are they okay?” I asked.
“Yeah, she’s beat up too but she will be fine. Wiggle the fingers in your left hand for me,” he ordered. I did and he seemed satisfied with that.
“What about Rex?”
“Sorry,” was the one word answer. That was like a kick in the groin. “You are grounded for a few days, but you should make a full recovery. Your shoulder was dislocated, I fixed that. You took a nasty blow to that thick melon of yours but I don’t think that there will be any long lasting effects. We had to shave all of your
hair off and put 16 stitches in your scalp. It ain’t gonna be pretty but when your hair grows back, it should cover the scar…..” as he was speaking, I reached up with my right hand and felt my head. It was wrapped in gauze. “….Gonna have to watch you for infections from all of the cuts though. There were plenty of those. The nausea and vertigo will probably persist for a couple of days. If it gets to be a problem, come see me or Susan,” he finished as Jill started to move on her bed. She sat up and swung her feet off the bed.
“Ya know, babe, you’re going to give me gray hair before I turn 30,” she said, half smiling at me. She pushed herself off
the bed and stood next to mine. Doc nodded at her and left the room. She took my good hand in her right hand and put her left hand to the side of my face. Leaning in close, she whispered. “I’m so sorry, Jason.”
“What do you have to be sorry about?” I asked. “You got there in the nick of time and saved the day.”
“I should have never lifted the restrictions on single vehicles going to town. I thought….”
“Stop right there. This wasn’t your fault. It was a staff decision to let vehicles travel alone, NOT yours,” I said. Her eyes were glistening and she let out a long sigh.
“I had the final say.”
“Bullshit! Whoever tried to blow us up almost killed us, not you. Your decision to send Melissa and Rex saved my life! We have been traveling that road alone for the past six months with ZERO problems,” it
was my turn to sigh. It was also time to change the subject. “Did the team from Elko catch that car that hauled ass?” I asked.
“No. The road that they were on tied back into the freeway. That car left ‘em like they were sitting still.”
“Any idea who might have done this?”
“Nothing yet. One of the attackers survived, he’s under guard at the hospital in Elko. When I talked to Amanda a few hours ago, they were taking him into surgery. I haven’t heard back from her yet.”
“Only one survived?”
“Yeah. Melissa is a hell of a shot with a pistol,” she said with a shrug of her shoulders and a small smile.
“I didn’t do so bad! I got one or two, maybe three of them,” I said in mock indignation.
“That means she only got five or six then,” her smile widened.
“Good Lord, how many were there?”
“When Melissa de-briefed us, she said that she counted 10 total. Two got away. That jives with what we found. Seven bodies and one wounded.”
“Is Melissa okay?”
“Yeah. That kid is going to be as sore as hell tomorrow but she should be fine. She came out of it a whole lot better than you did. I guess that’s one of the advantages of being young,” she said with a slight giggle. That made me smile a little. “Anyway, she spent