With his decision made, Eric moved out, slipping silently down the stream bank until he caught a glimpse of the two again just as they were crossing, using large rocks as stepping stones to avoid getting their feet wet. Eric could hear enough to tell that they were indeed talking now, but their voices were muted by the gurgle of running water so that he couldn’t make out any of it. It didn’t matter anyway, other than to prove to him that they were in fact, overly complacent and unaware. He watched them work their way into the thicket as they climbed out of the creek bottom, and then he moved in to follow. The time to take them was now, while they were in the heaviest cover well out of sight of the tents and far enough that any noises other than gunshots probably wouldn’t be heard. Eric drew his knife as he stalked them from behind. The thicket naturally forced them into single file as they pushed through it, but the low chatter of their conversation continued, nevertheless. Eric closed in on the one in the rear, the one unfortunate enough to be his first target simply because of position. That one Eric had to silence quickly and permanently. The man was completely unaware he had just seconds to live, of course, as he blabbed on to his companion, just three or four steps ahead.
Eric rushed him, grabbing hold of his face from behind with his left hand just a split second before plunging his six-inch blade downward at an angle into the side of his neck, just behind the clavicle. A muffled cry and the rustle of leaves as the man began to struggle caused his companion to stop and turn around, and Eric shoved the one he’d stabbed into the other as hard as he could, knocking him off balance before he could raise his rifle. Eric was on him in another second. The knife was still embedded in the first one, but he didn’t need it as he took the second guy down with his weight as he dove into him, slamming him hard enough onto the rocky ground to take away his breath. Eric drove a solid punch into the man’s nose for good measure, then drew his Glock and shoved it into his temple. The fear in the man’s eyes told Eric that he understood the gravity of his situation, but Eric wanted to be sure.
“Stay perfectly still or I’ll put a round through your skull right now!” Eric said, as he glanced back at the other man, not quite dead yet, but assuredly no longer a threat. “Do you understand?”
The man beneath him nodded. Eric studied his face, now bloodied from his busted nose and figured him to be in his late twenties or maybe early thirties. His haircut was military short, and he was lean and fit, as if still actively training for combat. Eric figured he’d likely served before, and that it was why he’d gravitated to an outfit such as this, whatever it was. “You’re a veteran right? What were you Army? Marines? What?” Eric asked, pushing the Glock harder against his skull.”
“Army. Not anymore! Screw that bullshit!”
“So, what are you and your buddies up to out here?”
“Nothing! What does it look like? We’re just surviving, that’s all. But I guess that’s illegal now, huh? Is that why they sent you? Where is the rest of your unit?”
“No one sent me,” Eric said, lifting himself off the man and pulling him up to a sitting position before shoving him back hard against the trunk of a sapling pine. Eric then pulled his hands behind the tree and using one of the large zip-ties he’d found among Bob’s supplies, secured his wrists. “I came alone, and I came to get answers. You’re going to provide them, or you’ll bleed out here like your friend,” Eric nodded at the nearby body. “Now, start with your name:”
“It’s Matthews,” the man said.
“So, you did your time in the Army, but now you’re out. “Was it Private Matthews?”
The man nodded.
“So, who are you with now, Private Matthews? The insurrectionists?”
“Like hell! Screw those commie bastards!”
“Oh, I got it! So, you’re not trying to help them fight the government, yet I see that you have stolen government property stashed down there by those tents. And stolen weapons!” Eric picked up both of the rifles the two had been carrying. “Military-issue M4s—the real deal—and your buddy’s even has the grenade launcher! You didn’t buy this stuff at the local gun show, did you, Private Matthews? So, what are you and your fellow former-soldier buddies getting ready for? Is it a militia organization you’re a part of? Are you guys just waiting it out until you see who wins so you can decide whose side you’re on? Or do you plan on taking on the winners too and doing your own thing? Let me guess; there’s a lot more of you than just the handful of fanatics in this camp, right?”
“You’re damned right there’s more. More than you could ever imagine! You’re making a big mistake if you think you can interfere with our business too. I don’t care who you’re with!”
“I could care less about your cause, one way or the other,” Eric said. “But I am interested in this particular unit at this camp, which includes you, Private Matthews, because I’m looking for a girl that disappeared here; a college-aged redhead named Colleen. I know she walked right into this place asking for help, and I know that she didn’t leave. I also know that her male companions barely escaped the men that tried to hunt them down. And I know that the girl must have been forced to talk, because shortly afterwards armed men showed up at the ranch where she and her friends had been staying. Those men killed the innocent old man and woman that owned the place and burned down their house after first taking all their stuff, including the rest of the horses.”
“We don’t do stuff like that…”
Eric smacked him before he could finish his sentence. “Shut up! I’m not finished! Those Appaloosa horses I just saw near the tents match the description of the ones missing from that ranch. I’m not interested in hearing your bullshit! I’m here because I want to know if the girl is still alive, and if so, where she is. If you don’t want to tell me, then after I kill you, I’ll go and kill the rest of your crew one by one until I get the answers I came for. Is that understood, Matthews? Now, where is she?”
“I don’t know man! But she’s not here!”
“But she was here, right? Is that what you’re trying to tell me, Matthews?” Eric backhanded the other side of his face hard enough to slam his head against the rough bark of the tree he was bound to.
“Maybe. I don’t know! Look man, there have been a lot of people through here we that detained. I don’t remember them all!”
“It wasn’t that long ago!” Eric said. “You wouldn’t forget a pretty redhead, would you, Matthews?” Eric grabbed him by the throat and squeezed, bringing his face close to his, his eyes boring into the other’s with an intensity he couldn’t squirm away from. “Where is she now, Matthews?”
“Okay! Yeah, I think she was here, but not for long!”
“Why not? Where is she then, if she’s not still here?”
“I don’t know man!”
“Then you’re of no more use to me then.” Eric said, as he released his grip and got up slowly, making sure the man was watching as he turned and bent to withdraw his knife, still buried to the hilt at the junction of the dead man’s neck and shoulder. When he turned back to Matthews with the bloody blade in hand, he found him suddenly more talkative.
“I guess they took her where they’ve been taking all of them. That’s all I know!”
“Who’s ‘they’ and where is this place they’re taking all of ‘who’ to?” Eric asked.
“Some of our people. They come to resupply us and to take any prisoners we’ve picked up in the area. We’re assigned to this sector to watch the roads and trails here, especially that hiking trail, because it’s had a lot of traffic ever since we’ve been here.”
“So, you’re out here to capture people using the trail? By whose authority and why?”
“Just the commie college punks, man! They’re the ones that started most of this shit, rioting and burning down buildings. We’ve caught some of them using the trails and backroads, probably so they can join up with more of their kind and start more shit. They backpack through the mountains to avoid the police and soldiers on the roads.�
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“What does that have to do with you though? Why are you trying to stop them?”
“Because this is our country, man! The government won’t do anything about it. They’re just as much to blame as anybody. They might be in control of the roads and the cities, but they can’t do shit up here. They’re spread too thin as it is already dealing with all that crap down there. We’re in control of these mountains and we aim to keep outsiders out. Let ’em all kill each other fighting over their shithole cities. That’s all right with us, because when it’s all over, we’ll be the ones to mop it up!”
Eric laughed. “You and how many of your buddies in your little private army? You do realize that the U.S. military is expanding its reach everywhere right? All the major interstates and highways are full of command posts and checkpoints. This situation will be brought under control, however long it takes.”
“So what? They won’t be able to control us by blocking roads. And there’s more of us than you think. We will….”
Eric brought the bloody knife back up to the man’s throat before he could go on. “Let’s cut to the chase, Matthews!” he said, applying slight pressure with the edge to let him know he would finish the job if he didn’t comply. “There’s another girl I’m looking for too. In fact, she’s the real reason I’m here, and I know that she was using that trail too, heading south on horseback, maybe two weeks ago. She’s a brunette, 20 years old, and would have been ahead of the redhead and her friends, maybe by a couple of days, and she was traveling with a young man who looks full-blooded Native American. They were both college students too, and I want to know if they were among these ‘prisoners’ you took from the trail, and where they are now.”
“I haven’t seen anybody like that, man. I doubt they came through here, because if they would have, we would have seen them. But we’ve got people watching all the trails and roads anywhere near the divide. If they’re outsiders and they tried to get through these mountains on horseback, you can bet your ass they didn’t make it. They’re either dead or in the prison camp with the others, and you will be too if you don’t turn around and go back to wherever it is you came from.”
Eric only needed a few more pieces of information from this man. First, he had to be sure there was no one being held there inside the tents now. Secondly, he needed the location of this other, so-called ‘prison camp’ to which all those caught ‘trespassing’ had been taken. Almost all of the land in these mountains through which the divide trail passed was open to the public, as it was government owned, rather than private; most of it administered by the National Forest Service or Bureau of Land Management. Eric knew this from studying the maps of the route in Bob’s cabin, and of course, he knew much of the mountain country of the American west fit that description even before he had reason to study those particular maps. His other questions were in regard to more details of the larger organization this man was a part of. If what he told him was true, it was more extensive than Eric would have guessed, but then Lieutenant Holton and some of the other military personnel he’d come into contact with on his way out here had mentioned the possibility. The build-up to this situation had been going on for so many years that there was plenty of time for serious organization and numbers building on both sides. In truth, it was a low-intensity war that was unfolding here, and like it or not Eric was involved in it just as much as he’d been involved in all the other wars in which he’d fought around the globe. The face of the enemy was different, and perhaps harder to identify, but he knew for sure that he was looking at one now, and for what these men had already done, Eric could afford them no mercy. He couldn’t take a chance that this one would sound a warning that he was here or that any survivors left behind would come after him. He made it quick when he dispatched Matthews and then wiped and put away his blade before rolling the other dead man over to retrieve several M203 grenades and the extra rifle mags he had on him. The grenades especially, would come in handy for what he had to do next. The indiscriminate hostage-taking of refugees on a public trail was about to come to an end, at least here.
Twelve
IT WAS ALMOST TOO easy it went so smooth. Regardless of whatever prior combat experience some of these men might have had, they clearly weren’t expecting anyone to bring the fight to them up here. Until now, they’d been the top predators here, ambushing travelers with the element of surprise and their greater numbers and superior weapons, but none of that helped them now. Eric had caught them totally off-guard in the middle of the afternoon, completely relying on the two he’d already taken out to keep watch and alert them to danger, which they weren’t expecting anyway. But those two had become complacent because of the quiet here, walking together and talking when they should have been on opposites sides of the perimeter as they made their rounds. Now Eric had the information he wanted as well as the weapons two dead men would never need again. He used the latter to unleash hell on the rest of their companions, killing them all before they even knew what hit them.
The first M203 anti-personnel round exploded just inside the open door of the tent he already knew was occupied. Eric followed up with another that landed in front of another tent before dumping a mag on burst mode into the first tent. When the few that survived the initial onslaught began emerging from the other tents, trying to figure out what was going on, Eric cut them down with more rifle fire. It was over in minutes, but he waited and watched for several more, just to make sure, before moving in to be sure the job was finished, searching from tent to tent for survivors, and finishing off the wounded that he found. Eric then looked for anything that might indicate that the girls or Aaron had been there, but finding nothing, he opened the gate to let the horses loose and then went and retrieved Maggie and Sally, bringing them back so he could stash the extra rifles and more M203 rounds into his packs and saddlebags. There was a lot of good stuff there among the stolen supplies, but Eric couldn’t carry anymore, nor did he really need it. He emptied the gasoline cans on the sides of the tents and over the ATVs and wooden crates, and then set fire to all of it and rode away.
Eric knew now that his encounter with Jeremy and Brett was fortunate, even though it resulted in the death of Bob Barham. If they had not come back to the ranch when they did, then chances were he and Shauna and Jonathan and Bob would have ridden unaware into this militia-occupied territory, which would have been bad enough. But worse, he wouldn’t know about the taking of hostages that was going on, and the very good possibility that Megan and Aaron had fallen into the hands of some of those guys just as Colleen had. But now he was armed with knowledge, and Eric was going to make use of it. He had to keep moving at the moment to put distance between himself and that burning camp, but going forward, he would take even greater precautions than normal. The threat now was not just the possibility of running into random gangs of desperados like some of those he’d encountered down south. Now he was in the midst of a much larger and far more organized resistance movement, at least if that Matthew’s fellow was to be believed. As a result, Eric was going to have to alter his route, especially when it came to the divide trail, which might lead him into an ambush.
But regardless of that, he was still going to be moving in the same general direction. Matthews had told him that the larger militia camp where the prisoners were being held was to the south, and so Eric would not be going much out of his way to visit it in order to determine whether or not Megan and Aaron were there before continuing on to the reservation in New Mexico if they weren’t. As far as Colleen’s predicament, Eric would make that decision after finding the place and making his assessment. If there was something he could do, he would, but not at the cost of compromising his ultimate mission of finding Megan. Colleen and her boyfriend Brett made a big mistake when they left with Gareth on those stolen horses, but Eric figured she probably had no idea what she was getting into. That was the problem with all these kids, even his own daughter. Eric could only hope that some of the things he’d taught Megan early on ha
d sunk in and would come back to her now that she might need them.
He stopped before it got too dark to study the maps, so he could plan the next stage of his route. The militia camp he was looking for was accessible from a gravel forest service road that dead-ended at the edge of a designated roadless wilderness area. Going the most direct way, along the trail to where that particular road crossed, it was about 20 miles away. The two-track dirt road behind the camp he just left connected to another little-used logging road that also intersected the one he sought. That was the route the militia used to transport goods and move the prisoners on their ATVs, so Eric knew there was a good chance he’d run into someone if he went that way. Another option he saw on the map was a steep hiking trail that turned off the main divide trail and crossed over a pass about five miles to the north of the valley where the road dead-ended at the camp. Eric figured he could go that way, walking and leading the horses if it was too steep to ride, and then work his way down to the camp by bushwhacking cross-country. It would be slower going, but the best bet to avoid running into one of their patrols. He knew from what Matthews told him that this encampment was one of the militia’s main outposts in the region, and that there were at least 50 or 60 armed men there, maybe a lot more. If he were to have any hope of finding out if Megan was being held there, he had to approach with great stealth, giving them no reason to be on heightened alert. The only thing that might blow that plan, Eric knew, was if someone from there went back and found the other camp that he’d just wiped out. That gave him reason enough to push himself to exhaustion getting there, as the longer route would nearly double the miles he had to travel. The moon was going to be nearly full tonight though, so nighttime travel was feasible, even though the temperatures after dark would be frigid. The chances of running into a patrol at night would be slim, but he still had his night vision monocular with which to scan any open areas he had to cross before leaving cover.
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