by Warren Ray
“Jijis must think we’re late to the party,” said Nate.
Bassett let off the brake and took the right fork. As he approached the overpass, Nate leaned forward and grabbed his shoulder. “Stop the car.”
“What’s up?” he asked.
Nate turned to Burns. “You said that was their command center?”
“They’re usually up front.”
A slight smile formed on Nate‘s lips. “Want to have a little fun?”
“Shouldn’t we be reporting in?” asked Hadley.
“This won’t take but a minute,” said Nate.
They all looked at one another for a couple of moments.
“It’s not like we can’t outrun them afterward,” said Nate.
“Let’s do it,” said Bassett. “We’ll do both sides at the same time. Hadley and I will hit the left side.”
The four grabbed their rifles. Each carried Colt M4 Carbines, a weapon known for its reliability and accuracy. Each of them grabbed extra magazines and stuffed them into their jacket pockets. They kept their heads low as they snuck up onto the overpass. Bassett and Hadley went left and Burns and Nate to the right.
Without waiting for a signal, Nate and Burns stood up and started firing down at the command center. In full auto, they both emptied their magazines in seconds and slammed in full loads. Two Jijis fell dead immediately. The other three scampered to different sides of their vehicles for cover. Burns hustled backward keeping his M4 to his shoulder never losing sight of his target. As soon as he outflanked them, he pulled the trigger and took down two more. Nate ran to the left and found the last one crouched down on the ground. He held the trigger back. The dead man’s body kept moving as Nate emptied the mag.
Bassett and Hadley fired down at the men who didn’t know what was happening at first. It took a few seconds before reality hit the Jijis, who then ran into each other trying to get out of the line of fire. Jijis were dropping like flies.
Nate and Burns ran over to join in at the shooting gallery. Gunfire echoed like thunder as they rained down hellfire on the Jijis below. The four of them blew out truck windows, flattened tires, disabled truck engines and dropped dozens of Jijis. Nate noticed a few run under the overpass. He reached into his jacket pocket for a grenade. He pulled the pin. Yelled fire in the hole and dropped it over the side. The four backed up and waited for the explosion.
The underpass acted like an amplifier as the boom of the grenade reverberated in all directions followed by shrapnel taking out everything in its path.
As the four moved back to the side and started firing again, Bassett noticed a black Mercedes coming down the road from the north. It was heading straight towards them.
Chapter 37
Retired Gunnery Sergeant Nordell was getting antsy and decided to go pay the Shadow Patriots a little visit before his meeting tonight. Some of his neighbors had already started to move their families south. Young mothers’ taking their kids without any kind of escorts was a concern to Nordell. He didn’t think it was a good idea and wanted to get some of those Shadow Patriots to help the refugees to safety. They had plenty of men and vehicles that they could easily spare some. He also wanted weapons. He, like most of his neighbors, had firearms, but he wanted automatics, which was what made a difference in a firefight.
He went next door and gave the door a hardy knock. “John,” he yelled.
“Hold up, a second,” came the response.
A few moments later, Hollis came to the door.
“I want to go pay those pansies a visit.”
“What’s the plan?”
Nordell explained his thoughts.
“We better get some of the boys together first,” said Hollis.
Nordell and Hollis hopped into the squad car they had confiscated from the cops they killed and started to round up their friends. Rather than tell each one they visited about the story of the Shadow Patriots, they instructed everybody to meet them at Jackson High School in an hour and to bring their guns.
Twenty-three men came to the school parking lot. Nordell stood up in the back of a pickup truck and inspected the men. He saw that most everyone was in their sixties, some were younger, in their fifties, and a few had brought their teenage sons. He saw the enthusiasm in their faces, knowing they were going to do something besides stand around. These men would not have been his first choice of soldiers to take on the National Police or even those pansies up on the interstate. However, this is what he had to work with. He knew most of them, they were good men, and some had military experience, while some of the others were avid hunters and knew how to handle a firearm. The teenagers were just biding their time waiting for their mothers to let them go fight out west.
Nordell addressed the men by telling them about the Shadow Patriots. He explained that they weren’t anything but a well-armed militia that didn’t have the guts to chase down a bunch of murdering cops.
The news sent shockwaves among the men and they started yelling out that they bore some of the responsibility in the death of their friends and relatives. How could they see what happened and not do anything about it? Why did they stand around and do nothing? In addition, why had they not come around to help bury their dead and escort them out of town?
Nordell told them they were about to get some answers because he was going to lead them to the Shadow Patriots. He told them they were going to commandeer some of their weapons and trucks.
After Nordell worked the crowd up into a fevered pitch, he turned to his friend Hollis and gave him a wink. Hollis smiled and nodded approvingly. Nordell hopped off the bed of the pickup truck and headed to the squad car with Hollis in tow.
Chapter 38
Winters stood with Scar, Meeks and Elliott discussing their options for facing Mordulfah’s army. They had already decided on an ideal ambush sight and were putting together plans on how to Mordulfah if he split his army into several different companies. Mordulfah outnumbered them by ten to one and they needed every advantage they could muster.
Winters looked up when he heard Eddie Perlee yell out his name. Eddie was from Minnesota and had been the one who first spotted the terrorists walking along the highway. He had just recently rejoined the Shadow Patriots after having to take a break in Canada. The escape from Petersen’s farm into Canada had taken its toll on him. He sprained his left ankle and was afflicted with gout. His sixty-four-year-old body didn’t heal as fast as it once did.
“Captain, we’ve got company.”
“Who?”
“That Marine who wanted to take your head off. Oh, and he brought an armed posse with him.”
Winters looked at Scar and shook his head.
“Doesn’t sound like he wants to have tea with us,” joked Meeks.
“Yeah, tea and Marines don’t go too well together,” said Scar.
“Let’s go see what the man wants,” said Winters.
Winters didn’t need this right now. He had enough on his plate strategizing against Mordulfah and wondering how his recon team was doing. He always hated sending guys out never knowing if they would come back or not. He had the utmost faith in his men. However, he didn’t think he could bear it if anything happened to them.
Now he had to deal with a scary looking retired Marine. He didn’t know if the man suffered from PTSD or was just a raving lunatic, but either way, it wasn’t something he wanted to deal with now.
Winters and his men walked towards the entrance of the big garage door. He saw that Nordell had brought about twenty men with him. None of them looked happy. Winters had a feeling that Nordell had gotten them all worked up. So, he decided to take a soft glove approach.
“Gentlemen,” said Winters.
“Mr. Winters,” said Nordell.
Winters understood the slight Nordell gave him.
“I need something from you.”
Winters saw his men get a little nervous and start to gather around. “What can I do for you?”
“We need weapons and we need a coup
le of these transports that you’re currently not using.”
None of this surprised Winters. “Anything else?”
“I need some of your men as well.”
“What do plan on doing?”
Nordell glared at Winters. “What the hell does that matter?”
Winters tried to remain calm. “It matters a great deal. You want to borrow my men and I need to know what your plans are.”
Nordell grimaced. “Then to hell with your men, quite frankly I’m not all that impressed with them.”
Winters couldn’t believe this guy was unwilling to explain himself. “Listen, I’m more than willing to help you out, but I need to understand the reasoning behind your request.”
“You know, you remind me of all the paper pushers I had to deal with in my thirty years as a Marine,” said Nordell as he moved a little closer to Winters. “You do everything to slow down real fighting men while keeping yourself holed up in your little office. If you don’t give me what I need then my men and I are just going to take it.”
The men standing behind Nordell all held up weapons as Nordell rushed forward, pulled out his .45 and pressed it against Winters’ head. “Don’t any of you men make a move or I will pull this trigger.”
Both Scar and Eddie started to pull out their side arms.
“Guys, don’t,” said Winters. He now knew it was a raving lunatic he was dealing with. The church shootings must have set him off. The only way out of this mess was to give the man what he wanted. “Listen, everyone, let them take whatever they want. No one and I repeat no one try and stop them.”
“Now, that’s more like it, Winters. One thing about paper pushers they know how to survive.”
Nordell put his left arm around Winters' throat and pulled him close using him as a shield, as he waited for his men to grab a cache of weapons, which included the case of RPG’s. They loaded everything up in the back of two transports.
“We got everything we need,” said Hollis.
“Okay,” said Nordell. “Get those transports out of here. As soon as they’re gone, we’ll take off.”
Hollis directed the men to leave. He then backed the squad car up and waited for the trucks to pull away. After a few moments, Nordell, still holding onto Winters started walking toward the squad car. He manhandled Winters to the passenger side of the car.
“I knew you were nothing but a pansy,” said Nordell who let go of Winters. He then wound up and sucker punched him. “I’ve been wanting to do that ever since I met you.” Nordell slid into the squad car and Hollis peeled out of the parking lot.
Scar and Eddie ran up to him.
“Captain, you all right?” asked Eddie.
“That son of a bitch is off his rocker,” said Scar helping Winters up.
“I’m alright,” said Winters rubbing the side of his face.
Meeks came running up. “Those jackasses took our RPG’s.”
“Look it’s all good. No one got hurt and they’re all gone.”
Scar looked at Winters with a sly grin. “But, we’re going to go get them back, right?”
Winters looked at his men. “Oh, hell yes.”
Chapter 39
Washington D.C.
Green sat in the passenger seat while Sam drove them back to the District. Neither spoke about what they had just learned. Green tried to understand the kind of people that would do anything to accomplish their goals, even if it meant the death of thousands of people in order to serve their ultimate end game. These kinds of people had the drive to push aside any feelings of remorse or morality. There was no other explanation other than they were evil. History was filled with men like this. Hitler, Stalin, Mao, among many others. All of them had killed millions of people. Now that particular brand of evil had come to America. A lust for power so overwhelming it blinded any sense of morality. It must be more of a game to someone like Perozzi. He had more money than he’d ever need. So, what was left? Buy another company or destroy another currency. Or, take over a country like the United States, now that was an accomplishment.
Green opened O’Connor’s journal and tore out a blank sheet from the back. He wrote down the names of those involved in the bombings. “Do you think you could do some background checks on these names?”
Sam gave Green a terse nod.
“I want to know who these people are before I say or do anything.”
“What the hell are we going to do with all this stuff, John?”
“I’m not sure yet.” He paused a few moments thinking about the question. “We’ll figure something out.”
“It just seems so surreal. It’s one thing to know the truth but it’s another not knowing what to do. This wouldn’t have been a problem ten years ago. We could have just taken it to the media and let them expose the bastards.”
“I know. It’s such a helpless feeling.”
Sam pulled into a parking garage to drop Green off at one of his many cars he now used to throw off any tails. Green gave Sam a serious look and hopped out of the car. He got into his car and sat there for a moment looking at the box, wondering where to keep it. He needed to put it where no one would think to look or stumble upon it. It made him uneasy to have the valuable contents on his person. He knew it meant an instant death sentence if discovered. For now, he placed the box under his spare tire in the trunk.
Green went back to his office to return phone calls and take care of a pile of paperwork. It took all of his Army instilled discipline to concentrate on getting everything done. He needed to maintain an appearance of normalcy and not raise any suspicion of his activities.
Chapter 40
Chelsea Michigan
Bassett was the first to see the black Mercedes about two hundred yards north on Highway 52. They had stopped on the overpass to take out the command center of the mile-long convoy of Jijis. He stopped firing down at the Jijis to see what the car was going to do. He watched it stop before the interstate on-ramp where someone with a pair of binoculars got out. The Jiji jumped back in and the car shot forward.
Bassett started running towards it firing his Colt M4. He didn’t want them any closer than the seventy-five yards they were now. He emptied his magazine and threw in another one without stopping.
The car stopped in the middle of the road and the front doors opened up with Jijis getting out using their doors as cover. They returned fire at the exposed Bassett, who swerved to the side of the overpass and dropped to the pavement.
Burns yelled to Nate. “We need to get our car out of the line of fire. Cover me.”
Nate and Hadley moved back down the road staying low as they laid down a barrage of fire. Burns ran towards the squad car passing Bassett who was still on the ground returning fire.
“Don’t want to lose our ride,” yelled Burns.
Burns ran to the passenger side of the car, jumped in and scrambled over behind the wheel. Just as he started it up, a couple of rounds took out the back window. Scooting down in the seat, he threw it in gear and as soon as he mashed the pedal to the floor, the car shot forward. He stopped when he got to the other side of the overpass. He got out and noticed Jijis starting to run up the embankment behind where his three companions held the ground. Burns saw their position was in jeopardy, returned to the car and backed it up.
Nate turned to see the squad car. He knew something was up. He tapped Hadley on the shoulder and pointed. Hadley ran over to the squad car and jumped in. Nate yelled to Bassett, who turned to see Nate motioning him over.
Bassett jumped up to run and saw the heads of two Jijis making their way up the embankment. He raised his M4 and fired off a three shot burst. The Jijis squatted down and then returned fire. They had cut him off from his ride.
Nate saw the Jijis fire, hustled over to their flank and saw, even more, Jijis climbing up the embankment. He threw in a fresh magazine and pulled the trigger swinging his weapon side to side, taking them out. He looked over at Bassett and gave him a nod with a slight grin.
T
hey both ran to the squad car and Burns pulled away.
Bassett looked at Nate. “Just a little fun, huh?”
“Corporal Bassett, I thought you were enjoying yourself.”
“Truth be told, it was pretty damn gratifying.”
Nate patted him on the back. “That’s what I like to hear.”
“So, what do you want to do about the Mercedes back there?”
Nate turned around to look through the broken back window. “We could do what we did back in Detroit. Drop us off somewhere and ambush the stupid bastards.”
“Let’s first see if any from the interstate come after us,” said Burns.
Bassett looked at the barren fields. “Not many places to hide.”
The black car came alone. It stayed about fifty yards behind them and didn’t attempt to gain on them. It was making Bassett nervous. He thought about why they had initially flagged them onto this road. Then it dawned on him.
“That car isn’t attempting to take us out,” said Bassett.
“They’re herding us right to the cops,” said Burns.
“Slam on the brakes,” said Nate. “Let’s see what happens.”
Bassett and Nate pointed their weapons out the back window as Burns came to a screeching halt. The black car didn’t react quickly enough and was not able to keep its distance. They were no more than fifty yards away when Bassett and Nate pulled their triggers. The rounds hit their mark busting out the front windshield. They kept firing until they were satisfied the Jijis were dead.
They stopped firing and waited to see what would happen. The car didn’t move. Bassett ordered Burns to back up. They inched closer and still nothing. Twenty yards closer and they could see the two occupants were dead.
“Get us out of here,” said Bassett.
Chapter 41
Jackson Michigan
Winters was out for a walk looking at all the abandoned stores. No matter how often he saw them, it never ceased to amaze him. The only time he could remember seeing such emptiness was on Christmas day when all the stores were closed.