After the Fall: Jason's Tale (16 page)

They heard the pickups before they could see them. From the
rooftop, Jason spotted two trucks. Through his binoculars he saw what looked
like a machine gun mounted on the roof of the lead truck.

Oh my God! That can make splinters of our walls!
The
machine gun had to be taken out of action right away.

Jason assembled the family. “There are ten to twelve men in
two pickups. We can defeat them. They won’t expect the firepower we can bring
to bear.” Everyone listened carefully. They had their shooting positions
assigned, stocked with ammunition, and everyone had water to drink. They had
rehearsed the firing instructions, their clips were loaded and ready to change
out quickly.

“No one shoots until I shoot. We must let them get into the
yard—that’s our killing zone. If we shoot too early, they’ll spread out into
the woods and be more dangerous. I’ll shoot at the truck with a gun mounted on
its roof.” He didn’t mention that it was a machine gun. “When you hear me fire,
start shooting at the other truck. Aim at the targets in the cab first and then
in the back. Remember what I taught you about acquiring a target, shooting and,
if you hit it, move on. You don’t have to shoot perfectly, just keep hitting
the targets. That will take them out of the fight. And don’t all stop to reload
at the same time. Someone always has to be firing from the second floor.”

Everyone looked at Jason wide eyed. “They are coming to take
everything from us. To kill us. Don’t doubt that,” he said. They all nodded.
There were no questions now, only the looks. Anne and Catherine appeared
resolved. Sarah seemed more doubtful. Anxiety showed in her face. Jason hoped
she wouldn’t lock up when the shooting started.

It wasn’t long before the two trucks turned onto the drive
leading to the house. The pickup with the machine gun took the lead as they
slowly drove up the long entrance road. Before reaching the relatively flat
area at the front of the house, the road took a sharp turn and headed steeply
uphill.

I’ll stop them after they get over the top of the rise
.

As the lead pickup ascended the steep area, Jason sighted
the driver through the windshield.
This is it
.

The truck cleared the steep part and entered the flat area
of the farm yard. Jason opened fire and the house erupted with gunfire from the
rest of the family. The first truck was caught at the start of the front yard
area and the second on the steep part of the drive. The men in the bed of both
pickups jumped out and ducked behind the trucks for cover. Jason kept firing at
the lead truck while the family fired at the other. The machine gunner tried to
bring the gun to bear on the house. As he swung the gun, the driver slumped
over and the truck started rolling back toward the steep slope and slewed
sharply to the right. The machine gun let out a ripping burst of fire into the
air as the truck tipped over spilling the gunner out of the bed.

Thank God! That takes out the machine gun.

Everyone ran for cover, some towards the rock outcroppings
near the front of the house, some towards the few trees in front, and some
tucked down behind the trucks. The second truck had stopped on the steeper part
of the slope and everyone jumped for cover. The noise was deafening. The gang
was firing at the house indiscriminately as Jason had hoped. The smell of the
gunpowder grew thick in the air. There was shouting as the raiders tried to
coordinate their response. There were also cries from those hit by the shooting
from the house. As he had predicted, the gang poured a lot of gunfire at the
house without much effectiveness. Bullets were flying everywhere. Then he noticed
the return fire from the house was diminishing.

“Keep shooting!” he shouted down the tube. “Don’t let them
organize and charge!”

Catherine was the first to respond and she started placing
her shots with great effectiveness, aware of her job to keep the attackers from
fanning out. Attempts to move laterally were met with her effective fire. Anne
and Sarah soon joined in. Everyone was risking their life to look up from the
sandbags and shoot, but they realized that the attacker’s shots were very
random and their lives depended on their ability to return fire.

The attackers homed in on Jason’s rooftop firing position
and it quickly became very hot. Jason had about twelve feet that he could crawl
along on the platform. It was limited movement, but it allowed him to get off
some shots through notches in the platform before triggering a fusillade of
return fire which forced him to just crouch and wait behind the sand bags.

The overturned truck faced the house and offered minimal
cover. As the girls concentrated their fire there, it got too hot for the men
crowded behind it. Three of them ran forward, trying to gain the rock
outcropping in the yard. Two made it and the third was hit in the chest and
fell in the open. He was not killed, but lay in a gathering pool of his blood,
coming out from under his prone body as he writhed on the ground. The girls
shifted their fire to the other attackers.

When Jason drew fire to the roof, Anne and the girls got off
more shots. And they made them count. As the battle went on Anne and the girls
became more effective. When attention turned back to them, Jason was able to
increase his rate of fire. It went back and forth like that for some time. The
effect was a steady volley of deadly shooting coming from the house.

The attackers could not get a good aim at exactly where the
girls were firing from on the second floor. There was a continued randomness to
their shots but with the volume of shots fired it was lethal to move around in
the rooms. The bullets burst through the walls and scattered splinters
throughout the rooms. If you stood up and didn’t get hit by a bullet you could
be lacerated by splinters, some large enough to be lethal. But everyone stayed
behind their sandbags and kept firing. The heat became intense inside and the
smoke from the shooting thickened.

Jason could see that one of the girls, probably Catherine,
was chipping away at a boulder behind which a couple of raiders were taking
cover. With each well placed shot she chipped away more stone and panicked the
attackers. Finally one jumped to run for a nearby tree. This drew fire from
everyone in the house and the man crumpled to the ground. Some of the attackers
worked their way around the second truck and made a dash for the barn. They
reached some trees and rocks just short it.

Jason yelled down through the tube, “Catherine, the barn
side! Don’t let them get into the barn!”

Shots started to pepper the rocks and the two trees, keeping
the men pinned down. Jason turned his fire back to the center of the attack.

The shooting went on for many minutes—Jason couldn’t guess
how long. There were short lulls to reload on both sides. The family had gone
through many of their clips and, as admonished by Jason, they staggered their
reloads so they didn’t completely lose the ability to keep up some level of
firing. At times everyone could hear the raiders trying to direct each other,
but no one seemed to be able to take command; just as Jason had hoped.

What no one noticed was that one of attackers had left the
group. Bud had his camouflage ghillie suit on which allowed him to blend into
the tall grass at the back of the battle area. He slowly crawled towards a
depression in the grass, where he hoped he would be protected from the fire
coming from the house. He was scared silly by the ferocity of the battle and
quickly realized that he was better off playing the sniper role or, better yet,
just hiding. On reaching the low area he lay flat and still. He was afraid to
risk crawling further. Shooting would expose his position but not doing so
might lead to the gang’s defeat. If the gang realized he hadn’t taken part in
the battle, they would kill him. So he took some shots at the rooftop position.
They were accurate, but he didn’t have an exposed target to aim at. He could
keep a shooter pinned down if he fired enough rounds, but that risked drawing
counter fire from the rest of the house. He took only a few shots so he
wouldn’t expose his position.

Finally the attackers worked themselves up for a charge on
the house. The ones still in the fight realized that they couldn’t surround it
and they were going to get picked off one by one if they stayed pinned down in
their present positions. They were not able to shut down the firing from either
the rooftop or the house.

They increased the intensity of their shooting to suppress
the return fire. Jason and the girls just hunkered down to wait out the
onslaught of bullets smashing through the walls. Then, with shouts the gang
charged.

When the charge began, Jason and the girls could finally shoot
back. They opened up relentlessly, ignoring the now wilder shots coming from
the attackers as they ran forward. They could not let the gang reach the house.
The deadly fire took its toll and the attack stalled at the fence. Seven men
had charged; four were cut down and the remaining three turned and ran, dodging
around to the cover of the trucks. They crawled into the cab of the remaining
truck and let it roll down hill until they got behind the tree line. At that
point, they started it, backed wildly down the drive, and headed off in a roar
towards the village.

Jason watched to make sure they all had left. Then he joined
the family on the second floor. He found Anne and Catherine bent over Sarah.
She was gasping for breath. Blood was pouring all over her face and down her
front.

“Sarah,” Anne said, “Speak to me.” Looking up at Jason, she
said, “Jason, help her, she’s been shot. She’s hurt.”

He looked closely at Sarah, “Get me a rag to wipe the
blood.” Catherine brought him a rag wetted from her water bottle. He gently
wiped Sarah’s face and head. “She’s been hit with wood shrapnel, not shot.
There’s a lot of bleeding but it’s not life threatening.”

“Will she be all right?” Catherine asked.

“Yes. Anne, take her down to the kitchen and get some cold,
wet cloths to clean her. Don’t wipe, the wounds may be deep and we don’t want
to tear them.” Turning to Catherine he said, “We have to secure the battle
field. Go up to the roof and spot for me. They may have left someone behind or
some of the wounded could still be dangerous.”

 Catherine grabbed her rifle, checked the clip and
turned to leave.

“If you see someone, give out a shout and point me in the
right direction.”

“Be careful,” Catherine called back to him as she headed to
the attic.

Wounded men were groaning in the front yard, lying alongside
of the dead. Jason grabbed his rifle and went out the back door. He dropped
into a crawl as he worked himself through the tall grass. Reaching the edge of
the orchard, he turned and worked his way towards the front, using the trees as
additional cover

Bud was now alone; the pickup had left. He was frozen,
afraid to move, not knowing what was going on in the house. He had no illusions
about what could happen to him.

In his last encounter with Jason, he knew what the outcome
for his buddies had been when he ran away. He had heard the shots. That would
be his fate unless he could do something. Very slowly he raised his head. He
could barely see through the grass, but that was good. It would be hard for anyone
to see him. As he studied the house, he saw the grass move on the uphill side.
Someone was crawling towards the orchard. It was like the last time. He watched
and then glimpsed briefly someone rising and disappearing behind a tree. That
someone was headed Bud’s way. It was too late to run. He would have to fight.
He had flattened himself to the ground during the last round of intense fire
from the house. Now his rifle was laying there, not shouldered and ready to
fire. He had to move his body to get into a firing position. He had to get up
on his elbows with his left hand under the barrel and his right hand on the
trigger with the stock pulled tightly into his right shoulder, all without
being seen. It took a minute of careful movement to get his rifle to the ready.
As he began to tuck it into his shoulder, his elbow slipped and the barrel
tipped up in the air. He quickly lowered it just below the level of the grass
and froze.

Catherine carefully scanned the grass. She was looking for
something out of the ordinary. Many lectures by Jason had reinforced that there
were no straight lines or perfect circles in nature. When she saw something
straight and rod-like in the grass, she knew. It was there for a moment and
then disappeared into the grass. She could not see anything else. She stared
and didn’t blink or turn her gaze away for a moment. She knew that if she did,
she would never find that spot again. Finally she could discern parts of a
solid, straight shaft, horizontal in the grass. She could only see a couple of
segments of it but it didn’t look natural.

Deciding that it was a rifle barrel, she carefully
calculated where the body of the shooter would be in relation to it. Catherine
then took aim at the spot she had chosen and sent six shots in a tight pattern
along the length of where she thought the shooter might be.

The second shot hit Bud in the shoulder, flipping him on his
side and the third hit him in his abdomen, turning him on his back. He cried
out in pain as the bullets tore into him, throwing him back on his rifle. His
shoulder was torn by the first shot and bleeding profusely. The shot to the
abdomen tore through part of his stomach, destroyed his liver, and nicked a
kidney before exiting out of his lower back. Numerous blood vessels were torn
and bleeding inside Bud, bleeding that would not be stopped by external
compression.

“What is it?” shouted Jason.

“A sniper…to your right, towards the fence. I hit him. He’s
lying on his back,” Catherine called back.

Jason crouched and ran towards the position Catherine
indicated. He quickly found Bud. He pulled the rifle away as Bud stared up at
him.

“Don’t shoot me, please,” Bud said in a weak voice.

Jason stared back at him. There was no need to shoot him;
there was an entrance wound in his abdomen with probably a larger exit wound in
his back. Internal injuries were not something he could help, even if he wanted
to.

Bud continued, “I’m hurt bad, please don’t leave me.”

Jason squatted down next to him. “Tell me about your gang.”

“Should I come out there?” Catherine called out.

“No!” he shouted back. “Keep watch for anyone else.”

“I should never have come back here,” Bud said.

“What do you mean?” Jason responded.

“I was with the guys you ambushed months ago; I got away.”

“What about this gang?” Jason asked.

“It’s run by a scary guy named Big Jacks.” Bud paused,
grimaced in pain. “Can you help me? I don’t want to die.”

“I’ll try, if you help me. How many are in your gang?”

“Fifty, seventy, didn’t count them. I didn’t want to…to…eat
people. That’s what they do.” His words were becoming more difficult to form,
but he wanted to get them out. “They kill people and…and eat them…they take the
women…I didn’t want to do things like that. I just wanted to survive.”

Jason’s stomach turned and he fought to control the
revulsion rising inside.

“They’ll be back,” Bud continued laboriously. “Big Jacks
can’t have someone beat him…and you got his machine gun. He’s coming back.”

A plan was forming in Jason’s mind, even as he heard Bud’s
warning. He looked closely at Bud’s rifle; it was an M110 sniper/assault rifle.
The weapon was similar to the AR15/16 but shot a larger 7.62mm round. It was
set up for sniping with a variable power scope, a bipod and a 20 round clip.
This would be a more powerful, more lethal weapon than his .223. “Do you have
any more ammunition for this?” he asked.

“In the truck, the machine gun truck,” Bud responded more
weakly. “Please don’t leave me. Am I going to hell?” he asked plaintively.

“I don’t know about heaven or hell,” Jason responded, “but I
do know that you’ll find out soon enough. ‘Course you won’t be able to tell
anyone so we’ll never know.”

“I’m sorry for attacking you.”

I’ll bet you are. And now you are worried about it since
you’re dying.

Still, Jason felt the urge to comfort this scrawny kid who
had attacked him twice and was now paying the price. “I’ll stay with you.”

As he waited with Bud a dark, black resolve grew inside of
Jason. It almost frightened him. He knew he was going on a killing spree. He
was going to take this gang apart. It was the only way. He couldn’t wait for
them. His resolve drove out fear. It left him focused on how to most
efficiently kill these savages. The label was accurate. They had become
predators, and they needed to be eradicated. He was determined to get the rest
of the valley involved. They had to come together now.

Bud lapsed into unconsciousness. Jason went to the pickup
and found the ammunition for the M110. Then he quickly dispatched the rest of
the wounded and went back into the house.

The family was huddled in the kitchen around Sarah. The
windows were shot out with glass everywhere. Jason went over to Sarah.

“How are you doing?” he asked.

She looked at him. She had a clean cloth wrapped around her
forehead and others draped along the side of her face. “Am I going to be all
right?” she asked.

Jason gently took the cloths from her face. He remained
passive as he surveyed her injuries. She had multiple cuts across her face, one
even on her eyelid. There were two that he could see would require stitching.
One across her left forehead, just above her eyebrow and one down the side of
her left cheek, thankfully back towards her hair line. She would be scarred
but, he hoped, the scars would not damage her beauty.

“Yes, you're going to be all right. You’re lucky that no
splinters entered your eyes.”

“I did what you said, not move around, but when I got up to
shoot I got hit in the face.”

“It’s okay. You didn’t do anything wrong. You were a good
fighter. This could have happened to anyone in the room. I’m glad it wasn’t
worse.”

Jason laid the cloths back on Sarah’s face to control the
bleeding. He motioned Anne to follow him out of the kitchen. “We’ll have to sew
two of those wounds.”

“I know. This will be hard without anesthesia. I’m afraid it’ll
be harder for her than the battle.”

“There’s something more. I got some information from one of
the gang.”

Anne looked at him with concern.

“The main body is in Clifton Furnace. This group was just a
raiding party. Some of them escaped and they’ll head back to the village. I
think the main part of the gang is going to return.”

“Oh my God,” Anne exclaimed. “Why would they want to
return?”

“We beat them…and we have their machine gun—the gun on the
truck. They’ll be back for the gun and to defeat us. I don’t think whoever is
leading the gang can allow himself to lose this battle.”

“But that’s insane. There will be more killing. We may be
killed. What do they get out of that?”

“I can’t think like them, but they probably expect to get
food and weapons if they can defeat us. It’s motivation enough for barbarians
like them.” He held Anne by her shoulders. “Anne, they are cannibals as well.
It’s one of the ways they have survived.”

She pulled back in shock. “That can’t be true.”

“I can’t just dismiss what I was told. I don’t want to tell
the girls. I’m telling you only to reinforce how desperate our situation is.
These people are beyond the bounds of civilized behavior. We have to expect
anything.”

“Well, what must we do? We have to tend to Sarah. What else
can we do?”

“You’re right. We have to stabilize her wounds. But
Catherine and I have to go to the other farms in the valley, quickly. We’ve got
to get their help. The next battle is for the survival of the whole valley.”

Anne looked at him long and hard. “When will they be back?”

“I don’t know. I hope we have a day at least. They may need
time to organize and pack up for their raid. But there is no time to lose. I
have to prepare for a battle and you must tend to Sarah. We can stitch her
wounds later.”

“It scares me to have you leave this house.”

“I know. But it’s necessary for me to do so. I’ll be quick…I
must be quick.”

They went back into the kitchen.

Anne said, “Sarah, Jason has to contact the rest of the
farms in the valley right away. We have to get their help in case any gang
members come back.”

“Why would they come back?” Catherine asked. “We beat them,
didn’t we?” She turned to Jason.

“Yes, but some got away and I learned there are more in the
village. They may or may not return, but we have to get the others to help in
case they do,” he said.

“What about Sarah? She needs help,” Catherine persisted.

“I’ll take care of Sarah’s wounds for now. She’ll be
alright.” Anne stroked Sarah’s hair. Turning to Catherine, “You must go with
Jason. You know everyone better than him. It will help if you’re there.”

“Am I going to need stitches?” Sarah asked with some dread.

“Possibly,” Jason replied. “We can’t do it now. The wait
will give us time to see if the wounds close well enough by themselves.” He
wanted to downplay the need for stitches at the moment.

“I don’t want you to leave. We need you. I need you,” Sarah
said.

“Your mom will be here. I don’t want to leave either, but
this has to be done. Our lives may depend on getting extra help if this gang
comes back.”

“Why? We beat them once. We can do it again,” Sarah said.

“I like your confidence, but now you’re injured and we won’t
have the element of surprise on our side. If they come back, we’ll need help.”