Apocalypse in the Homeland: The Adventures of John Harris (12 page)

The others took up positions around the semi and began to return fire on the thugs that were attacking them.

“Jeff’s dead. They killed my fucking brother. They are going to pay for this.”

Jerry jumped out of the truck with his MP15 and charged towards the attackers yelling, “Follow me.”

No one followed Jerry and the enemy fire pinned him down behind a car about a hundred feet in front of Tom’s team.

“Tom, Paul, come on let’s kill the bastards who shot my brother.”

They all just watched him shoot at the thugs who were behind several cars about a hundred feet away from Jerry. They did nothing to help him. They didn’t fire a shot.

“Guys, please help me. They have me pinned down and I’m running out of ammo.”

Paul spoke up and said, “Why should we help the man who was going to kill Jim Jones.”

“How did you know…….?” Errrrr…..that’s bullshit. I like Jim.”

“Screw you.”

Tim said, “Tom the thugs are going to solve our problem. We can just let them have him. Let’s haul ass out of here.”

Tom replied, “We have to make sure he is dead. We don’t want him sneaking back into the camp and killing us all in our sleep.”

Just as Tom finished speaking, Jerry was shot in the chest and fell down. He looked back at them and raised his rifle and pointed it at them, then slumped over and was motionless. Tom raised his rifle and shot Jerry in the head.

“Men, we need to get the hell out of here. Throw Jeff in the back and let’s make tracks.”

Tom fired the Chevy up and peeled out as he used the semi to cover their retreat. The guys in the back of the truck laid down blistering cover fire and pinned the bad guys down as they flew away from the conflict. Tom didn’t slow down until they were a block from the warehouse complex.

***

They drove back into the warehouse complex and drove straight to their new home. Several men including John were out front unloading plastic water and sewage pipe. They saw the truck drive up and immediately noticed the shattered window and bullet holes in the door.

Jim ran over to the truck and asked, “What happened and where is Jerry?”

Tom replied, “We were ambushed and Jeff was killed by the first shots. Jerry saw his brother die, went crazy and charged after the thugs. They mowed him down and were raining bullets down on us so we fired up the truck and got the hell out of there.”

“So Jerry’s dead?”

“Yes, he got one in the chest and another in the head. We saw that and retreated. We couldn’t help him.”

“We will need to retrieve his body and give him a Christian burial.”

People were gathering around and John said, “Let’s get everyone together and fill them in on what’s happened, then we need to bury Jeff. Tom, could you speak to our people?”

“I’d be glad to tell them what happened.”

Paul and Tim rounded up the rest of the group and Tom informed them of the ambush and told them about Jerry and Jeff’s deaths.

Tom watched the group’s faces and saw relief in their eyes so he said, “I nominate Jim Jones to be our new leader. I know that we are just dealing with Jerry’s death, but we need a strong leader to help up prepare for more attacks and to survive in this screwed up world.”

Several people seconded the nomination and there were no other names nominated.

“Raise your hands if you want Jim to be our new leader.”

All but two raised their hands and when they saw that everyone else had raised their hands, they too raised theirs too.

John addressed the group, “I promise to be a fair, but strong leader and if you don’t like my leadership, just hold another vote and kick me out. We can’t have dictators.”

They all applauded and went to bury Jeff and pray over his grave.

Paul looked at Tom and said, “I was always uneasy around Jerry and Jeff, but I never knew that everyone was.”

“I always thought he was looking out for himself more than the rest of us and am glad that he is gone, but sorry he had to die to free the rest of us.”

***

His wife had supper ready when Tom got back from helping John direct the installation of a central water line for the building. Now they just needed a water tank.

“Hon, that was lucky Jeff and Jerry were killed right after I told you about them plotting against Jim.”

“Wife, God works in mysterious ways and he knows what’s best for us.”

“Husband, God is wise and always chooses the right tools to make his will happen. Hold your head high and pray for those bastards souls.”

Tom laughed and ate his supper.

***

“Jim, I’m sorry that Jerry and Jeff had to die, but they did have to go away. What do we do about those thugs?”

John had a MP15 in his hands and attached a metal tube to the end of the barrel while listening to Kristen.

“I’m going hunting tomorrow.”

She looked up at him and suddenly understood.

She replied, “I can’t stop you, so be safe and kill every varmint that you see.”

He raised the rifle, looked through the scope and replied, “Bang.”

“Jim, please take someone with you to cover your back.”

“Great idea! I need to train about a dozen snipers.”

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Chapter 14

The ant was tickling the inside of her thigh as it moved up her leg. The ant walked under her shorts and was headed towards her crotch as she slowly squeezed the trigger. The rifle bucked slightly and there was a spift sound that could barely be heard above the wind. She clamped her legs together and killed the ant at the same time she saw the target’s head slump down on his chest. She thought, “
That she would never wear shorts again when she was out hunting
” as she selected another target. She killed eight more thugs before slowly withdrawing from her perch on the side of the hill to rejoin her team. Jim didn’t want her to train as a sniper, but she reminded him he said everyone fights and everyone defends their home.

She slowly worked her way back over the hill and out of sight of the bad guys and started walking towards Jim’s position. She had almost called him John several times and found this game of keeping John thinking he was Jim quite confusing at times. She knew that her Jim was actually John Harris and the documents that she found in his wallet said he was from the Independent States of America. She felt guilty about keeping the truth from him, but as they had thought, he was the one man who could help them survive. He had implemented training for everything from military tactics to how to construct a latrine. She was deeply in love with him and just couldn’t bear to let him leave her.

Their compound had grown by 23 people over the last month as they killed or ran off the thugs, gangs and criminals. John made sure they thoroughly vetted the people who were allowed to join their group and several had been run off when they were found to be too lazy to work and contribute to the team’s survival. Tom had an ongoing mission to seek out and find camper trailers for new recruits. Most of the people that joined were single moms with kids. The gangs killed off any men who might challenge them so women outnumbered men two to one, which set up some conflict and jealousy as the men and women started pairing up.

“Okay everyone is back, so Tom you give us your report first.”

“Jim, I was on the west end of the airport and saw 23 targets and another 15 to 20 innocents. I killed 13 targets. I took down the outlying thugs first before anyone noticed that they were been decimated. I’m confident that I got their leader and his right hand people. About 10 women and children escaped as soon as they saw the creeps drop. Oh, no one saw me or fired a shot in my direction.”

“Great job. It will be tough beating that performance.

“Paul?”

“I was posted on the east end of the airport and only saw 15 thugs and killed 8 of them. There were 20 women and children who appeared to be cooperating with the bad guys. We don’t want them in our camp.”

“Good job! Kristen?”

“I know I’m just a girl, but I killed 15 creeps and wounded another who moved at the last second. I saw eight men and women, but no children. They were slaves and were actually chained while eating lunch.”

“Kristen has exceeded my expectations. Great job. You get to sleep with the boss tonight.”

“Jim you better come up with a different reward because I intend to win tomorrow.”

“Sorry, Tom, but no sniping tomorrow. We have to go in and search door to door and get rid of the rest of the vermin. The airport should be the last sanctuary for the bad guys. Billings will be clean by end of day tomorrow.”

John was wrapped up in Kristen’s arms in a deep restful sleep when the yelling and gunfire woke them both.

“Get dressed and grab your guns. We are under attack.”

They both threw on some clothes, grabbed their pistol and MP 15 and cautiously left their camper. John motioned for Kristen to stay behind him as he cleared the end of their camper. He looked around the corner and motioned for her to follow him as he ran down the aisle between campers towards the gunfire. John saw Tom and Paul up ahead shooting towards the office, which was in the front of the warehouse.

“Tom, what the hell is going on?”

“I think the bad guys got tired of being killed and are trying to wipe us out. There are at least ten in the warehouse and another ten outside the office.”

By that time, most of the people in the warehouse were up, armed and shooting back at the intruders or anything that moved. John was afraid that they would kill each other if he didn’t take charge.

“Paul, go around the back of the warehouse and gather the people on the far side and flank the thugs on the north side of the office. Tom, take the ones behind us and attack from the south side of the office. I will get the ones to our left and attack from the east. Remember to pick off as many as possible without leaving cover.”

“Jim, where is the north side?”

“Shit, it’s that way!”

“Damn, I was just kidding.”

“Do I look like I’m in the kidding mood?”

“Nope.”

“Get your asses in gear. It’s 4:07. We attack at 4:30.”

John and Kristen travelled to the back of the warehouse and told everyone to meet up on the back aisle in the middle of the warehouse. He quickly gave them the plan and sent three snipers to climb to the top of the racks in the middle of the building. He told them to start killing as many as possible when the attack began. He slowly moved the others in position.

There was a commotion, shots rang out on John’s right and he turned to confront the enemy just as more shots came from behind him.

“Jim, duck.”

He felt a sting in his left arm as he drew a bead on a thug that was running towards him. He fired three rounds into the thug’s chest and the man dropped to the ground. He waved for his team to advance, but they were pinned down by volley after volley of riflefire.

Then from the middle of the attacking force he heard, “Kill those damn snipers. They are picking us off one by….”

John saw that while his team was pinned down behind a camper that the enemy was also pinned down in the same manner. He fell to the ground and looked under the camper and found he could see under the camper that the thugs were hiding behind.

He gathered his team and said, “Lie on the ground and you can see feet and legs under the green camper. Pick a foot and put some nasty holes in them before they have the same idea."

The quickly lay down and chose their targets.

“Fire!”

The attacking thugs began screaming while they fell to the ground only to receive more bullets.

John said, “Come on, let’s roll!” as he charged across the gap to the office.

The thugs panicked and fired wildly as they fell dead. The snipers had them pinned down and the attack from three directions from all at once wiped them out.

“Be careful, there are still a dozen or so outside the building. Paul take ten men out the south door and Tom take ten out the north door. I’ll do the same here at the front door and we’ll catch them in a crossfire. I’ll give you three minutes and we’ll storm out the door.”

It was a long three minutes and then John and his team flooded out the door to find only the other two groups searching for targets. The thugs had fled and there was nothing, but silence.

“Search the building for any survivors and tend to our wounded.”

Tom’s wife walked up to John and said, “Come with me Jim.”

“Sorry, but I need to help search for enemy survivors.”

“No, you need to get that arm looked at.”

John looked down at his left shoulder and saw a bloody hole in his sleeve just above the elbow. He realized that his arm was stinging and blood was dripping off his hand.

John looked over at Kristen and said, “Beth, you know that’s just a scratch.”

Tom’s wife led John off to the makeshift hospital in the office while the others stood and looked at Kristen.

Tom said, “Kristen, we probably need to tell John who he really is before he regains his memory. You have done much more than the rest of us to make him want to help us, but this can’t go on forever.

Kristen broke down and cried on Tom’s shoulder.

“Tom, I love him and can’t bear to lose him.”

“Kristen, he may end up hating you if he remembers by himself.”

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