Dark Days Rough Roads (33 page)

The group
walked over to the boat and opened a lock and chain around a wheel gear and
started cranking it to lower the boat into the water. It was in the water now
and they started to take the plastic winterizing completely off. Haliday raised
himself up slowly, aimed and called out “Halt or I shoot”. The two riflemen
spun in his direction and started to raise their rifles. The driver reached
down for his ham. Haliday fired once and the bullet shredded the guy’s hand and
the radio.

Haliday
spun toward one of the riflemen and fired a quick burst into his chest before
he dove back for cover. He heard a splash in the water. Blake hadn’t fired yet.
Damn it, he froze, Haliday thought. Haliday heard the radio guy screaming in
pain. He heard some pistol shots and heard rounds hitting around him. He was
behind a metal dock box filled with rubber bumpers and ropes and saw holes
appearing through the metal. He hit the ground as low as he could get.

He looked
under the dock box sideways because he only had about four inches of clearance.
He fired at the feet of the only guy he could see. One round hit its mark and
the guy dropped to his knees. Haliday could hear more rounds hit the dock box.
He saw the knee of the guy and fired another round. He watched the guy’s knee
cap explode out the side of his pants causing the man to fall prone. The guy
was now firing randomly at Haliday.

Haliday
couldn’t get a good line of sight on the guy and kept his head low. The shots
from the rifle were keeping him down and they were trying to hold their own
cover. He tried to keep it near the bottom and edge where the metal was
thicker. He heard the pistol shots, but didn’t hear the rounds strike the box,
just items close by. The AR went silent and he could hear the guy moaning in
pain. He heard him struggling with a magazine change.

Next he
heard the AR cycle through a couple more rounds and then stop. He grabbed a
quick peek; the man had managed to sit up. He cleared his rifle and fired at
Haliday again. His rifle stopped firing; it had jammed on him again. He was
trying to clear it. Haliday couldn’t risk exposing himself for the shot yet. He
looked around to see if he could crawl somewhere else, but he was stuck where
he was.

“It
jammed on you, good for you, you f’ing prick.” Haliday grabbed a quick peek and
jerked his head back up when he heard the AR fire. He heard more shots. “Damn,
I gotta get this guy.” He peeked again, “Hell ya, way to go kid.” When Haliday
grabbed his quick look the second time, he liked what he saw. The rifleman was
laying there with his forehead missing and frontal lobe half gone. Welcome to
the game, Blake.

Blake
yelled over at Haliday, “I can’t see them; I can’t see where they are. I can’t
really see the other two.” They had two men left, both with pistols. One only
had one hand but that was all he needed. Haliday grabbed another quick peek.
Both of these guys were ducking down now at the back of the boat. All Haliday
could see was the slightest profile of one, his ass and his back. Haliday fired
another burst causing the man to fall backwards into the water.

“Rick,
help me. I can’t move my legs., Help me Rick.” Haliday could hear the guy
splashing around in the water. He heard Blake firing on them but couldn’t see
any hits. “Rick man, help me. It’s cold. Come on man, I need your help. You
gotta help me, Rick.”

“Hold on
man, I’m coming for you. Hang on Gary.” Haliday was watching the back of the
boat. He saw an arm extend toward the water and heard Blake fire.

The guy
pulled his arm back in and was screaming. “Rick, I can’t stay in here. It’s
cold. It’s cold Rick. I need help. I’m hit bad.” The sounds of the splashing
became less and less.

“I’m
sorry, Gary, I’m sorry. I can’t get to you.”

“Rick,
it’s cold in here. Get me out.” Gary reached out once more and the boards on
the dock shredded from rifle fire as he pulled it back. The sounds from the
water had almost stopped now.

“You sons
of bitches, I’ll kill you all. You guys ain’t got the right to come up here and
do this. You hear me, you sons of bitches.” The splashes from the water had
stopped now. “Gary, you still there? Gary, come on man, tell me you’re still
there.” There was no answer. “God damn you sons of bitches, God damn you, what
gives you the right to come up here. Who the hell do you think you are?”

Haliday
actually answered him back. “I’ll tell you. I was born and raised in this
state. This state is part of this country. I worked my ass off and paid taxes
like everyone else. I bought my land up here just like the rest of you, with my
own damn money. I have every right to be here, you self-righteous prick. What
gives you guys the right to rule this place?”

“There
ain't any law now, asshole. It’s survival of the fittest now. If we don’t
control the people around here, they’re gonna drag us down too. We are the law
around here now. It’s up to us to decide who can help us rebuild our community.
It’s our choice, you hear me you f’ing bastard. It’s our choice.”

Haliday
responded, “And what choice do the people have?”

“If they
don’t like it, they can leave if they want.”

“And you
take their food, their weapons and you beat and torture them?” Haliday was up
and moving toward the dock now. Rifle slung on his back, pistol drawn. “Answer
me asshole. I said answer me.” The guy behind the boat stood up and looked at
Haliday. Haliday kept walking toward him.

The man
said, “You don’t understand survival dickhead. It’s all about surviving.”
Haliday saw blood dripping from both his hands. This was the radio operator.

“Maybe I
don’t understand survival according the definition you and the other assholes
in your group think it means, but I do understand freedom.” The man fumbled to
get his pistol reloaded. As the man started raising his pistol Haliday pointed
his .40 at him and fired twice into the mans chest and once into his head. The
man fell backwards unto the dock.

Haliday
turned around and saw Blake standing there with his rifle pointed at the man’s
body. Haliday walked past him, “He’s dead Blake, trust me. Darwin there, Mr.
survival of the fittest is no longer fit.” He patted him on the shoulder and
said “Come on, let’s go. We have work to do. We aren’t out of the woods yet.”

Haliday
walked over to the deuce. He climbed up in the cab and started looking around.
He picked up a small book and flipped through it. Frequencies and codes were
all written down along with what looked like a duty roster assigned to the
people based on the day of the week. He tucked it in his jacket. Two rifles
were cradled inside.

“Blake,
go crank that wheel and get that boat out of the water a couple of feet just to
keep it out of the ice when the lake freezes. I don’t know if those folks will
ever get here, but if they do at least the boat should be ok.” He saw a few
bullet holes in the hull, but everything was above the water level. If they did
get here, then they could deal with it.

Haliday
was still looking through the cab. They had some basics in here, just a couple
days’ worth of MRE’s, water and ammo. Nothing else he could see of value. He
was thinking about whether or not to take the deuce. Spoils of war or theft?
Could be looked upon either way. He would think about this one. He got out of
the cab and walked around to the back. There was a box up there that was
locked.

He
climbed up into the back of the truck. He yelled over to Blake, “Check those
two bodies for keys. If they don’t have any, see if you can reach the bodies in
the water and check them. If not, don’t worry about it.” Blake started to check
the bodies. Haliday went to stand up when he heard the first shot. He
practically felt the heat of the round.

He
dropped down in the back of the deuce. He hadn’t heard the Jeep pull in, but
saw it as he dropped. He looked around and saw the bed was up armored, but he
didn’t know to what extent. He saw the sides of the bed slightly bubble when
rounds hit. He was laying there unable to move. The side rails barely covered
him. He heard shouts from the Jeep.

“Put your
hands up. Put your hands up and stay where you are.” Haliday wasn’t going to do
it. No way in hell was he going out this easy. “Put your hands up and stand up
now.” Haliday laid there longer.

“Go screw
your cousins you redneck bastards.”

There
came a ripple of gunfire along the bed of the truck. He heard a loud hiss; they
had gotten one of the tires. They seemed to care less about their own deuce.

“Gary,
Rick, you guys ok? John, Andy, where you guys at? Can you hear us?”

Haliday
answered. “I think they’re hiding somewhere dick sucking just like you guys are
known for. I saw the billboard that said so.” That brought about a hellacious
lead storm. Haliday was covering his ears; they were ringing like mad from all
of the noise. He had a splitting headache now. The foam earplug wasn’t working
that well in the one ear; he had the earpiece for the radio in the other.

He keyed
his radio. He whispered, “Blake, you out there.”

“Ya, I’m
hiding behind one of the boats.”

“Can you
see them?”

“Not
really, as soon as I heard them fire I hid behind one of the boats on the
racks. I didn’t hear them drive up.”

“Can you
find some better cover?”

“Not
really, not without being seen.”

“Look
around again and see, maybe a quick run for a few feet or something.”

“Look,
you need to raise your hands and then get up. We are not going to warn you
again.”

“You guys
have an arrest warrant?”

“We don’t
need one smart-ass. We’re operating under the authority of the Bad Axe Minute
Men.”

“Is that
a division of the 4H or something? Never heard of them. You guys hold goat
milking contests and stuff?”

“I’ve had
enough of this asshole.” One of the guys opened fire and emptied his magazine
at the deuce.

“Hey, I
want to really thank you for providing me with some great cover here. Your
buddies could have used something like this about 10 minutes ago.”

“That’s it,
you prick.” The guy reloaded his rifle and started toward the deuce.

He got
about 10 steps away from the Jeep when Blake opened up on him. He tumbled
forward and as he lay there his body bounced around on the gravel as Blake
emptied the whole thirty round magazine into him. The other guy fired at
Blake’s position then stopped. Magazine change or something.

“Looks
like we have us a little problem here Mr. Minute man. You are now outgunned.”
Haliday whispered again, “Blake are you all right?”

“Ya, I
ran behind another boat when you pissed the guy off earlier. This one gave me a
better view and I thought it would be safer. It has two engines, and I’m kind
of protected by it. I can’t see the other guy though. He’s hiding on the other
side of the Jeep.”

“Ok look,
here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to give him the option to get the hell
out of here. If he takes it, let him go.”

“Are you
serious?”

“Yes I
am, chances are they called this in and have more help coming. We gotta get the
hell out of here.”

“Ok, if
you say so. Sounds a little crazy to me but that seems to be your style.”

“Look, we
want to make a deal. We can let you go if you leave now. We’ll leave the truck
here along with anything else that’s yours. You probably have about five
minutes or less before our group comes riding in to help us out. You got that?
You leave now and we won’t have a problem,” Haliday said. Haliday was now
listening to the militia freq.

“We won’t
be there for about 10 minutes or so, you copy.”

“Ya, I
copy, I’m gonna get the hell out of here and meet up with you guys. Maybe we
can ambush them when they come out.”

“Ok, any
idea on the rest of the guys?”

“No idea,
but Ron is down for sure. I think the rest are too. I’m getting the hell out of
here.

“Ok, I’m
leaving. I’m getting in the Jeep and taking off.” The guy got in the Jeep,
started it and backed up then headed toward the entrance which was about 150
yards away. Haliday got down from the truck and started running through the
woods. He had some gravel parking area and woods to run through.

He had
sprinted about 40 yards through the trees and came out behind the Jeep. The
Jeep was moving down the road now at about 50 mph. Haliday emptied a clip into
the back and quick changed magazines and emptied another one at it. The Jeep
swerved side to side then ran into the ditch, came back up onto the pavement,
and rolled a few times. The driver had been ejected and the Jeep rolled right
over him.

Haliday
ran back through the woods shouting at Blake, “get your bike, get moving, don’t
worry about taking anything.” Haliday got on his bike and rode up next to the
deuce. He put a couple of rounds into the other tires to flatten them. He
shifted into gear and met Blake at the entrance.

As they
pulled out of the exit, they heard the vehicles coming down the road. They were
barely less than a half mile away. Haliday took off with Blake behind him. The
approaching vehicles were coming up fast. One stopped momentarily by the rolled
Jeep and another took the shoulder of the road to go around it. They kept
heading straight after them.