Dark Days Rough Roads (48 page)

Kevin
yelled over to Diana to hit the west corner of the house. He told Dawn to do the
same thing. As soon as they saw a muzzle flash, they each burned through their
magazines. The man hiding behind the corner of the house was shredded. With
almost 70 rounds striking within a 7X7 foot area and piercing the vinyl siding
and insulation, it was almost like a Claymore had gone off. He was struck
almost eight times by 5.56 armor piercing rounds.

Randy,
Sarah, Mike and Blake fired toward the activity in the woods near Haliday.
Haliday started crawling like crazy to get deeper into the woods. The militia
man firing on him now had more than just Haliday to worry about. Haliday was
managing to use that edge and gained some more ground. He rolled over and
popped a smoke grenade in the 37mm and fired it toward him. He popped one more
and fired it behind him.

Inside
the house they could hear the stray rounds hitting the cabin. Rich had everyone
hiding low so the armored lower half would keep them safe. He sent Bobby and
Matthew downstairs to stay and told them to send Karen up. He called Bev over.
“The woods are a big problem. We need to see about helping them out.”

One of
the side windows had been broken out. He grabbed a broom and knocked the glass
out. He tossed a folded wool blanket over the broken glass on the floor. Karen
came up the stairs, “What do you need me to do?”

“You and
Bev go open that window. You’ll have to fire into the woods. I’ll use this
window.”

Alan
caught movement toward his left. The first man appeared through the smoke with
the second man appearing about 25 feet to the right of the first one. These
guys were heading straight for Mark and Lisa’s positions. They were within 50
feet and rushing as fast as they could and firing blindly.

Alan
opened up on the second man who was actually closer to him. Mark fired on him
as well and then spun to fire at the first man who was almost on top of Lisa’s
position. Lisa had been reloading her rifle and couldn’t aim it in time. David
had raised himself to one knee so he could fire on the man.

The man
continued forward and he stepped on one of the foot traps. The three inch spike
pierced his heel and went deep inside his ankle. He tried to shake the spike
strip off and he stumbled and started to trip. The rubber sole of his boot kept
it in place. David hit him once and the guy half fell into Lisa’s hole. His
momentum had overcome his ability to stop and control his fire as well. She
couldn’t get out and felt the man struggling. Now he was struggling to free
himself from the hole.

Haliday
called Mike and told him to fire into the smoke only. Randy, Sarah, Blake and
Mike did as they were told. The militia man hugged the ground and took cover.
Haliday crawled another 20 feet and then shot up and ran into the woods. He
angled himself and headed northwest. He stopped for a moment to catch his
breath. That was very close, he thought.

Haliday
had a problem now. He was literally behind enemy lines. He took a moment to
gather his wits. He surveyed the scene from his location. He saw the firefight
between the woods and the house. He had no idea if anyone had gotten injured or
killed or what the count was on the militia side either. He had about a second
to make a decision.

As David
had fired on the man, the last militia member by the empty house fired toward
David. David was partially in the haze of the dissipating smoke now and the
militia member saw this. David took a hit to his thigh. He laid down prone and
dragged himself back to his landscape wall for cover.

Mark
fired on the struggling man in Lisa’s hole and the man went limp. “Lisa, are
you ok?” Lisa answered back that she was ok. “I’ll try to help you,” he said.

“No,
don’t move. I think they got David. You might get hit too. I’ll be ok, I can
handle this.” The dead man was about 210 pounds and halfway in her hole. She
struggled. but was able to get his body out of the hole.

The
militia on the south side of the property was still firing, but not as heavily
as before. David was wrapping a bandage around his thigh. He tied it snuggly.
He couldn’t crawl back to the house; he would expose himself doing so. He would
ride it out and provide as much support as he could.

Kevin,
Diana and Dawn kept them at bay. It was now pretty much a stalemate on this
end. The east was so wide open that the militia didn’t dare try to use it.
Early on, they learned that lesson with their casualties and the Jeep. The
north side was still a problem, but the biggest problem was the woods on the
west side of the house.

Mark,
Kayla, Alan and Nancy needed help. Mark called in to Alan. “Alan, can you get
up into the crow’s nest?”

Alan said
“Ya, I’ll let you know when I get up there. You want me to use the .308?”

“No,”
Mark said, “Take the AR and as much ammo as you can.”

“Ok, I’m
on my way.” Alan made his way to the crow’s nest.

Haliday
made his decision. He would try to get to the west to help. He started slowly
working his way there. He called Mark and told him his plan. Mark told him it
would work with only the right execution.

“Listen,
Mark,” he said, “it’s going to be your call, on your command. I won’t be close
enough to tell when it’s time.”

“I’ll
have Randy, Sarah and Blake cover the north. Maybe Mike can get over there.”

“Rob,
this is Roger.”

“Go ahead,
Roger.”

“Look
Rob, we’re deep in this. We have casualties on both sides and we are getting
ready to get hammered with a big offensive. How you guys doing?”

“It’s a
stalemate over here Roger, any suggestions?”

“Ya, when
they get done here and return, ambush them. Make sure they don’t make it back
into the compound. I gotta go. I gotta go.”

Roger
heard an increase in the rate of fire. The west woods were heavy with militia.
He called into the house. “You guys ready in there?”

Rich
said, “Ya, just tell us when.”

“No, Mark
has to do it. I’m in the woods and can’t see what’s happening well enough. Mark
is going to make the call and everyone needs to move when he says go. You guys
give it everything you have, you hear me?”

“Roger,
we got it, we’re ready if it comes to that.”

Roger
continued making his way toward the heavy fighting. He was now northwest of his
property. He moved in as close as he could and checked out all the gear he
would need. He took his mags and made sure they were all loaded. He took out
all of his 37mm rounds and checked to see what he had. He placed the rounds he
would use in his left cargo pocket of his pants and dumped the rest.

He laid his
M24 down and covered it up with some leaves and branches. He piled everything
else up by another tree and loosely covered it up. It was more obvious than the
rifle, but that’s what he wanted. He would prefer this was found instead of his
rifle. He had to lighten his load as much as he could. He would take only what
was immediately needed for this part of the assault.

Over by
the south side of the house, the militia was firing only randomly. The north
side was pretty much the same. Mike had Dawn, Diana and Kevin lay down some
cover fire and he jumped from position to position until he made it over to
David. David was laying there looking south toward the area where the man who
shot him had been.

“You ok,
David?”

David
said, “Not really. This thing hurts like hell. I think the bleeding has stopped
though.”

“David,
you stay down. I’ll stay here and help out.”

“Sounds
good,” David said. The two of them waited.

Mark
called on the radio. “Hang tight everyone. Conserve your ammo if you can.
You’ll need it. Keep your heads low. This is going to get dicey.”

Haliday
was thinking through the fight step by step. They had done a hell of a job
fending off the militia. He knew they took some heavy fire, but his group was
fairly well concealed and had great cover. A rush would end that though. They
almost succeeded and David got hit, and Lisa almost got it too. They were
almost overrun. One last chance to even this thing out.

Alan was
up in the crow’s nest working like mad. He had everything he needed laid out
and was fixing a little issue with the main component of their next defense for
when the militia rush on the west side came. He grabbed the wires and twisted
them together and then double checked them. It was ready to go now.

The
militia on the north started first. They fired at the house, the crow’s nest
and the previous positions where they knew Randy, Sarah and Blake were located.
The shots came roughly one every two seconds. The south side started up next.
These guys were doing the same thing. It was almost methodical, a slow rhythm
of shots.

Diana
stepped down from a sand bag she was using to adjust her height. She went to
step back up and was near the rear of the hole when she did. As she did, she
was struck in her right upper shoulder area, which she accidentally exposed.
Diana dropped her rifle. She tried to pick it up and her right arm wasn’t
strong enough. She grabbed it with her left and rested it in position. She
would have to fire as best she could.

The west
side started up, but far more rapidly and sporadically. The majority of the
militia was located over in this area now. The militia moved a little closer
and the rate of fire tripled from this side. In a matter of about 30 seconds
the north and south tripled their rates of fire and the west increased yet
again. It was a full on assault coming in on them now.

The
entire compound was under heavy fire now. Mark saw movement very close and
called everyone. “Now, now, now!” Alan grabbed a metal spoon and slowly dragged
it across a wooden board with terminals on the top. The terminals were
connected to a large 12 volt battery wired to Haliday’s favorite rocket engine
igniters. Throughout the west side of the woods, the trees lit up brightly.

The
flares were originally parachute flares and were stripped down, altered and set
in the trees. Burn time was about 45-55 seconds. Haliday had installed two sets
of them and these couldn’t be shot and extinguished. Ten locations spaced along
the wood line. They would constantly burn bright white until they burned out.
This was the last of the tricks Haliday had in his bag.

As soon
as Haliday heard Mark tell Alan to ignite the flares he started launching his
37mm rounds. These were CS tear gas shells and would cause some serious
discomfort to people running for cover and trying to save themselves. He had seven
and he launched all seven of them in about 30 seconds. He took off toward the
west wood area to see if he could now help repel the militia.

The
militia stopped in their tracks. They were not only completely illuminated now,
but they could not see the house or fighting positions very well. They had no
sooner started to back off or take cover when the tear gas shells started to
land around them. They started a hasty retreat to get out of the light and out
of the tear gas.

Everyone
in Haliday’s group on this side of the house lit them up. Alan up in the crow’s
nest started to fire down into the woods. He kept his eyes on the first flare
that went off. As soon as this one burned out he would ignite the second set.
This was going to give them about a minute and a half or more of light to even
out the odds.

Inside
the house, Rich fired a 12 gauge shotgun full of double aught buck into the
retreating militia line. He pumped seven rounds as fast as he could moving from
left to right. He dropped down and started reloading the shotgun to fire again.
Over by the other window Bev and Karen were firing 22lr’s but had plenty of
magazines and kept the rounds flying. They started at opposite ends and worked toward
the middle and then back again. The group on the ground could hear the shots
flying over their heads and they were firing as well.

Lisa,
Mark, Kayla and Linda all kept firing at the militia. If they saw someone dive
to the ground or behind a tree they would concentrate their aim on that
location. The first flare sputtered out and Alan dropped down and started the
second set. Everyone else continued the heavy sustained fire.

When the
militia had moved forward they didn’t expect the flares and barrage of gunfire.
As they retreated from this they incurred the heaviest losses yet. They had eight
members here that had been advancing. Out of the eight, only three had escaped
unharmed. Two were injured and three3 were dead. This devastated their ranks.

One man
had stopped to aim at a flare that he thought he could shoot and put out. A
couple of shots and it didn’t go out, however Mark had put a couple of five
rounds bursts in that direction and this was the first casualty. Another member
had moved laterally not knowing more flares were being ignited and Rich had hit
him with the shotgun twice.

Off toward
the other side, Karen and Bev had gotten lucky with the 22lr’s and hit a woman
in the back of her neck as she retreated. She laid there paralyzed, unable to
do anything. One of the other members reached down to grab her and Alan had
fired his bursts into him. The carnage in such a short period of time was
horrific.