Dark Days Rough Roads (53 page)

“What’s
that mean?” he heard someone yell.

“Kill,” Roger
answered back.

He made a
quick count of the people involved. There were almost 120 of them total. These
people were starting to get hungry and that meant they were ready to fight.
They were starting to realize real quickly now what was happening and what
their future held. It wasn’t just them; it was their families as well.

He called
everyone close in. “I have a little speech to give here people. I hope it
doesn’t change your minds about anything. People are going to die. That is a
cold hard fact you all need to come to grips with. The fight is being taken to
them because if you don’t, they will become stronger and you will become weaker.”

“There
are no ‘ifs,’ ‘ands’ or ‘buts’ in this. It’s a matter of getting it done and
getting it done the right way, right now. As corny as it sounds, and as often
used as it is in the movies, look around you. This is the reason you are
fighting. This is who depends on you. This is who you must depend on. With that
being said, Depends might not be a bad option; some of you will shit your
pants.” He got quite a few chuckles at that, even though it was probably true.

“Any
questions before we leave?” There weren’t any. Just a lot of thank you's, good
lucks and prayers. Haliday shook Rob’s hand and Brad’s hand. “I’ll see you all
in the morning.” Haliday and Mark headed back to the house. They walked in and
the mood was somber. “I’m not going over it all again ok. It’s gotta be done,
plain and simple.”

Morning
came and Mark and Haliday were ready to go. When they went downstairs everyone
was there waiting for them. A lot of hugs and kisses. Kayla walked up and gave
Mark a hug. She went over to Roger and gave him a big hug with tears in her
eyes. “You better be coming home. You promise me that Dad.”

“I can’t
promise you that sweetheart. What I can promise you is that I will do
everything I can to make it happen. I want you to know how proud of you I am. I
could never have asked for a better daughter who has grown into a fantastic
young woman. You can accomplish anything you want in life kiddo. Never give up.
Take care of the family here. You’re the boss for now.”

Haliday
and Mark got into the Jeep and took off. They didn’t say a word to one another
on the way there. They just went over the assault plans in their heads. They
arrived at the police station. Everyone else started to arrive as well. Haliday
pulled out a big pot and a bunch of Styrofoam bowls. One of the folks took
charge and started doling out oatmeal with bananas that Haliday had brought.

He also
had made some coffee at the police station and handed out some granola bars
along with pitchers of Tang. It was a meager meal, but still hit the spot. He
put a few bags of chocolate candy on the tables for some more sugar. Haliday
talked with Rob a bit. “You guys are getting one hell of a bill for my
consultancy fee here.” Rob asked him if he took cash. “Oh, now you have jokes,
huh, Rob?”

Haliday
and Mark had their radios with them and they had brought two extra handhelds
for Rob and Brad. They had five mobile units from the vehicles they had acquired
and they placed one at each corner of the perimeter of the compound. From there
they should be able to coordinate the assault.

Everyone
had made it in and Haliday did another quick count. They had gained about 10
more members. The doctor approached and introduced another doctor and three
nurses. They had gathered as many medical supplies as they could, and had an
area prepared for medical treatment in the conference room of the police
station. Anyone wounded they planned to put in an office next to the police
station for now.

“Move
them out Rob.” Haliday and Mark went and got ready as well. Haliday had his
faithful old Armalite AR180 with him. He chose it over a short barreled AR15
because of the folding stock and usefulness in close quarters. Chuck had his
own entry weapon of choice which was an MP5. After the initial assault, they
would meet up with their teams and start the building clearing.

Everyone
had gotten into position. The daytime assault was a big risk, but they took it
because it would help level the field. No night vision goggles, or night vision
scopes, plain sight, easy to discern friendly from foe, and the daytime
conditions would allow the hunters with their scoped rifles to maximize their
ability.

The
militia compound was ready for the attack. As soon as they had seen the attack
mounting, they had sounded their alarm and everyone was in position. They sat
there and waited. Haliday’s group sat there and waited. He called them on the
ham. “We are going to give you the opportunity to surrender.”

The
response came quickly. “Negative. Disband and go home.”

Roger
called them again and explained it all to them. “Listen, this is how it is. You
can surrender and we can go from there. If not it’s going to be ugly for both
sides. You have women and children in there who don’t deserve this. It’s the
best option for everyone involved, so let’s work this out.”

A one word
response came. “Negative.”

Haliday
mumbled to himself. “What was that song from that stupid movie
Small
Soldiers
. Some Spice Girls song; wish I had that right now.”
I’ll tell
you want what, what I really really want
. “Oh great,” he said, “I’m going to
die with that stupid song in my head.”

Mark
looked at him, “What’s wrong?”

“You
don’t want to know,” he replied.

One more
try. Haliday said, “Listen. A lot has happened, a lot will happen and we don’t
need to go down that road. Anyone who wants to give up and go home can do so
now. We’ll give you one hour to decide. After that we may take action. Don’t be
stupid. Listen to us. Come on guys. No one wants to die today.”

All he
heard was “Screw you.”

“Ok,” he
said, “One hour. Time has started.”

Haliday had
told everyone to expect what came next. The militia started firing on the
group’s positions in order to try and gain an edge during the assault. They
fired a lot of rounds into the barricades, toward the tree line and everywhere
else. The group didn’t fire a single shot back. Not a single person even got
hit as they maintained cover.

Haliday
had what he wanted, the proof that the militia would not make a deal and firing
first meant just that. They gave them a chance and they refused it. Haliday had
a few guys fire a couple of rounds toward the compound, but not at anyone in
particular. This drew another barrage of fire from the militia. He clicked the
radio. “Forty-five minutes left.”

Time was
counting down; the militia was persistent in not giving up. Haliday gave them
one last warning. “You have five minutes left. Last chance to get out now for
anyone wanting to leave to get out now. Come on out with your hands empty, no
questions asked and we will take care of you and get you to safety.” He waited
the five minutes and switched the channel to his own. “Game on folks. Good luck.
Godspeed. Fire when you have a target.”

Haliday
had made sure they didn’t have a sniper on the roof of the admin building. This
would have been the first man to go. They learned their lesson the hard way by
taking hits on that position. He searched the property with his spotting scope
and had everyone else looking as well. They had to make sure they didn’t have
one hidden. Haliday was convinced no one in the compound had higher ground.

Haliday
loaded an armor piercing round into the Barrett he had liberated and fired on
his first target. This was the lock on the door of the building that held
prisoners. He saw that they had another lock and hasp on the door and he fired
on that one too. He waited patiently, but no one came out. They would check
this building out as soon as they could. There was some return fire from the
militia, but nothing to worry about. They couldn’t reach his position.

From over
on the north end of the compound came 30 shots from four different men. These
were all concentrated on the militia’s prized deuce, or actually its tires.
They flattened as many as they could, rendering the up-armored pig useless. All
they had to rely on now was the regular complement of vehicles that they had.

The
militia took aim and returned fire. They fired almost 200 rounds toward the men
in a matter of seconds. As far as firepower was concerned, they had the
advantage over the townspeople. They didn’t have the amount of concealment, however,
so many of the rounds were wasted with only an occasional hit.

Haliday
took aim at target number three. He hated to do it, but he had to. He zeroed in
on the front tire of their fuel truck and flattened it. He shifted his aim
slightly and flattened the other front tire. Both the fuel truck and deuce were
now out of commission. He started to hear some sporadic gunfire from all sides
of the airport.

As he
searched out some more targets he gave the order to start the tires on fire.
They had some small balloons of gas placed in them and the guys tossed some
road flares into them. The thick black smoke started to fill the air in those
areas as the tires burned. Nobody was sure how long they would burn but
anything helped at this point.

One of
the guys throwing the flares took a round to the shoulder. This was only the
first of many casualties to come. The men around him fired into the compound
and allowed him the chance to get to safety so he could be treated. They had
one man and a woman nurse dedicated to picking up the injured with a four
wheeler. They’d be busy today.

Haliday
scanned the south end of the compound. The stacks of bricks they were able to
get in place were still there. The front loader was still sitting where it had
stalled out. Haliday called Rob. “Rob, get some people over to the west breach
and see if you can get that front loader started. Get some people into those
brick emplacements.” Rob told him that the front loader stalled out.

Roger
asked him what happened. Rob told him it had overheated. “Well, try it anyway. If
it didn’t seize it may start. You can use it to at least get some guys into
those positions.” Rob made the arrangements and got everyone in place. He gave
a command and the whole south end started popping as five guys ran to the
loader. The militia positions were quiet as they held their heads down.

The group
made it to the loader and sure enough it started. The guys just jumped on and
the guy driving it went straight to the brick emplacements where he dropped off
two guys at each one. He turned around and headed back toward the west breach
and almost made it before the engine seized up. The radiator had taken hits the
last time and it had stalled out, but this time it was dead for sure with the
seized engine. The driver jumped down and used it as cover.

Haliday
moved to another position so he could fire past the emplacements without
worrying about the guys being in a crossfire. He told the men with the hunting
rifles to try and take shots at the militia positions. They needed to take out
3 of the 5 positions that could cover the south end if they expected to get the
building entry teams in there and continue to take some of the compound.

Haliday
moved over toward the west breach area himself now and took a look. He looked over
at Rob. “Grab your binoculars and look at that position on the west corner of
that building. We need to take out that one and the ones on each side of it.
Tell them that’s what the plan is.” Rob sent a couple of runners out to the
town’s snipers and word spread. He used some hand signals and eventually got
the point across to the guys behind the bricks and front loader.

Over toward
the north side of the compound, Mark and Brad got the men ready. They used some
probing fire to see where the militia’s strong points were. Mark told Brad to
go launch some cans at the admin building. These had been pulled out of the
hunting shop and were merely cans of gel fuel. They had close to a hundred of
them. They partially unscrewed the lids and launched them all toward the admin
building. Almost half had hit the building and quite a few landed on the roof.
The tops popped off and the gel ran every where.

One of
the townspeople tried to launch a flare onto the roof, but couldn’t get the
distance he needed with the giant sling shot. After a couple of failed
attempts, he resorted to attempting to use some fireworks, but couldn’t get the
angle. He risked moving in closer and was met with a few rounds into his chest.
Mark had told them to abandon the attempt if it didn’t work with the flares,
but the guy must have insisted. They had to leave him lay where he was.

Haliday
was concentrating on the center militia position. He saw the muzzle of the
rifle above the sand bags. He took aim and fired a shot. It was off, but close
enough to let the guy know he was being watched. He saw the muzzle shift.
Haliday gave it one more shot and fired into the sand bags, but still had no
luck. Haliday moved backwards and into the trees where he looked around.

There was
a man up in a tree stand with his rifle pointed toward the compound. Roger
asked him, “Hey, you can’t see these guys at all?”

The man
said, “Not enough to get a good center mass shot.” Roger asked him what he
could see. The guy told him that once in a while he could see the top half of a
head.