Dark Days Rough Roads (55 page)

They had
built a rack to suspend people from. They would use this to keep the person’s
hands tied over their heads and their feet barely touching the ground. There
was blood on one of the chairs and on the floor. The worst part was a man still
hanging from one side of the rack. It looked like he had been dead for a few
days already.

Chuck
looked at Roger, “I know that guy.”

“Who is
it Chuck?”

Chuck
looked pissed. “That’s the chief of police. He went missing the second day of
the outage. No one knew what the hell happened to him. We all thought maybe he bugged
out. He and the sheriff never got along. I guess we know now what happened to
him. Seems like the chief wasn’t going to put up with any BS and they decided
he was a liability.”

Roger
keyed his mic and told everyone what they had found. This re-ignited the rage
that the people had for the militia. They went back into the first building and
made their way over to the west side of it. They went out and Haliday’s team
provided cover while Chuck’s team made it to the back of another building. This
was going to be the last easy building to clear.

Mark had
heard the shots being fired over at the north east corner and knew something
was wrong. He called and confirmed that there was a problem. “Ok, Brad,” he
said, “We need to get over there and see what’s going on.” He called on the
radio and told everyone to keep checking their rear. Roger and Brad took off.
Rob stayed to make sure everyone got up to the emplacements.

Roger got
one team at a time moved up toward the three buildings. They got all three
manned without any problems. They spent a few minutes arranging them to make it
a bit safer. The next piece of the puzzle would be to get the other two
positions emptied out. They had a couple of parlor tricks left to do this. He
called a couple more guys up to his position. They came up and each brought a
couple of large plastic toolboxes with them.

Over the
next 30 minutes they made two more trips with more supplies and ammo. They were
almost ready to make the assault on the two positions. They had to wait for Chuck
to enter the other building and clear it first. Chuck was there at the back.
They blew the door, tossed in and then blew the tannerite can. As soon as they
entered the building more shots were fired.

Roger and
his team got down low. They waited until the firing stopped. Haliday ran over
to the building and crouched down low. He yelled into the door. “Chuck, what’s
the status?” he asked.

Chuck’s
voice came back, “We’re clear. We have one wounded and we took out one
militia.” Haliday entered the building. Inside was a woman lying there dead and
Chuck’s man who was hit in the hip.

Haliday
walked over to him and checked him out. Chuck had put a pressure bandage on his
hip. “How bad?” Haliday asked. Chuck said he would be ok, but wouldn’t be able
to move. “We can’t get him out of here for at least another hour,” Roger said.
He looked at the guy; “Can you make it until then?”

“Ya,
sure, it just hurts.”

Haliday
grabbed a bottle out of his pocket and handed him a vicodin. “Take this. It’ll
help.”

Haliday
told Chuck he was heading back to the other building to get ready. Once he got
there, they looked out and saw the target. Haliday asked the guys if they were
ready and both nodded. They would be launching a small assault from two
buildings, his and the one Chuck was in. Haliday clicked his mic. “We go on my
word. Everyone ready, three, two, one, go.”

Mark and
Brad had gone slow and came up across the street from the brickyard. They saw a
truck over in the yard. “I wonder if that’s their truck?” he said.

Brad
said, “Yep, that’s where we got the tractor and it wasn’t there before.” Mark
and Brad checked the woods around the brickyard. They spotted some movement and
kept their eyes on it.

Mark told
Brad he was going to low crawl up into a better position. Brad kept watch as
Mark moved forward. Mark was about 25 yards closer to the people now and he watched
too. He heard some shots fired from the compound area and saw these people fire
back. They weren’t wearing the Russian camo and he wasn’t sure who they were.
He was wondering if they were good guys or bad.

He
motioned for Brad to crawl up. Brad moved up slowly, very slowly. Mark could
tell he wasn’t used to this. He looked over at Brad and pointed the people out.
Brad looked at them and then back at Mark and shook his head no. These were
definitely not part of Rob’s group. He told Brad he was moving over to line
himself up better.

While he
was moving the pair fired once again toward the compound. He heard the guy say
he got one. “Good job, sweetie,” he heard.

This was
a couple, he thought. He moved back toward Brad. “It’s a man and a woman, I’m
going to go further east and come through the brickyard. You come along to a
point and then provide me some cover. We can’t get them from here. I need to
take a clean shot and can’t get one right now.”

They
moved east and then found a place to cross. “You stay here. Brad. I’ll cross
over and check it out. I’ll signal you when I want you to cross. Mark crossed
over into the brickyard and made his way toward the couple. He peeked around a
pallet of bricks and spotted two small children hunkered down behind them. He
looked across at Brad and signaled him to back off a bit.

Over toward
the main gate, some of the guys took pot shots at the militia positions. They
were not able to effectively do anything. They tried to light the gel fuel. They
tried bows and arrows and aiming high hoping the arrows would drop on the guys,
but nothing was working. One of the guys took a shot at a vehicle and ruptured
the gas tank. Everyone else just looked at each other.

They
started shooting the vehicles themselves and were trying to puncture as many of
the fuel tanks as they could. The militia pushed the vehicles in place but did
not empty the tanks out. Gas was now flowing along the entire line of vehicles
that the militia relied on for protection and cover at the front of the admin
building.

Once a
couple of tanks were punctured and the militia caught on to what was happening
they fired toward the townspeople. They unleashed over 1,000 rounds to try and
stop them. The militia had hit a man and woman who were injured and another man
was killed. The people lit some fireworks and aimed them toward the vehicle
barricade. Finally one struck gas and within minutes they all started to burn.

After about
10 minutes, the line of cars was so engulfed in flames you could hardly see
through all of the smoke. The militia was able to pull back toward some
secondary defensive positions rather safely. Only one man sustained a hit while
making the moves, and it was just an injury that left him bleeding, but still
able to fight. The townspeople took the opportunity to gather up any of their
own wounded and get them to safety.

Haliday’s
team popped the door open at the same time Chuck’s team did. The team members
with the AR’s laid down prone while the men with shotguns took different
stances. One kneeled and one stood, both using the thin hangar wall along the
door jambs as cover. They instantly started firing toward their assigned
militia positions.

The folks
on the east and west sides fired as well. Haliday watched one man take off toward
the center of the building complex and tried to lead his fire on him. Before he
could fire on him though the concrete next to him shattered causing him to roll
for cover. The two men with him continued to fire and eliminated the threat
that fired on Haliday. The militia member running made it to another position,
but this one was out of their view.

Chuck’s
team didn’t have such good luck. As soon as they opened to fire, they took hits
immediately. Chuck fired away, but one of the guys had his shotgun jam on him, and
as he tried to eject the shell he was hit twice and went down. Chuck continued
to fire as the other man pulled the injured guy out of the way. He returned to
help Chuck. The snipers still didn’t have any shots on this militia position
and couldn’t help Chuck’s team.

Rob had
everyone moved up into the southern positions and now had a couple of guys in
the buildings waiting. He went over to see if he could help Chuck. Chuck told
him the guys were dug in pretty deep and wasn’t sure if they would be able to
get them out of that position. They all backed up and waited. They called
Haliday for direction. Haliday told them to send a couple to his location and
he would come over and see what was going on.

Mark took
another look around the area. He couldn’t spot anyone else so he made his move.
He shouldered his AR and pulled out his pistol. He sprang around the corner of
the bricks and took aim at the two kid, he put his finger to his mouth. He
spoke quietly and told them to raise their hands up which they did.

Mark then
had them lay down and he zip tied their hands together. The kids were maybe 10
or 11 years old, a boy and girl. Mark was shocked at this. “Here kids, you hide
here behind the bricks while we go play army.” It was appalling in every sense.
He didn’t like what he did next. He stood them up then called out to their
parents.

The
parents froze. All they heard was “Drop your weapons and approach your children
with your hands raised high.” They had no idea who had their kids or what the
person would do. The husband suggested he sneak over across the street and try
and come up behind them. The wife protested. The little girl cried out, “Mommy
I’m scared. One of the bad men has us.” Mark’s blood boiled at this.

Haliday
walked in and looked down at the man from Chuck’s team who had gotten hit. The
man was losing blood and would need help fast. Haliday grabbed his mirror and
took a quick glance. No sooner had he put it in the doorway when the militia
fired. The shots were too close for comfort and one came through the thin steel
just above his head.

Haliday
looked over at Rob. “Listen, get a few more guys up here. Have them take over
here in the building. In the meantime Chuck and I will take our teams and enter
that big ass building they are using to keep all the food and supplies in. If
we can get to the west end, we can take them out.” Rob signaled for a couple
more guys to come over and he said he would stay as well.

Chuck and
Haliday got their teams together. They needed Rob to draw the fire and as soon
as they started, they bolted for the door. They got the door open and entered
it quickly without any tannerite can. They all kept low. They looked around.
There were stacks upon stacks of food piled in here.

Over at
the main gate, not only had the smoke and fire given the militia a chance to
retreat, it also gave a few people the chance to move forward close to the line
of cars. Four people had rushed forward and then laid down waiting for the
flames to subside. This was as close as anyone had managed to get to the admin
building.

Mark was
waiting for the kids parents to approach. He heard the woman say, “Don’t hurt
them. I’m on my way.”

Mark
yelled out, “Both of you. I said both of you.” There was a pause and she said
her husband was injured. Mark couldn’t believe these people were playing games
with their kids. “Listen lady, I have two guys in the woods. If he ain’t
injured he will be. You wanna keep playing games?”

He heard
the man, “Ok, we’re both coming out, don’t shoot.”

Mark
waited and both of them came walking out hands held high. Mark called out,
“Brad, come on in, but tell your brother to keep his sights on these two.” Brad
came out slowly with his rifle raised. Mark ordered them to the ground with
their hands behind their backs. Brad approached and zip tied them.

The zip
ties came in handy. They were cable ties from an electric supply shop, but
Haliday had made sure everyone took plenty with them. He told them to tuck them
in their boots, their ball caps, waist bands, wherever they felt comfortable
putting them. This was the exact reason why.

Haliday
and Chuck made it to the west end of the hangar; no one was in there. He looked
at the wall and there weren’t any doors or windows. Up toward the top, he
spotted two large air vents. Up against the wall was a rolling ladder. He
slowly moved it over about 10 feet and climbed up. He pulled out his Leatherman
and used it to pry open one of the louvers.

He looked
down. This was going to be the perfect angle for the one position,
unfortunately the next position down the line would have clear shots and the
lack of protection would be sure death for whomever was up here. He looked at
the other vent. Two shooters could do it, just have to figure out how to get
someone up there.

Haliday
kept looking around for something to use. “Anybody have any ideas on a platform
for a second shooter?” he asked. “We have to be able to get down quickly too.”
Everyone was looking around. Most of the hangar space had been cleared for the
food storage. There wasn’t a whole lot they could use.

Brad and
Mark searched the couple and the kids thoroughly. Mark walked them over to
their vehicle and opened it up. He looked around a bit and grabbed some rope. He
tied them up to a pallet of bricks. He walked back over and grabbed a couple of
blankets and tossed them over the kids. It was time to head back to the
compound and help.