Dark Days Rough Roads (56 page)

Mark
called in and told them about the four prisoners. He then made his way back to
the compound with Brad. He went over the situation as it currently stood. They
had made some good ground, but needed more. Once they fully secured the south
end they could close the noose a little more.

Haliday
looked at everyone. “It’s not that high. Grab some pallets, quickly. Take the
stuff off of them if you have to. We need five or six.” The first three were
ready and Haliday stood them on edge and formed a triangle. He laid one on top
to form a platform. They piled up two more and he moved the stairs over and got
up on the platform. “You guys keep it steady, “ Haliday said.

He pried
the louvers of this vent open as far as he could. “This will work,” he said,
“someone else get up here quick. You guys keep this steady.” Chuck was on the
stairs and they were both ready. Haliday clicked his mic, “Now Rob.” Rob and a
couple others fired out the door and Haliday and Chuck fired on their targets.
After emptying a complete magazine, Haliday scrambled and got down. Chuck
followed not even a second later.

Sure enough
the walls around the vents opened up with a few holes. One second longer for
either of them and they would have been hit. They immediately cleared the west
wall of the hangar building as it took a few more rounds. Haliday called over
to Rob, “How’d we do?” Rob said he would check. He wasn’t sure.

Rob got
down low and took a quick peek. It looked like the position was neutralized.
“Wait a second,” Rob said. There came another volley of fire. A man in the
position Haliday fired into ran toward the buildings into another position as
others laid down cover fire. Rob came back on. “Looks like the two guys close
to us are dead and the other position was vacated, but someone left in it is
either dead or injured.”

Mark and
Brad were studying the north end now. Still the same problem. They got a few
people closer, but not enough. The only thing they could do would be to keep
more people from going in and to keep the militia from coming out. Rob called
Haliday and told him the situation. Haliday acknowledged and told him to get
some guys over on the south end to get the casualties out.

Mark sent
the four wheeler with their makeshift medic team over there, along with two
more guys. He settled down and continued to watch the area. Brad threw out some
different ideas, but nothing made sense. “We wait it out,” said Mark. Mark
reached in his pocket and pulled out a small bag of jerky and gave Brad a piece
and chewed on one himself.

Rob sent
two guys over to the militia position. As soon as they got there the first man
into the position was shot with a pistol four times. The second of Rob’s guys
fired his rifle into the militia man who had been laying there waiting. The man
yelled over to Rob and told him it was secure now, but they lost Kenny. Rob
sent one more guy over to the position.

The four
wheeler made it in and they evacuated the wounded and the dead using the two
four wheelers. The injured were taken next door to the police station and the
dead were placed next door to that for the time being. The medical staff got
busy working on everyone.

The group
had managed to take full control of the south end of the airport and some key
buildings. They also controlled the main gate entrance now as far as anyone
being able to get in that way. The next push would be even harder. Haliday went
into one of the buildings and came back out with a case of water. He opened a
bottle and drank it down. Most of the other guys did the same.

He had a
few cases of water taken out and a bunch of granola bars and snacks. It had
been a long time already, almost six hours. They started around 0800 and they
only had about four hours of daylight left now. Haliday sat down and cracked
open a fruit roll up.

During
the lull in activity Mark had a couple of people get the prisoners and take
them to the jail. They had rigged up a wood stove courtesy of the tractor
supply store and it was nice and warm in there. Mark asked Haliday for more
food and Haliday agreed. They loaded up a bunch and took it over to the police
station as well.

Haliday
was drinking some more water when he stopped and dropped the bottle. He held
his hand up and listened. He called Mark on the radio. “We have a deuce inbound.
It sounds like it’s coming from the south.” Haliday started shouting out
orders. Everyone started running in different directions. “Mark, get over here
quick. Everyone, heads up, inbound bad guys from the south.”

The deuce
was barreling down the road. Everything was quiet and as he was standing there
he heard the shifting of the engine. He was kneeling down behind one of the
militia emplacements they had taken when he saw it approach. It was a small three
vehicle convoy. The deuce along with a pickup and an older van.

The three
vehicles entered the south fence line breach and spread out. Haliday had
militia north in the buildings and south. He called Mark. “Mark, where you at
buddy, any idea what’s going on.”

Mark told
him to wait a minute as he was checking them out. Mark called him, “Ok, I have
the info. We have problems.”

Mark gave
him the rundown of what was going on. “The deuce is in the middle and the other
vehicles are left and right of it about 20 yards and it looks like a makeshift
spearhead formation. The vehicles look like the drivers are armored up. They
make the approach with any foot troops and you’re screwed.”

“The
deuce has an upper turret. The pickup truck has an armored portal on the back
of it as well. I count six people in the van, two in the pickup and eight in
the deuce. All Russian camo and all carrying AR’s except for the deuce and
pickup turrets. They have 7.62’s for sure. Roger, they have a ton of ammo with
them. The deuce has armor on the sides of the bed. Maybe 36 inches tall.”

Haliday
said, “That’s wonderful. The guys in the woods can’t take shots until they get
closer and once that happens they are close enough to run us out. We’re going
to lose the ground we have taken and a lot more lives. Mark, coordinate what
you can. Do what you can. Let me know. Make sure the north holds their
positions and keeps them busy.”

Haliday
told them that anybody on the east and west that could take shots at these guys
should do it. “Go for the tires, go for the gunners and concentrate on the rest
after that.” The snipers had to hit the gunners and drivers. They had to stop
the vehicles.

Mark came
on the radio again. “Roger, they are finalizing their plans and gear.” Haliday
looked at his watch. It had been about 40 minutes from the time he heard the
deuce until now. They were toward the end of the runway and had about ¾ of a
mile to reach them.

The
vehicles started moving slowly forward. The deuce was leading with the others
about 35 feet behind and off to the sides. The pickup had a driver and two
gunners in it. The deuce had a driver, gunner and four men in the back. The van
just had a driver and one man who had slid the side door open. The other five
men moved on foot. Mark called and told everyone they were moving

The pace
was slow and the suspense was getting on everyone’s nerves. The guys in the
tree line started to take some shots at the vehicles but they were still a
little too far away. The militia accompanying the vehicles was keeping a sharp
lookout to the sides and behind them. The anticipation was growing.

They were
much closer now and the tree line on both sides erupted with fire. The first
vehicle to take a hit was on one of the back tires of the deuce, but that was
like a scratch and didn’t phase it. The deuce paused and one of the guys on
foot dropped the tailgate and the rest climbed in the back. They continued to
move toward Haliday.

The gunners
in the deuce lit up the tree line where they spotted a sniper. The man was hit
and started to fall out of the tree, but just dangled from his tree stand
harness. He was wounded and trying to free himself as he continued to take fire
from the militia. After just a few more moments he went limp after sustaining
more hits.

The man
who had been using the front loader as cover was in a bind, he was exposed no
matter where he went. He looked around for a way to get to safety rather than
stay in place and stay safe. He made a run for another position, but the pickup
truck gunner took aim and hit the man twice. The man tumbled forward and fell.
The gunner put another round into him.

The men
in the tree line fired again and hit the van’s front tire. The tire deflated
and the rim dug into the grass and dirt slowing it down. The rear tires started
to spin as they lost traction trying to propel the vehicle forward. The van
only made it another 25 feet before it wouldn’t move anymore. It was now stuck
where it was. The militia men inside readied themselves to make a run for it.

The deuce
paused so the men from the van could get in. The driver leapt out and ran for
the deuce and the man at the side door of the van jumped down. His feet had
barely hit the ground when Mark fired half of a magazine into the guy. The
militia returned fire on Mark, who was lying prone behind one of the metal
portals the shop had built. He could hear the rounds strike the plate and the
woods around him.

Mark
called out some instructions so they would keep him covered. He would have to
wait it out for a little bit before he would be able to get to a safer
position. The assault from the front and now the rear caught them off guard and
they were reforming their plans to adjust for the increase in militia members
fighting them.

The deuce
and pickup started to move forward again. The pickup now moved in a bit closer
to the deuce so they could cover each other’s vehicle. This was an amateur move
and could put the militia in greater danger. Concentrating troops in a small
area like this could make it easier to take out more at once.

They
could gun it and rush Haliday’s positions and then all jump out near the
emplacements, but that was suicide. Mark was waiting, but he was still pinned
down and we stayed still because it was his only option. He still had to wait
for a better opportunity before he could move out. He called Haliday and told
him.

Haliday
was only able to grab a quick peek once in a while. The gunners were a threat
and were keeping Haliday and his men down low and unable to fire back. The
pickup and deuce made it to about 200 yards away from Haliday and slowed again.
Haliday literally didn’t know what to do. He had to think quickly.

They
could try and bail over to the buildings and fight inside but that wasn’t any
better. They would simply be pinned inside with no way out. Haliday was ticked
off that they didn’t have a better grip on their own rear position, especially
since this was how they got in themselves. He heard a voice on the radio.

“We’re
coming up from the rear, ‘you copy?’ we have two bikes and the Jeep. Do not
fire on us.” Haliday told everyone on the radio to pass the word. Do not fire
on the vehicles behind the trucks, they are good guys. Concentrate your fire on
the sides. The tree line lit up again on the militia and the militia fired
back.

Straight
up behind them roared two motorcycles and the Jeep. Blake was on his bike and
Alan on the KLR. They both went for the cover of the van and took up their
positions and fired toward the advancing militia from the rear. The first two
people to go down were the two guys in the back of the pickup truck.

The
driver didn’t know where the rounds had come from. He gunned it and took off
for one of the emplacements. His goal now was to get out of the open and into
the emplacements occupied by Haliday’s group. They didn’t want to remain
targeted any longer. The truck bounced violently across the open field as it
increased speed.

He plowed
into the emplacement crushing one of the men underneath the pickup and the sand
bags. The other man had jumped out of the way. The driver got out and fired on
the man. Rob was one position over and saw what happened. Rob fired and dropped
the man and then got back down. They were taking heavy fire from the deuce now.

One of
the militia in the deuce looked back and his eyes widened with horror. There
was this Jeep right behind them with two guys at the roll bar firing into the
back of the deuce. The Jeep was only 50 yards behind them. Mike was driving and
Kevin and Randy had AR’s blazing away. They went through three magazines each
in a matter of about a minute.

 Mike hit
the brakes and swung left, then stopped. They now had Alan and Blake by the van
and Mike, Randy and Kevin by the Jeep, and both groups were behind the militia
deuce. The fire was concentrated on the deuce. The deuce slowed and the driver
gunned the engine trying to get it to move faster. The two front tires and a
couple of the rear tires were flat.

One of
the men jumped down and raised the tailgate up. They wanted to protect the men
in the back from more fire and they were basically like fish in a barrel. Blake
took aim as the man was climbing up and hit the man three times in the back.
One of the guys in the back of the deuce had tried to help lift the guy in and
one of the snipers took him out with a head shot. The man just hung over the
tailgate of the deuce with the other man lying on the ground.

Mark got
up and headed along the east side and stopped. He popped some tear gas into the
37mm launcher and put three rounds close to the deuce. The men inside were
scrambling to put on gas masks. Mark fired into the tank of the deuce multiple
times and watched the fuel drain out. He was about to launch a flare when he saw
a couple of white flags waving.