Joshua (Book 2): Traveler (21 page)

Jason thought about it another moment and finally it came to him. “Birds, I didn’t see or hear a single bird this morning.”

Frank agreed, “Yeah, now that you mention it ...”

Brigid knew what to do. “I think we should call some of the other groups, see if they’ve had any problems. The Kurtzmans are the closest. Carol, try to reach them.”

Carol sat down at the radio before Brigid finished the sentence. She tuned the dial of the old unit, “This is the Avery house, can anyone hear me?”

Jason and Brigid went to the front of the house and Frank and Bohdan went to the back, they cracked opened the doors and quietly listened.

After a few seconds of static a woman’s voice came over the radio, “This is Kurtzman house, how’s it going guys?”

“We might have a problem here, we’re not sure yet. How are you doing over there? Is everything all right?”

After a worrying pause the voice came back, “Yes, we’re fine. What kind of problem are you having?”

“We’re not sure at the moment. It might just be a feeling, we wanted to check around, see if anyone else had any problems this morning. We ...”

Abruptly Jason cut in, “I hear something!”

Frank and Bohdan both came from the back and now all of them listened there in the perfectly still room. After a second they could all hear it. Hannah was instantly paralyzed with fright when she realized where she had heard the sound before.

Jason was the first to put a name on it, “It’s a truck motor, a diesel truck.”

The time for waiting was over and they all knew it, Frank took command. “Carol, make the distress call! NOW!”

Carol was immediately back at the microphone, “MAYDAY! MAYDAY! MAYDAY! This is the Avery house declaring a code black emergency! Anyone that can hear this signal please come immediately! We are under attack! MAYDAY! MAYDAY! MAYDAY! This is the Avery house declaring a code black emergency! Anyone that can hear this signal please come immediately ...”

Frank took his AR-15 off the rack and handed Jason his, “Everyone take their positions for a front attack!”

Hannah sat there in shock; she had been told before but now it was unclear what she should do.

Frank had to help her remember. “Hannah, take the boys and go to the safe room. Get in and don’t come out unless someone tells you to! Go on!”

She got off the couch and started to go but then turned right around. Hannah retrieved her rifle and slung it over her shoulder. She took Nicolas from Danielle and grabbed Adam by the other hand. “Come on, Adam.”

They went right to the kitchen and there it was, completely sunk into the floor was a five-foot-square box constructed of cinderblocks filled with steel rebar and concrete. She gave Adam the baby and pushed aside the table and chairs, then slid the steel top off. Hannah helped Adam and the baby get in, finally she got inside too. Jason came into the room and helped her slide the metal lid back over them, sealing the three in the darkness.

At the front of the house it was controlled chaos.

Carol put down the microphone and grabbed her gun, “I was able to get Kurtzman house. They said they’re on their way and they would contact the others.”

Vira only said aloud what they were all thinking, “They are thirty minutes from here, at best! They will not get here in time!”

Bohdan took his wife by the hand, immediately calming her, some, “We will be fine; we will hold them off until our friends come.”

Frank and Carol finished closing the steel shutters in front while Jason did the kitchen and Brigid the back bedroom.

Danielle, Frank, Carol, Bohdan, and Vira all took firing positions at the front of the house, towards the coming sound.

Jason and Brigid watched the back.

By the time everyone was at their assigned positions, the sound had grown unbearably loud, and now another came with it, the horrific sound of men ready to kill or die, the mob’s wild screaming filling all their ears.

Jason was at the window in the kitchen and tapped on the steel door with the butt of his rifle. “Hannah, can you hear me?”

Hannah’s muffled voice came from the abyss, “Yes”

“If I tell you to get out of here, you go immediately, understand?”

“Yes, where do we go?”

“Go out the back door. The three of you head for the cornfield. Keep your heads down and follow it to the far side. When you get to the creek cross it and go down past that old barn, follow the gravel road north until you get to the Kurtzmans. You’ve been there before, you can find it again, can’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Just stay down, unless, until I say.”

The sound of the roaring motor and the frenzied mob flooded the whole house now. The house was shaking with that awful sound.

Frank checked his rifle scope and prepared to fire, “Everybody ready?! Hold your fire until I say!”

All of the group, front and back, checked their weapons and got into firing positions.

The old truck sped through the snow, lightly bouncing as it came ever closer. Finally it was within range.

Frank could hold back no more, “FIRE!”

Everyone at the front of the house began shooting at the truck and driver but still it kept coming right at them. They continued to pour gunfire into it and yet it just kept coming.

Bullets started tearing through the unprotected sections of the home’s front room. Everyone kept down but continued to return fire.

The truck was still advancing, it was now nearly on top of them.

Frank called out, “EVERYBODY WATCH OUT!”

They instantly scattered and the truck came right through the front window, tearing the shutters right off the walls. It stopped halfway in, its frame hung on the foundation, the windshield filled with bullet holes and the cab’s occupants all dead. Underneath it lay Bohdan, crushed under the front wheel of the truck.

A thick toxic smoke began pouring from the cab and flooding the inside of the home.

Frank quickly put a handkerchief over his mouth and tried to make himself understood through the confusion, “Everybody get out!” He grabbed Vira who was weeping on the floor trying to reach her husband. “I said everybody get out of the house!” He picked his friend up off the floor and dragged her through the hole in the front wall.

The rest of the group all began jumping out of the destroyed front side of the home. They rushed outside and fired their guns at the horde that was nearly there.

In back there came a pounding on the safe room door; it was Jason with his rifle. The metal lid suddenly slid open and let the light in, he stood over them. “Hannah, all of you, go! All of you go now!” He helped them out and went to the back door, opening it and taking a look around, “It’s clear, GO!”

Jason held the door open. Hannah had the baby in her arms and Adam by the other hand as she jumped off the back porch. She turned back and tried to think of something to say. Nothing came to her.

Jason spoke instead, “GO!”

She turned again and they took off running for the cornfield.

Jason ran back into the front room and the house appeared empty, but he could hear screaming and gunfire from the front yard. He jumped on the hood of the truck, slid across the roof and onto the flatbed.

Out in the yard he could see Frank under attack by five men. Jason shouldered his Colt and began firing. Two of the enemy immediately dropped while the other three drug Frank down. He tried to take another shot but it was impossible as his friend and the enemy rolled around together on the ground. Jason jumped from the truck heading right into the fight.

The three attackers were beating Frank with hand weapons as Jason rapidly approached. As he got closer he found another shot. Jason started firing and two more men fell. He pulled the trigger on the last one but his gun wouldn’t fire.

A lone man was savagely beating Frank using a baseball bat studded with roofing nails. Jason rapidly advanced knowing he had very little time left, checking his rifle, it was hopelessly jammed. Taking it by the hand guard, he started smashing the butt stock over the attacker’s head. Jason kept beating him until at once the stock of his gun and the enemy’s skull both broke. He threw the useless rifle down, pushed the body aside, and checked his friend.

Frank was unconscious and bleeding heavily from a deep gash in the back of his skull.

Jason heard more shouting and turned to see eight more coming right at him. He frantically searched all around for a weapon and pulled his skinning knife as the crowd surrounded him.

Brigid jumped through a massive hole in the front wall; it was complete pandemonium outside. Everyone was shooting, smoke and the sound of wild screaming hung thick in the air.

She began firing her Mini-14 as fast as she could pull the trigger, taking a heavy toll on the enemy. She stopped to change mags and as she did glanced all around. At a distance, Brigid could see her husband being attacked by a group of several men. She ran right at them firing her rifle. Three fell dead to the ground before she emptied her gun again.

The young wife quickly advanced, firing on the enemy and inserting her last magazine. She was nearly there and when her rifle was spent threw it down. She stopped, urgently scanning around for another weapon. Finally she saw it lying there in the snow in a dead man’s hand, a Mossberg shotgun with a bayonet attached. She picked it up and cycled the action and took aim on the crowd. Brigid cut down another two before she emptied the gun, paused only a brief moment, then charged right at the mob leading with the bayonet. Five more men closed around her.

Danielle shot one of the enemy in the face at a distance of ten feet, the man dropping straight to the ground. She got behind the cover of a tree and exchanged a fresh magazine for the depleted one. Looking all around she could see Vira drifting across the front yard, oblivious, right in the middle of a war zone.

She yelled out to her friend, “Vira!” but the woman continued to wander about as if in her own world.

Vira kept casually walking while all around her was screaming and killing.

Danielle shouted out to her friend again, “VIRA! OVER HERE!” Danielle gave up trying and took off running towards her friend. She could see two men approaching Vira fast, one bringing up the butt of his rifle to strike her in the head. Danielle dropped to one knee and took steady aim, taking both men out. Suddenly from the other direction there were five more running right at Vira.

She turned and switched the selector on her M16 to full auto and fired a short burst into the mob. A few men fell but the others continued their advance. Danielle began firing longer bursts into the group, as much as she could without endangering her friend.

Danielle stood up, changed mags once more, and took off running towards Vira. She was almost there when she felt a searing pain between her shoulder blades. Danielle dropped to the ground, tried to stand, but never got up again.

Carol continued to fire on the enemy as she remained behind the cover of a stack of firewood forty feet east of their home. At a distance she could see Danielle running, then stumble and fall. She got down low to the ground and peered around the corner of the pile, getting into a better firing position to cover her friend. Carol heard a sound behind her and turned just in time to see the end of a police baton come down on her head.

They made it halfway to the cornfield before Hannah turned and looked behind her. There were six men closing on them fast. She handed Nicholas to Adam, “Here, take him, go!” pulled the gun from her shoulder and fell prone on the ground as she was shown so many times before.

Adam took off running holding the baby close to him.

Hannah braced the rifle against her shoulder and began firing as the men spread out and quickly advanced on her. She was shooting as fast as she could while still taking aim. The one out front clutched his chest and fell to the ground. She continued to fire and a second man fell, the rest quickly closed on her, none were using their guns.

She squeezed the trigger while taking aim on a third man but this time the gun wouldn’t fire. She checked, it was empty. The remaining four attackers were nearly on top of her by then.

The girl pulled a magazine out of the pouch on the stock but fumbled it in a panic and dropped it on the ground. She stood up, trying to run, but before she could move one of her attackers smashed her in the head with the butt of his rifle.

Hannah lay face down on the ground and looked up in a daze. She turned and could see Adam running as fast as he could with the baby in his arms. Suddenly there was the sharp crack of a rifle just above her. Adam was shot in the back and there was a spray of blood as the bullet went through both the boy and the child. They tumbled and landed in the snow, neither moved again.

She lay there on the ground, weeping. As she lost consciousness, the last thing she could remember were four strange men standing there, staring down on her.

Chapter Fifteen

Hannah awoke to the sound of metal striking metal. Someone just a short distance from her was pounding away at something. She looked up to the sky above her and tried to sit up, but couldn’t. Except for her aching head, she couldn’t move at all. She was completely trussed up with rope, like an animal ready to be slaughtered.

The sound of clashing metal continued to drum in her ears but seemed to fade as more important things filled her mind. The girl noticed now that she was lying on the back of a flatbed truck and took a good look around, as much as she could. It was the front yard of this house she now called her home.

Beside her, to Hannah’s right, was Vira. Her friend was staring blankly into the vast sky above. She was bound with rope like the girl. Hannah watched her and for a moment thought her friend was dead, she was perfectly still and made not one sound. But then she noticed Vira’s chest gently rise, fall and rise again; she was alive.

Hannah tried to talk to her in whispered voice, “Vira, what’s going on? What’s happening?”

Vira didn’t move nor make a sound.

The girl tried again but at a slightly more elevated tone. “Vira! Vira, what’s going on? Are you all right?”