Surviving (13 page)

• • •

              Gus had warned them that there would be a last ditch effort to get to the RPG and that their lives depended on stopping the bastards. Dave saw Manny’s shadow as he skulked around the edge of the forest to get closer to the RPG. Dave told them to get ready because the shit was about to hit the fan. He was about to shoot when the thugs started shooting. A bullet hit him in the throat and knocked him back across the room. Janet ran over to him and applied pressure to the wound. The rest concentrated on shooting at the guy trying to get the RPG.

• • •

              Scott and Jim heard the gunfire and agreed that it was only about 100 yards in front of them. They were dog-tired, but sprinted towards the gunfire. Jim saw the cabin and signaled Scott to stop. They could see a guy crawling towards the cabin. He was heading to a pile of bodies and shooting at the cabin. They stopped, dropped and got cover before shooting. Scott saw flashes from the woods in front of the cabin and told Jim he was going to circle around behind them. He said try to hold fire until he was in place and took the first shot.               Jim patiently waited for Scott to get in place. He alternated taking a bead on the guy in the open and then the guy crawling towards the pile of bodies.

              The people in the cabin were putting out an enormous rate of fire. Jim knew Gus and John had all of them armed to the teeth and ready to kill the bad guys. He told himself that John would start writing about this episode before they got the RV back on the road.

              Scott got in place directly behind the two that were firing on the cabin. Just as he started to shoot, he noticed someone to his left. The person was sneaking up behind the shooters with a pistol in their hand. He got up and followed just behind. He got close enough to see that it was Maria. She raised the gun and shot the tallest man in the back. As the other one turned, Maria and Scott shot him at the same time.

              Scott rushed Maria and over powered her. She fought like a wildcat, but Scott finally hit her with the butt of the AK and knocked her ass out.

              Jim started firing when he saw the flashes and heard gunfire behind the two GAO guys. He put a whole magazine into the two guys and watched them flop around. He did not know that he had stopped the RPG attack.

              Once the bad guys stopped shooting, Gus called a cease-fire. The silence was almost deafening, one could hear tree frogs and cicadas.

              John peered out over the window seal in time to hear his son’s voice saying, “Dad, we got them, you can come out.”

              They came out of the cabin slowly and looked in every direction for potential snipers.

              Jim ran up and started hugging everyone. Scott was slowly walking towards them carrying a limp body. They rushed towards him.

              John saw that it was Maria and said, “Son, that’s the GAO Bitch.”

              “Dad, I think she is on our side. She killed their leader. I only had to knock her out because it was dark and she thought I was going to shoot her.”

              Janet came out of the cabin crying and told them that Dave had died.

✼

Chapter 17

Vengeance and Heroes

The Cabin

May 19, 2020

              Everyone was hugging their fellow survivors and thanking God for being alive.

              Jim yelled, “STOP!”

              They all turned and looked at him.

“John, it’s not over. I don’t want to be a wet blanket on the celebration, but these assholes know where we live and have information about us. They will come after us. We have to kill the rest of them or be killed.”

              Jim then told them what the pilot had said.

              Gus said, “Jim you are right, let’s quickly think this through. Let’s go in the cabin and quickly come up with a game plan, the SWAT team will be here in 60 minutes.”

              John took charge and said, “Beth, Alice, Janet and Bill, they do not know you or have anything on you. Take the truck and get back to your RV and head home now. Do not stop, do not waste time, get out of here.”

              Bill stopped John and said, “What about Fred?”               John said, “Oh shit! We forgot him. Gus, come here!”

              Gus hurried across the room and asked what was wrong. John filled him in.

              Gus grabbed all four and said, “Do you want to live?”

              They all said yes. Gus added, “Do what I say and exactly what I say and you will live.”

              They hung on his words. Gus thought a minute and said, “Y’all go back to your camp. Fred has a GAO bullet lodged in his head. Cut Fred’s head off and take the body and head with you. Clean up your camp take everything with blood or evidence. Get rid of it on the way. Dump the head, with the bullet, in a river on the way home. Take the body with you and about 100 miles from Nashville create a crime scene that will pass inspection. Above all, get your stories straight and match up. No one goes off script; no one folds. Blame it on some crazy guy that needed a ride. Shoot the RV up and make it look real! And above all, you never got here you decided to go 500 miles from here.”

              The three were stunned, but knew they had to protect themselves and more importantly their families.

              John grabbed Beth and took her off to the side. “Get a pay by-the-minute cell phone and don’t use your real name. John scribbled something on a piece of paper and gave it to Beth. Call me at this number in three days and I’ll find you. I love you, but you are in danger GO!”

              Beth grabbed John, kissed him passionately and said, “John, I love you too.” They got their weapons and left.

              Jim, Scott, Gus and John laid out a plan to pile most of the bodies in the cabin, burn it and take the chopper to the GAO office and clean house. They were taking Red’s and Karl’s bodies with them so their alibi about being captured and fighting their way out would hold up if caught.

              “You can’t do this, that’s vigilante justice. You will go to jail,” Maria yelled.

              John turned and faced her, he said, “That’s big talk for a GAO thug running drugs and plotting to overthrow the government.”

              Maria replied, “John, I am a Homeland Security agent, I was working undercover with Roger to nail these bastards and you just can’t kill people because they are bad.”

              "Do you have ID in your shoe and a .38 strapped to your leg like Roger?"

              She took her shoe off, showed him the ID and pulled a KEL-TEC .380 from her ankle.

              John said, “Guys, start cleaning this place up. Gus, bring the chopper here. Chop Chop.”

              Steve came over and gave Maria a hug, then told her, “Maria, do you have a family? They are in danger; these guys will kill our families without a thought."

              Maria said, “I have a five year old daughter and parents, but the government will protect them.”

              “You really believe that the government can keep a drug cartel from finding your daughter and raping and killing her? They raped and cut that little girls head off just to make a point”

              Maria thought for about two seconds then replied, “Okay, I’m in. What’s the plan?”

• • •

              They didn’t say a word for half an hour, then all spoke at once, everyone babbled on and on for about five minutes.

              Finally Beth said, “We have to man up and get this done. Are you two up to this task?”

              They said that they were, but were not sure that they could cut Fred’s head off.

              Beth jumped in with, “I can do it if I have to.”

              They did not say another word until they got to their camp. They drove straight to the camp and loaded up everything into the RV, every leaf, twig or rock with blood on it. They put them in trash bags. Fred was where they had left him days ago. You could tell that animals had found him, his eyes had been pecked out and one of his arms had big chunks of flesh missing. They placed the body on a tarp; said prayers that Fred would be taken care of and hoped he went to heaven. They stalled a while. Beth went to the RV and came back with a butcher knife. She placed the knife against his neck and started slicing. It took a while, but she finally got the head severed from the body. She then went into the woods and vomited until she could not vomit anymore, she then had dry heaves.

• • •

              It was about two in the morning and John knew that they had to haul ass to get the plan executed and get down to Mobile. John said, “Leave a few of the pistols and an AK, but grab all other weapons and ammo, we might need it if these SOBs retaliate."

              John scoured the area around the cabin and even cut a bushy limb from a tree and dragged it around the cabin to hide evidence. Gus, Jim and Scott had already put all of the evidence and bodies in the cabin and poured gas throughout the cabin.

              As Gus landed the copter on the lawn, John threw a burning torch into the cabin door and yelled, “Let’s haul ass out of here."

• • •

              The SWAT Team arrived about 20 minutes after they lifted off and found the cabin totally engulfed in flames. Since they were not aware of the GAO, they began standard operating procedure and started investigating the crime scene. They found hundreds of spent casings on the ground and blood everywhere, but no bodies to be found.

              The SWAT team leader said, “Something very bad happened here. Why did someone try to half ass clean the crime scene up? There are scads of evidence everywhere. Where are the people who called this in?”

              His assistant looked at the burning cabin and said, “Maybe the bad guys cooked them.”

              The FBI arrived a couple of hours later and immediately sent for a CSI team. They began searching the woods for survivors and placed markers by every spent round or blood spatter. A guy in a blue suit arrived with the CSI team. While not in charge, he appeared to have the run of the crime scene.

• • •

              The blue suit guy went to the back of the house and pulled a satellite phone from his coat pocket.

              He dialed a number, waited and said, “Yes, it is our dumbass and yes he has screwed up our plans. However, I have a great plan B. Let’s meet at location 7.”

• • •

              While the SWAT Team was looking for evidence and scratching their asses, John and his team were landing about half mile from the GAO office. They had numerous AK 47s and the RPG with four rounds and a will to use them. They quickly found the guards, neutralized them and moved on to surround the office.

              “Let’s stick to the plan, kill as many as possible without firing a shot. Then get our data and burn the bodies and buildings to the ground."

              Maria said, “Your records will be in the black four drawer filing cabinet by the safe. I’ll find them.”

              It was 4:00 a.m. and very dark. Gus could not see his hand wave in front of his face. They all had nylons over their heads and latex gloves on their hands. The fire would make it look like they had never been there. They were slowly hunting down every GAO person and slitting their throats. Jim snuck up on the last guard and just as he put his hand over the guy’s mouth and shoved the knife into his kidney, the guy’s hat fell off. It was a woman!

              As she fell, she turned and looked at Jim and mouthed, “Fuck you!”

              Jim dropped her and started shaking and tears came to his eyes. John rushed over, hugged Jim, and told him, “Jim, she was a hired killer, she would have killed one of us without blinking.”

              Jim replied, “I know, but it is still a woman and she looks just like Imelda!”

              John looked at the girl and replied, “No, Jim, your mind is playing tricks on you and she looks nothing like Imelda!”

              John knew this was a lie, but a well meant one. He did not want Jim thinking about killing this bitch every time he looked in his girlfriend’s eyes.

              The sun was barely up when they saw several cars drive up. Four Hispanic guys got out of the cars and went into the office. They were about to go into the office when a minivan with two adults and three kids arrived.

              Gus said, “I’ll take care of them. I’ll have them gone in a minute!” Gus walked over to the driver’s side of the van talked with the driver for a minute, the van then backed out, and sped out of the parking lot, squealing tires as it left. Gus stood there waving at them as they disappeared.

              “Jim and I’ll blow up their planes and save a DC 3 for our trip. John, you, Scott and Maria take the office and destroy the records,” Gus said.

              They walked into the office with AKs aimed at the GAO thugs.

              “Hands up or die,” said Gus.

              There were four of them in the office, two raised their hands, but two tried to draw their weapons. John was a blur, he killed the two that had tried to draw their weapons and shot the other two in the shoulder.

              Scott went to John and said, “Dad, the other two did not draw their guns.”

              John said, “Grow up, son.”

              John then proceeded to make one of them open the company safe and then had them pile the contents on to the floor. There was a pile of records and several large bags. He then made them empty all of the filing cabinets and pile the records on the floor. Scott searched the bags and took the largest one.

              Maria rifled the records cabinet, but did not find their file.

              John looked at the thugs and said, “Where is our info, you know, records of our trip and credit card info?"

              Neither thug looked up and both tried to ignore John. One said that they needed to go to the hospital.

              John stuck his 9mm against one of the thugs head and said, “The first one of you that gives me our records lives, the other dies.”

              The other thug said, “Bull shit, you are the good guys, you call the cops. We’ll go to jail and get out and then come and kill your wife and kids in front of you then kill your sorry asses.”

              John quickly aimed at the thug’s foot and shot him.

              John said, “You obviously made the mistake of messing with the wrong good guys. Maria, pull the employment records on these turds. Scott, search them for ID.”

              They piled the documents on the counter.

              John took a minute to review their info and said, “You two idiots have this all wrong. Both of you are dead! We leave and you die and burn in this building. Scott will douse you in gas in a minute and burn you alive unless you tell me where the records are.”

              He pulled a driver’s license and said, “Martin, your wife and two daughters live here on Mesa Ave, your mother and about six brothers and sisters live in Yuma, AZ. If you don’t give us the info in sixty seconds or fail to give us all of the info I will hunt them down and cut all of their throats.”

              John then shot the other thug in the foot and then pointed the gun at the other's knee.

"Speak up! You are dead, save your families now!"

He pulled the trigger and blew half the thugs knee away. The other one started crying and yelling where the records were.

              The records were all there, but Maria also noticed that someone had made notes on each of them. She did not mention this to John. He then turned and shot both in the head. Maria started screaming at John and tried to hit him.