The Camouflaged Cross: Tales Of Christian Preppers In The End Times (Just Run Book 1) (14 page)

Kathy and Wallace ran down the road towards the observation post. Wallace laughed out loud again, loud enough so that everyone heard. “Just takin’ out the trash, folks! Takin’ out the trash!” He then laughed out loud again as he and Kathy ran behind a hill on their way towards the downed helicopter.

****

Kathy kept up with Wallace as he ran towards the observation post. “They’re probably injured, so we’ll just finish them off,” Wallace shouted to her.

“Yeah,” she answered.

“How many bullets do you still have there?” Wallace asked.

“I don’t know.”

“Well, you probably have enough.” The two of them slowed to a walk as they approached the observation post.

The area got lighter as the sun inched into the horizon, illuminating the area near the observation post. Bill climbed out of the observation post and onto the road behind. He was a stocky, fair-skinned guy with light reddish, brown hair, dressed in tan cargo pants and a dark green shirt.

Bill approached Wallace and Kathy as they jogged towards him.

“Bill, where did the chopper go?” Kathy asked, her voice trembling.

“It landed right over there,” Bill answered, pointing up the road towards the Mormon camp. Light smoke emerged from an area beyond the camp property, up the road. The area nearby the helicopter was rockier than the surrounding area, and there were no trees but lots of brush nearby.

“Wait here,” Wallace gestured to Kathy. He carefully peeked around the hill towards the helicopter. In the morning light he saw the helicopter on its left side, with the tail end pointing down the road towards the observation post. A curled rotor blade pointing straight up. The pilot, motionless, laid half-way out of the windshield on the front, almost touching the ground. The pilot was a tall, fair-skinned man with gray hair and a tan shirt. He looked like a fit man in his 60’s. A stream of blood emerged from his neck and dripped onto the ground off of his head.

A sound of electrical sparks emanated from inside the helicopter. A middle-eastern man wearing dark green clothing stood on one of the armrests inside and poked his head outside the helicopter’s right door, still wide open. He rubbed his head and looked out onto the road both towards the observation post and also behind him, further up the road towards the Mormon camp.

Wallace looked back at Bill and Kathy. “Kathy, it looks like there’s at least one survivor. Maybe more inside. I don’t know. Here’s what we need to do: take a shot at the helicopter there, about once every thirty seconds.”

Kathy mumbled, “Well, I guess …”

Wallace got closer to Kathy. “Are you OK to do this?”

“I don’t know,” she said. “I can try.” Bill stood next to Kathy, looking at Wallace, then Kathy.

“You can do this, Kathy. Don’t be nervous.” Wallace smiled.

“I’ll go get my 22,” Bill said, and ran back towards the observation post.

Wallace put his hand under Kathy’s chin, and lifted her head slightly. She looked into his eyes. “Don’t be nervous, Kathy,” he said. Wallace had a helpful expression, surprisingly calm considering the circumstances. “You’ll have time to be nervous later.”

Kathy tried to smile. Wallace backed away, wrapped his rifle strap around his left arm and headed into some brush behind a hill, so that he could re-emerge onto the road on the other side of the downed helicopter. He looked back at Kathy. “Remember, shoot at the helicopter once about every thirty seconds. Just a single shot.”

Kathy looked around the hillside, towards the helicopter. She saw the man looking out from the helicopter, looking back at her. She lifted her gun and took a shot at him, missing him but hitting the bottom of the helicopter. The man ducked back into the helicopter, using its floor as a wall. Kathy hid back behind the hillside.

Wallace pushed some branches aside and made his way through the brush. Hearing the gunshot, he whispered to himself, “What a gal!”

The man inside the helicopter stood up and pointed a machine in Kathy’s direction. He fired four shots.

Kathy stood behind the hill, shaking slightly. She heard a few electrical sparks, then no more sounds from the helicopter.

Kathy waited a little longer, then looked around the hill and saw the helicopter. She raised her pistol again and fired another shot at the helicopter, then hid back behind the hill. The man in the helicopter stood up and fired two single shots back at Kathy, then stopped to look. He then fired another shot in Kathy’s direction.

Bill returned to Kathy’s location, holding his rifle. He whispered to Kathy, “Any luck? Did you hit the guy?”

“Nope. He must be injured or something because he’s just staying there, not moving. Just shooting back at me.” Kathy paused. “Listen to me, talking about shooting at a guy and being shot back.”

“How much ammo do you have?” Bill asked.

“I don’t know,” Kathy answered. Kathy was still shaking.

“Kathy, let me take a shot at the guy,” Bill said as he looked around the hill at the helicopter. He pointed his rifle at the helicopter and shot at it. Bill then ducked back behind the hill.

The man in the helicopter poked his head out of the helicopter and fired three more shots towards Bill and Kathy. While he was shooting, Wallace emerged from the hillside behind the man and shot him with a quick burst from his AR-15. “Oldest trick in the book!” he yelled as the man fell, lifeless, back inside the helicopter.

Wallace retreated back into the brush, watching for anyone else in the helicopter.

Kathy looked around the hill again, and walked out onto the road, closer to the helicopter.

“Kathy, get back!” Wallace yelled, gesturing. “We still don’t know…”

“Wallace, do you see anything?” Kathy yelled at Wallace.

Wallace looked through the front of the helicopter, and did not see any movement.

“Doesn’t
anyone
around here have a hand grenade?” Wallace yelled.

Bill whispered to Kathy, “He’s joking? Who can make a joke at a time like this?”

Kathy shrugged her shoulders. “Man, I don’t know.”

Wallace slowly walked to the helicopter, first to the front, then to the bottom. He looked inside. “I think we got ’em all here. Looks like they’re all dead,” Wallace yelled back at Kathy and Bill.

“Show’s over!”

Kathy and Bill walked closer. Wallace put his gun onto the ground and climbed into the right side door of the helicopter.

Kathy and Bill walked closer. “Are you sure everyone in there is dead?” Kathy asked.

Wallace poked his head out. “Looks like it,” Wallace said. He ducked back into the helicopter. “Well, not sure about the guy back here. Hold on.” A gunshot rang out. “Yep! Now I’m sure. Everyone in here is dead.” His looked back out of the helicopter, some blood has splashed onto his face. He stuck a finger into his ear. “It’s always a little hard on the hearing when you shoot without ear plugs.”

Kathy and Bill walked closer to the helicopter.

“Hey Kathy,” Wallace called out to Kathy.

“Your face is covered with blood,” Kathy called out to Wallace.

“Oh, sorry.” Wallace ducked back into the helicopter and wiped his face with one of the occupant’s sleeves.

Bill leaned towards Kathy as they walked closer. “Who is this guy?” he asked.

“Wallace,” Kathy mumbled.

“I know his name, but who is he?” Bill persisted.

“Settle down, he’s one of us,” Kathy answered. Kathy and Bill stopped a few feet away from the helicopter. Bill put his rifle on the road and sat down on the road. Kathy dropped her pistol onto the road and remained standing.

“Look, Kathy,” Wallace said from inside the helicopter. “If you want to hike into the hills there to go to the bathroom or something, I would understand. Bill, you too.”

Bill looked at Kathy, confused. Wallace elaborated, “It’s probably a little difficult for people their first time, you know, shooting at people.”

Kathy said faintly, “I don’t feel like hiking anywhere. In fact, maybe you guys can just look away and I can pee right here. Bill looked down at the ground.

Wallace could be heard inside the helicopter. “Suit yourself.”

Kathy pulled down her sweat pants, squatted and peed onto the dirt road.

When Kathy was finished, she sat back down on the road nearby Bill. She wiped away some tears. “I’m really not used to this.”

Wallace looked back out of the helicopter. “Say, do you guys have a policy on, you know, stuff you get from people you kill?”

“You’re kidding, right?” Bill asked, almost with some hostility, as he looked at Wallace.

“No, I’m not,” Wallace answered. He ducked back into the helicopter. “These guys have a lot of good things in here.” He tossed out a black handgun onto the ground. “That’s a good-looking Beretta right there. I’ll take that. And I know it works. I just used it.”

The sound of a belt being pulled off of pants could be heard. “This is a nice belt. Military issue. A belt can be used for a lot of things besides, you know, holding up your pants.” He paused. “Yessir, just clean off this blood right here and it’ll be good as new.” He tossed a tan belt onto the ground nearby the pistol.

Wallace called out to Kathy from inside the helicopter. “Kathy, what’re you packin’?”

“What?”

“What kind of pistol do you have? It looked like a Glock.”

“Yeah, a Glock.”

“A Glock 45 caliber?”

“Yeah.”

“How would you like a second one? Here, catch.” Wallace tossed a black handgun towards Kathy. She let it land on the ground nearby.

“Oh,” Kathy mumbled. “Thanks.”

“And there are a few knives in here too,” Wallace said. “A bunch of them. I’ll bring them back for Jesse and the boys.”

“And a few packs of cigarettes. These’ll be great for bartering.” Wallace threw out four packs of Camel cigarettes onto the ground nearby the pistol and belt.

Bill looked at Kathy in a confused expression, as if to say “I can’t believe this guy.”

She looked at Bill and shrugged her shoulders.

Wallace poked his head back out of the helicopter. “There are a couple of AK’s in here.” He stood up and put his right elbow onto the floor of the helicopter and leaned his head onto it. “You know, I have to say it,” he said. “I love the smell of gunpowder in the morning.” He looked at Kathy and Bill. “Something fun about it. When I was a kid my dad took me to the shooting range on Saturday mornings. I got to know that smell when I was pretty little. About fifth grade. Good memories.”

Wallace looked at Bill. “Oh, I’m sorry, we still haven’t formally met. Wallace Sturges.”

“Oh, Bill Hanner,” Bill smiled.

“Don’t get up,” Wallace made a short wave at Bill. “Nice to meet you.”

“Likewise.”

“And I have to say it. You two,” Wallace paused. “You guys were great. And I know it wasn’t easy for you.”

“Thanks,” both Bill and Kathy said.

“Bill, you should have seen Kathy back at the camp, when this chopper showed up, shooting at everyone. She was great. She just walked outside of her tent and pointed her gun straight up at the helicopter here and shot at it. If I didn’t know any better, I’d have thought she was the Statue of Liberty, standing there so still and all. She even got shot at and didn’t flinch or nothing. She just kept shooting back.”

“Oh,” Kathy looked down. “Don’t confuse that for bravery. I couldn’t move.”

“No really,” Wallace insisted. “Kathy reminded me of a western movie I saw a few years ago. Don’t remember the name.”

“Really?” Bill asked, amused at the absurdity of discussing a movie in this setting.

“Yeah. I wish I could remember the name. Otherwise a pretty trashy movie, but the plot was -- well, maybe not the plot of the movie, but the main take-away I got from it was that in just about all shoot-outs, or close combat situations, most everyone freaks out. They just shake and shoot their guns everywhere, and they miss everything they shoot at. Then there was this character in the movie who walked in, and it seemed like he had ice water in his veins. Totally still, and every shot was dead-on. Very rare. It was a great movie.”