Timberline

by T J Reeder

  Well, I knew that couldn’t be true so I cranked up the power on my scope and looked for myself. There was a hole down low in the crotch of the target. I was muttering as I raised the elevation.

  Next shot was in the chest, more clicks up; next shot was right in the face! God, I love this rifle and the ammo is flat awesome. I then put five more rounds into the same area of the face. About as good as I had ever done. I left it at that.

  Charley had the kid go get the target and then they all looked at it. Charley said, “Well, you’re as good as the ‘wind’ says you are.” I just shook my head and we headed back to get some rest before we deployed before daybreak.

  Sandy was going to be my spotter and security when I was shooting, and since the range was so long she wouldn’t need her AK so she was bringing the 10-22 with the can on it. Just in case.

  We rolled out at what we Marines used to call 0 dark-thirty and were at the debark point in what seemed like five minutes. Charley had put two more shooters on the hill near the road block.

  We parked in the same place and started walking in the dim light of a three-quarter moon with Charley leading the way. It seemed to be hours later when we eased up on a small knoll and got our first look at the ranch house.

  It was made of native stone and would be a tough nut to crack if any of them made it inside. The intel said the boss man and his number two and a woman used the house while the rest used the barn.

  Charley was about to leave when he said, “John, one of these men wears a black cowboy hat and he’s mine, don’t kill him please.” I understood that quite clearly and nodded. We shook hands all around and he was gone.

  We had our day packs with us and took out blankets that blended with the area. I quietly scooped out a trench in the sand and we lay on one blanket and covered with the other and waited.

  Time passes slow on an ambush and staying awake is very hard, so I told Sandy to catch a nap while I watched. She said, “No you’re the one who needs to be rested.” So I agreed and dropped off with no trouble. Sometime later I heard a rooster crow and felt a small nudge to the ribs and my eyes popped open.

  It was almost shooting light and I made my preps. Loaded the rifle with five rounds, took a drink of water then waited some more. Sandy scooted close in the cold dawn and settled down to a short nap.

  Right on time the sun popped up over the rim of the mountains, bathing the countryside with its glow. Sandy moved, and her breathing changed telling me she was awake.

  Her spotting scope was set up and covered with a gray bandana so she was ready. She worked the bolt of the 10-22 and made sure the suppressor from Elite Iron was snug and she was ready.

  I double checked my suppressor on the 308. It too, was from the Elite Iron Shop of Dale and Kathy Poling in Potomac Montana. It was snug and ready to do its job.

  With the scope cranked to full power I was ready. And right on time the men started moving from the barn to a formation in front of the ranch house. They all moved with the loose way of fit young men and all had a military bearing about them.

  One man stood out in front of the rest wearing a black Stetson and he looked and acted like an NCO type. I was having a funny feeling about these people. And I would have bet my last retirement check they were all military.

  But why would they be doing this stuff? Why would they murder a family for any reason? There was a lot more to this than just somebody being pissed at me for not doing whatever they thought I should do. I whispered to Sandy to use the small radio we got from Charley and ask him to pass the word that I was going to put the leader down but not dead, as I had questions for him. She whispered into the radio a bit, then listened to her ear bud, then whispered some more. She then leaned over close to me and said, “OK!”

  When his troops were all present, the boss dude came out and stood on the porch. Feet spread. Hands behind his back while he looked over his command.

  He was still looking at them when the 168gr .30cal Match King bullet hit him in the right shoulder. He went down like a bus had hit him. I think his head hitting the wall behind him knocked him out. The can did its job and there was silence for a moment then the rattle of rifle fire came. It’s always kind of funny in a not funny way to see people being hit and falling before the first shots can be heard. That’s what we were looking at.

  I watched thru the scope as the man with the black hat went down hard and the hat flew thru the air. He wasn’t dead yet, since he was clutching his leg near the knee and his mouth open in a scream I couldn’t hear. And it was over. No long running battle with men shouting orders and waving the ‘follow me’ arms. It was just over.

  I had mentioned to Charley about the cleanup of the raiders back a thousand years ago, and how we had suffered our only casualties after letting our guard down. So I saw none of his people moving out from cover. Soon though there was a flickering of movement in the shadows so I put the scope on it and spotted a man with a bandana around his head and a pistol in his hand. He was moving slow and low and checking each body as he went. At last he stood up a bit and waved a hand causing people to come out of places where there wasn’t people a bit before.

  Three men came from the barn, and others from the rocks until there was soon about twenty five men around the place. Then two came from the door of the house pushing a woman ahead of them.

  With that Sandy and I stood up and rolled our blankets, put them in the packs, took a drink of water, shared a candy bar and walked to the ranch house.

  Charley was standing over the man who wore the black hat who was rolling around in pain with a leg wound. I walked to the porch and found the leader dead. Shit! So much for ‘Long Gun’ the wonder boy. Charley walked over and said, “You had no way of knowing, but a sharp breeze hit just as you fired and that moved the bullet over just enough to make it a kill shot.”

  I was still pissed, but I figured we would get intel from Mr. Black Hat before he crossed the river, which I was sure wasn’t going to be real quick. Not from the look on Charley’s face.

  After making sure the place was secure, we headed into the house to see what we could find. We found a briefcase case full of papers, so we gathered that up for later reading. We found a lot of weapons and ammo, which Charley was happy to see. I was going to grab something for my own use to have more firepower. Then Sandy came into the room with a very nice very expensive looking Pelican gun case and a gleam in her eyes.

  We didn’t find a lot more in the house, and it was obvious this was just a temporary set up for these guys. We found no ID of any kind, but a blind man could tell these were military men.

  But they sure weren’t SPCOP troops and seemed to have little or no training, if one could judge from their lack of attention to the fact they were out in Indian Country and no pun intended.

  They all wandered over for the morning meeting or whatever they called it, and not one carried a weapon. Nope- these guys were a hasty grouping of disposable people if things went south.

  We talked about tossing the bodies in the house and burning it, but Charley said since nobody had died in it and the spirits were not inside, that his people would take it and make use of it. I didn’t know what he meant about spirits, but I figured it was a Navaho thing. Anyway they would drag the dead off for the critters to deal with.

  Our vehicles arrived with the folks who took out the roadblock bunch and we loaded up everything usable and rolled out. The café was a welcome sight as I was starving and we headed there post haste!

  After filling up the empty places, we settled over coffee and read the papers found in the briefcase, which told us not much at all. There was a few hints about the fact they were looking for somebody with something that somebody calling itself Command Authority wanted.

  I could only assume it was me and Sandy and the DVD from the box, which seemed to me to be the most well-known secret in the world. I only know that I’m going home, and nothing nor nobody was gonna stop me as long as I had breath in my body.

 
One thing positive came out of this mess. Well, actually a few things. The People now had a bunch of M-16’s and a shitload of ammo (that term is a Marine thing, means whole bunch!)

  They got some very nice vehicles out of the barn and a few radios that might not be good to use depending on who might also have one.

  After we ate and cleaned up we started packing to go. Charley asked how we were fixed for ammo for the 16’s. I said we didn’t have any, but he insisted we did then gave us two from the pile taken from the dead guys plus two cases of ammo and a pile of magazines.

  I was gonna pass up on them, but Charley said with that look he had that we were gonna need them. I stopped arguing right there. I truly believed he knew things the rest of us didn’t. And I wasn’t asking how!

  We stayed the rest of the day and night, and come daylight we were loaded and ready to go. Buck and crew were loaded and getting fat from the easy life. But that was fine because if we needed them we would need them damn fast.

  After another wonderful breakfast we made our goodbyes with more promises to return when the troubles ended. We were on the road again.

  Charley told us we were good to go as far as Farmington and beyond, but after that he had no idea. So we just drove and made good time since it was only about forty miles. At Farmington we hit the usual roadblock and were allowed to pass with no fuss, but were warned that beyond Bloomfield nobody really knew much.

  We had come a long way and had been more lucky then anybody should be, but we also were staying on back roads in empty country filled with folks not inclined to put up with much BS from the trashy elements.

  One thing I was really picking up on was the fact that the folks living in the middle of the country away from the coastal areas and the big cities were holding their part of the country with little trouble. Meaning away from the liberal influences.

  But since these people had always been hunters and shooters and owned a lot of guns it wasn’t a big leap to understand it.

  Also, it was a fact that people who live out in the rough country are the type who don’t want or need any handouts, but damn sure want to be left the hell alone. So while we needed to tread lightly we could also relax a bit; a bit but not a lot. You figure the difference. We still eased over the hills to see what we could see and a couple of times Sandy rode ahead to see what was around a big curve.

  We were making good time, and in less than a couple of hours we came to Counselor where we just drove thru and never really slowed down. Folks waved and all were armed but no problems.

  I was starting to have more faith in my fellow Americans if this kept up. But as I’ve said, relax a second and Murphy will show up every time.

  Not that he had, but I expected him to most any moment. I also didn’t like the fact we were coming into the northwest edge of Albuquerque, which I expected to be a big problem for us because there is really no way to bypass it without jumping from the skillet into the fire.

  This city had always been a rough place even in good times. So my only idea was to stop a few miles out and rest. About 0200 we would slowly and as quietly as possible ease along using the night vision gear from my friend in Texas. And that’s what we did. One napped while the other sat away from the camp with Molly.

  With no moon and an overcast sky, we were damn near invisible, and to be sure I took time to mix up some mud and smear it all over the chrome on the truck. Then I sprayed water on the paint and tossed sand on it leaving a dull look. We were as ready as we could be.

  Sandy climbed up into her sniper’s nest with her new M-16 and a lot of mags. We had found some tracer rounds, so we loaded the mags with a tracer every 4th round to help her correct her aim. We had also put the Eotech from the AK to the 16- another aid for her with night shooting.

  Before leaving Shiprock we had taken some feed sacks and filled them with sand and made her a really safe firing place which helped me not worry as much.

  We rolled out right on the 0200 mark and moved slowly toward Bernalillo which was where we were going to have to hit I-25. Then we would have to turn northeast toward Santa Fe where we could loop back south to hit I-40. This was a real pain in the ass because it involved a big loop to avoid the few miles down I-25 to the junction of I-40. I hope yawl are confused, because I am!

  As we got close to I -40 I had all the windows down to avoid flying glass if a bullet came thru. I was using the night viz gear very little, so when we got to I-40 it was a big surprise to me.

  But the really big surprise was that there was no roadblock! We sat there while I used the night viz to check out the area. Nothing! Now we were faced with a new possibility. Could we head south and make it to I-40 thus cutting off a lot of miles? Could we get past whatever was at the junction? And there had to be something there.

  We talked it over and Sandy said, “Let’s go for it. It’s late. They will be sleepy or sleeping and moving slow. We are quiet. Let’s get close and recon on foot with the night viz and the suppressed .22.”

  I smiled at her and we hugged and did it! We had about twenty miles to go, so I picked up the pace for the first nineteen, then slowed way down. I saw the flames of a campfire, so we stopped and geared up and moved out on foot.

  Keeping an eye on the fire until we were within a hundred yards or so, we moved off the roadbed and down the sloping side while moving forward. We were very close to the fire and could see the forms of people sleeping. I counted five people bedded down and one sitting by the fire covered with a blanket and sleeping. I guess it had been a long time since anybody came thru.

  Now I had a real problem. I couldn’t just shoot them in their sleep. Hell, they might be good folks. I used the night viz scope to look all around the area. Down off the bank I saw cars that had been pushed over the edge and burned.

  Something looked out of place, so I signaled Sandy to keep an eye on the sleepers while I checked it out. The bank was steep and pretty high and I sure couldn’t afford any noise.

  Finally I just eased down on my butt and just kinda slid down to the bottom. Using the night viz I moved over to the first car. It had been shot full of holes and burned. Looking closer I saw what I had feared- bones in the ashes of the inside.

  I looked at all the cars and found the same thing. These bastards were stopping people who had made it this far in whatever they could find that would run, and then murdered them for whatever they had or just for the fun of it.

  It was a hard trip back up the slope while trying to be quiet and hold my anger in check. I made it to the top out of breath and mad as hell. The first thing I did was check out the sleepers. All was as I left it. Sandy was watching my face up close and whispered, “Bad?” I just nodded and picked up the10-22 with the can on it.

  The first shot was the guard. He just slumped over. The rest I walked into their camp and shot up close- all but the last one. Him I woke up with the hot end of the can burning his cheek.

  He yelped and tried to jump up but met the butt of the little .22 and fell back with a moan. After his eyes focused I asked him very quietly if he wanted to live. He nodded very hard.

  I asked, “Why?” Pointing to the area where the cars were burned. His reply shocked me. “Orders,” he said. “From who?” I asked. “The Boss,” was the reply. I was already tired of this so I told him to just start talking and fast.

  The answer was that the leader of the biggest gang in the city had grabbed power by raiding the police department buildings and taking all the guns they could find from the cops and the evidence room, and then he hit all the gun shops.

  To me this sounded like he had advanced warning of the coming event. This turd didn’t know anything except the gangs were fighting a war all across the city with the citizens trying to hold out in enclaves with whatever weapons they had in their homes.

  We had been here too long as it was, we could do nothing to help anybody and would probably get killed if we tried. I was really getting tired of this shit but there seemed to be no end in sight.


  With no thought or warning I simply shot the fool in the head twice. We did check for weapons and other goods we might use. Their weapons weren’t much but they had lots of ammo, so after we brought the truck up we loaded everything into the trailer and just drove away down onto the Interstate and hauled ass.

  I knew that given time and the resources, I’d love to come back here with some good ol’ boys and just clean this cesspool out. Well maybe I will!

  We hit the I-40 and hauled ass for at least fifty miles; just blowing past the stranded dead vehicles, but I finally got my head out and slowed up. Then, seeing a place where truckers used to pull over I stopped. After looking the area over with the night viz we just sat there in the quiet with the windows down even though it was cold.