Down the Hole

by Sally Six

  * * *

  Buck was trying to contain himself. He wanted to give a loud rebel yell, but he did manage to hold it in. He didn’t want to give himself away at this point. He wished he could give them all points for who flew the furthest. The bikers crashed and burned onto the nice hard ground and no one got up for a while. A few would never stir from this point on. Buck watched the fallen bikers and then looked down the road with his binoculars to see what was next. He knew Theo and Red would be watching too so he didn’t have to keep a real keen eye on the men on the ground.

  Buck heard a shot beside him to the left. A sitting biker went back down. Buck grinned, so much for their superior force. Another six shots were heard around him. No more bikers would be trying to get up. The three that didn’t stir after they flew must have been killed right off. Red was a great shot.

  * * *

  Luke’s and Buzz’s jaws dropped along with the other bikers who were watching with rapt attention when the rammers hit the fence. The fence didn’t budge but the bikers on the Hogs did. They flew into the air over the fence and landed hard several feet later.

  Now Luke was mad. No one did this to his men. They, no matter who they are, would not live to see another dawn.

  “THIS MEANS WAR.” He bellowed at the top of his lungs. The bikers gathered to have a council of war around Stinger Luke. The problem was they were now down to fifteen men and eight women. They had to come up with something that wouldn’t get any more killed than necessary. They all turned when they started to hear the gunshots. Lukas got even madder when he saw his men on the ground on the ranch land picked off as they stirred.

  * * *

  The people on the wagons were getting a bit excited about reaching the ranch. They were only an hour from home and something to Juan just didn’t feel right. He hadn’t voiced this to anyone, but he felt it in the air. It was wrongness or a smell that he just didn’t know how to describe. A few more miles went by.

  He couldn’t stand it any longer.

  “David I need to talk to you. Can we call a stop for five minutes?”

  David knew it had to be important for Juan to speak up. He hadn’t said much of anything on this whole trip. Juan just wasn’t a talker.

  David turned to both Reese and Greg. “Come on guys, you’re in on this too. This has to be really something for Juan to want to stop and talk about it.”

  That was a surprise to both Reese and Greg as they climbed down from the wagons that they were on. They had thought the older follow was just along to drive a wagon.

  “Sorry David and you are welcome to be here to Reese and Greg. I have to tell you. I have put this off for a few miles now. I didn’t know how to tell you. I have had this awful feeling for a spell now. Something’s wrong. It’s in the air. It’s not what you fella’s found back there either that’s giving me the heebby jeebby’s. It’s something else. Something we’re riding into. I know it is, but I didn’t want to sound like a fool.”

  The funny thing was that it was in the wind. The exhaust fumes from the big hogs were very low level by the time the wind wafted them to the wagons, but it was enough to trigger something in Juan’s brain and have him start thinking trouble.

  David was shocked. He hadn’t heard Juan speak this much ever and plus he didn’t know what to say to this. Reese looked over at Juan.

  “As for me, I always go with my feelings. I can’t tell you how many times it saved my rear in the war. Never put them away or second guess about how you’re feeling, especially not now. We all live in a life or death situation. Some of us saw that first hand today in more ways than one.”

  Greg also spoke up. “I’m with Reese. We best heed this and to ignore it may be to ride right into a bad situation. I haven’t done this before. I rode a desk in the War but I had the training. I say if Reese thinks this is important, I do too.”

  David thought for a moment. “I have great respect for you Juan and I will go along with you and the others. I am a green horn and I know it. So I won’t go against what the rest of you think. But now what do we do?”

  Everyone put their thinking caps on and Olive, Carla, Ruth and not to mention the younger set wanted to know what was going on and why they had stopped. So they were quickly filled in.

  Juan turned and looked down at Reese from his wagon seat.

  “Reese since you have experience and I do, but don’t get around so good anymore. You decide what the best route to take with this is.”

  Reese never figured that he would have to be an acting commander as a civilian. This was just one big nightmare that he just couldn’t seem to wake up from. But if he was going to keep his family alive and his new extended family, he was going to have to shake it off and get his brain where it needed to be.

  Chapter 23

  Death Rides a Hog

  Stinger Luke was incensed. No one does this to him and his crew and gets away with it. They were going to pay and pay hard.

  “Buzz you take eight of the crew and go around the ranch to the back left. Colt you take eight and go over to the right side. You’re gonna all have to go on foot. We want to surprise them. That leaves seven for me to go over the gate. I will wait one and a half hours then I’ll send off one shot and that’s the signal to attack. No way can they take care of three sides at once. We will overwhelm them in no time.”

  Both Canker and Whitey had a new woman that was taken from the town they had burned. The women weren’t willing to come along, but no longer fought and tried to run away. Someone was always around to keep an eye on them. But no way that the two men wanted to just leave them alone because they knew the women would try to get to the ranch. You could see a tiny look of hope in their eyes. Canker walked over to his hog and pulled a robe out of his saddlebags.

  “Hey Whitey this will do it? I’ll cut this robe in half and we can hog tie them. That way they can’t even hop off anywhere.”

  “Far out Canker you sure have the brains. Hurry up and give me half. We have to get going in a few minutes.”

  They each helped the other tie up their new motorcycle mamas. The women didn’t hardly fight at all anymore. So it didn’t take long.

  * * *

  The three men on the ranch knew the motorcycle gang had to be up to something. Theo had an idea what it was and what he would do. He took a whistle out from under his shirt and blew three short blasts. For now he thought they had some time. This was the signal for his men to come to him. A few minutes later they had made it to his log wall.

  “We need to make this fast boys so we can get to our positions. I think they are trying to surround us. We don’t know how many there are. So they could be coming in on three or four sides at once. What we will do is a triangle formation. We have enough places to do it and while you’re at it send up your prayers boys were going to need um.”

  Both Buck and Red told Theo. “Gottcha boss.” As they headed out to their walls.

  “Good luck boys. I will either see you later or on the other side. Now let’s lock and load.”

  Theo quickly went to the house and had Kate come out to a log wall so she could help keep an eye on the back of the ranch. Then he went on his way to where he thought he needed to be.

  Gramps, Buck and Red didn’t know if they were being watched or not so they did their best to weave here and there on the ranch to keep out of sight as they tried to get where they were going. First Buck and Red had to go back and get their ammo boxes. They had brought their rifles with them to the meeting and some extra rounds just in case. Buck ducked behind the front wall. He picked up the ammo box and an extra rifle and took them over to the shed back and into the dugout. He wasn’t in much of a different place, but they wouldn’t expect a different location than he was before. That’s if they even knew he was here in the first place.

  Red was headed from his first place of concealment with his ammo box zigzagging his way to a side dugout on the left of the ranch not far out from the main barn. He slipped under the cover and took a bottle
of water out of the plastic tub. He took a few swallows and sat it next to him. He opened the ammo box and made sure he could get to the bullets easily. He was nervous as all get out. He couldn’t wait for it just to start and be over with. He scanned the area to the front and sides of him trying to see any moment at all that shouldn’t be there.

  THERE to the left front he saw movement. Then he saw a hunched down figure run behind a bush. Theo was right. They were sneaking up around them.

  Theodore was the last one to his place of ambush. He swore each day he was getting slower. He went into a bunker on the right side of the ranch. He was 1000 feet from the house. He had tried to go from bush to bush and was glad there were a few hills and dales here so he couldn’t be seen from the road real well from anyone coming onto the ranch from this side. But that also meant he couldn’t see them sneaking up on the ranch either. Boy these ammo boxes were getting heavier too. He rubbed his right arm as he sat the box down under the front view slit. The slits were pretty big really cause you had to be able to see and shoot out of the things. There was only about an inch or two then another slit started.

  He grumbled. “I’m getting to old for this stuff.”

  ***

  At the wagons not far from the ranch:

  Bert had been given directions and a directive to take the spare horse and get close to the ranch to see if he could see anything going on while the wagons plodded onward towards the ranch. He stayed off the road even if it was dirt. It still was hard enough to make more noise than the grass fields would. He stopped when he saw the top of the ranch house from a hilltop. He slid off the horse and went up another incline when he got closer. Bert picked the binoculars up off his chest where they were hanging and peered through them. Bert started scanning the ranch. What he saw shocked the heck out of him. Motorcycles, big ones were down along the front fence. It looked like they had smashed head long into something really hard, but the only thing there was the old brown fence. He started to scan the area better now and saw movement just after a hill on the road coming in past the ranch. A group of bikers looking at the ranch through binoculars. He couldn’t see all of them as they were behind the hill.

  “What in the world was a motorcycle gang doing on this road?” Well that was one question he asked himself that he sure couldn’t answer, just like those motorcycles laying on the ground where they were. He looked off to the north and he could see tiny figures running to surround the ranch.

  “OH NO!”

  Then he quickly scanned to the south. It was hillier on this side, but he did manage to make out a couple of people trying to come in on the south side of the ranch. He had to get back to the wagons and quickly to tell them what was going on. This scared the crap out of him but he knew he couldn’t panic. Too many lives depended on him right now.

  “Welcome to manhood.” This isn’t how I thought it would be.

  He crawled back down off the hillside and mounted the horse. At first he just went slow so he wouldn’t make too much noise. Then when he thought he was far enough away, he set the horse to a good gallop towards the wagons. He skirted the road so he wouldn’t miss them.

  Reese was on the lead wagon with Carla and Tammy taking his turn at driving when he spotted Bert high tailing it back to them along the roadway on the grass. That brought a smile to Reese’s face. “Good the boy remembered. Another thing he was going to have to stop thinking of him as a boy in this new-troubled world. Bert would be taking on the full roll of a man now and all the obligations and responsibilities that it brought with it.”

  Reese held up his right arm which signaled the other wagons behind him to stop and then pulled back on the reins. “Whoa there.” The horses came to a stop.

  Bert came to a stop beside his dad. Reese could tell by the look on his son’s face that something was wrong. He had held out his hopes that it was all a false alarm but no such luck.

  “Dad there’s big trouble at the ranch. A motorcycle gang is attacking it. It looks like they already tried once by smashing through the fence with special made bikes. But smashed into something harder than they thought it was and their bodies are lying beyond the fence. Its amazing Dad because the fence just looks like an old wood fence. I saw bikers surrounding the place too. It looks like they are going to make a three-prong attack.”

  Reese was thinking. “Why in the world couldn’t things just have been dull and boring for a while and give them time to settle in, but oh no, things just had to go from bad to worse.”

  By this time everyone had gotten off of the wagons and were discussing what in the world they were going to do. Everyone was excited and trying to talk at once.

  Reese took control quickly. “All right, all right, we have to do something and quickly. Let’s get going. We don’t have time to stand here jawing. I will tell Bert what we’re going to do. He will relay it back to the rest of you. Now let’s go.”

  Bert stayed on the horse. Reese was thinking hard of their options in this.

  “Bert stay close so you can hear without me getting to loud.”

  He went over his plan as it came into his mind. He hoped it would work for all their sakes. Bert then went on back and repeated to each wagon of people what his dad had come up with.

  It only took another twenty minutes to get within range of the ranch. Reese wondered how much time that they had left before all Hades let loose. He figured it wasn’t long.

  “Okay all of you spread out and get where you will do the most good. Let’s hope this works.”

  Wilbert looked around at the folks getting out of the wagons. “Hey what about me? You can’t just leave me here by myself all tied up.” He started to get louder.

  Reese walked back over to the wagon. “You had better quiet down. You know Wilbert your lucky we don’t use you as bait. I was trying to decide what to do about you but you just helped me solve that.”

  Wilbert’s face went white. He hadn’t thought of that when he spoke up.

  Reese reached into his pocket and drew out his handkerchief and then he hopped up onto the wagon beside Wilbert and gagged Wilbert really good and tight. Reese made sure Wilbert was tied to the wagon and couldn’t get loose to go join and warn the bikers if he was so inclined.

  Reese jumped back down and said. “Don’t go anywhere. I wouldn’t Wilbert.” Then Reese walked back over to the others. Wilbert’s eyes were as big as they could get. They were going to leave him all alone with murderers on the loose and a gang of murderous bikers over the hills.

  The folks off the wagons went their way with a prayer in their hearts even if those hearts were pounding loudly in their ears or stuck in a throat or two. They worked their way around behind the bikers to the whole back of the ranch hoping that they weren’t spotted. No one had a whole lot of ammo on them, but they had opened Reese’s supply and doled out what they could for certain guns. They each had about 100 rounds on their persons and I mean everyone.

  David was so scared he could hear his knees shaking at least it seemed that way to him. His stomach was tied in knots and he feared he was going to throw up at any time.

  His twin sons weren’t far from him. They being young men didn’t have as much fear. This was so exciting to them. After all, youth is immortal. They were about 150 feet on each side of their dad, their mom, Olive, on the right of William, then Tammy and so on. That’s the distance they tried to keep in between everyone. Reese and Greg took up the ends. They wanted it to seem like there were more people than there really were.

  Juan was doing his best to keep up and realized he was in better shape than he thought he was after all with all this country living. Man that Carla was one fine looking woman kept running though his mind. He chided himself. “Come on Juan keep your attention on your surroundings and not on that fine looken woman.”

  Ruth North didn’t think she would be able to take another step. She was thinking. “I need to sit down. I can’t do this, but I have to. This could mean our lives and our future.” Most of it was rea
lly her fear. She was shaking so much that she was using too much energy. She came to a small hill and slowly went up it. At that moment a single gunshot was heard echoing through the hills. She gave a small squeal and threw herself to the ground. She noticed that she wasn’t the only one going to ground.

  ***

  In Theo’s bunker:

  Theodore heard the lone shot and with it he saw men running towards the ranch from the hills in front of him. One man was coming right at him. One was off to the right and one was to the left of the bunker. He quickly shot the one coming right at him and then the one on the right. The biker on the left threw himself on the ground when he realized what was happening.

  Buzz hadn’t seen where the shooter was. He should have been able to. There was just no real place to hide here. A few small hills and bushes yes but not much else. They had helped hide him as he snuck closer to the ranch, but he should have seen someone get up and shoot, at least a head and the gun or bushes move. He arm crawled his way over to the back of a hill and stuck his head up just a touch to look around. He wasn’t being very observant or he would have noticed there was something funny about that hill. As the saying goes, he couldn’t see the forest for the trees. He was so busy looking for a man and his hiding place that he didn’t notice the slits under his belly.

  Grandpa Theo saw the shadow come upon the bunker. He thought he had given himself away and the scumbag had seen where the shots had come from. But no, nothing like a bullet came through the slit and he saw the scumbag was lying on the bunker. A sly smile came onto Theo’s face. The biker was going to find out real fast what he was laying on. Bam went Theo’s rifle and the scumbag rolled off the hill holding his stomach. Theo looked out of the bunker at the biker who turned and with a surprised look on his face finally saw Theo’s eyes through the slits. The biker was in the process of bringing his pistol up when Theo shot the man again this time in the head.