by John Grit
“Every time we met him, he had a new Shebang joke to tell us.” Brian looked up at his father. “I didn’t realize how much I missed people like that.”
Chesty spoke loud enough everyone in the church could here. “Men, it’s time for you to go to your positions and man the perimeter.”
“It’s nowhere near dark yet,” a man in his thirties said. “I wanted to spend some time with my family first.” He held a small girl in his lap as he sat in a pew. His wife sat next to him, tears running down her face.
Chesty checked his wristwatch. “Best to be in position early and get yourself well hidden, Bill. It might save your life. There’s no rule that says they can’t hit us before dark. They’ve always hit us late at night before, but that could change.”
“Keep behind something that will stop rifle bullets,” Nate added. “Don’t just hide, stay behind protection.”
People slowly flowed into the aisle and out the door. Few said a word; those that spoke did so in a low whisper to a nearby loved one.
“Well.” Chesty rubbed the back of his neck. “You’ve seen the map; I guess you can find the golf course and park yourself.”
“Yes. No problem.” Nate looked up at a large painting of Jesus holding his open hands out while standing under at a glowing sky. “Where’s the preacher?”
“Dead. Died in the plague, his wife too,” Chesty said.
“This church could be a good gathering place in the morning, if the killing is over by then. Someone could stay and organize things. Those with minor wounds could come here for treatment instead of overloading the clinic. Move some of the pews out of the way; they could sleep on the floor. Some of the townspeople could cut up clean sheets for bandages.”
“Yeah.” Chesty’s eyes focused inward, his thoughts elsewhere as he spoke. “We will gather here tomorrow after the fight. I’ll tell everyone.” Chesty grew silent for a moment. “I expect Tyrone’s ambush will stop them. If they make it to town, it won’t take much to turn them around. Kill a few of them, they usually run like hell.”
Nate’s eyebrows knitted. “That’s not what you said this morning. You said they would be madder than hell and would come looking for blood. I think your first instincts were correct.”
Chesty jerked his head and looked at Nate. “We will know in the morning,” he said in a low, even, tone. Nate and Brian left him standing alone in front of the map.
Chapter 14
Ramiro stopped the pickup in front of the golf course. The caravan of pickups and trucks halted behind him. Nate stood in the back behind the cab, Brian and Kendell beside him. “Just sit still for a few,” Nate said, yelling to Ramiro.
Ramiro got out and looked the area over. “Okay, but we will have to park in the trees in the park somewhere. We must hide the trucks.”
Brian pointed to a stand of trees on the east side. “Set up some long rang rifles over there, maybe.”
Nate lowered the binoculars. “Yes. It’s the best place for two or three men to snipe from.” He jumped down. Brian landed next to him. Nate looked up at Kendell. “I take it you can hit a man at two hundred and fifty yards with that bolt-action.”
Kendell smiled. “Of course.” He jumped down.
Nate handed Brian one of his canteens. “Fill this up and all of yours.”
Brian and Kendell sprinted to the third truck in the caravan that had two thirty-five gallon barrels of drinking water strapped to the back of the cab.
“Any advice?” Ramiro asked.
“Place your men where they can do the most good. Keep them behind cover that will stop bullets. Use all the concealment available. Consider the range, accuracy, and power of the weapon your man is using as well as his own shooting ability. Keep in mind you may have to stop those trucks with rifle fire, utilize the most powerful rifles for that and position them with that in mind. Hide your trucks well and put them where they will be out of the line of fire if possible.”
Ramiro looked at his men waiting patiently in the other trucks. “I am not a soldier. At this moment, I wish I were. I pray I do not let my men down. They are simple men who know horses and farming, not guns and fighting. Their profession is hard labor and simple tasks. They love their families and fear god. They do not want to die and they do not want to kill.”
The scene seemed surreal in its peaceful beauty. Birds sang and a gentle breeze created waves in a green sea of grass that had not been manicured in more than a year. Someone had tied a cow to a tree to take advantage of all the lush grazing. It stood there on the edge of the golf course, munching on grass looking at the men.
Nate nodded. There was really nothing he could say. “I can use one of your men. Someone armed with a high powered rifle and can shoot.”
Ramiro looked past Nate at the last truck in the caravan. “Carlos!” A man jumped down from a flatbed truck and ran to Ramiro. “I need you to go with him.” Ramiro said, nodding toward Nate. Ramiro pointed toward the cow. “Cut it loose so it will not get shot. It will run when the shooting starts.” Carlos nodded and ran through the tall grass.
Brian and Kendell returned. Nate put his full canteen in a side pocket on his pack.
“We will be off now,” Ramiro said. “Carlos speaks English well and is a good shot.”
“Good,” Nate said. “Keep your head working and you’ll be okay.”
Ramiro climbed behind the wheel and drove off, the other trucks following.
“Let’s get out there and behind cover,” Nate said. They walked along the edge of the golf course, staying just inside the tree line until they were two hundred and fifty yards from the road. Nate stopped there because it was the right range for the others, otherwise, he would have decided on a longer range, using distance to provide more safety and time. Distance is a sniper’s best friend. “You two wait here and stay alert. Keep hid and behind bullet stopping cover. Decide on the best position for you to shoot from with a steady rest for your weapon. While you’re sitting here waiting for me to come back, think about what they are likely to do when the shooting starts and how you will handle it. We must keep them from rushing us and getting too close. They will have us outnumbered, and that means letting them get too close will be fatal. They will overrun us. We will need accurate firepower. Not just slow-fire accuracy and not just a lot of noise, but accurate firepower. Hits are what counts.”
Brian took his pack off. “Where are you going?”
“To find a good fallback position. I think it will be that rise over there where the trees jut out into the golf course. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
Kendell licked his lips. “I have a bolt-action; I can’t shoot but so fast with it. I’m thinking he should have asked for more help.”
Brian set his pack in front of him so he could shoot from behind a thick pine tree and use the pack for a rest. “When he gets back, you can ask him why he did not ask for more help. I expect those bastards will run as soon as the shooting starts anyway.”
“Maybe. Maybe not.”
“I guess we’ll see.”
Kendell coughed. “Yeah, I guess so.”
Nate met Carlos coming back from letting the cow loose. “Come with me,” Nate said.
Carlos turned and followed.
When they reached the spot Nate was thinking of, he told Carlos, “This will be our fallback position. It all depends on how brave they’re feeling tonight. Maybe they have their blood up, maybe they don’t.” Carlos nodded. “The thing is we cannot count on anything and therefore must be ready for anything.”
Carlos looked toward the road. “Whatever happens, we must keep them off us.”
“Yes,” Nate said, relieved that Carlos understood. “We must shoot them off of us. Our bullets will be our shield. If they overrun us, we’re all dead.”
Carlos sighed. “Ramiro will come if our battle lasts long.” He looked up at Nate. “I trust him and the others with my life.”
“Good, because it may come to that. If the gangbangers are insistent on goi
ng through the golf course, then I’d expect Ramiro will join the fight, because they will be useless hiding in the woods if the fight is here.”
“The gang may never come. They may drive past and not stop.”
Nate took one last look around, finding several places to shoot from behind cover. “Let’s get back to the others.” As they walked, Nate went over the battle plan with Carlos. “One of the worst things that can happen is for one of us to be wounded at the first position. That will make it very difficult to fall back under fire.” He shook his head. “I am not leaving anyone, not Brian, not Kendell, and not you. That means one of us will have to carry the wounded one. And it means those left will have to keep them off of us while we retreat. If more than one of us is wounded, we will have to stand at the first position and fight to the end, or until Ramiro arrives.”
“I think you worry more than is needed. These are cowards and murderers, not soldiers. They do not have so much fight in them as you think.”
“True,” Nate said, “but we must not bet our lives on such variables. You never really know what people will do.”
Brian and Kendell had found a log back in the trees. Nate and Carlos found them in the process of placing it in position to provide better cover. Brian wiped his dirty hands on his pants. “Kendell has some questions for you.”
“Good. That means he’s thinking,” Nate said. “The log is a good idea, but one of you should’ve kept your eyes on the road.” He took his pack off and sat down. “We haven’t eaten all day. All of you eat while I keep watch.”
Kendell drank from a canteen and chewed on jerky. “Why didn’t you ask Ramiro for more help?”
Nate kept his eyes on the road. “I’ve been told there are hundreds in the gang. If true, there is no way we can stop them, no matter how many of Ramiro’s men we had. If they want through here bad enough, we’re going to have to back off and let them pass. Also, Ramiro’s position dictates close quarters fighting and that means he will need all the fighters he has. We have some open ground here that makes it possible to keep them off us, but they will flank our position by coming in through the trees on our left. That means we will have to fall back before they have a chance to do that, and fall back again, if they keep coming.”
While they ate, Nate went over as many scenarios as he could think of and how to react to them. He explained that Ramiro was their reinforcements and would outflank their attackers if the firefight lasted very long. He also explained how they would retreat on his command, if it came to that.
“Brian finished eating. “You might as well eat now, Dad. The sun is down and it will be dark soon.”
Kendell took a last drink and put his canteen away. He grabbed his rifle and got comfortable behind the log.
“You two put your packs back on.” Nate said. “If we have to change positions, we will have to move fast.”
Brian protested, “I was going to use the pack for a shooting rest.”
Nate gulped his food down. “No, use your normal prone shooting position. Stay behind that pine tree as much as you can.”
~~~~
Minutes ticked away into hours. In the dark, they could see little of the road. The temperature dropped fast and cold seeped through their jackets. Brian turned his jacket collar up and pulled his hat down.
The radio in Nate’s pocket came to life. He took it out and turned the volume up. Chesty’s voice blared. Nate turned the volume down a little. “They got around Tyrone’s ambush. Came in through some back roads. Tyrone’s men are heading back into town.”
“Any idea where they are now?” Nate asked.
Chesty’s voice came back. “They could be anywhere. We only have three radios and no other way to communicate. Just be ready for anything.”
Nate signed off and turned the radio volume down.
Brian commented, “Not exactly full of useful information, is he? The fog of war has settled in already.”
“Be ready—sounds like good advice to me,” Kendell said.
“Have you checked the intensity of the reticle on your Aimpoint?” Nate asked.
“I have it set low,” Brian answered. “It’s as dark as the inside of an Eskimo’s winter coat out here.”
“And twice as cold,” Kendell added. “Wouldn’t you turn it up in the dark?”
“No,” Brian said. “You turn it up in the bright daylight and down in the dark. At night, if it’s too bright it will drown out the image of your target and you can’t see what you’re shooting at.” He held his carbine out. “Here, have a look.”
Kendell shouldered the carbine and looked through the Aimpoint sight. “Wow! You just put the red dot on the target and pull the trigger?”
“Yep, it has to be sighted in of course,” Brian said. “At long range you have to aim a little high. But at this range you just put it on target. The main thing is it’s fast.”
“Batteries must last a long time.”
“You can leave it on for years,” Brian said. “And we have extra batteries.”
Nate broke in, “Okay guys, you need to work your mouths less and eyes more.”
Brian held his left hand up. “Cars coming.”
Everyone held their breath and listened. The whining and drumming of deep treaded tires grew louder.
Nate checked the eastern sky where the moon remained low and hidden. “I was hoping we would have moonlight to shoot by before they got here. Don’t shoot unless I tell you to. At first you will have to use their headlights and taillights as reference points and aim according to where you believe the men are. Once they start shooting back at us you aim just to the right of their muzzle flash.”
The road lit up from distant headlights. Nate could hear the breathing of the others. Brian was the first to thumb his safety off. Three trucks raced by. Down the road, the trucks slowed down and came to a stop. The lead driver hit the gas and drove another one hundred yards and then stopped again. Nate and the others could not see, but they heard well enough to know that Ramiro’s men were about to be in a gunfight.
A sudden roar of gunfire reverberated across the golf course and faded into the trees. Another short, hot flurry, and then engines roared and tires spun in mud. Young men screamed, horns blared. Headlights flashed in the road.
Nate yelled, “Get ready!”
Two pickups came racing forward then slowed. Nate shot, emptying his twenty-round magazine. The others fired. The sound of bullets hitting metal bounced back to their ears. The back of the pickups lit up from muzzle flashes. Bullets slammed into the trees and ground around them. Brian was blinded when fragments of tree bark flew in his face. He laid down on the ground and tried to brush the debris out of his eyes with his fingers. The second truck swerved around the truck in front and took off, tires smoking. The others’ weapons were empty, but Nate had already reloaded. He stood and pumped bullets into the back of the pickup where he saw muzzle flashes as it sped off. Instead of the sound of bullets slamming into metal, the hollow thud of bullets hitting flesh came back to their ears.
Nate saw Brian lying flat on the ground. “Is anyone hit?”
Everyone answered no.
Brian sat up. “I’m okay.”
“Stay behind cover,” Nate said. “Everyone load your guns. It might not be over.”
“They left one of their trucks back there.” Kendell’s voice revealed his excitement.
Nate used his binoculars’ light-gathering ability to see better in the dark and glassed the road. “That’s Ramiro’s problem. I expect they left a lot of dead men back there too.” He held the binoculars steady. “There are people in the road. It appears they are dead or dying.”
Kendell exhaled with enough force his breath whistled through his front teeth. Nate knew the realization that he may have just killed someone had suddenly come over him. “Everyone breathe and force yourselves to calm down.” He waited a few minutes. “It’s time to fall back to our second position.” No one asked why or argued with him. They just got up and silentl
y followed. He kept in the dark shade of trees. When they reached the place he and Carlos had decided on, they settled in behind bullet stopping cover.
Carlos took a long drink from a plastic bottle he carried in his pack. “You think they may come back and look for us where we were before?”
“If they come back,” Nate said, “we do not want to be where they expect us to be.”
“There were only three trucks,” Brian said. “And one of them and those in it, are back there with Ramiro and his men. It doesn’t seem like they would want to come back.”
“If that gang is as big as Chesty says it is, we have not met their main force yet.” The radio in Nate’s pocket came to life. He turned the volume up and Chesty’s voice came in. “We have been hit in three places. They broke through our perimeter and made it to the downtown area. We’ve lost some people and some are wounded. Have you seen anything at your location?”
Nate put the radio close to his mouth. “We just had a skirmish with three truckloads of the bastards thirty minutes ago. We have no wounded here. Ramiro and his men clashed with them also. I do not know if Ramiro has casualties.”
Chesty’s voice came from the radio. “We need help in the downtown area. Can you relocate and reinforce us?”
Nate did not hesitate. “No. We cannot do that.”
“Why the hell not?”
“It’s too dangerous. We will get the same treatment we just gave them. Traveling by vehicle is too dangerous now. If we had been able to catch them all in one place, like at the warehouse, it would be a different story. Your people should hunker down and prepare to fight where they stand.”
“Thanks a lot.”
“This is your town and you wanted to fight this fight your way. We’re doing our part and more. If they come back this way, we will give them hell.”
Chesty’s voice came back. “Out.”
Carlos commented, “He sounded angry.”
Nate turned the volume on the radio down. “You just saw what happens when you drive into an ambush.”
“Si,” Carlos said. “I saw it.”
