by David Wilson
“Sorry, I didn’t take it serious enough and didn’t pull hard enough, I was surprised at the suction I felt. Let’s try that again,” said Ben as he re-gripped the handle. The second effort was successful, as both men stepped back and released the handles.
“I should have warned you about the suction on this thing, I’m not sure how old it is, but it is airtight. I had a bitch of a time getting it open the first time, and then I had to recover the combination from the lock. We don’t have time for me to show you how to do that, but I will, at some point,” mused Talon.
Pulling first one door, then the other all the way open, they could all see that the safe was fairly full of rifles and pistols. Rifles leaned against the back wall of the safe, and pistols lined the top shelf mounted on pistol holders.
“Ben, if there is something in here that you prefer over what you have, grab it but clean whatever you are trading it for and put it back in here,” Talon instructed, “I was hoping this was still in there.” Talon reached into the safe and pulled out a medium-sized Walter .22 pistol. Turning from the safe, Talon ejected the magazine and made sure the pistol was empty. Letting the slide go home, he turned to Billy and handed him the pistol. The boy’s eye widened as he carefully took the pistol, making sure it was pointed down and away from the men, Billy began to pull back the slide but stopped and looked at Talon. Talon nodded his approval, and Billy pulled the slide all the way back and looked into the chamber to make sure it was safe. Letting the slide go home, he attempted to holster the pistol.
Talon gave a small laugh and said, “Here, let me hold that until we find the holster for it, but I do think this pistol is a better size for your small hands. It is only a .22, but it will kill a person. You just might have to empty the mag into the bad guy, but it will do the job. I know the holster is around here somewhere, along with a couple of extra magazines.” Talon took the pistol back and inserted the empty magazine into the weapon and pocketed the pistol for the time being. Reaching into the safe, he felt around on the top shelf behind where the pistol had been. Finding two more empty magazines for the weapon, he stuck those into his pocket alongside the pistol.
Walking around the stacks of equipment, Talon selected two ammo cans and handed them to Billy. “Can you take these into the kitchen and set them on the ground by the island while you are in there check on your Mom and see if she is still asleep,” asked Talon. Billy nodded and took the cans from Talon and staggered off towards the kitchen.
Turning toward Ben, Talon said, “Grab two cans of 5.56 and take them inside.” Ben nodded and moved over to the pile of ammo cans, popping open two of them to make sure they were, in fact, 5.56 ammo and not something else. As Talon watched, he thought, good help is priceless.
Talon walked over to a large cabinet and pulled open the doors, he saw the cabinet had been rearranged since the last time he was here. Turning from the cabinet, he scanned the stacked footlockers next to the cabinet. Finally spotting what he was looking for. Handing his chemical lights to Billy, Talon began taking footlockers off the stack until he reached the locker he was looking for. Popping the latches, he began rummaging around inside the locker for a holster for the Walter .22 for Billy. After looking at dozens of old holsters, he finally found what he was looking for. Pulling the Walter out and testing to make sure it was the right fit, he dug through the footlocker until he found a double magazine holder that would work for the .22 magazines. Closing the footlocker, Talon restacked the footlockers as he had found them.
As he was finishing with the footlockers, he spotted several small hard-sided cases sitting on the optics shelve. Opening the case, he softly whistled to himself as he found himself looking at a Mako Group Military Self-Powered Day/Night Reflex Sight, complete with an IR Laser. Checking the other cases, he found a total of four of the devices. These are definitely coming with us thought Talon, no more switching or improvising for night time shooting anymore. With that in mind, he headed back over to the gun safe and found what had crossed his mind. There were three of them, which would meet their needs perfectly, along with the Mako day/night scopes he had found.
Pulling the three Tavor X-95’s out of the gun safe, he cleared the weapons, then had Billy carry them one at a time into the kitchen. These would be perfect for Diane and Billy to carry. Diane would be able to handle the bullpup designed rifle, and even if Billy couldn’t, it would add to their firepower. Talon would keep the current M4 as a backup, but for the time being, especially working off horses, the Tavor was the superior weapon. After Billy was finished with that, Talon supervised him carrying the four Mako scope cases into the kitchen. Digging around in the safe, some more Talon found suppressors for the Tavor’s.
Walking into the kitchen, Talon found Ben sitting at the kitchen island, mounting a flashlight to his DP-12. “After you finish with that, mount one of these on your AR,” Talon directed, indicating the box with one of the Mako scopes. “These have both a visible laser and an IR laser for use with our night vision. Best of all, they run forever on just two AA batteries. After you get yours finished, mount one each on these two Tavors for Diane and Billy. I’ll take care of this one myself.” Ben nodded his understanding as he continued to concentrate on mounting his flashlight.
Ben looked up catching Talon’s eyes, Ben pointed his chin in Billy’s direction and mimicked falling asleep. Talon looked over and saw what Ben was talking about. Billy had jumped up on a barstool next to Talon and had laid his head down on his arms. Talon stood and picked up the eight-year-old, saying, “Come on, little man, you have had a long day of saving your Mom and killing bad guys, let’s get you to bed out here by your Mom.” Talon carried Billy to the hall bathroom and put him down so he could use the bathroom before he went to sleep. Grabbing a couple of blankets from the linen closet, Talon led Billy back out to the living room and got Billy bedded down on one of the massive lazy boy chairs in the living room. Talon told him to sleep and that either Ben or he would be watching to make sure everyone was safe.
Talon came back into the kitchen after getting Billy to bed and found that Ben had made them each a cup of coffee. Glancing over to the stovetop, he saw Ben had gotten the two-burner white gas stove working and now had two large pots of water on the stove heating. Ben followed Talon's eyes and said, “I figured Diane would want to take a shower when she woke up, and I know that I damn sure want one. We can use one of those beach power showers I saw out there on a shelf. So you weren’t kidding when you said that guy worked over Diane. I just saw a couple of the welts, and I can’t imagine how much that hurts, sure wish we could have gotten our hands on the guy that did that to her.”
Talon nodded his head and said, “Well, I kind of did get my hands on the guy that did that to her.” Ben's eyes widened, but then he leaned towards Talon, waiting to get the rest of the story.
Talon continued, “So after I entered the tent and found Diane, I had just cut the chain on her handcuffs when the guy that did that to her came in the tent and started to chew my ass, but then he realized I wasn’t one of his guys. I ended up sticking him clean through with my Sharknado and then tried to cut his head off with the damn thing. I’m sure I could have with the Deuce, but the Sharknado did ok, and it got the job done. Diane said the reason for the beating was she bit the guy, on the privates, when he tried to rape her.”
“Ouch, well he deserved all that she and you gave him,” said Ben, “I saw how you used it on the tent, I was impressed on how it cut, one swipe and you were in. You know that after you went inside, several of the guards had come running up to the holding area and had seen the guards we killed. One of them tried to get to that field phone you told me about, and the rest tried to come around the holding area to get to me. I was able to take them out through the fence before any of them got off a shot.”
“Oh, I’m sure we really pissed them off, and I wish we could have already been on the road miles from here,” Talon added, “But there was no way Diane was going to be able to travel very far o
r fast right now. It's best to give her a couple of days to heal, that way, we can travel a little faster when we do get on the road. I know it’s a risk to stay in the area, but I don’t see any other option.”
Talon stood, picked up his coffee, and headed back to the garage, saying back over his shoulder, “When you through with that light, bring those three Tavors out here and help me put suppressors on them. Also, we need to get this armor fitted to everyone and get Diane and Billy equipped with the basic gear.”
Two hours later, Ben and Talon came back inside the house and sat down on the bar stools in the kitchen. Talon reached over and re-lit the stove and set the pot of water back on the burner. Talon pulled the Bump helmet off and scratched his head. They had found everyone in their group a helmet that fit. Ben and Talon had both found Bump style helmets that were so much better than the skull-crushing harnesses for the night vision. Diane and Billy had to settle for the Mich helmets, but they were better than nothing.
Ben grunted and said, “Roger that, but before long, one of us needs to go down for some sleep. That is if we are going to keep someone up all the time.”
With Ben’s help, they were able to get the weapons upgraded, armor adjusted, and most of the gear that Diane and Billy would need to make the rest of the trip. There were several different sizes of clothes stored at the safe house, but that would have to wait until Diane was up and about to figure out. Talon had sent Ben to get a few hours of sleep. After Ben had taken a shower and headed off to get some sleep, Talon had moved a chair over to one of the front windows to keep an eye out for any unwelcome company. Feeling sleepy himself, Talon got up after a few minutes and made a round of the house checking on Diane, who was still out cold, Billy was still sleeping like the kid he was, and then Talon stepped outside to check on the horses.
The one thing the safe house did not have was horse feed, Talon used the last of the oats, which didn’t amount to much for each of them. Talon picked up the curry comb and worked on each of the horses for a few minutes each. Next, he examined and cleaned each of their hoofs. Making sure they had water, he left them to graze on the tall grass in the backyard.
After finishing with the horses, Talon stood outside between the houses and watched and listened. Hearing nothing besides the occasional buzz of a mosquito, Talon returned to the kitchen to refresh his coffee. The rest of the night passed with nothing out of the new normal. Talon was watching the sun come up and noticed the morning sky was red across the whole horizon. This caused Talon to frown, wondering if the red sky was an ominous warning sign for his team. Hopefully not, Talon thought, but it still worried him as he repeated the old saying, ‘Red sky in morning sailors take warning, red sky at night sailor’s delight.’
Chapter Eighteen
Their group ended up spending the next three days at the safe house, waiting for Diane’s body to heal enough for her to ride. Most of the time was well spent. Ben had found an airsoft pistol and had spent several hours with Billy on the use of a real handgun. Diane wasn’t excited about her son getting trained on a handgun, but said nothing as she couldn’t deny the dangers they all faced. She ever trained some with the airsoft pistol and finally admitted it was a skill Billy needed and was impressed when Billy outshot her on a few of the drills. They were able to get everyone fitted with body armor, night vision, and uniforms. Ben had dug through most of the gear in the garage to find and build Diane and Billy their own EDC bags. At times it seemed Ben had grown a second shadow as Billy followed him around just about every minute of each day. When Talon said something, Ben made it clear that he was ok with it, and all the questions didn’t faze him at all.
On the third day, Talon announced that they would be traveling that night. He at least wanted to get out of the immediate area that was controlled by the military unit running the FEMA camp. Everyone was packed and ready by noon, and Talon told them to go try and take a nap, that they were in for a long hard ride tonight. Not that Talon really thought they get more than ten or fifteen miles tonight. He really did not want to push that hard with Diane’s wounds.
That morning Talon observed a little more of Diane’s temper when she went over to visit the horses and saw what Talon had done to her prize saddle. Then to make matters worse, Talon had laughed at her when she came storming back into the safe house, thinking she was going to chew him out about it. Talon was beginning to think that they would never exactly be friends, but he was ok with that. He had told her that he would do it again if he had to and that there was no way he was going anywhere with a bright pink show saddle lighting up like a neon sign. After she had a cup of coffee, she apologized for her temper but insisted he could have done something to hide the color other than using black boot dye. Talon had just shrugged at this and stated it was all he could find at the time.
They had all sat down and had dinner just as it was getting dark. After dinner, the group put away the linens they had used and finished cleaning up the kitchen. Everyone used the indoor bathroom for the last time, and Talon had Ben take Diane and Billy over to the horses and told them to get them saddled and loaded.
Talon waited until everyone was out of the safe house before he went room to room, re-activating the booby traps. Once they were set, Talon closed and locked the garage side entrance and rejoin the group.
Talon finished tightening everything up on Shadow and then gathered everyone around. “Everyone knows what to do if we get hit while we are moving and where to go. Billy, you know what to do, right,” Talon said and watched as Billy nodded, “Do not worry about drawing your pistol, you concentrate on riding and get at least out of sight to stop and wait for us. Do not hesitate if we come under fire, you lead the way, so your Mom knows where to go.” Checking everyone’s gear over, Talon could not find anything out of place. Walking back to Shadow, he mounted and turned the big horse out the gate and into the front yard. Ben was last out the gate and made sure the gate was shut and locked before swinging up into the saddle. He gave Talon a nod, and Talon swung his horse around and led the group out of the neighborhood.
After riding for about ten minutes, the group came to a major intersection. Barricades were set up as if to block traffic from all four directions. Talon halted the group when they came close to the first barricade. He flipped down his PVS-14 and studied the barricade for a minute or so before stepping down out of the saddle and walking over to the wood structure. Pulling a small poster off the structure, Talon turned and walked back to Diane. She had flipped her NVD down when Talon had, and she studied the poster Talon held up to her. Next, Talon took it to Ben so he could see the poster. It was a reward poster for the war criminal Diane Roberts and her accomplices for terrorist actions against a FEMA camp resulting in the deaths of 14 US troops and two DHS agents. It had a detailed description and a 5x8 photograph of Diane and offered an unspecified reward for her capture. After Ben had looked it over Talon causally tossed the poster into the ditch, he spoke with Diane for just a few seconds and then remounted his horse. Diane immediately pulled her helmet off and pulled her hair into a bun, securing it with a hairband she had on her left wrist. Putting her helmet back on, she gave Talon a thumbs up, and Talon led off again at a slightly faster pace.
The group rode for almost two hours before coming to the city limits sign of Clifford. Talon pulled his horse to a stop and let everyone catch up, “We are being watched. Stay ready, but do not make any hostile moves. I don’t think many of these small towns are going to be cooperating with DHS. Just stay calm. We will stop and let the horses drink, and if you have any empty water containers, we should fill those up too. Diane, how are you doing?”
“Right now, I’m more worried about those Wanted Posters, then I am about my sore butt and back,” replied Diane.
“Oh, I didn’t think that picture was that bad, what do you think Ben,” Talon said with a smile in a vain attempt at injecting some humor into the bad situation.
“How can you make jokes right now,” exclaimed Diane, “This has pu
t all of my family in danger.”
“Diane, everything is a mess right now. Yes, I’d say your days as a resident of Fairfax City is over, but beyond that, Winchester might as well be on the moon. When we get to the armory, we can make you a new ID, and no one will be the wiser. With Jake in charge of the entire area around Winchester, I doubt anyone is going to find you there, let alone arrest you,” stated Talon. “You must have made quite the impression on the FEMA Camp Commander, for him to go through the pain of printing up Reward Posters.”
Nudging his horse forward, the group followed at a walk. The road narrowed with a steep banked running stream on the north side of the road and business buildings on the south side. As the group moved closer to the intersection, which marked the center of the small town. A man stepped out of a door of the large old fashion church directly across the intersection from the group. He appeared to be in his early to mid-sixties, stocky built and carried himself with confidence. A tin star hung from his left breast, and riding on his right hip was an enormous revolver. The lawman came down the front stairs of the church and sat down on the stairs. Taking his hat off, he pulled out a bandana out of his back pocket and wiped down his face and mostly bald head.
Thinking it would be ill-advised to just ignore the man, Talon laid his slung rifle across the saddle horn but kept his right hand on the pistol grip. Glancing back at his little group, he saw they had followed his lead. He rode up to within about ten feet of the seated man and pulled Shadow to a stop. The rest of his small group spread out behind him and came to a halt.
“Evening, or should I say morning,” said the seated lawman.
Talon just sat on his horse and looked the man over. Without taking his eyes from the man, Talon spoke, “You are up awful late or awful early, guess it just depends on what you have been doing all night.”
