High Lonesome

by T J Reeder

  We drove all the way thru to Littlefield and stopped. After looking the area over I felt we could leave a heavy blocking force in the town with vehicles in garages and when the enemy passed by our people could pull out and follow them into the canyon and road block them in.

  We have a couple of six-by’s that we put sand bags in the back and mounted in several MG’s. One of them along with a few HV’s with guns should be able to hold them, that and some grenade launchers. Willy wanted the blocking job so it was his, we needed to get moving so we could get the vehicles in place and wipe out signs of their passing, all in the dark.

  We found the right place on a tight curve in the canyon. With tracks at each end and a couple in the middle I figured we could chop them to bits, Joe and Willy also had a surprise, they had taken a couple of six-by’s and made them into rolling mortar carriers. I know nothing about mortars except they are heavy to carry and are great if you are on the outgoing side but suck if you’re on the incoming side, anyway, these were awesome because they could park at each end of the ambush and just blow the shit out of the whole area. I liked it! It would also give Willy extra help on the back end.

  We got back in time to greet Charley who smiled and slowly shook his head and said “When will you leave me alone to sit in the shade and think?” I laughed and said “Never! You eat this shit up!” He asked what we had going so I held a meeting and explained the whole thing, I admitted I knew little about these folks except they seemed to be a mix of trash and former military and were involved in the same old shit of slavery and selling girls.

  I explained the ambush point and said if we worked it right these shitheads wouldn’t be able to do us much damage if any at all because we held the high ground and would have them bottled up. I wanted all our people dug in and nobody closer then a couple hundred yards. With the fire power we have and the experience I hoped we would do it with no losses. We moved out with a couple of hours or so of good light left and rolled into our ambush point.

  We rolled on in with Willy and helped them get set up out of sight. The girls and I helped them clean up any traces of our arrival. We then headed back to the main site. As we drove into the kill zone things were looking great, the tracks were hull down behind small humps that left just the main gun and the co-axle gun exposed but between the turret armor and the sand bags being piled on I figured they were as safe as could be. The riflemen were further back from the road where they could give excellent cover for the tracks. It would be like shooting fish in a barrel, between the 25 mil guns and the m-60 pigs we had the whole area covered. Joe had put people up above on the other side of the road where the ground was very steep; they were there to toss hand grenades down on people hiding behind vehicles. A very good idea!

  By midnight we were set and the work on removing traces of our activities was done. Everybody used heat tabs to heat some chow and settled in for a wait, maybe a long wait. I really had no way of knowing when they would come. We had a comm unit on the top of the hill with a direct line to Willy and his bunch. They would be our early warning. All in all we spent three days laying there in that damn canyon waiting to the point I was ready to just roll into Vegas with all guns blazing. Then Willy called to say several scout vehicles were coming and we had time for last minute checking to see that nobody had left something exposed, nobody had. This was as good a unit as any commander could ever ask for.

  We heard them coming before we saw them and every one of the people in the two trucks were covered, if one had made any move to alert the others they were all dead. But they kept rolling; I counted about 10 people jammed into each truck all armed to the teeth but no supplies we could see. They rolled on while the comm man notified the city about their coming. I had no idea what they were there for since it was way too many for a scouting party then Joe said they were probably going to infiltrate in close to the road block and take it under fire when the time came. It might have worked but now it wouldn’t. We had people waiting for them and I doubted anybody would get away.

  Night came and we waited because we all felt this was the night they would come in preparation for a dawn attack only they weren’t gonna make it.

  My fighting place was in a nice deep hole the girls had worked on while I was running back and forth like a hound crapping peach seeds. They put a cover over it and camoed it, all the bennies of home, well maybe not but it kept the sun off. We all took cat naps while waiting, the comm unit on the hill would give us plenty of warning. I will admit I was worried about Willy and his unit, they were heavy on fire power but low on personnel but Willy and his gang knew what they were doing and anybody trying to take them was dead, they just hadn’t found it out yet.

  Just around 0200 the comm outpost called in to say there was a long string of lights coming at us, ETA approx. one hour. We got everybody awake and reminded everybody to stay low and use single aimed fire.

  Tension grew with each minute while I ripped myself for all the things I hadn’t thought of, Sandy put her arm around me and said “Chill slick, you done good.” May scooted over and said “John you have done everything possible and giving over some control to Willy and Joe was smart, they are good at this stuff too. Charley and his troops will handle any who get thru this phase of the fight. It’s fine.”

  One smart thing we did was roll a large boulder down onto the roadway to make the lead unit have to stop which would cause the rest to close up more then they should.

  And then with a roar of engines they were here. The first truck thru was a six-by full of people, followed by several more, the first truck came to the boulder and stopped and a voice was heard ordering the troops to dismount and move the fkn rock. In the meantime the whole convoy closed up bumper to bumper just as advertised.

  But we had trouble! Right in front of us was three trucks with tracks mounted on them just as we haul ours, and the turrets allowed the crew to fight from the trailer just fine. It also changed the point of contact because they had to be dealt with first “If” they were manned. I made contact with our track gunners and told them to be locked on them when the shooting started and if one even moved an inch to hose it. If we could take them without shooting them up I’d be a happy camper.

  The radio clicked and Charley said the ones who went thru first were laid up and ready to hit the people at the road block so it was a free fore zone as far as he was concerned. I told him the dance was starting and I sighted in on the man who was yelling up at the boulder but not helping. I dropped him and that opened the ballgame. I kept my eyes on the tracks and at first nothing happened, then the middle one fired up and the turret was moving toward us, I said “Light it up” and our 25’s did just that. It stopped running and sat there smoking.

  Meantime the enemy troops were piling out and hitting the ditch on the cliff side of the road. It turned into a sniper match and we had them there because of our cover and because we used aimed, controlled fire power right out of the US Marine training manuals. They were dropping as fast as they put their heads up. I waved at the people above them and that was the killer, grenades were dropped from above and they never stood a chance.

  Several stood up to surrender but we weren’t taking prisoners today. But it’s easier to deal with that when they are a couple hundred yards away and not standing right in front of you. We didn’t know who they were but we knew what they were. So it was no quarter, they were laying down a high rate of fire but they weren’t hitting anything simply because we were above them and to even aim up at us they had to almost kneel to shoot, and they had a short life span.

  I could hear heavy gun fire back toward Willy’s people but couldn’t see how many had not made the curve before it started. I had all the faith in the world in Willy but that didn’t stop the worry. All I could do was wait and not bother him with radio chatter like some bird sitting in a chopper at 10 K ft. trying to guide each and every man on the ground, seen it, been there, didn’t participate, radios kept breaking.

  An hour after the
last shot was fired some of the troops started cleaning up, nobody was gonna get killed by a wounded actor. It was a nasty job but it had to be done. They used 10-22 rifles with 25 round mags. One round did the trick but two really nailed it.

  I know it seems like we killed a lot of people on very flimsy evidence but I never for a second felt we were wrong.

  At last Willy’s voice came over the radio saying all clear and no runners made it. He also said he thought he got the “Head Rat.” I told him when the cleanup crew called all clear I’d head back that way. Thirty minutes later the all clear was given and the real cleanup started. All weapons were gathered, and loaded in any trucks that would run; these were moved out to the city. Charley called and said his scouts had taken a couple of the enemy alive and they were babbling as fast as they could. He was coming to meet me.

  After the weapons were collected, the trucks with the tracks were driven out. The two people in the track that got fired up were tossed out for the cleanup crew, and washed out with cans of water and bleach right there. All vehicles that would run were driven and were towing the ones that wouldn’t run. When the area was clear we started phase two. Charley arrived leading to a command meeting with every hand there. Charley spoke about what the two prisoners were telling. He said the main Dog wasn’t here, that he waited until later to come in.

  So we were going into his den and drag him out kicking and screaming, but he also had as many as five hundred shooters in there with him. We also learned he had been held back from taking anything outside the strip due to the people refusing to give up. His tracks didn’t scare them and he lost three to homemade road side bombs. But the people weren’t pushing him to move on. I guess they figured he would when he ran thru the supplies he got there.

  The two prisoners were brought to me and after looking them over I told them they had one chance to live and that was to get us into the area where their boss hid out. But I wanted every tiny bit of info they had.

  Charley had his lads take them away and dig thru their heads, then somebody else did it again and again, when the data was all correlated it showed they were both telling the truth with some small differences probably because they weren’t privy to the same intel.

  With no further delays we rolled out, HV’s in front with the big six-by gun truck in the lead. The track haulers were spaced out thru the convoy; never would we make the same mistake they had.

  Willy and his bunch fell in line as we passed them; the girls and I were in a HV three behind the gun truck. That was as close as I was allowed to get. Friends? Bah!! The girls were looking smug but I was driving and I was in charge of this HV and I would drive it wherever I wanted to. May leaned over the seat behind me and wrapped her arms around me and said “Try it bubba.” Sandy laughed, the other passenger, Mister Charley himself just shook his head and sighed. I ignored them all.

  With the information we had from the two prisoners we stopped just outside the area we were going to hit and unloaded the tracks, we had thought to bring the captured tracks but I wasn’t willing to risk people in equipment we hadn’t maintained ourselves. We started forward with the tracks leading. The big gun truck was following with HV’s spread out behind it, six-by personnel haulers were back a good ways and the mortar trucks were in front of them.

  We started taking fire within a half hour, scattered at first but getting heavier. The middle track opened fire and lit up a track hidden in an alley, when it started rolling out it rolled right in front of the gun and the alert gunner hosed him. The track started burning then blew up. People were running everywhere and the gun truck started doing its thing. People were falling by the dozen.

  We started taking heavy fire from a pair of MA deuces so we stopped while the tracks dealt with them. Then several explosions hit right where they were, the nortar trucks were dead on! I have no idea where they got the guys manning the tubes but they were damn good! Among the best I ever saw. The 82 MM mortar is an awesome weapon and mounted and mobile made it even better, shoot and boogie.

  My comm man called me and said he was getting some strange contacts, I told him to answer them. He called back with the news it was the people surrounding the other side of the strip asking us to watch the mortar rounds when we started getting thru the center of the strip. I laughed and said tell them to pull back further because we intend to finish this shit head since they wouldn’t.

  He said they replied 10-4; he laughed when he told me that. Maybe I was being hard on them but so far I had seen nothing from these people other then they had some armor that impressed me. I think the locals had settled into a leave us alone and we leave you alone. Not a good attitude! Because sooner or later that snake will whip back and sink its fangs in you.

  We kept pushing forward and had taken a few causalities, mostly minor wounds from bullets fragments, then one of our HV’s got hit by a track 25 and it was trashed in a second. Our tracks lit it up big time, the medics rushed forward with a track blocking incoming fire so they could work but it was soon obvious they could do nothing.

  That really hit home after so much fighting to take four KIA’s in a heartbeat. The medics got back in their ambulance and back behind the trucks. Our tracks really lit it up, they were hauling ass shooting into anything that might hold a track, the enemy ground pounder’s had hauled ass and weren’t slowing down.

  I called our people to a halt and when I had everybody on the comm I told them to torch the whole place, I figured there was nothing here worth saving since gambling was done these days by just getting out of bed. Soon it was a raging inferno, we backed up and split around the strip and simply shot the rats running from the fire. I was pissed I hadn’t done this sooner; the HV team might still be alive. Both girls laid a hand on me and soon I felt better…. “Witches.” I heard a laugh and “Are not” more giggling.

  Comm called and said the locals wanted to know why we were burning the strip. I told him to tell them we were exterminating the rats. He came back and said they were very unhappy; I had him patch them thru to me. I said “This is John Walker who am I talking to?” A woman answered me and without answering my question said, “Oh great, we’ve heard of you and your crew of killers!” I laughed and said “conversation over” and told the comm man to break it down and to not talk to them again.

  The fire raged unchecked, and it would burn for days, the shooters inside had quit trying to leave where we could see them meaning they would soon run right into the folks on the other side. I hope they were ready. But there couldn’t be many left. I knew they had lost two tracks and assumed they had more, if so they were hauling ass in the other direction. Comm called me back and said there was another call from a different person, a man. I told him to patch it thru while the girls called me a chauvinist pig, I laughed. I might pay later but I laughed now.

  The man said his name was Clint Flint. I laughed out loud and he answered laughing and said “Yeah Johnny Walker is pretty cool too!” I already liked this man. He said his group wasn’t involved with the woman we spoke to and he asked what his people could do to help. I told him the enemy was on the run and anybody coming at them was a target. He asked about prisoners and I said “You can feed ‘em and house ‘em” if you want to keep ‘em.” He said “Got it.”

  We simply followed the flames and met no more resistance, now I was really sick over the HV team. Charley placed his hand on my shoulder and said something in his language and I swear almost instantly I felt the weight leave my chest. I just sat there and didn’t move, when he removed his hand I felt at peace. I knew the men had died but I also knew they went into this with eyes wide open and they didn’t blame me.

  With night fall we went to 100 percent alert with every gun up. Thru the night there were explosions inside the fire, I figured there must be thousands of cars with fuel in them and god knows what else. We did move back a good bit and were able to a degree use the night vision gear. With morning we went to 25 percent alert. People crashed where they were. The rest of use mov
ed in close and looked for targets. None appeared.

  Around midday Clint called to say they were getting runners and none were making it, I warned him about the tracks, if any remained, we took three and killed two. He said he thought that was all they had. I asked him if he had ever seen the leader of this bunch of rats, he said he had from a distance and he was a big black man who carried himself with military bearing.

  I had to wonder how somebody with military training and back ground could be reduced to doing the things they were doing. I guess it takes all kinds. Clint said he had somebody waving a white cloth and he was going to let them come out, shortly he called back to say it was a large group of women and girls mixed with a few young boys, they had been prisoners and the guards on the building they were held in had let them go and led them out to where Flints people were. He said the ones who freed them never came out.

  Charley suddenly laughed and said “Johnny Long Walker, the man who burned Las Vegas to the ground.”

  The girls burst out laughing and WTF I smiled, it was a nice title! I had never cared for the place. I’d been here maybe eight times in 50 years and had spent maybe $50.00 playing the machines, the last time I was there I think I won $75.00 so I quit while I was ahead. I did shoot in a couple of matches there back in the 90’s the old SOF match and had a great time. But that had nada to do with the Strip. I was amazed watching the place just falling down. It was turning into a pile of rubble that IMHO looked better then it had before.

  So far nobody had seen the leader of this bunch of trash, and I was thinking he made his escape alone by preplanning as most rats do, always having several ways out. I didn’t know if it was worth trying to hunt him down but figured it was out of the question.

  We watched the place burn for days but saw no more people trying to escape, Flint said there were a few runners on their side but he didn’t think any made it but he also had no night vision gear so I’d say a lot of them made it out, hell if I could they could and I knew I could. The snakes back was broken but the head could still bite so I really would like to have finished this guy.