Storm Front

by Thomas A. Watson

  “Any other surprises they forgot to mention?” Nelson asked, nodding at Dallas.

  Shaking her head, “No, all the other homes in Summersville are empty, thanks to the gang. The gang used to occupy more houses, but it seems a few woke up dead and they all moved into the school, except Nuke,” Michelle said.

  “Glad to know we aren’t the only ones being a pain in their ass,” Nelson said.

  “Nelson, about Curtis,” Michelle said cringing. “He said they wouldn’t come unless their families could stay here. I said yes because those four women are just learning guns and those kids have never even slept outside.”

  Thinking for a minute, “Hell, I would’ve let them come over,” Nelson said. “Can’t ask a man to go off, leaving his family unprotected.”

  Giving a sigh of relief, Michelle turned hearing the back door open and Nancy walk out with Gavin carrying a laptop. Nancy moved over to the lawn table and Gavin set up the laptop. “Is everyone here?” Nelson asked, glancing around.

  Nodding, “In the front yard and on the front porch,” Michelle said, pulling Nelson to the deck. “I didn’t want them getting loud and waking y’all up.”

  Grabbing one of his notebooks off the table, Nelson gave it to Jacob. “Draw us a floor plan for that house please, sir,” Nelson said as Jacob took the notebook.

  Sitting down, Nelson watched the screen of the laptop and Dallas with his sons watched over his shoulder. “Holy shit, look at all the motorcycles, it looks like Sturgis,” Scott gasped.

  “One hundred and six,” Nancy said nodding. “While Michelle was talking to her playmates I joined her, after picking up several radio bursts to the northeast. The gang has another group out close to Round Spring. Don’t know how many, but they told me they usually only go out with twenty or thirty men.”

  Nelson only nodded, watching the screen as the drone flew wide circles around the school. Grabbing his notepad, Nelson made a few notes. “We can get the hostages to use the buses there to head south to Arkansas,” he said.

  “I’m all for rescuing them, but glad you ain’t bringing them back,” Dallas said, leaning over Nelson’s shoulder. “That’s machine guns on the roof of the school.”

  “I’ll help them escape, but that’s it,” Nelson said. “Yeah, the ones we caught said they have three M60s on the roof.”

  Gerald walked out the back door and moved over with the others. “Yeah, that sucks,” he said, watching a motorcycle pull up to the large house. Looking down at the table, he saw Jacob drawing out a floor plan. “What’s that floorplan from?”

  “The big house,” Jacob answered, not looking up.

  Patting Nelson on the back, “Nellie has supper ready. I’m going to tell everyone to head back here, so we can go over this party,” Gerald chuckled.

  Nelson gave a slight nod. “Nancy, can you replay that?” he asked as the plane started flying away. Reaching over, Nancy tapped the keyboard and the video started over.

  As Nelson watched the screen, everyone who was up front walked around the side of the house. Glancing up, Nelson gave a startle at the mass of bodies. “Dallas, I said seven from your family, that’s more,” Nelson said, glancing behind him.

  “Well, yeah,” Dallas said, clearing his throat. “Tony and Grant came and their wives came with them. Don’t worry, they both can shoot. Scott’s oldest Larry is coming, and Jacob and Amber with her husband.”

  “So, let me get this straight. Every one of your kids, except the youngest, Cara, will be out there along with some spouses and Scott’s son? That’s ten,” Nelson said, closing his eyes.

  “And let me tell you, Cara can cuss like a sailor,” Michelle said behind him.

  With his eyes still closed, “You didn’t tell them only seven?” Nelson asked.

  “Hey, bitch!” Michelle snapped. “Amber and Cara started fighting in the front yard!” Michelle shouted, making Nelson look at her. “Cara knocked Grant the fuck out, then knocked her husband out when they tried to break up the fight! I wasn’t telling none of them they couldn’t come! I swear, Cara lifted Grant a foot off the ground with that uppercut!”

  “Mom had to come out and wrestle Cara down,” Nelson heard and turned to the voice and saw it was Grant with the left side of his face swollen.

  “I’ll talk to my baby girl,” Dallas sighed.

  Turning to Michelle, Nelson reached out and grabbed her hand. “I would’ve run,” he said seriously.

  “I just stood still, hoping nobody would notice me,” Michelle chuckled. “For the first time in my life, I was scared a gun would only make someone mad.”

  “I climbed a tree,” Ashley said proudly.

  Giving a snort, “I crawled under the UTV,” Ronald said.

  “That’s why I climbed the tree. You had the keys,” Ashley said, hitting Ronald in the arm.

  Nelson laughed with the others as he made changes to his notes. “Okay, listen up. My team is Michelle and Sean. Gerald’s team is Matt, Ashley, and Ronald. Bernard’s team is Hank, Tim, Josh, and Kevin. Dallas’s team is Curtis and his three, Tony, Grant, and their wives. Scott’s team is Jacob, Larry, Amber, and her husband,” Nelson read out from his notepad. “Will everyone move to your team leader,” Nelson said, getting up.

  Walking off the deck, Nelson moved around the model pointing out each team area, then moved over the battle plan. When he finished, he repeated the plan again. After repeating it, Nelson looked around and saw a few questioning stares. “Questions?” he asked.

  Curtis raised his hand, looking at his notepad. “What is the distance from the southwest hill to the school?” he asked.

  “Four hundred yards,” Nancy said and Curtis nodded, making a note.

  “Um, how do we know it’s not your team or Gerald’s team we are shooting at?” Hank asked, raising his hand.

  Nelson looked over at Hank and gave a genuine smile. “Hank, that is a damn good question and you have no idea how proud of you I am for asking it,” Nelson beamed. Letting out a sigh, Hank grinned and lifted his head up.

  “Each one of us will be wearing one of these,” Nelson said, holding up a string. “It’s called a wolf’s tail. The chemlite can be seen with NVGs and at the bottom, you have two nine volt batteries hooked together so thermal can pick them up. When we get there, everyone will see what they look like, so don’t shoot anyone wearing one of these.”

  Curtis raised his hand again and Nelson nodded at him. “Don’t you think we need more people?” he asked hesitantly.

  “Ideally yes, but we don’t have the NVGs and thermal for any more. The only reason you’re here is because we knew you had them,” Nelson said.

  “That and he’s got a freaking cannon for a sniper rifle,” Matt chuckled, making everyone laugh.

  “And that,” Nelson nodded before becoming serious again. “Now, if I or Gerald call ‘bug out’, everyone is to move away from the attack. Do not, I repeat, do not head here or home. Meet up at the rendezvous where we are hiding our rides and moving to the school on foot,” he said, pointing at the model to a small house that was two miles south of the school. “If Nancy picks up drones we are leaving, and then Jacob and Amber will launch Javelins to blow up the school.”

  “What about the hostages inside?” Josh asked.

  “Josh, we can’t afford to let a group that big roam around looking for us,” Nelson said and Josh slowly nodded. “Now, after we load up the hostages and send them south and if nothing is coming and the area is secure, I want to empty the rooms that they have stuff stockpiled in. Dallas’s and Curtis’s groups get first dibs because they will need it the most,” Nelson said and everyone nodded.

  “We’re taking their stuff?” Curtis asked, cocking his head to the side.

  Letting out a groan, Nelson reached up to massage his temples. Michelle moved over to Curtis. “He’s not mad. Nelson is just tired of explaining,” Michelle smiled at Curtis. “Would you rather leave it there and let another gang or a fed military unit get it?”

  “Oh,�
�� Curtis said nodding. “Very good idea, depriving the enemy of supplies.”

  “Thank you, babe,” Nelson said, dropping his hands. “One last thing, electronics are excluded from the grab bags until Nancy declares they are okay to use. Now, any more questions?” Not getting any, Nelson nodded. “Let’s eat and team leaders, go over your plans to move to and from your area, set up, and fields of fire.”

  Chapter 16

  The trip to the rendezvous spot was slow going, since they brought the Flyers and traveled through the woods. Having to drive the buggies through the trees took longer than Nelson had expected. When they had to cross fields or use small dirt roads, Nelson had to hang on to the GAU for dear life as Michelle put her foot through the floorboard. Leaving at dark, it took them an hour to reach the isolated farmstead. Leaving the vehicles in the trees and covering them up, Nelson was a little apprehensive about leaving them. That was until Gerald pulled out two five-pound blocks of C4, rigging it to the Flyers. If someone tried to steal them, they were sure to get a bang.

  Scott’s group waved and headed off as the others followed Dallas in single file, spaced five yards apart. Nelson wanted more spacing, but not everyone had NVGs. Those that didn’t, had a thermal or monocular attachment on their rifle. Everyone could see in the dark using their rifle, which was the most important thing to Nelson.

  Walking through the stand of trees, they set off into the fields and headed north. Hearing a stumble, Nelson turned around and saw Grant holding Erica’s shoulder, catching her before she fell. “I said no,” Michelle said, passing Nelson.

  “I know,” Nelson mumbled, moving back to his spot in the group. Nelson only had three more NVG monoculars and one of those was Gavin’s. He still had two more thermal clip-on scopes, but one of those was Gavin’s. He and Michelle had agreed that they had donated enough and had to keep the others as spares, just in case the ones they had broke. He wasn’t counting the quad GPNVG-18s that he and Michelle had. Nelson loved them and he tried to tell himself he would let Michelle use them if hers broke, but still had doubts.

  ‘I’ve done all I can to help’ Nelson told himself, glancing around. The sky was partly cloudy, so it was pretty dark. Glancing down, he smiled as Zeus looked up at him with his tongue hanging out. Nelson had wanted Zeus to stay at the farm with the kids. Without a doubt, Nelson knew the dogs would kill for the kids, but Gavin had thrown a fit. Giving in, Michelle and Nelson agreed to take Zeus to appease Gavin.

  Looking ahead, Nelson could see the horizon was brighter. “They have power?” he mumbled to himself, thinking if that was lights then the sky should be a little brighter.

  Glancing back, Nelson saw Curtis walking along with the Barrett strapped to his back. Out of everyone, Curtis and his group had gear that even Nelson was jealous of. Michelle said Curtis and his friends were well-off, but Nelson called them rich. He watched Curtis step up to Grant’s wife Erica, holding out an NVG harness. Looking at the harness, Nelson saw it held a PVS-7. Not cheap by any means, and Nelson had used them when he was in the Army. It covered both eyes looking through one lens, giving you no depth perception and a limited field of view, but you could see in the dark.

  Nelson snapped his fingers, stopping Dallas as Curtis helped Erica put on the PVS-7. Looking down the line, he saw Curtis’ buddy, Kenny putting PVS-7s on Tony’s wife, Carrie. “See? Others can step up,” Michelle said softly beside him.

  Now that everyone could see as they walked, Dallas moved off again and Nelson could tell they were moving much quieter. “Did you see that thermal scope Curtis has on that Barrett?” Michelle asked softly.

  “Yeah, I wouldn’t be surprised if he could see the black hole in the center of the Milky Way,” Nelson huffed. “That thing costs more than my truck.”

  “Those PVS-7s are the backups they carry,” Michelle said. “Just to let you know, they have the thermal monocular that can swap out with the PVS-14 monocular they have on now.”

  Sucking in a breath, Nelson looked at Michelle to see if she was joking. Shaking his head, “My God, they spent some money,” he mumbled.

  “Won’t argue that, but they don’t know how to do shit,” Michelle said. “They had the money and bought the stuff, but are having to read and learn in the now.”

  “Damn, that’s a harsh power curve,” Nelson nodded. “First mistake will probably be their last.”

  Michelle nodded as Dallas reached a fence line that had small trees entwined in the fence. Crossing the fence, they headed north. Ahead, the trees on the fence line had been cut away and Dallas stopped, pulling out the thermal binoculars and looking northeast. Hearing a faint noise, Nelson cocked his head and then realized he was hearing blaring music.

  Moving to the fence line, Nelson moved his head around to peer through the branches. Half a mile away, he could see several small fires burning. Knowing he was looking at the school, Nelson turned on his thermal. When it turned on, Nelson lifted his rifle up. He could see small white hot bodies on the roof with fires burning around the school in metal drums.

  “I love stupid people,” Nelson mumbled, watching one of the forms on the roof move next to a barrel on the roof that had a fire burning.

  “What?” Michelle asked, moving beside him.

  “They have barrels burning around the school for lights, but the idiots are standing around with burning barrels on the roof. Whatever night vision they have is gone,” Nelson said.

  “Unless they have NVGs, dummy,” Michelle said, punching his arm. “We did take four monoculars off the group y’all hit. They can have people away from the fires with NVGs.”

  Lowering his rifle, “Damn it, the other side isn’t supposed to have cool toys,” Nelson growled as Dallas walked over.

  “Two of the guards on the roof have NVGs like we are wearing,” Dallas said and Nelson spun away cursing softly. “Nelson, that’s not all, there are seven people on the roof. Granted, most are sitting around a barrel drinking, but they have weapons.”

  Letting Nelson rant, Curtis moved up and lifted his own thermal binoculars. “From what Matt said, I don’t see the problem,” Curtis said. “Dallas and his family can shoot, so we just take them out before the breach teams hit the school.”

  Pointing at the heavy barrel sticking over Curtis’s head, “Curtis, you don’t have a suppressor for that cannon,” Nelson said. “When you shoot that damn thing, they will hear you on the other side of the earth.”

  “Yes, I do,” Curtis said jerking a thumb to his backpack. “The damn thing is two and a half feet long, not to mention heavy as hell, making it hard as hell to walk with it mounted.”

  Looking back at Curtis’s buddies, Kenny and Rick, and the sniper rifles on their backs, “You have suppressors for those?” Nelson asked seeing each one was carrying an AR with a suppressor. He did look at the optics and NV scope with a little envy.

  Rick looked at Curtis and then to Nelson. “Ah, yeah, Michelle said to bring assault and sniper rifles and if we had them, suppressors,” Rick said. “Justin acts as our spotter, so he left his sniper rifle back at the house.”

  Nelson turned to Dallas, just looking at him. Dallas gave a sigh, “Nelson, Erica and Carrie can shoot, I promise you. Now, they might have trouble hitting a cellphone from where we set up, but a face is much bigger.”

  Not knowing how to argue against that, Nelson turned back to Curtis, Rick, Kenny, and Justin, “You guys better not be shitting me when you say you can shoot,” Nelson said.

  “Um, do we have to hit them in the face?” Curtis asked nervously. “I only ask because we practiced shooting center mass.”

  “I shoot center mass,” Nelson said, throwing up a hand, “So, can you hit targets cold bore center mass?”

  Curtis grinned, “Easy, we practice that.”

  Turning back to Dallas, Nelson nodded. “After we take the house and Bernard sets up, your group will take those on the roof,” Nelson said.

  Looking at Curtis’s rifle, “Will a suppressor make that thing quiet?” Dall
as asked in disbelief.

  “I would be worried but if I can hear their music from here, they can’t hear a chopper landing near them,” Nelson said, looking at Gerald.

  Pointing at Curtis and his group, “They used every piece of equipment they have correctly and have moved very well in the dark,” Gerald said. “I say, go ahead.”

  “Move on, Dallas,” Nelson said as Curtis looked at his buddies and they all bumped fists. Nelson chuckled at them thinking they looked like tactical frat boys, then moved off to follow Dallas. Moving past a house on the right, Nelson saw a dark mass rising from the earth seven hundred yards ahead and knew he was looking at the southwest hill.

  When they reached the base of the hill, Dallas stopped them. “I think we need to scout it, just to make sure nobody’s set up on it,” he said quietly.

  “If someone was there, they would’ve already spotted us,” Nelson said.

  Shaking his head, “Not if they are set up on the other side, watching the house,” Dallas said and Gerald nodded in agreement.

  Moving next to a tree, Nelson knelt down. “Don’t take long,” he said as Dallas motioned Grant and Tony up. Watching the three slip into the trees and move up the steep hill, Nelson shook his head. “How can bodies that big move so silently?” he mumbled.

  Bernard sat down beside him. “Easy, when you remember they hunted to put food on the table, not sport. More than one of Dallas’s kids have killed a deer with a spear,” Bernard chuckled softly.

  “Shit,” Michelle huffed, sitting down. “They are giant ninja country Vikings.”

  Nelson bit his bottom lip to keep from laughing. It wasn’t long and the three moved up to them and Nelson knew if he didn’t have NVGs, he never would’ve spotted them. Looking at Zeus, Nelson saw they hadn’t snuck up on Zeus but Zeus cheated, he had super smell and hearing.

  “Found us a nice spot,” Dallas said as the others got up. When everyone was ready, they followed Dallas up the hill. Walking up the steep slope, Nelson wanted to reclassify the hill to a mountain, even though it only rose just over a few hundred feet above the fields around them.