by Payne, T. L.
“I think they switched vehicles. This is a decoy. It has to be. No one is that stupid. He probably has it rigged with explosives or something,” Rank said.
That made more sense.
“Where are the guards then?” Maddie asked. She didn’t care where Nelson had taken the gold. That wasn’t her mission. She just hoped Nelson and his henchmen had fled so she could get inside without getting shot.
She glanced at the pistol in her hand. She dropped the magazine and counted the rounds.
“How many?” Rank asked.
“Five.”
He reached into a pouch on his belt and handed her two fresh magazines.
“That’s all I got. Don’t waste your shots. Squeeze as you exhale. Front sight, front sight, front sight.”
For a second, she was twelve years old again. They were at her father’s cabin, and she and Zach were running drills with Rank and Ryan. Ryan was the more patient instructor. Rank was more like a drill sergeant. Maddie hadn’t minded, but it drove Zach nuts. She’d been madly in love with Rank back then.
She nodded and took the magazines, placing a full mag into the pistol and the others into her left back pocket just like she had been taught.
“Ready?” Rank asked. The sun hit his face, and he squinted. Tiny crow's feet spread out from his eyes. He’d aged so much in the last nine months. They all had. Most of the time, she felt about ninety years old. She drew in a deep breath and placed her hand on Rank’s back. “Ready.”
Chapter 27
Sunnydale Acres Subdivision
Dent County, Missouri
July 15th
A hail of bullets kicked up divots in the grass at their feet as Maddie and Rank sprinted toward the barn. Maddie dropped down beside a rusty old truck. Rank dove and rolled to his knees. One question had been answered. If Nelson had fled, he’d left someone behind to guard the place.
“Keep your head down,” Rank said.
She’d never missed her rifle so much in her life. She needed a scope to see where the shooters were.
Rank removed a telescoping mirror from his pack and extended it. He raised it above the hood of the truck and spun it around.
“Can you see them?” Maddie asked.
“The top left corner window. The screen’s been pushed out.”
The screen door banged open, and a man in drab gray clothing ran out yelling. Rank jumped up, rifle raised at the man.
Maddie tapped his shoulder. “No. He’s a prisoner.”
A bullet bounced off the hood of the truck and punched a hole in the front glass as the prisoner dropped to the ground in a heap.
Even in the face of attack, Nelson’s henchmen were determined not to allow the prisoners to escape. It was clear they would have a battle to free Zach and the others.
“What do we do now?” Maddie asked.
Rank chewed his bottom lip. “Now they know we’re here, so we can’t just wait for Lug and the Army to get here.” He removed his pack, pulled two extra boxes of ammunition from it, and stuffed one of them into his cargo pocket, then began loading an empty magazine. Between his tactical vest, pouches on his belt, and those he’d just placed in his pocket, he probably had close to two hundred rounds left. Still not enough if he was pinned down in a protracted gunfight.
“Here’s what we're going to do,” he said. “See that tree just west of the house?” He pointed to the large hickory shading the two-story farmhouse. “You’re going to fire at the tree in two-round bursts. You shoot two rounds and drop down. Wait for them to return fire. Count to sixty and fire again. Keep repeating that until your mag is empty.”
“What are you going to do?” Maddie asked. She had a feeling she already knew what his plan was but hoped hearing it aloud might somehow convince her that it might actually work.
“I’m going to make my way around to the back door while you keep them distracted.”
“You seriously think they’re dumb enough to fall for that trick?”
“Honestly, I don’t think they’re thinking rationally at this point. They’re reacting, and we’re going to use that to our advantage.”
“I hope you’re right. They’ve already shown they’re willing to kill the prisoners.” She fought the urge to turn and look at the dead man on the ground just a hundred feet from them.
Rank made a chopping motion with his hand. “Start firing. I’m moving back.” Maddie crawled to the front of the truck and stood to a crouch. She popped off two quick rounds while Rank ran from the truck to the first stack of bales. She dropped back down and waited for them to return fire. This time, at least two different shooters opened fire. She watched Rank disappear around the corner of the barn. They’d lost the element of surprise. They had no idea how many shooters were inside the house, and she only had a pistol and two and a half magazines. Thirty-five rounds. If Rank didn’t succeed and come back for her, she was screwed. She would fight them and not give up until either she was dead or they were. She vowed to save one round for Nelson—if he was still there.
She counted, and when she reached sixty, she rose, aimed over the hood toward the tree, and fired three two rounds bursts, waited for them to stop returning fire, and then fired two more rounds. She had twenty-seven rounds left. Three more minutes. Was that enough for Rank to get inside? Once inside, could he take on at least two shooters by himself? They hadn’t discussed what she was to do once he was inside. She was sure that was intentional on Rank’s part. He wanted her out here, out of reach of the guards. Whether he liked it or not, if she heard shots inside the house, she was going in.
The shooters followed the script and returned fire. This time, they unloaded at least a whole rifle magazine into the front of the truck as she made herself as small as possible behind the engine block. It was so loud that Maddie had to cover her ears. Tiny fragments of glass fell down the back of her shirt. They were in her hair.
After the third count and her firing in the direction of the tree, there was no return fire. She waited. A moment later, gunfire erupted inside the house. Rank was inside. Maddie rose to join him. The screen door opened, and a black-clad guard spilled out. His rifle hung loosely around his neck. His hands clutched his stomach. Maddie rushed around the front of the truck and aimed the pistol for his chest. Terror flashed across his face when he spotted her. Their eyes met. He slowly moved his hand toward his rifle. Maddie shook her head. He was a dead man already. They both knew it.
Maddie rushed toward him. “Just keep your hands off that weapon.” When she reached him, she nodded to the ground. “Drop it.”
He grabbed the strap of the sling, pulled it over his head, and let the rifle fall.
“Now that pistol,” she demanded.
He unholstered the weapon and tossed it into the weeds next to the porch.
“How many of you are left inside?” Maddie asked.
He smirked. He wasn’t going to play ball with her. She wouldn’t be able to trust anything this man said. Her eyes drilled into him. This was one of the animals who had burned people out of their homes, used people like dogs, and sold them to the highest bidder. He’d lost his humanity—if he’d ever had it in the first place. Any pity she’d had for the wounded man faded. Right now, he was just something that stood between her and her family.
Pop!
His head whipped back, and he spilled onto the lawn. She’d done him a favor. She’d saved him from a slow and painful death. On second thought, the slow, painful death was what he deserved.
Maddie leaned over and picked up the man’s rifle and pistol. She felt his pockets and retrieved two spare thirty-round magazines for the rifle and two 9mm, ten-round mags for the pistol. She dropped the magazine from the guard's pistol and tossed the weapon aside. After shoving all the ammo into her pockets, Maddie slid the strap of the rifle’s sling over her neck and pulled the charging handle to ensure a round was chambered. One last time, she glanced down at the guard before stepping over him and into the house.
The gunfire
was coming from upstairs. Not a steady barrage but controlled two-round bursts. That had to be Rank clearing rooms, working his way through the house. Where would they keep the prisoners? If the guards had been upstairs, that must be where her brother was.
Making her way through a mudroom to the kitchen, she stepped around boots and gear that been left in the middle of the floor. She hugged the wall and made her way to the staircase. A volley of gunfire started above her. Rank had found someone willing to fire back. She’d grabbed the handrail and placed a boot on the bottom tread when she caught movement in the periphery of her vision.
Maddie whipped her head around in time to see a man in his late fifties, wearing a white dress shirt and slacks, running down the hallway toward the back of the house.
That had to be Nelson.
She placed her other foot onto the stairs, then stepped back, realizing that Nelson was getting away. She still didn’t know if her brother was even in the house. Nelson could be her only chance of finding him. She stole a quick glance back up the stairs. The shooting had stopped. Maddie heard a door bang shut to her right. If Nelson made it to a vehicle, she might never get another chance to stop him.
“Rank?” Maddie called as she ran down the hall.
“Stay down there, Maddie.”
He was still alive. He had things under control. She was going after Nelson.
Chapter 28
Sunnydale Acres Subdivision
Dent County, Missouri
July 15th
Maddie tripped over something and literally fell through the back door. She slid down a short flight of steps and landed on her shoulder, then rolled onto her side and shot to her feet. Maddie pulled the rifle to her shoulder and sprinted after Nelson. He was heading toward another shed at the back of the property. The back of the white box van protruded from the structure. If he made it to the vehicle, he could flee and disappear on the backroads and be out of the county before Stephens and her team could make it to the farm.
Maddie couldn’t care less about the gold. She wanted to make sure Nelson paid for what he’d done—to her and her family, to all the families of south-central Missouri. She had to make sure this man’s reign of terror ended. Right here. Today.
He was less than fifty feet from the van. She couldn’t close the distance. Maddie stopped in her tracks, pulled the rifle to her shoulder, and put Nelson in the crosshairs. She had never shot this weapon and had no idea how accurate it was, whether the scope was zeroed, or when it had last been cleaned. She also knew her odds of hitting a moving target weren’t that great. She hoped her first shot would scare him into stopping for even just a moment. If he did, she’d drop him where he stood.
She placed her finger on the trigger guard and slowly exhaled. At the split-second she squeezed the trigger, she felt something hit her in the back. At first, she thought she’d been stung by a bee, and then she heard a second shot and saw the dirt kick up to the left of her feet. Maddie spun around and returned fire as she dropped to her belly, staring at the shooter.
He's a kid.
The shooter couldn’t have been more than twelve years old. His black uniform swallowed him whole. Maddie heard the words “center mass” in her head as she lowered her aim and squeezed the trigger. The boy dropped his rifle and grabbed his thigh. A wound to the thigh could still be deadly—the kid could bleed out—but Maddie couldn’t think about that now.
The sound of an engine sent her to her feet. As she ran toward the shed, she realized she should have at least taken the kid's rifle from him. All the way there, Maddie expected to be shot in the back at any moment. Relief washed over her as she dove behind a stack of railroad ties a few feet from the building. Maddie rolled to her knees and crawled through the doorway. The building was filled with fifty-five-gallon drums. Maddie dropped to one knee and pressed her back against the wall. With her right hand, Maddie felt the wet spot just below her left clavicle. Adrenaline pumped through her, numbing the pain. She knew that wouldn’t last long. Luckily, she was right-handed and could still squeeze a trigger.
Maddie smelled gas and looked around for the source. Panic spread through her body as she realized the drums were full of fuel. There wasn’t time to move away. The van was right there. She had to shoot Nelson before he could fire at her. Maddie pulled the 9mm pistol from her waistband and aimed at the driver’s side window. As Nelson’s head came into view, Maddie squeezed the trigger. The bullet punched a hole in the glass, and Nelson slumped forward. The van’s horn sounded, and the van lurched backward. Maddie scrambled to her feet. She took off running as fast as she could, diving over the railroad ties as the vehicle plowed into the fuel drums. Maddie wrapped her good arm over her head as the explosion engulfed the building. The heat from the fireball took her breath as flames shot into the air. Maddie felt arms scoop her up and her first instinct was to fight, but as she attempted to pull her injured arm free, she cried out in pain.
“Maddie, let’s go!” Rank said.
She slowly raised her head and opened her eyes. She could barely make out Zach’s face in through the black smoke.
“Zach!”
Rank swooped her up into his arms and took off running. Maddie glanced back to make sure Zach was following them. He was. Beside him were Aims and Harding.
“Over here,” Gene called to them, flailing his arms in the air.
Behind him were dozens of men and boys dressed in gray prisoner uniforms.
“Gene, get my pack. It’s by that old truck in the barn. I need my trauma kit. I have to get some QuikClot on her shoulder,” Rank said as he placed Maddie on the ground by the barn.
Maddie stared up at her brother’s face as Rank cleaned and dressed her wound. “Hey, brother. You okay?”
Zach placed his hands on his knees and bent over to look at her. “Better than you. Does it hurt much?”
What a stupid question. She’d been shot—of course it hurt. Now that the adrenaline was wearing off, she was in excruciating pain. But she was the big sister, and she had to be strong for him. “Not much,” she replied with a cough.
Maddie looked at Rank. “Stephens is going to be pissed that her gold burned up.”
“It wasn’t in there,” Rank said.
“How do you know that?”
“Nelson had us move it into the root cellar,” Aims said, stepping up beside Zach.
“I can’t believe it’s over. Nelson and his men can’t terrorize the area anymore,” Maddie said.
Everyone nodded.
As Rank finished dressing her wound, Maddie thought about all the prisoners and what would happen to them now. How would they pick up the pieces of their lives and move on? At least with Nelson, they were had food and shelter. However meager it was, it was something. That had been the reason many of them had willingly joined him. What would they do now? Would they even survive?
“Who caused this mess?” a female voice called from the direction of the barn.
Stephens walked up and stood over Maddie. Looking down at her, she asked, “You okay, kid?”
Kid? She’d soon be nineteen. To Stephens that may make her a kid, but she’d matured more in recent months than her age indicated.
“I’m good.”
“Did you do that?” Stephens pointed over her shoulder at the burning wreckage.
“I was just burning the trash.”
Stephens smiled. She glanced behind her and nodded.
“Good job.” She placed her hand on Rank’s shoulder. “Good job with the field dressing. We have a doctor back on post. Follow us back and let him take a look at her.”
Was she really talking about her like she wasn’t there? Why did some adults seem to do that? Of course, she didn’t know Maddie or Zach. She hadn’t seen them in action. She likely would have no clue what they’d been through.
“Maria, Harmony, Maddie, and I don’t have a ride back home if we all go to the airport. Mom needs to know we’re okay. You know how rumors are around here. She would’ve heard abo
ut this by now and will be beside herself with worry,” Zach said. He was definitely matured beyond his fifteen years.
“Zach’s right,” Maddie said, tapping Rank on the forearm. “She and Ella can patch me up.”
“We’ve lost a lot of good soldiers here today. We could use your help with security getting that shipment back to base and on that plane,” Stephens said to Rank.
Maddie didn’t like where this was heading. She had the sinking suspicion Stephens was trying to recruit Rank for more than just a security detail.
“I’ll go with you and make sure the gold gets on the plane,” Lugnut said. “We left our horses there at the airport anyway.”
Maddie craned her neck to see him. In his hands were several rifles, no doubt taken from Nelson’s guards. Maddie knew Lugnut was committed to the mission. There was no one better to make sure it succeeded. She just wanted them all to get back to the safety of the farm, regroup, and rest up. Stephens had an army to protect her precious gold. All Maddie had was her family. Maddie looked into Rank’s eyes. She wanted to plead with him not to go—not to be persuaded to join Stephens. Somehow, she thought that if he did, she might never see him again.
“Rank!” Zach screamed.
Pop! Pop!
“Shooter on my five o’clock,” Sharp yelled as he dropped to one knee and returned fire.
Rank flung himself overtop of Maddie as she heard others yelling and returning fire at the shooter.
“Frag going out,” someone yelled. A second later, Maddie heard a grenade explode. “Enemy down,” Sharp said.
As Rank pushed himself off her, Maddie whispered in his ear, “Don’t leave me.” He stared into her eyes but said nothing. At that moment, she knew. She knew that her restless ex-crush had made up his mind to join Stephens and help the new government rebuild the nation. Her heart broke into a million pieces as she thought about her life without him. She had known him all her life. He’d been there to help during the most devastating times. She tried to convince herself that he would change his mind—that sometime before that plane left the runway at Fort Leonard Wood, he’d realize what he’d be leaving behind and decide against it. He’d been pulling away from them for months—since St. Louis and Roger’s murder, really. If only she’d just done more to bring him closer. Now, was it too late?
