“Let’s go. Heads on a swivel,” said Cootch.
The fourteen entered the reception room and found bits of human scattered around. They split into two teams: one team upstairs and one team to search the bottom floor. The upstairs team found two more men, both unconscious and bleeding from the ears. They shot them in the head. In Harvey’s office, they found the ham radio smashed to bits. The downstairs team found another minion that was dead from the blast. They also picked up an ammo can with three other RPGs.
“Well, that’s it for this location. Now I guess we go find the rest of them and take out the big boss.”
They went back through the building the way they’d come to collect the other two. As they were walking back to the Humvees, they heard a vehicle approach from the opposite direction. They ducked into a small grove of trees and lay down flat. Bill crawled on his belly until he could see down the side of the building, towards the front doors. He could hear shouting, and then the vehicle doors slammed shut. With a squeal of tires, they took off again. Bill was never able to see them.
“Well, shit, now they know we’re on to them,” said Q.
“Thanks, Captain Obvious,” replied Cootch.
“What? You mad cause I beat you to it?”
“Shut up. So, what if I am?”
“Ok, guys, let’s make like a tree and get out of here,” said Bill.
They finished the walk back to the Humvees, turned them around, and headed back the way they’d come. Since there were people to the west, they didn’t want to run into them yet.
They parked four blocks to the south, away from the Montana State University. They made their way up to the irrigation canal that ran through town. Bill hid behind a tree, took out his binoculars, and searched the building for any movement. When he was certain the coast was clear, he made his way across the pedestrian bridge and up to the corner of the College of Education Building. He crept below the windows to the broken and busted entrance. He peered in around the door jamb but didn’t see anything, so he waved the rest of his crew over.
They stepped over bloated and half-eaten bodies. It was obvious that no one had been here since the very beginning. After a short search of the lobby, they found some maps that used to be handed out to potential freshmen and realized there was no theater on this campus.
“Are you fucking shitting me? The biggest university in town, and no theater? So now where do we go?” asked Cootch.
“Fuck if I know. Let me get this atlas out so we can figure it out,” said Bill.
After some searching, they found there was another college about a mile to the west.
“I want to head up to the roof and have a look around, make sure we’re headed in the correct direction,” said Bill.
“I’ll go with you,” offered Q.
Up on the roof, Bill and Q took turns looking around and getting the lay of the land. Bill looked over at the airport and handed Q the binoculars again.
“What is that over there?”
“Looks like a C-130.”
“Yea, exactly. So that’s how those fucking cocksucking motherfuckers got moved up here so fast. I would be willing to bet my best Scotch that is not a Montana tail flash, but a Kentucky one.”
“You’re probably right. That’s why I’m not willing to take that bet.”
“Come on, I want to disable that thing before they try to escape with it.”
Bill and Q practically fell all the way back to the bottom of the stairwell.
“Come on, everyone, small detour. I’ll explain when we get back to the Humvees!” Bill essentially shouted at them as he and Q went flying by.
Soon, they were pulling into the airport through an open gate the minions had left open the last time they were there. Why not, right? Who’s going to steal anything? Bill thought.
He stopped his Humvee thirty feet from the nose of the aircraft, with the driver’s door positioned so he could go straight from the Humvee to the airplane door. Then he jumped out without even turning off the engine. He let the crew door drop and went in and opened the drain valve on all three hydraulic reservoirs. He closed the crew door, jumped back in the Humvee, and raced off.
“What did you do?” asked Q.
“I drained all the hydro systems. If they do try to take off in a hurry, they won’t be able to get the thing off the ground,” replied Bill.
They came down past Montana State University Billings, and got on Rimrock Road. They stashed the Humvees a few blocks away from Rocky Mountain College.
They approached a baseball diamond on foot, and split up into the four pre-appointed groups.
Cootch opened the side door in the back of the building. Phillip held the door slightly ajar as Sasha and Tanya waited with guns pointed inward, just in case someone came busting out. Cootch went around to another side door and opened it for Team H3. Q held this door while Cootch went back around to join his team. On a three count, H2 and H3 entered simultaneously. Team H1 walked in a long, sweeping arc around to the front of the building and waited for anyone to come running out the front door. Team H4 stayed out back as lookout.
Cootch led the two teams further into the building. Not a sound could be heard. His sixth sense was tingling bad. He held up his hand to stop everyone in the hallway.
“Something’s wrong, terribly wrong. You all wait here.”
He walked up to the nearest door and listened intently. Unable to hear anything, he took off his helmet and pressed his ear to the door. Still quiet as a church mouse. He put his helmet back on and pulled out his knife. He opened the door so that it barely unlatched. He thought he felt something catch, so he stopped and pulled the door closed again.
“Q, do you have that mirror?”
“Yea, gimme a sec… Here ya go.”
Cootch took the mirror from Q and slid it under the door. He looked around and then froze.
“The doors are booby trapped. There is at least one hand grenade set to go off a few seconds after the door is opened.”
“You mean they, like, tied a string to the pin or something?” asked Q.
“Yea. They didn’t even remove it and tie off the spoon or anything. These guys don’t know what they are doing.” Cootch pulled his knife out again, unlatched the door, and slid the knife between it and the door jamb. Q watched the mirror and let Cootch know that he was close. The razor-sharp knife sliced right through the thin string, and Cootch opened the door the rest of the way. He reached around and pulled the tape off the grenade and pocketed it.
D led the way into the theater itself to find it empty. She turned to her right and sucked in air between her teeth before she turned away and walked back into the hallway.
“D, you ok, sweetheart?” Q asked.
“I’m fine. But them dudes on the stage aren’t.”
Everyone else went in to see. Three men on the stage were tied naked over wooden boxes that had been used by the theater as stage props. All three had been beaten, burned, and had several broken bones. One was missing an eye, another his nose.
“Goddamnit. Why would anyone do this?” asked Cootch to no one in particular.
“Who were they?” asked Q.
Shane hopped up onto the stage to see if they were still alive. Only one was breathing, but he was in bad shape. All had lost a lot of blood. Cootch climbed up there too and opened his pack. He pulled out a bottle of morphine and a syringe. He gave the guy a small dose, hoping that he still had a chance of sharing information. Then he opened a smelling salt and waved it under the guy’s nose. The man’s eyes flew open.
“Please, not again. Please. I’ll do anything. Just please stop.”
“Hey, hey. It’s ok. We’re here to help you now,” said Cootch.
“RV people?”
“Yea. My name is Cootch,” he said softly. “What’s your name?”
“Harvey,” the man said weakly. “Yes, the radio guy you talked to yesterday. Apparently, my brother killed one of them, and that Vinny fella freaked the fuck out.
GM wanted to make an example out of us.”
“Yea, take it easy, Harvey. GM has done this before.”
“Cootch, we gotta go, like right the fuck now!” Q hollered from backstage. “There is literally a bomb back here with a minute and a half left on the clock.”
“Please leave me,” begged Harvey. “I don’t want to live after what he did to me.”
“I’m sorry, pal. I can’t do that,” said Cootch.
“You don’t understand. I’m pretty sure my colon is literally hanging out my ass. I won’t live very long as it is. I’m pretty sure my brother, Bob, and his friend Danny are already dead.”
“Yea, sorry, man.”
Tears began to roll down Harvey’s cheeks. “Go kill them all for me. Please.”
Cootch clicked his mic. “H1 this is H2. We’re coming out the back door and making a break for it. This place is rigged to blow. Meet us back at the rendezvous. How copy?”
“Good copy, H2. See you there.”
Cootch and the others ran as fast as they could out the door they’d entered so as to not set off anymore booby traps. They got halfway to the Humvees, and two things happened at once. Gunfire erupted off to their left, and they heard the theater explode. They dove behind the nearest house.
“Sit rep,” said Cootch.
“I think I’m hit,” said Bo. “It burns.”
“Show me,” Cootch said as he pulled Bo farther behind the building.
Bo pulled up his shirt, and he had an entry and exit wound on his left side. It didn’t look too far in, but he didn’t have much fat on him to begin with. Q opened his bag and started cleaning the wound while Cootch got the QuickClot ready.
Team H1 was a block to the north when they heard the gun fire. Bill paused to triangulate where it was coming from and ran between houses towards it. When he got to the alleyway, he paused and ducked behind a garbage can. He saw blond hair on a face he didn’t recognize dash between houses in front of him. Bill pulled out a hand grenade, removed the pin, and lobbed it in the direction the man was moving. Three seconds later, there was a loud blast, and half the house collapsed. Shaun patted Bill on the shoulder, and Bill moved to the other side of the alley. He was careful to step around broken two-by-fours and bits of sheetrock. Bill was having a hard time seeing through all the dust. He paused and took a knee next to the opening in the house and looked around. The dust was settling, and it had gotten real quiet.
“H2, this H1. How copy?”
“H1, we copy. One minor wound here. Otherwise good. Over.”
“H1 copies all. We’ll be headed your way in one mike. Over.”
Bill waved the rest of H1 over, and they searched the immediate area to find three bodies and parts of one they suspected was the blonde guy. They met up with the other twelve and made their way back to the Humvees.
“So, what do we do now? How do we find these fuckers?” asked Q.
“I guess we drive around until someone starts shooting at us,” replied Bill.
“That’s a terrible idea,” said Cootch. “Let’s go over everything we know about them. Harvey was at the jail with the radio. Bob was his brother. They have the power back on.”
“That’s it! The power. We find the main substation in town and shut it off. When they come back to fix it, we follow them back to wherever they came from,” said Mike.
“I like it. Let’s get the map out and see if we can figure anything out,” said Bill.
After a few minutes of discussion, they decided they would start at what appeared to be a substation on the western side of town.
“Where do you think those guys came from?” asked Shaun.
“I don’t know. Maybe we should do a little recon and figure it out,” replied Q.
“Sounds like a fantastic idea. We’re already one man down, and we can’t afford to let them get any more of us.”
They split up into two teams and walked around a couple of blocks, going past the Humvees, but they didn’t find anything that looked out of the ordinary. While going back towards the Humvees, Bill was walking past a truck that looked clean enough, but then he heard it tic. He recognized it as the kind of sound from a hot exhaust cooling. He placed his hand on the hood, and it felt warm.
“So, what do you think?” asked Phillip.
“This is definitely their truck. I think someone needs to drive Bo back to camp,” said Bill.
“Not happening. I can still shoot. I just can’t run around with you guys. Set me up in one of the Humvees. I’ll still kill bad guys.”
“That ibuprofen is going to wear off in a few hours, and you’re going to regret that decision,” said Charity.
“I’ll be all right,” Bo replied.
“Hey, guys, check this out. The insurance card says this truck belongs over on Calloway Boulevard,” Shaun said.
“Calloway? Like the golf club brand?” asked Cootch.
“I guess. It looks the same,” Shaun replied.
“Well, I think I know where we need to go next, then, huh?” said Bill.
“Where? Calloway boulevard?” asked Cootch. “What about the power issue?”
“You’re just the question man all of a sudden, aren’t you?” asked Bill.
“I’m thinking we need to wait till sunset, kill the power, and then storm the place,” Mike said.
“Yea, let’s scout the place out and see what we can find,” said Q.
“I’ll agree to go check out the substation now, but I say we need to wait till tonight before we do anything else. Under the cover of darkness,” said Cootch.
“I think that is the best plan yet. We know about where they are staying. Let’s go check out the substation and find a place to hang out for a few hours till sunset,” said Bill.
They walked back over to the Humvees and drove south through town. They wanted to approach the substation from around the far side in case anyone was there already keeping an eye on it.
They made their way around town without being spotted again. They stopped at a farmhouse at the end of Grand Avenue and parked the Humvees behind the large shop. It was here they got quite the surprise.
“Brad! What the fuck are you doing here?” asked Bill.
“I wanted to help. So, I hid back here with the stuff.”
“Come on inside with everyone else. It’s going to be hot as balls out here.”
They all went in to make sure it was clear. Then Bill, Cootch, and Q walked across a plowed field, towards the substation. It was about a mile up the road to the East.
“I don’t like how exposed we are out here,” said Q.
“True, but if we have to, we lie down flat, and they will never see us from the road,” replied Bill.
When they got to the nearest neighborhood, it was a strange combination of light industrial and residential. They weaved their way around busted and broken equipment, cars on blocks and half of a tractor. They ducked from house to house till they had a clear view of the substation a few blocks to the north.
“I don’t see anyone there. Do you?” Bill asked as he handed the binoculars over to Cootch.
“Nope. Let’s go take a closer look.”
The three made their way around a large building and across the street to an average-size house. They spent a few minutes looking around and watching both directions on Grand Avenue. There was a field full of wild grass and sagebrush fifty yards wide between them and the street. Across that was their goal.
The three men were halfway across the overgrown field when they heard a vehicle approaching. They dove down under a row of sages and lay as still as they could.
The truck came into view from the east and pulled into the driveway of the substation. A man got out and unlocked the driveway gate, and then the truck drove in. The man then walked up to the chain-link fence gate and opened it.
“Holy fuck, dude,” whispered Bill. “That’s Vinny.”
“Yup. But who are the other three? I don’t recognize them,” replied Q.
“I d
on’t either.”
“So that’s the guy that you told me about?” asked Cootch. “He doesn’t seem that intimidating.”
“I get it, but he’s the kind of dude you don’t underestimate in a fight. He’s mean and has no conscience. I watched that guy kill one of his own just because he didn’t like him,” said Bill. “All he cares about is keeping himself alive. At any cost.”
“Ah, good to know. Any idea what they are saying?”
“No, but I’m not in a hurry to rush over there and find out. In fact, I might take a nap right here,” said Bill as he laid his head down and closed his eyes.
“Ok, they’re leaving,” said Q, nudging Bill. “Maybe they were just here to check on it and make sure that we haven’t come to fuck with it yet. It seems like it is a pretty important place if Vinny is here.”
“That tells me we’re in the right place,” Cootch added. “Wait, it looks like only two of them are leaving.”
“Well, boys, let’s go say hello to the new neighbors, shall we?” Bill said as he got up to his knees.
“It’s still a few of hours till sunset. Do we want to do this now?” Q asked.
“Yea, I kinda do,” Bill replied. “If there is someone in there, I want to eliminate them now. If Vinny comes back, he will know we are on to him. Keep him paranoid and guessing. We won’t turn the power off yet.”
“I think we want the opposite of that, don’t we? Paranoia has kept me alive more times than I can count,” said Q
“Fine, I just want to talk to them, then.”
Bill walked in a crouch away from their hiding spot, his eyes focused on the door to the little building.
“Fuck. Let’s go,” said Cootch.
Bill dropped to the prone position at the edge of the road in a small depression next to the powerline poles. He continued to watch the door of the building and didn’t see any movement. He heard the other two approach from behind.
“It looks like they locked the chain-link fence back to make it look like no one was here. I’m going to cross the street to the ditch on the other side and lie in the high grass,” said Bill.
Beginning of the New Beginning Vol 3 Page 10
