Fire From The Sky (Book 5): Home Fires

by Reed, N. C.

  FIRE FROM

  THE SKY

  BOOK Five

  Creative Texts Publishers products are available at special discounts for bulk purchase for sale promotions, premiums, fund-raising, and educational needs. For details, write Creative Texts Publishers, PO Box 50, Barto, PA 19504, or visit www.creativetexts.com

  FIRE FROM THE SKY: BOOK 5: HOME FIRES

  by N.C. REED

  Published by Creative Texts Publishers

  PO Box 50

  Barto, PA 1950

  www.creativetexts.com

  Copyright 2018 by N.C. REED

  All rights reserved

  Cover photos used by license.

  Design copyright 2018 Creative Texts Publishers, LLC

  The Fire From the Sky Logo is a trademark of Creative Texts Publishers, LLC

  This book or parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise—without prior written permission of the publisher, except as provided by United States of America copyright law.

  The following is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual names, persons, businesses, and incidents is strictly coincidental. Locations are used only in the general sense and do not represent the real place in actuality.

  Kindle Edition

  FIRE FROM

  THE SKY

  BOOK five

  N.C. Reed

  Creative Texts Publishers, LLC

  Barto, PA

  For the Ranger, the Clerk, and the Chef.

  How I miss you all.

  For my wife and nephew who are my sounding boards and my conscience. And also put up with an incredible amount of crap from me. I'd be lost without them.

  For people everywhere who do, rather than talk.

  And for those who don't neglect the home fires. Keep them burning, always.

  CHAPTER ONE

  -

  “My family needs your help!” Joshua Webb all but yelled.

  “We're giving you all the help we can,” Clay assured him. “All we can do is still all we can do. Patricia and Kaitlin and Tandi will give your sons the best care they're capable of. And when they're free, they’ll check on Jasmine as well. But we won't be leaving this farm.”

  “So, you’ll just leave my family to die!” Webb shouted.

  “Your family was safe here,” Clay reminded him. “Yes, your son was killed and I'm sorry for that, but the blame for that falls squarely on you and the others. The remainder of your family was as safe here as we could make them, you included. You chose to leave that safety, Mister Webb. You chose to leave that safety and go home. That was your choice to make and you had every right to make it. Your family followed you and that was their choice as well. You're the one who left your family to die, Mister Webb,” Clay's voice was calm for all that it was brutal.

  “I'm not going to let the same thing happen to our families if I can help it.” Clay stayed silent for a few seconds, judging his words carefully. When he spoke again it was in absolute silence.

  “Tell me, Mister Webb,” Clay's voice was soft. “What did they promise you if you could get me and the others off this farm?”

  Spoken into the stillness that had followed the earlier blow up, those words cut like a knife.

  “Son, I-” Gordon started but then stopped when Clay held up one hand to silence him, eyes still boring in on Joshua Webb.

  “I'm waiting, Mister Webb,” Clay was still just as quiet as before.

  “Clay, his family-” Robert tried and this time Clay looked away, toward his older brother.

  “His family was dead as soon as he was out of sight of that farm,” Clay said flatly. “Let me guess,” he turned back to the oddly quiet Webb. “We’ll let you take the hurt ones and you go and get 'them soldiers' to ride over here into an ambush. We’ll kill them and let you and your family go. Did it go something about like that, Mister Webb?”

  There was no reply from the now red-faced Webb.

  “I asked you a question, Mister Webb,” Clay said after several seconds.

  “It's all because of you,” Joshua Sanders said suddenly, glaring at Clay. “All because of you and Leon. 'We’ll be safer together' you said. I come over here and lose a son, I go home and lose almost everyone else!”

  “Damn,” Jake said softly.

  “We fought,” Seth said from the front. “We fought for a whole day, but. . .there was too many and we lost Luke and Sam and...” the boy trailed away at the thought of what his family had been through the last few days. His sister was crying and they hugged one another in silence.

  “There's nothing I can do about this,” Clay told his father. “His family are dead, or wishing they were,” he glanced at Jasmine to let them know what he meant. “I'm sorry, Mister Webb. We can't help you more than we are already.”

  “Damn you!” Joshua Webb shouted, pulling a revolver from under his shirt and aiming it at Clay. “I said you go and-” was all he got out before Joshua Webb's head disappeared in a fine red mist, his brain matter splattering across the truck he had come in.

  Both Webb children screamed and Jasmine jerked at the sound of the shot, scrambling around to try and get under the truck. Clay sighed at the sight, how pitiful all this was. All over one man's ego.

  “Clear,” Clay said into his microphone. He got two clicks back and then nothing else.

  “Take them and go inside,” he told his mother and Amy. “Help them,” he added to Gordon and Robert. “I'll...I'll clean up,” he settled for saying.

  “We’ll help,” Greg offered and Jake nodded.

  “That's fine,” Clay nodded.

  “How did it come to this?” he murmured under his breath. It was all supposed to be so simple. Not easy by any stretch of the imagination, but simple. Straightforward.

  Right.

  -

  Ronny dug a single grave next to Bryon Jessup's and what was left of Joshua Webb was dumped into it and then covered over. Rather than wait for it to be done Clay started down the hill toward Leon's house. He would want to know what had happened.

  -

  “Well. . .shit,” Leon's head bobbed with the expletive as if to give it emphasis. “How are the two boys? Which ones was it again?”

  “Samuel and Luke, and I don't know,” Clay admitted. “After. . .I had to clean up after Joshua decided to shoot me I ain't been back. The two youngest saw his head splatter everywhere so they're now traumatized and Jasmine was already traumatized so she's worse. I... I don't know,” Clay sounded as close to beaten as Leon had seen him. “Maybe I did this all wrong.”

  “It ain't just you this sits on,” Leon told him. “Stop taking it all on yourself. Joshua may have blamed you but one monkey don't make an organ grinder. No one else is down here raising hell with you, are they?”

  “One monkey don't make an organ grinder?” Clay looked at Leon in astonishment. “Where in the hell did-”

  “Are we gonna talk about nickel and dime sayings from before your time or about the problems we got today, here and now?” Leon cut him off.

  “Neither,” Clay admitted. “I'm too tired and still got work to do. If anything else happens I’ll be back and let you know, or else call you.”

  “Fine,” Leon nodded, sitting back into his chair. “Don't let this ride you, boy.”

  “Right.”

  -

  Clay more or less stumbled his way back to the clinic, not really paying attention to where he was going. So much had gone wrong so quickly there had to be something he missed. Just as he was about to turn around and walk another circuit the door opened.

  “Here he is!” he
heard Jake call and he sighed.

  “What is it?” he asked.

  “Samuel and Luke look like they're gonna make it,” Jake beamed. “Your sister-in-law is working on Jasmine now,” he lost his smile at that.

  “Thanks,” Clay nodded. “Anything else?”

  “Maybe you should get some rest?” Jake said, frowning.

  “Yeah, rest,” Clay nodded. “I got watch in one hour so no such luck. Thanks for the thought, though,” he grinned tiredly.

  “Watch where?” Greg asked.

  “Ground patrol,” Clay answered. “We're beefing it up tonight after all this,” he waved his arms around him.

  “I’ll take it,” Greg told him. “Go home. Rest. I’ll be geared up in a few minutes and can make the rounds. That will give me time to get checked on coms.”

  “Man, are you sure?” Clay asked. “Your leg-”

  “Won't ever get any better if I don't use it,” Greg finished for him. “This is one way to use it. I got it. Go get some sleep. It ain't your fault, man.”

  “No way, bro,” Jake nodded. “Old man Webb left you no choice, little man. It was him or you.”

  “That makes it all better to them, don't it?” he nodded to where the youngest Webb siblings sat, crying.

  “This ain't your fault,” Greg repeated. “They had it good here and left it. That's on them, not you. Now go on and get some rest.”

  “Thanks.” Clay nodded and started for home, beat down by the events of the day. His friends watched him with no small concern.

  “He's got a lot on him,” Jake said quietly.

  “And it just got a lot worse,” Greg nodded, looking over at the two Webb kids. “I gotta go,” he slapped Jake on the back. “See ya.”

  “Wouldn't wanna be ya,” Jake shot back.

  -

  It was two in the morning when Zach felt, rather than heard, someone outside his cabin. Grabbing his rifle, he was moving before he even realized it. He made his way to the door and waited in the dark to see what happened.

  “Zach!” someone hissed. “Zach, it's Doc. Open up!” Lowering his rifle Zach opened the door to see Tandi Maseo standing there, geared up.

  “Wanna go on an adventure?” Doc asked, face deadly serious.

  “What kind of adventure?” Zach asked.

  “The kind where you get to shoot people!” Doc informed him.

  “Sure,” Zach nodded at once. “Let me get my gear.”

  -

  “So, where is this adventure?” Zach asked as the MRAP rolled down the road, lights out with Tandi driving using night vision goggles. Jody Thompson was in the turret and... .and that was it.

  “We're going to the Webb place and see if anyone is still alive and try to kill as many of the snakes that are there as we possibly can!” Tandi was inordinately cheerful.

  “You seem awful cheerful about all this,” Zach noted.

  “And you don't seem cheerful enough,” Tandi accused.

  “Hey man, I just woke up,” Zach replied. “I'm working up to it.”

  “Well, me and Jody are gonna infiltrate their set-up, whatever it is, while you guard the rig.”

  “Wait, how is that an adventure for me?” Zach asked. “That doesn't sound like me getting to shoot anybody.”

  “Well, assuming we run into trouble then you’ll man the gun in the turret on the way out,” Doc informed him. “Since Jody will be driving and I will be doing my medical thing.”

  “Oh, Cool.” Zach nodded.

  “I know, right?” Doc nodded. “We don't know anything at all about what's happening over here. For all we know anyone who was there is already gone since we didn't run right over. But we're betting they're still there and that at least some of the Webbs are still alive. We can't all go, but we can slip in there and see what we see.”

  “Sounds good.” Zach pulled on his own goggles to begin getting used to their eerie green glow.

  -

  “We're two, maybe two-and-a-half miles from the Webb place,” Tandi said softly. He had guided the rig off the road where the recent camouflage paint job would hide it neatly.

  “Jody and I are gonna walk in from here and see what we can see. Any that Jody can pick off with his rifle are that many we don't have to kill later. If we can see the Webbs and they look like we can get to them, we're gonna try and get them out. Be listening because we may be hotfooting it on the way back. Do you know the way there?”

  “Yeah,” Zach nodded.

  “We may have to call you to come get us if it gets too hot so be listening. Cool?”

  “Right as rain,” Zach nodded. “I’ll be in the turret watching the surround.”

  “Good deal. We're in the wind.”

  -

  “He is gonna be so pissed about this,” Greg whispered.

  “Nah, he’ll be cool,” Mitch Nolan replied as the two made another sweep around the place. “We covered all the bases and still got Heath on overwatch. We're good to go.”

  “He’ll be pissed,” Greg warned again.

  “It's okay,” Mitch grinned. “We're used to it.”

  -

  “I count seven out in the open,” Tandi whispered.

  “Same,” Jody replied. “They're using lamps and flashlights. No NVG visible.”

  “Concur,” Tandi agreed. “Give them a body or two and see what happens.”

  “Roger that,” Jody pulled his rifle in closer to him.

  “Far left, last house toward the road, edge of the house,” Tandi marked.

  “Got him,” Tommy said. “Sending.” Before the word was gone his rifle cracked, the suppressed .308 round traveling the distance in the blink of an eye, the target's head ruptured.

  “That got some attention,” Tandi said. “Tango in the open, moving to check on Target One. Ball cap and... .AK.”

  “Got him,” Jody replied. “Sending.” The rifle cracked again and the man in the open went down.

  “All the other rats are scurrying away,” Tandi said. “Back into their holes. We’ll let them think we're gone and then hit them again. That should keep them inside. After that we can move in.”

  “Roger that.”

  -

  Zach could hear Jody's rifle in the distance and knew things were kicking off, which made him even more aware of what was around him. Careful to keep everything that might make noise off, he kept a sharp lookout in the turret above the troop compartment of the MRAP. The vehicle was secured from the inside so it would be hard to take him by surprise, but he didn't want to be taken at all so he stayed alert.

  It would have been nice to have some music, but that would deafen him to his surroundings. A book would both ruin his night vision and take his concentration. Basically, there was nothing to do by wait.

  -

  “Rat coming out of his hole,” Tandi said after a twenty-minute wait. “Looking around. Calling out maybe?”

  “Wait for the others,” Jody said, looking down at the man who had emerged first. It took another five minutes for two more to emerge, and another one five minutes after that.

  “I think this may be all we get,” Jody said after five more minutes of watching.

  “I think you're right,” Tandi agree. “Left of open area, hunting rifle. He seems to be giving orders or maybe just a bully.”

  “Found him,” Jody nodded. “Sending.” Another special delivery was on its way a second later. Jody quickly worked his bolt, settling on the nearest target to his last and squeezed just as the figure tried to dart inside a door.

  “Got him,” Tandi reported. “He's down, bleeding out.”

  “Led him too much,” Jody sighed. “It's the shooting downhill that makes you do that.” Even as he spoke he was loading his rifle into its bag and pulling his M-4 around and ready.

  “Stay together?” Tandi asked.

  “I think so, at least until we see what's happened,” Jody nodded.

  “Roger that. Moving.”

  Like the ghosts they imitated, the two were movin
g into the dark, a few dim footprints the only evidence they had ever been there.

  -

  Their initial shots had been roughly three hundred yards from the house nearest the road. It took the two of them thirty minutes to carefully work their way down to within fifty yards of that same house, using the terrain to their advantage and the dark as their ally.

  “Two rats have emerged,” Tandi said, taking a look. “One at ten and another at one. I got the guy at one,” he said, raising his rifle.

  “Ten on me,” Jody agreed. “Sending, sending, sending,” he chanted and both men fired on the third 'sending', the shots so close together they sounded like one, which was the idea. Both men fell, still in the dirt.

  “I say we go,” Tandi whispered.

  “Concur,” Jody replied.

  “I figured there would be more here,” Tandi said.

  “There may be,” Jody warned. “These idiots may have been bait.”

  “You wait until now to bring that up?” Tandi asked.

  “You didn't ask,” Jody shrugged.

  “I didn't ask,” Tandi nodded slowly. “Okay, you got me. I didn't ask for critical mission relevant data and so you neglected to mention it.” As he spoke Tandi was sweeping the right.

  “You're over reacting, man,” Jody told him, sweeping the left.

  “I think we're clear,” Tandi admitted. “Wanna take a look in one of the houses?”

  “Not really, but it is why we're here,” Jody answered.

  “Go quiet?” Tandi asked. Jody considered that before nodding.

  “Unless we can't,” he drew a massive knife from his belt while Tandi drew a short sword. With one final nod the two started for the main house to have a look.

  -

  Zach was fighting hard to stay awake. If he could just hear them talking it would make things easier, but he was on a different frequency. One they could hear and speak to him on, but separate from theirs.

  He had already sunk down inside the MRAP to keep watch from the floor, finding it actually easier to see since he was below some of the leaf cover here.