by Steven Kagey
Brian went back outside and started policing the dead bodies for any survivors. To his satisfaction Gill was still alive, he was wounded and unconscious, but alive.
“Doc,” he yelled out, “when you get a chance we got another one down here.”
Upon hearing that, Sean knew it could only mean one of the bastards that were responsible for his father’s death was still alive. He bolted out the door and immediately started kicking the unconscious man on the ground.
Brian grabbed him and shoved him back. “We need answers first. We need to question him and then you can kill him.”
Sean was pissed that his friend was keeping him from punishing one of his fathers’ murderers, but the look on Brian’s face snapped him out of the rage. “When we’re done questioning him, he dies by my hand,” he said, jabbing a finger straight at Brian.
Doc arrived then.
“Not too much,” Brian said, “just stop the bleeding and make sure we can ask him a few questions before he goes.”
Gill had buckshot wounds in each leg and in his right arm. After Brian shot him in the legs from under the truck, he fell to his knees, and the next shot got him in the arm. Doc applied tourniquets to all three limbs and moved his body to treat him for shock until he regained consciousness. Brian bent down and stripped his body armor and duty belt from him.
Craig was walking up to the shop, and David came around the building. Craig saw Brian, who had been sweating, which mixed with the dirt that was blown around him in the hole, and the superficial burn marks all over his face, neck, and hands.
“What the hell happened to you?” he said. “You look like shit.”
Only starting to get some hearing back, Brian replied, “What? I can barely hear you.”
Craig got closer and repeated his question louder.
“Oh, someone launched one of the larger fireworks into the hole with me,” Brian said, glancing over at David standing next to the shop.
“Uncle Brian, I’m so sorry,” David apologized. “When I switched to the larger ones I pulled them back further thinking they needed more power to get over the shop.”
“Oh they had more power alright. Only because I am starting to hear again, is it alright.” He smiled at David. “Alright guys, we need to get this place cleaned up in case they send reinforcements or we get some travelers coming by. Let’s start with the ones down at the gate.”
The mortar blast had absolutely shredded the Chevy pickup. All four tires were flat, all the glass was missing, and the sheet metal body looked like Wolverine had had his way with it. Antifreeze and other fluids were leaking all over the ground. The Hummer was pretty well intact. It had some dents and dings from the mortar blast, but the additional armor and big tires kept it from receiving any real damage. They pulled the dead gunner out of the turret. Besides the blood, everything was fully functional.
Brian looked at the Hummer and all the guns lying around, “Just think. This morning we only had a shotgun, rifle, and one pistol and we did all this. Now we have a lot of good rifles and pistols, two HUMVEEs and two fifty cals. Imagine what we can do.”
Brian was examining the site while they picked up weapons and gear and loaded it all in the Hummer. “Did the Tannerite not go off?” he asked.
“I don’t think Daniel had a chance to shoot it,” Craig said somberly.
The men relayed their remorse through their looks and continued the clean-up.
Noticing some of the weapons were damaged from the mortar blast, Brian said, “Put all the weapons and gear from this area in this HUMVEE and keep them separated from those up at the house. We need to inspect all this stuff for damage.”
They stripped the dead men down to their underwear, and after they had emptied all the supplies and gear from the bed of the Chevy, they started throwing all the bodies in the bed.
“Craig, once we get the bodies from the house loaded in this, can you get the tractor and drag this down the road a good ways?” Brian asked. “Grab a can of gas and torch it before you leave.”
Brian jumped in the Hummer and drove it up to the house. Sean, Brenda, and Brandon were stripping all the gear from the bodies at the house. All three of them had thrown up from the gruesome display while removing the bodies from the spikes. After they had gotten the bodies off the spikes, Sean went to the campsite to tell his mom the bad news and bring the rest of the folks back to the house.
Brian found a few functioning rifles and pistols and handed them out in case they got more company while cleaning up. Then he went into the house and grabbed some sheets, a clean shirt from his closet, a new tarp from the garage, and headed for the shop.
“David, guard the prisoner,” he ordered. “Doc, help me clean Daniel up and wrap his body.” He cut off Daniel’s blood-soaked shirt. “Will you clean up the blood and duct tape the bullet wounds?”
“Why are we cleaning him up if we’re going to wrap him?” Doc asked
“In case Carol wants to see the body and say goodbye.”
Doc nodded in understanding and the two got Daniel’s body cleaned up. They laid him out nice and proper in the new shirt, wrapped him in the sheet, and then the tarp, and carried the body downstairs.
After all the dead had been stripped down, they ferried the bodies down in the back of Craig’s truck and loaded them in the Chevy. Craig returned to the house and got the tractor and hooked the truck up.
When Craig was getting ready to start the tractor and pull away, a voice called out, “Hello over there.”
Brian brought the M4 up to bear in the flash of an eye and everyone else followed suit. Standing in the field across the road were three men with their hands in the air and rifles slung over their backs.
Chapter 21
Brian checked to see where the rest of his people were and was glad to see them with weapons trained on the three men. With the men covered, Brian scanned the field behind the men and then up and down the road on their sides. All three men had AR-15s and pistols on their sides, along with tactical load bearing vests with extra magazines.
The three men stood there, giving Brian a chance to survey the area and relax so they didn’t get shot. Having observed the battle that took place they figured everyone was high strung.
The lead man stepped forward. “Hello, I’m Todd Palmer. This is my brother Thomas and our buddy Chris Evans. Our parents live up the road.”
As soon as Brian heard the last name Palmer, he guessed they were Gary and Nancy’s sons. He had never met them but remembered that both their names started with a “T.”
Still, not wanting to make any assumptions and give up information he said, “Oh yeah? And who might they be?”
Todd said, “Gary and Nancy Palmer. If you are Brian Stewart, they said you came by to check on them two days ago.”
Brian lowered his rifle and called to the rest of his group, “It's okay, they’re friendlies.”
Todd walked up to the fence and extended his hand. Brian walked over, and the men shook hands.
“My folks said that you were expecting a battle,” Todd said. “I didn’t think it would be all this.” He motioned to the bloodstains on the road and dead bodies in the back of the truck. “We made it to their house last night, and they told us you stopped by to check on them. Our parents said you were expecting a fight and since they hadn’t heard any gunfire yet, we thought we would come over and lend y’all a hand. We’re late, but it looks like you handled it just fine.”
“Well, we could have used you and your rifles about an hour ago,” Brian said. “We lost a good man getting this win.”
Todd winced. “Sorry to hear that. We were coming through the woods when we thought we heard someone speaking through a megaphone and then gunfire erupted. We ran up through the field back there and saw them lighting you up. We were maneuvering to get a shot on the guy shooting the fifty cal when something blew up and then we saw your man come charging down from the house. We didn’t want to hit him by accident. What they hell was that explosio
n that dropped all these guys down here?”
Brian reached down and pulled up on the lip of the pipe that was partially buried in front of where Todd was standing. Todd, Thomas, and Chris all stepped forward to look over the fence at the ground.
“Nice. An improvised mortar,” Thomas said approvingly.
Brian nodded. “It wasn’t perfect, but it did the job.”
“I’ll say it did.”
“Looks like these boys bit off more than they could chew,” Chris spoke up.
“Not really,” Brian said. “We were outgunned. They should have rolled over us. We only had a hunting rifle, one AR, a pistol, and a shotgun to fight them with. They were out here a few days ago and confiscated all our good weapons.”
Thomas nodded at the mortar pipe and said, “Improvise and adapt,” with a smile.
Todd said, “Looks like y’all got back what they took and then some. Those fifties should keep the tide in your favor from now on.”
Brian laughed. “Unless they have artillery.” He paused. “God, I hope they don’t have artillery.”
“No they don’t have anything like that yet,” Todd said. “Maybe some AT-4s, but no big guns.
Craig said, “AT-4?”
Brian said, “Single fire anti-tank rocket.”
“Oh shit,” Craig said. “Anti-tank?”
“Yeah, they—” Brian looked sharply at Todd. “Wait, how do you know they don’t have any big guns?”
“We have people watching them,” Todd answered.
“Watching who?” Brian asked. “And who is ‘we’?”
Todd glanced at Thomas and Chris, who nodded for him to continue.
“We’re the Tennessee Volunteer Irregulars,” Todd explained, “and we have people watching the DHS operations in this area, gathering intel.”
“Tennessee Volunteer Irregulars, huh?” Brian said. “Never heard of it. You part of that Tennessee Volunteer Militia?”
“We’re not a part of them, but our two organizations have the same goals.”
Brian asked, “And what might that be?”
“To protect and defend the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of Tennessee from enemies foreign and domestic. We have trained to assist the U.S. military to help repel foreign invasions. Now we’re focusing on protecting the state from a domestic invasion. Instead of scrambling their resources to help the country get through this national crisis they seem more interested in martial law and oppression.”
“Yeah, that’s what it’s looking like to us too.”
“Don’t get me wrong,” Todd said, “some of the bigger cities can only be helped through martial law at this point, with all the looting and rioting going on. But our group is headquartered south of here in Dayton, which is about the same size as Crossville. Right after the power went out, the community banded together and the county’s contingency plans went into effect, which would have been able to feed and care for the entire area without any outside help from the state or federal government. Then the DHS rolled in, started taking weapons and shooting anyone that resisted without making contact with the local government to see if there were any problems going on. To make matters worse, they boxed up all of our food supplies and shipped it off, supposedly to one of the big cities.”
Brian and Craig said, “Damn.”
“If you guys are out of Dayton,” Brian said, “why are you up here watching the DHS?”
“Crossville has been dubbed a high-value area by the DHS. I-40 is the main route between Nashville and Knoxville. Crossville will be the main thoroughfare for supplies and forces by the DHS.”
“Gentlemen, we have a lot more questions for you,” Brian said. “Our wives will be back at the house soon, and we have a lot of clean up left and a grave to dig.”
Todd nodded. “We understand. We’d like to sit down and talk with you too. We spoke about it coming up here, and seeing how you handled this scuffle here and with your newfound toys, we wanted to see if you wanted to join forces.”
“We briefly spoke about what our group plans to accomplish now. Our main goal is to get the county back in order, and we have to go speak with the sheriff about resuming his responsibilities,” Brian said. “Since our two goals seem to be the same, I would have to talk with the rest of our group. We have all of our families up here to consider. That being said, I’m not sure if we would join up fully with you, but I could see us acting as a splinter cell for your group.”
“That would do fine,” Todd acknowledged. “We’re set up over at my parents’ place. Once y’all get settled, bring your folks over and see us. We can brief you some more.”
A low growl came from behind Brian, and he spun around to see Beast crouched down looking at the three men menacingly. His hair on his back was bristled up.
“Beast,” Brian said. “It’s okay, they’re friends.”
Beast looked at Brian, then back at the men, sat down, and started panting.
Thomas said, “That is a well-trained dog you got there.”
Craig laughed. “He wishes,” He cracked, and the men laughed.
“We’ll be looking forward to seeing you all at my parents’ place,” Todd said. “Oh, I almost forgot. When you approach, hold a piece of purple fabric in your left hand, a scarf or shirt or something, so the people on guard duty know you are friendly.”
Brian, Craig, and the other three all shook hands, and they headed back through the field the way they came.
“That will work. David and I have a bonfire to start. We’ll be back to the house in a few.” Craig started the tractor and David got in the Chevy to help steer it, and they pulled it down the road.
Chapter 22
Brian and Beast checked up and down the road as far as they could see. Not seeing anything, they headed back up to the house.
“Who was that?” Sean asked, looking down the driveway’
“We have a lot to talk about,” Brian said. “It seems we have some allies in all this. How’s your mom doing?”
“Not too good,” Sean replied sadly. “She wanted to stay up at the campsite alone for a while to collect her thoughts. We didn’t think she should be alone, so Christina stayed up there will her.”
Evelyn and Avery came around the corner of the shop and rushed to Brian, embracing him like they thought they had lost him for good. He picked them up and hugged as if he hadn’t seen them in a year, assuring them he was fine.
Evelyn glanced at the house. “Brian Alexander Stewart! What the hell did you do to my house?”
Brian grimaced. Oh shit, here it comes…
Sean cocked his head to the side. “Your middle name is not Alexander.”
Brian sighed. “No, but when she is super pissed my middle name is whatever she wants it to be.”
Sean laughed. Brian was glad to hear his friend laugh. Today was a bad day for their whole family. He looked over at Evelyn standing in front of the house with her hands on her hips. He hadn’t paid attention to the house since the battle began. It shocked even him. Everything under the porch and up along the sides of the awning was black from the gas burning. All the windows on the second floor were blown out, and the frames around them were riddled with bullet holes. Most of the downstairs windows had bullet holes in them, but the security film had kept them intact. All the siding was shredded, and most of the upstairs siding was hanging at an angle ready to fall off.
“Hey, you’ve been asking me to remodel and paint,” Brian said. “I just started with the demolition part early.”
Evelyn didn’t laugh or smile. “Uh huh.”
“We’ve got a lot of clean up to do, Sean,” Brian said. “We need to go through all these weapons and gear to see what’s serviceable and what we have.”
“Yeah, Brenda found some of their radios. She’s in listening to the HAMs and monitoring their communications.”
“Everyone, let’s get this place in order,” Brian said. “We have a lot of clean up in the house, broken glass from th
e windows, and whatever else was broken inside. The gear and weapons out here need to be separated into piles so Sean and I can go through them.”
Everyone got to work. Craig and David returned shortly from the body dump. They had a similar reunion that the Stewarts had. Craig’s next course of business was to inspect his truck for any new issues since the deputies took it. The prisoner was still unconscious. The group wanted to interrogate him, but they were not going to go out of their way to save him.
Since Doc wasn’t squeamish around blood, he was cleaning out the two Hummers.
Brian checked out the supplies inside, pleased with what he found.
Sean was inspecting all the firearms, while David and Brandon were sorting all the other captured gear.
Evelyn and Lillian began cleaning up the interior of the house with the help of the two youngest.
Brenda was diligently taking notes of what she heard on the radios.
The group checking the vehicles and the weapons from the bodies recovered seven AR-15s and eight M4s. Two of the ARs and one M4 were severely damaged from the mortar blast but could be kept for parts. They had seven 9mm Glocks and eight 9mm Berettas, all with matching holsters. They had a substantial amount of rifle magazines and about 4000 rounds of 5.56 ammo for them. They had enough magazines for each pistol to have three and about 1500 rounds of 9mm ammo. The best prize so far was the two M2 fifty caliber machine guns with around 7000 rounds of ammo. The gunner had spent over 3000 shooting at the house, shop, and LP/OP. There were also two Remington 870 12 gauge shotguns in the truck with a variety of ammo.
They had an assortment of military Interceptor body armor with ceramic plates that would stop rifle rounds, and police body armor that would only protect against pistol rounds. Among the supplies, they recovered ten tear gas grenades, six flash bang grenades, and ten thermite grenades. The thermite grenades would be very useful in guerilla tactics. They burned at 4000 degrees Fahrenheit and would melt right through a vehicle engine block, which was very handy for sabotage.
