by Steven Kagey
After a quick discussion, the teams agreed to go forward with the attack.
It was five minutes before Billy’s hoped for distraction. Someone had a good view of the sniper post in the barn and was assigned it as a target. The Hummer crews were standing outside in front of the house. Team leaders made sure that everyone had a target and that there were no overlaps.
After the rooster crowed, they were to count to thirty and then open fire.
At 5:29 Brian looked over to the porch. Billy was standing up on the front edge puffing out his chest.
Thank you, Billy, for not making me look like a fool.
A minute later Billy let out the finest crow of his life. Brian could hear it loudly 600 yards away.
The DHS men standing in front of porch flinched from the sound. Some ducked; others drew their pistols, looking around to see what was causing the noise. Billy let out a second loud crow, and Brian could tell the men on the porch were laughing and mocking each other at having been startled by the rooster.
Brian counted 28 … 29 ... 30, exhaled, and squeezed the trigger.
The shots were so simultaneous it sounded like only one gun firing. It rivaled any revolutionary war reenactment where all the troops stood on the same line and fired together.
Three-quarters of the DHS men in front of the house went down. Then the remaining went down. The militiamen turned their attention to guard posts in the yard and at the driveway. The second group of men in the yard that had gone down were now getting up and moving to get to their Hummers. They hadn’t been hit; they hit the dirt when the man next to them went down. The rest of the militiamen saw the group moving towards the vehicles and adjusted their aims to intercept them.
A few of the DHS men were hit while in motion. One by one the doors started closing on the Hummers. Rounds started ricocheting off the armor as the Hummers were pulled around into position. The militiamen watched in horror as the weapons in the turrets moved and the gunners prepared to fire.
The DHS men in the fighting positions pinpointed where the rifle fire was coming from and began to return fire. With the first few shots, the militia simply saw holes appear in the heat shields in front of them. Realizing they had been found they rolled back down from their perches.
The militiamen quickly moved to different locations and started playing whack-a-mole, rising to fire and dropping back down. A majority of their shots were ineffective due to the distances they were firing from. The fifty cals soon started their ominous bark, laying down suppressing fire. The militia was soon unable to lift up to fire from the all-encompassing fire coming from the farmhouse.
The worst was yet to come. Between the lulls in the fire from the house, they heard a barrage of metallic thudding sounds. Only the men that had ever been around an Mk19 recognized the telltale sound, but didn’t have time to give warning before explosions started peppering the hillside around them. A few screams for help sounded up from the militia positions when an occasional explosion found its mark.
Someone screamed over the radio, “I can’t get a shot on the gunners because they’re uphill from us!”
Panic was starting to set in as each man went over the options to stand up and fire or to retreat into the woods. A loud crashing sound came up behind them, and their own fifty cals begin to return fire. Doc and Mike came rushing forward to check on each of the men they could see. Brian was desperately trying to call his guys over their tactical radios.
“Sean, Craig, David! Are you guys alright?” If they replied, he couldn’t hear due to the continuous gunfire.
Being on the receiving end of heavy machine gun fire disorganized the DHS troops for a few seconds. The fifty cal gunners ended up exchanging fire with each other, both sides trying to find the weak spots to take out their adversaries. The Mk19 soon flipped the battle back in favor of the DHS. The closest militia Hummer exploded into a giant ball of fire. The second soon followed with a thunderous blast. The remaining Hummer was behind Brian, and he was frantically waving for it to fall back before it met the same fate.
He briefly heard someone scream, “Fall back! Everyone fall back!”
Brian was sitting up against the hillside with his back to the farmhouse when out of the corner of his eye, he saw a streak of light come out of the woods and race towards the house, followed by a loud explosion.
“What the hell!” Brian exclaimed when two more streaks of light raced above him with equally devastating explosions. He sat in bewilderment looking at the woods behind them when he heard more crashing sounds. Four HUMVEEs emerged from the wood line, each with a fifty cal blazing toward the house.
Craig was on the far left, even with the side of the farmhouse, peering over the hilltop when he witnessed three of the DHS Hummers explode. He heard smaller crashing sounds coming from the woods behind him and spun around to see a line of men in Army uniforms come out of the woods. Craig sat there in bewilderment and assumed his time was up, and he hoped his family would be safe without him.
The nearest uniformed soldier dropped down on the hillside next to Craig and began firing at the house. “You going to shoot or are you just going to sit there!” he screamed after Craig sat there looking at him for a few seconds.
Craig looked at the soldier firing toward the DHS, stunned, and recognized the soldier as one of the National Guardsmen. Craig didn’t need to be asked twice. He began firing.
Captain Wilkerson emerged from behind the HUMVEEs and ran forward in a hunched over fashion. He was ordering his men to different positions and to fire on different targets. He saw Brian lying against the hillside, ran up, and dropped down next to him.
“I hope this makes up for taking all your food,” he said.
“It’s a helluva damn good start!”
“Are you hurt?” Wilkerson asked, motioning to the burning HUMVEE wreckage. “Is anyone else hurt?”
“Yes,” Brian replied, “but I don’t know who or where.”
The captain got on his radio and called for the medics to come forward and start looking for any wounded militia personnel.
“What the hell are you doing here?” Brian asked. “How did you know we were here?”
“I had teams watching this place and they reported when the militia showed up a few hours ago. Then they reported when the DHS HUMVEEs came in. I knew you were planning an attack, and when those HUMVEEs came in I knew you’d probably be in over your head, so we scrambled to get here before it was too late.”
Another soldier ran up. “Captain, all the enemies outside have been eliminated.”
“Good job,” Captain Wilkerson replied. “Move forward to clear the house carefully. Make sure you find a high ranking survivor to interrogate if anyone is left alive.”
The sky was beginning to lighten as militia and National Guardsmen began moving forward to clear the compound of any remaining hostiles. Moving towards the house, Brian saw one of the wounded DHS men raise his weapon and shoot the closest National Guardsman. Brian was raising his rifle when he heard a single shot echo from behind them, and it neutralized the DHS man. He looked back to see David come walking out of the woods, chambering a new round in his rifle.
Brian jogged back to David to make sure he was all right and then got on the tactical radios and tried calling Sean and Craig again.
“I’m okay,” Craig answered. “Does anyone know if David is alright?”
“He’s fine,” Brian replied. “He’s with me.”
“I’ve been hit,” Sean said, “but Doc is working on me now and said I’m going to be okay. I took a few pieces of shrapnel in my leg from the grenades blowing up the Hummers.”
After the house was cleared, they found five surviving DHS men. As soon as the most senior ranking among them was identified, the rest suddenly didn’t make it.
Chapter 33
After the sun had come up and the farmhouse was secure, the militia forces had lost eight men and six were wounded but had already been seen by the medics and were in stable condition. A
mong the dead were Militiaman Chris Evans and Deputy Jesse Collins. The National Guard started shuttling the dead and wounded to the militia headquarters. Lillian was picked up and brought over, and she, Doc, Mike, and three National Guard medics patched the wounded men up at the militia compound. The dead men were transported back to their respective homes so they could be buried among friends and family.
The DHS farmhouse was in ruins. The militia and National Guardsmen combed through it, retrieving a treasure trove of intelligence containing paperwork and laptops. Per Captain Wilkerson’s orders, this was a militia operation, and they deserved the first inspection of anything that was seized.
The fourth DHS Hummer and its Mk19 were given to Brian’s crew, along with two of the recovered fifty cals. The barn contained five black Suburbans. Brian’s crew already had one back at the homestead and was given another one. Thomas said since the sheriff and his men would be in charge of security in the county they needed reliable transportation, so they were given the other four vehicles. The militia kept the last surviving Hummer that they arrived with.
Brian was speaking to Thomas and Deputy Anderson when Captain Wilkerson walked up. “What happened with your call to your superiors?” he asked.
“When I first got on the line, I was speaking with a general, who told me that we needed to return to town and support the DHS,” Wilkerson replied. “Then another general got on the line and told me to ignore that order. He said that the DHS was to be considered hostile to the United States and we were to do everything in our power to dislodge them. Then both men started arguing over the radio. I had heard enough and saw for myself that the DHS was not abiding by the Constitution. So I turned the radio off and here we are.”
“So what’s your next course of action?” Thomas asked.
“There are a few more DHS men keeping those folks at the high school against their will,” Wilkerson said. “They will be relieved of duty and judged for their crimes.”
Thomas didn’t like the idea of any branch of the military being judge, jury, and executioner, even if those captured did deserve it. He asked, “Who will be the judge?”
Wilkerson said, “If they resist, they won’t live to be judged.” He glanced at Deputy Anderson and continued, “I was hoping the sheriff would preside over any hearings that take place with those men and women at the high school being the jurors.”
Thomas liked the sound of that and reached out to shake the captain’s hand.
“We will continue to operate the shelter but with new rules and guidance,” Wilkerson said. “How a shelter should be operated. You men and your groups will need to work hard to put this county back in order so we can start to rebuild and be secure against any new threats.”
Thomas pointed to Anderson and Brian. “Your groups. The militia will stick around for a few weeks to ensure that the DHS does not try to come back, and we will leave a small contingent here for any future issues, but we’ll be moving on to the next area that needs us.”
Brian said, “Looks like the sheriff and his men will be busy.”
The group laughed and continued discussing the events of the day and the future of the county. Recovering from a disaster of this magnitude started from within, one town at a time.
After every useful piece of gear or ammo was salvaged, everyone cleared out from the farmhouse.
Brian and David were in the Suburban driving back to the house, with Craig following in the Hummer. The vehicles were loaded to the ceiling with gear, weapons, and ammo. Brian had also snagged four more pairs of the ENVG-IIIs.
“Uncle Brian,” David said, “I think both Brenda and Crystal like me.”
Brian laughed. “Son, you know I have your back. I would go into combat with you anytime, and I would even take a bullet for you. But… you’re on your own with this one.”
The reunion at the homestead was great. The women were adamant that the guys not participate in any more battles. Everyone laughed and enjoyed being with each other without fear of men in black suits showing up to take everything from them. They lived in dangerous times now, but they could finally live free and begin to help rebuild their country as they saw fit.
After taking a quick nap Brian, Evelyn, and Avery went out hunting to have family time together without anyone else around. It was quiet and enjoyable. Avery bagged her first deer, a nice sized, six-point buck. They would be eating venison for dinner. Avery was ecstatic and smiling ear to ear. That was, until Brian handed her the knife and told her she had to clean it.
***
Wednesday, October 2nd
12 Days Since the Power Went Out
5:30 a.m.
Brian sat straight up in bed. “Son of a bitch!”
Evelyn rolled over. “What’s wrong?”
“I think I just had a dream about that damn rooster.”
“No, it was real,” Evelyn said in a sleepy voice. “I heard him too.”
Brian laid back down with a smile on his face. Damn. That is one tough bird! He may have been the toughest one of us out there to walk out of that alive.
To Be Continued
Beast J.D. Von Kagey – Alive and Well – 2016
Quotes to Ponder
"Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they made a difference in the world. The Marines don't have that problem."
- Ronald Reagan
"An unarmed man can only flee from evil, and evil is not overcome by fleeing from it."
- Jeff Cooper
"If an American is to amount to anything he must rely upon himself, and not upon the State; he must take pride in his own work, instead of sitting idle to envy the luck of others. He must face life with resolute courage, win victory if he can, and accept defeat if he must, without seeking to place on his fellow man a responsibility which is not theirs."
-Theodore Roosevelt
"Those who give up essential liberties for temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
-Benjamin Franklin
"If the price I must pay for my freedom is to acknowledge that the government was granted the power to infringe on them, then I am not free."
-Pol Anderson
Thank you for reading this book.
This book was professionally edited and proofread, but errors will always make it through the cracks. If you discovered an error, please let me know so I can correct it for future readers. You can email any discovery’s to [email protected].
I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it. The story evolved greatly as it was being wrote and is a lot different than it was initially imaged. I look forward to bringing you the next chapter in the series.
Also, if you enjoyed this book, then I would like to ask if you would be kind enough to leave a review on Amazon. It would be greatly appreciated.
Book 2 Coming Soon
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
