Surviving

by A J Newman

  Then he heard, “The dirty bastard has a damn kill switch on this blankety blank Ford.” He knew that they had to take action or watch these thieves drive away.

  He caught Julie’s eye and signaled, then sprang into action. He shot a round of buckshot into the air and yelled, “Get your hands up or die.” At the same time, Julie shot into the air and ran in from the opposite side of the truck.

  Gus and John immediately knew that they were caught with their pants down and urged all to surrender. They all complied quickly and were rounded up and lined up against the cabin. That’s when John remembered that Scott was not with the group. John just hoped that Scott wouldn’t do anything stupid and get hurt because he thought these people just wanted to get the police out here and get rid of them quickly. He was wrong.

  Dave came over to John, hit him in the stomach with the butt of the shotgun and yelled, “What the fuck are you doing here and did you really think that you would get away with ripping me off? I have eaten up and spit out much worse pieces of shit than you.”

  While John was doubled over in pain, he couldn’t help but think this asshole sounded like a script from Dirty Harry. Didn’t matter the bastard had the gun.

  John looked Dave in the eye and said, “Look you have got us all wrong and the real bad guys are going to come out of the woods at any time.”

  John started to tell Dave about the upcoming peril, but Dave just stuck the shotgun in John’s face and slapped him hard, blood flew.

  Dave ordered them into cabin, made them sit down on the floor and sent Julie for something to tie their hands.

  “Look man, what’s your name? We were running from…” John exclaimed just before Dave tried to butt stroke him in the head. John grabbed the shotgun and all hell broke loose.

  Beth jumped on Dave and scratched the hell out of his face as she grabbed for his gun. Gus made a move to help, but Julie fired a shot over his head as Dave threw Beth to the floor and kicked her in the side. That’s when the crap hit the fan.

  John and Bill jumped on Dave while Gus and Jim grabbed Julie and fought her for her gun. Julie lost control of her shotgun, but quickly began kicking the shit out of both Gus and Bill. She was moving like Chuck Norris, kicking and blocking counter punches with her arms. She had put Bill out of action and started on Gus when Gus got tired of fighting a lady and just hit her upside her head and knocked her out.

  Steve had pushed Alice and Janet out of the way and came charging at Dave who was fighting with Bill and John for control of the shotgun. He hit Dave upside his head with his elbow and dropped him like a sack of potatoes.

  Bill and Gus tied Dave and Julie with some clothesline and then got a pan of water and splashed them with the contents. Steve took Dave’s shotgun and put it in Dave’s face and said, “Shut up and listen, you dumbass cracker.”

  They quickly checked each other out, made sure there were no serious wounds, and only needed a few bandages. Beth walked over to Dave and kicked him hard in the side.

  “Next time you will shut up and listen when someone is trying to save your pathetic life, you sorry piece of crap. John, how do we know that they aren’t part of that bunch of killers?” Beth screamed.

  Julie was laying on the floor crying and sobbing, “Don’t kill my babies, God please don’t kill my babies.

  “Julie, shut up,” exclaimed Dave.

  “We didn’t plan on hurting you two until you attacked us, you miserable assholes,” yelled Bill.

  “We just wanted to escape from the killers and borrow your truck to get into town to get the law after them,” said Beth.

  “Why did you attack us?” chimed in Steve.

  Julie kept blubbering about them not killing her babies, nothing she said made sense. John came over, picked Julie up, kicking and screaming and put her on the couch. He then told Dave to get his ass off the floor and calm his wife down. It took a few minutes and Julie was gently sobbing, but would not open her eyes.

  John said, “I guess you have to listen now.”

  He proceeded to tell them as much as he could in five minutes. He stressed that the killers had to be close and that they were all in danger. He then told them that he was John Harris and that he had noticed that they appeared to be Preppers. Dave said that they were, but why did that matter. John then shouted out his corny opening for his radio show.

  “Holy crap,” Dave exclaimed. “Was that crap supposed to mean something to me?” he added.

  John told him about his radio show and Dave didn’t have a clue, but when John mentioned the survival book series, Dave stood up. John shoved him back onto the couch hard.

  “I bought those books, look on that shelf!” Dave said. John went to the shelf, opened the book to the last page and put the author’s picture next to his face.

  “Look Dumbass, that’s what I looked like before you slugged me,” said John.

  Julie started laughing and cried, “You are not here to kill my babies!”

  “Not you or your babies,” cried John. He then asked Dave what the fuss was all about killing her babies. John freed Dave while Beth untied Julie and told all to keep an eye on them.

  John took Dave out on the front porch and asked, “What was the talk about killing her babies about?”

  Dave told him their story about life in Los Angeles and their previous jobs in law enforcement and nursing. He then told John that his team had broken some lower level pushers and got the goods on the local head of the “Cabra’s” drug gang. Before they could close in, the gang tried to kill every single team member and their family. Dave and Julie were away with their two younger kids when they attacked their home. Their 15-year old daughter, Kim, was alone with her best friend. They were savagely raped and had their heads cut off. John looked back to the house and saw Beth just a few feet away, crying.

  Beth went into the house, sat down next to Julie, gave her a hug and told her how sorry they were for bringing in this grief on them. They both cried for a while then finally composed themselves.

  Beth then looked at Dave and said, “Do y’all have cell phones, we probably need to call the police?”

  • • •

  Scott and Jim doubled back about two miles staying 50 -100 feet to the West of their original trail and peered through the dense foliage for the GAO group. They had decided to sneak back to meet them and cut them down to size a bit. Another ambush could get two maybe three of them.

  “I’ll shoot the tall blonde guy, and then the redheaded one with the AK while you get as many as possible with the 9mm. We’ll take no more than five shots each and fall back. Then do it again after half a mile or so. Then we run full speed back to the cabin,” said Scott.

  Jim added, “All of that track we ran in high school might pay off.”

  Scott knew that he could outrun the thugs, but knew Jim was not in the best of shape, too much Imelda and beer!

  Jim said, "I’m not an ex-soldier like you and your Dad, but what if they don’t follow us?”

  Scott didn’t get a chance to answer because they saw the thugs coming towards them through the trees. They were following the big red headed guy as he followed the signs in the disrupted leaves and bushes. They were about 75 yards away. Scott and Jim got into position and made sure they had cover for their retreat. Jim pointed out Maria and the blonde guy. The blonde guy was laughing and hanging on to Maria and bossing the others around. The blonde guy put his hand on Maria’s ass and she slapped him and ran to the front on the group. Scott thought that except for the big red headed guy, this bunch looked like they were on a Sunday stroll. They should achieve total surprise.

  • • •

  As they got closer, they heard Red shout out to Karl, “When will the others get here?”

  Karl replied, “In a couple of hours or so. What’s wrong? Don’t you think we can kill these campers?”

  Red replied, “I think we may have something more than campers ahead of us, sometimes you get the bear and sometimes the bear gets you. I’m not sur
e what we have here. They have set some effective traps, took our hostages and killed several of us. We have only killed Roger.”

  Red thought that Karl was too full of himself and that they might have bitten off more than they could chew. He was going to slow the chase and wait on the re-enforcements that Karl had coming.

  Karl shouted at Red and ordered him to come back to him. Scott and Jim could only hear every other word, but Karl was pissed. He was telling Red that he was the boss and that Red had better do what he was told and shut up or Karl would gut him like a pig. Red quieted down, said something very quietly and went back to scouting the trail. What Red didn’t see was that Manny and the white guy backed Karl while Maria and Jesus had their guns pointed at Karl.

  • • •

  After the confrontation, none of the GAO thugs were watching too closely and were not talking at all. Scott counted six of them and decided to change the plan and wait for them to get even with them. They would target the blonde guy and Manny and hope the rest would stop the chase without their leader. They would then kill as many as possible and run west for a while to throw them off the cabin and ambush them one more time, if they followed, before heading to the cabin.

  Just as Scott was about to fire, a snake crawled in front of him. He could tell it was not poisonous, but still he knew a bite would be painful. The snake crawled straight towards his face. When it got about four feet away, he started blowing at it to run it away. The snake kept coming at him until it was just a foot from his arm. Scott quickly reached out, grabbed the snake just below the head and threw it as far as he could. The snake hit some bushes and fell into some leaves. There was just enough noise to alert the thugs.

  Scott fired first and dropped the blonde guy, then shot Jose in the head. His head exploded into a red mist with chunks of brains flying all around. No doubt, he was dead. At the same time, Jim took aim at Red and pulled the trigger, Red fell. Jim then shot at Manny, but only grazed him. The girl, Maria, must have thought there were snipers in the trees for her shots were high and wide. Jesus returned their fire, put a slug into a tree beside Jim, threw bark in his face and then put another one in Jim’s shoulder before Scott’s shots got him. Jesus fell down while screaming to the Lord to save him.

  By this time, they were receiving return fire and bullets were whizzing all around. They fired several rounds each to pin the GAO down, and then crawled back about a hundred yards and Scott checked Jim’s shoulder. It was a flesh wound just below the shoulder on Jim’s left arm and Scott applied a piece of his shirt as a bandage and then tied it tight with another piece of his shirt.

  “You won’t die of this you lucky bastard, “he told his friend. But keep your head down before they take it off,” he added.

  They started running while shooting back at the GAO to make sure they knew where to follow them.

  • • •

  Karl only had a deep scrape on his right side and wondered if he had a broken rib. He was cursing the campers and was threatening them, their families and everyone they knew. Manny was shot in the left bicep, but could still use his arm. Jose had his head blown away and Jesus had an ugly wound in his stomach. Red walked up to see how they were. He had been hit in the side, but said he was okay. That left only four relatively unscathed and Jesus with the severe stomach wound. Maria did not get a scratch.

  “Jesus, do you have any fight left in you?” asked Karl.

  Jesus held his stomach and replied, “I’ll do whatever it takes to please you Karl, just tell me what you need.”

  Karl looked him in the eyes and said, “Die.” He then shot Jesus in the forehead.

  Maria exclaimed, “Why did you do that, he did not have to die?”

  “Look you dumb bitch he was dying, I just put him out of his misery. He would have slowed us down and we could not leave him behind and take a chance on him getting caught by the local police."

  Maria said, “Karl, killing your men is not the way to endear them to you.”

  Karl struck her across the face and knocked her down. Karl nudged Maria with his foot and made her get up, then pointed his pistol at her and said, “Perhaps you should give me your gun, just in case you hold a grudge against me.”

  He laughed and shoved her until she started following Red. Karl was worried, but furious at the same time. He’d lost three of his best men and three of Manny’s to these amateurs and he would even the score regardless what it took.

  Karl gathered the others and said, “I will not allow you to give up, we only need to keep trailing them and wait for help. Then we will attack with many more men and heavy weapons.”

  Red agreed and said, “Let’s track the bastards down and make them wish they weren’t alive.” He then said, “Karl, you pay me to handle security and something’s wrong here,”

  Karl turned to Red and glared, “What is wrong, my friend?”

  Red said, “That ambush was halfhearted and I am sure that this was a couple of them just trying to keep us away from the main group. We need to keep following the main group’s trail and attack them. Watch closely for another ambush, but concentrate on the main group.”

  Karl thought for a minute and replied, “You are the warrior, I defer, but in the end I want them all dead.”

  • • •

  Later, Jim said, “Scott, do you hear a helicopter?” Scott replied, “I hear something and hope it’s a SWAT team.

  Scott said, “I don’t have a good feeling about this, they did not follow us and a helicopter shows up!” Scott then added, “Let’s get back to the cabin ASAP.”

  They quickly noticed that the helicopter was also heading towards the cabin.

  • • •

  The pilot had directed Karl to a clearing about a half mile from the cabin. The pilot brought five well-armed men plus enough ammo and weapons to start a small war. They landed and quickly unloaded. Karl took stock of the weapons and told the new men his plan.

  He said, “I want you to mount the M 60 in the door and be ready to kill any that try to escape. Did you bring the RPG and the night vision equipment?” Karl wasn’t going to underestimate this bunch again. He was now prepared and was going to kill all of them. They were all armed with AK47s, 9mm side arms, one RPG with 4 rounds and a couple of tear gas grenades. There was five pair of night vision goggles. Karl’s plan was to surround the cabin, talk the “Campers” into surrendering and then rape the women and kill the men. Then, when done with the women, he would kill them also. If they would not surrender, he would blow them off the face of the earth.

  Red led the group to the cabin and then gave each instruction on what he wanted them to do. He sent two men back into the woods to ambush the two bastards that had ambushed them a few hours ago. He then had the rest surround the cabin and get ready to fire one shot through each window just before Karl told them to surrender. He went over to Karl and said, “We are ready and waiting your orders.” He had barely gotten the words out when there was gunfire in the woods.

  He said, “We got the SOBs that ambushed us earlier today,” and slapped Karl on the back.

  Karl shook his hand and said, “Things are going our way and the end is near.”

  Karl thought it was going to be dark soon and he knew they had surprise on their side. Finally, he would be rid of these pests.

  • • •

  Scott saw the thugs first and started firing, Jim joined in with deadly aim. The firefight was intense, but one sided. The thugs had only gotten off a couple of random shots before they died. Scott and Jim quickly stripped the bodies of two AKs, two 9mm and several mags for each.

  Jim rolled the bodies over face up and exclaimed, “These are new bad guys. The helicopter must have brought in re-enforcements.”

  Scott added, “We have to get our asses to the cabin before they attack.”

  Scott looked at Jim and said, “Remind me to start going to church for God has been with us on this trip.”

  Jim agreed. They shouldered the extra firepower and took off
at a full run.

  • • •

  Dave made the 911 call and had trouble convincing the dispatcher that there were numerous men trying to kill them. Dave then told her that he was retired FBI and that she had better get the FBI and State Police out here quick. He gave her the names of the State Police Commander and Section Chief for the local State Police post and emphasized that he was friends with both of them. He demanded to talk with one of them. It took a minute, but she patched the FBI in to him.

  Dave told the Special Agent the description of the group, their arms and that a missile was used to shoot a plane down. That was all it took to get a major response. In a few minutes, the FBI section chief was on the phone and told Dave a major team was on the way. The response included FBI, State Police and a Terrorist SWAT Team. Dave begged them to hurry since they were not sure that they could hold out and that his kids were due back home in an hour. He was told that the SWAT team would be there in about three hours and the rest would be another hour behind them, he added that he would have local police block the roads out of town to block the kids or other innocents from being harmed. Dave told Julia that help was on the way and she was relieved a bit, but could not rest until she knew her kids were safe in her arms.

  Dave told the others, “Help is about three hours away.”