Surviving

by A J Newman

  “You can’t do this, that’s vigilante justice. You will go to jail,” Maria yelled.

  John turned and faced her, he said, “That’s big talk for a GAO thug running drugs and plotting to overthrow the government.”

  Maria replied, “John, I am a Homeland Security agent, I was working undercover with Roger to nail these bastards and you just can’t kill people because they are bad.”

  "Do you have ID in your shoe and a .38 strapped to your leg like Roger?"

  She took her shoe off, showed him the ID and pulled a KEL-TEC .380 from her ankle.

  John said, “Guys, start cleaning this place up. Gus, bring the chopper here. Chop Chop.”

  Steve came over and gave Maria a hug, then told her, “Maria, do you have a family? They are in danger; these guys will kill our families without a thought."

  Maria said, “I have a five year old daughter and parents, but the government will protect them.”

  “You really believe that the government can keep a drug cartel from finding your daughter and raping and killing her? They raped and cut that little girls head off just to make a point”

  Maria thought for about two seconds then replied, “Okay, I’m in. What’s the plan?”

  • • •

  They didn’t say a word for half an hour, then all spoke at once, everyone babbled on and on for about five minutes.

  Finally Beth said, “We have to man up and get this done. Are you two up to this task?”

  They said that they were, but were not sure that they could cut Fred’s head off.

  Beth jumped in with, “I can do it if I have to.”

  They did not say another word until they got to their camp. They drove straight to the camp and loaded up everything into the RV, every leaf, twig or rock with blood on it. They put them in trash bags. Fred was where they had left him days ago. You could tell that animals had found him, his eyes had been pecked out and one of his arms had big chunks of flesh missing. They placed the body on a tarp; said prayers that Fred would be taken care of and hoped he went to heaven. They stalled a while. Beth went to the RV and came back with a butcher knife. She placed the knife against his neck and started slicing. It took a while, but she finally got the head severed from the body. She then went into the woods and vomited until she could not vomit anymore, she then had dry heaves.

  • • •

  It was about two in the morning and John knew that they had to haul ass to get the plan executed and get down to Mobile. John said, “Leave a few of the pistols and an AK, but grab all other weapons and ammo, we might need it if these SOBs retaliate."

  John scoured the area around the cabin and even cut a bushy limb from a tree and dragged it around the cabin to hide evidence. Gus, Jim and Scott had already put all of the evidence and bodies in the cabin and poured gas throughout the cabin.

  As Gus landed the copter on the lawn, John threw a burning torch into the cabin door and yelled, “Let’s haul ass out of here."

  • • •

  The SWAT Team arrived about 20 minutes after they lifted off and found the cabin totally engulfed in flames. Since they were not aware of the GAO, they began standard operating procedure and started investigating the crime scene. They found hundreds of spent casings on the ground and blood everywhere, but no bodies to be found.

  The SWAT team leader said, “Something very bad happened here. Why did someone try to half ass clean the crime scene up? There are scads of evidence everywhere. Where are the people who called this in?”

  His assistant looked at the burning cabin and said, “Maybe the bad guys cooked them.”

  The FBI arrived a couple of hours later and immediately sent for a CSI team. They began searching the woods for survivors and placed markers by every spent round or blood spatter. A guy in a blue suit arrived with the CSI team. While not in charge, he appeared to have the run of the crime scene.

  • • •

  The blue suit guy went to the back of the house and pulled a satellite phone from his coat pocket.

  He dialed a number, waited and said, “Yes, it is our dumbass and yes he has screwed up our plans. However, I have a great plan B. Let’s meet at location 7.”

  • • •

  While the SWAT Team was looking for evidence and scratching their asses, John and his team were landing about half mile from the GAO office. They had numerous AK 47s and the RPG with four rounds and a will to use them. They quickly found the guards, neutralized them and moved on to surround the office.

  “Let’s stick to the plan, kill as many as possible without firing a shot. Then get our data and burn the bodies and buildings to the ground."

  Maria said, “Your records will be in the black four drawer filing cabinet by the safe. I’ll find them.”

  It was 4:00 a.m. and very dark. Gus could not see his hand wave in front of his face. They all had nylons over their heads and latex gloves on their hands. The fire would make it look like they had never been there. They were slowly hunting down every GAO person and slitting their throats. Jim snuck up on the last guard and just as he put his hand over the guy’s mouth and shoved the knife into his kidney, the guy’s hat fell off. It was a woman!

  As she fell, she turned and looked at Jim and mouthed, “Fuck you!”

  Jim dropped her and started shaking and tears came to his eyes. John rushed over, hugged Jim, and told him, “Jim, she was a hired killer, she would have killed one of us without blinking.”

  Jim replied, “I know, but it is still a woman and she looks just like Imelda!”

  John looked at the girl and replied, “No, Jim, your mind is playing tricks on you and she looks nothing like Imelda!”

  John knew this was a lie, but a well meant one. He did not want Jim thinking about killing this bitch every time he looked in his girlfriend’s eyes.

  The sun was barely up when they saw several cars drive up. Four Hispanic guys got out of the cars and went into the office. They were about to go into the office when a minivan with two adults and three kids arrived.

  Gus said, “I’ll take care of them. I’ll have them gone in a minute!” Gus walked over to the driver’s side of the van talked with the driver for a minute, the van then backed out, and sped out of the parking lot, squealing tires as it left. Gus stood there waving at them as they disappeared.

  “Jim and I’ll blow up their planes and save a DC 3 for our trip. John, you, Scott and Maria take the office and destroy the records,” Gus said.

  They walked into the office with AKs aimed at the GAO thugs.

  “Hands up or die,” said Gus.

  There were four of them in the office, two raised their hands, but two tried to draw their weapons. John was a blur, he killed the two that had tried to draw their weapons and shot the other two in the shoulder.

  Scott went to John and said, “Dad, the other two did not draw their guns.”

  John said, “Grow up, son.”

  John then proceeded to make one of them open the company safe and then had them pile the contents on to the floor. There was a pile of records and several large bags. He then made them empty all of the filing cabinets and pile the records on the floor. Scott searched the bags and took the largest one.

  Maria rifled the records cabinet, but did not find their file.

  John looked at the thugs and said, “Where is our info, you know, records of our trip and credit card info?"

  Neither thug looked up and both tried to ignore John. One said that they needed to go to the hospital.

  John stuck his 9mm against one of the thugs head and said, “The first one of you that gives me our records lives, the other dies.”

  The other thug said, “Bull shit, you are the good guys, you call the cops. We’ll go to jail and get out and then come and kill your wife and kids in front of you then kill your sorry asses.”

  John quickly aimed at the thug’s foot and shot him.

  John said, “You obviously made the mistake of messing with the wrong good guys. Maria, pull the employm
ent records on these turds. Scott, search them for ID.”

  They piled the documents on the counter.

  John took a minute to review their info and said, “You two idiots have this all wrong. Both of you are dead! We leave and you die and burn in this building. Scott will douse you in gas in a minute and burn you alive unless you tell me where the records are.”

  He pulled a driver’s license and said, “Martin, your wife and two daughters live here on Mesa Ave, your mother and about six brothers and sisters live in Yuma, AZ. If you don’t give us the info in sixty seconds or fail to give us all of the info I will hunt them down and cut all of their throats.”

  John then shot the other thug in the foot and then pointed the gun at the other's knee.

  "Speak up! You are dead, save your families now!"

  He pulled the trigger and blew half the thugs knee away. The other one started crying and yelling where the records were.

  The records were all there, but Maria also noticed that someone had made notes on each of them. She did not mention this to John. He then turned and shot both in the head. Maria started screaming at John and tried to hit him.

  He grabbed her and told her to grow up.

  “Maria, do what you have to, but don’t trust the Government to protect you. There are no witnesses and perhaps with some luck all of us can go home and live safely. Scott, burn it down.”

  John pushed Maria out the door while Scott poured gas in every room, lit a torch and threw it into the office. The office blew up like a bomb went off and knocked Scott to the ground.

  Maria said, “John, you just killed two unarmed people. Can you live with yourself?”

  John replied, “Yes, if we keep these monsters from killing my loved ones, I’ll sleep sound at night. Remember, these guys cut heads off and tongues out just to scare people. They raped and killed that young girl.”

  The plan was for Maria to feign being knocked out and be discovered on the GAO grounds while the others bugged out. She already had a cut and a lump on her head from Red.

  Jim and Scott jumped in to the RV and headed for Mobile while Gus and John headed for an airport close to Mobile so they could get home and prepare for retaliation if it came their way. John would rent a car and take the extra weapons to his home in the middle of the night. They would wait a day then fly to an airport closer to Mobile. John started the fire and ran over to the DC 3, which Gus had warmed up ready to fly. They took off and flew straight to an airport just north of Montgomery so they could quickly get home from there. They would then fly to Satsuma to meet up with the RV.

  • • •

  The four of them argued for the first 100 miles when Bill suddenly said, “Damn, we are not expected back for three days. We have time to camp at a different place to help our story. We all watch CSI and all those other TV crime scene shows; we have to come up with an unbreakable story.”

  Beth added, “Well we can sit around the campfire telling TV plots.”

  They all laughed for a minute and then reality set in, their story had to ring true. Alice talked them into driving over to the “Craters of the Moon” in Idaho to spend their time. They drove over making sure they only paid cash for the one fill up. Alice was the only one to get out of the RV while Bill filled it up. She paid cash for the gas and supplies that she purchased and had a ball cap and sunglasses hiding her face.

  They skipped several high-end campgrounds and stopped at a nice, but nondescript one where their rented RV wouldn’t stand out. They had solved their major problem by making a large makeshift ice chest for Fred. None wanted a quickly decaying body as a roommate.

  They got their stories down pat. They all were fans of police TV shows and knew that their stories had to be good, but not appear scripted. The prepared central theme of being forced off the road, robbed, Fred taken hostage and the bad guys leaving in a hail of bullets. It was dark they had masks “yada yada.” They knew their families' lives depended on them sticking to the story and them not finding Fred’s body for at least a week.

  • • •

  “You know this is just great, what the fuck is John Harris doing hooked up with drug lords and terrorists in a battle in the northwest? You just can’t make this stuff up,” said the guy in the dark blue suit to Agent Black.

  There were five men and one woman spread around the table. There was nothing in the room, but a table and six chairs. They had never met in the same room or same city for their once a month strategy session. They did not know who was above them or who supplied the money to cover their very expensive projects.

  They got an update on the GAO Chupacabras and John’s exploits then a heated discussion took place.

  The woman said, “We needed someone to take the fall for the upcoming changes in our country. Our average Joe Blow wants to make the changes, but does not have the guts to do the dirty work. Moreover, where are all of these damn skinheads when you needed a Socialist President killed? This has to happen before our President and his cohorts execute their plot against the USA. We had John set up to take the fall and now the dumb SOB screws up our plans. He was perfect since he rants and raves about our of control government and has the special services background.”

  The Blue Suit added, “Hold on, the Cabra’s are tailor made to be our fall guys, the shame is we have to keep John Harris from killing all of them before they take the fall. Make John and his dipshit friends National Heroes! The people will rally around John and us when we show them that these despicable Narco Terrorists killed their wonderful president and attacked them.”

  The woman said, “Can we tie the Iranians into the plot?

  Blue Suit replied, “Yes, we just have to make a couple of changes in evidence.”

  They all agreed and decided to adapt their plan to blame the “Cabra’s.”

  Blue Suit said, “Miss Brown, you handle the media and Agent Black will handle the Law Enforcement groups. Let’s make a HERO!”

  In a few weeks, their underground compound would be completed and they could stop all of this clandestine meeting bullshit and begin to make things happen. It was time for planning to end and execution to begin.

  • • •

  The DC3 was about 75 miles from Satsuma when John’s cell phone started playing, “You’re So Mean” by Taylor Swift. While not a Swift fan, the song fit his ex-wife to a tee.

  John answered, “What do you want now, you got all my money?”

  Ann replied, “Okay smart ass, get someone else to proof your trashy books next time.”

  John quickly changed the tone of his voice and said, “Darlin’, what can I do for you today?”

  “I just wanted to make sure that you are okay, I heard on the news about the horrible things that happened on y’all’s trip. I know the media exaggerates a lot, but did someone actually get killed?” she asked.

  John said, “What did you just say, you heard what from the news?”

  Gus started cussing in the background and John gave him the sign to pipe down.

  John gave her a brief update and said, “Well, we tried to keep this secret so that there would be no retaliation from this bunch of drug dealers. Ann, this is a very well organized group with vast resources. They will be coming for us.”

  Ann said, “Well, it’s too late to keep it quiet; the mayor is getting the city geared up to give y’all the key to the city. ABC, NBC, FOX, CNN and everyone else is heading to Mobile to camp out at your house.”

  Ann added, “Well, first you can call off your PI who has been watching me for the last two days. You know I got my half of our money fair and square, catching me sleeping with Paul won’t do you any good.”

  “Ann, I promise you that I do not have anyone watching you, I have no idea what you are talking about and maybe you pissed some guy’s wife off. Look, seriously, it could be one of the guys that attacked us. By the way did you check on JoAnne, how is she doing?” John asked.

  She said, “I checked on her twice and all appeared to be going well. I sa
w her with David Meeks, the city parks commissioner on Friday. She does not seem to miss you one bit. I told you to bend her over the desk!”

  Ann then thought about this mystery man in JoAnne’s life, but did not want to break JoAnne’s confidence so she did not bring him up.

  John suddenly said, “Ann, I am over you and won’t need JoAnne’s services. You won’t believe it, but I met the perfect woman for me deep in the woods of the Northwest.”

  Ann laughed and said, “BS, you are just trying to get me to stop trying to get you laid so you will forget me.”

  John replied, “Ann who?” He then hung up before she could answer.

  John started thinking about who could be following Ann. He finally thought that he would call one of his cop friends to look into it.

  • • •

  Scott and Jim were yakking away about their adventures and then about how much they missed their girlfriends when they heard some big news breaking on the radio. Jim yelled for Steve to join them in the front of the RV.

  They heard, “While the details are still unfolding, it appears that a terrorist group has suffered a major setback in an attempt to implement a large scale attack on the USA. While sketchy in details, it appears that the Chupacabra Drug Cartel was plotting to shoot down several airplanes including Air Force One. The attacks were aimed at planes carrying DEA, Federal Marshalls and the President. Fortunately, for the USA, a group of hunters from Mobile, AL stopped them in their tracks. There was a furious gun battle and the good old boys from Mobile wiped the bad guys out.”