Wendell quickly recovered, shaking his head. “I only meant, they’re probably torturing her. We have to save her.”
“Austin is right. We can’t reveal our presence. It’s what Sarah would want,” Ennis said.
“I agree,” Harlen said.
Only Wendell looked upset by the decision, but they only got one chance and it had to be used for the mission. Austin hated the idea of Sarah suffering at Zander’s hands, but she would have insisted they get to the computers before they tried to rescue her. And she’d have been right.
“There.” Austin pointed to the huge white structure sitting alongside a runway.
The door was hard to miss, even in the dark of night, and they ran for it.
Austin nodded. His heart was pounding; so much was riding on this moment. Harlen reached for the doorknob, testing it to see if it would open. He pulled, and they all exchanged looks of relief. This was the first step.
They encountered no soldiers as they walked along the wall towards the back of the hangar where Wendell claimed the entry to the underground bunker was carefully concealed.
Wendell pointed to a table, seemingly randomly placed against the back wall. “That’s it.”
“How do you know?” Harlen questioned.
Wendell looked uncomfortable. “Zander told me.”
Austin didn’t believe they were getting the whole story. “Zander told you the location of the computer center?” he asked skeptically.
“Yes.”
Austin spat, and then he shoved the table out of the way, dropping to his knees and feeling along the floor. He found the handle and yanked it open. He knew he should have been quieter, but he was frustrated. He was tired of failing, tired of losing friends. And if Zander had given this information to Wendell, then either this was a trap, or Wendell had really managed to weasel his way into the man’s organization, which almost wasn’t any better considering that they’d considered him one of their own—to a certain extent—all this time.
“Are we going in?”
“Wendell is,” Austin said, getting to his feet.
Wendell gasped. “What?”
“You’re going in first. If they’re down there waiting for us, I want them to shoot you first,” he said nonchalantly.
“I don’t have a gun,” he hissed.
“Nope, you don’t. Good luck,” Austin said, slapping him on the shoulder, almost hoping there was a firing squad waiting for him.
“It’s dark,” he protested.
“Go.”
Wendell grumbled under his breath before throwing a leg over the edge and onto the ladder leading underground. The other three stared into the hole, watching Wendell fade into the darkness below.
“I don’t see anything!” Wendell shouted, loudly enough to make the rest of them cringe.
“I’ll go,” Austin said, climbing onto the ladder and praying Wendell wasn’t setting him up.
He reached the bottom, finding a faint light in a metal shield hung over a door just ahead of them. He realized they were in a small room, probably no bigger than ten by ten. He called up to Ennis and Harlen, letting them know it was clear to come down.
“What if they’re waiting for us?” Ennis whispered.
“We fight,” Austin replied. “Wendell, open the door.”
They all drew their weapons, expecting a fight. Wendell actually whimpered as he pulled open the wide door. Austin blinked, his eyes adjusting to the light.
“Drop your weapons and put your hands up!” a shout from somewhere inside the room echoed around them.
“I’m unarmed!” Wendell screamed.
Austin didn’t hesitate. He wasn’t going to give them the jump. His eyes adjusted and he saw an outline of a figure. He dropped to the ground and aimed for where he guessed the head would be just before he pulled the trigger. He heard a sharp intake of breath and then a thump.
Wendell screamed and dropped to his hands and knees, crawling backward. Austin advanced with Ennis on his left and Harlen on his right. A shot rang out then, making his ears ring. He trusted Harlen and Ennis with his life. Another soldier had been hiding behind some boxes, but the fallen soldier had knocked them askew and given Ennis a shot—he took the soldier out before he could decide who to shoot, that indecision costing him his life.
“Clear on this side,” Ennis reported.
“I’m clear!” Harlen called out.
“Where are the computers?” Austin asked, not expecting an actual answer.
He scanned the area, realizing belatedly that they weren’t in a computer room at all. It was a storeroom. The three of them picked up the dead soldiers’ weapons before moving to the shelves, where they found ammunition, grenades, and even several grenade launchers.
“Those guys weren’t guarding the room,” Austin muttered. “They were probably down here picking up ammo and heard us coming.”
“Maybe so, but this is exactly what we need,” Ennis breathed as he reached out a hand and gently caressed one of the launchers. “This is a forty millimeter, M203 grenade launcher. I’ve had my eye on one of these for a long time,” he said reverently.
Austin barely glanced at him as he filled his pockets with ammunition. “We need the computers. We’re running out of time!”
Harlen was carefully putting grenades into his pants pockets. Austin rugged the tactical vest off of one of the fallen soldiers and put it on his own body, ignoring the blood. Ennis followed suit even as Harlan dug one from a box. With that, each of them began stocking up in seriousness, gathering ammo, grenades, and anything they could carry which might be used against the NWO. And, as they finished, Austin realized Wendell had vanished.
“That little weasel!” Austin hissed.
“I’m sorry. I should have trusted your instincts. He knew this wasn’t the right place,” Ennis muttered.
“Let’s go. We need to check the other hangar. He might have been right about it being in a hangar. Maybe he got the wrong one,” Austin said, not really believing it.
They scrambled up the ladder and through the hanger, heading out into the early morning light streaming through a cloudy sky. In the distance, he could see another hangar. They jogged towards it, getting within a hundred feet of it before men poured out of the building, all of them armed and fanning out in front of the hangar, effectively guarding it. Austin darted behind an abandoned Jeep that sat among other vehicles, his brother and Harlen close behind him.
“I guess we know where the real computer center is,” Harlen mumbled.
“Got that grenade launcher?” Austin asked his brother.
Ennis grinned, looking a little too happy to be killing people, but Austin understood. This was the NWO they were fighting, and the weapon was an exciting toy for him. Harlen and Austin kept watch over the vehicle, waiting to see if the soldiers would make a move, but the NWO soldiers seemed content to wait for the fight to come to them. Hidden out of sight, Ennis dropped to his knees and quickly loaded the grenade launcher before getting to one knee, holding the weapon, and aiming over the Jeep’s hood. Ennis and Harlen separated, aiming the semi-automatic rifles they had lifted from the soldiers in the bunker.
“Now!” Ennis shouted.
There was a crack, and a second later, several soldiers dropped when one of the powerful rounds exploded. Ennis turned, aimed, and fired again. He shot off several rounds, effectively stunning the army, none of whom had expected grenades or automatic weapons. Austin and Harlen jogged forward, spraying the area with two and three-round bursts from the automatic rifles.
Ennis caught up with them, firing his own rifle. The men who were still able to do so looked to be retreating. These soldiers hadn’t seen much resistance, and it showed—they weren’t near ready to see their friends fall or stand up to automatic weapons, let alone grenades and a small force with a real cause to die for.
Leading the way, Austin ran across the wide runway, heading for the building where Wendell had told them Sarah could be held. He believed no
thing the man had said, however. He’d chosen his side.
“Let’s get in there,” Austin said, firing a few more rounds at the retreating soldiers.
They rushed inside the massive hangar, finding a jet of some type parked inside, useless after the EMP. Austin looked for another obvious entrance to an underground bunker. Nothing announced itself.
“Let’s check the back,” Ennis ordered, running the length of the hangar.
Unlike the first bunker, there was nothing there. No doors in the floor, and not even any furniture that might have hid one. “It isn’t here,” Ennis declared after they’d searched the full length of the building.
“The recruiting center!” Austin shouted, already running towards the door. And those soldiers who’d run had gone in the opposite direction, he now realized—heading away from the danger and the heart of the fight.
He heard Harlen and Ennis behind him, but didn’t turn to check on their progress. Austin was furious with himself. He’d been played. Wendell had known he would go for the computer center first. It had been a red herring, meant to throw him off. He was going to shoot him when he saw him.
The recruiting center looked abandoned, and there was nowhere to take cover. If soldiers were waiting, they’d see them coming. There was little he could do about that, though. He wasn’t going to give up. He kicked open the door to the recruiting center, finding that the lobby empty. There were two closed doors on the right and another one along the back wall.
His gut told him that the back door was the way to go. He pointed. Ennis and Harlen nodded, all three of them aimed forward. Austin walked to the door, turned the handle, and pushed it open. It looked like a typical stock room, with lots of leaflets and paperwork along with various items used for recruiting, but it was a shelf about a foot away from the wall that was the giveaway.
Ennis jerked his head to indicate he understood and followed Austin. He pulled the shelf forward several feet, revealing a secret door. Excitement pumped through Austin’s veins. It had to be the entrance to the bunker. He pushed the door open, darkness greeting them once again. Unlike with the other bunker, the entrance into this one was through a low door. Austin didn’t hesitate, instead jogging downward, following the tunnel as it led underground.
Gunfire greeted him, slamming into the walls and the ground in front of him. A ricochet slammed into his chest, but the bullet was effectively stopped by the Kevlar vest he had picked up off one of the soldiers. The round only knocked him backwards into Ennis, who kept him from falling all the way to the ground. He quickly reached under the vest, touching the tender area with his fingertips to check for blood. The Kevlar had done its job. He had no doubt in his mind that Wendell had alerted the NWO forces they were coming. They’d been lying in wait, essentially trapped. They’d walked right into it, though there hadn’t been much choice, he felt even now.
“What do we do?” Ennis asked.
Austin hated to say it, but they had to retreat. They had to draw them out and fight them on more even ground. “Go back—we’ll bring them to us.”
Ennis turned and ran back up the steep incline to the exit. Austin looked behind him to see if they were being followed, and it was only when he slammed into his brother’s back that he realized where the real trap was.
“Oh, I’ve missed you,” he heard Zander say.
Austin groaned. They’d come so far, he couldn’t believe it was all over. And yet, again, he stood next to his brother, facing the man he’d come to hate more than any person he had ever met in his life. Pure evil stared back at him.
34
Amanda’s heart raced thinking about how deeply she was trusting these people she’d trained to be her small army. It wasn’t a lot to go on, but it was all she had. They had no weapons—not really—which meant they had to rely on stealth alone. They had to try to break into the missile launch facility, hope no one was still manning the launch systems, and enter the codes Sarah had given Amanda. Then, they had to wait for the signal from Austin, hoping against hope that Austin had been able to disable the satellite control systems. That was a lot of hope and a lot of luck, all needing to go in their favor if they were to succeed. Or, at least, that’s how it felt.
“Keep your eyes open,” she whispered.
It was the early morning, and sunlight highlighted the base sprawled out before them. They faced a daunting task, and that was all the more clear as she looked at the building they figured to house the launch facility… to the extent that she started to second-guess herself. For a breath, she froze, but apparently it was visible enough to those who’d come to know her so well.
“We can do this,” Ezra said in a low voice.
She let out her breath in surprise, and then offered him a half-smile. “Thanks. Do I look terrified?”
He chuckled. “No, you don’t.”
“Good, I’m hiding it well, then.”
“Heads up!” Mike shouted, the warning coming just a few seconds before shots rang out.
Gunfire rained down on them as Amanda dropped to her stomach, Ezra right beside her.
“He’s hit,” Gretchen cried out, her hand reaching out and touching Mike’s shoulder. “Mike! Mike!”
Amanda looked to her left, clasping a hand to her mouth when she saw Jordan’s lifeless body lying in an awkward pose.
“Who’s hit?” she called out quietly.
“I’m good,” Gretchen replied. “Mike’s dead,” she added, a sob tearing through her voice.
“I’m okay,” Ezra said, his voice devoid of emotion.
“Tonya?” Amanda asked, a second before more gunfire rang out. Amanda closed her eyes as she took stock of their situation, praying that the God the revivalists worshipped was up there watching over them.
The gunfire stopped as quickly as it had started. She knew the tactic. They weren’t necessarily aiming to kill; they were spraying them with bullets to keep them pinned down until they could capture them. But being captured meant they would face Nash’s fate.
“I’m okay, I’m okay.” Tonya was crying.
“I’m hit, but I don’t think it’s bad,” Drew said in obvious pain.
Amanda propped her chin on the dirt, her eyes scanning the area. There was a metal outbuilding not far from where they lay. If they could get there, they could gain some cover. Another building stood about ten feet away from the first. They could leapfrog. The idea blossomed in her mind. “We get to that building,” she said, pointing.
“Is it the NWO shooting at us?” Ezra asked.
“It has to be. They were sent here to guard the base,” she replied with disgust.
“I don’t think I can walk,” Drew groaned.
Amanda nodded, biting her lip. “I’ll get to the shed. Give me the rifle,” she ordered Ezra. They traded weapons, him taking her handgun.
“What are you going to do?” Tonya whispered.
“I’m going to the shed so that I can provide some cover while the rest of you get over there. Ezra, help Drew. Drew, I’m sorry, it’s probably going to hurt, but we have to get you over there. Maybe I’ll be lucky and find another weapon,” she joked.
“Be careful,” Ezra said as she began to belly-crawl across the hard, dry ground, rocks scraping over her arms and belly.
She kept moving, dropping flat to the ground when sporadic gunfire erupted. It felt like forever before she managed to get to the corner of the shed. She got to her knees, scrambling to the door and reaching up to tug it open. The door gave way, creaking open as she crawled inside. The shed was dark, making it difficult for her to see clearly, but she could see the outline of something large. She got to her feet, wiping off the pebbles and chunks of dirt stuck to her elbows before reaching out to feel what it was.
“Oh please, please work,” she whispered, running to the driver’s side of the Humvee parked inside the garage.
She had to hope it was one of the NWO’s vehicles that had been sheltered from the EMP. The keys were in the ignition—its cover had be
en how rundown the shed looked; the NWO’s forces never would have expected this shed to be searched for supplies. It was almost too easy. She hesitated, wondering for a moment if it was a trap. If she turned the key, it could set off a bomb. More gunfire erupted. She didn’t have a choice. She would die in a quick boom or die out there with her friends.
She squeezed her eyes closed and turned the key. The sound of an engine filled her ears and she screamed in excitement. “Yes!”
The gunfire wasn’t stopping, so she didn’t have time to get out and open the doors. She’d seen it in the movies—she just hoped it worked in real life. She put her foot on the brake, put the massive vehicle into drive, and hoped for the best, slamming her foot onto the accelerator. The Humvee lurched forward, ramming the thin metal doors so that they burst open. She raced towards where she’d left her friends, doing her best to keep the rig between where the gunfire was coming from and the surviving members of her team.
She hit the brakes, dirt flying up as Ezra yanked open the rear passenger door. Tonya and Gretchen jumped into the back. Drew maneuvered himself into the back door, Gretchen reaching out to help him inside. The gunfire was getting closer.
“Hurry!” she shouted.
Ezra slammed the back door and hopped into the front. Amanda hit the gas immediately, the vehicle’s back end sliding as she fought to regain control of the vehicle.
“Rifle?” Ezra asked.
She jerked her head towards the back. Ezra turned in his seat, grabbed the rifle, and rolled the window down before he started shooting. Gretchen did the same in the backseat, using the handgun to shoot as they passed soldiers who were now scattering.
“Hold on!” Amanda shouted, veering to the right and heading directly at a group of soldiers. They tried to run, but she hit the gas, speeding towards them and knocking a few over like bowling pins. Bodies flew as the heavy vehicle slammed into them, bumping past like some technological monster.
Tonya screamed, ducking down low as Amanda drove over bodies, then doubling back to race towards the base. She blocked out the images of what she’d just done, ignoring the blood on the windshield and speeding over the bumpy ground until they were at the launch facility. There, she put the Humvee in park and rested her head against the steering wheel.
Small Town EMP (Book 3): Survive The Conflict Page 25
