by Nathan Jones
But looks belied reality. Aspen Hill depended on and trusted these two people, who'd proven so good at defending their homes that thanks in large part to them the town was on the verge of finally defeating or driving off Turner and his raiders. When it came this victory would be theirs as much as anyone's, and he felt a surge of pride at being able to call them friends.
Lewis held out his hand and Matt grasped it firmly, then pulled the shorter man into a hug. “Don't get shot,” he said, trying to keep his tone light.
“Haven't yet,” Lewis said. “Be careful with the package before it's delivered, okay?”
“Sure thing.” Matt stepped back, nodding to Jane. “Look out for each other.”
Before she could answer, assuming she decided to, he heard a commotion from the other side of the storehouse.
It was Rick and Alice, competing to see who could shout the loudest. Apparently Rick had learned that the young woman his family had fostered since her mother's death was coming along. From the heat in his voice it was obvious that feelings Matt hadn't known were there between the two were making him even more protective of her.
For her part Alice stubbornly refused to back down in spite of his arguments for why she should stay, including the one Matt himself had raised about her being able to shoot. The two had drawn just about everyone's attention and didn't seem to be getting anywhere when Rick finally turned in exasperation to give Matt an angry look. “You said she could come?”
Matt shrugged awkwardly. “It's her decision. Same as for everyone else who's volunteered to defend the town.”
Since he'd effectively washed his hands of the argument Rick turned back to Alice, looking almost frightened. Matt wondered if Chauncey's injury that had spurred Alice to come along was filling Rick with an equal determination to keep her out of danger. “You can't even shoot!” he said again.
“You're not the only one who wants to defend the people you care about,” she shot back. Then she stomped away, ignoring him as he shouted at her back.
Matt hoped Rick's worry for Alice wouldn't cause him to lose focus or make stupid mistakes trying to protect her. The younger man was another of the people whose competence he depended on, who'd been there doing what was needed to defend the town right from the beginning. He had a critical role to play tonight on the team with Lewis and Jane.
It was something Matt hadn't considered when agreeing to let Alice come along, and he hoped he hadn't made a mistake. Even if he hadn't known Rick had feelings for the blond girl Matt should've realized his friend would feel protective of her, since his family was responsible for her wellbeing.
He'd have to take the younger man aside and talk to him, reassure him that he'd do his best to keep Alice out of harm's way and make sure Rick's head was in the right place. This attack was going to be far riskier than even the raid on the camp had been, an attack where they fully committed themselves to solving the raider problem once and for all. He needed everyone at their best for it.
* * * * *
Phase One was arguably the most dangerous part of the plan, since it involved challenging the raiders where they controlled the situation.
On the surface it was fairly straightforward. Throughout the day the defenders had singled out the sniper positions surrounding the town, using Lewis and Gutierrez's reports of the ones they'd found and careful panning of the area with binoculars and even telescopes from the rooftops. Where that failed they resorted to baiting the snipers into taking shots, usually with the old trick of raising one of the captured raider helmets into view and seeing where the shots, if any, came from.
By those methods they determined that there were still eight snipers surrounding the town at roughly the compass positions: north, northeast, east, southeast, south, southwest, west, and northwest.
That fit with the rough tally Lewis had made of the raiders going on what he and Jane had seen in the camp. With 28 men total and 12 at the camp at all times, either on sentry duty or resting for another shift, an assumed driver for each of two trucks with the two available missile launcher wielders going around doing attacks to make 4 total, and 8 sentries, that added up to 24 people.
As for the other 4, 3 at least were up on the east hill emplacement with at least one spotter, a gunner for the .50 cal, and a man on the missile launcher. Possibly two spotters so each weapon had their own, or maybe the remaining man was in camp too wounded to contribute.
That would account for all 28 raiders and if anything was the most pessimistic projection, since it was impossible to keep that many things going at once for more than 24 hours without serious problems with exhaustion. Which might be another reason the missile attacks had stopped, as those carrying them out finally stopped to get some shuteye.
Either way knowing the number and positions of the snipers allowed the defenders to go after them.
Ten defenders were sent out in two groups of five, in full body armor and with every bit of night vision the town had acquired, as well as suppressors for their captured raider weapons. The plan was to sneak up on the snipers and take them out, before they could radio in to either alert the other snipers to the danger or call for help from the trucks. If possible the defenders wanted to avoid having to deal with the vehicles, and the missile launchers they could bring, at all costs.
But just in case the trucks did come after them the defenders came prepared. Gutierrez's group brought the .50 cal, and both groups had a couple grenades from the captured truck as well as a few Molotov cocktails if needed.
They fanned out from the western side of town to take out the snipers to the southwest, west, and northwest first, then split up and circled around to clear the north and south sides of town. As for the east side, even though they knew the positions of the snipers Lewis had warned the defenders to not even attempt it, since those raiders would be under the cover of the east hill emplacement. The only exception was if they managed to take out the other snipers without raising the alarm or even stirring suspicion, although nobody expected that to happen.
And it didn't. The defenders managed to take out the three snipers to the west, but as they circled around for the others they discovered those positions abandoned, the snipers that had occupied them nowhere to be seen. Perhaps they'd heard the shots that took out their companions in spite of the suppressors, or maybe one had managed to radio an alarm before dying, but either way the snipers were gone.
The outcome could've been better but it wasn't a problem, because the main point of clearing the snipers hadn't been to take them out. It had been to allow the defenders to safely leave the town in larger numbers, watched over by the two teams with their night vision.
Lewis, circling around to the north with his group, saw the trucks coming first. The expected response to his people going after the snipers. He lifted his radio and pushed the call button once. A few moments later he heard the faint noise of another call on his radio pinging three times, indicating that Gutierrez's group to the south had also seen a truck.
Motioning to his people, he slipped into cover and went perfectly still.
The radios were too useful to avoid using just because the raiders were listening in, which meant they had to find a way to make them work. They also had to worry about Turner spamming the call sign while they were trying to sneak around, alerting enemies to their presence.
The obvious solution was to use the call signs themselves for signaling, and just muffle the speakers on the radios so even that usually loud noise was barely audible. Then they used a simple code system where the points of the compass were numbered going clockwise, with north as 1 and west as 4. He expected Turner would realize they were communicating fairly quickly, and either begin spamming the call sign again or, if he was more subtle, try to fake the signals to send misleading messages.
So for Phase One they were only using the radios once, to warn of the approaching trucks. Then if there was an emergency they could also use the code of three quick blips and then the direction of the dan
ger relative to town, which was another throwaway code.
As for the trucks, they were the biggest danger by far. But they were also fast moving and for the most part flying blind, relying on the snipers to point them to targets. With the snipers gone they could drive around looking for things to shoot at, but unless they slowed to a stop and really checked an area they probably wouldn't be able to find any.
Since the Aspen Hill defenders had already proven they could shoot drivers even behind reinforced windshields Lewis didn't see them stopping any time soon. Ditto for rolling down their windows to shoot at hidden enemies in the dark, since even turtles were vulnerable once they poked their head out of their shell.
Which was why his group, Gutierrez's group, and the larger force of defenders Matt was leading out of town all simply hid as best they could and waited for the trucks to blunder by, ready to defend themselves if they were discovered but otherwise ordered to avoid notice.
As for what the trucks ultimately decided to do, that was fairly predictable as well. If Turner had proven one thing after the volunteers hit the camps yesterday morning, it was that he overreacted hard when prodded. So after the two Phase One groups took out a few of the snipers and sent the rest fleeing, then disappeared, the raiders in the trucks obviously seemed to assume that the defenders had poked their heads out of their besieged town just long enough for their attack, then gone home.
In response the trucks parked a safe distance from Aspen Hill and launched a few missiles at the town. Those missiles didn't do much, since aside from a few lookouts on the roof of town hall the defenders had either already left the town or were in basements with the townspeople, as protected as possible under the circumstances.
After firing the missiles the trucks drove around a bit more looking for movement or signs of enemies outside the destroyed fortifications, but they didn't slow down or look too carefully for fear of coming under attack. Not too much later they returned to their camp.
At which point the defenders continued moving to their positions. Lewis's and Gutierrez's teams were to find a way to get in place around the raider camp and the east hill emplacement, respectively, if possible without being seen. They were ordered to do nothing that would reveal their presence, even if a clear opportunity to take out an enemy presented itself.
They had a far more important job.
Meanwhile Matt's force circled far, far out to surround the raider camp at an extreme distance, ready to close in when needed but mostly there to alert the others if any raiders tried to leave their camp. If the circumstances allowed it they could even attack any raiders that came their way and do their best to take them out, but given the danger presented by the trucks that was a last resort.
Mostly the goal was to pin the raiders into their camp so the defenders were free to move, allowing the plan to transition to Phase Two.
For the most part the raiders cooperated, remaining huddled in their camp and not even trying to leave. But two more times in the night the trucks roared out to approach the town and launch missiles, then return. The east hill emplacement also opened fire on the town on four separate occasions. Each time the defenders could only clench their teeth and hope their loved ones hadn't been harmed while they let the enemy go unchallenged and continued to stay in hiding, biding their time.
Their chance would come soon.
Shortly before dawn the last group of defenders left town, in utmost secrecy and with only a single click of the call button to assure them that the raider trucks were still in camp along with all the raiders. Their discovery wouldn't spell certain death if caught, but if that were to happen the plan would almost definitely fail.
They weren't caught. Phase Two was ready to begin.
Chapter Thirteen
Tip For Tap
The plan was for Phase Two to begin at the first light of dawn, kicked off by sending the captured raider truck directly for Turner's camp.
Matt had been against the idea, and Lewis didn't blame him: it was a bad one and even Turner would think it was stupid once he realized what they were doing.
That was the point, though. The truck was a precious resource, and using it for an open attack against enemies with missile launchers was suicide. Especially in light of the advantage it could give the defenders if they used it more judiciously. Once Turner saw what they were doing with it he would immediately assume it was a trick and be on his guard.
There was also the fact that no matter the outcome it meant the town would lose the truck for good.
But at the same time, even if it was a trick the raider leader would have to respond, and that's what Lewis was counting on, what the entire plan counted on. So he waited patiently in his concealed position, alternating between scoping out the raiders' remaining camp and checking in the direction the truck was set to approach from.
The raiders weren't fools, and they'd bunkered in tight and spent most of their free time fortifying the camp or closely guarding it. It had taken all Lewis's skill and half the night to even get to this spot hundreds of yards away without being spotted by their numerous sentries, who to a man were alert to the point of paranoia and immediately homed in on the slightest hint of movement, sound, or other suspicious activity.
In spite of the enemy's vigilance Lewis hadn't seen any indication that they'd noticed anything out of the ordinary. He could only hope that meant Jane, Tom, Carl, and Rick had all also managed to reach their vantage points without drawing suspicion.
There was a chance they hadn't been able to and had been forced to back away rather than be seen, in which case Lewis would be alone for Phase Two. That was an unpleasant thought, but he had to be prepared for the possibility that the lives of all his friends rested on his shoulders alone.
By his best estimation he was 450 yards from the edge of the raiders' camp. In practice he'd made shots at that range, and he was familiar with the thinking that went into determining the critical windage and bullet drop calculations that lessened the chance he'd completely miss. Even so, and even at a range most competitive long distance shooters would consider modest, he missed the target a fair amount. And that was a stationary target.
He couldn't afford to think like that, though. When the truck came he had to do his job or they'd have wasted the captured vehicle for nothing.
This was the entire point of his stupid plan. Even if Turner thought it was a trick he would have no choice but to get out his missile launchers and destroy a vehicle suspiciously speeding directly for his camp. Even a decoy could be packed with explosives, and if it wasn't a trick and the truck was full of Aspen Hill defenders things could get ugly for the raiders fast.
So the raiders would grab their missile launchers and do their best to blow the truck sky high. While lining up that kind of shot on a moving target with a TOW missile they'd be stationary targets themselves, and that's exactly what Lewis wanted. He and his team would have their best chance to take out enemy missile launchers before the attack on the camp began.
At that point those launchers would be a lure that would draw raiders to try to retrieve them, which would put them in the crosshairs of five of the town's best shooters and give them shots they'd already spent plenty of time lining up. It was the closest Lewis could come to giving his people relatively stationary targets at a spot they could prepare for.
His hope was that they'd be able to shoot well enough at these extreme distances to give Turner no option but to abandon his most dangerous weapons, depriving him of their use in defending his camp during the attack that followed.
The enemy TOWs had been Matt's main worry while they were planning this attack, to avoid a repeat of his disastrous attack on the north camp where two well aimed missiles had destroyed two of his three attack positions. They would've spelled an even worse disaster if Ben hadn't stolen a truck and given them a way to flee for their lives, and Matt wasn't about to put his people in that position again.
Lewis agreed. No matter how well they planned, things coul
d get ugly fast if Turner had those launchers. He and his team had to take out the raiders carrying them and prevent them from being retrieved. Assuming they could manage that, a secondary objective was to keep anyone from making use of the .50 caliber machine gun mounted on the lead raider truck, since it could potentially cause as much or more havoc than the TOWs.
That should account for the most dangerous weapons in the camp. Another critical part of Phase Two involved the east hill emplacement not far away, where the raiders had the third missile launcher and other .50 cal. Both could just as easily be turned towards the defenders attacking the raider camp as the town, one of the main reasons the emplacement had been set up there. If that happened it was another way the plan would almost certainly fail, as well as costing the lives of numerous Aspen Hill defenders.
Gutierrez and his team had the job of taking out the emplacement. It meant trying to sneak up on enemies on a hilltop with a good view in all directions, and if anything was an even harder task than Lewis's own infiltration in spite of there being at most four raiders up there.
At the same time the hill itself would block the enemy's vision if the former soldier's team could approach from the right direction and get close enough, giving them a chance to sneak in without the constant risk of being spotted. He hoped they could manage it.
Gutierrez had some of the town's best throwers with him, former or current high school athletes who could launch a football or baseball some serious distance. The idea was to lob grenades and Molotovs into the emplacement, but if they couldn't manage to get close enough to make that uphill throw they'd have to rely on shooting at an enemy hiding behind sandbag fortifications, with no certainty of being able to hit anything.
Lewis wished strength to their arms and the best throws of their lives, because the alternative would be ugly.
It was almost time for Scott's team to send the truck. Lewis had been waiting for hours now, forcing himself to stay awake in spite of his weariness and constantly checking and rechecking the camp below, the surrounding area, and most importantly of all through the scope of his G3, set up on its bipod and ready to be positioned to take the various shots he'd prepared. Those shots were aimed at places he thought the raiders might use for launching missiles at the incoming vehicle.
