On The Run

by Scott Medbury

  “We could hop in and just drive it away,” he whispered. “It doesn’t even need keys. It has a push button ignition.”

  “Is there anything we can use in there?”

  “Not really, only an extra box of ammo for the machine gun in the back seat. If you wanted too we could climb in and rip up the other Humvees with the machine gun. That would cripple them for sure.”

  “That would make a racket that even drunk, singing soldiers couldn’t ignore ... crap!” Indigo snapped. “Get down!”

  We dropped and Luke quietly closed the Hummer’s door as the Chinese soldier Indigo had seen come through the door of the bar came stumbling down the front steps. My heart played a staccato rhythm in my chest as we watched the soldier through the grimy glass of the Hummer’s windows. He was very obviously drunk and wore a trench coat which marked him as a conscript. Thankfully, he didn’t seem to be paying attention to anything except trying to get his pants unzipped.

  He didn’t even glance our way as he reeled a few steps along the wall on unsteady legs. Just as I thought he was about to fall, he came to a stop and propped himself against the wall and relieved himself. After what seemed like the world’s longest whiz, he re-zipped his pants, and then turned to stumble back to the bar.

  That was when Indigo dropped the revolver onto the snow-powdered pavement. She snatched it up immediately looking horrified, but the damage had been done. Unfortunately, her fumble had come right in the break between songs and the soldier stopped instantly at the sound. We ducked down and my bruised ribs protested as I flattened to the snow-covered bitumen.

  I could see his booted feet from that position and for the longest time, he stood in one spot as I silently encouraged him to go back into the bar.

  Of course, he didn’t.

  The boots turned our way and began a stumbling walk along the line of vehicles towards the one we were hiding behind. I scrambled to my knees and frantically waved the others to the rear of the Humvee.

  Hiding behind the Hummer, Luke raised his crossbow to me with a question in his eyes. I shook my head; we couldn’t risk the soldier screaming if Luke’s shot didn’t kill him outright. It was then I realized that our footsteps and scuffs from hiding in the snow would be plainly visible when the soldier rounded the front of the truck.

  I made a quick decision and looked around frantically. There was a garden a few feet away that bordered the rear of the parking lot and my eyes fell upon a smooth, fist-sized rock. I stooped and ran to it and picked it up before running back to the others. I hefted it in my hand and indicated I was going to run around the truck and come up behind the soldier.

  Be careful, Indigo mouthed, her eyes big and scared.

  I nodded and darted to the left rear corner of the Hummer just in time to see the soldier pass in front of the vehicle. I ran forward and stopped at the front fender before peeking carefully over the top.

  The soldier stood on the spot, swaying and looking down at the scuffed snow and prints where we had ducked to the ground. Almost in slow motion, I saw his gaze follow our footprints to the rear of the truck. He reached for his sidearm and suddenly didn’t seem quite so drunk as he took a step towards the rear where Luke and Indigo were hiding.

  I made my move.

  15

  To be honest, I am probably lucky he was drunk. He didn’t even twitch as I brought the rock down hard on the back of his neck. Just fell, as though boneless, to the snow-crusted ground. I stood over him, my chest heaving, but he didn’t move.

  “Come help me,” I whispered.

  “Nice work, Isaac,” said Luke, as he came around to me.

  We each grabbed an arm and dragged the soldier to the rock garden and dumped him there.

  “Check the back of the Hummer too, maybe there will be something useful in there,” I said to Luke, before scanning the street to make sure nobody was coming.

  Indigo watched the bar door again – we all knew his buddies might come looking for the missing soldier at any moment. Luke rummaged in the back of the Hummer and a few moments later came back to us, carrying a long, sturdy wooden crate with Chinese characters on the side. With a grunt, he gently set down his heavy load and rushed back to the rear before closing the hatch and returning. This time, he was holding a length of what looked like rubber hose with some sort of pump attached to one end.

  “Pay dirt in the trunk, Boss,” he whispered.

  “What’s that?” I asked.

  “Fuel siphon,” he said, holding up the hose. “We can drain the tanks of these babies dry. They won’t be following us any place.”

  “How do you know that it’s for siphoning fuel?”

  “It was in a box that said, ‘Fuel Siphon,’” he said, grinning.

  “Wise-ass! How long will that take?”

  “I don’t have a clue, man,” he said. “I guess in the neighborhood of five minutes a truck, give or take a few, depending on how much diesel is in the tanks. There are three of us, and I’d guess each Humvee has one of these in the back, so we could probably get all six done in about 10 or 15 minutes, if we all pitched in.”

  “What’s in the box?” Indigo asked.

  “Well, I don’t read Chinese, but if it’s what I think it is, it’s gonna come in real handy ...”

  Like an excited kid on Christmas morning, he pulled a long hunting knife out of the pocket of his ski pants and began to jimmy the top off. Another time and place, I may have asked where he had gotten the knife, but I was on edge, worried that at any moment another soldier might come out, looking for their missing comrade.

  The lid came off with a soft splintering sound and he brushed away the Styrofoam beads to reveal a compact rocket launcher and three shiny rockets.

  “Yes!” Luke said triumphantly. “It’s a reusable launcher.”

  He pulled the weapon out of the crate and hefted it before resting it against his shoulder as he flipped the sight open. “Pass me a grenade, please Indigo.”

  “Grenade?”

  “Yeah. They’re not really rockets, they’re self-propelled grenades.”

  She handed him the grenade which just looked like a rocket without the fins to me. Once again, I was amazed at his knowledge of weapons he really should have no clue about. Within a few seconds, he had the launcher loaded and hanging over his shoulder. He handed me and Indigo a spare grenade each. As I looked down on the deadly package in my hand, an idea began to formulate in my head.

  “Screw the siphoning, we don’t have time,” I said. “Besides, I think it’s about time to get one back for our country.”

  They both looked at me.

  “Isaac!” said Indigo, reading my mind. “You can’t. It would be murder.”

  As much as I craved her approval, on this one I wasn’t going to be swayed. I shook my head.

  “You’ve seen what they’ve done to our country, Indigo. To our parents. What about all the kids who have starved ... the babies? The babies who died starving in their cots as their parents rotted in the same house – that was murder ...”

  I saw a tear run down her cheek and, even though I was confident I was right, I felt like a low bastard for making her cry. She nodded and wiped her tears away with the back of her hands.

  “Fine, you’re the leader.”

  It was clear it wasn’t fine though. I resisted the urge to try and justify my stance further.

  “Come on,” I said softly. “Let’s cross to the other side of the road.”

  Luke picked up his crossbow and re-pocketed the knife before we headed across the main road at a jog. We crouched behind a snow-covered Chevy sedan directly opposite the front of the bar. Luke placed his crossbow on the pavement and reached into his parka pocket again, this time pulling out two small yellow objects, stuffing them in his ears one at a time. Earplugs? I seriously had to find out what else he had in those pockets of his.

  There was still no movement from the bar, just the muted sounds of country music and off-key singing.

  “Can you
get one through the glass of the front window? And will one do it?” I said as loudly as I dared.

  He smiled grimly and nodded.

  “These things are designed to stop tanks”, he said, propping the rocket launcher against his right shoulder. “One will do it. Put your fingers in your ears, these things are loud.”

  He flipped the sight open.

  “Ready?” he asked.

  I nodded.

  I took a deep breath and held it…

  Without warning, the door of the bar opened and spilled light out onto the snow-covered parking lot as the silhouette of another Chinese soldier emerged.

  Shit!

  Thankfully the door closed behind him and, as my eyes adjusted, I saw him looking around and calling out, clearly looking for the soldier we had taken down.

  “Still a go?” Luke asked me in a calm voice.

  In answer, I pulled my revolver out and gave a sharp nod.

  “After three. One ... two ... three ...”

  There was a loud clap and whoosh that echoed off the empty buildings. I felt a quick burst of heat behind me, but all my attention was taken by the brief and bright journey of the grenade.

  Luke’s aim was true, whether through luck or skill I’m not sure, but it hit the window dead center and the windows and doors blew out in a spectacular blast. We ducked as glass fell around us like sharp rain. When it was safe, I looked back over the hood of the Chevy and saw the soldier who had emerged just before the blast staggering to safety behind a Hummer, a pistol in his hand.

  No one else emerged from the smoking building. I stood up and walked around the rear of the Chevy and began to cross the road. Luke called to me, but I knew this had to be done. We couldn’t have anyone radioing for help, even in the unlikely scenario the blast hadn’t been heard or seen by any nearby patrols or soldiers.

  I was protected from his line of sight by the vehicles in the lot and knew at this point he would be in a state of shock. I didn’t think he would be looking to fight. I walked calmly to the first Humvee and crouched, resting my back against it.

  I heard a door open a few cars along.

  “He’s in the Hummer two across from you!” Luke yelled, his voice loud even over the crackling and popping of the burning building.

  I moved quickly and ran out from my position with my gun in front of me, squeezing shots as soon as I had him in sight. He was in the Hummer and had just raised the mic to his mouth. My first shot missed, but the second hit his shoulder and the next got him in the chest as he slumped forward.

  The horn started blaring. I stood where I was for a minute, my gun trained on him but he didn’t move again. With my weapon still aimed at him I walked slowly around to his door and pulled it open. He was dead. I pocketed my gun and used two hands to pull him away from the wheel. The horn cut out into a silence interrupted only by the crackling of the fire.

  There was a semi-automatic rifle on the floor of the cab under his feet. I grabbed it – I had a feeling we would need all the firepower we could get in the next few hours.

  I ran back to Indigo and Luke who were ready to roll, and we headed back to the truck as fast as we could in the icy conditions. The others had obviously heard the explosion; they surrounded us as we got back, their looks of concern turning to relief.

  All except Sonny.

  “What the hell happened?” Sonny asked.

  A little taken aback by his sharp tone, I brushed past.

  “We need to move,” I said. “I’ll explain when we’re on the road. Everybody! Back in the truck!”

  Indigo asked Luke if they could swap places so she could go in back. She was withdrawn and I knew she was upset with me. It was strange to think that just 20 minutes ago, she had kissed me on the lips and now we weren’t even talking.

  I have to admit I was kind of relieved when she got in the back; both because I would have Luke up front, but mainly so I could avoid discussing what had happened with her.

  In just a couple of minutes, we were moving again. From the corner of my eye, I saw Sonny glaring at me.

  “Well?”

  “We just took out a whole platoon with a rocket launcher!” Luke blurted, clearly excited at the evening’s events.

  “Sounded like it, too,” he said bitterly. “Haven’t you guys ever heard of stealth? We’re going to have the whole damn Chinese Army hot on our asses now!”

  I was silent for a moment. It was crucial not to get into a fight at this point. We needed to be a cohesive unit. In calm tones, I explained what had happened and also my reasoning to Sonny. Whether he agreed, or whether he just decided to let it go because he didn’t want to fight, he left it at that, but I could tell he wasn’t a happy camper.

  We continued along the back roads a few blocks before turning back onto the main street again. It would turn into the highway once we left Concord. Sonny drove as fast as he deemed safe in the conditions.

  We didn’t see any other sign of occupation and I began to think the group of soldiers at the bar may have been the only presence in the small city. A few minutes later, the searchlight of a helicopter piercing the night about two miles to our right disabused me of that idea. It was clearly headed to the scene of our recent show of defiance.

  Luke and I craned our necks to watch its progress, but it didn’t turn in our direction. We breathed a collective sigh of relief.

  “I wish this thing could go faster,” Luke said.

  “It could,” said Sonny. “But we don’t want to draw attention to ourselves if we do happen to pass any Chinese vehicles.”

  There was a slight lull in the snowfall as we reached the intersection where the highway joined another major road to turn and follow the river. Sonny took a left, following the sign that pointed the way to Interstate 93.

  An incident-free half-hour later, we were on the freeway headed north. The ease of our passage led to happy optimism, with Luke cracking jokes and telling us what he would eat when we arrived at the safe haven. I hoped fervently that it really did exist; we didn’t exactly have a plan B.

  We didn’t see the vehicle that had come up behind us until I saw the headlights in the passenger side mirror, barely a hundred yards back.

  “Crap,” I said. “We have company.”

  16

  We were only five minutes beyond the outskirts of the city. I felt the buoyant mood in the cab dissipate like smoke. Sonny swore under his breath.

  “What do we do?” I asked, scowling into the mirror as I pulled my gun out again.

  “We just keep driving, nice and steady,” Sonny said, placing his hand on my gun. “You two get down in the foot well.”

  Luke and I awkwardly climbed down onto the floor. I somehow ended up on top of him, my elbow accidently poking him in the butt as I tried to keep my gun hand free.

  “I didn’t know you cared,” he cracked, and in my adrenalin-wired state, he almost brought a giggle from me. The laugh was choked from me when the car following us moved into the center lane and came up alongside the truck.

  I watched Sonny from my vantage on the floor. He stayed focused on the road ahead, but when it was clear the occupants of the vehicle had slowed to the pace of the truck, he looked down at them and waved. They didn’t pass us though and just as I was thinking the game was up, he put a hand to his ear and made a strange face as though trying to understand something.

  I heard him make an ‘Ahh’ sound and he reached out and flicked the lights on, waving gratefully to the SUV. They tooted their horn and after a few worrying seconds, sped up and passed us before shooting off.

  “They’re gone,” Sonny said.

  Luke and I struggled back into our seats.

  “My bad with the headlights. Maybe they would have just passed if I hadn’t made the call earlier to switch them off while we were driving,” I said.

  “I can’t believe they didn’t try and pull us over. This truck is pretty damaged,” Luke said.

  “I don’t know,” Sonny said. “We got lucky I
guess, maybe seeing me in the driver’s seat allayed any suspicions they might have had about the damage? If I had to guess, I would say that was a government vehicle, not military and they were probably in a hurry. We still need to be wary of heat from your little escapade back in Concord though.”

  “Yep, we dodged another bullet,” said Luke. “You played it real cool, Sonny, well done. I’m worried about the road ahead, though. What if they have some sort of checkpoint or base up I-95?”

  “If there is, we’re screwed,” I said. “I think maybe we should take the truck all the way into Lincoln. It’s the only disguise we have. If a military vehicle passes us while we’re walking along the freeway on foot, you know for sure they’ll take us. At least in the truck we have some chance.”

  “I’m still worried it’ll make us easier to track us if the Chinese find the truck further along our route, but it’ll certainly be a safer and warmer trip,” said Sonny.

  “Why don’t we take it all the way to Drake Mountain?” Luke asked.

  “Too risky. If there are refugees there or nearby, we might lead the Chinese right to them,” Sonny said.

  “Yeah, we’ll have to walk at least a few miles in the snow either way.”

  “Worse than that,” Sonny said. “The road from Lincoln to the Drake Mountain Resort is all up hill.”

  “This is not going to be fun,” said Luke. I could almost hear the groan in his voice.

  The snow resumed what could reasonably be called dumping down again and we rode in silence for about 15 minutes, each lost in our own thoughts. I dared to hope we might make it to our destination without any other encounters with the Chinese. It was not to be, however. We had just passed a sign proclaiming it was five miles until we reached the exit to Lincoln, when we saw four sets of headlights speeding from the opposite direction toward Concord.

  “Uh oh,” said Luke. “Those are most definitely Hummers and they’re in a real hurry. The word is out ...”