War Zone: Homefront

by Thomas A. Watson

  Changing magazines, Bill glanced to the front line and saw Jasmine pull back to reload and he paused his own reload. It looked like Jasmine was trying to hide clipping her new belt of ammo onto the last few rounds of the last belt. Not even having a clue why she would be hiding, since he’d seen her do that before on the gun range, Bill slapped in his new magazine.

  Changing magazines, John saw Apollo and Nathan take off for the front of the house, running past some ATVs. “Fuck!” John cried out, seeing a naked man jump out of a side by side raising his hands in the air right in front of Nathan. Nathan never broke stride as Apollo leapt in the air and hit the man in the chest. Like it was happening in slow motion, John saw Apollo turn his head sideways as his weight knocked the man backward. Before the man hit the ground, Apollo had clamped his mouth on the man’s throat.

  Apollo shook his head violently side-to-side briefly. When Nathan was less than a yard away, the man landed on the ground and Apollo jerked his head back. John’s mouth fell open seeing blood pulsate into the air from what was left of the man’s neck.

  A chunk of flesh fell from Apollo’s mouth when Nathan reached him and like he was on a casual jog, Apollo fell back into a loping jog beside him. “Shit,” John gasped, pulling his stock to his shoulder tight, still covering Nathan. “Apollo kills much faster and more violently than Ares,” he mumbled.

  Pulling a flashbang from his vest, Nathan pulled the pin with his thumb as he neared the front door. Letting the spoon fly, he tossed it inside and then dove to the ground. “Apollo, down!” he commanded, and Apollo stopped and went down beside him.

  ‘Bang’ sounded inside the house and Nathan jumped up. “Apollo, time to work!”

  Leaning over her SAW, “What the fuck?!” Jasmine shouted, watching Nathan and Apollo enter the house. “He never said that was part of the plan!” she shouted, lifting her head from the stock. Then she saw Amanda, with Athena on her leash and Casey, break from the trees and run up to the large pile of rocks in the front yard. One got on each end and peered around, aiming at the house.

  About to yell at Amanda and Casey that Nathan had never said to collapse on the house, Jasmine heard screaming from the house and several suppressed shots. “Natalie!” Jasmine called out, and glanced over to see Natalie looking at her. “Pull rear security,” Jasmine told her, and Natalie nodded before turning around and going prone, aiming into the woods.

  “HOLY FUCK!” John bellowed, and Jasmine jerked her eyes to him to see John looking at the house. Feeling panic, she whipped her head back and her mouth dropped at seeing Apollo standing in the door with an entire arm in his mouth.

  Having serious thoughts about asking Nathan to make Apollo sleep outside, Jasmine watched Apollo drop the arm and head back inside. “Prisoners coming out the front, so don’t shoot unless they drop their arms or run!” Nathan called over the radio.

  “We don’t need prisoners!” Amanda shouted when the first walked out, holding up her hands. Five more followed and then Nathan came out. He had a man with his hands tied behind his back, dragging him by the hair on his head. Letting the hair go, Nathan kicked the man, tripping him.

  The man hit the ground face first and Nathan called out on the radio, “Primary search of house clear. Bring up the horses and collapse on the house. Tim, Aiden, Bill, do a secondary to clear.”

  Careful not to let the barrel touch her, Jasmine jumped up when Nathan kicked those holding their hands up to the ground, and one-by-one, tying their hands and feet. “Ares, heel up!” Jasmine called out, heading to the house at a cautious pace.

  Amanda and Casey ran over, covering Nathan while he tied up the six on the ground. “You never said you were assaulting the house,” Amanda snapped, and Jasmine wanted to run over and hug her.

  “Wasn’t planning on it. I was gonna set it on fire and make them come out, but realized it’s too dry for that. Not really in the mood to fight a forest fire,” Nathan answered, moving to the next in line. Finished with the last one, Nathan stood back up. “Ares, time to work,” Nathan called out, and Ares came over with his hackles raised.

  “Guard,” Nathan said, pointing at the line of prisoners. “Apollo, guard,” Nathan said and pulled his knife out, heading for the two women tied to the lamppost. After cutting their bonds and before Nathan could say anything, the women took off on hands and knees. The others raised their rifles while the two women scrambled across the yard to the sprinklers and held their mouths over the streams of water.

  “Jasmine, Natalie, keep cover,” Nathan said, seeing Rusty and Tom riding into the yard leading the rest of the horses. “John, Tom, gather. Amanda and Casey, check bodies.”

  When Tom jumped off to join John, Rusty tied up the horses, seeing Nathan head back in the house. Hearing a suppressed shot, Rusty pulled his AR to his shoulder before seeing Casey lowering her rifle. Hearing another shot, he turned to see Amanda lowering her rifle. Then he watched as the two calmly went from body to body, shooting them in the head.

  One weakly lifted his hands when Amanda walked over. “Shut up,” Amanda huffed, squeezing the trigger and moving to the next body.

  Bill walked out with Aiden to see Amanda and Casey making sure the bodies were dead. “Seeing Casey with that innocent smile, busting a skull open and skipping to the next body…,” Aiden paused, “I can’t even think of anything to describe how wrong that seems.”

  Tim came out leading four more women and they took off, running toward the other two still holding their mouths over the sprinkler. “How many?” Rusty asked, walking over.

  “Shit, I have no idea how many were inside, but Jasmine cut them down,” Bill grunted. “A bunch,” he offered.

  “Let me get by,” Nathan said behind them. Bill, Aiden, and Tim moved over, watching Nathan carry out an armload of stuff. Walking across the yard, Nathan dropped the stuff by the six women.

  “You need to haul ass because their friends will be coming soon,” he told them.

  One lifted her mouth from the sprinkler. “Can we come with you?”

  “Doll, we’re waiting on them, and don’t care how many they bring,” Nathan shot back, and that caused the others to stop drinking from the sprinkler and look up at him in shock. “That’s why you need to make some tracks. Don’t get caught again because they’re much worse the second time.”

  The women jumped up and started pulling on clothes from the pile Nathan had dropped. “There are six rifles and three revolvers there. Don’t even think of aiming them at us, or I’ll hand you back over to another group,” Nathan warned. “You need to be miles from here before nightfall.”

  “Where should we go?” another asked.

  Giving a curt laugh, “Nowhere is safe, so find a hiding spot and survive,” Nathan answered, turning away. “Bill,” he called out, and pointed to the man he’d led out of the house. “He’s the boss here. Go and talk to him.”

  “Tim, go see what they have stacked on that trailer,” Nathan said, and Tim turned to see an older quad cab sitting on the far right side of yard under the trees with a trailer hooked up. In front of it were two of the most dilapidated box vans he had ever seen.

  Glad he didn’t have to check the vans, Tim took off while Nathan headed to his horse. John and Tom carried over the weapons around the yard and started stacking them at the front of the house. “Aiden! Go inside and toss some food and water in some bags for those women, so they can get the fuck out of here!” Nathan called out as he dug in his saddle bag.

  Watching Aiden take off inside and Rusty head around back, Jasmine glanced around while she stood under the shade of the trees with Natalie. She turned to see Nathan walking over with chains in his left hand, then realized they were leg shackles. Not even bothering to guess, she just turned away to keep watch as Nathan stopped beside her.

  Nathan never spoke and just stood in the shade with her while the others moved about, doing what he’d told them or what they knew needed to be done. After ten minutes, Jasmine turned to look up at Nathan and saw Ai
den carrying out loaded school backpacks and leather tote bags.

  Stopping at the six women, Aiden saw the rifles Nathan had given them were lever actions. Two didn’t know how to load them and the others were showing them. “Ladies, I need you to listen,” Aiden said, and they all turned to him.

  Since Nathan still hadn’t said anything, Jasmine cleared her throat. “How in the hell did Apollo rip an arm off?” she asked, and John and Tom ran up.

  Giving a gruff snort, “Hell, you almost blew the guy’s arm off when you shot the house up. It was only hanging on by a strip of flesh when Apollo latched on,” Nathan grinned. “I shot two who were piling back inside, and Apollo came into the kitchen with the arm in his mouth. Those six dropped their guns and just raised their hands. Pussies,” Nathan grunted the last.

  Listening, John was certain if Apollo had been coming at him with an arm in his mouth, he would’ve just shot himself in the head. “We got all the guns from the yard piled up,” John told him.

  “Go in the house. Master bedroom has weapons, metal ammo boxes, and tote bags full of boxes of ammo. Pull them to the front. Don’t worry, it’s less than thirty guns. Then, collect the weapons the gang had in the house. I’ll separate what we take. You and Tom will keep your gloves on. Under no circumstances are either of you to eat or drink anything in that house. I don’t care if it hasn’t been opened,” Nathan said, and both nodded. “There’s a separate stack of ammo cans in the closet. Stack those apart from the others.”

  As they moved off, Tim came up smiling. “The truck is an ’84 quad cab F250 with a lift kit and off-road package, and someone took real good care of it. The damn thing could be sitting in a showroom,” Tim said.

  Giving a shrug, “I really don’t care what it is. What’s on the trailer?” Nathan asked.

  With Athena still at her side, Amanda and Casey strolled over. “Oh,” Tim said, with the smile falling off. “Most of the trailer is packed with chemicals. Ether, acetone-,”

  Tim stopped when he saw Nathan’s eyes narrow. “Anything we can use in day-to-day life and not to make drugs?” Nathan asked. “Because we aren’t making explosives until ‘God of Thunder’ gets the need to ‘blow up the earth’ out of his system.”

  “Copper tubing and a shit load of glass beakers,” Tim shrugged. “The back of the truck is loaded with full five-gallon gas cans and one fifty-five-gallon drum.”

  “Empty the trailer, so we can load those ATVs,” Nathan said, and Tim gasped.

  “You know how much shit is on there? It’ll take us six hours to unload that trailer!” Tim shouted.

  Feeling tired, “Tim,” Nathan sighed. “Cut the ropes holding the shit on the trailer. Crank the truck, put it in reverse and go real fast, then hit the brakes. Continue doing that till the trailer’s empty.”

  Not moving his body, Tim’s head rocked back on his neck. “Like that’s the first thing someone’s going to think of,” Tim spat. He turned to motion to the ATVs. “Nathan, those are brand new. The two I checked don’t even have a hundred miles on them. Where the hell did these idiots find brand-new, still-working ATVs?”

  Looking at the five four-wheelers and two side by sides, “I’m betting they found them at a dealership,” Nathan answered, and Tim turned back to glare at Nathan. “Tim, you were with me when I bought my last four-wheeler. It was stored out back, in what? A shipping container,” Nathan said, raising his eyebrows. “That’s where they stored what they didn’t have on the floor.”

  Spinning on his heel, “Sometimes you make me sick,” Tim said, storming off.

  “Hun,” Nathan said softly, turning to Jasmine. “Keep an eye out and rotate two out with Tom and John if they need it, but I doubt it.”

  “Nathan, we can’t stay here,” Jasmine whispered, looking over at Aiden still talking to the women.

  “We’re leaving, but don’t worry, this group was heading back tomorrow. Nobody’s coming,” he told her. “I got that from the one Bill’s talking to. Apollo asked for me.”

  “But you told that woman…”

  “Yeah, I said we were staying just in case one gets captured again. The bad guys will think we’re still here.”

  Glancing down at the leg shackles, “Um, w-,” she started, but just stopped. “Never mind,” she said, hearing the truck crank up. Tim threw it in reverse and stomped the gas, shooting backwards. Before the trailer jackknifed, he stomped the brakes and half the load dumped off the back.

  “Make sure the kids stay alert and drink,” Nathan said, leaning over and kissing her cheek. “Let me have Athena,” he said, taking the leash from Amanda. Then he headed across the yard, leaving Amanda and Casey with Jasmine.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  Stopping at the water sprinkler, Nathan took off his helmet and held his head over the jets of water. “What’s he got the big handcuffs for?” Natalie asked Jasmine in a low voice.

  “Shit if I know, and I’m not asking,” Jasmine replied.

  “They’re tied up with zip ties. Why does he need leg shackles?” Amanda wondered out loud.

  When he stepped back from the sprinkler, Nathan shook his wet head and then put his helmet back on, seeing the six women jogging off and heading into the woods. Giving Athena slack, “Come,” he said, and headed for the prisoners.

  “Natalie, Amanda, will you two go and see if Tom and John need to take a break? And if they do, will you carry the stuff out?” Jasmine asked.

  Bumping Jasmine with her hip, “You’re in charge. You don’t ask, you tell,” Amanda informed her, but headed for the house with Natalie in tow.

  With a grin, “Casey, keep watch,” Jasmine said. They stood watch while the others completed the tasks before moving over to join them under the shade. Tim was the first back, and Jasmine turned to see Nathan putting some leg shackles on a female prisoner. Just looking at the woman, Jasmine could tell she’d been a meth head before the collapse. She looked fifty, but Jasmine was sure the woman wasn’t much over thirty.

  “Apollo, Ares, sit,” Nathan said, getting up and hauling the woman up by her arm. He marched her a few yards away and left her standing in the yard, then returned beside Apollo and Ares. “Athena, sit,” he said, and Athena sat down panting with her tongue hanging out. “Yeah, it’s warm, and you’re about to get hotter.”

  “Apollo, time to work,” Nathan said, and Apollo stood up and his body became taut. “Apollo, attack,” Nathan commanded, pointing at the woman he’d left standing in the yard. Seeing the massive dog charging, the woman let out a yell. With her hands still tied behind her back, she tried to spin, but tripped with the shackles on her ankles.

  Apollo lunged, grabbing her right leg as the woman fell back and her yell turned into a scream when Apollo sunk his teeth in and started shaking his head violently. “Apollo, break!” Nathan called out while slapping his thigh and Apollo let go, backing away from the screaming woman. “Apollo, heel up!” Nathan called out, and Apollo bounded back before Nathan told him to sit.

  “Ares, time to work,” Nathan said, and Ares bounced up, baring his teeth with the hair on his back raised up. “Ares, attack!” Nathan pointed at the wailing woman, and Ares took off. Amanda and Natalie came out just as Ares latched on. Apollo was still just sitting up straight beside Nathan, but when he turned to look at them, Amanda and Natalie hurried over to Jasmine.

  “That’s some cold shit,” Tim gasped, watching Ares drag the woman when he’d latched onto her left leg.

  “Fuck ‘em,” Bill stated matter-of-factly. “You all saw that pile of bodies out back. And you saw the fire pit. And I had to listen to what they had to say. This is deserved.”

  “Not to mention what’s in the house. Better them than me in that padded suit,” Aiden popped off as he walked over to join them, and Bill headed to the horses.

  Amanda went over and hugged Aiden. “But I had to have someone in the suit, so Nathan could start teaching Athena how to attack,” Amanda told him.

  Hugging Amanda back, “Don’t take this the wron
g way, but I don’t mind being in the suit for Athena, she’s not much more than sixty pounds. Ares is double that and when he latches on, even with pads it hurts. Apollo,” Aiden scoffed. “He’s just over a hundred and forty and when he hits, it feels like you got run over by a truck and when he bites, you’d think the truck parked on your arm.”

  “Ares, break!” Nathan called out, and Ares stepped back. Nathan called him back over and made him sit. Playing out some slack in the leash, “Athena, time to work,” Nathan told her, and Athena bounced up playfully. “Athena, attack!” Nathan pointed, and Athena bounded off as he followed still holding the leash.

  Athena didn’t latch on. She bit and then let go, then bit again. “Athena, break!” Nathan yelled, yanking the leash.

  “He doesn’t have to be so mean,” Amanda moaned. “Athena just likes biting them a bunch of times.”

  It took several times and Nathan kept working with Athena until she latched onto the woman’s arm, then Nathan started pulling the leash. Athena didn’t let go and started shaking her head violently. “Good girl, that’s it!” Nathan praised. “Don’t let go!”

  “That’s what I call, ‘making use of prisoners’,” Bill smiled grimly, joining them again. “But I still think they’re getting off too easy.”

  “Athena, break!” Nathan shouted, giving slack to the leash. When Athena didn’t let go, Nathan moved up to grab her.

  “And that’s why I don’t train dogs to attack,” Tim nodded while Nathan pried Athena’s mouth off the wailing woman. He turned to the other prisoners to see them staring at Ares and Apollo in sheer terror. “Seems their drugs have worn off.”

  After Nathan had Athena off, he led her back and started the attack again. “Nathan knows dogs,” Bill laughed, watching Nathan fight to get Athena to listen to the break command.

  “Yes, he does,” Jasmine agreed. “Even on the trip here, both dogs had ideal diets. He got supplements from a farm we stayed at in Mississippi, just to make sure.”