by AJ Newman
The smart assed guy said, “Then you take responsibility for him. Don’t let him out of your sight or the Sheriff will have our asses.”
“Willy, what the hell was that about? Who are the new people?”
“A bunch of them came into town a few weeks ago and the mayor made their leader the new sheriff. Bob quit and went home for good.”
“And my guess is, the new bunch is taking over the town and surrounding community.”
“That’s right. How did you know?”
“I read a lot and that happens in most post-apocalyptic books.”
Before Willy could answer, one of the men flew by, heading into town on an ATV.
Willie continued and asked, “Are you saying it’s the end of the world?”
“Pretty much. Get your family somewhere way down south as soon as possible. That’s my advice. I’m going to talk to the mayor and get my ass back to the ranch.”
“The strangers have taken control of all of the food and have started banning guns in town. The mayor rubber stamps whatever the leader asks her to do. Talking to the mayor won’t do much good.”
“Has anyone heard anything from the outside world?”
“Some of the Ham Radio Operators are spreading rumors that the USA is fighting a war with several South American countries. The funny thing is; they are saying that Russia has taken most of Equatorial Africa and China has invaded India and Southeast Asia. The whole world is at war.”
He obviously didn’t know that many of those countries were fried by the CME.
While we were walking and talking, we passed several well-armed men with bulletproof vests and M&P15s. It was dawning on me that I needed to get my ass back home quickly. Then I saw several pickups head out of town loaded with men I didn’t recognize.
“Willy, I think I’ll catch the mayor later. I just remembered something I have to do back home.”
Willy raised his rifle, pointed it at me and said, “Sorry, but I have to take you to the Sheriff or they’ll kill my wife and kids. Mr. Steele wants your place to be his home and headquarters. I won’t hurt you if you do what I...”
I grabbed the barrel end of his AR, chopped him in the throat and dragged him into the alley. I removed a roll of duct tape from my pack, taped his mouth, hands and feet after removing his body armor. I put his body armor and hat on and I took his weapons and ammo. I stashed my rifle under the back stairs of the Diner. He would have a sore throat for a long time, but he would live.
I tried to remain inconspicuous and eased my way through back alleys until I was again safely in the woods behind the Riverside Subdivision. I walked around the subdivision being careful to stay out of sight.
My plan was to walk to my truck and head home to help the girls fight off what I was sure was an upcoming attack. I just hoped they attackers would recon the place before attacking. I wanted to be there with the girls when the attack began.
My truck was gone was the first bad news I encountered on my way back home. I started walking as fast as I could, but knew I’d get there too late.
I hoped they surrendered without a fight and were unharmed. Then, as I neared the ranch, I had my second bit of bad news when I heard the sound of gunfire coming from the direction of my home. Ten minutes later, there was a large explosion and then silence.
I slowed my pace while I resigned myself to bad news about Mary and Patty. As I walked, I swore to myself that I’d kill every one of these assholes who had turned my upside down world, upside down.
It took another twenty minutes to circle around my home and come in from the backside. I surveyed the house and grounds with my binoculars and saw a burned out Humvee between the house and barn, along with several bodies.
Something caught my eye in the shadow of the barn towards the house. There were several men with prisoners kneeling behind them. There was gunfire and the prisoners fell to the ground. The shadows kept me from seeing who the two were, but down deep, I knew it had to be Mary and Patty.
My rage took over as I drew a bead on these murderous bastards. I shot four times and four men fell dead. Several others jumped into a pickup and headed my way. I calmly shot through the windshield until the truck veered left and rolled over crashing into a tree.
A short while later I heard several more explosions and knew they must be trying to gain entry to the bunker.
I came to my senses and headed to the back of my property. Not leaving tracks was impossible in foot deep snow. Still, I hoped that in the fog of battle those tracks could go unnoticed. I knew exactly where I was heading and arrived at my cave an hour later. I stopped several times to see if I was being followed. The first good news of the day was that the area behind me was clear. Working around the house had left many trails in the snow, my new ones would go unnoticed.
Even I had trouble finding the opening to the cave and I knew exactly where it was. I stooped over as I walked the first few feet into the cave before being able to stand up. I turned my flashlight on to find the light switch.
In my spare time, I had placed a solar panel high above the cave and ran the wire back through one of the cracks to the living quarters of the cave. With the aid of a few batteries, this gave me well-lit rooms thanks to the LED light string that I ran around the ceiling.
I was abnormally calm as I surveyed my supplies and developed a plan to kill Steele and his men. I ate cold MREs, washed up, brushed my teeth, tongue and the roof of my mouth to get the cold grease from the MRE out. A few minutes later, I fell quickly into an exhausted sleep.
I jerked awake, scared shitless as I heard something at the mouth of the cave. I readied my rifle; crouched behind a large bolder and lit up the cave opening with my flashlight. There was a sight for my tired eyes. Gus and Tina had found me. They came bounding over to me, and licked my face as we rolled on the cave floor. They were wet and the noise I heard was them shaking the snow off when they entered the cave. I was glad to have my pups with me, but they brought additional concerns to mind.
If my dogs could track me down, others could also. I had to make sure my dogs didn’t lead these raiders to my doorstep. I began to plan a long campaign to regain my home. These bastards would pay for this transgression.
I would make sure the dog food stored in the cave contained a lot of jerky, assuring they had the proper food to eat and thrive. I was totally heartbroken over the loss of my girls, but now I had two reasons to want to live, revenge, and the simple fact I didn’t want to die because I loved my dogs.
This reinforced the need to kill all of these bastards before they killed me, or anyone else.
***
The Ranch
The sensor alarms went off at the front of the driveway and the north side of the property a few seconds apart.
Mary yelled at Patty, who was in the kitchen, “Patty, intruders. We have company.”
They watched as one of the men tried to pry the lock off the chain to no avail. Then one of the Humvees backed up and rammed the gate, which broke the lock, however, the sudden stop threw the passenger into the windshield cutting his head. Two of the men were attending to their wounded comrade while the others waited.
Mary and Patty watched and listened to the monitor, they heard, “Kill Jones, but take the women as hostages. They’ll made great comfort girls.”
Mary saw them stop and said, “We only have a few minutes before they arrive. I’m setting a few booby traps and locking us in the bunker.”
“I agree, we can hide there for a year.”
Mary and Patty went to the bunker, grabbed several wirelessly detonated anti-personnel mines and placed them along the driveway and entrance to the house. They finished hiding the bombs before scurrying back down the stairs to the bunker. Mary pushed the buttons to slide the walls into place that hid the bunker and cut off all power, heat and water to the upstairs. No one could possibly find them, but they could see and hear everything by using the surveillance equipment.
They patiently waited until the intrude
rs slowly drove up to the house. Mary pointed out that half of the men had left the vehicles and were beginning to surround the house.
“Mary, look, there is another bunch coming up from the northeast corner.”
“Yes, I see them. Let’s wait until they congregate in the driveway between the house and barn, then we’ll send them to hell. Watch the cameras inside the house. There should be a couple of men walking in the front door.”
“You didn’t lock the doors.”
“No. Why force them to knock down our doors and windows when they would get in anyway.”
Mary calmly held the remote detonator device and selected the bomb in the flower pot a few feet in front of the porch.
She pushed the button and felt the shockwave, but didn’t hear any sound due to the thick concrete and steel walls of the bunker. She saw the explosion on the screen and saw the men trapped inside the burning wreck. She also saw the man they thought to be the leader barely escape the explosion.
Mary cursed herself for not setting the bomb off earlier. She hoped shrapnel from the explosion had at least, wounded the asshole in charge.
Again, they watched the monitors and saw the leader taken behind the barn and tended to by his men. He was shaken, but not mortally wounded.
The attackers quickly swept the barn and house to find both unoccupied. Mary allowed them to get comfortable for an hour then set off another explosion beside two men who had stopped by the barn for a smoke.
The leader was now resting in a recliner ordering his men to search the grounds for more explosives. Since they split up into individual searchers, Mary didn’t want to waste a bomb on one man unless he was about to find one. She had killed seven of the invaders and hoped to kill double that if they grouped together near one of her toys.
Patty had closed the secret door that covered the monitor in the living room, so the strangers still didn’t know they were being watched, and this act probably saved my life. The attackers could have seen me escaping into the back part of the property and that, my friend, would have significantly narrowed their search.
“Hey, Mary, someone has flanked the attackers. Another just had his brains splattered. Mary, look! There’s Matt on screen #7. He’s heading to the back of the property. I’ll bet he’s heading to the cave.”
They watched me head away until I disappeared into the woods.
***
The Bugout Cave
Wyoming
I woke up as the sun chased the shadows away. It was still dark in my ravine but the top of the mountain to the west was awash in bright sunlight. I was surprised to see a light dusting of snow outside and suddenly knew that I had to kill every one of these criminals before the next snow fell. Looking to the east, I could see the tail of the squall line that had passed while I slept. Clouds were beginning to build to the west.
Good, I thought, if a storm front moves in, these piss ants will be more interested in the weather than in watching for me, big mistake for them.
I decided to kill the men in town first, to draw their search away from my house, then come back and eliminate those left to guard the ranch.
I thought, No, this campaign might not take as long as I at first thought, fuck ‘em. They attacked me, now they die.
I blocked the dogs in the cave with enough food and water for a week. I knew I’d have a mess to clean up, but didn’t want them getting in the way while I was trying to draw a bead on a thug’s head.
I took the .17 HMR Savage rifle with a suppressor with me along with my AR and backpack. I brought a suppressor for the AR also in case I needed more killing power. The .17 HMR was perfect for medium range sniping for headshots, but wasn’t quite powerful enough for body shot kills.
These men were wearing body armor so I would need well-placed shots to kill them. Then again, if there were a lot of these dickweeds I could take leg shots. That would cause their friends to stop and tend to their buddy.
I was ready to be in the field for a week killing Steele’s men. I had also decided to kill any town’s people who were too chummy with Steele and his men.
I was crushed at the loss of the girls, yeah, crushed to the point of making a game out of hunting these animals down. Bloodlust, berserker, hell, call it what you want, but yeah, I wanted blood, blood knee deep in the streets.
***
Mary and Patty took turns watching and listening to the intruders in case they showed too much interest in the basement and started looking for the bunker.
The intruders found one mine and disarmed it before Mary could push the button. There were still three more, well hidden around the driveway close to the barn. Mary was holding back on them to try for large groups. She hoped they would get complacent after a while and she would send them on a one-way trip to hell.
They saw me from time to time during the next week, but I had no idea they were still alive.
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Chapter 12
Ambush
Pinedale, Wyoming
I was in position on the outskirts of Pinedale before most people had crawled out of bed for the day. People were now going to bed at dark and waking up with the sun now that there was no electricity, and fuel was in short supply.
My mission was to eliminate as many of Steele’s men as possible and capture Steele if he raised his head in public. I was betting that I could kill most of his men in town, get back to my house and shoot the ones there before Steele even knew he was under attack.
I was about 75 yards from a three-man roadblock on the northeast end of town. I watched the three for 15 minutes and noticed that the two that stayed close together had body armor while the loner did not. He also only had a hunting rifle while the other two had an AR and an AK47.
I took aim, held my breath and squeezed the trigger two times resulting in two dead guards. As I drew near, the third man dropped his gun and raised his hands as I walked towards him.
“Those were Steele’s men, weren’t they?”
“Yes, they force us to pull guard duty with these bastards. They have taken over our town. Fifty people have just disappeared. I saw five get murdered by Steele’s men.”
“What’s your name? I know I saw you around town, but I don’t think we’ve met.”
“Jim Rayburn, I was a math teacher at the high school.”
“Why don’t you fight them?”
“They have taken several families hostage and threatened to kill them if we don’t comply.
They also have semi-automatic weapons and a shit load of ammo. We have hunting rifles.”
“Has anyone heard any more about the rest of America?”
“Sam, a ham radio operator, reports that he is hearing that there were major riots in all of the big cities the first couple of weeks and now people are either freezing or starving. The northern states are in the middle of a three-week blizzard, one of those polar vortex things.
“What about Pinedale?”
“Most people in Pinedale died during the riots over food. More died as their medicine ran out. Steele’s men killed a dozen more taking the town.”
“Thanks, now what do I do with you?”
“I’ll help you fight the rest of them. If I show up alive now with the two of the other guards dead, they won’t ask questions, they’ll just kill me, and my family.”
“Okay, get that M&P15 and all of his ammo. Hide the other guns over behind those bushes. Then let’s go and improve the odds by taking out the guards at the other roadblocks. Perhaps we can get some of the town’s people to join us.”
We took the body armor, and Rayburn put one on and moved to the next roadblock. There, we found only one man and a woman guarding the road.
Rayburn said, “Steele is running out of men. Several of them were killed taking your place. Steele was injured in an explosion and seven of his men were killed.”
“I took out four more just after they killed my friends.”
“Are Mary and Patty okay?”
> “No, Steele’s men shot them just before I killed the shooters.”
“Steele lost two of his men after the bomb wounded him. He thought the two townies might have had something to do with the explosion, so he had them killed.”
I passed my suppressed AR over to Jim and said, “Kill the guards and let’s take their weapons and body armor.”
“No, no, the woman is a friend who was forced to stand guard. Wait, was that a test?”
“Yes, life is full of tests and trusts, now, take out the man.”
Jim aimed, fired and the man’s head exploded. The woman fell down behind a stack of tires and then looked up to see who was attacking.”
Jim called out to her, “Alice, it’s Jim. We won’t hurt you. Put down your gun.”
We walked up to Alice, who gave Jim a hug, as she asked, “Aren’t you that Jones guy who bought the Williamson place?”
“Yes, that’s me. What do you know about me?”
“Not much, except that George Gale was spreading talk around town that you stole his wife and had plenty of food at your home.”
“Neither is true. Now, will you choose to fight to be free and join us in our little revolution against Steele and his men, or do you choose slavery. One thing I know, Steele is not the only tyrant running loose these days.
“How many roadblocks are there and how many of his men are in town today?”
“There are two more roadblocks and only three men in town besides the Sheriff and his two deputies.”
“So we have to take out about 10 more men in town and roughly the same number at my home. Let’s get moving.”
We eliminated all of Steele’s men manning the roadblocks, and two more townies joined us in our crusade. I now had four well-armed men and women to fight by my side, and for their future.
