The Siege

by Darrell Maloney

  With that, the men walked toward the tunnel, headed back to the compound.

  Sami finally found her tongue again and yelled, “Bradley Clyde Spencer, I hope you’re not in the mood for romance tonight. I’m not giving you any for a week!”

  Sarah responded with, “Hey, if she won’t, I will…”

  The girls burst out in a new round of side splitting laughter, until Sarah finally asked, “They won’t really lock us in here, will they?”

  The three sprang up and walked at a fast clip through the tunnel, Hannah asking Sami, “Is his middle name really Clyde? Nobody’s been named Clyde since the 1930s.”

  They were relieved when they got to the trap door and found it still open. The boys didn’t lock them in the mine after all.

  What they did do, though, was run through the first floor of the big house and gather everyone they could find. By the time the girls made it back in the building, the hallway was lined with twenty people, who laughed and applauded them as they sloshed and dripped slowly toward their apartments.

  None of the seven ever shared the exact details of how they came to be in such a condition. But none of them would ever forget their shameful perp walk either.

  Chapter 41

  As it turned out, the attack came when the tunnel was a mere twenty yards from being completed. The team had run out of railroad ties, as they’d expected to. By shifting to a narrower passage and reducing the amount of weight overhead, they were able to shift to their new method of using wooden pallets to line the walls.

  They selected only the sturdiest of the pallets. And they were doubled up, two on each side, for extra strength.

  But their new method required a major learning curve, and was not without its hazards. With the pallets, they had to dig out forty inches of tunnel before they could secure each new section, instead of the ten inches they’d dug out before placing each railroad tie.

  The change in their process resulted in a couple of minor cave-ins and some scary moments. But they adapted, and would get the tunnel finished.

  Just not before they really needed it.

  Sami was on security duty when she saw them. Four identical quad runners coming up Highway 83 in single file formation.

  A quarter mile away, they turned down a utility company access road, and she lost sight of them. She was on the radio in seconds.

  “Dad! Mark! Bryan! Brad! Come quick. I need you at the security console asap.”

  The primary security team sensed the alarm in her voice and came running. Everyone else sprung into action too, and started locking doors, looking for their children, and heading for their wartime battle stations.

  They’d been through the drill so many times since Marty Haskins’ visit they could almost do it in their sleep.

  The primary team assembled at the console. Sami pointed to monitor number fourteen and explained what she saw.

  “There were four of them, on ATVs. They slowed down and looked down that road right there. Then they all turned and went down it.”

  “How long ago was that?”

  “About two minutes. Maybe three.”

  “Mark, do you know where that road leads?”

  “Yes. Pretty much to nowhere. It belongs to AT&T. It wanders around for half a mile or so and then dead ends at a cell tower.”

  “Okay, that doesn’t give us much time. They may be methodically checking each road as they come to it. If that’s the case, we’re next.

  “Bryan, you and Brad take positions on the roof. Be sure you take extra magazines.

  “Sami, could you tell if they were armed?”

  “No, I’m sorry. I couldn’t tell from that distance. I didn’t see any rifles slung over their shoulders, but I can’t guarantee they didn’t have any.”

  “True. They could have been tied to the rack or in sheathes on the side of the runners. We’ll assume they’re heavily armed, and we’ll assume they’re headed our way.

  He got on the radio.

  “Okay, people, this looks like this may be the real thing. Karen, make sure everyone is accounted for and non essential personnel are in the safe room. Let me know as soon as you’ve counted everyone.”

  “10-4, John.”

  “Joe, go to all the exit doors. Make sure they’re all locked. Hannah, check the key desk. Make sure we didn’t leave any of the keys in any of the vehicles. Karen, make sure all of the kids have their shoes on and tied and are ready to run if we need to.”

  He turned back to Mark.

  “Let’s hope these are joy riders out for some fun, or hunters out looking for game.”

  “Yeah, let’s hope.”

  “Shame you guys couldn’t get the tunnel finished.”

  “Yeah, well, this may be a false alarm. We may finish it yet.”

  “Yeah, let’s hope.”

  “Maybe when they come back they’ll go back the same way they came.”

  “Yeah, let’s hope.”

  But all the hoping in the world wasn’t going to change fate. A few seconds later, the four returned, turned right onto Highway 83, and headed their way.

  They slowed when they came to the disabled tractor trailer blocking the access road to the compound.

  One of them got off his wheeler and used the butt of a rifle to break the metal seal on the trailer door. Then he opened the rollup door to see what was inside.

  Sami breathed a sigh of relief and said, “Whew. Just looters.”

  John was less confident.

  “Don’t relax just yet. Wait until they’re gone.”

  But they didn’t leave.

  The group watched on the monitors as one of the men, with a Grizzly Adams beard, pointed at the narrow road hidden by the big rig. He led the way, driving his quad runner around the rig and down the road. The others followed single file behind him.

  John uttered just one single word, but it seemed to adequately describe the situation.

  “Crap.”

  The four disappeared momentarily behind a stand of trees, and then came into view on another monitor. It was the one assigned to the camera on the corner of the ten foot high black fence surrounding the compound.

  Mark said, “Well, if we can see them on the fence cam, then they can see us. If it’s the same four who showed up at the truck stop, they’ve succeeded in finding us.”

  John replied, “Yep. Now the only question is, what are they gonna do now?”

  Karen called in on the radio.

  “John, everyone is present and accounted for. All the doors are locked and Hannah says all the keys are accounted for. We’re all ready to head for the feed barn at your word.”

  “Thank you, Karen. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”

  Chapter 42

  Marty Haskins wasn’t the first man who described John Sabol as looking a lot like Grizzly Adams. A lot of people called him that. In the joint, he was known simply as “Bear,” and most of his fellow inmates didn’t even know his true name.

  Nor did they care.

  He bore both names as badges of honor. Grizzly Adams was tough as nails. So was John Sabol. And he’d been described as being mean as a bear by people who’d crossed him in one way or another.

  When Sabol came around the corner and saw the tall black fence he’d been looking for, he was overjoyed. They’d been searching a long time for this place.

  Then, when he read the sign warning of deadly biological agents, he had second thoughts.

  He was mean, and he was tough. But he didn’t live into his forties in an incredibly harsh world by being stupid.

  His number two, Bandera, pulled up beside him.

  “What do you think?” Sabol asked.

  “I think this is not something I signed up for. No steak is worth dying for.”

  Sabol took the bandana off his head and ran his hands through his sweaty hair to slick it down. While he refolded the bandana and reapplied it, he was processing his options.

  “This whole thing seems fishy to me. Why in hell
would the government put a test facility out here in the middle of nowhere, miles away from people?”

  Bandera replied, “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe because it’s out in the middle of nowhere and miles away from people?”

  Sabol felt stupid. And he didn’t like being made to feel stupid. He glared at Bandera, and Bandera made a mental note to use his sarcasm more judiciously in the future.

  “Okay, there are several possibilities here. One, Alvarez and his crew came here and attacked this place and took it over. And they’re inside now eating steak for supper every night and watching us right there on that little camera.

  “Or, they came here intending to take over the place, and the feds busted all of them and shipped them off to prison somewhere.”

  “Or…” Bandera offered his own theory, “…they broke in, opened some bottles they shouldn’t have opened, and they’re all dead now of biological poisoning.”

  “Maybe. But I doubt it.”

  Sabol huffed and fired his wheeler back up again, then motioned for the others to follow him.

  They slowly traveled the entire perimeter of the fence line.

  It took almost ten minutes, but they were in no hurry. And they wound up right back where they started.

  Again, Sabol studied his options. Before they decided to assault the place, he wanted to make sure there was something inside worth the effort.

  “Gomez, you got your radio on?”

  “Yes, jefe.”

  “Cut it out with the jefe crap. Speak English.”

  “It’s on.”

  “Good. We’ll wait here. You drive back to that tower we passed on the mountainside. Climb up it until you can see what’s inside this damn fence. Then call me.”

  “Si, jefe. Dame veinte minutos”

  He smirked and drove away.

  Sabol yelled after him. “Make it fifteen minutes, smartass. We ain’t got all day.”

  He turned to the other two members of his crew.

  “Bandera, you and Murrow go into the woods. See if you can find a dead tree to drag over here and lean up against this fence. Something we can shimmy up to climb over.”

  John got back on the radio.

  “One of the men is heading back down the fence line toward Salt Mountain. I think he’s going to climb up the wind turbine to get a better view. You guys on the roof get in the blinds, out of sight. Use your own judgment, but make no doubt about it. Once they see what we’ve got in here, we cannot let them leave. If we do these attacks will become an ongoing thing.”

  Bryan and Brad looked at each other. They both understood perfectly what John was implying. That if they got the chance, he wanted them to take the first shot. To play offense instead of defense. To kill the bad guys before they had a chance to kill one of their own.

  Sarah, hunkered down with the others, heard John’s words and winced. The words opened up an old wound. She had apologized to John for doubting him before, but she was never comfortable with him executing those two prisoners. Now he wanted Brad, and her husband, to start the battle.

  She tried to convince herself that this time was different. That this time these men were armed, and intent on doing them harm. That these men had the ability to fire back.

  And she definitely couldn’t argue one thing. If anyone had to die today, it was better to be the bad guys than one of their own.

  Bryan and Brad had been together in one of the two sandbagged duck blinds on the northeast corner of the roof. That made sense before, since the men were all grouped together on that side of the compound. But if they were going to exchange gunfire with a man on Salt Mountain, it made more sense to split up.

  Bryan left and went to the other blind, on the southwest corner of the rooftop.

  But once he got there, he looked in the direction of the wind turbine. And he didn’t like what he saw.

  “Crap!” he muttered to himself.

  He got on the radio.

  “Hey, Brad, can you see the turbine from your location?”

  A few seconds ticked by.

  “No. It’s past the tree line. I can’t see it at all.”

  “John, this is Bryan. We have a problem. The sun is directly behind the turbine. I can’t even see the turbine, much less anybody climbing up it.”

  Mark offered a suggestion. “What if I went to the south lot, where the trailers are stored? If I climbed on top of one of the trailers, I’d get a different angle. I might be able to see the turbine without the sun blocking my view.”

  John nixed the idea.

  “No. You might be able to see him. You might not. But he’d definitely be able to see you. And you’d have no cover on top of a trailer. You’d be a sitting duck. Let’s just wait and see what they do.”

  “Bryan, this is John. He’s out of camera range, and we don’t know where he’s at. Maintain your position. If you move now, and if he’s already on the turbine, he’ll have a clean shot at you. Just stand by until we see what their next move is gonna be.”

  “10-4, John. Standing by.”

  Gomez was a small man, quick and agile. He’d grown up in Lubbock, in west Texas, climbing all the elm trees in his neighborhood. His mom used to say he was part monkey, the way he scampered up and down those trees with ease.

  Even now, as a grown man, he could scale trees faster than a chimpanzee.

  And wind turbines too.

  The turbine had wrought iron ladder rungs welded into its side so workers could climb up to do maintenance. Gomez was too short to easily reach the first rung and had to stand on the seat of his wheeler to grab it.

  But then he was off to the races, climbing sixty feet in less than a minute.

  Once he was high enough, he turned and looked over the compound.

  And he liked what he saw.

  He got on his radio.

  “Holy crap, man. It’s like a farm on the inside. There’s all kinds of stuff growing in there, like fields. I see what looks like corn, and other stuff too. There’s several buildings and… holy shit. I see cows and pigs too.”

  Sabol smiled.

  He had his confirmation. This was indeed the place Smitty had told him about. And whether Smitty and Alvarez and the rest of their bunch now owned it, or the original occupants were still there, it didn’t matter to Sabol.

  It would soon he his.

  “Come on back here, Gomez. We’re all going in together.”

  Chapter 43

  Four minutes later Gomez was once again in the camera’s view, driving his four wheeler back to the front of the compound.

  John was back on the radio.

  “Okay, Bryan. He’s headed back to the rest of his gang. We have to assume he was able to climb the tower and see what’s in the compound. Move back to the other blind and wait there.”

  “10-4.”

  As Bryan moved back to join Brad at the other blind, John and Mark watched Gomez link back up with the man they called Grizzly Adams. They wondered about the two men who’d gone off into the woods, but weren’t overly concerned. The perimeter cameras on all sides of the fence would pick them up if they came out of the woods at a different place and approached the compound.

  They worked to formulate their own plan.

  John said, “Okay. So we have to assume they know what we have now, and that an attack is imminent. Once the other two come back out of the woods, let’s you and I get out there.”

  Sami suddenly got a look of horror on her face.

  “Dad, you can’t be serious. You’re safe in here with us. Why in the world do you need to go out there?”

  “Because once the shooting starts, they may turn tail and run. We need to get them in a cross fire so they don’t get away.”

  John looked at Mark to see if there would be any comment or dissent to his plan.

  Mark merely shrugged and reached for one of the AR-15s in the gun rack.

  “Ready when you are, John.”

  John got on the radio again.

  “Joe, this is John
. Can you make your way to the control center?”

  “Be right there, John.”

  Joe hadn’t been watching the monitors as the others had. He had no idea where the threat was. So he took no chances, low crawling through the building’s lobby toward the security console. It wasn’t until he saw the others standing together, watching the monitors, that he straightened up and walked normally.

  “Whatcha need, John?”

  “Joe, Mark and I are going to leave the compound in a few minutes and make our way into the woods. We need you to open the small gate and let us out.”

  “No problem. You want me to hang out there to let you back in?”

  “No. Once the bullets start flying they could go anywhere. A lucky stray bullet might find you there, and the fence wouldn’t do much to protect you. Come back in after you let us out, and we’ll let you guys know when we’re ready to come back.

  “And when we do come back, don’t just open the gate because you hear Mark or me telling you to from the other side. Wait until Sami makes sure we’re not under duress, and she’ll give you the all clear.”

  “What do you mean, under duress?”

  “They may try to capture one of us alive, so they can use us to get into the gate. Don’t open it back up until Sami verifies that we’re alone and tells you to.”

  “Okay. Got it.”

  John picked out his AR-15 and stuffed two extra magazines into his leg pockets.

  He looked up at the monitors, just in time to see Bandera and Murrow dragging a long dead tree out of the woods.

  “Yep. They’re going to scale the wall. Sami, once you get my word, give us the play by play. Update us constantly, but pause every ten seconds or so in case one of us needs to reply.”

  “Be careful out there, Dad. I don’t want to lose you.”

  He kissed her on the forehead and said, “You won’t, sweetheart. I promise.”

  Then John turned to Mark and Joe and said, “Let’s roll.”

  Just under a minute later, John called back in on the radio.

  “Sami, is it clear outside the gate?”