World War III - Home Front: A Novel of the Next American Revolution - Book One – As Day turns to Night

by William C. Seigler

  She looked daggers at him, stuck out her lower lip, looked away, and then stole a quick glance at Rico who shrugged.

  “Okay, I’m up too high for them now. They’ve got this street covered. We need to change directions.”

  “Stand by on that for now. Craig, pull over and kill the lights. The rest of you set up a perimeter.”

  “What’s a perimeter?” asked Ricki.

  “You two just step out the back and get down,” instructed Rico.

  “Postage Stamp, this is Raider.”

  “Go ahead Raider.”

  “We are at … - stand by.” Rico quickly shackled up the nearest intersection in code and sent it to Postage Stamp.

  “Raider, you are six blocks from the target site.”

  “There is a zombie unit guarding the approach.”

  “Take it down along with any other blockers you encounter.”

  “Roger.”

  Rico looked out the open door for a moment. “Laura, can you find us a path on foot around the zombies?”

  “What about the van?” asked Craig.

  “Laura, can you radio me any changes from the van?”

  “Sure.”

  “Keep an eye out for us. We’re going to get behind them before we attack. When we do, bring up the van. Slime, you’ve got security.”

  “Got you boss,” responded Slime.

  “Okay Rico, give me just a minute.” She flew the tiny aircraft around till she found a safe path.

  “Go right here, then left four blocks, and then half way through the next block, there is a tiny path between two houses. Then come back two blocks, and you’ll be a block behind them.”

  “One block this way, left four and a half, left between two houses, and two blocks back. Should be easy,” said Rico.

  “What do you want me to do?” asked Sly.

  Rico thought for a moment. “You know, if you could get some of your friends to come this way and apply pressure to the zombies, it would be a great help.”

  “You want me to call in the barrio cavalry?” asked Sly.

  “Yeah, that’s the idea. I don’t need them to do anything but apply pressure. Follow the most direct path and when they run into zombies, fire them up.”

  “What good’ll that do?”

  “With luck, it will draw off manpower. We might be able to get our people out in some other direction.”

  “How many people do you want?”

  “As many as you can get. But don’t forget they will be pretty much on their own. They’ll have to disengage and get out on their own. Okay?”

  “Sounds like fun.”

  Rico turned to the rest of us. “Follow me,” was all he said.

  It was surprisingly quiet. However, considering the firefight going off in their neighborhood, I guessed everyone was down and peeking out their windows.

  “Guys, try not to make too much noise. We don’t want them to know we’re coming.” Rico led us out at a quick pace.

  We turned left then quickly walked four blocks. The streets were deserted. One house had a porch light on. We quickly walked past it, trying to peer into the darkness beyond.

  Fourth block and we slowed down. I guess Rico didn’t want to miss the small path that led between two of the houses.

  Rico radioed, “Old Timer, any change?”

  Craig looked over at Laura. She just shook her head.

  “Negative,” was all he said.

  As we approached the front of the houses bordering the path, a security light came on. We froze, till Rico figured out it was activated by movement. We moved out but took shelter near the back end of the houses.

  In just a few minutes the security light went off. We cautiously moved out. Before long we were behind them. Rico pulled us together.

  “Here’s what we’re going to do. I’m going to position you, then have Craig move up alone. Wait till I start shooting, okay?”

  We nodded, and off he went. Soon he called Craig in a whisper. “Let your partner out. Come ahead with lights on slow. Stop when you see them. When we open up, put her in reverse.”

  “Roger, Wilco.” Okay Laura, you walk. Keep Slime and Sly with you.”

  “Have fun,” she said.

  “Always.” It is said that the longest journey starts with but a single step. It can also start with putting it in drive. He crossed himself and drove off.

  As Craig neared the place where the cops were hidden, Laura called, “One more house and he’s there.”

  “Understood, out.”

  Rico moved out into the open. An officer moved out to meet Craig.

  “Freeze!” shouted Rico. “Drop your weapons and put your hands on your heads.”

  They didn’t; they turned and raised their weapons. Rico squeezed the trigger and so did everyone else. Craig put it in reverse and hit the gas pedal.

  Shooting fish in a barrel would have been hard work compared to this. My stomach churned, but I kept firing. Rico followed by Slime ran up and finished off the last of them.

  “Help yourselves to ammo,” Rico said. I threw up.

  “What’s wrong?” asked Rico, his eyes hard in the streetlight. “Didn’t you know each of these bastards had a mama at home praying her boy will be safe?”

  “That one’s not a boy,” I said pointing to the one whose head was nearly severed from the body.

  Chapter 25 – Hitching a Ride

  “Hey dude, you still on the street?” said Sly into his cell phone.

  “Yeah, we’re still out here. What’s up?”

  “You know those dudes who were shooting up the cops.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Well, I’m out here with them and they are giving the pigs hell. We’ve been invited to come along. Can you get some of your buddies to join us? You know where the old kung fu gym was, we’re right behind it.”

  “Yeah, I think I can get some. What do you want us to do?”

  “Just keep some pressure on the cops, so they can get their people out.”

  “Who are their people?”

  “I don’t exactly know, but I think it might be those dudes who broke out all those prisoners the other day,” said Sly.

  “For real?”

  “For real.”

  “Okay, I’ll bring some guys up. Be there shortly.”

  “That’ll do.” With that he hung up.

  “Thanks, it’ll be a big help,” said Rico.

  “Why are you doing this?” asked Sly.

  “Well Sly, we got sick of the police state brutalizing the citizens and acting as if the Constitution didn’t mean anything.”

  “Does it?”

  “Without our Constitution there is no law, only the law of the gun. Maybe that’s why they want to take ours away.

  “We’re not the only ones. People all over the country are rising up. Between this latest war in the Middle East and the government ninja patrol kicking in people’s doors and killing them, we’ve about had enough.”

  “Yeah, but I thought it was just a bunch of tea baggers. You know, it was all a bunch of racists.”

  “Those in power use that lie to keep the people divided, while they make themselves richer and more powerful. You’ve seen us. You know that’s not right.”

  “Yeah, I can see that, but how you planning on telling the rest of the country?”

  “We’re through talking. This is doing our talking now,” he said hefting his ASG. “I tell you what, you tell them.”

  “I don’t know about that.”

  “Let me show you where you might want to set up.” Rico took out his map.

  “Where’re we at?”

  “Right here, see? The safe house is here. We’re going to move up till we hit some more resistance. Hopefully your friends can put enough pressure on them that we can get our people out.”

  “What do you want me to do with these?” indicating the remaining Molotovs.

  “Hang on to them for now. Use them on targets of opportunity.”

  �
�One thing though Sly, we don’t hurt civilians, ever.”

  “Just shoot up cops?”

  “Well, we intended to only go after the feds, but the locals decided to do their dirty work for them. They didn’t give us much choice.”

  Laura came up behind them. “Boss, let me show you what we’ve got.”

  “Okay, let’s see it.”

  “These guys were really just a sideshow. They’ve got the main roadblock up here.” She set the tiny computer up, so he could see it. The picture showed video of the next roadblock. There were police cars in depth. Nothing was supposed to get through there.

  “Okay, we should probably have your people engage them at this point. Don’t try to overrun them just keep pressure on them.”

  “What do you mean keep pressure?”

  “You need to only keep them from taking reinforcements from this roadblock to mess with the rescue of our people. Take a few potshots then back off or hit them hard and see if they will reinforce the roadblock. The most important part is don’t let them get you locked down in one place where you can’t get out.”

  “Okay, I can see that.”

  “What else you got Laura?”

  “If Sly’s people can keep them tied up, I think we can slip in through here.” She showed the video on the screen.

  “It will involve slipping through some alleys, but I think we can make it.”

  “What are you going to do when you get in there?” asked Sly.

  “We’ve got to take the pressure off the people in the safe house, so they can get out and get away clean. Right now we can’t even get to them. We’ve got at least one unit in there, maybe two or three, but that’s all.”

  About that time Sly’s friends showed up. “Hey Sly, this is what I could get on such short notice. Lefty’s trying to get some more. Who are your friends?”

  “This is Rico, he’s running the show. That’s Laura, she’s got her own drone up in the air. I don’t know the rest of the guys’ names yet.”

  “Drone, what do you mean their own drone, you mean like the cops?”

  “That’s it.”

  “Cool, what do you want us to do?”

  Rico and Sly explained his plan while Laura double checked our way in to make sure it was still clean. The rest of us had set up a perimeter and were keeping watch. I was still a little queasy, but I had found a faucet and rinsed my mouth out. It helped. This was an ugly business, but what choice did we have?

  “Now how are we going to do this?” asked Sly.

  “You could move up this alley here, pop out, and take shots at the roadblock from here,” said Rico indicating a point on the map.

  Sly and the newcomer, who went by the nickname Tracer, kicked around some ideas with Rico interjecting a comment from time to time. Soon they were ready to go.

  Rico quickly brought us up to speed, and we moved out with our van in the lead and the other two cars following. After several blocks Rico stopped our progress.

  He motioned for Sly and Tracer to join him. “Okay guys, just go through here and turn right, then the next left. You will have a chance to get started working on them. When we hear the gunfire, we’ll start out. Everybody got it?”

  They promised to do what they could.

  “Look if it gets too hot for you, get out of there. I’ll call you when our people are safely away. If I call you and ask about a Chinese restaurant, that’s the signal for you to break it off and get out.”

  “Chinese restaurant means get the heck out.”

  “What’s that all about?” asked Tracer.

  “We know the NSA is intercepting all electronic communication. We don’t want them to know anything about us or what we are doing.”

  “I’m cool with that. Sly, you want to lead?”

  “Follow me,” he said and off they went. I watched from the van. They carried an assortment of shotguns, with buckshot or rifled slugs I hoped, a couple of hunting rifles with scopes, and AR-15s.

  * * *

  They walked undetected through the darkened streets to where they could see the roadblock without attracting attention. Most of these buildings had held apartments but were now empty and abandoned used only for drug deals and places where druggies could hold up. Some of them had homeless squatters camping in them.

  “You know,” began Sly, “if I can get up in one of the buildings, I can drop these down on them.” As he said this he indicated his bag.

  “Yes you could, and if we fire them up before you throw these, they might not even know where they came from,” offered Tracer.

  “I’ll take a couple of guys and check it out. Why don’t you set up somebody here then another over there? You can set them up back this way too. That way the first guys can shoot a few times then get out and set up back this way. If they come out after our guys, we’ll be able to cover them. How does that sound to you?”

  “Sounds pretty good. You wait till you hear us firing then throw the Molotovs out the window and get back down here.”

  With that Sly and his companions were off. They found a building which already showed signs of forced entry. The stairs squeaked as they climbed to the fourth floor. The door was blocked. Sly put his shoulder to it. To his amazement he found someone living there.

  It was a man and a woman, homeless squatters. “Don’t worry, we’re not going to hurt you,” said Sly as the couple stared in frightened disbelief.

  “Is there anybody in the next room over?”

  “No,” the man answered. “We’re the only ones here.”

  “Why the fourth floor?”

  “Nobody has a reason to walk up this high, so we’re left alone. You're not going to make us leave are you?”

  “Heck no, I just need to use a window for one minute.” He indicated one of the men. “Go down and tell Tracer to start shooting at any time.”

  “Will do.” With that he left.

  The other one asked, “What about them?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “The cops might think they did it.”

  “I don’t think so, but, to be on the safe side, I’ll let them know what we’re up to. Listen people, we’re about to stir up a hornet’s nest. You can stay if you like or you can go.”

  They looked at one another, and the woman shook her head. “We’ll stay,” he said.

  Sly slid up the window and found something to block it open. He then set up his little surprises. He had to wait only a few minutes till he heard gunfire.

  He held up the first one while his buddy lit it. He chucked it out the window at the line of police cars, then grabbed another. The lighter flared and he sent another out the window almost as the first one hit. Sly quickly closed the window.

  “Come on. Sorry to bother you folks,” he said as they ran for the door.

  * * *

  Rico jumped back in the van as soon as Sly and his people moved out, and we eased down the alley in darkness. We came out on a narrow cross street and stopped. We waited.

  After what seemed too long, there was suddenly a crescendo of gunfire. Craig put it in gear, and off we went. We hung a right and went quickly for two blocks, then took to the alleys again.

  We were getting close now. The rifle fire was getting louder. Rico called on the radio, “Postage Stamp this is Raider.”

  “Raider, go ahead.”

  “We are about four blocks from the action. We’ve got some locals keeping a roadblock busy. Is there anything special you need done?”

  “Yes, there is. We’ve got one unit keeping the zombie raiding party pinned down, but the cops appear to be trying to relieve them. See if you can get the zombies off our guys’ backs.” He went on to give intersection and street information with Rico making marks on his map.

  “Okay, I’ve got it. We’ll be there as soon as we can, out.”

  “Uh oh,” said Craig.

  “What?” asked Rico.

  “There’s a car parked in the alley. I can’t get by it.”

  “That�
��s okay; we’ll go in on foot.”

  “You want me to come or stay with the van?”

  “Stay with the van. We might need to make a fast getaway.”

  “What about me?” asked Laura.

  “I’ll need you with me,” said Rico.

  Hector interrupted. “Rico they seem to be firming up a plan. I think the track that got past us is going to lead them in to burn down the safe house.” He had continued to monitor the cops’ frequencies.

  “Craig you still got the jamming equipment on board?”

  “Yes of course.”

  “Stand by.” He keyed the mike and called up Postage Stamp.

  “The zombies are putting together a plan to use a tracked vehicle as a shield to get close enough to burn down the safe house.”

  “That’s what we make of it as well.”

  “We have our jamming equipment onboard. Do you want us to use it?” This seemed like the obvious time.

  “Stand by.”

  In a few minutes the answer came back. “Raider, do your worst.”

  “Wilco.”

  “All right, now you’re talking,” said Craig.

  “Craig, you and Hector get this equipment going. See if you can bugger up their communications. Don’t stay in one spot. Keep moving but don’t get too far away. We may need you to pick us up quick.”

  “Where should I pick you up?”

  “Don’t know yet. You know this area pretty well?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Okay, let me see.” After a quick study of the map Rico continued.

  “The alley behind the Big Bad Burger will be ‘triple bee’. Where we are now will be ‘drop-off’. Hopefully we can get to one or the other. I’ll radio you when and where to pick us up. You got it?”

  “Right boss,” responded Craig.

  “Hector, I want you in the back seat where you can shoot out either side or the back if you get jumped.”

  “Got it.”

  “You can turn the license plate light back on for now. Just don’t forget to turn it off if they start after you.”

  “You got it Rico.”

  Before we could hit the ground, Laura called out, “I don’t believe this. Hey Rico.”

  “What do you have?”

  “You know that armored vehicle the feds used to escape us?”

  “Yeah, what about it?”