by D A Carey
Many of the people in this gang were related to each other in some way. They were mad as hornets to hear that outsiders killed some of their own men. Greed for the valuables and women also helped fuel their bloodlust.
Lew was a large man, and his lieutenant Javier was even bigger. More than anything they respected the fact that Malik didn’t back down or have any fear of them. They chalked it up to him being part of a big gang and lots of experience. They didn’t know of his mental instability and time spent in institutions.
“Your plan makes sense. I need to wipe out that place in Hanover anyways,” Lew said. “They got a lot of stuff I want, and I don’t need people thinking they can do their own thing without paying tribute to us.”
“Yeah, but those hillbillies will run out of everything except for corn soon. That’s why you need us in Chicago,” Malik shot back, everything he said sounding like a sneer. “When the time comes for you to control a bigger area the size of half the state of Indiana, I’ll send men by the dozens. Only thing you’ll owe me is first trading rights in your territory at a good rate.”
“Might work,” Lew said. The plan sounded good. He didn’t want to be taken in by a slick talker. Yet he couldn’t find the flaw in the plan. “Let’s focus on Hanover for now,” he said to give himself time.
Lew and Javier wanted to launch a raid into Hanover right now. Malik understood revenge, but he was more of a planner in an animalistic way. He didn’t care what they wanted; he needed their numbers. Malik only wanted to kill the men and take the women. He didn’t much care about the rest. He finally agreed to split the women with the gang in Madison as long as he got first choice.
Tomorrow they would decide how to bust into Hanover and take it all over. Tonight, they would party.
<< Liz >>
There was a chill on the river as they left Bert’s place. Liz was still longing for a few more hours of sleep. Recently she’d gotten even less sleep than she would have on her grandmother’s farm. Still, she was as refreshed as she could be under the circumstances. After a night at Gus’s and spending a day in Hanover at Bert’s, she was feeling almost human again.
They worked their way down the steps built into the steep hillside to the docks far below. It was both strange and beautiful to see the mist hovering a foot or so above the water. Vince warned them all to be quiet because sound traveled so well on water. There was something about the early morning darkness and a mist-shrouded river that urged people to talk in whispers, whether Vince had said anything or not. The mist made Liz think of history and all the boats that traveled this river during the last two hundred years. It reminded her of camping trips to this same river a few miles down as a teen to make out with that boy she’d known in school… What was his name?
As they loaded into Bert’s cabin cruiser, Vince instructed everyone to find a spot and try not move around much. He reminded them again how well sound traveled on water, especially at night.
“When it’s safe to move around more and talk, I’ll let you know. I can’t stress to you how important it is for us to slip past the thugs in Madison. We can’t risk being seen or heard. The boat is overloaded. Both the weight and trying to keep noise down will force us to go slow, although that has advantages too. If we went fast and hit a partially submerged log, that could get us caught. Anything over a few miles per hour will make more noise and leave a wake that would almost glow in the moonlight.”
Vince spoke low and intensely, working hard to hide his agitation. He was worried it would get light soon. If the sun came up, the mist might burn off and they would lose their concealment. It was taking longer than he wanted to get everyone up and going and then down the hillside to the dock. After that, he had to get people into the right spots and life jackets on as many as possible.
While they left many of their supplies at Bert’s place, they still carried weapons, ammo, and a few supplies. Most of the loading was left to Vince. Bert was using a fuel container on wheels to top off both fuel tanks. Although fuel was getting harder to come by, he said he had enough.
When Bert cranked over the twin engines, it sounded unusually loud, echoing across the river. Liz was convinced anyone within five miles could hear them. Soon the engines idled down to a low rumble and they were on their way, working slowly upriver against the current. Vince relaxed some. That didn’t mean he still wasn’t very tightly wound and on guard.
Soon they slipped by a marina a mile or so downriver from Madison. Then they saw a floating dock in front of the city. Bert kept the boat away from the Indiana side so they would be harder to spot. Still, he didn’t want to get too close to the Kentucky side and be seen there or get tangled in debris.
They could hear music coming from the Indiana side of the river at this time of morning. It sounded like the party was still in full swing near the gardens of the historic Lanier Mansion. Occasionally they could hear screams that made Vince grind his teeth in anger. Liz thought that Vince was probably thinking about how close it had been that those screams could have belonged to Bert’s granddaughter. If it could have been her, then it could have been Kate. That made Liz think it could have also been her, and a chill went down her spine. Vince looked over as she shivered, mistakenly thinking it was the night air.
It was when they went under the bridge at the east end of Madison that their luck turned sour. A drunk who was peeing off the bridge saw the boat. He was so far above the river that it was dumb luck that he saw them at all. If that wasn’t bad enough, the man was able to see enough of the name on the transom to recognize the boat.
Both Vince and Bert could hear him screaming into a radio, “Lew! That old man Bert that shot your cousin, he’s headed up river with a whole passel of people!”
It wasn’t long before they saw a light go on at the floating dock in front of the city. Bert slowly turned his head to Vince, raised his shoulders, and nodded in the soft glow of light from the gauges and strips on the floor of the boat. Vince returned the nod, and Bert exhaled a deep breath he hadn’t known he’d been holding in and pushed the throttles forward. The big twin engines roared. The front end rose and the rear end dug deeper into the water. Bert couldn’t go much faster, with all the people and supplies loading his boat down. This would be a bad time to hit a log and tear out an outdrive. Even without hitting something, it would only take a little chop in the water to swamp an already overloaded boat. He couldn’t risk it.
They could only hope that the men were too drunk or too slow to mount much of a pursuit before the group could get further upriver. They needed to put a lot of distance between them and the thugs in Madison.
Vince sent a couple of people below to stack some cushions and other supplies against the back and sides of the boat. It was probably a futile attempt to provide some level of ballistic protection, but it kept people busy and gave them hope. Besides, you never knew. If it stopped one bullet, then it was worth it.
Meanwhile, Vince made sure his SX-AR .308 was loaded and ready. He checked the spare mags to make sure they were topped off and found a good shooting position at the rear right-hand corner of the boat behind the transom.
Andy, Dwight, and Junior got their battle rifles ready, checking their spare magazines to be sure they topped off with ammo and easy to access. Each man made sure their firing locations were secure with an unobstructed line of sight that didn’t come to close to their buddies.
There wasn’t much else Vince could do. He could only try to make sure the other passengers were well protected below and behind cover.
Just as he began to feel optimistic that they might get away, the dawn finally broke. The inky blackness of night turned to a pasty whiteness of a mist-covered morning that was light enough now to see the activity behind them.
When Liz saw the grim visage on Vince’s face, she could tell the hope of evasion was gone. His jaw was set into the mien of a warrior. They were in for a fight.
<< Dave >>
The insistent ring of the cell phone in his poc
ket jolted Dave. It had been so hard to get a call through, he’d forgotten it was there. Dave and Louis were going over some of the numbers from various projects in an effort to keep up with the numerous contractors at different locations without his full staff when the phone startled him.
The idea of paying them in commodities and supplies was a stroke of genius. There was also the task of procuring supplies wherever they could. In some cases, there were supplies available and no transportation. In others, it was the opposite.
Most of the people who would be coming to the South Park location were already here. The ones that weren’t probably wouldn’t make it. That wasn’t true for the other locations. There were people showing up daily trying to trade jewelry, cash, and electronics for a spot in the towns. Although it was heartbreaking to turn people away, and especially families, Dave and the leaders in his communities knew that most of these latecomers were the ones who would have been mocking these communities a few months ago.
Louis stood to leave the room as Dave answered the phone. It was a frantic call from his grandniece Kate.
“Uncle Dave!”
“Calm down, honey, I’m here. Slow down and tell me what’s going on.”
“We’re on the Ohio River, and they’re following us and shooting, and I don’t know what to do!”
“Sweetheart, stay calm. Is your dad with you?”
“Yes, but they’re all shooting, and there are so many of them. Can’t you help or send in some Special Forces or something?” Kate said, sounding desperate.
Dave could barely make out her words over the furious sounds of battle behind her. “Sweetheart, listen to me. Your dad is the Special Forces. He will get you home safely. He always does. I can’t do as much right now as I could have a few months ago.”
“No, Uncle Dave, there are too many men. No place we go is safe!”
It wasn’t like Kate to whine. She was such a strong girl. It tore at Dave’s heart to hear her this way.
“Really, sweetheart, trust your dad and do what he says, and for God’s sakes, stay low and keep yourself safe, I’ve—”
Dave was about say, “I’ve got help coming,” but the connection was lost before he could. He desperately tried to call the number back several times. It wasn’t working. It could be hours or days before he got a call through again. He was frantic. He didn’t know if Kate was shot and dropped the phone or this was due to the satellite problems they’d been experiencing for weeks.
Dave hung up and tried several times to contact Levi at the Carrollton location with no success. Aside from losing his wife, this was the most helpless feeling in his life. He calmed his breathing and tried Levi one more time. If he could get through, Levi would know they were coming in by river and how to go help.
As things stood, the last communication from Vince said they expected to be coming in by land, although they weren’t sure when or the exact route he would take. He cocked his arm to smash the phone against the wall in frustration. He was rich; he could get more. Then he thought Kate might call back and set the phone down on his desk and stepped away.
Louis came back in the room, and Dave described what he just learned of the situation. Louis was worried, too. He had come to think of Dave’s family as his own over the years. Louis suggested sending text messages both to Vince and Levi. “We may not know if it gets through, though. Many times, a text message can get through when a voice call can’t.”
Battle
“Out of every one hundred men, ten shouldn’t even be there, eighty are just targets, nine are the real fighters, and we are lucky to have them, for they make the battle. Ah, but the one, one is a warrior, and he will bring the others back.”
- Heraclitus
<< Ellie >>
Malcolm was up top with the men who were shooting. Not to take long shots with a rifle, but with a shotgun in case he needed to repel boarders. Because of his size and inexperience in this kind of fighting, he would only take up space down below.
He was muttering under his breath as he did sometimes when he was nervous. “What the hell did everyone think? That this was some pirate movie?!” Malcolm’s running dialogue with himself would have been funny if anyone had time to notice.
Ellie was standing in the opening to the lower bunk area, feeling helpless. Bert was crouched low at the wheel of the boat. She could see the boats behind them. Two of the pursuing boats directed their fire at Bert’s boat from afar while her people methodically returned fire. It was so surreal, like watching a movie.
The other boat had more men with combat rifles shooting. Bert’s boat was obviously bigger, older, and slower. Ellie recognized that the men from her side could darn sure hit what they aimed at. In only a few minutes, she saw that the return fire from the good guys was hitting targets and doing damage. That fact alone was slowing the advance of the bad guys. That was no small feat in a moving boat shooting at moving targets that far away. They were keeping the other two boats at bay for the moment.
It was when Ellie saw another fast boat coming up in her periphery on the Indiana side of the river that her heart sank. In a moment of self-pity, she shed a tear that was a mixture of anger and frustration. They couldn’t catch a break!
“Bert!” Vince yelled in Bert’s ear. “Stay down and keep the boat moving! Keep her as close to the Kentucky side of the river as you safely can. Just not so close that we lose the ability to do some evasive zigzag maneuvers or hit something.”
Bert gave him a thumbs up in reply, not even attempting to speak above the noise.
“If we can keep them at bay for twenty to thirty minutes, we’re home free!” Vince shouted so the others could hear.
A couple of the other men dropped their eyes and glanced at him sideways like he was crazy.
At first it gave Ellie a sense of hope when she heard Vince say that, then she saw the expression on the faces of the men and knew Vince’s words for the gallows humor they were. She didn’t think they had three more minutes, much less thirty. She wanted to bury her head in her hands and cry.
When Malcolm glanced back at Ellie, she realized by his expression that he too thought they were out of time. And if by some chance they made it that far, their destination better have a whole passel of Marines to save them. Malcolm had seen too much of gangsters in his life and didn’t think they would quit the chase just because Bert found a port. It didn’t seem possible this would turn out okay.
Ellie smiled back at Malcolm, hoping to reassure him and give him confidence. Things always seemed to work out for Vince. He liked to claim it was his great planning, though she thought he was damn lucky a lot of time if the truth be told.
To make matters worse, they were now taking fire from all three boats chasing them, and Andy was hit. Even though it didn’t appear fatal, it took Andy and one more rifle out of the fight for the moment. Vince took Andy’s M4 and a couple spare magazines and handed them to Malcolm. He patted Malcolm on the back and gave him a thumbs up. “You’ll do fine. Just point it downriver at those boats and pull the trigger slowly, one shot at a time.” Malcom’s body language suggested he wasn’t as confident in his abilities.
There was a lull in the shooting. Some of the defenders on the Sea Ray were low on ammo. Vince sent his expended magazines down below for Kate to reload and pulled his handgun, a Springfield competition XDM .45 ACP.
As he was doing this, an open bow speed boat banged into the port side of Bert’s 39-foot Sea Ray. Vince dropped the handgun. Rather than search for it, he grabbed the closest thing at hand, a boathook. He used the boathook to try and shove the other boat away. He swiped at the hands of the man who was grasping at the rail of Bert’s boat and was shocked to see the scarred face of Malik reaching for him from the open-bowed ski boat. Malik was grappling with Vince from the other boat, leaving Vince no time to ponder how he would be down here on the Ohio River from Chicago.
He didn’t have time to think back to all the incidents on the way from Chicago and wonder if Malik had b
een close. He and Malik fell into the open bow of the thug’s ski boat in a life and death struggle. While they fought, the other man in the ski boat was tying a line from their boat to the Sea Ray. Neither boat could pull away since both boats were entangled in dock lines attached to the rails and entangled in the fenders. Both boats were slowing, and the men in the other boats were fixated on their struggle.
Vince and Malik were gouging and hitting, each trying to get to their knives.
Malcolm reacted promptly and stopped shooting downriver. He was trying to cut the boats apart. Somewhere in the shooting, Dwight had been injured as well. It took them only seconds to apply a battle dressing to the wound, and he got back in the fight. His shooting helped keep the other boats at bay to a certain degree. Although he wanted to help with the fight between Vince and Malik, Dwight was intent on making sure the others didn’t think the Sea Ray undefended.
It was at that moment that Vince was able to pin Malik’s knife hand while getting his own hand under Malik’s chin. Vince was bending Malik’s head backwards over the railing on the front right side of the open bow. Malik was still trying to get his knife hand free to stab Vince. Neither man was aware of anything going on around them. The rest of the world became a distant afterthought.
It happened so fast. Right as Vince was pushing his head back, Malik arched his back for the leverage that allowed him to free his knife hand. The maneuver worked. He raised the knife above Vince’s exposed neck to plunge it in from behind. Ellie couldn’t see much of the fight from her vantage, although she could see the knife raised high above Vince’s exposed neck, and she screamed.
