EMP (Book 2): Chaos In The Storm

by Newman, AJ

  They sped up and soon saw movement ahead. Tom strained to see through the dark when suddenly there was a break in the clouds and the moon briefly bathed the road in a soft glow. There were two men on horses following the wagons but no sign of Luke.

  Tom said, “Let’s close in. They won’t hear us.”

  Tom was afraid for Luke’s safety but was also worried that Roy would shoot the men and draw attention to them. Before the wagons pulled out, Tom asked Roy to get in the back of the tail wagon to ambush anyone trying to sneak up on the wagons. Tom had placed too much emphasis on the men following from a safe distance and not attacking so they could find the camp. Now the riders were getting too close to the back wagon.

  Suddenly one of the horses stumbled and fell, which threw the rider over the horse’s head. The man hit the ground hard and lay there not moving. The other rider pulled back on the reins and came back to help his friend. As the man turned the horse around, he caught sight of Tom and Walt charging at him. The man whipped his carbine around and had them targeted when a blur flew toward the man and knocked him from the horse. They saw Luke tackle the man and knock him off the horse.

  Walt and Tom pulled back on their reins and stopped by the first man. Walt hit the man on the head with the butt of his rifle and secured him with zip ties. Tom ran over to the other man and saw Luke in hand-to-hand combat with a much larger man. Luke held his own as they exchanged blows. Tom watched carefully and was ready to shoot if needed. Walt joined Tom, and they both stood there letting the fight go on without interfering.

  Luke shouted, “A little help please.”

  Tom replied, “It’s Walt’s turn.”

  Then Tom saw a glint of light as the man drew a knife. Tom started to shoot the man when Walt’s knife flew in front of Tom and embedded itself up to the hilt in the man’s chest. The man dropped his blade and stared at them as he tried to pull the knife from his chest.

  Luke pushed the man off himself as he huffed and puffed trying to catch his breath. “I can’t believe you two stood by while I was getting the shit kicked out of me. What were you thinking?”

  With a deadpan face, Tom replied, “I was thinking that it was the dumb old Injun’s turn to jump into a fight.”

  Walt chimed in with, “I was thinking that you are at least 25 years older than me and I might get hurt. Besides, it was a damned good fight, and we don’t get much entertainment. It was also great hand-to-hand combat experience. Quit your bellyaching. I saved you when he got the better of you.”

  “The bastard pulled a knife.”

  “All joking aside, you have a knife on your belt. We’re not playing, and we don’t fight fair. You need to kill an attacker before he kills you. You failed this test because the next time you might be by yourself. Gouge his eyes, kick him in the balls, and always get an edge on your opponent. Fight dirty and live,” Tom scolded Luke.

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  Chapter 16

  The entire team pitched in and quickly unloaded the wagons and had the team ready to go back down the mountain an hour later. Mattie was pissed at Tom and Walt for being so mean to Luke but knew deep inside they were right about toughening him up for what lay ahead. Luke tried to get some sympathy, but Mattie told him to rub some dirt on it and get back to work. Luke looked at her shaking his head. “You are as truly perverse as your stepdad.”

  Mattie walked up to him. “Show me where it hurts so I can kiss it so you’ll stop whining and get back to work.”

  Luke pointed at his butt. Mattie gave him the middle finger salute and left him alone. She went to patch up the thug’s horses and found them to be in good shape and not battered too much. Luke saw her being so gentle with the horses. “You’re nicer to the horses than me.”

  “They are just dumb animals, and I feel sorry for them. You are supposed to be a grown man and don’t need me to kiss every boo boo.”

  “Tom and Meg must have warped you.”

  Mattie turned and smiled at Luke. “And you’re sleeping alone until you stop whining.”

  They took a different route once they got close to the city and avoided the place where the ambush happened. Tom knew the trip back to the warehouse was very risky. “Roy, this is our last trip down for a long time. I hope Alice’s people have their possessions and the food ready to be loaded.”

  “Don’t worry. They will be ready, and we should be headed back up the mountain an hour after we get to the warehouse.”

  “It looks quiet around the warehouse. Do you see Alice’s guards?” Tom asked Roy.

  “I see one of them, and I see Alice’s daughter-in-law in the doorway. The coast is clear, let’s move on in, and get loaded.”

  Tom was uneasy but only because everything was going so well. They had two teams loading the wagons and had the first two wagons filled in fifteen minutes. They just had to tie down the load on the large freight wagon when one of the guards came running to the warehouse door. “We have some company coming toward us from the east. There are a dozen riders on horses.”

  Tom yelled, “Turn off any lights. Alice, we need to sneak out one of the vehicle ramps at the back of the building before they surround the place. Let’s go people!”

  Everyone stopped loading, and the guards locked the doors that had been opened. They drove the wagons down the middle of the building passing five high pallet racks loaded with food. Tom knew they would never see this much food again and hated the gang for running them away. They reached the end of the warehouse and had to stop while the overhead door to the ramp was opened.

  Tom and Ann looked outside and didn’t see anyone, so they eased out of the building and headed down a back street to put as much distance between them as possible. Tom and Meg were in the lead wagon with Ann riding ahead on horseback. Abruptly Tom saw something he didn’t like. Cars had been placed across the side streets so they couldn’t turn off the road. Tom motioned to Ann. “I smell an ambush up ahead.”

  Tom whipped the reins to pick up speed as he noticed the next side streets were blocked. “Shit the road is blocked up ahead.”

  He slowed down too late and barely slid the wagon around the curve. Sparks flashed from the steel bands on the wagon wheels as they slid on the concrete. Tom looked left and right for the ambush he knew this to be. The wagon straightened out, and gunfire thundered around them. Tom had the reins so he couldn’t shoot, but Meg fired as fast as she could in hopes of keeping the bastards heads pinned down.

  The second wagon with Lisa and one of Alice’s men was close behind Tom’s wagon and came under fire as it entered the turn. Roy was on horseback beside the wagon and left the street charging toward the shooters to draw the gunfire away from Lisa. Roy’s horse was hit in the neck and tumbled to the ground throwing Roy. He fell but held on to his pistol from behind his dead horse until a bullet hit him in the spine from behind.

  The gunfire was redirected to the wagon, and Lisa was knocked backward into the wagon by a high-powered rifle round. Alice’s man grabbed the reins and ducked down to make a smaller target as he slid the wagon around the curve. The wagon went around the bend on two wheels but righted itself and continued following Tom’s wagon. The wagon and its contents were bullet-riddled but still moving. One horse had been shot, but the pain only spooked the horse to run faster.

  Alice’s daughter-in-law and another of Alice’s crew manned the huge freight wagon with Luke riding beside it. Luke got off a lucky shot and killed one of the three ambushers as the freight wagon barreled into the turn. Luke knew it was going too fast to make the turn and pulled his reins back, so he fell in behind the wagon, which flipped and took out the remaining two men shooting at them. Luke made it around the turn and caught up with the wagon ahead. The gunfire had stopped.

  Tom knew there had to be more to this ambush than three men and wished they hadn’t placed all of the dynamite in the last wagon with Sally. He had meant to distribute it to use as hand grenades to give them more killing power.

  Sally’s wagon led by Walt made it th
rough the gauntlet unscathed. She reached behind her, found the box of dynamite, and checked to make sure she could reach it in case she had to throw a stick at someone. She looked back and saw a dozen thugs on horseback were only a block behind her. Sally laughed as she heard pops and the sound of several bullets whizzing behind her. She knew she would ruin the criminal’s day.

  Ann noticed that the street was now lined with semi-trucks with trailers on both sides as she led the caravan. She knew what to expect next but also remembered to stop meant sure death. Speed was their only hope as she watched for a means to escape from the street. She saw men in the street a block ahead and yelled for Tom to speed up and follow her. Ann didn’t see any vehicles or blockades, so she decided to burst through the men at full gallop. The gunfire raked the wagon, and Tom and Meg were hit several times each. Tom kept popping the reins to keep the horses moving even though they had also been wounded.

  Sally scrunched down and hid behind the wagonload of freight so no bullets could reach her from behind. She waived a bundle of dynamite and yelled to Walt. “Go up ahead and help out. I’m dropping some shit on these guys.”

  Walt reluctantly sped up and passed the middle wagon just as he saw Ann tumble from her horse and bounce off a semi. He knew she couldn’t survive and shot at the men up ahead of the lead wagon with a deep-seated hatred. Tom’s wagon burst through the men knocking them around like bowling pins. Walt used both pistols to kill half a dozen of the bastards before they could get off the ground.

  Sally lit the fuse on the bundle of dynamite but didn’t notice the sparks fall onto the fuses below. She planned to pitch the dynamite as she cleared the ambush and kill the remaining men. The horsemen behind her were close on her tail, and one was beside her. She poked her head up and grinned as she shot the man in the chest. She had the bomb in her hand and tossed it into the tangle of men at the ambush with a big smile on her face. Sally never heard the explosion of the other 14 sticks of dynamite that she inadvertently caused to explode, but the dozen men on horseback were all around the wagon when the enormous blast ripped the wagon and them to shreds.

  Sally looked like a madwoman waving the dynamite in her hand just before the explosion. Walt assumed she sacrificed herself for the others, which made her look like a hero but the truth is she accidentally lit the fuses for the entire box of dynamite and realized she was soon to be dead.

  Sally pulled back on the reins to make sure most of the riders were beside the wagon. The explosion blew a crater several feet deep in the road, and the wagon disappeared along with Sally, the horses, and the gang members. A fine red mist mixed with rock dust settled in the area and was the only remains of the living.

  Luke didn’t know that Roy and his mom had been killed until they regrouped a few miles north of the ambush. Tom told him, and Luke fell to his knees screaming his mother’s name. Meg and Tome tried their best to console him without much success. Luke needed time to heal but never got over his mom and dad’s deaths in such a short time. If he hadn’t had Mattie, he would have gone down a dark path. It was all the others could do to keep Luke from going back into danger to recover her body.

  Walt was the only witness to the explosion that killed Sally. She was the second woman taken from him since the apocalypse and the Indian was in shock and disbelief. He dealt with the hurt in his own way and spent the next hour on the way home embellishing the story about how Sally had saved them by sacrificing herself.

  Ann had kept to herself so much that only Tom mourned her death but had to dampen his emotion because Meg was so jealous of Ann.

  The team had a wake and made grave markers for their friends even though they couldn’t bury the bodies. Not being able to go fetch the bodies was almost as disturbing to the team as losing their friends.

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  Chapter 17

  The late spring sun was warm on their faces as Tom reflected back on recent and old events. He knew he had to keep his shit together or the entire group would fall apart. The one thing that kept popping up in his mind was that he and his team needed to focus on surviving. He also knew that their much-needed victory over the Sedona Social Society’s would be a fleeting memory with all of them captured or dead if they didn’t find a way to kill the entire group.

  They had been lucky that the Club still didn’t know the location of their hideout. That could change quickly if one of their half dozen search teams followed one of his team back to the camp.

  It took a week for things to get somewhat back to normal if there was a normal anymore after the devastating fight for their lives. The wounded licked their wounds, and with help from Gerry and Mattie’s nursing skills, they were on their way to recovery. Ann’s death at the hands of the gang had Tom’s stomach tied up in knots. He had barely gotten over the deaths of his younger daughter and wife at the hands of the Cartel’s hitmen, and now his friend was butchered by a sadistic son of a bitch. Tom’s only solace was that he personally had ended the criminal’s life.

  Tom sat on an old Adirondack deck chair next to Meg who lay on her back on a mattress as they soaked up the sun. They were a strange sight with Tom’s arm in a sling and his bandaged leg propped up on a keg, and Meg’s head and arm wrapped. Even with their wounds, he knew they were the lucky ones. Roy and Lisa died in the first few minutes of the ambush, and Ann gave her life-saving Meg and him.

  Poor, meek Sally ended the battle and probably saved the other’s lives along with Alice and Brad from their friend’s team. She accidentally ended up in the middle of the thugs with a handful of dynamite and a box below her feet with a short fuse. There wasn’t any part of her left to bury. She blew up two dozen of the thugs ending their will to fight that day along with wiping out the top three links of their leadership chain of command.

  Oh, Tom knew Walt embellished Sally’s role in the battle, but even his team needed heroes.

  Meg looked over at Tom and laughed. “Babe, we’re getting a preview of what we’ll be doing in our old age. I can’t walk, and you are bound to that damned chair.”

  “Whoa, speak for yourself. I think we are still young enough to kick up our heels and make a difference in this messed up world. We must quickly make our home safer for our grandkids. Mattie and Luke’s first baby could surprise us this winter and Cristy, and Gerry’s won’t be far behind them. I want our grandkids to grow up prepared to fight for their families but not have to fight every day. We must find or develop a safe zone where we can slowly improve our existence while building up our ability to protect ourselves.”

  Tom didn’t want all of the sacrifices to go to waste because he knew they had only beaten back the gang members and it would only be a miracle if the gang didn’t stumble on their hideout in the hills. He had plenty of time to think things through and a few weeks later jumped up from the chair. “Damn it! I’ve got it!”

  Tom’s yelling woke Meg up from her afternoon nap in the sun. “What the heck are you so excited about?”

  Walt, Cristy, and Luke came running. Cristy was anxious about her father because he only sat there in the sunshine without speaking most of the time. “Dad, are you okay?”

  “Hell yes, I’m okay. I know how to solve our gang problem. We’re going to kill most of the sons a bitches and then hide our camp from the world forever. I’m going to work on the idea for another couple of hours and then get the rest of your input. Walt, you and Luke, please fetch Mattie and meet me in the mine shaft in two hours.”

  Later, Tom used his crutches to get up on his feet and walk to the cabin. The meeting was short but very productive. Luke was asked to inventory how much of Roy’s old dynamite was still left in the wooden crates, and Mattie was assigned the duty to make a rough map of the gang leaders headquarters. Walt was asked to figure out how to close the canyon down forever. Tom knew what he wanted to accomplish and felt his friends could get the job done. Tom gave himself the task of how to kill all of the gang. He only agonized over how to make sure none of his friends was killed or severely injured. />
  Luke was the first to complete his assignment. “Tom, there is a shit pot full of dynamite stored in that side tunnel. Roy must have gathered it for years from all of the closed down mines. There are 9 full boxes with 24 sticks each, and another 5 opened boxes with 98 sticks total in Roy’s stash. Tom, most of the sticks have sweated nitroglycerin beads. I’m going to wipe them down and get rid of the rags. I’d hate to have a drop fall off into a box full and kill us all.”

  Tom chuckled. “I’ll bet some of that dynamite is over a hundred years old. Do you think it will explode?”

  “Yes, because every stick we have tried so far blew up. Sally saved our asses with those 24 sticks she detonated.”

  They all suddenly shut up and thought about Sally and the others killed since the world fell apart. Meg had tears streaming down her face. Tom held her tight until she recovered and wiped away the tears. Tom looked up at Walt and saw the tears form in his eyes. The Injun wiped his eyes and smiled back at Tom before going off on his own for a while.

  Mattie didn’t call on Tom until the next day. “I had Alice help a bunch on this map and then asked the others to suggest any changes. We think it’s pretty accurate. There is Kellogg’s warehouse, and the gang’s hideout is across the parking lot in this old motel. We had extremely bad luck for a den of thugs, rapists, and criminals to make their headquarters next to our food supply. The bastards probably didn’t even know there was food in the warehouses until they saw us coming out of the building with a wagon stacked four feet high.”

  Tom studied the map. “Damn, we need some more info about the asshole’s comings and goings. I want to kill as many as possible.”

  Mattie interrupted Tom. “Alice and one of her people are going back down there to scout the area for us. She plans to go at night and watch them for a couple of days before returning at night. She won’t take any chances.”