by Newman, AJ
“Good, now let’s get the gang together in the morning to discuss the best way to seal off our community and to kill all of the gang members.”
The next morning, Walt and Luke confronted Tom. Walt said, “Tom, you shouldn’t be on your feet that much. If you let us put you in the wagon, we can move you around as we select the best places to bring the canyon walls down.”
Tom’s whole body hurt since he had told Mattie to save the strong pain pills for the others. Even the mild therapy he did every day for his arm and leg was almost unbearable. He gritted his teeth and survived each session with Alice who had been a Therapist before the lights went out. Tom winced, just thinking about going back down the canyon to select places to put the dynamite. “I won’t fight you, but I do need you to survey the canyon first and select the most likely places for the charges. Remember we need to fill the canyon high enough that no one would even think to climb over the rock pile much less drive an SUV over it.”
“Meg must have the patience of a Saint to put up with your sorry ass. Always barking orders and acting like a whiny brat when you are sick,” Walt chided.
“That’s part of my boyish charm. I could be like a certain damned old grouchy Injun.”
Walt’s eyes blinked, and he almost choked. “I smell bullshit. Man, you are shoveling it deep today.”
“Wash your face and the smell will go away.”
Walt interrupted and quickly got back on the topic. “I’ve found two places where we should be able to start landslides into the canyon. Both places are within a hundred feet of each other and located where the canyon is the narrowest. I do have one major concern. What happens if we totally block the stream? The canyon drops over a hundred feet from here to the proposed blockage, but the stream could be totally blocked and form a lake. Remember that most of the year the stream flows down the canyon.”
Tom scratched his chin. “That’s the best news that I have heard today. That would give us a reservoir of drinking water that should last through the dry spells. Remember that Roy diverted about a third of the water down the other side of the valley to power the water turbine. We could make the dam wall a bit higher and dig the channel a bit wider and deeper to handle the entire stream. It would take quite some time to fill the canyon up. Hell, we can stock our new lake with fish from the pond and streams. Let’s go look at your targets for our bombs.”
Luke said, “I’ll get the wagon.”
“Damn, you’re trying to mother me.”
Walt replied, “Someone has to.”
Walt and Luke helped Tom onto the back of the wagon and then up to the seat. Walt handled the reins, and they waved at Cristy, who was guarding the canyon, as they passed by her. They slowly covered the entire length of the narrow canyon on the way out and back looking for loose rock formations that could be collapsed down to the canyon floor.
Tom asked Walt to take them back to the two locations that Walt liked the best. “Walt, I agree on both locations, and I think we should go for overkill on charges. See that big assed rock that has your nose and the rock that looks like a broken feather, that’s where I’d place additional charges. Just that rock would plug the bottom twenty feet of the canyon.”
Walt was silent for a minute. “Well, that settles the placement issue. Now how do we set the dynamite off in sequence to deliver a pile of rubble 50 to 100 feet thick in the canyon without blowing one of us up?”
Tom scratched his head, and then Luke spoke up. “I have an idea that involved using a bullet to light the fuses.”
Tom had his doubts. “What if the bullet misses its target?”
Luke was put off by Tom’s negativity. “We shoot again. Just look at where we need to place the charges. It would take me ten minutes each to climb to three of the four locations. I’m not about to be climbing up a canyon wall while dynamite is blowing up 100 feet away. Let’s make some type of metal paddle that releases a striker or sets gunpowder on fire when struck by a bullet.”
Tom asked, “Can you make this device you are pitching?”
“Yes, I’ll get Gerry to help me. I won’t let you down.”
***
Gerry had doubts about Luke’s idea for lighting the fuses. “Let’s go to the dynamite storage room and get a few pieces of the fuse to run our trials. Are you sure Roy didn’t have any blasting caps?”
“I’ve looked high and low all over that room and didn’t see any. Let’s go, and you can see for yourself,” Luke responded.
The storage room was only a hollowed out cavity in the side of the shaft with a wooden wall and a door. Luke unlocked the door and shined his small flashlight into the room. Gerry saw several wooden shelves lining the walls with antique mining equipment. His eyes stopped at a rack packed with old carbide lights. “Damn, think about it. Miners used to enter the dynamite room with lanterns and carbide lights with their flames flickering. Scares the shit out of me.”
Luke pointed to the wooden boxes of dynamite and fuse. “That’s our entire supply of bang bang sticks and fuse.”
Gerry saw several spools of wire on the top shelf and instantly knew what the wire was. He pulled the first roll down, and it was two thirds full. The next two were full 500-foot rolls. He reached up behind where the rolls had been and found a small wooden box that had dull red letters that spelled ‘Blasting Caps.’ “I think we found the Holy Grail.”
Gerry opened the box, and to his dismay, there were a dozen corroded blasting caps that were still wet from the damp mine. “The wood is soaked, and the caps were ruined many years ago. Damn.”
Luke saw another larger box and pulled it off the top shelf. It was about six inches by ten inches and eighteen inches tall and had a handle sticking out the top. Gerry got excited. “Luke that’s an old dynamo they used in the old days to send a charge to the blasting caps.”
Luke didn’t see the reason for excitement. “What’s the big deal? We don’t have any good blasting caps.”
“No we don’t, but instead of trying to shoot at our homemade fuse lighter, we can use this to send an electric charge to the fuses and light them. I just need some good lightbulbs to steal the filaments.”
Gerry spent the rest of the day disassembling the 1890-s-Hercules-50-Cap-Blasting-Machine-Dynamite-Detonator-Box. He had it cleaned up, and it was delivering an electrical charge after a couple of hours. He then turned his attention to making fuse igniters. He quickly found that all he had to do was to break the glass from the old filament bulbs and wrap the end of the fuse around the delicate wire. The electric charge made the filament glow red-hot and set the fuse on fire every time. Everything was going well until they tried a more realistic trial with several hundred feet of wire. None of the filaments would glow and start the fuse on fire.
The two were stymied until Mattie and Cristy pointed out that any of the batteries from the ATVs or pickup had plenty of juice to make the fuses light. Mattie said, “And you two are the future of our group?”
Tom and Walt were impressed with Luke and Gerry’s work and rewarded them with the task of placing the dynamite and wiring them so they would be ready at a minute’s notice. The young men had a few touch and go moments while scaling the cliffs but remained unscathed. They placed the dynamite in plastic tubs and wrapped the charges with garbage bags. Tom watched over the work and knew the easy part of the plan was ready. Now they had to deal with how to kill most of the enemy without getting anyone else killed.
☆
Chapter 18
Tom listened to each hair-brained idea before shooting them down. “Luke, that idea was just plain stupid. They have us outgunned and outmanned. We would die in the first few minutes of the assault.”
Mattie and Cristy gave their plan next. Mattie spoke for them. “Cristy and I could lure them into…”
“Hell to the fricking no! I’m not using our daughters as bait to lure perverts and rapists into an ambush.”
Walt was the last to speak. “Alice, you mentioned that you know where the gang leade
r and his family live. Is that current information?”
“Yes, I saw him and his woman with two kids playing in the backyard of the house they commandeered. What are you thinking?”
Everyone turned to Walt. “I like the idea of luring the gang to a central point but not with one of us. We’ll capture his woman and kids and send a message that we want them to leave the area in exchange for his family’s lives. When they storm the place, we blow every one of the rat bastards to hell.”
“What about…?”
“Walt lashed out. “Shut up for a minute and let me finish. We’ll have snipers located around the place and pick off any survivors.”
Meg stood up and made the T sign with her hands for a time out. “We can’t kill women and children just to kill off these criminals.”
Walt replied, “I’m one step ahead of you. We’ll sneak them out of the trap to safety before the dynamite goes boom.”
Meg insisted, “What if you don’t get them out in time?”
Walt replied, “Meg, we’ll do our best, but I won’t lose sleep over it if all of us are safe at home from future attacks.
Everyone tried to talk at once. Tom yelled and then banged his Glock on the table. “Hold up. I like the plan. Walt, you take Meg, Luke, and Alice to polish it up and present it to the team tomorrow at lunch. Gerry, I gave some thought to our efforts to block the canyon, and I want to make a simple change that will only take you a few minutes. I want you to separate the charges close to our camp from the ones on down the canyon. I want to be able to blow the ones up here and trap anyone following us between the two landslides.”
Walt looked up at Tom. “Damn, I wish I’d thought of that.”
***
Several days later, they were ready to set their plans in motion. Walt, Tom, Alice, and Meg slid into town and hid close to the leader’s home. Luke, Mattie, and Gerry were tasked with starting a ruckus across the way at the Kellogg’s warehouse. They set several ¼ sticks of dynamite in cars about a half-mile apart leading west away from town. The duct tape fuses were made of longer to shorter lengths so the team could be a mile down the road before the first explosion.
The duct tape burned slowly but with a relatively consistent burn rate. Luke learned this trick setting cherry bombs off behind police cars during his freshman year of college. It was fun watching the police chase their tails but not find anything but a board that had been blown to bits.
The first homemade bomb blew up and started a car on fire about 9:00 pm and several gang members ran to see what was going on. By the time the third exploded, the man in charge had to get his leader involved. Tom saw the leader rush out of the house and leave with three men. What upset him was that they left two guards to watch over the leader’s family. Luke’s team headed back home to be ready to blow the canyon if needed.
Walt took the first guard out with his knife, and then Tom, and he captured the second guard and tied him up. They regrouped, and all four entered the home. Meg and Alice caught the kids while they were sleeping, but the woman put up a fight. She kicked, bit, and scratched as they tried to restrain her. She bit Walt on his left arm, and Walt coldcocked her with his right fist. Meg saw the action. “We said we wouldn’t hurt them.”
“The bitch tried to eat my arm. It was self-defense.”
Tom interrupted. “Let’s get them staged around the table and ready to be the best bait possible. Tie the kids up and make them look like they are gagged like the mother has been gagged with the duct tape.”
Walt busied himself with placing the two boxes of dynamite below the kitchen table and then ran the wires to the fuses under a rug and out the kitchen door.
Meg added, “That looks great. Our two guards will be placed in the dark corners so they can be seen but just barely. I think we are ready, let’s move out and string the wire out behind the next home.”
Walt went to their captive and cut the zip ties while Alice kept her pistol trained on the man. “Look Puke, if you want to live you’ll take this note to your leader. We’ll have a sniper with a crosshair on your back so don’t screw with us. Go.”
The man ran for his life and soon disappeared into the darkness. The group didn’t have long to wait unto several scouts showed up sniffing around the front of the home before checking the back yard. One snuck up to the kitchen door and could see two kids and a woman sitting around the kitchen table. The scout almost missed the two figures standing perfectly still in the opposite corners.
Several more men appeared, and they recognized the leader. The scout was overheard. “Boss, Kit and the kids are tied up to chairs parked around the table, and two men are hiding in the dark watching them.”
The leader’s course voice replied, “Gather the men around the house and send Rocky and George in to see what they want.”
“But Boss, the note said they would only talk with you.”
“Yeah, but I think it’s a trap to kill me. That’s why I’m sending our two slackers in to negotiate.”
“But Boss they could get your old lady killed.”
“No skin off my nose. I can get another. Send them in.”
The two men snuck in the front door to the house as the others tightly gathered around the perimeter. Walt motioned for the others to go on up the road so they could provide firepower to ensure Walt’s escape. They left, and Walt waited the agreed on two minutes before touching the wires to the ATV battery. The detonation was enormous and destroyed the house and both houses on either side. The fireball washed over the entire block setting more fires. Boards, glass, and appliances rained down from above the unearthly destruction.
The back wall of the home Walt hid behind tilted over and buried him under six feet of rubble. That actually saved Walt from being burned alive. Walt was unconscious as his friends watched the debris fall from the sky.
Meg’s jaw dropped. “Walt was behind that house that was destroyed. Is he still alive? Oh, God.”
The moon was bright enough for them to see the bodies fly through the air and then the fires highlighted the mangled and dead on the ground. Tom estimated over 30 of the enemy had been killed. They didn’t see any survivors. They knew there would be outliers pulling guard duty but hoped they had broken the back of the Sedona Social Society.
Tom had tears in his eyes as the realization that his good friend had just died before his eyes. Tom dried his tears and barked orders. “Untie the woman and her kids. Let the scum go. The department store mannequins worked to perfection. Let’s go home. I don’t think anyone will be following us up the hill tonight.”
They were only a half mile from the opening to the canyon when they saw the lights bouncing off the road and hillsides several miles behind them. Tom made everyone stop. “Shit, that could be eight to ten vehicles heading this way. They are after us.”
“I guess that asshat wasn’t the boss and we just pissed the real boss off a hell of a lot,” Meg said.
Tom yelled whipped his reins and dug his heels into the side of his mount. “Haul ass!”
The vehicles had closed the gap to less than a city block when Tom’s group rode through the canyon. Tom told the others to seek a safe place and joined Gerry and Luke at the end of the canyon. Tom looked down the canyon and could see the lights of the advancing vehicles. “Gerry, get ready to blow the first charges.”
Tom waited a bit more than he thought he should and tapped Gerry on the back. The wires sparked, and both charges exploded lighting up the night sky. Huge boulders, large rocks, and gravel fell on the men and vehicles at the front of the column. Tom tapped Luke on the back, and Luke said, “This is for my mom and dad you bastards!”
The wires sparked as they touched the battery and this time they heard the enormous explosion and light but couldn’t see the carnage. The earth rumbled for several seconds as the tall hills above the canyon sloughed off large chunks of their mass as it slid down to the canyon and filled it almost to the top for a length of about a hundred yards. All but the lead vehicle was buri
ed under 50-100 feet of rock and dirt.
Gunfire erupted as Meg and the others mopped up the thugs in the lead vehicle. The fight only took a few minutes, and there were no survivors, as planned.
***
They rested for the next few days and only tended their animals and gardens. Losing Walt and the others in the first fight had sapped most of their willpower. Tom watched as his people went about their work with their minds in a fog and not much get up and go. Alice and her two people were a good fit and a big help around the farm. Tom pushed everyone hard to dig the wider channel to the canyon. He wanted to fill the new lake by the end of next spring. He also knew they needed to stay busy.
He was very disappointed when the water hit the wall of rocks and just disappeared. Then a week later, the water backed up overnight and began to fill the area of the new lake. Mattie looked at the water spreading out across the canyon floor a couple hundred feet away and said, “If we know we’re going to have a lake, why aren’t we building diving boards, floating docks, and water slides? They will be much harder to construct when the darn lake is full. Shouldn’t we make marks on the side of the canyon to tell us how deep the water is?”
Tom replied, “That’s a great idea and I hope it takes Luke’s mind off his mom and dad for a while.”
“He’s slowly getting better,” Mattie said.
The lake project was just the spark everyone needed to join in a common cause that was actually fun. They built two twenty by twenty floating docks and anchored them about where they thought 50 feet from the shoreline would be. Then they added a wooden pier out into the dry lake and added diving boards, rope swings, and a gazebo with BBQ pits.
