by Liscom, Sean
We were just about to leave when I saw the dust cloud about two miles to the east. It looked like a single vehicle and it was taking the dirt road that went north, the same road we were going to get on later in the evening. We stopped and waited for the vehicle to get well ahead of us before we proceeded.
“I owe you an apology, Jason,” Melissa said from beside me.
“What for?”
“I lost my cool, when you yelled at me, I'd lost my edge and I let it show.”
“It happens to the best of us, Melissa. Learn from it and move on.”
“It's..... I just don't want you to think..... I'd never intentionally put my people in danger. I don't want you to think I would,” she said. I was
silent for a minute while I thought about what she said.
“You will though. A day will come when you
have to deliberately take people into harm’s way. The worst part is not everyone will come back from it. No matter how much planning you do. No matter how well trained and disciplined you are. Sometimes you lose people,” I said. She nodded her head.
“Like Rex?”
“Yes, like.....” I stopped walking and listened intently. “Vehicle,” I said and pushed her toward the sagebrush on the side of the road. We had run about 50 feet when we threw ourselves to the ground. No sooner had we hit the dirt when the truck that we'd seen earlier came around a bend in the road. With any luck, they were going too fast to see us.
The four door pickup truck barreled past us and showed no signs of slowing down. Both of us let out a sigh of relief when it finally left our view. I slowly pushed myself up and looked around. There was no sign of anybody else.
“Come on,” I said as I got to my feet. She quickly followed me as I jogged to the corner that the truck had come around. I stopped short and eased my way up the rest of the way. The road straightened out and kept heading north. About five miles away, I could see a single light. It stood out like a road flare in the near total darkness. Melissa eased her way up next to me.
“What do you suppose that is?” she asked.
“It's on our way so we might as well find
out,” I said as I dropped down and crossed the road. “Let's stay off the road and avoid any more surprises.”
“Roger that,” she replied, all business now. It took us nearly two hours to cover the distance to within 200 yards. We were being cautious, not knowing what to expect.
“I hear a generator. Do you hear it too?” I asked her.
“Yeah, I hear.”
“Okay. We'll use that to our advantage. With any luck, they will be as blind as they are deaf. Let's sneak up and see what we can see,” I said. Once we had closed the distance to about 100 yards, I could see a pair of small buildings that formed an L shape. They couldn't be much bigger that 10 feet across by 20 feet long. One had multiple antennas on the roof. That seemed to be the one that the generator was hooked up to. Melissa and I held our position for nearly an hour and just watched the place.
I counted three men and one woman, all were armed and wearing body armor. When they walked under the light that was between the two buildings, I could see that they were wearing the same tiger striped uniforms as Ray’s people. It
was a safe bet that these were hostiles and not friendlies. The luminescent hands on my watch told me that it was almost midnight when two of the four people went into the second shack and
didn't come back out. I leaned closer to Melissa and spoke just above a whisper.
“I think those two just went to bed. That leaves the woman in the building with the generator and the guy sitting on the steps in front of it, right?”
“Yeah. She has a pistol on her left hip, I haven't seen her with a rifle. His pistol is on his right thigh and his rifle is leaning against the wall, just inside the door,” she reported.
“Good eye, Melissa,” I paused, a thought popping into my head. “How would you plan this assault?” I asked.
“We need to take those two out quietly. The light that's between the buildings casts a long shadow out to the east. We should circle around and come in from their blind spot. That will also give the other two time to fall asleep. Assuming the guy stays on the steps, we should split up and approach from both sides of the building. Hit him first, before he can get to the rifle. While one of us is dealing with him, the other grabs his rifle and covers her. Once they are subdued and disarmed, we use the element of surprise to subdue the other two,” she said.
“What do we do if the primary plan goes to shit?”
“We make it up as we go,” she smiled.
“Okay, let's do this.”
Wednesday, August 16th, 2017
The ranch.
Jill had fulfilled her promise of feeding the prisoners and getting them to work that morning. Her conversation with Don had left her with a lot to think about but it also helped her to form the rest of her plan. The prisoners at the ranch were supposed to be moving the rest of the warehouse out today but after the first two loads were sent to Elko the trucks didn't come back as planned.
On top of that, the tanks and Hummers also left. The two remaining Stryker’s were parked in front of medical and she hadn't seen Lance all day. It was just after lunch when they were told to go back to the barracks and await further instructions. There were still 16 men, mostly up in the guard towers, keeping an eye on the ranch. She wanted to retake the ranch without bloodshed, but right now might be the moment that she needed. Bloodshed or not.
She was sitting at the dining room table, discussing options with Harold, Jim and Darren again when there was a knock at the front door.
She quickly rose from her chair and opened the door. Don was standing there with two other men that she didn't know. Worry started to seep into her mind.
“Don,” she greeted him.
“Can we talk out here on the deck?” he asked. Without answering him, she stepped out and closed the door.
“Everything okay?” she asked.
“No, not really,” he started. “I've been thinking about the conversation that you and I had this morning. It's been on my mind all day.”
“Okay.....” Jill said hesitantly.
“These two guys are the closest things I've ever had to best friends in my life and I told them what we talked about.....” shit, Jill thought to herself. “They think you are full of crap and just trying to get under my skin, make me turn against Ray,” he finished.
“I see,” she said but was thinking something totally different.
“Is there any way to prove anything you told my friend?” the one on the right asked.
“Let's start with introductions, my name is Melissa, you are?”
“I'm Torrance, this here is Rob.”
“No, there is no way for me to “prove” anything that I told Don. If you want proof, then you need to go look at the small towns, talk to the people. They will tell you about some of the things that we've done for them. Go in there and talk to some of those people,” she said pointing over her shoulder at the closed door.
“He said that you were part of a team that helped to provide security, doesn't seem very
secure to me. You all folded the second we rolled up to your gate,” Rob said.
“Did you hear what you just said? You rolled up here with heavy armor and air support. There were six of us here at the time. Would fighting back seem very smart to you? I mean, seriously, C'mon! Are you guys here to waste my time or do you have something on your mind, something of substance?”
“Yeah, Don said the Sterling’s trained you in all sorts of things. What do you owe them in return for this training?” Torrance asked.
“Nothing.”
“Wrong! You serve on one of their teams in return for food and a place to stay. You're just like us.”
“I hate to tell you this, Torrance, but I signed up for this. Nobody held a gun to my head. Nobody threatened me or my family. Nobody told me that I had to sign up or starve. I'm here because I want
to be, not because I was forced. They offered me a better life. They offered me a chance to grow as a human fucking being. What has Adolpha offered you?” Jill fired back. Her question was met with silence so she continued to press the issue.
“She gave you a leader that's more interested in collecting the bounty on my friends than he is in the well-being of his troops. My guess is that when the shooting starts, he's
telling you what to do, not leading the charge. Ray Judge has left all of you here holding a bag of shit while he goes to get the bag of gold. Do you even know what you're fighting for anymore? I know what I'm fighting for! All that we want is peace and the chance to put our lives back together. Are we willing to fight for that? Yes and we have fought like banshees to not only survive but thrive in this shitty world that we've been given,” she paused for a breath and she knew she was getting through to them now.
CHAPTER 20
Thursday, August 17th, 2017
Southern Nevada.
In the 45 minutes that it took us to circle around to the east side of the encampment, nothing changed. The woman was still in the building with the antennas and the man was still sitting on the steps. We crept toward the building and suddenly my feet were on hard ground, pavement. It surprised me but it worked to our advantage.
We reached the opposite end of the building from the stairs and held up for a second. I took a slow deep breath to calm myself and stepped around the corner, Melissa went around the other one. Another four or five steps and I would be in the light being cast from the single light between the two buildings.
With my back to the wall, I stepped slowly and quietly toward the stairs. I could hear the man talking, telling dirty jokes to the woman inside. Good. The more noise he was making the better. I went over the plan one more time. Melissa was going to make first contact by coming around the corner and kicking the man in the face. If he fell toward me, I'd deal with him while she went for the rifle just inside the door. If
he went her way, I'd get the rifle and take care of
the woman. Above all, we wanted to do it as quietly as possible. There were two more people sleeping in the other building.
The man sitting on the stairs never had a chance. Melissa swung around the corner and connected with a powerful kick from her right leg. The top of her booted foot and the bottom of her shin landed solidly across the bridge of his nose and snapped his head backward. He didn't fall toward either of us, instead he just sprawled out on the stairs. Instead of trying to get around him, I stepped in the middle of his chest and took the last step through the door, grabbing the rifle on my way.
The woman was so shocked by the speed of the attack that she had her hands in the air before I could get the rifle fully trained on her. I was holding it with my right hand and I put my left index finger to my lips.
“Shhhhhh,” she nodded her understanding. I stepped farther into the room and Melissa drug the unconscious man up the stairs. He had a bandanna tied around his neck that she took off and used to bind his hands behind his back. The next thing that she did was strip him of all of his weapons. This netted her a Glock 19 handgun with five full magazines, a K-bar knife and a boot knife. He had six magazines for the AK-47 that I
was holding and she relieved him of those too. Everything went onto the table that was next to
the wall.
Melissa then turned her attention to the woman. She had her stand up and she took her pistol and the spare magazines that were on her right hip. She wasn't wearing her body armor, it was hanging over the back of her chair. Once Melissa was satisfied that she had disarmed the woman, she sat her back in the chair and began to look for something to tie her up with. She found some heavy duty zip-ties in a tool box under the table and zip tied the woman's wrists and ankles to the chair. The man on the floor was beginning to stir so she zip tied his wrists and ankles then used the bandanna to tie the two together, basically hog-tying him.
Melissa busied herself stuffing knives into her pockets along with spare magazines for the Glocks while I leaned close to the woman and spoke softly.
“Don't do anything stupid. Keep your mouth shut and keep him quiet. This will be over in another minute and as long as you behave, no one gets hurt. Do you understand?” I asked. She nodded.
Melissa and I left that building and walked right into the other one. Both men were snoring heavily. They were laying on the bunks, stripped down to their underwear. All of their weapons,
clothes and body armor were lying on the couch at the opposite end of the room. We proceeded
to wake them up with gun barrels pressed to the side of their heads. They were very compliant when we escorted them into the other building.
Thursday, August 17th, 2017
The ranch.
It was well after midnight, Jim, Harold and Darren had all decided to go to bed. That left Jill in the dining room with her thoughts. Jason and Melissa were at the forefront and as much as she tried to concentrate on the task at hand, it wasn't happening. She knew, without a doubt, that she would be headed south to try and find them or at the least, bring their bodies back home.
Even if they had escaped the ambush, the southern Nevada desert could be a cruel adversary. The daytime temperatures could easily reach 120 degrees. The lows at night could still hover near the 100 degree mark. Water was a scarce commodity and without it, they couldn't last long. She knew exactly where the Amargosa Valley was, she'd traveled through there on her way to a shooting class in Parump. It was just about as desolate as it could be.
She was jolted from her thoughts when a soft knock came from the front door. She glanced at her watch, 1am, she stood and went to the door. When she opened it, Don, Torrance, and Rob were standing there.
“May we come in?” Torrance asked. Jill opened the door wider and stepped out of the way. All three came in and went to the dining room.
“What's this?” Jill asked.
“I looked into some of the things that you talked about earlier today,” Torrance began. “I did as you suggested and talked to some of the other people. It would seem that you were telling the truth.”
“I've got no reason to lie to you, any of you, about what we were doing here,” Jill said cautiously. The three men exchanged glances and again Torrance took the lead.
“I'm not going to lie to you either.....” he paused and took a breath. When he started talking again, his voice was much lower. “The three of us were friends before the world took a shit, we worked together. We were trying to get from Riverside, California to Santa Fe, New Mexico. That's where we're from. When Adolpha’s goon squad picked us up, we were told that we would be joining her army. If we didn't like that option, we would be used as general labor.”
“We stayed with Ray and his men because we knew that if we tried to dessert, they would hunt us down and kill us. We've seen it happen a couple of times,”
Rob picked up the conversation. “You've
asked why we fight for Ray and Adolpha, the answer is simple, we didn't get a choice. There are a lot of us that fall into that category. Not all of us, but a lot.”
“You were forced to work for him, I get it. Why didn't you band the other conscripts together? Why didn't you fight back?” Jill asked.
“He has men that we call enforcers. They are the ones that believe in the conquest. They are in it for whatever they can get. Power, gold, silver, guns..... They are after the material things. They are also the ones that keep us inline,” Torrance said.
“What happens if an enforcer finds you here, talking to me?” she asked. Torrance used his finger to simulate cutting his neck. She got the picture immediately. “Then why are you here?” again the three shared a look and some unspoken communication.
“The numbers are finally in our favor, Melissa. I'm sure you've noticed, most of the armor has left the ranch. It didn't just leave here, it's gone from Elko too,” Don said.
“Where did it go?”
“Ray is amassing his forces for an a
ssault on the military command center in Salt Lake. He's sending everything that he has to Wendover, to make the final push. He's leaving behind token forces, like us, to keep an eye on things.”
“What about the enforcers?” she asked.
“Two here and four in Elko,” Rob answered.
Thursday, August 17th, 2017
Southern Nevada.
All four prisoners were secured a little better once we had all of them together. Bed sheets had been torn into strips and used to bind wrists and ankles. We had moved them out of the buildings and had them on the ground under the light. The man that Melissa had kicked in the face was conscious now and none too happy. She had broken his nose, knocked out a front tooth and left him with a black eye that was swollen shut. He seemed to be the one in charge so I spoke to him first.
“I'm really curious as to why the four of you are out here, in the middle of nowhere. To me, that building looks like a communications center. Would that be a fair assumption?” I asked. He glared at me with his one good eye. “Maybe you didn't understand the question. What is this place?” I asked again. He continued to glare at me. This time he emphasized his point by spitting
on the ground.
“That's lovely,” Melissa said as she brought me a bottle of water. Her flippant remark made me chuckle a little.
“Yeah, he's a charmer for sure,” I said and took the water from her. After downing most of
the bottle, I returned my attention to our captives. “Alright, I'm trying to be as nice as I can. I can assure you that with the last couple of days that I've had, my patience is running real thin. Anybody want to tell me what this place is? Anybody?”
“Screw you!” the charmer hissed through his swollen lips. “They will tell you nothing as long as I'm alive!”
“Is that so?” I growled. He shut up and continued to stare me down. “Gimme that pistol,” I said to Melissa. She pulled it from the holster on her thigh and handed it over. I pointed it at his chest and pulled the trigger. Everyone jumped and the woman captive screamed a little. The 9MM round slammed into the body armor he was wearing and knocked him over backwards. He was writhing on the ground in pain.
