The Shadow Patriots Box Set 1

by Warren Ray

  “Give me those.”

  Nate tried in vain to reach for them and let out an eerie laugh. “You’ll have to take ‘em, Captain.”

  Winters carefully pulled them over Nate’s head and wiped the blood off. He looked up at Elliott. “Don’t let his butt fall behind.”

  “Don’t worry about me, Captain,” yelled Nate. “Bassett doesn’t call me Attila the Hun for nothing.”

  More flares shot up into the trees behind their line. He wondered if they would even need the night-vision goggles anymore. He shot forward and ran into Amber and Reese. Amber was scared but alert. Reese was fighting through her pain with a determined wide-eyed stare on her face that matched Nate’s crazed look.

  “Are you guys solid?”

  Amber nodded.

  “I’m good, Cole,” yelled Reese.

  The three reacted the same as rounds came in from the north. They each jerked behind a tree for cover. Winters put the goggles back on and saw Jijis coming in from that direction. He took Nate’s goggles, threw them to Amber and ordered her to move a few yards to the left. Reese was to his right leaning up against the tree. He knew she’d be firing blindly, so he peeked around the tree to line up shots. “Reese, they’re dead ahead.”

  She swung around, leaning her rifle up against the tree to support it and pulled the trigger. Winters followed suit but picked his targets more carefully. Their barrage of fire suppressed the Jijis approach. For him, this was a win until Taylor could bring his team forward. Then flashes of muzzle fire resumed from the east as the Jijis on Robinson Road inched forward. He had just turned his head to see them fire on his position and barely had enough time to get off a volley when rounds hit all around them. Then the unthinkable happened and Reese took another bullet.

  “Ooouw, nooo, nooo,” she cried out as she collapsed to the ground.

  Winters pointed his weapon outward and emptied the mag before rushing over to her. He grabbed her by the collar and yanked her backward, dragging her to Amber who had come forward to cover them.

  He crouched down. “Where are you hit?”

  “Upper right leg,” she panted.

  Winters took a quick look and saw an entry and exit wound.

  “Is it bad?”

  He shook his head. “You’ll live but no marathons for a while.”

  “I’m good on that.”

  She balled her right hand into a fist and pounded the ground as he shoved dirt into both holes.

  “Now, I need you to grab that rifle and don’t let go of it.”

  She struggled grabbing her weapon. She was done for and would have to be carried out of there. Winters looked around and saw Bassett’s men falling back and coming inside their circle of fighters. Their perimeter was getting tighter as the Jijis closed in.

  Chapter 112

  Meeks was on the ground in pain after the second car blew up a little over three hundred feet from him. The shockwave had thrown him to the ground.

  “Damn, son-of-a-bitch. A friggin suicide bomber,” yelled Meeks.

  Scar ran up to him. “You okay?”

  “Hell no, I think I got something in my leg.”

  Seeing a blood stain on his pants, Scar ripped them open and saw a small metal fragment buried in his leg. “Crap.” He pulled out his Gerber Suspension Multi-Plier from its belt holster and flipped it open to use the needle-nose pliers. “This is going to hurt.”

  “Hurt? It already hurts.”

  Scar grabbed onto the shrapnel and tugged on it.

  “Ooohh, that kind of hurt,” yelled Meeks. “Damn, you weren’t kidding.”

  Scar finished pulling the sharp two-inch fragment out and wrapped a bandage around the leg. He then looked around and saw he had more men down. “You were lucky.”

  “Lucky. Lucky how?”

  “We got some guys down.”

  Meeks looked up and saw some other guys rushing in to help. He could see there was no helping the ones who had been too close to the blast radius. “Ah, hell no. Help me up.”

  Scar lifted his friend and kept his shoulder under his arm while he tested his balance. After he determined Meeks could stand on his own, he let go.

  “Why the second car?” asked Meeks.

  “The first was to clear the path I suppose,” said Scar.

  Meeks picked up the SAW.

  “I got it,” said Scar.

  “No, I’m good. Go see to the others.”

  Scar took off to check on their men wanting to return order to the ranks. The only thing they could do for their dead friends was to recover the bodies but that would have to wait. When he reached them, he saw there were three dead. He formed a rear guard to cover their six and sent a few more up on the roofs. He grabbed his radio and called Nordell.

  “Gunny, did you hear the explosion?”

  “We heard it. Car bomb?”

  “Affirmative. Got three down.”

  “We’re coming in right behind them. We’ll keep ‘em busy.”

  “Copy that.”

  Scar then remembered Winters.

  “Captain, come in.”

  It took a moment before he responded. “Scar, where are you? What was that explosion?”

  “Car bomb, but we’re good. I can see from the flares we are just east of you. We’re on the edge of the woods and getting ready to punch through.”

  “Hurry, Scar, our position is collapsing. We got three down, several more wounded.”

  “Copy that.”

  Scar ordered the men to move the pickups forward and then ran back to Meeks. “We need to go in heavy and do it now.”

  “Hey, turn this pickup around and back it in,” said Meeks. “I’ll throw the tailgate up and rest the SAW on it. Get the others to do the same and we’ll go in three across.”

  “Nice.”

  Meeks smashed the taillights before hopping into the back of his truck. He fed a fresh ammo belt into the weapon, put his goggles back on and waited for the other two trucks to get in place on either side of his. Scar started to back down Dorset Drive toward the woods. As he got closer, Meeks pulled the trigger and started to mow down everything in their path. Jijis ran into each other as they tried to flee the sheet of copper jacketed lead flying into them. Car windows and flesh and bone shattered as the rounds kept coming.

  Meeks depleted the first belt and fed in another fresh one, as did the men in the pickups on either side of him. Hot shell casings littered the beds of the trucks as they moved three across down the road.

  “Give them hell, boys,” he yelled out, yanking back the lever and pulling the trigger.

  They came to the end of the road and had no more targets in front of them. The Jijis scattered to either side waiting for them to reach the end of the street. Meeks prepared for it yelling for his right wingman to pull back a little and for the one on the left to cover him. Sure enough, they were waiting for them.

  Jijis lined up on Westchester waiting for the Shadow Patriots to get to the end of the street. However, with the night-vision optics, Meeks spotted them first and took advantage by keeping them at bay with a barrage of bullets. He yelled for his wingmen to move forward. Behind them, two squads formed and veered to the north and south swinging around the last houses. Within a few seconds, they had them on the run through the woods.

  Scar hopped out. “We need to get after them before they reach Winters. Can you make it?”

  “Wouldn’t miss this for the world.”

  Scar lowered the tailgate and Meeks slid forward and eased himself down to the ground. Scar grabbed the handle of the SAW and dashed into the woods.

  Chapter 113

  Winters looked around the battlefield and didn’t like what he saw. The perimeter was collapsing as his men fell back into a tighter circle taking fire from all sides. There were at least three hundred Jijis surrounding them. He did a quick count and saw he had three dead and at least six wounded, including Reese and Nate. He looked at Reese sitting on the ground shaking as she held onto her weapon for dear life
. Amber hovered over her like a mother hen protecting her young. Nate was still cussing up a storm as he continued to empty magazine after magazine. Elliott stood by his side keeping guard over his lifelong friend. Bassett looked like he was in his element as he picked his targets carefully before killing them. Burns kept firing with three others to the west, trying to keep the rushing Jijis from overrunning them.

  Winters called Taylor on the radio.

  “We’re picking them off as fast as we can, Captain. We’re probably not more than seventy-five yards away. We’re making headway though.”

  “Copy that, Taylor, Scar is punching through on the east side.”

  “We’ll concentrate on that side then and squeeze them.”

  This bit of news gave Winters hope and he began to think they might have a chance after all. Then he heard the rapid fire of the SAW coming from Scar’s side. He strained through the goggles and saw the Jijis turn their attention toward the rapid firing guns.

  Winters turned to his men and screamed. “Everyone hit the deck. Hit the deck.”

  He saw that not everyone could hear him and ran to Amber. “Get down,” he yelled grabbing at her jacket just as bullets hit the trees above them.

  The staccato firing kept coming as Bassett crawled to him. “Love me the sound of a SAW, Captain.”

  Winters looked across the field and saw tracer rounds streaking through the air hitting everything in their path. Branches splintered off trees, Jijis were falling dead. It kept going for over a minute and then it stopped. Nobody moved. Jijis cried out in agony. Then Meeks emerged from the trees with Scar at his side followed by a group of fifty or so Shadow Patriots.

  A sense of relief washed over Winters as Scar approached. “You alright, Captain?”

  “I am now,” said Winters as he reached out to grab his hand. “Do we have an exit?”

  “Nordell’s keeping them busy back on Robinson, we should be good that way.”

  “Taylor is just north. We need to get them out,” said Winters. He looked over at his wounded. “We need to get them out of here, pronto.”

  “You got it,” said Scar as he pulled out his radio and ordered his flanking team to go help, Taylor.

  Winters saw Meeks limping toward him. “What happened?”

  “Damn friggin suicide bomber is what happened. Can you believe it? Caught a frag in my leg.”

  Winters patted Meeks on the shoulder and they both moved over to Reese. She was flat on her back. Meeks grabbed her hand. “Hey Pieces, you alright?”

  She shook her head. “They got me twice.”

  “Twice? Hell girl, you are a badass.”

  She managed a grin.

  “Just hang on Pieces, we’re getting you out of here right now.”

  Winters looked at Amber. “You okay?”

  She gave him a reassuring nod.

  Winters knew they weren’t finished and gave orders to get the wounded off the field. He then ordered Bassett and Burns to each take a squad, go after the retreating Jijis and kill as many as they could. At this point, he figured they weren’t going to be able to kill them all, but at least they could kill enough to weaken their force. This would give his men some breathing room, but they’d have to deal with the rest of the Jijis on another day.

  Chapter 114

  Winters emerged from the woods onto Dorsett Road where his men were loading the wounded into pickups. He saw that Nordell was talking with Scar and approached them.

  “Captain, I was just telling Gunny here what happened,” said Scar.

  “Hell of a battle there, Captain,” said Nordell.

  Winters cocked his head back. He had never heard Nordell call him Captain without an attitude. “Well, we lost some good men.”

  Nordell nodded. “I know how you feel, it’s never easy to lose people, but unfortunately, it’s part of the job. It’s rare to come out of a fight with no losses. You did a hell of a job here tonight, Captain, you’ve got nothing to regret.”

  Winters was surprised at Nordell’s attitude but was glad for it. He never wanted to fight with this man and only wanted his help. “Well, thank you, sir, that means a lot.”

  “It was certainly a strange move on their part to come after you like this,” said Nordell. “It’s like they knew where you were. Something tells me we have a spy in town.”

  “I’ve been thinking the same thing.”

  “We’ll find him and when we do, well, I wouldn’t want to be him.”

  Winters didn’t respond.

  “The road back to town is all clear,” said Nordell as he turned around heading back toward his men.

  Winters gave Scar a curious look.

  Scar shrugged his shoulders. “I only told him what happened here.”

  Winters walked away into the darkness puzzled by Nordell’s change of attitude and could only chalk it up to a mutual respect between fighting men. He let it go and let his mind drift to the battle they had just endured. It was a harrowing fight. One they had just been fortunate enough to stay alive against overwhelming odds. They had been lucky and figured the man upstairs had covered their backs tonight.

  The reality of the night began to hit him hard, despite what Nordell said, he felt responsible for the loss of his men. He had seen a couple fall, which reminded him of his murdered friends at the train station. He then remembered bullets hitting the trees above his head and to his side. He had been close to death. The thought began to overpower him as he remembered watching Reese take a bullet, twice. The frightened look on her face was something he’d never forget. He began to get lightheaded at the thought of her or Amber being killed. He needed to sit down and reached for the tailgate of a pickup. He leaned against it and began to hyperventilate. He tried to control his breathing and calm down his nerves. He looked around to see his men busying themselves to head back downtown. None of them had the weight of responsibility like he did, but they stood tall with him ready to sacrifice themselves. He was grateful for them and knew each was dedicated to the common cause of liberty. It was reassuring and helped him settle down. He found a bottle of water in the cab and took a huge gulp, pouring the rest over his face. After a few moments, he had pulled himself together and looked around to see that nobody saw him, so he got into the truck and headed for the hospital.

  Chapter 115

  Alexandria Virginia

  Green woke up early in the morning after tossing and turning most of the night. He kept thinking about Perozzi’s real estate deal with the Chinese. It was a heavy burden knowing what was really going on and not being able to shout it out to the world. Even if he was able to present it to the world, it sounded too conspiratorial to be believable. He chuckled to himself knowing some people would think we should just let them have California. They had been digging themselves deeper and deeper into debt over the past twenty years or so. The state’s leadership didn’t seem to worry about it as they kept spending money they didn’t have. All the while, the population had been dwindling as more and more people had seen the handwriting on the wall and had decided to get out while they still could.

  Green had a big day ahead of him and decided not to go for his morning run. He was anxious to hear about what had happened to the Shadow Patriots in Michigan last night. He would call Captain Vatter in Detroit as soon as he got into the office. He also needed to meet with Cara Winters and see if he could help her out. He had decided if Winters was still alive, then he’d see about helping her. It seemed like the right thing to do.

  Green got to his office and immediately called Vatter.

  “Captain Vatter, this is Major Green.”

  There was a moment of silence on the phone before he got any response.

  “Wanted to get an update on last nights operation.”

  “It didn’t go as well as we expected, Major.”

  This info made Green sit up in his chair. “Oh?”

  “We weren’t able to capture Winters, and we ended up losing quite a few men in the process.”

  G
reen could hear the disappointment in the man’s voice and wondered if he should even ask how many they lost, but he was curious to know.

  “I lost thirty-eight men, which isn’t a lot when you compare it to the militia’s losses. I don’t have an accurate count yet, but it’s in the hundreds.”

  The numbers shocked Green for a moment, and he couldn’t help but break out in a big smile. Those were stunning losses for any army, and it immediately made him wonder about Winters’ losses.

  “What about the rebel’s casualty numbers?”

  “My spy in Jackson tells me it was only around ten or so.”

  Green jerked his head back not knowing about any spy in town. He wondered if Winters knew they had a spy sneaking around. He wished he could get word to him.

  “Captain Vatter, I would say last night’s operation was a dismal failure. What’s your next move?”

  Vatter let out a deep breath. “I’m not sure. I’ve not heard anything from the militia.”

  “You mean Mordulfah,” said Green who shook his head in disgust.

  “Yes, of course. I’ve not talked to him yet. So, I’ve still got my men keeping an eye on the situation. The militia is licking its wounds this morning, but they’re still patrolling the highways.”

  “Keep me posted,” said Green.

  Green hung up the phone and leaned back in his chair. It was good to hear the Shadow Patriots had beat back Mordulfah’s army. He wondered if the whole town of Jackson rallied together and helped in the effort. The people of Jackson, Michigan, must be some tough customers. To lose only ten men was an amazing feat against such a large numbers. It was a relief to hear and gave him renewed confidence that they would be able to beat Mordulfah, Reed and Perozzi.

  Green waited an hour before he tried to call Cara Winters. He wanted to meet her for lunch and go over what he had in mind. She picked up on the third ring and was hesitant at first, but relented once they agreed upon a crowded place.

  Green walked to the restaurant, which wasn’t but six blocks away. The fresh air helped clear his mind. Hearing about Winters’ success last night put Green in a good mood. He hoped to share this good mood with Winters’ daughter, Cara. She seemed to be lost in the world and he wanted to help her if he could. He walked into the restaurant and was surprised to find she was already there and had picked out a table by the window looking out over the street.