Nuclear War Club: Seven high school students are in detention when Nuclear War explodes.Game on, they are on their own. (30 page)

The M-16 was old, but it was military issue with a scope. Well-oiled and clean. She slung the weapon around her shoulder, picked up four clips, and added them to her backpack.

Karen pointed downhill and Liu and Zeke followed behind. Camo canvas had been hurriedly set between two trees, like a blind used to hide duck hunters. She had shot at the blind, and both Zeke and Liu had emptied a clip.

She found three dead bodies, two men, and one woman. They all seemed about twenty, dressed in blue jeans and dirty flannel shirts. There were two more shortwave transceivers, and she turned them off, took out the batteries, and tossed them into her backpack. Doron would check all the gear later to be sure there were no tracking devices or GPS transmitters. One
man had an AK47, the other a civilian AR-15 rifle, and the woman had a 12 gauge riot shotgun. They all had .44 revolvers in hip holsters.

Karen did not move the bodies, although she was fairly sure there would be no booby traps. These were murderers or rapists, not terrorists.

She opened a green wooden box.

“We hit the jackpot, seventeen grenades!” Karen shouted. She shut the box after making sure all the pins were inserted.

“Watch out for trip wires, they had grenades,” David warned.

Karen froze when she saw the digital photos pinned to the wood on the inside of the blind. They had photographed their cabin and truck. Liu appeared in five photos, she was in two. She saw a telescope focused on their cabin.

There was a sketch of the cabin and the approach trails, and a handwritten log of when they switched night guards. There was also an infrared night shot of Liu and David exchanging shifts. Karen motioned to Liu and Zeke.

Karen pointed to the photos and the guard log and said, “They were preparing to attack us. When we left this morning, they were unprepared. They decided to attack the truck at this funnel point, crossing the creek.”

Liu saw her photos and grabbed them. Karen noticed Liu’s body was fully revealed in her rain soaked clothes.

“Why were they going to attack us?” Liu asked.

“Could be they were three women short,” said Zeke,“You only take pictures of what you are interested in.”

Diary of Liu’s Nguyen

They took multiple photos of me. My clothes were wet, it looked like nude photos
.

Predators. Watching me for hours, unaware
.

I won’t be captured alive. I remember Samuel’s Mom
.

I told Karen, she agreed, acted like, well, of course
.

78.

Karen briefed Doron, David and Ashley, and gave them the photographs while Zeke put all their guns and clips in the truck bed.

“We need to follow their tracks. We may have to set up a hasty ambush. Zeke, Liu, and I will take off south along the river as far as we can follow their trail,” David said.

“David, can I talk to you for a moment?” said Karen, as they walked away, out of earshot of the others.

“Let’s consider this,” said Karen.

“I am the sniper, I need to go with K-Bar. Doron is a natural as spotter, with him I can get multiple hits, he studied all the manuals, he is a pro now. He can even estimate crosswind speed by observing target branch movement, he read about it in the book,” Karen explained. “I don’t even know how to do that,” she added.

“The three of us go, you stay here with Liu and Ashley to defend against a counterattack,” Karen pressed.

David clenched his teeth. What his wife said made sense, especially since she was by far their best sniper. It just seemed wrong for her to go and him to stay. And Sarge had warned David he had made a tactical mistake in separating Karen from Samuel back at the railroad yard. She would rescue her son, no matter what. Sarge had shrugged his shoulders, and said it was just hard wired motherhood, deal with it.

“David, it’s just as risky staying behind in the truck as being on sniper,” Karen said, squeezing his hand.

“We can’t risk both of us on the same mission. We have Samuel to raise,” Karen said.

David thought about what she said, nodded, then walked back to the group and restated Karen’s plan.

“Zeke,” David asked, “What do you think?”

“I saw what Karen did with the head shot scope Sarge left in her pack. With Doron spotting, she can get two or three
quick kills if we get trouble. And the truck is the bait, we need you here to defend and be prepared if we have to camp here,” Zeke explained.

“They want Liu bad,” Zeke explained, pointing to the multiple, grimy fingerprints on her photos.

“We need full teams both attacking and staying here, so this should work. We may get attacked as soon as they leave,” Liu said.

“Ashley?” David asked.

“Fine, ” Ashley replied.

“Doron?” David asked.

“I approve,
provided
its agreed that if there is a camp, we do not attack. We just stand off and let Karen use the sniper rifle,” Doron answered, looking directly at Zeke.

“That’s why sniper rifles were invented, to reach out and touch someone,
behind cover
,” Doron stressed.

Zeke replied, “I understand, I will have Doron and Karen’s back. No attacks on my own if they have a group.”

“You need a turnaround point. How about one hour hiking. If you lose the trail, or you don’t find them in an hour you turn around,” David suggested. “That’s a good idea,” said Doron, taking David’s watch.

Karen checked her rifle and scope, chambering and ejecting three rounds. She put a 9 in her boot holster, put six rifle clips in her backpack, three grenades, two 9 clips, two canteens full of water, coffee packs she could either use as intended, or put the pocket her mouth like chewing tobacco, caffeine pills, an extra pair of socks, and a Ziploc bag of raisins. David silently handed her three of his treasured Snickers bars and an extra grenade. She filled the dog bowl with water and K-Bar quickly lapped it up.

David watched Karen kneel down to Samuel’s eye level.

“Samuel, me and K-Bar will be gone for a while,” Karen said.

Samuel didn’t say anything, he just looked afraid, and
grabbed her hand.

“David, Liu, and Ashley will take care of you while we are gone,” Karen said, smiling and pointing.

David watched Liu squat down as Samuel grabbed her hand. Karen waived goodbye near the top of the hill, as K-Bar scouted ahead.

80.

The dense tree canopy filtered the sunlight into a green, yellowish haze. Streaks of sunlight beamed though canopy gaps like bright skylights. Karen followed the rocky creek bed, careful to stay off the trail. Her Dad always told her when tracking, or being tracked, to stay off the trail unless you have no other option. The creek soon veered into two forks. They followed the right hand fork and saw multiple sets of boot prints that had splattered mud over the rocks.

The mud prints led to a game trail. Karen motioned to her right, and Zeke and Doron walked over to the right side of the trail. Karen signaled, and K-Bar went down the trail about 15 meters, with no alarm, then waited. Zeke then went ahead on the left, staying off the trail to minimize his tracks.

Karen noticed this game trail had been heavily traveled recently. There were a lot of boot prints made by people who didn’t care about covering their tracks. Many more boot prints than the four ambushers they had shot.

She looked at Doron, then pointed to the tracks with her left hand, raised two fingers, then made a circle with her thumb and fingers, signaling twenty people. She slowed her pace, pausing frequently to listen, scanning for any sound or movement. She noticed K-Bar was more cautious, hyper alert, in combat mode. Karen knew they need to avoid a firefight, they were outnumbered. Taking the trail was a calculated risk of hasty ambush, but they needed to move quickly.

These tracks were fresh, water was still seeping into some of the boot prints from the rain soaked soil. Her heart raced, nothing triggered an adrenaline dump like knowing you could be walking in to an ambush. She remembered David had started leaving Zeke and Liu behind in hasty ambush sites on their motorcycles when they drove, to catch anyone pursuing them. He had learned that from Sarge.

The trail ascended steadily until Karen could tell they
were near the ridge of the mountain by the wind, and the shorter bushes that grew near the top. The trail narrowed and turned sharply left just ahead.

Karen motioned, and K-Bar stalked ahead, crouching low. Doron slid his binoculars off, and stared up the mountain while lying on his stomach. Karen scoped the trail, then watched Zeke shut his eyes and try to focus all his thought on sounds and smells.

Zeke suddenly threw his fist down and pointed just off the ridge on the other side of the mountain. Karen tensed her grip on the sniper rifle, she heard low pitched, muffled, male voices as the wind died down. Seeing nothing, she quickly wiped off the sweat that was stinging her eyes.

Karen looked frantically to see if they had set up any trail guards at the top of the ridge, like David always did. But K-Bar was there, and was crouching silently, so there were no guards. They were close enough that she could smell beer, cigarette smoke, and very poor hygiene. The wind shifted, bringing smoke from their campfire.

Karen calculated they were about five yards below the ridge. Some taller bushes extended off to the right above the bald bedrock at the top of the mountain. Zeke took out a mirror from his backpack and attached it to the outside of his barrel with the metal hose clamps. He slipped his M-16 behind his shoulders and crawled up the bald rock to the bushes, motioning for Karen to face up, and Doron to face down, the mountain.

Karen tried to calm her breathing as she reached the top of the ridge. The voices were louder now, but the words were indistinct. She was cut by the thorny green bushes at the top, bleeding from her arms and face. She made sure she did not disturb any rocks or make any noise.

She slowly moved her head behind a rock, and looked down the other side of the mountain. About twenty yards below the ridge was a flat circular grassy area about thirty five yards in diameter, not level but angled down, sheltered on two
sides by jagged cliffs. There were seven tents carefully placed in the woods with a camo tarp above. Probably to hide the tents from aircraft, she thought.

She saw two large fires with six or seven cooking pots on rocks, so there were at least twenty to thirty people, she estimated. There were three trails leading from the grassy area into very thick woods.

Karen saw a slow spring trickling water from the side of the cliff into a shallow pool which drained across the flat area and down the trail. She counted twelve men and three women. No kids. They all seemed to be in their twenties to thirties. They were dressed like the ambushers, not greens.

She heard crying and tried to focus just below the edge of the grass, but the blood and sweat blurred her vision.

She ducked her head, and wiped her eyes again, then moved back to focus on the sobbing.

Four people were tied up under a tree with a filthy red rag duct taped in their mouth. She could not get a good look. Two men sat nearby on a log laughing, sharpening a knife and drinking beer. Everyone was armed with a rifle and a pistol, except the prisoners.

She crawled back down to Doron and Zeke, and they huddled close together facing the rock overhang.

“I saw at least fifteen, all armed. They have four prisoners tied up,” Karen said.

“Let me look,” said Zeke.

“Why?” whispered Doron explosively, “Let’s get out of here!”

“We may run into them later,” said Zeke, already crawling past Karen.

“Give me the binoculars,” commanded Karen.

“Set up Doron’s Death master aimed here, and here,” she gestured.

“Then you can go back and update David,” she finished.

Zeke looked at Doron. Karen wondered if she had
fouled up, she realized she had, in essence, just called him a coward.

“No, I am the spotter.” said Doron angrily. Doron slung around an AK 47 and set up the Death master at the middle of the camp, as indicated by Karen.

“Give Zeke the M16 and the second Death master,” said Karen.

“I want reinforcing fire here,” Karen showed Zeke where the trail turned.

“Do not activate the Death master on the trail until we shoot and scoot,” Karen said slowly, making sure Zeke understood.

“I will be there, and I don’t want any Deathmasters cooking off while I am downrange,” Karen whispered.

“I will climb on the cliff across the trail to provide fire support if you have to run and set the Deathmaster to cover your exit,” Zeke said, moving down the trail.

“Focus on the prisoners,” Karen whispered directly into Doron’s ear.

“Four prisoners, one male adult, one female adult, two kids about ten or eleven,” Doron whispered.

Karen scoped them carefully, she could get a chest shot of the guards but a head shot would be at the edge of her range, even with the scope.

“I am scanning the rest, they all have automatic weapons, shotguns, and pistols. We have wind shear from the mountain, see the limbs moving in different directions?” asked Doron.

“Okay,” said Karen.

“Wind gusting from the right five to ten meters before the target,” Doron reported. Karen calculated no head shots with the wind distance and elevation differential.

“Do the trails lead to the prisoners?” asked Karen.

“Karen, they are not our problem. Maybe the prisoners are the bad guys. None of our business!” whispered Doron frantically. Karen did not respond, but signaled for K-Bar to
stay, then calmly began to crawl forward to the top of the ridge.

“Two trails behind the prisoners, no other guards in sight,” Doron relayed calmly.

“I am going to climb around this ridge and come up behind the prisoners,” Karen said.

“Doron, you do not need to come, I will be fine. You stay here, or go back. I have to at least look and see if I can help,” said Karen, crawling back down the bedrock.

Zeke looked over and Karen motioned she was circling around, then gestured like she was looking through binoculars, assuring Zeke she was just looking. Karen stalked under the ridge very slowly, pleasantly surprised that Doron followed.