Shelter: Book 2, A Long Days Night (39 page)

“I think it’s a good idea.”

Tony looks at John who nods, “John, sound the silent battle alarm. There’s no reason to let them know we’re getting ready for them. Let’s get ready for an attack.”

Everyone in the community drops the tools they're using, they pick up their weapons and dash to their fighting positions. Todd uses the pointer to mark the people on the monitor, the computer will now follow them and leave a red line showing where they came from. John studies the computer track, “We’re their target.”

Tony says, “If they wanted to be friends, they wouldn’t be trying to hide their movements from us, they’d show up at our front gate with a white flag or yell, hello. I agree they’re doing a recon, they’re not acting friendly.”

John asks, “Jay, want us to open fire when they’re in range?”

“No, when they enter range tell them they are about to enter a mine field, that should stop them in their tracks. It will let them know we’re aware of them and we’re ready to fight if required.”

Tony smiles saying, “I like it.”

Five minutes later Sarnoff is quietly making his way through fields when he hears a loudspeaker say, “You in the fields, we see you, we’ve been following your progress towards us. Don’t move any closer towards us, you are about to enter a mine field. Drop your weapons, raise your hands and move to your left to the street, do NOT move forward or you will blow yourselves up. If you agree, drop your weapons and raise your hands.”

Sarnoff says, “Shit, I wonder how long they have been watching us. We must have crossed a security line. How the hell did we miss one?”

“Bob, it may have been a laser which we would not have seen.”

“Alright, we do not have a choice, so drop your weapons and let us move to the street. I can not believe a group of farmers caught us with our pants down.”

Chapter 28

Captain Black’s recon team locates the trail Captain Sarnoff left behind. Having operated in America for months, the Russians became careless thinking they were dealing with dumb citizens versus the American military. “Captain, we found their trail, we’re following them, it appears they’re heading to a small farming community.”

“Follow them, don’t let the Russians or the community see you. Keep eyes on them, see if you can figure out what they’re up to. I don’t like Spetsnaz operating in our territory.”

“Yes, sir.”

The US Army scouts hide on a small hill watching the Russians drop their weapons, raise their arms and make their way to the street. “Interesting, the community saw them. They must have the area surrounding them ringed with cameras. Corporal, see if you can locate any of their sensors or cameras, I’d like to know if they’re watching us too.”

The corporal returns in a few minutes saying, “Sarge, I found some wires and a wireless access point. I think they had cameras here, but they were lost in a battle, we found bullet holes in the trees, some of the wires had been cut.”

“Very interesting, this community has cameras and fought at least one battle with someone. Let’s keep eyes on them, see how they interact with our friends.”

Captain Sarnoff stands on the empty street with his hands up, he hears a truck approaching, they have fuel and trucks, interesting, I wonder what else they have. When the matt black truck arrives, he sees the four armed men in the truck’s bed. “Who’s in charge here?”

“I am, name is Bob.”

“Hello Bob, I’m John, want to tell me why you were trying to sneak up on us?”

“We worried we would be misunderstood on the road.”

“We’re more concerned with you in the woods. We don’t trust people who try to sneak up on us.”

Sarnoff looks at the men standing around his men, each is wearing body armor and a US Army helmet. Two are holding US M4s and two are holding Uzis. He notices the people surrounding him seem very comfortable with their weapons, he’s thinking,
these are not ordinary farmers, they must be either military or ex-military. They are very comfortable with their weapons. Full auto weapons which could have given us a bad time since they saw us before we saw them
. “We come in peace.”

“I don’t think so. What do you really want with us?”

“To be friends.”

“Sorry, not buying it. Try another answer.”

“We are looking for a place to settle down?”

“Again, not buying it, we’re not going anywhere until you start telling us the truth.”

“I am telling you the truth.”

“Here’s what we’re going to do. One of my people is in the woods picking up your weapons, we’re going to tie your hands behind your back, blindfold you and take you to a site where we can question you.”

“Are we under arrest?”

“No, we’re not the police, we’re much worse. We don’t arrest, we kill those who plan to do us harm.” John leers at Sarnoff who looks into John’s eyes believing his life is at risk.  I got lazy and stupid. I didn’t expect any of these soft Americans to be able to get the drop on me. Shit, I have to figure out how to get out of this mess. They are blindfolded and their hands are tied behind their back. They are placed in the truck bed and driven for twenty minutes, Sarnoff is thinking, where are they taking us? Did we stumble on a different group who was protecting the farming community?

John laughs to himself as he drives the roads surrounding our community twice confusing his captives. He arrives at a garage at the rear of the community, the Russians are kicked out of the truck and tied in chairs. A new voice asks, “Who are you?”

“We are just a group of like-minded people looking for a place to settle.”

“Where are your wives, girlfriends, and children?”

“Waiting at our base camp.”

“Which is where?”

“I’m sure you realize for security I can not tell you.”

Sarnoff is struck in the stomach by a metal pipe, the air is knocked out of him, he is surprised by the pain. “That’s nothing, if you continue to play games with us, we’ll start breaking bones, if that doesn’t loosen your tongue, we have a blow torch that may make you talk. Everyone breaks under torture.”

“America does not use torture.”

“So, you admit you’re not from America.”

“I did not say that.”

“Yes, you did.”

Unknown to the community, the balance of Sarnoff’s people are coming after their captain because he missed two check in radio calls. The Army scouts see the additional men coming towards the community. “Look, more men, these are definitely military.” One of the army scouts taps the sergeant, “Sir, look to the left, a group of armed men on horseback coming this way, one is wearing a sheriff’s uniform.”

“Something is wrong. I’ll contact the captain.”

@@@@@

The sheriff is riding towards Jay’s farm with twenty heavily armed men. They think they will be able to overwhelm anyone they find on Jay’s farm enabling them to take their time searching the farm for Jay’s hidden stash of supplies. The sheriff doesn’t know he’s being watched by both the Army scouts and the community’s security cameras. Todd hits the alarm again, he picks up the handheld radio, “Jay, trouble, the sheriff is coming with twenty armed men on horseback.”

“I’ll tell John. Make sure everyone is in the fighting trench and ready, get the kids in the shelter.” John looks at me.

“More trouble?”

“Yes, twenty armed men on horseback coming our way.”

Tony looks at me with questions in his eyes, “I think our mutual friend the sheriff is back.”

“Jay, I know you don’t want to hear this, but we’re going to have to deal with him sooner or later and I think sooner is going to be best. If you want, I’ll take care of it.”

“Let’s discuss it after we deal with the two groups coming at us.”

“What do you want to do with these guys?”

“We can’t be bothered with them now, make sure they’re securely tied to the chairs, bolt the chairs to the floor and duct tape their mouths, we’ll deal with them later.”

Sarnoff asks, “What happens if something happens to you and you do not come back for us?”

Jay says, “Than you die a slow death. You’ll learn not to sneak up on peaceful people.”

“We did not…”

“Shut up or I’ll shoot you in your knees and leave you.”

Sarnoff knows he’s in trouble, he shuts up before he’s shot.

I turn to the others, “Let’s go, we’ve got another fight on our hands. I hoped, we’d have had more time to improve our defenses.”

Tony says, “We got the traps set, we were able to bury replacement mines.”

“I hope it’s enough to stop the two groups, we better hurry if we want to make it back in time.”

The sheriff is smiling to himself, he’s thinking
if Jay’s back, I’m going to have my revenge, if he’s gone or dead, I’ll take everything he had. I told him I always get what’s mine. I warned him it was better to play ball with me. If the farms are deserted, I’ll finally have time to search the barns, garages and use the metal detectors to find where Jay buried supplies
. The sheriff doesn’t know there are Russian Spetsnaz troops coming to the farm from the right-hand side of the road while he’s coming in from the left, nor does he know there is a US Army scout team following the Russians and two platoons of US Army soldiers traveling as fast as possible thirty minutes behind the scouts.

Jay and his people leave the Russians bound to their chairs, they lock the garage behind them, John is the last one into the truck’s bed, he has to jump in because the truck is already moving towards the fighting trench. Sarnoff tires his binds realizing he’s dealing with people who knew what they were doing. He can’t move, his chair is bolted to the floor, his legs and arms are zip tied together. His other men aren’t close enough to support each other, all are duct taped which stops them from talking to each other. Sarnoff’s other problem is the heat is building in the garage. He figures if the American’s don’t return soon, the temperature in the garage will exceed one hundred degrees. Without water he knows he has at best two days of life left. He’s mad at himself for being captured.

We make it to the trench before our attackers arrive, “John, are the mines armed?”

“Yes, I have the firing box right here.”

“Paul, grenades?”             

“We have twenty.”

“Fred, traps set?”

“Yes, over one hundred are spread around, we were able to clean up and set up the punji pits.”

“Can anyone think of something we may have forgotten?”

Before anyone can answer we hear the horses approaching. They stop at our gate. Someone is trying to shoot our lock, five rounds fired, we hear them coming up our driveway, Todd is watching the monitors, he tells John, “Line one now.”

John flicks the trigger for the first line of mines. There are a series of explosions and screams. We surprised the hell out of them. John listens to his ear bud, “Todd says we got four of them and two horses which really pissed the sheriff off.”

Nodding I say, “Keep hitting them, maybe we can cut them down enough that they leave before they reach our line.”

The sheriff is pissed he lost some horses, men are easy to replace, horses more difficult. He splits his forces to spread out in a line when two horses trip, breaking their legs in our punji pits. The sheriff tells his people to dismount and look for booby traps. Before he can say anything, one of his men dismounting steps in a hunting trap which breaks his ankle. While we are waiting for the sheriff to make his frontal attack, the Russians are attacking us from our flanks. They start firing short automatic bursts at us.