The Blue Ridge Resistance (22 page)

Chapter 36: The Pursuit

As they turned to fall back into the woods following their rescue, Quentin yelled, “The Commie Cavalry is here! Move! Move! Move!”

The others turned to see three UN-marked MRAPs barreling across the field towards their position. The CROWS (Common Remotely Operated Weapons System), a M240 machine gun operated from the safety of the interior of the MRAP’s armored hull, was blasting away at their position from all three vehicles. Two of the militiamen instantly went down while trying to return fire.

“Scatter!” one of the others yelled as every man ran for his life in a different direction. The small arms carried by the militiamen, Evan, and Quentin were no match for the armor of the MRAPs. Before turning to run, Jason picked up one of the downed militiamen’s M4 carbines and ran off into the woods with the others.

Unable to pursue them into the densely spaced trees with their large vehicles, the soldiers continued the pursuit on foot, following closely behind. Running barefoot through the woods, Jason tried to avoid rocky and jagged surfaces as a foot injury could be devastating given the situation, yet he could only be so careful while running at full speed.

Running through the pain of the lacerations on his feet, thanks to the protection of the boots, Evan looked back to see Jason lagging behind. He stopped and turned around yelling out to Jason, “Go, I’ll hold them off for a sec while you make some ground.” He then took up a position behind a downed tree and began to fire on the pursuers, killing one and slowing the others as they changed course to take cover. Slowing their momentum, he turned and started running as the bark from a tree only inches from his head exploded from the impact of the high speed 5.45x39 rounds, causing him to his alter his course through the woods.

As he ran at a full sprint, he could feel blood pooling in the bottom of his boots as the lacerations continued to be pounded by each impact, worsening the injuries.
No time for pain, Evan. No time for pain,
he thought to himself as he ran, sloshing the blood in his boots.

Up ahead, Quentin saw Evan and fell back saying, “My turn! Go!”

Evan just nodded and continued the chase of those up ahead. He heard Quentin firing on their pursuers and immediately stopped and turned around, popping off a few shots as well, giving Quentin a chance to break off and move ahead. As Quentin reached Evan’s position, he said, nearly out of breath, “Too many. Just run. Can’t keep stopping to engage.”

Evan popped off a few more shots, nodded in agreement, and then joined him, running off into the trees, no longer having Jason in sight.

~~~~

Out of breath and not knowing were to run, Kyle slid underneath a downed tree that lay in a thick patch of heavy brush. He was nearly hyperventilating, trying to calm himself so that he could lie low while his pursuers hopefully passed him by. He heard rustling through the woods coming his way and tried to silence his heavy breathing. He could feel an itch in his throat, urging him to cough as they approached.

Oh God, no. Please not now,
trying his best to hold it in until they were out of earshot. He could see the legs of two of the soldiers approaching him. They came to a stop about ten yards away, realizing they had lost his trail. As they scanned the area, his struggle to contain his cough was futile. As the sound of his muffled cough gave away his position, the soldiers quickly turned towards him, aiming their rifles in his general direction. Afraid they were about to shoot, he cried aloud, “Don’t shoot! Don’t shoot! I give up.”

One of the soldiers commanded, “Show yourself.”

As Kyle began to climb from underneath the tree, he heard several rapid-fire shots, followed by the soldiers dropping to the ground, dead. He then heard Jason whisper, “Come on. Come on out. Let’s get the hell out of here.”

“Where did they all go?” asked Kyle sheepishly.

“I don’t know, just get your ass out here before they come,” Jason said as he laid down the M4 and traded it for one of the soldier’s AK-74s. Having not been able to take the time to pick up extra magazines in his hasty departure earlier, only three rounds remained in his only magazine. He was able to scavenge five magazines of 5.45x39 from the downed pursuers, as well as two rifles. Tossing one to Kyle as he emerged from his hiding place, Jason asked, “Are you familiar with an AK?”

“Yes,” responded Kyle, “my cousin had a Romanian WASR. I’ve shot it a few times.”

“Great, same thing, just a smaller bullet,” Jason said, tossing him an extra magazine. “Now let’s get moving.”

As Jason and Kyle moved slowly through the woods, the first thing they noticed was the silence. There was no more gunfire anywhere, not even back at the farmhouse. “Either someone has been defeated, or the Blue Ridge Militia has pulled back after achieving their objectives. They may still be on us though, so we need to find the others and regroup.”

“Let’s just get the hell out of here,” said Kyle. “This is our chance.”

“Our chance to what?” Jason replied. “Abandon the people who just rescued us? Not a chance, we are making sure everyone that can make it out of here does make it out of here. Got it?”

“Yeah, sorry. I’m just not used to this sort of thing,” Kyle replied.

“How the hell did you survive this long?” asked Jason, frustrated by Kyle’s lack of fortitude.

“With a lot of help from my brothers,” he said.

“And where are they?”

“Dead, they killed them. They tried to resist, but I didn’t.”

“Sorry,” Jason said. “Now let’s get going.”

As the two men silently crept through the woods, pausing every few steps to listen and observe, Jason heard a turkey up ahead. He gave Kyle the halt signal and just listened. “You hear that?” Jason whispered.

Kyle just nodded yes in reply.

“That’s a turkey. A six-foot tall turkey, to be exact.”

Kyle gave Jason a confused look and shrugged his shoulders to notion that he didn’t understand.

“Evan and I hunt together. I would recognize his jacked up turkey call anywhere. He never does it right,” Jason said with a sarcastic grin. He then motioned for Kyle to follow along quietly. They crept along in the direction of the call. Once they got close, Jason heard a turkey gobble. He said aloud quietly, “You can’t be a hen and a tom… pick one and stick with it.”

“Just get your ass over here,” Evan said softly from a washed-out ravine.

Jason and Kyle crept over to Evan’s voice, and to their surprise, found Evan, Quentin, and four other Blue Ridge Militia members hiding in the ravine. “It’s about time you got here,” Evan said, thankful his friend had made it. “You guys are armed now, great,” he said, noticing their rifles.

“Yeah, the guys that had these didn’t need’em anymore,” answered Jason. “So what’s the plan?”

Quentin spoke up and said, “We’ve got to hike a few miles north until we cross a road. Then straight over the next hill from the road is where our ride should be waiting. Are you all good to go for the hump with those bare feet?”

“Hell, yeah, let’s get out of here,” answered Jason.

Quentin then looked down at Evan’s tan, suede boots and said, “Damn, man, you’ve got blood soaking through your boots.”

Evan replied with a grimace on his face, “Yeah, it’s starting to really suck… beats being dead though. Let’s move. The longer I sit here, the more it hurts.”

Quentin looked around and once he was sure everyone was ready, he said, “Lead the way, Matt,” to the senior militia member on the scene.

Matt then gave the order, “Q, you and the civilians hang in the middle, and I’ll take point with Spears. Jacob and Fletcher, you bring up the rear. Once we get moving, no stopping unless forced to. We’re in the home stretch.”

Everyone nodded in the affirmative and off they went. The group kept a loose tactical bound as they worked their way through the woods. It was still very quiet—almost creepy quiet with all of the animals being hunkered down and silent after the hail storm of bullets that had ripped through the forest. As they neared the road, Jason, Quentin, and Kyle were all feeling the effects of the day’s events on their bare feet. Quentin said, “Thank God. There’s the road. We’re almost there.”

As they approached the road, Matt surveyed the area and determined that the road seemed to be clear. Matt stepped up onto the road, looked both ways, and as he turned around to give the signal for the group to advance, a shot rang out from the woods behind them and the top of Matt’s skull shattered, sending blood and brain matter spraying onto the road. His body dropped like a rag doll as Quentin yelled, “Move! Move! Move! Across the road and into the ditch!”

Jacob and Fletcher spun around and laid down a suppressing fire to their rear, while the rest of the group hustled across the road and into the large drainage ditch on the far side. They had approximately one hundred yards of cleared pasture to cross to get into the woods leading up the hill towards their rally point. Knowing that would be a suicide run, Quentin decided the best thing to do was take cover and fight.

Evan, Jason, and Quentin began firing from across the road, creating an opportunity for Jacob and Fletcher to dash across and join them. “I was sick of running anyway,” said Quentin in a pissed off voice. “If I’m gonna die today, it’s gonna be fighting, not by getting shot in the back while I run away like a coward.”

Evan and Jason looked at each other and gave a mutually understood nod, and then refocused on the threat across the road.

Evan looked at the three surviving militiamen who were there to rescue Quentin and them and said, “Gentlemen, thank you for this. Thank you for coming. Thank you for everything you’ve done to resist this encroachment into our land and our freedoms.”

They each just nodded and got their eyes back on target across the road. They could hear a man shouting out orders in plain English, followed by a translator reissuing them in Russian. Clinching the pistol grip of his rifle, Quentin said, “That son of a bitch traitor is here.” His brow tightened from the rage he felt deep inside. “Bring it, mother fucker!” he yelled towards the trees, where the enemy took cover, while they formed up for an offensive.

Kyle spun around and began to look into the sky frantically as he heard the horrific
SWOOP, SWOOP, SWOOP
of a helicopter’s main rotor. In a panicked voice, he said, “It’s back! Holy shit, it’s back! That damned helicopter is back!”

From around the corner, following the road, a helicopter roared onto the scene, opening fire with its machine gun. Evan, Jason, and the others covered their heads in anticipation of a barrage of hot lead being rained down upon them, only to realize—it was an Apache. The AH-64 Apache attack helicopter emptied its 30mm M230 chain gun into the tree line, annihilating the enemy soldiers. Chunks of bark and wood debris filled the air as trees were shredded by the powerful high-speed gun. As an un-survivable hell was unleashed on the invaders, Evan and the others could barely believe their eyes. What was certain defeat merely seconds before was now an overwhelming victory.

As the Apache ceased fire and circled the area overhead, a voice called out from the hill to which they were headed, “Hot damn, that was some good shit!”

The men turned around and looked up at the hill to see a dozen members of the Blue Ridge Militia emerge from the trees and begin to walk across the field towards them, securing the scene. “Sorry it took so long, fellas, but the Apache wasn’t easy to come by on such short notice.”

Quentin hugged the man and said, “Brian, you have no idea how good it is to see you guys.”

“I’ll bet,” he replied. “Sorry it took so long. We had a lot of details to get worked out, and our resources were scattered across the region. We had to pull it all together to make this happen. We’re not set up for full-scale assaults. We’ve just been the eyes and ears until now.”

“No problem, man. Is that the Apache from the Morrisville guard base you were talking about?”

“Yep,” Brian replied. “It took some wheeling and dealing, but this bird and its crew are gonna be helping us out around here for a little while.”

Quentin looked up, saw the Apache circle once more, and then it headed off in the direction of the farmhouse. “Where are they going now?”

“They’re gonna clean the rest of the mess at the farmhouse and provide cover while we look for casualties and other survivors. Let’s get you guys out of here and we can go over the rest of the details later. We’ll take care of everything here.”

Chapter 37: Friendships through Fire

Evan opened his eyes and stretched, looking around the tent, hoping it wasn’t just a dream. Jason was already up and going over some of the maps he had gotten from the militia guys when they arrived. Evan and Jason had accompanied Quentin to a mobile militia base at an undisclosed location, deep in the Blue Ridge Mountains. They had been there for two days and received medical attention, food, lodging, boots, and clothing. They also spent many hours being debriefed on what they had seen and learned along the way. Evan and Jason kept the AK-74s they had recovered during the escape and ensuing battle. They planned on holding on to them as reminders of what still may come their way, as well as tools to make their way home to their families as soon as they were healed up and ready to go.

“Nice to see you up, old man,” Jason said as Evan sat up on his cot.

“Man, it feels good to get a good night’s sleep after all we we’ve gone through.”

“Yeah, it does. How are your feet?”

Looking under the bandage wrap on his feet, Evan replied, “I may never ball room dance again, but these ol’ feet will always be ready to get me home. Some loose fitting boots and a bunch of gauze, and I’ll be fine. You got everything figured out over there?”

“Like you said, good enough. We need to get moving. If Nate and Ed, or even Charlie and Jimmy didn’t make it back, we’ll need to get hot on their trail tracking them down. We can’t relax yet.”

“Agreed,” replied Evan as he joined Jason looking at the chart.

As Evan and Jason sat in their tent, going over their plans, they heard Quentin say, “Knock knock,” from outside the door.

“Come on in, man,” Jason replied.

“How are you boys feeling?”

“Good enough,” replied Evan.

“Good enough for what?”

“Good enough to be getting on our way soon.”

Quentin scratched his chin and said, “Are you sure I can’t talk you two into staying on with us? Kyle has decided to join us. Watching you two in action, I take it this wasn’t your first rodeo and we could definitely use guys that work well together, like yourselves. You clearly see the need.”

“We’ve been through some… stuff… that’s for sure,” Evan replied. “And we do see the need, but we’ve got families and children back home. We also need to get back there to make sure the others from our group made it back safely. We started out with six; we sent two back early to help a young girl we stumbled across along the way. The other two were captured with us, and we haven’t seen them since. Once we get home, if all of them haven’t made it back, we’ll be back out here to find them, and we will look you up for sure. But even if you don’t see us back out here, rest assured, we will be keeping up the fight back in our neck of the woods. If you guys find yourselves in East Tennessee in a bind, or you just need a place to stay and resupply, send word to Del Rio, and we’ll come running with everything we’ve got.”

**The End**