A Private War (8 page)

"I just love your town, the way they take care of the homeless, and starving," Kate told Peters, "why is that, why do these people have to starve when you have store rooms full of supplies like this!"

"The Mayor has decided that there are too many people in the town, too many outsiders that had come in after the war. He decided that we can't afford to feed them all with winter just coming on." Peters answered.  "I think something could have been worked out but some of the big shots in town put pressure on him and that was that."

"But how can they do that, those people are human beings, they are Americans!"

"I never said it was right!"

Gaylon just sat and listened to Kate and Peters fight it out.  Long ago he had decided that you can't save everyone, that they had to at least try to save themselves.  The free ride was over, there was no more welfare for people who didn't want to work, who had too many kids they could never support.  Now it was survival of the fittest. The time of the freeloader was over and Gaylon thought that when things were better that the people would be better for it.  That hard Justice would also prevail in the end as the murdering bands of pirates were destroyed by the power of what was right and good.  Things were very different now because now there would be no more soft hearted judges and courts to let the criminals free and the victims getting nothing.  Now justice was swift and sure and there were no layers on the battlefield.  Only the power of God could decide the fate of mankind in the coming years.  And Gaylon thought that it was about time. Kate sat by the window of their hotel room after Peters left and thought of the trip to Austin.  All the hopes that they had had and then only to find that self-centered Mayor was going to get a lot of people killed and Kate knew it.  Even with the information on the Pirates that Gaylon and Kate had brought with them was for nothing.  Mayor Denton would not let a single man loose to join them in Redway.  Even with what they had to trade, the asshole would not change his mind.  Gaylon had even talked to Peters about having some of his men just take over.  But Peters wasn't ready for that just yet, he hoped that things would get better in the future but Gaylon didn't think so.  Neither did Kate.  Finally in the early hours of morning Kate slipped into bed and snuggled up next to Gaylon and tried to sleep.  Things always looked brighter in the light of day and she hoped that this time it would be true. Gaylon got up in the night and looked out of the hotel window at the falling snow and thought that it would make it hard traveling back to Redway.  With all their hopes smashed they had nothing to remain here for so they were going to leave the following morning back to Redway.  Turning around he looked at Kate as she slept under the covers.  He knew that she had been up late the night before and Gaylon though that she should get all the rest she could before the trip back tomorrow.  Turning back to the window Gaylon noticed that there was a lot of movement on the streets for this hour of the morning.  Checking the action on his guns Gaylon slung the M-4 over his shoulder and opened the door to the hall. Pausing in the door way and looked again on Kate's sleeping form Gaylon thought of everything that had happened since he had first met her.  Holding the M-4 to his side he walked over to the door and out into the hallway, closing the door behind him.  Pulling the hood of his parka over his head Gaylon walked toward the center of town in search of Peters.  If anyone would know what was going on it would be Peters. 

As Gaylon got nearer the town hall he could hear shouting going on and the loud cry of many voices.  Spying Peters, Gaylon ran toward him to find out what had happened to get all these people shaking in their boots.

"Hey, Peters, wait up!" Gaylon shouted, "What the hell is going on here, what has happened?"

"The pirates are here!"

"Are they attacking, why are all these people here and not at the wire?" Gaylon asked, "Is there anything Kate and I can do to help?"

"The pirates sent one of their men to the wire at the north side of town. They want us to surrender everything they want or they are going to destroy the town and everyone in it."

"The Mayor is in there right now, talking to them. Trying to make some kind of deal with them. Personally I say stand and fight them, because once they have the upper hand they'll never leave. I tried to tell him that, but he wouldn't listen. I think he's running scared."

"Do you have any idea how many men are out there?" Gaylon asked.

"As near as we can tell, they have over five hundred and all of them are heavily armed. And I heard their leader is a guy named Murdock, isn't that the one you were telling me about the other night?"

"Yeah, that's him. I bet he would love to know that we are here, too. So, what can Kate and I do to help?"

"To tell you the truth, I think the best thing you can do is get the hell out of here. There is no way we can hold off that kind of force. Plus I have the feeling that His Honor, the Mayor, is going to let them in just to save his own ass," Peters spat out as he waved in some of his men, "Tell the ration officer to give you anything you need. I'm sorry we couldn't have worked together, but hopefully I'll see you again." Peters looked into my eyes for a second and then walked off into the crowd. He had the eyes of a dead man.

Kate sat on the edge of the bed and carefully cleaned her HK MP5SK resting on her knees. Putting the action back together, she then threaded the Sonics suppressor onto the short barrel and turned it tight. Then after checking all her magazines, she lowered the bolt and then rammed a clip into the well. Pulling the silencer equipped Ruger from it holster she gave it a quick wipe with a rag and after pulling the magazine, checked it's action also. Reaching into her pack, she pulled out a box of subsonic .22 ammo and started to reload some of her magazines. Captain Samuels had told her that with the special ammo and the built-in suppressor on the Mark I, all that would be heard would be the action of the gun and a "spat" when it hit the target. Kate also had three boxes of special loads for the HK MP5SK, those were already loaded into thirty round clips. When Gaylon walked into the hotel room, Kate was already packed and had her guns ready for action. Smiling Kate handed Gaylon a white coverall to go over his parka and a pair of white snow pants. Kate was already wearing hers.

"One of Peter’s men stopped by and told me the Mayor is trying make a deal with the pirates for food. He thinks there is about five hundred of them. And the mayor is shitting his pants." Kate said as he pulled on the snow pants. "There is a good chance he is going to let them into town. Is he crazy or something! The pirates will burn this place to the ground after they have stripped it bare. Doesn't he know that! God, they'll kill everyone!"

"Peters has been trying to tell him that, but I don't think it will make any difference. Peters is going to fight, I can feel it. He told us to run for it." Gaylon said, then looking up at Kate, "I want to help him, ok?"

"Lead on McDuff."

Gaylon looked up and down the street then motioned Kate to follow him out the back of the hotel and down a dark alley. Picking their way between the buildings, Gaylon headed for the fence line that circled the town, hoping to find a place in the wire to get through. As he peeked around the last row of houses, Gaylon saw someone wave at them from the shadows behind the house ahead of them. "I thought it might be you," Gaylon said as the face of Peters appeared out of the darkness, "what's up?"

"I had a feeling that you would head this way and I thought I would give you a hand getting out of town before it's too late. The mayor is going to open the gates to the pirates and let them in. If I had thought that it would have made a difference, I would have killed the bastard. But he had already given the order, Murdock is in the town right now!"

"Doesn't he know what the pirates will do to this town! Can't they be stopped somehow?" Kate asked, "My God, the people!"

“I tried, the town is terrified that if they put up any kind of resistance that the pirates will destroy the town. These people have no where else to go. I tried to make them understand the danger, but they believe the pirates will only take some of the food and then leave. The best I can do is to get some of my men ready for when the fun starts, because I won't see my town die without a fight."

"What can we do to help?"

For the first time that day, Gaylon saw Peters smile and in a low voice began to tell them the plan to retake the town. Smiling himself, Gaylon looked at Kate and winked. For the tenth time, Kate grumbled to herself as she brushed away a mass of cobwebs that hung in front of her face. Even as a little girl, she had hated spiders and to have them so close to her face was making her skin crawl. But Peters had said that the tunnel they were in now was the only way out of town that the mayor didn't know about. It had been part of the old sewer system that had been built over fifty years before and then abandoned as the town lost population to the bigger cities. Peters had found it while scouting the fence line a month before and had traced it to a small drain by the river a quarter of a mile outside the town limits. Glancing back, Gaylon smiled at Kate's pained expression and motioned her to take a break. Easing his pack against the curved walls, he let the friction lower him to the ground. "I wish they had made the ceiling in these things a little higher. Oh, my aching back! I feel like Quasimodo from the Hunchback of Notre Dame. And did you see that big rat!"

"Gaylon, if you don't have anything good to say, just shut the hell up! This place is giving me the creeps as it is and I don't need any of your smartass remarks to make it any worse."

"Could be worse, could be raining!"

"I can do without your Marty Feldman impressions, too!"

Gaylon checked the time on his watch and then putting his hands behind his back, pushed himself back to his feet. Kate seeing his action, did the same and swearing under her breath, started after him into the darkness.

Twenty minutes later they reached the end of the tunnel and after motioning for Kate to wait, Gaylon slipped out of the drain entrance and checked the surrounding area. All clear. He waved for Kate to follow. Taking a stick, Gaylon worked the mud out of the creases of his combat boots, then finished the job by wiping them clean with snow. Then checking the action on his M-4, he climbed up the river bank and slowly looked over the edge. The town was burning in two places and Gaylon could hear the sound of gunfire in the air as the sun cleared the distant hills. Just as Gaylon and Peters had said, the pirates were destroying the town. If Peters’ plans was to work, Gaylon and Kate had to wait until darkness had fallen and then make their way to the camp the pirates were setting up at the edge of town. The canister of deadly gas now sported a small block of C4 and a remote detonator. Gaylon was to place it as near as possible upwind from the pirate camp. While Peters lead his group to retake the guard towers close by, Kate's job was to use her Ruger pistol and try to take out as many of the pirates in the towers and gun emplacements as possible so that Peters job could be done as quietly as possible. Because inside each tower was a control box that fires a cluster of homemade claymore mines that Peters had placed around the gates and fence line. With Peters exploding the mines in front of them, the pirates would be forced back into the deadly gas behind them. Gaylon didn't want to be a pirate with those chances. But he knew that this would not help with the pirates who were already in the town. Their only hope was to kill as many as possible before they could rally and counter attack in force. And it was just possible that the blood that had already been shed would fire the hearts of the town's people to attack every pirate in sight. The town lay under the cover of darkness as Gaylon and Kate finally made their way toward the wire that surrounds the city limits of Austin. Pointing toward the nearer tower, Gaylon then pointed to his watch and raised five fingers. Kate nodded and giving Gaylon a quick kiss, moved into the night.

Taking a last look around, Gaylon searched the buildings nearest the fence for a sign of Peters. Then from an upper story window, a flash of light, then nothing. Seeing the light, Gaylon moved away from the wire and back to where he had placed the canister earlier in the night. Grabbing the roll of wire leading to the C4, he made his way to a small ravine that would provide him with some cover. Stripping the ends from the wire Gaylon connected them to the firing switch and flipped the first switch to arm the charge. Taking a quick look at his watch, Gaylon looked up just in time to see a guard in the first tower rise his hands to his face and then pitch over the side. Removing his hat, Gaylon placed an M17A1 gas mask over his face and ducking down, pressed the firing switch to the C4 with his thumb. A large bang rang across the darkened field and a pillar of fire reached for the sky with an ominous hissing. Dropping the firing switch, Gaylon unslung the M-4 from his shoulder and hitting the selector to full auto, prepared to kill anyone that tried to escape passed his position. Kate had waited in the darkness and studied the luminous dial of her watch as the seconds passed. With thirty seconds to go, Kate sighted down the barrel of the Ruger. Counting silently to herself, Kate got to zero and touched the trigger on the Ruger. With a soft spat, the gun jumped slightly in her hand and with a quick flick of the wrist, fired again. Ducking quickly, Kate placed her gas mask over her face and dove for the snow, trusting the white overall to conceal her position until the other towers could be taken by Peter’s men. Light sprang up along the fence as other guard towers awoke to the sound of C4 coming from behind their position. Men raced toward them from outlying buildings. A roar went up in the camp as men ran toward the fence line only to fall back as the ground under their feet exploded, tearing off legs and arms, driving bits of glass and nails into their bodies. Gaylon fired a long burst into the dark shapes that came towards him from the direction of the camp, driving them back into the cloud of gas that hovered over them. Men screamed as the gas burned their eyes and lungs, then they slowly dropped to the ground as the life was taken from them. Other bodies fell over them. Kate looked up as men ran towards her, jamming the Ruger into its holster, she pulled the HK MP5SK for under her body and fired a blast behind her as she ran toward the gate. Dropping and rolling, Kate dove to the ground near the gate and firing again into the darkness, then rolling on her back, fired at the bolt on the gate, shearing away the wood and metal. Then kicking with both feet, she pushed the gate open, and rolling on her stomach, crawled through. Jumping to her feet, Kate ran toward the nearest building and fell through the open doorway as someone grabbed her arm. Twisting in air, Kate fell on her side with the HK MP5SK pointing toward the shapes by the doorway.