Cold River Resurrection (17 page)

Chapter
39

Sidwalter

Smokey walked into the living room and handed Jennifer a cup of coffee. She sat on the couch with Laurel. The TV was on. The other kids and his mother were arranged around it like an attentive and colorful school of fish. Jennifer, across the room and behind the others, sat with her legs under her. With bandages and bruises, Smokey thought she looked beautiful.

Better be careful here, he thought. He knew how adrenalin, fear, and escape from near death brought people closer together. Maybe this isn’t real.

“How far are we from where I was found?” Jennifer asked.

“Maybe thirty miles in a straight line. Our house is on the edge of the same wilderness, just further north and a little east.”

She motioned for him to sit.

He shook his head.

“Can’t. Got work to do. And,” he nodded toward his mother and the others, “they’re leaving.” A loud noise from the TV made him turn to look. They were watching a rerun  of the series “24” and Jack Bauer was yelling “Everybody Down!!”

“What do you mean, work to do?” Jennifer asked.

They are coming for us!

Smokey didn’t reply. He looked at Laurel and Jennifer, and knew
what he had to do. He smiled. He went over to his mother, waited for a commercial break, and then bent down.

“Kala.”

She waited for him to speak.

“Kala
, when the show is over, you take the kids to Sarah’s house, stay there.”

She patted his hand, nodding. He walked back to the couch.

“You, too, Laurel. Get something packed.”

“Dad. I’m staying here. With you and Jennifer.”

He was torn, putting her out of harm’s way would also mean that he couldn’t protect her, couldn’t know how she was doing.

“What am I missing here?” Jennifer asked. She looked first at Smokey, then at Laurel.

“Kala
and the kids are going to Sarah’s house in town. Laurel wants to stay here with me.”

“And her,” Laurel said, snuggling against Jennifer.

“What you’re missing,” Smokey said, his voice quiet, “what you’re missing is that someone will be coming for you. I want both of you to put a small pack together. Something for a couple of days in the country.”

Smokey entered his bedroom. When he came out a few minutes later, he looked like the warrior he once was. He wore battle dress utility black pants, a black camouflage shirt, and a black vest. The vest held ammunition for his pistol, rifle, and shotgun – a radio with an earpiece, and other equipment of a modern warrior. He tied his hair back with a leather thong.

He had a short-barreled shotgun slung across his back, and held UMP submachine in his right hand.

He nodded at Jennifer and Laurel, said something to his mother as she assembled the kids, and quietly slipped out the back door.

Jennifer shivered as Smokey disappeared.

What have I brought on these people?

Smokey wouldn’t let me leave now if I wanted to. But it wasn’t fair that my lark in the woods should bring this on them. I’m scared, afraid of what
is coming, scared for this little one with her head on my shoulder.

Admit it Jennifer, you feel protected at the same time.

Yeah, I do. What a family.

She reached down and stroked Laurel’s hair.

Smokey stood on the deck and waited for his eyes to adjust to the dark. He walked off the deck, a silent shadow to join another shadow
.

Nathan was similarly dressed. His face was blackened with camouflage paint; his eyes glistened in the darkness. He handed Smokey a night vision headset.

“Good to see you, Big Brother,” Smokey said. “Up kinda late for you, aren’t we?”

Nathan stared at him. “Figured you needed someone to do the heavy lifting for you, Little Brother. The team is in place.” Smokey didn’t need to talk with them. He knew th
ey would do what was needed when it was time. Two officers walked by, carrying long rifles with night vision scopes, shooting pads and painted faces. They disappeared up the hill into the dark.  Smokey knew that they could cover the entire house except for immediately in front. There were two more at the beginning of the driveway, two in the woods by the meadow Smokey knew, and two with assault weapons by the haystack.

Should be enough.

Unless the maggots know we’re ready for them. 

A car door shut in the front of the house.

“
Kala
and kids leaving,” Smokey said.

“I’ll watch them to the highway,” Nathan said. He spoke quietly into a small microphone. 

Smokey watched him melt away. One second Nathan was there, and then he was gone.

Big Brother was good.

Gonna need him before the night is over. Of that, I’m sure.

“You can use this one,” Laurel said. She handed a green backpack to Jennifer. Jennifer put the backpack on the bed and put her meager possessions inside. She hadn’t thought of her place in Portland for days, really thought about it, and now she wasn’t so sure that what she had there was important at all.

This is what I have, some borrowed clothes in a borrowed backpack.

Laurel handed her an old army coat, and
Jennifer tried it on. She held the sleeves up, her hands buried inside. Laurel looked at her and giggled. Jennifer turned and looked at her image in the mirror, and started laughing.

She looked like a street urchin, lost in a big coat. Laurel looked in the mirror and shrieked. Jennifer threw her arms around Laurel and they collapsed on the bed, laughing. Jennifer tickled Laurel and she shrieked again. Jennifer laughed until tears ran down her cheeks, and she realized she hadn’t felt so good in a long time. Laurel stopped laughing and went to the closet.

“Hey Jen, hold on.” Laurel stood on her tiptoes and tried to reach the top shelf. She jumped and still couldn’t reach.

“Want some help?” Jennifer grabbed Laurel and lifted her up to the shelf. Laurel grabbed something and Jennifer set her down.

“Thanks.” Laurel turned and was holding a small revolver.

“Laurel, is that thing real?”

This kid has a gun.

Laurel nodded. “Of course it’s real. My
dad taught me how to shoot when I was little.”

“Do you really think you will need that?”

Laurel shrugged. She checked the cylinder and put the gun in her pack. She looked at Jennifer and then jumped at her, tickling her in the ribs, and Jennifer fell on the bed again and grabbed Laurel, pulling her on top.

Jennifer laughed, and then had the thought again.

This kid has a gun.

Smokey found them that way.

God, they’re beautiful.

Laurel saw him first, and quit laughing. Jennifer looked up at the fierce, dark figure.

Smokey smiled, bent down and kissed first Laurel, and then Jennifer. He spent a second longer on the kiss with Jennifer, smelling her hair. He straightened up and watched Jennifer’s face. She smiled, and then grinned.

“More, please, kind sir,” she said. Smokey just stood there, not knowing what to do. He knew what he wanted to do, and he tried to push those thoughts out of his mind.

“Yes, please, more sir,” Laurel said, and fell into Jennifer’s arms, laughing so hard Jennifer thought the kid wouldn’t be able to stop.

In the end, Smokey joined in and tickled first Laurel, and then Jennifer. He laughed until Jennifer brought his face down and kissed him back.

“Gross,” Laurel said, but she was smiling as she said it.

Smokey sat up, afraid to look at them for fear of another new round of laughter. When it was time, he told them what they had to do.

The assault came just before dawn.

C
hapter
40

“Smokey, this is Nathan.” Smokey leaned back, invisible in the dark. He pressed his earpiece. Nathan spoke quickly, his voice urgent.

“Smokey.”

“Uh, we have two dark SUV’s coming down the highway fast. Just crossed the Northern border onto the rez. These guys are cooking, close to a hundred. Be at the Sidwalter turn in a few minutes, way they’re going.”

“Are they feds?”

“Don’t think so,” Nathan said.

“Leave them be,” Smokey murmured.

So it starts. Hope we planned this right. Maybe we should have  more people here. But I can’t leave the rest of the rez unprotected.

I  should have taken Laurel and Jennifer out, but I can personally watch over them here.

Smokey walked to the corner of the house. The barnyard, corrals, and haystack were on his right. The front porch of the house was dark. The only lights on were in the house, a subdued lamp light coming out of the front windows. His Suburban and a Honda were parked in front.

Should look like we’re home.

“Vehicles turning off the highway,” Nathan said. “They just turned their lights out. They’re going fast down the gravel.”

“Copy,” Smokey said.
They must have night vision.

“Smokey to all units. They’ll have night vision.” Microphone clicks told Smokey that the officers heard. There was no need to call each one.

What am I forgetting?

“They’re five minutes out,”
Nathan said.

Smokey stood in the dark beside the back corner of the house. He looked down the driveway toward the meadow. A horse snorted, then squealed, hoof beats a nervous rattle as they moved around. The horses had been nervous all night, peo
ple moving around, and now fast-approaching cars. 

He looked behind the house, and walked quickly to the back door. He was beginning to get a very bad feeling about the entire operation. Two Suburbans,
carrying killers like the ones in the hospital, could have six or seven people each, a dozen or more. Weaponry, maybe more than assault rifles. But, this is our ground. He looked at the back door.

I should have evacuated Laurel and Jennifer. Should have taken them out of the fight. What w
as I thinking?

Smokey
tapped on the back door. Jennifer answered immediately. Laurel peeked around Jennifer, her face under Jennifer’s arm. A soft light from the kitchen highlighted them..
They were both wearing their packs.

Cute.

I must look like an alien to them with my face painted, night vision goggles on my forehead, guns strapped on. Jennifer’s eyes were large and white. Laurel had seen this look before.

“When the shooting starts, lay on the kitchen floor,” Smokey said.

“Are they coming, Dad, the bad people?” Laurel asked. Jennifer just looked.

“Less than five minutes. Lock the door. Nathan and I have keys.”  Smokey pulled Laurel closer, and kissed her on the cheek. “Take care of Jen.
”

“I will Dad, and Dad, you come back and get us.”

He nodded, and closed the door.

“They’re one mile from the driveway,”
Nathan said on the radio, louder now. Smokey moved to the corner of the house, thinking of the layout and where he positioned the officers. He looked over to his right at the darkened barn. Sarah would be there. He pulled his night vision headset down and the image of the barn, corrals, and haystack jumped into view. Nathan would follow them in.

We’re as ready as we can be.

Or so I think.

“The lead van’s slowing for the driveway,”
Nathan said. Smokey had the radio turned down to its lowest setting, his earpiece loud, causing his head to jerk up. He strained to see down the driveway from the rear of the house. They would come through the trees in the meadow, then around a small knoll. When they passed the corral and haystack, they would be in front of the house.

He heard the tires crunching on the gravel. Smokey caught a glint of starlight on metal, and then he saw the first vehicle as it passed the pasture. The second was close behind, a deadly, malignant train. He pulled his night vision down.

Something sticking out the window of the Suburban.

Shit.

Looks like . . .

Smokey keyed his microphone as he watched in horror as the first van skidded to a stop fifty feet in front of the house. The doors flew open in the blue light of the night vision and the men on the right side of the SUV pulled up a long tube. The second vehicle van slowed and stopped.

An RPG!

Rocket propelled grenades. Why didn’t I think
?

“RPG! Fire on them!” Smokey screamed into his microphone and ran for the front of the house. He pulled his automatic rifle up and fired as he ran, sprinting hard toward the men getting out of the lead Suburban. He had a sense of
firing coming from the barn and haystack, officers firing and yelling.

The driver got out
and Smokey fired a burst into the chest of the dark clad figure. The man dropped and Smokey slowed to take aim at the figure with the RPG lining up on the front door, and Smokey fired another full burst. The bullets hit the assailant in a sudden spray. The RPG fired as the man went down, the sudden flare of the rocket blinding Smokey with the night vision. Smokey jerked the night vision up and watched as the rocket flared up and over the roof of the house and exploded on the side of the haystack.

He felt bullets slam into the house inches from his head, and he dropped down and back around the corner. He grabbed a new magazine and slammed it into his rifle as he came back around.

Nathan came from around the haystack, looking like a figure from hell in the light of the growing fire. His night vision hung on his neck as he ran toward the Suburban, yelling an ancient war cry. 

Figures from the SUV’s were on their knees, firing at Nathan. Smokey jumped up and fired, hitting two in a single burst, and ran to the third and shot him in the face. Blood sprayed black in the dark. At least two of the assailants made it to the corner of the house and disappeared. He felt a tug on his sleeve as a bullet hit his arm. He looked up the driveway.

The black clad men in the second Suburban were out and firing, running toward the house, two with RPG’s, and one went down with a burst from officers in the trees.

A rocket slammed into the front door. The explosion blew Smokey back on his knees, and two figures ran for the open door. The door
frame burst into flames.

“Nathan, get the back
!” Smokey yelled. Time slowed for Smokey as the figures moved in slow motion. The second Suburban moved up and Smokey emptied a long burst into the windshield on the driver’s side. The driver’s body jerked in a spray of blood. The engine screamed and the wheels sprayed gravel as the large SUV swerved to the left around the first vehicle, across the barnyard and slammed into the burning haystack. Burning bales fell on top of the vehicle.

Bullets buzzed by Smokey as he threw himself on the ground. He fired short bursts at the men running for the house. A fusillade of shots came from the officers on the hill and the man with the RPG went down. The rocket touched off and screamed down the driveway.

One RPG to go.

Smokey reloaded on his knees, yelling, screaming at the men who would try to kill him and his family. The dark man with the RPG stopped and
aimed the rocket at the front window of the house from a distance of thirty feet. Killing distance for those inside. The other man was standing, firing at Smokey. Smokey felt a sharp sting on his arm, and then a slap on his neck.

How
fucking dare they.

And suddenly he was filled with a rage that he hadn’t felt in a long time, a familiar and frightening feeling, like a terrible and painful hand had gripped him, a hot flash of light jumping through his body.

The RPG slammed into the window and the explosion blew into the living room, the flash a brilliant light of destruction.

The figure who had been firing at Smokey ran for the front door, obscured by smoke as Smokey fired, then stopped.

Laurel’s inside.

The man with the RPG was trying to get rid of the tube and bring his rifle up when Smokey ran up to him and shot him in the face from a distance of five feet, blood and brain matter spraying out in clumps, and the man dropped, a leg bent under him, as if the string on a puppet had been cut. Smokey turned and ran for the house, screaming Laurel’s name.

When Smokey had left them by the back door, Jennifer looked at Laurel in the dim light, and pulled the girl into her arms.

“You scared?” she whispered.

“Yeah, a little. But Dad usually takes care of things.”

“What do you think we should do?” Jennifer asked, giving Laurel another hug. This child I could care for, she thought. And then she had another thought, this one deeper, more to the core of who she was, thoughts that she hadn’t had for a long time, if ever. Thoughts that she knew most people put off and never looked inside to answer.

Why am I here?

The answer came quickly.

You’re supposed to be. This is meant for you.

She was in a strange house, a house she didn’t know existed until a day ago, with people she just met, and people she didn’t know were outside trying to kill her, for reasons that she couldn’t fathom.

But you know you’re supposed to be here.

If anyone asked, she knew that she could not tell why she felt that way, but in a crazy way, she knew she was right. Laurel tugged on her arm.

“Jennifer.” Laurel tugged.

“Jen, come with me. I think we should stay here, in the pantry, on the floor.” Jennifer let herself be led into the pantry, a large walk-in closet, and they sat on the floor, the single light on the kitchen counter their only reference. The pantry was dark.

“Dad says that when shooting ever starts, you should lay on the floor in most instances, and get out of the way of the bullets.”

Jennifer put her arms around Laurel.
How does she know all this?

“Can we turn a light on in here?” Jennifer asked. Laurel pulled a flashlight from her pack and switched it on. She jumped up and closed the door and then sat back down next to Jennifer. Laurel put the flashlight under her chin and shined it upward, making her face look ghoulish. She laughed.

“Stop that,” Jennifer said, and laughed with her. They both jumped when the first shot exploded outside.

The explosions and screams from the front of the house made Jennifer want to put her hands over her ears and shut out the noise of men dying.

What if something happens to Smokey?

She started to get up, and Laurel held on fast.

“We can’t leave,” Laurel whispered, her voice fierce, her hold on Jennifer as strong as an adult’s.

“But what if-
.”

An explosion thumped into the house. Cans fell from the shelves above them and thudded to the floor.

“Ow!” Laurel cried out as a can fell on her head. Jennifer leaned over Laurel and tried to protect her from more falling food. The floor was a jumble of cans and packages of food.

The gunfire was almost non-stop outside.

“What do we do if the bad people (she had thought of the people after her as the ‘bad people’ since the hospital) come in here first?” She didn’t expect an answer from Laurel, but the girl pulled her head from under Jennifer’s arm and reached in her pack. Jennifer picked up the flashlight from the floor and set it on a shelf.

Laurel pulled the silver revolver from her pack and pointed it at the door.

“We’ll shoot them,” Laurel said, matter-of-factly.

Jennifer looked at the small revolver. In the city, no way. Here in this land, it just made sense.

“I have to ask,” she said, looking closely at Laurel, “do you know how to use it?”

Laurel gave her a look as if she were a pure fool. “Of course, Dad has been teaching me to shoot since I was five or six.”

Of course, what an idiot you are, Jennifer.

“I’m not supposed to have it unless he says,” Laurel added, “but I think this might be a time when he would say.”

“Is it loaded?” Jennifer wanted to take this back as soon as she said it, but it was out. The look she got she thought she might deserve, a look reserved for complete and utter fools. Village idiots.

“Well, let’s hope we don’t have to use it.”

But somehow, she knew in her heart, the way the week had been going, the way people were relentlessly trying to kill her, that Laurel would have to use the gun, and judging from the sounds outside, the explosions, the shots and screams, they would have to use it soon.

She huddled with the precious child of a most unusual man, thinking that the kid was the one in charge, the protector here.

As it turned out, Smokey wasn’t the first one to arrive at the pantry door.

He had his own problems with survival.