Grid Attack (Cyber War #2) (7 page)

I didn’t want to spend the money I had saved up for retirement. In my mind, putting money in real estate was a way of locking it up. If for some reason we needed cash, it was harder now to get loans and I didn’t want to risk not being able to get cash for the land.

She would complain because it wasn’t doing us any good sitting in the bank, but if we had land we would still have the land should something happen to the currency.

I felt there was no way something was going to happen to the currency. We are America and we are at the top. Everyone uses the dollar. So I didn’t buy that argument.

Now, had I had a small plot set up, we would have been a lot better off.

Oh well, I couldn’t change the past. I could only look towards the future and try to make the best of the situation that I had.

Kat was staring out the window watching the fields pass by. I was glad we were almost there. I knew she was glad to be out of the city and I could see her visibly relaxing a bit.

When we got to the exit to the town where her mom lived, I reached over and gave her hand a squeeze.

“We made it babe. See, I knew we would.” I reassured her.

“Yeah. Let’s just get there. I need to know they are alright.” She said, squeezing my hand back.

We exited the highway and took a look around. There wasn’t a soul moving.

I felt pretty good about now as we rolled onto the small two-lane highway. It was only 5 miles into town.

The small town was right off the Mississippi river. Our hope was that it’s residents had managed to keep things in order. Most folks out here were country folks and took care of each other in times of need.

When weather would knock down trees there would be a slew of men out cutting things up, making sure their neighbors were okay.

There were a lot of seniors that lived there as well. A lot of grandparents who’s kids weren’t that far, or who were like us and lived in the city.

The community was close knit, and just about everyone knew everyone else.

Of course, there were always a few hoosiers who had to make life hell for some people. And then there were the people who would come into town and try to start some kind of meth lab thinking they wouldn’t be noticed.

That never happened for too long. Even the stoners didn’t want meth in their town and made sure that the cops knew about it as soon as it went up.

I began to daydream a little, wondering how we were all going to manage in her mom’s house. It was big enough for all of us, but we weren’t used to living together.

I decided not to worry about that just yet, and as luck would have it, I had more important things to deal with.

As I crested the hill, there sat the big red truck sideways across the road. It was the one that passed us on the highway. Two men were facing us with rifles pointed directly at us.

I quickly looked for a place to turn around. There wasn’t one, and this particular road was too small to make a u-turn without putting us in the ditch.

We were trapped.

Chapter 13 - Katherine

“Fuck.” Was all I could think to say.

We had made it so far and had managed to shake off anyone that had posed a threat, only to be greeted with country boys that decided to play crossing guard.

We were at a location where a small highway went right off the main road. They had taken their truck and blocked it in such a way that it cut off both ways.

There just wasn’t enough space to go around them without hitting their truck.

Tony threw the truck in reverse but before he could back up, there was a guy that came up from the back of each side of us, holding shotguns at eye level.

I still had my window up, but Tony had his partially down.

“Looky what we have here.” The guy on Tony’s side said, his thick drawl reeked with condescension.

“Nice and slow like, put it in park and shut’er down.” Tony did what he said. He didn’t want to risk getting killed over what was in the truck.

“Now roll down that window, and hand me your weapon.” He said.

“I don’t have a weapon.” Tony said.

The guy let out a laugh. “Yeah, okay, you really gonna tell me you don’t have a weapon? I ain’t that stupid. Don’t make me ask again.”

Tony took one of the empty shotguns we had from the people in the city and slid it out the window to the guy.

The guy took the shotgun and tossed it in the ditch behind him and quickly opened the door, grabbing Tony by the scruff of the neck and pulling him out of the truck.

I could see Tony reaching for his concealed pistol but he didn’t have a chance. The guy took the butt of his gun and knocked Tony out cold.

“Tony!” I screamed as I began to go for my shotgun. I wasn’t fast enough as the guy on my side use the butt of his gun to break my passenger side window.

Glass went flying and the next thing I knew I was being dragged by my hair out into the road.

“Tony! Tony!” was all I could say as I had my hand up around whatever had hold of me.

I struggled to get to my feet when I was finally dropped on the pavement.

The guy squatted down and gave me a goofy grin. He was barely over 20. He was tall and lanky and had several teeth missing.

He let out a guffaw and said, “Daddy gonna like you a lot.”

I shuddered at the implication, and went to reach for my pistol that was tucked in my pants.

A strong male hand grabbed my wrist and twisted it up into my back, making me scream in pain.

“Oh no you don’t.” A voice said as the pistol was taken from me. He brought me to my feet and I was then pushed into the man who had pulled me out of the truck.

“Tie her up good.” The man behind me said as I turned around to get a good look at him.

He was an older dude with a beer belly and a full beard that look like it had food in it for days. He had a shotgun in one hand and put my pistol inside his waistband.

I kept fighting against the guy trying to tie me up, and the old guy came over and backhanded me as I dropped to the ground.

Blood and stars were all I could taste and see. I slumped down pretending to be knocked out. I figured if they thought I was out, they would leave me alone and I might have a chance to free myself.

I laid still on the ground as the young man tied my wrists behind me. My hair covered my face so they couldn’t see my eyes, but I could peek through my hair to see what they were doing.

The guy decided he wanted to cop a feel and reached under my shirt and roughly grabbed my breast and squeezed it.

“Cecil, knock it off. They’ll be time for that shit later.” The old guy said. “Come help deal with this guy.”

I peeked through my hair and I could see all four men standing over by Tony’s body.

I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but I saw one of them raise a shotgun up to Tony’s head.

As I struggled to get free, I was just about to yell at them to stop, when both Carl and Evan popped up from the back of the truck bed.

In a slew of bullets, two of the younger men went down right next to Tony as the other two started to run away.

One went into the ditch and turned around and began to shoot at Evan while the old guy went around to the back of their parked truck and started to shoot at Carl.

I rolled until I was in the other ditch trying to free myself from the rope.

From my vantage point, I could see the two boys that were next to Tony. Both of them had been shot in the head, so they were no longer a threat.

My biggest fear now was that Tony would wake up and try to sit up, getting hit by crossing gunfire.

I prayed to anything that would listen to please let him pull out of this. I couldn’t lose Tony now, not after everything we had already been through.

As I scanned the road, I could see the old guy’s feet from under their truck, so I knew where he was.

I couldn’t see Carl or Evan because of the pitch of the road, so I knew they were hidden and I couldn’t see the other man who went into the other ditch either.

We were at a stand-off and it was obvious no one was going to give up.

I was finally able to pull myself free from the rope and moved over to where I could get a better view.

I reached down and pulled out my little LCP from my ankle holster. It wasn’t meant for long ranges but I was close enough that if I could hit the leg of the old guy, I might just be able to wound him enough that one of the other guys could take him down.

I crawled on my belly as fast as I could up onto the edge of the pavement.

Taking a deep breath, I brought my head up enough and put my arms out in front of me on the ground, taking aim at his calf.

Gently squeezing the trigger, I pulled off three rounds. As if in slow motion, the mans front shin shattered and he went to the ground in a horrid scream.

I waited until he was down on the ground, and leveled my site on him. I didn’t want him to have a chance to shoot me once he figured out who’d shot him.

Where he dropped, I didn’t have a clear shot of his head, but I did have a shot at his huge beer belly. I decided I would go for the most obvious target and pulled 3 more rounds.

All three bullets buried themselves in his belly. Blood began to gush from the bullet holes as the man began to shudder. It only took a minute before he stopped moving.

I wasn’t assuming he was dead until I could check to be sure.

At that point, Evan called out to the last shooter.

“You’re all that’s left alive boy! You wanna live, you put down that gun and come out with hands raised!”

It only took a few seconds for that to click in. A shaky voice called out.

“Okay, don’t shoot! I’m coming out with no weapons.”

I waited in the ditch and the young man raised his hands and stood upright just like Evan said.

Evan came out from behind our truck, walked right up to the man, and shot him square between the eyes.

Chapter 14 - Anthony

“Tony, wake up. Com’on man, snap out of it.” Carl said, as he stood over me, popping me slightly on my cheek.

“Dammit Carl, leave him alone!” Kat said as she rushed over to me.

My head hurt like a motherfucker and the last thing I remember was being dragged out of the truck. I couldn’t see a whole lot and my vision was really blurry. I was really dizzy, too.

Carl and Kat lifted me up and leaned my back against the side of the truck. Kat was taking a bandana and holding it against my head.

“Here, hold this on your head babe.” Kat said as I began to get my vision back.

“What happened?” I asked.

Carl and Evan laughed nervously.

“You decided to take a nap in the middle of a gunfight.” Carl joked, trying to release some of the tension we all were dealing with.

I looked up and noticed blood all over the road.

Kat sat down on the road next to me. I could see the worry on her face as I reached out and touched her on the cheek. I could see the tears welling up in her eyes.

“Babe?” I said as she pulled me close and held me so tight I almost couldn’t breathe.