The Guardians (21 page)

"Amen," said everyone softly as Evan stepped back.

Mildred then said, "Thank you Evan.  Thank you all for everything you have done and continue to do for us.  The greatest thing Ollie has left me, besides the wonderful memories, is the love I feel from each of you here today.  Ollie's memory will live on not just in my heart, but also in your hearts, as well as young Haley's.  Thank you for this wonderful moment on this beautiful day.  If God keeps me around for a while, I will spend many an evening under this tree, celebrating in the memories of my wonderful life.  This is a gift you have all given me here today."

There was not a dry eye in the crowd.  Everyone mourned the loss of Ollie, but even in death, he had managed to give them resolve.  It was unspoken, but everyone in the community felt as if they were now strengthened, and that they would all be a lot closer now, as a real community, not just a trading community.

****

After the ceremony and the burial was complete, the group got on with the task at hand, which was relocating Mildred and her livestock to their temporary new home at the Homefront.  As the Mildred and Judith were escorted back to the house by Charlie and Jimmy, Linda and the rest of the men stood around in a circle going over the game plan.  As Robert Brooks finished giving his recommendations as to how to best move the cattle as a herd, Jason interjected and said, "Sounds great, now you guys go pretend you're doing that while Evan and I deal with something." The men started to get confused and Jason continued, "Don't look around.  Keep standing here as if everything is normal while I explain.  Earlier I saw a glint of light half way up to ridge directly in front of me.  Don't turn and look!" he reiterated.  "I'm sure we are getting glassed.  Whoever it is isn't very schooled in the art of surveillance, or they would realize the angle of the sun to their location would cause reflections of light that give their position away.  My guess is whoever was taking the cattle and shot Ollie hasn't moved on just because they lost a few buddies.  This herd is priceless in a hungry world."

"What's the plan?" asked Evan.

Jason then proceeded to say, "Let's have Charlie and Jimmy stay with Mildred and Judith, while everyone else tends to the herd.  Evan and I will slip away while we pretend to be working in the cellar, and head for the woods where the observer is.  We will split up and try to pinch him in while he is busy watching you guys deal with the cattle.  Since we can probably assume the herd is their primary target, they will more than likely be focusing on what you're doing.  Act as normal as you can and don't look that way.  We don't want them to realize that we are on to them.  If you hear a gunshot, sprint for cover.  It may be them shooting at you, it may be them shooting at us, it may be us shooting at them, or us simply trying to warn you.  Either way, be conscious of your surroundings and have a place in mind to take cover at all times."

Everyone nodded in agreement and Robert Brooks said, "OK men, lets move some cattle." 

As the main group went back to the pasture to tend to the herd, Evan and Jason went to the barn.  Once inside, they placed their rifles, which had been in the barn while they were working, albeit a tactical error to have been without them, inside of the empty space within an old pallet.  They then carried the pallet in plain view over to the cellar, which was built into the hillside and surrounded by tree branches.  The shade of the trees and the subterranean architecture gave the cellar it's cool storage qualities, and in this situation, it gave Evan and Jason the concealment needed to slip off into the woods as well. 

"Hopefully they'll just think we are dragging an old pallet over here for random reasons and will lose interest and turn their attention back to the herd," Jason said.

"Unless they think we brought a pallet over here because there are bulk items of potential value in the cellar that we would need a pallet to move," Evan replied.

"True," Jason said.  He then nudged the rifles out of the pallet with his foot, sliding them onto the ground.  Once the rifles were out of the pallet, he took a nearby axe and began to knock the pallet apart in plain view.  As he would pop a board loose, he would stack the wood neatly as if he were merely using the pallet for scrap wood.  As he was putting on this show for any potential hostile observer, Evan slipped off into the woods with his VZ58 and Jason's Remington.  Jason then leaned the axe against a tree and sat down as if he was simply taking a break.

After a few moments he thought to himself that surely the observer had lost interest by now and had looked away.  With that hope in mind, he slowly got up and walked into the woods out of sight. 

He met up with Evan, got his rifle, and said, "OK, you go straight up and over the hill.  Come back around to where you think you would be behind him to block a direct escape.  I'll give you a few minutes to get in place, and then I'll creep up the hill and go at him horizontally.  I'll either get him in sight, in which case I'll make it up as I go, or he'll get bumped like a bedded down deer and you can do whatever you need to do."

"We need intel, so if at all possible keep him breathing, which I know is asking a lot from you," said Evan with a smirk on his face.

"I can only do what he will let me do," Jason replied.  "It's hard to merely wound with a .300 Win Mag though," he said as he grinned back.

"Dude, you get more jacked up by the day," Evan said jokingly.

"It's called battle hardened my brother, jacked up is what the thugs become," Jason replied.  "OK, get on with it funny man."

Evan replied in jest with Jason's familiar, "Roger Roger."

"Keep it up and I might miss and let him head your way," Jason replied as he slipped off into the woods towards the observer.

Evan just laughed and headed up the hill.  He found a well-worn game trail and used it to make good time up the hill without making too much noise.  As he crested the ridge, he began to move horizontally towards the last known position of the observer, on the backside of the hill out of sight.  As he moved across the hill, he found boot prints.  Some older, but some fairly fresh.  They led up over the hill to the approximate location of the observer.  He also found a cigarette butt that appeared to have not been there long.  He wondered if this was a routine observation point that the intruders used to try to pattern Ollie's movements and to estimate force strength on the farm.  He thought that surely they had seen him and Jason there multiple times, always being armed, which may explain why they were laying low before their encounter.

As Jason moved ever so slowly and quietly towards the Observer, he got a glimpse of the man through his scope.  He couldn't get a clear view of the man's face, as he too was using the scope on his rifle to watch the men working below.  It appeared to be a lever action rifle.  Maybe a .30-30 or the like.  Not much range with that from his position, Jason thought to himself.  He truly must only be on lookout or something.  "Hmmm, leave him breathing," Jason said to himself as he adjusted the windage and elevation on his Nightforce scope for a very well placed shot.  With a light touch of the trigger, followed by a sharp boom from his muzzle, the man's rifle busted into the man's face while shattering into shards of metal and wood.  Jason had aimed for the man's rifle, intending to take him out of the fight without killing him.  The impact shoved the scope of the man's rifle into his right eye nearly blinding him.  As blood poured down the man's face from the impact as well as the shrapnel from the shattered rifle and the impacting bullet, he dropped the gun and began to sprint up the hill towards Evan in retreat.

Down below, the men working the herd immediately dove for cover as directed, as soon as they heard Jason's shot ring out across the valley.  They remained behind cover for the time being, not knowing who fired the shot.

As the man ran up the hill towards the ridge, Evan could hear him clumsily running through the brush making tremendous noise, crunching through the dead autumn leaves.  Evan ducked down behind some vegetation, and as the man approached him, he came out of nowhere with the metal folding butt stock of the VZ58 and smashed the man across the face, knocking him back on the ground.  The man landed on his back with several broken teeth and a splatter of blood flying out of his busted mouth.  Evan immediately jumped on the man with one foot on his throat and the barrel of his rifle pressed so hard into the man's forehead that the AK style slant muzzle break was cutting into his skin. 

"Move and die," Evan said in a voice full of rage.

Just then, Jason emerged from the woods saying, "Ev, it's me!"

"I'm on him," Evan replied.

"That worked like a charm," Jason said referring to his intentional shot into the man's rifle.

"What did?" Evan asked.

"Oh, I'll explain later," he replied.

While Evan held the man on the ground with his boot and rifle, he asked him, "What the hell are you doing here?"

The man could barely talk with a swollen mouth full of blood.  Jason removed the man's side arm from his waistband.  He was carrying a small .38 snub nose revolver.

"You had better bring a lot more gun than that if you're gonna be invading other people's homesteads these days," Jason said.  "There is no 911 we have to call and no cops to explain where we get the fertilizer we use in our gardens or our slop for the pigs, so speak up when he talks to you, or our pigs are gonna get meat tonight," Jason said as he kicked the man in the side.

"You blew out my eye, I can't see out of my eye!" the man whined as he writhed in pain beneath Evan's boot, spitting blood as he spoke. 

Jason now searched the rest of the man's pockets and the small day-pack he was carrying.  He had several packs of Marlboro red package cigarettes, the same kind found on the other invaders, as well as a hand drawn map of the property. 

"Phillip Morris must be doing well in the collapse," Jason said.  "There sure hasn't been a shortage of smokes around here lately."

"Speak up," Evan demanded.  "Who are you with?"

"Just a bunch of guys that got together after it all fell apart," the man said.

"Just a bunch of guys that got together to do what?  Got together to rape, pillage, loot, rob?  You saw an opportunity and you took it didn't you?" Evan replied as he began to feel his rage growing.  It took everything he had to keep himself from stomping the man's throat in.

"We just do what we have to do like everyone else, it's dog eat dog.  Nothing personal, just survival," he said.

"Well, I've got news for you scumbag.  You bit the wrong dog.  I don't know how many people you have hurt or killed in the past year, but it's over.  Your group killed a dear friend of ours while looting his property.  That's not gonna stand unanswered.  You can tell us everything you know and we will let you go, as long as you promise not to hook back up with them and clean yourself up, or you can die right here and be our pig slop.  Your choice," Evan said as he put more pressure on the man's throat nearly closing off his windpipe.

The man stayed silent and just struggled under Evan's boot.  After a moment, Jason pulled out his knife and bent down and cut the man's shirt open, leaving a shallow cut on the man's stomach. 

"Should I gut him here like an Elk, or drag him out and do it in the barn like a deer?" asked Jason.

"I don't feel like dragging him out so let's do it here," Evan said in a nonchalant manner.

"Roger that," said Jason as he began to pierce the man's flesh with his knife just above his navel.

"Noooo, no, no, please don't, I'll talk, I'll talk,"

"How many are there of you total?" asked Evan.

"About fourteen, I think. I've never counted," the man said.

"Where are you staying?  Where are you guys holding up while you rob us?"

"With a guy named Frank.  We met him working a deal on the smokes," the man said.

"Frank Muncie?" Evan asked.

"I think, we never really use last names.  He's got a couple younger brothers there too." said the man as he struggled to breath.

"What deal?" Evan asked relaxing his boot now that the man was talking.

"Frank had come into a truckload of smokes on another deal.  He wanted to trade them all for a girl.  He said there wasn't any good women around here," the man said.

While trying to contain his rage, Evan said, "So you traded a girl for smokes?"

"Yea," he answered.

"Where is the girl now?" Evan calmly asked with an unimaginable rage growing inside.

"She was black, and he said he didn't like dark meat, so when he was done with her, he gave her to the other guys and...."

"And what?" Evan demanded.

The man began to realize he had said too much for his own good and said, "Well, some of the other guys, not me, were a little too rough with her and she didn't make it," he said hesitantly.

"You mean you killed her?" Jason shouted.

"Not me man, not me, the other guys," he said.

"Isn't it funny how the guy spilling the beans is always innocent," Evan said to Jason.

"Yep, ironic," Jason replied.

"I've had about as much of this piece of trash as I can stomach.  Let's take him back down to the barn," Evan said.