The Last Layover (8 page)

Jason jumped out of the Toyota and ran over to the first two, verified they were down hard, and yelled, “Clear!”

Damon responded, “Clear here as well, but breathing.”

Jason and Damon walked over to the officer that Damon shot as Evan climbed out from under the SUV. Evan collected the first two officers’ AR-15s, all of their ammo, and their sidearms. He also removed their radios, thinking they may come in handy in the near future. He then tossed all of it into the back seat of the SUV. He walked over to Damon and Jason, where they watched the downed, but alive, uniformed murderer struggle to breathe.

Jason said, “Leave the bastard here for the kin of those they killed to deal with. He's the one who shot the woman and the old man.”

Damon nodded. “Let’s take the body armor with us from those two, as well. They may come in handy the way the things are going. This one is covered in blood though,” he said, pointing at the dying man.

Evan ran around the house to where Peggy was hiding and hurried her to the SUV. She stopped in her tracks, in shock at the sight of the downed officers. Evan gave her a tug, pulled her by the hand, and put her in the back seat. Damon and Jason retrieved the dying officer’s weapons and ran to the SUV as well.

“Damon, you drive and Jason and I will cover us with the ARs,” yelled Evan.

“Shotgun!” shouted Jason as he jumped into the front passenger seat.

“I'll be the trunk monkey, I guess,” said Evan. He opened the cargo hatch of the SUV and climbed in to provide cover from the rear. It was then that he noticed the food the officers had seized. “Hey guys, those people died for this food. It should be with their families, not us.”

The each silently nodded in agreement. Evan hopped into the back seat with Peggy as Damon turned off the blue lights and drove down the street towards a crowd of people who surrounded the bodies of the victims of the DHS officers.

The people were weeping, with what appeared to be close family members on their knees in emotional agony. When they saw the SUV, some of them ran off thinking the officers had returned, not realizing the gunshots they had heard from down the street was the crew fixing that problem. Damon stopped about fifty yards away so Jason could step out and wave to the people to show them they were not the killers. Once the crowd seemed to understand, Damon continued forward as people came back out into the street.

“Those sons of bitches killed my boy!” an enraged man yelled. “Where are they?” he demanded.

“They are lying in the street a block that way,” said Jason as he pointed. “The bastard that pulled the trigger is down there choking on his own blood as we speak.”

The angry father and a few other men immediately ran down the street in the direction Jason pointed. Evan popped the cargo hatch and said, “Here is the food they took. It's rightfully yours, so please take it.” He then said, “Is anyone here prior service?”

“Two tours in Iraq with the Marines,” a man in his late twenties replied. The man pulled up his pant leg to reveal a prosthetic leg with a Marine Corps logo sticker on it. “The second tour didn't work out so well.”

“Perfect.” He pulled one of the captured rifles and four loaded, thirty-round magazines from the SUV and handed it to the man. “Don't let that crap happen in your neighborhood again,” Evan said.

The man took the rifle, looked Evan in the eyes, and said, “As long as I'm breathing it won't. I didn't lose my leg fighting for this country only to come back and have my own government treat my family and my neighbors like this.”

“Damn straight!” said Jason.

Evan then took two of the DHS officers’ sidearms, gave them to the man, and said, “Give these to people you trust in case you need help.” With that, they climbed back into the SUV and drove away.

Damon said, “Okay now. It won't be long before the Feds figure out their guys are down and this truck is missing. For now, though, the markings will give us cover to move freely, relatively speaking, without the choppers calling in an unauthorized vehicle. I'm gonna get us close to the beach, but not all the way to the boat. We can't let them find the truck at the pier and put two and two together. It’ll be impossible to outrun helicopters in a big, slow boat.” He took a quick look at his map and headed for the water.

Along the way, they saw people scatter when they approached. “Looks like people have already figured out martial law isn't a good thing with power-hungry, armed thugs enjoying the power trip,” said Jason. “Hopefully, the Oath Keepers won't put up with that crap and will either walk off the job or will deal with the power-hungry from the inside,” he added.

“Oath Keepers?” queried Peggy, speaking for the first time since the guys took down the officers that were abusing the citizens.

“The Oath Keepers are active, reserve, retired, and former military and law enforcement personnel that have made a pact to keep their oath to support and defend the constitution, against all enemies foreign AND domestic—with an emphasis on domestic. They vow to never go against the people by following the unjust and unconstitutional orders of someone above them, including the president,” answered Jason.

Evan added, “The problem is that this administration has been purging the military and federal agency leadership ranks of anyone who displays any loyalties that don't coincide with their objectives.”

Damon looked at his map and said, “The next street up will be a good place to ditch this truck. I think we should park it and head off in the wrong direction for a few blocks, then double back to the beach. We don't want someone selling us out and sending them towards Rockaway Point after us.”

Everyone agreed, and Damon proceeded to Empire Avenue and took another left onto Beach 9th Street. He pulled over and positioned the truck underneath and next to a cluster of trees.

Evan then said, “We can't just walk down the street with these AR-15s in plain view. Let's pull the take-down pins and separate the uppers from the lowers so that we can get them into our packs. We can keep our .40s holstered in case we need them, then we can put the ARs back together when we get to the boat.”

“Good idea,” Jason said, “and Damon can carry the shotgun under his coat since it’s short, as well as the extra pistol we kept that we took from the murderer.”

After they got their things together, they slipped out of the SUV and resumed their tactical bound with Jason up front and Evan bringing up the rear. Up two blocks, over two blocks, then down four blocks to the water was their route, keeping a careful watch along the way. They finally came upon the shoreline and took cover behind a dumpster to rally and regroup.

Damon said, “Okay, if we follow the shore to the west, we will eventually come to Rockaway Point and the boat. We have two ways, as I see it, that we can do this. We can wait here until the sun goes down and use the cover of darkness to slip down the beach to the boat. However, that gives the feds more time to find the SUV and get on our trail. If not for our run-in earlier, that would be my pick. So considering that, let's go with the second option and move now and handrail the beach, moving quick but cautious. Then we will try and slip onto the boat undetected and rest onboard until dark. I don't want to pull the boat out in broad daylight.”

Evan said, “I agree with the latter as well. Also, since this part of town is relatively quiet, let’s increase our spacing. A loner, a couple, then another loner may go more unnoticed if they are specifically out looking for a group of four. Damon, why don't you take the lead since you know where you are going? Jason and Peggy, you stay back to where you can just barely keep him in view, and I'll drop back that same distance. We can still help each other out if need be, but we will dramatically change our visual profile that way.”

“Roger that,” said Jason.

With that being settled, Damon stood up and said, “Well, I had better get moving then.”

As they sat behind the dumpster letting Damon get his distance, Jason and Evan both noticed the helicopter traffic in the general area seemed to be increasing. They wondered if that was just a coincidence, or if it was a result of their earlier actions. They took a moment to look off in the distance to soak things in. They really had not had a chance to do that since the beginning of their journey. Off to the northwest of their position, they could see billowing clouds of smoke from what appeared to be Manhattan.

Helicopters, mostly of the UH-60 type, were the only thing in the sky. They had not seen any civilian aircraft in the air since everything had started going down. There were several people they could see off in the distance walking down the beach and a few camp fires there, as well. It appeared that people realized the beach is a good way to get around while avoiding the stuff going on in the city. The only sounds were a few gun shots off in the distance and the occasional siren. The typical sounds of the hustle and bustle of the city were simply silent.

When Damon got far enough down the road that paralleled the beach and appeared to be a man traveling alone, Jason took Peggy by the hand and said, “C'mon Dear, time to look like a couple out for a lazy post-apocalyptic stroll.”

She smiled for the first time all day at Jason's odd humor. Jason led her down the street, trying to keep the pace that Damon was setting. Once they were nearly out of sight, Evan scanned the area one more time before leaving the shelter of the dumpsters to keep up the rear. He felt odd not being able to see Damon off in the distance, but was sure if anything happened up ahead he would see a reaction from Jason.

Only a few steps away from the dumpster, two UH-60 Blackhawks came roaring overhead at rooftop level. He could see door gunners hanging out of the door ready to rip. His heart skipped a beat expecting them start firing on him at any second, but they just kept on blasting by. The Blackhawks stopped and hovered over the area where they ditched the SUV.
Oh hell
, he thought.
Here we go
. He quickened his pace and moved closer to the houses in order to try and remain concealed from the view of the choppers as he picked up the pace. He figured it wouldn't be long before the Blackhawk crews realized the SUV was abandoned, and would be calling in some of their comrades to scour the area. If that happened, having DHS AR-15s in their packs would be hard to talk their way out of.

After about a half hour, Jason and Peggy rounded the corner and could see some boats moored out at buoys and others tied up at the dock. They saw Damon kicking the sand with what appeared to be frustration. Jason and Peggy made it to him and could hear profanities streaming from his mouth.

“Hey, hey, hey!” Jason said. “What's wrong?”

“Well, the damn boat is here. That's it out there, the
Mother Washington
. The problem is, it's moored out there at a buoy and not at the dock. I guess in my mind, I just assumed it would be dockside. You two head over there by that gazebo and lay low until Evan catches up. I'll flag him down and bring him over, then we will figure this out.”

“Roger that,” Jason replied as he led Peggy to the gazebo.

As Evan rounded the bend, Damon signaled him to head to the gazebo. Underneath the gazebo was a three-foot high space from the sand of the beach to the bottom of the gazebo floor. It was surrounded by painted decorative lattice. The Yacht Club had apparently been using this space for beach umbrella storage as it was now the off season. The space was perfect for the crew. They could hide underneath the gazebo behind the piles of umbrellas while they figured out how to handle their latest hurdle.

As Evan approached the gazebo, Jason opened the hinged piece of lattice that they had been using as the entrance to the underneath storage area and motioned for Evan to come on in. Once inside, Damon caught Evan up on the situation regarding the boat’s moorage. Evan shared with them what he saw happening back at the SUV. Just then, two DHS MRAPS sped down the street in the direction of the SUV, while two additional helicopters seemed to be joining the search from above.

“Well, they've found their friends, I guess,” said Jason.

“Yep, I think at this point we need to lie low here until nightfall, then figure a way out to the boat under the cover of darkness. We would be sitting ducks trying to take a raft or boat out to the
Mother Washington
in broad daylight in the middle of our very own man hunt,” said Evan with a crooked smile.

Peggy said, “Man, oh man, what did I get myself into you with guys?”

“Well, you could be over there in the middle of that smoldering mess called Manhattan with Glen right now, or back at the hotel with the people that kicked our door off its hinges, but I don't think you would be better off,” snarled Jason.

She just put her head down into her hands and started to cry.

“I'm sorry, Peggy,” he said. “I'm just a very to-the-point person when in the middle of a crisis or stressful situation. I guess I got that from the Army, but trust me; having your game face on is how you make it through things like this. There will be plenty of time for decompressing and just letting it all out later.”

“Well, guys, let's get some rest,” Evan said in an attempt to change the subject. “We've been going non-stop and we need to take advantage of this opportunity to take a break. I'll take the first watch. Jason, I'll wake you up in a few hours and we will go from there.” With a nod to the affirmative Jason laid back and put his hat over his eyes. Peggy curled up into the fetal position and Damon rolled over onto an umbrella and, in no time, all three were sound asleep.