Un-Connected (18 page)

“I’m not sure I’d like that,” Deb said and
looked at me with a grimace.

They didn’t bother me much and usually were
not an issue, so it was up to her. We found another place that was off the road
about a mile. It was away from the mountains and a little closer to Phoenix
than the rest of the land, but we weren’t sure. We thanked Betty and headed for
the motel. We didn’t know what to do.

The next morning we decided to look at some
houses to rent and see how we felt about that. We found a couple that were
interesting.

Will called saying a black SUV was seen
cruising by at a slower-than-normal speed for that road. All the windows were
dark including the windshield. “It looks like the bad guys are getting ready.”

“Shouldn’t we put some concrete barricades
out front to keep people back from the front door a little farther? Maybe block
off the whole front so they park at the end and walk half the length of the
building to get to the door.”

“We had talked about that. I will try to get
that done today. You guys stay away from the highway.”

“We will.”

We reconsidered the rent houses we had looked
at and compared the safety of each one.

“I think the second house would be great, but
it’s visible from the highway and too close,” Deb said.

“I agree. Plus it has a nice sunroom, but all
that glass faces that way so it’s easy to see who’s in the house.”

One was more secluded and had a
privacy-fenced back yard.

“We could put a dog back there and get the
owner to do some landscaping in the front to create barriers,” I said. “They
would probably pay for the material if we did the work for free.”

“Probably. That would be fun. I would love to
have flower beds and maybe mix in some vegetables. I could finally get some
work out of you.”

“You get everything out of me you want, so
quit complaining.” I said.

She laughed and kissed me.

We called Otis to tell him what we were
considering. We told him there was so much going on, we were thinking about
renting for now and taking our time. He liked the idea.

 “We don’t want you to think we aren’t
interested in the land and building a house, but it has become obvious it will
take much longer than we want to stay in a motel or even an extended stay.”

“Afraid of hurting my feelings?” Otis asked.

“We just want to be careful and make sure you
know we are very grateful.”

“I know. You kids do what is best for you. We
are all glad you are here and we want it to work for you so don’t worry about
us.”

With that we called the property manager. We
put the contract in Deb’s name since she had good credit and I didn’t have any
credit. We got the keys and went shopping for a bed, a TV, a coffeemaker, and a
microwave. The refrigerator was OK, but we thought we might put it in the
garage and get a better one later. Tilly called to tell us not to buy linens. She
was covered up in them. She’d be out before dark and load us up.

“With all this and a good woman, what more
could a man need?” I said.

“Am I the good woman you are talking about?
And any old good woman is good enough for you?”

“Probably.”

I got a light punch on the shoulder and an
angry play look.

Time went too fast, and it wasn’t long until
Deb and I packed a bag and some guns and headed to the trailer. One of Wills
grandkids, James and his wife Sarah were at the other end.  I loaded our guns
with gloves on so I didn’t leave any finger prints on the shell casings. 

We played cards with them that evening and
had a good visit. They had been married for over a year and were trying to
start their family. She had been on birth control for a number of years, and
her OB told her she should have changed up and not been on medication so long.
They and the OB were hopeful.

“Just have fun,” Deb said. “Why did you get
married in the first place? You wanted to be together and have fun, right.
Don’t lose sight of that. The kids will likely come in due time.”

It was a little noisy on their end of the
trailer just before I went to sleep. I guess they took Deb’s advice. We didn’t
make quite as much noise but we had our fun.  Just before I went to sleep I
teased Deb about her being an authority on having babies.  She said that
Catholics know a lot about babies and they talked about it often. 

The second night we were there the alarm went
off. I jumped out of bed and grabbed my guns. It was almost 2:30 a.m.

Two plain cars had sped into the parking lot
with one going to the back door and one to the front. Otis was at the counter
and a nephew, Jack, was restocking some shelves. When the sensors went off and
they saw the two cars on the monitors, Otis locked both doors, got behind the
counter, and hit the alarm. Jack was there with him. Will was in the
surveillance room and came running.  Aaron had been working in the shop and was
right behind Will.  That was four inside and four outside.  We hoped it was
enough.

I just barely beat Deb to the door. James was
just ahead of me. We saw a car between the pumps and the back door. Four guys
were getting out with guns. They were in a hurry. Thankfully, they were not
looking our way and didn’t see us. We made it to the close barricades quickly
and squeezed through them to the next set. Then they opened fire on the back
door expecting to blow out the glass. It held up amazingly well, and we opened
up on them.  One went down immediately.

The other car was at the front, and they blew
through the front door open almost immediately, which surprised all of us.

Jack had an M50, and he tried to clear the
front door. Otis, Aaron and Will had M16 .308s and tried to clear the back
door. One of the guys in the back ran behind the car and the other two turned
their guns on us.

We hit one who went down pretty quick. When
he tried to recover his gun, we shot him again and he was still. The far guy
took a few more shots at the back door and ran through it. The guy who was behind
the car tried to follow but we dropped him.  The guys coming in the front
lobbed two grenades behind the counter.

Then they followed the grenades and rushed
back in. Otis and Jack, who were behind the main counter, dove to the sides of
the shelving behind them. The grenades went off with their legs still exposed
some. Will and Aaron were behind the other counter and Will was the only one up
shooting over the counter, and he hit a couple of the bad guys. One hit him. Jack
couldn’t move much, but he picked up his gun and kept firing.  He and Aaron helped
Will finish two of the guys inside.

James and I ran to the car at the back of the
store, James shot under the car and hit the guy in his ankles.  He went down
hard and we finished him off.   We hid behind the car and tried to help with
the guys who ran inside. One of the guys dove back out through the back door
onto the ground. He rolled over on his stomach to see who was there. Deb and
Sarah hit him first with James and I right behind. He was done. So the back
door was secure.

I ran to the door and could see a couple of
guys shooting through the front door. There were two on the floor not moving. I
motioned James to follow, and we ran around the building. When we got to the
front corner, we could see the two guys still shooting in the front door.  One
would peak around the corner shooting and would then jump back while the other
one would shoot alternating.  Deb and Sarah got where they could see the front
door through the back door and they were taking some shots.  Jack was shooting
around the end of the main counter, and Will was leaning up against the shelves
still firing.  Aaron was shooting through a gun port hole.  James and I both
shot the guy with his back to us, and he lunged forward halfway into the
doorway. The other guy turned to shoot at us and then dropped his gun and
raised his hands.

We got close to him and then waved him
inside. James checked the car to be sure no one was in it. He took the keys. I
made the guy lay down by his still friends. I heard someone behind the main
counter call 911 for ten ambulances.

I heard a loud moan from behind the counter.
James and I used one guy’s belt to tie up our captive. I ran to the counter
while James kept an eye on him. Otis and Jack were clearly hurt. They had tried
to dive behind the shelving when the grenades were thrown. The woodwork saved
their upper bodies from most of the damage, but their legs were mangled.

Clearly dazed but with eyes open and looking
around, Will was sitting behind another counter and leaning against the wall.
He was bleeding and sitting in blood still holding his rifle.  I gently took
his gun and told him to relax as much as he could.  I told him an ambulance was
on its way to help him.

We tried to put tourniquets on Otis and Jack to
stop the bleeding. We put a cloth pack on Will’s chest and with pressure
stopped most of the bleeding. We hardly had that done before the ambulances
arrived. The police were right behind them. James grabbed the full auto guns
and headed for the shop. He was back in a few minutes with bolt-action rifles.

While Otis, Will and Jack were being loaded in
the ambulances, I called Tilly. We picked her up and drove to the hospital. We
signed papers for surgery, and they were taken away from emergency. We followed
to the waiting room as close as we could be to where we saw them last. Sarah
had made some calls and before long, the waiting room was full. A couple of
guys went out for food, drinks and coffee and brought back four huge bagsful.   James,
Sarah and Aaron stayed at the truckstop to keep an eye on things there.

The other EMTs worked on the men not moving. 
Most of them were already dead but there were a couple still alive.

Deb, Tilly, and I prayed and asked God to
please save the lives and limbs of those we loved and in mercy give the family
peace. We all said amen.

After a couple of agonizingly long hours, a
doctor appeared wanting to talk to Tilly.

They had all been to surgery. Jack’s legs
would be OK, but he would have to have physical therapy, and it would take some
time. He had a little shrapnel in his body, but they thought they got it all. Otis
was patched together, and they weren’t sure he’d walk again. They may have to
go back and take off one leg below the knee. They got quite a bit of shrapnel
out of him, and they think they got it all out of him as well. They stopped all
the bleeding in his lower body, they thought, and they were watching him
closely.

Will actually had been awake earlier, wanting
to know what had happened. He apparently didn’t remember anything after he’d
gotten shot. We think he finished shooting near unconscious. His lung was
collapsed, but they got all the bullets out except some fragments they couldn’t
get easily. He was in ICU and sleeping. They thought he’d be OK, but he was the
worst of the three. All three had lost a lot of blood. One of the kids got
their blood types and set up blood donations. The family gave the hospital all
the blood they needed for those three surgeries and then some.

The guy we captured wasn’t talking to a
policeman who was guarding him and had him cuffed to a patrol car. The AZDPS
and FBI are all over the truck stop, and the nieces and nephews were keeping an
eye on things there.

“The police first, and now the AZDPS and the FBI
have the crook who gave up. So far, he hasn’t talked.” Aaron called to tell us.

“Will’s wife wants some time with the guy who
gave up. She said he’d be glad to talk after she tore a few holes in him with
her bare hands,” Tilly said. “Sam, you and I were both right. I don’t want my
family going through this.”

Then Tilly started to cry again. “I’m so
afraid. Otis thinks he’ll live forever, but I know different, and I don’t want
to be a widow. He scares me. I hope we can talk some sense into him. We need to
close that truck stop down or something. We were very lucky today that none of
us got killed or hurt worse.”

She looked me in the eye. “I’m glad you were
here. Otis knew you would be right in the thick of it if you could be. He
believes in you. I don’t know how much more of this stress I can take. It is so
hard not knowing who we are fighting. Or when they will show up.  Or what kind
of weapons they will have.”

“I hope there won’t be a next time, but if
there is, you can count on me,” I said. “We have to be smart about this stuff,
though. The truck stop isn’t worth someone dying over.”

“No it isn’t.” Tilly said.

Everyone agreed with that.

Deb put her arms around Tilly and they cried
together. Deb told her she felt the same way about me.

“They are too much alike,” Tilly said.

So we hung out at the hospital all day and until
well after dark and then went to a motel exhausted. We tried to get Tilly to go
with us, but one of the nephews was driving her home. I told them they were
crazy to drive that far, but Tilly said she needed a good night’s sleep, and
she would sleep better at home in her own bed.  Plus the nephew would spend the
night with her to be sure she was safe. It was good enough for everyone.

I called Aaron to see if any of the bad guys
had made it.