Resistance: A Prepper's War (7 page)

Jim nodded. The General let go of the paper and Jim rose out of his chair. “Thank you, sir,” he said and then left the door.

As Jim walked down the hallway he got out his phone and dialed Twink.

Twink was in the motor pool with the van getting it back up to speed. He saw Jim’s number pop up and answered immediately. “Hey,” Twink said.

“We’re good to go,” Jim said. “Where are we at with the plant schematics?”

Twink stepped outside from all of the commotion in the shop. “Brett said he was able to get us access, so once we get the van back up and running we’ll be able to run the data,” Twink replied.

“After what I just got the General to sign, we won’t need the van anymore,” Jim said then hung up the phone.

Coyle was sitting in the waiting room at the end of the hall and put his hands up gesturing if they were able to get what they needed.

“We got it,” Jim said as he passed Coyle in his seat.

Coyle fist pumped the air and then jogged to catch up with him. “What’s next?” Coyle asked.

“We’ll do some research on what we can find on the plant over the next few hours and then draw out our strategy for San Diego,” Jim replied.

Coyle was talking about something when Jim’s phone started to buzz in his pocket. He pulled it out and the name on the screen made him stop dead in his tracks. ‘Samantha’. He pressed the answer button and slowly brought the phone to his ear.

“Samantha?” Jim asked.

“Jim,” she said. Her voice was shaky.

“Where are you?” he asked.

“San Diego.”

“Are you okay?”

“They have Annie, Jim.”

People passed Jim in the hallway and they talked about what they were doing for lunch or their plans for the weekend while Jim listened to the sobs of his sister through the phone, which he was clinching tighter in his hand.

“Is she okay?” he asked.

“She’s scared, but she’s okay,” Samantha replied as she tried to compose herself.

Then Jim heard some shuffling around and another voice came on the line.

“Hello, Jim.” Chase’s voice was casual, confident. “You know I’ve been chatting with your sister here for quite some time and I’ve learned quite a lot about you. Your spectacular military career is something to be admired, Jim. What you’ve accomplished was impressive.”

“I’m coming for you,” Jim said through gritted teeth.

“It’s a waste of time and energy, Jim, trust me. You can’t stop me no more than you can stop a river flowing into the ocean. There is a way to improve your situation, though. I could use a man of your talents. You don’t seem to go away easily and I’d like to use that to my advantage. Of course you’d be compensated properly and your family would be free and safe to live wherever they wanted.”

“I know where you are,” Jim answered, “And I’ve got a bullet in the chamber waiting for you.” Jim ended the call and walked up to where Coyle was standing, waiting for him. He kept his gaze focused towards the end of the hallway. “We leave in an hour.”

Chase stared at the phone for a moment after Jim had hung up. He tossed it into the trash and then walked over to his guards and leaned into their ears as he whispered his orders. “They stay alive. We may need them for leverage. I want everyone we have for security here in fifteen minutes. Give me eyes everywhere.”

The guard nodded as Chase walked back over to Samantha. “Your brother seems dead set on learning things the hard way,” he said.

“I would say the same for you,” Samantha replied.

The chopper was heading south towards San Diego along the coast. Jim glanced down at the white caps rolling onto the dirty yellow beaches below. So much of life had changed, but as he saw the tiny dots moving around on the beach and in the water with the sun sinking low into the horizon, he realized that, for most people, things hadn’t really changed that much.

As they approached the vicinity of Chase’s plant, Twink switched the chopper to stealth mode and they flew in between the mountains below any radar detection. The helicopter’s blades were silent as they passed over shrubs, rocks, and patches of desert. They landed a mile from the perimeter of the plant, using the mountainous terrain as natural cover.

Jim, Brett, Coyle, and Twink all started getting their gear together. Twink and Coyle pre-programmed the chargers for remote detonation. From the schematics they got from Locke’s files they found that the chemical weapons the plant was making were being stored in a warehouse onsite on the south end of the plant. Twink would provide cover on the mountain ridge with his rifle while Coyle planted the charges. The idea was to use explosives hot enough to incinerate and neutralize the gas in the stockpile.

Jim and Brett were handling getting Samantha and Annie out. Jim picked Brett because he was the best hand-to-hand combat expert in the group, and he didn’t have Coyle’s big mouth.

“Okay,” Jim said. “Let’s go over this one more time. Me and Brett will sneak in through the rain water drains running into the plant. Twink, you’ll be in your spot on the ridge while Coyle places the charges around the buildings perimeter.”

Jim turned to Coyle. “You know where they need to go?”

Coyle nodded. “I got it.”

“Good,” Jim replied. “Once me and Brett have Samantha and Annie, we’ll clear out and Twink will trigger the bombs. Twink, if anything happens to us and Coyle can’t get the detonators you order the airstrike and take the whole building down, understand?”

Twink nodded.

Jim paused for a moment as the group of men around him waited for the order to move out. He knew that the likelihood of them making it out alive was slim. Jim had asked men under his command to go into shit scenarios before, but it was never personal for him. This was personal.

“I couldn’t ask for a better group of brothers,” Jim said.

“You’re gonna make me cry,” Coyle said ruining the moment.

Twink and Brett chuckled and Jim smiled.

“Let’s move out,” Jim ordered.

The sun was almost completely below the horizon now and Jim and Brett tried to use what cover they could find, but it wouldn’t be long before they were spotted. They just had to get close enough to where they could sprint for it.

Jim saw the runoff tunnel when the first gunshot fired and ricocheted off of the rocks around them. The shouts of the guards in the distance echoed around the desert as Jim saw jeeps heading their way, fast. If they were going to get in they’d have to make their move now.

They sprinted towards the drainage tunnel. Sand flew from under their boots as they hoofed it towards the cover. Bullets whizzed past them as the jeeps gained ground getting closer.

Brett made it to the tunnel first and Jim rushed in a few seconds behind him. They didn’t stop moving once they were inside. Chase’s guards would follow them into the tunnel and by now the whole plant was aware of their presence. Jim just hoped that Coyle was having better luck than them.

“You barely made it two feet,” Twink said over the radio as he picked off another guard with his sniper rifle.

Coyle was glued to the side of one of the walls along the plant’s exterior. So far he’d only placed one charge.

“I can’t help it if a spider crawled across my boot!” Coyle pleaded in defense.

“You screamed, didn’t you?” Twink asked as another guard went down and he reloaded more ammo into the chamber.

Coyle made a beeline for the second location and planted the charge and activated it. “It was a pretty big spider,” Coyle said quietly to himself.

Jim and Brett sloshed through the mucky water and finally made it to the belly of the plant. Jim looked up at the ladders and saw the entrance door that the schematic promised would be there. Brett covered Jim while he made the climb and once Jim was at the top he returned the favor for Brett. The door was locked so Jim pulled some explosive putty out of his bag and began to stick it on the crack of the door between the frame and the handle. He applied generously and then laid a small, black strip across it. Jim and Brett stood around the corner as Jim aimed his pistol at the explosive and fired.

The explosion burst the door open and sent it flying into the hallway. Jim and Brett rushed toward the entrance and filed in. Once they were inside they could hear the security sirens start to go off. Jim expected Chase to keep the girls in the executive offices on the north side, so that’s where they’d start looking. Jim checked his watch and figured that Coyle would have at least half the charges up by now.

“Coyle, I don’t think I have ever seen a man run as fast as you have in the last ten minutes,” Twink said as he kept a lookout for anymore guards around Coyle’s next stop.

Coyle was huffing and puffing as turned the corner of a cylinder, concrete pillar and stuck another charger to the wall. “Just trying to rise to the occasion,” Coyle replied through gasping breaths. “And not die.”

Inside the plant Brett and Jim decided to split up to cover more ground. They’d only signal the radio if they’d found one of the girls. Anything else was radio silence.

A pair of guards lined the doors down the hall as he peaked around the corner. There were four of them. Jim leaned back behind the wall and took a deep breath as he positioned his rifle under his arm. Jim turned the corner quickly with his rifle already raised and four silenced shots brought the guards down. Jim grabbed the keys out of one of the dead guard’s pockets and opened the first door. Empty. Just tables and chairs.

He walked to the second door and as he stuck the key in the lock four more guards turned the corner. Jim shoved the door open just as the first guard raised his pistol and fired a shot into the wall next to him. Jim locked the door quickly and turned around to see his sister sitting in a chair staring at him. Samantha jumped up and rushed over to her brother. She threw her arms around him as the guards outside rattled the door.

“I knew you’d make it,” she whispered in his ear and kept her arms tight around his neck.

The shouting on the other side of the door snapped Jim back. “You okay?” he asked.

She nodded her head. “Did you get Annie?” Samantha pleaded.

“Not yet. Do you know where she is?” Jim asked.

“She’s on the other end of the hall. Six doors down last time I saw her,” she responded.

The pounding on the door intensified. Jim looked around for any other exits. The room didn’t have one; at least not a normal one. Jim walked over to the windows and looked down at the drop. A hundred feet at least. He backed him and Samantha up to the wall across from the window panels and kept her behind him. He fired a few shots at the glass shattering it. He used the rifle to knock off any jagged edges around the frame and reached around into his pack to pull out some repel gear. He anchored the rope to the door handle and told Samantha to climb on his back. Jim gently backed out of the window with the rope in his hands. Samantha held on tight as Jim flew down the rope as fast as he could. When they landed the door to the room burst open and the rope went slack as the two of them rushed towards the stair well.

Brett stepped lightly and swiftly along the hallways on the other side of the plant. He turned a corner and ran into a group of guards escorting Derrick. There were three of them. Brett got off one shot that went right through one of the guard’s skulls before the second one knocked the rifle out of his hand. Brett pulled his knife out and stuck the blade into the armpit of the guard and he went limp bleeding out on the ground. The third tried to pull out his pistol, but Brett was too fast. He went right for the guard’s neck and sliced his throat.

Derrick had stepped back and started clapping as his last guard’s body hit the ground. “Very good,” he said. “You’re playing for the wrong team my friend.”

Blood dripped from Brett’s blade as the two men squared off. Brett made the first move and Derrick twisted Brett’s arm and the blade fell from his hand. A quick uppercut from Derrick sent Brett backwards and then a quick kick to Brett’s left knee sent him to the ground.

Derrick reached for the inside of his jacket to pull out his pistol, but Brett exploded off the ground and barreled into Derrick knocking him on his back. The two men wrestled on the ground and Brett finally gained the upper hand and had his hands around Derrick’s neck. Derrick was able to pull his knees up in between himself and Brett, but it was too late. Brett was too strong and his weight crunched Derrick’s windpipe and ended the struggle. Brett got up catching his breath and when he turned around he saw Chase turn the corner with a group of guards.

Chase glanced at the lifeless body of his brother and then back at Brett. Before the guards could draw their weapons Chase was in front of them with his pistol out, emptying its clip into Brett. Most of the bullets flew into his vest, but some caught his arms and legs. Brett dropped to the ground on his back and started coughing up blood. Chase walked over to him with tears in his eyes and loaded another clip into the pistol.

Chase aimed the gun right at Brett’s head and squeezed the trigger. Then again, and again, and again until the rest of that clip had emptied as well; until Brett’s face wasn’t recognizable anymore.

The pistol fell from Chase’s hand as he dropped to his knees at his brother’s side. He stroked his brother’s lifeless face as tears started to roll down his cheeks. Then his body began shaking. His face was red with rage. He turned to his guards and spit flew from his mouth as he screamed, “GET THE GIRL!”

Jim rushed up the staircase as he fired back at the guards chasing him. Samantha was right next to him and they finally made it back to the floor they were on. The two burst through the door from the stairwell and found themselves in a hallway with yellow security lights flashing and the sirens blaring. Samantha was screaming something at him, but he couldn’t hear it over the sirens. She pointed at the door at the end of the hallway and he saw her mouth ‘Annie.’ Jim took off at a sprint towards the door and checked it with his shoulder as he jiggled the handle, but it didn’t budge. It was locked. He started pounding on the door, but he couldn’t even hear his own screams.

Then Jim was thrown forward into the wall. A bullet drilled right into the Kevlar on his back. He turned around and saw a group of guards heading right for them. He shoved himself and Samantha towards the wall a few feet next to them for cover. Jim peaked around the corner and saw they were approaching fast. He tossed Samantha a pistol and told her to stay put. He then sprinted across the hall to the other wall. Once he was in place he used some old army signals he hoped she’d remember and lucky for him she did. The two fired back at the guards coming at them. Without any cover for them it was like shooting fish in a barrel and then once they were all down the sirens shut off. The lights still flashed, but the sirens went silent.

“Are you okay?” Jim shouted to Samantha.

“Yeah, did it go through?” she asked referring to the bullet.

Jim shook his head, “I don’t think so.”

Then the turning of the door handle made the both of them jump to their feet. Samantha was the first one there as the door opened and a bullet went right through her gut. She flew backwards and clutched her stomach as blood started to spread over her shirt. Chase then moved the pistol to Jim before he could raise his rifle and shot him in the right shoulder. Jim fell backwards and his rifle skidded across the tiled floor away from him.

“Well, well, well. It’s a family reunion,” Chase said, his eyes still red with mourning tears for his brother, as he glanced from Samantha to Jim. “You’ve come such a long way, Jim. Farther than I thought you could go, but I’m afraid it’s been in vein.”

Jim looked over at his sister whose eyes kept fluttering open and closed. He sat leaned up against the corner of the wall in the hallway with his left hand under his leg. He moved his fingers and felt something sharp. It was his blade.