Surviving (11 page)

              Then he heard, “The dirty bastard has a damn kill switch on this blankety blank Ford.” He knew that they had to take action or watch these thieves drive away.

              He caught Julie’s eye and signaled, then sprang into action. He shot a round of buckshot into the air and yelled, “Get your hands up or die.” At the same time, Julie shot into the air and ran in from the opposite side of the truck.

              Gus and John immediately knew that they were caught with their pants down and urged all to surrender. They all complied quickly and were rounded up and lined up against the cabin. That’s when John remembered that Scott was not with the group. John just hoped that Scott wouldn’t do anything stupid and get hurt because he thought these people just wanted to get the police out here and get rid of them quickly. He was wrong.

              Dave came over to John, hit him in the stomach with the butt of the shotgun and yelled, “What the fuck are you doing here and did you really think that you would get away with ripping me off? I have eaten up and spit out much worse pieces of shit than you.”

              While John was doubled over in pain, he couldn’t help but think this asshole sounded like a script from Dirty Harry. Didn’t matter the bastard had the gun.

              John looked Dave in the eye and said, “Look you have got us all wrong and the real bad guys are going to come out of the woods at any time.”

              John started to tell Dave about the upcoming peril, but Dave just stuck the shotgun in John’s face and slapped him hard, blood flew.

              Dave ordered them into cabin, made them sit down on the floor and sent Julie for something to tie their hands.

              “Look man, what’s your name? We were running from…” John exclaimed just before Dave tried to butt stroke him in the head. John grabbed the shotgun and all hell broke loose.

              Beth jumped on Dave and scratched the hell out of his face as she grabbed for his gun. Gus made a move to help, but Julie fired a shot over his head as Dave threw Beth to the floor and kicked her in the side. That’s when the crap hit the fan.

              John and Bill jumped on Dave while Gus and Jim grabbed Julie and fought her for her gun. Julie lost control of her shotgun, but quickly began kicking the shit out of both Gus and Bill. She was moving like Chuck Norris, kicking and blocking counter punches with her arms. She had put Bill out of action and started on Gus when Gus got tired of fighting a lady and just hit her upside her head and knocked her out.

              Steve had pushed Alice and Janet out of the way and came charging at Dave who was fighting with Bill and John for control of the shotgun. He hit Dave upside his head with his elbow and dropped him like a sack of potatoes.

              Bill and Gus tied Dave and Julie with some clothesline and then got a pan of water and splashed them with the contents. Steve took Dave’s shotgun and put it in Dave’s face and said, “Shut up and listen, you dumbass cracker.”

              They quickly checked each other out, made sure there were no serious wounds, and only needed a few bandages. Beth walked over to Dave and kicked him hard in the side.

              “Next time you will shut up and listen when someone is trying to save your pathetic life, you sorry piece of crap. John, how do we know that they aren’t part of that bunch of killers?” Beth screamed.

              Julie was laying on the floor crying and sobbing, “Don’t kill my babies, God please don’t kill my babies.

              “Julie, shut up,” exclaimed Dave.

              “We didn’t plan on hurting you two until you attacked us, you miserable assholes,” yelled Bill.

              “We just wanted to escape from the killers and borrow your truck to get into town to get the law after them,” said Beth.

              “Why did you attack us?” chimed in Steve.

              Julie kept blubbering about them not killing her babies, nothing she said made sense. John came over, picked Julie up, kicking and screaming and put her on the couch. He then told Dave to get his ass off the floor and calm his wife down. It took a few minutes and Julie was gently sobbing, but would not open her eyes.

              John said, “I guess you have to listen now.”

              He proceeded to tell them as much as he could in five minutes. He stressed that the killers had to be close and that they were all in danger. He then told them that he was John Harris and that he had noticed that they appeared to be Preppers. Dave said that they were, but why did that matter. John then shouted out his corny opening for his radio show.

              “Holy crap,” Dave exclaimed. “Was that crap supposed to mean something to me?” he added.

              John told him about his radio show and Dave didn’t have a clue, but when John mentioned the survival book series, Dave stood up. John shoved him back onto the couch hard.

              “I bought those books, look on that shelf!” Dave said. John went to the shelf, opened the book to the last page and put the author’s picture next to his face.

              “Look Dumbass, that’s what I looked like before you slugged me,” said John.

              Julie started laughing and cried, “You are not here to kill my babies!”

              “Not you or your babies,” cried John. He then asked Dave what the fuss was all about killing her babies. John freed Dave while Beth untied Julie and told all to keep an eye on them.

              John took Dave out on the front porch and asked, “What was the talk about killing her babies about?”

              Dave told him their story about life in Los Angeles and their previous jobs in law enforcement and nursing. He then told John that his team had broken some lower level pushers and got the goods on the local head of the “Cabra’s” drug gang. Before they could close in, the gang tried to kill every single team member and their family. Dave and Julie were away with their two younger kids when they attacked their home. Their 15-year old daughter, Kim, was alone with her best friend. They were savagely raped and had their heads cut off. John looked back to the house and saw Beth just a few feet away, crying.

              Beth went into the house, sat down next to Julie, gave her a hug and told her how sorry they were for bringing in this grief on them. They both cried for a while then finally composed themselves.

              Beth then looked at Dave and said, “Do y’all have cell phones, we probably need to call the police?”

• • •

              Scott and Jim doubled back about two miles staying 50 -100 feet to the West of their original trail and peered through the dense foliage for the GAO group. They had decided to sneak back to meet them and cut them down to size a bit. Another ambush could get two maybe three of them.

              “I’ll shoot the tall blonde guy, and then the redheaded one with the AK while you get as many as possible with the 9mm. We’ll take no more than five shots each and fall back. Then do it again after half a mile or so. Then we run full speed back to the cabin,” said Scott.

              Jim added, “All of that track we ran in high school might pay off.”

              Scott knew that he could outrun the thugs, but knew Jim was not in the best of shape, too much Imelda and beer!

              Jim said, "I’m not an ex-soldier like you and your Dad, but what if they don’t follow us?”

              Scott didn’t get a chance to answer because they saw the thugs coming towards them through the trees. They were following the big red headed guy as he followed the signs in the disrupted leaves and bushes. They were about 75 yards away. Scott and Jim got into position and made sure they had cover for their retreat. Jim pointed out Maria and the blonde guy. The blonde guy was laughing and hanging on to Maria and bossing the others around. The blonde guy put his hand on Maria’s ass and she slapped him and ran to the front on the group. Scott thought that except for the big red headed guy, this bunch looked like they were on a Sunday stroll. They should achieve total surprise.

• • •

              As they got closer, they heard Red shout out to Karl, “When will the others get here?”

              Karl replied, “In a couple of hours or so. What’s wrong? Don’t you think we can kill these campers?”

              Red replied, “I think we may have something more than campers ahead of us, sometimes you get the bear and sometimes the bear gets you. I’m not sure what we have here. They have set some effective traps, took our hostages and killed several of us. We have only killed Roger.”

              Red thought that Karl was too full of himself and that they might have bitten off more than they could chew. He was going to slow the chase and wait on the re-enforcements that Karl had coming.

              Karl shouted at Red and ordered him to come back to him. Scott and Jim could only hear every other word, but Karl was pissed. He was telling Red that he was the boss and that Red had better do what he was told and shut up or Karl would gut him like a pig. Red quieted down, said something very quietly and went back to scouting the trail. What Red didn’t see was that Manny and the white guy backed Karl while Maria and Jesus had their guns pointed at Karl.

• • •

              After the confrontation, none of the GAO thugs were watching too closely and were not talking at all. Scott counted six of them and decided to change the plan and wait for them to get even with them. They would target the blonde guy and Manny and hope the rest would stop the chase without their leader. They would then kill as many as possible and run west for a while to throw them off the cabin and ambush them one more time, if they followed, before heading to the cabin.

              Just as Scott was about to fire, a snake crawled in front of him. He could tell it was not poisonous, but still he knew a bite would be painful. The snake crawled straight towards his face. When it got about four feet away, he started blowing at it to run it away. The snake kept coming at him until it was just a foot from his arm. Scott quickly reached out, grabbed the snake just below the head and threw it as far as he could. The snake hit some bushes and fell into some leaves. There was just enough noise to alert the thugs.

              Scott fired first and dropped the blonde guy, then shot Jose in the head. His head exploded into a red mist with chunks of brains flying all around. No doubt, he was dead. At the same time, Jim took aim at Red and pulled the trigger, Red fell. Jim then shot at Manny, but only grazed him. The girl, Maria, must have thought there were snipers in the trees for her shots were high and wide. Jesus returned their fire, put a slug into a tree beside Jim, threw bark in his face and then put another one in Jim’s shoulder before Scott’s shots got him. Jesus fell down while screaming to the Lord to save him.

              By this time, they were receiving return fire and bullets were whizzing all around. They fired several rounds each to pin the GAO down, and then crawled back about a hundred yards and Scott checked Jim’s shoulder. It was a flesh wound just below the shoulder on Jim’s left arm and Scott applied a piece of his shirt as a bandage and then tied it tight with another piece of his shirt.

              “You won’t die of this you lucky bastard, “he told his friend. But keep your head down before they take it off,” he added.

              They started running while shooting back at the GAO to make sure they knew where to follow them.

• • •

              Karl only had a deep scrape on his right side and wondered if he had a broken rib. He was cursing the campers and was threatening them, their families and everyone they knew. Manny was shot in the left bicep, but could still use his arm. Jose had his head blown away and Jesus had an ugly wound in his stomach. Red walked up to see how they were. He had been hit in the side, but said he was okay. That left only four relatively unscathed and Jesus with the severe stomach wound. Maria did not get a scratch.

              “Jesus, do you have any fight left in you?” asked Karl.

              Jesus held his stomach and replied, “I’ll do whatever it takes to please you Karl, just tell me what you need.”

              Karl looked him in the eyes and said, “Die.” He then shot Jesus in the forehead.

              Maria exclaimed, “Why did you do that, he did not have to die?”

              “Look you dumb bitch he was dying, I just put him out of his misery. He would have slowed us down and we could not leave him behind and take a chance on him getting caught by the local police."

              Maria said, “Karl, killing your men is not the way to endear them to you.”

              Karl struck her across the face and knocked her down. Karl nudged Maria with his foot and made her get up, then pointed his pistol at her and said, “Perhaps you should give me your gun, just in case you hold a grudge against me.”