He looked under the dock box sideways because he only had about four inches of clearance. He fired at the feet of the only guy he could see. One round hit its mark and the guy dropped to his knees. Haliday could hear more rounds hit the dock box. He saw the knee of the guy and fired another round. He watched the guy’s knee cap explode out the side of his pants causing the man to fall prone. The guy was now firing randomly at Haliday.
Haliday couldn’t get a good line of sight on the guy and kept his head low. The shots from the rifle were keeping him down and they were trying to hold their own cover. He tried to keep it near the bottom and edge where the metal was thicker. He heard the pistol shots, but didn’t hear the rounds strike the box, just items close by. The AR went silent and he could hear the guy moaning in pain. He heard him struggling with a magazine change.
Next he heard the AR cycle through a couple more rounds and then stop. He grabbed a quick peek; the man had managed to sit up. He cleared his rifle and fired at Haliday again. His rifle stopped firing; it had jammed on him again. He was trying to clear it. Haliday couldn’t risk exposing himself for the shot yet. He looked around to see if he could crawl somewhere else, but he was stuck where he was.
“It jammed on you, good for you, you f’ing prick.” Haliday grabbed a quick peek and jerked his head back up when he heard the AR fire. He heard more shots. “Damn, I gotta get this guy.” He peeked again, “Hell ya, way to go kid.” When Haliday grabbed his quick look the second time, he liked what he saw. The rifleman was laying there with his forehead missing and frontal lobe half gone. Welcome to the game, Blake.
Blake yelled over at Haliday, “I can’t see them; I can’t see where they are. I can’t really see the other two.” They had two men left, both with pistols. One only had one hand but that was all he needed. Haliday grabbed another quick peek. Both of these guys were ducking down now at the back of the boat. All Haliday could see was the slightest profile of one, his ass and his back. Haliday fired another burst causing the man to fall backwards into the water.
“Rick, help me. I can’t move my legs., Help me Rick.” Haliday could hear the guy splashing around in the water. He heard Blake firing on them but couldn’t see any hits. “Rick man, help me. It’s cold. Come on man, I need your help. You gotta help me, Rick.”
“Hold on man, I’m coming for you. Hang on Gary.” Haliday was watching the back of the boat. He saw an arm extend toward the water and heard Blake fire.
The guy pulled his arm back in and was screaming. “Rick, I can’t stay in here. It’s cold. It’s cold Rick. I need help. I’m hit bad.” The sounds of the splashing became less and less.
“I’m sorry, Gary, I’m sorry. I can’t get to you.”
“Rick, it’s cold in here. Get me out.” Gary reached out once more and the boards on the dock shredded from rifle fire as he pulled it back. The sounds from the water had almost stopped now.
“You sons of bitches, I’ll kill you all. You guys ain’t got the right to come up here and do this. You hear me, you sons of bitches.” The splashes from the water had stopped now. “Gary, you still there? Gary, come on man, tell me you’re still there.” There was no answer. “God damn you sons of bitches, God damn you, what gives you the right to come up here. Who the hell do you think you are?”
Haliday actually answered him back. “I’ll tell you. I was born and raised in this state. This state is part of this country. I worked my ass off and paid taxes like everyone else. I bought my land up here just like the rest of you, with my own damn money. I have every right to be here, you self-righteous prick. What gives you guys the right to rule this place?”
“There ain’t any law now, asshole. It’s survival of the fittest now. If we don’t control the people around here, they’re gonna drag us down too. We are the law around here now. It’s up to us to decide who can help us rebuild our community. It’s our choice, you hear me you f’ing bastard. It’s our choice.”
Haliday responded, “And what choice do the people have?”
“If they don’t like it, they can leave if they want.”
“And you take their food, their weapons and you beat and torture them?” Haliday was up and moving toward the dock now. Rifle slung on his back, pistol drawn. “Answer me asshole. I said answer me.” The guy behind the boat stood up and looked at Haliday. Haliday kept walking toward him.
The man said, “You don’t understand survival dickhead. It’s all about surviving.” Haliday saw blood dripping from both his hands. This was the radio operator.
“Maybe I don’t understand survival according the definition you and the other assholes in your group think it means, but I do understand freedom.” The man fumbled to get his pistol reloaded. As the man started raising his pistol Haliday pointed his .40 at him and fired twice into the mans chest and once into his head. The man fell backwards unto the dock.
Haliday turned around and saw Blake standing there with his rifle pointed at the man’s body. Haliday walked past him, “He’s dead Blake, trust me. Darwin there, Mr. survival of the fittest is no longer fit.” He patted him on the shoulder and said “Come on, let’s go. We have work to do. We aren’t out of the woods yet.”
Haliday walked over to the deuce. He climbed up in the cab and started looking around. He picked up a small book and flipped through it. Frequencies and codes were all written down along with what looked like a duty roster assigned to the people based on the day of the week. He tucked it in his jacket. Two rifles were cradled inside.
“Blake, go crank that wheel and get that boat out of the water a couple of feet just to keep it out of the ice when the lake freezes. I don’t know if those folks will ever get here, but if they do at least the boat should be ok.” He saw a few bullet holes in the hull, but everything was above the water level. If they did get here, then they could deal with it.
Haliday was still looking through the cab. They had some basics in here, just a couple days’ worth of MRE’s, water and ammo. Nothing else he could see of value. He was thinking about whether or not to take the deuce. Spoils of war or theft? Could be looked upon either way. He would think about this one. He got out of the cab and walked around to the back. There was a box up there that was locked.
He climbed up into the back of the truck. He yelled over to Blake, “Check those two bodies for keys. If they don’t have any, see if you can reach the bodies in the water and check them. If not, don’t worry about it.” Blake started to check the bodies. Haliday went to stand up when he heard the first shot. He practically felt the heat of the round.
He dropped down in the back of the deuce. He hadn’t heard the Jeep pull in, but saw it as he dropped. He looked around and saw the bed was up armored, but he didn’t know to what extent. He saw the sides of the bed slightly bubble when rounds hit. He was laying there unable to move. The side rails barely covered him. He heard shouts from the Jeep.
“Put your hands up. Put your hands up and stay where you are.” Haliday wasn’t going to do it. No way in hell was he going out this easy. “Put your hands up and stand up now.” Haliday laid there longer.
“Go screw your cousins you redneck bastards.”
There came a ripple of gunfire along the bed of the truck. He heard a loud hiss; they had gotten one of the tires. They seemed to care less about their own deuce.
“Gary, Rick, you guys ok? John, Andy, where you guys at? Can you hear us?”