The militia slowly made their way toward Haliday’s. They knew Haliday was expecting them, but they also knew the layout of his land, the buildings on it and the intel on who was there. They also enjoyed a 2 to 1 advantage for troop strength with Haliday having some older folks in the group and also having to worry about younger children.
The convoy moved along slowly expecting ambush or traps. They would pause at intersections and blind spots to check the areas out thoroughly before they resumed speed. Haliday had hoped the bike would be up front and he had gone and set up a catch wire for it. The deuce led the convoy with an anti-decap bar on the front. It snapped the wire easily.
The next wire was simpler. It pulled out a piece of cardboard between a clothes pin and made a connection which ignited a rocket engine fuse. The fuse burned in a couple of seconds and sent up a hailstorm of fireworks. It was fully dark now, and Haliday spotted them through his spotting scope he had set up. The militia convoy was now about two miles out. They pulled over and dismounted their vehicles. They put up some ramps on the deuce and off-loaded the quads.
Everyone rallied around the deuce now and they went over the plans for their offensive. They realized with the fireworks warning that their attack was expected. The bike and quads moved out first and crept along. They were making sure they did not get caught up in any more wire strung across the roads. The headed off into the woods. The rest of the vehicles split up and went in different directions. The goal was to surround the house and test the defenses for weak points.
The militia man leading the attack spoke. He spit out the usual crap about safety, watching out for your fellow man and all that garbage, but he also told them something else that put things in more perspective as to what they planned and what they were all about. If Haliday heard this, it would have made a lot more sense.
The man said, “We are about to try and stop these people from ruining our plans to make this area a better place to live. They want to ruin our chance to let nature weed out those who are weak. Those who can not contribute to our society. Those who will bring us down. We need to make sure we can conquer anyone who will stop us from prospering.” It was almost like a miniature Bilderberg conspiracy.
They moved in slowly. These guys had made some major mistakes, but this time they were going about it like true professionals. They were moving in slowly, they were spread out, and they had communications amongst everyone, they weren’t taking stupid chances, and they simply had it together so far.
Even if Haliday’s group wanted to leave right now, there was not a single road they could have taken without running into some of the militia. There wasn’t a single side of the house that wasn’t covered by at least five people. There was a fair amount of open land around the property, except for the west side which was heavily wooded and a little too close for comfort. He always wanted to cut it back some, but never did.
The militia carefully moved in closer in some more and then took cover. Haliday’s group was lying in wait. Their breathing was rapid. Their heartbeats were quick. The adrenaline was flowing. The temperature was around 40, but most of them were sweating. They waited and waited some more. The militia was making them sweat it out.
Out in the tree line, a strobe light started to flash. Haliday called Rob, he didn’t waste a lot of breath on words of wisdom or anything, he simply told him “Start your offensive.” The strobe light flashed about 45 times a minute. It was a small strobe head about the size of a quarter mounted in small 1X2 inch housing running off a small 12 volt tractor battery.
This was anchored to a tree about 10 feet off the ground. These were normally mounted in fog light areas, back up lights on police cars, car grilles or almost anywhere. They were pure white light and worked well. Each flash was like a small flash of lightning.
The tree bark splintered followed by the rifle’s report. The bark splintered yet again and then the report. The third shot hit the battery and exploded it. The strobe light fell to the ground with no power. The militia sniper had taken it out. It was hard to hone in on due to the flashing light, but eventually he got it. He was happy, there would be no more light to blind the militias’ night vision goggles, he thought.
The tree line started to blink randomly. These were all angled away from the house to avoid interfering with the sight of Haliday’s group. Pretty soon there were almost 20 of these blinking around the perimeter of the property. If one was taken out they would know where at least one militia member would be, or at least the general area. Hopefully this interfered with the night vision entirely.
A white flare erupted and sailed into the air. Haliday’s group spotted movement, but only shadows on the ground. They were able to locate a couple of the vehicles, but these were too far away to accurately see what was going on. The flare drifted slowly to the ground. A couple of the strobe lights went out.
The militia sniper was surveying the area. His original thought was to take out the blinking lights, but there were simply too many of them. He would expose his position, which he did not want to do. When the flare went off, he spotted Alan up in the crow’s nest. He made his calculations and hugged the Barrett close. He heard the rustling behind him and reached for his pistol. Haliday had come out of his hide. He would have chosen this spot for his own hide; he counted on this man doing the same. He was only 15 feet away from the sniper.
The sniper rolled over in an attempt to protect himself and fire. Haliday had leapt forward and came down on his upper arm with one knee and accidently knocked the Barrett over with his other. He grabbed at the pistol and managed to move the slide back about a quarter of an inch. It didn’t fire. Haliday increased his grip and snapped the pistol around toward the man, nearly tearing his trigger finger off.
The man reached up and grabbed Haliday’s throat and tried to choke him. One of the first things Haliday taught people in his self-defense classes was how to avoid being choked. If you can stop yourself from breathing, you can stop the choking. Haliday did this with an exaggerated cough and stopped breathing. He managed to free the pistol from the man’s grip and tossed it aside.
The man let go of Haliday’s throat and punched Haliday in the side of the rib cage. The area was tender and the previously broken ribs had not yet mended. Haliday gasped for air. He had given Kayla his vest so he had no protection. There came another punch and Haliday went over. The man rolled and went to choke him again. Haliday pulled him in close in a bear hug and then brought his right arm up, quickly sinking his knife into the base of the man’s neck, severing his spine. Haliday blacked out for a brief minute. He opened his eyes to the sound of gunfire.
Chapter 28
The security at the airport was heavier than normal. Rob had spread the word and they did what they could to coordinate the strike. The hunters within the group had taken up residence on the rooftops of the neighboring buildings as far away as they dared to go depending on their skill. Some of them found other places to hide. Haliday had also warned them about the sniper on the roof.
Down toward the south end of the airport, one townsman crawled up to the fence. He had previously spotted the end of a fence section and he started clipping the wire that held it to the pole. He had finished clipping by the pole, then started working along the top. He spotted a militia quad heading his way. The militia rider fired awkwardly with one hand toward the man as the man ran back to the tree line.
Once he reached the tree line, he grabbed his rifle and fired toward the quad. The rider skidded to a stop and jumped off. He leaned over the seat and fired a couple of bursts. Before he knew it the rider was facing the return fire from two shotguns and an SKS. He was using the quad as a shield. Two of the tires went flat and the gas tank was ruptured.