“You and Bev go open that window. You’ll have to fire into the woods. I’ll use this window.”
Alan caught movement toward his left. The first man appeared through the smoke with the second man appearing about 25 feet to the right of the first one. These guys were heading straight for Mark and Lisa’s positions. They were within 50 feet and rushing as fast as they could and firing blindly.
Alan opened up on the second man who was actually closer to him. Mark fired on him as well and then spun to fire at the first man who was almost on top of Lisa’s position. Lisa had been reloading her rifle and couldn’t aim it in time. David had raised himself to one knee so he could fire on the man.
The man continued forward and he stepped on one of the foot traps. The three inch spike pierced his heel and went deep inside his ankle. He tried to shake the spike strip off and he stumbled and started to trip. The rubber sole of his boot kept it in place. David hit him once and the guy half fell into Lisa’s hole. His momentum had overcome his ability to stop and control his fire as well. She couldn’t get out and felt the man struggling. Now he was struggling to free himself from the hole.
Haliday called Mike and told him to fire into the smoke only. Randy, Sarah, Blake and Mike did as they were told. The militia man hugged the ground and took cover. Haliday crawled another 20 feet and then shot up and ran into the woods. He angled himself and headed northwest. He stopped for a moment to catch his breath. That was very close, he thought.
Haliday had a problem now. He was literally behind enemy lines. He took a moment to gather his wits. He surveyed the scene from his location. He saw the firefight between the woods and the house. He had no idea if anyone had gotten injured or killed or what the count was on the militia side either. He had about a second to make a decision.
As David had fired on the man, the last militia member by the empty house fired toward David. David was partially in the haze of the dissipating smoke now and the militia member saw this. David took a hit to his thigh. He laid down prone and dragged himself back to his landscape wall for cover.
Mark fired on the struggling man in Lisa’s hole and the man went limp. “Lisa, are you ok?” Lisa answered back that she was ok. “I’ll try to help you,” he said.
“No, don’t move. I think they got David. You might get hit too. I’ll be ok, I can handle this.” The dead man was about 210 pounds and halfway in her hole. She struggled. but was able to get his body out of the hole.
The militia on the south side of the property was still firing, but not as heavily as before. David was wrapping a bandage around his thigh. He tied it snuggly. He couldn’t crawl back to the house; he would expose himself doing so. He would ride it out and provide as much support as he could.
Kevin, Diana and Dawn kept them at bay. It was now pretty much a stalemate on this end. The east was so wide open that the militia didn’t dare try to use it. Early on, they learned that lesson with their casualties and the Jeep. The north side was still a problem, but the biggest problem was the woods on the west side of the house.
Mark, Kayla, Alan and Nancy needed help. Mark called in to Alan. “Alan, can you get up into the crow’s nest?”
Alan said “Ya, I’ll let you know when I get up there. You want me to use the .308?”
“No,” Mark said, “Take the AR and as much ammo as you can.”
“Ok, I’m on my way.” Alan made his way to the crow’s nest.
Haliday made his decision. He would try to get to the west to help. He started slowly working his way there. He called Mark and told him his plan. Mark told him it would work with only the right execution.
“Listen, Mark,” he said, “it’s going to be your call, on your command. I won’t be close enough to tell when it’s time.”
“I’ll have Randy, Sarah and Blake cover the north. Maybe Mike can get over there.”
“Rob, this is Roger.”
“Go ahead, Roger.”
“Look Rob, we’re deep in this. We have casualties on both sides and we are getting ready to get hammered with a big offensive. How you guys doing?”
“It’s a stalemate over here Roger, any suggestions?”
“Ya, when they get done here and return, ambush them. Make sure they don’t make it back into the compound. I gotta go. I gotta go.”
Chapter 30
Roger heard an increase in the rate of fire. The west woods were heavy with militia. He called into the house. “You guys ready in there?”
Rich said, “Ya, just tell us when.”
“No, Mark has to do it. I’m in the woods and can’t see what’s happening well enough. Mark is going to make the call and everyone needs to move when he says go. You guys give it everything you have, you hear me?”
“Roger, we got it, we’re ready if it comes to that.”
Roger continued making his way toward the heavy fighting. He was now northwest of his property. He moved in as close as he could and checked out all the gear he would need. He took his mags and made sure they were all loaded. He took out all of his 37mm rounds and checked to see what he had. He placed the rounds he would use in his left cargo pocket of his pants and dumped the rest.
He laid his M24 down and covered it up with some leaves and branches. He piled everything else up by another tree and loosely covered it up. It was more obvious than the rifle, but that’s what he wanted. He would prefer this was found instead of his rifle. He had to lighten his load as much as he could. He would take only what was immediately needed for this part of the assault.
Over by the south side of the house, the militia was firing only randomly. The north side was pretty much the same. Mike had Dawn, Diana and Kevin lay down some cover fire and he jumped from position to position until he made it over to David. David was laying there looking south toward the area where the man who shot him had been.
“You ok, David?”
David said, “Not really. This thing hurts like hell. I think the bleeding has stopped though.”
“David, you stay down. I’ll stay here and help out.”
“Sounds good,” David said. The two of them waited.
Mark called on the radio. “Hang tight everyone. Conserve your ammo if you can. You’ll need it. Keep your heads low. This is going to get dicey.”
Haliday was thinking through the fight step by step. They had done a hell of a job fending off the militia. He knew they took some heavy fire, but his group was fairly well concealed and had great cover. A rush would end that though. They almost succeeded and David got hit, and Lisa almost got it too. They were almost overrun. One last chance to even this thing out.
Alan was up in the crow’s nest working like mad. He had everything he needed laid out and was fixing a little issue with the main component of their next defense for when the militia rush on the west side came. He grabbed the wires and twisted them together and then double checked them. It was ready to go now.
The militia on the north started first. They fired at the house, the crow’s nest and the previous positions where they knew Randy, Sarah and Blake were located. The shots came roughly one every two seconds. The south side started up next. These guys were doing the same thing. It was almost methodical, a slow rhythm of shots.
Diana stepped down from a sand bag she was using to adjust her height. She went to step back up and was near the rear of the hole when she did. As she did, she was struck in her right upper shoulder area, which she accidentally exposed. Diana dropped her rifle. She tried to pick it up and her right arm wasn’t strong enough. She grabbed it with her left and rested it in position. She would have to fire as best she could.
The west side started up, but far more rapidly and sporadically. The majority of the militia was located over in this area now. The militia moved a little closer and the rate of fire tripled from this side. In a matter of about 30 seconds the north and south tripled their rates of fire and the west increased yet again. It was a full on assault coming in on them now.