“It’s a guess, but he only seems to be using that main building and the barn. He might be keeping everyone close,” Lexi theorized.
“Here’s a sketch of the area. From here to here, it looks to be about a thousand feet,” Gordon said, pointing to the square that represented the main building and the barn.
“So a rough head count is…?” Rubio asked.
Gordon and Lexi looked at each other.
“Go ahead, smarty-pants, what do you think?” Lexi joked with Gordon.
“I’d say we’re looking at about forty to fifty people down there. This is based on what we’ve seen and my memory of what he had before.”
“Has your girlfriend started talking yet? Maybe she could help firm up those estimates,” Rubio asked Lexi. He was referring to the woman they had picked up yesterday, who had woken up to discover all of her friends were dead.
Lexi pointed her middle finger at Rubio, then blew a kiss. “She hasn’t said a damn thing. So far she’s been useless.”
“So, based on your estimates, we’re looking at upwards of forty armed people and we have three men, one pissed-off lesbo, and Jonesy, who’s now a gimp.”
“You know I probably would turn gay if I had to look at your little dick all the time,” Lexi cackled.
Jones chuckled loudly.
“Guys, enough bullshit, we have a job to do here. Let’s focus,” Gordon said firmly. “We have five of us, we’re all well armed, well trained, and we can do some serious damage if we plan this right.”
“It’s not going to be a cakewalk, but Van Zandt is right, we can put a hurting on them,” Rubio said.
Gordon led the conversation and presented his ideas. His plan called for a night raid. He, Lexi, and Rubio would enter the valley from the south. Their assumption was that Rahab was located within the main building. To the south, a hill sloped very close to the front entrance. From there they would enter directly into the front. McCamey and Jones would position the Humvee on the hill to the south but in a hide. Jones was healthy enough to shoot the M40 bolt action rifle and he’d take out anyone who came in and out of the buildings. If any vehicles started to exit or move into support, McCamey would light them up with the machine gun.
As they discussed scenarios the radio in the Humvee came to life.
“Romeo Sierra One Three, this is Papa, come in, over.”
They all looked at each other, surprised that the Marines’ radio was working this far out.
“I guess we are close enough to a repeater,” Rubio commented and stood up.
“You guys set up repeaters?” Gordon asked.
“Yeah, part of our overall mission on these long-range patrols is to reestablish communication and the only way to do that is with repeaters. Apparently we’re picking up a signal.”
Jones leaned over and keyed the handset. “Papa, this is Romeo Sierra One Three, we read you, Lima Charlie.”
“Roger that, Romeo Sierra One Three. Be advised. Terminate current mission and link up with Romeo Sierra Actual, over.”
Jones looked confused and handed the radio handset to Rubio.
“Romeo Sierra One Three, did you copy, over?” the voice crackled.
“Roger that, we copy. Terminate mission and link up with Romeo Sierra Actual,” Rubio answered. He dropped the handset and looked at Gordon.
“Who’s Papa?” Gordon asked.
“That’s the command element back in Coos Bay. Actual is Gunny back in Klamath Falls,” Jones explained.
“So that’s it? You guys are bailing on us?” Gordon asked, concerned.
“Corporal, we could head back tomorrow morning. Let’s at least try to get this guy. We’ve made it all the way here,” Jones said.
Rubio acknowledged Jones with a slight nod. He then looked at both Lexi and Gordon.
“Yeah, we’re in. Let’s see this through.”
“Now that we have that settled, what do we do with the girl?” Lexi asked.
“We can’t just let her go, she might head back and warn Rahab,” Rubio stated flatly.
“You know there’s a good chance they’re on a heightened alert now anyway. They must be concerned about their missing people,” Gordon added.
“Yeah, I’m sure they’re watching out, but I just don’t know if he suspects he’s about to get attacked,” Lexi said.
“We don’t have anything to worry about if we kill her,” Jones suggested boldly.
“Stop! We’re not going to murder her!” Gordon said sharply.
“Wait a minute, Van Zandt, you’re not in charge here!” Rubio countered Gordon.
The woman was tied up to a tree, and she began to wiggle to get free after she heard the possibility of her murder.
“Here’s the grand compromise. Let’s keep her tied up. If we survive we’ll come back and untie her, if we don’t… well, for her sake, let’s hope we can come back,” Gordon recommended. After a few moments they all finally agreed with Gordon.
“Then it’s settled,” Gordon said, walking over to the woman.
As he knelt down next to her, her eyes opened wide with fear. Her mouth was gagged and her arms were tied behind her.
“You hear that? You lucked out. We’ll come back for you. I don’t know if you deserve it, but that’s how it is,” Gordon stated, then walked back to get ready for their raid.
The perimeter of Eagle’s Nest was not protected with any type of fencing. Nelson knew this was a problem, but since they arrived in the heart of winter, finding a spot to settle down was more important. Now the issue of perimeter security took center stage after the attack and the encounter with Truman and his men. Unfortunately, they didn’t have the materials to construct anything that would be sufficiently hardy, so the only reasonable idea was to add more people to the watches. The additional posts put a strain on the limited manpower they had. It was a domino effect; problems came in one after another. The constant rotating guard schedule limited the number of people who could go out for patrols outside the gate.
Nelson and Scott had several long conversations about Truman and his men. They didn’t know whether to expect a strike from them, and if so, what direction they would be coming from. Truman had given a vague indication of where they were located, but they hadn’t gone out to investigate where they came from for fear of leaving the community unmanned. They had limited weapons and ammunition, but not enough men to satisfactorily repel an attack if coordinated. Nelson was beginning to feel overwhelmed by the logistics of keeping the community safe.
“Here,” Scott said, handing him a cold water.
“I’ve been thinking that we shouldn’t just sit here.”
“You think we should leave?” Scott asked, concerned.
“No, not leave. We should look at this issue differently. We can’t adequately fence the perimeter. I mean, look out there,” Nelson commented, pointing to the rolling hills and groves of trees that dotted the landscape. “The material and manpower we would need to protect us from someone just walking in here is impossible. It’s just impossible.”
“So what are you proposing? We don’t know for sure if Truman will be back.”
Nelson looked at Scott and shot back, “He’s coming back. I could see it in his eyes. He knows his brother is dead and that we killed him. He’ll be back and he’ll come back on his own terms.”
“I don’t know what you’re suggesting,” Scott said.
“I say we set our own terms. We don’t sit here and wait for him to come back. We find him and take him out.”
“Wait a minute—you’re suggesting we attack him? That’s crazy! I’m not a soldier!”
“I’m not either, but just sitting here waiting for what I know is coming is foolish.”
“Things could go horribly wrong. I don’t know about this.”
“Scott, I understand your reservations about this. But we’ve spent a lot of time out there surviving. Hell, we almost didn’t make it out of the last community we lived in,” Nelson said, his voice growing louder and more animated. He didn’t want Scott to feel he was wrong, but wanted him to see for himself that offense is sometimes the best defense. “Listen, I totally understand you feeling uncomfortable about this, but we must, at minimum, see where these guys come from. Let’s see who we might be up against. Then we can sit down and have another conversation about this.”