The Guardians (29 page)

"What other option did he have?" asked Griff.

"True, I guess we are new to the whole prisoner taking thing," Jason replied.  There were flies swarming about in the room as the two tried swatting at them with their hats trying to get them out of the closet.  "Man, I almost feel bad, it must be hell being locked up in here sitting in your own crap," added Jason.

The prisoner nodded his head as if to verify that it was.  Griff just looked the man in the eye and said, "Just thi
nk about Ollie and the girl they gang raped and murdered, not to mention all of the victims we don't know about, and you'll quickly loose your sympathy."

"Point tak
en and agreed," replied Jason.

Jason then proceeded to re
move his camel back from his daypack.  He hung it from a water pipe going across the ceiling above the man's head, and adjusted it to where the drinking tube would dangle in front of the mans face.  He then looked the man dead in the eye and said, "This has water with some sugar and a few other things in it.  Think of it as a homemade sports drink.  I'm gonna take your gag off so that you can drink.  Don't talk to me because I don't want to hear anything you have to say.  We will have a twenty four hour watch outside the basement from now on.  If we hear one little peep I'll personally come in here and cut your tung out of your mouth," Jason said as he showed him his knife.  "Do you understand?"

The man nodded yes and Jason removed the gag.  The man immediately grabbed the drinking tube with his mouth and began guzzling down the drink as he hasn't eaten or had anything to drink in a day and a half.  His body was beginning to go into severe dehydration.

As Jason and Griff started to exist the room, Jason looked back at the man, again showing him his knife, and said, "Not one peep."  They then closed the door, leaving him alone and once again in the darkness with nothing more than his thoughts to haunt him.

Before leaving the property, in both the front and back yards near the house, Jason and Griff wrote a warning in the grass with the blaze orange marking paint. 
It said, "WATCHED AND PROTECTED BY THE GUARDIANS."

After leaving the Thomas Farm, Jason and Griff began to make their rounds to each of the other homesteads.  They discussed with them some security concerns for each of the homes, as well as organizing a meeting at the Thomas Farm the following morning.  They asked that at least one person from each homestead attend, but specifically, anyone participating in the
raid or raids on the Muncie place was requested to be there. 

As they arrived at Linda Cox's home, they used extreme caution.  Knowing that the Muncie gang had already showed an interest in the place, as well as the fact that Linda was recovering at the Homefront and nobody had
been present to keep it secure.   They knew it was the most likely place to encounter a threat.

As they watched the property from the tree
line, Jason said to Griff, "Those sicko's have already shown a penchant for abusing women.  Knowing that Linda lives alone, and the fact that she is an attractive woman, makes her place a likely target."

"Yep, this isnt a good time for anyone to be living alone, especially a woman," Jason replied.

As Jason watched the front of the house with binoculars, Griff said, "I'm gonna move to a position where I can see the back of the place."

"Roger that," said Jason.  "You've got your radio on right?"

Griff double checked and said, "Yep," as he slipped back into the woods to work his way up onto the hill behind the house.

Griff worked his way around the property and up onto the hill behind the house.  He glassed the area with his binoculars for a few moments, and then caught movement through one of the windows.  All he could tell was that a figure passed in front of her bedroom window, but couldn't make out any other detail.  "Movement inside," he whispered over the radio. 

"Specifics?" queried Jason.

"Negative," Griff replied.  "Just a figure in the bedroom."

"There's no telling what those sick bastards are doing in a ladies bedroom while she's away," responded Jason.  "Sit tight for a while.  We need to figure out if they are moving through or laying in wait."

"Wilco," replied Griff.

About an hour had gone by, with no further movement or signs of the trespassers.  Jason spoke up on the radio and said, "I'm coming to you."

"Roger that," replied Griff.

Jason made his way around the house through the woods until he arrived at Griff's position.  As he slipped up to Griff, he quietly asked, "Anything new?"

"Negative," Griff replied.  "How do you want to approach this," he asked.

"If they are setting up to ambush her, waiting them out may take longer than we have," Jason said itching to deal with the intruders.  "I'll move up to the house, you cover me.  I'll use my earpiece for the radio.  If you see a threat that I don't see, let me know."

"Wilco," Griff replied.

Jason then moved towards the back of the house.  He stopped just behind Linda's stack of firewood, where he could wait and listen for a moment.  After a few moments of no movement or sounds from inside the house, he slipped around the woodpile and hugged the wall by the back door.

"Looks clear," said Griff quietly through Jason's earpiece.

Jason then reached over and slowly and silently turned the door knob, finding it unlocked.  He was pretty sure Linda would not have left it that way herself.  Jason then gave Griff the rally on me hand signal.

Griff slipped out of the woods and moved into position along the back wall of the house with Jason.  "What's up?" he whispered.

"Must be an ambush type situation," Jason replied.  "If they were robbing the place, there would be some noise or movement by now.  I think we should move in.  We can't win a fight from the outside, and we can't wait them out.  If we wait too long, more of their buddies may show up."

Griff just nodded in the affirma
tive and said quietly, "Concur.  By the way, didn't Linda have dogs?"

"As a matter of fact, yes, but where they heck are they?" Jason replied.

Griff just shrugged in reply and said, "Hopefully we won't meet them inside the hard way."

"Yea, right," replied Jason.

Jason then eased the doorknob until it released and slowly opened the door.  He was expecting a creak in the door, but was pleasantly surprised to find it smooth and quiet.  Jason then slipped into the kitchen from the back door, followed closely by Griff.  "I want to draw them out.  I would rather surprise them than the other way around.  Position yourself out of plain view under the table.  I'm gonna simulate a home owner's return."  He then opened and closed the back door in a loud and casual manner.  He then poured himself a glass of water from the water from the kitchen faucet.  Like back at the Homefront, Linda's home was on a well and she still had running water from her own water pump that ran on demand and was powered by a solar array that charged twelve-volt deep cycle batteries.  He took a drink of water and nonchalantly sat the glass down on then counter top, intentionally making a sound when he did so.  He then opened and closed a few cabinets and waited.

After a few moments of hearing no movement, Jason whispered into the radio, "They must be plannin
g to jump her in the bedroom."

Griff nodded that he agreed,
and then Jason motioned for him to advance towards the bedroom and take up a position of cover.  Griff complied, and once in position, Jason rattled a few dishes together and casually strolled towards the bedroom being sure to make audible footsteps along the way.  As he reached the bedroom, he casually turned the knob, pushed the door open, and then stepped back with his AR-15 at the high ready.

Almost immediately, the closet door swung open accompanied by a man's voice saying, "Welcome home bit...." POP POP ... before he could finish his sentence Jason fired two shots from his rifle into the man's center mass, blasting him back inside the closet.  Another man immediately barged out of the adjoining bathroom, blasting a pump shot gun and racking shells as fast as he could.  The thin sheet rock wall where Jason stood began to shatter as the buckshot
ripped it to pieces.  Jason dove to the floor.  As he fell, he felt multiple bee sting like sensations pierce his hip and right leg.  This opened up a target opportunity for Griff, who sent several rapid-fire shots into the shooter, dropping him to the floor.

Griff immediately scanned the room for other intruders, and when he was satisfied that the threats were neutralized, he ran over to Jason.  "Talk to me," he yelled.

"I think I was hit in the side of the leg," replied Jason.  "Sweep the house to make sure it's clear, and then come back."

"Wilco," Griff said as he ran through the
house clearing each room.

When he was satisfied that the two downed intruders were the onl
y threats, he ran back to Jason who had already stripped off his pack and was removing his blood soaked pants.  Griff grabbed a towel, ran water over it, and took it back to Jason to clean up the blood so that he could assess the situation.  As he began to wipe away the blood, Griff said, "I think you lucked out.  That looks like small rabbit shot pellets, not buckshot."  He then went into the bedroom where the man wielding the shotgun now lay dead.  He picked up a handful of the empty shot shell cases and took them into Jason and said, "He had a mix, some double-aught buck, some short brass small game loads, and some bird loads."

"Luck of the draw," said Jason.  "I'd have rather had a bird shot round, but I'll take this over a slug any day," he said with a grin, which was immediately followed by a grimace from pain.

Griff took off his pack and pulled out his first aid/trauma kit.  He told Jason, "I'm just gonna cover the entire area with iodine and pick out any of the pellets that are visible."  He applied the iodine and began to pick out the shot shell pellets from Jason's hip and leg.  "Looks like most of it is just below the surface.  But then again small game loads are designed so that they don't do too much damage to the meat of a small animal like a rabbit or squirrel.  With your clothes, gear, and the indirect angle of fire, it just wasn't able to get the job done."

"Thank God.  With no Doctors on hand
, I'd hate to see what a real wound would fester itself into," Jason replied.

After about fifteen minutes, Griff said, "Well, I think that's as good as I can get it."  He then wiped Jason's leg down with iodine one more time and said, "I don't really have a way of wrapping this up
since it's so wide spread.  I'll just put some small bandages where I can and that'll get you going for now."

"Works for me, we've got a lot of homes to visit yet today," Jason replied

"Are you sure you are OK to keep going?" Griff asked.

"If I bail because of a little pain and give those SOB's one extra day before we deal with it, someone else could suffer for it," replied Jason.  "What do you think would have happened to Linda if she came home today?  I doubt they were here to take her TV and DVD player.  She would have gone through hell before the
y finally killed her.  I can't let a little pain drag this thing out another day."

"Amen to that," Griff said as he helped Jason to his feet. 

Later that evening and back at the Homefront, Daryl Moses arrived on horseback with a pack horse in tow.  Evan greeted him at the gate after being notified of his arrival via radio by Greg, who was on watch at the time.  "Welcome to our little piece of heaven," he said.

"It's good to be here.  I brought some goodies for you to check out," Daryl said as he dismounted.  He shook Evan's hand and the
n walked back to the packhorse.  He reached into one of the large saddlebags, pulled out a metal can, and said, "Here my good man, is a flint bomb.  Don't worry, it's not charged with powder yet," he said as he handed it to Evan.

Evan looked it over and said, "This is simplistic genius."

Daryl then went on to explain how it all worked and discussed with him the ways they may choose to deploy it.  "I've got three of them," he said.  "We will make those guys think they are taking on artillery fire," he said with a grin.

"You're having fun with this aren't you," Evan said jokingly.

Daryl just chuckled and said, "I'd much rather not be having to do this, but since I do, I might as well put all of those years of being the weirdo who plays with gunpowder to good use."

He and Evan shared a good laugh
and once again, Greg spoke up over the hand held radio.  This time he was reporting that Jason and Griff were returning.  Evan and Daryl walked back to the front gate and met them, anxious to see how the day had gone.  Evan immediately saw Jason's bloody pants and said, "What the heck happened?

"Linda had some admirers waiting on her in her bedroom.  They are no longer a
threat," Jason put it bluntly.

Griff then said, "One of them looked like one of the younger Muncie boys.  We took their shotgun, rifle a
nd ammo and hid it in the attic.  We figured since the ambush was for Linda, she might as well get to keep the spoils if she wants them.  Not to mention the fact that being on bikes, we just didn't have room for extra stuff.  We left a warning for their buddies if they were to come looking as well."