Tweet
Part 6
Andrew and Jim had been friends for roughly 10 years. A mutual friend of their's brought Andrew to a campout held by the group Jim was a part of then. Soon Andrew joined and worked closely with Jim, Bill and 2 others from their area. Andrew had always been a gun nut. You could get him to buy pretty much any gun. Now buying food storage was another matter. Andrew was a great friend, when he didn't have a girlfriend. When he didn't have a girlfriend, he was around all the time, some would say too much. Didn't matter if you had a girlfriend, he was there hanging out with the both of you. While he didn't mind being rude to his friend's girlfriends (and later their wives) he took on the all too chilvarous route with his girlfriends. Like anything else, some things overdone become bad for you, and this was the case for Andrew. He later resented his wife for the way she acted towards him, not realizing he was partially to blame for it.
It was the times when he wasn't with a girl that Andrew was active with the group. When he had a girlfriend, and later a wife, he could care less about the Group or any of his friends. None of the other younger group members could understand this because, as they got married and began having families, they got MORE serious about preparedness. Like Todd said "Dude, it was one thing when I was single, hell, I could go live in a gr*** hut after the crap hits the fan. But with a baby and wife, I gotta have decent shelter, more food, good meds." He got it and took things much more serious after starting a family. Andrew did not. Worse than that, Andrew always acted as if the Group owed him something. Jim felt like this was especially directed at him, although he had no clue why. Jim had loaned him money that was never repaid, given him gear and supplies that was never paid for, helped him move on several occasions and helped him worked on his house and never so much as got a thank you. Andrew would commit to group projects just to "get his foot in the door" and then never follow through on any of it, yet expect things to be done for him. He was what they called a taker. He looked at the Group as an insurance policy, but was unwilling to pay the premiums up and eventually, got his policy canceled. That had been more than a decade ago and that was how things stood on the day Andrew and Julia headed towards Jim's retreat.
"Andrew, their was two ATV's in the woods by that last dirt road back there, did you see them?" Andrew brother Ted asked.
"No I didn't" Andrew replied.
"Two guys in camo, looked like they were Spanish." Ted said.
"Keep looking for them, they might try to follow us or something." Andrew said.
It was close to dark now. The sun was just about down. As they neared another intersection with a dirt road, three shots rang out.
The windshield was immediately a spiderweb and the van was swerving and almost out of control. Andrew glanced to the left and saw the muzzle flashes of another rifle. Three more shots, one hit right behind Andrew on the drivers side and another punctured a plastic gas can in the van.
Andrew floored the gas and hoped that their wasn't a roadblock up ahead. "Best thing we can do is drive through this." Andrew said.
He looked over and saw that Julia was slouched in the seat grasping her neck. Blood ran down her clothes. She stared forward and Andrew thought she was dead.
"JULIA! JULIA!" Andrew shouted. She wasn't dead but already in shock.
"****! Ted, see if you can help her. We are going to drive right there, forget a circuitous route!" Andrew said.
The van nearly flipped on several occasions taking the dirt road at roughly 50 miles per hour. Driving right through the wooden fence, Andrew started across the field towards the retreat, still doing about 50 miles per hour.
Rusty was on guard duty at OP2, the main OP overlooking the field and front gate area. His shift was right around sunset with about an hour of full darkness. He had just pulled out the rifle case containing the M1A with the PVS14 night vision scope and ACOG 339 sight. In about 30 minutes he would change over from the AK to the M1A due to the night viewing capability.
Off in the distance he heard a vehicle on the dirt road. The dirt road was a good 400 yards from the retreat, with the only entrance from it being about 500 yards away.
Suddenly, he spotted a van crashing through the wooden fence up by the road and heading into the field at full speed. Seismic detectors of both hardwired and wireless types were going off like mad now. This was it, no doubt there.
He mashed a button, alarms went off in both houses. Switching to the intercom, he mashed both buttons and said "Van to the North, full speed, to the North"
Making a quick glance around at the rest of the perimeter he noticed activity around the houses already.
He set his sights on the van, "Let's hope it stops" he thought.
As the van barreled through the field, Andrew strained to see through the spiderweb of the windshield as he drove. Never slowing down, he thought he saw a red sign but kept moving forward. With a loud POOOF all four tires blew out at the same time.
Rusty opened up with the AK "tat tat tat, tat tat tataatatatatatat" laying rounds into the windshield and top and sides of the van.
Clack clack BOOOM! Metal shrapnel pummeled both sides and the front of the van.
Rusty could now hear several more rifles firing. More rounds began to hit the van.
One Rusty was sure the van was adequately covered from other rifles, he ducked down and scooted over to the other side of OP2, popped up and checked around. Was it a single vehicle? Or was the vehicle a ruse for another attack? He could now see people from the GP tents scrambling into trenches on the southeast perimeter. Dependents went into bunkers while the men, and some women, moved into position along the trenches.
Rusty moved back over and checked the other sides as well. Just then the radio crackled,
"Anything else spotted?" Jim asked.
"Negative, I'm checking though. Cameras 3, 4 and 5th are all clear. No other seismic detection" Rusty replied.
"Todd are you in position?" Jim asked.
No reply.
"I say again, Todd are you in position?"
"Todd's in position, I can see him, don't think he has his radio, is in his underwear." Scotty replied.
"Roger that, hold all positions, relay to him over" Jim said.
"Will do, over." Scotty replied.
Someone must have fired a tracer or something. The gas that was in the plastic can in the van was on fire. The car didn't blow up, but they couldn't tell if that was because they only blew up in Hollywood or as they would later find out, the car was out of gas.
They held their positions, reloaded and waited. 10 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes. What seemed like an eternity. It was fully dark by now and the fire was still burning in the van, illuminating it for quite a distance around.
"Scotty, Jim" Jim said over the radio.
"Jim this Scotty, over"
"Get me Todd please, over" Jim said.
"Wait one" Scotty said.
"This is Todd, what's up?"
"Radio usage, keep it straight. What can you see from your angle over." Jim said.
"Looks clear from here over"
"Roger, put Murphy in charge over there, meet me at OP2 over" Jim said.
"Roger, wait one."
"Roger, forgot your clothes situation. Wait 2" Jim said.
"Rusty, Jim over"
"Rusty here, go ahead Jim"
"Have Steve and Lyle reinforce your pod over" Jim said.
"Roger, covering lower half, one coming up over."
"Roger, two coming to your pod over, different directions, confirm" Jim said.
"Roger that, two coming to me, different directions. ETA?"
"3 mikes over" Jim said.
Todd and Jim met up at OP2. Jim quickly briefed Rusty over the sound of 4 dogs barking in the background.
"O.K. we've done similar drills before in training. Cover us, we are going to go out and put out that fire, it's illuminating us for miles around. We don't know for sure everyone in that van is dead or if there's more out there. If we have to get out of there quick we will move by to the left side of the gate, shoot everything else and give us good covering fire so we can get back here. Go ahead and use the M1A with the night vision sight. Scan the area before we leave. Lyle, you stay with him and Steve will cover the lower end. Todd and I will put an IR light stick on each of our gear. In case we end up in the midst of a group of people you will be able to identify us from them. Everyone good to go?"
Nods all around. "Alright let's go." Jim said.
__________________________________
Andrew and Jim had been friends for roughly 10 years. A mutual friend of their's brought Andrew to a campout held by the group Jim was a part of then. Soon Andrew joined and worked closely with Jim, Bill and 2 others from their area. Andrew had always been a gun nut. You could get him to buy pretty much any gun. Now buying food storage was another matter. Andrew was a great friend, when he didn't have a girlfriend. When he didn't have a girlfriend, he was around all the time, some would say too much. Didn't matter if you had a girlfriend, he was there hanging out with the both of you. While he didn't mind being rude to his friend's girlfriends (and later their wives) he took on the all too chilvarous route with his girlfriends. Like anything else, some things overdone become bad for you, and this was the case for Andrew. He later resented his wife for the way she acted towards him, not realizing he was partially to blame for it.
It was the times when he wasn't with a girl that Andrew was active with the group. When he had a girlfriend, and later a wife, he could care less about the Group or any of his friends. None of the other younger group members could understand this because, as they got married and began having families, they got MORE serious about preparedness. Like Todd said "Dude, it was one thing when I was single, hell, I could go live in a gr*** hut after the crap hits the fan. But with a baby and wife, I gotta have decent shelter, more food, good meds." He got it and took things much more serious after starting a family. Andrew did not. Worse than that, Andrew always acted as if the Group owed him something. Jim felt like this was especially directed at him, although he had no clue why. Jim had loaned him money that was never repaid, given him gear and supplies that was never paid for, helped him move on several occasions and helped him worked on his house and never so much as got a thank you. Andrew would commit to group projects just to "get his foot in the door" and then never follow through on any of it, yet expect things to be done for him. He was what they called a taker. He looked at the Group as an insurance policy, but was unwilling to pay the premiums up and eventually, got his policy canceled. That had been more than a decade ago and that was how things stood on the day Andrew and Julia headed towards Jim's retreat.
"Andrew, their was two ATV's in the woods by that last dirt road back there, did you see them?" Andrew brother Ted asked.
"No I didn't" Andrew replied.
"Two guys in camo, looked like they were Spanish." Ted said.
"Keep looking for them, they might try to follow us or something." Andrew said.
It was close to dark now. The sun was just about down. As they neared another intersection with a dirt road, three shots rang out.
The windshield was immediately a spiderweb and the van was swerving and almost out of control. Andrew glanced to the left and saw the muzzle flashes of another rifle. Three more shots, one hit right behind Andrew on the drivers side and another punctured a plastic gas can in the van.
Andrew floored the gas and hoped that their wasn't a roadblock up ahead. "Best thing we can do is drive through this." Andrew said.
He looked over and saw that Julia was slouched in the seat grasping her neck. Blood ran down her clothes. She stared forward and Andrew thought she was dead.
"JULIA! JULIA!" Andrew shouted. She wasn't dead but already in shock.
"****! Ted, see if you can help her. We are going to drive right there, forget a circuitous route!" Andrew said.
The van nearly flipped on several occasions taking the dirt road at roughly 50 miles per hour. Driving right through the wooden fence, Andrew started across the field towards the retreat, still doing about 50 miles per hour.
Rusty was on guard duty at OP2, the main OP overlooking the field and front gate area. His shift was right around sunset with about an hour of full darkness. He had just pulled out the rifle case containing the M1A with the PVS14 night vision scope and ACOG 339 sight. In about 30 minutes he would change over from the AK to the M1A due to the night viewing capability.
Off in the distance he heard a vehicle on the dirt road. The dirt road was a good 400 yards from the retreat, with the only entrance from it being about 500 yards away.
Suddenly, he spotted a van crashing through the wooden fence up by the road and heading into the field at full speed. Seismic detectors of both hardwired and wireless types were going off like mad now. This was it, no doubt there.
He mashed a button, alarms went off in both houses. Switching to the intercom, he mashed both buttons and said "Van to the North, full speed, to the North"
Making a quick glance around at the rest of the perimeter he noticed activity around the houses already.
He set his sights on the van, "Let's hope it stops" he thought.
As the van barreled through the field, Andrew strained to see through the spiderweb of the windshield as he drove. Never slowing down, he thought he saw a red sign but kept moving forward. With a loud POOOF all four tires blew out at the same time.
Rusty opened up with the AK "tat tat tat, tat tat tataatatatatatat" laying rounds into the windshield and top and sides of the van.
Clack clack BOOOM! Metal shrapnel pummeled both sides and the front of the van.
Rusty could now hear several more rifles firing. More rounds began to hit the van.
One Rusty was sure the van was adequately covered from other rifles, he ducked down and scooted over to the other side of OP2, popped up and checked around. Was it a single vehicle? Or was the vehicle a ruse for another attack? He could now see people from the GP tents scrambling into trenches on the southeast perimeter. Dependents went into bunkers while the men, and some women, moved into position along the trenches.
Rusty moved back over and checked the other sides as well. Just then the radio crackled,
"Anything else spotted?" Jim asked.
"Negative, I'm checking though. Cameras 3, 4 and 5th are all clear. No other seismic detection" Rusty replied.
"Todd are you in position?" Jim asked.
No reply.
"I say again, Todd are you in position?"
"Todd's in position, I can see him, don't think he has his radio, is in his underwear." Scotty replied.
"Roger that, hold all positions, relay to him over" Jim said.
"Will do, over." Scotty replied.
Someone must have fired a tracer or something. The gas that was in the plastic can in the van was on fire. The car didn't blow up, but they couldn't tell if that was because they only blew up in Hollywood or as they would later find out, the car was out of gas.
They held their positions, reloaded and waited. 10 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes. What seemed like an eternity. It was fully dark by now and the fire was still burning in the van, illuminating it for quite a distance around.
"Scotty, Jim" Jim said over the radio.
"Jim this Scotty, over"
"Get me Todd please, over" Jim said.
"Wait one" Scotty said.
"This is Todd, what's up?"
"Radio usage, keep it straight. What can you see from your angle over." Jim said.
"Looks clear from here over"
"Roger, put Murphy in charge over there, meet me at OP2 over" Jim said.
"Roger, wait one."
"Roger, forgot your clothes situation. Wait 2" Jim said.
"Rusty, Jim over"
"Rusty here, go ahead Jim"
"Have Steve and Lyle reinforce your pod over" Jim said.
"Roger, covering lower half, one coming up over."
"Roger, two coming to your pod over, different directions, confirm" Jim said.
"Roger that, two coming to me, different directions. ETA?"
"3 mikes over" Jim said.
Todd and Jim met up at OP2. Jim quickly briefed Rusty over the sound of 4 dogs barking in the background.
"O.K. we've done similar drills before in training. Cover us, we are going to go out and put out that fire, it's illuminating us for miles around. We don't know for sure everyone in that van is dead or if there's more out there. If we have to get out of there quick we will move by to the left side of the gate, shoot everything else and give us good covering fire so we can get back here. Go ahead and use the M1A with the night vision sight. Scan the area before we leave. Lyle, you stay with him and Steve will cover the lower end. Todd and I will put an IR light stick on each of our gear. In case we end up in the midst of a group of people you will be able to identify us from them. Everyone good to go?"
Nods all around. "Alright let's go." Jim said.
__________________________________
Comment