Jeff Brackett - Half Past Midnight

“Whatever.”

I’ll be damned.

Before I could comment, Billy stepped out from the trees behind us. “Any minute is right.”

I glanced at Sarah and saw definite signs of relief in her face as he sat beside us.

“What’d you find out?” I asked.

“Looks like this is it.”

My heart began to beat faster. “What do you mean?”

Billy cleared the pine needles away and grabbed a stick to draw with in the dirt. “Road curves around to the right up here and, about half a mile further up, they got a little camp set up. Looks like their last Humvee gave up the ghost. They got the hood up, and they’re goin’ apeshit tryin’ to do something to it.”

“Larry’s there?”

Billy nodded. “Down there screamin’ at ‘em to get the thing runnin’ before he shoots them all. The way they’re jumpin’, seems like they believe him, too.”

I was afraid to ask, but I had to know for sure. “What about Zachary?”

“He’s there. The big Chinese dude has him.”

Megan asked what I should have. “How many of them did you see?”

“Just up ahead, there’s about twenty of ‘em waiting to ambush us when we hit the turn in the road. They have one of the Humvees just ahead of that. It’s blocking the road, with two flat tires and a fifty-caliber aimed right where we would come around the bend.

“About half a mile past there, there’s an old highway rest area. That’s where Larry’s having his screamin’ fit. He’s got another dozen or so with him. Including Zach. All together, I’d say they have about thirty to thirty-five people.”

I clapped Billy on the shoulder. “I’d say you’re right then. Looks like this is it.”

Sarah grinned. “Half a mile away. We can finish it.”

Megan tempered Sarah’s enthusiasm with a bitter comment. “About damned time.”

“Yeah.” I turned back to Rene. “How many people you think you’ll need to ambush the ambush?”

“Why fight them at all? We can just go around them and hit Larry.”

I shook my head. “If we do that, we’re likely to end up with Larry in front of us, and the ambush jumping in behind us. Our best bet is to use our numbers to hit them on both fronts at the same time. Keep both groups busy and overwhelm them.”

She thought it over. “All right. Gimme fifty people, and Sarah to take half of them.”

Sarah nodded her confirmation. “No problem, we’ll hit ‘em from everywhere but where they expect us. Should be over before it starts.”

“All right,” I agreed. “We head back to camp. You ladies pick your squads. Take anybody you need. Billy, you’ll lead the rest of us to where you found Larry. We leave in an hour.”

“Uh, Sensei?”

I realized then that Billy had been conspicuously quiet while the rest of us practically gushed. I could see from his bearing that it wasn’t going to be good news. I sighed. “What is it, Billy?”

“Well, I think Larry and his group are going to be a little harder to take than you think.”

“Why?”

“Well, while three or four of them are working like crazy on the Humvee, he’s got the rest of them setting up some pretty good defenses around the restroom in the park. It’s all concrete, and they’re using the picnic tables and benches as barricades all around it. It’s like a freaking fortress.”

The walk back to camp was tense as Billy filled in the details. The old rest area was equipped with concrete picnic tables that Larry’s remaining troops had dismantled, building a barricade around the public restroom. Reinforced with mounds of dirt, they made excellent small bunkers, which they festooned with hundreds of sharpened stakes. The topper was the fifty-caliber machine gun on the roof.

“But I think I might have an idea on how to get them out,” Billy finished. He told us what he had seen on the way back, and Sarah covered her mouth. I couldn’t tell if she was going to laugh or gag.

“Geez, Billy,” Megan said.

“What? I really think I can pull it off.”

“Yeah but, the whole idea, it just…”

“What?”

“It stinks!”

Billy grinned with the rest of us. “I’ll need some people to help me.”

I slapped him on the back. “Take whoever you need. I think Ben Summers is probably one of the best bow hunters we have with us. And you’ll need Mark Roesch, of course.”

With a brief glance at Sarah, Billy trotted ahead to find Ben and Mark.

It took nearly an hour before we were all ready. During that time, I saw Billy leave with his group to get things ready. It took the rest of us another two hours to slip around the ambush and get into position in front of the entrance to Larry’s makeshift fortress.

Then we waited for something to happen.

When Billy caught up to us, his arrival was hard to miss. People involuntarily gasped as he slipped past them. And when he settled down next to me, my eyes began to burn.

“Holy crap, Billy!” I took care to breathe through my mouth. “How can you stand that?”

He grimaced. “You think this is bad, just be thankful Ben and the others stayed back. They’re the ones that did the dirty work.” He pointed back toward the woods,and I saw Ben, Mark, and the other men readying the giant slingshot. “Oh, by the way, we got four, and Ben says you owe him big for this one.”

“No doubt of that. So you’re all ready?”

“Yes, sir. We took a little time to do some practice shots. Never shot anything this light before. Mark says that the best way is going to be-”

I put my hand up to stop him. “Does he think he can make the shot?”

“No problem.”

“That’s all I need to know.”

Billy looked up and down the line. “So now what?”

“Send a runner to Sarah. Tell her we’re ready as soon as she is.”

“Already done. I figure it’ll take about half an hour for them to start. All we need to do is wait.”

“Good. Then, pass the word. No one starts shooting until I do. We want as many of them outside as possible. First objective is to take out the men on that fifty cal. No one is to fire anywhere near my son.”

He nodded. “Got it. Anything else?”

“Yeah, don’t get dead,” Megan told him. “Sarah would be royally pissed off.”

He grinned shyly and slipped off to pass on my orders, while Megan and I waited the last few minutes before Sarah and Rene started their attack.

I unslung my rifle and checked my ammunition. Twenty-seven rounds. I checked to make sure my machetes and knives were ready for use and tried not to worry too much about the next few minutes. Beside me, Megan strung her crossbow and stuck two rows of the handmade thin-iron bolts into the ground within easy reach.

The next few minutes would determine my son’s fate. If I screwed it up, he could die. It was a hell of a thought. So don’t screw it up.

I closed my eyes at that thought and tried to calm my nerves, waiting for my cue. The wait was a short one. One minute, all was calm, the next, the sound of distant gunfire and shouting punctuated the evening.

“It’s started.” Megan stated the obvious and dropped a bolt into her crossbow.

I held up my fist and signaled up and down the line, making sure everyone knew they were not to open fire. Everyone held firm, and I turned my attention to the enemy ahead.

They were scurrying about, ducking behind their barricades, trying to decide whether or not they were in any immediate danger. We held still. It was an eternity later when I saw Larry come out with Han dragging Zachary by the arm.

“Oh, my God.” Megan’s words echoed my thoughts. “What the hell have they done to him?”

My heart clenched at the sight of my bedraggled son. He wore a shirt several sizes too large, dirty and torn in several places, and his body slumped with a haunted countenance, as if he had seen too much of the worst of the world to ever hope again.