Matthew Mark - Dark Days Rough Roads

The door opened and one of the guys peeked in; he whistled and Haliday could hear the other guys come over and start talking to their friend. “God damn, how the hell did that get here?” one said.

“Hell if I know, but if it runs, it’s ours.” They walked into the hangar and started looking around. “You smell bacon?” he heard one say.

“Hell ya, someone has been in here hiding or something.” One of them walked over to the Tahoe and peeked inside. “Holy shit, we got a gold mine.” Linda shifted slightly and a small can on the ground near her feet fell over.

One of the men raised a rifle up and said, “Who’s there?” There wasn’t an answer. “I said who’s there, damn it.” Another one of the men took a pistol out and started looking around as well. Haliday tried to watch them through a reflection in the glass of the truck. He knew one had a rifle and one had a pistol, but he didn’t have any idea if the third one was armed and if so what he had. By the looks of this crew, it was a man in his late forties and two younger guys in their twenties. He was thinking father and sons.

The older man who had the rifle spoke up. “Listen, you’re gonna wanna show yourself and if ya ain’t alone you’re gonna wanna both come out.” Linda shifted a bit more and the can now rolled out from behind the toolbox she was hiding behind. “I see you, you better get up.” Linda panicked and stood up and put her hands in the air. “Don’t you move, who else you got in here lady?”

“Just my husband,” she said.

“He some kinda cop or something?”

“No, we just found the truck.”

“Awww bullshit, we saw what’s in there. We ain’t stupid, you tell him to come out now. We ain’t gonna hurt anyone.”

"How do I know that?" Linda asked.

One of the younger guys yelled out. “Listen bitch, you’ll know what we want you to, now do what the hell he said and tell that asshole husband of yours to get out here now before we change our mind.” Mike didn’t know what to do. He was behind a starting cart that had been left in the hangar.

Kayla was over at the far side of the hangar and was hiding behind another toolbox next to what looked like a larger Cessna of some type. She actually had the best cover. Haliday had ducked into the small office that was in the hangar. He could catch a peek now and then, but nothing to formulate a plan or see what was going on. He looked over toward the door that they had come in. There was a bag there. He thought about this for a minute. They were looting. They were going hangar to hangar and probably through every car and plane here taking anything they thought was valuable.

He was trying to think this one through. Why the hell hadn’t he gotten radios and head sets, he wondered. On the other hand, he had two passengers he didn’t count on either. How much gear could he afford or even carry? Wouldn’t do much good having just two sets, but then again, he told himself, that would have been two coordinated people. That would have been better than this cluster.

He was trying to think this one through. “Damn it,” the older guy yelled, “get a move on bitch.” Max, who had just been laying there, stood up and started yapping now. “Damn mutt, shoot it,” the older man said.

One of the younger ones replied, “I ain’t shooting it, you shoot it.”

The older man said, “I’m watching this dumb bitch, shoot it or give your brother the gun.” That’s exactly what Haliday needed to know. The odds were better, but still not good.

Haliday was about ready to crawl over to the doorway when he heard the man say, “That’s it bitch I warned you.”

Mike stood up and said, “Wait, wait, don’t shoot.” Haliday bolted over to the doorway and started firing toward the group. They returned fire in his direction and he dove to the office floor. Linda dropped to the ground and lay there paralyzed. Mike ducked down and was trying to flip the safety off his rifle. He heard a few rounds strike nearby. He was afraid to get up again and get shot.

Haliday heard an AR fire; he didn’t know who it was. Rounds started flying everywhere. No one could get a good shot on anybody, good or bad. Haliday was laying there when the window above him shattered. He covered his neck as the glass fell. His hands were cut and bleeding. There was a lot of screaming going on at each other. Haliday popped up and aimed at the man with the rifle and fired then ducked down again. The guy dropped. More rounds came his way. Mike looked around the side of the starting cart and fired off almost a full magazine in their direction.

Kayla took aim at the older guy, who was still firing from the ground; he had been hit, but not mortally. She fired three shots toward him and the man stopped moving at that point. She didn’t have any more lines of sight and made sure she was covered as well as she could be. The toolbox in front of her rattled from the pistol fire from the kid who had been shooting it. Soon enough there was a click.

“Cease fire,” Haliday yelled, “cease fire.” There were a few minutes of silence. Haliday crawled over to the doorway and took a quick peek into the hangar. All he saw was haze from the gunpowder and the men now huddled up near the Tahoe. He got up and peeked around the corner again. It was now or never. He reeled around the door frame and aimed at the group. One of them was holding their dad in his arms. The other was laying there next to him holding his leg and chest.

Haliday had drawn down on them and approached them slowly. He kicked the rifle aside that they had been using. It was an older AK variant. He told Mike to come out and get the rifle and check it. “Pull the bolt handle back Mike,” he said. Mike came out, grabbed the rifle and checked the chamber, it was empty.

“Hold onto it.” He called out to Linda and Kayla, “You guys ok?”

Linda said, “Yes,” Kayla said “Yes.” Ok, come on out but be careful.”

Haliday was still looking at the men. The youngest was crying as he held his father. The other kid was no longer holding his leg and Haliday noticed his shirt was full of blood. The kid was foaming at the mouth with a frothy pink foam. He must have been hit in a lung. Haliday was about to walk up and check him when the kid flipped his arm around. Haliday squeezed off a round out of his .40 the same time the kid fired at Haliday’s chest. The kid had hidden a small snub nose. The kid didn’t have a chance to fire another round; the .40 struck him center mass.

Haliday stumbled backwards and fell to the ground. He laid there trying to get his legs to move and get his feet up under him. He wasn’t able to get up. Kayla ran over and started yelling, "Daddy, Daddy, are you ok?" Haliday couldn’t speak right now either. No words could come to his mouth. His breathing wasn’t normal. The younger kid looked over at him and said, “That’s what you get you bastard. You can rot in hell.” Mike whipped the kid with the AK stock, knocking the kid out.

Linda went over to Haliday and knelt down. Kayla was holding his hand crying. She noticed it was blood covered. Haliday spoke, but he managed only a few words. “I love you, kiddo.”

“I love you too, Daddy,” she said. Max came over from cowering under an oil can rack and sniffed at Haliday and whimpered. Haliday’s eyes blurred and then started to go black. He closed them and tried to take as deep a breath as he could and then exhaled. Kayla spoke to him, but there was no response.

Max walked around in a few circles and whimpered some more. Linda was shaking Haliday, but there was no movement. Mike had been keeping an eye on the kid who shot Haliday. He was now starting to come around. Kayla ran over to the Tahoe and grabbed a first aid kit. She ran back over to Haliday’s body. She knelt down next to his head. She opened the box and pulled a small capsule out and snapped it in the middle, then waved it under Haliday’s nose. Haliday opened his eyes and whipped his head to the side. The ammonia capsule did the trick.