Matthew Mark - Dark Days Rough Roads

This was the calm before the storm. He walked around and hugged everyone and thanked them. Everyone was dressed and ready. They were finding themselves idle things to do in and out of the house. He sat there with his eyes closed and prayed a bit. The ham crackled and he listened. He ran outside and cranked an old fashioned air raid siren, which sent everyone running to their positions.

He wasn’t worried about the neighbor calling it in. She already knew what was coming and he had Kevin sneak over there earlier. Kevin unplugged her whip antenna and connected some power leads to it he triggered a stun gun which popped a chip in her handheld. He then snipped the antenna to double up the effort. The militia relying on her to relay info for the attack was out of the question now.

They had placed all the radios they could out there. If there was a need for retreat, a flag would be raised at the crow’s nest and it would be lit up. He’d also fire a couple of red flares up into the sky. Haliday took off for his position. Everyone’s blood was pumping and it would be less than an hour now. Anticipation coursed through their veins.

“Rob, what do we have coming our way?”

“Roger, you have one motorcycle, and no other ATV’s of any sort at all, scratch that, you have two quads in the back of the deuce. There are also four people in the back of it. There are three pickup trucks, each has two people up front and two in the back. Two Jeeps and a Bronco with four people in each. Thirty-one people total.”

“They all have AR’s; they look pretty standard except for a few oddballs here and there. Lights attached, lasers, scopes, magazines taped together, the works. It looks like a couple have some 308’s in the same configuration. One guy has some big bad ass rifle or something. It looks like a small cannon.”

“The other night they loaded up all the ammo cans and a lot of other gear. Tonight they threw some packs and boxes in the trucks. A couple of guys look like they have night vision goggles. Those old ones you see in the movies, nothing new like you see them wearing today. The cases looked pretty old as well.”

“Wonderful news there Rob, I expected about half. Any idea of the make up of their ranks, as far as males and females?”

Rob gave him a quick rundown of what he thought there was. “Looked like 24 men, and 7 women. A couple of them were teenagers.” Haliday figured these were the neighbor’s daughter and her boyfriend. They were most likely familiar with the area since she lived across the street. Plus he couldn’t forget two fighters across the street as well if both were in on it, but he was thinking she was the only one.

“How about you guys Rob?”

“Oh, we’re ready. We just need to know when to start.”

“I figure about 45 minutes or so,” he said.

“Rob, this is the only chance you have. You guys do what it takes. You won’t have another chance like this again. I hope to be talking to you very soon.”

“You too, Roger.” Mark and everyone else was listening and heard the news.

The militia slowly made their way toward Haliday’s. They knew Haliday was expecting them, but they also knew the layout of his land, the buildings on it and the intel on who was there. They also enjoyed a 2 to 1 advantage for troop strength with Haliday having some older folks in the group and also having to worry about younger children.

The convoy moved along slowly expecting ambush or traps. They would pause at intersections and blind spots to check the areas out thoroughly before they resumed speed. Haliday had hoped the bike would be up front and he had gone and set up a catch wire for it. The deuce led the convoy with an anti-decap bar on the front. It snapped the wire easily.

The next wire was simpler. It pulled out a piece of cardboard between a clothes pin and made a connection which ignited a rocket engine fuse. The fuse burned in a couple of seconds and sent up a hailstorm of fireworks. It was fully dark now, and Haliday spotted them through his spotting scope he had set up. The militia convoy was now about two miles out. They pulled over and dismounted their vehicles. They put up some ramps on the deuce and off-loaded the quads.

Everyone rallied around the deuce now and they went over the plans for their offensive. They realized with the fireworks warning that their attack was expected. The bike and quads moved out first and crept along. They were making sure they did not get caught up in any more wire strung across the roads. The headed off into the woods. The rest of the vehicles split up and went in different directions. The goal was to surround the house and test the defenses for weak points.

The militia man leading the attack spoke. He spit out the usual crap about safety, watching out for your fellow man and all that garbage, but he also told them something else that put things in more perspective as to what they planned and what they were all about. If Haliday heard this, it would have made a lot more sense.

The man said, “We are about to try and stop these people from ruining our plans to make this area a better place to live. They want to ruin our chance to let nature weed out those who are weak. Those who can not contribute to our society. Those who will bring us down. We need to make sure we can conquer anyone who will stop us from prospering.” It was almost like a miniature Bilderberg conspiracy.

They moved in slowly. These guys had made some major mistakes, but this time they were going about it like true professionals. They were moving in slowly, they were spread out, and they had communications amongst everyone, they weren’t taking stupid chances, and they simply had it together so far.

Even if Haliday’s group wanted to leave right now, there was not a single road they could have taken without running into some of the militia. There wasn’t a single side of the house that wasn’t covered by at least five people. There was a fair amount of open land around the property, except for the west side which was heavily wooded and a little too close for comfort. He always wanted to cut it back some, but never did.

The militia carefully moved in closer in some more and then took cover. Haliday’s group was lying in wait. Their breathing was rapid. Their heartbeats were quick. The adrenaline was flowing. The temperature was around 40, but most of them were sweating. They waited and waited some more. The militia was making them sweat it out.

Out in the tree line, a strobe light started to flash. Haliday called Rob, he didn’t waste a lot of breath on words of wisdom or anything, he simply told him “Start your offensive.” The strobe light flashed about 45 times a minute. It was a small strobe head about the size of a quarter mounted in small 1X2 inch housing running off a small 12 volt tractor battery.

This was anchored to a tree about 10 feet off the ground. These were normally mounted in fog light areas, back up lights on police cars, car grilles or almost anywhere. They were pure white light and worked well. Each flash was like a small flash of lightning.

The tree bark splintered followed by the rifle’s report. The bark splintered yet again and then the report. The third shot hit the battery and exploded it. The strobe light fell to the ground with no power. The militia sniper had taken it out. It was hard to hone in on due to the flashing light, but eventually he got it. He was happy, there would be no more light to blind the militias’ night vision goggles, he thought.

The tree line started to blink randomly. These were all angled away from the house to avoid interfering with the sight of Haliday’s group. Pretty soon there were almost 20 of these blinking around the perimeter of the property. If one was taken out they would know where at least one militia member would be, or at least the general area. Hopefully this interfered with the night vision entirely.