Matthew Mark - Dark Days Rough Roads

This gave away their position and they headed toward the back of the shop. The sniper put a couple rounds through the front windows just for the sake of doing so. The arrow was not effective enough to do any damage. Just a few small nicks from the nails. They had hoped it would have a more profound effect than it did. No such luck. It was a wasted effort. They felt stupid for trying it instead of just using regular arrows and firing from the dark window.

Rob took a plastic ball that his wife had used in the washer for fabric softener and he packed this with BB’s and gun powder. The hole was sealed with wax with a fuse attached. They lit this and used the slingshot to launch it toward the building. It landed just behind the cars out front and exploded sending BB’s everywhere. This was far more effective. The two front windows of the building shattered and one of the militia got hit in the face, losing an eye and embedding another BB in his chin. People always looked too long at objects thrown at them instead of taking cover and this guy found that out the hard way.

The lower windows had been covered with wood, but a smaller upper window shattered. Not much building damage, but at least they had made a statement. The townsmen concentrated coverage toward the front of the building. The main problem was the sniper on the roof. They couldn’t really advance while this guy was up there. They would have to figure out how to get him down.

A woman came out of the back door of the admin building with two men. The men fired wildly toward the street providing cover fire as she ran toward the motor pool. She had her rifle slung on her back and keys in her hand. From a distance of 150 yards away and from another small building across the street came another shot dropping one of the men.

The round struck him at the base of his nose. His AR fired as he fell. Blood trickled out of his ears and nose as he lay motionless on the ground. The remaining man fired toward the building on full auto, burning through magazines. The sniper looked, but didn’t see anything; he had a lot of ground to try and cover. They were calling the attack in to their patrol group at Haliday’s, who were engaged in their own assault. Both groups were on their own.

The townsmen were slow and methodical in their fire. They didn’t want to waste the ammo they had and didn’t want to give away their positions to the militia. The wide open spaces around the airport made it hard to get close. They were also playing it as safe as they could. They knew this was serious, but didn’t know how serious it really was. They heard a truck start in the motor pool.

Haliday shook it off and rolled over. He looked over toward the house. From within the property and the surrounding area he watched occasional patches of muzzle flashes. He was quickly trying to get a fix on where most of the action was taking place. It was sporadic; there was no sustained attack on any one part of the property.

He checked the militia man and found his radio. He unplugged the man’s earpiece and listened for a few seconds. It was all static and he could hardly make anything out. During the struggle, the antenna had been broken near its base and the reception was poor at best. He kept it close regardless. Anything he heard would be better than nothing.

He looked over at the Barrett, grabbed it and set it back up on the bi-pod. He looked through the scope for a target. Off in the woods he spotted one of the quads. He took aim and readied himself for the shot. He squeezed the trigger and watched the round. Aw crap, he said. He missed it, he was mad at himself. He had wanted to check the zero on the scope and the quad was the only readily visible target.

He looked at the scope; it had to be off just a bit. He had knocked it pretty good with his knee and it was just enough to take it off zero. The rifle set up this guy had was probably 12-15 grand when he purchased it and he couldn’t believe how the scope reacted to the hit it took. He didn’t have time to play with it. What was maybe a sixteenth of an inch on the scope base could equate to a couple of feet at 700-800 yards where the round would impact.

He couldn’t afford to use it. He needed accuracy and reliability, the system that he knew well. He ran about 20 feet away and brushed aside a pile of leaves and some loose branches and pulled out his M24. He ran back to the Barrett’s location and set up his own rifle. He scanned the area for another target.

Over by the woods, they would need the most help. He listened on his radio, but didn’t hear much traffic. The militia was still probing right now. They would advance or fire and then watch where the return fire came from. He kept scanning the area because someone would have to show themselves eventually.

A little more than half of the strobes were still working. He concentrated near the darker spots. He caught a glimpse of muzzle flash and started working on finding the person behind the gun. He’d have killed for a night vision scope. The illuminated reticle on his at night was only good for making sure you were centered over your target, but that was only if you could clearly see your target.

Alan wasn’t having any luck either. He was staying low and using one of Roger’s homemade periscopes to try and find some movement. Once he was able to locate someone, he would then try and fire on them. To just sit there exposed while he hunted for a shot was asking for more trouble than he wanted.

Alan looked down the street and spotted movement along the ditch. It was about 250 yards out. He took a deep breath and lifted his rifle into position using the notch as his protection and the wall as his bipod. The figure started to cross over from one side of the road to the other. He fired the round and ducked back down.

The round dropped more than he expected and entered the woman’s left shoulder. The round caught her off guard and she dropped to the asphalt and started to work her way to the ditch. Another militia member ran over and provided suppressing fire toward the crow’s nest. Haliday changed his own angle of aim.

The lady was toward the edge of the asphalt near the gravel shoulder of the road. The man continued to cover her by firing three and four round bursts. The muzzle flashes lit him up perfectly. Haliday fired and the round went through the man’s left chest area and came out through his right rear shoulder blade, hitting his aorta as well.

The woman sat up slightly and called toward the downed man. She crawled back over to him to check his injuries. Once she realized he was dead, she tried to crawl back toward the ditch. Alan watched this and popped back up put another round into her, hitting her leg. The woman now laid there. She had been hit twice and was calling on her radio for help.

Haliday just heard the crackle of the radio and a word or two. Road and help was all he could make out. He called Alan on the radio. “Be careful, but keep an eye on that woman. They might be coming to get her. You let me know if you see anything. We might be able to coordinate something.”

“Ok, Roger, what about the woods though?”

“I’ll watch those for right now.”

Roger called Mark next. “Mark, we have them moving in closer over in the wood line. You over there at all?”

“Ya, I have a spot next to Lisa and Kayla, who are in the fighting positions. We can’t really see anyone yet. They are holding off at quite a distance. All we’re getting are probing shots. I only have half our guys over here firing back to help keep up a level of surprise.”

Haliday heard a light thump followed by four more. He looked over at the street and saw smoke rising around the woman. The militia used their launchers and put smoke down on the road to attempt retrieval. They had a Jeep speeding in toward the location of the wounded woman.