Matthew Mark - Dark Days Rough Roads

Haliday moved to another position so he could fire past the emplacements without worrying about the guys being in a crossfire. He told the men with the hunting rifles to try and take shots at the militia positions. They needed to take out 3 of the 5 positions that could cover the south end if they expected to get the building entry teams in there and continue to take some of the compound.

Haliday moved over toward the west breach area himself now and took a look. He looked over at Rob. “Grab your binoculars and look at that position on the west corner of that building. We need to take out that one and the ones on each side of it. Tell them that’s what the plan is.” Rob sent a couple of runners out to the town’s snipers and word spread. He used some hand signals and eventually got the point across to the guys behind the bricks and front loader.

Over toward the north side of the compound, Mark and Brad got the men ready. They used some probing fire to see where the militia’s strong points were. Mark told Brad to go launch some cans at the admin building. These had been pulled out of the hunting shop and were merely cans of gel fuel. They had close to a hundred of them. They partially unscrewed the lids and launched them all toward the admin building. Almost half had hit the building and quite a few landed on the roof. The tops popped off and the gel ran every where.

One of the townspeople tried to launch a flare onto the roof, but couldn’t get the distance he needed with the giant sling shot. After a couple of failed attempts, he resorted to attempting to use some fireworks, but couldn’t get the angle. He risked moving in closer and was met with a few rounds into his chest. Mark had told them to abandon the attempt if it didn’t work with the flares, but the guy must have insisted. They had to leave him lay where he was.

Haliday was concentrating on the center militia position. He saw the muzzle of the rifle above the sand bags. He took aim and fired a shot. It was off, but close enough to let the guy know he was being watched. He saw the muzzle shift. Haliday gave it one more shot and fired into the sand bags, but still had no luck. Haliday moved backwards and into the trees where he looked around.

There was a man up in a tree stand with his rifle pointed toward the compound. Roger asked him, “Hey, you can’t see these guys at all?”

The man said, “Not enough to get a good center mass shot.” Roger asked him what he could see. The guy told him that once in a while he could see the top half of a head.

“Take the damn shot,” Roger told him. “Forget that center mass bullshit.”

The man steadied his rifle and kept aim at the militia position. Haliday was crouched down low and looked at his watch. After almost five minutes, he was about to climb the tree himself when he heard the shot. He looked up and jumped to the side just in time as the man threw up. The guy had taken a perfect shot from ear to ear, cutting a channel through the militia member’s head.

Haliday yelled up to him, “It’s them or you. Get the hell out if you can’t hang or get ready to do it again.”

The man said he’d be ok. Roger asked him if there was anyone else in the position there and the guy told him no, it looked like just one guy.

“What about the ones to the left and right?” Roger asked.

“Looks like two in each.”

“Ok, keep your rifle on them, take the kill shots. You’re doing good.” he told the man.

Roger moved back toward the west breach area. Chuck was still there. “What do you think, Roger?”

“Chuck, I think we need to get our asses in there as soon as possible. The center position has been taken out, and we need to get the ones on the sides of it. Let’s try and work on the one to the right first.”

“How are we going to do that?” Chuck asked.

“Give me a minute to think about it, Chuck.”

Haliday thought for a few minutes. He called Rob over, “Look, this is what we’re going to do. We have to concentrate fire on the southeast side. A light rate of fire. We need these guys to shift in their positions. At the same time, I need the east side to have some men move in a little closer, not try and rush the east side, just make a few good attempts to get in closer.” Rob said he would get it taken care of. “You wait for my signal Rob; I’m going to have Mark pop a few rounds of smoke over there.”

Rob headed over to the east side in the four wheeler and told the guys what they were going to do. The men who volunteered got ready, while over on the west side Haliday told the town’s snipers what to do. Haliday himself climbed up into a tree and got ready as well. He could hardly see the guys behind their fighting positions; admittedly it was harder than he thought.

He took aim on the inside of the fighting position and keyed his mic. “Mark, do it now.” Mark launched four rounds of smoke toward the east perimeter and Rob had some of the guys fire into the east side positions as four of the guys made short advances through the woods to get closer. The advancing men just concentrated on getting closer and they fired just a few rounds from the SKS’s they had.

Rob was helping them suppress the militia on this side. He spotted the militia shift in their positions to provide more return fire toward the advancing townspeople. One of the militia was able to fire toward the advancing men and struck one in the abdomen. This man went down and crawled behind a tree. Rob and the rest of his men opened up.

Haliday was aiming at the sandbag and saw the color change in his scope. He fired the round and watched it penetrate the man’s back square between his shoulders. The man went forward and Haliday could only see his arm and hand on his rifle. Haliday fired another shot and the man’s hand came off at the wrist. Haliday knew the guy was dead from the first round, but with Haliday himself going in soon, he was just making sure.

The men firing with Haliday managed to wound two and kill one more. Out of the three positions, they still had one fully capable militia, two injured and two dead. Going into the compound directly from the south was their best option. Chuck came over and Haliday explained the change in plans and they moved the two building entry teams to the south.

Back up toward the main gate, Mark ordered them to launch a dozen of the tannerite cans. They made a last minute change and used fluorescent green highlighters to paint the tape so they could be spotted more easily. A few didn’t make it over the line of cars the militia was using, but that worked out in Mark’s favor.

Mark had one of the guys fire at one. The can exploded in front of the cars and they could hear the nails peppering the sheet metal. The militia just looked at each other. One more exploded and the nails flew everywhere. The militia looked around and saw a few of these lying on the ground behind them. They didn’t know what to do with them.

Mark had the guys pepper the whole north side of the compound and around the admin building with the remaining tannerite cans they had. Haliday’s and Chuck’s teams each had five of their own that they would use. These were turning out to be nice little devices. Haliday was surprised he hadn’t thought of it before.

Mark had them blow a few more tannerite cans and the word had thoroughly spread throughout the militia what these things were about. They all kept a very close eye on them. A few of the militia had taken their jackets off and tossed them, trying to cover the cans up. One guy managed to cover up the one by him and then he shot it himself. Kind of like the redneck who says, ‘Hey y’all, watch this.’ Fortunately the jacket contained the nails, although it was fairly well shredded.

Haliday was ready to move in. He was behind the wheel of his Jeep and he had four other men with him. One in the passenger seat, one on each nerf bar and one in the back seat. He had Rob behind the wheel of the four wheeler and the rest of Chuck’s entry team barely hanging on so they could exit quickly. Haliday had secured the Barrett and was ready with his pistol and AR180.