Matthew Mark - Dark Days Rough Roads

Each team was four men. Two with shotguns, two with AR’s and everyone had pistols with them as well. Haliday was the only one carrying a Smith. The rest had Glocks. He never liked Glocks;, something about a pistol that was dishwasher safe didn’t appeal to him. That and the fact that once on the range at the police station years ago, he watched a hot reload blow the top of the grip off one. The guy ended up with 25 stitches. He had seven magazines for his, so he didn’t worry too much about interchanging mags.

The plan was not as suicidal as it sounded. They had the two injured and one full bodied man to deal with. With any luck they would already be neutralized before they got there. Haliday clicked his mic, “Ok everyone, we are a go.” Haliday and Rob had about 450 yards to go and left one behind the other.

As they approached the southern buildings, they criss-crossed paths a couple of times and would widen and narrow their space between them to try and randomize their approach and throw off the target acquisition anyone might have on them. The groups on the east and west side started firing into the militia positions while the snipers looked for targets.

One of the injured militia raised himself up to take aim on the approaching vehicles. He went down before he could pull the trigger on them. The other militia positions on the east and west sides didn’t have enough cover to help out. To shift fire and help out would mean exposing themselves and possibly be overrun themselves. They continued their fight to the east and west.

Of the three positions they needed to neutralize, the center one was empty. The one to the east only had one injured man left and this was where Rob was heading. The one Haliday was near was the one to worry about. They still had that one guy in there with his injured partner. Haliday kept a steady pace as he approached it.

The west tree line positions opened up with everything they had. As the Jeep came to a stop, the men on the nerf bars hit the ground running and fired into the position as the other two exited the Jeep. The return fire dropped one of the men with a hit to the chest and one to the man’s leg. The other three advancing men fired into the position with 10 rounds of buck shot and a full 30 round magazine.

The guy was hit multiple times and the advancing men heard screams from the other man who had been injured and was now lying down on the ground with his hands in the air pleading to not be shot. One of the advancing members rolled the guy over and placed handcuffs on him and left him there. Haliday moved the Jeep toward the building as they rushed toward the last of the three positions.

Rob’s four wheeler approached and before it came to a stop the militia member came up firing. Chuck, who was next to Rob, fired back along with the other two. One of the men in the back fell off the four wheeler and tumbled along the ground dead. A sniper from the east side had to fire three shots, but hit the injured militia member, ending his life.

The militia group on the east fired up into the trees when they spotted this man and hit him. The man had only been hit in the leg, but lost his footing on the reversed tree stand and fell to the ground breaking his arm and some ribs. He laid there unable to move and the militia finished him off as he laid there trying to get behind the tree.

Mark’s area was much harder to assault. With most of the buildings and fortifications in place on the north side, it was hard for them to find suitable targets. Mark ordered a cease fire unless the snipers could definitely get a shot in. They couldn’t afford to waste any more ammunition on just trying to suppress fire.

He called over to Brad. “We need to see about getting these people moving and exposed. See if they can fire into any of the tannerite cans and let’s see what happens. If we can’t get to them, it’s a waste of our effort.” Brad and Mark both passed the word along. A few of the guys started to take some shots on the tannerite cans, hoping to hit them.

One of the cans near one of the militia’s northeast positions exploded, sending its nails flying. The two people in the fighting position were hit causing multiple cuts on their backs and the backs of their necks. Two nails embedded themselves in one of the men’s neck. He reached around and tried to remove them, but his jacket was in the way.

The other man moved over quickly to help him out. Mark saw this and waited. When the man went back to his side of the fighting position, Mark fired and struck the man in the left arm and shoulder. The militia called in for aid and this is when they discovered the situation was worse than it actually was. They were on their own with what they had with them.

The deuce couldn’t provide cover for delivery or extraction. The militia would have to stand their ground the best they could until the opportunity arose when someone could get more supplies to them. They had plenty of rounds, just no food or first aid capability for those who needed intensive medical treatment.

Mark called a cease-fire again. He told everyone to save their rounds and not to fire on the tannerite anymore until they could plan a new strategy. Mark called Haliday. “Roger, how’s it going down there?”

Haliday responded. “We are in the perimeter. We have most of the south side now. I need you to get some guys down here to help take out the other two positions.”

Mark and Brad gathered a few guys together and went around to the south side of the airport. Once there, he assigned four guys to move forward to the brick emplacements and then work there way forward to take over the militia emplacements that had been seized. They would have to alter the positions to make them more effective, but right now they would serve them well enough.

Mark would then concentrate on helping Rob and the rest of the guys take the other positions out of service. With Haliday and Chuck’s entry teams clearing the three most southern buildings, they would use these to help continue moving the assault closer to the admin and motor pool buildings. In between these buildings and the ones Haliday would take were the food and supply storage buildings.

Over by the northeast corner of the compound, some of the townspeople started to take fire from behind them. They scrambled for cover. They were now practically caught in a cross fire. The militia had a couple of members heading toward the airport to join them.

They had stopped to wait out the assault and then come help if they were called in. One of these militia vehicles had come up directly from the east and was now in a position to help out. The people in this vehicle had found an area to hide. They were now engaging the townspeople in the fire fight.

Haliday adjusted the entry teams. He now had two teams with only three guys each. Chuck’s and his. They decided to go with two shotguns and an AR in order to prevent over penetrating the buildings. The first building they went to enter was a large hangar building furthest south. One of the guys went up to the back door and used the shotgun to blow through the lock.

Once the man blew the lock he swung the door open and he tossed a tannerite can inside which Haliday then fired on. The can exploded, but instead of nails they had used the small airsoft beads. Basically homemade stun grenades. They didn’t want to damage what might be inside. Both teams entered the building and conducted the building sweep. This building was completely filled with food. They noticed Walmart tags on most of the items.

The next building was very small. This one they could not reach yet because there was no back door. It was the building the militia had used for interrogating people. Haliday went to the back window and pulled out his mirror and took a peek. He waved Chuck over. Chuck took the mirror and looked in the window as well. There were a couple of chairs and a table, but there was also more.