Brushfire Plague: Reckoning Page 4
“Brother, don’t you remember Waco, Texas? The feds rolled in on those guys with the whole world watching.”
Cooper shrugged his shoulders, “Ah, hell. This is different. I ain’t holed up in some compound with a bunch of kids. I told the world about the biggest crime in the history of mankind.”
Dranko looked back, unconvinced, “We’ll see if your vaunted CNN truck shows up before the next attack does.”
“Yeah, we’ll see.”
“At least stay over at my house tonight. Just to be safe.”
Cooper eyed him for a moment, “Sure. That makes sense. Thanks.”
“And, one more thing,” Dranko said, his eyes twinkling mischievously.
“What now?”
“After it’s dark, drive your truck around the block and leave it at the far side, in between here and the barricade. If anyone does come looking for you, maybe they will think you’ve flown the coop.”
Cooper scratched his chin, “Not a bad idea. My car is already on the south barricade, so moving the truck makes sense.”
Trying to lighten the tension, Dranko made a display of making a deep bow, “Glad you recognize my genius, kind sir!”
Cooper welcomed the overture and chortled, “Brother, there’s a long way from an idea that isn’t moronic to genius status. Just be happy that today you’re a couple steps above idiot.”
Dranko smirked, “See?”
“See what?” Cooper asked, confused.
“Once in my life, I try to be optimistic and see things just a tad better than they are and you just go and shoot those dreams all to hell.” As Dranko finished, he mocked a wounded tone.
Cooper didn’t miss a beat, “Hey, I’ll encourage you to be optimistic every day of the week. But, when it comes to your mental prowess, it’s a wide gap between optimism and just plain losing touch with reality!”
Dranko’s hands clutched to his chest and his face pantomimed pain, “You wound me!”
“Well, I’ll see you tonight if you do not succumb to your grievous wounds!” Cooper turned on his heels and left, chuckling to himself.
**********
“Wake up!” Dranko’s breath was hot and urgent as he whispered into his ear.
Cooper, instantly alert, sat up in bed and began reaching for his boots, his eyes pleading for an explanation.
“Your house. It has company. I saw four men, maybe more. In civilian clothes, but they move like they are military.”
“Damn!” Cooper cursed.
His boots laced, Cooper rousted Jake who lay sleeping next to him in Dranko’s guest room. Jake’s eyes fluttered open as Cooper motioned for him to remain quiet. “I need you to get dressed quickly and then wait here for me.” Jake nodded and went into motion.
Cooper followed Dranko to his living room where they could get a good view of the front of Cooper’s house. He saw multiple figures moving around his home, securing the perimeter. Like Dranko, he counted eight men, likely an equal number deployed around the back, where he could not see. Movement caught his eye from the shadows across the street.
As it registered, his hands balled into fists and a fierce scowl slashed onto his face. Venom dripped, “Gus.”
In the shadows, he could see the unmistakable portly figure of Gus Varela standing next to another man, dressed in dark clothing, pointing towards Cooper’s home. Moments later, Cooper almost ducked when Gus’ finger shifted and pointed towards Dranko’s house.
Next to him, Dranko exhaled, “Bastard.”
Cooper’s vision returned to the activity in front of his house. “They are planning to breach,” he whispered to Dranko.
“Yup,” his friend agreed.
Cooper wasted no time and returned to where Jake was waiting.
“Son, gather your stuff. From Dranko’s back yard, I want you to make your way to the third backyard up the street, away from our house. Then, go over that fence to the backyard behind that one. There are no dogs between here and there, so you shouldn’t be noticed. Then, huddle in your sleeping bag and wait for me or Dranko. Got it?”
Jake stared at him with wide eyes and nodded. Only his father noticed they weren’t nearly as wide as they were just a few weeks back. He’s getting used to this chaos. Cooper’s insides protested against the necessity of it.
“Don’t come out ‘til morning if I or Dranko don’t come for you. And, you will hear gunfire. But, you wait. You hear me?”
Jake nodded, more firmly this time, “Just one thing.”
Cooper eyes grew quizzical, “What?”
“Don’t die. Please,” The innocent sincerity in Jake’s eyes stunned Cooper and his knees nearly buckled. He grasped his son’s shoulders as Jake’s eyes filled with tears.
“I’m not planning on it, son.” It was the best he could offer his son in the way of comfort and still tell the truth. “I don’t want to, but I gotta go. And, you need to get moving!” Cooper swatted his son to spur him into action. He threw his bulletproof vest on, grabbed his rifle and a bandoleer full of ammunition and ran out. He felt as if he’d left his heart on the floor for abandoning his son.
Angela and Dranko met him at front door, Dranko apparently having awoken her. When they abandoned Cooper’s home for the night, Angela had joined them. They were kitted up and ready to follow him into battle.
Cooper saw them and emphatically shook his head, “You wait here.”
Both Dranko and Angela shot him furious looks.
“After they find out I’m not home, one of three things happens. They leave. We get into a firefight. Or, they come here looking for me. If it’s a fight, join in. If they come here looking for me, you can tell them I hightailed it out of town after the attack today. Got it?”
Angela and Dranko nodded.
“What are you going to do?”
“Watch. But, if it’s a fight, there are two people that won’t survive it.”
“Who?” Angela asked.
“Their commander and that traitor lawyer, Gus Varela.” He spat the man’s name as his lips curled into a baneful snarl.
**********
Cooper closed Dranko’s back door quietly just as a furious banging came from his home a few doors down. They’ll make a racket up front, but breech from the back. He’d learned enough of breeching tactics to guess that.
He circled behind Dranko’s house, so that he could exit from the far side and minimize his chances of being seen by the commander or Gus. From the backyard, he saw Jake’s backside slipping over the fence into the neighbor’s yard and then out of view. When he reached the opposite side of Dranko’s house, he heard the battering ram smashing his back door. He imagined the team moving into his deserted home, clearing each room. It would only be a minute before they had swept the house and learned he was not there.
Cooper went prone and crawled forward, until he was at the front of Dranko’s porch. He inched his rifle out, sighting in on the commander, still standing out in the open next to Gus. He was relieved to see the man did not appear to have any night vision equipment with him. He silently chambered a round.
Moments later, the commander put a finger to his ear and listened intently. Cooper expected he was getting word that the house was empty and his men were asking for instructions. The commander conferred with Gus, who quickly pointed toward Dranko’s house. Although his cover was good, Cooper couldn’t help sliding even lower behind the porch and plants.
The commander was mid-sentence when the first shots rang out from behind Cooper’s house. The shotgun blast followed by a single rifle shot told him it was the people from their neighborhood patrol who were firing first.
He quickly eased out half a breath and fired at the commander’s groin; hoping to avoid his body armor. When he crumpled to the ground, he knew he’d hit him somewhere good.
Cooper shifted his aim and rushed a shot where Gus had been standing. To his surprise, Gus had reacted quickly and disappeared from view. Moved fast for a big man.
The cavalcade of gunfire
from the rear of Cooper’s house told him all he needed to know. He only heard the sharp pops of 5.56mm rounds being fired. The absence of a booming retort of a shotgun or the deep roar of a hunting rifle’s round made it likely the pair on patrol lay dead or, at best, wounded. Then, silence, filled the night.
Cooper kept scanning for any sign of movement from the commander or of Gus Varela. To his left, he heard Dranko’s back door open and close. Seconds later, he saw Angela and Dranko take positions on opposite sides of the driveway and then crouch down. The seconds drifting past felt like an eternity. Cooper practiced breathing deeply and scanning the street in front of him from left to right. He saw Dranko make some hand motions to Angela and then she moved toward the back of his house once more. Dranko must be guarding against them coming across the backyards towards us.
Just then, two figures scurried across the road, running toward the commander. Without thinking, Cooper fired and dropped one of them as his .308 round found purchase. The man was sent sprawling onto the pavement and his rifle clattered across the asphalt. His partner took two more steps and then dove for cover near where the commander lay.
The men covering this pair opened fire in Cooper’s direction. Bullets stitched across Dranko’s lawn, clods of dirt and grass were flung into the air as angry rounds landed around him. Cooper knew they were laying down suppressing fire because they didn’t know exactly where the shot had come from. Thankfully, Dranko was outside their line of fire. On the other side of the street, the man who made it across joined the fray. The front of Dranko’s house took his abuse. Wood splinters rocketed out as the man methodically pockmarked the doorway with gunfire.
Just as methodically, Cooper sighted in on him. The man was obviously well trained because he presented very little in the way of a silhouette to target. Cooper took what he could and fired. The man disappeared from view, but Cooper didn’t know if he’d hit him or if he’d just scampered back behind the half wall that shielded most of his body from view.
This shot brought a renewed fury of gunfire at him. Now, the men had a better idea of where he was. Bullets impacted very close to him and he heard the whine of several just over his head. Cooper scooted himself behind Dranko’s porch to take cover.
He heard Dranko fire a controlled burst, but couldn’t tell who he was shooting at. A flurry of gunfire responded and Cooper hoped his friend had found cover. Then, silence descended once more upon the night. He waited a while before pushing himself forward, past Dranko’s porch, to survey the scene. He could see Dranko crouching to his left. The street was empty; the man he’d shot previously had either moved off or had been carried away. Likewise, the commander’s body was gone. There was no sign of the men.
Dranko motioned for Cooper to come to him. Cooper switched to a crouched position and moved quickly towards him. Angela arrived just as he did.
“What’s the situation?” Cooper asked.
“I think they’ve moved out. After they lit my position up, as I came back up from cover, I saw the tail end of them disappear down the road.”
“Makes sense that they would try to be surgical.”
“I hope,” Angela began but Cooper cut her off with is hand. He cupped his other hand to his ear, to tell the others to listen. From down the block, the deep-throated roar of an engine came to life, revved, and then faded as it moved away from where they were.
“Must have parked outside our barricades and infiltrated through the yards,” Angela observed.
“Right,” Cooper agreed.
“Good thing you stayed at my place, eh?”
“Sure thing. But our excitement isn’t over yet.”
“What?” Dranko asked.
“I need to pay a visit to Mr. Varela.”
Dranko nodded but looked chagrined, “You won’t find him home, I bet. No one is that stupid.”
“I know he ain’t stupid, but I’m hoping fear will overwhelm him and have him panicked. He did just see someone shot right next to him. That can take the stuffing out of a lot of people. Scared people make dumb decisions all the time.”
“I won’t argue that,” Dranko intoned. “Let’s go, then.”
The trio moved out. They searched his house from top to bottom, but found it empty. Coming back outside, there was no sign of him, either. The oddest thing that struck Cooper was that no neighbors had come outside of their homes after the gunfire had ended. Did they know? Or, did they see that it was focused on me so they don’t care?
Cooper retrieved Jake, who he found curled up shivering in his sleeping bag in the neighbor’s backyard. His eyes were wet, but they alighted with relief when he saw his father’s face.
Taking precaution, the group joined the northern barricade until dawn.
They called out to the guards as they approached the barricade while giving the coded sign that the neighborhood used and that changed every few days. Mark and Freddie were there and they answered their rapid questions about what had happened.
“We wanted to go see what the hell was going down, but we know our job is to stay on the barricade, no matter what,” Freddie said excitedly. Cooper could tell Freddie was stressed because typically, the young man in his twenties could barely breathe without telling a joke or performing some antic to make others laugh.
“Your discipline was spot on,” Cooper said, still thinking about the many that had not come out to help, but weren’t constrained by duty like Mark and Freddie had been. Cooper stroked his chin and his stomach felt empty realizing that the world was shifting under his feet yet again.
**********
When the sun rose and fought in vain to pierce the gray clouds that were so common in Portland, Cooper and his group gathered away from the barricade.
“Let’s survey the damage at my house and then we need to pay Gus another visit,” Cooper commanded more than said.
They moved down the street, weapons at the ready. As they neared his home, he saw spent shell casings scattered about. He picked up several and noted they were all the same caliber, the size used by the military.
The front door had been battered off its hinges and the frame splintered. His house struck him as a man missing his two front teeth. Jake let out a gasp when he saw it. Cooper clenched his jaw.
He steeled his voice, “Let’s clear the house to make sure it’s empty.” He chambered a round and Angela and Dranko did the same. He motioned for Angela to stay with Jake on the front lawn as he and Dranko entered the home.
They stepped over the front door that was lying on the ground and noted muddy footprints scuffed across the floor. They moved from room to room, being careful around corners. Dranko had once explained to him how to ‘pie’ the corners to minimize your exposure while you searched a building. He let Dranko take the lead in doing so. The two quickly fell into rhythm moving through the house. They moved through the front living room, then the dining room, before coming to the kitchen. The back door, which led into the kitchen, was also knocked off its hinges and lay sprawled on the floor. A burn mark in the middle of the room was evidence that a flash-bang grenade had been thrown inside. Fury surged within him, seeing his home violated like this. He grunted and tried to push it aside. Within minutes, the rest of the house was cleared and they moved back to the front lawn.
“Worse than being burglarized,” Cooper said, as they gathered once again with Jake and Angela.
“A burglar just comes to steal something. These guys game to steal you,” Angela said. Cooper just stared at her, nodding slowly.
“We were lucky they tried the stealth mode first. That gave us the fighting chance. Next they will come in with a tank or an armored vehicle of some kind. Or, maybe a damned Blackhawk!,” Dranko added.
Jake’s face flashed in alarm and Cooper gave Dranko a stern look. “But, your dad is too smart and too good for these bums,” Dranko offered quickly.
“And, we were lucky they sent in some second-rate crew. These guys didn’t have night vision, for example,” Cooper added.
“I’ll make some breakfast while you guys clean up. Jake, do you want to help me?” Jake nodded to Angela in response.
A half hour later, Cooper and Dranko had managed to reattach the front door and enable the door to close, albeit awkwardly. Angela and Jake offered up an equally awkward breakfast of beans, canned fruit cocktail, and crackers. A pot of weak coffee completed the repast. They had barely begun eating when Gus’ voice assaulted them.
“Coo-oo-per! Come out!”
Angela fumbled her coffee cup, spilling some of it. Cooper’s fork crashed against his plate as he threw it down in rage and disgust, “That bastard!” He leapt to his feet, grabbing his rifle and made a beeline to the door. Dranko and Angela were quickly on his heels.
Cooper nearly tore the hastily rebuilt door from its hinges as he flung his door open, weapon at the ready. What he saw shocked him.
In front of him, stood Gus. A smug look lashed to his face. Behind him stood about twenty of his neighbors, armed, with hostile eyes glaring at Cooper. The shock at seeing such a crowd arrayed gave him a momentary pause. The contrast with the prior times he’d stood on his stoop and addressed his neighbors, guiding them through their fear or instilling hope, struck him to the core. He stopped in his tracks.
Gus saw the muzzle of Cooper’s rifle pointed at his stomach and he waved his hands, “Calm down, Cooper, we just came to talk!” Cooper heard the fear in voice in marked contrast to his earlier shouted orders.
Cooper grimaced and barreled into Gus, pushing him backward and off his front steps. Gus backpedaled and barely kept his balance.
“What’s this about,” Cooper called to the crowd, ignoring Gus.
No one spoke, but instead, heads turned to Gus.
He recovered more than his footing, “Don’t play dumb, Cooper. You know what this is about. After last night, you are a clear and present danger to this neighborhood. So…” Cooper’s glare made Gus choke in fear.