Firestorm: Walking in the Rain Book 5 Read online

  I slowly walked back to my cup of stew and my rifle being watched by Kofi. I picked up my cup and finished my meal. I complimented Barbara on the new taste, picked up my rifle, and went back to my campsite. I sat next to my pack and waited for my kids to follow. When we were all together, I said, “You don’t ever have to listen to that kind of talk. People like that think they can treat you unfairly and you can’t do anything about it. Wrong. Times have changed, and you have a right to stand up for yourself and your family.”

  My mind was reeling. What the hell was that man thinking? Was he trying to make me kill him? His one act may end up costing the entire camp their lives. Joseph’s people can’t keep the raiders back without our help. I started packing up my gear, and the kids did the same.

  “Do we have enough water, Dale?”

  “Everything that will hold water has been filled. I packed up the pot earlier.”

  “Did we get all of our clothes washed and dried?”

  I heard a chorus of “Yes, sir.”

  “We are gone. Sorry we can’t stay here longer, but something is not right. We are going to move away from here and settle down before it gets dark. If I’m wrong, then I may be apologizing to a lot of people tomorrow. Keep your eyes open for potential food sources. We will not have a fire tonight, so only what we can forage without cooking.” With that, we started walking east out of the camp. We spread out our spacing between us, and I took the front position. Joseph ran over to us with a panicked expression. Jordan was right on his heels.

  “David, I don’t know what the heck that was with William. He has never said anything that vile in our camp. Most of us are as mad as you are about what he said. None of us believe a word he said.” Jordan nodded along with his dad.

  “How long has William been here with you at this camp?” I had a feeling, but I needed to know for sure.

  Jordan responded before his dad. “He got here about three weeks ago. He just showed up one day and told us that he had run out of food at his home and started walking, trying to find someone to help him. He’s been here since.”

  “Thanks Jordan. That is helpful.” I didn’t know who to trust so I played the offended party.

  “We are leaving. Right now. We tried to make it work, but it’s obvious that some members of your group are less than pleased with us being here. We can’t spend all of our time looking over our shoulder. Goodbye. Joseph, Jordan, it was a pleasure to meet you. Will you tell Angel and the Grossman sisters that I’m sorry to be leaving under these circumstances?”

  “I’ll do that. Will you reconsider?” Joseph was making an effort, but I needed to get my kids clear of this camp before dark.

  “Sorry. Like I said, we’re out of here.” I walked out into the woods with my kids trailing behind. We didn’t bother with our radios, and I stayed in sight. We found a spot where the pine trees all grew close together in a knot and settled down for the night. I sent each one out to scout our location so they would be familiar with the area when it got dark. I also set up the challenge, password, and emergency words from page ninety-eight: poles, current, and metal, respectively.

  “Okay, so here is the real deal. I’m not crazy. I’m angry about what that idiot said, but the beating was for show. I think Mr. Pogozelski is working with the raiders. Why else would he try to get us to leave? He got what he wanted, but I gave him a beating to soften him up and keep him close to camp tonight. I’m going back to get him and bring him out here and get some answers. Kofi, you will help me drag him back, but I don’t want you to be party to the interrogation.” He tried to argue, but I shut him down.

  “That’s final. I’m already troubled that I’ve had to turn you all into little soldiers. I’m going to go really dark and scary to get what I need from him. I hope I’m right, because otherwise I’m just another monster.”

  I left them to get ready. Regina was going to take first watch. Kofi left the new M4 for her to use, just in case, with clear instructions not to go full auto. Single shots only unless she was about to be overrun. Alex and Dale settled down, but I could tell they were not going to get a lot of sleep that night. I left my watch with them to keep track of the guard shifts. The three of them could take care of themselves.

  Kofi and I went to check our path into the woods, but we didn’t see anyone tracking us. Good, I didn’t want them to try to find us until I knew who I could trust in camp.

  We knew the routes the sentries walked at night, since we had surveyed the entire thing with Joseph. Kofi knew exactly where William would be recovering from his spanking. I had the honor of creeping into his tent and acting like I was one of the ladies coming to “ease his pain.” It helped that I was clean for the first time in a while otherwise, he would have smelled me coming. I slapped him hard enough to stun him and duct taped his mouth with extra wraps around his head. That was going to hurt when I peeled it off a few minutes later. Good.

  I used the same wire on his wrists that had graced either Devin or Burt. A blade jabbed near his manhood and a whisper for silence got him to come with us easily. We walked out of the camp like three old friends, and we heard no shouts of panic. I needed to get him far into the woods. I didn’t want anyone else to hear his screams.

  I sent Kofi back to our camp, knowing he would find it easily. Some people had brains wired for directions, and Kofi was rarely lost or turned around. I cheated and used my compass. I set a heading south from the camp. If there were raiders from the north, then I wanted the campground between us. I took him about a mile through the brush and thorns. I pushed him ahead of me to break a trail and take most of the abuse from the wild blackberries. I made a mental note to come back and pick all I could; they had to be close to being ripe.

  There I go again, thinking with my stomach. Focus now. I need this to be my best madman performance yet.

  I found a small pine tree that was ideal for my purposes and clubbed William enough to make his eyes lose focus. It was hard to see in the dark, but I think I got it just right. I didn’t even use my rifle. I simply slammed my forearm into the back of his head and wrapped a strand of wire around his throat and the little tree. I made it tight enough and high enough that he was left standing on his toes, struggling to breathe with his back to the rough bark of the pine. I used my pliers to torque the wire from behind. He was either going to talk, or decapitate himself with the wire.

  Mr. Pogozelski had a lot of information for me. Yes, he really was working for the raiders. Their idea was to keep the group at the campground together but weak so they could get “food” as needed without having to deal with their upkeep. He was sent in weeks ago and had actually helped kill the two people a week ago. They were in the tent next to his. Doris was not part of the plan, she just didn’t trust me until she spoke with Alex.

  The outburst tonight was to drive me and my kids away. Burt, Devin, and Raymond were coming to grab someone as soon as it got dark, but based on how the camp had chased them before, they planned to ambush anyone coming out of the camp.

  The guns came from a large black SUV that they had first tried to ambush on the interstate. The thing was bulletproof and had just driven off without returning fire. The next day, it came back, and a guy got out and dumped crates of guns and other supplies on the highway and took off.

  “What kind of supplies?” I asked.

  “The rifles you got the other day were some. We got enough for everyone to have one, and we have some still stored.” He was spilling it all.

  “What else?”

  “They left us some machine guns.”

  “You mean the rifles?”

  “No, the kind that you load with a belt of bullets. Not the same as the rifles.”

  “How many of those?” I really needed this information.

  “Three.” Well crap. That could button up a position pretty well. Three belt-fed machine guns. They were a pain to move through the woods, but they could fire four hundred rounds quickly. Those alone could chew an attack apart. Wish I’d had
those in the city. I could have held our ground then.

  “Besides guns and ammunition, what other supplies? I know you didn’t get military vests or magazine carriers. What else did they drop off?”

  “There were several radios in there too with extra batteries and charging units.”

  “Wait, do you have a generator?”

  “They left one of those too. We have been using fuel from all those cars parked on the roads.”

  The story kept getting worse. These guys could communicate with each other and had some pretty decent gear. Great! Somebody decided to arm raiders who just so happened to be freaking cannibals. So much for background checks.

  “Who were these people just magically dropping off all this gear with freaking monsters?”

  He had no clue.

  “How do you contact the rest of your group?”

  “I have one of their radios back at camp. I only turn it on and report when something happens here. They can talk to me then. Last week they gave me a different radio that was fully charged and took mine back.”

  “Do they know I left camp after I beat you this evening?”

  “Yes.”

  “Are they coming for me?”

  “No, they are going to attack the campground. I was told it’d be closer to morning so they would have enough light to set up another ambush.”

  “You are being really talkative right now. What are you really hiding?”

  I got more intelligence out of him. I had to get a little messy, but I got a layout of the raider camp based on what he could recall. I left him there tied to that tree. He would be dead soon from blood loss, but that was not my concern. I needed to get back with the kids and get ready. As I expected, it was going to be a long night without any sleep.

  My list of things to do kept getting more complicated. I needed to get the kids and return to the camp to alert them. This could be a turkey shoot or a slaughter, depending on our timing.

  CHAPTER

  NINE

  When I got close to where I had left the kids, I heard a familiar voice call out quietly. It came from behind a tree to my left. Not where I was expecting it. Good. They were learning some tricks of survival.

  “Halt. Who goes there?”

  “It’s Mr. Metcalf,” I replied quietly.

  “Advance to be recognized.”

  I moved closer to the tree where she could identify me. Without a lot of illumination, it was more of looking at shadows and trying to see if I matched the correct general size.

  She called me to halt again when I was closer. “Poles.”

  The correct challenge was used, so I replied with the password. “Current.”

  The shadow moved closer and gave me a hug. Alexsandra must have been freaked out. She doesn’t do that with anybody. At least, I didn’t see her do it after the planes fell from the sky and the world turned to absolute crap.

  “What did you find out?”

  “It’s what I expected. Mr. Pogozelski was working for the bad guys. They are planning to attack the camp tonight—or actually, tomorrow, at first light. We need to get everyone up and moving. We had to come out here to make them think we were out of the picture.”

  I let Alex lead me back to our little campsite under the trees. She knew where everyone was sleeping, so I could avoid stepping on anyone.

  As it turned out, they were all awake already. They were waiting for me to come back, and their gear was all still packed and ready to move. Nice, we didn’t have time to waste.

  “We are going to move back and set up a firing line along the east side of the campground. Try to orientate your firing lines more to the northeast. I think they will come that way. Get out our three radios. I’ll keep one, Kofi you will have the other, and I need to get the third to Joseph. I’ll go and alert them and get them moving. The enemy is probably already on the move. Kofi, when you get into a spot with a good view of the area, get the thermal scope out and set up. You are going to be the eyes for the rest of us. Dale, Regina, and Alex are going to line up with you about ten yards apart and all of you are going to dig in. The ground is soft, so make your fighting positions deep.” I waited for clarification from the kids.

  Dale asked a good question. “What order do we need to be in?”

  “Alex will take the point furthest north. Keep your magazines out and ready to reload. When the shooting starts, I want you keeping the bad guys busy. As soon as they start returning fire, drop down in your position and stay down. Dale, you will be in the next spot. It will be dark, so shoot at their muzzle flashes. Kofi, set up next with Regina to your left.” I let that sink in before continuing.

  “They may have more than just M4s coming. William mentioned they have three machine guns. Real ones that will chew you up if you don’t keep your head down. Oh, and they also have radios.”

  “Mr. Metcalf, where will you be?” Kofi was not going to like this part. Heck, they might just revolt and tie me up.

  “I’ll be down there hiding along the embankment, trying my best to look like a pile of leaves. If I stay under your fire coming down at them, I can pick them off from behind their own cover. Oh, and don’t look into the campground; it’s going to get really bright in there as soon as they start shooting. Now, let’s get there and start digging. I’m going ahead to plan with Joseph.”

  I took the two radios and got mine set up. I did a quick radio check with Kofi and started creeping back the way we came. I had an idea where their guard would be, but I didn’t want to startle anyone and get shot by accident. Friendly fire still hurts.

  I finally saw someone walking slowly down the path that ringed the campground. They really needed to be less predictable, but I could use that to my advantage. I just needed to figure out how to get the person on guard not to shoot me.

  “Hey, don’t shoot me; it’s David and his band of misfits.”

  I swear, Ashley almost shot me. “You left us, you bastard!”

  Not the greeting I was expecting. “That was all just a ploy to ferret out your mole. William Pogozelski admitted to being a spy for the raiders. He was using a radio to report on your activities the whole time he was here.”

  “How do you know all this?” Ashley was still pointing her rifle at my general direction.

  “William is not in his tent. I took him and interrogated him earlier this evening. He told me where he stashed his radio. That should be proof that I’m not lying to you. More importantly, there is a raid scheduled for in the morning, so we need to get everyone out of the campground and out of the immediate area. Can you tell me where to find Joseph? I need to coordinate with him.”

  She finally lowered her rifle.

  “William was a spy? I wondered why he acted the way he did. He was always stirring up trouble and causing people to argue about stupid stuff.”

  “That was his mission. Keep you all divided and weak. They were using this campground as their own personal feedlot. My kids are covering the east side of camp. They are going to spend the night digging in and getting ready. We need to alert the rest of the camp, but we have to be quiet about it.”

  Ashley led me back into the campground to the screened-in shelter. Inside of the shelter, there were people and their bags laid out everywhere in the dark. Joseph’s spot was right by the door. When Ashley nudged him with her foot, he let out a quiet grunt and some unflattering things that were physically impossible. I woke up swinging most of the time; Joseph woke up swearing, it seemed.

  “Joseph, David came back. He found out that there’s an attack coming. Pogozelski was a traitor, and he was feeding them information about us. We need to get everyone up and moving.”

  “What? David came back? Where is he?”

  “I’m right here. This is serious. I can fill you in as you get ready. I have a radio for you. Kofi has the other one, and he will observe enemy movement and coordinate with us. Here, I’ll check in with him and do a quick check of your radio too.”

  I waited for him to get his rad
io turned on and plugged in his earpiece.

  “Kofi, Joseph has his radio. How are you guys doing up there?” The forest to the east was slightly higher than the campground, so he had a decent view of most of the people moving around.

  “We dug in Alex first. She has a decent spot, and like you said, we went deeper than usual. I’m working on mine right now. Dale is chopping the roots. I got the thermal scope on. I don’t see anything moving outside of the camp. One of the sentries is near our old site right now.”

  “Good to know. Joseph is going to be busy, so if you see something, say something.”

  Joseph was finally moving. He woke up the form lying next to him, Barbara. That made sense for both of them to be within easy reach in case of emergencies. Barbara was given a shortened version that gave her the basic idea—bad guys are coming. After we got everyone up, we decided to send them all to the eastern side, behind the protection of my kids. Regina acted as their guide, showing everyone where to go in the dark. Some of the kids panicked at the thought of being in the woods at night, but by holding hands with the person in front and behind, everyone was evacuated long before Kofi started picking up signs of the enemy coming from their base.

  William told me that the raid would be small and only a few men were coming. I figured that was a lie, and he hoped to be rescued when we were all either killed or taken for later. Kofi saw at least seven individuals moving in from the north. They were following the creek, just like Burt’s little team the other day. It must have been an easy landmark for them to use in the middle of the night.

  I needed to get settled before they got close enough to hear me moving. I slid down the embankment at a point where the earthen bank was only three feet taller than the creek bed. I got as low as possible and moved where the cover was better. I was deep in the shadows at that point, and in front of me, I could make out the little beach where we had done our laundry and boiled our drinking water. It was an ideal spot for the enemy and gave excellent cover for anyone shooting at them from the campground. This was where I needed to be.