There was something so familiar about the woman with the ponytail. If only she weren’t obscured by the trees and leaves. She looked just like someone he knew, the way she held herself, her confidence, that brief glimpse of her smile—Oh my God, was it even possible?
Sam Snodgrass heard some movement ahead of him and decided to investigate. The fighting was about to begin and his job, as a Loyalty Officer, was to prevent anyone from leaving the fight, whether it be the family whose ranch home they were taking, their friends, or GA deserters. His orders, direct from John, were to detain them until the fighting began and shoot them as soon as he heard the signal to commence fighting.
He had already proven himself useful twice: once when they took a town (its name escaped him), and then at Fossil Ridge. In both cases, it had been the newer recruits. Once the shooting started, they ran. He hated those “sniveling scaredy-cats,” as he described them in his stories to his friends.
He was ready for this one.
He raised his rifle and gingerly hiked to where he heard the noise, until he came upon two women talking about something. Then, they both got up and hugged. And then, they turned and walked away. They were deserting! He would double back and cut them off before they made it to the highway.
Thompson Journal Entry
Continued…
They will come at you with everything
This is how the battles in the end will take place.
Desperation will take even the innocent and turn them into something ugly; the weak into the dangerous; and the already evil into the scariest thing imaginable. No matter what dish nature serves, no matter how awful it is, nothing will be worse than the poison served to you by your fellow man.
When the Romans invaded and took over a country, they used overwhelming numbers and technology to humble their enemy, but they immediately ceased violence upon the surrender of the conquered, finding it better to have people be self-governed in their own lands, albeit with a heavy hand.
Your enemy will not be like this. Keep all I have told you in mind when they come after you. Your enemy will not think like a Roman battlefield general would, attempting to protect the spoils of war and its people; they will come at you with everything they have. And after you have surrendered, they will kill and plunder, laying waste to everything they don’t take.
31.
Cocktails, Anyone?
“Hey Miguel, come here and hold my weapon on that asshole on the beach, okay?”
“Si, Señor Bill.” Miguel kissed his wife and child, sitting on the living room sofa, and hurried over to him.
“What’s up, hon?” Lisa’s arms were getting tired training her weapon on Clyde and Judas’s location, the adrenalin-high having long since worn off. She hoped her husband had an answer to break this stalemate, before Clyde’s obvious ploy worked. He was waiting for them to drop their guard, hiding behind their sea wall. She feared that Clyde had much more in mind. They couldn’t stay on alert forever. She knew that they had a big weakness. Neither she nor Bill would just shoot someone, but she suspected that Clyde would have no problem pulling the trigger when given the chance. It didn’t matter. He may be an asshole, as Max often said, but he had also been a guest at their home many times. She would not take the first shot.
“I have an idea,” Bill said as Miguel took over his position on the north end of the patio door. “I want to try something that might get us out of this stand-off.” Pausing only briefly to peck Lisa on the cheek as he passed, then trotting past the kitchen, he went into their pantry and after a bit of bumping around came out with an A-frame ladder. He set it in the middle of the kitchen, and climbed to a precarious stance near the very top. Taking a screwdriver from his pants pocket, he proceeded to remove the screws from the frame of the domed milky-white skylight.
“Where the hell is that kid?” Clyde asked Judas, who stood behind him sheepishly, not sure what to do next. “Ah, fuck it. It’s time to move to Plan B.” He held out his hands, a request for Judas to hand him what he wanted.
“No, we can’t. Let’s give them more time.” His voice was whiney and crackling. Judas wanted the food, but didn’t really want to kill to get it. He always figured they would just fold, like he would. Just give up and do what Clyde demanded.
“They aren’t going to give up. If we start a shootout with the Mexican weapons we found, it’ll take too long and one of us might get shot. Besides, I’m tired of waiting. We cut our losses, get rid of the Kings, and see what we can find at Thompson’s house. As you said, smugglers killed Thompson.”
“It was the cartel, and he wasn’t killed, he was kidnapped.” Judas corrected him, half expecting to get slapped for it. “Besides, we don’t want to destroy all of the Kings’ supplies.” The thought of murder was starting to nauseate him.
“Jesus and Mary, you sure do snivel a lot. You said that most of the supplies are either in Thompson’s beach house or the one across the street. That should be more than enough for us for a while.” Clyde was annoyed at having to explain himself, but he wanted the little pervert fully on his side so that he would continue to do things for him. It was a lot easier than threatening and looking over your shoulder. “Look, Judas, we kill two birds with one stone. We kill the Kings; we have full access to Thompson’s supplies. So, please hand me our presents. It’s Christmas in July.” He flashed a politician’s grin.
Judas shrugged, giving in, and reached into a box they had both hauled to the beach wall earlier. He took out two of the many bottles marked Jose Cuervo Gold with rags stuffed in the neck of each and handed them to Clyde.
Clyde eyed them like a child with new toys, only these were much more deadly than any toy ever given at Christmas. Turning them upside down, he watched the bottles’ contents wick into each rag. The pungent scent of tequila filled the air. Clyde figured he would find a use for this crappy tequila someday. He giggled at the irony of this. Every year he received a bottle of Jose Cuervo from the Kings around Christmas time. He wasn’t about to drink the stuff when there were so many good tequilas in Mexico. Why waste your palate on a bad one? Yet, he accepted each with thanks and stored them away, for what he didn’t know. Well, now was the time he could re-gift them their own tequila. “Okay, light me up.”
Judas flicked his disposable lighter a few times before a blue flame danced all over the top of one bottle. Clyde touched the other bottle to the lit one, and then took a few steps back judging weight and distance. He stood still, his muscles tensing, ready to release.
Bill removed all the screws of the bracket that held the plastic lip of the skylight in place, then climbed down the ladder and ducked into their safe room for a while.
“Señor Bill is smart, Señora Lisa. He goin to shoot dos men from da roof,” Miguel said, still training his gun on the spot where the two men had ducked behind the wall.
“Oh.” Lisa now understood Bill’s plan, but didn’t care for it one bit. “Yes, I’m afraid you’re right.” Trying to get her mind off it and relax a little, she forced herself to smile. “Congratulations on your new baby, Miguel. What is her name?”
“Ana, after Maria’s sister who—” He stopped and they both turned to see Bill coming out of the safe room’s doorway carrying another rifle like the one Lisa had, and a bundled roll of rope and poles. He headed to the kitchen, went back up the ladder, and proceeded to set up the rolled-up emergency ladder on the skylight frame, now open to the sky.