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.