The Siege Read online

  “I don’t snore!”

  Hannah and Sarah looked at each other, then back at Sami. In perfect harmony, they said, “Yes. You do.”

  “Really? Brad never mentioned it.”

  “Well, if Brad doesn’t mind, then he’s definitely a keeper. Marry that man before somebody else does.”

  Chapter 13

  Sarah stretched and watched from the bunk in the RV as Bryan dried himself off and got dressed.

  “What’s on your agenda for today?”

  “We’re going to start digging out this end of the tunnel today, so we can remove the bodies and bury them before they decompose too badly. If we leave them in there too long, they’ll stink up the tunnel and the smell will never go away.”

  “Where are you going to put them?”

  “We still have that huge mound of salt in the back of Bay 24, from when we originally dug the tunnel. We’re going to put them back there and cover them with salt. The salt will absorb the bodily fluids as well as the smells, and will mummify them over time.”

  “Can the tunnel be repaired?”

  “Oh, yes. We still have plenty of railroad ties and arched ceiling braces in the back of that same bay. We’ll shore it up as we go. Should only take a few days to dig out the first debris pile. Then we’ll replace the damaged cameras and rerun power for the lights.”

  “What about the second pile of dirt? The one at the other end of the tunnel? If you take it out, they might attack us again.”

  “I’m not sure about that one. John wanted to have a meeting today with Mark and Bryan and me to discuss our next move. He wants to meet in the dining bay at ten. Why don’t you bring the girls so y’all can have some input too?”

  “Okay. I’ll make sure we’re there.”

  Bryan walked over to the control center. Joe was on duty.

  “Anything going on?”

  “Not a thing. It’s been quiet all night. The bad guys slaughtered one of the pigs first thing this morning. He’s hanging in the barn now. I guess they’ve decided they want pork chops for dinner tonight.”

  “That just ain’t right. They’re over there living high off the hog, on our livestock, and we’re stuck over here eating eight year old MREs.”

  Bryan looked at Joe and smiled.

  “Did you catch what I said there? Living high off the hog? Get it? Eating our pigs? High off the hog?”

  “Don’t quit your day job, Bryan. And John asked me to remind you of the ten o’clock meeting when I saw you.”

  “No problem, I’ll be there. Have you seen Brad and Mark yet?”

  “No, why?”

  “Whenever they haul their lazy asses out of bed would you tell them to meet me at the tunnel? I’m going to move a couple pallets of arches and ties over to the entrance so we can get started with the digging and repairs.”

  Bryan walked to the entrance of the tunnel and entered it to get a look at the job ahead. The debris field stretched from floor to ceiling and sloped downward. It was easily several tons and would require a lot of digging.

  When they dug the original tunnel they’d done it by hand, filling one five gallon bucket at a time and then hauling them out of the tunnel entrance one by one. It had taken them almost two years to finish the project, but back then they weren’t in a hurry. They knew it would be five to seven years before the earth thawed out enough to reinhabit, so they had time to burn.

  Now, though, they were anxious to get out of the mine and go back home. They had plenty of water and diesel fuel for the generators. They had enough MREs to last them at least six more months. But none of them wanted to stay here that long.

  Karen wanted to get back to the plants in her greenhouses before the men she called “heathens” managed to kill them all.

  Bryan and Mark wanted to get the corn, wheat and sorghum crops planted so they had time to harvest and plant a second set of crops before mid summer.

  Everyone else just wanted to go home again.

  “What do you think, little brother? Think we can whip it out in a couple of days?”

  Mark and Brad had walked up behind him.

  Without turning, he said, “I’d guess more like three or four, but we won’t know until we get started.”

  “A true statement if I ever heard one. Joe said you were going to fetch some ties and arches?”

  “Yep. I’m heading that way now.”

  “Okay, then. We’ll get some buckets and shovels and get started while we’re waiting for you.”

  By a quarter of ten they’d made a good sized dent. They were sweaty and covered in dirt, and needed to take a break to meet with John.

  In the far end of the bay, out of sight of anyone walking down the main passageway, they had a makeshift shower system set up. It was nothing but a two by four mounted on the wall, to which three shower heads were fastened.

  Each shower head was fed by a garden hose, which went through a small water heater. Mounted on the wall high above the shower was a fifty gallon water tank which provided their water.

  They utilized the shower daily when they were digging the tunnel, but this time they chose to pass it by. None of them had thought to bring a change of clothes, and they were going right back into the tunnel anyway. So instead of utilizing the shower, they dragged their dirty selves down to the dining room to meet with John and the others.

  Hannah couldn’t resist commenting.

  She said, “Well, that’s a sexy look for you guys.”

  Mark walked in her direction and pretended to take it as a compliment.

  “Well, thank you, baby. How about a big sloppy kiss?”

  “Na-uh. Not me. Y’all went and played in the dirt together, you can kiss each other if you want to.”

  “Oh, come on, honey. You always said you liked it when I got dirty.”

  “Not what I meant. Not at all.”

  John cleared his throat.

  “Okay, you two. How about you save it for later so we can get down to business?”

  Chapter 14

  “As I see it, we’ve got a couple of options. There are only six of them left, once we get the bodies out of the mine. We outnumber them now. Plus, we have the element of surprise. And they still haven’t figured out that the security cameras are still working over there. We can see them and they can’t see us. We have radios and they don’t.

  “So as I see it, the odds are in our favor.”

  John spoke up.

  “That’s true, Mark. But let’s not get overconfident. As a general rule, it’s harder to take ground than it is to keep it. Any general will tell you that.

  “And even though there are only six of them now, they’re still doing a pretty good job of standing guard. They haven’t left the roof or the gate unattended for the last three days now. It’ll be hard for us to sneak up on them.”

  “We can go through the tunnel. They’re not guarding it.”

  “Maybe. How soon before you can get it clear?”

  Mark looked at Bryan, who merely shrugged his shoulders.

  “I’m guessing three to four days to clear the first pile and get the lights and cameras working again. Half a day to move the bodies and cover them up with powdered salt. Then we’ll get a chance to look at the second debris pile.”

  Bryan said, “One of the problems is we haven’t been able to see what the second pile looks like, because they shot out the camera on that end of the tunnel, and the other side of the pile was in the darkness. It could be about the same size as the first, or it could be much larger.”

  “True. So let’s say five to six days on that one. Or less. So we’ll have the tunnel cleared in ten days or so.”

  Sarah spoke up and expressed her concern.

  “Who’s to say they don’t meet you there in the tunnel as soon as you clear out the far end, and shoot you on the spot?”

  “Well, as we said, we outnumber them now. We can post armed security down there with the diggers to defend against such an attack. Plus, we haven’t seen the
m go anywhere near the feed barn for the last three days, except for the one man who’s feeding the livestock twice a day. And he hasn’t lifted up the floor to the tunnel access.”

  “But just to be on the safe side, we’ll have a radio with us. Whoever’s on duty at the console can alert anyone in the tunnel if they make a move toward the feed barn. Once we clear the tunnel we can install a lock on the underside of the feed barn’s trap door so we can open it from the inside but they can’t open it from their side.”

  “We won’t be able to get radio reception from the far end of the tunnel. We’ll have to post someone else with a radio at the tunnel’s entrance to relay transmissions back and forth.”

  “That’s easy enough. We can post one of the girls there. Unless, of course, they’d rather dig instead.”

  Sarah said, “Uh…no. We’ll man the radios. There’s no way I‘m coming out of that tunnel looking like you guys.”

  Bryan stuck his tongue out at his wife and went on.

  “I guess the big question on my mind is, what happens when the tunnel is clear and secured from the inside? Is that our main line for attack? And when do we hit them? During the day or at night?”

  “I’m a little bit concerned, frankly, about the man on the roof. We’ve been watching him closely, and he’s doing a great job of looking in all directions. He moves from side to side and then front to back of the building constantly. He never sits down and never stands still like most other sentries.

  “Even worse, he changes direction frequently, so we never know which side of the building he’s going to peek over next. Instead of performing the same sequence, he’ll frequently stop dead in his tracks and head in another direction. Yesterday I saw him stop short, then go back and look over the east side of the building three times in quick succession before moving on to the north wall. Sneaking in on him will be tough, because we’ll never know when he’s going to peek over the side of the building in the direction of the feed barn.”

  “It sounds like he’s had some military training. And if he catches us in the open, or in the barn, we’re in trouble. The feed barn is mostly empty, except for sacks of grain. We could hide behind them, but I don’t know if they’d stop a bullet or not.”

  “What about the night shift guy? Is he as thorough?”

  “Almost, but not quite. The first day after we blew the tunnel, the day shift man stayed behind after his shift and trained the man on nights to use the same technique. That’s why I believe that the day shift roof guy is their leader. He seems to know what’s going on, and he seems to spend a lot of his off-duty time training the others on tactics.

  “Anyway, he trained the night shift guy to use the same techniques, and for the most part he does. But he does sit down and rest occasionally, and he walks slower than the day shift guy. Also, when he looks over the side of the building, he tends to look longer. So, for example, once our team is out of the tunnel, we can have them wait until he’s at the north end of the roof. Then we can give them the go signal, and they should have ten to fifteen seconds or so to make it across the open area to the back of the building.”

  “Will that be enough?”

  “It’ll be close.”

  “How about if we wait for a heavy rain, and then use that for cover?”

  “We could be waiting for weeks.”

  “How about a moonless and overcast night, where the visibility is next to nothing?”

  “Good idea. We’ll incorporate that into the plan. We’ll get everything ready to go, and then wait for the first moonless night.”

  John spoke up for the first time. Everyone stopped to listen. John was not only a former Dallas police detective, he also pulled duty years before on the Dallas SWAT team. And before he joined the force he served a stint in the U.S. Marine Corps.

  If anyone in the group knew tactics, it was John.

  “Before we try any kind of assault, I think it would be wise to thin their ranks a little bit more.”

  “What do you mean, John? Thin their ranks how?”

  “By using a little bit of guerilla warfare.”

  Chapter 15

  John went on to explain his logic.

  “I’m pretty sure we’ll eventually have to do a full assault against them… go in there and take the compound by force, with guns blazing. The only way to avoid it is by them leaving on their own, and I don’t see them doing that. They’ve had a taste of what we have, and they obviously want it bad enough to die for it.

  “We also know that the odds are in our favor, for a number of reasons. We’ll go eventually. And when we do, it’ll be a well coordinated attack, in the dead of night, and we’ll wear night vision goggles. They have some over there, but they haven’t found them yet. So in addition to everything else, that’ll give us a great sight advantage for night fighting.

  “But that’s not to say some of us won’t get hurt. So we need to soften them even more if we can. They have six men left over there. Let’s whittle that down a little more before we go in.”

  “Okay, John, but how? You said guerilla fighting. I’ve heard the term, but I’m not familiar with it. Aren’t those the tactics the bad guys used in Vietnam? Don’t we like, need a jungle or something for that?”

  John laughed.

  “Not necessarily. Guerilla means ‘little war’ in Spanish, and it’s been used in every war to some degree, whether there’s a jungle or not.

  “Guerilla warfare is nothing more than unconventional attacks on your enemy. Traditional warfare means two armies shooting at each other trying to annihilate each other. Guerillas work in small pockets, sometimes behind the lines, to take out the enemy a few at a time. They use various means to do so. Like booby traps and snipers and ambushes.”

  “So, in essence, blowing the tunnel on top of them was a guerilla tactic.”

  John smiled.

  “Exactly. So in reality you’re already guerilla fighters. By blowing the tunnel we’ve already whittled their forces by half. More than that. Now we need to whittle them down even more.”

  “Okay. Well, I don’t really think they’re going to try the tunnel again. So what’s the next plan?”

  “We’ll send out a small team, two men, to take a couple of them out. It’s been several days now since they lost seven men in the mine. When their men first disappeared, they were on high alert. Now, my guess is they’ve started to relax a bit. Several days of pulling guard duty for twelve hours a day and not seeing anything has probably made them a bit complacent.

  “Complacency means sloppiness. They’ve probably let their guard down, to some degree. And that’s the best time to hit them.

  “So we’ll send a two man team out to take out a couple more of them. Then we’ll back off and bide our time, and let them get sloppy again.

  “The idea is to deplete their numbers as much as possible, so that when we actually do our assault there’s only a couple or three left.”

  Bryan was uneasy with the idea, and said as much.

  “I have to tell you, John, it sounds good in theory. But I don’t much like the thought of sending just two of our own out there. I mean, if something goes wrong, they’ll be on their own. What if they get pinned down, they’re getting shot at, and we can’t get to them to help them? Or, even worse, if they get shot and we can’t get into the compound to get them back out?”

  “Who said they’d be in the compound?”

  Bryan looked puzzled.

  John continued.

  “Look, Bryan, I understand your concern. There’s a right way and a wrong way to do this. We’ll do it the right way. And it’ll be well coordinated. We won’t go until we’re positive we can make it back safely. In wartime, and make no mistake about it, this is a war we’ve got here… in wartime, nothing is ever guaranteed. Nobody can say for sure that nothing will ever go wrong. But we’ll do everything we can to ensure our safety before we go. And I won’t ask you to go if you’re not comfortable.”

  “Oh, crap, that’s not wh
at I’m saying, John. I’m not afraid to go. I just don’t like the idea of splitting up, when thus far we’ve stayed as a group and we’ve done quite well.”

  John was irked.

  “We haven’t done that well, Bryan. In case you haven’t noticed, we’ve had to evacuate our home. Bullets were flying. Sami almost died. And it was just by the grace of God that she was our only casualty. This is the way to go. We strike them one or two at a time, we strike them hard, and then we get the hell out of there. And then, when their numbers are lessened, we go in as a group.”

  Chapter 16

  John and Bryan made their way through the woods on the west side of the compound on a four wheel drive Gator. The Gator was essentially a two seater quad runner on steroids, with a tiny pickup bed in the back for hauling feed, seed, manure, or anything else a farmer might need to haul. It was made by the John Deere Company as an all-terrain utility vehicle for farmers and ranchers.

  And it worked equally well for two men who were determined to get back what was taken from them.

  Strapped to the bed of the Gator were two sixteen foot extension ladders. Collapsed, they were still eight feet in length, and hung over the tailgate a considerable distance. But tie down straps kept them from going anywhere, and they only scraped the ground a couple of times when the machine climbed up the steep grades of the arroyos.

  Both men had their radios turned on and wore ear pieces to listen to Mark, who stood in the open doorway of the mine.

  Mark was blind to the goings on inside the compound. In fact, he couldn’t even see the compound from his position, but that was okay. His sole purpose on this mission was to relay information from Hannah.

  Hannah’s radio wouldn’t penetrate the thick walls of the mine to the outside. But they would reach to the mine’s door, and Mark’s signal would reach to the west side of the compound.