After the Fall: Jason's Tale (20 page)

No one moved. Big Jacks pointed his .45 pistol at them and
counted off six men in succession. “Now go, or I’ll shoot you right here,” he
shouted. Slowly the two men crept over the bridge, joining the four at the
front behind the lead truck. They stopped at its edge, afraid to step beyond
its protection. Jacks yelled at them again, “Go maggots, or I’ll shoot you
now.” And he began to fire over their heads. Figuring Big Jacks, being closer,
could kill them more easily; the six decided to take their chances in the gorge
and bolted up the road. Those on the bridge opened fire to try to pin down the
ridge shooters. Andy dropped one of them right away, Betty hit another but he
didn’t fall. John’s shots, unfortunately, missed. Andy’s gun went silent and
Betty just missed another as the men ran erratically forward.

The remaining five men sensed safety along the east side of
the gorge. They splashed through the valley creek and hugged up against the
cliff. There they were protected from Betty. She could not see them from her
position. John had a clear view of them but his shots were off the mark. Still
he kept firing and corrected his aim. Finally he dropped one of the men and
wounded two others. They lay against the cliff. The remaining two ran until
they reached the woods. John stopped firing. He was nearly out of ammunition
and didn’t know what to shoot at. The wounded men were not moving, so he
watched the bridge.

The battle ground went quiet. There were no shots coming
from Andy’s position. Ray and Billy were stalking the men coming up on the
ridge, John was waiting, not sure what to shoot at. Jason and Catherine were
waiting in ambush for the other outlaws who were climbing up the east side of
the gorge. Tom was working his way back to Betty’s position.

Betty held her fire, not having a target and not sure of
what was going to happen next. She guessed some men had gotten past her, up
against the cliff. They might be coming towards her from behind. She was close
to panicking but didn’t know what direction to run. She just lay in the brush,
not wanting to give away her position. Suddenly she heard movement in the
woods, not from the rear, but from Tom’s direction. She readied herself, but
waited, hoping it would be Tom. Sure enough, he emerged from the brush, bloody
and injured, but alive.

She ran to him, “Tom, you’re alive! I didn’t hear the
machine gun and I didn’t know what had happened. I just kept shooting, doing my
best.”

“I’m alive, but the machine gun is out of commission. What’s
going on? Is it over?”

“I don’t know. John was the last one shooting on the other
ridge, but he’s stopped now. I’m worried some of the gang may have made it past
me. They could be coming up through the woods.” She pointed behind her.

Tom had a .45 pistol he had pulled from Jason’s collection.
“I’ll watch for them. You watch the bridge with your rifle.” They settled down
to wait.

When the three men got to the top of the slope on the west
side they headed towards the exposed edge of the ridge. Following the sound of
Andy’s shots, they crept up behind him. Andy heard rustling in the brush and
swung around to bring his rifle to bear on the sound. The three men fired as he
turned. He was knocked back like being hit by a powerful punch, and found
himself looking at the sky instead of the brush where he meant to look and
shoot. He wanted to aim his rifle and shoot the ambushers, but his arms
wouldn’t respond. Staring at the sky; it looked so blue and calm. Why did he
notice that? His rifle and the shooting were forgotten. As he stared, blackness
began to close in from the edges of his vision and then it all disappeared.

Ray and Billy heard the shots. They knew what had happened.
Quietly they moved at an angle that would intersect the shooters coming their
way back along the ridge. Hearing the men before they could see them, they crouched
down, ready to shoot. First one came into view through the trees, but there was
no clear shot. They waited until all three could be seen. Each picked a man.

They fired and two of the three gang members went down. The
third man dropped to the ground, out of sight for the moment. Ray and Billy
waited, but the man was smart enough to lie still. Ray looked towards where
they had shot, trying to see through the brush. He motioned for Billy to circle
to the right while he went left. He wanted to box the third man in and not let
him slip away.

Billy quietly crept to his right. Ray started left, but his
old body sabotaged him. His knee gave out and with a grunt he stumbled forward.
The gang member heard, then saw Ray stumble and shot rapidly at him though the
trees. Ray fell. Billy now could see the man and shot him. As Billy was working
the bolt on his rifle to chamber another round, the man turned to fire back
when Ray fired. Ray’s bullet tore into the man’s right side, through his lung
and into his heart.

The remaining gang members just crouched behind one of the
pickups with Big Jacks. “There’s no more shooting. Get up the road.”

They didn’t move. More than half of those who charged lay
dead. The odds didn’t look good to them.

“Get your asses up the road. We’ve got the battle won.” He
shouted again. Still no one moved.

“Why don’t we wait here until the guys on the ridge signal
it’s clear?” one of them offered.

“You chicken shit. Get going,” Big Jacks shouted again.

The man shook his head. “I’m not going out there. Most of
those guys got shot.”

Big Jacks turned his .45 on him. “You go or I’ll shoot you
down like a dog.” His voice was dark and deadly.

There was fear in his face, but still the man shook his
head. “It don’t make sense. A lot of guys have been killed. Our guys will
signal us when they finish them off. We should wait here.” He looked at the
others for support, but they had separated themselves from him.

“Coward.” Big Jacks said and fired. The man fell back with a
large hole in his chest and blood spurting out of his back where the bullet
exited.

Without a moment’s hesitation, the rest of the men dove
around the edge of the pickup and ran down the road away from the fight.

“Come back you cowards,” shouted Big Jacks. He fired at them
but missed. They ran towards Clifton Furnace as fast as they could go.

Jason and Catherine waited silently. They could hear no more
shooting from the gorge. Neither knew if that meant victory or defeat. That
didn’t matter at this point. What mattered was they had to kill the men coming
up the slope. They heard their approach well before they could see them.

Suddenly one of the men appeared. As he got to the top, he
moved in a crouch going from tree to tree. He was careful. Jason couldn’t see
the other two.
They’ve fanned out. Now we’re in trouble.

There was more rustling to his left. Jason motioned for
Catherine to cover the first man and he began to move to his left to intersect
the second. The first man seemed to be waiting for the others. He crouched
behind a large tree. Catherine could tell where he was hiding but could not see
him clearly. He would have to move for her to get a shot at him, or she would
have to move. She watched Jason quietly disappear, moving away from her through
the brush. She was alone now.

Jason hoped Catherine would not panic at this deadly
stalking game. She had the advantage. She knew where the enemy was. He didn’t
know she was near. As careful as the man was being, Jason understood he didn’t
have any idea that death might be so close to him.
Just be still, be calm.

There was no plan on who would shoot and when. Catherine
decided that when she had a shot, she would take it. She forced down her rising
panic. She could now see her enemy, he couldn’t see her. She would use that
advantage to the end. One shot when it was clear, and he would never know what
hit him.

Now unseen by Catherine, Jason moved forward and to the left
of her position. He wanted to intercept the other gang member closer to the
edge of the slope.

The man Catherine was watching heard his companion moving on
his right and started to go forward. Crouching, he stepped out from the tree
and slowly began to go forward. Catherine steadied herself and waited for him
to clear the brush. Her shot hit him in the side of his head and blew open the
right side of his skull, just above his ear. He collapsed like a limp doll,
dead before reaching the ground.

The other outlaw stopped, then moved to his left towards the
sound of the shot. His path would intersect Jason in twenty yards. Jason saw him
coming and fired. The shot hit him on his right side, spinning him to the
ground. Jason guessed it was not a kill shot, so he moved forward. He needed to
finish this one off so he could concentrate on the third man. As he approached,
the wounded man tried to bring his rifle around to fire at Jason. Before he
could take aim, Jason shot him in the head.

The third gang member, thinking the shots were from one
person, figured the shooter had moved from in front of him to his right, the
direction of Jason’s last shot. He headed towards the sound. Catherine saw him
moving. She had no clear shot, so she set out after him. The man’s movement
made enough noise that he couldn’t hear Catherine heading towards him.

Suddenly the man stopped and crouched down. He saw Jason.
Jason moved cautiously, trying to pinpoint him, but this time he didn’t know
quite where the man was. The outlaw could barely see Jason. He waited to get a
clearer shot, sensing that Jason didn’t know his position.

Jason waited. Minutes went by. He slowly moved to his left.
He was in the cover of bushes and wanted to reach a tree. Catherine saw the man
slowly rise to a standing position behind his tree and sight his rifle. She
guessed he had Jason in his sights. She rose and aimed at the man.

As she steadied her aim, a twig snapped under her foot. The
man turned towards her, trying to bring his rifle around the tree when
Catherine fired. The bullet hit him in his chest. His rifle fired in the air as
he spun around and fell to the ground, the rifle thrown ten feet away.

“Jason,” Catherine called, “it’s all clear.”

Jason came through the woods to the man. He was almost dead,
the bullet having torn through his chest. After disarming him, he ran to
Catherine who was standing at the tree.

“You saved my life,” he said to her.

She looked at him. She dropped her rifle and he grabbed her
in a huge hug. “Is it over? Did we win?” Then she started shaking and crying.

Jason held her tightly. “I think so. It’s okay now, no more
shooting, no more killing.” They kept hugging and both began to sob.

Jason gently stroked her head and patted her back. “It’s
safe now,” he said between sobs. “We did it. We all did it.”

“I was so scared, but I kept on shooting. I did what you
taught me. And in the woods…I almost panicked. I couldn’t see you. I was
alone…so scared…seeing those men up close. They would have killed me if they
had seen me. It was just up to me…I had to shoot them…by myself.”

“It’s okay. You did it the way I showed you and we won. It’s
over now.”

Catherine looked up at him. “Do you think it’s really over?
Can we stop fighting?”

Jason smiled at her. He hoped he was right. “Yes, we can
stop fighting now. But we have to get back to the others. We still need to be
careful until we’ve secured the battle field.” They picked up their rifles and
walked hand in hand back towards Betty and Tom.

When they reached them, Betty told them about the men she
thought had gotten past her.

“Stay here with Tom,” Jason told Betty. “I’ll check out the
woods down to the road.”

“I’ll go with you,” Catherine said.

“Are you sure?” He asked turning to her.

She took a deep breath and nodded, “I’m all right now. We’ll
be careful. We find them before they find us and we’ll be okay.” She said it
like a mantra.

They quietly disappeared into the woods. As they neared the
road they heard the rustling in front of them. There were two men crouched in
cover. They sensed someone approaching and called out, “We surrender! Please
don’t shoot.”

They were huddled together, the fight completely gone out of
them. Jason raised his rifle. Catherine put her hand on his arm.

“Don’t.”

He looked at her.

“They’re not fighting.”

“They’d kill us if they had a chance.”

“But they don’t. It doesn’t seem right.”

Jason lowered his rifle. They approached the two men who
drew back in fear. They stared at Catherine.

“She’s just a girl,” one of them said in wonder.

Without offering an answer, Jason quickly moved to tie the
men up with their own belts, making sure they could not get free or move. Just
then Billy shouted from across the road. They could barely see him at the
wood’s edge.

“Pa’s shot! He’s alive! I need help! Mr. Nolan is dead. They
shot him before Pa and I could get there. Help Pa!”

Betty and Tom came down from the ridge. “The rest of the
gang ran off. There’s no one left at the bridge but the dead and wounded,” she
reported.

“Did you see a huge man, Big Jacks, leave?” Jason asked.

“No. I think I hit him with the machine gun. He may be among
the wounded.”

Just then John came down from the west ridge and ran across
the road to them.

“It’s over, we did it, I can’t believe it, I shot so many
times, I kept missing, but I kept trying, I’m an architect, so I figured it was
all about angles and vectors—this aiming, I kept correcting, adjusting, and
then I started hitting targets—people—I started shooting people, I think I
killed some people, I know I wounded some, I saw them go down but they moved,
they’re still alive, what do we do with them—?”

Jason grabbed him by the shoulders, “It’s okay, John. You
did what you had to do. We all did. You won’t have to do it again. You saved
your family.”