Liberty or Tyranny (19 page)

The first thing Nate did was grab his rifle.

“Time to wake up,” Brian said again, just to be sure.

Nate sat up and looked around. “Yeah,” he said, in a whisper barely audible to Brian only a few feet away.

Deni woke up on her own.

Nate whispered to her, “Time to go.”

She coughed. “This will either turn out to be a really good day, or a really really bad one.”

“As long as we make it back here alive and unhurt,” Nate muttered. He quickly rolled his sleeping bag up and stuffed it in the top of his backpack. “We’ll eat a little something before we go, but we better make it quick.”

“No fire and no hot coffee, I presume,” Deni quipped.

“No eggs, bacon, grits, and biscuits, either,” Nate whispered.

Deni made a face. “I can’t stand grits. Must be a Southern thing.”

“I can take them or leave them myself,” Nate responded. “Brian hates them. I guess this is when I say something about painting with a broad brush or something.”

Deni fished for some freeze-dried food in her pack. “Yeah, you remember that the next time you two or one of our friends start in on Yankees.”

Brian smiled in the fast-brightening woods. “You guys must be married. Be careful today. I’m going back on watch.” He slipped into the shadows and found a place to hide.

Nate and Deni had nothing else to say while eating their meager meal and listening to Atticus snore. In less than ten minutes, they grabbed their packs and rifles and disappeared into the gray, brooding forest.

Traveling quiet meant traveling slow. With less than four miles to the farm, they were in no hurry. Rushing through the woods could get them killed. Veterans themselves, they knew how well soldiers were trained to ambush, and they took every precaution. The closer they got to the farm, the slower they traveled and the more they used their eyes and ears, constantly scanning, searching for any sign of danger. Their senses on high alert and turned to full volume, the two felt ever more alive as they crept ever closer to what could be their death. Each had total confidence and trust in the other. Past experience had given them that more than the fact they loved each other. They had both seen the elephant many times and proven themselves.

In between overworking their eyes and ears in a desperate attempt to see and hear their enemy before their enemy saw them, they examined any bare ground they came across for boot prints. Not finding any was of little relief.

They approached the fields on the west side of the farm and stayed as far back from the tree line as they could and still see anything. Nate scanned what little he could see with his binoculars. “The field has grown up so much I can’t see more than the roof of the house and barn from here. Where I last grew tomatoes, the weeds are as tall as a man in places.”

“We’ll have to circle around and get closer to the house.” Sweat trickled from under Deni’s helmet and down her right temple. The day had grown warmer as the sun had climbed in the sky. “We might even go a little further and check out the driveway for sign anyone’s been down it lately.”

Nate slipped his binoculars under his jacket and let it hang from his neck. “Good idea. We’ll do that first and then come back to the house and have a look from a distance.”

Thirty minutes later, they were both relieved somewhat, but still nervous. There was evidence the driveway had been used within a week or two, but only once. Tall weeds had grown up in the driveway and some of them had been flattened by a vehicle. Nate surmised it was probably a Humvee. Soldiers had come looking for them. Finding nothing, they left without burning the house or barn.

Deni kept low behind a pine tree. “They may have booby-trapped the place. I’m not so sure they refrained from burning the house and barn out of kindness. They could’ve left the buildings as bait for a trap.”

Nate nodded. “Yep.” He motioned with his head and eased away from the driveway and deeper into the woods, circling around so they could get a look at the house and barn.

The hardpan around the house and barn hadn’t grown up so much with weeds, and Nate could scan both buildings and the surrounding area with his binoculars from his position 20 feet back from the edge of the clearing and well hidden in the woods. He lowered his binoculars and bit his lower lip. Glancing at Deni, he shook his head. “I don’t see anything,” he whispered. “But I’m still nervous.” He considered the situation for about ten seconds, and then motioned for her to follow.

They retreated into the woods until Nate stopped and waited for her to catch up. He rubbed the salt-and-pepper stubble on his chin and appeared to still be considering what to do next. “I think we should go on to the road and see what’s going on there. There’s a hill about half a mile north of the drive. We’ll take advantage of it and have a good look-see with the binoculars.”

Squatting low next to him, she raised an eyebrow and regarded his face, as if she were trying to read his mind. “Okay. We can’t be too careful. An hour of time is certainly worth trading for all the hours of the rest of our lives.”

Nate started to move on.

“Wait.” Deni touched his arm as he went by.

He stopped and looked at her, his face a question mark.

“I’m mentioning this now, so you’ll have time to mull it over in your head over the next hour or so.” She tapped her military armor with her left forefinger and then her helmet. “I should be the one that goes out there in the open when the time comes. I’ve got this armor and you’ve got a better sniper rifle than me.”

He shook his head and started to speak.

“Don’t answer now. You’ve got plenty of time to think about it. Decide after we get back here. I think you’ll agree that I’m right.”

His chest rose and fell in silence. He swallowed and then moved on without a word.

They stayed 50 yards back from the road until they reached the tall hill. Easing up on all fours, they got close enough to see what kind of prevailing brush grew along the side of the road at their exact location. Both of them covered their faces up to their eyes with olive drab mosquito netting and cut brush to add to their camouflage, helping each other diffuse the outline of their head and shoulders, attaching a few strategically placed leafy limbs to their backpacks. They wanted to be as difficult to spot as possible and weren’t going to bet their lives on anything less than their best effort. Snipers were trained to be expert at spotting enemy hiding in brush from long distance, and they both knew it.

Nate scanned every inch of both the left and right side of the road as far as he could see from his angle. He also looked for tire tracks and boot prints both in the road and along the edge of the woods line, lingering long in the area where his driveway connected with the road. The driveway was too far for him to see any tracks or boot prints, but he examined it as closely as he could anyway. There just might be something that could warn him of danger. Perhaps a dark place in the clay where someone had dug and buried something like a landmine or even a motion sensor. He handed the binoculars over to Deni. “Have a look. You might catch something I missed.”

She spent 30 minutes examining every inch of the road and woods line. “Nothing,” she whispered, and handed the binoculars back to Nate.

They backed away from the road 30 yards, and then made their way to the other side of the hill’s crest, so they could have a look in the opposite direction. The results were the same. They found nothing suspicious. No sign of danger anywhere that they could see.

“Well,” Nate said, “let’s head back to the house.”

They came in from a different angle and scanned the scene with binoculars again. Still not satisfied, Nate tapped her on the shoulder and they backed off from the edge of the clearing. Fifty yards into the woods, they stopped to have a short conversation.

Nate removed his boonie hat and used it to mop his forehead. “In the interest of staying alive, I think we should head down to the river, cross to the south side of the farm, and then work our way up the hill and do the same thing all over again from the south side.”

Deni had a different idea. “Why not across the driveway and make our way around from the east? We can check out the road to the south a little better, also.”

Nate put his boonie hat back on. “It’s six of one, half a dozen of another. Your idea may actually turn out to be better. I just wanted to check out the river landing. They could have a boatload of soldiers down there waiting. Also, I have caches buried in the area to the south. On the other hand, they may have a platoon of soldiers waiting on the blind side of that curve south of the farm. If they do, we’ll be sorry if we don’t check it out.”

Deni coughed. “Yeah. They have all the advantages. They can hit and miss. We can’t miss once.”

“One mistake and it’s over,” Nate agreed. “However, we have to be back with the others by nightfall or they’ll be worried. We don’t have time to do everything possible and make it back to them before dark.”

“Might as well swing down by the river,” Deni said. “I have no objections.”

Nate half smiled. “If we get killed, you can blame it all on me.”

She coughed but didn’t smile back.

Easing their way down slope, into the wetter lands, they took their time, turning south just before reaching the river.

There was no boat at the landing, no soldiers. They came across no boot prints and found no sign anyone had been in the area lately. Still, they refused to let their guard down. As far as they knew they were still being hunted, and they were not taking any chances. The farm was an obvious place for a trap. Nate was homesick and wanted to return to a somewhat normal life, even if he never admitted it. Even so, he was risking Deni and his life only because they needed the supplies buried in several caches around the farm. His interest in the house and barn was more out of homesickness than anything else. It prompted him to move in once more and take another look from a different angle. What they would find changed everything.

Nate scanned the front of the house through his binoculars. For the first time, he had a good look at the front door and windows. The first thing he noticed was everything was intact. The door hadn’t been knocked down or the window shutters broken. The second thing he noticed was something white on the door. He checked the barn and found no evidence anyone had bothered it.

“Take a look at the door for me, will you?” He handed Deni the binoculars. “You have younger eyes.”

She examined the door for several seconds and lowered the binoculars. “Looks like someone nailed or stapled a sign to the door. It’s too far for me to read.”

Nate raised an eyebrow, a look of surprise on his face. “I guess I’ll have to move in and get close enough I can read it with the binoculars. Might be Mrs. MacKay’s people asking for help or something.”

“So you haven’t even considered our discussion?” Deni stared at him.

He knew what she was referring to. “Okay damn it. But take your time and be as careful as possible. Don’t get any closer than you need to to read the damn sign.”

Her eyes lit up. “You did say I have younger eyes. That means I won’t have to get as close.”

“I hope it doesn’t say if you can read this you’re dead.”

She looked out across the clearing for a second and then back at him. “My, you’re cheerful this afternoon.”

“I’m really going to be pissed if you get shot.”

“That’ll ruin my day too.” Deni hung the binoculars around her neck and slipped them under her jacket so they wouldn’t be hanging down and snagging on brush while she crawled to the nearest cover out in the clearing. “Someone takes a shot at me; just make sure it’s his last. My armor might save me.”

“He’ll be wearing armor too, if he’s a soldier. The armor they have now can withstand what I’m shooting.”

“That’s good to know. I’m wearing the same armor.” She looked back and smiled at him while on her stomach. “Aim for his face. I’ll keep my head and butt so low about the only thing they’ll see is my pack mysteriously moving across the ground in the tall grass over there.”

Nate almost smiled. “Move slow enough and they won’t even notice that. Just take your time, Deni. We have all afternoon. And don’t get any closer than you need to to read the sign.”

“I promise.” Deni slithered on her belly a few feet and stopped to look back. “I’m going to swing around to the left some. The grass and weeds are taller there.”

Nate nodded. “Keep an eye out for rattlers. It’s been warming up lately and they’ll be out crawling. You get bit in the upper body by a big one, you probably won’t make it.”

She shook her head. “So cheerful today.”

“Just be careful and make it back here in one piece. I’ll be full of cheer. Might even smile once.”

~~~

Deni continued her slow progress, dragging her body along on her belly, staying as low as possible. Occasionally, she would sweep the weeds in front of her with the rifle barrel. Perhaps that would scare off any diamondback rattlers or at least prompt it to rattle and give her a warning.

One problem she immediately noticed was that her attempt to stay well hidden in the tall grass and weeds prevented her from actually seeing the house, and she was soon less and less sure of her exact position and exactly where the front door was. She could see the roof of the barn and used that as a guide until dead reckoning told her she was close to where she wanted to be. Turning to her right and heading directly toward the house, she hoped to move just close enough to the edge of the tall weeds and grass that she could see the sign and read it through Nate’s binoculars.