First Activation

Jack and I started firing. One of us hit the shooter in the thigh, and he dropped to his knees. I ran out of ammunition just as Jerry made it over the fence and started running through the field in the direction of his farm. Jack quickly reloaded and shot the fallen man before he could turn his pistol on us. The force of the impact ripped the jawbone from the right side of his face. He slumped lifelessly against a fence post.

I ran up to Bernie shouting his name. When I reached him, I pulled up short; realising there was nothing we could do. The front section of Bernie’s skull was missing and some of his brain was visible around the exit wound.

“Fucking hell,” Jack said, joining me.

Lea came running out of the house.

“Is he dead? Is Bernie dead?” she cried. When she reached us, she put her hands over her mouth. “Oh, my God, no.”

We stood there for a few minutes looking at each other and then at the ground, anywhere but at Bernie. Everyone had tears in their eyes.

“Jerry.” Jack said, gritting his teeth.

I looked at Jack and felt rage bubbling up inside me.

“That sly fucker.” I said.

Jack ran over to pick up the bearded man’s rifle and tossed it to me, an AR-15. I carried out a make-safe procedure on it and placed the loose round back into the top of the magazine, which now contained a full thirty rounds.

“Let’s go.” I said, as I cocked the rifle.

All three of us jumped over the fence and started running across the field towards Jerry’s farm. He was going to pay.

I was in a furious rage, we had been completely fooled and the price we paid was Bernie’s life. Jerry had a head start on us, so I didn’t expect to see him as we approached his property.

We slowed down as we neared the barn; I said to Lea and Jack, “I want that bastard alive.”

“Fuck that,” Jack answered, “he’s going to have a long, slow, painful death.”

“That’s fine with me,” I replied. “You can do what you like with him after we get him to talk. I would say there’s enough evidence to believe he knows what’s going on, and I want some answers.”

Chapter 8 – The Barn

We approached Jerry’s barn from the same direction as earlier. He would probably be lying in wait for us somewhere, so we couldn’t just going to walk through the front gate.

As we sneaked up to the back of the building, I could hear a muffled voice coming from inside and turned to Jack and Lea, putting a finger to my lips. We all crept closer and listened through gaps in the timber cladding.

“Control, this is NY three. Do you copy?”

A crackly voice replied, “This is control. Please reconfirm the numbers.”

“This is NY three. There are three of them, and they’re all armed.”

“What happened to NY patrol six?”

“Those fuckers shot them. They’ll be coming here soon. I’ll hide in the barn until you send assistance.”

“I’ll go around to the front with Lea,” I whispered to Jack, “you take the side door.”

Lea and I walked around to the large double doors at the front of the barn. One of them was slightly open. I indicated for Lea to stay outside and then quickly slipped in, pointing the Glock in front of me. Jerry was seated with his back to me, wearing a headset and leaning into a radio transmitter.

“Thanks,” he said. “Tell them to come here first, but to be on the lookout.”

“Roger. Control out.”

Jerry took off the headset and turned around. I was standing about five yards away from him pointing the Glock at his face.

“Hello, Jerry. Fancy seeing you here.”

A look of shock flashed across Jerry’s face, and he immediately ran for the side door. As he swung it open, Jack stepped in and smashed the butt of his rifle into Jerry’s forehead. Jerry dropped to the floor, and Jack followed up with two firm blows to the top of his head. Jerry lay motionless.

“Good job,” I said, “but please don’t tell me you’ve killed him?”

Jack checked Jerry’s pulse.

“No, he’s just out cold.”

I scanned the barn and saw a long table against the rear wall.

“Jack, give me a hand pulling that table into the middle of the barn. Lea, you find some rope.”

“What are we going to do with it?” She nervously replied.

I could see pure anger in Jack’s eyes and I felt the same emotion, Bernie did not deserve his fate.

“We’re going to strap the bastard to the table.”

Jack and I hauled the heavy wooden table into position and then lifted Jerry onto it. He was a lot heavier than he looked and it took three attempts to get him in place. Lea brought some thin rope that had been wrapped around a barrel. We cut four long pieces then tied each of Jerry’s limbs to the table legs so he was spread across the table and unable to escape.