Chapter 6
Vin continued to push the armored vehicle until the city was visible on the horizon. What he saw wasn’t surprising, and had his ex-wife and son not been somewhere within the city limits, he would have had little to no reaction.
Unfortunately, though, Deb and Jimmy were in there, and the clouds of smoke that rose from the smoldering city froze his blood to ice in his veins.
He could hear his heartbeat now as he imagined Deb, desperately clutching at Jimmy as Sean worked hard to protect them both against everything from looters to soldiers and Chain Gang thugs who were out for blood.
He increased pressure on the accelerator, and the car sped forward.
He was able to mostly maneuver around the stopped cars on the highway leading into the city.
He passed by several people who were stranded out there, and many tried to flag him down, clearly stunned by the presence of a working vehicle.
But Vin paid them no mind, and he gave them not a second thought. Their plight was sad, but it wasn’t his problem. And weighed against the lives of Deb and Jimmy, the problems of strangers mattered little.
It was callous of him, and he knew Deb’s old man would have been disappointed to see him act in such a way, but that was how the world outside the ranch actually worked.
Vin had seen it with his own eyes, had experienced it countless times under the burning hot sun of several deserts on the other side of the world.
There was a time for compassion, and there was a time to become steel. If he had any hope of finding his family and getting them out safely, he was going to have to be a man of steel.
As he approached the city limits, Vin saw something that brought a snarl and a feral curse to his lips.
It appeared to be a blockade across the road, made from dilapidated and dead vehicles. Standing in front of it was the last thing Vin wanted to see. Nearly fifty armed soldiers standing at attention.
As he approached, the soldiers leveled their guns at his vehicle, and one of them held up a hand, ordering him to stop.
Vin knew he should just gun it, take his chances at getting past them at any cost. But this was also an opportunity to gather some intel, to see what was going on within the city before jumping headfirst into it.
A male soldier in full combat gear approached, and Vin rolled the window down a crack. The soldier stared at him long and hard, his eyes invisible through the dark protective eyewear he wore on his face.
“Where the hell did you get this vehicle?” the soldier asked through the window crack.
“It’s mine,” Vin growled back, in no mood to mince words pointlessly.
“Got papers for it?” the soldier responded.
“I sure do,” he said but made no move to produce them.
“Looks like a lot of modifications,” the soldier said, eyeing the armor plating and bulletproof glass.
“She’s one of a kind,” Vin said, his voice dripping with open contempt.
“Where you headed?” the soldier asked, clearly ruffled by Vin’s prickly disposition.
“In there,” he replied, pointing at the smoking ruins of the city.
“I don’t think so,” the soldier sneered at him. “No one gets in or out. The city of Phoenix is officially under martial law.”
“By whose orders?” Vin asked, and the soldier looked shocked and infuriated that his word didn’t seem to be enough for this stranger in a black cowboy hat.
“The orders of the United States military,” he spat back. “Now I’m gonna have to ask you to step out of the vehicle.”
“Why?” Vin asked, glaring at the man now.
“You’ve made illegal modifications to a civilian vehicle. And your country is in need of working automobiles right now. Your vehicle is now the property of the US military.”
“I’d sooner blow this boat up and piss on its remains than have that happen,” Vin said.
“The fuck did you just say, civilian?” the soldier shouted, gripping his gun with intention.
Vin reached down, cranked the window crank closed, and suddenly gunned the accelerator toward the blockade.
The soldiers instantly started screaming orders and opened fire as he advanced. The car was filled with the sound of high-caliber bullets slamming into the armor plating and pelting the bulletproof glass.
The bullets were leaving small imprints on the windshield, which started to obstruct Vin’s view.
But all he knew was that he had to keep driving straight.
Vin gripped the wheel with white-knuckled intensity, shouting in exhilaration as he floored it right into the blockade.
The soldiers dove out of the way, and he didn’t think that he hit any of them, but he wasn’t entirely concerned with that at the moment.
These people were holding an entire city hostage, stripping them of their freedom.
They got what they got.
The armored explorer plowed into the vehicles that made up the military blockade, slamming them aside with ease.
Right behind the wall of dead cars, though, there were even more soldiers waiting for him.
They also opened fire, and Vin started to worry about how long his civilian tank was going to hold out.
A loud bang accompanied a rumble that shook the car to and fro. Vin realized there was barbed wire spread around the area, and he had just rolled right over it. That was fine for now. He could still make it far enough from the soldiers to make his getaway into the city.
Once he crossed over into Phoenix, Vin cut the wheel hard to the left, hearing the screeching and grinding of his decimated wheels as they fought to remain attached to the car.
Without tires, he lacked the control necessary to perform such a maneuver, and the car’s momentum caused it to flip end over end.
Vin swore loudly as the armored vehicle rolled over and over again, smashing into the front of a storefront.
The windows and door of the abandoned shop exploded the moment the vehicle crashed into it, and the car rolled within, absolutely decimating the shelving units and checkout counter.
Finally, the car slammed into the far wall, and Vin let out a breath as the world became still once more.
Of course, the world was also upside down.
The car had stopped on its roof, and Vin hung upside down like a bat, his hat resting on the ceiling of the car, which was now the floor.
He stretched painfully in place and realized quickly that he hadn’t suffered anything more than a few minor scrapes and bruises.
He tucked his head and unclasped his seatbelt, falling simultaneously up and down as he smashed into the car’s ceiling. Snatching up his huge bag of weapons and supplies and collecting his hat, Vin pushed open the driver’s side door and climbed out into the destroyed store.
Clutching at his hip, he was relieved to see that his pistols were still in their place, held tight by the securing leather straps. It took Vin only a moment to reorient himself. He knew he had to move. Those soldiers weren’t just going to let him dash off into the city and get away with it.
He could hear the unmistakable sound of horses clomping toward him.
He ran to the destroyed window and looked out to see four horse-mounted soldiers giving him chase.
“Shit,” he swore under his breath. He was certain there would be more coming on foot, but he likely had a few minutes before they arrived.
“Well, at least they brought me a damn horse.”
“Come out with your hands on your fucking head!” one of the soldiers screamed in at him.
Vin took a deep breath and rested his hands on his dual pistols. He remembered what he was fighting for at that moment. He thought of Deb, thought of their son. He imagined them under this bullshit martial law, trapped in a city that was alien to them.
Then he drew back on his experience as a soldier, as a fighter, as a special forces sharpshooter. He needed to trust in his training and trust in his skills. No one was coming to save him from this, and he was going to have to rely on only himself to get out of it.
“Just the way I like it,” Vin whispered to himself. He burst out of the window, leaping onto the sidewalk. As he moved, he drew his weapons and fired off two shots.
Two of the soldiers dropped. One of them was hit between the eyes, and the others took a bullet to the neck. Their mounts reared back at the sudden noise, tossing them off and onto the streets where their dead bodies smacked hard with a spray of blood.
The horses of the other two soldiers were equally spooked, and they bucked in fear, throwing off the aim of their riders. This was perfect. These were clearly not specially trained military mounts. The soldiers must have just been making do with what they could find.
Two more shots exploded from Vin’s guns as the wild fire of his enemies missed him by a mile.
He didn’t see where his shots landed, but he knew for sure he had taken fatal aim.
Luckily, as usual, his aim seemed to pay off, and one soldier fell to the pavement while the other’s body remained slumped back, strapped into the saddle of her horse.
Vin could hear the sound of approaching boots on the street and knew he had seconds to get away with his head intact. He ran forward toward one of the panicking horses, gripping its reins and pulling gently down, trying to calm him.
Eventually, the horse calmed down enough for Vin to swing up into the saddle. He spurred the horse into action and took off down the street.
The sound of gunfire rang out behind him, but he was so far ahead of the advancing soldiers now that his escape was assured.
Vin breathed a heavy sigh of relief, thanking whatever or whoever was watching over him at that moment.
His entrance into the city had been spectacular, violent, and completely dangerous.
He hoped what he had just experienced might be the craziest thing he was going to encounter during this operation.
However, Vin knew in his heart of hearts that was just wishful thinking.