Chapter 52
Vin had watched the sentries on the gate for hours now, content that Sean and the rest of the Chain Gang were far enough away that their assault wouldn’t be noted.
They would likely be arriving at the reservation now.
The trip on horseback wasn’t terribly long when one could ride at a full gallop, but Chainz didn’t have anywhere near enough animals to launch a mounted assault.
Vin had counted on this, and it was working to his advantage. So far, all was going according to his plan. He made his way silently down toward the side of the gate, moving quickly and staying low to avoid detection.
If the guards followed the same rotation they had been for the last several hours, Vin should have a fifteen-minute window of opportunity to scale the wall and gain entry.
He quickly pulled a rope and grappling hook from his pack before slipping the back around his shoulders.
He then wound up and tossed the hook up, easily clearing the twenty-five-foot wall.
Vin pulled back until he felt the hook catch on the gate and was satisfied when a few hard tugs yielded no give.
Nodding to himself, Vin started to climb, bracing his feet against the side of the wall and pulling with his arms. His injured shoulder started to ache about halfway up, but he pushed the pain aside, focusing only on his goals.
Deb and Jimmy.
They were in there, waiting for him. Today was the day that he liberated them and changed the lives of hundreds, maybe thousands of people throughout the area.
He couldn’t let pain stop him. He had to push past bodily limitations, tapping into something deeper and darker in his attempt to pull this place and the people who called it home out of the hell their lives had been cast into.
Everything just needed to continue to run smoothly. His plan had to continue on without a hitch. He kept telling himself that over and over again as he climbed. So, of course, that was the moment where a hitch appeared.
“Shit, I need to piss,” Vin heard one of the Chain Gang sentries declare loudly.
“Just go over the side,” another side. “Just don’t let me see it.”
The sound of heavy booted feet approaching his location sounded behind the wall, and Vin picked up the pace, trying desperately to reach the top of the wall quickly.
“What the fuck?” he heard the first man say and could only imagine that he had discovered his grappling hook. Thankfully, though, he didn’t immediately call to his fellow guards. Instead, it sounded as though he were coming closer.
“The fuck is this?” he remarked, and Vin soon saw a dirty blond head of greasy hair attached to a fat bearded face peek over the side of the wall, right at him.
“Oh, shit,” the man said in surprise, but he hadn’t yelled it out.
Thankfully, this appeared to be a man who had quiet reactions to shock and not someone who screamed at the first sign of danger.
Vin used that to his advantage, taking the razor-sharp knife from his belt and pulling himself up violently to jab the blade into the Chain Gang sentry’s big belly.
The man gasped as Vin pulled the knife free.
He pressed his hands into the gaping wound and groaned in pain, turning his head to call out to his fellow guards.
Vin lurched up again, swiping the knife across the man’s neck.
He gurgled in shock as sticky, red fluid shot from his neck, pouring out onto the deck built into the wall.
Vin holstered the knife quickly, then reached up and grabbed the dying guard by the shirt, pulling him violently toward the edge of the wall.
He flew over the edge and plummeted down to the ground, where he twitched a few times and then lay still as a pool of blood enveloped him.
Vin pulled himself up the rest of the way, climbing over the top of the spiked wooden wall, careful not to cut himself on the pointed edges.
He saw his grappling hook embedded firmly into the wood and yanked it free, tossing it down and out of sight.
He wondered for a moment if it would strike the lifeless body of the guard and then put it out of his mind as he returned his attention to the task at hand.
He crouched on the deck and peeked over toward the front of the wall. There were six armed men with assault rifles scanning the horizon for any sign of an attack. Vin needed to take them all out before they alerted the Chain Gang members who had stayed behind.
His fingers brushed against the handles of his twin revolvers. They had seen him through a great many dangers out in the desert, but they were loud and would draw attention fast. He needed something a bit more subtle for this operation.
Vin again swung his heavy backpack down onto the floor of the deck and opened the zipper. He fumbled around inside, producing a small black pistol and a silencer he had retrieved from his weapons locker at the bunker.
Screwing the silencer into place, Vin crept toward the guards, keeping low. Their attentions were completely focused on the world outside the ranch. The last thing they were expecting was an attack from within.
Still, there were six of them all lined up across the top of the gate. On top of that, Vin peered down into the ranch to find two more sentries on the ground on either side of the heavy gate doors. He couldn’t just start shooting with his silenced pistol.
One of the guards would notice quickly and return fire. That would alert not only the men on the ground but Chainz and the few hundred soldiers who were still here with him. This had to be done quietly.
Vin shoved the pistol into his belt and removed his knife. He sat with his back against the far wall of the deck, leaning against it to wait for someone to notice that one of the guards hadn’t returned.
He didn’t have to wait for long.
“Where the fuck is Johnson?” one of the guards remarked. “Is he shitting off the fucking wall again?”
“Oh, Jesus,” another one of them said. “I don’t wanna think about what that looks like.”
“I don’t see him over there,” the first voice said again. “Lazy sack of crap probably climbed down to go steal a nap somewhere. I’ll go bring him back.”
Vin braced himself and sat in wait. The man’s footsteps drew near, and as soon as he turned the corner, Vin was on him.
This was a big muscle-bound biker, wearing blue jeans and the common Chain Gang vest. A bandanna covered his seemingly bald head, and his bearded face had a look of disgust for his fellow guard.
Vin pounced on the guard, wrapping a strong arm around the man’s windpipe and driving his knife down deep into his chest four times. Vin felt the man’s body go limp and slowly guided him down to the ground.
Vin peeked out and saw that no one else on the gate had heard him and breathed a sigh of relief for that. The five remaining guards were spread out along the wall, far away from one another.
Vin crept up and moved toward the front of the gate’s deck, turning the corner and silently sneaking up on the next of his victims. He stabbed this one in the back while clamping his hand down on the man’s mouth to prevent him from screaming.
He fought for a moment, so Vin drove the blade into his jugular vein, producing a shower of blood as the man’s body dropped.
Unfortunately, the commotion caused by the man’s struggle drew the attention of the next guard down the line.
“What the fuck?” Vin heard the man exclaim, watching in horror as the Chain Gang sentry lifted his rifle and took aim.
Vin moved faster than he had ever in his life, drawing his silenced pistol and letting out three shots that hit the man in the chest. The Chain Gang member dropped, but not before firing off a wild burst of gunfire from his rifle.
“Shit,” Vin exclaimed as the three remaining sentries looked over.
Vin dove back and tried to make his way behind the safety wall on the west side of the deck, where no one would be able to see him.
However, he was too slow, and soon the guards were shouting to one another that there was an intruder.
Vin didn’t dare to peek over the side, but he was sure the two men on the ground were going to be making their way up. He cursed himself for his lack of stealth and clutched his pistol as he waited for his enemies to draw closer.
Vin needed to pop up and surprise them while they were still on the move.
If they had time to take positions and dig in, he was as good as dead.
Vin quickly popped up, trusting his gut and the training he had received.
He was a military man, and as far as he knew, these were bikers with very little training.
He fired off several shots at the three advancing guards, taking two of them out right away. The last one raised his weapon and prepared to fire, but Vin quickly put him down with a well-aimed shot to the face.
The two from the ground were making their way up the ladder toward the top of the deck. He was relieved that none of them had sounded an alarm and equally happy that there seemed to be no Chain Gang members around the gate to respond to that initial blast of gunfire from the doomed guard.
Vin quickly reloaded his pistol with a fresh clip and took aim at the ladder.
He had time for this one. These guards were completely helpless, and they climbed, having not yet even noticed that their fellow sentries had already fallen.
Vin let out four silenced shots, and both guards tumbled off the ladder, landing hard on the ground.
Vin breathed a sigh of relief and noticed there was a ladder not far from his position leading to the ground. Checking the area to make sure he hadn’t drawn any unwanted attention, he swung himself onto the ladder and started to make his way down.
Vin landed with a thud on both feet as his boots impacted the land of his former home for the first time since the earliest days of the EMP. It felt different somehow, tainted in a way, but Vin knew that was just his mind applying nonsense to a tense situation.
He looked around at the world beyond the wall and was amazed at how familiar it all looked. His eyes took in the familiar sights of this place that had meant so much to him, but deep within his mind and heart, everything felt completely alien.
He was thankful that his somewhat clumsy assassination of the sentries hadn’t drawn any additional attention and set his mind to the task at hand.
He needed to signal the Natives and blow these gates wide open.
Once that happened, there would be no turning back.
Chainz would throw everything he had left against him, and Vin and his new friends would have to fight for the world they were trying to create.
He swung his backpack down off of his shoulders and quickly unzipped it, reaching inside and pulling out two tightly bundled stacks of red dynamite sticks. He gathered them up and shouldered the bag once more, running toward the closed gate and setting the bundles down in the dirt.
“Time for your wake-up call, Chainz,” Vin whispered to himself, pulling out a lighter and igniting the fuses.
The sparking flame began to travel along the chord, and Vin turned, running for cover.
He sprinted behind a stack of crates piled on top of one another several hundred yards away.
Once he was safely crouched, he pulled the flare gun from his belt, pointed it at the sky, and pulled the trigger.
A red flaming burst erupted from the gun, flying into the air over the height of the massive wall.
He was confident that his allies would see it and even more confident that they would hear what was about to go down.
He crouched behind the crates once more, placing his fingers in his ears.
Vin closed his eyes and waited for the battle to begin.