Erupting Threats

Max Patterson stared down the scope of his rifle, peering into the still foliage of the forest, searching for any movement.

Beside him he could sense Jade shifting and knew she was feeling the same sort of tension he was. It was quiet here, borderline too quiet, though he knew how much of a movie cliché that was. But it was a cliché for a reason. Animals did avoid areas with people—like, for example, a camp of former Horseshoe Mound residents now masquerading as bandits threatening Galena since the battle at the River Rock Hotel.

Horseshoe Mound had definitively lost that fight, and the survivors had nowhere to retreat to, and no settlement in the area would take them in, not after word had spread about what they’d tried to do under Harriet Baxter’s leadership. Why would any other community welcome them in when the Horseshoe Mound people had tried to take the River Rock Hotel from the community there? No, the survivors couldn’t be trusted, that was for sure.

Harriet Baxter was dead now, and the smarter members of her group had scattered to the winds, cutting their losses and heading out to find somewhere new to live far away from here. But that didn’t mean there weren’t some left behind who decided to handle their situation a different way.

It was always the mean ones, too, Max couldn’t help but think. It was never the people who could be reasoned with who stayed behind.

In his scope he spotted a flash of white that quickly vanished behind a tree. He couldn’t be sure, but he had the distinct impression it was fabric as opposed to a bird or leaf.

“Did you see something?” Jade murmured quietly to him. She must have picked up on his shift in focus. She was great at noticing small details like that. It was one of the main reasons he preferred to have her at his side when he was out with the away team.

Well, that and the fact that she was his romantic partner, and they had a daughter together. But even without that, he’d still want her here beside him. She was calm and collected and a great shot.

“Can’t be sure,” Max mumbled in return, shifting his focus on the scope to look for more movement. “Might’ve been someone. Might’ve been a bird.”

“Not a lot of birds in the area right now…” she said. And it was true. Part of the reason they had hidden themselves here was because the lack of wildlife made them think the bandits could be camping out in this area. They’d lost their trail a while back but had continued heading in this direction since it seemed the logical way to go.

Behind the two of them were about ten members of the Galena militia, waiting to take orders from him. The bandits had been hitting Galena and the roads approaching the town hard since the failed raid on River Rock, and Eve Matheson, the leader of Galena, had had enough. She wanted the bandits routed and sent packing at the very least. Max had volunteered to help with the mission. It was the least he could do since Eve and the Galena militia had come to River Rock’s rescue when Max begged for help. River Rock owed Galena, yes, but in his gut, Max felt like he personally owed Eve too. And so here he was, with Jade and a group of armed people from Galena, searching the forests outside of town to try and find the bandits’ hideout and put an end to their raiding once and for all.

The militia was getting antsy. He could hear it in their shifting bodies and their more frequent, quiet whispers of conversation. Shockingly, it wasn’t all that easy to sit still and be quiet for long periods of time. Not for the people who were trying their best to thrive post-Blackout. Those types of people, the ones who called Galena and River Rock home, tended to be hard-working, driven people always looking for a job to do. To ask these volunteers to quietly wait went against their better natures.

Still, Max knew it was the right move. If they could catch the bandits unawares at their camp, they might be able to permanently flush them out of their hole and deal with them. Or, barring that, maybe they could intimidate them enough to send them running to easier targets away from their community of settlements here. He didn’t particularly like the idea of forcing these bandits onto other people, but sometimes it was the best they could do.

There was another flash of white, and this time, right after, a glimpse of color too. Not a bird. A t-shirt. There was a person hidden behind those trees, and if Max’s gut was right, and it often was, they had found the bandits’ camp.

“It’s them,” he murmured to Jade. “They’re here.”

Jade gave a hand signal to the militia members behind them, and they all stopped their quiet conversations. They were focused, ready to act. It wasn’t the first time Max had been impressed with the Galena militia, and he expected it wouldn’t be the last.

“On my signal,” Max said to Jade, peering through the scope, waiting for that hint of movement from the bandit once more.

There!

He squeezed the trigger on his rifle. The loud boom echoed through the trees followed by shouts and screams of surprise. He had hit whoever he’d been aiming at, though he couldn’t be sure he had killed them.

But the gunshot was his signal, and the rest of the militia surged ahead with shouts and yells, their own guns held at the ready. Max and Jade stood up from their hiding spot, covering the militia. With their hidden camp discovered, the bandits were running around confused and frightened and probably pretty angry too. There were pops of gunfire, some leading to bandits dropping to the ground screaming or dropping to the ground still and silent.

Max ejected a spent round and fired again. He missed his target and swore.

If they could push this camp back, if they could scare them off and send them running out of the area, then maybe, just maybe, Galena could find some peace and quiet. A moment’s rest. The raiding had been endless these last few weeks, and he knew it wasn’t just him and the militia who were exhausted by it all.

“Fall back!” They heard a clear voice shout. A woman’s voice, and Max couldn’t help the twinge of concern that raced through his body. Stevie Baxter? No. There had been no sign of her since he’d caught that glimpse at Galena all those weeks ago. This could be any woman. It didn’t have to be her.

But at the shouted command, the bandits were suddenly no longer panicked and confused but organized and one unit. They followed the order and turned to run together deeper into the trees.

“Crud,” Jade said, lowering her rifle.

They had to go after them. They couldn’t let go of the advantage they had from getting the drop on the bandits. They had to keep pushing. They had to try to win this one fight, if they could.

The rest of the Galena militia knew this, too, and they grouped together, prepared to chase after the bandits.

The spark of color was the first thing that caught Max’s eye. A glint, a flash of firelight in the trees where the bandits had run.

His gut knew it was bad before his mind had a chance to catch up. Which was why he found himself shouting “MOVE!” to the militia members before he even understood the threat.

But then that glint of firelight was suddenly arcing through the air, straight toward the grouped militia members, and while some had reacted to his warning shout, he knew others would be too slow.

Molotov.

The spark of light. The arcing flame. He didn’t think the bandits had planned this, but someone in their number had gotten their feet under them and their wits together enough to be able to send this in their direction.

The militia saw it now, too, and were diving out of the way. But gravity was fast and relentless, and when the bottle hit the ground and shattered, flames erupted in the area.

A militia member screamed, the alcohol splashing onto his legs and the flames quickly following. It was a young man named Marcus, no more than twenty-four, if Max had to guess, and always good about following orders and working hard.

“Grab him!” Max yelled as he slung his rifle over his shoulder and dashed over. Two militia members pulled Marcus by the arms out of the center of the fire. Once he was free of the flames, the group got to work using their jackets and hats and anything they could to pat and cover the flames on his legs until they were finally extinguished.

When Max reached Marcus, he could see his legs were a mess. The young man was sobbing in pain, and the burns were serious. They needed to get him medical attention, and fast. This far out in the woods, they were closer to River Rock than Galena. Best bet would be to get him back to the hotel where Nikki and Kathleen could treat him, and Zara could hopefully give him some pain relief. Max knew the risk with burns like these was infection, so the sooner they could get him actual medical help, the better he would fare.

“Hey,” Max said, leaning down beside Marcus and grabbing the young man’s hand. “We’re gonna get you back to River Rock for help, okay? But don’t worry. You’re gonna be fine.”

Marcus gulped and nodded. Max had no idea if what he said was true, but it didn’t matter. They would either be able to help him back at River Rock or not.

“Let’s make a quick stretcher,” Max said to the rest of the militia, and they jumped to it, using machetes and hand saws to collect branches to make the frame. There were enough of them here that hiking back to River Rock while carrying an injured member wouldn’t be all that difficult.

Max stared off into the forest in the direction the bandits had escaped. Jade came to stand beside him, also staring off into the trees. There were no signs of the bandits, not that he expected any. The bandits had been routed, even if they’d scored a hit here at the end of the skirmish.

“You think they’ll come back?” Jade asked him quietly.

Max shrugged. He could hope that maybe this ambush would be the straw that broke their camel’s back and they wouldn’t return, but he couldn’t be sure. A quick count of the bodies showed that they had killed four of their members, but he hadn’t had a chance to get a full count of their numbers.

“Who can say?” Max said with a sigh. “I guess time will tell.”