American Revenant (Book 3): The Monster In Man by John L. Davis IV Read Free Book Online

crawl toward the fallen Garret.
    Shots cracked from behind
him, causing him to jerk his rifle around, fearing that whoever this was they
had somehow gotten people in to flank them.  Calvin leaned around the open door
of the truck, beginning to fire back at their assailants. 
    Dean made it to Garret,
could see the bright red bloom on the front of the boy’s shirt, and the slow
rise of his chest.  “Hang in there Garret, we’ll get you out of here.”  The boy
moaned, as if in reply, but it was obvious to Dean that Garret had passed out
in shock.
    He turned his rifle
toward the men shooting from the truck and began to return fire.  He breathed
deep, trying not to rush his shots, but his heart was beating so hard that he
was finding it difficult to steady his weapon. 
    “Fuck it,” he said aloud,
and began pulling the trigger, controlling it to the best of his ability.  He
could still hear his brother firing from behind him. 
    Dean wanted to shout a
warcry when he saw one of the men in the truck bed go down.  The others dropped
into the bed, both men standing outside the truck quickly climbing back
inside.  Dean and Calvin continued firing even as the truck fishtailed back
onto the highway, disappearing within seconds.
    Dean turned to Garret,
lifting his shirt to examine the wound in his abdomen.  Calvin came running up,
a first aid kit in hand.
    Dean was tearing open a
large gauze pad to use as a compress when he heard tires squalling on
pavement.  He turned to see two vehicles barreling down on their position.  The
De Soto screeched to a halt ten feet away, with another old pickup right behind
it.  Mike and Rick came out of the lead car fast and low, staying behind the
wide open doors with rifles up.
    Alex and Daniel slid out
of truck, both armed and watching the area all around them.
    “Where are they?” Mike
called.
    “Gone,” Dean called back,
“one truck, with a bunch of guys.  They took off when we hit one of them.”
    The new arrivals to the
scene walked forward, weapons at low ready, expecting another surprise attack. 
Rebecca stood up in the dry ditch, clutching her bleeding shoulder.  Rick
rushed over, but she waved him away, claiming that she was fine.
    “Do we know who it was?”
Rick asked. 
    “It didn’t look like the
same truck as before, but I’m pretty damn sure it was the same people.  Listen,
we can talk about this later, Garret’s hit bad.  Help me get him into the truck
and you guys take him to Mom.”
    The men gathered around
Garret, lifting him as gently as they could, but causing the semi-conscious boy
make low noises of pain in his throat.  Alex and Daniel took Garret and Rebecca
back to camp, while the others remained behind, keeping watch.
    The rest of the men stood
silently watching as the truck pulled away.  Dean was the first to break the
silence.
    “We have to do something
about these assholes, and now, before they do anymore damage.”
    The others nodded, even
Louis, who just then felt the rapidly cooling wet patch at the front of his
jeans.  He glanced up at the others, his face blushing several shades of red
before he spun on his heel and ran for the house.
    “Let him go,” Mike said
to the others, “we have bigger things to worry about than some kid’s ego.  What
are you suggesting, Dean?”
    “All of us, with Jimmy
and Alex, take the fight to them.  We can’t sit around waiting for them to hit
us again, hoping we take out one or two when they do.”
    “I agree, Dean,” Rick
said, looking directly at him, “but we have to be smart about this.  We can’t
just storm their little castle and hope to come out on top.  We don’t know if
we saw every member of that group.  They could have eight men, or eighty, we
just don’t know.  What we do know is, they have automatic weapons and we don’t. 
There’s no telling what other weapons or ordnance they may have found in that
place.”
    “Ok, ok, I get it. 
Waiting is a bad idea though.  We