John was about to move back to the horse-drawn trailer when a low whistle came from the edge of the property. John tensed for a split second, then realized the whistle had to be Jared. Before he could respond, Jared rose from some brush and stepped into the back lot. John was elated to see the man unharmed and right where he’d hoped to find him. He wasn’t happy about the fact he had stood out in the open while Jared maintained the drop on him. John needed a break before he made a mistake that would either cost him or, worse yet, cost someone else their life.
John had been deployed more times than he could remember, and those deployments usually lasted about ninety days before his unit would be brought back home for a little rest and some training. If something happened during the deployment of a significant nature, the unit could be pulled back as well. For this to happen, a unit would have to lose several guys in a single action, which was rare but not unheard of.
If this happened, and it had, the unit would be pulled and replaced with another unit. At the current time, John figured he had been going nonstop for at least ninety days. John considered his former unit’s operational tempo and had to say his current operational tempo was even with or higher than what he’d experienced with the Special Missions Unit. In his old unit, John worked most nights with the operations being dangerous and grueling, but after they were completed, all the men would return to base, pop an Ambien, and sleep for eight hours.
Now John was averaging eight to twelve hours of sleep a week, and it was starting to take its toll on his mind, soul and body. John had attended briefings by seasoned warriors from wars gone by about battle fatigue and the importance of commanders ensuring their troops avoided this syndrome. In World War II it had been rampant, but no one could do a thing about it. The Allies were fighting for their very lives, and there was no time to rest weary Marines or soldiers. Not seeing or feeling Jared in the brush played havoc with John’s combat mind, but he had no recourse, so he smiled and gave Jared a short wave before returning to the trailer and assisting Calvin and Carlos with getting the animals around to the back.
John was impressed with the plan Jared had initiated, and tethered his own horses next to Jared’s steeds. After securing the horses and parking the trailer against the building, John turned to searched for the VW.
“Where’d you put the car?” he asked Jared.
Jared walked him to the front parking lot and showed John where he and Barry had parked the car alongside several other marooned vehicles. John was inwardly impressed once again with Jared’s ingenuity when faced with a situation a person of his experience shouldn’t have been able to handle. After seeing what Jared had done, they woke Barry, and John set about picking the lock on the back of the building. For whatever reason, the mechanism gave up much easier than it had the first time John wrestled it into submission.
Once the building was breached, the group backed the trailer inside and locked themselves inside. The men looked to Barry for guidance in what he wanted on the trailer and how he wanted it stacked. Barry scurried about, scratching his chin and mumbling to himself until Jared grabbed the man by the sleeve and gave him an impatient look.
Two hours later the trailer was loaded, and the men sat down to quietly eat and take on some badly needed water. The last time Jared urinated, it looked like liquid gold, which he knew meant he was getting dehydrated. John was always preaching water intake and how to do it, but there wasn’t always time to be drinking when you were looking over your shoulder every minute of every day. Jared looked at the loaded trailer, wondering if the VW was going to be able to handle the load.
The little German car was taxed well into its limitations with four full-grown men on board, not to mention however many hundreds of pounds the trailer and its contents constituted. The Germans hadn’t designed the little vehicle for towing, so it was fitted with a highly sophisticated towing package Calvin and John had designed. The design consisted of a heavy-duty rope wrapped several times around the vehicle’s rear bumper, which would be secured to the tongue of the trailer when morning came and they headed back towards the ranch house.
When the men were finished taking on water and nourishment, they set up a watch rotation for the night. Devon was still out in the dark somewhere, but no one in the group was overly troubled by the teen’s absence. Devon seemed to be at peace when he was alone and was damn good at staying out of sight, as he’d proven time and again. The only sentry post John set up was again at the front door leading into the lobby. The rear doors were secure, leaving only the front of the store a threat. Anyone trying to make it through that door and down the short hallway was in for some rough times.
Later in the evening, three soft raps sounded at the back door. John and Devon had agreed earlier to the three knocks, so the door was opened, admitting
