Chapter 8: Fighting

My peaceful home was quickly turning into a combat zone and I did not like it.

After less than 15 minutes had passed we heard what sounded like serious combat! There were numerous explosions and lots of automatic gunfire. I listened to the radio and heard CPT C Smith talking to his wife CPT L Smith. WO3 Anderson suddenly declared an emergency as she took crippling damage to her helicopter. I quickly moved to the tower and used the binoculars to see her plunging toward the ground flaming and smoking. At least there was not a secondary explosion when she hit the ground. I could not see the vehicles because of the rolling hills. There was a loud bang and CPT L Smith's helicopter began spinning in the sky, smoke was pouring out the top. Suddenly it started to spiral down toward the ground. I tried to call CPT L Smith on the radio, there was no answer, and so I tried to call her husband CPT C Smith. He did not answer either.

Two-Feather had the truck running as I came out from the house. The others were busy getting ready for serious trouble! I heard, "If you get yourself shot I will kill you! Do you hear me!" from Brenda. Which was followed by "only if she gets to you before I do" which Cheryl said? Michelle and Linda both agreed with them. Amy sweet Amy just said she would cut my package off and keep it all to herself. This brought other threats promises and hostile talk for a moment or two. Then I quieted them all down by telling them "I loved them too!"

Amy still had the first timers crush on me. Brenda and the other ladies had explained to me that Amy had developed a love for Two Spirits and was having a hard time with the situation. Amy and I had several talks and she understood that she was free to do whatever she wanted especially what would make her happy. She had talked with Two-Feather and Two Spirits and they all decided to try living together for a short time and see what developed.

We cut across the road and took a cattle trail that runs along the road just on the inside of the fence. We wanted to get down to the fighting without driving the road. At the top of the far ridge we could see the smoke from both helicopters. They were both in the draw, less than 100 yards apart. Obviously CPT L Smith had enough control to crash near WO3 Anderson. The real problem was CPT C Smith and his patrol. They were all over the road and their vehicles looked like a freight train plowed through them. One was on its top wheels up and smoking badly, another was on its side and there was no movement around it.

Two-Feather backed the truck up into some oak brush keeping it out of sight. We crawled to the ridge and used binoculars to see just what was going on. I did not like what I saw! Six M-1114 armored hummers rolling up the road, the lead vehicle had a MK-19 40MM grenade launcher on it. The next two had M2 50 cal machineguns, followed by a tow missile launcher, then two more M2 50 cal machineguns. I radioed Brenda and explained what they were going to have to do.

The hummers had armor and bullet resistant windows. Nothing we had would get through the armor and only several hits in or near the same place would get through the windshield. We would have to hit them before they were in range of the house. We moved back to the truck and that is when Two-Feather turned and shot a ground scout in the chest. I dropped and rolled toward the falling scout and shot the second guy as he stepped into view. Two-Feather was diving to the ground as the rest of the ground forces started firing at us. I called Brenda and told her they were on their own for now.

She just told me to remember what she had told me! I could not answer since I was shooting two more that came into the open. It looked like we were going to be over run since we were mostly in the open. The sudden machinegun fire behind them let me know that we still had some help from CPT C Smith and his patrol.

Two-Feather told me to go he would keep them off my back.

I knew that driving was out of the question, so I just jumped up and ran like HELL! I heard shots whiz by and it brought back bad memories of times long past. I did not feel like being shot again nor did I want to have to answer to my lovely ladies should I manage to survive being shot.

I headed toward the road and as I topped the bend shots rang out! I looked up and saw the first hummer jolt toward the left, the MK 19 gunner was turning the turret toward the right side of the road; I threw my 270 to my shoulder and fired a slap shot at him as soon as I could see him in my scope. He got off several rounds before I put my bullet through the back of his neck. My slap shot had gone high, lucky for the girls. The 40-MM rounds exploded keeping the girls down and allowing the rest of the trucks to get past them. Then I heard another round of shots! The lead hummer careened into the ditch, the second hummer's 50 cal gunner was tracking on the first set of girls looking for a target to fire at and did not know that he was crashing. Another round of shots struck the next vehicle; I shot the gunner as he turned toward the front to look for the new shooters. This hummer crashed into the lead hummer. The first group of shooters took out the third hummer. I saw the gunner duck as he realized he was going to crash too. I drew down on the last hummer's gunner and found him ducking as he feared that the hummer was going to crash too! The second group of shooters hit the driver and the hummer crashed into the preceding hummer. With all the hummers stopped, the dismounts began to exit the hummers firing at both groups of women who had been shooting the drivers.

There were seven dismounts and they broke in two directions three toward me and four away from me. The ladies cut down the four dismounts that were moving away from me almost instantly. I shot the lead dismount in the chest and dropped as the other two opened up with their automatic rifles. I rolled to the side and felt at least one bullet catch me in the shoulder. I don't know if I was more afraid of the girls or how bad the hit I took was. I looked up to find a target just in time to see both of the bad guys twist and shake from multiple bullets ripping through them.