Chapter 39: Pinned Down

Marco yelled urgently for his men to find cover. Nearly ten of his men were already lying dead on the exposed street, in growing pools of blood. Several others had been injured and were crawling towards any kind of nearby cover. The militia forces had far better coverage than they did and were picking the gangsters off easily.

Marco was constantly yelling out orders to his men. "Get down! Shoot at the windows. That's where they are!"

The gangsters finally returned fire, shooting from behind rusted cars and trees growing in the yards of the next-door homes. The two sides exchanged rounds for several minutes, but neither side made any further progress. Marco looked desperately around trying to think of a solution to get the fight back in their favor.

"You five!" Marco shouted to a group guys behind a car in front of Marco's position. "Get around to the back of that house and flank them!" He while waving towards the home on their left.

Then he turned to eight others that were nearby with him hidden amongst some poplars and short evergreens. "Keep shooting at anything that moves at those windows. Don't let them notice the flankers!"

The men nodded and one of them randomly shot at a top floor window. From inside there was a yell and a few shots were shot back in retaliation. Bullets ricocheted through the branches and leaves but managed to hit no one. Then all the gangsters retorted in unison as they fired back at the same window. Using the cover fire, Marco then moved from the trees to a car nearby.

"Marco!" One of his men called from behind the wall of the house on his right. "We have half our ammo left. What's the plan?"

Marco thought for a moment. A random stray bullet pinged off the hood of the car he was hiding behind. He flinched involuntarily and hastily dished out orders.

"Take those guys with you and circle around the right of the house. We need to push them out of that house ahead! They can't possibly have that much ammunition either." Marco hollered shrinking lower to duck behind the car even further as another shot hit nearby him.

The man nodded and turned away with the others to carry out the order. There were now only twenty or so gangsters fighting in the street and trees. From the number of times the militia shot back, Marco guessed that there were not that many of them to begin with. There was still plenty of opportunity to win this fight.

There were a few cars between the gangsters and the houses the militia were in and Marco knew they had to push. Once they had the militia's full attention on the street could the two groups than flank the houses and finish this fight. He jumped up and shot a slug round at the lower windows on the right house. The faded blue window cover blew up into hundreds of wooden splinters.

"Advance to the next cars!" Marco shouted dashing out from behind his cars cover. The rest of the men with him followed Marco's lead and yelling ran forward.

A militia member popped into a window and shot his rifle at them. The man next to Marco suddenly had his chest burst into a fountain of red and collapsed. Sliding to safety behind the next car Marco's heart was pounding in his chest.

"That was too close!" Marco thought. The man’s handgun, a pistol, had skidded close to him and Marco snatched it up. Glancing at the houses from the corner of the car hood, he spotted a militia member leaning by the window frames inside. Taking aim with his newly collected pistol, with one hand, he pulled off three shots and the militia target was hit and knocked back out of sight.

"Where are those flankers at?" Marco wondered aloud.

Just then a commotion came from the other side of the house on their left. Men shouted and a few shots were fired. Then silence.

A gangster carefully appeared at a window and waved at Marco. Seeing him, Marco waved back. The waving gangster took cover as a bullet whizzed at him from across the street. Then the gangster stuck his middle finger out into the window in reply to the shot. Marco knew seeing that the house had been secured, now only the militia in the right side's house were all that remained.

Suddenly, from the back of that same building, came the sounds of glass shattering. The militia were trying to escape out of the house!

"They are trying to run!" Marco shouted. "Get after them. We can't let them live and warn the others!"

The men in the street and left house shouted and charged at the building. A single militia member popped out of the front door in an attempt to hold them off while his allies fled and started shooting at the charging gangsters with a rifle. He wounded one but was instantly shot by another gangster and collapsed screaming.

The gang continued on flanking the left house and upon rounding the backyard spotted three militia members running into the next house. They re-opened fire and gave chase. Seeing this, Marco ordered some men to clear the right house and then joined in with the right flankers’ to deal with the last three militia.

Rather than fighting back the three men tried to keep running out of the house and get away. However, their luck had run out. They were running away empty handed, seeing this the gangsters charged after them unafraid. It wasn't long until the last of the militia men were caught.

Marco was smiling like a mad man as he approached the three militia men being pinned down by the gangsters. He held up his handgun to the first man’s head. Revenge never felt so sweet.

"Pow!"

…

Erin's men had fared slightly better than Marco's. When the militia started shooting only three of his men were hit. The rest immediately took cover, they were more used to dealing with danger. Getting over his initial surprise, Erin quickly came up with a new plan.

"You ten, keep shooting at that red house. You other ten shoot at that yellow house. The rest of you need to spread out and surround the houses in two lines." Erin said pointing at the indicated men. "Keep close to cover and shoot at them before you move. That way they can't shoot back."

His men obediently followed out his instructions and the twenty men started shooting at the two houses from the street, drawing most of the militia’s gunfire onto them. This allowed the rest of the gangsters to easily surround the two houses. Erin had gone around to the back of the yellow house and motioning to one of his men to come over, he had another idea.

"Turn around so I can open your backpack." Erin said to the man.

The man turned around and Erin fumbled quickly around inside the backpack. He pulled out two bottles of alcohol and two rags. Next, he took from his back pocket a lighter. Then tying the rags to the bottle’s necks, he then lit them on fire.

Erin yelled. "Get ready to shoot!"

He jumped out from behind his cover and chucked the two flaming bottles at the house in quick succession. The first bottle hit the side of the building setting the siding and a dead bush on fire. The second bottle smashed through a sliding glass door and burst into flames inside the house.

Smoke soon filled the yellow building and billowed into the air outside. Then one by one the militia members started stumbling and coughing out of the burning building on all sides. The gangsters showed no mercy. Every one of them was quickly shot and killed on sight.

After a few moments no one else came out of the burning building. It seemed that all the militia members in the yellow house were now dead. After confiscating the dead's weapons and ammo, Erin motioned for everyone to move on towards the red house on the other side of the road.

The militia members in the red house saw what had happened to their allies and started to desperately escape from the back of the house. The gangsters in the backyard tried to engage, but the militia were far more desperate. They overpowered the gangsters, broke through the defenses and jumped the chain link fence. They then quickly scrambled through the yard beyond and towards the next street over.

Erin counted five men that had managed to avoid being taken. "Hold on guys! We won this fight." He called out before his men tried to give chase. "Let them go. We can follow them to wherever their base is at. There we will kill the rest of them with the Boss!"

The gangsters cheered excitedly. Things could not have gone any better.

…

Terry and his men quickly returned their own fire from windows and doorways at the opposite house. It was clear that they had dealt a massive blow to the militia members. They were likely halfway wiped out at this point. The surprise attack had been successful. Unlike his fellow lieutenants, Terry was far more cautious.

"Keep up the shooting." Terry shouted. He pointed his gun out the nearest window to him and started shooting. His assault rifle let out a stream of heavy bullets at the bottom floor of the house across the street. Black holes riddled the house once his magazine was emptied.

The rest of his men took turns blasting away at the house as well. The amount of gunfire from the gangsters had completely overwhelmed the militia members and they were unable to return fire. After a minute of this Terry called for a ceasefire.

Then calling out towards the battered house, he gave the militia an offer. "Hey, Militia members! I am giving you this one chance to surrender. Toss your weapons out front into the street. Then come out with your hands up!" Terry's voice seemed quiet compared to the numerous blasts from before.

There was a short pause of silence from the house across the street. It seemed like the militia might have already been killed, until a handgun was suddenly tossed out the front door. It was followed by a few other weapons and they bounced out into the street.

Slowly seven militia members came out of the building with their hand up. The walked slowly into the front yard, nervously eyeing the gangsters.

"Go get them boys." Terry said motioning with the tip of his rifle.

The gangsters marched outside and surrounded the seven scared men. Terry walked up to one of the men and butted him hard in the gut with the butt of his gun. The man doubled over and dropped to one knee.

"Kill the others." Terry said loudly.

A dozen shots rang out, killing the other surrendered men. Then stooping to one knee, Terry put a hand on the man’s shoulder.

"Now tell me. Which way is it to your base?" Terry asked speaking calmly.

The man fought for breath but managed to speak. "P-please let me go. I surrendered; you shouldn't kill me!"

"I will let you go. But only if you tell me the answer to my question." Terry said giving the man a reassuring nod.

The man quickly blurted out in fear for his life. "Go a mile down the road and take a left at the big red brick factory. You can't miss it! It's a huge warehouse building."

"Hmm, thank you very much." Terry said standing up. Then he pointed his rifle at the unfortunate man. "Now you can go and leave with your friends." Then Terry pulled the trigger. Unlike the other lieutenants, Terry was also the vilest.

…

Garret Trellis and his two lieutenants, Adam and Diana, marched boldly down the road towards where the East River Militia (ERM) base was at. They oddly hadn't yet encountered any resistance from militia forces. They had only scared off random citizens that were in the road or businesses along their route.

They soon came to an area with several large warehouses and factories. There was a large parking lot in front of the main warehouse and so was a huge blockade. The blockade was a series of old rusted cars, stacked two cars high, lined up midway through the parking lot. The line stretched all the way around the building and was guarded by numerous ERM forces.

Standing at the only gap in the blockade was a huge man with graying hair. He stood there with his army crossed boldly across his chest. It was Gillian Taws.

"We meet again, Garret." Gillian called out once the gangsters had gotten close enough.

"Yes, we have." Garret replied coldly. "I will kill you this time."