Free Six Feet From Hell: Unity: 6FFH Book #5 by Joseph Coley Page B

ill of him, Kane nudged him on the back of the knee as they walked ahead.
    “I think he heard you,” Joe said, chuckling and pointing to the German shepherd.
    Kane stopped in his tracks, his ears perking up and the hair on his back doing the same. A look of both interest and worry appeared on the dog’s face. He turned away from Rick and Joe, his attention drawn towards the other end of town.
    Rick didn’t initially notice he’d stopped, having gotten used to the dog being ever-present at his side. He shortly sensed the German shepherd wasn’t at his heels. He turned to see the dog standing at attention, his focus on something else.
    “C’mon, boy. Let’s head to the jail with dad.” Rick patted his thigh, trying to get Kane to follow, but the dog remained steadfast. The faint sound of yelling at the other end of town signaled something going on. A few voices could be heard over the rest, one belonging to Boyd.
    “What’s up with him? He hears yelling all the time, wonder what…” The first few gunshots interrupted Joe, startling him. He instinctively grabbed for his M4, pawing at the rifle until he had a firm grip and brought it in front of him. More shots popped in the distance as Kane emitted a low growl, unsettled by the gunfire. The staccato of rifle reports continued for a few seconds, one after another, randomly. After ten seconds, the shots abruptly stopped, silence followed.
    “ I guess they had a group of…” The thunderous boom interrupted Rick as he turned towards the gunfire. He ducked down, covering his head as the sound reverberated through the mountains. He slowly removed his hands from the top of his head, desperately trying to figure out what had made the sound. A second roar sounded, signaling another massive shot fired.
    Joe stepped beside of his son, grinning. “I’d be willing to bet that is what Jamie was going after; sounded like a fifty cal, probably a Barrett.”
    “Christ that is loud!” Rick blurted out as he faced Joe.
    Joe walked forward swinging his rifle back behind him. “C’mon, let’s go see what was so bad that Jamie had to break out a fifty cal for.”
    As if to answer his question, the small radio on Joe’s chest rig crackled. The voice sounded out of breath. “ Curtis to Larry, Joe .”
    Joe paused for a moment, waiting for Larry to answer before he did. After a few long seconds of silence, he reached for the radio and keyed it up. “Yeah, go ahead Curtis. I’m assuming you’re gonna explain what all that shooting was about.”
    Still out of breath, Curtis replied immediately. “ Yeah, that was Jamie and I. We got a few extras from his house, but we were attacked by somebody that Boyd keeps calling the ‘Mountain Men.’ That make any sense to you?”
    Joe bit his lip and winced noticeably. “Yeah, unfortunately it does. Ya’ll get out of there without incident?”
    “ Mostly, yeah. It depends on your definition of ‘incident .’”
    “What does ‘mostly’ mean, Curtis?”
    “ Well, the hillbillies were chasing a woman through the woods. She managed to make it to Jamie and I before they got to her. We’ve brought her to the chow hall for now. Boyd seems to think that she’s pregnant, but I’m not so sure .”
    Joe rubbed his head vigorously and delved into thought. Finding a stray person was not completely out of the ordinary, but it wasn’t something that happened often enough that they had a plan in place for it. They had no specific area for medical emergencies or other issues. The best they could manage for most occasions was to take the person to the chow hall or to the jail. The latter being a better option for an outsider; God only knows what sickness they could bring down to the rest of the residents of Tazewell. The jail was as close to quarantine as it would get.
    As Joe pondered the alternatives, Larry keyed up on the radio. “ I’ll be headin’ down to the chow hall in just a few minutes, Curtis. Just hold tight until I can get