Free The Guardians by Steven Bird Page A

his stock.
    "Any other movement?" Evan queried Jason. 
    Before Jason could answer, a barrage of gunfire came out of the front of the house from the door and from two of the windows.  Two of the shooters seemed to be focused on Evan's location, while the other made wild random shots in Jason's direction.  Bullets danced all around Evan.  His cover was not adequate to repel this level of fire for long.  Luckily for him, it was not very focused or disciplined.  He could not help but think about how this had not played out very well on his end.  Jason attempted to lay down a suppressing fire shooting blindly towards the windows of the house.  He could not get a view of any of the shooters, so he assumed they were further back in the room, firing from a distance.  This was smart he thought, as he would otherwise be able to pick them off easily.
    The next thing Evan heard was the sound of the old Massey Ferguson's diesel engine as it came chugging up the hill.  He looked to see Ollie backing up the driveway with the Bush Hog deck flipped up like a shield.  He must have taken the top link lose and just stood the sucker up and secured it standing on end somehow, he thought.  The steel deck and the plywood that he had put over top of it seemed to be providing enough ballistic protection from the small arms fire as the occupants of the house had now directed their fire at Ollie and the tractor.
    Ollie backed the Bush Hog deck all the way up to the fence and Evan scooted over behind it to take cover.  "Brilliant!" Evan exclaimed. 
    "Do you start this much trouble everywhere you go?" asked Ollie. 
    "Lately it seems," replied Evan. 
    "Ev....another threat just came out the back door, he went around the other side of the house though.  I can't see him.  Be careful, he may be coming to flank you and Ollie," Jason said over the radio.
    "Let's get a move on," Evan said. 
    Ollie slipped the tractor into gear and began to creep forward as they looked over to see a man preparing to fire directly at Ollie.  Evan swung his VZ around to fire on the assailant, but before Evan could get the gun into position, he heard a shot ring out and he saw a flash of light from the muzzle of the man's rifle.  Everything went quiet and his heart seemed to pause as he feared the worst.  Did the man just fire upon Ollie, Evan thought in the slow motion of his mind?  As Evan finally got his aim on the man and began to pull the trigger the assailant fell forward, dead on the ground.  There he saw Daryl off in the woods, with a cloud of smoke still in the air from his black powder loaded .45-70.  The gunshot he had heard was Daryl's, Ollie was fine, and the tractor began to lunge forward.  Evan hopped up on the running board of the tractor alongside Ollie and got back on the radio to Jason.
    "Report!" he said.
    "Accounting for the guy on the flank, I have only seen one location for muzzle flash from the house,"
    "Good, keep'em occupied for a moment while I get Ollie out of here.  I'll get back to you in a sec."
    "Roger that," replied Jason as he began to maintain a steady fire on the front of the house, varying his point of aim from window to window and then back to the door."
    Reaching the bottom of the hill and rounding the corner for cover, Evan said, "Great work Ollie!  Now stay here.  I'll be right back."  Evan then ran up the hill through the woods towards where they had seen Daryl. 
    Daryl saw him coming and broke cover to get his attention.  He then ducked back down behind some brush and Evan joined him. "Damn good shooting!" said Evan.
    "Thank God I made it down the hill in time," Daryl replied.  "I saw that guy come around back and around the side where Jason couldn't get a shot at him.  I knew if he got to you there would be trouble."
    "Did you see anyone else from back there?" Evan asked.
    "I was just counting gunshots, and based on that we are down to one shooter that I know of." he replied.
    "Good.  Lead me back up the