Free Books of the Dead (Book 1): Sanctuary From The Dead by R.J. Spears Page A

street. 
    One of the men popped up, took a quick shot at the hous e, and then ducked. 
    There was a flash of movement from a second floor window .  A shot rang out and a bullet clunked into the car by the redneck shooter.  A man behind a car down the street jumped up and fired three shots at the window and then ducked down.
    “Someone in their group knows something about tactics.  They’re trying to draw Logan’s team out with those potshots so that another team can tak e out the source,” Mike said, his face tight.
    Brandon brought his weapon up and started to aim it, but Mike pushed it down.  “Not yet.” He pulled up the walkie-talkie.  “Foraging Party, this is the Clearing Party,” Mike said.  “Foraging Party, we are thirty minutes out.  Hold tight, we’re coming with reinforcements.”
    Aaron gave Mike a puzzled look.
    “I can’t give away our proximity in case the rednecks are listening,” Mike said dropping the walkie-talkie from his mouth.  “We’ve worked out some basic codes and Logan knows that means we are here and not to shoot at us.  From what I can see they have three groups.  They could also have some men behind the house.”   
    So, what’s the game plan?” Brandon asked.  “We going to smok e’em?”
    “We could do that.  They certainly didn’t show our people any mercy, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have to.”
    “I vote no mercy,” Aaron said. 
    “Me, too.  We have them dead to rights,” Brandon added.
    “What do you think, Joel?”  Mike asked swinging the weight of the decision to me. I felt all of it.  The lives of these men hinged on what I said.
    “I’m not saying mercy, but we don’t have to slaughter them, do we?  Can’t we just scare them off?”
    “That’s an option, but they’d still be armed and dangerous and on our turf,” Mike said.  “We can’t get into a drawn out debate here, but I’m with Joel.  We don’t have to kill them, but they can’t leave here without suffering some damage.  Real damage.  And they can’t leave here as armed as they came in.  Ultimately, they have to know coming back into our town is not an option.”
    There was another exchange of fire between the house and the men on the street.
    “See what I mean?” Brandon said pointing towards the house.  “I don’t like it.  Any one of them is a danger to us.  Letting them go is a potential future threat.”
    “These aren’t terrorists.  They’re some rednecks with guns trying to survive.  We don’t even know how this shootout started,” Mike said.
    “Does it matter?”  Brandon asked.  “Our people have been shot and may be dead.”
    Brandon’s comment was punctuated when another redneck took a couple shots at the house.
    “We don’t have time for this,” Mike said, his expression hardening.  “We’re not going to wipe them out unless we have to.  That’s final.  We don’t risk ourselves or our people in the house, but we’re not going on a killing spree.  We together on this?”  I could tell that Brandon wasn’t happy with the decision, but he conceded to the chain of command.  Aaron nodded his agreement, too. 
    “They have us out numbered ,” he continued, “But we have better weapons and surprise on our side.  We’re going to drive them away.  We need to get their weapons, if possible, but getting our people out of the house safely is the priority.  If you feel in danger, or if you think our people in the house are in danger, do what you have to.”  He laid out a quick plan that had the four of us dispersing strategically to make our numbers look bigger than they were.  We synced our watches and decided on a time we would commence our attack.
    The plan had us spaced out along the street with Mike and I just a house apart.  Brandon and Aaron followed a similar strategy only a few houses down from the rednecks.  I wasn’t really sure if I was to fire on the rednecks, over their heads, or try to wound