No Bag Limit (Cumberland Saga)

The supply truck had been staged a quarter-mile from the entrance to the driveway. It had backed into a two-track that was access to a wooded area. Lliam and Eddie had been busy. They had supplied four potential locations for the supply truck to loiter.

Four minutes after radio contact, Fred and the crew heard the truck turn into the drive a quarter mile to their east. As promised, the truck moved at a pace only slightly faster than a walk.

Approaching the gully, it braked and the driver flickered the high-beams three times before resuming forward motion.

Samson had chosen to put the roadblock at the gully because the drive barely had enough room on each side for someone to replace a flat tire. Then, to either side, the drive plunged steeply to the bottom where a culvert provided a path for run-off.

There was no possibility of turning a vehicle around nor was there much risk of a passenger bailing out and flanking defenders. Basically, a road-block would make the vehicle a sitting duck.

There were no trees of sufficient girth and mass in the middle of the stretch of drive across the gully but the clump of basswood trees would work just fine.

After the truck had passed Fred’s crew, Fred asked Lliam to hold his light while he started cutting the stem he had selected. The key would be to leave a strap that connected the stem to the stump. Then, even if the returning truck tried to push the stem out of the way it would likely damage the grill and radiator of the truck.

After cutting ¾ the way through the stem and vigorously applying sledge to wedges, the basswood stem groaned and shook and finally toppled.

Shortly afterward, Samson and the other raiders with military experience showed up. They tapped the “lumberjacks” out of their positions and suggested that they sack-out while they could. They had done their part for the night.

Samson wanted the fewest eyewitnesses for what was likely to happen next.

One nice thing about an enemy who you know will be arriving in a vehicle is that you don’t need to exercise strict noise discipline. The men were able to chat with each other and keep each other awake.

After about a half hour, Samson called Lliam and Eddie. “What do you guys think of making breakfast for the crew in the morning?” Samson’s watch told him it was about fifteen minutes after midnight. He needed to make sure that most of the crew got at least four hours of sleep. He would sleep in the morning.

Lliam said “I would but we are about out of grub.”

“I reckon Miss Shannon has got plenty of supplies. I want you and Eddie to head up to the house and rack-out for the rest of the night. Make sure you give a hollar when you get within 100 yards. I’ll let them know that you are coming.”

“Sure. Sounds like a plan” Lliam said with a big yawn. The idea of sleeping inside a house suddenly had an irresistible appeal.

Ten minutes before 1:00 AM, a truck pulled into the drive and started toward the roadblock. Due to minor snaking of the drive and ups-and-downs, the driver was not able to see the fallen tree until he had started across the causeway that spanned the gully.

The truck slowed as it approached it and then stopped.

Samson could see the occupants of the front seat clearly in the glow of the instrument panel.

The engine idled while the passenger and the driver argued. Apparently, the driver won the argument because the passenger got out of the truck and was cussing up a storm. He walked over to the trunk and gave an unimpressive “push” against it to move it.

Samson heard the power window lowered and the driver yelled “Ya gotta push harder than that!”

“Fuck you!” the passenger screamed back. “You think you can do better, you get out and help.”

Neither man seemed to think the fallen tree was unusual. Sudden storms were not uncommon in eastern Tennessee and due to the mountains, some of them were very local.

The driver made no move to get out of the truck. On the other hand, he also didn't send anybody to help which led Samson to believe that they were only dealing with the two of them.

Shooting through windshields is tricky business. It tends to deflect bullets upward and there is always the risk of the bullets hitting the steel insert inside of the rim of the steering wheel.

The proper response is to use a larger caliber firearm if it is available. If the only firearm is 5.56mm NATO, then the proper response is to use enhanced penetrating rounds like military surplus M-855 and to do a mag-dump.

As Samson was servicing the driver, the other two former-military hosed the passenger. It was slaughter, pure and simple.

The two bodies were tossed on top of the booty from the night’s raid.

Samson had to beat a peep-hole through the windshield with the hammer. The impact of the bullets had broken the safety-glass of the windshield into thousands of tiny pebbles that were held together by the plastic film between the two sheets, rendering the windshield opaque.
 

One of the other team members cut through the strap of wood holding the tree-trunk to the stump and then topped out the tree. He sent a runner to get the supply truck. With a tow strap, they were able to pull the log off of the drive and Samson got the job of driving the looter’s truck up to Miss Shannon’s house.

They opened the garage door. There was nobody in the garage. After turning off Miss Shannon’s vehicle and letting the garage air out for ten minutes, they turned on the lights and much of the merchandise that could probably be identified by its rightful owners was thrown into the bed of the truck. Then Billy and Billy’s girlfriend’s bodies were tossed in. It was a very full load.

Finally, Samson spray-painted “LOOTERS” in white, 10” tall letters on one side of the truck-box. On the other side of the truck he wrote “OPEN SEASON ON LOOTERS” and "NO BAG LIMIT". Due to lack of planning he had to make the letters smaller as he got close to the end.

Since the back of his jacket was already blood-soaked, Samson drove the truck to where Chapel Road “Y”ed off of Hendon Road. He made sure that he positioned the truck so every person traveling southeast on Hendon got a very good look at the signage.

Then Samson loped back toward Miss Shannon’s house.