Read Online The Independents by Joe Nobody - Free Book Online Page A

and she went back to her knees on the blacktop . That was the window Bishop needed . Send it.
    The bark of the .308 surprised even Bishop. The 180-grain TAP round, a specially designed flesh - destroying hollow- point , left the barrel at 2800 feet per second. The bullet was traveling much faster than the speed of sound and hit the thug before anyone on the road even heard the shot. The plastic covered tip of the bullet struck the man right at the base of the neck, almost decapitating him. Bishop realized his aim was a to uch high and adjusted as the cloud of red mist a nd gristle began falling toward earth. Before the body crumpled to the pavement, Bishop fired a second shot.
    This time the projectile hit the other executioner dead center , square in the breastbone. Simple physics took over from there . The base of the bullet was heavier than the point , and when the tip was slowed by the impact, the base had to go elsewhere. At that velocity, it had no other option but to tumble , and entered the body , flipping end over end. While the bullet entered at the chest, the r ound exited out the back of his upper thigh , tearing flesh and tissue the entire journey. All of this took less than a hundred th of a second , and resulted in another l ifeless body falling to the blacktop .
    The remai ning two guards and their chief were now reacting to the first shot. One guard immediately let go of the boy and started running toward the Hummer. The boss rolled to the side and scrambled across the road where a ditch gave him some cover. The third gu ard made a mistake. He scurried to the body of the plane for cover, but decided to stick his head up to see if he could spot the shooter. Bishop didn’t even bother with trying to time a headshot as the guy bobbed up and down. Th e thin skin of the aircraft was hardly good cover. A third shot was soon on its way. When the round hit the aluminum sheet covering the airframe , it performed as designed and expanded. By the time it exit ed the other side, the bull et had broken into several projectiles , taking bits and pieces of the hull along with it. In the end, the guard’s body was struck by dozens of small fragments of shrapnel , and he lingered only moments.
    Bisho p now had two remaining rogues to deal with, but he couldn’t see either one of them. He suspected the first had made it back to the Hummer and was taki ng cover behind it. He knew their commander was still close to the wreckage , but couldn’t see the man. The boy had managed to pull himself together, and along with the girl, was trying to drag the injured man back to their side of the road. Has to be family – nothing else would elicit such a response.
    Bishop was now wondering how to resolve this l ittle standoff and kept shifting his gaze back and forth between the Hummer and the boss. He didn’t wa nt the remaining goon to sneak up on his position, but also didn’t want the boss taking one of the children as a hostage. It was the noise of the Hummer’s motor starting that distracted him. Before he c ould react, the vehicle started moving , and at the same time, the boss deftly leapt from the ditch and pulled the girl back to his side of the road. Shit!
    The Hummer acted as an effective s hield , as it squealed to a halt in front of the boss. Bishop couldn’t fire out of fear of hitting the girl. In a few seconds, the vehicle spun ar ound in the desert and high tailed it south , a surreal scene in its wake.
    The roadway was littered with bodies and pools of blood. The aircraft wreckage still sheltered two living souls , and Bishop had to react quickly before th e Hummer crew returned with rei nforcements. As he made his way down the hillside , he was trying to think about what to do with the remaining two survivors. He and Terri barely kept enough food on the table as i t was. Unless that airplane were full of food, there was no way they could feed two more mouths. He decided he would take the two back to Meraton as