Defending Liberty

“Here they come! Sid, M1A on the riders to the north? We’ll tag the riders from the west? What do you think?” Nik expected Sid to use the longer range of his M1A to eliminate the northern riders earlier than the AR-15’s could eliminate the western riders.

“Sounds good, they are moving pretty fast, only seconds now till they’re in range, then I’ll have the shot” Sid then stopped talking and his rifle began doing its work.

BOOM! One shot, one rider down... BOOM! BOOM! Shot two and shot three, rider two and rider three down. A long pause and the final BOOM! Final rider from the northern encampment was down. All the riders were dispatched at a range of no closer than five hundred and fifty yards.

“Nice shooting Sid!” Nik quickly stated and began talking to John, “Call the shot John!”

John quickly spouted, “I got the two on the left, and you get the two on the right, ok!”

“Good, count it down” Murmured Nik as he quickly wiped his forehead.

John began, “Three ... Two ... One ... Fire!”

Nik and John aimed at their targets, Nik held his breath, and squeezed the trigger on his rifle, BOOM! ... BOOM!

John just laughed and quietly gloated, “I wonder what ‘chuckles’ is thinking now?” ‘Chuckles’ was referring to Mr. Sebastian Longinlourd Chantilly III.

The defenders from 2010 waited to see what their adversaries were going to do as the horses from the downed riders rode out of sight down the pass to the south. Once the ring of their rifle shots died away, the silence was deafening. Sid smiled and nodded his head and was about to warn his compatriots to prepare themselves for another attack as a wave of chants, hisses, jeers, screams, and cries rose from both enemy camps.

The boys hadn’t immediately noticed what Chantilly had done after they’d dispatched his first wave of riders; they turned their attention to him. He stood stone still and silent as his men dropped to the floor of the pass. He turned and peered in the direction of the boys in disbelief; you could almost see the little comic strip text bubble appear above his head with the words ‘What just happened’ or something silly like ‘Zoinx!’ in it.

He started to walk forward toward the motionless bodies of his men and caught himself with a whole body jerk, then froze in his tracks. At this point John stood up and waved at him to further Chantilly’s growing rage. Chantilly began to raise his arms again as if to send the entirety of both garrisons at his command toward the boys, when he abruptly stopped at mid motion. His face, with a look of sheer and utter surprise forming across it, began to scream something the boys could not begin to recognize.

The next minute occurred at a furious pace; Chantilly screamed an apparent order to retreat generating more screams and jeers rising from their ranks deep into the encampments. Sid caught the ground tremors of an approaching ‘something’ and swung his rifle around to prepare for an incoming attack as Nik and John began to maneuver themselves for the next action on their position.

Out of the southern pass came a charging mounted force, which apparently did not see the boys nestled against the southern hillside, or were fixed on their adversaries to their north and west. Sid readied for an engagement with this new attacking force when Nik yelled something very loudly.

Nik shrieked, “Sid! Look at the flag! They are Americans! Hold your fire! Fifteen Stars and Fifteen Stripes!” and Sid instantly stood down.

“Whoa! What the–!” Sid grunted with surprise, “Quick guys! Wood up your rifles and stow’em. My bet is we won’t need them again today... Pistols if we need’em”.

John stood for a moment and admired how the charging American forces rode into action. The enemies were now in a full and frenzied retreat. The retreat action of Chantilly’s forces was so rapid; there would not be a need for the American forces to engage their would-be attackers. The boys quickly packed their weapons, stood on the hillside, and watched the events unfold.

The apparent commander of the American forces trotted back to the enemy dead near the enemies’ northern location, and superficially inspected the bodies from his horseback. He then looked at the boys with a cutting glare and then proceeded to trot over to the dead men from the western camp, again looking at the boys with a most intense stare. He then headed back to his group toward the north to witness the aggressors retreat.

After the area was secured, the American forces spread out with two or three soldiers in every direction; officers apparently, joined the leader at the site of the victims on the north end of the skirmish. The leaders of the American force slowly trotted toward the boys’ position, and Nik got a sinking feeling in his stomach. This was the sort of feeling he got a very long time ago, when he was young and in elementary or middle school. He had experienced this unique feeling as a youngster when he had done something, quite wrong, knew he was caught, and would need to pay the price for his actions.

Nik, Sid, and John were now face to face, potentially, with real war heroes of the year 1813... Nik thought to himself, what are we going to say to these guys?

John muttered, “Nik, this is history, it’s all you man!”

A short pause had Nik responding with a shuttered smirk, “K ...”

In a few moments, the four mounted American military soldiers trotted up in front of the boys ‘base of operations’ from where they defended themselves from the band of marauders... and that was going to be Nik’s story if he were asked by anyone.

Firmly standing in front of them, the four mounted soldiers looked down at Nik, Sid, and John. A moment of pause and a few looks back at the dead men on the floor of the pass generated some whispering amongst themselves. Sid spent this time inspecting the uniforms of the soldiers but could not place the style, the branch; he looked at it all with some confusion painted on his face. Nik noticed that the men were not very old, between twenty-eight and forty years of age he guessed.

Finally, the leader of the group turned and addressed the boys, “My name is Commodore Thomas McDonough out of the Naval Port at Vergennes. Are you unharmed?” Nik quickly derived a correct and proper conclusion... ‘Commodore’ equaled U.S. Navy!

Nik, as instructed by John, spoke for the group, “Yes sir, we are unhurt, just a little surprised. I didn’t recognize your branch; I wouldn’t have expected to see Navy officers and personnel out here on horseback acting like cavalry.”

Commodore McDonough looked down, as his horse weaved left and right several times, “Uhh Huhh... Not sure you were the ones who got surprised. Did you know those men who attacked you?”

Nik began to relay their story, “No sir, we were just travelling through and–” and was quickly and sharply cut off by Commodore McDonough.

“Can you explain those dead men out there mister?” Commodore McDonough sounding a bit angrier.

Nik meekly, but seriously responded, “No sir, not easily.”

“Uh Huh... After we found your horses, we knew we were on your trail. Laffite said to listen for the loud reports from gun fire and we’d find you.” And with a very small hesitation McDonough began shouting more loudly...