Alright, bravo Fisk.  I'll give you this one.  That...that was simply terrifying.  I hope never to cut it that close again.

There had to be at least a dozen men out there, all in bulletproof armor.  Luckily, they didn't have anything particularly useful to protect their heads.  Another mistake on his part, but hell.  At first we were just trying to figure out where they were heading, until they broke into three groups; I think they were going to have two of them come around either side, and one try for the front door.  If they'd stuck together I probably wouldn't even be writing right now.

Those four guys?  They ran across Spender's ONE goon and took him down in about half a second.  I think he got one shot off.  If that.  The other four probably weren't expecting to see cops, though.  Fuck yeah, score one for us.  I was watching through the window, and there about a 5 second period where they didn't even know what to think.  In that time, two of them got shot.  Still, that armor's damn good; they were standing back up a couple seconds later.

By then, of course, they were starting to fire, and there wasn't much we could do; some police issue handguns against what looked a hell of a lot like machine guns?  Only my aunt and one other guy managed to make it behind the shed, and she only managed to stay alive because none of them could really tell where to shoot.

My dad and my uncle's hunting buddies were up front with rifles, and they had a little more luck.  Namely, they got a couple of them in the legs, and that managed to slow them down no small amount.  Ava's mother was SUPPOSED to be hiding in the bathroom, but good luck there.  She ran into the hallway about as soon as people started firing, and she looked pretty pissed.  I think, if we'd had any more guns, she would've walked out there and started firing herself.

Luckily enough, there was enough light to make it impossible to REALLY pin down the muzzle flashes.  Not that they really needed to.  There are only two rooms that they could actually fire from, and both rooms were under the heaviest fire I think any of them have seen.  Our insurance agent will have a heart attack when he hears about this.

The only reason we weren't overrun in the first 30 seconds was because Spender had sent that extra artillery.  I opened one of the kitchen windows and tossed a grenade out the window; nearly lost my ear because of it, but dear God it was sweet to hear those screams when it went off.  I think, by then, we'd wounded four, maybe five of them.  There were still over half ready to break into this place and turn us all into smears on the carpet.

That is, until the P.T.C. showed up.  Six guys, armed with I don't even know what.  The four of Fisk's up front went down before they could even turn to see who was shooting on them.  That left us with two trying to gun down my aunt, two trying to work their way inside, and three guys that didn't quite move out of the grenade in time.  There were still 5 guys that could do us some pretty bad damage if they got inside.  I'd put a bookcase in front of the back door, and I'd been holding the shotgun at the front door, so either way they wouldn't have an easy time of it.

They took...three minutes to get through the back door?  That was a sturdy bookcase, and they weren't expecting to have to break a door down, I guess.  By then I was right beside the door, and the first guy through took a load of buckshot.  Even his vest couldn't save him from that.  The other two tried to climb over the bookcase, and one of them got his nose broken by the butt of this thing.  He was already falling over as I looked up to see the barrel of a gun.

And then Spender, that son of a bitch, finally stepped in.  I didn't even see him at first.  I just noticed the guy went a little stiff, and I heard someone say something; I wasn't really listening, but I'd bet a thousand bucks what he said before he blew that guy's brains out.  The rest of them ran the hell out of there when they saw the P.T.C. and Spender coming their way.

All in all, the whole thing took maybe five minutes.  Total casualties on their side: 7.  Total casualties on our side: 6.

I guess I could call that a victory, but damn.  It sure doesn't FEEL like one.

Your mom's fine, Ava.  I guess we're all going out for dinner tonight.

-The Meteorologist