Dimitri coughed and stood up, “The NSA militia have a hangar at the airport with a few planes as you know. They have fuel and aerial bombs, we can surprise the guards and steal a plane. I will fly it and we can drop bombs onto the prison to breach the gates.” He stopped to let his words sink in.
Silence cut through the room. A dog barked outside. Mercy looked at the faces around the table.
He’s not won them over—
Dimitri continued, “We’ll need someone with military skills to organise the attack on the airfield and to come with me in the plane to drop the bombs—”
Mercy frowned.
OK—
“And I’m glad to say that I’ve found a volunteer,” Dimitri turned and raised a hand at Barnes standing at the back of the room. “Commander Barnes, from the Resistance has agreed to lead the operation on the airfield and to fly with me in the plane. He will drop the bombs by hand—”
Wait, what—?
Barnes stepped forwards. All eyes turned to him, he cleared his throat, “Dimitri has used this airport in the past and has drawn me a detailed map. The garrison, I am told, is maintained at about twenty men. Subject to a fresh recon and adequate resources, I can put together a raid that will take out this garrison and allow us to capture a plane. We’ll also need to destroy any remaining aircraft to stop the militia coming after us—”
“What about these bombs? They’re not exactly RPGs are they? I mean… dropping them by hand, that’s a bit… primitive isn’t it? And dangerous—?” Tawny spoke up.
Barnes raised a hand, “It is a bit retro… I’ll give you that, but it was a technique used in the World War 1; hand-dropped aerial bombs and flechettes were dropped by both sides on each other. The hand-delivered bombs are generally around 20 lbs in weight and, when positioned correctly, can be effective. Dimitri tells me he can fly in low, we’ll have the element of surprise, and it’s one of their own planes with their markings. They shouldn’t fire on us, at least not on the first run, so we can get a couple of bombs in before they realise it’s an attack—”
“And dangerous—?” Tawny repeated.
Barnes nodded, “Yes. It’s dangerous. There are two types of bombs; ones with pistol-type detonating mechanisms and others with time fuses. With such a low attack on the gates we would use the ground impact, pistol-detonating ones. We could carry about ten on the plane. From what I gather the militia planes are also fitted with a wing-mounted machine gun over the pilot’s cockpit which should prove helpful.” Barnes stopped speaking, allowing the room to digest the information.
A few heads nodded around the table.
Nice one Barnes. You’re getting warmer. They’re taking it in—
Barnes continued, “You’ve got about sixty people in this camp. I’ll need twenty fighters to take the airfield. That’s probably overkill, but it’s crucial we wipe out that garrison and get that plane. We’ll have comms, so we can co-ordinate and keep the rest of you up to speed on our progress for phase two of the mission—”
Mercy raised an eyebrow.
Phase two—?
Brody stood up and took over, “This is where our gifted newcomers come into the equation. We’ve looked every which way at our options of breaking into the prison. There’s about three hundred militia and two hundred prisoners in there. They’ve chained tropes to the outer prison fence all the way around. The militia have horses and vehicles, fuel and supplies, and they outnumber us… so a siege is out, infiltration by stealth is out, someone even suggested parachuting a team in at night onto the prison roof… all these have their pitfalls. The one idea that stands up is this: we create a horde of tropes in Charlottesville and lead them to the prison. Barnes and Dimitri will then blast the gates open with the plane, then we let the tropes into the prison to cause maximum chaos. We do this by day, as Barnes needs to be able to see where to drop the bombs… and Dimitri needs to fly safely. There should be a good number of prisoners exercising in the prison yard. We stand a chance of freeing those prisoners. We stand less of a chance of freeing the other prisoners stuck in their cells. So… best case scenario, we might be able to free up to a hundred prisoners—”
“Well, what about the others? The ones in the cells? What about them? Are you just gonna forget them?” The same voice as before rang through the room.
Brody closed his eyes and took a breath, “I know it’s hard Seth, but there’s only sixty of us, twenty of whom will be tied up at the airport, leaving forty to take on the prison… you do the math—”
All eyes turned to Seth at the back of the room. His face was flushed with emotion.
There’s no telling him—
Brody spoke again, “So, our newcomers: Mercy, Rose, Tawny and Flynn, we have a map of Charlottesville here and a schematic of the prison, which is just outside the city.” Brody nodded at a man at the far corner of the table, “Joshua over there, used to be a cleaner at the prison, the diagram here is from his memory. He worked there for twenty years, so I’d say it’s pretty accurate. The population of Charlottesville pre-Fall was around fifty thousand people. If you could gather a horde of a few thousand and Pied Piper them to the prison gate using noise, a ghetto blaster is what we were thinking, then after the gates are blasted open you can lead them into the prison grounds. That should keep the militia busy, they may even retreat indoors and lie low, maybe use up their ammo on the horde. It all depends on what their leadership is like. Either way, we’ll have one hell of a distraction… a window to get our people out. You can walk among the dead, Annalise too, she can go with you. You can bring extra guns to give to the prisoners when you’ve freed them from the exercise yard—”
Barnes interjected, “Once you’re in and at the exercise yard, we can fly back in and drop more bombs to draw the tropes away, create a diversion, so you and the prisoners can escape. We can also strafe any militia resistance using the wing-mounted machine gun—”
The room fell silent.
Finally, Brody stood up, he rubbed his chin, “What do you say Mercy?”
Mercy looked at Rose, Flynn, Tawny and Annalise in turn. “We’re in. We’ll do it. We’ll have comms with you and Barnes, so we can co-ordinate the time of the attack.” She paused then continued, “What about the prisoners? Is there any way of letting them know this is happening, to prepare them?”
Brody shook his head, “We considered a Trojan Horse plan where we’d allow one of our people to be captured so as they’d be imprisoned but there’s just too many variables. They might be interrogated for days, they might break or die under torture. They might not be held in the prison, they might be taken straight to one of the militia slave farms. No, we’d just lose one of our own on a gamble. We’ve ruled it out—”
Mercy nodded, “Understood. So… just let me recap. Barnes is going to deal with the airport, we’re going to deal with the horde, and the rest of your people are going to be positioned outside the prison to provide backup, troubleshoot and exfil the prisoners as they come streaming out? Is that basically it? Have I missed anything?”
Brody looked at Barnes and Dimitri, “You’ve got it, pretty much, that’s it. You’ll all need to discuss the details among yourselves; fine tune your strategy, what to take with you, back up plans, escape routes and so on. I’ve got maps here for you all to familiarise yourselves with the city and landmarks, and Joshua’s schematic for the prison. We’ve got enough radios, guns and ammo for this one last push to get our people out but yeah, that’s the gist of the plan—”
Mercy nodded and looked at Rose. Rose pulled a face.
I know, I know, I know Rose. Oh, here we go—
Rose stood up, “I’m with you all the way Brody. I’m sure grateful for you and your people helping to get me out of that silo. I owe you my life. I just want to say one thing, this plan of yours stands up, I agree. It stands up pretty well, but it all hinges on the plane being able to blast the gates open. I’m not sure how well that’s going to work out, it could be pretty hit or miss. It would�
��ve been good if we had some RPGs instead but we don’t… so all I’m saying is we’ll have to be able to adapt, change our plans if things go wrong because people will die otherwise—”
Harsh, but it needed to be said—
Mercy looked around the room. There was an uncomfortable silence.
Here it comes, the final word to seal the deal—
Barnes grunted, “You’re right Rose. We’ll have to adapt if things go south because no battle plan ever survives first contact with the enemy. They ain’t my words, they’re Von Moltke’s words; every army worth its salt has understood that lesson of war. Prepare, adapt and survive—”
Barnes, who the hell was… Von Moltke?
“Wait,” Tawny stood up. “What about alphas? In Charlottesville? If we try and gather a horde, if there’s any alphas in there, they’ll be on to us. Alphas can see through our biotech and they’ll attack. The biotech just allows us to walk through regular tropes—”
Annalise shifted in her seat. “I’ve been into Charlottesville quite a bit, scavenging. I’ve covered a lot of ground in there, on my own and with others,” she looked around the room. “I’ve never encountered any of these… alphas. In fact, the ones in the silo were the first ones I’ve seen—”
Brody nodded, “Yes, we hadn’t heard of these alphas until you told us about them—”
“Maybe they’re more of a big city thing, bigger populations… more chance of viral mutations or maybe the few feral ones that were in Charlottesville were hunted down by the militia and either destroyed or sent by train back up to DC for their experiments—” Flynn said, breaking his silence.
Tawny chewed her lip, “Yeah, maybe, maybe not… I just think we should all take silenced weapons with us in case we come across one. We’d need to nail it before it got a chance to turn the horde against us—”
Good point Tawny, sharp. Jesus… that was almost an afterthought. I wonder what else we’ve not thought of, what we’re missing—
Brody nodded, “You’ve got it, silenced pistols will be provided for your team. If you think of anything else let me know.”
“When is this operation happening?” Seth’s voice rang out from the back of the room again.
Brody straightened up, “First light tomorrow. The airport team moves out this afternoon, they’ll have to recon the airport. They’re the ones to get the ball rolling, everything else follows on from then. So, we’ll all be leaving here today and in position by first light tomorrow morning—”
Rose glanced at Mercy.
Christ, this is getting real—
Chapter 29
The Gathering
“So who was this Von Moltke dude?” Mercy asked Barnes after the meeting.
“Von Moltke? Helmuthe Von Moltke was a Prussian field marshal in the 19th century, he was chief of staff of the Prussian Army for thirty years. He knew a thing or two about battle planning and strategy—” Barnes replied.
Mercy’s face was blank.
“Well, you did ask,” Barnes said.
“Yeah, no, sorry. I got it, he was a military commander,” Mercy said. “No, I just remembered… a useful bit of kit to bring would be some road flares, they seem to distract the tropes. A single road flare got us out of having to fight those six Hazmat tropes at the silo. The rule of thumb is to avoid noise where possible, so yeah, road flares and glow sticks. I’m gonna see if I can track some down.” Mercy said. She paused, “What about you Barnes? You obviously spoke to Brody and that Dimitri guy before the meeting. Are you OK with the airport plan?”
Barnes shrugged, “That type of stuff is my bread and butter. It’s what I was trained for. We’ll recon it and improvise. Granted, Brody’s people are not military… they’re more outdoor survivalists, but they know how to handle their weapons and can obviously take orders, so yeah, I think we can get the job done. I only hope our fly-boy Dimitri is a kick-ass pilot. If he flew a crop duster his low flying skills should be honed and anyone who’s worked up in the Yukon is OK by me—”
Mercy held out her hand, “OK Barnes, if you’re happy with your side of the deal I’m happy. Just be careful, I didn’t expect you to be dropping bombs by hand from a biplane like some World War 1 flying ace. I have my reservations, this shit is nuts, Tawny’s instincts are right. Then again, sometimes the nuts shit works and the logical stuff wipes out. Sorry, I’m rambling, what I meant to say was be careful out there, up there… whatever—”
Barnes looked at her outstretched hand and shook his head. He opened his arms and gave Mercy a hug. “Yeah, me too Dawes. I don’t fancy your task of gathering a few thousand tropes together. At least you’ve got Rose, Tawny, Flynn and Annalise with you. That’s some crew. Yeah, keep your eyes and ears open and watch out for any of those alpha bastards—”
“Yeah, Roger that,” Mercy replied.
Barnes released Mercy, “Oh, and this is for you.” He pulled out a silenced Glock 17 pistol. “I spotted a couple in Brody’s armory, got this one for you. Your 45’s all well and good but you can’t argue with the stopping power of a 9mm parabellum.”
Mercy took the Glock, “Thanks, I’ll pay a visit to the armory too.”
Barnes went to find Dimitri. Mercy chewed her lip and watched Barnes walk away
Yeah, they might have road flares… and Brody said a ghetto blaster? Jesus, what music do these people have here? Some thrash metal would do the trick—
Mercy set off towards the bunkhouse to find Annalise.
“Bluegrass? Blue… grass? You’re kidding me—” Mercy said, eying the cassette tapes Annalise handed her.
“Well, it’s either that or… show tunes or… hang on… pan pipes—” Annalise replied.
Really—?
“Really? I mean… really?” Rose said, frowning.
“Well, we are talking a ghetto blaster here, and cassette tapes… hello? So, yeah, quite retro. It’s all I could find at short notice. Most people use battery powered CD players for their music so we’ll just have to suck it up. So then… what’s it to be?” Annalise replied.
Mercy looked at Rose.
“Bluegrass it is then,” Mercy said, her tone one of despair.
“Oh, and I got the road flares and binoculars you asked for. I couldn’t find any glow sticks, sorry,” Annalise indicated the items on the table.
“And we found suppressors for our pistols in the armory, so we’re good. And Annalise has her crossbow, she was showing me how to use it. It’s a thing of beauty. I declined the William Tell practice shot though… just couldn’t work myself up to that one—” Rose said, eyeing Annalise.
“Chicken,” Annalise responded.
Mercy checked her watch, “It’s 3:35 pm… almost time for the off. I’m not looking forwards to all that time in the saddle. I still haven’t recovered from the other day.”
“So, how far are we from Charlottesville anyway?” Rose asked.
“Twenty five klicks, as the crow flies,” Tawny replied.
“I hear Sledge is taking us into Charlottesville, then we’re on our own. Is everyone clear on the route from Charlottesville to the prison?” Mercy said.
“Yeah, it’s burned into my consciousness,” Flynn replied, “but we’re bringing a map as well, aren’t we?”
Mercy tapped her pocket, “Yeah, me and Tawny have maps. OK guys, good to move out? Let’s go and find our torture instruments… I mean horses—”
They left the bunkhouse and found Sledge nearby, saddling the horses. They watched him in silence, all need for conversation slipping away.
It’s sinking in. We’re heading into the abyss again… to do what? Not to avoid tropes… oh no… but to fucking recruit them, gather them. We must be crazy, these people are desperate. Desperate times, desperate measures. We’re at the sharp end, Barnes is at the sharp end, Brody’s at the sharp end… there’s no slackers in his outfit. Well, we might as well go out in a blaze of glory. The success of this mission is probably less than 50:50—
“Twenty-four hours,�
�� Flynn said. “A lot can happen in twenty-four hours. Here’s hoping—” Flynn held Mercy tight and whispered in her ear, “I love you girl, let’s do this once and do it right. We’ll get out together… on the other side—”
Mercy said nothing, she returned Flynn’s embrace. She nodded, her hair spilling across her eyes. She squeezed Flynn’s arms and kissed him on the lips.
“Saddle up, all aboard, let’s get this crazy train on the road,” Sledge called out.
Mercy mounted her horse and fell in behind Sledge.
I wonder how Barnes is getting on with Dimitri and the others. At least he seemed happy with the people he got. He’s under a lot of pressure but that’s what he’s trained for so it’ll work out. Just like it’ll have to work out for us too—
Sledge took them down the mountain to Mission Home, then Boonesville. They continued on through the evening, passing Free Union and Inglecress. Four hours later they passed the outskirts of Charlottesville, negotiated a large shopping centre, and then entered the inner suburbs.
OK Sledge, when are you gonna cut us loose? It’s getting pretty spooky here, maybe you should think about making yourself scarce right about now. No, take it easy on him, he knows what he’s doing—
A few minutes later Sledge stopped in the middle of the road and held a hand up. He sat still for a few seconds, his head raised.
What’s he doing? Is he… smelling the air? He’s smelling the air—
Sledge turned his horse around and pressed a finger to his lips. “You’re two klicks from the centre of town. Just follow the stink, this is Barracks Road, it’ll take you to Preston Avenue, which will take you downtown. That’s where the smell is coming from. Lie low for the night, stay in radio contact. Your friend Barnes will keep us updated on his progress at the airport. Once you get the green light just make a ton of noise… believe me, you’ll get some trope interest pretty quick. You’ve got the map and directions to the prison, it’s about two klicks southwest from the centre of town, just off Interstate 64. There’s signs, you can’t miss it—”
The Survival Chronicles (Book 7): Hard Mercy Page 16
