Forsaken World (Book 5): Homecoming

by Watson, Thomas A.

  Spotting another tandem Sandy took off running, but found it was a saddle that weighed more than hers. Inspecting the back saddle, Sandy realized it wasn’t part of the main saddle, the small saddle was strapped to the big one. Grabbing the saddle, Sandy pulled it off the rail and it hit the floor with a thump.

  Unstrapping the small saddle, Sandy continued down while touching the saddles until she came to one that moved easily. Pulling it off and seeing it was the same size, she carried it back. Putting two saddles together, Sandy strapped them on one pack horse and swore the horse turned around, giving her a dirty look.

  “Hey, if they work, you’ll like them,” Sandy said, grabbing the other two and strapping them down with the tandem saddles.

  “Why did you get four?” Mary asked, already on her horse and riding back down the aisle.

  “We can replace Johnathan’s and Bill’s saddles. Mary, these saddles don’t weigh twenty pounds. That’s twenty-five pounds lighter than our saddles,” Sandy said as she finished tying the saddles on.

  “The horses will like them,” Mary nodded. “But I’m telling you if they aren’t comfortable, I’m not using one.”

  “Me either, but they felt comfortable,” Sandy grunted, climbing back on her horse.

  Leading them back outside, Sandy headed back down the driveway and turned on the road. It only took them an hour to make the four miles to the oxbow. “I like it,” Sandy said, looking at the long narrow oxbow that was covered in trees. “Water around the oxbow looks deep.”

  “Stinkers don’t like deep water,” Tyler told her.

  “I know, that’s why we like it,” Sandy responded, and patted his chest. Leading the horse down the fifty yard wide oxbow and stopping almost two hundred yards at the tip, “We camp here,” Sandy said, climbing off.

  Mary and Sandy grabbed their camping chairs and pulled the boys off before setting them in the chairs. “What time is it?” Tyler asked.

  “Almost five,” Sandy answered, undoing her saddle. When she pulled it off, struggling to carry it over by a large oak, Sandy saw Tyler counting on his fingers. “What are you counting?”

  “Hours,” Tyler answered and held up his binoculars. “The batteries last eight hours.”

  “Battery, singular,” Sandy smiled, moving to the packhorse where Mary was unbuckling the pack saddle. “It takes one double A.”

  “Damn, our monocular battery lasts for forty eight,” Mary chimed in.

  “Well, those are two NVG tubes,” Sandy countered, then helped lift the packsaddle off.

  The sky was starting to turn blue when they pulled the boys over and showed them how to wipe down the horses. When it was light enough, they started instructing and showing the boys how to check and care for the horses.

  “Sandy,” Mary gasped, carrying one of the saddles over. “Feel,” she said, holding out the saddle and squeezing the seat.

  Touching the seat, Sandy’s eyes got big and she yanked her glove off and felt again. “Is that a gel pad?” Sandy asked in shock, and Mary nodded.

  “That alone was so worth the stop,” Mary grinned.

  Chapter Nineteen

  The Cabin, Kentucky

  Dwain and Heath, each driving a new diesel pickup, pulled up to the build house below the ridge and stopped. Dwain and his wife Kathy got out of an extended cab as Rhonda climbed out of the back of Heath’s quad cab. Heath and Robin stepped out, looking at four eighteen-foot trailers loaded with four battle bots and other things. Two more bots were off to the side with the massive battery and dish as the five looked on in awe.

  “Um, they’ve made some upgrades,” Dwain mumbled, moving over to one of the trailers. Three of the bots had tracks, but the other three had wheels. Eight wheels. Getting closer to one of the ones with wheels, Dwain’s mouth fell open in wonder.

  Reaching out to confirm what his eyes were telling him, “The entire wheel is aluminum,” Dwain announced. The ‘tire’ was half-inch-thick aluminum, but there were one-inch aluminum cleats spaced around the tire. Lifting his eyes to the body of the bot, Dwain saw this bot and the other new ones were wider and longer than the ones they had helped put out.

  “You don’t think they are just turning them loose, do you?” Heath asked, walking over.

  “If they are, we are reinforcing our fence,” Robin said, looking at the vertical V shredder.

  “They changed the battery thing,” Rhonda said from the back of the trailer.

  Everyone moved to the back and saw a large satellite dish coated with strips of silver, but there wasn’t a Stirling engine mounted in front of the dish. The arm sticking out had a mirror pointing back at the disk. A hole was in the very center of the dish and the Stirling engine was mounted on the back of the dish. “Those boys are just too smart,” Heath mumbled. “Now I understand why they wanted us to drive trucks. These upgrades have increased the weight, and the UTVs can’t pull the trailers now.”

  “Hey, there are more metal boxes,” Rhonda said from the next trailer.

  Stepping over, Dwain saw one metal box half the size of the battery and two more just a little smaller. Moving around the trailers, “Hey, they are missing a cable to outline a playground,” Dwain noticed. “I’m only seeing two.”

  Reaching over and grabbing his arm, “You think they are putting two of these in the playground that those assholes broke the bot?” Kathy asked with hope.

  “I hope so,” Dwain moaned. “We went from a few stinkers a day on the road below the house to twenty an hour in one day.”

  “Oh, shit,” Heath said behind them, and they turned around and saw Heath staring at a new object. Moving closer to one, Heath leaned over to look at a round two-inch-thick, three-foot aluminum disk with a long rod jutting out of one side. The disk was mounted on a four-foot-tall metal stand, giving the thick disk a tank turret-like appearance, especially when they noticed the rod was hollow. Unlike a tank, the barrel was at the side and not in the middle of the disk. The turret had actuator arms mounted around it with other electrical components on the metal stand.

  “What?” Robin asked.

  “That’s the centrifugal gun they were working on,” Heath mumbled, and noticed four more.

  Spinning around, Rhonda looked at the others, “Um, did any of you call and tell them we were here?” she asked.

  “Shit,” Heath gasped, yanking his radio out. “Bear trap at build site,” he called out.

  “See you, Daddy,” Lori answered cheerfully. “Jennifer and Denny should be there in a minute to bring you in. Shouldn’t have to tell you, but the tigers are roaming around.”

  “Copy, sweetie,” Heath answered, glancing around and clipping the radio back to his belt. “They already have cameras here.”

  “Surprised it took them that long,” Rhonda scoffed, looking at the deadly machines around them. “I want to know how to do this,” she mumbled in awe.

  “Guess we are the haulers,” Dwain said with a shiver, just thinking about the death potential around him.

  They all turned and saw one of the hybrid UTVs driving out of the trees. The UTV drove over and parked. “Come on, guys. They are almost ready,” Jennifer said, climbing out. “You can come to the cabin till we leave.”

  Heath sat up front with Robin getting in the middle and Denny sitting in her lap. Kathy climbed in the back sitting in the middle, with Dwain and Rhonda sitting on the outside. “They, ah, made improvements,” Heath said, waving at the trailers.

  “I’ll say,” Jennifer chuckled, driving back up the slope. “I don’t think they’ve slept more than six hours since that night. The beard group get settled in?”

  “Beard group?” Heath asked as Jennifer barely slowed driving through the chute in the diversion fence.

  “Patrick and his brothers,” Jennifer laughed. “That’s what Ian called them and the name stuck.”

  Nodding as Jennifer drove along the ridge, “Yeah, we got them in the houses and they were relieved at the food and other supplies,” Heath told her, looking aroun
d for the tigers. “They started on the diversion fence yesterday and I hooked up my small solar panels on Patrick’s well pump, so they at least have water now.”

  When she was behind the cabin, Jennifer turned down the slope and grabbed her PTT. When they reached the northwest corner of the fence, Jennifer called over the radio. “On the west side.”

  “Copy,” Lance answered.

  They were halfway down the fence when everyone heard the sonic crack of a bullet. Everyone jumped, looking around as another crack sounded. “Who’s shooting?” Rhonda asked, looking around.

  “Lance’s machine,” Denny answered. “All you’re hearing is the sonic boom of the projectiles. Lance is doing a failure test on the gun bot.”

  Hearing the steady shots, “It seems rather fast,” Heath noticed.

  “Yes, for the last twenty-eight hours we’ve listened to that,” Jennifer huffed, rounding the corner of the fence. “One shot every twenty seconds.”

  “It’s been shooting that long?” Rhonda asked, seeing the outer gate open.

  “Yep,” Denny grinned. “One hundred and eighty shots an hour. That means in twenty-eight hours, it has shot five thousand and forty times.”

  Robin hugged her son. “That’s so good,” Robin praised as Jennifer pulled through the outer gate. The inner gate started to open and the outer gate started to close.

  “I’m learning so much, I think my head is going to blow up. Wait till you hear it shoot on full auto at a thousand rounds a minute,” Denny grinned. “I helped Lance do the test down in the valley yesterday, and it can shoot a two-inch group at five hundred yards.”

  “Not to sound disappointed, but I was thinking it would be better since it’s controlled by a computer,” Dwain admitted.

  Giving a teenager sigh, “Uncle Dwain, it’s shooting round metal balls, not conical bullets, so the projectile loses the stabilizing spin much faster,” Denny told him and Robin hugged Denny tight again. She had no idea what he’d said or meant, but it sounded awesome.

  When the front gate opened enough, Jennifer drove in and headed to the back of the cabin. Stopping behind the cabin, everyone heard the steady sonic crack and turned ahead, tracing the sound. One of the centrifugal guns was in front of the greenhouse, aiming at mannequins standing along the east side fence.

  “How far is that?” Dwain asked, watching the turret move and another sonic crack sounded.

  “Ninety-six yards,” Denny answered, climbing out and cradling his AR. “Gun bot throws those half-inch steel ball bearings at four thousand feet per second.”

  Lifting his M4 up, Dwain used his scope to look at the mannequins. All six mannequins had a one inch hole at the bridge of the nose all the way through the head. With his scope on one, Dwain heard the sonic crack and saw a small piece of trash in the hole move as the ball bearing sailed through the mannequin’s head.

  Lowering his rifle, “Okay, those two terrified me at one time. Now, I’m petrified,” Dwain mumbled.

  “Come on, Dad, before Lance closes up the last gun bot,” Denny said, grabbing Heath’s hand and pulling him to the shop. In the doorway of the machine area sat a gun bot, but the disk that made the turret wasn’t as thick.

  Getting closer, Heath realized it was only half the disk. Stopping beside the gun bot, Heath looked down at the disk and saw a curling half-inch-wide trench from the center spiraling outward tightly, reminding Heath of a snail’s shell. The end of the trench ended at the barrel that jutted out twenty inches. Leaning over and peering down the barrel, Heath saw spiral grooves cut into the barrel like a traditional gun barrel.

  Turning back to the disk, Heath saw a metal propeller mounted in the middle of the disk that reached all the way out to the outer edge. “See, the propeller pushes the ball when it drops in,” Denny said, putting a ball bearing at the starting point in the center of the disk. Heath noticed the ball sitting higher than he expected, and Heath figured the trench was only a quarter of an inch deep.

  Denny pushed the propeller with his finger and the propeller pushed the ball along the tight-packed groove. Even though Denny was pushing the propeller slowly, Heath noticed the ball was picking up speed the further out it traveled. Before the ball reached the barrel, Heath looked under the disk to see an electric motor was mounted under the disk to power the propeller. “Son, has anyone done this before?” Heath asked.

  “Yeah, but not mounted it to a platform and set it to operate remotely and independently,” Denny answered. “It’s too big and has to be either mounted on a vehicle or static like these are going to be.”

  “This spiral groove seems to go on forever,” Heath noted.

  “Over twenty feet,” Denny said proudly.

  “Hey,” Lance said with a smile, walking over. In his hands, Heath saw the other half of the disk with the same spiraling groove cut in it. “Denny,” Lance said, and Denny grabbed one side of the disk and helped Lance mount it over the bottom.

  When the top was on, “Bolt it down,” Lance said, walking away.

  Denny hung up his M4 and grabbed bolts and a torque wrench. Heath watched Denny bolt the top on, alternating side to side. “Lance, you want me to test it?” Denny called out.

  “Yeah, and if it passes, I’ll help load it before we leave!” Lance shouted from the back of the shop.

  “Dad, Uncle Dwain, can you help me carry it out?” Denny asked in a low voice. “I don’t like using the track steer to move stuff unless I have a lot of room.”

  Heath glanced back and saw his entire group behind him. “Dwain,” Heath said, getting on one end.

  “Dad, the stand and turret weigh over two hundred pounds,” Denny told him, moving to the side his dad was on. Rhonda moved over beside Dwain and the four carried the gun bot out and set it off to the side of the bot shooting the mannequins.

  “Thing is heavy,” Dwain panted.

  “That’s only the firing platform,” Denny said, hooking up wires to the motor on the turret and everyone heard the motor hum. “We still have to put the magazine, oil vat, cooling unit, target cameras, and CPU on and then hook it up to the recharging station.”

  Wiping sweat off his brow, Denny grabbed a ball bearing and dropped it down a spout on top of the turret. Hitting a button, they saw a round solenoid shoot a plunger out in the blink of an eye before shoving the ball inside the turret, and everyone jumped with the almost instantaneous sonic crack. “So far, that’s been the hard part. Mating the two spiraling tracks," Denny explained, unhooking the wires and rolling them up.

  “Son, how many battle bots did all of you make since the day before yesterday?” Heath asked.

  “Two since we already had four, but we had to make all the support stuff,” Denny said, and Dwain stopped him.

  “Which trailer does it go on?” Dwain asked, and Denny pointed to the trailer hooked up to the diesel UTV. “Are those solar panels?” Dwain asked, looking at the trailer.

  “Yeah, Lance and Ian found some five hundred watt panels. We didn’t have time to make enough Stirling engines to power the gun bots, so we have to augment with the panels,” Denny explained as Dwain moved to the end of the gun bot.

  “Come on, let’s load it up. We don’t need Lance for that,” Dwain said and Denny grinned, moving over with the others.

  After they loaded it up, Lance came out of the shop with an armload of round tubes that were over a yard long. Scared to ask Lance what they were, Heath leaned over to Denny’s ear. “What are those?” he whispered.

  “Directional antennas,” Denny answered.

  Glad they weren’t cannons, Heath moved over to take some from Lance. “Denny, load up the relay you put together,” Lance said, passing some off to Heath.

  As Denny took off, Heath and the others helped Lance put the antennas on the trailer. “Where’s Ian?” Rhonda asked, and Lance pointed to the east side of the cabin. Everyone turned to see Ian walking over with the ladybugs and could tell Ian was arguing.

  “No, Carrie,” Ian snapped when they got closer.


  Allie and Carrie spun to Lance, but Lance held up his hands to stop them from talking as he looked at Ian. “What?” Lance asked.

  “They want to continue working in the lab while we are setting up!” Ian cried out.

  Dropping his hands, Lance looked at the ladybugs sternly. “Absolutely not,” Lance snapped. “I don’t even work in there without Ian, so drop it.”

  Hearing the tone and knowing it was useless to continue, the ladybugs both sighed. “Okay,” they mumbled in unison.

  “You only have one lesson today, so you can nap, but two people at all times will be in the bunker till we get back,” Lance told them.

  Jerking her head up with a glare, “I’m going with you, bitch!” Allie shouted.

  Shocked, Lance just looked at Allie, blinking his eyes for almost a minute. “I was just saying, Allie,” Lance finally said. “I know you’re going, but whoever stays here has only one lesson.”

  “Oh,” Allie said, stepping over and wrapping her arms around Lance’s waist. “Sorry, then.”

  “Get ready,” Lance sighed, hugging her back and letting her go.

  Grunting hard, Denny emerged from the shop pushing a cart with a metal box on the deck. The box had an antenna sticking out of the top and next to it was another tube directional antenna.

  “I’m going to get ready,” Lance said, and Ian just glared at Allie. Before Ian turned to follow Lance, Allie stuck her tongue out at him.

  As Ian headed for the cabin, Allie grabbed Carrie’s hand and the two skipped to the house as they sang out in unison. “I never heard of a country called what. Say what again, I dare ya. No, I double dare ya mutha fucker!”

  Helping Denny put the box on the trailer, Dwain asked, “Do the ladybugs scare you?”

  Freezing, Denny looked up at his uncle, slowly nodding. “Hell, yeah,” he answered in a low voice and no shame. “I used to think I could wrestle and fight, but they kick my ass.”