Forsaken World (Book 5): Homecoming

by Watson, Thomas A.

  “What about Jodi?” Kathy asked, moving closer.

  Turning to Kathy with a serious expression, “By Christmas, I’ll bet Jodi could beat you wrestling,” Denny replied. “She worships the ladybugs.”

  “Where is she?” Kathy asked.

  “Bunker with Lori. Well, she was, since you were coming over and someone was going out of the fence,” Denny told her. “I’m sure she’s doing something inside. Let’s go see.”

  They followed Denny and watched him pull out the massive key from under his shirt and unlocked the backdoor. They found Lori and Jodi at the sewing machines with Jennifer. Kathy ran over and Jodi turned around, hugging her mom. “Whatcha’ doin’?” Kathy asked.

  “Making my bite suit,” Jodi answered, dropping back down.

  Kathy turned and noticed the ghillie suit Jennifer was wearing wasn’t the 3D scent suit. “Not wearing the carbon suit?” Kathy asked.

  Shaking her head, “Not till winter. That damn thing cooks your ass,” Jennifer huffed, then tapped her hand on the heavy plate carrier tactical vest she was wearing. “Not that this thing doesn’t,” she added.

  Seeing a compression cloth around Jennifer’s throat, Kathy reached out to touch it, feeling the plastic scales sewn under the fabric. “More upgrades?”

  Rolling her eyes, “Yeah,” Jennifer sighed. “Ian and Lance have been collecting data on stinkers at their research area that only have one bite. Over fifty percent had bites on extremities, but nearly thirty percent had bites to the neck, so this was added.”

  “Keep on acting like a pussy and you’ll wear plate armor!” Lance shouted from upstairs.

  Stomping her foot, “Kiss my ass!” Jennifer shouted back.

  Upstairs, they heard Lilly snap, “Leave her alone, Lance.”

  “We aren’t wearing the carbon suit, I thought that would make you and her happy,” Lance popped off.

  “Lance!” Lilly shouted, and that ended the comments.

  When Lance didn’t reply, Heath nodded and mumbled. “He’s learned how far he can push.”

  Lance, Ian, Lilly, and Allie came down in full gear minutes later and Lance stopped in front of Denny. “If you want, you can lay out the rebuild of the destroyed gear. You know what’s wrong with it, but plan only. No one outside the fence till we get back,” Lance said putting his mask on, and more than one person shivered.

  “I’m making my mask today and then math. If y’all aren’t back by then, I’ll start,” Denny nodded.

  “Lance, we’re watching movies tonight,” Lilly informed him. “We’ve all pushed hard and we are taking some downtime.”

  When Lance spun toward her, Lilly just held up a hand. “I’m not in the mood. You and Ian are tired and we are worn out. We understand the need but it’s done, and we ARE,” she stressed hard, “taking a break.”

  “Fine,” Lance sighed, then turned to Heath. “You have any trouble driving over on the road since you had to go seven miles?”

  “Not really, but we can tell that battle bot isn’t there,” Heath replied. “The stinkers are pouring in on that back road from Girdler. Most head south to the other battle bots, but quite a few head up the valley toward us.”

  “That’ll be fixed today,” Lance nodded. “Let’s get this show on the road.”

  Chapter Twenty

  After Lance, Ian, Lilly, Jennifer and Allie moved Heath and his group back to the build site, Lance guided Dwain and Heath to two of the loaded trailers. One of the battle bots had tracks and the other had the eight wheels. “Thought you didn’t want wheels,” Dwain said, hooking the trailer up.

  “Don’t, but we were pushed for time,” Lance told him. “In truth, I think it’ll be about the same. The wheels don’t turn directionally or pivot. One side gets more power to turn just like they were tracks.”

  “Noticed they are bigger,” Dwain nodded to the battle bot.

  “Had to,” Lance said. “Those damn shredders generate more torque than we accounted for, but we added more lithium batteries and welded quarter inch steel on the sides. That’s why these bodies are more sloped. Now they are harder to damage if some cock monkey, granny pussy eater shoots them.”

  For some reason he couldn’t explain, Heath felt pity for the pirates. “Ready,” Heath said, standing up.

  “Okay, we are setting the bots up in Hinkle first. Then we’ll come back and get the next trailers. On the way to battle bot site one, we are stopping at battle bot site two,” Lance told them. “We will go ahead and clear the field and clean them up, but Ian and I have to drop off a generator and hook it up. Those bots are sucking that battery dry and it can’t keep both fully charged. We’ll fix that later, but now we are just putting a generator at the recharging station. It will turn on when the battery needs help recharging.”

  “Lance, Patrick and his group want to help,” Dwain said, and Lance just sighed. “Hey, they saw the bots and fell in love. Since the bots are sitting on the road leading to them from Girdler they are beyond thankful. They haven’t killed any near them. Stinkers coming from Hinkle just continue on up the road to the bots.”

  “Fine,” Lance sighed. “Rhonda, you’re riding with Lilly and Jennifer in the diesel UTV hauling the gun bots. Allie, you’re with me in the buggy with Ian driving. Everyone stay close and on the radio, channel two. Questions?”

  “Ian, you make sure Lance and Allie clear the road,” Jennifer said, moving to the UTV.

  “You don’t have to worry,” Ian chuckled, climbing in the buggy. “Dino,” he called out, and Dino jumped in the passenger seat.

  When the diesel trucks cranked up Lance cringed, climbing on the roof of the buggy and dropping his legs down in the sunroof. “Love the power of diesel, just not the noise,” he mumbled and helped Allie up, and she sat on the roof with her legs hanging inside.

  Lance moved over two canvas bags of loaded magazines. “If this isn’t enough, we’re screwed,” he chuckled as Ian pulled down the driveway. Glancing back and seeing the others following, Lance glanced inside the buggy to see Ian patting Dino’s side.

  “I swear, Dino looks happy to be riding in the front seat,” Lance mumbled. “Contact,” Lance called out, lifting his rifle after spotting three stinkers on the road coming up the draw. “Haven’t even reached the damn valley,” Lance moaned. “They followed the trucks.”

  Lance and Allie snapped off shots to drop the three and Ian never slowed, but did dodge the bodies. Not fifty yards further, they met more and they took them out. “They can’t come up here,” Allie snapped, then squeezed the trigger.

  “We take care of that today,” Lance promised.

  When they reached the valley, they already had thirty stinkers down. Looking down the road, Lance saw a long procession of stinkers stumbling toward them. “Fine, assholes,” Lance grumbled as Ian turned left on the valley road heading down the valley.

  Dodging bodies dropped on the road by Lance and Allie, Ian kept his speed at twelve MPH and it wasn’t easy keeping up and killing the stinkers. There would be small clusters and then open spots of a hundred yards, then a small group and next another cluster. When they reached Hinkle, Lance was on his sixth magazine and Allie was on her third.

  Seeing the road ahead damn near packed, Lance grabbed his PTT. “Ian, pause twenty yards from the T. Let us clear those to the north, so they can’t move up behind Jennifer till we reach the field.”

  “Copy,” Ian answered over the radio. When Ian stopped, he climbed out and kneeled down, staying well under Allie and Lance’s field of fire.

  Sweeping his rifle left, Lance concentrated on the stinkers following the road through Hinkle to the second battle bot site. “No wonder the batteries are getting hit hard,” Lance mumbled, snapping shots off. “The count the last two days can’t be right at eight thousand for site two.”

  It took ten minutes and sixteen magazines between the three to kill enough of the stinkers to the north before Lance called Ian over the radio. “Let’s go!” Lance shouted over the radio, changi
ng magazines and saw his barrel smoking.

  “Allie, glad we brought our back up rifles,” Lance told her, tapping the bolt release and chambering a round.

  Shooting the stinkers ahead as Ian turned left to drive through the small cluster of houses that made Hinkle, Allie felt her bolt lock back. Ejecting the magazine, “I like shooting real targets,” Allie said, sounding rather cheerful.

  “Some of the Beard Clan are behind me,” Jennifer called out, and Lance glanced back as he changed magazines. He saw two UTVs behind Jennifer as the buggy bounced around when Ian drove over the bodies.

  “Ian, drive better!” Allie shouted, trying to time her shots with the lurching buggy.

  “The damn road is packed with toes up stinkers, so how in the hell am I supposed to miss them?!” Ian shouted back.

  Knowing her brother was mad, Allie didn’t answer after missing another stinker when the buggy lurched. The line of stinkers quickly filled in the void they had cleared, getting within thirty yards, and Ian slowed to a crawl as the buggy climbed over the bodies leisurely. Not bouncing bad now, Allie and Lance started racking up kills again, pushing the line of moving stinkers back to fifty yards.

  It took them fifteen minutes to make it five hundred yards to the field or rather, the large yard a big house sat in. Ian drove off the road, speeding through the tall grass. “Everyone, pull by us and push them back and then we set up,” Lance called out over the radio.

  The others pulled up beside the buggy and climbed out, clearing the stinkers back as Lance tapped Allie on the shoulder. “Allie, change guns,” he told her and climbed out. “Remember, the others haven’t trained with us, so make sure they don’t get in your line of fire.”

  “They better keep their big stupid heads out of my way!” Allie shouted, putting her smoking AR down and reached down to grab another short barreled AR.

  “Where do you want us?” Patrick asked, running over with his sons and David.

  Lance pointed down at the ground. “You stay right here and cover the south with one of your boys. Get David and your other son to get on the other side of the buggy and cover north. Don’t go cowboy and get in Allie’s line of fire,” Lance told him.

  “Got it,” Patrick said and turned to David.

  The continuous suppressed shots soon fell to slow steady pops as the immediate area was cleared. Putting his smoking AR on the hood of the buggy, Lance headed over to the diesel UTV and unhooked the trailer. “Jennifer, get ready to dig the trench for the wire,” Lance called out.

  Grabbing a bundle of engineering flags, Lance headed out in the yard with Ian. They marked out the playground for the battle bots as the others kept the stinkers back. When Lance and Ian both finished marking two sides, Jennifer pulled over and stopped at the line of small orange flags.

  She climbed out to already find Lilly dropping the metal rod to dig the trench to bury the boundary cable. “You’re in!” Lilly shouted, climbing on the back.

  Jennifer took off, moving down one line. Lilly was about to climb off to lift the trencher up, but Jennifer didn’t stop. Instead, Jennifer pulled ahead and turned left, making a loop until she was staring at the next line of orange flags and centered them, plowing the trench.

  “Damn, that’s smart,” Lance admitted, watching Jennifer make a loop at the next one and plowing the third side.

  “And much faster,” Ian said proudly.

  Before Lance and Ian moved to grab the cable, Heath and Rhonda ran to the trailer the cable was on and pulled out the roll. “Feel kind of unneeded,” Lance mumbled, watching Rhonda and Heath lay the cable in the trench as Jennifer finished crossing the trench she started at.

  Lilly jumped off the back and lifted the trencher up and Jennifer pulled over. “Where is the recharger station goin’?” Jennifer asked, and Lance pointed.

  “You and Ian start on that. Lilly and I will put the recharging spots for the bots on the playground,” Jennifer told them and pulled off.

  Patrick soon noticed it was only his group and Allie covering the others. He was almost certain Allie could’ve done it on her own, now that the stinkers were pushed a hundred and fifty yards all around them. They only had to kill a few every minute to keep the line that far back. He had no idea how old Allie was, but she damn sure could shoot with that tiny AR swinging side to side and snapping off shots.

  Hearing the rumble of a diesel, Patrick turned to see Dwain backing up and guiding the trailer to Lance. When Lance held up his hand, Dwain stopped and the others moved over to a massive metal box that Patrick was taking for the battery, but it was bigger than the one at the other battle bot field.

  Using one of the buggies, they pulled the battery off the trailer and then Lance called the group over, talking to them as Dwain backed up the other truck. They all worked on getting a metal box that was half as big as the first, but seemed almost as heavy.

  “What are they doing?” Patrick’s oldest Drew asked.

  Shrugging, “Don’t know,” Patrick answered, then glanced at Drew and saw he was looking at the area called the playground. Lilly and Jennifer were setting up metal boxes that stood two feet off the ground. Then, Patrick realized he had answered truthfully no matter where he looked.

  When Heath stood up the ten-foot-wide parabolic mirror next to the new metal box, he looked at Lance. Lance came over with cables from the box and they connected to the pole the mirror was on. “Screw it down!” Lance shouted, and started hooking cables up from the battery to the new box.

  Heath could tell there were four Stirling engines on top of the new box, but was lost. “Lance, how does it work?”

  When he was done, Lance plugged a wire in the base of the mirror and it started moving. Heath stepped back as a small partition slid open on the side of the new box exposing the void inside, and Heath almost moved up to see what was inside. When the mirror started turning to the sun, Heath saw a bright reflection no bigger than a quarter move across the box and stop when the light reached the opening. It reminded Heath of a magnifying glass, just bigger and much brighter.

  Glancing at the dish, Heath figured out the twenty-foot dish reflected the sunlight and concentrated it on the small mirror directly over the dish. The mirror focused the sunlight through the three-inch hole in the very center of the dish.

  “It heats the box?” Heath asked.

  “The solution mix inside the box,” Lance answered, tapping his laptop. “It’s called thermal energy storage. After the solution heats up, the Stirling engines will run longer into the night. Projections we have say all night, but this is the proving test.”

  “It will get that hot?” Heath asked dubiously.

  Reaching down, Lance grabbed a stick and held it in behind the opening of the dish. When the concentrated beam of light hit the stick, Heath squinted his eyes as bright light shone on the stick and then smoke poured off the stick before it burst into flames. “Holy crap,” Heath gasped as Lance dropped the stick, walking away and looking at his laptop.

  “Twelve hundred degrees,” Lance grinned.

  Walking over, Heath stomped the fire out as Dwain walked over. “Move your truck closer to the playground, so Lance can drop the kids off,” Dwain said with a grin.

  Still watching in awe near the buggy, “One has wheels,” Drew noticed.

  “Son, I understand the concept, but that’s it,” Patrick finally admitted, shaking his head as the tracked battle bot rolled off the trailer. As the bot turned and headed for the playground, Patrick noticed Rhonda, Kathy, and Robin walking around the perimeter picking up the orange flags and scraping the dirt into the shallow trench.

  “Hey, dummies!” Allie shouted, and Patrick and Drew turned to her. “We have a job, quit staring! You don’t want me to get medieval on your ass!”

  Turning away from the work, Patrick lifted his M4 up to shoot several stinkers to the north. “I just had a preteen girl ream me and tell me to get back in the war,” Patrick huffed.

  As Lance tapped away on his laptop, Ian he
lped Lilly and Jennifer stand up the fifteen-foot-tall light post. After Ian hooked it up, the wheeled bot was driving off and the metal knobs scraping on the trailer made Ian cringe.

  “Jennifer, will you and Lilly lead Dwain and Heath back for the next trailers?” Ian asked, and they both looked at him. “Well, since Patrick is here, Lance and I can drive the diesel over to that slope and set up the gun bot.” Ian told them, pointing to a south-facing slope just over five hundred yards away.

  “The bot is right here, why so close?” Jennifer asked, but was heading for the buggy.

  “That small road through the saddle leads to Cannon and Girdler. Plus, we want shit that shoots around each bot, in case more assholes are around,” Ian told them.

  They nodded and stopped over by Dwain and Heath. With Jennifer leading in the diesel buggy, Dwain and Heath followed her off and Ian noticed there were almost no stinkers. Well, no moving stinkers. This road was a feeder road to the second battle bot site. Ian just hoped this third site would pull some of the work off the second.

  “David!” Ian shouted, and David ran over. Ian pulled out a white board and handed it to David. “Go hang it on that light post facing up the road, so those coming can see it,” Ian told him, handing David a cordless drill and screws. Jogging out to the road that ran through the valley north to south, David went to work.

  When he hung the board up David chuckled, seeing the message had been changed.

  If you can read: We are Proud Man Card Holders

  Do not approach or you will get eaten by Battle Bots and shot by snipers.

  Do not touch any equipment or we will skin you alive, skull fuck you, then roast you slowly.

  Break our shit and we will find you and kill everyone you know, then kill you.

  Yes, we can see you. Male, female, young or old, touch it, you will die slowly.

  This is our toy to rid the area of stinkers, build your own.

  If you can’t read, please get closer so we can get rid of stupid.

  Yours Truly: The Wild Ones

  On the bottom was a picture of a person carrying flowers to a battle bot and a heart was painted over the battle bot. “Holy shit, they aren’t kidding about getting rid of stupid,” David gasped.