Forsaken World (Book 5): Homecoming

by Watson, Thomas A.

  Larry, Patrick’s youngest boy, pointed at the picture. “Isn’t that telling people if you carry flowers, the bot won’t eat you?” Larry asked.

  “That’s how I see it,” David said, grabbing Larry and trotting back as Lance climbed in the diesel UTV. Jogging past the parabolic mirror, David slowed his jog hearing the Stirling engines slowly starting up. “Those boys would’ve ruled this world,” he mumbled, picking up speed.

  “Follow us,” Ian called back as David climbed in his UTV with Larry.

  “Dad and Drew are waving us to get in the middle,” Larry said, and David glanced over confirming it.

  Pressing the accelerator to drive out of the yard and over the road that headed west to Cannon but split and also led to Girdler, David stayed close to the back of the trailer Ian was pulling. Behind them, rock music started and Larry leaned out. “It’s coming from the bot and not the light pole, but I don’t know the song,” Larry admitted.

  David chuckled, “War Machine by Kiss.”

  When Ian drove up the slope into the trees, David started getting confused. Heath had told them the boys were setting up some kind of spinning gun, but David couldn’t understand why you would want a gun in the trees.

  Ian pulled past a small flat area that wasn’t any bigger than ten yards square at the top of a ridge that overlooked the area. Climbing out, Lance waved them up as he and Ian pulled out chainsaws. “What the hell?” Larry wondered, and David had no idea.

  When they pulled up and got out, Patrick and Drew joined them. “Cover us and just warning you, if a stinker gets us, we will shove these chainsaws up your ass,” Ian warned, pulling on a hard hat and flipping earmuffs mounted to the hardhat over his ears.

  “David, you and Larry cover Ian, we’ll cover Lance,” Patrick said, following the boys back down the slope.

  David followed Ian all the way down the slope to the tree line, fifty yards down the slope. “Why didn’t we just stop down here?” Larry asked, and David just shrugged.

  When Ian cranked the chainsaw, both jumped and turned to see Ian attacking a tree. It seemed Ian had just started cutting when the tree leaned down the slope and then gave a snap as the trunk gave away and the tree crashed down. Barely pausing, Ian was attacking another tree and David glanced over at Lance thirty yards away, taking his chainsaw away from a tree as it crashed down.

  Patrick and Drew were shooting to the west, but David couldn’t see into the valley because of the trees. Then it hit him, “They are clearing the trees on the slope to create a firing lane!” David yelled out as another tree crashed down. Then he realized, all the trees were being cut to fall down the hill.

  Looking around, David saw none of the trees were very big. The biggest one he could see was barely twenty inches around and most others were no bigger than his leg. When Ian had reached them, David could see out over the valley floor and saw the wheeled battle bot as stinkers came from the south. The stinkers charged in the playground and were turned into chunky gore and flung out the sides.

  Even with the chainsaws going, none of the stinkers to the south were trying to pass the bot and head for them. Turning to the west, David could finally see into the valley and could see the stinkers Patrick and Drew were shooting.

  “Look, some of the stinkers are heading for the bot!” Larry shouted, pointing to the east. David turned to the road and saw stinkers on the road stumbling along heading for the bot even with the chainsaws roaring away. “About half are heading for the bot,” Larry noted, and grabbed his uncle David and pulled him up the slope back into the trees as Ian continued his advance up the slope.

  Half an hour later, David saw the buggy and trucks return and just park in the yard of the house right below them. Then the buggy pulled up past the house, parking on the other side and they both saw stinkers falling on the road as those in the buggy opened up. “I wish we could help more!” Larry shouted out over the chainsaws, looking around and up the slope.

  “They told us our job, and I’m sure they have a machine to shove that chainsaw up someone’s ass and it damn sure won’t be mine,” David told him and saw Dwain and Heath near the house with chainsaws, chopping down the lone trees around the large yard. “We are helping, otherwise they would be up here cutting. I’m betting they were going to change out cutting down trees.”

  David was surprised that they were back up the slope by the buggies an hour later. Looking out at the valley floor almost two hundred feet below him, David shook his head at the field of fire the slope offered now. When the chainsaws shut down, David still heard saws in the valley and saw Dwain and Heath moving toward the saddle, still cutting lone trees and small groups down. Now the road through the saddle was damn near bare.

  “David, come help carry this shit!” Ian shouted, taking off his hardhat and putting his helmet in the buggy. David was rather glad the boys left off the skull masks.

  “Why didn’t you let us cut the trees? We can run chainsaws,” David asked, grabbing one of the tables that had a turret mounted.

  “Needed the trees lying downhill and didn’t know you could,” Lance replied, wiping sweat off his face as they put down the table.

  “Drew, Larry, keep covering us,” Patrick said, putting down his M4. “Ian, Lance, tell us what to move and where. At least, let us be strong backs.”

  “I won’t argue,” Lance said, pulling his drinking tube off.

  Larry watched as half sphere dome cameras on poles were put up. Then he realized the domes were protecting the cameras underneath like a roof. One attached to the table made from thick angle iron that had a turret mounted to it. The other was stood up to the side where Ian was setting up solar panels. Like the camera, Ian screwed a pole that had three legs attached to the ground. Then Ian had Patrick and Dwain grab the rack of five panels mounted side by side and attached the rack to the pole.

  “That’s good,” Lance called out over the radio, and Larry looked down in the valley and could see people moving to the figures cutting down trees. When the saws were off, Larry grinned. Even from five hundred yards away he could make out Family Guy playing from the bot just like battle bot area two in the valley below him.

  After the stuff was hooked up, Lance pulled out his laptop and then Larry realized it was a different one. “What are those?” he heard his dad ask, and turned to see his dad pointing at two shiny dishes aiming at the sun with a round dome in the center.

  “One kilowatt Stirling engines,” Ian panted, then pointed at a metal bin. David grabbed the bin and Patrick grabbed stalks of angle iron. Ian had them bolt the stalks on the table, then he climbed up and bolted the metal bin to the top of the stalks.

  Jumping down, “Sorry, but I know where to step and not break the gun bot,” Ian told them. When the turret moved, Patrick and David dove to the ground.

  “Guys, I wouldn’t arm it with us right here!” Lance cried out, but never looked up from the computer.

  “It moved,” Patrick gasped, and thought that explained everything.

  “Larry,” Ian called out, attaching a tube from the box to the top of the turret. “Come here and I’ll show you where to stand.”

  Slinging his M4, Larry moved over and Ian pointed at a small spot beside the turret that didn’t have electronics attached to the table. “Your feet are small enough to fit there,” Ian said, helping him up. “Patrick, David, bring over one of those five gallon buckets and that scooper.”

  They carried the stuff over and were soon passing a scooper filled with half-inch ball bearings up to Larry. “How many shots will the box hold?” Larry asked.

  “Sixty pounds or just over fifty thousand,” Lance mumbled, typing on his keyboard. “There is a spinning motor to feed the balls down, kind of like on a paintball gun.”

  “I got this, David, get back on a gun,” Patrick said, handing up the scoop.

  Grabbing his M4 David had to know, and moved over behind Lance and saw the camera’s view of the valley below. Across the screen, red dots were popping up in lines.
Glancing up at the valley and then back to the screen, “Are you outlining fields of fire?” David asked.

  “Very good,” Lance nodded. “I don’t want it shooting toward the playground. I’m telling you now, if you ever have to approach one of the gun bots, you approach them from the recharging area. Line the recharging area up with the bot and keep them lined up. That is the only safe field there will be, but I’m not going to guarantee it. I’ve set the range limit at five hundred yards, but gun bot can hit accurately up to a thousand yards. It could probably shoot further, but that’s the furthest I tested.”

  “Um, we won’t get near them unless you and Ian are with us,” David informed Lance and wasn’t willing to discuss it. He and the rest of the Beard Clan found it hard to believe, Lance and Ian ‘Made’ the battle bots, but like his wife said, ‘They didn’t go to WalMart and buy them’. Now, they were putting in robots that shot. In truth, David felt like an idiot compared to Lance and Ian, and wasn’t afraid to admit it.

  Reaching up, Lance grabbed his PTT. “Jennifer, pull everyone to the main road. I’m about to test fire,” Lance called out.

  Just confirming his fear, David saw everyone sprinting to the vehicles like the hounds of Hell were chasing them. “Done,” Larry said, and Patrick just picked Larry up and sat him on the ground.

  Larry put the scooper in the empty bucket and put the bucket on the trailer. Holding his laptop Lance moved over, pulling a pin under the metal bin and everyone heard an electric hum in the magazine box and ball bearings falling down the tube. Everyone except Ian stepped back. Ian stepped over beside Lance as he removed another pin at the top of the turret.

  “How is the battery bank charging?” Ian asked, grabbing his drinking tube.

  “Fifty-five hundred watts and the bot will draw twelve hundred at peak,” Lance answered, taking a deep breath. When they saw both boys tense up, Patrick and his group moved closer to the UTVs, getting ready to dive behind them. Lance pulled a pin from the disk and put it in his pocket. “Bot is armed but not active,” he called out, holding his laptop up and tapped the touch pad.

  Ian moved over, staring over Lance’s shoulder and saw the house two hundred yards away on the screen. Lance tapped the screen and the camera zoomed in on the mailbox with a small + in the center of the screen on the mailbox. “Area clear?” Lance asked.

  “Just some stinkers moving through the saddle,” Ian answered, and Lance hit enter and the gun bot hummed for a second before a sonic crack sounded and Ian saw a hole in the mailbox where the + was at. “Pretty good, less than half an inch from center,” Ian mumbled, and the humming stopped from the gun bot.

  With wide eyes, the others had seen the hit on the screen, but they were looking past the mailbox. The ball bearing had passed through and punched a hole in the asphalt road. It didn’t ricochet off, the shot buried in the asphalt. They didn’t know how fast the gun bot was throwing those bearings, but knew it was faster than a normal bullet.

  “Link is on. Let’s get the hell out of here,” Lance said, closing his laptop. “Follow us. The bot is armed but not active, so keep up.” Before Lance and Ian were in, Patrick and his group were already sitting in their UTVs, cranked up and ready to go.

  Ian drove down the slope and then turned right, taking a spur down to the valley floor. When they were out of the field of fire, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. They stopped near the others and saw everyone standing around talking and keeping a casual eye out. Even over the blaring Family Guy, the shredder of the bot could be heard.

  “You put the sign in the saddle?” Lance asked.

  “It’s up,” Lilly said, walking over.

  “Here it goes,” Lance said, and typed in a very long password. ‘ARMED & ACTIVE’ popped up on the screen in huge red letters. Five seconds later, everyone heard the soft crack as the gun bot started operation. Lilly looked at the screen and saw the cross moving on a stumbling stinker on the road. The stinker was outlined in the box and the camera zoomed in, centering the cross on the side of the stinker’s head and a soft crack sounded. Lilly watched the stinker’s head evaporate and the body took another step before dropping, but the camera was already moving to center on another stinker’s head.

  “I like it from a distance. Sorry, I have a problem arming robots,” Lilly told him, but kissed Lance on the cheek.

  Closing his laptop, Lance looked up the valley and grinned, not seeing any stinkers to the north. “Okay, let’s go take care of battle bot area number two,” Lance said, putting his laptop in the side by side.

  “Okay, but you two will be the foremen and tell others what to do,” Lilly said, walking back to the buggy.

  Feeling Lance turn to him, “Screw the card, brah, I’m tired. We’ll be foremen,” Ian told Lance, starting up the diesel UTV.

  Ian drove through the grass heading for the road, but never got on the body-covered road. Instead, he drove on the shoulder. “Slow down, guys,” Jennifer called over the radio, and Lance turned to see Patrick pass them.

  “Look, they have a snowplow on their UTVs,” Lance laughed, then David drove past and his UTV had a plow also. Ian saw David was just inside the path Patrick plowed of bodies. Ian pulled on the road in the ten-foot-wide cleared path. “We should’ve thought of that,” Lance admitted.

  “Brah!” Ian shouted. “We can’t think of everything, and it’s nice to see other fuckers using their heads for something other than to hang a hat on!”

  “Point taken,” Lance nodded.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  When they reached the valley of battle bot area two, Ian slammed on the brakes looking across the field. “Fuck me with hot sauce!” Ian gasped, grabbing his nose.

  A mound of gore surrounded the playground, and stinkers actually had to climb over it to reach the battle bot operating now. The back mound was over four feet tall and twice that wide. The front and sides weren’t half that tall but many times wider, since the stinkers were climbing those to reach the playground. “If that’s only eight thousand bodies, I won’t spit or swallow, I’ll gargle a mother fucker,” Lance exclaimed in shock.

  “Guys,” Jennifer’s voice came over the radio. “Yes, you build awesome shit, but can we get a move on so we can put more of that awesome shit out?”

  Pulling off the road, Ian glanced back to see Patrick and David turn and follow them into the field. “They don’t want to get near the shit,” Ian grinned, driving over a small bridge.

  Suppressed shots started ringing out behind them and the stinkers moving toward the playground were being cut down. Lance watched as the other stinkers ignored the shots and other stinkers falling, stumbling toward the playground. “When we light the playground, we need to be way back,” Lance warned, grabbing the bot laptop.

  The active bot stopped when Lance tapped the keyboard. The bot drove off through the side mound where the stinkers had pulled it the lowest because Lance wasn’t sure it would make it out otherwise. Once clear of the playground, the bot turned and headed for the creek that ran along the back of the field.

  “Lance, you sure the power station will handle the heat?” Ian asked, pulling to a stop beside the bot.

  “I’m not going to find a dozer to move the gore away,” Lance said, tapping the keyboard and the second bot left the recharging station to take the same route the other bot did before pulling to a stop beside his brother. Looking at the two bots, “They get the goriest prize,” Lance nodded.

  “Think we should move the power station?” Ian asked.

  Looking at the sixty yards from the power area to the playground, Lance shook his head. “The power cables exposed there now are in metal tubing. If it gets that hot, we’ll take the spray nozzle off and shoot water over to cool it off.”

  Liking the sound of that, Ian nodded and got out while grabbing a road flare. “Hold on,” Heath called out, jogging over. Stopping beside Ian, Heath held out his hand. “Use this,” Heath grinned, and Ian looked down at a flare gun.

  “Oh, hell yeah,”
Ian laughed, but didn’t take it. “I’m the foreman, get ready to shoot the shit.”

  Ian looked over to see Lance at the buggy, already uncoiling the sprayer hoses and changing tips. When Lance was ready, he nodded at Ian. “Heath, light the fire,” Ian grinned.

  Holding the flare gun with both hands, Heath aimed high and pulled the trigger. Ian gave a moan seeing how high the shot was, then hell came to earth. ‘WHOOOSH’ sounded and everyone cringed back from the massive heat wave that rolled out. Holding his hand up, Ian turned to the playground and could see the shimmering heat waves, but there were almost no flames.

  Reaching up, Heath patted his eyebrows and hair to make sure they were still there. “Holy fucking chicken-fried shit patties,” he panted, turning away from the intense heat.

  Ian could feel a stiff breeze blowing past him as air was pulled in from the intense heat. A stinker that had fallen near the mound exploded from the heat. “A stinker blew up!” Allie cheered over the radio.

  After two minutes, green and blue flames started dancing around the playground and Lance turned on the power washer. Only able to get halfway to the power station, Lance aimed high to squeeze the wand and rain down a stream of water.

  Steam bellowed off the metal housing of the power station and dish mirror as Lance continued raining water down. “Yeah, probably should’ve moved them,” Lance mumbled. A few minutes later, Lance was able to move closer and spray the power station and not rain down on it. He sighed when the metal stopped hissing when the water hit it.

  It normally only took ten minutes for the playground fire to burn down to dust giving off very little smoke. Lance was certain if there were still people in the space station, they would’ve seen that heat signature. “Hey, foreman,” Patrick said, coming up behind him. “I’ll do that.”

  Lance passed off the wand. “Mirror is the most important, but don’t let the battery get too hot or it will blow up and that would be worse than frying bacon naked,” Lance warned, heading back to the UTV. Grabbing the laptop, Lance sighed to see the power station wasn’t damaged.