“Sean? He’s a great guy,” Andrews said. “You did right with that one, sir.”
“He’s an optimist,” Griffith said. “Even a nuclear war didn’t squeeze that out of him, but his old man blowing his head off might do the trick. Don’t want to be responsible for that.”
“Please don’t do anything like that, Eldon,” Buchek said quietly. “You’re a keeper.”
Griffith snorted and shook his head. “Stan, really. I have no idea how you managed to keep this place going and still be such a softie.” He wriggled about in the chair slightly, and a pained expression crossed his dark, lined face.
“You okay, sir?” Andrews asked.
“Nothing that a hip replacement wouldn’t solve,” Griffith said. “We have a couple of great doctors here, but that’s a little beyond them.”
Andrews extended his left arm along the back of the couch and drummed his fingers on the soft leather. “You know, we could bring you back to Harmony with us. It’ll be about eight to ten days of travel, but the procedure could be done there. You’d probably be clear to return in a month or two after the procedure.”
“Sounds pretty optimistic,” Griffith said.
“No, not at all. With nanotech therapy, you’ll be up and at ’em before you know it,” Andrews said. “Trust me, that stuff really works.”
“You’d be willing to take people back to your base?” Buchek asked.
“Sure. Especially folks who might need medical intervention,” Andrews said. “We have room in the rig right now, since we’re half-manned. We could take four people with us, though it might not be a very comfortable trip. A lot of the infrastructure between here and Kansas isn’t usable any longer, so we have to spend a lot of time crawling over rough terrain.”
“Well. I appreciate the offer, but we have other folks here who might benefit more from treatment than I would,” Griffith said. “I’m really too old for you guys to spend a lot of time and resources trying to fix me up.”
Andrews looked at him oddly. “Sir, that’s not the case. Every life is what we aim to save.”
“And like I said, I appreciate the offer. But there are others who have greater needs than I do. Take care of them first, all right?”
Andrews shrugged. “Okay. Offer will remain open.”
“Your vehicle looks to be in pretty good shape,” Buchek said. “Terrain must not be that bad?”
“Like I told you earlier, it’s been rebuilt. You should see some of the units that have made the run to California a few times. They definitely look like they’ve been worked hard.”
“Captain, is there any chance we could get one or two of your vehicles?” Griffith asked. “You did say you had prepositioned spares. Seems to me that if those things have been sitting around for a decade or more, then we might be able to make good use of them.”
“That’s not a decision I can make. Our commanding general would have to issue guidance on that. Procedurally, we’re not supposed to allow anyone on a rig at any time without prior authorization. Obviously I have sufficient latitude to make my own decisions in the field, but that doesn’t mean I can just loan out our vehicles for your use. I’ll take that question back to the command staff, but I think you can reasonably expect their answer to be no.”
Griffith nodded. “I didn’t think it’d be a possibility, but I did want to ask. It’s based off the advanced heavy expanded mobility tactical truck design, right? I have experience with those, they were a go-to platform in the Corps.”
“They are. Obviously reengineered to incorporate newer tech and the like, but the foundation is roughly the same as what you might have been used to.” Andrews leaned forward on the couch. “Listen, Stan. My crew and I would like to scout around the region. And we’d especially like to contact those other communities you mentioned.”
Buchek nodded toward Griffith. “We’ve been having those same discussions. There’s some resistance to it because the truth of the matter is, a lot of the folks here want to be taken care of first and they’re afraid adding other communities into the mix might dilute our eventual deliverables.”
“Oh?”
“We understand how it sounds, Captain,” Griffith said. “Not terribly Christian or even very neighborly, to be sure. But we’ve had to compete with those folks for some resources in the past, which is why we all tend to keep to ourselves.”
“Compete as in how?” Andrews asked.
“We’ve exchanged hostilities in years past,” Griffith said. “Sherwood usually came out on top, and we were able to negotiate our way out of further conflict. But it was decided we’d stay out of their way if they stayed out of ours.”
“So you don’t meet them at all? Not even to discuss regional issues or anything?”
“If something dramatic occurred, we would likely pass it on to them,” Buchek said. “I touched on this before. The reality of the situation is, both Ironside and even Beulah need us a lot more than we need them. We were better prepared, and managed our resources better. Of the two, I think Beulah is better off. Ironside is a lot less centralized.”
“Well. We’d still like to contact them,” Andrews said. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m not asking your permission here. My mission is still my mission, after all. But if your people could help with the introductions, then it would make things a bit easier.”
“As I was saying, we’ve been discussing it,” Buchek said. “And we’ve reached an overall agreement that it’s in our mutual interest for you to hook up with both communities. They’ll doubtless have more intel on the other groups in Idaho and Washington than we do, so it’s only beneficial if you make the trip. Again, some of us aren’t interested in that, but that’s a minority voice.”
“Don’t tell me—Trumbull, right?” Andrews asked.
“No comment,” Griffith replied with a raspy laugh.
“We’re a collection of individualists who are working together for a common good, Andrews,” Buchek said, “and we don’t all walk to the same drummer. But if we have to give up some things in order to ensure whatever future we might have, then we’re prepared to do that. It’s not a unanimous decision, but it’s a majority one.”
“I understand.”
“When did you want to set out?” Griffith asked.
“We can leave at any time. I’d rather it be sooner than later. It looks like we’re in a good spell of weather, so I’d like to take advantage of that.” As he spoke, Andrews nodded toward the windows. It was another sunny day outside, though a bit cooler than it had been. The last temperature report he’d received from the rig was that the mercury was hovering around the sixty-seven-degree mark. Comfortable weather.
“Amanda will go with you,” Buchek said. “And Eldon, I’d like Sean to go as well. Is that all right by you?”
“Boy don’t need my permission to go out and do what needs to be done, Stan. He’s forty-seven years old.”
Buchek smiled. “I know, but he’s still your son.”
“I appreciate the sanity check, of course,” Griffith said. “Sure, he can go. He gets along with almost everyone, so it might make some sense to send him. Because Amanda sure doesn’t play nice, I’m sorry to say.”
Buchek grunted. “Yeah, that’s a bit of a bummer.”
“Where has she been lately?” Andrews asked. “We haven’t seen much of her.”
“She’s usually out scouting the perimeter. She and Sean are in charge of security, so they’re usually out with their teams making sure no one’s in the area. They spend more time outside the walls than inside,” Buchek said.
Andrews was intrigued by that. “Why is that?”
“The walls are the last defense we have,” Buchek said. “If something’s going to go south, we’d rather know it’s headed our way than wake up one morning to find it at the gates.”
“I get it,” Andrews said. “So would tomorrow be too soon?”
Buchek shook his head. “Can’t see why it would. Tomorrow’s fine by us.”
&nbs
p; CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Amanda met them at the rig that evening just as Andrews and Mulligan were returning. She wore her own clothes in lieu of the uniform she’d been given. Camo trousers and a long-sleeved Henley shirt, over which she had a tactical vest that was festooned with spare magazines for her old AR. A small pack was on her back, and she carried a plastic bag in her left hand. She didn’t wear her balaclava, so Andrews could see her face clearly as she approached. Her expression was neutral, and she looked from Andrews to Mulligan with those pale eyes of hers.
“I was told to meet you guys. Seems like my dad thinks it’s a good idea I take you to Beulah and Ironside,” she said. She didn’t seem happy about it.
“Well, if you’d prefer not to, it’s not a problem for us,” Andrews said. “You can just tell us where they are, and we’ll take it from there.”
She shook her head. “No, that’s not going to work. We have to be there.”
“Okay, then. We’ll do this aboard the rig, if that’s all right with you.”
“You want my weapons?”
“You can just leave them here at the base of the ramp,” Mulligan said. He had already drifted away a few feet, his own rifle held loosely in his hands.
Amanda wordlessly shrugged out of her pack, then leaned her rifle against one of the rig’s tires. She put the bag on the ground, then removed her belt and vest. “I have that uniform in the bag, if you want me to put it on. Or if you want it back,” she said. “I’d like to keep the boots, if you don’t mind.”
“You can keep all of it,” Andrews said. “And Leona’s finished the site survey—the area’s as clean as we’d hoped it might be. No need to change your clothes, so long as you haven’t been stirring up a lot of dust by digging or something like that.”
“I haven’t, but you can’t be guaranteed I’m not carrying something hot,” she said.
Andrews pointed up toward the airlock. “The sensors will let us know. Go on up.”
“You go in with her, sir. I’ll pull security for a while,” Mulligan said.
“Thanks, Sarmajor.” Andrews followed Amanda up the ramp and into the airlock. He cycled the outer door closed, then looked at the status panel inside. Both of them were clean, and the inner airlock door opened a moment later. The second compartment smelled like food; both KC and Leona had already eaten. KC was sitting at the engineering station, and she got to her feet when Amanda entered. The young crew chief wore a pistol, and she took care not to get too close to Amanda.
“Still don’t trust me?” Amanda asked.
“Don’t really know you,” KC replied, a wary tone in her voice.
A brief smile sketched itself across Amanda’s face. “Smart girl.”
Andrews motioned to the dinette. “Have a seat, please. Would you like anything to eat?”
“I’m good.” Amanda moved to the dinette and slid into its vinyl embrace in a fluid, sinuous movement. Her eyes remained on KC, and KC returned the appraisal. Her right hand rested on the butt of her pistol. “You know, I’m not going to eat you or something,” Amanda said to KC.
“Glad to hear that,” KC said.
“I usually wait to know a girl before I do that,” Amanda replied.
KC blinked, then looked at Andrews. Andrews cleared his throat. There were a couple of ways he could interpret what Amanda had said, but he didn’t really want to get into it. “Ah, where’s Eklund?”
“Taking a shower,” KC said.
“Okay.” Andrews motioned KC forward. “Kace, why don’t you hang out in the cockpit. As soon as Mulligan’s aboard, we’re going to start planning the movements for tomorrow. We’ll be leaving Sherwood, and Amanda’s going to be coming with us.”
“Roger that,” KC said. She pushed past the dinette, keeping her eyes downcast as she passed Andrews. He thought she was probably embarrassed by what the woman with the strange green eyes had said. He looked after her as she climbed into the cockpit and settled into the pilot’s seat. He shrugged out of his gear and replaced it in the storage lockers save the pistol, which he wore at his hip. He slid into the dinette across from Amanda and clasped his hands before him.
“Were you just hitting on my crew chief?” he asked.
“Yes,” Amanda replied. “She’s cute and clean. Is there a problem?”
“Um ... no, so long as you don’t try and force her into something that she doesn’t want to do,” Andrews said. “And you need to be mindful of the fact she has a job to do.”
“I’m not going to hold her down and rape her or anything,” Amanda said. “Don’t be so overprotective, Captain. She doesn’t really need it.”
“I’m not being overprotective, but I am pretty keen on keeping my human assets in good operating condition. KC needs to be focused on keeping this rig up and going, and if you’re weirding her out, that’s going to cause some friction between us,” Andrews said.
“Got it. I’ll make sure I’m a good girl.”
The inner airlock door opened as Mulligan entered the rig. He glanced over at the pair sitting at the dinette and stopped where he stood. “What’s up?”
“Nothing,” Andrews said, leaning back. “Stow your shit and let’s get down to plotting our advance.”
“‘Plotting our advance?’ You make it sound like a military mission,” Amanda said.
“It is,” Mulligan told her as he shrugged out of his rucksack and pushed it into a locker before removing his helmet and headset. “We are an operating unit of the US Army.”
Amanda turned in the dinette and looked at him as he peeled off his gear. “I think you mean to say you are the Army now.”
Mulligan opened the weapons locker and put his rifle inside, then closed and locked it. “Either way, the results are the same. We don’t go out for a drive, we go out on a mission. Which means we plan the movement, be it down roads or over land.”
“Hey, however you guys have to do it,” Amanda said, facing Andrews again.
Andrews pulled his tablet from his pocket and removed it from the protective sheath it sat in. He logged on to it and used it to switch on the main display in the compartment. Amanda looked up as the flat-screen monitor came to life, watching as Andrews dialed up a map of the local vicinity. She frowned when she saw the representation of Sherwood. It was a very detailed view, including the positions of buildings and even the parked SCEV itself.
“How’d you get that?” she asked.
“We had satellite maps from before the war, and the recce runs from the UAV were added to it,” Andrews said. “It’s all done by the navigational computers. It’s able to strip the data collected from the drone and layer it across older maps and the like to present us with a real-world view that’s more representative of the present day.”
“That’s pretty impressive,” Amanda said. “Also a bit creepy. I mean, I can see people standing in the roads and in the fields.”
Mulligan strode over to the kitchenette across from the dinette’s table. “What, you have privacy concerns, young lady?” he asked as he opened the freezer.
“It just seems like you’re gathering a lot of information about us,” Amanda said.
“We are,” Andrews admitted. “I mean, it’s necessary, right? In order for us to do what we need to do, we need a good understanding of the lay of the land and your community’s overall status.”
“And it’s all going to be used for the common good,” Mulligan said while rooting around in the freezer. “All this data is going to assist us in pushing goods and services your way, things you both know you need and things you never even thought of. There are lots of people down in Harmony who are much smarter at these things than we are, and this information is going to be very helpful in ensuring the next several runs up this way are equipped to deliver some lasting benefits.” He pulled out a burrito. “Ah, how I miss you,” he said, his voice low and wistful.
“Put it back.” Leona emerged from the sleeping compartment, her hair pulled back from her face. “Right now.”
“Try the chicken,” Leona said. “Chicken always tastes good.”
“So do burritos, damn it!”
“Jesus, people. This is what you have to fight about?” Amanda shook her head. “Let the man eat a burrito, for Christ’s sake.”
“Thank you!” Mulligan said.
Leona reached over and pulled an emergency oxygen mask from its clip on the rear bulkhead. She held it out toward Amanda. “Ever have to wear one of these overnight because Mulligan’s blasting swamp gas out of his ass?”
Amanda smiled vaguely. “Oh, I get it. Yeah, why don’t you have the chicken, old man.”
Mulligan harrumphed and went back to rooting around in the freezer. Andrews pushed the tablet across the table toward Amanda.
“If you would, touch the screen and show us where these two communities are,” he said. “You’ll basically just be dropping waypoints for us to navigate toward, and we’ll build the advance around those.”
“Really. Okay.” Amanda pulled the tablet toward her and studied its display for a moment, then tapped the screen once. “Like that?” she asked.
Andrews nodded toward the big screen, where a pin icon had appeared. “Yep. See, it’s up there as well as on the tablet.”
Amanda looked up at the larger display and grunted. “Yeah, kinda cool. I guess.” She turned back to the tablet and tapped it again, producing another pin icon. “There you go. Anything else you want me to do with this?”
“That’ll do it.”
Amanda slid the tablet back to Andrews. “Need me for anything else?”
“You know the best routes to these settlements?” Andrews asked.
“Sure. One’s not far from a road, the other is farther away. That’s Ironside, they don’t take well to visitors that much. You want my opinion, Beulah is probably the first community you should contact. You going to send your drone out their way?”
Earthfall (Book 2): Earthfall 2 [The Mission Continues] Page 25
