by Eric Vall
“We’re on it,” Bailey said with a grin.
“I know you are.” I grinned back at the blonde. “Alright, let’s go.”
“When are we meeting back up?” Anna asked.
“I’ll get you all around two o’clock,” I said.
“Aye, aye, Captain,” the redhead said, and then she turned to Bailey. “Let’s go do this.”
“Okay,” the blonde hippie agreed with a smile.
“Off to find some civilians,” Tara said as she headed toward the door.
“You all be safe,” I said sternly. “Don’t draw attention to yourselves.”
“This isn’t our first rodeo,” Paige said, and she turned around to flash me a smile.
I waved to the girls as they headed off to do their jobs. I had confidence that they could handle their tasks, and I was ready to see what I could find around this massive place. There had to be plenty of rooms to look through, and I needed to get a move on if I was going to hit them all by two o’clock.
I hid mine and the girls’ rifles under the bed, then I patted my sides out of habit to double check that I had my pistol on my hip and my karambit in my pocket. I hoped I wouldn’t need to use either of them, but I wasn’t willing to take any chances. I knew the girls had their pistols on them as well, I had made them put them on before we left for breakfast that morning.
Now it was time to do some digging.
I headed out of my room and down the hallway, and out to the other, larger wing. I knew that the dining hall was there, but I hadn’t been able to go through the other rooms the previous night. I had only looked for the civilians, and I had already checked the rooms in our wing of the fort, though I would probably go through them again after I finished with the larger wing.
I carefully made my way across the open area of the wall that led to the other wing. I saw several men on the wall that faced the water, and some civilians in the courtyard, but not much else, so I headed into the wing and slipped behind the first door to my left.
The window overlooked the courtyard, so I made sure to stay out of the line of it in case anybody happened to look my way. I didn’t need anyone to know I was skulking around.
The room I had entered was some sort of exhibit. It displayed old weapons like swords and eighteenth century guns. They were still locked up beneath glass, and I wondered why they hadn’t been used. Maybe the guns no longer worked, but the swords and knives could be sharpened and used for sure. Why were they still locked up? And if Brody didn’t trust his crew, then why would he leave them there? Anyone could walk in, smash the glass, and take a weapon.
Maybe Brody wasn’t worried because he knew he could easily take out anyone who attacked him, after all I assumed that was part of the reason he hadn’t trained the civilians in the first place.
I scavenged the area, but found nothing important.
The next room I went into was another sort of showcase, but this one had pottery, dining utensils, and facts about different kinds of food eaten in the eighteenth century.
As I went along, I didn’t find much. A couple rooms that had been converted into bedrooms, more museum exhibits, and not much else. The last room I entered I looked around and again found nothing, so I peered out the window to the courtyard.
I watched as the civilians worked on the land, chopped firewood, and took care of the chickens that roamed the area. I also saw Tara and Paige with some women. It looked like they didn’t want to talk, and their body language suggested that they wanted to get away from my girls, but why? I knew Paige wouldn’t do anything to offend them, and though Tara could be crass, she was mostly beloved by other girls. Why didn’t the civilians want to talk to them? Were they scared to talk to outsiders, and if so, what secrets did they have?
It had been a long morning, and the more rooms I went into, the less it seemed I found. Each room was emptier than the last when it came to anything useful or informational. It was getting to be afternoon already, and there was one room I had yet to check. It would be the most dangerous of all, but also the most necessary: Brody’s room.
I had found out very little on my escapade for the day, but if I was going to find anything useful, then Brody’s room was my last chance.
I carefully made my way back down the hallway, ducked low to cross the walkway, and made my way into the other wing. Brody’s door was the first on my right, and I stopped for a moment to listen inside. I was sure that I heard no one, but I knocked anyway. It was better to be seen knocking than it was to be seen just walking in.
When there was no response, I knocked once more, waited again while I looked around to make sure nobody was around, then pushed the door open and closed it quickly behind me.
The room was a disaster, with blankets and clothes littered on the floor, and pieces of food sat out on plates in the corner.
A messy room was good though, a messy room meant that the owner of the room was far less likely to notice something out of place. I was surprised Brody would allow himself to be such an easy target like that, but it seemed he was unconcerned with anything trying to harm him. He obviously felt powerful up here in his stone tower.
I spotted Brody’s desk in the far left corner of the room and made my way over to it, careful to avoid the windows.
The desk itself was littered with papers on the top that tallied the amount of weapons they had, the ammunition, and the food. I checked out the list to see that their supplies were in good standing, but at the bottom the date showed that these papers were several months old. Why would they be on top? And what was the count now? Were they low on supplies, or was there another list that was equally full?
I opened the draws and began to rifle through them. They were messier than the room, with crinkled up papers thrown about, and no organization whatsoever.
I scanned the papers, but it was virtually hopeless. There was nothing useful, just notes about things that needed to be done around the fort, head counts for those that were there, and supplies they needed to get through the winter. The head count note was several months old as well, and Brody had said some people had left, but that would have meant that they left during winter. Who in their right mind would do that? Even if the accommodations weren’t great, they had to be better than being out in the cold with a bunch of ravenous Canadians.
I had almost given up when I noticed an official stamp on one of the papers. When I unfolded it, I realized that it was an official military letter addressed to Brody. It was dated a month before the EMP and requested his presence at Camp Roberts Army base on the West Coast.
The letter was vague, and there was no information about where exactly he was to go, for how long, or even why.
I stared at the orders for a moment, my eyes narrowed in concentration, but then I heard someone yell outside, and I placed the paper back where it belonged, covered it with the others, and shut the drawer.
I slipped out of Brody’s room and headed to my own. The first thing I did was check our guns under the bed and do a quick count to find that they were all accounted for.
Next, I slipped over to the window and looked down at the courtyard. Tara and Paige helped stack some firewood, and I scanned around the wall and found Anna and Bailey perched against the guardrail as they watched the guards across the way.
I turned my attention to the guards as well. There were four of them on the wall that overlooked the water, and two down in the courtyard. So, only six altogether. They each carried a rifle and a knife, but I didn’t see any weapons whatsoever on the civilians.
It seemed strange, too, that they watched the water instead of the road. Did more boats come by than cars or people on foot? And why not have two watch the water and two watch the road? None of it made sense.
The men on guard duty must have been the only ones Brody trusted, but they were obviously not skilled with their weapons, just the way they held them had told me that much.
I couldn’t get over the question of why Brody hadn’t trained his crew. Th
ere seemed to be no logical explanation behind it, especially if their winter had been as rough as he had said. A trained staff would have been a huge advantage against such a large wave of people. Maybe he relied on the wall to keep people out instead, but if someone was determined enough, a wall was an easy feat, especially with only six guards on duty.
I took the next hour to watch the happenings of the fort. I saw two civilian men come back from the water with a bucket full of fish, a large group of civilians tilled the field outside the wall in preparation for planting, and the guards stayed at their posts. I recognized the guards as the same ones that had been there that morning, and I realized there had yet to be a shift change. It was strange that they would be on duty for so long without even a lunch break, I would have to ask Anna and Bailey about that.
Finally, the sun showed that it was almost two o’clock, so I headed across the wall to where Anna and Bailey stood with their eyes on the guards.
“Hey,” I said as I approached.
“Hey,” Anna greeted me.
“It’s time for our meeting,” I said. “Meet me back in the room in five minutes.”
“Alright,” Bailey agreed. “Do you want us to get Paige and Tara?”
“No,” I said. “I’ll get them, just head over there, and be discreet.”
“Got it,” Anna said, and she led the blonde toward our wing of the fort.
I stared down at Paige and Tara for a moment until Paige looked up at me, then I gave a nod and headed back toward our room.
By the time I arrived, Anna and Bailey were seated on the bed.
“Where’s Tara and Paige?” Bailey asked.
“They’re on their way,” I assured the blonde.
“We’re here,” Tara said as she burst through the door.
“Did we miss anything?” Paige asked.
“Not at all,” I said. “We haven’t started yet.”
“Well let’s get to it,” Anna said, eager to share her findings I assumed.
“Alright,” I agreed. “You all go first.”
“So,” Anna started, “we watched the guards for a while, and we noticed that there wasn’t a shift change at all.”
“I saw that as well,” I said with a frown. “But I was hoping you all saw them get a break or something before I noticed them.”
“They didn’t even take a break for lunch or to get some water,” Bailey said, and she shook her head in dismay. “I think they each took a bathroom break, but that was it.”
“Interesting,” I said, but I found it more disturbing than anything. Breaks and shift changes were incredibly important for the safety and mental health of your soldiers. I never liked to keep anyone on shift longer than six hours, and I always made sure they ate when the rest of the group did.
“Anything else?” Paige asked.
“We also watched the civilians,” Anna said. “But it looked like you and Tara had a pretty good grasp on that, and they weren’t doing a lot besides working.”
“I saw that a couple men left the fort to go fishing,” I said.
“Yeah,” Paige agreed. “I guess they go out and set traps and fish every day.”
“We haven’t eaten fish at all yet,” I said. “If they’re catching fish every day why aren’t they being eaten?”
“I think the civilians are eating them,” the brunette said. “That would be my bet since there’s so many of them.”
“Has anyone had eyes on Brody all day?” I asked, and the girls all looked at each other and shook their heads. I pursed my lips. I had yet to see him either, and the fort was only so big. Where was he?
“We talked to the civilians, though,” Tara said, drawing me out of my own thoughts.
“How did that go?” I asked.
“Weird,” the platinum blonde said, and her face pulled into a grimace.
“What do you mean weird?” I asked with narrowed eyes.
“She’s right,” Paige agreed. “It was strange. It was like they didn’t want to talk to us, and even when they did their answers were really vague.”
“What did you ask them?” I questioned.
“We asked how they liked living here with Brody,” Tara said with a shrug.
“And what did they say?” I asked.
“They said he saved their lives over the winter,” Paige said.
“That’s all they said?” I asked, confused.
“Pretty much,” the brunette said with a nod.
“Like I said,” Tara added. “Weird.”
“That does seem strange,” I agreed.
“What about you?” Anna asked. “Did you find anything useful?”
“Not really,” I sighed. “I noticed a few weird things, like how nobody has a weapon except for the guards. I thought maybe that was a fluke before, but it seems that the civilians aren’t allowed weapons.”
“That was the sense I got as well,” Paige said. “Nobody even had a knife on them.”
“Right,” Tara said. “Just an axe to cut wood.”
“I did find one thing,” I said grimly.
“What?” Tara asked, and she leaned in slightly.
“I sniffed around Brody’s room,” I said. “And I found some military orders addressed to him.”
“Was it about North Korea?” Anna asked quickly.
“I can’t say for sure,” I said.
“What do you mean?” the redhead asked.
“What did they say?” Bailey pushed.
“They were dated a month before the EMP,” I said. “And they requested his presence on the West Coast.”
“Where at on the West Coast?” Paige asked.
“Camp Roberts Base,” I said.
“What’s at Camp Roberts Base?” Anna asked.
“It’s the headquarters for the National Guard,” I explained grimly.
Everyone was quiet for a moment as they took in what I had said. Even I wasn’t sure what to do with that information.
“Why would they want a Ranger at the National Guard base?” Tara asked finally.
“I don’t know,” I said with a shake of my head. “Maybe the government had an idea that the Guard would be going into action soon and they needed combat veteran leadership. But it could have been a total coincidence as well. Without more information I can’t say for sure.”
“Weren’t you in the woods for a year before the EMP?” Tara asked.
“I was,” I said.
“Right,” Paige agreed with a snap of her fingers. “If they were looking for Rangers, then isn’t it possible they tried to send you a letter, too?”
“Yeah,” Tara added with a nod.
“I suppose so,” I said, my eyebrows pinched together. “I hadn’t really thought of that, though.”
“Well, did the orders say anything else?” Paige asked.
“No,” I said. “They were quite vague.”
“What does that mean?” Bailey asked. “Aren’t military orders normally a lot more detailed?”
“It means it was something secret,” I said. “Something they couldn’t put into writing.”
“Well, shit,” Tara said.
“Yeah,” I agreed. “But we have no idea what it was about.”
“Well, we know that the West Coast is where North Korea attacked from,” Bailey said.
“According to the orders from D.C. that we found, that’s right,” Paige agreed.
“But if the orders were sent out a month before,” Anna said, “then that would mean they knew the attack was coming.”
“If that’s what it was about,” I said. “Then that’s a good assumption.”
“We need more information about this,” the redhead said.
“It seems like we didn’t learn much today,” Tara said. “I have more questions now than answers.”
“I agree,” I said. “There’s something strange going on here it seems.”
“It was weird that the girls didn’t want to talk to us,” the platinum blonde said. “I can’t get over how odd
they were about it.”
“This place runs a lot different than our home,” Bailey said with a frown.
“Brody is, like, a less chill version of Tav,” Tara said.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“You focus on getting things done,” she said. “But you’re really nice about it and helpful, like you’re always helping us do things.”
“That’s true,” Bailey said. “It makes people want to get things done because they respect you.”
“It seems like Brody relies more on fear than respect,” Anna added.
“Yeah,” Paige agreed. “The civilians didn’t stop working at all today, and you said the guards didn’t, either. It seems like nobody wants to get in trouble. There’s no joy in getting things done, they’re afraid not to.”
“I thought you said that you thought Brody was chill?” Bailey asked Tara.
“At first,” the platinum blonde agreed with a shrug. “But after seeing the way he runs things, not so much. That first chill impression was off.”
“It’s almost like a dictatorship it seems,” Anna said. “Like he’s in charge and that’s it, nobody else gets a say.”
“Exactly,” Tara said. “Less chill version of Tav.”
“I get it now,” I said with a frown. “But I don’t like it.”
“I don’t think anybody does,” Anna said. “Especially not the civilians.”
“Not to be naïve here,” Bailey said. “But maybe there’s a reason they’re like that.”
“Like what?” the redhead asked with a raised eyebrow.
“If people were trying to get into the fort all winter then maybe they ran out of food,” Bailey said.
“I guess that would make sense if they couldn’t get out to hunt,” Tara said. “But they probably weren’t super well stocked then.”
“If they were food insecure then why would Brody be eating these huge meals, though?” Anna asked.
“Something isn’t adding up here,” I said, and I thought about the papers I had seen earlier that detailed the fort’s supplies.
“So what are we going to do?” Paige asked. “Should we take the mission or not?”
I opened my mouth to respond, but as I did gunshots rang out beyond the wall.
