by David Peters
“Let’s get down to the work crews. This is going to take some time to clear. I would like to have a guard detail too; the noise is going to travel and that could mean visitors.” Dylan said.
“We are running out of people but I agree.”
The world had changed, and the Green Movement was getting dealt a large setback. He was sure there would be argument later but he couldn’t see it having much weight in light of the last attack.
“All right folks!” yelled Daniel to the large work crew. “Roger is the only one with experience in clear cutting. He is foreman; his word is good as gold. Listen to him, stay alive and unhurt. Cutting timber is pretty damn dangerous even when you know what you’re doing and have the right tools. We don’t.” said Daniel.
There were four main groups broken into various areas of responsibility. The first group was downing trees and worked a ways away from the other groups. The second group trimmed the trees to a manageable size and man-handled them up the hill. The third crew would place the logs on the wall and fasten them in place while the forth crew back filled with earth and rocks.
Daniel and Dylan talked to the guard detail and explained how they were there to watch for anything non human. The general order was to shoot first. If it’s still moving, shoot again. Then you can feel free to ask questions. The first order of duty for the third crew was a tower post with coverage for the workers.
Dylan worked with the second work crew. The biggest difficulty was getting the trees down to a size they could manage. He would have liked to use the horses, but they didn’t have any harness gear that would allow them to pull anything, so it was all heavy lifting.
Daniel was with the fourth work crew directing where the chain of people would get dirt and rocks from. It was going surprisingly fast. They were really only inhibited by the amount of work it took to get the sections of trees up and put into place.
The first work crew worked incredibly fast. They were the only crew that had anyone with experience and it showed in their speed. By dusk they had cleared out a fairly large section away from the town. The real work would be getting the logs back up the hill and into the form of a wall.
“This is going well,” said Daniel. “We can see a hell of a lot farther now and once the wall is up, we should be able to see far enough into the valley to see where our road junctions with the highway, that will work out to about a thirty minute warning for vehicles.”
“I’m more concerned about what moves on foot, at least for now” observed Dylan. “If their attacks continue in the fashion they have we will need to be ready with some form of wall tomorrow. I am happy with the construction though, that tower has a great view and the wall will be nearly twice as thick as I thought it would be. Sappers would need a week to burn through all that dirt.”
“I want to add one more guard post in the town square” said Daniel. “I would feel better if our four mobile guards could check in regularly. As it is one could get taken down and it would be some time before it would be noticed by any of the other three. Even then one would have to leave his post to investigate what may be nothing.”
“I hadn’t thought about that aspect of it. That’s a good idea, I like it. You ready for some grub?” asked Dylan.
“Let’s do it.”
The brothers headed back to their cabin, Niccole already had dinner started. Dave, Julie and their kids were also in the cabin making for a cramped but happy living space.
“So Dave, tell me how the rest of the trip went. I felt like crap for not going with you but we just couldn’t leave the horses to fend for themselves,” said Dylan. He felt like he was taking the easy way out for saying it, doubly so when he looked at their kids and felt like he had chosen between horses and people.
“I completely understood and thought nothing bad of it. You went out of your way just to help us at all, let alone giving us a gun and bullets. You didn’t know us from Adam. I shouldn’t have expected even that much. You went above and beyond my friend,” Dave said looking much more relaxed then he did earlier in the day.
“We followed your directions as best we could while trying to avoid population centers like you said. I still managed to mess it up a little. We wound up finding a little bit of trouble anyways. We passed a small group of military not too long after we separated from you. They were sitting on the side of the road, looked fairly beat up, lots of fire damage on the vehicles and a few of the men looked like they were extra crispy. They didn’t even wave when we passed, but they didn’t shoot either so I counted it as good.”
Dylan nodded as he followed Dave’s story.
“We finally came to the highway that would take us to Sumter, but the bridge was gone, or blown up, or something. Don’t know, it just wasn’t there. That took us about two hundred miles further away. I debated finding a way down that little canyon on foot but with two little kids that just didn’t seem like the safe option, I mean, I didn’t really know how much further we had to go. At least in the van we could drive away from danger while the kids slept. The hardest part was getting gas. We found it easier to siphon abandoned cars then to try and get it out of a gas station. The damn tank lids were either locked or needed some tool we didn’t have. Our last attempt at a gas station didn’t end well, but I already told Niccole about that.”
Dylan looked at Niccole.
Niccole smiled “let’s just say he has a new found fondness for smaller caliber bullets. Even if it takes seven or eight of them to do what his ten-gauge does in one round.”
Dylan laughed. She could fill him in on the less pleasant details later. He didn’t want the mood to become solemn.
“All told, I think we slept a total of four hours since we had seen you. Thankfully, the kids took it surprisingly well.”
“So you never went through Sumter?” asked Dylan.
“No, we wound up coming all the way around and to Paradise Falls from the southwest,” said Dave.
“You’re probably lucky. It is looking like Sumter is a hive town” said Dylan.
“What is a hive town?” asked Julie.
Daniel brought them up to speed on the Corrupted and how they appear to work, along with the physical analysis that Doc had come up with. He tried to keep it light hearted but he could still feel the moods around the table swing slightly darker.
“Where did they come from? I don’t understand, are they military, some meteorite crash with them onboard?” Dave said the last one with a smile.
“Those are as good of reasons as we have been able to come up with” said Daniel. “We really don’t have any idea where they came from and other than wanting to wipe us out we don’t know what their goal is.”
Dave shook his head in understanding, “kind of what I figured.”
“They sure seem to like fire. We could count on every town we passed having something burning” said Dave.
Daniel said “that doesn’t surprise me. We see enough Sappers to understand what causes the fires. You can bet someone is or was putting up a fight. Luckily we have a lot of water here, so we can get the barricade put out pretty fast. I’m pretty sure the vast majority of people Corrupted are made into Sappers.”
Dylan asked, “How long do the Sappers burn once they pop?”
“They burn hot but not for very long. Maybe ten to twenty seconds,” answered Daniel.
Dylan thought about it for a minute “we may want to add some water defense to the bus. I was thinking maybe we can use some of those water troughs from the pasture.”
Niccole looked alarmed. “Bus defense? Care to let me in on the plan there guys? I’m feeling a little left out.”
Dylan smiled. “I’m not leaving you out at all. Daniel and I started talking this afternoon about what supplies we may need. You know, medical supplies, more lights, radios. I think we could come up with a pretty extensive list when you think about the fact that as far as we know, no one is making anything anymore. I could make a laundry list of camping type equipment we will need. Winte
r is coming.”
Niccole looked a little worried “So you up and decided to run into town and see if the Corrupted are having any sales?”
Dylan sighed “You know we have to go into town, for both supplies and research. The sooner we can get things out of some of the remaining stores the better. It wouldn’t hurt us to stock up on some essentials. It may be a rough winter, depending on how many refugees eventually make their way here and what happens with the weather. Not sure if anyone has thought about the fact that we have really lost all weather reporting. Storms will hit without much warning. We should also think about any medical supplies. Not just bandages but painkillers and antibiotics. Daniel, is there a pharmacy in town?”
Daniel thought and replied “there is one of those large chain stores that have everything short of an airport in it.”
“Great. We should start putting a group together. I want to make sure everyone is very clear on what and when we are doing things.
“I’m going” Niccole said flatly.
“I never had any intention of leaving you behind, hon. We make a rock solid team and you keep me out of trouble” Dylan said without pause.
“We should be able to fit eight or ten of us in that bus and still have room to fight and carry our supplies back” said Dylan. “Daniel, can you start picking out seven people to go? Make sure they are familiar with a weapon.”
“Let’s get some solid plans together tomorrow and have a group start working on all the changes to the bus we need,” said Daniel. “I really want that west wall done soon. I think it should be the priority, agreed?”
Dylan looked at Niccole, both nodded at Daniel “I totally agree. Our defense is the biggest thing right now.”
Erica was sitting on the couch petting Doug, the cat. Little five year old Emily was sitting next to her talking about something only small children could possibly understand while four year old Keegan nodded his agreement. All in all it looked like any normal family, which was fine for them. They knew normal no longer had the meaning it used to.
Chapter 10
The next morning Dylan crawled painfully out of bed. He sat on the edge of the bed massaging his arms and legs. He hadn’t realized he had overdone it with so much working the previous day. He did know how much more there was to do today. He stretched as he stood up and started his morning routine.
“I’m getting too old for this,” he mumbled as he bent to tie his boots.
He found Niccole and Erica talking at the kitchen table. He painfully lowered himself into one of the chairs while Niccole fixed him a cup of coffee.
Dylan took a long sip and set the cup down “Let’s make sure coffee is on that shopping list too. This may be the apocalypse but that doesn’t mean we can’t sip a cup as we watch the world fall apart and swirl down the proverbial toilet.”
Niccole and Erica laughed.
“Your brother headed out to the line at first light. He knew you would be pretty beat up after yesterday and wanted you to get a little more rest.”
“Bah, he just wants all the glory to himself.”
“What glory would that be?” asked Erica.
“So many questions,” Dylan said in mock admonishment.
The three laughed again and Dylan drained the last of his cup. “I should head out there. Talk you in a bit, Coco.”
--1--
“This is working great!” exclaimed Roger. Dave had come up with the idea of welding two large truck rims to the front of his jacked up minivan and using it to assist pulling the logs up the hill. “Best improvised skyline I’ve ever seen!”
It had only taken about two hours to work the kinks out of Dave’s idea, but they were now pulling logs up the hill at nearly triple the speed they were before but with almost none of the man power. This allowed most of the log transport crew to be moved to wall building.
Both Daniel and Dylan were on the wall supervising the hammering of timbers together. The bulk of the west wall was coming up now. It had already been completed to the barricade, this left only one quarter of the main town un-walled.
At its base, the wall was nearly eight feet thick and about twelve feet tall. Built of trees, earth, rocks, and whatever was available, it was as solid as the mountain it was built on, and nearly as strong.
“I’m already feeling better about this” Dylan said to Daniel a short ways away. “We must have close to a hundred yards range now. We will have a really solid defense in a few more days.”
“Agreed, the tree hugger in me grieves but the reality of it all is savagely beating down said tree hugger.” Daniel said smiling.
Dylan approached Daniel as he cleaned his hands off on his pants “We should add a few to tonight’s guard shift. I’m expecting another attack if they follow the same pattern.”
“Ya, the thought crossed my mind more than a few times. We are in a much better position to defend the town now. I have this under control. Why don’t you see where we are at with the bus conversion? I would really like to take that trip into town sooner rather than later.” Daniel said smiling at this brother.
“Sounds good. I will bring back some lunch in a few hours” Dylan said as he climbed down the ladder and headed off towards the town square.
It looked like the entire town was filled with the buzz of activity. Between the work crews on the walls, the crew working on the bus, and the day to day duties of everyone else, the town was downright noisy. It suddenly occurred to Dylan that although he could hear all the noises of equipment and people working, he could hear almost no power tools. Aside from the chainsaws on the outskirts of the village, it was almost entirely human powered tools.
He continued his walk as the retro-newness of it all washed over him.
As he approached the bus he could see a number of the bus crew working on the outside of the bus. Dylan asked no one in particular “Has anyone seen John?”
Someone drilling corrugated tin to the side of the bus answered without turning “In the tool shop that way,” he said pointing but not taking his eyes off of his task.
Dylan walked into the tool shop and found John in a heated debate with a boy that looked to be in his early twenties.
“How in the hell is that going to work? That just sounds dumb as hell!” John yelled.
“Listen. Just let me finish this last weld, ok? It will all make sense, trust me, will ya? Have I ever let you down, dude?” said the boy.
“Hey John, everything kosher in here?” asked Dylan as he walked up.
“Hard to say, guess we will find out in a minute whether this kid has lost too many brain cells or if he has a good idea. Dylan, this is Travis, Travis, Dylan.”
“Good to meet you Dylan. Just let me finish this last weld and if it’s a stupid idea I won’t push it anymore,” stated Travis.
Travis put a few more welds on his device then picked the entire thing up and walked out the front barn door motioning the two to follow him.
He placed his rather complex looking device on a picnic table in front of the shop. It consisted of a two foot by two foot sheet of metal that set perpendicular to the table. Coming off of this thick metal wall was what appeared to be the spring of an old car in a small steel frame. The equipment had a hand crank on one side that looked like it might have come from the pedals of an old bicycle. The spring portion of the contraption was mounted to the steel wall so that it could pivot both up and down as well as side to side. He had two large clamps that he tightened down to the table.
“Ok, if you don’t like it, we don’t use it but I can’t see why you would turn this bad ass thing down.” Travis grabbed a rock about the size of his fist and placed in on the top of his device. He then cranked the handle eight or nine times. He bent over and peered through the small slit window just above the device and flipped a lever at the back. He aimed his machine out over the river and pulled the trigger. The rock launched across the square and struck a tree on the far side of the water about eighty feet away. “Ya!” Travis yelled then laughe
d “dude that was awesome! I need to put a guard right here though. This thing will take off a hand!”
“Um, what exactly are we going to do that requires us to fire rocks at something?” asked Dylan sounding truly lost.
“So from inside the bus, the only defense you planned is guns. I have one more spring and can make one of these for each side.” Travis looked back and forth between Dylan and John and realized he wasn’t getting through to them. “Dudes. Ok, well, just wait, I’ll be right back,” before anyone could reply Travis was ran back into the shed.
“Am I missing something John? Is he expecting us to shoot rocks at the Corrupted?”
“I’m still waiting for the clue bus to pull up, Dylan. I think that boy is a few cans short of a six pack sometimes. I’m as lost as you.”
