by David Peters
“Mayberry! They are going to reach the wall! We need a water crew now!” Dylan yelled over the gun fire.
“On it!” Mayberry jumped down and ran back towards the center of town.
Sappers had reached the base below the defenders and began to detonate. Several more Hunter screeches’ could be heard off in the darkness. The majority of the Sappers began to focus on the one section of wall they had been able to reach and burn. In spite of the intense fire and heat the old timbers and earth held them back. The wall refused to fail but it was burning.
Mayberry ran back with four people in tow pulling a small fire hose.
Dylan could see Mayberry gesturing to Dylan. It occurred to him that from ground level he could tell where to direct the impromptu fire fighters.
Dylan pointed to the section of wall where the Sappers were amassing.
Mayberry shouted some orders that Dylan couldn’t make out then left the fire team and climbed back up the wall to report.
“Damn hose won’t reach!”
“What?” yelled Dylan in surprise. Dylan shook his head in total disbelief. How could they not have accounted for that?
Mayberry was back up on the wall and yelling over the gunfire into Dylan’s ear, “That is all we got right there! We can keep the top of the wall covered, but they can’t reach the other side!”
They shouted over the sounds of the raging battle around them.
“Shit. Fine. What did you tell them?” Inside Dylan was scolding himself for not thinking about something so simple. He couldn’t help but wonder what else they had missed.
“I told them to keep the area you pointed to flooded and watch for anyone on fire. Whatever they do, don’t stop spraying until you or I tell them to.”
“Simple enough,” Dylan took another shot at a Hunter moving at the edge of the lights reach but missed. “Make sure people stay focused on the Sappers. The Hunters aren’t going to be able to do anything to us from that distance.”
Dylan continued to scan the far edge of the fire fight trying to find the Hunters commanding the Sappers. There were still Sappers approaching but not in the density of the initial fight and were much easier to stop prior to reaching the wall. What concerned him was how many Hunters were out there. That and the fact that the wall was short enough for them to jump.
Dylan shouted to no one in particular, “Why aren’t the Hunters coming in?”
Dylan could hear the gunfire picking up at the barricade. Suddenly the entire hillside was lit up with a massive double explosion from the other side of the gate. Dylan turned in time to watch a giant mushroom cloud of fire and smoke rolling high into the night sky. The barricade still stood and the defenders on the top were cheering like it was a football game.
Mayberry turned to Dylan “What the hell was that?”
“If I had to guess I would say that was a touchdown for us.”
His west wall was still pouring fire into the open field below but targets were becoming less available. It looked like the entire field had something burning. It was as if barrels of oil had been overturned and set afire. He could see nearly to their artificially created tree line now. There was some fleeting movement between the billowing clouds of smoke but he was unable to get a clear shot at anything. He was thankful that pulling the timbers up the hill had churned the ground to nothing but soil. This much fuel would have turned into a devastating forest fire if it had enough kindling.
Dylan finally called a cease fire several times and the mountain became extremely quiet. After a few moments passed and no more movement was seen cheers rolled through the defenders. They had turned their first major attack with no losses and only a few injuries.
Daniel climbed up the wall and patted his brothers back “How goes the battle little brother?”
Dylan took in the entire scene before him. It looked like the gates of hell had opened up just a little and spilled some of itself on the churned up dirt. “I would say we kicked some serious ass this time. I have a few people with minor burns and Doc is down there looking at someone who fell off the wall. What the hell happened on your side? Someone bring a nuke to the party?”
Daniel actually laughed, “They were much more confined coming at the gate. There is the ravine off one side and the hillside on the other. Travis wanted to test another invention; he built you a double barreled T-Cannon out of the leaf springs from Dave’s minivan. He let loose two grenades right into the mass of Sappers. Let’s just say the grenades performed slightly better than expected and I don’t think anything will grow beyond the barricade for a few years.”
“I’m concerned the Hunters never showed. This was a costly attack for them but they learned and adapted to our defenses. I’m guessing there were at least seventy on this side, although body counts will be impossible. There is nothing but ash left for nearly everyone.”
There was still an occasional gun shot, but mostly they were from sheer nervousness more than actually identifying a target worth shooting at.
“If I didn’t know better, I would say in the previous attacks they were trying to get people but in this attack they just wanted us gone,” observed Dylan.
Daniel nodded as he thought about it.
Dylan paced back and forth discussing tactical changes with Daniel for another ten minutes before climbing down with his brother to investigate the gated side of the compound. Dylan also mentioned the failure with the fire hoses. “It might be worth it to run some water lines up to the wall. Don’t know if we have the parts but we should think about it.”
They continued to talk as they squeezed through the partially opened gate and walked out under the yellow lights.
“Holy crap, this is one hell of a scorch!” Dylan exclaimed. There was a blast mark centered on the open arc in front of the gate; even a small crater in the center of it. “Something to remember for the future. Too bad we don’t have more of those grenades around. I’m guessing we won’t be getting any more of those anytime soon.”
“Any idea of the count over here? How many went down?” asked Dylan.
“Hard to say, was at least thirty, burned pretty far down, be lucky to find many bones out here to count, might find a filling or two.”
Dylan grimaced at the thought. “How much ammunition did we burn through?”
Daniel looked around him and kicked some of the brass casing at his feet, “no idea, more than I would have liked I guess.”
After some silent reflection Dylan turned to his brother “How well do you remember the layout of Sumter? Think any of it is burned up?”
The Brothers made their way down off the wall. “We didn’t ever see any smoke come up the valley but the winds are usually the other way.”
The two knelt down under one of the walkway lights and Daniel began to sketch the town out in the dirt, “The Wal-Mart is fairly central to the town. The Police station is on the north side. Most of the riverfront is dedicated to the Lumber Mill and the yard for it.” He pointed to the various land marks he had drawn out. “I think it would work best to come down Main. We can hit the front of the store and still have a nice field of view of main and the parking lot.”
“I like that. We need to stay out of tight areas. I don’t know how long the water on the bus would hold out in a serious fight, seeing those things massing against the wall tonight kind of concerns me,” said Dylan.
“I want to hit the police station too. We could really use quite a few more radios. Might not be a bad idea to get some body armor for the barricade guards. We may not always have friendly people at the gates. Wouldn’t hurt to grab every weapon we can too. We need to keep in mind that our enemy may not always be the Corrupted. There are others out there that may want what we have and not want to share nicely,” speculated Dylan.
“Good idea.” Daniel stopped one of the passing wall guards and told him how he would like the rest of the evening to go. “I don’t anticipate another attack after that route. They put out a lot of energy with no return at all. I
don’t know how many they have but I am willing to bet we put a dent in them. They will be licking those wounds for some time to come.”
Dylan was looking at the semi truck parked in the entrance lot. “So, think if we took the rig, we could find anything valuable to hook up and drag home?”
Daniel looked at the truck and thought about it, “Don’t know why not, we have a driver for it, and can add some defenses to it. There has to be a trailer at the Wal-Mart or in the lumber yard, could use either one of those.”
“Let’s start that tomorrow, we may or may not have the need, but I want the option,” Dylan agreed.
“Daniel, you need to come check this out,” a voice yelled out from the other side of the wall.
The two brothers made their way to the far side of the deforested defense section and looked at the area where one of the guards was standing. “It looks like they were really targeting this section of wall. If they would have had larger numbers and us not getting the heads up this could have ended quite differently.”
Dylan was knelt down and examined the area below the wall. The Sappers had specifically attacked this section of the wall far heavier than anywhere else. The timbers were burned nearly completely away and the dirt and rocks in the core of the wall had begun to pour out the large burned gap. He could still feel the heat from the scorching. “If they had gotten maybe another dozen against this point I think the wall would have collapsed.”
Dylan walked out a ways and examined some of the damage. “We need to put in some pikes. You know those sticks in the ground? Just as an obstacle. We could easily have kept them from the wall if we could have slowed them down some. Maybe even stagger them so we can funnel them in tighter, use the detonating Sappers against their own kind like at the barricade. They would burn through sections of the pikes pretty quickly but they would still be funneled.”
“We should also think about getting the wall another layer higher too. If that had been a massive Hunter attack they could have simply jumped over us.”
As Dylan looked over the battlefield from the perspective of the attacker, something occurred to him “Daniel, they didn’t expect this wall to be here.”
“Ok, not following you.”
“The wall wasn’t here last time they attacked and as far as we know they haven’t been here since then. They didn’t expect the wall but when they found it they concentrated their forces in an attempt to breach it.”
Daniel understood, “They adapted and they changed their attack plan.”
“We kind of went over that, what’s your point?”
“I think we might have problems if we don’t finish this defense today and we need to keep it in mind that we don’t know how they are going to come at us next time.”
Talk continued about the lessons learned from their first major confrontation well into daybreak. They knew the first battle was firmly in their favor, but it was just that, the first of many to come. They also knew that as they adapted their tactics, the enemy was adapting theirs.
It was well past four in the morning when Daniel finally left for the cabin to sleep. Niccole had taken Erica back home several hours earlier. Dylan spent another hour walking the town and making mental notes. He was starting to feel the weight of true leadership. Had the wall failed the town would have fallen. By daylight it would have been nothing but ashes.
Chapter 12
Dylan crawled out of bed later than usual. Much later. It was nearly lunch time when he made his way downstairs, the cabin was empty accept for Doug the Cat in his usual perch on the couch.
“Good Mornin’ Doug. You have any idea where everyone is?”
Doug stretched, acknowledged that Dylan existed and where he felt the man fit into the grand scheme of things by rolling over and going back to sleep.
He grabbed a piece of fruit on the way out the door and found a note from Niccole next to the bowl.
‘I’m up the hill working on the antenna cabling. Travis found a roll of coax in one of the sheds. We might actually have enough to reach now. Be back later this afternoon, xoxoxo’
Dylan made his way to the workshop where welding work for the bus was being done. Work was near completion and two workers were testing the anti-fire system.
“It works, but it won’t be hard to overwhelm,” one commented. “We just simply can’t put that much water on top of this thing. Even if we could support it from underneath it will get so top heavy it will roll the first time they turn a corner.”
“There will be people shooting too, so they shouldn’t get close anyway,” the other responded. “Need to keep that in mind too.”
He continued over to the semi-truck. Travis was on top finishing the welds on some scaffolding while he danced and grooved around to music only he could hear.
“Morning Travis, how is everything going?”
“Good, we are mounting a pill box on the top of this bad boy. No more low overpasses in this truck’s future,” Travis answered with a grin. “Top protection will be limited to the folks stuck up here but as far as I have seen none of the Corrupted has wings yet. Long as we keep the Hunters away, I think they might not be able to jump this.”
“Um, let’s hope we don’t ever see Corrupted with wings, shall we?”
“Roger that,” Travis replied with a thumbs up and flipped his welders mask down into place.
Dylan walked around to the front of the truck where one of the other machinists was finishing what amounted to a ‘cow catcher’ used on old style steam engines.
Dylan chuckled out loud, surprising the worker, “Do I want to know that that is for?”
The young man jumped up, “Um, well, I, uh” he stammered but then confided, “Well, honestly, I was a taxi driver in Manhattan and the amount of time I had to wait for crosswalk traffic always made me wonder. I had made a joke at one point and Travis let me kind of run with it.”
Dylan laughed again, “I guess it has its tactical advantages. It still makes me think we need Mohawks and leather to be able to ride on it. Or at least have its own theme music. Very post-apocalyptic.”
“What would you call this?” the man said, pointing around the general area.
Dylan was pondering the reality of that when Daniel walked up.
“What do you think little brother? This going to make it?”
“I think we need to sit down with the crew going into town and get this caravan on the road.”
“We are waiting for you out on the west wall for just that. The changes we talked about this morning are actually done already. You have really galvanized this town Dylan. Never seen these guys work so hard to destroy the environment,” Daniel said laughing.
“Kind of funny how easy some choices can be once the life of you and your family is on the line,” Dylan observed.
The brothers talked about how some of the changes had been altered as they were implemented while making the short trip to the west wall. For the most part, what was built was exactly as Dylan had envisioned for the defense was in place with the added addition of a dry moat about thirty feet beyond the spikes. It was about ten feet across and nearly twelve feet deep, with a very steep drop off on the side furthest from the wall, and a heavy angle up the far side. Looking at it Dylan could tell that it meant a hefty fall for an attacker, and a steep climb, but all the while being shot at from the wall. It was nice to see they made sure they didn’t build a defensive trench for an attacker.
“How in the hell did you get all that done?”
Daniel smiled “The pikes where cake. We had so many tree limbs from the logs. The soil here is ideal for digging. With two ten man crews they just tore through it. We needed the soil anyway for the extra height of the wall.”
“The dry moat was Porter’s idea. Porter, come have a chat with us would you?” Daniel called out to a stout dark colored man working the line.
Dylan watched as Porter approached. He was over six feet tall and built like a linebacker. To top it off he had an afro that stepped s
traight out of the seventies.
“Hey Daniel. Dylan, good to finally meet you,” Porter said quietly.
Dylan was surprised at how soft spoken the big man was, although he carried himself with a definite air of confidence. “Good to meet you, moat was your idea eh?”
“Yep, had majored in European History with a minor in Ancient Cultures. All it really did was make me realize how bitter I was at modern society. Took a while but eventually I found this place several years ago. Thinking about some of the construction I had studied it seemed to me the main issue we have here is keeping them at a distance as long as possible.”
