“Not really, we have the drones to do that. I’m just trying to take a break from everything.”
“I’m sorry to interrupt you; I’ll leave.”
“You’re not interrupting anything Maranda. How’s the training going?”
Maranda smiled, “I’ve made it into the top fifty archers on the list.”
Ryan smiled, “That’s quite an accomplishment in the short time you’ve been working on it.”
“Thanks, coming from you, that means a lot. It took some time for my leg to get back to normal. I’m looking forward to killing alot of the scum moving our way.” Ryan sighed and Maranda said, “What?” Ryan didn’t respond and Maranda’s eyes narrowed slightly, “You don’t think they’re scum?”
Ryan turned to her, “Most of them are former soldiers. They trained to defend our country against our enemies, and they were viewed as brave and honorable men back in the day before the Watcher’s suppression field.”
“They certainly aren’t now!”
“No, most aren’t. But consider this; when the suppression field was activated, every soldier on the planet was immediately put out of work; none of their weapons functioned anymore and they served no purpose. After a few months, the government ordered every Army, Naval, and Air Force units disbanded, and they were told to go and find employment elsewhere. They were also told that there would be no retirement pay; the government couldn’t afford it. Can you imagine how that might affect someone who gave their life to defend that government and now it turned its back on them.” Maranda stared at him and Ryan looked out at the moon and sighed, “Soldiers were never highly paid and barely made enough to support themselves. However, they received free housing and other benefits that made up for the difference. Now, all those benefits were erased along with their livelihood. Most of them didn’t have much in the way of savings and with millions of them thrust into the employment market, there was nowhere near enough jobs for them.”
“What did they do?”
Ryan turned to Maranda, “They rioted. They blamed their officers for not speaking up for them and preventing what happened. It didn’t take much to start them; one smartass officer telling them to grow up and get out. The soldiers went out and attacked every officer they could find; they found most of them at home.”
“Is that what happened to you?”
Ryan looked back out at the forest, “I wasn’t at home. I was in my office yelling at the base commander when the riots broke out. I had two calvary swords hanging on the wall; I took them down, strapped them on, and headed out into the melee.”
“What happened?”
“Well, none of them were willing to take me on with swords in my hands so they gave me a wide berth. I ordered them to stop but they were out of control…that’s when I saw the flames coming out of my house. I ran there and found it was burning to the ground with my family inside it.” Ryan was silent for a long moment and Maranda didn’t say anything. “The next morning, I found the bodies of my wife and three children inside it.” Ryan stared out at the moon and sighed, “I wanted so much to hate them for what they did…but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. They had been betrayed and their entire world had crashed in around them; they did the same thing to me.”
“What did you do?”
Ryan shrugged, “Fifteen of my junior officers gathered at my house. All of them were single and had survived the rioting because they had swords to defend themselves. I decided that I was not going to stay, and they asked if they could join me. I decided we were stronger together, so we loaded up some SUVs with supplies and left Fort Benning and headed west.
“You were a senior officer; you could have found a job.”
“Maranda, that alien had just told Earth that killing each other was no longer acceptable and the suppression field would remain until we stopped it. Now there are millions of former military who have trained extensively on killing other humans; would you have hired one regardless of their talent?”
“No, I suppose not. What happened?”
“As you’d expect, we were pretty much told to keep moving; no one wanted us in their community. We used our credit cards to withdraw funds from whatever savings we had to keep us fed and finally ended up outside Omaha, Nebraska. We stumbled into a camp of former soldiers that had gathered just off the interstate. We stopped and settled in. I told the others traveling with me that we would not reveal we were officers and we were welcomed by our fellow brothers in arms.”
Maranda saw Ryan’s expression and said, “Something happened.” Ryan nodded. After a moment of silence, Maranda asked softly, “What did you do?”
Ryan stared out at the forest and blew out a breath, “We arrived in the fall and soon winter set in. The camp had swollen to more than three thousand and we ran out of food. The chosen leader of the camp sent representatives out to the surrounding communities begging for food and all of them were rejected out of hand and sent back. Some of them were just killed on the spot. Cantwell called a meeting one night and put everything on the table. We were going to die if we didn’t find something to eat. Our options were to just disband the camp and it would be everyman for himself…or…we go to one of the close communities and take the food we needed to survive. Hell, we were soldiers! That really wasn’t an option. No one wanted to give up the friendships we developed, and fighting was what we had all trained to do. So, the next day, we loaded up in the vehicles we arrived in at the camp and headed toward the community…they were waiting for us.”
Ryan’s tone of voice changed, and she saw him staring out over the wall not appearing to see her. “We drove up to a grocery store and the moment we stepped out of our cars, they attacked us with everything from pitchforks, hand-scythes, make shift spears and spikes, and some of them were using bows and arrows. Even the women and children were armed and all of them rushed us.” Ryan paused and blew out a breath, “We didn’t go there to hurt anyone but now we were fighting for our lives and they weren’t interested in us telling them we intended no harm.”
Ryan was silent for a long moment and then said, “I ran from the grocery store and moved down a neighborhood street. A man suddenly came out from behind a tree with a long pitchfork and jabbed it forcefully at my chest. I managed to dodge his thrust and neither of us saw the young girl who had snuck up behind me with a wooden bat. The pitchfork hit her in the chest. She dropped the bat, and looked up at the man as she said, ‘DADDY, IT HURTS!’ She fell to the ground with blood pouring out of her chest. The man screamed at the top of his voice, pulled the pitchfork out of her chest and fell on her. A woman rushed out of the house next to us and screamed ‘APRIL!!’ She ran over and fell on the ground next to her husband as a soldier ran up, took the pitchfork off the ground, and killed the man and woman. He turned and ran back toward the grocery store.”
“Ryan, you didn’t kill that girl; it’s not your fault.”
Ryan turned to Maranda, “They were protecting what belonged to them. We were nothing more than robbers coming to steal from them. Even though I didn’t kill her it was my fault it happened.” Maranda stared at him and he said, “I finally headed back toward the grocery store and there were bodies littering the streets everywhere I looked. Many of them were ours but most of them were the people who lived in the community. I saw that the soldiers who survived were in a state of rage at being attacked. I looked around and thirteen of the men who came with me gathered around me, two of us didn’t make it. They, like me, were almost in a state of shock. I told them to get in the cars and follow me. We drove away from the site of the massacre and headed out of town. We stopped at a sporting goods store and we loaded up the SUVs with supplies. One of us went and found a U-Haul trailer and we put tents, survival clothing, bows and arrows, fishing gear, and everything else we might need. We found another trailer and we loaded all the hunting food from the store in it. We stopped at several convenience stores and loaded everything edible into the trailer. Then we drove up to the interstate and headed we
st.”
Ryan sighed and shook his head, “I can still hear April and her parent’s screams in my dreams; she was too young to die like that. She visits me often at night.” Maranda was silent and Ryan continued, “We stopped often and camped for a couple of weeks at a time. I could clearly see that all of us were broken. We were soldiers who trained to defend the citizens of our country and now we had gone out and killed them. It was extremely difficult to accept what we did and all of us agreed one night to never, ever, kill another person again. But all of us suffered from what we had done in that community. About six months later, Greg walked into the forest and didn’t come back. We found his body and saw that he could no longer live with what he had done. I think most of us envied him; his nightmares were finally over.”
“How did you end up here?” Maranda asked.
“We wandered west for about two years taking our time and living off the land. We eventually ran out of money and then out of fuel for the SUVs. We loaded up backpacks and continued walking west. One day we saw the cut in the forest and decided to see where it led; we found the city still under construction. All of us knew we had to warn them of what was going on out in the plains, so we put our weapons down and walked down to the construction site. The fear I saw in Chase’s face told me he already knew what was happening. He wanted to know what our demands were and all of us felt extreme pain by his comment. He called us killers, and we couldn’t disagree with him. We warned him and turned to go. He stopped us and asked if we would train them how to defend their city. We told him that we swore to never kill another person. We started to leave when Margarette ran out of the city and wrapped her arms around him; she was frightened we would kill him. It was seeing her holding on to him that convinced us to train them.”
“She’s a remarkable young lady,” Maranda remarked.
Ryan smiled, “And she’s better with a bow than I am. I think she’s quite capable of defending herself now.”
Maranda looked out over the wall, “Thank you.”
“For what?”
“I’ve spent my nights hoping for the chance to kill as many killers as possible. But now I see that they are a product of the times we are living in and survival has forced them to do evil things to live. I still feel hatred for them…but I think I can understand how they came to be what they are. I don’t feel quite the same about killing them.” Maranda looked up at Ryan, “I’ve heard there is a huge army of killers moving our way.” Ryan sighed and nodded. “Will we be able to stop them?”
“There’s a chance. However, it hinges on them using all of their forces to attack us in the initial assault.”
“Wouldn’t they do that anyway?”
“That will depend on who is leading them. They can do it with just half of their forces, and they may hold some out in reserve. If they do that, our chances aren’t good.”
“What are you planning?”
Ryan shook his head, “I have to make sure they don’t hold any out of the attack.”
“And just how are you going to make that happen?”
“Try to piss off the leader enough to where he won’t.” Maranda shook her head and knew Ryan was putting his life on the line again.
• • •
The wall was completed over the first level’s opening and the final blocks were in place to put in place at a moment’s notice. Kyle had done a good design and even a heavy tractor would have extreme difficulty moving them. Ryan had gone through the exercise numerous times with the civilians not trained to fight. Arie had worked with the archers and they knew their part of the plan. Finally, Ryan heard Jake yell from the hut, “RYAN! GET DOWN HERE!”
Ryan ran from the wall down to the hut and rushed up behind Jake. He saw a long line of heavy trucks moving west on the highway. Every truck had a large crown on their doors and the long line extended beyond the drone’s range. “If that’s not them, I’d hate to see them,” Jake stated in a dry tone.
“It’s them,” Ryan remarked. “Record what you see and let me know what they’ve bringing with them.” Chase came running in and Ryan stopped him, “Get all the archers to load up their pouches with food to last four days. Once that’s done, have the wall closed over the entrance into the mountain except for the last blocks. I suspect it will take them about three days to move into position so try to keep everyone calm. You know the drill.”
Chase glanced at the display and his face turned pale. He nodded and ran out of the hut. Ryan took a small walkie-talkie out of his pocket and said, “Are you reading me?”
“Loud and clear.”
“Good!” Ryan turned and headed toward the hundred Archers, “Alright, you know what has to be done in the event our plan doesn’t work out. Hit them and keep hitting them and run when necessary.”
Arie smiled, “We’ll be ready.”
“Do not move into position until I give you the signal. Tell the others that it will be about three days before they move into attack positions.”
Arie nodded and Ryan turned to run back to the drone hut when Maranda grabbed his arm, “Ryan, do not take a foolish risk!”
Ryan smiled at her, “Foolish is my middle name; how can I do otherwise?”
“Ryan, I’m serious! You are the heart of us and losing you will hurt all of us!” Ryan stared into her eyes and she added, “Especially me.” Ryan smiled, “I’ll do what I can.” He ran away toward the hut and Maranda knew he would do what he must. She turned and went inside the mountain to fill her pouch with food.
• • •
Ryan ran in the hut and Jake announced, “Leaving the trucks from the last attack on the road was a good idea.”
Ryan looked at the display and nodded slightly, “It won’t take them long to clear them off the road.”
“But it will slow them down,” Jake commented. “That’s an additional time we have ahead of us.”
Ryan snorted and watched numerous trucks unloading caterpillar cranes and three bulldozers. The operators were pretty good, but they were shocked when the gasoline in the trucks ignited and exploded damaging several caterpillars and one bull dozer. Ryan smiled; the trip wires Lenny set up worked flawlessly. Now they would be forced to examine the remaining trucks to remove the trip wires. Hell, they might have four days before they arrived.
• • •
The Officer stood in front of the King with his head bowed. “Now tell me why we’re being delayed,” the King demanded.
“There are fifty plus trucks on both sides of the road that are booby trapped to explode when moved. We’ve lost one of the bulldozers and three caterpillars.”
“And just how do you intend to resolve this issue?”
“Great King, whoever placed those tripwires put them inside the truck’s axles. The axles will have to be removed in order to disable them and that would leave the trucks immoveable. We’d be looking at a week to disarm them and put the axles back in place.”
The King stared at the officer and said, “Use one of the caterpillars extended arms to turn them over. Let them burn and then we’ll use the dozers to move them off the road.”
“Yes Sire.”
The Officer backed out of the opulent trailer and the King turned to his left, “You were right about this man being dangerous.”
The Woolly Man nodded, “I suspect there are a lot of traps ahead of us.”
The King turned back and looked at the image coming from the camera on the first trucks in the long convoy.
• • •
The next two days were a calamity of errors. The killers turned over the trucks and their gas tanks exploded. Once they were all on their sides, the cranes moved in to pull them off the road. Once they were moved, a secondary gas tank inside the trucks went off. The Killers had to wait another day for the trucks to stop burning. The King was initially infuriated by the delay but forced himself to be patient. The end result was only a matter of time and he had plenty of that. On the third day, the wreckage was pushed off the road away from the fore
st and the huge convoy moved forward. The bulldozers moved into the forest removing the trees that had grown over the years. They were capable operators and the slope leading up into the valley was coming along nicely, even better than the original slope the settlers had used. Ryan watched their progress from one of the drones and suddenly saw something, “Jake, zoom in on that large truck about one third of the way back from the front. The drone moved over the truck and the view zoomed in. A tall man in bronze colored armor stepped out of the trailer and right behind him another short figure emerged. Ryan blew out a breath, “Welcome back Woolly!” The Wooly Man walked behind the tall man and Ryan estimated the leader was about seven feet tall without the tall helmet he wore with wings that moved high over his head.
“He looks really pompous,” Jake remarked.
“I recognize the metal in his armor,” Ryan responded. “It’s extremely durable and light weight. He doesn’t scrimp on his equipment.”
“It looks like they’ll have the road completed by midday tomorrow,” Arie commented. Ryan nodded and walked off the wall. Arie turned to the archers gathered on the wall and shouted, “You’re dismissed until tomorrow morning!” The archers turned and began moving off the wall. Ryan turned to Arie and ordered, “I want our best archers in the center of the wall in the morning.” Arie’s eyebrows went up and Ryan shrugged, “I hope we can give him a demonstration.”
Ryan went to the drone hut and watched the progress being made by the killers. But for the loss of one of their bulldozers, they would have finished the road by early morning. He hoped the timing would help but it was all up to that leader now.
• • •
The bulldozers appeared at the tree line about one in the afternoon. They backed out of view and Ryan saw the Leader moving up the slope in a Cadillac Escalade truck. Right behind him a large eighteen-wheel truck with a box body moved up the slope. The thousands of soldiers hiked up the slope and fell into formations inside the tree line. Ryan moved out of the hut when he saw the leader standing outside the tree line staring down at the city with a pair of binoculars. He walked out to the door and shouted, “OPEN IT UP!” The door opened and Ryan walked out and headed toward the stream. He stopped at the edge and stared up at the leader several hundred yards away. Woolly said, “That’s the one that came out last time. I think he’s their leader or something.”
The Watcher II: The Time of Suppression Page 6
