by J. G. Martin
“The guards came over and tried to sort it out. Once they determined that I wasn’t really harmed they told the truckers to leave and for me to stay away from them. They were more interested in dispersing everyone and continuing their patrols than helping me.”
He chuckled. “Business before anything else. Nice to see nothing has changed.”
“What now?” She asked.
“We leave early in the morning, head over to the drop point, and then wait for the fun to begin.” He replied.
Chapter 5
June 17, 2029
Roadhouse East of Tallahassee
They slept in the truck and left at first light. The truck and the supplies were too valuable to leave unattended and Derek wanted to be gone well before the truckers discovered their loads were compromised. He imagined their reactions as they realized that their intended recipients would be very unhappy with the cargo. Hopefully they would still drop the trailers and then run instead of chickening out and failing to deliver. But he was counting on the Hauler’s Guild reputation of always delivering. They could always say something happened to the trailers after they left.
After about an hour Rora got bored. “I know you said you inadvertently created the Reapers, but how did they manage to cause so much destruction? Why didn’t the other survivors band together and wipe them out? And why didn’t they die out?”
Derek sighed; he might as well tell her the whole story. “The European army that became the Reapers mostly consisted of conscripts taken from the poorest nations in the European Union. They were poor, uneducated, and many were criminals. The E.U. government was trying to get rid of them as much as they were trying to seize control of American assets. Only the officers were professional soldiers and even they were the dregs of the E.U. military. Trucks swept through Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia, Albania, Croatia, Greece, Slovenia, Poland, the Baltic states, and the former East Germany and collected these men. They also rounded up all the surviving Muslim males in Belgium, The Netherlands, Luxembourg, France, Spain, and Scandinavia.”
“Didn’t they resist?” Rora asked.
“Not really. Most of them were in such bad shape this was actually a step up. And their families were promised food for their participation. You have to understand that Europe was in even worse shape than we were. Food was in extremely short supply and the weather was much more extreme. They were desperate. The situation here wasn’t much better. I think the troops were probably about ready to revolt when I wiped out their command structure and supplies. With that gone they were on their own and they became even more desperate. Desperate men do desperate things.”
Rora nodded. “So that’s when they started eating people?”
“Not at first. They started raiding the surrounding areas for food and supplies, which they found at first. The original officers had been smart and they had mixed the ethnic groups up amongst the battalions, but after the command staff was killed they began to separate themselves again. Each ethnic group formed their own band of troops and the Muslims formed their own group based on religion and not nationality. There was some conflict over who got the heavy equipment like the armored personnel carriers but that was sorted out quickly.”
“Why did the Muslims form their own group?”
“Religion was a powerful motivating and connecting force before the Collapse. Not so much anymore. The other groups were primarily Catholics but that religion had been dying for decades and no longer held the same bonds. The bands stuck together for the most part because they were all Europeans in a strange land. They raided the surrounding areas until they had been picked clean. Starving and increasingly desperate they started eating the survivors they captured. This didn’t go over well with the Muslim band and they tried to stop it.”
“Why did they care? Weren’t they just as hungry?”
Derek laughed. “Well…cooking flesh smells like burnt pork and the Muslims don’t eat pork for religious reasons. They decided it was unclean, which it is, and they started killing those who did it. That turned the other bands against them and caused a small war within the Reapers. Even though the Muslims were the largest band, they were still outnumbered by the others and they were wiped out. At this point the bands knew they needed to find more food so they split into two groups. One headed north and the other headed south. They went towards the largest remaining cities because they had the most people, therefore the most food.”
“Ewww!” Rora exclaimed.
“Yeah, the inhabitants of those cities weren’t too happy either. Disorganized and outgunned they weren’t much of a match for the marauding Reapers. But the Reapers took losses too and finally realized that they had a finite number of men. Eventually they would all end up dead. So they started taking in survivors to replenish their numbers. Only those of the same ethnic background could join their band, although they allowed some women in to breed children with. America was so multicultural that they didn’t have as much trouble finding recruits as you would think. And as word spread of that option, many flocked to join them. At this point they became more tribal. Adopting the colors and symbols of their homelands and becoming almost xenophobic towards others not of their ethnicity. The bands became increasingly antagonistic towards each other and eventually fractured completely along tribal ethnic lines. They carved up the remainder of the East Coast into territories which they guard jealously against each other. The only time in the past they have banded back together is when outsiders campaign against them. They maintain small settlements for their women and children but spend most of their time out raiding and patrolling. The rumor is that they have people farms to supply food.”
“That is gross! Why doesn’t the U.S.T.G. or someone else get rid of them?” Rora asked.
“For one thing there are a lot of them and they do have some military hardware. But I think mainly, the U.S.T.G. has no current need for the territory they control and they serve as a useful bogeyman to scare their citizens with. The C.C.A. would love to get rid of them since the Reapers do pose a serious threat, but they haven’t been organized enough to make that happen. Even the group we disrupted wasn’t all of them. It was a large number of them, but based on the colors and number of trucks it was probably only the southern tribes. And not even all of them.”
Rora sat in quiet contemplation after that. She was considering what made people eat other people and how desperate they must have been. Derek shared her thoughts and he wondered what might have been if he had never detonated that bomb in Savannah. But he had, and he had to live with the consequences. If he ever had a chance, he would wipe out the Reapers and fix that mistake.
They arrived near the drop off point after a roughly four hour drive. Derek scouted out a good vantage point to watch the trailers from and parked the truck. They camouflaged the truck with brush and weeds and settled in to wait. Using binoculars Rora had found in the supplies, they kept an eye on the parked trailers. A few hours later the new trucks appeared and pulled into the gravel drop off point. From the frantic efforts of the Hauler’s they could tell that the truckers knew the load was spoiled and were eager to get the hell out of there. They detached the new trailers and hooked up the old ones in record time. Derek and Rora could hear the squeal of tires and the roar of the diesel engines as the truckers rushed back out.
Derek and Rora shared a quick glance and smiled. Everything was going exactly as planned. Now they just had to wait for the Reapers to show up. It didn’t take long. They must have been watching as well because they drove up about fifteen minutes later. There was one vehicle from each tribe. The garishly painted technicals rolled in slowly and parked behind the trailers. These must be the scouts, larger transport vehicles would probably show up after they determined it was safe to unload the bodies.
Reapers got out and opened the trailers to check their load. It didn’t take long for them to figure out there was a problem. Based on the wild gestures and their body language, Derek could tell they had discovered that the me
at had spoiled sitting in a hot truck for five hours. It only got crazier when the larger group realized that not all of the loads were spoiled. He could tell the two tribes whose trucks still worked were trying to play along, but the others noticed. Pushing started amongst the cannibals and escalated quickly into a brawl. Sunlight glinted off the blades as knifes were pulled and both Derek and Rora could see flashes of gunfire as the Reapers started fighting over the unspoiled meat.
A running gun battle evolved around the trailers and the parked technicals. On one side were the two tribes that had gotten working trailers and the other tribes were trying to wipe them out and take their loads. They had the two tribes pinned down around the working trailers. Plenty of Reapers were already down and the battle looked to be almost over when more vehicles arrived in a cloud of dust. All sides must have called for reinforcements.
Derek watched in glee as his most hated enemies battled amongst themselves. Not only was his plan working, this was going to whittle down the number of Reapers significantly. That would be a huge victory in and of itself. He felt responsible for their creation and the ensuing destruction and chaos; and this would help mitigate that some going forward.
Both he and Rora flinched as one of the technicals exploded in a giant fireball. The heavier and slower military vehicles the Reapers possessed had arrived. The battle became a massacre as the heavier weapons like the ZSU anti-aircraft guns and armored cars joined the fight. Tracer fire from the heavy weapons raged across the battlefield leaving white streaks. Missiles and grenades flew in all directions. No weapon was going to go unused in this fight. Lightly armored technicals blew apart and burned as the various tribes fired at each other. Bodies littered the ground all around the drop point. At least a hundred Reapers lay dead, probably more. Explosions rocked the combatants and fires burned out of control, but they fought on like crazed dogs.
It seemed like the sides changed frequently, any time one tribe gained the upper hand their allies turned on them. More vehicles continued to arrive and added their contribution to the chaos. Heavy black smoke started to obscure the battlefield, hiding much of the battle from the watching Derek and Rora. Reluctantly Derek started the engine and began to pull away. He was really enjoying the show, but their primary mission was to get in to NASA. Now that they had created the diversion, it was time to go.
He gunned the engine and the raced away from the battle towards the entrance to the NASA complex formerly known as Cape Canaveral. As they approached they could see that the Reaper camps surrounding the complex were empty and showed signs of fighting. Once word had reached the camps of the battle; they must have turned on each other right then and there. The remnants of the tents and shelters burned slowly and there were dead bodies scattered around. Some of them appeared to have been hacked to pieces. Derek smiled widely as they passed by. Rora gave him an odd glance but said nothing.
As they neared the main gate entrance, he suddenly slammed on the brakes and the truck skidded to a halt. Ahead of them were the burnt out ruins of several Reaper technicals. They blocked the road to the entrance.
“Why did you stop?” Rora demanded.
“Those vehicles weren’t damaged in the recent fighting. It happened a while ago and from their positions it looks like they were attacking the complex.”
“So?”
“So I don’t want to be blown up by whatever got them.”
“But we aren’t Reapers.”
“Yeah, but they don’t know that. Even though this is obviously not a Reaper vehicle, they might think it’s a trick and blow us up just to be sure. I’m guessing they have a minefield and probably some sort of defense guns. Otherwise the Reapers would have overrun them by now.”
“That makes sense, so what do we do? The Reapers will eventually come back.”
“I know. I think we need to go on foot and then we can hopefully come back for the vehicle. Grab everything you can carry and let’s hustle to the gate.”
“You’re going to lose another vehicle aren’t you?” She said with a smirk.
He gave her a look that made her drop the smirk quickly and try to look contrite. Unfortunately she was right. If the Reapers came back they would take the vehicle and supplies or possibly just blow it up since they would be crazy with bloodlust. He shook his head and grabbed as much as he could carry.
“Follow my footsteps exactly.” He ordered her.
Chapter 6
June 17, 2029
Entrance to NASA Complex
He moved swiftly down the road to the entrance gate avoiding the slightly raised ground that concealed the mines. Rora followed carefully behind him. He heard her gasp, which indicated she probably almost stepped on a mine, but he couldn’t look back or he would risk a misstep himself. The lack of an explosion was a good sign she was okay. Despite his pace, the minefield was deep and it took them almost ten minutes to reach the gate.
As they reached the gate automated gun turrets came to life and swung their guns to bear on the pair. The turrets stood over twelve feet high allowing them a clear field of fire over the gate. Heavily armored they contained video cameras for aiming and what looked like twin 20mm auto-cannons for vehicles and a minigun for people. Derek froze as they zeroed in on him and he hoped that Rora did the same.
“Don’t shoot! We aren’t Reapers!” He screamed.
He could see the video cameras zooming and refocusing on him as the people inside scoped him out. An agonizing silence hung for a few minutes as he assumed the people inside were debating what to do. He felt Rora come up next to him and saw the cameras move again.
“Who are you and what do you want?” A tinny male voice finally asked from a speaker in the turrets.
“My name is Derek Storm and I was instructed by Dr. Carter to bring his daughter here after he died. You need to let us in before the Reapers come back.”
“How do we know you aren’t working for them and trying to get us to open the gate?”
“Do we look like Reapers?”
“You can’t be too careful these days.” The man replied sarcastically.
Derek couldn’t blame them. They were following Rule #10, always watch your back. “Look. We sabotaged the trucks supplying the Reapers with bodies and triggered a massive firefight. But they will probably have a winner shortly and come back for the rest of their gear. You have to let us in.”
“If that’s true, thanks for cutting their numbers; but we can’t take a chance. Sorry.”
Derek was about to start screaming at the man when Rora took a small step forward and said something in a foreign language he couldn’t even identify. There was a moment of silence and then he heard the gate click open and the turrets swiveled back to their rest position.
“What the hell was that?” He demanded.
“Something my father taught me. He said to say it when we needed help the most.” She explained.
He knew she was again holding something back, but he wasn’t sure what. There was something slightly off about the girl that had become more and more obvious. He just couldn’t put his finger on exactly what it was. She knew things that she shouldn’t and she learned things in the blink of an eye just from watching. There was much more to her than some simple girl. But he didn’t have time to worry about that. In the distance he could hear the engines of the returning Reaper vehicles. The winners would be returning to get their spoils.
“What about the truck? It’s got valuable supplies.” He called out to the man inside.
“No time. Get inside before we reactivate the turrets.”
Derek growled in frustration. Another vehicle lost. This was becoming a horrible pattern, and this one had a ton of gear and supplies. He started to argue when the truck blew apart under fire from an approaching armored car. The resulting fireball was increased by all the extra fuel they had been carrying. The heat and force of the blast were enough to knock Rora down. He hauled her to her feet and they ran for the gate. It was a very heavy steel gate that had been
opened just enough for them to squeeze inside. They made it inside as the turrets began to fire on the onrushing Reaper vehicles.
As the gate closed behind them, Derek could see a glimpse of the Reapers pulling up just short of the minefield and then retreating from the withering fire of the turrets. The complexes defenses were substantial and had obviously kept the Reapers out all this time, but he didn’t remember NASA having anything like this when he had been in the U.S. military. Mostly because NASA had been largely shut down and didn’t have anything worth protecting to justify such measures. Who had built them and what were they protecting?
They had started walking down the road inside the gate when a small armored golf cart like vehicle pulled up to them. An older man with close cropped salt and pepper hair and dressed in what looked like U.S. Air Force BDUs was driving. He had an M-4 Carbine on the seat next to him and had body armor over his uniform. The stripes on his shoulder indicated he was a sergeant, but he had no other indications of what service he was in.
The man smiled at them. “Hop in. I’ll take you to HQ.”
Derek eyed him suspiciously. “Who are you and what branch of the service are you in?”
The man laughed. “Where are my manners? Sergeant August Tanner at your service. My friends call me Augie.”
“And what are you a sergeant in?” Derek asked coldly.
The man laughed again. “I’m sure you have lots of questions, but they will all be answered at HQ. Come on, let’s go.”
Rora gave Derek a look that said, “Shut up and let’s go, you’re being a jerk.”, and she hopped into the back seat. He didn’t like this, but he got on anyway. The sergeant floored the accelerator and they raced back the way the vehicle had come. The road was in surprisingly good shape and the grounds along it looked neatly tended. As they drove further away from the gate, they could see the buildings of the main complex in the distance. But most surprisingly, they came upon other signs of habitation first.
