by SD Tanner
Ted had refused to let Luke go anywhere without him, and he was standing on the low podium with him. Axe and TL were mingling with the crowd, which was only further proving to him his brother was a bit of a politician. Studying TL, who was chatting to an attractive woman, he wondered if Overwatch was with him now. Despite teasing him about having an imaginary friend, he was relieved to know there were more players in the game. The universe was far more complex than he’d ever imagined, and he felt ill equipped to do his part. They needed any help they could get, even if it was from some invisible guy called Overwatch.
Faith had clearly seen TL with the other woman, and she pushed her way through the crowd to be at his side. He still hadn’t warmed to her. There was an odd detachment to everything she did, and as he watched her stake her claim, TL looked across at him and caught his eye. Giving him an imperceptible nod, he indicated it was time to start the meeting.
Once everyone was seated, Axe took the stand as their newly appointed President. “There’s been a development and you need to hear Gears out. You won’t like what he’s got to say, but listen until he’s done.”
A murmur of worried voices floated around the room, and he stood in the middle at the front of the podium. Being large and naturally loud, he dismissed Axe’s offer of the mike. “The refinery town, air base, Marine supply base and Ranch were attacked simultaneously by hunters.”
Just as he expected, the room filled with the sound of panicked voices. Cries of concern reached his ears and he turned to TL appealing for help. Moving to stand by his side, TL muttered, “Not much of a lead in, Gears.”
“What else was there to say?” He asked incredulously.
TL held his hands up and called loudly, “Quiet!” Once the voices subsided, he said firmly, “My brother always leads with the worst news. The bad news is we lost four hundred people, but we defeated them and didn’t lose the bases. The bulk of the people survived. The good news is this version of the virus infects slower, and not all of the people turned into mindless killers. Half of them are willing to defend us and they’re forming an army.”
Loud cries of disagreement rippled across the room. Clearly, no one was convinced by TL’s last statement.
“How can you say they’re not all bad?” A voice cried. “They’re killers of all life and they almost destroyed everything.”
Axe was standing on the other side of him, and he raised his hand. “They did, but that doesn’t mean they’re the same. Believe me, they’re not and you need to change how you see them.”
“Bullshit!” A man declared loudly. Turning to face the room, he added confidently, “I need to get back to my town and warn them. We need to get ready to defend ourselves.” He spun around to face Gears. “And where’s our army? We’ve been sending people and supplies to your bases, so you need to give us the protection we’ve paid for.”
It’d only been weeks since people and weapons had started arriving at the Marine supply base, and Pax and Ted hadn’t had time to organize anything, much less do any serious training. He wondered just how they thought an army worked. It wasn’t simply a matter of handing out guns and pointing people in the right direction. There was a process to deliver a capable soldier, and they hadn’t had enough time to follow it.
Irritation surged through him, and he was about to explain the realities of military training methods when TL spoke. “It doesn’t work like that. We don’t have all the people yet, and they have to be trained. That takes time, otherwise they’ll be killed just as easily as a civvie.”
“Oh, so we sent you people and weapons, but now we need the army we helped you build, you’re saying you can’t help us?” The man replied angrily.
Clearly the town leaders didn’t trust him and he’d have little chance of convincing them to move to Florida. He, Axe and TL had spoken about how they would persuade the towns, but none of them really knew how it would play out, and so far, it wasn’t going well. While he watched the growing anger in the group, the wide double doors opened at the back of the meeting room. Standing in the gap were Ip, Benny, Lucie and Luke. The town leaders were always armed, and he wondered what Ip was thinking by showing them the hunters with her. Swinging his gun into firing position, he prepared to defend them.
“Oh shit!”
“Hunters!”
Almost as a single movement, eighty guns were immediately pointed at Ip, Benny, Lucie and Luke. Ted had pulled his own weapon into firing position, and he asked urgently, “What the hell is she doing?”
Before anyone had a chance to fire, the room disintegrated and the walls began to drip with blood. The floor became slippery and their chairs disappeared, only to be replaced by a rocky surface. Behind Ip, another group of faces appeared that pushed their way past them and into the room. These people wore tattered clothes and were gaunt with hollowed eyes. Slowly filing into the room, they formed a group of fifty or more, and stood between Ip and the town leaders. Finally, a thin man detached from the group and he realized he was the same man who’d spoken earlier, only he was skinnier, greyer and more desperate looking. The wrecked-looking man walked over to his healthier self and studied him sadly.
Raising a thin, shaking hand, the man’s eyes filled with unshed tears. “Don’t make this mistake.”
The healthier version of the man looked taken aback at the sight of himself. “What do you mean?”
“This is when we made the wrong choice.”
Glancing past his greyer self, the man looked at the group in horror. “Who are these people?”
The gaunt man replied, “The people you let down.”
Seeming lost in thought, the man came to a decision, and then aimed his weapon at the disheveled group. Worried he might fire through them and hit his own people, he aimed his weapon at the man. “Stand down, asshole.”
The lost looking people disappeared, and the meeting room was restored, with only Ip, Benny, Lucie and Luke remaining in the doorway. Without turning, the man replied, “Are you gonna shoot me in the back?”
“Not just him,” TL replied sternly.
Now he, Ted and TL had the man in their gunsights and people were pulling away from him. Very quickly, the man was left standing alone in the middle of the room with his gun trained on Ip. Without taking his eyes from the man, he said, “The hunters with my wife are friendlies. They’ve formed an army to fight the killer hunters. You need to make room for ‘em, they’re not your enemy and they’ll help you. I can’t defend you in your small towns. I don’t have the people, the fuel or the weapons. You need to move to Florida where we’ll set up a perimeter to keep ya safe. Anyone who doesn’t want to join us can stay the hell away. I won’t be makin’ you move there, but it’s the only way I can protect you. And we have another and even bigger problem we’re trying to solve. The gates to hell are open and the dead are walkin’ the earth again. I don’t have a solution for that yet.”
A voice he knew well called out from the crowd. “Good grief, Gears, do you really think the best way to convince people to do anything is by pointing a gun at them?” Standing on a chair, Kat said loudly, “You need to trust this man. He has no manners whatsoever, but he did a good job of protecting us from the hunters last time. I know that because I was his base administrator, and I had over one hundred thousand people under my care.”
When everyone stared at her dumbly, and as if she was scolding naughty children, she added, “All of you need to put your weapons down right now. We don’t have time for this sort of thing. There’s a lot to do to move you all.” With a big smile, she added warmly, “Florida is lovely. There are theme parks there. We could get them working again.”
Her warm and welcoming nature, combined with her steeliness, took the tension from the moment. The man lowered his gun and he shook his head. “I don’t agree with you, ma’am, but I don’t have to join you either.” Looking around the room, he added, “Go your own way. I’ll take care of my own.” With that comment, the man weaved his way through the collection of c
hairs until he reached the large double doors, and the hunters moved aside to let him pass.
No one else in the room moved, but once the man left, they began to talk quietly. Over the murmur of their voices, he shouted, “If these hunters were anything like the others then you’d all be dead by now.”
His words must have resonated, and with fearful glances over their shoulders at the hunters still standing in the doorway, they slowly took their seats. He nodded to Ip, and she led Benny, Lucie and Luke down the center aisle to the podium.
Once they were standing on the podium next to him, he said, “The world has changed, but the problem remains the same.”
“What is the problem?” A woman asked.
“Man is his own problem. The Devil took advantage of the outbreak and tried to take control. It was easier to defeat him last time. He made himself a target, but this time he’s pullin’ strings, and we don’t know how or through who. Not that it matters. People are collaboratin’ with the Devil to harm their own kind. It makes no sense, but it never did. Man can be his own worst enemy.”
“Do you think there really is a Devil?” The woman asked.
Trying to hide his frustration, he replied loudly, “My wife just took you to hell. Who do ya think runs the place?”
“So, you’re saying if we move to Florida then you can keep us safe from all of this?” A man asked plaintively.
“I’ll do my best. We’ll put up a perimeter and have a Forward Operating Base to keep the refinery safe. If you don’t move, then you’ll be on your own to deal with the hunters, and whatever else is escapin’ from the gates to hell in the UK.”
Kat was still standing on her chair. “You don’t want to ignore this man. If it weren’t for Gears and his brothers, I’d already be dead. If he says hell is coming then it really is. I have three children now, plus I’m an Aunt to many more. I’ll be moving all of them to his base in Florida.”
Silence reigned and he waited to see what they would decide to do. He didn’t have long to wait before the woman spoke again. “What are we going to call Florida? I mean it’s not Florida anymore, is it?”
Her question finally gave the group something they could cope with, and the room filled with excited chatter.
“Wally World.”
“Washington.”
“Little Eden.”
“Little America.”
With the last loudly shouted suggestion the room fell silent, and Axe grinned at the group. “Little America it is.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX: Jack
“How the hell are we gonna secure sixty odd miles?” Marcus asked, while he surveyed the burgeoning forest below them.
The bird was flying low and slow from one shore to the next. If they could find a way to build a barrier and guard it, then Florida would be cut off from the rest of the country. Pax thought they could use the St Johns, Santa Fe and Suwannee rivers to form part of the perimeter, which meant they’d need a sixty-five mile land barrier, but the forest was so thick and overwhelming, the distance wasn’t even their greatest challenge. Clearing a strip of land to act as the land perimeter would be difficult enough.
“How long have we got to get this set up?” He asked Pax.
“Not long. Gears reckons they’ll be moving people in pretty much straight away. Kat showed up at the last meeting of the Council of Eden. She’s already got shooters surveying the area to work out how many people we can move into the existing towns and cities.”
“How many people are there?”
“At least half a million, but there’s plenty of land. They can farm the land and keep animals, plus it’s surrounded by sea on three sides. Pop’s takin’ a look at the land now. Engineers are working out how they can use existing dams to supply water and get the power workin’. They might be able to get a fully functioning environment with water, electricity and sanitation.” Glancing at him, he added, “Gerry says he might even be able to get comms workin’ across the region. He reckons that before we had satellites, we used wire. No one pulled it out jus’ ‘cos we went wireless and it’s still underground.”
It sounded almost too good to be true, but if they could get a region working, he suspected more people might join them. “What are the growth projections? You know, how many people do we think will join us once it’s working?”
“Whatdaya mean?”
“If we can get even part of the country working like it used to, I’m sure a lot more people will show up.”
“I dunno how many people lived in the area before the outbreak, but I’m guessin’ it could feed and support at least a million or so.”
Diesel and Axe were looking out of the other door. Through his headsets, he heard Diesel’s voice. “Originally Florida could rely on the rest of the country for food and goods, but that won’t be true anymore, and it’ll have to become fully self-sufficient. It means we’ll need manufacturing, education, maintenance of roads and buildings, agriculture, waste management, and so on.”
Glancing across the platform, he gave Diesel and appraising look. “Just what did you do before the end of the world?”
Axe was sitting next to Diesel and he grinned at him. “Diesel was a City Manager for Springfield, Missouri.” Flicking his thumb at Diesel, he added, “This guy really outta be the President, not me.”
Diesel replied warmly, “It doesn’t work like that. You’re the guy who built an army and challenged the towns. You’ve got the vision and the town leaders trust you. I’m happy to support you.”
Pax rolled his eyes. “When you two have finished your group hug, we’ve got problems to solve.” Waving his hand at the forest, he added, “Like how the hell we secure your new empire.”
Concentrating on the ground below, all he could see was an impossible need. The trees were clumped together so tightly no houses or even roads were visible. The only road intact was the one leading out of the Marine supply base, but even it disintegrated into little more than a one lane track less than a mile from the base. Despite the challenge, he was grateful they wouldn’t need to live in the stuffy little containers at the base anymore. Now he was with Tilly, he found the containers too confining and they preferred to spend their time at the air base. They might only have a tiny room there, but at least it wasn’t a metal box.
One thought led to the next, and Tilly had said she was keen to have some kids with him. After being wounded in combat, he’d pretty much ruled out the idea of having a family. He’d never thought a man with one arm was in a position to support one. Tilly was changing his mind and he wondered if he could find them a house in Florida. She’d like that and would be even keener to get on with making babies. Despite the recent return of the hunters, he was feeling more optimistic about his future than he had in a very long time.
He hadn’t realized he was smiling to himself when Pax asked, “Whatcha grinnin’ at?”
“I was just thinking how good it’ll be not living in those containers. I kinda got used to the comforts of living on the island, and I can’t say I enjoy living at the base.”
“Yeah, no one’s gonna wanna live in those if they can get a house with some land.” Sighing, Pax added, “Damn, it was a lotta work to move ‘em there.”
He and Pax looked at one another, and they then both broke into wide smiles. “You thinkin’ what I’m thinkin’?” Pax asked.
“Well, if you’re thinking we could use the containers as a barrier, then yeah.”
Pax laughed and replied enthusiastically, “We can line ‘em up, end to end. They’re an instant barrier, plus they’re heavy enough to crush the forest under it. It’ll mean we don’t hafta clear the land.”
He nodded, equally as keen. “We’ll need to knock down the trees in the way, but that’s all we’ll have to do.”
“And if we keep the solar panels working, they can supply their own power.”
“Plus we can stack some of them to create sentry points. If they’re powered then Gerry can get the comms working and the sentries can stay
in contact.”
“Yep, and we can have the same set up as the Naval base. We’ll keep a coupla trucks next to the gates, and they can move them when we need ‘em open.”
Suddenly concerned, he asked, “Do we have enough containers?”
“Dunno, but between all the old bases, we’ve got thousands of ‘em. If we don’t have enough, we’ve certainly got enough to make a very good start on creatin’ a barrier. We can also use T-walls and HESCOs to create walls. That's what the FOBs used. If we do a mix of walls and containers, we can make the containers we've got stretch. Plus we can put some of the containers along the rivers we’re using as a barrier to act as sentry points. We might even electrify part of the perimeter so it can work as a warning system when we’ve been breached.”
“How long do you think it’ll take to set it up?”
Pax stared at the passing ground thoughtfully. “We’ve moved the containers before, but we did it by sea. I guess if we use all the trucks with cranes, plus airlift where we need to, it’ll take at least a coupla months or more.”
“Don’t forget we’re gonna need some heavy duty vehicles to knock down trees.”
“Yeah, make it three months providin’ we can get the manpower.”
“Resources won’t be a problem,” Axe said confidently. “We have the support of the towns now and they’re keen to move. The arrival of the hunters really cinched the deal.”
“I heard Ip gave ya’ll a taste of hell,” Pax replied dourly.
“Yeah, she does love to do that,” Axe said happily. “We can always rely on her to remind us of the bigger picture, but I don’t think that’s what did it.”
“Whatdaya think got ‘em?”
“The hunters,” Diesel replied solemnly. “The hunters are back and that means Eden is lost.”
“How do ya figure that?”
“They signaled the end last time and they have again.”
