by SD Tanner
“Nothing doing out here.”
As if to dispute his assertion, the sound of rapid gunfire reached his ears again, only now it was closer. He couldn’t hear any of the bullets landing in the water or against the ship, making him wonder what they were shooting at. Despite his better judgment, he hoped whatever it was would give him a reason to delay their departure. He couldn’t explain why, but he still believed leaving the mainland was wrong, and would choose to stay for even the slightest of reasons.
“Do you want me to stop?” The captain asked.
Stopping in the line of fire was never a good idea and the captain’s question made him sigh to himself. “No.”
The line of boats was being led by the other supply ship and his was in the rear. They were already making their way onto the open water and his own ship was just a few minutes from leaving the estuary.
“Whatdaya think is going on out there?” Spike asked.
“I dunno, but I’m not sure they’re shooting at us.”
“What if it’s another group arriving and they’re trying to get us to hold up for ‘em.”
Spike clearly carried the same hope he did and he replied dryly, “Then they’re wasting ammo and they should have fired a flare.”
“Maybe they don’t have a flare.”
Before he could deliver a caustic reply, a flare fired high in the sky and arced into the sea. Someone was definitely trying to get his attention and he hesitated. They already had eight hundred people and barely enough supplies to feed them once they reached the island. All that was left on the mainland were more survivors that he couldn’t take care of. Although he’d been taught never to walk away from anyone in need, he couldn’t see any other option that didn’t result in everyone dying, including the civilians and children already under his care. The people that were trying to get his attention were probably only more survivors looking to hitch a ride.
Regardless of whoever they were, he still used them as an excuse to hesitate. They’d had enough sense to use their weapons to get his attention and to fire a flare. “Halt the ship. We’ll catch them up later.” Beyond twenty-five miles, they would lose radio contact with the lead supply ship and he added, “Tell the lead ship to stay within range.”
“What are we gonna do?” Spike asked.
He had no plan, and swinging himself back inside the wheelhouse, he grabbed his Beowulf AR-15. “Let’s see what they want.”
“Maybe we should start with who are they first,” Spike replied, as he grabbed his own weapon.
The captain slowly turned the ship to face the shore as two trucks parked next to the far end of the docks. One was a MaxxPro and the other was an armored Hummer. Riding on the top of each truck were several people and he couldn’t understand what they were wearing. While they continued to watch, three of them jumped from the truck and made their way along the pier until they were standing by the edge of the water.
Now able to see them clearly, he still didn’t understand what he was looking at. They were wearing heavy looking armor and full-face helmets. Each was carrying a large gun shaped weapon, and although he couldn’t see their eyes, they stood side-by-side as if they were watching the ship.
“What the hell are they?” Spike asked in disbelief. “Do you think they’re the aliens?”
Giving Spike an appalled look and sounding disgusted, he asked, “Why would you think that?”
As if in answer to Spike’s idiotic question, one of the armored men pulled his helmet from his head, revealing a military style haircut and a well-defined and human face. His voice finally reached his ears.
“We need to talk.”
Standing up and walking to the bow of the boat, he called, “You don’t say.”
After radioing the lead ship to wait, it took a further twenty minutes for the captain to dock the ship at the main pier. He and Spike tried to guess what the men were, but neither had an answer that made any sense. When he finally made it back onto land, three of the armored soldiers had removed their helmets, while the other three had formed a perimeter around the far end of the dock. With their weapons, transport vehicles and stance, he guessed they were military, but he wasn’t sure which service they came from.
Walking across to the man who’d first spoken, he said, “I’m Major James Hood with the Fifth Marine Regiment, but people here just call me Hood.”
“I’m Leon.” With a flick of his head, he added, “This is Tuck and Tank. Trigger, Lexie and Ally are watching out for the critters. Me and the guys are army, well, we were.”
Unsure what to ask next, he drawled, “Okaaay.”
“Now we’re with an outfit called CaliTech and they designed this gear for the army.”
He’d never heard of the company and nor did he recognize their armor and weapons. “I didn’t know you guys had that kinda technology.”
Leon shook his head. “No one seems to have known about it.”
Spike was studying their weapons curiously. “What kinda guns are they?”
Holding up the heavy looking gun, Leon replied, “This is a laser. They call it a Hellfire.”
“Get out,” Spike replied in disbelief.
Returning to stare steadily at him, Leon said, “We’ve got a thousand sets of gear just like this and we’re looking for an army to wear them.”
Shaking his head, he replied in disgust, “You’ve gotta be shitting me. What in the hell are you gonna do with an army of you guys? Every city is under guard. There’s critters below ground and in the air. The country is fucked.”
The largest of the three men had a closely shaved head and a nose that had clearly been broken more than once. Fixing him with a stern look, Tank said bluntly, “There’s a war on. Just where in the hell do you think you’re going?”
He and Spike looked at one another and he knew what he was thinking. Neither of them had wanted to leave and they had five hundred men and women capable of fighting. Even so, they didn’t know who these guys were, and before he brought his people back to shore, he wanted to know more about this so-called CaliTech.
Still looking for any excuse to delay leaving, he returned Tank’s aggressive glare. “We need to talk.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE: Mousetrap (Steve)
A line of vehicles was snaking its way along the road towards the wall. Sitting on the top of the one in lead and last in line were several of the metal men and between them were four more trucks. The men and women inside of the vehicles were dressed in the uniforms. He now knew that’s what their human fighters wore.
The metal men were doing something and his weapon stealthily moved closer to the gate. Using his weapons to watch the wall had cost him many of them, but they were dispensable. The weapons only served a purpose and all of them would be disengaged once they were no longer needed. They’d sat patiently so he could observe the wall and he’d been moving more of his weapons closer to the site. He’d learned the metal men were able to see his weapons from a distance, so they were far enough away for them not to be noticed.
Flattening itself to the ground, his weapon used the foliage as cover while it moved closer to the vehicles. They had stopped and the metal men were jumping from the roofs of the vehicles, flicking their visors up as they did and revealing their human faces.
“This is it?” One of the fighters asked.
“It’s more impressive inside,” a metal man replied.
“Who are all the people?”
“Just people who’ve chosen to join us. Some of them were preppers, but their shelters aren’t safe anymore, and we rescued some of these people from the towns and cities.”
“How’s it any safer here?”
“I’m not sure that it is, but it’s better than nothing.”
“So, this is where my army will live?”
“No, you’ll be based behind the walls. We need to train you to use the gear.”
Using one of his many minds inside of him to analyze their words, he understood they were planning to bring more
fighters to their wall. It would mean there would be more of the metal men to resist his dominance. He needed to act.
Before he could listen further, a smaller metal body appeared in front of his weapon. Reaching down, it grabbed it by its neck and he saw no more.
Now he knew the ones wearing the patterned clothing were their fighters, he searched his weapons for more of them. Finally, he found one standing alone next to a vehicle. He didn’t know where this fighter was and it didn’t matter. This mind would know what he needed to learn. Using one of his weapons, he snatched it from the ground and flew high into the sky with it. It would join his other minds, giving him the knowledge he needed to suppress the fighters.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX: Hail Mary (Jo)
Dunk’s office overlooked the front gates of CaliTech and she could see many tents clustered beyond their walls. Camper vans and food trucks were dotted along the road and people were milling around, clearly taking what they needed to survive. She’d worked hard to help the preppers settle into what she hoped would be temporary accommodation. At least the weather was friendly, even if the world around them wasn’t.
People trained to wear the Navigator visors, but unable to use the gear were standing on top of the roof above her scanning the area for critters. Anyone could turn and the spider shed was already full. Rather than locking them up, the new policy was to shoot them. It was a brutal solution that caused a lot of distress, but she and Bill had agreed that there were too many vulnerable people surrounding CaliTech to do anything else.
Hood’s army had joined them a few days earlier, and they’d pitched their own tents around the buildings behind the wall. Bill intended to train most of them to use the gear and he wanted to keep them close. Hood had told the civilians in his group to sail to an island, but many had elected to follow the troops to CaliTech. All of their vehicles were parked along the inside walls, adding to the barrier that protected the site.
Today she was waiting for Ark, Bill, Leon, Hood, Donna and Stax to join her in Dunk’s office. Bill was excited that they’d finally found people to train as a Navigator army and he wanted to start work immediately. He believed it would be a turning point in this war, but she couldn’t see how. A thousand Navigators still wouldn’t stand a chance against millions of critters.
The elevators that led into Dunk’s office hummed open and Ark was the first to appear. Wheeling himself to the head of the table, he nodded at her. Returning the gesture, she waited while they all took their seats around the large conference table.
“It’s turning into quite a little town out there,” Bill said proudly.
Clearly trying to bring Bill back to earth, Ark said, “We have people, Bill, not trained navs. To manage this many navs we’re also gonna need more shadow navs. The command center was never built for real military operations and we’ll have to move it to the training hangar.”
Following Ark’s pragmatic tone, Donna said, “We might have the gear, but we don’t have enough trainers to get everyone on their feet very quickly.”
Hood gave Donna a wink and she reacted to his gesture by looking slightly alarmed. “Don’t worry about that. The Corps knows how to train. We’ll give you our best and you can train them first, then they’ll train the rest for you.” Clearly amused by her reaction to his flirting, he winked again. “I’m one of the best so you’ll be training me.”
Donna raised one finely plucked eyebrow and replied archly, “Then you should know I go both ways and I’m good at rope play.”
Her unexpected reply made everyone laugh and Hood visibly blanched. Still chuckling, Ark said, “Death by Donna is an always an option, but I don’t think we’re there yet.” Looking around the table, he said, “Okay, Stax has already got twenty preppers being trained to become Navigators, but I’m keen to see how fast we can get Hood’s army on their feet.” Nodding at Leon, he added, “Leon and his squad are ready to take the baby bots across to the nest.”
“What about weapons and ammo?” Hood asked.
Bill replied for Ark. “The survivors have been working around the clock making both, but we don’t have enough yet. Now the baby bots are finished they can shift all of their efforts to the production of weapons and ammo.”
“What about raw materials?” She asked.
“Leon’s squad did a couple of runs and collected what they could, but we need more.” Looking at Hood, Ark added, “It’ll be one of your jobs once you’re on your feet.”
“What are the weapons team doing?” She asked.
“I told them to focus on what works, so they’re stabilizing the laser gun. Dunk’s taken control of their day-to-day work.”
Donna snorted derisively. “I’ll bet they’re loving that…not.”
Frowning at Bill, Hood asked, “Stabilizing?”
“The laser weapon can only be used by navs,” Bill explained. “It’s too heavy and prone to over-heating for any regular trooper, but it doesn’t need ammo. Providing you can recharge the packs it’ll work indefinitely.”
Nodding to Leon, Hood replied, “Yeah, Leon showed us how it works. It’s impressive shit.”
“So, how long will it take to train the navs?” She asked.
Donna shook her head. “Months.”
“Why?” Looking across at Leon, she added, “Leon’s guys got on their feet in a matter of weeks.”
“And they’re lucky to be alive,” Donna replied dourly. “Plus they had Ark, but he can’t provide the same kinda battle support to this many navs. He’s our best shadow nav, but if he has his way he won’t be one for much longer.”
Giving Ark a quizzical look, she asked, “Why? Where are you going?”
“The engineers are working on a nav suit that’ll get me on my feet again. Dunk is with them now and they’re assembling a prototype.”
Losing Ark as the field battle commander didn’t sound like a good idea to her, but unless the military guys had an issue with it, she had no reason to question them. Thinking of the military muscle that had just joined them, she looked across at Hood. He had a young face, aged by a streak of white hair and a deep frown line between his eyebrows. The strain of combat was ingrained into his features, and she guessed he was in his late twenties or even early thirties, but his manner was that of an older and more experienced man. It was his air of being in command that had put him in the role of leader, but she wasn’t sure how secure his position was.
Having met Hood’s Army, they weren’t entirely under his control. They’d come from different forces and were a variety of ranks, experience and expertise. Although the crisis had now levelled the military and preppers, she suspected their differences would cause problems now they were being asked to fight as a single force. Getting the Navigators on their feet would take long hours of training and some of them would be asked to replace their natural born eyes with the orbs. She didn’t think people would willingly agree to be blinded and didn’t expect many would become fully functioning Navigators. It had been a fairly stupid idea from the start, and she still didn’t understand why anyone had given Dunk so much money to make it possible.
Ark was watching her face and he narrowed his brilliant blue eyes. “What’s the problem?”
Shaking her head, she replied, “I don’t think we have months, plus I’m worried people won’t remain as cooperative once they feel like the crisis has passed.”
“In what way has the crisis passed?” Bill asked in disbelief.
Stax raised his hand. “Nah, she’s right. My own people have been here for two weeks now and they’re already startin’ to whine. It’s human nature. Once people feel comfortable, they look around and want more.”
Grateful that Stax could see her point, she pressed on. “You’ve brought together a very mixed group. Leaving the preppers outside of the walls and putting Hood’s army behind it will just cause a division between them, but you’re expecting them to fight as a single force. Having this many people in one location means we need a lot more supplies, but we have no
plans to get any. With two thousand people, we now need more medical support than we have. The hospital in CaliTech isn’t designed to support combat troops or this many people. With the exception of Dayton, they’re scientists and not trained to deal with people at all. All I can see are problems and all you’re worried about is training them to become navs.”
Everyone looked at her silently with expressions of disbelief, making her wonder if she’d missed a meeting. Finally, Ark replied patiently, “We’re not the government, Jo. We’re not in command here, in fact, we’re all in this together…equally.”
Bill nodded. “It’s true. We’re not trying to rescue anyone. There’s no us and them.”
Looking back at them, her confusion must have shown on her face. Leon leaned back in his chair and chuckled. “You don’t get it, do you?” When she shook her head, he said steadily, “The preppers and Hood’s army didn’t come here to save anyone. That horse has already bolted.”
Around the room, everyone nodded as if they shared a secret she knew nothing about. “Then what are you doing?”
Ark shook his head. “We’re training them to become navs to have one last fight. When the time is right we’ll go all in.”
Feeling a sinking sensation in the pit of her stomach, she asked warily, “What does that mean?”
Bill’s deep sigh could be heard from the far end of the table where he was sitting. “The cities are prisons. People are disappearing. The earth is mined with critters. There’s a hundred or more nests across the country and literally billions of critters controlling the world.” Shaking his head as if he couldn’t believe how deluded she was being, he said somberly, “We’ve already lost, Jo, and everyone knows it. All we can do now is die fighting.”
Hood snorted derisively. “We didn’t choose to come here because we thought we could win back control of our country. Not one of my troops believes that’s possible. We came here to kick some ass.”
“Kicking ass isn’t always about winning,” Ark added amiably. “There’s always an outside chance you could win, but even if you don’t, at least you get to smack your enemy around before they getcha.”
